Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ginny Brewer, Tom Allen,
Mary Meehan, David Newman and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton Campus
By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A.M.
Author of The High School Girls Series, The College Girls Series, etc.
PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
Copyright, 1915
[Illustration: The Girls Worked Busily]
CONTENTS
I. A Midsummer Pilgrimage
II. A Welcome Guest
III. An Unexpected Caller
IV. The Secret Session
V. The Way to Perpetual Youth
VI. Jessica's Wedding
VII. The Return of Emma Dean
VIII. A Strange Applicant
IX. Mary Reynolds Makes a New Friend
X. The Thirty-Third Girl
XI. Evelyn Ward, Freshman
XII. The Harlowe House Club
XIII. Planning for the Reception
XIV. A Disquieting Thought
XV. A Semper Fidelis Reunion
XVI. The Interrupted Confidence
XVII. A Week-End in New York
XVIII. A Humiliating Reprimand
XIX. An Unintentional Listener
XX. A Double Puzzle
XXI. The Puzzle Deepens
XXII. Two Letters
XXIII. Kathleen West, Confidante
XXIV. Conclusion
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Girls Worked Busily.
"Why, Emma Dean!" Exclaimed Grace.
"We Decided to Give Our Loyalheart a Loyalty Token."
"Did I Startle You, Miss Ward?"
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton Campus
CHAPTER I
A MIDSUMMER PILGRIMAGE
"Overton, at last!" exclaimed Grace Harlowe, as, regardless of possible
cinders and stern railroad injunctions, she leaned far out of the car
window to obtain a first eager glimpse of her destination.
It was midsummer, and the quiet, little town of Overton drowsed gently,
not to awaken until the sounds of girl laughter and the passing of light
feet through its sleepy streets roused it to the realization that it was
Overton College that made its hum-drum existence worth while.
"Oh, Mrs. Gray, you can't imagine how happy I feel!" went on Grace, her
eyes eloquent with emotion. "Next to home, I love Overton better than
any other place on earth. I'm so glad we are going to stay at Wayne
Hall, and that Mrs. Elwood is to meet us."
A long shrill whistle, a creaking and groaning of protesting iron
wheels, the stentorian cry of "Overton! Overton!" and then a sudden
jarring stop. Grace reached to the rack overhead for Mrs. Gray's small
leather bag, allowing the dainty little old lady to precede her down the
aisle which was practically clear. Apparently they were the only Overton
passengers in that car. She stood still on the top step of the train
until Mrs. Gray had been safely landed on the platform by the smiling
porter, then, disdaining his helping hand, ran down the steps with a
joyful skip that caused her companion to say indulgently, "You'll never
grow up, Grace, and I'm glad of it. I can't become reconciled to the
fact that Nora and Jessica are brides-to-be and that Anne's art is
making her terribly serious. It's a joy to my old age to see you frisk
about as happily as you did when you were a little thing in short white
skirts with two long braids of fair hair hanging down your back."
"I don't really feel a bit older than I did then," confessed Grace.
"Sometimes I'm almost ashamed of my enthusiasm. It seems as though nice
things are always happening to me, and this summer pilgrimage of just we
two is the nicest of all."
They were walking slowly across the deserted platform now, and Grace was
keeping a sharp look-out on all sides for the short, comfortable figure
of Mrs. Elwood.
"There she is!" Grace hurried forward, her hands outstretched. The next
instant they were held in Mrs. Elwood's welcoming grasp, while she
kissed Grace's soft cheek.
"My dear, dear girl!" she exclaimed, a suspicious moisture in her kindly
blue eyes. "It does seem good to see you again. I'm very glad to welcome
you to Overton, Mrs. Gray," she turned to shake hands with the donor of
Harlowe House, "and delighted to know that you are going to stay with me
instead of going to the Tourraine. Miss Harlowe's old room is ready for
her, and I'm going to put you in the room Miss Nesbit and Miss Briggs
used to have."
"You'll be haunted by the kimono-clad shades of Miriam and Elfreda
drinking tea and eating cakes at unseemly hours of the night," laughed
Grace.
"How are all my girls?" asked Mrs. Elwood. "I don't know what I shall do
without them this year. You will have to come and see me often and tell
me all about them, Miss Harlowe. Now let me see. There ought to be a
taxicab just the other side of the station. Yes, there it is."
The driver touched his cap smilingly to Grace as they climbed into the
automobile, "It does look good to see you here again, miss," he said
respectfully.
