“Where did you stay until you went to Ralston House?” asked Anne.  “We saw you go away from the station with two girls when you left the train, and we’ve seen you twice at a distance during examinations, but this is the first chance we’ve had to talk with you.”

J. Elfreda stared at Anne, her eyes narrowing.

“Do you want to know just what happened to me?” she asked slowly.  “Well, I’ll tell you three girls about it, because I’ve got to tell some one and I don’t believe you’ll spread the story.”

“We won’t tell anyone,” promised Grace.

“How about you two?” asked the stout girl.

“I’ll answer for both of us,” smiled Anne.

“All right then, I’ll tell you.  Now remember, you’ve promised.”

The girls nodded.

“Well, it was this way,” began Elfreda.  “When I left the train I hadn’t gone six steps until two girls walked up to me and asked if I were a freshman.  They said they were on the committee to meet and look after the girls who were entering college for the first time.  I said that was very kind of them and asked them to show me the way to Ralston House.  They picked up my suit cases and we started out.  They asked me my name and all sorts of questions and I told them a little about myself,” continued the stout girl pompously.  “They seemed quite impressed, too.  Then one of them said she thought I had better see the registrar before going to Ralston House, for the registrar would be anxious to meet me.  They both said I was quite different from the rest of the new girls, and made such a lot of fuss over me that I invited them into that little shop across from the station to have ice cream.”

“And then?” asked Miriam.

“Then,” said J. Elfreda impressively, “after they had had two sundaes apiece, at my expense, they played a mean trick on me.  They took me into a big building a little further down the street, down a long hall, and left me sitting on a seat outside what I supposed was the registrar’s office.  They said I must wait there and the registrar’s clerk would come out and conduct me to the registrar.  They said that it was against the rules to walk into the office and that it was the business of the clerk to come out every half hour and conduct any one who was waiting into the registrar’s private office.

“Well, I sat there and sat there.  It made me think of when I was a kiddie and used to watch the cuckoo clock to see the bird come out.  But there wasn’t even a bird came out of that door,” continued Elfreda gloomily.  “People passed up and down the hall, and every once in a while a man would walk right into the place without knocking, or seeing the clerk, or anything else.