Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School Part 3

"Let's do some stunts," proposed Grace. "Nora, will you give us your imitations?"

"Certainly," replied Nora, "if Miriam will promise to sing, and Jessica will do her Greek dance, and Georgie will play for us."

"All right!" came a chorus of voices.

"We've done it oft before, but we'll do it o'er again if the company so wishes," said Georgie Pine, one of the brightest and gayest girls in the cla.s.s.

The others seated themselves in a semicircle, while each girl gave her little performance, and, at the conclusion, was applauded enthusiastically. Nora had a real talent for mimicry; she convulsed her audience with imitations of some of the High School teachers. When it came Miriam's turn she sat down at the piano with a queer look on her face.

"I believe she means mischief," thought Grace to herself, as she watched the girl curiously.

Miriam ran a brilliant scale up the piano, for music was another of her many accomplishments. Then she paused and turned to the others.

"I won't sing," she said, "unless Miss Pierson promises to recite us something first, Poe's 'Raven,' for instance."

Grace flushed angrily and was about to interfere when, to her surprise, Anne herself replied:

"I shall be glad to if that is the poem you like best. I always preferred 'Annabel Lee.'"

Miriam was too amazed to answer. She could never form an idea of what it cost Anne in self-control to acquiesce; but the young girl had gained a new strength that day. So many people had been kind to her, and what is more, interested in her welfare. She rose quietly and walked to the middle of the semicircle.

Grace and her chums were in an agony of fear lest poor Anne should break down, and so distress them all except the unkind Miriam. However, they need not have troubled themselves. Anne fixed her eyes on the far wall of the dining room and commenced to recite "The Raven" in a clear, musical voice that deepened as she repeated the stanzas. The girls forgot the shabby little figure in its ill-fitting black silk and saw only Anne's small, white face and glowing eyes. Not Miss Tebbs, herself, teacher of English and elocution at the High School, could have improved upon the performance.

"It was perfectly done," said Grace afterwards, telling the story to her mother. "It was almost uncanny and quite creepy toward the last."

When the performance was over the girls crowded around little Anne with eager congratulations; but, strange to say, everyone forgot that Miriam had given her promise to sing.

What the crestfallen Miriam kept wondering was: "Wherever did she learn to do it?"

CHAPTER III

MRS. GRAY ENGAGES A SECRETARY

Grace and her two friends, Jessica and Nora, were also invited to Mrs.

Gray's luncheon the next day, after church. Grace had often taken meals in the beautiful house on Chapel Hill, but the other girls had never been privileged to do more than sit in the large, shady parlors while their mothers paid an afternoon call.

It was with some excitement, therefore, that the three girls met in front of the Catholic Church, of which Nora was a member, and strolled up the broad street together. As they pa.s.sed the little Episcopal Chapel, which had given the hill its name, Anne Pierson joined them. She looked grave and excited, and there was a feverish glow in her eyes.

"Anne, my child," exclaimed Grace, who always seemed much older than the others, "how late do you study at night? I believe you are working too hard. You look tired out."

"I'm not tired," replied Anne. "I don't mind studying. Only so much has happened in the last few days! And now we're going to luncheon with Mrs.

Gray. I've seen her house. It's very beautiful from the outside, more beautiful than the Nesbits', I think, because it is older and there is such a pretty garden at the side."

"Anne," said Jessica, "we're counting on you to win the prize. There is no reason why a rich girl like Miriam Nesbit should get it. She doesn't need the money, in the first place; and, in the second, she's already had enough glory to turn her head. Being beaten won't hurt her at all."

"I would rather win it," answered Anne, with pa.s.sionate fervor, "than almost anything in the world. And think of the big prize of $100! If I could win that----" Words failed to express her enthusiasm and she paused and clasped her hands.

"Oh, well, we won't expect that of you," replied Grace, "n.o.body could be expected to pa.s.s a perfect examination. That's an impossible achievement."

"_I_ shall try, anyway," said Anne in a low voice.

Just then they were joined by a young man of about eighteen, who lifted his hat politely to them.

"May I walk with you?" he asked of Grace. "You seem to be going my way this morning."

"Certainly, David, we are going your way. We are lunching with your next door neighbor, Mrs. Gray. But you must let me introduce you to Miss Pierson. Anne, this is Mr. Nesbit, Miriam's brother."

Anne flushed at the mention of Miriam's name and bowed distantly to the newcomer, who was a junior at the High School and quite grown-up to the young freshmen.

David Nesbit, like his sister, was tall, dark and handsome; but unlike her, he was quiet and una.s.suming. He, too, stood at the head of his cla.s.ses, but he was not athletic, as Miriam was, and spent most of his time in the school laboratory, experimenting, or working at home on engines and machinery of his own contriving.

However, there was nothing sn.o.bbish in David's att.i.tude. He greeted Anne as cordially as he had the others.

"We never see you now, David," continued Grace. "You are always so busy with your inventions and contrivances. What is the latest? A flying machine?"

"You guessed right the very first time," replied David. "It is just that."

"Really?" laughed the girls, incredulously, while Anne's eyes grew large with interest.

"Shall you fly around Oakdale in it?" asked Jessica.

"Oh, we are not building big ones yet," answered David. "These are little fellows. Models, you know. The big ones may come later. Six of the junior and senior fellows have been working on them all summer. We started it in the manual training course. After we had learned to hammer things out of silver, and do wood carving and a few other little useful accomplishments, I suggested a flying machine to Professor Blitz and he fell to it like a ripe peach. It was too late to do anything last spring except talk, however. But we are almost ready now, after our labors this summer."

"Ready for what?" demanded Grace. "If you are not going to fly yourselves."

"For our exhibition. Why don't you come and see it at the gym. next Friday night?"

"We can't. We aren't invited," answered Nora, tossing back her saucy little curls.

"I'll invite you," said David. "This will admit four young ladies to the High School gym.," he continued, taking out a card and writing on it, "At 7.30 Thursday evening."

"Then everybody isn't invited?" demanded Jessica.

"No, not everybody," replied David. "Just a chosen few. And you must be sure to come, too, Miss Pierson," he added, turning to Anne, who, all this time, had been silently listening to the conversation.

"I should love to," she answered, giving him a grateful glance.

"I'll leave you here," said David, turning in at a graveled driveway that led to the Nesbit house, a very large and ornate building standing far back from the street in the midst of a well-kept lawn.

"I wish Miriam would take a few lessons in manners from her brother,"

murmured Grace, when they were out of hearing distance.

"He is certainly one of the nicest boys in High School," said Jessica.

"If he only played football!" said Grace, with a sigh.