shouted again. She thought he was a burglar, just as though a burglar
would make all that noise, and wasn't going to let him out. He insists
that he ruined his voice forever in trying to convince her that he was
himself. He says his frenzied pleadings finally touched her adamant heart,
and she opened the cellar door very cautiously at the rate of about a
sixteenth of an inch per minute."

Grace laughed with the others, as Nora finished. "Poor Hippy," she
commented, "he is always falling into difficulties. I must ask him about
his evening in the cellar."

"Yes, do," urged Nora. "He tried to swear Edith and me to secrecy, but we
refused to be sworn."

"It will make Reddy so happy," laughed Anne.

"Oh, Anne, dear, you don't know how splendid it seems to have you home
again!" exclaimed Grace. "It's just like old times. I can't help feeling
sad though. We thought when we were graduated from high school that our
parting of the ways had come, but now that we are all standing on the
verge of our life work, it seems to me that this is going to be the real
parting. I can't help wondering if things will seem quite the same again
when we gather home next year."

"Of course they will," declared practical Nora. "Grace Harlowe, don't you
dare to grow gloomy and retrospective. We four are chums for life, and not
all the weddings and stage careers and Harlowe House positions in the
world can change us."

"I know they can't. I won't make any more excursions into the Valley of