The corridors were full of girls in the pretty dresses which they had worn to dinner, hurrying toward the different society halls. Soft bells were ringing here and there. These were important meetings, for new members were to be elected, matters connected with the sending out of invitations to be decided, besides the usual pressing affairs of girls’ literary societies. There were only two societies in the two collegiate classes, hence the rivalry. One or two others had ingloriously died soon after their birth. Only the devoted Whittiers and Emersons had survived.
Two pink spots burned on the cheeks of Cathalina Van Buskirk, for she was to take the “oath of office” tonight, sit in the famous chair on the little platform and wield the gavel of ebony, presented by a famous graduate who had made a name for herself. The other new officers were also to be initiated, and then the important matters of business were to be conducted. “Hilary, wink at me if I do anything wrong, and then I will find it necessary to consult the secretary,” said Cathalina gayly, as they entered the door.
“You will get along as well as I did when I was president of the Shakespearean Society. Didn’t we read Robert’s Rules of Order together? I shall have to learn the duties of a secretary. It seems funny, but with all the church societies I have been in I’ve never been a secretary, and in this society, recording and corresponding secretaries are one. They usually wanted me to be the president, or treasurer. I suppose they thought they could trust the preacher’s daughter!”
“You will have the old books to go by. I imagine that we can remember what the seniors did last year after we get started in.”
“Hurry up, Lilian,” said Hilary, turning back, “time to begin.”
“Don’t you love this hall?” asked Lilian of both girls. “It was fun working for the Shakespearean Society and getting our new furniture and all, but I believe this seems more artistic because it is older. The tone of the piano is not as good, though. We must have a new one, don’t you think so, Hilary?”
“This hall is a better, larger room with more windows,” said Cathalina. “It was possible in the first place to make a prettier hall of it, and, yes, the furniture is more handsome than we thought we could afford when we started the academy society. The older society really ought to be the more dignified.”