Tea over, Jonas removed the tea-table and Miss Susanna waved her guest toward a leather-covered arm chair. Changing her own chair for one corresponding to Marjorie’s, Miss Hamilton proceeded to ply Marjorie with interested questions concerning her college course. She exhibited a kind of repressed eagerness to hear of the college and her guest’s doings there.
The tall rosewood floor clock had chimed six, then again the musical stroke of half hour, before Marjorie found graceful opportunity to take her leave. She was willing to stay longer, but was not certain that her erratic hostess would wish her to do so. The shadows had begun to fall across the sombre elegance of the library and the October twilight would soon be upon them.
Miss Susanna made no effort to detain her beyond saying: “So you think you must go. Well, you will be coming again soon to see me. You have given me much to think of.” She accompanied Marjorieto the front door, giving her a warm handshake in parting. Marjorie noticed, however, that her small face wore a pensive expression quite at variance with her accustomed alert demeanor. It gave her the appearance of great age, though her brown hair was only partially streaked with gray. Marjorie thought she could not be much more than sixty years old.
A happy little smile touched the pleased lieutenant’s lips as she hurried toward the campus through the gathering twilight. Far from being dissatisfied at not hearing more of Brooke Hamilton, she was blissfully content with her visit. Miss Susanna had promised to tell her of him. She had given her consent to allowing Marjorie to inform her chums of her visit to Hamilton Arms. She had actually set foot in the house of her dreams. The two rooms she had seen had more than justified her expectations of what it would be like inside.
Dinner was on when she reached Wayland Hall. Marjorie had fared too well on hot muffins, jam, cakes, and the most delicious tea she had ever drunk, to care for anything more to eat.
“Where, may I ask, have you been keeping yourself?” saluted Jerry about twenty minutes after Marjorie’s return. Coming into their room she beheld her missing room-mate calmly preparing herFrench lesson for the next day. “Why don’t you go and have your dinner? Or have you had it?”
“I have had tea instead of dinner. I couldn’t eat another mouthful to save me. ‘An’ ye hae been where I hae been,’” hummed Marjorie mischievously.
“Something like that,” satirized Jerry. “Where did you say you were? Never mind. I am sure you will tell me some day.” She simpered at Marjorie. “You should have been with Helen and I today. Something awfully funny happened. Not to us. The girls are coming up to hear about it soon. Helen and I didn’t care to tell it at the table on account of the Sans.”
“Then farewell to my peaceful study hour.” Marjorie laid away the translation she had been making.
“You can chase the girls away at eight-thirty, that will give you time enough. If you don’t, I will. I have studying of my own to do.”
“As long as the gang will be here I may as well savemyremarks until then.”
A buzz of voices outside the door announced the “gang.” Beside the three Lookouts and Katherine were the beloved trio, Helen, Leila and Vera. The entire crowd pounced upon Marjorie, demanding to know where she had been. It was unusual for herto be away without having left word with some one of them.
“Will I tell you where I was? Certainly! It’s no secret; at least not now,” she added tantalizingly. “Don’t you want to hear Jerry’s tale first? I do.”
“Nothing doing. You go ahead and relieve our anxious minds. We didn’t know but maybe you had been spirited away by a bogus note again.”
A peculiar expression appeared in Marjorie’s eyes as she went to her chiffonier and drew from it Miss Hamilton’s letter.
“It’s queer, but when I received this letter the other day, I was almost afraid it was another fake. Notice the address, then read it,” she commanded, handing it to Vera who was nearest her.
It brought forth exclamatory comment from all, once each had acquainted herself with its contents.
“No wonder you didn’t leave word where you were going. Did you have a nice time?” Jerry’s chubby features registered her pleasure of the honor accorded her room-mate.
“Yes; I had a beautiful time. I was worried because I couldn’t speak of going to any of you. Miss Susanna gave me permission to tell you eight, but no others.” Marjorie recounted her visit in detail. “I wish she would invite the rest of you to Hamilton Arms. It is a beautiful house inside. Ionly saw the hall and library, but they were magnificent.”
“Don’t weep, Marvelous Manager.” Ronny had noted Marjorie’s wistful expression. “Through your miraculous machinations we shall all be parading about Hamilton Arms in the near future.”
“I certainly hope so,” was the fervent response.
For a little the bevy of girls discussed Marjorie’s news. All were elated over the pleasure which had come to her. Her generous thought of the peculiar old lady on May Day of the previous year had touched them.
“She hasn’t asked you yet if you hung that basket, has she?” queried Lucy.
“How could she possibly suspect me of hanging it?” laughed Marjorie.
“Because it was like you. It carried your atmosphere. Some day she will suddenly notice that and ask you about the basket,” Lucy sagely prophesied. “She seems to be a shrewd old person.”
“She is.” Marjorie smiled at the candid criticism. She wondered if Miss Susanna had not been in her youth a trifle like Lucy.
“Now for what Helen and I saw and heard this afternoon,” declared Jerry gleefully. The first interest in Marjorie’s visit to Hamilton Arms had abated.
“Oh, a horrible tale I have to tell,Of the terrible fate that once befellA couple of students who residedIn the very same neighborhood that I did,”
chanted Helen. “You tell it, Jeremiah. You can make it funnier than I can.”
“Helen and I started out with the new car as proudly as you please this afternoon,” began Jerry with a reminiscent chuckle. “We hadn’t gone much further than Hamilton Arms when whiz, bing, buzz! Along came that Miss Walbert in her blue and buff car and nearly bumped into us. She came up from behind and her car just missed scraping against Helen’s. Leslie Cairns was with her. We never said a word, but I heard Miss Cairns raise her voice. I think she gave Miss Walbert a call down.”
“There was no excuse for her, except that she never seems to pay any particular attention to anyone’s car but her own,” put in Helen. “I have heard complaint of her from I don’t remember how many girls who own cars. Occasionally you will find a girl who can’t learn to drive a car. She belongs in that class. Excuse me for butting in. Proceed, Jeremiah.”
“That’s all of the prologue,” Jerry continued. “Now comes the first act. We went on to town,drove around a little, did our errands, had ice cream at the Lotus and started back highly pleased with ourselves. You know that place just before you leave the town where the turn into Hamilton Highway is made? There is a grocery store and a garage on one side of the road and a hotel on the other. Just before we came to that point Miss Walbert and her car whizzed by us again. She took that corner with a lurch. When we struck the place a minute later we saw something had happened. She had actually scraped the side of one of those taxis that run between town and the college. It was coming from the college, I suppose. Anyway, Miss Cairns and she were both out of their car and so was the taxi driver. Maybe he wasn’t giving those two a call down!”
Jerry and Helen exchanged joyful smiles at the recollection of the reckless couple’s discomfiture.
