Grace Harlowes Golden Summer | Page 9

was sure to turn out comedy.
"Let me see," began Elfreda with a fine air of reminiscence. "We met
last year in a corridor of the law school, I was making a wild rush down
and he was making an equally wild rush up. Result, we collided. Just
like that," Elfreda brought her hands smartly together to illustrate the
force of that momentous collision. "I wasn't overcome with joy at this
slam-bang introduction. I had seen him often from afar and never
admired him. He was at least three inches shorter than yours truly, had
a snub nose and freckles. All of which was not romantic.
"That was the beginning; but not the ending. The next time I met him,
he claimed beaming acquaintance. After that he pursued me madly. He
was always bobbing up in the most unexpected places. It gave me a
feeling of being haunted. At first I bore it like a martyr. I hated to hurt
his feelings. After a while it began to get on my nerves. About that time
he began to make sentimental remarks. I carefully explained that I did
not believe in love. That only made matters worse. He rolled his eyes
and vowed that he would convince me. Then he began sending me
letters and love lyrics. The lyrics were so original they were positively
weird.

"But in my darkest hour of oppression I stumbled upon a remedy. I
happened to remember a girl who was an art student. I also
remembered that she was terribly sentimental. So I dragged my pursuer
along with me to a water-color exhibition that I knew she expected to
attend. They met. I perpetrated the introduction. It turned out even
better than I had dared to hope. The funny part of it was that both of
them were afraid I'd be angry. The deeper they fell in love, the harder
they tried to keep it from me. After a while Charles, that was my
perfidious idol's name, came to me with a long face and confessed. I
suppose his conscience troubled him. He told me that he had made a
terrible mistake in thinking himself in love with me. I humbly agreed
with him that he had. He assured me that he now knew that he could
never have been happy with me. Before he got through explaining, it
struck me as being so funny that I laughed in his face. Now he doesn't
speak to me. Neither does the girl. She evidently believes that she
snatched away my last chance."
The cheerful smile Elfreda turned on her amused listeners as she ended
her recital was hardly an indication of deep sorrow for her double loss.
"That reminds me of Emma Dean's one romance," smiled Grace. "I
shan't tell you about it. Wait until we have the reunion and I'll ask her
to dig up her sentimental past for your benefit."
"I hope I can arrange my vacation so that I can attend the reunion, too,"
sighed Kathleen. "As Patience Eliot and I have been invited to be the
Sempers' guests of honor, naturally I don't care to miss it."
"Can you get away from the paper at any time during August?" asked
Anne thoughtfully.
"Yes; but only for a week," Kathleen spoke regretfully.
"Then let us decide upon the time now," proposed Miriam. "I am sorry
to be a kill-joy, but one week will have to be my limit this year. I wish I
could spare two, but it's impossible."
"I intended to speak of that," nodded Elfreda. "I'd love to have you girls

with me longer but I know that most of you are cramped for time. So
I'll be magnanimous and say, 'thank you for small favors.'"
The subject of the reunion thus renewed, it was decided to hold it
during the second week in August, and the six friends began an avid
planning for it. From that the conversation drifted back to Overton
College, always a fruitful topic for discussion. It was truly a
heart-to-heart talk. Because of the perfect fellowship that existed
among them, they could look back and speak frankly not only of their
lighter hours, but also of the graver moments when the struggle to
reach their aims had seemed well-nigh impossible.
Half-past eleven o'clock found them still lingering on the veranda, the
incessant murmur of their busy voices proclaiming their mutual
satisfaction in being together once more. When at last a voluble
procession wended its way upstairs to bed, the usual amount of visiting
between rooms was carried on with the old-time fervor of college days.
"It's exactly like old times," declared Elfreda to Miriam. "Here we are,
you and I, rooming together again just as we did at Overton. Sometimes
when I stop to think that those days