A BIT OF NEWS
“And Fifteen is vacant, you say? How queer.” Marjorie commented, her
eyes on Leila Harper, who was arranging a row of glasses on her study
table preparatory to filling them with imported ginger ale.
“As queer as the pea green hat that Mother Molly O’Toole found hanging
on a gooseberry bush the day before the fair at Dongerry,” agreed Leila
Harper with her broadest smile. She kept on smiling as she recited in
her inimitable Celtic accent:
“Acushla, ’twas near to the day of the fair
And poor Mother Molly’d no bonnet to wear,
Except a frilled cap she had worn day by day,
And year after year in the same humble way.
She went out of doors, and she heaved such a sigh
She blew up a gale in the garden near-by,
It whisked a wee leprechaun out of a tree
He lost his green hat as away he did flee:
It hung on the bush where the gooseberries grew;
Next morn Molly found it all covered with dew.
She dried it, ’twas grandly becoming to wear,
And she took a fine prize at the Dongerry fair.”
“Certainly some remarkable things have happened in Ireland,” Muriel
Harding declared mischievously. “Please, Irish witch woman, may I pass
the glasses?”
“You may; but spill not a drop out of one of them,” Leila cautioned. She
picked up a cake knife from the table and flourished it over a huge
black chocolate cake with thick white icing.
“You haven’t told me yet how it happens that Fifteen is vacant, Leila
Greatheart,” Marjorie reminded.
“In a minute. Let me start Midget going with the cake and I will tell
you anything,” was Leila’s rash promise.
“Whether you know it or not,” slyly added Ronny Lynne.
“Whether I know it or not,” Leila repeated firmly.
A burst of laughter rose from her six companions. The little group of
seven girls who had been the first Travelers at Hamilton College five
years before were gathered once more in the room occupied by Leila
Harper and Vera Mason at Wayland Hall during that long happy period. It
lacked only a few days of the formal opening of Hamilton College and the
seven post-graduates were already back on the campus eager to begin what
would undoubtedly be to them their most momentous year at Hamilton
College.
Readers of the “MARJORIE DEAN HIGH SCHOOL SERIES,” “THE MARJORIE DEAN
COLLEGE SERIES” and “THE MARJORIE DEAN POST GRADUATE SERIES,” each
comprising four volumes, have followed Marjorie through many of her
girlhood adventures as a student, first at Sanford High School, later at
Hamilton College, where she found her work and brought happiness to Miss
Susanna Hamilton, the embittered great-niece of Brooke Hamilton, who was
the distinguished founder of Hamilton College.
Marjorie, having been chosen by Miss Susanna as best fitted, in her
estimation, to write the biography of Brooke Hamilton, had returned to
Hamilton Arms once more there to bring to completion the delightful
literary task she had begun the previous March.
As yet, her General and her Captain alone were in possession of her plan
for a violet wedding at the Arms on the evening of May Day. Miss Susanna
had not yet been made acquainted with what would seem to her a
visitation of good fortune. Marjorie was saving the request she purposed
to make of her devoted friend until a particularly propitious occasion.
“Hurry and pass the cake, Vera. This tyrannical Celtic person says you
must before she will tell us a thing,” Marjorie urged, laughing.
“Here, help yourselves.” Vera hastily set the plate of cake Leila had
handed her upon the table with a hospitable gesture. “You can’t even
have paper plates to put it on. We forgot to buy them. We used to boast
of four china plates, but our guests are so rough.”
“Too bad. Never mind. Luciferous has a notebook. Delighted, Luciferous.”
Muriel laid calm hold upon the notebook in Lucy’s hand. “Yes, you must,”
she said with reproving stress as Lucy clung to the book. She captured
it, tore sheets of paper from it and handed them round to the tune of
Lucy’s grumbling at such a waste of good paper. “Just as good as
plates,” Muriel declared jovially. She hastily transferred a slice of
cake to her make-shift plate and beamed encouragingly upon Leila.