“Helen drove very slowly past them. We wanted to hear what the man was saying,” Jerry continued. “He was laying down the law to them to beat the band. We heard Leslie Cairns say, ‘Do you know to whom you are talking?’ He shouted out, ‘Yes; to a simpleton of a girl who don’t know no more about drivin’ than a goose. I seen you drive your own car, lady, an’ I never had no trouble with you. Your friend, there, is the limit. You’re runnin’ chances of landin’ in the hospital or worse whenyou go ridin’ with her.’ Leslie Cairns was furious. I could tell that by her expression. Miss Walbert fairly shrieked something at him. She was mad as hops, too. We had passed them by that time so we couldn’t catch what she was saying. There was quite a crowd around them, mostly men and youngsters.”
“That must be the man Robin and I rode with the other day,” Marjorie said. “Is he short, with a red face and quite gray hair?”
“Yes; that’s the man. How did you know which one it was?” Jerry showed surprise.
“He had a near collision with Miss Walbert that day.” Marjorie related the incident.
“It is a shame!” Leila’s face had darkened as she listened to both girls. “I hope Leslie Cairns takes her in hand. She’s the very one to cause a bad accident and then home go our cars. She is such a poor driver. She bowls along the road without regard for man or beast. She has a good car which will presently be in the ditch.”
“Do you think President Matthews would ban cars if a Hamilton girl were to ditch her car or met with serious accident to herself?” Vera asked reflectively.
“Hard to say, Midget. It would depend upon the seriousness of the accident. Suppose a girl were to ditch her car and be killed. It would behorrifying. I doubt whether we would be allowed our cars after any such accident.”
“Grant nothing like that ever happens.” Lucy Warner gave a slight shudder. “I shall never forget the day Kathie was hurt.”
“None of us who were with her that day are likely ever to forget it. Miss Cairns escaped easily considering the way she was driving. She ought to be the very one to tell that Miss Walbert a few things not in the automobile guide,” declared Jerry. “She certainly did not appear at advantage this afternoon.”
Leslie Cairns’ opinion of the matter coincided with Jerry’s, though the latter could not know it. To become involved in a roadside argument with an irate taxicab driver did not appeal to her in the least. She was not half so angry with him, however, as with Elizabeth Walbert. She blamed the latter for the whole thing. For several minutes after Helen and Jerry had driven by them, Elizabeth and the driver continued to quarrel.
“How much do you want for the damage yousay we have done your cab?” Leslie had impatiently inquired of the man. “Cut it out, Bess, and get back to your car,” she had ordered in the next breath. “Let me settle this business.”
A momentary hesitation and Elizabeth had obeyed. She could not afford to antagonize Leslie, at present. She had an axe of her own yet to be ground.
“I oughtta have twenty-five dollars. It ain’t my car. Repairin’ comes high.”
“Very good. Here is your money. Wait a minute.” Leslie had extracted the sum from her handbag. With it came a small pad of blank paper and a fountain pen. Then and there she obtained not only a receipt for the money but a statement of release as well. She was well aware that it would not cost twenty-five dollars to repaint the side of the cab scraped by their car, but she preferred the matter summarily closed.
Returning to the car she had said shortly: “I’ll take the wheel.” Elizabeth had resumed the driver’s seat. Nor had she made any move toward relinquishing it.
“You heard what I said, Bess,” she had sharply rebuked. “Either that, or you and I are on the outs for good. You let me drive that car and show you a few things you need badly to know about driving.” Leslie’s lowering face and tense utterancehad had its effect. Elizabeth had allowed her to drive back to Hamilton but had sulked all the way to the campus.
At the garage she had unbent a little and inquired how much Leslie had paid the driver. “I’ll return it to you next week,” she had promised.
“Suit yourself about that. I’m in no hurry. I took it upon myself to settle with the idiot. It wouldn’t worry me if you never paid it. I thought it best to pacify him. I don’t care to have him reporting us to Matthews as he threatened to do.” This had been Leslie’s mind on the subject.
“I don’t believe he would ever go near Doctor Matthews. Stillyoucouldn’t afford to risk being reported,” Elizabeth had retorted with special emphasis on the “you.”
To this Leslie had vouchsafed no reply. She had merely stared at her companion in a most disconcerting fashion and walked off and left her. She was thoroughly nettled with Elizabeth for her lack of gratitude. Natalie was right about her it seemed. She was also wondering where the ungrateful sophomore had obtained certain information which she apparently possessed. No one beyond her seven intimates among the Sans knew that she had been reprimanded by President Matthews for the accident to Katherine Langly. To the other membersof the club she had intimated that she had adjusted the matter quietly with Katherine.
That evening, while Jerry was recounting to her chums what she and Helen had heard of the altercation between the cab driver and the two girls, Leslie was having a confidential talk with Natalie Weyman. She had gone straight from the garage to her room, eaten dinner at the Hall and asked Natalie to come to her room after dinner.
“Nat, you are right about Bess. She is no good,” Leslie began, dropping into a chair opposite that of her friend. Briefly narrating the happening of the afternoon, she repeated the remark Elizabeth had made to her at the garage. “What would you draw from that?” she asked.
“Someone has been talking.” Natalie compressed her lips in a tight line. “You are sure you never told her yourself?”
“Positively, no.I have never babbled my private affairs to Bess, or Lola either. Only the old crowd were told the facts of that trouble. We have a traitor in the camp andI know who it is.” Leslie’s eyes narrowed with sinister significance. “It’s Dulcie. I am going to find out quietly what all she has been saying about me and to whom she has been saying it. I’m sure she told Bess about the summons. That isn’t so serious. I could overlook that, although I don’t like it. It is the other things shemay have told. That’s what worries me. She and I have been on the outs since that Valentine masquerade last year. She hardly ever comes to my room. I am not sorry. I never got along well with Dulcie. I never trusted her.”
“Dulcie ought to know better than tell all she knows to that Walbert creature,” Natalie made indignant return. “Why, Les, suppose she were foolish enough to tell her about that high tribunal stunt?” Natalie drew a sharp breath of consternation. “Dulcie knows the rights of the Remson mix-up, too.”
“Dulcie knows too much. So do some of the other girls. If I had it to do over again, I would not tell anyone but you how I put over a stunt. Why did we haze Bean? Simply because she reported me to Matthews after Langly had agreed to drop it. The girls were all in on the hazing, so not one of them would be safe if they told it.”
“The Remson affair would do you the most harm if it got out,” Natalie said decidedly. “It is contemptible in Dulcie to gossip about you after all the favors you have done her. You’ve lent her money over and over again. You know she never pays it back if she can slide out of it.”
Leslie made an indifferent gesture of assent. “She owes me over two hundred dollars now. I lent it to her during her freshie year. She paid upwhat she borrowed of me last year, but she never said a word about the other. Dulcie hasnerve, Nat; pure, unadulteratednerve. She can’t bear me lately because I run the Sans to suit myself. I always ran the club and she knows that. Last year she decided that she would like to run it herself. I sat down on her every time she tried it. She deliberately left the back door of that house unlocked the night we hazed Bean. I told her to see to it. She was edgeways at me. She never went near the door. You know what happened.”
