They walked home almost in silence. Katherine, missing the murmur of conversation, wondered if this last effort at reconciliation had failed after all; but near Mrs. Chapin's the talk began again.

"I'm only sorry there isn't more of spring term left to have a good time in. Why, Eleanor, there's only two weeks."

"But there's all next year," answered Eleanor.

"I thought you weren't coming back."

"I wasn't, but I am now. I've got to--I can't go off letting people think that I'm only a miserable failure. The Watson pride won't let me, Betty."

"Oh, people don't think anything of that kind," objected Betty consolingly.

"I know one person who does," said Eleanor with decision, "and her name is Eleanor Watson. I decided while I was out there waiting for you that one's honest opinion of herself is about as important as any outsider's.

Don't you think so?"

"Perhaps," said Betty gaily. "But the thing that interests me is that you're coming back next year. Why, it's just grand! Shall you go on the campus?"

CHAPTER XX

LOOSE THREADS

Betty Wales had to leave her trunk half packed and her room in indescribable confusion in order to obey a sudden summons from the registrar. She had secured a room on the campus at last, so the brief note said; but the registrar wished her to report at the office and decide which of two possible a.s.signments she preferred.

"It's funny," said Betty to Helen, as she extracted her hat from behind the bookcase, where she had stored it for safe keeping, "because I put in my application for the Hilton house way back last fall."

"Perhaps she means two different rooms."

"No, Mary says they never give you a choice about rooms, unless you're an invalid and can't be on the fourth floor or something of that kind."

"Well, it's nice that you're on," said Helen wistfully. "I don't suppose I have the least chance for next year."

"Oh, there's all summer," said Betty hopefully. "Lots of people drop out at the last minute. Which house did you choose?"

"I didn't choose any because Miss Stuart told me I would probably have to wait till junior year, and I thought I might change my mind before then."

"It's too bad," said Betty, picking her way between trunk trays and piles of miscellaneous debris to the door. "I think I shall stop on my way home and get a man to move my furniture right over to the Hilton."

"Oh, wouldn't it be lovely if I'd got into the Hilton house too!" said Helen with a sigh of resignation. "Then perhaps we could room together."

"Yes," said Betty politely, closing the door after her. Under the circ.u.mstances it was not necessary to explain that Alice Waite and she had other plans for the next year.

It was a relief to stop trying to circ.u.mvent the laws of nature by forcing two objects into the s.p.a.ce that one will fill--which is the cardinal principle of the college girl's June packing--and Betty strolled slowly along under the elm-trees, in no haste to finish her errand. On Main Street, Emily Davis, carrying an ungainly bundle, overtook her.

"I was afraid I wasn't going to see you to say good-bye," she said.

"Everybody wants skirt braids put on just now, and between that and examinations I've been very busy."

"Are those skirts?" asked Betty.

"Yes, two of Babbie's and one of Babe's. I was going up to the campus, so I thought I'd bring them along and save the girls trouble, since they're my best patrons, as well as being my good friends."

"It's nice to have them both."

"Only you hate to take money for doing things for your friends."

"Where are you going to be this summer?" inquired Betty. "You never told me where you live."

"I live up in northern New York, but I'm not going home this summer. I'm going to Rockport----"

"Why, so am I!" exclaimed Betty. "We're going to stay at The Breakers."

"Oh, dear!" said Emily sadly, "I was hoping that none of my particular friends would be there. I'm going to have charge of the linen-room at The Breakers, Betty."

"What difference does that make?" demanded Betty eagerly. "You have hours off, don't you? We'll have the gayest sort of a time. Can you swim?"

"No, I've never seen the ocean."

"Well, Will and Nan will teach you. They're going to teach me."

Emily shook her head. "Now, Betty, you must not expect your family to see me in the same light that you do. Here those things don't make any difference, but outside they do; and it's perfectly right that they should, too."

"Nonsense! My family has some sense, I hope," said Betty gaily, stopping at the entrance to the Main Building. "Then I'll see you next week."

"Yes, but remember you are not to bother your family with me. Good-bye."

"Good-bye. You just wait and see!" called Betty, climbing the steps.

Half-way up she frowned. Nan and mother would understand, but Will was an awful sn.o.b. "He'll have to get used to it," she decided, "and he will, too, after he's heard her do 'the temperance lecture by a female from Boston.' But it will certainly seem funny to him at first. Why, I guess it would have seemed funny to me last year."

The registrar looked up wearily from the litter on her desk, as Betty entered. "Good-afternoon, Miss Wales. I sent for you because I was sure that, however busy you might be you had more time than I, and I can talk to you much quicker than I could write. As I wrote you, I have reached your name on the list of the campus applicants, and you can go into the Hilton if you choose. But owing to an unlooked-for falling out of names just below yours, Miss Helen C. Adams comes next to you on the list. You hadn't mentioned the matter of roommates, and noticing that you two girls live in the same house, I thought I would ask you if you preferred a room in the Belden house with Miss Adams. There are two vacancies there, and she will get one of them in any case."

"Oh!" said Betty.

"I shall be very glad to know your decision to-night if possible, so that I can make the other a.s.signment in the morning, before the next applicant leaves town."

"Yes," said Betty.

"You will probably wish to consult Miss Adams," went on the registrar.

"I ought to have sent for her too--I don't know why I was so stupid."

"Oh, that's all right," said Betty hastily. "I will come back in about an hour, Miss Stuart. I suppose there isn't any hope that we could both go into the Hilton."

"No, I'm afraid not. Any time before six o'clock will do. I shan't be here much longer, but you can leave the message with my a.s.sistant. And you understand of course that it was purely on your account that I spoke to you. I thought that under the circ.u.mstances----" The registrar was deep in her letters again.

But as Betty was opening the door, she looked up to say with a merry twinkle in her keen gray eyes, "Give my regards to your father, Miss Wales, and tell him he underrates his daughter's ability to take care of herself."

"Oh, Miss Stuart, I hoped you didn't know I was that girl," cried Betty blushing prettily.