CHAPTER XXII
KATHLEEN'S GREAT MOMENT
By five o'clock the following afternoon the greater part of the studentsof Overton College had assembled in the gymnasium to learn who had wonthe honor pin. Every pair of eyes was fixed upon Dr. Hepburn as he rosefrom his seat on the platform and faced the gathering of expectantstudents who were eagerly awaiting his announcement.
"It is with the sincerest pleasure that I rise, this afternoon, toannounce that, after due consideration, the judges appointed by thesenior class play committee to pass judgment upon the plays submittedhave decided in favor of the morality play submitted by Miss KathleenWest, entitled 'Loyalheart; Her Four Years' Pilgrimage.' It is,perhaps, the most notable manuscript of its kind that has come withinthe notice of any member of the committee during a period covering anumber of years," continued Dr. Hepburn, "and Miss West is to becongratulated on the merit of her remarkable literary effort. I havealso been requested to say that, in the opinion of the judges, thecomedy entitled 'A Quiet Vacation,' by Miss J. Elfreda Briggs, was thesecond choice of the committee."
For an instant after Dr. Hepburn ceased speaking a deep stillnesspervaded the gymnasium, then from all sides rose cries of "KathleenWest! Elfreda Briggs! Speech! speech!"
Dr. Hepburn raised his hand for silence, and when quiet had beenrestored he said, "If Miss Briggs and Miss West are present, will theykindly come to the platform?"
Already Elfreda's three friends were urging her forward. From far backin the gymnasium a little figure was seen to separate itself from itsfellows and come hesitatingly forward. When Kathleen West reached theplatform and faced her audience she eyed them composedly, although herface grew very white; then she began speaking in a clear, resonantvoice:
"I thank you for the honor you have conferred upon me," she said, bowingto the committee, "and to you," she bowed to her audience, "for yourtribute of appreciation. I should like to say that in creating thecharacter of 'Loyalheart' I have not drawn upon my fancy, and I knowthat the many lovable qualities with which I have endowed my heroine areto be found in the girl who served as my inspiration. I refer to MissGrace Harlowe, of the senior class, whom I consider the ideal Overtongirl." Kathleen's voice trembled slightly on the last sentence. Then shewalked quickly down the aisle, accompanied by a burst of applause thatmade the great room ring.
Grace had listened to Kathleen's little speech with unbelieving ears.Could this be the antagonistic Kathleen West of a few weeks ago? Whathad wrought this marvelous and unlooked-for change? That Elfreda had wonsecond honors had been forgotten. The attention of the students werefocused on Kathleen. Now repeated calls for "Harlowe! Grace Harlowe!"sounded. Emma Dean and Arline escorted her to the platform.
"I thank Miss West for the honor she has done me, and I thank all ofyou," she said with a sweet seriousness that went straight to herhearers' hearts. "Although I am afraid I can't lay claim to the splendidqualities Miss West has attributed to me, the knowledge that she hasthought me worthy is doubly dear." Then Grace hurried to her place verynear to tears, while Miriam affectionately pressed her arm on one sideand Anne, on the other, slipped her hand into that of her friend, andthus the three listened to Elfreda's speech.
"That's about the most satisfactory general meeting I ever attended,"remarked Emma Dean in Miriam's ear as they stepped outside to thecampus, where groups of girls had halted with a view to hailing theirrespective friends as they passed.
"I was never more astonished in my life," returned Miriam, in guardedtones. "As for Elfreda, she can't believe that she won second honors.She insists there must have been a mistake."
"It was a general all-around surprise, I believe," confided Emma. "Inever dreamed that Kathleen West entertained any such feeling for Grace,and I don't imagine any one else did, either. When is the honor prize tobe presented to her?"
"On the night of the play. Now that it is all settled, the playcommittee had better bestir themselves."
"You are on the play committee, aren't you?" asked Emma innocently.
"You needn't remind me of it," laughed Miriam. "I hadn't forgotten it,and it is plain to be seen that you hadn't. Elfreda, Anne and RuthDenton are on it, too. Here comes Elfreda, surrounded by an admiringthrong. Genius will out. I knew she would do something extraordinarilyclever before she wound up her college career."
"We can't find Kathleen West!" exclaimed Elfreda. "She slipped out ofthe gymnasium so quietly that no one realized she had gone. We are goingover to Wayne Hall after her."
"Where is Grace?" asked Miriam irrelevantly.
Elfreda made a quick, comprehensive survey of the various groups ofgirls. "Why, I don't see her. She was here----" Something in Miriam'sexpression caused her to eye her roommate sharply. Miriam shook her headalmost imperceptibly.
"That's so," returned Elfreda in a low tone. "You never forget anything,do you, Miriam? I will tell the girls to postpone rushing Kathleen untilto-night." Turning to the crowd of girls, who had been too busy talkingto notice what had passed between her and Miriam, Elfreda said easily:"Suppose we wait until this evening after dinner, girls. Meet me at thecorner below Wayne Hall at half-past seven o'clock and we will call onKathleen and Grace. Miriam will engage to keep them in the house andwe'll have ice cream and cake afterward."
