“Why bother to make any plans at all?” remarked Lilian; “no hurry about anything.”
“True,” said Hilary; “but we’ve got to straighten up our little suite before dinner. It’s a sight. We’ve been letting things go all week in the excitement of getting started in classes and everything else. Besides we have forgotten how to live at Greycliff. First we had simple living and taking turns at the little bit we had to do at camp. Then we had luxury at Cathalina’s with nothing to do, and if the rest of you were like me at home you did little but scramble around for some school clothes to wear, and visit with your folks. I followed Mother around and helped a little, while we talked all the time—so much to tell about the whole summer, and so little time to tell it in. One morning it was too funny. We had a regular procession. The maid was away, and I wiped the dishes for Mother and talked, while Gordon, Tommy, June and Mary were all in the kitchen, listening and putting in a little occasionally, especially June about camp. Then, when we went in another room, they all followed, and when Mother and I went out into the yard to hang up a few towels to dry, Father saw us, coming out in line, and nearly perished with mirth.”
“Imagine the dignified Dr. Lancaster’s ‘perishing with mirth’!” said Isabel.
“That was poetic exaggeration,” admitted Hilary.
After dinner and the usual stroll outdoors till darkness fell and the bell for study hours rang, the Psyche Club began to gather in the suite occupied by Cathalina and Betty, Hilary and Lilian, for there was the same arrangement which had been made the year before. Juliet Howe, Pauline Tracy, Eloise Winthrop and Helen Paget, also, were together. Isabel Hunt and Avalon Moore had moved into a suite with Virginia Hope and Olivia Holmes, but Isabel and Virginia roomed together, and Avalon was with Olivia. Whether Virginia and Olivia should now be taken into the Psyche Club was a question to be settled. Evelyn Calvert, who had been with the girls at camp, was invited to this gathering, but Helen Paget was to go after her, and Isabel was to bring the other girls at the proper time.
“Are we all here?” asked Hilary at last. “Let’s have a brief business meeting and get the elections over. What do you say, girls?”
“All right,” came from various quarters, and the president tapped for order.
“Has the nominating committee a report?”
“Yes, Madam President,” replied Isabel, its chairman. “We offer the names of Cathalina Van Buskirk for president and Lilian North for secretary and treasurer.”
“How shall we elect the officers? Are there any other names suggested? Sit down, Cathalina and Lilian. Nobody can refuse an office in the Psyche Club except when in—incapacitated!”