“Go as far as you like. You won’t ruffle my feelings,” Leslie assured with an air of amusement. “If history should repeat itself, it would be one on me. Now wouldn’t it?”
“It’s far more likely to be the other way. None of the twelve may ever have heard of one another.” Vera took an optimistic view of the matter. “Hamilton has always had a large enrollment from New York City.”
“We shall soon know.” The long, sharp, echoing whistle of the incoming train from the East shrilled out upon the still afternoon air. Far down the track the five-fifty New York express shot into sight from around a curve.
Three pairs of alert eyes roved quickly up and down its length as it came to a final jarring stop in front of the station. The few persons issuing from the train were a signal disappointment to the welcoming delegation. No one of them could possibly be hailed as even an arriving student to Hamilton.
“Flop! Just like that!” Leslie simulated disappointed collapse. “Nary a freshie in sight, and the train’s getting ready to shoot.”
“Wait a minute. There’s a girl coming down the train steps, away up front.” Vera had spied a possible “catch.” “Oh, no, it isn’t,” she went on half dejectedly. Second glance had revealed the traveler as a youngster of presumably thirteen, or fourteen. “She’s just a little girl.”
In the instant of Vera’s exclamation the small figure had skipped nimbly down the last two steps of the car to the platform, laden though it was with a leather dressing-case and a good-sized black leather traveling bag.
“Upon my word! What?” broke in low, surprised tones from Leslie. “Give her another once-over, and walk out of the midget class, Vera. You have, at last, a deadly rival.”
“Why, the very idea!” Vera exhibited signal amazement. “You’re right, Leslie. She’s not a child, and she must be at least two inches shorter than I.”
Down the platform toward the astonished trio of post-graduates the diminutive figure of a girl was advancing at a brisk walk. Dressed in a pleated frock of bright green pongee which missed her knees by at least an inch, a close-fitting green hemp hat pulled down over her ears, she came on, confidently, surveying the three Hamilton girls with a pair of bright, jet-black eyes.