diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/53213-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/53213-0.txt | 6371 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 6371 deletions
diff --git a/old/53213-0.txt b/old/53213-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 79fe083..0000000 --- a/old/53213-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6371 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Marjorie Dean, Marvelous Manager, by Pauline Lester - -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 -www.gutenberg.org. 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. - -Title: Marjorie Dean, Marvelous Manager - -Author: Pauline Lester - -Release Date: October 5, 2016 [EBook #53213] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER *** - - - - -Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -[Illustration: Leslie had posted herself behind the barrier of leafy -green for the express purpose of watching the working out of a little -plan of her own.] - - (_Page 120_) (_Marjorie Dean, Marvelous Manager_) - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - MARJORIE DEAN - MARVELOUS MANAGER - - BY PAULINE LESTER - - AUTHOR OF - - “The Marjorie Dean High School Series,” “The - Marjorie Dean College Series,” “The Marjorie - Dean Post-Graduate Series,” etc. - - [Illustration] - - A. L. BURT COMPANY - - Publishers New York - - Printed in U. S. A. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE MARJORIE DEAN - POST-GRADUATE SERIES - - A SERIES FOR GIRLS 12 TO 18 YEARS OF AGE - - BY PAULINE LESTER - - MARJORIE DEAN, POST-GRADUATE - MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER - MARJORIE DEAN AT HAMILTON ARMS - MARJORIE DEAN’S ROMANCE - - Copyright, 1925 - - By A. L. BURT COMPANY - - MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER - - Made in “U. S. A.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - MARJORIE DEAN - MARVELOUS MANAGER - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - ACROSS THE CAMPUS - - -“To go, or not to go?—that is the question,” paraphrased Marjorie Dean -glancing up from the open letter in her hand. She fixed her eyes on -Jerry Macy, her room-mate as though trying to read what was in her -chum’s mind. - - “Whether ’tis nobler to eat Baretti’s turk, - And circulate upon the campus drear; - Or to take luggage and be off for home - To roost four days upon the family tree.” - -Jerry aptly supplied. - -“Fine, Jeremiah. I certainly would love to roost on the Deans’ family -tree for four blessed days.” Marjorie’s voice rang with wistfulness. -“I’ve tried to persuade myself into believing that it won’t make much -difference to the dormitory girls if we decide we’d best go home for -Thanksgiving. But I’m not sure.” Marjorie knitted troubled brows. “This -is the tenth,” she reflected aloud. “Whether we go home, or whether we -stay on the campus over Thanksgiving, we’ve enough to do beforehand to -keep us hustling.” She sprang up from her chair as though animated anew -by the mere recollection of work yet to be done. - -“Why remind me, beautiful Bean? I’m sadly aware of the fact. What we -must do is organize the new Travelers’ sorority and let them see the -dormitory girls through Thanksgiving. If they do nicely,” Jerry -continued in patronizing tones, “their reward’ll be more work, and lots -of it. If they flivver—but they won’t. We old Travelers knew how to pick -out our successors. We’re safe to go home and leave our Thanksgiving -stunts to our little Traveler sisters to carry out. Ha; great -intellect!” Jerry admiringly patted one of her own plump shoulders. “You -always do suggest such brilliant ideas, Jeremiah,” she gushed. - -“How conceited you are! Still, there’s a grain of wisdom in your vain -remarks.” Marjorie patted Jerry’s other shoulder. “I hereby confer upon -you the high and noble order of the pat,” she declared in a deep pompous -voice. She accompanied her words with several pats, each one more -forceful than the last. - -“The hard and croo-il order of the whack, I’ll say.” Jerry caught the -conferring hand in time to save herself one last thump. “Now that I’ve -been initiated into this wonderful order what happens to me next?” - -“I’ll tell you in a minute. Let me think.” Marjorie fixed absent eyes on -Jerry as she considered the situation. “You’re to go downstairs and -telephone Kathie and Lillian to come over to dinner at the Hall this -evening. If they can’t come to dinner, then they must come afterward. -Tell them the time has come to open the box. That will bring them.” - -“You bet it will,” Jerry made slangy concurrence. - -“Then I’ll depend on you to hunt Leila, Vera, Ronny, Lucy and Muriel. -They’re not to dare think of another engagement.” - -“Yessum.” Jerry made a respectful, bobbing bow to Marjorie. “Please, -mum, may I ask what you’ll be doing, mum, about the same time I’m -rushing upstairs and down?” - -“I’m going over to Silverton Hall,” Marjorie returned as she crossed the -room to her dress closet and reached for coat and fur cap. “I’ll see -Robin, Phil and Barbara; bring them back to dinner, if I can. Thank -fortune Barbara is at Silverton Hall this year instead of Acasia House. -I’ll be back by five o’clock. It’s ten minutes to four now.” - -“Then you’ll have to go some,” Jerry said skeptically. “If you are back -here with those three girls by six o’clock I’ll give you a prize. -Remember, you can’t stay to dinner at Silverton Hall. We’ve Kathie and -Lillian to consider.” - -“The prize is as good as won. What are you going to give me?” Marjorie’s -inquiry was slyly coaxing. She sidled confidently up to Jerry. - -“Never mind now.” Jerry waved her away. “Come back at five o’clock and -ask me.” - -“I will. I’m going z-i-p-p across the campus. Just like that!” Marjorie -made a lightning forward pass with one arm. “I’m going to have a wind -sail. There’s a dandy stiff wind blowing today. Mary Raymond and I used -to take our school umbrellas when we were little girls and go out on a -windy day with them. It was a regular game. We named it ‘wind sails.’ -We’d let the wind blow us along. Sometimes the umbrellas would turn -inside out, or the wind would whisk them away from us and we’d have to -chase them a long way. Once mine blew into the river, and once a big boy -caught Mary’s umbrella and ran off with it. We never saw either of those -bumbershoots again.” - -Marjorie paused at the door to laugh at the recollection of childhood -adventures. “Oh, Jerry,” she changed the subject with sudden abruptness, -“we’ll have to dig up some eats for a spread. Whoever dreamed of -gathering in the Travelers without feeding them?” - -“I’ll ask Leila to run us into town for eats as soon as you come back. -That’s an incentive to hurry,” bribed Jerry. - -“There are times when I can’t help appreciating you, Jeremiah. Good-bye. -I’m in _such_ a hurry.” Marjorie breezily closed the door and made a -speedy descent of the stairs. - -She opened the massive front door of the Hall with the same gusty -energy, and went down the front steps at a frisky jump. The brisk -November wind caught her none too gently, blew a fluff of curls about -her sparkling face and a brighter color into her rosy cheeks. She paused -for an instant on the drive to inhale deeply the crisp, invigorating -November air, then she set off across the campus at her best hiking -stride. - -With the wind at her back, noisily urging her along, she laughed -enjoyingly, spread her arms wide in lieu of sails and ran with it. -Passing a little delegation of lingering robins, strung along a tree -limb, their feathers fluffed out, their red breasts making a bit of -autumn color against the brown limb, she whistled cheerily to them. - -“Naughty little fellows,” she playfully chided. “You should have started -for the land of flowers long before now. You’ll have to hurry if you -expect to get there in time to eat Thanksgiving dinner with your folks. -I ought to take that advice to myself.” - -Bump! Her eyes still lingering on the flock of birds, she collided -forcefully with a girl who had deliberately courted collision. Muriel -Harding, emerging from the library, had spied Marjorie from the library -steps. Her mischievous love of teasing always uppermost, she had -approached Marjorie unseen, bent on surprising her. - -“Uh-h-h!” Muriel pretended to stagger back. “Why don’t you look where -you’re going, lady?” she demanded gruffly. - -“Why don’t you?” The two girls faced each other, flushed and laughing. - -“I did. I decided to let you know I was near you,” confessed Muriel. “If -you had been moderately observing you might have averted the crash.” - -“I doubt it.” Marjorie looked her skepticism. - -“So do I,” Muriel agreed so amiably that the pair again broke into -laughter. - -“You’d best come with me,” Marjorie invited. “Jerry’s hunting for you, -but that’ll be all right. I’ve found you.” She went on to explain her -errand to Silverton Hall. “Forward, march,” she concluded, taking hold -of Muriel’s right arm. “Step lively. I’ve lost at least three precious -minutes exchanging mostly impolite remarks with you.” - -“I’ll hit up a pace,” Muriel slangily assured. “I’m nothing if not -obliging. It’s fortunate for you that you met me. I am always _so_ -helpful.” Her brown eyes danced roguishly. “You must _know_ that.” - -“I’ve heard you say so.” Marjorie was purposely vague. “If I had been -even moderately observing I might have noticed that you were. That is, -if you really——” - -“Why dwell on the subject? This is the way the wild wind goes.” She -began whisking Marjorie over the half frozen ground at a mad run. -Marjorie sturdily kept up with her. The two girls tore across the campus -toward their goal, shrieking with laughter, bubbling over with high -spirits. - -They were nearing Craig Hall, one of the campus houses which they had to -pass on their diagonal route to Silverton Hall, when the front door of -the house opened and two young women came out on the veranda, then -descended the steps. Evidently their ears caught the sounds of mirth -emanating from the pair of exuberant P. G.’s. Two pairs of eyes, one -pair coldly green, the other small, black and shrewd, immediately -fastened on Marjorie and Muriel. - -“Look who’s here. Keep right on going,” Muriel muttered in Marjorie’s -ear. She nodded to one of the two girls who had come from Craig Hall and -were now within a few feet of her and Marjorie. Her nod was courteous -rather than friendly. The response she received was a stiff inclination -from Doris Monroe’s golden head. - -Marjorie had obeyed Muriel’s muttered direction. For the barest instant -her clear, truthful gaze met, impersonally, the narrowing, hostile eyes -of Leslie Cairns. She then glanced serenely away from Leslie. She had -long since ceased to regard Leslie Cairns with personal displeasure. -This in spite of the ex-student’s treacherous attempt to frustrate her -and Robin Page’s plans in the matter of the buying of the dormitory -site. - -As for Doris Monroe, Marjorie had been rebuffed by chilling looks on -three different occasions when she had encountered and spoken to the -haughty sophomore. She now claimed the privilege of one repeatedly -ignored, to ignore in return. She had not given up the idea of carrying -out a certain gracious little plan she had in mind to further the -popularity of her beautiful “fairy-tale princess.” Marjorie was too -great of spirit to harbor resentment against Doris Monroe, simply -because Doris did not like her. Instead she found herself experiencing -the anxiety of one who had suddenly encountered a friend in a dangerous -position. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - A DISQUIETING REMINDER - - -“Br-r-r!” Muriel made a pretense of shivering. “Did you notice how the -Ice Queen scorned us? And what a noted person she had with her?” She -waited until they had put a few yards between themselves and the other -pair of girls before sarcastically launching the inquiries. - -“Yes, I saw,” Marjorie returned composedly. “I’m sorry. I knew Leslie -Cairns was living in the town of Hamilton. This is the first time I have -seen her since last summer.” - -“It’s the first time I’ve seen her since before she left college,” -Muriel replied. “She’s homelier than ever, but that cheviot sports suit -and hat she has on are dreams. What a splendid combination—the -Hob-goblin and the Ice Queen!” Muriel’s private pet name for Leslie -Cairns had always been the “Hob-goblin.” “Sounds like the title of a -fairy tale, doesn’t it?” - -“Exactly.” Marjorie nodded abstractedly. She had forgotten Muriel’s -uncomplimentary name for Leslie. With the return of it to memory came -her own imaginative fancy regarding Doris Monroe. Yes, Doris was truly -like an enchanted princess. Now Leslie Cairns had suddenly appeared, -bearing fanciful resemblance to a wicked wizard. Marjorie smiled to -herself at her own absurdity of thought. Still it made a certain -impression on her which time did not obliterate. - -“What are you thinking about, Marvelous Manager?” Muriel gave her chum’s -arm an emphatic tug. The two had kept up their swinging stride and were -now nearing Silverton Hall. “Come down out of the clouds.” - -“Wasn’t up in them,” Marjorie smilingly denied. “I was thinking about -Miss Monroe, and——” - -“And the fatal results of cultivating Leslie Cairns,” interrupted Muriel -mockingly. “Don’t worry, Marjorie. Trust the icy Ice Queen to look out -for her own interests. Greek has met Greek. I’ve roomed long enough with -the Ice Queen to know that she always pleases herself first. This being -Leslie Cairns’ motto, we may presently expect to find them on the outs.” - -“I hope so.” Marjorie was not sanguine. “I’ve learned by experience, -Muriel, not to under-rate Leslie Cairns’ capacity for making trouble.” - -“Oh, I know she’s a star trouble maker, even if she has never succeeded -in anything she tried to do to injure us,” Muriel readily admitted. “But -you stood so staunchly for the right, Marjorie Dean, in all the fusses -we had with her and the rest of the Sans, things simply had to turn out -O. K. at the last.” - -“I didn’t stand out more strongly for the right than any of the other -Travelers,” Marjorie hastily corrected, her reply bordering on vexation. - -“Certainly, you did, Modest Manager,” Muriel cheerfully contradicted. “I -have all the proofs of the case at my tongue’s end.” - -“Keep them there,” Marjorie told her with feigned displeasure. - -“Oh, very well.” Muriel was all amiability. “I may think of some other -sweet little thing about you later.” - -Readers of the “MARJORIE DEAN HIGH SCHOOL SERIES,” which comprises four -volumes, and the “MARJORIE DEAN COLLEGE SERIES,” also in four volumes, -are thoroughly at home with Marjorie Dean and her many friends. -“MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE POST GRADUATE,” forms the initial volume in the -“MARJORIE DEAN POST GRADUATE SERIES.” Returned to Hamilton College as a -post graduate Marjorie took up the work she had set her heart upon -doing. Surrounded by a devoted circle of girls who had kept pace with -her in college, Marjorie felt that her most momentous year of enterprise -and accomplishment had come. - -Lack of unity at Wayland Hall had distressed her not a little since her -return to the campus. She had dreamed rosy dreams of a unified Hamilton -which she had fondly hoped might come true that very year. Instead, -Wayland Hall, the house she loved best of all the campus houses, and her -own roof tree, was brimming with dissention. She was now reflecting -rather dispiritedly concerning this very thing. The encounter with -Leslie Cairns and Doris Monroe had brought it foremost to her mind. - -“I wonder how long Miss Monroe has known Miss Cairns?” she now mused -aloud. - -“Long enough to know better. There you go again, worrying over that -selfish iceberg,” Muriel cried impatiently. “I might beneficently warn -her against the snares of the Hob-goblin, but would she be grateful? Far -from it. No, no, Muriel. Never contemplate such folly.” Muriel answered -her own question in a prim, horrified tone. - -“I quite agree with Muriel,” Marjorie smiled faintly. - -“Some of the upper class girls may tell her a few things about Leslie -Cairns. They’d not forget her and the Sans in a hurry. If you had to -room with her you’d lose your crush on her. She’s exasperating.” - -“I can’t help admiring her. She is so beautiful,” Marjorie made frank -avowal. “I always have to stop and remember that she isn’t amiable. -There was one thing in particular that I noticed on the night last -summer when we invited her downstairs to Miss Remson’s spread. She was -truthful. She didn’t say she was too tired, or make any other excuses. -She said flatly that she _didn’t care to come downstairs_. Again, -afterward, when we were in Vera’s car and met her out walking one Sunday -afternoon, we asked her to ride with us. She refused our invitation in -the same scornful way. Still it was the _real_ way she felt. A girl who -wouldn’t bother to deceive others must have principle,” Marjorie -earnestly advanced. - -“Hum-m. That remains to be seen.” Muriel was not thus easily convinced. -“But will I be the one to see? At present the Ice Queen and I are as -intimate as the North and South Poles. We don’t even study at the same -table.” - -“Poor old Muriel. Was it lonesome?” Marjorie flung an arm across -Muriel’s shoulders. They were now turning in at the flagstone walk in -front of Silverton Hall. - -“Yes, it was,” grumbled Muriel. “But it’s my own fault. I took that half -a room to please myself. You girls ought to appreciate me and make a -fuss over me because I refused to be separated from the Sanfordites.” - -“I’ll call a special meeting after the Travelers go tonight and remind -the Sanfordites of their duty,” Marjorie teasingly promised as they went -up the steps of the Hall. - -The blended harmony of violin and piano outside Robin Page’s room halted -the visitors before the closed door. They had no more than willingly -paused to listen when the music stopped. - -“My last A string,” mourned a voice. “I’ll have to go clear to town for -another. How provoking!” - -Marjorie knocked three times in quick succession on the door, hers and -Robin’s particular rap. There was a scurry of light feet across the -floor then Robin joyfully opened the door. - -“What luck!” she exulted as she did a pleased little prance around the -callers. “I was coming over to Wayland Hall directly after dinner. I’ve -such a lot of things to get off my chest.” She sighed. “I’m fairly -stuffed with responsibility. Hello, Muriel Harding. I haven’t seen you -for as much as two days. Where have you been keeping yourself? I want -you for a singing number I’m going to have in our first show. We’re -going to open with a revue, you know.” - -“My A string just snapped,” Phyllis Moore was ruefully informing -Marjorie. “So aggravating. I was going to put in two hours of practice -this evening. The only store in Hamilton where I can get another string -closes at five o’clock. Goodness knows when I’ll be imbued again with -such a laudable desire to practice.” - -“You couldn’t practice tonight if you had fifty A strings,” Marjorie -told her. “The time has come to open the box, Phil.” - -“Oh, lovely!” Phyllis’ charming face lighted with pleasure. “Away with -practice.” She waved both arms outward with a buoyant releasing gesture. - -“You’re to come over to Wayland Hall now; you and Robin. Where’s -Barbara?” - -“In her room, stuck with a theme. Hope she’s struggled through it by -this time. If she hasn’t, I’ll make her leave it; just as though it was -a finished literary triumph. I’ll go for her now.” Phil dashed out the -door and down the hall to Barbara Severn’s room. - -She returned in an incredibly short space of time with Barbara, the -latter in outdoor attire. - -“Hello, Red Bird,” greeted Muriel. “Who so gay as you?” She shook -Barbara by both hands, then turned her around so as to inspect her coat -and cap of a wonderful shade of deep crimson, the gorgeous hue -accentuated by wide collar, cuffs and bandings of bear’s fur. “What a -love of a coat and cap!” - -“Isn’t it, though? I am always planning to waylay Barbara on the campus -some fine dark evening and strip her of that de luxe red coat and cap.” -Phil made threatening eyes at Barbara. - -“I’m safe. She doesn’t quite dare risk her dignity as president of the -senior class,” laughed Barbara. - -Robin had already donned her wraps. It took energetic Phil not more than -a minute to snatch her own smart coat of gray tweed from its accustomed -hanger. She pulled a black soft Tam-o’-shanter with its huge fluffy -black pom-pom down upon her crinkling yellow-brown hair at a truly -artistic angle. - -“Phil looks more like a wandering musician than ever in that Tam,” was -Marjorie’s admiring opinion. The individuality of Phyllis’ clothes and -the careless, artistic grace with which the tall, supple girl wore them -were a joy to Marjorie. - -Down the stairs and out of the house trooped the five friends, bent on -making as good time to Wayland Hall as they could. Robin, Phil and -Marjorie were anxious to have a talk before dinner about the program for -the coming revue and their entertainment plans for Thanksgiving. Muriel -had decided to go to town with Jerry and Leila in the car to help buy -the eats for the spread. Barbara was eager to see Lucy Warner and glean -from her certain biological pointers of which she stood in need. The -group sped across the campus, reaching the Hall at just five o’clock. - -“No mail for Muriel. What’s the matter with the population of Sanford -that I don’t get any letters?” Muriel demanded severely as she turned -away disappointedly from the Hall bulletin board. - -“I had no idea of your vast importance in Sanford,” giggled Barbara. -“You talk as though you were the mayor of the town.” - -“Not yet,” grinned Muriel. “I may be the mayoress of Sanford some -day—say in about a hundred years from now.” She duplicated Barbara’s -giggle. “Marjorie’s the scintillating social star of Sanford.” - -Marjorie said not a word as she picked several letters from the bulletin -board. Her eyes were glowing like stars at the harvest of mail. There -was a letter from General; another from Captain; a third in Mary -Raymond’s neat vertical script, had come from far-off Colorado. There -was a fourth from Constance Armitage. Fifth and last was a letter in the -sprawling childish writing of Charlie Stevens. She and Charlie, the -latter now grown into a tall sturdy youngster of thirteen, were regular -and enthusiastic correspondents. - -In the rack above her own mail she caught sight of two letters for -Jerry. One of them was in Helen Trent’s familiar hand. The other—A swift -blush overspread Marjorie’s cheeks as she took the two letters from the -board and placed them with her own. She knew only too well whose hand -had dashed the address across the envelope. - -Immersed as she had been in college matters she had given her old pal, -Hal Macy, scant thought since her return to Hamilton campus. Sight of -his letter to Jerry gave her pause; reminded her of something which -intruded itself upon her not quite agreeably. Hal had not answered the -latest letter she had written him. It had really been a long while since -she had heard from him. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - LOYAL TO NO ONE - - -In the dining-room at Wayland Hall that evening plenty of curious and -speculative glances were cast at the round dozen of Hamilton’s -staunchest children as they made merry at a special table which Miss -Remson had provided for them. - -From the next table to theirs the five Bertram girls exchanged -occasional laughing signals and remarks with the distinguished little -group of post graduates, seniors and one member of the faculty, the -youngest though she happened to be. Aside from the warm friendliness of -Gussie Forbes and her four chums there emanated from the other table of -girls a peculiarly chilling atmosphere. It hinted of displeasure; a -displeasure which stopped just this side of hostility. - -“The sophs and freshies in the house can’t see us for a minute,” Jerry -said to Leila in an undertone as they were awaiting the serving of the -dessert. “Feel the chill. Get me?” - -“Tell me nothing.” Leila cast a grim glance about the dining-room. -Suddenly her grimness vanished into a characteristic flash of white -teeth which always signified her utter amusement. “It is the Battle of -Wayland Hall we shall be fighting before spring with a number of -distinguished P. G. generals in the thick of the fray. It is the sophs -who are ready now to roar at us. The freshies here will but echo the -sophs’ roars.” - -“Wayland Hall has been a regular hot-bed of trouble since the soph -president was elected.” Jerry used the same guarded tones. “With Gus and -the disappointed Ice Queen under the same roof can you wonder?” - -“I cannot.” Leila’s shrug was eloquent. “I have not been so completely -disgusted with a set of girls since the bad days of the Sans.” - -“Bad days of the Sans?” Vera, seated at Leila’s left, had caught the -Irish girl’s words. She now repeated them inquiringly. “What tales of -ancient history am I hearing?” - -“Ancient history that is trying to repeat itself,” Leila returned with -dry sarcasm. “I have been muttering in Jeremiah’s ear that we are not -favorites at the Hall.” - -“It’s a case of top-lofty sophs and freshie-fresh freshmen.” Vera gave a -wise nod. “The traditional meek and lowly freshie is rapidly becoming an -almost extinct species.” - -“So it would appear this year,” Jerry agreed with an appraising survey -of the long dining-room. Her glance rested for a moment on Doris Monroe, -then traveled on to the students who sat at table with her. - -“There are the members of the trouble bureau,” she told Leila. “Look in -the direction I’m looking and you’ll know who I mean.” - -“I heard something about a trouble bureau.” Marjorie, next to Jerry on -Jerry’s right, bent a laughing face forward to her room-mate. “What?” - -“First time I ever head you commit a Cairns-ism. For further information -about the trouble bureau, find the Ice Queen,” Jerry directed not -without humor. - -“Oh; I understand. But I won’t look down at her. If she happened to see -us looking at her she would probably be offended, just as Gussie Forbes -was when she noticed us eyeing her the first time we saw her at -Baretti’s. I learned a lesson then. I don’t intend to make the same -mistake again.” Marjorie spoke with the utmost good humor. She was not -preaching to her chums, and they knew it. - -“Merely because you’re such an old friend of mine, Bean, to confide in -you doesn’t mean that I’m gossiping, I’ll say a word or two about the -trouble bureau. That tall soph with the straight black hair, black moon -eyes and pasty-white face is the chief disturber. She seems to be -directing the Ice Queen’s campaign. Muriel says she comes to see Miss -Monroe about every half hour until the ten-thirty bell puts the kibosh -on her visits.” - -Unlike Marjorie, Jerry could not refrain from voicing her disapproval of -Doris Monroe and her group of sophomore satellites living at Wayland -Hall. “The next agitator to Moon Eyes is the pudgy, red-haired soph with -the mechanical voice. Their real names happen to be Miss Peyton and Miss -Carter, but Muriel and I have made a few changes,” Jerry declared with a -whole-hearted grin. “Ahem! We call the pair the Prime Minister and the -Phonograph. So true to life! What?” - -Marjorie, Leila and Vera could not help laughing at the names Jerry and -Muriel had waggishly applied to the two sophs. Miss Carter’s speech had -a habit of clicking itself from her lips with the mechanical precision -of a phonograph. She had a wooden manner of carriage and walk which -further added to the impression she gave of something mechanical. As for -the name Muriel had picked for moon-eyed Miss Peyton, Muriel herself -probably best understood thus far its fitness as applied to the tall, -austere looking young woman. - -“The traditions of Hamilton say nothing about the naming habit.” Leila -shot a playful glance at Jerry. - -“Er-r—well, it’s remembering the stranger within our gate in a kind of -way,” Jerry defended. “Now that Muriel and I have named ’em specially we -can remember ’em so much the better.” - -“Such ignoble sentiments from a Hamilton P. G.! I am shocked!” Vera’s -small hands went up in simulated displeasure. - -“You’ll get over the shock if you don’t stop to think about it,” Jerry -assured her. “You may even learn to admire the Harding-Macy -classification.” - -“It’s certainly time the Travelers got together,” Leila said, now more -than half serious in her observation. “We must protect the Hall.” - -“I am with you in that, Leila,” Marjorie observed, the light of sudden, -unalterable purpose flaring strongly in her eyes. “We have Miss Remson -as well as the girls here to think of. We’ve been through a siege of a -house divided against itself once here. We must somehow not let that -calamity overtake the Hall again.” - -“How are we going to stop it, Marvelous Manager, with Gentleman Gus and -the Ice Queen all ready to challenge each other to a duel?” quizzed -Jerry. “I don’t say it can’t be done. I have great faith in you and your -works, Bean.” She beamed patronizingly. “I merely ask you: How is it -going to be done?” - -“I wish I knew,” Marjorie laughingly confessed. “The Travelers will have -to find a way to teach our freshies and sophs here to live up to the -Hymn of Hamilton. That means we’ll have to teach them without letting -them know they are being taught.” - -Jerry looked impishly impressed. “What a simple pleasant task!” she -exclaimed with pretended enthusiasm. “I should say we’d better cut out -dessert, go right upstairs and plan for it. What’s dessert? Nothing but -fresh cocoanut layer-cake and coffee gelatine slathered with whipped -cream. Who cares for any such trifles?” Jerry waved an airy hand. She -made no move to leave her chair, however. - -“Only you. The rest of us have no longing for sweet stuff. But we are so -kind as to keep you company while you eat,” Leila made bland assurance. - -When the dessert was served the Irish girl deftly abstracted Jerry’s -portion of cake and gelatine from under Jerry’s eyes and before the -waitress had more than placed the dishes on the table. Up the line went -the cake and gelatine until they reached Phil, who sat at the head of -the table. Phil welcomed them with effusion and grew tantalizing. She -gave a dozen flimsy reasons supposed to justify her claim to it. The -table rang with laughter so spontaneous and good-natured more than one -of the freshmen at the Hall felt a secret sympathy spring up within for -the girls whom they had heard characterized by Doris Monroe’s most -ardent supporters as “meddlers and hypocrites” and of having shown -marked favoritism. - -“If we were to make half the noise they are making Miss Remson would -call us to account for it,” sourly observed Julia Peyton to Clara -Carter. “I’ve spoken to her several times about the racket that goes on -every evening in Miss Forbes’ room and in that Miss Dean’s room, too. -It’s been worse since Miss Harding came to the Hall.” - -“I know it,” Miss Carter nodded an eager red head. “Doris says she -simply won’t allow Miss Harding to carry on in her room the way she does -when she’s with her own crowd. She’s generally to be found on the campus -with some of them, screaming and laughing. Doris met her and Miss Dean -when she was with that awfully rich Miss Cairns this very afternoon. She -said she felt so mortified at being obliged to speak to Miss Harding. -She doesn’t speak to Miss Dean at all. She told me she had good reasons -for ignoring _her_, but she preferred not to give them.” - -“Humph.” Julia cast a jealous glance at her companion as the two -sophomores rose to leave the table. Each girl was jealous of the -condescending friendship which Doris Monroe had chosen to give her -companion. She felt that she stood a trifle closer to Doris than the -other. - -Doris was fully aware of this state of affairs. When she had recovered -from the sweetness of her first triumph at being “rushed” she made up -her mind not to allow her soph and freshie admirers to fail in -allegiance to her banner. She soon learned that her selfish air of -indifference was one of her greatest assets. It added individuality to -her beauty. It impressed her worshippers with a high idea of the value -of her acquaintance. - -She had inherited this trait of indifference from her mother, whose -counterpart she was. She had, as Marjorie suspected, a strong -inclination to honesty, one of her father’s finest traits. Thus she -could not have pretended an indifference she did not feel. Since it was -in her soul to be this she accepted the benefits she received from it -with secret satisfaction. She was privately glad that she had no desire -to be impulsive and readily responsive. - -“_I_ heard that the Miss Cairns you mentioned was expelled from Hamilton -College,” Julia said disagreeably. She was desirous of over-topping -Clara’s boastful reference to “Doris” and the intimacy it implied. - -“Who told you?” Clara’s tone was challenging. - -“I’ll not say who. I heard it, and it came to me directly from someone -who knew,” Julia made mysterious response. - -“I—I—haven’t heard any such story as that. I don’t believe it’s true. -I’ll ask Doris. _She’ll_ tell me,” Clara ended, tossing her -flame-colored head. - -“You’re very foolish to think of asking Doris,” disapproved Julia, her -shaggy black brows drawing together. “She’ll set you down as -impertinent. Even if she should know she wouldn’t tell _you_.” She gave -a short, sarcastic laugh. - -“I’m not afraid to ask her,” Clara doggedly persisted. “_You_ may be, -but _I’m_ not.” - -This was the beginning of an angry discussion between the two sophomores -which lasted all the way upstairs and for several minutes after the door -of their room was slammed behind them by Clara. So vigorously did she -slam it that the sharp sound reached the bevy of Travelers as they came -trooping gaily upstairs. Robin was singing softly for them an old -plantation song: “Get you ready there’s a meetin’ here tonight,” and -Phil was patting her hands in time to it. - -“Bing, bang; who fired the first shot?” exclaimed Muriel. - -“It did sound almost like a shot, didn’t it? I haven’t heard such a -splendid imitation of banging a door since the Sans used to vent their -outraged feelings on the doors,” chuckled Vera. - -“That may have been the first shot fired in the Battle of Wayland Hall,” -Jerry gigglingly surmised to Leila. - -“Then it was wasted on us,” laughed Leila. “It will take more than the -banging of a few doors to rouse our ire to the point of battle. Though -make no mistake: ‘The air is full of knives,’ as we say in Ireland.” - -In the room occupied by Clara Carter and Julia Peyton the air was indeed -full of verbal knives. Both had voted for Doris Monroe for president of -the sophomore class. Both had pledged themselves, with certain other -girls at the Hall, to “boost” Doris and “down” Augusta Forbes. Now they -were squabbling fiercely over the lovely, indifferent object of their -girl devotion. In their jealous anger with each other they had blindly -overlooked the old saying: “In union there is strength.