Marjorie Dean College Junior Part 15

"I daresay I can, child. Let us change the subject. It is unpleasant to me. You girls had better walk about the tea room and enjoy the curios until I recover my good humor."

Prompt to obey the mandate, the girls spent at least a half hour in the Oriental room, examining and admiring the departed connoisseur's individual arrangement of a marvelous collection. Miss Susanna sat and watched them, almost moodily. Returned to the library, the sight of her roses mollified her. She decided to do a certain thing which had risen to her mind. The desire to give pleasure to these young girls who had thought of her conquered her sudden gust of spleen against Hamilton College.

"Would you like to see my great uncle's study?" she asked, turning from the flowers to her guests.

"Oh!" Ronny drew a wondering audible breath. She could hardly believe her ears.

The others laughed at her, but the eager light in their eyes told its own story.

"May we see it, Miss Susanna?" Vera's tone was almost imploring.

"You may. Another time, when all of you come to see me, I will show you about the house. It is well worth seeing. My great uncle gathered beauty from the four corners of the earth. He loved to travel and brought back with him the treasure of other lands. I should like you to see the study. It holds one thing, in particular, in which I am sure you will be interested."

"There is no corner of this house without interest," Leila said warmly.

"I am sure of that."

"So it seems to me," nodded Miss Hamilton. "I have lived in it many years. I am not over the wonder of it yet. At times I am sorry that others cannot enjoy it with me. Again I am glad to be alone."

Following the old lady, who mounted the broad staircase as nimbly as any of them, they found on the second landing the same solid magnificence of furnishing that marked the first floor. Down a long hallway, which extended back from the main reception hall, they went. At the end of the hall was a door of heavy walnut, its upper half of stained gla.s.s. This their guide opened. They were now seeing the room where the founder of Hamilton College had spent so many hours planning the inst.i.tution which bore his name.

The murmur of voices died out among them as they stepped into the study.

Compared with other rooms in the house which the girls had seen, it was rather small. The floor was bare save for one medium-sized rug in the center of the room, on which stood a heavy-legged mahogany writing table. A tall desk, a book-case, three high-backed chairs and a filing cabinet, all of carved mahogany, completed the furnishings, plus one broad-seated chair, leather cushioned, and with a rounding back. It was drawn up before the library table; Brooke Hamilton's own chair.

The most notable object in the study was a framed, illuminated oblong about five feet long and perhaps two and a half feet wide. It was hung at a point on the wall directly opposite the founder's chair.

"This is what you wished us to see, isn't it?" Marjorie cried out, stopping in front of the oblong. "I think I know what it is."

"Tell us, then." Miss Susanna was smiling fondly at the animated face Marjorie turned toward her.

"The maxims of Mr. Brooke Hamilton," she guessed breathlessly. Her eyes traveled slowly down the oblong. "There are fifteen of them," she announced. "What a beautiful illumination!"

"Yes; they were his favorite sayings. He originated them all except the first one. More, he lived up to them." The old lady's intonation had grown singularly gentle.

A reverent silence visited the study as the knot of girls gathered about the oblong to read the sayings of one long gone from earth. The colors used in the illumination were princ.i.p.ally blue and gold with mere touches of green and black. Red had been left out entirely from the color scheme.

"Remember the stranger within thy gates."

"To the wise nothing is forbidden."

"Becoming earnestness is never out of place."

"Let thy grat.i.tude be lasting."

"Ask Heaven for courtesy; the supply is greater than the demand."

"Make thy deference to age not too marked."

"Truth flies a winning pennant."

"Beware, lest what seems unattainable falls too near thine hand."

"Let thy learning be seasoned with merriment."

"O, Justice, how fair art thine heights!"

"Be motivated by the grace of G.o.d."

"Be not secret; be discreet."

"For the gift of life give thanks."

"The ways of light reach upward to eternity."

"To stumble honorably is to learn to walk."

Such were the informal rules of conduct which Brooke Hamilton had carved for himself with the blade of experience.

"We have five of these at the college, Miss Susanna." Ronny finally broke the spell which had fallen. "The first, third, fourth, seventh and ninth. 'Remember the stranger within thy gates,' is over the doorway of Hamilton Hall. The ninth one is in the library and the third, fourth and seventh are in the chapel."

"I knew some of them were there. The first he had placed over the door of Hamilton Hall. The others were to be presented to the college as the students earned them."

"Earned them?" queried Muriel impulsively. "I don't understand--" She broke off, coloring at her own temerity. Her companions were also looking slightly mystified.

"His idea was this. He wished to reward any particularly noteworthy act on the part of a student, of which he chanced to hear, by an honor. The recipient was to receive a citation in chapel and one of his favorite maxims, decoratively framed, was to be hung in one of the campus buildings. A record of the citation was to be established in an honor book kept in a special niche in the chapel. This was one of his later ideas. He did not live to carry it out. I don't know how they managed to get hold of four of his sayings. They have no right to them."

Acridity again dominated Miss Susanna's tones. She appeared to resent deeply the fact that the college authorities held any information whatsoever regarding her famous kinsman.

"Maybe a person who knew your great uncle remembered these four maxims of his and they were thus handed down," suggested Lucy, always interested in a mystery.

"I wish we had them all; everyone of them!" Marjorie gave an audible sigh of regret. "I can't help saying it, Miss Susanna. It is the way I feel about these true, wonderful sayings of Mr. Brooke Hamilton."

"You may say it without offending me, my dear. I understand you and your affection for Hamilton College. _He_ would have liked you to say it.

_He_ never held a grudge. I have held one many years. I shall continue to hold it." Miss Susanna crested her stubborn head. "It is a supreme pleasure to me to know that I have thwarted the college board in some respects. I shall continue to thwart them."

CHAPTER XVII-LUCY'S NEWS

On the heels of their memorable visit to Hamilton Arms came the added joy of going home for Thanksgiving. All the pleasure that the occasion afforded was crowded into those four brief days. The Nine Travelers, as they agreed to call themselves, returned to college more firmly amalgamated than ever.

The Lookouts had long since included their four close friends in the formal a.s.sociation which they had dubbed the Five Travelers. At first they had decided that the name should remain the same, though four members were added. Later, Ronny suggested that Nine Travelers would be more appropriate. At the end of their college course, they would choose nine girls to replace them with a new chapter, as they had done in the case of the Lookout Club. All nine were anxious to leave a sorority behind them of which they could claim to have founded.

Marjorie and Robin Page, who, according to Jerry, "had gone into the show business," had their hands full the moment they returned to Hamilton. They tackled the enterprise with a will, however, and within a couple of days after resuming the difficult duties of managership they had made considerable headway.

"Have you those posters yet?" greeted Robin, as she joyfully pounced upon Marjorie on the steps of the library. "I have been trying to see you ever since yesterday morning. I was coming over last night, but I simply had to stay at home and study. I struck a horrible snag in calculus and struggled with it half the evening."

"Ethel said she would have them done tomorrow," was the comforting news.