Leila returned the smile in kind. “The reason Fifteen is still vacant,”
she began, “is because no one has applied for it. Now what could be
queerer?”
“_Not anyone?_” Jerry Macy’s eyes grew round.
“Not anyone. All Miss Remson’s other vacancies have been filled. She
thinks it is odd, but she doesn’t mind. She will probably have an
application for it soon. It is a very desirable room, you know.”
“We surely do,” Marjorie and Jerry answered in merry chorus.
“Perhaps two girls from one of the other campus houses may hear it is
vacant and take it. Undoubtedly they will. It will never go begging,”
was Jerry’s opinion.
“Fifteen is one of the best rooms at the Hall. We can speak from
experience, can’t we, estimable Bean?” Jerry remarked, turning humorous
eyes upon Marjorie.
“_Can we?_” Marjorie returned the glance of affection. “When will Miss
Remson be home, Leila? It seems odd to come back to the Hall and not see
her first thing.”
The five Sanford chums had arrived at Hamilton late on the previous
afternoon. They had been met at the Hamilton station by Leila and Vera
and triumphantly whisked to Hamilton Arms in Vera’s car. There Miss
Susanna Hamilton had been awaiting their arrival with fond impatience.
Exuberant celebration had followed their arrival at the Arms. There had
been a delightful dinner in the famous Chinese room and the buoyant
guests had remained at the Arms overnight.
It was now early afternoon of the next day. Marjorie and Jerry had come
over to Wayland Hall for one of their old-time social sessions in
Leila’s and Vera’s rooms. The latter had returned from a summer spent in
Ireland over a week previous to the Sanford girls’ arrival on the
campus. They had come direct from the big ocean steamer to Hamilton
campus and Wayland Hall.
“She’ll be here tomorrow.” Miss Remson, the brisk little manager of the
Hall, was away on a brief vacation of a week at the seashore. “She was
going to refuse an old friend’s invitation on account of expecting you
girls. Midget and I made her change her mind, and go.”
“I’m so glad that you did,” Marjorie returned. “I’m anxious to see her.
I hope two dandy girls will take Fifteen.”
“We shall need them,” Leila said with a suspicion of dryness.
“Why do you say that, Leila Greatheart?” A little pucker of anxiety
showed itself upon Marjorie’s smooth forehead. “You must have some very
good reason for such an opinion.”
“I have,” Leila made prompt reply. “There is still danger at the Hall of
the calamity of the house divided against itself.”
“Isn’t there less now than when Muriel was on the outs with the Ice
Queen and the Ice Queen was on the outs with Gentleman Gus and the
Bertramites?” Ronny humorously referred to the Travelers’ vernacular in
the way of names. “This year, remember, they will all stand shoulder to
shoulder with us.”
“You forget the Screech Owl, who was born a gossip and a disturber,”
Leila reminded with a frown. “She was on her good behavior last spring
when she had a part in my Irish play. Did not I write the part of the
village gossip for her, on purpose, that she might see herself? She saw
nothing but her own glory as an actress. But she was so pleased that she
talked of herself and not of anyone else for a while. This much good I
did. But I happen to know she went back to gossiping again.”
“Whom did she gossip about? Doris? She naturally would, since Doris had
cut her acquaintance,” Muriel showed considerable interest. “That was
directly after the Rustic Romp, you know. They disagreed over Leslie
Cairns.”
“That was precisely where the shoe pinched,” Leila asserted. “It was
Leslie Cairns who Miss Peyton chose to blame for her falling out with
Doris. Then she could not resist the temptation to be spiteful.”
“What did Miss Peyton say about Leslie?” Marjorie asked with a suspicion
of troubled annoyance in her question.
“What you might expect. That she had attended the Rustic Romp. That fine
bit of news came to me through Miss Crawford, on the day before college
closed,” Leila said sarcastically. “She came to me and asked me in
horrified tones if it were true that Miss Dean had smuggled Miss Cairns,
an expelled student, into the gym on the night of the Romp.”