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - TESTING TWO TRAVELERS - - -“Remember, friends and fellow Travelers, this is a serious occasion.” -Ronny, as president of the original Five Travelers, stood facing her -companions who had disposed themselves four in a row on Jerry’s -couch-bed and on chairs in alignment with the couch. - -“It’s not very serious any of us are looking, nor our worthy president, -either,” Leila declared, throwing Ronny a twinkling glance. - -“Never judge by appearances—so very reckless, don’t you know,” Ronny -rebuked, her charming face full of mischief. - -“On with the meeting. No stops allowed for repartee. We’ve a lot to do, -and a spread to eat up afterward,” Jerry announced in her most judicial -tones. - -“Thank you for your delicate reminder that time is flying, Jeremiah.” -Ronny made Jerry a deep bow, meant to convey her humble gratitude. “As I -was about to say when I was interrupted”—Ronny stared hard at Leila—“we -are to pass upon the names written on slips in this box.” She held up a -small square box of ornamental brass. - -During their initial railway journey to Hamilton College more than four -years previous the quintette of Sanford chums had helped while away the -long hours on the train by banding themselves into a private, informal -club which they named the Five Travelers’ Club. They had found interest -in looking upon themselves as five travelers about to explore the -unknown country of College. - -The little association had flourished and been a comfort to them during -their freshman year. Every now and then, as the journey through the -country of college continued they had added a member to the group. When -Commencement and the end of their proscribed course came the still -informal club had become the Nineteen Travelers. - -It had become the earnest desire of the Nineteen Travelers to perpetuate -the club as a sorority. After much discussion it had been decided to -leave it as a parting gift to nineteen seniors. Due to the multiplicity -of duties which the original Nineteen Travelers had pledged themselves -to perform, the organization of the new sorority was left, -unfortunately, until the last minute. By that time several new-fledged -seniors, eligible to membership, had departed for their homes. - -It was Ronny who had then proposed that each Traveler should write on a -slip of paper her choice of senior to succeed her. The slips were to be -placed in a box, without having been examined, and the box placed in -Miss Remson’s care until the return the next fall of the post graduate -Travelers to Hamilton College. To them would be intrusted the forming of -the new sorority. - -“I feel confident,” Ronny continued, “that the seniors whose names are -in this box are the very girls we most wish to carry on our club. Still, -in the event that any one of you may have an objection to a name as read -out by me, I will count ten slowly after the reading of each name. -Anyone who may make objection must say ‘no’ within the count, and -afterward frankly state her reason for so doing.” - -With this preamble Ronny put a hand in the box, drew from it a slip and -solemnly read out: “Phyllis Moore.” The laughing gleam in her gray eyes -did not accord with her solemn face. “One, two——” she began. - -A chorus of laughter drowned her voice, mingled with cries of: “No; no, -indeed! I object.” - -“Mercy on us!” Up went Ronny’s hands. “Such strenuous objections! -Sh-h-h. Be calm and state our objections, one at a time.” - -“We can’t decide as to her qualifications for membership until she has -been put to the test,” boldly demanded Lillian Wenderblatt. - -“Very well,” Ronny agreed with the utmost amiability. - -“Poor me.” Phil groaned audibly. - -“I would suggest that action be suspended on the candidate to be tested -until the other names have been passed upon. In the event that there may -be other candidates for the test they may then be put to the ordeal -together.” Marjorie made this sly proviso, and with apparent innocence. - -“Other candidates!” exclaimed Barbara Severn. “I know only one other -besides Phil. Poor me!” - -“Barbara Severn.” Ronny promptly read out her name. Another burst of -vigorous, laughing “Noes” ascended. Barbara was also condemned to the -test. - -During the Nineteen Travelers’ senior year at Hamilton they had more -than once invited Phil and Barbara to become members of the club. Both -had refused the invitation, preferring to receive their election as a -parting gift from their elder sisters. They had been as invaluable to -the Travelers, however, as though they had been members. Now their -comrades proposed to show appreciation in their own peculiar fashion. -None of the seventeen other names which Ronny read out for the august -consideration of the Travelers were challenged. - -“I am sure you will be pleased to hear that Miss Mason and Jer—Miss Macy -will conduct the test,” Ronny purred to the hapless candidates. - -“That’s right, half call me Jeremiah. Everyone’s only about half -respectful to me,” grumbled Jerry. - -“Oh, we’re de-lighted,” Barbara and Phil together satirically responded. - -“So glad. As all appear to be pleased let the test begin,” Ronny smiled -encouragingly on the candidates. - -“Ahem-m! Candidates rise and come forward. Stand there; exactly in -line,” Jerry dictated grandly. “You will now listen to Miss Mason while -she explains to you the nature of the first test.” - -Vera came smilingly toward the two girls. “Here is a penny for each of -you,” she said generously. “You are not to spend it for candy. No, no.” -She shook a forbidding finger at them. “You are to get down on the floor -and each shove your penny to the door and”—she beamed beneficently on -her victims—“with your nose.” - -“Woof-f!” Phil made a despairing gesture. - -“I can never do it,” giggled Barbara, “but I’ll try.” - -“We are waiting.” Vera sweetly indicated the place on the rug on which -the unlucky candidates were to prostrate themselves. - -Phil was first to obey. Barbara paused to watch her and learn the way -such a feat was to be performed. It took Phil not more than a minute to -discover that creeping as a means of locomotion would not aid her -penny’s progress to the door. She was obliged to lie flat to the floor, -face downward, and wriggle very slowly toward the goal, aiming constant -dabs at the penny with her nose. - -Her gallant progress in spite of odds so entertained Barbara she had to -be reminded of her part in the test. She proved not nearly as skillful -as Phil in the art of penny-shoving. Meanwhile the room rang with -laughter. - -“The candidates will now be allowed a breathing spell while I consult -with my valued assistant and prepare the next degree,” was Jerry’s -gracious announcement after Phil had triumphantly pushed her penny the -required distance and Barbara had shoved hers over half way to the door. - -The next degree appeared in the form of two rows of potatoes, placed at -short distances apart. At one end of each row was a basket. Jerry handed -Phil and Barbara each a teaspoon and assigned them to a potato row. -“Start at this end. Pick up the potatoes on your teaspoon and carry them -to the basket,” was her next bland instruction. - -“That sounds easy,” sighed Barbara. “Oh, my nose,” she tenderly rubbed -it. - -To balance a good-sized potato on a teaspoon and carry it across a room -is a feat which requires practice. Phyllis and Barbara were novices at -it. They toiled patiently at the ridiculous task while the Travelers had -a hilarious time at their expense. Before either had succeeded in -placing more than two or three potatoes in their baskets Vera called -them off the job. - -“We’ll have to take your will for the deed,” she told them. “Your sense -of balance seems to be sadly lacking. Don’t be discouraged. Both of you -have splendid useful noses even if your potato carrying was wobbly. -You’ve done nobly. Now we are going to give you a feed. I hope you won’t -mind being blindfolded for a little while. It’s quite necessary. - -“Nothing could please us more,” Phil assured extravagantly. - -“Whoever heard of an initiation without the candidates were blindfolded? -Go as far as you like.” Barbara was equally gracious. - -Jerry proceeded to blindfold the two in her business-like way. Next she -motioned to Vera, who brought forward two bungalow aprons. She and Vera -politely assisted Phil and Barbara into the aprons. The pair were then -led to chairs and ordered to be seated. - -From the top shelf of her dress closet Jerry took a square pasteboard -box. Opened, two immense, shining cream puffs were revealed. Laughter -greeted the sight of them. The other Travelers recognized the puffs as -having come from a certain bakery in the town of Hamilton where the size -of the dainty and its extra-generous cream filling had popularized it -among the Hamilton College girls. - -“Here, Phyllis Marie Moore; you can’t say I never treated you. In the -absence of plates, hold out both hands.” Jerry lifted one of the huge -puffs from the box and carefully set it in Phil’s obediently -outstretched hands. She then went through the same performance with -Barbara as the recipient. “Eat them nicely,” she admonished with wicked -significance. - -“Eat them nicely,” mimicked Barbara. “I can’t eat a cream puff nicely -when I can see every bite I take of it. Blindfolded—good night!” - -“They’re awfully good anyway,” consoled Phil. She held the puff in one -hand and went cautiously over the humps and bumps of the big pastry -shell. She boldly attacked a corner which promised not to let out too -copiously the fairly thin cream filling. She did very well until she had -eaten away enough of the shell to court disaster. It would have been -hard enough to eat the puff daintily had she been able to see it. Minus -sight and a plate or paper napkin on which to place it she soon managed -to smear her face, hands and apron liberally with cream. She ate away -desperately but there appeared to be twice as much filling as should -have been. - -Barbara did far worse at puff eating than Phyllis. Her frantic efforts -to keep the cream within the bounds of its crisp brown shell sent her -companions into shrieks of laughter. Worse still for them, Jerry had -decreed that they could not wipe either hands or faces until she gave -the word. - -In the midst of the fun Marjorie obeyed a sudden impulse to leave the -room and stand in the hall outside the door for a moment. She slipped -away unnoticed, anxious to ascertain how plainly the laughter and talk -of her companies sounded from outside. She and Jerry had hung three -heavy portieres which Miss Remson had given them before the door leading -into the hall and before the doors of the two dress closets. The manager -had assured her that the portieres would serve to a great extent to -deaden sounds from within the room. - -She smiled her relieved satisfaction after she had listened intently for -three or four minutes. She could hear only faintly the sounds of -conversation mingled with laughter. She was of the opinion that such -sounds would not be disturbing to any student on the same floor. - -“Watchman, tell us of the night,” hailed Jerry as Marjorie again stepped -into the room. “I know what you’ve been doing. You’ve been listening to -how noisy we are.” - -“Right-o, Jeremiah. And we haven’t been disgracefully noisy, after all,” -Marjorie gaily assured. “While the girls were laughing loudest at -Barbara and Phil I stole out of here into the hall. I wanted to find -out, if I could, just how noisy we were. That heavy curtain we hung over -the door shuts the sound in beautifully. You can only hear it faintly -from the hall.” - -“Good work, Bean; good work.” Jerry patted Marjorie on the back. “We’ve -two more stunts to put Phil and Barbara through yet and the crowd is -getting hilariouser and hilariouser. Listen to them now.” - -A fresh gale of mirth testified to the truth of Jerry’s remarks. It -assaulted Marjorie’s critical ears with almost dismaying force. Reminded -of what she had just proven to her own satisfaction she grew reassured. -Since that day, early in the fall, when Doris Monroe had reported the -joyful little welcome party in Gussie Forbes’ room to Miss Remson as -disturbing to her peace Marjorie and Jerry had been expecting the same -dire fate would overtake them. Their room was the Travelers’ -headquarters as well as a favorite haunt of the five Bertram girls. -“It’s our positive good fortune that we escaped thus far,” Marjorie had -more than once told Jerry. - -In itself to have been reported to Miss Remson as disturbers would not -have troubled Marjorie and Jerry. Understanding between them and the -brisk little manager of the Hall was complete. It was their standing as -post graduates, their college honor which they prided themselves upon. -As post graduates they would be first to be weighed in the balance. They -ardently desired not to be found wanting even in small things. - -What Marjorie had not known when she returned to Room 15 after her brief -moment of listening in the hall was that she had been observed. Across -the hall from Room 15 two interested sophomores had kept diligent watch -since the Travelers had come upstairs from dinner. With their own door a -few stealthy inches ajar they had heard, or imagined they heard, what -they had been longing to hear—noise enough from “those tiresome, -interfering P.G.’s” to warrant prompt action on their part. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - A LEADING QUESTION - - -Action came while Phil and Barbara were engaged in removing at least a -third of the creamy contents of the puffs from faces, hands, necks and -even hair. They “cleaned up” amidst the laughter and gay raillery of -their friends. - -“How much more must we endure?” demanded Barbara as she dried her -cleansed features with a Turkish towel and began lightly powdering them -at the mirror. - -“Oh, not so much,” tantalized Jerry. “There are a few more little stunts -that——” Two imperative raps on the door sent Jerry hurrying to it. She -pushed the portiere to one side; swung open the door to confront the -tall, squarely-built sophomore whom she had nicknamed the Prime -Minister. - -“Good evening,” she said in level tones. Her keen eyes were missing -nothing. Her mind leaped at once to the nature of the other girl’s -intrusion, for such it was. - -“Good evening.” Her salutation was returned with haughty aggression. In -fact every line of the sophomore’s broad face and stiff, unyielding -figure spelled aggression. Her peculiarly round black eyes, blacker in -contrast to the unhealthy white of her skin, resentfully searched Jerry -up and down. - -“I wish to speak to Miss Dean at once,” she demanded. “I know she is -here.” She eyed Jerry belligerently, as though to forestall a denial on -her part. - -“Of course she is here. We are entertaining our friends.” Jerry’s -matter-of-fact reply brought a dull flush to Miss Peyton’s pale cheeks. -“Will you come in?” The concise invitation had a certain restraining -effect upon the frowning caller. - -“No, I will not,” she refused, her own inflexion rude. “Ask Miss Dean to -come to the door. I wish to speak to her, and to you.” - -“Very well.” Jerry appeared non-committal. “Just a moment.” She turned -away from the door and beckoned to Marjorie. - -Marjorie left Barbara and Phil, whom she had been assisting in the -removal of the sticky traces of the puff test, and walked quickly to the -door. In that brief second on the way to it a flash of dismay visited -her. It drove from her eyes the light of laughter occasioned by Phil’s -and Barbara’s complaining nonsense as they scrubbed faces and hands. - -“What is it, Jerry?” she asked as she reached her room-mate. - -Jerry opened the door wider and made room for Marjorie in the doorway -beside her. “Miss Peyton has something she wishes to say to us.” Jerry’s -round face was enigmatic. Marjorie had but to glance at it to read there -what others might not. - -Within the room the buzz of conversation had lessened to a mere murmur. -Muriel had been entertaining her chums with a flow of her funny -nonsense. Even she had run down suddenly, seized by the same surmise -which had occurred to her companions. Too courteous to stare boldly -toward the door, canny conjecture as to the caller’s errand temporarily -halted the will to talk. - -“Good evening, Miss Peyton.” Marjorie’s straight glance into the soph’s -smouldering eyes was courteously inquiring. Ordinarily she might have -followed the greeting with a pleasantry. What she read in Julia Peyton’s -face held her silent; waiting. - -“I have come to speak to you and Miss Macy about the noise you have been -making this evening,” blurted the sophomore, dropping all pretense of -courtesy. “It is not only tonight I speak of. Almost every other night -we have been annoyed by the noise in your room. It makes study -impossible. We have endured it without complaining, but we have had -every reason for reporting it. Tonight you and your friends have been -more annoying than usual. I decided the time had come to let you know -it.” - -Before she could say more Marjorie broke in evenly with: “It is true -that there is a larger party of girls than usual in our room tonight. We -have been conducting an informal meeting of a club of which we are -members. We spoke to Miss Remson beforehand, asking permission to hold -the meeting in our room. We——” - -“Oh, _Miss Remson_!” was the contemptuous exclamation. “She cannot be -depended upon for fairness. We understand where her sympathies lie. We -have spoken to her——” The sophomore stopped abruptly, caught in a -contradiction of her own previous statement of not having complained. - -“Pardon me. I understood you to say that you had not complained.” Jerry -could not resist a lightning opportunity to discomfit the other girl. - -“I should have said that we had not—that we—that we had not reported you -to President Matthews,” amended Miss Peyton, glancing angrily at Jerry. -Aggressive from the start she was fast losing her temper. - -“I cannot allow you to accuse Miss Remson of unfairness without offering -my strongest defense in her behalf.” Righteous indignation lent -sternness to Marjorie’s clear tones. “She is never unfair. She is always -dependable. Since you have said that you reported us to her, I must -believe you. She has not mentioned the matter to us. That means she does -not consider us at fault.” - -“Oh, certainly she doesn’t,” was the sarcastic retort accompanied by a -significant shrug of the square shoulders. “_That is precisely the -trouble._” - -“Please allow me to finish what I had begun to say to you.” Marjorie -made a dignified little gesture. “On the day when Miss Monroe reported -Miss Forbes and a few of us who were in her room welcoming her back to -college, we talked things over with Miss Remson. Since then we have been -more careful not to give offense to other students at the Hall than at -any time during our past four years at Hamilton. Miss Remson gave us -heavy portieres to hang before the doors when we expected to entertain a -number of girls. These deaden the sound. You can see for yourself how -heavy and closely-woven this one is.” Marjorie took hold of a fold of -the portiere. “I purposely went into the hall tonight and closed the -door after me to find out if we were too noisy. I was surprised at the -small amount of noise that came from our room.” - -“I am surprised to hear such statements from a post graduate.” Julia -Peyton gave a discomfited sarcastic laugh. “Frankly, Miss Dean, I have -been so disappointed in you. When first I came to Hamilton I had the -greatest respect for you. I regret that I should have been obliged to -change that opinion.” Julia believed she had said something extremely -telling. “Yes; and I do not approve of the way your post graduate -friends have tried to run Wayland Hall. It surely does not add to Miss -Langly’s credit as a member of the faculty,” she ended in malicious -triumph. She was inwardly furious at Marjorie’s and Jerry’s quiet but -determined defense of their own conduct. - -“Your harsh opinion of our friends is not justified.” Marjorie’s curt -proud tones contained censure. “Let me advise you to be careful and not -repeat such opinions on the campus. Our friends would not suffer as a -result. They are known to be true to the traditions of Hamilton. You -would merely succeed in creating unpleasantness for yourself.” - -“I don’t care for your advice.” Miss Peyton blazed into sudden wrath. -“You are only trying to frighten me into not reporting you and your -friends. You meant yourself, too, but you were clever enough not to -include yourself in your remarks. I shall report the whole affair to -President Matthews; not later than tomorrow morning.” She whirled -angrily; started across the hall. - -“Wait a minute.” Something in Jerry’s tone arrested the miffed soph’s -progress. “I’d like to ask you a question.” - -“Well?” Miss Peyton put untold frost into the interrogation. - -“Why”—Jerry paused—“if you and your room-mate were so greatly disturbed -by our noise, did you not close your door? That would have at least -helped considerably to shut out the noise.” - -“Our door was—” began the soph furiously. - -“Partly open,” supplied Jerry. “I am quite sure it was,” she continued -sweetly, “because I happened to go into the hall and saw for myself.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - LITTLE HOPE FOR P. G.’S - - -“Stung, and by the truth!” Jerry gave an exultant skip into their room -behind Marjorie and hastily closed the door. Miss Peyton, confronted by -unassailable truth, had no defense ready. She glared wrathfully at Jerry -and Marjorie and hurriedly disappeared into her room. - -“We can guess what it’s all about,” greeted Muriel Harding. “We ought to -be shocked and amazed, Marvelous Manager, at _you_ for fussing. We might -expect it of Jeremiah.” - -“You might; you bet you might. I’d have done all the fussing this time -if Marjorie hadn’t begun answering that trouble hunter first. Believe me -Leila, the first attack in the Battle of Wayland Hall was made right at -our door. I’m happy to announce that the enemy was sent fleeing across -the hall with one good hot shot fired by the Travelers’ friend, J. J. G. -Macy. _I’m the one._” Jerry proudly thumped her chest. - -“Could you hear what we were saying?” Marjorie glanced interestedly -about the half circle of girls, eagerly formed around her. “I know you -would try _not_ to listen.” - -“We could hear only a word now and then,” Vera made haste to answer. “Of -course it was a complaint about us. What is the matter with these sophs? -They weren’t so obstreperous last year as freshies?” - -“I took Miss Peyton to the freshman hop last year,” said Lillian -Wenderblatt. “As a Traveler in the midst of Travelers I may say she was -very ungracious to me. I accepted her rudeness as not having been -intentional; laid it to her natural manner. Since I’ve heard her rated -as the rudest student on the campus.” - -“Gussie Forbes says that the freshies who made life hard for her and her -pals last year are the sophs who are trying to do it again this year,” -said Phyllis Moore. - -“Gussie is a wise child. And with Muriel’s celebrated Ice Queen to add -to the snarl what hope is there for a few poor old P. G. ladies who had -hoped to live out their days in peace on the campus? Oh, wurra, wurra!” -Leila crossed her hands over her breast, clutched her shoulders with her -fingers, thrust out her chin and rocked herself to and fro with the -appearance of a mourning old woman. - -“What a dandy old woman you make, Leila. I’m going to cast you for an -old hag part in a melodrama, if I can find a good one. The campus is -howling for a truly lurid one with outlaws, an abducted child, a lost -heiress, an old hag and various other nice pleasant little characters.” -Robin was always on the lookout for features. “We can ask three dollars -a seat for a zipping old ‘dramer’ and crowd the gym.” - -“It’s a good deal more pleasant to talk of shows than fusses,” Marjorie -declared, smiling at Robin’s latest ambition. Glancing up at the wall -clock she gave a quick exclamation. “Jerry,” she cried, “we’ll have to -trot out the spread instanter!” - -“Don’t I know it. I’ve already begun.” Jerry made a dive toward her -closet. - -“What about those two stunts for the candidates?” Lucy Warner caught -Jerry by an arm. - -“Why, Luciferous, how you do like to see people get into trouble, don’t -you?” grinned Jerry. - -Lucy’s grave, studious face relaxed into the wide, utterly pleased smile -which Muriel and Jerry both enjoyed calling to it. She broke into the -funny little half giggle, half gurgle which was always productive of -laughter in others. - -“The _idea_, _Luciferous_, of your calling attention to poor Barbara and -me after all we’ve suffered!” Phil turned reproachful blue eyes on Lucy. - -“Oh, I’m not so mean as you think me,” Lucy’s odd greenish eyes flashed -warm lights of fun. “It was a case of either stunts or eats. It’s going -to be eats, so good night stunts.” - -“‘Good night stunts,’” repeated Muriel. “You never learned them words -from Prexy Matthews, Luciferous.” - -“I should hope not,” chuckled Lucy. “All the slang I know I learned from -you and Jeremiah. Kindly remember that.” - -“I wish to forget it immediately,” Muriel looked askance at the -accusation. - -With the hands of the clock pointing to ten minutes to ten Marjorie and -Jerry, with Leila’s and Vera’s help rushed the eatables for the spread -to the center table. Leila had furnished a box of Irish sweet crackers -and a case of imported ginger ale. The ginger ale had arrived only the -day before from across the ocean. Sweet pickles, stuffed olives, stuffed -dates, salted almonds and small fancy cakes comprised the lay-out. There -had been no time to make sandwiches. - -Supplied with paper napkins and paper plates the guests helped -themselves to the spread. They formed in an irregular group on each side -of Jerry’s couch which held its usual four of their number. Marjorie and -Jerry seated themselves on the floor in front of the couch bed. -Unintentionally they formed the center of the group. - -“At last you can tell us what was said at the door,” sighed Robin. “It -isn’t curious to want to know, since we are concerned in it, too.” - -“I wish you to know,” Marjorie reflectively bit into a maccaroon. “I’ll -try to repeat as exactly as I can what was said. Then you’ll understand -the situation better.” She recounted the conversation which had taken -place at the door between herself and Miss Peyton. - -“Report us to Prexy; the idea!” scoffed Lillian Wenderblatt. “She is an -ambitious trouble hunter. She’ll find plenty of troubles if she carries -any such tale to him.” - -“I should say as much!” was Vera’s indignant cry. “Imagine a soph -reporting P. G.’s and double P. G.’s and faculty and the P. G. daughter -of Professor Wenderblatt! Not to mention Prexy’s own indispensible -private secretary! And for what? No vestige of a reason.” - -“If she does report us, Prexy’s own indispensible private secretary will -take action,” threatened Lucy. “I’d be the first person the president -would ask about it. If Miss Peyton went to see him in person I’d hear of -it from him afterward; I’m sure. If she wrote him, I’d see the letter -and take the answer he dictated. I’d ask him if I might tell you girls -about it, too.” The light of devotion shone strongly in Lucy’s face. - -“Who’s Prexy? We’re not in awe of him with our Luciferous on the job,” -was Ronny’s confident declaration. “Long may she flourish.” She held up -her glass of ginger ale. The others followed her example, careful, -however, to “Drink her down” with repressed enthusiasm. - -“I ought to be ashamed to face my classes tomorrow with the sword of -Miss Peyton’s disapproval hanging over my head,” Kathie remarked in the -pleasant lull that followed the drinking of the toast to Lucy. - -“But are you?” quizzed Muriel. “I’m afraid from your tone that you -aren’t.” - -“Your fears are well grounded,” laughed Kathie. “The sophs and freshies -at the Hall, judging from accounts, seem to be positively childish,” she -continued in a more serious way. “They’re not snobs as the Sans were. -There’s some hope for them. I’ll venture to say that before next June -Marvelous Manager will have managed them.” Her prediction was one of -confident affection. - -“Such a foolish name; and you will say it,” scolded Marjorie and not -quite in jest. “A fine manager I am. I can’t even manage my own affairs. -I can’t decide whether to go home for Thanksgiving, or stay here,” she -added in self-derision. - -“One thing we _must_ decide before we separate,” Ronny said with energy. -“Where shall we meet tomorrow night? Remember we shall be twenty-nine -strong. We can’t hold the meeting in one of our rooms. We must have -plenty of space for our new Travelers. The living room down stairs isn’t -private enough. Has anyone a really brilliant suggestion. No other kind -is desired. Save your breath.” - -“I have. Hold the meeting in our library,” proposed Lillian Wenderblatt. -“I’ll put a sign on the library door before dinner tomorrow night: -‘Professor Wenderblatt: Keep Out,’ and lead Father to the door to look -at it. Then he won’t bolt into the room with maybe two or three other -professors in the middle of our meeting.” - -Lillian’s proposal was received with approbation and accepted with -alacrity. Leila, Vera, Robin and Lillian were chosen to notify the -fortunate seniors of the honor in store for them. The rest of the -details of the meeting were quickly arranged. Ten-thirty was not far -off. - -“Don’t imagine for a minute that you have seen the last of your -initiation,” Jerry informed Phil and Barbara, a threatening gleam in her -eye. “There are still those two degrees, you know.” - -“Oh, forget them. We shall,” Phil made untroubled return. - -“You may forget, but I—nevv-vur.” Jerry struck an attitude. - -“Nor I.” Muriel dramatically tapped her chest and glared at Phil. -“’Sdeath to all quitters,” she hissed. - -“Oh, glorious for my melodrama!” admired Robin. “You and Jeremiah shall -be the villains.” - -“I choose to be the principal, double-dyed scoundrel of the show,” -stipulated Muriel, “or else I’ll refuse to see your play. I spurn -anything and everything but complete villainy.” - -“Give me a better part than Muriel or I won’t act,” balked Jerry. - -“I’m going to fly before any more actors go on a strike,” Robin raised a -protesting hand. “I must look out for Page and Dean’s melodramer.” - -“Only birds, insects, aviators and ‘sich’ fly,” criticized Phil. “I -simply must get back at you for not giving me a cousinly warning of what -was in store for me tonight.” - -“Seniors, P. G.’s and faculty will add to the flying classification or -lose what shreds of reputation for integrity they have left,” laughed -Kathie. - -“An added word of warning:—Hotfoot it lightly.” Jerry’s forceful if -inelegant injunction sent the initiation party down the hall dutifully -smothering their easily summoned mirth. Jerry accompanied the party to -the head of the stairs. She returned to the room, keeping an alert watch -as she walked on a certain door across the hall. This time she noted -with satisfaction that it was tightly closed. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - JERRY SPEAKS HER MIND - - -“The ten-thirty rule will have to chase itself merrily around the -campus,” Jerry made airy disposition of that time-honored regulation as -she entered the room which Marjorie was already beginning to set to -rights. With her usual energy the stout girl gathered up the glasses, -tucking them one inside another and setting them in a compact row at one -end of the study table. - -“I agree with you, Jeremiah. I have letters to read that must be read, -ten-thirty rule or no.” Marjorie whisked an armful of crumpled paper -napkins and empty paper plates into the waste basket. “There;” she -cleared the table of crumbs; “that’ll do for tonight. Thank goodness, -all the eats were eaten.” - -“I can count on my fingers the times we’ve defied old ten-thirty,” Jerry -declared as she reached in the table drawer for her two letters. - -“Ten times in four years,” Marjorie commented. “That’s a good record.” - -“True, Bean, true. When we stop to consider the past—how wonderful we -are!” Jerry simpered self-appreciatively at Marjorie as she sat down -under the drop light with her letters. - -“How can I help but believe it when you say it like that?” rallied -Marjorie. “Anyway, you’re a gem, Jeremiah. I was never more agreeably -surprised than when you turned the tables on Miss Peyton tonight. I -hadn’t noticed that their door stood open. But you had, smart child. I -had no idea you’d been out in the hall on a tour of discovery.” - -“I went directly after you were out there. I had a hunch that the Ice -Queen would start something. So she did—through those two geese. They -had that room last year and didn’t appear to mind our occasional -soirees. But there’s still another and a chief disturber—Leslie Cairns. -She’s back of the Ice Queen.” - -“I think so, too,” Marjorie admitted with reluctance. “I have seen them -together several times. Leslie Cairns has other friends on the campus, -too. Muriel and I saw her and Miss Monroe coming out of Craig Hall this -afternoon.” - -“You did?” Jerry showed surprise. “I’ll investigate that. I may find out -something interesting. Miss Morris, that nice senior you’ve heard me -speak of, who came to the campus last fall from Vassar, says there are -only seniors and juniors at Craig Hall this year. Perhaps it was the Ice -Queen’s friends she and Leslie Cairns were calling upon.” - -“That may be,” Marjorie agreed. “I wonder if Miss Monroe likes Leslie -Cairns? Perhaps she cares more about cars and expensive clothes and -spending money than anything else. We don’t know her, so we can’t even -guess what sort of girl she is at heart.” - -“I know what will happen to her if she puts any dependence in Leslie -Cairns,” Jerry said grimly. “Don’t waste your sympathy on her, Marjorie. -She isn’t worthy of it.” - -“I don’t know why I feel so sorry about her, but I do,” Marjorie -confessed. “Whenever I see that beautiful face of hers I forget she’s -been so ungracious to us. She’s not a namby-pamby kind of pretty girl. -She has a high, royal kind of beauty. I’ve not given her up yet, -Jeremiah. I’m going to try popularity for her against Leslie Cairns’ -money. I’m going to put her in the first show we have. I’ll have Robin -ask her. I’ll stay in the background for awhile.” - -“Nil desperandum,” Jerry encouraged with an indulgent grin. “Mignon La -Salle reformed just to please Marvelous Manager. Why not others? Besides -there’s always the pleasant possibility that the Hob-goblin and the Ice -Queen may squabble and part.” - -“So Muriel says. I mean about those two girls disagreeing. You may make -fun of me all you please, Jerry. Just the same if we could win Miss -Monroe over to our side it would gradually put everything straight here -at the Hall. If Miss Monroe became our friend, she would probably become -friends with the Bertram five. She’s friends already with the other -sophs and freshies here. Things which are equal to the same thing are -equal to each other, you know. Leslie Cairns’ friendship cannot be -beneficial to her. I am sure of that. Yet to warn her against Miss -Cairns would be contemptible. Excuse me, Jeremiah, for keeping you from -your letters!” Marjorie exclaimed in sudden contrition. “It’ll be -midnight before I’ve read all these.” She flourished the handful of -letters before Jerry’s eyes. - -“Go to it, or it may be morning. Why waste precious time flaunting your -letters in my face? Why should your five to my two make you -vainglorious?” - -“Who’s vainglorious?” Marjorie made a half threatening move up from her -chair. She dropped back again, laughing, as Jerry nimbly put the length -of the table between them. - -“Lots of people are vainglorious.” Jerry wisely grew vague. “Don’t -bother me, Bean. I hope to read my letters in peace and quiet. Yes?” - -“_So do I_,” emphasized Marjorie. - -The chums exchanged good-humored smiles, born of perfect understanding -and settled down to the patiently deferred reading of their letters. - -Jerry read Helen’s letter first. She knew it would be long and -absorbing. Hal’s would be his usual brief note. It was his weekly -offering. Long since Jerry had made him promise to write once a week and -had pledged herself to do the same by him. A strong devotion lived -between brother and sister which had deepened year by year. Hal did not -pretend to understand Jerry from the standpoint of girlhood. To him she -was a good comrade; “the squarest kid going.” Jerry was of the private -belief that she knew Hal better than he knew himself. - -Her one sorrowful concern in life was the knowledge that Marjorie -“couldn’t see old Hal for a minute.” She would have tried to further -Hal’s unflourishing cause with Marjorie, but there seemed to be no way -of accomplishment. She knew only too well Marjorie’s utter lack of -sentimental interest in Hal; her rooted aloofness to “love” as Hal had -hoped she might experience it. “A regular stony heart,” Jerry had -secretly characterized her. - -Jerry had shrewdly divined for herself the true state of affairs between -the two. Neither had ever spoken intimately to her of the other. -Nevertheless when Marjorie had left Severn Beach for her midsummer -journey to Hamilton during the summer previous, Jerry had been convinced -that she had “turned Hal down.” She had wondered then, and since, how -Marjorie could fail to love her big, handsome brother—not because he had -been devoted to her since their first meeting—but for himself. - -The expression of good-natured amusement which had visited her face -during the reading of Helen’s letter remained until she had read Hal’s -note several times. Then concern replaced it, making her round face very -solemn. She shot a covert glance at Marjorie who was deep in Mary -Raymond’s letter. She had already devoured the contents of her General’s -and Captain’s letters. Both had been comparatively short and loving -inquiries as to whether they might hope for her “gracious presence at -Castle Dean over Thanksgiving.” Neither superior officer had made a -point of asking her to come home. Unselfishly, as ever, they deferred to -her judgment. - -Marjorie had gulped down her rising emotions as she had read and -realized afresh her father’s and mother’s breadth of spirit. She had -taken up Mary’s letter, feeling that she must go home at all events for -the holiday. Mary had the long and astonishing confidence to impart that -she had fallen in love, was engaged to be married the following -September and that her engagement was soon to be announced at a formal -luncheon to be given for her by her mother. - -“Oh, Jerry!” Marjorie looked up brightly from her letter. “Mary’s going -to be married. I’ll tell you all she writes about the great event while -we are getting ready for bed. I haven’t time now.” Her hands were busy -opening the letter from Constance as she spoke. Again she dropped into -silence and the perusal of Connie’s letter. “Isn’t it too bad?” she soon -cried out. “Connie and Laurie are not going to be in Sanford for -Thanksgiving. Laurie promised a composer friend of his to be present at -the first performance of his new opera ‘The Azure Butterfly.’ He and -Connie are going to New York.” - -“That settles it for me. There’ll be one distinguished mug missing on -the campus. I’m going home for Turkey Day.” Marjorie’s news concerning -Constance and Laurie had crystalized Jerry’s wavering resolve to go to -Sanford. “Poor old Hal! A fine time he’d have with all of us away!” - -A swift flood of crimson deepened the glow in Marjorie’s cheeks; rose -even to her white forehead. She stared self-consciously at Jerry for an -instant. Without a word she laid down Connie’s letter and took up the -envelope addressed to her in Charlie Stevens’ straggling hand. - -First exploration of its contents and she broke into a low amused laugh: -“Do listen to this, Jerry,” she begged. - -Jerry raised her eyes from Hal’s letter, at which she had been soberly -staring. She was provoked with herself for having mentioned Hal to -Marjorie as an object for sympathy. - -Occupied with the letter from Charlie, Marjorie did not notice Jerry’s -gloomy features. Mirthfully she read: - - “DEAR MARJORIE: - - “I think your last letter to me was a dandy. I read it twice and - I was going to read it again only I lost it. Maybe I lost it on - the football ground or in the street. But if anyone finds it - they’ll see your name on the end of it and guess that I am the - right Charlie it belongs to. Then I might get it again. I know - you won’t be mad cause I lost it. I couldn’t help it. - - “Connie is going to New York with Laurie for Thanksgiving. She - has to go because he is her husband. We are very sorry. I don’t - mean we are sorry because Laurie is her husband but because they - are going away. The band is coming to our house for a party on - Thanksgiving evening. I am going to play an awful hard piece on - my fiddle that Father Stevens composed just for me. You’d better - come home and then you can come to see us that night. I like - you, Marjorie, quite a bit better than Mary Raymond. Connie says - Mary is going to be married. I used to say when I was real - little that I was going to marry her. I don’t say it now. I - didn’t know any better then. - - “I hope there will be snow and ice on Thanksgiving. Will you go - skating on the pond with me if there is? I can skate fine and - make a figure eight and a double loop on the ice. Hal Macy took - me to the Sanford ice rink last Saturday afternoon. He showed me - how to make the figure eight. He is a dandy fellow, only he - doesn’t talk much. You ought to see him play basket ball. He has - all the Sanford fellows beat. I like him because he always goes - around with the fellows and not the girls. He thinks you are - quite nice. I let him read your letter before I lost it and he - said I was a lucky kid. I could write some more but I can’t - think just what to write. I will write some more some other - time. You had better come home soon. You and me and Hal Macy - will go skating. It is all right for you to go with him. He - would just as soon go any place with you because he has been to - your house lots of times to parties and you have been to his - house and that’s the way it is. I have to go and practice an - hour on my fiddle so good-bye Marjorie and I send you my love. - Hurry up home. - - “From your best friend, - “CHARLIE STEVENS.” - -“Good for that kid!” The cry of approbation came straight from Jerry’s -heart. “Old Hal has had a lonesome time in Sanford for the past two -years. He could have gone into business for himself in New York after he -was graduated from college, but he knew Father needed him in his -business.” Jerry checked herself with the reminder that Hal would not -wish her to glorify him, especially to Marjorie. - -“Hal is splendid.” Marjorie was always first to give Hal his due, -impersonally. “I know it has been lonesome for him in Sanford without -the old crowd and—and—he must miss you so, Jerry,” she finished rather -lamely. She meant it in all earnestness. She understood perfectly the -bond between Hal and Jerry. - -“Not half so much as I’m sure he misses you.” Jerry grew bold for once. -“This is what he has written me. You can see for yourself what a good -sport he is.” She did not look at Marjorie as she read: - - “DEAR JERRY: - - “Yours of last week appreciated. You haven’t yet said what you - are going to do about Thanksgiving. That I suppose will depend - on the way matters stand at Hamilton. If you don’t come home I - will keep Father and Mother busy looking after me so they won’t - miss you too much. Connie and Laurie will be in New York over - Thanksgiving so I must cheer up Charlie by taking him to the - football game between the Riverside Giants and the Sanford High - team. I have been coaching the Sanford fellows a little. It’s - going to be some game. Hope you’ll be on hand to see it. - - “Just remind Marjorie that I wrote her last. Tell her she can - square herself with me by coming home for Thanksgiving. Connie - told me yesterday she had written to Marjorie. Hard lines to - have Connie and Laurie away on the grand old day. Better try and - see what you can do for me. With love. Good night old kid. - - “HAL.” - -“Why, I don’t owe Hal a letter!” Marjorie regarded Jerry in surprise. -“He owes me one.” - -“He _does_?” Jerry showed more surprise than had Marjorie. “Well, I -believe both of you. It’s a plain case of ‘all have won.’ Meanwhile -where is that latest glowing proof of a flourishing correspondence?” - -“Lost in the mail, perhaps,” Marjorie guessed. She became silent for a -moment. “I’m doubly sorry about it. I shouldn’t care to have Hal think—” -Marjorie paused; looked away from Jerry’s keen blue eyes, so like Hal’s, -in confused embarrassment. - -“You know what to do.” Jerry kindly ignored the embarrassed slip. “Go -present him with your regrets in person. I’ll give a hop, and invite you -to it. Won’t that be nice? Old Hal won’t care if you are the only one -invited.” She could not refrain from a side-long glance at Marjorie. - -“Imagine Hal and me dancing solemnly around your big ball room together, -the only guests at your hop.” Marjorie forced a laughing tone of -raillery. - -“Nothing would please him better,” Jerry stoutly maintained. It was the -nearest to an opinion concerning Hal’s and Marjorie’s non-progressive -love affair that wary Jerry had ever ventured. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - TWO THINGS SHE KNEW ABOUT LOVE - - -This time the blue and brown eyes met squarely. Marjorie’s expression -was a mixture of tolerance, vexation and resignation. - -“I said it.” Jerry read the glance aright. “I’ll say it for myself, too. -Nothing would please _me_ better. You know the rest. It’s the first, -last and only appearance of Jeremiah as a buttinski. I knew that -someday, somehow, somewhere I’d say something about you and Hal. ’Scuse -me, Bean, ’scuse me.” Jerry’s apology was half joking, half earnest. - -“Why—I—why—Jerry!” Marjorie stammered. She grew rosy from white throat -to the roots of her curly hair. Concerning Hal’s avowal of love, her -captain had been her only confidant. Even Constance did not know the -circumstances of that bright summer afternoon which she had spent with -Hal aboard the Oriole. “Why—Jurry-miar!” She used Danny Seabrooke’s -nickname for Jerry, with a rather tremulous laugh. “Who—I never—” - -“Nope; of course not.” Jerry’s reply was comfortingly positive. “Both -you and Hal belong to the high inner order of the tight-shell clam. I -can only guess how you stand with each other. I know he loves you. Never -think he told me that. I knew it almost as soon as we first met you. -It’s the same true love, broadened and deepened, that he’s giving you -today. I wish you cared about him even one-half as much as he cares -about you. You’d be loving him some. But I’m afraid you don’t. And -that’s flat.” - -“No, Jerry I don’t, and it is a relief to be able to say it frankly to -you.” Marjorie’s recent confusion was clearing away. Her grave serenity -of tone robbed her candid confession of all harshness. - -“I’ve always hated to believe you didn’t for Hal’s sake. I was pretty -sure of it last summer at the beach,” was Jerry’s sober answer. - -“I’m _never_ going to marry, Jeremiah,” Marjorie informed her room-mate -with a kind of pessimistic solemnity. “If I couldn’t love Hal enough to -be his wife, knowing how splendid he is, surely I couldn’t marry any -other man. Don’t think me selfish because I put my work at Hamilton -above love. It is life to me—my highest, most complete ideal.” - -Jerry surveyed her chum’s lovely, but very dignified features for an -instant. She was divided between a desire to admire Marjorie’s lofty -purpose in life and shake her soundly for her deliberate repudiation of -Hal and his warm true love. - -“I—I’m not sorry you spoke to me of Hal. I’d like you to know that—that -we’re not betrothed—nor never will be.” Marjorie’s voice dropped on the -last four words. “Only Captain and General know. Not even Connie. I -don’t think I have the right to tell her. If Hal tells Laurie, he may -ask Laurie to tell Connie. I hope so.” - -“I know old Hal wouldn’t tell me.” Jerry’s voiced conviction was -emphatic. Jerry was more disturbed than she then realized by the -“wallop” which Marjorie had managed to “hand” old Hal somewhere along -the road of time from the date of Connie’s wedding. She was inwardly -convinced that the “turn-down” had come at the beach. - -“I shall tell him that I have told you, Jerry,” Marjorie quietly -announced. “It is Hal’s privilege to tell Laurie and your father and -mother. It was mine to tell either you or Connie as my closest girl -friend. I have chosen to tell you. You are as dear to me as Connie; but -not dearer. Only—in this you have the first right to know.” - -Marjorie smiled very tenderly on Jerry. Her plump, but not over-plump, -partner in the journey through the land of college sat abstractedly -scribbling on the back of one of her envelopes, head bent low. She was -not far from tears. Jerry loathed tears when, on rare occasions, she had -been what she termed “cry-baby” enough to shed them. - -“Much obliged.” She now spoke gruffly to hide her threatened flow of -emotion. “I—I wish you felt differently about Hal, Marjorie. I—I—always -looked forward to having you for my sister in that way.” Jerry absently -turned the envelope over and continued to write on its under side. - -“Oh, Jeremiah, you’re just as much my sister now as you would be if I -were—” Marjorie suddenly checked her impulsive assurance. Her honest -nature compelled her to desist. No; it was not the same. She knew that -no declaration of sisterhood to Jerry on her part could compare with the -delight which would be her chum’s were they to become sisters through -her marriage with Hal. - -“Not the same, Bean; not the same.” Jerry shook a positive head. - -“I know it isn’t. I knew it almost as soon as I said it,” Marjorie -admitted rather humbly. “I love you a lot, Jerry. Most of all because -you have always loved me and wanted me for your sister. I’m glad you -spoke to me about Hal. There’s one thing I can do for him. Go to Sanford -and help you give him a jolly Thanksgiving. We owe it to him to please -him; more than we do to please the dormitory girls. He’s the one most in -need of good cheer this Thanksgiving.” - -“Ha-a-a-a!” Jerry sat up very straight and drew a long relieved breath. -“You’re the best little sport, Marjorie Dean! I was afraid you might not -care to see poor old Hallelujah on account of having turned him down.” - -“I sha’n’t mind seeing Hal,” Marjorie said slowly, “for truly, Jerry, in -my own way I like him as well as ever. I haven’t changed toward Hal. My -attitude toward him is purely that of friendship. But he has changed. -We’re like two persons, standing on opposite banks of a broad river, -trying to call across to each other. Neither of us can understand the -other. I wonder why true friendship can’t content Hal. He wonders why I -can’t understand love.” She cast an almost mournful glance toward Jerry -which Jerry did not forget for many days afterward. - -“I only know two things surely about love,” Marjorie continued after a -brief silence. “One is that I have never been in love. The other is that -without love no marriage can be happy. And now let’s not talk of love -any more, _ever again_, Jeremiah,” she ended in a whimsical tone which -made Jerry smile. - -“All right. Anything to please you, Bean,” she replied. She was secretly -elated over Marjorie’s decision concerning Thanksgiving. Nothing could -please Hal more she was sure. “It’s midnight, anyway. Time we put a curb -on our talk fest.” She rose to begin preparations for sleep. She would -have liked to assure Marjorie of how glad “old Hal” would be, but had -agreed to Marjorie’s taboo. - -Marjorie gathered up her handful of letters from the table, a contented -little smile showing at the corners of her red mouth. She was glad that -she and Jerry were going home; that the momentous decision had been -made. Picking up the last envelope left on the table she saw it was not -one of hers, but Jerry’s. A fresh flood of scarlet flew to her cheeks as -she saw scribbled across the envelope in Jerry’s hand: “Marjorie Dean -Macy.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - MEETING HER MATCH - - -“Why won’t you go to New York over Thanksgiving, Leslie?” Doris Monroe’s -accustomed indifferent drawl quickened to longing exasperation, all but -ready to burst bounds. - -“Don’t choose to,” came with laconic self-will from Leslie Cairns. She -cast an insolent, inquiring glance toward Doris who was busy driving the -white car which Leslie had named the Dazzler and loaned Doris for her -own use. The pretty sophomore’s injured expression brought a faintly -mocking smile to Leslie’s loose-lipped mouth. - -“Oh, I know you don’t choose to,” declared Doris in a purposely weary -tone. She continued to keep her eyes steadily on the road ahead. “_Why_ -don’t you choose to?” she questioned, growing more pointed. - -“You ought to know without asking,” Leslie grumbled. “You are just like -Natalie Weyman, my New York pal. You can’t remember, or be taught to -remember, that business is business. Nat is as crazy to have me go to -the Weyman’s New York house for Thanksgiving as you are to have me go -with you to New York. I can’t see either of you when I have so much at -stake here.” - -“I beg your pardon.” Doris turned politely chilling. “I had no intention -of breaking in upon yours and Miss Weyman’s plans.” Her coolness arose -not from jealousy. Leslie’s rebuff had hurt her pride. She had more than -once suspected that Leslie’s frequent allusions to “my pal, Nat,” were -made simply to arouse her jealousy. - -Doris was too comfortably wrapped up in self to be jealous-hearted. She -had a private conviction that a girl who might prefer the friendship of -another girl above her own was of small consequence. - -Frowning, Leslie shot a second glance at Doris. Her shrewd dark eyes -read mainly in Doris’s lovely blonde profile supreme discontent at not -being able to have her own way. - -“You didn’t break into anything,” Leslie gruffly assured. “That is what -you and Nat Weyman seem possessed to try to do, though.” - -“What do you mean, Leslie?” Doris turned offended eyes for a brief -second on her companion. - -“I mean you two seem determined to wreck the promising business career -of Leslie Adoré Cairns,” Leslie retorted with grim humor. - -“Adoré!” Doris exclaimed irrelevantly. “What a darling name!” - -“Just suits me, doesn’t it?” Leslie threw back her head and indulged in -her silent hob-goblin laugh. - -“No, it doesn’t,” Doris said with amazing candor; “but it might.” - -“What?” For once Leslie’s pet monosyllable burst involuntarily from her -lips. - -“I said it might suit you,” calmly returned Doris, “if you would try to -make it suit you. You’ve loads of personality, Leslie; the kind that -would make people like you a lot if you cared to have them like you.” - -“I’m not keen on having people like me, even if I do happen to have a -foolish middle name.” From interest Leslie’s tone had quickly changed to -one of mild derision. “I mean I wouldn’t lift my finger in order to -stand well with a gang of girls. That’s the way Bean made herself -popular on the campus; pretending to be so kind and helpful; setting up -goody-goody standards and poking her inquisitive nose into a lot of -things that didn’t concern her. Then there was the Beauty contest. She -won that. It gave her a strong pull with the upper class girls. All -except the Sans.” Leslie’s displeasure against Marjorie rose with the -recital of past troubles. “They _knew_ the judges at the contest hadn’t -played fairly. Nat Weyman should have won the contest. Wish you’d been a -freshie that year. Bean wouldn’t have had a look-in.” - -“Oh, I’m not so sure of that,” disagreed Doris, with intent to be -provoking. “Miss Dean is really beautiful, Leslie. I’d hate to believe -that she is more beautiful than I. Sometimes I’m not sure but that she -is,” Doris gave a self-conscious, half rueful laugh. - -“What ails you?” Leslie demanded darkly. “I thought you said you had no -use for Bean and her crowd. Look where you’re going. You almost zipped -us into that limousine.” - -Doris’s honest, if reluctant, opinion of Marjorie fanned the flame of -Leslie’s too-ready ill humor. She immediately vented it upon Doris’s -driving. - -“_No_, I did _not_ almost run the car into that limousine,” was the -other girl’s flat contradiction. “What is the use in growing peevish -with me, Leslie? You know I detest Miss Dean and that Sanford crowd. The -only one of them who appears in the least interesting is Miss Harding. -She’s a barbarian, but she has individuality. I can’t forget she’s on -earth, you know, since I have her as a room-mate.” - -As she spoke Doris had slowed the speed of the car for a stop before the -Lotus, the tea room where they had decided to go for a Saturday -afternoon luncheon. - -“She’s a savage; so is Macy.” Leslie invariably referred to Muriel and -Jerry as “those two savages.” “She’s clever, too, that Muriel Harding. -The Sans would have taken up with her and Macy and Lynde when they came -to Hamilton if they hadn’t been so crazy about Bean. Macy’s father’s a -millionaire and Lynde’s father is a multi-million man. Harding would -have got across on her nerve. All three rallied round the Bean standard -and lost out with the Sans.” - -It was on Doris’s tongue to say: “Then they were lucky, after all, since -the Sans were expelled from college.” Instead she held her peace. She -intended to try once more to coax Leslie to re-consider her decision not -to go to New York. Such a remark from her now about the Sans would only -stir Leslie into fresh irritation. - -Doris sent a backward, lingering glance toward the shining white car as -the two girls started up the wide cement walk to the tea room. - -“Don’t worry. It’ll be there when we come back,” Leslie said with a half -mollified smile. Doris’s proud anxiety concerning the white car was not -lost on her. It suited Leslie to pose as a benefactor. - -“It’s such a dream,” sighed Doris. Her color heightened; her blue eyes -shone starry triumph of the smart white roadster. - -“I’ve engaged a Thanksgiving table already at the Colonial,” Leslie -announced, tucking her arm inside one of Doris’s. “I tried to get one at -Baretti’s but the dago is sore at me. His tables are always engaged -beforehand if I happen to want one on a holiday.” - -“Couldn’t we go to New York the day before Thanksgiving and come back to -Hamilton the day after?” Doris once more pleaded. “You won’t transact -any business here on Thanksgiving Day.” - -“That’s what you say,” Leslie made instant rejoinder. She laughed as -though she was in possession of a rich joke. “I’ve a special business -stunt to put over here on Thanksgiving Day. Get it straight this time, -Goldie. I am _not_ going to New York.” - -“Then I shall go there alone.” Doris stopped on the threshold of the -Lotus. She faced Leslie angrily as she made the stubborn announcement. -For an instant the two girls fairly glared at each other. - -“Go on inside, for goodness sake,” Leslie roughly requested. She had -turned incensed eyes from Doris in time to spy three Hamilton students -coming up the walk. Luckily their attention was focussed on the white -car. Two of them glanced back at it. It was apparently the topic they -were discussing. - -“I meant what I said,” Doris began haughtily the moment they had seated -themselves at a table. “You are so very queer. You seem to forget that I -know London and Paris. What is New York to me?” Doris snapped -contemptuous fingers. “Merely another large city.” - -“You’ll find it a handful, if you try to tackle it all by your -lonesome,” was Leslie’s satiric prediction. - -“I don’t need, necessarily, to go there alone. I know two sophs who -would be glad—” - -“Forget it,” Leslie interrupted with a gesture of dismissal. “The three -of you would have nothing on ‘Babes in the Wood,’ or any other of those -lost nursery kids. In New York, unless you’ve been born and brought up -there, you have to know the right sort of people, or you can’t have a -good time. I could give you a letter of introduction to Nat Weyman, if I -wanted to, but it wouldn’t do. She’d not like you, and you’d not like -her.” - -“I fail to understand why New York should be so—so different from London -and Paris.” Doris was still haughty, though she was somewhat impressed -by what Leslie had just said. “I don’t wish to meet Miss Weyman.” - -“Use your brain,” Leslie impatiently advised. “London and Paris are like -a couple of villages to you because you know ’em. New York would be a -howling wilderness to you. Why? Because you don’t know it. Simmer down, -Goldie. I’ll take you to New York with me the week after Christmas. Our -town house is closed this winter but I have an apartment in New York and -a chaperon whom I’ve taught to mind her own business. You can help me -here a good deal on Thanksgiving Day by wearing that new costume of -yours that matches the Dazzler. I want to make a splurge at the -Colonial, for reasons of my own.” - -“Of course I wish to help you, Leslie.” Doris was somewhat mollified by -the Christmas prospect. She flushed hotly at Leslie’s pointed reminder -concerning her new costume and the car. Leslie had presented her with -the white fur hat and coat, an exquisite white silk gold-embroidered -gown and slippers and hose which made up the “costume.” - -“Then look pleasant, and listen to me,” Leslie curtly directed, her eyes -fixed on the other girl’s rapidly clearing features. “Drive the Dazzler -to the Hamilton House for me at exactly eleven o’clock, on Thanksgiving -Day. We’ll go for a drive and stop at the Colonial at two o’clock for -dinner. After dinner we’ll go for another drive. Then back to supper at -the Colonial. There’s a good movie theatre in Hamilton. We might go to -it in the evening. You can easily run up to the campus and put the car -away before the ten-thirty bell rings.” - -“Why not go to Orchard Inn for supper instead of the Colonial? Since -there’s been so little snow the roads are fine.” Doris made a last -desperate effort to have matters arranged partly as she wished. - -“Too far away from the campus. My main idea is to be seen with you in -all your glory on Gobbler Day. I shan’t tell you why. Don’t ask me. -You’ve said you wanted to help me. Prove it by doing just as I tell you -when I ask you to do something for me.” Leslie leaned back in her chair -and surveyed Doris with the air of a dictator. She was giving a faithful -imitation of a favorite pose of her father. - -“Very well.” Doris relapsed into displeased silence. She allowed Leslie -to order the luncheon and continued mute after the waitress had left -them. - -Leslie pretended not to notice Doris’s frigidity. She busied herself -with the menu, hunting a dessert to her taste. When she had selected it -she cast the card on the table with impatient force. - -“Don’t meet me at all Thanksgiving Day, if it will be too much of a -strain,” she sarcastically told Doris. She knew that Doris was too -deeply obligated to her to make such a course of action probable. - -Doris viewed her with the cold, measuring glance which Leslie had more -than once privately admired in Goldie. - -“I don’t mind meeting you and doing as you ask me Thanksgiving Day, -Leslie,” she said coolly. “What I do mind is your dictatorial manner. -And sometimes you’re really insulting.” - -“Can’t help it. That’s the way my father is, and _that’s the way I’d -rather be_. You said I could make people like me if I tried. I wouldn’t -try. I’d rather have power; the kind that would make people do as I said -because they were afraid of me; afraid to do anything different. That’s -the kind my father has. He’s a great financier. Of course his money has -helped him climb to where he is, but he has an iron-strong will. His -father left him a fortune, but he’s made millions of dollars since -then.” - -Leslie’s voice vibrated with melancholy pride as she poured forth this -praise of her father. She had not told Doris of her estrangement from -him, nor did she purpose to tell her. She had long since arrived at the -conclusion that her father was not indifferent to her welfare. Mrs. -Gaylord had, in a fit of confidence, admitted to Leslie that she had -been engaged by Mr. Cairns to chaperon her. Accordingly the two had come -to amicable terms. Mrs. Gaylord had amiably consented to go visiting -among her many friends and relatives a large share of the time, thus -leaving Leslie free to her own devices. She had seen Leslie established -in Hamilton at the Hamilton House, had remained with her a week and gone -on to visit a friend with the usual understanding that the receipt of a -telegram from Leslie would insure her immediate return. - -“I should think you’d rather be in New York in business so that your -father could help you, since he’s such a wonderful financier.” Doris’s -practical and wholly innocent observation raised the red of -embarrassment in Leslie’s dark face. - -“My father is—” Leslie fought down the confusion into which her -companion’s remark had thrown her. “Didn’t you hear me say our town -house was closed?” she asked grumpily. “My father’s in Europe just now. -Besides, this garage business I’m in is to be a surprise for him. When -he finds I’ve made good he’ll be ready to let me into some of his high -finance deals.” - -Leslie’s pet dream was re-instatement into her father’s favor as a -result of her own daring brilliancy in business. Aside from the pleasure -of “making things hum for Bean” she thought well of her garage project. -It was the first step upward in the business career she had set her -heart upon. - -“There’s something I want you to do for me—not later than tomorrow,” -Leslie dictated, regardless of Doris’s protest against her dictatorial -manner. - -“What is it?” Doris again turned her measuring glance upon Leslie. - -“I want you to find out whether Bean’s going off the campus for -Thanksgiving. I must know. Find out the same about Page, too.” Leslie’s -rugged features were set with dogged purpose. Her usually loose lips -were now formed into a tight line. - -“I’m not certain I can find that out by tomorrow. I may not be able to -let you know before next Tuesday,” Doris replied with dignity. “Miss -Page’s and Miss Dean’s friends are not mine,” she reminded with irony. - -“That need make no difference. It’s important to me to know.” Leslie -tapped on the table with an authoritative index finger in further -emphasis of each word. “You promised to help me, Goldie. Is this the way -you keep your promise? And with all I’ve done for you!” - -“Don’t be so silly, Leslie. I’m not in the least afraid of you. You -can’t bully me even a tiny bit. I told you I’d help you, and I will. But -you must allow me to use my own judgment in some things. If that doesn’t -please you, take back all you’ve given me. I can get along nicely -without your further help. I don’t fancy gifts that have strings -attached to them.” Doris elevated her chin to a haughty angle. - -Leslie’s face lost its tensity and registered half a dozen varied -expressions while Doris was announcing her declaration of independence. -At the last a look of glum perplexity replaced the others. While she had -been leader of the Sans at Hamilton she had had many altercations with -her chums. She had never taken their angry protests against her tyranny -seriously. No one of them had actually defied her except Dulcie Vale, -and she had “begun” on Dulcie. - -Face to face with a girl who coolly ordered her not to be “silly,” and -declined to be bound by obligation further than she chose Leslie had -received the surprise of her life. - -“Let me know as soon as you can. Phone me at the hotel and I’ll meet -you.” The dessert she had ordered, untouched, Leslie rose from her -chair. She had determined to show Doris that she was deeply offended. - -Without saying good-bye she stalked sulkily from the tea room. On her -way to the door she demanded the check from the waitress and stopped at -the desk to pay it. She half hoped Doris would hurry after her and beg -her to go back. Instead Doris sat tranquilly at the table Leslie had -quitted and enjoyed her dessert of Nesselrode pudding. For once Leslie -had met her match. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - PLANNING FOR THANKSGIVING - - -“Truly, Robin, it is so selfish in me to be going home and leaving so -much for you to do.” Marjorie surveyed Robin Page with a troubled, -conscience-stricken air indicative of her feelings. - -“Oh, shucks!” exclaimed Robin blithely as she glanced up at Marjorie -from a list she was busily compiling. “Go home to Castle Dean and forget -for four days that Hamilton is on the map. Don’t be so conceited. We can -get along beautifully without you,” she teased. “Phil, Anna Towne, -Barbara and I are a splendiferous combination. You’ll hardly be missed.” - -“I don’t doubt that.” A good-humored smile touched Marjorie’s rosy lips. -“I know things will run along on wheels. What I’m thinking of is the -amount of extra effort your splendiferous combination will have to make. -You see I’m taking with me not only the Sanfordites but Leila, Vera and -Kathie as well. That leaves you and Lillian, the only original Travelers -to keep the new Nineteen Travelers going and manage the different -stunts.” - -“Most of the stunts we’ve planned will manage themselves,” was Robin’s -confident assurance. “Remember they are already planned and you did a -large share of the planning. So you see you haven’t been so much of a -quitter as you seem to think.” - -“You’re a perfect partner, Page,” Marjorie looked heart-felt -appreciation of the charming, boyish-faced girl who had never failed her -since the two had joined forces for democracy. - -“Glad you like me, Dean.” Robin answered the look with her bright, -piquant smile. It amused the two to address each other occasionally by -their family names. “Listen now while I read you the program I’ve jotted -down.” - -“Go ahead.” Marjorie hurriedly finished strapping the suitcase she had -just packed and seated herself in a chair to listen. - -It was Wednesday morning. She and Robin had respectively cut chemistry -and philology for the purpose of completing the Thanksgiving program to -be carried out on the campus during Marjorie’s and her chums’ absence by -Robin, with the assistance of Barbara Severn, Phyllis Moore and Anne -Towne, leader of the dormitory girls. - -“Tonight we’ve left free to the students to get up their own -jollifications,” Robin proceeded. “Most of the girls in the campus -houses have spreads, dinners, etc., planned for this evening. The -dormitory girls, as you know, are going to take in that illustrated -lecture on the South Sea Islands at the Hamilton Theatre. Tomorrow -morning there is to be a special service in chapel. I’m going to sing a -solo. So is Blanche Scott.” - -“Oh,” Marjorie cried out in delight. “You never told me Blanche Scott -was coming to Hamilton. How I’d love to see her.” - -“You’ll see her when you come back,” Robin assured. “I’ve been keeping -her coming as a surprise for you. She’s going to be at Silverton Hall -for two or three weeks after Thanksgiving. She promised me this visit -last summer. She’s to be married in April, you know.” - -“I received her betrothal announcement and that of one of my oldest -Sanford chums on the same day last summer. My Sanford chum, Irma Linton, -is to be married at Easter time. She is the girl who I used to tell you -Elaine Hunter was like,” commented Marjorie. “Blanche and Elaine two -loyal Silvertonites now on the road to matrimony,” she added musingly. - -“Yes; and Portia Graham is a third. She won’t care if _you_ know it, -Marvelous Manager. She’s engaged to a doctor. She ’fessed up in one of -her latest letters to me. But this isn’t on our regular program.” Robin -again fell to consulting the list she had written. - -“Next comes the dinner at Baretti’s for the dormitory girls. He hasn’t -told us yet what it will cost, but—” - -“Oh, goodness!” Marjorie bobbed up from her chair with the suddenness of -a jack-in-the-box. “I had so much to talk over with you I almost forgot -to show you Signor Baretti’s note. It came this morning.” She glanced -anxiously toward the wall clock. “He wants to see us at twelve today.” - -“I wonder why?” Robin appeared a trifle startled. “I hope our -Thanksgiving dinner arrangement with him isn’t going to flivver.” - -“He won’t fail us, I’m sure. Very likely it’s the cost of the dinner he -wishes to discuss with us. Such a funny little note.” She produced the -Italian’s letter from the top of her chiffonier and handed it to Robin. -The latter read aloud with amused emphasis: - - “DEAR MISS DEAN: - - “You pleas come to my restaurant at twelva the clock befor - afernoon on Wenesda. you tell Miss Page come to. I am not smart - to write much. you please come here I tell you evrythin. - - “Your frien, - “GUISEPPE BARETTI.” - -“All right, Guiseppe, we’ll be there at twelve,” smiled Robin as she -returned the letter to Marjorie. “I’ll go over the rest of this now, in -a hurry. This will be our only chance. We’ll bump into all our friends, -once we’re out on the campus. Any of them we don’t happen to meet there -will probably appear at the inn.” - -“Too true, Page; too true.” Marjorie agreed with a rueful shake of her -curly head. - -“Phil has managed to get up a basket ball game for Thanksgiving -afternoon between two picked teams, regardless of class. It’s to be held -in the gym, beginning at three-thirty. She has had her hands full, -making up the right sort of teams. Gussie Forbes is going to play center -on one team. Miss Walker is to play center on the other team. What do -you think of that?” Robin cast an inquiring look at Marjorie. She added, -without waiting for answer. “Phil had to arrange matters so in fairness -to Miss Walker. She is as fine a player as Gus.” - -“Phil is the goddess of fair play.” Warm admiration for invincible Phil -lighted Marjorie’s features. “It will do Gussie and Miss Walker good to -be pitted against each other. Each may discover something to admire in -the other before the game ends. It was a bold stroke; but exactly like -Phil to do it.” - -“She says it will turn out for the best. Here we are stopping to talk -again. Hm-m-m!” Robin importantly cleared her throat and went on. “The -dormitory girls are going to be hostesses at a dance in the gym on -Thanksgiving night. You know all about that, so I won’t have to stop to -explain. The rest of this list is made up of the stunts we’ve already -planned. As soon as we’ve seen Baretti I’m going to hurry to Silverton -Hall and letter a large card of announcement to put in the main bulletin -board.” - -Marjorie and Robin had been planning for two weeks a series of -amusements to be given during the holiday for the benefit of the -students left on the campus. There were to be paper chases and outdoor -gypsyings on Friday and Saturday if the weather was fine. The Travelers, -nineteen, new, and two, original, were to divide themselves into seven -groups, three in a group, and head the various picnickings to be held at -different points of the country surrounding Hamilton College. Campfires -were to be built for the purpose of roasting eggs, potatoes and -chestnuts. Bacon and marshmallows were to be toasted over the flames on -sticks, and coffee was to be made, the favorite campfire elixir the -world over. - -In case of a storm-bound Friday and Saturday a variety of campus-house -amusements would take the place of the outdoor jaunts. Each campus house -contingent had pledged itself to get up an impromptu entertainment on -short notice, if needed, for the amusement of its own household and that -of the off-campus students. Robin and Phil had arranged a concert for -Friday evening in the gymnasium at which to introduce a number of -talented girls who had been shyly lingering in the background. - -Saturday evening there was to be an old-fashioned costume party in the -gymnasium to which the whole college was invited. While the weather had -been moderately cold with brisk winds and no snow the Travelers had -plans made for coasting and skating fun should a swift freezing change -accompanied by enough snow visit the campus. - -It has taken diplomatic work to enlist the campus houses in the -entertainment campaign. There was a certain amount of ill-feeling in all -of them toward the post graduates. This was the result largely of the -two sophomore factions whose idols were respectively Doris Monroe and -Augusta Forbes. Only the double fact that they could not go home for -Thanksgiving and the inborn love of girlhood to get up shows and “be in -things” made Marjorie’s and Robin’s plans possible. Even haughty Doris -Monroe was looking complacently forward to playing the leading part in a -sketch which no less person than gloomy-visaged Miss Peyton had written. - -Ronny had quietly taken upon herself the furnishing of the orchestra and -a buffet collation of sweets, fruit punch and ices for the dormitory -girls’ dance. The old-fashioned hop on Saturday evening was a -half-dollar donation party, for the benefit of the Hamilton poor -families. Phil’s own orchestra would furnish the music. There would be -fruit lemonade only by way of refreshment. The admission fee was to be -dropped into a box with a slitted cover as the guests entered the ball -room. The box was to be in charge of a maid of long ago. - -Thus it befell that Marjorie discovered the very opportunity for which -she had been waiting. Doris Monroe, attired in a sleeveless, -high-waisted gown of baby blue, her golden hair massed high on her -lovely head would constitute a perfect custodian of the precious box. -After due consultation Page and Dean decided that Lillian Wenderblatt -should be chosen to tackle the delicate task of asking the haughty -sophomore to deign to make herself useful at the hop. - -“We’ve certainly done good work on that Thanksgiving program,” Robin -congratulated as the two girls presently left Wayland Hall to make their -call upon Baretti. “The best part of it is we’ve provided entertainment -for either good weather or bad. We’re becoming invincible. Nothing can -stop Page and Dean from ‘carrying on.’” She laughed at her own jesting -conceit. - -Marjorie smiled in sympathy of Robin’s optimistic view. “It looks to me -as though it might rain before night,” she predicted, scanning the gray -masses of clouds beginning to roll up in the west. “I hope those clouds -mean snow instead of rain. It’s hardly cold enough for snow. Anything -but a rainy Thanksgiving! Thanks to _you_, Robin Page, we can discount -the rain on the campus, if it should come. You’ve done a good deal more -than I on the program. And see how I’m going to leave you in the lurch,” -she added lightly. - -“I’ve _not_ done more on the program than you, and your presence will -hang over the campus whether you’re here or not,” Robin said with -positiveness. “In time to come the Page part of the firm of Page and -Dean may be forgotten, but the Dean part; never.