The fluffy-haired little girl obeyed.  “How did you do it?” was the quick answer.

“They did it themselves.  I just did the inviting and they did the rest.  Of course there was a certain amount of chance that they wouldn’t get together, but it was worth taking.  After meeting her this afternoon I felt sure that the girls were wrong, but I wished them to find out for themselves.  How it happened, I don’t know, but we are sure to hear the story after the party is over.”

While Gertrude Wells was congratulating herself on the success of her experiment, Grace Harlowe was remarking to Miriam Nesbit that she thought Gertrude Wells would be an ideal president from 19——­ and that she intended pointing out this fact to the freshmen of Wayne Hall.

CHAPTER XII

UPS AND DOWNS

At breakfast the next morning Grace began her campaign, and she continued to sing Gertrude Wells’s praises when she encountered a group of her freshmen friends after the services.  Then Anne, Miriam, Elfreda and she went for a stroll down College Street and into Vinton’s for ices.  Here they encountered quite a delegation of girls from Morton House, among whom was Gertrude herself, and a great deal of mysterious intriguing went on behind that young woman’s back, who, quite unconscious of the honor about to be thrust upon her, was telling her chum that she thought Grace Harlowe would make a good president for 19——.

On her way home Grace exclaimed delightedly:  “Look across the street, girls!  There is Mabel Ashe.  Let’s go over and speak to her.”

Suiting the action to the word the four girls hurried across the street to greet their favorite.  Mabel smiled pleasantly, stretching forth a welcoming hand, but the young woman with her regarded their presence as an intrusion and glared her displeasure at the newcomers.

“How do you do, Miss Alden?” ventured Grace politely, but Miss Alden stared over her head and with a frigid, “Really, Mabel, under the circumstances, you’ll have to excuse my leaving you,” she turned and marched off in the other direction.

“I suppose we are the circumstances,” said Grace, with a faint smile.  She was furiously angry at the unlooked-for snub, but refused to show it.  Anne looked distressed, Miriam was frowning, while Elfreda glowered savagely.

“Don’t mind what she says,” soothed Mabel.  “She feels awfully cross this afternoon because she has met with a disappointment.  She has an invitation to a Pi Kappa Gamma dance and she has been refused permission to go.  Result, she is in a raging, tearing humor.”

“But I thought one could always go to a fraternity dance if properly chaperoned,” remarked Grace innocently.

“One can,” mimicked Mabel, “if one doesn’t ask permission to go too often, and if one has no conditions to work off.  Now, you see why Mistress Beatrice is obliged to languish at home while the man who invited her will no doubt have to invite some other girl, who is lucky enough to have no conditions.”