THE SOPHOMORE RECEPTION
When the four freshmen left Marjorie’s room, and walked out of the
dormitory to the campus where Ethel Todd and Marian Guard, and other
sophomore members of ΦΑΒ, were waiting with the camera, their whole
bearing expressed pride, as if they wanted to say to the rest of the
school, “We have been singled out by the sorority as the four most
eligible freshmen!”
Before they reached Ethel and Marian, the former called out, “Hurry up,
girls! We can’t wait all day!” Then, turning to Marian, she said in a
low voice, “Those girls are entirely too sure of themselves.” As they
came closer, she said aloud, “I always photograph a group of girls from
each class to send to mother. But I wish we could get some more girls
into this picture.”
Ethel looked away for a minute, as if she were thinking. She turned
to her room-mate. “Ruth,” she said, “who was that girl I met you with
yesterday?”
“Oh--Marjorie Wilkinson?”
“Was she tall and pretty?”
“Yes, she’s tall, and I suppose you might call her pretty: she has
light hair and brown eyes!”
“That’s the girl I mean! Couldn’t you go get her, if I wait a couple of
minutes?”
“I don’t believe so; I don’t think she’s dressed.”
“All right,” said Ethel, “I guess you will make a good picture of
freshness!”
“Are we so very green?” asked Doris, nevertheless highly flattered to
be teased by so important a person as Ethel Todd.
“Absolutely!” replied Ethel. “Now arrange yourselves in a group.”
She looked into the camera and saw Ruth, partly hidden behind Doris.
“She wants to be urged to a more prominent position,” thought Ethel,
“but she’s going to get left!” She said nothing and snapped the
picture. Then turning to Marian, “It’s time to dress,” she said; “let’s
go in.”
Ruth joined them; inwardly thanking her stars that she roomed with
Ethel.
After they had reached their room, and Marian had left them, Ethel
said, “To-morrow night I want to make it a point to meet this Marjorie
Wilkinson. Will you ask her to come over and go to the reception with
us?”
“I don’t believe she’d want to; I think I heard her planning to go with
her room-mate.”
“Well, let her bring her along, too.”
Ruth burst out laughing. “If you’d ever see her room-mate!” she
exclaimed. “She dresses like a Christmas tree, and she’s always talking
about her father’s money. She’s simply impossible!”
“Then I shouldn’t think your friend Marjorie would care for her.”
“Oh, she likes anybody,” said Ruth, anxious to dismiss the other girl
from the mind of her room-mate. “Let’s finish putting up the pictures.”
“Anyway,” said Ethel, “I want to know Marjorie Wilkinson. She looks
promising.”
The sophomores had secured the gymnasium for their reception to the
freshmen. All the afternoon of the following day, the committee was
busy with the decorations. The girls had gone into the woods and
returned with their arms full of autumn leaves and wild asters. They
twined branches through the apparatus; they covered the walls with
school banners; and they pinned orange crepe paper over the bright
electric bulbs to soften the glare. At quarter of six, Frances Wright,
the sophomore president, surveyed the hall approvingly.
“You’d never recognize the old gym, would you?” she remarked to Ethel,
as the girls started toward the door.
The sophomores all ate rather hastily that evening, in their anxiety
to precede their guests at the reception. Shortly after eight, the
freshmen began to arrive in groups. Ruth, accompanied by her three
friends--Doris Sands, Evelyn Hopkins, and Mae VanHorn, was among the
first to appear.
Marjorie and Lily came very late. Lily had encountered difficulty in
dressing--“Without mother’s maid to help me,” she had explained to her
room-mate; and Marjorie had patiently waited for her. Almost everyone
else was there when they finally arrived.
The reception committee had become scattered, but Frances Wright
noticed the newcomers as they entered the room, and went forward to
greet them.
“We’re awfully glad to see you, girls,” she said cordially. “Will you
forgive me if I ask you your names?”
“Certainly,” replied Marjorie, graciously complying with the
president’s request.
“Marjorie Wilkinson!” she repeated. “Oh, yes, I know. You’re the girl
Ethel Todd has been talking about.”
“Ethel Todd! Ruth Henry’s room-mate?” asked Marjorie, somewhat
surprised.
“Yes.”
“But I only met her once----”
“Well, you must have made an impression. So long as I’m not busy, I’d
like to take you both over to see Ethel.”
