ETHEL’S ADVICE.
Marjorie and Lily did not go back to college after the meeting. Instead
they boarded the train for New York, and were met at the terminal by
Mr. Andrews and Dick Roberts.
“My, it’s good to see you, dear!” exclaimed the former, kissing his
daughter affectionately, while the poor young man had to be content to
let his sentiments go unuttered. Marjorie, who shared the secret of
their engagement, smiled at the feeling which he could not suppress in
his eyes.
“You’re really going to give us a Sunday, baby?” continued Lily’s
father, jokingly. “Why couldn’t you have made it a week-end?”
“Marj and I have serious duties now,” began the girl, as she stepped
into the machine, whose door was held open by a uniformed chauffeur.
“We have a regular Saturday night engagement——” She paused while they
seated themselves, and Dick, the last one to get in, pulled up one of
the small seats.
“Oh, I ought to know by this time how busy college seniors are!”
remarked Mr. Andrews.
“But it isn’t college that keeps us busy Saturday nights,” Marjorie
informed him. “It’s Girl Scouts!”
“A brand new occurrence!” exclaimed Dick, mockingly.
“Reviving that old patrol?” inquired Mr. Andrews. “That’s nice! Summer
plans, and all?” He looked questioningly at Dick and Lily. As far as he
knew the wedding was set for June.
“Oh, no!” returned Lily, with a blush. “I’m afraid we’re too old for
any more wild camping or motor trips——”
Her father burst out laughing.
“Your mother and I are planning a camping trip for this very summer,
while you young people are on your honey-moon.”
Dick, who grew slightly embarrassed at the personal turn which the
conversation had taken, began to inquire about the prospective trip.
“Now tell us what we are doing tomorrow,” entreated Lily, after her
father had outlined his own plans.
“Your mother will tell you all about that,” he answered for already the
car was stopping at the fashionable apartment house in which their home
was located.
Mrs. Andrews was just as delighted to see the girls as ever, indeed
the addition of Marjorie always made her daughter’s home-coming doubly
enjoyable. Before she had removed her things, Marjorie was thanking her
for her wonderful interest in the new troop.
“What’s all this about?” asked Mr. Andrews again. “Your mother never
told me.”
Marjorie would have been glad then and there to repeat the entire
story, but a sigh from Lily reminded her that it was late, and that as
yet they had not heard their plans for the morrow.
“First have something to eat,” invited Mrs. Andrews. “I know that Dick
is starved if you girls aren’t.”
“Now tell us who are coming!” begged Lily, after the refreshments had
been served. “Did you hear from Ethel Todd?”
“Yes, she expects to be here—and Jack is coming too, and John Hadley.”
Marjorie’s eyes sparkled.
“It will be thrilling to see Ethel again,” she said.
“How about John?” teased Dick.
“Well, he isn’t quite such a stranger, you know,” returned Marjorie.
In view of the pleasant day that was before them, the girls excused
themselves early, and retired almost immediately. Breakfast in bed,
however, promised to restore all their usual vivacity.
Long before they were up the following day, the young men of the party
had all three arrived, and were patiently awaiting their appearance in
the drawing-room. It was not until Ethel came, and literally dragged
them out of bed that they proclaimed themselves wide-awake, and
promised to be on hand within ten minutes’ time.
As soon as the young people were assembled, and the usual questions and
answers exchanged, the girls both turned to Ethel for news of herself.
“Tell us all about how it feels to be a schoolmarm,” urged Marjorie.
“Fine!” responded the young teacher, glowing with pride. “You’d love
it, Marj—you really must take the exams!”
“Not a chance in the world,” muttered Jack, chuckling.
Ethel immediately took the hint.
“Marj, what are you keeping from us?” she demanded. “If you are
engaged——” Then, turning to John, “Is she?”
“Not to me!” he replied, sadly.
Ethel’s brow clouded; after all these years could someone else have
stepped in, and usurped John’s place?
“I’m not engaged to anybody!” replied the girl herself, emphatically.
“Jack doesn’t mean that. He means that there isn’t a chance of my
teaching because I’m headed straight for social-service work. A scout
official, if I can get a job!”
“No!” cried Ethel, incredulously. “You mean besides being a
captain——?”
“I mean being a paid worker, so I can devote all of my time to the Girl
Scouts!”
“As if you didn’t always!” muttered Jack.
“That reminds me,” remarked Marjorie, “I have a job for you, Jack.”
“With pay, I take it?”
“No—gratis. But the girls are charming.”
“Out with it, Sis!” commanded the young man.
Marjorie launched upon her story eagerly, painting it in all its
brilliant coloring. The young people all laughed hilariously at her
descriptions.
“The flapper troop!” Jack christened it.
“Call it that if you like,” agreed Marjorie. “But the question is, will
you help?”
“Did you ever know me to fail you?”
“Oh, Jack, you’re a brick!” she cried, jumping up and throwing her
arms about her brother’s neck. “Now,” she added, releasing him, “I’ll
forgive you for that trick you played on me at the dance.”
John looked guilty, but Jack laughed uproariously.
“What’s the joke?” demanded Ethel.
“Marj and John had a tiff,” Jack explained, in spite of the evident
embarrassment of both concerned, “and so Sis was hard up for a partner
for her class dance, and took out her spite by picking on me!”