“Dulcie will have to be told a few plain truths.” Natalie frowned displeased anxiety. The news of Dulcie’s defection was rather alarming.
“She is going to hear them from me, but not yet. I shall catch her dead to rights before I have things out with her. I’ve made up my mind just how I am going to do it, provided the rest of the Sans stand by me. It will be to their interest to do so. I mean, with their support, I can give her precisely what she deserves.”
“I’ll stand by you. Joan will, too. She is down on Dulcie for some reason or other. They haven’t been on speaking terms for a week. I asked Joan what the trouble was between them. She said Dulcie made her weary and she didn’t care whether she ever spoke to her again or not. That was all I could get out of her.”
“Hm-m!” Leslie looked interested. “I shall find out tomorrow what Joan has against her. If Dulcie hasn’t gabbed anything worse to Bess, and I presume a few others, than the news that I received a summons from his high and cranky mightiness, I will let her off with my candid opinion of her. If she has been a busy little news distributor of secret matters, she will rue it. I’ll have no traitors among the Sans.”
Leslie’s first crafty move toward determining Dulcie Vale’s treachery was in the direction of Elizabeth Walbert. The latter had promised to return the next week the twenty-five dollars Leslie had expended in her behalf. Leslie planned to wait until she did so before making an attempt to discover how many of the Sans’ secrets Elizabeth knew. She was certain that Elizabeth would return the loan promptly, as she received a large allowance from home and as much more as she chose to demand.
To seek the self-satisfied sophomore’s society wasnot what Leslie proposed to do. She intended matters should be the other way around. She could then take Elizabeth completely off her guard and find out more easily what Dulcie had imparted to her.
Elizabeth also had views of her own regarding Leslie. The latter had not been nearly so friendly with her since college had opened as she had been during the previous year. Leslie had renewed her old comradeship with Natalie Weyman, whom Elizabeth detested and stood a little in fear of. Natalie had never been friendly with her. She had always held herself aloof. Whenever they chanced to meet she treated Elizabeth as a mere acquaintance. It was galling to the ambitious, self-seeking sophomore, but she loftily ignored Natalie’s frigidity. She had complained of it once to Leslie and been soundly snubbed for her pains. “You needn’t expect much of Nat. She doesn’t like you. That’s why she freezes you out. It won’t do you any good to tell me about it, for Nat is my particular pal.” This had been Leslie’s unsympathetic reception of the complaint.
In her heart Elizabeth did not like Leslie. She resented Leslie’s domineering ways. This did not deter her from fawning upon the despotic senior. She was depending on Leslie to help her regain a certain popularity which had been hers as a freshman.She had cherished a vain hope that she might be elected to the sophomore presidency. To her chagrin she had not even been nominated. Determined to shine on the campus, her thoughts were now turning toward basket ball. She was now anxious to enlist Leslie’s services in helping her devise a means of making the sophomore team. As a senior Leslie could easily influence the sports committee to favor her. Mae Lowry and Sarah Pierce, both Sans, were on the committee.
It had been rumored that Professor Leonard and the sports committee had disagreed; that the instructor had coolly advised the committee to do as it pleased and dropped all interest in sports for that year. With him out of the reckoning, nothing stood in her way provided Leslie chose to favor her.
Her greatest ambition, however, was to belong to the Sans. She was always privately wishing that one member of the club would drop out. Leslie had once more told her that the club limit was eighteen members. If anyone left the club an outside eligible would be chosen to replace the retiring member so as to keep the number of girls at eighteen. She had also tried on the previous June to arrange for a room at Wayland Hall for the ensuing college year. She had been unsuccessful in the attempt.
After leaving Leslie on the occasion of her mishapon Hamilton Highway, she had realized her folly in showing spleen against her companion. She resolved to offset it as speedily as possible. She wrote Leslie a note which remained unanswered. She then telephoned the Hall, but Leslie was out. Her allowance check having arrived, she had an excuse to go to see Leslie. Her afternoon classes over, she set out for Wayland Hall one rainy afternoon, hoping the inclement weather had kept Leslie indoors.
Her baby-blue eyes gleamed triumph at the cheering news that Miss Cairns was in. As she ascended the stairs to Leslie’s room, which was the largest and most expensive in the house, her curious glances roved everywhere. She wished she could see into the room of every student. Her lips fell into an envious pout as she thought of her own failure to get into the Hall. She would try again in June, on that she was determined.
Coming to the door of Leslie’s room, she uttered a muffled exclamation of impatience. A large “Busy” sign stared her in the face. She did not turn and go away. Instead her surveying eyes took in the long hall from end to end. Next, she drew close to the door and listened. She could hear no voices from within. Leslie was evidently alone and studying.
With a defiant lifting of her chin Elizabethrapped on the panel twice and loudly. She listened again and was repaid by the sound of a chair being hastily moved, then approaching footsteps. The door opened with a jerk. Leslie stared at her visitor with no pleasantness.
“I came to return that twenty-five dollars.” Elizabeth did not give Leslie a chance to speak first. “I saw the sign on your door. I thought I would knock, anyway. I’ve been trying to see you for a week to give it to you. Why didn’t you answer my note, or didn’t you receive it?”
Leslie continued to stare. She was taken aback for an instant by the cool impudence of the other girl. This was in reality the only thing about Elizabeth that Leslie liked. She found the sophomore’s bold assurance amusing.
“Come in,” she drawled, assuming her most indifferent pose. “I intended asking you if you could read. I’ll forgive you. I told you there was no hurry about that money.”
“What’s money to me? Not that much!” Elizabeth snapped her fingers. “I can have all the money I want to spend here. I simply happened to be without it the other day. I won’t stay. I see you are really busy writing letters. It goes to show you can write. I thought perhaps you had forgotten how.”
Having delivered this thrust she busied herselfwith her handbag. “Here you are; much obliged.” She tendered the money to Leslie. “I must go.” She turned as though to depart.
“Oh, sit down!” Leslie tossed the little wad of bills on the table. “I can finish this letter later. I have to keep that sign on the door when I want to be alone. I’d be mobbed if I did not.”
At heart Leslie was distinctly glad to see her caller. She had her part to play on the stage of deceit, however.
“I suppose the Sans are running in and out of your room a good deal,” Elizabeth returned enviously. “I wish I could live here. It makes me so cross when I think of that Miss Dean and those girls living here and I can’t get in. There will be a lot of girls graduated from here in June. I think I can make it next fall. What’s the use, though. You’ll be gone. It is on your account I’d like to be here. I think more of you, Leslie, than of all the rest of the girls put together.” Elizabeth simulated wistful regret. She had tried out that particular expression before the mirror until she had perfected it. It was useful on so many occasions.
