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diff --git a/old/51686-h/51686-h.htm b/old/51686-h/51686-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 22842cb..0000000 --- a/old/51686-h/51686-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7758 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> -<head> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> -<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Marjorie Dean, Post-Graduate, by Pauline Lester</title> - <link rel='coverpage' href='images/cover.jpg' /> - <style type='text/css'> - - body { margin-left:8%; margin-right:10%; } - h1 { text-align:center;font-weight:normal;font-size:1.4em; } - h2 { text-align:center;font-weight:normal;font-size:1.0em; margin-top:2em; } - .chapter { clear:both; page-break-before: always; margin-top:2em; } - p { text-indent: 1.2em; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-align: justify; } - - /* page breaks, thought breaks */ - hr.pb, hr.tb { - border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em; - } - hr.pb { width:100%; } - hr.tb { width:50%; } - @media screen { - hr.clearpage { margin: 2em auto; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } - } - @media handheld { - hr.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10%; border: none; } - hr.pb { display: none; } - } - - /* illustrations */ - .figcenter { clear:both; max-width:100%; margin:2em auto; text-align:center; } - .figcenter img { max-width:100%; height:auto; } - div.figcenter p { text-align: center; text-indent: 0; } - - /* line groups */ - .lgc { text-align:center; margin:0.5em auto; } /* line group centered */ - .abcc { text-align:center; margin: 0.5em auto; } /* align block center container */ - .abrc { text-align:right; margin: 0.5em auto; } /* align block right container */ - .bc { display:inline-block; text-align:left; } /* block container */ - - .sc { font-variant:small-caps; } - .bq { margin: 0.5em 7%; } - - /* project-specific */ - h2 + p, .ti0 { text-indent:0; } - .fs0r8em { font-size:0.8em } - .fs1r6em { font-size:1.6em } - .mt20px { margin-top:20px } - .mb10px { margin-bottom:10px } - - .center { text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; } - h1.pg { font-weight: bold; - font-size: 190%; } - h2.pg { font-weight: bold; - font-size: 135%; - margin-top: 1em; } - hr.full { width: 100%; - margin-top: 3em; - margin-bottom: 0em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - height: 4px; - border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ - border-style: solid; - border-color: #000000; - clear: both; } - </style> -</head> -<body> -<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Marjorie Dean, Post-Graduate, by Pauline -Lester</h1> -<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world 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 <a -href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: Marjorie Dean, Post-Graduate</p> -<p>Author: Pauline Lester</p> -<p>Release Date: April 7, 2016 [eBook #51686]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARJORIE DEAN, POST-GRADUATE***</p> -<p> </p> -<h3 class="center">E-text prepared by Roger Frank<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (http://www.bookcove.net)</h3> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class='page'> - <div class='lgc'> <!-- ns:4 --> - <h1 class=' fs1r6em mt20px mb10px'>MARJORIE DEAN POST-GRADUATE</h1> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div class='mt20px'>By PAULINE LESTER</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div class='sc mt20px'>Author of</div> <!-- ns:1 in:+2 --> - <div class='mb20px'>“The Marjorie Dean High School Series,”</div> - <div>“The Marjorie Dean College Series,”</div> - <div>“The Marjorie Dean Post-Graduate Series,” etc.</div> <!-- ns:1 in:-2 --> - <div class='mt20px'>A. L. BURT COMPANY</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div>Publishers New York</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div class='fs0r8em'>Printed in U. S. A.</div> <!-- ns:4 --> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='clearpage' /> - -<div class='page'> - <div class='lgc'> - <!-- ns:4 --> - <div>THE MARJORIE DEAN POST-GRADUATE SERIES</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div class='fs0r8em'>A SERIES FOR GIRLS 12 TO 18 YEARS OF AGE</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div class='fs0r8em'><span class='sc'>By</span> PAULINE LESTER</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - </div> - <div class='abcc'> - <div class='bc'> <!-- in:+2 --> - <div>MARJORIE DEAN, POST-GRADUATE</div> - <div>MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER</div> - <div>MARJORIE DEAN AT HAMILTON ARMS</div> - <div>MARJORIE DEAN’S ROMANCE</div> <!-- in:-2 --> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='clearpage' /> - -<div class='page'> - <div class='lgc'> <!-- ns:4 --> - <div>Copyright, 1925</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div>By A. L. BURT COMPANY</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div>MARJORIE DEAN, POST-GRADUATE</div> <!-- ns:1 --> - <div>Made in “U. S. A.”</div> <!-- ns:4 --> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='clearpage' /> - -<div class='chapter' id='chI'> - -<h2>CHAPTER I.—ON THE SANDS</h2> - -<p>“It’s too perfect a night to stay on shore, girls and -boys. Let’s go for a moonlight cruise in the -Oriole!” Hal Macy sprang up from the white sands -where he had been devotedly lounging at Marjorie -Dean’s feet and held out his hands to her.</p> - -<p>“Oh, glorious!” Marjorie gaily accepted the proffered -hands. She laughed, with the sheer pleasure -of youth, as Hal swung her to her feet. “My, what -a strong person you are, Hal Macy!” she lightly -commented as she freed her hands from Hal’s lingering -clasp.</p> - -<p>“Glad <i>you</i> think so,” emphasized Hal. He could -not help wishing Marjorie were not quite so -matter-of-fact.</p> - -<p>“<i>I</i> don’t think so,” promptly disagreed Danny -Seabrooke. “Macy is a weakling; a mere muscleless -infant compared to me.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, see here, Danny Seabrooke, you’ll have to eat -that. Think I’ll stand for any such talk? Eat it -now, or else prove it,” challenged Hal.</p> - -<p>“I can prove it,” Danny waved confidently. “Just -watch me lift Geraldine from the shifting sands.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, just watch him,” drawled Lawrence Armitage. -He took up a guitar, temporarily idle on the -sands, and began to strum it lightly. His deep blue -eyes rested mirthfully on Danny and Jerry.</p> - -<p>“Wait a second,” Danny elaborately braced his -feet in the sand. “Now, ready! Heave, heave, -ho!”</p> - -<p>Jerry suddenly let go of his hands and dropped -back on the beach. “No, thank you.” She pretended -displeasure. “I don’t care for your wonderful -assistance.” She directed a scornful glance at -her would-be helper.</p> - -<p>“You did that on purpose,” accused Danny. “You -are a cruel, cruel girl. Suppose I had lost my balance -and dug my nose into the sand?”</p> - -<p>“Sorry you didn’t,” was the unfeeling reply.</p> - -<p>“Squabbling again,” Laurie reached out a helping -hand to Jerry and drew her to her feet. Danny -looked sadly on.</p> - -<p>“Please forgive me and continue to regard me as -your friend. That’s all I ask of you,” he pleaded -with stony Jerry.</p> - -<p>“You talk like a popular song,” she criticized. -She broke into smiles when he knelt on the sand before -her and contritely offered her his hand.</p> - -<p>“Was that a compliment?” Danny grinned hopefully.</p> - -<p>“Why should I throw bouquets at you? Can you -think of a reason?” Jerry asked him. “I can’t think -of one.”</p> - -<p>“Neither can I,” Danny agreed, and the squabblers -burst into laughter.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t the moon wonderful tonight?” Standing -beside Hal on the wide strip of gleaming beach Marjorie -worshipped the white night. “Leila recites an -old Irish poem about moonlight that must have been -written for this night. It goes like this:</p> - -<div class='abcc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:poetry --> - <div>“The magic of yon sailing moon</div> - <div>Lures my poor heartstrings out of me;</div> - <div>God’s moonshine whitens the lagoon;</div> - <div>The earth’s a silver mystery.”</div> - <!-- end:poetry --> - </div> -</div> - -<p>Hal listened. His mind was centered on Marjorie -rather than on the quaint bit of verse she was -reciting. In her white lingerie frock, her vividly -beautiful face raised toward the pale glory of the -drifting moon, her loveliness filled Hal’s boyish -heart with worship.</p> - -<p>He would have liked to tell her that he thought her -far more wonderful than either the silvery moon or -the most exquisite bit of Irish verse that had ever -been composed. Long friendship with Marjorie -warned him against such an avowal. She was so -different from most girls about compliments. She -did not like to be told that she had done well, while -she positively loathed being told she was beautiful. -She had a clever way of politely ignoring a compliment, -then immediately changing a subject from -personal to impersonal which Hal considered maddening.</p> - -<p>Since the first week in July when the Deans had -arrived at Severn Beach, there to spend a part of -the summer, Hal had been trying to decide whether -or not he should allow another summer to pass without -telling Marjorie of his love for her. On that -memorable autumn evening of last year when Constance -and Laurie had announced their early approaching -marriage Hal had been dejectedly certain -that Marjorie had nothing to give him save friendship. -He had resolved then never to ask her to marry him -unless he should come to believe that she had -experienced a change of heart toward him.</p> - -<p>Lately, since Marjorie had come to stay at Severn -Beach, where the Macys usually spent the summers, -Hal had been sorely tempted to break his -proud resolution. Constance and Laurie had returned -from their winter in Europe and were visiting -Hal and Jerry at Cliff House, the apartment -hotel in which the Macy family lived. Their perfect -happiness made Hal wonder wistfully why it was -that Marjorie could not love him even half so fondly -as Constance loved Laurie. He had been Marjorie’s -faithful cavalier for the same number of years that -Laurie had been Constance’s. Now Laurie had won -Connie for his wife, while he and Marjorie were -still, as she had often said, “just good friends.”</p> - -<p>This disheartening thought now flashed through -his brain for perhaps the hundredth time that week. -The calm friendly glance he forced himself to bend -on Marjorie as she finished quoting the verse bore -no sign of his disquieting reflections.</p> - -<p>“Bully for the Irish!” he exclaimed with deceiving -heartiness.</p> - -<p>“You’re not a bit under the magic spell of the -white moonshine,” she rebuked with a laughing, -upward glance at Hal.</p> - -<p>“How do you know I’m not?” His tones were -teasing, but into his eyes had leaped a sudden purposeful -gleam which told a different story. “Moonlight -affects different persons in different ways. -Wait till we take to the launch. Then I’ll turn -moony and sing sentimental songs. I’ll give you a -fine imitation of a moonstruck nut. I wouldn’t dare -try it on shore. I might be run in for disturbing -the peace.”</p> - -<p>“Run in for disturbing the peace?” inquired a -horrified voice at Marjorie’s elbow. Danny Seabrooke -peered apprehensively around Marjorie at -Hal. “Ah, I understand.” He grew apologetic. -“You weren’t speaking of me. You meant -your—well—er—” Danny drew down his freckled face -very sorrowfully. “When did it happen, Macy?”</p> - -<p>“It hasn’t happened yet, but it will soon,” Hal -promised with cool significance.</p> - -<p>“I shan’t be here to see it. I’m going to take a -walk up the beach with Geraldine.” Danny hastily -fell behind a few steps and took Jerry by a -plump arm. “Come along,” he urged. “It’s not -safe around here.”</p> - -<p>“It’s safe enough for me.” Jerry briskly shook -off Danny’s detaining hand. “I’m going out in the -Oriole. Hurry up, you sentimental strollers,” she -called over one shoulder to Constance and Laurie. -They had paused for a moment, hand in hand, and -were raptly gazing out to sea. “Come out of lovers’ -lane and join the crowd.”</p> - -<p>“Have a little more regard for our married dignity, -Jeremiah,” Laurie reminded. “Kindly -remember that Connie and I came down to the beach this -evening solely to look after you four children.”</p> - -<p>“Much obliged, but Dan-yell is the only one who -needs a guardian of this illustrious bunch.” Jerry -bowed ironical thanks.</p> - -<p>“All right for you, Jurry-miar Macy. I tried to -be pleasant with you. I respectfully called you -Geraldine. But no more!” Danny shook a displeased -finger at Jerry. “I’m going to walk beside Constance.”</p> - -<p>“Poor Connie,” groaned Jerry.</p> - -<p>“Fortunate Connie, you mean,” corrected Danny -with a vast smile. “Do talk to me, Constance. Forget -your husband for five seconds. You look so -sympathetic. But you’re not.” Danny fixed an -accusing glance on laughing Constance. “You’re -laughing at me.”</p> - -<p>“Why shouldn’t I laugh at you, Danny Seabrooke? -You’re so funny and foolish.”</p> - -<p>“Funny and foolish.” Danny cocked his head on -one side and considered. “Nope, that’s not sympathy. -I’ll have to try again. Let me see. Marjorie -might appreciate me.”</p> - -<p>With a forward dive he caught Marjorie by one -arm and began walking her rapidly up the beach -and away from Hal. “Good-night, Mr. Macy,” he -flung back over one shoulder.</p> - -<p>“Not yet,” Hal cleared the widening space between -him and Danny almost at a leap. “Now -Dan-yell!” He grabbed Danny by the shoulders; -spun him round until he faced down the beach. A -vigorous push from Hal’s avenging arms sent Danny -careering down the beach at a mad gallop.</p> - -<p>“Never touched me!” he sent back defiantly to -Hal. He gave an agile sideways bounce, barely -managing to dodge Jerry, Laurie and Constance in -his headlong flight. “Good-bye. I’m never coming -back!” he yelled at the trio.</p> - -<p>Within the next three minutes Danny had -changed his mind. “Fine night for a run,” was his -bland venture as he caught up with the three strollers. -“Only I’d rather know beforehand that I was -going to take a run. Macy is what I should call -dangerous. He ought to be caged.”</p> - -<p>“Neither Jerry nor Danny will ever grow up,” -was Marjorie’s amused remark as Hal returned to -her side.</p> - -<p>“I don’t think you’ve grown up much, Marjorie,” -Hal burst forth with sudden eager wistfulness. -“You look just as you did the first time I ever saw -you; only you are even prettier than you were then.”</p> - -<p>Hal’s stubborn restraint gave way before the -uncontrollable impulse to speak his mind to Marjorie. -“You were coming out the gate of Sanford High, -and I wondered who you were,” Hal went on -boyishly. “I described you to Jerry afterward, and -asked all about you. She didn’t know you very -well then. I made her promise and double promise -that she’d never tell you I quizzed her about you.”</p> - -<p>“And she never did,” Marjorie gaily assured. “I -never even suspected you two of having had a secret -understanding about just me. Jerry is a good secret -keeper. I’m glad college hasn’t made me staid and -serious. I’ve loved the good times I’ve had at -Hamilton as much as I’ve loved the work. Now I’m -ready to put my whole heart into work there so as -to try to make Hamilton mean as much to other -students as it has meant to me.”</p> - -<p>Marjorie had purposely hurried away from Hal’s -very personal admission. He now brought her back -to it with an earnest abruptness which raised a -brighter color in her face.</p> - -<p>“I wish you’d stay in Sanford and make the old -town seem as much to me as it used to,” he said. -“I have a standing grudge against Hamilton College. -Can’t help having one, even though you and -Jerry do think it’s the only place on the map.”</p> - -<p>“It’s the only place on the map for us until our -work is done, Hal,” she defended. “Once I thought -I couldn’t leave General and Captain to go back to -Hamilton next fall. I found I was hard-hearted -enough to do even that for the sake of my work -there. I’m having a gorgeous time at the beach! -Still I’m almost impatient for next week to come -and bring with it my mid-summer trip to Hamilton. -You can understand, I’m sure, Hal, how I feel about -the building of the dormitory.”</p> - -<p>“Work can’t fill your life, Marjorie,” Hal answered -with a tender, unconscious deepening of -tone. “See how happy Connie and Laurie are! -They <i>love</i> each other. <i>That’s</i> the real -meaning of life. Not even music could come between them and -love. Could anything be more perfect than their -romance? I’ve wished always that it would be so -with you and me. I’ve wanted to tell you this for -a long time, but I——”</p> - -<p>“I hate to complain of your sister, Macy, but it’s -necessary.” Danny Seabrooke bounced into the -midst of Hal’s declaration of love.</p> - -<p>“I’ll disown you as my brother if you listen to -what he says,” Jerry appeared at Danny’s elbow.</p> - -<p>“Oh, go away off the beach, both of you!” Hal -waved the contesting pair away from him. He -wished both Danny and Jerry anywhere but close -at hand.</p> - -<p>“Shan’t go a step,” defied Jerry. “Never think, -Hal Macy, that you can chase me into the Atlantic -Ocean. <i>You</i> may walk with Dan-yell, I’ve had -enough of him. Go ahead and untie the Oriole. -I’m going to monopolize Marvelous Marjorie for a -while.” Jerry tucked an arm in one of Marjorie’s.</p> - -<p>“Only for about five minutes,” stipulated Hal. -He cast a half smiling, half challenging glance at -Marjorie. “I want to talk to her myself. Come -along, old Seabean,” he motioned Danny.</p> - -<p>The two young men ran ahead to untie the motor -boat belonging to Hal which was tied up at the Cliff -House pier. Marjorie drew a soft little breath of -relief. Hal’s significant rush of words had taken -her unawares. Until now she had never failed to -steer him away from anything approaching sentiment. -Tonight, however, she had sensed a certain -determined quality in his voice which was not to be -denied. Hal did not intend to be kept from saying -his say much longer.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER II.—MUSIC AND MOONLIGHT</h2> - -<div class='abcc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:poetry --> - <div>“I hear your voice across the years of waiting;</div> - <div>Out of the past it softly calls to me:</div> - <div>True love knows neither ebbing nor abating;</div> - <div>How long, dear heart, must we two parted be?”</div> - <!-- end:poetry --> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='ti0'>sang Constance, a lingering, old-world -sadness in her pure perfect tones. For a moment after -the last note died out on the white balmy night no one -spoke. Only the steady, even purr of the Oriole’s -engine broke the potent stillness which had fallen -upon the sextette of young folks.</p> - -<p>“That was a very sad song, Mrs. Lawrence Constance -Armitage,” complained Danny with a subdued -gurgle. “It almost made we weep, but not -quite. I happened to recall in time that I wasn’t in -the same class with dear heart; that I had never been -parted from dear heart, or any other old dear. That -put a smother on my weeps.”</p> - -<p>“Glad something did.” Laurie had accompanied -Constance’s song on the guitar. He now sat playing -over softly the last few plaintive measures of the -song.</p> - -<p>“It’s a beautiful song, Connie,” Marjorie said -with the true appreciation of the music lover. “I -love those last four lines, even if they are awfully -hopeless. I never heard you sing it before. What -is it called?”</p> - -<p>“‘<i>Sehnsucht.</i>’ That means in German ‘longing.’ -I found it last winter in a collection of old German -love songs. I liked it so much that I tried to put -the words into English. It’s the only time I ever -attempted to write verse. It turned out better than -I had expected.” There was a tiny touch of pride -in the answer.</p> - -<p>“Connie used to sing it often for an encore last -winter. Then she always had to sing it again. -People never seemed to get enough of that particular -song.” Laurie’s voice expressed his own adoring -pride in Constance.</p> - -<p>“I don’t wonder. The music is the throbbing, -I-can’t-live-without-you kind, same as the words. -It gets even me. You all know how sentimental I -am—not,” Jerry declared.</p> - -<p>“Why, may I ask, does it get you?” briskly began -Danny. “Why——”</p> - -<p>“You may ask, but that’s all the good it will do -you,” Jerry retorted with finality. “Let me take the -wheel awhile, Hal. You may sing a little for the -gang. I may not admire some points about you, -but I’ll say you can sing, even if you are my -brother.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, let me sing,” begged Danny. “You never -heard me at my best.”</p> - -<p>“I hope I never shall.” Jerry did not even trouble -to glance at the modest aspirant for vocal glory. -“Don’t speak to me, if you can help it. Just hearing -you speak might get on my nerves and make me -fall overboard.” She rose carefully in her seat in -order to change places with Hal.</p> - -<p>Hal had taken no part in the discussion which -had followed Constance’s song. He was leaning over -the wheel, his clean-cut features almost sternly set -as he sent the Oriole speeding through a gently rippling -sea. His thoughts were moodily centered on -Marjorie. Danny’s and Jerry’s untimely interruption -upon his impulsive declaration of love was in -the nature of a misfortune to him. His first feeling -of vexation in the matter had deepened into one of -dejection as he listened to Connie’s song. He could -not help wondering darkly if that was the way it -would be with him. Would it become his lot to -long some day for Marjorie, and vainly, across the -years? He was sure of his love for her. He was -sure it would never ebb nor abate. What about -her love for him? Hal had nothing but doubts.</p> - -<p>Last fall he had reluctantly come to the conclusion -that Marjorie did not care in the least for him, -other than in the way of friendship. It was only -since she had come to Severn Beach that he had begun -to take heart again. He had been her devoted -companion, as of old, on all of the pleasure sails, -drives and jaunts which the sextette of Sanford -young folks had enjoyed. It had sometimes seemed -to Hal that Marjorie was a trifle more gracious to -him than of yore. He felt that she was fond of -him in a comradely way. He could not recall an -occasion since he had known Marjorie when she -had accepted the attentions of another Sanford boy. -That was one thing he might be glad of.</p> - -<p>The white glory of the night, the tender beauty -of the girl he adored, her avowed enthusiastic preference -for work above all else in life had crystallized -Hal’s troubled resolve to ask Marjorie the momentous -question which, somehow, he had never before -found the right opportunity for asking. And Jerry -and Danny had “butted in” and spoiled it! This -was his rueful reflection as he silently allowed Jerry -to replace him at the wheel.</p> - -<p>“I won’t be stingy with the wheel,” he soberly -assured his sister, “but you’d better ask Dan-yell to -sing.”</p> - -<p>“Never. I have too much consideration for the -rest of the gang,” Jerry retorted.</p> - -<p>“And I have myself to consider,” flung back -Danny. “I wouldn’t sing if Jerry-miar dropped to -her knees on the sand and begged me to. Understand, -every one of you, I can sing, warble, carol, -chant or trill. There is no limit to my vocal powers. -There was a time when I might possibly have been -persuaded to sing. That time is past.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you, Jerry,” Laurie said very solemnly.</p> - -<p>“You’re welcome,” chuckled Jerry. “Glad I -could be so useful.”</p> - -<p>“O, don’t be too ready to laugh. I may sing just -for spite,” Danny warned. “To sing, or not to -sing? That is the question.”</p> - -<p>“Take time to think it over, Danny,” laughed -Marjorie. “While you are thinking Connie will -sing the song of Brahms I like so much. Please, -Connie, sing ‘The Summer Fields,’” she urged. -“Then you’ll sing, won’t you, Hal?” She turned -coaxingly to Hal who had seated himself beside her -on one of the built-in benches of the motor boat.</p> - -<p>“Maybe,” Hal made half reluctant promise. He -was wishing he dared take Marjorie’s slim hands, -lying tranquilly in her lap, and imprison them in -his own.</p> - -<p>Glancing frankly up at him Marjorie glimpsed in -his eyes a bright intent look which hardly pleased -her. It was an expression which was quite new to -his face. She thought, or rather, feared she understood -its meaning. “He’ll go on with what he -started to say to me the very first chance he has,” -was her dismayed reflection. “Oh, dear; I wish he -wouldn’t.”</p> - -<p>Laurie had already begun a soft prelude to “The -Summer Fields.” Marjorie had immediately looked -away from Hal and out on the moonlit sea. She -had the impression that Hal’s eyes were still upon -her. She felt the hot blood rise afresh to her -cheeks. For a brief instant she was visited by a -flash of resentment. Why, oh, why, must Hal spoil -their long, sincere friendship by trying to turn it -into a love affair?</p> - -<p>Again Constance’s golden tones rose and fell, -adding to the enchantment of the night. Marjorie’s -instant of resentment took swift wing as she listened -to the wistful German words for which the great -composer had found such a perfect setting. She -was glad she loved music and moonlight and poetry -and all the beautiful bits of life. She did not wish -life to mean the kind of romance Hal meant. Her -idea of romance meant the glory of work and the -stir of noble deeds.</p> - -<p>“Now it’s your turn, Hal. It’s not fair to make -me do all the singing. Jerry claims she can’t sing, -and she won’t let Danny sing. Laurie makes me -do his share of it. Marjorie can sing, but she thinks -she can’t. That leaves only you, and you haven’t a -ghost of an excuse. Go ahead now. Be nice and -sing the Boat Song.” Constance ended coaxingly.</p> - -<p>“All right, Connie. Instruct your husband to play -a few bars of it strictly in tune and I’ll see what -I can do.” Hal straightened up suddenly on the -bench with an air of pretended importance.</p> - -<p>“See to it that your singing’s strictly in tune,” -Laurie advised. “I can be trusted to do the rest.” -Already his musician’s fingers were finding the -rhythmic introduction to Tosti’s “Boat Song.”</p> - -<div class='abcc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:poetry --> - <div>“The night wind sighs,</div> - <div>Our vessel flies,</div> - <div>Across the dark lagoon.”</div> - <!-- end:poetry --> - </div> -</div> - -<p>Hal took up the swinging measures of the song -in his clear, sweet tenor and sent it ringing across -the water. Tonight he came into a new and sombre -understanding of the song. Never before had he -realized the undercurrent of doubt it contained. -Perhaps Tosti had composed the song out of his own -lover’s hopes and fears. Unconsciously Hal’s weight -of troubled doubt went into an impassioned rendering.</p> - -<p>Laurie and Constance understood perfectly his -unintentional betrayal of his feelings. Danny, razor -keen of perception, also grasped the situation. This -time he had nothing to say.</p> - -<div class='abcc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:poetry --> - <div>“And here am I,</div> - <div>To live or die;</div> - <div>As you prove hard or kind;</div> - <div>Prove hard or kind.”</div> - <!-- end:poetry --> - </div> -</div> - -<p>Jerry sat looking unduly solemn as Hal tunefully -voiced the sentimental, worshipping lines and took -up the echoing refrain. When the song ended an -odd silence fell which no one of them seemed willing -to shatter. Connie and Laurie were frankly -holding hands, their young faces touched with a -romance born of music and moonlight. Danny was -staring intently at Jerry as though absorbed in her -management of the wheel.</p> - -<p>Marjorie sat bathed in moonlight, looking unutterably -lovely and trying her utmost not to appear -self-conscious. She was under the blind impression -that she alone understood what lay behind Hal’s -song. In reality she understood less concerning the -strength of his love and devotion for her than did -those who had been their intimate girl and boyhood -friends. She did, however, detect a certain melancholy -tinge to his singing which gave her a peculiar -conscience-stricken feeling.</p> - -<p>“No, I don’t care to sing any more tonight,” he -said, when Laurie came out of his dream and asked -him to sing an old Spanish serenade. “I’m not in -a singing humor.”</p> - -<p>“Poor old Hal,” Jerry was thinking as she gave -the wheel an impatient turn by way of showing her -disapproval. “He does love her so! Marjorie’s -the sweetest girl ever, but she’s hard, not kind, when -it comes to love. She’s a regular stony heart.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chIII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER III.—“SOMETHING TO REPORT”</h2> - -<p>“Tomorrow? Let me think.” Marjorie’s dark -brows drew thoughtfully together. “Why, I’m not -going anywhere, Hal.” Marjorie made an effort to -be casual which was only half successful. “I’m going -to be busy packing. I shall have to take an early -train for Hamilton on Thursday morning so as not -to reach there late at night. I won’t have a minute’s -spare time Thursday morning. I’ll have to be ready -as ready can be on Wednesday night.”</p> - -<p>The boating party had left the Oriole once more -tied to the pier and had strolled back along the -sands to Cliff House. To her surprised relief, Hal -had not attempted to renew the subject she dreaded -to discuss. In fact he had had very little to say. -Responsive to this new mood of his she had walked -beside him almost in silence, smiling at the animated -discussion Jerry and Danny kept up all the way to -the hotel. Laurie and Connie were as mute as she -and Hal. Such understanding silences were -characteristic of them, however.</p> - -<p>As ardently as he had courted an opportunity to -tell Marjorie he loved her Hal now upbraided himself -for having been so stupid as to blurt out his -feelings “when the gang were around.” He would -finish telling her what he had begun to say when -Danny and Jerry had interrupted. He was resolved -on that point. He was also determined that she -should hear him out before she left Severn Beach -on her mid-summer trip to Hamilton.</p> - -<p>“Can’t you find time to go out in the Oriole with -me tomorrow afternoon, Marjorie?” There lurked -a trace of stubborn purpose in Hal’s question. “It -will be our last sea voyage in the good ship, Oriole, -this summer, you know. I suppose you will go -from Hamilton back to Sanford.” Hal eyed her -almost gloomily.</p> - -<p>Marjorie nodded. The two had reached the -main entrance of the hotel a trifle ahead of their -chums. They now stood waiting at the foot of the -wide, ornamental flight of steps which led up to the -central veranda of the enormous white stone hotel.</p> - -<p>“I’ll try to go for a part of the afternoon, Hal,” -she promised, careful to keep reluctance out of her -voice. Pinned down to answer directly she had not -the stony-heartedness with which Jerry had ticketed -her. She could not flatly refuse the invitation of -her boy friend of long standing.</p> - -<p>“Good work! Which part?” Hal instantly brightened. -“Let us settle that point before you have time -to change your mind and back out,” he said boyishly.</p> - -<p>“The very idea! You only say that, Hal Macy,” -Marjorie retorted with playful emphasis. “I’m not -a mind changer, nor a backer-out, either.”</p> - -<p>“Beg your pardon, and double beg it.” Hal allowed -a teasing note to creep into the answer. -Already he was feeling less dejected. He had been -half afraid that Marjorie might refuse to go for a -last ride in the Oriole.</p> - -<p>The swift unbidden reflection that Marjorie -might not be quite so indifferent to him as he -had thought brought a sudden flush to his cheeks -and an odd new sense of hope to his sore heart. She -could hardly have failed to understand the import -of what he had begun to tell her on the way to the -boat. Yet she had not refused to go for a ride with -him on the morrow. She must surely have guessed -the hidden reason for his invitation to her.</p> - -<p>“Say, what time, Marjorie,” Hal again urged. -“All afternoon would suit me best,” he added boldly.</p> - -<p>“You can’t have all afternoon.” Marjorie lightly -objected. “I’ll have to hurry like mad in order to -squeeze the ride into tomorrow’s program. I’ll be -ready to go as soon as luncheon’s over. I must be -back at my packing by not a minute later than three -o’clock. You and Jerry had better come to our table -for luncheon. Is Jerry going with us?” Marjorie -made a last attempt to ward off what appeared to -be inevitable.</p> - -<p>“No, she isn’t. I haven’t asked her,” was the -pointed reply. “Thank you, but I won’t be at the -hotel until I come up for you. I’m going to Carver’s -Island early in the morning to see a crowd of -fellows I know who have a bungalow there. You -usually have luncheon at one, don’t you? I’ll meet -you in the Dresden lounge at half past one. Then -we won’t lose any of your precious time,” Hal -concluded almost grimly.</p> - -<p>“All right,” Marjorie assented. She was glad Hal -had used a mildly peremptory tone. She had always -admired his courteous, but positive, manner -of settling a matter.</p> - -<p>“Why in such a hurry?” Laurie questioned indolently -as he and Constance now mounted the steps. -“You two walked ahead of us as though you were -on a training hike. Is that the way to appreciate a -heavenly night like this?”</p> - -<p>“It is when it’s after ten o’clock and one has to -be up and doing by seven tomorrow morning,” flung -back Marjorie. “You forget, Mr. Laurie Armitage, -that <i>I’m going away, day after tomorrow</i>.” She -emphasized each word with a vigorous bob of the -head.</p> - -<p>“No; none of us have forgotten that, Marjorie,” -Laurie bent a sudden warm friendly smile on her.</p> - -<p>“We’re going to miss you dreadfully, Lieutenant.” -Constance put an arm around Marjorie. The -two stood and swayed back and forth schoolgirl -fashion.</p> - -<p>“Not half so much as I shall,” Hal voiced frank -regret. “Marjorie is a real pal. I’m going to miss -her at every turn and corner. I’m going to annex -myself to the Armitage family and become a pest -after Marjorie goes.”</p> - -<p>“Go as far as you like, old man,” Laurie invited. -“Connie and I will do our best to amuse and cherish -you.”</p> - -<p>“Cherish! Ah-h-h!” gurgled Danny who had -just come up with Jerry. “Such a sweet word! -Did anybody ever hear Jurry-miar say it to me?” -He rolled his eyes and clasped his hands. “Silence? -What? Don’t all speak at once. No? I thought -not.”</p> - -<p>“No one ever <i>will</i> hear me say it to you,” Jerry -told him in a tired tone.</p> - -<p>“How ought I to receive such a remark?” Danny -eyed her dubiously. “Answer me, Jurry-miar.” He -leaned far forward and stared fixedly at Jerry.</p> - -<p>Her stolid expression deserted her. She had to -laugh at the ludicrous set of Danny’s freckled features. -“Oh, never mind,” she conceded. “Let’s be -amiable to each other for ten minutes. I’ll hold the -stop watch.”</p> - -<p>“U-h-h-h!” Danny simulated collapse. “This is -so unexpected. Hurry up, gang. Let’s go to the -palm grotto for ices. If we hustle, Jur—I mean, -Geraldine and I can sit at the same table without -snapping at each other. Come, boys,” he beckoned -grandly to Hal and Laurie. “Gentlemen will be -treated to ices as well as ladies. Think of that!” -He smirked patronizingly at the two young men.</p> - -<p>“I oughtn’t linger longer,” gaily demurred -Marjorie. “Truly, Danny, I——”</p> - -<p>She went to the palm grotto, however, marched -there between Hal and Danny. During the enjoyable -half hour the young people spent over the ices -Hal was his usual jolly, light-hearted self. -Marjorie welcomed the change in him from sombre -seriousness to his old care-free manner. When she -left him with a friendly good night at the door of -the Dean’s apartment she could have almost believed -him to be the Hal of her high school days, had not -the memory of his earnest words flashed across her -brain. She could still hear him saying: “I’ve -wished always that it would be so with you and -me,” in the eager, impassioned fashion which awoke -no responsive echo in her heart.</p> - -<p>She stepped into the living room her usually -bright face so pre-occupied that it at once caught -Mrs. Dean’s attention as she smilingly glanced up -from the magazine she held.</p> - -<p>“I won’t qualify for the early bird class in the -morning, I’m afraid,” Marjorie said with the merest -suspicion of a smile. “Never mind; I’m going to -get up early even if I do lose some sleep.”</p> - -<p>“Was that what made you look so sober as you -came in, Lieutenant?” Mrs. Dean asked, amused -surprise in the question.</p> - -<p>“Did I look very sober?” Marjorie quickly countered.