“You mean thing!” denounced his sister. “That’s all you think of a
perfectly good invitation——”
“So I just fixed it up, and sent John anyway. I don’t think either of
them minded much.”
“The tiff’s all fixed up, then?” inquired Ethel.
“Dinner is served,” announced the butler, before the question could be
answered.
All through the meal, however, Ethel kept wondering whether there were
anything wrong between John and Marjorie. The latter failed to show
her usual interest in him, and as the conversation dwelt often upon the
new troop, she almost seemed to exclude John in her descriptions of the
girls and their doings.
Ethel was still wondering over this idea when the young people started
for a walk after dinner. Again it seemed to her that Marjorie was
avoiding him, on the pretence of wishing to talk over her plans with
her brother. So almost casually Ethel fell into step with John, and
tactfully steered the conversation to himself and Marjorie. Before
long he confessed that although the tiff, as Jack had called it, was
entirely patched up, still something seemed to be amiss between them.
“Want my advice?” asked Ethel.
“I’d be only too grateful.”
“Then interest yourself in what Marjorie is doing—and even offer to
help her. She’s still heart and soul in the Girl Scouts.”
“And always will be,” he muttered, darkly.
“No; I think you’re wrong there. Sometime she will grow up, and then
scouts will have to take a second place. But you must not try to hurry
her; you must let her follow her dream.”
John pondered this idea for a long time.
“I guess you’re right, Ethel,” he admitted, at last. “And—thanks
awfully.... Yes ... I’m going to act on your advice, as quickly as
possible.”
“Then that’s settled,” concluded the girl. “Let’s join the others
again.”
The young people walked almost all afternoon; it was only when Lily
began to notice pangs of hunger that she realized that it must be late.
“Shall we have tea somewhere, and go back in a taxi?” she suggested.
“All right about the taxi—but we mustn’t wait for tea,” Marjorie
reminded her. “Remember, we still have to get back to college tonight.”
“As you say! Just as you say, Captain!” agreed her room-mate, docibly.
When the girls were finally on the train, and had waved their last
good-byes to the others, Lily turned expectantly to Marjorie.
“Let’s have a good gossip, Marj,” she began.
“What about?” inquired the other languidly.
“Why, the week-end—the boys—and Ethel—”
“Oh, I can say all that in one sentence: We had a perfectly marvellous
time, and I love them all.”
“Is that all?” asked Lily, in a disappointed tone.
Her companion stared out of the window, but it was too dark for her to
see anything except her own reflection.
“Lil,” she said, after a moment, “my chief worry is shoes. I hate to
ask all those girls to buy sneakers, when they don’t even know whether
they’re going to like basket-ball or not.”
Lily burst out laughing.
“You’re hopeless, Marj, positively hopeless! Here I am talking about
our party, while your single-track mind leads you straight back to the
Girl Scouts! Some day they’ll have to build a Girl Scout insane asylum
for people like you!”
Marjorie smiled, and promised to reform. With a great effort she
managed to keep away from the subject during the remainder of the ride.
Yet the less she talked about her problem, the more she thought about
it. She was still engrossed in it on Wednesday night when John Hadley
made his usual visit.
“I guess I’d better take Lil’s advice, and not mention scouts to John,”
she thought, regretfully, as she went down stairs. “I mustn’t lose all
my friends by boring them to death!”
There was almost an added warmth to her greeting, which the young man
was quick to notice.
“You really are glad to see me?” he inquired, searchingly.
“Of course I am!”
They seated themselves in their accustomed corner of the reception room.
“You—you—really wouldn’t rather see somebody else—a scoutmaster—or
somebody like that?” he stammered.
“No, no, John,” laughed Marjorie. “And I’m not going to bore you with
scouts tonight, either!”
“But I want to talk about scouts,” he insisted. “You mustn’t think I’m
not interested, though I admit I do get jealous once in a while. And
I’ll be jealous of Jack if you let him help, and don’t find something I
can do!”
Marjorie was immensely pleased; as Ethel had surmised no other method
of reconciliation could have been half so effective.
“Our immediate problem is basket-ball,” she stated. “I want to get our
team started.”
“What do you need? You have a floor and a coach—how about a ball?”
“The settlement house is lending us theirs.”
“Bad guess! You suggest something else.”
“You really mean that you want to give us something?” Her tone grew
eager.
“Yes, I do! Please tell me what you want most!”
“Shoes!” she cried, laughingly. “Gym shoes—above everything else in
the world.”
“Great!” exclaimed John. “I’ll outfit the troop!”
Marjorie’s eyes shone; ever since Queenie’s visit that Sunday, she
had progressed far beyond her wildest dreams. It seemed almost as
if she were getting everything that she desired most: Girl Scouts,
athletics,—and finally the help of Lily and Jack and John. Surely with
all this assistance she could make her new girls her own!
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” John was saying, “I’ll have one of the
Spaulding salesmen take over a bunch of the usual sizes next Saturday
night, and your scouts can take their pick.”
“Marvellous!” she exclaimed. “And John, will you drop into the
gymnasium, and see our first practice?”
“I’ll say I will!” he promised, happily, grateful to have her want him.