“Me too,” she answered, heartily.  “Sounds like the blood brother vow they used to take.”

They went up the steps together and into the long double parlors.  The girls were singing at the piano while Amy played one class song after another, and the Dean hung broodingly over the urn.  Kit thought she had never seen the house so full of life and happiness, and the look on Miss Daphne’s face was one of positive radiance.

“You know,” she said, confidentially to Kit, in a low voice, “after we return from the east, I have undertaken something that I know will do me good and the Dean, too.  I’ve just been appointed head of the Junior Red Cross in Delphi, and the girls will meet here every Saturday.  We shall miss you, Kit, but if it gives you any pleasure, my dear, to know it, I want to tell you it was your coming which opened my eyes to the folly of sitting with empty hands while there was work to be done.  I don’t think I can ever belong to what the Dean calls ‘the rocking-chair squad’ again, without a guilty conscience.”

Kit hugged her fervently.

“Oh, but you’re a dear, Aunt Daphne, to say such things.  I only wish I could stay right here and be in two places at once.  I’ll tell you what I’ve learned here, organization.”  Kit said this very firmly and earnestly.  “Back home they always said that I knew just what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to do it.  Well, I know what I want to do now.  I want to go back home and organize.”

Miss Daphne laughed and shook her head.

“Oh, Kit, child, do go easy,” she said.  “Organize yourself all you like, but be terribly careful how you start organizing other people’s lives.”

The girls had to leave early, as the Shakespearian entertainment was to happen that night up at Assembly Hall.

“Your very last chance to mingle, Kit,” Norma called, as they all trooped out of the lower hall.  “Don’t lose your presence of mind to-night, when you find yourself in doublet and hose.”

Kit stood on the veranda steps waving to them until they turned the corner of Maple Avenue.

“Oh, dear,” she sighed, “I do wish that friendships lasted longer.  I mean, I wish I could have all my friends here down in Gilead.  You see, there us girls are all so scattered around on adjacent hilltops that it’s hard to get together regularly.  We’ve only got our hiking club.  I think when I go back I’m going to start some more.”

“The Dean wanted to have a little talk with you before dinner, dear.  I think you’d better go in now, because we want to reach the Hall in good time for you to dress, and I’m going to have an early dinner.  Don’t talk too long.  You know how he is when he gets absorbed in anything.”

Kit promised and joined the Dean.  He had carried back the statue of Annui and stood before it regarding it with perplexity.  Kit slipped her arm through his.  It seemed as though there had sprung up a new comradeship and understanding between them since their last talk.