By quarter after three, the crowd became restless, and presuming that Ruth had been asked from her room, they started to move towards the door. Suddenly it opened, and Ethel Todd appeared. Passing the groups almost as if she saw no one, she followed the path to the gym. The girls watched her open the door, and disappear, and in a minute she reappeared with—Marjorie Wilkinson!
CHAPTER VII
OUTSIDERS
When quarter after three came and Ethel had not come to the room for Ruth, she thought there must be something wrong.
“It may take longer than they expected,” she kept telling herself over and over, as she tried to fasten her attention on the letter she was writing to her aunt.
Then, gradually she became aware of a stir outside the door. The girls were returning in groups. She could hear their footsteps and even their voices plainly, for she had left the door open a crack to hear Ethel’s step in case she should come.
And then the realization came over her that it was all over, and that she had not been asked! Could it be true? Ruth suddenly felt weak. Nothing mattered now. How would she ever tell the folks at home? She had written so much about the girls, and the sorority; she would be ashamed to tell them she had lost out.
At that moment, she heard a group of girls stop in front of the door next to hers, and the freshman who lived there, and who had been lying down all afternoon with a sick headache, came out into the hall.
“Who were asked?” Ruth heard her inquire.
And then she listened to the names—names among which hers was not included. Her head positively swam, as the other freshman answered, “Doris Sands, Anna Cane, Mae VanHorn, and Marjorie Wilkinson!”