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+Project Gutenberg's Marjorie Dean College Junior, by Pauline Lester
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Marjorie Dean College Junior
+
+Author: Pauline Lester
+
+Release Date: August 23, 2011 [EBook #37176]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARJORIE DEAN COLLEGE JUNIOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Under the tree was a grassy mound. On this Elaine was
+invited to sit. _Page 66_]
+
+
+
+
+                             MARJORIE DEAN
+                             COLLEGE JUNIOR
+
+                           By PAULINE LESTER
+
+                               Author of
+
+           "Marjorie Dean, College Freshman," "Marjorie Dean,
+          College Sophomore," "Marjorie Dean, College Senior,"
+                                  and
+                  The Marjorie Dean High School Series
+
+                           A. L. BURT COMPANY
+                          Publishers--New York
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+                      Marjorie Dean College Series
+
+          A Series of Stories for Girls 12 to 18 Years of Age
+
+                           By PAULINE LESTER
+
+                    Marjorie Dean, College Freshman
+                    Marjorie Dean, College Sophomore
+                     Marjorie Dean, College Junior
+                     Marjorie Dean, College Senior
+
+                            Copyright, 1922
+                         By A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+                     MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE JUNIOR
+
+                           Made in "U. S. A."
+
+
+
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE JUNIOR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--A MUSICAL WELCOME
+
+
+"Remember; we are to begin with the 'Serenata.' Follow that with 'How
+Fair Art Thou' and 'Hymn to Hamilton.' Just as we are leaving, sing 'How
+Can I Leave Thee, Dear?' We will fade away on the last of that. Want to
+make any changes in the programme?"
+
+Phyllis Moore turned inquiringly to her choristers. There were seven of
+them including herself, and they were preparing to serenade Marjorie
+Dean and her four chums. The Lookouts had returned to Hamilton College
+that afternoon from the long summer vacation. This year, their Silverton
+Hall friends had arrived before them. Hence Phyllis's plan to serenade
+them.
+
+Robina Page, Portia Graham, Blanche Scott, Elaine Hunter, Marie Peyton
+and Marie's freshman cousin, Hope Morris, comprised Phyllis's serenading
+party. The latter had been invited to participate because she was still
+company. Incidentally she knew the songs chosen, with the exception of
+the "Hymn to Hamilton," and could sing alto. She was, therefore, a
+valuable asset.
+
+"I hope Leila has managed to cage the girls in Marjorie's room,"
+remarked Blanche Scott. "We want all five Sanfordites in on the
+serenade."
+
+"Leave it to Irish Leila to cage anything she starts out to cage," was
+Robin's confident assurance. "If she says she will do a thing, she will
+accomplish it, somehow. Leila is a diplomat, and so clever she is
+amazing."
+
+"Vera Mason isn't far behind her. Those two have chummed together so
+long their methods are similar. They were the first girls I knew at
+Hamilton. They met the train I came in on. Nella Sherman and Selma
+Sanbourne were with them. Two more fine girls. Portia looked pleasantly
+reminiscent of her reception by the quartette to which she now referred.
+
+"I heard Selma Sanbourne wasn't coming back. I must ask Leila about
+that." Robin made mental note of the question.
+
+"That will be hard on Nella," observed Elaine Hunter, with her usual
+ready sympathy. "They have always been such great chums."
+
+"Sorry to interrupt, but we must be hiking, girls." In command of the
+tuneful expedition, Phyllis tucked her violin case under her arm in
+business-like fashion and cast a critical eye over her flock.
+
+"Be sure you have your instruments of torture with you," she laughed.
+"One time, at home, three girls and myself started out to serenade a
+friend of ours. Before we started we had all been sitting on our
+veranda, eating ice cream. One of the girls was to accompany us on the
+mandolin. She walked away and left it on the veranda. She never noticed
+the omission until we were ready to lift up our voices. So we had to
+sing without it, for it was over a mile to our house and she couldn't
+very well go back after it."
+
+"Let this be a warning to you mandolin players not to do likewise."
+Marie turned a severe eye on Elaine and Portia, who made pretext of
+clutching their mandolins in a firmer grip.
+
+"My good old guitar is hung to me by a ribbon. I am not likely to go
+away from here without it." Blanche patted the smooth, shining back of
+the guitar.
+
+"We couldn't have chosen a better time for a serenade," exulted Robin.
+"It is a fine night; just dark enough. Besides, there are not many girls
+back at Wayland Hall yet. We won't be so conspicuous with our caroling."
+
+Meanwhile, in a certain room at Wayland Hall, wily Lelia Harper was
+exerting herself to be agreeable to her Lookout chums. Three of them she
+had marshaled to Marjorie's room on plea of showing them souvenirs of a
+trip she had made through Ireland that summer.
+
+The souvenirs had been heartily admired, but even they could not stem
+Muriel's and Jerry's determined desire to entertain. First Jerry
+innocently proposed that they all walk over to Baretti's for ices. Leila
+and Vera exhibited no enthusiasm at the invitation. Next, Muriel
+re-proposed the jaunt at her expense. Vera cast an appealing look toward
+Leila. The latter was equal to the occasion.
+
+"And are you so tired of me and my pictures of my Emerald Isle that you
+want to hurry me off to Baretti's to be rid of me?" she questioned, in
+an offended tone.
+
+"Certainly not, and you needn't pretend you think so, for you don't,"
+retorted Muriel, unabashed. "Your Irish views are wonderful. So is
+Baretti's fresh peach ice cream. Helen was there and had some this
+afternoon. She said it was better than ever. I was only trying to be
+hospitable and so was Jerry. Sorry you had to take me too personally."
+Muriel now strove to simulate offense. She turned up her nose, tossed
+her head and burst out laughing. "It's no use," she said, "I couldn't
+really fuss with you if I tried, Leila Greatheart."
+
+"I am relieved to hear it," Leila returned with inimitable dryness.
+
+"Lots of time for Baretti's and ice cream yet tonight. It's only
+half-past eight." Marjorie indicated the wall clock with a slight move
+of her head. "We can leave here about nine. We'll be there by ten
+after."
+
+"Certainly; we have oceans of time," Leila agreed with alacrity. "The
+ten-thirty rule is still on a vacation and won't be back for a week or
+so."
+
+"Oh, I haven't told you about my new car," Vera began with sudden
+inspiration. "Father bought it for me in August. It is a beauty. He is
+going to send James, his chauffeur, here with it. It may arrive
+tomorrow. I hope it does." Vera launched into a description of her car
+with intent to kill time. Phyllis had set the hour for the serenade to
+the Lookouts at a quarter to nine.
+
+"It will be good and dark then," she had told Leila and Vera. "We will
+have to come as early as that, for we are going to Acasia House to
+serenade Barbara Severn, and to Alston Terrace to sing to Isabel Keller.
+Last, we are going to serenade Miss Humphrey. We'll have to hustle, in
+order to go the rounds and get back to Silverton Hall before eleven
+o'clock. I depend on you, Leila, to keep that lively bunch of
+Sanfordites in until we get there."
+
+Leila, aided by Vera, was now endeavoring to carry out Phyllis's
+request. She was privately hoping that the serenaders would be on time.
+Should they delay until nine or after, they were quite likely to gather
+in under the window of a deserted room.
+
+Readers of the "Marjorie Dean High School Series" have long been in
+touch with Marjorie Dean and the friends of her high school days.
+"Marjorie Dean, High School Freshman," recounted her advent into Sanford
+High School and what happened to her during her first year there.
+"Marjorie Dean, High School Sophomore," "Marjorie Dean, High School
+Junior," and "Marjorie Dean, High School Senior," completed a series of
+stories which dealt entirely with Marjorie's four years' course at
+Sanford High School. Admirers of the loyal-hearted, high-principled
+young girl, who became a power at high school because of her many fine
+qualities, will recall her ardent wish to enroll as a student at
+Hamilton College when she should have finished her high school days.
+
+In "Marjorie Dean, College Freshman," will be found the account of
+Marjorie's doings as a freshman at Hamilton College. Entering college
+full of noble resolves and high ideals, she was not disappointed in her
+Alma Mater, although she was not long in discovering that an element of
+snobbery was abroad at Hamilton which was totally against Hamilton
+traditions. Aided by four of her Sanford chums, who had entered Hamilton
+College with her, and a number of freshmen and upper class girls, of
+democratic mind, the energetic band had endeavored to combat the
+pernicious influence, exercised by a clique of moneyed girls, which was
+fast taking hold upon other students. The end of the college year had
+found their efforts successful, in a measure, and the way paved for
+better things.
+
+In "Marjorie Dean, College Sophomore," the further account of Marjorie's
+eventful college days was set forth. Opposed, from her return to
+Hamilton College by certain girls residing in the same house with
+herself, who disliked her independence and fair-mindedness, Marjorie was
+later given signal proof of their enmity. How she and her chums fought
+them on their own ground and won a notable victory over them formed a
+narrative of pleasing interest and lively action.
+
+Now that the Five Travelers, as the quintette of Sanford girls loved to
+call themselves, were once more settled in the country of college, their
+devoted friends had already planned to honor them. Leila and Vera, who
+invariably returned early to college, had encountered Phyllis on the
+campus on the day previous. Informing her of the Lookouts' expected
+arrival on the next afternoon, Phyllis had planned the serenade and
+demanded Leila's help. Leila had rashly promised to keep the arrivals at
+home that evening. She was now of the opinion that a promise was
+sometimes easier made than fulfilled.
+
+"Since Vera has told you everything she can remember about her new
+roadster, I shall now do a little talking myself." Leila was having the
+utmost difficulty in controlling her risibles. She dared not look at
+Vera; nor dared Vera look at her. "Ahem! When I was in Ireland," she
+pompously announced, "I saw----"
+
+Came the welcome interruption for which she had been waiting. Clear and
+sweet under the windows of the room rose the strains of Tosti's
+"Serenata." A brief prelude and voices took it up, filling the evening
+air with harmony.
+
+"Thank my stars! A-h-h!" Leila relaxed exaggeratedly in her chair, her
+Cheshire-cat smile predominating her features.
+
+"You bad old rascal!" Marjorie paused long enough to shake Leila
+playfully by the shoulders. Then she hurried to one of the windows.
+Jerry, Muriel and Lucy had reached one. Ronny and Vera were at the
+other. Marjorie joined them. Leila made no move to rise. She preferred
+sitting where she was.
+
+"Keep quiet," Jerry had admonished at the first sounds. "If we start to
+talk to them, they'll stop singing. Whoever they are, they certainly can
+sing." Her companions of her mind, it was a silent and appreciative
+little audience that gathered at the open windows to listen to the
+serenaders.
+
+There was no moon that night. It was impossible to see the faces of the
+carolers, nor, in the general harmony of melodious sound, was it
+possible to identify any one voice. An energetic clapping of hands, from
+other windows as well as those of Marjorie's room, greeted the close of
+the "Serenata." Then a high soprano voice, which the girls recognized as
+Robin Page's, began that most beautiful of old songs, "How Fair Art
+Thou." A violin throbbed a soft obligato.
+
+The marked hush that hung over the Hall during the rendering of the song
+was most complimentary to the soloist. The serenaders were not out for
+glory, however. Hardly had the applause accorded Robin died out, when
+mandolins, guitar and violin took up the stately "Hymn to Hamilton."
+
+  "First in wisdom, first in precept; teach us to revere
+      thy way:
+  Grant us mind to know thy purpose, keep us in
+      thy brightest ray.
+  Let our acts be shaped in honor; let our steps be
+      just and free:
+  Make us worthy of thy threshold, as we pledge our
+      faith to thee."
+
+Thus ran the first stanza, set to a sonorous air which the combined
+harmony of voices and musical instruments rendered doubly beautiful. It
+seemed to those honored by the serenaders that they had never before
+heard the fine old hymn so inspiringly sung. The whole three stanzas
+were given. The instant the hymn was ended the familiar melody "How Can
+I Leave Thee Dear?" followed.
+
+"That means they are going to beat it," called Jerry in low tones. "Let
+us head them off before they can get away and take them with us to
+Baretti's. We'll have to start now, if we expect to catch them. They're
+beginning the second stanza. We'll just give _them_ a little surprise."
+
+With one accord the appreciative and mischievous audience left the
+windows and made a rush for the stairs. Headed by Jerry they exited
+quietly from the house and stole around its right-hand corner.
+
+Absorbed in their own lyric efforts, the singers had reached the third
+sentimentally pathetic stanza:
+
+  "If but a bird were I, homeward to thee I'd fly;
+  Falcon nor hawk I'd fear, if thou wert near.
+  Shot by a hunter's ball; would at thy feet I fall,
+  If but one ling'ring tear would dim thine eye."
+
+Ready to leave almost on the last line, they were not prepared for the
+merry crowd of girls who pounced suddenly upon them.
+
+"How can you leave us, dears?" caroled Muriel Harding, as she caught
+firm hold of Robin Page. "You are not going to leave us. Don't imagine
+it for a minute."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--UNDER THE SEPTEMBER STARS
+
+
+"Captured by Sanfordites!" exclaimed Robin dramatically. "What fate is
+left to us now?" Despite her tragic utterance, she proceeded to a
+vigorous hand-shaking with Muriel.
+
+"Now why couldn't you have stayed upstairs like nice children and
+praised our modest efforts in your behalf instead of prancing down
+stairs to head us off?" inquired Phyllis in pretended disgust. "Not one
+of you has the proper idea of the romance which should attend a
+serenade. Of course, you didn't _know_ who was singing to you, and, of
+course, you just simply _had_ to find out."
+
+"Don't delude yourself with any such wild idea," Jerry made haste to
+retort. "We knew Robin's voice the minute she opened her mouth to sing
+'How Fair Art Thou.' Now which one of us were you particularly referring
+to in that number? I took it straight to myself. Of course I _may_ be a
+trifle presumptuous, Ahem!"
+
+"Yes; 'Ahem!'" mimicked Phyllis. "You are just the same good old, funny
+old scout, Jeremiah. Somebody please hold my violin while I embrace
+Jeremiah."
+
+"Hold it yourself," laughed Portia. "We have fond welcomes of our own to
+hand around and need the use of our arms."
+
+Full of the happiness of the meeting the running treble of girlhood,
+mingled with ripples of gay, light laughter, was music in itself.
+
+"The Moore Symphony Orchestra and Concert Company will have to be moving
+on," Elaine reminded after fifteen minutes had winged away. "This is
+Phil's organization but she seems to have forgotten all about it. We are
+supposed to serenade Barbara Severn, Isabel Keller and Miss Humphrey
+while the night is yet young. I can see where someone of the trio will
+have to be unserenaded this evening."
+
+"Couldn't you serenade them tomorrow night?" coaxed Marjorie. "We had it
+all planned to go to Baretti's before we hustled down to head you off.
+The instant I recognized Robin's heavenly soprano I knew that the
+Silvertonites were under our windows. I guess the rest knew, too. We
+didn't want to talk while you were singing."
+
+"Very polite in you, I am sure." In the darkness Elaine essayed a
+profound bow. Result, her head came into smart contact with Blanche's
+guitar.
+
+"Steady there! I need my guitar for the next orchestral spasm." Blanche
+swung the instrument under her arm out of harm's way.
+
+"I need my head, too," giggled Elaine, ruefully rubbing that slightly
+injured member.
+
+"Do serenade the others tomorrow night." Ronny now added her plea. "How
+would you like to take us along with you, then? Not to sing, but just
+for company, you know. I never went out serenading, and I fully feel the
+need of excitement."
+
+"What you folks need is fresh peach ice cream and lots of it," Jerry
+advised with crafty enthusiasm. "It's to be had at Giuseppe Baretti's."
+
+"I know of nothing more refreshing to tired soloists than fresh peach
+ice cream," seconded Vera. "I leave it to my esteemed friend, Irish
+Leila, if I am not entirely correct in this."
+
+"You are. Now what is it that you are quite right about?" Leila had
+caught the last sentence and risen to the occasion.
+
+"Such support," murmured Vera, as a laugh arose.
+
+"Is it not now?" Leila blandly commented. "Never worry. There is little
+I would not agree with you in, Midget. Be consoled with that handsome
+amend. As for you singers and wandering musicians, you had better come
+with us.
+
+  "We'll feed you on fine white bread of the wheat
+     And the drip of honey gold:
+   We'll give you pale clouds for a mantle sweet,
+     And a handful of stars to hold."
+
+Leila sang lightly the quaint words of an old Irish ditty.
+
+"Can we resist such a prospect?" laughed Phyllis. "How about it, girls?
+Is it on with the serenade or on to Baretti's?"
+
+"Baretti's it had better be, since we are invited there by such
+distinguished persons," was Robin's decision. "Leila, you are to teach
+me that song you were just humming. It is sweet!"
+
+Her companions were nothing loath to abandon their project for the
+evening in order to hob-nob with their Wayland Hall friends. They came
+to this decision very summarily. Now fourteen strong, the company turned
+their steps toward their favorite restaurant.
+
+They were nearing the cluster lights stationed at each side of the wide
+walk leading up to the entrance of the tea room, when Lucy Warner
+stopped short with: "Oh, girls; I know something that I think would be
+nice to do."
+
+"Speak up, respected Luciferous," encouraged Vera. "You say so little it
+is a pleasure to listen to you. I wish I could say that of everyone I
+know," she added significantly.
+
+"Have you an idea of whom she may be talking about?" quizzed Leila,
+rolling her eyes at her companions.
+
+"She certainly doesn't mean us, even if she didn't say 'present company
+excepted.'" Muriel beamed at Leila with trustful innocence. "Go ahead,
+Luciferous Warniferous, noble Sanfordite, and tell us what's on your
+mind."
+
+"I had no idea I was so greatly respected in this crowd. I never before
+saw signs of it. Much obliged. This is what I thought of." Lucy came to
+the point with her usual celerity. "Why not serenade Signor Baretti? He
+is an Italian. The Italians all love music. I know he would like it. You
+girls sing and play so beautifully."
+
+"Of course he would." Marjorie was the first to endorse Lucy's proposal
+"This is really a fine time for it, too. It's late enough in the evening
+so that there won't be many persons in the restaurant."
+
+"It would delight his little, old Giuseppeship," approved Blanche.
+
+"No doubt about it," Robin heartily concurred. "We ought to sing
+something from an Italian opera. That would please him most. The Latins
+don't quite understand the beauty of our English and American songs."
+
+"We can sing the sextette from 'Lucia,'" proposed Elaine. "It doesn't
+matter about the words. We know the music. We have sung that together so
+many times we wouldn't make a fizzle of it."
+
+"Yes, and there is the 'Italian Song at Nightfall' that Robin sings so
+wonderfully. We can help out on the last part of it." Tucking her violin
+under her chin, Phyllis played a few bars of the selection she had
+named. "I can play it," she nodded. "I never tried it on the fiddle
+before."
+
+"That's two," counted Robin. "For a third and last let's give that
+pretty 'Gondelier's Love Song,' by Nevin. It doesn't matter about words
+to that, either. There aren't any. People ought to learn to appreciate
+songs without words. Giuseppe won't care a hang about anything but the
+music. If any of you Wayland Hallites decide to sing with us, sing
+nicely. Don't you dare make the tiniest discord."
+
+"She has some opinion of herself as a singer," Leila told the others,
+with comically raised brows. "Be easy. We have no wish to lilt wid yez."
+
+Having decided to serenade the unsuspecting proprietor of the tea room,
+the next point to be settled was where they should stand to sing.
+
+"Wait a minute. I'll go and look in one of the windows," volunteered
+Ronny. "Perhaps I shall be able to see just where he is."
+
+"He is usually at his desk about this time in the evening. We'll gather
+around the window nearest where he is sitting," planned Phyllis.
+
+Ronny flitted lightly ahead of her companions, stopping at a window on
+the right-hand side, well to the rear. The others followed her more
+slowly in order to give her time to make the observation. Before they
+reached her she turned from her post and came quickly to them.
+
+"He is back at the last table on the left reading a newspaper. There
+isn't a soul in the room but himself," she said in an undertone. "The
+time couldn't be more opportune."
+
+"Oh, fine," whispered Robin. "We can go around behind the inn and be
+right at the window nearest him."
+
+"The non-singers, I suppose we might call ourselves the trailers, will
+politely station our magnificent selves at the next window above the
+singers to see how the victim takes it," decided Jerry. "Contrary, 'no.'
+I don't hear any opposing voices."
+
+"There mustn't be _any_ voices heard for the next two minutes," warned
+Portia Graham. "Slide around the inn and take your places as quietly as
+mice."
+
+In gleeful silence the girls divided into two groups, each group taking
+up its separate station.
+
+"I hope the night air hasn't played havoc with my strings," breathed
+Phyllis. "I don't dare try them. Are we ready?" She rapped softly on the
+face of her violin with the bow.
+
+Followed the tense instant that always precedes the performance of an
+orchestra, then Phyllis and Robin began the world-known sextette from
+"Lucia." Robin had sung it so many times in private to the accompaniment
+of her cousin's violin that the attack was perfect. The others took it
+up immediately, filling the night with echoing sweetness.
+
+From their position at the next window the watchers saw the dark, solemn
+face of the Italian raised in bewildered amazement from his paper. Not
+quite comprehending at first the unbidden flood of music which met his
+ears, he listened for a moment in patent stupefaction. Soon a smile
+began to play about his tight little mouth. It widened into a grin of
+positive pleasure. Giuseppe understood that a great honor was being done
+him. He was not only being serenaded, but he was listening to the music
+of his native country as well.
+
+His varying facial expressions, as the sextette rose and fell, showed
+his love of the selection. As it ended, he did an odd thing. He rose
+from his chair, bowed his profound thanks toward the window from whence
+came the singing, and sat down again, looking expectant.
+
+"He knows very well he's being watched," whispered Marjorie. "Doesn't he
+look pleased? I'm so glad you thought of him, Lucy."
+
+Lucy was also showing shy satisfaction at the success of her proposal.
+She was secretly more proud of some small triumph of the kind on her
+part than of her brilliancy as a student.
+
+Had Signor Baretti been attending a performance of grand opera, he could
+not have shown a more evident pleasure in the programme. He listened to
+the entertainment so unexpectedly provided him with the rapt air of a
+true music-lover.
+
+"There!" softly exclaimed Phyllis, as she lowered her violin. "That's
+the end of the programme, Signor Baretti. Now for that fresh peach ice
+cream. I shall have coffee and mountain cake with it. I am as hungry as
+the average wandering minstrel."
+
+"Let's walk in as calmly as though we had never thought of serenading
+Giuseppe," said Robin. "Oh, we can't. I forgot. The orchestra part of
+this aggregation is a dead give-away."
+
+"We don't care. He will know it was we who were out there. There is no
+one else about but us. I hope he won't think we are a set of little
+Tommy Tuckers singing for our suppers. That's a horrible afterthought on
+my part," Elaine laughed.
+
+"Come on." Jerry and her group had now joined the singers. "He saw us
+but not until you were singing that Nevin selection. He kept staring at
+the window where the sound came from. We had our faces right close to
+our window and all of a sudden he looked straight at us. You should have
+seen him laugh. His whole face broke into funny little smiles."
+
+"He may have thought we were the warblers," suggested Muriel hopefully.
+"We can parade into the inn on your glory. If I put on airs he may take
+me for the high soprano." She glanced teasingly at Robin.
+
+"Oh, go as far as you like. It won't be the first instance in the
+world's history where some have done all the work and others have taken
+all the credit," Robin reminded.
+
+In this jesting frame of mind the entire party strolled around to the
+inn's main entrance. At the door they found Giuseppe waiting for them,
+his dark features wreathed in smiles.
+
+"I wait for you here," he announced, with an eloquent gesture of the
+hand. "So I know som' my friendly young ladies from the college sing
+just for me. You come in. You are my com'ny. You say what you like. I
+give the best. Not since I come this country I hear the singing I like
+so much. The Lucia! Ah, that is the one I lov'!
+
+"I tell you the little story while you stan' here. Then you come in.
+When I come this country, I am the very poor boy. Come in the steerage.
+No much to eat. I fin' work. Then the times hard, I lose work. All over
+New York I walk, but don't fin'. I have _no one cent_. I am put from the
+bed I rent. I can no pay. For four days I have the nothing eat. I say,
+'It is over.' I am this, that I will walk to the river in the night an'
+be no more.
+
+"It is the very warm night and I am tired. I walk an' walk." His face
+took on a shade of his by-gone hopelessness as he continued. "Soon I
+come the river, I think. Then I hear the music. It is in the next street
+jus' I go turn into. It is the harp an' violin. Two my countrymen play
+the Lucia. I am so sad. I sit on a step an' cry. Pretty soon one these
+ask the money gif' for the music. He touch me on shoulder, say very kind
+in Italian, '_Che c'e mai?_' That mean, 'What the matter?' He see I am
+the Italiano. We look each other. Both cry, then embrac'. He is my
+oldes' brother. He come here long before me. My mother an' I, we don't
+hear five years. Then my mother die. Two my brothers work in the _vigna_
+for the rich vignaiuolo in my country. My father is dead long time. So I
+come here.
+
+"My brother give me the eat, the clothes, the place sleep. He have good
+room. He work in the day for rich Italian importer. Sometimes he go out
+play at night for help his friend who play the harp. He is the old man
+an' don't work all the time. So it is I lov' the Lucia. They don't play
+that, mebbe I don't sit on that step. Then never fin' my brother. An'
+you have please me more than for many years you play the Lucia for me
+this night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--A VERANDA ENCOUNTER
+
+
+It lacked but a few minutes of eleven o'clock when the serenading party
+said goodnight to Signor Baretti and trooped off toward the campus. The
+usually taciturn Italian had surprised and touched them by the impulsive
+story of his most tragic hour. He had afterward played host to his
+light-hearted guests with the true grace of the Latin. No one came to
+the inn for cheer after they entered in that evening, so they had the
+place quite to themselves. After a feast of the coveted peach ice cream
+and cakes, the obliging orchestra tuned up again at Giuseppe's earnest
+request. Robin sang Shubert's "Serenade" and "Appear Love at Thy
+Window." Phyllis played Raff's "Cavatina" and one of Brahm's "Hungarian
+Dances." Blanche Scott sang "Asleep in the Deep," simply to prove she
+had a masculine voice when she chose to use it.
+
+"We'll come and make music for you again sometime," promised
+kind-hearted Phyllis as they left their beaming host.
+
+"I thank you. An' you forget you say you come an' play, I tell you 'bout
+it sometime you come here to eat," he warned the party as they were
+leaving.
+
+"Talk about truth being stranger than fiction, what do you think of
+Giuseppe's story?" Jerry exclaimed as soon as they were well away from
+the inn. "Imagine how one would feel to meet one's long-lost brother
+just as one was getting ready to commit suicide!"
+
+"One half of the world doesn't know how the other half lives," Ronny
+said with a shake of her fair head.
+
+"To see Giuseppe today, successful and well-to-do, one finds it hard to
+visualize him as the poor, starved, despondent Italian boy who cried his
+heart out on the doorstep." Vera's tones vibrated with sympathy. The
+Italian's story had impressed her deeply.
