The girls walked out of the hall and out upon the campus to one of the benches, under a beautiful elm. Girls were scattered everywhere over the green lawns, but this seat was empty.
Ann felt from Suzanne’s manner that she was in for something disagreeable, but calmly waited for the explosion, if explosion there was to be.
Suzanne came to the point immediately, sitting down and leaning toward Ann, her hands tightly clasped. “Did you know anything about this, Ann?”
“What do you mean? Did I know beforehand, you mean, about rooming arrangements? Indeed I did not. Did you?” Ann asked this question as keenly as Suzanne, though without the feeling behind it.
“Genevieve wrote Madeline a few days before we came that she had asked for a suite for us all. She was counting on rooming with Eleanor, and Eleanor has played her a mean trick! I did not say anything about it to you, Ann, because it was uncertain about our getting the suite, and I did not suppose that you would care; you were planning to room with Marta, weren’t you?”
“Certainly. We did not even ask to be in a suite, though we had expressed a preference for one, to Miss Tudor, one time. This was one great surprise to me, Suzanne.”
“I suppose so, but I wanted to make sure. And I can’t tell you, Ann, how I feel about Eleanor’s turning us down this way!” Suzanne’s eyes filled with tears. She started to speak again and could not. Finally she put her head down on Ann’s shoulder, shaking all over in the effort to control herself and keep from breaking into a storm of tears.
Ann took her hands and squeezed them, without saying a word. With a sob and a sigh, Suzanne presently raised her head. “Were any girls looking at us?” she asked.
“No,—not a soul around. Never mind, Suzanne. It isn’t worth feeling so bad about it.”
“Yes, it is, too, Ann. You don’t know what it means among our crowd of girls to be in with Eleanor.” There it was again! Ann’s sympathy received a jolt. It wasn’t that Suzanne cared so much for Eleanor, after all!