e rank
outsiders, were in no pleasant frame of mind.

Up-stairs Grace, hiding her wrath, overwhelmed by the accursed sympathy
of her best friends, said, helplessly, "What can I do?" She didn't like
to tell them she wished to bury them with her own hands.

From fifteen youthful throats burst forth the same golden
word--"_Elope!_"

She gasped and stared blankly.

"It's the greatest thing I ever heard. I don't know him, but if he is
half-way presentable you can teach him table manners in a week. I'd make
my father give him a job in the bank!" asserted Marion Beekman.

"Me, too!" declared Ethel Vandergilt.

"He's just splendid," volunteered a brunette, enthusiastically.

"And did you see the papers!" shrieked Verona Mortimer. "I say, _did_
you see the papers? _And_ the pictures! Girls, she's a regular devil,
and we never knew it! Where did you hide your brains all these years,
Gracie, dear?"

"I never would have thought it possible," said the cold, philosophical
Katherine Van Schaick. "I call it mighty well engineered. Did _you_ tell
him to do it, Grace? If so you are a genius!"

"What does he look like?"

"Is he of the old New Jersey Rutgers?"

"If he's good-looking and has money, what's wrong with him? Booze?"
asked a practical one.

"He isn't married, is he?" asked a doll-face with Reno in her heavenly
eyes.

At this a hush fell on the group. It was the big moment.

"How exciting!" murmured one.

"Is he married, Grace?"

Fifteen pairs of eyes pasted themselves on Gracie's. She barely caught
herself on the verge of confessing ignorance. She was dazed by the new
aspect of her own love-affair.

These girls envied her!

"No!" she said, recklessly.

"It's her father," prompted a slim young Sherlock Holmes.

"No; Mrs. Goodchild!" corrected a greater genius.

"Maybe it's Grace herself," suggested the envious Milly Walton.

"How can I stop it?" asked Grace, angrily.

"_What?_" shrieked all.

"Why, girls," said Miss Van Schaick, "she isn't responsible for it,
after all!"

Before the disappointment could spoil their pleasure one of them said,
impatiently, "Oh, let's look at 'em!"

They rushed to the window.

"Let's go downstairs. We can see 'em better!" And Grace's friends
thereupon rushed away. One of them was considerate enough to say, "Come
on, Grace!" and Grace followed, not quite grasping the change in the
situation. Her fears were not so keen; her doubts keener.

They nearly overturned