Miss Loraine, so the hall-teacher informed Hester, would be her
roommate. Miss Loraine, however, was not at the seminary at present. She
had come the previous day and attended to business matters, put her room
in order and had then gone out to the home of her aunt who lived at a
country place called Valehurst.
This information was given to Hester while she was being conducted to
her room. The seminary and living-rooms were under one roof. The main
building was a great rectangular block, containing offices, class rooms,
dining-hall and chapel. From this extended an east dormitory, and one on
the west. Each suite of rooms consisted of a bedroom and a small study
or sitting-room. This was occupied by two students. Number Sixty-two
which Hester was to occupy with Helen Loraine was on the second floor
just where the dormitory joined the main building. It overlooked the
front campus and was considered one of the most desirable rooms in the
school.
Hester, being new to the ways of boarding-school life did not realize
how fortunate she was in securing so fine a location. Helen Loraine had
been a seminary girl for two years and knew the "ropes." The previous
spring, she had put in an application for Number Sixty-two. She had come
down several days before the opening of school to take possession,
feeling sure that if she was once placed there, no misunderstanding
would arise. There had been several instances at Dickinson, where girls
had moved in their trunks and took possession before the rightful
occupant of the room appeared.
The hall-teacher escorted Hester to the door and then left her. She
found that the sitting-room lacked the bareness of dormitory rooms.
Helen had unpacked her trunk and converted it, by means of a gay cover
and cushions into a cosy corner. The study table held a few books and a
candle with a shade. Across one end of the room, gay ribbons had been
stretched across the wall. These were filled with photographs. The
second study table held a great number of posters. On top of these,
Hester found a note addressed to herself.
"DEAR ROOMMATE-TO-BE: I have put up enough belongings to
hold the fort until you arrive. I did not like to do more
until you came. I was afraid you might not like my style of
decoration. I shall be back within a day or so. Meanwhile
make yourself comfortable and do not get homesick.
"HELEN VAIL LORAINE."
Hester read the note several times. It was a thoughtful, kind act for
Miss Loraine to leave the note. Hester was already experiencing the
first tinge of homesickness; but she had no intention of giving way to
her feelings. She could do just as Helen had done. She would keep so
busy that she could not even think of Aunt Debby and Miss Richards
sitting down together at their evening meal.
She unpacked her trunk and put her clothes in order in the closet and
drawers. Helen had rigidly observed the old time custom of the hall and
had stretched a blue ribbon from hook to hook, this portioning off equal
space for herself and roommate.
Hester heard the ten-minute bell ring, but being unused to the ways of
school, did not know its meaning. She opened the door leading from the
sitting-room into the hall. She paused a moment to ascertain the reason
for the bell's ringing. A murmur of voices came from the several rooms
below. They were beautifully modulated with the intonation of those who
have been trained to speak carefully.
"Really, I think you are mistaken, Mame. The Fraulein told me that Helen
had gone to her aunt and would not return until Monday."
"I am not mistaken. Do you think that I do not know Helen Loraine when I
roomed with her two terms?" This voice had in it a touch of petulant
decision, as though the speaker was vexed because the responsibility of
settling all pertinent matters devolved upon her.
"I saw her come across the campus," the speaker continued. "A lady was
with her; but they went into the private office and remained ever so
long. I would have waited had not Miss Burkham come along and informed
me that a public hallway was not the proper place for a young lady."
Hester heard the words and felt the sudden touch of ironical humor in
them; but she did not know of the smile which passed over the group in
the room below; neither did she know Miss Burkham.
"I saw her," a third voice took up the conversation. It was a ringing,
clear, happy voice as though the speaker had always lived in the
sunshine, and her voice had partaken of its rippling notes. "I saw her
when she crossed the campus, and was sure it was Helen. I was just about
to run out and give her a hug--Helen is the dearest girl in the
world--when I saw I was mistaken. She isn't nearly so tall as Helen and
she doesn't wear her hair in a bun as Helen does. She was an awfully
sweet-looking thing, though, and looked for all the world like Helen."
"There's a new girl in Sixty-two. She went in there." The voice was
deliberately low and steady. It was as though the owner had grown weary
of life, but meant to live it down if she could. "Perhaps she may be
Helen's sister, who knows?" The tone of voice would have influenced a
stranger to believe that being sister to Helen Loraine, was a dire
calamity.
A murmur of amusement rippled over the group. "Sara Summerson, do arouse
yourself. Life is worth living, and examinations are months away."