+
+The girls discussed it soberly as they wended a leisurely way across the
+campus. Even care-free Muriel, who seldom liked to take life seriously,
+remarked with becoming earnestness that it was such stories which made
+one realize one's own benefits.
+
+"Be on hand tomorrow night at eight-thirty sharp," was Phyllis's parting
+injunction to the Wayland Hall girls as the Silvertonites left them to
+go on to their own house. "We have three fair ladies to sing to and we
+don't want to slight any of them."
+
+"I think we ought to get up some entertainments of our own this year. I
+never stopped to realize before how few clubs and college societies
+Hamilton has. There's only the 'Silver Pen',--one has to have high
+literary ability to make that,--the 'Twelfth Night Club' and the
+'Fortnightly Debating Society.' We haven't a single sorority," Vera
+declared with regret.
+
+"Miss Remson told me once of a sorority that Hamilton used to have
+called the 'Round Table.' It flourished for many years. Then all of a
+sudden she heard no more of it. She said Hamilton was very different
+even ten years ago from now. There was little automobiling and more
+sociability among the campus houses. There were house plays going on
+every week and different kinds of entertainments in which almost
+everyone joined."
+
+"That's the way college ought to be," commended Vera. "Even if Hamilton
+hasn't yet won back to those palmy days, we had more fellowship here
+last year than the year before. Why, during Leila's and my freshman year
+here we were seldom invited anywhere. We hardly knew Helen Trent until
+late in the year. Nella and Selma, Martha Merrick and Rosalind Black
+were our only friends."
+
+"And now we are to lose Selma." Leila heaved an audible sigh. She had
+already informed the girls of Selma's approaching marriage to a young
+naval officer.
+
+"Did Selma know last year she was not going to finish college?" asked
+Muriel. "If I had gone through three years of my college course I
+wouldn't give up the last and most important year just to be married."
+
+"That is because you know nothing about love," teased Ronny.
+
+"Do you?" challenged Muriel.
+
+"I do not. I have a good deal more sentiment than you have though,"
+retorted Ronny. "I can appreciate Selma's sacrifice at the shrine of
+love."
+
+"So could I if I knew more about it," Muriel flung back.
+
+"Precisely what I said to you. So glad you agree with me," chuckled
+Ronny.
+
+"I don't agree with you at all. I meant if I knew more about what you
+were pleased to call 'Selma's sacrifice,' not _love_." Muriel's emphasis
+of the last word proclaimed her disdain of the tender passion.
+
+"Hear the geese converse," commented Leila. "Let me tell you both that
+Selma had to lose either college or her fiance for two years. He was
+ordered to the Philippines to take charge of a naval station on one of
+the islands. They were to have been married anyway as soon as she was
+graduated from Hamilton. As it was she chose to go with him. So Selma
+gained a husband and lost her seniorship and we lost Selma. I shall miss
+her, for a finer girl never lived."
+
+"Nella will miss her most of all," Vera said quickly. "We must try to
+make it up to Nella by taking her around with us a lot."
+
+They had by this time reached the Hall. Girl-like they lingered on the
+steps, enjoying the light night breeze that had sprung up in the last
+hour. Marjorie's old friend, the chimes, had rung out the stroke of
+eleven before they reached the Hall. College having not yet opened
+officially, they claimed the privilege of keeping a little later hours.
+
+As they loitered outside, conversing in low tones, the front door opened
+and a girl stepped out on the veranda. She uttered a faint sound of
+surprise at sight of the group of girls. She made a half movement as
+though to retreat into the house. Then, her face turned away from them,
+she hurried across the veranda and down the steps.
+
+Though the veranda light was not switched on, the girls had seen her
+face plainly. To four of them she was known.
+
+"Who was _she_ and what ailed her?" was Muriel's light question. "She
+acted as though she were afraid we might eat her up."
+
+"That was Miss Sayres, President Matthews' private secretary," answered
+Leila in a peculiar tone. "As to what ailed her, she did not expect to
+see us and she was not pleased. We have an old Irish proverb: 'When a
+man runs from you be sure his feet are at odds with his conscience.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--A CONGENIAL PAIR
+
+
+"Well, here we are at the same old stand again." Leslie Cairns yawned,
+stretched upward her kimono-clad arms and clasped them behind her head.
+Lounging opposite her, in a deep, Sleepy-Hollow chair, Natalie Weyman,
+also in a negligee, scanned her friend's face with some anxiety.
+
+"Les, do you or do you not intend to try to make a new stand this year
+for our rights? I think the way we were treated last year after that
+basket-ball affair was simply outrageous. I don't mean by Miss Dean and
+her crowd, I mean by girls we had lunched and done plenty of favors
+for."
+
+"If you are talking about the freshies they never were to be depended
+upon from the first. Bess Walbert stood by us, of course. So did a lot
+of Alston Terrace kids. She did good work for us there."
+
+"Every reason why she should have," Natalie tartly pointed out. She was
+still jealous of Leslie's friendship with Elizabeth Walbert. "You did
+enough for _her_. She certainly will not win the soph presidency, no
+matter how much you may root for her. She was awfully unpopular with her
+class before college closed. I know that to be a fact."
+
+"Why is it that you have to go up in the air like a sky rocket every
+time I mention Bess Walbert's name?" Leslie scowled her impatience. "You
+wouldn't give that poor kid credit for anything clever she had done, no
+matter how wonderful it was."
+
+"Humph! I have yet to learn of anything wonderful she ever did or ever
+will do," sneered Natalie. "I am not going to quarrel with you, Leslie,
+about her." Natalie modified her tone. "She isn't worth it. You think I
+am awfully jealous of her. I am not. I don't like her because she is so
+untruthful."
+
+"Why don't you say she is a liar and be done with it?" 'So untruthful!'
+Leslie mimicked. "That sounds like Bean and her crowd." Displeased with
+Natalie for decrying Elizabeth Walbert, Leslie took revenge by mimicking
+her chum. She knew nothing cut Natalie more than to be mimicked.
+
+"All right. I will say it. Bess Walbert _is_ a liar and you will find it
+out, too, before you are done with her. Besides, she is treacherous. If
+you were to turn her down for any reason, she wouldn't care what she
+said about you on the campus. I have watched her a good deal, Les. She's
+like this. She will take a little bit of truth for a foundation and then
+build up something from it that's entirely a lie. If she would stick to
+facts; but she doesn't."
+
+"She has always been square enough with me," Leslie insisted.
+
+"Because you have made a fuss over her," was the instant explanation.
+"She knows you are at the head of the Sans and she has taken precious
+good care to keep in with you. She cares for no one but herself."
+
+"Oh, nonsense! That's what you always said about Lola Elster. I've never
+had any rows with Lola. We're as good friends today as ever."
+
+"Still Lola dropped you the minute she grew chummy with Alida Burton,"
+Natalie reminded. "Lola was just ungrateful, though. She has more honor
+in a minute than Bess will ever have. She isn't a talker or a
+mischief-maker. She never thinks of much but having a good time. She
+hardly ever says anything gossipy about anyone."
+
+"I thought you didn't like Lola?" Leslie smiled in her slow fashion.
+
+"I don't," came frankly. "Of the two evils, I prefer her to Bess. My
+advice to you is not to be too pleasant with Bess until you see what her
+position here at Hamilton is going to be. I tell you she isn't well
+liked. You can keep her at arm's length, if you begin that way, without
+making her sore. If you baby her and then drop her, look out!" Natalie
+shook a prophetic finger at Leslie.
+
+"We can't afford to take any chances this year, Les. With all the things
+we have done that would put us in line for being expelled, we have
+managed by sheer good luck to slide from under. If we hadn't worked like
+sixty last spring term to make up for the time we lost fooling with
+basket-ball we wouldn't be seniors now. I don't want any conditions to
+work off this year."
+
+"Neither do I. Don't intend to have 'em. I begin to believe you may be
+right about keeping Bess in her place." Natalie's evident earnestness
+had made some impression on her companion.
+
+"I _know_ I am," Natalie emphasized with lofty dignity. "Are you sure
+she doesn't know anything about that hazing business? She made a remark
+to Harriet Stephens last spring that sounded as though she knew all
+about it."
+
+"Well, she does not, unless someone of the Sans besides you or I has
+told her of it." Leslie sat up straight in her chair, looking rather
+worried. "I must pump her and find out what she knows. If she does know
+of it, then we have a traitor in the camp. Mark me, I'll throw any girl
+out of the club who has babbled that affair. Didn't we doubly swear,
+afterward, never to tell it to a soul while we were at Hamilton?"
+
+"Hard to say who told Bess," shrugged Natalie. "Certainly it was not I."
+
+"No; you're excepted. I said that." Leslie's assurance was bored. She
+was tired of hearing Natalie extol her own loyalty. It was an everyday
+citation. "That hazing stunt of ours doesn't worry me half so much as
+that trick we put over on Trotty Remson. I am always afraid that Laura
+will flivver someday and the whole thing will come to light. If it
+happens after I leave Hamilton, I don't care. All I care about is
+getting through. If I keep on the soft side of my father he is going to
+let me help run his business. That's my dream. But I have to be
+graduated with honors, if there are any I can pull down. At least I must
+stick it out here for my diploma."
+
+"What would your father do if you flunked this year in any way?"
+
+"He would disown me. I mean that. I have money of my own; lots of it.
+That part of it wouldn't feaze me. But my father is the only person on
+earth I really have any respect for. I'd never get over it; _never_."
+
+Leslie's loose features showed a tightened intensity utterly foreign to
+them. Her hands took hold on the chair arms with a grip which revealed
+something of the nervous emotion the fell contingency inspired in her.
+
+The two girls had arrived on the seven o'clock train from the north that
+evening. They had stopped at the Lotus for dinner and had reached the
+hall shortly before the beginning of the serenade. Leslie had been
+Natalie's guest at the Weymans' camp in the Adirondacks. Thus the two
+had come on to college together instead of accepting Dulcie Vale's
+invitation to journey from New York City to Hamilton in the Vales'
+private car, as they had done the three previous years. Since the hazing
+party on St. Valentine's night, Leslie and Dulcie had not been on
+specially good terms. Leslie was still peeved with Dulcie for not having
+locked the back door of the untenanted house as she had been ordered to
+do. Had she obeyed orders the Sans would not have been put to
+panic-stricken flight by unknown invaders. While those who had come to
+Marjorie's rescue might have hung about the outside of the house, they
+could not have found entrance easy with both back and front doors
+properly locked.
+
+"I don't know what is the matter with me tonight." Leslie rose and
+commenced a restless walk up and down the room, hands clasped behind her
+back. "That music upset me, I guess. I wonder who the singers were.
+Serenading Bean and her gang. Humph! Nobody ever serenaded us that I can
+recall. I suppose Beanie arrived in all her glory this afternoon, hence
+those yowlers under her window tonight."
+
+"They really sang beautifully. Whoever played the violin was a fine
+musician. I never heard a better rendition of 'How Fair Art Thou.'" Fond
+of music, Natalie was forced to admit the high quality of the
+performance, even though the serenade had been in honor of the girl of
+whom she had always been so jealous.
+
+"I don't care much for music unless it is rag-time or musical comedy
+stuff. Sentimental songs get on my nerves. I hate that priggish old
+'Hymn to Hamilton.' I hope Laura got out of here without being seen."
+Leslie went back to the subject still uppermost in her mind. "It was
+risking something to send for her to come over here, but I was anxious
+to see her and find out if anything had happened this summer detrimental
+to us. I didn't feel like meeting her along the road tonight."
+
+"Oh, I don't believe anyone saw her," reassured Natalie. "It was after
+eleven when she left here. The house was quiet as could be. I noticed it
+when I went out in the hall before she left to see if the coast was
+clear. Not more than half the girls who belong here are back yet. Bean
+and her crowd had gone to bed, I presume. You wouldn't catch such angels
+as they even making a dent in the ten-thirty rule."
+
+"That's so." Leslie made one more trip up and down the room, then
+resumed the chair in which she had been sitting. "Well, I'll take it for
+granted that Sayres made a clean get-away. One thing about her, she will
+stand by us as long as she is paid for it. Besides, she would get into
+more trouble than we if the truth were known. That's where we have the
+advantage of her. She has to protect herself as well as us. What I have
+always been afraid of is this: If Remson and old Doctor Know-it-all ever
+came to an understanding he would go to quizzing Sayres. If she lost her
+nerve, for he is a terror when he's angry, she might flivver."
+
+"Don't cross bridges until you come to them," counseled Natalie. She was
+beginning to see the value of assuming the role of comforter to Leslie.
+One thing Natalie had determined. She would strain a point to be first
+with Leslie during their senior year. She had importuned Leslie to visit
+her for the purpose of regaining her old footing. She and Leslie had
+spent a fairly congenial month together in the Adirondacks. Now Natalie
+intended to hold the ground she had gained against all comers.
+
+"I'm not going to. I shall forget last year, so far as I can. I
+certainly spent enough money and didn't gain a thing. Our best plan is
+to go on as we did last spring. If I see a good opportunity to bother
+Bean and her devoted beanstalks, I shall not let it pass me by. I am not
+going to take any more risks, though. If I manage to live down those
+I've taken, I'll do well."
+
+"I know I wouldn't _raise a hand_ to help a freshie this year," Natalie
+declared with a positive pucker of her small mouth. "Think of the way we
+rushed the greedy ingrates! Then they wouldn't stand up for us during
+that basket-ball trouble."
+
+"Put all that down to profit and loss." Leslie had emerged from the
+brief spasm of dread which invariably visited her after seeing Laura
+Sayres. "We had the wrong kind of girls to deal with. There were more
+digs and prigs in that class than eligibles. That's why we lost. I am
+all done with that sort of thing. If I can't be as popular as Bean,"
+Leslie's intonation was bitterly sarcastic, "I can be a good deal more
+exclusive. As it is, I expect to have all I can do to keep the Sans in
+line. Dulcie Vale has an idea that she ought to run the club. Give her a
+chance and she'd run it into the ground. She has as much sense as a
+peacock. She can fan her feathers and squawk."
+
+Natalie laughed outright at this. It was so exactly descriptive of
+Dulcie.
+
+Leslie looked well pleased with herself. She thoroughly enjoyed saying
+smart things which made people laugh. It was a sore cross to her that
+after three years of the hardest striving she had not attained the kind
+of popularity at Hamilton which she craved. Yet she could not see
+wherein she was to blame.
+
+Gifted with a keen sense of humor, she had tricks of expression so
+original in themselves that she might have easily gained a reputation as
+the funniest girl in college. Had good humor radiated her peculiarly
+rugged features she would have been that rarity, an ugly beauty. Due to
+her proficiency at golf and tennis, she was of most symmetrical figure.
+She was particularly fastidious as to dress, and made a smart
+appearance. Having so much that was in her favor, she was hopelessly
+hampered by self.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--A LUCKY MISHAP
+
+
+The serenading expedition of the next night was the beginning of a
+succession of similar gaieties for the Lookouts. As Hamilton continued
+to gather in her own for the college year, the Sanford quintette found
+themselves in flattering demand.
+
+"If I don't stay at home once in a while I shall never be able to find a
+thing that belongs to me," Muriel Harding cried out in despair as Jerry
+reminded her at luncheon that they were invited to Silverton Hall that
+evening to celebrate Elaine Hunter's birthday. "You girls may laugh, but
+honestly I haven't finished unpacking my trunk. Every time I plan to
+wind up that delightful job, along comes some friendly, but misguided
+person and invites me out."
+
+"Stay at home then," advised Jerry. "If that last remark of yours was
+meant for me, I am _not_ misguided and I shall _not_ be friendly if you
+hurl such adjectives at me."
+
+"Neither was meant for you. You are only the bearer of the invitation.
+Why stir up a breeze over nothing?"
+
+"If you don't go to Elaine's birthday party she will think you stayed
+away because you were too stingy to buy her a present. We are all going
+to drive to Hamilton this afternoon after classes to buy gifts for her.
+Don't you wish you were going, too?" Ronny regarded Muriel with
+tantalizing eyes.
+
+"Oh, I'm going along," Muriel glibly assured. "You can't lose me. What I
+like to do and what I ought to do are two very different things. After
+this week I shall settle down to the student life in earnest. My
+subjects are terrific this term. I am sorry I started calculus. I had
+enough to do without that."
+
+"This will have to be my last party for a week or two," Marjorie
+declared. "I haven't done any real studying this week, and I owe all my
+correspondents letters. I feel guilty for not having done more toward
+helping this year's freshies. I've only been down to the station twice."
+
+"They're in good hands. Phil and Barbara have done glorious work. They
+have had at least twenty sophs helping them. It's a cinch this year.
+Very different from last." Jerry gave a short laugh. "Phil says," Jerry
+discreetly lowered her voice, "that not a Sans has come near the station
+since she has been on committee duty there to welcome the freshies. I
+told her it didn't surprise me."
+
+"I didn't know Miss Cairns and Miss Weyman had come back until I
+happened to pass them in the upstairs hall," Muriel said.
+
+"They were here for a couple of days before Leila knew it, and she
+generally knows who is back and who isn't. Miss Remson told Leila she
+didn't know it herself until the next day after they arrived. The two of
+them came back together on the night we were serenaded. They simply
+walked into the house and went to their rooms. She didn't see them until
+noon the next day." It was Veronica who delivered this information.
+
+"Did Miss Remson say anything to them on account of it?" questioned
+Muriel.
+
+"No; she wasn't pleased, but she said she thought it best to ignore it.
+It was just one more discourtesy on their part."
+
+"That accounts for our meeting Miss Sayres on the veranda." Lucy's
+greenish eyes had grown speculative. "She had been calling on those two.
+We spoke of it after she passed, you will remember. Leila said 'No,'
+they had not come back yet. We wondered on whom she had been calling at
+the Hall. While we can't prove that it was Miss Cairns and Miss Weyman
+she had come to see, that would be the natural conclusion," Lucy summed
+up with the gravity of a lawyer.
+
+"I object, your honor. The evidence is too fragmentary to be
+considered," put in Muriel in mannish tones. She bowed directly to
+Marjorie.
+
+"Court's adjourned. I have nothing to say." Marjorie laughed and pushed
+back her chair from the table. "I'm not making light of what you said,
+Lucy." She turned to the latter. "I was only funning with Muriel. I
+think as you do. Still none of us can prove it."
+
+"I wish the whole thing would be cleared up before those girls are
+graduated and gone from Hamilton," Katherine Langly said almost
+vindictively. "I wouldn't care if it made a lot of trouble for them all.
+Miss Remson has stood so much from them and she still feels so hurt at
+Doctor Matthews' unjust treatment of her. I can't believe he wrote that
+letter. She believes it."
+
+"I don't see how she can in face of all the contemptible things the Sans
+have done," asserted Jerry.
+
+"She believes it because she says he signed the letter, so he must have
+written it. I told her the signature might be a forgery. She said 'No,
+it could hardly be that.' I saw she was set on that point, so I didn't
+argue it further."
+
+"Excuse me for abruptly changing the subject, but where are we to meet
+after classes this P.M.?" inquired Muriel.
+
+The chums had left the table and proceeded as far as the hall, where
+their ways separated.
+
+"Go straight over to the garage. Our two Old Reliables will be there
+with their buzz wagons. Be on time, too," called Jerry, as with an "All
+right, much obliged, Jeremiah," Muriel started up the stairs. Half way
+up she turned and asked, "What time?"
+
+"Quarter past four. If you aren't there on the dot we shall go without
+you. None of us know what we are going to buy, so we want all the time
+we can have to look around. Remember, we have to hustle back to the
+Hall, have dinner and dress."
+
+"I'll remember." With a wag of her head Muriel resumed her ascent of the
+stairs and quickly disappeared.
+
+The others stopped briefly in the hall to talk. Marjorie was next to
+leave the group. She remembered she had intended to change her white
+linen frock, which did not look quite fresh enough for a trip to town.
+Her last recitation of the afternoon being chemistry, she knew she would
+have no time to return to the Hall before meeting her chums at the
+garage.
+
+Alas for the pretty gown of delft blue pongee which she had donned with
+girlish satisfaction at luncheon time. An accident at the chemical desk
+sent a veritable deluge of discoloring liquid showering over her.
+Despite her apron, her frock was plentifully spotted by it.
+
+Ordinarily she would have made light of the misfortune. As it was she
+felt ready to cry with vexation. She would have to change gowns again in
+order to be presentable for the trip to Hamilton. The girls had set
+four-fifteen as the starting time. She could not possibly make it before
+four-thirty.
+
+Her first resolve was to hurry over to the garage immediately after the
+chemistry period and tell the the girls not to wait for her.
+
+In spite of Jerry's assertion to Muriel that they would not wait a
+moment after four-fifteen, Marjorie knew that they would strain a point
+and linger a little longer if she did not put in an appearance at the
+time appointed. Recalling the fact that Lucy was in the Biological
+Laboratory, situated across the hall from the Chemical Laboratory,
+Marjorie decided to try to catch Lucy before she left the building and
+send word to the others to go on without her. She could then hurry
+straight to the Hall, slip into another gown and hail a taxicab going to
+the town of Hamilton. There were usually two or three to be found in the
+immediate vicinity of the campus.
+
+"Oh, there you are!" Marjorie hailed softly, when, at precisely four
+o'clock Lucy emerged from the laboratory across the hall. "I thought you
+would be out on the minute on account of going to town. I left chemistry
+five minutes earlier for fear of missing you. Just see what happened to
+me." She displayed the results of the accident. "I am a sight. Tell the
+girls not to wait. I must go on to the Hall and make myself presentable.
+I'll take a taxi and meet them at the Curio Shop. If they're ready to go
+on before I reach there, tell them to leave word with the proprietor
+where they are going next."
+
+"All right. What a shame about your dress. Do you think those stains
+will come out?" Lucy scanned the unsightly spots and streaks with a
+dubious eye.
+
+"I know they won't." Marjorie voiced rueful positiveness. "This is the
+first time I ever wore this frock. I gave it a nice baptism, didn't I?
+Well, it can't be helped now. I mustn't stop." The two had come to the
+outer entrance to Science Hall. "See you at the Curio Shop." With a
+parting wave of the hand Marjorie ran lightly down the steps and trotted
+across the campus.
+
+Always quick of action, it did not take her long, once she had gained
+her room, to discard the unlucky blue pongee gown for one of pink linen.
+
+"Just half-past four. I didn't do so badly," she congratulated,
+consulting her wrist watch as she hastened down the driveway toward the
+west gate. "Now for a taxi."
+
+No taxicab was in sight, however. Three of these useful vehicles had
+recently reaped a harvest of students bound for town and started off
+with them. Five minutes passed and Marjorie grew more impatient. To
+undertake to walk to Hamilton would add greatly to the delay in joining
+the gift seekers. True she might meet a taxicab on the way. Whether the
+driver would turn back for a single fare she was not sure. She
+determined to walk on rather than stand still. If she were lucky enough
+to meet a taxicab on the highway she would offer its driver double fare
+to turn around and take her into town.
+
+The brisk pace at which she walked soon brought her to the western end
+of the campus wall. Presently she had reached the beginning of Hamilton
+Estates. And still no sign of a taxicab!
+
+"It looks as though I'd have to walk after all," she remarked, half
+aloud. "How provoking!" She would reach the Curio Shop about the time
+the others were starting for the campus was her vexed calculation.
+Besides, there was Lucy, who would patiently wait for her when she might
+be going on with the others. They had planned to visit two or three
+shops.
+
+In the midst of her annoyance, the sound of a motor behind caused her to
+turn. To her surprise she recognized the driver and machine as being of
+the regular jitney service between the campus and the town. His only
+fare was a young man, evidently a salesman who had had business at the
+college. He was occupying the front seat beside the driver.
+
+The latter stopped at Marjorie's sign and opened the door of the tonneau
+for her. Very thankfully she stepped in. Engaged in conversation with
+the salesman, the man at the wheel drove along at a leisurely rate of
+speed. Marjorie could only wish that he would hurry a little faster.
+
+Coming opposite to Hamilton Arms, Marjorie forgot her impatience as her
+eyes eagerly took in the estate she so greatly admired. The
+chrysanthemums had begun to throw out luxuriant bloom in border and bed,
+while the bronze and scarlet of fallen leaves lay lightly on the
+short-cropped grass.
+
+Almost opposite the point where Hamilton Arms adjoined the next estate,
+Marjorie spied a small, familiar figure trotting along at the left of
+the highway. It was Miss Susanna Hamilton. In one hand she carried a
+good-sized splint basket from which nodded a colorful wealth of
+chrysanthemums in little individual flower pots. She was bare-headed,
+though over her black silk dress she wore the knitted scarlet shawl
+which gave her the odd likeness to a lively old robin.
+
+Marjorie leaned forward a trifle as the machine came opposite Miss
+Susanna. She viewed the last of the Hamiltons with kindly, non-curious
+eyes. The taxicab had almost slid past the sturdy pedestrian when
+something happened. The handle of the splint basket treacherously gave
+way, landing the basket on the ground with force. It tipped side-ways.
+Two or three of the flower pots rolled out of it.
+
+Forgetting everything but the mishap to Brooke Hamilton's eccentric
+descendant, Marjorie called out on impulse: "Driver; please stop the
+taxi! I wish to get out here!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--THE LAST OF THE HAMILTONS
+
+
+The man promptly brought the machine to a slow stop. He was too well
+acquainted with the whims of "them girls from the college" to exhibit
+surprise. Having paid her fare on entering the taxicab, Marjorie now
+quitted it with alacrity and ran back to the scene of the mishap.
+
+"Please let me help you," she offered in a gracious fashion which came
+straight from her heart. "I saw the handle of that basket break and I
+made the driver stop and let me out of the taxi."
+
+Without waiting for Miss Susanna's permission, Marjorie stooped and lay
+hold on one of the scattered flower pots. Thus far the old lady had made
+no effort to gather them in. She had stood eyeing the unstable basket
+with marked disgust.
+
+"And who are you, may I ask?" The brisk manner of question reminded
+Marjorie of Miss Remson.
+
+"Oh, I am Marjorie Dean from Hamilton College," Marjorie said,
+straightening up with a smile.
+
+For an instant the two pairs of dark eyes met. In the old lady's
+appeared a gleam half resentful, half admiring. In the young girl's
+shone a pleasant light, hard to resist.
+
+"Yes; I supposed you were one of them," nodded Miss Susanna. "Let me
+tell you, young woman, you are the first I have met in all these years
+from the college who had any claim on gentle breeding."
+
+Marjorie smiled. "There are a good many fine girls at Hamilton," she
+defended without intent to be discourteous. "Any one of a number I know
+would have been glad to help you."
+
+"Then that doll shop has changed a good deal recently," retorted the old
+lady with rapidity. "Nowadays it is nothing but drive flamboyant cars
+and spend money for frivolities over there. I hate the place."
+
+Marjorie was silent. She did not like to contradict further by saying
+pointedly that she loved Hamilton, neither could she bear the thought of
+not defending her Alma Mater.
+
+"I can't say that I hate Hamilton College, because I don't," she finally
+returned, before the pause between the two had grown embarrassing. "I am
+sure you must have good reason to dislike Hamilton and its students or
+you would not say so."
+
+The pink in her cheeks deepened. Marjorie bent and completed the task of
+returning the last spilled posy to the basket.
