Promptly at eight o’clock that evening, Ruth was admitted to the dormitory devoted to the members of the faculty. A frequent caller on Miss Drexal, she steered a straight course toward the registrar’s room and knocked lightly on the door.
“Good evening, Ruth. Prompt to the minute, I notice.” Miss Drexal nodded smilingly to her caller, as she ushered her into the room and motioned her to a particularly inviting arm chair. “I suppose you haven’t the slightest notion of why you are here,” she continued. Drawing up a willow rocker, she seated herself opposite the young girl, her blue eyes twinkling.
“I thought it might be for Camp Fire reasons,” returned Ruth. “I couldn’t believe that I was due to hear a lecture,” she added, laughing.
“Hardly,” was the reassuring response. “You are partly in the right in your guess, though. It does concern the Camp Fire movement, or rather several girls belonging to it.”
Ruth looked slightly mystified, but allowed Miss Drexal to continue without interruption.
“My home, as you know, is in Duluth,” pursued the registrar, “but my sister and I also own a cottage on Lake Superior not far from Duluth. This property was willed to us by an uncle. When it first became ours, we decided to sell it. After we had looked it over, we were so pleased with it that we agreed to keep it and spend our vacation there. We had the cottage repaired, refurnished, and it is now our summer home. Last year we entertained three of our woman friends there and enjoyed ourselves immensely. That was, as you know, my reason for not attending Betty’s house party in the Catskills.
“This year my sister wishes to spend the summer with a woman friend in Idaho, but does not like to leave me alone at the cottage with only Martha, an old servant of ours, for company. So I am going to ask the Equitable Eight to help us both. If I give a house party, it will solve the problem. I would rather have you and your friends with me than any others whom I know. Do you think the Equitable Eight could arrange to be my guests during August and the early part of September? Would you like it?”
Ruth drew a long rapturous breath. “Would we like it?” she cried out impulsively. “It would be simply gorgeous!” Swept off her feet by the glorious prospect outlined by Miss Drexal, for the moment she gave herself up completely to it. Followed a swift rush of dismaying recollection. “Oh, dear,” she wailed. “I forgot the reunion. I’ve invited the Equitable Eight to spend August with me. I—that’s too bad. I mean—” Ruth paused, divided between regret and embarrassment.
“I hardly know what to say,” she went on slowly. “We should all love to visit you. But as I have already asked the girls to visit me, I don’t know—Why couldn’t you come to our reunion at my home, Miss Drexal?”
“Why not compromise?” smiled Miss Drexal. “Couldn’t you girls arrange to come to me for at least August? Then I might agree to spend the early part of September with you. That is a fair proposal, isn’t it?”