New Horizons (6 page)

“That is early mass,” Mr. Ryland explained as he slowed down. Mandie and Celia watched as dozens of older ladies in average dress walked out of the church.

“I'd say most of those ladies are wearing the same fashions that my grandmother and your mother wear,” Mandie said to Celia as she watched the ladies walk on down the street.

Mandie and Celia saw the same styles as they watched all the other congregations leaving their churches, too.

“Well,” Mandie said as they headed back toward the college, “evidently the ladies in Charleston shop in New York, or they have New York shops here.”

Mr. Ryland pulled up by the college, and Mandie and Celia quickly stepped down.

“Anything else today, young ladies?” he asked.

“Oh no, Mr. Ryland. You just go on home for your own noonday meal. We'll be staying here the rest of the day,” Mandie replied. “And thank you so much.”

“Then I will be here waiting for you tomorrow morning to get your schedule, as your grandmother requested,” Mr. Ryland replied.

“Yes, sir,” both girls answered as they quickly started walking toward their dormitory.

Finally in their room, Mandie looked at Celia and asked, “Do you suppose we have to wear our hats to the dining room?”

Celia frowned and said, “I don't think so.” And then reaching to remove her hat, she added, “At least, I'm not going to wear mine.”

“With all the formal do's and don'ts, I can't remember hearing whether we should or not, so here goes mine, too.” Mandie took her hat off and hung it on her bedpost.

They hurried over to the dining hall and found a long line already forming. Most of the girls were not wearing their hats, and Mandie and Celia noticed that some who had theirs on quickly removed them.

Mandie looked at Celia and grinned as she said, “For once we made the right decision.”

The meal was buffet-style, and Mandie and Celia noticed that the girls holding their hats tried to balance their trays as they walked toward the tables. The dining room employees quickly came to the rescue and carried most of the trays.

As everyone finally sat down with their food, an older woman sitting at a table at the front of the room stood up, tapped on a dish, and said, “Hello, young ladies. I am Miss Todd, and I am in charge of the dining hall. Since this is your first formal meal with the school, there are a few things I need to explain.”

Everyone quieted down and looked at her as she continued. “First of all, all of our meals will be very informal in order not to
encroach on your study time. You may wear whatever you wish, hats not required, as long as we have no visitors dining with us, which would be very rare. You may eat and leave whenever you wish. We will not have a dismissal rule for that, either. The only rule we really have is, breakfast is at seven-thirty, immediately before chapel every morning; the noon meal is at twelve-thirty; and our supper is at six o'clock. If you have any reason any time for not being able to meet this schedule, you will have an opportunity for a meal earlier or later, but, mind you, the variance in time is allowed only because of any schedules here at the college—not for personal reasons.”

Mandie whispered to Celia, “They are more lenient here than the Misses Heathwood's School, aren't they?”

Celia nodded.

The woman continued. “Now we will return thanks for our food.” She raised her hand, bowed her head, and said, “We thank thee, O God, for these many blessings at our school and for our food. Amen.”

As soon as the meal was over, Mandie and Celia went back to their room, where it was cooler than outside.

“I hate waiting for classes to begin tomorrow,” Mandie complained as she plopped into a big chair. “I'd like to get it all over with. Besides, I hate not knowing what our schedule will be until tomorrow. But I'm sure we won't be in every class together since we are not taking all the same subjects.”

“That's right,” Celia agreed, “since I will be taking a lot of music classes and you will be taking business classes.”

“I wonder how many girls here will be taking business classes?” Mandie said to Celia. “Not many, I'd guess.”

The next morning, when schedules were given out in chapel, Mandie discovered that only three other girls were taking business classes, and to her surprise, one of them was Mary Lou.

Mary Lou was sitting with Mandie and Celia when the schedules were passed out.

“You are taking business, also?” Mandie asked in surprise, as she glanced over at Mary Lou's paper.

“Oh yes,” Mary Lou said. “You see, my father keeps records for quite a few companies, and I'd like to be able to help him. He really has more than he can handle, and if I can learn the basics, he won't have to hire someone else.”

