“Leila, do you think we should have spoken to those freshies and extended the hand of friendship?” Marjorie inquired half doubtfully as the party, now seven strong, loitered along their way to the Hall. The balminess of the still September night made them reluctant to go indoors.
“Not tonight,” Leila reassured. “Plenty of time for that. Did I rush into your pocket the first time I saw you, Beauty? I did not. Remember Selma, Nella, Vera and I were at Baretti’s when you five girls walked in there on your first evening at Hamilton.”
“Give us credit. We didn’t whoop like a war party of Comanches, did we?” This from Jerry, who had not yet brought herself to a tolerant view of the noisy party of freshies.
“You did not. We four made more noise than you. That was nothing compared to these Bertramites,” Leila’s criticism held indulgence.
“You said the tall one and the ‘tow-head’ were at the Hall. It would not surprise me to find the whole aggregation there. The others may have arrived while we were marching around the campus, making calls on people who were not at home. I see our finish.” Jerry groaned loudly. “The majority of the sixteen freshmen Miss Remson spoke of!”
Jerry’s surmise proved correct. The same group of girls they had encountered at Baretti’s on the previous evening trooped into the dining room the next morning just as the Lookouts were finishing their breakfast.
“The strangers within our gates,” announced Jerry. “It’s up to us to remember ’em. What? I’m really growing fond of that ‘What?’ I can understand why Miss Cairns was so fond of it.”
“I think it is a foolish expression,” condemned Muriel, her eyes twinkling.
“Then never indulge in it, my dear Miss Harding,” cautioned Jerry. “May I venture to inquire what the pleasure of this distinguished company is today?”
“Unpack, if our trunks come,” returned Ronny and Marjorie together. “I wish Helen would hurry up and get here,” Marjorie continued. “We all ought to go over to Hamilton Arms to see Miss Susanna. I’d not care to go without Helen, though.”
“What’s a journey without the ninth Traveler?” propounded Ronny. “Have you any idea when she’ll be here?”
No one had. At eleven o’clock that morning, however, Jerry signed for a telegram. She hustled up stairs with it to impart the good news that Helen Trent would arrive on the four-ten train from the North. The trunks having been delivered shortly before ten o’clock that morning, unpacking was in full swing.
“We’ll all go to the station to meet her,” planned Jerry. “Only eight of us can’t very well squeeze into Leila’s roadster. Four of us will have to go in a taxi.”
“I’d better call Kathie on the telephone and tell her and Lillian to be ready,” was Marjorie’s spoken thought. “Lillian isn’t a Traveler, but she ought to be asked to join us. She has been so dear to Kathie and Lucy especially, and to us, too.”
“We might as well be the Ten Travelers as the Nine,” agreed Jerry. “I’d like Lillian to meet Miss Susanna, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes; only we can’t take her with us to Hamilton Arms without having first explained all about her and asked permission to bring her.”
“I know it. Do you believe our little old Travelers’ club is really important enough to leave to Hamilton as a sorority? It was different with theLookout Club. We were regularly organized with constitution and by-laws, etc. This is very informal; secret, one might almost call it.”
“I have thought about that, too,” Marjorie replied. “I’ve also thought we ought to ask Robin and Portia to join—in fact the Silvertonites who have stood by us since our freshie days. There are Ethel Laird and Grace Dearborn, too. They have been devoted to us.”
“Don’t forget Eva Ingram and Mary Cornell,” added Jerry. “They certainly stood by us when we had that row with the Sans during our freshman year.”
“I meant to count them in,” Marjorie nodded. “Once, this past summer, I made a list of names. There were nineteen, counting the original nine of us. I didn’t count Phil or Anna Towne or Barbara Severn. They are still to come. If we leave the club as a sorority to the next senior class, they will be the first girls chosen.”
“The Nineteen Travelers.” Jerry critically tried out the title. “That sounds as well as the Nine Travelers. I don’t know but better.”
“We really need the whole nineteen if we are really going to accomplish laying a foundation for a dormitory,” was Marjorie’s energetic declaration. “I mean that figuratively. If we manage to get the site for a dormitory this year we’ll have done well.We don’t even know whether those boarding house properties are for sale.”
“If they aren’t, we might find another site, even better. There is plenty of open ground below them.”
“Yes; but it belongs to the Carden Estate and isn’t for sale. I asked Miss Susanna about it last June. She knows all about the land near the college and Hamilton Estates. She explained to me the reason for that row of houses along that little street. You know we wondered why they were there.”
“It always looked to me as though a couple of city blocks of third rate houses had been picked up and dumped down just outside the campus limits for no particular reason,” was Jerry’s view of it.
“Well, there’s a reason,” smiled Marjorie. “The workmen who built Hamilton College lived in those houses while the work was in progress. It took almost five years to build our Alma Mater, Jeremiah. By the workmen, I mean the foremen and more important of the builders. I don’t know where the laborers lived. In the town of Hamilton, I presume. Those houses were considered very sizable and comfortable in Mr. Brooke Hamilton’s day, Miss Susanna said.”
As the two busied themselves with their unpacking, they continued to talk over the project of enlargingtheir little circle to nineteen members. Until their particular allies had returned to Hamilton nothing could be done.
“Wait until college has opened, then I’ll call a meeting. We’d best have it in Leila’s and Vera’s room. It is larger than ours. Between you and me, Jeremiah, what ought we to do about the freshies?” Marjorie straightened from her trunk, her arms full of wearing apparel, and stared dubiously at Jerry.
“What?” This time the ejaculation came involuntarily. On her knees before her trunk, Jerry’s head and plump shoulders had been temporarily eclipsed, as she dived into the trunk to fish up the few remaining articles at the bottom. “Oh, yes, I got you.” Jerry had comprehended a second after Marjorie had spoken.
“What you said at breakfast about the strangers being well within our gates, made me feel that we ought to begin to try to get acquainted with them. We promised Miss Remson to help them get settled, if we could. I don’t mind their being noisy.” Marjorie paused.
Jerry eyed her quizzically. “You think they are too much like the Sans to be a positive comfort around the house, now don’t you?”
“They seemed a little that way to me,” Marjorie admitted. “The Sans were older by a year or twothan these girls when they entered Hamilton. These freshies are very juvenile acting.”
“They acted last night as though they didn’t care a button whether they met anyone else or not. A sufficient-unto-themselves crowd, you know. Still, if we hold off from them, they may feel that we are puffed up over our senior estate. The best way, I guess, is to cultivate them. We can be friendly, but a trifle on our dignity at the same time.”
“We’ll probably meet them in the halls and on the veranda during the next day or so. That will start the ball rolling. I’d rather not make any calls until I’ve had one or two chance encounters with some of them. Being on station duty is different. It is a detail.”
“I hate to butt into a stranger’s room, freshie or no freshie,” Jerry agreed. “You know how we felt when the three Sans came to call before we had hardly taken off our hats.”
