There is no time to lose , for the ` prom ' is on Thursday night . '' The freshmen co-eds at Payzant College did not like Grace Seeley -- that is to say , the majority of them . They were a decidedly snobbish class that year . No one could deny that Grace was clever , but she was poor , dressed very plainly -- `` dowdily , '' the girls said -- and `` roomed '' herself , that phrase meaning that she rented a little unfurnished room and cooked her own meals over an oil stove . The `` senior prom , '' as it was called , was the annual reception which the senior class gave in the middle of every autumn term . It was the smartest and gayest of all the college functions , and a Payzant co-ed who received an invitation to it counted herself fortunate . The senior girls were included as a matter of course , but a junior , soph , or freshie could not go unless one of the senior boys invited her . Grace Seeley was studying Greek in her tiny room that afternoon when the invitation was brought to her . It was scrupulously orthodox in appearance and form , and Grace never doubted that it was genuine , although she felt much surprised that Sidney Hill , the leader of his class and the foremost figure in all college sports and societies , should have asked her to go with him to the senior prom . But she was girlishly pleased at the prospect . She was as fond of a good time as any other girl , and she had secretly wished very much that she could go to the brilliant and much talked about senior prom . Grace was quite unaware of her own unpopularity among her class co-eds , although she thought it was very hard to get acquainted with them . Without any false pride herself , and of a frank , independent nature , it never occurred to her that the other Payzant freshies could look down on her because she was poor , or resent her presence among them because she dressed plainly . She straightway wrote a note of acceptance to Sidney Hill , and that young man naturally felt much mystified when he opened and read it in the college library next morning . `` Grace Seeley , '' he pondered . `` That 's the jolly girl with the brown eyes that I met at the philomathic the other night . She thanks me for my invitation to the senior prom , and accepts with pleasure . Why , I certainly never invited her or anyone else to go with me to the senior prom . There must be some mistake . '' Grace passed him at this moment on her way to the Latin classroom .
She bowed and smiled in a friendly fashion and Sidney XXXXX felt decidedly uncomfortable .
College Grace Hill Seeley afternoon annual autumn co-eds freshies night