out for Miss West in the first
place. Won't you please tell me all about it?"

[Illustration: They Clustered About the Fireplace.]

Mabel's frank appeal was irresistible.

"I am sure it would be better to tell Mabel everything from the
beginning," said Anne in a decided tone.

"I agree with Anne," came from Miriam.

"Of course she ought to know it," declared Elfreda. "Didn't I say so
last year?"

"Last year!" exclaimed Mabel. "How long has this unpleasant state of
affairs been going on?"

"Ever since the early part of our junior year," admitted Grace. "I
disliked to write you of it. We thought she would change. We did
everything we could to please her, but she is not in the least like any
other girl I have ever known. Ask Patience about her. She rooms with
Miss West."

"Do you?" Mabel turned her amazed glance upon Patience. "And not one of
you said a word to me of it."

"We thought it better not to mention Miss West," said Grace slowly. "You
can readily understand our attitude, Mabel. I feel as though I ought to
tell you that she came to New York on the same train with us. She was in
the car ahead of ours."

"Then I shall surely see her before she goes back to Overton. I suppose
she came down purposely to be patted on the back for her big story. Now
begin the terrible tale of how it all happened."

Grace began with their meeting of Kathleen West at the Overton station
and of their ready acceptance of the newspaper girl for Mabel's sake.
When she told of Kathleen's sudden avoidance of her and the other
members of the Semper Fidelis Club, and of her subsequent intimacy with
Alberta Wicks and Mary Hampton, Mabel exclaimed impatiently: "Those
girls again! They were born trouble-makers, weren't they?"

"But they turned out beautifully," defended Grace, "only I haven't
reached that part of my story yet. It is really a very nice part, only
so many disagreeable things happened before it."

"I shall never notice Kathleen West again!" was Mabel's indignant cry
when Grace had finished the account of Kathleen's attempt to spoil
Arline's unselfish Christmas plan.

"You mustn't say that." Grace grew very earnest. "That was just the
reason I didn't wish you to know. I can't bear to be a tale-bearer, but
still I believe it is your right to know the facts. You are one of us,
and we have no secrets from one another, yet I don't like to say any
thing that will lower her in your estimation. She may have been a true
frie