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Page 22
CHAPTER VII
GATHERING CLOUDS
"A sprained ankle is not so serious," declared Grace from her nest among
the sofa cushions. It was the Monday after the game. Her various
sympathetic classmates were seated about the Harlowe's comfortable living
room. A wood fire crackled cheerfully in the big, open fireplace, while a
large plate of chocolate fudge circulated from one lap to another.
"Jessica, will you pour the chocolate?" continued Grace to her friend, who
rose at once to comply with her request. "Anne, will you help serve,
please?"
Anne accordingly drew about the room a little table on wheels, containing
on its several shelves plates containing sandwiches, cookies and cakes.
"Trust to the Harlowe's to have lots of good things to eat," exclaimed
Marian Barber. "It must be fun to be laid up, Grace, if you can give a
party every afternoon."
"I must entertain my friends when they are kind enough to come and see
me," answered Grace. "But some people think sandwiches poor provender
unless they are the fancy kind, with olives and nuts in them. Miriam, for
instance would never serve such plain fare to her company as cream cheese
sandwiches."
"Here comes Miriam up the walk now," cried Jessica. "She looks as though
she had something on her mind."
Presently the door opened and Miriam was ushered in. Grace wondered a
little at her call, considering the unfriendly spirit Miriam had recently
exhibited toward her. She greeted Miriam cordially. The laws of
hospitality were sacred in the Harlowe family, and not for worlds would
Grace have shown anything but the kindest feeling toward a guest under her
own roof.
Miriam accepted the chair and the cup of chocolate tendered her, ignoring
the plate of cakes offered by Anne. She looked about her like a marksman
taking aim before he fires. There was a danger signal in either eye.
"She is out for slaughter," thought Nora.
"Well, Miriam, what's the news?" said Marian Barber good-naturedly. "You
have a mysterious, newsy look in your eye. Is it good, bad or
indifferent?"
"How did you guess that I had news?" inquired Miriam. Then without waiting
for an answer she went on. "I certainly have, and very unpleasant news, at
that."
"Out with it," said Nora, "and don't keep us in suspense."
"Well," said Miriam, "I suppose you all noticed how the juniors outwitted
us at every point last Saturday? We put up a hard fight, too. The reason
of it was that they knew every one of our signals."
"How dreadful!" "How did they get their information?" "Who told you so?"
were the exclamations that rose from the assembled girls.
Grace had raised herself to a sitting position and was steadily regarding
Miriam, who, well aware of that keen, searching gaze, deliberately
continued:
"What makes the matter so much worse is the fact that we were betrayed by
a member of our own class."
"Oh, Miriam, you don't mean that?" said Jessica.
"I am sorry to say that it is true," replied Miriam, "and I am going to
put the matter before the class."
"Tell us who it is, Miriam," cried the girls. "We'll fix her!"
"Miriam," said Grace in a tone of quiet command that made every girl look
toward her, "you are to mention no names while in my house."
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