Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall Part 4

From the conversation of the two girls, Elizabeth caught such expressions as "that cla.s.s of people," "counting each penny," "bound down by poverty,"

and similar phrases.

The train had started on its way. A half-mile pa.s.sed before it again slowed up. "This is Gleasonton," said the lady, arising and coming to Mrs.

Koons to a.s.sist her with the children. With a farewell nod and smile to Elizabeth, they quitted the car. From the window she saw them try to make their way through the crowd of loafers which had gathered about the platform. Suddenly a young colored boy in snuff-colored suit and high hat appeared. He immediately took charge of the children, and with them in his arms pushed his way to where a carriage stood at the curb, the women following close at his heels.

As the train pulled out, Elizabeth saw them bowling down the country road in a wide-open barouche, with coachman and footman in livery.

It was not long until the trainman called "Exeter!" Elizabeth gathered up her wraps and magazines. She knew that she might expect a carriage from the Hall at the station to meet the students.

Landis and Min had also gathered together their belongings. As the train drew into the station, they were first on the platform.

"There's Jimmy Jordan!" they cried together, as a young colored boy with an expansive grin came up to take their luggage.

"Jimmy, how's the Hall?"

Jimmy responded with a grin just a little more expansive than the previous one.

Elizabeth stood close at their side. "Are you from Exeter Hall?" she asked the boy. Having received an answer which she supposed an affirmative, she handed him her checks and the baggage which she carried in her arms. The girls whom the boy had addressed as Miss Kean and Miss Stoner led the way.

Elizabeth followed at their heels, and in a few moments the three were being driven rapidly to Exeter Hall.

CHAPTER III.

THE DINNER EPISODE.

A drive of several miles through a beautiful country brought them to their destination. Elizabeth was surprised, for neither her father nor mother had prepared her for the beauty of the place; a long stretch of campus, with great forest trees, beyond which were the tennis-courts and athletic fields; then the Hall itself. The original building was a large wooden mansion with wide porches and s.p.a.cious rooms with low ceilings. But for years this had served as a home for the president of Exeter, the school itself having been removed to the newer buildings of gray stone.

The carriage pa.s.sed through shaded drives which led to the front entrance.

Arm in arm, groups of girls in white gowns were moving about or sat in little groups beneath the trees.

During the drive Elizabeth's companions had chattered continuously.

Elizabeth had paid little attention to them. Her eyes were on the new country about her.

"It must be nearly dinner-time," exclaimed Landis, as the carriage turned in at the entrance to the campus. "The girls are all out. I hope we'll be in time to go down with them. But we'll have to go in and do the 'polite'

with Miss Morgan."

"Nora O'Day is back," exclaimed Miss Kean. "Isn't that she out there on the campus with Mary Wilson?"

"It can't be. Mary Wilson and she were never friends." As she spoke, Landis leaned eagerly from the window to get a view of the campus. "It can't be Miss O'Day," she repeated. "She and Mary are not the same style at all."

"I think Miss O'Day's swell looking. Don't you?"

"She has plenty of money and knows how to dress," was the rejoinder.

They had reached the entrance door. Jimmy Jordan, who appeared to be general utility boy, dismounted to open the door for them. Then he led the way into the great hall and on to the office, throwing open the doors before him with energetic officiousness, giving one the impression that he was the most important personage at Exeter Hall.

On entering the office, a woman advanced to shake hands with Miss Stoner and Miss Kean. With a few words of greeting, she dismissed them each with a bunch of jangling keys, and the information that they were to occupy the same rooms as the previous year. Then she turned to Elizabeth. "This is Miss Hobart?" she said, shaking her hand cordially, and drawing her forward to a chair. "Your father wrote me that you would arrive to-day.

Jordan," to the boy who stood grinning at her side, "Miss Wilson is somewhere on the campus. Ask her to step to the office, please. Miss Wilson will be your roommate. She will take charge of you. If you will excuse me, I'll return to work which claims me." She turned to her desk and was soon absorbed in correspondence.

Elizabeth was thus given an opportunity to study her. She was a tall woman, so tall and slender that these qualities first impressed those who saw her. Yet later, when one stood beside her, you discovered to your surprise that she was merely the average woman in height. It had been her carriage, her manner of holding her head, which gave the impression of unusual height. One might have thought her critical and stern had it not been that the expression of her eyes, which were gray and unusually large, was gentle and shy. Her well-shaped head was crowned with coils of brown hair touched with gray drawn loosely back from a broad, low forehead. She was a woman who could not pa.s.s un.o.bserved in a crowd, yet she was not beautiful. It was that her presence was felt, rather than she herself observed. She had said little to the new student; yet the direct effect of her presence caused Elizabeth to be glad she had come to Exeter.

"Oh, here is Miss Wilson!" Dr. Morgan arose. "Miss Wilson, Miss Hobart will be your roommate. I shall put her in your care."

The girl extended her hand. She was not nearly so tall as Elizabeth. Her yellow hair without ribbon or comb hung about her ears. She shook her head and flung back her locks like a spirited young horse tossing its mane. Her eyes were brown and dancing and her face was br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with fun. Her voice was high pitched and so cheery that her hearers were compelled to believe that she was at that minute having the best time of her life.

"I have been expecting you," she cried. "I was hoping you would come to-day so that we could get to housekeeping to-morrow, for lessons begin the next day."

She led the way into the hall. Here she stopped to clap her hands in order to call Jimmy's attention. "Here, Jimmy, take this lady's checks and bring her trunks up to No. 10. If they are there before we get back from dinner, Jimmy, there'll be a piece of cake for you."

