GRACE MAKES A DISCOVERY
The Monday after the walking expedition, Grace Harlowe set out for
school full of an idea that had been revolving in her busy brain for
weeks. The time had come for herself and for her three chums to bind
themselves together as a sorority. As charter members, they would
initiate four other girls, as soon as proper rites could be thought of.
It should be a Greek letter society. Grace thought "Phi Sigma Tau" would
sound well. Aside from the social part, their chief object would be to
keep a watchful eye open for girls in school who needed assistance of
any sort.
Mrs. Gray's anxiety over Eleanor Savell had set the bee in Grace's
bonnet buzzing, and now her plans were practically perfected. All that
remained to be done was to tell her three friends, and consult them as
to what other four girls would be eligible to membership.
Her proposition was hailed with acclamation by Anne, Nora and Jessica.
Miriam Nesbit, Marian Barber, Eva Allen and Eleanor Savell were chosen
as candidates and promptly notified to report at Jessica's home the next
Thursday evening for initiation. They at once accepted the invitation
and solemnly promised to be there.
"'Where are you going, my pretty maid?'" said David Nesbit, stopping
directly in front of Grace Harlowe as she hurried toward the Bright home
the following Thursday evening.
Grace laughed merrily, dropped a little curtsy and recited, "I'm going
to an initiation, sir, she said."
"'And may I go with you, my pretty maid?'" replied David, bowing low.
"No boys allowed there, sir, she said."
"That settles it," sighed David. "I suppose a sorority is about to come
to the surface. Am I right, and will you take me along?"
"Yes, we are going to initiate members into our new sorority, but you
can't come, so you might as well be resigned to fate," retorted Grace.
"We didn't receive invitations to your fraternity initiations."
"Be kind to Anne, won't you. Tell her she has my sympathy," said David
solemnly.
"Anne is a charter member, if you please," laughed Grace. "She is spared
the ordeals of initiation. But Miriam will not escape so easily. She is
one of the candidates."
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed David. "That's what she was so mysterious over.
I tried to find out where she was going, but she wouldn't tell me. By
the way, where does the affair take place?" he added, trying to look
innocent.
"Don't you wish you knew?" teased Grace. "However, you shan't find out
from me. I know too well what would happen if you boys traced us to our
lair. But I must go or I shall be late. Good night, David. Please be
good and don't follow me. Promise me you won't."
"I never make rash promises," answered David, smiling. "Be merciful to
the candidates." Lifting his cap, the young man hurried off and turned
the corner without looking back.
"I wonder what I had better do," Grace mused. "I know perfectly well
that David Nesbit won't go away. He will wait until he thinks I am far
enough up the street and then he'll follow me. As soon as he finds out
where I am going he'll rush back and hunt up Hippy Wingate and Reddy
Brooks. Goodness knows what the three of them will plan."
She decided to turn down a side street, go back one block and into the
public library. She could easily leave the library by the side entrance
and cut across Putnam Square. That would mislead David, although no
doubt he would find them before the evening was over.
Grace lost no time in putting her plan into action. As she hurried into
the library she looked back, but saw no sign of David. When she reached
Putnam Square she almost ran along the broad asphalt walk. It was
fifteen minutes past seven by the city hall clock, and she did not wish
to be late. The girls had agreed to be there by half past seven. She was
almost across the square when her ear caught the sound of a low sob.
Grace glanced quickly about. The square was practically deserted, but
under one of the great trees, curled up on a bench, was a girl. Without
an instant's hesitation Grace made for the bench. She touched the girl
on the shoulder and said, "You seem to be in distress. Can I do anything
to help you?"
Then Grace gave a little surprised exclamation. The face turned toward
her was that of Mabel Allison, the freshman prize girl. The glare from
the neighboring light revealed her tear-swollen eyes and quivering lips.
She gave Grace one long, agonized look, then dropped her head on her arm
and sobbed harder than ever.
"Why, Miss Allison, don't cry so," soothed Grace. "Tell me what your
trouble is. Perhaps I can be of some service to you. I've wanted to know
you ever since you won the freshman prize last June, and so has Anne
Pierson. She won the prize the year before, you know."
The girl nodded, but she could not sufficiently control herself to
speak.
Grace stood silently waiting until the other should find her voice. A
moment more and Mabel Allison began to speak in a plaintive little voice
that went straight to Grace's heart:
"You are Grace Harlowe. I believe every girl in Oakdale High School
knows you. I have heard so much about you, but I never dreamed that
you'd ever speak to me."
"Nonsense," replied Grace, laughing. "I'm just a girl like yourself.
There isn't anything remarkable about me. I'm very glad to know you,
Miss Allison, but I am sorry to find you so unhappy. Can't you tell me
about it?" she coaxed, sitting down on the bench and slipping one arm
around the shabby little figure.
Mabel's lip quivered again. Then she turned impulsively toward Grace and
said: "Yes; I will tell you, although no one can help me. I suppose you
don't know where I live or anything about me, do you?"
"No," replied Grace, shaking her head, "but I'd be glad to have you tell
me."
"Well," continued Mabel, "I'm an orphan, and I live with Miss Brant.
She----"
"Not that horrible, miserly Miss Brant who lives in that ugly yellow
house on Elm Street?" interrupted Grace in a horrified tone.
"Yes, she is the one I mean," continued Mabel. "She took me from an
orphan asylum two years ago. I hated her the first time I ever saw her,
but the matron said I was old enough to work, that I'd have a good home
with her and that I should be paid for my work. She promised to send me
to school, and I was wild to get a good education, so I went with her.
