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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Grace Harlowe's Second Year at Overton
+College, by Jessie Graham Flower
+#3 in our series by Jessie Graham Flower
+
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Grace Harlowe's Second Year at Overton College
+
+Author: Jessie Graham Flower
+
+Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6858]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on February 2, 2003]
+[Date last updated: November 4, 2004]
+
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S SECOND YEAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Avinash Kothare, Tom Allen, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+GRACE HARLOWE'S SECOND YEAR
+
+AT
+
+OVERTON COLLEGE
+
+By
+
+JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER.
+
+  I.     OVERTON CLAIMS HER OWN.
+  II.    THE UNFORESEEN.
+  III.   MRS. ELWOOD TO THE RESCUE.
+  IV.    THE BELATED FRESHMAN.
+  V.     THE ANARCHIST CHOOSES HER ROOMMATE.
+  VI.    ELFREDA MAKES A RASH PROMISE.
+  VII.   GIRLS AND THEIR IDEALS.
+  VIII.  THE INVITATION.
+  IX.    ANTICIPATION.
+  X.     AN OFFENDED FRESHMAN.
+  XI.    THE FINGER OF SUSPICION.
+  XII.   THE SUMMONS.
+  XIII.  GRACE HOLDS COURT.
+  XIV.   GRACE MAKES A RESOLUTION.
+  XV.    THE QUALITY OF MERCY.
+  XVI.   A DISGRUNTLED REFORMER.
+  XVII.  MAKING OTHER GIRLS HAPPY.
+  XVIII. MRS. GRAY'S CHRISTMAS CHILDREN.
+  XIX.   ARLINE'S PLAN.
+  XX.    A WELCOME GUEST.
+  XXI.   A GIFT TO SEMPER FIDELIS.
+  XXII.  CAMPUS CONFIDENCES.
+  XXIII. A FAULT CONFESSED.
+  XXIV.  CONCLUSION.
+
+
+
+
+GRACE HARLOWE'S SECOND YEAR
+
+AT OVERTON COLLEGE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+OVERTON CLAIMS HER OWN
+
+
+"Oh, there goes Grace Harlowe! Grace! Grace! Wait a minute!" A
+curly-haired little girl hastily deposited her suit case, golf bag, two
+magazines and a box of candy on the nearest bench and ran toward a
+quartette of girls who had just left the train that stood puffing
+noisily in front of the station at Overton.
+
+The tall, gray-eyed young woman in blue turned at the call, and,
+running back, met the other half way. "Why, Arline!" she exclaimed.
+"I didn't see you when I got off the train." The two girls exchanged
+affectionate greetings; then Arline was passed on to Miriam Nesbit,
+Anne Pierson and J. Elfreda Briggs, who, with Grace Harlowe, had come
+back to Overton College to begin their second year's course of study.
+
+Those who have followed the fortunes of Grace Harlowe and her
+friends through their four years of high school life are familiar
+with what happened during "GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR AT HIGH
+SCHOOL," the story of her freshman year. "GRACE HARLOWE'S SOPHOMORE
+YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL" gave a faithful account of the doings of Grace
+and her three friends, Nora O'Malley, Anne Pierson and Jessica
+Bright, during their sophomore days. "GRACE HARLOWE'S JUNIOR YEAR AT
+HIGH SCHOOL" and "GRACE HARLOWE'S SENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL" told
+of her third and fourth years in Oakdale High School and of how
+completely Grace lived up to the high standard of honor she had set
+for herself.
+
+After their graduation from high school the four devoted chums spent
+a summer in Europe; then came the inevitable separation. Nora and
+Jessica had elected to go to an eastern conservatory of music, while
+Anne and Grace had chosen Overton College. Miriam Nesbit, a member
+of the Phi Sigma Tau, had also decided for Overton, and what befell
+the three friends as Overton College freshmen has been narrated in
+"GRACE HARLOWE'S FIRST YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE."
+
+Now September had rolled around again and the station platform of
+the town of Overton was dotted with groups of students laden with
+suit cases, golf bags and the paraphernalia belonging peculiarly to
+the college girl. Overton College was about to claim its own. The
+joyous greetings called out by happy voices testified to the fact
+that the next best thing to leaving college to go home was leaving
+home to come back to college.
+
+"Where is Ruth?" was Grace's first question as she surveyed Arline
+with smiling, affectionate eyes.
+
+"She'll be here directly," answered Arline. "She is looking after
+the trunks. She is the most indefatigable little laborer I ever saw.
+From the time we began to get ready to come back to Overton she
+refused positively to allow me to lift my finger. She is always
+hunting something to do. She says she has acquired the work habit so
+strongly that she can't break herself of it, and I believe her,"
+finished Arline with a sigh of resignation. "Here she comes now."
+
+An instant later the demure young woman seen approaching was
+surrounded by laughing girls.
+
+"Stop working and speak to your little friends," laughed Miriam
+Nesbit. "We've just heard bad reports of you."
+
+"I know what you've heard!" exclaimed Ruth, her plain little face
+alight with happiness. "Arline has been grumbling. You haven't any
+idea what a fault-finding person she is. She lectures me all the time."
+
+"For working," added Arline. "Ruth will have work enough and to
+spare this year. Can you blame me for trying to make her take life
+easy for a few days?"
+
+"Blame you?" repeated Elfreda. "I would have lectured her night and
+day, and tied her up to keep her from work, if necessary."
+
+"Now you see just how much sympathy these worthy sophomores have for
+you," declared Arline.
+
+"Do you know whether 19-- is all here yet?" asked Anne.
+
+"I don't know a single thing more about it than do you girls,"
+returned Arline. "Suppose we go directly to our houses, and then meet
+at Vinton's for dinner tonight. I don't yearn for a Morton House
+dinner. The meals there won't be strictly up to the mark for another
+week yet. When the house is full again, the standard of Morton House
+cooking will rise in a day, but until then--let us thank our stars
+for Vinton's. Are you going to take the automobile bus? We shall save
+time."
+
+"We might as well ride," replied Grace, looking inquiringly at her
+friends. "My luggage is heavy and the sooner I arrive at Wayne Hall
+the better pleased I shall be."
+
+"Are you to have the same rooms as last year?" asked Ruth Denton.
+
+"I suppose so, unless something unforeseen has happened."
+
+"Will there be any vacancies at your house this year?" inquired
+Arline.
+
+"Four, I believe," replied Anne Pierson. "Were you thinking of
+changing? We'd be glad to have you with us."
+
+"I'd love to come, but Morton House is like home to me. Mrs. Kane
+calls me the Morton House Mascot, and declares her house would go to
+rack and ruin without me. She only says that in fun, of course."
+
+"I think you'd make an ideal mascot for the sophomore basketball
+team this year," laughed Grace. "Will you accept the honor?"
+
+"With both hands," declared Arline. "Now, we had better start, or
+we'll never get back to Vinton's. Ruth, you have my permission to
+walk with Anne as far as your corner. It's five o'clock now. Shall
+we agree to meet at Vinton's at half-past six? That will give us an
+hour and a half to get the soot off our faces, and if the expressman
+should experience a change of heart and deliver our trunks we might
+possibly appear in fresh gowns. The possibility is very remote,
+however. I know, because I had to wait four days for mine last year.
+It was sent to the wrong house, and traveled gaily about the campus,
+stopping for a brief season at three different houses before it
+landed on Morton House steps. I hung out of the window for a whole
+morning watching for it. Then, when it did come, I fairly had to fly
+downstairs and out on the front porch to claim it, or they would have
+hustled it off again."
+
+"That's why I appointed myself chief trunk tender," said Ruth slyly.
+"That trunk story is not new to me. This time your trunk will be
+waiting on the front porch for you, Arline."
+
+"If it is, then I'll forgive you your other sins," retorted Arline.
+"That is, if you promise to come and room with me. Isn't she
+provoking, girls? I have a whole room to myself and she won't come.
+Father wishes her to be with me, too."
+
+"I'd love to be with Arline," returned Ruth bravely, "but I can't
+afford it, and I can't accept help from any one. I must work out my
+own problem in my own way. You understand, don't you?" She looked
+appealingly from one to the other of her friends, who nodded
+sympathetically.
+
+"She's a courageous Ruth, isn't she?" smiled Arline, patting Ruth on
+the shoulder.
+
+At Ruth's corner they said good-bye to her. Then hailing a bus the
+five girls climbed into it.
+
+"So far we haven't seen any of our old friends," remarked Grace as
+they drove along Maple Avenue. "I suppose they haven't arrived yet.
+We are here early this year."
+
+"I'd rather be early than late," rejoined Miriam. "Last year we were
+late. Don't you remember? There were dozens of girls at the station
+when we arrived. Arline and Ruth are the first real friends we have
+seen so far. Where are Mabel Ashe and Frances Marlton, Emma Dean and
+Gertrude Wells, not to mention Virginia Gaines?"
+
+"If I'm not mistaken," said Elfreda slowly, her brows drawing
+together in an ominous frown, "there are two people just ahead of us
+whom we have reason to remember."
+
+Almost at the moment of her declaration the girls had espied two
+young women loitering along the walk ahead of them whose very backs
+were too familiar to be mistaken.
+
+"It's Miss Wicks and Miss Hampton, isn't it?" asked Anne.
+
+Grace nodded. They were now too close to the young women for further
+speech. A moment more and the bus containing the five girls had
+passed the loitering pair. Neither side had made the slightest sign
+of recognition. A sudden silence fell upon the little company in the
+bus.
+
+"It is too bad to begin one's sophomore year by cutting two Overton
+girls, isn't it?" said Grace, in a rueful tone.
+
+"Overton girls!" sniffed Elfreda. "I consider neither Miss Wicks nor
+Miss Hampton real Overton girls."
+
+"They should be by this time," reminded Miriam Nesbit mischievously.
+"They have been here a year longer than we have."
+
+"Years don't count," retorted Elfreda. "It's having the true Overton
+spirit that counts. You girls understand what I mean, even if Miriam
+tries to pretend she doesn't."
+
+"Of course we understand, Elfreda," soothed Anne. "Miriam was merely
+trying to tease you."
+
+"Don't you suppose I know that?" returned Elfreda. "I know, too,
+that you don't wish me to say anything against those two girls. All
+right, I won't, but I warn you, I'll keep on thinking uncomplimentary
+things about them. Last June, after that ghost party, I promised
+Grace I would never try to get even with Alberta Wicks and Mary
+Hampton, but I didn't promise to like them, and if they attempt to
+interfere with me this year, they'll be sorry."
+
+"Oh, there's the campus!" exclaimed Arline as, turning into College
+Street, the long green slope, broken at intervals by magnificent old
+trees, burst upon their view. "Hello, Overton Hall!" she cried,
+waving her hand to that stately building. "Doesn't the campus look
+like green plush, though! I love every inch of it, don't you?" She
+looked at her companions and, seeing the light from her face
+reflected on theirs, needed no verbal answer to her question. A
+moment later she signaled to the driver to stop the bus. "I shall
+have to leave you here," she said. "I'll see you at Vinton's at
+six-thirty."
+
+Grace handed out her luggage to her, saying: "You have so much to
+carry, Arline. Shall I help you?"
+
+"Mercy, no," laughed Arline. "'Every woman her own porter,' is my
+motto." Opening her suit case she stuffed the candy and magazines
+into it, snapping it shut with a triumphant click. Then with it in
+one hand, her golf bag in the other, she set off across the campus
+at a swinging pace.
+
+"She's little, but she has plenty of independence and energy,"
+laughed Miriam. "Hurrah, girls, there's Wayne Hall just ahead of us."
+
+It was only a short ride from the spot where Arline had left them to
+Wayne Hall. Grace sprang from the bus almost before it stopped, and
+ran up the stone walk, her three friends following. Before she had
+time to ring the door bell, however, the door opened and Emma Dean
+rushed out to greet them. "Welcome to old Wayne," she cried, shaking
+hands all around. "I heard Mrs. Elwood say this morning you would be
+here late this afternoon. I've been over to Morton House, consoling
+a homesick cousin who is sure she is going to hate college. I've been
+out since before luncheon. Had it at Martell's with my dolorous,
+misanthropic relative. I tried to get her in here, but everything was
+taken. We are to have four freshmen, you know."
+
+"I knew there were four places last June, but am rather surprised
+that no sophomores applied for rooms. Have you seen the new girls?"
+
+Emma shook her head. "They hadn't arrived when I left this morning.
+I don't know whether they are here now or not. I'm to have one of
+them. Virginia Gaines has gone to Livingstone Hall. She has a friend
+there. Two of the new girls will have her room. Florence Ransom will
+have to take the fourth."
+
+"Where's Mrs. Elwood?" asked Miriam.
+
+"She went over to see her sister this afternoon. She's likely to
+return at any minute," answered Emma.
+
+"Do you think we ought to wait for her?" Grace asked anxiously.
+
+"Hardly," said Anne, picking up her bag, which she had deposited on
+the floor.
+
+"Come on, I'll lead the way," volunteered Elfreda, starting up the
+stairs.
+
+"Won't Mrs. Elwood be surprised when she comes home? She'll find us
+not only here, but settled," laughed Grace.
+
+But it was Grace rather than Mrs. Elwood who was destined to receive
+the surprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE UNFORESEEN
+
+
+Following Elfreda, the girls ran upstairs as fast as their weight of
+bags and suit cases would permit. Miriam pushed open her door, which
+stood slightly ajar, with the end of her suit case. "Any one at
+home?" she inquired saucily as she stepped inside.
+
+"Looks like the same old room," remarked Elfreda. "No, it isn't,
+either. We have a new chair. We needed it, too. You may sit in it
+occasionally, if you're good, Miriam."
+
+"Thank you," replied Miriam. "For that gracious permission you shall
+have one piece of candy out of a five-pound box I have in my trunk."
+
+"Not even that," declared Elfreda positively. "I said good-bye to
+candy last July. I've lost ten pounds since I went home from school,
+and I'm going to haunt the gymnasium every spare moment that I have.
+I hope I shall lose ten more; then I'll be down to one hundred and
+forty pounds and--" Elfreda stopped.
+
+"And what?" queried Miriam.
+
+"I can make the basketball team," finished Elfreda. "What is going
+on in the hall, I wonder?" Stepping to the door she called, "What's
+the matter, Grace? Can't you get into your room?"
+
+"Evidently not," laughed Grace. "It is locked. I suppose Mrs. Elwood
+locked it to prevent the new girls from straying in and taking
+possession."
+
+"H-m-m!" ejaculated Elfreda, walking over to the door and examining
+the keyhole. "Your supposition is all wrong, Grace. The door is
+locked from the inside. The key is in it."
+
+"Then what--" began Grace.
+
+"Yes, what?" quizzed Elfreda dryly.
+
+"'There was a door to which I had no key,'" quoted Miriam, as she
+joined the group.
+
+"Don't tease, Miriam," returned Grace, "even through the medium of
+Omar Khayyam. The key is a reality, but there is some one on the
+other side of that door who doesn't belong there. Whether she is not
+aware that she is a trespasser I do not know. However, we shall soon
+learn." Grace rapped determinedly on one of the upper panels of the
+door.
+
+"I'll help you," volunteered Elfreda.
+
+"And I," agreed Anne.
+
+"My services are needed, too," said Miriam Nesbit.
+
+Four fists pounded energetically on the door. There was an
+exclamation, the sound of hasty steps, the turning of a key in the
+lock, and the door was flung open. Facing them stood a young woman
+no taller than Anne, whose heavy eyebrows met in a straight line, and
+who looked ready for battle at the first word.
+
+"Will you kindly explain the reason for this tumult?" she asked in
+a freezing voice.
+
+"We were rather noisy," admitted Grace, "but we did not understand
+why the door should be locked from the inside."
+
+"Is it necessary that you should know?" asked the black-browed girl
+severely.
+
+Grace's clear-cut face flushed. "I think we are talking at cross
+purposes," she said quietly. "The room you are using belongs to my
+friend Anne Pierson and to me. During our freshman year it was ours,
+and when we left here last June it was with the understanding that
+we should have it again on our return to Overton."
+
+"I know nothing of any such arrangement," returned the other girl
+crossly. "The room pleases me, consequently I shall retain it. Kindly
+refrain from disturbing me further." With this significant remark the
+door was slammed in the faces of the astonished girls. A second later
+the click of the key in the lock told them that force alone could
+effect an entrance to the room.
+
+"Open that door at once," stormed Elfreda, beating an angry tattoo
+on the panel with her clenched fist.
+
+From the other side of the door came no sound.
+
+"Never mind, Elfreda," said Grace, fighting down her anger. "Mrs.
+Elwood will be here soon. There is some misunderstanding about the
+rooms. I am sure of it."
+
+"See here, Grace Harlowe, you are not going to give up your room to
+that beetle-browed anarchist, are you?" demanded Elfreda wrathfully.
+
+A peal of laughter went up from three young throats.
+
+"You are the funniest girl I ever knew, J. Elfreda Briggs," remarked
+Miriam Nesbit between laughs. "That new girl looks exactly like an
+anarchist--that is, like pictures of them I've seen in the newspapers."
+
+"That's why I thought of it, too," grinned Elfreda. "I once saw a
+picture of an anarchist who blew up a public building and he might
+have been this young person's brother. She looks exactly like him."
+
+"Stop talking about anarchists and talk about rooms," said Anne. "I
+must find some place to put my luggage. Besides, time is flying.
+Remember, we are to be at Vinton's at half-past six."
+
+"I should say time _was_ flying!" exclaimed Grace, casting a hurried
+glance at her watch. "It's ten minutes to six now. It will take us
+fifteen minutes to walk to Vinton's. That leaves twenty-five minutes
+in which to get ready."
+
+"There is no hope that the trunks will arrive in time for us to
+dress," said Miriam positively. "Come into our room and we'll wash
+the dust from our hands and faces and do our hair over again."
+
+"All right," agreed Grace, casting a longing glance at the closed
+door. "We'll have to put our bags in your room, too. I don't wish to
+leave them in the hall for unwary students to stumble over."
+
+"Bring them along," returned Miriam. "No one shall accuse us of
+inhospitality."
+
+"I wish Mrs. Elwood were here." Grace looked worried. "We mustn't
+stay at Vinton's later than half-past seven o'clock. There are so
+many little things to be attended to, as well as the important
+question of our room."
+
+Arriving at Vinton's at exactly half-past six o'clock, they found
+Arline Thayer and Ruth Denton waiting for them at a table on which
+were covers laid for six.
+
+"We've been waiting for ages!" exclaimed Arline.
+
+"But you said half-past six, and it is only one minute past that
+now," reminded Grace, showing Arline her watch.
+
+"Of course, you are on time," laughed the little girl. "I should
+have explained that I'm hungry. That is why I speak in ages instead
+of minutes."
+
+"Your explanation is accepted," proclaimed Elfreda, screwing her
+face into a startling resemblance to a fussy instructor in freshman
+trigonometry and using his exact words.
+
+The ready laughter proclaimed instant recognition of the unfortunate
+professor.
+
+"You can look like any one you choose, can't you, Elfreda?" said
+Arline admiringly. "I think your imitations of people are wonderful."
+
+"Nothing very startling about them," remarked the stout girl
+lightly. "I'd give all my ability to make faces to be able to sing
+even 'America' through once and keep on the key. I can't sing and
+never could. When I was a little girl in school the teachers never
+would let me sing with the rest of the children, because I led them
+all off the key. It was very nice at the beginning of the term, and
+I sang with the other children anywhere from once to half a dozen
+times, never longer than that. I had the strongest voice in the room
+and whatever note I sang the rest of the children sang. It was
+dreadful," finished Elfreda reminiscently.
+
+"It must have been," agreed Miriam Nesbit. "Can you remember how you
+looked when you were little, Elfreda?"
+
+"I don't have to tax my brain to remember," answered Elfreda. "Ma
+has photographs of me at every age from six months up to date. To
+satisfy your curiosity, however," her face hardened until it took on
+the stony expression of the new student who had locked Grace out of
+her room, "I will state that--"
+
+"The Anarchist! the Anarchist!" exclaimed Ruth and Miriam together.
+
+"What are you two talking about?" asked Ruth Denton.
+
+"About the Anarchist," teased Miriam. "Wait until you see her."
+
+"You have seen her," laughed Grace. "Elfreda just imitated her to
+perfection." Thereupon Grace related their recent unpleasant
+experience to Arline and Ruth.
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" asked Arline.
+
+"We will see Mrs. Elwood as soon as we return to Wayne Hall, and ask
+her to gently, but firmly, request the Anarchist to move elsewhere."
+
+"Why do you call her the Anarchist?" asked Arline.
+
+"Elfreda, please repeat your imitation," requested Miriam, her black
+eyes sparkling with fun.
+
+Elfreda complied obediently.
+
+"You understand now, don't you?" laughed Grace.
+
+"I should be very stupid if I didn't," declared Arline.
+
+"Of course she's dark, with eyebrows an inch wide. You can't expect
+me to give an imitation of anything like that," apologized Elfreda.
+
+"I think I should recognize her on sight," smiled Ruth Denton.
+
+"We are miles off our original subject," remarked Grace. "Elfreda
+hasn't told us how she looked as a child."
+
+"All right. I'll tell you now," volunteered J. Elfreda graciously.
+"I had round, staring blue eyes and a fat face. I wore my hair down
+my back in curls--that is, when it was done up on curlers the night
+before--and it was almost tow color. I had red cheeks and was ashamed
+of them, and my stocky, square-shouldered figure was anything but
+sylphlike. I was not beautiful, but I was very well satisfied with
+myself, and to call me 'Fatty' was to offer me deadly insult. That
+is about as much as I can remember," finished the stout girl.
+
+"Really, Elfreda, while you were describing yourself I could fairly
+see you," smiled Arline.
+
+"Now it's your turn," reminded Elfreda. "I imagine you were a
+cunning little girl."
+
+Arline flushed at the implied compliment. "Father used to call me
+'Daffydowndilly,'" she began. "My hair was much lighter than it is
+now, but it has always been curly. I am afraid I used to be very
+vain, for I loved to stand and smile at myself in the mirror simply
+because I liked my yellow curls and was fascinated with my own smile.
+No one told me I was vain, for Mother died when I was a baby, and
+even my governess laughed to see me worship my own reflection. When
+I was twelve years old, Father engaged a governess who was different
+from the others. She was a widow and had to support herself. She was
+highly educated and one of the sweetest women I have ever known. When
+she took charge of me I was a vain, stupid little tyrant, but she
+soon made me over. She remained with me until I entered a prep
+school, then an uncle whom she had never seen died and left her some
+money. She's coming to Overton to see me some day. Overton is her
+Alma Mater, too."
+
+"You are next, Grace," nodded Ruth.
+
+"There isn't much to tell about me," began Grace. "I was the tomboy
+of Oakdale. I loved to climb trees and play baseball and marbles. I
+was thin as a lath and like live wire. My face was rather thin, too,
+and I remember I cried a whole afternoon because a little girl at
+school called me 'saucer-eyes.' There wasn't a suspicion of curl in
+my hair, and I wore it in two braids. I never thought much about
+myself, because I was always too busy. I was forever falling in with
+suspicious looking characters and bringing them home to be fed.
+Mother used to throw up her hands in despair at the acquaintances I
+made. Then, too, I had a propensity for bestowing my personal
+possessions on those who, in my opinion, needed them. Mother and I
+were not always of the same opinion. I wore my everyday coat to
+church for a whole winter as a punishment for having given away my
+best one without consulting her. With me it was a case of act first
+and think afterward. I don't believe I was particularly mischievous,
+but I had a habit of diving into things that kept Mother in a state
+of constant apprehension. Father used to laugh at my pranks and tell
+Mother not to worry about me. He used to declare that no matter into
+what I plunged I would land right side up with care. I was never at
+the head of my classes in school, but I was never at the foot of
+them. I was what one might call a happy medium. My little-girl life
+was a very happy one, and full to the brim with all sorts of pleasant
+happenings."
+
+"I never heard you say so much about yourself before, Grace,"
+observed Elfreda.
+
+"I'm usually too much interested in other people's affairs to think
+of my own," laughed Grace. "I have never heard Anne say much about
+her childhood, either. She must have had all sorts of interesting
+experiences."
+
+"Mine was more exciting than pleasant," returned Anne. "Practically
+speaking, I was brought up in the theatre and knew a great deal more
+about things theatrical than I did about dolls and childish games.
+I was a solemn looking little thing and wore my hair bobbed and tied
+up with a ribbon. I never cried about the things that most children
+cry over, but I would stand in the wings and weep by the hour over
+the pathetic parts of the different plays we put on. Father was a
+character man in a stock company. We lived in New York City and I
+used to frequently go to the theatre with him. My father wished me
+to become a professional, but my mother was opposed to it. When I was
+sixteen I played in a company for a short time. Then mother and
+sister and I went to Oakdale to live, and the nicest part of my life
+began. There I met Grace and Miriam and two other girls who are among
+my dearest friends. Nothing very exciting has ever happened to me,
+and even though I have appeared before the public I haven't as much
+to tell as the rest of you have."
+
+"But countless things must have happened to you in the theatre,"
+persisted Arline, looking curiously at Anne.
+
+"Not so many as you might imagine," replied Anne. Then she said
+quickly, "Miriam must have been an interesting little girl."
+
+"I was a very haughty young person," answered Miriam. "In the
+Oakdale Grammar School I was known as the Princess. Do you remember
+that, Grace?"
+
+Grace nodded. "Miriam used to order the girls in her room about as
+though they were her subjects," she declared. "She had two long black
+braids of hair and her cheeks were always pink. She was the tallest
+girl in her room and the teachers used to say she was the prettiest."
+
+"I was a regular tyrant," went on Miriam. "I had a frightful temper.
+I was a snob, too, and looked upon girls whose parents were poor with
+the utmost contempt."
+
+"Miriam Nesbit, you can't be describing yourself!" exclaimed Arline
+incredulously.
+
+"Ask Grace if I am not giving an accurate description of the Miriam
+Nesbit of those days," challenged Miriam.
+
+"It isn't fair to ask me," fenced Grace. "You always invited me to
+your parties."
+
+"There, you can draw your own conclusions," retorted Miriam
+triumphantly. "I don't object to telling about my past shortcomings
+as I have at last outgrown a few of my disagreeable traits."
+
+"Were you and Grace friends then?" asked Arline.
+
+"We played together and went to each other's houses, but we were
+never very chummy," explained Grace. "We were both too headstrong and
+too fond of our own way to be close friends. It was after we entered
+high school that we began to find out that we liked each other,
+wasn't it, Miriam?"
+
+"Yes," returned Miriam, looking affectionately at her friend. In two
+sentences Grace had effectually bridged a yawning gap in Miriam's
+early high school days of which the latter was heartily ashamed.
+
+"Every one has told a tale but Ruth," declared Elfreda. "Now, Ruth,
+what have you to say for yourself?"
+
+"Not much," said Ruth, shaking her head. "So far, my life has been
+too gray to warrant recording. That is, up to the time I came to
+Overton," she added, smiling gratefully on the little circle. "My
+freshman year was a very happy one, thanks to you girls."
+
+"But when you were a child you must have had a few good times that
+stand out in your memory," persisted Elfreda.
+
+Ruth's face took on a hunted expression. Her mouth set in hard
+lines. "No," she said shortly. "There was nothing worth remembering.
+Perhaps I'll tell you some day, but not now. Please don't think me
+hateful and disobliging, but I don't wish to talk of myself."
+
+Arline Thayer eyed Ruth with displeasure. "I don't see why you
+should say that, Ruth. We have all talked of ourselves," she said
+coldly.
+
+Ruth flushed deeply. She felt the note of censure in Arline's voice.
+
+"I think we had better go," announced Grace, consulting her watch.
+"It is now half-past seven. We ought to be at Wayne Hall by eight
+o'clock. You know the Herculean labor I have before me."
+
+"Herculean labor is a good name for our coming task," chuckled Anne.
+"The Anarchist will make Wayne Hall resound with her vengeful cries
+when she is thrust out of the room with all her possessions."
+
+Jesting light-heartedly over the coming encounter, the diners
+strolled out of Vinton's and down College Street in the direction of
+the campus. Arline was the first to leave them. Her good night to the
+four girls from Wayne Hall was cordial in the extreme, but to Ruth
+she was almost distant. A little later on they said good night to
+Ruth, who looked ready to cry.
+
+"Cheer up," comforted Grace, who was walking with Ruth. "Arline will
+be all right to-morrow."
+
+"I hope so," responded Ruth mournfully. "I did not mean to make her
+angry, only there are some things of which I cannot speak to any one."
+
+"I understand," rejoined Grace, wondering what Ruth's secret cross
+was. "Good night, Ruth."
+
+Elfreda, Miriam and Anne bade Ruth goodnight in turn.
+
+"Now, for the tug of war," declared Elfreda as they hurried up the
+steps of Wayne Hall. "On to the battlefield and down with the
+Anarchist!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MRS. ELWOOD TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+As Grace approached the curtained archway that divided the living-room
+from the hall she could not help wishing that she might have settled
+the affair without Mrs. Elwood's assistance. She was not afraid to
+approach Mrs. Elwood, who was the soul of good nature, but Grace
+disliked the idea of the scene that she felt sure would follow. The
+young woman now occupying the room that she and Anne had
+re-engaged for their sophomore year would contest their right to occupy
+it. Mrs. Elwood would be obliged to set her foot down firmly. It
+would all be extremely disagreeable. Grace reflected. Then the memory
+of the Anarchist's glaring incivility returned, and without further
+hesitation Grace walked into the living-room, followed by her
+companions.
+
+Mrs. Elwood, who was sitting in her favorite chair reading a
+magazine, looked up absently, then, staring incredulously at the
+newcomers, trotted across the room, both hands outstretched in
+welcome. "Why, Miss Harlowe and Miss Nesbit, I had given you up for
+to-night. Here are Miss Pierson and Miss Briggs, too. I'm so glad to
+see you. When did you arrive? I thought there was no train from the
+north before nine o'clock."
+
+"Didn't Miss Dean tell you we had arrived?" asked Grace, as Mrs.
+Elwood shook hands in turn with each girl.
+
+"I haven't seen Miss Dean. She went out before I came home," replied
+Mrs. Elwood.
+
+"Wait until we catch the faithless Emma," threatened Anne. "She
+promised to be our herald. We arrived here at a little after five
+o'clock. We did not stay here long, for Miss Thayer, of Morton House,
+invited us to dinner at Vinton's."
+
+"How do you like the way I fixed your room this year?" asked Mrs.
+Elwood.
+
+"We haven't been in it yet," answered Grace. "That is, we went only
+as far as the door."
+
+"Oh, then you must see it at once," said Mrs. Elwood briskly. "I
+have had it repapered. There is a new rug on the floor, too, and I
+have put a new Morris chair in and taken out one of the cane-seated
+chairs."
+
+"No wonder the Anarchist refuses to vacate," muttered Elfreda.
+
+"What did you say, my dear?" remarked Mrs. Elwood amiably.
+
+"Oh, I was just talking nonsense," averred Elfreda solemnly.
+
+"I won't keep you girls out of your rooms any longer. I know you
+must be tired from your long journey. Come upstairs at once."
+
+Mrs. Elwood had already crossed the room and was out in the hall,
+her foot on the first step of the stairs. The girls exchanged
+glances. There was a half smothered chuckle from Elfreda, then Grace
+hurried after their good-natured landlady. "Wait a minute, Mrs.
+Elwood," began Grace, "I have something to tell you before you go
+upstairs. This afternoon, when we arrived, we went directly to our
+rooms. The door of our room was locked, however. We knocked
+repeatedly, and it was at last opened by a young woman who said the
+room was hers and refused to allow us to enter it."
+
+During this brief recital Mrs. Elwood looked first amazed, then
+incredulous. Her final expression was one of lively displeasure, and
+with the exclamation, "I might have known it!" she marched upstairs
+with the air of a grenadier, the girls filing in her wake. Pausing
+before the door she listened intently. The sound of some one moving
+within could be heard distinctly. Mrs. Elwood rapped sharply on the
+door. The footsteps halted; after a few seconds the sound began again.
+
+"She thinks we have come back," whispered Elfreda.
+
+"So we have," smiled Grace, "with reinforcements."
+
+Her smile was reflected on the faces of her friends. Mrs. Elwood,
+however, did not smile. Two red spots burned high on her cheeks, her
+little blue eyes snapped. Again she knocked, this time accompanying
+the action with: "Open this door, instantly. Mrs. Elwood wishes to
+speak with you."
+
+"Do not imagine that you can gain entrance to this room through any
+such pretense," announced a contemptuous voice from the other side
+of the door. "I believe I stated that I did not wish to be disturbed."
+
+"And I state that you must open the door," commanded Mrs. Elwood.
+"You are not addressing one of the students. This is Mrs. Elwood."
+
+A grating of the key in the lock followed, then the door was
+cautiously opened far enough to allow a scowling head to be thrust
+out. The instant the Anarchist's narrowed eyes rested on Mrs. Elwood
+her belligerent manner changed. She swung the door wide, remarking
+in cold apology; "Pray, pardon me, Mrs. Elwood. I believed that a number
+of rude, ill-bred young women whom I had the misfortune to encounter
+earlier in the day were renewing their attempts to annoy me."
+
+"There are no such young women at Wayne Hall," retorted Mrs. Elwood,
+who was thoroughly angry. "The majority of the young women here were
+with me last year, and not one of them answers your description.
+Really, Miss Atkins, you must know that you are trespassing. This
+room belongs to Miss Harlowe and Miss Pierson. It was theirs last
+year and they arranged with me last June to occupy it again during
+their sophomore year. How you happened to be here is more than I can
+say. I believe I gave you the room at the end of the hall."
+
+"The room to which you assigned me did not meet with my approval,"
+was the calm reply. "I prefer this room."
+
+"You can't have it," returned Mrs. Elwood decisively.
+
+"But I insist upon remaining where I am," persisted the intruder.
+"If necessary, I will allow Miss Harlowe or her roommate to occupy
+the other half of the room."
+
+"I have told you that you can not have the room," exclaimed Mrs.
+Elwood, eyeing her obstinate antagonist with growing disfavor. "If
+you do not wish to take the room at the end of the hall, then I have
+nothing else in the house to offer you. No doubt you can find board
+to suit you in some other house."
+
+"I wish to stay here," returned the Anarchist stubbornly. "Let Miss
+Harlowe have the room at the end of the hall."
+
+Sheer exasperation held Mrs. Elwood silent for a moment. The
+Anarchist peered defiantly at her from under her bushy eyebrows. She
+made no move toward vacating the room of which she had so coolly
+taken possession.
+
+"We'll go for our bags and suit cases, Mrs. Elwood," suggested Grace
+wickedly. "We left them in Miriam's room."
+
+"Very well," returned the intrepid landlady. "Your room will be
+ready for you when you return."
+
+"That is what I call a stroke of genius on your part, Grace,"
+remarked Miriam, as they entered her room. "Mrs. Elwood can deal with
+the Anarchist more summarily without an audience."
+
+"It must be very humiliating for that Miss Atkins," mused Anne, "but
+it's her own fault."
+
+"Of course it's her own fault," emphasized Elfreda. "She doesn't
+appear to know when the pleasure of her company is requested
+elsewhere."
+
+"Shall we go now?" asked Anne, lifting her heavy suit case
+preparatory to moving.
+
+"Not yet," counseled Grace. "We must give her time enough to get out
+of sight before we appear."
+
+Elfreda boldly took up her station at the door and reported
+faithfully the enemy's movements. After a twenty minutes' wait, the
+stout girl closed the door with a bang, exclaiming triumphantly:
+"She's gone! She just paraded down the hall carrying her goods and
+chattels. Mrs. Elwood stalked behind carrying a hat box. She looked
+like an avenging angel. Hurry up, now, and move in before the
+Anarchist changes her mind and comes back to take possession all over
+again."
+
+Grace and Anne lost no time in taking Elfreda's advice. Five minutes
+later they were back in their old room. "Stay here a while, girls,"
+invited Grace. Miriam and Elfreda had assisted their friends with
+their luggage.
+
+"How nice your room looks," praised Miriam. "I like that wall paper.
+It is so dainty. Your favorite blue, too, Grace. I wonder if Mrs.
+Elwood knew that blue was your color?"
+
+"I suppose so," returned Grace. "Two-thirds of my clothes are blue,
+you know. I must run downstairs and thank her for championing our
+cause. I won't be gone five minutes."
+
+"We must go," declared Miriam. "We are going to begin unpacking to-night."
+
+Running lightly down the stairs, Grace thrust her head between the
+portieres that separated the living-room from the hall. Mrs. Elwood
+sat reading her magazine as placidly as though nothing had happened
+within the last hour to disturb her equanimity.
+
+"Thank you ever so much, Mrs. Elwood," said Grace gratefully,
+walking up to the dignified matron and shyly offering her hand.
+
+"Nonsense, child!" was the reply. "You have nothing for which to
+thank me. You don't suppose I would allow a new boarder to infringe
+upon the rights of my old girls, do you?"
+
+"No," admitted Grace. "I'm sorry that things had to happen that
+way," she added regretfully.
+
+"Don't you worry about it any more, Miss Harlowe," comforted the
+older woman. "It's nothing you are to blame for. You had the first
+right to the room. I gave this girl Miss Gaines's old room. Her
+roommate is to be a freshman, too. She hasn't arrived yet. Miss
+Atkins decided to pick out her own room, I imagine. Evidently she
+took a fancy to yours. As soon as you girls had gone, she gave me one
+awful look, gathered up her belongings, and went to the other room
+without another word. I picked up two or three things she dropped and
+carried them down for her. I wouldn't be sorry if she went to some
+other house to board. She looks like a trouble maker."
+
+Grace was of the same opinion, but did not say so. Always eager to
+excuse other people's shortcomings, she found it hard to account for
+the feeling of strong dislike that had risen within her during her
+first encounter with the young woman Elfreda had laughingly named the
+Anarchist. She had hoped that the four freshmen at Wayne Hall would
+be girls whom it would be a pleasure to know. She had looked forward
+to meeting these newcomers and to assisting them in whatever way she
+could best give help. Now at least one of her castles in the air had
+been built in vain.
+
+"Perhaps we may like Miss Atkins after we know her better," she
+said, trying hard to keep the doubt she felt out of her voice.
+
+Mrs. Elwood shook her head. "I hope she will improve on
+acquaintance, but I doubt it. It isn't my principle, my dear, to
+speak slightingly of any student in my house, but I am certain that
+this is not the last time I shall have to lay down the law of Wayne
+Hall to Miss Atkins."
+
+At this plain speaking Grace flushed but said nothing. She
+understood that Mrs. Elwood's words had been spoken in confidence.
+
+"I'm so glad to see you again, Mrs. Elwood," she smiled, bent on
+changing the subject.
+
+"And I to see you, my dear," was the hearty response. "I have missed
+my Oakdale girls this summer."
+
+After a few moments' conversation Grace said good night and went
+slowly upstairs. In spite of her satisfaction at being back at
+Overton she could not repress a sigh of regret over the recent
+unpleasantness.
+
+"The unforeseen always happens," she reflected, pausing for a moment
+on the top step. "I hope the Anarchist will 'stay put' this time."
+She laughed softly at the idea of the Anarchist standing stiff and
+stationary in her new room. Then the ridiculous side of the encounter
+dawning on her, she sat down on the stairs and gave way to sudden
+silent laughter.
+
+"What did Mrs. Elwood say?" asked Anne as Grace entered the room.
+
+"I am afraid Mrs. Elwood is not, and never will be, an admirer of
+the Anarchist," said Grace. "Seriously speaking, she is half inclined
+to ask her to leave Wayne Hall. She believes she will have further
+trouble with her. Perhaps we should have waited. We might have tried,
+later, to gain possession of our room," added Grace doubtfully.
+
+Anne shook her head. "We would be waiting still, if we had attempted
+to settle matters without Mrs. Elwood."
+
+"But it seems too bad to begin one's sophomore year so unpleasantly.
+All summer I had been planning how helpful I would try to be to
+entering freshmen, and this is the way my splendid visions have
+materialized." Grace eyed Anne rather dejectedly.
+
+"Never mind," soothed Anne. "By to-morrow this little unpleasantness
+will have completely blown over. Perhaps the Anarchist," Anne smiled
+over the title Elfreda had bestowed upon the disturbing freshman,
+"will discover that she can make friends more quickly by being
+pleasant. She may reform over night. Stranger things have happened."
+
+"But nothing of that sort will happen in her case," declared Grace.
+"You said just a moment ago if it hadn't been for Mrs. Elwood we
+would still be out in the hall clamoring for a room, didn't you!"
+
+"I did," smiled Anne.
+
+"That was equivalent to accusing the Anarchist of stubbornness,
+wasn't it?"
+
+"It was."
+
+"Very well. If she is half as stubborn as I believe her to be, she
+won't be different to-night, to-morrow or for a long time afterward."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BELATED FRESHMAN
+
+
+"The first thing I shall do this morning after breakfast is to
+unpack," announced Grace Harlowe with decision, as she gave her hair
+a last pat preparatory to going downstairs to breakfast. "Last year
+I was so excited over what studies I intended to take and meeting new
+girls that I unpacked by fits and starts. It was weeks before I knew
+where to find things. But I've reformed, now. I'm going to put every
+last article in place before I set foot outside Wayne Hall. Do you
+wish the chiffonier or the bureau this year, Anne, for your things?"
+
+"The chiffonier, I think," replied Anne, after due reflection. "I
+haven't as much to stow away as you have. It will do nicely for me."
+
+"There goes the breakfast bell!" exclaimed Grace. "Come along, Anne,
+I'm hungry. Besides, I'd like the same seat at the table that I had
+last year."
+
+Outside their door they were joined by Miriam and Elfreda, and the
+four friends stopped to talk before going downstairs.
+
+"Were you haunted by nightmares in which glowering Anarchists
+pranced about?" asked Miriam, her eyes twinkling.
+
+"No," replied Grace. "I slept too soundly even to dream."
+
+"I dreamed that I went into the registrar's office to get my chapel
+card," began Elfreda impressively. "When she handed it to me it was
+three times larger than the others. On it in big red letters was
+printed, 'The Anarchist, Her Card.' I thought I handed it back to her
+and tried to explain that I wasn't an anarchist because I had neither
+bushy eyebrows nor a scowl. She just sat and glared at me, saying
+over and over, 'Look in your mirror, look in your mirror,' until I
+grew so angry I threw the card at her. It hit her and she fell
+backward. That frightened me, although it seemed so strange that a
+little, light piece of pasteboard could strike with such force. I
+tried to lift her, but she grew heavier and heavier. Then--"
+
+"Yes, 'then,'" interposed Miriam, "I awoke in time to save myself
+from landing on the floor with a thump. Elfreda mistook me for the
+registrar. She was walking in her sleep."
+
+"Of course I didn't mean to," apologized Elfreda, "You know that,
+don't you, Miriam? I can't help walking in my sleep. I've done it
+ever since I was a little girl."
+
+"I forgive you, but you must promise not to dream," laughed Miriam.
+"Otherwise I am likely to find myself out the window or being dropped
+gently downstairs while you dream gaily on, regardless of what
+happens to your long-suffering roommate."
+
+As they entered the dining room several girls already seated at the
+table welcomed them with joyful salutations. It was at least ten
+minutes before any one settled down to breakfast. Grace observed with
+secret relief that Miss Atkins was not at the table. The three
+freshmen who were to fill the last available places in Wayne Hall had
+not yet arrived. During breakfast a ceaseless stream of merry chatter
+flowed on. Everyone wished to tell her neighbor about her vacation,
+of what she intended to take during the fall term, or of how
+impossible it was to get hold of her trunk. Then there was the usual
+amount of wondering as to why the four freshmen hadn't appeared.
+
+"One of them is here--that is, she's in the house," remarked Elfreda
+laconically.
+
+"She is!" exclaimed Emma Dean, opening her eyes. "I didn't see her
+yesterday."
+
+"You were consoling your homesick cousin, so how could you know what
+went on here?" reminded Grace. It had been decided that nothing
+should be said regarding the events of the previous day.
+
+"So I was," said Emma. "She made me think of Longfellow's 'Rainy
+Day.' She looked so 'dark and dreary.'"
+
+"What a unique comparison," chirped a wide-awake sophomore. "That
+will be so appropriate for the freshman grind book."
+
+"It is our turn this year," exulted Elfreda. "I shall be on the
+lookout for good material, too. I know one freshman who will be a
+candidate for honors."
+
+"Who?" inquired Emma Dean curiously.
+
+Grace looked appealingly at the stout girl. A slight shake of the
+head reassured her. Elfreda abandoned her intention of mentioning
+names, and parried Emma's question so cleverly that the latter became
+interested in something else and forgot that she had asked it.
+
+The instant she had finished her breakfast, Grace reannounced her
+intention of unpacking her trunk and rose to leave the table. Anne
+followed her, a curious smile on her face. The majority of the girls
+rose from the table at the same time, or immediately after, and went
+their various ways.
+
+"Now," declared Grace energetically, "I am going to begin my labor."
+
+"What did you say you were going to do?" asked Anne innocently.
+
+"Unpack my trunk. I--why--I--haven't any trunk to unpack!" exclaimed
+Grace in bewilderment. Then catching sight of Anne's mirthful face,
+she sprang forward, caught Anne by the shoulders and shook her
+playfully. "Anne Pierson, you bad child, you heard me make all my
+plans for unpacking, yet you wouldn't remind me that my trunk was
+still at the station."
+
+"I couldn't resist keeping still and allowing you to plan,"
+confessed Anne. "What a joke that would be for the grind book!"
+
+"Yes, wouldn't it though?" agreed Grace sarcastically. "However, we
+are not freshmen, and as my roommate I strictly forbid you to publish
+my stupidity broadcast. Having the unpacking fever in my veins, I
+shall console myself with unpacking my bag and suit case. I'll keep
+on wishing for my trunk and perhaps it will come." Grace walked to
+the window. She leaned out, peering anxiously down the road. Then,
+with a cry of delight, she exclaimed: "Come here, Anne."
+
+Anne walked obediently to the window.
+
+"'Tell me, Sister Anne, do you see anything?'" quoted Grace.
+
+"You are saved, Fatima," returned Anne dramatically. "It is an
+express wagon."
+
+Grace darted out of her door and down the stairs, meeting the
+expressman on the veranda, her trunk on his shoulder. Anne, having
+notified Elfreda and Miriam that the trunks had arrived, went
+downstairs to look after hers.
+
+"Now I can carry out my plan, after all," declared Grace, with great
+satisfaction. "'He who laughs last, laughs best,' you know," she
+added slyly.
+
+"Before unpacking, first find your trunk," retorted Anne.
+
+"Thank goodness, we don't have to think about entrance examinations
+this year," said Grace, as she knelt before her trunk, fitting the
+key to the lock.
+
+"Yes, it does make considerable difference," returned Anne. "We
+shall have more time to ourselves. Besides, we won't have to worry
+our heads off the first week about whether we survived or perished."
+
+The sound of an automobile horn caused Grace to run to the window.
+"It's the bus!" she cried. "Three strange girls are getting out of
+it. Evidently our freshmen have arrived. That tall girl looks
+interesting. One of them is as stout as Elfreda. The little girl is
+cunning. I think I like her the best of the three. Oh dear!" she
+exclaimed ruefully, hastily drawing back from the window, "she looked
+straight up and saw me standing here. What will she think of me?"
+
+"You shouldn't be so curious," teased Anne.
+
+"I know it," admitted Grace. "I'm not over curious as a rule. I hope
+the tall girl is to room with the Anarchist. She looks capable of
+keeping her in order."
+
+"That task will, no doubt, be handed over to you," said Anne, who
+had been making rapid progress in unpacking, while Grace had been
+occupied in looking over the newcomers. "You'd better get your
+unpacking done, so that you'll be ready for it--the task, I mean."
+
+Grace sat down before her trunk with a little impatient sigh. For
+the space of an hour the two girls worked rapidly, almost in silence.
+Both trunks had been emptied and the greater part of their contents
+stored away when the sound of an angry, protesting voice outside the
+door caused them to look at each other wonderingly.
+
+"What can have happened?" asked Anne.
+
+Even as Anne spoke a never-to-be-forgotten voice said impressively,
+"What you prefer is immaterial to me, I prefer to room alone." The
+emphatic closing of a door followed. There was a sound of hurrying
+footsteps on the stairs, then all was still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE ANARCHIST CHOOSES HER ROOMMATE
+
+
+"It's the Anarchist, of course," said Anne, turning to Grace.
+
+"I wonder who she left roomless in the hall this time," speculated
+Grace. "Shall we go and see?"
+
+"Do you think we had better?" hesitated Anne.
+
+"Yes," returned Grace boldly. "To a certain extent we are
+responsible for the welfare of the freshmen." Opening the door, she
+looked up and down the hall. Then, with a sudden air of resolution,
+she walked downstairs. On the oak seat in the hall, looking
+disconsolately about her, sat the "cunning" freshman that Grace had
+admired. At sight of Grace she sprang toward the sophomore with an
+eager, "Won't you please tell me where I can find Mrs. Elwood?"
+
+"I believe she has gone to market," replied Grace. "She usually goes
+at this time every morning. Can I help you in any way?"
+
+"No-o," replied the other girl doubtfully. "I wished to see Mrs.
+Elwood, because--" Her lip quivered. A big tear rolled down her
+cheek. "Oh, I hate college," she muttered in a choking voice. "I wish
+I hadn't come here. I'd go back to the station and take the next
+train west, if I hadn't promised my brother that I'd stay. I hate the
+east and everything in it. I know I'm going to be unhappy here."
+
+With the smile that few people could resist, Grace sat down on the
+seat beside the tearful little stranger. "I think I know what is
+troubling you," she said gently. "I could not help overhearing Miss
+Atkins a few moments ago. I also heard you running downstairs, so I
+came down, too, to ask you if there was anything I could do for you."
+
+"You are very kind," faltered the stranger. "I must wait to see Mrs.
+Elwood, but will you tell me your name, please?"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon for not introducing myself," responded Grace
+contritely. "I am Grace Harlowe of the sophomore class."
+
+"My name is Mildred Taylor," responded the newcomer. "I came from
+the station in the bus a few minutes ago. There were two other
+freshmen with me. They seem to be more fortunate than I. The maid
+showed us to our rooms. I supposed, of course, that I would have to
+room with another girl, but I didn't think--" she paused.
+
+"I know," sympathized Grace. "I heard what was said to you; at least
+a part of it. Won't you come upstairs to our room and meet my
+roommate, Miss Pierson?"
+
+"It is very thoughtful in you to take so much trouble for me,"
+replied the freshman gratefully.
+
+"That is part of our plan here at Overton," laughed Grace. "When I
+was a lonely, bewildered freshman, several of the upper class girls
+made it their business to look out for my comfort. Now it is my turn
+to pass that kindness along."
+
+"What a nice way to look at things!" exclaimed Mildred Taylor. "If
+I thought the rest of the girls in the college were going to be like
+you, I'd be ready to love Overton."
+
+"Oh, you will love Overton," was Grace's quick reply. "You can't
+help yourself."
+
+Anne received the forlorn newcomer with a sweet courtesy that quite
+charmed her. "We are in the midst of our unpacking," she explained.
+"Our trunks came only a little while ago. Won't you take off your hat
+and coat?"
+
+"Anne, I will leave Miss Taylor in your care," declared Grace.
+"Please excuse me, I'll be back directly," she nodded encouragingly
+to their guest.
+
+At the door of Miriam's room Grace knocked softly, then in answer to
+the impatient, "Come in," entered to find Elfreda standing in the
+midst of an extended circle formed by her possessions.
+
+"Isn't this enough to discourage the most valiant heart?" she
+declared, with a comprehensive sweep of her arm over the scattered
+contents of her trunk. "But I am going to clear everything away. I
+promised Miriam that my half of the room should be kept 'decently and
+in order' all year. It is one of my sophomore obligations."
+
+Grace listened in amusement to the stout girl's earnest assertion.
+"I haven't finished unpacking either," she said. "I came for advice.
+The freshman who was to occupy the other half of Miss Atkins's room
+has arrived, and Miss Atkins won't let her into the room. I just
+brought her upstairs to my room.
+
+"Last night I talked with Mrs. Elwood. She isn't particularly
+anxious to have Miss Atkins in the house. When Miss Taylor, that is
+the name of the freshman who just came, tells her about what happened
+she will ask Miss Atkins to leave Wayne Hall. This girl has brought
+with her to Overton the worst possible spirit in which to begin her
+freshman year. Of course, we don't know whether she is rich or poor,
+or whether her success or failure in college means anything to any
+one besides herself. We can not know under what circumstances she has
+been brought up. Perhaps she has some one at home who is straining
+every nerve to send her to college. Perhaps there is a father,
+mother, sister or brother who has made untold sacrifices to give her
+a college education. Perhaps there has been no lack of money, only
+a desire on the part of parents or a guardian to get rid of her by
+sending her off to school. I believe we ought to try to help this
+girl in spite of her rudeness to us. Will you go with me to her room?
+I want to talk to her. We may find her in a better humor than she was
+in last night. While Anne entertains Miss Taylor you and I will
+venture into the domain of the Anarchist."
+
+"I'll go," agreed Elfreda, secretly flattered because Grace had
+chosen her.
+
+Grace led the way down the hall to the end room. A sulky voice
+responded to her knock, and throwing open the door the two girls
+stepped inside. The belligerent freshman sat bolt upright in a Morris
+chair, forbidding and implacable.
+
+"How do you do?" said Grace politely. "I hope we are not intruding."
+
+The young woman merely scowled by way of answer.
+
+"I wonder how I'd better begin," pondered Grace, looking squarely
+into the hostile eyes.
+
+Elfreda stood calmly surveying the scowling girl. "You might ask us
+to sit down," she observed impertinently.
+
+The young woman glanced at the stout girl with an expression of
+angry amazement. Elfreda's rudeness was equal to her own.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she said satirically. "Won't you be seated?"
+
+"Oh, no, I just wanted to hear you say it," flung back Elfreda.
+
+Ignoring this retort, Miss Atkins turned to Grace. "What do you
+wish?" she asked with cold precision.
+
+"I am sorry to be obliged to tell you that if you do not allow Miss
+Taylor to occupy her half of the room, you are likely to be asked to
+leave Wayne Hall," said Grace gravely. "Mrs. Elwood was displeased
+over what happened last night, and I know that when she learns of
+what has happened to-day she will not overlook it. We do not wish to
+see you leave Wayne Hall, and besides, the various college houses are
+filling fast. You might have difficulty in securing a desirable room
+elsewhere."
+
+"Is there any reason why I should not occupy this room alone?"
+
+"None whatever, if you arranged for a single beforehand," interposed
+Elfreda shrewdly. "If you did, I can't see why Mrs. Elwood consented
+to take Miss Taylor."
+
+"I did not arrange for a single room," was the stiff response.
+
+"Then you haven't any case, have you?" queried Elfreda cheerfully.
+"Now, see here. I am going to tell you a few things. You are
+beginning all wrong. It is just what I did last year, and I had a
+pretty disagreeable time, you may rest assured. The best thing you
+can do is to tell Miss Taylor to come and claim her half of the room
+before anything happens to you. If you leave Wayne Hall, sooner or
+later the whole college will hear of it and it won't help you to be
+popular, either. It is easy enough to do as you please regardless of
+whether or not it pleases others, but you are bound to pay for the
+privilege. If you don't believe me, just wait and see."
+
+A flush mounted to the defiant stranger's cheeks.
+
+"Public opinion is usually a matter of small importance to me," she
+said, but her tone of lofty indifference was not convincing. "There
+is, however, a certain amount of wisdom in what you have just said.
+I should not care to appear ridiculous in the eyes of the really
+important students at Overton. You may inform Miss Taylor that I have
+altered my decision. I shall raise no further objections to her as
+a roommate."
+
+With a pompous gesture of dismissal this self-centered young woman
+rose and walked majestically to the window. Turning her back squarely
+upon Grace and Elfreda, she appeared to be deeply absorbed in
+watching what went on in the street, and, divided between vexation
+and laughter, the two girls left the room. Elfreda hurried back to
+her unpacking and Grace to her own room.
+
+"It is all right, Miss Taylor. Your roommate is prepared to receive
+you," Grace announced.
+
+"I shall be glad to have some place I can call all my own," sighed
+the little girl, "but I know I shall never like her," she added
+resentfully.
+
+"On the contrary, you may learn to like her very much," returned
+Grace. "Now I'll help you with your things." Picking up Miss Taylor's
+heavy suit case, Grace escorted her to the door of the end room.
+
+"How did it happen?" greeted Anne, when five minutes later Grace
+returned alone, smiling and triumphant.
+
+"Don't ask me," laughed Grace. "Ask Elfreda. She wrought the miracle."
+
+"What did she do?" asked Anne.
+
+"She won the day, or rather the half of the room, by plain
+speaking." Grace recounted to Anne what had taken place in the
+belligerent young woman's room. "She made more impression on the
+Anarchist in five minutes than I could have made in a week," finished
+Grace.
+
+"Elfreda has a remarkable personality," was Anne's thoughtful
+answer. "Her very frankness makes an impression where diplomacy
+counts for little. However, I am not surprised that history repeated
+itself so soon. I hope this is the last time we shall be obliged to
+thwart the Anarchist and administer justice to the oppressed.
+
+"I don't envy Miss Taylor," said Anne. "I wish every girl in college
+had as nice a roommate as I have."
+
+"Beware of flatterers," laughed Grace.
+
+"And also of Anarchists," added Anne.
+
+"But of the two," smiled Grace, "I prefer flatterers, especially if
+they happen to occupy the other half of my room."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ELFREDA MAKES A RASH PROMISE
+
+
+"How does it feel to be a senior, Mabel?" questioned Miriam Nesbit,
+glancing smilingly over where Mabel Ashe, gowned smartly in white,
+her brown eyes dancing with interest in what went on about her, sat
+eating her dessert, and obligingly trying to answer half a dozen
+questions at once.
+
+The seven other girls at the table looked expectantly at the pretty
+senior, who was their hostess at a dinner given by her at Martell's
+that Saturday evening.
+
+"Oh, just the same as it did last year," she replied lightly. "I
+feel vastly older and a shade more responsible. To tell you the
+truth, I hate to think about it. I don't know how I am ever going to
+get along without Overton. I think I shall have to disguise myself
+and come back next year as a freshman; then I could do the whole four
+years over again."
+
+"The question is, What are we going to do next year without you?"
+remarked Grace mournfully.
+
+"Let us forget all about it," advised Mabel. "I refuse to have any
+weeps at my dinner. You may shed your tears in private, but not here."
+
+"What are you going to do when you finish college?" asked Miriam
+Nesbit.
+
+"You girls will laugh when I tell you," replied Mabel solemnly, "but
+really and truly there is only one thing I care to do. I have warned
+Father that I intend to be self-supporting, but I haven't dared to
+tell him how I propose to earn my living."
+
+"What are you going to do? Tell us, Mabel. We won't tell."
+
+"Frances knows already. She thinks it would be fine, don't you,
+Frances?"
+
+Frances nodded emphatically.
+
+"I hope to become a newspaper woman," solemnly announced Mabel.
+
+"A newspaper woman!" cried Constance Fuller. "Why, I think that
+would be dreadful!"
+
+"I don't," stoutly averred Mabel. "I'd love to be a reporter and go
+poking into all sorts of places. After a while I'd be sent out to
+write up murder trials and political happenings and, oh, lots of big
+stories." Mabel beamed on her amazed audience.
+
+"I never would have believed it of you, but I'm sure you could do
+it," predicted Leona Rowe confidently.
+
+"Good for you!" cried Mabel, leaning across the table to shake hands
+with Leona. "I have one loyal supporter at least."
+
+Mabel's declaration having brought to the minds of the little
+company the fact that sooner or later the choice of an after-college
+occupation would be necessary, a brisk discussion began as to what
+each girl intended to do. Aside from Anne, who had fully determined
+to stick to her profession, and Constance, who was specializing in
+English, with the intention of one day returning to Overton as an
+instructor, no one at the table had a very definite idea of her
+future usefulness.
+
+"We seem to be a rather purposeless lot," remarked Miriam Nesbit.
+"The trouble with most of us is that we are not obliged to think
+about earning our own living after we leave college. We look forward
+to being ornaments in our own particular social set, but nothing
+more. I'm not sure, yet, what I am going to do with my education. I
+intend to put it to some practical use, though."
+
+"So am I," agreed Grace. "We'll just have to keep on doing our best
+and find ourselves."
+
+"I suppose that is the real purpose of going to college," said Anne
+thoughtfully.
+
+"I think we are all growing too serious," laughed Mabel. "By the
+way, Grace," she went on, "who is that curious looking little
+freshman with the perpetual scowl that lives at Wayne Hall!"
+
+The four Wayne Hall girls exchanged significant glances.
+
+"Stop exchanging eye messages and tell me," ordered Mabel.
+
+"Her name is Atkins," returned Grace briefly. Then a peculiar look
+in her eyes caused Mabel to say hastily, "I just wondered who she
+was," and changed the subject.
+
+As they left Martell's, walking two by two, Mabel fell into step
+with Grace. Slipping her arm through that of the Oakdale girl, she
+said in a low tone, "Come over to see me to-morrow evening. I have
+something to say to you. I almost said it before the girls; then I
+caught your warning look in time. Come to dinner to-morrow night and
+stay all evening. I promise faithfully to make you study."
+
+"I have a theme to do," replied Grace dubiously. "Do you think there
+would be any prospect of my getting it done?"
+
+"Oceans of it," assured Mabel glibly. "I'll be as still as a mouse
+while you do it. If you need a subject perhaps I can furnish the
+inspiration. As long as I intend to become a newspaper woman I might
+as well begin to sprout a few ideas."
+
+"All right, I'll come," laughed Grace. "Did I tell you I was taking
+chemistry this year? I find it very absorbing."
+
+"I liked it, too," agreed Mabel. "I am more interested in
+psychology, though I like my essay and short story work best of all.
+I'm going in for interpretative reading, too. All that sort of thing
+will help me in my work when I leave here."
+
+"I wish I knew what I wanted to do," sighed Grace. "I'd love to
+begin to plan about it now."
+
+"It will dawn upon you suddenly some day," prophesied Mabel, "and
+you will wonder why you never thought of it before."
+
+The diners strolled along together as far as the campus. There,
+Constance Fuller, Mabel, Frances and Helen Burton left the quartette
+from Wayne Hall.
+
+"It's early yet," said Elfreda, consulting her watch.
+
+"What time is it, Elfreda?" asked Grace.
+
+"Half-past eight," answered the stout girl. "We have plenty of time
+to study. I, for one, need it. My subjects are all frightfully hard.
+I tried to pick out easy ones, but did you ever notice that the
+schedule is so arranged that you can't possibly pick out two easy
+subjects and recite them both in the same term? One always conflicts
+with the other."
+
+"Long experience, crafty faculty," laughed Miriam. "They know our
+weaknesses and how to deal with them."
+
+"The last time we were out to dinner in a body we talked about the
+past. This time it was the future," remarked Elfreda. "That reminds
+me, what has become of Arline and Ruth? I haven't seen either of them
+this week except at a distance."
+
+"Arline and Ruth haven't been on friendly terms since the night of
+Arline's dinner at Vinton's," Grace remarked soberly. "It isn't
+Ruth's fault. She is heartbroken over the estrangement. This is the
+first difference she and Arline have ever had."
+
+"Such a ridiculous thing to quarrel over," sniffed Elfreda. "I could
+see that night that Arline was cross because Ruth didn't want to talk
+about herself."
+
+"I hope they will be friends again before the reception," said
+Grace. "It would be awkward for all of us if they are not."
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Anne, sitting down on the top step of the
+veranda. "I'm too lazy to look at my books to-night." The four girls
+had reached Wayne Hall and the beauty of the autumn night made them
+reluctant to go into the house, where an evening of hard study
+awaited them. "I'd like to stay out here for hours and look at the
+stars."
+
+"And have stiff neck and a cold of the fond, clinging type,
+tomorrow," jeered Elfreda.
+
+"How disgustingly practical you are, Elfreda!" exclaimed Miriam.
+
+"I'm only warning her," persisted Elfreda.
+
+"It doesn't seem as though we'd been back at Overton for three
+weeks, does it?" asked Grace.
+
+"It seems longer than that to me," said Miriam Nesbit. "The freshman
+dance happened ages ago, according to my reckoning, and nothing,
+absolutely nothing, has happened since."
+
+"Never mind, it won't be long until the sophomore reception,"
+comforted Grace. "I never suspected that you had such a rabid craving
+for excitement, Miriam."
+
+"The freshman dance was a tame affair," averred Miriam. "I think our
+class was more interesting in its infancy than is this year's class."
+
+"I think so, too," agreed Grace. "Still, we don't know what genius
+lies hidden in the bosoms of 19--'s freshmen."
+
+"This year we shall be the hostesses," exulted Elfreda. "Who are you
+girls going to invite?"
+
+"I'll ask Miss Taylor," volunteered Anne.
+
+"I'll ask Miss Wilton," said Miriam.
+
+"That's two from Wayne Hall," counted Anne. "There are two freshmen
+left."
+
+"One of us could invite that nice tall girl, Miss Evans," planned
+Grace. "That leaves only one girl uninvited." She hesitated. Her
+three friends read the meaning of the hesitation. Elfreda sprang
+loyally into the breach.
+
+"I'll ask Miss Atkins," she declared stoutly. "You notice, don't
+you, that I am not addressing her by her pet name? I'll conduct her
+to the reception and back, if she'll accept my manly arm, and buy her
+flowers into the bargain. So go ahead and invite Miss Evans, Grace."
+
+"J. Elfreda Briggs, you can never manage that Miss Atkins,"
+protested Miriam. "In the first place, she won't accept you as an
+escort, and if she should happen to do so, it will be a sorry evening
+for you."
+
+"I'll take the risk," replied Elfreda confidently. "I managed her
+once before, didn't I? You girls go ahead and invite the others.
+Leave Miss Atkins to me. I'll escort her in triumph to the reception,
+or perish gallantly in the attempt."
+
+"Do you really believe she will accept your invitation, Elfreda?"
+asked Grace doubtfully.
+
+"I can tell you better after I have asked her," was Elfreda's
+flippant retort. "I have an idea that she will feel dreadfully hurt
+if no one asks her to go."
+
+"Hurt!" exclaimed three voices in unison.
+
+"Yes, hurt," repeated Elfreda. "The Anarchist isn't half so savage
+as she pretends to be. That blood-thirsty manner of hers isn't real.
+She puts it on to hide something else."
+
+"But what is it she wishes to hide?" asked Miriam. "Your deductions
+are quite beyond us."
+
+"If I knew I'd tell you. I don't pretend to understand her, but I
+can see that she isn't as fierce as she seems. Time and I will solve
+the riddle, and when we do you'll be the first to hear of it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GIRLS AND THEIR IDEALS
+
+
+Directly after her last class the next day, Grace hurried to her
+room to change her gown. She looked forward with eager pleasure to
+her evening with Mabel Ashe. She was deeply attached to the pretty
+senior, who was the best-liked girl in college, and Grace could not
+help feeling a trifle proud of Mabel's frank enjoyment of her
+society. Anne, knowing Grace was to be away, had accepted an
+invitation to go down to Ruth Denton's little room, help her cook
+supper, and spend the evening with her.
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Grace, as she tried vainly to reach the two hooks
+of her dark blue charmeuse gown that seemed only a sixteenth of an
+inch out of reach, "I wish Anne were here. I can touch these two
+hooks with the ends of my fingers but I can't fasten them. I'll have
+to ask Mabel to hook me up when I get to Holland House." Giving up
+in disgust, Grace slipped into her long, blue serge coat, carefully
+adjusted her new fall hat that she had just received from home, and
+catching up her gloves ran downstairs.
+
+Mabel Ashe's graceful, welcoming figure leaning over the baluster
+waiting for her was the first thing that attracted her attention as
+she stepped inside the hall at Holland House.
+
+"Come right up," invited Mabel. "We'll have a little while together
+before dinner. Did you bring your notebook?"
+
+"Yes," replied Grace. "Remember, you are to help me choose a subject
+for my theme. You volunteered, you know."
+
+"Not until after dinner, though, if you don't mind. Sit down here
+and be comfy. This is my pet chair, but I insist on letting you have
+it because you are company." She gently pushed Grace into a roomy
+leather-covered armchair. Seating herself opposite Grace, Mabel fixed
+her brown eyes almost gravely on her. "Now, Grace," she said
+earnestly, "please tell me about this Miss Atkins of Wayne Hall."
+
+"There isn't much to tell," replied Grace. "Did you ever see her?"
+
+"Once."
+
+"We had a little trouble with her our very first day back,"
+continued Grace. "She took possession of our room and refused to give
+it up. Then when Mrs. Elwood came to our rescue, she went to the room
+that had been assigned to her like a lamb. She felt anything but
+lamblike toward me, you may believe, and when later Mrs. Elwood
+brought up her new roommate, she refused to allow her to enter."
+
+"Refused to allow her to enter," repeated Mabel wonderingly. "What
+sort of girl is she, Grace?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Grace doubtfully. "She is an enigma. She
+speaks the most precise English, with absolutely no trace of slang.
+But she looks as though the whole world were her natural enemy.
+Elfreda named her the Anarchist. I am rather ashamed to say we call
+her that behind her back."
+
+Mabel smiled slightly, then asked, "What did the girl do--the one
+she wouldn't room with, I mean?"
+
+"She went downstairs to wait for Mrs. Elwood. The reason I know all
+about it is because I happened to hear her tell Miss Taylor, that's
+the freshman's name, that she would have to go elsewhere. I knew Mrs.
+Elwood was out, so I went down to see if there were anything I could
+do for her, and she told me all about it. I knew Mrs. Elwood would
+be out of patience with Miss Atkins and ask her to leave Wayne Hall."
+Grace paused.
+
+"What happened next?" asked Mabel interestedly.
+
+"I told Miss Taylor I would try to fix things for her. I went
+upstairs and plotted with Elfreda. Then she and I bearded the dragon
+in her den. After I had finished telling her that it would be better
+to take little Miss Taylor without further bickering, Elfreda rose
+to the occasion and gave her a much-needed lecture. She is very shrewd,
+I think. She evidently realized she had gone too far. She objected
+to Miss Taylor because it is her nature to object to everything. When
+she saw that we had taken up the cudgels in Miss Taylor's behalf, and
+that she was likely to get into hot water, she decided to accept her
+as a roommate without further opposition. That's the whole story."
+
+"She must be eccentric and very disagreeable," commented Mabel.
+"What made you go to such pains to save her from the wrath of Mrs.
+Elwood?"
+
+"I suppose I felt sorry for her," confessed Grace. "She is beginning
+her freshman year in the worst possible spirit. But as I said to the
+girls not long ago, we do not know what lies back of her disagreeable
+manner. Why are you so interested in hearing about her, Mabel?"
+
+"She is making herself the subject of considerable censure among the
+juniors and seniors by snubbing the girls of her own class and calmly
+announcing that she wishes to make only powerful and influential
+friends in college," returned Mabel. "You know, of course, the
+attitude of the old students toward freshmen. This Miss Atkins is
+either laboring under the impression that she is an exception to
+tradition, or else she has no sense of the fitness of things. At
+first, I am sorry to say, a few of the seniors looked upon her as a
+joke, but the reaction has set in, and, like Humpty Dumpty, she is
+going to take a great fall. When she does, all the king's horses and
+all the king's men won't be of any assistance to her in getting her
+back from where she tumbled. I don't believe she realizes that she
+is making herself ridiculous.
+
+"I was at Vinton's last Saturday afternoon. Jessie Meredith invited
+another senior and me to luncheon there. Imagine our surprise when
+a prim, precise little figure marched up to our table and seated
+herself as calmly as though she were the president of the senior
+class. There is room for four at those tables, you know, and we had
+not reserved ours. Still, there were plenty of other tables at which
+she might have seated herself. It was rather embarrassing for all of
+us, but it was worse when she tried to break into the conversation.
+She insisted on expounding her views on whatever we discussed. We
+were compelled to cut short our luncheon and flee to Martell's for
+our dessert. We escaped at the moment the waitress was serving her
+luncheon, so she couldn't very well rise and pursue us. If I had been
+alone, I might have stayed, but Jessie was disgusted, and I was
+Jessie's guest."
+
+Grace had listened to Mabel's recital with troubled eyes. "I never
+before knew a girl quite like Miss Atkins," she said slowly. "What
+is it you wish me to do for her, Mabel?"
+
+"Wise young sophomore," laughed Mabel. "How did you guess it?"
+
+"You are not given to footless gossip," replied Grace quietly.
+"Besides, I live at Wayne Hall."
+
+"Cleverer and cleverer," commented the senior, in mock admiration.
+"This is my idea. I had hoped that, being in the same house with her,
+you might be able to guide her gently along the beaten trail made by
+girls like you. However, after what you have told me, I am afraid you
+are not the one to do it."
+
+"I haven't a particle of influence with her," said Grace soberly.
+"You must know that from what I have already told you."
+
+"Yes, I do know it," answered Mabel. "Is there any one at Wayne Hall
+who would be likely to have the right kind of influence?"
+
+"No-o-o." Grace shook her head doubtfully. Then she suddenly
+brightened. "There is one person who might help her. Elfreda is going
+to invite her to the sophomore reception. She doesn't wish to do it,
+I know, although she hasn't said so. Please don't think me conceited,
+but Elfreda would do anything for me. She fancies herself under
+obligation to me on account of what happened last year," Grace added
+in an embarrassed tone.
+
+"Grace Harlowe!" exclaimed Mabel delightedly, "I believe we have
+solved our problem. J. Elfreda is the very one to make Miss Atkins
+wake up to what is expected from her at Overton. Will you talk with
+her about it, and ask her if she is willing to try?"
+
+"I'll tell her tonight," promised Grace. "I'm sure she'll try. She
+is not afraid to tackle Miss Atkins, either, or she wouldn't have
+invited her to the reception."
+
+"Then that's settled for the time being at least," declared Mabel
+jubilantly. "Just in time for dinner, too. There goes the bell."
+
+After dinner more conversation followed. It was eight o'clock before
+Grace remembered her theme. "What shall I write about?" she demanded.
+"You promised to supply the inspiration."
+
+"So I will," returned Mabel cheerfully. "Why don't you write about--"
+She paused, frowning slightly. "After all my vaunted promises I'm
+not able to suggest anything on the spur of the moment," she
+confessed laughingly. "Why don't you take some incident in your own
+life or that of your friends and write a story about it?" she
+proposed after a moment's silence.
+
+"I don't believe I could ever write a story," confessed Grace. "I
+think I'll write a little discussion about girls and their ideals."
+
+"That sounds interesting," commended Mabel. "Go ahead with it. You
+may sit at this table, if you like."
+
+Grace seated herself, nibbled at the end of her fountain pen
+reflectively, then began to write. Mabel busied herself with her own
+work. At last Grace shoved aside the closely written sheets of paper.
+"It's done," she cried, in a triumphant voice. "Now we can talk."
+
+"May I read it?" asked Mabel.
+
+"Of course, if you wish to," laughed Grace. "It isn't worth the
+trouble, though."
+
+Mabel picked up the theme and began to read. Grace rose, and
+strolling over to the bookcase fell to examining the various
+bindings. Her friend's flattering comment, "It's splendid, Grace. I
+had no idea you could write so well," caused her to look up in
+surprise from the book she held in her hand.
+
+"I don't think it is very remarkable," she contradicted. "It hasn't
+a shred of literary style."
+
+"It's convincing," argued Mabel.
+
+"That is because I felt strongly on my subject. When it comes to anything
+that lies near my heart I am always convincing. Father says I put up the
+most convincing argument of any one he knows," smiled Grace. "He always
+declares he is wax in my hands. I hope you will make me a visit and meet
+my father and mother, Mabel," she added.
+
+"I surely will," promised Mabel. "We must correspond after I leave
+college. I wish you could go home with me for one of the holiday
+vacations. Can't you manage it?"
+
+"I am afraid not this year," returned Grace doubtfully. "Father and
+Mother wouldn't object, but they miss me so during the year that I
+feel as though my holidays belonged to them. I am an only child, you
+know."
+
+"So am I," returned Mabel. "I am also extremely popular with my
+father. If I can tear myself away from him to make you a visit,
+surely you ought to be equally public spirited."
+
+"I'll think it over," laughed Grace. "Oh, dear!" she exclaimed a
+moment later, glancing at the little French clock on the chiffonier,
+"I must go. It is twenty minutes to ten. How the time has slipped
+away."
+
+"Thank you," bowed Mabel. "Such appreciation of my society is
+gratifying in the extreme. I'll invite you again."
+
+"See that you do," retorted Grace. "Have you any engagement for
+Saturday afternoon? If you haven't, then suppose we have luncheon at
+Vinton's; then go for a long walk. We can stay out all afternoon,
+stop at the tea shop for supper and come home on the street car, or
+walk in, if we choose. We might ask Frances and Anne to join us.
+Miriam and Elfreda are going out for a ride. Miriam has a horse here
+this year. She had her choice between a horse and a runabout and she
+took the horse. The moment Elfreda found out she had one, she wrote
+home about it. Now she has a riding horse, too."
+
+"I had my own pet mount, Elixir, here during my freshman and
+sophomore years. The latter part of my second year I didn't take him
+out enough to exercise him. So I ordered him sent home. He is a
+beauty. Jet black with a three-cornered white spot in the middle of
+his forehead. He's an Arabian, and Father paid an extravagant price
+for him. He shakes hands and does ever so many tricks that I taught
+him. When you go home with me, you shall see him."
+
+"I'd love to have a riding horse," confessed Grace, "but Father
+can't afford it. I've never asked him, but I know he can't. We have
+no car either."
+
+"Make me a visit and you can ride Elixir every day," bribed Mabel.
+
+"I'd love that!" exclaimed Grace fervently as she slipped into her
+coat and settled her hat firmly on her fluffy hair. "Good night,
+Mabel. Come and see me soon. Don't forget our Saturday walk."
+
+"I'll go to the door with you," announced Mabel. "No, I won't forget
+our walk. I'll tell Frances about it to-morrow, before she has a
+chance to make any other plans. She is a popular young person, and
+elusive in the matter of dates."
+
+"There are others," retorted Grace, with a significant glance at her
+friend.
+
+"So there are," agreed Mabel innocently.
+
+On the way home Grace wondered if there were any way in which she
+might help Laura Atkins. True to her promise, she went at once to
+interview Elfreda on the subject of the eccentric freshman. She found
+Miriam and the stout girl busily engaged in trying to put together
+a puzzle that Elfreda had unearthed in the toy department of one of
+the Overton stores that afternoon. Puzzles were the delight of Elfreda's
+heart. But, once put together, they immediately ceased to be of
+interest.
+
+"This is a wonder!" she exclaimed at sight of Grace. "It is worth
+having. Neither Miriam nor I can put it together."
+
+"I have a harder one for you to tackle," smiled Grace. Then she
+recounted her conversation with Mabel Ashe.
+
+"You have altogether too much faith in my powers of persuasion,"
+grumbled Elfreda, secretly pleased, nevertheless.
+
+"But that is much better than if we had no faith at all," reminded
+Grace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE INVITATION
+
+
+The next morning Grace made a startling discovery. It was directly
+after breakfast that she made it. Having fifteen minutes to spare
+before going to her first recitation, she decided to reread her
+theme. What one wrote always read differently after one had slept
+over it. What seemed clever at night might be very commonplace when
+read in the cold light of the morning. Grace reached for the book in
+which she had placed her theme. It was not there. Going down on her
+knees, she looked first under the table, then under the chiffonier,
+then turned over the books on the table, then, darting to the closet,
+searched the pockets of her long coat.
+
+"Where can it be?" she cried despairingly. "I am sure I had it when
+I came into the hall last night. I couldn't have lost it on my way
+across the campus. I'll run down and ask Anne. Perhaps she picked it
+up and put it away for me."
+
+Grace hurried downstairs as fast as her feet would carry her. To her
+low inquiry in Anne's ear she received a disappointing answer. Anne,
+who was just finishing her breakfast, replied that she had not even
+seen the theme. She rose at once to accompany Grace upstairs. The two
+girls searched in every nook and corner of the room. "I wanted to
+hand it in this morning," lamented Grace. "Now I'll have to write it
+all over again. I don't believe I can remember much of it, either.
+I'll have to explain to Miss Duncan, too, and ask her to give me
+until tomorrow to write it."
+
+"Perhaps it will be found yet," comforted Anne.
+
+"No danger of it, unless I lost it in the street. Then there's only
+one chance in a thousand of its turning up," declared Grace gloomily.
+"I don't see how I happened to be so careless."
+
+"When must it be handed in?" questioned Anne.
+
+"This morning," answered Grace dolefully. "I'll have to re-write it
+to-night and from memory, too."
+
+"Why don't you choose another subject?" was Anne's advice.
+
+"No." Grace shook her head positively. "I can do better with the old
+one. I'm not going to bother about asking if any one has found it.
+My name was on it. If I made a fuss over it some one might say it was
+only an excuse, that I hadn't really lost it, but just wished to gain
+time. I hope Miss Duncan won't think that."
+
+"No one in this house would say so," contradicted Anne loyally.
+
+"But suppose Alberta Wicks or Mary Hampton heard of it? They might
+circulate that rumor. I hate to seem so suspicious, but an ounce of
+prevention, you know. I will write it over and say nothing further
+about it." Having made up her mind on the subject Grace promptly
+dismissed it from her thoughts.
+
+Miss Duncan did look rather suspiciously at Grace as she related her
+misfortune. Grace's gray eyes met hers so fairly and truthfully,
+however, that she was forced to believe the young woman's statement.
+She gave the desired respite rather ungraciously and Grace took her
+place in class, relieved to think she had got off so easily. That
+night she rewrote the theme. It did not give her as much trouble as
+she had anticipated. She laid down her fountain pen with alacrity
+when it was finished and carefully blotted the last sheet. "Now I can
+begin to think about the reception," she announced. "What are you
+going to wear, Anne?"
+
+"My new pink gown," said Anne promptly. "As long as I was
+extravagant enough to indulge in a new evening dress I might as well
+wear it. The sophomore reception is really the most important affair
+of the year, to us, at least."
+
+"I'm delighted to have an opportunity to show off my pale blue
+chiffon frock," laughed Grace. "I've been in ecstasies over it ever
+since it was made. Have you seen that white gown of Elfreda's? It's
+perfectly stunning. I stopped in her room for a minute last night.
+She was trying it on. It's the prettiest gown she's had since she
+came here. Ask her to show it to you."
+
+"I'm going over there now," said Anne. "I'll be back in a minute."
+It was precisely four minutes later when Anne poked her head in
+Grace's door. "Come on into Miriam's room, Grace," she called. "She
+has just made chocolate. She has some lovely little cakes and
+sandwiches, too. And Elfreda has something to tell us."
+
+Grace rose from her chair, lay down the notebook she had been
+running through, and hastily followed Anne.
+
+"Have a cushion," laughed Miriam hospitably, throwing a fat sofa
+pillow at Grace, who caught it dextrously, patted it into shape and,
+placing it on the floor, sat down on it Turk fashion. Elfreda poured
+another cup of chocolate, then seated herself on the floor beside
+Grace. "Pass Grace the sandwiches, Anne," she ordered. "We made these
+ourselves. We bought the stuff at that new delicatessen place on High
+Street."
+
+"They are delicious," commented Grace, between bites. "I'm hungry
+to-night. I didn't like the dinner very well."
+
+"Neither did we," responded Miriam. "After dinner we went out for a
+walk to see what we could find, and we brought back what you see
+spread before you."
+
+"I shall pay a visit to the delicatessen shop," announced Grace.
+"To-morrow night you must come to my room for a spread."
+
+"I'll come to your room with pleasure," retorted Elfreda, "but not
+to eat. One spread a week is my limit. Now for my news. The Anarchist
+has accepted my invitation to the reception."
+
+"Really!" exclaimed Grace. "Do tell us about it, Elfreda."
+
+"I delivered my invitation after dinner tonight," began Elfreda. "I
+waited and waited, thinking some one else might invite her. I am not
+yearning for the honor, you know. I went to her door and knocked. Her
+roommate, Miss Taylor, opened it. The Anarchist sat over in one
+corner of the room, studying like mad. By the way, I understand she
+is a dig and stands high in her classes."
+
+"Is she?" asked Anne, opening her eyes. "Then that is one thing she
+has in her favor. Perhaps we shall discover other good qualities in
+her that we've overlooked."
+
+"Perhaps," echoed Miriam dryly.
+
+"Mustn't interrupt me," drawled Elfreda. "I may become peevish and
+refuse to talk."
+
+"All right," smiled Grace. "We accept the warning. Continue, my dear
+Miss Briggs."
+
+Elfreda grinned cheerfully. "I inquired with deferential politeness
+if Miss Atkins were busy. Then the Anarchist looked up from her book,
+glared like a lion, straightened her eyebrows and said in that awful
+voice she owns, 'Did you wish to speak to me?'"
+
+Elfreda unconsciously imitated the belligerent freshman. Her
+audience giggled appreciatively.
+
+"I replied in my most impressive English that I did wish to do that
+very thing," continued Elfreda. "Then I inquired tactfully if I was
+too late with my invitation to the sophomore dance. Without giving
+her time to answer I put in my application for the position of escort.
+Then"--Elfreda paused, a slight flush rose to her round face, "then
+she looked me in the eye and told me a deliberate untruth. She said
+she had refused one invitation because she had not been interested
+in the reception, but that she had changed her mind. She thanked me
+and said she would be pleased to go. I bowed myself out without further
+ado, but Miss Taylor gave me the queerest look as I went. Her face
+was as red as fire. It was she who told me that the Anarchist had not
+been invited. She was afraid I might think she hadn't told the truth,
+but I knew better. Now, don't ever tell any one what I have said."
+
+"I'm sorry she didn't tell the truth," said Grace disapprovingly.
+"Why couldn't she say that she had not been invited?"
+
+"False pride," commented Miriam. "She evidently isn't so indifferent
+to the opinion of others as she would have us believe."
+
+"She is a strange girl," mused Anne. "Perhaps she is not altogether
+to blame for her odd ways."
+
+"'Odd' is a good name for them," jeered Elfreda. "I wouldn't call it
+'odd,' I'd use a stronger word than that. It's contemptible. I'm
+sorry I asked her to go to the reception."
+
+"Then recall your invitation and tell her your reason for doing so,"
+advised Miriam Nesbit bluntly. "Don't take her to the reception in
+that spirit. You will make yourself and her equally unhappy."
+
+"Hear the sage lay down the law," retorted Elfreda impudently.
+"She's right, though, only I won't withdraw my invitation at this
+late date. I'll try to give the Anarchist the most exciting time of
+her young life, but if she balks please don't blame me. You can lead
+an Anarchist to a reception, you know, but you can't make her dance
+unless she happens to feel like dancing. Still, I am going to do my
+best, and no sophomore can do more."
+
+"That sounds like the Elfreda Briggs I heard talking last night,"
+said Grace, smiling her approval of the stout girl's words.
+
+"So it does," agreed Elfreda. "Hereafter I'll try to be more
+consistent. As for the Anarchist, she shall reap the benefit of my
+vow. I hope she knows how to dance. If she doesn't I shall have to
+constitute myself a committee of one to furnish amusement for her.
+If on the fatal night you see me, my arm firmly linked in that of her
+majesty, parading solemnly about the gymnasium with a fixed smile,
+and an air of gayety that I am a long way from feeling, don't you
+dare to laugh at me."
+
+"We won't laugh at you, then, even though we can't help laughing at
+you now," said Grace. "We shall be only too glad to do anything we
+can to help you entertain her."
+
+"I know that. Maybe you can help and maybe you can't. But if she
+doesn't enjoy herself it won't be my fault."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ANTICIPATIONS
+
+
+The day of the sophomore reception was a busy one for the members of
+the sophomore class. To them, it was the event of the year, and the
+desire to make this dance outshine all its predecessors was paramount
+in almost every sophomore breast. Of course, there were the digs, who
+never thought of festivities, but spent all their time in study. No
+one counted on their help. The greater part of the class, however,
+was properly enthusiastic over the music, decorations, gowns and
+dance cards. Grace and Miriam, who were on the decorating committee,
+had spent the greater part of their day in the gymnasium. Under the
+skilful direction of the committee the big room blossomed out in
+strange and gorgeous array. There were the masses of evergreen so
+convenient for hiding unsightly gymnasium apparatus, which made the
+gymnasium a veritable forest green. Strings of Japanese lanterns
+added to the effect, while the freshmen and sophomore colors
+impartially wound the gallery railing and were draped and festooned
+wherever there was the slightest chance for display.
+
+The sophomores had put forth their best efforts in behalf of their
+freshman sisters. When it came to sofa cushions and draperies they
+had surrendered their most highly treasured possessions for the good
+of the cause.
+
+"I think we may congratulate ourselves," commented Gertrude Wells as
+she stood beside Miriam Nesbit, surveying their almost completed
+task. "Look at my hands! I have scratched and bruised them handling
+those evergreens. My dress is a sight, too," she added, pointing
+first to the green stains that decorated her white linen gown, then
+significantly to a three-cornered tear near the bottom of the skirt.
+"I don't care. It will be out of style by next summer, at any rate."
+
+"I'm not much better off," declared Miriam. "You can't be a working
+woman and keep up a bandbox appearance, you know."
+
+"I should say not," laughed Arline Thayer, who had come up in time
+to hear Miriam's last remark.
+
+"Does any one know the time?" asked Grace, standing back a little to
+view the effect of the bunting she had been winding about a post. "I
+can't see the gym. clock from here. It is so swathed in green boughs
+and decorations that its poor round face is almost hidden, and I'm
+really too tired to go close enough to find out."
+
+"It's five minutes past four o'clock," informed Gertrude, glancing
+at the tiny watch pinned to her waist.
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Arline Thayer, "I can't stay here another
+minute. I have a hundred things to do before to-night."
+
+"Where's Ruth?" asked Grace. "I haven't seen either of you lately
+except at an aggravating distance."
+
+Arline's baby face hardened. "I haven't seen Ruth for over two
+weeks," she said stiffly.
+
+"You haven't!" exclaimed Grace, who, stooping to tie her shoe, had
+not noticed Arline's changed expression. As she straightened up her
+surprised gray eyes met Arline's defiant blue ones. Like a flash she
+remembered. "Then you don't know who she has invited to the reception?"
+
+"No," responded Arline shortly. "I don't know anything about it."
+
+Grace was about to say something further when, overtaken by sudden
+thought, she turned her face away to hide the smile that hovered
+about her lips. Meanwhile, Gertrude Wells had engaged Arline in
+conversation, and Ruth's name was not mentioned again.
+
+"This is positively my last appearance this afternoon as a
+decorator," declared Emma Dean. "I'm going home to beautify myself
+for the great moment when I shall stand in line with my sophomore
+sisters to greet the infant freshmen."
+
+"I'm going home, too, but without bursting into language," drawled
+J. Elfreda Briggs. "I pounded my thumb with a hammer, scratched my
+nose on an obstinate hemlock bough, and lost a bran span new pair of
+scissors. I think it is high time to leave this place. I'm not on the
+reception committee, 'tis true, but I have weighty matters to
+consider and am on the verge of a perilous undertaking." She uttered
+the last words in an all too familiar undertone, shooting a
+mischievous glance at her friends which caused Grace, Anne and Miriam
+to laugh outright.
+
+"What are you girls laughing at?" demanded Gertrude Wells.
+
+"Elfreda is so funny," explained Grace enigmatically. Then, fearing
+to offend Gertrude, she said hastily, "What she said was extremely
+laughable to us, because she was imitating some one we know."
+
+The knot of girls separated soon after, going their separate ways.
+Anne, Grace, Miriam, Elfreda and Emma Dean turned their faces toward
+Wayne Hall.
+
+"I wonder if Ruth is going?" remarked Grace, who walked behind Anne.
+"I thought we'd see her this afternoon."
+
+"I noticed how sharply Arline answered you," said Anne significantly.
+
+"Poor Ruth, I haven't a minute to spare or I'd run down there. We
+must go to-morrow afternoon, Anne. We'll take Ruth to Vinton's for
+dinner and, oh, Anne! let's invite Arline and make them be friends!"
+
+"Splendid!" admired Anne. "I'll take charge of Ruth and you can look
+out for Arline."
+
+"If you don't hurry, you'll be ready for the reception some time
+to-morrow," called Elfreda derisively. The two quickened their steps.
+The three girls ahead looked back, then mischievously began
+running toward Wayne Hall.
+
+"We can catch them, Anne," exulted Grace.
+
+"You mean you can," laughed Anne. "Run ahead and surprise them."
+
+Grace was off like the wind. Although the three girls ran well they
+were no match for the lithe, slender young woman who ran like a
+hunted deer. She soon passed her friends and running on to the hall
+sat down on the steps with no apparent traces of exhaustion to wait
+for them.
+
+"Let me see, what track team did you say you belonged to?" quizzed
+Elfreda, with open admiration. "If I could run like that I'd be
+happy. Where did you learn to run?"
+
+"Back in Oakdale, where I was the prize tomboy of the school,"
+laughed Grace. "Have you seen to your flowers for your freshman? I
+ordered pink roses for Miss Evans. Anne chose violets for Miss
+Taylor, didn't you, Anne?"
+
+"I ordered violets for Miss Wilton, too," said Miriam.
+
+"I tried to get snap dragons," giggled Elfreda, "but it's rather
+late in the season for them. Instead, the Anarchist will flourish a
+nosegay of blood-red roses. I can't imagine her parading around the
+gym. bedecked with violets."
+
+"Elfreda, you are anything but a chivalrous escort," commented Anne.
+
+"I am at least sincere," returned Elfreda, with an affected simper.
+"I hope those flowers haven't loitered along the way. I must call on
+my fair lady and see if she has received hers. I'm beginning to feel
+excited. I'm going to eat my dinner post haste. I want to get dressed
+and practice my bow before the mirror ere I enter the sacred
+precincts of her majesty's boudoir. Then I shall sweep into her
+domicile, arrayed in all my glory. She will be so overcome at sight
+of me and my splendor that she will follow me down to the carriage
+like a lamb. I ask you, ladies, after seeing me in that new white
+silk gown of mine, what Anarchist could resist me?"
+
+"Of whom did Elfreda remind you just then, Grace?" asked Miriam.
+
+"Hippy," laughed Grace. "She looked exactly like him."
+
+"Never saw him," stated Elfreda laconically.
+
+"But you gave a fine imitation of him just the same!" exclaimed Grace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AN OFFENDED FRESHMAN
+
+
+At dinner that night excitement reigned. Every girl in the house was
+going to the reception. To dispose of one's dinner and hurry to one's
+room to begin the all important task of dressing was the order of
+procedure, and Mrs. Elwood's flock rose from the table almost in a
+body and made a concerted rush for the stairs.
+
+"She got them," Elfreda informed the others as they stopped for a
+moment in the hall. "I went to the door to ask her. She even thanked
+me for them."
+
+"Wonderful," smiled Miriam. "Come on now. Remember, time flies and
+that your new white frock is a dream."
+
+An hour later Elfreda stood before the mirror viewing herself with
+great satisfaction. "It certainly is some class," she declared.
+"There I go again. I haven't used slang for a week. But circumstances
+alter cases, you know. Just pretend you didn't hear it, will you? I
+think I'll wear my violets at my girdle. I don't look very stout in
+this rig, do I? You look like a princess, Miriam. You're a regular
+howling beauty in that corn-colored frock. Where are my gloves and
+my cloak? Oh, here they are, just where I put them. Now, I must go
+for her highness. Br--r--" Elfreda shivered, giggled, then gathering
+up her cloak and gloves switched out the door.
+
+Miriam smiled to herself as she went about gathering up her own
+effects, then fastening the cluster of yellow rosebuds to the waist
+of her gown she hurried out into the hall in time to encounter Grace
+and Anne.
+
+"We are fortunate in that our ladies live under the same roof with
+us," laughed Anne.
+
+"It certainly saves carriage hire," returned Grace. "Here comes
+Elfreda and Miss Atkins. What on earth is she wearing?"
+
+"I think I'll go for my freshman," said Miriam, her voice quivering
+suspiciously.
+
+By the time Elfreda and the Anarchist had reached the head of the
+stairs, the three girls had fled precipitately, unable to control
+their mirth. Elfreda's face was set in a solemn expression that
+defied laughter. As for the Anarchist herself, she might easily have
+posed as a statue of vengeance. Her eyebrows were drawn into a
+ferocious scowl. She walked down the stairs with the air of an Indian
+chief about to tomahawk a victim. Her white silk gown, which was well
+cut and in keeping with the occasion, contrasted oddly with her
+threatening demeanor, which was enhanced by a feather hair ornament
+that stood up belligerently at one side of her head.
+
+"If she wouldn't wear that feather thing she'd be all right,"
+muttered Grace in Anne's ear. "She looks like Hiawatha. She has made
+up her mind to be nice with Elfreda. She's wearing her flowers. I
+wonder if I'd better ask her to dance to-night. Shall you ask her,
+Anne?"
+
+"I think so," reflected Anne. "I can't lead very well, but perhaps
+she can."
+
+"I don't believe I'll ask her," said Grace slowly. "Humiliating
+one's self needlessly is just as bad as having too much pride."
+
+"Hurry," called Miriam, who was already on the stairs. "The
+carriages are here."
+
+It was a ridiculously short drive to the gymnasium, but, a fine rain
+having set in, carriages for one's freshmen guests were a matter of
+necessity. Elfreda and her charge occupied seats in the same carriage
+with Anne and Mildred Taylor, who, in a gown of pink chiffon over
+pink silk, looked, according to Elfreda, "too sweet to live."
+
+"How are you getting along with Miss Atkins?" asked Grace an hour
+later, running up and waylaying Elfreda, who was slowly making her
+way across the gymnasium toward the corner of the room where the big
+punch bowl of lemonade stood.
+
+"Don't ask me!" returned Elfreda savagely. "I managed to fill her
+dance card and supposed everything was lovely. She dances fairly
+well. If she'd only keep quiet, smile and dance calmly along. But,
+no, she must talk!" Elfreda's round face settled into lines of
+disgust. "She says such outrageously personal things to her partners.
+I know of three different girls she has offended so far. What will
+become of her before the evening is over?" she inquired gloomily.
+"She told me I was too stout to dance well, but I didn't mind that.
+Stout or not, she will be lucky to have even me to dance with at the
+rate she's going. Let's drown our mortification in lemonade."
+
+"Poor Elfreda," sympathized Grace. "I wish I could help you, but,
+honestly, I feel as though it would be hardly fair to myself to make
+further advances in that direction."
+
+"Don't do it," advised Elfreda, quickly, handing Grace a cup of
+fruit lemonade. "I'll manage to steer her through this dance. But
+next time some one else may do the inviting. The two classes make a
+good showing, don't they?"
+
+"Beautiful," commented Grace. "The gymnasium looks prettier than it
+did last year. That sounds conceited, doesn't it?"
+
+"It's true, though," averred Elfreda stoutly. "Doesn't Miriam look
+stunning tonight? I think she is the handsomest dark girl I ever saw,
+don't you?"
+
+"With one exception," smiled Grace.
+
+"Show me the exception, then," challenged Elfreda.
+
+"I will some fine day," promised Grace. "She's in Italy now."
+
+"You mean the girl you speak of as Eleanor?" asked Elfreda curiously.
+
+Grace nodded. "She is one of my dearest friends and belongs to our
+sorority at home. At one time she was my bitterest enemy," she
+continued reminiscently. "She was so self-willed and domineering that
+none of us could endure her. She entered the junior class in high
+school when Miriam, Anne and I did. For a year and a half she made
+life miserable for all of us, then something happened and she turned
+out gloriously. I'll tell you all about it some other time."
+
+"Was she worse than the Anarchist?" asked Elfreda sceptically.
+
+"There is no comparison," replied Grace promptly. "Still, the
+Anarchist may have possibilities of which we know nothing."
+
+"I wish she would give a demonstration of them to-night then,"
+muttered Elfreda. "I suppose I'll have to get busy and look her up.
+It is dangerous to leave her to her own devices. She may have
+offended half the company by this time." Elfreda strolled off in
+search of her troublesome charge. Grace crossed the gymnasium, her
+keen eyes darting from the floor, where groups of daintily gowned
+girls stood exchanging gay badinage, and resting after the last
+waltz, to the chairs and divans placed at intervals against the walls
+that were for the most part unoccupied.
+
+Everyone seemed to be dancing. Grace remembered with a start that
+she had seen nothing of Ruth Denton. She had waved to Arline across
+the room on entering the gymnasium, and had not caught a glimpse of
+her since. "I must find Ruth," she reflected, "and tell her about
+tomorrow. Perhaps Anne has told her. She promised she would." Espying
+Mildred Taylor, Grace remembered with sudden contrition that she had
+not asked the little freshman to dance. "I suppose she hasn't a
+single dance left," murmured Grace regretfully. "At any rate, I'll
+ask her now." Approaching Mildred she said in her frank,
+straightforward fashion, "I'm so sorry I overlooked you, Miss Taylor.
+I intended asking you to dance first of all."
+
+The "cute" little freshman turned her head away from Grace's
+apologetic gray eyes. "It doesn't matter," she answered in a queer,
+strained voice. "My card was full long ago."
+
+"I hope you are not hurt or offended at my seeming neglect,"
+insisted Grace anxiously.
+
+"Not in the least," was the almost curt rejoinder. "I do not think
+I shall stay much longer. I have a headache."
+
+"I'm so sorry," said Grace sympathetically. "Can I do anything for
+you?"
+
+Mildred Taylor did not answer. Her lip quivered and her eyes filled
+with tears. She brushed them angrily away, saying with a petulance
+entirely foreign to her, "Please don't trouble yourself about me."
+
+"Very well," replied Grace, in proud surprise. "Shall I tell Miss
+Pierson that you are ill?"
+
+"No," muttered Mildred.
+
+Grace walked away, puzzled and self-accusing. "I hurt her feelings
+by not asking her to dance," was the thought that sprang instantly
+to her mind. Then she suddenly recollected that she had not yet found
+Ruth. A little later she discovered her in earnest conversation with
+Gertrude Wells at the extreme end of the room.
+
+"Dance this with me, Ruth," called Grace, as she neared her friend.
+Ruth glanced at her card. "I have this one free," she said. A moment
+later they were gliding over the smooth floor to the inspiriting
+strains of a popular two step. Long before the end of the dance they
+stopped to rest and talk. "I suppose we ought to devote ourselves
+strictly to the freshmen," said Grace. "They all appear to be
+dancing, though. Where have you been keeping yourself, Ruth?"
+
+"I've been busy," replied Ruth evasively.
+
+"Will you be too busy to have dinner with us at Vinton's to-morrow
+night?" persisted Grace.
+
+"No-o-o," said Ruth slowly. "At what time?"
+
+"Half-past six," returned Grace. "We'll meet you there. I must leave
+you now to look after Miss Evans. I brought her here to-night."
+
+It was late when the notes of the last waltz sounded, and still
+later when the gay participants left the gymnasium in twos, threes
+and little crowds trooping down the broad stone steps to where they
+were to take their carriages. The rain was now falling heavily, and
+to walk even across the campus was out of the question. Every public
+automobile and carriage in Overton had been pressed into service, and
+many who had braved the fine rain early in the evening and walked
+were obliged to negotiate with the drivers for a return of their
+vehicles. The carriages to Wayne Hall carried six girls instead of
+four, and the merry conversation that was kept up during the short
+drive showed plainly that the evening had been a success. Even the
+Anarchist indulged in an occasional stiff remark with a view toward
+being gracious. When Elfreda humorously bowed her to her door and
+wished her an elaborate good night, an actual gleam of fun appeared
+in her stormy eyes, and forgetting her dignity she replied almost
+cordially that she had enjoyed her evening.
+
+"I am surprised to think she did after the way she made remarks
+about people," commented Elfreda to Miriam, who was busily engaged
+in unhooking the stout girl's gown and listening in amusement to
+Elfreda's recital. "She has as much tact as a guinea hen. You know
+how tactful they are?"
+
+In the meantime Anne and Grace were discussing the night's festivity
+in their own room. Grace had slipped into a kimono and stood brushing
+her long hair before the mirror. Suddenly she paused, her brush
+suspended in the air. "Anne," she said so abruptly that Anne looked
+at her in surprise, "did you notice anything peculiar about Miss
+Taylor? You were her escort, you know."
+
+"No," responded Anne, knitting her brows in an effort to remember.
+"I can't say that I noticed anything."
+
+"Then I am right," decided Grace. "She is angry with me because in
+some way I missed asking her to dance."
+
+"She said nothing to me," was Anne's quick reply.
+
+"She is offended, I know she is," said Grace. "I'm sorry, of course.
+I didn't pass her by intentionally. I didn't know she was so
+sensitive. I think I'll ask her to go to Vinton's for luncheon on
+Saturday."
+
+But when Grace delivered her invitation at the breakfast table the
+next morning it was curtly refused. Mildred Taylor's attitude, if
+anything, was a shade more hostile than it had been the night before.
+From her manner, it was evident that the little freshman, whom Grace
+had hastened to befriend on that first doleful morning when she found
+her roomless and in tears on the big oak seat in the hall, had quite
+forgotten all she owed to the girl she now appeared to be trying to
+avoid.
+
+Finding her efforts at friendliness repulsed, Grace proudly resolved
+to make no more overtures toward the sulking freshman. She had done
+everything in her power to make amends for what had been an
+unintentional oversight on her part, and her self respect demanded
+that she should allow the matter to drop. She decided that if, later
+on, Mildred showed a disposition to be friendly, she would meet her
+half way, but, until that time came, she would take no notice of her
+or seek further to ascertain the cause of her grievance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE FINGER OF SUSPICION
+
+
+That very morning as Grace was about to leave Miss Duncan's class
+room she heard her name called in severe tones. Turning quickly, she
+met the teacher's blue eyes fixed suspiciously upon her.
+
+"Did you wish to speak to me, Miss Duncan?" Grace asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Miss Duncan shortly. She continued to look steadily
+at Grace without speaking.
+
+Grace waited courteously for the teacher's next words. She wondered
+a little why Miss Duncan had detained her.
+
+"Miss Harlowe," began the teacher impressively, "I have always
+entertained a high opinion of you as an honor girl. Your record
+during your freshman year seemed to indicate plainly that you had a
+very clear conception of what constitutes an Overton girl's standard
+of honor. Within the past week, however, something has happened that
+forces me to admit that I am deeply disappointed in you." Miss Duncan
+paused.
+
+Grace's expressive face paled a trifle. A look of wonder mingled
+with hurt pride leaped into her gray eyes. "I don't understand you,
+Miss Duncan," she said quietly. "What have I done to disappoint you?"
+
+Miss Duncan picked up a number of closely written sheets of folded
+paper and handed them to Grace, who unfolded them, staring almost
+stupidly at the sheet that lay on top. A wave of crimson flooded her
+recently pale cheeks. "Why--what--where did you get this?" she
+stammered. "It is my theme."
+
+"You mean it is the original from which you copied yours," put in
+Miss Duncan dryly. "Is that your handwriting?"
+
+"No," replied Grace, in a puzzled tone.
+
+"Is this your writing?" questioned Miss Duncan, suddenly producing
+another theme from the drawer of her desk.
+
+"Yes," was Grace's prompt answer. "I handed it in to you instead of
+putting it in the collection box. You remember I told you I had lost
+the first one I wrote and asked for more time."
+
+"I remember perfectly," was the significant answer. "Is this theme,"
+pointing to the one Grace still held, "the one you say you lost?"
+
+"The one I say I lost," repeated Grace, a glint of resentment
+darkening her eyes. "What do you mean, Miss Duncan?"
+
+Her bold question caused the instructor's lips to tighten. "You have
+not answered my question, Miss Harlowe," she said icily.
+
+"No, this is not my theme," answered Grace; "that is, it is not in
+my handwriting. I do not recognize the writing." Grace ceased
+speaking and stared at the theme in sudden consternation. "Some one
+found my theme and copied it." Her voice sank almost to a whisper.
+A flush of shame for the unknown culprit dyed her cheeks anew.
+
+"It would be better, perhaps," interrupted the teacher sarcastically,
+"if you admitted the truth of the affair at once, Miss Harlowe."
+
+"There is nothing to admit," responded Grace steadily, "except that
+I lost my theme on the evening I wrote it. When I found it was gone
+I came to you at once and asked for another day's time. That same night
+I rewrote it as well as I could from memory and handed it to you the
+following day."
+
+An ominous silence ensued. Then Miss Duncan said stiffly: "Miss
+Harlowe, the young woman who wrote the theme you have in your hand
+dropped it into the collection box of another section during the very
+evening you would have me believe you were writing it. It was brought
+to me early the next morning."
+
+"How do you know that it was dropped into the box the evening
+before?" flung back Grace, forgetting for an instant to whom she was
+speaking.
+
+"Your question is hardly respectful, Miss Harlowe," returned Miss
+Duncan, coldly reproving. "I will answer it, however, by saying that
+I sent for the young woman and questioned her regarding the time she
+placed her theme in the box, without letting her know my motive in
+doing so. Her frank answer completely assured me that she was
+speaking the truth. At the same time she explained that she had been
+late with her theme on account of mislaying it. She had written it
+two days before and placed it in her desk. Then it had mysteriously
+vanished and suddenly reappeared in the same pigeonhole in her desk
+in which she had placed it. She assured me that directly she found
+it she took it to the box. Your theme is so suspiciously similar to
+hers that it is hardly possible to believe it to be merely a coincidence.
+In the face of the circumstances it looks as though you were the real
+offender."
+
+Grace regarded Miss Duncan with mute reproach. She could not at once
+trust herself to speak.
+
+"Have you anything to say to me, Miss Harlowe?" was the stern
+question.
+
+"Only, that what I have previously said to you is the truth,"
+answered Grace, fighting down her desire to cry. Then, seized with
+a sudden idea, she said in a tone of subdued excitement, "Will you
+allow me to look at that theme again, Miss Duncan?"
+
+Miss Duncan picked up the theme from the desk where Grace had laid
+it and handed it to her. A strip of paper had been pasted over the
+name in the upper left hand corner. Grace scanned each closely
+written page attentively. "This is my theme," she declared finally,
+"and I have thought of a way to prove that I wrote it. I did not
+steal it from another girl. I would not be so contemptible."
+
+"I shall be very glad to have conclusive proof that you did not,"
+commented Miss Duncan rather sarcastically. "Appearances are not in
+your favor, Miss Harlowe."
+
+"I am sorry that you doubt my word, Miss Duncan," said Grace with
+gentle dignity, "because I am going to prove to you how utterly wrong
+you have been in suspecting me of such contemptible conduct. I wrote
+this theme in the room of a member of the senior class. She read it
+after I had written it. I feel sure that she can identify this as
+mine because when I rewrote it I could not remember a word of the
+original ending which she had particularly commended. I did the best
+I could with it, but it wasn't in the least like the other," Grace
+ended earnestly.
+
+"Will you tell me the name of the young woman in whose room you
+wrote your theme?" asked Miss Duncan, her stern face relaxing a little.
+
+"It was Miss Ashe," returned Grace frankly.
+
+Miss Duncan raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I should say you had
+strong evidence in your favor, Miss Harlowe."
+
+"Will you ask Miss Ashe to come to your room after your last class
+to-day, Miss Duncan?" she asked eagerly. "I should like to show her
+the theme without explaining anything to her at first. I give you my
+word of honor I will say nothing about it to her in the meantime."
+Then, realizing that her word of honor was at present being seriously
+questioned, Grace blushed painfully.
+
+Miss Duncan, understanding the blush, said less severely, "Very
+well, Miss Harlowe." She scrutinized Grace's fine, sensitive face for
+a moment, then added, "You may come at the same time if you wish."
+
+Grace brightened, then shook her head positively. "Please let me
+come to see you tomorrow morning instead." She wished to give Miss
+Duncan perfect freedom to ask Mabel any questions she might find
+necessary to ask.
+
+"To-morrow morning, then," acquiesced Miss Duncan graciously.
+
+Grace turned to leave the room. At the door she hesitated, then
+walking back to the desk she said almost imploringly: "Please don't
+punish the other girl now, Miss Duncan. I do not know who she is, but
+I am sure she must have found my theme and copied it on the spur of
+the moment. I can't believe that she did it deliberately. If she did,
+then being found out by you will be lesson enough for her."
+
+"I have not as yet exonerated you from this charge, Miss Harlowe,"
+declared Miss Duncan stiffly, her brief graciousness vanishing like
+magic. "If the other girl is to blame, then she must suffer for her
+fault. Until I have seen Miss Ashe I shall say nothing. After that
+I can not promise."
+
+Grace bowed and left the class room, her feeling toward the unknown
+plagiarist entirely one of pity. She had vindicated herself at the
+expense of exposing some one else without intent to do more than
+assert her own innocence, and she now wondered sadly if there were
+not some way in which she might persuade Miss Duncan to change her
+mind.
+
+On her way from Miss Duncan's class room that morning Grace found
+herself walking directly behind Emma Dean. She was sauntering across
+the campus, her near-sighted eyes fixed on a small, hurrying figure
+just ahead of her.
+
+"Hello, Grace," was Emma's affable salutation as she turned at the
+touch of Grace's hand on her shoulder. "I was watching Miss Taylor.
+What a disappointment that girl is. The first week or two after her
+arrival at Wayne Hall I thought her delightful, but she has turned
+out to be anything but agreeable. She barely nodded to me this
+morning. I believe she is developing snobbish tendencies, which is
+a great mistake. Deliver me from snobs! We have very few of them at
+Overton, thank goodness."
+
+But Grace could not help thinking that somewhere in the college
+community lived a girl who possessed a fault far greater than that
+of being a snob.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE SUMMONS
+
+
+The prospective dinner at Vinton's at which Ruth Denton and Arline
+Thayer were to be guests of honor drove the unpleasant incident of
+the morning from Grace's mind for the time being. She had determined
+to keep her interview with Miss Duncan a secret from her friends. If
+it had involved only herself, she might possibly have told Anne of
+it, but since it concerned some one else, Grace's fine sense of honor
+forbade her making even Anne her confidant in the matter. She could
+not help speculating a little concerning the identity of the other
+girl. She had not the remotest idea as to who she might be. Whoever
+she was, she could not have realized what a dishonorable thing she
+had done, was Grace's charitable reflection. She wondered what Mabel
+would think when Miss Duncan asked her to identify the theme as the
+one Grace had written during that evening in Holland House.
+
+"I'm going to stop thinking of it for the rest of the day," declared
+Grace half aloud, as she dressed for dinner late that afternoon. She
+started guiltily, glancing quickly to where Anne sat mending a tiny
+tear in her white silk blouse. Anne, who was fully occupied with her
+mending, made no comment. She was so used to Grace's habit of
+thinking aloud that she had no idle curiosity regarding her friend's
+thoughts. Whatever Grace wished her to know she would hear in due
+season.
+
+"Miriam and Elfreda are not going with us, you know," said Grace as
+they were about to leave their room.
+
+"I didn't know it," commented Anne. "Why did they change their minds?"
+
+"Miriam thinks you and I can do more toward restoring peace without
+her and Elfreda. She suspects that Ruth will satisfy Arline's
+curiosity and at the same time appease her wrath by telling what she
+refused to tell that other night, provided there are not too many
+listeners."
+
+"What a wise girl Miriam is!" exclaimed Anne admiringly. "I never
+thought of that."
+
+"Nor I," admitted Grace, "until she mentioned it. Then I saw the
+wisdom of it."
+
+"Where are we to meet Ruth and Arline?" asked Anne. "Suppose both of
+them arrive at Vinton's before we do?"
+
+"I thought of that, too," chuckled Grace, "so Arline is to come
+here, and Ruth is to wait for us at Vinton's. They can't possibly
+meet until we are there to manage matters. Arline ought to be here
+by this time. Shall we go downstairs and wait for her?"
+
+"There's the door bell now," said Anne. "That must be Arline."
+
+Her supposition proved correct. Just as they reached the foot of the
+stairs the maid admitted the fluffy-haired little girl.
+
+"Hello!" she called merrily. "I'm strictly on time, you see."
+
+"So are we," smiled Anne. "Shall we start at once?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," emphasized Arline. "I'm starved. I wasn't prepared in
+Greek to-day, and rushed through my luncheon in order to snatch a few
+minutes' study before class. I had my trouble for my pains, too. The
+bell rang before it was my turn to recite. Wasn't that fortunate?"
+
+"I should say so," agreed Grace. "If it had been I, Professor Martin
+would have called on me first. You were born lucky, Daffydowndilly."
+
+"I don't think so," replied Arline gloomily. "I have all kinds of
+miserable, unpleasant things to bother me."
+
+Anne and Grace exchanged significant glances behind the little
+girl's back. There was a chance for the success of their scheme.
+Arline was evidently unhappy over her cavalier treatment of Ruth.
+
+During the short walk to Vinton's all mention of Ruth's name was
+tacitly avoided. Arline chattered volubly about the reception. She
+had not enjoyed herself particularly. She had taken a freshman by the
+name of Violet Darby, who lived on the top floor of Morton House. She
+was considered the freshman beauty.
+
+"Oh, I remember her!" exclaimed Grace. "Gertrude Wells introduced me
+to her. I asked for a dance, but her card was full to overflowing.
+She is beautiful. She has such wonderful golden hair, and her brown
+eyes are in such striking contrast to her hair and fair complexion.
+She is awfully popular, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, the Morton House girls are all rushing her. I was surprised to
+think she accepted my invitation," returned Arline.
+
+"I don't think that was so very surprising," declared Grace bluntly.
+"Arline Thayer is also a Morton House favorite."
+
+"Violet is the reigning favorite just at present," rejoined Arline.
+"It's her fatal beauty. She is a very nice girl, though. Not a bit
+snobbish or conceited. Everyone in the house likes her. You must
+become better acquainted with her."
+
+"Here we are at Vinton's," announced Grace. "I ordered one of the
+alcove tables reserved for us."
+
+As they made their way to the alcove a girl rose from her seat in
+the shadow to greet them. It was Ruth, and as Arline caught sight of
+her her baby face grew dark. "How dared you?" she asked accusingly,
+turning toward Grace. "You know we are not friends. I don't wish to
+see her. I'm going straight home. I suppose she planned all this. She
+has tried to make up with me, but I shall never again be friends with
+her."
+
+"Please listen to me, Arline," began Grace, taking the angry little
+girl by the arm and pulling her gently toward the alcove. Ruth had
+risen from the table, a look of mingled pain and bewilderment on her
+face.
+
+"I didn't know Arline was to be here," she said tremulously. "Please
+tell her I didn't know it." She turned appealing eyes toward Grace.
+
+"Suppose we sit down at our table and talk over this matter,"
+suggested Grace, in her most casual manner. Her calm gray eyes rested
+first on Ruth, then traveled to Arline, who hesitated briefly, then
+with an angry shrug of her shoulders seated herself in the nearest
+chair. Grace motioned Anne and Ruth to their chairs, then seating
+herself she said gently: "Now, children, suppose we clear up some of
+these doubts and misunderstanding by holding court? I am going to be
+the prosecuting attorney. Anne can be the counsel for the defense.
+Arline can borrow her first, then Ruth can have her. When all the
+evidence is in I shall appoint myself as judge and jury. It means a
+great deal of work for me, but the law must take its course. I,
+therefore, summon you both into court."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+GRACE HOLDS COURT
+
+
+In spite of her displeasure, Arline giggled faintly at Grace's
+impromptu session of court. Ruth's sad little face brightened, while
+Anne listened to her friend with open admiration. She could have
+conceived of no surer way to settle the difference that had made them
+so unhappy.
+
+"You must remember," Grace said solemnly, "that there can be no
+dinner until the court has disposed of its first case. This is a
+murder trial, therefore the chief object of the court is to find the
+murderer of one friendship, done to death in cruel fashion. I wish
+I had Emma Dean's glasses to make me look more imposing. I wonder what
+kind of voice a prosecuting attorney would have. Dearly beloved,"
+went on Grace impressively, "they don't say that in court, I know,
+but then I'm going to be different from most prosecuting attorneys."
+
+"There isn't the least doubt of that," interposed Anne slyly.
+
+"Silence," commanded Grace severely. "I shall have you arrested for
+contempt of court. Then there won't be any counsel for the defense.
+The first witness, that's you, Arline, will please take the stand.
+You needn't really move, you know. We will take a few things for
+granted. Sit up straight and be as dignified as possible. Fold your
+hands on the table. That's right. Now, state where and when you first
+met the defendant. Ruth can be the defendant until I question her.
+Then you'll have to play the part."
+
+"Over a year ago, at Morton House," stated Arline obediently.
+
+"What was your opinion of the defendant?"
+
+"I liked her better than any other girl I had ever met," confessed
+Arline.
+
+"Defendant number two, what did you think of Arline Thayer?" quizzed
+Grace, eyeing Ruth expectantly.
+
+"I liked her as much as she liked me," replied Ruth promptly.
+
+"When did your first disagreement occur?" probed Grace, turning from
+Ruth to Arline.
+
+"Here, at this very table," returned Arline in a low tone.
+
+"Whose fault was it?" inquired Grace wickedly.
+
+"Mine!" exclaimed Ruth and Arline simultaneously.
+
+"Thank you," returned Grace soberly. "Such spontaneity on the part
+of the defendants is very refreshing. It also simplifies the case and
+saves the court considerable trouble. There is hope that the court
+will be dismissed in time for dinner. As prosecuting attorney I will
+now deliver my charge. I shall have to deliver it sitting down or
+attract too much attention to the case. Gentlemen of the jury, you
+have heard the evidence. You think, no doubt, that murder has been
+done. This is not so. The friendship between Defendant Number One,"
+Grace bowed to Arline, "and Defendant Number Two," she made a second
+bow to Ruth, "received a blow on the head which rendered it
+unconscious for some time. It had no intention of dying, but both
+prisoners treated it with extreme cruelty, not allowing it to hold
+up its poor crippled head. I ask you, Gentlemen of the jury, to consider
+well what shall be the penalty for assaulting and battering
+friendship with intent to kill. Gentlemen of the jury, are you ready
+for the question?"
+
+"We are," Grace answered for the jury in a deep voice that elicited
+little shrieks of laughter from her companions.
+
+"What shall be the fate of these malefactors?" demanded Grace in her
+prosecuting attorney voice, after the jury had rendered a verdict of
+guilty. "Be deliberate in your decision, but don't be all night about
+it."
+
+"They shall be made to shake hands across the table or suffer the
+full penalty of the law," stated the judge.
+
+"What is the full penalty of the law?"
+
+"No dinner," was the prompt answer.
+
+"Counsel for the defense, have you anything to say? I should have
+asked you before sentence was pronounced, but it doesn't matter. The
+prosecuting attorney always tries to fix things to suit himself, no
+matter what any one else thinks."
+
+"The counsel for the defense is a mere blot on the landscape in this
+trial," jeered Anne.
+
+"How did you guess it?" beamed the prosecuting attorney. "Prisoners,
+the sentence will be executed at once. Shake hands."
+
+Ruth's hand was stretched across the table to meet Arline's.
+
+"I'm awfully sorry, Ruth," said Arline, her voice trembling
+slightly. "I should never have asked you to tell what you wished to
+keep secret."
+
+"And I shouldn't have been so silly as to refuse to tell," declared
+Ruth bravely. "I'm going to tell you now, and you mustn't stop me.
+I was brought up in an orphan asylum. That's why I didn't care to tell
+you about myself that evening."
+
+"You poor, precious dear!" exclaimed Arline. "How can I ever forgive
+myself for being so horrid? Won't you forgive me, Ruth? I never
+supposed it was anything like that. I was angry because you called
+me your best friend, but wouldn't trust me. I'm so sorry. I'll never
+speak of it again to you." Arline looked appealingly at Ruth, her
+blue eyes misty.
+
+"But I want you to think of it. I had made up my mind to tell you.
+Then you passed me on the campus without speaking, and somehow I
+didn't dare come near you after that."
+
+"I've been perfectly horrid, I know," admitted Arline contritely.
+"I've been so used to having my own way that I try to bend everyone
+I know to it."
+
+"I don't mind telling you girls about myself now. At first I was
+ashamed of my poverty," confessed Ruth. "After I went to Arline's
+beautiful home I hated to say anything about it to any one. Then
+Arline grew angry with me. I realized afterward that I had been
+foolish not to tell her my story. There isn't much to tell. I was
+picked up in a railroad wreck on a westbound train when I was four
+years old. I can just remember getting into the train with my mother.
+She was burned to death in the wreck, but by some miracle I was
+saved. I knew my name, Ruth Irving Denton, my age, and around my neck
+mother had tied a little packet containing some money, a letter and
+a gold watch. A woman who lived near where the wreck occurred took
+charge of me, and as no one came for me, in time I was sent to a
+home. I lived there until I was fourteen. The matron was good to us,
+and considering we were all homeless waifs we fared very well."
+
+"And the letter?" asked Grace.
+
+"It was from my father to my mother, giving all the directions for
+our journey west. With it had been enclosed a money order for four
+hundred dollars, which my mother had evidently cashed. I still have
+the letter.
+
+"Then a man and his wife took me. They were good to me and sent me
+to school. I studied hard and finished high school when I was
+seventeen. Then I won a scholarship of one hundred dollars a year.
+I was determined to go to college, but the people with whom I lived
+thought differently. So I left them a year ago last fall and came to
+Overton, resolving to make my own way. They were so angry with me for
+leaving them they would have nothing further to do with me. So you
+see I had not a friend in the world until I met you girls."
+
+"But you have me now," comforted Arline, patting Ruth's hand. "I'll
+never be so silly again. Poor little girl!"
+
+"And you have Anne and me," added Grace. "Don't forget Miriam and
+Elfreda, either."
+
+"I am rich in friends now," said Ruth softly.
+
+"Perhaps your father isn't really dead, Ruth!" exclaimed Grace.
+
+"He must be," said Ruth sadly. "I have only one thing that belonged
+to him, a heavy gold watch with his full name, 'Arthur Northrup
+Denton,' engraved on the inside of the back case. It is a valuable
+watch, but I have always declared I would starve rather than part
+with it."
+
+"Perhaps it may help you to find him some day," suggested Grace
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Don't you know the name of the town in Nevada where he first
+lived?" asked Anne.
+
+"He went to Humboldt, and from there into the mountains," replied
+Ruth. "Since that time all trace of him has been lost. I never knew
+my own story until on the day I became fourteen years of age. Then
+the matron told me. It was at the time that I was getting ready to
+go to live with the man and his wife of whom I have spoken. After that
+it seemed as though the whole world changed for me. I didn't mind
+being poor, nor having to work, for I had the glorious thought that
+perhaps my father was still alive and that some time I should see him
+again. I wrote several letters to him, sending them to Humboldt, but
+they always came back to me.
+
+"After a while I gave up all hope and stopped writing. I couldn't
+bear to think of having more letters come back unclaimed. I tried to
+forget that I had even dreamed of seeing my father again, and began
+to put my whole mind on going to college. Now I am so thankful that
+I persevered and won the scholarship. There were times when I was very
+unhappy over leaving the only home I had ever known, outside the
+orphanage. Still I could not rid myself of the conviction that I had
+taken a step in the right direction. Later, when I met you girls, I
+was sure of it. Even though I didn't find my father, I found true and
+loyal friends who have crowded more pleasure and happiness into one
+short year than I ever had in all my life before."
+
+"I'll lend you half of my father, Ruth," offered Arline generously.
+"He is almost as fond of you as he is of me. You remember he said so."
+
+"Weren't you green with jealousy when he admitted it?" teased Anne.
+
+"Not a bit of it," protested Arline stoutly. "I only wish Ruth were
+my sister."
+
+"I'd like to be the one to find Ruth's father," mused Grace.
+
+Anne smiled. "Even college can't uproot Grace's sleuthing
+tendencies. She has an absolute genius for ferreting out mysteries."
+
+"No, I haven't," contradicted Grace. "If I had--" she stopped. She
+had been on the point of remarking that she would have known who had
+stolen and used her theme.
+
+"If you had what?" asked Arline curiously.
+
+"If I had the genius of which Arline prattles, I'd be at the head of
+the New York Detective Bureau," finished Grace. And Anne alone knew
+that Grace had purposely substituted this flippant answer to conceal
+her real thought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+GRACE MAKES A RESOLUTION
+
+
+"What do you think has happened?" demanded J. Elfreda Briggs,
+bursting into the room where Anne and Grace were busily making up for
+lost time. They had lingered at Vinton's until after eight o'clock.
+Then the thought of to-morrow with its eternal round of classes had
+driven them home, reluctantly enough, to where their books awaited
+them. It was almost nine o'clock before they had actually settled
+themselves, and Elfreda's sudden, tempestuous entrance caused Anne
+to lay down her Horace with an air of patient resignation. "We might
+as well begin saying 'unprepared' now, and grow accustomed to the sound
+of our own voices," she announced.
+
+"I think so, too," agreed Grace. "Well, Elfreda, why this thusness?
+What has happened? Have you been elected to the Pi Beta Gamma, or did
+you get an unusually large check from home?"
+
+"Catch the P. B. Gammas troubling themselves about me," scoffed
+Elfreda. "As for a check, I've written for it, but so far I've seen
+no signs of it. When I do lay hands on it we'll celebrate the event
+with feasting and merrymaking."
+
+"Then I can't guess," sighed Grace. "You'd better tell us."
+
+"Well," began Elfreda, her eyes twinkling, "I have a dinner
+invitation for to-morrow night at Martell's."
+
+"That is nothing startling," scoffed Anne. "We've just come from
+Vinton's."
+
+"But the rest of my news is remarkable," persisted the stout girl.
+"I am invited to dine"--Elfreda paused, then finished impressively
+--"with the Anarchist."
+
+"You don't mean it!" Grace looked her surprise.
+
+"Of course I mean it," retorted Elfreda. "I wouldn't say so if I
+didn't. She delivered her invitation on the way over to chapel this
+morning. I'd give you an imitation of the way she did it if I hadn't
+accepted."
+
+Grace shot a quick, approving glance toward Elfreda which the latter
+saw and interpreted correctly. "I wouldn't have thought about that
+last year, would I, Grace?" she asked shyly.
+
+Grace laughed rather confusedly. "How did you guess so much? The way
+you stumble upon things is positively uncanny."
+
+"Observation, my dear, observation," returned Elfreda patronizingly.
+"One can learn almost everything about everybody if one keeps one's
+eyes open."
+
+"You seem to carry out your own theory," admitted Grace smilingly.
+"Have you finished your work for to-night?"
+
+"Years ago," declared Elfreda extravagantly. "Miriam hasn't, at
+least she was still studying when I left the room. I'll tell you what
+I'll do. I'll make some fudge. Mrs. Elwood will let me have some milk
+and we have the rest of the stuff in our room. I'll send Miriam in
+here. Then I can have the whole room to myself. When it's done, I'll
+call you."
+
+With a joyful skip that fairly jarred the furniture in the room
+Elfreda bounded through the doorway and vanished. Two minutes later
+Miriam appeared, an amused look on her dark face, several books
+tucked under one arm. "Driven from home," she declaimed, posing on
+the threshold, her free hand appealingly extended. "Will no one help
+me?"
+
+"I will." Grace reached forth her hand, dragging Miriam into the
+room. "Hurry through your lessons and we'll have a spread. I'm sorry
+you weren't with us to-night, but Anne and I weren't sure as to just
+how successfully our plan would work. Everything went smoothly,
+though." Grace related briefly what had taken place at the dinner.
+
+"I am glad Ruth and Arline settled their differences," commented
+Miriam. "We all knew that Arline was at fault. She is such a dear
+little thing, one hesitates to say so."
+
+"She was very sweet to-night," interposed Anne. "She asked Ruth's
+forgiveness and took the blame for their little coolness on her own
+shoulders."
+
+"I don't wish to cause dissension in this happy band, but we really
+must stop talking and study," warned Grace. "I haven't made a
+satisfactory recitation this week, and I vote for reform."
+
+"All right, my dear Miss Harlowe," flung back Miriam. "'Work, for
+the Night is Coming.'"
+
+"You mean going," giggled Anne.
+
+After this interchange of flippant remarks silence reigned, broken
+only by the sound of turning leaves or an occasional sigh over the
+appalling length of a lesson. The three girls were fully absorbed in
+their work when Elfreda poked her head in the room to announce that
+the fudge was made. "I've a bottle of cunning little pickles, and a
+box of cheese wafers. I made some tea, too. Hurry, or it will be half-past
+ten before we have time to eat a single thing."
+
+"I can't possibly finish studying my Latin tonight," sighed Miriam.
+"Every day the lessons seem to get longer. Miss Arthur hasn't a spark
+of compassion."
+
+"Don't stop to grumble," commanded Elfreda. "Come along."
+
+The half-past ten o'clock bell rang before the fudge was half gone.
+In fact, it was after eleven before the quartette prepared for sleep.
+During the evening all thought of the troublesome theme had left
+Grace's mind. It was not until after she had turned out the light and
+gone to bed that it came back to her with such disagreeable force
+that for the time being all idea of sleep fled. For the first time
+since her entrance into Overton College she had incurred the
+displeasure of one in authority over her, and through no fault of her
+own.
+
+As Grace lay staring into the darkness the recollection of that
+bitter time during her junior year at high school, when Miss Thompson
+had accused her of shielding the girl who had destroyed the
+principal's personal papers, came back, vivid and complete. Eleanor
+Savelli, now numbered among her dearest friends and a member of the
+Phi Sigma Tau, had been the transgressor, and Grace had refused to
+voice her suspicions. It had all come right in the end, although Miss
+Thompson's displeasure had been hard to bear.
+
+Perhaps this affair would end happily, too. Suppose the other girl
+had chosen the same subject? Grace gave vent to a soft exclamation
+of impatience at her own supposition. She wished she dared believe
+that it were so, but common sense told her that she could not hope
+to deceive herself by any such delusion.
+
+"Who could the girl be?" Grace asked herself over and over. Surely,
+no one of her intimate friends. Nor any girl at Wayne Hall, either.
+Whoever was guilty would be severely punished, perhaps sent home.
+Overton prided itself on its honor. Its children must be above
+reproach at all times. Mabel's evidence would clear her. But what of
+the other girl?
+
+"Whoever she is," speculated Grace, "by this time she is probably
+sorry for what she did. I suppose she is frightened, too. I'm going
+to make Miss Duncan let her off this once, and if I can find out who
+she is, I'm going to stand by her so faithfully that she'll never
+again care to do a dishonest thing as long as she lives."
+
+It was a long time before Grace fell asleep that night. Her
+perturbed state of mind over the stolen theme had served to make her
+wakeful, and her thoughts flitted from one subject to another, as she
+lay waiting for the sleep that refused to come, always returning,
+however, to that of the unlucky theme.
+
+When, at last, it came, it brought disturbing dreams, in which she
+figured as the transgressor. The theme did not belong to her, but to
+J. Elfreda Briggs. She had stolen it from the pocket of Elfreda's
+brown serge coat, and Miss Duncan had seen her take it. During the
+morning exercises in the chapel, Miss Duncan had mounted the steps
+of the platform, and, standing beside Dr. Morton, had shouted forth
+her guilt to the whole college, while she had endeavored to creep out
+of the chapel unnoticed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE QUALITY OF MERCY
+
+
+The next morning Grace felt singularly dispirited as she went down
+to breakfast. It had been raining, and the dreary outlook caused the
+gloomy lines, "The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the
+year," to run through her head with maddening persistency.
+
+"What's the matter, Grace?" inquired Emma Dean. "That chief-mourner
+expression of yours is doubly depressing on a day like this. Did you
+eat too much fudge last night, or have you been conditioned in math?"
+
+"You are a wild guesser, Emma," returned Grace, smiling faintly. "My
+troubles are of an entirely different nature. But how did you know
+we made fudge last night, and why didn't you come in and have some?"
+
+"I never go where I am not invited," was the significant retort.
+
+"Nonsense!" declared Grace. "You are always welcome, and you know
+it. The spread was in Miriam's room, but you know who your friends
+are, don't you?"
+
+"Don't worry, I'm not offended," Emma assured Grace good-humoredly.
+"I came in just before the ten-thirty bell last night and heard
+sounds of revelry as I passed by."
+
+"There's plenty of fudge on our table," put in Miriam Nesbit. "Help
+yourself to it whenever the spirit moves you."
+
+"Where is Mildred Taylor this morning?" asked Irene Evans, glancing
+toward Mildred's vacant place.
+
+"Miss Taylor is ill this morning," answered a prim voice from the
+end of the table.
+
+With one accord all eyes were turned in the direction of the voice.
+The Anarchist had actually spoken at the table! It was unbelievable.
+What followed was even more surprising. The Anarchist swept the table
+with a defiant look, then said, with startling distinctness, "If she
+has not fully recovered by tonight I shall send for a physician. In
+the meantime I shall remain with her to care for her."
+
+"That is very kind in you, I am sure," ventured Emma Dean. Surprise
+had tied the tongues of the others.
+
+"Not in the least," contradicted the Anarchist coldly. "As her
+roommate, common humanity demands that I assume a certain amount of
+responsibility for her welfare."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course," agreed Emma hastily. "Please let us know when
+we may run in to see her. Excuse me, everybody. I must run upstairs
+and study a little before going to chapel."
+
+Several freshmen followed her lead and filed decorously out the door
+with preternaturally solemn faces that broke into smiles the moment
+the door closed behind them.
+
+The Anarchist, however, went on eating her breakfast, quite unaware
+that she had created the slightest ripple of amusement. When Elfreda
+rose to leave the dining room the strange young woman rose, too, and
+walked sedately out of the room in the stout girl's wake.
+
+"Elfreda has evidently made a conquest," remarked Miriam to Grace.
+"See how tamely the haughty Anarchist follows at her heels."
+
+"It's astonishing, but splendid, I think," said Grace decidedly.
+"Isn't it strange how much influence for good one girl can have over
+another? For some reason or other Elfreda knows just how to bring the
+best in Miss Atkins to the surface. Shall we run up and see Miss
+Taylor for a moment?"
+
+"You go this morning, Grace," urged Miriam. "I'll stop and see her
+at noon. I haven't the time just now."
+
+"I'll go with you," volunteered Anne.
+
+Grace knocked gently on the slightly opened door, then, receiving no
+answer, opened it softly. She paused irresolutely on the threshold,
+Anne peering over her shoulder. Laura Atkins had left the room, but
+Mildred Taylor, fully dressed, sat at the window looking listlessly
+out. If she heard Grace's light knock she paid no attention to it.
+It was not until Grace said rather diffidently, "We heard you were
+ill and thought we'd come in to see you," that the girl at the window
+turned toward Grace. Her piquant little face was drawn and pale, and
+her eyes looked suspiciously red. She eyed Grace almost sulkily, then
+said slowly, "It was kind of you to come, but I shall be all right
+to-morrow." Under Grace's serious glance her eyes fell, then, to her
+visitors' amazement, she burst into tears. Grace crossed the room.
+Her arm slid across the sobbing freshman's shoulders in silent
+sympathy. "Can't you tell me what troubles you?" she asked softly.
+
+Mildred shook off the comforting arm with a muttered: "Let me alone.
+I can't tell you, of all persons. Go away."
+
+"Why can't you tell me?" persisted Grace gently.
+
+"Because I can't. Won't you please go. I don't wish to talk to any
+one," wailed Mildred.
+
+Grace walked toward the door, her eyes on the weeping girl. Anne,
+who had kept strictly in the background during the little scene,
+stepped out into the hall, Grace following.
+
+"That was hardly my idea of a cordial reception," was Anne's dry
+comment as they entered their own room.
+
+"That young woman has something on her mind," declared Grace. "Her
+illness is not physical. It is mental. Either some one has torn her
+feelings to shreds or else she has done something she is ashamed of
+and remorse has overtaken her."
+
+"Unless she has had bad news from home or has been conditioned,"
+suggested Anne.
+
+"I don't believe it's either," said Grace, shaking her head. "I
+believe this is something different. Of late she has been acting
+strangely. Ever since the reception she has avoided me. Anne Pierson,
+do you see the time? We'll be late for chapel!" gasped Grace in
+consternation.
+
+With one accord the two friends gathered up their wraps, putting
+them on as they ran.
+
+After chapel Grace left Anne at the door of Science Hall and went on
+to Overton Hall. She wished to see Miss Duncan before her first class
+recited, and learn the latest developments of her case. Until chapel
+exercises were over, Grace had refused to allow her mind to dwell on
+her trouble, but now, as she climbed slowly up the broad stairway to
+Miss Duncan's class room, the whole unhappy affair rose before her.
+
+Miss Duncan was sitting at her desk as Grace entered. She looked at
+her watch, smiled frankly at Grace and said in her usual businesslike
+way, "I can give you only ten minutes, Miss Harlowe."
+
+The teacher's friendly tone made Grace's heart leap. She recognized
+the fact that Miss Duncan no longer looked upon her with suspicion.
+
+"Your innocence was clearly proven by Miss Ashe," said Miss Duncan
+in her blunt fashion, coming at once to the point. "I recognize your
+claim to the authorship of the theme. The other young woman was the
+real plagiarist. It was a contemptible trick and not in keeping with
+Overton standards."
+
+"What will happen to this other girl, Miss Duncan?" asked Grace
+apprehensively, her eyes fixed on Miss Duncan.
+
+"What do you think she deserves?" inquired Miss Duncan quizzically.
+
+"A chance to redeem herself," was the prompt reply. "No one except
+you knows who she is. I don't wish to know her identity, and I am
+sure Miss Ashe doesn't. Couldn't you send for the girl and tell her
+that it would be a secret between just you two. That you were willing
+to forget it had happened if she were willing to start all over again
+and build her college foundation fairly and squarely. It wouldn't be
+of any benefit to her to place her fault before the dean. No doubt
+she would be dismissed, and that dismissal might spoil her whole life."
+
+"You are an eloquent pleader, Miss Harlowe," returned Miss Duncan.
+"As this is strictly an affair of one of my classes, I consider that
+I am at liberty to do as I think best about placing this matter
+before the dean. If I did see fit to do so I hardly think it would
+mean dismissal, particularly if I took you with me to plead the cause
+of the offender. Come to me this afternoon after my last class and
+I will give you my answer."
+
+Grace left the class room far more cheerfully than she had entered.
+Her own vindication had not impressed her half so deeply as Miss
+Duncan's apparently lenient attitude toward the girl who had been
+false to herself and to Overton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A DISGRUNTLED REFORMER
+
+
+Grace was not disappointed. Miss Duncan graciously agreed to let the
+culprit off with a severe reprimand. Grace ran joyfully down the
+campus to Holland House. She wished to tell Mabel Ashe the good news.
+
+"Horrid little copy-cat! She doesn't deserve it," was Mabel's
+unsympathetic comment as Grace related what had passed between Miss
+Duncan and herself. "You know who she is, don't you, Grace?"
+
+Grace shook her head. "I haven't the slightest idea," she said
+soberly. "I can't believe it was any one at Wayne Hall. You don't
+suspect any one, do you?"
+
+"No," returned Mabel. "I haven't become very well acquainted with
+the freshmen this year, so far. I suppose you did right in not
+exposing this girl. I don't know whether I should be quite as
+charitable as you. If you hadn't had a witness who saw you write the
+theme, you would now be under a cloud. What I can't forget is the
+fact that she went so far as to try to make Miss Duncan believe that
+you really copied it. Miss Duncan said she insisted that the theme
+had disappeared from her room. Think how foolish she must have felt
+when Miss Duncan confronted her with the truth yesterday afternoon
+and made her confess!"
+
+"Oh, Mabel!" Grace's distressed tone caused the pretty senior to
+rise and stand in front of Grace's chair.
+
+"What's the matter, Gracie," she said, taking Grace's hands in hers.
+
+Grace raised her gray eyes to meet the inquiring brown ones bent on
+her. "I'm so sorry," she said sadly, "but the girl who took my theme
+does live in Wayne Hall."
+
+"How do you know?" asked Mabel quickly.
+
+"From what you said," returned Grace. "If she accused me of taking
+her theme from her room, isn't it highly probable that her room is
+in Wayne Hall? I wouldn't be likely to go into one of the campus houses
+to steal a theme, would I? I must have dropped it in the hall or on
+the stairs that night, and she must have come into the house directly
+after I did and picked it up. I don't like to believe that one of our
+girls did it," Grace concluded sorrowfully, "but I am afraid it's
+true."
+
+"Some day you'll stumble upon the guilty girl when you least expect
+to find her," prophesied Mabel. "Now forget her, and tell me what you
+and your chums are going to do over Thanksgiving. I am going to a
+dance on Thanksgiving night with a Willston man. His fraternity is
+giving it."
+
+"I don't know any college men in this part of the world," sighed
+Grace regretfully, "therefore I never have any invitations to man
+dances."
+
+"Wait until my cousin comes up here. He is a Columbia man and you
+will like him immensely. I know a number of the Willston men, too.
+Why don't you go with me to the football game Thanksgiving Day? You
+are not going away, are you? It is only a four days' vacation, you
+know."
+
+"No, we haven't any particular place to go. Last year we spent our
+Thanksgiving vacation with the Southards in New York. You knew about
+that."
+
+"You lucky things," laughed Mabel. "I envy you your friendship with
+Everett Southard and his sister."
+
+"Some day you must meet them," planned Grace. "They are delightful
+people. Mr. Southard is appearing in Shakespearian roles in the large
+cities this season, and Miss Southard is in Florida visiting friends.
+If they were in New York they would insist on our going to them for
+the holidays. I must run away now. It is almost dinner time and I
+promised to hook up Elfreda's new gown. Miriam went over to Morton
+House with Gertrude Wells, and won't return until late, and Elfreda
+is going to dine with the Anarchist."
+
+"Really!" exclaimed Mabel. "Elfreda seems to be coming to the front
+this year, doesn't she!"
+
+"She is turning out splendidly," said Grace warmly. "She stands high
+in every one of her classes, and she is so ridiculously funny that
+we would feel lost without her. She says things in the same droll way
+that a young man we know in Oakdale does. But I mustn't stay another
+minute. Good-bye, Mabel, I'll see you in a day or two."
+
+Grace darted across the campus and ran rapidly in the direction of
+Wayne Hall. She loved to run and her fleetness of foot had served her
+well on more than one occasion. Only that day she had complained to
+Miriam that it had been years since she had indulged in a good run.
+Miriam had laughingly accused her of still being a tomboy, and had
+proposed that they take a long tramp on Saturday. "You can run up and
+down the road to your heart's content when we get far enough away
+from Overton so that no one will see you and think you have suddenly
+gone crazy," Miriam had declared good-naturedly.
+
+Bounding up the steps two at a time, Grace reached the front door of
+Wayne Hall without drawing a laboring breath. "I'm certainly in good
+condition," she laughed to herself, inhaling deeply and inflating her
+chest. "I hope I'll be chosen to play on the team this year." She
+rang a third time before the door was opened by Emma Dean, who
+grumbled at her repeated ringing and then announced that she had rung
+six times that afternoon before any one had condescended to let her
+in. "Have you seen Elfreda?" flung back Grace on her way upstairs.
+
+"You'd better hurry," called Emma after her. "I heard her growling
+to herself as I passed her door."
+
+"I began to think you were never coming," greeted Elfreda, as Grace
+burst into the room, her eyes bright and her cheeks becomingly
+flushed from her recent run across the campus.
+
+"Why didn't you ask some one else to hook you up?" retorted Grace
+mischievously, throwing down her gloves and beginning on the top hook.
+
+"Because I wanted you to see how nice I looked in this new frock,"
+replied the stout girl. "If I had not stipulated that you were to
+perform this extremely important service for me, you would have in
+all probability absented yourself from my immediate vicinity,
+unmindful of the rare exhibition of youth and beauty that was being
+prepared for you in my room."
+
+"If I had closed my eyes I could have sworn it was Miss Atkins,"
+laughed Grace. "Even she herself couldn't fail to recognize that
+impersonation. It's ridiculously funny, Elfreda, but I wish you
+wouldn't do it." As Grace and Elfreda were standing with their backs
+directly away from the door neither girl saw the tense little figure
+that stood rigid, one hand on the door casing, listening with
+eyebrows drawn fiercely together. An instant later it had vanished.
+Grace, after triumphantly placing the last hook in its eye, began
+helping Elfreda find her handkerchief and gloves. "Now you have
+everything you need," she declared, holding up the stout girl's coat.
+"Do you wait here for your dinner partner or does she call for you?"
+
+"She is coming in here for me," answered Elfreda. "I wish she would
+hurry along. I haven't had even a cracker to eat since luncheon and
+I'm famished."
+
+"I think I'll go if you don't mind. I'm hungry, too. I must see if
+Anne has come in yet. Miss Atkins will be here in a moment. Goodbye.
+I hope you will have a nice time. I am so glad she invited you."
+
+Grace crossed the hall to her own room. Anne was rearranging her
+hair preparatory to going down to dinner.
+
+"I think I'll do my hair over again," decided Grace. "That run
+across the campus shook most of my hairpins loose. It will be at
+least ten minutes before the bell rings, so I shall have plenty of
+time." But her hair proved refractory and the clang of the dinner
+bell found her tucking in a last unruly lock. "I'm going on
+downstairs, Grace," called Anne from the doorway.
+
+"All right," answered Grace. As she passed Elfreda's room she heard
+her name uttered in a sibilant whisper. Wheeling at the sound, Grace
+stepped to the stout girl's door. Elfreda drew her in and, closing
+the door, said nervously: "What do you suppose has happened? I waited
+and waited for the An--Miss Atkins and she didn't appear, so I went
+down to her room and found the door closed. I knocked at least a
+dozen times, until my knuckles ached, but not a sound came from
+within. Then I came back to my room and waited. She hasn't
+materialized yet. I went down to her door just now and knocked again,
+but, nothing doing." In her agitation Elfreda dropped into slang.
+
+"That is strange," agreed Grace. "Do you suppose she has been taken
+suddenly ill?"
+
+"Search me," declared Elfreda wearily. "She ought to be called the
+Riddle. She is past solution, isn't she? I'm hungry, and if she
+doesn't appear within the next five minutes I'm going to put on my
+old brown serge dress and go down to dinner. I'm not used to being
+invited out to dine and then deserted before I've even had a chance
+to look at the bill of fare."
+
+"Never mind," comforted Grace. "I'll ask you to dinner at Martell's
+next week and won't desert you either. Wait a minute. I will go down
+to the dining room and see if by any chance she could be there. Then
+I'll come upstairs and let you know. If she isn't there you had
+better change your gown and go downstairs with me."
+
+"She isn't there," reported Grace, five minutes later. "Miss Taylor
+is, but her roommate is missing."
+
+"'Parted at the altar,'" quoted Elfreda dramatically. "Will you
+please unhook me?"
+
+For the second time that night Grace busied herself with the
+troublesome hooks and eyes. Elfreda jerked off the new gown. Her
+temper was rising. "This is what comes of cultivating freaks," she
+muttered, lapsing into her old rudeness. "I might have known she'd
+do something. Catch me on any more reform committees!"
+
+"The way of the reformer is hard," soothed Grace, as she picked up
+the gown Elfreda had thrown in a heap on the floor, and folding it,
+laid it across the foot of the stout girl's couch.
+
+Elfreda, who was reaching into the closet for her brown serge dress,
+wheeled about, regarding Grace solemnly. "Too hard for me," she
+declared. "Hereafter, the Anarchist can attend to her own
+reformation. The Briggs Helping Hand Society has disbanded."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+MAKING OTHER GIRLS HAPPY
+
+
+The Thanksgiving holiday was welcomed with acclamation by the
+students of Overton College, who, with a few exceptions, ate their
+Thanksgiving dinners at their various campus houses and boarding
+places. During the four days tables at Martell's and Vinton's were
+in demand and a continuous succession of dinners and luncheons made
+serious inroads in the monthly allowances of the hospitable
+entertainers.
+
+The month of December dragged discouragingly, however, and when the
+time really did arrive to pack and be off for the Christmas holidays
+the latent energy that suddenly developed for packing trunks and
+making calls caused the faculty to sigh with regret that it had not
+been used in the pursuit of knowledge.
+
+Nothing of any event had happened at Wayne Hall. Since the evening
+when Elfreda had waited in vain for Laura Atkins, whose invitation
+to dinner she had accepted, this peculiar young woman had offered
+neither apology nor explanation for her inexplicable behavior. In
+fact, the next morning she had completely ignored Elfreda, who,
+feeling herself to be the aggrieved one, had made no attempt to
+discover what had prompted this glaring disregard of etiquette on the
+part of the eccentric freshman.
+
+For a week afterward Elfreda discussed and rediscussed the mystery
+with Grace, Anne and Miriam. Then she gave up in disgust and turned
+her attention to basketball. She had lost considerable weight and was
+now a member of the scrub team. Her greatest ambition was to make the
+real team in her junior year, and with that intent she sturdily
+refused to eat sweet things, took long walks and daily haunted the
+gymnasium, going through the various forms of exercises she had
+elected to take with commendable persistency.
+
+Grace had never sought to discover the identity of the freshman who
+had stolen her theme. She felt reasonably certain that the same roof
+covered them both, but she never allowed herself to reach the point
+of laying the finger of suspicion on any one in particular. That she
+had been vindicated of the charge was quite enough for her, but she
+could not resist wondering occasionally what had prompted the deed,
+and whether the other girl had turned over a new leaf.
+
+One other thing troubled Grace not a little. Mildred Taylor had
+become extremely intimate with Mary Hampton and Alberta Wicks. Both
+young women were frequent guests for dinner at Wayne Hall, and
+Mildred spent her spare time almost entirely in their society. As the
+two juniors were extremely unpopular with the Wayne Hall girls a
+peculiar constraint invariably fell upon the table when either young
+woman was Mildred's guest for the evening. "One has to weigh one's
+words before speaking when Alberta Wicks or Mary Hampton are here,"
+Emma Dean had declared significantly to Irene Evans, and this seemed
+to be the prevalent opinion among the students who lived at Wayne Hall.
+
+Mildred's attitude toward Grace had not changed. In manner she was
+more distant than ever, and except for a slight bow when chance
+brought her face to face with Grace, she gave no other evidence of
+having been more than the merest acquaintance. Her dislike for her
+roommate had to all appearances disappeared, and Laura Atkins was now
+seen occasionally in company with Mildred and her two mischievous
+junior friends.
+
+Such was the situation when the longed-for Christmas vacation
+arrived. Grace Harlowe's thoughts were not on her own perplexities
+as she walked toward Wayne Hall after finishing her last round of calls.
+A new problem had arisen, and as she swung along through the crisp
+winter air she was deep in thought. It was peculiar Christmas
+weather. A light snow had fallen, but through the patches of white
+lying softly on the campus the grass still showed spots of green. It
+had been an unusually long, warm fall, and to Grace, whose winters
+had been spent much farther north, the mildness of December had
+seemed marvelous.
+
+"There!" she exclaimed, stopping in the middle of the walk to
+consult a small leather book, and drawing a pencil through the last
+item, "I can go home in peace. I have every single thing done, even
+to notifying the expressman to come for my trunk."
+
+A sudden trill sounded down the street behind her. Turning her head,
+Grace saw Arline Thayer bearing down upon her. "I thought I'd never
+make you hear me," panted the little girl. "Ruth is going home with
+me after all."
+
+"I thought she would," laughed Grace. "She assured me last night
+that she wouldn't think of imposing upon you, but I know your powers
+of persuasion. You have given Ruth a great deal of happiness, Arline,
+and I am sure she appreciates it, too."
+
+Arline shook her curly head. "I don't deserve any credit. I am nice
+with her because I like her. I am consulting my own selfish pleasure,
+you see, and that doesn't count. If I didn't care for Ruth I am
+afraid I wouldn't bother my head about helping her to have good times."
+
+"You are frank, at least," smiled Grace.
+
+"Seriously speaking, I am really very selfish," admitted Arline. "I
+never think of doing good for unselfish reasons. I don't find any
+particular interest in being nice with girls who do not appeal to me.
+That sounds terribly cold-blooded, doesn't it? They say an only child
+is always selfish, you know. Oh, forgive me, Grace; I forgot you were
+an 'only child.' Goodness knows you are not selfish."
+
+"Yes, I am," contradicted Grace. "This is my second year at Overton
+and in all the time I've been here I have thought about nothing but
+myself and my friends and my good times. This afternoon when I
+started out to make calls I met Miss Barlow, a little freshman who
+lives in a boarding house down on Beech Street. We were going in the
+same direction and I thoughtlessly asked if she were going home for
+Christmas. A second afterward I was sorry. Her face fell, then she
+brightened a little and said, 'No.' She and seven other girls who
+lived in the same house were going to have a Christmas tree. For
+three days they had been busy decorating it. They had just finished.
+She asked, almost timidly, if I would like to see it. Of course I
+said 'Yes,' and we started for her boarding house. It is away down
+at the other end of Overton, and the most cheerless looking old barn
+of a house. The inside of the house is almost as cheerless as the
+outside, too. They had set up their tree in the parlor, and it was
+the only bright spot in the room.
+
+"The tree was trimmed with popcorn and tinsel. There were funny
+little ornaments of colored paper, too, that they had made
+themselves. The presents were underneath the tree, a few forlorn
+looking little packages that made me feel like crying. I couldn't
+truthfully say that the tree was lovely, but I did tell Miss Barlow
+that I thought they had done splendidly and that I was sorry I hadn't
+known her better before, because I should have liked to help them
+with their tree.
+
+"Then she said she had always wanted to know me, but I had so many
+friends among the influential girls at Overton she had thought I
+wouldn't care to know her. You can imagine how conscience stricken
+I felt. At home I was the friend of every girl in high school, and
+to think that I have been developing snobbish traits without realizing
+it!"
+
+"Couldn't we do something nice for them before we go?" asked Arline
+generously. "It is only three o 'clock. Why not start a movement
+among the girls we know and send them a box? We can make the girls
+contribute, but we won't tell a soul who it's for. We will ask for
+money or presents--whatever they care to give," she went on eagerly.
+"What do you think of it? Do you suppose they would be offended?"
+
+"I think it is the greatest thing out!" exclaimed Grace
+enthusiastically. "How can they be offended if we send the things
+anonymously?"
+
+"They can't," chuckled Arline gleefully. "Now we had better
+separate. I'll do Morton House, Livingstone Hall and Wellington
+House. You can do Wayne Hall, Holland House and those two boarding
+houses on the corner below you. A lot of freshmen and sophomores live
+there. I'll come over to your house with my loot to-night, directly
+after dinner. Good-bye until then."
+
+At seven o'clock that night Arline set down a heavy suit case and
+rang the bell at Wayne Hall. Grace, who had been watching for her
+from one of the living-room windows, hastened to open the door.
+"Thank goodness," sighed the little fluffy-haired girl. "I thought
+I would never be able to drag this suit case across the campus. It
+is crammed with things. I've been busier than all the busy bees that
+ever buzzed," she continued happily, following Grace into the living
+room. "You can't begin to think how nice every one has been. About
+half of this stuff in the suit case is candy. One girl at Morton
+House had ten boxes given her. Of course, she couldn't eat it all,
+so she put in five." Arline did not volunteer the further information
+that she was the "girl" and that the candy was mostly from Willston
+men, with whom she was extremely popular.
+
+"Another girl gave me two pairs of gloves. She had half a dozen
+pairs sent from home. She's going to New York for Christmas, so her
+home presents were sent to her here. Ever so many girls who had
+bought presents to take home gave me something from their store. I
+caught them just as they were finishing their packing. But, best of
+all," added Arline triumphantly, sinking into a chair and opening her
+brown suede handbag, "I have money--fifty dollars! That will help
+some, won't it?" She gave a little, gleeful chuckle.
+
+"I should say so," gasped Grace. "I didn't do quite as well,
+although I have a whole table full of presents. Come on up and see
+them. None of us have put in our money contribution yet."
+
+"How much have you?" asked Arline curiously.
+
+"So far only twenty-five dollars," replied Grace. "The girls in the
+boarding houses are not overburdened with money. I collected half of
+it from the Holland House girls. Miriam has promised me five dollars
+and I will put in five. That makes thirty-five dollars. I haven't
+asked Elfreda yet. She went out on a last shopping tour early this
+afternoon and hasn't come home yet. I suppose she went to Vinton's
+for dinner. Anne hasn't given me her money yet."
+
+"Did you ask Miss Atkins?" was Arline's sudden inquiry. She was
+seized with a recollection of what transpired earlier in the fall.
+
+Grace shook her head. "I couldn't. She hasn't spoken to me since the
+beginning of the term."
+
+"Shall I run up and ask her?" proposed Arline. "She is quite cordial
+to me in that queer, stiff way of hers."
+
+"It is only fair to give her a chance to contribute if she wishes,"
+said Grace slowly. "I should say you might better ask her than leave
+her out."
+
+"I'll go now, while I feel in the humor," declared Arline.
+
+"You might ask Miss Taylor, too. She is Miss Atkins's roommate. She
+has been rather distant with me, so I haven't approached her on the
+subject."
+
+Arline danced off on her errand with joyful little skips of
+anticipation. It was not long before she returned, a pleased smile
+on her baby face. "What do you think!" she whispered, gleefully. "She
+gave me ten dollars! She was lovely, too, and didn't scowl at all.
+I wished her a Merry Christmas, and she asked me to take luncheon or
+dinner with her some time after Christmas. Miss Taylor wasn't there."
+
+Grace was on the point of replying humorously that she hoped Arline
+would not share Elfreda's fate when the hour to dine came round. She
+checked herself in time, however. She had no right to betray
+Elfreda's confidence even to Arline. "That was generous in her," she
+said warmly. "Would you like to come upstairs with me now, Arline,
+while I collect my share of the contributions? Miriam and Elfreda
+will soon be here and I will ask Anne for her money."
+
+Arline obediently followed Grace upstairs to her room. Grace lighted
+the gas. As she did so she espied an envelope lying on the rug near
+the door. Crossing to where it lay, Grace picked it up. It bore no
+superscription. She turned it over, then finding it unsealed pulled
+back the flap and peered into it. With an exclamation of wonder she
+drew forth a crisp ten dollar bill. "Who do you suppose left it
+there?" she gasped in amazement. "I thought Anne was here. She must
+have gone out."
+
+"Look in the envelope. Perhaps there is a card, too," suggested
+Arline hopefully.
+
+Grace peered into it a second time. Close to the inner surface of
+the envelope lay a tiny strip of paper. She held it up triumphantly
+for Arline's inspection.
+
+"Is there any writing on it?" demanded Arline.
+
+Grace scanned the strip of paper earnestly, turned it over and found
+the faint lead-pencil inscription: "From a friend."
+
+"Who can it be?" pondered Arline. "Do you recognize the hand-writing?"
+
+"No." Grace looked puzzled. "It is a welcome gift. Just think,
+Arline, we have one hundred dollars. Your fifty, and Miss Atkins's
+ten makes sixty, and this makes seventy. The twenty-five dollars I
+have and twenty dollars more from the four of us makes one hundred
+and fifteen dollars. That will mean a great deal to those girls. I
+only wish it were more."
+
+"If I had known sooner I would not have been so extravagant in
+buying my Christmas presents," declared Arline regretfully. "There
+isn't time to write Father for money. I don't like to telegraph. I've
+been positively reckless with money this month. When I go home I'm
+going to have a talk with Father. Oh, Grace Harlowe, I've a perfectly
+lovely idea," she continued, joyfully clasping her two small hands
+about Grace's arm, "but I am not going to say a word until I come
+back to Overton."
+
+"Then I won't ask questions," smiled Grace. "Come, now, help me with
+these packages. It is eight o'clock and we haven't made a start yet.
+We had better wrap the presents in two large packages. I will ask
+Mrs. Elwood for some wrapping paper, and we'll bring the suit case
+up here."
+
+It was almost nine o'clock when Grace and Arline descended the steps
+of Wayne Hall with mystery written on their faces. Each girl carried
+an unwieldy bundle. In the center of Grace's bundle, securely wrapped
+in fold after fold of tissue paper, was a little box. It contained
+one hundred and fifteen dollars in bills. Wrapped about the bills was
+the following note addressed to Esther Barlow, the freshman Grace had
+encountered that afternoon: "Merry Christmas to yourself and your
+seven freshmen friends. Santa Claus."
+
+"How can we manage to deliver this stuff without being seen?"
+demanded Arline. "My arms ache already, and we haven't walked a block."
+
+Grace set down her bundle on a convenient horse block and paused to
+consider. Arline dropped hers beside it with a sigh of relief. "I
+know what we can do," said Grace reflectively. "We can get Mr. Symes
+to go with us. He is that old man who does errands and takes messages
+for ever so many of the girls. We will go with him as far as the
+corner, then he can carry the things to the door and give them to the
+woman who owns the boarding house. He lives just around the corner
+from here. You stay here and watch the bundles and I will see if I
+can find him."
+
+Grace found Mr. Symes at home and quite willing to carry out the
+final detail of the Christmas plan. The old man was duly sworn to
+secrecy and entered into the spirit of his errand almost as heartily
+as did Arline and Grace. At the chosen corner the girls halted,
+repeated their final instructions, and drawing back into the shadow,
+left him to deliver the two bulky packages, his wrinkled face
+wreathed in smiles.
+
+He smiled even more broadly on his return to the watchers, as Grace
+slipped a crisp green note into his hand and wished him a Merry
+Christmas.
+
+"Now we ought to do a little celebrating on our own account," she
+proposed. "Suppose we pay a visit to Vinton's. It isn't too cold for
+ices."
+
+"That is just what I was thinking," agreed Arline.
+
+An hour later Arline and Grace said good-bye on the corner below
+Wayne Hall. "I won't see you in the morning at the station, Grace,"
+said Arline regretfully. "My train leaves a whole hour later than
+yours. I hope you will have a perfectly lovely Christmas. I hope
+eight other girls will, too. Don't you?"
+
+"You're a dear little Daffydowndilly," smiled Grace as she kissed
+Arline's upturned face. "I am sure they will, and they have you to
+thank for their pleasure, though they will never know it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+MRS. GRAY'S CHRISTMAS CHILDREN
+
+
+"If this isn't like old times, then nothing ever will be!" exclaimed
+David Nesbit, beaming on Anne Pierson, who was busy pouring tea for
+the "Eight Originals" in Mrs. Gray's comfortable library.
+
+"Old times!" exclaimed Hippy Wingate, accepting his teacup with a
+flourish that threatened to send its contents into the lap of Nora
+O'Malley, who sat beside him on the big leather davenport. "It takes
+me back to the days when I had only to lift my hand and say, 'Table,
+prepare thyself,' and some one of these fair damsels immediately
+invited me to a banquet. Gone are the days when I waxed fat and
+prosperous. Now I am thin and pale, a victim of adversity."
+
+"I think you look stouter than ever," declared Nora cruelly. "You
+say you have lost ten pounds, but--" she shrugged her shoulders
+significantly.
+
+"Cruel, cruel," moaned Hippy. "It is sad to see such calloused
+inhumanity in one so young. Pass me the cakes, Anne, the chocolate
+covered ones. They, at least, will afford me sweet consolation."
+
+"I object," interposed Reddy Brooks. "Don't give him that plate.
+Hand him one or two, Anne. I like the looks of those cakes, too."
+
+"Man, do you mean to insinuate that I am not what I seem?" demanded
+Hippy, glaring belligerently at Reddy.
+
+"No, I am stating plainly that you are exactly what you seem. That's
+why I am looking out for my share of the cakes."
+
+"Always prompted by selfish motives," deplored Hippy. "How thankful
+I am that the sweet blossom of unselfishness blooms freely in my
+heart. It is true that I would eat all the cakes on that plate, but
+from a purely unselfish motive."
+
+"Let's hear the motive," jeered Tom Gray.
+
+"I would eat them all," replied Hippy gently, favoring the company
+with one of his famously wide smiles, "to save you, my beloved
+friends, from indigestion. It is better that I should bear your
+suffering."
+
+"Thank you," retorted David Nesbit dryly, helping himself to the
+coveted cakes and passing the plate over Hippy's head to Mrs. Gray,
+"I prefer to do my own suffering."
+
+"Oh, as you like," returned Hippy airily. "I have always been fonder
+of Mrs. Gray than I can say." He sidled ingratiatingly toward where
+Mrs. Gray sat, her cheeks pink with the excitement of having her
+Christmas children with her.
+
+From the time Grace, Miriam and Anne stepped off the train into the
+waiting arms of their dear ones, their vacation had been a season of
+continued rejoicing. Mrs. Gray, who, Tom gravely declared, would
+celebrate her twenty-fifth birthday next April, was tireless in her
+efforts to make their brief stay in Oakdale a happy one. On Christmas
+night she had gathered them in and given them a dinner and a tree.
+She had also given a luncheon in honor of Anne and a large party on
+New Year's night. It was now the evening after New Year's and the
+morning train would take the boys back to college. Grace, Miriam and
+Anne would leave a day later for Overton. Nora and Jessica were to
+remain in Oakdale until the following week. It seemed only natural
+that they should spend their last evening together at the home of
+their old friend. Outside the "Eight Originals," Miriam had been the
+only one invited to this last intimate gathering.
+
+"Now, Hippy, stick to the truth," commanded Mrs. Gray, shaking her
+finger at him, but handing him the plate at the same time. Hippy
+swooped down upon it with a gurgle of delight.
+
+"It's the truth. I swear it," he declared, holding up one fat hand
+in which he clutched a cake.
+
+"What made you give him the plate, Aunt Rose?" asked Tom
+reproachfully.
+
+"Bless you, child, there are plenty of cakes. Let Hippy have as many
+as he can eat."
+
+"Vindicated," chuckled Hippy, between cakes, "and given full
+possession besides."
+
+"I wouldn't be so greedy," sniffed Nora O'Malley.
+
+"I'm so glad. I dislike greedy little girls," retorted Hippy
+patronizingly.
+
+"Stop squabbling," interposed Grace. "Here we are on the eve of
+separation and yet you two are bickering as energetically as when you
+first caught sight of each other two weeks ago. Did you ever agree
+on any subject?"
+
+"Let me see," said Hippy. "Did we, Nora?"
+
+"Never," replied Nora emphatically.
+
+"Then, let's begin now," suggested Hippy hopefully. "If you will
+agree always to agree with me I will agree--"
+
+"Thank you, but I can't imagine myself as ever being so foolish,"
+interrupted Nora loftily.
+
+"She spoke the truth," said Hippy sadly. "We never can agree. It is
+better that we should part. Will you think of me, when I am gone?
+That is the burning question. Will you, won't you, can you, can't you
+remember me?" He beamed sentimentally on Nora, who beamed on him in
+return, at the same time making almost imperceptible signs to Grace
+to capture the plate of cakes, of which Hippy was still in
+possession. In his efforts to be impressive, Hippy had, for the
+moment, forgotten the cakes. But he was not to be caught napping. The
+instant Grace made a sly movement toward the plate it was whisked
+from under her fingers.
+
+"Naughty, naughty, mustn't touch!" he exclaimed, eyeing Grace
+reprovingly.
+
+"Let him alone, girls, and come over here," broke in David Nesbit.
+"He only does these things to make himself the center of attraction.
+He wants all the attention."
+
+"Ha," jeered Hippy exultantly. "David thinks that crushing remark
+will fill me with such overwhelming shame that I shall drop the cakes
+and retire to a distant corner. He little knows what manner of man
+I am. I will defend my rights until not a vestige of doubt remains
+as to who is who in Oakdale."
+
+"There is not a vestige of doubt in my mind as to what will happen
+in about ten seconds if certain people don't mend their ways,"
+threatened Reddy, rising from his chair, determination in his eye.
+
+"Take the cakes, Grace," entreated Hippy, hastily shoving the plate
+into Grace's hand. "Nora, protect me. Don't let him get me. Please,
+mister, I haven't any cakes. I gave them all to a poor, miserable
+beggar who--"
+
+"Here, Reddy, you may have them," broke in Grace decisively. "It is
+bad enough to have an unpleasant duty thrust upon one, but to be
+called names!"
+
+"I never did, never," protested Hippy. "It was a mere figure of
+speech. Didn't you ever hear of one?"
+
+"Not that kind, and you can't have the cakes, again," said Jessica
+firmly. "Give them to me, Grace."
+
+"Jessica always helps Reddy," grumbled Hippy. "Now, if Nora would
+only stand up for me, we could manage this whole organization with
+one hand. She is such a splendid fighter--"
+
+"I'll never speak to you again, Hippy Wingate," declared Nora,
+turning her back on him with a final air of dismissal.
+
+"Gently, gently!" exclaimed Hippy, raising his hand in expostulation.
+"I was about to say that you, Nora, are a splendid fighter"--he paused
+significantly--"for the right. What can be more noble than to fight
+for the right? Now, aren't you sorry you repudiated me? If you will
+say so immediately I will overlook the other remark. But you must be
+quick. Time and I won't wait a minute. Remember, I'm going away
+to-morrow."
+
+"Good-bye," retorted Nora indifferently. "I'll see you again some
+day."
+
+"'Forsaken, forsaken, forsaken am I,'" wailed Hippy, hopelessly out
+of tune.
+
+"Now, see what you've done," commented David Nesbit disgustedly.
+
+"I'm truly sorry," apologized Nora. "Hippy, if you will stop
+singing, I'll forgive you and allow you to sit beside me." She patted
+the davenport invitingly.
+
+"I thought you would," grinned Hippy, seating himself triumphantly
+beside her. "I always gain my point by singing that song. It appeals
+to people. It is so pathetic. They would give worlds to--"
+
+"Have you stop it," supplemented Tom Gray.
+
+"Yes," declared Hippy. "No, I don't mean 'yes' at all. Tom Gray is
+an unfeeling monster. I refuse to say another word. I have subsided.
+Now, may I have some more tea?"
+
+Anne filled the stout young man's cup and handed it to him with a
+smile. "What are you going to be when you grow up, Hippy?" she asked
+mischievously.
+
+"A brakeman," replied Hippy promptly. "I always did like to ride on
+trains. That's why I am spending four years in college."
+
+"Don't waste your breath on him, Anne," advised Nora. "He won't tell
+any one what he intends to do. I've asked him a hundred times. He
+knows, too. He really isn't as foolish as he looks."
+
+"I'm going to try for a position in the Department of Forestry at
+Washington after I get through college," announced Tom Gray.
+
+"I'm going into business with my father," declared Reddy.
+
+"I don't know yet what my work will be," said David Nesbit
+reflectively.
+
+"All you children will be famous one of these days," predicted Mrs.
+Gray sagely. She had been listening delightedly to the merry voices
+of the young people. To her, as well as to his young friends, Hippy
+was a never-failing source of amusement.
+
+"To choose a profession is easier for boys than for girls," declared
+Grace. "I haven't the slightest idea what I shall do after my college
+days are over. Most boys enter college with their minds made up as
+to what their future work is going to be, but very few girls decide
+until the last minute."
+
+"Girls whose parents can afford to send them to college don't have
+to decide, as a rule," said Nora wisely, "but almost every young man
+thinks about it from the first, no matter how much money his father
+is worth."
+
+"That is true, my dear," nodded Mrs. Gray.
+
+"Yet I am sure my girls as well as my boys will astonish the world
+some day. In fact, Anne has already proved her mettle. Nora hopes to
+become a great singer, Jessica a pianiste and Grace and Miriam--"
+
+"Are still floundering helplessly, trying to discover their
+respective vocations," supplemented Grace.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Gray," smiled Miriam, "our future careers are shrouded in
+mystery."
+
+"Time enough yet," said Mrs. Gray cheerily. "Going to college
+doesn't necessitate adopting a profession, you know. Perhaps when
+your college days are over you will find your vocation very near home."
+
+"Perhaps," assented Grace doubtfully, "only I'd like to 'do noble
+deeds, not dream them all day long,'" she quoted laughingly.
+
+  "'And so make life, death and the vast forever
+      One grand sweet song,'"
+
+finished Anne softly.
+
+"That is what I shall do when I am a brakeman," declared Hippy
+confidently.
+
+"You mean you will make life miserable for every one who comes
+within a mile of you," jeered Reddy Brooks.
+
+"Reddy, how can you thus ruthlessly belittle my tenderest hope, my
+fondest ambitions? What do you know about my future career as a
+brakeman? I intend to be touchingly faithful to my duty, kind and
+considerate to the public. In time the world will hear of me and I
+shall be honored and revered."
+
+"Which you never would be at home," put in David sarcastically.
+
+"What great man is ever appreciated in his own country?" questioned
+Hippy gently.
+
+Even Reddy was obliged to smile at this retort.
+
+"Let the future take care of itself," said Tom Gray lazily. "The
+night is yet young. Let us do stunts. Grace and Miriam must do their
+Spanish dance for us. Then it will be Nora's and Jessica's turn.
+Hippy can sing, nothing sentimental, though. David, Reddy, Hippy and
+I will then enact for you a stirring drama of metropolitan life
+entitled 'Oakdale's Great Mystery,' with the eminent actor,
+Theophilus Hippopotamus Wingate as the 'Mystery.' Let the show begin.
+We will have the Spanish dance first."
+
+"Come on, Miriam," laughed Grace. "We had better be obliging. Then
+we shall be admitted to the rest of the performance."
+
+The impromptu "show" that followed was a repetition of the "stunts"
+for which the various members of the little circle were famous and
+which were always performed for Mrs. Gray's pleasure. "Oakdale's
+Great Mystery," of which Hippy calmly admitted the authorship, proved
+to be a ridiculous travesty on a melodrama which the boys had seen
+the previous winter. Hippy as the much-vaunted Mystery, with a
+handkerchief mask, a sweeping red portiere cloak, and an
+ultra-mysterious shuffle was received with shrieks of laughter by the
+audience. The dramatic manner in which, after a series of humorous
+complications, the Mystery was run to earth and unmasked by "Deadlock
+Jones, the King of Detectives," was portrayed by David with
+"startling realism" and elicited loud applause.
+
+"That is the funniest farce you boys have ever given," laughed Mrs.
+Gray, as Hippy removed his mask with a loud sigh of relief and wiped
+his perspiring forehead with it. "You will be a playwright some day,
+Hippy."
+
+"I'd rather be a brakeman," persisted Hippy with his Cheshire cat
+grin.
+
+It was half-past ten o'clock when the last good night had been said
+and the young people were on their way home. As the Nesbit residence
+was so near Mrs. Gray's home, Miriam was escorted to her door by a
+merry body guard. At Putnam Square the little company halted for a
+moment before separating, Nora, Jessica, Hippy and Reddy going in one
+direction, Grace, Anne, Tom and David in the other.
+
+"Are you coming down to the train to-morrow morning to see us off?"
+asked David Nesbit, his question including the four girls.
+
+"Of course," replied Grace. "Don't we always see you off on the
+train whenever you go back to school before we do?"
+
+"Then we'll reserve our sad farewells until the morn," beamed Hippy.
+
+"Sad farewells!" exclaimed Nora scornfully. "I never yet saw you
+look sad over saying goodbye to us. You always smile at the last
+minute as though you were going to a picnic."
+
+"'Tis only to hide my sorrow, my child," returned Hippy
+lugubriously. "Would'st have the whole town look upon my tears and
+jeer, 'cry baby'?"
+
+"That's a very good excuse," sniffed Nora.
+
+"Not an excuse," corrected Hippy, "but a cloak to hide my real
+feelings."
+
+"That will do, Hippopotamus," cut in David decisively. "We don't
+wish to hear the whys and wherefores of your feelings. If we stayed
+to listen to them we would be here on this very spot when our train
+leaves to-morrow morning."
+
+"Wait until we come back for Easter, Hippy, then if you begin the
+first day you're home you'll finish before we go back to college,"
+suggested Grace.
+
+"That's a good idea," declared Hippy joyfully. "I shall remember it,
+and look forward to the Easter vacation."
+
+"I shan't come home for Easter, then," decided Nora mercilessly.
+
+"Then I shan't look forward to anything," replied Hippy with such
+earnestness that even scornful Nora forgot to retort sharply.
+
+"We all hope to be together again at Easter," said Grace, looking
+affectionately from one to the other of the little group. "Remember,
+every one, your good resolution about letters."
+
+"We'll talk about that in the morning," laughed Reddy, who abhorred
+letter writing.
+
+"You mean you'll forget about it," said Jessica significantly.
+
+"We all have our faults," mourned Hippy. "Now, as for myself--"
+
+"Take him away, Nora," begged David.
+
+"I will," agreed Nora. "Come on, Hippy. Reddy, you and Jessica help
+me tear him away from this corner."
+
+"How can you tear me away now? At the precise moment when I had
+begun to enjoy myself, too?" reproached Hippy.
+
+"This is only the beginning," was Reddy's threatening answer. "We
+are going to leave you stranded on the next corner. Then you can go
+on enjoying yourself alone."
+
+"Try it," dared Hippy. "If you do I shall lift up my voice and tell
+everyone in this block how unfeeling and hard-hearted some persons
+are. I shall mention names in my most stentorian tones and the public
+will rush forth from their houses to hear the truth about you. Ah,
+here is the corner! Now, leave me at your peril."
+
+"His mind is wandering," said Reddy sadly. "He imagines he is still
+'Oakdale's Great Mystery.' We had better lead him home. I'll take his
+left arm, and Nora----"
+
+"Will take my right," interrupted Hippy. "Reddy, you may attend to
+your own affairs, and keep your distance from my left arm. Jessica,
+please look after Reddy. His mind is wandering. In fact, it always
+has wandered. Crazy is as crazy does, you know."
+
+"Yes, we know," flung back David significantly.
+
+"Do you?" asked Hippy in apparent innocence. "I was so afraid you
+didn't. To lose one's mind is a dreadful affliction, but not to know
+that one is crazy is even worse. I am so relieved, David, Grace, Tom,
+and all of you, that at last you know the truth concerning
+yourselves. It is indeed a sad----"
+
+A moment later the loquacious Hippy was hustled down the street by
+three determined young people, while the other four turned their
+steps in the opposite direction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ARLINE'S PLAN
+
+
+"It was beautiful to be at home, but it is nice to be here, too. If
+it wasn't for mid year exams, I could be happy," sighed Grace
+Harlowe, as she rearranged three new sofa pillows she had brought
+from home, the gifts of Oakdale friends. Grace and Anne had invited
+Arline Thayer and Ruth Denton to dinner, and Miriam and Elfreda had
+dropped in for a brief chat before the dinner bell rang.
+
+"We'll all survive even mid year," predicted Miriam confidently.
+
+"We had a perfectly lovely time in New York, didn't we, Arline?"
+asked Ruth Denton, looking at the little curly-haired girl with fond
+eyes.
+
+Arline nodded. "I wish our vacation had been two weeks longer," she
+remarked wistfully. "I just begin to get acquainted with Father, when
+it is time to go back to college again. Have you seen many of the
+girls?"
+
+"Only the Morton House girls and you," answered Arline. "This is the
+first call I've made outside the house. Are all the Wayne Hall girls
+here?"
+
+"Miss Taylor hasn't come back yet," said Elfreda. "Do you girls
+happen to know where she spent her vacation?"
+
+"No," said Grace. "I didn't see her before I left. When first she
+came to Wayne Hall she seemed to like me. At the sophomore reception
+I hurt her feelings, unintentionally you may be sure. I am afraid she
+has never forgiven me, for since then she has avoided me."
+
+"She must have very sensitive feelings," remarked Elfreda bluntly.
+"What did you do to hurt them?"
+
+"I missed asking her to dance," explained Grace. "I didn't see her
+until late that evening, and when I apologized and asked to see her
+card she refused, saying coldly that my forgetting to ask her to
+dance was of no consequence. Since then she has hardly spoken to me."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me that before?" asked Elfreda quickly. "That
+accounts for certain things."
+
+"Don't be mysterious, Elfreda," put in Miriam. "Tell us what you
+mean by 'certain things'?"
+
+"You girls know that on several occasions before Christmas Alberta
+Wicks and Mary Hampton were invited here to dinner. Who invited them?
+Miss Taylor. So Alberta Wicks retaliated by taking Miss Taylor home
+with her for the holidays."
+
+"Really?" asked Miriam, in surprise. "Who told you?"
+
+"They went home on the same train with Emma Dean," returned Elfreda.
+"She sat two seats behind them. Has any one seen the Anarchist?"
+
+No one answered.
+
+"Why don't we change the subject and talk about something pleasant,"
+complained Arline Thayer.
+
+"Do you remember saying to me the night before we went home that you
+had thought of a lovely plan?" reminded Grace.
+
+"Yes," returned Arline. "I am glad you reminded me of it while we
+are all here. Just before I went home for my vacation the idea popped
+into my head that we ought to organize some kind of society for
+helping these girls who come to Overton with little or no money and
+who depend on the work they find to do here to help them through
+college."
+
+"Like me," put in Ruth slyly.
+
+"Don't interrupt me," retorted Arline, smiling at Ruth. "When I went
+home I had a talk with Father, and he has promised to give me five
+hundred dollars with which to start a fund. Now, what I propose to
+do is to organize a little society of our own with this same object
+in view. There is one society of that kind here at Overton, but it
+is always so besieged with requests for help that I don't imagine it
+more than keeps its head above water. There is room for another, at
+any rate. I don't see why we can't be the girls to organize it."
+Arline looked questioningly about the circle of interested faces.
+
+"I think it would be splendid," said Miriam emphatically. "I know my
+mother would contribute toward it."
+
+"So would Pa and Ma," declared Elfreda. "Suppose we all write home
+tonight."
+
+"What do you think of it, Grace and Anne?" asked Arline. "So far
+neither of you has said a word."
+
+"Neither has Ruth made any remarks," replied Anne. "Why don't you
+ask her? I think she has something to say on the subject."
+
+All eyes were immediately turned on Ruth, who flushed, looked almost
+distressed, then said slowly, "Could the girls who asked for help
+borrow the money and return it as soon as they were able?"
+
+"Of course," responded Arline. "Don't be afraid that you are going
+to have charity thrust upon you, Ruth."
+
+"That would be the only basis on which we could establish a society
+of that kind," commented Miriam. "An Overton girl would hesitate to
+make use of the money except as a loan."
+
+"What would we call ourselves?" asked Elfreda abruptly.
+
+"We can decide on a name later," said Arline. "The thing to decide
+now is, shall we or shall we not form this society? Answer yes or no?"
+
+"Yes," was the chorus.
+
+"Don't you think," said Grace after a slight deliberation, "that it
+would be nicer if we could finance this society ourselves, instead
+of asking our fathers and mothers for money? It isn't any particular
+effort for most of us to write home for money. How much better it
+would be if we could say that we had earned the money ourselves, or
+saved it from our allowances."
+
+"But what about my five hundred dollars?" questioned Arline
+plaintively. "As the originator of this scheme I claim the privilege
+of putting in as much capital as I please. I am going to be the
+exception that proves the rule. Besides, Father has already promised
+me the money. Take the five hundred dollars for the basis of our
+fund, then we will pledge ourselves hereafter to earn or contribute
+whatever money we put into it."
+
+"What do you say to that, girls?" asked Grace.
+
+"I think Arline ought to be allowed to give the five hundred dollars
+if she wishes," said Miriam. "It is her money and her plan. Besides,
+we need the money!"
+
+"I think so, too," echoed Elfreda. "We might call the society the
+'Arline Thayer Club.'"
+
+"If you dare--" began Arline.
+
+"Save your breath, my child, I didn't mean that seriously," drawled
+Elfreda. "However, we had better begin our society here, to-night.
+There are six of us. Shall we add to our number or let well enough
+alone?"
+
+"I'd like to have Gertrude Wells in it," said Arline. "Shall we make
+it strictly a sophomore affair?"
+
+"I think it would be better," replied Grace.
+
+"Then let us ask Emma Dean, Elizabeth Wade, Marian Cummings and
+Elsie Wilton," pursued Arline.
+
+"Seven, eight, nine, ten," counted Anne.
+
+"Let us make it a dozen," suggested Miriam.
+
+"Then who shall the other two members be?"
+
+"Why not ask the Emerson Twins?" suggested Arline. "They would be
+good material, and they are both splendid on committees. Julia
+Emerson nearly worked her head off for the sophomore reception last
+fall."
+
+"Very well, we will ask them," agreed Grace. "In case any one of the
+girls we have named but haven't yet interviewed should not wish to
+belong to our society we can propose some one else to take her place.
+In the meantime you must each be thinking of a name for our little
+club. We can meet in the library after the last class tomorrow
+afternoon, and go from there to Vinton's to talk it over. Arline, you
+must tell Gertrude Wells, Elizabeth Wade and Marian Cummings. We can
+easily see the others."
+
+"The dinner bell! Thank goodness!" exclaimed Elfreda fervently. "I
+am almost starved. I hope dinner will be better than last night's
+offering. Everything we had to eat was warranted to fatten one."
+
+"Never mind, Elfreda," consoled Arline. "Think how nice it will be
+when you make the team. That will be a reward worth having."
+
+"Yes, if I make it," grumbled the stout girl.
+
+"We will go on with our new plan after dinner," said Grace. Then as
+an afterthought she added: "Don't say anything about it at the table.
+Suppose we keep it a secret until our society is in running order?"
+
+"Hello, children," greeted Emma Dean, as they entered the dining
+room that night. "Has the board of directors been holding a meeting?
+I see you are all here."
+
+Several girls already seated at the table looked up smilingly as the
+six girls slipped into their places. Laura Atkins returned Arline's
+friendly nod with a cold bow. She did not appear to see the others.
+During the progress of the meal she said little, keeping up a
+pretense of indifference as to what went on around her. Nevertheless
+her eyes strayed more than once toward the end of the table where
+Elfreda was entertaining the girls sitting nearest to her with a
+ludicrous account of what had happened to her on her way back to
+Overton. Miriam accidentally intercepted one of these straying
+glances. In it she fancied she read reproach. A quick flush rose to
+Laura Atkins's cheeks. Drawing down her eyebrows she scowled
+defiantly at Miriam, then turned her head away, and went on with her
+dinner.
+
+After dinner the discussion of the proposed club was renewed with
+energy. Emma Dean's innocent allusion at dinner to the meeting of the
+board of directors had brought smiles to the faces of the six girls.
+After they had again gathered in Grace's room, Elfreda was despatched
+to Emma's room with orders to bring her to the council, no matter
+what her engagements or obligations might be.
+
+"I knew something was going to happen," was Emma's calm announcement
+as she followed Elfreda into the room. "To quote my esteemed friend,
+Miss Briggs, 'I could see' it in your eyes at dinner. I have a theme
+to write, a dressmaker to see, and four letters to answer, but,
+still, I am here."
+
+"We can readily understand how deeply it must have grieved you to
+shun the dressmaker, put off writing your theme, and tear yourself
+away from your correspondence," sympathized Miriam Nesbit, her eyes
+twinkling.
+
+"Then, as long as you understand it, we won't say anything more
+about it," was Emma's hasty reply. "I move that we avoid
+personalities and proceed to business."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A WELCOME GUEST
+
+
+The meeting in the library the next day, followed by a social
+session at Vinton's, resulted in the enthusiastic organization of the
+society proposed by Grace. As had been suggested, every girl had
+brought with her a slip of paper on which was written the name she
+had selected for the society. Arline collected the names and read
+each one in turn to the assembled girls.
+
+"Which one do you like best?" she asked, looking from one to another
+of her friends.
+
+"The first one," said Miriam Nesbit.
+
+"So do I," echoed half a dozen voices.
+
+"'Semper Fidelis,'" repeated Grace musingly. "I like the sound of
+that, too. Who proposed that name?"
+
+"I did," admitted Emma Dean. "I thought it might stand for our motto
+as well. It means 'always faithful,' you know. That applies to us,
+doesn't it?"
+
+"Of course we shall be always faithful to our cause," declared
+Grace. "All those in favor of the name Semper Fidelis, please
+manifest it by holding up their right hands."
+
+Twelve right hands were raised simultaneously.
+
+"That settles it," stated Grace. "From now on we are the Semper
+Fidelis girls. Let us lose no time in leaving the sacred precincts
+of the library for Vinton's. We can make more noise there."
+
+After the second sundae all around had been disposed of the society
+settled down to business. It was decided that the club should be a
+purely social affair. Arline was chosen for president, Grace for
+vice-president and Gertrude Wells as secretary and treasurer. There was
+to be no special day set aside for meetings. A meeting might be called
+at any time at the united request of three members. The sole object
+of the club was to extend a helping hand to the young women who were
+making praiseworthy efforts to put themselves through college. The
+foremost duty of the society would be to ascertain the names of these
+girls and offer them pecuniary assistance. Arline had written her
+father for the promised check for five hundred dollars, which would
+be deposited in the bank in Gertrude Wells's name as soon as it
+arrived.
+
+"I might as well tell you now that I wrote and asked Pa for a check
+in spite of what Grace said," confessed Elfreda rather sheepishly.
+
+"I might as well confess that I mentioned the club idea to Mother,"
+said Miriam. "I didn't ask her for a check, but I wouldn't be
+astonished if she sent one in her next letter."
+
+"You two girls are traitors to the cause," laughed Grace. "Perhaps
+you will be disappointed."
+
+"I won't," asserted Elfreda boldly. "Pa might as well help us as any
+one else. I told him so, too."
+
+"The important question is what can we do to earn money for our
+cause?" asked Grace.
+
+"We might give a play," said Miriam Nesbit. "Anne can star in it. I
+should like to have the Overton girls see her at her best."
+
+"I don't wish to be seen 'at my best,'" protested Anne. "I want the
+other girls to have a chance, too. Why not give a vaudeville show?
+Grace and Miriam can dance. Elfreda can give imitations. There are
+plenty of things we can do. We will advertise the show in all the
+campus houses, and each one of us must pledge ourselves to sell a
+certain number of tickets. I think we would be allowed to use Music
+Hall for the show, and if we could sell tickets enough to fill it,
+even comfortably, it would mean quite a sum of money for our
+treasury. We might charge fifty cents for admittance, or, if you
+think that is too much, we might put the price down to twenty-five
+cents."
+
+"I think we had better charge fifty cents," said Elfreda shrewdly.
+"It will be as easy for those who come to pay fifty cents as to pay
+twenty-five. We might as well have the other quarter as Vinton's or
+Martell's."
+
+"Elfreda, you are a brilliant and valuable addition to this
+society," commended Arline. "I agree with you. We are likely to reap
+almost as many half dollars as quarters."
+
+"We might give an act from one of Shakespeare's plays," remarked
+Gertrude Wells doubtfully. "Still, I think it would be more fun to
+have just stunts. Those of us who know any ought to be willing to
+come forward and do them. We can ask some of the upper class girls
+to help. Beatrice Alden sings; so does Frances Marlton. Mabel Ashe
+can do almost any kind of fancy dancing. There is plenty of talent
+in college. The junior glee club will sing for us, I am sure.
+
+"We can make it a regular vaudeville entertainment, and have posters
+announcing each number. We can have two girls, costumed as pages, to
+bring out and remove the posters announcing the numbers."
+
+"That's a good idea," approved Arline. "I can sing baby and little-girl
+songs and dance a little. I might sing one to fill in."
+
+"You are engaged to sing one the first time you come to see me,"
+laughed Grace. "Here is talent of which we never dreamed. I knew you
+could sing, but you never before confessed to being a real song and
+dance artist."
+
+"We shall have all 'headliners in our show,' as the billboard
+advertisements beautifully put it," commented Miriam. "I wish Eleanor
+were here, don't you, Grace? Then Anne could recite 'Enoch Arden.'"
+
+"Who is Eleanor, and why can't Anne recite 'Enoch Arden' without
+her?" were Elsie Wilton's curious inquiries.
+
+"The 'Eleanor' we speak of is in Italy, studying music, or was the
+last time we heard from her. She used to live in Oakdale and is one
+of our dearest friends. She arranged music to be played during Anne's
+recital of 'Enoch Arden.' They gave it at a concert at home and it
+was a tremendous success."
+
+"I wish she were to be here to our show, then," said Arline
+plaintively. "We would feature her. What's her other name?"
+
+"Savelli," replied Grace quickly.
+
+"Eleanor Savelli, the famous Italian pianiste," announced Arline,
+bowing to an imaginary audience. "Her name is the same as that of
+Savelli, the great virtuoso, isn't it?"
+
+"He is her father," said Grace simply.
+
+A little murmur of astonishment went up.
+
+"Oh, if she had only come to Overton instead of going to Italy!"
+sighed Elizabeth Wade. "I heard Savelli play at a concert three years
+ago. I shall never forget him."
+
+"We were awfully disappointed," interposed Miriam. "Eleanor's father
+was to tour America this winter, but changed his mind. There was talk
+of a spring tour, but we haven't heard from Eleanor for over a month,
+so we don't know whether there is any possibility of his sailing for
+America. If he did come to this country, Eleanor would be sure to
+accompany him. She has promised us that."
+
+"There is no use in wishing for the impossible, children," said Emma
+Dean briskly, rising from the table and beginning to put on her coat.
+"There is also no use in being late for dinner. In spite of this
+bounteous repast," she indicated the empty sundae glasses, "I yearn
+for Mrs. Elwood's simple but infinitely more satisfying fare. It's
+almost six o'clock. Those that are going with me, hurry up."
+
+"We must have another meeting within the next two or three days,"
+declared Grace. "Can all of you girls come to our room next Friday
+evening? In the meantime we will arrange a programme which will be
+brought before the club for approval at our next meeting. Don't any
+of you fail to be there."
+
+As the Wayne Hall girls flocked in the front door that night, Mrs.
+Elwood met them with: "Miss Harlowe, there is a young lady in the
+living room, waiting for you. She's been there almost an hour."
+
+"For me?" inquired Grace in surprise. "I'll go in at once."
+
+An instant later the girls heard a delighted little cry of "Eleanor,
+you dear thing!" Then Grace sprang to the door, exclaiming: "Girls,
+girls! come in here at once. You can never guess who is here!"
+
+At the cry of "Eleanor," Miriam and Anne, who were half way
+upstairs, ran down again and into the living room. They were followed
+by Elfreda, who paused on the stairs, then turned and went slowly up
+to her room. "Last year I wouldn't have known enough to go on about
+my business," she muttered as she walked stolidly into her room and
+sat down on the end of the couch.
+
+Ten minutes later Miriam burst into the room with: "Come downstairs,
+Elfreda. Don't you want to meet Eleanor? You know you have said so
+ever so many times. She's very anxious to meet you."
+
+"Of course I want to meet her," returned Elfreda with a short,
+embarrassed laugh. "This room is the place for me, though, until you
+are ready to introduce me. Are you sure you want me to go downstairs?"
+
+"You funny girl," laughed Miriam. "Of course we want you. We have
+just been telling Eleanor about you. She hasn't time to come upstairs
+now, for her father is waiting for her at the 'Tourraine.' He is
+going back to New York City to-night. He has a concert to-morrow.
+Grace, Anne and I are going to dine with them. I'm sorry I can't take
+you along, but perhaps he will come again to Overton. Eleanor is
+going to stay a week longer if we can coax her to remain. She is
+traveling with her father. We must hurry downstairs, for Eleanor is
+to meet her father at half-past six o'clock, and it is a quarter-past
+now."
+
+Elfreda shook hands with Eleanor almost timidly, She was deeply
+impressed with the latter's exquisite beauty.
+
+"So this is Elfreda," smiled Eleanor, patting the stout girl's hand.
+"I have learned to know you through the letters my friends have
+written me. I feel as though you were an old friend."
+
+"It's awfully nice in you to say so," murmured Elfreda, her eyes
+shining with pleasure.
+
+"Won't you go with us to the 'Tourraine'?" asked Eleanor sweetly. "I
+would like to have you meet my father."
+
+"Thank you," almost gasped Elfreda. "I'd love to meet him, but I
+think--"
+
+"Never mind thinking," interrupted Eleanor, gayly. "Just hurry into
+your wraps and come along. We'll wait for you."
+
+"That's sweet in you, Eleanor," said Grace in a low tone as Elfreda
+ran upstairs. "She was wild to go with us. She has worshipped you
+ever since we showed her your picture. She has heard your father
+play, too, and considers him the greatest violinist living."
+
+"I suspected she wished to be included in the invitation," smiled
+Eleanor. "I imagine I am going to like her very much."
+
+Guido Savelli had engaged a private dining room at the "Tourraine"
+for his young guests. He welcomed them with true Latin enthusiasm,
+and to see him seated at the head of the table one would never have
+suspected him to be the moody, temperamental genius whose playing had
+made him famous in two continents. When the time came to leave the
+hotel for the train he was escorted to the station by an admiring
+bodyguard of five young women.
+
+"Remember, you have promised to visit Overton again before you leave
+New York," reminded Grace as he walked down the station platform
+between Grace and Eleanor.
+
+"He will," declared Eleanor. "I shall make him come back to Overton
+for me. Good-bye, Father. Take care of yourself. Remember to go for
+your walk every day, won't you? He's the nicest father," she said
+softly as the little group turned to leave the station after the
+train had gone. "Now take me to your house and let us have an
+old-fashioned gossip. I have so much to tell you, and I want to hear
+about Overton."
+
+A happy party gathered in Grace's room that night for an old-time
+talk about Oakdale. Elfreda was the only outsider present. For her
+benefit the story of the stolen class money and its timely recovery
+by Grace and Eleanor, as related in "GRACE HARLOWE'S SENIOR YEAR AT
+HIGH SCHOOL," was retold, as well as many other eventful happenings
+of their high school life. At a quarter to ten o'clock the four girls
+escorted Eleanor to the "Tourraine," returning just inside the half-past
+ten o'clock limit.
+
+"Well, what do you think of Eleanor, Elfreda?" asked Grace, stopping
+for a moment outside the room shared by Miriam and Elfreda before
+going to her own.
+
+"Don't ask me," rejoined Elfreda fervently. "I can't thank you girls
+enough for the good time I've had tonight. But I want to say that if
+there is anything I can do for any of you, just count on J. Elfreda
+Briggs to do it."
+
+"It isn't necessary for you to tell us that, Elfreda," said Anne.
+"We know that you are true blue, and so does Eleanor."
+
+"Does she really like me?" asked Elfreda eagerly.
+
+"She likes you very much," interposed Grace. "She said so."
+
+"Then I'm going to give a luncheon for her to-morrow afternoon at
+Vinton's," declared Elfreda with shining eyes. "I wanted to suggest
+it, to-night, but I was afraid she might not care to come."
+
+"Couldn't you 'see' that she liked you?" teased Miriam.
+
+"No, I couldn't. There are lots of things I can't 'see.' One of them
+is why you girls ever went to so much trouble to make me 'see.' Good
+night." Casting one glance of love and loyalty toward her friends,
+Elfreda vanished into her room, and wise Miriam took care not to
+enter the room until the stout girl's moment of self-communion had
+passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+A GIFT TO SEMPER FIDELIS
+
+
+When the news was whispered about through Overton College that the
+attractive young woman who was frequently seen in company with Grace
+Harlowe and her friends was the daughter of Guido Savelli, the
+renowned virtuoso, it created a wide ripple of excitement among the
+four classes. Curious juniors and dignified seniors grew interested,
+and Mabel Ashe and Frances Marlton, who were Eleanor's sworn
+cavaliers, were besieged with requests for introductions. Far from
+being spoiled by so much adulation, Eleanor laughingly attributed it
+to her father's genius, and flouted the idea that her own delightful
+personality had made her a reigning favorite during her stay in
+Overton.
+
+It took Grace some time to recover from the surprise occasioned by
+Eleanor's unexpected arrival. During the month in which she had
+received no letter from Eleanor, Guido Savelli had reconsidered his
+decision not to appear in America and instead of canceling his
+contract had sailed at the eleventh hour to fulfill it, taking
+Eleanor with him.
+
+"You arrived just in time for our show!" exclaimed Grace gleefully
+to Eleanor. The two girls sat opposite each other at the library
+table in the living room at Wayne Hall, making up the programme for
+the vaudeville performance which was to be held in Music Hall, on the
+following Friday evening. "Oh, Eleanor, don't you think you can go
+home with me for Easter? Never mind if 'Heartsease' is closed. You
+can have just as much fun at our house. We have only one more week
+here, you know, and your father's concert tour doesn't end for
+another month," pleaded Grace.
+
+"I think I can arrange it," reflected Eleanor. "It is only that
+Father misses me so. In some ways he is like an overgrown child. All
+great musicians are like that, I believe."
+
+"It is a pity to take you away from him," admitted Grace, "but we
+would like to have you with us. Besides, Tom Gray is going to bring
+Donald Earle to Oakdale with him for the Easter. Donald will be so
+disappointed if he doesn't see you, Eleanor."
+
+"I'd like to see him, too," returned Eleanor frankly. "He is one of
+the nicest young men I know. Father is coming down here for our show,
+unless something unforeseen happens. I shall coax him to play. I
+imagine he will be willing. He will play if you ask him, Grace."
+
+"I wish we might feature him on the bulletin board," reflected
+Grace, with a managerial eye to business, "but he wouldn't like that.
+We could have him for a surprise, though."
+
+"I'll tell you what I will do," volunteered Eleanor. "I will
+telephone to his hotel in New York and ask him. If he says yes, we
+can go ahead and count on him to furnish Overton with a surprise."
+
+"Oh, Eleanor, could you, would you do it?" asked Grace, a note of
+excitement in her voice.
+
+"I'll telephone at once," nodded Eleanor, rising. "Suppose we go
+over to the 'Tourraine' to do it."
+
+Within the next hour Eleanor and Grace had talked with Guido
+Savelli. It had taken very little coaxing to secure his promise to
+play at Overton on Friday night, as he gave his last performance in
+New York on Thursday evening, and was free until the following
+Monday, when he would appear in Boston.
+
+"It seems almost providential, doesn't it?" asked Eleanor, as she
+hung up the receiver. "He could not have come here at any other time."
+
+"I'm so happy over it I could hurrah," declared Grace jubilantly.
+
+"I knew Father would not refuse us," smiled Eleanor. "Now hadn't we
+better hurry home and make up the rest of the programme?"
+
+By eight o'clock Friday evening every available foot of space in
+Music Hall was crowded with Overton students. The front rows of the
+hall had been reserved for the faculty, who were quite in sympathy
+with the idea of the new club. In order to obtain permission to use
+this hall, Grace had gone to the dean with the story of the
+organization of Semper Fidelis and its purpose. The dean had
+sympathized heartily with the movement, and had at once laid the
+matter before the president of the college, who willingly gave the
+desired permission.
+
+As the Semper Fidelis Club was composed entirely of sophomores,
+twelve young women of the sophomore class had been detailed as ushers
+and ticket takers. The majority of the club members were down on the
+programme, therefore these duties had been turned over to their
+classmates. Grace, besides appearing in the Spanish dance with
+Miriam, had taken upon herself the duties of stage manager. The two
+smallest sophomores in the class, dressed as pages, had been chosen
+to place the posters announcing the various numbers on the standards
+at each side of the stage. These posters had been designed and
+painted by Beatrice Alden and Frances Marlton, who, with Mabel Ashe,
+Constance Fuller and several other public-spirited seniors, had
+generously offered their services. As both Beatrice and Frances
+possessed considerable skill with the brush they turned out extremely
+decorative posters, which were afterward sold to various admiring
+students for souvenirs of the club's first entertainment.
+
+"I am so tired," declared Grace to Eleanor as they stood at one side
+of the stage while the Glee Club, composed of juniors and seniors,
+arranged themselves preparatory to filing on to the stage.
+"Everything seems to be going beautifully though. Not a single
+performer has disappointed us. How pretty the Glee Club girls look
+to-night."
+
+"Lovely," agreed Eleanor. "The audience is out in its best bib and
+tucker, too. Nearly every girl in the house is in evening dress."
+
+"Consider the occasion," laughed Grace. "Our show would not have
+amounted to much if it had not been for you and your distinguished
+father. Anne could not have recited 'Enoch Arden,' without your
+accompaniment, and the crowning glory of having the great Savelli
+play would have been missing. It reminds me of our concert, Eleanor,"
+she added softly.
+
+Eleanor's blue eyes met Grace's gray ones with ineffable tenderness.
+"The concert that brought me my father," she murmured. "It seems ages
+since that night, Grace. I can't realize that I have ever been away
+from Father."
+
+"It does seem a long time since our senior year in high school,"
+agreed Grace musingly. "Good gracious, Eleanor, the Glee Club are
+waiting for the signal to go on while we stand here reminiscing!"
+Grace hurried to the wing where one of the pages stood patiently
+holding the Glee Club poster, and signaled to the page on the
+opposite side. An instant later the singers had filed on the stage
+for their opening song.
+
+As the show progressed the audience became more enthusiastic and
+clamored loudly for encores. Elfreda's imitations provoked continuous
+laughter, and dainty Arline Thayer, looking not more than seven years
+old, was a delightful success from her first babyish lisp. Her song
+of the goblin man who stole little children to work for him in his
+underground cellar, with its catchy chorus of "Run away, you little
+children," was immediately adopted by Overton, and when later it was
+noised about that Ruth had written the words while Arline had
+composed the music, both girls were later rushed by the Dramatic Club
+and made members, an honor to which unassuming Ruth had some
+difficulty in becoming accustomed.
+
+Anne's "Enoch Arden," to Eleanor's piano accompaniment, met with an
+ovation. Guido Savelli had been purposely placed last on the
+programme. "No one will care for anything else after he plays. The
+audience will have the memory of his music to take away with them,"
+Grace had said wisely. Knowing the musician's horror of being
+lionized, Grace had confided the secret to no one except Miriam,
+Anne, Mabel Ashe and Elfreda, who, in company with her and Eleanor,
+had met him at the train and dined with him at the "Tourraine." It
+had been arranged that at half-past nine o'clock Anne and Elfreda
+should go for him and escort him to Music Hall.
+
+At precisely ten minutes past ten o'clock he was escorted through
+the side entrance to the hall by his two smiling guides, and into the
+little room just off the stage that did duty for a green room.
+Eleanor's quick exclamation of, "You have plenty of time, Father,
+there are two more numbers before yours," caused the various
+performers to open their eyes, and when Eleanor turned to those in
+the room, saying sweetly, "Girls, this is my father. He is going to
+play for us," astonishment looked out from every face.
+
+In order that the surprise might be complete, Grace had purposely
+withheld until the last moment the posters bearing Guido Savelli's
+name. When the two pages placed them up on their respective
+standards, a positive sigh of astonishment went up from the audience
+that changed to vociferous applause as Eleanor appeared and took her
+place at the piano. A second later the great Savelli walked on the
+stage, violin in hand. Eleanor, having frequently accompanied him on
+the piano in private, had begged to be allowed for once to accompany
+him in public.
+
+As the delighted audience listened to the music of the man whose
+playing had won for him the homage of two continents, they realized
+that they had been granted an unusual privilege.
+
+"How did he happen to stray into Overton?" "I supposed great artists
+like him never condescended to play outside of the large cities,"
+were the whispered comments.
+
+One stately old gentleman in particular, who had been the guest of
+the president at dinner, and who sat beside him during the
+performance, grew enthusiastically curious, asking all sorts of
+questions. Who had planned and managed the entertainment? What was
+the object of the "Semper Fidelis Club"? How long had it been in
+existence? Who had been on familiar enough terms with Savelli to
+induce him to play at the "show"? The president answered his
+questions with becoming patience, promising to introduce him to Grace
+Harlowe and Arline Thayer, who, he stated, had been responsible for
+the organization of the club.
+
+Later, the curious old gentleman was presented to Grace and Arline,
+who answered his flow of inquiries so courteously and with such
+apparent good will that he left the hall, smiling to himself as
+though he had gained possession of some wonderful bit of information.
+
+The vaudeville show netted the Semper Fidelis Club two hundred
+dollars, which Arline deposited in the bank the following morning.
+
+"'Every little bit helps'" chuckled Arline as she opened the bank
+book and pointed to the new entry. She and Grace were on their way
+from the bank.
+
+"I should say it did," returned Grace warmly. "I only wish we could
+always make money as easily and pleasantly as we made that two
+hundred dollars."
+
+"It was lots of fun, wasn't it?" declared Arline happily. "When we
+come back next fall as juniors we can give another show and add to
+our fund. We won't have time this year. We are all going home next
+week and after Easter it will be too late in the year to bother with
+entertainments."
+
+"We might give a carnival in the gymnasium next fall," suggested
+Grace. "We had a bazaar at home and made over five hundred dollars.
+If we gave it early in the fall we would have as much as a thousand
+dollars on hand to lend where it was needed. I imagine we can find
+plenty of places for it."
+
+"We can be thinking about it through the summer," planned Arline.
+
+That night when Grace reached Wayne Hall she found a letter bearing
+her address in the bulletin board at the foot of the stairs. After
+glancing curiously at the superscription, Grace tore it open and
+read:
+
+  "To Miss GRACE HARLOWE,
+  "Wayne Hall,
+  "Overton.
+
+"MY DEAR MISS HARLOWE:
+
+"I am enclosing a check made payable to you, which I should like you
+to accept in behalf of the Semper Fidelis Club. I am greatly
+interested in your association and wish to say that at this time each
+year as long as the club exists I pledge myself to contribute the
+same amount of money. Trusting that the club will continue to thrive
+and prosper,
+
+"Yours very truly,
+
+"THOMAS REDFIELD."
+
+Grace lay down the letter and stared at the check with incredulous
+eyes. It was for one thousand dollars.
+
+It took but an instant to dart down the hall to Miriam's room, where
+Anne had just gone to borrow Miriam's Thesaurus.
+
+"Look, look!" cried Grace, holding the check before Anne's
+astonished eyes.
+
+Miriam rose from her chair and peered over Anne's shoulder. "Three
+cheers for Mr. Redfield!" she exclaimed. Three cheers for the fairy
+godfather of Semper Fidelis!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+CAMPUS CONFIDENCES
+
+
+After the Easter vacation there seemed very little left of the
+college year. Spring overtook the Overton girls unawares, and golf,
+tennis, Saturday afternoon picnics and walking tours crowded even
+basketball off their schedule. It was delightful just to stroll about
+the fast-greening campus arm in arm with one's best friend under the
+smiling blue of an April sky. It was ideal weather for planning for
+the future, but it was anything but conducive to study.
+
+"It's a good thing we work like mad in the winter," grumbled Elfreda
+Briggs, giving her Horace a vindictive little shove that sent it
+sliding to the floor. "I can't remember anything now, except that the
+grass is green, the sky is blue--"
+
+"Sugar is sweet, and so are you," supplemented Miriam Nesbit slyly.
+
+"That wasn't what I was going to say at all," retorted Elfreda
+reprovingly.
+
+"Then I beg your pardon," returned Miriam, with mock contrition.
+"What were you going to say?"
+
+"Nothing much," grinned Elfreda, "except that I was weighed to-day
+and I've lost five pounds. I am down to one hundred and forty-five
+pounds now. If I can lose five pounds more this summer I shall be in
+fine condition for basketball next fall."
+
+"You did splendid work on the sub team this year," replied Miriam
+warmly. "I am sure that you will make the regular team next fall."
+
+"The upper class girls say they have very little time for
+basketball," mused Elfreda. "All kinds of other stunts crowd it out.
+I'm not going to be like that, though. I love to play and I shall
+manage to find time for it."
+
+"Where is Grace to-night?" asked Elfreda. "I didn't see her at
+dinner."
+
+"She had a dinner engagement with Mabel Ashe."
+
+"Vinton's?" asked Elfreda.
+
+Miriam nodded.
+
+"Grace is lucky," sighed Elfreda. "She is always being invited to
+something or other. Her dinner partners always materialize, too," she
+added ruefully.
+
+"Which is more than can be said of some of yours," laughed Miriam.
+"Strange you never found out about that, isn't it?"
+
+It was Elfreda's turn to nod. "I have often thought I would go to
+Miss Atkins and ask her why she left me to languish dinnerless in my
+room after inviting me to eat, drink and be merry," mused Elfreda.
+"I hate to go home with the mystery unsolved. I believe I will go ask
+her now," she declared, with sudden energy. "I know she's alone, for
+the Enigma isn't there to-night." Elfreda had recently bestowed this
+title upon Mildred Taylor on account of her inexplicable attitude
+toward Grace.
+
+"I have been disappointed in little Miss Taylor," remarked Miriam
+slowly. "I was so sure that she would prove another Arline Thayer.
+She had the same fascinating little ways and at first she seemed so
+genuinely frank and straightforward."
+
+"I wonder what made her change so suddenly," said Elfreda, walking
+to the door, "and toward Grace, especially. She doesn't speak to
+Grace when she meets her. She is an Enigma and no mistake. Now for
+our friend the Anarchist. If I don't come back within a reasonable
+length of time you will know that I have been annihilated."
+
+Ten minutes went by, then ten more. At the end of half an hour
+Miriam wondered slightly at her roommate's continued absence. Just
+before time for the dinner bell to ring, Elfreda burst into the room
+with: "Miriam, will you help me to dress? I am invited to dinner and
+this time I am going. The An--Miss Atkins has forgiven me, peace has
+been restored and we are going out to dine, arm in arm." Elfreda
+pranced jubilantly about the room, then flinging open the door of the
+wardrobe brought forth two large boxes that had come by express the
+day before, one of them containing her new spring hat, the other a
+smart suit of natural pongee.
+
+"Stop hurrying for a minute and give me a true and faithful account
+of this miracle," demanded Miriam. "I had begun to think the worst
+had happened. What did you say first, and what did she say?"
+
+"The door of her room stood partly open and I knocked on it, then
+marched in without an invitation," replied Elfreda. "She was so
+surprised she forgot to be angry, and before she had time to remember
+that she didn't like me I surprised her still further by asking her
+to tell me why she had refused to speak to me for so long. Before she
+knew it she had stammered something about Grace and I calling her
+names and making fun of her behind her back when she had asked me in
+all good faith to have dinner with her at Vinton's. She declared she
+had heard us.
+
+"The instant she said that I remembered that I had mimicked her that
+night while dressing and that Grace had laughed, but had said in the
+same breath, that it wasn't fair. So I asked her point blank if that
+was what she meant, and she said 'yes,' only she hadn't waited long
+enough to hear what Grace had said about unfairness. She had come to
+the door just in time to hear me mimic her, and had rushed back to
+her room angry and hurt. Then I explained to her that I had a bad
+trick of imitating even my friends, and that I had offended more than
+one person by my thoughtlessness. I was really dreadfully sorry and
+asked her to forgive me. She had half a mind not to do it, then she
+relented, smiled a little and actually offered me her hand. Of
+course, after that I stayed a few minutes to talk things over with
+her and she proposed going to dinner. She is changed. In just what
+way I can't explain, except that she is more gentle and not quite so
+prim. Will you look in the top drawer of the chiffonier and see if
+I put my gold beads in that green box? You know the one I mean."
+
+Miriam obediently opened the drawer and taking the beads from the
+box deftly fastened them about Elfreda's neck. "Grace will be glad
+to hear of this," she remarked. "May I tell her and Anne?"
+
+"Yes," returned Elfreda, "but please don't tell any one else."
+Pinning on her new hat she hurried off to keep her long-delayed
+engagement with the now thoroughly pacified Anarchist.
+
+When the dinner bell rang, Miriam suddenly remembered that of the
+four friends she was the only stay-at-home that night. Anne had gone
+to take supper and spend the evening with Ruth Denton. As she took
+her seat at the table she noted that Emma Dean's and Mildred Taylor's
+places were also vacant.
+
+"Where is everyone to-night?" asked Irene Evans, who sat opposite
+Miriam.
+
+"Grace, Anne and Elfreda were all invited out this evening,"
+answered Miriam. "I don't know anything about Miss Dean and Miss
+Taylor."
+
+"Emma is spending the evening with her cousin, that other Miss Dean
+of Ralston House," replied Irene. "Miss Taylor," she shrugged her
+shoulders slightly, "is with Miss Wicks and Miss Hampton, I suppose."
+
+"I don't think I shall overstudy to-night," announced Miriam, a
+little later, as she rose from the table. "I'm going for a walk. Want
+to go with me?"
+
+"I'm sorry," replied Irene regretfully, "but I've a frightfully hard
+chemistry lesson ahead of me to-night."
+
+It had been an unusually balmy April and now that the moon was at
+the full, the Overton girls took advantage of the fine nights to walk
+up and down College Street or the campus. Sure of finding some one
+she knew, Miriam slipped on her sweater, and, disdaining a hat,
+strolled down the street toward the campus. Exchanging numerous
+greetings with students, she wandered aimlessly across the campus
+toward a seat built against a tree where she and Grace had had more
+than one quiet session.
+
+As she neared the seat, which was somewhat in the shadow, she gave
+a little startled exclamation. A girl was crouching at the darkest
+end of the seat, her face hidden in her hands. Turning away, Miriam
+was about to recross the campus when the utter despondency of the girl's
+attitude caused her to go back. Stopping directly in front of the
+bowed figure, she said gently, "Can I help you?"
+
+The girl rose, and without answering was about to hurry away, when
+Miriam, after one swift glance at her face, ran after her,
+exclaiming, "Wait a moment, Miss Taylor!"
+
+Mildred Taylor stopped and eyed Miriam defiantly. Despite her
+expression of bravado, she looked as though she had been crying.
+"What do you want?" she asked in a low voice.
+
+"To talk with you," said Miriam boldly, stepping forward and
+slipping her arm through Mildred's. "Shall we sit down here and
+begin? All my friends have deserted me to-night. There were ever so
+many vacant places at the dinner table. I noticed you were away, too."
+
+"I--I--have--haven't had any dinner," faltered Mildred. Then,
+staring disconsolately at her companion for an instant, she dropped
+her head on her arm and gave way to violent sobbing. "I am so
+miserable," she wailed.
+
+Miriam sat silent, touched by Mildred's distress, yet undecided what
+to do. Things were evidently going badly with the "cute" little girl.
+"She has done something she is sorry for," was Miriam's reflection.
+After a slight deliberation she said gently, "Is there anything you
+wish to tell me, Miss Taylor?"
+
+Mildred raised her head, regarding Miriam with troubled, hopeless
+eyes. Miriam took one of the little girl's hands in hers. "Do not be
+afraid to tell me," she said earnestly. "I am your friend."
+
+"You wouldn't be if you knew what a miserable, contemptible coward
+I am," muttered Mildred. "I can't tell you anything. Please go away."
+Her head dropped to her arm again.
+
+Miriam, still holding her other hand, patted it comfortingly. "No
+one is infallible, Miss Taylor. I once felt just as you do to-night.
+Only I am quite sure that my fault was much graver than yours can
+possibly be."
+
+Mildred raised her head with a jerk. She looked at Miriam
+incredulously. "I don't think _you_ ever did anything very
+contemptible," she said sceptically.
+
+"Let me tell you about it," replied Miriam soberly. "Then you can
+judge for yourself. The person whom I wronged has long since forgiven
+me, but I can never quite forgive myself or forget. It was during my
+first year in high school that I began behaving very badly toward a
+new girl in the freshman class, of whom I was jealous. I was the star
+pupil of the class until she came, then she proved herself my equal
+if not my superior in class standing, and I tried in every way to
+discredit her in the eyes of her teachers and her friends. At the end
+of the freshman year, a sum of money was offered as a prize to the
+freshman who averaged highest in her final examinations. Feeling sure
+that this other girl would win it, I managed, with the help of some
+one as dishonest as myself, to gain possession of the examination
+questions, but before I had finished with them, I was obliged to drop
+them in a hurry, to escape discovery by the principal. By the merest
+chance the girl I disliked happened along just in time to be
+suspected of tampering with the papers. But she had friends who
+fought loyally for her and cleared her of the suspicion.
+
+"She won the prize. Nothing was ever said to me about it, but I knew
+that the principal and at least four girls in school knew what I had
+done. When I entered the sophomore class in the fall I felt a
+positive hatred for this girl and for her friends. I did all sorts
+of cruel, despicable things that year, and succeeded in dividing my
+class into two factions who opposed each other at every point.
+
+"Toward the last of the year I grew tired of being so disagreeable.
+My conscience began to trouble me seriously. Then, one day, the two
+girls I despised did me a great service, and my enmity toward them
+died out forever.
+
+"I can't begin to tell you how differently I felt after I had
+acknowledged my fault and been forgiven. Those girls are my dearest
+friends now. You know them, too."
+
+"You--you don't mean Miss Harlowe and Miss Pierson?" asked Mildred
+in a low tone, her eyes fixed upon Miriam.
+
+Miriam nodded. "Grace and Anne are the most charitable girls I ever
+knew," she said softly, "If they were not they would never have
+forgiven me. Anne was the girl who won the prize. Grace was one of
+the friends who stood by her. If you feel that you have done some one
+an injustice, you will not be happy until you have righted matters.
+If the person refuses to forgive you, you at least will have done
+your part."
+
+"I can't go to the--the--person and tell her," faltered Mildred. "I
+should die of humiliation."
+
+"But you don't wish to go away from Overton carrying this burden
+with you," persisted Miriam. "It will weigh heavily upon you when you
+come back next fall--"
+
+"I'm not coming back next fall," mumbled Mildred. "I shall never
+again be happy at Overton."
+
+"Brace up, and square things with the other girl, and you'll feel
+differently," retorted Miriam.
+
+"If it were any one else besides Miss Harlowe," began Mildred.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry you told me her name!" exclaimed Miriam
+regretfully. "Now that I know it is Grace, however, I shall redouble
+my advice about going to her. You need have no fear that she will not
+forgive you. Grace never holds grudges."
+
+"I can't do it," declared Mildred tremulously, "I am afraid."
+
+Miriam looked at her companion rather doubtfully. "I think Grace is
+the person with whom to talk this matter over," she declared.
+"Suppose we go over to Wayne Hall now? She went to dinner at Vinton's
+with Mabel Ashe, but she must be at the hall by this time."
+
+"Oh, I can't," gasped Mildred nervously, "Yes, yes, I will if you
+will come with me while I tell her."
+
+"I think it would be better for you to go to her by yourself," said
+Miriam dubiously.
+
+"I can't do it," protested Mildred miserably. "Please, please come
+with me."
+
+"Then, let us go now," returned Miriam decisively. "We may catch
+Grace at home and alone."
+
+During the walk across the campus the two girls exchanged no words.
+Mildred was trying to summon all her courage in order to make the
+dreaded confession.
+
+Miriam was thinking of the day that belonged to the long ago when
+she had confessed her fault, and, joining hands with Anne Pierson and
+Grace Harlowe, had sworn eternal friendship. She felt only the
+deepest sympathy for the unhappy little girl at her side, for having
+been through a similar experience she understood clearly the struggle
+that was going on in Mildred's mind.
+
+Twice the little freshman stopped short, declaring she could not and
+would not go on, and each time, with infinite patience, Miriam buoyed
+and restored to firmness her shaking resolution.
+
+"You do not know Grace Harlowe," Miriam said as they neared Wayne
+Hall, "or you would not be afraid to go to her and tell her what you
+have just told me. She is neither revengeful nor unforgiving, and I
+am sure that she will be only too glad to help you begin all over
+again."
+
+"But not here at Overton," quavered Mildred.
+
+"You can decide that later," Miriam said kindly, as they entered the
+house. But she smiled to herself, for she felt reasonably sure that
+Mildred would come back to Overton for her sophomore year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+A FAULT CONFESSED
+
+
+Grace came home from Vinton's with the firm intention of putting in
+a full evening of study. "It is only half-past eight," she exulted.
+"I'll have plenty of time for everything. I suppose Anne won't be
+home until the last minute's grace."
+
+As she passed through the hall to the stairs she poked her head
+inquisitively into the living room. Three or four girls sat at the
+library table industriously engaged in writing. Grace turned away
+without disturbing them, and went quietly up the stairs. As she
+walked down the hall to her own room she noticed that Miriam's room
+was dark.
+
+"I wonder where the girls are!" Grace exclaimed. "I didn't know they
+were to be away to-night, too. Perhaps they have gone for a walk."
+Grace lighted the gas in her own room and, hanging up her hat, sat
+down in the Morris chair, beside the table on which lay her books
+piled ready for work. "If no one bothers me for the next hour and the
+girls obligingly stay away, the rest will be easy," she smiled to
+herself as she worked at her French.
+
+At five minutes of ten she closed her text book on chemistry with a
+triumphant bang. "Nothing left to do now but my theme and that can
+wait until to-morrow night. I think I'll read until the girls come
+in." Grace reached for her book, which lay on the table conveniently
+near her, opened it at the place she had marked and began to read.
+She had not read more than two or three pages when, through the half
+opened door, came the sound of voices.
+
+Grace's gray eyes opened in surprise as Miriam Nesbit walked into
+the room followed by Mildred Taylor.
+
+"I thought you would be here," greeted Miriam.
+
+Grace rose and walked toward Mildred. Without the slightest show of
+hesitation she held out her hand. "I am glad to see you, Mildred. Why
+haven't you come in before?" she asked frankly.
+
+Mildred looked from Miriam to Grace. "I can't tell you why!" she
+exclaimed in a choked, frightened voice. "I thought I could, but I
+can't." She began to cry softly.
+
+Grace sprang to her side, and, placing her arm about the little
+girl's waist, said soothingly, "Don't cry, and don't tell us anything
+you don't wish to tell. I am so glad you came at all. The early part
+of the year I thought we were going to be friends. I am sorry I hurt
+your feelings on the night of the sophomore reception. I told you so
+then, but I am afraid you thought I didn't mean what I said."
+
+"It wasn't that," quavered Mildred, wiping her eyes. "It was--it was
+--I had no business to take it. It was stealing!"
+
+Miriam looked sharply at Mildred's distressed face, as though trying
+to gain some inkling of what was to come. Grace's expression was one
+of anxious concern. Neither girl spoke.
+
+"I might as well tell you, Grace," went on Mildred in a low, shamed
+voice. "I am the person who stole your theme. I found it at the foot
+of the stairs. I did not look at the name written on it until I was
+in my own room. I ought to have given it to you at once, but I
+stopped to read it. It was so clever I wished I had written it.
+Themes are my weak point, and Miss Duncan had criticised my work so
+severely that I was feeling blue and discouraged. Then came the
+temptation to take your theme, copy it, and hand it in as my own. You
+had lost it, so you would never know what became of it. You could
+write another theme as easily as you had written that. It did occur
+to me that you might be able to rewrite that particular theme from
+memory. So I changed the title of your theme, copied it that night
+and changed the ending a little and took particular pains to hand it
+in early the next morning, so that if any suspicion were aroused it
+would not fall on me, but on you. It was thoroughly contemptible in
+me, and after I handed in the theme I felt like a criminal. When Miss
+Duncan sent for me, I grew frightened and instead of owning to what
+I had done I told more lies and tried to make it appear that you were
+the real offender. At first she believed me, but afterward she
+didn't, and made me admit that I had lied. When she told me about
+promising you that she would give me another chance and that you
+neither knew nor cared to know my name, I could hardly believe it.
+Since that time I've never dared to speak to you. I have been so
+dreadfully ashamed." Her voice broke.
+
+"Don't think about it ever again," comforted Grace. "Everyone is
+likely to make mistakes. I think you have suffered enough for yours.
+I am sure you would never do any such thing again."
+
+Mildred shook her head vigorously. "Never," she declared sadly.
+
+Miriam, who had listened to the little girl's confession, an
+inscrutable expression on her dark face, said practically, "Was there
+anything besides what you have told us that made you unhappy to-night?"
+
+"Why--why," stammered Mildred. "Yes, there was. How did you know?"
+
+"I didn't know," declared Miriam dryly. "I just wondered."
+
+"It was something that made me unhappy, yet glad, too," said
+Mildred, her face flushing. "I thought I hated Grace and said horrid
+things about her to two other girls I know, who are not her friends.
+To-night I was with them at Martell's, and I quarreled with them
+about you girls. Ever since I heard Savelli play at your
+entertainment I have felt differently about everything. His music
+brought me to my real self and made me realize how small and mean and
+contemptible I was. I discovered that it was not you but myself I
+hated, and when these girls began to say things about you, all of a
+sudden I found myself standing up for you as staunchly as ever I
+could. Then we quarreled and I got up from the table and almost ran
+out of Martell's.
+
+"I walked and walked until I was all tired out, Then I sat down on
+that seat by the tree where Miriam found me. In defending you, Grace,
+I found myself. I saw clearly that my college life was all wrong. The
+mean things I had done stared me in the face. The theme was the worst
+of all. No wonder I cried. Now that I've told you everything I am
+happier than I have been since last fall. Next year I am going to
+start all over again in some other college where no one knows me."
+
+"Besides yourself, there are only three who know, Miriam, Miss
+Duncan and I." said Grace slowly. "When Miss Duncan sent for me about
+the theme I told myself then that, although I had no desire to know
+the name of the other girl, if ever I should learn her identity I
+would try to be the best friend she ever had. I am ready to keep my
+word, Mildred, if you are ready to come back to Overton next year and
+help me keep it."
+
+Mildred glanced timidly from Grace to Miriam. "I'd love to come
+back," she faltered, "only I'm afraid you girls would never believe
+in me again."
+
+"My friends did," reminded Miriam softly, extending her hand to
+Mildred. "I believe in you now."
+
+"Of course we will believe in you," declared Grace cheerfully. "Come
+back next fall and give us a chance to show you that we trust you."
+
+"I will," answered Mildred with solemn resolution, "but you shall
+give me the chance to show you that your trust is not misplaced. Good
+night," she put out her hand again rather uncertainly. Grace's hand
+went quickly out to meet it, holding it in a warm, friendly clasp,
+and Mildred went to her room a changed girl.
+
+"How did you happen to be her confessor, Miriam?" asked Grace
+wonderingly, after the freshman had gone.
+
+Miriam related the evening's happenings.
+
+"I never even suspected her," said Grace. "I believed her to be
+angry with me for overlooking her at the reception. I always tried
+not to think of any particular girl as being guilty of taking my
+theme. It has turned out beautifully, hasn't it?"
+
+"Yes," nodded Miriam. "As a matter of fact everything generally does
+turn out well in the end if one has the patience to wait."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+"Two more days, then good-bye to Overton," mourned Elfreda Briggs
+sadly.
+
+The stout girl was seated on the floor, the contents of her trunk
+spread broadcast about her.
+
+"Elfreda would like to stay here and study all summer," remarked
+Miriam slyly to Anne, who was watching Elfreda's movements with
+amused eyes.
+
+"Oh, no, I wouldn't," retorted Elfreda good-naturedly. "I am as
+anxious to go home as the rest of you, but I'm sorry to leave here,
+too. What's the use in explaining?" she grumbled, catching sight of
+her friends' laughing faces. "You girls know what I mean, only you
+will tease me."
+
+"Never mind, we won't tease It any more," said Miriam soothingly.
+
+"There is only one thing you can do to convince me that you are in
+earnest," stipulated Elfreda.
+
+"Name it," laughed Anne.
+
+"Invite me to a banquet, and have cakes and lemonade," was the calm
+request.
+
+"I thought you were strongly opposed to sweet things," commented Anne.
+
+"Not at the sad, sorrowful end of the sophomore year," returned
+Elfreda, impressively. "Besides, lemonade isn't fattening."
+
+"And it will be such splendid exercise for you to make it," added
+Miriam mischievously.
+
+Elfreda looked disapprovingly at Miriam, then a broad smile
+illuminated her round face. "So nice of you to think about the
+exercise," she beamed affectedly. "Lead me to the lemons."
+
+Miriam rose, took Elfreda by the arm, and leading her to the closet,
+pointed upward to the shelf. Elfreda grasped the paper bag with a
+giggle. Then Miriam led her calmly out again, just in time to
+encounter Grace, Mabel Ashe and Frances Marlton, who, in passing down
+the hall, had heard voices, and could not resist stopping for a moment.
+
+"What is going on here?" asked Mabel curiously. "Why is J. Elfreda
+in leading strings?"
+
+"She is taking exercise," replied Miriam gravely. "J. Elfreda,
+explain to the lady."
+
+"This exercise is compulsory," grinned Elfreda. "No exercise, no
+lemonade. Of course, you will stay and have some."
+
+"Of course," agreed Mabel. "I may not have a chance for a very long
+time to drink lemonade again with the Wayne Hallites."
+
+"You mustn't say that," remonstrated Grace. "Remember, you are going
+to visit me at Oakdale. Elfreda is going to visit Miriam. Can't you
+can arrange to come, too, Frances?"
+
+"I'm sorry," declared Frances, shaking her head, "but we are going
+to sail for Europe within a week after I reach home. I shall have to
+say good-bye in earnest on Thursday. But I'll write you, and make you
+a visit some time."
+
+"How comfortingly definite. I'll see you again during the next
+hundred years," jeered Mabel.
+
+"You know I don't mean that," reproached Frances.
+
+  "I do intend before the end,
+  This happy couple shall meet again,"
+
+chanted Elfreda as she peered into the lemonade pitcher.
+
+"Precisely," laughed Frances. "Did you play 'Needle's eye' when you
+were a little girl, Elfreda?"
+
+"Yes, and 'London Bridge' and 'King William was King James's son,'
+too. I always loved to play, but was hardly ever chosen because I was
+so fat and ungainly. I remember once, though, when I went to a
+children's party in a pale blue silk dress that made me look like a
+young mountain. I thought myself superlatively beautiful, however,
+and the rest of the little girls were so impressed that I was a great
+social triumph, and made up for the times when I had been passed by,"
+concluded Elfreda humorously.
+
+"Your adventures are worthy of recording and publishing," said Anne
+lightly. "Write a book and call it 'The Astonishing Adventures of
+Elfreda'."
+
+The stout girl eyed Anne reflectively, the lemon squeezer poised in
+one hand. "That's a good idea," she said coolly. "I'll do it when I
+come back next fall. Now I'm not going to say another word until I
+finish this lemonade, so don't speak to me." When she left the room
+for ice water, Mabel Ashe observed warmly, "She is a credit to 19--,
+isn't she?"
+
+"Yes," returned Grace. "They are beginning to find it out, too."
+
+"Your sophomore days have been peaceful, compared with last year,"
+remarked Frances Marlton. "Certain girls have kept strictly in the
+background."
+
+"We have not been obliged to resort to ghost parties this year,"
+reminded Mabel Ashe. "It requires ghosts to lay ghosts, you know."
+
+Grace could have remarked with truth that certain ghosts had not
+been laid as effectually as she desired, but wisely keeping her own
+counsel she was about to essay a change of subject when the return
+of Elfreda with the lemonade served her purpose.
+
+"'How can I bear to leave thee?'" quoted Mabel sentimentally, as she
+and Frances reluctantly rose to go half an hour later. "I hope you
+feel properly flattered. Graduates' attentions are at a premium this
+week. They ought to be, too, when one stops to think that it takes
+four years to reach that dizzy height of popularity. Four long years
+of slavish toil, my children. Observe my careworn air, my rapidly
+graying locks, my deeply-lined countenance."
+
+"Yes, observe them," grinned Elfreda. "You look younger than Anne,
+and she looks like a mere chee--ild. Don't forget that you are going
+to send us pictures of you in your cap and gown, will you?" she
+added, looking affectionately at the two pretty seniors, whose help
+and kindly interest had meant much to her individually.
+
+"We will see you to the door," laughed Grace, slipping her arm
+through Mabel's.
+
+"Did you ever find the girl?" asked Mabel in a low tone. "You know
+the one I mean. I have often wondered about her."
+
+"Yes," replied Grace in the same guarded tones. "I can't tell even
+you her name, but everything has been explained."
+
+Mabel pressed Grace's arm in silent understanding. "Good-bye," she
+said, "we shall see you again before we leave Overton."
+
+"You had better come into our room and finish the lemonade,"
+declared Miriam, as they watched their guests go down the walk.
+
+"But I haven't begun my packing yet, and I have so many things to do
+and so many girls to see that I ought not waste a minute."
+
+"Time spent with us is never wasted," reminded Elfreda significantly.
+
+"Quite true," responded Grace gaily. "I am sorry I had to be
+reminded. To prove my sorrow I will help you with your packing, when
+I ought to be doing my own."
+
+"Come on, then," challenged Elfreda. She ran lightly up the stairs,
+her three friends at her heels.
+
+"I'll pour the lemonade while you and Grace pack," volunteered Miriam.
+
+"I choose to do nothing," said Anne lazily. "I am going to work all
+summer. I need a little rest now."
+
+"You won't know where you are to be for the summer until Mr. Forest
+writes, will you?" asked Miriam.
+
+"The Originals will be lonesome without you, Anne," mourned Grace.
+"You must be sure to visit me. That is, unless you are too far west."
+
+"I am going to have a visitor of my own," announced Elfreda proudly.
+"You can never guess who it is."
+
+"I know," laughed Anne, after a moment's reflection. "It is the
+Anar--Miss Atkins, I mean."
+
+"Who told you?" demanded Elfreda. "It is true, though. She is coming
+to Fairview the last two weeks in July, and I am going to give her
+the time of her life. Just think, girls, she has never had any girl
+friends until she came here. Her mother died when she was a baby, and
+a prim old aunt kept house for them. Her father is Professor
+Archibald Atkins, that Natural Scientist who went to Africa and was
+held captive by a tribe of savages for two years.
+
+"Living with the heathen didn't improve him, for when he came home
+he behaved so queerly that people thought him crazy. Then the aunt,
+who was the professor's sister, died, and poor Laura had to live
+alone with her father in a great big country house. Finally, she grew
+so tired of it she asked him to send her to college. She had always
+had a tutor, so she was ready for the entrance examinations, but she
+had never associated with other girls and didn't know much about
+them. I can't feel sorry enough for calling her names and imitating
+her. We had a long talk at Martell's the other night and I am going
+to be her knight errant from now on."
+
+"You found the rainbow side of your sophomore year in helping some
+one else, didn't you, Elfreda?"
+
+"I don't know what you are talking about," rejoined Elfreda bluntly.
+
+"I know you don't," laughed Grace. "It was nothing much. Last year
+at this time Anne and I were lamenting because we couldn't be
+freshmen all over again, and Anne said that being a sophomore was
+sure to have its rainbow side."
+
+"It has been the nicest year of my life," said Elfreda earnestly.
+"If being a junior is any nicer than being a sophomore--well--you
+will have to show me. There, I've ended by using slang. But I've
+found my rainbow side in another way, too."
+
+"Name it," challenged Miriam mischievously.
+
+"By losing twenty pounds," announced Elfreda, with proud triumph. "I
+weigh one hundred and forty pounds now, and next fall you will see
+me on the team, or it won't be my fault."
+
+"I hope I shall have time for basketball," said Grace. "There will
+be so many other things. Remember, girls, if during vacation you
+think of any good plan for the Semper Fidelis Club to make money,
+make a note of it. Just because we have money in our treasury, we
+mustn't become lazy. We will find plenty of uses for every cent we
+can earn. There are dozens of girls struggling through Overton who
+need help."
+
+"You never told us to what girls you and Arline played Santa Claus
+last winter, Grace," said Elfreda reproachfully.
+
+"And I never will," laughed Grace, "and Arline won't tell, either."
+
+"I know something, too," declared Elfreda, "but I'm not as stingy as
+Grace. I know who poked that envelope with the ten dollars in it
+under Grace's door."
+
+"Who?" came simultaneously from the three girls.
+
+"Mildred Taylor," replied Elfreda. "I saw her do it. I was just
+coming down the hall that night as she slipped it under the door and
+ran away. I never told any one, because I could see she didn't want
+any one to know she did it."
+
+"Elfreda always sees more than appears on the surface," commented
+Miriam mischievously.
+
+"Elfreda's energy has inspired me to go to my room and begin my own
+packing," declared Anne, rising.
+
+"I'll go with you," volunteered Grace. "I think Elfreda can be
+trusted to finish her packing by herself."
+
+"I think I'll accomplish more, at any rate," declared Elfreda
+pointedly.
+
+"It is half over, Anne, dear," said Grace, almost wistfully, as they
+strolled down the hall, school girl fashion, their arms about each
+other's waists.
+
+"Our life at Overton, you mean?" asked Anne.
+
+Grace nodded. "I was sure I should never like college as well as
+high school, but I've found it even nicer."
+
+"And we are going to like being juniors best of all," predicted Anne.
+
+How completely the truth of Anne's prediction was proven will be
+found in "Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College."
+
+
+The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The spelling "aplication" occurred in chapter VIII
+and was changed to "application."]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Grace Harlowe's Second Year at Overton
+College, by Jessie Graham Flower
+
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