CHAPTER VIII

OLD FRIENDS AND AN ENEMY

"Welcome to our city!" It was Walter's hearty voice greeting Nan and Bess as their train pulled into the busy Chicago station.

Nan caught her breath. How nice he looked! How much older he seemed. She smiled up at him.

"You seem to have a habit of meeting us at stations," she remarked. They all laughed, remembering Nan and Bess' first entrance into Freeling, their first ride with Walter and Linda Riggs' consequent anger.

"And you seem to have a habit of going places," Walter returned as he smiled back at them. How pretty they looked! How much older they seemed! How pink Nan's cheeks were! Could it be that she was embarrassed? The very same thoughts that were running through Nan's mind were running through his. They both felt easier when Grace, Amelia, Laura, and Rhoda descended on them.

"Come on, you old pokes," Grace said. "We've got things to do."

"Yes," Amelia contributed her bit, "and we're late already." With this she looked meaningly at her latest acquisition--a new wristwatch.

"What, another?" Laura appeared to be stunned at the information.

"Yes, funny," Amelia wrinkled up her nose at her friend. "It was a going away present from my dad. Don't you like it?"

The girls all crowded round to see. It was a pretty little thing, small and oblong and tailored looking and it went quite perfectly with the pretty tailored suit that Amelia was wearing. She turned it so they could see her initials on the back and the date, all engraved in Old English style.

Now as they crowded into the Mason town car and were whisked away to the big Mason home, they compared notes on their visits. Nan and Bess had been to four--no less than four--bon voyage parties, and they were laden with all sorts of gifts from their friends and former class-mates at Tillbury High School. Rhoda was the proud possessor of new luggage, the gift of cowboys on her Dad's ranch. Amelia had her watch, Grace a sizable check to do with as she pleased on her trip. And Laura had the greatest surprise of all.

She had had her bright red hair curled so that it was like a soft halo all around her pert little face! "Turn around," the girls commanded when she took her hat off.

"It looks just darling, Laura," Bess said.

"Perfectly lovely," Nan agreed. "You'll be the belle of the boat."

"Do you really like it?" Laura sounded just a little worried as she looked at them. "Do you think that Dr. Prescott will approve?" she asked Nan anxiously.

"Of course she will," Nan answered confidently. "Why Laura," she said, turning her friend's head around so that she could get a side view again, "you've changed from an ugly duckling to a pretty young lady. I don't see how Dr. Prescott could possibly object."

Laura grinned roguishly. "Do you know, when I look into the mirror, I hardly recognize myself, but then when I open my mouth and hear what comes out, I'm perfectly sure that I haven't changed a bit. Then I feel utterly discouraged." She looked as woeful as possible, when she finished the sentence, but nothing could disguise the fact that Laura and the whole crowd of Lakeview Hall students were on top of the world. It was a merry bunch that tumbled out of the car and into the Mason home.

In no time at all, they had unpacked, washed, changed their clothes and were coming down the broad stairway together for lunch. They stopped midway.

"Whose voice is that?" Bess whispered the question.

"Could it be--" Nan paused to listen again,--"Dr. Beulah?"

"I'm afraid it is," Grace laughed. "In the excitement, I forgot entirely to tell you. Mother asked her to stop on her way back to school, too, and we are all to go together this afternoon for our passports."

"Hey, come here!" It was Nan's whisper again, arresting Laura who had tried to retreat up the stairway as soon as she heard Dr. Beulah. Nan caught her by the arm. "You can't do that," she said, "You've got to face the music sometime."

"Just give me a little time," Laura entreated. "This is too unexpected. Let me have time to think up something to say."

"Then you would be in trouble." Nan started down the stairs. "Come on, brace up," she whispered.

At that moment, Mrs. Mason heard them all and came to the stairway. "Come, girls," she called. "Lunch is ready."

Nan held fast to Laura's arm and advanced into the room.

Dr. Prescott looked up at their entrance. "Why, Nan, how well you are looking."

"And--Laura! Why, Laura Polk!"

Laura looked sheepish and blushed, but for once no words came forth. Dr. Prescott looked at her thoughtfully. Finally, the verdict came.

"Well--" she said slowly, but with a bright gleam in her eye. "I must admit that though I have always been opposed to artificial curls, you look very charming, Laura, and I don't blame you a bit for doing it. Now, turn around so that I can see the back."

Laura turned.

"Yes, it is indeed--charming, very becoming to you," she repeated. "Don't you like it, girls?" she nodded toward the others and in the general conversation that followed, Laura regained her composure.

Lunch was followed by a conference in the Mason library. Then they were all whisked off to the photographers to have passport pictures taken. Each one was taken into a small room, seated on a chair, and told to look straight into the camera. In a second it was all over.

