“I think you are wise, Anne,” agreed Miriam.  “With two such people as Mr. Southard and his sister to look after you, there can be no objection to your following your profession.”

“I am glad to know that you girls look at the matter in that light,” replied Anne.

“Suppose we had offered any objections?” asked Grace.

“I’ll answer that question,” said Miriam.  “Anne would have followed the path she had marked out for herself regardless of our objections.  Am I right, Anne?”

“I don’t know,” said Anne, flushing deeply.  “You have all been so good to me.  I couldn’t bear to displease my dearest friends, but it would be hard to give up something I knew could result in nothing save good for me.”  Anne paused and looked at Grace and Miriam with pleading eyes.

“Never mind, dear,” comforted Grace.  “We approve of you and all your works.  We are not shocked because you are a genius.  We are sworn advocates of the stage and only too glad to know that it has opened the way to college for you.”

“Shall you let the fact that you have appeared professionally be known at Overton?” asked Miriam.

“I shall make no secret of it,” returned Anne quietly, “but I won’t volunteer any information concerning it.”

“I wonder what our freshman year at Overton will bring us,” mused Grace.  “I have read so many stories about college life, and yet so far Overton seems like an unknown land that we are about to explore.  From all I have heard and read, exploring freshmen find their first term at college anything but a bed of roses.  They are sometimes hazed unmercifully by the upper classes, and their only salvation lies in silently standing the test.  Julia Crosby says that she had all sorts of tricks played on her during her first term at Smith.  Now she’s a sophomore and can make life miserable for the freshmen.  I am going to try to cultivate the true college spirit,” concluded Grace earnestly.  “College is going to mean even more to me than high school.  I don’t imagine it’s all going to be plain sailing.  I suppose, more than once, I’ll wish myself back in Oakdale, but I’m going to make up my mind to take the bitter with the sweet and set everything down under the head of experience.”

“To tell you the truth,” Miriam said slowly, “I am not enthusiastic over college.  I value it as a means of continuing my education, and I’ll try to live up to college ideals, but I’m not going to let anyone walk over me or ridicule me.  I’m willing ‘to live and let live,’ but, as Eleanor Savelli used to say when in a towering rage, ’no one can trample upon me with impunity.’”

“I wonder when we shall see Eleanor again,” said Anne, smiling a little at the recollection called up by Miriam’s quotation.

“That reminds me,” exclaimed Grace.  “I have a letter from Eleanor that I haven’t opened.  It came this morning just before I left the house.”  Fumbling in her bag, Grace drew forth a bulky looking letter, bearing a foreign postmark, and tearing open the end, drew out several closely folded sheets of thin paper covered with Eleanor’s characteristic handwriting.