"What? Tell me quickly. I would give almost anything to get ahead of
Margaret Ainsworth. I know that she will be one of those to come. You
must have done something, Dolly, to offend her, for she seems to meditate
vengeance on you."
Dolly drew her brows together in a perplexed frown. "I asked if she were
a Senior, and she did--"
Elizabeth shouted: "Of course she did. She doubtless supposed you were
trying to be sarcastic. Well, never mind. Hear that awful gong? Dinner
will be ready in five minutes now. Come down to the veranda, and I will
tell you who some of the people are."
Dolly was quite ready to go, and as they ran lightly down the steps,
she confided in a whisper to Elizabeth her plan for the Sophomores'
discomfiture.
"You are a genius; I am sure that will work! Hurrah! Oh, Miss Randall, I
want you to meet Miss Alden. Can't we sit at your table tonight?"
"Of course you can, I shall be very glad to have you. Miss Alden, I know
that you are going to do fine work here, your entrance examinations were
most excellent."
Then she passed on, leaving Dolly happy and Elizabeth surprised. "I
hadn't supposed that you were a bookworm and a student, and all that.
You don't look it."
"Mother has always helped me and been so interested in my lessons.
It will be hard to study without her. She has always explained and
encouraged me. I shall miss her fearfully."
"I suppose you will," said Elizabeth slowly, with a hard look on her
face that prevented further conversation on that point.
The girls took whatever seats they wished at the table for the first few
days. The next week they would be given permanent places.
With her new friend beside her, Dolly found the meal pleasant enough.
Afterward, they hurried to Dolly's sitting-room and began their
preparations for making fudge. There was lots of fun and laughter over it.
"How many do you think will come? I want just about enough pieces on
this plate to go around. If any should be left over, they might want us
to finish it, and I think that we may have had enough by that time."
"I am sure that we shall," and Elizabeth nibbled away voraciously.
"How small you are making the pieces, Dolly."
"No need of wasting anything. I want each one to have a piece small
enough so that she will put it all in her mouth at once. See? You did
not tell me how many guests we might expect."
"About fifteen, I think. They go out in squads. All of them cannot
visit every Freshman, so they divide up. I heard them talking in our
sitting-room while I was dressing. They didn't know that I was there,
fortunately."
"I'm going to shove that plate half under the paper, so--" suiting
the action to the word, "they will think we are hiding it from them.
Here are some pieces for us to nibble. Quick, sit down; take the candy in
your hand, I hear them coming."
A knock at the door.
"Come in."
"Arise and open the door."
Dolly smothered a giggle and glanced inquiringly at Elizabeth, who
nodded her head. So she crossed to the door and swung it wide. Fifteen
Sophomores in fantastic kimonos and stately head-dresses stood outside.
"Freshies, we have come to inspect your premises. Stand aside while we
enter and examine you as regards your worthiness to remain within these
sacred precincts. Stand in front of us, so!"
There was a moment's pause while the fifteen uninvited guests took
possession of the few chairs, window-seats and stools which the room
afforded.
"Miss Alden, you may answer first. What is the chief duty of every
Freshman?"
"To squelch the Sophomores," returned Dolly promptly.
A deep groan sounded from all fifteen. "Wrong! Wrong! You have not the
first idea of your fundamental duties. We shall be obliged to send you
home, I fear. Miss Newby, answer!"
"Most potent, grave and reverend Sophomores, the great duty of every
Freshman is to try and become a Sophomore herself, so that she may try
to impress unsophisticated Freshies with a sense of her own importance
and make everyone forget that she herself was nothing but a Freshman one
short year--"
"Stop! Wrong! Wrong!" and a chorus of groans again broke forth. "The
obvious duty of every Freshie is to run errands for the Sophomores and
make life as pleasant as possible for them. Miss Alden, I see a banjo
on the table there. Sing something to us."
Dolly picked up the instrument with a mock-humble bow and touched the
strings, a little uncertainly for a moment, but her touch soon became
firmer, and a malicious little twinkle appeared in her eye.
"Oh, these Sophomores, vain Sophomores,
In all their swelling pride,
I would to them the giftie gie,
To see--"
"Stop!" The fifteen rose majestically to their feet as Dolly, with
assumed meekness, dropped her instrument at her side. "You may expect to
hear from the faculty tomorrow. I regret that it is impossible for you
to be retained at this hall of learning. Your influence would doubtless
corrupt the other Freshmen, and teach them insubordination. You have
also been guilty of greediness. I see the remains of a repast which you
tried to conceal as we entered. You are ordered to pass that plate to
your superiors."
