The recitation over, she paused to greet the odd little man, who received her with delight, warmly shaking her hand. “Eet ees a grand plaisir thus to see you again, Mees Marjorie,” he declared. “Ah, I am assured that you at least weel nevaire say ‘oonpreepaired.’”
“I’ll try not to. I’m ever so glad to see you, too, Professor Fontaine.” After a brief exchange of pleasantries she left the class room a trifle hurriedly and set off to call on Miss Archer.
Entering the spacious living room office, she was forcibly reminded that Marcia Arnold’s high school days had ended on the previous June. The pretty room was quite deserted. Marjorie sighed as she glanced toward the vacant chair, drawn under the closed desk that had been Marcia’s. How much she would miss her old friend. Since that day long past on which they had come to an understanding, she and Marcia had found much in common. Marjorie sighed regretfully, wondering who Miss Archer’s next secretary would be.
As there was no one about to announce her, she walked slowly toward the half-closed door of the inner office. Pausing just outside, she peeped in. Her eyes widened with surprise as she caught sight of an unfamiliar figure. A tall, very attractive young woman stood before the principal’s desk, busily engaged in the perusal of a printed sheet of paper which she held in her hand. It looked as though Miss Archer had already secured someone in Marcia’s place.
“May I come in, please?” Marjorie asked sweetly, halting in the doorway.
The girl at the desk uttered a faint exclamation. The paper she held fluttered to the desk. A wave of color dyed her exquisitely tinted skin as she turned a pair of large, startled, black eyes upon the intruder. For a second the two girls eyed each other steadily. Marjorie conceived a curious impression that she had seen this stranger before, yet it was too vague to convey to her the slightest knowledge of the other’s identity.
“You are Miss Archer’s new secretary, are you not?” she asked frankly. “You can tell me, perhaps, where to find her. I have a note to deliver to her personally.”
A quick shade of relief crossed the other girl’s suddenly flushing face. Smiling in self-possessed fashion, she said, “Miss Archer will not be back directly. I cannot tell you when she will return.”
“I think I’ll wait here for her,” decided Marjorie. “I have no recitation this period.”
The stranger’s arched brows arched themselves a trifle higher. “As you please,” she returned indifferently. She again turned her attention to the papers on the desk.