"I'm so sorry Evelyn lent herself to something she knew would displease
me," mourned Grace.
"Perhaps she didn't. I know for a certainty that she wasn't in the house
Saturday afternoon, for I met her on the campus and she told me that she
was going to take luncheon and spend the afternoon with Althea Parker."
"She must have _known_ about it."
"I am afraid the news of this sale will travel rapidly," prophesied
Emma. "Not only will Miss Brent be talked over, but you also will be
criticized. You know I advised you, not long ago, to insist that Miss
Brent make a full explanation of things. Take my advice and see her at
once."
"I will," decided Grace. "I'll have a talk with her after dinner
to-night."
Grace was not the only one, however, to whom the news of the sale came
as a shock. Strangely enough Evelyn learned of it during the afternoon
of the same day in which it had come to Grace's ears. Her attention had
been attracted to a smart black and white check coat which Edna
Correll, a very plain freshman who tried to make up in extreme dressing
what she lacked in beauty, was wearing. In crossing the campus on her
way to Harlowe House she had encountered Edna in company with another
freshman. For an instant she had wondered why the sight of the black and
white coat which Edna wore seemed so strangely familiar. Then it had
dawned upon her that it was identical with a coat belonging to Jean.
"How do you like my new coat?" had been Edna's salutation, and Evelyn
had replied. "It's wonderfully smart. Miss Brent has one very much like
it."
"She had one, you mean," Edna had corrected. "Why, weren't you at the
sale last Saturday! I suppose you selected what you wanted beforehand.
That is where you had the advantage."
"What sale?" Evelyn had asked, completely mystified. Then explanations
had followed. White with suppressed anger, Evelyn had bade Edna a hasty
good-bye and sped across the campus toward Harlowe House. Without a word
she brushed by the maid who answered the bell, and rushed upstairs as
fast as she could run. The temper which she had tried so hard to control
was now at a high pitch. How dared Jean deliberately place her in such
an unpleasant position when she was trying so hard to be worthy of Miss
Harlowe's confidence? She flung open the door of her room. Then her eyes
sought and found Jean standing before the wardrobe, her back to the
door, a pair of black satin slippers in her hand.
"How could you do it?" burst forth Evelyn. "You know Miss Harlowe
forbade it. Now she will think that I knew all about it. Just when I am
trying to merit her confidence."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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