“Really? How nice. I’m sure I appreciate their interest in me.” The little girl’s glib reply smacked of insincerity. “Still, it was you who interested me most. You have an air about you. You’re so awfully swagger. And your dress—pardon me for mentioning it—it looks imported. Do you send to Paris for your clothes? I suppose you have been across often. You have so much individuality. I was in Paris all summer. I brought back acres of lovely clothes, too. Did I guess right? Have you been abroad often?” she inquired eagerly.
“Several times. Not as often as Miss Harper has been, though.” Leslie found secret satisfaction in her answer. “She comes from Ireland. Her father’s estate there is one of the largest in the country.”
“Ireland isn’t much of a country, though,” was the freshman’s unimpressed opinion. “She looks quite American.”
“Yes?” Leslie busied herself with her driving, vouchsafing no other reply. She was thinking that she would be better pleased to drop Miss Ogden at the Hall than she had been to meet her. She was not regretting the fact that there were no vacancies at Wayland Hall.
“Suppose I should be unable to secure a room at Wayland Hall.” Jewell Marie had begun on a new tack. “In such case, I shouldn’t mind rooming with you, if you would be willing to take me as a roommate.”
“What?” Sheer surprise brought Leslie’s pet ejaculation to her lips. She shot the car forward with a sudden jolt by way of relieving her feelings.
“Have you a large room? Is it second, or third floor; front or back?” quizzed the other girl.
“I—I—It would be impossible.” Leslie’s voice held finality. “I prefer to room alone. In the event that I should take a roommate, she would be a certain particular friend of mine, a senior, who also lives at the Hall. She is on her way to the U. S. now from Paris. Half of her room became vacant when her roommate left college last June, but I believe she and another senior have made arrangements to room together this year.”
“I’m sorry you feel like that about it. At Warburton the girls there were crazy to room with me, but I felt then just about the way you seem to feel in regard to taking a roommate. Oh, never mind. I daresay I shall have no trouble getting into Wayland Hall,” was the lofty, half piqued assertion. “Of course, I may not like the Hall. It will depend upon whether it appeals to me or not.”
“The part of the country we are now passing through is called Hamilton Estates.” Leslie was glad of an opportunity to change the subject. “We are coming to Hamilton Arms now. It was the home of Brooke Hamilton. He founded Hamilton College. His great-niece, Miss Susanna Hamilton, still lives at the Arms.”