The senior of the party laughed at the pretty compliment, for she herself was only in the mob, and her classmates didn’t think she had such a marvelous success either—so it was pleasant to have the adoration of a popular freshman.
“I’m sure you will be,” she said graciously, “and with one accord we all accept the future mob member’s invitation to tea.” And she sat down with the rest and waited patiently.
With a sigh, Peggy lit the little alcohol lamp under the tea kettle and Katherine dived mysteriously under the desk to emerge a moment later with something that sent a general shout of approval through the entire group.
“A box! A box!” they cried, “Katherine has a box from home!”
Nothing else in life possesses quite the wonder and the satisfying delight of a real box from home. If the parents at home only knew of the wide-eyed envy of all the girls as they cluster around one of these brighteners of college existence as it is being opened, there would be a continuous procession of expressmen tramping in at the back door of all the college houses, week in and week out, and every single closet shelf would hold its quota of jam jars, home-made cookies, and fine large grape-fruit so that the same glow of satisfaction and sense of being loved would abide in each girl’s heart all the time.
The tea ball was being daintily dipped in and out of the steaming cups, the cold chicken was being eagerly passed down the line of girls, when the door of suite 22 opened again and a confused and blushing stranger, tall, with wonderful reddish hair and baby-blue eyes, stepped inside and asked in a voice that was so full of fright that it would never have passed in that elocution class of Peggy’s, if this was Miss Katherine Foster’s room.
“I’m trying to find Miss Foster,” the scared voice went on, “because I was to have roomed with her this year. I’m Gloria——”
With a single bound, the impulsive Peggy had reached the beautiful stranger and had thrown her arms around her neck. It was all her fault, she was thinking, all her fault that this nice, nice girl had been deprived of the finest room-mate on campus, for while Peggy and Katherine were at Andrews Preparatory School, Peggy had not known that she herself could go to college until the last minute, and Katherine had already been assigned another room-mate. When Peggy had been given the money to come, however, by old Mr. Huntington, her friend, Katherine had written to Gloria Hazeltine—who stood before them now—and had explained that she just must room with her own Peggy, and would Gloria mind and she could easily find somebody else.
Neither of the girls had seen Gloria before, but at this first glimpse of her, Peggy’s heart was warm with a sense of wanting to make up to her for having taken her place, and hence the smothering arms she wrapped so quickly around the newcomer’s neck.
All the embarrassment of the new guest fled at this surprisingly eager reception. She drew back from Peggy’s arms and smiled happily down into her face.