CHAPTER I
A SENIOR PICNIC AND WHITE WINGS
Deepest of sapphire skies, freshest of air, most sparkling of lake waters greeted the senior collegiates, dignified by their position at the head of the school, on their first picnic of the year. By ones, twos, threes and more, they added to the company which sought seats upon the dancing Greycliff, freshly painted during the summer, the black letters of the name showing clearly against a pearl-grey side. The starry-eyed Eloise Winthrop, her dark locks done up in a new way, looked prettier than ever, as she stood up and waved wildly to Cathalina Van Buskirk and Lilian North, who were just climbing into the launch.
“This way, girls!” she called. “Here’s Betty,—and Hilary and Pauline!”
“Cathalina and Lilian are getting to look like sisters,” said Pauline.
“It is more their manner,” said Eloise, “and Lilian dresses more like Cathalina now that she lives in New York. Their features are not alike. Lilian’s look like a cameo. How much older she looks with her hair up, in that way too. Cathalina is still our little dreamer,—isn’t she lovely!”
“Being engaged had made Lilian seem older,” said Pauline. “I noticed it last year when she came back after Christmas, even before she wore her ring. Where is Cathalina’s brother now? Do you know, Hilary?”
“Yes. He and his cousin, Campbell Stuart, and Robert Paget, Philip’s other chum, have all been sent to a Southern camp to train recruits. They are lieutenants or something. You know they were at a military school before they went to the university for their last years.”
“Ah, Hilary Lancaster,—I might have known that you would know all about it. There’s Helen Paget now. Robert is her cousin, isn’t he?”
“Yes, Miss Tracy,” replied Hilary, pretending to be distant because of Pauline’s implied reference to Hilary’s interest in Campbell Stuart.
Lilian and Cathalina had stopped to chat a moment with Isabel Hunt and Virginia Hope, two juniors, who had come down to the beach to see them off. The sun fell on Lilian’s gold locks and Cathalina’s light brown ones as they leaned over the side of the boat talking. Neither girl wore a hat, but each had a silk scarf around her neck to tie over flying hair if the wind proved too troublesome.