“Miss Minturn, I have made a place for you at my table.  Until you become better acquainted and choose your permanent seat, you shall sit close under the shelter of my wings.”

“And a very friendly shelter, I am sure, I shall find it; you are very good,” Katherine replied, with quick appreciation.

The teacher led her to her place, and, while they stood waiting for the professor to give the signal to be seated, introduced her to two or three of the girls in their vicinity.

Katherine keenly felt, and Miss Reynolds noted with increasing displeasure, the quickly averted eyes and cool acknowledgment of these introductions; but the principal drew out his chair, and Katherine’s momentary feeling of awkwardness was covered by the confusion of getting into place.  But for her teacher she would have had a very lonely and silent meal; for after one or two efforts to engage her nearest neighbor in conversation had been coldly repulsed, the tactful woman threw herself into the gap and the two chatted socially until they arose from the table.

“She is a dear, sweet girl, and I am going to nip this nonsense in the bud,” Miss Reynolds observed to herself on the way upstairs, where, in the main hall and parlors, the students usually spent an hour, socially, after the evening meal.  But as she presented her charge, here and there, she only became more indignant in view of frigid salutations and a general stampede wherever they made their appearance, not to mention the scarlet spots that settled on Katherine’s cheeks and her unnaturally brilliant eyes, although, in other respects, she appeared perfectly serene and self-possessed.

“Please do not trouble yourself any further on my account, Miss Reynolds,” she said, when she observed the look of dismay on her face as she glanced around the almost empty room they were in.  “I understand the situation perfectly; they have all learned that I am a Christian Scientist, and, having conceived an erroneous idea of what that means, are avoiding me.”

“It is the most absurd, cruel and unjust treatment of a stranger I ever heard of,” returned her companion, with flashing eyes, “and I shall make it my business to see that there is a radical change before another day goes by.”

“Please do not,” Katherine pleaded, earnestly.  “I would much prefer that matters be left to adjust themselves; any interference would only serve to intensify the antagonism against me; and I am sure when the girls come to know me better, they will at least realize that I am—­harmless,” and there was a gleam of genuine amusement in her eyes as she concluded.

“You are a brave little girl,” said her teacher, with a glow of tenderness at her heart and a suspicious moisture in her eyes.  “But”—­with a resolute straightening of her graceful figure—­“I am not going to have you left to yourself on this your first evening at Hilton, so come with me to my room and we will have a nice time by ourselves.”