CHAPTER V TUMBLE INN

 Under ordinary circumstances Mimi would have liked Chloe. If Sue had not come she might even have chosen her from all the Prep students for her roommate. Chloe was exquisite¹ to look at—shining black hair, wide dark eyes which were never looking squarely at you but beyond you; slim hands with shapely well cared for nails. She was sensitive and shy and lived way down inside of herself somewhere. It seemed strange to Mimi to have slept in the same bed with a girl, to run in and out of the same room a whole day and not exchange more than a dozen words with her. If Mimi couldn’t be friendlier than this she shouldn’t have been an honor camper. The two girls were dressing² for supper, it was supper at Sheridan every night but Friday; then it was dinner with candle salad (pineapple with a banana standing³ in the hole topped with a flame colored cherry). Betsy was stirring around in the bathroom humming “Sheridan, My Sheridan.”

 

“Chloe,” Mimi began. She couldn’t stand the reticence⁴ any longer—“Do you want to change roommates? Don’t you like me?”

 

Mimi didn’t get to finish then for Sue popped in.

 

“Uniforms!” she gasped⁵. “You look swell⁶!”

 

“We do at that, don’t we?” Mimi answered pirouetting before the mirror. The plain dark-blue dress with the white collar and cuffs⁷ was flattering to Mimi and even more so to Chloe. White framed her delicately carved face—you forgot the rest.

 

“I’ll be glad when mine comes—I feel odd.”

 

“You get to wear them long enough,” Betsy called out.

 

“Come on in,” Sue called. She was greatly impressed with Betsy. She moved out of the chair and flopped⁸ on the edge of the bed. But Betsy did not sit down; she stood in the door combing her curly hair.

 

“The worst thing has happened to me. Laura Lou Mitchell—last year’s most popular Prep—who reserved this room with me last June is not coming back. Mrs. Cole just told me. Gee⁹! I was scared to death when she sent for me. I thought, Oh, my gosh! What have I done now? Believe me I was relieved when she told me about the wire from Laura Lou’s dad. Of course, I’m terribly disappointed. The worst of it is I could have got Magdalene or Lida or anyone I wanted.” Betsy did not say this conceitedly¹⁰. She was attractive, popular, and she knew it but never, never, could she be called a snob¹¹ or overbearing. “They’re all signed up now. Mrs. Cole is so cranky about changes. Anyhow, they’d feel second choice now.”

 

Chloe fastened the safety catch on her brooch, gave her hair a final smoothing down and turned her eyes away quickly. She knew about second choices. “It’s just as if Mimi knew about me,” she was thinking for the hundredth time. “But she doesn’t; none of them do—I’ve never told a soul.”

 

“Say!” Sue exclaimed grabbing her head as if it were hurting and rolling her eyes, “I’ve an idea!”

 

“It must hurt terribly,” Mimi laughed, “but do tell us.”

 

“Summoning all the nerve and courage I have, I shall plainly and simply state my case.”

 

“Simply,” Betsy interrupted. “You sound like Olivia already and I loathe¹² the sight of the dictionary.”

 

“’Scuse me for living,” Sue murmured, “I just thought I had an idea.”

 

“Oh, come on,” urged Mimi.

 

“O. K.; here goes. Betsy, if you can’t find anyone else to room with you”—Sue hesitated—“you might try me; you could do a whole lot worse.”

 

“Perfect!” Mimi clapped her hands.

 

“Why, I’ll have to speak to Mrs. Cole about it.” Betsy was used to choosing and not to being chosen. When she saw Sue’s round happy face darken, she added, “I hope she will let us; I believe we’d get on!”

 

The supper bell rang and Betsy was gone. The minute Betsy turned her back, Mimi and Sue danced wildly around the study table in anticipation¹³, then started down the hall. Chloe was left to turn off the light and close the doors. Half way down the stairs Mimi remembered.

 

“Come on Chloe,” she called back. “Please excuse us, but you don’t know how badly I want Sue with us.”

 

“Yes, I do,” Chloe answered quietly as the three girls moved toward the dining room.

 

One-half minute before heads were bowed for the blessing¹⁴ Betsy stepped up behind Mimi.

 

“Mrs. Cole says ‘Yes.’” She had to stand by Mimi during the blessing and all but fly to her table to be seated with the others.