In spite of Marjorie’s ever ready willingness to be of service when needed, she still retained a certain amount of shyness which had been hers as a child.
“I am not afraid of being snubbed by these lively freshie children,” she presently said, with a trace of humor. “I don’t care to intrude on them unless I am truly sure they want to know us.”
“They don’t know what they want or what theydon’t want,” calmly observed Jerry. “I am not enthusiastic over them, Marvelous Manager. I’ll try to be a conscientious elder sister to them, but it will be an awful struggle.”
Marjorie laughed at this. Jerry chuckled faintly in unison. The unexpected invasion of Lucy, Katherine Langly and Lillian Wenderblatt put an end to confidence. The will to labor also languished and was lost in the ardor of meeting and greeting.
Invited to stay to luncheon, the ringing of the bell found Jerry’s and Marjorie’s room in a state of temporary disorder. Every available space was piled with feminine effects.
“Things are in an awful uproar.” Jerry waved her arm over the chaotic array. “The worst is over with our unpacking done. It won’t take long after luncheon to put this stuff where it belongs. Glad you girls came to the Hall. It saves us the trouble of going after you.”
Ronny and Muriel now appearing, the seven girls went happily down to luncheon. As a result of Jerry’s and Marjorie’s talk regarding the freshman arrivals at Wayland Hall, both were prepared to be conscientiously friendly on sight.
A trifle ahead of their companions in descending the stairs, at the foot of the staircase they encountered Augusta Forbes, Calista Wilmot and Florence Hart, the “tow-head,” just entering the hall fromthe veranda. The eyes of the two sets of girls met for an instant. Marjorie smiled in friendly, unaffected fashion, intending to speak. Jerry emulated her example. To their surprise Augusta Forbes put on an expression of extreme hauteur; Florence Hart stared icily out of two pale blue eyes. Calista Wilmot, however, smiled cheerfully, taking no notice of her companions’ frozen attitude.
It was all done in a second or two. Marjorie’s color heightened. She felt as though she had received a slap in the face. The smile fleeing from her lips, she treated the haughty pair to a steady, searching glance. Then she quietly withdrew her gaze.
“Now what was the matter with them?” Jerry demanded, as she and Marjorie entered the dining room. “Were we properly snubbed? No mistake about it. They must have heard what I said about them last night.”
“I don’t recall that you said anything very dreadful about them,” returned Marjorie.
“I compared them to Comanches and expressed my general disapproval of their howls,” confessed Jerry cheerfully. “Only they didn’t hear me say anything. Leila said as much as I. Neither of us meant to be ill-natured. You know I usually say outright whatever I think in a case of that kind.”
“Those two freshies acted as though they were angry with us for some unknown reason or other.” Marjorie knitted her brows. “They’d hardly have behaved like that simply because they didn’t know us and resented our smiling at them on that account.”
“Thatwouldbe the height of snobbishness,” replied Jerry. “We’d better tell the girls. They may try to be helpful and get a snubbing, same as we did.”
Seated at table, Jerry proceeded to tell the others of the incident. Be it said to her credit she made no attempt to retail it as gossip. She bluntly stated what had happened and warned them to keep their helpfulness at home.
“That’s too bad,” Lillian Wenderblatt said sympathetically. “It puts you all at sea as to what to do next. You say the one girl returned your smile. Perhaps when you know her better you can find out what ails the other two.”
“They can’t have a grievance against us when they don’t know us,” Marjorie said. “I shall let those two alone for the present and confine my attention to some of the other freshies.”
With this she dropped the incident from her thought and speech. After luncheon, as she redressed her hair to go to the station, it recurred to her disagreeably. She half formed the guess that Elizabeth Walbert might have made the acquaintance already of these two freshmen and prejudiced them against herself and her friends. Miss Walbert could not possibly have a just grievance against her. Their acquaintance had been too brief. As a formerfriend of Leslie Cairns, however, she probably held rancor against the Lookouts.
Marjorie sturdily dismissed this conjecture as not in keeping with her principles. She felt it unfair to accuse Elizabeth Walbert, even in thought, of such an act. She resolved to take Lillian Wenderblatt’s advice and cultivate the acquaintance of the black-eyed girl who had shown signs of affability. She might then, eventually, learn wherein lay the difficulty.
A rollicking afternoon with her chums, crowded with meeting and welcoming at least twenty seniors who had returned to college on the same train as Helen Trent, drove the disquieting incident from her mind. Helen was the last one of the nine girls, who had long been intimate friends, to return to Hamilton. Lillian now added as the tenth “Traveler,” the band of friends were in high feather. Helen was triumphantly escorted to the Lotus from the station and there feted and made much of. Arriving at ten minutes past four o’clock, it was after six before she saw the inside of Wayland Hall. Three rounds of ices apiece had also dampened the ardor of all concerned for dinner.
“These joyful ice cream sociables are appetite killers. There goes the dinner gong and yours truly is listening to it without a snark of enthusiasm. I think I’ll forego dinner and finish straightening mytraps,” declared Jerry. Now returned to her room, Jerry viewed her still scattered possessions with distinct disfavor.
“You had better go down and eat something,” advised Marjorie. “You will be ravenous about bedtime, if you don’t. We haven’t a thing here to eat except candy. As a late feed it’s conducive of nightmares, Jeremiah.”
“Wise and thoughtful Mentor, so it is,” grinned Jerry. “I’ll take your advice.”
“If I see that black-eyed girl who smiled at me downstairs I shall speak to her and start things moving,” Marjorie said with decision. “I won’t ask her the very first thing what was the matter with her friends, but I’ll do so as soon as I am a little bit acquainted with her.”
Marjorie found no opportunity to put her resolve into execution that evening. The freshman in question was seated at a table the length of the room from the one at which she sat. The two freshmen who had shown such utter hauteur had seats at the same table as their black-eyed friend. Marjorie had not even an opportunity to catch the other girl’s eye.
The following morning, as she started across the campus with Ronny for a stroll and a talk in the warm early autumn sunshine, fortune favored her. Seated on a rustic bench under a huge elm tree were two of the freshmen she was anxious to come intotouch with. One was the black-eyed girl, the other the plump blonde.
“It’s a splendid opportunity, Ronny.” Marjorie took Ronny by the arm. “Come along. I am going to speak to them. No time like the present, you know.”
“All right, lead the way.” Ronny obligingly allowed Marjorie to propel her toward the bench where the duo were seated.
“Good morning.” Marjorie stopped fairly in front of the rustic seat, her brown eyes alight with gentle friendliness. “Isn’t the campus wonderful today? This is one of its happy moods. I always say it changes in expression just as persons do.”
“Good morning.” The black-eyed girl’s tones were as friendly as her own had been. The fair-haired girl also acknowledged the greeting with a nod and smile. “Truly, I agree with you. I think this campus is the most magnificent piece of lawn I ever saw or expect to see.”
