PERSONALLY CONDUCTED
So this was how it happened that the Dean's letter went forth to Gilead,
and produced the hour when Kit stood on the platform of the Union Station
in Chicago, looking around her to discover any one who might appear to be
seeking a small boy.
Gradually the long platform that led up to the concourse cleared. Kit went
leisurely on, following the porter who carried her suit-case. She was
looking for some one who might resemble either the Dean or Miss Daphne
from her mother's description of them.
"As I remember him," Mrs. Robbins had said, "the Dean was very tall,
rather sparely built, but broad-shouldered and always with his head up to
the wind. His hair was gray, worn rather long and curly at the ends, and
he had the old-fashioned Gladstone whiskers. Miss Daphne was like a
little bird, a gentle, plump, busy Jenny Wren, with bright brown eyes and
a little smile that never left her lips. I am sure you can't mistake them,
Kit, for in their way they are very distinctive."
Yet Kit was positive now that neither the Dean nor his sister had come to
meet her. She stood in the waiting-room quite unconscious of the attention
she attracted, for Kit would have been singled out from the multitude
anywhere by reason of what Jean called "her unique individuality."
She wore a dark tan serge traveling coat with a brown service cap to match
that set a bit rakishly on her red curls. There was about her an air of
buoyant and friendly self-possession, which always ingratiated her with
any casual acquaintances. Therefore it was no wonder that Mr. Bellamy
glanced at her several times with interest, even while his gaze sought
through the crowd for a young New England type of boy, bound for Delphi,
Wis.
But Kit noticed Mr. Bellamy. Noticed his alert anxiety as he walked up
and down, eyeing every newcomer. He was eighteen or nineteen, and
unmistakably looking for some one. Even while Kit watched him, she saw a
girl of about her own age hurry up to him. Her voice reached her plainly,
as she said:
"I've looked up and down that end, and I'm positive he isn't there. Oh,
but the Dean will lecture you, Rex, if you miss him."
At this identical moment, Rex's eyes met a pair of dancing, mischievous
ones, and Kit crossed over to where they stood.
"I do believe you must be looking for me," she said. "I'm Kit Robbins."
"Oh, but we were expecting your brother," exclaimed the other girl,
eagerly.
"I know, the whole family have," said Kit, placidly, "for years and years.
But there aren't any boys at all in our family," and here she smiled
sweetly, and quite innocently. "I'm afraid the Dean made a little mistake,
didn't he? Do you think he'll mind so very much when he sees me?"
"Mind?" repeated Mr. Bellamy. "Why, I think he'll be perfectly delighted.
My name is Rex Wade Bellamy, Miss Robbins, and this is my sister, Anne.
We're close neighbors of the Dean and Miss Daphne, and as we happened to
be coming in town to-day they asked us to be sure to meet your----" Here
he hesitated.
"My brother," laughed Kit. "Well, here I am, and I only hope that mother's
letter reached them this morning, explaining everything. Of course, they
did write for a boy, and it takes so long for a letter to get out here and
be answered, that I told mother and Dad I knew it would be perfectly all
right for me to come instead. Don't you think it will be?"
Anne's blue eyes were brimful of merriment.
"Oh, dear," she exclaimed. "I do wish I could go back with you, so I could
see their faces when they find out. I don't live in Delphi. Mother and I
have been here all summer so I could keep up my music at the conservatory.
Rex has had to 'batch it' alone, but we'll be back in a week, so I'll see
you then, and anyway, we're sure to visit back and forth. I'm awfully
glad you're a girl."
"But I won't be here all winter," Kit answered. "I've only come for a
couple of months. On trial, you know. Maybe it'll only be a couple of
days, if they're fearfully disappointed."
Anne exchanged quick glances with her brother and he smiled as he led the
way to the waiting car.
"You don't know the elaborate plans the Dean has laid out for your
education," he said. "It will take you all winter long to live up to them,
but I'm sure he will not be disappointed."
Kit had her own opinion about this, still it was impossible for her to
feel apprehensive or unhappy, as the car sped over towards the Lake Shore
Drive. The novelty of everything after two years up in the Gilead hills of
rest was wonderfully stimulating. But it was not until they had left the
city and river behind and had reached Lincoln Park that she really gave
vent to her feelings. It was a wonderful day and the lake lay in
sparkling ripples beyond the long stretch of shore.
