Dating (Social customs) -- Juvenile fiction; Friendship -- Juvenile fiction; Young women -- Social life and customs -- Juvenile fiction
From the beginning of the campus wall the distance to the central gates
of the college was quickly covered by Vera’s car. In the tonneau of the
car Robin was still busy expressing her wonder to Leila of the surprise
Miss Susanna had given them. Marjorie, however, remained silent as the
roadster neared the main entrance. She was in the grip of many emotions.
Her mind reverted to a day when she and her four Sanford chums had
entered the gates of Hamilton College for the first time as explorers,
seeking the treasures of an unknown region.
“Remember the stranger within thy gates,” she was thinking. At first no
one had “remembered” them, to their grieved chagrin. Then had come Helen
Trent and then Leila and Vera. Their kindly offices had marked the
beginning of fellowship at a college where snobbery had been the order
of things instead of democracy which the founder, Brooke Hamilton, had
made every effort to establish. Now, at the beginning of her fifth
college year, she was returning to a Hamilton in which democracy had
become a watchword. She experienced a swift exultation of spirit in
thinking of the blessed change.
As the car passed between the massive stone gate posts Vera slackened
speed and continued more slowly along the central campus drive. Came a
turn to the left. Wayland Hall raised its handsome gray stone height
only a few yards distant. Against the emerald of its short cropped lawn
brilliant-hued verbenas, zenias and salvia flaunted beds of luxuriant
bloom. Later in the season, cannas, gold and scarlet, and summer’s
queen, who arrives late, the ever popular dahlia, would have sway. Still
later, hardy chrysanthemums would carry on the scheme of beauty.
Over one side of the veranda a late-flowering, creamy-pink climbing rose
trailed its double fragrant clusters. At an end of the veranda purple
and white clematis stars wove a mantle against a background of green.
The spicy scent of garden pinks and tiger lilies was in the air. Wayland
Hall rejoiced in a riot of flowers of which Miss Remson, its energetic
little manager, took tender care. The buzzing of a select delegation of
bees engaged in a honey-hunting expedition seemed the drowsing, humming
voice of mid-summer itself.
On the veranda a small, wiry, familiar figure was watching the approach
of the automobile and waving a preliminary greeting. Miss Remson’s thin
pleasant face grew brighter with welcome as she stood at the head of the
steps, her eyes on the car as it slid onto the open space before the
house.
Marjorie was the first one out of the car. It had hardly stopped when
she skipped agily from it and ran toward the erect waiting figure. Miss
Remson came half way down the steps to meet her and the two embraced
with joyful vigor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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