“I see where the good old campus has made another friend.” Ronny now broke into the conversation nicely started between Marjorie and the freshmen. “Marjorie, this person here,” Ronny playfully indicated her chum, “calls it her oldest friend at Hamilton.”
“I don’t wonder. I hadn’t thought of it in thatlight before,” returned the blonde freshman half shyly.
Both freshmen showed a certain pleasure mingled with reserve in having thus been addressed by the two seniors.
“If you don’t mind, I am going to bring that seat over there up beside yours.” Marjorie promptly got into action. “Then we can all have a sunny morning confab. It is high time we began to get acquainted with our little sisters,” she finished laughingly.
Together she and Ronny carried the nearby seat to a place beside the one holding the two freshmen. Then conversation began afresh, a trifle stiffly at first. Soon the four were laughing merrily over Calista Wilmot’s humorous narration of her first day at Bertram Preparatory School when the taxicab driver had, at the start, misunderstood her and carried her to the opposite end of the borough in which the school was situated.
“He landed me with a flourish in front of the main entrance to the Bertram Academy for young men,” she related. “I saw a crowd of young men playing football on a side lawn. That was queer, I thought. I didn’t see a sign of a single girl. He set my luggage down on the drive. In another minute he would have been off and away. I had paid him before we started. I called out to him towait and asked him if he was sure it was the Bertram Preparatory School for Girls. Right then we came to an understanding. Maybe I didn’t drive away from that school in a hurry. I had a perfect string of mishaps that day, big and little.” She continued to relate them to her amused listeners.
An hour slipped away unheeded by the congenial quartette under the big elm. Marjorie made no approach to the subject on her mind. The two freshmen asked numerous impersonal questions regarding Hamilton College and its traditions. They made but scant reference to their own friends except to remark that there were twelve of them at Wayland Hall.
“Look, Ronny.” Marjorie pointed to the chimes clock in the chapel tower which showed eleven. “We must go. I promised to go over to Silverton Hall to see Robin Page before luncheon. We’ll have time just for a hurried call.”
To her new acquaintances she explained: “Miss Page is a very dear friend. She came back to Hamilton on the seven-thirty train last night. Would you like to go with us to Silverton Hall? I am sure she will be glad to meet you.”
The two girls, thus invited, exchanged eager glances. It was evident both wished very much to go. Still, for some reason, they hesitated to accept.
“I don’t know—” began Calista doubtfully. “Nottoday, I think.” She adopted a tone of sudden decision.
“Some other day, I hope,” supplemented Charlotte Robbins, the blonde girl. She looked almost appealingly at Marjorie.
“Any day,” was Marjorie’s cordial response. “My room, or rather Miss Macy’s and my room is 15. Delighted to be of service to you. Miss Lynne and I will make you a real call some evening this week.”
“Our number is 20. I hope youwillcome and see us.” Charlotte Robbins emphasized the will as though she had definitely made up her mind to be cordial.
After Marjorie and Ronny had left them, the two freshmen regarded each other in silence for a moment.
“Now we have gone and done it!” exclaimed Charlotte with a short laugh. “What else could we have done?”
“Nothing,” replied Calista with conviction. “Gus is going to be as cross as two sticks. She is so stubborn, once she makes up her mind to be.”
“She has made a mistake about Miss Dean and Miss Lynne, at least. They are sweet.”
“I don’t want to quarrel with Gussie over this business.” Calista knitted reflective brows. “In spite of the numerous wordy tilts she and I arealways having, I’m awfully fond of Gus. A more generous girl never lived, and she is so square, too.”
“She’s the baby who wouldn’t grow up,” Charlotte said with a whimsical smile. “She’s good as gold when she wants to be good. She roars like a spoiled infant when she is crossed. The best way to do is to stand by the courage of our convictions. We like these two seniors. They appear to like us. We’ll just have to make Gus understand that.”
“Leslie Cairns! The very last person I expected to see in this part of the country!”
With this exclamation of amazement, Lola Elster brought the small electric machine she was driving to a quick stop. The surprised cry was the result of being hailed by a young woman driving a roadster. The latter had spied the electric motor containing Alida Burton and Lola Elster and promptly raised her voice to a shout of greeting. The meeting occurring on one of the staid residence avenues of Hamilton, she had had no difficulty in attracting the attention of the two seniors.
“Why, Leslie, thisisa surprise!” echoed Alida. “I haven’t seen you since the day—” Alida stopped, her color rising. “I mean since—” again she stammered.
“Oh, say it and be done with it.” Leslie exhibited her old impatience. She was already shaking hands with Lola, who had climbed out of the electricand now stood beside the roadster. “Since I got it in the neck for hazing. That’s what the trouble was all about. If Matthews hadn’t been both feet down on hazing the whole thing would have blown over.”
“We couldn’t imagine what had become of you,” Lola said hastily. She was anxious to keep off the subject of the Sans’ downfall. She had exhibited so little sympathy for Leslie during her last week on the campus that she feared Leslie might, given the opportunity, upbraid her for her lack of loyalty. “Why didn’t you write me, Leslie? I never heard a word from you all summer.”
“Oh, I was busy. I don’t like to write letters.” The reply was coolly evasive.
“Are you staying in town?” Alida was now out of the car and ranged next to Lola beside the roadster.
“West Hamilton. I have an aunt there, you know.”
“Is that so?” Lola opened her eyes. “I never knew that.”
Conversation languished for an instant. Lola and Alida were both curious concerning Leslie, but tried not to show it.
“There’s a rather nice little confectioner’s store about two blocks further down the street. Suppose we go there,” proposed Leslie. “We are blockingthe road, as it is. Some of these Hamilton fossils would kick if we happened to take up an inch more of room than their ideas call for.”
“I know the place you mean. Delighted!” Lola turned toward her car, Alida following. Again at the wheel, she called out, “Park your car on the lower side of the street opposite the shop. The parking’s better there. Go ahead. We’ll be right behind you.”
“Sure thing,” Leslie returned laconically. “I know all about that place.”
“Leslie has nerve,” was Lola’s first remark out of the former’s hearing. “If I had been expelled from college you wouldn’t catch me within a hundred miles of the fatal spot afterward. First I ever heard she had an aunt in West Hamilton.”
“Don’t you believe it?” queried Alida.
“I doubt it. Les is here for some special reason of her own which she will keep to herself unless she happens to feel confidential. I understand her. She used to tell me a lot about her affairs when I was a freshie. After you and I grew pally, she grew shut-mouth,” Lola slangily continued. “I was glad not to be her pal. She took too many risks and she was always dragging her pals into trouble. She thought money would help her out all the time. You see for yourself, it didn’t. I made up my mind to keepaway from Les long before the end of my freshman year.”
“She thought a lot of you, though, Lola. She really did,” Alida said earnestly.
