New Horizons (7 page)

Then the two girls turned and hurried back toward the college to get to the dining hall in time for the noon meal.

chapter 5

The next day everything seemed to settle down into a routine. Mandie and Celia went to breakfast in the dining hall and then to chapel, where they found Mary Lou waiting for them. She had saved two seats next to her.

Mary Lou whispered to Mandie, “I just spoke with the girl you asked about. Her name is Grace Wilson, and she is studying art, in preparation for a career as a dress designer. She is from Raleigh, North Carolina.”

“That's way upstate; nowhere near where I come from in Macon County,” Mandie replied. “And she is going to be a dress designer. That's probably why all her clothes look unfamiliar from anything I've seen in the stores; she must make them herself.”

“Probably. I'm sure it is great practice,” Mary Lou replied.

Celia leaned across Mandie to speak to Mary Lou. “Mandie and I are in the first class of English composition. Is that the one you are in?”

“Yes, and since it's required of all the students, and there are only three classes per day, I imagine it will be a huge class,” Mary Lou replied.

Reverend Coggins, the school's minister, stepped up onto the stage, tapped lightly on the pulpit, cleared his voice, and loudly said, “Good morning, young ladies.”

“Good morning,” came the loud reply from the entire audience.

Mandie and her friends straightened up and listened as he discussed the Ten Commandments and how they would apply in this school. The young, handsome reverend spoke with a loud, clear voice that held the attention of every girl in the room.

As soon as they were dismissed, Celia whispered to Mandie, “I do believe the reverend is from Virginia, my home state. Did you hear his accent? It's just like mine!”

Mandie grinned at her and said, “I wonder if he is single?”

“Oh, Mandie,” Celia replied, blushing in spite of herself.

Mary Lou had overheard Mandie's comment and said to her friends, “I hear that he is single and lives in the small house way back there in the school's backyard.” Then she looked directly at Celia and added, “And I hear his mother lives with him.”

“Oh, come on, we have a class to get to,” Celia said, pushing her way through the crowd.

The mornings were filled with three different classes before the noonday meal. No classes were scheduled in the afternoons because of the heat and humidity. The girls were expected to stay in their rooms and study then.

Mandie and Celia walked with Mary Lou again after classes to where Mr. Ryland was waiting with the carriage.

“Mr. Ryland, we are not going anywhere this afternoon,” Mandie told the man. “However, if you would please take Mary Lou home again today, we would appreciate it.”

“Yes, miss. My pleasure,” Mr. Ryland replied.

“Mandie, you can't keep doing this,” Mary Lou protested. “I am supposed to get a hired hack to go home when my father is not coming for me.”

“I believe Mr. Ryland goes home near where you live, so it's not really out of his way,” Mandie said, then spoke to Mr. Ryland. “Isn't that right?”

“Yes, miss, I go down the very street where the miss lives on my way home each day,” Mr. Ryland replied.

“Well, all right, Mandie. I really appreciate the ride,” Mary Lou told her. “However, my mother has already said you and Celia must come to our house one Saturday and spend the day with us.”

“Oh, that would be nice,” Mandie said.

Turning to Celia, Mary Lou added, “And I have a player piano.”

Celia's eyes opened wide. “You really do?”

“Yes. My great-aunt gave it to me last year. And I have lots of rolls of music to play on it.”

“I would really love to come to see you, Mary Lou, and see that piano,” Celia said.

“Well, what about next Saturday?” Mandie asked Mary Lou.
“Would that be suitable for your mother?”

“I'm sure it would be, but I'll ask anyway and let you know tomorrow,” Mary Lou promised.

As Mr. Ryland drove the carriage off, another carriage came up and stopped in the parking space. Mandie saw the British fellow, George Stuart, and a dark-haired young man step down to the street.

Mandie looked at George Stuart just as he looked at her. She blushed and told Celia, “Come on, let's hurry.” She started walking back toward the college. The two fellows were following, and she heard George say, “I'm sorry that I cannot speak to the young lady, because I have not been properly introduced.”

