It was tradition to decorate the hall for birthdays, the labor done by the students who shared a table with the honoree. The decorations, this time in honor of Hortense Lewis’s birthday, would stay up for lunch and dinner, too, and a party was planned in Caroline and Belle’s wing of the senior hall after classes and chapel. On that festive morning, Anita felt closer to Lottie, Belle, and Caroline than she had all year. The trip to New York—seeing the city from the Taylors’ carriage, hearing Nettie Aldrich speak about her work, taking in the opera—had left her with the conviction that these women would be her lifelong friends. She would always have Bessie, but now she felt that she wouldn’t only have Bessie. She wasn’t as afraid of life after Vassar. She wasn’t even afraid of losing Porter Hamilton. She felt a reassurance that she hadn’t felt since she received her Vassar acceptance letter. If she made the right decisions—difficult, but right for her—she could have what Caroline, Belle, and Lottie were looking forward to: a career, intellectual stimulation, a husband and family who supported her, the opportunity to make a difference in society.