</p> - -<p>“<i>Very</i>,” emphasized her mother.</p> - -<p>“Well,” Marjorie paused, “I felt sober. Where’s -General, Captain?” She glanced questioningly -toward the next room.</p> - -<p>“He and Mr. Macy motored down to Logan -Beach this evening to see a game of chess between -two expert players, both friends of Mr. Macy’s. -He’ll hardly be home before midnight.” Mrs. Dean -continued affectionately to watch Marjorie.</p> - -<p>“Oh-h-h.” Marjorie dropped down on a low -chair. For a moment she sat plaiting little folds -in the soft white evening scarf, now fallen into -careless disarrangement across one shoulder. “Oh,” she -said again. “Er-oh, dear! I’ve something to report, -Captain. I wish I hadn’t. I couldn’t report -it to General as I can to you. It’s about Hal. He’s -going to ask me to marry him. I <i>wish</i> he -<i>wouldn’t</i>.”</p> - -<p>The vehemence with which Marjorie voiced the -disquieting report brought a shadowy flash of concern -to her mother’s face. It faded instantly into -a distinctly humorous expression.</p> - -<p>“How do you know Hal is going to ask you to -marry him?” she quizzed, her eyes twinkling. -“You’ve heard the old sad tale of Miss Betty Baxter -who refused Captain Jones before he axed her.”</p> - -<p>“Oh-h, Captain!” Marjorie made a laughing -open-armed rush at her mother. “Stop making fun of -me. My case isn’t a bit like silly Miss Betty -Baxter’s. What an idiotic person she must have been! -You see, dearest,” she slid an arm about her -mother’s neck. “Why—Hal——” Her color -mounted to her white forehead—“began to ask me -down on the beach tonight. Then Danny and Jerry -came up to us. <i>They</i> didn’t know what he was -saying to me, of course. He surprised me, too.”</p> - -<p>Hesitatingly, Marjorie went on to tell her captain -of her talk with Hal on the beach which had led -up to his impulsive declaration of love. It was not -easy to repeat, even to her mother. She had taken -a stand behind her mother’s low-backed chair, arms -dropped forward. One hand patted a light tattoo -on her mother’s shoulder as she talked. Presently -her voice trailed off into silence. Her head went -down against her mother’s neck.</p> - -<p>“Bring over the low stool, Lieutenant,” Mrs. -Dean ordered in her briskest “army” tone.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Captain.” Quick as a flash Marjorie’s -arms dropped from her captain’s shoulders. She -left a light kiss on her mother’s soft brown hair, -then marched across the room for the stool. She -set it down at her captain’s feet, saluted and stood -at rigid attention.</p> - -<p>“Break ranks. Discipline seems to be still alive -in the army,” Mrs. Dean observed with a smile.</p> - -<p>“It is.” Marjorie settled herself on the cushioned -stool and leaned her elbows on her mother’s knees. -She looked up inquiringly, face between hands. -“What is it, Captain? You haven’t said <i>one</i> word -of what you think about—about Hal and me.”</p> - -<p>“I’m thinking for a moment of what I had best -say.” Mrs. Dean looked fondly down at the lovely -colorful face raised to her own.</p> - -<p>For an instant neither spoke. Then Mrs. Dean -said with kindly deliberation: “If you loved Hal -in the same whole-hearted way in which I believe -he loves you, General and I should be glad of your -engagement to him. General thinks Hal a man -among young men. You know how much that -means. We have occasionally discussed your long -friendship with Hal and his entire devotion to you. -We know that you do not love him. We are sorry -that you cannot return his great affection for you.” -One hand strayed caressingly over Marjorie’s curls. -There followed another brief interval, then: “We -wish you to be true to yourself, Lieutenant. That -is the order of the day.”</p> - -<p>“Dearest and best,” Marjorie reached for her -mother’s hands, took them in her own and fondled -them; “why, oh, why didn’t I fall in love with Hal -as Connie did with Laurie? I don’t know why. I’ll -have to tell him so tomorrow and it will hurt me -almost as much to say it as it will hurt him to hear it. -He’s been such a splendid comfy friend. I can’t bear -to say ‘no’ to him, and I can’t say ‘yes.’ It’s a hard -detail, Captain, but I must face it as a true soldier -should. All I can do is tell Hal frankly, but in -the best way I can, that I don’t love him and never -shall.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chIV'> - -<h2>CHAPTER IV.—I CAN’T GIVE YOU UP, DEAR</h2> - -<p>“Let me conduct your marvelous majesty to a -seat beside the wheel.” Hal offered his hands with -a motion of exaggerated gallantry. He caught -Marjorie’s hands in his own and half swung her -down from the little pier and into the motor boat.</p> - -<p>“Thank you, gallant and distinguished skipper,” -was Marjorie’s blithe response as she sat down on -the small cushioned bench nearest the wheel, guided -by Hal’s devoted arm.</p> - -<p>“I had no idea you appreciated me so highly.” -He managed to keep up the light, bantering tone he -had first used. It was not easy. What he longed -to say to her as she turned her vivid, sparkling face -toward him was: “I love you. I love you.”</p> - -<p>“Why shouldn’t I appreciate you?” Marjorie -merrily insisted. She was relieved at Hal’s apparently -light mood. She hoped it would continue for at -least the greater part of the ride. She preferred to -ward off the dreaded talk as long as she could. She -had agreed with her captain that Hal had the right to -be heard; that it was not fair to him to evade longer -an understanding with him.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know. Why should you?” countered -Hal.</p> - -<p>“For two splendid reasons. You’re taking me -for a ride in the Oriole. Besides, you called me -‘marvelous majesty,’ which is a most flattering title. -Oh, Hal Macy!” Marjorie exclaimed with animated -irrelevancy; “isn’t this the most heavenly blue and -white and gold day? Blue sea, blue sky, white -clouds and golden sun!”</p> - -<p>“It’s a peach of a day,” he tersely agreed. Marjorie’s -declared appreciation of himself brought a -half ironical smile to his lips. As usual, it was like -that of a child, grateful for benefits. “What port?” -he inquired briefly of her as he started the Oriole -away from the pier.</p> - -<p>“No port,” was Marjorie’s prompt choice; “just -a little run out to sea.”</p> - -<p>“Right-o.” Hal obediently headed the Oriole -seaward. “Look at the crowd!” He indicated with -a sweep of an arm the flock of white-winged sail -boats and motor launches which thickly dotted the -dimpling water. “Every fellow at the beach who -owns a boat seems to be out with it today.”</p> - -<p>“It’s an ideal day for boating,” Marjorie found -herself tritely echoing Hal’s opinion of the weather. -Still she could not on the instant think of anything -else to say. Her usual fund of gay, amusing -conversation had deserted her. She was too honest of -spirit to pretend that which she did not feel.</p> - -<p>“There’s no danger of a sudden squall, either.” -Hal’s interest in the weather appeared to deepen. -“This day is what I’d call an old reliable. Storms -hardly ever blow up out of such honest-to-goodness -blue skies as these.”</p> - -<p>“That’s true.” Marjorie inwardly derided herself -for being such an utter stupid. She tried to -make herself believe that it was only Hal, her boy -chum, with whom she was out boating. She could -not. The young man at the wheel whose familiar -handsome features were touched with an intensity of -purpose quite foreign to them was all but a stranger -to her. In the past she had had only rare, disquieting -glimpses of the intense side Hal was showing -today.</p> - -<p>A flat, uncomfortable silence suddenly drifted -down upon them. Hal’s courteous attempt to talk -trivialities, simple because he knew that was what -Marjorie preferred him to do was a failure. He -had come to the place where he could no longer -continue to hide his heart from her.</p> - -<p>The silence between them continued; deepened. -Both had begun to feel the tensity of the situation. -Both had tried to talk pleasantries and both had -failed. Hal occupied himself with sending the -Oriole scudding cleverly in and out among the -numerous pleasure craft, large and small which dotted -the course he was steadily taking toward quieter -more aloof waters.</p> - -<p>Now and again they were briskly hailed by the -occupants of other passing boats. Hal lightened -momentarily as he answered the merry salutations, -then relapsed into somber gravity.</p> - -<p>“What a lot of people you know at Severn Beach, -Hal.” Marjorie was glad to find her voice again. -Hal was waving an acknowledgment to a noisy, -rollicking crew of young men in a passing power launch -who had sent out a ringing hail to him.</p> - -<p>“I only know a bunch of yachtsmen and a few -other fellows.” Hal disclaimed popularity with a -shrug of his broad shoulders. “The Clipper, my -racing sailboat, is better known along this coast than -I am. Oh, but she’s a winner!” Hal brightened with -pride of ownership. “She won every race I entered -her for last summer. She’s won two this season, -and she’s entered in a spiffy race the yacht club is -going to pull off in a couple of weeks. You’d better -stay at the beach and see it. I’ll take you -aboard for the race, if you’ll stay.” -Half laughingly, half pleadingly he offered this bribe.</p> - -<p>“That would be glorious; to be in a real race!” -Marjorie looked her regret. “You’re always so good -to me, Hal; always planning some perfectly dandy -stunt just to please me. But you know how it is -about Hamilton. I feel it truly a sacred obligation; -my work there, I mean. I couldn’t allow personal -pleasure to come before it.”</p> - -<p>“No; nor love, either,” Hal burst forth with a hurt -vehemence which brought the hot blood to Marjorie’s -cheeks. “I beg your pardon, Marjorie,” he -said almost immediately afterward. “I spoke on -impulse. Still, that’s the way I feel about your -going back to Hamilton next fall when I love you -so dearly and want you to marry me. I wish you -cared even half as much for me as you do for your -work at Hamilton. But you don’t care at all.”</p> - -<p>“I do care for you, Hal, as one of the best friends -I have,” Marjorie protested, raising her brown eyes -sorrowfully to Hal’s clouded face.</p> - -<p>“I know,” Hal rejoined a shade less forcefully. -“I value your friendship, Marjorie, more highly -than I can say. But friendship’s not what I want -from you, dear girl. I love you, truly and forever. -I’ve loved you since first you came to Sanford to -live. I’d have told you so long ago but you never -gave me an opportunity.” Hal paused. He regarded -Marjorie wistfully; questioningly.</p> - -<p>“I—I know it, Hal,” she admitted reluctantly, -but with her usual honesty. “I—I haven’t wished -you to talk of love to me. There were times last -winter”—she stopped in confusion—“when I -thought you cared—a little. I—I wasn’t sure.”</p> - -<p>“Be very sure of it, now.” Hal’s reply was a -mixture of tenderness and dejection.</p> - -<p>“I don’t want you to love me, Hal,” Marjorie -cried out almost sharply in her desire to be emphatic. -“Last night, after what you said to me on the beach, -I couldn’t help but be sure. I—I told Captain of -it. I always tell her everything. Captain is sorry -I don’t love you. She and General are fond of you. -They’d be happy if we were—if we were—to become -engaged.” Marjorie spoke the last words -hesitatingly.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad you told your mother. You know -how fine I think both General and Captain are.” Hal -fought back the hurt look that threatened to invade -his face. He gripped the wheel until his knuckles -stood out whitely against the sun-tanned brown of -his hands.</p> - -<p>Marjorie caught a glimpse of the unhappiness -which sprang straight from her old comrade’s sore -heart and into his eyes.</p> - -<p>“There; I’ve hurt you, Hal! Truly I never -meant to!” she exclaimed in quick contrition.</p> - -<p>“Never mind me.” Hal made a gesture of self-depreciation. -“It isn’t your fault because you can’t -find it in your heart to love me.” He forced a smile, -proudly trying to conceal his own desolation of -spirit.</p> - -<p>Her eyes remorsefully fixed on him the smile did -not deceive Marjorie. Hal’s tensity of feature -informed her of the weight of the blow she had just -dealt him.</p> - -<p>“Please, please, Hal, forgive me!” she begged -with a sudden excess of pained humility.</p> - -<p>“Forgive you? For what?” Hal bent a fond -questioning glance on Marjorie’s troubled face.</p> - -<p>“For—for—not loving you,” she faltered. “It -hurts me dreadfully to know that I must be the one -to make you unhappy. Forgive me for seeming to -be so hard and unsympathetic about love. I’ve never -thought of it for myself. It has always seemed -vague and far away; like something not a part of -my life. I know the love between Connie and Laurie -is wonderful. I can appreciate their devotion to -each other. I have the greatest impersonal reverence -for love and lovers. But for me life means -endeavor and the glory of achievement.”</p> - -<p>The voice of ambitious, inspirited youth sang in -her tones, half appealing though they were. Came -an embarrassed stillness between them. Hal’s face, -strong, even stern in its self-repression was turned -partly away from her. The bleakness of his -suffering young soul peered forth from his deep blue -eyes as he stared steadily across the dimpling -sun-touched waves.</p> - -<p>“Nothing matters in life but love. To love and -to be loved in return,” he said slowly, but with a -kind of fatalistic decision. “You’ll love someone, -someday, even though you can’t love me.” The -shadow on Marjorie’s face deepened as she listened. -It was almost as though in a flash of second sight -Hal were telling her a fortune she did not care to -hear. “When love truly comes to you, then you’ll -understand what you can’t understand now,” he -ended.</p> - -<p>“I don’t want love to come to me. I don’t wish -to understand it,” Marjorie made sad protest. “Since -it isn’t in my heart to love you, I should never wish -to love any one else. You’re the finest, gentlest, -truest boy <i>I’ve</i> ever known, Hal, or ever expect to -know.”</p> - -<p>Hal’s half averted face was suddenly turned toward -Marjorie. Across it flashed a rare sweet smile -which lived long afterward in her memory. “It’s -as I told you last night, Marjorie Dean. You -haven’t grown up.” Tender amusement had mercifully -broken into and lightened his gloom. “You -only think you have,” he said. Marjorie’s naive -avowal had brought with it a faint stirring of new -hope.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Hal, I’ve grown up,” Marjorie began -seriously. “It’s not——”</p> - -<p>“You’ll never really grow up until love finds the -way to your heart,” Hal interrupted with gentle -positiveness. “I hope when it does it will be love -for me. I can’t give you up, dear. I’m going to -call you ‘dear’ this once. I’d rather have your -friendship than the love of any other girl in the -world. I’m going to wait for you to grow up.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chV'> - -<h2>CHAPTER V.—A WARM RECEPTION</h2> - -<p>“Hamilton! Hamilton!” Marjorie Dean smiled -to herself. Her expressive brown eyes grew brighter -as the lusty call echoed through the car. One hand -tightened about the leather handle of her traveling -bag with the impatience of one who was longing to -be free of the limited confines of the car. She peered -alertly out of the open window at the familiar railway -platform which lay deserted in the warm glory -of a mid-summer sun. How strange it seemed to see -the good old platform so bare and empty!</p> - -<p>“Not a sign of Robin,” was her disappointed reflection. -“What’s happened to her, I wonder? I’m -evidently first here after all. She can’t have arrived -yet or she would surely be out on the platform -watching for me.”</p> - -<p>The three or four persons, whose destination was -also Hamilton were now moving down the aisle toward -the car’s upper door. Marjorie did not follow -the orderly little line of passengers. She turned -and hurried to the opposite end of the car impatient -to be out of the train. She was glad to be the only -one to leave the car from that end.</p> - -<p>“Oh-h-h.” She drew a half sighing breath of -sheer loneliness. “What a dismal old place!”</p> - -<p>She ran lightly down the car steps, eluding the -brakeman’s helping hand, and came to an abrupt -stop on the deserted platform. She stood still, casting -a faintly disconsolate glance about her. It was -hard, indeed, to believe that this empty space with -the warm friendly sunshine streaming down upon -it was Hamilton station, endeared to her by the -memory of many happy meetings and cheerful goodbyes -on the part of student friends.</p> - -<p>“What had I better do?” was her next thought. -“What a goose I was not to tear Jeremiah from the -beach and bring her with me. Robin’s missing -from the picture. That means I’ll have to be on -the watch for her. How I’d like to walk in on -Miss Remson at Wayland Hall this afternoon! -Wouldn’t she be surprised, though?”</p> - -<p>Marjorie cast a meditative glance toward the -staid drowsy town of Hamilton. Robina Page, her -classmate and partner of the good little firm of -“Page and Dean,” as their chums liked to call them, -had written that she would meet Marjorie at the -station. From her handbag Marjorie extracted -Robin’s latest letter to her. She glanced it over -hurriedly. Yes; it read: “Friday afternoon, July -25th. I’ll be at the station to meet the three-twenty -train. Don’t dare disappoint me.”</p> - -<p>“It looks as though I’d be the one to meet the -trains,” she murmured under her breath. Always -quick to decide she made the choice between waiting -patiently in the station building for the next train -Robin could arrive on, or seeking the grateful coolness -of the Ivy, in favor of the dainty tea shop. The -train Robin might be on would not arrive until five-thirty.</p> - -<p>Picking up her traveling bag which she had momentarily -deposited on the platform Marjorie moved -briskly toward the flight of worn stone steps leading -to the station yard.</p> - -<p>“If Robin shouldn’t be on the five-thirty train I -suppose I’d best go to the Congress Hotel and stay -there until tomorrow. If I should go on to the -campus alone, I’d miss seeing her; that is, if she -should arrive tonight. I’ll fairly absorb time tables -and meet all the trains tonight except the very late -ones,” was Marjorie’s energetic resolve as she -swung buoyantly along the smooth wide stone walk. -The brief moment of depression which she had felt -at sight of the empty station platform had now vanished. -She was again her sunny self, animated and -bubbling over with the desire for action.</p> - -<p>She was so intent upon her own affairs she quite -failed to see three laughing faces frame themselves -suddenly in a screened window of the station. Almost -instantaneous with their appearance they were -withdrawn. Their owners made a noiseless, speedy -exit from the waiting room and flitted through the -open doorway which led to a square of green lawn -behind the building bounded by cinder drives.</p> - -<p>Giggling softly as they ran the stealthy trio -gathered in a compact little group at a rear corner of -the building which Marjorie must pass on her way -across the yard to the street.</p> - -<p>“I’ll relieve you of that bag, lady,” croaked a -harsh, menacing voice. The bag was snatched from -Marjorie’s hand in a twinkling.</p> - -<p>“Hands up!” ordered a second voice, only a -shade less menacing than that of the first bandit.</p> - -<p>“Boo, boo-oo, woo-oo-oo!” roared a third -outlaw. The final “oo” ended in a sound suspiciously -like a chuckle.</p> - -<p>Completely surrounded by an apparently merciless -and lawless three Marjorie had not attempted to -retrieve the traveling bag. Instead she had pounced -upon the smallest of the bandits with a gurgle of -surprised delight.</p> - -<p>“Vera Mason, you perfect darling! Where did -you come from, Midget, dear?” Marjorie laughingly -quoted as she warmly kissed tiny Vera.</p> - -<p>“Out of the everywhere into the here,” Vera -carelessly waved an indefinite hand and smiled up -at Marjorie in her charming, warm-hearted fashion.</p> - -<p>“And you, Leila Greatheart! So you’ve turned -highwayman! I am pretty sure that I am the first -victim. Very likely you planned with your partners -in crime to practice on me. Give me my bag, you -old villain.” Marjorie shook a playful fist at Leila.</p> - -<p>The widely smiling Irish girl merely reached out -her strong arms, gleaming whitely against her dark -blue gown, and gathered Marjorie into them. She -kissed her on both cheeks, then placed a finger under -Marjorie’s chin and gazed admiringly at her.</p> - -<p>“Beauty is Beauty, at home or abroad,” she declared -lightly. “And it’s myself that has longed -for a sight of you, little, beautiful lieutenant.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t monopolize the victim,” protested an aggrieved -voice. Robin Page now made an attempt -to pry Marjorie free from Leila’s close embrace.</p> - -<p>“Robin Page, you wicked girl! So this is the -way you meet me at the station!” Marjorie hugged -and kissed Robin with fresh enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>“You will kindly blame these two rascals here -for the hold-up,” laughed Robin. “This pair, Lawless -Leila and Vera, the Midge, are quite capable of -dark deeds. Aren’t those names I made up for them -dandy? I’m going to write a play this year, a real -melodrama, and have them play the leads under -those very names. That’s an inspiration born of -this hold-up,” she added in her bright fashion.</p> - -<p>“And to think I was ever sad a minute over you -three blessed geese!” Marjorie looked from one to -another of her chums, her eyes bright with affection. -“I thought of you all as I was leaving the train and -was so sorry that you were, as I supposed, so -far away. And all the time you were hanging -around a corner fairly aching to hold me up. Oh, -I’m so glad to see you! I’ve been looking forward -to seeing Robin, but I never dreamed such good -fortune as this was in store for me.”</p> - -<p>“She means us.” Vera gave Leila a significant -nudge.</p> - -<p>“She does that,” Leila purposely lapsed into a -brogue. “And it’s something grand I’ll be saying -to her yet, but not till I know myself what I’m -going to say.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, never mind the blarney. Just tell me how -you happen to be here,” begged Marjorie, tucking -an arm into Robin’s. “Not one letter have I had -from either of you since the Dean family went down -to Severn Beach, and only one apiece since college -closed. I may not be a prompt correspondent, -but——”</p> - -<p>“Tell me nothing.” Leila put up a defensive -hand. She was laughing behind it. “Isn’t it I who -know my own failings?”</p> - -<p>“You ought to know by this time that you are -a flivver as a correspondent,” Marjorie condemned -with pretended severity. “I thought, when I did -not hear from you, that you and Midget had really -gone to Ireland for the summer. You know you -talked of taking the trip last spring. I supposed——”</p> - -<p>“I was busy pointing out the Blarney Stone to -Midget and capturing banshees and leprechauns for -her to play with,” interposed Leila. “No, Beauty; -not this summer. Truth is truth. We did talk -about a visit to the Emerald Isle during the summer, -but Commencement morning changed all that. -Midget and I planned then to come to Hamilton -instead and give you a mid-summer welcome. Why, -Midget and I said to each other, should we go gallivanting -about old Ireland when the good little firm -of Page and Dean would be working their dear -heads off at Hamilton?”</p> - -<p>“Why, indeed?” echoed Vera. “We’re here to -stay as long as you and Robin stay.”</p> - -<p>“We’ve been at Wayland Hall for a week waiting -for you two promoters to appear. We didn’t -know the exact date of your appearance, or which -one of you would appear first,” Leila informed Marjorie.</p> - -<p>“You talk as though Robin and I were a couple -of rare elusive comets,” Marjorie joked.</p> - -<p>“You’re a couple of rare, elusive P. G.s whose -present mission is to lighten and gladden Leila’s -and my declining years,” retorted Vera. “That’s -the real reason you came to Hamilton this July, -though you may not have suspected it. Of course, -while you’re here, and we’re here, we won’t object -to your doing a few kindly little stunts for our Alma -Mater.” Vera endeavored to appear extremely condescending. -Instead she looked so utterly happy -that Marjorie wrapped her arms about the dainty -little girl and embraced her all over again.</p> - -<p>“I reached here just one train ahead of you, Marjorie,” -Robin now said. “I was held up, too, and -forced into a conspiracy against you. It happened -to be more convenient for me to take an earlier -train. I intended to meet yours anyway—you know -the rest.” Robin gestured eloquently toward Leila -and Vera.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I know the rest,” Marjorie repeated fondly. -“I also know something else. I was bound for the -Ivy when three footpads waylaid me. Just to show -you what a forgiving spirit I have I will invite those -three footpads to a feast at the Ivy. I’ve had nothing -to eat since early this morning and I’m famished. -There was no dining car on the train.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, let me be the Irish lady to give the feast,” -wheedled Leila. “My gold burns in my pocket -when it’s too long there. Midget has far more -money than she ought to have. All week we have -led a cat and dog life, grumbling and sputtering -about which of us should treat.”</p> - -<p>“All right. You’re so smooth. I can’t resist -you, this once. I hereby invite you all to dinner -at Baretti’s tonight,” stipulated Marjorie. “I’ve -gold of my own to spend. Just as General put me -on the train this morning he put an envelope in my -hand. I opened it after the train had started. In -it were two fifty dollar notes and a funny short letter -from him telling me to call the money the Marjorie -Dean Entertainment Fund. He ordered me -to spend it just for good times. I must obey my -general, you know. When I come back to Hamilton -next——”</p> - -<p>A sudden jubilant clamor from her chums -drowned her voice.</p> - -<p>“Aha!” Leila paused in the middle of the walk -and waved a triumphant arm. “What do I hear?”</p> - -<p>“Uh-h-h; but that’s good news!” Robin made a -show of collapsing from sheer relief.</p> - -<p>“Is it really settled. Marvelous Manager?” Vera -cried with some anxiety.</p> - -<p>“Now you may tell me, Beauty, what I said last -June you would say.” Leila was radiant at the -good news.</p> - -<p>Marjorie laughed. “You are a soothsayer, Leila -Greatheart,” she said, obeying Leila’s joyful command. -“Yes; it has all been settled.” Her own -features reflected the good cheer of her friends. -“I’m coming back to the campus in the fall.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chVI'> - -<h2>CHAPTER VI.—IN LOVE WITH WORK</h2> - -<p>“To the boldest bandit belongs the spoils.” Leila -lifted Marjorie’s traveling bag from the walk, took -hold of her arm and began steering her across the -grassy station yard to where a smart grey car stood -on the drive.</p> - -<p>“I’ll let you tug it along to punish you for being -a desperado. It’s a heavy old thing. Fifteen minutes -ago I didn’t know where it and I would stop -for the night. Now, thank goodness, and you girls, -we can all go to Wayland Hall.” Marjorie smiled -over her shoulder at Robin and Vera who were -walking behind them.</p> - -<p>“What a love of a car!” she exclaimed as they -neared the trim gray roadster. “I’ll make a guess. -It’s Vera’s. Somehow it suggests her.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, it’s Vera’s. Have you noticed? My eyes -are turning green with envy of Midget,” Leila declared -darkly, then showed her strong white teeth -in a roguish smile. “Her father sent her this dream -of a car from Paris. He’s been painting at his -Paris studio since early last spring. The roadster -came the week after we left Hamilton. I was with -Vera in their New York house. We were trying -to decide what we should do to amuse ourselves -until time for our trip here. Then the car came. -We were so proud of it! We wanted the world to -see it and us in it. We went on a motor trip to the -Adirondacks. We stayed for two weeks with -Vera’s aunt at her camp. She was horrified because -we came in the car without a chaperon. And -I must tell you the truth! Neither of us remembered -there was any such person to be considered -when we started out with the car.” Leila threw -back her head and laughed.</p> - -<p>“We didn’t have one going back, either.” Vera -had caught what Leila was saying. “Luckily for -us, my father thinks Leila and I can be trusted to -take care of ourselves. We motored back to New -York City and from there to Hamilton.”</p> - -<p>“So we did. And it’s here we are stopping again, -like a set of statues in the sun, when we might be -on our way to the Ivy.” By common consent the -four had again grouped themselves on the walk -opposite the roadster. “Come with me. Don’t be -dwadling here when there’s news to be told and -news to be heard,” Leila rallied. She motioned -Marjorie to the car and ceremoniously opened a -rear door for her.</p> - -<p>“Right-o!” Robin exclaimed, preparing to take -the front seat of the roadster beside Vera. “I’m -simply perishing for a real opportunity to talk. It -seems ages and ages since college closed. Yet it is -only a month. I have scads of things to tell you -girls. Phil wanted to come with me. We had the -trip all planned and her trunk was partly packed. -Then three girl cousins descended upon the Moores -for a visit. Poor Phil had to stay home and help -entertain them. I’ll tell you more about her when -we are at the Ivy.” Robin turned in the seat to -say this much as Vera started the car.</p> - -<p>As the roadster sped away from the station drive -and swung into Herndon Avenue, Hamilton’s main -thoroughfare, Marjorie glanced slowly from one -side of the street to the other. A happy little smile -played upon her lips. Next to Sanford, her home -town, she loved the staid college town of Hamilton. -She loved it for its wide ornamental streets -and stately green-lawned residences. Like all else -which bore the name of Hamilton it seemed in -some strange elusive way to partake of the fine -character of its founder, Brooke Hamilton.</p> - -<p>Presently she reached up and removed the white -straw hat she wore. She gave a satisfied little intake -of breath as the cool afternoon breeze blew -gently in her face, lifting the thick clustering curls -which framed it and blowing them back from her -forehead. Her lovely features wore the untroubled, -child-like expression which had ever made them -so beautiful. Behind that beautiful untroubled face, -however, was the resolute, indomitable spirit of -a pioneer. It was that very spirit of endeavor which -had made her a force for good at Hamilton College -since her enrollment as a student of that institution.</p> - -<p>After four years at Sanford High School, Marjorie -Dean and four of her intimate girl friends -had chosen Hamilton College as their Alma Mater. -What happened to them as students at Sanford -High School has been recorded in the “<span class='sc'>Marjorie -Dean High School Series</span>,” comprising: “<span class='sc'>Marjorie -Dean, High School Freshman</span>,” “<span class='sc'>Marjorie -Dean, High School Sophomore</span>,” “<span class='sc'>Marjorie -Dean, High School Junior</span>” and “<span class='sc'>Marjorie -Dean, High School Senior</span>.”</p> - -<p>The account of their doings at Hamilton College -may be found in the “<span class='sc'>Marjorie Dean College -Series</span>,” comprising: “<span class='sc'>Marjorie Dean, College -Freshman</span>,” “<span class='sc'>Marjorie Dean, College -Sophomore</span>,” “<span class='sc'>Marjorie Dean, College Junior</span>,” -“<span class='sc'>Marjorie Dean, College Senior</span>.”</p> - -<p>During Marjorie’s senior year at Hamilton College -she and her particular friends became interested -in a plan to provide Hamilton students in less fortunate -financial circumstances than themselves with -suitable quarters in which to live. The fact that -such students were making great personal sacrifices -in order to obtain a college education had aroused -the sympathy of Marjorie and her associates.</p> - -<p>What began as the raising of a fund by which -to make the way easier for the strugglers gradually -led to a more ambitious plan on the part of Marjorie -and her allies. They dreamed of a free dormitory -for needy students which they determined -by steady conscientious effort should some day be -realized.</p> - -<p>With the coming of Commencement which had -seen Marjorie and her loyal supporters graduated -from Hamilton College had come also the unexpected -gift of a valuable piece of property as a site -for the new dormitory. The donor, Miss Susanna -Hamilton, was the great-niece of the founder of -Hamilton College, Brooke Hamilton. While the -eccentric old lady had been prejudiced for many -years against the college board, she was, on the -other hand, a warm friend of Marjorie Dean. During -Marjorie’s sophomore year she and Miss Susanna -had met by accident. Later, Miss Hamilton -had learned to love the sunny, gracious lieutenant. -As a result of that love had come Miss Susanna’s -amazing concession.</p> - -<p>During their senior year in college Marjorie and -Robin had turned their attention to the giving of -plays, concerts and other pleasing entertainments. -These amusements had been welcomed by the Hamilton -students and the two successful promoters had -reaped a goodly sum of money for the dormitory -project. The Nineteen Travelers, a confidential -little band which included Marjorie and Robin, had -also contributed several hundred dollars to the dormitory -fund by the curtailing of personal expenses, -elimination of all but a few luxuries and the practicing -of self-denial in the matter of dinners and -spreads.</p> - -<p>The presentation by Miss Susanna Hamilton of -the site for the dormitory had made the way clear -for the erection of the building in the not far distant -future.</p> - -<p>At the time of her graduation Marjorie had been -fully aware that hers and Robin’s beloved enterprise -would require their presence on the campus -the following autumn. The real work of their -project was yet to come. Robin was free to return -to Hamilton. Marjorie had not been certain that -her general and her captain would be willing that -she should remain away from home another winter. -She had left college for Sanford unable to assure -her classmates who were to return the next autumn -as post graduates that she would be then among -them.</p> - -<p>“So my prophetic Celtic bones did not lie,” Leila -said with teasing good humor. “Ah, Beauty, but -was not Leila the wise Irish woman? Did I not -prophesy that your general and your captain would -be sending you back to college?”</p> - -<p>“Of course you did. Your prophetic Celtic bones -told you how utterly unselfish they were,” Marjorie -returned warmly. “We didn’t exchange a -word about my coming back as a P. G. while they -were on the campus during Commencement week. -One evening soon after we were home Jerry and -Lucy came over and General said he had very important -orders for the Army. He read us a ridiculous -notice, ordering us to report at Hamilton College -for post graduate duty, not later than October -first, by order of General and Captain Dean. Jerry -and Lucy made such a racket over it that General -threatened to lock them in the guard house for -boisterous conduct.”</p> - -<p>Leila listened, immensely tickled by Mr. Dean’s -army tactics. Marjorie continued to tell her of -Jerry and her doings. She said nothing, however, -of Jerry’s brother. Entirely fancy free, Marjorie -had never spoken confidentially of Hal to any girl -save Constance. Jerry would not have ventured -to ask Marjorie a personal question concerning -him, intimate as the two girls were.</p> - -<p>“Why, Leila,” Marjorie said presently, going -back to her superior officers, “after the girls went -home that night I had a long talk with General and -Captain. I found they considered it my first duty -to come back to college. General pretended to be -very threatening. He dared me to try to stay at -home and see what would happen. I don’t like -to be away from them, Leila, but I love my work. -And it’s only begun on the campus. It will take -us a long time to pay for the dormitory. I may be -old as the hills by the time it is paid for,” was her -jocular prediction. “If I’m a tottering last leaf -when that happens, at least I will have grown old -in a good cause.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chVII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER VII.—SCENTING MYSTERY</h2> - -<p>Vera was now bringing the roadster to a stop -before the Ivy.</p> - -<p>“Hello, old stand-by!” Marjorie raised a cheerful -hand of greeting toward the familiar, one-story -white stucco building. Its ornamental bungalow -effect was made even more attractive by the traits -of English ivy which wandered across the front of -the shop and were trained above the door and the -narrow-paned windows.