Katie's pale face was lit up by a radiant smile; Hattie and Rose lay
down side by side and closed their eyes. In a few moments they were
sound asleep.

As they lay in the sound, happy sleep of healthy childhood Priscilla
bent over them and kissed them. Then before she lay down herself she
knelt by the window, looked up at the clear, dark sky in which the
moon sailed in majesty, bent her head, murmured a few words of prayer,
then crept into bed by her little sister's side.

Prissie felt full of courage and good resolves. She was going out into
the world to-morrow, and she was quite determined that the world
should not conquer her, although she knew that she was a very poor
maiden with a specially heavy load of care on her young shoulders.

CHAPTER II

THE DELIGHTS OF BEING A FRESHER

THE college was quite shut away in its own grounds, and only from the
upper windows did the girls get a peep of the old university town of
Kingsdene. From these, however, particularly in the winter, they could
see the gabled colleges, the chapels with their rich glory of
architecture and the smooth lawns of the college gardens as they
sloped gently down to the river.

St. Benet's, the college for women, was approached by a private road,
and high entrance gates obstructed the gaze of the curious. Inside
there were cheerful halls and pleasant gardens and gay, fresh,