so late, however, that we had to give this
plan up and get ready for dinner. It was a dreadful disappointment.

Martha hadn't come yet. It was half-past five and dark, and then it was
quarter of six, and then it was six, and we went down to dinner, but she
hadn't come yet. And then it was half-past six, and we went down the
avenue to the Lodge to watch the car unload, but no Martha. We danced in
parlor J for a while, and then we went to chapel at seven, but she hadn't
come yet. And then we walked down to the Lodge again and watched three
cars stop and turn around the curve, one after another, but she wasn't in
any of them. And then we went back to tell Mrs. Howard, the lady
principal, about it. And she was awfully anxious and asked all sorts of
questions about Martha, and what kind of a girl she was, and if she had
any money with her, or any friends in town, or any peculiar habits about
running away from her friends, or any trouble lately or anything.

Then she began to telephone and went to see Prexie, and Lila and I
wandered out to the stairs above the bulletin board where the students
were waiting to hear the election returns. Between the successive
telegrams the girls clapped and laughed and stamped and hissed at
speeches by the seniors and juniors, or else they sang patriotic songs.

When Miss Benton, president of the Students' Association, the greatest
honor in the college course, and she is the finest senior in the class
too--was urged upon a chair to make a speech, Lila almost pushed me
through the banisters in her excitement. She has admired Miss Benton ever
since the first day when it rained, and we were so terribly homesick, and
she smiled at us in the corridor.

"Hush!" whispered Lila, "listen! Isn't she beautiful!"

"Ouch!" said I, "she isn't beautiful, she's downright plain with her hair
smoothed back that way." But I said it pretty low, because that staircase
banked with girls was no place for distinctly enunciated personalities.
It was a humorous speech, for one reason of Miss Benton's popularity is
her fun under a dignified manner. In the middle of the cheering after she
had finished, the messenger girl appeared with a new bulletin. Somebody
read it aloud so that we could all hear. It reported the victory of the
corrupt party machine in an important city. Nobody spoke. There was just
the faint sound of a big sighing oh-h-h! and then a hush.

The next thing I knew, Miss Benton and some other seniors