Adele Windsor could do
surprised her. The surprising part was how she avoided being found out.
It was just like her to have planned the theft of the Senior Ramble
lunch. There was something really diabolical in her notions of
amusement. And now, what was to be done?

Should she tell the other girls after the holidays, or should she wait?
It was all weeks off and Molly decided to let the secret rest in her own
mind safely. Even if she told, it would be hard to prove the accusation
at this late day, but perhaps--and here Molly's thoughts broke off.

"I detest all this meanness and trickery," she thought. "I don't blame
Miss Walker for wanting to clean it out of the school. Anyway," she
added, smiling, "if that girl bothers Judy any more, I intend to
pronounce the mystic name of snakey-noodles over her head like a curse
and see what happens."

That afternoon Molly packed a suitcase full of clothes and lugged it
down to Mrs. O'Reilly's, where she had consented to spend Christmas with
Judy instead of in her own pretty Quadrangle apartment. Secretly Molly
would much rather have stayed in No. 5, where she could have rested and
read poetry as much as she liked. But she was rarely known to consult
her own comfort when her friends asked her to do them a favor, and,
after all, if she were going to put Judy through a course of study, she
had better be on the spot to see that the irresponsible young person
stuck to her books.

So the two girls established themselves in the pleasant fire-lit room
overlooking the garden. Judy had brought down two framed photographs of
her favorite pictures and a big brass jar by way of ornament, and on
Christmas Eve the girls went out to buy holly and red swamp berries.

They were walking along the crowded sidewalk arm in arm, recalling how
last year they had done exactly the same thing, when they came
unexpectedly face to face with Mr. James Lufton.

"Well, if this isn't good luck," he exclaimed. "Nobody at the Quadrangle
seemed to know where you were."

He included both girls, but he really meant Molly.

"And what are you doing here?" asked Molly, giving him her hand after he
had shaken Judy's hand.

"Andy McLean asked me down for Christmas," he said.

He failed to mention that he had pawned his watch, a set of Balzac and
two silver trophies won at an athletic club, and, furthermore, had given
out at the office that he was down with grippe, in order to accept the
invitation.

"Andy's u