“Too far off,” Anne warned. “Better do it while it’s fresh in your mind, before you start lectures.”
“I guess I’ll go over now. It’s only a little after five, and that’ll keep me from answering the family letters until I’ve calmed down. If you see anyone looking for me, tell them I’ll be right back. I’ll stop in the library and look up Malcolm’s historic record, on my way, so you may truthfully announce I’m doing research.”
Kit went up the hill road buoyantly. She liked to set a goal for herself this way. Delphi had appeared rather barren as a field for her real endeavor, but now with the opening of school, she could see her way ahead to starting something, which she sincerely hoped she could finish. Coming along the sidewalk that bounded the campus on the south, she met Ginny on her way back from the post office.
“This is ever so-much better than going upstairs,” Kit said. “Let’s walk around the campus twice, while I unburden my soul.”
At the second lap, the whole plan had been matured by Virginia’s quick sympathy and understanding.
“And it will do them good, too,” she said as they parted. “That’s not the college spirit by a long shot, and you’re perfectly right, Kit, but just the same it’s easier to get it across to the girls in this way with a nice friendly accompaniment of sandwiches, and iced tea. And whatever you do, don’t breathe a single word to anybody. I wouldn’t even tell Jeannette herself that she is to be the guest of honor. She’d run like a deer, if she even suspected it.”
The date of the Founders’ Tea was set for the following Saturday. Kit composed the invitations herself and wrote them on small cards.
Saturday, October Second, Three to Five.
You are invited to attend a Founders’ Tea,
Douglas Dormitory, Hope College,
Virginia Parks’s Study.
“Diffident, modest, and correct,” said Kit, critically, when she showed them to Anne. “Now, what are you going to have to eat, Anne? Isn’t there something besides just plain tea? Couldn’t we fix up some kind of glorified lemonade?”
“I’ve got it all down,” answered Anne. “Grape juice, ginger ale and lemons. Sound good? And six kinds of sandwiches and cookies.”