WHEN I first knew Betty Wales she was a freshman at Harding College, with a sedate, comical roommate named Helen Chase Adams, and a host of good friends, who stood by her and one another all through the four years of their college course. Mary Brooks—afterward Mrs. Hinsdale—was a sophomore when Betty entered college, but the others, the three B’s, Roberta Lewis, Eleanor Watson, Rachel Morrison, and Katherine Kittredge,—all belonged to the “finest class” of 19—. So did Madeline Ayres, though she was a year late in joining it and felt obliged to make up for lost time by being a particularly lively and loyal Hardingite during her abbreviated course there. Georgia Ames first appeared in 19—’s junior year, and joined “The Merry Hearts,” a society that Betty and her friends had organized. But Georgia the first, as Madeline used to call her, was only a figment of Madeline’s imagination; it was a delightful coincidence when, at the end of the year, a real Georgia Ames appeared to step into the place left vacant by her departed namesake, whose short but strenuous career at Harding had made them both famous.
All these things and many others may be found in the four books entitled respectively “Betty Wales, Freshman,” “Betty Wales, Sophomore,” “Betty Wales, Junior,” and “Betty Wales, Senior.” This story was written because some of Betty’s friends were not satisfied to leave her at the end of her senior year, but wished to hear what she did next. If any of them still want to know what happened to her after she came back from her trip abroad, why, perhaps some day they may.
MARGARET WARDE.