Mandie looked at her and grinned. “I'm glad you are. My grandmother says that someday I will inherit lots of business from her, so she wants me to marry someone who would be able to handle everything. But I don't want to have to rely on that plan, so I have decided I will learn it all myself. Who knows? I may never even get married.” She laughed.

“Oh, I believe you will marry someday,” Mary Lou countered. “But it is an excellent idea to learn the business yourself.”

“Well, I know I'd never be able to handle money,” Celia said with a sigh.

“And I will never know music the way you do,” Mandie said. “And when you get to be a world-renowned pianist or soloist,
then I can say I knew you when you were just learning!” She smiled.

“Oh, Mandie, I'm not aiming for fame,” Celia protested. “I only want to do this for myself and my family and friends, and maybe someday I'll be able to play or sing for a wedding or a birthday party or such.”

“And we'll be right there with you when you do,” Mary Lou said. “In fact, you might need Mandie or me to handle all that money you will make.”

Celia frowned and said, “But I'm not doing it for money. It's just for my own enjoyment, because someday I expect to get married.”

“To anyone in particular?” Mandie teased. “Like someone by the name of Robert?”

“Well, who knows?” Celia quickly replied. “But I do expect to meet other interesting young men. After all, we are still very young. I know, of course, that Joe Woodard thinks he will marry you, Mandie, but I don't think that will actually come to pass.”

“You are both well ahead of me when it comes to boys. I have never had a steady fellow, so to speak,” Mary Lou informed them with a little laugh. “But I'm not in a hurry to find one, either.”

The registrar at the head of the room tapped the inkwell on her desk as she said loudly, “Young ladies, may I have your attention please?” She waited a moment for the conversations to cease and then said, “If you have no questions regarding your schedules, you are dismissed. You may go by your classrooms, where you will find instructors available to answer any questions
you may have about their classes. As you already know, you will report for chapel services every school day after breakfast, and then you will be off to your first class immediately thereafter. Thank you.”

Everyone got up to leave the chapel.

Mandie, Celia, and Mary Lou paused just outside the doorway in the hall.

“Let's go look and see what the instructor of our business class looks like,” Mandie suggested to Mary Lou. Then turning to Celia she said, “And we'll go with you to see the music teacher.”

The girls easily found the business classroom and were surprised to see how small it was. A tall young woman wearing spectacles was sitting behind the desk at the far end of the room. No one else was in sight.

Mandie led the way across the room toward the woman. “Are you Miss Mooney?”

“Yes, I am. What can I do for you?” the woman asked.

“I am Amanda Shaw, and this is Mary Lou Dunnigan and Celia Hamilton. Mary Lou and I have both been assigned to your business class,” Mandie explained.

“Welcome.” The young woman gave the girls a pleasant smile, then continued. “I hope you will enjoy learning about the world of money. It really is quite fascinating.” Then looking at Celia, the young teacher said, “But, Miss Hamilton, you are not enrolled in my business class?”

“No, ma'am,” Celia replied. “I am here to study music.”

“How very interesting,” Miss Mooney replied. “I also studied
music in college, but I never seemed to fit into it. My father urged me to turn to business, which I did, and I have found I am much better at it.”

After a few more minutes with Miss Mooney, Mandie told the young teacher that they had to be on their way, and the girls said good-bye and turned to leave the room.

When they got into the hall, Celia suggested that they go look at the music classroom. “So I can see who the instructor is,” she said.

“Of course,” Mandie replied.

“Lead the way,” Mary Lou added.

The music room was much more difficult to find than the business classroom was, but they finally found it at the back of the building, way up on the top floor, more or less isolated. There was no instructor there.

Mandie teased Celia, “They've put your class all the way up here so the rest of us won't be disturbed by all those wrong notes and loud vocal exercises.”

“Well, naturally they couldn't have us noisy people disturbing the entire school,” Celia replied.

