railing and were draped and festooned wherever there was the
slightest chance for display.

The sophomores had put forth their best efforts in behalf of their
freshman sisters. When it came to sofa cushions and draperies they had
surrendered their most highly treasured possessions for the good of the
cause.

"I think we may congratulate ourselves," commented Gertrude Wells as she
stood beside Miriam Nesbit, surveying their almost completed task. "Look
at my hands! I have scratched and bruised them handling those
evergreens. My dress is a sight, too," she added, pointing first to the
green stains that decorated her white linen gown, then significantly to
a three-cornered tear near the bottom of the skirt. "I don't care. It
will be out of style by next summer, at any rate."

"I'm not much better off," declared Miriam. "You can't be a working
woman and keep up a bandbox appearance, you know."

"I should say not," laughed Arline Thayer, who had come up in time to
hear Miriam's last remark.

"Does any one know the time?" asked Grace, standing back a little to
view the effect of the bunting she had been winding about a post. "I
can't see the gym. clock from here. It is so swathed in green boughs and
decorations that its poor round face is almost hidden, and I'm really
too tired to go close enough to find out."

"It's five minutes past four o'clock," informed Gertrude, glancing at
the tiny watch pinned to her waist.

"Good gracious!" exclaimed Arline Thayer, "I can't stay here another
minute. I have a hundred things to do before to-night."

"Where's Ruth?" asked Grace. "I haven't seen either of you lately except
at an aggravating distance."

Arline's baby face hardened. "I haven't seen Ruth for over two weeks,"
she said stiffly.

"You haven't!" exclaimed Grace, who, stooping to tie her shoe, had not
noticed Arline's changed expression. As she straightened up her
surprised gray eyes met Arline's defiant blue ones. Like a flash she
remembered. "Then you don't know who she has invited to the reception?"

"No," responded Arline shortly. "I don't know anything about it."

Grace was about to say something further when, overtaken by sudden
thought, she turned her face away to hide the smile that hovered about
her lips. Meanwhile, Gertrude Wells had engaged Arline in conversation,
and Ruth's name was not mentioned again.

"This is positively my last appearance this afternoon as a decorator,"
declared Emma Dean. "I'm go