THE DISTRESSED DAMSEL
Ann did not see Suzanne at dinner, and heard afterward that she,
Madeline and Genevieve had gone to town for their dinner, to “Polly’s.”
Ann’s trunk had been sent to the suite and Ann was busy unpacking, when
Marta came running up the stairs, not far from the open door. “You’re
wanted, Ann,” said she, out of breath. “Suzanne is downstairs and wants
to see you.”
“Why doesn’t she come up?”
Marta lifted her brows and nodded toward Eleanor’s door, through which
Eleanor, writing a letter, could be seen.
“Sakes!” softly said Ann. “I’m right in the middle of this! And it
is going to be a pretty state of things if Suzanne won’t come where
Eleanor is!” But Ann picked up her scarf and started out.
Suzanne was strolling up and down the lower hall while she waited for
Ann, rather avoiding the stairway, for she did not want to run into
Eleanor or Aline. “Hello, Ann,” said she, “come out for a little walk
with me. I want to see you.”
“I wish that you would come upstairs, Suzanne,” said Ann. “I’m just
in the midst of unpacking and the room is a sight. Still, Marta
won’t mind, and we’ll not go to bed for ages. I have to study like
everything.”
“I wouldn’t go to your suite tonight for a thousand dollars! The idea
of Eleanor’s doing that way! That is what I want to talk about.”
The girls walked out of the hall and out upon the campus to one of the
benches, under a beautiful elm. Girls were scattered everywhere over
the green lawns, but this seat was empty.
Ann felt from Suzanne’s manner that she was in for something
disagreeable, but calmly waited for the explosion, if explosion there
was to be.
Suzanne came to the point immediately, sitting down and leaning toward
Ann, her hands tightly clasped. “Did you know anything about this, Ann?”
“What do you mean? Did I know _beforehand_, you mean, about rooming
arrangements? Indeed I did not. Did you?” Ann asked this question as
keenly as Suzanne, though without the feeling behind it.
“Genevieve wrote Madeline a few days before we came that she had asked
for a suite for us all. She was counting on rooming with Eleanor, and
Eleanor has played her a mean trick! I did not say anything about it
to you, Ann, because it was uncertain about our getting the suite, and
I did not suppose that you would care; you were planning to room with
Marta, weren’t you?”
“Certainly. We did not even ask to be in a suite, though we had
expressed a preference for one, to Miss Tudor, one time. This was one
great surprise to me, Suzanne.”
“I suppose so, but I wanted to make sure. And I can’t tell you, Ann,
how I feel about Eleanor’s turning us down this way!” Suzanne’s eyes
filled with tears. She started to speak again and could not. Finally
she put her head down on Ann’s shoulder, shaking all over in the effort
to control herself and keep from breaking into a storm of tears.
Ann took her hands and squeezed them, without saying a word. With a sob
and a sigh, Suzanne presently raised her head. “Were any girls looking
at us?” she asked.
“No,--not a soul around. Never mind, Suzanne. It isn’t worth feeling so
bad about it.”
“Yes, it is, too, Ann. You don’t know what it means among our crowd
of girls to be in with Eleanor.” There it was again! Ann’s sympathy
received a jolt. It wasn’t that Suzanne cared so much for Eleanor,
after all!
“So I have been wondering if something can’t be done about it. Would
you and Marta care, if Eleanor and Aline should room with Maddy and
me?”
“Not a bit, but could you plan a thing like that, Suzanne? Where
would Genevieve come in? And wasn’t she the one who arranged for that
particular suite?”
“Yes, but it’s her fault that she is out with Eleanor. Couldn’t you ask
Eleanor about it?”
“Not I, Suzanne. You girls will have to fix it up among yourselves.”
Ann spoke very decidedly.
“But you could find out whether she dislikes me or not, couldn’t you?”
“Probably. I don’t believe that Eleanor has anything against you.
Marta said that it was Genevieve, and then, that Eleanor does not like
Madeline.”
“Then don’t you suppose that I could room with you?”
“And turn Marta out? Why, Suzanne!”
“Well, she might not care much. Besides, Grandmother would much rather
have me room with you. She did not like it a bit last year, Mother
said, when she found out that I was rooming with Madeline instead of
you. But Mother persuaded her, told her that Maddy and I had been
friends so long and that you did not care.”
“Grandmother never mentioned it to me. I had expected to room with you,
Suzanne; but I knew Marta as well as I knew you, of course, and we have
become fast friends. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Marta for worlds!”
“It could be fixed up through our parents, you know.”
Ann wanted to tell Suzanne that she was a “selfish little pig” and the
words were on the tip of her tongue,--but she refrained. It would not
do. Here was a bit of scheming that would be worthy of Aunt Sue. What
Suzanne could not get in one way she would get in another!
“If you won’t do anything about it, I’m going to ask Marta myself,”
Suzanne continued.
“For pity’s sake, Suzanne! Don’t do anything of the kind!”
Suzanne set her lips together. How much her profile looked like Aunt
Sue.
