shopping day in the village--Patty and
Conny and Priscilla dropped in at the florist's to pay a bill.

"Two bunches of sunflowers, one dollar," the man had just announced in
ringing tones from the rear of the store, when a step sounded behind
them, and they faced about to find Mae Mertelle Van Arsdale, bent on a
similar errand.

"Oh!" said Mae, fiercely, "I might have known it was you three."

She stared for a moment in silence, then she dropped into a rustic seat
and buried her head on the counter. She had shed so many tears of late
that they flowed automatically.

"I suppose," she sobbed, "you'll tell the whole school, and everybody
will laugh and--and--"

The three regarded her with unbending mien. They were not to be moved by
a few tears.

"You said that Rosalie was a silly little goose to make such a fuss over
nothing," Priscilla reminded her.

"And at least he was a live man," said Patty, "even if he did have a
crooked nose."

"Do you still think she was a silly goose?" Conny inquired.

"N--no!"

"Don't you think you've been a great deal more silly?"

"Y--yes."

"And will you apologize to Rosalie?"

"No!"

"It will make quite a funny story," Patty ruminated, "the way we'll tell
it."

"I think you're perfectly horrid!"

"Will you apologize to Rosalie?" Priscilla asked again.

"Yes--if you'll promise not to tell."

"We'll promise on one condition--you're to break your engagement to
Cuthbert St. John, and never refer to it again."

Cuthbert sailed for England on the _Oceanic_ the following Thursday; St.
Ursula's plunged into a fever of basket-ball, and the atmosphere became
bracingly free of Romance.

III

The Virgil Strike

"I'm tired of Woman's Rights on Friday afternoons," said Patty
disgustedly. "I prefer soda water!"

"This makes the third time they've taken away our holiday for the sake
of a beastly lecture," Priscilla grumbled, as she peered over Patty's
shoulder to read the notice on the bulletin board, in Miss Lord's
perpendicular library hand.

It informed the school that instead of the usual shopping expedition to
the village, they would have the pleasure that afternoon of listening to
a talk by Professor McVey of Columbia University. The subject would be
the strike of the women laundry workers. Tea would be served in the
drawing-room afterwards, with Mae Van Arsdale, Harriet Gladden, and
Patty Wyatt as hostesses.

"It's not my turn!" objected Patty, as she noted