Nan stopped. They couldn’t say that about her. It wasn’t true! She knew it, and so did Linda. Everyone who has read “Nan Sherwood’s Winter Holidays” knows it. But here Linda was, declaring it was true in front of a whole crowd of strange people!
Nan wanted to protest, but the agent who had given her Dr. Prescott’s package spoke quietly. “If I were you,” he said, for he knew that what Linda was telling was a lie, “I’d say nothing. Here, let me help you.” He took her by the arm and escorted her to the door. “Don’t let it bother you,” he said as she went out.
Linda turned and followed Nan with her eyes. “What strange people,” she drawled, “one meets.” No one paid any attention. They had liked Nan.
Outside, Nan held the package close to her side and lost herself in the crowd. It had been hard, not answering Linda, but by keeping still, she had won the day. Now, as she walked along Madison Avenue thinking of what had happened, she remembered Linda’s first statement, “I want a cabin on the upper deck, the best you have.”
As she thought of it, she breathed a short prayer. “Please don’t let Linda be on the same boat with us,” it said.
CHAPTER IX
THEY’RE OFF
“Ticket—passport—traveller’s checks—baggage tags—trunk keys.” Nan checked them off on her list as she put them into her purse. “There, Bess,” she said, turning to her friend, “everything is done, and I’m all ready, absolutely all ready to go. And you?”
The two girls were standing in their room in Lakeview Hall as Nan asked the question. They were both dressed in tweed coats and matching felt hats. Around them stood their baggage, waiting for the school janitor to take it down to the school bus. It was the day of all days, the day on which they were leaving for Europe.