“Just this,” replied Nora.  “That Edna Wright told me, that I needn’t think we were the only people that could have a sorority.  I asked her what she meant, and she said that she and Rose Lynton and Daisy Culver had been invited out to Eleanor’s to-night for the purpose of forming a very select club of their own.  I am sorry I didn’t tell you while in the locker-room, but you would insist on having secrets, so I thought I’d have one, too.”

“Well, it can’t be helped now,” said Grace.  “It is a pity that Eleanor has taken up with Edna Wright.  She is the only girl in the class that I really dislike.  She is frivolous and empty-headed, and Eleanor is self-willed and lawless.  Put them together, and they will make a bad combination.  As to the other two girls, they are sworn friends of Edna’s.”

“I think,” said Nora, “that our reform movement is about to end in a glaring fizzle.”

“How can we reform a person who won’t have anything to do with us?” asked Jessica scornfully.

“Let us hold her place in this sorority open for her, and let us make it our business to be ready to help her if she needs us,” said Anne thoughtfully.  “Like all spoiled children, she is sure to get into mischief, and just as sure to come to grief.  Mark my words, some day she’ll be glad to come back to the Phi Sigma Tau.”

CHAPTER IX

THE RESCUE PARTY

It was with mingled feelings of excitement and trepidation that Grace Harlowe and Jessica Bright hurried toward the office of the latter’s father the following afternoon.  Now that they were fairly started on their mission of rescue, they were not quite so confident as to the result.  To be sure they had unlimited faith in Jessica’s father, but it was so much easier to talk about taking Mabel away from Miss Brant than to do it.

“I’m terribly afraid of facing her,” confided Jessica to Grace.  “She is the terror of Oakdale, you know.”

“She can’t hurt us,” said Grace.  “Your father will do all the talking.  All we need to do is to take charge of Mabel, after Miss Brant gives her up.”

“Well, young ladies,” said Mr. Bright, as the two girls entered his office, “I see you are prompt in keeping your appointment.  Let us go at once, for I must be back here at five o’clock.”

“What are you going to say to that terrible woman, papa?” shuddered Jessica as they neared the Brant home.  “I’m afraid she’ll scratch your eyes out.”

“Am I really in such serious danger?” asked Mr. Bright in mock alarm.  “I am glad I brought you girls along to protect me.”

“You haven’t any idea what a crank she is, Mr. Bright,” laughed Grace.  “She fairly snarled at us the other day, when we were coming from school, because she said we were taking up the whole sidewalk.  Poor little Mabel, no wonder she has a scared look in her eyes all the time.”

“Well, here we are,” responded Mr. Bright, as he rang the bell.  “Now for the tug of war.”