d.i.c.k gave a low whistle. "I never thought of that phase of the subject, I'll confess. Fred is such a good fellow that I supposed anyone would like him."

"Mary likes him, but that is all. He certainly cannot vie in interest in her mind with biology."

"Poor Fred."

Dolly sprang up. "I am not going to worry about Fred. Mary and he are good friends, and Fred is far too young yet to think of anything else."

Martin indulged in a long laugh. "Don't let him hear you, or he will think that you do not appreciate his years and new dignities. As a matter of fact, more than fifty per cent. of the students here are engaged."

"How unutterably foolish."

"Why, pray?"

"Because they are too young to know what they want, or what kind of women they really like. If they studied harder, they would not be getting into so much mischief."

"Then you think the boys should wait until--"

"Until they are not boys," finished Dolly abruptly. "Come and let us hunt up the others."

And for the remaining days of the visit, Dolly was unapproachable, though why she acted just so, was a matter which she herself could not have explained very satisfactorily.

There had been considerable discussion over the summer plans. The Aldens and Newbys went to the Thousand Isles finally, though Mr. Alden insisted that another year they must try the seash.o.r.e.

Rob Steele had gone directly from Harvard to Philadelphia, and was working hard in Mr. Newby's office. He had not broken down during his senior year, but he had been very near doing so. Later in the summer he and Fred might go camping for a fortnight in the Adirondacks, but he refused all invitations to the Islands. "He could afford neither the time nor the money, for such a delightful outing."

Constance and her mother had gone to England for the summer. Margaret Hamilton and her mother were spending the warm weather at a pleasant farmhouse near Westover. Dolly and Beth heard from both the girls frequently.

Margery Ainsworth had found tutoring to do--and was perfectly happy in consequence. She begged her father to let her try and find some work the next year; she was sure that she could find something which she was capable of doing, but her father would not listen.

"My health is none too good, Margery, and when I am gone, I want to know that you will be able to take care of your mother well. You cannot do that now. You are not fitted for any special thing. You would be compelled to work for a low salary, and when hard times came, you might find yourself without any position at all. I should like to give you a couple of years of post-graduate study, too, but that is impossible now."

So Margery yielded, knowing in her heart that her father's plan was really the wisest, and promising herself to utilize every moment. Yet she hated the thought of drawing upon their small reserve fund for her college expenses.

It was Professor Arnold who finally came to her a.s.sistance. College had opened and the work of the year had fairly commenced. Professor Arnold was none too popular with the girls, princ.i.p.ally for the reason that none of them understood her well. She was exacting in the cla.s.sroom, and indolent students received small mercy at her hands. Yet when people once penetrated beneath her reserve, they found her lovable, charming and sincere.

She knew Margery Ainsworth's circ.u.mstances well, and since the girl's second entrance at college had watched her keenly. Now she went to her with a proposition that filled Margery with the keenest grat.i.tude. "Miss Ainsworth, could you manage to take the Latin cla.s.ses in the preparatory department? You are perfectly competent to do the work, and if you think that you can find the time and if you care to undertake it, what you do there will balance your expenses here."

There was no doubt that Margery would find the time. What wouldn't she do for the sake of paying her own way? So she undertook the work eagerly, and wrote a joyful letter home. Mr. Ainsworth shook his head rather dubiously over it. He feared that his daughter was undertaking more than her strength would permit, but he did not like to forbid the plan definitely, and so Margery went on with the work. There were many times when she was so tired that it did seem as if she could not prepare her own recitations for the next day, but she never quite gave way, and she never once regretted the fact that she had undertaken the extra duties.

Professor Arnold kept a watchful eye on her, although Margery was not aware of it, and she became more and more certain, as the year went by, that Margery was just the person that Madame Deveaux would want the next year, at her exceedingly fashionable school in New York.

One of the teachers would leave at the close of the present year, and Madame had already asked Professor Arnold to secure someone for her. So, although Margery did not know it, her way was being made plain and easy. Constance, too, had been thinking of Margery, but when she found out, accidentally, what Professor Arnold's plan was, she said nothing more, merely resolving to make Margery's holidays as pleasant as possible. And Margery would be happy in her work, knowing that she was helping her home folks and was making the best atonement possible for her former folly.

Cla.s.s elections pa.s.sed off smoothly. As Beth said, she had not planned things for two long years just to fail at the last moment. Beth's "ticket," as Dolly insisted on calling it, was carried through triumphantly, and without any hard feelings on the part of any one.

So Dolly was elected president, Margaret was editor-in-chief of the _Chronicle_, Constance was historian, and both Mary and Beth were on the executive committee. Beth had objected decidedly when her name was proposed, but she was so capable and energetic, that her cla.s.smates really wanted her in that all-important place.

The majority of the girls had their plans more or less well defined for the next year. Margaret had already given her name to the faculty as an applicant for a school, and it was hardly to be doubted that she would get what she wished. Westover ranked so high among colleges, that its graduates were in demand every place, and each year brought the faculty scores of letters, from both public and private schools, asking that one of Westover's graduates be sent them.

