"Several girls helped entertain me. They came on as thick as spatter. One
played a few things on the violin. Another set up her easel and painted a
picture for us. A third wrote a poem and read it to us. And a few
sophomores hung about in the background. It was all rather too much. I
found myself preferring those hours together in dear old Winnebago...."

Only one of the sophomores--if the young men were really of that
objectionable tribe--came indoors with the young ladies. The others--either
engaged elsewhere or consciously unworthy--went away after a moment or two
on the front steps. Perhaps they did not feel "encouraged." And in fact
Mrs. Phillips looked back toward Cope with the effect of communicating the
idea that she had enough men for to-day. She even conveyed to him the
notion that he had made the others superfluous. But--

"Hum!" he thought; "if there's to be a lot of 'entertaining,' the more
there are to be entertained the better it might turn out."

He met Hortense and Carolyn--with due stress laid on their respective
patronymics--and he made an early acquaintance with Amy's violin.

And further on Mrs. Phillips said:

"Now, Amy, before you really stop, do play that last little thing. The dear
child," she said to Cope in a lower tone, "composed it herself and
dedicated it to me."

The last little thing was a kind of "meditation," written very simply and
performed quite seriously and unaffectedly. And it gave, of course, a good
chance for the arms.