+
+"There!" she exclaimed good-naturedly. "I have them all in the basket
+again, and not a single one of those little jars are broken. I wish you
+would let me carry the basket for you, Miss Hamilton. It is really a
+cumbersome affair without the handle."
+
+"You are quite a nice child, I must say." Miss Susanna continued to
+regard Marjorie with her bright, bird-like gaze. "Where on earth were
+you brought up?"
+
+Signally amused, Marjorie laughed outright. She had raised the basket
+from the ground. As she stood there, her lovely face full of light and
+laughter, arms full of flowers, Miss Susanna's stubborn old heart
+softened a trifle toward girlhood.
+
+"I come from Sanford, New York," she answered. "This is my junior year
+at Hamilton. Four other girls from Sanford entered when I did."
+
+"Sanford," repeated her questioner. "I never heard of the place. If
+these girls are friends of yours I suppose they escape being
+barbarians."
+
+"They are the finest girls I ever knew," Marjorie praised with
+sincerity.
+
+"Well, well; I am pleased to hear it." The old lady spoke with a
+brusquerie which seemed to indicate her wish to be done with the
+subject. "You insist on helping me, do you?"
+
+"Yes; if it pleases you to allow me."
+
+"It's to my advantage, so it ought to," was the dry retort. "I am not
+particular about lugging that basket in my arms. I loaded it too
+heavily. Brian, the gardener, would have carried it for me, but I didn't
+care to be bothered with him. I am carrying these down to an old man who
+used to work about the lawns. His days are numbered and he loves flowers
+better than anything else. He lives in a little house just outside the
+estate. It is still quite a walk. If you have anything else to do you
+had better consider it and not me."
+
+"I was on my way to town. It is too late to go now." Marjorie explained
+the nature of her errand as they walked on. "The girls will probably
+come to the conclusion that I found it too late to go to Hamilton after
+I had changed my gown. One or another of them will buy me something
+pretty to give to Elaine," she ended.
+
+"It is a good many years since I bought a birthday gift for anyone. I
+always give my servants money on their birthdays. I have not received a
+birthday gift for over fifty years and I don't want one. I do not allow
+my household to make me presents on any occasion." Miss Susanna
+announced this with a touch of defiance.
+
+"It seems as though my life has been full of presents. My father and
+mother have given me hundreds, I guess. My father is away from home a
+good deal. When he comes back from his long business trips he always
+brings Captain and I whole stacks of treasures."
+
+Marjorie was not sure that this was what she should have said. She found
+conversing with the last of the Hamiltons a trifle hazardous. She had no
+desire to contradict, yet she and her new acquaintance had thus far not
+agreed on a single point.
+
+"Who is 'Captain,'" was the inquiry, made with the curiosity of a child.
+
+Marjorie turned rosy red. The pet appellation had slipped out before she
+thought.
+
+"I call my mother 'Captain,'" she informed, then went on to explain
+further of their fond home play. She fully expected Miss Susanna would
+criticize it as "silly." She was already understanding a little of the
+lonely old gentlewoman's bitterness of heart. Her earnest desire to know
+the last of the Hamiltons had arisen purely out of her great sympathy
+for Miss Susanna.
+
+"You seem to have had a childhood," was the surprising reception her
+explanation called forth. "I can't endure the children of today. They
+are grown up in their minds at seven. I must say your father and mother
+are exceptional. No wonder you have good manners. That is, if they are
+genuine. I have seen some good imitations. Young girls are more
+deceitful than young men. I don't like either. There is nothing I
+despise so much as the calloused selfishness of youth. It is far worse
+than crabbed age."
+
+"I know young girls are often selfish of their own pleasure," Marjorie
+returned with sudden humility. "I try not to be. I know I am at times.
+Many of my girl friends are not. I wish I could begin to tell you of the
+beautiful, unselfish things some of my chums have done for others."
+
+Miss Susanna vouchsafed no reply to this little speech. She trotted
+along beside Marjorie for several rods without saying another word. When
+she spoke again it was to say briefly: "Here is where we turn off the
+road. Is that basket growing very heavy?"
+
+"It is quite heavy. I believe I will set it down for a minute." Marjorie
+carefully deposited her burden on the grass at the roadside and
+straightened up, stretching her aching arms. The basket had begun to be
+considerable of a burden on account of the manner in which it had to be
+carried.
+
+"I couldn't have lugged that myself," Miss Susanna confessed. "I found
+it almost too much for me with the handle on. Ridiculous, the flimsy way
+in which things are put together today! Splint baskets of years ago
+would have stood any amount of strain. If you had not kindly come to my
+assistance, I intended to pick out as many of those jars as I could
+carry in my arms and go on with them. The others I would have set up
+against my own property fence and hoped no one would walk off with them
+before my return. I dislike anyone to have the flowers I own and have
+tended unless I give them away myself."
+
+"I have often seen you working among your flowers when I have passed
+Hamilton Arms. I knew you must love them dearly or you would not spend
+so much time with them."
+
+"Hm-m!" The interjection might have been an assent to Marjorie's polite
+observation. It was not, however. Miss Susanna was understanding that
+this young girl who had shown her such unaffected courtesy had thought
+of her kindly as a stranger. She experienced a sudden desire to see
+Marjorie again. Her long and concentrated hatred against Hamilton
+College and its students forbade her to make any friendly advances. She
+had already shown more affability according to her ideas than she had
+intended. She wondered why she had not curtly refused Marjorie's offer.
+
+"I am rested now." Marjorie lifted the basket. The two skirted the
+northern boundary of Hamilton Arms, taking a narrow private road which
+lay between it and the neighboring estate. The road continued straight
+to a field where it ended. At the edge of the field stood a small
+cottage painted white. Miss Susanna pointed it out as their destination.
+
+"I will carry this to the door and then leave you." Marjorie had no
+desire to intrude upon Miss Susanna's call at the cottage.
+
+"Very well. I am obliged to you, Marjorie Dean." Miss Susanna's thanks
+were expressed in tones which sounded close to unfriendly. She was
+divided between appreciation of Marjorie's courtesy and her dislike for
+girls.
+
+"You are welcome." They were now within a few yards of the cottage.
+Arriving at the low doorstep, Marjorie set the basket carefully upon it.
+"Goodbye, Miss Hamilton." She held out her hand. "I am so glad to have
+met you."
+
+"What's that? Oh, yes." The old lady took Marjorie's proffered hand. The
+evident sincerity of the words touched a hidden spring within, long
+sealed. "Goodbye, child. I am glad to have met at least one young girl
+with genuine manners."
+
+Marjorie smiled as she turned away. She had never before met an old
+person who so heartily detested youth. She knew her timely assistance
+had been appreciated. On that very account Miss Susanna had tried to
+smother, temporarily, her standing grudge against the younger
+generation.
+
+Well, it had happened. She had achieved her heart's desire. She had
+actually met and talked with the last of the Hamiltons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--TWO KINDS OF GIRLS
+
+
+"You are a dandy," was Jerry's greeting as Marjorie walked into their
+room at ten minutes past six. "Where were you? Lucy said you ruined your
+blue pongee with some horrid old chemical. It didn't take you two hours
+to change it, did it? I see we have on our pink linen."
+
+"You know perfectly well it did not take me two hours to change it. A
+plain insinuation that I'm a slowpoke. Take it back." In high good
+humor, Marjorie made a playful rush at her room-mate.
+
+"Hold on. I am not made of wood, as Hal says when I occasionally hammer
+him in fun." Jerry put up her hands in comic self-defense. "You
+certainly are in a fine humor after keeping your poor pals waiting for
+you for an hour and a half and then not even condescending to appear."
+
+"I've had an adventure, Jeremiah. That's why I didn't meet you girls in
+Hamilton. I started for there in a taxicab. Then I met a lady in
+distress, and, emulating the example of a gallant knight, I hopped out
+of the taxi to help her."
+
+"Wonderful! I suppose you met Phil Moore or some other Silvertonite with
+her arms full of bundles. About the time she saw you she dropped 'em.
+'With a sympathetic yell, Helpful Marjorie leaped from the taxicab to
+aid her overburdened but foolish friend.' Quotation from the last best
+seller." Jerry regarded Marjorie with a teasing smile.
+
+"Your suppositions are about a mile off the track. I haven't seen a
+Silvertonite this afternoon. The lady in distress I met was----" Marjorie
+paused by way of making her revelation more effective, "Miss Susanna
+Hamilton."
+
+"_What?_ You don't say so." Jerry exhibited the utmost astonishment.
+"Good thing you didn't ask me to guess. She is the last person I would
+have thought of. Now how did it happen? I am glad of it for your sake.
+You've been so anxious to know her."
+
+Rapidly Marjorie recounted the afternoon's adventure. As she talked she
+busied herself with the redressing of her hair. After dinner she would
+have no more than time to put on the white lingerie frock she intended
+to wear to Elaine's birthday party.
+
+Jerry listened without comment. While she had never taken the amount of
+interest in the owner of Hamilton Arms which Marjorie had evinced since
+entering Hamilton College, she had a certain curiosity regarding Miss
+Susanna.
+
+"I knew you girls would wait and wonder what had delayed me. I am
+awfully sorry. You know that, Jeremiah," Marjorie apologized. "But I
+couldn't have gone on in the taxi after I saw what had happened to Miss
+Susanna. She couldn't have carried the basket as I did clear over to
+that cottage. She said she would have picked up as many plant jars as
+she could carry in her arms and gone on with them."
+
+"One of the never-say-die sort, isn't she? Very likely in the years she
+has lived near the college she has met with some rude girls. On the
+order of the Sans, you know. If, in the past twenty years, Hamilton was
+half as badly overrun with snobs as when we entered, one can imagine why
+she doesn't adore students."
+
+"It doesn't hurt my feelings to hear her say she disliked girls. I only
+felt sorry for her. It must be dreadful to be old and lonely. She is
+lonely, even if she doesn't know it. She has deliberately shut the door
+between herself and happiness. I am so glad we're young, Jeremiah."
+Marjorie sighed her gratitude for the gift of youth. "I hope always to
+be young at heart."
+
+"I sha'n't wear a cap and spectacles and walk with a cane until I have
+to, believe me," was Jerry's emphatic rejoinder. "Are you ready to go
+down to dinner? My hair is done, too. I shall dress after I've been fed.
+Oh, I forgot to tell you. I bought you a present to give Elaine. We
+bought every last thing we are going to give her at the Curio Shop."
+
+"You are a dear. I knew some of the girls would help me out. I supposed
+it would be you, though. Do let me see my present."
+
+"There it is on my chiffonier. You'd better examine it after dinner. It
+is a hand-painted chocolate pot; a beauty, too. Looks like a bit of
+spring time."
+
+"I'll look at it the minute I come back. I'm oceans obliged to you."
+Marjorie cast a longing glance at the tall package on the chiffonier, as
+the two girls left the room.
+
+At dinner that night Marjorie's adventure of the afternoon excited the
+interest of her chums. She was obliged to repeat, as nearly as she could
+what she said to Miss Susanna and what Miss Susanna had said to her.
+
+"Did she mention the May basket?" quizzed Muriel with a giggle.
+
+"Now why should she?" counter-questioned Marjorie.
+
+"Well; she was talking about not receiving a birthday present for over
+fifty years. She might have said, 'But some kind-hearted person hung a
+beautiful violet basket on my door on May day evening!'"
+
+"Only she didn't. That flight of fancy was wasted," Jerry informed
+Muriel.
+
+"Wasted on you. You haven't proper sentiment," flung back Muriel.
+
+"I'll never acquire it in your company," Jerry assured. The subdued
+laughter the tilt evoked reached the table occupied by Leslie Cairns,
+Natalie Weyman, Dulcie Vale and three others of the Sans.
+
+"Those girls seem to find enough to laugh at," commented Dulcie Vale
+half enviously.
+
+"Simpletons!" muttered Leslie Cairns. She was out of sorts with the
+world in general that evening. "They sit there and 'ha-ha-ha' at their
+meals until I can hardly stand it sometimes. I hate eating dinner here.
+I'd dine at the Colonial every evening, but it takes too much time. I
+really must study hard this year to get through. I certainly will be
+happy to see the last of this treadmill. I'm going to take a year after
+I'm graduated just to sail around and have a good time. After that I
+shall help my father in business."
+
+"There's one thing you ought to know, Leslie, and that is you had better
+be careful what you do this year. I have heard two or three rumors that
+sound as though those girls over there had told about what happened the
+night of the masquerade. I wouldn't take part in another affair of that
+kind for millions of dollars."
+
+Dulcie Vale assumed an air of virtuous resolve as she delivered herself
+of this warning to Leslie.
+
+"Don't worry. There won't be any occasion. I don't believe those muffs
+ever told a thing outside of their own crowd. They're a close
+corporation. I wish I could say the same of us." Leslie laughed this
+arrow with cool deliberation.
+
+"What do you mean?" Harriet Stephens said sharply. "Who of us would be
+silly enough to tell our private affairs?"
+
+"I hope you wouldn't." Leslie's eyes narrowed threateningly. "I have
+heard one or two things myself which may or may not be true. I am not
+ready to say anything further just now. My advice to all of you is to
+keep your affairs to yourselves. If you are foolish enough to babble
+your own about the campus, on your head be it. Be sure you will hear
+from me if you tell tales. Besides, you are apt to lose your diplomas by
+it. A word to the wise, you know. I have a recitation in psychology in
+the morning. I must put in a quiet evening. Kindly let me alone, all of
+you." She rose and sauntered from the room, leaving her satellites to
+discuss her open insinuation and wonder what she had heard to put her in
+such an "outrageous" humor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--A FROLIC AT SILVERTON HALL
+
+
+The "simpletons" finished their dinner amid much merriment, quite
+unconscious of their lack of sense, and hustled up to their rooms to
+dress for the party. Leila, Vera, Helen, Hortense Barlow, Eva Ingram,
+Nella Sherman and Mary Cornell had also been invited. Shortly after
+seven the elect started for Silverton Hall, primed for a jubilant
+evening. Besides their gifts, each girl carried a small nosegay of mixed
+flowers. The flowers had been purchased in bulk by Helen, Eva and Mary.
+The trio had made them up into dainty, round bouquets. These were to be
+showered upon Elaine, immediately she appeared among them. Helen had
+also composed a Nonsense Ode which she said had cost her more mental
+effort than forty themes.
+
+Every girl at Silverton Hall was invited to the party. It was not in
+gentle Elaine to slight anyone. With twenty girls from other campus
+houses, the long living room at the Hall was filled. Across one of its
+lower corners had been hung a heavy green curtain. What it concealed
+only those who had arranged the surprise knew. Elaine had been seized by
+Portia Graham and Blanche Scott and made to swear on her sacred honor
+that she would absolutely shun the living room until granted permission
+to enter it.
+
+"I hope you have all put cards with your presents," were Portia's first
+words after greeting them at the door. "You can't give them to Elaine
+yourselves. We've arranged a general presentation. So don't be snippy
+because I rob you of your offerings."
+
+"Glad of it." Jerry promptly tendered her gift to Portia. "I always feel
+silly giving a present."
+
+The others from Wayland Hall very willingly surrendered their good-will
+offerings. Their bouquets they kept. Entering the reception hall, Elaine
+stepped forward to welcome them and received a sudden flower pelting, to
+the accompaniment of a lively chorus of congratulations.
+
+"How lovely! Umm! The dear things!" she exclaimed, as the rain of
+blossoms came fast and furious. Her sweet, fair face aglow with the love
+of flowers, she gathered them up in the overskirt of her white chiffon
+frock and sat down on the lower step of the stairs to enjoy their
+fragrance. "I am not allowed in the living room, girls. Everyone can go
+in there but poor me. I thank you for these perfectly darling bouquets.
+I'll have a different one to wear every day this week. If you want to
+fix your hair or do any further beautifying go up to Robin's room. If
+not, go into the living room."
+
+Lingering for a little further chat with Elaine, whom they all adored,
+they entered the living room to be met by a vociferous welcome from the
+assembled Silvertonites. When the last guest had arrived and been
+ushered into the reception room, from somewhere in the house a bell
+suddenly tinkled. In order to give more space the chairs had been
+removed and the guests lined the sides of the apartment and filled one
+end of it halfway to the wide doorway opening into the main hall.
+
+At sound of the bell a hush fell upon the merry-makers. Again it tinkled
+and down the stairs came a procession that might have stepped from a
+tapestry depicting the life of the greenwood men. Four merry men, their
+green cambric costumes carefully modeled after the attire of Robin Hood
+and his followers, had come to the party. The first, instead of being
+Robin Hood, was Robin Page. She bowed low to Elaine, who was still
+languishing in exile in the hall, and offered her arm.
+
+"Delighted; I am so tired of hanging about that old hall!" Elaine seized
+Robin's arm with alacrity and the two passed into the adjoining room.
+The other three faithful servitors followed their leader. The last one
+carried a violin and drew from it an old-time greenwood melody as Elaine
+and Robin joined forces and paraded into the living room.
+
+Straight toward the green curtain Robin piloted Elaine to the fiddler's
+plaintive tune. Stationed before the curtain, Blanche Scott drew it
+aside.
+
+A surprised and admiring chorus of exclamations arose. There stood a
+real greenwood tree. Portia and Blanche could have amply testified to
+this fact as the two of them, armed with a hatchet, had laboriously
+chopped down a small maple and brought it to the house from the woods on
+the afternoon previous. Its branches were as well loaded with packages
+of various sizes as those of a Christmas tree. Under the tree was a
+grassy mound built up of hard cushions, the whole covered with real sod
+dug up by the patient wood cutters.
+
+On this Elaine was invited to sit. She formed a pretty picture in her
+fluffy white gown in conjunction with the greenery. The four merry men
+gathered round her and bowed low, then sang her an ancient ballad to the
+accompaniment of the violin. Followed a short speech by the tallest of
+the four congratulating her, in stately language on the anniversary of
+her birth. Three of the four then busied themselves with stripping the
+tree of its spoils and laying them at her feet. During this procedure
+the fiddler evoked further sweet thin melodies from his violin.
+
+Last, Elaine's gallant escort, who had left her briefly, returned to the
+scene with a large green and white straw basket, piled high with gifts.
+These duly presented, the quaint bit of forest play was over and the
+enjoying spectators crowded about the lucky recipient of friendly
+riches.
+
+"I don't know what I shall ever do with them all," she declared in an
+amazed, quavering voice. "I'm not half over the shock of so much wealth
+yet. I simply can't open them now. I'll weep tears of gratitude over
+every separate one of them."
+
+"You aren't expected to look at them now," was Robin's reassurance.
+"Your merry men are going to carry Elaine's nice new playthings up to
+her room. So there! Tomorrow's Saturday. You can spend the afternoon
+exploring. We are going to have a stunt party now. Anyone who is called
+upon to do a stunt has to conform or be ostracized."
+
+"If we are going to do stunts there is no use in bringing back the
+chairs. After Elaine's presents have all been carted upstairs everybody
+can stand in that half of the room. We can roll the rug up from the
+other end exactly half way. That will give room and a smooth floor for
+dancing stunts. We shall surely have some," planned Blanche. "I had
+better inform the company of what's going to happen next. It will give
+them a chance to think up a stunt."
+
+While the faithful greenwood men busied themselves in Elaine's behalf,
+Blanche proceeded to make a humorous address to the guests. Her
+announcement sent them into a flutter. At least half of the crowd
+protested to her and to one another that they did not know any stunts to
+perform.
+
+When the deck was finally clear for action and the show began, it was
+amazing the number of funny little stunts that came to light. The first
+girl called upon was Hortense Barlow. She marched solemnly to the center
+of the improvised stage and announced "'Home Sweet Home,' by our
+domestic animals." A rooster lustily crowed the first few bars of the
+old song, then two hens took it up. They relinquished it in favor of a
+bleating lamb. It was succeeded by a pair of grunting pigs. The opening
+bars of the chorus were mournfully "mooed" by a lonely cow, and the rest
+of it was ably sung by a donkey, a dog and a guinea hen. She then
+repeated the chorus as a concerted effort on the part of the barnyard
+denizens.
+
+The manner in which she managed to imitate each creature, still keeping
+fairly in tune, was clever in the extreme. Her final concert chorus
+convulsed her audience and she was obliged to repeat it.
+
+Hers was the only encore allowed. Portia announced that, owing to the
+lack of time, encores would have to be dispensed with. The guests had
+received permission to be out of their house until half-past eleven and
+no later.
+
+Leila was the next on the list and responded with an old-time Irish jig.
+Vera Ingram and Mary Cornell gave a brief singing and dancing sketch.
+Jerry responded with the one stunt she could do to perfection. She had
+half closed her eyes, opened her mouth to its widest extent, and wailed
+a popular song just enough off the key to be funny. Heartily detesting
+this class of melody, she never failed to make her chums laugh with her
+mocking imitation.
+
+Portia being in charge of the stunt programme, she called upon Blanche
+who gave the "Prologue from Pagliacci" in a baritone voice and with
+expression which would have done credit to an opera singer. Lucy Warner
+surprised her chums by a fine recital of "The Chambered Nautilus,"
+giving the quiet dramatic emphasis needed to bring out Holmes' poem.
+Marie Peyton danced a fisher's hornpipe. Vera Mason borrowed one of
+Robin's kimonos and a fan and performed a Japanese fan dance. Several of
+the Silvertonites sang, danced, recited, or told a humorous story.
+
+"As we shall have time for only one more stunt, I will call on Ronny
+Lynne," Portia announced, smiling invitingly at Ronny. "Wait a minute
+until I call the orchestra together. We will play for you," she added.
+
+"Play for me for what?" Ronny innocently inquired. Nevertheless she
+laughed. Though she had yet to dance for the first time at Hamilton, she
+knew that her ability as a dancer was an open secret.
+
+"For your dance, of course. What kind of dance are you going to do?
+Mustn't refuse. Everyone else has been so obliging." Portia beamed
+triumph of having thus neatly caught Ronny.
+
+"I suppose I must fall in line. I don't know what to dance. Most of my
+dances require special costumes." Ronny glanced dubiously at the white
+and gold evening frock she was wearing. "I know one I can do," she said,
+after a moment's thought.
+
+Raising her voice so as to be heard by all, she continued in her clear
+tones: "Girls, I am going to do a Russian interpretative dance for you.
+The idea is this: A dancer at the court of a king, who is honored
+because of her art, loses her sweetheart. She becomes so despondent that
+no amount of praise can lift her from her gloom. She tries to decide
+whether she had best kill her rival or herself. Finally she decides to
+kill her rival. I shall endeavor to make this plain in a dance
+containing two intervals and three episodes. The first depicts the
+dancer in her glory. The second, in her dejection. The third, her
+decision to kill."
+
+A brief consultation with the orchestra as to what they could play,
+suitable to the interpretation, and Ronny was ready. Phyllis, the
+reliable, who had been proficient on the violin from childhood, and
+possessed a wide musical repertoire, both vocal and instrumental, played
+over a few measures of a valse lente. Her musicians were familiar enough
+with it to follow her lead. Moskowski's "Serenade" was chosen for the
+second episode, and Scharwenki's "Polish Dance" for the third.
+
+Every pair of eyes was centered on Ronny's slight, graceful figure as
+she stood at ease for an instant waiting for the music to begin. Many of
+the girls present had never seen an interpretative dance. With the first
+slow, seductive strains of the waltz, Ronny became the court dancer. In
+perfect time to the music she made the low sweeping salutes to an
+imaginary court, then executed a swaying, beautiful dance of intricate
+steps in which her whole body seemed to take part in the expression of
+her art. The grace of that symphonic, white and gold figure was such the
+watchers held their breath. At the end of the episode there was a dead
+silence. Applause, when it came, was deafening.
+
+Ronny claimed the tiny interval for rest, merely raising her hands in a
+despairing gesture at the hub-bub her dance had created. By the time she
+was ready to continue it had subsided. All were now anxious to see her
+interpretation of the jilted woman.
+
+The second, though much harder to execute, Ronny liked far better than
+the first. Particularly fond of the Russian idea of the dance, she threw
+her whole heart into the story she was endeavoring to convey by motion.
+When she had finished she was tired enough to gladly claim a rest while
+Portia went upstairs for a paper knife which would serve as a dagger for
+the third episode.
+
+The wild strains of the "Polish Dance" were well suited to the character
+of the episode. The flitting, white and gold figure of indolent grace
+had now become one of tense purpose. Every line of her figure had now
+become charged with the desire for revenge. Every step of the dance and
+movement of the arms were in accordance with the mood she was
+portraying. She enacted the dancer's plan to steal upon her rival
+unawares and deliver the fatal knife thrust.
+
+Had Ronny not explained the dance beforehand, so vivid was her
+interpretation, her audience could have gained the meaning of it without
+difficulty. A united sighing breath of appreciation went up as she
+concluded the Terpsichorean tragedy by a triumphant flinging of her arms
+above her head, one hand tightly grasping the murder knife.
+
+Carried out of life ordinary by the glimpse of another world of emotion,
+it took the admiring girls a minute or so to realize that Ronny was
+herself and a fellow student. She had cast over them the perfect
+illusion of the tragic dancer; the sure measure of her art. When they
+came out of it they crowded about her asking all sorts of eager
+questions.
+
+"Ronny has brought down the house, as usual. Look at those girls fairly
+idolizing her." Jerry's round face was wreathed with smiles over Ronny's
+triumph. "I shall go in for interpretative dancing myself, hereafter.
+It's about time I did something to make myself popular around here."
+
+"What are you going to interpret?" Muriel demanded to know.
+
+"I haven't yet decided," Jerry vaguely replied. "Anyway, I wouldn't tell
+you if I had. I should expect to practice my dance awhile before I
+sprang it on anyone. It might give my victim a horrible scare."
+
+"You wouldn't scare me," was the valorous assurance. "You had better try
+it on me first when you are ready to burst upon the world as a dancer. I
+will give you valuable criticism."
+
+"Laugh at me, you mean. Come on. Let's interview the orchestra. Phil is
+certainly some little fiddler."
+
+Taking Muriel by the arm, Jerry marched her up to Phyllis, who, with the
+other members of the orchestra, were also coming in for adulation. The
+addition of Jerry and Muriel to the group was soon noticeable by the
+burst of laughter which ascended therefrom. Good-natured Jerry had not
+the remotest idea of how very popular she really was.
+
+Promptly on the heels of the stunt party followed a collation served in
+the dining room. An extra table had been added to the two long ones used
+by the residents. When the company trooped into the prettily-decorated
+room with its flower-trimmed tables, the Wayland Hall girls were
+pleasantly surprised to see Signor Baretti in charge there. While he had
+repeatedly refused at various times to cater for private parties given
+at the campus houses, Elaine had secured his valued services without
+much coaxing. He had long regarded her as "one the nicest, maybe the
+best, all my young ladies from the college."
+
+It was one minute past eleven when the guests rose from the table after
+a vigorous response to Portia's toast to Elaine, and joined in singing
+one stanza of "Auld Lang Syne." With the last note of the song hasty
+goodnights were said. "Not one minute later than half-past eleven" had
+been the stipulation laid down with the permission for the extra hour.
