CAMPUS CONFIDENCES
After the Easter vacation there seemed very little left of the college
year. Spring overtook the Overton girls unawares, and golf, tennis,
Saturday afternoon picnics and walking tours crowded even basketball off
their schedule. It was delightful just to stroll about the fast-greening
campus arm in arm with one's best friend under the smiling blue of an
April sky. It was ideal weather for planning for the future, but it was
anything but conducive to study.
"It's a good thing we work like mad in the winter," grumbled Elfreda
Briggs, giving her Horace a vindictive little shove that sent it sliding
to the floor. "I can't remember anything now, except that the grass is
green, the sky is blue--"
"Sugar is sweet, and so are you," supplemented Miriam Nesbit slyly.
"That wasn't what I was going to say at all," retorted Elfreda
reprovingly.
"Then I beg your pardon," returned Miriam, with mock contrition. "What
were you going to say?"
"Nothing much," grinned Elfreda, "except that I was weighed to-day and
I've lost five pounds. I am down to one hundred and forty-five pounds
now. If I can lose five pounds more this summer I shall be in fine
condition for basketball next fall."
"You did splendid work on the sub team this year," replied Miriam
warmly. "I am sure that you will make the regular team next fall."
"The upper class girls say they have very little time for basketball,"
mused Elfreda. "All kinds of other stunts crowd it out. I'm not going to
be like that, though. I love to play and I shall manage to find time for
it."
"Where is Grace to-night?" asked Elfreda. "I didn't see her at dinner."
"She had a dinner engagement with Mabel Ashe."
"Vinton's?" asked Elfreda.
Miriam nodded.
"Grace is lucky," sighed Elfreda. "She is always being invited to
something or other. Her dinner partners always materialize, too," she
added ruefully.
"Which is more than can be said of some of yours," laughed Miriam.
"Strange you never found out about that, isn't it?"
It was Elfreda's turn to nod. "I have often thought I would go to Miss
Atkins and ask her why she left me to languish dinnerless in my room
after inviting me to eat, drink and be merry," mused Elfreda. "I hate to
go home with the mystery unsolved. I believe I will go ask her now," she
declared, with sudden energy. "I know she's alone, for the Enigma isn't
there to-night." Elfreda had recently bestowed this title upon Mildred
Taylor on account of her inexplicable attitude toward Grace.
"I have been disappointed in little Miss Taylor," remarked Miriam
slowly. "I was so sure that she would prove another Arline Thayer. She
had the same fascinating little ways and at first she seemed so
genuinely frank and straightforward."
"I wonder what made her change so suddenly," said Elfreda, walking to
the door, "and toward Grace, especially. She doesn't speak to Grace when
she meets her. She is an Enigma and no mistake. Now for our friend the
Anarchist. If I don't come back within a reasonable length of time you
will know that I have been annihilated."
Ten minutes went by, then ten more. At the end of half an hour Miriam
wondered slightly at her roommate's continued absence. Just before time
for the dinner bell to ring, Elfreda burst into the room with: "Miriam,
will you help me to dress? I am invited to dinner and this time I am
going. The An--Miss Atkins has forgiven me, peace has been restored and
we are going out to dine, arm in arm." Elfreda pranced jubilantly about
the room, then flinging open the door of the wardrobe brought forth two
large boxes that had come by express the day before, one of them
containing her new spring hat, the other a smart suit of natural pongee.
[Illustration: The Two Boxes Contained Elfreda's New Suit and Hat.]
"Stop hurrying for a minute and give me a true and faithful account of
this miracle," demanded Miriam. "I had begun to think the worst had
happened. What did you say first, and what did she say?"
"The door of her room stood partly open and I knocked on it, then
marched in without an invitation," replied Elfreda. "She was so
surprised she forgot to be angry, and before she had time to remember
that she didn't like me I surprised her still further by asking her to
tell me why she had refused to speak to me for so long. Before she knew
it she had stammered something about Grace and I calling her names and
making fun of her behind her back when she had asked me in all good
faith to have dinner with her at Vinton's. She declared she had heard
us.
