nd to you."

"Don't worry about that part of it, Grace. You aren't a tale-bearer."
Mabel reached forward to pat Grace's hand. "If only you had told me long
ago."

Grace continued her narrative, ending with Kathleen's final attempt to
be revenged on the Semper Fidelis Club, and the clever way in which she
had been brought to book by none other than Alberta Wicks and Mary
Hampton.

"What a little villain she is, and how splendidly Alberta and Mary
turned out," interposed Mabel. "She was far too clever to give me the
faintest inkling of the truth. I used to wonder why she was always so
noncommittal about things at Overton. I laid it to her peculiar
temperament, never suspecting that she had good reason for refusing to
discuss her college life. I had an idea her cleverness would pave the
way to great things for her at Overton. I supposed her to be very
popular."

"Wait until I finish my discourse," smiled Grace, "then you shall hear
what Patience, the All Wise, thinks of her." She went over rather
hurriedly her recognition of "Larry, the Locksmith" in the streets of
Overton, of how she had trailed him within sight of his hiding place,
and of her tardy remembrance of her promise to her father. "I was
uncertain what to do, when I happened to catch sight of Miss West,"
continued Grace. "An evil genius must have prompted me to take her into
my confidence. But it was a good story, and Patience had told me only a
day or two before that Miss West had been mourning over her lack of news
for her paper. She made what I believed to be a promise to leave out the
Oakdale part of the story and not to use my name within it. Not a line
of the Oakdale part of the story appeared in the Overton papers. The
chief of police kept his word, at any rate.

"I never dreamed of her treachery until I received your letter and the
clipping. I know Father and Mother have read it. Father always buys that
paper. I haven't heard a word from home since then." Grace's voice
faltered.

"You poor, dear child!" cried Mabel, springing from her stool and going
over to Grace.

"Don't sympathize with me, Mabel, or I shall cry." Grace raised her head
smilingly, but her gray eyes were full of tears.

"I've vowed eternal vengeance," proclaimed Elfreda savagely. She could
not endure the thought that Grace should be made so unhappy.

"It is my own fault." Grace had regained her composure. "Perhaps some
day I'll learn not to dive into things head first. I am s