xtended almost to the back of the house.
They entered the parlor at one side of the hall and sat down while Mabel
excused herself and ran upstairs after Leona Rowe, the junior she had
come to see. She had hardly disappeared before a flaxen head was poked
in the door and a surprised voice said: "For goodness sake, Helen
Burton, when did you rain down? You are just the one I want to see. What
do you think of to-morrow's German? I can't translate it. It's
frightfully hard. Come up and help me, dearest."

The ingratiating emphasis she placed on the word "dearest" caused both
Grace and Helen to laugh.

"All right, I will for just two minutes. Want to come upstairs, Miss
Harlowe?"

Grace smilingly shook her head. "I'll stay here in case Mabel comes
back."

"Thank you," returned Helen. "Miss Harlowe, this is Miss Redmond."

The two girls exchanged friendly nods. Then the flaxen-haired girl led
the way, followed by Helen Burton, and Grace settled herself in the
depths of a big chair to await their return. As she sat idly wondering
what the subject of her next theme should be, the sound of voices
reached her ears, proceeding from the back parlor that adjoined the room
in which Grace sat. Two girls had entered the other room, but the heavy
portieres which hung in the dividing arch, hid them from view. The
voices, however, Grace recognized with a start as belonging to Beatrice
Alden, the disagreeable junior, and Alberta Wicks of the sophomore
class.

"I'll be glad when my sophomore year is over," grumbled Alberta Wicks.
"Mary and I have asked for a room here. I hope we get it. If we do we
will be able, at least, to eat our meals without the eternal
accompaniment of Miss Harlowe's and Miss Nesbit's doings. Ever since
that basketball game, Stuart Hall has talked of nothing else."

"Are there many freshmen at Stuart Hall?" asked Beatrice Alden.

"Too many to suit me," was the emphatic answer.

"If you are so down on freshmen in general, how in the world do you
manage to endure that dreadful Miss Briggs?"

"J. Elfreda is a joke," replied Alberta. "Nevertheless, she is a very
useful joke. In the first place, she has plenty of money to spend, and
we see to it that she spends a good share of it on us. Then, too, we
can borrow money of her. She is a great convenience. The funny part of
it is she doesn't know about that letter we wrote. For once that
priggish Miss Harlowe did manage to hold her tongue to some purpose."

"Supp