Ten days later Julia Peyton gloomily opened a letter from home and read in it news as surprisingly joyful as the news she had formerly received from home had been full of trouble. Her mother wrote that her father had managed somehow to tide over his losses and was on his financial feet again.

Clara shared the good news with Julia and privately Doris and Leslie shared it with Clara. As a result of Leslie’s little “flier” in human happiness Doris made a special luncheon engagement with Marjorie Dean on purpose to confide to Marjorie what Leslie had done. Marjorie in turn confided the story of the girl who had obeyed the command of Christ, “Love your enemies,” to the letter.

“She deserves a citation,” was Miss Susanna’s hearty opinion. “I will have a maxim hung for her at the college. Peter Carden and I will go over to chapel together that morning. She is a dear courageous child and deserves to be honored. That will put her on a splendid basis on the campus and she will have won the right to have her father named as the giver of the Leila Harper Playhouse.”

227“And we can have the presentation of the theatre to Leila made in the chapel during Commencement week,” Marjorie planned joyously. “The theatre will be completed then. Mr. Graham said yesterday that he hoped to have it ready not later than the twentieth of June. You see, Goldendede, Hal has promised that we shall come down from our camp in the Adirondacks for Commencement at Hamilton.”

“It is a good thing he has promised that you shall.” Miss Susanna put on a mildly threatening air which vanished in a smile.

“Which motto are you going to give Leslie, Goldendede?” Marjorie inquired interestedly. The two fond comrades were strolling about the grounds of the Arms in the early spring sunshine.

“I’ll let you choose.”

“Then I know exactly the one I’d like for Leslie. It suits her so well. I mean the way she has tried this year on the campus to be a credit in all ways to her Alma Mater. The motto I’d like for her is the single one that hangs over near the portrait of him: ‘A truly great soul is never dismayed.’”

“I wondered if you would choose that. It is in my mind, too, for her, Marvelous Manager. We had better have the citation this week so that Leslie may have that much longer to enjoy her glory on the campus. Saturday afternoon I think we’d better give a luncheon for her at the Arms and invite the three chapters of Travelers.”

228“You are always planning happiness for someone, dearest Lady of the Arms. Let’s have Leslie here to tea this afternoon and make a fuss over her. We’re not supposed to know about what she did for Julia Peyton. Wait until after the citation. Then I am going to tell her quietly that she has been found out,” Marjorie declared, her eyes dancing.

“You are always planning happiness for someone, Marvelous Manager.” Miss Susanna gave a fond imitation of Marjorie’s tone.

“Oh, you!” Marjorie made one of her usual merry rushes at the old lady and the pair hugged each other with a will. Both were supremely happy over the way Leslie Cairns had turned out.

“All this means that I’ll soon have Peter as my next-door neighbor,” the mistress of the Arms exhibited the utmost satisfaction at the prospect. “Peter has turned out to be a man worth while; a man in a hundred thousand. Perhaps I shall have him teach me the finance game,” she added, jokingly. “At least he and Leslie will be good company.”

Undreaming of the honor in store for her, Leslie walked into chapel on the following Friday morning after Marjorie’s talk with Miss Susanna and met with a surprise which made her gasp. Up in front with President Matthews, who it seemed was to conduct the services that morning, sat her father and Miss Susanna. Why Peter the Great should be there she could not guess. She could only surmise 229that he and Miss Hamilton had been invited to the morning exercises by Prexy.

She saw her father’s keen dark eyes search the rows of young women until he had found her. Their eyes met and the smile of comradeship which passed between them was a beautiful thing to see. It thrilled Leslie with a pride in herself which before that morning she had hardly dared recognize. Peter the Great need no longer be ashamed of her. She had tried to redeem her past offenses and she had not failed entirely. She had discovered in the methodical living over of her senior year at Hamilton that she was, after all, a person of small consequence. She had long since discarded her belief in money as power. She knew from her own earnest efforts in the right direction that work alone counted. It was not she personally who mattered. It was the earnest spirit within that was to be considered.

When, presently, Doctor Matthews announced that three citations were on the program of the morning exercises Leslie immediately jumped to the conclusion that Barbara Severn and Phyllis Moore were to be honored. She generously hoped that Doris Monroe might be the third student for the honor. Doris was so charming to her fellow students. She had changed from indifferently proud to calmly sympathetic in the past year, and was rapidly coming to be liked as much for her graciousness as she had formerly been admired for her beauty.

“The maxims which Miss Susanna Hamilton has 230chosen to hang in various parts of Hamilton College in honor of the three young women she has chosen as deserving of a citation are maxims by Brooke Hamilton, framed and hung separately about his historic home, Hamilton Arms.” President Matthews gave out the information to a breathlessly interested chapel full of girls.

Then Phyllis Moore was asked by him to rise. After he had accorded her a friendly commendation which made her cheeks burn he quoted the maxim to be hung in her honor, at the same time stating the place at Hamilton which it would occupy. It was: “Harmony followed in her footsteps.” As a last touch he added: “This maxim was hung by Brooke Hamilton in his study as a tribute to Miss Angela Vernon, his fiancee, who died shortly before the date set for her marriage to Mr. Hamilton.”

Barbara’s maxim was “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” and she was particularly complimented upon her sunny outlook on life.

As the applause attending Barbara’s citation died out, Leslie listened eagerly for the name of the third student. She could not believe the evidence of her own ears when she heard Doctor Matthews requesting her to rise, then continuing:

“It is with great pleasure that I name Miss Leslie Cairns as the third student to have earned a citation. In our opinion Miss Hamilton has made a singularly happy choice of maxim.” Then he quoted the motto 231Mi............