Bryn Mawr (Pa.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Bryn Mawr College -- Fiction; College stories, American; Women college students -- Fiction
"How extraordinary!" interrupted Mr. Livingston, while Catherine awoke
with a start and wondered if a little fresh air would not be beneficial
to both of them. Another pair of eyes arose above the window-sill. There
was a second pause and Mr. Livingston said that he thought it would be
delightful to look at the grounds. They waited a moment just to satisfy
the curiosity of a third pair of eyes and then wandered out on to the
campus. It was deliciously balmy, but as it was nine o'clock on a
moonless night their horizon was limited. Still by peering industriously
they could distinguish a few dark objects that Catherine explained to be
trees, and by means of her descriptive powers (she never knew she had
any until that night), Mr. Livingston was enabled to enjoy the distant
prospect of Rosemont and the rolling hills beyond. When they returned to
the reception-room, Catherine felt quite recovered from her little
attack of absent-mindedness and hoped that the air had been equally
beneficial to her uncommunicative visitor. "I have been talking too
much," she thought as she watched the careful descent of eyes number
four. "Poor Mr. Livingston has not had a chance to enlighten me on the
subject of his personal history. I must be silent." A fifth pair of eyes
appeared at the window, and the silence was unbroken for such a long
time that Catherine in desperation launched forth upon Political Economy
theories. (Political Economy and History were her majors, and she always
turned to them in times of need.)
And so it continued all evening. Catherine was still ignorant of her
visitor's history, but she had counted twenty-seven pairs of eyes. She
wondered if Mr. Livingston's and her count agreed. She had counted hers
on her fingers, but had a dreadful feeling that she had made a mistake
of a hand somewhere and was five too many. Mr. Livingston looked
mathematical. She longed to ask him how many he had seen. Finally the
witching hour of ten arrived. There was a scampering of footsteps
through the hall and a long tolling of Taylor bell. A maid wandered
uneasily up and down before the reception-room door. Catherine knew it
was time to put the lights out, but somehow said nothing, for she had
noticed certain symptoms of uneasiness in her visitor, and felt they
were about to culminate in the "good-bye" that had been worrying him
since half-past nine. They did culminate, at twenty minutes after ten,
when he at length departed. Catherine wondered why men stay two hours
and a quarter when they come for a half-hour call. Perhaps they think
that they don't appear to be enjoying themselves if they leave before
their two hours and a quarter is up. The substance of the letter that
Catherine had mailed to her father that night briefly stated would read:
"Who on earth is Mr. Livingston? Please restrain him from calling
again."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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