There was still time before breakfast, and Cora hurried up to the room which she shared with Linda. It was in an entirely different part of the building from that where Nan and Bess lodged, and was a larger and much better-furnished apartment, with a private bath attached, put in at Mr. Riggs’ cost for his daughter. Cora Courtney was considered very lucky by their special clique to be Linda’s roommate, and she did not mind playing maid to the haughty Linda for the privilege of sharing in the luxuries of the apartment.
“Oh, Linda! Look what I’ve found!”
“I don’t care what it is!” snarled the purse-proud girl, as she stood before the mirror. “I can’t make my hair come right. It’s all in a tangle.”
She was sleepy and cross, and her scanty brown hair was in a snarl. “You’ll have to help me, Cora,” she added.
“You ought to get up when the gong strikes; then you wouldn’t have to be helped,” said Cora, who wanted to shirk an unpleasant service if she could.
“If I got up at five o’clock it wouldn’t be any better,” whined Linda. “It’s always in a snarl!”
“Then why don’t you braid it nicely when you go to bed? You fall right into bed with your hair in a regular rat’s nest!”
“I’m so-o tired then,” yawned Linda. “Come! be a friend and help me. I should think you would.”
“Goodness! I don’t like to fix hair any better than you do,” snapped Cora, coming unwillingly to the task.
“Go on and be a good child,” said Linda, more cajoling than usual. “I’m going to give you that coral necklace of mine to wear to the Grand Guard Ball tomorrow night.”