"We should go, anyway, no matter where else we were invited," declared Dolly with decision. "By the way, girls, the year is practically over, and our president still goes on her way serenely, and the very sn.o.bbiest girls in the cla.s.s adore her."

"I am glad. We don't want any cla.s.s rows, and you know very well how Abby Dunbar and Helen Raymond would act, if they knew the truth. Though, after all, I cannot see what difference it makes."

"Where is she going this summer? Do either of you know?"

"I asked her yesterday. She is going home for three or four weeks with Abby Dunbar. After that, she and her mother are going to some quiet country place."

Beth gave a sudden laugh. "You know, Mrs. Hamilton never comes to the college, but Margaret goes to see her almost daily. Abby Dunbar must have seen her on the evening of our entertainment, for she told me that she admired Mrs. Hamilton _so_ much; it was such a pity that she was an invalid! Margaret has never said that she was an invalid, you know. I suppose Abby just concluded that she must be, because she leads such a quiet life."

"She does it entirely for Margaret's sake, I'm sure. Not that Margaret asks her to do it, but she fears to meet people who knew her when she was a servant. Abby approves of her, because she dresses well, and is at the most aristocratic boarding-place in Westover."

"There is just one thing that I should not do, were I Margaret," said Beth slowly. "Knowing Abby Dunbar as well as she does, she must be confident that Abby would not take her home, did she know that both of Margaret's parents had been servants the greater part of their lives.

Knowing that, I think that Margaret does wrong to go."

"Isn't that a matter of standpoints? Margaret may reason that _she_ is the one invited, and that who or what her parents were, need not concern any person save herself. She would not deny the truth if questioned, but she sees no use in advertising it. I must say," concluded Mary, energetically, "that I agree with her."

"Well, in her place, my dear, I should accept no invitations except such as I were sure would be given, even if all the facts were known."

"I hope they will not be known for the next three years, at least. By the way, do you both thoroughly realize that when we return this fall, we shall not be insignificant freshmen, but lofty soph.o.m.ores? That we shall not be lonely and homesick and have no one to whom to talk, and that we can haze the newcomers?"

The girls laughed.

"What bliss awaits us! By the way, Dolly, you must be our president next year."

"I don't know," began Dolly, but Beth broke in;

"No, she can't be. Don't look so surprised; I am wiser now than formerly, and I want Dolly to be president in our senior year. I find that it is an unwritten law that the same person cannot be president during two years. It seems to be the opinion that there is plenty of good material for officers in the cla.s.s, and that it would be piggish for one person to be president twice. It doesn't make any difference about the other officers, for they are not so important. I am glad, now, that Margaret Hamilton was elected last fall."

"And I am glad that you confess it at last, Beth. Listen a moment! Let us go and see what all that hubbub in the hall means. Even for the last week of college, it seems to me there is a dreadful amount of noise."

"There certainly is, and it behooves us to investigate."

A louder scream from the hallway made the girls rush out unceremoniously.

CHAPTER XI

At the farther end of the corridor, a crowd had gathered, and the three girls hurrying there, found that the commotion issued from Charlotte Graves's room.

Charlotte was explaining; "It was my exasperating lamp. It has always been wobbly, and tonight, when I chanced to hit the table, it went over.

I might have known enough to pull a blanket off the bed, and smother it; but, of course, I just stood here and screamed. Then Margaret Hamilton came in and put it out. That's what it is to have presence of mind!

I always was a fool when there was anything to be done. I tell you what, Miss Hamilton, those freshmen knew what they were doing when they elected you cla.s.s president. If I'm not brilliant myself, I can recognize a good thing when I see it."

"Miss Graves, I tell you what you must do in sheer grat.i.tude to the freshmen--invite us all in and get out those delicious cakes and pickles of yours. You ought to treat."

"That is certainly so, come along, all of you. Sit on the floor if you can't find any other place to sit," and after the girls had properly bestowed themselves, she got out her jars and boxes, for Charlotte was fond of good things and always kept an unlimited supply on hand.

"I trust you understand," she said severely, "that the rest of you freshmen are only here out of compliment to your president. I don't for a moment consider the rest of you her equal in anything. As she has the misfortune, however, to belong to the cla.s.s of '09 instead of '08, we must put up with the rest of you, I suppose, for her sake."

There was a chorus of groans from the freshmen, and Charlotte's voice was drowned in an outburst of animated retorts. Under cover of the fun, Abby Dunbar said to Dolly, who chanced to be sitting next to her on the window ledge; "One can see that Margaret is a true aristocrat. It shows in every move she makes, and every word she says."

"Do you think so?"

"Why, yes, indeed. Surely you have noticed it? Mamma is always so careful about my a.s.sociates, but she cannot help being perfectly delighted with Margaret. Don't you like her?"

"I certainly do."

"I thought you must, for you were so good last fall at the time of our cla.s.s elections. Margaret has made an ideal president."

Then the conversation became general again, much to Dolly's relief.

In some way the subject branched off to military men, and Margaret was appealed to.

"Were any of your relatives army men, Miss Hamilton? And don't you think that they are the finest men in the world?"

"I have not been blessed with many relations, Miss Fox, and so I have not had the chance to have military men in my own family and to know them intimately, as some of you have done. Of course, I admire them. Some of my ancestors were in the wars of 1776 and 1812, but I never saw them. My own father was anxious to be a military man and he entered West Point.

He had a splendid record there, and was in love with the life, when he met with an accident out yachting that ruined his health, left him a trifle lame, and forced him to give up all thoughts of a military life.

He never got over the disappointment."

There was a general expression of sympathy, and Margaret found herself the target for more questions than she cared to answer. In such a babel of voices, however, it was easy to disregard any which she did not choose to hear, so that she extricated herself serenely from a position which Dolly knew to be rather trying.

It was late, and as Charlotte's cakes and pickles had been demolished, the girls separated presently.

"You think that Margaret's story was quite true?" Beth asked as they slowly paced the corridor on the way back to their rooms.

"I'm sure of it. Of course, her ancestors may have been privates in the wars of 1776 and 1812, but still they would have been soldiers all the same."

"But about her father?"

"I imagine that he won his West Point cadetship by a compet.i.tive examination. You know those appointments are given in that way. He may have been very poor, indeed, but if he stood highest in the examination, he would certainly receive the appointment. When he left West Point he evidently had no friends to help him to a good position, and so he took the first honest work that he could find, at least, I imagine that such was the case."

"You are about right, I'm sure. Poor Margaret. I don't know why I pity her, though. She seems quite capable of holding her own. She is worth a score of Abby Dunbars."

"Miss Dunbar will either be a freshman next year, again, or else become a special student. I understand that the stupid ones who fail in their examinations, usually linger on for a year or two as 'specials,' so that they can say they have been at Westover."

"And Miss Dunbar has failed?"

"Flatly."

"I'm glad that we got through, Beth, and Mary is all right, too. I was rather worried about Mary's mathematics, to tell the truth, but her aunt gave her some coaching at the last. She is so thankful that she will not have to take them next year."

"And I like mathematics better than anything else. I shall take an extra course in it."

"You will be sure to win the senior prize for that branch, Beth. I am a little like Mary, however. I shall not take more mathematics than I absolutely must."

"We'll not take mathematics, or anything else, for three blessed months."