</p> - -<p>“Not another car parked here; glorious! This -is a positive streak of luck!” congratulated Vera.</p> - -<p>“The Ivy is popular with tourists this summer,” -Leila informed Marjorie and Robin as the girls -sauntered up the wide white stone walk four abreast. -“This is the first time since we came back that we -have been able to park in front of the shop.”</p> - -<p>Entering the tea room they steered a straight -course for one of four alcove tables. During the -college year these tables were difficult to secure -unless engaged beforehand. All four stood empty -now. A brief lull in the mid-afternoon business -of the Ivy had found the prosperous shop temporarily -deserted.</p> - -<p>“Who ever before saw an alcove table at the -Ivy empty?” commented Robin as the chums seated -themselves.</p> - -<p>“It’s almost as still here today as in chapel after -Prexy has read out an amazing notice,” declared -Vera lightly.</p> - -<p>“Observe how soon that chapel-like atmosphere -will depart. We are here,” Leila reminded.</p> - -<p>“No; this beatific state of sweet silence is due -to be shattered this very minute,” Robin agreed.</p> - -<p>“Right you are, Robin. It’s a grand palaver -we’re about to have. Let us order the luncheon -before the gabble party begins,” proposed Leila. -“Consomme, chicken à la king, potato straws, cucumber -salad and whatever your sweet tooth demands -for dessert? Yes?” She turned inquiring -eyes on her friends. “And a pot of tea, of course?”</p> - -<p>“It suits me. I wish I were going to eat that -dandy luncheon this minute. I’m so hungry,” -sighed Marjorie.</p> - -<p>Vera and Robin echoed Marjorie’s wish. The -waitress obligingly promised to hurry the consommé -to the hungry quartette and retired briskly -kitchen-ward.</p> - -<p>“Now who is going to start the gabble ball rolling?” -playfully demanded Vera.</p> - -<p>“You and Leila. Tell us about the campus.” Marjorie -and Robin answered in the same words, and -together. They both laughed. “One heart, one -mind,” Robin quoted.</p> - -<p>“It’s the same dear, green old stamping ground,” -Vera answered with proud fondness. “Only it almost -gives one the blues to walk from one end of -it to another without seeing any of one’s pals. Now -for news. Let me see. Kathie is coaching four -would-be-freshies who are staying at Acasia House. -They’re in for entrance exams. Miss Remson has -been away for a month, but she came back to the -Hall the day Leila and I put in an appearance there. -I sha’n’t tell you a thing about Miss Remson’s vacation -trip. She wants to tell you herself. She said -so.”</p> - -<p>“What an odd busy little woman she is.” Robin -smiled at mention of the brisk little manager of -Wayland Hall. “I love her funny abrupt ways. She -is so original.”</p> - -<p>“Jerry named her Busy Buzzy almost as soon -as she first saw her when we went to Wayland Hall -as freshies,” reminisced Marjorie. “Muriel was -quite fascinated by the name and those two villains -went on calling Miss Remson Busy Buzzy behind -her back for a long while. I was always afraid she -might hear them say it, but thank goodness she -never did. Muriel used to call Hortense Barlow, -her roommate, Mortense. She and Jerry had the -naming habit very hard that year.”</p> - -<p>Muriel’s name brought a grin to Leila’s face. -“That rascal,” she said with a chuckle. “What -might she be doing these fine summer days? Is -she coming back to college, Beauty? When we -asked her last June about it she would tell us nothing. -All she would offer was: ‘I can’t say. I’ll -have to think it over.’”</p> - -<p>“She’s still saying it,” Marjorie echoed the -chuckle. “She won’t tell even Jerry and me what -she intends to do about coming back. Jerry says -she is only trying to tease us, but I think she has -a reason for saying she is uncertain about it. She’ll -tell us when she is ready and not a minute before. -Muriel has always been just so.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll tell you all a bit of news,” put in Robin. -“Elaine is going to be married. Her engagement -will be announced next month. She is——”</p> - -<p>Three voices rippled an astonished “Oh-h-h.” -Three faces reflected the smile with which Robin -had announced the news. Elaine Hunter, during -her four years at Hamilton, had been the most popular -girl at Silverton Hall.</p> - -<p>“Who is Elaine going to marry, Robin?” asked -Vera interestedly. “He’ll have to be a wonder to -be worthy of her.”</p> - -<p>“A delightful young civil engineer. His name -is Kingdon Barrett. It is a real romance,” Robin -went on eagerly. “When Elaine was a tiny girl -and this Mr. Barrett a small boy they used to go to -the same beach every summer with their parents. -They played together on the sand and were good -friends. Then the Barretts went West and Elaine -never saw her boy playmate again until Commencement. -He was visiting Prexy’s son and saw her -name on the Commencement program. He actually -picked her out among the graduates. The moment -he had a chance he had Prexy Matthews, who -knows her family well, introduce him to her. He -told her who he was. They promptly fell in love -and now they’re engaged. Can you beat that?” -Robin spread open both hands in a challenging gesture.</p> - -<p>“We can not. Nor is it likely that we shall try. -I have no wish to fall in love, for isn’t it true that -I might never be able to fall out again? It is a pit -that I shall keep my feet well away from,” declared -Leila with unsentimental wisdom.</p> - -<p>“I can’t imagine you in love, you ridiculous girl,” -Vera’s infectious giggle went the round of the table.</p> - -<p>“Ah, if I were; and what a fine frenzy I should -be in. Like this,” Leila rolled her eyes, put on a -lovelorn expression and struck her hand to her forehead -with tragic force. She immediately rubbed -her hand. “Arrah, but I have a hard forehead,” -she remarked ruefully.</p> - -<p>The return of the waitress with the consomme -put a momentary check on the animated rolling of -what Vera had whimsically called the “gabble ball.” -The instant the hungry girls began their soup they -resumed conversation. While Leila and Vera had -many news items germane to the campus to relate, -none of them were of moment. Robin had much -concerning herself and Phylis Moore, her cousin, -now a senior, to tell. Marjorie’s news centered on -Jerry’s, Lucy’s, Muriel’s and her own doings during -vacation. Of Ronny she had almost no news -to relate. She had received but one letter from her -since Ronny had sped West to her beautiful ranch -home in California. The news of Elaine Hunter’s -engagement was, thus far, the banner surprise.</p> - -<p>“Oh, girls, have you seen Miss Susanna since you -came?” was Marjorie’s concerned question, as the -four lingered over the dessert of maple mousse and -<i>petit fours</i>. “I’ve been trying to ask you that question -from the first, and haven’t.”</p> - -<p>“Now what makes you think we have seen her?” -countered Leila with an elaborately innocent air.</p> - -<p>“That means you have,” Marjorie translated, -“and you,” she pointed an accusing finger at Leila, -“and you,” the finger moved on to Vera, “are trying -to keep something from me. I know <i>you’re</i> not -guilty, Robin. <i>You</i> look innocent. But this pair -look suspicious; oh, very suspicious.”</p> - -<p>“Now, Beauty, on your honor, do I look as -though there was anything I could refuse to tell you, -provided I knew it?” ingratiated Leila, her bright -blue eyes a-twinkle. She appeared to be wrestling -with a secret mirth which threatened to overrun her -mischievous face. She now made mysterious signs -to Vera whose smiles were also in evidence.</p> - -<p>“You look too tantalizing for words. So does -Vera. Oh, I know you both!”</p> - -<p>“So you take us for a precious pair of rogues; -eh, Beauty!” Leila made a smiling failure of trying -to appear reproachful. “Never mind. Midget and -Leila forgive you. Bring forth the mystic writing, -Midget. May Beauty’s bad opinion of us fly away -on swift wings!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chVIII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER VIII.—WHITE MAGIC</h2> - -<p>“So that’s the reason for these nods and becks -and wreathed smiles!” Marjorie made an energetic -grab at the square creamy envelope which -Leila was waving slowly back and forth before her -eyes. “I’ll assume it’s for me,” she said as her -fingers closed around it. Leila purposely allowed -the envelope to slip through her hand.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s from Miss Susanna!” Marjorie gave a -little joyful cry. “Now I know you must have seen -her. There’s no stamp on the envelope.”</p> - -<p>“Might not Jonas have brought the letter to the -Hall?” Leila suggested.</p> - -<p>“He might have, but he didn’t,” Marjorie cannily -retorted. “You’ve been to Hamilton Arms.” -Her eyes sparkled with the pleasure of her guess.</p> - -<p>“So we have,” Vera corroborated as though quite -surprised at the fact.</p> - -<p>“Yes, ‘So we have,’” mimicked Marjorie as she -hastily tore open the envelope and drew out the letter -it contained. “I’m going to read you Miss Susanna’s -letter. I shouldn’t, to pay you for teasing -me. But, as Muriel loves to say, ‘I’m always amiable -when I’m not peevish.’ I’m sure Miss Susanna -would like you to hear it,” she added more seriously. -She began:</p> - -<!-- begin:blockquote --> -<div class='bq'> - -<p class='ti0 sc'>“Dear Child:</p> - -<p>“How glad I shall be to see you again. I am looking -forward earnestly to your return to Hamilton. -I must remind you of your promise to spend at -least a part of your time with me at the Arms. I -am sending you my greetings and love by two -trusted messengers. I wonder if you will be as -greatly surprised and delighted to see them as I -was? Will you come to the Arms as soon as you -conveniently can after you arrive on the campus? -Bring Robin Page and Leila and Vera with you. -Pardon the fond impatience of</p> - -<div class='abrc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:bar --> - <div>“Your devoted friend,</div> - <div class='sc'>Susanna Craig Hamilton</div> - <!-- end:bar --> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<!-- end:blockquote --> - -<p>“How dearly she loves you, Marjorie,” Robin -said unenviously. “But then, how could she help -it? So do we all. You have reason to be proud -of having annexed the last of the Hamiltons to your -train, Marvelous Manager.”</p> - -<p>“I had nothing to do with it. No one could annex -Miss Susanna to anything,” Marjorie disclaimed, -shaking her head in sturdy fashion. “I always -loved her from the first. She was like an odd, rare, -lonely little bird to me. She was wonderful to me -for her own dearness and still more wonderful because -she was Brooke Hamilton’s great niece.”</p> - -<p>“You’ve had nothing to do with any good work -that has gone on on the campus in the past four -years,” Leila agreed with satiric emphasis. “So -you say. Now tell me, which of us could have softened -Miss Susanna’s heart to the college? Never -think you are not of small use in the world, Beauty.”</p> - -<p>“I decline to think of it at all,” Marjorie evaded. -“I’d rather think about when to go to see Miss -Susanna. Why can’t we go to the Arms today? -We’ve had such a late luncheon. Suppose we hurry -along to the Hall, see Miss Remson for a little while -then go to Hamilton Arms? By that time it will -be six o’clock and Miss Susanna will have had tea. -We can stay with her until about eight and stop at -Baretti’s to dinner on the way to the Hall.”</p> - -<p>“Fine, fine!” applauded Vera, “more marvelous -managing by M. M. Dean.” At the same time, happening -to catch Leila’s eye the two exchanged significant -glances which Marjorie intercepted.</p> - -<p>“There, I caught you exchanging eye messages!” -she exclaimed in triumph. “You know something -I ought to know that you haven’t told me.” She -glanced quickly at Robin. “No, Robin doesn’t -know this time, either.”</p> - -<p>“What is this odd talk I’m hearing?” Leila inquired -guilelessly. “Have I a thousand secrets because -I give Midget a friendly eye-beam?”</p> - -<p>“That was more than a merely friendly eye-beam,” -disagreed Marjorie. “Besides, Midget had -the mate to it ready.”</p> - -<p>“Did she, indeed?” Leila’s black brows lifted with -exaggerated interest. “You will have it that we -are a designing pair. Only the stars know we’re -not that. My luck is poor.” Leila sighed heavily. -“How can I prove my words. Not a star will be -around until tonight.”</p> - -<p>“You’re worse than designing. You’re a fake,” -emphasized Marjorie.</p> - -<p>Leila received the assertion with the broad, ingenuous -smile for which she was famed on the -campus. “I believe you, Beauty,” she said with an -admiring candor which produced ready laughter.</p> - -<p>“We ought to make a start for the campus, girls.” -Robin consulted her wrist watch.</p> - -<p>“Away we go. Remember this is my feast.” -Leila was on her feet, the luncheon check in one -hand.</p> - -<p>“Remember the Baretti dinner is to be mine,” -Marjorie impressed upon her companions. “The -Dean Entertainment fund <i>must</i> be used, you know.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t forget the grand banquet at the Colonial -tomorrow night,” Robin announced in a managerial -voice. “You’re not the only person on the campus -with an entertainment fund.”</p> - -<p>“My treat will be a dinner at Orchard Inn,” Vera -promised. “You two girls have never been to Orchard -Inn. Wait until you see it.” She grew enthusiastic. -“Leila and I just happened to discover -it while we were out driving. There; that’s all I -intend to tell you about it.”</p> - -<p>“Is not Midget cruel?” Leila shook a disapproving -head.</p> - -<p>“Is not Leila aggravating,” retaliated Vera, imitating -Leila’s tone.</p> - -<p>“Since you ask outright; yes, to both questions. -We couldn’t help thinking it, but we were too polite -to say so,” declared Robin. “We’ve a grievance -of our own against those two. Haven’t we, Marjorie?”</p> - -<p>“I should say we had.” Marjorie laid stress on -her reply.</p> - -<p>“Ah, no; you only think you have,” retorted -Leila.</p> - -<p>A flash of familiarity came with the words “you -only think you have,” but to Marjorie’s brain only. -Now she remembered. That was precisely what -Hal had said to her on their last boat ride when he -had declared that she had never grown up. Her -merry look, born of her companions’ repartee, faded, -to be replaced by a faint pucker of brow. To think -of Hal meant to recall the hurt expression on his -handsome features as she had last seen them.</p> - -<p>Quick as they had been to seek the cool inviting -hospitality of the Ivy, the re-united friends were -now as eager to depart from it upon their -light-hearted way to the campus.</p> - -<p>“I’m going to hit up a pace,” Vera slangily informed -them, swaggering up to the roadster in an -exact imitation of a racing motorcyclist she had recently -seen.</p> - -<p>Under her small practiced hands the smart roadster -was presently whisking through the town of -Hamilton at a rate just escaping that of speeding. -Soon they had left the dignified town to its late -afternoon drowsing and were skimming along Hamilton -Highway. A short stretch of straight road -then the highway began to wind in and out among -the collection of handsome private properties known -as Hamilton Estates. They were beautiful old-style -manor houses for the most part surrounded by green -rolling lawns and ancient trees.</p> - -<p>“Oh, girls!” Marjorie called from her place on -the front seat beside Vera. She and Robin had -exchanged places for the ride to the campus. -“Doesn’t Hamilton Arms look wonderful? As if -it were trying to show summer off at its very best.”</p> - -<p>“There’s not another place among Hamilton -Estates that compares with the Arms,” was Vera’s -positive opinion.</p> - -<p>“And why not? Didn’t Brooke Hamilton plan -it?” Leila made loyal demand. “Now maybe he -knew Nature better than she knew herself. I have -sometimes thought so.”</p> - -<p>“What a splendid tribute to him, Leila!” was -Marjorie’s admiring cry. “I must save that to tell -Miss Susanna. How she will love it.”</p> - -<p>“Ah-h.” Leila’s affable grin appeared. “Now -you begin to take account of my smartness.”</p> - -<p>“It seems almost unfriendly not to stop and go to -Miss Susanna now, but I hate to disturb her before -she has had her tea,” Marjorie commented with concern.</p> - -<p>“Don’t worry, Beauty,” Leila said. “We’ll be -coming back before long. We’ll not ’phone her from -the Hall. She has a taste for surprises. She only -knows you are soon to be here. She’ll be highly -pleased to have you walk in on her.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll surely do it,” Marjorie returned with a decided -little nod. She half smiled as she recalled a -time when she had waited patiently to receive a -summons into the eccentric old lady’s presence. The -peremptory invitation to appear at Hamilton Arms -on a certain day to tea had filled her with the same -sort of pleasant trepidation with which she would -have received a summons to a royal court. Hamilton -Arms was truly Miss Susanna’s castle, where -she reigned supreme, a lonely little chatelaine of a -big house.</p> - -<p>The smile still lingered on the lieutenant’s lips as -the car sped on and made the last turn in the highway -before the end of Hamilton Estates was reached. -Between the Estates and the campus of Hamilton -College which had now come into view lay the strip -of land on which was built the row of houses once -used by the workmen who had erected the college -buildings. Of the four occupants of the roadster -Vera’s eyes were the only ones turned away from -the territory at the left hand side of the road. The -other three girls were gazing in that direction with -varying expressions. Leila’s was purely mischievous. -She was enjoying the amazement which Marjorie -and Robin were showing.</p> - -<p>“Why—what—who——?” Stupefied by what -she was seeing Marjorie forgot to greet her old -friend the campus in her usual devoted fashion.</p> - -<p>Once, at this point along the straggling meadow -road, dignified by the name of the street, had stood -a shabby row of weather-stained houses. They had -extended for a distance of what might be measured -as two city blocks. An equally straggling cross -lane divided the row almost in halves. Those above -the cross lane looked more uncompromisingly ugly -and faded than ever under the afternoon sun.</p> - -<p>Those below the cross lane! Where were they? -Where they had once stood were now huge heaps -of broken brick, plaster, boards and the debris which -always attends the tearing down of buildings. The -ringing sound of many hammers in motion, the -snapping of yielding wooden beams, the rattle of -falling brick and plaster was in the air.</p> - -<p>Above the cross lane the upper block of houses -stood intact in its dingy loneliness. They appeared -to frown upon the wreck of their companions of -years.</p> - -<p>Simultaneously Robin and Marjorie had raised -a cry of astonishment. Vera promptly stopped the -car in order to give them a chance to view the surprise -at leisure. She dropped her hands from the -wheel and with Leila enjoyed their amazement.</p> - -<p>“Robin Page, can you believe your eyes?” Marjorie’s -voice achieved bewildered heights.</p> - -<p>“Seeing is believing. How did it happen? That’s -what is bothering me.”</p> - -<p>“These two know.” Marjorie turned in her seat, -including Vera and Leila, in a comprehensive wave -of the hand. “Now I understand what you two -were so full of laugh about. I knew you had something -else on your mind besides giving me Miss -Susanna’s letter. There’s a new firm on the campus, -it seems, Harper and Mason. And they’ve been -very very busy!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chIX'> - -<h2>CHAPTER IX.—THE FAIRY TALE PRINCESS</h2> - -<p>“Never blame us,” Leila said. “Weren’t those -houses but a rubbish heap the day we came, -Midget?” She appealed to Vera for corroboration.</p> - -<p>“Why, of course they were,” emphasized Vera. -“We thought you’d be surprised to see them torn -down. We were.”</p> - -<p>“Surprised?” Marjorie repeated exultantly. “I’m -simply amazed, astounded, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, -stupefied by such a piece of good fortune. -It’s just what both Robin and I wanted.”</p> - -<p>“We worried during Commencement week because -we hadn’t the time then to see a firm of Hamilton -contractors about having those houses torn -down. You and Vera knew that, Leila Harper. -You’re implicated in this surprise somehow,” Robin -accused.</p> - -<p>“My word as an honorable Irishman, I had not -a thing to do with it,” protested Leila, though she -laughed.</p> - -<p>“But you haven’t said you didn’t know who had. -Never mind. I know. It was Miss Susanna. It -must have been either she or President Matthews. -He wouldn’t have had——” Marjorie paused to -think of a phrase which would describe the stately -president’s disinclination to intrude upon their -project.</p> - -<p>“The nerve,” Vera supplied with a giggle.</p> - -<p>Marjorie fell suddenly silent as she watched the -busy workmen moving to and fro in their task of -demolishment. The work, hers and Robin’s great -enterprise, had begun. She was thrilled by the -thought of it.</p> - -<p>“Time to be going, Midget.”</p> - -<p>Leila’s voice broke into Marjorie’s dream of the -glory of work and the romance of worthy deeds. -Marjorie could not tear her glance from the fascinating -scene of labor. Yes; she and Robin had -Miss Susanna to thank for this unexpected lift in -their program.</p> - -<p>“No one but Miss Susanna could have thought of -this and then gone ahead and done it,” Vera now -said in a tone that partook of reverence as she -started the car. “She wanted you and Robin to see -what had been done as soon as you set foot in -Hamilton. She told us to make it our business to -lead you to it.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, wait until I see her!” Marjorie looked happy -anticipation. Now they were coming into full sight -of the velvety green campus. “Dear first friend, -how are you?” she cried, stretching a hand of greeting -toward the spread of living green.</p> - -<p>Vera smiled in sympathy of the whimsical fancy. -“You’re as full of whimsies as Leila,” she said. -“She can almost convince one that Ireland is full of -leprechauns and banshees.”</p> - -<p>From the beginning of the campus wall the distance -to the central gates of the college was quickly -covered by Vera’s car. In the tonneau of the car -Robin was still busy expressing her wonder to Leila -of the surprise Miss Susanna had given them. Marjorie, -however, remained silent as the roadster -neared the main entrance. She was in the grip of -many emotions. Her mind reverted to a day when -she and her four Sanford chums had entered the -gates of Hamilton College for the first time as explorers, -seeking the treasures of an unknown region.</p> - -<p>“Remember the stranger within thy gates,” she -was thinking. At first no one had “remembered” -them, to their grieved chagrin. Then had come -Helen Trent and then Leila and Vera. Their kindly -offices had marked the beginning of fellowship at -a college where snobbery had been the order of -things instead of democracy which the founder, -Brooke Hamilton, had made every effort to establish. -Now, at the beginning of her fifth college -year, she was returning to a Hamilton in which -democracy had become a watchword. She experienced -a swift exultation of spirit in thinking of -the blessed change.</p> - -<p>As the car passed between the massive stone gate -posts Vera slackened speed and continued more -slowly along the central campus drive. Came a -turn to the left. Wayland Hall raised its handsome -gray stone height only a few yards distant. -Against the emerald of its short cropped lawn -brilliant-hued verbenas, zenias and salvia flaunted beds -of luxuriant bloom. Later in the season, cannas, -gold and scarlet, and summer’s queen, who arrives -late, the ever popular dahlia, would have sway. Still -later, hardy chrysanthemums would carry on the -scheme of beauty.</p> - -<p>Over one side of the veranda a late-flowering, -creamy-pink climbing rose trailed its double fragrant -clusters. At an end of the veranda purple and -white clematis stars wove a mantle against a background -of green. The spicy scent of garden pinks -and tiger lilies was in the air. Wayland Hall rejoiced -in a riot of flowers of which Miss Remson, -its energetic little manager, took tender care. The -buzzing of a select delegation of bees engaged in a -honey-hunting expedition seemed the drowsing, -humming voice of mid-summer itself.</p> - -<p>On the veranda a small, wiry, familiar figure was -watching the approach of the automobile and waving -a preliminary greeting. Miss Remson’s thin -pleasant face grew brighter with welcome as she -stood at the head of the steps, her eyes on the car -as it slid onto the open space before the house.</p> - -<p>Marjorie was the first one out of the car. It had -hardly stopped when she skipped agily from it and -ran toward the erect waiting figure. Miss Remson -came half way down the steps to meet her and the -two embraced with joyful vigor.</p> - -<p>“My dear Marjorie, you are so very welcome. -How I have missed you and all of my girls this summer.” -Miss Remson still held Marjorie’s hands in -hers. “So glad you are to stay at the Hall with -Marjorie, Robina.” She offered a cordial hand to -Robin. “I am proud to have the illustrious firm of -Page and Dean under my roof.”</p> - -<p>“And what of the firm of Harper and Mason?” -demanded Leila. “Ah, there’s a firm of note! Now -tell me—where can you find it’s equal?”</p> - -<p>“Where, indeed?” was Miss Remson’s question.</p> - -<p>“They’re a couple of bandits. They held me up -behind the station and Lawless Leila snatched my -bag,” Marjorie accused. “While my supposed -partner, here,” she indicated Robin, “helped the -daylight robbers.”</p> - -<p>“Shocking!” Miss Remson did not look in the -least shocked. She entered into the spirit of teasing -with zest. “I must be careful not to allow them -inside the Hall. I’ll have their luggage brought -down and set out on the lawn. I had no idea I -was harboring two such desperadoes.”</p> - -<p>“Arrah, don’t be hard on us now!” Leila became -coaxingly Hibernian. “You should be thinking of -how lonely you were before Midget and I came -wandering into the Hall. Had you even a long-faced, -would-be freshie for company? You had -not.”</p> - -<p>“I can afford to leave ‘lonely’ out of my vocabulary, -now that I have some of my old household back -again.” Miss Remson exulted.</p> - -<p>“And for that you may escort our old friend, -Bean, as Leslie Cairns would have it, into the Hall,” -Leila graciously permitted. “Midget and I will be -doing the same for our old friend Page.” Leila -possessed herself of Robin’s traveling bag. Vera -doughtily insisted on carrying Marjorie’s bag.</p> - -<p>“Set the bags in the hall, girls, and come into the -dining room,” Miss Remson directed as they entered -the house. “I made a pitcher of tutti-frutti -nectar, your old favorite, and Ellen baked three-layer -cream cake this morning. Don’t tell me you -have just had luncheon.”</p> - -<p>“But we have,” Robin said regretfully. The -others swelled the chorus. Vera had an inspiration. -It dawned while the tall frosted glasses were being -filled.</p> - -<p>“Let us drink Miss Remson’s health in the nectar -now and keep the cake for a spread when we come -home tonight. Shades of the ten-thirty rule! We -can’t even remember what you sound like.”</p> - -<p>“There ain’t no such animal,” asserted Robin. -“I thought we were to dine at Baretti’s but the mind -of this aggregation seems to have changed.”</p> - -<p>“That sounded like Jerry. Wish she were here. -Giuseppe will have to miss seeing us tonight,” Vera -said lightly. “I’m in favor of a spread instead of -dinner. I know the rest of you are or I’d have -been drowned out with objections when I proposed -it.”</p> - -<p>“The spread will be spread right here in the dining -room,” Miss Remson announced. “I’ll expect -you when I see you. You’ll find me in the office. -As soon as you’re here the party will begin.”</p> - -<p>“You are as good as gold to us, Miss Remson,” -was Marjorie’s appreciation. Taking up her glass -of delicious amber-colored punch with its tempting -dashes of plump scarlet cherries she proposed a toast -to their kindly friend.</p> - -<p>“We forgot to tell you where we were going, -Miss Remson,” Marjorie said apologetically when -the commotion attending the drinking of the toast -had subsided. “We’re going to Hamilton Arms to -see Miss Susanna. Robin and I feel as though we -could hardly go there soon enough to thank her for -her latest perfectly splendid kindness to us. You -must know about it?” She fixed inquiring eyes on -the manager.</p> - -<p>“Yes; Leila and Vera told me. We thought you -would go to see her first of all.”</p> - -<p>“I wish you were going with us,” Marjorie said -regretfully.</p> - -<p>“This isn’t the age of miracles,” the manager -retorted with dry humor.</p> - -<p>“Some have come to pass. There are sure to -be more some day.” Marjorie chose to take this -hopeful view. She knew of no two persons whom -she would rather bring together than Miss Remson -and Miss Susanna Hamilton. She wished each -to discover and appreciate the other’s manifold virtues. -Miss Susanna, however, refused to extend -her acquaintance on the campus. Aside from the -two or three formal interviews she had had with -President Matthews none but the nine girls who -were Marjorie’s intimates had been accorded her -favor.</p> - -<p>“Into the midst of the toast drinking now dashed -a slender, brown-haired girl in a white linen frock. -Her color ran high with happy anticipation; her -eyes were dancing. Marjorie set her half-filled -glass of nectar on the table in time to prevent a -spill and gathered in the newcomer.</p> - -<p>“Katherine Langly, and such a whirlwind! -Who’d ever suspect you of being faculty?” she -cried. “Leila was going to telephone you.”</p> - -<p>“Who told you to come here? Now I know you -met a leprechaun hiding behind a tree on the campus -and he whispered in your ear and slipped away.” -Leila looked uncanny wisdom.</p> - -<p>“I never saw sign of one, but I did see old Amos. -I was over at Wenderblatts and he came there to -mow the lawn. He’d been mowing the campus just -below the Hall and he told Lillian and me that he -had seen Miss Dean and some more young ladies -getting out of a car in front of the Hall. As soon -as I heard I ran for the Hall. Lillian had callers -so she couldn’t come. She sent her dearest love.” -Katherine poured forth this explanation with an -animation she had never possessed in her freshman -and sophomore days at Hamilton.</p> - -<p>Marjorie watched her in fascination. She was -well content with the change in Katherine. Once -she had been a sad, subdued, retiring mouse of a -girl. She had now blossomed into a lively, -high-spirited young woman. The youngest member of -the faculty she was respected by her colleagues for -her brilliant mentality. She had also won high -honors in the Silver Pen, a literary sorority, as an -author of unusual promise.</p> - -<p>Kathie’s arrival was the signal for a second -round of nectar.</p> - -<p>“I’ll have to be it, much as I hate to,” Vera -presently mourned her tone particularly despairing.</p> - -<p>“What is it you must be? Nothing your Celtic -friend can save you from,” was Leila’s solicitous -but rash promise.</p> - -<p>“A time clock,” sighed Vera. “I’m the only one -of this fivesome who has any idea of the value of -time. If we don’t start for the Arms soon it may -be Miss Susanna’s bedtime before we arrive there.”</p> - -<p>“You must go with us, Kathie,” declared Marjorie. -“The more Travelers, the merrier. We’re five -of the old crowd, and I think it’s great to have even -that number together again.”</p> - -<p>“Of course I’ll go. You don’t think I’d let you -run off to the Arms without me, do you?” Kathie’s -eyes sparkled with the gaiety of the occasion.</p> - -<p>“We’d never do that; never-r-r!” Vera assured -with a dramatic roll of “r.”</p> - -<p>“You must have known what Robin and I did -not know until this afternoon,” Marjorie said happily. -“When were you at the Arms last, Kathie?”</p> - -<p>“Last Tuesday afternoon to tea. Yes, I knew.” -Kathie flashed Marjorie a radiant look. “I was so -glad. It was splendid in her.”</p> - -<p>Before Marjorie could reply Vera called out a -second warning. “Shoo, shoo, shoo!” she cried, -whisking in and out among her chums and relentlessly -driving them toward the dining room door. -Laughing, Miss Remson strolled after the fleeing, -giggling girls.</p> - -<p>The little manager was about to call a last word -to the party as they began to descend the steps when -the purr of an approaching automobile brought all -eyes to bear upon it. One of the railway station -taxicabs was now coming to a stop before the Hall. -The instant it stopped the driver sprang from it to -open the tonneau door. Next a girl in a silver gray -dust coat and close-lined gray hat which suggested -Paris emerged from the machine. She cast a slow -unhurried glance toward the group on the veranda, -then turned toward the driver in leisurely fashion -and addressed him.</p> - -<p>He dived into the tonneau, reappearing with a -large leather label-spattered bag. The new arrival -handed him his fare with the barest glance at him. -He picked up the bag and started with it toward the -veranda. She followed him, wearing an expression -of such utter boredom it impressed itself upon the -knot of girls to whom she was a stranger. One -other point also impressed them. That point was -her unusual beauty.</p> - -<p>It seemed to Marjorie that she had never seen a -girl so beautiful, and in such an unusual way. Her -thick fine hair was like pale spun gold as it showed -itself from under her small hat. Her skin was dazzling -in its purity. Her eyes reminded Marjorie of -the sea on a calm day. Only she could not be sure -whether they were blue or green. Her features -were not small but were admirably regular. She -carried herself with the lovely, indifferent grace of -a princess. Into Marjorie’s fanciful mind suddenly -popped the old-time fairy-tale beginning: “Once -upon a time there was a lovely princess.”</p> - -<p>“Now whom have we here?” muttered Leila in -Marjorie’s ear.</p> - -<p>Marjorie could not reply. The girl had reached -the steps and was now composedly mounting them. -She paid no more attention to the group on the -steps than if they had not been there. She made an -authoritative motion to the taxicab driver to place -her bag on the veranda floor beside the door. She -found the bell and rang it, looking even more bored.</p> - -<p>As the stranger’s fingers pressed the electric button -Miss Remson stepped to her side. “I am Miss -Remson, the manager of Wayland Hall. What can -I do for you?” she asked courteously.</p> - -<p>“Oh, are you Miss Remson?” She regarded the -brisk, little woman with indolent blue-green eyes. -Her sweet, indifferent drawl went perfectly with -her unconcerned appearance. “I am Miss Monroe. -You have my father’s correspondence. I am here a -trifle earlier than he mentioned in his letter to you. -That need not signify,” she added carelessly.</p> - -<p>Careful not to intrude the Five Travelers had -moved on down the steps and away from the Hall. -Vera had parked the car farther down the drive.</p> - -<p>“What a perfectly beautiful girl!” Marjorie -softly exclaimed when they got out of earshot of -the Hall.</p> - -<p>A murmur of agreement answered her.</p> - -<p>“I suppose she’s a would-be,” speculated Vera. -“Still, she can’t be. Miss Remson said yesterday -that she didn’t intend to take any would-be’s until -the week before the entrance exams. Then, only -those who had applied for board at Wayland Hall. -She never takes stray would-be’s.”</p> - -<p>“Whoever she may be, she comes from afar,” -informed Leila shrewdly. “Her traveling bag is -English, via Paris. She has the bored air of the -English, but, set me down in the streets of Paris, -and I’ll soon be at the shop which furnished her -hat and coat. If it is not one in the Rue de la -Pais called L’harmonie, then I am no witch woman. -The latest color plates they sent me show a coat like -that gray.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps she is a friend of Miss Remson’s,” was -Kathie’s suggestion.</p> - -<p>As the five had not heard the brief exchange of -words between the stranger and the manager they -impersonally concurred with Kathie. Again -hustled into the roadster by Vera they soon dropped -the subject of the beautiful arrival at the Hall for -the more personal one of Miss Susanna’s gracious -and unlooked-for help in the dormitory project.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, at Wayland Hall, Miss Monroe of -London and Paris was lounging gracefully in a -roomy willow rocker in the living room. She was -appraising her surroundings through two limpid, -but distinctly shrewd blue-green eyes and mentally -ticketing them “not half bad.”