“Why should she not? Now, there, I didn’t mean a thing, but we have not yet heard the story of that magic card, you know. What was on that card, Jane?” “Judy, you little nuisance,” and Jane smiled in mockery. “As if I could tell you anything about that now! Run along, and tell the girls to spread the news about our big dance next Wednesday evening. Remember, it is given in honor of the Breslins.” CHAPTER XXVI—ANGELS UNAWARES The big dance was over. Wellington had entertained the Breslins royally, and not even the absence of “real men” effected a barrier between the romping college girls and the best of good times. In fact, as the girls were wont to declare, it was a lot more fun without boys at college. Of course boys have their place, and that specifically at dances, but those who have ever enjoyed the privilege of participating in a girls’ dance at a big college, testify to the genuineness of the mirth, the joyousness of such an entertainment. Basketball games were now being run off from a schedule that filled in every date from the height of the season to the Christmas vacation. As Jane and Judith had predicted early in the term, sports had reached the acme of popularity at Wellington, and so well was the spirit and team work developed, that the usual small talk, and smaller squabbles were almost entirely obliterated, from the school curriculum—that furnished by the students, and not announced in the official prospectus. Marian Seaton and Dolorez Vincez still “teamed up” and were under the ever watchful eye of the faculty, but the authoritative bomb had not yet actually exploded, and both girls appeared to hold their places in spite of Mrs. Weatherbee’s threat, concerning the proposed beauty parlor offence. But Dolorez played no more basketball. Nor had the beauty shop enterprise been abandoned, though just who was actually responsible for the little cottage now undergoing repair, with the evident intent of opening up, no one was prepared to announce. Jane, true to her promise, had quickly spread the word of disapproval among the student body, and in this she was ably supported and promptly assisted by Judith. It took little effort to convince the girls that Wellington would not permit her pupils to be canvassed in any business interest, and possibly, the character of the enterprise, being so closely allied to rampant vanity, had something to do with the quick reaction to their own disapproval. With interest almost mounting to anxiety Jane watched for the local paper, the _Bugle_, published at the end of each month. She had reason to fear it would contain some material not given officially by the press committee of the college. The intimacy of Marian Seaton with the reporter was interpreted by both Judith and Jane as presaging trouble in print, and in the time elapsing, that fear of some disclosure concerning Helen grew in intensity with Jane, and was shared by the reliable and ever considerate Judith.