“But aren’t we interrupting?” asked Betty, introducing Eleanor.
“Nothing more important than the tail end of some French,” answered Jean Eastman curtly, going to get her coat, which hung over a chair near the door. As she passed Miss Carter she gave her a keen, questioning look which meant, so Betty decided, that Jean was as much surprised to find that this quiet sophomore knew Betty Wales and her crowd, as Betty had been to see Jean established in Miss Carter’s room on a footing of apparent intimacy.
“I’ve been here ever since luncheon,” Jean went on, “and I was just going, wasn’t I, Miss Carter? Oh, no, you’re not driving me away—not in the least. I should be delighted to stay and talk to you both if I had time.” And with a disagreeable little laugh Jean pinned on her hat, swept up her books, and started for the door.
Strange to say, Miss Carter seemed to take her hasty departure as a matter of course and devoted herself entirely to her other visitors, until, just as Jean was leaving, she turned to her with a question.
“Oh, Miss Eastman, I don’t remember—did you say to-morrow at four?”
For a full minute Jean stared at her, her expression a queer mixture of anger and amused reproach. “No, I said to-morrow at three,” she answered at last and went off down the stairs, humming a gay little tune.
Betty and Eleanor exchanged wondering glances. Jean was notorious for knowing only prominent girls. Her presence here and her peculiar manner together formed a puzzle that made it very difficult to give one’s full attention to what Miss Carter was saying. There was also Miss Harrison. Was she the senior Harrison, better known as the Champion Blunderbuss? And if she was coming, why didn’t she come?
Betty found herself furtively watching the door, which Jean had left open, and she barely repressed a little cry of relief when the Champion’s ample figure appeared at the head of the stairs.
“I’m terribly late,” she called out cheerfully. “I thought you’d probably get tired of waiting and go out. Oh,” as she noticed Miss Carter’s visitors, “I guess I’d better come back at five. I can as well as not.”
But Betty and Eleanor insisted that she should do nothing of the kind.