Juliet found that, despite Alice's pointed little barbs and her tendency to blare music at all hours of the day and night, she did love college. Oh, yes, she was homesick for the first few days, but after that there was just so much to do that she didn't have time to feel sad!

She spent a great deal of time going out with Trudy, Greta, and Carolina, and Evelyn and Sabrine. Guelph was a small town and there wasn't a lot to do, but somehow anything Juliet did with that group of girls seemed fun. Even a study date would turn into a rip-roaring good time, with Evelyn gossiping about boys while Sabrine predicted what her life would be like once she was a famous movie star. She was quite sure she would be. Greta told jokes in her husky little voice that were so decidedly unfunny that the girls just had to laugh and give her impulsive kisses on the cheek. Carolina did impressions of the people she knew back in Virginia that had them all in stitches. Once they had gone into Toronto for an evening show and missed the late train, and slept all night in the train station, singing songs and watching other people go by.

It was hard for Juliet to believe she'd only known them for a few weeks!

She had dinner at Bella and Doug's at least once a week. Bella, whom Juliet had thought couldn't get any bigger did, and Juliet's excitement at the baby's soon arrival mounted with the rest. Bella had prepared a little nursery in the other tower room, all pink and white and sunny yellow. After dinner, over dessert, they sat around and discussed names.

"How about Rosalind?"

"Oh, Juliet, could you imagine? Surrounded by a field of Saras and Janes? Rosalind?"

"Cordelia, then!"

"Why don't we just name her Goneril? What's with your fixation on Shakesperean names? They're so heavy and cumbersome on the tongue."

"Doug!" Juliet laughed impatiently. "I have a Shakespearean name. Ever heard of a little play called Romeo and Juliet?"

"Oh." Doug blinked. "I suppose you have. But that's different."

Speaking of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet Kent was the toast of the drama club after the fall production of it. Oh, no, she wasn't Juliet Capulet--that part went to Sabrine, of course--but she gave a spirited and enthusiastic rendition of the nurse. Most of the other girls wouldn't accept the part of the fat, unglamorous nurse. But Juliet--she didn't even mind the warts, and pranced dolefully and self-righteously around on the stage. Juliet knew it was wrong but she modeled the character on what she remembered about Aunt Ruth Dutton, who'd died when she was ten, and had always called her a "weedy, impudent child--but what could you expect from Em'ly's daughter?" If the mother was "sly and deep," Aunt Ruth thought, so would the daughter be, too.

All the while she was playing the part she knew it was un-Murrayish to poke fun at her ancestors. But Mother and Father, who made a special trip up for opening night, recognized Juliet's impression and laughed. Mother tried to scold her later but her eyes were sparkling so that the sting was quite gone out of it.

It may sound like Juliet spent all of her time having fun, but she remembered what Father had told her about Grandmother Aileen and put just as much effort into her work as she did into her leisure. She wrote a paper about the wives of Henry VIII that was the talk of the history department. It was predicted that next year, Juliet Kent would be at the top of the graduating class of history majors. She did well in all of her classes--even algebra--except she didn't do well in Doug's History of Agriculture class. She got only a "satisfactory" mark on her final report. She was dearly angry with Doug for almost a week over not getting mid-term honors--even Alice Burns got mid-term honors! But then Juliet came to her senses and realized that she hadn't deserved anything more than a "satisfactory" mark in that class--perhaps not even that! After reviewing some old papers she was deliriously grateful to Doug for not failing her.

* * *

Juliet felt terrible for neglecting her friendship with Bea during the past weeks, until she remembered that Bea had been in New York the whole time. Then Juliet was peeved at her--she didn't even drop a line on a postcard to let Juliet know how she was doing! But towards the end of the month the Walshes were due home--and like clockwork, on the first day of November she received a fat, juicy letter from Bea!

She loved being married, it appeared. There were a few lines about David, how nice he was, how handsome, and sweet, and then pages and pages on New York, the clothes Bea had bought, and how she planned to decorate her new house--right down to a lengthy description of the paper she had ordered from the parlor. Bea even included some swaths of paper so that Juliet could pick the paper for the guest room. "Because you're going to be our first guest, won't you, sweetheart? Do say you'll come and stay when you come home for Christmas!"

Juliet wrote back right away and accepted the offer--and sent back her pick for the paper in that room. All of them were very Aunt Ilse-ian designs--pink and purple sunset clouds--a pattern of garish red and yellow roses--even a paper patterned with bright orange goldfish! The lovely, muted, blue and cream pattern of bluebells must have slipped in by mistake. That was the one Juliet chose.