</p> - -<p>In her office Miss Remson was frowning as she -industriously consulted her letter file for the desired -correspondence. The perturbed manager was very -certain that she had not agreed to admit Miss Monroe, -or any other strange young woman, to Wayland -Hall in the middle of the summer.</p> - -<p>She gave a kind of annoyed cluck as she finally -found the desired correspondence between herself -and the newcomer’s father, who had signed his letters, -“Herbert Cecil Monroe.” They had been written -from a Paris address and had been accompanied -by satisfactory references. In them, however, her -permission had not been asked, nor had she agreed -to admit the daughter of her correspondent to Wayland -Hall before the formal opening of Hamilton -College.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chX'> - -<h2>CHAPTER X.—AT THE ARMS</h2> - -<p>“Where is she, Jonas?” Marjorie raised a cautioning -finger. She hardly breathed the question -for fear of Miss Susanna’s proximity.</p> - -<p>“She’s up in Mr. Brooke’s study, Miss Marjorie,” -Jonas replied in equally guarded tones. Miss Susanna’s -faithful retainer of years, the old man stood -the center of the group of charming youthful visitors. -He was smiling his vivid, crinkled smile as -though he was thoroughly enjoying the invasion.</p> - -<p>Contrary to expectation that Miss Susanna might -be taking her accustomed stroll about the grounds -after tea, the callers had reached the house without -having seen sign of her. Jonas had answered their -ring. He had come down the wide, thick-carpeted -hall to the open door in his slow dignified fashion. -His face had lighted beautifully at sight of the knot -of bright-faced girls peering laughingly at him -through the screen.</p> - -<p>It was for Marjorie, however, that his smile was -kindest. He shared Miss Susanna’s fondness for -“our young lady.” The cordial handshake he gave -her came straight from his worshiping heart.</p> - -<p>“She’s in the study quite a bit of late. <i>He</i> would -have liked that.” The old man nodded with conviction.</p> - -<p>“I’m sure he would have, Jonas,” Marjorie heartily -agreed. Her chums smiled concurrence. They -still had much of the same reserve for the courtly, -silver-haired retainer that they experienced toward -Miss Susanna. “We’d love to steal in on her there,” -she said with impulsive eagerness. “Do you think -she’d care to be surprised in that way?”</p> - -<p>“I know she would. Miss Marjorie.” Jonas -seemed very sure of this point. A faintly mischievous -expression had leaped into his keen blue eyes. -He surveyed her smilingly, as though debating -something in his mind.</p> - -<p>“What is it, Jonas?” Marjorie was quick to catch -the change of expression.</p> - -<p>“There’s a sliding panel in Mr. Brooke’s study, -Miss Marjorie. Miss Susanna sits in Mr. Brooke’s -chair always when she’s up there. Her back is -toward the panel. I can let you in that way, if you’d -like it.”</p> - -<p>“We’d <i>love</i> to.” Marjorie grew radiant. She -consulted her chums with dancing eyes. They made -genial signs of wholesale approval. “Are you sure -we won’t startle her?” she asked as a prudent afterthought.</p> - -<p>“She’s not one to be startled,” Jonas proudly assured. -“She’ll see you as quick almost as you see -her. She’s quick to see.”</p> - -<p>“Suppose I were to steal up behind her and slip -my hands over her eyes? Perhaps I’d better not do -that.” Marjorie grew doubtful.</p> - -<p>“Please do. She’d think it the best kind of fun,” -Jonas insisted. It was as though Miss Susanna -were a child for whom Jonas delighted to provide -entertainment. “She always says she likes adventure. -She feels as though she’d had a good many -adventures since she’s known you and the young -ladies here.”</p> - -<p>“We have had some real ones,” Marjorie assured -the old man. “All right, Jonas. We hereby appoint -you as guide of this secret expedition. Lead -on. We’ll do our best to give Miss Susanna a wee -little adventure. Not so little, either. A secret -panel; that sounds thrilling.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll put it in the first play I write for Page and -Dean this fall,” Kathie promised.</p> - -<p>Led by Jonas the secret expedition tiptoed silently -down the broad hall until they came to a lift. It -was situated between the library and dining room -and opened onto the second floor within a few feet -of the study. It was seldom used by the energetic -mistress of the Arms. Jonas opened its door without -a sound and the five girls crowded into it, leaving -him hardly enough space in which to operate -it. At the second floor the man stopped the cage -with a faint click and the adventurers stepped noiselessly, -one after another, into the hall.</p> - -<p>Jonas came last. He motioned the girls to follow -him. Down the hall he walked, past the study -and on to a small, railed-in balcony. The balcony -adjoined the back wall of the study and formed a -side of a little open square over the library after the -fashion of a patio. Exactly in the middle of the balcony -he stopped. The interested watchers saw him -run a practiced hand up and down the severely beautiful -wainscoting. Soundlessly, a smooth section -of the wainscoting, between two raised edges, and -fairly wide apart, slid to the left and disappeared -from view. Its vanishment left an open space about -three feet square.</p> - -<p>Mutely peering into the study they saw Miss Susanna -seated in Brooke Hamilton’s chair. At the left -of her, on the massive table lay a goodly pile of -papers, yellowish and time stained. In front of -her reposed another pile of official-looking papers -and opened letters. She was too deeply immersed -in a study of them to be aware of anything outside -of them.</p> - -<p>Jonas touched Marjorie’s arm. He made a motion -toward the aperture. She nodded in merry -understanding. Stealthily she lifted first one foot, -then the other, over the lower up-standing part of -the wainscoting. Holding her breath she reached -Miss Susanna’s chair in two noiseless steps. Two -soft hands found the old lady’s eyes and closed over -them.</p> - -<p>“Who-o-o-o!” Miss Susanna cried out like a -small tree owl. Like a flash her own sturdy hands -readied up and caught Marjorie by the arm. “I -know this game! I can guess who it is!” she cried -out like a jubilant child.</p> - -<p>“Guess, then,” growled Marjorie in as gruff a -voice as she could muster.</p> - -<p>“Marvelous Manager,” came with delighted certainty. -This particular nickname for Marjorie -seemed always most to amuse the old lady.</p> - -<p>“Right-o! And who else?” Marjorie persisted, -still keeping sight shut off from the chuckling victim.</p> - -<p>“That’s easy,” boasted Miss Susanna. “Leila and -Vera—yes—and Robin Page. Since you’re here, -child, she must be here, too. And Kathie. She’s -a fixture on the campus. Now drop those hands -and let me have a look at you,” impatiently commanded -the old lady.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXI'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XI.—OUT OF THE PAST</h2> - -<p>The prisoning hands fell away from Miss Hamilton’s -eyes revealing five laughing girls clustered -at one side of the historic chair in which the old -lady sat, her expression one of keen enjoyment. She -immediately held out her arms to Marjorie who -slipped into them and kissed Miss Susanna on the -forehead and on both cheeks.</p> - -<p>“My dear, dear child. So you surprised me after -all, though I have been on the watch for you. It was -all Jonas’ fault. He fixed up this scheme.” Miss -Susanna heartily returned Marjorie’s caress with -every evidence of affection. Next she motioned -each of the others to her and kissed her on the -cheek, a mark of favor they had not expected from -the matter-of-fact mistress of the Arms.</p> - -<p>“You stole a march on me, and Jonas helped -you!” she exclaimed when the first babel of greeting -had subsided. “I’m glad you found me here. -I’m going to do something for you now that I think -you’ll like. Come, guess what. You made me -guess.”</p> - -<p>“Show us something of interest that was Mr. -Brooke Hamilton’s,” Marjorie made instant guess.</p> - -<p>“Um-m-m; partly right,” Miss Susanna put on -a baffling expression.</p> - -<p>“It’s a letter, or one of those papers,” hazarded -Vera. “I mean what you are going to show us.”</p> - -<p>“Right again, but not altogether right.” Miss -Susanna was enjoying the moment of suspense.</p> - -<p>“It’s tea I can read in your eye, and I’ll guess -again it’s been put off till this time each night this -week,” Leila slyly asserted. “Oh, I have a fine reasoning -power.” Leila showed her white teeth affably, -“though there are those who do not believe -it.”</p> - -<p>“Clever Leila!” Miss Susanna clapped her hands. -“You’ve guessed the other half of my intention. I -decided to have my tea late this week in case you -girls dropped in on me. Kathie said that Marjorie -would probably arrive when she came on the late -afternoon train. I guessed the firm of Page and -Dean would meet at the station,” she said with -humor.</p> - -<p>“We did,” Marjorie’s light tone grew serious. -“Oh, Miss Susanna, we <i>saw</i>, coming to the campus. -We hardly know how to begin to thank you for the -help you’ve given us. It means so much to us, who -wish the work on the dormitory to progress, but -even more to the girls who will live in the dormitory -when it is completed.” Marjorie had re-taken the -old lady’s hands in hers, pressing them gratefully.</p> - -<p>Her friends and Jonas stood looking on at the -fond little scene between the once crabbed mistress -of the Arms and the gentle girl whose high principles -and unfailing courtesy had won her the -friendship of the difficult, embittered last of the -Hamiltons.</p> - -<p>“Never mind about that dormitory business -now!” Miss Susanna held up an imperious hand. -“I’ll talk with you of it some other day—perhaps.” -She broke into a smile. “Jonas,” she turned to the -old man, “bring the tea up here.”</p> - -<p>“I used to have tea here occasionally with Uncle -Brooke when I was a young girl,” she told her interested -guests. “He had tea promptly at half-past -four every afternoon when he was at home, -and usually in the study.”</p> - -<p>The Travelers listened almost breathlessly for -her to continue. They were “positively greedy” for -even scraps of information concerning the founder -of Hamilton.</p> - -<p>“All the tea he used was shipped to him from -China. He never ate anything for tea except a few -small, sweet English crackers. But how he liked -tea! He would drink three cups, always. When -I had tea with him he would have Jonas bring me -the choicest marmalade and conserves, and little -fancy rolls and sweet cakes. He would make an -occasion of our tea drinking.” Miss Susanna’s face -softened. She smiled reminiscently.</p> - -<p>A pleasant silence ensued, broken only by the -slight rustling of the papers on the table which Miss -Hamilton was turning over. She drew from among -the stack a long sheet of yellowed fine paper. It -was spread open and written closely on one side.</p> - -<p>“While we are waiting for Jonas to bring the -tea,” she said, an absent look in her eyes, “I will -keep my promise and read you a letter that Uncle -Brooke intended for the Marquis de Lafayette.”</p> - -<p>A sighing breath went up from the listeners who -were now seated about the library table.</p> - -<p>“It seems so strange; to know some one who -knew someone else who knew Lafayette,” Robin -said wonderingly.</p> - -<p>“So it does, until one stops to consider how long -it was after the war of the Revolution before Lafayette -came back to visit America. He came here -in the year of 1824. Uncle Brooke was a very -young man then. He was my great uncle, you must -bear in mind. Lafayette was about sixty-six years -of age when he made the American visit. He died -ten years afterward. He and Uncle Brooke corresponded -regularly during the last years of Lafayette’s -life. The letter I shall read to you is, I -imagine, the draft of a letter he composed to Lafayette. -It is neither finished nor signed.”</p> - -<p>With this explanation Miss Susanna began in her -concise utterance:</p> - -<!-- begin:blockquote --> -<div class='bq'> -<p class='ti0 sc'>“My Dear Friend:</p> - -<p>“How swiftly time passes! I can scarcely realize -that almost two years have elapsed since you visited -the United States. I had hoped to come to you in -France, not later than next autumn, but a peculiar, -and what I trust may be a fortunate, turn in my -affairs makes it necessary for me to sail for China -next month. It is my expectation to remain in -China for at least a year and embark upon what -promises to be a successful business venture.</p> - -<p>“I am greatly concerned in thinking of you and of -the future of my country. How little I gave you -mentally and spiritually in comparison with all you -gave me—the true essence of lofty patriotism; the -counsel of a mind among minds. I shall ever keep -before me your nobility of spirit; your boundless -generosity to America; your unfailing consideration -toward me. I am of the opinion that my best effort -to please you must lie in helping my country. What -does our United States need that I can give? My -life? Always at call. Yet how else may I perform -my patriotic part?</p> - -<p>“Only to you can I confide an idea, recurring often -to me since the death of my mother, which occurred -when I was a boy of fifteen. She was an exceptional -woman who, with her two brothers, had been educated -by a tutor in England. She was a staunch -advocate of the higher education for young women. -I have never since known her equal. She, herself, -being the strongest proof of her belief. Having -known <i>her</i> can I, therefore, be less convinced of the -grace and necessity of the higher education for -young America’s daughters as well as her sons.</p> - -<p>“In loving memory of my mother I shall some day -found a college for young women after my own -heart. I have not much faith in polite female academies. -My mind leans toward colleges for young -women, conducted in precisely the same manner as -are colleges for young men. Nor does it seem to -me that the faculty of such institutions of learning -should needs be composed entirely of women. The -professors in our colleges for young men are far -more proficient in learning than the majority of -the women engaged to teach girls in the few seminaries -and academies of the United States.</p> - -<p>“In these painful, formative days of our republic -young women should receive the same educational -advantages as young men. Let us train them so -that they in their turn may become competent instructors. -Let not their budget of learning consist -of a few polite ologies, lightly learned, to be as -lightly forgotten. I believe men have better brains -than women. Yet they lack in intuition. Women -are keener of perception. Thus it would appear——”</p> - -</div> -<!-- end:blockquote --> - -<p>Miss Susanna looked up from the paper. “That’s -all,” she said abruptly. “I suppose he made a copy -of this letter, finished it and sent it to the Marquis. -I wished to read it to you because, in looking among -his papers and letters, this is the first mention he -made of his dream of building a college for women.”</p> - -<p>For a moment no one spoke. The spell of the -unfinished letter of long ago gripped the hearers. -The generous, purposeful personality of its writer -made itself felt across the years.</p> - -<p>Jonas, trundling a tea wagon into the study, -brought them out of the historic past.</p> - -<p>“How I wish we knew the rest of it,” Marjorie -said, her brown eyes childishly wistful.</p> - -<p>“I wish you knew, but you never will,” was Miss -Susanna’s crisp reply. “I’ve hunted for what might -be a continuation of that letter on another, similar -sheet of paper, but have never found it.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a glorious letter, even if it isn’t complete. -It is full of hope and courage and resolve and conviction!” -Katherine’s tones rang with admiration.</p> - -<p>“How beautifully he wrote of his mother,” supplemented -Vera.</p> - -<p>“How well he wrote it all,” was Leila’s sweeping -praise. “Too well not to have——” She paused. -Carried away by impulse she had forgotten for the -time the reason why the world could not have the -history of a great man and his great work.</p> - -<p>The sudden scarlet which flew to her own cheeks -was no brighter than that which sprang into Miss -Hamilton’s.</p> - -<p>“I know what you meant, Leila. Even a few -months ago I would have been so cross with you for -having said what you were thinking.” Miss Susanna -looked up from her arranging of the tea set on the -library table and met Leila’s eyes squarely. “I’m -not—now. You may finish what you started to say.” -The permission was more like a half defiant command. -It was as though the old lady had a sneaking -desire to hear it.</p> - -<p>“Too well not to have the world read it,” Leila -repeated. “It’s of him I was thinking, Miss Susanna. -He has a right to the high place he made -for himself.”</p> - -<p>“I wish the <i>world</i> knew him as I knew him—but -not Hamilton College!” the old lady cried out in -petulant vexation. “I should be happy to publish -his biography if I had not the college to hold me -back. The Board is only too eager for information -concerning Uncle Brooke. The moment the world -received it, they would receive it, too. The members -of that miserable Board would merely laugh at me -because they had gained their point through me in -a roundabout way. Whatever concessions I have -made have been made recently, and only to please -you girls. Most of all, to please Marjorie. My -reasons for turning against the Board of Hamilton -College were sound. Still, I know that in the same -circumstances Uncle Brooke would have made allowance -for their despicable behavior. But I am I, -Susanna Hamilton, stubborn as a mule, so my father -sometimes said. I can revere Uncle Brooke with -all my heart, but I can’t be like him.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XII.—IN LINE FOR TROUBLE</h2> - -<p>“Truly, Leslie Cairns, you make me tired!” Natalie -Weyman clasped her bare arms behind her -head with a jerk so petulant as to plainly convey -her complete dissatisfaction. She surveyed Leslie, -who lay stretched at ease on a brocaded chaise -longue, with cold, displeased eyes.</p> - -<p>“So you’ve often said,” was the laconic return. -Leslie did not even trouble to look toward Natalie. -She was not in the least concerned at the ungracious -opinion of her chum.—“Well, I mean it,” scolded Natalie. “Why must -you go running off to Hamilton in the very middle -of the summer when we’re having a good time here -at Newport?”</p> - -<p>“Glad you hail it as a good time,” Leslie’s plain, -roughly hewed features relaxed from the stoical -expression she carefully cultivated to a half satiric -grin. “I think Newport’s a dead burg this summer. -Never saw such a collection of stupids gathered -in one village before.”</p> - -<p>“You only say that,” derided Natalie. “You’ve -simply taken a notion to go to Hamilton. Goodness -knows why. You’re the most stubborn, obdurate -girl!”</p> - -<p>“I haven’t asked you to go there with me, have I?” -The questioned bordered on a sneer.</p> - -<p>“I wouldn’t go if you were to beg me to,” Natalie -flashed back.</p> - -<p>“You’d go if I made a point of it,” Leslie contradicted -with assured insolence. She raised herself -from the couch on one elbow and eyed her friend -disdainfully.</p> - -<p>“No, Leslie, I would <i>not</i>.” Natalie seemed very -certain on this point. “I’d not go within fifty miles -of Hamilton College again after the way we left it. -I really wonder at your nerve in doing it.”</p> - -<p>“Going to weep over one small flivver?” Leslie -grew more ironical. “Forget it. You know how -much I love to talk of it.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t mention it very often,” Natalie said bitterly.</p> - -<p>“The less often, the better. If I hadn’t business -of my own to attend to I’d go after Dulcie Vale’s -scalp. Venomous little traitor!” A deep scowl did -not add to Leslie’s appearance.</p> - -<p>“She’s in Europe. She crossed on the same -steamer with Joan Myers. She tried to talk to Joan, -but Joan couldn’t see her for a minute. I had a -letter from Joan from Paris.” Natalie volunteered -this information.</p> - -<p>“Hm-m. Looks as though she’d keep her scalp -for awhile,” Leslie observed with grim humor. “I’ll -catch her sometime—coming or going. What I’d -rather do is hang around dear old Hamilton,” Leslie -put mocking sarcasm into the last three words, -“and see what I can put over on Bean.”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?” Natalie looked mystified. -“What could you do now? Bean has a home, I -believe. One would naturally suppose she’d go to -it after having been graduated with honors at Hamilton.” -The bitterness of Natalie’s tone indicated -the jealous envy which mention of Marjorie Dean -had aroused afresh.</p> - -<p>“That’s as much as you know about it. I happen -to know that Bean will be in Hamilton and on -the campus soon, if she’s not there already.”</p> - -<p>“How do you happen to know it?” Natalie’s face -registered incredulity, then curiosity. Second -thought caused her to remember that Leslie had -ways of her own of finding out things.</p> - -<p>“Never mind how.” Leslie turned tantalizing. -“‘Nuff’ said.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t think of anything you could do to spite -Bean. You tried your last trick when you bought -that property you thought she wanted for her precious -dormitory. What happened?” was the sarcastic -retaliation.</p> - -<p>“You’ll never be celebrated as a great thinker, -Nat,” Leslie drawled, ignoring her companion’s displeasing -question. “Leave it to me to make matters -hum for Bean. I’m going to Hamilton on the -six-thirty train in the morning. I’ll have something -to tell you, you’d better believe when I come back.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, ‘Leave it to me,’” mimicked Natalie, -an angry light in her gray-blue eyes. “You’re crazy, -Leslie Cairns,” was her added scathing opinion.</p> - -<p>“I’m not so much of a nut. What?” Leslie took -no more umbrage at Natalie’s rudeness than she -would have at the buzzing of a fly. “Try to get it -across your brain that I’m a business shark now, -Nat. Will you?” she said with exaggerated patience. -“I’ve sixty thousand dollars tied in a hard -knot in that bunch of rickety shacks just off the -campus. Those ancient corn cribs have to come -down. What about my garage?”</p> - -<p>“That for your garage.” Natalie snapped contemptuous -fingers. Leslie’s insinuation that she -was “thick” was the final drain on her patience. -“You’ll never make a go of it. It’s too far from -the campus,” was her wet blanket prediction.</p> - -<p>Leslie merely threw back her head and laughed in -the noiseless, hobgoblin fashion for which she was -noted among her few friends. Her silent, insolent -merriment stung Natalie far more deeply than a retort -could have done.</p> - -<p>“Well it is.” Natalie repeated, determined to -hold her own.</p> - -<p>The laughter died out of the other girl’s face to -be replaced by a lowering, bullying scowl.</p> - -<p>“I tell you it is <i>not</i>,” she emphasized in tones intended -to forbid further contradiction. “Because -it isn’t in the same vicinity as the other garages is -no sign it won’t pay me to put up a garage on my -new property. I’m going to build the kind of -garage the Hamilton gang will cry for. I may run -it myself.”</p> - -<p>“Wha-t-t!” In her astonishment Natalie half -rose from her chair. She sat down again and gave -Leslie a long-suffering glance, as if she could not -credit what she had just heard.</p> - -<p>Leslie was enjoying her chum’s amazement. Of -the eighteen girls who had composed the San Soucians, -the club of girls who had been expelled from -Hamilton College during their senior year, Natalie -Weyman was the only one who had remained -friendly with Leslie Cairns. The other members -of the Sans, though betrayed into expulsion by the -treachery of Dulcie Vale, chose to place the major -share of the blame upon Leslie’s shoulders. If Leslie -had not arraigned Dulcie and ousted her from -the Sans in their assembled presence, Dulcie would -not have betrayed them. Or thus they argued. Leslie, -who had been their leader, became a detested -stranger.</p> - -<p>While Natalie Weyman had cultivated Leslie assiduously -at college because of her unlimited purse -and flagrant disregard for rules, she had grown to -like Leslie for herself. Because she was thoroughly -selfish she inwardly approved of Leslie’s calloused -selfishness. After the Sans’ expulsion from college -she had not failed to keep in touch with Leslie.</p> - -<p>At present she was entertaining Leslie at “Wavecrest,” -the Weyman’s Newport villa. Leslie had -arrived there only three days before with the drawling -announcement: “I may stay, if you can rustle -up some excitement.” Natalie had gladly promised -“the excitement” in the shape of a round of smart -social events. Now with her plans nicely formulated -Leslie had ungratefully taken it into her head -to go to Hamilton.</p> - -<p>“I’ll say it once more. Be sure you get it this -time. I may run my garage myself.”</p> - -<p>“You wouldn’t.” Natalie shook an unbelieving -head.</p> - -<p>“Why not?” Leslie coolly returned. “Think what -an opportunity I’d have to keep a line on the knowledge -shop.”</p> - -<p>“Why should you care what goes on there now?” -Natalie cried in exasperation. “You’re out of it, -and ought to be glad of it. I am, I’m finding out -every day that no one really in society cares much -whether one was graduated from college or not. -Smart schools for girls count for more.”</p> - -<p>“I care, but not in the way you think.” Leslie -suddenly swung her feet from the chaise longue to -the floor. She sat very straight and viewed her -chum somberly. “I don’t care a hoot for Hamilton -because it is Hamilton,” she continued, her voice -gruff. “It’s Bean’s performances that interest me. -Not one of the Sans lost out as I did in getting the -sack from Hamilton. I lost my father. He’s the -only person I know that I ever loved. I like you, -Nat, even though we can’t keep on affable terms -five minutes at a stretch. But I <i>worship</i> my father.” -Leslie’s heavy features went from merely heavy to -downcast. “Bean is to blame for everything that -went against me at Hamilton,” was her sulky accusation.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Les, you know that is ridiculous—to blame -even that little prig for <i>everything</i>!” Natalie had -truth enough in her shallow composition to realize -the utter fallacy of such a statement.</p> - -<p>“She was there, wasn’t she? Well, then, what -more do you want?” Leslie did not wait for her -friend to answer her questions. “Bean was a disturber. -I knew she would be the instant I first saw -her. I did what I could to keep her down, but she -bobbed up on every corner. Her crowd stuck to -her; mine double-crossed me. She won; I lost my -sheepskin and—my father. I’m not likely to forget -that. She butted into the way the Sans had -things regulated at Hamilton and tried to turn an -exclusive college into a public school. She did it -purposely. That makes her responsible, her and her -Beanstalks, for <i>everything</i>. I chose to look at it in -that way. So I’m going back to dear old Hamilton -to mind my own business and maybe snarl up Bean’s -affairs a trifle. What?”</p> - -<p>“You are foolish to think of such a thing. Stick -to your own affairs and let Bean alone. <i>You’ll</i> land -in a snarl if you try to start mischief, Les.” There -was anxious warning in the advice.</p> - -<p>“Save your breath.” Leslie rose to her feet, her -eyes on the jeweled watch encircling her wrist. “I’m -going to hit the down. I must be up in time for -the six forty-five train in the morning. Thank -goodness I won’t have to trail Gaylord along this -time.” Mrs. Alice Gaylord, Leslie’s hired chaperon, -had been graciously given permission to visit a sister -while Leslie visited Natalie. Leslie had determined -that she would make the trip to Hamilton alone, -defying convention.</p> - -<p>“When are you coming back, Les?” At the last -Natalie gave in half amiably to what she could not -change.</p> - -<p>“Ask me something easier. It depends upon how -long Bean lingers on the campus. I’m only going -up there now to plan my campaign. I may not pull -down my corn cribs till fall. As for landing in a -snarl—not friend Leslie.” She strolled to the door -of Natalie’s boudoir, where the two had been lounging. -Hand on the door, she paused. “Bean is in -line for trouble.” Her heavy brows drew together -ominously. “I told you I was a business shark. I -intend she shall know it, too.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXIII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIII.—AN UNGRACIOUS BEAUTY</h2> - -<p>True to their word the five Travelers left Hamilton -Arms at a quarter to nine o’clock in order to -spend a little time with Miss Remson before retiring. -On the way to Wayland Hall the letter written -by the master of the Arms in the heyday of his -youth to the Marquis de Lafayette, his mature counsellor -and friend, formed the chief topic of conversation.</p> - -<p>“One might call that letter the cornerstone of -Hamilton,” Leila said thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” chimed in Vera. “Lafayette seems to -have been the favored confidant of Mr. Brooke’s -magnificent idea. At that time many of the country’s -ablest men did not believe in the higher education -for women. He was unique for those days.”</p> - -<p>“It was because he loved his mother so dearly -that he could understand what a college would mean -in the training of girls,” was Robin’s sober conjecture. -“I hope he copied the letter and sent it.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I am sure he sent it,” Marjorie sprang into -ready defense of her idol. “I imagine he always -tried to finish whatever he set out to accomplish. -Otherwise he could never have become the founder -of Hamilton College.</p> - -<p>“It seems strange to hear read a letter from one -great man of long ago to another. Lafayette seems -longer ago in time than he really was. My uncle -has a letter which was written by George Washington. -It describes a horse Washington offered a -certain man for sale. The horse’s name was Magnolia. -My uncle bought the letter from a dealer in -rare books and letters. I’ll write him and ask him -to send me a typed copy of it,” Robin volunteered.</p> - -<p>“Do; then I shall believe that Washington was -no fairy tale. When I was a little girl didn’t I believe -that he belonged in an American fairy tale? -It was my old nurse who told me that he was an -American king who had cut down one hundred -cherry trees at a stroke and who went to war in an -invisible coat of mail so that he was never hurt. She -had ideas of her own about him.” Leila gave an -enjoying chuckle.</p> - -<p>It was the signal for more chuckles from her -companions. It was difficult to say which was more -diverting, Leila’s droll remarks, or her inimitable -manner of making them.</p> - -<p>A brief lull in the conversation followed laughter. -Marjorie broke it. She said with sudden irrelevance: -“I’m not curious to know Miss Susanna’s -grievance against the Board. I only wish it could -be adjusted. It doesn’t seem right that Mr. Brooke -Hamilton, who gave his time and heart and soul -and spirit to such a noble enterprise, should remain -a mystery. Miss Susanna feels so about it at times. -She has said so to me. But there are more times -when she doesn’t; when she thinks only of her own -grievance,” Marjorie ended ruefully.</p> - -<p>“That’s the most I ever heard you say on such -a ticklish subject, Beauty.” Seated beside her in -the tonneau, Leila laid a light hand over one of -Marjorie’s.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know whether it is the most I’ll ever say, -or not,” Marjorie responded. “I’d rather not say it -to Miss Susanna, but I would if I felt that I should,” -she continued with honest conviction.</p> - -<p>Kathie, occupying one of the small seats of the -tonneau, now leaned forward. “Professor Wenderblatt -told me the other day that there had been several -changes made in Board members since Miss -Susanna’s disagreement with them. I wonder if -she knows it?” she said speculatively. “If she -doesn’t, and were to be told of it, perhaps it might -make a difference in her attitude.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve never mentioned the Board to her. She -has always spoken of it first to me, and then not -often. I’m sure it would displease her if I were to -speak of it first to her. It’s too hard a matter for -me to decide just now. She’s been generous to -Hamilton through us in the way Mr. Brooke -would have been. I couldn’t bear to displease her. -It would seem so ungrateful. On the other hand, -there’s our Alma Mater. We children should stand -bravely for her welfare,” Marjorie reasoned loyally.</p> - -<p>“I believe it will all work out for the best.” Katherine -was steadily hopeful of tone. “I think what -Epictetus said about such conditions is consoling. He -said: ‘Do not choose to have all things happen as -you would have them happen, but rather choose to -have them happen as they will. Then shall the -current of your life flow free.’”</p> - -<p>“Thank you, Kathie.” Marjorie’s half pensive -features brightened wonderfully. “That’s an inspiring -quotation, and I shall learn it this instant -so as to have it handy to cheer me when I need to -be ‘chirked’ up, as Delia our maid says. Please -repeat it, and slowly.”</p> - -<p>Katherine obligingly repeated the quotation several -times. Marjorie repeated it softly after her. -Leila was so busy leaning forward, talking in -Robin’s ear she did not hear it.</p> - -<p>“All passengers kindly get out of this car and -walk. Step lively.” Vera’s voice, raised to a mild -shout, broke in upon the bit of memorizing the two -were earnestly engaging in. She had brought the -roadster to a stop before the main gates of the -campus and was now cheerfully inviting her companions -to vacate it.</p> - -<p>“A nice way to take us out to ride,” Leila grumbled. -“Are we not good enough to be carried to -our own doorstep? What a treacherous disposition -you have, Midget. Now I have found you out, and -in time. I thank my stars.” Leila left the car in -her most leisurely manner.</p> - -<p>“Oh, hurry up, slowpoke,” giggled Vera, taking -hold of Leila’s arm to forward her progress from -the car to the drive. “Robin likes my disposition. -She hasn’t found me out yet. She and I are going -to take the car to the garage. Anybody else want -to go, too?”</p> - -<p>“Not I. I know when I’m unwelcome.” Leila -tossed her head with a haughty air.</p> - -<p>Katherine and Marjorie, far from resenting the -sudden order to “get out and walk” were already -strolling slowly up the drive. Leila turned her back -on Vera with a great show of scorn and overtook -the strolling two. They found Miss Remson on -the veranda, seated in a large willow rocker which -made her appear unusually small.</p> - -<p>“Back at last,” she greeted in her lively tones. -“What cheer? Was it dinner at Baretti’s or tea at -Miss Hamilton’s?”</p> - -<p>“Miss Susanna had a late tea on purpose for -us,” Marjorie replied. “Life has been one glorious -succession of eats today since I got off the train at -Hamilton station.” This with an accompanying -sigh of utter well-being.</p> - -<p>“Don’t forget the spread,” the little manager reminded. -“It’s ready.”</p> - -<p>“So are we,” declared Katherine brightly, “or we -shall be when Vera and Robin come from the garage.”</p> - -<p>“No true Hamiltonite could resist a ten o’clock -spread even if she had been lunched, toasted and -tea’d,” Marjorie cheerily asserted.</p> - -<p>“No one could resist Ellen’s cream cake, either. -I know that,” supplemented Kathie.</p> - -<p>Vera and Robin presently returned and the quintette -accompanied Miss Remson into the dining -room where the “ten o’clock spread” awaited them. -There was not only Ellen’s delicious cream cake but -dainty sandwiches and fruit salad as well. Though -none of them were actually hungry, a spread was a -spread on any occasion and therefore not to be -passed by.</p> - -<p>As they sat about one of the smaller tables, enjoying -the little good-night feast, Miss Remson said -with a kind of hesitating abruptness: “Girls, I have -broken my rule of rules for the first time since I -undertook the management of Wayland Hall. I have -accepted a freshman far in advance of the regular -opening of the Hall.”</p> - -<p>Interest flashed strongly into five pairs of eyes -fixed on Miss Remson. The grim set of the little -woman’s jaw indicated her evident displeasure with -herself at the departure from her few iron-clad rules. -With the half chagrined admission came to each -girl simultaneously a remembrance of the stranger -they had seen in the late afternoon when leaving -the Hall for Hamilton Arms.</p> - -<p>“Do you mean the girl who came here this afternoon -in a taxi as we were starting for the Arms?” -Vera lifted the silence that had ensued after the -manager’s remarks.