“Kindly permit me to finish.” Laura spoke in a tone which Stephanie recognized and dreaded. It meant that the wall of silence was likely to loom again between them, to remain raised indefinitely.
“Oh, pardon me,” she apologized with covert sarcasm.
“Neither Miss Harper nor Miss Cairns are the sort to ‘take sides’ in the way you seem to believe they might. If they were, they would certainly not be on yours. You were far more to blame the other night at the frolic than was Miss Ogden. If you had spoken to me, as you spoke to her, I should have been tempted to make more trouble for you than she made.”
“I was not to blame. She ruined my gown, then flew at me like a—a tiger,” stormed Stephanie.
“But not until you had called her a clumsy idiot, a bounder and various other uncomplimentary names,” Laura stolidly reminded. “You owe that girl an apology.”
“I,” Stephanie indicated herself with an outraged fore finger, “apologize to that miserable little upstart? I’ll never forgive her for having put me in such a humiliating position. I’ll find a way to get back at her for it, too. Remember what I say.”
“Oh, drop it,” Laura commented wearily. “The sooner you live down your part of that fuss, the better off you’ll be. And don’t come to me with any of your ridiculous revenge schemes. Nothing doing.”
“You talk like a prig—like one of those silly dormitory students,” Stephanie threw back with supreme contempt. “What has come over you, Laura Taylor? You act entirely different from the good pal you used to be to me.” Stephanie cunningly appealed to Laura from a standpoint of loyalty. Laura hated disloyalty.
“I’ve been loyal to you, if that’s what you mean.” Laura turned a coolly level gaze upon her friend’s petulant features. “Everything at Hamilton is so different from the way things were at prep school—more inspiring, and—” Laura paused, then added reflectively, “worth while.”
“Horrors! I hope you haven’t enlisted under the reform banner,” Stephanie sneered. “It looks fatally like it.”