"Thank you. I'm glad to see you again." Grace beamed whole-heartedly
upon him. How many times he had carried her to and from the station. It
was he who had driven the car on that memorable day when Ruth Denton had
gone to the station to meet her father. Grace's eyes grew dreamy as they
passed through the familiar streets. How much had happened since the
time when she had entered Oakdale High School as a freshman with college
in the far and hidden future.
To her many friends "Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High
School," "Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School,"
"Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School," and "Grace
Harlowe's Senior Year at High School" are now familiar records.
Equally well known to these friends is the story of her freshman year at
Overton, as set forth in "Grace Harlowe's First Year at Overton
College."
Accompanied by her friends, Miriam Nesbit and Anne Pierson, Grace began
her freshman year at Overton College under a cloud which rose from her
ready defense of J. Elfreda Briggs, a disgruntled student who had made
enemies of two sophomores, and whose first days at college were made
very unpleasant by them. J. Elfreda's subsequent casting aside of her
friendship and her tardy realization of Grace's worth brought about a
happy ending of their freshman year.
In "Grace Harlowe's Second Year at Overton College" the four
girls set out to find the rainbow side of their sophomore year. How each
girl found it, but in an entirely different manner, how Grace lived up
to her resolve to choose only the highest in college, and how the famous
Semper Fidelis Club came into existence, made the sophomore year in
college memorable.
"Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College" told of what
befell the four friends as juniors. The advent of Kathleen West, a
newspaper girl, into college was the first link in a chain of petty
difficulties with which Grace was obliged to contend as a junior. The
carnival given by the Semper Fidelis Club in which the Alice in
Wonderland Circus was enacted, the important part which Jean, the old
hunter of Oakdale fame, played in one Overton girl's life, the message
Emma Dean forgot to deliver, and countless other absorbing incidents
served to fill their junior year with ceaseless interest.
"Grace Harlowe's Fourth Year at Overton College" found Grace
and her friends on the homeward stretch with commencement at the end of
their college trail. The record of Grace's senior year was filled with
happenings grave and gay. It ended in a blaze of honor and glory, and it
was on Commencement day that she made her decision to return to Overton
and look after Harlowe House, lately completed and endowed by Mrs. Gray
in honor of her young friends and dedicated to the use of poor girls who
were making valiant efforts to obtain an education.
It was in reference to Harlowe House, her future home, that Grace and
Mrs. Gray had made this midsummer pilgrimage, as Grace had laughingly
styled it, to Overton. As their car glided through the shady streets of
the dignified college town Grace wondered if it were really eight years
since her freshman days in Oakdale High School. It certainly couldn't be
four years since Mabel Ashe had conducted her and Anne and Miriam to the
Tourraine on that first eventful afternoon. She remembered just how
beautiful Mabel had looked in her white linen frock, with her white
embroidered parasol tilted over one shoulder, an effective frame for her
lovely face and wavy, golden-brown hair.
"Dreaming, Grace?" Mrs. Gray's voice dispelled the vision. "I can't
blame you. I suppose this ride brings up hosts of memories."
Grace nodded. She could not trust her voice to answer. A sudden mist
filled her eyes, a silent tribute to those whose feet had once kept pace
with hers through these beloved ways. Commencement had scattered them
broadcast. She, alone, was coming back again to take up life at the
college. How she would miss them all. The dry irresistible humor of Emma
Dean, the sturdy independence of J. Elfreda Briggs, the daintiness of
Arline Thayer and the steadfast loyalty of Ruth Denton. Last of all
there were Anne and Miriam. Anne, her devoted little comrade of years,
and Miriam, whose faith and good fellowship had never failed her.
A sob rose in Grace's throat, but she quickly stifled it. After all she
was about to begin the work she herself had chosen. She had known when
she announced her determination to take charge of Harlowe House that
things could never be quite the same. It would be selfish, indeed, in
her to break down and cry when Mrs. Gray had come to Overton solely to
help her select the furniture and plan for the opening of Harlowe House
in September.
Grace pulled herself together and, resolutely putting her own sense of
loss behind her, said steadily: "I couldn't help thinking of the girls
for a minute. It made me want to cry, but I've set my face to the future
now, and I'm sure that my new work is going to bring me as much
happiness here as I had during the other dear four years. When I think
of how splendid it was in you to give Harlowe House to Overton, I feel
as though there isn't any sacrifice too great for me to make to insure
its success, and I hope that my coming back to Overton Campus to do my
work is going to mean a thousand times more to me next June than it does
now."