And oh, it appeared that David's mother didn't like Bea because she turned around and caught Bea sticking her tongue out at her back. "Blind as a bat and can't see what's in front of her but she can tell I was sticking my tongue out at her?" Bea wrote despairingly. "Well--I was."

The last few lines of the letter made Juliet smile.

"Do you see all the inked over spots in this letter, darling? I keep picking up my pen to write you some bit of gossip about some boy over here in Harmony or ask you what the college men are like. Then I remember--we're finito with that topic of conversation--I'm married and you're with Allan. Juliet--doesn't it seem sad that we can't talk about boys anymore?"

Aye, verily, Juliet could have told Bea a few things about college boys. For one, that they were persistent. Juliet was amazingly pretty for a freshie with her long, swinging black hair and snapping eyes. There was a game that boys played in that day--they went around and "rated" all of the freshmen girls. The boys took one look at Greta's freckles and pronounced her a "bookworm." Trudy was "sweet." Alice was "gorge"--a horribly shortened slang for "gorgeous." Although Juliet thought it was definitely apropos--just a few minutes with Alice left her feeling stuffed and sick. Juliet herself was pronounced "cute" and became so angry with them that she lectured them for an hour on the fact that women were people, not objects. Then the boys changed their minds and voted her a "firebrand!" All of the other girls shared her opinion that this game was demeaning--and Alice pretended to, but she secretly kept a diary of all of the things the boys said about her.

Word had spread through campus that she was engaged but it didn't stop the men-folk from trying anyway. At a recent sock hop she'd been nice and danced on dance with Andrew Lesley--and then he'd kept coming back to her all night! Juliet was afraid she'd never be rid of him. She tried to catch Trudy's eye across the room and said to Andrew, who was trying to think of some new sweet nothings to whisper in her ear, "Let's switch partners with Trudy! She can show you that new dance step. Come on!"

Juliet couldn't see who Trudy was dancing with but she knew it must be better than this Lesley character! "Switch partners," she gasped, shoving Andy at Trudy, and taking her place in front of a tall boy with dark, unruly curls.

And then her knees felt weak and she realized who she was dancing with.

"Blair!" she stammered. "I--I--"

"Just threw yourself at me," Blair King grinned. "Juliet, I had no idea you felt so passionately about me! That's just a joke," he said when she grimaced. "I know if you had known it was me you would never have come over."

"No, I wouldn't have," Juliet admitted. "I had no idea you were coming to Guelph, Blair!"

"I decided at the last minute," he said. "I want to do a course in journalism, maybe follow in Dad's footsteps."

"It must be hard for Hannah to have you so far away," she said lightly.

Blair's face darkened. Two could play this game! "And for Allan, too," he said, just as lightly. "Unless he's going to pop out of the woodwork and trounce me for even thinking of dancing with his girl."

"He would," said Juliet, raising her chin.

"He'd try," Blair corrected her. "But he wouldn't stand a chance."

Juliet pulled away, her face burning.

"Juliet, hey!" Blair caught up with her on the edges of the dance floor. "Listen--I'm sorry for what I said back there. And I'm sorry for what happened between us but we can't change the past. Can't we--at least--try to be friends? I've always thought you were a pearl of a girl."

"You said we couldn't be friends until you'd stopped loving me," Juliet taunted him, remebering that day they'd met in the market.

"Well, I've stopped," said Blair simply.

For some reason this was like a slap in the face. Juliet lifted her chin at an even higher angle and said nothing. But then--

"We can try," she said to Blair, in a dubious tone of voice that revealed her doubts.

"Wonderful," he said, with a saucy smile of relief. "Now come back and dance."

They made light-hearted conversation and ever since had gone out several times--always in a group. The awkwardness they had felt was slowly falling away and Juliet had almost forgotten about the night she and Blair had met, at the White Sands dance so long ago--and the night they'd kissed on the shore. Sometimes she remembered it, and all the letters they'd written back and forth, and it was a shock--a shock that she could ever have felt that way about someone other than Allan!

Yes, she loved Allan with her whole heart and soul and mind. But even so--she did not write him that Blair was going to Guelph, too, and that they'd decided to be friends. It was something of a touchy subject between the two lovers.

There were some things about her that even Allan did not need to know, and so Juliet ignored that little passage in a letter from Bea. She talked about the weather instead--was it as cold at home as it was getting to be here?