asked us right away to call her 'Corinne,' instead of 'Miss Cameron,' as they do in High School. She said it made her feel about a hundred miles away from every one to be called 'Miss.' So of course we asked her to call us 'Elisabeth' and 'Jessica.'"

"But why didn't you tell her just 'Bess' and 'Jess'?" interrupted Margaret again. "That's so much more natural."

8

8

"Well, you see, 'Corinne' sounds so sort of distinguished and—and dignified! And somehow our names don't. They just seem ordinary and—and so like small children. And at least 'Elisabeth' and 'Jessica' seem more—grown-up!"

"What does she look like?" questioned Margaret, going off on another tack.

"Oh, she's, well, sort of distinguished-looking, too—like her name. She's tall and slim and has very dark brown wavy hair, and big, dark eyes, almost black, and the prettiest straight nose,—not a little snub like ours (I don't mean yours, Margaret! That's all right!). But she always acts as though her thoughts were about a thousand miles away. She talked about books mostly, and asked us if we didn't just love to read. And when we said no, not so awfully, she seemed so astonished. I said we'd rather play basket-ball, and she laughed and said we couldn't play that all the time, and what did we do with our spare moments. I told her we didn't have many, because, at home here, we were always busy amusing9 you or helping Sarah, when we weren't studying.

9

"Then she asked about you, Margaret, and was so interested when we told her about your poor back, and how you couldn't move around much or go to school, but studied with us and knew just as much as we did—and more, because you read a great deal, too, even though you are only thirteen and we're fifteen. And she said:

"'That's perfectly fine!' Well, we were talking so hard that we scarcely noticed lunch-period was over, and we hadn't said half that we wanted to. She promised to eat with us every day.

"This afternoon we decided not to stay for basket-ball in the gym, because Jess's finger hurts so much where she cut it last night. So we left at half-past two (which we hardly ever do), and who should start to walk over our way but Corinne, and she was delighted that we could go part of the way together. She lives in the Ten Eyck, that swell new apartment in West Twelfth Street."

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