 

During supper Mimi was absorbed with the moving plans. That “scheme” she had been “scumming”—Mimi had picked up many of her unique sayings from Cissy—was working on her again.

 

Then, too, she was busy getting acquainted with girls all over again. They seemed so different in their uniforms.

 

Since this was the last free night for some time, Betsy had so many callers she could not help move. Chloe had an art conference so it was Mimi who helped Sue throw her things together and shut her trunk. The janitor¹⁵ would bring it in the morning. They felt like intruders when they butted¹⁶ Betsy’s half-opened door wide open—they had no hands to turn the knob. “Lazy Man’s loads” Cissy would call them.

 

“Landslide?” a caller asked Betsy.

 

“No, my roommate.”

 

“But I thought Laura Lou?”

 

“So did I, but she isn’t, girls, this is Sue and you all know Mimi by now I imagine. Red-headed people always manage to be known.”

 

“Couldn’t be a dirty dig?” Mimi flushed.

 

“Compliment,” Betsy replied.

 

“Which end of the closet is mine?” Sue asked relieving the tension.

 

When Betsy rose to show her and to help, the callers left.

 

“As soon as Chloe comes home”—the suite¹⁷ was already home—“we must have a family conference.” Mimi wanted to get them together to explain her scheme. “Sue, don’t unpack¹⁸ yet,” Mimi ordered. “I’m going after Chloe.”

 

She was gone leaving good-natured Sue who took orders alike from Betsy and Mimi.

 

“207-209 is called a suite,” Mimi was explaining to her suite mates when she had rounded up Chloe. “That’s wrong. It’s nothing but two bedrooms with a connecting bath. The only difference I see in it and the other second floor rooms is that we don’t have to use the community baths. A real suite,” Mimi assumed her fourteen-year-old manner of wisdom, “has a sitting room as well as a bedroom.”

 

“I know it.” Betsy couldn’t have them think she didn’t know what a suite was. “When father and I were in Memphis at the——”

 

“I suggest we make this a real suite,” Mimi was not to be interrupted. “Let’s move both double beds in this room, it’s larger, and both dressers and fix the tables and chairs in the other room. We can put pillows on the trunks—that is your trunks—mine is a wardrobe and I will leave it open flat against the wall and hang a cretonne curtain over it, they will be a sort of divan¹⁹.”

 

“Grand!” from Sue.

 

“I don’t care” from Chloe. The opinion of second choices didn’t matter.

 

“Let’s do it right now!” from Betsy.

 

The next hour saw 207-209 transformed. Pictures, scrapbooks, pillows, Betsy’s table lamp, Sue’s violin and music cabinet made the sitting room quite livable. Photographs, quite a clutter²⁰ of them. The best looking one was Jack²¹, Betsy’s grown brother. Mimi’s tennis racquet and Betsy’s tennis racquet were hung crosswise on the wall, the way Mimi had seen in pictures. The closet space was allotted²², towel rods and tooth paste spaces designated, the beds made. Lots were drawn²³ for bed fellows and Mimi and Chloe were still together. Then again, numbers 1 to 10 were guessed for the bed nearer the window. Betsy won. Sue was glad because she was a fresh-air fiend.

 

“Isn’t this much better?” Mimi asked proudly as the four tired girls relaxed in their bright pajamas²⁴ in the living room.

 

“It calls for a celebration,” Betsy agreed.

 

So saying she opened her dresser drawer and pulled out a large square tin box. “My treasure chest,” she informed her suite mates. “Cake—a date cake—I’ve been saving for a very special occasion.”

 

“Precious! Too precious!” sighed Mimi happily. “Only one thing to make our plan perfect. A name for the suite. 207-209 sounds too ordinary for anything so grand.”

 

“Let’s call it Tumble Inn,” Sue suggested, licking her fingers. “I wanted to name our hut at camp that. I think it’s cute.”

 

“Not ritzy enough,” Betsy said, shrugging.

 

“I like it,” said Chloe, who had spoken only once or twice all evening.

 

“Good!” Mimi said with an air of finality. “I like it too, because that’s the way I came in last night—tumbled in—and that will be the way we will get in most of the time unless y’all are better housekeepers²⁵ than I.”

 

“We got hut honors at camp once, Mimi,” Sue remarked.

 

“Yes, I know. Chloe, can’t you make us a card for the living room door?”