Jimmy grinned and rolled his eyes, then swung himself down the hall in search of the baggage.

Miss Wilson never ceased her chatter as they entered the side hallway and mounted the stairs.

"The students must not use the main stairway, except during commencement week, under penalty of death," she explained. "That's reserved for the Fac and other Lord-Highs. Here's our room--quite close to the stairway. A nuisance, you'll find it. Every girl on her way up or down will drop in to see us. It won't be because we're popular, but one can't help wanting to rest after climbing stairs, and our chairs are particularly easy." Her voice, as she talked, had a ring of laughter in it which made Elizabeth feel, for the moment, that having your friends love you for your chairs alone was the greatest fun in the world.

She led the way into their apartment. There was a big sitting-room with wide windows overlooking the campus; an open grate with log and gas fixtures, ready for the cooler days of autumn, filled the s.p.a.ce between the two windows. From this room a door led to a bedroom devoid of all furnishing except the simple essentials of a sleeping-place.

Miss Wilson drew forward a chair. "Sit here a moment to rest. Let me put your wraps away. I'll make a guest of you to-day. It isn't long until dinner-time. We are expected to change our dresses. But Miss Morgan will excuse you to-day as you have just arrived. I think you will like the girls here."

She chatted on while Elizabeth rested and prepared for dinner. She looked with admiration upon Elizabeth's linen frock and long braid of smooth hair. "I like the way you braid your mane," she laughed, giving a toss of her own. "It's the style of hair I've always coveted. A siege of fever a year ago is responsible for my new crop, short and curly. I look forward to the time when I, too, can appear with dignity and a coil of hair about my head."

"Do you think you could be dignified then?" asked Elizabeth shyly. She was standing in the middle of the bedroom with towel in hand. At her words Miss Wilson tossed her head.

"I'm afraid you will prove like the other girls here. They can not be brought to realize how much such trifles have to do with one's manner.

Short curls bobbing over one's shoulders and dignity can never go together. But let me put my hair up high and get on a trained skirt and you will see what you will see. People are bound to live up to their clothes. That is why, on general principles, I disapprove of bathing and gym suits. They give the wearer such a sense of freedom." She laughed again. Elizabeth knew not whether she were serious or joking. She was so effervescing with good humor that her companion had no opportunity for a moment's dullness or homesickness.

"There's the ten-minute bell," she exclaimed, as they returned to the study. "That is our last warning, and gives no one an excuse to be late.

You will find Exeter rigid in many ways, Miss Hobart. Miss Morgan is what I call a crank on development of character. She keeps track of the thousand little things that a girl is supposed not to do. In her lectures to us, which she gives twice a semester, she declares that these seeming trifles are neither sins nor crimes in themselves, but getting into the habit of yielding to trifles is detrimental to the development of strong character. Therefore," at this Miss Wilson drew herself up as tall as possible, and a.s.suming Miss Morgan's best manner continued, "trifles must be made subservient to us. We must conquer ourselves even in these." Here Miss Wilson laughed merrily. "Being late; not having your necktie straight; letting your shoes run down at the heel; missing lectures--these, all these, and hundreds more, are trifles."

There was a hurried knock at the door. Without waiting for an invitation to enter, a young lady came in. Elizabeth's fear of out-dressing the other girls vanished at the sight of her. The newcomer was a girl of slender physique and delicate, regular features. Her skin was almost olive in hue; her eyes were dark, with brows so heavy and black as to be noticeable.

They were too close together and her lips and nostrils too thin to permit her being beautiful. Her dress was handsome and showy. It was of white silk, elaborated with heavy insertions, and transparent yoke and sleeve-caps made it suitable for an evening gown. Her hands were covered with rings scintillating at every gesture. Each movement of her body suggested silk linings and petticoats. Her manner of speaking had a touch of affectation.

"Ah, Miss Wilson, I'm awfully sorry to intrude, but will you be kind enough to hook my waist? I can't reach the last two hooks on the shoulder.

This style of fastening dresses in the back is such a nuisance."

"Surely," replied Miss Wilson. Elizabeth was surprised at the change which came to her roommate's voice. There was neither vivacity nor good humor in it. It was expressive of mere icy courtesy.

"You must bend your knees a little, or I'll be compelled to get on a chair. You're so much taller than I."

The girl complied. Miss Wilson put the refractory hooks to their proper use, then stood quiet. Her guest made some trifling remark as though to continue the conversation; but received no encouragement. Her dark cheeks flushed. "Thank you," she began hurriedly, "I'm sorry to bother you so."

"It was no bother," in the same cold, conventional voice. "I can a.s.sist you any time. I understand how difficult it is to get into your clothes when you have no roommate to pull you together." Then with a smile she turned to Elizabeth. "Come, Miss Hobart, we must not be late for dinner the first evening at Exeter." So saying, she held open the door, allowing Elizabeth to precede her from the room. Miss Wilson gave no explanation to Elizabeth of her manner toward the girl; neither did she offer an excuse for not introducing her. As they pa.s.sed the open door, Elizabeth caught a view of this girl's study. It was more than comfortable. There was a luxury of soft cushions and rich hangings. There were chairs and tables of carved wood.

From all the rooms the students came forth two by two, their tongues flying as they made their way toward the dining-hall. There were frequent stops to greet one another, and a babel of voices expressing pleasure at this reunion. There were handshakes for those who were newcomers, and embraces for old friends. Every one knew every one else or was going through the first process of meeting them.

The olive-skinned girl in the handsome gown came from her room and pa.s.sed the others. Each girl was careful to nod and bid her good-evening, but none greeted her effusively or even so much as shook hands with her.