AN ACCIDENT AND A SURPRISE
"Well, what do you think of her?" inquired Elfreda Briggs the following
morning, poking her head in at Grace's door, a quizzical smile on her
round face. Grace and Anne had left the breakfast table a few minutes
before Elfreda, who had foregone finishing her breakfast and rushed
upstairs to hear her friends' opinion of the tall freshman, who had
seemed taller than ever as she stalked uncompromisingly into the dining
room that morning in Kathleen West's wake. The newspaper girl looked
anything but in a happy frame of mind, and after several covert glances
in her direction, Grace decided that the new arrival had not been met
with open arms on the part of Kathleen.
"What do I think of her?" repeated Grace. "A good many things, I should
say. What do you think?"
"I think she is the most interesting and entertaining person I've seen
in years," declared Elfreda exaggeratingly.
"Then her entertaining powers do not lie in speech," laughed Anne. "I
heard her say three things this morning at the table. They were, 'yes,'
'thank you' and 'I believe so.'"
"She didn't talk, that's a fact," admitted Elfreda, "but she looked as
though she was keeping up an awful thinking. Does any one know from
whence she came, and why?"
"I don't know anything about her," said Grace, shaking her head, "but I
am sure that you will find out everything worth knowing before night.
You will be able to see a great deal, you know."
"Don't flatter me," grinned Elfreda. "That's no joke, though," she added
hastily. "I'll find out, never fear, and then I'll tell you girls."
"What a comfort it is to have the latest news brought to one's door
every morning," jeered Anne.
"You'll find yourself without that comfort if you are not more
respectful," threatened Elfreda. "I'll carry my news to other doors
where it will be more highly appreciated."
"Your threats fail to impress me," retorted Anne. "You know that you
couldn't bear to ignore us."
"I know I shall be late to chapel, and that you will be later," replied
Elfreda significantly. "Tardiness is unbecoming in a senior. I am sorry
to be obliged to remind you of it."
"Save your sorrow and come along," called Miriam Nesbit from the
doorway. "Aren't you going to chapel this morning, Grace?"
"Not this morning," replied Grace, not raising her eyes from the book
over which she was poring. "This is psychology morning and I'm very
shaky on the lesson. I feel in my bones that I'll be called upon to
recite, so please go away, all of you, and don't bother me," she
finished with an affectionate smile that did not accord with her blunt
words.
"Going, going, gone!" flung back Elfreda over her shoulder as she left
the room, followed by Miriam and Anne.
Grace glanced anxiously at the clock, then concentrated her mind anew
upon her reading. The sound of hurried feet on the stairs and through
the halls, accompanied by an occasional murmur of voices as the students
left Wayne Hall, was borne to her ears as she read and tried to
familiarize herself with the main points of the lesson. Gradually the
house settled down to quiet, and Grace, becoming thoroughly interested
in her work, lost all track of time.
The sound of a terrific crash, apparently just outside the half-opened
door, brought her to her feet in alarm. "What was that?" she exclaimed.
Stepping to the door she looked up and down the hall. From the room at
the end, the door of which was ajar, came a jingling sound as of dishes
being piled together. For a moment Grace hesitated, then walked toward
the sound. At the doorway she paused again; then the sight that met her
eyes caused her to spring forward with an impulsive, "What a dreadful
smash! Do let me help you."
The extremely tall young woman who sat on the edge of her bed surveying
the wreck of her washbowl, pitcher and every other piece of china that
five minutes before had reposed confidently on the top of her washstand
regarded Grace ruefully. There was a twinkle in her eyes, however, that
belied her regret. "It did make considerable noise, I imagine," she said
crisply. "Strange the rest of the students here haven't appeared on the
scene."
Grace involuntarily retreated a step or two, her face flushing. She
could not endure the idea of being thought an intruder.
"Don't go," said the tall young woman, in the same crisp tone. "I didn't
mean that you were an intruder. I only wonder that no one else came. The
wreck of the Hesperus wasn't serious compared with this," she said
dryly, indicating the littered floor. "I tried to move my wash stand. It
stuck. Then all of a sudden it gave way and I fell back, dragging it
with me. I had hold of one end of it with both hands, and I was stronger
than I thought, for I just missed sitting on the floor and receiving all
that china in my lap. I was horrified for a second, but all of a sudden
the funny side of it struck me, and I sat down on my couch and laughed
until I cried. I was just wiping my eyes and preparing to pick up the
pieces when you came in. Perhaps you thought I was crying over it. Can
you imagine me in tears?" she added humorously.
"Hardly," said Grace with a frank smile that was reflected on the tall
young woman's face.
"No, I am not one of the weeping kind," she declared sturdily. "I come
of good, old, undaunted New England stock. My name is Patience Eliot and
I live just outside Boston. I might as well tell you all about myself in
the first place, because I decided at breakfast that I liked you. I know
your Christian name because I heard your friends addressing you as
"Grace" this morning, but I don't know your surname."
"I am Grace Harlowe, at your service," replied Grace lightly, "and it is
always gratifying to be liked. I saw you last night when you arrived. I
was entertaining a crowd of girls, and, of course, we couldn't resist
running to the window when one of the girls happened to see the bus
stopping in front of the house."
"Were you at the window?" asked Miss Eliot unconcernedly. "I didn't see
you. In fact, I wasn't thinking of anything but getting into my room and
to bed. I had been on the train long enough to become thoroughly tired
of it. It was two hours late, too. We should have arrived at Overton at
half-past seven, but it was half-past nine when the train pulled into
the Overton station."
