Leslie Cairns' opinion of the matter coincided with Jerry's, though the
latter could not know it. To become involved in a roadside argument with
an irate taxicab driver did not appeal to her in the least. She was not
half so angry with him, however, as with Elizabeth Walbert. She blamed
the latter for the whole thing. For several minutes after Helen and
Jerry had driven by them, Elizabeth and the driver continued to quarrel.
"How much do you want for the damage you say we have done your cab?"
Leslie had impatiently inquired of the man. "Cut it out, Bess, and get
back to your car," she had ordered in the next breath. "Let me settle
this business."
A momentary hesitation and Elizabeth had obeyed. She could not afford to
antagonize Leslie, at present. She had an axe of her own yet to be
ground.
"I oughtta have twenty-five dollars. It ain't my car. Repairin' comes
high."
"Very good. Here is your money. Wait a minute." Leslie had extracted the
sum from her handbag. With it came a small pad of blank paper and a
fountain pen. Then and there she obtained not only a receipt for the
money but a statement of release as well. She was well aware that it
would not cost twenty-five dollars to repaint the side of the cab
scraped by their car, but she preferred the matter summarily closed.
Returning to the car she had said shortly: "I'll take the wheel."
Elizabeth had resumed the driver's seat. Nor had she made any move
toward relinquishing it.
"You heard what I said, Bess," she had sharply rebuked. "Either that, or
you and I are on the outs for good. You let me drive that car and show
you a few things you need badly to know about driving." Leslie's
lowering face and tense utterance had had its effect. Elizabeth had
allowed her to drive back to Hamilton but had sulked all the way to the
campus.
At the garage she had unbent a little and inquired how much Leslie had
paid the driver. "I'll return it to you next week," she had promised.
"Suit yourself about that. I'm in no hurry. I took it upon myself to
settle with the idiot. It wouldn't worry me if you never paid it. I
thought it best to pacify him. I don't care to have him reporting us to
Matthews as he threatened to do." This had been Leslie's mind on the
subject.
"I don't believe he would ever go near Doctor Matthews. Still _you_
couldn't afford to risk being reported," Elizabeth had retorted with
special emphasis on the "you."
To this Leslie had vouchsafed no reply. She had merely stared at her
companion in a most disconcerting fashion and walked off and left her.
She was thoroughly nettled with Elizabeth for her lack of gratitude.
Natalie was right about her it seemed. She was also wondering where the
ungrateful sophomore had obtained certain information which she
apparently possessed. No one beyond her seven intimates among the Sans
knew that she had been reprimanded by President Matthews for the
accident to Katherine Langly. To the other members of the club she had
intimated that she had adjusted the matter quietly with Katherine.
That evening, while Jerry was recounting to her chums what she and Helen
had heard of the altercation between the cab driver and the two girls,
Leslie was having a confidential talk with Natalie Weyman. She had gone
straight from the garage to her room, eaten dinner at the Hall and asked
Natalie to come to her room after dinner.
"Nat, you are right about Bess. She is no good," Leslie began, dropping
into a chair opposite that of her friend. Briefly narrating the
happening of the afternoon, she repeated the remark Elizabeth had made
to her at the garage. "What would you draw from that?" she asked.
"Someone has been talking." Natalie compressed her lips in a tight line.
"You are sure you never told her yourself?"
"_Positively, no._ I have never babbled my private affairs to Bess, or
Lola either. Only the old crowd were told the facts of that trouble. We
have a traitor in the camp and _I know who it is_." Leslie's eyes
narrowed with sinister significance. "It's Dulcie. I am going to find
out quietly what all she has been saying about me and to whom she has
been saying it. I'm sure she told Bess about the summons. That isn't so
serious. I could overlook that, although I don't like it. It is the
other things she may have told. That's what worries me. She and I have
been on the outs since that Valentine masquerade last year. She hardly
ever comes to my room. I am not sorry. I never got along well with
Dulcie. I never trusted her."
"Dulcie ought to know better than tell all she knows to that Walbert
creature," Natalie made indignant return. "Why, Les, suppose she were
foolish enough to tell her about that high tribunal stunt?" Natalie drew
a sharp breath of consternation. "Dulcie knows the rights of the Remson
mix-up, too."
"Dulcie knows too much. So do some of the other girls. If I had it to do
over again, I would not tell anyone but you how I put over a stunt. Why
did we haze Bean? Simply because she reported me to Matthews after
Langly had agreed to drop it. The girls were all in on the hazing, so
not one of them would be safe if they told it."
"The Remson affair would do you the most harm if it got out," Natalie
said decidedly. "It is contemptible in Dulcie to gossip about you after
all the favors you have done her. You've lent her money over and over
again. You know she never pays it back if she can slide out of it."
Leslie made an indifferent gesture of assent. "She owes me over two
hundred dollars now. I lent it to her during her freshie year. She paid
up what she borrowed of me last year, but she never said a word about
the other. Dulcie has _nerve_, Nat; pure, unadulterated _nerve_. She
can't bear me lately because I run the Sans to suit myself. I always ran
the club and she knows that. Last year she decided that she would like
to run it herself. I sat down on her every time she tried it. She
deliberately left the back door of that house unlocked the night we
hazed Bean. I told her to see to it. She was edgeways at me. She never
went near the door. You know what happened."
"Dulcie will have to be told a few plain truths." Natalie frowned
displeased anxiety. The news of Dulcie's defection was rather alarming.
"She is going to hear them from me, but not yet. I shall catch her dead
to rights before I have things out with her. I've made up my mind just
how I am going to do it, provided the rest of the Sans stand by me. It
will be to their interest to do so. I mean, with their support, I can
give her precisely what she deserves."
"I'll stand by you. Joan will, too. She is down on Dulcie for some
reason or other. They haven't been on speaking terms for a week. I asked
Joan what the trouble was between them. She said Dulcie made her weary
and she didn't care whether she ever spoke to her again or not. That was
all I could get out of her."
"Hm-m!" Leslie looked interested. "I shall find out tomorrow what Joan
has against her. If Dulcie hasn't gabbed anything worse to Bess, and I
presume a few others, than the news that I received a summons from his
high and cranky mightiness, I will let her off with my candid opinion of
her. If she has been a busy little news distributor of secret matters,
she will rue it. I'll have no traitors among the Sans."