Her mobile face seemed to change. "Miss Walton, I'm devoted to
Lorraine. I always shall be. But you needn't be anxious. The
stronger influence is not where you think. I can bend Lorraine's will,
but she cannot bend mine. It will always be so. And nothing that you
nor any one can say will make me change to her."

They said little more, but when she was alone the head mistress stood
silently for some minutes looking into the dying embers of her fire.
Then she uttered to herself an enigmatical sentence:

"Beauty will give to Lorraine the great career; but the greater woman
will be Hal."

Shortly after that Lorraine departed, and about a year later embarked
in the theatrical world.

No one was surprised, but very adverse opinions were expressed among
the girls concerning her success or otherwise; those who were jealous,
or who had felt slighted during her short reign as school beauty,
condemning any possible likelihood of a hit.

Hal said very little. She was already reaching out tentacles to the
wider world, where schoolgirl criticisms would be mere prattle; and it
was far more serious to her to wonder what Brother Dudley would think
of her having an actress for her greatest friend.

She foresaw rocks ahead, but smiled humorously to herself in spite of
them.

"What a tussle there'll be!" was her thought, "and how in the world am