The main classroom was huge, and there were three smaller adjoining rooms with a piano in each. No one seemed to be around.

“I was hoping I'd get to meet the instructor,” Celia said, inspecting the rooms.

After looking at all of the music rooms, the three inspected other classrooms, too. The English composition class seemed to
be large. Quite a few other students were roaming around there. But the girls were surprised to find even more students crowding in to inspect the arts class.

“Hmm,” Mandie said at the doorway as they looked inside the crowded room. “Seems like everyone is taking art.”

“I see April Snow and Polly Cornwallis in there,” Celia said.

“Some of those people may be onlookers only, like us,” Mary Lou said. “So everyone here may not be an art student.”

“Of course,” Mandie agreed.

After looking into all the classrooms in the building, the three girls went downstairs to the sitting room on the main floor. A lot of the other girls were already there and moving about the room. Mandie found a vacant settee in the far corner and said, “Let's get that before someone else does.” She headed to it, and Celia and Mary Lou followed.

As they sat down, Mandie looked across the room and saw the tall dark-haired girl who had been in line with her the first day for registration. The girl looked directly at Mandie but did not smile or speak. She seemed to be alone and was not talking with anyone else.

“Don't look now, but there's that girl I told you about who was in line with me during registration,” Mandie said to Celia. “And she is staring at me.”

“Oh, I know who she is,” Mary Lou said. “She got the scholarship that I had applied for. The scholarship offered not only tuition, but also room and board. I didn't need it since I live so close by and don't have to stay in the dormitory.”

“Oh, what is her name?” Mandie asked.

“Um, I can't remember right off, but she's not from Charleston,” Mary Lou said. “I believe she's from North Carolina.”

“North Carolina?” Mandie repeated in surprise. “So am I. I wonder where in North Carolina she's from?”

“I don't know, but I can try to find out for you if you really want to know,” Mary Lou promised. “I have spoken a few words with her a couple of times and could ask her next time I run into her.”

“If you think of it, all right, but don't go to any trouble to find out,” Mandie replied. “Sooner or later I'm sure I'll meet her in a class or somewhere, and I can talk to her then.”

“Are you staying for the noon meal today?” Celia asked Mary Lou.

“No. I was just going to say that since we are free to go for the rest of the day, I should get home,” Mary Lou replied.

“I just remembered something,” Mandie said suddenly. “Mr. Ryland is probably out there waiting for us to give him our schedule so he'll know when we would be free to go somewhere.”

“Oh, I had already forgotten. Let's walk outside and see if he's there,” Celia said, rising as the others joined her.

“I'll go with you,” Mary Lou said.

The three hurried out to the road where the carriages were parked, and sure enough, Mr. Ryland was there with their carriage. When he saw them coming, he stepped down from his seat with his hat in his hand.

“Oh, Mr. Ryland, I'm sorry we forgot that you would be
waiting,” Mandie apologized. “We've got our schedules, and I don't think we'll be needing the carriage in the mornings.”

“Are you sure, young lady?” Mr. Ryland asked. “The carriage is yours, and I am your driver whenever you would like to use it.”

Mandie had a sudden idea. She turned to Mary Lou and asked, “Are you leaving now to go home?”

“Yes, I think I'd better,” Mary Lou replied.

Turning back to Mr. Ryland, Mandie said, “You could take Mary Lou home since we don't need the carriage today.” Then she showed Mr. Ryland their schedule of classes, all of which were before noon. “So you see, we won't be needing the carriage in the mornings.”

“Then I will be back after noon tomorrow to check with you again,” Mr. Ryland said. “But right now I would be glad to give your friend a ride home, if she needs it.”

“Go ahead, Mary Lou, and let Mr. Ryland take you home,” Mandie urged. “It will save you having to hire a carriage.”

Mary Lou stepped up into the carriage and said, “Thank you, Mandie. Let's all meet in chapel tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, that sounds perfect.” Mandie and Celia waved to Mary Lou as Mr. Ryland drove the carriage down the street.