"The instant she said that I remembered that I had mimicked her that
night while dressing and that Grace had laughed, but had said in the
same breath, that it wasn't fair. So I asked her point blank if that was
what she meant, and she said 'yes,' only she hadn't waited long enough
to hear what Grace had said about unfairness. She had come to the door
just in time to hear me mimic her, and had rushed back to her room angry
and hurt. Then I explained to her that I had a bad trick of imitating
even my friends, and that I had offended more than one person by my
thoughtlessness. I was really dreadfully sorry and asked her to forgive
me. She had half a mind not to do it, then she relented, smiled a little
and actually offered me her hand. Of course, after that I stayed a few
minutes to talk things over with her and she proposed going to dinner.
She is changed. In just what way I can't explain, except that she is
more gentle and not quite so prim. Will you look in the top drawer of
the chiffonier and see if I put my gold beads in that green box? You
know the one I mean."
Miriam obediently opened the drawer and taking the beads from the box
deftly fastened them about Elfreda's neck. "Grace will be glad to hear
of this," she remarked. "May I tell her and Anne?"
"Yes," returned Elfreda, "but please don't tell any one else." Pinning
on her new hat she hurried off to keep her long-delayed engagement with
the now thoroughly pacified Anarchist.
When the dinner bell rang, Miriam suddenly remembered that of the four
friends she was the only stay-at-home that night. Anne had gone to take
supper and spend the evening with Ruth Denton. As she took her seat at
the table she noted that Emma Dean's and Mildred Taylor's places were
also vacant.
"Where is everyone to-night?" asked Irene Evans, who sat opposite
Miriam.
"Grace, Anne and Elfreda were all invited out this evening," answered
Miriam. "I don't know anything about Miss Dean and Miss Taylor."
"Emma is spending the evening with her cousin, that other Miss Dean of
Ralston House," replied Irene. "Miss Taylor," she shrugged her shoulders
slightly, "is with Miss Wicks and Miss Hampton, I suppose."
"I don't think I shall overstudy to-night," announced Miriam, a little
later, as she rose from the table. "I'm going for a walk. Want to go
with me?"
"I'm sorry," replied Irene regretfully, "but I've a frightfully hard
chemistry lesson ahead of me to-night."
It had been an unusually balmy April and now that the moon was at the
full, the Overton girls took advantage of the fine nights to walk up and
down College Street or the campus. Sure of finding some one she knew,
Miriam slipped on her sweater, and, disdaining a hat, strolled down the
street toward the campus. Exchanging numerous greetings with students,
she wandered aimlessly across the campus toward a seat built against a
tree where she and Grace had had more than one quiet session.
As she neared the seat, which was somewhat in the shadow, she gave a
little startled exclamation. A girl was crouching at the darkest end of
the seat, her face hidden in her hands. Turning away, Miriam was about
to recross the campus when the utter despondency of the girl's attitude
caused her to go back. Stopping directly in front of the bowed figure,
she said gently, "Can I help you?"
The girl rose, and without answering was about to hurry away, when
Miriam, after one swift glance at her face, ran after her, exclaiming,
"Wait a moment, Miss Taylor!"
Mildred Taylor stopped and eyed Miriam defiantly. Despite her expression
of bravado, she looked as though she had been crying. "What do you
want?" she asked in a low voice.
"To talk with you," said Miriam boldly, stepping forward and slipping
her arm through Mildred's. "Shall we sit down here and begin? All my
friends have deserted me to-night. There were ever so many vacant places
at the dinner table. I noticed you were away, too."
"I--I--have--haven't had any dinner," faltered Mildred. Then, staring
disconsolately at her companion for an instant, she dropped her head on
her arm and gave way to violent sobbing. "I am so miserable," she
wailed.
Miriam sat silent, touched by Mildred's distress, yet undecided what to
do. Things were evidently going badly with the "cute" little girl. "She
has done something she is sorry for," was Miriam's reflection. After a
slight deliberation she said gently, "Is there anything you wish to tell
me, Miss Taylor?"
Mildred raised her head, regarding Miriam with troubled, hopeless eyes.
Miriam took one of the little girl's hands in hers. "Do not be afraid to
tell me," she said earnestly. "I am your friend."
"You wouldn't be if you knew what a miserable, contemptible coward I
am," muttered Mildred. "I can't tell you anything. Please go away." Her
head dropped to her arm again.
Miriam, still holding her other hand, patted it comfortingly. "No one is
infallible, Miss Taylor. I once felt just as you do to-night. Only I am
quite sure that my fault was much graver than yours can possibly be."
Mildred raised her head with a jerk. She looked at Miriam incredulously.
"I don't think _you_ ever did anything very contemptible," she said
sceptically.
