CHAPTER IV FOLLOW THE LEADER

 “You’ll love our room, Sue!” Mimi was saying as she relieved Sue of some of her luggage as they trailed Mrs. Cole’s swishing serge skirt toward Prep Hall. Styles could come and styles could go but Mrs. Cole’s dark gored¹ skirts with tails and her white shirt waists would be at Sheridan forever. “Mrs. Cole wears a uniform, too,” a last year’s girl had already informed Mimi.

 

“How did you manage to get here? Why didn’t I know? How could you keep from telling me?’

 

“Honest, Mimi—I didn’t know—I’m pinching myself to see if it’s I; that I’m actually here in the flesh. I’m scared to death I’ll wake up and be back in B. G.”

 

“Tell me before I go mad and bite myself!”

 

“The folks decided² I’d do more with my music here. Mother isn’t very well. My honorable male parent made some quick money in the stock market. I heard Mother telling him plenty about that, although they don’t know I did. Oh boy, was it good? Mother said it was gambling³ of the worst kind. Father said she must listen to reason. Finally in desperation he offered her half of it and Mother took him up and scared him sure enough. ‘All right, I’ll take it—I’ll take it and—and—send Sue to school!’”

 

“What an inspiration!”

 

“That’s all it was, I’m sure. She had been talking to your Mother on the telephone, saying goodbye or something and talking about how happy you were going to be here. I know that just popped in Mother’s head. But Father took her up on it. Whatever miracle it was, I’m here. My uniforms won’t get here for a week.”

 

Handicapped by bundles, they hugged each other the best they could.

 

Mrs. Cole turned and spoke⁴ to them.

 

“Young ladies, don’t make public displays of your emotions.”

 

The parrot-like way she said it, Mimi knew she had laid that law down a thousand times. She looked at Sue and said, “Br-r-r” and made motions of turning her collar up.

 

Mimi slowed up at 207 but Mrs. Cole kept right on.

 

“Excuse me, Mrs. Cole, but here is 207.”

 

“Well?”

 

“I am in 207.”

 

“Yes, goodnight, Mimi. Er—er—Lou.”

 

“My name is Sue, Sue Hawkins.”

 

“Yes, yes, Sue dear. This way. I am putting you in 321. It is a single room and I hope you’ll like it. Your reservation came in so late.”

 

“But Mrs. Cole—” Mimi had not stopped at 207. As soon as it dawned on her what was happening she hurried after them. “Mrs. Cole, please, Sue and I want to room together. I don’t have a roommate. You see we are both from B. G., and we know each other. We were in camp together this summer.”

 

“Our parents would want us to be together,” Sue took up Mimi’s desperate appeal.

 

“My dears, we have a policy here at Sheridan that new girls from the same town are not allowed to room together their first year. It breeds homesickness and cliques—we want neither. Next year if you still feel this way, we’ll see. Besides, Mimi, you have a roommate. I have assigned Clorissa Madison to 207 since supper. The adjoining room is full now. You may come with us, if you wish, and help Lou—er, I mean, Sue, unpack⁵.”

 

There was nothing further Mimi could do—not then. As soon as she and Sue closed the door of 321 behind Mrs. Cole, they put their heads together. Sue looked disgustedly at the narrow room.

 

“Even if I can’t room with you, I won’t stay in this room. I’ll go home first!”

 

“Forget it for tonight. Fix up and go back down to the parlors⁶ and meet some of the girls. I want to get back to 207-209 and see who has moved in. I am in a suite⁸, the only one in Prep Hall, and if I don’t like the other three girls I may envy you this single room. Go on down and I’ll join you later. In the meantime I hope to ‘scum a scheme.’”

 

Mimi was so absorbed that she absent mindedly turned in the open door of 209 and stumbled against a trunk in the dark. The hall light shown in through the open door on the name painted across the end in white letters—Betsy Buchanan.

 

“Whew!” Mimi whistled between her teeth. “Now that’s something!” She had wanted the cutest and the peppiest in her suite but this was more than she expected. Delighted as she was she felt strangely uneasy. Mimi backed away from the trunk and into the hall instead of cutting through the bathroom to 207. Here again she stumbled, another trunk tagged Clorissa Madison blocked her way again.

 

“Clorissa Madison,” Mimi said aloud and the sound was pleasing to her. “I wonder which one of all that mob downstairs is you, Chloe?”

 

She turned toward the parlor⁷ to find out.

 

Even as she arrived Chloe faded into the background of her mind. The scene had changed since she left. The college girls, instead of being grouped by classes as they were when she left, were massed in one large group. The new preps who had clustered so eagerly around Mimi had joined the old preps. Betsy was standing⁹ in front of the whole group giving directions.

 

Mimi watched from the edge of the crowd. Betsy, she knew, had what it took—pep, poise¹⁰, and that innate¹¹ gift of leadership.

 

Between the end of the last yell and the singing of Alma Mater, Mimi was conscious of lowered voices behind her. Two faculty¹² members strolling through the hall had paused to listen.

 

“The Buchanan girl is a born leader,” one of the voices said.

 

“I am too,” Mimi wanted to answer. Instead, she resolved to show them. “Actions,” Cissy had told her so often, “speak louder than words.”

1 gored   

v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was gored by a bull. 他被公牛顶伤。
• The bull gored the farmer to death. 公牛用角把农夫抵死了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 unpack   

vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货

参考例句：

• I must unpack before dinner.我得在饭前把行李打开。
• She said she would unpack the items later.她说以后再把箱子里的东西拿出来。

6 parlors   

客厅( parlor的名词复数 )； 起居室； （旅馆中的）休息室； （通常用来构成合成词）店

参考例句：

• It had been a firm specializing in funeral parlors and parking lots. 它曾经是一个专门经营殡仪馆和停车场的公司。
• I walked, my eyes focused into the endless succession of barbershops, beauty parlors, confectioneries. 我走着，眼睛注视着那看不到头的、鳞次栉比的理发店、美容院、糖果店。

7 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

8 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 poise   

vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信

参考例句：

• She hesitated briefly but quickly regained her poise.她犹豫片刻，但很快恢复了镇静。
• Ballet classes are important for poise and grace.芭蕾课对培养优雅的姿仪非常重要。

11 innate   

adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的

参考例句：

• You obviously have an innate talent for music.你显然有天生的音乐才能。
• Correct ideas are not innate in the mind.人的正确思想不是自己头脑中固有的。

12 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。