"Well, we waited fifteen minutes for you," protested Amy, laughingly, "and Norma had to come down-town to try and find some high boots like Julia Marlowe wore for Rosalind. She's had that old picture of her pinned up on the wall for two weeks."
"Oh, and listen, Kit1," Norma broke in; "you know that suede2 brown leather table cover of mine; I just took and slashed3 it around the edges and bent4 it over an old tam-o'-shanter crown and it looks exactly like the hat she wore. You know I've been considering rather seriously. Don't you really think that I'm peculiarly fitted for this sort of a career? Of course I'd only play Shakespearian parts, although I'd love to be Joan of Arc like Maude Adams was at Harvard, or play the old Greek tragedies at that Stadium place, somewhere in California. I've been studying Electra a little bit."
"Have you?" questioned Kit, kindly5. "You dear child, you. So young and yet so aspiring6. Finish your chocolate ice cream soda7, and we'll run along. Rex just came with his car and we can all pile into it."
The rehearsal8 passed off splendidly, barring sundry9 interpolations by Kit into Orlando's flights of fancy.
"I think he would have had to have been much more interesting to have held the love of such a girl as Rosalind," she protested. "Heroes are awful people anyway, I think. The only ones I really like are explorers. Uncle Cassius said the other day that the most unique experience was to be the first white man to step foot on new territory. I may take up forestry10 as a profession, but I'd much rather be a woman explorer."
"Deserts, islands or mountain peaks?" queried11 Amy, as she dipped into her store of supplies under the couch for some hasty refreshments12.
"Caves, I think," said Kit, darkly; "caves or islands. Don't give me anything to eat, 'cause I have to look up something in the library before I go home, and I'm late for lunch now."
"Just pimento cheese on crackers13, and I've got some chocolate marshmallows here somewhere." Amy's voice was muffled14 under the couch cover. But the clock on the mantel pointed15 at twelve-fifteen, and Kit knew the Dean's punctilious16 regard for keeping meal hours.
The library was unoccupied, apparently17. Kit went over to the lower book shelves which contained the reference books on archæology, dragging a low stool after her.
"A-men-o-taph," she said, under her breath. "Likewise Semele."
With the two volumes on her knees, she started to read up the references which the Dean wanted, when all at once she was conscious of some one who stood in the embrasured window at the west end of the room, looking at her. For a moment Kit was absolutely speechless, not believing the evidence of her own eyes. But the next moment Billie's own laugh, when he found out he had been discovered, startled her with its reality.
"Billie Ellis," she exclaimed, springing to her feet and scattering18 reference books and note paper helter-skelter. "How on earth did you ever get way out here?"
Billie shook hands with her, coloring boyishly, as he always did at any display of emotion, and trying to act as if it were the most natural and ordinary thing in the world for him to appear at Delphi, Wis., when he was supposed to be at Washington in school.
"We got our test exams last week, and Stanley had to run out to Minnesota for the government, so he took me along to help him."
"I guess you'd kind of call it being a business naturalist," laughed Billie. "I don't think I'll ever live in a shack21 on a mountainside, and write beautiful things about them, now that I know Stanley. You want to roll up your sleeves and go to work like he does."
"Is he here, now?" asked Kit, eagerly.
"Yep." Billie nodded oat of the window, towards Kemp Hall, the boys' dormitory. "After we found out that you didn't live here, we were going on down to the Dean's to find you, but he looked over the boys' freshman22 class, and found he had a cousin or nephew or somebody on the list, Clayton Diggs."
"I know him," Kit exclaimed. "He's High Jinks' cousin. Regular bean pole, with freckles23, but mighty24 nice. I've got to be back for lunch, and you're coming down with me, of course. How long can you stay?"
"Just this afternoon. We're going back on the five forty-five, and catch the night express east. If you wait here, I'll chase after Stanley, 'cause he'll want to have lunch with the Diggs boy, and he can join us later."
Kit walked along the macadamized path which crossed the campus. It was bordered by dwarf25 evergreen26, but the students had named it Hope's primrose27 path, owing to the temptation to dally28 along it, whenever one had the chance.
The coming of Billie unexpectedly, just at a time when she was feeling her first homesickness, struck Kit as being a special little gift handed out to her by Providence29. But with only five hours to visit with him, she knew it would be all the harder after he had gone. He joined her on a run as she reached the sidewalk, and they hurried down to the Dean's just in time for luncheon30. Kit's face was fairly radiant as she presented her old-time chum of the hills to Miss Daphne and the Dean.
"Don't you remember, Uncle Cassius," she asked eagerly, "how, when I first came, I told you all about the boy back home who would have just suited you? Well, that was Billie."
The Dean's gray eyes wrinkled as he surveyed Billie over the tops of his eye-glasses.
"You come highly recommended, young man," he said. "Kit almost persuaded me that if she didn't suit I might be able to coax31 you away from your grandfather."
"I'll bet you wouldn't change now," Billie responded, gallantly32. "Kit knows a hundred per cent, more than I do, sir. I used to hate history until she took to telling me stories about it, and making it interesting. All I really care about is natural history, especially insects and birds."
"Well, you could have a lovely time studying over uncle's Egyptian scarabs," said Kit, placidly33. "Weren't you telling me something about a place in China where they had a whole grove34 filled with sacred silkworms, Aunt Daphne?"
Miss Peabody smiled and nodded, looking from one young face to the other. Never before had youth sat lunching at that table with her and her brother in quite such a radiant guise35. The Dean usually took his noontide meal in absolute silence when they were alone together, as he held that desultory36 conversation disturbed his train of thought. But since Kit's coming, it had been impossible to check her flow of talk, until now the Dean actually missed it if she happened to be absent.
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1
kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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suede
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| n.表面粗糙的软皮革 | |
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slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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aspiring
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| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
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7
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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rehearsal
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| n.排练，排演；练习 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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forestry
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| n.森林学；林业 | |
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queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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crackers
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| adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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punctilious
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| adj.谨慎的，谨小慎微的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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18
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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freshman
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| n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女) | |
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freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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evergreen
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| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
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primrose
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| n.樱草，最佳部分， | |
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dally
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| v.荒废(时日)，调情 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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coax
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| v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取 | |
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gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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guise
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| n.外表，伪装的姿态 | |
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desultory
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| adj.散漫的，无方法的 | |
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