Class Day at Ashton always came on a Friday with Commencement the following Wednesday, and although the undergraduates were not generally expected to remain over for the latter event, they all took great interest in the former and made it the gala day of the year. Each girl had the privilege of inviting as many guests as she wished, but it pretty generally narrowed down to one, except in the case of the graduates who had all their mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins, and friends to entertain besides "the one" who generally hung around in the background, endeavoring to be gracious when the opportunity presented itself.
On the night before Class Day, Jean and Elizabeth were busy in their room with their clothes for the following day. Jean was not[340] satisfied with Elizabeth's hat which she had brought out from town that very afternoon. "Now, Elizabeth, do your hair low as you intend to wear it to-morrow and let me see what I can do in the way of trimming hats. I don't like this shape at all the way it is now. It's not at all becoming, and I want you to look your prettiest to-morrow. The roses are a beautiful pink, but they want to come down lower on the hat."
While she was talking, Elizabeth had been fixing her hair and had coiled it low on her neck. "Does that suit your Majesty now? You're altogether too fussy about my personal appearance. Who do you suppose will notice me in all the crowd? If I had a man coming over from Harvard or Yale it would be different, but wandering about by myself no one will know whether my hair is up or down or whether my hat is the latest thing from New York or trimmed at home by the country milliner."
"Why, Elizabeth, how can you talk so? Remember Tom is going to be your guest as well as mine. We three are going to do[341] things together, so you'd better make up your mind to look your prettiest, for Tom is mighty particular when it comes to girls. There, your hair looks much better and the hat fits down closer to your head. I'm going to take off the bow and put it on the other side after I've put the roses down flat around the crown. They're too stiff, sticking up in the air. Now look in the glass and see how you like the effect."
"Oh, it does look ever so much better, Jean. Just stick in some pins where you want things to go and I'll do the sewing."
"No, you won't; I'm going to finish it. Who says I can't trim hats?"
Just then there came a vigorous knock at the study door. Jean seized the hat from Elizabeth's head, and still holding it in her hand hastened out into the other room just as Peggy Allison, acting upon Jean's cordial, "Come in," entered the room.
"Going into the hat business, Jean? I wish you'd take a look at my hat. I'm awfully disappointed in it now that I've got it out here. It doesn't look at all as I expected[342] it would. Guess it will have to do, though. I haven't time to bother with another. That's the trouble with waiting until the last moment to do things, but I do hate buying hats in Boston. What time do you expect Tom, Jean?"
"He's coming over from New York on the midnight, so he'll probably be out here between ten and eleven o'clock. I told him there was no need of coming before ten, anyway, and I'll be busy until that time with our chain, for we have left part of it until morning to finish, as our daisies gave out. Is your part finished?"
"Yes; we were through about five o'clock and were tired as dogs. Oh, by the way, Jean, Nat wants to see you a moment about the spread tickets right away, so I'll excuse you and visit a little while with Elizabeth if she isn't too busy to talk with me."
"All right, Peggy; I'll go down there this minute and take my hat along to finish. Beth, please hand me my sewing-bag on the couch. Thank you," and then she ran down the stairs with a knowing smile on her face.
About an hour later Jean burst into 45 and found Elizabeth alone. "Come, Beth, I'm ready to have you try on your hat again. I've finished it, and when I tried it on Natalie it looked simply stunning. Come over to the glass where you can see yourself."
As Elizabeth went over to where Jean was standing, Jean caught sight of a small bow of green ribbon pinned conspicuously on the left side of Elizabeth's white shirt-waist. "Oh, Elizabeth," she cried, "are you really pledged to Gamma Chi? It's too good to be true! Now I've got everything I've wanted. You're to room with me next year, spend the summer with me in Europe, and be initiated into Gamma Chi when we return in the fall. I've known all the year that when the girls came to know you as well as I did, they'd want you to join Gamma Chi, but I didn't tell them, for it was much better that they should find it out for themselves. Oh, isn't it splendid! You're my sister now, you know, forever."
"But, Jean, didn't you know anything about it until just now? You don't act so awfully surprised."
"Oh, yes; I have known since last society meeting that you were to be invited to join, but just when I didn't know, for it was Peggy Allison's duty to ask you. But the minute she came into the room to-night and kindly invited me to leave, I knew what was about to happen. Were you surprised yourself and are you pleased?"
"Yes, Jean; I was surprised, but it's only one more of the things I thought could never happen to me. It seemed all right that you and the other girls should do them, but I seemed different from you all. I am glad to join, for I've wanted to go with you on the Monday nights when you went to society. You society girls always seemed better friends than those outside, and I felt I was missing something. I can't see, though, why they should want me to join."
