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Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School; or, The Parting of the Ways

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<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> <h3>GRACE AND ANNE PLAN A STUDY CAMPAIGN</h3> With the delights of the past holiday season still fresh in their memories, the pupils of Oakdale High School went back to their studies on the fourth of January, and in the course of a few days everything was again in smooth running order. Semi-annual examinations were but three weeks away, and that meant a general brushing up in studies on the part of every pupil. The senior class had, perhaps, less to do in the way of study than the three lower classes. A few of the seniors already had enough credits to insure graduation, although the majority expected the results of the January examinations to place them securely among the number to be graduated. The members of the Phi Sigma Tau, with the exception of Anne, were among the latter, and had settled down to a three weeks' grind, from which no form of pleasure could beguile them. As for Anne, she had carried five studies the entire time she had been in High School and had never failed in even one examination. She might have graduated a year earlier had she been so disposed. Away down in her heart Anne cherished a faint hope that the way for a college career would yet be opened to her. She had made up her mind to try for a scholarship, and she prayed earnestly that before the close of her senior year she might hit upon some plan that would furnish the money for her support during her freshman year in college. Grace was optimistic in regard to Anne's college career. "You'll have some opportunity to earn money before the year is out, just see if you don't," she said to Anne one day at recess, when the latter had developed an unusual case of the blues. "If you just keep wishing hard enough for a thing you are pretty sure to get it. That is, if it's something that's good for you to have." "I've been wishing for the same thing ever since I came to Oakdale, and I haven't got it yet," replied Anne rather mournfully. "I've been unusually short of money this year, too, because Mrs. Gray has been away, and the money I received from her work was a great help." "Poor little Anne," said Grace sympathetically. "I wish you didn't have to worry over money. However, Mrs. Gray will be home in February, and you'll have her work until June." "But even so, I can't have the use of it myself," was Anne's response. "I shall have to use it at home. We need every cent of it." "Oh, dear," sighed Grace. "Why doesn't some one appear all of a sudden and offer you a fine position at about fifty dollars a week." "Yes," said Anne, laughing in spite of her blues. "That is what really ought to happen, only the day for miracles is past." "At any rate, I have always felt that you and I were going to college together, and I believe we shall," predicted Grace. "I hope so, but I doubt it," replied Anne wistfully. "By the way, Grace, do you recite in any of Marian Barber's classes?" "No," said Grace, "not this term. Why?" "She is in my section in astronomy," answered Anne, "and lately she fails every day in recitation. You know it's a one-term study, and she will have to try an exam in it before long. I don't believe she'll pass, and she told Nora at the beginning of the year that if she failed in one study this year she wouldn't have enough credits to get through and graduate." "Oh, she'll pull through, I think," said Grace. "She is really brilliant in mathematics, and always has kept up in other things." "I know," persisted Anne, "but she has finished her mathematics' group, and her studies this year are things she doesn't care for, and consequently left them until the last. We wouldn't want a Phi Sigma Tau to fail, you know." "I should say not," was Grace's emphatic response. "What shall we do about it?" Anne pondered for a little. "We might take turns coaching her. We have all passed in astronomy. I don't know how she is in her other studies," she said. "Do you suppose she'd be angry if we proposed it to her?" "I don't know," said Grace doubtfully. "She hasn't been to the last two Phi Sigma Tau meetings, and she is awfully cool to me. That's because I don't approve of Henry Hammond. To tell you the truth, I believe he absorbs her attention so completely that she doesn't have time for her studies." "It's a pity her mother is away just at the time when Marian needs her most," Anne remarked. "Yes," said Grace. "You know I asked her to come and stay with me, when we came back from the judge's, but she refused rather sharply, and practically told me that she was able to take care of herself." Just then the gong sounded, and the girls had no further opportunity to discuss the subject until school closed for the day, then while waiting in the locker-room for Nora and Jessica, the talk was again renewed, and after swearing Anne to secrecy, Grace imparted to her the conversation between Marian and Henry Hammond that she and Tom had overheard on New Year's Night. "I was so uneasy about it that I went all around town the next day to see what I could find out about him. I didn't get much satisfaction, however. He claims to be a real estate agent, and Mr. Furlow in the First National Bank says that he has interested a number of Oakdale citizens in land in the west. He is well liked, and it's surprising the way the business men have taken him up," concluded Grace. "Perhaps what you heard him say to Marian was nothing of importance after all," said Anne. But Grace shook her head obstinately. "No, Anne," she answered, "my intuitions never fail me. Henry Hammond is a rascal, and some day I shall prove it. As for Marian we'd better have a meeting of the Phi Sigma Tau to-morrow night and especially request her to be present. Then we'll all turn in and offer to help her get ready for the exams. Here come the girls now." Nora, Jessica, Miriam and Eva Allen entered the senior locker-room together. "Where's Marian?" asked Grace. "You'd never guess if we told you," exclaimed Nora. "I never was more surprised in my life." "Why? What's the matter?" asked Anne and Grace together. "Who is the last person you'd expect to see her with?" asked Jessica. "I don't know," said Grace. "Edna Wright?" "Worse," was Nora's answer. "She's up in the study hall with Eleanor Savelli." "Eleanor Savelli?" echoed Grace. "Why she is Marian's pet aversion." "Past history," said Miriam Nesbit. "They appear to be thicker than thieves." "I don't at all understand what ails her, but listen, girls, while I tell you my idea," and Grace rapidly narrated her plan of action. "I foresee trouble, but I'll be on hand," said Miriam. "We'll all be there!" was the chorus. "Remember, Eva," were Grace's parting words, "I rely on you to coax Marian over to your house, then we'll surround her and make her accept our services." "All right," responded Eva. "I'll do my best. Be careful what you say about Henry Hammond, or your mission may be in vain." <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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