“Oh, I know.” Lola made a little bored movement of the head. “After she mixed things up for me and made me appear an idiot at basketball, I had had enough of being chummy with her. Be careful what you say to her today. Les has some kind of game to play, take it from me. Don’t be too friendly with her. It won’t add to our reputation as seniors to be chummy with her. We’ll have to keep her at a distance. Recall she left Hamilton,disgraced.”
The confectioner’s shop reached, Lola had time for no more advice. Natalie Weyman had once characterized Lola Elster to Leslie as “a selfish kid.” In all ways she bore out this opinion. She was constantly alive to her own interests, always placed them first, and callously trampled down anyone who stood in the way of them.
The trio presently established at one of the small round tables and their order given for soda fountain concoctions composed of ice cream, nuts and fruit syrup, Leslie said with an elaborate attempt at indifference, “Well, what is the news from the knowledge shop? Have you seen Walbert yet?”
“She’s at Wayland Hall,” promptly replied Alida.“So are we. Lola and I room together now.” Satisfaction permeated the information.
“What?” Leslie made the monosyllable faintly satiric. “You don’t say so. And Walbert is at the Hall! She tried long and hard enough to get there. So did you, Lola. Where Walbert should be is off the campus. She deserved the run far more than we.”
“We are awfully provoked about it,” went on Alida. “We do not intend to bother with her at all. Do we, Lola?”
Lola shrugged contemptuously. “I sha’n’t lose any sleep over her. I never liked her.”
“You never lost any sleep over admiration for anyone, Lola.” Leslie put a touch of malice in the assertion.
“I know it,” Lola replied boldly, though she reddened. She understood the remark to be a reproach.
“How is Bean, dear creature?” Leslie simulated effusion. “And how are the beanstalks? Grown clear up to the chapel steeple by this time, I don’t doubt.”
“They are back. That’s about all I can say. We aren’t on speaking terms with them, you know. By the way, Les, did Bean stand up before the Board and refuse to answer their questions? I mean last spring when the Sans got in bad. I heard she did.”
“Who told you?” countered Leslie, her face darkening.
“Nell Ray, I think. It was one of the Sans,” Lola informed.
“I always knew Nell Ray was a talker.” Leslie scowled her disapproval. “Yes, you may as well know, Bean did precisely that. It was merely a bluff. I think she had told the whole thing to Matthews before we were summoned. Very likely he sent for her when he received Dulcie’s letter. She spilled the story of the hazing and he agreed to let her get away with refusing to talk before the Board. That little prig made more trouble for me than anyone else at Hamilton.”
“I don’t think so, Leslie,” differed Lola. “It was Dulcie Vale and Bess who dished you. You always had it in for Bean and she never made a move against you.”
“You don’t know what I know, or you wouldn’t say that. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll have a chance yet to even my score with that mischief maker. I’m glad I ran across you two. You can keep me posted as to what goes on at the prissy school; provided anything of account happens there.”
“Yes, certainly.” Lola’s assurance lacked warmth. “How long do you expect to be here, Leslie? Are you going to open your New York house this winter? Now that you are done with college, I supposeyour father will want you to be near him. If you’re going to be in New York, Alicia and I will arrange to spend Thanksgiving with you. Our house is closed and the folks gone to California for the winter.”
“I don’t know where I’ll be at Thanksgiving.” Leslie spoke with cold abruptness. She had quickly sensed Lola’s lack of interest in herself, immediately topped by self-seeking. That was Lola to a T. “My father and I are on the outs, if you care to know it. He was furious with me about that hazing business. He didn’t care a bit about what we did to Remson. He said that was merely looking out for our own interests. He couldn’t see the hazing for a minute. I’m living on my own money. I don’t know whether he and I will ever make up or not.” A curious expression of gloom crossed her heavy features. The estrangement from her father was her real punishment.
“I shall stay on here for awhile,” she went on. “I might as well. Later I’ll go to Chicago, perhaps. I have a couple of girl friends who are crazy to have me make them a long visit.”
“I am sorry about your trouble with your father.” Lola did not show sympathy. Instead she appeared half sulky. Leslie’s refusal to take up her Thanksgiving hint had displeased her. She had calculated that she and Alida would enjoy being entertainedover Thanksgiving at the Cairns’ palatial New York home.
“Oh, he’ll get over it. I am his only child. He’ll have to come across with a forgiveness diploma sooner or later. It’s the only kind of diploma I want.”
For half an hour longer the three sat around the table, their talk animated but fragmentary, so far as sticking to one subject was concerned. During that time Lola kept her ears trained for some catch word that might explain Leslie’s presence in Hamilton. Leslie, however, was on her guard. When at length they rose to leave the shop, she had arrived at one definite conclusion. She could not count on the friendship of either girl. Alida would be ruled by Lola, and Lola would cut her dead tomorrow if self-interest warranted it.
Leslie Cairns had deceived them in saying she was visiting an aunt in Hamilton. She had merely taken a furnished house in the town and was living there with a chaperon whom she called “Aunt Edith.” Leslie was wise enough to know that, after her separation from her father, she could not defy convention with success. As a young woman alone, she needed the protection of a chaperon. She therefore engaged the services of a middle-aged woman of education and social standing who had met with reverses of fortune. Mrs. Gaylord, her duenna,never interfered with her plans. She placidly fell in with them.
As it happened, Leslie’s father had not entirely abandoned his unscrupulous daughter. He had determined to teach her a lesson. Shocked at her lawless conduct and bitterly incensed and disappointed at her expulsion from Hamilton College, he had treated her with great harshness. He had bitterly reminded her of his threat to disown her. “You have your own money,” he had said. “Use it to support yourself. I wish nothing more to do with you. I am going to Chicago for a week. When I come back, I shall expect to find you gone.”
Characteristic of Leslie, she had accepted the verdict without emotion. She had packed her effects, engaged a chaperon from a private agency, and left New York for Bar Harbor for the summer. Mr. Cairns had had her every movement secretly watched, however. Mrs. Alice Gaylord would not have chaperoned Leslie long had his private seal of approval been lacking. Assured that she was in safe company, he left her to her own devices until such time as he should find it in his heart to reclaim her.
The summer over, Leslie had found time hanging heavily on her hands. She had had altogether too much time to think, and thinking grew into broodingover her deserved misfortunes. Strangely enough, she blamed Marjorie Dean more than all the others for what had happened. She chose to do so because she had never forgiven Marjorie for turning on her on the occasion when Leslie had led the verbal affront against Marjorie on the campus during the latter’s freshman year. With that for a basis, she had laid the failure of every dishonorable scheme she had concocted at Hamilton at Marjorie’s door. It was the old story of the injurer accusing the innocent injured party of treachery.