"It will be all the same to me. It will be this term as it was last. I
shall not have time to get out my lessons. When I wasn't getting a drink
for Erma, I was driving my roommate in from the corridor and getting her
down to work. When I thought I could get out my 'Unter Linden,' Miss
Laird would call me to button her waist. If I ever am principal of a
seminary, I'll have a law passed making it criminal for a teacher to
wear a dress buttoned in the back. It's bound to distract the attention
of the pupils from their books." The slow, sad monotone never varied.
The hearers laughed. A bell rang and there was a sound of a general
uprising.
Hester, conscious for the first time that she had been listening,
turned into her room and closed the door. She heard the sound of passing
footsteps, the murmur of voices, and then all grew still.
Alone in the dormitory! It sounded to her as fearful as alone in the
desert. But Hester had not been trained by Debby Alden without effect.
She had not the least intention of sitting down and giving way to her
homesick feeling. The fear that she might give way, aroused her. She
grew antagonistic with herself. There was some unpacking yet to be done
and Hester flew at it as though her life depended on having it done a
certain time and in regular fashion.
The little old-fashioned brooch which her Aunt Debby had given her was
in a tiny box by itself. Hester took it out and examined it carefully.
The little bit of cut glass in the center attracted her strongly. In the
sunlight it gleamed like fire. In the shadow it showed a pale yellow
tinge like the petal of a faded yellow rose.
Hester had no desire to wear it. It was pleasant, however, to have
something which belonged to one's own people. The Alden home was rich
in bits of china, linen, and silverware which had been handed down from
generation to generation; but this little circle of gold, the mat of
hair and bit of glass, was all that Hester had of which she could say,
"This belonged to my family."
Helen's note had bade her make herself comfortable. Hester felt
privileged to inspect the posters, take up the books and to examine the
photographs.
She was growing hungry. The dinner hour must have passed. Perhaps, the
bells which she had heard ringing earlier in the evening were to call
the students to the dining-room. Hester had not understood that, but it
really made little difference. She would not have ventured alone into
the dining-hall though she were starving.
The hall-girl from the west dormitory had evidently forgotten her. It
was the duty of hall-girls to play the part of hostess to new students.
Fortunately for Hester, there were other persons more thoughtful than
the hall-girls.
Hester had reached the stage where a good healthy appetite would have
looked with favor upon crackers and cheese, when a knock came at the
door. She opened to admit a round-faced, dimple-cheeked girl of sixteen,
bearing a tray in her hand.
"I hope I am not intruding," she said. It was the same slow droll voice
which Hester had overheard an hour before in the room below. "I am Sara
Summerson, one of last year's girls. I did not know until after dinner
was over that you were here,--a stranger and starving. The servants are
in the dining-hall, so I asked Mrs. Hopkins if I might bring your dinner
here."
"I am so glad!" cried Hester. "Will you come in?"
The invitation was not necessary. The caller was evidently a lady of
resources, despite the slowness of her speech and movement. She had
entered, moved back the books from the nearest study table and had set
down her tray. "I brought you some tea," she said. "Will you not please
sit down and eat while I fill your cup. We did have cocoa. I did not
know which you like best; but I did know that if one does not like
cocoa, one cannot bear to taste it."
Hester took her place at the table. Her new acquaintance sat opposite.
Hester studied her now and came to the conclusion that she could like
Sara Summerson. She was of Hester's age and physique, but of wholly
different coloring. Her eyes were gray and calm; while Hester's were
black and at times snapping. She wore a simple white gown with a Dutch
neck. She was not at all pretty; but she was good to look at. There was
a repose and calmness about her that had a good effect on Hester. Her
droll slow smile gave an expression of humor to her slightest word.
While Hester was eating, the caller made no attempt to converse. When
Hester had finished her meal, Sara looked across at her, viewed her
slowly and serenely and said, "I saw you to-day when you came from the
car. I thought you were Helen Loraine."
"I have heard that several times to-day," said Hester. "Is Helen Loraine
beautiful?" It was a guileless question and Hester saw no compliment to
herself in the asking. Sara scanned her slowly, deliberately. "If she
were, I should not tell you. I never spoil people by complimenting
them--even though it be over someone's else shoulder. No, she is not
beautiful. She's more than that. She's distingue." She smiled blandly at
Hester.
"I'm afraid I do not know what you mean. That word is new to me."
