She went back inside and tried to convince Kitty to come with her. Leaving the campus without permission was a serious school infraction. Girls had been expelled for less. Kitty wisely declined, but Margaret was undeterred. She succeeded in convincing two sorority sisters to accompany her. One was valedictorian, a position of almost assured immunity if they were caught.
It took a great deal of enthusiasm and charisma to keep the other girls walking for almost four miles in the dark. When they finally arrived at the café, it was daybreak, but the restaurant was closed. If they waited for it to open, they would surely be late to their first class and their crime would definitely be discovered. They had no choice but to turn around and walk back to Dana Hall. The other girls were furious with Margaret for leading them on such a foolish venture. When they arrived back on campus, their housemother and the headmistress of the school were waiting for them. Their escapade had been found out when a school administrator drove past the girls on the road. She recognized them because they had been wearing their school uniforms.
For days, it was uncertain if the girls would be allowed to graduate. Margaret was sincerely remorseful. This caper had almost cost their housemother her job and could mean the end of school for Margaret. She scolded herself for acting so impulsively and swore to herself that in the future she would consider the consequences of her actions more carefully.
It hadn’t been easy to convince her father to pay for her college education. He believed Maude’s schooling in the liberal arts at Hollins had been a waste of money. He had gone to work instead of attending a prestigious university like his brothers and sisters, yet he was the only financial success in the family. He still sent monthly stipends to two of his well-educated sisters, but he expected more out of his own daughters. He agreed to pay for Margaret’s college, but stipulated that she had to earn a degree or certification in something that would lead to gainful employment.
Roberta planned to teach. Gratz was an engineering student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and already shared a patent on an air-cleaning system for automobiles. As Margaret waited to learn her fate, she decided that she wanted to go to her mother’s alma mater, Hollins. She knew better than to confess her desire to be a writer to her father, though, so she promised to become a landscape gardener.
Bruce was rightly worried about Margaret’s lackluster performance in school. It was clear she was smart, but she habitually did the least amount of schoolwork required to pass. He wanted to inspire her to greater heights and to turn the competitive nature she showed in sports toward her education. During one of Margaret’s visits home, her father had brought out his family scrapbook to show her the many accomplishments of her ancestors, especially the women in the family. He read his daughter an article her great-aunt had written, which traced their ancestors’ journey from a farm in Ireland to the upper echelons of Washington politics and society.
It had the desired impact on Margaret. She wanted to live up to her family’s colorful and influential history. Most of all, she wanted to make her father proud. By the time she graduated from Dana Hall, Margaret had added her middle name, Wise, to her signature to remind herself of her ancestry.
If Margaret had acted alone on her walk to town for a toasted cheese sandwich, she would have surely been dismissed from the school. But the presence of the class valedictorian made things more complicated for the school administrators; indeed, the headmistress was reluctant to eject their best student, who was bound for great things, and allowed the girls to graduate with their class.
*
That summer, the family went on vacation in Maine. Margaret was disappointed that the trip to Paris they had originally planned had been canceled because of Maude’s elevated blood pressure. Margaret’s parents spent more and more time apart, and on the Maine vacation, they saw very little of each other. When they were together, it seemed they were always arguing.
Bruce took Margaret and Gratz on overnight excursions on a fishing boat. Roberta had no desire to go with them. Margaret loved being with her father on the sea. Prohibition was still in force, but Margaret and Gratz had found the bootlegger that skirted the shore along the northern tip of Long Island before they left. The trio drank and talked into the late-night hours. Bruce took his children to where the phosphorescent fish swam, and together they studied the stars. Margaret and Gratz had seen little of each other over the past few years, and they enjoyed the time together. Margaret hoped she and her brother would never grow so distant again.
Although the Browns had visited Maine before, Margaret was struck, for the first time, by the beauty of its rocky coast and lush, green forests. She tried to recapture her days on Cumberland, taking picnics with her to island hop or walk in the woods. On one excursion, she fell asleep while lying in the woods, listening to the rustlings around her. That night, Margaret had found her way home in the deep darkness of the moonless night. She picked blueberries and went on starlit sails. She took long, exploratory drives, once returning with an entire carful of honeysuckles.
Her mother spent most days with Theosophical Society friends in Rockport, and on rainy days, Margaret went with her. She sat with her mother’s friends as they held talks and séances. She attended a lecture on the meditation techniques of Yogananda and one on Celtic spirituality, the belief of her ancestors. This religion held that nature was sacred and God is present in every living creature and plant. These beliefs resonated with Margaret far more than the traditional religious teachings that had been handed down to her in chapel at Dana Hall. But Margaret was not entirely convinced about reincarnation, the topic of another lecture her mother brought her to. If she had been reincarnated, she teased, then she must have been a fish in her former life because she never wanted to get out of the cold, invigorating water of Maine.
On her way back from the family vacation, Margaret camped in upstate New York with a group of friends that included Bryan and Morrie. They rafted down the rapids of West Canada Creek and fished for their dinner. Some sang and others played instruments, with Margaret on the mandolin. When night came, the group listened to rustlings in the forest with a bit of fear and wide-eyed alertness, assuming the noises might be rummaging bears. The next day, Morrie invited the group to stay in the barn of a home his family owned nearby. Margaret was very happy to see Dr. and Mrs. Johnston and relieved to be sleeping in the safer quarters of the hayloft.
At the end of the getaway, Margaret waved good-bye to Bryan and was certain this was the last time they would see each other. They were headed off to different schools, miles and miles away from each other. She felt more relief than sadness. This vacation confirmed that she hadn’t conquered her attraction to Morrie.