“Would you and Marta care, then, if it were arranged for Maddy and me
to come with Eleanor and Aline? That would give Genevieve the old suite
in the new cottage, and she’d get over being mad about it!”
“So far as I am concerned, if you can arrange to room with Eleanor and
Aline, it is all right. I don’t think that Marta would care, though
it certainly would be a bother, after getting settled. But how about
Eleanor’s not liking Madeline?”
“Maybe I can get some other Sig-Ep girl that she _does_ like.”
“If you can fix it up, Suzanne, I’ll not stand in your way. This was a
surprise, and it really does not make any difference to me,--just till
the Christmas vacation. Do you think that it is important enough to
stir things up so?”
“Yes. If I could room with Eleanor this year, it would probably mean
for the junior and senior years, too. Maybe Eleanor is going South,
too, with her mother.”
“I see. All right, Suzanne; do anything you want to, but don’t expect
me to take a hand. You will have to see Eleanor yourself.”
“That is what I hate to do. I believe that I’ll talk to Miss Tudor
first, tell her that I am not satisfied. She’ll want to keep in with
Mother.”
“Perhaps,” dryly said Ann.
That ended the interview and the girls separated, Suzanne to join some
other girls, after being assured by Ann that all traces of tears were
removed, and Ann to resume her interrupted task of unpacking. She was
both annoyed and troubled. Marta noticed her abstraction but made no
comment. Both girls studied busily, chiefly in their bedroom this time,
for Eleanor and Aline were talking in their common study.
* * * * *
Ann was too busy the next day to think of anything but lessons, though
she wondered if Suzanne would go to work “upsetting things.”
The worst arrangement suggested was the one whereby she and Suzanne
would room in the suite with Eleanor and Aline. Not that she did
not like them all, but she wanted Marta or some one of the Jolly
Six, her very own congenial friends, with much of the same interests
and purposes. But she told herself, as she had in wakeful hours of
the previous night, that they all would have to be consulted anyhow
about the matter and it would be handled by headquarters in final
arrangements. “No use to worry,” she thought. The best plan, if change
was to be made, was for Suzanne and some one of the “Sig-Eps” to move
in with Eleanor and Aline. That would be much better for Suzanne, Ann
thought, than continuing to room with Madeline. Perhaps she _ought_ to
do something about it! It _would_ be a shame for Suzanne to be with
both Genevieve and Madeline!
At dinner, for the girls were at present sitting where they pleased at
table, Suzanne joined Ann and afterward almost dissolved into tears
again telling Ann about matters at their suite. “Miss Tudor has put a
new girl in with us, temporarily, she said, and she is awful. Genevieve
is tearing her hair, figuratively speaking, and we are all upset. I am
to see Miss Tudor pretty soon.”
Poor Ann wondered what her duty was in the matter, and hoped that she
need have nothing to do with it. Ought she to give her consent to
taking Suzanne in place of Marta, if Miss Tudor suggested it? What
would Marta think? Perhaps she and Suzanne could take a room or a two
room suite together, and let Marta get a new room-mate, staying with
Eleanor and Aline. There! _That_ was what she would suggest, if she had
anything to say about it. That would fulfill her duty to her cousin and
not turn anybody out. Of course, that would not suit Suzanne. Ann felt
fairly dizzy with the different plans that suggested themselves. What a
bother!
No wandering about the campus that evening. “Bunny” had announced a
theme, the assignment in Math looked hard, and there were pages and
pages of new and more difficult French to prepare. Ann got out her
books and went to work at the table in the study, where Eleanor and
Aline found her later. Marta was still out with the girls.
“Got a wonderful song, Ann,” said Eleanor, waving some sheets of music.
“I borrowed it from the girl who owns it. It has an exquisite violin
obligato and I want you to do the accompanying, if you will. I’m
sending for copies. We were just trying it over in the parlor. Sara
played the piano part.”
Ann stopped work long enough to look at the music “I’d like to go right
down and try it over, but I can’t,--got to study.”
“I have to, too,” said Eleanor. “Aline and I have a miserable harmony
lesson to work out. Will it bother you if we do it together?”
“I’ll not even hear you,” laughed Ann.
The girls had scarcely started on the harmony lesson, when there came a
knock. One of the girls acknowledged Eleanor’s “Come in” by poking her
head inside the door and saying, “Miss Tudor wants to see you, Eleanor.”
Ann, busy with a problem, heard it as in a dream, but waked up
sufficiently to her surroundings to hear Aline say, as Eleanor hurried
out, “It’s about the suite, Eleanor!” And Eleanor answered, shortly,
“That’s all settled!”
Aline disappeared from the room a little later, and soon, who should
appear but Suzanne, in some excitement. “I saw that Eleanor went over
to the administration building, and that Aline was outside, so I ran up
a minute. I saw Miss Tudor and talked with her,--all about it. She did
not say much, but said that she would see me again after she had talked
to the other girls. So she is going to do something!”
