the honor about to be thrust upon her, was telling her
chum that she thought Grace Harlowe would make a good president for
19----.

On her way home Grace exclaimed delightedly: "Look across the street,
girls! There is Mabel Ashe. Let's go over and speak to her."

Suiting the action to the word the four girls hurried across the street
to greet their favorite. Mabel smiled pleasantly, stretching forth a
welcoming hand, but the young woman with her regarded their presence as
an intrusion and glared her displeasure at the newcomers.

"How do you do, Miss Alden?" ventured Grace politely, but Miss Alden
stared over her head and with a frigid, "Really, Mabel, under the
circumstances, you'll have to excuse my leaving you," she turned and
marched off in the other direction.

"I suppose we are the circumstances," said Grace, with a faint smile.
She was furiously angry at the unlooked-for snub, but refused to show
it. Anne looked distressed, Miriam was frowning, while Elfreda glowered
savagely.

"Don't mind what she says," soothed Mabel. "She feels awfully cross this
afternoon because she has met with a disappointment. She has an
invitation to a Pi Kappa Gamma dance and she has been refused permission
to go. Result, she is in a raging, tearing humor."

"But I thought one could always go to a fraternity dance if properly
chaperoned," remarked Grace innocently.

"One can," mimicked Mabel, "if one doesn't ask permission to go too
often, and if one has no conditions to work off. Now, you see why
Mistress Beatrice is obliged to languish at home while the man who
invited her will no doubt have to invite some other girl, who is lucky
enough to have no conditions."

"Isn't it rather early in the year to be conditioned?" asked Miriam.

"Yes, but Beatrice has been cutting classes ever since she came back
this year," confided Mabel. "I am not betraying a confidence in telling
you this. She admits that she neglects her work. She says she is going
to settle down after mid-year's exams and work."

"I think she's about the most snobbish proposition I ever came across,"
announced Elfreda. "It would serve her right if she did flunk in her
examinations. I hope with all my heart she falls down with an awful
bump."

Elfreda had forgotten her former aspirations toward cultivating the true
college spirit.

"You mustn't wish even your bitterest enemy bad luck," smiled Mabel
Ashe. "Superstitious people say that the bad luck will be visited