Shortly before her expulsion from Hamilton College, Leslie heard a rumor to which she paid no special attention on hearing. In the stress of the dismissal agony she forgot about it. Later it returned to her. It was the recollection of it which decided her to take up her residence in the town of Hamilton. She also had a certain amount of curiosity regarding what went on at Hamilton. Lola and Alida were still there. She had thought she might cultivate their society.
Leslie was shrewd enough to discern, that, while Lola Elster would gladly accept entertainment from her in New York, she was not desirous of the old campus intimacy with her.
Back in her roadster, having bade the two seniors a nonchalant farewell with, “I’ll lunch you at myaunt’s house some day soon,” she drove down the shady street half hurt, half amused.
“Lola’s the same greedy, grabbing kid,” she reflected. “That settles both of them for me. I couldn’t depend upon them to find out a thing for me. Bess Walbert is anything but trustworthy. Still I may have to make up with her yet.”
Marjorie had fully intended to fathom the mystery of the two freshmen’s apparent grudge against Jerry and herself without delay. Pressure of college affairs, social and scholastic, prevented the solving of the annoying problem. The return of the Silvertonites kept the Ten Travelers constantly traveling back and forth between Wayland and Silverton Halls. With the return of Phyllis Moore, the Moore Symphony Orchestra made itself heard about the campus on moonlight evenings. Almost every night for a week serenading went on.
During the days the two sets of girls took turns doing station duty. The freshman class was larger than ever before. One hundred and forty-three freshmen were registered. Every available room in the campus houses had been taken and a few boarding houses off the campus were well filled.
“It seems too bad we don’t know our own freshies as well as we know some of the others,” deploredMarjorie one evening about two weeks after the opening of college. “I have hardly seen those two girls, Miss Wilmot and Miss Robbins, since the morning Ronny and I talked to them on the campus. One can’t count seeing them at meals, because, then, they’re too far away to talk with. I went down to call on them twice. Once, they weren’t there, and the other time they had a ‘Busy’ sign up.”
“I haven’t been near them. I suppose I should have made a call, but I was anxious for you to break the ice. I am a timid little thing, you know,” Jerry ended with a chuckle.
“Well, I shall make a third attempt this evening,” decided Marjorie. “Phil says the sophs are talking about giving the frolic earlier this year. There are so many freshies the sophs think they ought to hurry and make them feel at home. That means some of the juniors and seniors to the rescue. The sophs are in the minority again.”
“Shall you play escort?” asked Jerry. “If you do, then I’m in for it, too. ‘Whither thou goest.’ You get me?”
“Yes, I get you. I’ll do escort duty if I’m asked.”
“You’ll be asked, all right enough,” Jerry predicted. “Do you need me to help you make calls this evening?”
“I wish you would go. You haven’t met MissWilmot or Miss Robbins yet. We will go and see them soon after dinner. I have a hard Philology lesson ahead of me this evening and must study. So we mustn’t stay long.”
“I notice Miss Walbert is very chummy with that last lot of freshies who came here,” observed Jerry. “Funny, the freshies here are divided into two crowds. There’s that first crowd of twelve. The other six, the ones who seem to admire Miss Walbert, are another close corporation. Neither crowd appears to exchange much friendliness. It’s a case of once we used to be snobbish at Wayland Hall, but now we’re clannish. Our own gang is just about as clannish as the others. That ain’t no way to be sociable, is it?”
“No, it ain’t,” laughed Marjorie, repeating Jerry’s intentional lapse from correct English. “We’ll have to see what we can do toward amendment.”
Shortly after dinner that evening, Marjorie and Jerry paused before Room Number 20. Marjorie rapped lightly. Sound of voices from within proclaimed the fact that the two freshmen were at home.
“Why, good evening,” Charlotte Robbins greeted the pair with apparent surprise. “Won’t you come in? We—we thought you had forgotten us,” she added, flushing a little.
“I have been here twice before.” Marjorie went on to explain the non-success of her former calls. “I preferred not to bother you when you were with your friends. I have brought my room-mate, Miss Macy, with me.” She introduced Jerry and the two girls accepted the chairs politely offered them. Marjorie sensed a subtle change from the former friendly attitude the freshmen had exhibited on the campus that morning.
Jerry was distinctly ill at ease, though she strove to be placidly agreeable. She was mentally ticketing their call as a “freeze-out.” She had already vowed within herself that this should be her last effort to cultivate this particular crowd of freshmen.
Marjorie, meanwhile, was trying to make pleasant headway against an intangible barrier. It had not been there on that first sunny morning of acquaintance.
In the midst of a lukewarm conversation concerning college matters, the door was suddenly flung open. A tall girl in a baby-blue silk kimono breezed in. She was well over the threshold before she took in the situation. With an “Oh, excuse me! Didn’t know you had company,” she bolted. The sarcastic emphasis on the word “company” brought a flush to the faces of the guests.
“Please don’t mind Gussie,” apologized Calista,looking vexed. “She has a habit of bolting in and out like a young hurricane. We are used to her. She is a fine girl, but sometimes she—” Calista broke off in confusion.
There was an embarrassing moment of silence, shattered by Marjorie’s clear purposeful tones.
“Since you have mentioned your friend, I should like to ask you if you know her grievance against us. We, Miss Macy and I, have thought she must have one. The way she spoke just now confirms it. We know of no reason for it. It is too bad. We have the very kindliest feeling toward the Bertram freshies.”
“There; what did I tell you?” Instead of answering Marjorie, Calista turned in triumph to Charlotte.
Charlotte nodded. “I think we had best tell Miss Dean the whole thing,” she declared. “You go ahead, Cally. I’ll put in the Selahs at the appropriate moments.”
“I will, and glad to get it off my chest.” Calista breathed a long sigh. “First, please tell me, did you say anything against us, Augusta Forbes in particular, on the evening at Baretti’s. Augusta’s the girl who was just here.”
“We spoke of you and the noise you were making, but only in amusement,” Marjorie returned with candor.
“Gus declares you were making fun of her as you walked toward the door. She says Miss Macy said something about her that made you all laugh.” Calista regarded Marjorie searchingly as though to plumb her honesty.
“We did laugh at Jeremiah.” Marjorie unconsciously used the name Jerry most often received from her chums. “She made a funny remark about you girls staring at her. She hates being stared at about as much as anyone I ever knew. It wasn’t what she said so much as the way she said it that made us laugh. We weren’t making fun of you.”
“I wish you could make Gus believe that,” Charlotte said. “She has taken the matter to heart and is down on you. We were so pleased to know you that morning under the trees. Then you promised to come and see us and when you didn’t we thought you didn’t care to bother with us. Besides,” she hesitated, then went on straightforwardly, “someone told us that you made a fuss over a freshie one day and cut her the next. It’s horrid to have to say these things, but I would like to have you know about them.”
“Frankly, we haven’t wished to believe them,” interposed Calista. “We hope to be friends with you, Miss Dean, and with Miss Lynne and Miss Macy. We have heard quite a little of your popularity on the campus. It isn’t because of that wewish to know you. It’s because we like you. There!”