Elfreda's suggestion was well received, and solemnly winking at Miriam,she pursued her triumphal journey across the campus, quite surrounded byher admiring bodyguard.
But while her friends were discussing the outcome of the play, KathleenWest, J. Elfreda and Grace, the last named young woman was speedingacross the campus toward Wayne Hall. As she was about to return to herplace among her friends, after making her speech, her alert eyes hadseen a small, familiar figure edge toward the side door of thegymnasium, then disappear. Grace surmised that Kathleen had gonedirectly to Wayne Hall, and without hesitating she hurried after her.But another person had also marked Kathleen's flight, for as Grace ranup the steps of the hall she heard a rush of footsteps behind her, and,turning her head to see who was following her, stopped short,exclaiming, "I might have known that you would be the first to go toher, Patience!"
"That is just what I was thinking of you," smiled Patience. "But youmust go first. Wasn't it the most astounding announcement you everheard. I am not surprised at her winning the honor pin. It is her changeof heart that astonishes me. I realized that she had improved, but Inever heard of anything like this. I suspect Elfreda Briggs knows moreabout this miracle than she will admit. I overheard her talking toKathleen one night. I didn't mean to listen. I was just about to enterthe room when I heard something Elfreda said and hurried off as fast asI could go."
"I think Elfreda had a hand in it, too," said Grace, with shining eyes."What a glorious success she has made of her four years. Now, one of usmust go to Kathleen."
"You go," insisted Patience. "I'll drop in later."
Grace went into the house and upstairs, hardly knowing what to do orsay. She knocked gently on Kathleen's door, then at sound of a muffled"Come," turned the knob and stepped inside. Kathleen had thrown herselfface downward upon her couch, her face buried in the cushions. Withoutraising her head, she faltered, "Is it you, Grace?"
"Yes," answered Grace softly, as she approached the couch on whichKathleen lay.
"I knew you would come--you and Patience."
"Patience is downstairs," returned Grace. "She will be here soon."
Kathleen raised herself to a sitting posture. Her eyes were very bright.There was no sign of tears in them. "Grace, can you ever forgive me forall the trouble I have caused you?" she asked solemnly.
"Of course I can, Kathleen," replied Grace, slipping down on the couchbeside Kathleen and placing her arm about the slender shoulders of thenewspaper girl. "You are not the only one at fault. I blame myself for agreat many things that happened. If we had only known that you wished tobe in the circus. We never thought of slighting you, Kathleen."
"I know it now," rejoined Kathleen sadly, "but I was furious with you atth
e time. Then, too, I had made up my mind not to like you. I thoughtyou priggish and narrow-minded. I didn't understand college in theleast. I was ready to ride over every Overton tradition for the sake ofhaving my own way. Patience was the first to show me where I stood, andI tried to see matters from her standpoint. Then came the temptation topublish that 'Larry, the Locksmith' story, and you know the rest.
"Elfreda Briggs was the one who brought me to my first realization ofcollege spirit. She had been watching me all year and discovered that Iwas unhappy. She marched into my room one night and found me crying.When she left me I was happier than I had been for months. She had shownme the way to atone for some of the mischief I had made. It was she whogave me the idea for the play. I had begun a play, then had destroyedit, resolving to have nothing more to do with the contest. After Elfredaand I had our talk I began again and I wrote 'Loyalheart.' After theFamous Fiction Dance Elfreda came to me again. She was determined tohelp me."
Grace's face grew radiant when Kathleen told of Elfreda's part in theaffair. A great wave of love and tenderness for the one-time stout girl,who had begun her college life at such a disadvantage, swept over her."Dear old J. Elfreda," she murmured. "What a wonder she is!"
"But there is one thing I haven't yet told you," said Kathleen. "You areto create the role of 'Loyalheart' in my play. You mustn't refuse. Itwas written for you, and no one else could possibly play it. Elfreda isgoing to arrange that part of it with the play committee. Please don'trefuse. If you only knew how much it means to me." Kathleen's eyes werefixed appealingly upon Grace.
"I won't refuse," was Grace's gentle answer. "I'll do it just to pleaseyou and to cement our life-long friendship." The two girls had risennow, and stood facing each other. Then their hands met in a silentpledge of friendship that was to prove faithful to the end.
* * * * *
Loyalheart stepped into life on the fifth Friday evening after Easterand for two hours and a half her adoring audience of Overton studentshung on her slightest word or gesture. From the moment in whichLoyalheart left Haven Home on her Four Years' Pilgrimage she ceased toexist as Grace Harlowe, merging her personality entirely in that of thebeautiful allegorical character she was portraying.
