They had reached their room, and saw Hilary and Lilian just closing the door into their suite.
“I’m glad we’re not far from the girls. Wait till I see if Margaret is all right.” Kindly Isabel rapped on the door next to theirs and was greeted by a bright face as Margaret Hope threw it open. At different times through the day Isabel had helped Margaret with her schedule of work and shown her to the class rooms.
“Thank you, Isabel, I’m just starting in on lessons, and was reading over this letter from Father. I think I’ll have to tell you,—he had good luck in selling some stock and sent me a nice big check to buy some clothes. I guess he saw that my things were not right. O, Isabel, will you help me buy some? I hate to look so different.”
“Of course I will, though my taste is not like Cathalina’s or Lilian’s or some of the rest. Maybe you’d better ask Lilian. You know her best, don’t you?”
“Yes; but I’m afraid to.”
“Afraid of Lilian?”
“Why yes; she’s a regular angel, and I’d hate to have her feel like laughing at me.”
“Angels don’t laugh at folks, and neither would Lilian. You needn’t be afraid to ask her about anything, and she won’t talk about it, either, if you don’t want her to. Say, Margaret, if you’d let your hair down, or let it be a little looser in front it would be more becoming. We’ll talk clothes and things Saturday, and maybe go to town. So long, I’ve got to write a letter to Dad and the boys tonight. They brought me up, you know. I haven’t any mother.”
“Neither have I, Isabel.” The two girls gave each other an understanding look, but Isabel hurried off before any feeling should be displayed. Isabel always declared that she “hated waterworks.” But she had no sooner closed the door than she opened it again.
“I thought I’d tell you, Margaret, that whether the girls like you or not doesn’t depend on your clothes at Greycliff. It’s what you are. Of course we all like pretty clothes, and there is one silly set here that doesn’t think of much else. You can tell ’em by their grades. And you wouldn’t want to belong to that crowd, would you?”