Miss Elizabeth Graham, as she always insisted upon being ad
dressed—she scorned nicknames—aged twenty-one, Senior at
Vassar, and editor-in-chief of the Vassar Miscellany, strong
minded girl with advanced ideas, was being dressed for the grand
New Year's Assembly to be given that night by the local chapter
of the " Daughters of the Revolution." Being strong-minded,
Miss Elizabeth was not without her eccentricities, and one of these
was her habit of soliloquizing when excited or thinking hard. The
remarks that caused the little disaster were the last of a long train
that would have tired out anyone but the patient Anne, who was
accustomed to her mistress' peculiarities and loved her as only
an old servant can love the children of the household where she
has spent the best part of her life: When the mother had died,
eight years before, she had taken the young girl under her especial
care, and now she was proud of the glorious creature she was pre
paring for the evening's entertainment. Miss Elizabeth herself
loved the kind-hearted woman, and was heartily sorry that she had
put her to so much extra trouble. She was, therefore, silent for
several minutes while the dextrous fingers again arranged the
luxurious dark-brown tresses; but her thoughts were busy, and
full of the excitement of the coming gayety she began to talk
again.
" Yes, if it wasn't that Aunt Martha is such a great Daughter,'
and if Jack hadn't asked me, I would absolutely refuse to go. I
know I shall be bored awfully. Ido detest these dapper young
fellows in their broad expanses of spotless linen, who cluster
around one and beg the gracious lady for the favor of a dance. I
wonder if they mean half of what they say, and why they can't
talk intelligently instead of rattling off such nonsense as they
do."
" And why should Igoto a hop ? I care nothing for dancing
except the exercise it affords. I much prefer tennis, or golf, or
cycling. A crowded room is a poor place in which to take ex
ercise, and a woman with a career to live should not waste her
time on such frivolities as full-dress balls. Here lam only three
days before college opens again, and I to have travel back to Pough
keepsie with not a line written in those articles I was going to pre
pare for the Miscellany. It has been one senseless round of dinner
parties and receptions and teas till I am sick of it and almost wish
I were one of those independent girls whom one meets down town
every day winning her own bread and working out for herself the
The Free Lance.
CJANUARY,