“How absurd! There’s no dignity about that.”
“Who wants to be dignified?” queried Persis, flippantly.
“You need to be,” put in Lisa.
“Well, just let’s leave the name for the present. Call a meeting for Saturday, Audrey, and in the mean time we can talk it over with our mothers, and see what we can do,” proposed Nellie.
This was agreed upon, and the girls went home full of the scheme.
“Don’t you think it’s a fine plan, mamma?” asked Lisa, who had worked herself up to quite a pitch of enthusiasm. “I never can remember dates and such things, and Audrey says her mother told her that the researching she has done has strengthened her memory wonderfully. Don’t you approve?”
“I do, with qualifications. I think you should not set yourselves apart from those of your school-mates who cannot lay claim to distinguished ancestry, although I do believe in preserving the records of those families whose forefathers helped to make our country. It depends much upon the spirit of the thing. If it is simply to form an exclusive coterie, I object seriously. If it is to emphasize your studies, and if you make good character your first consideration, I approve heartily.”
The three sisters looked at each other. There was an uneasy feeling that Audrey’s purpose was the forming of an exclusive set, although she had not declared it.
“I think it would be a good plan to join, and then if we find it doesn’t turn out as it ought, we can withdraw,” said Lisa, slowly.
“Perhaps that will do,” agreed Mrs. Holmes. “I have no objection to that.”