</p> - -<p>“She is the one I mean.” Miss Remson nodded -slowly and without enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>“The fairy-tale princess!” Marjorie exclaimed involuntarily, -then laughed.</p> - -<p>“She had that look, I grant you,” Leila agreed. -“Only it’s from Paris she comes, and not out of a -fairy tale.”</p> - -<p>“Correct, Leila. She arrived at New York City -yesterday on a French steamer, and came straight -from New York to Hamilton. Early last spring -her father wrote me, applying for admission for her -at the Hall to begin with the week before the opening -of college and during her college year, provided -she should pass her entrance examinations. Instead -of abiding by the agreement which I made with him -her father has sent her to the Hall several weeks too -soon. There is nothing to be done in the matter -save to allow her to remain. She tells me that her -father sailed for Africa several days before she -sailed for the United States. He joined an exploring -expedition up the Amazon River.” Miss Remson’s -face registered her disapproval in the matter.</p> - -<p>“Don’t worry, Miss Remson,” Marjorie comforted. -“We will take this would-be freshie under -our august P. G. wings and bring her up a credit -to Hamilton.”</p> - -<p>“The five Travelers to the rescue!” promised -Robin with a wave of the hand.</p> - -<p>Leila, Vera and Katherine were equally ready to -extend a welcoming hand to the stranger from -across the sea. Miss Remson surveyed her guests, -a bright smile gradually driving away her annoyed -expression.</p> - -<p>“You girls are more hospitable than I. I ought -to be ashamed of myself. I must try to live up to -you.” She paused, then proposed: “Suppose you -go to her room and invite her to the spread? She -has number 8.”</p> - -<p>“You’re a jewel, Miss Remson.” Vera patted -one of the manager’s hands.</p> - -<p>“Nothing like social eats to promote acquaintance,” -nodded Robin.</p> - -<p>“Come on.” Leila was already half way to the -door. “Let us visit our would-be in a body and -speak to her as with one voice. What shall we say, -so that we may all say the same, and not gabble -at her like geese?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t fancy the concert invitation plan,” Vera -objected. “You do the inviting, Marjorie. You’ve -a wonderful way with you.”</p> - -<p>“So have I,” Leila hastily assured Vera. “Never -forget that, Midget. I will praise myself rather than -not be praised.”</p> - -<p>Laughing and joking the five post graduates hurried -lightly up the stairs and down the second floor -hall to room number 8. Nor when Vera knocked -lightly on the door had it been decided as to which -one of them should be spokesman.</p> - -<p>The girl who answered the knock seemed lovelier -to her callers than when they had seen her alighting -from the taxicab that afternoon. She wore a -pale primrose negligee which fell in straight soft -folds to her feet. Its flowing sleeves dropped away -from her white, rounded arms and the collarless cut -of the negligee brought out the beauty of her shapely -throat. Her peculiarly colored eyes roved from one -face to another. They held a certain veiled inquiry -not far from insolence. She was silent; evidently -waiting for her callers to speak first.</p> - -<p>“Good evening.” While Marjorie had not consented -to begin the making of friendly overtures -with the prospective student she felt impelled to -break the silence. “We are having a spread downstairs -in the dining room. Miss Remson is giving -it. Won’t you join us?” she invited with pleasant -directness.</p> - -<p>“Oh, no, thank you. You could hardly expect me -to come down <i>en deshabille</i>.” Contempt for invitation -and callers lurked faintly in the answer; a -contempt which the girls felt rather than heard.</p> - -<p>“That need make no difference,” Marjorie composedly -returned. “There are no persons other than -ourselves and the servants in the house. You know -how purely informal a spread must be in order to -be a success.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t enjoy spreads,” came the indifferent reply. -“Besides sweets late in the evening are so hard -on one’s complexion.” One of the blonde girl’s white, -beautifully kept hands found the door and rested -against the knob. Whether by accident or design -was hard to say.</p> - -<p>“I am sorry you do not care to come,” Marjorie -said with the gentle courtesy which never seemed -to fail her in the face of rebuff. “Pardon me for -being so remiss. Let me introduce my friends and -myself to you. Miss Remson has told us that you -are Miss Monroe.”</p> - -<p>The indifferent expression on the girl’s face appeared -to increase rather than diminish. She merely -stared at the group and said not a word. Marjorie -felt uncomfortable embarrassment seize her. Nevertheless -friendliness continued in her tone as she -named her chums to the other girl. Miss Monroe -had the grace to acknowledge the introduction. She -nodded carelessly to each girl in turn, the air of -furtive contempt which had visited her at sight of -the callers returning.</p> - -<p>“We should be glad to show you about Hamilton -and the campus,” Vera rallied to Marjorie’s assistance. -“We are visiting Miss Remson for a short -time. We shall return to college in the fall and -shall live at Wayland Hall. So we shall be your -neighbors. Miss Harper’s and my room is 10. We -are using our old room now, and it will be ours -again when we come back in the fall.”</p> - -<p>“I expect to try for the sophomore class.” Miss -Monroe crested her golden head. “I hope to escape -the odious freshman class. I detest the bare idea -of being kept down. Thank you for your offer to -show me about.” She favored Vera with an inconsequential -smile.</p> - -<p>“You are welcome.” Vera tried to keep reserve -out of the response. She did not enjoy being snubbed, -either.</p> - -<p>“You are sure to like Wayland Hall. It is the -oldest and has been reckoned as the favorite house -on the campus.” Leila now broke into the conversation. -“All of us except Miss Page have lived -here since we entered Hamilton. We are P. G.’s.” -Leila gave the information in a perfectly level tone. -There was an inscrutable light in her bright blue -eyes which Miss Monroe did not miss. She colored -slightly and hastily looked away from Leila.</p> - -<p>Her remarkable blue-green eyes wandered to Marjorie -again and rested curiously upon her. In that -instant’s survey she saw what she had not yet allowed -herself to note. She saw a girl whose claim -to great beauty was as strong as her own. The discovery -did not contribute to her happiness, but she -was too clever to allow even a shade of rising jealousy -to cross her beautiful face.</p> - -<p>“I suppose ‘P. G.’ stands for post graduate?” she -returned with a questioning inflection. “I really -know very little of American colleges. I am sure -I shall find college such a bore. My father insists -that I shall become a student of Hamilton. So tiresome -in him!”</p> - -<p>The five Travelers still stood in a half circle outside -the door. Miss Monroe had no intention of -inviting them in, it appeared.</p> - -<p>“We’ve had the very happiest kind of times in -college,” Robin was quick to defend her Alma -Mater. “One gets out of college precisely what one -puts into it. You’ll feel differently about it after -college opens and everything is in full swing.”</p> - -<p>“If we can help you at any time to feel at home -here, or can do anything for you to add to your -welfare, please let us know. We were strangers here, -too, once upon a time.” Marjorie smiled sunnily at -discourteous Miss Monroe. There was finality in -her little speech. “Miss Remson will expect us -back,” she said to her companions.</p> - -<p>“You are very kind. I daresay I shall get on -here.” Miss Monroe moved her shoulders indifferently. -“I prefer France or England to America. -Of course it’s bound to seem very ghastly here for a -while.” Sullen discontent lived for an instant on -her pretty features. Marjorie’s friendly offer seemed -to annoy rather than please her.</p> - -<p>“Not half so ghastly as though you were condemned -to an English private school for girls.” -Leila assured with a flash of white teeth which appeared -the extreme of affability. Her companions -read into it another meaning. They knew if the -haughty newcomer did not that Leila was blandly -watching the self-centered girl measure off the rope -with which to hang herself.</p> - -<p>“I don’t in the least understand your meaning.” -There crept into Miss Monroe’s voice a decidedly -petulant note.</p> - -<p>“I know that very well, indeed,” Leila replied -with smiling imperturbability. “I was born in Ireland -and half educated in Europe; partly in England, -partly in Paris. The other half, the more important -half of my education I received at Hamilton -College. The best I can wish for you is that you -may find at Hamilton what I found. I shall be -glad to make Hamilton seem less ghastly to you, -if I can. Good night.”</p> - -<p>Leila turned away from the door. Characteristic -of her was the virtue of finality. She could not -dwaddle over a situation.</p> - -<p>Her retreat was a signal to the other four girls. -They made conscientious effort to say good-night -as pleasantly as they had saluted Miss Monroe. She, -on the contrary, began to show a first faint sign -of interest in her callers. Leila’s information caused -the Irish girl to rise in her opinion. She decided -that she might be entertained by a little further talk -with her.</p> - -<p>“Will you—er—won’t you——?” She spoke directly -to Leila’s back as the latter continued to move -slowly down the corridor. Leila did not turn her -head. Marjorie, walking behind her heard and -turned her face toward the girl in the doorway. -Again Miss Monroe subjected her to a protracted, -nearly hostile stare. Then she went into her room -and closed the door with a force that was anything -but indifferent.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXIV'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIV.—A TRIAL OF PATIENCE</h2> - -<p>During the few steps down the stairs and back -to the dining room no one spoke. At the door Vera -relieved her pent-up feelings by softly exclaiming: -“Stung!” bringing one small hand down smartly -upon the other. The unaccustomed slang from -dainty Midget cleared the snubbed P. G.’s cloudy -atmosphere with a soft chorus of giggles.</p> - -<p>Miss Remson listened to Kathie’s account of their -defeated errand with “Hum!” “Why, the idea!” -and “Too bad!” Kathie had not said a word to -Miss Monroe save to acknowledge the introduction -Marjorie made and “Good-night.” She now simply -repeated the conversation as nearly as she could, -placing no unfavorable stress on Miss Monroe’s rude -reception of the quintette.</p> - -<p>“The way Kathie has told you about our call is -the way we are all trying to feel about it,” Marjorie -said earnestly. “As good P. G.’s we must -overlook more than ever what we may think is out -of place. Miss Monroe isn’t used to American girls, -I suppose. Perhaps she thinks we are too eager, -or that we haven’t elegant repose, or——” She -glanced inquiringly at her friends: “I don’t know -what she thinks.”</p> - -<p>“Let me say it for the rest of you. I have known -a few like this girl in England, but none so pretty. -She will be pleasant? Ah, yes; but who knows -when?” Leila flashed a canny smile. “She did not -ache to know us tonight. Her taste will not have -improved by tomorrow; nor for many a long day.”</p> - -<p>“Never mind; we’re not sensitive plants,” was -Marjorie’s light assurance. “Our haughty, fairy-tale -princess may change her mind about us later.” -Marjorie made light of the snub in order to soothe -Miss Remson’s wounded pride at the rudeness offered -her favorite students. “Maybe she is so upset over -having to come to America to college, when she -doesn’t wish to, that she can’t be very cordial to -any one.”</p> - -<p>“Good little Lieutenant, you keep the first tradition -better than I.” Leila dropped a fond arm over -Marjorie’s shoulder.</p> - -<p>“Certainly, I don’t, silly.” Marjorie’s energetically -protesting tones suddenly ceased.</p> - -<p>Silvery and sweet on the scented night air came -the chimes’ familiar prelude. Followed the stroke -of eleven, clear, solemn, individual in tone. To Marjorie -it was as though her second Hamilton friend -had come to say a soothing good-night to her after -a “trying hike.” While she had kept on a strictly -even keel during the short call on Miss Monroe she -had secretly winced at the other girl’s insolent reception -of her and her chums.</p> - -<p>While the chimes sang away the hurt she sat -listening to them and trying to clear her brain of -all ungenerous thoughts. Her face burned as she -recalled the steady way in which Miss Monroe had -looked at her. She understood the reason. While -Marjorie was absolutely without vanity, she could -not pretend that she did not know her own claim -to beauty. For four years she had been hailed -frankly at Hamilton as the college beauty. Far -from flattered, she ducked the title whenever she -could. Always in her mind lived the quaint charge -delivered by the judge at the beauty contest which -she had won during her freshman year.</p> - -<p>“Brede ye, therefore, sweet maid, no vanitye of -the mind, but say ye raythere, at even, a prayer of -thankfulnesse for the gifte of Beauty by the Grace -of God.”</p> - -<p>Strangely enough the ancient sentiment had -popped into her mind at sight of beautiful, golden-haired -Miss Monroe. With it had come a kindly -plan of her own. She promised herself that she -would put it into action as soon as she came back -to Hamilton in the fall.</p> - -<p>As a result of Miss Hamilton’s energetic effort on -behalf of Page and Dean, the willing firm found -themselves more willing to work than overcrowded -with it. More the secretive old lady ordered Marjorie -and Robin to do nothing but have a good time -with their chums for the next three days and not -dare to come near the Arms or even call her on the -telephone. Her emphatic message to them was:</p> - -<p>“Come to the Arms to seven o’clock dinner, all -of you, next Sunday evening. That means be at -the Arms by three in the afternoon. Perhaps you -may hear something to your interest.”</p> - -<p>Robin and Marjorie had not yet been nearer the -cherished site than the point on Hamilton Highway -from which they had viewed it on the day of their -arrival on the campus. They delicately refrained -from examining the work at close range until they -had talked with Miss Susanna and received her -sanction.</p> - -<p>“We can well afford this layoff,” Robin had -blithely declared to Marjorie. “Thanks to Miss -Susanna we’re miles farther ahead with this work -than we dreamed of being.” Marjorie patiently -agreed with her though the two laughed as each -read the longing for action in the other’s face. The -promoters were brimming with the buoyant impulse -of youth. They yearned to get directly in touch -with the big doings on the newly purchased property. -Absolute belief that Miss Susanna had done -better for the enterprise than they could have done -had served to put a loyal curb on their natural impatience.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the five Travelers were deriving untold -satisfaction from their reunion. Kathie’s mornings -and early afternoons were occupied in coaching her -aspiring freshmen. She could always be counted -upon for late afternoon and evening. Leila and Vera -had nothing to do save please their chums, incidentally -pleasing themselves. Marjorie and Robin -talked importantly about being “laid-off” and took -occasion to make the most of it.</p> - -<p>Sunday afternoon saw them leaving the campus -in Vera’s car, radiant with health and good looks, -which their delicate summer finery intensified. A -“bid” to the Arms was always a red letter occasion. -They were bubbling with light-hearted satisfaction. -Miss Susanna, seated in a high-backed rocker on -the ivy-decked veranda, appeared to catch the spirit -of their gaiety. She got up from her chair and -waved a book she had been reading in energetic -salute as the roadster rolled up the drive. She was -wearing a soft white silk dress, turned in a little at -the neck and fastened with a priceless cameo pin, -oval and set with a double row of pearls and rubies.</p> - -<p>“Now doesn’t she look like the pleased old child?” -Leila murmured to Marjorie as they left the car.</p> - -<p>Marjorie had time only for a quick nod. She -quite agreed with Leila. The touch of grimness -usually present on Miss Hamilton’s face had given -place to a childishly happy look which was good to -see.</p> - -<p>No one of the five Travelers were ever likely to -forget that particular afternoon chiefly because of -the peculiarly charming “youngness” of spirit -exhibited by Miss Susanna. It fascinated them all. -It was as though she had gone back over the years -to girlhood.</p> - -<p>They spent the afternoon out of doors, at first -roving about the magnificent breadth of lawn with -their vivacious guide. She had plenty of interesting -bits of the history of the Hamiltons to relate, -called to mind at sight of a particular tree, shrub -or nook of special vernal or floral beauty.</p> - -<p>Later, they gathered in a quaint Chinese pagoda -set in the midst of a group of graceful larches. There -Jonas brought them tea and sweet crackers, all Miss -Susanna would allow them to have on account of -the approaching dinner hour. While they sipped -the finest Chinese tea and nibbled crackers she told -them of how Prince Tuan Chi, a Chinese noble and -a friend of Brooke Hamilton, and her great uncle -had themselves built the pagoda during a summer the -young Chinese lord had spent at Hamilton Arms.</p> - -<p>“All that happened before my time,” Miss Susanna -concluded with a sigh. There was a far-away -gleam in her bright dark eyes. “Uncle Brooke used -to tell me such tales when he and I took our walks -about the Arms. Sometimes he would choose to -walk with Jonas instead of me. Jonas was like a -younger brother to him. How hurt I used to feel,” -she declared with a smile of self-mockery.</p> - -<p>Thus far she had made no mention of the topic -dear to Robin and Marjorie. Each time she spoke, -in her crisp enunciation they pricked up mental ears. -Each time they were doomed to vague disappointment. -Still they could not fail to treasure every -word she related concerning their idol, Brooke Hamilton.</p> - -<p>“What time is it, Marjorie?” Miss Susanna finally -asked. She cast a glance at the sun making its leisurely -descent down the western sky. “My guess -is—let me see—ten minutes past five.”</p> - -<p>“It’s seven after. I should say you can guess -time!” Robin opened surprised eyes. “Beg your -pardon, Marjorie,” she apologized. “I know you’re -not dumb.”</p> - -<p>“Considering you are Page and I am Dean, I’ll -forgive you,” Marjorie assumed an important air. -“Aren’t the firm of Page and Dean one?”</p> - -<p>“They are,” Robin replied solemnly as though -taking a vow.</p> - -<p>“Which reminds me,” broke in Miss Susanna, -“that I have some business to transact with this distinguished -firm, even if it is Sunday.” There was -a suggestion of eager stir in her announcement.</p> - -<p>Marjorie felt an all but irresistible desire to ejaculate -“Ha-a-a!” in one long relieved breath. It was -coming at last. Robin wished she dared steal one -glance at Marjorie. Instead she sat very still, a -faint-breathing figure of expectation. Leila, Vera -and Katherine watched Page and Dean and smiled. -They, and they alone, knew how great had been the -suspense of the promoters. Leila, ever full of fancy -and mysticism wondered imaginatively if, somewhere -in a world of light beyond the stars, Brooke -Hamilton lived and watched with approval the -carrying on of his beloved work.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXV'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XV.—OUT OF THE NIGHT</h2> - -<p>“What I have to say is particularly for Page and -Dean though any and all Travelers are welcome to -hear it,” Miss Susanna’s bright, bird-like eyes danced -as she fondly surveyed her flock. A spot of vivid -pink had appeared high on each cheek. She was like -a youngster about to make a special confidence.</p> - -<p>“To begin with,” she said, “it was not my business -to meddle with the affairs of Page and Dean. -I have no excuse to offer. I meddled because—well—I -felt the need of meddling. Jonas egged me on. -He’s every bit as much to blame as I.” She gave -the gleeful chuckle which the girls loved so much -to hear. “You two rising promoters did not know -a certain man I know, and have known for years. -Perhaps he is my real excuse for meddling.” The -little old lady tilted her head reflectively to one side.</p> - -<p>“That man is Peter Graham,” she continued. “The -Grahams are one of the old Hamilton families. Peter -Graham’s wife, Anne Dexter, and I were chums. -I was Anne’s sole attendant when she married Peter. -They never achieved riches as Uncle Brooke did. -They were lucky in love, but have been unlucky in -business. Peter is still a builder, graduated from a -carpentership. As a young man he wished to study -architecture. Then he married and lost track of his -ambition in trying to be a creditable family man. He -had a natural genius for planning houses and large -buildings and did well when he could secure a contract. -Hamilton is chiefly made up of old houses, -mostly colonial, and staunchly built. I used to advise -Peter to go away from here and establish himself -in a large city where contracts were more plentiful, -but Anne did not wish to leave Hamilton. Once -I offered to help him and hurt his feelings dreadfully. -When you talked of building a dormitory I -did not at first think of Peter. After you girls had -left here last June it flashed across me one afternoon -as I was taking my walk that Peter’s chance -had come at last.”</p> - -<p>An audible breath of approval ascended from the -attentive listeners. They were already deeply enough -interested in Peter Graham to be in sympathy with -his upward struggle.</p> - -<p>“I knew I could trust Peter to give you his best -in all ways,” was the positive declaration. “His bid -for the entire operation—tearing down the old -houses, preparing the site for the new building and -erecting the dormitory was moderate in comparison -with the figures I received from two widely known -firms of builders. As you children have resolved to -clear away the debt you will incur in building the -dormitory you can do no better than trust the operation -to Peter Graham. Jonas agrees with me. At -first I thought of writing you about it, Marjorie. -I found I did not feel like writing. I decided to -tell you and Robin when you came to Hamilton. -Time was flying, with nothing done. I sent for -Peter and told him what I wanted. I made him -happy. I know you are pleased with the progress -he has made. But I don’t know what you think of -Jonas and me.” She stopped with a half embarrassed -laugh.</p> - -<p>“There is only one thing we could think.” Marjorie’s -face glowed with devotion. “You and Jonas -must feel about Hamilton as Mr. Brooke Hamilton -felt. You’d have to, in your heart, or you couldn’t -have done such wonderful things for the students -to come.”</p> - -<p>“No such thing,” contradicted the old lady in an -odd, harsh voice. “I mean, the way I feel about -the college. Jonas is Uncle Brooke’s man, heart -and soul. He still nurses all of Uncle Brooke’s plans -for Hamilton College. Let us have it understood, -here and now, that if a dear little friend of mine, -Marjorie Dean, had not interested me in the plucky -way she and her chums were fighting to turn that -snob shop on the campus into a democracy, I’d not -have lifted a finger for the benefit of Hamilton. As -it turned out, Marvelous Manager’s way was his -way. So I managed to please both,” she ended, her -tone softening.</p> - -<p>“Truly, Miss Susanna, that is the nicest compliment -I ever had.” Marjorie showed such obvious -delight at being ranked with the man she so reverenced -that Miss Susanna’s own crinkly smile broke -forth.</p> - -<p>“Glad you liked it.” She continued to smile. -Marjorie regarded her eccentric benefactor with -utter devotion. Miss Susanna was flowering forth -into graciousness as a peach tree breaks forth into -rosy bloom in early spring. The others were watching -the devoted pair and smiling their approval.</p> - -<p>“You had better come to tea tomorrow afternoon, -Robin and Marjorie,” Miss Hamilton now invited. -“I’ll send for Peter Graham to come, too. Then -you can talk matters over with him. There’ll be no -papers to sign. Our word is as good as Peter’s -and Peter’s is as good as ours. Don’t cry because -you’re not invited to tea,” she humorously consoled -the uninvited trio. “I’ll invite you to tea one of -these fine days and leave out Page and Dean.”</p> - -<p>“You wouldn’t be so mean,” protested Robin.</p> - -<p>“Wait a while and see,” teased Leila, nodding with -lifted brows at Page and Dean.</p> - -<p>Having confessed her part and Jonas’ in starting -the building of the dormitory ahead of time, Miss -Susanna had a great deal more to say on the subject. -When Jonas came to remove the tea things she sent -him to the house for a bundle of plans and specifications. -These she spread out on the rustic table and -began an explanation of them to her young friends.</p> - -<p>“There’ll be some water color drawings for you -to see before long,” she made lively promise. “Peter -will do them himself. He is very clever in that line.”</p> - -<p>In spite of the fact that the supposedly crabbed -mistress of Hamilton Arms mingled little with the -business world she had a shrewd practical idea of -values. She had listened carefully to her old friend, -Peter Graham, when he had gone over the plans and -specifications with her. Now she was ready to pass -the information she had gained on to the five Travelers. -So absorbed were they in listening as she -unfolded the cherished enterprise to them they lost -all idea of time. Jonas’ deep gentle announcement: -“Dinner time, Miss Susanna,” reminded them that -afternoon had slipped into evening.</p> - -<p>It seemed to them that the end of a perfect day -had indeed arrived when Miss Hamilton led the -dinner procession of three couples into the tea room -instead of the dining room. More, she explained -that Jonas was proficient in Chinese cookery. Under -his direction the cook would serve them with a real -Chinese dinner.</p> - -<p>It began with shark-fin soup and celery hearts, -went triumphantly on through chicken mushroom -chop suey, chow mein, rice, cooked as few other than -the Chinese can cook rice, and costly Chinese tea. -It ended with a very sweet dessert of preserved kumquats, -crystalized ginger, almond cakes and barley -candy. Jonas had spent the greater part of the day -preparing the feast from recipes which he, Brooke -Hamilton and the young Chinese lord, Prince Tuan -Chi, had tried out with laughter and good cheer in -the immense old-fashioned kitchen of the Arms.</p> - -<p>After dinner Miss Susanna martialed the girls into -the music room to sing for her. Robin was immediately -besieged by all to sing.</p> - -<p>“Oh, no,” she demurred. “I’ll play for all of us -to sing.” She began to play softly a song they all -knew. They could not resist the lilt of it so they -sang in concert. Several others, equal favorites followed.</p> - -<p>“I’ve struck,” Marjorie declared at the end of a -fascinating waltz song from a recent musical success. -“Not another note.”</p> - -<p>“So have I.” There was an understanding glint -in Leila’s eyes. She rolled them meaningly at Vera -and Katherine, then toward Robin. Two more reinforced -the strike. Robin gave in and soon her glorious -high soprano was filling the room with melody. -She sang several of Miss Hamilton’s favorite selections -from grand opera. Then she balked, insisting -that each of the others should contribute a solo.</p> - -<p>Miss Susanna gave a sudden funny little cackle -of laughter and agreed to do her part. The strikers -could do no less. Each performer was to play her -own accompaniment. “If you can’t play it, play -at it,” stipulated Robin.</p> - -<p>Leila came first with what she announced was an -old Irish chant. The accompaniment had a great -deal of heavy rumbling in the bass, the chant rose -in a heart-rending wail which threatened with every -succeeding note to burst bounds and become a wild -howl. It was finally drowned in a gale of laughter -as Jonas, not understanding the situation, suddenly -appeared in the doorway, amazement written on his -face.</p> - -<p>Vera sang “Sweet and Low” so prettily she was -encored and sang a baby song she had learned in -the kindergarten. Her lisping baby accents set the -party to laughing afresh. Katherine sang a charming -little song she had learned in first year Greek. -Marjorie sang “Won’t you walk a little faster?” -from “Alice in Wonderland,” to a tune which her -general had fitted to Carroll’s immortal words when -she was a youngster. It so charmed her hearers -that within twenty minutes they were caroling “Will -you, won’t you?” in gleeful chorus.</p> - -<p>Miss Susanna, however, contributed the star selection. -She sat down before the piano with a good -deal of chuckling, played a kind of rambling prelude -and in a light, but tuneful voice proceeded to sing -of the woes of one, Lord Lovell. According to the -song, which was composed of many sing-sing verses, -each ending with a ridiculous repetition of the last -word of the last line, Lord Lovell was extremely -unlucky in love. The longer she sang, the wilder -grew the mirth of her audience. The final “spasm,” -as Miss Susanna afterward named it, told of the -untimely death of both Lord Lovell and his lady -fair and of how they were buried in one grave with -sweet briar bushes planted above them. According -to the song:</p> - -<div class='abcc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:poetry --> - <div>“The sweet briars grew till they reached the church top;</div> - <div>And there they couldn’t grow any higher;</div> - <div>And so they formed a true lovers’ knot,</div> - <div>Which all true lovers admire-rire-rire;</div> - <div>Which all true lovers admire.”</div> - <!-- end:poetry --> - </div> -</div> - -<p>It was after ten o’clock when the concert ended -and half past ten before the Travelers had said good-night -to the mistress of the Arms and were on the -road to the campus. They had left Miss Hamilton, -gay and smiling, immensely inspirited by their visit.</p> - -<p>Vera had asked Leila to take the wheel going to -the campus. “I want to be a lady instead of a chauffeur -for a change,” she plaintively explained to Leila.</p> - -<p>“It takes more than sitting on the back seat of -the car resting your hands and face to be a lady, -Midget,” was Leila’s discouraging response.</p> - -<p>Marjorie had elected to ride beside Leila. The -two girls were trying to remember the words and -at least part of the tune of “Lord Lovell.” Robin -had said that she thought she could arrange it as -a funny quartette. Miss Susanna had offered to find -the music to it in an old book of hers.</p> - -<p>“Look out, Leila; here comes a car, and fast, -too,” Marjorie warned in a low tone. They were -at the narrowest part of the highway which lay between -them and the campus.</p> - -<p>Leila had already seen the approaching car and -was keeping her own side of the pike strictly. Came -a flare of white lights. Marjorie cast an alert but -incurious glance at the other car. She drew a sudden -audible breath and said softly, but sharply: -“Leila, did you see who was in that car?” In the -same instant the car to which she referred glided on -into the darkness of the summer night. Quickly as -it had passed their automobile Marjorie had had a -full glimpse of the driver of the other car. A young -woman had the wheel whose dark irregular features -were only too familiar. For reasons best known to -herself, Leslie Cairns had returned to Hamilton.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXVI'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVI.—ENCHANTED?</h2> - -<p>During the busy days which followed the dinner -with Miss Susanna, the firm of Page and Dean -proved themselves worthy of the name promoters. -Their first meeting with Peter Graham was the -beginning of earnest daily consultations with him. Not -a day passed that did not find them on the ground -where their work was going steadily forward. They -were a wise pair of promoters who left the management -to Mr. Graham and never annoyed him by -interfering with his arrangements. Part of the -workmen were from the town of Hamilton, the -other part from a colony of dark-faced foreigners -who lived in the eastern section of the town.</p> - -<p>Robin declared enthusiastically after her first -morning spent at the site that just to see the men -at work was inspiring. The minds of the two young -women had been trained to grasp the principle of -a problem or operation. It was not long before -they had become familiar with the work in hand -and understood much of it in detail.</p> - -<p>Peter Graham was quietly happy over the rapid -progress which was being made in the demolishment -of the row of old houses. For years he had waited -and longed for “a big chance.” Now it had come. -He was devoted hardly less loyally to the building -of the dormitory than were Robin and Marjorie.</p> - -<p>Leila and Vera spent the days thinking up pleasant -amusements for Page and Dean’s leisure hours. They -were usually on hand with the roadster to take the -pair of promoters to and from the site and for long -drives afterward. They simulated a respect for Page -and Dean which was flattering, but not genuine. -They gave each other much loud advice about breaking -in on a rising firm during business hours. -Neither followed either her own or the other’s caution.</p> - -<p>Since their kindly but unsuccessful attempt to welcome -Doris Monroe to Wayland Hall and Hamilton -College, none of the Travelers had ventured further -friendly overtures. The four girls at the Hall -breakfasted early. Miss Monroe invariably breakfasted -as late as she could before the close of the -breakfast hour. Once or twice they had met her -sauntering into the dining room as they were leaving -it.</p> - -<p>A half smiling, indifferent nod, intended to include -the four was indicative of her lack of interest in her -recent callers. Occasionally one or another of the -chums would chance to encounter her about the Hall -or on the campus. She met them with the same -slighting manner; only a remove from discourtesy.</p> - -<p>“Miss Monroe of London and Paris has the manners -of neither,” Leila delivered this unflattering -opinion of the aloof student one Sunday afternoon. -The chums had just encountered Miss Monroe on -their way toward the east gate and the garage. -“She is as rude as Leslie Cairns used to be. What -a fine time the two could have together. One has -no more politeness than the other.”</p> - -<p>“She is so lovely, even though she isn’t a tiny -bit cordial,” Marjorie said charitably. “It seems -too bad that we can’t find a way to charm our -fairy-tale princess.”</p> - -<p>“Let her strictly alone,” was Leila’s succinct advice. -“She would not be grateful to us for our -trouble.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t help agreeing with you, Leila,” Kathie -said frankly. “Later she may thaw and decide she -would like to know us. If that should happen, -we’re not small-souled enough to resent past snubs.”</p> - -<p>“Neither do we belong to the Royal Order of the -Doormat,” Leila retorted. “She will have to turn -most gracious if my wounded Irish pride is to be -soothed.” Leila’s accompanying grin indicated precisely -how greatly her sensitive Irish pride had been -hurt.</p> - -<p>“Do let us talk of something more interesting than -that enigma,” Vera said with a patient sigh. “Why -she should treat four learned P. G.’s and a member -of the faculty as though they were presuming freshies -and she a senior is something I shall not attempt -to puzzle out. Where to this afternoon, children? -How about straight north on Hamilton Highway -with an evening stop for dinner at Orchard Inn?”</p> - -<p>A chorus of “Fine”; “Bully”; “Ducky” and -“Right-o,” rose in answer to her solicitous inquiries.</p> - -<p>“Oh, dear; I wish I didn’t have to go home Wednesday,” -came rather disconsolately from Marjorie. -“I’m anxious to see Captain and General; as anxious -as can be. But the work here is so fascinating!”</p> - -<p>“I don’t admire your choice of subject, either,” -Vera declared critically.</p> - -<p>“All right. Miss Midget Mason. I’ll try not to -mention it again,” Marjorie obligingly promised. -“You seem to be another sensitive soul; something -like Celtic Leila.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I am,” Vera assured, then out rippled her -merry little laugh. “Vera’s Own Variety,” Marjorie -had playfully named it.</p> - -<p>“I’m overdue at home now. Can’t help it if the -subject is painful to you, Midget. I have to say -that much.”