CHAPTER XVIII
CLASS DAY
Class Day at Ashton always came on a Friday with Commencement the following Wednesday, and although the undergraduates were not generally expected to remain over for the latter event, they all took great interest in the former and made it the gala day of the year. Each girl had the privilege of inviting as many guests as she wished, but it pretty generally narrowed down to one, except in the case of the graduates who had all their mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins, and friends to entertain besides "the one" who generally hung around in the background, endeavoring to be gracious when the opportunity presented itself.
On the night before Class Day, Jean and Elizabeth were busy in their room with their clothes for the following day. Jean was not satisfied with Elizabeth's hat which she had brought out from town that very afternoon. "Now, Elizabeth, do your hair low as you intend to wear it to-morrow and let me see what I can do in the way of trimming hats. I don't like this shape at all the way it is now. It's not at all becoming, and I want you to look your prettiest to-morrow. The roses are a beautiful pink, but they want to come down lower on the hat."
While she was talking, Elizabeth had been fixing her hair and had coiled it low on her neck. "Does that suit your Majesty now? You're altogether too fussy about my personal appearance. Who do you suppose will notice me in all the crowd? If I had a man coming over from Harvard or Yale it would be different, but wandering about by myself no one will know whether my hair is up or down or whether my hat is the latest thing from New York or trimmed at home by the country milliner."
"Why, Elizabeth, how can you talk so? Remember Tom is going to be your guest as well as mine. We three are going to do things together, so you'd better make up your mind to look your prettiest, for Tom is mighty particular when it comes to girls. There, your hair looks much better and the hat fits down closer to your head. I'm going to take off the bow and put it on the other side after I've put the roses down flat around the crown. They're too stiff, sticking up in the air. Now look in the glass and see how you like the effect."
"Oh, it does look ever so much better, Jean. Just stick in some pins where you want things to go and I'll do the sewing."
"No, you won't; I'm going to finish it. Who says I can't trim hats?"
Just then there came a vigorous knock at the study door. Jean seized the hat from Elizabeth's head, and still holding it in her hand hastened out into the other room just as Peggy Allison, acting upon Jean's cordial, "Come in," entered the room.
"Going into the hat business, Jean? I wish you'd take a look at my hat. I'm awfully disappointed in it now that I've got it out here. It doesn't look at all as I expected it would. Guess it will have to do, though. I haven't time to bother with another. That's the trouble with waiting until the last moment to do things, but I do hate buying hats in Boston. What time do you expect Tom, Jean?"
"He's coming over from New York on the midnight, so he'll probably be out here between ten and eleven o'clock. I told him there was no need of coming before ten, anyway, and I'll be busy until that time with our chain, for we have left part of it until morning to finish, as our daisies gave out. Is your part finished?"