"I don't wish my body guard to nurse wholesale bruises and smashed
fingers. Mr. Symes, can you have two men besides yourself here this
afternoon to unpack these things?"

"I certainly can, Mrs. Gray," promised Mr. Symes with respectful
promptness.

"Then we'll have to possess our souls in patience until to-morrow," sighed
Grace. "Isn't this a lovely, roomy house, Elfreda? I'm so glad, too, that
there isn't a prim, stiff parlor. I like this immense living-room much
better. The girls will surely like it. It will serve as a library too.
That little room just off the hall will make such a convenient office for
me. Imagine me as the head of a college house, with an office all my own,
Elfreda."

"It's a good thing for the house," commented Elfreda. "I hope the girls
that live here will appreciate you, Grace. I hope none of them will be as
silly as J. Elfreda Briggs was."

"Elfreda, how can you?" remonstrated Grace.

"How could I, you mean," flung back Elfreda. "Because I was a spoiled,
selfish ingrate who never stopped to think of any one else's rights."

"Now, now, Elfreda," protested Mrs. Gray.

"Well, I was," insisted Elfreda positively. "It took a whole year to
reduce me to order. I wasn't as hopeless as some of the others. It took
three years to make Alberta Wicks and Mary Hampton real Overton girls, and
two years to instil college spirit into Kathleen West. But Grace never