 

“I’ll try,” Chloe answered. The way she said it, Mimi knew it was as good as done—clever, neat.

 

Mimi went to sleep with a smile on her face. Tumble Inn was a nice place to live. She would make Betsy like her. She would make Chloe like her. She would like them so much they couldn’t help but return it. Sheridan was nice, too. It would take more than the hectic²⁶ trials of Green Cap Week, which began tomorrow, to change her mind.

1 exquisite   

adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的

参考例句：

• I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工。
• I still remember the exquisite pleasure I experienced in Bali.我依然记得在巴厘岛所经历的那种剧烈的快感。

2 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

3 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。

4 reticence   

n.沉默，含蓄

参考例句：

• He breaks out of his normal reticence and tells me the whole story.他打破了平时一贯沈默寡言的习惯，把事情原原本本都告诉了我。
• He always displays a certain reticence in discussing personal matters.他在谈论个人问题时总显得有些保留。

5 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 swell   

vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强

参考例句：

• The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
• His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。

7 cuffs   

n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• a collar and cuffs of white lace 带白色蕾丝花边的衣领和袖口
• The cuffs of his shirt were fraying. 他衬衣的袖口磨破了。

8 flopped   

v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的过去式和过去分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅

参考例句：

• Exhausted, he flopped down into a chair. 他筋疲力尽，一屁股坐到椅子上。
• It was a surprise to us when his play flopped. 他那出戏一败涂地，出乎我们的预料。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 gee   

n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转

参考例句：

• Their success last week will gee the team up.上星期的胜利将激励这支队伍继续前进。
• Gee,We're going to make a lot of money.哇！我们会赚好多钱啦！

10 conceitedly   

自满地

参考例句：

• He always acts so conceitedly! 他行事总是那么自以为是。

11 snob   

n.势利小人，自以为高雅、有学问的人

参考例句：

• Going to a private school had made her a snob.上私立学校后，她变得很势利。
• If you think that way, you are a snob already.如果你那样想的话，你已经是势利小人了。

12 loathe   

v.厌恶，嫌恶

参考例句：

• I loathe the smell of burning rubber.我厌恶燃着的橡胶散发的气味。
• You loathe the smell of greasy food when you are seasick.当你晕船时，你会厌恶油腻的气味。

13 anticipation   

n.预期，预料，期望

参考例句：

• We waited at the station in anticipation of her arrival.我们在车站等着，期待她的到来。
• The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安，像是感到了地震即将发生。

14 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

15 janitor   

n.看门人，管门人

参考例句：

• The janitor wiped on the windows with his rags.看门人用褴褛的衣服擦着窗户。
• The janitor swept the floors and locked up the building every night.那个看门人每天晚上负责打扫大楼的地板和锁门。

16 butted   

对接的

参考例句：

• Two goats butted each other. 两只山羊用角顶架。
• He butted against a tree in the dark. 他黑暗中撞上了一棵树。

17 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。

18 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。

19 divan   

n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集

参考例句：

• Lord Henry stretched himself out on the divan and laughed.亨利勋爵伸手摊脚地躺在沙发椅上，笑着。
• She noticed that Muffat was sitting resignedly on a narrow divan-bed.她看见莫法正垂头丧气地坐在一张不宽的坐床上。

20 clutter   

n.零乱，杂乱；vt.弄乱，把…弄得杂乱

参考例句：

• The garage is in such a clutter that we can't find anything.车库如此凌乱，我们什么也找不到。
• We'll have to clear up all this clutter.我们得把这一切凌乱的东西整理清楚。

21 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

22 allotted   

分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I completed the test within the time allotted . 我在限定的时间内完成了试验。
• Each passenger slept on the berth allotted to him. 每个旅客都睡在分配给他的铺位上。

23 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

24 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

25 housekeepers   

n.（女）管家( housekeeper的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Can you send up one of your housekeepers to make bed? 请你派个女服务员来整理床铺好吗？ 来自互联网
• They work as gas station attendants, firemen, housekeepers,and security personnel. 本句翻译：机器人也能够作为煤气站的服务员，救火队员等保安作用。 来自互联网

26 hectic   

adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的

参考例句：

• I spent a very hectic Sunday.我度过了一个忙乱的星期天。
• The two days we spent there were enjoyable but hectic.我们在那里度过的两天愉快但闹哄哄的。