hid it and the ring in her bosom. Then she drew off a narrow
hoop of gold with a small setting and pushed it on his big little
finger.

"And THAT, sir," she said, with a bewitching look, "may help
you not to forget that YOU belong to me."

She left the ferry in advance of him and faced Olivia just in
time for them to go down together to the half-past twelve o'clock
dinner.



V.

FOUR FRIENDS.


As Mrs. Trent's was the best board in Battle Field there were
more applicants than she could make places for at her one table.
In the second week of the term she put a small table in the
alcove of the dining-room and gave it to her "star"
boarders--Pierson, Olivia and Pauline. They invited Scarborough
to take the fourth place. Not only did Pierson sit opposite
Olivia and Scarborough opposite Pauline three times a day in
circumstances which make for intimacy, but also Olivia and
Pierson studied together in his sitting-room and Pauline and
Scarborough in her sitting-room for several hours three or four
times a week. Olivia and Pierson were sophomores. Pauline and
Scarborough were freshmen; also, they happened to have the same