Suzanne was feeling some confidence about the affair, Ann could see.
“You’d better not put on your kimono, Ann, for she may send for you. Do
your best for me, cousin,” said artful Suzanne.
“I will,” said Ann, “though I don’t know what is ‘best.’ I fancy that
Miss Tudor will do the settling of it, don’t you?”
“She can be _influenced_,” replied Suzanne.
Ann did not believe this, in the sense in which Suzanne meant it, and
thought that Suzanne exaggerated her own importance and that of her
family. “She thinks that the Huntington-LeRoys are the whole thing!”
thought Ann. “And to get her own way and be with Eleanor, for the sake
of I don’t know what, she’d do anything and turn anybody out!” Ann was
thoroughly disgusted. She laid aside her “math,” decided that she could
not think up a theme while her mind was so distracted, and picked up
the new French text, rather technical and difficult, but she could more
easily read along and look up the new words in her dictionary than do
anything else. She went into her bedroom, looked in the glass to see if
her hair were in condition to appear before the dean, and sat down by
the window with her book. If Eleanor came in and did not want to speak
to her about where she had been, it would be simpler for her to be out
of the way. She shut the bedroom door, as this occurred to her.
But it was not long before Aline and Eleanor came in, talking, as Ann
thought, in some excitement, though their voices were low. “Ann!”
called Eleanor, rapping sharply upon the bedroom door.
“Come in,” called Ann in reply.
Both girls came in and sat down on the bed, looking at Ann and each
other. “You tell her, Eleanor,” said Aline, clasping the head of the
bed with one arm, crossing her small slippered feet and cupping her
pointed, poetic chin with her free hand.
“Surely I will,” replied the efficient Eleanor, her eyes flashing.
“Are you satisfied with this arrangement, Ann, or would you like to get
out of it?” she asked directly.
“I should prefer to leave things as they are,” promptly replied Ann.
“From what I know of you,” said Eleanor, “I judge that you are telling
the truth.”
“I am,” said Ann.
“Did you see Suzanne and know that she was going to see Miss Tudor
about this rooming business?”
“Yes. Suzanne was very much upset, and hurt, because she thought that
perhaps you did not want to room with her. She says that she is just
sick over it. She wanted me to talk to you about it, but I told her
that I would not get into it.”
Eleanor looked thoughtful. “I like Suzanne,” she said, “but I can’t
bear Maddy, nor Genevieve, now. Of course you know that Miss Tudor
has been talking to me about it. She gave me a good lecture, too, on
not having consideration for other people, and upsetting plans and so
forth. I certainly am _mad_ about it!” Eleanor’s eyes flashed fire
again; then she looked at Ann, and they both laughed, Aline joining.
“I suppose you think, Ann, that it is a tempest in a tea-pot; but these
things make a lot of difference.”
“Yes, they do,” answered Ann, sobering again. “It _is_ important whom
you room with. I can’t say that I am very anxious to have Suzanne stay
with Genevieve and Madeline--both pretty reckless about some things.”
Eleanor nodded. “Say, Ann, I’ve always wanted to explain about that
time when you came on us and we had the cigarettes. I don’t do that
sort of thing, but we were in high spirits and Gen dared us. She and
Maddy think that it’s smart, and that is one of the reasons that I
don’t want to room with Genevieve,--but please don’t say anything about
it. I couldn’t tell Miss Tudor that.”
“What is Miss Tudor going to do?” asked Ann.
“Mercy, I don’t know! She’s talking to Genevieve and Madeline now.
Probably she will send for you next. That is why I wanted to talk with
you. Miss Tudor asked me if I would object to having Suzanne room here
with you,--of course, she gave me to understand that I hadn’t much to
say about it, but still, she wants a good arrangement for everybody. I
told her that it would be all right with me, but that I thought it mean
to turn Marta out. Then I didn’t know how you would like it, I said. I
was so mad because of the good scolding I had, that I talked right up
to her!”
Ann laughed. “Lots of good it will do, Eleanor.”
“Exactly. But it was some consolation to me.”
“I’d have a great time with three Sig-Eps in the suite with me,
wouldn’t I?” laughed Ann. She did not mind giving this hint.
“I thought of that, but it would only be two, at that. I can’t get
Aline into the Sigs. Her mother was a Bat.”
A direct look was exchanged between Ann and Eleanor. “Thanks,” said
Ann, storing away the knowledge, as Eleanor meant her to do. The Bats
would be after Aline now. They had thought it useless before, as she
and Eleanor were so intimate. But they had wondered why they did not
hear of her initiation as a Sig-Ep. Eleanor was a “pretty good scout”
after all.
“I don’t like it of Suzanne, if this is her scheme, to leave Maddy out
in the cold; but if she wants to room with you it would be much better
for her. I don’t see why she didn’t do it last year,--yes, I do, too.
She and Maddy are more congenial in many ways. That is nothing against
you, either.” Eleanor was surely frank, Ann thought. Probably Eleanor
had learned some things during her freshman year, as they all had.