The freshies were paired on the first dormitory floor—two girls in each apartment. Number 30, Nancy found, was upon one of the “arms” of the corridor, and a good way from any of the teachers’ studies, and from the main stairway.
When Corinne and Nancy came to Number 30 there was nobody in the study or bedroom. The older girl snapped on the electric lights by pushing a button in the wall beside the entrance door.
“Rathmore is your chum,” said Corinne, lightly. “I hope you two girls will get on well together. I like to have all the chums live together without friction—for it is easier for me, and easier for the teachers.
“Now, Cora Rathmore has been here half a term already. Some of your class came in last spring so as to take up certain studies to fit them for the beginning of the fall work. I presume, from what Madame Schakael says, that your school was a pretty good one, and that you were brought along farther in your primary and grammar studies than some of the others.
“However, Rathmore knows her way about. She—she’s not a bad sort; but she and some of her friends last spring made the former West Side captain considerable trouble.
“So those girls who were bothersome,” pursued Corinne, “can’t room together again this half. There! that is your side of the room. That’s your bed, and your cupboard and locker, and your dressing table. Keep everything neat, Nancy. That’s the first commandment at Pinewood Hall. And the other commandments you can read on that framed list,” and she pointed to a brief schedule of rules and duties hanging on the wall of the study.
Then the senior put her arm around the new girl and gave her a resounding kiss upon her plump cheek.
“You’re a nice little thing, I believe. Good-night!” she said, and ran out of the room.
But she left Nancy Nelson feeling almost as though she had deliberately deceived the senior. Would Corinne Pevay have been so friendly—and kissed her—if she had been aware that Nancy was just “Miss Nobody from Nowhere?”
After a little, however, the new girl opened her handbag and took out her toilet articles and her, nightgown, robe, and slippers. She arranged the brushes, and other things on the dressing table, and hung her robe and gown in their proper place.