KATHLEEN'S GREAT MOMENT
By five o'clock the following afternoon the greater part of the students
of Overton College had assembled in the gymnasium to learn who had won
the honor pin. Every pair of eyes was fixed upon Dr. Hepburn as he rose
from his seat on the platform and faced the gathering of expectant
students who were eagerly awaiting his announcement.
"It is with the sincerest pleasure that I rise, this afternoon, to
announce that, after due consideration, the judges appointed by the
senior class play committee to pass judgment upon the plays submitted
have decided in favor of the morality play submitted by Miss Kathleen
West, entitled 'Loyalheart; Her Four Years' Pilgrimage.' It is,
perhaps, the most notable manuscript of its kind that has come within
the notice of any member of the committee during a period covering a
number of years," continued Dr. Hepburn, "and Miss West is to be
congratulated on the merit of her remarkable literary effort. I have
also been requested to say that, in the opinion of the judges, the
comedy entitled 'A Quiet Vacation,' by Miss J. Elfreda Briggs, was the
second choice of the committee."
For an instant after Dr. Hepburn ceased speaking a deep stillness
pervaded the gymnasium, then from all sides rose cries of "Kathleen
West! Elfreda Briggs! Speech! speech!"
Dr. Hepburn raised his hand for silence, and when quiet had been
restored he said, "If Miss Briggs and Miss West are present, will they
kindly come to the platform?"
Already Elfreda's three friends were urging her forward. From far back
in the gymnasium a little figure was seen to separate itself from its
fellows and come hesitatingly forward. When Kathleen West reached the
platform and faced her audience she eyed them composedly, although her
face grew very white; then she began speaking in a clear, resonant
voice:
"I thank you for the honor you have conferred upon me," she said, bowing
to the committee, "and to you," she bowed to her audience, "for your
tribute of appreciation. I should like to say that in creating the
character of 'Loyalheart' I have not drawn upon my fancy, and I know
that the many lovable qualities with which I have endowed my heroine are
to be found in the girl who served as my inspiration. I refer to Miss
Grace Harlowe, of the senior class, whom I consider the ideal Overton
girl." Kathleen's voice trembled slightly on the last sentence. Then she
walked quickly down the aisle, accompanied by a burst of applause that
made 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? What
had wrought this marvelous and unlooked-for change? That Elfreda had won
second honors had been forgotten. The attention of the students were
focused 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 of
you," she said with a sweet seriousness that went straight to her
hearers' hearts. "Although I am afraid I can't lay claim to the splendid
qualities Miss West has attributed to me, the knowledge that she has
thought me worthy is doubly dear." Then Grace hurried to her place very
near to tears, while Miriam affectionately pressed her arm on one side
and Anne, on the other, slipped her hand into that of her friend, and
thus 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 the
campus, where groups of girls had halted with a view to hailing their
respective friends as they passed.
"I was never more astonished in my life," returned Miriam, in guarded
tones. "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. "I
never 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 to
be presented to her?"
"On the night of the play. Now that it is all settled, the play
committee 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 Ruth
Denton are on it, too. Here comes Elfreda, surrounded by an admiring
throng. Genius will out. I knew she would do something extraordinarily
clever before she wound up her college career."
"We can't find Kathleen West!" exclaimed Elfreda. "She slipped out of
the gymnasium so quietly that no one realized she had gone. We are going
over to Wayne Hall after her."
"Where is Grace?" asked Miriam irrelevantly.
Elfreda made a quick, comprehensive survey of the various groups of
girls. "Why, I don't see her. She was here----" Something in Miriam's
expression caused her to eye her roommate sharply. Miriam shook her head
almost 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 until
to-night." Turning to the crowd of girls, who had been too busy talking
to notice what had passed between her and Miriam, Elfreda said easily:
"Suppose we wait until this evening after dinner, girls. Meet me at the
corner below Wayne Hall at half-past seven o'clock and we will call on
Kathleen and Grace. Miriam will engage to keep them in the house and
we'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 by
her admiring bodyguard.
But while her friends were discussing the outcome of the play, Kathleen
West, J. Elfreda and Grace, the last named young woman was speeding
across the campus toward Wayne Hall. As she was about to return to her
place among her friends, after making her speech, her alert eyes had
seen a small, familiar figure edge toward the side door of the
gymnasium, then disappear. Grace surmised that Kathleen had gone
directly to Wayne Hall, and without hesitating she hurried after her.
But another person had also marked Kathleen's flight, for as Grace ran
up 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 to
her, Patience!"
"That is just what I was thinking of you," smiled Patience. "But you
must go first. Wasn't it the most astounding announcement you ever
heard. I am not surprised at her winning the honor pin. It is her change
of heart that astonishes me. I realized that she had improved, but I
never heard of anything like this. I suspect Elfreda Briggs knows more
about this miracle than she will admit. I overheard her talking to
Kathleen one night. I didn't mean to listen. I was just about to enter
the room when I heard something Elfreda said and hurried off as fast as
I 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 us
must go to Kathleen."
"You go," insisted Patience. "I'll drop in later."
Grace went into the house and upstairs, hardly knowing what to do or
say. She knocked gently on Kathleen's door, then at sound of a muffled
"Come," turned the knob and stepped inside. Kathleen had thrown herself
face downward upon her couch, her face buried in the cushions. Without
raising her head, she faltered, "Is it you, Grace?"
"Yes," answered Grace softly, as she approached the couch on which
Kathleen 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 for
all the trouble I have caused you?" she asked solemnly.
