CHAPTER XIII
THE INVITATION
Neither Grace nor Kathleen went to their classes that morning. Feelingreasonably certain that the newspaper girl was in the wrong, Patiencemade no further effort toward discovering the nature of the quarrel. Sheunpacked her bag, putting away its contents in her usual methodicalmanner without so much as a glance in Kathleen's direction. Then, takingher note book, she went quietly out to her class in English, leaving herroommate still standing at the window, her very back expressing defiantanimosity.
Once in her room, Grace reread Mabel Ashe's note. She now understood itsimport.
"MY DEAR GRACE:--
"Words cannot tell you how sorry I am for what has occurred. I did not know until it was too late. The edition had gone to press. I am afraid I couldn't have helped much, for the powers that be were delighted with the story, and that little traitor, Kathleen West, scored a triumph. Knowing you as I do, I am sure you never gave her permission to publish that story.
"Of course, you were simply a great heroine in it, but having heard the Oakdale part of the tale from you, and knowing of your promise to your father, it is plain to be seen that she took advantage of you in some way. If you haven't already delivered my invitation to her, then don't do so. I feel deeply resentful toward her. You can tell me the whole thing when you are with me. I shall expect you and the girls on Wednesday evening on the train that leaves Overton between two and three o'clock in the afternoon. You know the one I mean. I'll look it up in the time table before Wednesday.
"If you happen to know one extra-delightful girl who has no Thanksgiving plans ask her to come, too. Frances can't arrange to be with us, so we need one more girl to do away with the problem of the 'lonely fifth.' Three pairs are much nicer than two and a half. The half always seems out of things. Of course, I am proceeding in the belief that K. W. won't come now, even if you have invited her. If she has a shred of delicacy in her cheeky little composition, she will stay away.
"I must stop now and rush off on the trail of a much-feted debutante of whose engagement I have heard canny rumors. Until Wednesday.
"MABEL."
"What a darling Mabel is," said Grace half aloud. "I wonder who I hadbetter invite." Arline's pretty, wilful face rose before her. She wouldhave liked to ask Arline, but that was out of the question. There wasRuth, but Ruth and Arline were too closely associated to be separated.Suddenly she remembered Patience. "The very girl!" she exclaimed. "I'llgo and ask her now. Oh, no, I can't. I said I wouldn't go into her roomagain. Never mind, I will see her at luncheon."
Grace made it a point to be the first girl in the dining room atluncheon, and when Patience appeared beckoned her to the seat besideher. "Sit here," she invited. "Emma won't be in. She is going to MortonHouse for luncheon; she told me so."
Patience slipped into the vacant seat. "I would like to have a talk withyou after luncheon," she said in a guarded voice.
"Then come into my room," returned Grace softly.
During the progress of the meal Kathleen West appeared, silent andmorose. She nodded slightly to several girls, favored Grace and Patiencewith an unspeakably insolent glance, then turned her undivided attentionto her luncheon.
"Why won't you tell me what happened?" was Patience's abrupt questionwhen Grace had beckoned her into her room and closed the door. "She ismy roommate, you see, and unless you enlighten me as to the nature ofher crime I shall not know just how to proceed with her."
"I don't like to tell tales," demurred Grace. "Still, I believe I amjustified in repeating the story to you, Patience. You have no illusionsregarding Kathleen."
"None whatever," smiled Patience, but a disapproving frown wrinkled herforehead at the recital of Kathleen's treachery. "It was abominable inher," she said when Grace had finished. "And I had begun to assuremyself that she was improving daily, too."
"She came out of her shell so beautifully the night we went to thestation house," sighed Grace. "I never dreamed she was planningmischief. However, I have something to ask you. Here, read this letter;then I'll talk." She tendered Mabel's letter to her friend.
Patience held out her hand for it, then glanced rapidly through it."This is from the much-worshipped Miss Ashe, isn't it?"
"Yes. We four are going to spend Thanksgiving with her, and, Patience, Ishould like to have you go with us. Won't you please be the'extra-delightful girl' and say you'll go?"
