CHAPTER XVIII
BASKETBALL RUMORS
After the holidays a great interchanging of visits began at Overton thatdrove away, for the time being, the terrifying shadows of the all toorapidly approaching mid-year examinations. Almost every girl had broughtback with her some treasure that she insisted her friends must see, orsome delicious goody they must taste. It was all very delightful, butextremely demoralizing as far as study was concerned.
Santa Claus had been particularly kind to Anne, Grace and Miriam, asMiriam's muff and scarf of Russian sable, Grace's camera, and Anne'sdiamond ring (a present from the Southards) testified. Then there werethe less expensive but equally valued remembrances in the way ofembroidered sofa pillows, center pieces, and collar and cuff sets, everystitch of which had been taken by the patient fingers of their girlfriends.
Miriam and Grace, while at home, had been given permission to raid thepreserve closet and had brought back an assortment of jellies, preservedfruits and pickles, tucking them in every available space their trunksand suit cases contained, regardless of the risk of breaking glass.
The evening after their arrival they had picked out a number of thechoicest goodies in their stock and accompanied by Anne had called onRuth Denton. They found her wrapped in the folds of a blue eiderdownbathrobe, Arline's Christmas present to her. There were slippers to gowith it, she declared, proudly thrusting forth a felt-incased foot fortheir inspection. A most mysterious thing had happened, however. Thenight before she had gone on her vacation two large boxes had beendelivered to her by a messenger. One of them contained a beautiful navyblue cloth suit, the other a dark blue velvet hat. On a plain card werewritten the words, "'Take the goods the gods provide.' I Wish you aMerry Christmas."
"Have you the card?" Grace asked, after the first exclamations regardingthe mysterious boxes had subsided.
Ruth opened the top drawer of her bureau and took out a card. Then goingto her wardrobe she displayed the blue suit on its hanger, then took thenew hat from the shelf. "Here they are," she said.
The three girls praised the suit and hat so warmly that a flush of purepleasure in her clothes rose to Ruth's face. Grace, however, examinedthe inside of the coat and the lining of the hat with the utmost care.Every telltale mark had been removed. Even the boxes themselves wereplain. The giver had evidently wished his or her identity to remain amystery. The writing on the card was not particularly distinctive. Therewas only one thing of which Grace made mental note. The s's wereunfinished and the a's were not closed at the top. This in itselfamounted to little, and Grace decided that as far as she was concernedthe mystery would have to remain unsolved. So she said nothing aboutthis unimportant discovery, and handed Ruth's treasures back to herwithout comment.
"I thought Arline might have sent it," declared Ruth, "but she swearssolemnly she knows nothing of it, and has given me her word that she hadnothing whatever to do with it."
"You'll find out some day if you have patience," declared Miriam."Sooner or later good deeds like that are sure to come to light."
"I wish I knew," sighed Ruth, "but if I had known, then I couldn't haveaccepted them, you see."
"Evidently the person who sent them was aware of that," reflected Anne."Therefore, it is some one who knows all about Ruth Denton's pride."
The flush on Ruth's face deepened. "I can't help it," she said. "I don'tlike to feel dependent on any one."
On the way to Wayne Hall, the mysterious presents formed the mainsubject for discussion.
"We ought to have Elfreda's opinion," laughed Miriam. "She would find aclue. Don't you remember what she said about Ruth's pride the first timewe took her to call on Ruth?"
"Yes," replied Grace absently. Then the full force of Miriam's wordsdawning on her she looked at her friend in a startled way. "I know whosent Ruth those presents. It was Elfreda herself. I'm sure of it. Sheknew Ruth to be too proud to accept clothes, so she sent themanonymously. Now I know why those 'a's' and 's's' looked so familiar.That's Elfreda's writing. I know she did it. She just had to be nice inspite of herself," concluded Grace.
"But why do you think it was Elfreda?" persisted Miriam.
"It was what you said that put me on the right track," replied Grace. "Ibelieve she made up her mind that day to send Ruth the suit and hat."
"If she did send them, there is still hope that she will come back tous," said Anne.
It was agreed among the three girls that not even Ruth should be told oftheir suspicions, and that if any possible opportunity arose toconciliate Elfreda it should be promptly seized.
During the short space of time that elapsed before the dreadedexamination week swooped down upon them, the three friends were too busypreparing for the coming ordeal to give much thought to the discoverythey had made. Elfreda avoided them so persistently that there seemedsmall chance of getting within speaking distance. It was a week ofpainful suspense, broken only by brief outbursts of jubilation when someparticularly formidable examination, that everyone had worried over,seemingly to the point of gray hairs, turned out better than had beenexpected.
In the campus houses wholesale permission to burn midnight oil had beengranted. Lights shone until late hours and flushed faces bent earnestlyover text books as though trying to absorb their contents verbatim. OnFriday, the strain, that had been lessening imperceptibly with eachsucceeding examination, snapped, and Overton began to think about manythings that had no bearing on examinations.