"It would not be if you could see it printed. It is no doubt, one of
your most intimate words. I've given it the French pronunciation. Miss
Webster declares my French is startling in its originality. You wish to
know of Helen? She is one of those people that you need to glance at but
once to know that she is something. She is tall and fine-looking; but
that is not all. She has an 'air' you know."
Yes; Hester did know. An "air" in this sense meant the same as Debby
Alden's "stock."
"And I look like her? I was mistaken to-day for her while in a store."
"You look much alike, yet there is a difference. Are you related to
her?"
"No, indeed. I never heard the name until to-day."
The subject ended there. Sara sat for some time. She told Hester of the
customs of the hall, the manner of calling and returning calls; the
conventions which were observed when one had a spread, and the social
distinction between that and a fudge party. Fudge-making was always
informal, and often surreptitious. Anyone might be invited to it; but a
spread and chafing-dish party observed a difference.
"It had been known," Sara said, "in that very dormitory that
freshmen--girls who had not been in school a month--had had the audacity
to invite a senior to their parties. But they never did it a second
time."
Thus having put Hester on the right track socially, Sara took up her
tray and departed.
"The first bell rings at nine forty-five," so Sara had informed her.
This gave the girls a half-hour to prepare for bed and for Bible
reading.
Hester looked at the time. It was fully an hour before the retiring bell
would ring. She had a feeling that after the first night, she would not
mind being alone. She felt like an alien now. Perhaps, she would soon
become part. She hoped so at least; for there is nothing quite as
lonesome as being alone among many people. Sara had offered to escort
her to breakfast and to introduce her to the other girls. Had Helen
Loraine been in school, the courtesy would have been hers to fulfill.
To sit idle was impossible to Hester. The little box in which she had
placed her pin, lay on the table. Without thinking, she placed it in the
corner of her wardrobe, where it fitted snugly. In the shadow, it was
hardly distinguishable from the woodwork. She put it safely away and
then, perhaps because it was a new possession, straightway forgot about
it for months.
Helen's photographs were many. The seminary girls had the habit of
exchanging pictures each commencement. So it followed that students who
had gone through their spring semesters, were well provided for in the
line of pictures. Hester looked them over. There were girls and girls
and yet more girls. Some wore evening dresses and hair in party style;
others were in cap and gown. There were gymnasium costumes and bathing
suits--all utilized for the picturing of girls.
Among the hundred or more were but one or two which were not those of
students. There was one, old and fingermarked. It was that of a mother
and children. The mother was young and beautiful. A boy leaned against
her knee and a baby nestled in her arms. The boy was a handsome, manly
little fellow; the baby was dimpled and smiling; its head was covered
with soft dark curls, and its eyes were large and dark.
"Isn't she sweet?" said Hester to herself. "She looks as though she
could eat those children up. She seems so fond of them. Mothers are
always that way. Mrs. Bowerman looks at Mary as though she was the
prettiest thing in the world and Mary is homely--just ordinarily homely,
and Jane Orr's mother--." The thought was too much for Hester. Her lips
quivered, her eyes filled with tears so that she could scarcely
distinguish the features of the picture which she held in her hand.
"It's just a way that mothers have," she said again. "I do wish I had
had a mother!"
Then, as though the thought were unjust to the woman who had taken a
mother's place to her, she added quickly. "But I wouldn't give up Aunt
Debby for any mother--not even Jane Orr's."
She did not realize how long she sat with the picture in her hand,
studying the mother and children. She was awakened from her reverie by
the half-hour bell. She was relieved at the sound of it. Now she could
sleep and forget that she was alone and under a strange roof.
She was very tired and soon fell asleep. An hour passed and in a
half-conscious way she was aware that the light was on in the
sitting-room and someone was moving softly about as though not to
disturb her. She was too far gone in slumber to realize where she was.
She thought that she was back home and Aunt Debby had slipped in to see
that she was properly covered. Satisfied that this was so, she fell
sound asleep. It was broad day when she was awakened by someone bending
over her. She felt the touch of lips on her forehead and the sound of a
sweet musical voice.
"Wake up, little roommate. The rising-bell rang long ago. You will miss
breakfast."
Then as Hester opened her eyes wide, she saw bending over her, a tall,
slender girl enveloped in a soft kimona, and with her dark hair
streaming like waves over her shoulders.
Beautiful! Hester decided at that instant that she had never seen a
sweeter face.
"I slipped in last night so that I might not waken you. I am Helen
Loraine. I hope we shall be good friends, little roommate."
[Illustration: "I AM HELEN LORAINE."--_Page 68._]