</p> - -<p>“Marjorie has a date with her superior officers. -Robin’s overdue in Virginia. Two plus two make -four. And the moral of that little sum, my dears, -is: What’s the use in teasing ’em to stay?” propounded -Kathie.</p> - -<p>“What, indeed? Since Robin must go and Kathie -must stay what is to become of Midget and me?” -Leila’s attempt at looking forlorn was short-lived. -She could not keep a sober face.</p> - -<p>“Now what do you know that I don’t?” Marjorie -demanded. Leila’s smiles were directed to -her.</p> - -<p>“Listen to the witch woman, Leila.” The Irish -girl reached for one of Marjorie’s hands and peered -at the pink outspread palm. “You are going on a -journey——”</p> - -<p>“Of course I am. I know that. Tell me something -I don’t——”</p> - -<p>“Treat the seeress with more respect. You are -going on a long journey in a car. Might it not -be a roadster? You——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, see here. I can tell my own fortune as -well as that,” objected Marjorie.</p> - -<p>“Not yet. Now be more civil. I am no ordinary -person,” Leila rebuked. “On this journey you will -be in the company of a small, fair woman. She is -considered a good driver. Ha! I see also a tall, -dark woman. She is Irish, and sits beside you in -the tonneau. The journey is long, but——”</p> - -<p>“You said that before,” Kathie put in mischievously.</p> - -<p>“Now did I?” Leila beamed more broadly.</p> - -<p>“Never mind the rest of that fortune. I need -my hand.” Marjorie caught Leila around the waist -and hugged her with vigor.</p> - -<p>They had reached the garage now and were standing -near the doorway waiting for Vera and the roadster.</p> - -<p>“You and Vera are going to Sanford with me, -you darling!” was the delighted lieutenant’s cry. -“It will be the greatest lark imaginable—to go home -in the roadster. How I wish Robin and Kathie -could go, too.”</p> - -<p>“Sorry,” Kathie’s one word of regret spoke volumes.</p> - -<p>“So am I,” echoed Robin. “I’m going home with -Marjorie at Christmas if I can. I know you girls -will have a gorgeous time.”</p> - -<p>As the five took places in the car they talked of -the trip Leila had planned to Sanford and of the -engagements they had made previous to Wednesday. -On Monday evening Miss Remson and the five post -graduates were to be entertained at dinner by President -and Mrs. Matthews. Tuesday afternoon and -evening were to be spent at Hamilton Arms. What -with luncheon at Baretti’s on Monday at one o’clock -and luncheon the next day at the Lotus their time -was well filled.</p> - -<p>While the roadster was traveling the stretch of -highway which formed a complete southern boundary -of the college campus the chums again happened -upon Miss Monroe. To see her was to admire her -beauty afresh without inquiring into her failings. -The sleeveless frock she wore, a delicate French creation -of pale green silk and filmy white net, served -to enhance the astonishing whiteness of her throat, -shoulders and arms. Under the pale green lining -of a white parasol which she held between herself -and the too-ardent sun, her eyes shone forth, -deeply mysteriously green. There was artistry in -the rather simple waving and coiffing of her spun -gold hair. White silk stockings and white suede -slippers completed a costume which made her appear -so charmingly lovely the chums found themselves -regretting her lack of sociability.</p> - -<p>“It is too bad not to ask her to go with us,” Marjorie -said in a low tone to Leila. “I imagine she -is out for a walk today because she is lonely.”</p> - -<p>“Let us see. I will be the first to disregard my -own advice.” Leila rose to the occasion wholly to -please Marjorie.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Leila, I’d rather you——”</p> - -<p>Leila leaned forward and said: “Stop the wagon, -Midget.” She flashed Marjorie a smile of utter -good humor. “Don’t worry, Beauty. I shall not -groan with broken bones.”</p> - -<p>Miss Monroe was strolling along the time-worn -stone walk of the college which lay between the -highway and the campus wall. On the other side of -the highway was only a footpath. Her attention -fixed on the opposite side of the highway she had -not noted the stopping of the roadster. She turned -her eyes ahead only when she had come up within -a few feet of it. Her face darkened with annoyance. -She half turned as though about to bolt in an opposite -direction. Then she tossed her blonde head and -advanced along the walk.</p> - -<p>“Good afternoon, Miss Monroe,” Leila leaned out -of the car. “We’re off for a ride and dinner at -Orchard Inn. Won’t you come with us?” Leila conscientiously -endeavored to put persuasive friendliness -into the invitation.</p> - -<p>“No.” Miss Monroe stopped short and shook a -decisive head. “I don’t care in the least for that -sort of treat. Thank you.” A chilly smile flickered -only to die on her lips.</p> - -<p>“We’re going to have luncheon at Baretti’s on -Monday——” Marjorie spoke the rest of the -invitation into the air. Miss Monroe had gone on, -apparently without having heard it.</p> - -<p>“I have no patience with that girl!” Vera broke -out indignantly as the discourteous student continued -to put distance between herself and the carload of -girls. In her vexation Vera allowed the car to stand -for an instant.</p> - -<p>“Uh-h-h!” Leila was cautiously going over her -arms, shoulders and hands for broken bones. “Keep -your temper, Midget. Your Irish friend is still -alive. So is Beauty; who thinks she is talking to -someone, and finds she has been talking to the wind.”</p> - -<p>“Better luck another day. I decline to abandon -the field of honor,” Marjorie said with cheerful -undauntedness. “I believe the fairy-tale princess has -been enchanted by a wicked wizard and is under a -magic spell. Some day I’m going to break the spell.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXVII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVII.—“BLONDIE”</h2> - -<p>Doris Monroe glanced in contemptuous fashion -at the roadster when, a moment or two later, it sped -past her on the highway. Far from being appreciative -of the helpful spirit which had lived in spite -of the rebuff she had given the Travelers, she felt -instead that she had an actual grievance against them. -She had chosen to take offense at the time of the -evening and the informality which had attended their -call on her. For this she had labeled them as ill-bred; -<i>gauche</i>; stupid. She had seen plenty of American -girls in England and on the Continent. She -thought she detested them. In reality she did not. -Her trouble began with herself. She had always -been so completely wrapped up in herself that she -now had no interest in any other girl of her own -age. Secure in her unusual beauty she lived only to -please Doris Monroe. Marjorie’s whimsy concerning -Doris as an enchanted princess under the spell -of a wicked wizard was nearer truth than fancy. -Self was a powerful wizard likely to keep the spoiled -girl in bondage indefinitely.</p> - -<p>Her mother had died when she was five years old. -Her father, an American, of English descent, had -won considerable prestige as an explorer. London -or Paris was home to him, however, when he returned -to civilization from his long expeditions into -the Tropics. When at home he had paid a fair -amount of attention to the bringing up and educating -of his daughter. When on a trip he had left her -in the care of a governess or at a private school -for girls. She had had a succession of governesses. -She had attended both English and French Schools. -Of college, particularly college in the United States, -she knew nothing. The fact that her father had -suddenly decided to ship her to Hamilton College -before going on the Amazon expedition was still a -sore matter with her.</p> - -<p>She had arrived on the campus in much the same -spirit as a stirred-up porcupine, ready to launch a -shower of quills at the first person who chanced to -offend her. She was bitterly angry with her father -for sending her to college and she transferred that -anger to Hamilton as soon as she arrived at Wayland -Hall. She despised her room, the campus, Miss -Remson—most of all she detested the five P. G.’s -who were altogether too ready to become friendly.</p> - -<p>Doris was not looking forward to the opening of -the college as a relief for loneliness. All her short -life she had been so well satisfied with herself for -company that she had rarely made acquaintance with -other girls. Of the joys of having a chum she knew -nothing. While she considered the campus “a -ghastly dull spot” she had no happy anticipations of -the “mobs” of girls which she dreaded to see invade -it.</p> - -<p>She was thinking of this not far distant calamity, -which she could not avoid, as she walked sulkily -along the highway wondering what to do that afternoon -by way of amusement. Those stupid girls -had acted as though she were a beggar to whom they -were trying to be kind. Her red lips curved scornfully -at thought of their stupidity. She decided she -would take a taxicab into the town of Hamilton. -She hoped she would meet “the cheeky things” on -the way. It would prove to them that she could go -driving if she chose. What to do in Hamilton she -did not know. Go to a tea shop for an ice, perhaps.</p> - -<p>She presently hailed a taxicab returning from a -trip on the campus, an only, but lovely occupant. -Half way to town she passed a white roadster, which, -though conspicuous, compelled her admiration. It -was driven by Leslie Cairns, to whom Doris paid -not the slightest attention. Leslie, on the contrary, -stared hard at Doris. During the week she had now -been in Hamilton she had seen Doris twice; once -at the Lotus; once near the campus.</p> - -<p>The defeat of her unscrupulous plan to prevent -Marjorie Dean and Robin Page from obtaining the -site they desired for the dormitory they purposed to -build had not discouraged Leslie Cairns. She owned -property next to the dormitory site presented by -Miss Hamilton she had reflected, with her strange -hobgoblin smile. Through Lola Ester, who had been -graduated in the same class with Marjorie, she had -learned that Marjorie and Robin were to return to -Hamilton during the summer in the interest of the -proposed dormitory. Leslie had decided immediately -that she, also, would return, and had laid plans -accordingly.</p> - -<p>In itself the idea of building a garage on her land -after it had been cleared of the row of old houses -had not specially interested Leslie. She had used -the garage prospect merely as an excuse for buying -the property away from the girls she disliked. Now -she had a fresh incentive to proceed with it. It -would give her untold opportunity to keep in touch -with the undertaking of which Marjorie Dean was -the strongest power. Further, she would hear the -news of the college; possibly meet a few students -who might amuse her.</p> - -<p>If Leslie Cairns had been graduated from Hamilton -College, instead of having been expelled from -it she would have probably lost all interest in it. -Her contrary disposition caused her to value, too -late, that which she had irretrievably lost by her -own unworthiness. Not for worlds would she have -confessed that she cared a button about the forfeited -diploma. Nevertheless, she cared. The diploma -would have meant her father’s proud favor. It was -galling to her to know that she had been the one to -close the gates of Hamilton College against herself. -That particular bitter reflection boosted her interest -in Hamilton as nothing else could have done. It -also strengthened an ignoble desire toward any malicious -mischief which her willing hand might find -to do.</p> - -<p>The day before leaving Newport she had bought -the smart white roadster which she was now driving -and had ordered it to be driven to the town of Hamilton. -It had not arrived until a week later and -she had been obliged either to hire a car temporarily -or walk. She had been driving the hired car on -the Sunday evening when she had passed Vera’s -roadster on Hamilton Highway.</p> - -<p>Sight of Leslie Cairns’ uncomely face, suddenly -appearing out of the darkness, had surprised, but not -dismayed, Marjorie. Leila had been concerned by -it to the extent of exclaiming sarcastically: “Now -why was I not at the station to meet her?” None -of the other three girls had glimpsed her in that -instant of betraying light. It was not until the quintette -were crossing the campus to the Hall from the -garage that Leila told them the news. Girl-like -they had exclaimed over it. With the exception of -Leila they had spoken of Leslie Cairns far more -kindly than she deserved. Leila was, what she liked -to call herself, “a good Irish hater.” She and Leslie -had entered Hamilton College in the same autumn. -She had often said candidly to Marjorie and her -chums that she detested Leslie more thoroughly -than any other girl she had ever known.</p> - -<p>Leila had joined the fight for democracy at Hamilton, -which Marjorie and her Sanford friends had -made during their freshman year, chiefly because -she enjoyed thwarting Leslie Cairns and the other -San Soucians. Later, when she had come to know -and understand Marjorie’s fine nature, her own -really great soul responded to it. She had fought -then for democracy because she loved Marjorie and -believed in fair play. She continued, however, to -hold and be proud of her animosity toward Leslie -Cairns.</p> - -<p>The old saying: “There’s many a true word -spoken in jest” seemed on the way to be proven so -far as Doris Monroe and Leslie Cairns were concerned. -Leila’s satirical opinion of the “fine time” -the two might spend together because of their common -lack of courtesy was on the way to come to pass. -Leslie had decided in the moment when her car -passed the taxicab holding Doris that she wished to -meet “Blondie,” as she mentally named the other -girl.</p> - -<p>Leslie’s wish became her law whenever she could -encompass it. She turned the white roadster about -as soon as she could and sent it speeding in the -direction taken by the station taxicab. She caught -sight of the dark blue taxi as she whizzed around -a curve with reckless speed. That the road chanced -to be clear was her good fortune. She smiled to -herself, muttering: “No more of that kind of business. -I’ll be apt to let myself in for trouble. But -I had to pick up that taxi.”</p> - -<p>With the blue taxicab now in sight and her car -close behind it Leslie began to speculate on Doris’ -destination. “I’ll say she’s bound for eats; either -at the Lotus, or the Ivy.”</p> - -<p>“The Ivy it is?” she surmised triumphantly as -the taxicab continued on down Herndon Avenue -and up Linden Avenue. “I’ll watch her into the -Ivy; then I think I’ll stroll in there, too. My -guess—she’s on the campus, stuffing for her entrance -exams. She’s certainly not visiting Remson or any -other of the campus aggregation of frumps. I think -it’s my duty to get acquainted with Blondie.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXVIII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.—A CONGENIAL PAIR</h2> - -<p>A satiric smile still lingered at the comers of -Leslie Cairn’s unlovely mouth as she entered the Ivy -in her careless, near-slouching manner. The irregular -plainness of her features was more pronounced -than usual by reason of the stunning afternoon frock -she wore of expensive creamy buff material. Unlike -the severe style of sports clothes she affected it had -the feminine lure of soft folds and exquisite creamy -buff Persian embroidery. Her full white throat -rose gracefully from the round open neck. The -very short sleeves would have shown a pair of well-rounded -arms had she not worn long gloves to match -her gown. Her French-heeled slippers of the same -material as her gown and the silk embroidered hosiery -of palest buff completed her “foolish rig” as -she slangily dubbed it. She was without a hat and -her hair had been waved and artistically dressed.</p> - -<p>Doris had already settled herself at a side table -in the tea room and was perusing the menu with an -air of boredom. Leslie, advancing toward the other -girl, decided that “Blondie” was as pretty as Bean, -if not prettier. She saw triumphs ahead of the supposed -freshie if she did not “flunk her exams.” Already -a daring plan had entered her scheming brain.</p> - -<p>As she dropped casually into the place at table -directly opposite Doris the latter raised her eyes -from the menu card. Very deliberately the strange -greenish eyes took stock of Leslie. Leslie returned -the survey with one equally prolonged. The two -girls forgot etiquette and stared at each other like -two curious children. Such they were; two children -of impulse, both spoiled by neglect and indulgence.</p> - -<p>“Pardon me,” Leslie broke the spell in the smoothest -of tones. “I am sure I have met you before. Let -me think.” She pretended to ponder. “Wasn’t it -at the fancy dress ball Mrs. Russell Fennimore gave -at her town house last March? It was a rather jolly -affair. What?”</p> - -<p>“No.” The monosyllable was decided. Leslie’s -imported gown commanded a certain respect from -Doris. “I am not yet in society,” she volunteered, -not without interest. “I’ve not been presented at -Court.”</p> - -<p>“Oh-h!” Up went Leslie’s shaggy eye-brows. -“You are English,” she placed flattering stress on -the last word. “Isn’t that ripping?”</p> - -<p>“No, I’m not English.” Doris sighed. “I wish -I were. I’m of English descent, though.” She -brightened a little.</p> - -<p>“So am I,” glibly asserted Leslie, “but I’d rather -live in America than in England. I’ve been across -the pond a dozen times.”</p> - -<p>“I prefer either England or France to the United -States,” Doris said somewhat stiffly. “Paris is my -favorite of all cities.”</p> - -<p>“It’s not bad.” Leslie turned faintly patronizing. -“Give me New York above them all. Don’t you -like New York? What.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know it,” Doris was forced to admit. -She colored faintly. Leslie’s impassive features and -nonchalant air of self-possession were very disturbing -to her. In the face of them she found it hard -to keep up an indifferent pose. She experienced a -contrary desire to talk to Leslie and find out who she -was. Since her advent on the campus she had seen -no one else she had come nearer to approving. Still -she had no intention of allowing this beautifully -dressed, ugly stranger to patronize her.</p> - -<p>“You aren’t really a bit English,” she now said -sweetly to Leslie. “I mean in the way you talk. -You use a few common English words and phrases -in the English way; but they sound American.”</p> - -<p>Leslie’s brows began to draw together as Doris -launched this “nervy” criticism. All of a sudden her -face cleared. She treated Doris to one of her odd -silent laughs. Here was a girl after her own heart. -“Blondie” evidently had no more compunction than -she about hurting another person’s feelings. She -was keen-witted enough to see that she must travel -a wary road to friendship with her “find.” Doris -was sufficient unto herself.</p> - -<p>“Have you ordered luncheon?” she asked irrelevantly, -ignoring Doris’ unflattering opinion. “The -chicken a la king is particularly good here.” Leslie -picked up a menu card and busied herself with it.</p> - -<p>“Thank you. I believe I <i>will</i> order it.” Doris -waited for Leslie to say something else.</p> - -<p>Leslie had nothing to say. She beckoned to a -waitress and proceeded to carry on a wise consultation -with her concerning the items on the menu. -Doris began to feel ill at ease. Her brief exchange -of talk with Leslie had filled her with a sudden desire -to continue the conversation.</p> - -<p>The waitress, having written down Leslie’s order, -turned inquiringly to Doris.</p> - -<p>“Chicken a la king,” Doris began confidently, -without looking at the menu, “and——” she glanced -at Leslie. Leslie had taken a small white kid note -book from a strap purse she carried and was industriously -making notes in it with a tiny white pencil.</p> - -<p>“Why don’t you duplicate my order?” Leslie was -not too busy to miss Doris’ hesitating tone. “I -know what’s good to eat here.”</p> - -<p>“I will, thank you.” Again Doris found herself -answering Leslie with almost meek politeness.</p> - -<p>“That’s good.” Leslie closed the little book, put -it and the pencil in the purse and straightened her -shoulders in a faithful imitation of her father. Believing -that Doris would eventually prove useful to -her she cleverly resolved to treat “Blondie” as her -father might have treated a business subordinate who -was his social equal.</p> - -<p>While waiting for the luncheon to be served the -two reached slightly better terms. Doris told Leslie -her name, her father’s name and a little concerning -her life abroad. Leslie introduced herself by -name, but gave Doris no other information save that -her father was a millionaire financier. Leslie was -deliberating as to how much of her Hamilton history -she should tell Doris. If she expected to become -friendly with “Blondie” she must acquaint her -with a glossed over account of her expulsion from -college. Sooner or later Doris would be sure to hear -an echo of it on the campus.</p> - -<p>“How do you like Wayland Hall?” Leslie inquired, -when, in the course of conversation Doris -remarked her residence there.</p> - -<p>“I don’t like it at all,” Doris shrugged her dislike.</p> - -<p>“It’s the best house on the campus. I lived there -for almost four years. I ought to know.” Leslie -came out boldly with the information.</p> - -<p>“You did!” Doris laid down her salad fork and -surveyed Leslie with genuine astonishment. “Then -you were graduated from Hamilton College. Were -you graduated last June?”</p> - -<p>“No,” Leslie gained dramatic effect by a slow, -pensive shake of the head. Her loose-lipped mouth -tightened into pretended regret. “I was preparing -to be graduated a year ago last June. A senior, -supposed to be my dear friend, started a hazing story -about me and sixteen other girls. We were all members -of a very exclusive club. We asked the girl -who made the trouble for us to resign from our -club. She had circulated untrue stories about us on -the campus. For pure spite she wrote a letter to -Prexy Matthews, claiming that we hazed a junior -on a certain winter night.</p> - -<p>“You see,” Leslie continued with elaborate -earnestness, “on St. Valentine’s night the juniors always -give a masquerade ball in the gym. Before the -dance the maskers walk around on the campus and -kid one another and any one else who happens to -cross the campus without a mask. Even the faculty -are fair game for kidding. Some of us started to -have a little fun with a prig of a junior by the -name of Dean. We bothered her a trifle; nothing -to speak of. We got away with it O. K., but we -had a traitor in our own crowd. She told the biggest -gossip on the campus about it. We held a club -meeting, called her down and asked for her resignation. -Then she put Prexy on our trail. We were -all expelled from college only a few weeks before -we would have been graduated. I might have saved -myself—I don’t know.” Leslie put on a self-sacrificing -air.</p> - -<p>Doris’ earlier indifference had completely vanished -with the knowledge that Leslie had been a student -at Hamilton. Her interest increased as Leslie continued -her narrative.</p> - -<p>“If any such trouble had happened to me I’d -never wish to see Hamilton College again,” was -Doris’ view of the matter. “Most girls are so deceitful. -I wouldn’t go to the pains to be. I think -it’s snaky to be deceitful, even in little things.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, isn’t it?” Leslie cheerfully concurred. “I’m -glad you feel so about it. It is hard to find a really -sincere girl whom one can trust.”</p> - -<p>Doris was not specially impressed by Leslie’s remarks. -Under her fairy-tale princess exterior she -possessed a stolid side of character which did not -respond to flattery. She knew she was beautiful. -She did not need the assurance from others. She -believed herself not deceitful. Leslie’s opinion of -her sincerity did not matter.</p> - -<p>“There’s a Miss Dean at Wayland Hall now,” -Doris remarked, her interest still hovering over Leslie’s -story of the hazing.</p> - -<p>“That is the one,” Leslie said impressively. “I -knew she was somewhere on the campus. I supposed -she would be at Wayland Hall. All I have to say -of her is—well——” Leslie made an effective pause. -“I’d prefer to say nothing,” she ended with a sigh.</p> - -<p>“I have met her, and the girls she goes with. One -of them is of the faculty; four are post graduates. -I do not like any of them,” Doris announced with -flat finality. “I <i>detest</i> Miss Remson.”</p> - -<p>A crafty gleam appeared in Leslie’s small dark -eyes. Here was better luck than she had hoped for. -“I understand the way you feel,” she nodded with -deceitful sympathy. “I had three years at the Hall -with Miss Dean and her bunch. It was more than -enough for me. As for Remson——” Leslie spread -her hands in a deprecatory gesture—“She’s hopeless.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t endure her,” Doris agreed with more -energy of tone than she had previously used. “She -imagines herself of such importance. She is merely -an upper servant.” The girl’s short upper lip lifted -in scorn.</p> - -<p>Miss Remson had bitterly offended Doris by paying -no attention to her after she had snubbed the -five Travelers. The wise little manager had decided -to let the supercilious young woman work out her -own salvation. She spoke courteously to Doris -when she chanced to encounter her about the house, -but not one word of pleasantry did she offer. Long -experience with girl nature had taught her the value -of such a course in a case where false pride, instead -of good breeding dominated.</p> - -<p>“Think of me!” Leslie leaned confidentially forward -toward Doris. “I stood her and that baby-booby -bunch of Be—er—Miss Dean’s friends for -years. Of course I had a dandy pal. That helped -a whole lot. Then the Sans, our club gang, were a -zippy bunch. We all had cars at Hamilton. Some -of the girls had two chug wagons apiece. Money was -no object. There were scads of coin behind our -gang. All the Sans’ governors were millionaires, -most of ’em multi-millionaires, hitting the financial -high spots.”</p> - -<p>Stung by Doris’ criticism of her imitation of an -English drawl Leslie had wisely dropped it. Instead, -she began flavoring her remarks with slang by way -of impressing her companion. Leslie had shrewdly -appraised Doris during the luncheon. She now believed -that she understood “Blondie” and would be -able to manage her.</p> - -<p>“I wanted my maid to come here with me, but -my father wouldn’t let me have her,” pouted Doris. -“Celeste would have been better company than a -lot of stupid students.”</p> - -<p>Leslie forgot the rôle she had essayed to play of -light good humor. Her famous scowl, heavy and -disfiguring showed itself. Blondie was not impressed -by her slang, her troubles or her money. “You -don’t want a maid at college,” she scoffed gruffly. -“I wouldn’t be bothered with one, even coming here -from Newport. I sent my maid on a vacation.”</p> - -<p>“I wish Celeste were with me,” Doris obstinately -repeated. As if determined to be contrary she continued. -“There’s one girl at the Hall that I’d not -call baby-booby. She is really distingué. I don’t -recall her name. She said to me that she was born -in Ireland and——”</p> - -<p>“Leila Harper!” was Leslie’s interrupting exclamation. -“She is clever as a wizard, and a terror. -She’s crazy about Miss Dean and her gang. Look -out for her. I don’t care to gossip, but perhaps I’d -better tell you some things about that crowd. You -ought to know them. After luncheon why not take -a spin with me in my car? Maybe you’ve seen it. -It’s white, and a dream. I’d love to have you come -along.”</p> - -<p>Leslie had forced back her rising irritation and -turned pleasant again.</p> - -<p>“Thank you, but——” Doris hesitated. She regarded -Leslie with a thoughtful, innocent air which -was a mask she assumed. Behind it she studied -Leslie’s ugly, almost grotesque features and the expensive -luxury of her costume. Self, the little inner -deity Doris worshipped, bade her accept the invitation -and enjoy the ride. If she did not approve afterward -of Leslie it would be easy enough to snub her -roundly. “I’ll come with you. It’s no end kind -in you to ask me,” she accepted without enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>“So glad to have you.” Leslie managed to keep -sarcastic inflection out of her reply. She was already -beginning to discover that Blondie was “certainly a -selfish proposition.” Still, try as she might where -could she have found another girl so well suited to -her purpose?</p> - -<p>“Great work,” she congratulated herself as the -two girls emerged from the Ivy to where the white -car stood in all its creamy, glittering glory. “Blondie -is down on Remson, can’t stand Bean and the Bean -stalks and she lives at Wayland Hall. She knows -me and we’re going to be chummy. It’s as good as -a private wire between me and the Hall. Can you -beat it?”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXIX'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIX.—GENTLEMAN GUS</h2> - -<p>“Marjorie Dean-n! Oo-oo; oo-oo! Mar-r-jo-r-ie D-e-an!”</p> - -<p>Marjorie turned sharply as the long resonant call -was borne to her ears on the crisp fall air. Speeding -toward her across the campus came a tall girl, -hands cupped to her lips. She was running with -a certain individual, energetic swing of body which -Marjorie recognized as belonging to but one student -at Hamilton. Sight of her brought a sunny smile -to Marjorie’s somewhat serious face.</p> - -<p>“Gussie Forbes,” she cried, “are you really here -at last. She held out both hands to the tall handsome -sophomore whose own face was radiant.</p> - -<p>“I am, but I’m surprised to think that I ever -reached here.” Gussie grasped the welcoming hands -and shook them with vigor. “I’ve been at Wayland -Hall about fifteen minutes. I asked where you -were, first thing. Miss Remson said she thought you -were somewhere on the campus, so out I hustled -to try to find you.”</p> - -<p>“Faithful Gussie. What can I do to reward such -devotion?” laughed Marjorie.</p> - -<p>“Come back to the Hall with me and be the feature -of a rejoicing bow-wow in Flossie’s and my -room,” came the prompt return. “We’re all simply -perishing to see you and the rest of the Sanfordites. -Is Miss Lynde back? I never dare call her Ronny, -though I think she’s a perfect dear.” Gussie linked -an arm in one of Marjorie’s and began towing her -gently toward the Hall.</p> - -<p>“Ronny’s here. She stopped at Sanford for us -on her way from California. Jerry, Lucy, Ronny -and I came back together. Muriel’s not coming -back this year.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, dear!” wailed Gussie. “That’s bad news. -Muriel is such a lot of fun. I only knew her well -toward the last of the college year, but we were getting -quite chummy.”</p> - -<p>“We’re all sorry Muriel isn’t with us.” Marjorie’s -face fell at the remembrance. “We’re going to miss -her dreadfully. We tried to coax her to come with -us, but she said ‘no’ and wouldn’t give a reason for -saying it. She’s been very mysterious about it.”</p> - -<p>“Haven’t you the least idea of why she isn’t coming -back?” questioned Gussie curiously.</p> - -<p>“No. She insists that she isn’t engaged to be -married. That would be her strongest reason for -not coming back.”</p> - -<p>“Aggravating old goose,” was Gussie’s fond -opinion of Muriel. “Look out she isn’t simply kidding -you. I’ll bet she’s engaged.”</p> - -<p>“You asked for Ronny. There she is now on the -steps.” Marjorie waved a gay signal to Veronica -Lynde, who answered it in kind.</p> - -<p>“She sent me a set of ducky postcards from Lower -California this summer. I was so surprised. I -never thought she’d do that.” Gussie spoke humbly.</p> - -<p>“You’ve a bad case of too much respect for -Ronny,” laughed Marjorie. “If she discovers it she -will give you a good shaking.”</p> - -<p>“I wish she would,” sighed Gussie. “I’d feel -more at home with her afterward. I behaved like -a savage to you last year. I’m sure Miss Lynde -hasn’t forgiven me for that. She was pleasant with -me after I turned civilized, but never friendly.”</p> - -<p>A smile dimpled the corners of Marjorie’s mouth. -“It’s all right,” she cheered downcast Gussie. -“You’re friends with Ronny, only you didn’t know -it. She loathes writing letters, or even postcards. -You’ve had the sign and seal of her friendship.”</p> - -<p>“Ha-a-a-a! Tell you that’s fine news,” Gussie -instantly brightened.</p> - -<p>As the two girls neared Ronny she came down the -steps and advanced to meet them. “So glad to see -you again.” She greeted Augusta with a warmth -which completely assured the doubting sophomore -of her friendliness.</p> - -<p>“And what have <i>you</i> been doing, Miss M. M. -Dean?” she humorously interrogated Marjorie.</p> - -<p>“I’d started for Silverton Hall to see Robin and -Phil. Phil has a great idea she wants to tell Robin -and me about. Now the great idea will have to wait. -I’m going to a pow-wow in Gussie’s room.”</p> - -<p>“No one invited me to a pow-wow.” Ronny -turned reproachful eyes on Gussie. “I enjoy pow-wows -far more than Marjorie does.”</p> - -<p>“I invite you to one this minute. Excuse my -seeming neglect. I’ve been at the Hall just long -enough to set down my luggage and start out to find -Marjorie. Double delighted to find your Highness, -too.” Gussie made Ronny an exaggerated, respectful -bow. Now sure of Ronny’s approval she entered -blithely into the spirit of Veronica’s teasing remarks.</p> - -<p>“Will you ask Jerry and Lucy to come and meet -the gang in my room?” Gussie was in a pleasant -flutter of excitement as the trio reached the second -floor of the Hall. “Flossie went for Leila and Vera. -They’re probably at the party now.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll answer for Jerry, and trot her to the pow-wow -directly,” Marjorie promised.</p> - -<p>“Lucy’s still in our room. I think. You may -expect us.” Ronny returned Gussie’s salute with one -equally extravagant and disappeared into her room.</p> - -<p>“She’s a perfect love! I won’t need that shaking -after all,” Gussie confided to Marjorie with sparkling -eyes as the two separated briefly.</p> - -<p>Marjorie hurried lightly down the hall and opened -the door of Room 15. “Hello, Jeremiah,” she -greeted; “Gussie Forbes is back. We’re invited to -a pow-wow in her room this very moment.”</p> - -<p>“Well, well, well; you don’t mean it.” Jerry Macy -looked up with an incredulous grin from the letter -she was writing.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I do mean it.” Marjorie pounced upon -Jerry and tried to pull her up from her chair. Jerry -grinningly braced herself and remained firm.</p> - -<p>“You can’t do it, Marvelous Manager. I’m someone -you can’t manage. So Gentleman Gus is going -to have a pow-wow! Shall Jeremiah attend it, or -finish her letter? Which? What?” Jerry had applied -the nickname “Gentleman Gus,” to Augusta -Forbes because of the number of male rôles the tall, -broad-shouldered sophomore had played in campus -shows during her freshman year.</p> - -<p>“You’ll attend it,” was Marjorie’s threatening prediction -as she began a fresh onslaught upon her -apparently stationary chum. “If I can’t haul you -up from that chair I’ll go for reinforcements. Then -we’ll see what’ll happen.”</p> - -<p>“Just see what’s happened already.” Jerry sprang -up from the chair. “Why, Bean, respected Bean, -excuse me. I nearly tipped you over, didn’t I?” -she innocently apologized as she bumped smartly -against her roommate.</p> - -<p>“Oh, never mind. You don’t know any better,” -Marjorie made charitable allowance as she tucked -her arm in Jerry’s and moved resolutely toward the -door.</p> - -<p>In front of the closed door of Gussie’s room Marjorie -smiled and raised a finger. Inside a merry -babel of fresh young voices told them the pow-wow -was in full swing. Marjorie tapped lightly on the -door. No one answering, she turned the knob and -she and Jerry entered the room. Ronny, Lucy, -Leila and Vera formed a group around which the -five sophomore chums known to their friends as the -Bertramites had gathered.</p> - -<p>At sight of Marjorie and Jerry a mild shout went -up from the assembled nine. Gussie made a jubilant -dash from the group to receive them.</p> - -<p>“For goodness sake, girls, moderate your whoops -of joy,” cautioned Flossie Hart when she could make -herself heard above the commotion. “The Hall is -full of young and timid freshies. This warning isn’t -meant for you P. G.’s,” she laughingly excepted. -“Only the Bertramites are included in it.”</p> - -<p>“A pow-wow is a pow-wow. I’m surprised at -you, Floss,” reproved Calista Wilmot with a giggle.</p> - -<p>“Remember eats are necessary at a pow-wow. -Trot out whatever you happen to have in your suitcases -that’s eatable,” Gussie ordered. “I’ve a five-pound -box of chocolate nuts. Next? That means -Floss, Calista, Charlotte and Anna. The rest of -you are company and have to be entertained.”