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Page 6
"I had already assigned you to a room," she said, "but from what you
tell me I fancy you would count it a privilege to be given Lloyd's old
room. If that is so I'll gladly make the change, although I do not know
whether the other girl assigned to that room will prove as congenial a
companion to you as the first selection. Her mother asked for that
particular room, so I cannot well change."
Mary's face grew radiant. "Oh, Madam Chartley!" she cried. "I'd room
with a Hottentot for a chance to stay inside the four walls that held
the Princess all her school-days. You don't know how much it means to
me! You've made me the happiest girl on the face of the globe."
"It's a far cry from Ethelinda Hurst to a Hottentot," laughed Madam
Chartley. "She comes from one of the wealthiest homes in the suburbs of
Chicago, and has had every advantage that civilization can offer. She's
been abroad eight times, I believe, and has always studied at home under
private tutors. She's an only daughter."
"How interesting! That will be lots more diverting than a room-mate who
has always done the same common-place things that I have. Oh, you've no
idea how hard I'm going to work to deserve all this! I wrote to Jack
last night that I intend to tackle school this year just the way I used
to kill snakes--with all my might and main!"
An amused expression crossed Madam Chartley's face again. She was
thinking of Ethelinda and the possible effect the two girls might have
on each other. At any rate it was an experiment worth trying. It might
prove beneficial to them both. She turned to Mary with a smile, and
pressed a button beside her desk.
"Your trunk shall be sent up as soon as the men find time to attend to
it. In the meantime you may take possession of your room as soon as you
please."
CHAPTER II
"THE KING'S CALL"
Left to herself in the room which she was to occupy for the year, Mary
stood looking around with the keen interest of an explorer. It was a
pleasant room, with two windows looking out over the river and two over
the garden. To an ordinary observer it had no claim to superiority over
the other apartments, but to Mary it was a sort of shrine. Here in the
low chair by the window her Princess Winsome had sat to read and study
and dream all through her school days.
Here was the mirror that had caught her passing reflection so often,
that it still seemed to hold a thousand shadowy semblances of her in its
shining depths. Only the June before (three short months ago) she had
stood in front of it in all the glory of her Commencement gown.
Mary crossed the room on tiptoe, smiling at the recollection of one of
her early make-believes. Oh, if it were only true that one could pass
through the looking-glass into the wonderland behind it, what a
charming picture gallery she would find! All the girls who had occupied
the room since Warwick Hall had been a school! Blue eyes and brown,
laughing faces and wistful ones, girls in gorgeous full dress, pluming
themselves for some evening entertainment, girls in dainty undress and
unbound hair, exchanging bed-time confidences as they prepared for the
night, ambitious little saints and frivolous little sinners--they were
all there, somewhere in the dim background of the mirror, and because of
them there was a subtle charm about the room to Mary, which she would
not have felt if she had been its first occupant.
"It's like opening an old drawer to drop in a handful of fresh
rose-leaves, and finding it sweet with the roses of a dozen Junes gone
by," she said to herself, so pleased with the fancy that she went on
elaborating it.
"And Lloyd has been here so lately that _her_ rose-leaves haven't even
begun to wither."
There is no loyalty like the loyalty of a little school-girl for the
older girl whom she has enshrined in her heart as her ideal; no
sentiment like the intense admiration which puts a halo around
everything the beloved voice ever praised, or makes sacred everything
the beloved fingers have touched. Mary Ware at sixteen had not outgrown
any of the ardent admiration for Lloyd Sherman which had seized her when
she was only eleven, and now the desire to be like her flared up
stronger than ever.
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