236

XIX. FACING THE ENEMY 251

XX. THE JUBILEE 267

XXI. FAREWELLS 277

XXII. THE FINAL DAYS 289

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"You're Right in the Fashion, Miss Brown," observed
Adele _Frontispiece_

Before She Had Time to Realize the Danger, Jimmy
Lufton Had Torn Off His Coat 132

Molly Glanced Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom ... was
Running Behind Them 198

Good-bye to Wellington and the Old Happy Days 303

~Molly Brown's Senior Days~

CHAPTER I.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD.

Summer still lingered in the land when Wellington College opened her
gates one morning in September. Frequent heavy rains had freshened the
thirsty fields and meadows, and autumn had not yet touched the foliage
with scarlet and gold. The breeze that fluttered the curtains at the
windows of No. 5 Quadrangle was as soft and humid as a breath of May. It
was as if spring was in the air and the note of things awakening,
pushing up through the damp earth to catch the warm rays of the sun. It
was Nature's last effort before she entered into her long sleep.

Molly Brown, standing by the open window, gazed thoughtfully across the
campus. Snatches of song and laughter, fragments of conversation and
the tinkle of the mandolin floated up to her from the darkness. It was
like an oft-told but ever delightful story to her now.

"Shall I ever be glad to leave it all?" she asked herself. "Wellington
and the girls and the hard work and the play?"

How were they to bear parting, the old crowd, after four years of
intimate association? Did Judy love it as she did, or would she not
rather feel like a bird loosed from a cage when at last the gates were
opened and she could fly away. But Molly felt sure that Nance would feel
the pangs of homesickness for Wellington when the good old days were
over.

All these half-melancholy thoughts crowded through Molly's mind while
Judy thrummed the guitar and Nance, busy soul, arranged the books on the
new white book shelves.

Presently the other girls would come trailing in, the "old guard," to
talk over the