{{betlep044.png}}

violin, you know, someone told me that -- per-
haps just to joke me -- and while I thought that
some of the boys and girls I saw in it were
freshmen and sophomores, I supposed it was
just because they were specially gifted that they
were allowed to play. I wasn't especially gifted
and as I was paying attention to all sorts of
other things, I never found out till the _middle_of_
_my_sophomore_year_ that junior orchestra only
meant second to the senior orchestra, sort of a
preparation for it! It was just as well, for I
needed more lessons and practice."

"Mother says that you play very well, Betty,
and that means something from her."

"Your mother is a dear. Mine is crazy about
her."

Betty's mother would scarcely have used the
same terms about her feeling toward Mrs. Dor-
rance, with whom she had become very well ac-
quainted, but Chet understood the common par-
lance of the girls and was not likely to assume
that Betty's mother was perishing with admi-
ration.

They had been walking quite a little distance
to catch a car which would drop them near the
church. Now they swung on and finding a seat
without trouble, watched the winter landscape
as they rode and talked. Some other young

 [[44]]