“You like that color, don’t you, Virg?” Megsy asked. “I was sure that I had heard you say that you did.”
“Yes, indeed. I think it is the sweetest! I had a little lilac bush out on the desert. Mother had planted it and after she left I nursed it and watered it, but once when I was away Uncle Tex forgot, and it dried up and died. It had very few flowers, but I loved their color and fragrance.” Then as a card fluttered out, Virginia read: “To our beloved president from the members of the Saturday Evening Study Club.”
“Girls,” Virg exclaimed, “I don’t know what to say to thank you.”’
“That’s the way we feel about all the things you have done for us.” It was Sally who spoke.
“Why, I haven’t done anything for any of you,” Virginia declared, adding, with an almost tremulous smile, “except love you.”
“That’s it,” Margaret slipped an arm about her adopted sister. “You know ‘love sacrificeth itself.’”
“Girls, please don’t put me on a pedestal. You have helped me just as much as I hope that I have helped you.”
“If only we have all passed our exams fairly creditably,” Dicky Taylor began when Betsy interrupted, her eyes shining: “Girls, hark! The bus is coming! Eleanor Pettes will be on it. She mustn’t get as far as the front door and not have us there to greet her.”
Down the wide stairway the merry maids trooped, chattering gaily, for, as this was the last day of school, all silence rules had been banished. The bell was ringing, and Delia had appeared, but Babs beckoned her to wait and let them open the door.
“Let’s all pounce out on her and shout ‘welcome belovedest,’” Betsy suggested.