Grace Harlowes Third Year at Overton College | Page 9

turned in every story I ever ran down,"
she concluded, her small face setting in harsh lines.
"But didn't that make some of the people about whom the stories were
written very unhappy?" asked Miriam pointedly.
"I suppose so," answered Kathleen. "But I never stopped to bother
about them. I had to think of myself and of my paper."
"How long have you known Mabel Ashe?" asked Grace, abruptly
changing the subject. Something in the cold indifference of Kathleen's
voice jarred on her.
"Just since she appeared on the paper," returned Kathleen
unconcernedly. "She is very pretty, isn't she? But prettiness alone
doesn't count for much on a newspaper. Can she make good? That is
the question. She imagines that journalism is her vocation, but I am
afraid she is going to be sadly disillusioned. She seems to be a clever
girl, though."
"Clever," repeated Grace with peculiar emphasis. "She is the cleverest
girl we know. While she was at Overton, she was the life of the college.
Everyone loved her. I can't begin to tell you how much we miss her."
"It's very nice to be missed, I am sure," said Kathleen hastily, retreating
from what appeared to be dangerous ground. "I hope I shall be
eulogized when I have graduated from Overton."
"That will depend largely on your behavior as a freshman," drawled
Elfreda.

"What do you mean?" asked Kathleen sharply. "I thought freshmen
were of the least importance in college."
"So they are to the other classes," returned Elfreda. "They are of the
greatest importance to themselves, however, and if they make false
starts during their freshman year it is likely to handicap them through
the other three."
"Much obliged for the information," declared Kathleen flippantly. "I'll
try not to make any false starts. Good gracious! It is half-past ten. I had
no idea it was so late. I've had a lovely time at your tea party. I'm going
to send out invitations for a social gathering before long." She rose
lazily to her feet, and carefully set her cup on the table. "I suppose Miss
Ainslee will be sound asleep," she remarked, yawning. "Lighting the
gas will awaken her and she will be cross. She goes to bed with the
chickens."
"Don't light it, then," suggested Grace. "You can see to undress with
the blind up. There is full moon to-night."
"Why shouldn't I light it?" asked Kathleen. "Half of the room is mine. I
wouldn't grumble if the case were reversed. She will soon grow used to
the light. I intend occasionally to read or study after hours. Don't tell
me it is against the rules. I know it. But circumstances, etc. I'll see you
to-morrow. I wish I were a junior. The freshmen I have met so far are
regular babies. I'm going to study hard next summer and see if I can't
pass up the sophomore year. There is nothing like having a modest
ambition, you know."
With this satirical comment the newspaper girl nodded a pert good
night and left the room.
No one spoke after she had gone.
"I must go to bed," said Grace, breaking the significant silence that had
fallen on the quartette. "Come, Anne, it's twenty minutes to eleven.
Good night, girls."

"What do you think of Miss West, Anne?" asked Grace a little later as
they were preparing to retire.
"I don't like to say," returned Anne slowly. "She's remarkably bright--"
Anne paused. Her eyes met Grace's.
"I know," nodded Grace understandingly. "We will try to keep a
starboard eye on her. She is going to find college very different from
being a newspaper woman." Grace smiled faintly. The word "woman,"
as applied to Kathleen West, seemed wholly amusing.
"I don't think she showed particularly good taste in speaking as she did
of Mabel Ashe," criticized Anne, a moment later. "I didn't intend to say
that, but I might as well be perfectly frank with you, Grace."
"I was sorry she spoke as she did, too," agreed Grace. She did not add
that the newspaper girl's half slighting remarks about Mabel Ashe still
rankled in her loyal soul. It was chiefly to please Mabel that she and her
friends had hospitably received this stranger into their midst, prepared
to do whatever lay within their power to make her feel at home with
them. And she had dared to speak almost disparagingly of the girl who
was beloved by every student in Overton who knew her. In spite of her
resolution to keep a "starboard eye" on the freshman, Grace felt
infinitely more like leaving the ungrateful freshman to shift for herself.
"Well, what about her?" Elfreda asked bluntly of Miriam, as she piled
the tea cups one inside the other.
"What about who?" returned Miriam tantalizingly.
"You know very