The groups gathered in the parlors and on the long wooden porch which overlooked the orchard. Cecily and her old group drew together again, extremely interested in each other as they always were. “I haven’t seen you since we graduated, Cecily,” said Agnes. “I visited in Carrington once or twice, but you were always incapacitated. But I always try to make a point of coming for Alumnæ Day.” “I come to the convent rather often, but I haven’t been to an Alumnæ Day before, since the first year.” “That’s what it is to be a devoted mother. How are the children, Cecily?” asked Agatha. “All very well; all very cunning.” “Darling things,” said Madeline. “But doesn’t it seem funny to think of Cecily with three children?” persisted Agnes. “It’s very interesting,” said Agatha. “I think I’ll have to use you in a book, Cecily.” “Type of the domesticated woman?” “Dear, no--nothing so trite. No one deals with types any more, anyhow. It’s the vogue to be terrifically ‘inner.’ I’ll have to study you.” “Don’t waste your time. Study Agnes.” “I wouldn’t be interesting to modern fiction,” said Agnes, with some superiority. “I am a conservative, you know, and holding true to the things we learned in this dear old place.” “What do you think the rest of us are doing, I wonder? It isn’t exactly immoral to write books or have babies, is it?” “Or to be stupid?” put in Madeline. “Not to have any babies or any books--only a husband?” “What I meant,” said Agnes, “is that simple religious ideals have gone out of fashion.” “No, they’re coming in again.” Conscious that she was baiting Agnes a little, Agatha kept it up. “You’ll soon be fashionable, Agnes.” “It’s possible that I may, after all, decide to enter the convent.” That remark of Agnes did make a little ripple of excitement. “Do you remember?” asked Cecily, looking about her, “the night we all sat in the parlor and discussed things? The night after the graduates’ retreat. Whether we should marry or not? Isn’t it funny that we are all doing just about what we thought we would do? Agatha writing, Madeline married and Agnes--I remember you said that if you really loved some one, Agnes, you’d marry. Now to enter----” Agnes looked a little embarrassed and angry. “If I loved some one; but it is hard to find in these days a worthy person.” They all knew then that Agnes must have been disappointed and no one pursued the subject. “I remember that Cecily refused to commit herself,” said Agatha. “She didn’t know what she wanted to do.” Cecily agreed a little dreamily, her eyes wandering off through the window. “No, I didn’t know much about anything. As for knowing what I wanted to do I wonder if it isn’t all pretty much decided in advance for us; I wonder if we have much choice.” “Here’s Mother Fénelon. Mother, Cecily has become a fatalist and Agnes is going to enter the convent.”