Elizabeth demurely obeyed the command. The bits of fudge were small,
and there were just enough to go around. They were taken with great
stateliness and dignity, but a moment later the room was filled with
groans, coughs, shrieks and wrathful exclamations.
"They would poison us!" "Let us be avenged!" "Choke them!" "Perish
the Freshmen!" "Water, minions! water!"
But Dolly and Elizabeth had taken good care that there should be no water
at hand, so the unlucky Sophomores rushed away to their own rooms,
followed by the taunting laughter of the two Freshmen and many gratuitous
pieces of advice.
"I wonder if they will try to pay us back," Dolly said, with sudden
gravity.
"No, tonight ends it all; Professor Graydon told me so. The Sophomores
are allowed to air their new dignity this one evening, but nothing is
tolerated after tonight. I do not think they came out much ahead of us.
I must go now, Dolly, I wish I were your room-mate, but I presume that
you will have a much more congenial one than I would be."
"I do not think so," Dolly said, with evident sincerity. "I have a
dreadful feeling whenever you mention her. Good-night, and thank you a
thousand times."
The next few days were busy ones. Dolly had new studies planned out
for the term, and she found to her delight that she and Elizabeth had
elected the same courses. The two were congenial, though Elizabeth was
as reticent as Dolly was frank and open. Dolly had begun to hope that
her unknown room-mate would not arrive at all, but on Tuesday, when she
returned from her recitation in history, she found that Miss Sutherland
had appeared.
In fact there was no doubt that she was there, and had been there for a
couple of hours at least.
Dolly's dainty pink pillows, banners, and other trifles, had been
summarily displaced. She could see no vestige of them. The room was
now ornamented in a stiff sort of fashion with brilliant red tidies,
afghans, and other things which Dolly considered quite antediluvian.
The room had lost all of its dainty personality and prettiness. It
certainly looked very unattractive, and it was not much wonder that
Dolly drew a deep breath of disgust.
The sound reached the ears of the newcomer, and she turned quickly.
Dolly's bright eyes took in every detail, the thick hair drawn back so
tightly and unbecomingly, the heavy brown dress, just the shade that
the girl with such a dark, sallow complexion should never have worn,
the cheap jewelry and the clumsy shoes. And she must room with this
girl instead of with Elizabeth--it was too bad, it was--and Dolly's
whole soul rose up in rebellion.
"You are Miss Alden, aren't you? I am Mary Sutherland. I just came,
and I have been trying to get my things in order."
"I see." Dolly glanced dryly around the room. "Where are my
belongings?"
"I put them carefully on your bed, they were so pretty that it seemed a
shame to have them get soiled; red is more substantial than pink, and of
course, the two colors would not go well together--at least, I thought
not"--looking a little timidly at Dolly's unresponsive face.
"No! I quite agree that pink and red don't harmonize, at least these
particular shades," and Dolly passed on to her bedroom and closed the
door. She sat down on her bed while angry tears rose in her eyes. She
was just beginning to make some pleasant acquaintances among the girls.
They liked to come to her pretty room and eat her fudge and drink her
tea. There had been several gay evenings. But how could she ever bring
them into such a room as this was now? It was worse than a nightmare.
The clang of the gong reminded her that she must hurry to the lecture
on Roman art.
She picked up her note-book and pencil, and rushed down the corridor.
"Wait, oh, wait, my bonny maid," and Elizabeth caught her arm. "Why,
Dolly, you have been crying!"
"Yes, I am an awful goose. But you see my room-mate has come, and--"
"I saw her, she hardly strikes me as being your style, but she will be
quiet and inoffensive, I imagine."
"Quiet and inoffensive?" Dolly gave a hysterical laugh. "Just wait
until you see my room; all of my pretty things are reposing on my bed
now, and that sitting-room is too awful to contemplate."
"Dorothy Alden, are you in earnest?"
"Yes, I am. Of course, I suppose I had taken possession of it rather
coolly, but at least it is half mine."
"Didn't you give her to understand that?"
"No, I didn't. I was very angry, and I remembered that Mother made
me promise to think twice before I acted, when I got furious. I shall
propose something, though, when I go back. We might take the room by
alternate weeks, or each of us trim a half of it. Which do you think
would be the better plan?"