+
+"We'll have to walk as though we all wore seven league boots," declared
+Jerry, as the Wayland Hall girls hurried down the steps of Silverton
+Hall. "But, oh, my goodness me, haven't we had a fine time? Tonight was
+like our good old Sanford crowd parties at home, wasn't it? It looks to
+me as though the right kind of times had actually struck Hamilton!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--HER "DEAREST" WISH
+
+
+It did not need Elaine's party to cement more securely the friendship
+which existed between the Silvertonites and the group of Wayland
+Hallites who had co-operated with them so loyally from the first. They
+had fought side by side for principle. Now they were beginning to
+glimpse the lighter, happier side of affairs and experience the pleasure
+of discovering how much each group had to admire in the other.
+
+"What we ought to do is organize a bureau of entertainment and give
+musicales, plays, revues and one thing or another," Robin proposed to
+Marjorie as the two were returning from a trip to the town of Hamilton
+one afternoon in early October. "We would charge an admission fee, of
+course, and put the money to some good purpose. I don't know what we
+would do with it. There are so few really needy students here. We'd find
+some worthy way of spending it. I know we would make a lot. The students
+simply mob the gym when there's a basket-ball game. They'd be willing to
+part with their shekels for the kind of show we could give."
+
+"I think the same," Marjorie made hearty response. "At home we gave a
+Campfire once, at Thanksgiving. We held it in the armory. We had booths
+and sold different things. We had a show, too. That was the time Ronny
+danced those two interpretative dances I told you of the other night. We
+made over a thousand dollars. Half of it went to the Sanford guards and
+the Lookouts got the other half."
+
+"We could make a couple of hundred dollars at one revue, I believe. We
+could give about three entertainments this year and three or four next,"
+planned Robin. "It would have to be a fund devoted to helping the
+students, I guess. Come to think of it, I would not care to get up a
+show unless our purpose was clearly stated in the beginning. A few
+unjust persons might start the story that we wanted the money for
+ourselves. By the way, the Sans are not interesting themselves in our
+affairs this year, are they? Do you ever clash with them at the Hall?"
+
+"No; they never notice us and we never notice them. It isn't much
+different in that respect than it was in the beginning. I'd feel rather
+queer about it sometimes if they hadn't been so utterly heartless in so
+many ways. This is their last year. It will seem queer when we come back
+next fall as seniors to have almost an entirely new set of girls in the
+house. I can't bear to think of losing Leila and Vera and Helen. Then
+there are Rosalind, Nella, Martha and Hortense; splendid girls, all of
+them. I wish they had been freshies with us. That's the beauty of the
+Silvertonites. They will all be graduated together."
+
+"We are fortunate. Think of poor Phil! She is going to be lonesome when
+we all leave the good old port of Hamilton. To go back to the show idea.
+I'm going to talk it over with my old stand-bys at our house. You do the
+same at yours. Maybe some one of them will have a brilliant inspiration.
+I mean, about what we ought to do with the money, once we've made it."
+
+A sudden jolt of the taxicab in which they were riding, as it swung to
+the right, combined with an indignant yell of protest from its driver,
+startled them both. A blue and buff car had shot past them, barely
+missing the side of the taxicab.
+
+"Look where you're goin' or get off the road!" bawled the man after it.
+His face was scarlet with anger, he turned in his seat, addressing his
+fares. "That blue car near smashed us," he growled. "The young lady that
+drives it had better quit and give somebody else the wheel. This is the
+third time she near put my cab on the blink. She can't drive for sour
+apples. I wisht, if you knew her, you'd tell her she's gotta quit it. I
+don't own this cab. I don't wanta get mixed up in no smash-up. If she
+does it again I'll go up to the college boss and report that car."
+
+"Neither of us know her well enough to give her your message," Marjorie
+smiled faintly, as she pictured herself giving the irate driver's
+warning to Elizabeth Walbert. She had recognized the girl at the wheel
+as the blue and buff car had passed her.
+
+"I'll stop her myself and tell her where she gets off at," threatened
+the man. "I ain't afraida her."
+
+"I think that would be a very good idea," calmly agreed Marjorie. "There
+is no reason why you should not rebuke her for her recklessness. She was
+at fault; not you."
+
+"Do you imagine he really would report Miss Walbert to Doctor Matthews,"
+inquired Robin in discreetly lowered tones, as the driver resumed
+attention at the wheel.
+
+"He might. He would be more likely to do his talking to her," was
+Marjorie's opinion. "I tried to encourage him in that idea. A report of
+that kind to Dr. Matthews might result in the banning of cars at
+Hamilton."
+
+"Did you hear last year, at the time Katherine was hurt, that Miss
+Cairns received a summons from Doctor Matthews? I was told that he gave
+her a severe lecture on reckless driving. She told some of the Sans and
+it came to Portia and I in a round-about way."
+
+"I believe it to be true." Marjorie hesitated, then continued frankly.
+"Katherine did not report her."
+
+Unbound by any promise of secrecy to any person, Marjorie acquainted
+Robin with the way the report of the accident had been put before the
+president. She and her chums had heard the story from Lillian
+Wenderblatt, who had so ardently urged her father to take up the cudgels
+for Katherine directly after the accident.
+
+"Lillian explained to her father that Katherine utterly refused to take
+the matter up. He reported it to the doctor of his own accord, saying
+that Katherine wished the affair closed. So Doctor Matthews didn't send
+for her at all. While he never referred to the subject afterward to
+Professor Wenderblatt, he said at the time of their talk that he would
+send Miss Cairns a summons to his office. Lillian's father said the
+doctor's word was equivalent to the summons. So I believe she received
+one. None of us who are Kathie's close friends ever mentioned it to
+others. Lillian told no one but us. She did not ask us to keep it a
+secret. We simply _did not talk_ about it. That's why I felt free to
+tell you, since you asked me a direct question."
+
+"Strange, isn't it, that the Sans can't even be loyal to one another,"
+Robin commented. "Very likely Leslie Cairns told them in confidence, not
+expecting it would be betrayed. She may not know to this day that a girl
+of her own crowd told tales."
+
+"She is not honorable herself. Her intimates know that." Marjorie's
+rejoinder held sternness. "There is nothing truer than the Bible verse:
+'As ye sow, so must ye also reap.' She tries to gain whatever she
+happens to want by dishonorable methods. In turn, her chums behave
+dishonorably toward her.
+
+"An unhappy state of affairs." Robin shrugged her disfavor. "Phil says
+Miss Walbert is a talker; that she is becoming unpopular with the sophs
+who voted for her last year because she gossips."
+
+Marjorie smiled whimsically. "Wouldn't it be poetic justice if she were
+to turn the half of her class who were for her last year against her by
+her own unworthiness? After Miss Cairns worked so hard to establish her
+too! There's surely a greater inclination toward democracy than last
+year, or Phil wouldn't have won the sophomore presidency."
+
+"Yes; and she won it by eighteen votes this year over Miss Keene, and
+she is one of Miss Walbert's pals. Last year she lost it by nine. Some
+difference!" Robin looked her pride of her lovable cousin. "I think
+there is a great change for the better in Hamilton since we were
+freshies, don't you?"
+
+Marjorie made quick assent. "You Silverites have done the most for
+Hamilton," she commended. "We Lookouts have tried our hardest, but we
+couldn't have done much if you hadn't been behind us like a solid wall."
+
+"You Lookouts deserve as much credit as we. You girls are social
+successes in the nicest way, because you have all been so friendly and
+sweet to everyone. Then you have fought shoulder to shoulder with us.
+Now that we have begun to make our influence felt, we should follow it
+up by giving entertainments in which the whole college can have a part."
+
+"Let's do this," Marjorie proposed. "Bring the orchestra and Hope
+Morris, she's so nice, over to Wayland Hall on Saturday evening. I'll
+have a spread. Then we can plan something to give in the near future.
+Here's my getting-off place. Goodbye."
+
+The taxicab having reached a point on the main campus drive where two
+other drives branched off right and left, the machine slowed down. She
+rarely troubled the driver to take her to the door of the Hall, it being
+but a few rods distant from this point.
+
+Swinging up the drive and into the Hall in her usual energetic fashion,
+Marjorie's first move was toward the bulletin board. Three letters was
+the delightful harvest she reaped from it. One in Constance's small fine
+hand, one from General. The third she eyed rather suspiciously. It was
+in an unfamiliar hand and bore the address, "Marjorie Dean, Hamilton
+College."
+
+"An advertisement, I guess," was her frowning reflection as she went on
+upstairs. "Anyone I know, well enough to receive a letter from, would
+know my house address."
+
+Anxious to relieve her arms of several bundles containing purchases made
+at Hamilton before opening her letters, Marjorie did not stop to examine
+her mail on the landing. Entering her room, she found it deserted of
+Jerry's always congenial company. Immediately she dropped her packages
+on the center table and plumped down to enjoy her letters.
+
+Second glance at the letter informed her that the envelope was of fine
+expensive paper. This fact dismissed the advertisement idea. Marjorie
+toyed with it rather nervously. In the past she had received enough
+annoying letters to make her dread the sight of her address in
+unfamiliar handwriting. On the verge of reveling in the other two whose
+contents she was sure to love, she hated the idea of a disagreeable
+shock. She knew of no reason why she should be the recipient of any such
+letter. That, however, would not prevent an unworthy person from writing
+one.
+
+Determined to read it first and have it over with, Marjorie tore open an
+end of the envelope and extracted the missive from it. A hasty glance at
+the end and she vented a relieved "A-h-h!" Turning back to the
+beginning, she read with rising color:
+
+  "Marjorie Dean,
+  Hamilton College.
+
+  "Dear Child:
+
+  "Will you come to Hamilton Arms to tea next Thursday afternoon at
+  five o'clock? I find I have the wish to see and talk with you again.
+  I prefer you to keep the matter of your visit from your girl
+  friends. I am not on good terms with Hamilton College and its
+  students, and the information that I had invited you to tea would
+  form a choice bit of campus gossip.
+
+                                                     "Yours sincerely,
+                                             "Susanna Craig Hamilton."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--HAMILTON ARMS AND ITS OWNER
+
+
+"Well, of all things!" Marjorie could not get over her undiluted
+amazement. For a second it struck her that she might again be the victim
+of a hoax. Perhaps an unkindly-minded person wished her to essay a call
+on Miss Susanna, thinking she might receive a sound snubbing. She shook
+her head at this canny suspicion. The phrasing was unmistakably Miss
+Susanna's. She doubted also whether anyone had seen her that day with
+the old lady. Only a few cars had passed them before they had turned
+into the private road. These had contained persons not from the college.
+Outside the Lookouts, only Katherine, Leila and Vera knew of her
+encounter with Miss Susanna. She had not thought of keeping it a secret.
+She now made mental note to tell the girls not to mention it to anyone.
+
+This resolve brought with it the annoying cogitation that the girls
+would wonder why she suddenly wished the matter kept secret. Nor could
+she explain to them without violating Miss Hamilton's request. She could
+readily understand the latter's point of view. Miss Susanna could not be
+blamed for taking it. Marjorie could only wish the old lady knew how
+honorable and discreet her chums were. She decided she would endeavor to
+make her hostess acquainted with that truth during her call.
+
+She came to the conclusion that she could not pledge her close friends
+to secrecy regarding her recent adventure until after she had been to
+Hamilton Arms and talked with its eccentric owner. Miss Susanna would no
+doubt be displeased to learn that she had already mentioned their
+meeting to others. She would have to be told of it, nevertheless.
+
+Marjorie's next problem was to slip quietly away on Thursday afternoon
+without saying where she was going. That would not be difficult,
+provided none of the Lookouts happened to desire her company on some
+particular jaunt or merry-making. An indefinite refusal on her part
+would bring down on her a volley of mischievous questions.
+
+"I'll have to keep clear of the girls on Thursday," she ruminated, with
+a half vexed smile. "I'll have to put on the gown I'm going to wear to
+tea in the morning and wear it all day so as not to arouse their
+curiosity. That's a nuisance. I'd like to wear one of my best frocks and
+I can't on account of chemistry. I'll wear that organdie frock Jerry
+likes so much; the one with the yellow rosebud in it. It is not fussy.
+If it is cold or rainy I can wear a long coat over it. I hope it's a
+nice day. I can wear my picture hat. It goes so well with that gown. I
+can slip it out of the Hall without them noticing if I swing it on my
+arm. I hope to goodness I don't ruin my organdie during chemistry. I
+feel like a conspirator."
+
+Marjorie chuckled faintly as she rose from her chair, letter in hand.
+She tucked the letter away in the top drawer of her chiffonier with the
+optimistic opinion that it would not be very long before she could
+frankly tell her chums of its contents.
+
+Fortune favored her on Thursday. She awoke with a stream of brilliant
+sunshine in her face. She rejoiced that the day was fair and hoped Miss
+Susanna would suggest a walk about the grounds. Then she remembered the
+request the latter had made, and smiled at her own stupidity. A walk
+about the grounds would probably be the last thing Miss Susanna would
+suggest.
+
+As it happened, Jerry had made an engagement to go to Hamilton with
+Helen. Ronny had a theme in French to write, which she said would take
+her spare time both in the afternoon and evening. Lucy and Katherine
+would be in the Biological Laboratory until dinner time, and Leila and
+Vera were invited to a tea given by a senior to ten of her class-mates.
+These were the only ones to be directly interested in her movements. To
+Jerry's invitation, "Want to go to town with Helen and I this
+afternoon?" she had replied, "No, Jeremiah," in as casual a tone as she
+could command, and that had ended the matter.
+
+Marjorie was doubly careful in the Chemical Laboratory that afternoon
+and walked from it this time with no disfiguring stains on her dainty
+organdie frock. The letter had named the hour for her visit as five
+o'clock. This gave her ample time to return to the Hall, re-coif her
+curly hair and add a pretty satin sash of wide pale yellow ribbon to her
+costume. The absence of Jerry was, for once, welcome. She had a free
+hand to put the finishing touches to her toilet. It appealed to a
+certain sense of dignity, latent within her, to be able to quietly
+adjust her hat before the mirror and walk openly out of Wayland Hall.
+Marjorie inwardly hated anything connected with secrecy, yet it seemed
+to her she was always becoming involved in something which demanded it.
+
+When finally she emerged from the Hall, she did not follow the main
+drive but cut across the campus, making for the western entrance.
+Reaching the highway, she kept a sharp lookout for passing automobiles.
+She laughed to herself as she thought of how disconcerting it would be
+after all her pains to run squarely into Jerry and Helen. The latter had
+just been the lucky recipient of a limousine, long promised her by her
+father, and she and Jerry were trying it out that afternoon.
+
+It was ten minutes to five when, without having met anyone save two or
+three campus acquaintances, Marjorie walked sedately between the high,
+ornamental gate posts of Hamilton Arms, and on up the drive to the
+house. She compared her present approach to that of last May Day
+evening, when she had stolen like a shadow to the veranda to hang the
+May basket. It did not seem quite real to her that now she was actually
+coming to Hamilton Arms as an invited guest.
+
+The knocker was no easier to pull than it had been on that night. She
+waited, feeling as though she were about to leave the college world
+behind and enter one rich in the romance of Colonial days. Then the door
+opened slowly and a dignified old man with thick, snow-white hair and a
+smooth-shaven face stood regarding her solemnly.
+
+"You are Marjorie Dean?" he interrogated in deep, but very gentle tones.
+This before she had time to ask for Miss Susanna.
+
+"Yes," she affirmed, smiling in her unaffected, charming fashion.
+"I--Miss Hamilton expects me to tea."
+
+"I know." He bowed with grave politeness. "Come in. Miss Susanna is in
+the library. I will show you the way."
+
+Marjorie drew a long breath of admiration as she was ushered into a wide
+almost square reception hall paneled in walnut. Her feet sank deep into
+the heavy brown velvet rug which completely covered the floor. Walking
+quickly behind her guide, she had no more than time for a passing glance
+at the massive elegance of the carved walnut furniture. She caught a
+fleeting glimpse of herself in the great square mirror of the hall rack
+and thought how very small and insignificant she appeared.
+
+"How are you, Marjorie Dean?" Ushered into the library by the stately
+old man, the last of the Hamiltons now came forward to greet her.
+
+"I am very well, thank you. I hope you are feeling well, too, Miss
+Susanna."
+
+Marjorie took the small, sturdy hand Miss Susanna extended in both her
+own. The mistress of Hamilton Arms looked so very tiny in the great
+room. Marjorie experienced a wave of sudden tenderness for her.
+
+"Yes; I am well, by the grace of God and my own good sense," returned
+her hostess in her brisk, almost hard tones. "You are prompt to the
+hour, child. I like that. I hate to be kept waiting. I have my tea at
+precisely five o'clock. It is years since I had a guest to tea. Sit down
+there." She indicated a straight chair with an ornamental leather back
+and seat. "Jonas will bring the tea table in directly, and serve the
+tea. Take off your hat and lay it on the library table. I wish to see
+you without it."
+
+She had not more than finished speaking, when the snowy-haired servitor
+wheeled in a good-sized rosewood tea-table. He drew it up to where
+Marjorie sat, and brought another chair for the mistress of Hamilton
+Arms similar to the one on which the guest was sitting. Withdrawing from
+the room, he left youth and age to take tea together.
+
+"Who would have thought that I should ever pour tea for one of my
+particular aversions," Miss Susanna commented with grim humor. "Do you
+take sugar and cream, child?"
+
+"Two lumps of sugar and no cream." Marjorie held out her hand for the
+delicate Sevres cup.
+
+"Help yourself to the muffins and jam. It is red raspberry. I put it up
+myself. Now eat as though you were hungry. I am always ravenous for my
+tea. I do not have dinner until eight and I am outdoors so much I grow
+very hungry as five o'clock approaches."
+
+"I am awfully hungry," Marjorie confessed. "I love five o'clock tea. We
+have it at home in summer but not in winter. We girls at Hamilton hardly
+ever have it, because we have dinner shortly after six."
+
+"At what campus house are you?" was the abrupt question.
+
+"Wayland Hall. I like it best of all, though Silverton Hall is a fine
+house."
+
+"Wayland Hall," the old lady repeated. "It was his favorite house."
+
+"You are speaking of Mr. Brooke Hamilton?" Marjorie inquired with
+breathless interest. "Miss Remson said it was his favorite house. He was
+so wonderful. 'We shall ne'er see his like again,'" she quoted, her
+brown eyes eloquent.
+
+Miss Susanna stared at her in silence, as though trying to determine the
+worth of Marjorie's unexpected remarks.
+
+"He _was_ wonderful," she said at last. "I am amazed at your
+appreciation of him. You _are_ an amazing young person, I must say. How
+much do you know concerning my great uncle that you should have arrived
+at your truly high opinion of him?"
+
+"I know very little about him except that he loved Hamilton and planned
+it nobly." Marjorie's clear eyes looked straight into her vis-a-vis's
+sharp dark ones. "I have asked questions. I have treasured every scrap
+of information about him that I have heard since I came to Hamilton
+College. No one seems to know much of him except in a general way."
+
+"That is true. Well, the fault lies with the college." The reply hinted
+of hostility. "Perhaps I will tell you more of him some day. Not now; I
+am not in the humor. I must get used to having you here first. I try to
+forget that you are from the college. I told you I did not like girls. I
+may call you an exception, child. I realized that after you had left me,
+the day you helped me to the cottage with the chrysanthemums. I was
+cheered by your company. I am pleased with your admiration for him. He
+was worthy of it."
+
+As on the day of her initial meeting with Brooke Hamilton's great niece,
+Marjorie was again at a loss as to what to say next. She wished to say
+how greatly she revered the memory of the founder of Hamilton College.
+In the face of Miss Susanna's declaration that she did not wish to talk
+of him, she could not frame a reply that conveyed her reverence.
+
+"Try these cakes. They are from an old recipe the Hamiltons have used
+for four generations. Ellen, my cook, made these. I seldom do any baking
+now. I used to when younger. I spend most of my time out of doors in
+good weather. Let me have your cup."
+
+Her hostess tendered a plate of delicate little cakes not unlike
+macaroons. Marjorie helped herself to the cakes and forebore asking
+questions about Brooke Hamilton. Miss Susanna had partially promised to
+tell her of him some day. She could do no more than possess her soul in
+patience.
+
+"What do you do in winter, Miss Hamilton, when you can't be out?" she
+questioned interestedly. "Do you live at Hamilton Arms the year round?"
+
+"Yes; I have not been away from here for a number of years. In winter I
+read and embroider. I do plain sewing for the poor of Hamilton. Jonas
+takes baskets of clothing and necessities to needy families in the town
+of Hamilton. 'The poor ye have always with ye,' you know."
+
+"I know," Marjorie affirmed, her lovely face growing momently sad.
+"Captain, I mean, my mother, does a good deal of such work in Sanford. I
+have helped her a little. During our last year at high school a number
+of us organized a club. We called ourselves the Lookouts and we rented a
+house and started a day nursery for the mill children. The house was in
+their district."
+
+"And how long did you keep it up?" was the somewhat skeptical inquiry.
+
+"Oh, it is running along beautifully yet." Marjorie laughed as she made
+answer.
+
+"I am more amazed than before. A club of girls usually hangs together
+about six weeks. Each girl feels that she ought to be at the head of it
+and in the end a grand falling-out occurs." Miss Susanna's eyes were
+twinkling. This time her remarks were not pointedly ill-natured. "You
+are to tell me about this club," she commanded.
+
+Marjorie complied, giving her a brief history of the day nursery.
+
+"Are any of your Lookouts here at Hamilton with you?" she was
+interrogated.
+
+"Four of them. One, Lucy Warner, won a scholarship to Hamilton." Now on
+the subject, Marjorie determined to make a valiant stand for her chums.
+She therefore told of the offering of the scholarship by Ronny and of
+Lucy's brilliancy as a student. She told of Lucy's ability as a
+secretary and of how much she had done to help herself through college.
+She did not forget to speak of Katherine Langly, and her exceptional
+winning of a scholarship especially offered by Brooke Hamilton.
+
+"I had no idea there were any such girls over there." The old lady spoke
+half to herself. "I might have known there would be some apostles."
+
+"Miss Susanna,"--Marjorie decided that this would be the best time to
+acquaint her hostess with what she had purposed to tell her,--"I told my
+intimate friends of meeting you the day the basket handle broke. I
+thought you ought to know that. You had asked me in your letter not to
+mention to anyone that I was coming here. I did not say a word to anyone
+of the letter. I would ask my chums not to mention what I told them
+about meeting you in the first place, but, if I do, they will wish to
+know why."
+
+"Humph!" The listener used Jerry's pet interjection. "Where did you tell
+them you were going today? Some of them must have seen you as you came
+away."
+
+"No; they were all out except one girl. She was busy writing a theme."
+
+"What would you have told them if they had seen you?" Miss Hamilton eyed
+the young girl searchingly.
+
+"I would have said I was going out and hoped they wouldn't feel hurt if
+I didn't tell them my destination. What else could I have said?" It was
+Marjorie's turn to fix her gaze upon her hostess.
+
+"Nothing else, by rights. If I allowed you to tell your chums, as you
+call them, that you were here today, would they keep your counsel? How
+many of them would have to know it?" The older woman's face had softened
+wonderfully.
+
+Marjorie thought for an instant. "Eight," she answered. "They are
+honorable. I would like to tell them."
+
+"Very well, you may." The permission came concisely. "I will take your
+word for their discretion. I have my own proper reasons for not wishing
+to be gossiped about on the campus. I wish you to come again. I do not
+wish your visits to be a secret. I abhor that kind of secrecy. Perhaps
+in time I shall not care if the whole college knows. At present what
+they do not know will not hurt them. In the words of my distinguished
+uncle, 'Be not secret; be discreet.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--COMPARING NOTES
+
+
+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 Marjorie to 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 her French 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 save _my_ remarks 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 her to 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. I only 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 befell
+  A couple of students who resided
+  In 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 when you 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
+be horrifying. 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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--A TRAITOR IN CAMP
+
+
+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 you say 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 utterance had 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. Still _you_
+couldn'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 members of 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 and _I 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 she may 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
+up what she borrowed of me last year, but she never said a word about
+the other. Dulcie has _nerve_, Nat; pure, unadulterated _nerve_. 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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--WELL MATCHED
+
+
+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 was not 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 mishap on 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 Elizabeth rapped 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 herself with 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 how _much_ you 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.
+
+"I _know_. 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 sharply down 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 one thing 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 I _cared_ for 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 so _kind_, 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 have told 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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--SANS' MERCY
+
+
+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. She was
+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 being sure 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 tales _did_
+bring 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 fire_ Dulcie 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 few months 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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--PLANNING FOR OTHERS
+
+
+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 marked enthusiasm, 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," Anna had 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
+close to 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 a singing 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 Miss Susanna'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 make the 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 put on 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 are
+all 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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI--OUT OF THE PAST
+
+
+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, if _one_ of 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've sworn 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 occurs to 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 proffered the
+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 last rose 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, the party 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 six months 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 has
+assured 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."
+
+"So it seems to me," nodded Miss Hamilton. "I have lived in it many
+years. I am not over the wonder of it yet. At times I am sorry that
+others cannot enjoy it with me. Again I am glad to be alone."
+
+Following the old lady, who mounted the broad staircase as nimbly as any
+of them, they found on the second landing the same solid magnificence of
+furnishing that marked the first floor. Down a long hallway, which
+extended back from the main reception hall, they went. At the end of the
+hall was a door of heavy walnut, its upper half of stained glass. This
+their guide opened. They were now seeing the room where the founder of
+Hamilton College had spent so many hours planning the institution which
+bore his name.
+
+The murmur of voices died out among them as they stepped into the study.
+Compared with other rooms in the house which the girls had seen, it was
+rather small. The floor was bare save for one medium-sized rug in the
+center of the room, on which stood a heavy-legged mahogany writing
+table. A tall desk, a book-case, three high-backed chairs and a filing
+cabinet, all of carved mahogany, completed the furnishings, plus one
+broad-seated chair, leather cushioned, and with a rounding back. It was
+drawn up before the library table; Brooke Hamilton's own chair.
+
+The most notable object in the study was a framed, illuminated oblong
+about five feet long and perhaps two and a half feet wide. It was hung
+at a point on the wall directly opposite the founder's chair.
+
+"This is what you wished us to see, isn't it?" Marjorie cried out,
+stopping in front of the oblong. "I think I know what it is."
+
+"Tell us, then." Miss Susanna was smiling fondly at the animated face
+Marjorie turned toward her.
+
+"The maxims of Mr. Brooke Hamilton," she guessed breathlessly. Her eyes
+traveled slowly down the oblong. "There are fifteen of them," she
+announced. "What a beautiful illumination!"
+
+"Yes; they were his favorite sayings. He originated them all except the
+first one. More, he lived up to them." The old lady's intonation had
+grown singularly gentle.
+
+A reverent silence visited the study as the knot of girls gathered about
+the oblong to read the sayings of one long gone from earth. The colors
+used in the illumination were principally blue and gold with mere
+touches of green and black. Red had been left out entirely from the
+color scheme.
+
+"Remember the stranger within thy gates."
+
+"To the wise nothing is forbidden."
+
+"Becoming earnestness is never out of place."
+
+"Let thy gratitude be lasting."