"You must have been very tired," sympathized Grace. "I hope you rested
well last night. If there is anything I can do for you in the way of
showing you to the registrar's office or wherever you may wish to go, I
shall be only too glad to do so. My first recitation happens to be at
ten o'clock this morning, so I have plenty of time."
"My first duty lies before me," returned Miss Eliot grimly, pointing to
the floor. "I think you had better direct me to a store where I can
replace this. If I ask Mrs. Elwood to set a price on it, she will cheat
herself."
"Why, how did you know that?" asked Grace in surprise. "You only saw her
for a few minutes last night."
"That was long enough to discover several things concerning her greatly
to her credit," was the calm answer. "However, as you have been so kind
as to offer to direct me, I think I will ask you to take me to the
registrar's office. She has been expecting me ever since college opened.
I imagine she has given me up by this time." Stepping over the wreck of
broken china to the closet, she took her hat from its hook on the inner
side of the door, and, putting it on without glancing into the mirror,
announced herself in readiness to depart. "I'll lock the door on this
wreck and have it removed when I return," she said.
The registrar was writing busily, her head bent intently over her work,
when Grace led the way into her office. "Good morning, Miss Sheldon,"
she began. "This is Miss Eliot of the----" Grace was about to say
freshman class when the registrar rose and came toward them with
outstretched hand.
"My dear Patience!" she exclaimed cordially, "I am so glad you arrived
at last. How is your father?"
"Much better, thank you," replied the tall girl. "We still have two
nurses, but I think he is out of danger now. I hated to leave him, but
he was so worried because I had missed the first two weeks of college,
that he insisted I should come on here at once. I arrived last night and
went directly to Holland House, but the matron there thought I had given
up coming, and the room I engaged by letter had been given to some one
else only yesterday morning. She directed me to Wayne Hall, where, by
the merest luck, I managed to secure half a room."
During this flow of explanations, delivered in Miss Eliot's crisp,
business-like tones, Grace had listened in open amazement. This tall
freshman's manner of addressing Miss Sheldon, the dignified registrar,
betokened long acquaintance, while the registrar looked as delighted as
though she had found a long-lost relative.
"I see you have fallen into good hands," said the registrar, a pleasant
smile lighting her rather austere face as she glanced at Grace.
"I am quite sure of that," responded Miss Eliot heartily. "I also
brought disaster upon myself." An account of the morning's accident
followed.
"I believe you were born to disaster, Patience Eliot," laughed Miss
Sheldon.
"I shouldn't be at all surprised," was the dry response.
"Miss Harlowe, I have known Miss Eliot since she was a little girl,"
explained Miss Sheldon. "I am pleased to know that she is to live at
Wayne Hall. I am sure she will be happy there. I understand that the
Wayne Hall girls make a very congenial household."
"We try to," said Grace with a frank smile. "My three friends and I have
never lived in any other house since our freshman days. Perhaps Miss
Eliot will find her freshman year there as delightful as we found ours."
"My freshman year!" exclaimed Miss Eliot in evident surprise.
"Yes," returned Grace rather blankly. "Aren't you a freshman? I don't
know why I thought so, but I supposed, of course, that----" She paused
irresolutely.
Miss Sheldon and the tall girl exchanged openly smiling glances, then
the latter turned toward Grace almost apologetically. "I am a freshman
in one sense," she said. "I have never before been to college, but as
far as work goes I studied with my father and was lucky enough to pass
up the freshman year. I ran down here last June to talk things over and
find where I stood. I'm a sophomore, if you please."
Grace burst into merry laughter. "Won't the girls be surprised!" she
exclaimed. "We all thought you were a freshman."
"I hadn't stopped to think of what any one else thought of me," said
Patience, "or I might have enlightened the girls at the breakfast table
as to my superior sophomore estate. They'll find out soon enough. I have
a great mind to let them stumble upon the truth gradually."
"Oh, do," begged Grace gleefully. "It will be great fun to let matters
take their own course."
Miss Sheldon smiled indulgently, but made no comment. She was versed in
the ways of college girls. She, too, had been a student at Overton.
"I should like to stay longer, Miss Sheldon, but I know you are very
busy." Patience rose at last to go, Grace following her example. "Now
that I have come to headquarters, been identified, had my thumb marks
registered and become a unit in this great and glorious organization,"
went on the tall girl calmly, "I shall feel free to go forth and replace
Mrs. Elwood's demolished china. I should like to put the new set on the
washstand before I tell her of the accident. Good-bye, Miss Sheldon."
She held out her hand. "May I come to see you soon?"
"You know you will always be welcome, my dear."
"I wish you wouldn't tell even your roommate that I am a sophomore,"
said Patience Eliot as they left the campus and turned into College
Street.
"I won't," promised Grace. "I'll be a positive clam. But what about your
roommate? She will be sure to find out first, and then----" Remembering
Patience Eliot's roommate Grace broke off suddenly.
"And then what?" asked the tall girl with disconcerting directness.
"Nothing," murmured Grace.
"Then we don't need to become alarmed, do we?" was the next question.
"No, not in the least," said Grace, smiling faintly. She was trying to
decide whether or not she ought even to intimate to the tall,
matter-of-fact girl, whom she already liked, that Kathleen West was
likely to prove a disappointment in the way of a roommate.
But the decision was not left to her, for Patience Eliot said with calm
amusement in her tones: "I have a better idea of what you are thinking
than you know. All I have to say is, don't waste a minute worrying over
me. Patience Eliot will take care of herself regardless of who her
roommate may be."