</p> - -<p>Gussie cleared the center table with one or two -energetic sweeps of the arm. Her chums began a -prompt diving into bags and suitcases for their -contributions to the feast. Calista produced a pasteboard -box of macaroons, Flossie one of salted -almonds, Anna a sweet grass basket of stuffed dates -and Charlotte Robbins a box of home-made maple -and chocolate fudge and a large jar of tiny sour -pickles.</p> - -<p>“There.” Gussie arranged the toothsome array -of delicacies on the table to her satisfaction. “Here’s -to our noble P. G.’s,” she proposed, flourishing an -arm. “Long may they wave. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!”</p> - -<p>The five Bertramites came out lustily on the hurrahing. -The room rang with their gleeful shouts.</p> - -<p>The echoes of them had hardly died out before the -six guests were returning the compliment quite as -vociferously. They continued to make plenty of -pleasant noise as they sampled the sweets and rushed -from one topic of girl interest to another.</p> - -<p>“Someone is rapping on the door.” Leila’s quick -ears were the first to catch the sound.</p> - -<p>“I’ll go.” Gussie hurried to the door, a pickle -in one hand, a square of maple fudge in the other. -She transferred the pickle to the fudge hand and -opened the door.</p> - -<p>“Why, Miss Remson!” Her eyes widened in surprise. -“Come in. We’re having a jollification. You -are just in time for it.”</p> - -<p>“Glad to join in the fun.” The manager’s tones -were utterly friendly. “I’m the bearer of wet-blanket -news, though. Miss Monroe, next door to this room, -has just complained of the noise going on here. She -has an examination in mathematics tomorrow and -insists upon quiet so that she can study. I’m sorry, -children.” A good-humored smile overspread her -face. “You’ll have to try to play more quietly.”</p> - -<p>“Why, the idea! We haven’t been here an hour -yet, and it’s so early in the afternoon!” Gussie burst -forth half resentfully. “Pardon me, Miss Remson. -I don’t mean that for you. I mean it for fussy -Miss Monroe, whoever she may be. Talk about pure -freshie nerve!” Gussie’s eyes traveled the group of -now silent students for sympathy. She found it in -the common expression of blank, half-sheepish surprise -written large on her friends’ faces.</p> - -<p>“Miss Monroe isn’t a freshman, Augusta,” the -manager corrected gently. “She is trying the examinations -this week which will admit her to the sophomore -class. I explained to her that you and Miss -Hart were sophomores, hoping she might make allowance.”</p> - -<p>“A would-be soph, and complaining of the sophs! -What a loyal addition to the sophie class she will -be,” Florence Hart cried sarcastically.</p> - -<p>“Not wishing to be too inquisitive, Miss Remson, -may I ask if Miss Monroe insisted you should come -and tell us what a noisy crowd we were?” Leila inquired -smoothly.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Leila; she did,” the little woman replied in -her concise way.</p> - -<p>“Now why, I wonder, did she not come and tell -us herself?” Leila’s tones were silky, but her blue -eyes had narrowed.</p> - -<p>Miss Remson laughed. “Clever Leila,” she regarded -the Irish girl with approbation. “I may as -well tell you girls frankly. Miss Monroe put it to -me as my duty to reprimand you. I hope you won’t -consider my enforced word of caution in the nature -of a reprimand,” she ended with the independence of -affection.</p> - -<p>A chorus of loyal assurances went up which caused -her to raise a premonitory hand and incline her head -in the direction of the next room. After stopping -long enough to eat a square of fudge and two pickles -with true schoolgirl appetite she left behind her an -ominously quiet crowd of girls.</p> - -<p>“A nice reputation you have as a P. G., Jeremiah -Macy.” Jerry severely addressed herself in -the mirror of a dressing table. “Just think”—she -turned accusingly toward Lucy Warner—“even Luciferous -Warniferous, the Sanford sage, got a hot -shot for being too boisterous.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t blame me. Blame the company I keep,” -chuckled Lucy.</p> - -<p>“Luciferous Warniferous couldn’t be boisterous if -she tried,” defended Ronny. “She hasn’t said half -a dozen words since I led her into this room. I -know she hasn’t whooped once. Can you whoop, -Luciferous? That’s what I’d love to know?” Ronny -peered owlishly at Lucy.</p> - -<p>“Don’t give a demonstration of it till we are out -on the campus,” warned Anna Perry. Her inflection -was sarcastic. “It’s not safe here.”</p> - -<p>“I sha’n’t give one at any time or at any place,” -Lucy retorted with great firmness.</p> - -<p>“The very idea,” scolded Flossie Hart. “Why, -we made twice as much noise when we first came -to the Hall last year and no one made a fuss.”</p> - -<p>“I won’t stand it.” Gussie Forbes shook back her -short curls, squared her shoulders and linked her -hands behind her back in the attitude her chums -knew meant battle. “Can’t help it if this Miss Monroe -is going to be a soph. She might have known -we’d subside. She could have waited a little to see. -I won’t be mean enough to say I hope she flunks in -math. But I’ll say she’ll flunk in popularity if she -can’t live and let live.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXX'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XX.—BETTER LATE THAN NEVER</h2> - -<p>That evening in Ronny’s room Leila, Vera, Marjorie -and Jerry gathered for one of their old-time -“Traveler” meetings. The arrival of Ronny’s trunks -had furnished a treat of Mexican sweets, tempting -and varied. There were all sorts of candied tropical -fruits, strange toothsome nut pastes and a golden -delicious sweet called <i>dulce</i>. There were even candied -sweet potatoes.</p> - -<p>“Get busy and help yourselves,” Ronny directed -as she placed the large square tin box of confections -on the table before her chums. “I’ve a supply of -Mexican candy on hand. I’m going to take this box -to <i>l’enfant angelique</i>.” She smiled as she referred -to Gussie Forbes by the title the chums had privately -re-named her after her change of heart during -her freshman year. “Back in a minute.” Ronny -flitted from the room burdened with a second square -tin box of sweets.</p> - -<p>“Gentleman Gus needs a reward of good conduct -for keeping her temper this afternoon. She was all -ready to turn the pow-wow into a real tomahawking -party with one blonde scalp for a trophy,” was -Jerry’s opinion.</p> - -<p>“I expected an explosion,” Marjorie confessed -with a smile; “but none came. Gussie is splendid, -I think.”</p> - -<p>“How perfectly foolish in Miss Monroe to take -such a ridiculous stand! I can’t help criticizing her -for it,” Vera said disapprovingly. “In the face of -not knowing whether she will pass her exams or not.”</p> - -<p>“If she flunks in the soph exams, she can still -try for freshie estate,” Lucy reminded.</p> - -<p>“It seems she likes no one but herself,” Leila now -made dry observation. “We thought in the summer -it was only the four of us at the Hall and Kathie -who were not to her taste. Now we may banish -our sorrow. We are no worse off than the rest of -the college.”</p> - -<p>“Such a relief to my mind,” snickered Jerry. During -the three or four days that the Sanford group -of girls had been back at Hamilton she had seen -Doris Monroe half a dozen times and had formed -one of her peculiar dislikes to the self-centered -young woman. “Behave Jeremiah.” She gave one -plump wrist a resounding whack. “Remember the -stranger; et-cætera; et-cætera.”</p> - -<p>“But never think about your old friends.” A -tall girl in a gray sports coat and hat, her charming -face alive with laughter, had opened the door -on Jerry’s curtailed quotation of Hamilton’s first -tradition.</p> - -<p>“Muriel Harding; you rascal of rascals!” Jerry -reached the newcomer at a bound. She caught her -about the waist and pranced Muriel over the floor -in a wild dance which landed both against the opposite -wall with force.</p> - -<p>“Call off Jeremiah,” begged Muriel mirthfully. -“She’s too rough to belong in polite society. The -rest of you aren’t much more ladylike,” she called -out as a determined quartette hemmed her in and -attempted to embrace her in a body.</p> - -<p>“You deserve rough house tactics,” declared Jerry. -The happy light in her eyes told another story. The -other girls’ faces also reflected their pleasure in -Muriel’s return.</p> - -<p>“You mysterious old goose. I can’t think of anything -to say to you that would be really disrespectful,” -Marjorie assured the broadly beaming Traveler. -“We’ve missed you dreadfully. I’m so glad you’re -back.”</p> - -<p>“So am I. I was fairly sure she wouldn’t desert -us,” Lucy said with a wise nod of her dark head. -“She used to make fun of me so much that I learned -her tricks. I had an idea all the time that she couldn’t -stay away from this illustrious crowd.”</p> - -<p>“How sweet in you all to miss me.” Muriel wept -a few mock tears of appreciation into her handkerchief. -“As for you, Luciferous, <i>you</i> know too much.” -She treated Lucy to a glare of displeasure which -broke up in mirth. Lucy’s rare, childish giggle invariably -sent Muriel into peals of laughter.</p> - -<p>In the midst of the hilarity Ronny re-appeared and -a fresh burst of welcoming began. Once or twice it -occurred to Marjorie that they were making almost -as much commotion as had the party of girls in -Gussie’s room that afternoon. Freshmen occupied -the rooms on either side of Ronny and Lucy. They -were evidently less fussy than was Miss Monroe.</p> - -<p>“Now tell us all about it,” Marjorie coaxed when -Muriel had been fondly divested of coat and hat -and established in the room’s most comfy chair.</p> - -<p>“All about what?” Muriel pretended wide-eyed -innocence.</p> - -<p>“You know; just go right ahead and talk,” Jerry -coolly invited. “No use in asking us questions.”</p> - -<p>“Um-m-m. Perhaps you are right, my dear -Jeremiah,” Muriel conceded sweetly. “Well, I -thought it would be wonderful to be missed. I -knew that neither you, Ronny, nor you, Jeremiah -had proper regard for me. I had my doubts about -Lucy. I knew Bean was a kindly creature who would -at least think she missed me. But I wanted all of -you to feel the heart-breaking sadness of not seeing -me around and circulating merrily on the campus. -So I decided to put you all to the test, and——”</p> - -<p>“Fakir,” hissed Ronny making a serpentine dive -for Muriel’s chair and landing on an arm of it. -She promptly clapped a hand over Muriel’s mouth. -“You sha’n’t say another word until you promise to -tell us the real reason.”</p> - -<p>Muriel uttered a series of unintelligible remarks -behind Ronny’s hand. She held up her own -right hand finally as a sign of compliance. Ronny -reluctantly took away the barrier to speech.</p> - -<p>“This is the truth, girls, the whole truth, and -nothing but the truth. I almost got myself engaged -to be married, but not quite.” Muriel’s pretty features -grew rosy as she made this naive confession. -“It was on that account I was so mysterious about -coming back. It’s Harry Lenox, of course. I may -marry him someday.” Muriel waved an indefinite -hand. “Really, I didn’t know what I wanted to do -until the last minute. After you girls were gone -from Sanford I couldn’t bear to be left out of building -the dormitory and switching around the campus -as a venerable P. G. So here I am. Yours truly.” -Muriel favored her audience with one of her wide -captivating smiles.</p> - -<p>“Much ado about nothing,” Jerry commented derisively.</p> - -<p>“Precisely,” beamed Muriel. “Let me return the -compliment. ‘Shallow brooks babble loudest.’”</p> - -<p>“I think Miss Remson said she had half a room -left, Muriel,” Vera said presently when the excitement -attending Muriel’s unexpected arrival had -abated.</p> - -<p>“Oh, glorious! I hadn’t dare hope for a vacancy -at the Hall. I thought I’d be lucky to get into any -campus house. I suppose the Hall will be full of -freshies this year.”</p> - -<p>“Yes. Some of them haven’t arrived yet. We -are going to do station duty tomorrow. Help Gussie -and the Bertramites out with station detail,” Marjorie -told Muriel.</p> - -<p>“I haven’t seen Miss Remson yet. The maid let -me in. I’ll go down stairs now. My bag and suitcase -are in the hall.” Muriel rose and walked to -the door. “Come on, gang, and go with me,” she -crooked an inviting finger.</p> - -<p>Down the stairs trooped the seven girls, Muriel -and Marjorie in the lead. They swarmed Miss -Remson’s tiny office where the manager sat writing. -Her surprise at seeing Muriel was no less -than that of the girls had been.</p> - -<p>“Vera said you had half a room still open,” was -Muriel’s immediate anxious cry. “If I may have -it I’ll consider myself the luckiest person under the -sun.”</p> - -<p>Miss Remson sat back in her chair and surveyed -Muriel with a perplexed frown. “Yes, there is half -a room still vacant,” she said, her small keen face -full of doubt: “half of Miss Monroe’s room.” Her -gaze traveled to Marjorie and rested inquiringly on -the latter’s concerned features.</p> - -<p>“Oh-h-h!” went up in a breath from the enlightened -group.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter?” Muriel appeared mystified. -“Who’s Miss Monroe?” Repetition of the name -jogged memory. “Oh, yes; I remember. She’s the -pretty girl you told me about; the fairy-tale princess; -beautiful but icy; et-cætera, et-cætera; as our esteemed -roughneck, Jer—. Excuse me. I mean our -valued friend Jerry Macy loves to say.”</p> - -<p>Far from being dismayed at the prospect of an -uncongenial roommate Muriel accepted the situation -with her usual buoyant spirit. “What’s the use in -worrying?” she demanded after she had asked -numerous questions about her prospective roommate -and received nothing but the kindest information -her friends could truthfully give. “I know you -girls are trying to live up to tradition. I can guess -a good deal between the lines about my new roommate.”</p> - -<p>“Then you are quite sure you wish to make the -arrangement, Muriel?” anxiously asked Miss Remson.</p> - -<p>“Sure as can be,” Muriel flippantly asserted. “I -choose to spend my declining P. G. years at the -Hall. Shall I turn down such a chance to flourish -in the bosom of my friends?”</p> - -<p>“You may have my half of Jerry’s and my room, -Muriel,” Marjorie made sudden astounding offer. -“I’ll room with Miss Monroe instead of you.” Marjorie -was not sanguine of Muriel’s proposed venture. -She knew that Muriel and Jerry would be -happy together. She was afraid impulsive high-strung -Muriel might soon find herself in difficulties. -She did not anticipate any smoother sailing for herself. -She had reflected before making the offer so -characteristic of her unselfish soul that companionship -with the strange, unfriendly girl might bring -Miss Monroe into a better understanding of Hamilton -College.</p> - -<p>“Nope.” Muriel shook a smiling head. “I’m -going to choose the enchanted iceberg for a roommate -and see what happens. Are you modest enough -to believe that Jeremiah would allow me to supplant -you as a roommate? Thank you a million times -just the same.”</p> - -<p>“That’s the way to talk. I never credited you -with such reasoning power as you have just displayed, -my dear Miss Harding.” Jerry smiled fatuously -upon Muriel then transferred her smiles to -Marjorie. “You don’t seem to have the least inkling -of my deep regard for you. Bean,” she reproved.</p> - -<p>“You see the way things are?” Marjorie turned -to Miss Remson with a laughing gesture.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I see.” The manager rose from her desk. -“Pardon me, children. I had best go upstairs and -notify Miss Monroe that her roommate has arrived.”</p> - -<p>“Tell her she may expect me,” giggled Muriel. -“You needn’t say much about me. I’ll astonish her -by walking in on her presently with a special P. G. -swagger. Nothing succeeds like nerve, you know.” -Muriel’s velvety brown eyes were dancing with mischief.</p> - -<p>“I’ll back you to win,” were Jerry’s encouraging -words. “You have almost as much nerve as I have; -perhaps more.”</p> - -<p>“I wish I could believe you.” Muriel was blandly -regretful.</p> - -<p>“What a waste of good health to worry over that -one, Beauty!” Leila pointed derisively at Muriel.</p> - -<p>“I should say so,” Ronny agreed with teasing -stress. “I’m sorry for the enchanted iceberg.”</p> - -<p>Marjorie listened and laughed at the exchange of -repartee. At the same time she wondered, if, after -all, Muriel Harding might not prove to be the best -possible roommate for the lovely, ungracious fairy-tale -princess.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXXI'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXI.—“GOOD HUNTING”</h2> - -<p>Warned by her chums that her pretty roommate -was more than likely to prove frosty, Muriel went -to Room 22, armed with her usual light-hearted insouciance, -the best weapon she could have had in -the circumstances. Far from being cast down by -the chilly environment Doris’s haughty manner -merely appealed to her keen sense of the ridiculous. -She gaily named her the Ice Queen and their room -the ice chest. “If I stayed in the ice chest too long -I might catch cold,” she roguishly informed her -chums, “but I’m never there more than five minutes -at a time except to sleep.”</p> - -<p>With the filling up of the campus houses with -students and the formal opening of Hamilton College -the Travelers found their work cut out for -them. They spent countless hours in station duty, -welcoming arriving freshmen. Feeling their responsibility -as post graduates they tried earnestly -to promote a spirit of sociability on the campus. -These self-imposed duties, besides the effort to keep -in touch with their personal campus friends, kept -them constantly occupied.</p> - -<p>The very reliable, conscientious firm of Page and -Dean had the serious duty before them of looking -out for the students who had formerly lived in the -now demolished houses of the dormitory site. The -tenants of the houses in the block which Leslie Cairns -had bought had been ordered out of them directly -after Commencement. The dingy row of dwellings -still stood, awaiting their chagrined owner’s pleasure. -For a time Leslie had lost interest in the garage idea -and had regarded her ill-gotten purchase as an elephant -on her hands. Later, she had moodily resolved, -because she had nothing else to busy her, -to go on with her original plan in the hope of being -able, eventually, to even what she considered as -a “score” with Marjorie Dean.</p> - -<p>After painstaking inquiry and investigation Marjorie -and Robin had finally found good boarding -places in the town of Hamilton for the seventy-two -students who could not afford campus rates. The -zealous promoters had also arranged with an Italian, -who had recently begun operating a three-bus line -between Hamilton and West Hamilton to carry the -students to the campus every morning on special trip. -More, their old friend Baretti had offered to serve -such students with sandwiches and tea, coffee or milk -whenever their free hours from recitations should -permit them to come to the restaurant. The devoted -friend of Page and Dean, the warm-hearted Italian -had named a small price for the service. He had -been an almost avid supporter of the Travelers’ plans -and had often hinted that “someday” he would give -the “dorm” a nice present.</p> - -<p>“Positively, Robin Page,” Marjorie declared fervently -one soft fall afternoon as the two girls left -the dormitory site after a consultation with Peter -Graham, “things are simply skimming along. Everything -good seems to be gravitating straight toward -us. Thanks to Miss Susanna and Jonas the site is -clear now and ready for the building. It wouldn’t -have been cleared before Christmas if they hadn’t -given us that splendid early start. And where could -we find another builder like Mr. Graham? We -couldn’t; I’m sure.”</p> - -<p>“Blessing number two,” counted Robin, laughing. -“We might as well rank Guiseppe Baretti as number -three. Think of what he’s done for us!”</p> - -<p>“I’m thinking,” Marjorie nodded. “Then that -bus line started up like magic. Just what we needed, -when we needed it! And the boarding houses -for the off campus girls are fine. Now that they -are so beautifully settled we can begin to pick up -life on the campus. The freshies this year seem a -dandy set of girls.”</p> - -<p>“So Phil says. She’s not crazy over the sophs, -though. She says she thinks they are chesty. Not -Gussie Forbes and her crowd. Phil likes Gussie. -She says there is a lack of college spirit among the -others. She hasn’t discovered why as yet.” Robin -looked thoughtful. “I dare say Gussie knows. She -is such a live wire.”</p> - -<p>“I must have a talk with her. Oh, gracious!” -Marjorie sighed audibly. “I have so much to do -I hardly know what to tackle first. I can’t start -chemistry again for at least another week. That -and French poetry are all I shall undertake this -semester.”</p> - -<p>“I’m going to send for my car,” Robin announced -with sudden irrelevancy. “I’ve wasted time waiting -for taxis to and from town. We really need my -roadster.”</p> - -<p>“I’d like to have a car here this year,” Marjorie -admitted honestly. “This is a great secret, Robin. -I haven’t told another person: General gave me a -choice before I came back here between having a -car and the money it would cost. I—I took the -money. We need it for the dormitory. I know we -are welcome to use as much of Ronny’s money as -we like, but the self-respecting way is to raise it by -earning it, or by self-denial.”</p> - -<p>“You old dear!” Robin patted Marjorie’s arm. -“You’ve taught all of us the self-denying way. I -spent scads of money when first I came to Hamilton. -Now I’ve turned positively stingy in my old age. -I might as well have my car here as home. No one -uses it there. I have an excuse for what the up-keep -will cost.”</p> - -<p>Robin was full of her plan to send home for her -car. She began to calculate, as the two entered the -campus and lingered there for a brief talk, on the -saving of time it would mean as against the cost of -up-keep. While the absorbed promoters stood talking -together a group of half a dozen sophomores -passed them. The sophs greeted the two girls’ -pleasant salutation with a kind of admiring eagerness. -Six pairs of bright eyes rested longest on -Marjorie, however. One of the girls made a low-voiced -remark to the others. There was a concerted -shaking of heads as the group passed on.</p> - -<p>They had not gone on far when Marjorie said -good-bye to Robin and turned her face in the direction -of Wayland Hall. The lively murmur of voices -close behind her caused her to wheel suddenly. In -the next instant a smiling band had surrounded her.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Miss Dean, we’ve something special to ask -you,” began the leader of the group, a small blue-eyed -girl with a round rosy face and deep dimples. -“You know the sophs have their election next week. -Gussie Forbes is our candidate for president. We -want to get up an election parade for her; a regular -booster. We’d like to do something quite funny. -Could you—would you—ask that awfully clever -P. G. Miss Harper to—help—no I don’t mean exactly -to help us. All we’d like is a suggestion from -you two.”</p> - -<p>“We’ve heard about Miss Harper’s wonderful -stunts. We know what good shows you and Miss -Page got up last year,” interposed a tall girl with -a frank, boyish face. “We were going to ask you -and Miss Page when we passed, then we were afraid -of interrupting your conversation.”</p> - -<p>“I wish you had,” Marjorie said with smiling regret. -“Miss Page is full of funny, original ideas. -I’ll speak to Miss Harper tonight. Why not come -over to the Hall tomorrow evening? We can talk -it over. Leila will have thought of some good stunt -by then.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, fine, lovely, great work!” went up from her -pleased listeners. “What time shall we come?” asked -the little girl who reminded Marjorie of Susan Atwell, -one of her Sanford schoolmates.</p> - -<p>“Any time after seven, Miss Vernon,” Marjorie -said cordially.</p> - -<p>The little girl showed pleased dimples at being -thus remembered. The smiles of her companions -were equally jubilant at the success of their plea. -“Thank you, Miss Dean. We’ll surely come,” was -Miss Vernon’s grateful acceptance as the sextette -took themselves off across the campus after a united -murmur of thanks.</p> - -<p>“The old calls are beginning to rise again,” Marjorie -reflected happily as she neared the Hall. She -was reminded of the phrasing of the “Jungle Books,” -which she had adored as a child. “It’s good hunting -again on the campus. Good hunting all,” she -repeated half aloud, “good hunting all who keep -the jungle laws.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXXII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXII.—A “BOOSTER” PARADE</h2> - -<p>The “booster” parade for Augusta Forbes, candidate -for sophomore presidency of at least half the -sophomore class, was as ridiculous as its gleeful -originators had intended it should be. Two evenings -before the sophomore election the paraders issued -from the gymnasium at dark, in amazing and -flamboyant procession. A stolid drum major, Anna -Perry was a triumph. She wore a scarlet cotton -flannel uniform, recklessly trimmed in blue, and a -high fur hat, contrived from an old squirrel muff. -She led the van with a truly wonderful flourish of -baton.</p> - -<p>The presidential candidate came next in a two-wheeled -push cart draped in red, white and blue -bunting. Gussie, in an old black frock coat and -trousers and a white plug hat which Leila had unearthed -from among the Travelers stage properties -was a figure of dignity in spite of the occasional -sprawling lurch forward she gave in the cart. The -cart was energetically motivated by four stalwart -servitors. Their very energy made Gussie cling desperately -to the rug-covered soap box on which she -sat with one hand while she waved an acknowledgment -with the other to the uproarious populace.</p> - -<p>The vice president had also been selected for push cart -honors. This dignitary’s vehicle, however, -while draped with equal gorgeousness was smaller -and required only two lackeys. Richly attired in a -pleated white shirt, fawn knickers, a blue plush -smoking jacket and a black silk hat with a dent in -one side of it, he sat flat in the bottom of the cart, -recklessly distributing smiles and bows.</p> - -<p>The treasurer and secretary came next in white -flannel tennis trousers, white shoes and white silk -blouses. They wore white sports hats wreathed in -blue and scarlet, the sophomore colors. Unfortunately -for them they had to be content with express -wagons. As both candidates were tall they had to -sit in their wagons, backs to the willing soph horses, -a generous length of limb trailing over the rear end -of their conveyances. It was either this, or a certain -possibility of kicking their hard-working steeds. -The rosy-faced manager of the Forbes’ party rode -in a child’s dark blue automobile which she sturdily -propelled with both feet, dressed in a plaided knicker -suit, sneakers, a boy’s striped sweater and a red and -green monkey cap she looked not more than ten -years old. Nor could a boy of that age have made -more noise.</p> - -<p>Behind her came the band, a ten-piece organization -composed of one bugle, two accordions, two -drums, one cornet, three combs and a hand organ. -On each side of the procession walked the torch -bearers lighting the impressive pageant with cat-tail -torches. The dark-faced organ grinder in an old -black velvet coat and blue overalls and fierce outstanding -mustache closely resembled Calista Wilmot. -He enthusiastically ground out a program of -“Suwanee River,” “Annie Laurie,” “Get Out and -Get Under,” and “Do You Love Me, Honey?” while -the rest of the band accompanied him with deafening -zest.</p> - -<p>Sauntering along behind this commotion and -seemingly quite unruffled by it were no less than -Uncle Sam, George Washington and Christopher -Columbus. Their appearance on the campus was -the signal for shrieks of mirth and they were hailed -with the familiarity accorded to old friends. The -parade circled Hamilton Hall three times then trailed -down the main campus drive and rested there while -the band gave an ear-splitting concert.</p> - -<p>At the last the push cart detail tired of their hard -but honored task and flatly refused to take the candidates -a step further. The squabble ended by the -squabblers walking off arm in arm toward the gymnasium -where the sophs had made ready a spread -of cake and ice cream to which anyone on the campus -was welcome so long as the eats held out.</p> - -<p>“It’s almost safe to say that Gentleman Gus will -be friend president,” Jerry declared to Marjorie that -night as the two were preparing for sleep. “I understand -that she has over half the class with her.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I think she’ll win. I hope so.” Marjorie -became suddenly silent. “There are some of the -sophs who still blame Gussie for what happened to -Alma Hurst and Ida Weir,” she said, after a little. -“She was accused of having informed on two -members of her class. She didn’t, you know, and -so do the rest of us. It was Miss Walbert who betrayed -them.”</p> - -<p>“Why, old Marvelous Manager, what makes you -so emphatic? Heard anything special about Gussie?” -Jerry fixed interested eyes on Marjorie.</p> - -<p>“Yes; today. Calista told me. Gussie doesn’t -know it. The other Bertram girls do. They won’t tell -her. She is so proud. They are afraid she’d withdraw -from the nomination. They want her to be -president because they think she’d make a fine one. -Calista says the sophs are beginning to make a fuss -over Miss Monroe. A freshie who lives at Acasia -House began raving over Miss Monroe the first day -she saw her. The very next day she sent her a big -box of roses. The story went around the campus -and the sophs heard it and began to rush Miss Monroe. -She may be nominated at the class meeting -Thursday.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe,” Jerry conceded. “Still I think Gus has -the inside track. The sophs may nominate half a -dozen girls, but Gussie will carry off more than half -the votes. You see if she doesn’t. Don’t worry -about <i>her</i>.”</p> - -<p>“You are so cheering, Jeremiah. I did worry -about Gussie, for her to hear anything horrid now, -when she’s so full of the election, would cut her to -the heart.</p> - -<p>“Cut it out, Bean, cut out worry, is the valuable -advice of Dr. Macy. If you must worry, worry -about me. I can’t decide what I ought to study. -I’m too highly educated now. My brain rebels -against being stuffed any fuller. I’m what you -might call wise in my own conceit.”</p> - -<p>“You’re a cheerful goose,” was Marjorie’s fond -opinion. Nevertheless she wished the eventful sophomore -election were the next day instead of the day -after.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXXIII'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.—STICKING IT OUT</h2> - -<p>“What is the news from the soph’s election, I -wonder? Ronny Lynde looked interestedly toward -Hamilton Hall where the sophomore class had collected -in a deserted recitation room to elect their -officers.</p> - -<p>“Here comes Muriel. Maybe she has heard echoes -of the tumult that writhes within. What are <i>you</i> -doing in the sacred corridors of Hamilton Hall?” -Marjorie banteringly hailed. “You don’t belong -there.” Marjorie and Ronny were passing Hamilton -Hall on their way from a recitation in French -Prose.</p> - -<p>“Mayn’t a mouse peep into a castle?” demanded -Muriel. “I happen to be studying Greek, though -I may not look it.”</p> - -<p>“Greek,” Ronny meditatively repeated. “That -might account for some of your strange actions. -Things inexplicable are often remarked as being ‘so -much Greek.’ I must say——”</p> - -<p>“Don’t say it,” pleaded Muriel. Let me talk. The -sophs are making a grand splatter and clatter at -their meeting. It sounded almost as though they -were engaged in mortal combat.</p> - -<p>“I’d love to linger here and get the first news,” -Marjorie said with a bright glance into the open -doorway of Hamilton Hall. “It’s against P. G. dignity, -though. Besides Professor Leonard wishes to -see me at four-thirty in the gym. It’s four-twenty-five -now.” She consulted her wrist watch. “I’ll leave -you two. Of course, if you should decide to wait -for the election returns, it wouldn’t be my fault,” she -told the two significantly.</p> - -<p>“Such consideration for your friends,” Muriel -called after her. Marjorie made a derisive little gesture -over one shoulder then quickened her step so as -not to keep Professor Leonard waiting.</p> - -<p>She found him in his office, his desk littered with -physical culture programs which he was in process -of making.</p> - -<p>“So glad to see you, Miss Dean.” He rose and -offered her a friendly hand. “Sit down, and let us -have one of our old-time inspiriting talks. I was -hoping you would come back to the campus. I supposed -you would be in Hamilton, at any rate. I -wish you would tell me more about the new dormitory. -I had no opportunity to talk with you about -it last June.”</p> - -<p>Marjorie had intended to remain in the professor’s -office not more than a few moments. It was -more nearly an hour before she rose to say good -afternoon. Professor Leonard had strongly urged -her to serve again on the sports committee. The -energetic instructor had refused to entertain her -doubt that the students of the college might prefer -the sports committee should be seniors rather than -post graduates.</p> - -<p>“I can assure you of your eligibility to the committee,” -he said earnestly. “Yourself and two -seniors, Miss Severn and Miss Moore, we will say, -will make my perfect sports committee. However, -think the matter over. I wish you to be satisfied. -I know you are a very busy young woman. Help -me, if you can. I need your judgment and support.”</p> - -<p>Marjorie reveled in the comforting inner assurance -of work well done as she left the gymnasium -and hastened toward Wayland Hall. She had decided -before she reached the steps of the Hall, if Phil -and Barbara wished very much that she should -accept the honor the Professor had offered her, she -would do so.</p> - -<p>Glancing up at the chimes clock she saw a quarter -to six staring her in the face. “Election’s over -long ago,” she said to herself. “I’ll have just about -ten minutes to drop in on Gussie before dinner.” “Oh, -bother,” was her second thought. “Gussie is probably -out somewhere being rushed. I’ll stop at her -door, anyway.” She hurried into the hall and made -a running ascent of the stairs. She rapped repeatedly -on Gussie’s door; at first lightly, then with force. -Still no one answered.</p> - -<p>Going on to her own room she found the door -half open and no Jerry in sight. She flung off her -hat and long coat and set off for Ronny’s room. -The murmur of voices behind the closed door informed -her that there someone was at home.</p> - -<p>“Gadding again!” exclaimed Jerry as Marjorie -walked into the room.</p> - -<p>“I know you are, Jeremiah,” Marjorie retorted -sweetly. “It’s surprising in you to own to it.”</p> - -<p>“I wasn’t speaking of myself. Walking diagonally -across the hall from one room to another isn’t -gadding. But you—That’s another story.”</p> - -<p>“What about the election?” Marjorie made a -scornful face at Jerry and turned to Ronny and -Muriel. There was excitement in her question. She -felt the same anxiety for Gussie that she would have -for one of her chums in the same circumstances.</p> - -<p>“Gentleman Gus was elected, but there was some -sort of fuss,” Muriel replied to the question. “We -hung about the steps where we were when you left -us. A crowd of sophs came out. Miss Monroe was -with them. She was looking quite pleased with -herself. She didn’t see me. I mean she pretended -she didn’t. The other sophs, there were nine or ten -of them, were peeved as could be. They were -grumbling and muttering like a mob in a house -play.”</p> - -<p>“Those sophs had undoubtedly backed Miss Monroe. -We knew then she’d lost without having to be -told, Muriel was anxious to find out the details so -we went into Hamilton Hall to lie in wait for and -pounce down upon someone who knew what we -didn’t,” supplemented Ronny.</p> - -<p>“By then we’d lost all respect for ourselves as -P. G.’s,” chuckled Muriel. “We were getting curiouser -and curiouser. We did a wary toddle down -the corridor toward the room the sophs were in. The -door opened and out came Jane Everest. I can’t recall -when I’ve so much enjoyed meeting anyone,” -she declared waggishly. “Only Jane didn’t know -what the fuss was about. It was a hot one, she said -between Gussie and some of the sophs we’d seen -coming out of the Hall. Only the chairman and the -election committee appeared to know what it was -over.”</p> - -<p>“I’m afraid I know what it was over,” Marjorie -spoke with a kind of sad soberness. “You remember -what I told you, Jeremiah?