Grace Harlowe's Fourth Year at Overton College is number four in the seven book 'College Girl' series, the second of the four series about Grace Harlowe.

This book opens with the Semper Fidelis club members having a progressive luncheon, which means each house at which the lunch takes place is responsible for one course. This book is copyrighted 1914. One of the characters, Arline Thayer says that progressive luncheons are extremely popular with college and high school girls. I learned about them from Fripsey Fun by Madye Lee Chastain, a delightful children's book from 1955.

Although most of the problems revolve around misunderstandings between friends and problems with Kathleen West, the resident mean girl, Grace will eventually see someone whom she did not expect to see and really doesn't want to have around. (I am annoyed that Grace doesn't immediately inform the local police, even though it's explained that she made a promise to her father in chapter X/10. Yes, even if a lady was supposed to have her name appear in a newspaper only when she was born, when she got married, and when she died back then - if I remember correctly, this is important!)

NOTES:

Chapter II (2): A very tall new student is seen.

Chapter III (3):

a. It's 1914, so the student has a pitcher and washbowl for her room.

b. 'The Wreck of the Hesperus' is an 1842 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . The title has been often used to describe someone or something that's a mess.

c. The tall new student is Patience Eliot. She's from just outside Boston. She's skipped Freshman year and is a Sophomore, thanks to studying with her father, who has been ill, which is why she's late arriving.

Chapter IV (4):

a. Kathleen West is referred to as 'that newspaper girl,' later mentioned to be a reporter. She and Patience do not like each other.

b. One assumes the incident for which Miss West unjustly blames Grace and her friends is in an earlier book. Grace is being discreet and not telling Patience what happened.

c. Grace thinks about her good friend Mabel Ashe, whom she'd promised to help Kathleen to like college. She wonders why Mabel hasn't written to her.

d. There's a freshman named Miss Rawle who sincerely admires Miss West, who isn't kind to her.

Chapter V (5):

a. Patience gives Miss Rawle some good advice regarding Miss West.

b. Patience gives Miss West some plain truths that the reporter doesn't take well.

Chapter VI (6):

a. Miss Rawle's first name is Alice. Her room is in Livingston Hall.

b. Miss West and Patience have an argument, in which Kathleen learns that Patient's father is James Merton Eliot.

Chapter VII (7):

a. According to https://collections.carnegiehall.org/archive/Film--Les-Miserables--January-26--1..., there was a 1914 film version of Les Misérables.

b. There was a 1908 film of 'The Taming of the Shrew'.

c. Ruth and Gertrude reside in Morton House. Elizabeth's last name, 'Wade,' is finally mentioned.

d. Grace finally found out why Kathleen West didn't like them from Alberta Wicks when Grace was a junior.

e. Grace calls Arline 'Daffydowndilly Thayer'. There's an old nursery rhyme about a daffodil that calls it 'Daffydowndilly' and describes the flower as if it were a girl.

Chapter VIII (8):

a. Grace sees a man who seems familiar. He's staring at the lithographs on the front of the movie theatre. (This book was written when we Americans still used some British spellings we changed later in the 20th century.)

b. Grace remembers the man is 'Larry the Locksmith', whom she last saw when she was testifying against him (see Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School; or The Parting of the Ways). Larry should still be in prison for another three years.

Chapter IX (9):

a. Grace finally gets a letter from Mabel. The club members have a Thanksgiving invitation.

b. The 'Hippy' mentioned is probably Hippy Wingate. He's one of the eight original friends.
Mentions: the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland

Chapter X(10):

a. Grace sees Larry again. She later runs into Miss West and tells her about the theft of some money that she and Eleanor Savelli found afterwords, and the Oakdale police capturing the thief.

b. Grace wants her name left out of Miss West's story.

Chapter XI (11): Police Chief Ellis has a daughter who is a freshman at the college. No, he wouldn't want her name to appear in police court news.

Chapter XII (12): Grace learns that Kathleen West hadn't kept her word. There is a confrontation.