“Do you truly think as much of me as you say, Bess, or are you simply talking to hear yourself talk?” Leslie carried out admirably a pretense of sudden earnestness.
“Why,of course, I care a lot about you, Leslie.”Elizabeth adopted a slightly grieved tone. “Think of howmuchyou have done for me.”
“Oh, that’s all right.” Leslie dismissed the reminder with a wave of the hand. “I have a reason for asking you that question. I have one or two other questions to ask you, too. If you are my friend,and wish to continue to be my friend, you will answer them.”
“I certainly will, if I can,” was the glib promise.
“You can,” Leslie curtly assured. “First, who told you about my having received a summons to Matthews’ office on account of that accident to Langly last fall?”
“How do you know——” began the sophomore, then bit her lip.
“Iknow. There isn’t much goes on on the campus that I don’t know.” This with intent to intimidate. “I know who told you, for that matter.”
“I promised I wouldn’t tell. Still, if you say you know who it was, I believe you do.” Elizabeth hastily conceded, remembering her own interests. “You won’t let on that I told you?”
Leslie shook her head. “Trust me to be discreet,” she said.
“It was Dulcie Vale,” came the treacherous answer.
“I knew it.” Leslie brought one hand sharplydown against the other. “What else has Dulcie told you?”
“About what?” counter-questioned the sophomore.
“That’s what I am asking you.” Leslie leaned forward in her chair, steady eyes on her vis-a-vis.
Elizabeth experienced inward trepidation. Dulcie had told her a great many things which she had promptly repeated to friends of hers under promise of secrecy. Suppose Leslie had traced some bit of gossip to her. She had heard that Leslie could pretend affability when she was the angriest. She might be only using Dulcie as a blind in order to extract a confession from her.
“I don’t quite understand you, Leslie,” she asserted, knitting her light brows. “Dulcie has talked to me a little about the Sans. I never mentioned a word she said to anyone else.”
“That’s not the point. I am not accusing you of talking too much. You made a remark the other day which I took as an assumption that you had been told about the summons. I knew Dulcie had told you. Dulcie has said things to others, too.”
“Oh, I know that.” Confidence returning, Elizabeth was quick to place the blame on the absent Dulcie.
“Yes; and so do I. It is very necessary that I should get to the bottom of her talk. Some say onething about her, some another. I thought I could rely on you for the facts.”
“I don’t care to have any trouble with Dulcie over this,” deprecated Elizabeth.
“You won’t. Your name won’t be mentioned in it. All I need is the facts. You will be doing me a great favor. If there is anything I can do for you in return, let me know.” Leslie had donned her cloak of pseudo-sincerity.
“Oh, no; there is nothing.” Elizabeth slowly shook her head. “I—well, I wouldn’t want you to think Icaredfor a return.” Her manner plainly indicated that there was something Leslie might do for her if she chose.
“What is it you want?” Leslie exhibited marked impatience. “Favor for favor you know,” she added boldly. “I never mince matters.”
“I am crazy to play on the soph basket-ball team. Do you think you can fix it for me?”
“Surest thing ever. Leonard is peeved and has tossed up sports. Two of the Sans are on committee. Is that all you need?”
“Yes.” The wide babyish eyes registered a flash of gratification. “You are sokind, Leslie. Thank you a thousand times. I know you won’t fail me.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll fix it for you tomorrow. One bit of advice. Don’t play unless you are an expert.”
“I am. When I was at prep school——”
“Never mind about that now. You go ahead and tell me what I asked you. It is almost six and Nat will be here soon.”
“Oh, will she?” The sophomore cast an apprehensive glance toward the door. “Is she a very good friend of Dulcie’s?”
“She’s a better friend of mine,” was the bored reply. Leslie was growing tired of being kept from what she burned to know. “Please don’t waste any more time, Bess. We can’t talk after Nat comes in. I don’t believe I’ll be able to see you again before Saturday. I’m awfully busy. I’ll lunch you at the Lotus then. We’ll use my roadster for the trip to town. What?”
Elated at having gleaned from Leslie a promise of benefit to herself and an invitation to luncheon, Elizabeth once more stipulated that her name should be left out of the revelation. Again reassured, she proceeded to regale Leslie with the confidences Dulcie had imparted to her at various times. She talked steadily for almost half an hour. Leslie gave her free rein, interrupting her but little.
“It’s even worse than I had thought,” Leslie declared grimly, when Elizabeth could recall nothing more to tell. “Bess, if you know when you are well off, you will never tell a soul what you havetold me. Part of it isn’t true. Dulcie was romancing to you about that hazing affair. We talked about it for fun, but that was all. Why, we were all at the masquerade that night.”
“Dulcie wasn’t,” flatly contradicted the other. “She had a black eye. She said she was hurt at that house when——”
“Dulcie bumped into the door of her room that night with her mask on,” interrupted Leslie angrily. “So she told us. If she was where she claims she was, certainly we were not with her. This isn’t the first foolish rumor of the kind she has started. It’s a good thing the rest of the girls don’t know this. They’d never forgive Dulcie for starting such yarns. As for that trouble she claims we had with Miss Remson. There was nothing to that, either. We have never exchanged a word with Remson on the subject. I don’t mind what she told you about the summons. The rest of her lies! Well, there is this much to it, Dulcie is due to hear from me and in short order.”
Despite Leslie’s denials, Elizabeth left her room only half convinced. Being as lost to honor as Leslie, she was also as shrewd. She made a vow to keep her own counsel thereafter. She knew herself to be as guilty as Dulcie. She hoped Leslie would never discover that. Leslie had promised that her name should not be mentioned in the matter. If brought to book by Leslie, Dulcie could not accuse her of circulating the stories intrusted to her without incriminating herself. Elizabeth felt quite safe on that score.
For two or three days after her call upon Leslie, she kept out of Dulcie’s way for fear the latter had been taken to task for her treachery and might suspect her as being instrumental in having brought it about. On Friday, however, she met Dulcie in the library. Dulcie invited her to dinner at the Colonial and she went without a tremor of conscience. The former was not in a gossiping humor that day. Shewas doing badly in all her subjects and worried in consequence.
Elizabeth went calmly to luncheon at the Lotus with Leslie on Saturday, pluming herself in that she was on excellent terms with both factions. She reported to Leslie her meeting with Dulcie on Friday, saying lamely that Dulcie never gossiped a bit about the Sans. “She hadn’t better,” Leslie had returned vengefully. “She has done mischief enough already.” When Elizabeth had ventured to inquire when Dulcie was to be “called down,” Leslie had said, “When I get ready to do it. I’m not ready yet.”
