The spacious, velvety lawn was profusely and fittingly decorated. From column to column festoons of June roses and evergreens crossed and entwined in bewildering array. The colossal statue of Diana with her hounds—the patron Saint of the Seminary—and the alternate gold and silver peristyles leading to the wondrously designed parterre, were enveloped in a mass of phosphorescent glow from the radium globules.
The statuettes and fountains were bejewelled by innumerable actinium bulbs. Ensconced in the branches of the trees and bushes the electrical nightingales gave forth their continuous warbles of subdued sweetness, while from poles especially erected for the occasion electric globes in kaleidoscopic hues diffused the ambient atmosphere with their spirituelle glow. The moon, like an overseer, hung high in the canopy of space, casting its silvery light over the radiant scene.
The graceful figures of the maidens in their fantastic winged costumes of Celestial Amazons, and the grotesque forms of the boys, attired in Indian outfits, glittering with beads and feathers—“chaperoned” by the venerable Professor Cielo Allenson—each tribe in turn illustrating their weird national customs, in war or peace, in mirth or sorrow, filled the select spectators with throes of thrilling excitement. What hitherto had seemed only ordinary, mundane surroundings was changed into a realistic happy-hunting-ground or savage fairyland, a vision of alternate celestial or barbaric splendor, the grandeur of which is beyond the power of human ability to describe.
The secret of unparalleled excellence of the disguises of the boys was due to the fact that at the end of the Freshmen year at the Military Academy, when they were preparing for the celebration of their academic year, the Sophomores had kidnapped the whole Freshmen Class, and by a pre-arranged plan, experts having been hired, had tatooed them all over their faces as Indians on the warpath, thus leaving a lasting souvenir of class antagonism! Being disfigured for life, they had made the best of their misfortune by appearing in the role of Indian warriors, delighted that for once this misfortune had proven an advantage.
There was nothing to mar this auspicious occasion except that, near its close, a trivial wordy demonstration took place between Professor Cielo Allenson and an intruder named Carlos Don Seville.
Still, even the most pleasant and successful events have their aftermath and this affair left several of them. When Aurora and Margaret entered their rooms heaped with triumphant compliments for their consummate skill in planning this grand farewell fête they were sad, sad through an impulsive intuition.
Hardly had they crossed the threshold of their room when they fell into each other’s arms, sobbing bitterly from the bottom of their hearts. Each instinctively knew why the other wept. The final class reception had a deep significance to them, as it meant that graduation day was near at hand. In the natural course of events each would now go her way to a distant home. It meant separation!
Separation! It was impossible for them calmly to accept the full significance of that word in their infatuation for each other. Some time elapsed before either gained sufficient composure to speak. Each attempt resulted in a collapse and a paroxysm of hysterical weeping.
Margaret, as if dazed with the frenzy of that strange passion, clung to Aurora, exclaiming hysterically: “How can it be, Aurora? It cannot be. It cannot be! Better death than separation!”
By the gentle, soothing words of Aurora, however, they gradually recovered their composure, but were not fully pacified until that very night they made a solemn compact, bound by an inviolable oath, not to make any alliance with any suitor whatever and to remain united to each other in souls until death should them part.