"Oh, now, Elizabeth," warned Nan, "don't scare her."

Rhoda walked away without another word. Bess looked after her with
an admiring light in her eyes.

"Oh, Nan! isn't she beautifully dressed?"

"Richly dressed, I agree," said Nan. "But Mrs. Cupp will have
something to say about that."

"I know," giggled the wicked and slangy Bess. "She'll give her an
earful about dressing 'out of order.' She is worse than Linda."

"No. Better," said Nan confidently. "Whoever chose that girl's
outfit showed beautiful taste, even if she is dressed much too
richly for the standard of Lakeview Hall."

Linking arms a little later, when the supper gong sounded, the two
friends from Tillbury sought the pleasant dining-room where the
whole school--"primes" as well as the four upper divisions--ate at
long tables, with an instructor in charge of each division.

But discipline was relaxed to-night, as it was always at such
times. Even Mrs. Cupp, who, all through the meal, marched up and
down the room with a hawk eye on everything and everybody, was less
strict than ordinarily.

The moment Nan Sherwood appeared the little girls hailed her as
their chum and "Big Sister." Nothing would do but she must sit at