Natalie and Joan Myers had been informed by Leslie of Dulcie’s treachery. The trio had then set to work to discover how much damage she had done; something not easy to determine. Natalie and Joan demanded that she should be dropped from the club. They were sure the others would be of the same mind. Even Eleanor Ray, her former chum, was on the outs with Dulcie. There would be no objection to the penalty from Eleanor. Leslie’s plan was to gather the evidence against Dulcie, place it before the Sans, minus the culprit, at a private meeting, and let them decide her fate. In spite of Leslie Cairns’ unscrupulous disposition, she had a queer sense of justice which occasionally stirred within her. Thus she was bent on beingsure of her ground before accusing Dulcie to her face.
After a week had passed and the three had learned nothing new regarding the circulation of their misdeeds about the campus, Leslie called a meeting of the club in her room while Dulcie was absent from the Hall. Indignation ran high at the revelation. The verdict was, “Drop her from the club.” Notwithstanding the possibility pointed out by Leslie that she might turn on them and betray them to headquarters, her associates were keen for dropping her.
“What harm can she do us?” argued Margaret Wayne. “She can’t give us away to Doctor Matthews without cooking her own goose. That’s our only danger from her. It’s our word against hers. Any stories she has told on the campus will never go further than among the students. It is too bad! Dulcie should have known better than to be so utterly treacherous. She deserves to be dropped. We could never trust her again.”
“That’s what I think,” concurred Joan Myers. “Even if her talesdidbring about a private inquiry, it is our word against hers. We have really walked with a sword over our heads since last Saint Valentine’s night. It has never fallen. I say,simply fireDulcie from the Sans, and be done with it. Let it be a lesson to the rest of us to be discreet.”
“When is the deed to be done?” Adelaide Forman inquired.
“I don’t know yet. I want you girls to see what you can glean on the campus. I must have every scrap of evidence against her that I can get,” Leslie announced. “We may not be able to spring it on her for a week or two. When we do, the meeting will be in this room. I’ll hang a heavy curtain over the door so we won’t be heard. If she gets very angry she will raise her voice to a positive shriek.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to hold that meeting outside the Hall? Dulcie will raise an awful fuss. If she hadn’t told something I made her swear she wouldn’t tell, I would not hear to having her treated that way. I am down on her for that very reason. Otherwise I would feel very sorry for her,” explained Eleanor Ray.
“I am not on good terms with her. She made trouble between Evangeline and me last week. We only straightened it up today.” Joan volunteered this information. “Leslie’s room is the best place for the meeting. It is situated so that Dulcie won’t be heard if she cries or flies into a temper.”
While among the Sans there was not one girl who had not stooped to dishonorable acts since her entrance into Hamilton College, the fact of Dulcie’s defection seemed monstrous indeed.
“Be careful what you say to Bess Walbert,”Natalie took the liberty of saying. “How much does she know about what we shall do with Dulc? What did you tell her about it?”
“I said I had heard other things Dulcie had been saying; that she was due to hear from me for gossiping. That such yarns must be stopped. I warned her to keep to herself whatever Dulc had told her. She promised silence. I don’t know.” Leslie shrugged dubiously. “Take a leaf from Nat’s book, girls, and keep mum to Bess. She may try to pump you. She’s crazy to know what I am going to say to Dulc and when the fuss is to come off.”
Natalie flushed her gratification of Leslie’s approbation. The others received their leader’s counsel with marked respect. The news of Dulcie’s perfidy had given them food for uneasy reflection.
“We’ll just have to depend on you, Les, to deal with Dulcie,” Joan Myers said emphatically. “You can do it scientifically. Of course, we expect to stand by you. When the time comes you ought to do the talking.”
“The firing, you mean,” corrected Leslie, smiling in her most unpleasant fashion. “Leave it to me. It’s our campus reputation against her feelings; if she has any. We all have a certain pride in ourselves as seniors. I’m not anxious to be looked down upon by the other classes. It is only a fewmonths until Commencement. We must hang on until then, and at the same time keep up an appearance of senior dignity.”
An assenting murmur arose. Allowed to do as they pleased by doting or careless parents, not one of the Sans would escape parental wrath were she to fail in her college course. Even more serious consequences would be attached to expellment.
“How are we to behave toward Dulcie?” was Eleanor Ray’s question as the meeting broke up.
“As though nothing had happened,” Leslie directed. “I shall take her by surprise. I wish her to be so completely broken up she won’t have the nerve to fight back, either on the night of the fuss or afterward.”
While the Sans were experiencing the discomfort of internal friction, the Lookouts and their friends were traveling the pleasant ways of harmony and peace. The sophomores had so thoroughly taken their freshman sisters under their genial wing that the juniors had little welfare work to do in that direction.
In the matter of basket ball they lost all active interest after the first game between the freshman and sophomore teams which took place on the first Saturday afternoon in November. The Sans still had friends enough among the seniors to make their influence felt in this respect. With two Sans elected to the sports committee, Professor Leonard had thrown up his hands in disgust after a vain attempt to get along pleasantly with the arrogant committee. He refused to be present at the try-out. Afterward he made it a point to be away from the gymnasium during team practice.
Leslie Cairns kept her word to Elizabeth Walbert to the letter. She was chosen by the committee to play on the official sophomore team. Phyllis Moore was also picked solely on account of her prowess. When she found herself on the same team with Elizabeth, she promptly resigned.
The freshman team was picked by the committee entirely according to Sans tactics. Therefore, the democratic element of Hamilton foresaw a series of uninteresting games ahead. Dutifully they attended the initial game of the season which the sophs won. Most of the applause came from the seniors present at the game. According to Muriel Harding, she had seen better games played by the grammar school children of Sanford.
Basket ball thus failing to arouse their markedenthusiasm, the former faithful fans and expert players turned their moments of recreation into channels which pleased them better. Incidental with the decline of basket ball, Marjorie and Robin took to looking earnestly about them for a motive for the entertainments they had discussed giving.
Marjorie scouted about diligently in an effort to locate students off the campus who needed financial help. She took Anna Towne into her confidence at last and found out something of interest.
“It isn’t half so much that most of the girls living off the campus can’t pull themselves through college. They manage to do it by working through the summer vacations. It is the way we have to live that is so nerve-racking at times. The food isn’t always good, and there’s so little variety if one boards. The girls who cook for themselves have to market. That’s a strain. One is out of bread or butter or another staple and forgets all about it until supper time. Then the small stores nearby are closed. Perhaps one wishes to spend an hour or two in the library after recitations. There is the marketing to do, or else it has to be done early in the morning when one is hurrying to get ready for a first recitation. That’s merely one of the difficulties attached to trying to lead the student life and doing light housekeeping at the same time.
“On the other hand,” Anna had further explained,“if one boards one isn’t always allowed to do one’s own laundering. That’s quite an item of expense. It costs more in money to board, and it is more of an expense of spirit to keep house on a small scale. It is a great irritation either way. That is the opinion of every girl off the campus I have talked with. You girls in your beautiful campus house are lucky. Many of these boarding and rooming houses are so cold in winter. For the amount of board or rental we pay the proprietors claim they can’t afford to give adequate heat.
