Arline.

"Four, I believe," replied Anne Pierson. "Were you thinking of
changing? We'd be glad to have you with us."

"I'd love to come, but Morton House is like home to me. Mrs. Kane
calls me the Morton House Mascot, and declares her house would go to
rack and ruin without me. She only says that in fun, of course."

"I think you'd make an ideal mascot for the sophomore basketball
team this year," laughed Grace. "Will you accept the honor?"

"With both hands," declared Arline. "Now, we had better start, or
we'll never get back to Vinton's. Ruth, you have my permission to
walk with Anne as far as your corner. It's five o'clock now. Shall
we agree to meet at Vinton's at half-past six? That will give us an
hour and a half to get the soot off our faces, and if the expressman
should experience a change of heart and deliver our trunks we might
possibly appear in fresh gowns. The possibility is very remote,
however. I know, because I had to wait four days for mine last year.
It was sent to the wrong house, and traveled gaily about the campus,
stopping for a brief season at three different houses before it
landed on Morton House steps. I hung out of the window for a whole
morning watching for it. Then, when it did come, I fairly had to fly
downstairs and out on the front porch to claim it, or they would have
hustled it off again."

"That's why I appointed myself chief trunk tender," said Ruth slyly.
"That trunk story is not new to me. This time your trunk will be
waiting on the front porch for you, Arline."