"I guess that must be so," said Grace as Rhoda walked out of
ear-shot, "for Mrs. Janeway chose Rhoda's own outfit, and you know
there wasn't a better dressed girl at Lakeview."

"Wow!" murmured her brother. "What a long tale about dress! Don't
you girls ever think of anything but what you put on?"

"Oh, yes, sir," declared Bess smartly. "And you know that Rhoda
thinks less about what she wears than most. It's lucky her mother
had somebody she could trust to dress her daughter before she
appeared at the Hall."

"All on the surface! All on the surface!" grumbled Walter.

"Goodness, Walter," said his sister, "would you want us to swallow
our dresses? Of course they are on the surface."

"It certainly is a fact," grinned Walter impudently, "that the
curriculum of Lakeview Hall makes its pupils wondrous sharp. Hullo!
here comes Rhoda towing a very nice looking lady, I must admit."

In fact, at first sight the three other girls fell in love with
Mrs. Janeway. She was a childless and wealthy widow, who, as she
asserted, "just doted on girls." She met them all warmly.

"I hope," said Walter, with gravity, as she shook hands with him,
"that a mere boy may find favor in your eyes, too. Really, we're
not all savages. Some of us are more or less civilized."

"Well," Mrs. Janeway sighed, but with twinkling eyes, "I shall see