In this way she learned that he was elected president of the junior
class; that he “made” the football eleven as halfback; that—and she
almost fainted with terror—that he was slightly injured during the
Thanksgiving game, when A. & M. beat the State University team in a
bitterly fought contest.
By that time she was in the finishing school which Courtney Barr had
chosen for her, and was herself becoming prominent in school activities
through her talent for dramatics. When David’s college paper printed a
two-column picture of her sweetheart she cut it out and framed it. The
greatest joy she had that first year of her new life was to hear the
other girls rave about his good looks and his athletic record, of which
she bragged swaggeringly.
During the spring term she was chosen by the dramatic director to take
the lead in the school’s last play of the year, “The Clinging Vine.”
Sally Ford, or Sally Barr, as she was known at the school, was again
happy “play-acting.” Enid and Courtney Barr came down from New York for
the play and for commencement exercises, though Sally would not graduate
for another year. It was the first time she had seen her mother since
they had parted in the little mid-western town where Enid had found
Sally being married to David Nash.
“But how adorably pretty you are!” Enid exclaimed wonderingly, when she
had the girl safe in the privacy of her own suite in a nearby hotel. “I
wanted to nudge every fond mama sitting near me and exult, ‘That’s my
daughter! Isn’t she beautiful? Isn’t she a wonderful little actress?’
Are you happy, darling?”
Sally, her cheeks poppy-red with excitement and pleasure in her success
in the school play, twirled lightly on the toe of her silver slipper, so
that her pink chiffon skirt belled out like a ballet dancer’s.
“Happy? I’m thrilled and excited right now, and happy that you’re here,
but sometimes I’m lonely, in spite of my new friends—Oh, Mother,” she
cried, catching Enid’s hands impulsively, “won’t you let me go back with
you and Mr. Barr now? I want to be with someone I belong to! I don’t fit
in here, really. I—I guess I’m still Orphan Sally Ford inside. I’m
always expecting them to snub me, or to taunt me.”
Enid’s eyes filmed over with tears, but she shook her head. “We must try
to be patient, darling. I want you to be at home with girls like
these—girls who have always had money and social position and—and
culture. It’s a loathsome word, but I don’t know any better one for what
I mean. Don’t you see, sweetheart? Mother wants you to be ready for New
York when you come, so that you will be happy, but not timid and
ill-at-ease. Court was really very wise. I’ve come to see that now.
Please try to be patient, darling.”
“And this summer?” Sally quivered. “He said I could be with you at your
Long Island home—”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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