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. I’m afraid you knew too much, Bean; too -much.” Jerry wagged her head with the air of a -wiseacre.</p> - -<p>Marjorie had to laugh in spite of her perturbation. -Ronny and Muriel were eyeing her expectantly, -listening for what she might say next.</p> - -<p>“It is because of last year—” Marjorie broke off -abruptly as a quick, imperative knock sounded at the -door.</p> - -<p>Ronny went to the door and opened it. “Oh, -Gussie!” she exclaimed. “Come in.”</p> - -<p>“No, thank you. I—I—want to see—just Marjorie—no -one else.” Gussie’s voice had a husky -sound. Her eyelids were suspiciously pink.</p> - -<p>“Why, Gussie!” Marjorie who had heard; was -at the door with outstretched hands. “What is it, -dear?” she asked in a lower tone.</p> - -<p>“I must talk with you. A lot of miserable things -have happened. I was elected. I don’t want to be -president. I don’t know what to do.” Gussie leaned -her arm against a side of the open door, dropped -her head upon it and burst into tears.</p> - -<p>Next moment Marjorie had gently drawn the -weeping sophomore inside the room and closed the -door. “Poor old Gus,” she soothed, “wrapping her -arms about Augusta. Go ahead and cry as much as -you please. You’ll feel better afterward.”</p> - -<p>The three other girls now joined Marjorie in her -earnest effort to comfort Augusta. In place of the -breezy, self-reliant Gussie they had been used to -meeting had now appeared this woe-begone, tear-drenched -stranger.</p> - -<p>“Buck up, Gentleman Gus,” encouraged Jerry, -giving the weeper a friendly slap between the -shoulders.</p> - -<p>The slangy consolation and the slap had a potent -effect on Gussie. She stopped crying with a gulping -sigh and even managed to coax a wavering, -quivery smile to her lips.</p> - -<p>“Ah, aha! That’s better.” Jerry made capital of -the smile. “Have a chair, and tell us your troubles. -If you see a chair here you fancy, grab it before -anyone else has a chance at it. This isn’t my room -but I run it just the same. I run everything I can, -and sometimes I get the run.”</p> - -<p>Gussie’s smile grew at Jerry’s nonsense. “No, I -won’t sit down. I can’t stay. I ran away from the -girls. I was looking for Marjorie.” She stopped, -looking distressed. “I’ll tell you about the election,” -she slowly continued. “I wasn’t going to tell anyone -but Marjorie, but I’d like you to know.” Her -gaze swept the trio of girls. Apparently satisfied -with what she saw, she said:</p> - -<p>“There were three nominations for president—Miss -Monroe, Evelyn Burtis and myself. The girls -who were rooting for Miss Monroe were the ones -who said I reported Ida Weir and Alma Hurst for -hazing Flossie and me last year. You know I did not -report Miss Weir and Miss Hurst. It was Miss -Walbert who did that. I didn’t know any such -hateful thing had been said about me until Flossie -told me after the election. If I had known it beforehand -I wouldn’t have accepted a nomination. -Flossie knew it, and didn’t tell me.”</p> - -<p>“Finally the voting began. I won by a third -majority.” Gussie could not keep a note of pride out -of her voice. “Miss Monroe had more votes than -Miss Burtis. My party began cheering me. Before -they had stopped a soph who has a crush on Miss -Monroe stood up and began fussing with the chairman. -She said she had a perfect right to protest -against the election; that the chairman had no business -to accept my nomination for president when -she had been informed beforehand by letter of my -true character. She said that I was not fit to be -the president of my class; that I was not truthful or -honorable; that I had reported two worthy students -for hazing who were entirely innocent of such a -charge. Then she demanded that the ballot should -be cast all over again with my name left out.</p> - -<p>“The chairman said she had received the letter -against me which the soph had written and had -showed it to the other members of the committee. -I wish you might have seen how scornful she looked. -They had all agreed to ignore it as unworthy of -attention.”</p> - -<p>“That chairman is a peach,” warmly praised Jerry. -“Who is she? I shall lunch her at Baretti’s tomorrow. -See if I don’t.”</p> - -<p>“She is Miss Hopkins, and she is splendid.” Gussie -drew a long breath. “The soph who made all -the fuss is Miss Walker. She and a pal of hers, -Miss Johnson, were chummy with Alma Hurst and -Ida Weir.”</p> - -<p>“It isn’t right that such untruthful gossip should -be spread about you, Gussie,” was Marjorie’s indignant -cry. “The best way to down it is to show -the sophs what a fine president you can be. I know -you will.”</p> - -<p>“I—I said I would resign,” Gussie confessed. -“Miss Hopkins said she didn’t blame me. She gave -me a queer look when she said it as though she -wished I wouldn’t. My party hadn’t heard much of -the talk between Miss Walker and Miss Hopkins for -Miss Walker was sitting on a front seat. They only -knew it was some kind of kick about me. They began -to cheer me and the other sophs began to hiss. -My party raked them down. I was sitting near the -front, too, with Floss and Calista. All of a sudden -Miss Hopkins walked up to me and said: ‘Please -don’t resign, Miss Forbes. The committee believe -in you. I know you’ll stand by us.’ I couldn’t resign -after that.” Gussie avowed with rueful emphasis.</p> - -<p>“Your a real gentleman of the old school,” Ronny -approved. “Allow me to escort you to a blow-out -at Baretti’s. There is no time like the present. I’m -going to gather in the Bertramites. Muriel, go -gather in Leila and Vera. Tear them from the dining -room table, if necessary.”</p> - -<p>“Slave, do my bidding,” mocked Muriel as she -bounced obediently from the room.</p> - -<p>Veronica skipped lightly after her. She found -the four Bertramites in Gussie’s room, solemnly -wondering where poor old Gus had hidden herself. -Two minutes’ explanation and the four girls were -crossing the hall to Ronny’s room, a hurrying -quartette.</p> - -<p>Muriel luckily caught Leila and Vera just outside -the dining room.</p> - -<p>“I know of no one more accommodating than myself, -except Midget,” was Leila’s characteristic acceptance -of the invitation. “Are we not noble to -wait another hour for dinner when we are starving?”</p> - -<p>“Noble isn’t the word,” Muriel returned effusively.</p> - -<p>“You’re too effusive to be sincere,” was Vera’s -blunt opinion as the three started upstairs together.</p> - -<p>Marjorie also had a good-will errand of her own -to go on. Down stairs she quietly flitted and to -the telephone. When she had finished a low-toned -conversation with Robin Page at the other end of -the line she hung up the receiver, clapped her hands -childishly and ran upstairs, a demure little smile -playing upon her lips.</p> - -<p>Following Augusta Forbes’ bitter cup of the afternoon -the “blow-out” given in her honor by P. G.’s -at Baretti’s was an unexpected and effectual balm to -her wounded spirit. It was a very jolly dinner, made -thus by the handful of democratic girls who had -“been through the Wars of the Campus,” as Jerry -announced in proposing a toast to the new sophomore -president. Nor had their prompt upholding -of Augusta been without effect on the several groups -of girls who were also dining at the restaurant. At -the Colonial the sophomore ringleaders in the ignoble -attempt to down Gussie were dining Doris Monroe -and hotly discussing ways and means by which their -faction might gain the upper hand in sophomore affairs -despite the loss of the presidency on the part -of their choice.</p> - -<p>Doris, in an exquisite frock of orchid tissue with -a huge bunch of real pinky-lavender orchids trailing -across one bare shoulder looked more like a fairy-tale -princess than ever. Some of the sophs had -even begun to call her the Princess. Nor could she -know that Marjorie’s flattering fancy of her, repeated -to one of the Wayland Hall freshman by -way of admiring Doris’s undeniable beauty, was the -source of the pleasing title. What Doris did know -was that she had begun to crave popularity. She -was having her first taste of the sweeping impetuous -admiration of the American college girl. Under an -air of sweetly-smiling but still indifferent amiability -Doris was reaching greedily out for popularity. It -would not be her fault if she should not gain it.</p> - -<p>The crowning bliss of having faithful friends came -to Gussie that night after she and her genial adherents -had returned to Wayland Hall and she was -in her room telling the details of the afternoon’s fray -to her curious chums. Under her window, sudden -and sweet, the stately Hymn to Hamilton rose, more -beautiful than ever by reason of the utter harmony -of musical instruments and voices.</p> - -<p>With one accord the five girls rushed to the two -windows and opened them. Not one word did they -speak, simply leaned across the sill and listened. -When the hymn ended they applauded softly. The -singers in the darkness below followed the hymn -with one of Nevin’s songs without words, vocalizing -it perfectly. Then came “Appear Love At Thy -Window,” and last, “Good Night: God Guard You.”</p> - -<p>As the final line of the tender old song ended -Gussie leaned far out the window and said in quiet, -purposeful tones: “Thank you, everyone. You -can’t know how much you’ve done for me. I’ll try -harder than ever to live up to my Alma Mater.”</p> - -<p>From other windows on that side of the house -girls were leaning, hurried to them by the harmonic -sounds. In the room occupied by Muriel and the -“Ice Queen” Doris Monroe had just entered. She -was occupied in placing the bunch of orchids in -water when the music began.</p> - -<p>“What is it?” she languidly inquired as Muriel -raced to a window and raised it.</p> - -<p>“Serenade party. They are serenading Miss -Forbes.” Muriel’s eyes danced as she gave the information.</p> - -<p>“How peculiar!” drawled Doris. A jealous light -had sprung into her changeable eyes.</p> - -<p>“Not half so peculiar as the way some of the -sophs behaved this afternoon.” Muriel was constrained -to retort over one shoulder as she dropped -to her knees before the window.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXXIV'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.—A NEW ALLY</h2> - -<p>From the moment Doris Monroe had realized that -she might become a figure of importance on the -campus her attitude toward college had changed. In -the summer she had scornfully regarded the campus -as a “ghastly old space.” Since the return to it -of scores of smart, butterfly girls who owned cars -and who made amusement a business during their -recreation hours she had entirely altered her opinion.</p> - -<p>Because she had chosen to be “miffed” at the -Travelers during their summer stay at the Hall she -still clung stubbornly to her groundless grudge -against them. Then, too, Leslie Cairns had warned -her against them. Leslie was a person for whom -Doris had a certain amount of respect. Leslie had -wealth in her own right and appeared to be afraid -of no one. She had taken Doris for several rides -in the white roadster and lunched and dined her expensively -at exclusive wayside inns and tea rooms. -When Leslie had returned to New York, shortly -after Marjorie had returned to Sanford, Doris had -missed her new acquaintance.</p> - -<p>She was pleasantly surprised during the week following -the sophomore election to find a note in the -Hall bulletin board from Leslie Cairns. It read:</p> - -<!-- begin:blockquote --> -<div class='bq'> -<p class='ti0 sc'>“Dear Doris:</p> - -<p>“Meet me at the same old spot on the pike below -the dago’s tomorrow afternoon at five-thirty sharp. -Hope you are well and enjoying the knowledge shop.</p> - -<div class='abrc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:bar --> - <div>“Yours,</div> - <div class='sc'>“Leslie.”</div> - <!-- end:bar --> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<!-- end:blockquote --> - -<p>“How are you?” was Leslie’s nonchalant greeting -of the sophomore when Doris arrived in the gathering -October dusk at the rendezvous. She leaned out -of the small black car she was driving and extended -a careless hand to Doris. “Hop in,” she invited. -“We’re off to Breton Hill for dinner. I’m going to -zip this road wagon along when I clear Hamilton -Estates.”</p> - -<p>“I’m so glad to see you again, Leslie,” Doris said -with more warmth than she usually exhibited.</p> - -<p>“So you’ve come to life.” Leslie grinned to herself -as she started the car. “I had an idea you -would. What’s new at the knowledge shop?” There -was a veiled eagerness in her question. Leslie cared -far more about what went on at Hamilton than -she pretended. “Tell me anything and everything -you can think of.”</p> - -<p>“Things have livened immensely. I passed my -soph exams and I was nominated for the soph presidency.” -Doris went on with a somewhat lofty account -of the sophomore election and her sudden rise -in campus popularity. “You ought to see the way -the girls stare at me when I am out on the campus,” -she declared with enthusiasm. “I have some freshie -crushes as well as sophs and some of the juniors and -seniors are sweet to me. It’s because I’m so beautiful,” -she added with cool assurance.</p> - -<p>“Yes, you are a beauty,” Leslie admitted half enviously. -“Do you think you have half the college -going?”</p> - -<p>“Mercy no!” Doris truthfully exclaimed. “I -might have, I think, if I could afford to entertain in -a very exclusive expensive way. That’s what counts. -I have plenty of lovely clothes, but my father doesn’t -believe in giving me a large allowance. He would -be awfully angry if he knew that I took half a room -instead of the single he applied for for me. I did -it so as to have that much more spending money. I -wish now I hadn’t. My roommate is Miss Harding, -one of those horrid Sanford P. G.’s. She is snippy -and so cheeky. A lot of the sophs are down on her -and her crowd for boosting that stupid Miss Forbes -for president.”</p> - -<p>“That was a favorite trick of Bean and her Beanstalks -when I was at Hamilton,” informed Leslie. -She was regarding Doris’s pretty discontented features -as though revolving some plan in the dark -recesses of her scheming mind.</p> - -<p>“It seems to be a favorite trick still,” replied Doris -venomously. “I understand that Bean, as you call -her, is trying to run the sports committee, take sides -with one half the sophs and lecture the other half -as to what they should do. She and that Miss Harper -planned the election parade for Miss Forbes’ -crowd. I heard that the sophs who were trying to -boost me asked her to help them get up a parade -and she refused to help them.”</p> - -<p>“You sophs are foolish to stand such treatment.” -Leslie busied herself with the wheel as though offering -casual opinion.</p> - -<p>“What can we do?” demanded Doris fiercely. “It’s -hardly my place to start a fuss. I have a certain -reputation as a beauty to keep up on the campus.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, that’s so. You’re clever enough to see it. -Let me see.” Leslie wrinkled her rugged features -in intense concentration of thought. She was very -desirous of hatching a plan of malicious action. It -could hardly be traced to her, if carried out, she -was reflecting comfortably.</p> - -<p>“What the sophs should do is this,” she said at -length. “They should write two letters; both to -Bean. One should be from the sophs themselves, -calling Bean down for interfering with their -interests and ordering her thereafter to mind her own -affairs. The other—” Leslie hesitated. She wondered -how much “Monroe would stand for.” She -continued, “The other should be from the seniors -with a more polite intimation that they are capable -of managing college sports without P. G. help.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, such letters couldn’t be sent,” vigorously -disagreed Doris. “I wouldn’t dare suggest any such -thing to my soph crushes. As for the seniors—that -would be hopeless!”</p> - -<p>“All right. Forget it, and listen to me,” Leslie -ordered rather gruffly. “There’s one thing I can do -for you to help you with the popularity business. -I’m going to lend you my white roadster. I haven’t -used it since I was here in the summer. It’s in a -Hamilton garage now. I’ll pay for the up-keep of -it a year in advance and run it up to the nearest garage -to the campus. My garage will be ready by -next spring, I hope. I’ll blow you to a stunning -white sports coat and other togs to match the ‘Dazzler.’ -I’ll open an account for you at the Hamilton -Trust Company so you can entertain. I’ll—”</p> - -<p>“But, why—why should you do all this for me?” -Doris cried wonderingly, stirred out of her usual -high self-complacency. “I couldn’t really accept so -much from you, Leslie. You see—” her tones betrayed -her reluctance to refuse Leslie’s magnificently -generous offer.</p> - -<p>“Because I chose to do it. What’s money to me? -I’ll help you make yourself the campus beauty and -bring back the good old days on the campus when -money counted for something. Bean and that set -of mush heads have turned Hamilton into a regular -goody-goody shop. The sophs who rooted for you -have the right idea. I’m going to be around here -all winter so I can tell you a few tricks you’ll need -to know.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know,” Doris repeated, -as Leslie continued to put forward her -offer. “My father has always said for me never to -incur obligations. There’s nothing I could do for -you in return, Leslie, that would count for anything -like what you’d be doing for me.” She sighed enviously -as she pictured herself in the white car.</p> - -<p>“Yes, there are certain things you can do for me, -later, when you’ve secured your own position on the -campus.” Leslie had been driving slowly as she -talked. Now she stopped the car at the side of the -road. “You can help me make matters uncomfortable -for Bean and her crowd. You can—”</p> - -<p>“I’m willing to do what I can, in my own way,” -Doris responded with a zest which betrayed her own -rancor. “You can see for yourself, though, Leslie, -that I couldn’t do a thing such as you proposed about -those letters.”</p> - -<p>Leslie laughed, silently, grotesquely. Doris could -surely be trusted to look out for her own interests. -“I said ‘forget it’ didn’t I?” she reminded. Her -tones, however, contained no mirth. She was inwardly -scornful of Doris for her selfishness. Leslie -had not the least intention of “forgetting,” though -Doris might.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXXV'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXV.—“ONLY SHADOWS”</h2> - -<p>“Three letters. That’s not so bad.” Marjorie -triumphantly waved the trio of coveted envelopes -about her head as she entered her room from a long -interesting bout with chemistry. “I’m tired enough -to enjoy my mail. Vera and I have been experimenting -with a compound this whole afternoon. It -should have come out black and it didn’t—it came -out a beautiful shade of green.” Marjorie threw -herself into a chair, laughing, and began picking -open an envelope.</p> - -<p>“The way of all great experimenters is hard,” -comforted Jerry. “Where’s my mail? I didn’t hear -you say a word about it.”</p> - -<p>“Sorry to tell you, but there was none for you, -Jeremiah.”</p> - -<p>“Your voice sounds sorrowful,” Jerry returned -with sarcasm. “Have some candy. I try always to -be kind to those who are kind to me.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve heard you say so before.” Marjorie was -now spreading open the contents of the envelope she -had torn across. She glanced at the letter. “Why-eee!” -she exclaimed in a strained, unbelieving voice. -She went on with a hurried perusal of the letter, then -backed into a chair. “Listen to this, Jerry,” she cried -out in hurt tones:</p> - -<!-- begin:blockquote --> -<div class='bq'> -<div class='ti0 sc'>“My Dear Miss Dean:</div> - -<p>“While it is hard for me to put into words that -which I have been asked to tell you I will try to do -so as courteously as is possible in the circumstances. -I have been chosen by the sophomore class with the -exception of a few sophomores, to point out to you -that your interference in class matters has created -very bad feeling among the sophomores who believe -themselves capable of adjusting any differences which -may have arisen in the class.</p> - -<p>“It is unfortunate that a post graduate of Hamilton -College should be guilty of deliberate favoritism. -You showed favoritism to Miss Forbes before and -have done so since the sophomore election. Miss -Forbes received the nomination for the presidency -as a result of your “boosting.” Many of the sophomores -who voted for her because of a high, but misplaced -respect for you, now know their mistake. Miss -Forbes deserved the censure she received at the election. -The manner in which you and other post-graduates -babied her afterward I now venture to -criticize.</p> - -<p>“The sophomore class are of an almost united -opinion that they may be trusted to carry on their -business wisely and with justice to all. I am confident -that, released from any responsibility you may -have taken upon yourself regarding them, you will -have more time to pursue your own important affairs.</p> - -<div class='abrc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:bar --> - <div>“Sincerely,</div> - <div class='sc'>“Louise May Walker.”</div> - <!-- end:bar --> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<!-- end:blockquote --> - -<p>“Don’t let a little thing like that bother you,” -Jerry’s eyes shone with sympathy in spite of her sturdily -careless tone. “A girl who would write such a -letter isn’t worth minding. Don’t let it mislead you. -The sophs’ united opinion is probably about ten or -twelve strong, and not more. Keep right on going, -Bean. You shouldn’t worry.” Jerry’s cheerful smile -broke broadly out like the sun from behind a cloud.</p> - -<p>Marjorie, looking up from a second reading of the -letter, returned the smile ruefully. “I care,” she -said reflectively, “and I don’t care. I thought I was -awfully hurt, but I’m up and on my feet now, brushing -off the dust. I wouldn’t have done things differently -about Gussie. I suppose favoritism means helping -get up the parade and Ronny’s dinner to Gus at -Baretti’s. We would have helped the other soph -faction with a parade just as quickly if they had come -to us. I think I’ll go on with my letters.”</p> - -<p>Marjorie tore open the second envelope with decision. -A glance at its contends and she exclaimed -in righteous indignation: “Why, the idea! This is -too ridiculous for words!” She read aloud rapidly:</p> - -<!-- begin:blockquote --> -<div class='bq'> -<p class='ti0 sc'>“Dear Miss Dean:</p> - -<p>“We understand that Professor Leonard has asked -you to serve again on the senior sports committee. -Do you not agree with us that it would be more -becoming in you to give place to a member of the -senior class. We have been informed that such a -decision on your part would be welcomed by the other -members of the committee.</p> - -<div class='abrc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:bar --> - <div>“Yours very truly,</div> - <div class='sc'>“Senior Welfare Committee.”</div> - <!-- end:bar --> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<!-- end:blockquote --> - -<p>“That’s a fake,” pronounced Jerry, instantly. -“You know and so do I that Barbara Severn and -Phil are glad as can be that you are going to serve -on committee with them this year. Whoever wrote -this bluff didn’t know that. Any student who was -here last year knows how chummy you were with -both Phil and Barbara. Ha; great head!” Jerry -whacked herself smartly on the top of the head. -“How rough you are, Jeremiah!” She fell to rubbing -her injured head. “I wish Hamilton offered a -course in how to be a detective. I have the investigator’s -brain.”</p> - -<p>“Then take this case and find out who wrote this -letter,” Marjorie tossed the second letter into Jerry’s -lap. “I’m not going to answer Miss Walker’s letter. -It needs no reply.” The sudden firm set of her lovely -face showed the girl’s underlying strong character. -“Thank fortune,” she said in relief, “<i>this</i> letter is -from Miss Susanna. No hateful surprises this time. -Her inflection grew unconsciously tender as she read -to Jerry:</p> - -<!-- begin:blockquote --> -<div class='bq'> -<p class='ti0 sc'>“Dear, Dear Child:</p> - -<p>“There’s a gala day ahead of us. Two weeks from -Saturday afternoon we are to go to the dormitory -site to assist in the laying of the cornerstone. Peter -Graham says it will be ready to lay on that day, -November sixth, at three o’clock in the afternoon. -Bring the rest of the Travelers to tea on next Sunday -evening and we will talk about the great occasion. -I am notifying you of it thus long beforehand so -that none of the Travelers will make any other engagements -for that day. I shall expect you on Sunday -afternoon.</p> - -<div class='abrc'> - <div class='bc'> - <!-- begin:bar --> - <div>“Affectionately,</div> - <div class='sc'>“Susanne Craig Hamilton.”</div> - <!-- end:bar --> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<!-- end:blockquote --> - -<p>Marjorie raised her head from the reading of this -comforting letter, her whole face radiant with returned -good cheer. “I feel all ‘chirked’ up again. -Jeremiah.” She patted the letter and laid it against -her cheek. “The persons who wrote those other two -letters are only the shadows; mean, skulking shadows -that can’t bear the light. Miss Susanna is the substance. -That’s why I love her so much.”</p> - -<p>“You’re an April Bean,” was Jerry’s indulgent -but irrelevant reply. “One minute you cloud over -and the next you shine. Now listen to my ambitions. -I’m going to shadow some of those skulking shadows -you just mentioned and solve the riddle of who writ -the wrote. The weary chase may lead me over land -and sea, or, at least, all over the campus. Then -Bean,” Jerry raised a melodramatic hand above her -head, “beloved Bean, your wrongs shall be avenged.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter' id='chXXVI'> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.—THE CORNERSTONE</h2> - -<p>Saturday, the sixth of November, found a buoyant -band of Travelers taking the well worn road to -the dormitory site. They had decided to walk rather -than ride, having agreed that there would be an -elation of spirit attending that happy march which -the little journey, if made by automobile, could not -furnish.</p> - -<p>Whatever plans Miss Susanna had made for the -auspicious occasion she had not divulged. She had -talked with them freely enough concerning the laying -of the cornerstone on the Sunday evening on -which they had had tea at the Arms. She had playfully -ordered her young friends each to think of -some good wish they might offer in behalf of the -dormitory. Each was then to put her wish on paper, -seal the paper in an envelope and have it ready to -cast into the hollowed space of the cornerstone itself.</p> - -<p>The day before the ceremony Miss Susanna had -sent a note to Jerry by Jonas requesting her to be -at the Arms by two o’clock on the Saturday afternoon -of the eventful day. Jerry had not the least -idea of why she should suddenly have come into demand -by the erratic old lady of the Arms. To hear -Miss Susanna, or rather to hear from her, was to -obey. Jerry marched off to the Arms dressed in a -most “spiffy” fall suit of a new shade of blue that -became her vastly.</p> - -<p>At the dormitory where the confusion of demolishment -had reigned so long, all was now in order, the -order of progressive building. The ground above -the vast cellar where the stone foundation would -rise had been leveled, all debris had been cleared -away and the great cornerstone placed ready for its -descent into place.</p> - -<p>Close to it a considerable number of workmen -were gathered. Now in neat dark clothing instead -of overalls. They had been invited by Miss Susanna -to attend the ceremony and were to be given -a luncheon at Hamilton Arms afterward. This was -to be Jonas’ treat. Standing with them, his dark -face wreathed in smiles as he talked to Peter Graham -was Signor Baretti. Next to the Travelers there -was no one more enthusiastic over the dormitory -than Baretti.</p> - -<p>“Look at Mr. Graham,” were Ronny’s low-spoken -words as she and Robin and Marjorie paused three -abreast near the cornerstone. “He’s perfectly happy. -His face is so bright its positively dazzling.”</p> - -<p>“He has the conscientiousness of work well done,” -Robin returned in the same soft tone.</p> - -<p>“That’s precisely it, Robin,” nodded Marjorie. -“I’ve been watching him and trying to analyze his -expression.”</p> - -<p>“Miss Susanna will be late for the cornerstone act -if she doesn’t appear in just four more minutes,” -remarked Muriel practically.</p> - -<p>“My, what a reverent spirit of mind you are in,” -satirized Ronny. “‘Cornerstone act!’ I’m shocked.”</p> - -<p>“I hope you recover. Why here comes a car! -That’s not Miss Susanna’s turn-out. No horses in -sight, either.” Muriel forgot to bicker with Ronny -in her excitement over the rapidly approaching car.</p> - -<p>As it came nearer the group of girls recognized a -familiar figure on the front seat. It was Jerry, and -she was driving. Beside her sat Jonas, his laughing -features showing what he thought of the surprise.</p> - -<p>“Jeremiah!” went up in a merry little shout from -the Travelers.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Jeremiah.” Jerry smiled complacently on -her chums then slid out of the car and opened one -of the rear doors of the limousine as Jonas opened -the other.</p> - -<p>Out of the limousine on one side came the Reverend -Compton Greene, of Hamilton Estates, the -oldest minister in the county of Hamilton. From -the other side emerged Professor Wenderblatt, President -Matthews and, last of all, gallantly assisted by -the president came Miss Susanna.</p> - -<p>Instead of being impressed into silence by sight -of distinguished Prexy the Travelers vented a shout -which more than energetically expressed their sentiments.</p> - -<p>“How do you like my new car, children?” briskly -inquired Miss Hamilton, showing frank delight at -the prank she had played on her girls. “And how -do you like my driver? Well, I had to come to it. -I mean about the automobile. Jonas will learn to -drive the car. I sha’n’t let him drive much faster -than at a crawl. How are you, Peter?” She addressed -her old friend with every mark of kindly -affection.</p> - -<p>“It’s a happy day for me, Susanna,” he said, his -bright face faintly flushed and free from worry -seemed that of a young man. Only the thick white -hair brushed off his forehead proclaimed him to be in -the winter of life. “And I have you to thank for -it.”</p> - -<p>“Thank yourself, Peter; not me. ‘The laborer -is worthy of his hire.’ Never forget that. Come, -Dr. Greene,” she turned to the old minister; “let -me present my young campus friends to you. And -here is Signor Baretti who is a loyal supporter of -the dormitory cause.”</p> - -<p>The last of the Hamiltons introduced the Travelers, -one by one to the old minister. She talked -animatedly with one of her party, then another. “I -felt that I ought not invite Professor Wenderblatt’s -daughter today without inviting her distinguished -father,” she laughingly told Lillian Wenderblatt. -In a pale gray silk gown with a beautiful gray carriage -coat lined in white and a gray lace hat trimmed -with a cluster of pale silk violets, Miss Susanna appeared -to have shed the stiff, repressed air that had -formerly hung over her.</p> - -<p>This thought sprang to Marjorie’s mind as the -old lady walked confidently about among the company -and exchanged sociabilities with them. Marjorie -looked up to find Jonas’ eyes fixed earnestly -upon her. He glanced significantly at Miss Susanna -and back to her again. She understood that he -wished her to know and share his pleasure at the -happiness of “Mr. Brooke’s little girl.”</p> - -<p>Presently the company strolled to a place near the -corner where the great stone would soon be set in -place. There was a brief prayer in behalf of those -who had gathered there to view the result of their -generous efforts. Then they all sang “Blessed Be -the Tie That Binds,” a favorite hymn of Brooke -Hamilton’s. Miss Susanna led in her clear old -treble. There were speeches from the men, even one -from Signor Baretti, who responded as nobly as his -limited English would permit. Miss Susanna refused -to make a speech, nor could Jonas be induced -to make one. Neither did Page and Dean take -kindly to speech-making.</p> - -<p>President Matthew’s earnest ringing address -pleased Miss Susanna most of all. She made mental -note that there was nothing mean-spirited about “that -man, Matthews.” Then the workmen, under Peter -Graham’s direction, came forward to place the stone -and the girls and Miss Susanna dropped their envelopes -into the hollowed opening. Professor Wenderblatt -placed an old German writing, religious in -character, with the other envelopes. The rest of the -men dropped in gold and silver pieces.</p> - -<p>As the huge block of stone was settled in the -earthy pocket made for it the company joined hands -and sang a verse of “Auld Lang Syne.” Miss Susanna, -tears running down her cheeks, shook hands -with Peter Graham and then with Jonas. They represented -her only friends for many years.</p> - -<p>“I am going to tell you all,” she said, wiping her -eyes and then her glasses, “that this dear child here -is responsible for anything I’ve lately done that -Uncle Brooke would have wished done.” She drew -Marjorie, who stood beside her, into the curve of -her arm. “I cannot carry out his wishes in the way -I had once planned for the college. I am sorry. I -never used to be sorry. I have grown graciousness, -it would seem.” She looked defiantly toward -President Matthews.</p> - -<p>“Hamilton College is grateful to you already for -many favors,” the president returned with a gentle -courtesy that caused two bright color signals to flash -into Miss Susanna’s cheeks.</p> - -<p>“I’ve thought something out,” Marjorie remarked -suddenly to Ronny when, a little later, the party of -Travelers went their way toward the campus. “It’s -about Miss Susanna. I used to think, when first I -knew her, that it would be splendid if she’d give the -college material for Brooke Hamilton’s biography, -even if she didn’t wish to give it. Now I know the -gift without the giver would be bare. Nothing she -might give the college that had been Mr. Brooke’s -would be worth anything without her approval.”</p> - -<p>“She will soften some day. Remember what I -say,” Ronny predicted. “Look how much she has -done already for the college, through us, since we -have known her. Did she tell you what she wrote -and put in her envelope?”</p> - -<p>“No, I forgot to ask her. What was it?”</p> - -<p>“She wouldn’t tell me. She said it would break -the spell if she told and what she had wished might -not come true. Of course she was joking, but she -kept what she wrote a secret.”</p> - -<p>“We never thought on the night we came to Hamilton, -lonely freshies, and went out hungrily to hunt -dinner that we’d be building a dormitory not far -from where we ate our first meal,” Marjorie said -musingly.</p> - -<p>“What a stormy time we had that year! Now -we may enjoy the peaceful pleasure of the P. G.,” -Ronny was lightly mocking.</p> - -<p>Marjorie smiled to herself. Into her mind had -come remembrance of the two disturbing letters she -had lately received. Jerry’s efforts to discover the -author of the one had been fruitless. Marjorie had -proudly ignored the writer of the other. Such letters -did not argue well for the “peaceful pleasures -of the P. G.”</p> - -<p>“Your days of peaceful P. G. pleasure are over, -Veronica Browning Lynne. You may manage the -first show we shall give.”</p> - -<p>“‘Let us then be up and doing, with a heart for -any fate,’” Ronny quoted, striking an attitude.</p> - -<p>“Something like that.” Marjorie caught Ronny’s -upraised arm and drew it under her own. Ronny -had brought to mind the inspiring old poem she had -so greatly loved and clung to in her grammar school -days. Now as ever her soul answered the call of it.</p> - -<p>How she made it her watchword through the rest of -the college year amid many perplexities and vexations -will be told in: “<span class='sc'>Marjorie Dean, -Marvelous Manager</span>.”</p> - -<div class='lgc'> - <!-- ns:2 --> -</div> -</div> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<table class="center" border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td> - Transcriber's Note:<br /> - <br /> - The book cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. - </td> - </tr> -</table> - - - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARJORIE DEAN, POST-GRADUATE***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 51686-h.htm or 51686-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/1/6/8/51686">http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/6/8/51686</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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