"I—I did not mean to start it without her," stammered Ruth. "It was really only my suggestion. The other Infants took it up——"
"But you named it?"
"I did suggest the name," admitted Ruth.
"And you did not join the Up and Doing Club with your chum."
"No, Mrs. Tellingham. Nor did I join the F. C.'s. I did not like the manner in which both societies went about making converts. I didn't like it the very first day we came."
"Miss Picolet, your French teacher, told me something about Mary Cox meeting the stage and getting hold of you two girls before you had reached Briarwood at all."
"Yes, ma'am."
"By the way," said the Preceptress, her brow clouding again and the stern look coming back into her face that had rested on it when Ruth had first entered the room, "you had met Miss Picolet before you arrived at the school?"
"She spoke to us in the stage—yes, ma'am."
"But before that—you had seen her?"