Part 7 (1/2)
Besides, there is the Indian strain in them, and they are squatters. There have been several lawsuits against them, and they have persisted in staying there on the sh.o.r.e when the property owners on the bluff distinctly purchased riparian rights.”
”But, brother, the Beaubiens won all their suits, didn't they?” asked Miss Daphne, pleasantly. ”I'm sure the older boys are very industrious, and I think the girl Marcelle is strikingly attractive. You're not really forbidding Kit to go down there, I'm sure.”
The Dean said something that was lost in a murmur, for he had been one of the property owners vanquished in the lawsuits by the Beaubiens. After breakfast Kit went up-stairs with Miss Daphne into her own little sitting-room. This looked towards the street, out over the maple and pine-shaded lawn. Also, you could command a very fair view of the college.
This was built of gray stone like a Norman castle, with square towers, and was overgrown with woodbine just beginning to show a tinge of crimson.
”It seems awfully queer, Aunt Daphne,” Kit said as she leaned out of the window, ”to think that I am going there into the 'prep' cla.s.s. Rex said on the way up here----”
She leaned suddenly farther out and waved.
”h.e.l.lo, Rex, are you coming over?”
Rex glanced up at the radiant face as he came along the hedge-bordered drive between his home and the Dean's and waved back in neighborly fas.h.i.+on.
”I'm going up to the campus now,” he said. ”Ask Miss Daphne if she'd let you be in the library club. There's a meeting this morning.”
”Could I, Aunt Daphne? Please say yes. I haven't joined anything in ages,”
Kit begged. ”I don't care whether it's a library club or an Indian powwow.
I am just dying to be in something out here, where I'll meet every one and get acquainted. If you don't need me this morning----” She hesitated, but some of her enthusiasm had caught Miss Daphne, and she immediately succ.u.mbed to the whim of the moment.
”Why, I think, my dear, that I'll go with you. The Dean has taken up so much of my time that I've rather lost my interest and activity in affairs.
You go down with Rex, and I'll join you presently.”
The Dean's desk stood in a wide square bay window which overlooked the driveway. He had settled down to his morning's portion of labor and was blocking out a curriculum of study for Kit, when he happened to glance up, and beheld the trio pa.s.sing happily out through the gates. Certainly they did not realize, nor did he at that moment, that already the leaven of youth was at work in the old shadowy house behind the sentinel pines.
CHAPTER X
THE DEAN'S OUTPOSTS
The first budget of family letters arrived the following week. Kit fairly pounced on them when the mail carrier came up the walk, for she had been watching anxiously at each delivery. After all, it was the first time she had been away from home, and after the first excitement and novelty had worn off, her heart, she told herself laughingly, ”harked back to Dixie.”
It seemed the Dean had written to her father on the night of her arrival, and this was a surprise to Kit.
”It is a great relief to us all to know that you have made such a favorable impression,” Mr. Bobbins' letter read. ”After all, it was somewhat of an experiment, and I confess that I was rather sceptical of the result, knowing the Dean as I do. Try to adapt yourself as much as possible to the home conditions there, Kit. You know, we have always lived somewhat of an easy-going life so far as discipline and set routine go, and consequently you girls have been brought up in a happy-go-lucky fas.h.i.+on. Do you remember what Emerson had inscribed over his study door?
'Whim.' The old Concord philosopher and Th.o.r.eau have been close pals of mine, and I fear that I adopted at an early age the same motto. Be considerate of all the Dean's notions, and make yourself as useful and lovable as you can while you are with them, dear.
”The rebuilding of the house is going along splendidly, and we hope to have our Christmas there. I have followed the old plan, but with some improvements, I think, putting in a good furnace, and enlarging the dining-room and kitchen. The veranda also will extend around three sides of the house instead of two, and we are building the supports of field stone. There will be an outdoor fireplace on the west side also, and I know you will enjoy this.”
Enjoy it? Kit stared ahead of her at the shady lawn. Miss Daphne was bending over nasturtium beds gathering the black seeds, but instead, Kit saw in a vision ahead a great hickory fire burning in the outdoor veranda fireplace with the mystery of the night crooning low over the sleeping hills. Her mother's letter came next. Kit read it with delight. She could tell just exactly the mood the mother bird was in when she wrote, just how her conscience p.r.i.c.ked her for having been a party to Kit's plan.
”Of course, while the Dean's letter was very nice, still I am sure he felt 'put upon,' as Cousin Roxy would say. I am ever so sorry that we did not write sooner, and tell them that you were coming. It rests with you now, Kit, to make yourself so adaptable that they will forget all about the boy they wanted. I have no objection to your staying for the winter term at Hope College. Between ourselves, dear, our plans are a little unsettled here. Father is certain that the house will be ready for us this winter, but you know we have kept from him any worry about financial matters, and I am afraid he figures on a wider lat.i.tude in expense than we can afford.
At the little farm here, and with you and Jean both away we could manage very well. In order to rebuild at all, we had to part with some securities which I had always hoped to save for you girls. It will be sad, won't it, if the royal princesses have to be launched without wedding chests and dowries?
”Make all the friends that you possibly can among your college mates. You won't realize it now, but so many of these friends.h.i.+ps become precious lifelong ones. Billie is leaving this week for school. You remember Mr.
Howard, who came to look after our trees? He has been staying up at the Judge's, and took a great interest in Billie. Instead of going back to Blackwood Hall, Billie is going on to a school in Virginia, not far from Was.h.i.+ngton, that Mr. Howard suggested sending him to. He is a great believer in the value of environment that is a.s.sociated with historic traditions.”