Constance would take a couple of years of post-graduate work before going into the College Settlement. Several of the others expected to be back for one year at least, Hope Brereton, Hazel Browne, Ada Willing and Florence Smith. Some of the others, too, perhaps, but neither Dolly nor Beth felt that they could be spared longer from home. Beth knew how much her stepmother and the children looked forward to the next year, and so, although she did wish at times that she might be back at Westover for some special work in mathematics, she did not entertain the thought seriously, for the boys really needed her, and her father said that they were lonesome at home without her. She would help to make her home as pleasant as she could, and she would do some earnest work with her music. Without doubt there would be enough to keep her busy! She would find plenty of duties when she came to look for them.

Dolly knew that her father and mother felt that they had spared her as long as they could. Fred would still be away for several years, for he had decided to take a thorough course in electrical engineering in Boston. d.i.c.k Martin was studying medicine there, so that the two saw considerable of each other.

Mary Sutherland was hoping for a place in the preparatory department the next year, so that she could teach, and yet do extra work in the line of biology.

"Why, Mary Sutherland," Dolly exclaimed, when Mary first confided this plan to her, "I should think that you knew all there was to be known about that subject now."

Mary stared at her friend in honest horror. "I could never know all about it, Dolly, if I should live as long as Methuselah and study day and night. I don't know enough to try and teach anything about it yet, but sometime I hope I may."

"Fred can't hope to compete with biology, so far as Mary is concerned," Dolly told herself emphatically, for by this time she acknowledged that d.i.c.k Martin had been correct, and that Fred's interest in Mary was more than a friendly one. It seemed strange enough to Dolly that this was so, for Mary was not pretty, and she had none of the little accomplishments which usually attract young men.

Now, if it had only been Beth! and Dolly sighed dismally. It would have been so lovely to have Beth for a sister; of course, she liked Mary, but she could never care as much for her, or for anyone else, as for Beth.

While all of the girls were anxious to be at home, they dreaded the leaving of college and the breaking up of the ties which had bound them so closely for four years. It seemed as if time had never rushed on as swiftly as during those last months. Cla.s.s Day and Commencement were upon them almost before they realized it. Dolly had made a very dignified, impartial president, and the cla.s.s was delighted at its own good judgment in selecting her.

The _Chronicle_ had flourished under Margaret's management; it had contained more bright and witty things than ever before, and Beth heard some of the juniors groaning over their patent inability to keep the magazine, during the ensuing year, up to its present standard of merit.

Beth repeated the remark with much delight to Margaret. "It has been a great success, girls, and we owe it all to Margaret. She has put soul and life into it. In fact, I think we can be proud of our record all the way through college; we have the largest cla.s.s ever graduated; we certainly have some of the brightest students that were ever within these walls, we have the most unique entertainments of any cla.s.s, and the _Chronicle_ has never been as good as it is this year."

"How we apples do swim!" said Dolly mockingly.

"You are as proud of this cla.s.s as I am, and you know it, Dolly Alden!

Professor Newton told me the other day that the faculty was perfectly satisfied with us. We have some actually brilliant students here. Look at Amy Norton, for instance! She is a phenomenon. Our choir is fine, and altogether," Beth wound up emphatically, "we are just about as nice a cla.s.s as you can find any place."

"We are nice," Dolly conceded, "but, Beth, let me tell you that our pride is going to have a fearful fall in one particular."

"I don't understand you."

CHAPTER XIX

"I am talking about the athletic contests that come off the first of Commencement week. We simply shan't be in it. Va.s.sar, Wellesley, Smith, and all the others, seem to be in great shape, but we shall disgrace ourselves."

"But, Dolly dear, we must do tolerably well, or we should never be in the contests at all. There were scores of colleges that tried for a place and we were one of the six successful ones, so we must certainly be able to do something."

"You would not be feeling so confident if you took more interest in athletics. We should never have won a place at all except for Ruth Armstrong. She was superb at everything; running, jumping, throwing--everything. It was she, and she alone, who won us our place on the list. She was simply phenomenal, but, as you know, she isn't here this year, and there is no one at all on whom we can count. Va.s.sar is sure now of one event, and the Cornell girls will get another, that is positive. I had hoped that we could do something in the running contests, but Rose Wilson has twisted her ankle, so the only thing in which we stood the least show is out of the question."

"Well, Dolly dear, with six colleges represented, and only three events to come off, everyone could not win."

"Of course not, and now Westover will not be one of the lucky three.

We shall not even win second place in anything! In short, we are in such bad shape that I wish we had never tried to revive athletics here at Westover. The other colleges have been working in this direction for years, and it was absurd for us to compete with them."

"Don't worry; I think that we have won honor enough simply by being admitted to the compet.i.tion. Lots of colleges are envious of us."

"They will not be very long," said Dolly soberly.

There was really nothing to be said that could comfort Dolly. All that she a.s.serted was only too true. None of the quartette were on the athletic teams, but all of the students had been discussing the coming contests with grave faces.