WINIFRED GRAHAM AND GERRY
While Jean and Olive were having tea at “The Towers” and Frieda and
Mollie were engaged in a confidential talk in the ranch girls’ sitting
room, school politics were playing an important part in the precincts of
Primrose Hall, for Winifred Graham and Gerry Ferrows were devoting that
same Saturday afternoon to canvassing their class in order to discover
whether Jean or Winifred might hope in the following week to be elected
president of the Junior class. Gerry was electioneering for Jean, while
Winifred was conducting a personal investigation. Indeed, the situation
between these two girls was a peculiar and a difficult one, for having
once been intimate friends, they had now become violently estranged from
one another and yet continued to be room-mates. For no other reason than
because Winifred suspected Gerry’s political intentions on that Saturday
afternoon did she arrange to bring her own followers together and with
their aid to outclass Gerry, for Jean had positively refused to work for
herself, having turned over her cause to her two best friends, Gerry and
Margaret Belknap.
But before leaving for “The Towers” very early on that morning Jean and
Gerry had had a long and intimate talk over the chances for her election
and Gerry had been perfectly frank about the whole situation.
Olive was still the obstacle standing in the way of Jean’s success. If
even at this late date Jean would allow herself to be elected into one
of the sororities and thus proclaim her independence of the girl whose
presence in the school her classmates resented, she might yet win their
complete allegiance; if not—well, it was just this state of the case
that Gerry was trying to fathom. For Jean absolutely declined to turn
her back on her adopted sister and yet longed with all her heart for the
honor of the class presidency. Gerry’s own position on this question of
Olive was an exceedingly anomalous one; while she was too good a sport
to be unkind to any one in adversity, yet she did not herself care to
associate with Olive on terms of perfect equality, although she had
never mentioned this fact to Jean. And lately she had felt her own
decision waver, for since her father had written her that he had charge
of Jack Ralston’s case at his hospital and found her the pluckiest girl
he had ever seen, Gerry longed to take all the ranch girls under her
protection, and yet her prejudice still held out against Olive.
Being but human and entirely devoted to Jean, this prejudice grew deeper
on the afternoon that Gerry went from one room to the other of her
classmates, asking them point-blank whether they intended to cast their
votes for Winifred or for Jean at the coming election. Some of the girls
were quite frank. They had intended voting for Jean, but lately decided
that it would be wiser not to have as the representative of their class
a girl who claimed as her adopted sister a half-caste Indian. Others of
the Juniors hedged, they might or they might not vote for Jean, not
having entirely made up their minds between her and Winifred; a number
of them were, of course, Jean’s frank and loyal supporters and yet it
was with a feeling of discouragement that Gerry at the close of her
canvass returned to her own room. She had taken a note book with her and
written down each girl’s position in regard to the election, and yet she
could not now decide whether Jean’s prospects were good or bad. So it
was peculiarly irritating on bouncing angrily into her sitting room to
find Winifred already there before her, with her long blonde hair down
her back, and, while she was pretending to cut the pages of a magazine,
wearing a particularly cheerful and self-satisfied expression.
Winifred Graham was a very beautiful girl and perhaps not an agreeable
one, and yet she represented a type not unusual in a certain portion of
American society. As long as Winifred could remember she had been taught
these two things: By her brains and her beauty she must some day win for
herself the wealth and the position that her family had always longed to
have and yet never had quite succeeded in attaining. For always her
mother and father had been spending more money than they could afford in
trying to keep up with their friends who were richer and more prominent
than themselves. Indeed, Winifred’s presence at Primrose Hall was but
another proof of their extravagance, for they could by no means afford
the expense of such a school, yet their hope was that there Winifred
would make so many wealthy and aristocratic friends that later on they
might help her to a wealthy marriage.