Ethel, Marian Guard, and Lulu Davids, the other sorority sophomores,
were standing talking to Ruth and her three freshmen friends. Frances
walked between Lily and Marjorie, holding an arm of each. Ethel seemed
particularly cordial, and Lily talked fast and loud, realizing that
their group, including as it did, the four ΦΑΒ sophomores, must be the
center of attraction, and the envy of all the other freshmen.
Just then the musicians struck up a one-step. Ethel asked Marjorie
immediately for a dance, and the two whirled off together. Marian and
Lulu asked Doris and Mae, and Frances Wright excused herself to attend
to some other matters. Ruth and Evelyn stood watching the dancers, as
Lily turned to them.
“My, aren’t these sorority girls swell?” she said. “I like them a lot,
and I never thought I’d get in with them so quick! But my father said
he bet I’d wear their pin home Thanksgiving!”
Ruth looked contemptuous, and Evelyn laughed out loud.
“Let’s dance together,” suggested Ruth, and without even an apology,
they left Lily standing alone.
At the end of the dance, games were introduced to scatter the groups;
and even Ruth found herself, in a few moments, far away from her
beloved sorority friends. But they managed to get together again for
refreshments. When everybody was seated, Ethel suddenly asked:
“Where is Marjorie Wilkinson?”
“She’s over there with some of her freshmen friends,” said Ruth.
“I’d like to have her with us,” said Ethel. “Ruth, will you go over and
ask her to join our group?”
Ruth frowned slightly, but rose obediently to do as Ethel requested.
She showed rather plainly, however, that she did not especially want
Marjorie, and the latter was quick to recognize her feeling.
“No, thank you!” said Marjorie. “It’s very kind of Miss Todd, but I
can’t leave Lily, and the other girls I am with.”
“I’ll go,” said Lily, “even if Marjorie doesn’t care to!” She rose and
slipped her fat arm, covered with expensive bracelets, into Ruth’s.
“It’s such fun!” she exclaimed.
Ethel expressed her disappointment. “Well, then, I am going over to
talk to her,” she said. “Don’t you want to come with me, Marian?”
As both girls rose, Lily announced, “I believe I’ll change my mind, and
go back again, so that I’ll be with Marjorie when it’s time to go home.”
Everyone laughed, as Lily tagged along after the two sophomores. Ruth
turned to Doris.
“Isn’t it too bad, to have all our plans spoiled?” she asked.
“You mean about the sorority?”
“Yes.” She lowered her voice, and Mae and Evelyn drew their chairs
nearer to the others.
“You see,” continued Ruth, “up till to-night, the ΦΑΒ girls haven’t
been paying attention to anybody except us four girls; and I felt
pretty sure we’d be chosen. Now, if they get interested in Marjorie
Wilkinson, one of us is sure to be left out.”
“That’s so!” exclaimed Mae.
“What we ought to do,” announced Ruth, “is all stick together--and if
they don’t ask all of us, then none of us will join!”
“I don’t approve of that,” pouted Evelyn. “There are thirty-five girls
in the Freshman Class, and they can ask four entirely different girls
from any of us. I, for one, intend to join if I am asked.”
“You’re not very loyal!” exclaimed Ruth.
“How about your loyalty?” snapped Evelyn. “Wasn’t Marjorie Wilkinson
your friend? And now aren’t you doing your best to work against her?”
Ruth did not answer this accusation. The situation was relieved by the
orchestra starting to play.
“There’s the music for the last waltz,” said Doris. “I guess we might
as well dance it together, Ruth.”
But before the girls got started, Ethel came back again. “I want this
dance with my room-mate,” she said, taking Ruth’s hand.
Ruth looked up happily, and they started off together.
“And I’m going to take you home,” she said; “each sophomore takes a
freshman.”
As Ruth hurried up the stairs to get her cloak, she met Marjorie.
“Hasn’t it been wonderful?” she whispered.
“Yes, indeed,” answered Marjorie enthusiastically.
“And Ethel is taking me home!” said Ruth triumphantly. “I thought she
would want to take you, she seemed so struck with you! By the way, who
is taking you?” she asked.
“I had the last dance with Frances Wright, and she offered to walk over
with me.”
“Phew!” exclaimed Ruth. “The President of the Sophomore Class, and a
ΦΑΒ girl besides!”
“She’s a nice girl,” said Marjorie simply; “and I have enjoyed my
evening.”