"Let me tell you about it," replied Miriam soberly. "Then you can judge
for yourself. The person whom I wronged has long since forgiven me, but
I can never quite forgive myself or forget. It was during my first year
in high school that I began behaving very badly toward a new girl in the
freshman class, of whom I was jealous. I was the star pupil of the class
until she came, then she proved herself my equal if not my superior in
class standing, and I tried in every way to discredit her in the eyes of
her teachers and her friends. At the end of the freshman year, a sum of
money was offered as a prize to the freshman who averaged highest in her
final examinations. Feeling sure that this other girl would win it, I
managed, with the help of some one as dishonest as myself, to gain
possession of the examination questions, but before I had finished with
them, I was obliged to drop them in a hurry, to escape discovery by the
principal. By the merest chance the girl I disliked happened along just
in time to be suspected of tampering with the papers. But she had
friends who fought loyally for her and cleared her of the suspicion.
"She won the prize. Nothing was ever said to me about it, but I knew
that the principal and at least four girls in school knew what I had
done. When I entered the sophomore class in the fall I felt a positive
hatred for this girl and for her friends. I did all sorts of cruel,
despicable things that year, and succeeded in dividing my class into two
factions who opposed each other at every point.
"Toward the last of the year I grew tired of being so disagreeable. My
conscience began to trouble me seriously. Then, one day, the two girls I
despised did me a great service, and my enmity toward them died out
forever.
"I can't begin to tell you how differently I felt after I had
acknowledged my fault and been forgiven. Those girls are my dearest
friends now. You know them, too."
"You--you don't mean Miss Harlowe and Miss Pierson?" asked Mildred in a
low tone, her eyes fixed upon Miriam.
Miriam nodded. "Grace and Anne are the most charitable girls I ever
knew," she said softly, "If they were not they would never have forgiven
me. Anne was the girl who won the prize. Grace was one of the friends
who stood by her. If you feel that you have done some one an injustice,
you will not be happy until you have righted matters. If the person
refuses to forgive you, you at least will have done your part."
"I can't go to the--the--person and tell her," faltered Mildred. "I
should die of humiliation."
"But you don't wish to go away from Overton carrying this burden with
you," persisted Miriam. "It will weigh heavily upon you when you come
back next fall--"
"I'm not coming back next fall," mumbled Mildred. "I shall never again
be happy at Overton."
"Brace up, and square things with the other girl, and you'll feel
differently," retorted Miriam.
"If it were any one else besides Miss Harlowe," began Mildred.
"Oh, I am so sorry you told me her name!" exclaimed Miriam regretfully.
"Now that I know it is Grace, however, I shall redouble my advice about
going to her. You need have no fear that she will not forgive you. Grace
never holds grudges."
"I can't do it," declared Mildred tremulously, "I am afraid."
Miriam looked at her companion rather doubtfully. "I think Grace is the
person with whom to talk this matter over," she declared. "Suppose we go
over to Wayne Hall now? She went to dinner at Vinton's with Mabel Ashe,
but she must be at the hall by this time."
"Oh, I can't," gasped Mildred nervously, "Yes, yes, I will if you will
come with me while I tell her."
"I think it would be better for you to go to her by yourself," said
Miriam dubiously.
"I can't do it," protested Mildred miserably. "Please, please come with
me."
"Then, let us go now," returned Miriam decisively. "We may catch Grace
at home and alone."
During the walk across the campus the two girls exchanged no words.
Mildred was trying to summon all her courage in order to make the
dreaded confession.
Miriam was thinking of the day that belonged to the long ago when she
had confessed her fault, and, joining hands with Anne Pierson and Grace
Harlowe, had sworn eternal friendship. She felt only the deepest
sympathy for the unhappy little girl at her side, for having been
through a similar experience she understood clearly the struggle that
was going on in Mildred's mind.
Twice the little freshman stopped short, declaring she could not and
would not go on, and each time, with infinite patience, Miriam buoyed
and restored to firmness her shaking resolution.
"You do not know Grace Harlowe," Miriam said as they neared Wayne Hall,
"or you would not be afraid to go to her and tell her what you have just
told me. She is neither revengeful nor unforgiving, and I am sure that
she will be only too glad to help you begin all over again."
"But not here at Overton," quavered Mildred.
"You can decide that later," Miriam said kindly, as they entered the
house. But she smiled to herself, for she felt reasonably sure that
Mildred would come back to Overton for her sophomore year.