s.

"We usually dine between seven and seven-thirty, my dears," said Miss
Putnam, as they ascended. "I will send my maid, Annette, to you. Will
you have separate rooms, or do you wish to do as you did last summer?"

"Oh, let two of us room together," said Grace eagerly. "But still, that
isn't fair, for it will leave an odd one. You know we had Mabel with us
last summer."

"Dear little Mabel," said Miss Putnam. "I am sure you must miss her
greatly. Her finding of her mother was very wonderful. I received a
letter from her last week. She says she is very happy, but that she
misses her Oakdale friends, particularly Jessica."

"She is coming east for commencement," said Jessica with a wistful
smile. "No one knows how much I miss her."

"Let us settle the question of rooms at once," interposed Grace, who
knew that whenever the conversation turned to Mabel, Jessica invariably
was attacked with the blues. "Who is willing to room alone?"

"I am," replied Miriam Nesbit, "only I stipulate that I be allowed to
pay nocturnal visits to the rest of you whenever I get too bored with my
own society."

"Very well, then," replied Grace. "How shall we arrange it?"

"You and Anne take one room, then," said Nora rather impatiently,
"Jessica and I another and that leaves Marian and Eva together. Do hurry
up about it, for I want to get the soot off my face, and the cinders out
of my eyes."

The question of roommates being thus settled, the girls trooped into the
rooms assigned them and began to dress for dinner. The matter of gowns
had been discussed by the girls when the judge's invitation had first
arrived. As they were to remain for a week, they would need trunks, but
for the first dinner, in case the trunks did not arrive on time, it had
been agreed that they each carry one simple gown in their suit cases.

Grace and Anne had both chosen white, Jessica a dainty flowered
organdie, and Nora a pale pink dimity. Eva Allen also had selected
white. Marian Barber alone refused to give her friends any satisfaction
as to what she intended to wear. "Wait and see," she had answered. "I
want my gown to be a complete surprise to all of you."

"How funny Marian acted about her gown," remarked Grace to Anne, as she
fastened the last button on the latter's waist. The maid sent by Miss
Putnam had offered her services, but the girls, wishing to be alone, had
not required them.

"Yes," responded Anne. "I don't understand her at all of late. Sh