She hesitated all day about dropping the packet in the mailbag; but now she took her courage in both hands and determined to send it to its destination.

CHAPTER VIII

A NEW STAR

Ruth had actually been trying her “prentice hand,” as Mr. Hammond had called it, at the production of a moving picture scenario.  It was the first literary work she had ever achieved, although her taste in that direction had been noted by Mrs. Tellingham and the under-instructors of the school.

Oh! she would not have had any of them know what she had done in secret since arriving at the Hall at the beginning of this term.  She would not let even Helen know about it.

“If it is a success—­if Mr. Hammond produces it—­then I’ll tell them,” Ruth said to herself.  “But if he tells me it is no good, then nobody shall ever know that I was so foolish as to attempt such a thing.”

Even after she had it all ready she hesitated some hours as to whether or not she should send it to the address Mr. Hammond had given her.  The pamphlet he had promised to send her had not arrived, and Ruth had little idea as to how a scenario should be prepared She had written much more explanatory matter than was necessary; but she had achieved one thing at least—­she had been direct in the composition of her scenario and she had the faculty of saying just what she meant, and that briefly.  This concise style was of immense value to her, as Ruth was later to learn.

Ruth managed to slip the big envelope addressed to Mr. Hammond into the mailbag in the hall without spurring Helen’s curiosity again.  She had to chuckle to herself over it, for it really was a good joke on her chum.

Unconsciously, Helen had given her the idea for this little allegorical comedy which she had written.  And how her friend would laugh if the picture of “Curiosity” should be produced and they should see it on the screen.

The girls crowded into the big dining room in an orderly manner, but with some suppressed whispering and laughter on the part of the more giggling kind.  There were always some of the girls so full of spirits that they could not be entirely repressed.

The long tables quickly filled up.  There were few beginners at this time of year, for most of the new scholars came to Briarwood Hall at the commencement of the autumn semester.

There was one new girl at the table where Ruth and her particular friends sat, over which Miss Picolet the little teacher of French, had nominal charge.  Nowadays, Miss Picolet’s life was an easy one.  She had little trouble with even the more boisterous girls of the West Dormitory, thanks to the Sweetbriars.

The new pupil beside the French teacher was Amy Gregg.  She was a colorless, flaxen-haired girl, with such light eyebrows and lashes that Helen said her face looked like a blank wall.