Before they parted so that each might do her own errands, Dr. Prescott called Nan aside. “Will you do something for me, Nan,” she asked.
“Of course.” Nan was all eagerness. It was an honor to be asked to help Dr. Prescott.
“Will you stop at the travel agent’s on Madison Avenue and pick up the portfolio of maps and time-tables he is holding there for me? You can’t miss the place, it’s near the Wrigley Building, and it has a huge revolving globe of the world in the window. It won’t take you long, and it might be an interesting place to stop.”
How interesting and upsetting this errand would be—neither could know as Nan waved good-bye to her friends and went off adventuring by herself. Just as Dr. Prescott had said, she couldn’t miss the Wrigley Building, nor the window with the revolving globe. She stood for a second watching it, watching North and South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Europe and Africa, Asia and Australia, the Pacific Ocean merge, one into the other, as the ball moved around. Then she tore herself away, opened the door, and went in.
There, standing at a long counter talking to the agent, was Linda Riggs, proud and superior looking as usual! Nan gasped. Linda turned, and the two faced one another.
“Why, Linda!” Nan spoke first, but Linda looked her up and down, stared into her face coldly and most rudely, and then, without saying a word, turned her back.
Nan tried to cover up her confusion, as she went forward to claim Dr. Prescott’s folio. Could she have made a mistake? She looked again. No, no one could mistake the angle of that up-turned chin.
“I’ll take the cabin on the upper deck,” she heard Linda say in her slow affected way. “I want the very best cabin you have,” she said, talking a little louder so that Nan couldn’t help but hear. “I always like the best of everything.”
It was really disgusting to hear the girl talk. Everyone in the office looked up at her. She might have been a pretty girl, but instead she looked over-dressed, haughty, and artificial. Two or three in the room laughed to themselves and turned away. They did not even like to look at her. Others shook their heads. Nan tried not to pay any attention. She wanted to get out of the office as soon as possible. She asked for Dr. Prescott’s package quietly and would have gone without even looking at Linda again, but that girl’s own words stopped her.
“I beg your pardon,” she heard Linda saying to one of the agents, “but who is that girl that is leaving now. It—seems that I have seen her someplace before. Oh, yes, she is the one who was caught shoplifting in a Chicago department store.” She said it loudly so that everyone could hear.