hat morning she waited for Ruth, who was one of the
last of the long procession of girls who filed out of the chapel. Arline
was with her and made a rush for Grace the moment she caught sight of
her. "I have been watching for you," she said eagerly. "I haven't heard
a word, and neither has Ruth. Perhaps they were more honorable than we
believed them to be."

"I thought that, too," rejoined Grace. "It has been almost a week since
I told Ruth. We may never hear a word concerning it."

"It wouldn't make much difference now," said Arline. "Ruth knows, and
there isn't really anything to be said except that after many years'
separation she may find her father. She need not care who knows that."

"It was the cruel shock to her that I thought of, and so did Kathleen
West," explained Grace. "She seems determined to hurt some one's
feelings by 'notoriety' methods. Her newspaper work has made her hard
and unfeeling. She is always trying to dig up some one's private affairs
and make them public property. I imagine our two seniors have placed a
restraining hand on this last affair. I hope Mabel Ashe will never grow
cruel and unfeeling--and dishonorable."

"She won't," predicted Arline. "Father knows many delightful newspaper
women who are above reproach. Besides, Mabel will never remain on a
newspaper long enough to change. There is a certain young lawyer in New
York City who adores her, and I think she cares for him. There is no
engagement yet, but there will be inside of a year or my name is not
Arline Thayer."

"Really?" asked Grace, her eyes widening with interest. "She has never
so much as intimated it to me."

"I know a little about it, for we have mutual friends in New York.
Besides, Father knows the man. I've met him. He's a dear, and awfully
handsome."

Having lingered to talk until the last moment the two girls were obliged
to part abruptly and scurry off to their recitation rooms, which lay in
different directions. They met late in the afternoon in the gymnasium to
watch Elfreda's last practice playing before the game, but in their
momentary basketball enthusiasm the topic of the morning's conversation
was not touched upon.

The game between the sophomore and junior teams was looked upon as an
event of extreme importance. Elfreda's love for the game and the story
of her persistent effort to reduce her weight in order to glitter as a
prominent basketball star had become familiar to not only her upper
class friend