+
+"Ask Heaven for courtesy; the supply is greater than the demand."
+
+"Make thy deference to age not too marked."
+
+"Truth flies a winning pennant."
+
+"Beware, lest what seems unattainable falls too near thine hand."
+
+"Let thy learning be seasoned with merriment."
+
+"O, Justice, how fair art thine heights!"
+
+"Be motivated by the grace of God."
+
+"Be not secret; be discreet."
+
+"For the gift of life give thanks."
+
+"The ways of light reach upward to eternity."
+
+"To stumble honorably is to learn to walk."
+
+Such were the informal rules of conduct which Brooke Hamilton had carved
+for himself with the blade of experience.
+
+"We have five of these at the college, Miss Susanna." Ronny finally
+broke the spell which had fallen. "The first, third, fourth, seventh and
+ninth. 'Remember the stranger within thy gates,' is over the doorway of
+Hamilton Hall. The ninth one is in the library and the third, fourth and
+seventh are in the chapel."
+
+"I knew some of them were there. The first he had placed over the door
+of Hamilton Hall. The others were to be presented to the college as the
+students earned them."
+
+"Earned them?" queried Muriel impulsively. "I don't understand----" She
+broke off, coloring at her own temerity. Her companions were also
+looking slightly mystified.
+
+"His idea was this. He wished to reward any particularly noteworthy act
+on the part of a student, of which he chanced to hear, by an honor. The
+recipient was to receive a citation in chapel and one of his favorite
+maxims, decoratively framed, was to be hung in one of the campus
+buildings. A record of the citation was to be established in an honor
+book kept in a special niche in the chapel. This was one of his later
+ideas. He did not live to carry it out. I don't know how they managed to
+get hold of four of his sayings. They have no right to them."
+
+Acridity again dominated Miss Susanna's tones. She appeared to resent
+deeply the fact that the college authorities held any information
+whatsoever regarding her famous kinsman.
+
+"Maybe a person who knew your great uncle remembered these four maxims
+of his and they were thus handed down," suggested Lucy, always
+interested in a mystery.
+
+"I wish we had them all; everyone of them!" Marjorie gave an audible
+sigh of regret. "I can't help saying it, Miss Susanna. It is the way I
+feel about these true, wonderful sayings of Mr. Brooke Hamilton."
+
+"You may say it without offending me, my dear. I understand you and your
+affection for Hamilton College. _He_ would have liked you to say it.
+_He_ never held a grudge. I have held one many years. I shall continue
+to hold it." Miss Susanna crested her stubborn head. "It is a supreme
+pleasure to me to know that I have thwarted the college board in some
+respects. I shall continue to thwart them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII--LUCY'S NEWS
+
+
+On the heels of their memorable visit to Hamilton Arms came the added
+joy of going home for Thanksgiving. All the pleasure that the occasion
+afforded was crowded into those four brief days. The Nine Travelers, as
+they agreed to call themselves, returned to college more firmly
+amalgamated than ever.
+
+The Lookouts had long since included their four close friends in the
+formal association which they had dubbed the Five Travelers. At first
+they had decided that the name should remain the same, though four
+members were added. Later, Ronny suggested that Nine Travelers would be
+more appropriate. At the end of their college course, they would choose
+nine girls to replace them with a new chapter, as they had done in the
+case of the Lookout Club. All nine were anxious to leave a sorority
+behind them of which they could claim to have founded.
+
+Marjorie and Robin Page, who, according to Jerry, "had gone into the
+show business," had their hands full the moment they returned to
+Hamilton. They tackled the enterprise with a will, however, and within a
+couple of days after resuming the difficult duties of managership they
+had made considerable headway.
+
+"Have you those posters yet?" greeted Robin, as she joyfully pounced
+upon Marjorie on the steps of the library. "I have been trying to see
+you ever since yesterday morning. I was coming over last night, but I
+simply had to stay at home and study. I struck a horrible snag in
+calculus and struggled with it half the evening."
+
+"Ethel said she would have them done tomorrow," was the comforting news.
+"She made four. I imagine they must be beauties, too."
+
+"Uh-h-h!" Robin pretended to crumple with relief. "That's one torture
+off my mind. Naturally they will be great stuff. Ethel Laird draws
+better than any other girl at Hamilton. It was mighty fine in her to
+take such a job on herself. I asked her for only one you know."
+
+"Probably she saw a wistful gleam in your eye and was kind," laughed
+Marjorie.
+
+"There will be an entirely different gleam in my eye if those printers
+don't hurry up with the programmes. Last I heard from them they hadn't
+even started the work. We really took a good deal upon ourselves when we
+started this show. I'm glad I am not a manager for my living. It is too
+strenuous a life for Robin."
+
+"We ought to call a rehearsal Saturday evening. There won't be anyone
+caring to use the gym, and there won't be much time for it next week in
+the evenings, with all the studying we have to do. Just recall, the show
+is to be next Friday evening," was Marjorie's reminder.
+
+"Oh, I know it," groaned Robin. "I shall be enraged, infuriated and
+foaming at the mouth if those aggravating printers don't have our
+programmes done in time."
+
+"They will. Don't worry. When did they promise you the tickets?"
+
+"Tomorrow. They've done fairly well with the tickets," Robin grudgingly
+conceded. "That is, provided they deliver them tomorrow, as promised. I
+am just a little tired, I guess. I like the programme part of getting up
+a show, but I don't like the tiresome details."
+
+"Come on over to Baretti's," invited Marjorie. "What you need is
+sustenance. We can talk things over and have dinner at the same time. I
+can stay out until eight. It's only five-fifteen now. We shall have
+oceans of time."
+
+"All right. Don't you believe, though, that we'll have much chance to
+talk. Some of our gang will be there, sure as fate," Robin
+prognosticated.
+
+Surely enough, they were greeted by a hospitable quartette occupying a
+table near the door. It was composed of Ronny, Jerry, Elaine Hunter and
+Barbara Severn.
+
+"Aren't you going home to dinner?" quizzed Jerry accusingly. "And you
+never said a word to me this noon of your secret intentions."
+
+"I hadn't any. May I ask why you are here without having obtained my
+permission?" Marjorie drew down her face in an imitation of Miss Merton,
+a Sanford teacher both girls had greatly disliked.
+
+"I have nothing to say," chuckled Jerry. "You and your friend may sit at
+our table, if you like."
+
+"Thank you. My friend and I have weighty matters to discuss. We're in
+the show business now, Jeremiah. We are bound for that last table in the
+row." Marjorie pointed. "We'll join you later, and please don't disturb
+us. Ahem!"
+
+"I don't even know either of you by sight. Beat it." Jerry waved both
+girls away with a magnificent gesture of disdain which sent them,
+giggling, toward their table.
+
+"This is my first off-the-campus treat since we talked about getting up
+the show that day we went to Hamilton," Marjorie confided to Robin. "I
+have thirty-eight dollars saved. Captain gave me twenty-five when I came
+away from home. I told her I did not need it, but you see I had told her
+about saving my money, too. That's the reason she gave it to me. I seem
+not to be able to make any real sacrifices," Marjorie smiled ruefully.
+
+"I have saved close to thirty. I could have saved more, but I have had
+three Silvertonites to remember on their birthdays. Not my pals, but
+girls who appreciate remembrances and who don't receive many. I haven't
+been here but twice since we had that talk. We mustn't desert Signor
+Baretti, either. He would feel dreadfully if we stopped patronizing his
+tea room."
+
+"We will have to try to please all our friends somehow, and ourselves,
+too," Marjorie said gayly.
+
+Their dinner ordered, the two settled down to talk over the progress of
+their "show" with the business energy of two real theatrical managers.
+Later, however, Jerry and her trio sidled up to the forbidden table and
+were graciously allowed to remain. In consequence, it was half-past
+eight before the party left the tea room.
+
+"Lucy will wonder what has become of me," Ronny declared, as the three
+Lookouts entered Wayland Hall. "I told her this noon I was not going
+anywhere after recitations. Oh, dear! I am a nice person! I promised to
+help Muriel with her French, before dinner. I forgot all about it until
+this minute. She will be raving."
+
+"You seem to be in a bad case all around," sympathized Marjorie in most
+unsympathetic tones. "I'm sorry for you."
+
+"I'm a great deal more sorry for myself," retorted Jerry.
+
+"I haven't broken any promise by staying out, but I won't do much
+studying tonight. Let me see, what recitations do I have tomorrow that I
+can slight the least tiny bit?" Marjorie puckered her brows over her
+problem.
+
+Entering their room, the first sight that met hers and Jerry's eyes was
+Lucy Warner, fast asleep in an arm chair. Jerry laid a warning finger
+against her lips, then she stole softly up to Lucy.
+
+"Wake up and pay for your lodgings," she growled in a deep, hoarse
+voice.
+
+"Oh-h! Ah-h!" Lucy sat up with a suddenness which narrowly missed
+landing her on the floor. "I thought you would never come home," she
+mumbled, not yet fully awake. Blinking sleepily at the two laughing
+girls, she continued: "I had some news for you. I sat down to wait until
+you came. Ronny was out; so was Muriel. I've been here since eight
+o'clock. Were you out to dinner?"
+
+"That means _you_ were not here." Jerry pointed an arraigning finger at
+Lucy. "Where have you been? Lately you have become a regular gad-about.
+It must be stopped, Luciferous."
+
+"Gad-about nothing," disclaimed Lucy. "You, not I, belong to that
+deplorable class, Jeremiah Macy. _I_ have been working. True, I dined
+outside the Hall, and in distinguished company. I am President Matthews'
+secretary pro tem. I had dinner at his house tonight. I told you I had
+news for you."
+
+"Can you beat that?" Jerry sank into the nearest chair as though about
+to collapse. "You are mounting the college scale by leaps and bounds,
+aren't you? Chummy with the registrar, a friend of Professor
+Wenderblatt's, and now established in Doctor Matthews' good graces. The
+unprecedented rise of Luciferous Warniferous; or, Secretaries who have
+become famous."
+
+"How did it happen? Where is Miss Sayres?" Marjorie exhibited lively
+curiosity at the news.
+
+"Miss Sayres is at home with a cold. Nothing very serious, I imagine.
+Miss Humphrey recommended me to the doctor. He was away behind in his
+correspondence. Miss Sayres has been ill for two days. It was nearly six
+when I finished his letters. He still had an address to dictate. He
+asked me if I would stay until after dinner and take the dictation. I
+had a beautiful time. He and his wife are such friendly persons. He is a
+great biologist, too. His son was there. He is a New York lawyer and is
+home for a few days' visit." Lucy added this last without enthusiasm.
+
+"Well, well, Luciferous!" patronized Jerry. "And were you afraid to talk
+to the young man?"
+
+"Oh, stop teasing me! No, I was not. He talked to his mother most of the
+time, anyway. I must go and find Ronny. Was she with you girls?" Lucy
+rose, gathered her books from the table, and prepared to depart.
+
+"She was with us, Lucy. You'd better stay and talk to us," coaxed
+Marjorie. "It's growing later and later and still I am not studying. I
+might as well wind up a pleasant but unprofitable evening with gossiping
+about Doctor Matthews. Come on back and resume your chair, Miss Warner."
+
+Lucy had now reached the door. "Wait until I go and see Ronny, and I
+will come back." She exited, returning five minutes afterward with
+Ronny.
+
+"You don't seem to have the study habit tonight, either," commented
+Jerry genially to the new arrival. "Well, sit down and have a good time.
+That's what college is for."
+
+"How do you like the doctor, Lucy?" There was a note of sharp interest
+in the question. Marjorie was anxious to hear Lucy's opinion of the
+president. "I know you said he was friendly; but, I mean, what do you
+think of him in other ways?"
+
+"I understand you. You are thinking of Miss Remson. So was I, whenever I
+had a chance to study the man. He is one of the kindest, finest men I
+have ever come in contact with," Lucy declared impressively. "He is so
+courteous; he goes to great pains in answering his letters. I know he
+never wrote that letter to Miss Remson."
+
+"I felt that way about him, too, the day I played messenger for Miss
+Humphrey." Marjorie nodded agreement of Lucy's emphatic praise.
+
+"I wish I could solve that letter mystery while I am there." Lucy's
+green eyes gleamed. "My one chance would be to have a talk about it with
+Doctor Matthews. That's not likely to happen. I could find out a good
+deal about Miss Sayres by going through the letter files, but I would
+die rather than touch one of them. I shall only be there for a day or
+two, I suppose. If I could be his secretary for two or three weeks I
+might be able to say a good word for Miss Remson. I am sure there has
+been a great misrepresentation and I believe Miss Sayres is at the
+bottom of it."
+
+"What would you do, Luciferous, if, while you were there, you found out
+something that was plain proof against the Sans?" was Marjorie's
+thoughtful query.
+
+"I would take it up with Doctor Matthews at once, wouldn't you, in the
+same circumstances?"
+
+"Yes," came the unhesitating reply. "That is the one thing I have always
+thought I would not mind telling against the Sans." Marjorie's features
+grew sternly determined. "It was such a cruel thing to do; to estrange
+two friends of such long standing. For all we know, Doctor Matthews may
+wonder why Miss Remson has not visited him and his wife for over a
+year."
+
+"It is not likely that I shall find any such proof. If I should, I would
+use it very quickly. Miss Remson was dreadfully hurt over that miserable
+letter. I would put the proof before Doctor Matthews if I had to fight
+all the Sans single-handed afterward."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII--WHEN FRIENDS BECOME FOES
+
+
+Lucy's secretaryship for Doctor Matthews lasted only three days. During
+that short space of time she found out nothing special, bearing on the
+wrong to Miss Remson which she longed to right. She learned to like the
+president of Hamilton College better than ever, and wished she might
+work for him longer. The only item of interest she came across was at
+his residence. In the secretary's desk there she discovered the New York
+address of Leslie Cairns in a small red leather address book. To her
+analytical mind this was proof enough of an acquaintance between the
+two.
+
+She had not expected to do anything of moment toward helping Miss Remson
+during those three days. Still she could not help confessing to Marjorie
+that she was a wee bit disappointed at not having learned a single
+thing.
+
+"Never mind, Luciferous," Marjorie had consoled. "You had the will to
+help Miss Remson if you did not have the opportunity. It may all come to
+light when you least expect it. That's the way such things often
+happen."
+
+While Lucy had deplored her inability to obtain the desired information
+she legitimately sought, the Sans loudly deplored among themselves her
+temporary appointment as secretary. Coupled with it a story had reached
+the ears of Natalie Weyman and Joan Myers which caused them to flee to
+Leslie Cairns in a hurry. It had to do with the hazing party the
+previous February. Joan had been slyly taxed with it first. Pretending
+innocence, she had made an excuse to leave the senior who had intimated
+it to her without having betrayed herself in any particular.
+
+Several days afterward she and Natalie Weyman had gone through almost
+the same experience with two juniors who had appeared to treat the
+affair as a huge joke. The girl who had first hinted it to Joan had been
+rather horrified over what she had evidently heard.
+
+"I think it is high time we called Dulcie Vale to account!" Natalie
+exclaimed stormily, as she finished the recital of what she and Joan had
+just heard.
+
+The two had burst in upon Leslie, regardless of the "Busy" sign which
+now ornamented her door a good deal of the time when she was in her
+room.
+
+"Calm down, Nat. You are so mad you are fairly shouting. Take seats and
+have some candy, both of you." Leslie lazily pushed a huge box of nut
+chocolates across the table within easy reach of her excited callers.
+
+"Um-m! Glaucaire's best!" Natalie forgot her wrath and helped herself to
+sweets.
+
+"I had made up my mind before you two burst in with your tale of woe
+that Dulcie had escaped long enough. I have heard things, too, and just
+lately. Dulcie is not the only one. She talked to Bess. Bess Walbert is
+as busy a little news circulator as you'd care to find."
+
+"What did I tell you?" Natalie cried out in triumph.
+
+"You were right, Nat. I give you credit for reading her correctly. I
+haven't seen her since the first of the week. When I do----" Leslie nodded
+her head, looking thoroughly disagreeable. Elizabeth Walbert was in for
+a very stormy interview with her.
+
+"When will you call the meeting, Les?" anxiously inquired Joan. "Don't
+put it off. No telling how much more mischief Dulcie may do if she isn't
+curbed promptly."
+
+"Tomorrow night," Leslie named. "See as many of the Sans as you can
+between now and the ten-thirty bell. Don't go near Loretta Kelly's and
+Della Byron's room. Dulcie goes there a good deal lately. Della is
+coming to see me this evening after dinner. I'll tell her then. Let me
+know before the last bell tonight how many of the girls are on, Nat.
+Will you?"
+
+"Surely, Leslie dear." Natalie had simmered down to affability. She was
+very proud of Leslie's confidence in her.
+
+Left alone, Leslie settled back in her chair very much as her father
+might have done on the eve of a pitched battle on the stock exchange.
+Her eyes roved about her room as she planned where the culprit should
+stand, where she wished the Sans to group themselves, and where her
+place as conductor of the arraignment should be.
+
+A half smile flitted across her face as she remembered the last high
+tribunal she had conducted. This time the culprit was a real one. It had
+been hard to trump up charges against "Bean." There would be no masks
+worn save the mask of deceit which she would ruthlessly strip from
+Dulcie, showing her in her true colors. After she was "all through" with
+Dulcie she would read the riot act to Bess Walbert. She wished to wait,
+however, until the sophomore unsuspectingly came to her for a favor.
+Then she would be shown a side of Leslie she had not dreamed existed.
+
+At twenty minutes after ten Natalie came to Leslie's room with the
+welcome news that "every last Sans" except Loretta and Della had been
+told and would be on hand promptly at eight o'clock the next evening.
+
+"I saw Loretta and Della," Leslie informed her chum. "They are wild.
+They heard that Dulc told two juniors about my renting that house for
+six months so we could use it when we hazed Bean. That's a nice report
+to have in circulation on the campus, now isn't it? Does that sound like
+Dulc, or doesn't it?"
+
+"Dulcie told that, undoubtedly. There were not more than six or seven of
+us who knew the terms on which you rented that house. Dulc knew. You
+always let her into extra private matters because she was one of the old
+guard. You and she were not so edgeways toward each other until after
+the night of the masquerade."
+
+"We never agreed on a single thing. Away back at prep school Dulc and I
+were always squabbling. In her heart she has never really liked me.
+Since the masquerade she has cordially hated me. That's about my feeling
+toward her. I want her out of the Sans. She is a disgrace to them. I
+expected Nell Ray would fight for her, but she gave in as nicely as you
+please."
+
+"The girls are all down on her for telling tales," returned Natalie. "I
+wonder if she thinks they don't know the way she has gossiped about
+them?"
+
+"She will know it tomorrow night," asserted Leslie shortly.
+
+"There goes the bell. I had better beat it. I have an hour's studying to
+do tonight yet, and I am so sleepy," Natalie yawned. "One thing more."
+Half way across the threshold she turned and reentered the room. "How
+are you going to get Dulc on the scene?"
+
+"Harriet is to tell her, late tomorrow afternoon, that the Sans are to
+meet in my room tomorrow night at eight to discuss something very
+important. She will come. She will be eaten up with curiosity to know
+what is going on. She'll be just a little bit surprised when she learns
+how much she has to do with that important discussion." Leslie threw
+back her head and laughed in her silent fashion.
+
+"She deserves it." Natalie's whole face hardened perceptibly. "Look out
+for her, Les. She is capable of making a lot of fuss. We don't care to
+have Remson coming up here to see what the trouble is."
+
+"If she is noisy, half a dozen of us will simply take her by the arms
+and bundle her off to her own room. It is only three doors from here,"
+Leslie answered with cool decision. "I can manage her, I think."
+
+The next day Dulcie received word of the meeting through the medium of
+Harriet. The latter delivered the notice in a careless tone which
+completely misled Dulcie.
+
+"Why can't it be some place besides Leslie Cairns' room?" Dulcie
+pettishly demanded. "I hate to go near her!"
+
+"Suit yourself," shrugged Harriet. "You can't say I didn't tell you
+about it. It won't be any place other than Leslie's room."
+
+Her simulated indifference merely aroused in Dulcie a contrary resolve
+to attend that meeting at all costs. She had not been in Leslie's room
+since the opening of college. She had a curiosity to see what changes
+Leslie had made in it from the previous year. Strangely enough, her own
+misdeeds never crossed her mind. She had no thought, when regaling
+others with her chums' private affairs, that such treachery might
+possibly bring her a day of reckoning. The recent quarrels she had had
+with her former intimate, Eleanor Ray, and also Joan Myers, left no
+impression on her save a sullen dislike for the two girls because they
+had taken her to task for betraying their confidence.
+
+As it was, she accepted an invitation to dinner at the Colonial extended
+her by Alida Burton. She lingered so long at the tea room that she
+walked into Leslie's room at ten minutes past eight.
+
+Slow of comprehension, even she felt dimly the tension of the moment.
+The Sans sat or stood in little groups about the room. With her
+entrance, conversation suddenly languished and died out. Every pair of
+eyes was leveled at her in a cool fashion which bordered on hostility.
+
+"It seems to me you are all very quiet tonight. What's the _matter?_
+Peevish because I'm late? _Yes? What?_ Don't cry. Ten minutes won't kill
+any of you," she greeted flippantly. "Hope I haven't _missed_ anything
+by being a tiny bit behind time." She had adopted Leslie's insolent
+swagger.
+
+"No; you haven't missed anything," Leslie said dryly. "We were waiting
+for you." She turned abruptly from Dulcie, addressing the others.
+
+"Girls," she raised her voice a trifle, "bring your chairs and arrange
+them on each side of the davenport in a half circle. Six girls can sit
+on the davenport. We are all here now, so we can proceed with the
+business of the evening."
+
+Her order promptly obeyed, the Sans settled themselves in their chairs
+with mingled emotions. None of them had a definite idea of how Leslie
+intended to conduct the embarrassing session against Dulcie. Face to
+face with the momentous occasion, a few of them felt slightly inclined
+toward clemency. The older members of the Sans were too greatly incensed
+by her treachery to do other than approve of the humiliation about to
+descend on the traitor.
+
+It had been Leslie's first idea to seat Dulcie in a particular chair.
+Second thought assured her that Dulcie would refuse the chair, merely to
+be contrary. She would undoubtedly sit where she would be most
+conspicuous if left to her own devices. Leslie decided the rest of the
+Sans must sit in a compact group. Wherever Dulcie might choose to post
+herself in the room she could not escape arraignment.
+
+While the girls were arranging their chairs, Leslie occupied herself
+with hanging a heavy velvet curtain in front of the door leading to the
+hall. That task completed, she turned to find Dulcie had seated herself
+on the left hand side of the semi-circle, the last girl in the row. She
+had pulled her chair forward a trifle so as to command a good view of
+the company.
+
+Dulcie was well-pleased with herself. She was still admiring her brazen
+entrance into the room. She felt that she had quite outdone Leslie in
+matter of cool insolence. In fact she was much better able to direct the
+club than Leslie. She wondered the girls had never realized it. She eyed
+Leslie with ill-concealed contempt as the latter seated herself in the
+chair of office which Natalie had placed in the fairly wide space
+between the ends of the half circle. Les grew homelier every day, was
+her uncharitable opinion.
+
+"We are here tonight to perform a duty, which, though not pleasant,
+_must be done_." Leslie made this beginning with only a slight drawl to
+her tones. "When we organized the Sans Soucians we all promised to be
+loyal to one another. I regret to say that one of our number has so
+completely violated this promise it becomes necessary to take drastic
+measures. We cannot allow a Sans to betray deliberately either club or
+personal secrets."
+
+Leslie placed great stress on "deliberately." She was careful not to
+look toward Dulcie. "Do you agree with me in this?" She put the question
+generally.
+
+_"Yes,"_ was the concerted, emphatic answer. Dulcie's voice helped to
+swell the chorus.
+
+"The Sans have done certain things as a matter of reprisal and
+self-defense, which, if generally known, would entail very serious
+consequences. It is vital to our welfare at Hamilton that these matters
+should be kept secret, yet a member of the Sans has gossiped them to
+outsiders. For example, it is known to a number of seniors and juniors
+outside the Sans that a hazing affair took place last St. Valentine's
+night, conducted by the Sans. Seven of us have been approached on this
+subject. We know, to a certainty, that a faction, antagonistic to us,
+did not start this story.
+
+"Still more serious is a report brought to me concerning the methods
+employed by Joan and I to keep a residence for the Sans at the Hall when
+we were threatened with expulsion from here as sophomores. A person who
+will betray such intimate matters, knowing that her treachery may ruin
+the prospects of her chums for graduation from college, is not only a
+fool for risking her own safety, but a menace to the club as well."
+
+For ten minutes Leslie talked on in this strain, her hearers observing a
+strained silence. She was purposely piling up the enormity of Dulcie's
+misdeed so as to impress the others. As for Dulcie, she had begun to
+show signs of nervousness. Once or twice her eyes measured the distance
+from her chair to the door as if she were meditating sudden flight. What
+remnants of conscience she still had, stirred to the point of informing
+her that the coat Leslie was airing fitted her too snugly for comfort.
+She had not yet arrived at the moment of awakening, however. She
+believed Leslie's remarks to be directed toward someone else. Margaret
+Wayne, perhaps; or, Loretta Kelly. Leslie had once said to her that
+Loretta was a gossip. Dulcie now tried to recall an instance of
+Loretta's perfidy. It would be to her interest to cite an instance of it
+should Leslie call for special evidence. It would pay Loretta back for
+once having called her a stupid little owl.
+
+In the midst of racking her vindictive brain for evidence against a
+fellow member, Dulcie lost briefly the thread of Leslie's discourse.
+Mention of her own name re-furnished her with it.
+
+"Dulciana Vale," she heard Leslie saying in a tense note quite different
+from her indolent drawl, "do you know of any reason why you should be
+allowed a further membership in the Sans Soucians after having become an
+utter traitor to their interests?"
+
+Dulcie struggled to her feet, her sulky features a study in slow-growing
+rage. "What--what--do you--mean?" Her voice was rising to a gasping scream.
+"How dare you call me a traitor. You are telling lies; just nothing but
+lies."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX--IN THE INTEREST OF PRIVATE SAFETY
+
+
+"Sit down," ordered Leslie sharply, "and keep your voice down! You have
+made us all enough trouble. We don't propose that you shall add to it."
+
+"I have not," shrieked Dulcie. "I don't know what you are talking about.
+You're crazy if you say I told all that stuff you mentioned. Why don't
+you put the blame where it belongs? You told me yourself that Loretta
+and Margaret were both gossips. You told Bess Walbert a lot of things
+yourself. She told me so. You used to tell Lola Elster a lot, too. Nat
+Weyman isn't above gossiping, either. She has said some _hateful_ things
+about you, if you care to know it."
+
+Fully launched, Dulcie bade fair to stir up dissension in a breath.
+Worse, her lung power seemed to increase with every word.
+
+"Pay no attention to her," Leslie advised her chums in a cold, level
+voice. "She can tell more yarns to the second than anyone else I know."
+
+"You said you could manage her, Les. For goodness' sake do so. I am
+afraid she'll be heard down stairs." Joan Myers sprang to her feet in
+exasperation.
