“Oh, Bess, do you ever sound as though you meant it? Cousin Adair should hear you talk now. He thinks that Laura has a temper. He should hear you sometimes.” Nan laughed at her pal.
“I know it, but I think I’m more than justified. She’s certainly caused us plenty of trouble from the very first time we ever met her. I’ll never forget how she embarrassed us on the train that took us to Lakeview the first time.”
“Nor how Professor Krenner took our part,” Nan added.
“Nor how you outwitted her and drove up to school in the back of Walter Mason’s car as though you were a princess returning to her palace,” Laura giggled. “There never was a freshman created more of a stir than you did that night. Boy, did we ever put our heads together in corridor four and decide that we would have to put you in your place right away,” she continued slangily.
“And did I ever hate you, Laura Polk,” Bess laughed now at the recollection. “You embarrassed me so about that lunch box that when I went to bed that night I cried myself to sleep.”
“Poor Bessie,” Laura sympathized. “You were such a proud little thing that I never in the world thought I’d ever be able to get along with you.”
“Get along with Bess!” Nan exclaimed, “if you had ever heard what Bess said about you that night, you would have been surprised that she ever spoke to you again.”
“What did you say, Bess?” Laura looked positively impish as she looked at Bess’s reflection in the mirror.
“Oh, I don’t remember.” Bess was obviously concealing the truth.
“You do too,” Amelia joined in as she wound the pretty little travelling clock that had been given her the week before.