Dulcie's parting fling drove away Marjorie's righteous indignation. It
was so utterly childish. She smiled as she arranged her books and papers
to her mind and sat down to study. Two or three times in the course of
study the remark re-occurred to her and she giggled softly. The name
'Bean,' as applied to her by Leslie Cairns, had invariably made her
laugh whenever she had heard it.
When Jerry finally put in an appearance, Lucy and Ronny at her heels,
Marjorie related to them the incident of Dulcie's call.
"Oh, oh, oh!" groaned Jerry. "Why wasn't I here? I always miss the most
exciting moments of life."
"I wished with all my heart that you would walk in and end the
interview. She had so little honor about her I felt once as though I
couldn't endure having her here another minute. Then she took herself
off so suddenly I was amazed."
"Do you think she will go to Doctor Matthews?" Ronny asked rather
skeptically. "Possibly what you said will take hold on her after all."
"No. She will go," Marjorie predicted with conviction. "She is
determined on that. Maybe not right away. Goodness knows how much
trouble it will stir up."
"You're right," nodded Jerry. "Bring the Sans to carpet and they will
probably name us as the crowd who broke in on their ridiculous tribunal.
What then?"
"If we are accused of any such thing we can only tell the truth," smiled
Lucy. "We were in our masquerade costumes. We weren't wearing dominos,
but our own coats and scarfs. We went to rescue Marjorie. We were not
out on a hazing expedition."
"The only thing we should not have done, perhaps, was to blow out the
candles," declared Ronny with a reminiscent chuckle. "That was my doing.
Some of the Sans might have been quite seriously hurt in the dark. They
deserved the few bumps they garnered. I'm not sorry for that part of our
rescue dash on them."
"What a wonderful time we'll have if we are brought up to face the Sans
in Doctor Matthews' office. Lead me to it; away from it, I had better
say." Jerry made a wry face.
"Don't worry. I shall be on outpost duty," laughed Lucy. "I am going to
begin substituting for the Doctor tomorrow morning. Miss Humphrey sent
for me after biology this P.M. to ask me if I would. Miss Sayres has
bronchitis. I am so far ahead in my subjects I can spare two weeks to
the doctor's work. I was at Lillian's house for dinner tonight, so I
didn't have a chance to tell you girls the news. If this affair comes up
while I am working for the doctor, I shall no doubt hear of it. So long
as we are all concerned in it, I shall feel I have the right to tell you
if Miss Vale starts trouble."
The Lookouts were not in the least worried over their own position in
the matter. While they might not escape reprimand, they had done nothing
underhanded nor disgraceful. According to Jerry they had "sprung a
beautiful scare where it was needed."
During the first week of her secretaryship for the doctor, Lucy heard
nothing that would indicate the promised expose on Dulcie's part. They
saw her several times on the campus or driving with Elizabeth Walbert,
apparently well pleased with herself. It was Jerry's opinion that she
had built upon Marjorie's aid. Being denied this, she had abandoned the
project as too risky to undertake alone.
One thing lynx-eyed Lucy discovered concerning the secretary was her
extreme carelessness in filing. More than once the doctor's patience and
her own were taxed by protracted hunts on her part for correspondence on
file.
"I exonerate you from blame for this, Miss Warner," the kindly doctor
declared more than once. "I have spoken to Miss Sayres of this fault. I
shall take it up with her again when she returns."
As the first week merged into the second and the second into the third,
and still Lucy remained as the doctor's secretary, the two began to be
on the best of terms. Quick to appreciate Lucy's remarkable brilliancy
as a student, not to mention her perfect work as secretary, the doctor
and she had several long talks on biology, mathematics, and the affairs
of Hamilton College as well.
During one of these talks a gleam of light shone for a moment on the
mystery Lucy never gave up hoping to solve. In mentioning Wayland Hall,
the president referred to Miss Remson as one of his oldest friends on
the campus. "I have not seen Miss Remson for a very long time," he said
with a slight frown. "Let me see. It will be----can it be possible?----two
years in June. And she living so near me! She used to be a fairly
frequent visitor at our house. I must ask Mrs. Matthews to write her to
dine with us soon. Kindly remind me of that, Miss Warner; say this
afternoon before you leave. I will make a note of it."
