"Did you think we would never finish?" said Jean, as she and Elizabeth and Peggy hastened up where Tom and Mr. Thorndike were leaning against College Hall.
"No," said Tom; "I enjoyed every moment. You've sure got some clever girls in this college. That was one of the best tree orations I ever listened to. Please introduce me to Miss Mary Frances Buffington. I'd like to talk with her. What's next on the programme?"
"We're going now to Gamma Chi spread in our club rooms, then after you've eaten all you can there, I've tickets for the Alpha Delt spread and the Tennis Club spread in the gym, and Madeleine Moore has invited us to a private spread in her room over in South. Of course we don't have to take them all in, but I think it will be loads of fun, for everywhere we go we will meet different people, to say nothing of the eats, which of course will appeal to Tom more than anything else. I propose for once to see if I can satisfy him on that score."
At all the spreads they found food and interesting people in abundance and laughed and talked and made and renewed acquaintances to their hearts' content. Every one was gay and happy and filled with the college spirit and was young at heart if not in years. Fathers and mothers and even grandparents mingled with young girls and men and seemed to be as much a part of it all as their sons and daughters. Where is there another place in the world so productive of good-fellowship and joy as a college class day?
From Madeleine Moore's upper room, where they went last, they sat by the windows and listened to the Glee Club singing the old college favorites. Old girls who were back for the day joined the singers on College Hall steps and swelled the chorus to two or three times its usual size. Every now and then the tinkle of the mandolins and guitars could be heard above the sweet voices of the girls and then was lost in the heavier choruses. It was almost dusk when the last notes died away and there still remained the dance in the gymnasium.
Tom left Jean and Elizabeth at Merton to dress for the dance, and he hurried to the Inn to get into his dress-suit. When the three strolled across the campus again in the direction of the gym, a perfect fairyland met their astonished eyes. Thousands of bright Japanese lanterns were strung about the entire grounds and swayed gently back and forth in the soft summer breeze. Here and there were the moving forms of belated dancers like themselves, moving mysteriously through the semi-darkness.
"I hate to leave such beauty," said Elizabeth. "I don't care anything about the dancing, so why not leave me here on one of these benches, Jean? You and Tom can go in and dance and stop for me when you come home."