"If Miss Leece knew it, she would certainly have told her," answered Grace, leaning over so that Anne could not hear her; "but I feel sure Miss Thompson has managed it somehow, although I kept hoping all day she would send me a note or something. It may be she hated to tell me the bad news."
Hippy Wingate and Reddy Brooks came down the aisle in immaculate attire. David followed behind, pale and silent.
Did David suspect anything about his sister? Grace wondered. Certainly he had directly or indirectly been the means of balking every one of Miriam's schemes for injuring Anne. Perhaps Miriam had told him she was to win the prize, and he was thinking of Anne's disappointment. All three boys paused when they saw their friends of the Christmas house party. Hippy leaned over to say:
"Hello, girls! Can you guess what has brought us here to-night, all dressed up in our best?"
"Not unless it was to show off your clothes," replied Nora.
"To see Miss Anne Pierson win the freshman prize. Simply that, and nothing more."
"But I don't expect to win it, Hippy," protested Anne.
"If you don't, you aren't the girl we took you for, then," replied Hippy. "I heard from a young person in your class that you hadn't made a mistake in six months."
"But just as many people think Miriam will win," said Anne. "Look at all the people congratulating her already."
Surely enough Miriam's friends had rallied around her at the final test, and numbers of girls and boys and grown people, too, were already prophesying victory.