“Are you still nervous about meeting—the Dean?” the older woman asked, rising and walking around the desk to Gale’s side.
Gale also rose. “I’m sorry if I was rude this morning,” she said in embarrassment. “I had no idea——”
“That I was the Dean?” the other said. “Otherwise you would have let the canoe drift over the falls, is that it? I’m sorry, that was a terrible thing to say,” she continued breathlessly. “Forgive me.” She laid a hand lightly on Gale’s shoulder. “This isn’t the type of interview I usually have with a Freshman.”
“I gathered that much,” Gale smiled. She continued after a while, rather hesitantly, “You aren’t really worried about—about the things the girls are saying, are you?”
“No,” the Dean smiled, walking to the door with Gale. “Not really worried. Goodbye, my dear, and come to see me often—as a friend, if not in my official capacity.”
Gale stepped out into the world red with the glow from the setting sun and thought what a grand person Dean Travis was. She had a personality that made one immediately want to be the best sort of person one could. That she would in a short time win all the girls over to her side, Gale did not doubt. She was so pleasant, so easy to approach, so interested in the girls, that they could not resent her for any length of time no matter how much they missed their former Dean.
A hand touched her arm and she jumped in surprise, so deep in thought had she been.
“Did I frighten you?” a laughing voice asked.
Doctor Norcot fell into step beside her. “I waited for you,” she added with a look around.
Gale saw a few girls across the campus watching her and the Doctor. She hoped they weren’t the Adventure Girls. If such was the case, she would be teased intolerably about already being friends with two such important people as the Dean and the Doctor.