It did not need Elaine's party to cement more securely the friendship
which existed between the Silvertonites and the group of Wayland
Hallites who had co-operated with them so loyally from the first. They
had fought side by side for principle. Now they were beginning to
glimpse the lighter, happier side of affairs and experience the pleasure
of discovering how much each group had to admire in the other.
"What we ought to do is organize a bureau of entertainment and give
musicales, plays, revues and one thing or another," Robin proposed to
Marjorie as the two were returning from a trip to the town of Hamilton
one afternoon in early October. "We would charge an admission fee, of
course, and put the money to some good purpose. I don't know what we
would do with it. There are so few really needy students here. We'd find
some worthy way of spending it. I know we would make a lot. The students
simply mob the gym when there's a basket-ball game. They'd be willing to
part with their shekels for the kind of show we could give."
"I think the same," Marjorie made hearty response. "At home we gave a
Campfire once, at Thanksgiving. We held it in the armory. We had booths
and sold different things. We had a show, too. That was the time Ronny
danced those two interpretative dances I told you of the other night. We
made over a thousand dollars. Half of it went to the Sanford guards and
the Lookouts got the other half."
"We could make a couple of hundred dollars at one revue, I believe. We
could give about three entertainments this year and three or four next,"
planned Robin. "It would have to be a fund devoted to helping the
students, I guess. Come to think of it, I would not care to get up a
show unless our purpose was clearly stated in the beginning. A few
unjust persons might start the story that we wanted the money for
ourselves. By the way, the Sans are not interesting themselves in our
affairs this year, are they? Do you ever clash with them at the Hall?"
"No; they never notice us and we never notice them. It isn't much
different in that respect than it was in the beginning. I'd feel rather
queer about it sometimes if they hadn't been so utterly heartless in so
many ways. This is their last year. It will seem queer when we come back
next fall as seniors to have almost an entirely new set of girls in the
house. I can't bear to think of losing Leila and Vera and Helen. Then
there are Rosalind, Nella, Martha and Hortense; splendid girls, all of
them. I wish they had been freshies with us. That's the beauty of the
Silvertonites. They will all be graduated together."
"We are fortunate. Think of poor Phil! She is going to be lonesome when
we all leave the good old port of Hamilton. To go back to the show idea.
I'm going to talk it over with my old stand-bys at our house. You do the
same at yours. Maybe some one of them will have a brilliant inspiration.
I mean, about what we ought to do with the money, once we've made it."
A sudden jolt of the taxicab in which they were riding, as it swung to
the right, combined with an indignant yell of protest from its driver,
startled them both. A blue and buff car had shot past them, barely
missing the side of the taxicab.
"Look where you're goin' or get off the road!" bawled the man after it.
His face was scarlet with anger, he turned in his seat, addressing his
fares. "That blue car near smashed us," he growled. "The young lady that
drives it had better quit and give somebody else the wheel. This is the
third time she near put my cab on the blink. She can't drive for sour
apples. I wisht, if you knew her, you'd tell her she's gotta quit it. I
don't own this cab. I don't wanta get mixed up in no smash-up. If she
does it again I'll go up to the college boss and report that car."
"Neither of us know her well enough to give her your message," Marjorie
smiled faintly, as she pictured herself giving the irate driver's
warning to Elizabeth Walbert. She had recognized the girl at the wheel
as the blue and buff car had passed her.
"I'll stop her myself and tell her where she gets off at," threatened
the man. "I ain't afraida her."
"I think that would be a very good idea," calmly agreed Marjorie. "There
is no reason why you should not rebuke her for her recklessness. She was
at fault; not you."
"Do you imagine he really would report Miss Walbert to Doctor Matthews,"
inquired Robin in discreetly lowered tones, as the driver resumed
attention at the wheel.
"He might. He would be more likely to do his talking to her," was
Marjorie's opinion. "I tried to encourage him in that idea. A report of
that kind to Dr. Matthews might result in the banning of cars at
Hamilton."
"Did you hear last year, at the time Katherine was hurt, that Miss
Cairns received a summons from Doctor Matthews? I was told that he gave
her a severe lecture on reckless driving. She told some of the Sans and
it came to Portia and I in a round-about way."
"I believe it to be true." Marjorie hesitated, then continued frankly.
"Katherine did not report her."
Unbound by any promise of secrecy to any person, Marjorie acquainted
Robin with the way the report of the accident had been put before the
president. She and her chums had heard the story from Lillian
Wenderblatt, who had so ardently urged her father to take up the cudgels
for Katherine directly after the accident.
