“‘Beth,’ do you mean? It is often a nickname of Elizabeth, you know, and I have always loved the name since the days of Miss Alcott’s ‘Little Women.’ Don’t you like it?”
“Yes, I like it, but no one has called me by it for years, and when you said it just now, I felt absolutely startled.”
“I will not use it again if you would rather I did not.”
“I would rather that you did, however,” and then Elizabeth joined in the general conversation around the table. Dolly wondered if she did it to avoid further questioning.
The college soon settled down to the regular routine of work. Before a month had passed, the Freshmen knew who their best students were, and who stood a chance of being elected class officers. The other three classes had held their elections at the end of the first fortnight, their old officers holding over until that time.
It was an unwritten law, however, that the Freshmen should wait for their class elections until Thanksgiving time; that would afford opportunity for them to get acquainted with each other, and to determine who were the most suitable candidates.
Beth and Dolly were discussing it one day as they took their usual walk.
It was an all-important subject in the eyes of the Freshmen, and so, not unnaturally, Beth and Dolly were discussing it one day as they took their usual walk.