+
+"Leave that to me." Leslie's eyes snapped. She was fast losing the
+admirable poise she had held so well. The real Leslie Cairns was coming
+to the surface.
+
+Three or four lithe steps and she was facing Dulcie. The latter still
+stood by her chair shrieking forth invective.
+
+"Listen to me, you _idiot_," she said with an intensity of wrath that
+approached a snarl. "Cut out that screaming--_now_. We are done with you.
+We know you for what you are. Not one of us will ever speak to you again
+after you leave this room. Get that straight. If you ever repeat another
+word on the campus of the Sans' business you will be a sorry girl.
+_Don't you forget that._ You carried the idea that, if trouble came from
+your talk, you could slide out of it and leave us to face it. You
+couldn't have cleared yourself. What you are to do from now on is----"
+
+A sharp rapping at the door interrupted Leslie. Raising a warning finger
+to her lips, she crossed the room to answer the knock.
+
+"Good evening, Miss Remson," she coldly greeted. "Will you come in? Our
+club is holding a meeting in my room." She made an indifferent gesture
+toward the assembled girls.
+
+"Good evening, Miss Cairns. No; I do not wish to enter your room. I must
+insist, however, that you conduct your meeting quietly. The commotion
+going on in here can be heard downstairs."
+
+The very impersonality of the manager's reproof brought a quick rush of
+blood to Leslie's cheeks. It was as though Miss Remson considered Leslie
+and her companions so far beneath her it took conscientious effort on
+her part even to reprove them. It stung Leslie to a desire to clear
+herself of the opprobrium.
+
+"I am sorry about the noise," she apologized in annoyed embarrassment.
+"Miss Vale is responsible for it. I have been trying to quiet her. She
+is very angry with us for calling her to account for disloyalty. She has
+done so many despicable things we felt it necessary to call a meeting of
+the club to----"
+
+"Pardon me. I am not interested in anything save the fact that there
+must be no more screaming or loud altercation from this room tonight or
+at any other time. As it is your room, Miss Cairns, I shall hold you
+responsible for the good behavior of your guests."
+
+Again the aloofness of the rebuke cut Leslie through and through. She
+had never believed that she could be so utterly snubbed by "Trotty"
+Remson.
+
+"Very well." It was the only thing she could think of to say.
+
+Miss Remson turned from the door and went on down the long hall. Leslie
+was seized with a savage inclination to bang the door. She refrained
+from indulging it. There had been enough noise already.
+
+She returned to her companions to find Dulcie furious because she had
+been reported to Miss Remson as the author of the commotion.
+
+"Talk about anyone being treacherous," she stormed, but in a more
+subdued key. "_You're_ treacherous as a snake. _You'd_ tell tales on--on
+your own father, if it would save you from disgrace."
+
+"That's enough." Leslie's last atom of self-control vanished. "I am
+tired of your foolishness. Get out of my room, instantly. Don't you ever
+dare even speak to me again. Let me hear one word you have said against
+any of us and I will have you expelled within twenty-four hours
+afterward. I can do it, too. If you go to headquarters with any tales
+against us, remember you are one and we are seventeen who will act as
+one in denying your fairy stories. You----"
+
+"Not fairy stories," sneered Dulcie. "I'd be satisfied to tell the truth
+about you deceitful things. It would more than run you out of Hamilton."
+
+"You couldn't tell the truth to save your life," retorted Leslie with a
+caustic contempt which hit Dulcie harder than anything else Leslie had
+said to her.
+
+"I--I--think----" Dulcie struggled with her emotions, then suddenly burst
+into hysterical sobs. Her arm against her face to shut her distorted
+features from sight of her accusers, she stumbled to the door, groping
+for the knob with her free hand. An instant and she had gone, too
+thoroughly humiliated to slam the door after her. The sounds of her
+weeping could be faintly heard by the others until her own door closed
+behind her.
+
+"Gone!" Joan Myers sighed exaggerated relief.
+
+"Yes; and _broken_," announced Leslie Cairns with cruel satisfaction.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," differed Margaret Wayne. She had not forgotten
+Dulcie's assertion as to what Leslie had said of her and Loretta. "Dulc
+had spunk enough to answer you back to the very last. I don't see
+that----"
+
+"No, you don't see. Well, I do. I say that Dulcie Vale left here just
+now _utterly crushed_," argued Leslie with stress. "You are peeved,
+Margaret, because of what she claimed I said of you and Retta. She
+lied."
+
+"Certainly, Dulcie lied," supported Natalie. "Do you believe that _I_,
+Leslie's best friend, would say hateful things about her? Yet Dulc said
+I had. Didn't Les warn you not to pay any attention to what she said? We
+knew she would try to make trouble among the Sans the minute we called
+her down."
+
+"We did, indeed." Leslie made a movement of her head that betokened
+Dulcie's utter hopelessness.
+
+"I didn't say I believed what Dulcie said," half-apologized Margaret. In
+her heart she did not trust Leslie, however. It was like her to make
+just such remarks about any of the Sans if in bad humor.
+
+"Never mind. It isn't worrying me," was the purposely careless response.
+"To go back to what you said about Dulc not being broken. I have known
+her longer than you, Margaret. She can keep up a row about so long, then
+she crumples. After that there isn't a spark of fight left in her. She
+always ends by a fit of crying, next door to hysterics. Isn't that true
+of her, Nat?"
+
+Natalie nodded. "Yes; Dulcie will mind her own affairs now and keep her
+mouth closed for a long time to come."
+
+"She's afraid of me," Leslie continued, her intonation harsh. "She
+doesn't know just the extent of my influence here."
+
+"Could you truly have her expelled within twenty-four hours?" queried
+Harriet Stephens somewhat incredulously.
+
+"You heard me say so. It would take a very slight effort to do that. I
+could wire my father, then----" Leslie paused, looking mysterious. "Sorry,
+girls, but I can't tell you any more than that. I'll simply say that my
+wonderful father's influence can remove mountains, if necessary. That's
+why I was so furious with that little sneak for daring even to mention
+his name."
+
+"Could your father's influence save you from being expelled if different
+things you have done here were brought up against you?" demanded
+Adelaide Forman.
+
+Leslie's eyes narrowed at the question. It was a little too searching
+for comfort. In reality her father's influence at Hamilton was a minus
+quantity. She had been boasting with a view toward increasing her own
+importance.
+
+"It would depend entirely on what I had done," she answered after a
+moment's thought. "You must understand that my father would be wild if
+he knew I had gone out hazing when it is strictly against rules. He
+wouldn't do a thing to help me if I had trouble with Matthews over that.
+If I wrote him that Dulcie, for instance, was trying, by lies, to have
+me or my friends expelled from Hamilton, he would fight for me in a
+minute."
+
+The Sans stayed for some time in Leslie's room planning how they would
+meet further remarks leveled at them on the campus as a result of
+Dulcie's defection. Leslie brought forth a fresh five-pound box of
+chocolates and another of imported sweet crackers. The party feasted and
+enjoyed themselves regardless of the fact that three doors from them a
+former comrade writhed and wept in an agony of angry shame. While in a
+measure their course might be justified, there was not one among them
+who had not, to a certain extent, and at some time or other, betrayed
+friendship.
+
+This was also Dulcie's most bitter grievance against those who had been
+her chums. She knew now that she had talked too much. So had the others.
+Still, she was sorry for herself. She had been deceived in Bess Walbert.
+Bess was the one who had circulated most of the Sans' private affairs.
+She could not recall just how much she had told Bess; very likely no
+more than had Leslie. If they had given her time she would have been
+able to defend herself. With such reflections she strove to palliate her
+own offenses.
+
+"Do you imagine Dulc will try to get back at us?" was Natalie's first
+remark to Leslie as the door closed on the departing Sans. "She carried
+on about as I thought she might. We came off easily with Remson, didn't
+we?"
+
+"Dulcie is done, I tell you," reasserted Leslie with an impatient scowl.
+"Remson! Humph! My worst enemy couldn't have delivered a more telling
+snub. She may suspect us of making trouble between her and Matthews.
+I'll say, I wish this year was done and Commencement here. If we slide
+through and capture those precious diplomas without the sword falling it
+will be a miracle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX--A BITTER PILL
+
+
+Dulcie's tumultuous resentment of accusation had been heard throughout
+the Hall. More than one door opened along the second, third and fourth
+story halls as the shrill-sounding voice continued.
+
+Among others, Jerry had gone to the door to ascertain what was happening
+in the house of such an unusual nature. Two or three moments of intent
+listening and she had returned to her chair before the center table.
+
+"Why waste my good time listening to the far-off scrapping of the Sans?"
+she had lightly questioned. "There is some kind of row going on in Miss
+Cairns' room. That's the way it sounds to me. I can't say who is giving
+the vocal performance. I don't know the dear creatures well enough to
+tag that sweet voice. I could hear other doors besides ours open. We are
+not alone in our curiosity."
+
+"Your curiosity," Marjorie had corrected. "I wasn't enough interested to
+go to the door." Marjorie had laughed teasingly.
+
+"Stand corrected. My curiosity," Jerry had obligingly answered. With
+that the subject had dropped as abruptly as the noise had begun.
+
+The Sans were fortunate, in that the students residing at Wayland Hall,
+with the exception of themselves, were too fruitfully engaged in the
+minding of their own affairs to give more than a passing attention to
+the disturbance created by Dulcie Vale. Within the next two or three
+days they were agreeably surprised to find that no word of it had
+uttered on the campus.
+
+"Has anyone said anything to you of Dulcie's roars, howls and shrieks?"
+Leslie asked Natalie, half humorously. It was the fourth evening after
+the meeting in her room and the two were lounging in Natalie's room
+doing a little studying and a good deal of talking.
+
+"No. You can see for yourself what the girls in this house are; a
+mind-your-own-business crowd." Natalie's reply contained a certain
+amount of admiration. "If the story of it spreads over the campus, it
+will not be their fault. Sometimes I am sorry, Les, we didn't go in for
+democracy from the first. We are cut out of a lot of good times by being
+so exclusive. Take this show that Miss Page and Miss Dean are going to
+give in the gym tomorrow night. Not one of the Sans was asked to be in
+it."
+
+"Hardly!" Leslie laughed and raised her eyebrows. "I can't imagine Bean
+doing anything like that."
+
+"You needn't make fun of me. We couldn't expect to be asked to take
+part. I simply mentioned it as an example of the way things are. There
+is a great deal of sociability going on this year at Hamilton among the
+whole four classes, yet the Sans are as utterly out of it as can be,"
+Natalie complained with evident bitterness.
+
+"Glad of it," was the unperturbed retort. "Why yearn to be in a show,
+Nat, at this late stage of the game? Next winter, when you are in New
+York society, you'll have plenty of opportunity for amateur
+theatricals."
+
+"Oh, I daresay I shall." This did not console Natalie. Of all the Sans,
+she was the only one not satisfied with her lot. She would not have
+exchanged places with any student outside her own particular coterie.
+Still, she had dreamed from her freshman year of shining as a star in
+college theatricals. To her lasting disappointment, she had never been
+invited to take part in an entertainment. The Sans had neither the
+inclination nor the ability to engineer a play or revue. The democratic
+element at Hamilton did not require the Sans' services.
+
+"Are you going to that show?" Leslie cast a peculiar glance at her
+friend.
+
+"I--well, yes; I bought a ticket." Natalie appeared rather ashamed of the
+admission. "Did you buy one?" she hastily countered.
+
+"Yes; two. Laura Sayres bought them for me. Humphrey has them for sale
+in her office. I asked Laura if everything were just the same with
+Matthews since that Miss Warner substituted for her. She said all was
+O. K. She has her files, letters and papers arranged so that no one
+could ever make trouble for her."
+
+"Too bad, Leslie, that Miss Warner was the one to substitute for Laura.
+It gave her a chance to meet Doctor Matthews. One never can tell what
+might develop from even so small an incident as that." Natalie was not
+disposed to be reassuring that evening.
+
+"Will you cut out croaking, Nat?" Leslie sprang from her chair and began
+a nervous pacing of the floor. "You might as well pour ice-water down
+the back of my neck. Enough annoying things have happened lately to
+worry me without having to reckon on what 'might' happen. I told Sayres
+to take good care of herself and try not to be away from her position
+again. I advised her, if ever she had to be away, even for a day, to
+supply her own sub. She should have had sense enough to do so the last
+time."
+
+"I am surprised that Miss Warner does secretarial work when that Miss
+Lynne she rooms with is wealthy in her own right," commented Natalie.
+
+"I suppose that green-eyed ice-berg wants to earn her own money. I made
+a mistake about Lynne. Her father is the richest man in the far west. My
+father told me so last summer. I always meant to tell you that and kept
+on forgetting it. He said then I ought to be friends with her, but I
+told him 'nay, nay.' She and I would be _so pleased_ with each other."
+Leslie smiled ironically.
+
+"'The richest man in the far west,'" repeated Natalie, her mind on that
+one enlightening sentence. "Too bad she isn't our sort. We could ask her
+into the Sans in Dulcie's place."
+
+"She wouldn't leave Bean and Green-eyes and those two savages, Harding
+and Macy. I sometimes admire those two. They have so much nerve.
+Dulcie's place will stay vacant. I wouldn't ask Lola to join us after
+the way she has dropped me for Alida. As for Bess; she has yet to hear
+from me. I have an idea she and Dulc will get together. Dulc will tell
+her the news. Then Bess will sidle around me thinking she can get into
+the Sans. What? Watch my speed!" The corners of Leslie's mouth went down
+contemptuously. She was a match for the self-seeking sophomore.
+
+The next evening being that of the revue, Leslie and Natalie attended it
+together. The rest of the Sans had elected also to go to it. Leslie had
+advised against going in a body. "If we do, they'll think we were
+anxious to see their old show," she had argued. "We'd better scatter by
+twos and threes about the gym."
+
+By a quarter to eight the gymnasium was packed with students, faculty,
+and a goodly sprinkle of persons from the town of Hamilton who had
+friends among the students. Robin and Marjorie had worried for fear the
+programme might be too long. There would be sure to be encores. Their
+choice of talent, however, was so happy that the audience could not get
+enough of the various performers.
+
+Marjorie was keyed up to the highest pitch of joy by the presence of
+Constance Stevens and Harriet Delaney. They had arrived from New York
+late that afternoon on purpose to take part in the show. While the
+wonder of Constance's matchless high soprano notes in two grand opera
+selections awarded her a fury of applause, Harriet came in for her share
+of glory. It may be said that Constance and Veronica divided honors that
+evening.
+
+Urged by Marjorie, Ronny had sent to Sanford for the black robe she used
+in the "Dance of the Night." It had been in her room in Miss Archer's
+house since the evening of the campfire three years before. Besides the
+"Dance of the Night" she gave a fine exhibition of Russian folk dancing
+in appropriate costume.
+
+Marjorie had felt impelled to write Miss Susanna a special note of
+invitation inclosing several tickets. "Jonas or the maids might like our
+show, even if Miss Susanna won't come. Of course she won't, but I wanted
+her to have the tickets," she had said to Jerry, who had agreed that her
+head was level and her heart in the right place as usual.
+
+For the first time since the beginning of her hatred for Hamilton
+College, Miss Susanna had been sorely tempted to break her vow and
+attend the show. Realizing the sensation her presence on the campus
+would create, she quickly abandoned the impulse. She was half vexed with
+Marjorie for sending her tickets and made note to warn her never to send
+any more.
+
+Of all the audience, those most impressed by performance and performers
+were the Sans. While they enjoyed the revue, girl-fashion, as a
+spectacle, the knowledge of the enemy's triumph was hard to swallow.
+Ronny's dancing was a revelation to them, astonishing and bitter. As
+each number appeared, perfect in its way, the realization of the
+cleverness of the girls they had affected to despise came home as a
+sharp thrust.
+
+Leslie Cairns was particularly disgruntled as she hurried Natalie from
+the gymnasium and into the cold clear December night.
+
+"Don't talk to me, Nat," she warned. "I am so upset I feel like howling
+my head off. The way Beanie has come to the front is a positive crime.
+Did you see her marching around the gym tonight as though she owned it?"
+
+"It was a good show," Natalie ventured.
+
+"Entirely too good," grumbled Leslie. "I don't like to talk of it. Did I
+mention that Bess wrote me a note. She wants to see me about something
+very important." Leslie placed satirical stress on the last three words.
+"She may see me but she won't be pleased. I'm in a very bad humor
+tonight. I shall be in a worse one tomorrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI--"DISPOSING" OF BESS
+
+
+Leslie's ominous prediction regarding herself was not idle. She awoke
+the next morning signally out of sorts. Though she had declared to
+Natalie she did not care to discuss the revue, when she arrived at the
+Hall she had changed her mind. She had invited Natalie into her room for
+a "feed." The two had gorged themselves on French crullers, assorted
+chocolates and strong tea. Nor did they retire until almost midnight.
+
+Leslie greeted the light of day with a sour taste in her mouth and a
+desire to snap at her best friend, were that unlucky person to appear on
+her immediate horizon. She had thought herself fairly well prepared in
+psychology for the morning recitation. Instead she could not remember
+definitely enough of what she had studied the afternoon before to make a
+lucid recitation. This did not tend to render her more amiable. She
+prided herself particularly on her progress in the study of psychology
+and was inwardly furious at her failure.
+
+Exiting from Science Hall that afternoon, the first person her eyes came
+to rest upon was Elizabeth Walbert. She stood at one side of the broad
+stone flight of steps eagerly watching the main entrance to the
+building.
+
+"Oh, there you are!" she hailed. "I have been waiting quite a while for
+you."
+
+"That's too bad." It was impossible to gauge Leslie's exact humor from
+the reply. Her answers to impersonal remarks so often verged on
+insolence.
+
+"So I thought," pertly retorted the other girl. At the same time she
+furtively inspected Leslie.
+
+"What is it now? You make me think of that old story of the 'Flounder'
+in 'Grimms' Fairy Tales.' You are like the fisherman's wife who was
+always asking favors of the flounder. We will assume that I am the
+flounder."
+
+"How do you know that I wish to ask a favor?" Elizabeth colored hotly at
+the insinuation. She put on an injured expression, her lips slightly
+pouted.
+
+"I'm a mind reader," was the laconic reply.
+
+"Hm! Suppose I were to ask you to do something for me? Haven't you
+_said_ lots of times that I could rely on you?" persisted Elizabeth. "I
+don't understand you, Leslie. You are so sweet to me at times and so
+horrid at others."
+
+"You'll understand me better after today," came the significant
+assurance. "Come on. We will walk across the campus to your house."
+
+"Why not yours?" Elizabeth demanded in patent disappointment. "I see
+enough of Alston Terrace. I'd rather go with you to Wayland Hall. Your
+nice room is a fine place for a confidential chat."
+
+"You won't see the inside of it this P.M. I am not going into the house
+when we come to Alston Terrace. I have a severe headache and choose to
+stay out in the open air. It's a fair day, and not cold enough to bar a
+walk on the campus."
+
+"Very well." Elizabeth sighed and looked patient. "I hope we don't meet
+any of the girls. I have a private matter to discuss with you."
+
+"Go ahead and discuss it," imperturbably ordered Leslie.
+
+"Why--you--perhaps, if you have a headache, I had better wait until
+another time," deprecated the sophomore. It occurred to her that she
+ought to pretend solicitude. "I am so sorry," she hastily condoled.
+
+"Thank you. There is no 'if' about my headache. Get that straight. What?
+It won't hinder me from listening to you. Let's hear your remarks now
+and have them over with."
+
+"I have seen Dulcie," began Elizabeth impressively, "and she has told me
+what happened the other night. Really, Leslie, I was _shocked, simply
+shocked_. Yet I couldn't blame you in the least. The way Dulcie has
+talked about you on the campus is disgraceful. But I went over all that
+with you the day I first told you of how treacherous she had been."
+
+"Quite true. You did, indeed," Leslie conceded with pleasant irony. "Now
+proceed. What next?"
+
+"You are so _funny_, _Leslie_. You are so _deliciously_ matter-of-fact."
+Elizabeth was hoping the compliment would restore the difficult senior
+to a more equitable frame of mind.
+
+"You may not always appreciate my matter-of-fact manner." The ghost of a
+smile, cruel in its vagueness, touched Leslie's lips.
+
+"Oh, I am _sure_ I shall. To go back to Dulcie, I hope you didn't
+mention my name the other night. You promised you wouldn't."
+
+"Is that what you have been so anxious to tell me?" Leslie asked the
+question with exaggerated weariness, eyes turned indifferently away from
+her companion.
+
+"No; it is not." Elizabeth shot an exasperated glance at her. "I merely
+mentioned it. Dulcie tried to make me take the blame for it the first
+time I met her after the meeting. I simply told her I had nothing to do
+with it whatever."
+
+Leslie sniffed audible contempt at this information. "Let me say this:
+Dulcie herself mentioned your name, or rather she screamed it out at the
+top of her voice the other night. The rest of us said nothing. I made
+the charges against Dulcie and mentioned no names."
+
+"I wish I had been there." A wolfish light flashed into the wide,
+babyish blue eyes. "It must have been quite a party. Leslie," Elizabeth
+decided that the time had come to speak for herself, "you said once that
+I couldn't be a member of the Sans because there was no vacancy; that
+the club must be kept to the number of eighteen. There is a vacancy
+_now_. The club has only seventeen members. Why can't I fill that
+vacancy and become the eighteenth member? I don't mind because it will
+be only for the rest of this year. I shall count it an honor to have
+been a Sans even that long. I will certainly make a more loyal Sans than
+Dulcie was."
+
+Leslie drew a long breath. The wished-for moment had come. She was in
+fine fettle to deliver to the ambitious climber the "turn-down" she had
+earned.
+
+"Why can't you become a member of the Sans?" she asked, then drew back
+her head and indulged in soundless laughter. "Do you think it would make
+you very happy to join us?"
+
+"You may better believe it," Elizabeth made flippant reply. More
+seriously, she added: "You know how my heart has been set upon it from
+the very first."
+
+"Yes, I know. The fact of the matter is," Leslie measured each word,
+"there is one great drawback to your joining."
+
+"If it is about money, I am sure my father has as much as the fathers of
+the other members," cut in Elizabeth. "Our social position in New York
+is----"
+
+"All that has nothing to do with the drawback I mentioned." Leslie waved
+away Elizabeth's attempt at defending her position. They were not more
+than half way across the campus, but Leslie was tired of keeping up the
+suspense of the moment. Her head ached violently. She was so utterly
+disgusted with the other girl she could have cheerfully pummeled her.
+
+"Then I don't quite understand----" began Elizabeth.
+
+"You're going to--at once. We dropped one girl from the Sans for being a
+liar and a gossip. What would be the use in filling her place with
+another liar and gossip. That's the drawback. It applies strictly to
+you."
+
+Leslie stopped short in her walk and faced her companion, her heavy
+features a study in malignant contempt. Elizabeth's eyes widened
+involuntarily this time. She could not believe the evidence of her own
+ears. Her moment of stupefaction gave Leslie the very opportunity to
+continue and finish her remarks before the other had time for angry
+defense.
+
+"You would have been nothing socially on the campus if I hadn't taken
+you up," she said forcefully. "The other girls in my club, it is my
+club, didn't like you. I had a good many quarrels with a number of them
+for trying to stand up for you, you worthless little schemer. If you had
+had one shred of principle or gratitude in your deceitful composition,
+you would have come to me at once with the first story against the club
+which Dulc told you. But you did not. You simply gossiped all she said
+to you to other students on the campus. Dulcie told you things about us
+that were ridiculous. You not only listened to them. You repeated them,
+making them worse.
+
+"I had heard of your tactics before I sent for you to ask you about
+Dulc. I wanted to pump you and hear what you had to offer. I made it my
+business afterward to look up your record as a tale-bearer. Some little
+record! I know exactly to whom you have talked and what you have
+circulated concerning the Sans. You ought to be _ashamed_ of yourself.
+Such ingrates as you have no sense of shame. Now, I believe, you
+understand why the Sans don't care to put you in Dulcie's place. It
+would merely be a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. Of the
+two, you are worse than Dulc. She is a liar, but stupid. You are a liar
+and tricky."
+
+"Don't you _dare_ call me a story-teller again," burst forth Elizabeth
+in a fury.
+
+"I didn't say story-teller. I said liar. I never mince matters. I've
+said that to you before." Leslie stood smiling at the culprit, the soul
+of mockery.
+
+"You won't be at Hamilton long enough to insult me ever again, Leslie
+Cairns," threatened Elizabeth, a world of vindictiveness in every word.
+"I don't believe you, when you say that Dulcie hasn't told the truth. I
+guess Dulcie knows enough that is true to make it very uncomfortable for
+you. I'll help her do it, too. No one can speak to me as you have and
+expect I won't get even."
+
+"Try it," challenged Leslie. "Unless you have Dulcie to back you you
+can't prove one single thing against our record at Hamilton. Dulcie
+doesn't care to make trouble for herself. You couldn't get her to go
+with you to headquarters. She has either to be graduated from college
+with a fair rating or fall into a bushel of trouble with her father. Let
+me give you and Dulc both a last piece of advice. You'll tell her all
+about this, of course, only you will be careful not to mention wanting
+her place in the club. Keep a brake on those mill-clapper tongues of
+yours for the rest of the year."
+
+Without giving Elizabeth time for another outburst of wrath, Leslie
+wheeled and started away at double quick. The other girl forgot dignity
+entirely and pursued the senior, talking shrilly as she ran. She might
+as well have pursued a fleeing shadow. Leslie set her jaw and increased
+her pace. The enraged sophomore kept up the chase for a matter of yards,
+then stopped. Placing her hands to her mouth, trumpet fashion, she
+hurled after Leslie one pithy threat: "You'll be sorry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII--PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
+
+
+The approach of the Christmas holidays called a halt in the internal war
+which raged between the Sans and their two betrayers. Having delivered
+her ultimatum to Elizabeth Walbert, Leslie promptly proceeded to forget
+her, so far as she could. As a result of the tactics she had pursued
+with both Dulcie and Elizabeth, she was more at ease than for a long
+time. She was confident she had bullied both to a point where they would
+hesitate before doing any more idle talking about the Sans'
+misdemeanors. Every day which passed over her head without mishap to
+herself was one day nearer Commencement and freedom. She had no regret
+for her misdeeds. She was merely in fear lest they might be brought to
+light.
+
+She had lost all interest in leadership at Hamilton. Her one idea now
+was to end her college course creditably and thus earn her father's
+approval. Natalie Weyman was on better terms with her than were the
+other Sans. They found her moody indifference harder to combat than her
+bullying. She was interested in nothing the club did or wished to do.
+"Go as far as you like, but let me alone," became her pet answer to her
+chums' appeals for advice or an expression of opinion.
+
+"The Sans have become so exclusive they've nearly effaced themselves
+from the college map," Jerry remarked to Marjorie several days after
+their return from the Christmas vacation at home.
+
+"They have had to settle down and do some studying, I presume," was
+Marjorie's opinion. "They used to be out evenings a good deal oftener
+than ever we were. I've wondered how they kept up at all."