“Much obliged.” Marjorie put out her hand. “We felt the same about you two girls. I am so sorry Miss Forbes is down on us. Please tell her for me that we wish to be her friends.”
“I don’t know how anyone can say Marjorie is anything but friendly and sincere,” Jerry broke forth in protest. “I have a strong inkling as towherethat remark came from.”
Marjorie looked quickly toward Jerry. Occupied with the nature of Miss Forbes’ grievance she had not grasped the other charge against herself to the full.
“I wasn’t asked to keep the person’s name a secret,” Charlotte assured. “It was Miss Walbert who said it. She has been in our room several times. I don’t like her at all. I wish she would not come here.”
“Will you please tell me again what Miss Walbert said of me?” Marjorie quietly requested.
Charlotte repeated that portion of her former statement concerning the charge against Marjorie.
“I never cut anyone unless that person cuts me first. I would not speak to one who did not wish to speak to me,” Marjorie defended, the soft curves of her lips straightening.
“She has harked back to her first day at the stationwhen she came here a freshie,” asserted Jerry, “only she has purposely twisted the truth.” Briefly she cited the true circumstances.
“I think it is outrageous in a girl to so abuse the truth,” declared Charlotte in shocked tones. “That settles Miss Walbert for me.”
“And for me,” seconded Calista. “I am glad we had it out with you.” She smiled winningly at Marjorie. “We will try and win Gus over. Now let us shake hands all around and swear fealty.”
This done amid good-natured laughter, the last chill upon friendliness disappeared, never to return, and the quartette went on to pleasanter things.
“I knew that Miss Walbert would try to start something,” were Jerry’s first words to Marjorie on returning to their room. “I certainly put my foot in it by making foolish remarks. I have thought over what I said about those girls taking us for museum exhibits, etc. It doesn’t sound well when repeated. I was afraid you’d feel that you ought to repeat it, but you did nobly, Marj, nobly. Those two girls are sensible. They didn’t split hairs over it. All I hope is that Haughty Gus won’t remember what I say. If she insists on knowing what I said before she forgives me, I’ll stay unforgiven.”
Despite the good offices of her chums as peace makers, Haughty Gus, as Jerry had privately named Augusta Forbes, refused to be placated.
“They were making fun of me, Iknow,” she persisted. “You can’t say anything that will make me change my opinion.” This to Calista Wilmot, who had endeavored to reason with her.
“Talk with Miss Dean yourself, Gus,” calmly advised Charlotte. “You will find out in about two minutes that she is a perfect darling. Miss Macy is nice, too. Both of those girls are true blue.”
“You and Flossie act like a couple of geese about those seniors,” criticized Anna Perry, who chanced to be present at the discussion.
“The two sensitive plants.” Charlotte indicated Gussie and Florence with a wave of the hand.
It being a rainy Saturday afternoon, the five girls were sitting about Calista’s and Charlotte’s room drinking the fruit lemonade which Calista had just finished making.
Augusta and Florence both giggled at Charlotte’s fling, by no means offended.
“Don’t care,” defied Gussie. “When I am sore at anyone it is because I have good reason to be. No one can ridicule me and get away with it.”
“You talk like an offended potentate, Gus,” Calista told her.
“Why shouldn’t I, if I want to?” Gussie demanded.
“Why? Because you are a lowly freshman. You ought to be meek along with the lowly; only you aren’t.”
“I guess not. Don’t intend to be ever. I am just as important in my own way as any of those old seniors.”
“No, you are not,” Calista contradicted with great decision. “None of us are—yet. Those girls have three more years of accomplishment to their credit than we. That’s the way I look at it. Besides, I hear they are the best-liked crowd on the campus. Miss Dean is considered the sweetest, kindest girl at Hamilton. Miss Lynne is a wonderful dancer. All of them have something especial they are noted and prized for in college. They have done noteworthy things. We are lucky to be noticed by them.”
“Not when they merely notice us to poke fun at us,” persisted Gussie stubbornly.
“You are hopeless.” Calista threw up her hands in despair. “You will have to learn the truth of what I’ve said for yourself. I see that plainly.”
“I’ll never learn it, for I don’t see things as you do, at all,” Gussie retorted, determined to have the last word.
A few days afterward Augusta announced proudly at the dinner table that she had been invited to the freshman frolic. She was greatly elated to find that she had been the first of the group of five Bertram girls, who usually kept together, to be invited to the merry-making. More, she crowed over the fact that her escort-to-be was a junior. Announcing, however, that it was Elizabeth Walbert who had invited her, she met with the disapproval of Calista and Charlotte.
“How could you accept, Gus?” reproached Calista. “You know how that girl misrepresented Miss Dean to us. Of course, Iknowyou have a grudge against Miss Dean.Iam sure Miss Dean is truthful. I am positive Miss Walbertisn’t.”
“You don’t really know much about Miss Dean,” sputtered Gussie, growing angry. “You only think you do. I wish you wouldn’t mention that girl’s name to me. She makes me tired, and so do you. If Miss Walbert isn’t truthful, it won’t take me long to discover it. At least, she is thoughtful enoughto invite me to the reception. Your wonderful Miss Dean hasn’t invited you.”
Calista merely laughed. “You large-sized infant, give her time. You happen to be the first person I’ve heard of thus far, with an invitation.”
The next evening Calista announced, a triumphant twinkle in her shrewd black eyes, that Miss Dean had invited her to the frolic.
“Miss Macy has invited Charlotte. We have all been asked to go to Miss Dean’s room this evening for a spread. She and her crowd want to meet the rest of you girls and invite you to the dance. Miss Dean says Miss Harper was going to invite you, Gus. Now you see what you’ve missed by accepting that horrid Miss Walbert’s invitation. Miss Harper is a power here at Hamilton. She’s considered the most original girl who ever attended this college.”
“Mercy!” was Gussie’s sarcastic reception of this piece of information. “Don’t worry about me. I’m satisfied. I sha’n’t go near Miss Dean’s room.”
“All right, suit yourself,” Calista replied in a tired voice. “I am all through bothering my head about you, Gus. Have things your own way and see trouble in the long run. I’ll make your apologies to Miss Dean and Miss Harper, then I’m done.”
“Apologies, nothing,” scoffed Gussie. “Tell ’emI said they made me tired, and to keep a hundred miles away from me.”
Secretly she was regretful of the fact that she had too quickly accepted an invitation from a student for whom she cherished no special preference. In her heart she did not like Elizabeth Walbert, but she had not yet become clearly conscious of this.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, had invited Augusta merely to serve her own ends. A cutting remark on Gussie’s part during their first acquaintance concerning the Lookouts had resolved Elizabeth to cultivate the disgruntled freshman’s society. Possessed of a reckless spirit, Gussie would be just the one to help in any scheme she might plan against the girls she detested.
