I
The trio arrived Wednesday morning, with half the freshman class at the
station to meet Eileen. It was all so different from her going away.
How strange the town looked, how tranquil and confiding the faces of
her friends! What a long, long time she had been gone! Could she ever
again talk to Kitten and Ina as in the old life? Could she adjust
herself, for even a few days, to the environment that had been her
whole world?
The change was not all in herself. There was her mother--kissing
her ecstatically before all that crowd, telling her how sweet she
looked, how lonely the big house was without her. And--did she hear
aright?--declaring in ringing tones that she should not go back to
New York with Larimore and Judith, but should enter college at the
beginning of the second semester. A moment later Mrs. Trench passed
from this demonstration to embrace Judith with equal warmth, to address
her as “my dear daughter” and lament the shortness of the visit.
The girl was bewildered. Only Theodora was unchanged. She bubbled
and vibrated as of old, pouting disconsolately when the chapel bell
summoned her.