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - A FRIEND INDEED - - -It was precisely noon when the partners entered the inn. The somber -beauty of the great square room always seemed to Marjorie to be more -like a continuation of Hamilton Arms than a restaurant. - -“You are here on the time, Miss Dean, Miss Page.” The friendly Italian -proprietor of the inn had been watching for them. He trotted forward, -his hand outstretched. “I write you the letter, then I afraid mebbe you -go home early thisa morn. You don’t get it. Then think, no—you don’t go -home when you give the dorm girls the dinner.” - -“I am going home, Signor Baretti, but Miss Page is going to remain on -the campus. Several of the girls with whom you see us generally are -going home, too. Miss Moore and Miss Severn are to help Miss Page with -the Thanksgiving dinner for the dormitory girls.” Marjorie smiled her -regard for the kindly little man as she made this explanation. - -“Ah, yes;” nodded the Italian. “Now you sit down; have the lunch with -me. It is ready; very special; all for you.” He conducted them to one of -the tables and bowed them into their chairs. “You are please have the -lunch with such a nobody Italiano?” he asked jokingly. There was, -however a touch of embarrassment in the inquiry. - -The instant warm affirmative from his guests seemed to delight him -immensely. He signaled to the Italian waitress who had been hovering -near waiting for his order. She nodded and hurried from the room -returning quickly with the soup. - -“Now I tell you,” he said as they began the soup. “You know I like the -dorm you build. I give this dorm a good present someday when I see what -the dorm need much. I know you want give the college young ladies who -used live where the dorm is the good time. I know they don’t have the -mona; not much.” He pursed his lips and shook his head in regret of the -dormitory girls’ moneyless estate. “You are the ones to make these -happa, because you do good for these. I am this to make them happa, too. -They don’t pay for the Thanksigivin’ dinner. You don’t pay. I give the -dorm girls the dinner. Then I am happa. It will be the fine dinner. You -do this for me. You tell the dorm young ladies come to the dinner at -one. I don’t close my restaurant, but I have only enough tables for the -dorm girls. I have already tell those freshmans, sophmans and studen’s -they can reserve the tables only after half past two of the clock. They -come here before, they must sit on the benches an’ watch the dorms eat.” -His eyes twinkled humorously as he sketched this dire prospect for the -girls who were pluming themselves upon having reserved tables at -Baretti’s. - -Marjorie and Robin could not refrain from laughing at his revelation. -They could picture the rows of exclusive but certain-to-be-very-hungry -girls meekly sitting watching the dormitory girls eat up the turkey for -which they were yearning. The pure democracy of the Italian’s plan -robbed them both temporarily of ready acknowledgment of his generosity. - -“I don’t know what to say. I’m simply flabbergasted!” Robin finally -exclaimed. - -“You don’t like?” The little man glanced anxiously from one girl to the -other. “I don’t un’erstan’ that word flab—flab—.” He gave a half -puzzled, half smiling shake of the head. - -“Indeed we do like your plan. By flabbergasted I mean that I am so -surprised and delighted. I’ll say the word slowly for you.” Robin -pronounced it by syllables. - -“So-o-o. I listen.” He made Robin say it over several times. “It is a -long word. I like the long words in American.” He repeated the word -until he appeared to know it. - -Marjorie had a shrewd suspicion that he had seized upon the strange word -as a means of hiding his embarrassment at his own generosity. - -“What you think, Miss Dean?” He suddenly fixed a pair of penetrating -black eyes upon her. “You like, too?” - -“Like your plan? I should say I did.” Marjorie bent her friendliest -smile upon the devoted adherent of the dormitory cause. - -“You couldn’t do anything that would bring more happiness to the -off-campus girls, Signor Baretti,” Robin told him. “They will feel so -proud and happy to be invited by you to a private Thanksgiving dinner. -But you mustn’t forget the campus girls. You know your restaurant is the -Hamilton girls’ favorite tea room. I simply have to put in a good word -for them, too,” she ended loyally. - -“Yes, yes; I un’erstan.’ I know what you mean,” the Italian assured. -“Oo-oo, many nice studen’s come here, don’t go another tea shop. All the -rest of the day after half past two is for them. My ten tables are all -reserve for after the dorm dinner. In my restaurant I can put more -tables. That is no good. Some studen’s come here I don’t like. They eat -here same time as dorm girls maybe they make the trouble. Miss Car-rins -ask me for the Thanksgivin’ table. I don’t give her one.” He waved a -prohibitive finger in the air. “She can start the trouble from nothin’. -You know now she lives in the town?” - -“Yes, we know it,” Marjorie’s response came in even tones. “Her business -interests keep her in Hamilton, I believe.” - -“Her business is too much to mind the business of others.” A fleeting -scowl passed over the Italian’s forehead. It lingered between his brows -as he said resentfully: “Once this Miss Car-rins say about me when she -is here in this room but verra mad at me: ‘Let the dago have his hash -house. I hope it burn down tonight.’ Never-r-r I forget that. I feel to -say to her when she come here again after long while: ‘You don’t come -here more.’ I cannot. This is the inn; for everybody who want come who -behave quiet. But never-r-r I let her have the special table. Naw!” The -inn keeper put great stress upon this resentful resolve. - -Neither Marjorie nor Robin hardly knew what to say. They had long since -heard the story Baretti had just told them from Vera. - -“I wouldn’t take anything Leslie Cairns said to heart, or ever let it -worry me for a minute, Signor Baretti,” Marjorie finally said in -soothing tones. She recognized the Italian’s right to comforting words. -She knew he could not forgive having been called a “dago.” Far more -humiliating it must then be to his pride to have heard his beloved -restaurant dubbed a “hash house.” - -“I think mebbe I don’t,” Baretti decided, his brooding features -brightening again. “Anyway I don’t have Miss Car-rins here when are the -dorm girls here. She might act verra mean. So some freshmans and -sophmans who have the tables here will act mean, too. Miss Car-rins -don’t like those who have no much mona. If she come here with the pretty -girl who have the proud face and the hair of gold I don’t say nothin’. -She can sty unless she makes the fun of me. She shall no do that. It is -my hash house.” He threw back his head and laughed. “In it I can do the -way I please. So Miss Car-rins come here someday, make the fun of me -again, I walk up to her, take her by the arm, very quiet, and make her -to walk out the door.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - PAGE MINUS DEAN - - -Thanksgiving Day dawned without the tiniest streak of sunlight to grace -it. Early in the morning heavily overcasted clouds began emptying their -cold dispiriting torrents of rain upon a brown and soggy earth. - -Safe within the cheerful walls of Castle Dean Marjorie’s delight in -being at home was dampened by the thought of how Robin Page and her -volunteer entertainment committee were battling against such a dreary -day. She could only hope that the steady persistency of the Sanford -downpour was not repeating itself at Hamilton. True she and Robin had -planned their program to cover that possible calamity. Bad weather could -not fail to make it harder for Robin, Phil and Barbara to keep things -moving with the energy and smoothness so necessary as a means toward -uniting the interests and the sympathies of the students of the various -campus houses with those of the dormitory girls. - -While Marjorie, Leila, Vera and Jerry were cosily ensconced in the -Deans’ living room lamenting over the bad weather, Robin Page, Phil -Moore and Barbara Severn were holding a serious consultation of three in -Robin’s room. - -“It’s after ten o’clock now Phil,” Robin was saying. “Really, I think -I’d better brave the rain, go over to the garage and run Vera’s car into -town. Anna said yesterday that there were only two busses running on the -new bus line. There were three, but one has been taken away to another -route. Seventy-two girls will crowd two busses. Suppose anything should -happen to either of the two? I told Anna to get the crowd to the inn by -half past twelve. It will take longer to run out from town in the -pouring rain. We mustn’t be a minute late at the inn.” - -“I’m very well aware of that, sweet coz,” Phil returned in her bantering -fashion. “Far be it from me to allow the gang to be late and disarrange -the well-laid plans of Guiseppe.” - -“If you intend to paddle out in this deluge and play duck, count me in,” -Barbara made valiant announcement. - -“You can’t lose me, either,” Phil decided. “Slave, bring me my raincoat, -my faithful Tam and my goloshes! Out in the tempest I must go!” She -struck a dramatic posture, held it a moment, then said disappointedly: -“I fail to see anyone around here who answers to the name of slave. I’ll -have to be it myself.” - -Ten minutes later the three, with raincoats buttoned to the chin, caps -drawn low, high-buckled goloshes on their feet, the largest umbrellas -they could find over their heads, were plodding through the rain to the -garage which housed Vera’s car. The latter had urged Robin to make use -of it during her absence. Leila’s, unfortunately, was laid up for -repairs. - -“Some of the dormitory girls were going to walk to the campus today. -Just imagine!” Phil said ironically to Barbara. The two, seated in the -tonneau of the car, watched the drenched landscape through the -half-opened curtains as the machine fled along the pike. - -“Wade would be more appropriate,” laughed Barbara. “But they’ve changed -their minds long before now. Deliver me from any more walks in this -flood. I don’t envy Robin her job of chauffeur.” - -“We’re making good time.” Phil inspected her wrist watch with a -satisfied nod. “We ought to be at the place on Linden Avenue where the -busses make their stand by ten minutes past eleven. What time are the -dormitory girls to be at the stand?” She leaned forward and called out -her question in Robin’s ear. - -“Half past eleven,” Robin raised her voice above the beat of the pelting -rain, but did not turn her head. - -“They’ll have to mob the corner drug store nearest the stand. They can’t -stay out on the walk with the rain coming down in cataracts,” commented -Phil. “Anna Towne can be depended upon to have them at the bus stand on -time. Such a horrible flivver for a holiday! I don’t dare stop to think -of it,” she grumbled. - -Her guess regarding their speedy arrival at the bus stand was an -accurate one. It was precisely ten minutes past eleven when Robin -brought the car to a stop before the drug store. The rain was still -driving down in misty sheets as the trio emerged from the automobile and -made a frantic dash across the sidewalk to the shelter of the drug -store. Immediately afterward Anna Towne and half a dozen of her intimate -friends arrived, radiant-faced in spite of the storm. - -“This _is_ a surprise,” Anna greeted. She shook hands with the three -hardy Travelers as though it had been a long time instead of only -yesterday since she had seen them. “The rest of the crowd will soon be -here. I managed to telephone all of them this morning to be at the stand -at eleven-fifteen instead of eleven-thirty. Then we’ll surely be ready -to start at exactly eleven-thirty. The bus drivers are so disobliging. -They are hired specially to bring us to and from the campus yet they -never want to wait a second beyond a certain time for us to assemble. -They’re not supposed to carry any passengers but us during those trips. -But they do. I say this, not by way of complaining, Robin, I object to -their unfairness. A great difference between those Italians and Signor -Baretti, isn’t there? I think he is wonderfully kind to remember the -off-campus girls in such a generous way.” Anna’s pale, interesting face -brightened with appreciation. - -“Signor Baretti has true college spirit,” Robin returned with -conviction. “I can’t imagine those two grumpy bus drivers as imbued with -any such noble quality; or that Italian, Sabani, the man they work for. -If those two kickers show any signs of grouchiness this morning I shall -read them a Thanksgiving lecture. It won’t be the kind to feel thankful -for, either. By the way, where are they? I ordered them to be here at -eleven and stay here until told to start for the inn.” - -Involuntarily the group of girls moved nearer one of the huge -plate-glass show windows to peer, bright-eyed, into the rain-swept -street. As far as they could see, up and down the street, there were no -signs of the large dark red busses with their flashy yellow trimmings. - -“It’s eighteen minutes past eleven,” Phil’s tones conveyed her -consternation. “Where _can_ those aggravating busses be?” - -“Not where they should be,” scolded Robin. “Here comes a big crowd of -the girls. The busses should be here so that they could step directly -into them. They’ll have to come into the drug store instead. Maybe the -druggist will object to sheltering us. There’ll be enough dripping -umbrellas to flood the store. Oh, dear what a mess! Why did it have to -go and rain on Thanksgiving Day? And where, oh, where, are those -miserable drivers and their busses?” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - AN EMERGENCY CALL - - -Mindful of past liberal patronage of the Hamilton College girl and with -a shrewed eye to the future the druggist himself ushered the arriving -party of merry girls into the store and obligingly supplied a couple of -large packing boxes in which to stand the dripping umbrellas. Despite -Robin’s despairing opinion that the store would not hold the -umbrella-laden brigade they managed to crowd into it. - -By eleven-thirty the last girl had arrived at the rendezvous. They were -a cheery, light-hearted, buoyant company regardless of their cramped -quarters. Their appreciation of Signor Baretti’s invitation to be his -guests at a Thanksgiving dinner showed itself in their bright faces, -spontaneous laughter and gay holiday air. - -“It’s one minute past eleven-thirty, and no busses. I’m going to find -out what is the matter.” Robin made the low-toned announcement to Phil -and Barbara with an air of desperation. “I’m going to ’phone Sabini’s -garage where the busses are kept. I can’t imagine what can have happened -to make them late. I wish you two would keep a sharp lookout for them. -If they should come while I am ’phoning you can hurry back to the ’phone -booth and let me know.” - -“Suppose they shouldn’t come. What then?” Barbara regarded Robin with -lively apprehension. - -“Don’t ask me.” Robin raised a hand as though to ward off such a -catastrophe. “Let’s not suppose anything quite so harrowing,” she added -in a more hopeful tone. - -Ten minutes later she emerged hastily from the telephone booth. Her -expression was one of acute dismay. She made hurried way, in and out -among the crowded company of girls, to where Phil and Barbara were -anxiously keeping up a watch at one of the big front windows. - -“One of the busses has broken down!” she cried excitedly. “The other bus -is out somewhere. The man at the garage who answered me doesn’t know -where. I tried to hire cars from the garage. There are _none_ to be had. -How are we going to land the dormitory girls at Baretti’s by one? And we -can’t ask Signor Baretti to serve the dinner later!” - -“What an _awful_ state of affairs!” Barbara echoed Robin’s -consternation. “We’ll have to do something very suddenly to offset it. -What about hiring the station taxicabs; all of them, if we can get -them.” was her quick suggestion. - -“We might do that,” Phil hailed the idea eagerly. “There are five or six -of them. With our car and Lillian Wenderblatt’s we could carry the gang -to the inn at one trip. Go ahead, Robin, and ’phone Mariani’s garage. -I’ll ’phone Lillian.” - -“You’re a wonder and a comfort to my distracted old age, Phil.” Robin -showed grateful relief. “Watch me start on the trail of those taxies. -Never mind the expense.” She darted back to the telephone booth she had -recently left. Phil followed her; slipped into an adjoining booth and -proceeded to call Lillian Wenderblatt on the telephone. - -Among the waiting company of girls a loud buzz of dismayed conversation -had now risen concerning the non-appearance of the busses. Anna Towne, -Florence Wyatt and Marian Barth, seniors and members of the new -Travelers’ sorority, were anxiously discussing the situation with a -group of their particular friends. - -At least a third of the off-campus students who had lived in the old -houses, which had been demolished to make place for the dormitory, now -in process of building, were seniors. While they, with the students of -the lower classes, had been familiarly termed by the Travelers among -themselves as the “dormitory girls,” they hardly hoped to have the -pleasure of living even a few weeks in the dormitory before their -graduation from college. Far from being disappointed at this prospect -they did not stop to consider themselves but showed only the utmost -satisfaction in the good fortune which would fall to the other -two-thirds of the off-campus contingent. - -In themselves the dormitory girls were the finest student element at -Hamilton. Originally brought together, and gradually welded into a -congenial, self-governing body by the efforts of Marjorie, Robin and the -Travelers, these earnest, capable girls were daily living up to the Hymn -to Hamilton. - -As president of the senior class sunny-faced, easy-going Phil Moore was -their idol, Barbara, as her chum and intrepid co-worker, was hardly less -worshiped. The moment Barbara left Phil to make her way back to the -window she was eagerly surrounded and plied with concerned questions. - -“Don’t give up this ship, children,” she gaily declared, raising her -voice above the flood of questions which assailed her. “Robin is -’phoning for taxies from the station and Phil is ’phoning for Miss -Wenderblatt and her car. We shall manage O. K. without the busses.” - -Barbara’s assurances were received with jubilant cries of acclamation -from the effervescently happy girls. While she was in the midst of them -she happened to glance toward the back of the store. Phil was just -emerging from the ’phone booth a pleased smile on her face. She paused -before the booth which held Robin and peered in through the glass panel. -Robin was still busy ’phoning, it appeared. Phil turned, saw Barbara -looking toward her and waved a re-assuring hand. It signified that her -part of the telephoning had been successful. - -A false alarm of: “Here comes a bus!” caused a surging of the crowd to -the window. Through the rain a large dark red milk truck had been -mistaken for one of the busses. When Barbara finally turned away from -the window it was to find Phil and Robin beside her. Phil was no longer -smiling. Her blue eyes were full of resentment. Robin’s face was a -mixture of dismay, indignation and perplexity. - -“What do you think?” she blazed forth to Barbara. “That miserable -Mariani person won’t let us have a single taxi! He claims they are all -in use and will be the rest of the day. He was so hateful to me. He -asked me very sarcastically why we did not use the busses today since we -used them every other day instead of his taxicabs.” - -“We certainly are in a pickle. Uh-h-h.” Barbara simulated collapse. “I’d -forgotten all about it, but someone told me long ago that those two -Italians, Mariani and Sabani have been at daggers drawn for years. -Sabani once had the station jitneys, and all to himself. Then came Tony -Mariani with a better looking lot of cars, and ran Sabani out. Then -Sabani built a garage and ran that, but he swore never to accommodate -anyone who patronized Mariani. The bus line belongs to Sabani. I suppose -he has registered the same vow against Mariani.” - -“Then we might as well count them both out,” was Robin’s dispirited -ultimatum. “Did you ever know worse luck? To have all our plans upset -because a couple of Italianos are ready to swear a vendetta!” - -“If only we could capture a truck. I’d drive it myself,” Phil valiantly -declared. “But it’s a holiday,” she added with a hopeless shrug of her -shoulders. - -“That milk truck is the only one I’ve seen today,” said Barbara -mournfully. - -“We’ll have to deliver the guests to Baretti in private cars,” was -Robin’s undaunted decision. “Thus far we have two; ours, and Lillian’s -is likely to be here any minute. I’ll start at once with seven girls. -You two stay here and start Lillian’s car back with seven more the -instant she comes. It’s twelve o’clock now. We have exactly one hour. -Phone Gussie Forbes and Calista Wilmot. They both have cars. They will -help us out. So will Laura Mead and Norma Buchanan. I almost forgot our -new Travelers. If those four girls can make one trip apiece, each taking -seven or eight girls to a car, Lillian and I can make a trip and a half -apiece in an hour. We simply must.” - -To think was to act with Robin. She had hardly finished sketching her -plan to her chums before she had begun to marshal seven of the dormitory -girls to the door. - -“Follow me,” she laughingly directed. “I’m going to make a rapid sprint -for my car. You do the same. Never mind your umbrellas. You’ve not time -to hunt them out now. I’ll bring them to the campus later in the car.” - -Across the walk she dashed, an intrepid little leader, and opened the -door of the car nearest to her. Her followers, close at her heels, -merrily stowed themselves into the automobile. A moment or two and Robin -was in the seat and had started the car. - -The palm-screened window of a florist’s shop across the street afforded -an excellent view of Robin and her party of girls to an interested -spectator. Leslie Cairns had gone to the pains of donning leather coat, -knickers, rubber hood and high-laced boots, and actually walking in the -downpour from the Hamilton House to the florist’s shop opposite the bus -stand. Her idea was not that of taking a rainy-day constitutional. -Leslie had posted herself behind the barrier of leafy green for the -express purpose of watching the working out of a little plan of her own. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - THE WILL AND THE WAY - - -While Phil hastily telephoned Wayland Hall and sent out her emergency -call for Gussie and Calista, Barbara busied herself with getting into -communication with Laura Mead and Norma Buchanan of Silverton Hall. Anna -Towne had been posted to watch at the window for Lillian. The latter -arrived shortly after Robin had gone. She quickly took on her load of -passengers and whizzed off as speedily as she had come. - -Arrived at the inn with her first installment of guests, Robin found -Signor Baretti a most sympathetic listener to the report of the calamity -which had overtaken the off-campus girls. Mindful of the fact that the -nationality of the two warring garage proprietors was the same as -Baretti’s she made her report a strictly impersonal one. - -“This is no way for Mariani an’ Sabani to do. Verra bad,” was the little -proprietor’s wrathful criticism of his countrymen. “I know these verra -well. They are the Italianos. But they are not much good. They are too -craza get the money. Each steal the business of the other. To get mad at -the people; that is the verra bad business. The people don’t ride, -Sabani an’ Mariani get no mona.” - -“It was very bad business for us,” Robin assured him with a rueful -smile. “I think now that we’ll be able to bring the girls to the inn -almost on time. We can’t avoid being a little late.” - -“You don’t speak of that. It is the all right,” protested Baretti. - -“Thank you so much, Signor Baretti. But we _must not_ delay your -Thanksgiving arrangements.” Robin made a movement as though about to -depart. - -“You listen one minute.” Up went one of the Italian’s hands for -attention. “You don’t worry about nothin’, Miss Page. Your frien’s come -pretty soon in the cars with the dorm girls. The dinner is a little -late, I don’t care. These frien’s who have the cars take the dorm girls -to town, to the campus, all the day when they need to go?” - -“Yes, the same girls will help us if they haven’t any special -engagements for the afternoon and evening. The dormitory girls are to -see the basket ball game in the gym this afternoon. Then they have to go -to town to get ready for a dance in the gym this evening. After the -dance they must be taken back to town again. We don’t wish to disappoint -them if we can help it.” A worried pucker appeared on Robin’s white -forehead. - -“I know what I do.” Baretti treated Robin to a brilliantly encouraging -smile. She had never before seen him look so utterly genial. “You -wait—you see.” He nodded at her mysteriously. - -“You’ve done so much for us already,” she demurred, answering the smile -with her own charming one. - -“I do more,” he promised heartily. He trotted along at her side as she -hurried to the door, repeatedly assuring her of his help. - -Robin had sprung hastily into her car and headed it for the town of -Hamilton when Lillian Wenderblatt drove up with a second load of girls. - -“Hurray! Never say die!” Lillian hailed triumphantly. “We’re here, -because we’re here!” - -The girls in the car took up the cry and shouted it joyfully. - -“You made quick time,” Robin said to Lillian with grateful warmth. -“Gussie, Calista, Laura Mead and Norma Buchanan have been phoned for. -Phil and Barbara are at that end of the job. Did you meet any of our -rescue motorists on the way?” - -“Yes; I passed Gus and Calista not far from the Arms. They were speeding -along, splashing up the water like sixty. They were having a race to see -which one could keep in the lead.” - -“Thank goodness for such glorious news!” exclaimed Robin energetically. -“Do you mind making another trip, Lillian?” - -“I’d love to. I’ll dump my cargo of dorms, as our friend Guiseppe likes -to call ’em, instanter. Then I’ll beat you back to town.” - -“Oh, no you won’t. Good-bye. I haven’t time to say much obliged.” Robin -promptly started her car and sped away through the fine misting rain -into which the heavier downpour had at last merged. - -“This is one way to spend Thanksgiving,” she reflected, a touch of -mockery in her smile, as she sent the car ahead at the highest speed she -dared employ. “I know three Silvertonites who are going to be away late -for dinner at the Hall, too. But it’s our traditional obligation to see -the dorms within Baretti’s hospitable gates first and consider our own -turkey dinner last. Just the same I hope there’ll be lots of turkey -left. I’m so hungry.” Robin sighed audibly. - -She forgot her hunger when she suddenly spied Gussie and Calista coming -up, a pair of highly enthusiastic, if somewhat reckless chauffeurs, each -driving a car filled with dinner guests. - -“You can always rely on the Bertram Taxi Company,” Gussie called at top -voice. She was in the lead and radiant with the opportunity which had -fallen to her to make herself useful. - -Robin rewarded Gussie with a gay salute. “Seen the others?” she cried. - -“Laura and Norma? Met them just as we turned out of Linden Avenue,” the -reply floated back to Robin’s gratified ears. - -When within a short distance of the bus stand she had the good luck to -encounter Laura and Norma. They had enthusiastically hailed the detail -as a fine opportunity to prove _their_ mettle as Travelers. They had -also pressed Adeline Raymond, another of the new Travelers, into service -with her car. Twenty-six passengers made up the jubilant aggregation of -the three cars which the trio of Travelers had brought to the emergency. - -Robin shouted and waved her encouragement of the overflowing carloads of -girls as the machines shot past her own. She did not attempt to stop the -three willing drivers who had responded so promptly to the call. She had -not more than reached the drug store and sprung from her car when -Lillian drove up, laughingly sounding her own praises as a high-speed -motorist. - -“We have met the obstacle and surmounted it,” Phil emphasized her joyful -boast with a flourish of the arm. She and Barbara had rushed out of the -drug store at sight of the returned pair of P. G.’s. “Only sixteen more -girls to go to the inn. Speed up, and you can get them there by a little -after one. Then you can come back for us. I’ve ’phoned Silverton Hall -that we may be late for dinner. It will be all right.” - -“You’re a collection of jewels, all of you.” Robin made an -affectionately inclusive gesture. “What about Thanksgiving dinner at -your house, Lillian?” she turned to her classmate. - -“Not until four o’clock. I’ve barrels of time to squander,” Lillian -declared extravagantly. - -“Come on, friends and fellow-citizens!” Robin was now beckoning briskly -to the sixteen girls of the dormitory group who had followed Phil and -Barbara outside the store. “Please accept my profound apologies for -having to pack you in, eight to a car. It will have to be done.” - -“Try to regard the experience from the stoical standpoint of a sardine,” -Phil advised comfortingly, but in a comfortless tone. - -Her advice was received with a buzz of retaliating sallies from the -giggling aspirants for sardine experience. Neither dark weather nor -mishaps can long suppress the exuberant spirit of youth. It bubbles up -like a magic spring at the first intimation of trouble ended and good -fortune nigh. What might have been a most vexatious disappointment had -been averted in the nick of time. In consequence, Baretti’s dinner -guests were in high feather at the triumph of Robin, Phil and Barbara -over calamitous circumstances. - -Robin’s heart responded to the rollicking happy disturbance the double -octette of girls were making as they piled themselves into the two -waiting cars. She did not know what the rest of the day might bring -forth but she was greatly inspirited by Signor Baretti’s promise to -help. - -“I must hurry away again, Signor Baretti. I must go back to town for -Miss Moore and Miss Severn,” Robin explained a little later to the -Italian as she saw the last of the dormitory girls ushered high and dry -into the inn. “I’ll stop here on my return trip with the girls’ -umbrellas. They’ll need them when they are ready to go over on the -campus. I don’t believe it will ever stop raining.” Standing in the open -door of the inn she made a grimace of mock despair. - -“It rain, oh, way late tonight, mebbe,” prophesied Baretti. “I have look -at the sky verra hard. Well, it is not that much to be sad to me if I -have not many more than the dorm girls for the dinner. After the dinner, -Pedro, my man, stay here at the restaurant. I am the one to go to the -town and see Sabani. I know him. I speak the verra cross words to him. -He knows how I can be verra mad. I make him send the busses to the -campus after the _ginnasio_ for the dorm girls.