“One of the chief reasons why a girl should go to school,” went on Mrs. Carson, smilingly, “is to learn to get along with other girls. You and Azalea are so wrapped up in each other that you actually don’t see other girls as they pass you on the road, and it never seems to occur to you to visit their homes, or to ask them here. It has been borne in upon me for some time that if I don’t watch out, you’ll become a pair of horrid little snobs. Of course you wouldn’t know that you were, and equally of course I wouldn’t admit it to anybody else. But such would be the case, I feel sure.”
“Oh, mother, we wouldn’t, we wouldn’t!” protested Carin. “Just try us a little longer and see.”
But at that moment there came a knock at the door, and Mrs. Carson arose to open it. The girls could see without in the hallway the figure of Annie Laurie Pace, the red-haired, surprisingly tall girl whom they had occasionally seen in town; and now it occurred to each of them that they had not particularly wished to know her.
“Did you say I was to come down here, Mrs. Carson, after I had found that book?” she asked shyly.
“Why, no,” said Mrs. Carson impulsively, “I didn’t say that, Annie Laurie, but now that you are here, come in and meet my daughter and her friend.”
She entered with a quiet dignity, and it took but one second for Carin and Azalea to see that here would be no timid imitator of their whims. If “follow-my-leader” was played, it was not at all certain that they would be in the fore.
“Carin,” said Mrs. Carson, recovering herself from a moment’s embarrassment, “make your new schoolmate welcome. Annie Laurie Pace, Azalea McBirney.”
Carin held out a chilly white hand.
“How do you do?” she said stiffly.
Azalea arose and gave her hand to the new girl. She had been a stranger herself—had many a time been among men and women unknown to her, waiting wistfully to see if she would be welcomed—and she understood, as Carin could not possibly, what brought the veiled look in the new girl’s eyes. Yet she could not venture to offend Carin—her own Carin, whose ways always seemed charming to her.