Dol Vin driving, Shirley Duncan at her side, and a rather elderly country couple spread over the big back seat.

“Shirley’s folks!” whispered Inez.  “We heard they were in town seeing the sights, and hoped we would run across them.”  This was evidently the “something” hinted at in the soph’s outline of the “henning” party.

Dolorez Vincez was too clever to show embarrassment, and Shirley Duncan was too cruel to hide it.  She plainly was urging the driver on.

“That’s your college, darter, ain’t it?” the girls could hear the elderly woman ask Shirley, but they did not hear the latter’s answer.  Dolorez called, “Hello, girls,” as she swung her car out again in the dusty roadway, and the “darter” deprived that little woman of her coveted information.

“She said hello!” announced Judith.

“Sweet of her,” remarked Jane, but she was thinking of Shirley’s absence from Lenox on the night of the fire, and wondering if the indifferent freshman had been absent during all the day as well?

“Hurry, hurry!” begged Mabel Peters.  “What a lark to meet them at the drug store.  They’ll be sure to want hot chocolate.”

“I would guess at tea,” drawled Judith, “but it’s sure to be some sort of drink.  Come along and we may get a chance to return that cordial hello.”

“I’m not going,” suddenly determined Jane.  “All go along if you like but I’m not going to lap up any more of that sickening chocolate.  I’ve taken the pledge until next allowance day,” and she turned back to Wellington entrance.

Judith, quick to interpret Jane’s moods, knew the excuse covered a more serious consideration and stepped back to ask “why?”

“That daughter is ashamed of those country parents,” Jane made chance to answer Judith, “and it would be horrid to spoil their opinion of us.  Delay the girls a while and Dol will have gone through town safely.”

“But isn’t it dreadful she has such influence over that rebel freshman?” commented Judith, slowly following the flock of students headed for the village.  “How are we going to stop it?”

“I don’t know,” confessed Jane, “but we must stop it some way.  Just because she has a claim on my—­patronage is no reason why she should disgrace Wellington.  You go along with the youngsters, Judy, and I’ll go right up to the office now and unburden my conscience.”  Jane’s red haired disposition was asserting itself.  “Think of the hair bleaching, then the police farce, and now out riding with that traitor.  I’m going to tell Miss Rutledge the whole thing!” and no argument of Judith’s could dissuade her.

She turned back into the college grounds and struck a gait calculated to bring her up to that office in short order, and was more than half way through the campus when a small voice called out her name.

“Miss Allen!”

She turned to a side path, following the call, and faced Sally Howland.