"I think it is simply a disgrace to have a person like that in our class," said Edna Hayden in an injured tone.  
"And she doesn't seem a bit ashamed of it, either," said Agnes Walters.
 
"Rather proud of it, I should say," returned her roommate, spitefully. "It seems to me that if I were so poor that I had to 'room' myself and dress as as she does that I really couldn't look anybody in the face. What must the boys think of her? And if it wasn't for her being in it, our class would be the smartest and dressiest in the college—even those top-lofty senior girls admit that."
 
"It's a shame," said Agnes, . "But she needn't expect to associate with our set. I, for one, won't have anything to do with her."
 
"Nor I. I think it is time she should be taught her place. If we could only manage to some snub on her, she might take the hint and give up trying to herself in where she doesn't belong. The idea of her consenting to be elected on the executive! But she seems to snubs."
 
"Edna, let's play a joke on her. It will serve her right. Let us send an invitation in somebody's name to the senior 'prom.'"
 
"The very thing! And sign Sidney Hill's name to it. He's the handsomest and richest fellows at Payzant, and belongs to one of the best families in town, and he's fastidious besides. No doubt she will feel immensely flattered and, of course, she'll accept. Just think how silly she'll feel when she finds out he never sent it. Let's write it now, and send it at once. There is no time to lose, for the 'prom' is on Thursday night."
 
The freshmen co-eds at Payzant College did not like Grace Seeley—that is to say, the majority of them. They were a decidedly class that year. No one could deny that Grace was clever, but she was poor, dressed very plainly—"dowdily," the girls said—and "roomed" herself, that phrase meaning that she rented a little unfurnished room and cooked her own meals over an oil stove.
 
The "senior prom," as it was called, was the annual reception which the senior class gave in the middle of every autumn term. It was the smartest and gayest of all the college functions, and a Payzant co-ed who received an invitation to it counted herself fortunate. The senior girls were included as a matter of course, but a junior, soph, or freshie could not go unless one of the senior boys invited her.
 
Grace Seeley was studying Greek in her tiny room that afternoon when the invitation was brought to her. It was orthodox in appearance and form, and Grace never doubted that it was genuine, although she felt much surprised that Sidney Hill, the leader of his class and the foremost figure in all college sports and societies, should have asked her to go with him to the senior prom.
 
But she was girlishly pleased at the . She was as fond of a good time as any other girl, and she had secretly wished very much that she could go to the brilliant and much talked about senior prom.
 
Grace was quite of her own unpopularity among her class co-eds, although she thought it was very hard to get acquainted with them. Without any false pride herself, and of a frank, independent nature, it never occurred to her that the other Payzant freshies could look down on her because she was poor, or resent her presence among them because she dressed plainly.
 
She straightway wrote a note of acceptance to Sidney Hill, and that young man naturally felt much mystified when he opened and read it in the college library next morning.
 
"Grace Seeley," he pondered. "That's the jolly girl with the brown eyes that I met at the philomathic the other night. She thanks me for my invitation to the senior prom, and accepts with pleasure. Why, I certainly never invited her or anyone else to go with me to the senior prom. There must be some mistake."
 
Grace passed him at this moment on her way to the Latin classroom. She bowed and smiled in a friendly fashion and Sidney Hill felt decidedly uncomfortable. What was he to do? He did not like to think of putting Miss Seeley in a false position because somebody had sent her an invitation in his name.
 
"I suppose it is some cad who has a spite at me that has done it," he reflected, "but if so I'll spoil his game. I'll take Miss Seeley to the prom as if I had never intended doing anything else. She shan't be just because there is someone at Payzant who would stoop to that sort of thing."
 
So he walked up the hall with Grace and expressed his pleasure at her acceptance, and on the evening of the prom he sent her a of white , whose reminded her of her own little garden at home. Grace thought it extremely nice of him, and dressed in a flutter of pleasant .
 
Her gown was a very simple one of sheer white organdie, and was the only evening dress she had. She knew there would be many smarter dresses at the reception, but the knowledge did not disturb her sensible head in the least.
 
She fingered the dainty white frills lovingly as she remembered the sunny summer days at home in the little sewing-room, where cherry their blossoms in at the window, when her mother and sisters had helped her to make it, with laughing and as to its first appearance. Into seam and and fril............