"Either is bad," Elizabeth said decisively. "Why, oh, why, were we not
put together? You could have had your things then in peace, and it would
have saved me all the bother I am having now. I didn't think about my
room before I came, and now that Miss Ainsworth has nothing to liven
us up with either, we look as prim as a Quaker meeting-house. I have
ordered some things, however, that will make us gorgeous. What do you say
to a yellow room?"
"I say that it will be handsome if your room-mate leaves the arrangement
in your hands."
"I made sure of that before I ordered anything," Elizabeth said, with
a wise nod. "She was very willing that I should do all I wished, and on
that understanding I went ahead."
The girls had reached the lecture-room by this time, and further
discussion was impossible; but all through Professor Randall's talk,
Dolly's thoughts roamed to the room she had left. How could she
stand it? Dolly was exceedingly susceptible by nature to all artistic
effects, and anything inharmonious grated on her.
She acknowledged to herself that Miss Sutherland did not seem aggressive,
and apparently she had not acted as she had done through any petty
spirit. As far as Dolly could judge, she was merely tactless and
tasteless.
She and Elizabeth talked the matter over a little more as they walked
back to their rooms, but Elizabeth abstained from offering any advice.
"I'll go in and see how the place looks. I'm curious to meet Miss
Sutherland anyway."
They found her sitting on the easiest rocking-chair, studying the college
catalogue. She rose quickly as the girls came in, and Dolly introduced
her friend. They tried to make the conversation general, but it was no
easy matter. Mary Sutherland would answer questions, and occasionally
ask one herself, but when the conversation took a wider range, she sat
by, looking out of place and constrained.
There was a knock at the door, and Charlotte Graves entered, followed by
Winifred Paterson and Ada Rummel. They were all Sophomores, and had been
among the fifteen who had called on Dolly the first evening.
They had swallowed the red pepper which Dolly had hid in the fudge as
best they could, and none of them bore any malice. "All things were fair
in love and college," as Charlotte Graves tersely remarked.
The trio halted now on the threshold in open astonishment.
"What have you been doing to your room, Miss Alden?" Winifred demanded
abruptly. "For a Freshman you showed most unusual taste, and you had
about the prettiest den out, but now--pardon me if I ask why this
thusness? It is quite too awful."
Dolly carefully refrained from looking at her room-mate. Miss Paterson
was certainly frank to the verge of rudeness.
"Pray have some seats, most august Sophomores. You see that red is more
serviceable than pink, and in view of the fact that we are liable to
have numerous visits from those who were Freshmen last year, and who
of course do not know how to treat delicate things with proper respect--"
"Well, let me tell you one thing," Miss Graves interrupted, "you will
be troubled with precious few calls from anyone if you intend to make
this a permanent thing."
Dolly's cheeks flushed. She must stop them at any cost. Despite her own
annoyance, she could not help feeling sorry for Miss Sutherland, who
evidently thought that she had made the room charming. She turned to
introduce her, but she was only in time to see her vanish into her own
bedroom. Dolly's quick ears caught the sound of a sob as the door closed.
She forgot her own anger of an hour before and turned wrathfully on
her guests. "Commend me to Sophomores for superlative rudeness and
a total disregard of the feelings of others. These articles belong to
my room-mate. She just came. She hasn't met any of the girls yet,
and you have given her a beautiful welcome, haven't you?" Dolly's
cheeks burned like coals of fire. She spoke in a low tone so that her
words should not be heard in the adjoining room, but every syllable was
vibrant with feeling.
The Sophomores looked ashamed. "Bring her out and let me apologize,"
begged Winifred.
"And make a bad matter worse? Not much. We will all go out for a walk
until dinner-time. I hope," added Dolly, severely, "that when I become
a Sophomore I shall not forget all my manners."
"Come, my dear, cool down," Charlotte Graves said languidly, putting
her own arm through Dolly's. "It strikes me that you have forgotten
your manners already to talk so to your own guests."
There was a ripple of laughter at this, and Dolly looked a trifle
shamefaced. "I was making general remarks," she said loftily.
"Come on, we shall forgive you this once, and Winifred shall eat
humble-pie for your room-mate's benefit at the first opportunity. As
class president I decree it."
There by tacit consent, the subject dropped. The girls had a pleasant
walk, and when the dinner-gong sounded, Dolly hurried up to her room;
she knew that she would not find her room-mate very congenial, but at
least she would not be so selfish as to let Miss Sutherland go down to
the dining-room alone, on this first night.
As she opened the door of their common sitting-room she stopped in
amazement.