Grace Harlowes Senior Year at High School | Page 6

Grace promptly. "And we will bring Miss Bright, too, unless she and Mabel have some other engagement."
There was purpose in Grace's last remark. She wished to see if the name "Mabel" made any impression upon her listener, and therefore kept her eyes fixed upon Mrs. Allison.
As Grace carelessly mentioned the name she saw an expression of pain flit across Mrs. Allison's fine face.
"I shall be glad to see Miss Bright," she said quietly. "Is the 'Mabel' you speak of her sister?"
"No," replied Grace hastily, "she is a girl friend. May we bring her with us?"
"Do so by all means," rejoined Mrs. Allison. "She bears the name I love best in all the world." An expression of deep sadness crept into her face as she uttered these words, and she looked past her callers with unseeing eyes. "Good-bye, Mrs. Allison," said Grace, and the older woman roused herself with a start.
"Good-bye, my dears," she responded. "Be sure to come to me on Tuesday."
"We'll be here," chorused the three girls. "Take good care of yourself."
Not a word was spoken until they reached the street.
"Well!" exclaimed Grace. "What do you think of the whole thing?"
"I think there are several people due to get a shock," said Nora emphatically.
"I am sorry for Jessica," said Anne. "It will be very hard for her to give Mabel up."
"Then you think--" said Grace, looking at Anne.
"I am reasonably sure," replied Anne quietly, "from what I have heard and seen to-day that Mabel is no longer motherless."
CHAPTER III
WHAT HAPPENED IN ROOM FORTY-SEVEN
As the last period of study drew to an end on Tuesday afternoon, the hearts of the four girl chums beat a trifle faster than usual. What if after all their conjectures were to prove erroneous, and Mabel Allison was not the long-lost daughter of the woman in the hospital? All they had to go by was the remarkable resemblance between the two, and the slight emotion displayed by Mrs. Allison at the mention of Mabel's name.
When Grace had repeated the details of their call at the hospital to Jessica, the latter had turned very white, but had said bravely, "I expected it. We will go with you on Tuesday. Shall I prepare Mabel for it?"
"No," Grace had replied. "We may find ourselves mistaken, and think what a cruel disappointment it would be to Mabel. I don't mean by that Jessica, that Mabel is anxious to leave you, but you know perfectly well that the desire of Mabel's life is that she may some day find her parents."
In almost utter silence the four chums, accompanied by Mabel Allison, crossed the campus and turned into High School Street at the close of the afternoon session on Tuesday. Each girl seemed busy with her own thoughts.
"What has come over you girls?" inquired Mabel curiously. "When four of the liveliest girls in school become mum as the proverbial oyster, surely something is going to happen."
"'Coming events cast their shadows before'" said Anne half dreamily.
"Well, I wish they'd stop casting shadows over my little playmates then," laughed Mabel.
At this remark Grace made an effort to appear unconcerned.
"Are you going to play on the junior basketball team this year, Mabel?" she asked, by way of changing the subject.
"I don't know," replied Mabel. "I feel as though I ought to study every minute I am in High School, in order to be more thoroughly capable of earning my own living. I don't expect to be forever dependent upon my friends."
"Dependent, indeed," sniffed Jessica. "You know perfectly well, you bad child, that papa and I have been the gainers since you came to us, and now--" she stopped just in time.
"'And now,' what?" asked Mabel.
"Here we are at the hospital," broke in Nora without giving Jessica time to answer.
The little party waited what seemed to them an interminable length of time; although it was in reality not more than five minutes before the attendant returned with the news that they might see the patient in 47.
Grace had purposely voiced their request in so low a tone that Mabel had not heard her mention the patient's name, and she accompanied the four girls without the faintest idea of what their call might mean to her.
"Now for it," breathed Grace, as they paused at the door of 47.
"Come in," said a sweet voice, in answer to the attendant's knock, and the five girls were ushered into Mrs. Allison's presence.
"How are my young friends, to-day!" she cried gayly, rising from the easy chair in which she was sitting and coming forward with out-stretched hands.
"Very well, indeed," replied Grace, Anne and Nora in a breath as they shook hands.
"Mrs. Allison," said Grace hurriedly, "these are my friends, Miss Jessica Bright and Miss Mabel Allison."
The woman who was in the act of acknowledging the introduction to Jessica started violently