n the
proud bosoms of their families and devour much turkey. In the afternoon,
the long-talked-of game of basket ball came off between the sophomores
and the freshmen. It was an occasion of energetic color-flaunting, in
which black and scarlet banners predominated. It seemed as though almost
every one in Sanford High School, with the exception of the freshmen
themselves, was devoted heart and soul to the sophomores. The rumor of
the unfair treatment they had received in the deciding practice game had
been noised abroad, and Marjorie and her team mates were in a fair way
to be lionized. A packed gallery, much jubilant singing and frantic
applause of every move they made, spurred the black and scarlet girls to
doughty deeds, and, although it was a hard-fought battle, in which the
freshmen played for dear life, the sophomores won.

Altogether, it was a day long to be remembered, and Marjorie lived it
for all that lay within her energetic young body and mind. Only the one
flaw that marred its perfection and left her sober-eyed and
retrospective when the eventful holiday was ended. She felt that one
word of commendation from Mary would have been worth more than all the
praise she had received from admiring friends. But Mary was as stony and
implacable as ever, giving no sign of the surrender which Constance
Stevens had unconsciously nipped in the bud.

Just how Mary spent that particular Thanksgiving Day Marjorie did not
learn until long afterward. She knew only that Mary had left the house
directly after dinner, merely stating that she intended making several
calls, and was seen no more until ten o'clock that night, when she
flitted into the house like a ghost and vanished up the stairs to her
own room.

After Thanksgiving, basket ball echoes died out in the growing murmur of
coming Christmas joys, and like every young girl, Marjorie grew
impatient and enthusiastic over her holiday plans. She did not chatter
them as freely to General and Captain when at table as had been her
custom each year in the happy days when only they three had been
together. As her formerly lovable self, Marjorie would have felt no
reserve in Mary's presence, but this strange, new Mary with her white,
immobile face and indifferent eyes, chilled her and killed her desire to
exchange the usual gay badinage with her General, which had always made
meal-time a merry occasion.

"I don't like Mary's effect on our little girl, Margaret. Of late,
Marjori