"Are we going all the way in the car?" she asked, eagerly.
Rex shook his head.
"No, only as far as Evanston. We'll drop Anne off, and have lunch with
mother and then catch the train to Delphi. I have an errand for the Dean
out at the University."
"You know," said Kit, "we lived right on the edge of Long Island Sound
before we moved up to Connecticut, and ever since I was in rompers, I can
remember going away somewhere to the seashore every summer, but I think
your lake is ever so much more interesting than the ocean. Somehow it
seems to belong to one more. I always felt with the ocean as if it just
condescended to come over to my special beach, after it had rambled all
over the world, and belonged to everybody."
"But you have all the shells and the seaweed, and we haven't," demurred
Anne. "Before I ever went East, we had a couple of clam shells, just
plain every-day old round clam shells, that had come from Cape May, and I
used to think they were perfectly wonderful because they had belonged in
the real ocean."
After the rugged landscape of New England, Kit found this level land very
attractive. They passed through one suburb after another, with the
beautiful Drive following the curving shore line out to Evanston. Here she
caught her first glimpse of the Northwestern University, its terra-cotta
hued buildings showing picturesquely through the beautiful giant willows
around the campus.
They left Rex at the main entrance and drove on to where Mrs. Bellamy was
stopping. The houses made Kit think of those back at the Cove, with their
spacious lawns and large restful homes of plenty. Mrs. Bellamy was filled
with amusement when she heard the story of Kit's substitution of herself
for the boy the Dean had asked for. She was a tall, slender woman with
ashen gold hair and gray eyes, who seemed almost like an elder sister of
Anne's. They occupied a suite of rooms near the campus.
"It is ever so much pleasanter than living in the heart of the city," she
said, "and Rex has so many friends among the boys out here that it makes
it pleasant for both of the children. We used to live in North Evanston
before Mr. Bellamy took the chair of modern history up at Delphi. I wish
that you were going to live here for Anne's sake."
"Well, that's almost selfish, mother, because Delphi is a hundred times
more fun than Evanston," Anne declared, "and we're sure to see a lot of
each other, anyway, when school opens. Kit's promised to tell me all about
her sisters and Greenacres. It must be awfully queer to live up in the
hills like that."
"Queer?" repeated Kit, laughingly. "It's a joy to the soul and a
discipline to the body, Cousin Roxy says."
Anne immediately wanted to know who Cousin Roxy was, and Kit waxed
eloquent on her favorite topic.
"She's an angel in a gingham apron, we girls think," she concluded, "and
yet she can take off the gingham apron and stand up and address any kind
of a meeting. I just can't tell you all that she's been to us since we
lived there."
Early in the afternoon Rex returned, and they caught the 2:45 local up to
Delphi. Kit could hardly keep from looking out of the car window all the
time. Every now and then the rich blueness of the lake would flash through
the trees in the distance, and to the westward there stretched long level
vistas of prairie land, dipping ravines which unexpectedly led one into
woodland ways. Gradually the bluffs heightened as they neared the
Wisconsin line above Waukegan, and just beyond the state line, between the
shore and the region of the small lakes, Oconomowoc and Delevan, they came
suddenly upon Delphi. It stood high upon the bluff, its college dominating
the shady serenity of its quiet avenues.
"The Dean doesn't keep a carriage or car," said Rex as they alighted at
the gray stone station covered with clambering vines. "Besides, he
thought I was bringing a boy, who would not mind the hike up the hill!"
"I don't mind a bit," returned Kit. "I like it. It seems so good to find
real hills after all. I thought everything out here was just prairie. I do
hope they won't be watching for us. It will be ever so much easier if I
can just walk in before they get any kind of a shock, don't you know."
Rex did not tell her which was the house until they came to the two tall
sentinel poplars at the entrance to the drive. Kit caught the murmur of
the waves as they broke on the shore below and lifted her chin eagerly.
"Oh, I like it," she cried. "This is it, isn't it? Isn't it a dear, drowsy
dreamful place? I only hope they'll let me stay."