“Oh, but Bess,” Nan pursued her train of thought, “You remember how, after the New Year’s Eve party at Grace’s, we went up to our room and made resolutions?”
“You did.” Bess corrected her abruptly and very positively. “You and Grace said that for one month you would be nice to Linda, no matter what happened. Then Linda never did come back to school, so it didn’t count.”
“Anyway,” Nan attempted to dismiss the unpleasant subject, “There’s no reason why she should bother us. She’s up in First Class.”
“Yes, and we’re down here in Tourist.” It was a sore point with Bess, who was always irritated when Linda was able to show her superiority in money matters. Bess wanted most intensely to be able to look down on Linda. She wanted to have something so much better than Linda that the arrogant girl would envy her.
“Even so,” Nan resolved as she rose from her deck chair, “I’m not going to let her spoil my trip. Come,” she half coaxed, “Come, Bess, let’s all take a turn about deck.”
“Yes, let’s,” Grace encouraged, “I’d like to walk once, clear around the boat.”
“But you can’t,” Laura supplied the information, as she looked at Bess, “You can walk only so far and then there’s a gate that separates you from first class.”
“Please, forget it!” Nan looked reprovingly at Laura. “Come with me,” she invited again. “I know a place where you can stoop under some rigging and come out on a little part of the deck that’s almost like a balcony with the ocean below it and nothing but the sky above.”
“And I know a place,” Rhoda contributed, “where you can get way up front, so that you are at the prow of the boat. When you stand there, you feel as though you yourself are cutting through the water.”
“A mermaid at large.” Laura laughed. “I know that place, too. I found it right after lunch and thought, until now, that it was my private property.”