it happen
again, Grace, dear. I hoped to be able to run down for
Thanksgiving, but I am afraid it won't be possible.

"I am doing the clubs now, and there will be so much to write about
them during Thanksgiving week that I am afraid I shall have to stay
in town all week. Next week the opera begins, and, oh, joy! I am to
help write it--along with my club duties. I went to almost every
performance last year and loved them all. Why couldn't you girls
make up a party and spend Thanksgiving with me? Isn't that a
brilliant idea? I might succeed in getting a day off.

"You might ask Miss West to come with you. Last summer I asked her
all about you but could get no particular information regarding
you. I saw very little of her during the summer, as she was given a
number of important assignments and covered them splendidly. I am
sorry to say she is not well liked among the other reporters. They
say she is too hard and merciless and that she is terribly
unfeeling. Of course, you would hardly see that side of her. I
should imagine she must have quite a reputation at Overton by this
time, she writes so well. Remember me to her when you see her and
deliver my invitation.

"I must stop instantly or lose my train home. Let me hear from you
about Thanksgiving. Love to you and Elfreda, Miriam and Anne.

"Yours, as ever,

"MABEL.

"P. S.--I saw Frances last week. She is engaged to be married. More
about her when I see you."

"Doesn't it sound exactly as she talks?" smiled Anne.

"I like the Thanksgiving idea," declared Elfreda.

"Of course, we'll go," said Grace, looking questioningly at her friends.

"Of course," repeated Miriam. "But what of Miss West?"

"We might ask Patience to break the news to her," proposed Anne.

"She would be doubly angry with us and say we were afraid of her," said
Elfreda. "I'll tell her if you want me to. Nothing she can say will
injure my castiron feelings."

"Why not put off the evil day? It is still three weeks until
Thanksgiving. We can give her two weeks' notice, as they do in
theatrical companies," laughed Anne. "Something might happen in the
meantime to make us her bosom friends."

Elfreda giggled derisively. "I'd like to see it happen, then. We could
all pursue our favorite phantoms in peace for the rest of our senior
year. She is the only disturber left. Mabel