“I’m sorry,” she said, nodding toward the door. So they got up and left, leaving Nan looking wistfully after them.
CHAPTER XVI
THE HUNCH-BACK AGAIN
“But this isn’t where our cabin is!” Nan exclaimed the next morning as Bess and Rhoda, one on each side of her, walked her slowly from the hospital back to the stateroom.
“Yes, it is, Nan,” Rhoda maintained.
“But ours was number 648. It was an outside cabin.” Nan continued to protest. “Or have I gone completely batty?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Rhoda teased, “though you do do some pretty strange things sometimes. However, this is your cabin now and it’s not an outside one. There just wasn’t another outside one free.”
“But why did I need another? What was wrong with the one I had? What happened? Please tell me,” she pleaded. The questions tumbled one after another out of Nan’s mouth, for she was impatient, still somewhat shaken after her frightening experience during the storm.
“Oh, Nan, it’s nothing at all,” Bess comforted. “That is, I hope it isn’t, because it’s all my fault,” she added very contritely. “It was so warm here the night of the storm that I opened the porthole when I came down to leave my heavy coat. Amelia called me and told me to hurry and, rattle-brained as I am, I ran after her completely forgetting about the storm and the porthole. You can guess what happened. One of those big waves that nearly did away with you plopped in and made a miniature lake.”