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216 was chief chaperone, and there were other elderly teachers who took part.

Tom, Phil and Sid, together with a number of other students from Randall, had been invited, and this was the evening when "event number six, in the free-for-all-catch-as-catch-can style of dancing would be pulled off," as Holly Cross remarked, when he was preparing for it. It was about a week after Dr. Churchill had so taken the wind out of the sails of Dutch Housenlager in the physics class, and in the meanwhile life at the college had gone on much as

The affair took place in the Fairview gymnasium, which was appropriately decorated for the purpose. Tom and his three chums—for Frank Simpson went with them—had called for Miss Tyler and her friends, Ruth and Mabel. Frank was to escort a new girl, Miss Helen Warden, to the dance.

"You're a little late," chided Ruth, as she greeted her brother and the others.

"It was Sid's fault," asserted Phil, with a wink at Tom. "He would insist on changing his togs at the last minute."

"And the hairdresser disappointed him, and he had to curl it himself," put in Tom.

"You—you" spluttered Sid, and then he choked back his justifiable wrath.

"Don't mind them," sympathized Mabel