“Who could have told Miss Crawford that except Miss Peyton?” Vera cried
indignantly. “And why should she start such a tale about Marjorie?”
“Because she is still angry with me,” Marjorie returned composedly. “She
wanted Jane to blow the whistle for unmasking. I asked Jane to wait a
little. Miss Peyton does not know positively that Leslie was at the
Romp.”
“That’s exactly the point. She has no real ground for circulating that
story. It’s unjust to Marjorie. There has been too much of such
unfairness in the past.” Leila’s lips set in a forbidding line.
“Don’t worry about it for a minute, Leila Greatheart,” said Marjorie
soothingly. “I mean about anything Miss Peyton may choose to say of me.
We’ll have to try to conquer her by winning over the Hall to our code of
ethics. When she discovers that no one likes to hear gossip, perhaps she
will stop gossiping.”
“That’s a fine, rosy Bean view of things. But will it ever come true?”
Jerry propounded, tilting her head to one side and rolling doubtful
eyes.
“It won’t if you scoff at it, and treat it lightly,” Marjorie retorted.
“Depend on the Screech Owl to start something. Screech Owl!” Muriel
repeated the name with mock admiration. “What could be more appropriate?
My nobility doesn’t extend to refraining from that fond title.”
“_You_ are gossiping.” Lucy Warner pointed an accusing finger at Muriel.
“_Never._ Truth is truth, no matter where ’tis uttered. I’m merely
saying to you girls what I should take great pleasure in saying to the
Screech Owl herself. I long to tell her her right name.” Muriel
accompanied her fervent declaration with a sweeping gesture.
“Perhaps vacation joys will make her forget the Rustic Romp and what she
thinks she knows about Leslie,” Ronny made light prediction.
“Very optimistic, but not at all likely,” was Vera’s opinion.
“How did you answer Miss Crawford, Leila.” Marjorie had missed most of
the gay exchange of raillery among her companions. Her brain was busy
with the same problem that had invaded her thoughts on the last
afternoon she and Leslie Cairns had been together on the Speedwell.
“I asked her a question in return for hers. I said: ‘Who told you that
such a thing had happened?’ She tossed her head and said: ‘I prefer not
to answer that question.’ Then I smiled at her with fine Celtic good
humor, and said: ‘And I prefer not to answer yours.’ It was on the
campus near the Bean holder that we met. She walked away in a miff. And
I have not seen her since,” Leila ended genially.
“It’s too bad.” Marjorie stared at Leila with a troubled air.
“Now why should it be?” Leila demanded, smiling. “I have no admiration
for Miss Crawford, nor never did have. She is too ready to believe
unpleasant gossip.”
“I’m not thinking of Miss Crawford. I’m thinking of Leslie.” Marjorie’s
winsome smile broke out.
“I suspected that you had sympathy for someone besides me. I kept quiet
out of Irish politeness.” Despite her light retort Leila was surveying
Marjorie with true Celtic shrewdness. She knew Marjorie to be at the
point of announcing something of especial import.
The other girls were hardly less keen at reading the signs and arriving
at the same conclusion. Thus far none of her chums knew of the intimate
conversation she and Leslie Cairns had held on that last memorable
afternoon the two girls had spent on the observation platform of Peter
Cairns’ private car. Marjorie had regarded it in the light of a secret
confidence. Now, however, she had decided to impart it to the little
group of Travelers as a matter of interest to Leslie. The six Travelers
present already knew of the part Leslie Cairns had played the previous
spring in the Rustic Romp. Leslie had requested Marjorie to tell her
intimates of the affair. “I’d like your Beanstalks to know the rights of
that performance,” she had said to Marjorie with a tinge of humor.
“Girls;” Marjorie’s clear decided intonation brought all eyes to bear
upon her; “Leslie Cairns wants just one thing above all others that I
wish we could help her to gain. She wants to come back to the campus and
do her senior year over again.”
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