summer term Merle had considered herself the chosen chum of Iva Westwood,
but now Iva had completely fallen into the arms of Kitty Trefyre. As they
were both boarders and in the same dormitory, it was perhaps only natural
they should be friends, yet it is never nice to be dropped, and Merle
thought hard things of Iva. If she could have kept her feelings locked in
her own breast it would not have mattered so much, but she was a true
daughter of Jupiter, and, when provoked, could not refrain from shooting
her arrows of bitter words. They quarrelled about the silliest trifles:
the loan of an indiarubber, the loss of a pencil, or some slight
differences of opinion, over which they would argue hotly. It was a pity,
for at bottom Iva was a nice girl, and was merely passing through a phase
from which she would probably soon have recovered if Merle would only
have let her alone. On her side she might very well have contended that
it is hard to be pinned to a single chum, and that she was perfectly at
liberty to make fresh friends if she wished without of necessity giving
offence to the old ones by so doing.

"Merle's so jealous!" she complained. "Why should she care? I'm sure I
don't mind her walking about the school arm-in-arm with Beata Castleton!"

That, however, was exactly the point. Merle wanted Iva to mind, and was
extremely annoyed because the incident left her unruffled.

One afternoon, in the musical appreciation class, the two had partly
patched up past squabbles, and, for a wonder, were sitting side by side.
The subject was 'Handel,' and for one of the illustrations Miss Mitchell
called upon Merle to play the celebrated 'Largo.' She went through her
performance quite creditably, took her music, and turned from the piano.
Then she saw that during her absence Kitty had commandeered her seat next
to Iva. For a moment Merle stood with a look of the blankest