Other girls beside Madge and her friends were commenting that evening upon the sensation of the day. Some of them declared that they could see a difference in the two girls; others exclaimed that the new girl looked exactly like Sidney.
Sidney Thorne herself was very deeply annoyed, as she said frankly, though with reservations, to Fleta. “Yes, it will be a perfect nuisance to be taken for some one else or have some one taken for you. Fortunately the new senior seems to be unobjectionable so far as we can see. On the whole, I suppose that it is not very important. I shall ask the dean if I may not wear something which will identify me, to you girls, at least. In time every one will recognize some difference, I hope. We certainly can not look exactly alike and I shall adopt some different arrangement of my hair. Wouldn’t you, Irma?”
“That would be a good idea,” said Irma, who was quickly getting into something more comfortable than her dinner dress.
Sidney disappeared into her bedroom and came back with a pretty cluster of artificial flowers taken from her coat. “There,” she said, “I’ll wear this tomorrow. Everybody has seen me with this new bunch of posies.”
“You’d better wear something over your shoulders behind, too,” said Fleta. “I’d suggest a placard, ‘This is Sidney.’”
“Fleta!”
“Excuse me, Sid; I was trying to be funny.”
Sidney did not reply, but stood pulling out the flowers for a better effect. Fleta gave a quick glance at Irma, who frowned at her; and Edith, who also caught Fleta’s eye, shook her head, and lifted her hands in an expression of “It’s beyond me!”
Sidney now picked up her uniform and fastened the flowers high upon its shoulder. “Now,” she said, “that will be seen from either direction, Fleta. We can dismiss it all, I hope. It probably will not be very disagreeable as soon as it gets past the stage of mixing us up. Better not tell any of your secrets, girls, or talk about the Double Three, until you are sure it is I. Odd,—they say that twins think it fun to be taken for each other and like to mystify people.”
Fleta reported this to Dulcie, when Dulcie, in bathrobe and slippers, met her in the hall and asked her what Sidney thought of the “new girl who is her image.”