peg patted her in a conciliatory manner.
"now, my child," she said, "curb that swift and rising wrath, and bottle the vials thereof. what is hecuba to you, or you to hecuba?"
"poor little peggy," charity murmured, "getting into trim for a shakespeare drive? you know, kit, our peg is president of the portia dramatic club, and the mantle doth not rest lightly on her young shoulders."
but kit could not be diverted, and the color rose somewhat belligerently in amy's cheeks, too;
"i don't see," she said, "why you feel that you have to take marcelle beaubien's part. if you knew all about her the way we girls do, you'd let her alone."
"i don't see how she ever came up here anyway," norma remarked. "it's just exactly as if one of her brothers tried to come in. do you think the boys would stand for that?"
"why on earth shouldn't they?" demanded kit, hotly. "and i'd like to know what they've got to say about it anyway. i don't think that's the college spirit. any one who wants an education and is willing to work for it should be admitted."
"yes, but if they had any sense at all," responded norma, placidly, "they wouldn't put themselves into the position of being snubbed. you can talk all you want to about the college spirit from the standpoint of deans and faculties, but when all's said and done, it's the student spirit that rules. i'll bet that she doesn't stay here a month. she hasn't any one to help her at home, and can't afford tutoring, so she'll just peter out."
"dear, dear friends of my youth," charity exclaimed, on her knees before the couch, "here are some wonderful chocolates and cheese straws and pimentoes. let's have a love feast immediately and bury the hatchet. kit, your hair isn't red enough to warrant any such exhibitions, and you'll have to cut them out."
the gong sounded in the hall below for afternoon classes, and there was just time to snatch a little refreshment before they joined the other girls trooping through the corridors. kit found herself watching marcelle. there was a peculiar aloofness about the girl which seemed to put almost a wall of defense around her. she was intensely interested in everything, one could see that plainly, except the other students, and it seemed as if she simply overlooked them. when kit came down the staircase, she glanced into the library and saw marcelle in there alone, bending down before the long wall bookcases. across the wide hall there were groups of boys and girls in the two long double parlors, laughing and talking together, and every couch and settee along the t-shaped hall was occupied, but marcelle was alone.
whoever had built hope college had managed to work out some of his dreams of old world beauty. the library was wainscoted in some dull satin finished wood, with the graining of olive wood. in the west wall was set a deeply embrasured mullioned window of stained glass, with the figure of a young girl in white in college cap and gown, her face upturned, as she seemed to come towards one through a garden of foxgloves, pale-pink and hyacinth in hue. beneath was the one word, hope. scattered about the room on top of bookcases and shelves were the usual beloved bits of bronze and statuary, dante's head, the niké, with widespread wings, busts of emerson, longfellow, lowell, whitman, whittier, mrs. stowe, louisa alcott, and a beautiful bowed head of mrs; browning, her curls half-shadowing her face.
marcelle had a volume of "treasure island" in her hand, illustrated in color. she turned in surprise at the touch of kit's hand on her shoulder.
"i thought we could walk down towards the bluff together, because we go the same way," said the latter. "how do you like it here?"
"i like it," responded marcelle, slowly, with a certain dignified shyness that was characteristic of her. "my mother has told me all about it. she liked the library when she was here. she told me where her room was up-stairs, too, but i did not want to go up while the girls were there."
"let's go up now, while they're all down-stairs," kit suggested impulsively. "i'll take you. which dormitory was she in?"
"her name was mary douglas. it is the douglas dormitory. her father was one of the founders here, malcolm douglas."
kit listened in utter amazement and with a rising sense of joy. here was marcelle beaubien, flouted and disdained by the little crowd of girls who happened to live in a certain restricted district of delphi, but claiming her grandfather was a founder of the college. at that very moment kit planned her surprise on the girls.
as they walked through the hall together, pauline and the other girls followed them with their glances and smiled. the two paused before a big bronze tablet with the name of the founders on it. there it was, third from the last, malcolm douglas, and date, 1871.
"he came from canada," said marcelle, "and settled here. later on he went into minnesota, and on into dakota as one of the first of the indian fighters in the sioux wars there, but he was really seeking gold. the family was very poor after he died, but my mother came here for two years, and even when i was a little bit of a girl, seven or eight, years old, before she died, she used to tell me how she loved it, and that i must come here, too."
"don't any of your brothers want to come?" asked kit impulsively. "they're all older than you, aren't they?"
marcelle shook her head with a curious little smile.
"they are all beaubien, every one. they eat, and they sleep and fish, that is all."
kit led the way to the upper floor, where the dormitories were, and meeting charity, she asked the way to the douglas.
"why, you were in that one to-day," replied charity in surprise. "it's our dormitory, don't you know?"
"oh, thank you so much," kit said, with suspicious alacrity, as she guided marcelle down the corridor, and charity glanced back at them both, speculatively, wondering just what special business could take two new day girls into the most exclusive dormitory at hope.