"I'm almost dead!" exclaimed Grace, coming into her room on Fridayafternoon and dropping into the Morris chair near the window.
"I'm tired, too," returned Anne, who had come in just ahead of her, andwas engaged in putting her freshly laundered clothing in the two drawersof the chiffonier that belonged to her.
"Thank goodness, we have four whole days of rest between terms at anyrate," sighed Grace. "I'm going to skate and be out of doors as much asI can. I must make a few calls, too. I'm going to give a dinner atVinton's, too. I'll invite Mabel, Frances, Gertrude Wells, ArlineThayer, Ruth, of course. That makes five," counted Grace on her fingers."Oh, yes, Constance Fuller, six, you two girls, and myself. That makesnine. I told Mother about it when I was at home and she gave me themoney for it. I'll have it Tuesday night. The new term begins Wednesday.To-morrow I'll go calling and deliver my invitations in the morning.There's a trial basketball game to-morrow afternoon."
"When will there be a real game?" asked Anne. "I haven't heard youmention basketball for ages."
"Christmas and examinations put a damper on it, but now all the girlsare anxious to play and we have challenged the sophomores to playagainst us the second Saturday afternoon in February. I am going to playright guard, and Miriam is to play left forward. A Miss Martin is ourcenter, and two freshmen I don't know very well are to play the leftguard and right forward. We have a good team. Miss Martin is a wonder.You can see us practice if you wish, Anne."
"Perhaps I will," returned Anne. "Who is on the sophomore team?"
"I don't know," answered Grace. "I don't have much to say to thesophomores. Most of them appear to dislike me, consequently I shallgreatly enjoy vanquishing them at basketball."
At the dinner table that night a discussion concerning Saturday'spractice game arose, to which Grace and Miriam listened quietly withouttaking part.
"I suppose I ought to go to this practice game, to see what the freshmenteam can do. I think we can make them look sick and sorry before we arethrough with them," drawled Virginia Gaines.
Grace and Miriam exchanged lightning glances. This was the firstintimation they had received that Virginia intended to play on thesophomore team. Miriam frowned. She was thinking of the time when shehad been Grace's enemy on the basketball field and off. The recollectionwas not pleasant. It was very unfortunate that they had to opposeVirginia. Miriam determined to look out for herself and Grace, too, onthe day of the game. Involuntarily her face hardened with resolve. Sheset her lips firmly, then glancing in the direction of Virginia she sawElfreda, who sat next
to the sophomore at the table, eyeing herintently. There was a disagreeable smile on the stout girl's face as sheleaned toward Virginia and made a low-toned remark. Miss Gaines lookedtoward Miriam, smiled maliciously, and shrugged her shoulders.
"That's a danger signal," decided Miriam. "She does mean mischief. I'llspeak to Grace about it as soon as we go upstairs." But before they leftthe dining room the door bell rang. The maid admitted Gertrude Wells andArline Thayer, and in the pleasure of seeing them, Miriam's resolve towarn Grace was quite forgotten.
The practice game ended in an overwhelming advantage for Grace's team.The other team behaved good-naturedly over their defeat and challengedthe winners to play again the following Saturday. They promptly acceptedthe challenge, and, when the second practice game was played, again cameoff victorious.
Grace's old basketball ardor had returned threefold and every availablemoment found her in the gymnasium hard at work. The other members of theteams had imbibed considerable of her enthusiasm. Miss Martin, thecenter, laughingly said Grace was a human whirlwind and simply made therest of the team play to keep up with her. Miriam's playing also evokedconsiderable praise. The first Saturday in February marked the last gamewith the Number Two team. It turned out to be quite an event and thegallery of the gymnasium was crowded with a mixed representation ofclasses. Virginia Gaines and Elfreda sat in the first row, and as theplay proceeded Virginia watched the skilful tactics of Miriam and Gracewith anything but enthusiasm. Elfreda, narrowly watching her companion,read apprehension in Virginia's face, although she made light of theplaying of the freshmen team and predicted an easy victory for thesophomores. Scarcely knowing why she did so, Elfreda had doggedlyinsisted that if the sophomores hoped to beat that freshman team, theywould have to play exceptionally well. Whereupon an argument aroseregarding the respective merits of the two teams that lasted all the wayto Wayne Hall, and ended in the two girls not speaking to each otheragain that night.
"Did you see Elfreda in the gallery this afternoon?" asked Anne, as sheand Grace left the gymnasium and set out for Wayne Hall. Anne had waitedin the dressing room until Grace finished dressing.
"I did not see any one," laughed Grace. "I was far too busy. I amsurprised to learn that she came to the game."
"She was there, in the third row balcony," replied Anne. "She sat withVirginia Gaines, who looked ferocious enough to bite."
"I wish something would happen to make Elfreda see that we are herfriends," sighed Grace.
"She will see, some day," predicted Anne. "Sooner or later she willrealize her mistake and come back to us."