CHAPTER IX
A THANKSGIVING INVITATION
"At last!" exclaimed Grace triumphantly, as she extracted a letter fromthe Wayne Hall bulletin board addressed to her in Mabel Ashe'sunmistakable handwriting. "Oh, I am so glad! I thought she had forgottenme."
"Or had been persuaded to forget you," put in Elfreda Briggs, who hadcome downstairs to breakfast directly behind Grace.
Grace looked frankly amazed. "How did you know?"
"How do I find out everything I know?" demanded Elfreda. "Don't yousuppose I noticed that you were worried about not hearing from Mabel? Icould see you thought some one had made mischief."
"Elfreda Briggs, will you please tell me your exact method ofdeduction!" exclaimed Grace in a half vexed tone. "Your ability for'seeing things' is positively uncanny."
"There was nothing very uncanny about seeing you look ready to cry everytime Mabel's name was mentioned," retorted Elfreda. "We all knew thatyou hadn't received a letter from her. Put two and two together, what isthe result? Ask me something harder. That's easy."
"I make my bow to you, most observing of all observers," laughed Grace."I have been worried over not receiving a letter from Mabel, but Ihadn't breathed it to any one. Come into the living room beforebreakfast. No; let us have breakfast first. It is early yet and we shallhave time to read the letter afterward in my room. Then Anne and Miriamcan hear it, too. Here they come, the slow pokes."
"A dillar, a dollar, a ten-o'clock scholar, Oh, why did you come so soon?"
chanted Elfreda as Anne, followed by Miriam, appeared at the head of thestairs.
"A ten-minutes-to-eight-o'clock scholar," calmly corrected Miriam. "Weare early, but you and Grace are distressingly early. I suppose youfound the fabled worm."
"Here it is." Grace held up the letter. "If you are pleasant andrespectful to us during breakfast, I will invite you to my room to hearit read."
"Your half of the room," reminded Anne, with emphasis.
"I beg your pardon, my half of the room," corrected Grace. "I mightlease your half for the occasion, then I could turn you out if youproved a disturbing factor."
"But I could refuse to lease my half," declared Anne.
"Then I should be obliged to turn you out, at any rate. I am muchstronger than you."
"It sounds like a discussion between the March Hare and the Mad Hatter,doesn't it?" commented Elfreda.
"It has a true Alice in Wonderland tang," agreed Miriam solemnly. "Inthe meantime I am growing hungrier. On to breakfast!"
After breakfast, the quartette lost no time in going upstairs to Grace'sroom to listen to Mabel's letter. Grace opened it, glanced hastily overthe first page, then read:
"MY DEAR GRACE:--
"Your faith in me as a correspondent must be shattered by this time. I've intended to write, but my days and nights, too, have been so crowded with work that I have almost forgotten that I am entitled to a little recreation. I'll try not to let it happen again, Grace, dear. I hoped to be able to run down for Thanksgiving, but I am afraid it won't be possible.
"I am doing the clubs now, and there will be so much to write about them during Thanksgiving week that I am afraid I shall have to stay in town all week. Next week the opera begins, and, oh, joy! I am to help write it--along with my club duties. I went to almost every performance last year and loved them all. Why couldn't you girls make up a party and spend Thanksgiving with me? Isn't that a brilliant idea? I might succeed in getting a day off.
"You might ask Miss West to come with you. Last summer I asked her all about you but could get no particular information regarding you. I saw very little of her during the summer, as she was given a number of important assignments and covered them splendidly. I am sorry to say she is not well liked among the other reporters. They say she is too hard and merciless and that she is terribly unfeeling. Of course, you would hardly see that side of her. I should imagine she must have quite a reputation at Overton by this time, she writes so well. Remember me to her when you see her and deliver my invitation.
"I must stop instantly or lose my train home. Let me hear from you about Thanksgiving. Love to you and Elfreda, Miriam and Anne.
"Yours, as ever,
"MABEL.
"P. S.--I saw Frances last week. She is engaged to be married. More about her when I see you."
"Doesn't it sound exactly as she talks?" smiled Anne.
"I like the Thanksgiving idea," declared Elfreda.
"Of course, we'll go," said Grace, looking questioningly at her friends.
"Of course," repeated Miriam. "But what of Miss West?"
"We might ask Patience to break the news to her," proposed Anne.
"She would be doubly angry with us and say we were afraid of her," saidElfreda. "I'll tell her if you want me to. Nothing she can say willinjure my castiron feelings."
"Why not put off the evil day? It is still three weeks untilThanksgiving. We can give her two weeks' notice, as they do intheatrical companies," laughed Anne. "Something might happen in themeantime to make us her bosom friends."
Elfreda giggled derisively. "I'd like to see it happen, then. We couldall pursue our favorite phantoms in peace for the rest of our senioryear. She is the only disturber left. Mabel says she imagines Kathleenmust have quite a reputation at Overton by this time. She has. Thereisn't a doubt of it."
"Elfreda, be good," admonished Grace, laughing a little.
"Be good, bad child, and let who will be naughty," paraphrased Elfredain a piping, affected voice.
"That sounded exactly like Hippy, didn't it?" said Miriam.
Grace and Anne nodded.
"We ought to call her Hippy the Second," suggested Anne.
"Good gracious!" gasped Elfreda, pointing a warning finger at themission clock on the wall. "Half-past eight, and here I sit gaylyloitering as though I had nothing else to do. How about chapel thismorning? I know you are going, Miriam. How about you, Grace and Anne?"
"I am," said Anne. "Run along and get your wraps. I'll meet youdownstairs."
After the three girls had gone off to chapel Grace pulled her favoritechair over to the window and sat down to think things over. First of allcame the disturbing problem of the newspaper girl and Mabel'sinvitation. From the tone of the letter it was evident that Mabel knewnothing of the real state of affairs. Kathleen had maintained a discreetsilence. Grace felt dimly that the hard, self-centered girl had taken atleast one step in the right direction. She had gone from her freshmanyear to her paper without telling tales. "I wish she'd hurry and take awhole lot more," Grace reflected moodily, as she tried to decide whetherto write Mabel, asking her to send Kathleen a separate invitation, or totake matters into her own hands and deliver the invitation in person. "Iknow she won't go if we ask her. I can't settle that to-day. I shallhave to see Patience first. She may be able to suggest something."
Grace passed on to the next worry, which was over her misunderstandingwith Arline. It was so extremely unfortunate that it should havehappened just when they had begun to talk of the Semper Fidelis fancydress party. She could not carry out her ideas successfully withoutArline's co-operation and help. After changing her mind several times,Grace decided to go to Morton House and see Arline.
"It really isn't my place," she ruminated, "but I can't bear to haveArline angry with me."
Last of all, Grace was troubled over the notice she had read in thepaper concerning "Larry, the Locksmith." She was certain that the manshe had seen in front of the moving picture theatre on the evening oftheir little theatre party was none other than the robber in whosecapture she had been instrumental during her senior year at high school.Should she notify the Overton authorities of her discovery? Perhaps bythis time the thief was many miles from Overton. Grace disliked the ideaof figuring even privately in the affair. Yet was it right to withholdher knowledge? She could not determine on any particular cour
se ofaction, and with an impatient sigh at her own lack of decision in thematter she rose from her chair and prepared to go to her first class inanything but a cheerful frame of mind.