"Why--why!" Patience, usually cool and unemotional, colored withpleasure. "Are you sure you really want me? I should be delighted to go.It is very sweet in you to ask me, Grace."
"Not in the least. It's very jolly in you to accept so promptly. Thereis now only one hitch in the programme. I have already delivered Mabel'sinvitation to Kathleen."
"She won't go," predicted Patience. "She may be lawless, but she is toowise to make any such mistake."
* * * * *
Patience's prediction, however, seemed destined not to carry far. To theamazement of the five young women who waited on the station platform forthe coming of the New York train on Wednesday afternoon, the newspapergirl, suit case in hand, walked serenely into view just as the train washeard whistling around a bend half a mile below the station.
"She is actually going to inflict herself upon us," muttered Elfreda indisgust. Grace had briefly explained the situation to her three friends.
Just then Kathleen's eyes came to rest on the little group. A flash ofsurprised anger flitted across her moody face as she espied Patience,then, with an eloquent shrug of her shoulders, she marched off towardthe other end of the train.
"My doom is sealed," remarked Patience dryly. "Nothing can put ourshattered acquaintance together again."
"I knew she wouldn't go with us even for spite," declared Grace wearily."Now, suppose we dismiss her from our minds. I, for one, wish to enjoyour Thanksgiving vacation with Mabel. I may as well tell you that I amstill very angry with Miss West, and for the first time in my life Iknow what it means to be unforgiving."
Grace spoke with bitterness. In her letter to her father she had askedhim to telegraph her that he forgave her. She had lingered at Wayne Halluntil the last moment, but had received no word from him. Now she wouldnot know until she returned from New York. To be sure, she would try todismiss the whole thing from her mind, but at times it rose before herlike a dark shadow, shutting out for the moment the pleasure of herholiday, and causing her to feel gloomy and depressed.
During the journey to New York nothing was seen of Kathleen, who hadtaken good care not to enter the same car in which the five girls hadsecured seats. Grace saw her again for an instant when, at the end ofthe journey, the throng of passengers surged toward the iron gates thatseparated them from the friends who stood anxiously awaiting theirarrival.
Elfreda's keen eyes were the first to catch sight of Mabel. "There sheis, girls! Doesn't she look beautiful?"
Mabel Ashe's charming face smiled an eager welcome as she hurriedforward with both hands outstretched to greet the travelers.
"You dear things!" she cried; "I began to believe I should never see anyof you again. Hurry right along. Our car is waiting and we are going tobreak all the speed laws and be home in time for dinner."
"Wait a moment," laughed Grace. "This is the 'extra-delightful girl.'"Grace introduced Patience to Mabel. A long, searching glance passedbetween the two young women, then their hands met in a strong clasp thatbetokened mutual liking.
"I am sure we shall be friends," declared Mabel.
"No surer than I am," smiled Patience. "I have heard so much about you."
"Grace wrote me about you, too," returned Mabel warmly. "I am so pleasedthat you could come. This way to the car, everyone." She led themthrough the station to where numerous automobiles were drawn up to thesidewalk. "There is our car." She pointed to a roomy dark blue car. "Hopin," she directed. "The sooner we reach ho
me the longer we'll have totalk. I am not going to the office again until the afternoon followingThanksgiving. I begged so hard I was allowed a vacation for once."
In what seemed to Grace an incredibly brief space of time, the distancebetween the station and the Ashes' winter home far out on RiversideDrive was covered. The five guests could not help feeling a trifleimpressed at sight of the great stone house which Mabel called home.During her college days it was Mabel's lovable personality that hadenshrined her so deeply in the hearts of the students at Overton. Theknowledge that her father was a millionaire carried little weight. Thisthought occurred to Grace as they filed through the massive door of thevestibule and into the beautiful hall furnished in English fashion. Aback log glowed ruddily in the big open fireplace, and the flickeringflames crackled a welcome.
"I wouldn't allow James to turn on the lights. I wished you to see thehall just as it is. I love it when the shadows begin to gather, and onlythe firelight glows and gleams! Those andirons are very old. Theybelonged to one of my ancestors. There are a lot of old things in thegarret. What garret is not full of antiques?"