“You see, Marjorie, when girls like myself decide on enrolling at a certain college, they have only the prospectus to go by. They read in the Bulletin of Students’ Aids and Bureaus of Self-help but they do not reckon on them. They go to college on their own resources. They wouldn’t dream of asking help as freshmen; perhaps not at all during their whole course.”
“I see,” Marjorie had assented very soberly. It hurt her to hear of the struggles for an education going on so near her, while she had everything and more than heart could desire. “There ought to be one or two houses on the campus where students could live as cheaply as in boarding and rooming houses and still have their time entirely for study and recreation.”
“That won’t be in my time at Hamilton,” Annahad declared with a tired little smile. “I hope it will happen some day.”
When Marjorie had left Anna, it was with a certain generous resolve. That night she made it known to Jerry.
“Do you know what I am going to do?” she asked, after recounting to her room-mate her conversation of the afternoon.
“I do not. I’ll be pleased to hear your remarks, whatever they may be,” encouraged Jerry with one of her wide smiles.
“You know what a lot of vacancies there will be here in June,” Marjorie began. “Those vacancies ought to be filled by off-the-campus girls. Take Anna, for instance. She earns about one-third enough money summers to keep her at Wayland Hall. I shall furnish the other two-thirds for her. I shall begin now and save something from my allowance toward it. I shall ask Captain not to buy me a lot of new clothes for next year, but to give me the money instead. I am going to do a little sacrificing. I shall cut out dinners and luncheons off the campus. I’ll go only to Baretti’s and not so very often.”
“We are an extravagant set,” Jerry confessed. “Our board is paid at the Hall; the very best board, too. Yet away we go every two or three days for a feed at our favorite tea-rooms. That’s a good idea,Marvelous Manager. I shall presently adopt an off-the-campusite myself. Ronny will adopt a dozen.”
“Ronny would finance them all, but I sha’n’t let her. General would give me the money to see Anna through college, but I don’t wish it to be that way. I want it to be self-denial money. I’d like to find a way to help the off-the-campus girls this year.”
“Give shows. Make money. Turn it over to ’em,” suggested Jerry, with an airy wave of the hand. “Nothing easier.”
“Nothing harder, you mean,” corrected Marjorie. “They wouldn’t like to accept it as a private gift, I’m afraid. Besides, some of them board; others do light housekeeping. Those who keep house could use the money we offered to make things easier. Still they’d have the strain of housework on their minds. Those who board wouldn’t be benefited much unless they changed boarding places. There is only that one collection of boarding houses near the campus. One is about the same as another. Hamilton has been a rich girls’ college for a long time. The fine equipment and super-excellent faculty have filled it up with well-to-do and moneyed students.”
“I’d like to see every Hamilton student on the campus,” declared Jerry heartily. “It would take three campus houses to do it. There must be closeto seventy-five girls in that bunch of off-campus houses.”
“We could start our fund for that purpose,” was the hopeful response.
“Who’d take care of the plan after we were graduated? It would take a lot of money to build campus houses. Besides, how would we get the site? Maybe the Board wouldn’t hear to the project”
“Too true, too true, Jeremiah,” Marjorie conceded gayly. “That plan is a little far-fetched just yet. Later it may seem feasible. The fact remains that Robin and I yearn to get up a show; object to give away the proceeds.”
“You can do this. Arrange for the show. Advertise it as being given for the purpose of founding a students’ beneficiary association. Take a third of the proceeds and start the society. Give the other two-thirds to Anna and let her distribute it privately among the girls who need it. She knows them. She can get away with it better than you can. If anyone comes down on the treasury for our little lone third we can hand it out and keep it up by private contributions until some more money is earned. I suppose you two marvelous managers will continue in the show business as long as it is profitable.”
“Your head is level, Jeremiah,” laughed Marjorie,her eyes sparkling. “That’s a good plan. I’ll see Robin tomorrow, and Anna too. Robin can begin to gather up the performers. Anna can find out for me as to how her flock are situated. I shall call the girls in tomorrow evening and ask them if they each would like to finance a student next year. Leila, Vera and Helen will like to, even if they have been graduated from Hamilton. Kathie can’t, but she will wish to help in some other way.”
“Anna Towne was my freshie catch. You may have her. I’ll scout around and find someone else,” magnanimously accorded Jerry.
Marjorie spent her leisure hours during the ensuing few days in interviewing her friends and helping Robin plan the show. With Thanksgiving only ten days off, the show would not take place until after that holiday. The girls tackled the programme, however, and completed it within three days.
Ronny was to dance twice. Marjorie had written to Constance Stevens, who had promised to sing at the revue. These two numbers were to be the features. The Silverton Hall orchestra would contribute two numbers. Leila and Vera had promised an ancient Irish contra dance in costume. Phyllis would give a violin solo. Blanche Scott would offer a grand opera selection in her best baritone voice. Ronny agreed to train eight girls in asinging and dancing number. As a wind-up, four Acasia House girls were to put on a one-act French play.
Busy with her new project, Marjorie had not forgotten Miss Susanna. The day after her visit to Hamilton Arms she had written the old lady one of her sincere, friendly notes. She had not expected a reply. Nevertheless, Miss Hamilton had returned a few lines of acknowledgment. Since then the wires of communication between them had been idle.
Marjorie regretted this. She would have liked, during the beautiful autumn weather, to walk about the grounds of Hamilton Arms with its owner. With the last leaves off the trees and the earth frost-bitten, she began to feel that Miss Susanna had not desired her further acquaintance. In passing Hamilton Arms she strained her eyes, invariably, for a sight of the old lady. She saw her but once, and at a distance.
She wondered as Thanksgiving approached what kind of Thanksgiving Miss Hamilton would have. She resolved, before leaving college for home, to write the last of the Hamiltons as cheerful a note as she could compose.
Three days before college closed for the holiday she found a letter in the Hall bulletin board in MissSusanna’s handwriting. This letter bore the address “Wayland Hall,” and read:
“Dear Child:
“I have a curiosity to meet some of the young women you exalted to me when you took tea at the Arms. Will you bring them with you to five o’clock tea tomorrow afternoon? I had intended writing you before this date, but have been ill and out of sorts. I believe you mentioned eight young women as your particular friends. I can entertain you and the beloved eight, but no more. Do not trouble to answer this note. I shall expect to see you, even if the others can’t come to tea.
“Yours sincerely,
“Susanna Craig Hamilton.”
Marjorie uttered a kind of exultant crow and performed a funny little dance of jubilation about the room. Jerry had not yet come from recitations, so she hurried out to find the other Lookouts. Ronny was the only one in. She rejoiced with Marjorie, her interest in Hamilton Arms and its owner being second only to that of her chum.
