urmured. "It would
be a disgrace for a girl like me to be beaten by her. I'll never endure
it in the world."

It was not long before the girls had all finished and turned in their
papers to the teacher in charge.

"Oh, glorious happy day!" cried Nora, as she sped joyously down the
corridor. "Examinations are over, and now for a good time!"

A dozen or more of the freshman class had been invited to Miriam's to a
tea to celebrate the close of school. Anne, of course, was not invited;
but Grace and her friends had received invitations and promptly accepted
them.

Grace had taken Nora and Jessica into her confidence to some extent. She
needed their help, but she had not mentioned the letter from Anne's
father. The three girls met early by appointment, at the Harlowe house,
to discuss matters before going to Miriam Nesbit's.

"Here's a list of the people in Oakdale," said Nora, "who have bought
sandalwood perfume. I have been to four drug stores and all the dry
goods stores."

Grace took the list and read:

"'Mrs. I. Rosenfield, Miss Alice Gwendolyn Jones, Mr. Percival Butz,
etc.' Good heavens!" she cried, "there's not a single person on this
list who has anything to do with Oakdale High School. Mr. Percival
Butz," she laughed. "The idea of a man buying perfume. Really, girls,"
she added in despair, "we've been wasting our time. I can't see that any
of us has made the least headway. I have called on almost every freshman
in the class and inquired what her favorite perfume is, and I know some
of them thought I was silly. Anyway, not one of them claimed to use
sandalwood."

"The stupidest girls would be the ones who would be most likely to want
to copy the papers," observed Jessica, "but those girls are much too
nice to believe such horrid things about. I went to see Ellen Wiggins
and Sallie Moore yesterday afternoon. Neither of them use perfume.
Sallie Moore told me she had an orris root sachet that had almost lost
its scent. Which reminds me," she continued, "why couldn't this
handkerchief have been scented by some other means than just perfume.
Perhaps it was put into a mouchoir case with sandalwood powder."

"Why, of course," exclaimed Grace. "Jessica, I never thought of asking
who had been buying sachet powders. You have a great head."

"Must I go back and ask all those storekeepers for more lists?" demanded
Nora.

"No, child," replied Grace. "Just give us time to think first."

"It's time to go to Miriam'