As neither had the remotest conception of the other’s true character, they were both due to take part in a summary awakening. On the evening of the hop, Elizabeth lingered at the Lotus with two juniors until after seven o’clock. In consequence Gussie’s chums had gone on to the gymnasium with their escorts an hour before Elizabeth knocked on Gussie’s door. Always impatient of delay, Augusta was growing momentarily more incensed as time slid by and she remained waiting and neglected. Her reception of the junior was sulky rather than affable.
Arrived at the frolic too late for the grand marchand minus the usual corsage bouquet of flowers which Elizabeth had forgotten to order sent to Augusta, the tall freshman felt distinctly aggrieved. Not one of her chums were without violets or orchids, generously provided by their escorts.
Courtesy, which had not been shown her, she reflected sullenly, pleaded with her not to flash forth her frank opinion to her escort of these lapses. Gussie, however, was at the boiling point and ready to bubble over at a word.
The climax to Augusta’s displeasure was reached when after two dances with her, Elizabeth deserted her for the society of Alida Burton and Lola Elster. While neither of the latter students liked Elizabeth, both were anxious to find out whether she had seen and talked with Leslie Cairns.
“There’s Walbert across the room,” Lola had remarked in an undertone to Alida. “Let’s find out what she knows about Les. We can jolly her along for awhile and then shake her. She’s always crazy to have us notice her. You pump her; and then I will. Be careful what you say to her. Get all she knows, but don’t give up any information about anyone or anything.”
Shortly after ten o’clock Gussie disappeared from the scene of revelry. She was so angry she felt as though her brown eyes must emit sparks. On account of her spleen against their escorts she hadfoolishly declined to go near her chums. She was sore at heart and jealous of the new friendships they had formed. Chiefly, her ire was directed against Elizabeth.
“Just wait until I have a good chance to tellhera few things,” she wrathfully ruminated as she scudded across the campus in the moonless darkness. “I wouldn’t have neglected a rag doll the way she slighted me!”
“Where’s Gus?” Charlotte inquired of Flossie Hart late that evening. Flossie had amiably gone to Marjorie’s spread and there buried the hatchet. “I haven’t seen her for over an hour. I’m afraid she isn’t having a good time. I haven’t seen her dancing much. I asked her to dance, but she turned up her nose and said, ‘Go dance with your seniors.’”
Charlotte laughed. “I hope shehasn’thad a good time. It will teach her to keep away from that Miss Walbert. Every time I’ve seen Miss Walbert tonight she has been with those two seniors, Miss Burton and—I can’t remember the other’s name. She’s small and dark and wears awfully flashy, mannish-looking suits. You know the one I mean.”
Flossie nodded. “Too bad Gus wouldn’t be agreeable,” she said wistfully. “I have had a fine time tonight. She might have, too. It’s her own fault if she hasn’t.”
After the frolic the eight Travelers residing atWayland Hall stopped in Ronny’s room for a chat before retiring.
“Will you have tea, chocolate,—what will you have?” hospitably inquired Ronny. “You can’t have lemonade at this hour of the night. Besides, I have no lemons.”
“Whoever heard of lemonade without lemons?” derided Muriel.
“No one. I merely said you couldn’t have it, etc.,” Ronny sweetly asserted.
“I don’t care for either eats or drinks,” declined Jerry. “I am just hanging around in here for a few minutes to hear what I can hear.”
“Same with me. It is comfy and sociable to compare notes after a jollification, even if one is sleepy.” Marjorie beamed drowsily on her chums. “Girls,” she sat up suddenly, “what has become of Miss Forbes? I didn’t see her after ten o’clock. I sent half a dozen girls over to ask her to dance. I thought Miss Walbert neglected her. She had no flowers, either.”
“I noticed that. Poorinfant terrible!” Ronny smiled.
“I sent Martha and Ethel Laird to make her acquaintance,” Leila said. “Even though she would have none of me, I remembered my fine old Irish manners.”
“You’re a credit to old Ireland, Hamilton, or anyother spot you happen to set your distinguished Irish foot upon,” Marjorie laughingly assured.
“I am that,” Leila blandly agreed. “I prefer myself any day to Miss Walbert.”
Gussie Forbes had too late arrived at the same opinion. The dance over, Florence Hart had found her curled up in an arm chair fast asleep. She had not removed her party gown and a suspicious pinkness about her eyelids suggested tears. Awakened, she was not tearful at all. She launched forth in a bitter tirade against her discourteous escort.
“You wait, Floss,” she said, her eyes flashing. “I won’t forget this evening, in a hurry! Some day before the year’s over, Miss Smarty Walbert will understand that Ihaven’tforgotten it. First time I meet her I shall tell her what I think of her. That won’t be the end of it. Later, I’ll pay her up for this evening! See if I don’t!”
“A guilty conscience need no accuser.” Elizabeth Walbert was well aware that she had been guilty of great discourtesy to Augusta Forbes. She had no intention of admitting it, though. Meeting Augusta in the lavatory the following morning, she fixed her large blue eyes on the freshman in simulated reproach.
“Where did you go to last night?” she coolly inquired. “Just before the hop ended I hunted all over for you.”
Augusta turned a stony face toward her. “Did you, indeed? You amaze me,” she said with biting sarcasm. “So you took that much trouble?Sorry!Since you did not concern yourself about me earlier in the evening, it doesn’t matter whether or not you know where I went.”
“Why, Augusta!” exclaimed Elizabeth with a rising inflection. “What on earth is——”
“Miss Forbes, if you please,” cut in Gussiesharply. “I wish you to know that I think you the rudest, most discourteous person in the whole world. You slighted me last night and I resented it. I resent it still. I was invited to the frolic by a really fine girl; I am sorry she did not invite me first. All my chums had a splendid time. Thanks to you, I didn’t.Theydid not wish me to accept your invitation, for they don’t approve of you. I stood up for you and accepted. Of course, then, I did not go near them. I depended on you to introduce me to other girls, and you paid hardly any attention to me after we were inside the gym. You——”
“Don’t be so silly,” pettishly interrupted Elizabeth. “I——”
“Truth is never silly,” Gussie flashed back. She had said her say in low enough tones so that they were attracting no attention from the two girls at the other end of the lavatory. “Now forget that you ever spoke to me. I’ve forgotten already that I ever met you. Good morning.”
Gussie marched out of the lavatory, head held high, leaving Elizabeth red-faced and angry. This was the beginning of war between the two. Not since Leslie Cairns had scored her for her treachery that day on the campus had Elizabeth been thus arraigned. She spitefully resolved to make Gussie a mark for ridicule at Hamilton. She could do it.Was she not a junior? As for Augusta, she was nothing but a big, stupid freshie!
