e children's
stories I've written. Wouldn't it be glorious, Miss Harlowe, if some day
I'd become a writer?" Mary's eyes shone with the distant prospect of
future honors.

"It looks to me as though you were on the right road," encouraged Grace.
"The only thing to do is to keep on writing. The more you write the
easier it will become--that is, if you are really gifted. Kathleen has
great faith in you. You must show her that it is well founded."

"How inspiring you are, Miss Harlowe." Mary looked her gratitude at
Grace's hopeful words; then she added in a slightly lower tone: "I'm so
glad everything went so beautifully for Evelyn. I saw her twice in 'The
Reckoning.' She looked _beautiful_, and her acting was so clever.
She--she told me of her own accord about"--Mary hesitated--"things. It
would have hurt me dreadfully if Evelyn had not come back to Overton. I
love her dearly."

Grace nodded sympathetically. She understood the remarkable effect of
Evelyn's beauty upon Mary. Still, she reflected, it had not been potent
enough to lure Mary from standing by her colors at the crucial moment.
Grace realized that this poor orphan girl, whose only home was Harlowe
House, possessed a steadfast, upright nature that must in time win her
not only scores of loyal friends, but the respect of all who knew her,
as well.

A sudden trill from Kathleen caused them to quicken their steps. The
others were standing in front of Vinton's, waiting for them. Once inside
the pretty tea room that had been the scene of so many of their revels,
with one accord they made for the alcove table.

"Shades of Arline Thayer," laughed Emma. "I am haunted by her. I can see
her sitting in that chair, her little hands folded on the table, saying,
'What are we going to eat, girls?' She loved this alcove and every stick
and stone of Vinton's. She never cared so much for Martell's."

By this time they had seated themselves at the round table and begun to
order their luncheon. Vinton's was productive of reminiscences, and they
were soon deep in the discussion of past events, grave and gay, that had
dotted their college life. Evelyn and Mary were for the most part
listeners, but Grace, Patience, Emma and Kathleen fairly bubbled over
with by-gone college history.

"I love to hear about the things that happened to Miss Harlowe and Miss
Dean when they were students," confided Mary to Evelyn under cover of a
general laugh over one of Emma Dean's ridiculous reminis