Lucy reminded him of the matter that afternoon with a glad heart. She
confided it to her Lookout chums and they rejoiced with her. She would
have liked to tell Miss Remson the good news but courtesy forbade the
doing. The Lookouts agreed among themselves that it showed very plainly
who was responsible for the misunderstanding.
At the beginning of the fourth week Miss Sayres returned. Lucy could
only hope that Doctor Matthews had not forgotten to remind his wife of
the dinner invitation. She was sure, had Miss Remson received it, that
she would have mentioned it to them. She would have wished the Nine
Travelers to know it. Whether Miss Remson would have accepted it was a
question. She had her own proper pride in the matter. The girls had
agreed that should she mention it, Lucy was then to tell her of the
conversation with Doctor Matthews.
"Queer, but Miss Remson hasn't said a word about receiving that
invitation," Ronny said to Lucy one evening shortly before the closing
of college for the Easter holidays. "The doctor must have forgotten all
about it. That shows his conscience is clear. It would appear that he
doesn't even suspect Miss Remson has a grievance against him."
"I am sure he forgot it." Lucy looked rather gloomy over the doctor's
omission. "It was such a fine opportunity, and now it's lost. If I
should work for him again I might remind him of it. If I did, I'd do
more than mere reminding. I'd ask him to try to see Miss Remson and tell
him I thought there had been a misunderstanding. I would have said so
this time, but when he spoke of inviting her to their house for dinner,
I supposed the tangle would be straightened post haste."
"He may happen to recall it months from now," Ronny consoled. "That's
the way my father does. Men of affairs hardly ever forget things for
good. Sooner or later a memory of that kind crops up again."
While Lucy worried because the doctor had forgotten his kindly intention
toward their faithful elderly friend, Leslie Cairns was plunged in the
depths of apprehension because of Lucy's substitution for Laura Sayres.
Each day she wondered if the sword would fall. She visited Laura and
made her worse by her irritating questions regarding the secretary's
methods of filing. Was there any danger of old Matthews going through
the files himself? Was Laura sure that she had eliminated every bit of
evidence against them? Was she positive she had destroyed the letter
Miss Remson had written him, supposedly? Nor had Leslie any mercy on the
secretary's weakened condition. Laura bore her unfeeling selfishness
without much protest. Leslie had given her one hundred dollars in her
first visit. This palliated the senior's faults.
When at the end of the third week nothing had occurred of a dismaying
nature, Leslie began to believe that her college career was safe. With
Easter just ahead, a very late Easter, too, only two months stretched
between her and Commencement, that dear day of honor and freedom for
her. She had worried but little over Dulcie's threats. Elizabeth
Walbert's parting shot, "You'll be sorry," crossed her mind
occasionally. She attached not much importance to it at first and less
as winter drew on toward spring.
Dulcie Vale, however, was only biding her time. She never relinquished
for an hour her resolve to bring disgrace upon the Sans. Leslie having
ordered her chums to steer clear of Bess Walbert, the latter also burned
for revenge. She and Dulcie, after one glorious quarrel over what each
had said about the other to Leslie, had made up and joined forces. They
had a common object. Thus they clung together. They made elaborate plans
for retaliation, only to abandon them for the one great plan, the
betrayal of the Sans to Doctor Matthews.
Dulcie had at first decided to go to the president of Hamilton College
within a few days after her unsuccessful talk with Marjorie. Then she
thought of something else which pleased her better. She would wait until
after Easter. If the Sans were expelled from college just before Easter,
they would endeavor to slip away quietly, making it appear that they had
left of their own accord. If she waited until they had returned, the
blow would be far more crushing.
Regarding herself, Dulcie had her own plans. Her family, including her
father, were in Europe. Her mother would not return until the next July.
Her father, luckily for her, was to be in Paris until the following
January. Her mother allowed her to do as she pleased. What Dulcie
intended to do to please herself was to leave Hamilton on the Easter
vacation not to return. She was not too stupid to realize that the Sans,
accused of many faults by her, would turn on her _en masse_ and
implicate her. She could not hold out against them if arraigned in the
presence of Doctor Matthews. She was also too heavily conditioned to
graduate, and she hated college since her ostracization by the Sans. She
was more than ready to leave. She would walk out and let her former
chums bear the consequences. They had not spared her. She would not
spare them.