Elizabeth had awakened that morning quite out of sorts. Her eagerness to cling to Alida and Lola at the frolic had lost her much of the evening’s pleasure. The two seniors had declared the frolic “an awful bore.” They had danced but little, preferring to sit back and criticize. Though they had called her to join them early in the evening and had been more friendly than for a long time, toward the close of the frolic they simply drifted away from her. So cleverly did they manage she was not aware until afterward that they had deliberately dropped her. It hurt her vanity, but not her feelings.
To discover that Gussie had decamped did not add to her peace of mind. She determined not to attend any more college entertainments. They were stupid and silly. Anything Elizabeth disapproved usually went under this ban. Her head aching from a repast of two chocolate eclairs and a nougat bar, eaten after she came from the frolic, Elizabeth decided to cut her classes that day. She would take two headache powders, sleep until noon, and go for a long ride in the afternoon. All this she planned after her tilt with Augusta.
Shortly before two o’clock that afternoon she went to the garage for her car and was soon speeding toward the town of Hamilton. Her object wasa trip to Breton Hill, a village twenty miles south of Hamilton. First she planned to stop in Hamilton and eat a light luncheon.
Wavering between the Lotus and the Ivy, she finally went to the Ivy. Twenty minutes after she entered the tea shop, a girl drove by in a roadster. Her glance resting on a familiar blue and buff car, she smiled sourly, drove on for perhaps a block, then came back and parked her roadster in front of the Ivy. Leaving her car in slow, deliberate fashion, she sauntered up the wide stone walk and into the shop. One swift survey of the room showed her Elizabeth Walbert at a side table. She stood for a moment, her eyes narrowing, then walked boldly to where Elizabeth sat and took the vacant chair opposite her.
The latter looked up from her plate and encountered Leslie Cairns’ eyes. Elizabeth was genuinely surprised. Leslie pretended to be.
“Where—why Leslie Cairns!” stammered the unsuspecting junior.
“Thisisa surprise, Miss Walbert!” Leslie returned in not quite friendly tones.
“I see you are angry with me still, Leslie,” she said plaintively. “You blamed me for saying a lot of things I never said. I heard Dulcie was the cause of your—er—trouble last year. She wrote me after she left Hamilton. I didn’t answer her letter.”
“Oh, forget it.” Leslie made an indifferent gesture. “What’s done can’t be undone. You were wise not to write to Dulcie. She was the most treacherous little reptile I ever knew. How’s college?”
“Oh, so, so. I am at Wayland Hall now. It is full of freshies. Miss Harper and Miss Mason are there again. So are Miss Merrick and Miss Trent. Four P. G’s at Wayland.”
“Four N. G’s, you mean,” corrected Leslie bitterly. “I heard they were back. I met Lola and Alida not long ago.”
“Youdid? They never said a word about it to me. I was with them a long time last night, too. The sophs gave their dance last night. Hateful things! They might have told me. I think Lola issoselfish!” Elizabeth pouted her displeasure.
“Selfish! You are right about that. She is.” Leslie spoke with sudden energy. “She winds Alida around her finger.”
“Of course.” Elizabeth leaned forward, her interest rising. It was good to see Leslie again. Leslie never cared what she said about others.
The waitress approaching, Leslie ordered a luncheon which she did not want, then turned her attention to her companion again.
“Tell me the college news; everything you can think of,” she commanded. “I’m visiting an auntin town. Don’t know just how long I shall be here. That’s all there is to tell about me. Butyoumust really have news.”
“Oh, there isn’t much going on, as yet. I’ll tell you about the frolic first.” Elizabeth recounted the affair from her viewpoint. From that she went from one bit of campus gossip to another.
Leslie listened, careful not to interrupt. She was tactfully pursuing a certain course.
“Do you know anything about this students’ beneficiary business that Bean and her beanstalks organized last year, Bess?” she finally asked with a careless air. “I heard Lola mention it the day I saw her. I didn’t care to ask her about it. Last year, just before the Sans were fired from Hamilton, I heard the organizers were going to take up a collection among themselves to create a scholarship fund or something like that. I thought I might like to contribute, if I knew just what it was all about. I’d do it anonymously. I wouldn’t for worlds let anyone but you know. Do you think you could find out all about it for me?”
“Certainly,” was the ready promise. Re-established thus easily in Leslie’s favor, Elizabeth was feeling elated. To be entrusted with this commission meant she would see Leslie often. Loyal to no one, she had liked Leslie better than the majority of girls she had known.
“I know a freshie at Acasia House who is quite friendly with Miss Laird. Bean, as you call her, is a great friend of Miss Laird’s. I think this freshman could get the information from Miss Laird. She is clever.”
“Ask her then, and I will appreciate it and do something for you in return. Above all, Bess, don’t mention this to a soul. If you do, I’ll know it. In spite of the way I was treated I have a wish to do something for old Hamilton.” Leslie put on a becomingly serious expression.
“I won’t tell,” promised the other girl. “It is fine in you to feel so about Hamilton. I should call it true nobility of spirit. You weren’t understood in college, Leslie.”
“No, I wasn’t.” Leslie sighed her make-believe regret. She had begun to enjoy the part she was now playing.
The two did not leave the tea room for over an hour after meeting. When they emerged to the street each was satisfied with what she had gained from the other. They had agreed to meet the next Wednesday at four o’clock at the Ivy.
“How are you getting along as a driver?” Leslie asked, not without a smile as she sighted Elizabeth’s brightly painted car. It was reminiscent of last year’s disasters.
“Oh, very well. I’ve always told you that I couldkeep the road if people would keep out of my way. Every near accident I’ve ever had has been the fault of someone else’s poor driving.”
To this airy, self-exonerative statement Leslie made no response save by a twist of her loose-lipped mouth. She was very near derisive laughter. Elizabeth, blandly complacent, did not notice her companion’s peculiar expression.
“Let me give you one piece of advice, Bess,” she said brusquely. “Get through with that giddy blue and tan car of yours. It is a dead give-away. One can recognize it a mile away. You think you are O. K. as a driver. You’re not. Don’t deceive yourself. You can’t put it over me. I know your style of driving and it’s punk. Why don’t you learn to drive?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Elizabeth bridled. “I like my car blue. Blue is my color.” She ignored Leslie’s fling at her driving abilities.
“It will be your finish some day; on that car, I mean. Get a black car. You need a new one. This one is passé. You could have it painted black, but what’s the use? Trade this one in on a new machine. Maybe you’ll do better driving a new car.”
“Perhaps you are right. I think my father will let me have a new machine.” Possession of a brand new car appealed to vain Elizabeth.
“IknowI’m right. Suppose you were to have trouble along the pike as you had with that driver last year. If anyone reported you the tag that gave you away would be: ‘The student I mean was driving a blue and buff car.’” Leslie imitated to perfection a high, complaining voice. “With a black car you could simply scud away from trouble and no one would remember how you looked. What?”