Sylvia looked at her father over their heads and smiled faintly. It
was a good smile, from a full heart.
"Aunt Victoria sent our dresses," said Judith, dropping back on the
pillow. "That big box over there. Mine has pink ribbons, and yours are
blue."
Mrs. Marshall looked at the big box with disfavor, and then at Sylvia,
now sunk in a chair, her hands clasped behind her head, her eyes
dreamy and half closed. Across the room the long pasteboard box
displayed a frothy mass of white lace and pale shining ribbons. Sylvia
looked at it absently and made no move to examine it. She closed her
eyes again and beat an inaudible rhythm with her raised fingers. All
through her was ringing the upward-surging tide of sound at the end of
"Death and Transfiguration."
"Oh, go to bed, Sylvia; don't sit there maundering over the concert,"
said her mother, with a good-natured asperity. But there was relief in
her voice.
CHAPTER XIV
HIGHER EDUCATION
To any one who is familiar with State University life, the color
of Sylvia's Freshman year will be vividly conveyed by the simple
statement that she was not invited to join a fraternity. To any one
who does not know State University life, no description can convey
anything approaching an adequate notion of the terribly determinative
significance of that fact.
The statement that she was invited to join no sorority is not
literally true, for in the second semester when it was apparent that
none of the three leading fraternities intended to take her in, there
came a late "bid" from one of the third-rate sororities, of recent
date, composed of girls like Sylvia who had not been included in the
membership of the older, socially distinguished organizations.
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