+
+"Leila said that Miss Vale had been conditioned two or three times, and
+had to hire a tutor to help pull her through. I notice she doesn't go
+around with any of the Sans. You remember I spoke of her having changed
+her seat at table the next day after that fuss up in Miss Cairns' room."
+
+"I have seen her with Miss Walbert a good deal lately. It seems odd,
+Jeremiah, that, after all the trouble we had with those girls as
+freshies and sophs, we should be almost free of them this year. It has
+been such a beautiful, peaceful year, thus far. We've had the gayest,
+happiest kind of times. If only we could keep Leila, Vera, Kathie and
+Helen with us next year everything would be perfect."
+
+"Would it? Well, I rather guess so. Gives me the blues every time I stop
+to think about losing them. Just when we are traveling along so
+pleasantly, too. Here we are, victorious democrats. We know Miss
+Susanna, even if we don't dare boast of it. We've been entertained at
+Hamilton Arms; something President Matthews can't say. You and Robin are
+successful theatrical managers. Oh, I can tell you, everything is upward
+striving.
+
+  "'Tis as easy now for hearts to be true,
+  As for grass to be green and skies to be blue.
+  'Tis the natural way of living"
+
+gayly quoted Marjorie, patting Jerry's plump shoulder in her walk across
+the room to find a pencil she had mislaid.
+
+"I wish we would hear from Miss Susanna," she continued, a little
+wistful note in the utterance. "Perhaps she did not like our Christmas
+remembrance. She doesn't like birthday observances. She loves flowers,
+though. So she couldn't really regard those we sent her as a present.
+And that letter was delightful, I thought. We may have made a mistake in
+sending the wreath."
+
+The letter to which Marjorie referred was a composite. Each of the nine
+girls had contributed a paragraph. They had tucked it into a box of
+long-stemmed red roses which they had selected as a Yule-tide offering
+to the last of the Hamiltons. With it had gone a laurel wreath, to which
+was attached a large bunch of double, purple violets. They had asked
+that the wreath be hung in Brooke Hamilton's study above the oblong
+which contained the founder's sayings.
+
+"I don't believe Miss Susanna is on her ear at us," observed Jerry
+inelegantly. "She will write when she feels like it. Maybe she thought
+it better to postpone writing until she was sure we were all back at
+college after Christmas. When did you last hear from her?"
+
+"Not since she sent me the money for the tickets for the show. I bought
+those tickets for her myself. She didn't understand, I guess. I
+re-mailed the money to her, explaining that they were from me. Since
+then I have heard not a word from her. I should have taken the tickets
+back to her instead of mailing them, but I was so busy just then.
+Besides, I don't like to go to the Arms without a special invitation."
+
+Almost incident with Marjorie's worry over Miss Susanna's silence came a
+note from her new friend, appointing an evening for her to dine at
+Hamilton Arms.
+
+"I am not asking your friends this time," the old lady wrote, "as I
+prefer to devote my attention to you, dear child. I could not answer the
+Christmas letter for I had no medium of expression. I loved it, and the
+flowers. Best of all, was the honor you did Uncle Brooke. You may show
+this letter to your friends, extending to them a crabbed old person's
+sincere thanks and good wishes."
+
+Marjorie kept her dinner appointment with Miss Susanna and spent a happy
+evening with the old lady. Miss Hamilton showed active interest in the
+subject of the recent revue. The obliging lieutenant had brought with
+her a programme which the old lady insisted in going over, number by
+number, inquiring about each performer. She expressed a wish to hear
+Constance Stevens sing and asked Marjorie to bring Constance to Hamilton
+Arms if she should again come to Hamilton College.
+
+"I was truly sorry to have missed that show," the last of the Hamiltons
+frankly confessed. "It would never do for me to set foot on that campus.
+I should be on bad terms with myself forever after; on as bad terms as I
+am with the college."
+
+"I'll tell you what we might do, Miss Hamilton," Marjorie ventured. "We
+could give a stunt party here, just for you, at some time when it
+pleased you to have us here. Perhaps Constance would come from New York
+for a day or two. She isn't so far away. Then Ronny and Vera would dance
+and Leila sings the most charming ancient Celtic songs."
+
+Her lovely face had grown radiant as she described her chums' talents,
+and again, for her sake, Miss Susanna had softened toward all girlhood.
+She had assented with only half-concealed eagerness to Marjorie's plan.
+
+Two days after Marjorie's visit to her, she sent her a check for five
+hundred dollars, asking that it be placed with the money earned from the
+revue. The youthful managers had charged a dollar apiece for tickets
+with no reservations. To their intense joy and amusement, the gross
+receipts amounted to six hundred and seventy-two dollars. Their only
+expenses being for printing and lighting the gymnasium, they had,
+counting Miss Susanna's gift, a little over one thousand dollars with
+which to start the beneficiary fund.
+
+Anna Towne had done good work among the girls off the campus. Due to her
+efforts they had been brought to look upon the new avenue of escape from
+signal discomfort, now open to them, as an opportunity to be embraced.
+Marjorie had said conclusively that the funds at their disposal were to
+be given, not lent. She argued on the basis that money thus easily
+gained should be distributed where it would benefit most, then be
+forgotten. The girls who were struggling along to put themselves through
+college would have enough to do to earn their living afterward without
+stepping over the threshold of their chosen work saddled with an
+obligation.
+
+It took tact, delicacy and more than one friendly argument to establish
+this theory among the sensitive, proud-spirited girls for whose benefit
+the project had been carried out. Gradually it gained ground and a new
+era of things began to spring up for those who had sacrificed so much
+for the sake of the higher education. The money so easily earned by
+Ronny's nimble feet, Constance's sweet singing and the talent of the
+other performers revolutionized matters in the row of cheerless houses,
+in one of which Anne Towne resided. Ability to pay a higher rate for
+board brought better food and heat. The drudgery of laundering was
+lifted, the work being intrusted to several capable laundresses in the
+vicinity. Those who had kept house abandoned cooking and took their
+meals at one or another of the boarding houses. According to Anna Towne,
+the restfulness of the changed way of living was unbelievable.
+
+As successful theatrical managers, Robin and Marjorie had rosy visions
+of a dormitory built where several of the dingy boarding houses now
+stood. Perhaps by next year they would have the means to buy the
+properties. They purposed agitating the subject so strongly, during
+their senior year, that, at least, a few of the students among the other
+three classes would be willing to go on with the work.
+
+Both had agreed that they had set themselves a hard row to hoe, yet
+neither would have relinquished the self-imposed task. In the first
+flush of their ambition they had asked Miss Humphrey to ascertain, if
+she could, whether the regulations of the college forbade the erection
+of more houses on the campus. She had returned the answer, that, owing
+to a peculiar will left by Mr. Brooke Hamilton, the consent to build on
+the campus would have to come from Miss Hamilton, who had been
+prejudiced against Hamilton College for many years.
+
+This was a disturbing revelation to Marjorie. She was fairly certain
+that Miss Susanna would never give any such consent. She therefore
+promptly abandoned the idea and laid her plans for the outside
+territory.
+
+As the winter winged away Marjorie made more than one visit to Hamilton
+Arms. Occasionally her chums accompanied her. The Nine Travelers gave
+their stunt party at the Arms on Saint Valentine's eve. To please their
+lonely hostess they dressed in the costumes they intended wearing at the
+masquerade the next evening. Constance and Harriet managed to get away
+from the conservatory for three days, and a merry party ate a six
+o'clock dinner with Miss Susanna so as to have plenty of time for the
+stunts afterward.
+
+Discreet to the letter, their visits to Hamilton Arms were known to no
+one outside their own group. Over and over again, when alone with the
+old lady, she would say to Marjorie: "I had no idea girls could be
+honorable. I had always considered boys far more honest and loyal."
+
+"You and Miss Susanna Hamilton are getting very chummy, aren't you?"
+greeted Jerry, as Marjorie sauntered into their room one clear frosty
+evening in March, after having had tea at Hamilton Arms.
+
+"I don't know whether we are or not." A tiny pucker decorated Marjorie's
+forehead. "I always feel a little uncertain of how to take her. She is
+kindness itself, then, all of a sudden, she turns crotchety and says she
+hates everything and everybody. Then she generally adds, 'Don't take
+that to yourself, child.'"
+
+"She thinks a lot of you or she wouldn't be so friendly with you. She
+looks at you in the most affectionate way. I've noticed it every time we
+have been to the Arms with you."
+
+"I am glad of it. I was fond of her before I met her. Captain would like
+her. So would your mother, Jeremiah. Next year when our mothers come to
+Hamilton to see us graduate, I hope Miss Susanna will like to meet them.
+Only one more year after this. Oh, dear! I do love college, don't you?"
+Marjorie began removing her hat and coat, an absent look in her brown
+eyes.
+
+"I have seen worse ranches," Jerry conceded with a grin. "Speaking of
+ranches reminds me of the West. The West reminds me of Ronny. Ronny
+promised to help me with my French tonight. Mind if I leave you? Such
+partings wring the heart; mine I mean. You go galavanting off to tea
+with no regard for my feelings." Jerry gave a bad imitation of a sob,
+giggled, and began gathering up her books.
+
+"I'll try to have more consideration for your feelings hereafter,"
+Marjorie assured, a merry twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"I'll believe that when I see signs of reform," Jerry threw back over
+her shoulder as she exited.
+
+Left alone, Marjorie tried to shut out the memory of Hamilton Arms and
+settle down to her studying. The fascination the old house held for her
+remained with her long after she had left it behind her on her now
+fairly frequent visits there. Nicely launched on the tide of psychology,
+an uncertain rapping at the door startled her from her absorption of the
+subject in hand. It flashed across her as she rose to answer the
+knocking that it had been done by an unfamiliar hand. None of the girls
+she knew rapped on the door in that weak, hesitating fashion.
+
+As she swung open the door she made no effort to force back the
+expression of complete astonishment which she knew had appeared on her
+face. Her caller was Dulcie Vale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII--AN AMAZING PROPOSAL
+
+
+"I--are you alone, Miss Dean? I would like to talk with you, but not
+unless you are alone." Dulcie spoke just above a whisper, peering past
+Marjorie into the room so far as she could see from where she was
+standing.
+
+"Yes, I am alone. Miss Macy will not be back for an hour, perhaps. Will
+you come in, Miss Vale?" Marjorie endeavored to make the invitation
+courteous. She could not feign cordiality.
+
+"I am glad you are alone." This idea seemed uppermost in Dulcie's mind.
+"I know you don't like me, Miss Dean. You haven't any reason to after
+the way you were treated by the Sans last Saint Valentine's night. Of
+course, I know you know who we were that night." She paused, as though
+considering what to say next.
+
+"I saw no faces, but I knew Miss Cairns' and Miss Weyman's voices,"
+Marjorie said with a suspicion of stiffness. She was not pleased to hear
+Dulcie preface her remarks with implied aspersions against the Sans. She
+knew that the latter had quarreled with her. She guessed that pique
+might have actuated the call.
+
+"You never told anyone a single thing about it, did you?" The question
+was close to wistful. It seemed remarkable to Dulcie that Marjorie could
+have kept the matter secret.
+
+"No." Marjorie shook her head slightly.
+
+"Did your friends ever say a word about it? Those were your friends who
+burst in on us and made such a noise, weren't they? Who was the one who
+looked so horrible and blew out the candles?" Dulcie seemed suddenly to
+give over to curiosity.
+
+"I can't answer your questions, Miss Vale." Marjorie could not repress
+the tiny smile that would not stay in seclusion. "I wish you would sit
+down and tell me frankly why you came to see me. You have not been in my
+room since the night of my arrival at Wayland Hall as a freshman."
+
+"I know." Dulcie's gaze shifted uneasily from Marjorie's face. "I
+thought I would come again," she excused, "but----"
+
+The steadiness of Marjorie's eyes forbade further untruth. She became
+suddenly silent. Very humbly she accepted the chair her puzzled hostess
+shoved forward. Marjorie sat down in one at the other side of the center
+table.
+
+"I suppose you've heard all about my trouble with the Sans," the visitor
+commenced afresh and awkwardly. "I don't belong to the Sans Soucians
+now. I wouldn't stay in a club with such dishonorable girls. I simply
+made Leslie Cairns accept my resignation. She was wild about it."
+
+Now safely launched upon her story, Dulcie began to gather up her
+self-confidence. "You see, my father, who is president of the L. T. and
+M. Railroad, has done a great deal for the Sans. You know we have always
+come to Hamilton in the fall in his private car. I have lent the Sans
+money and done them endless favors, yet they couldn't be even moderately
+square with me." She fixed her eyes on Marjorie after this outburst as
+though waiting for sympathy.
+
+"I have heard nothing in regard to your having left the Sans Soucians. I
+have noticed that you were no longer at the table where you formerly sat
+at meals." Marjorie could not honestly concede less than this.
+
+"Didn't you hear us fussing one night in Leslie's room? It was before
+Christmas. That was the night I called them all down. I was so angry! I
+went into a perfect frenzy! I'm so temperamental! When I am _really_ in
+a rage it simply shakes me from head to foot." There was a faint impetus
+toward complacency in the statement.
+
+"Yes; I heard a commotion going on up there one evening, but only
+faintly. My door was closed. I didn't pay any attention to the noise,
+for it did not concern me." Marjorie was struggling against an
+irresistible desire to laugh. To her mind Dulcie was the last person she
+would have classed as temperamental.
+
+"The rest of that crowd were just as noisy as I, but Leslie Cairns
+blamed me for it all. She told Miss Remson it was I alone who made the
+disturbance. I'll never forgive her; _never_. What I thought was this,
+Miss Dean. The Sans deserve to be punished for hazing you. I was a
+victim, too, that night. They made me go along with them, and I didn't
+wish to go. I came home with my eye blackened. I won't say how it
+happened, only that Leslie Cairns was to blame. I know about the whole
+plan for the hazing. Leslie rented that house for six months and paid
+the rent in advance so as to have a good place to take you. She would
+have left you there all night but Nell Ray and I said we would not stand
+for that. We were the only ones who stood up for you. Leslie Cairns was
+the Red Mask.
+
+"You know that Doctor Matthews is awfully down on hazing," Dulcie
+continued, taking a fresh supply of breath. "I thought if you would go
+with me to his office we could put the case before him. So long as I
+have all the facts of that affair and you and I were the ones hazed, he
+would certainly expel those Sans from Hamilton. You could say, just to
+clear me, that you knew I was hazed, too. That is, I was forced to go
+with them against my will. You see I had said I wouldn't have a thing to
+do with it. I put on a domino that night over my costume and started
+across the campus by myself. Half a dozen of the Sans headed me off and
+simply dragged me along with them. I couldn't get away from them,
+either. If that wasn't hazing, then what was it?"
+
+Marjorie was sorely tempted to reply, "Nothing but a yarn." She did not
+credit Dulcie's story and was growing momentarily more disgusted with
+the author of it.
+
+"I can get away with it nicely if you will help me." Dulcie evidently
+took Marjorie's silence as favorable to her plan. "I've resigned from
+the Sans of my own accord. That will be in my favor. Matthews doesn't
+like Leslie. You know she received a summons after Miss Langly was hurt.
+Maybe the doctor didn't call her down! With you on my side. Oh, _fine_!
+I can see the Sans packing to leave Hamilton in a hurry!" Dulcie
+brightened visibly at the dire picture her mind had painted of her
+enemies' disaster. "I can tell you a lot more things against them, too.
+Leslie is afraid all the time that Miss Remson will find out how she
+worked that stunt to keep us our rooms here. She----"
+
+Marjorie interrupted with a quick, stern: "Stop, Miss Vale! I don't wish
+to hear such things. I listened to what you said about the hazing as
+that concerned myself only. I have no desire to know the Sans' private
+affairs. Whatever they may have done that is against the rules and
+traditions of Hamilton they will have to answer for. In the long run
+they will not be happy. I would not inform against them to President
+Matthews or anyone else."
+
+"Would you let them go on and be graduated after what they have done
+against both of us?" demanded Dulcie, her voice rising.
+
+"It has not hurt me; being hazed, I mean," was the calm reply. "I do not
+approve of hazing. I would not take part in any such disgraceful thing.
+Still, I do not believe in tale-bearing. You will gain more, Miss Vale,
+by going on as though all that has annoyed and hurt you had never been.
+Whoever has wronged you will be punished, eventually. The higher law,
+the law of compensation, provides for that."
+
+"I don't know a thing about law. I wouldn't care to take the matter into
+court." Marjorie's little preachment had gone entirely over the stupid
+senior's head. Leslie had often remarked, and with truth, that Dulc was
+"thick."
+
+"I mean by the higher law, 'As ye mete it out to others, so shall it be
+measured back to you again,'" Marjorie quoted with reverence.
+
+"Oh, I see. You mean what the Bible says. Uh-huh! That's true, I guess."
+Dulcie looked vague. "I'm sorry you won't help me, Miss Dean. I feel
+that Doctor Matthews ought to _know_ what's going on, when it is as
+serious as hazing."
+
+Marjorie felt her patience winging away. She wished Jerry would suddenly
+return and thus end the interview. It was evident Dulcie intended to
+report the hazing, despite her refusal to become a party to the report.
+That meant she would be dragged into the affair.
+
+"I wish you would not go to Doctor Matthews about the hazing, Miss
+Vale," she said abruptly. "If I, who was put to more inconvenience than
+you by it, have never reported it, I see no reason why you should. If
+you should succeed in having your former chums expelled you would feel
+miserably afterward for having betrayed them, no matter how much they
+might have deserved it."
+
+"I surely should not." Dulcie's short upper lip lifted in scorn. "I
+would love to see them disgraced. They tried to down me. I have a
+splendid case against them because you are so well-liked on the campus.
+The use of your name will be of great help. Sorry you won't stand by me.
+You'll have to admit the truth if you are sent for at the office," she
+ended as a triumphant afterthought.
+
+Marjorie contemplated her visitor in some wonder. The small, mean soul
+of the vengeful girl stood forth in the smile that accompanied her
+threatening utterance. It seemed strange to the upright lieutenant that
+a young woman with every material advantage in life could be so devoid
+of principle.
+
+"Do not count on me." Marjorie's reply rang out with deliberate
+contempt. "If I were to be summoned to Doctor Matthews' office
+concerning the hazing, I would answer no questions and give no
+information."
+
+This time it was Dulcie who lost patience. She rose with an angry
+flounce. Sulkiness at being thus thwarted replaced her earlier attempt
+at amenability.
+
+"I might have known better than ask you," she sputtered, giving free
+rein to her displeasure. "I shall do just as I please about going to
+Matthews. I hope he sends for you. He will make you admit you were hazed
+by the Sans. Goodnight." She switched to the door. Her hand on the knob,
+she called over one shoulder: "I don't blame Les for having named you
+'Bean.' You are just about as stupid as one."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV--"THERE'S MANY A SLIP"
+
+
+Dulcie's parting fling drove away Marjorie's righteous indignation. It
+was so utterly childish. She smiled as she arranged her books and papers
+to her mind and sat down to study. Two or three times in the course of
+study the remark re-occurred to her and she giggled softly. The name
+'Bean,' as applied to her by Leslie Cairns, had invariably made her
+laugh whenever she had heard it.
+
+When Jerry finally put in an appearance, Lucy and Ronny at her heels,
+Marjorie related to them the incident of Dulcie's call.
+
+"Oh, oh, oh!" groaned Jerry. "Why wasn't I here? I always miss the most
+exciting moments of life."
+
+"I wished with all my heart that you would walk in and end the
+interview. She had so little honor about her I felt once as though I
+couldn't endure having her here another minute. Then she took herself
+off so suddenly I was amazed."
+
+"Do you think she will go to Doctor Matthews?" Ronny asked rather
+skeptically. "Possibly what you said will take hold on her after all."
+
+"No. She will go," Marjorie predicted with conviction. "She is
+determined on that. Maybe not right away. Goodness knows how much
+trouble it will stir up."
+
+"You're right," nodded Jerry. "Bring the Sans to carpet and they will
+probably name us as the crowd who broke in on their ridiculous tribunal.
+What then?"
+
+"If we are accused of any such thing we can only tell the truth," smiled
+Lucy. "We were in our masquerade costumes. We weren't wearing dominos,
+but our own coats and scarfs. We went to rescue Marjorie. We were not
+out on a hazing expedition."
+
+"The only thing we should not have done, perhaps, was to blow out the
+candles," declared Ronny with a reminiscent chuckle. "That was my doing.
+Some of the Sans might have been quite seriously hurt in the dark. They
+deserved the few bumps they garnered. I'm not sorry for that part of our
+rescue dash on them."
+
+"What a wonderful time we'll have if we are brought up to face the Sans
+in Doctor Matthews' office. Lead me to it; away from it, I had better
+say." Jerry made a wry face.
+
+"Don't worry. I shall be on outpost duty," laughed Lucy. "I am going to
+begin substituting for the Doctor tomorrow morning. Miss Humphrey sent
+for me after biology this P.M. to ask me if I would. Miss Sayres has
+bronchitis. I am so far ahead in my subjects I can spare two weeks to
+the doctor's work. I was at Lillian's house for dinner tonight, so I
+didn't have a chance to tell you girls the news. If this affair comes up
+while I am working for the doctor, I shall no doubt hear of it. So long
+as we are all concerned in it, I shall feel I have the right to tell you
+if Miss Vale starts trouble."
+
+The Lookouts were not in the least worried over their own position in
+the matter. While they might not escape reprimand, they had done nothing
+underhanded nor disgraceful. According to Jerry they had "sprung a
+beautiful scare where it was needed."
+
+During the first week of her secretaryship for the doctor, Lucy heard
+nothing that would indicate the promised expose on Dulcie's part. They
+saw her several times on the campus or driving with Elizabeth Walbert,
+apparently well pleased with herself. It was Jerry's opinion that she
+had built upon Marjorie's aid. Being denied this, she had abandoned the
+project as too risky to undertake alone.
+
+One thing lynx-eyed Lucy discovered concerning the secretary was her
+extreme carelessness in filing. More than once the doctor's patience and
+her own were taxed by protracted hunts on her part for correspondence on
+file.
+
+"I exonerate you from blame for this, Miss Warner," the kindly doctor
+declared more than once. "I have spoken to Miss Sayres of this fault. I
+shall take it up with her again when she returns."
+
+As the first week merged into the second and the second into the third,
+and still Lucy remained as the doctor's secretary, the two began to be
+on the best of terms. Quick to appreciate Lucy's remarkable brilliancy
+as a student, not to mention her perfect work as secretary, the doctor
+and she had several long talks on biology, mathematics, and the affairs
+of Hamilton College as well.
+
+During one of these talks a gleam of light shone for a moment on the
+mystery Lucy never gave up hoping to solve. In mentioning Wayland Hall,
+the president referred to Miss Remson as one of his oldest friends on
+the campus. "I have not seen Miss Remson for a very long time," he said
+with a slight frown. "Let me see. It will be----can it be possible?----two
+years in June. And she living so near me! She used to be a fairly
+frequent visitor at our house. I must ask Mrs. Matthews to write her to
+dine with us soon. Kindly remind me of that, Miss Warner; say this
+afternoon before you leave. I will make a note of it."
+
+Lucy reminded him of the matter that afternoon with a glad heart. She
+confided it to her Lookout chums and they rejoiced with her. She would
+have liked to tell Miss Remson the good news but courtesy forbade the
+doing. The Lookouts agreed among themselves that it showed very plainly
+who was responsible for the misunderstanding.
+
+At the beginning of the fourth week Miss Sayres returned. Lucy could
+only hope that Doctor Matthews had not forgotten to remind his wife of
+the dinner invitation. She was sure, had Miss Remson received it, that
+she would have mentioned it to them. She would have wished the Nine
+Travelers to know it. Whether Miss Remson would have accepted it was a
+question. She had her own proper pride in the matter. The girls had
+agreed that should she mention it, Lucy was then to tell her of the
+conversation with Doctor Matthews.
+
+"Queer, but Miss Remson hasn't said a word about receiving that
+invitation," Ronny said to Lucy one evening shortly before the closing
+of college for the Easter holidays. "The doctor must have forgotten all
+about it. That shows his conscience is clear. It would appear that he
+doesn't even suspect Miss Remson has a grievance against him."
+
+"I am sure he forgot it." Lucy looked rather gloomy over the doctor's
+omission. "It was such a fine opportunity, and now it's lost. If I
+should work for him again I might remind him of it. If I did, I'd do
+more than mere reminding. I'd ask him to try to see Miss Remson and tell
+him I thought there had been a misunderstanding. I would have said so
+this time, but when he spoke of inviting her to their house for dinner,
+I supposed the tangle would be straightened post haste."
+
+"He may happen to recall it months from now," Ronny consoled. "That's
+the way my father does. Men of affairs hardly ever forget things for
+good. Sooner or later a memory of that kind crops up again."
+
+While Lucy worried because the doctor had forgotten his kindly intention
+toward their faithful elderly friend, Leslie Cairns was plunged in the
+depths of apprehension because of Lucy's substitution for Laura Sayres.
+Each day she wondered if the sword would fall. She visited Laura and
+made her worse by her irritating questions regarding the secretary's
+methods of filing. Was there any danger of old Matthews going through
+the files himself? Was Laura sure that she had eliminated every bit of
+evidence against them? Was she positive she had destroyed the letter
+Miss Remson had written him, supposedly? Nor had Leslie any mercy on the
+secretary's weakened condition. Laura bore her unfeeling selfishness
+without much protest. Leslie had given her one hundred dollars in her
+first visit. This palliated the senior's faults.
+
+When at the end of the third week nothing had occurred of a dismaying
+nature, Leslie began to believe that her college career was safe. With
+Easter just ahead, a very late Easter, too, only two months stretched
+between her and Commencement, that dear day of honor and freedom for
+her. She had worried but little over Dulcie's threats. Elizabeth
+Walbert's parting shot, "You'll be sorry," crossed her mind
+occasionally. She attached not much importance to it at first and less
+as winter drew on toward spring.
+
+Dulcie Vale, however, was only biding her time. She never relinquished
+for an hour her resolve to bring disgrace upon the Sans. Leslie having
+ordered her chums to steer clear of Bess Walbert, the latter also burned
+for revenge. She and Dulcie, after one glorious quarrel over what each
+had said about the other to Leslie, had made up and joined forces. They
+had a common object. Thus they clung together. They made elaborate plans
+for retaliation, only to abandon them for the one great plan, the
+betrayal of the Sans to Doctor Matthews.
+
+Dulcie had at first decided to go to the president of Hamilton College
+within a few days after her unsuccessful talk with Marjorie. Then she
+thought of something else which pleased her better. She would wait until
+after Easter. If the Sans were expelled from college just before Easter,
+they would endeavor to slip away quietly, making it appear that they had
+left of their own accord. If she waited until they had returned, the
+blow would be far more crushing.
+
+Regarding herself, Dulcie had her own plans. Her family, including her
+father, were in Europe. Her mother would not return until the next July.
