Anne. "Now, Grace."

"Our fairy godmother is coming to dinner to-night."

"Hurrah!" cried Anne, standing up and waving her hand. "I didn't know
she was within two hundred miles of Oakdale. It seems years instead of
weeks since I saw her. When did she arrive in Oakdale?"

"This morning. She telephoned me. In my last letter I mentioned my
dinner to you girls, and said I wished she might be here too. She came
home from the seashore a week earlier so as not to miss it. She didn't
say not to tell you. I had been holding it back as a surprise. It served
me in good stead by making me eligible to Secret Row."

"Last but not least, Jessica," reminded Nora briskly.

"I was going to tell you this evening when we were all together, and
Reddy promised to help me, but, somehow, I'd rather tell you now, while
we are together on these dear old steps where we've had so much fun."

Something in Jessica's tone caused the eyes of her friends to search
hers inquiringly. It carried with it unmistakable regret. It presaged
parting.

"Reddy and I aren't going to live in Oakdale this winter. We--we--are
going--to--Chicago to live."

"Oh!" Nora ejaculated, drawing her breath sharply. "Oh, Jessica!"

A painful silence fell upon the row of girls, whose voices had only a
moment since rung out so gayly.

Nora sat staring straight ahead of her with quivering lips. Of the three
girls she would miss Jessica the most sorely. Grace, too, felt that
dreadful sense of loss, of which she had complained earlier in the
afternoon, stealing down upon her. Anne's face wore a look of loving
concern, but an expression of resignation to destiny, which was likely
to lead one to the ends of the earth, lurked in her somber eyes. She had
learned young to bow with the best possible grace to the inevitable.

Suddenly a half-stifled sob broke the oppressive quiet.

"Nora, you mustn't," protested Jessica weakly, but Nora's curly head was
already resting on Grace's comforting shoulder, and an instant afterward
Jessica sought the consolation of the other shoulder.

"Girls, girls," soothed Grace, an arm around each, "you mustn't cry."
Nevertheless she experienced a wild desire to lift up her voice and
lament with them. "I know you looked forward to being together this
winter. It's terribly disappointing, but you can write letters and visit
each other, and next summer, Jessica, you must arrange to come to
Oakdale and stay all summer. Why didn't you tell us before