Instead of finding only one or two officials, the place was crowded with them. The girls stepped back shyly, while Miss Phillips made the advances.
"We are Girl Scouts from Miss Allen's Boarding School—in Pennsylvania," she explained; "we're seeing Washington, and, of course, we couldn't miss the Girl Scout Headquarters."
The hostesses were most cordial, showing the girls everything, and then inviting them to a big rally that afternoon.
"That reminds me," remarked one of the officers, who was evidently a representative from National Headquarters in New York City, "I have a list of Girl Scouts here, from all parts of the country, who want to correspond with other Girl Scouts. Would you girls, any of you, like to take some names?"
Marjorie was the first to accept the suggestion. "Oh, I would!" she cried. "That would be lots of fun!"
The officer handed the list to her, and the girls all crowded about to read the names, hoping that perhaps they might come across one that they knew. But, recognizing none, they selected at random, while Marjorie placed checks here and there in the list.
While she was still thus occupied, her eye fell suddenly upon a name which seemed familiar. It aroused a vague sort of expectation within her, as of some old association. Where had she heard it before: "Jennie Perkins," Trenton, N. J.?
She wrinkled her brows for a moment, lost in thought. But her uncertainty lasted only a second; in a flash, the significance of it dawned upon her. That was the assumed name under which Frieda Hammer must have worked at that Fifth Avenue tea-room! Could this girl—evidently a Scout, and living in Trenton—possibly be Frieda? Marjorie's heart leaped for joy, but she resolutely put down her hopes. The whole thing was most improbable. The girl might easily return to Trenton in quest of work, but Marjorie knew that her former dislike of their troop, particularly of Ruth Henry, would prejudice her against ever becoming a Girl Scout. And Frieda Hammer had never showed any signs of sociability; she was the last girl in the world to desire to make new friends by writing to unknown correspondents.
Still, Marjorie decided, she might as well select this name as any, for all were unknown to her. She had nothing whatever to lose, and there was one chance in a thousand that "Jennie Perkins" might be Frieda. Hastily making a check beside the name, she returned the list to the officer.