"Don't they look just awful!" Bess exclaimed when she saw hers. "Why, they can't use that thing to identify me. I won't even admit that I posed for that." She laughed.

"But will you look at mine!" this from Laura. "I look like--like--"

"Like Puck," Nan supplied the word which Laura was searching for. "Imagine the trouble we'll have dragging you past immigration officials and through customs. We'll have to explain to every officer we meet, 'No, this isn't Puck. This is Laura Polk.' And they'll look at you and make marks in their notebooks. Then they'll talk among themselves and debate as to whether or not they should lock you up in a dark dungeon."

"That's the girl, Nan." Laura commended her friend, "And if they hear you they'll lock you up with me. The United States Government will protest--"

"Oh, no, it won't," Amelia cut in. "It will send word to keep you locked up, two such crazy loons! Now, if we don't get a move on, the Passport Agent's office will be closed and none of us will ever be able to even leave the country!"

"What's this about not leaving the country?" Dr. Prescott came into the room from an inner office.

"Oh, we were just teasing Laura," Nan explained, "about her passport photo. They are all really very poor, Dr. Prescott. Do you think that they will be all right?" Nan was genuinely worried.

Dr. Prescott smiled at her. "Don't fret, dear," she reassured her. "Everything will be quite all right, I'm sure."

It seemed so. They went to the Passport Agent's office, stopped at a bank to find out about foreign money, to tea--"so that we can get used to having it in England in the middle of the afternoon," Grace explained.

Before they parted so that each might do her own errands, Dr. Prescott called Nan aside. "Will you do something for me, Nan," she asked.

"Of course." Nan was all eagerness. It was an honor to be asked to help Dr. Prescott.

"Will you stop at the travel agent's on Madison Avenue and pick up the portfolio of maps and time-tables he is holding there for me? You can't miss the place, it's near the Wrigley Building, and it has a huge revolving globe of the world in the window. It won't take you long, and it might be an interesting place to stop."

How interesting and upsetting this errand would be--neither could know as Nan waved good-bye to her friends and went off adventuring by herself. Just as Dr. Prescott had said, she couldn't miss the Wrigley Building, nor the window with the revolving globe. She stood for a second watching it, watching North and South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Europe and Africa, Asia and Australia, the Pacific Ocean merge, one into the other, as the ball moved around. Then she tore herself away, opened the door, and went in.

There, standing at a long counter talking to the agent, was Linda Riggs, proud and superior looking as usual! Nan gasped. Linda turned, and the two faced one another.

"Why, Linda!" Nan spoke first, but Linda looked her up and down, stared into her face coldly and most rudely, and then, without saying a word, turned her back.

Nan tried to cover up her confusion, as she went forward to claim Dr. Prescott's folio. Could she have made a mistake? She looked again. No, no one could mistake the angle of that up-turned chin.

"I'll take the cabin on the upper deck," she heard Linda say in her slow affected way. "I want the very best cabin you have," she said, talking a little louder so that Nan couldn't help but hear. "I always like the best of everything."

It was really disgusting to hear the girl talk. Everyone in the office looked up at her. She might have been a pretty girl, but instead she looked over-dressed, haughty, and artificial. Two or three in the room laughed to themselves and turned away. They did not even like to look at her. Others shook their heads. Nan tried not to pay any attention. She wanted to get out of the office as soon as possible. She asked for Dr. Prescott's package quietly and would have gone without even looking at Linda again, but that girl's own words stopped her.

"I beg your pardon," she heard Linda saying to one of the agents, "but who is that girl that is leaving now. It--seems that I have seen her someplace before. Oh, yes, she is the one who was caught shoplifting in a Chicago department store." She said it loudly so that everyone could hear.

Nan stopped. They couldn't say that about her. It wasn't true! She knew it, and so did Linda. Everyone who has read "Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays" knows it. But here Linda was, declaring it was true in front of a whole crowd of strange people!

Nan wanted to protest, but the agent who had given her Dr. Prescott's package spoke quietly. "If I were you," he said, for he knew that what Linda was telling was a lie, "I'd say nothing. Here, let me help you." He took her by the arm and escorted her to the door. "Don't let it bother you," he said as she went out.

Linda turned and followed Nan with her eyes. "What strange people," she drawled, "one meets." No one paid any attention. They had liked Nan.

Outside, Nan held the package close to her side and lost herself in the crowd. It had been hard, not answering Linda, but by keeping still, she had won the day. Now, as she walked along Madison Avenue thinking of what had happened, she remembered Linda's first statement, "I want a cabin on the upper deck, the best you have."

As she thought of it, she breathed a short prayer. "Please don't let Linda be on the same boat with us," it said.