But she is perfectly awful, and I wish I were dead."
Her voice ended almost in a wail.
"I don't blame you," said Grace sympathetically. "She has the reputation
of being one of the most hateful women in Oakdale. I am surprised that
she even allows you to go to school."
"That's just the trouble," the girl replied, her voice husky. "She's
going to take me out of school. I shall be sixteen next month, and
exempt from the school law. So she is going to make me stop school and
go to work in the silk mill. I worked there all through vacation last
summer, and she took every cent of my wages. She took my freshman prize
money, too."
"What a burning shame!" exclaimed Grace indignantly. "Haven't you any
relatives at all, Miss Allison, or any one else with whom you could
stay?"
Mabel shook her head.
"I don't know anything about myself," she said. "I was picked up on the
street in New York City when I was three years old, and as no one
claimed me, I was put in an orphanage. There was one woman at the
orphanage who was always good to me. She remembered the day they brought
me, and she said that I was beautifully dressed. She always believed
that I had been stolen. She said that I could tell my name, 'Mabel
Isabel Allison,' and that I would be three years old in November, but
that I couldn't tell where I lived. Whenever they asked me I cried and
said I didn't know. She wanted to save my clothes for me, thinking that
by them I might some day find my parents, but the matron took them away
from her, all but three little gold baby pins marked 'M.I.A.' She hid
them away from the matron. When she heard I was to go with Miss Brant,
she kissed me, and gave them to me. She was the only person that ever
cared for me."
The tears stood in Grace's eyes.
"You poor, little thing!" she cried. "I care for you, and I'm going to
see if I can do something for you. You shan't stop school if I can help
it. I can't stay with you any longer, just now, because I am going to
Miss Bright's and I am late. It is eight o'clock, you see."
The girl gave a little cry of fright.
"Oh, I didn't think it was so late. I know Miss Brant will be very
angry. She will probably beat me. I am still carrying the marks from the
last whipping she gave me. She sent me out on an errand, but I felt as
though I must be alone, if only for a few minutes. That's why I stopped
in the square."
"Beat you!" exclaimed Grace. "How dare she touch you? Why, I never had a
whipping in my life! I won't keep you another minute, but wait for me
outside the campus when school is out to-morrow. I wish to talk further
with you."
"I'll come," promised Mabel, her face lighting up. Then she suddenly
threw both arms around Grace's neck and said, "I do love you, and I feel
that some one cares about me at last." Then, like a flash, she darted
across the square and was soon lost to Grace's view.
"Well, of all things!" Grace remarked softly to herself. "I think it's
high time we organized a sorority for the purpose of aiding girls in
distress."
"You're a prompt person. Did you really decide to come?" were the cries
that greeted her from the porch as she opened the Bright's gate.
"Save your caustic comments," said Grace as she handed Jessica her hat.
"I have a tale to tell."
"Out with it!" was the cry, and the girls surrounded Grace, who began
with her meeting with David, and ended with the story of Mabel Allison.
"You haven't heard anything of those boys yet, have you?" she asked when
she had finished.
"Not yet," said Nora, "but never fear, the night is yet young."
"Where is Eleanor Savell?" asked Grace, noticing for the first time that
Eleanor was not present. "You promised to go for her, didn't you, Anne?"
"I did go," replied Anne, "but she wouldn't come. She said she'd come
sometime when she felt like it. She was playing on the violin when the
maid let me in, and how she can play! She wanted me to stay there with
her and didn't seem to understand why I couldn't break my engagement
with you girls. She said that she always kept her engagements unless the
spirit moved her to do something else."
"Is Eleanor Savell the girl who comes into the study hall every morning
after opening exercises have begun?" asked Marian Barber.
"Yes," Grace answered. "I forgot for a moment that you and Eva and
Miriam hadn't met her. She is really very charming, although her ideas
about punctuality and school rules are somewhat hazy as yet. She lives
at 'Heartsease,' Mrs. Gray's property. I am disappointed because she
will not be here to-night. She seemed delighted when I asked her to join
our society."
"As long as we know she isn't coming, don't you think we should begin
the initiation?" asked Nora. "It is after eight o'clock and we can't
stay out too late, you know."
"Very well," said Grace. "Blindfold the candidates."
The three girls meekly submitted to the blindfolding, and the chums were
about to lead them to the initiation chamber, when the ringing of the
door bell caused them to start.
"It's David and the boys," said Jessica. "Shall I tell them that they
can't come in?"
"Of course," responded Nora. "You and Grace go to the door, while Anne
and I stay here with our victims. Be careful they don't play you a
trick."
The two girls cautiously approached the door, opening it very slowly,
and saw--not the three boys--but Eleanor. She smiled serenely and said:
"Good evening. I decided, after all, that I would come."
"Come right in," said Jessica cordially. "I am so glad you changed your
mind and came. The initiation is about to begin. Have you ever belonged
to a secret society?"
"Never," replied Eleanor. "But now that I'm here, I am willing to try
it."
"Come this way."
"Girls," said Grace, addressing the three blindfolded girls, "this is
Eleanor Savell. You can't see her yet, but you may all shake hands with
her. She is to be your companion in misery."
Eleanor laughed, shook hands with the others and graciously allowed Nora
to tie a handkerchief over her eyes.
"All ready! March!" called Grace, and the eight girls solemnly proceeded
to the initiation chamber.