“Why, it’s Betty!  Betty Lewis!  Do you know her?”

“Well, rather!” was the emphatic answer.  “She was my crush all my Freshman year.  I suppose you know what that means if you’ve ever had a case yourself.  I simply adored her, and could hardly bear to come back the next year because she was graduated and gone.  I haven’t seen her since, but you can imagine my delight when I found her name in this year’s catalogue, as one of the teachers.  We never imagined she’d teach, for she has such a wonderful gift for writing; but it will be simply delightful to have her back again.  She’s such a dear.  But where did you happen to know her?” she added as an afterthought.  “Are you from Lloydsboro Valley, too?”

“No, but I visited there once at Lloyd Sherman’s home where Betty lives.  Lloyd’s mother is Betty’s god-mother, you know, and Betty’s mother was my sister Joyce’s god-mother.  We’re all mixed up that way on account of our mothers being old school friends, as if we were related.  Of course, I shall call her Miss Lewis before the other girls.  Mamma says it wouldn’t be showing proper respect not to.  But it’s such a comfort to be able to call her Betty behind the scenes.  She came yesterday.  Last night she was up in my room for more than an hour with me, talking about the places and people we both know in the valley.  It made me so happy I could hardly go to sleep.  Elise Walton came with her, Kitty’s sister, you know.”

“Oh, is she as bright and funny as Kitty?” demanded Dorene.  “If she is we certainly shall lay siege to you two for our sorority.  We ought to have first claim, for all the other Lloydsboro Valley girls belong to us.  Come over and see Cornie.”

Conscious that as a friend of the Valley girls she had gone up many degrees in Dorene’s estimation, Mary put away her scissors and plaster-case, and followed her newfound acquaintance across the hall.  Her cordial reception gave her what she had been longing for all morning, the sense of being in intimate touch with things in the inner circle of school life.  Because she knew Lloyd and Betty so well, they took her in as one of themselves, gave her a seat on a suit-case, the chairs all being full, and climbed over her and around her as they went on with their unpacking.  Mary was in her element, and blossomed out into such an interesting visitor, that Dorene was glad that she had discovered her.  This was the beginning of the fourth year that she and Cornie had roomed together, and to Mary their companionship seemed ideal.

“I hope my room-mate will prove as congenial as you two,” she said, after listening half an hour to their laughing repartee and their ridiculous discussions as to the arrangement of their pictures and bric-a-brac.  “I’ve been looking forward all morning to her coming.  Every time I think of her I have the same excited, creepy feeling that I used to have when I opened a prize pop-corn box.  My little brother and I used to save all