“My treat will be a dinner at Orchard Inn,” Vera promised. “You two girls have never been to Orchard Inn. Wait until you see it.” She grew enthusiastic. “Leila and I just happened to discover it while we were out driving. There; that’s all I intend to tell you about it.” “Is not Midget cruel?” Leila shook a disapproving head. “Is not Leila aggravating,” retaliated Vera, imitating Leila’s tone. “Since you ask outright; yes, to both questions. We couldn’t help thinking it, but we were too polite to say so,” declared Robin. “We’ve a grievance of our own against those two. Haven’t we, Marjorie?” “I should say we had.” Marjorie laid stress on her reply. “Ah, no; you only think you have,” retorted Leila. A flash of familiarity came with the words “you only think you have,” but to Marjorie’s brain only. Now she remembered. That was precisely what Hal had said to her on their last boat ride when he had declared that she had never grown up. Her merry look, born of her companions’ repartee, faded, to be replaced by a faint pucker of brow. To think of Hal meant to recall the hurt expression on his handsome features as she had last seen them. Quick as they had been to seek the cool inviting hospitality of the Ivy, the re-united friends were now as eager to depart from it upon their light-hearted way to the campus. “I’m going to hit up a pace,” Vera slangily informed them, swaggering up to the roadster in an exact imitation of a racing motorcyclist she had recently seen. Under her small practiced hands the smart roadster was presently whisking through the town of Hamilton at a rate just escaping that of speeding. Soon they had left the dignified town to its late afternoon drowsing and were skimming along Hamilton Highway. A short stretch of straight road then the highway began to wind in and out among the collection of handsome private properties known as Hamilton Estates. They were beautiful old-style manor houses for the most part surrounded by green rolling lawns and ancient trees. “Oh, girls!” Marjorie called from her place on the front seat beside Vera. She and Robin had exchanged places for the ride to the campus. “Doesn’t Hamilton Arms look wonderful? As if it were trying to show summer off at its very best.” “There’s not another place among Hamilton Estates that compares with the Arms,” was Vera’s positive opinion. “And why not? Didn’t Brooke Hamilton plan it?” Leila made loyal demand. “Now maybe he knew Nature better than she knew herself. I have sometimes thought so.” “What a splendid tribute to him, Leila!” was Marjorie’s admiring cry. “I must save that to tell Miss Susanna. How she will love it.” “Ah-h.” Leila’s affable grin appeared. “Now you begin to take account of my smartness.” “It seems almost unfriendly not to stop and go to Miss Susanna now, but I hate to disturb her before she has had her tea,” Marjorie commented with concern.