eaubien, "I thought every one
in Delphi knew. For myself, I am proud of him, and of all my mother's
people, but I am also proud of being a Beaubien. You girls do not know
perhaps that some of my father's people helped to found Fort Dearborn, and
they were very brave and courageous voyagers in the early days of New
France."

Peggy really rose to the occasion remarkably, Kit thought. Probably the
most zealously guarded membership in Hope's freshman class was that of the
Portia Club, and yet, before the tea was over, she had invited Marcelle to
attend the next meeting and be proposed for membership.

"We're not going to try a whole play at first, just famous scenes, and I
know you'd fit in somewhere and enjoy it. Don't you want to, Marcelle?"

Marcelle shrugged her shoulders, deprecatingly.

"I shall be glad to help always," she said, with simple dignity, "if you
wish to make me one of you. We have an old copy of Shakespeare at home
that was my mother's, and I have read much of it in the long winter
evenings. I think," she added, whimsically, "that I would rather play
parts like Shylock or Hamlet than the girl roles, and best of all, I
should love dearly to play Prince Hal."

"What do you think of that?" Anne said on the way home. "The idea of her
being interested in Shakespeare at all or knowing anything about it, after
living all her life in that little sand dump. Kit, you certainly have
discovered a flower that was born to blush unseen."

"It will take her out of her shell, anyway," Kit replied, happily. "And I
do think the girls came up to the mark splendidly. Heaven knows how they
are talking about us now, behind our backs, but they acted their parts
nobly when I swung that door open, and there stood, just Marcelle!"

CHAPTER XV

THE FAMILY ADVISES

No qualms of homesickness visited Kit the first two months after school
opened. Not even New England could eclipse the glory of autumn when it
swept in full splendor over this corner of the Lake States. Down east
there was a sort of middle-aged relaxation to this season of the year. Kit
always said it reminded her of the state of mind Cousin Roxy had reached,
where one stood on the Delectable Mountains and could look both ways.

But here autumn came as a veritable gypsy. The stretches of forest that
fringed the ravines rioted in color. The lakes seemed to take on the very
deepest sapphire blue. No hush lay over the land as it did in the east,
but there w