The play itself was in four acts, each representing one of the fourcollege years. Written in the form of an allegory, it partook of thenature of a morality play and told the story of Loyalheart's eventfulpilgrimage through the Land of College, accompanied by her faithfulfriends, Honor, Forbearance, Silence and Good Humor. Her heroic effortsto keep her four friends with her in spite of the plots of Snobbery,Gossip, Jealousy, Frivolity and Treachery, and her readiness to extend ahelping hand to Diffidence, Poverty and Misunderstood, result in thecreation of an illusive being known to her only as the Spirit, awhite-robed apparition which visits her more frequently as sheapproaches the end of her pilgrimage. At the termination of Senior Lane,which is separated from the Highway of Life by the Gate of Commencement,the Spirit, clothed in glittering raiment, appears to Loyalheart, andshe learns that in helping others and clinging to her ideals she hasfostered and nurtured to radiant growth none other than the fabledCollege Spirit which she has ardently striven to recognize and possess.
Greatly to her delight, Emma Dean had been asked to play the part of theSpirit, and exhibited real histrionic ability in the role. AsLoyalheart, Grace, who, day after day, had been painstakingly coached byAnne, left nothing to be desired in her portrayal of the role assignedto her. Ruth Denton, Gertrude Wells, and Miriam Nesbit, respectively,enacted the roles of Honor, Forbearance and Silence, while Elfredainsisted on playing Good Humor, and was greeted with appreciativelaughter whenever she appeared.
The play was written in blank verse, and many of the passages wereextremely beautiful. Loyalheart's farewell to Haven Home and therevelation of the Spirit to Loyalheart at the Highway of Life wereparticularly worthy of note. The speeches of Good Humor scintillatedwith wit, and the unpleasant characters in the play were peculiarly trueto life. Grace took half a dozen curtain calls, and Kathleen West wasalso summoned before the curtain and publicly presented with the honorpin by President Morton.
It was an evening long to be remembered, and the story of Loyalheart andher pilgrimage was destined to remain in the minds of the Overton girlsfor many a day.
It was after eleven o 'clock when a very tired Loyalheart went forth ona pilgrimage to Wayne Hall, accompanied by her equally loyal supporters,who were proudly bearing numerous floral offerings which had been handedto Grace over the footlights.
"I am so tired," she sighed, "but so happy. It was a beautiful play,wasn't it?"
"And you were the nicest part of it," said Anne fondly. "Your portrayalof Loyalheart was wonderful."
"And so was your coaching," retorted Grace, promptly.
"It is far from early," remarked Elfreda in a suggestive tone, as theyhalted for a moment at the head of the stairs, "but we are all here, andI know how to make fruit punch. In fact, I got the stuff ready, thinkingthat it might be useful!"
"We will be in your room within the next ten minutes," said Gracedecisively. "Such hospitality is not met with every day."
True to her word, ten minutes later she and Anne were seated on the footof Elfreda's bed, kimono clad and smiling, while Elfreda labored withthe fruit punch. Kathleen West and Patience Eliot, who had also beeninvited to the punch party, were seated on cushions on the floor.
Suddenly the soft tinkle of a mandolin sounded under the window, then achorus of fresh young voices sang softly:
"Come, tune your lyre to Kathleen West, Of all the plays hers is the best; Long may she shine, long may she wave, Her shrine we deck with garlands brave; May Fortune bring her world renown-- To Kathleen West, girls, drink her down."
"How perfectly sweet in them!" exclaimed Kathleen, her color rising.
"Hush!" Miriam held up her finger.
"Dear Loyalheart, we sing to you, O girl so brave and sweet and true, May life to you be wondrous kind, And may you all its treasures find; May skies ne'er threaten you, nor frown-- To Loyalheart, girls, drink her down."
Owing to the lateness of the play no one at Wayne Hall had had time toretire, and, hearing the music, the girls had with one accord hurried tothe windows.
"Come on up, Gertrude," called Grace into the soft darkness. "I knowyour voice. How on earth did you get out of your costume, go home foryour mandolin and manage to land under Miriam's and Elfreda's window,all within half an hour?"
"That's easy. We brought our instruments of torture with us to the play,and Elfreda agreed to have you girls in her room at the time appointed."
"There is fruit punch enough to go round, and dozens of cakes," observedan ingratiating voice over Grace's shoulder.
"We had several more verses to sing, and one for you, Elfreda. If youwill ask Mrs. Elwood's permission, we will come up, sing them andincidentally sample the punch and the cakes," stipulated Gertrude.
There were seven girls in the party of serenaders--Gertrude, Arline,Ruth Denton, the Emerson twins, Elizabeth Wade and Marian Cummings. Whenthe last cake had disappeared and the punch was almost gone, theserenading party sang the rest of their verses and departed gayly, yetin spite of their gayety there lurked in each heart the shadow of theparting that was to come all too soon.
Grace Harlowe's Fourth Year at Overton College Page 22
