“Now let’s all meet in my room as soon as dinner is over,” she whispered. “Tell the others to be there promptly.”
An hour later eight girls were gathered in Anita’s room. Because of the storm, they could not have their usual outdoor recreation and so they had been told that they might do whatever they wished.
“Sit down, every one,” Gladys Merle exclaimed. “Anita has read the letter to herself and now she will read it aloud to you. I guess you will be surprised at what you are to hear.
“Lock the door, somebody,” Gladys Merle went on. “We don’t want to be interrupted while we are deciding the fate of these newcomers.”
Jenny Clark sprang up to do their leader’s bidding, and then, when she was reseated in the semicircle on the floor in front of the fireplace, Anita Ryan opened the letter and began to read:
“My dear Niece: You ask about a group of girls who recently left Sunnyside to attend the Linden Hall boarding-school. They all belong to well-to-do families except Carol Lorens. I have been told that her father is a poor lawyer who could not afford to send his daughter to a fashionable school and it is rumored that she was sent there as a paid companion for the wealthy Mr. Dartmoor’s granddaughter.”
“There! What do you think of that?” Gladys Merle exclaimed as she looked about triumphantly. “You see I was right. It pays to snub a girl until you find out who she really is.”
Then, to the surprise of the others, little Janet Nagel said, defiantly, “I don’t care if Carol Lorens’ father is poor. I think she is a lovely girl, and I, for one, am not going to snub her. One might think that your father was nobility, Gladys Merle, by the way you act.”
The young lady addressed tossed her head indignantly. “My father is rich enough to buy any kingdom on this earth,” she boasted, “and he’s handsome and stately,” she added, but before many days passed she had occasion to regret that she had uttered this untrue statement, since it had not been necessary.
That night when the pupils were gathered in their recreation hall, Gladys Merle brushed against Carol and did not apologize for her rudeness. Janet Nagel, who had seen this, flashed an indignant glance at Gladys and then hurrying after Carol, she slipped her arm about her waist as she said: “I like you, Miss Lorens. I wish I might be one of your friends.”