What proved to be one of the happiest weeks Mimi spent at Sheridan had a fearful beginning. When she dashed in the post office between classes to see if she had a letter from Germany, the disappointment of not finding one was enough. On top of that, there was a note asking Mimi to come to Dr. Barnes’ office at one o’clock!  
Mimi crushed the notice. After all, they had not slipped in Saturday unobserved. popped out on her forehead and around her mouth. Mimi, who usually danced through life on her tiptoes expecting “sprises,” had her head bowed in . There was no time to . She was late to geometry now.
 
After a forty-five-minute class period during which she broke her recent perfect recitation record, Mimi fled to College Hall and in Dit.
 
“We didn’t intend anything terrible, Dit; honest we didn’t. We just wanted to slip out to see if it could be done.”
 
“Don’t look so woebegone, Mimi. Your guilty conscience is torturing you. Dr. Barnes may want something different. I shouldn’t mention the summons to anyone if I were you until I found out what it was. In case it is a punishment, don’t worry. Don’t cry. Just look out the window and watch the green grass grow.”
 
“Watch the green grass grow.” So that’s what the college girls meant. Mimi had heard the expression a dozen times.
 
“After all Dr. Barnes won’t put you in stocks or your feet or cut off your ears. Let him until he gets tired and then he’ll let you go.”
 
by Dit’s encouragement, at one o’clock, Mimi knocked timidly on the door of Dr. Barnes’ private office. He had not come back from lunch so his secretary asked Mimi to wait. Mimi wanted to ask her why she was summoned, but her tongue stuck tightly to the roof of her mouth each time she tried to speak. Mimi teetered on the edge of the chair. She couldn’t be still yet. She never touched the chair back. With great effort she tore her mind from punishment. She tried to think of rainbows or balloons, but there was no beauty for her now. For the first time, thinking “Hojoni” failed.
 
While she sat here, Chloe, with special permission to miss English and gym, was being photographed for the beauty section of the Annual. While many envied, no one questioned her place. She really was the most beautiful Prep. Already Sue had had her picture taken with both the orchestra and the glee club. Betsy’s would be with the soccer, as well as the basket ball, team. Oh dear! Mimi’s were increasing with every thought. Why had she broken her nose when she knew she could have been on the basket ball team? There was still tennis, but the tournament was three weeks off and the pictures for the Annual were being made now!
 
“Thank you for coming , Miss Mimi,” Dr. Barnes said as he entered briskly and hung his hat on the stand in the corner behind his desk. “I have three things to speak to you about and I do not want you to be late for your one-thirty class.”
 
Three things! Mimi swallowed hard. She hadn’t been that naughty!
 
“First,” Dr. Barnes was saying, “you will be glad to know that I recently had a most interesting letter from your father. He asked me to tell you that I was sending him a copy of our complete record of Clorissa. Being a close friend of Chloe’s Aunt Marcia, I was able to send him much information not on our records. All of this is without and must not be mentioned outside this office. Do not tell even Clorissa.”
 
Dear Dr. Barnes. He was , too. Why had she been so afraid? If he were a close friend of Aunt Marcia’s, then she could not possibly, by any stretch of imagination be Freida; that was out.
 
“There are two more things yet,” her guilty conscience whispered, but Mimi wouldn’t listen. How nice to talk to someone about Daddy, and about Chloe, the problem nearest her heart.
 
“What time is your last class?”
 
“I have gym from two-forty-five to three-thirty, sir.”
 
“You are excused from it this afternoon. You may receive a caller in the south at three o’clock.”
 
“Dr. Barnes!”
 
Dr. Barnes twinkled behind his glasses and funny little wrinkles of fat made rolls above his ears and below his bald spot. He had been asked not to tell who the visitor was and Mimi could not worm the name out of him. Only the importance of the third thing he was telling now could have saved Mimi from her elephant-child’s curiosity.
 
“I have been finding out things about you, Miss Mimi.”
 
It was coming now—why had her feet ever strayed from Hojoni——. But Dr. Barnes looked proud and not .
 
“Rumors have been coming to me of what an excellent horsewoman you are. The Club here——”
 
Mimi put up her hand. Stop, Dr. Barnes. Are my ears deceiving me? Wait until this much soaks in.
 
Dr. Barnes mistook her flushed face and raised hand as a gesture of and .
 
“Don’t be too modest. We are glad to know Sheridan has someone who can represent us in the annual Spring Show of the Bridle Club. I have arranged for you and four other Sheridan students to be entered. There are several good mounts available. Beginning tomorrow and at three-thirty every afternoon the rest of the week you will go to the Club stables and be coached for the events you are to enter. Some member will chaperon you.”
 
“Let Miss Bassett,” Mimi interrupted. Why had she ever quaked in her boots when Dr. Barnes’ name was mentioned? He was and human as could be, not an ogre at all.
 
“Do you like my plans, Miss Mimi?”
 
“They’re precious, precious!”
 
That was the most Mimi could say for anything. She must get out of this office quickly and whistle between her teeth, or or jump up and crack her heels together twice before landing or she would explode right before Dr. Barnes. She forgot about her visitor until she was seated in Spanish class. No chance to tell any of her news. She stood it as long as she could, then headlines and held up her notebook so that Sue could read three rows away:
 
AM RIDING FOR “S” IN HORSE SHOW
COMPANY AT THREE. HOTCHA!
Sue grabbed a pencil.
 
WHO?
La profesora was looking, so Mimi shook her head. Besides, what could she say? She didn’t know herself who was coming. Whoever it would be, they would find her looking her best.
 
When the two-forty bell rang, Mimi dashed up to Tumble Inn and put on a clean uniform. Then she cleaned her nails and put some on her hands. Now for her hair. A pat here and a pat there. At three o&rsq............