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 necessary for she was rather a large girl, not heavy, but obviously strong and vital and excellently developed; but men almost invariably chose her, out of any group, as the object of their attention. She was so accustomed to this that she really thought nothing of it, although she never forgot to express thanks, pleasantly. That perhaps was part of habit, to be pleasant.

"Thank you so much!" she said now, when she took her suitcase on the station platform. No red-cap or porter for hand-baggage met the train at Evanston; and none of the men leaving the cars were of the disposition to press their services upon a strange girl so evidently competent to carry a small suitcase. She thought they were mostly business men, commuters from their offices in Chicago; but she recognized, in a few of the younger ones, the familiar casualness and clannishness of university students. They were of her own age and, seeing her, they eyed her as young men usually did and with the added interest of speculation on the probability of soon meeting her.

"Co-ed?" said one to another.

Fidelia did not hear him but she saw his lips move and she guessed, from her experience in coeducational universities, the term he would use. The boy who was questioned seemed doubtful about her; they all seemed doubtful but decidedly interested and they hung back in a group at the top of the stairs to let her precede them down to the street.

She descended slowly, employing her free hand at gathering closer her coat, which was of soft mink furs; she had on brown gloves and a brown fur toque,