"Well, I shan't tell you again, for fear of making you too conceited. It's enough to know that they do want you, and now you're to become a good, loyal member of Gamma Chi. Oh, you must wear your ribbon all day to-morrow. It will show off nicely on your white dress. Is there anything else I can do to help you? We mustn't leave anything until to-morrow, for there's so much to be done then. Directly after breakfast you must go up to the gym to help finish our daisy-chain. I'm going out before breakfast to help gather more daisies, so if I don't get back in time to eat breakfast, just save me a roll and a glass of milk. Tom will arrive on that half-past ten train, probably, and I must meet him, for he doesn't know anything about the Hill."
"Do you suppose he'll get lost, Jean, if you don't happen to meet him? What makes you take the time to go to the train?"
"Why, do you suppose I'd let him come all that distance without meeting him? What are you thinking about, Elizabeth?"
"Well, don't try to do too much to-morrow, for you've got to save some strength for your week at New Haven. Tom, being so particular about girls, will want his sister to look her prettiest, especially as she's to be the solitary representative of his large family. There's the bell! Hadn't we better stop talking and go to bed?"
"Yes, Beth, I suppose so; but I'm not a bit sleepy to-night. I could sit up till midnight and just talk. You go to bed. I think I'll just read a little more of this story and perhaps I'll get sleepy."
"Oh, don't read any more, Jean; you'll be sleepy enough after you once get into bed. It's excitement that makes you feel so wide awake."
"All right, dear, I'll do as you say. You see I do need you to make me take care of myself," and the two happy but tired girls were soon in their beds and asleep.
Jean had set the alarm clock for half-past five o'clock, and dressing in some old clothes started for the field back of the dormitories where it was white with daisies. She was chairman of the committee to make the daisy-chain, and was anxious that it be a success. She found four of the other girls ahead of her filling great baskets which they had brought for the purpose. After they had picked all they could possibly carry they went up to the gymnasium and began weaving the chain. When they arrived, it was long after the breakfast hour, but one girl, more thoughtful than the others, had brought a box or two of crackers and so saved her starving companions. More girls arrived every few minutes, and all worked hard, so that they were able to finish the long chain about half-past nine o'clock. They looked much the worse for wear and their dresses were wet and stained from the flowers, and Jean's hair was fast coming down round her face and neck. Her dress was badly torn in the front where she had stepped upon it in her haste to get into the gymnasium.
As she and Elizabeth and Anne were hurrying down the Row to Merton, Anne, looking down toward the station, spied a young man coming in their direction, with a suit-case in his hand. "Here comes some one's man," she said. "Hope he's early enough. Evidently some one forgot to meet him."
"Why, girls," exclaimed Jean, "there's something strangely familiar about him. I do believe it's my brother Tom. He must have taken an earlier train than I wrote him about. What a sight I am to meet him! I[348] had planned to dress in my very best and go down to the ten-thirty train, and here I am looking more like a tramp than anything else. It is Tom, and I can't help how I look; I'm going to meet him," and she ran down the Row and was soon in her brother's arms, while the other girls hurried into the dormitory away from sight.
"Oh, Tom, I'm so glad to see you! Don't look at me. I'm ashamed to have you find me like this, but I've been working since six o'clock on our daisy-chain. I didn't expect you for another hour. What do you mean by coming out at this time of day?"
"Well, sister, you see I got in town very early this morning and didn't have a thing to do after I finished my breakfast. Time began to hang heavily on my hands, and then, too, I wanted to see you, so I came out here on the first train I could get, but I'll go back if you are so disturbed at my early arrival."
"Of course I was only fooling, Tom; don't get so sarcastic. I'm delighted that you're here, only I'm a little ashamed to have you find me in such messy-looking clothes. But let's not stand here on the Row talking. Come up to the Hall. I'll find Peggy Allison and send her downstairs to talk with you while I get into some good clothes. I have a room engaged for you down at the Inn and we'll go down there before lunch. Peggy's going to have a Harvard man out to-day and we've planned that you two will be together during the exercises this afternoon, for we have to sit with our classes.
"Before I forget it, Tom, I want to ask you to be particularly nice to Elizabeth. She's never known many college boys and didn't invite any one to be her guest to-day. I told her you were going to be her guest as well as mine, so please help me give her a royal good time. She's a mighty nice girl after you get to know her. At first she's a bit shy, but when you get her interested in something she's as lively as the next one. She's been invited to join Gamma Chi, and that shows she's all right, for only the nicest girls in college belong to that society."
"Isn't that a little conceited, Jean, considering the fact that you belong to it yourself?[350] However, if you and Peggy Allison are samples of the girls who are members, it's all right.
"So this is Merton, the famous Merton. I call it a pretty fine sort of dormitory for a girls' college, of course not to be compared with ours, but rather d............