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XV. - - AN UNEXPECTED SHOWER - - -It seemed to Robin as though the road between Baretti’s and the town of -Hamilton was never ending. While she and Marjorie counted the odd little -inn-keeper as their friend and a sincere advocate of the dormitory -project, she was amazed at this latest proffer of friendship. She had -little doubt as to what would be the result of his call upon Sabani, a -fat, taciturn fellow with a surly, hang-dog manner. Among the sprinkling -of Italians who lived in or near the town of Hamilton, Guiseppe Baretti -was held in the light of an uncrowned monarch by his humbler countrymen. - -“Baretti’s,” as his restaurant was familiarly called, had been for years -the favorite rendezvous of the students of Hamilton College. Like the -inn, its silent, keen-eyed proprietor had found lasting favor with the -campus dwellers. From faculty to freshmen the little man was known and -liked. His interest in the Travelers and their ambitious plans for a -free dormitory had been awakened on the evening when Marjorie, Robin, -Phil and a group of their boon companions had, in a spirit of mischief, -serenaded him. Since that memorable evening, when he had entertained -them with a story of his own miseries as an emigrant in New York City, -his interest in their work and accomplishment had grown greater. The -Travelers now numbered him as one of their staunchest allies. - -“At last!” Robin exclaimed half aloud as the familiar turn into Linden -Avenue appeared, only a few rods ahead. She sent the car fleeing down -the wet avenue, bent on reaching the drug store at the earliest moment. -She had hardly begun slowing down as the car neared the store when Phil -and Barbara issued from it and ran down to the edge of the walk to meet -her. - -“You made dandy time,” Phil called out. “Are you sure you weren’t -speeding?” - -“It seemed as though I’d never reach here,” Robin declared. “I spun the -car along as fast as I dared. I’ve come for you and the girls’ -umbrellas.” Robin hopped agilely from the car and landed on the walk -between Phil and Barbara. “We must start back in about three minutes. -We’ll be late for dinner, but not too late. I’m famished. I left Lillian -at the inn, starving. She’s saving her appetite for Thanksgiving dinner -at home, and it won’t be served until four o’clock.” - -The three promoters of happiness swung gaily up the walk, oblivious to -the drizzling rain, entered the store and made an energetic onslaught -upon the two make-shift racks of damp umbrellas. With the help of the -proprietor and a ball of heavy twine the umbrellas were made into -several bundles and deposited on the floor of the car. Barbara -volunteered to keep them company on the back seat of the machine. - -“You may sit on the front seat, Phil. You’ve something to tell Robin. I -resign the place of honor in favor of you. I am too considerate to join -the front seat party by sitting on you. I’m going to roost among the -bumbershoots.” Barbara climbed in among the piles of umbrellas and -settled herself cosily on the back seat, her feet tucked under her. - -“Roosting among the bumbershoots,” laughed Phil. “That sounds almost -scientific; as though the bumbershoots might be a species of rare bird, -or maybe a savage tribe. Oh, but it’s good to be on the move again.” She -straightened in the seat and drew a deep breath of satisfaction. “Those -two hours of watchful waiting that Barbara and I put in will last us for -a long time to come. Weary watchful waiters waitfully watching the -weather. We weren’t the only waitful watchers, either.” Phil’s merry -tones gave place to a more forceful accent. - -“What do you mean, Phil?” Robin cast a quick, side-long glance toward -her cousin. - -“Leslie Cairns was across the street in the florist’s shop watching us. -She was standing at the back of the window that had the palms in it. She -had on a leather motor coat with a hood. The hood was drawn over her -head and she wore knickers and high-laced boots. She looked more like an -aviator than a motorist. I happened to get a good view of her. Most of -the time she kept out of sight behind the palms. I think she was there -for a purpose,” was Phil’s distrustful surmise. - -“Oh, she may only have happened in the shop, either to order flowers or -to hunt shelter from the rain,” Robin made charitable allowance. “Very -likely she has a dinner date with Miss Monroe or one of the Acasia House -girls. What possible interest could she have in the dormitory girls? You -know what a snob she used to be. I daresay she hasn’t changed.” - -“She has nerve,” grumbled Phil who had always detested Leslie Cairns -with the full strength of her democratic soul. “If I had been expelled -from Hamilton, even unjustly, I’d never set foot on the campus again. -The idea of trying to gain a social footing on Hamilton campus after the -hateful way she fought against everything fair, honest and ennobling!” - -Robin, busy guiding the car through the thin, gray mist, nodded her -sympathy of Phil’s impulsive outburst. “Did you see her leave the -florist’s shop,” she asked. - -“Yes; just before you came back this last time. She dodged out of the -store like a streak, jumped into a little black car she’d parked in -front of the shop, and away she drove like the wind.” - -“Hm-m. That sounds rather suspicious. She may have had some dark and -desperate motive.” Robin was half smiling. “More likely she simply -happened to go into the shop, saw the crowd across the street and -curiosity got the better of her.” - -“I don’t think so,” Phil frowned and shook a doubting head. “She had an -object in view. She isn’t half so much interested in getting ready to -build a garage on that property she snatched from you and Marjorie as -she might be. I believe she bought it purely for spite; as an excuse to -keep her near the campus. She’s rich in her own right, and a law unto -herself. It’s the old story of idle hands and mischief. She has no -worthy object in life. She’s the kind of person who has to have -something to hammer away at. So she’s settled herself near the campus to -see what she can do to tear down what Page and Dean have built up.” - -Phil’s voice rang out resentfully on the last sentence. She had felt -suspicion rise within her the instant she caught sight of Leslie Cairns. -“There!” she declared with some vehemence. “I’ve told you plainly what I -think of Leslie Cairns. You know I’ve never said much about her before -now. I don’t mean to be a back-biter. But I think she’s more likely to -try to make mischief now than ever. She’s vindictive. She’s shown that. -She likes to blame Marjorie, instead of herself, for the trouble she and -the Sans had that wound up their B. A. prospects at Hamilton. I won’t -forgive her for misjudging Marjorie purposely.” - -“I don’t blame you, old firecracker. I sympathize with your sputters,” -laughed Robin. “I’ve said as much as you about Leslie Cairns to -Marjorie. It’s just as Marvelous Manager says. We can’t judge her on -suspicion. If she should make us trouble, later, all we could do would -be repair the damage done and go on minding our own affairs. No one can -punish Leslie Cairns so effectively as Leslie Cairns herself.” - -“True enough, wise Robin.” Phil’s sunny smile broke from behind her -briefly clouded features. “Let’s leave her to her own downfall,” she -said lightly, “and consider instead our Thanksgiving thankfulnesses. I’m -thankful the weather’s growing better instead of worse, and doubly -thankful we decided to go to town and engineer the dinner movement.” - -“Without us the girls might have had hard work reaching the inn,” Robin -asserted. “They couldn’t have walked and look presentable after they -reached Baretti’s, and they would not have been able to hire any cars. -They’d have _had_ to telephone us, but they might have tried to help -themselves first. That would have taken time, and been a failure in the -end. By the time we had gone to their rescue it would have been late in -the afternoon.” - -“We managed to dodge a fine flivver all around,” observed Phil with a -self-congratulatory nod. - -Under Robin’s slender practiced hands the car had been swiftly eating up -the distance between town and the inn. The cousins hardly realized their -nearness to it, so earnestly were they talking, until the quaint low -structure appeared ahead of them, only a few rods distant, a welcome -sight. Robin slowed down with a deep breath of satisfaction. - -“You almost anchored our good ship Bubble in a mud hole, _mon -capitaine_,” teased Barbara. She scrambled from the tonneau, balanced -herself on the running board and nimbly leaped the shallow beginning of -a deep, wide roadside puddle, the greater spread of which was in front -of the car. Barbara flapped her arms and made a triumphant landing on -wet but solid ground. - -“No one is infallible,” chuckled Robin. “Thank your stars I didn’t -splash you. It’s your move, lady. Don’t be afraid to make it,” she -turned to Phil with the gruff tone of a traffic officer. She and Phil -both rose in the seat to leave the machine. Both beheld in the same -instant a small black car coming toward them at high speed. - -Swish; splatter; splash! The forward tires of the oncoming car struck -the wide puddle with a force that sent the muddy water of the puddle -upward in jets. In passing Robin’s car the other machine gave a violent -lurch toward it that threatened but did not precipitate a collision. On -down the road the black car shot, spattering the mud and water high as -it whizzed out of sight around a bend. - -“Whew! Faugh!” Phil dashed away a splash of soft mud that had struck her -squarely on the mouth. Face and clothing were liberally spattered with -it. Robin had been equally unfortunate. Phil suddenly burst out -laughing. “Oh, ha, ha!” she laughed. “My poor polka dot cousin. You’re a -P. D., Robin; instead of a P. G.” - -“Stop laughing,” ordered Robin, herself giggling immoderately at the -disaster which had overtaken them. “Your face looks even worse than -mine. And bouncing Bab escaped just in time. That last bounce saved -you,” she told grinning Barbara. - -“What did I tell you only a little while ago?” Phil glanced up the pike -in the direction in which the devastating car had disappeared. “She saw -us before we saw her. She put on speed and did that stunt simply to be -malicious. If we’d been half a second sooner in getting out of the car -we might have had the most wonderful mud shower bath! She took the risk -of smashing into our machine for the pleasure of spattering us. She’s -vindictive—just as I said.” - -“Leslie Cairns’ own variety of sport.” Barbara now hurried to where the -two victims of Leslie Cairns’ ill nature stood wiping the thin oozy mud -from their “polka dot” faces. “You should have seen the expression of -her face as her car zipped by ours. She looked delighted—a wicked, -hateful kind of delight. No wonder Muriel and Jerry call her the -Hob-goblin!” - -“I crowed too soon. A mud-splashing is something we didn’t dodge,” Phil -said ruefully. “I feel as though I had been swimming in the mud. Come -on, Barbara Severn, and get busy with these umbrellas. I can order you -about. You’re only a senior. Help from P. G.’s will also be appreciated. -I’m tired and hungry and muddy. Ah, there stands the guardian angel of -Hamilton!” Phil waved a gay hand to Signor Baretti who had just appeared -in the doorway of the inn. - -The little man responded to the wave. Then he disappeared as suddenly as -he had appeared. He returned at once with one of his olive-skinned -kitchen helpers and proceeded to busy himself with the care of the -umbrellas. - -“We’ll let the men carry the bumbershoots inside. If we go in there -we’ll not get away from the crowd for awhile,” Phil predicted cannily. -“Remember our own Thanksgiving feed. Meanwhile I am starving to death by -inches.” - -“We’re not going inside, Signor Baretti,” Robin told the smiling -“guardian angel” as the helper disappeared with the last of the -umbrellas. - -“I know,” the little man bobbed his head understandingly. “I know you -are in the hurry. I don’t see you till is done in the _ginnasio_ the -ball game you have tell me about. You say it is done, mebbe five the -clock. I go there. Wait for you. When I meet you I have for you the bus, -the taxi—something to ride in for the dorm girls. Now I don’t know which -these. But I find out.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - THE REASON WHY - - -“Oh, Marjorie Dean; dear old Marvelous Manager! I’m _so_ glad you’ve -come back to the campus. I feel like squealing for joy. I was never -before quite so glad to see anyone!” - -Marjorie, first off the train of her party, walked straight into Robin -Page’s welcoming, outstretched arms. The Sanford-bound party had left -the campus under rain-threatening skies. They were returning to find -Marjorie’s first Hamilton friend decorated with a carpet of soft cold -white. On Saturday the weather had grown colder. Sunday afternoon had -brought a mild snow storm. - -“Gracious; you must have missed me! This is surely a cordial reception, -Pagie dear.” Marjorie laughed her pleasure of re-union as she warmly -returned Robin’s hearty embrace. - -“I have; _I have_,” Robin’s tones rose in a mild wail. “Oh, you lucky -gang,” she cried, surveying fondly the eight returned Travelers. “I -drove your car down tonight, Vera. Leila’s hasn’t come home from the -repair shop yet.” - -Robin kept up a lively chatter as she was passed from one to another of -the octette. Her extreme charm of face and manner made her place in the -hearts of the little coterie of friends a very individual one. A less -sensible girl than Robin might easily have been spoiled by the knowledge -of her peculiar power to charm. - -“Phil and Barbara ought to be here, too.” Robin made a searching survey -of the white, drifted platform with her eyes. “They started out to see -if they could beg, borrow or steal a car. They wanted to come with me, -but I told them to go and hunt a car of their own. I said: ‘When you -find it you may bring it to me,’” laughed Robin. “I knew we’d need two -cars. I didn’t care to call a station taxi. Wait till you hear my reason -for cutting out those same taxies.” Robin’s delicate face hardened a -trifle. “It’s a very good——” - -A sharp little shout of welcome broke in upon what Robin was saying. -Phil, Barbara and Gussie Forbes suddenly appeared on the platform. Phil -and Barbara were escorting Gussie with a great show of respect. Each had -her by an arm. Both were endeavoring to look dignified. Gussie was -frankly giggling her enjoyment of the situation. - -“Captured a soph; tallest in captivity; absolutely primitive; untamed, -probably belongs to the cave dwellers union,” recited Phil, indicating -Gussie with an enthusiastic flourish. “She may even be a Celt.” Phil -arched significant brows at Leila. - -“May she, indeed?” Leila pretended deep surprise. - -“You heard me say she _might_ be,” Phil retorted grandly. “Anyway, she -has a car that’s not in the repair shop. That’s more important this -evening than being a Celt.” - -“Now where is the one who told you that?” Leila glared about her, as if -determined to hunt out the offender. - -“You mustn’t be _too_ personal.” Phil put her hand to her lips. -Shielding them cup-fashion she said in a loud whisper: “Keep quiet. She -mustn’t suspect the reason we invited her.” - -“I doubt if she ever finds out,” was Leila’s satirical assurance. - -“Poor, benighted soph.” Vera turned a pitying look on the primitive, -untamed soph who returned it with a bold wink. - -“She seems to understand a few things,” Muriel made equally sarcastic -comment. - -“I’ll guarantee not to ditch the car, even if I do have an untamed air,” -chuckled Gussie. “Come on, Travelers. No place like home when home’s a -good place. Six to a car. Come, choose your east. Come, choose your -west.” - -The Travelers obeyed the call, laughingly dividing themselves into two -groups. Robin, Marjorie, Muriel, Phil, Lucy and Vera took possession of -Vera’s car. Leila, Jerry, Kathie, Barbara, Ronny and Gussie fell to -Gussie’s big high-powered touring car. They were all in an uproariously -merry mood as their frequent peals of laughter went to testify. - -Phil magnanimously volunteered to forego the delights of re-union and -drive the car so that Robin could tell the girls the campus news. Lucy -elected to ride on the front seat beside her. “Such a noble act deserves -the reward of my company. Besides, I’ll hear the same news later. -There’ll be at least half a dozen editions of it,” she slyly prophesied. - -Marjorie’s first eager question: “How did everything go?” set Robin off -on an account of the calamity that had overtaken the dormitory girls on -Thanksgiving morning. She had just reached the point in her narrative -where she and Barbara and Phil had piled the umbrellas belonging to the -dormitory girls into the automobile and started for the inn when Phil -brought the car up in front of Wayland Hall and called out in stentorian -tones: “All out. Step lively.” - -“I’ll have to tell you the rest when we are settled again up in -Marjorie’s room. This is the Tragedy of Page minus Dean, in two acts. -Wait till you hear the sensational climax of Act One,” Robin animatedly -informed the absorbed listeners. - -The brightness of reunion had been gradually fading from Marjorie’s face -as she listened to Robin to give place to an expression of almost stern -gravity. Robin had not yet brought Leslie Cairns into the narrative. -Nevertheless her name had suddenly leaped into Marjorie’s mind. Why -Robin’s recital of her difficulties with two warring Italian garage -owners should have reminded Marjorie of Leslie Cairns she was -momentarily at a loss to understand. She conceived a swift, unbidden, -formless suspicion of Leslie which she instantly tried to dismiss as -unworthy. It continued to tantalize her brain until she recalled with -relief that it was the mention of the Italians as garage owners that had -brought Leslie to the fore in her mind. Leslie herself was a prospective -garage owner. - -Half an hour later when Robin had resumed her story to her interested -audience of chums Marjorie sat, chin on hand, staring in secret -bewilderment at Robin as the latter indignantly recounted the -sensational mud-spattering climax of Act One, with Leslie Cairns as the -villain. Her curious, flitting suspicion of Leslie had not then been -idle. She felt as she might have if she had suddenly reached up and -picked her conviction of Leslie’s treachery out of the atmosphere. - -“Phil insisted from the first that Leslie Cairns had an object in view -when she stood in the store watching us from behind the palms. I tried -to give her the benefit of the doubt. Afterward, when she _deliberately -ran her car through that mud puddle as hard as she could drive it, and -as close to our car as she dared_, I decided Phil was right,” Robin -asserted with an energetic bob of her head. - -“What do you think her object was, Phil? Leslie Cairns’, I mean?” Vera -voiced the curiosity of the others. “Do you think she heard about the -dinner to the off-campus girls from her friends?” - -“Of course. She must have. Hard to say what her object may have been. -She was probably hunting mischief. When she couldn’t find any to do, it -put her in a worse humor than ever with us and she vented her spite in a -mud-spattering act.” Phil accompanied her opinion with a contemptuous -shrug. - -“That ends the first act, ladies and Gentleman Gus,” announced Robin. -“The second act has nothing to do with Leslie Cairns. It features -Guiseppe Baretti, the hero of the hour and the knightly defender of the -dormitory girls.” She accompanied the announcement with flamboyant -gestures. - -“Thank you for special mention.” Gussie stood up and bowed. - -“You’re welcome,” beamed Robin. “I couldn’t resist including you. It -sounded well.” - -“It’s a poor way to do, to be calling attention to oneself in the middle -of a story,” grumbled Leila. “My fine old Irish manners tell me that.” - -“Ask them to tell you to practice the lost art of silence,” Muriel -blandly requested. “When you get the information pass it on to Gentleman -Gus. Whisper it so we can’t hear it. We’re anxious to hear the rest of -Robin’s tale.” - -“Ah, but you have an idea you are talking!” Leila exclaimed with -withering sarcasm. - -“_Taisez-vous._” Robin shook a playfully threatening finger at the merry -gabblers. “I’ll resume before you have time to interrupt me again. After -Phil, Barbara and I got our mud shower we hustled to Silverton Hall. We -were late for dinner; awfully late, but everybody was good to us and the -dinner was splendiferous. We started for the gym the minute we had -finished dinner. Gussie, you can tell the crowd about the game -afterward. I want to keep to the subject of my own troubles as a -promoter, minus a partner. It was a great game. I’ll say that much.” - -“Gentleman Gus is the best player I ever saw tackle a game,” Phil -praised. “That’s all. ’Scuse me for interrupting.” She cast a comical -glance at Robin, who returned it with a reproving one, then continued: - -“When the game was over I went outside the gym wondering if Signor -Baretti really had been able to reduce those provoking Italians to -reason. He was waiting just outside the double doors. I know by the way -he smiled that he had found some way of helping us. He told me he had -managed to make Mariani let him have four taxies and that he had his own -large car and a smaller one he used when making hurried business trips. -I still had Vera’s car. We had come over from Silverton Hall in it. His -big car would easily hold ten passengers, by having the taxies make a -second trip all the off-campus girls would be taken care of.” - -“Mariani himself was driving one of the taxies. You should have seen the -expression on his fat face! He was so peeved at Baretti he didn’t know -which way to look!” Phil interposed, laughing at the memory of the -miffed Italian’s grouchy face. - -“Baretti had the machines lined up on the branch drive east of the gym. -I asked him if the men could be depended to bring the girls back to the -campus after supper and come for them after the dance. He said: ‘Yes-s, -I tell again. Then sure.’” Robin imitated the inn-keeper briefly. “He -marched up to the first, then the others, and said about six words to -each; except Mariani. He and Guiseppe had quite an argument. I could -tell by the way they wagged their heads and shrugged their shoulders and -made gestures to go with almost every word they said. Finally Signor -Baretti came over to me and said very proudly that it was all right; to -tell the ‘dorm’ girls to get into the machines. Just about that time——” - -“We came along with our little chug wagons,” broke in Gussie -mischievously. “That’s all. Don’t forget to give us credit.” - -“Don’t worry. I never forget,” recklessly boasted Robin. “Yes; Gentleman -Gus, Calista, Norma and Laura came along again with their cars and the -taxies didn’t have to make a second trip. Lillian couldn’t come. Their -dinner was so late. Besides they were entertaining at her home in the -evening. Mariani furnished the same four taxies out to the campus in the -evening at the usual rate. After the dance he only sent two, and the -drivers said they couldn’t come back. I was positively green with rage. -I tried to catch Mariani on the ’phone, but he wouldn’t answer. The -girls helped out again and we managed to land the last ‘dorm’ on her own -doorstep a little after midnight.” - -“Did you tell Guiseppe of Mariani’s second flivver?” Vera asked. “If you -haven’t, you’d better. He will wish to know it. He’ll think you haven’t -much confidence in him if you don’t let him know.” - -“It was too late to bother him that night, and I was so busy Friday and -Saturday I didn’t have time to go and see him. I intend to tell him.” - -“Did the busses run again on Friday? Are they running now?” were -Marjorie’s questions, uttered in quick succession. - -“No, _sir_; they aren’t running yet. And Mariani isn’t giving good -service. I know of a number of different girls who have since then -’phoned for taxies, and have had no service. Whenever they’ve called on -the ’phone about it, no one at Mariani’s garage has seemed to know -anything,” Barbara finished disgustedly. - -“What did Signor Baretti say about the busses not running? Did he find -out what the trouble was?” Again it was Marjorie who questioned. - -“He hadn’t found out the reason when he came to the gym after the game -on Thursday. He said he would, though. I know he will. He is the -never-give-up kind. When he does find out we’ll hear from him.” Robin -said this with the utmost confidence. - -“And now, may a poor, timid Irish woman ask a question?” Leila had been -listening to Robin, an inscrutable smile touching her red lips. Her -bright blue eyes were alive with a cold sparkle which Jerry had once -declared looked like fire behind ice. - -“Do ask it.” Jerry had instantly marked the expression. She straightened -in her chair, the picture of expectation. Leila was about to say -something startling. - -“That I will.” Leila flashed Jerry a knowing smile. “What has Leslie -Cairns to do with the second act of the Tragedy of Page minus Dean?” - -“Now you have asked a question.” Ronny’s gray eyes gleamed shrewdly as -she brought out the crisp commendation. “When we fit an answer to that -very leading question we’ll probably know why the busses stopped -running.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - A QUEER JOKE - - -Leila’s frank assumption that Leslie Cairns had been a secret -Thanksgiving Day disturber could not fail to find lodgment in the minds -of the girls gathered in Marjorie’s room that snowy Sunday afternoon. -There was not one among them who did not know considerable about Leslie -Cairns’ underhanded methods of trouble-making. They knew, too, that she -had oftenest directed her spite against Marjorie. Marjorie was adored -for her beauty, as Leslie was disliked for her lack of it. Her unfair -treacherous ways made her unprepossessing features even more ugly in -their girlish eyes. - -Be it said to their credit they tried not to discuss Leslie any more -personally than could be helped under the circumstances. All of them -were of the same opinion. Leslie had not gotten over her grudge against -Marjorie. She had chosen to strike at a time when she knew Marjorie -would not be on the campus to guard her benevolent interests. - -“She’s as relentless as an Indian,” was Jerry’s opinion of the -ex-student. “It’s a good thing for Bean that she has me to protect her.” - -Marjorie did not take the indignant view of Leslie Cairns’ further -attempt to persecute her which her comrades entertained. Still she was -now more concerned about it within herself than she had been in her -earlier campus days when Commencement was a far-distant prospect. Now -she was a promoter. She smiled to herself whenever the word crossed her -brain. She was a promoter of democracy; a promoter of happiness. Before -she had gone through the gate of Commencement she feared that she had -been far more interested in _her_ welfare than she had that of others. -Now her work demanded the thought of others above her personal wishes -and inclinations. It became more than ever necessary that she should -make it her business to guard the interests of those who would benefit -by and through the efforts of Page and Dean. - -“Between you and me,” she said confidentially to Jerry the next -afternoon in the privacy of their room. “I wish Leslie Cairns would go -on an expedition to Alaska, Kamchatka, Bolivia, Tasmania or any other -far away point where she’d be neither seen nor even heard of for a long -time.” Marjorie’s tone was anything but vindictive. Her brown eyes -regarded Jerry somberly. - -“Your wish and your tone don’t harmonize,” criticized Jerry. “Why wish -your worst enemy almost off the face of the earth in such a mournful -tone? Which shall I believe?” - -“Either or neither. Suit yourself,” Marjorie stood before the mirror of -her dressing table adjusting a chic little green velvet hat to just the -right angle on her curly head. The hat placed to her satisfaction she -swung round from the mirror saying forcefully, “It makes me weary, -Jerry, even to have to think of Leslie Cairns. She isn’t my worst enemy. -She’s her own. I wish someone could make her understand that. But not -I.” - -“Who?” Jerry looked up in mock alarm from the translation into French -which she was in indifferent process of making. “I hope you didn’t mean -me, Bean.” - -“No, not you.” Marjorie’s merry laugh was heard. “I don’t know who. I -won’t allow myself to label Leslie Cairns as dangerous. In the past she -usually overreached herself every time she started trouble.” - -“You are living in the present, Bean,” Jerry staidly corrected, “and -Les, as her pals used to call her, is living in our village, too, and -right on the job. She’s like an epidemic. No one knows how or when she -may break out. Things were whizzing along on wheels when we went home at -Thanksgiving. Next day it rained and the busses all stopped running. -They aren’t running yet. Now we can’t blame Les for the rain, but what -about the busses?” - -“I’ll answer that question when I come back from Baretti’s. I’m sure -that is what Signor Baretti wishes to talk about.” Marjorie had that -morning received a note from the Italian asking her and Robin to come to -the restaurant at three o’clock that afternoon. “Bye, Jeremiah. See you -later. Truly I’ll be back to dinner.” - -She encountered Robin when within a few steps of the inn looking her -prettiest in a mink-trimmed suit of brown and the smartest of mink hats. - -“Such magnificence!” Marjorie exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me there -was to be a display of fashion on the campus this P. M.?” - -“Didn’t know it myself until I went over to the Hall after I left the -Biology laboratory this afternoon. There I found a big box on purpose -for Robin. I ordered this suit in New York just before I came back to -Hamilton. I had to write two hurry-up letters to the tailor about it, -but—here it is at last.” Robin took a jaunty step or two ahead of -Marjorie better to display her new costume. - -“It’s a work of art,” Marjorie smilingly told her with her ready -graciousness. “Guiseppe won’t realize that I’m present when you burst -upon him in all your glory.” - -“Well—not quite so bad as that,” Robin disagreed, chuckling. “He’ll -probably say, first thing, that if you had been here the busses wouldn’t -have stopped running.” - -“That’ll do. I think we’re even now.” Marjorie’s eyes were dancing. She -was a lovely picture of blooming girlhood, the dark green of her long -coat with its wide collar and bands of black fox bringing out more fully -the apple blossom tint of her rounded cheeks. - -“So, Miss Dean, you come back again. I am glad.” Baretti had hastened -from the far end of the room to greet his callers. “You have the nice -time at home? Your father and mother, they are well?” he asked with -polite interest. “I think I never know before two such nices ones as -your father, your mother.” The Italian had been introduced to Mr. and -Mrs. Dean during the previous June when they had come to Hamilton to -attend the Commencement exercises. - -“They are very well, thank you, Signor Baretti. I have brought back -their best wishes to you. They especially asked me to tell you that they -appreciated your message to them.” The innkeeper had sent them a message -of good will in his sincere, if broken English. - -“That is good; verra good for me. When you write the letter, perhaps you -have the time say my good wishes once more to them,” he asked, slightly -hesitant. “Now come, both of you. I have the fine maple mousse today. My -Italiano boys in the kitchen make. None can make better than these.” - -“We adore the maple mousse your boys make!” Robin assured Baretti. -Marjorie echoed her warm praise of the dainty. - -They obediently followed him to one of the vacant tables and seated -themselves in the chairs he pulled out for them. He stood for a moment -ceremoniously waiting for one or the other of them to ask him to join -them. - -“I hope you aren’t too busy to sit down at the table for a few minutes -and tell us about the busses,” Marjorie cordially paved the way. - -“What you think, Miss Page; Miss Dean?” the little proprietor leaned -earnestly forward. An apple-cheeked Italian waitress had been sent for -the maple mousse. “Sabani send me the word he don’t run the busses—not -if I say so hundred times. Ha, ha, ha!” Baretti threw back his head with -a derisive laugh. - -“How encouraging!” Marjorie exclaimed with light mockery. In spite of -the difficulties that had overtaken Page and Dean she could not resist -smiling over the child-like message of defiance Sabani had sent to -Baretti. - -The Italian understood her tone and said. “Now you only make the fun of -me, Miss Dean.” - -“What does Sabani intend to do about sending busses over the campus -route?” Robin asked anxiously. “Why has he cut the campus out? All the -answer we’ve ever received from him to those two questions is that two -of his busses are laid up for repairs and the third is running entirely -on the Bretan Hill route.” - -“A-a-ah; he only makes the talk. He don’t tell nothin’ true. Nev-ver-r -Sabani tell the truth. He say me the same he say you, Miss Page. I say -him: ‘Look you; this my eye.’ Put my finger to my eye like this. ‘I see -two your busses run in town yesterday.’ Then he is verra mad, but he -tell me verra smart: ‘Oh, yes; you see. That one bus make only one trip -to West Hamilton, then break down again.’ I tell him I am not foolish. I -know what I see. I say: ‘What is the matter you don’t want to give the -dorm girls the service?’” - -“That was straight from the shoulder.” Marjorie nodded her approbation. - -“Good for you, Signor Baretti.” Robin lightly clapped her hands. - -“He give me the verra queer look. Mebbe he is the little scared. I speak -to him verra quick—look me so mad.” Baretti straightened in his chair -and gave an illustration of his idea of stern, offended dignity. “Then -he say he don’t know what I mean. I tell him he will know soon, an’ he -won’t like. Then he is more scare. He say he tell me somethin’ verra -private. This is it. He don’t like take the dorm girls to the campus in -the bus for he is mad because they ride too much in Mariani’s taxies. -Mariani is the _nemico_ to him. That mean hate verra hard. I laugh at -him. I say him that is the mos’ bigges’ lie he tell yet.” - -“What an excuse!” Robin turned disgustedly to Marjorie. “It’s so flimsy -it hardly holds together in the telling. The dormitory girls hardly ever -patronize the taxies on account of the expense, Signor Baretti,” she -explained to their host. “Sabani appeared well pleased in the beginning -to have those seventy-two fares twice a day, not to mention the extra -campus traffic he received. I never trusted that man.” Robin shook a -disapproving head. - -“Naw.” Baretti forgot manners and indulged in his pet “Naw” by way of -expressing his contempt. “Well, I say him, ‘Nev-ver-r you min’, Sabani, -I know the way to do.’ I laugh and go way from him. I think of Floroni -who drive one the busses. I know he don’t like Sabani. I go in the -street watch for him. He is drive the bus to Breton Hill. I have to wait -long time for him. I drive my car out on the pike, wait for him there. I -say to him come to my restaurant tonight after he make last trip. That -is ten of the clock. He say he will.” - -“And did he keep his word?” Marjorie asked eagerly. Two pairs of bright -eyes fixed themselves upon the Italian. Neither girl had missed the note -of triumph which had sprung into his voice. - -“Yes, oo-h, yes,” was the instant reply. “Floroni is my frien’. Now he -is my driver for my truck. I give him this place. He tell me he don’ -want work mor’ for Sabani, for he is no good. He say he can’t give up -the place when he has the family to work for. Then I say him: ‘You don’t -like Sabani. You say me: Why he treat the dorm girls so bad; don’t give -them any service with the busses?’” - -Baretti made an eloquent pause as his black eyes sent a triumphant gleam -toward one then the other of his listeners. They watched him in -expectation. - -“Floroni say: ‘Yes, I tell you, Sabani don’t tell me nothin’. I see an’ -hear myself. Sabani get plenta mona becaus’ he don’t run the busses to -the campus.’” - -“Plenty of money because he doesn’t run the busses?” cried Robin her -eyes widening with surprise. “I can’t see how that——” - -“Yes-s;” the little proprietor interposed, a trace of excitement -ruffling his quick, stolid assent. “He get that mona becaus’ Miss -Car-rins give to him. She go to his garage two days before Thanksgiving; -talk to him there. It is in the morning verra early. Floroni and the -other drivers take out the busses. Floroni happen walk by her. He hear -her tell Sabani this: ‘What you care, an’ I make worth the time.’ He -don’t know then what she mean. Day befor’ Thanksgiving Sabani say him, -‘I give you holiday tomorrow; mebbe more days. Two the busses need the -repairs. I pay you jus’ same as when you drive but you stay in the -garage. You wash the cars; do such things.’ And so it is. He don’t like, -but he need the mona’.” The Italian spread his hands with a deprecating -gesture. “He say, Miss Car-rins make all the trouble.” - -Listening to Baretti’s information concerning the bus trouble it -occurred to both Robin and Marjorie in the same instant that they might -have expected to hear the name of Leslie Cairns as the real power of -malice. Robin’s flash of surprise at Baretti’s first accusation against -Sabani instantly died out. She knew that it was not the first time that -Leslie Cairns had bribed her way to her objectives. - -“Then there is no certainty as to when the busses will begin running -again,” Marjorie said, brows contracted in a reflective little frown. -“What ought we to do, Signor Baretti?” She glanced appealingly at the -little man. - -“Ah, that is the way I like! I am the one to help you. It is already -done. Tomorrow you see the busses run to the campus again with the dorm -girls.” Baretti made this promise almost gleefully. - -“Tomorrow!” two voices rose simultaneously. - -“Yes-s.” Baretti surveyed the amazed firm of Page and Dean with his -broadest, most beaming smile. “This morning I have go to Sabani. Aa-h-h, -but we have the fight; but not with the hand.” He doubled a fist and -shook his hand. “It was the fight talk. I scare him; make him think I -know all he say to Miss Car-rins; all she say him. Then I tell him I -will go to the mayor of Hamilton an’ tell the mayor what he have done. -The mayor will take away his license for the bus line. ‘I make you many -troubles, for you deserve, you don’t run the busses to the campus -tomorrow.’ After while he say he will do it. He say Miss Car-rins tell -him it was the joke she want play on the dorm girls. I say him it is the -poor joke, but not so bad as the joke I will play on him if he don’ run -the busses to the campus tomorrow.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - AN EVIL INSPIRATION - - -Due to the heavy rain storm on Thanksgiving Day, Leslie Cairns’ plans -had gone considerably “aglee.” To parade the Dazzler, the white car she -had loaned Doris, with Doris in it and clothed in expensive white furry -finery, had been an impossibility. In consequence a very much -disgruntled Leslie Cairns had telephoned Doris that “it was all off” and -to meet her instead at the Colonial at two o’clock. - -Before the two girls had reached their Thanksgiving dessert they had -come perilously near quarreling. Leslie was in bad humor because of the -inclement weather. She had the fierce hatred of being disappointed -common to utterly selfish persons. The news that Doris would grace the -hop on the Saturday evening following Thanksgiving Day and take charge -at the door of the admission fee to the frolic had not pleased Leslie. - -“You should have known better than to take that job, even though it does -give you a chance to show off your looks,” she had upbraided Doris in a -surly tone. “You say you can’t endure Bean and her crowd. Then—bing!—you -whirl about and let them make a silly of you. Page is Bean’s partner and -one of the celebrated Beanstalks. That didn’t hinder you from being as -sweet as cream to Page and saying, ‘yes,’ in a hurry when she asked you -to be a little pet donkey and collect the fees at the hop.” - -“Leslie!” Doris had said in a low, furious voice, “you shall not talk to -me in that tone, or call me a donkey. I won’t stand it. You are simply -in a rage with everything and everybody today because things didn’t go -to suit you. Besides, it was Miss Wenderblatt not Miss Page who asked -me. You are rude and boorish.” - -“I’ll say what I please. I’ve a perfect right to express an opinion.” -Leslie had flung back with equal fury. “What you’ll have to do is to go -and tell that smug Dutch prig, Wenderblatt, that you won’t be able to do -the tax-collection stunt Saturday night. You have another engagement. -You _have_, you know. One with _me_. We’ll go to the Lotus to dinner and -wander into that select rube recreation palace known as the Hamilton -Opera House.” - -“I do not intend to tell Miss Wenderblatt any such thing,” Doris had -retorted with belligerent independence. “Just remember she is Professor -Wenderblatt’s daughter. This stunt I am to do at the hop will boom me a -lot on the campus. I have a perfectly ducky dress to wear. Besides Miss -Peyton and Miss Barton are going to try to start a beauty contest at the -hop. There is no doubt but that I shall win it.” - -“Your chances _are_ fair since Bean’s taken her precious self to dear -Sanford, the place where Beans and Beanstocks grow,” Leslie had sneered. - -“You are so impossible today, Leslie. I sha’n’t lower myself by -quarreling with you,” had been Doris’s ultimatum, delivered in offended -haughtiness. - -“You’d never win a prize for amiability. You’re the most selfish -proposition, Doris Monroe, that I’ve ever met,” Leslie had retaliated. - -“Get acquainted with yourself,” Doris had sarcastically advised. - -The ending of their Thanksgiving dinner had been punctuated freely with -other similar pleasantries. The two self-willed girls had left the -Colonial hardly on speaking terms. It was nearing half past three -o’clock when they had stepped outside the tea room. The rain having -stopped Doris had sulkily announced her intention to walk to Wayland -Hall instead of allowing Leslie to run her there in the car. Leslie had -snapped back: “Don’t care what you do. You’re too selfish to consider -me. You know I counted on you to help me amuse myself tonight in that -dead dump of a town. Go to the dance. I hope you have a punk evening.” - -“In going to the hop I’m only doing what you asked me to do quite a -while ago. You told me then that you wanted me to make myself popular on -the campus. Well; this is the way to do it. Think it over. You’ll find -I’m right,” had been Doris’s parting shot as she separated from her -ill-humored companion. - -Determining to teach Doris a lesson, Leslie let the rest of the week go -by without holding any communication with the sophomore. She had spent a -lonely Thanksgiving evening and blamed Doris heavily because of it. She -was also dreadfully miffed at the partial failure of her contemptible -plot against the dormitory girls’ welfare. When she had awakened on -Thanksgiving morning, to see violently weeping skies that promised an -all-day deluge, she had smiled contentedly. She had effectually blocked -Bean’s plans for the day. And for a good many days to come! Such was her -belief, when, after having posted herself in the palm-screened window of -the florist’s shop to see that Sabani kept his word and ran no busses, -she had frowningly witnessed the arrival of Phil, Barbara and Robin on -the scene and what followed as a result of their timely arrival. - -When Leslie had had the galling experience of seeing the Thanksgiving -part of her plot far on the way to failure she had flung out of the -florist’s in a rage, jumped into her car and set off for the campus -without any definite reason whatever for going there. The main point had -been to keep “rag, tag and bob-tail,” as she had ironically named the -off-campus girls, from getting to the “free feed” at the “dago’s hash -house.” She had failed to do this. The “beggars” had managed to reach -Baretti’s in spite of the rain. They would return to town in the same -way that they had come. Leslie felt particularly spiteful toward Robin -Page. So very spiteful that she indulged her rancor in “splashing” Phil -and Robin when the opportunity chanced to offer itself. - -On the Sunday afternoon following Thanksgiving while the Travelers, old -and new, had gathered in Marjorie’s room in serious confab over the -momentous happenings of the Thanksgiving holiday, Leslie Cairns had sat -lazily stretched in an easy chair in her hotel room, eyes half closed, -her dark mind wholly concentrated on an idea which had just introduced -itself to her. It was an evil inspiration, born of a group of headlines -she had glanced at in one of the Sunday papers. - -“I wonder why I never thought of that before,” she had said half aloud -as she dipped a hand into a box of nut chocolates on the table beside -her and thoughtfully nibbled a cream nut. “I wish I dared ask _him_ to -help me. He could do what I want done as quickly as a wink. He couldn’t -kick, either, for he has handled more than one such stunt. I think I’ll -write him. ‘Nothing venture nothing have.’ I’ll wait a few days until I -see how the bus scheme works out, then I’ll write. I’ve never written -him since he—since he—.” Leslie’s voice had faltered. She had sat -staring into the ruddy embers of the open fire looking less like a -malicious mischief-maker and more like a sorrowful young woman than ever -before. There was only one person in the world who had ever commanded -Leslie’s respect and tenderness. That one was her father. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - A BUSY INVESTIGATOR - - -On Monday, Leslie, now elated by her newest plan, relented and called -Doris Monroe on the telephone. While she had been ready to condemn Doris -for going to the hop, nevertheless she had a thriving curiosity to know -what had happened at the dance. - -The two girls met by appointment at the Colonial and in a far pleasanter -frame of mind than that of the preceding Thursday. - -“I may go to New York,” Leslie announced, directly they had found a -table to suit their difficult fancy and seated themselves. “I’m -expecting a letter or a telegram from”—Leslie checked herself -abruptly—“from a dear friend,” she continued. “Even if I shouldn’t hear -from this friend I may go anyway.” - -“And, of course, I can’t get leave of absence to go with you.” Doris -spoke pettishly, dissatisfaction looming large on her perfect features. -“We made a mistake in not going there at Thanksgiving. You could have -gone. It rained too hard for you to attend to any business about your -garage site.” - -“That’s all you know about it,” Leslie indulged in one of her silent -laughs. “I was very busy in town on Thanksgiving morning. Don’t get New -Yorkitis, Goldie. We’ll go to little old N. Y. for the Easter vacation. -Maybe our house will be open then,” she predicted hopefully. She felt -signally cheered even by the remote prospect. - -Leslie had already begun the composition of a letter to her father. She -wrote, crossed out and re-wrote. She had not yet evolved from her labor -the letter she hoped would soften her father’s unforgiving heart. - -“When will you go to New York?” Doris showed signs of mollification. The -promise of an Easter vacation in New York with Leslie to show her the -metropolis was something to be gracious over. - -“Don’t know. Not for a week. Perhaps not for two.” Leslie donned her -most indifferent air. She had volunteered as much as she thought wise to -Doris concerning her New York trip. “Tell me about the hop,” she said -craftily, switching the subject from herself to her companion. - -“Oh, it was so, so.” Doris shrugged lightly. “My pale blue frock was -sweet. A lot of fuss was made over me. There wasn’t a Beauty contest.” -Her face registered disappointment. “Julia Peyton said she’d start one, -but she couldn’t make it go. The crowd was crazy to dance.” - -“She is a big bluff, and her pal, red-headed Miss Carter is a stupid. -Look out for both of them,” was Leslie’s succinct criticism. She had -been introduced to the two sophs by Doris and had mentally decided -against both. - -“They have been awfully sweet to me,” Doris returned half offended. She -did not enjoy having her admirers belittled. “So were Miss Page, Miss -Moore and the rest of that new sorority. Miss Page is charming. What a -pity she throws herself away on that horrid Sanford crowd. I was glad -they weren’t at the hop. I’d not have taken charge of the admission fee -if they had been.” - -“You would if it had happened to suit you,” Leslie coolly told her. Then -she laughed. “Don’t bristle and get ready to throw quills at me, Goldie. -I know you thoroughly. I must say I’m surprised to hear you raving over -Page when you know Page and Bean are my special abomination.” - -“You never said a word about Miss Page,” Doris flashed back. - -“She’s a Beanstalk. Wasn’t that enough to let you know what I thought of -her? Aren’t she and Bean always together?” - -“I’m not crazy about Miss Page,” Doris jerked out angrily. She purposely -avoided answering Leslie’s questions. - -“I’ll say you’re not. There’s only one person you are crazy about. -That’s Doris Monroe,” Leslie said with savage emphasis. - -“That’s not fair, nor true,” sputtered Doris. Unguardedly her clear cold -tones rose higher than she knew. “I’m not crazy about myself—or anyone -else. I’d like you best of all, Leslie, if you weren’t so awfully -bullying. I won’t be bullied. That’s all there is to it.” - -“So it would appear.” Leslie’s retort was grimly sarcastic. “Sorry you -had to tell the natives about it.” She made an angry movement of the -head toward the next table below them. Around it sat Gussie Forbes, -Calista Wilmot and Flossie Hart, placidly eating ices. - -“They couldn’t hear what I said,” Doris defended, half abashed, half -sulky. “I’m sure they couldn’t.” - -“You’re the one to worry, if they did,” shrugged Leslie. “It can’t do -one little bit of harm to me. Forget it. What do you know about this bus -trouble the bread and cheese priggies are having? Have the busses really -stopped running between town and the campus? I heard they stopped on -Thanksgiving Day. I haven’t seen you since then.” Leslie made a success -of looking innocent. - -She had not divulged to Doris, either before or on Thanksgiving Day, her -part in the bus trouble. Bitter experience with the Sans had taught her -the value of keeping her own counsel. She now listened to Doris’s vague -information concerning the non-running busses, an enigmatical smile -playing upon her lips. She was delighted to hear of the inconvenience -her scheme had caused and determined that it should continue -indefinitely. She had money. Sabani would do as she ordered so long as -plenty of money accompanied her orders. - -“Those two were certainly having a fuss,” commented Flossie Hart as the -three sophomores left the tea room, directly after Doris’s angry -outburst. - -“I’m going to tell Marjorie about it.” Gussie made the announcement with -great decision. - -“Telling tales is a bad practice,” laughingly rebuked Flossie. - -“I know why you’re going to.” Calista’s quick mind instantly jumped at a -certain conclusion. “I will, if you don’t.” - -“I’m still in the dark,” mourned Flossie. “Kindly enlighten me. Forgive -me for being so stupid. Doesn’t that sound just like Muriel?” - -“Yes, Floss. Muriel might think it was herself talking if she happened -to hear you.” Gussie favored her room-mate with a condescending smile. - -The three hurried along the street to the main campus gate. “Race you to -the Hall,” challenged Gussie the instant they set foot on the -snow-patched brown of the campus. A playful wind, not too penetrating, -frolicked with them as they ran, blowing added bloom into their cheeks. - -Aside from the one remark Flossie had made about Doris and Leslie Cairns -nothing else had been said. As members of the new Travelers the Bertram -girls were endeavoring to live up to one of the basic rules of their -code; never to discuss anyone for the interest derived from the -discussion. The discussion must come as necessary to the promotion of -welfare. - -“I hope Marjorie’s in.” Gussie was presently pounding vigorously on the -door of 15, a chum at each elbow. - -“Why not leave us the door?” blandly inquired Jerry as she opened it to -the vociferous demand for admission. “Is it really you, Gentleman Gus? I -haven’t seen you for as much as three hours. The last occasion was at -lunch.” Jerry smirked soulfully at her callers. - -“Where’s Marjorie?” Gussie peered over Jerry’s head and into the room. -“We’ve a bit of special information. You’re privileged to hear it too, -Jeremiah?” - -“She has gone to Baretti’s. She was to meet Robin and go there. They had -an appointment with Guiseppe. He wrote Marjorie one of his one-line -funny little notes. I think he has news for Page and Dean.” - -“Um-m.” Gussie looked undecided for a moment. “We’ll come back later.” -She looked first at her chums for conformation, then at Jerry. “Let us -know when she comes, Jerry. We love you dearly enough to hang around in -your room till Marjorie comes, but there’s a time for study, et cetera. -Only I don’t know when it will be if not now. You may pound on my door -as hard as I pounded on yours, but no harder.” - -“Suit yourself,” Jerry waved an affable hand. “I can live without you. I -have a letter to write. I’d enjoy perfect quiet.” - -The three sophomores went gaily down the hall. Jerry again shut herself -in her room to write a letter which she had for some time been searching -for an excuse to write. That very morning in the corridor of Hamilton -Hall she had found it. It had come in the shape of a particularly sheer, -dainty, hand-embroidered handkerchief, bearing the monogram L. M. W. -Instantly her mind had began to canvass among the initials of her -friends for L. M. W. Intending to place it in the students’ “Lost and -Found,” after class Jerry had tucked it away in her hand bag and hurried -to her recitation. - -During class her mind continued to revert to the initials L. M. W. Jerry -thoroughly enjoyed being baffled temporarily by a problem which she was -confident she would solve eventually. In the midst of her cogitations -she chanced to call to mind the name of a student whose initials were -surely L. M. W. Whereupon a beatific smile paused on Jerry’s face for a -second. She promptly forgot her surroundings to dwell triumphantly -instead upon the beauty of a certain stunt she determined to “put over” -as soon as she returned to her room. Nor did she visit the “Lost and -Found” on her way to the Hall. - -Seated at the study table Jerry eyed the dainty handkerchief -meditatively. Should she write to L. M. W., whom she hoped was Louise M. -Walker, merely asking the sophomore if she had lost the beautiful bit of -linen, or should she fold the handkerchief inside a note she would -write, asking Miss Walker to place the article in the “Lost and Found” -should it not belong to her? Jerry considered the problem owlishly, then -wrote: - - “DEAR MISS WALKER: - - “Have you lost a handkerchief? I am enclosing one I found, in - the corridor of Hamilton Hall, bearing your initials. If it is - not yours, will you kindly place it in the ‘Lost and Found’? - - “Sincerely, - “GERALDINE MACY.” - -“There! She’ll be an untutored savage if she ignores my kindly little -act,” Jerry decided with a grin. “If I wrote asking her if she’d lost -the handkerchief she might ’phone me, or come here. That’s not what I’m -after. She ought to write me a line of acknowledgment. If she -should—I’ll know one thing that I don’t know now.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XX. - - MARJORIE FINDS A SUPPORTER - - -Marjorie returned from Baretti’s full of the glorious news of the little -proprietor’s triumph over Sabani in behalf of Page and Dean. Jerry was -equally elated and burst into one of what she had named “Joyful Jingles -to Bean.” She spouted them on special occasions. - - “Thanks to our faithful dago friend - The Goblin’s schemes fell through. - ’Tis plainly seen, oh, upright Bean - Such trouble’s not for you.” - -She did a fantastic polka step around Marjorie, keeping time with her -declamation. - -“You funny old goose!” Marjorie caught her and wrapped both arms about -her. “Yes, the Goblin’s scheme did fall through, and, oh, rapture, the -busses will begin running again tomorrow morning! What would we have -done without Signor Baretti’s help? He’s splendid in his interest in our -work here. He ranks with Miss Susanna, Prexy and Professor Wenderblatt -as our most loyal supporters. Now I must tell you what he did.” - -“Oh, save it till I go for Gus, Calista and Flossie. Let them hear it. -They’ve been looking for you. They’ve something on their minds. So has -Jeremiah. This is another wildly eventful day.” Jerry smiled warmly down -on Marjorie who had taken off her wraps and was now lounging in one of -the arm chairs. She reclined there, a graceful lissome figure in her -straight gown of pale jade broadcloth, with no trimming save that of her -superb young beauty to set it off. - -“All the days here are somehow wildly eventful,” Marjorie said with a -little devoted smile. “Something remarkable seems always to be -happening.” - -“Too true,” Jerry agreed with solemnity. “But some days are even more -eventful than that. I will mention as an example the day before we went -home for Thanksgiving.” Both girls began to laugh. “That was some day. -Muriel began it right by tipping her cup of coffee into my lap. Next. I -fell down three steps of the stairs. Next. I dropped a new library book -in the mud. Next. I went to the gym to see Gentleman Gus and got hit on -the nose with the ball. Next. I couldn’t find my suitcase in the trunk -room so I had to borrow one. Do you recall any other exciting -misfortunes of that particular day?” She turned innocently inquiring -eyes upon Marjorie. - -“Nope. You were a martyr that day, poor old Jeremiah.” - -“I need your sympathy, Bean,” Jerry rejoined brokenly. “It’s a hard -world for some folks. Still I’m glad I’ve survived.” - -“Cheer up. Here come the Bertramites.” Marjorie’s keen ears had caught -the sound of familiar voices. She went to the door and ushered in the -trio of sophs. - -“What’s the latest from Guiseppe, the defender?” Gussie immediately -clamored to know. The three girls surrounded Marjorie while Jerry made -an equally eager fourth member of the group. - -It did not take long to put them in possession of the good news. They -received it with enthusiasm, modified to keep within the limit of noise. -Since the evening when Marjorie and Jerry had been called to the door by -Miss Peyton on the head of being disturbers of quiet no more reports had -been made against them. Miss Peyton’s threat that she would place the -matter before President Matthews had evidently never been carried out. -Marjorie could only hope that it had not. The president’s cordiality to -her whenever they chanced to meet assured her of his regard. Still she -disliked the idea intensely of being reported to headquarters for -anything so utterly uncontrolled and childish. - -“What a strange, dreadful life for a girl to lead!” exclaimed Calista -Wilmot. She referred to Marjorie’s account of Leslie Cairns’ part in the -bus trouble. - -“Yes, it is.” Marjorie’s reply was spoken in all seriousness. “After -Signor Baretti had told us of what she had done Robin and I both thought -we ought not tell even you girls of it. Then we thought of the way Phil, -Barbara and the rest of you helped break up her plot by coming out with -your cars in the storm. We decided it was only fair to tell you the -exact circumstances. The Travelers, old and new, should be, and are, I’m -sure, trustworthy. None of them would circulate any of the private -business of the club about the campus.” - -“There’s another argument just as strong as to why Leslie Cairns’ -actions shouldn’t be kept secret from the club. She doesn’t deserve to -be shielded for what she did.” Gussie’s handsome, colorful face showed -shocked disapproval. “Why, she has acted just like a regular old -politician who goes around before election day and buys votes!” - -Gussie’s comparison raised a laugh in which Marjorie joined. Long ago -she and Robin had come to that conclusion. - -“Well, we won’t ever say a word about her outside the Travelers,” she -said, her face sobering. “Everything’s going nicely again. Now, -children, my tale’s told. Jerry says you have something on your minds. -Go sit on that couch, three in a row, and spout forth your news.” -Marjorie indicated her couch bed. “If you don’t care to sit there, why, -here is our assortment of chairs.” She grandly pointed them out. - -“Let Gus tell it. She began it,” declared Flossie. The three friends had -bumped themselves down on the couch, with much interference one with -another and little bursts of laughter. - -“Your fairy-tale Princess and Leslie Cairns had a fuss at the Colonial -today. They were together there when the three of us went into the place -for ices.” Gussie said in matter-of-fact tones. “Miss Monroe was ripping -mad. We heard her say that something wasn’t true, and that she wouldn’t -be bullied. She was so angry she talked louder than she intended. I -think she knew it for all in a minute she dropped her voice away down. I -wanted to be the one to tell you about this, Marjorie, for a certain -reason.” Her tone was flattering to Marjorie’s dignity. - -“Speak, Gentleman Gus,” laughed Marjorie, amused by the very solemn -expression of Gussie’s face. - -“Just because Miss Monroe was opposed to me at class election is no sign -that I should have any hard feeling toward her,” Gussie began. “I -haven’t. I know you think she’s going to—to—well, be more congenial some -day. She won’t be, though, if she keeps on associating with Miss Cairns. -She’ll begin to break rules, too. First thing she knows she’ll do -something serious and be expelled from Hamilton. I can’t forget how -sweet she looked the other night at the hop. I thought, since she seemed -to be peeved with Miss Cairns that maybe you could think of some way to -link her to Hamilton. So she’ll like the campus better than she does -Leslie Cairns.” - -“I have thought of a way, Gussie,” Marjorie’s eyes sparkled. At last she -had a supporter in the cause of the difficult fairy-tale princess. - -“We ought to forget there is any such person,” Calista said. “After the -way she reported us for being noisy on the day we got here. But you see -what forgiving natures we have.” She gave a whimsical little shrug and -smile. - -“I decided to forget that she reported us,” came from Gussie -magnanimously. “She’s awfully thorny and hard to approach. She doesn’t -seem to care much for Miss Peyton and Miss Carter. They make great -effort toward being chummy with her.” - -“Leila knows I’d like to have a Beauty contest; the kind of one she got -up when we were freshmen and she and Vera were sophs,” Marjorie told -them animatedly. “If we had one—” - -“Good old M. M. thinks the Ice Queen would win it. That would let M. M. -out of being the college beauty—so she innocently schemes,” translated -Jerry. “We’d still be privileged to our own opinion, Ahem.” She coughed -suggestively. Next instant she had gone to the door in answer to a -rapping on it. - -“You’re just in time,” she greeted, stepping back to allow Leila to -enter. - -“In time for what, may I ask?” Leila’s bright blue eyes roved -speculatively about the room. - -“For the Beauty contest,” returned Calista promptly. - -“Then I must have won it. I see no one half as beautiful as myself -here,” was Leila’s modest opinion. “But have you seen Vera? Midget is -gone, unless you may be hiding her away in some small corner.” - -“She went to town with Phil. Robin and I met them when we came from -Baretti’s.” Marjorie continued with a brief account of Robin’s and her -call at the inn. - -“Once more she has dropped her gold into the sea,” was Leila’s -thoroughly Irish comment. “It is the same old story, Beauty. She never -wins.” - -“Bean hopes to be Bean without beauty,” Jerry said briskly to Leila. -“Can it be done?” - -“I shall have to consult the stars.” Leila rolled her eyes mysteriously -at Marjorie. - -“Never mind me, Leila, won’t you please help me about the Beauty -contest. You know why I am so determined to have it. Gussie feels the -same as I do about Miss Monroe. So does Calista. I’ve two on my side.” - -“Count me in, Bean. Never forget your friend.” Jerry sprang to -Marjorie’s support. - -“And me,” echoed Flossie Hart. - -“I’m sorry, Beauty, but I can’t help you with the contest.” Leila pursed -her lips and shook her black head. “Now, why should you bother your head -about it?” - -“Because I think it is the one thing to do for Miss Monroe. I want to do -it, Leila. Why won’t you help me?” Marjorie sent Leila a puzzled, almost -hurt glance. - -“Why won’t I help you? Because—” Leila’s smile burst forth from her -sober face like sunlight through a cloud—“I shall be busy managing the -Beauty contest myself.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXI. - - NEWS FROM MISS SUSANNA - - -“I’m going out to mail a letter,” Jerry told Marjorie, when, later, the -girls had gone to their own rooms. - -“How nice. You may have the pleasure of mailing two for me,” Marjorie -reached in the table drawer for the letters. “I put them in the drawer -for safe keeping and went out without them, she explained. - -“Hand them over.” Jerry took them and was gone. She had decided to say -nothing to anyone about the letter she had written to Louise Walker -until she had seen the outcome. Like the sleuth she had laughingly vowed -to be, at the time when Marjorie had received the letter from Louise -Walker and also the one signed “Senior sports’ committee,” she preferred -to keep matters a secret until she had completed her case. - -On the way back across the campus from the nearest mail box she saw a -mail carrier leaving the Hall. In going out she had noted that the -bulletin board in the hall was empty of mail. Now a flock of letters -roosted in its alphabetical, shallow pockets. Near the top under D she -plucked one for Marjorie addressed in Miss Susanna Hamilton’s individual -hand. - -“You’re in luck,” Jerry said as she entered the room to find Marjorie -sitting at the table, elbows braced upon it, hands cupping her chin. A -rare old book on chemistry lay near her on the table. It had been given -her by Miss Hamilton during her senior year at Hamilton. She had brought -it from her bookshelf to read. Instead she had fallen into a reverie -concerning the giver of the book. Miss Susanna had told her that it was -the only copy of the work on chemistry known to be in the United States. -It had belonged to Mr. Brooke Hamilton. Marjorie could hardly believe at -times that she was actually in possession of a book that had belonged to -the founder of Hamilton College. - -“Why am I in luck?” Marjorie’s head was quickly raised from her hands. -“I never seem to be much out of it, Jeremiah. I have so much more of -happiness than I deserve.” - -“There’s a reason.” The envelope in Jerry’s hand dropped on the table in -front of Marjorie. - -“Oh-h-h!” Marjorie exultantly snatched up the letter. “I was just -thinking of her, Jerry. I’ve had only one letter from her since she has -been in New York. Doesn’t it seem odd to think of Miss Susanna as being -in New York? She’s been away from the Arms almost six weeks, too.” - -Marjorie’s hands were already busy with the envelope. She drew from it -the folded letter, spread it open and glanced eagerly at the headlines. -Then she read aloud to Jerry who had seated herself on one end of the -table, feet swinging free. - - “MY DEAREST CHILD: - - “I am still in this roaring, clattering, over-populated city - they call New York. I shall be glad to see the last of it. It - has changed a good deal since I visited it twenty years ago. - This is the day of motor vehicles, skyscrapers and crowded - streets filled with strange foreign faces. I long to be home to - that haven of peace, the Arms. - - “There is no use in attempting to tell you by letter of my stay - in the metropolis. I am coming home on Tuesday, December fourth. - Will you and Jerry come to the Arms to dinner on Wednesday - evening? I should have written you more often, but I have been - very busy by day and tired by night. At any rate I have seen the - New York of today. But I could never grow used to the - helter-skelter, rush-and-a-bounce way of living that appears to - prevail here. - - “Give my love to my girls with my fond devotion for yourself. - - “SUSANNA CRAIG HAMILTON.” - -“She’ll be home tomorrow. Oh, goody!” Marjorie sprang from her chair and -essayed a little prancing step about the room, looking like a delighted -youngster. Miss Susanna’s pet name of “child” was particularly -applicable. - -“And Wednesday we’ll see her!” Jerry contributed a few hops and skips to -the dance Marjorie had started. The two met, clasped each other and the -dance became wilder. Breathless and laughing, they landed with a bang -against the door. They managed for a moment to keep out Ronny who was at -the door, hand on the knob, when the dancers crashed against it. - -“I got in, even if you did try to hold the door against me,” she -asserted with twinkling eyes. - -“My, but you are suspicious!” Jerry accused. “That’s not the way we -treat our friends. Didn’t you know it?” - -“Am I really your friend?” Ronny asked with gushing sweetness. - -“You were, you are, but you won’t be long if you ask me any more such -foolish questions.” - -“Miss Susanna will be home tomorrow, Ronny,” Marjorie said happily. “She -sent her love to you girls. Here’s her letter. I’m sure she’d like you -to read it.” Marjorie was still holding the letter. She now handed it to -Ronny. - -Ronny took it and quickly read it. “Why did she go to New York, I -wonder, after having stayed so long away from it?” she questioned half -musingly. “It would take an especially strong reason to draw her away -from the Arms for six weeks.” - -“Whatever the reason may have been, we’ll probably know it tomorrow -evening,” Jerry commented. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she’d been -planning something for the dormitory and had had to go to New York to -find just what she wanted.” - -“We don’t wish her to do anything more for the dormitory,” Marjorie said -sturdily. “She has done too much for us already.” - -“Precisely my opinion. You won’t let me throw my money around in the -dormitory cause. Why should Miss Susanna be allowed to do what I’m not?” -Ronny propounded with one of her dazzling, patronizing smiles. - -“I call for a change of subject,” laughed Marjorie. - -“And my question not answered,” Ronny sighed plaintively. - -“The answer to your question is the road to argument.” Marjorie cannily -shook a finger at Veronica. - -“All right. You’ve suppressed me for the time being. Never fear. I’ll -bob up again on the finance question when you least expect it,” she made -cheerful prediction. - -“It’s a sweet, precious pet, and it sha’n’t be suppressed.” Marjorie -reached out and stroked Ronny’s arm. - -“That’s what you call Ruffle when you are trying to coax him to jump -through your arms. You can’t hope that I’ll be much impressed by such -blarney,” Ronny pointed out with hastily assumed dignity. “I’m going to -leave you now. I came here for a purpose, but I’ve forgotten what it -was. I’ll have to go back to our room and consult Luciferous. Luckily, I -confided in her before starting out.” Ronny flitted from the room in her -graceful, light-footed fashion. - -“I wish I could see fluffy old Ruffle and squabble with him and General -for our favorite chair.” Marjorie’s eyes grew suddenly wistful. “And, -Captain! I miss her most of all. More so this year than I did before I -was graduated.” - -“I miss Father and Mother sometimes, but Hal is the one I miss.” Jerry’s -color heightened a little as she mentioned her brother’s name to -Marjorie. “You know Hal and I were pally at home. Outside the house he -was always with the boys, but inside we spent many hours together. He -taught me to box, fence, swim and ride. And during the past two summers -at the beach you’ve seen for yourself how much we have been together.” - -During the short Thanksgiving vacation in Sanford Jerry had been faintly -encouraged by Marjorie’s warmly cordial manner to Hal. The strain -between them which her keen intuition had detected when at the beach had -vanished. As a matter of fact, Marjorie welcomed the four days of -pleasure and happiness at home as a release from responsibility. She -wished to think of nothing but home and its charms. She hailed Hal -frankly as her cavalier of old and treated him with all the gay -graciousness of her first acquaintance with him. - -Hal was too deeply in love with Marjorie not to understand her. He knew -that she was not behaving toward him according to some carefully laid -plan of her own. Her overflowing gaiety was spontaneous. She was like a -blithe, lovely child, full of the joy of living, who looked to him to be -her playmate. So Hal made a Herculean effort to crowd the love she did -not want into his heart and close the door upon it. He resolutely -forbade himself to think of her as other than his old-time “girl.” - -“Hal is the finest young man I ever met, or ever expect to meet,” -Marjorie said with an energy of enthusiasm far removed from love. “I -hope he will find a girl who is as splendid as he is, and marry her. I -wish Hal would fall in love with Ronny, and Ronny with Hal. They would -be worthy of each other.” - -Marjorie laughed as she caught the variety of expressions struggling for -place on Jerry’s round face. “You look so funny, Jeremiah.” - -“Can you wonder? Ronny never occurred to me in the light of a -sister-in-law.” Jerry’s variegated expression dissolved in a broad -smile. “You take my breath. I’ll have to mention it to her when she -comes in again. Her views on the subject might give me another shock.” - -“Jerry Macy, if you do, I’ll—I’ll—” Marjorie caught Jerry by her -well-cushioned shoulders and began to shake her with playful force. -“Don’t you dare, Jeremiah.” She emphasized her words with little shakes. -“Promise me you won’t.” - -“What do you take me for?” Jerry asked reproachfully. “I’d never have -the nerve to mention old Hal to Ronny. No, Marvelous Match Maker, you’ll -never be able to marry Hal off so easily as that. There are scads and -oodles and slathers of lovely girls in the world, but there’s one grand -reason why none of them will ever give me a glad hand as a -sister-in-law. Hal saw you first.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXII. - - HOME AGAIN - - -“Yes, little girls, I’m so glad to be home again! I’ve been outdoors -tramping around the estate since early this morning. Do give me another -cup of tea, Jerry.” Miss Susanna had ordered the dinner dessert served -in the tea room with tea as an after-dinner beverage instead of coffee. - -“Yours truly.” Jerry refilled the thin priceless cup, it belonged to the -famous Chinese tea set, and offered it to Miss Susanna. - -“It has seemed so strange without you, Miss Susanna.” Marjorie bent -affectionate eyes on the upright little figure in black silk. “Not to -see you for six weeks during the college year is a long time now.” - -“So it is; so it is,” nodded the old lady. “I had no intention of -leaving the Arms for that shrieking demon of noise, New York. The last -time you had tea with me, Marjorie, was just before Hallowe’en. I was -thinking then about having a Hallowe’en frolic for you girls. Then Jonas -brought me a letter from an old friend of mine who lives in New York. In -the letter he mentioned something so interesting that it set me to -thinking hard. The upshot of it was I told Jonas I intended to go to New -York. He nearly collapsed with amazement.” Miss Susanna chuckled at the -recollection of Jonas’s unbelieving surprise. “When I went on to tell -him why I was going he was as much pleased with my plan as I was.” - -Miss Hamilton paused. Her alert dark eyes were dancing with some secret -of her own which gave promise of being signally amusing. Jerry and -Marjorie knew the signs. Miss Susanna was on the verge of imparting to -them something in the nature of a pleasant surprise. Jerry’s surmise of -the afternoon that the last of the Hamiltons had gone to New York in the -interests of the dormitory flashed into the minds of both girls. - -“The odd feature of the whole affair is, Jonas has been elected to go to -New York, now that I’ve returned to the Arms.” Miss Susanna’s gleeful, -child-like chuckle was heard. “Poor Jonas. He looked so horrified when I -informed him of what I had in store for him.” - -“Shall we inquire what it’s all about?” Jerry flashed Marjorie the -pretense of a bewildered glance. - -“It’s the only way we’ll ever find out,” sighed Marjorie in an -exaggeratedly hopeless tone. “Unless we pounce upon Jonas in the hall -and bully him into telling us.” She turned the merest fraction of a -glance on Miss Hamilton as she proposed this violent means of obtaining -information. - -“A good plan,” heartily approved Jerry. “I’ll improve upon it. I suggest -that we rush him, or anyone else around here who may happen to know -something we don’t, but would like to know. Let’s begin now.” - -“Come on.” Marjorie rose and brandished two bare, smooth, dimpled arms -threateningly in Miss Susanna’s direction. Jerry followed suit, even -more menacing of gesture. Her ridiculous, desperado thrust of chin, the -slow, determined advance of the pair upon the little, bright-eyed figure -in the chair further added to the astonishment of Jonas as he suddenly -appeared in the tea room to refill the tea-pot. - -“I guess I got here just in time,” he slyly declared, his mouth drawing -into a humorous pucker as he picked up the tea-pot to refill it with -fresh tea. - -“In time to land yourself in difficulties; not to save me,” Miss Susanna -told him between chuckles. “We’re both threatened with attack, Jonas, -unless we stand and deliver our great secret.” - -Miss Susanna had thrown herself into the spirit of the bit of by-play -with the merry zest of a child. Since she had known Marjorie and the -light-hearted, fun-loving coterie of Hamilton girls she had appeared to -grow younger and younger. That particular, congenial galaxy of youth -Miss Susanna had taken to her heart as a charm against crabbed old age. - -“Maybe we’d better not make any resistance, Miss Susanna,” Jonas advised -with a timid air. It reduced the two desperadoes to a state of giggles -which utterly broke up their threatening aspect. - -“Maybe we hadn’t,” the old lady agreed with brisk amusement. “You sit -down at the table with us and have a cup of tea, Jonas. There’s safety -in numbers.” She graciously waved Jonas into the one vacant chair of the -four around the table. Had he been her elder brother instead of her -major-domo of many years she could not have treated him with more kindly -affection. - -“It’s mean in me to tease you children,” she said, flashing her guests -one of her bright smiles. “Forgive me. I’m really going to tell you all -about it now.” - -“The past is forgot,” Jerry moaned ungrammatically. - -“Thank you,” Miss Susanna responded gratefully. “I was hoping it might -be. Now for the tale of my adventures in New York. My lawyer, who was -young when I was, left Hamilton many years ago and established himself -in New York. His name is Richard Henry Garrett. He never married. During -our younger days we lost track of each other. Later we met again and -after Uncle Brooke’s death I engaged him to attend to the legalities of -the estate. Uncle Brooke’s lawyer died shortly after my great uncle’s -decease. - -“Since the laying of the dormitory corner stone last fall,” Miss Susanna -continued, “I have often wondered what I could give the girls who are to -live there that would be of use and benefit to all. When the dormitory -is completed I shall carry out a certain wish of Uncle Brooke’s of which -at present I prefer not to speak. What I was anxious to do was something -personal for the girls’ welfare. In the midst of my quandary I received -my old friend Richard’s letter. I had not finished reading it when the -very idea I was seeking came to me. Let me read you the paragraph of his -letter which furnished my inspiration.” - -Miss Susanna drew from an ornamental ruffled silk pocket of her skirt -the folded sheets of a letter. She unfolded them; hunted them for the -desired paragraph. She quickly found it and read in her brisk tones: - -“‘Since you used to be greatly interested in old and rare books you will -remember the Ellerton’s fine private library which I once took you to -see when you were in New York. It is to be sold soon, at auction, as a -whole. The elder Ellertons have died and the heirs to the Ellerton -estate prefer to convert the library into cash. It appears to be the -chief aim of the rising generation to convert everything of beauty and -worth, which has a monetary value, into dollars, regardless of -tradition. So that splendid monument to learning, Steven Ellerton’s -library, will come under the auctioneer’s hammer next month.’” - -“I’m sure the Ellerton library _couldn’t_ be finer than the Hamilton -Arms’ library,” Marjorie said in loyal defense of the remarkable -collection of volumes gathered together by Brooke Hamilton. - -“It is not as complete, if I remember rightly,” Miss Susanna said, -looking pleased at Marjorie’s staunch opinion. “Uncle Brooke has some -rare Chinese and Japanese books and a collection of Spanish incunabula -which I know the Ellerton library lacks, as well as a good many other -rare and curious books of which he possessed the only known copies.” - -Miss Susanna’s face broke into a little, amused smile as she glanced -from one to the other of the two girls. - -“You girls must surely understand by this time what my inspiration was. -You both look a trifle bewildered. Can’t you add two and two, children?” -she asked playfully. “You ought to know the result.” - -“But it’s such an overwhelming result, Miss Susanna!” Marjorie drew a -long breath. “Two, which stands for the dormitory girls, plus, two, -which stands for the Ellerton library make—” Marjorie paused. She gazed -at Miss Hamilton, her eyes bright as stars. “It’s too wonderful even to -think about;—until I grow more used to the idea. It’s too great a gift, -Miss Susanna, after all you’ve already done for the dormitory project.” - -“Nonsense. Nothing is too great for me to give, provided I have it to -give, and feel like giving it,” declared the old lady brusquely. “I like -the idea of the dormitory having its own library. I have only one -request to make concerning it. I’d like to have the library named the -Brooke Hamilton Dormitory Library.” - -“Just as though we _could_ give it another name!” Marjorie exclaimed -with fond fervor. “I’d say it ought to be named for you but I know you -would rather use Mr. Brooke’s name.” - -“Of course I should.” Miss Hamilton gave an emphatic little nod of the -head. “I shouldn’t like the ‘Susanna Hamilton Dormitory Library,’ as a -name. Should you, child?” - -“Yes; I should,” Marjorie disagreed with affectionate frankness. Jerry -echoed the opinion. - -“You’re a couple of nice children. I appreciate your loyal approval,” -Miss Susanna told them. Her tones took on an odd grimness as she added: -“My name shall not appear in connection with a Hamilton College -movement, however worthy it may be. In the case of his name, there’s a -difference. He had the right to hope that his name might be perpetuated -in the college his genius and benevolence raised up.” - -“‘The college his genius and benevolence raised up,’” Marjorie -meditatively repeated. “How beautiful that would be in a biography of -Mr. Brooke Hamilton.” She flushed, but looked bravely at Miss Susanna. -She had, in thus speaking, obeyed an irresistible impulse. - -Answering color signals displayed themselves in the old lady’s cheeks. A -frown sprang to her brows. It disappeared almost instantly. Her alert -dark eyes grew tender. “It was a fortunate day for Hamilton when a -certain curly-haired little girl first set foot on the campus. Why not -call the new dormitory the Marjorie Dean Dormitory? The dream dormitory -that Marjorie Dean’s unselfish work made a reality. That’s what Uncle -Brooke would say if he were here.” - -“How I love you for saying that, Miss Susanna, about Mr. Brooke -Hamilton!” Marjorie cried happily. “But I think Robin has done more hard -work than I to make the dormitory a reality. It should be named for -her.” - -“_Don’t you ever believe it_, Miss Susanna.” Jerry laid emphasis on each -word. “Marvelous Manager began it. Robin is a close second, though. The -‘dorm’ ought to be called the Page and Dean Dormitory. Sounds something -like a business directory, but it tells the story. And the great beauty -of it is this:—it includes both distinguished promoters.” Jerry directed -a refulgent smile at Marjorie, who promptly made a saucy mouth at her. - -“The Page and Dean Dormitory,” repeated Miss Susanna with a humorous -glance at Jerry. “I rather like the sound of the combination. You’re -right about it, Jerry. When one has two such retiring persons to deal -with as Marjorie and Robin it becomes necessary to drag them both to the -front. So be it. Now for Uncle Brooke’s study and our library -catalogues. Only a limited number of them were issued. I wish you had -been with me at the auction. There was some very brisk bidding at first. -There were perhaps a dozen wealthy New York men interested in the -auction. Richard Garrett represented me. I had nothing to do but keep -quiet and listen to the bidding.” - -Miss Hamilton continued to relate in her abrupt, lively way the -interesting circumstances of the auction as they left the Chinese room -and stepped into the lift which Jonas manipulated for them. - -“Send Selma to clear away the tea things, Jonas,” she ordered as she -stepped from the tiny elevator. “Then come to the study. You must go -over the catalogues with us. Nothing like familiarizing yourself with -the books you are going to pack.” - -Jonas disappeared with alacrity. He returned as speedily to the study, -an utterly pleased smile decorating his placid, old face. He was -immensely proud of being invited to make a fourth member of the group in -the study. - -The four friends sat at the massive, claw-legged library table and were -soon deep in exploring the copies of the auction catalogue with which -Miss Hamilton had supplied them. They read by snatches, browsing avidly -here and there among the descriptive pages; exclaiming exultantly over -one rare book or another which they discovered listed there. - -“I’m positively dizzy with pride and vanity over the dormitory’s wonder -of a present!” Marjorie’s eyes gleamed like stars. There was a wealth of -feeling in her gratefully gay utterance. Presently, she allowed the -catalogue to drop from her hands to the table. She sat gazing at the -erect little figure on the opposite side of the table with boundless -affection. “I’m sure _you_ must love the dream dormitory that you helped -make a reality as dearly as we Travelers do,” she said fervently. - -“We’ll say I have nothing against it,” Miss Susanna said dryly. “Why -should I? It’s not on the campus.” She cast a defiant glance about her. -“But we’ll not go into that subject. Back to our library. Having -acquired it, the next thing to do is to get it here.” The independent -donor declined to hear of her own generosity. “You’d best start for New -York in the morning, Jonas,” was her next terse remark. - -“What train, Miss Susanna?” Jonas inquired imperturbably. - -“An early morning train. One that will bring you into New York, it ought -to be called New Pandemonium Let Loose, while daylight lasts,” the old -lady pithily replied. - -Jerry and Marjorie were both smiling openly at the sudden imperative -order Miss Susanna had launched at Jonas, and its tranquil reception. - -“Yes, Jonas, for goodness sake don’t get lost in the wilds of New York -after dark,” Jerry warned with a chuckle. “I hope you know who’s who, -what’s what and where’s where in the metropolis.” - -“I don’t; but I suppose I’ll have to learn.” Jonas echoed the chuckle. -His highly cheerful expression evidenced the coming detail as being -quite to his taste. “New York’s not much like it was when I was a young -man and Mr. Brooke took me there with him once for a trip.” - -Two pairs of bright eyes were turned on Jonas with an expression which -bordered on reverence. It was something to marvel at—that this stately -old man with his crown of thick, snowy hair had been the chosen -traveling companion of Brooke Hamilton on a trip to New York. Miss -Susanna watched them understandingly, experiencing a secret happiness in -the unconscious girlish tribute offered her distinguished kinsman. - -“It won’t take Jonas long to find his bearings,” she confidently -predicted. “With the help of two or three workmen he can pack the -library in short order. It will have to be stored at the Arms when it -arrives, until the dormitory is completed. Jonas will see to having it -shipped to the Arms by motor van. That will save time and extra -handling. I want it here and off my mind before Christmas. I have -received an invitation from a dear friend to spend Christmas with her -and her family. I am thinking of accepting it.” - -Miss Susanna peered mysteriously over her glasses at Marjorie and Jerry. -She did not offer to divulge the name of the friend. Jonas raised a hand -to his mouth as though to brush away a smile that flickered briefly upon -his lips. - -“Truly, Miss Susanna?” Marjorie cried out her pleasure of the -announcement. Each year since she had come to know the old lady well she -had invited her to spend the Christmas holidays at Castle Dean. On each -occasion Miss Susanna had flatly refused to leave the Arms over the -holidays, declaring that she would not consider the idea of passing -Christmas Day away from her ancestral home. - -“Yes, truly. You won’t need to worry this Christmas about my being -lonely, child. I’m going back on my vow of years’ standing. I’ve found -something stronger even than my love for the Arms. I’ve found the love -of friends.” There was exultant triumph in Miss Hamilton’s forceful -speech. - -“I’m so glad,” Marjorie assured with hearty sincerity. Her cheery smile -further conveyed her unenvious spirit at the news. She could only be -glad because Miss Susanna had found such a boon. She surmised that -through the friendly offices of Richard Garrett Miss Hamilton had come -in touch again with the woman friend of whom she had just spoken. They -had of course met in New York. - -“Did you meet your friend in New York, Miss Susanna?” Jerry’s surprised -curiosity got the better of her. “I don’t mean to be an old curiosity -shop,” she instantly apologized, half laughing. “I scented an -interesting story. I thought you might have met a girl chum whom you -hadn’t seen for years and years.” - -“No, Jerry; I did not meet my friend in New York.” Miss Susanna tried -vainly to keep a sober face. The battery of bright, wondering eyes -turned upon her proved too much for her. She laughed; a high, joyful -little laugh in which Jonas’ deeper notes of amusement mingled. “I first -met my friend on the road to the Arms; not such a long while ago,” she -said with tender pride. “The interesting story of our friendship began -with a broken basket handle and a young girl’s gracious courtesy toward -a crusty old woman. I was very fortunate in meeting her. She turned out -to be a royal young person who lived in a castle in the far country of -Sanford. Since I’ve known her she’s often invited me to spend Christmas -at Castle Dean. I’ve stayed at the Arms when I might have been happy in -the royal palace of the King and Queen of Dean. I—” - -“Miss Susanna!” Marjorie and Jerry were now on their feet with a -concerted jubilant shriek. - -“Wait a second.” Miss Hamilton briefly warded off the impending, -tumultuous embrace of two energetic pairs of arms. “One more remark; -then you may hug me hard. Like all the rest of the world, I hope to be -happy at Christmas time. I know I shall be—at Castle Dean.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII. - - A SIGNIFICANT DISCOVERY - - -“No, Beauty, I haven’t gone back on my word. How can you harbor such -suspicions against a fine old Irish gentleman like myself? Such a regard -as I have for you, yet you will doubt me.” Leila Harper rolled -reproachfully sentimental eyes at Marjorie. “Since it is a Beauty -contest you demand, your Celtic friend will rise to the occasion.” - -“I wish you’d rise soon then.” Marjorie met Leila’s effusive promise -with a coaxing smile. - -“Name the day and the hour.” Leila gave vent to a resigned groan, quite -at variance with her fulsome mood of the moment before. - -“There you go. One minute you blow hot; the next cold.” Marjorie shook -an arraigning finger before Leila’s face. “I’m going to take you at your -word and name the day and hour. The day will be next Friday. The hour, -eight P.M. The place, the gym, the promoters of the contest—” Marjorie -paused with a dubious, questioning look toward Leila. - -“Aye, Beauty; there’s the rub!” Leila exclaimed. “The contest ought to -be pulled off by either the sophs or freshies. We P. G.’s are beyond -such trifling vanities. So some would be pleased to say we should be. -Now we come to the reason why of things. I’m wisely in favor of letting -the sophs perpetrate the beauty walk.” - -“My own opinion,” Marjorie concurred. “How would you turn it over to -them and still manage it, Leila. I mean the details. Only _you_ know how -to manage a Beauty contest like the one you got up long ago.” - -“I’m going to be the power behind the throne and manage the contest -through the Bertram girls,” Leila made shrewd declaration. “They are -popular sophs. Besides they will do as I tell them. They’ll not spoil my -fine arrangements.” Leila favored Marjorie with a whimsical grin. “Let -me warn you, beforehand, Beauty. It will be dangerous for you to attend -the contest.” - -“Your warning is wasted. I shall sit in the gallery and watch the Beauty -parade. Not because I imagine for a minute that I—that I—” Marjorie -stammered, growing suddenly rosy with confusion. - -“That you would certainly win it if you appeared on the gym floor,” -Leila finished with mischievous affability. “No fair decorating the -gallery, Beauty. It’s a most important part you must play on the floor.” - -“No, designing villain. You dragged me into one Beauty contest; but -never again.” She wagged a decisive head at Leila who merely continued -to beam on her. - -“This time I have a fine plan for you,” Leila continued, unabashed. “You -are to be one of the judges. I’ll paint lines of age on your lovely -face; give you a snow-white frizzy wig and a shapeless brown bag of a -gown to wear. Even your captain could not pick you out as a Dean. Now -tell me, am I not your devoted Irish friend?” she demanded -ingratiatingly. - -“You’re a jewel, Leila Greatheart.” Marjorie’s face grew radiant. “The -very thing I’ll like best. I’d forgotten all about the judges. Their -were three of them at the other contest. It seems ages since that night, -doesn’t it?” - -Leila nodded. “Happy ages,” she said, a soft light shining from her -bright blue eyes. “And you were not pleased with me that night, Beauty, -for putting you in your rightful place on the campus.” - -“No, I wasn’t,” Marjorie replied with smiling candor. “I recall that I -was almost angry with you. I thought you did it merely to nettle the -Sans. I thought you were very clever, but I wasn’t sure whether or not I -truly liked you.” - -“Ah, but I have won dozens of golden opinions from you, Beauty, since -then. I will tell you something quite remarkable about myself. I am -never disliked by a person who likes me.” Leila made the statement with -due impressiveness. - -“I’ll tell you something else. You’re an affable old fake, and I’ve been -here just one-half hour longer than I intended to be.” Marjorie rose -from the chair she had been occupying in Leila’s and Vera’s room. “I -needed that half hour for a bout with a terrific bit of old French -poetry. Now it’s gone—the hour, I mean. I wish the poetry was nil, too! -And I’ve not opened my book! It’s almost dinner time, and after dinner -we’re due at Silverton Hall to help Robin rehearse that house play. You -hadn’t forgotten about it, had you?” - -“I never forget anything I happen to remember,” was the re-assuring -response. - -“Then keep on remembering the Beauty contest,” begged Marjorie laughing. -“This is Monday. I wish you _could_ arrange it for Friday night. I’m so -anxious for Miss Monroe to win it. It will strengthen her position on -the campus.” Her lovely face grew suddenly serious. “You know so well -the way I feel about her, Leila. I’d love to have her free herself from -Leslie Cairns’ influence; to help her raise up a pride in herself that -will place her above doing the contemptible things the Sans used to do.” - -As she talked Marjorie’s voice took on a wistful earnestness which Leila -found irresistible. She did not share Marjorie’s views concerning Doris -Monroe. Nevertheless, Marjorie’s appeal to Leila for help in the -difficult conquest of the more difficult sophomore was in itself -sufficient cause for co-operation on Leila’s part. - -“Watch the bulletin board tomorrow, and have no fears,” was Leila’s -parting advice as Marjorie reached the door. “We shall meet again,” she -added portentously. - -“In about ten minutes; at dinner. And in my room, after dinner; and -after that, on the campus; and still after that, at Silverton Hall,” -flung back Marjorie over a shoulder as she went out the door. She ran -lightly down the hall to her room, inspirited by Leila’s promise. She -swung open the door with a gay little fling and entered to find Jerry -deep in the perusal of a letter. - -“I’m going to be one of the judges at the Beauty contest,” she breezily -informed Jerry. “I forgot to ask Leila who she’d picked for the other -two judges.” - -“It’s a good thing for the Ice Queen that you are going to wear a -disguise; efface your face from the college map for the time being,” -Jerry commented, eyes still on her letter. “No judge rig-out for -Jeremiah, I shall appear in all my fatal beauty. But I don’t expect to -get a fair deal,” Jerry sighed loudly. “When is the momentous Beauty -gathering to grace the gym?” - -“Friday evening at eight.” Marjorie went on to recount hers and Leila’s -recent conversation. - -“You old politician. You’ve everything fixed for your candidate,” Jerry -humorously accused. “What _has_ become of the traditions of Hamilton? -Shocking!” - -“They’re _right in the foreground_, AS ALWAYS,” retorted Marjorie. “I’m -neither old, nor a politician. _Nothing_ has been fixed for my -candidate. Yes; I’ll admit I have one,” she declared in answer to -Jerry’s comically questioning glance. “Just the same, she can only -succeed on her own merits. Giving her a chance to do that isn’t pulling -strings for her.” - -“I get you, Bean. I humbly apologize for any dark suspicions I may have -entertained against you. You are a Bean of rare pulchritude, enterprise -and integrity. You are not the only enterprising person on the campus, -though. I hate to speak of myself, but—er-her-r, ahem!” Jerry loudly -cleared her throat. “I’m a credit to the noble profession of the -sleuth.” Her tone of raillery held an undernote of triumph. Her round -face wore a victorious expression which Marjorie did not miss. - -“What is it, Jeremiah? You’re brim full of something interesting. I know -you’re aching to tell me. Do go ahead.” - -“It’s about those two letters,” Jerry began abruptly. “I mean the two -that were sent to you in the fall when the sophs were warring among -themselves, and Gentleman Gus drew the class presidency.” - -“I haven’t forgotten them,” Marjorie said dryly. “You said you’d find -out all about them. Have you?” She gazed interestedly at Jerry. “Now I -begin to understand why you were praising yourself,” she tacked on, with -a teasing smile. “You’ll have just time to tell me before the dinner -gong sounds. Go to it.” She dropped easily down upon her couch bed, eyes -still intent on Jerry. - -“You know, and so do I, that the sports committee letter was a fake. We -decided that first thing. Well, I’ve not discovered who wrote it. I’m -still suspicious of three different sets of girls on the campus. But I -haven’t a shred of proof against any of them. Being an honorable sleuth -I don’t prowl ignobly about the campus after my quarry. I set legitimate -traps for ’em. I deduce in a scientific and marvelous manner. My methods -are above reproach, but they take time.” - -“So do your remarks,” Marjorie impolitely reminded. “The gong’s going to -ring very, very soon.” - -“Oh, is it? So glad you told me. My, but you are rude at times. This is -one of ’em. Back to my subject. I never believed that Miss Walker wrote -the letter to you signed with her name. I made up my mind to find out -whether the handwriting was hers, but I failed to capture a specimen of -her penmanship. I tried a half a dozen nice, lady-like little schemes. -Not one worked. One day luck was with Jeremiah. I picked up a fine and -fussy handkerchief, monogrammed, L.M.W.” - -With one eye on the clock Jerry hurriedly recounted the writing of the -note to Louise Walker and the subsequent mailing of it and the -handkerchief to the sophomore. - -“Here’s the answer. Found it in the bulletin board this P. M. Look at -it. Next cast your eyes over this piece of bunk.” Jerry laid two -unfolded letters on the study table for Marjorie to examine. - -Marjorie obediently left the couch where she had cosily disposed her -slim length. She reached Jerry’s side with one lithe bounce. Hastily she -picked up the letter Jerry indicated. Then she read: - - “DEAR MISS MACY: - - “How fortunate for me that you should have found my pet - handkerchief! I bought it in Europe last summer of one of those - wonderful Belgian lace makers. I prize it highly on account of - the beauty of the embroidery. Consequently I rarely carry it. - Broke my rule for once and lost it. I had no idea where. It is - my good luck, and quite remarkable, I think, that you should - have guessed the initials on it to be mine. Thank you for your - courtesy. Assuring you of my appreciation, - - “Yours very sincerely, - “LOUISE MAY WALKER.” - -As she finished reading Miss Walker’s impersonally friendly note of -thanks Marjorie s eyes immediately sought the other letter. It was the -hateful letter she had received directly after the sophomore election -from Miss Walker. She had read if enough times to know it by heart. - -“Why, Jerry!” she cried, letting the two letters flutter from her hand -to the table. “She—Miss Walker—never wrote that miserably mean letter to -me! It’s not written in the same hand as the note she wrote you about -the handkerchief. We feel quite positive she wrote that note. So she -couldn’t have written the other.” - -“Of course she didn’t write it,” Jerry asserted. “I’ve been keeping an -explorative P. G. eye on her since the basket ball season began. She has -some fine traits, Marjorie.” Jerry nodded her head in sober confirmation -of her opinion. - -“I’m glad she didn’t write this.” Marjorie touched the condemnatory -letter with the tip of a finger. She picked up both letters again and -proceeded to a critical examination of the handwriting of each. - -“I couldn’t be sure she had not until I had seen her handwriting. I -hadn’t the least excuse for writing her, and I didn’t care to ask the -girls to do it. I’d begun to harbor dark thoughts of waylaying her on -the campus in the misty twilight and appropriating her note-book. She -had a twice-a-week late trig period at Hamilton Hall. Then I found the -handkerchief in the main corridor. Maybe Jeremiah wasn’t pleased with -herself!” Jerry gave an elated little spin around on one heel. “I wrote -her and enclosed the hankey, and this is the reward of honesty plus -great forethought.” Jerry significantly tapped her forehead. - -“I’m glad,” Marjorie said again; “glad you are a great detective, -Jeremiah.” She smiled indulgently at Jerry. “But gladder still that Miss -Walker never wrote that spiteful letter. I’m gladdest of all that it is -more despicable even than if it were anonymous. It’s a forgery. A person -so unprincipled as to commit such a forgery is too unprincipled to be -dangerous.” - -“Pearls of truth and wisdom, Bean. I get you, and agree with you,” Jerry -returned the smile. “I hate to say it, but I know only one person who -could qualify under that head—Leslie Hob-goblin Cairns.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV. - - HELPING THE GOOD WORK ALONG - - -The warning, brazen voice of the dinner gong, which Miss Remson rang but -once before each meal, broke in upon Jerry’s pertinent surmise. It was a -signal which called for postponing further conjecture in the matter. - -“I’ve thought of Leslie Cairns more than once, Jerry, in connection with -both those letters,” Marjorie confessed as Jerry took the letters -Marjorie had carefully examined, folded them and tucked them into a -small leather portfolio. “Perhaps it’s been unfair in me to judge her by -past performances.” - -“How could one help it? Come along, self-accusing Bean. I’m hungry -enough to eat all the dinner on our table, and give the rest of you not -a scrap. We’ll continue our amazing careers as private investigators -tonight after the ten-thirty bell is heard in the land and a grateful -hush has settled down on Room 15.” - -During the busy, merry evening spent with Robin, Phil and the cast of -Silverton Hall payers, Marjorie had neither inclination nor opportunity -to consider the guilt or non-guilt of Leslie Cairns. As stage manager -Leila Harper combined more than usual efficiency with a drollness of -speech and manner which kept the amateur thespians in a constant gale of -giggles. - -“Remember your cues and lines, or you’ll be walking into the middle -scenes where you’re neither expected nor wanted,” she warned her flock. - -The play, a two-act comedy entitled “The House Party,” was a bright, -snappy little production written by Eileen Potter, a promising Silverton -Hall sophomore. Phil had advocated the first production of it as a house -play. The sophomore class would be the guests of the Silverton Hall -sophs on the eventful evening. The living room was to be turned into a -theatre. Phil had enlisted Robin’s, Marjorie’s and Leila’s services in -rehearsing it. - -Her plan, into which Robin, Marjorie and Leila gladly entered, had a -triple motive. She was anxious that Eileen’s talent should be recognized -on the campus. She was determined that the unharmonious sophomore class -should be brought into harmony. She intended to hammer away at this plan -until she accomplished that harmony. Last of all, she liked giving house -plays. Phil had a soul even more bent on democracy than was that of -Marjorie, if such a condition could be. Robin often said to her: “Truly, -Phil, if you had lived in the days of ’76 you would have managed somehow -to annex your name to the Declaration of Independence.” - -After the rehearsal the hard-working actors, managers and prompters were -treated to frozen custard and sponge cake by Barbara Severn. She -declared Leila to be a slave-driver and that the custard and cake were -needed by the cast as nourishment. - -“If I am a slave-driver, why is it you are offering me custard and -cake?” Leila demanded, as Barbara presented her with a plate of the -frozen sweet. - -“Merely because you have worked harder than your slaves. You are what I -should call a unique slave-driver,” Barbara sweetly explained. - -“And you have far more good sense than you sometimes appear to have,” -Leila complimented. Whereupon the two beamed at each other and shook -hands. - -“Don’t fail to be here for another rehearsal Thursday night and the -dress rehearsal on Saturday night,” were Leila’s parting words to the -cast, delivered in the middle of the front walk to the actor group who -had followed her out on the veranda. - -She started across the campus in the pale winter moonlight with Marjorie -and Jerry, grumbling in pretended displeasure at the amount of things -she had to do during the next few days. - -“Don’t say a word!” Marjorie exclaimed. “Two more rehearsals this week, -the Beauty contest on Friday night, Muriel’s birthday’s next Monday. -Saturday afternoon we have to go into town to buy presents. Monday -afternoon we’ll have to go over to Baretti’s to trim the birthday table. -Sunday I have to write letters, study and do a dozen and one small -things. I can say now I have nothing special on hand after Monday, but -long before then I’ll have a new lot of stunts planned for the rest of -next week.” Her tone grew more despairing with each enumeration. - -“You have so much trouble, Beauty, I’ll say nothing of my own,” was -Leila’s commiserating return, delivered with an unsympathetic grin. “I -am like an Irish fish out of water without Midget. That much I will -say.” Vera had gone to New York for a few days’ visit with her father -before he sailed on an all-winter cruise on the Mediterranean. - -“I never saw an Irish fish. How does an Irish fish look?” Jerry -critically demanded. - -“Like me. Did you not just hear me say it?” Leila retorted. - -“I must go to the Arms to see Miss Susanna this week,” Marjorie observed -irrelevantly. No one appeared to be interested in her announcement. -Jerry and Leila were conducting a laughing argument which had to do with -Irish and non-Irish fishes. - -“I love to talk to myself,” she made plaintive complaint when Jerry and -Leila finally paused for breath. - -“And I had far rather talk to you, Beauty, than to some P. G.’s I know,” -Leila assured with deep meaning. - -“You may talk to _me_, Bean,” Jerry graciously permitted. “I am -appreciative.” - -During the remainder of the short hike across the campus Marjorie became -the laughing, but unimpressed, recipient of flattering attention. - -“Jerry,” she burst out abruptly, soon after the two girls were in their -own room, “it isn’t enough for us to say to each other that we are glad -Miss Walker didn’t write that letter. It is not fair to her not to tell -her the whole thing. Do you think it is?” - -Jerry cocked her head to one side and considered. “Nope,” she answered -after due deliberation. “I suppose she ought to be informed that she is -not the villain we took her to be. It may take marvelous managing by -Marvelous Manager to tell her the awful truth without rousing her ire. -According to Gentleman Gus she is anything but a lamb-like person when -she isn’t pleased.” - -“Would you be willing to go with me to see her?” Marjorie asked, her -brown eyes meditatively fixed on Jerry. “You are as——” - -“Deep in the mud as you are in the mire,” supplied Jerry humorously. - -“Something like that,” Marjorie agreed with a smile. “The letter was -sent to me in the first place, but the credit of the discovery that Miss -Walker didn’t write it belongs to you.” - -“I’m not likely to pick any bouquets in such a briar patch,” shrugged -Jerry. “Don’t want em. More likely she’ll get wrathful at us when she -finds, we have kept the forged letter so long without going to her and -having matters out. But Jeremiah is not afraid. Let us hope she behaves -like the letter she really wrote.” - -In the act of removing one of her slippers, Jerry took it by the strap. -Waving it jauntily she launched into a Bean jingle. - - “Upon the haughty soph we’ll call - To clear her tarnished name; - For we have seen, O, noble Bean, - That she was not to blame.” - -“That was an inspired jingle, Jeremiah,” Marjorie approved, her face -singularly sunny. “Miss Walker is not to blame. Since we know she isn’t, -we should be, if we didn’t hurry to tell her so.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXV. - - “NEARER TO THE HEART’S DESIRE.” - - -Due to the numerous details Marjorie had on hand, on Saturday afternoon, -Marjorie and Jerry still found themselves facing the call upon Miss -Walker. They deplored the fact to each other as they made ready to go to -town with Leila, Ronny, Lucy and Katherine Langly to shop for Muriel’s -approaching birthday. Muriel had been left out of the shopping party. As -a consequence she had made dire threats to disappear on her birthday and -“spoil everything.” Jerry declared that no one was foolish enough to -believe she would. - -“I never realized how much work you put into that first Beauty contest, -Leila Greatheart, until I saw the working out of this last one,” -Marjorie confided to Leila on the way to town that afternoon. She was -occupying her usual place beside Leila on the front seat. “I felt so -differently about the one last night. I had a chance to hide away. I was -so glad not to be in it, and on parade. It was darling in you to give me -the judges’ last speech in the contest. And didn’t my fairy-tale -princess look beautiful when she came forward to receive the guerdon? -Those wonderful long-stemmed pink roses went so well with that -crystal-beaded white frock she wore.” - -“It was a dream of a dress,” Leila nodded. “At last we have a new Beauty -on the campus. Only I am glad I was not one of the judges. I should -never have displaced you for her. She is still too much the Ice Queen to -be to my taste.” - -“You are the loyalest of loyal old dears,” Marjorie’s hand came to rest -for a moment on Leila’s shoulder. “I know you went strictly against your -inclinations; just to please me. Someday you’ll see that there was -method in my madness. The enchantment will be broken and the freed -princess will yet prove herself a credit to Hamilton.” - -“I doubt if I shall be here to see it,” Leila made skeptical reply. “You -are feeling most optimistic because you have succeeded in wishing your -beauty reputation onto someone else.” - -Marjorie merely smiled. “I’m a venerable P. G. now. I’m beyond such vain -frivolousness.” - -“I see no signs of it,” Leila told her discouragingly. “I am sorry now -that I hid you on the judges’ stand.” - -“Too late,” Marjorie’s merry little laugh rippled out. Her mood was -decidedly optimistic as a result of the successful way in which clever -Leila had carried on the Beauty contest. - -As the president of the sophs, Augusta Forbes had signed the notice of -the coming contest which Leila had first posted on the main bulletin -board. This fact had appeared to point to the sophs as the promoters of -the Beauty contest. Privately directed by Leila, Gussie had next called -a class meeting for the express purpose of arousing sophomore interest -and had tactfully suggested that the contest should be held under -sophomore auspices. - -While the sophs were still divided into two factions, as a result of the -fall elections, basket ball had done something to mitigate their wrath -against one another. It seemed the irony of fate that Louise Walker and -Augusta Forbes, rival centers and unfriendly classmates, should have -each admired the other’s basket ball prowess. Such, however, was the -situation between them. More, they were hovering on the verge of -friendly acquaintance. - -This marvel Marjorie had already faintly divined by a curious mental -process of deduction which had developed within as a result of -long-patient working and waiting. She also saw signs which pointed to a -re-united sophomore class in the not far distant future. Her conviction -was borne out in this respect by the eager good-will with which the -sophs boosted the Beauty walk beforehand and confidently paraded -themselves around the gym for the judges’ inspection on the fateful -night. - -The girls of the other three classes were no less anxious to take part -in it. Even the dormitory girls made an extra trip from town so as to be -in the fun. Of the old Travelers only Ronny and Muriel competed. Vera -had not yet returned to Hamilton. As manager Leila had a good excuse for -staying out of it. Jerry demanded also to be a judge. She gave Leila -such a strenuous sample of the strength and volume of her tones that -Leila promptly accepted her. The senior class furnished the third judge; -a stentorian-voiced senior who often acted as referee at basket ball -games, and had developed amazing lung power as a result. - -While the Forbes faction of the sophs was supposedly hostile of attitude -toward Doris Monroe, its members had agreed among themselves that, as a -possible winner of the Beauty contest, she was “the sophs’ best bet.” In -consequence they suddenly began exhibiting toward her a new friendliness -which warmed with the near approach of the contest. This put Doris on -her mettle as nothing else could have done. She had been saving the -crystal-beaded frock for what she might deem a really great occasion. -She now felt the occasion had arrived. Her one disturbing thought was -that Marjorie Dean would undoubtedly enter the contest. She resolved -that she must, yes, she would completely outshine her. - -When the much-heralded contest was finally over and Doris stood -triumphant in front of the judges’ stand, the light gleaming on her wavy -golden hair, her strange green eyes dark with excitement, her white, -graceful arms laden with the long-stemmed pink roses, she might have -been posing as lovely summer in her early rose-decked beauty. The faint, -fascinating smile that came and went on her red lips gave no clue to -what was going on in her mind. Her slow, occasional careless glances -about the gymnasium were motivated by the distinct secret purpose of -locating Marjorie. Nor did she learn until long afterward that the -clear, vibrant voice of the judge who spoke the final charge to Beautye -brighte, reverence in its intonation, was that of the girl she affected -to despise. Having enjoyed the contest incognito Marjorie had -disappeared during the first congratulatory rush toward Doris. - -She found remembrance of last night’s contest lingering persistently in -her mind as she and her chums essayed the round of the shops. None of -the party knew what they wished to buy for Muriel. They were in a -wondrous merry mood and had difficulty in settling down to a selection -of gifts. As they trooped, chattering, out of the town’s one art store -with arms full of birthday bundles a familiar white car shot past them -down the street, disappearing into a side street. The occupants of the -white car were Doris Monroe and Leslie Cairns. - -Marjorie gave a kind of disappointed gulp as she glimpsed the stunning -white car and its passengers. It was the first time she had either seen -or heard of these two as having been together since before Thanksgiving. -Augusta Forbes and her two chums had later confidentially reported to -Marjorie the occasion at the Colonial when Leslie and Doris had -quarreled. Marjorie had hoped then that the breach between the two girls -might widen. Robin’s assurance that Doris had been “perfectly sweet” to -her at the old-fashioned hop was a hopeful sign. Freed from Leslie’s -pernicious influence, Doris’s college future was likely to be rosy. - -Now it appeared that Doris was not estranged, perhaps did not desire to -be free from Leslie. Marjorie felt chagrin and disappointment take hold -of her. She half concluded that her chums were correct in holding the -opinion that further effort to win over the ungracious and ungrateful -sophomore would be a useless expense of time and spirit. Should she, now -that through her private effort Doris had been acclaimed the college -beauty, allow Doris to continue her college journey without further -solicitude on her part? Her generous soul instantly rebelled against the -thought. She had the principle to consider in the peculiar task she had -whimsically set for herself. So far as she knew the work of moulding -beautiful Doris Monroe “nearer to the heart’s desire” had only begun. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI. - - SUNSHINE FROM SHADOW - - -“Look here!” Jerry, who had gone with Leila to the garage to put away -the car, bounced into the room flourishing two letters. - -“Why, _where_ did they come from? There wasn’t a sign of mail in our -divisions when I came upstairs. That was not more than half an hour ago. -Besides that was the last mail.” Marjorie’s eyes had opened to their -widest extent at sight of the letters. - -“Ah-h-h! There’s a reason; and it took yours truly to find it.” Jerry -gave a self-appreciative crow. “Here’s your letter.” She tendered one of -the two to Marjorie. She made no effort to open the other. - -Marjorie’s color heightened as she glanced at the writing on the -envelope. “It’s from Hal. You know that. Something unusual must be -happening in Sanford. This is the second letter I’ve had from him within -a week.” - -“When you open it kindly gaze at the post-mark,” Jerry directed with a -knowing smile. - -“Why, Jerry!” Marjorie had already obeyed the direction. “November -third! Where did it come from? This is another mysterious mystery.” She -read Hal’s brief letter, a puzzled frown knotting her forehead. “_This_ -is the letter Hal thought I did not answer. I had to explain to him when -I went home that I had not received it. Well, of all surprises.” - -“The end of them is not yet. Here’s another belated missive. I thought -I’d let you get over the shock of the first before handing you another -jolt.”’ - -“So kind in you, Jeremiah.” Marjorie’s gratitude was of a very casual -order. “You mean you wanted to be teasing. This is from Miss Susanna,” -she announced after a hasty inspection. “It was”—again her voice -achieved astonished height—“mailed _last Monday_. The time has come, -Jeremiah for you to prove your worth as a great investigator and throw -light upon this mystery.” - -“It was that _treacherous, deceiving old bulletin board_,” emphasized -Jerry, then giggled. “D is on the top row, you know. The back piece of -the board gapes away from the face of it a little, just at the D -section. One of the maids must have tucked Hal’s letter into the wrong -place and there it stayed. Another of the maids must have done the same -thing recently. I found both letters there. I was peeking and peering -disconsolately at that empty D space when through a tiny crack at the -back of it I saw a bit of white. I went fishing with a hat pin and -finally got hold of a corner of Miss Susanna’s letter. Pretty soon I had -fished up both of them. What I’m wondering is this. Did anyone cache -them for spite? I trust not.” Jerry put on a look of virtuous horror. “I -mean I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had.” - -“Suspicious old Jeremiah.” Marjorie raised a reproving finger at her -chum. Her ready smile contradicted intent to reprove. “Miss Susanna -wants to see me. In this note she asked me to dinner at the Arms on last -Wednesday evening. Here it is the Saturday after! What must she think of -me. I’ll hurry downstairs this instant and telephone her.” - -Marjorie darted from the room and took the stairs at what she used at -home to call a gallop. She blessed telephone service with all her heart -as she quickly got Jonas on the wire and asked him to call Miss Susanna -to the telephone. It was not a long conversation she presently exchanged -with the mistress of Hamilton Arms. Miss Susanna was not fond of talking -on the telephone. But it was a most happy little talk. Marjorie turned -from the ’phone wondering a little why Miss Susanna had laid stress on -inviting her alone of the Travelers to dinner at the Arms the next -evening. The mistress of the Arms had not said she wished to be alone -with Marjorie, but she had intimated it vaguely. - -Turning mechanically toward the stairs Marjorie crashed squarely against -a young woman who had just descended the last step. Both girls -apologized first; took stock of each other afterward. Marjorie drew a -quick breath. She was facing Louise Walker. Obeying an impulse she cried -out: - -“Oh, Miss Walker, I have been trying to see you for several days. Would -you be willing to come upstairs to Miss Macy’s and my room? We have -something to show you which is important to you.” - -“I—certainly I will come.” Miss Walker’s intonation was remarkably -gentle and friendly. “Will you lead the way? I am not often at Wayland -Hall and know very little about it.” She motioned Marjorie to precede -her up the stairs. “I had been calling on a sophomore, Miss Vinton.” - -“She is such a clever girl,” Marjorie said admiringly. “We have had many -interesting talks about chemistry experiments we have made.” Her winsome -smile drew an answering smile from Miss Walker. The sophomore was -wondering if Marjorie had heard any of the cutting remarks she had made -about her and Robin Page, early in the fall, when Page and Dean had -championed the cause of Augusta Forbes. She was astonished now to find -Marjorie so friendly. - -“For goodness sake!” In the act of nibbling a large three-cornered piece -of peanut brittle Jerry let it fall to the rug at sight of Marjorie and -her visitor. She bent to retrieve it, took an unintentional step forward -and planted one foot firmly upon it. Such a disaster called for mirth -which was quick in coming. Marjorie merrily seated the guest and offered -her peanut brittle from a box. Jerry loudly mourned the loss of “the -biggest, best bit of brittle in the brittle box,” as she gathered up the -sticky fragments of it from the rug. She made short work of the task. -She was eager to join the pair of girls on the other side of the room. - -Marjorie kept the conversation centered upon impersonal topics until -Jerry completed the trio. Then she began in her candid fashion: “Miss -Walker, we hope you will not feel, after you have heard what I am going -to tell you, that we have not been fair to you in not having told you -before. Will you please bring the letters, Jerry?” - -Jerry complied with alacrity. Meanwhile Marjorie had gone steadily on -with the account of the receipt of the first letter, bearing Miss -Walker’s signature. The latter sat listening in genuine mystification. -She stared in bewilderment at the outrageous letter which Jerry placed -in her hand. - -“Why, this is dreadful!” she cried as she read it, her fair skin -flooding with indignant red. “That’s not my writing! Why didn’t you come -to me and ask me about it?” - -“How could I?” Marjorie said rather sadly. She had expected the -question. “You see, I didn’t know your handwriting. I didn’t know— -Please let us not talk about that part of it. We were so glad when Jerry -received the letter from you about the handkerchief. Then we _knew_ you -had not written that hateful letter.” She pointed the tip of a scornful -finger at the forgery. “Since things have worked out so well, let’s be -thankful, and friends.” - -“I’d love to be,” Louise answered with sincerity. “First you must -forgive me for being so disagreeable last fall. I’ve been sorry for -quite a while, but there seemed no opportunity to tell you so. I -understand Miss Forbes now, too. I like her, but I’m afraid she doesn’t -like me; nor never will.” - -“Go and call on her very soon. She’d be so pleased. I’m sure she would. -She admires your basket ball playing.” This affably from Jerry who was -far more favorable impressed with the sophomore that she had expected to -be. - -“There’s one thing I believe I ought to tell you to clear my slate,” -Miss Walker said presently in a half hesitating tone. “It’s about Miss -Peyton and Miss Carter. I mention them frankly because I intend to tell -them that I have seen you, and of our talk.” Her voice strengthened into -one of resolution. “May I ask you? Has Professor Matthews ever -reprimanded you and Miss Macy for being unduly noisy in your room?” She -stared anxiously at Marjorie. - -“Why, _no_.” Marjorie cast an enigmatical glance at Jerry. Then the two -laughed. “Please pardon us for laughing,” she apologized. “Last fall -Miss Peyton threatened to report us to President Matthews. About two -weeks later a letter came to me in the president’s hand. It really took -courage to open it. Oh-h-h,” she drew a soft laughing breath, “it was an -invitation to dinner at his home to meet one of his nieces who had come -from the west to visit the Matthews. Jerry and I thought then that -perhaps Miss Peyton had decided against reporting us to him.” - -“I wish she had, but she didn’t. I advised her against such petty -spite,” Louise declared disgustedly. “I am glad President Matthews -ignored the report. She made it in person. She told me as much, but she -would not tell me what he said to her in the matter. I suspect Prexy was -very unsympathetic.” Louise’s gray, long-lashed eyes sparkled with quiet -humor. “Anyway, I’m free from that worry. I wanted to tell you that as -much as you wanted to tell me about the letter.” - -Frank confession from caller and guests banished the strain which had -marked the beginning of the interview. Presently Louise had been invited -to remain at the Hall to dinner and afterward hob-nob with the chums in -Ronny’s and Lucy’s room where a newly-arrived fruit cake sent Lucy by -her mother was to be the center of attraction at a jollification. - -The three girls were making rapid strides toward friendship when a knock -at the door revealed Gussie Forbes and Calista Wilmot as demanding the -hospitality of Room 15. It was the satisfying climax to a mutual -admiration society which had sprung up between Louise and Gussie on the -very field of battle. It was a case of when “soph meets soph.” The two -distinguished centers found so much in common to talk about they -blissfully forgot Marjorie, Jerry and Calista for the time being, -greatly to the delight of these three. - -Shortly before Louise Walker went to her own campus house she said to -Marjorie in a low tone: “Will you come with me now to your room. My -wraps are there. I will bring them in here, but I wish to say something -very quietly to you.” - -“We’re going into my room for a minute or so, gang,” Marjorie called to -the others as she and the sophomore went out the door. - -“It’s about Miss Monroe I wish to speak,” began Louise hurriedly. “Could -you—do you know what ought to be done to keep her away from that Miss -Cairns? The freshies seem to admire them as a stunning combination, plus -the white car. But the sophs are decidedly against Miss Cairns. A good -many stories about her dishonorable ways while she was a student at -Hamilton have drifted down to us from friends and older sisters who have -been graduated from here. We have been told that she was expelled from -Hamilton, together with a crowd of her chums. She was here when you -entered college, was she not?” Louise asked earnestly. - -“She was a sophomore when we were freshies. She was expelled from -Hamilton at the end of her junior year,” Marjorie said evenly. “I know -of a great many things she has done that she should not have done, yet -she is somewhat like another girl I know whose mother died when she was -a baby and who grew up believing she must always have her own way. The -girl I mention suddenly faced about and made herself over. Perhaps -Leslie Cairns will do the same. I think it would be far better if Miss -Monroe had nothing whatever to do with her. The trouble is—no one but -Miss Monroe can decide that. All we can do is to help her by our good -will.” - -“I understand. You mean if Miss Monroe has enough interests to keep her -occupied and happy on the campus she won’t turn to Miss Cairns for -entertainment.” - -“Yes,” Marjorie returned. “We Travelers have been watching over her. She -is not only beautiful. Her room-mate is Muriel Harding, you know. Muriel -says she is brilliant in her subjects. She can draw, paint, play the -piano and knows a good deal about outdoor sports. We can’t afford to -have such good material go to waste, can we?” - -“No, we can’t.” Louise’s hand reached for Marjorie’s. The two looked -into each other’s eyes and made a wordless compact which had to do with -the deliverance of the enchanted princess from the power of the wicked -wizard. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII. - - MARVELOUS MANAGER - - -While the discussion concerning herself was going on between Marjorie -and Louise Walker, the enchanted princess and the wicked wizard were -amicably eating dinner at the Colonial. Leslie was listening with acute -attention to Doris’s unemotional account of the Beauty contest related -in the drawling English diction which she had used since childhood. - -“You think you’re it, don’t you, Goldie?” she said with a slow grin when -Doris had finished her recital. - -“Yes; why shouldn’t I?” countered Doris, unruffled by the slangy -question. She was very desirous of going to New York with Leslie for the -Christmas holidays. She had no intention of quarreling with her and thus -defeating her own ends. - -“I’ve no objection,” Leslie amiably assured her. “You haven’t told me -where Bean was, though. Certainly she wasn’t in the gym or _you’d_ never -have got away with the prize. She must have purposely effaced herself. -She has it put all over every other girl I ever saw when it comes to -Beauty. I hate the ground she walks on, yet Bean is beautiful Bean. -Don’t let it worry you, though.” - -Doris smiled rather condescendingly at Leslie. “You know it doesn’t -worry me, Leslie. You are absurd. No, Miss Dean was not at the contest. -Some of her friends were, but she was no where to be seen. Don’t you -think the contest itself is very quaint? Miss Harper is really immensely -clever.” - -“Next to Bean, I hate _her_.” Leslie’s face lowered. “Don’t mention her -to me ever. Since Bean handed over the college beautyship to you, make -the most of it. You’d better give a dinner to some of the sophs who -belong to the best families. They’re the ones who count in college. They -can either make you or break you.” - -“I—I haven’t decided just what I’d best do after Christmas to keep up my -reputation as the college beauty.” Doris experienced a sudden violent -dislike for Leslie. She wished she had never seen her. She wished she -had not promised to go to New York with her. She had had a taste of real -girl happiness, spontaneous and free from the plotting and planning -which seemed ever to attend Leslie’s movements. Once again she was -hearing the quaint adjuration to Beautye “to say a prayer of -thankfulness at even for the gifte of Beautye by the grace of God.” Once -again that clear, resonant voice rang in her ears. Though her new, -unbidden mood soon left her, it would come again. The leaven had begun -to work. - -On the way up the main drive to Wayland Hall the following afternoon she -came face to face with Marjorie. She bowed with less coolness than was -her wont. “Good afternoon, Miss Monroe,” Marjorie said sedately, looking -neither smiling nor serious. She was on her way to Hamilton Arms to -spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with Miss Susanna. - -Doris had a faint impression of having known someone else whose voice -was like Marjorie’s. She could not recall any such person. She -grudgingly admitted to herself that Leslie’s rude appraisal of -Marjorie’s good looks was not without foundation. Doris was -fundamentally sound of judgment and honest enough not to deceive -herself. - -“You and I are going to have one of our old-fashioned heart to heart -talks this afternoon,” greeted Miss Susanna as she folded Marjorie in -her arms and kissed her on the forehead and both cheeks. “We’re going to -have a light tea now and dinner at seven. Tea will be in the study. I’m -going to ask you to help me this afternoon go over some of Uncle -Brooke’s papers. I’d like to arrange them in chronological order. A nice -sort of hostess I am, to invite you here to dine and then make you work -for your dinner,” chuckled the old lady. - -“You know there is nothing I’d rather do. You are a fraud.” Marjorie -swooped down on her, arms flying, mouth open, fingers curved into claws. -It was her favorite mode of onslaught upon her general when at home. -Miss Susanna squealed, dodged and giggled as the avenging bogie bore -down upon her. A merry tussle ensued in which Miss Susanna held her own. - -It was not until they had settled down at the study table with the tea -spread out upon it that they behaved with anything but hilarity. - -“I never treated you to such a tussle before.” Marjorie declared -blithely as she reached for the cup of tea Miss Susanna held out to her. -“Those are General’s and my favorite tactics at home. Oh, wait until we -get you there. We’ll have some grand family frolics at Castle Dean.” - -“I am looking forward to them with all my heart. This will be the first -Christmas I have spent away from the Arms since _he_ died. I am sure he -would wish me to go with you.” Miss Hamilton regarded Marjorie with deep -solemnity. “Now tell me about the girls. What have you all been busy -doing?” She switched the subject from herself with characteristic -abruptness. - -During the light meal Marjorie kept strictly to the subject of her -friends’ and her doings on the campus. Miss Susanna listened to the -lively recital with apparent pleasure. Now and then Marjorie would catch -the old lady’s eyes resting upon her with an expression of brooding -tenderness which she had never before seen in them. - -When Miss Susanna had rung for Jonas to come for the tea service she -straightened in her chair with a nervous kind of energy that Marjorie -had learned to construe as a sign that the last of the Hamilton’s was -about to make an important disclosure. It was an entirely different -attitude from that which she invariably adopted in giving a surprise. -Without a word she rose, and, walking to one end of the study turned the -key in a tall narrow mahogany cabinet which Marjorie had not seen before -in the study. - -“These are the most precious things in the world to me, Marjorie,” Miss -Susanna said as she turned a brass key that stood in the lock. “Come -here, child. Hold out your arms.” She swung open the door of the -cabinet, revealing shelf upon shelf of papers. They were, for the most -part, letters without envelopes, and documents. “This is his story, in -his own hand,” she continued musingly. She carefully lifted the pile of -papers from the top shelf and placed it upon Marjorie’s arms. The amazed -lieutenant’s arms were steady, but her heart was thumping wildly. - -“Miss Susanna,” she managed to gasp, “truly—are you going to _allow me -to look at them_?” - -“Truly, I am.” There was a tiny catch in Miss Susanna’s crisp voice. “No -one has touched them since I partially collated them and put them here -years ago. Bring them over to the table and lay them upon it. I have -something to say to you, Marjorie Dean. I’ve been wondering for a week -just how I’d like to say it to you. Well, the simplest way is best. I’ve -decided to give his story to the world. I’ve selected my biographer. I -can only hope that the one I wish to write the biography will not be too -modest to accept my offer. The person I have in mind will probably -declare that—” - -“If you feel you have chosen the right person, then you must have,” -Marjorie interrupted. “Oh, pardon me, Miss Susanna. I couldn’t wait to -say what I felt. You will have to _make_ the one you have chosen see -matters as you do.” Marjorie’s mind was already made up. Since Miss -Susanna had actually decided to permit Brooke Hamilton’s biography to be -written she must be encouraged and supported in her decision. There must -be no refusal of any sort to discourage her. - -“Yes, I am sure I have chosen the right person.” Again Marjorie caught -the divinely tender look in her friend’s eyes. “You have always seen -matters about him much as I have, Marvelous Manager. That is the reason -I have chosen _you_ to give a faithful presentation of _him_ to the -world.” - -“Miss Su-u-san-na. I—” With a little inarticulate murmur Marjorie’s -curly head went down on the table, her face hidden in the curve of her -arm. She did not raise it when she felt a hand rest lightly upon her -curls. Silence reigned in the study, a calm, stately silence over which -Brooke Hamilton himself seemed to preside. The impression of him was -borne to the two who had united to keep his memory green. Afterward Miss -Susanna and Marjorie both happily admitted to having had the same -impression of his immediate presence in the study. - -Presently, when the great emotional strain upon both women had lessened, -they commenced an eager discussion of plans concerning the best way of -writing Brooke Hamilton’s biography. - -“You fell into your own trap, young lady. You can’t back out,” Miss -Susanna told Marjorie with apparent relish. - -“I don’t wish to back out; _never; never_,” was the fervent assertion. -“It’s the greatest good fortune that has ever happened to me. I should -like to drop chemistry, French, the dormitory, welfare—” Marjorie -lightly waved away her enumeration of duties. “But I can’t.” - -“I wish you and Jerry would come and live at the Arms while you are in -process of writing the biography. Perhaps you may be able to manage it, -in the spring. You and I are to go to President Matthews with the news -tomorrow. I have already written him that we would call at his Hamilton -Hall office tomorrow afternoon at two o’clock. I have a curiosity to -walk across the campus. When we go to Castle Dean for Christmas we will -perfect all our plans. Shall we tell our girls now or wait until after -the holidays?” - -“Oh, please let us tell them soon,” pleaded Marjorie. “It will be the -most wonderful Christmas present for the old Travelers. ‘Peace on earth; -good will toward men.’” Marjorie hummed under her breath. Her eyes -luminous, she rose, went over to Miss Susanna. Standing behind her chair -she dropped her arms over the old lady’s shoulders. It was the special -caress she loved to give her captain. - -“Yes, ‘Peace on earth; good will toward men,’” Miss Susanna repeated, -her small face bright with love. “And the reason I can say it is because -I had the supreme good fortune to fall into the hands of Marvelous -Manager.” - -How Marjorie spent the remainder of her college post graduate year -between Hamilton College and Hamilton Arms will be found in: “MARJORIE -DEAN AT HAMILTON ARMS.” - -THE END. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s note: - -All instances of ‘Sandford’ have been changed to ‘Sanford.’ - -Page 14, opening double quote inserted before ‘Marjorie,’ “and the -“Marjorie Dean College” - -Page 16, ‘is’ struck following ‘She’s,’ “She’s exasperating” - -Page 22, opening double quote inserted before ‘Feel,’ ““Feel the chill” - -Page 23, ‘Leida’ changed to ‘Leila,’ “Leila cast a grim” - -Page 35, ‘promply’ changed to ‘promptly,’ “Ronny promptly read out” - -Page 50, closing double quote struck following ‘might,’ “you might. I’d” - -Page 50, opening double quote struck before ‘I’m,’ “J. J. G. Macy. I’m -the one” - -Page 51, ‘Phillys’ changed to ‘Phyllis,’ “said Phyllis Moore” - -Page 51, ‘two’ changed to ‘to,’ “herself to and fro” - -Page 52, double quotes changed to single quotes surrounding ‘dramer,’ -“old ‘dramer’ and” - -Page 57, ‘Deans’’ changed to ‘Dean’s,’ “and Dean’s melodramer” - -Page 61, full stop changed to comma following ‘Vassar,’ “fall from -Vassar, says” - -Page 61, ‘Carins’ changed to ‘Cairns,’ “against Leslie Cairns’” - -Page 68, ‘you’ changed to ‘your,’ “From your best friend” - -Page 70, ‘Jerrry’ changed to ‘Jerry,’ “Jerry showed more surprise” - -Page 77, opening single quote changed to opening double quote before -‘You,’ ““You ought to know” - -Page 84, comma inserted after ‘directed,’ “curtly directed, her eyes” - -Page 85, ‘relasped’ changed to ‘relapsed,’ “Doris relapsed into” - -Page 86, ‘melancholly’ changed to ‘melancholy,’ “with melancholy pride -as” - -Page 92, apostrophe inserted after ‘chums,’ “and her chums’ absence” - -Page 93, closing double quote struck after ‘Oh,’ “Oh, Marjorie cried -out” - -Page 93, opening double quote struck before ‘How,’ “How I’d love to” - -Page 93, ‘beeen’ changed to ‘been,’ “been keeping her coming” - -Page 93, ‘bethrothal’ changed to ‘betrothal,’ “her betrothal -announcement” - -Page 94, closing double quote inserted after ‘morning,’ “this morning.” -She glanced” - -Page 95, comma struck following ‘in,’ “now, in a hurry” - -Page 95, closing double quote inserted after ‘inn,’ “at the inn.”” - -Page 96, ‘it’ changed to ‘in,’ “a dance in the gym” - -Page 99, quotes regularized around ‘carrying on,’ “from ‘carrying on.’” -She” - -Page 103, opening double quote inserted before ‘I,’ ““I don’t -un’erstan’” - -Page 104, opening double quote struck before ‘I,’ “I simply have to” - -Page 108, closing double quote inserted after ‘in,’ “count me in,” -Barbara” - -Page 113, full stop inserted after ‘XIII,’ “CHAPTER XIII.” - -Page 116, ‘taxis’ changed to ‘taxies,’ “taxies from the station” - -Page 119, opening single quote struck before ‘Thus,’ ““Thus far we have” - -Page 119, ‘marshall’ changed to ‘marshal,’ “begun to marshal seven” - -Page 121, full stop changed to comma following ‘guests,’ “of guests, -Robin found” - -Page 123, opening double quote inserted before ‘Yes,’ ““Yes; I passed -Gus” - -Page 126, question mark changed to exclamation point following -‘citizens,’ “friends and fellow-citizens!” - -Page 127, ‘themslves’ changed to ‘themselves,’ “piled themselves into -the” - -Page 131, ‘Thankgiving’ changed to ‘Thanksgiving,’ “for Thanksgiving -dinner” - -Page 135, opening double quote inserted before ‘Let’s,’ ““Let’s leave -her to” - -Page 136, ‘beginnning’ changed to ‘beginning,’ “beginning of a deep” - -Page 138, opening double quote inserted before ‘Remember,’ ““Remember -our own” - -Page 145, ‘acompanied’ changed to ‘accompanied,’ “accompanied her -opinion with” - -Page 146, ‘promotor’ changed to ‘promoter,’ “troubles as a promoter” - -Page 148, ‘boastted’ changed to ‘boasted,’ “recklessly boasted Robin” - -Page 155, full stop inserted after ‘graciousness,’ “with her ready -graciousness.” - -Page 157, opening double quote changed to opening single quote before -‘Oh,’ “‘Oh, yes; you see” - -Page 157, closing double quote changed to closing single quote after -‘again,’ “break down again.’” - -Page 158, ‘Singor’ changed to ‘Signor,’ “expense, Signor Baretti” - -Page 160, closing single quote inserted after ‘campus,’ “busses to the -campus.’” - -Page 160, opening double quote struck before ‘a,’ “interposed, a trace -of” - -Page 167, ‘Thansksgiving’ changed to ‘Thanksgiving,’ “seeing the -Thanksgiving part” - -Page 180, ‘suits case’ changed to ‘suitcase,’ “find my suitcase” - -Page 181, ‘Cairn’s’ changed to ‘Cairns’,’ “of Leslie Cairns’ part” - -Page 191, ‘squestioned’ changed to ‘questioned,’ “she questioned half” - -Page 200, ‘year’ changed to ‘years,’ “Hamilton many years ago” - -Page 205, closing double quote inserted after ‘bidding,’ “to the -bidding.”” - -Page 207, opening double quote inserted before ‘I,’ ““I hope you know” - -Page 210, ‘tumultous’ changed to ‘tumultuous,’ “impending, tumultuous -embrace” - -Page 217, closing double quote struck after ‘Jeremiah,’ “Jeremiah? -You’re brim” - -Page 217, opening double quote struck before ‘I,’ “interesting. I know” - -Page 218, ‘monogramed’ changed to ‘monogrammed,’ “fussy handkerchief, -monogrammed” - -Page 218, ‘subequent’ changed to ‘subsequent,’ “and the subsequent -mailing” - -Page 222, full stop inserted after ‘performances,’ “by past -performances.” - -Page 226, comma changed to full stop following ‘retorted,’ “Leila -retorted.” - -Page 229, opening single quote changed to opening double quote before -‘NEARER,’ ““NEARER TO THE” - -Page 230, ‘sceptical’ changed to ‘skeptical,’ “made skeptical reply” - -Page 230, closing double quote inserted after ‘stand,’ “on the judges’ -stand.” - -Page 237, opening double quote inserted before ‘You,’ ““You mean you -wanted” - -Page 238, opening double quote inserted before ‘I,’ ““I mean I wouldn’t” - -Page 239, ‘decended’ changed to ‘descended,’ “just descended the last” - -Page 241, closing double quote inserted after ‘letter,’ “that hateful -letter.”” - -Page 246, ‘roommate’ changed to ‘room-mate,’ “Her room-mate is Muriel” - -Page 251, full stop changed to comma following ‘you,’ “to say to you, -Marjorie” - -Page 253, opening double quote inserted before ‘It’s,’ ““It’s the -greatest” - -Page 253, closing double quote inserted after ‘men,’ “will toward -men.’”” - -Page 254, ‘Majorie’ changed to ‘Marjorie,’ “Marjorie Dean at Hamilton -Arms.” - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Marjorie Dean, Marvelous Manager, by Pauline Lester - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER *** - -***** This file should be named 53213-0.txt or 53213-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/2/1/53213/ - -Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - 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 www.gutenberg.org. 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. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - |