Carol, in the lead, opened a door and stepping back with a wave of her hand, she exclaimed, “Enter, young ladies! This is your future home.”
“Oh, how pretty!” Adele declared, as they entered the corridor, the walls of which were a warm, creamy tint, bordered with apple-blossoms.
There were four large, sunny rooms opening from this hall. Each had a bow-window, two of them looked out over the gardens and orchard toward a rolling hill country, the other two had a view of the valley and the blue water of the lake not far away.
“Girls,” Adele exclaimed, “the rooms are each just as lovely as another, and I know that Betty and I shall be content to live in any one of them.”
Rosamond Wright and Bertha Angel, who were to be roommates, entered the door nearest and said that they would take possession of that room. Peggy Pierce and Doris Drexel, who were called the “Inseparables,” chose the corner overlooking the gardens; and Adele happily drew her little roommate into the sunny corner room which looked out toward the lake.
Carol and Evelyn followed Adele. “We’ll go if we’re in your way,” Carol said, but Adele assured them that they were welcome visitors.
“Oh, girls,” Betty Burd exclaimed as she looked about at the pretty bird’s-eye maple furniture, the twin beds, the muslin curtains fluttering in the breeze, and the window-seat heaped with pillows, “I just know that we are going to have the best times ever.”
“Of course we are,” Adele declared as she began to unpack her suit-case. “I’ll keep my pictures and books and things on one side of the room, Betty, and you keep yours on the other. Oh, how do you do, Miss Angel?” she added as Bertha appeared in the open doorway. “Haven’t we a pretty room?”
“Yes indeed!” Burdie replied. “I was just thinking about that fourth room. Wouldn’t it be nice if Evelyn and Carol could have that instead of strange girls?”
“Oh, how I wish we could!” Carol exclaimed. “Evelyn, would you like to move into this wing? I am sure that Madame Deriby would be willing.”
“Yes, I would like it and I know that you would enjoy being nearer your friends. I will go at once and ask Madame Deriby if she is willing that we make the change.”
The permission was readily granted and during the next hour the eight girls were happily busy making excursions to Evelyn’s old room in the west wing, helping those two girls to move.