TO the tinkling of her alarm clock which she had set to ring twenty minutes earlier than the other girls in the house were to be roused, Fidelia awoke and almost instantly arose and went to bathe. Upon hearing her in the hall, Mrs. Fansler looked out and gazed with admiration at the clear freshness of Fidelia's face in the haggard glow of electric light at daybreak.
"You're early, child," said Mrs. Fansler, pleased. She had supposed that Fidelia would be one to dally in bed and to rush down to breakfast at the last moment. Mrs. Fansler had been prepared to indulge her somewhat.
Fidelia would have liked often to lie abed in the morning but boarding-school had trained her, when she was little, to the advisability of always rising promptly and making as little trouble as possibe; so now she was bathed and again in her room and was dressing when the other alarm clocks began sounding.
Each ring stirred a slight, agreeable excitement; she liked the feeling of "I'm back to it again" which the sounds quickened; she liked the familiar smell of second-grade coffee boiling and of eggs and bacon being fried in quantities for the boarding-house breakfast. She listened for the sleepy and the crisp hellos and good mornings in the hall; for the generous offer,
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