"Of course I can, Kathleen," replied Grace, slipping down on the couch
beside Kathleen and placing her arm about the slender shoulders of the
newspaper girl. "You are not the only one at fault. I blame myself for a
great many things that happened. If we had only known that you wished to
be in the circus. We never thought of slighting you, Kathleen."
"I know it now," rejoined Kathleen sadly, "but I was furious with you at
the time. Then, too, I had made up my mind not to like you. I thought
you priggish and narrow-minded. I didn't understand college in the
least. I was ready to ride over every Overton tradition for the sake of
having my own way. Patience was the first to show me where I stood, and
I tried to see matters from her standpoint. Then came the temptation to
publish that 'Larry, the Locksmith' story, and you know the rest.
"Elfreda Briggs was the one who brought me to my first realization of
college spirit. She had been watching me all year and discovered that I
was 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 shown
me the way to atone for some of the mischief I had made. It was she who
gave me the idea for the play. I had begun a play, then had destroyed
it, resolving to have nothing more to do with the contest. After Elfreda
and I had our talk I began again and I wrote 'Loyalheart.' After the
Famous Fiction Dance Elfreda came to me again. She was determined to
help me."
Grace's face grew radiant when Kathleen told of Elfreda's part in the
affair. 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 are
to create the role of 'Loyalheart' in my play. You mustn't refuse. It
was written for you, and no one else could possibly play it. Elfreda is
going to arrange that part of it with the play committee. Please don't
refuse. If you only knew how much it means to me." Kathleen's eyes were
fixed appealingly upon Grace.
"I won't refuse," was Grace's gentle answer. "I'll do it just to please
you and to cement our life-long friendship." The two girls had risen
now, and stood facing each other. Then their hands met in a silent
pledge of friendship that was to prove faithful to the end.
* * * * *
Loyalheart stepped into life on the fifth Friday evening after Easter
and for two hours and a half her adoring audience of Overton students
hung on her slightest word or gesture. From the moment in which
Loyalheart left Haven Home on her Four Years' Pilgrimage she ceased to
exist as Grace Harlowe, merging her personality entirely in that of the
beautiful allegorical character she was portraying.
The play itself was in four acts, each representing one of the four
college years. Written in the form of an allegory, it partook of the
nature of a morality play and told the story of Loyalheart's eventful
pilgrimage through the Land of College, accompanied by her faithful
friends, Honor, Forbearance, Silence and Good Humor. Her heroic efforts
to keep her four friends with her in spite of the plots of Snobbery,
Gossip, Jealousy, Frivolity and Treachery, and her readiness to extend a
helping hand to Diffidence, Poverty and Misunderstood, result in the
creation of an illusive being known to her only as the Spirit, a
white-robed apparition which visits her more frequently as she
approaches 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, and
she learns that in helping others and clinging to her ideals she has
fostered and nurtured to radiant growth none other than the fabled
College Spirit which she has ardently striven to recognize and possess.
Greatly to her delight, Emma Dean had been asked to play the part of the
Spirit, and exhibited real histrionic ability in the role. As
Loyalheart, Grace, who, day after day, had been painstakingly coached by
Anne, left nothing to be desired in her portrayal of the role assigned
to her. Ruth Denton, Gertrude Wells, and Miriam Nesbit, respectively,
enacted the roles of Honor, Forbearance and Silence, while Elfreda
insisted on playing Good Humor, and was greeted with appreciative
laughter whenever she appeared.
The play was written in blank verse, and many of the passages were
extremely beautiful. Loyalheart's farewell to Haven Home and the
revelation of the Spirit to Loyalheart at the Highway of Life were
particularly worthy of note. The speeches of Good Humor scintillated
with wit, and the unpleasant characters in the play were peculiarly true
to life. Grace took half a dozen curtain calls, and Kathleen West was
also summoned before the curtain and publicly presented with the honor
pin by President Morton.
It was an evening long to be remembered, and the story of Loyalheart and
her pilgrimage was destined to remain in the minds of the Overton girls
for many a day.
It was after eleven o 'clock when a very tired Loyalheart went forth on
a pilgrimage to Wayne Hall, accompanied by her equally loyal supporters,
who were proudly bearing numerous floral offerings which had been handed
to 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 portrayal
of Loyalheart was wonderful."
"And so was your coaching," retorted Grace, promptly.
"It is far from early," remarked Elfreda in a suggestive tone, as they
halted for a moment at the head of the stairs, "but we are all here, and
I know how to make fruit punch. In fact, I got the stuff ready, thinking
that it might be useful!"
"We will be in your room within the next ten minutes," said Grace
decisively. "Such hospitality is not met with every day."
True to her word, ten minutes later she and Anne were seated on the foot
of Elfreda's bed, kimono clad and smiling, while Elfreda labored with
the fruit punch. Kathleen West and Patience Eliot, who had also been
invited to the punch party, were seated on cushions on the floor.
Suddenly the soft tinkle of a mandolin sounded under the window, then a
chorus 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 to
retire, and, hearing the music, the girls had with one accord hurried to
the windows.
"Come on up, Gertrude," called Grace into the soft darkness. "I know
your voice. How on earth did you get out of your costume, go home for
your 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," observed
an ingratiating voice over Grace's shoulder.
"We had several more verses to sing, and one for you, Elfreda. If you
will ask Mrs. Elwood's permission, we will come up, sing them and
incidentally 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. When
the last cake had disappeared and the punch was almost gone, the
serenading party sang the rest of their verses and departed gayly, yet
in spite of their gayety there lurked in each heart the shadow of the
parting that was to come all too soon.