But Winifred was not only ambitious socially; she had a good mind and
longed to succeed in her classes as well as in her friendships, so it
was hardly to be wondered at that she should cordially dislike the two
older ranch girls, who, coming out of nowhere and pretending to nothing,
seemed likely to prove her rivals. For, while Jean might stand in the
way of her being chosen to fill the highest position in the Junior
class, Olive was seeking to wrest from her the Shakespeare prize which
the old lady at “The Towers” offered each year to the Junior students in
Jessica Hunt’s class. Gerry Ferrows was also competing for this prize,
but as it represented a fairly large sum of money, sufficient to cover a
year’s tuition at Primrose Hall, Winifred felt that in any case it must
be hers.
She looked up and laughed mockingly as Gerry flung herself down on their
couch, closing her eyes as though she wished to take a nap.
“What luck for the fair Jean at the coming election, friend Gerry?” she
asked in an irritating fashion.
“Better luck than for the fair Winifred,” Gerry answered, none too
truthfully, but enraged at her companion’s air of calm assurance.
Winifred laughed again. “That isn’t the truth, Gerry, and you know it,
and I thought you always spoke the truth no matter if it half killed
you, being anxious to prove that women are as honest as men, as brave
and as straight-forward and as clever, and therefore should be entitled
to equal suffrage.”
Gerry now sat up on her couch challenging her foe, her homely face
crimsoning. “You are right, Winifred, I wasn’t quite truthful; I am
afraid that your chance for the presidency is better than Jean’s. But
you know that it is all because the girls here think that Olive isn’t a
fit associate for the rest of us, or else Jean would have won in a
walkover. I wonder if the story of Olive’s not knowing anything of her
parentage is true and if she is a half Indian girl? You told it me.
Where did you get the information? Perhaps after all it isn’t so!”
“Oh, the story came through the Harmons, who were out West and heard the
tale and Elizabeth’s repeating it to one of the younger girls she knew
in this school. I don’t suppose Elizabeth meant any harm in telling, for
she seemed to think that we would be pleased to have an Indian enliven
us at Primrose Hall. You may be very sure, however, that Olive and Jean
and Frieda have been very quiet about the whole question of this
objectionable Olive, but if you don’t believe the story, Gerry, why
don’t you inquire of Miss Winthrop?” Winifred ended.
Again Gerry flushed. “I have,” she answered shortly, “and Miss Winthrop
treated me with her most frozen manner. ‘If there is any mystery about
Olive Ralston’s parentage, that is her private affair,’ she said. ‘But
kindly remember that she is a student at Primrose Hall and if I thought
her unfit for the companionship of my other girls, she would not be
among you.’ You can imagine that I felt about the size of a small
caterpillar when she got through with me.” And Gerry bridled, still sore
from Miss Winthrop’s snubbing.
“You can count on Katherine Winthrop to recommend you to mind your own
business,” Winifred interposed with secret satisfaction, knowing from
Gerry’s report that Miss Winthrop had heard of Olive’s past and glad to
have the truth of the story that she had been repeating confirmed.
“But don’t you think perhaps it is unkind to be so unfriendly to a girl
for something she cannot help?” Gerry questioned, not so anxious to have
Winifred’s opinion as to clear things up in her own mind.
Winifred shook her head. “I don’t know how you feel, Gerry, but
honestly, I couldn’t be friends with an Indian girl and I don’t think
she ought to be in so exclusive a school as Primrose Hall, If Miss
Winthrop were anyone but Miss Winthrop I believe some of the girls’
parents would have complained of Olive before this, but that lady is
just as likely to fire us all out and to keep just this one girl, as she
seems to have such an unaccountable fancy for her. Look here, Gerry, you
and I used to be good friends and Jean Bruce can’t be elected, so why
don’t you give up working for her and come over to my side and not mix
yourself up with this other business? You may be sorry for it some day
and Jean hasn’t a ghost of a show.”
Gerry jumped several feet off her couch. “Don’t you be so plague-taked
sure, Winifred Graham, that Jean Bruce hasn’t a chance for the election!
And not for anything would I go back on her now! Besides, I have a plan
that, has just come into my mind this very second that may straighten
things out for Jean most beau-ti-fully.”