have made up my mind and may have something to say which will be worth
while. Can you come in Thursday afternoon at two? And will you? Very
well. Oh, don't thank me! I haven't done anything yet. Perhaps I shall
not be able to, but we shall hope for the best."

Mary went straight to Mrs. Wyeth's home on Pinckney Street and once
more occupied her pleasant room on the third floor. In spite of her
determination not to care she could not help feeling a little pang as
she walked by the Misses Cabot's school and remembered that she would
never again enjoy the privileges and advantages of that exclusive
institution. She wondered how the girls, her classmates, had felt and
spoken when they heard the news that she had left them and returned
to Cape Cod and storekeeping. Some would sneer and laugh--she knew
that--and some might be a little sorry. But they would all forget her,
of course. Doubtless, most of them had forgotten her already.

But the fact that all had not forgotten was proved that very evening
when, as she and Mrs. Wyeth and Miss Pease were sitting talking together
in the parlor, Maggie, the maid, answering the ring of the doorbell,
ushered in Miss Barbara Howe. Barbara was, as usual, arrayed like the
lilies of the field, but her fine petals were decidedly crumpled by the
hug which she gave Mary as soon as she laid eyes upon her.

"You bad girl!" she cried. "Why didn't you tell me you were in town? And
why didn't you answer my letter--the one I wrote you at South Harniss? I
didn't hear a word and only tonight, after dinner, I had the inspiration
of phoning Mrs. Wyeth and trying to learn from her where you were and
what you meant by dropping all your friends. Maggie answered the phone
and said you were here and I threw on my things--yes, 'threw' is the
word; nothing else describes the process--and came straight over. How DO
you do? And WHAT are you doing?"

Mary said she was well and that she had been too busy to reply to Miss
Howe's letter. But this did not satisfy. Barbara wanted to know why she
had been busy and how, so Mary told of her determination to remain in
South Harniss and become a business woman, Barbara was greatly excited
and enthusiastic.

"Won't it be perfectly splendid!" she exclaimed. "I only wish I were
going to do it instead of having to stay at that straight-up-and-down
school and listen to Prissy's dissertations on Emerson. She told the
Freshman class the other day that she had had the honor o