+Her father, luckily for her, was to be in Paris until the following
+January. Her mother allowed her to do as she pleased. What Dulcie
+intended to do to please herself was to leave Hamilton on the Easter
+vacation not to return. She was not too stupid to realize that the Sans,
+accused of many faults by her, would turn on her _en masse_ and
+implicate her. She could not hold out against them if arraigned in the
+presence of Doctor Matthews. She was also too heavily conditioned to
+graduate, and she hated college since her ostracization by the Sans. She
+was more than ready to leave. She would walk out and let her former
+chums bear the consequences. They had not spared her. She would not
+spare them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV--WHEN THE SWORD FELL
+
+
+The longer Dulcie pondered the matter, the more she became convinced she
+could do more damage by letter than to go to the doctor in person.
+Elizabeth Walbert had several times advised this course. The latter knew
+nothing of Dulcie's resolve to leave college. Dulcie did not purpose she
+should until she wrote the sophomore from her New York apartment after
+leaving Hamilton. She had planned to take an apartment in an exclusive
+hotel on Central Park West. From there she would write her mother that
+she was too ill to return to college. She left it to her mother's tact
+to break the news to her father. He was not to know she had failed
+miserably in all respects at Hamilton.
+
+Over and over again she wrote the damaging letter to Doctor Matthews.
+She wrote at first at length, putting in everything she could think of
+against the Sans. She made effort to stick to facts. There were enough
+of them to create havoc. Then she rewrote the letter, eliminating and
+revising until the finished product of her spite was worded to suit her.
+It was necessarily a long letter and could not fail in its object.
+
+When college closed for Easter, Dulcie shook the dust of Hamilton from
+her feet and took her letter to New York with her. She did not inform
+the registrar that she would not return. She would write that from New
+York. The day after college reopened, following the ten days' vacation,
+Dulcie mailed four letters. One to Elizabeth Walbert, one to Miss
+Humphrey, one to Leslie Cairns, and _the_ letter.
+
+Those four letters created amazement, displeasure, consternation,
+according to the recipient. Miss Humphrey was annoyed as only a
+registrar can be annoyed by such a procedure. Elizabeth Walbert was
+surprised and miffed because Dulcie had not confided in her. Doctor
+Matthews' indignation soared to still heights. Leslie Cairns opened her
+letter at the breakfast table. She read the first page and hurriedly
+rose, tipping over her coffee in her haste. Paying no attention to the
+stream of coffee which flowed to the floor, she rushed from the dining
+room to her own. Locking the door, she sat down with trembling knees to
+read the letter. She read it twice, uttered a half sob of agony and
+threw herself face downward on her bed. The sword had fallen, the end
+had come.
+
+Of the four letters, the one Dulcie had written her was the shortest and
+read:
+
+  "Leslie:
+
+  "When you read this you will not feel so secure as you did the night
+  you humiliated me so. You thought I would not dare say a word about
+  a number of things because I was afraid of being expelled from
+  college. You will see now that you made a serious mistake; so
+  serious you won't be at Hamilton long after President Matthews
+  receives the letter I have written him. I have told him
+  _everything_. The Sans are in for trouble with him. It doesn't make
+  a particle of difference to me what happens to you and your pals,
+  for I am not coming back to Hamilton. My letter to Doctor Matthews
+  is convincing. You will surely receive a summons. What? Oh, yes! I
+  think I have proved myself almost as clever as you.
+
+                                                 "Dulciana Maud Vale."
+
+Not far behind Leslie came Natalie Weyman to her friend's room. Startled
+by Leslie's peculiar behavior she had followed her upstairs, her own
+breakfast untouched.
+
+"Leslie," she called softly, "May I come in? It's Nat."
+
+"Go away." Leslie's voice was harsh and broken. "Come back after
+recitations this afternoon."
+
+"Very well." Natalie retreated, puzzled but not angry. She was
+understanding that something very unusual had happened to Leslie. Her
+mind took it up, however, as presumably bad news from home. She hoped
+nothing serious had happened to Leslie's father. Her shallow serenity
+soon returned and she went about her affairs smugly unconscious of what
+was in store for her.
+
+Meanwhile, President Matthews was holding a long and unpleasant session
+with Laura Sayres. Dulcie had not failed to describe Laura's part in the
+plot against Miss Remson. Now the incensed doctor was endeavoring to pin
+his shifty secretary down to lamentable facts.
+
+Laura had always assured Leslie she would never divulge the Sans'
+secrets under pressure. For a short period only she lied, evaded and
+pretended ignorance. Little by little the ground was cut from under her
+treacherous feet. Before the morning was over President Matthews had the
+complete story of the trickery which had brought misunderstanding
+between him and Miss Remson. Of the hazing Laura knew little; enough,
+however, to establish the truth of Dulcie's confession.
+
+"I have yet to find a more flagrant case of dishonorable dealing," were
+the doctor's cutting words at the close of that painful morning. "I
+trusted you. Knowing that, you should have been above trading upon my
+confidence. I cannot comprehend your object in allying yourself with
+these lawless young women. You say you are not a member of their club.
+Why, then, were their dishonest interests so dear to you?"
+
+To this Laura made no reply save by sobs. She had crumpled entirely. One
+thing only she had rigorously kept back. She would not admit that she
+had been paid by Leslie Cairns for her ignoble services. If the doctor
+suspected this he made no sign of it. He dismissed her with stern
+brevity and was glad to see her go. Aside from her worthless character,
+she had not been a satisfactory secretary.
+
+Immediately she was gone, he put on his hat and overcoat and set out for
+Wayland Hall. To right matters with his old friend was to be his second
+move.
+
+Arriving at the Hall at the hour the students were returning for
+luncheon, his appearance caused no end of private flutter. Having, as
+yet, held no communication with Leslie, the older members of the Sans
+were thrown into panic, nevertheless. What they had least desired had
+come to pass. The Lookouts, on the contrary, were overjoyed. Helen Trent
+had spied the president and promptly passed the word of it to her chums.
+
+To Miss Remson the surprise of her caller amounted to a shock. It did
+not take long for the manager to produce the letter she had received,
+purporting to be from Doctor Matthews.
+
+"I never dictated any such letter," was his blunt denial. "Yes, the
+signature is mine. I can only explain it by saying that it may have been
+traced and copied from another letter, or else it has been handed me to
+sign when I was in a hurry. Miss Sayres had an annoying habit of
+bringing me my letters for signature at the very last minute before I
+was due to leave my office. I dropped the matter of the way these girls
+at your house had behaved because I received a letter from you which
+stated that you had come to a better understanding with them and would
+like to have the matter closed. I deferred to your judgment, as always.
+I know no one better qualified as manager of a campus house than you."
+
+"I never wrote you any such letter," avowed the manager. "Several of my
+devoted friends in the house among the students were confident that
+there had been trickery used. I was obliged to acquaint them with the
+fact that you had refused to act in the matter of transferring these
+girls to another campus house. My friends had suffered many annoyances
+at their hands. I had promised them of my own accord that these girls
+should be transferred. It has all been a sad misunderstanding. I am glad
+to have it cleared up." Miss Remson avoided all mention of her own
+personal humiliation.
+
+Returned to his office at Hamilton Hall after a late luncheon, Doctor
+Matthews requested Miss Humphrey to lend him her stenographer for the
+rest of the afternoon. His business correspondence attended to, he
+brought forth Dulcie Vale's letter from an inside coat pocket and
+composed a stiff, brief summons. This summons the stenographer had the
+pleasure of typing seventeen times. A list of names which Dulcie had
+thoughtfully included in her letter furnished seventeen addresses. The
+Sans were curtly informed that Doctor Matthews required their presence
+in his office at Hamilton Hall at four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon.
+
+Almost incidental with the time at which these notes were being typed, a
+bevy of white-faced girls had gathered in Leslie Cairns' room to discuss
+the dire situation. Leslie had recovered from her first spasm of grief
+and fear and had let Natalie into her room immediately the latter had
+come from recitations. Natalie brought more bad news in the shape of an
+apprehensive report of the doctor's call on Miss Remson.
+
+During the afternoon Leslie had received a telephone call from Laura
+Sayres. Laura had refused to go into much detail over the telephone. She
+announced herself as having been discharged from the doctor's employ and
+asserted that he knew "all about everything" without her having said a
+word of betrayal. Leslie had not stopped to consider whether she
+believed the secretary's story or not. She had said: "You can't tell me
+anything. I know too much already. Goodbye." With that she had hung up
+the receiver. Her eyes blinded by tears of defeat and real fear, she had
+stumbled her way to her room. There she had spent the most unhappy
+afternoon of her life.
+
+"It's no use, girls. We are done. You may as well be thinking what
+excuse you can make to your families, for you will be expelled as sure
+as fate. Matthews' call on Remson shows that Dulcie betrayed us. Sayres
+was fired by the doctor; all on account of that Remson mix-up. She
+didn't see Dulcie's letter, but I know he received it. Sayres called me
+on the 'phone."
+
+"But, Leslie, some of us don't know a thing about how you worked that
+Remson affair! You never told us. I don't see why we should be expelled
+for something we know nothing of." Eleanor made this half tearful
+defense.
+
+"Oh, that isn't _all_." Leslie's loose-lipped mouth curled in a bitter
+smile. "There is the hazing business, too. Dulc told that, of course.
+Perhaps she told the 'soft talk' stunt Ramsey taught the soph team last
+year. I don't know. All is over for us. I do know that. I expected to go
+into business with my father after I was graduated from Hamilton. Now!"
+She walked away from her companions and stood with her back toward them
+at the window.
+
+"Perhaps it will blow over," ventured Margaret Wayne. "I shall make a
+hard fight to stay on at Hamilton. I won't be cheated out of my diploma,
+if I can help it. It's our word against Dulcie's."
+
+"That's of no use to us now." Leslie turned suddenly from the window
+with this gloomy utterance. "Remember Laura Sayres has been discharged
+from Matthews' employ. Remson and Matthews have had an understanding.
+What chance have we? Sayres told me the doctor quizzed her for over two
+hours. She claims she told nothing against us. I know better. If Dulcie,
+the little wretch, had sprung this before Easter we might have saved our
+faces. She waited purposely. She and Walbert deliberately planned this
+expose. Look for a summons soon. We won't escape. I shall begin to pack
+tonight. So far as this rattletrap old college is concerned, I don't
+care a rap about leaving it. All that is worrying me is: What shall I
+say to my father?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI--MAY DAY EVENING
+
+
+For two days, in a second floor class room at Hamilton Hall, a real
+tribunal, consisting of Doctor Matthews and the college Board, convened.
+Very patiently the body of dignified men listened to what the offenders
+against Hamilton College had to say by way of confession and appeal for
+clemency. To her great disgust, Marjorie was summoned before the Board
+on the morning of the second day. Questioned, she admitted to having
+been hazed. More than that she refused to state.
+
+"I claim the right to keep my own counsel," she had returned, when
+pressed to relate the details of the incident. "I was not injured. I did
+not even contract a slight cold. I did not see the faces of those who
+hazed me. I know only two of the Sans Soucians personally, and these two
+slightly. My evidence would, therefore, be too purely circumstantial. I
+do not wish to give it. I beg to be excused."
+
+Not satisfied, two members of the Board had requested that she state the
+time and manner of her return to her house. Her quick assurance, "My
+friends found out where I was and came for me. We were all in the
+gymnasium at half-past nine, in time for the unmasking," was accepted,
+not without smiles, by her inquisitors. She was allowed to go. She took
+with her a memory of two rows of white, despairing girl faces. It hurt
+her not a little. She could not rejoice in the Sans' downfall, though
+she knew it to be merited.
+
+At the end of the inquiry the verdict was unanimous for expellment, to
+go into effect at once. The culprits were given one week to pack and
+arrange with their families for their return home.
+
+Leslie Cairns had received the major share of blame. Throughout the
+inquiry she had worn an exasperating air of indifference, which she had
+doggedly fought to maintain. Not a muscle of her rugged face had moved
+during the reading of the long letter written by Dulcie Vale to the
+president. She had laconically admitted the truth of it, coolly
+correcting one or two erroneous statements Dulcie had made. Afterward,
+in her room, she had broken down and sobbed bitterly. This no one but
+herself knew.
+
+The disgraced seventeen left Hamilton for New York on the seventh
+morning after sentence had been pronounced upon them. They departed
+early in the morning before the majority of the Wayland Hall girls were
+up and stirring. Marjorie was glad not to witness their departure. She
+had not approved of them. Still they were young girls like herself. She
+experienced a certain pity for their weakness of character. Jerry,
+however, was openly delighted to be rid of her pet abomination.
+
+With the approach of May Day the Nine Travelers had something pleasant
+to look forward to. Miss Susanna had sent them invitations to dinner on
+May Day evening. Very gleefully they planned to deluge the mistress of
+Hamilton Arms with May baskets. These they intended to leave in one of
+the two automobiles which they would use. After dinner, Ronny had
+volunteered to slip away from the party, secure the baskets and place
+them before the front door. She would lift the knocker, then scurry
+inside, leaving Jonas, who was to be in the secret, to call Miss Susanna
+to the door.
+
+When, as Miss Hamilton's guests on May Day evening, they were ushered
+into the beautiful, mahogany-panelled dining room at Hamilton Arms, a
+surprise awaited them. The long room, an apartment of state in Brooke
+Hamilton's day, was a veritable bower of violets. Bouquets of them,
+surrounded by their own decorative green leaves were in evidence
+everywhere in the room. They were the double English variety, and their
+fragrance was as a sweet breath of spring. A scented purple mound of
+them occupied the center of the dining table. It was topped by a
+familiar object; a willow, ribbon-trimmed basket. As on the previous May
+Day evening it was full of violets. Narrow violet satin ribbon depended
+from the center of the basket to each place, at which set a small
+replica of the basket Marjorie had left before Miss Susanna's door, just
+one year ago that evening.
+
+"I knew Miss Susanna would guess who went Maying a year ago this
+evening!" Jerry exclaimed. "After you had known Marvelous Marjorie a
+little while the guessing came easy, didn't it?" She turned impulsively
+to Miss Hamilton.
+
+"Yes; you are quite correct, Jerry," the old lady made quick answer.
+"One year ago tonight was a very happy occasion for me. Violets were
+Uncle Brooke's favorite flower. I cannot tell you how strangely I felt
+at sight of that basket. Jonas came into the library and asked me to go
+to the front door. He said in his solemn way: 'There's something at the
+door I would like you to see, Miss Susanna.' He looked so mysterious, I
+rose at once from my chair and went to the door. I must explain, too,
+that the first of May was Uncle Brooke's birthday. When I looked out and
+saw that basket of violets, it was like a silent message from him. Jonas
+had no more idea than I from whom the lovely May offering had come. He
+had heard the clang of the knocker, but when he opened the door there
+was not a soul in sight. The good fairy had vanished, leaving me a
+fragrant May Day remembrance."
+
+Marjorie had laughed at first sight of the familiar basket. She was
+still smiling, rather tremulously, however. The beauty of the
+decorations, the fragrance of the violets and the amazing knowledge that
+she had brought Brooke Hamilton's favorite flower to the doorstep on the
+anniversary of his birth, made strong appeal to the fund of sentiment
+which lay deep within her, rarely coming to the surface.
+
+"How came you to remember a crotchety person like me, child?" Miss
+Susanna's bright brown eyes were soft with tenderness. She reached
+forward and took both Marjorie's hands in hers.
+
+Thus they stood for an instant, youth and age, beside the violet-crowned
+table. The other girls, lovely in their pale-hued evening frocks,
+surrounded the pair with smiling faces.
+
+"I--I don't know," stammered Marjorie. "I--I thought perhaps you would
+like it. I couldn't resist putting it on your doorstep. We were all
+making May baskets to hang on one another's doors. I thought of you. I
+knew you loved flowers, because I had seen you working among them.
+That's all."
+
+"No, that was only the beginning." Miss Susanna released Marjorie's
+hands. "It gave me much to think of for many months; in fact until a
+little girl put aside her own plans to help a poor old lady pick up a
+basket of spilled chrysanthemums."
+
+Appearing a trifle embarrassed at her own rush of sentiment, Miss
+Hamilton turned to the others and proceeded briskly to seat her guests
+at table. While she occupied the place at the head, she gave Marjorie
+that at the foot. Lifting the little basket at her place to inhale the
+perfume of the flowers, something dropped therefrom. It struck against
+the thin water glass at her place with a little clang. Next instant she
+was exclaiming over a dainty lace pin of purple enameled violets with
+tiny diamond centers.
+
+"I would advise all of you to do a little exploring." Miss Susanna's
+voice held a note of suppressed excitement.
+
+Obeying with the zest of girlhood, the others found pretty lace pins of
+gold and silver, chosen with a view toward suiting the personality of
+each.
+
+As Marjorie fastened her new possession on the bodice of the
+violet-tinted crepe gown, which had been Mah Waeo's gift to her father
+for her, she had a feeling of living in a fairy tale. Hamilton Arms had
+always seemed as an enchanted castle to her. She had never expected to
+penetrate its fastnesses and become an honored guest within its walls.
+
+"Miss Susanna, when did you first guess that it was I who left you a May
+basket?" she asked, rather curiously. "Lucy and Jerry said you would
+find me out. I didn't think so."
+
+"It was after Christmas, Marjorie," the old lady replied. "Perhaps it
+was the bunch of violets on the wreath you girls sent for Uncle Brooke's
+study that established the connection. I really can't say. It dawned
+upon me all of a sudden one evening. I spoke of it to Jonas. The old
+rascal simply said: 'Oh, yes. I have thought so for a long time.' Not a
+word to me of it had he peeped. It furnished me with pleasant thoughts
+for so long, I decided that one good turn deserves another. I succeeded
+in surprising you children tonight, but no one could have been more
+astonished than I when I gathered in that blessed violet basket last May
+Day night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII--CONCLUSION
+
+
+"And tomorrow is another day; the great day!" Leila Harper sat with
+clasped hands behind her head, fondly viewing her chums.
+
+The Nine Travelers had gathered in her room for a last intimate talk.
+Tomorrow would be Commencement. Directly after the exercises were over
+the nine had agreed to meet for a last celebration at Baretti's. Evening
+of that day would see them all going their appointed ways.
+
+"I can't make it seem true that you girls won't be back here next year,"
+Marjorie said dolefully, setting down her lemonade glass with a
+despondent thump, a half-eaten macaroon poised in mid-air.
+
+"Eat your sweet cake child and don't weep," consoled Leila. While she
+was trying hard to look sad, there was a peculiar gleam in her blue
+eyes. As yet Marjorie had failed to catch it.
+
+"Nothing will seem the same," grumbled Jerry. "With you four good scouts
+lifted out of college garden there will be an awful vacancy." Jerry
+fixed almost mournful eyes on Helen. "Why couldn't you girls have
+entered a year later or else we a year earlier?" she asked
+retrospectively.
+
+"Cheer up, Jeremiah. The worst is yet to come." Vera patted Jerry on the
+back. Standing behind Jerry's chair she cast an odd glance at Leila.
+Leila passed it on to Helen, who in turn telegraphed some mute message
+to Katherine Langly.
+
+"I can't see it," Jerry said, her round face unusually sober. "It is
+hard enough now to have to lose four good pals at one swoop. I sha'n't
+feel any worse at the last minute tomorrow than I do tonight. I have an
+actual case of the blues this evening which even lemonade and cakes
+won't dispel."
+
+"Let us not talk about it," advised Veronica. "Every time the subject
+comes up we all grow solemn."
+
+"I'm worse off than the rest of you," complained Muriel. "I am torn
+between two partings. I can't bear to think of losing good old
+Moretense."
+
+"While we are on the subject of partings," began Leila, ostentatiously
+clearing her throat, "I regret that I shall have to say something which
+can but add to your sorrow. I--that is----" She looked at Vera and burst
+into laughter which carried a distinctly happy note.
+
+"What ails you, Leila Greatheart?" Marjorie focused her attention on the
+Irish girl's mirthful face. "I am just beginning to see that something
+unusual is on foot. The idea of parading mysteries before us at the very
+last minute of your journey through the country of college!"
+
+"'Tis a beautiful country, that." Leila spoke purposely, with a faint
+brogue. "And did you say it was my last minute there? Suppose it was
+not? What? As our departed bogie, Miss Cairns, used to say."
+
+"Do you know what you are talking about?" inquired Jerry. "I hope you
+do. I haven't caught the drift of your remarks--yet."
+
+"Do you tell her then, Midget." Leila fell suddenly silent, her Cheshire
+cat grin ornamenting her features.
+
+"Oh, let Helen tell it. She knows." Vera beamed on Helen, who passed the
+task, whatever it might be, on to Katherine. She declined, throwing it
+back to Leila.
+
+"What is this bad news that none of you will take upon yourselves to
+tell us?" Lucy's green eyes sought Katherine's in mock reproach.
+
+"I have it." Leila held up a hand. "Now; altogether! We are going to----"
+she nodded encouragement to Kathie, Vera and Helen.
+
+"We are going to stay!" shouted four voices in concert.
+
+"Stay where? What do----" Jerry stopped abruptly. Her face relaxed of a
+sudden into one of her wide smiles. She rose and began hugging Helen,
+shouting: "You don't mean it? Honestly?"
+
+The rest of the Lookouts were going through similar demonstrations of
+joy. For a moment or two everyone talked and laughed at once. Gradually
+the first noisy reception of the news subsided and Leila could be heard:
+
+"It's like this, children," she said. "Vera wants to specialize in
+Greek. I am still keen on physics and psychology. Helen wants to make a
+new and more comprehensive study of literature, and Kathie is going to
+teach English. Miss Fernald is leaving and Kathie is to have her place.
+We've had all we could do to keep it from you. Vera and I might better
+be here next year than at home. We'd have not much to do there. We are
+anxious to help make the dream of the dormitory come true."
+
+"It is too beautiful for anything!" was Marjorie's childish but
+heartfelt rejoicing. "With you four to help us next year we shall
+accomplish wonders. Oh, I shall love being a senior!"
+
+What Marjorie's senior year at Hamilton brought her will be told in
+"Marjorie Dean, College Senior."
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+The Camp Fire Girls Series
+
+By HILDEGARD G. FREY
+
+A Series of Outdoor Stories for Girls 12 to 16 Years.
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS;
+  or, The Winnebagos go Camping.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The
+  Wohelo Weavers.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or,
+  The Magic Garden.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along
+  the Road That Leads the Way.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' LARKS AND PRANKS; or,
+  The House of the Open Door.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The
+  Trail of the Seven Cedars.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD;
+  or, Glorify Work.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over
+  the Top with the Winnebagos.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or,
+  The Christmas Adventure at Carver House.
+
+  THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN;
+  or, Down Paddles.
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+Marjorie Dean College Series
+
+BY PAULINE LESTER.
+
+Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean High School Series.
+
+Those who have read the Marjorie Dean High School Series will be eager
+to read this new series, as Marjorie Dean continues to be the heroine in
+these stories.
+
+All Clothbound. Copyright Titles.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+  MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE FRESHMAN
+  MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE SOPHOMORE
+  MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE JUNIOR
+  MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE SENIOR
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers.
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York
+
+
+
+
+The Girl Scouts Series
+
+BY EDITH LAVELL
+
+A new copyright series of Girl Scouts stories by an author of wide
+experience in Scouts' craft, as Director of Girl Scouts of Philadelphia.
+
+Clothbound, with Attractive Color Designs.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+  THE GIRL SCOUTS AT MISS ALLEN'S SCHOOL
+  THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP
+  THE GIRL SCOUTS' GOOD TURN
+  THE GIRL SCOUTS' CANOE TRIP
+  THE GIRL SCOUTS' RIVALS
+  THE GIRL SCOUTS ON THE RANCH
+  THE GIRL SCOUTS' VACATION ADVENTURES
+  THE GIRL SCOUTS' MOTOR TRIP
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+Marjorie Dean High School Series
+
+BY PAULINE LESTER
+
+Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean College Series
+
+These are clean, wholesome stories that will be of great interest to all
+girls of high school age.
+
+All Cloth Bound, Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+  MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN
+  MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE
+  MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR
+  MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+The Golden Boys Series
+
+BY L. P. WYMAN, PH.D.
+
+Dean of Pennsylvania Military College.
+
+A new series of instructive copyright stories for boys of High School
+Age.
+
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+
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+
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS AND THEIR NEW ELECTRIC CELL
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE FORTRESS
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS IN THE MAINE WOODS
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS WITH THE LUMBER JACKS
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS RESCUED BY RADIO
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS ALONG THE RIVER ALLAGASH
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE HAUNTED CAMP
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+The Ranger Boys Series
+
+BY CLAUDE H. LA BELLE
+
+A new series of copyright titles telling of the adventures of three boys
+with the Forest Rangers in the state of Maine.
+
+Handsome Cloth Binding.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+  THE RANGER BOYS TO THE RESCUE
+  THE RANGER BOYS FIND THE HERMIT
+  THE RANGER BOYS AND THE BORDER SMUGGLERS
+  THE RANGER BOYS OUTWIT THE TIMBER THIEVES
+  THE RANGER BOYS AND THEIR REWARD
+
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers.
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 East 23rd Street, New York
+
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+
+
+The Boy Troopers Series
+
+BY CLAIR W. HAYES
+
+Author of the Famous "Boy Allies" Series.
+
+The adventures of two boys with the Pennsylvania State Police.
+
+All Copyrighted Titles.
+
+Cloth Bound, with Attractive Cover Designs.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+  THE BOY TROOPERS ON THE TRAIL
+  THE BOY TROOPERS IN THE NORTHWEST
+  THE BOY TROOPERS ON STRIKE DUTY
+  THE BOY TROOPERS AMONG THE WILD MOUNTAINEERS
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers.
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 East 23rd Street, New York
+
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+
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+The Radio Boys Series
+
+BY GERALD BRECKENRIDGE
+
+A new series of copyright titles for boys of all ages.
+
+Cloth Bound, with Attractive Cover Designs
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS ON THE MEXICAN BORDER
+  THE RADIO BOYS ON SECRET SERVICE DUTY
+  THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE REVENUE GUARDS
+  THE RADIO BOYS' SEARCH FOR THE INCA'S TREASURE
+  THE RADIO BOYS RESCUE THE LOST ALASKA EXPEDITION
+  THE RADIO BOYS IN DARKEST AFRICA
+  THE RADIO BOYS SEEK THE LOST ATLANTIS
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers
+
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+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+The Boy Allies with the Navy
+
+(Registered in the United States Patent Office)
+
+BY ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE
+
+For Boys 12 to 16 Years.
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other
+in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances place
+them on board the British cruiser, "The Sylph," and from there on, they
+share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. Drake,
+the author, is an experienced naval officer, and he describes admirably
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+
+
+  THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking
+  the First Blow at the German Fleet.
+
+  THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the
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+
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+  Naval Raiders of the Great War.
+
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+  The Last Shot of Submarine D-16.
+
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+  Submarine.
+
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+  Ice to Aid the Czar.
+
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+  of History.
+
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+  the American Army Across the Atlantic.
+
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE SUBMARINE D-32; or, The
+  Fall of the Russian Empire.
+
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE VICTORIOUS FLEETS; or,
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+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+Publishers
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK
+
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+The Boy Allies with the Army
+
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+
+BY CLAIR W. HAYES
+
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+  THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery
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+  THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the
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+  THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or,
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+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting
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+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or, Over
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+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE GREAT ADVANCE; or, Driving
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+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing
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