There was much going back and forth between suites, with many consultations and queries as to what would be suitable to wear. A junior girl, one who had been considered by the Bats as most desirable, asked Ann what she should wear and begged her to come to the junior cottage, to help her select. Ann was surprised to be regarded as authority on clothes, but readily consented. “You are dressed in such good taste, I notice,” said the junior, “and I want to wear what is customary here. I’d know what to put on at home.”
In pretty afternoon dresses, with hats and gloves, the girls made the ’buses that took them to town look like moving rainbows, and they fluttered into “Polly’s” with happy faces. Ann, as one of the old girls now, had no more wonderings as to whether she should fit this or that occasion. Her background was established. Ann’s distinctly interesting personality, her independence of character, the high quality of her work and the charm of her pleasant ways and sincerity had made her known, not only in her own class but in the school. Her chief delight at present was that Aline had accepted the Betas’ bid and that she was present as not merely a guest but a prospective initiate.
“Now, if we can only get the other girls that we want,” she thought, as she looked around the long table and noted with what care Alice and the senior girls in charge had seated the guests, their place cards next those girls who were good entertainers and especially attractive. “It’s certainly no harm to put our best foot foremost,” she thought, and said as much to Lucile, who happened to sit on the other side of her.
Lucile nodded and gave her a meaning look, or what was intended to be one. “Do your best,” she whispered, with a glance at the junior who had turned out to be in Ann’s charge, with a junior “Bat” on the other side of her.
With so much information about the school to be given and received, and with the natural excitement and pleasure incident to the beginning of a new school year, subjects of conversation were not lacking. The new girls could scarcely help enjoying the atmosphere of fun and good humor which prevailed, the stories of funny events, school delights and calamities, and the very presence of the prettily dressed, merry girls. Last but not least, as more than one of the Bats said, Polly’s “eats” were neither to be despised nor easily forgotten!
CHAPTER X
CONSIDERING VARIOUS THINGS
In the whirl of events it is not to be supposed that Ann forgot home affairs. Sometimes, when lights were out and she composed herself for the night, she had a sudden pang of homesickness. Once some noise wakened her in the middle of the night and she blushed in the darkness to think of how prudishly she had talked to Maurice on one occasion. “What must he think of me!” she thought. Yet there was an impulsiveness about Maurice that warranted caution. She did like him very, very much, and had appreciated the real affection with which he had received her into the family circle. As she lay awake, unable to fall asleep again for some time, she fancied them all there at her grandmother’s home. How was her mother enjoying it? It was not likely that she would let Ann know details, if they were annoying. How were Grandmother’s business affairs coming on? Would Aunt Sue and Uncle Tyson really take advantage of her confidence? Grandmother was pretty wide awake about things now.
Then she pictured her father in Montana,—so far, far away! It was hard on him to have Mother gone. She wondered if she would ever hear again from the old Indian, Never-Run, and her hand stole under her pillow to a small silk bag which her mother had made her. In this, unless she forgot it, she put the curious bracelet Never-Run had given her, together with certain precious mementos, the pretty jewelry that she had received from her grandmother at different times, and often what cash she had on hand. It was convenient for burglars, but also handy to swing on her arm during fire drill, which might or might not be the real thing. Her little ruby and diamond ring she usually wore, as well as her wrist watch. “It must be nearly morning,” she thought at last, after tossing for what seemed hours; but she had forgotten to put her flashlight under her pillow and was afraid to waken Marta by getting up. Finally she began to doze, and after a wild dream in which she and Maurice were dashing along a narrow mountain road, with Clifford on “Clipper” after them and calling to them to stop, she fell sound asleep.