Don't let her hear you giggling, please, Kate; it is very unkind to make
a new girl feel uncomfortable."

Kate smothered a laugh and turned away. The doors of the school were now
thrown open, and the girls disappeared by their special entrances.

It was just at that moment that Ruth in her shabby dress, but with her
sweet and most beautiful face, joined the group of girls who were going
into the school. She was without a companion. The other girls went in
by twos, each clinging to her special crony. Cassandra now changed her
position, and found herself within a yard or two of Ruth Craven. She was
examining Ruth with great care, but not at all from the unkind point of
view; hers was a sympathetic aspect. That little old serge dress made
something come up in Cassandra's throat, and she longed beyond words to
give her a better dress. Ruth's hat, too, left much to be desired. It
was an old black sailor-hat, which had been burnt to a dull brown. But,
notwithstanding the hat and the dress, there was the face. The face was
most lovely, and the back of the shabby frock was covered by hair as
black as jet, and curling and rippling in the sunshine.

"What wouldn't every other girl in the school give to have such a face
as that, and such hair as that?" thought Cassandra. "I must speak to
her."

She was just bending forward, meaning to touch Ruth on her shoulder,
when there came a commotion near the entrance, and the excited face of
Alice Tennant came into view. Alice was accompanied by a tall, showily
dressed girl. The girl had a very vivid color in her cheeks, intensely
bright and roguish dark-blue eyes, light chestnut hair touched with
gold--hair which was a mass of waves and tendrils and fluffiness, and on