“Then let’s get the bags put away and go outside,” proposed Cara. “Since you haven’t been travelling——”
“But we have!” joked Ruth. “Didn’t I make the Taxi-Dermot drive me all over the world in his rattle-box?”
“Then perhaps you want to change,” suggested Cara in the same joking manner. “You must be worn out, Ruthie dear,” she mocked. “I’ll have my maid help you into a warm baa-th——”
“You will not! I’ve been in the ocean and if I don’t walk straight I’ll spoil something, for my ears are leaking the briny,” chuckled Ruth, merrily.
Barbara was merely looking on and listening. She felt out of place, even awkward, but she knew how to affect poise even if she didn’t feel it. Yes, she had needed the companionship of girls; there was no denying that, she was secretly willing to admit.
Up the stairs they raced, suit-cases banging along with them, while Sniffy, the poodle, turned up his little black nose and went the other way. The Burkes might not have been of the class picturesquely called “high-hat” which is the newer word for high-toned, but Sniffy was worse than that. He was snobby. He hadn’t any use for giggling girls and he gruntily resented their invasion of the beautiful Billows.
“I was going to have a drawing for room-mates,” Cara told the girls who were now all gathered in her gold and green room. “But honestly, girls, I just——”
“Oh, we know you want Barbara——”
“Babs,” corrected Cara. “We’re going to call you Babs, aren’t we?” she asked the girl who was lost in admiration of a marine scene that hung between the two latticed windows.
“Let’s get out while it’s so lovely——” suggested Esther, and in that little suggestion one might have noticed that Esther was adroitly managing to divert attention from Babs. For which Babs was thankful, although Esther could not possibly have known that.