"Ours," returned Elfreda promptly. "We belong to that despised class,'nouveau riche,' therefore we are extremely short on noted ancestors andrelics and things."
"There is nothing like perfect frankness, is there?" laughed Patience."Never mind, Elfreda, it isn't ancestors that count."
"It is dinner that counts, or ought to count, just now. I am going towhisk you upstairs to your rooms, and give you ten minutes for repairs,then, 'down to dinner you must go, you must go,'" chanted Mabel, windingher arm about Grace's waist and drawing her toward the stairway. "Followus and you won't be sorry. We have a lift if two flights of stairsdismay you."
"Lead on," commanded Miriam.
"Which will you choose, to room together or alone?"
"Together!" was the united response.
"Wait a moment," said Anne. "I wish to ask you, Mabel, if you wouldobject to rooming with Grace. I have roomed with her so long that I feelas though I"--with a mischievous glance at Grace's amazed face, Annefinished in a deliberate tone--"were very selfish. So I thought perhapsyou would appreciate an opportunity to have her to yourself, too."
"Oh!" ejaculated Elfreda. "I thought you were going to say you weretired of Grace."
"So did I." A smile gave place to the peculiar expression on Grace'sface. "I might have known better, though."
"That is generous in you, Anne," declared Mabel "As hostess I wouldn'thave been so selfish as to propose it, but----"
"Anne, if you really don't care, I would like to room with Mabel,"interposed Grace. "I have so much to tell her that the rest of you havealready heard. We can have lengthy midnight confabs without disturbingany one but ourselves."
"Then, that settles it. Room together you shall," averred Anne. "Thereis no use in breaking up the Nesbit-Briggs Association. Patience, willyou accept me for a roommate?"
Patience bowed exaggeratedly and offered her arm to Anne.
"Come on, Grace, we'll lead the way," proposed Mabel. "I am so anxiousfor you to meet Father. I expect him home at any moment." Tucking herarm in Grace's, she led the party up the stairs and, pausing before ahalf-open door, said hospitably: "Welcome all over again, children. Thisroom is for Elfreda and Miriam. Enter and make yourselves comfy. You andAnne are to have the next one, Patience. My quarters are at the end ofthe hall. I am going to see Grace safely there, then I'll send my maidto you. She will be delighted to be of service to some one. I haveneeded her very little since I turned newspaper woman, and she spendsthe greater part of her time lamenting over the fact. Oh, I forgot totell you, don't trouble to dress for dinner to-night. We shall bestrictly informal. I have ordered an early dinner. We will dressafterward. Father is going to take us to the theatre."
The mere mention of Mabel's father brought to Grace's mind that whichshe had been making a determined effort to forget, her father'sdispleasure. Her face clouded with pain and resentment as she thought ofthe girl whose treachery had brought about the first misunderstanding ofher life between her and her father.
"If Father had only written me a line or sent me a telegram," shethought sadly, winking back the tears that threatened to fall. "I mustnot let Mabel imagine for a minute that I am anything but happy forto-night, at least. If she knew how dreadfully I felt about Father itwould partly spoil her pleasure this evening. I'll try to act as thoughnothing unpleasant had happened," decided Grace as she followed Mabelinto what she had termed her "quarters."
Grace could not refrain from giving a soft exclamation of delight as shegazed admiringly about the beautiful room into which she was ushered.
"This is my own particular hanging-out place," laughed Mabel "When I amat home, which is seldom, I spend most of my time in here. See my desk!I'll tell you a secret, Grace. I am writing a novel. It's more than halfdone, too. I haven't told any one else, not even Father. My greatesttrouble is not having the time to work on it. My newspaper work keeps mebusy, early and late, but I can't complain, because I am gaining allsorts of valuable experience." Mabel talked on about her work, and asGrace watched the sparkling, animated face of her lovely friend she feltvery sure that Mabel Ashe, at least, would never sacrifice a friend inthe interest of her paper.
Grace Harlowe's Fourth Year at Overton College Page 13