For the next half hour the travelers were busily engaged in removing the dust of their journey and attiring themselves in the dainty summer frocks which they had taken thought to pack in their suit cases.

“I’m ready,” announced Grace at last, as she poked a rebellious lock of hair into place, and viewed herself in the mirror.

“So am I,” echoed Anne.

“And I,” from Miriam.  “Why not walk down stairs?  We are on the second floor, and I never ride in an elevator when I can avoid doing so.”

The trio descended the stairs and made their way to the dining room, where they were conducted to a table near an open window which looked out on a shady side porch.

“So far I haven’t been imbued with what one might call college atmosphere,” remarked Miriam, after the dinner had been ordered and the waiter had hurried off to attend to their wants.

“I felt a certain amount of enthusiasm while those upper class girls were with us, but it has vanished,” said Anne.  “I am just a professional staying at a hotel.”

“I imagine we won’t begin to regard ourselves as being a part of Overton College until after we have tried our examinations and found an abiding place in some one of the college houses.  I hope we shall be able to get into a campus house.  I have always understood that it is ever so much nicer to be on the campus.  We really should have made arrangements before-hand, and if we hadn’t waited until the last moment to decide to what college we wished to go we might be cosily settled now.”

“Perhaps we are only fulfilling our destiny,” smiled Miriam Nesbit.

“Perhaps,” agreed Grace in a doubtful tone.  “Once we are in our hall or boarding house I dare say we will shake off this feeling of constraint and become genuine Overtonites.”

“Had we better study to-night?” inquired Grace as they made their way from the hotel dining room.

“I think it would be a wise proceeding,” agreed Miriam.  “I want to go over my French verbs.”

“So do I,” echoed Grace.  “Let’s study until ten, and then go straight to bed.”

Ten o’clock stretched well toward eleven before Grace put down her text book with a tired little sigh and declared herself too sleepy for further study.

It had been arranged that Miriam should occupy the one room of the suite while Grace and Anne were to share the other, which had two beds.  The long journey by rail had tired the travelers far more than they would admit.  For a few moments, after retiring, conversation flourished between the two rooms, then died away in indistinct murmurs, and the prospective Overton freshmen slept peacefully as though safe in their Oakdale homes.

CHAPTER IV

MIRIAM’S UNWELCOME SURPRISE

The two days that followed were busy ones for Grace, Anne and Miriam.  The morning after their arrival Mabel Ashe and Frances Marlton appeared at half-past eight o’clock to conduct them to Overton Hall.  There they registered and were then sent to the room where the examination in French was to be held.  Examinations in the other required subjects followed in rapid succession and it was Friday before they had settled themselves in Wayne Hall, the house in which they were to live as students of Overton College.