contented here. Is my room ready?"

"Yes; and your trunk has already been placed in it. Let me know, my
dear, if there is anything you need."

Mary Louise went to her room and was promptly pounced upon by Dorothy
Knerr and Sue Finley, who roomed just across the hall from her and were
delighted to find she was to become a regular boarder. They asked
numerous questions as they helped her to unpack and settle her room, but
accepted her conservative answers without comment.

At the noon luncheon Mary Louise was accorded a warm reception by the
assembled boarders and this cordial welcome by her school-mates did much
to restore the girl to her normal condition of cheerfulness. She even
joined a group in a game of tennis after luncheon and it was while she
was playing that little Miss Dandler came with, a message that Mary
Louise was wanted in Miss Stearne's room at once.

"Take my racquet," she said to Jennie Allen; "I'll be back in a minute."

When she entered Miss Stearne's room she was surprised to find herself
confronted by the same man whom she and her grandfather had encountered
in front of Cooper's Hotel the previous afternoon--the man whom she
secretly held responsible for this abrupt change in her life. The
principal sat crouched over her desk as if overawed by her visitor, who
stopped his nervous pacing up and down the room as the girl appeared.

"This is Mary Louise Burrows," said Miss Stearne, in a weak voice.

"Huh!" He glared at her with a scowl for a moment and then demanded: