Betty Wales Senior

er to come soon, before the fine weather was over. Now she was really and truly coming. Roberta had had

ance or a dinner every night for two weeks and I'm already sick of being a busy bud, though I've only been one for a month-not to mention having had the gayest kind of a time all summer. So you see I'm coming to Harding to rest and recuperate, and to

Katherine. "As if we weren't all pining for a sight of

ctically. "There's a lot going on next week, and as soon as people find

e Hildreth hastily. "Isn't it jolly that it comes this week? I

I guess there'll always be room for Mary Brooks at

intervened. "Your dance is on Wednes

ure," returned Hel

e. "Mary isn't coming up here

ut it particularly in her letter. Let me see-oh, here it is, in the postscript. It's by a friend of Dr. Hinsdale, she says; and somebody must ha

nounced until yesterday. There was a special meeti

rine. "Mary was always ra

oesn't explain her inside information about this lecture. We'll ask her how she knew-t

plained Roberta. "I think

s time. Then that leaves only Friday. Let's drive out to Smug

. And of course we shall all want to take her to Cuyler's and Holmes's. May I have

e I am as poor as poverty at present, and a one o'clock luncheon pre

her driving that afte

Cuyler's that night-a grand affair, you know, ordered before hand, at a private table with a screen around it,

, but no one paid any attention to her, in the exciteme

ybody who was unfamiliar with the easy manners of Harding girls, at the elegance of her new blue velvet suit and the long plumes that curled ab

ed admiring her whe

overpowered by its huge size. "Mary Brooks, whatever do you expect to

ere. Besides, I want to be comfortable while I'm here, and this autumn wea

. "I'm going to drive him up. There'll be room

tanding-room for several other adaptable persons. The rest of the party walked, a

as ever, and she did not show any signs of the

ner," she announced proudly. "I conceal my re

," declared Katherine. "How under the sun

end of the lecturer. We were at dinner together one night last week, and

want to go?" d

rely. "I always welcome every o

rest? I'll have breakfast with anybody who can wait till I'm ready to get up, and we'll have one dinner all together. But it's really too cold to drive back from Smuggler's Notch after dark, and besides you know I n

play?" asked Roberta, who had moved h

ary sweetly. "My Frenc

ou'd go in for improvi

of it to improve," M

our house-dance, won

Bob. "I've told piles o

pointment if you don't

Only be sure to get me lots of dances with freshmen. Then I can amus

ls discussed Mary's amazing attitude

erta, solemnly. "Why, she used to be cr

umbled Katherine, "if she's only

y, "and she seems glad to be back, only she doe

n love," said Madeline. "Noth

ared little Helen Adams sedately.

he sentimental kind. I'll bet she

seemed to enjoy it quite as heartily as her guests, who had conscientiously starved on campus far

nap, and went to her room. But half an hour later, when Babbie tiptoed up to ask if she really meant to waste a glorious afternoon sleep

ten us," said Madeline, helping her off with h

xpression. "It takes ages to get into this gown, but it's my

ou exactly fifteen minutes ago," declared Bob triumpha

d her "bea

you mean where was I before that, why my nap wasn't a success, so I went walking, and it was so

adeline. "You hate walking,

e nestle," put

who he is," finis

nd then going off fussing with Winsted me

on, but I shan't now, because you've all been so excessively mean and suspicious." A waitress appeared, and Mary's expression grew suddenly ecstatic.

and the very dull reception that followed it. At the latter, to be sure, Mary acted exactly like her old self, for she sat in a corner and monopolized Dr. Hinsdale for hal

an seemed doomed to failure. Mary had walked out of chapel that morning with the front row, and, even without the enormous bunch of violets which none of her senior friends would confess to having sent

one; but Mary did not know that, and being rather tired she swiftly waltzed her around

Butts, when they were establish

kaleidoscope of gay colors moving dizzily a

y. "You aren't a freshman," she

that?" asked Mary. "I

ed Miss Butts, calmly disr

hook h

or, t

ok her h

for that," said Miss Butts. "Then I

aid Mar

stared. "

the befooling of Miss Butts bene

freshman after all," declared Miss Butts. "Y

ere's Miss Hildreth coming for my next dance. You can ask her. I

ingly for a moment. Then s

man!" she cried reprovingly. "

and reproachful Babbie to Mary, whose ex

sked. "Why, I don't believe you ar

ow the truth some day. Next fall at about this time I'll invite

art promptly forgot all about it. But Mary remembered, and she declared that the sight of Miss Butts's face on the occasi

for refusing invitations that, as Katherine Kittredge said, were enough to turn the head of a crown-princess. Friday, the day that had been reserved for the expedition to Smuggler's Notch, dawned crisp and clear, and some girls who had had dinner at Mrs. Noble's farm the night before brought back glowing reports of the venison her brother had sent he

, disconsolate, and

. "We've been saving that trip al

ested Katherine rebelliously. "Th

does act queerly this week. Besides, every one of us but Roberta and Madeline has that wr

herine sadly. "I supp

a, and Roberta, more hurt than any of the rest b

as talking gaily and looked quite reconciled to her fate, and Dr. Hinsdale was leaving the horses very much to themselves in the pleasant absorption of watching Mary's face. Indeed so interested were the pair in each other that they almost p

t Mary's "little friends" gave up dressing, without a qualm, and even risked missing their soup to sit, lined up in a

m perfectly horrid," she went on hastily, "but truly I couldn't help it. When a faculty asks you to go driv

gements"-began Ma

herine broke in. "You're perfec

anded Mary, stooping to brush an im

o your confidence. You've given yourself a lot of unnecessary bot

nt the summer at the same place tha

told you that?" she

ek, and this afternoon just by chance she happened to speak of seeing him. It fitte

t. "Oh, girls, he's a dear," she said. "He's worth twenty of the gilded youths you meet out in society." She drew back hastily. "But we're only good friends," she dec

can trust us. We always seem to have a faculty rom

me walking and driving because mother asks him t

t jolly goo

en, late the next afternoon, her "li

r's wife?" said Helen, as Mary's stylish little figure, poised on

e a fine one. She's awfully clever, only she makes people t

ine oracularly, "to show the people aforesaid that the two things