"Streator"; he said, "when I come to call for you!" He divided time into periods "before" and "after I call for you!" Fidelia, when she referred to their compact, used his phrase for it; but it seldom came to her lips. Sometimes she seemed, indeed, to wish to avoid thinking of their agreement; this bothered him but when he asked her, point blank, what was the matter, she kissed him.
Yet he had few kisses. This was not the result of any deliberate regulation between him and her. She was shy with him; and he, himself, was holding off. He argued with himself: "With her, this is the way to be. I won't try for more now. I'll have all at once!" Still her shyness, and her reluctance to speak of what they would do after he called for her, worried him.
She was not to be graduated, but, after most of the students had gone home, Fidelia remained at Mrs. Fansler's for the end of Commencement week. Dorothy Hess, being a senior, was staying on; and Dorothy not only won her diploma but was given her coveted honor of the Phi Beta Kappa key.
Dorothy's parents were in town for Commencement; Myra's mother and father had arrived from Rock Island and Lan's had come for the graduation ceremonies; but David's were not there. His father wrote him a long and very earnest letter; his mother sent him the first flowers from her garden—they came by post wrapped in wet newspaper and bore the message, "For my boy, my oldest son, Mother."
Alice's family of course came to the college for
