"You will see some day," said Janet. "I prophesy that there will never be another summer in our experience, just like the one we have just left behind us."
Edna helped herself delicately from a box of candy which stood open on the table. "Goodness, Janet, you give me the blues. Do try to chirk up. If you begin this way, what will you be before the year is out? I'll go hunt up Mascot; a visit from him will be in order about now." She popped another chocolate into her mouth and left the room, soon returning with a sleek and glossy cat in her arms. "Here, take him," she said, depositing her burden in Janet's lap. "Did you ever see anything grow as he has done? He may be a catling, but he is no more a kitten."
"But isn't he a beauty? So lithe and satiny, and what beautiful amber eyes he has! Ah, Mascot, old fellow, I surely am glad to see you again, though you probably have no recollection of me. It would have been a shame to take him away from the class if we had gone into lodgings, wouldn't it, Ted?"
"It certainly would. I thought of that. The girls simply howled their protests last summer when I mentioned the possibility. What shall we do with him next year, when we leave, Janet?"
"Bequeath him to the incoming freshmen. He can descend down in that way as long as he is able to stand the strain of his office of comforter."
"Speaking of comforter," said Edna, "have you happened to meet a freshman named Mary Perkins? She is an acquaintance of a distant cousin of mine who asked me if I wouldn't give her a nod or a beck or a wreathed smile once in a while. She has a scholarship, this Miss Perkins, but is as poor as poverty, and is trying to work her way through college; that is, she wants to make her expenses over and above her scholarship."
"We must hunt her up," said Janet. "A girl who works her way through college deserves all the moral support she can get from upper classmen, for she will have to endure many snubs, and will have none too easy a time. Give me a chocolate, Ted, one of those nutty ones. Mascot is so comfortable, I don't want to disturb him."
"For Sybarites, commend me to cats," said Edna, passing the box of candy to Janet. "Who's there?" she asked, as a knock was heard.
"Fay, Fay Wingate."
"Come in, my fairy Fay. The idea of any one's ever calling you a grand old senior, you ridiculous mite," said Janet. "You haven't grown an inch."