“What in the world is a ‘shark’?” asked Hilary. “That is something new to me!”
“O, knows everything about it and takes the highest grades. The one in pink is her roommate, Margaret Brown. Isn’t she pretty?—the one in pale pink, with the real yellow hair. The other girl in pink is Dorothy Appleton. See her? She is in your class, too.”
At a table near, Dorothy was leaning forward, slender wrists braced against the edge of the table, while she talked earnestly to Julia Merton opposite. Small, white teeth, regular features, strong for a girl so young, and brilliant black eyes were much in evidence as she talked or smiled. Had Cathalina realized the part some of these girls would play in the drama of school life, she would have taken more pains to observe them.
“The proud looking girl looking this way, there at the foot of the second table over,—well, she was the captain of our Sophomore basketball team last year, Madge Ross. She is out of athletics now, she says. She can’t stand it to be beaten, has a high temper, is awfully blunt and can’t keep a roommate very long. I guess some new girl is going to have to stand it this year.”
Dessert over, a tap on the bell brought silence again, and Miss Randolph rose to make a few announcements and read important notices. One was passed to her as she stood there. There was little of the scene that Hilary or Cathalina missed.
“Let me repeat the announcement that schedules of studies, hours of recitation, rooms and teachers, will be found in the registrar’s office on the first floor, and posted also in the corridors. Miss Farrell’s office hours are posted at the door.
“Chapel will be held tomorrow morning at Randolph Hall, the building next to this. All the young ladies,—pupils of any age—are expected to be present.
“The Y. W. C. A. cabinet is asked to meet in the parlor immediately.
“I desire to meet all the new girls as soon as possible. You may come to the library of this building, _not_ of Randolph.”
“I’m just limp!” Cathalina remarked as at nine o’clock she sat braiding her locks for the night and wishing in the depths of her tired little soul for Etta to come and get her ready for bed. “That poor little Avalon Moore stuck to me as if I were her last friend. I loved to help her, but I knew so little myself. You were a dear, Hilary, to take hold and find her room and roommate for her.”