The other fellow laughed and asked, “Since when does that matter?”

Mandie felt her face turn red, and she urged Celia on toward their dormitory, where she knew young men were not allowed.

“We'd better get ready to go to the dining room,” Celia remarked.

“We have a few minutes, I believe. Let's see if we have any mail,” Mandie replied. She walked over to the alcove where rows of mailboxes were, though she wasn't really expecting any mail.

Both girls twirled the combination knobs on their individual boxes and both were surprised to find mail inside.

Quickly pulling out a large envelope, Mandie said, “Oh, I have a letter from my mother.”

“So do I.” Celia removed a smaller white envelope from her box.

“Let's go up to our room to read these,” Mandie said, leading the way up the marble steps.

Mandie was examining the envelope instead of watching where she was going, causing her to nearly collide with another girl at the top of the stairs.

“Oh, I'm so sorry!” Mandie exclaimed as she quickly stepped out of the way of the girl. She had seen the girl several times in the hallways, but the girl gathered up her long skirts, turned up her nose, and quickly continued down the stairwell.

“Well!” Mandie was dumbfounded as she stood watching the girl walk away. “Just who does she think she is?”

“Mandie,” Celia said, “that was just one of several incidents of that kind that has happened at this college.”

“What do you mean, Celia?”

“Maybe you've been too busy to notice, but in my opinion, this college seems to be full of snobs. No one has spoken to me yet, or to you, either, that I know of,” Celia explained.

Mandie looked at her friend with a frown. “You're right, I haven't noticed,” she said. “But come to think of it, I guess the girls here have not been friendly at all.”

As the two continued down the hallway toward their room, Celia said, “I suppose I haven't been friendly, either. I haven't really tried to talk to any of them, except the girls we knew back at the Misses Heathwood's School.”

As Mandie opened the door to their room she said, “Let's make it a point to speak to everyone we come in contact with and see what happens.” She went over to sit in one of the big chairs,
and Celia dropped into the other one.

Celia pulled her mother's letter out of the envelope and quickly scanned it. “Mother says she probably won't be able to come back here until Thanksgiving, when she'll come to get me and ride home with me for the holiday.”

Mandie quickly read her letter from her mother. “My mother also expects me home for Thanksgiving, and Grandmother is planning to be at our house then.” Mandie glanced at the sealed letter that had come inside the envelope from her mother. The return address was that of a young fellow she had met in Ireland the previous summer when her grandmother had taken her and several friends on a trip around Europe. Adrian Nolan was very good-looking, with light brown hair and blue eyes. He was also a very interesting young fellow. And he had told Mandie that he might just fall in love with her.

The memories made her blush, and she quickly put the letter back into the larger envelope without opening it. She wanted a chance to do that in private.

Mandie went over to her bureau and dropped the big envelope into the top drawer, then went to freshen up.

In the dining hall Mandie and Celia found it crowded, and after filling their trays, they located two seats between girls they did not know. When they sat down, Mandie looked at the one next to her and smiled. The girl immediately picked up her tray and walked away.

The girl next to Celia glanced at Celia and Mandie, then
quickly turned back to the girl on her other side and continued their conversation.

“Oh well,” Mandie whispered to Celia as they sat down and began their meal.

Mandie finally realized she and Celia were being ignored by all the other girls, and she didn't know why. She and Celia could not come up with any reason they would be disliked by all the girls at the college, so they kept smiling at everyone, hoping one day someone would return the smile.

They noticed that April Snow and Polly Cornwallis seemed to be together a lot with the other girls.

Mandie and Celia discussed the problem with Mary Lou, who was surprised to hear that Mandie and Celia were having problems with the other girls. Mary Lou said the other girls had always been friendly with her. She promised to help Mandie and Celia find out the reason for the other girls' snobbery.

