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Read Ebook: The Girls of Greycliff by Grove Harriet Pyne
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Ebook has 1411 lines and 54031 words, and 29 pages
THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF
THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF
CATHALINA AT GREYCLIFF THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF THE GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN CAMP GREYCLIFF HEROINES GREYCLIFF WINGS
THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF
THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF
GREYCLIFF GIRLS.
Again the big halls at Greycliff were full of laughter and chatterings. Bright faces peeped from doors, light forms whisked hither and yon, doors banged, trunks bumped or traveled along up the inclines which had been fixed for them at the stairways, where short flights had no elevator accommodations. One of the smaller girls sat on a newspaper to save her dress and slid down one such incline; but concluding that she preferred bannisters, she tried one which curved invitingly down from the second floor, and slid off directly in front of the astonished dean who was starting upstairs with a dignified parent.
Thus is answered the question,--Did the Greycliff Girls come back? Indeed they did. And one of the very prettiest was flying down the wide steps of the entrance to Greycliff Hall. A happy-faced, quietly dressed young girl was just paying the taxi driver and turned in time to embrace at once this eager Greycliffer who threw her arms around her.
"Lil!"
"Hil!"
"How long since you came in?"
"About twenty minutes."
"No time lost, then;--O, isn't it great? I never saw anything nicer than even those Greycliff flats we passed, because I knew every minute that we were coming nearer and nearer this wonderful old Greycliff! And who's back? The girls come yet?"
"Well, some would call them girls," said Lilian, waving her hand at the groups about the campus and on the steps and on the wide veranda.
"You scamp!" exclaimed Hilary. "Same old Lilian! You know very well what girls I mean."
"Yes, I do, of course. But I was just going to ask you if Cathalina was really coming back, and when Betty plans to get here."
The girls by this time had reached the entrance hall, where they stopped to embrace again.
"Aren't we crazy?" Hilary looked around, though not in embarrassment. "Nobody here I know."
"In Greycliff Hall." Hilary pretended to be very solemn.
"Naturally. But don't you know, really?"
"I guess this was a full summer for both of us. I love you just the same as ever, though. Did you get my cards from Boston?"
"Yes; did you get mine from Denver? O, now you must shut your eyes and I'll lead you into our elegant retreat where we shall 'woo the Muses,' as Father says. Put down your bag; you can get it in a minute, it isn't far."
With red hands over her eyes, Hilary Lancaster, laughing and dancing along by Lilian, was led to a door which was thrown open dramatically before her.
"Lilian North! Our old room improved! Me thought my feet tread upon accustomed ground!"
"Boards, you mean. How touching." The two excited and happy girls started a "Gym" dance, Hilary counting as they took so many steps to the right, so many to the left, with bows and curtseys, till Hilary suddenly ran over to the window.
"There it is, the same lovely bit of the lake and the lacing trees. O, I can scarcely wait to see the launch and the boats again, and even our nice kind old Mickey. Where's my bag?--O, yes!" and Hilary went racing down the hall for her traveling bag.
"Won't Cathalina be surprised?"
Hardly had Lilian finished her sentence when a light little rap sounded at the door, which opened to reveal Miss Cathalina Van Buskirk of New York. Dainty and lovely as ever, her expressive face glowing with delight at surprising her friends, she stood a moment while two pairs of arms opened to greet her.
"Cathalina!"
"And Betty is downstairs in Miss Randolph's room with her mother. It was mean of me to come on up, but I couldn't wait,--Alma told me that she saw you girls come upstairs, and that by the way you were carrying on she thought you were glad to get back!"
"Is Alma still Miss Randolph's helper?" asked Hilary.
"Yes," replied Lilian, "she was the one who brought me up here when I came. I couldn't find Miss Randolph and nobody but you, Cathalina, knew where we were to be. What do you think of it?"
Cathalina, whose home boasted every luxury, looked around at the room , glanced into the bedrooms , and with an expression of perfect and unassumed bliss, sank into a chair saying, "This seems just like heaven. Do you remember, Lilian, when you came over in the pink kimono last year and invited Hilary and me into your suite to eat fudge and peanuts? I had just gotten over a terrible fit of homesickness and we were in the midst of getting settled. Well, that was the beginning of my absolute a--adoration of this school! But come on,--we mustn't forget our Betty, and her mother is a dear. You will all like her. Betty is her 'living image.' We were motoring, and Phil took me to Betty's,--so we all came here together, I mean Betty and her mother and I, on the train. My trunk and things were to come by express from home. I must see about them, too."
In a moment the room was empty again, except for several traveling bags, hats, and a few other articles scattered about. Hilary's treasured one and only silk umbrella had fallen unheeded behind the steam pipes.
But Betty Barnes met the other girls on the stairs and was duly embraced and admired in an especially becoming new suit. "That is a duck of a hat, Betty, and aren't we glad to see you, though!" Thus spoke Lilian.
"Cathalina could not wait for me, and I just have to see the room."
"It was bad of me, and I'll take you back," offered Cathalina.
"I left Mother on the porch," said Betty, "and there was a taxi full of girls just coming around the drive."
"All right, we'll be there, and if we see a sweet lady that looks just like you, we'll introduce ourselves,--shall we?"
"Nothing would please Mother better."
Lilian and Hilary went on down the stairs and out upon the broad porch with its columns, flowers, and vines. Stopping several times to greet acquaintances, they made their way as soon as possible to a stone bench at one end where they seemed to recognize a familiar figure.
"That is Eloise Winthrop!" exclaimed Hilary.
"Yes, or her twin sister."
As the girls reached the little group at the end of the porch, Eloise turned and prettily introduced them to Betty's mother. "I am just apologizing," continued Eloise, "for I thought that she was Betty and rushed madly up and threw my arms around her. You can imagine how I felt and how surprised the lady was!"
"I haven't had so fine a compliment for years," smiled Betty's mother, slipping an arm around Eloise, "and one whose sincerity I can not doubt. But I don't know what Betty will think."
"I rather suspect that Betty knows how huh mothuh looks," drawled Helen Paget, who was with Eloise. "I came up just in time to see the effect of mistaken identity and to avoid making the same mistake. I see that I shall have to watch my roommate closely this year if this is her impulsive nature!"
"This is Pauline, Mamma, dear old Polly, you know, and I've just heard the wonderful news that Eloise and Helen, with Pauline and Juliet Howe, are going to be together, in the next suite to ours."
"Shall we ever get any studying done?" whispered Lilian aside to Hilary. Hilary gave her only a bright glance in reply, and nodded an affirmative.
"Now let me get all the names straight, Betty," said her mother. "This dear child who took me for you is Eloise Winthrop, and Helen is the one you wrote me about,--is from the South." Betty and Helen both nodded.
"And I'm Pauline, from the big ranch," assisted Pauline, as Betty's mother hesitated, looking at her.
"O, yes, and Juliet Howe is your 'Shadow'!"
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