"Grace!" they cried in chorus, "do you mean it?"

For answer Grace turned to the mirror and began to arrange her hair.

"Ask Roy," she flung at them over her shoulder.

Behind her the girls looked at each other dumbly, struggling with a wild
desire to laugh and cry at the same instant.

"But how?" Amy was beginning dazedly when once more Betty came to the
rescue.

"All this would be funny if it weren't so impossible," she said. "Suppose
we begin at the beginning and tell our experiences, since we're all in the
same boat. It ought to be interesting--if not instructive."

Grace turned from the mirror and seated herself expectantly on the arm of
a chair.

"Well, who's first?" she demanded.

"I am," volunteered Mollie unexpectedly, her eyes glittering. "It was all
so utterly absurd, and it made me so m-mad that I had to c-cry--"

"So we see," murmured Grace impatiently, but once more Betty sent her a
warning glance.

"And then--" she suggested.