Chapter XIII (13):

a. Grace gets another letter from Mable Ashe.

b. Grace and some get to spend Thanksgiving at the Ashes' winter home in New York.

c. We meet Mable's father, millionaire Robert Ashe.

Chapter XIV (14):

a. Everett Southard is mentioned again. Apparently, he's an actor.

b. Elfred recounts an incident from when she was eight years old.

c. They have a drive through Central Park.

d. The 'Meadow-Brook Girls' was another series Altemus published. The author was Janet Aldrige. Grace 'Tommy' Thompson of the Meadow-Brook Girls is Hippy Wingate's cousin. The adventure Grace mentions might be book four, The Meadow-Brook Girls In the Hills; or, The Missing Pilot of the White Mountains.

e. Mabel insists on knowing about Kathleen West's actions.

f. Alberta Wicks and Mary Hampton are brought up. Grace explains that those trouble-makers have reformed.

g. Elfred makes an insulting comparison to Native Americans. (Apparently, she either didn't know or didn't care how much had been done to Native Americans by white people.

h. Patience's father lives at the Elms, South Framingham, Massachusetts.

Chapter XVI (16):

a. The girls visit the newspaper where Mabel and Kathleen work.

b. The girls take an 'automobile bus' from Overton station to Wayne Hall.

c. Grace receives that longed-for letter from her father.

d. This is where Grace asks Anne if she would give up acting if David proposes to her.

e. The girls discuss the proposed honor competition among the girls of the senior class to write a play that class will then perform. It's decided that the competition will be open to all the girls of the college, although only seniors will be in the class.

Chapter XVII (17):

a. Arline apologizes to Grace.

b. Arline is the president of the senior class.

c. The rules for the play writing competition are given and three teachers agree to be judges.
Mention: 1914 film version of 'The Merchant of Venice,' which has since been lost.

Chapter XVIII (18):

a. Grace addresses Elfreda as 'J. Elfreda Briggs,' which is confirmed as her name in chapter XX/20. I don't know what the 'J' is for, but I wonder how bad it could be if Miss Briggs prefers to use her middle name.

b. Tom Gray and his aunt, Mrs. Rose Gray, have arrived. Rose agrees to include Elfreda among her 'adopted' children.

c. Reference is made to a 'ghost party' when Elfreda was a freshman.

d. The girls perform the 'Wonderland Circus' for Mrs. Gray and some of the faculty. Mr. Thomas Renfield, who is the benefactor of the Semper Fidelis Club, is included. (It's about animals from at least the first Alice book.) Emma plays a Sphinx, although it's not part of the circus.

Chapter XIX (19):

a. Four lines of the Overton College song head this chapter.

c. The Semper Fidelis Club wants to give a 'Famous Fiction' masquerade and dance.

d. Patience makes up eight lines in praise of Grace and Arline.
Mentions: Hamlet, Sancho Panza, Faust, Marguerite, Robinson Crusoe, the Three Muskateers, Peter Rabbit, Hiawatha, Rosalind, Shylock, ands Portia

Chapter XX (20):

a. A new building is going up on campus.

b. The winner of the play contest and second place winner are announced.

c. Relatives and friends who came to the Commencement are named.

d. The new building's donor is named as is the building itself.

e. Engagements are announced among the Oakdale friends, but two of the young men are going to have to wait.

This is a nice book. I have long enjoyed the same author's Marjorie Dean series under the pen name 'Pauline Lester'. This book is similar in style. The morality play that won the contest made me cringe a little because it would be considered corny by 21st century standards, but it's sincerely meant. The characters are not without flaws, which helps.

The worst thing I can say about this book is that the reader seems to be expected to be familiar with the series so far as characters are concerned. I don't know if the David Nesbitt who appears in the last chapter is Miriam's brother or cousin. If Tom Gray hadn't called Mrs. Rose Gray 'Aunt Rose,' I would have guessed she was his mother. I've done my best with the character list, but some characters had no first name provided, or the last name was never mentioned, or whether that person was a student or instructor or what. ( )