Certainly, if ever there was an expression of true remorse and repentance, that was one, Molly thought, and the allusion to roommates reminded her that she must say good-bye to Judith, for there would be no time in the morning for last farewells.
"I am going over to the Beta Phi house for a minute," she announced. "Any one want to come along?"
Margaret and Jessie, who had friends in that "abode of fashion," as it was called, joined her, and presently the three white figures were lost in the shadows on the campus.
"She is going to say farewell to black-eyed Judith," observed Judy in a low voice to Nance, "and all I would say is what the colored preacher said: 'Can the le-o-pard change his spots?'"
Nance smiled gravely. She did not possess Judy's prejudiced nature, but her convictions were strong.
"Do you think she's a 'le-o-pard,' Judy?" she asked.
"She may be a domesticated one," said Judy, "of the genus known as 'cat.'"
"Aren't you ashamed, Judy?" exclaimed Nance, reprovingly.
But it must be confessed that a few doubts still lurked in her own heart concerning the sincerity of proud Judith's repentance.
In the meantime, the three freshmen had separated in the upper hall of the Beta Phi House, and Molly had given a timid rap with Judith's fine brass knocker.
Instantly the door flew open and she found herself precipitated into a roomful of people, at least it seemed so at first, who had just subsided into quiet because some one was going to play.
Molly was about to retreat in great confusion when Miss Grace Green seized one hand and Mary Stewart the other. Judith came forward with a show of extreme cordiality and Richard Blount left the piano and actually ran the full length of the room, exclaiming:
Molly knew she was breaking into a party, but there was nothing to do but make a call of a few minutes and then take her leave as gracefully as possible under the circumstances.
Professor Edwin Green had also shaken her by the hand warmly, and pushing up a chair had insisted on her sitting down. They had all drawn their chairs around her in a semicircle, and Richard Blount had brought over the piano stool and placed it directly in front of her so that he could look straight at her.