But Peggy looked away from her laughing eyes, and shook her head quickly as if she expected to shake out of it some unwelcome thought.
Later in the day—just before dinner time, she and Katherine gathered in the quantities of notes and invitations that had come to Gloria and Florence Thomas. It seemed that every girl in college, no matter what class she was in, had taken immediate occasion to sit down and write her congratulations to the freshman president.
When they stopped to deliver their burden at Gloria’s door, they found her room fragrant with American beauty roses, and sweet with violets and spicy with pink carnations. A huge orchid nodded coolly in a Japanese vase which the girls had never seen before, and an array of dainty little leather-covered books on every subject from “Friendship” to “Ibsen” were strewn on the table by the window.
Three new pictures in black walnut frames stood leaning against the couch with the waiting picture wire beside them.
Gloria came to meet them, flushed with pleasure.
“Oh, I never knew it would be like this,” she exclaimed, quite frank in her delight. “And what have you brought me? Oh, so many notes—aren’t they all dear? I didn’t imagine college—or anything—could be so nice.”
She sat down on the couch while Katherine and Peggy poured their harvest of congratulations into her lap. Her fingers felt them over and sifted them before she unfolded any, and she looked up to laugh her happiness into her friends’ eyes.
“Your room looks wonderful,” breathed Katherine, looking around, “just like a senior’s, all of a sudden.”
“Doesn’t it?” echoed Gloria. “I’ve solved the mystery of Ditto Armandale’s room seeming so unlike her, as you said it did,—her furnishings are all gifts from people for getting elected to things.”
Two dimples of satisfaction dented Peggy’s piquant little face. She ached from head to foot from the hours of standing and of forcing her way back and forth through the crowds while she made her brief campaign appeals. But it had turned out wonderfully. Her candidate had won, and was this same radiant and beautiful Gloria looking so joyously at her now.