"Lillian explained to her father that Katherine utterly refused to take
the matter up. He reported it to the doctor of his own accord, saying
that Katherine wished the affair closed. So Doctor Matthews didn't send
for her at all. While he never referred to the subject afterward to
Professor Wenderblatt, he said at the time of their talk that he would
send Miss Cairns a summons to his office. Lillian's father said the
doctor's word was equivalent to the summons. So I believe she received
one. None of us who are Kathie's close friends ever mentioned it to
others. Lillian told no one but us. She did not ask us to keep it a
secret. We simply _did not talk_ about it. That's why I felt free to
tell you, since you asked me a direct question."
"Strange, isn't it, that the Sans can't even be loyal to one another,"
Robin commented. "Very likely Leslie Cairns told them in confidence, not
expecting it would be betrayed. She may not know to this day that a girl
of her own crowd told tales."
"She is not honorable herself. Her intimates know that." Marjorie's
rejoinder held sternness. "There is nothing truer than the Bible verse:
'As ye sow, so must ye also reap.' She tries to gain whatever she
happens to want by dishonorable methods. In turn, her chums behave
dishonorably toward her.
"An unhappy state of affairs." Robin shrugged her disfavor. "Phil says
Miss Walbert is a talker; that she is becoming unpopular with the sophs
who voted for her last year because she gossips."
Marjorie smiled whimsically. "Wouldn't it be poetic justice if she were
to turn the half of her class who were for her last year against her by
her own unworthiness? After Miss Cairns worked so hard to establish her
too! There's surely a greater inclination toward democracy than last
year, or Phil wouldn't have won the sophomore presidency."
"Yes; and she won it by eighteen votes this year over Miss Keene, and
she is one of Miss Walbert's pals. Last year she lost it by nine. Some
difference!" Robin looked her pride of her lovable cousin. "I think
there is a great change for the better in Hamilton since we were
freshies, don't you?"
Marjorie made quick assent. "You Silverites have done the most for
Hamilton," she commended. "We Lookouts have tried our hardest, but we
couldn't have done much if you hadn't been behind us like a solid wall."
"You Lookouts deserve as much credit as we. You girls are social
successes in the nicest way, because you have all been so friendly and
sweet to everyone. Then you have fought shoulder to shoulder with us.
Now that we have begun to make our influence felt, we should follow it
up by giving entertainments in which the whole college can have a part."
"Let's do this," Marjorie proposed. "Bring the orchestra and Hope
Morris, she's so nice, over to Wayland Hall on Saturday evening. I'll
have a spread. Then we can plan something to give in the near future.
Here's my getting-off place. Goodbye."
The taxicab having reached a point on the main campus drive where two
other drives branched off right and left, the machine slowed down. She
rarely troubled the driver to take her to the door of the Hall, it being
but a few rods distant from this point.
Swinging up the drive and into the Hall in her usual energetic fashion,
Marjorie's first move was toward the bulletin board. Three letters was
the delightful harvest she reaped from it. One in Constance's small fine
hand, one from General. The third she eyed rather suspiciously. It was
in an unfamiliar hand and bore the address, "Marjorie Dean, Hamilton
College."
"An advertisement, I guess," was her frowning reflection as she went on
upstairs. "Anyone I know, well enough to receive a letter from, would
know my house address."
Anxious to relieve her arms of several bundles containing purchases made
at Hamilton before opening her letters, Marjorie did not stop to examine
her mail on the landing. Entering her room, she found it deserted of
Jerry's always congenial company. Immediately she dropped her packages
on the center table and plumped down to enjoy her letters.
Second glance at the letter informed her that the envelope was of fine
expensive paper. This fact dismissed the advertisement idea. Marjorie
toyed with it rather nervously. In the past she had received enough
annoying letters to make her dread the sight of her address in
unfamiliar handwriting. On the verge of reveling in the other two whose
contents she was sure to love, she hated the idea of a disagreeable
shock. She knew of no reason why she should be the recipient of any such
letter. That, however, would not prevent an unworthy person from writing
one.
Determined to read it first and have it over with, Marjorie tore open an
end of the envelope and extracted the missive from it. A hasty glance at
the end and she vented a relieved "A-h-h!" Turning back to the
beginning, she read with rising color:
"Marjorie Dean,
Hamilton College.
"Dear Child:
"Will you come to Hamilton Arms to tea next Thursday afternoon at
five o'clock? I find I have the wish to see and talk with you again.
I prefer you to keep the matter of your visit from your girl
friends. I am not on good terms with Hamilton College and its
students, and the information that I had invited you to tea would
form a choice bit of campus gossip.
"Yours sincerely,
"Susanna Craig Hamilton."