ads the notoriety of fame.
Everybody will be looking at her, pointing her out. Or--or possibly----"
Adele hesitated, glanced around uneasily, caught my eye; and we both
dropped our lids quickly. It was horrid of us. I think it is the meanest
thing to be suspicious and ready to believe evil of anybody. But truly we
had just been reading a volume of college stories, and one was about a
girl who plagiarized some poems and passed them off as her own. And this
Maria Mitchell Kiewit had behaved almost exactly like her.

"Or possibly what?" demanded Jo.

Adele stammered. "Or p-p-possibly--oh, nothing! Maybe she is ashamed of
the story or something like that. She lacks self-esteem probably. She
didn't expect it to be published, you know, and--and she is surprised.
That's all. She--I guess she's surprised."

"Come along, Adele," I slipped my arm through hers and dragged her away
from Jo's neighborhood, "you must help me reject these fourteen others.
That's the part I hate worst about this editorial business."

"Don't you want to reconsider the decision?" called Jo, "since she
doesn't wish the prize herself, you'd better choose my girl. This is your
last chance. The committee for the Annual will surely gobble number
fifteen up quick. Berta Abbott knows good literature when she sees it.
Going, going----"

"Let her go. Now, Adele," I said, closing the sanctum door with
inquisitive stubborn Jo safely on the outside, "here are the rest of the
names. You doubtless know some of their owners by sight, and I hope I
know others. This is how we shall manage. Whenever you see one of them
securely away from her room--maybe in the library or recitation or out on
the campus or down town or anywhere--you tell me or else run yourself and
take her manuscript and poke it under her door. I'll write a nice polite
little regretful admiring note to go with each story, and that ought to
take the edge off the blow. But be sure she is not at home. It would be
simply awful to hand anybody a rejected article right to her real face
and see how disappointed she is. I think it is more courteous to give her
a chance to recover alone and unobserved."

"But suppose she has a roommate?" said Adele.

"Oh, dear! Well, in that case we'll have to watch and loiter around till
they are both out of reach. It may take us all the week."

And it actually did. It took a lot of time but it was exciting too in a
way. We felt like detectives or criminals--it doesn't ma