That Saturday Mandie and Celia went to visit Mary Lou. The Dunnigans lived in a huge white house with stained glass in the window trim and the double front door. A wide veranda ran around the house. On it sat numerous rocking chairs, a swing fastened to the ceiling, and dozens of potted plants. Above the tall three stories was an attic with windows in it. Mary Lou was waiting on the porch.

“Oh, Mary Lou, I love your house!” Mandie exlaimed to Mary Lou as Mr. Ryland stopped the carriage in front of it. “It's so different from other houses I've seen here in Charleston.”

“Thank you,” Mary Lou replied, stepping down from the front
porch. “My great-great-grandfather built it, so it's been in the family quite a long time. Come on, my mother and father are waiting at the door.”

Mr. and Mrs. Dunnigan were both as friendly as Mary Lou, who was their only child. Then Mrs. Dunnigan said she must see to the noon meal, and Mr. Dunnigan left to go to his office in the back of the house.

Mary Lou led the other girls to a parlor, which was full of beautiful antiques. Mandie kept glancing around for the piano Mary Lou had told them about, but it was nowhere to be seen. Finally Celia could wait no longer. “Where is your piano, Mary Lou?”

Mary Lou laughed and said, “Come on. It's in the back room where it won't distract visitors in the parlor.”

Mary Lou showed them the many paper rolls with perforations, which she placed one at a time on the roller in the front of the piano, and then she pumped the pedal with her foot so the rolls would turn and play music. Each roll played a different song.

“Oh, please, you must let me try it!” Celia was excited as she watched the piano keys move up and down without anyone even touching them.

Celia found the piano difficult to operate at first, as the pedals required some strength to push down, but she soon had it going. Her paper roll was playing “Standing on the Promises,” and Mandie and Mary Lou began singing and clapping their hands. “Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let His praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
standing on the promises of God.”

Celia managed to join in with the chorus without missing a beat. “Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God, my Saviour, standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.”

As the roll ended, all three girls were breathing heavily.

“That was wonderful!” Celia exclaimed.

“I have a lot more rolls; do you want to play more?” Mary Lou asked.

“Oh yes,” Celia replied.

Celia played while Mandie and Mary Lou sang until Mrs. Dunnigan called them to the table for the noon meal.

Mr. Ryland returned at four o'clock to take Mandie and Celia back to the college. “We have to go now, Mrs. Dunnigan,” Mandie told her friend's mother. “We have enjoyed the visit so much. I hope someday y'all will be able to come to my home in North Carolina for a visit.”

“We'll certainly try,” Mrs. Dunnigan replied. “It has been a wonderful day for us, also. Since Mary Lou has no brothers or sisters, it gets rather quiet around here sometimes.”

“I thank you also for such a wonderful time,” Celia said. “Maybe y'all can come up to Virginia to visit with my mother and me when school is out.”

Mrs. Dunnigan replied, “Yes, dear, we'll see about that.”

Mary Lou followed them outside and said, “I'll see y'all Monday.”

“Will you not be at church tomorrow?” Mandie asked, stepping up to the carriage seat.

“Yes, we go to church every time the doors open, but we don't go to the church near the college,” Mary Lou explained. “It's too far from here. And we've belonged to our little church down the street for as long as I can remember. So I'll see you both on Monday.”

Saturday visits to Mary Lou's house almost turned into a regular routine, but Mandie didn't want to impose on the good people for a meal every week, so sometimes they went to see Mary Lou after the noon meal.

At the college, Mandie and Celia gave up on trying to befriend any of the other girls and more or less stayed to themselves when it was possible. Studies were much harder than they had been used to back home at the Misses Heathwood's School for Girls, and they had to spend more time studying.

Mandie and Celia went to the art shop where Mrs. Taft had ordered the painting of a cat for Mandie a couple of weeks earlier. Mandie was excited with the work Victoria had done. Looking at the painting, it could have been Snowball himself, though the artist had never even seen him before. Mandie hung the painting by her bed where she could see it every day.

It surprised Mandie when one day Celia said to her, “You know, I'm still uncomfortable being around these snobbish girls. They are making me miserable, and I just don't trust them.”