Kent's announcement that he had broken with Billy Norton did not amount
to a great deal. As winter came on, he and Billy met constantly at the
cottage and outwardly at least, were friendly. The commission finished
its sitting and turned its findings over to Congress. Congress
instructed the District Attorney to carry the matter to the state
courts. When this had been done all the incriminated heaved a vast
sigh of relief, and prepared to mark time.
To tell the truth, Lydia was not giving a great deal of thought to
weighty problems, this winter. No girl who finds herself with two
young men in love with her, can give much thought to the world outside
her own. Nor did the fact that Professor Willis made a point of
appearing at the cottage at least once a month detract any from her
general joy in life.
She was doing well in her studies, though outside of the occasional hop
she attended with Billy or Kent, she had no part in the college social
life. She was not altogether contented with the thought of preparing
herself to teach. The idea gave her no mental satisfaction. She could
not bring herself to believe that her real talents lay in that
direction. Yet, though this dissatisfaction grew as the days went on,
it did not prevent her from taking a keen pleasure in the books she
read and studied.
She suddenly grew ashamed of her old E. P. Roe period and developed a
great avidity for Kipling and Thomas Hardy, for Wordsworth and Stephen
Phillips. To her surprise she found that Billy was more familiar with
these writers than she. Kent read newspapers and nothing else.
During all Lydia's Junior year, but one fly appeared in her ointment.
And this, of course, was with, reference to clothes! that perennial
haunting problem of Lydia's, which only a woman who has been motherless
and poverty-stricken and pretty can fully appreciate. The latter part
of February, the great college social event of the year was to come,
the Junior Prom. Lydia felt sure that either Kent or Billy would ask
her to go and for this the organdy would not do. And for this she must
have a party coat.
Lydia knew if she took the matter up with Amos he would go out and
borrow money for her. She shuddered at the thought of this. He had
been so bitter about her fudge selling that she dared not broach the
matter of money earning to him again. Then she heard of the College
Money Making Bureau. She discovered that there were girls who were
earning their way through college and that the Bureau was one of the
quiet ways used by the University to help them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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