Miss Winthrop’s grey eyes flashed. “Yes, that’s just it, Miss Andrews. You have hit the nail on the head. That is the very reason I came out here to college this afternoon. The girls took a fancy to you and Miss Wilkinson!”
“What?” gasped Marjorie incredulously. “Surely you are mistaken, Miss Winthrop! If you could have been there, and have seen and heard for yourself——”
“I know—I know what you mean,” she interrupted to explain. “But that is only their way. Don’t you know that ignorant people always ridicule what they can’t understand? But, I repeat it, the girls liked you. They told me so last night!”
“Really?” cried the girl, still in doubt as to the possibility of such a fact. “Please tell me about it, Miss Winthrop. What did they say?”
“Well,” began Miss Winthrop, “it all happened last night, when I returned from New York. I went immediately to my office and began to open my mail, when Mrs. Morgan interrupted me by bringing in her report of the work during my absence.”
“What did she say about the party?” asked Lily with interest.
“Merely that it went nicely and that every one had a good time,” replied the settlement worker in amusement.
“I thought she would say as much,” remarked Marjorie. “I wish I could have been so easily satisfied!”
“No, no, Miss Wilkinson—that very attitude is what makes you so valuable. Mrs. Morgan is a splendid matron, and a very agreeable person, but she will never make a social worker.”
“To continue: when Mrs. Morgan had left, two of the girls from that group entered my office. Remember, I had not yet received your report, and had no reason to believe anything had been other than it should have. But these girls looked a little bit ashamed of themselves.