“She loves flowers. We must take her a big box of roses,” was Marjorie’s generous thought. “Pink, white and red ones; yellow roses, too, if we can find them. It is hard to find a certain kind of fragrant,very double yellow rose at the florist’s now.”
“You mean ‘Perle de Jaddin,’” Ronny said quickly. “We have acres of them at ‘Manana.’ They are my favorite rose.”
“I love them, too,” Marjorie nodded. “I remember that name now. I will collect two dollars apiece from the girls. Two times nine are eighteen. We ought to be able to buy an armful of roses for eighteen dollars. I’ll ask Leila to drive to Hamilton for them. She has no class the last hour. I think we had better walk to Hamilton Arms. Miss Susanna seems to be rather down on girls who drive cars. So there is no use in flaunting her dislike in her face. I may be in error on that point. She made a remark on the day I met her that led me to think so.”
“You go and find the other girls. I’ll tell Lucy as soon as she comes in,” Ronny offered. “The sooner you see them, the better. If they have engagements for tomorrow afternoon they will have to gracefully slide out of them. We all must accept Miss Susanna’s invitation. It is a case of now or never.”
Marjorie left Ronny to go joyfully on her pleasant errand. Her second quest was more successful. Leila and Vera had returned while she was in Ronny’s room. Both were elated over the unexpected honor. Leila was more than willing to makethe trip to the florist’s shop. Marjorie met Katherine in the hall just as she was leaving Leila’s room.
The trio of absentees, Helen, Muriel and Jerry, she decided must be out somewhere together. She smiled to herself as she pictured Jerry’s face when she heard the news. “Just because I am in a hurry to tell Jerry she will probably go to dinner off the campus and come marching in about nine o’clock,” was her half-vexed rumination.
To her satisfaction Jerry walked into the room at ten minutes to six. She and Helen had taken a ride in the latter’s car. Jerry was full of mirth over the fact that they had met Elizabeth Walbert’s car at the side of the road with a blown-out tire. A mechanician from a Hamilton garage was on the scene adjusting a new one under the verbose direction of the owner.
“Helen drove her car past at a crawl. We wanted to hear what she was saying to the man from the garage. Honestly, we could hear her voice before we came very near her. She shrieks at the top of her lungs. She was trying to tell him what to do. He wasn’t paying any more attention to her than if she hadn’t been there. That blond freshie, who snubbed Phil the day she tried to help her at the station, was with her. I heard her say, ‘My, but he is slow. Our chauffeur could have puton three tires while he was thinking about putting on one.’ So encouraging to the workman!” Jerry’s tones registered gleeful sarcasm. “I wish she had been stuck there for about four hours.”
“You should not rejoice at the downfall of others,” Marjorie reproved with a giggle. “That is, if you can class a bursted tire as a downfall.”
“It did me a world of good to see those two little snips stuck at the side of the road,” returned Jerry. “That Walbert girl and her car are a joke. I wish we had a college paper. I’d write her up. Funny there isn’t one at Hamilton. Almost every other college has one, sometimes two. I think I shall start one next year, if I’m not too busy.”
“You might call it ‘Jeremiah’s Journal,’” suggested Marjorie. Both girls laughed at this conceit. Marjorie then acquainted her room-mate with the invitation, at the same time handing her Miss Hamilton’s note.
“Will wonders never cease!” Jerry laid down the note and beamed at Marjorie. “All your fault, Marvelous Manager. You went ahead and paved the way into Miss Susanna’s good graces for the rest of us. You certainly do get on the soft side of people without trying.”
“Not a bit of it,” Marjorie stoutly contested. “Any one of you girls would have done as I did and with the same results. I am so glad you areall going to meet her. She can’t help but have a better opinion of our dear old Alma Mater after she has met some of her nicest children. I guess that basket handle broke at the psychological moment.”
The invited guests were in scarcely more of an anticipatory flutter than Miss Susanna herself. She had broken down her prejudice against girls partly out of curiosity to see and know Marjorie’s friends, partly because of her growing fondness for Marjorie. The innocent beauty of the young girl, and her utter lack of conceit and affectation, had made a deep impression on the suspicious, embittered old lady. She had no expectation of liking Marjorie’s friends as she was learning to like the courteous, gracious lieutenant. It was her skeptical opinion, uttered to Jonas, that, ifoneof the “new ones” turned out to be half as worthy as “that pretty child,” she would not regret the experiment.
“You may take me for an old fool, Jonas,” she declared to her faithful servitor of many years. “Here I am entertaining college misses after I’vesworn enmity against them for so long. Well, everything once, Jonas; everything once. If I don’t like ’em, they won’t be invited here again.”
“The young lady’s friends will be all right, Miss Susanna,” Jonas had earnestly assured. “She is a fine little lady.”
The “young lady’s friends,” however, were seized with a certain amount of trepidation when, on the designated afternoon, they advanced on Hamilton Arms, looking their prettiest. Each had worn the afternoon frock she liked best in honor of her hostess. Marjorie, Leila and Jerry headed the van, Leila bearing in her arms a huge box of roses. Marjorie had insisted that Leila must present these to Miss Susanna. Leila had sturdily demurred, then accepted the honor thrust upon her. All the way to Hamilton Arms she had kept the party in a gale of laughter with the humorous presentation speeches which she framed en route.
Within a few steps of the house her fund of words deserted her. “Take these yourself, Marjorie,” she implored. “I am in too much of a glee at my own foolishness. I shall laugh and disgrace us all if I undertake to give her the roses.”
“You’ll be all right, you goose. I refuse to help you out.” Marjorie waved aside the proffered box. “Rally your nerve and say the first thing that occursto you. It will be sure to be the best thing you could possibly say.”
“I doubt it. Well, I can but take firm hold on the box and make the best of a bad matter.” Leila grasped the box with exaggerated force, cleared her throat and burst out laughing. She continued to laugh as they ascended the steps. She had hardly straightened her face when Jonas answered the door and ushered the guests over the threshold they had never expected to cross.
“I have not seen so many girls at close range for a long time,” announced a brisk voice. Miss Susanna had come from the library into the hall to greet her visitors. She was attired in a one-piece dress of dark gray silk with a white fichu at the throat of frost-like lace.
“How are you, my child?” She now took Marjorie’s hand. “And these are your friends.” Her bright brown eyes were inspecting the group of young women with a kind of reflective curiosity. “Introduce them to me and tell me each name slowly. I wish to know each one by name from now on. I used to have a good memory for names.”
Marjorie complied with the instruction, adding some friendly little point descriptive of each chum. This evoked laughter and helped to ease the slight strain attached to the presentation. Leila then profferedthe box of roses with a frank, “Here is our good will to you, Miss Hamilton.”
