Mary was a great favorite with most of the faculty, for the simple reason that she stood not at all in awe of them, but chattered on to the learned Miss Ferris or the dignified Professor Lawrence just as spontaneously as if they had been Harvard freshmen or members of the clan. Mrs. Kent was a great admirer of Mary's social gifts, and knowing that her supply of small talk never failed her, she seized upon her the minute she appeared and turned her over to the new German professor, who was stranded in a corner, looking sadly at the gay groups around him and wishing himself and his scant knowledge of English safe back in the Fatherland. Mary put him at his ease immediately, for her German was a trifle worse than his English; and in trying to set her right and supply the words she could not remember he forgot his own mistakes. He was soon cozily ensconced in a nook under the stairs, eating chocolate parfait and trying to understand why he must not ask a young lady's permission "to hold her a few moments after the class." Mary, for her part, was so absorbed in her efforts to explain the subtle difference between hold and keep that she had entirely forgotten Dr. Eaton, and she and her escort were probably the only persons in the room who did not stop talking to stare at him when he came in. Mrs. Kent looked anxiously around for Mary to take this distressingly haughty young man off her hands, but the stairs screened her and her German, and Mrs. Kent flew to Betty Wales, who was having a beautiful time talking to her beloved Miss Ferris.