"You are a dandy," was Jerry's greeting as Marjorie walked into their
room at ten minutes past six. "Where were you? Lucy said you ruined your
blue pongee with some horrid old chemical. It didn't take you two hours
to change it, did it? I see we have on our pink linen."
"You know perfectly well it did not take me two hours to change it. A
plain insinuation that I'm a slowpoke. Take it back." In high good
humor, Marjorie made a playful rush at her room-mate.
"Hold on. I am not made of wood, as Hal says when I occasionally hammer
him in fun." Jerry put up her hands in comic self-defense. "You
certainly are in a fine humor after keeping your poor pals waiting for
you for an hour and a half and then not even condescending to appear."
"I've had an adventure, Jeremiah. That's why I didn't meet you girls in
Hamilton. I started for there in a taxicab. Then I met a lady in
distress, and, emulating the example of a gallant knight, I hopped out
of the taxi to help her."
"Wonderful! I suppose you met Phil Moore or some other Silvertonite with
her arms full of bundles. About the time she saw you she dropped 'em.
'With a sympathetic yell, Helpful Marjorie leaped from the taxicab to
aid her overburdened but foolish friend.' Quotation from the last best
seller." Jerry regarded Marjorie with a teasing smile.
"Your suppositions are about a mile off the track. I haven't seen a
Silvertonite this afternoon. The lady in distress I met was----" Marjorie
paused by way of making her revelation more effective, "Miss Susanna
Hamilton."
"_What?_ You don't say so." Jerry exhibited the utmost astonishment.
"Good thing you didn't ask me to guess. She is the last person I would
have thought of. Now how did it happen? I am glad of it for your sake.
You've been so anxious to know her."
Rapidly Marjorie recounted the afternoon's adventure. As she talked she
busied herself with the redressing of her hair. After dinner she would
have no more than time to put on the white lingerie frock she intended
to wear to Elaine's birthday party.
Jerry listened without comment. While she had never taken the amount of
interest in the owner of Hamilton Arms which Marjorie had evinced since
entering Hamilton College, she had a certain curiosity regarding Miss
Susanna.
"I knew you girls would wait and wonder what had delayed me. I am
awfully sorry. You know that, Jeremiah," Marjorie apologized. "But I
couldn't have gone on in the taxi after I saw what had happened to Miss
Susanna. She couldn't have carried the basket as I did clear over to
that cottage. She said she would have picked up as many plant jars as
she could carry in her arms and gone on with them."
"One of the never-say-die sort, isn't she? Very likely in the years she
has lived near the college she has met with some rude girls. On the
order of the Sans, you know. If, in the past twenty years, Hamilton was
half as badly overrun with snobs as when we entered, one can imagine why
she doesn't adore students."
"It doesn't hurt my feelings to hear her say she disliked girls. I only
felt sorry for her. It must be dreadful to be old and lonely. She is
lonely, even if she doesn't know it. She has deliberately shut the door
between herself and happiness. I am so glad we're young, Jeremiah."
Marjorie sighed her gratitude for the gift of youth. "I hope always to
be young at heart."
"I sha'n't wear a cap and spectacles and walk with a cane until I have
to, believe me," was Jerry's emphatic rejoinder. "Are you ready to go
down to dinner? My hair is done, too. I shall dress after I've been fed.
Oh, I forgot to tell you. I bought you a present to give Elaine. We
bought every last thing we are going to give her at the Curio Shop."
"You are a dear. I knew some of the girls would help me out. I supposed
it would be you, though. Do let me see my present."
"There it is on my chiffonier. You'd better examine it after dinner. It
is a hand-painted chocolate pot; a beauty, too. Looks like a bit of
spring time."
"I'll look at it the minute I come back. I'm oceans obliged to you."
Marjorie cast a longing glance at the tall package on the chiffonier, as
the two girls left the room.
At dinner that night Marjorie's adventure of the afternoon excited the
interest of her chums. She was obliged to repeat, as nearly as she could
what she said to Miss Susanna and what Miss Susanna had said to her.
"Did she mention the May basket?" quizzed Muriel with a giggle.
"Now why should she?" counter-questioned Marjorie.
"Well; she was talking about not receiving a birthday present for over
fifty years. She might have said, 'But some kind-hearted person hung a
beautiful violet basket on my door on May day evening!'"
"Only she didn't. That flight of fancy was wasted," Jerry informed
Muriel.
"Wasted on you. You haven't proper sentiment," flung back Muriel.
"I'll never acquire it in your company," Jerry assured. The subdued
laughter the tilt evoked reached the table occupied by Leslie Cairns,
Natalie Weyman, Dulcie Vale and three others of the Sans.
"Those girls seem to find enough to laugh at," commented Dulcie Vale
half enviously.
"Simpletons!" muttered Leslie Cairns. She was out of sorts with the
world in general that evening. "They sit there and 'ha-ha-ha' at their
meals until I can hardly stand it sometimes. I hate eating dinner here.
I'd dine at the Colonial every evening, but it takes too much time. I
really must study hard this year to get through. I certainly will be
happy to see the last of this treadmill. I'm going to take a year after
I'm graduated just to sail around and have a good time. After that I
shall help my father in business."
"There's one thing you ought to know, Leslie, and that is you had better
be careful what you do this year. I have heard two or three rumors that
sound as though those girls over there had told about what happened the
night of the masquerade. I wouldn't take part in another affair of that
kind for millions of dollars."
Dulcie Vale assumed an air of virtuous resolve as she delivered herself
of this warning to Leslie.
"Don't worry. There won't be any occasion. I don't believe those muffs
ever told a thing outside of their own crowd. They're a close
corporation. I wish I could say the same of us." Leslie laughed this
arrow with cool deliberation.
"What do you mean?" Harriet Stephens said sharply. "Who of us would be
silly enough to tell our private affairs?"
"I hope you wouldn't." Leslie's eyes narrowed threateningly. "I have
heard one or two things myself which may or may not be true. I am not
ready to say anything further just now. My advice to all of you is to
keep your affairs to yourselves. If you are foolish enough to babble
your own about the campus, on your head be it. Be sure you will hear
from me if you tell tales. Besides, you are apt to lose your diplomas by
it. A word to the wise, you know. I have a recitation in psychology in
the morning. I must put in a quiet evening. Kindly let me alone, all of
you." She rose and sauntered from the room, leaving her satellites to
discuss her open insinuation and wonder what she had heard to put her in
such an "outrageous" humor.