Grace Harlowes Senior Year at High School | Page 9

imagine," said Mrs. Allison, "the effect this letter had upon
me. For fourteen years I had mourned my child as dead. It seemed
infinitely worse to hear that she had not died then, but was perhaps
alive, and in what circumstances?
"The day I received the letter I took the train for the east, wiring the
Gibsons to meet me, and aided by them engaged the best detective
service upon the case. There was little or nothing to furnish us with a
clue, for the nurse's lying statement had misled us; we were out at sea
before we knew positively that Mabel had disappeared, and my long
illness in Europe, followed by my husband's death kept me from
instituting a thorough search of New York City.
"I was bound for New York in answer to a summons from the men
engaged on the case, when this accident occurred. Mr. Gibson had
offered to make the journey for me, but I felt that I alone must hear the
first news--and to think that through that blessed accident I stumbled
upon my little girl." She ceased speaking and with streaming eyes again
clasped Mabel in a fond embrace.
The chums found their own eyes wet, during this recital, but of the four,
Jessica appeared to be the most deeply moved. Mabel had meant more
to her than to the others, and she found herself facing the severest trial
that had so far entered her young life. She drew a deep breath, then

went bravely over to Mrs. Allison, saying with quivering lips:
"It is very, very hard to give Mabel up. She is the child of our sorority,
but she belongs most of all to me. She is the dearest girl imaginable,
and neither hardship nor poverty have marred her. She is sweet,
unselfish and wholesome, and always will be. I am glad, glad, glad that
her dream has at last been realized, and I should be the most selfish girl
in the world if I didn't rejoice at her good fortune."
She smiled through her tears at Mabel, who rushed over to her and
exclaimed:
"Jessica, dearest, you know perfectly well how much I do and always
shall love you, and Grace and Anne and Nora, too."
The four girls lingered a few moments, then said good-bye to Mrs.
Allison and Mabel, who was to remain for the present with her mother.
She kissed her friends tenderly, promising to see them the next day.
"I'll be in school to-morrow unless mother needs me here," she said
with such a world of fond pride in her voice that the girls who had so
willingly befriended her felt that their loss was a matter of small
consequence when compared with the glorious fact that Mabel had
come into her own.
CHAPTER IV
GRACE TURNS IN THE FIRE ALARM
"I wonder what sort of excitement we shall have next?" remarked
Grace Harlowe to her three friends one afternoon as they gathered in
the senior locker-room, before leaving school.
Three weeks had elapsed since Mabel Allison and her mother had met
in Room 47 of the hospital, and many events had transpired in that
short space of time.
The girl chums had been entertained at "Hawk's Nest" by Mrs. Gibson,

and were in consequence the most important persons in the Girls' High
School. They had found Mrs. Gibson charming, and had been invited to
repeat their visit at an early date. Mabel's story had circulated
throughout Oakdale, and she and her friends were the topic of the hour.
The one cloud on their horizon had been the fact of the inevitable
separation. They had begged and entreated Mrs. Allison to take up her
residence in Oakdale for the balance of Mabel's junior year, but on
account of home matters she had been unable to comply with their
wishes. So Mabel had departed for Denver with her mother, while the
chums had kissed her and cried over her and had extracted a laughing
promise from Mrs. Allison to bring her to Oakdale during
commencement week to witness the graduation of the Phi Sigma Tau.
"It seems as though we have done nothing but say good-bye to people
ever since school began," said Anne Pierson with a little sigh.
"I know it," exclaimed Nora. "First our boys, then Mabel, and--"
"And now all we can do is to wonder who will fade away and disappear
next," finished Grace. "Promise me that none of you will run away
from Oakdale, or elope, or do anything that can be classed under the
head of vanishing."
"Oh, I think we're all rooted to the spot for this year," said Jessica, "but
what about next? Nora and I will be in a conservatory, Grace will be in
college and Anne--where will you be,