“And if I am not mistaken, here come your friends this very moment,” Evelyn declared as she pointed down the hill road. Carol looking, saw the school bus turning into the drive, and then, as it drew near, six merry faces beamed out of the windows and a moment later Carol and Evelyn were surrounded. No one was properly introduced, but no one seemed to care.
“First of all you must come right in and meet our wonderful Madame Deriby,” Carol said, as she slipped her arm about Adele’s waist, and led the flock of laughing girls into the school, where they were to have many happy times in the months to come.
Madame Deriby, the matron of Linden Hall, was delighted with the group of young girls. She looked into one eager face after another with her welcoming smile and then bade Carol and Evelyn show them the way to the south wing, where they would find their rooms in readiness.
Up the broad, softly-carpeted front stairs they trooped. In the upper corridor, they saw uniformed girls in twos and threes who glanced at them curiously and the more friendly smiled upon them.
“There were forty pupils at Linden Hall before you came,” Evelyn told them, “and now there are forty-six.”
Carol, in the lead, opened a door and stepping back with a wave of her hand, she exclaimed, “Enter, young ladies! This is your future home.”
“Oh, how pretty!” Adele declared, as they entered the corridor, the walls of which were a warm, creamy tint, bordered with apple-blossoms.
There were four large, sunny rooms opening from this hall. Each had a bow-window, two of them looked out over the gardens and orchard toward a rolling hill country, the other two had a view of the valley and the blue water of the lake not far away.
“Girls,” Adele exclaimed, “the rooms are each just as lovely as another, and I know that Betty and I shall be content to live in any one of them.”
Rosamond Wright and Bertha Angel, who were to be roommates, entered the door nearest and said that they would take possession of that room. Peggy Pierce and Doris Drexel, who were called the “Inseparables,” chose the corner overlooking the gardens; and Adele happily drew her little roommate into the sunny corner room which looked out toward the lake.