“What’s this?” Miss Susanna viewed the long box in amazement. A swift tide of color rose to her cheeks. She reached for it mechanically as though uncertain what to do next. She held it for an instant, then said: “I thank you, girls. You could have done nothing that would please me more. I love flowers; particularly roses. Come into the library now and let us get acquainted.”
In the library Miss Susanna explored the florist’s box with the pleasure of a child. She exclaimed happily over the masses of gorgeous roses as she lifted them from the box and inhaled their fragrance. She sent Jonas for vases and arranged them to suit her fancy, talking animatedly to her guests as her small hands busied themselves with the pleasant task.
The girls gathered informally about her, looking on with gratified eyes. The flower gift had established a bond of sympathy between them. Already Miss Susanna was beginning to glimpse the reason for Marjorie’s devotion to her special friends. The girls also understood Marjorie’s growing interest in the last of the Hamiltons. Miss Hamilton had an oddly fascinating personality which commanded liking.
“There!” Miss Susanna exclaimed, as the lastrose went into a vase to her satisfaction. “I shall leave them in the library while you are here. Afterward I shall take my posies to my room. They will be the last thing I see tonight and the first in the morning. I have selfishly fussed with my lovely roses instead of giving you hungry children your tea. We are going to have it in the tea room today. I will ask you to come now.”
She led the way from the library to an apartment directly behind it. A subdued chorus of admiration ascended from the guests as they stepped into a room which was quite Chinese in character. The walls were hung with rare Chinese embroideries and delicately-tinted prints. A pale green matting rug with intricately-wrought lavender and buff characters covered the floor. The tables and chairs were of polished teak, beautifully inlaid with mother of pearl. In one corner was a tall Chinese cabinet topped by two exquisite peachblow vases. Here and there were other vases of value and beauty. It was an amazing room. With so much to look at, it required time to appreciate fully its worth from an artistic point of view.
While there were several small tables, there was a large oblong one which would seat the party. It was laid for tea and graced by the most wonderful tea set the girls had ever seen. It was of faint,almost translucent, green banded by an odd Chinese scroll border in silver.
“What a perfectly wonderful room!” gasped Vera, her hands coming together in an admiring clasp, so characteristic of her.
Her approval was echoed by the others. The mistress of Hamilton Arms piloted them to the large table, taking her place at the head of it.
“Have your tea first, then you may explore Uncle Brooke’s famous tea room as much as you please.” Miss Susanna glanced about at the circle of eager young faces with a bright smile. She was enjoying this innovation so much more than she had thought she might. “This will really be a meat tea. I know you girls will need something more substantial than tea and cakes, as you won’t be home in time for dinner.”
The invaluable Jonas now appearing, an appetizing collation consisting of creamed chicken, hot muffins, a salad and sweets was served, together with much tea and more talk and laughter. The girls were hungry enough to enjoy every mouthful of the delicious food provided by their hostess, agreeing with Marjorie as to the super-excellence of the tea.
“Please tell us about this tea room, Miss Susanna,” coaxed Marjorie. The repast finished, theparty still sat at table. “I suppose it was planned and arranged by Mr. Brooke Hamilton.”
“Yes; it is considered the finest private tea room in America,” was the reply. The odd part of this room is that every article in it was a gift to my great uncle. Shortly after LaFayette’s visit to America, when Uncle Brooke was a young man in his early twenties, he embarked on a business venture to China. He expected to be gone only a year. Instead, he remained in China for twelve years. Unlike many persons, he did not antagonize the Chinese. They learned to appreciate him for his nobility, and became his firm friends. Every now and then, someone would make him a present. A true Chinaman will give the best he has if he wishes to give.
“Uncle Brooke was so much pleased with his growing collection of things Chinese, that he announced his intention of having a Chinese room in his home when he returned to America,” continued the old lady, a gleam of pride in her eyes. “He told his Chinese friends of his idea and they were delighted. Eventually a rich noble, who had been one of Uncle Brooke’s truest friends, died. He bequeathed a priceless collection of Chinese antiquities to my ancestor. Among them was this tea set, those two peachblow vases, and that print on the east wall. When he returned to America it took him sixmonths to arrange this room to his satisfaction. He arranged it and pulled it to pieces dozens of times before he produced the effect he desired.”
“Do you remember him, Miss Susanna?” asked Marjorie eagerly, then blushed for fear her question might be considered too pointed by her hostess.
“Very well, indeed. I was a young woman when he died. He was seventy-nine years old the week before his death. My father was the son of his only brother who was several years older than Uncle Brooke. Father was an invalid during the last years of his life. We came here to live when I was twelve. As a child, Uncle Brooke would often take me for walks about the estate. He taught me the names and habits of trees, shrubs and flowers. He was a true nature man.”
“It seems odd to hear so much, all at once, of Mr. Brooke Hamilton,” observed Helen. “We have not heard anything of him before except what little is known on the campus. He is almost a mystery at Hamilton College.”
“The fault of the college,” retorted Miss Susanna with bitterness. “There was a time when the college board might have had the data for his biography. That time has passed. They shall never have one scrap of information concerning him from me. What I have told you of him today is in strict confidence. I have spoken freely of him because Marjorie hasassured me that you are to be trusted. Were you to break this confidence, I would refuse to verify whatever you might tell and forbid any publication of the information.”
Miss Hamilton glanced defiantly about the circle. Her kindly expression had entirely vanished.
“We can but assure you of our discretion.” It was Leila who made an answer, a hint of wounded pride in her blue eyes.
“You can trust us, Miss Susanna,” added Marjorie, smiling bravely. She was experiencing a queer little sinking of the heart at the displeased old lady’s intent to permanently withhold from the college the true history of its founder.
“I daresay I can, child. Let us change the subject. It is unpleasant to me. You girls had better walk about the tea room and enjoy the curios until I recover my good humor.”
Prompt to obey the mandate, the girls spent at least a half hour in the Oriental room, examining and admiring the departed connoisseur’s individual arrangement of a marvelous collection. Miss Susanna sat and watched them, almost moodily. Returned to the library, the sight of her roses mollified her. She decided to do a certain thing which had risen to her mind. The desire to give pleasure to these young girls who had thought of her conquered her sudden gust of spleen against Hamilton College.
“Would you like to see my great uncle’s study?” she asked, turning from the flowers to her guests.
“Oh!” Ronny drew a wondering audible breath. She could hardly believe her ears.
The others laughed at her, but the eager light in their eyes told its own story.
“May we see it, Miss Susanna?” Vera’s tone was almost imploring.
“You may. Another time, when all of you come to see me, I will show you about the house. It is well worth seeing. My great uncle gathered beauty from the four corners of the earth. He loved to travel and brought back with him the treasure of other lands. I should like you to see the study. It holds one thing, in particular, in which I am sure you will be interested.”
“There is no corner of this house without interest,” Leila said warmly. “I am sure of that.”