exhibition in
this country," cried Hippy, waving his hat in the air.

"Cease, Hippopotamus," said Nora. "You are mistaken. We are stars, but
we shall refuse to twinkle in your sky unless you suddenly become more
respectful."

"He doesn't know the definition of the word," said David.

"How cruelly you misjudge me," said Hippy. "I meant no disrespect. It
was a sudden attack of enthusiasm. I get them spasmodically."

"So we have observed," said Nora dryly. "Let's not stand here discussing
you all night. Come on up to my house, and we'll make fudge and have
things to eat."

"I have my car here," said David. "Pile into it and we'll be up there in
a jiffy."

"It's awfully late," demurred Grace. "After ten o'clock."

"Never mind that," said Nora. "Your mother knows you can take care of
yourself. You can 'phone to her from my house."

In another minute the young people had seated themselves in the big car
and were off.

"Did you see Eleanor's runabout standing there?" Nora asked Grace.

"Yes," replied Grace. "I was rather surprised, too. She hasn't used it
much of late."

"How beautiful she looked to-night, didn't she?" interposed Jessica.

"Are you talking of the would-be murderess, who froze us all out
Thanksgiving Day?" asked Hippy. "What is her latest crime?"

Grace felt like saying "Destroying other people's property and getting
innocent folks disliked," but refrained. She had told no one of her
interview with Miss Thompson. Grace knew that the principal was still
displeased with her. She was no longer on the old terms of intimacy with
Miss Thompson. A barrier seemed to have sprung up between them, that
only one thing could remove, but Grace was resolved not to expose
Eleanor--not that she felt that Eleanor did not richly deserve it, but
she knew that it would mean instant expulsion from school. She believed
that Eleanor had acted on the impulse of the moment, and was without
doubt bitterly sorry for it, and she felt that as long as Eleanor had at
last begun to be interested in school, the thing to do was to keep her
there, particularly as Mrs. Gray had recently told her of Miss Nevin's
pleasure at the change that the school had apparently wrought in
Eleanor.

Could Grace have known what Eleanor was engaged in at the moment she
would have felt like exposing her without mercy.

During the first rehearsals Grace, secretly fearing an outbreak on
Eleanor's part, had been on the alert, but as rehearsals progr