“I think Miss Remson said she had half a room left, Muriel,” Vera said presently when the excitement attending Muriel’s unexpected arrival had abated.
“Oh, glorious! I hadn’t dare hope for a vacancy at the Hall. I thought I’d be lucky to get into any campus house. I suppose the Hall will be full of freshies this year.”
“Yes. Some of them haven’t arrived yet. We are going to do station duty tomorrow. Help Gussie and the Bertramites out with station detail,” Marjorie told Muriel.
“I haven’t seen Miss Remson yet. The maid let me in. I’ll go down stairs now. My bag and suitcase are in the hall.” Muriel rose and walked to the door. “Come on, gang, and go with me,” she crooked an inviting finger.
Down the stairs trooped the seven girls, Muriel and Marjorie in the lead. They swarmed Miss Remson’s tiny office where the manager sat writing. Her surprise at seeing Muriel was no less than that of the girls had been.
“Vera said you had half a room still open,” was Muriel’s immediate anxious cry. “If I may have it I’ll consider myself the luckiest person under the sun.”
Miss Remson sat back in her chair and surveyed Muriel with a perplexed frown. “Yes, there is half a room still vacant,” she said, her small keen face full of doubt: “half of Miss Monroe’s room.” Her gaze traveled to Marjorie and rested inquiringly on the latter’s concerned features.
“Oh-h-h!” went up in a breath from the enlightened group.
“What’s the matter?” Muriel appeared mystified. “Who’s Miss Monroe?” Repetition of the name jogged memory. “Oh, yes; I remember. She’s the pretty girl you told me about; the fairy-tale princess; beautiful but icy; et-cætera, et-cætera; as our esteemed roughneck, Jer—. Excuse me. I mean our valued friend Jerry Macy loves to say.”
Far from being dismayed at the prospect of an uncongenial roommate Muriel accepted the situation with her usual buoyant spirit. “What’s the use in worrying?” she demanded after she had asked numerous questions about her prospective roommate and received nothing but the kindest information her friends could truthfully give. “I know you girls are trying to live up to tradition. I can guess a good deal between the lines about my new roommate.”