ing in
the belief that K. W. won't come now, even if you have invited her.
If she has a shred of delicacy in her cheeky little composition,
she will stay away.

"I must stop now and rush off on the trail of a much-feted
debutante of whose engagement I have heard canny rumors. Until
Wednesday.

"MABEL."

"What a darling Mabel is," said Grace half aloud. "I wonder who I had
better invite." Arline's pretty, wilful face rose before her. She would
have liked to ask Arline, but that was out of the question. There was
Ruth, but Ruth and Arline were too closely associated to be separated.
Suddenly she remembered Patience. "The very girl!" she exclaimed. "I'll
go and ask her now. Oh, no, I can't. I said I wouldn't go into her room
again. Never mind, I will see her at luncheon."

Grace made it a point to be the first girl in the dining room at
luncheon, and when Patience appeared beckoned her to the seat beside
her. "Sit here," she invited. "Emma won't be in. She is going to Morton
House for luncheon; she told me so."

Patience slipped into the vacant seat. "I would like to have a talk with
you after luncheon," she said in a guarded voice.

"Then come into my room," returned Grace softly.

During the progress of the meal Kathleen West appeared, silent and
morose. She nodded slightly to several girls, favored Grace and Patience
with an unspeakably insolent glance, then turned her undivided attention
to her luncheon.

"Why won't you tell me what happened?" was Patience's abrupt question
when Grace had beckoned her into her room and closed the door. "She is
my roommate, you see, and unless you enlighten me as to the nature of
her crime I shall not know just how to proceed with her."

"I don't like to tell tales," demurred Grace. "Still, I believe I am
justified in repeating the story to you, Patience. You have no illusions
regarding Kathleen."

"None whatever," smiled Patience, but a disapproving frown wrinkled her
forehead at the recital of Kathleen's treachery. "It was abominable in
her," she said when Grace had finished. "And I had begun to assure
myself that she was improving daily, too."

"She came out of her shell so beautifully the night we went to the
station house," sighed Grace. "I never dreamed she was planning
mischief. However, I have something to ask you. Here, read this letter;
then I'll talk." She tendered Mabel's letter to her friend.

Patience held out her hand for