AN INVITATION TO AN "OFFICE PARTY."
"I'm very, very sleepy, Jeremiah, but I shall try to keep awake for the
chimes. It would be unkind not to greet my second friend tonight."
Marjorie made these whimsical statements between yawns.
"Wait for 'em, then, if you can," returned Jerry. "The minute my head
touches the pillow I shall be dead to the world. You'll never keep
awake. You are yawning now."
"I shall," firmly avowed Marjorie. Tired out by the long railway
journey, her eyes would close. Nevertheless she slipped into a silk
negligee and curled up on the floor beside a window, to wait for the
welcoming voice of her loved friend. The light in the room extinguished,
the white moonlight touched her sweet face, lending it a new and wistful
beauty. From her post at the window she could see Hamilton Hall, a
magnificent gray pile in the moonbeams. The campus stretched away on all
sides of it like an enchanted emerald carpet full of lights and
shadows.
Marjorie momentarily forgot her desire for sleep as she looked on the
silent loveliness which night had enhanced. It filled her with all sorts
of vague inspirations which she could sense but not analyze. She could
only understand herself as being earnestly desirous of showing greater
loyalty to her Alma Mater than ever before.
Then upon her inspirited musings fell the voice of her old, familiar
friend, clear and silvery as ever. She sat very still, almost
breathlessly, listening to the clarion, welcoming prelude. Followed the
measured stroke of eleven. "I am so happy to hear you again, dear
friend. Good night." Marjorie rose, and, with a last, sleepy, but
loving, glance at the fairylike outdoors trotted to her couch bed. She
had scarcely found its grateful comfort before she was fast asleep.
She awoke the next morning with the sunshine pouring in upon her to find
Jerry, kimono-clad, standing meditatively beside her couch.
"Why--um--what--where----" she mumbled. "Oh, goodness, Jerry! have I
overslept? What time is it? That wall clock stopped last night just
after we came in, and I forgot to wind it and set it again." She sat up
hastily.
"Be calm," replied Jerry, with a reassuring grin. "It is only five
minutes to seven. I was wondering whether I could let you sleep fifteen
minutes more. I'd decided to call you when you woke of your own
accord."
"I'd rather be up." Marjorie arose with her customary energy and reached
for her negligee. "I have a lot to do today. Our trunks will be here by
noon, I hope. I want to unpack and be all straightened out before the
five o'clock train. Leila and Vera are anxious for us to go with them to
meet it. We ought to meet it at any rate. We are both on the sophomore
committee for welcoming freshies."
Marjorie made this reminder with open satisfaction. During Commencement
week, the previous June, the sophomore class elect had gathered for a
special meeting. Its object had been to discuss ways and means of
helping entering freshmen at the re-opening of college in the fall.
Marjorie and Jerry had been appointed to it as Wayland Hall
representatives, together with two students from Acasia House and three
from Silverton Hall.
"I imagine we are the only ones on that committee who have come back to
Hamilton," Marjorie continued. "Oh, no; Ethel Laird is on it. Let me
see. Grace Dearborn was the other Acasia House girl appointed. Blanche
Scott, Elaine Hunter and Miss Peyton were the three from Silverton Hall.
Ronny said none of them had returned."
"I am almost sorry I did not make arrangements to have a car here this
year." Jerry looked slightly regretful. "It would come in handy now.
Still, I believe it is more democratic to do without one. Besides, I
ought to walk rather than ride. It keeps my weight down. There is Ronny.
She could have a dozen cars here if she wanted them. She won't have one.
She is a real democrat, isn't she?"
Marjorie nodded. "She is the most unassuming very rich girl I have ever
known. I think if the Sans really knew her circumstances they would try
to take her up, even after what happened last spring."
"They would give it up as too hard a job about five minutes after Ronny
found out what they were trying to do," predicted Jerry. "I have an idea
that the Sans think we don't amount to much financially. My father is
worth a whole lot of money, yet it's not generally known in Sanford. He
never tried to keep it a secret, but you see we have never gone in for
anything but the quiet family life. So people don't think much about us,
except that we are old Sanford residents."
"That is a fine way to live," thoughtfully approved Marjorie. "Well, I
couldn't afford to have a car here if I wanted one ever so much. The
majority of the girls at Hamilton are probably from families in about
the same circumstances as the Deans. Leila said yesterday that about a
third of the girls here last year had their own automobiles. She said
she would have been terribly lonely during her freshman year if she had
not had her car. She didn't send for it for quite awhile after she
entered college. Vera sent for hers, too, and hardly drove it. Most of
the freshmen they were friendly with had their own cars, so they seldom
needed to drive both cars at the same time."
As she talked, Marjorie had been leisurely but steadily gathering up her
toilet accessories preparatory to making her morning ablutions. Jerry,
who stood idly watching her chum, suddenly realized that time was on the
wing.
"Good gracious!" she exclaimed. "Here I stand like a dummy when I ought
to be hiking for the lavatory myself. We'll both be late for breakfast,
in spite of my early rising, if we stop to talk any longer. After
breakfast we had better 'phone the baggage master about our trunks.
Otherwise they may forget all about us and not deliver them before
tomorrow. I haven't the trusting faith in baggage masters that I might
have."
In the lavatory they encountered Muriel and Ronny. Lucy had already
preceded them and gone to pay Katherine a morning call. Presently the
Five Travelers and Katherine trooped down the wide stairway to
breakfast, their bright, youthful faces and clear, laughing tones
lending new life to staid Wayland Hall. At the foot of the stairway
they met Miss Remson and hailed her with a concerted "Good morning."
Her small, shrewd eyes softened, as she received the gay salute with a
smile and returned it. Her liking for this particular sextette of
students was very sincere.
"Girls," she began abruptly, her smile fading, to be replaced by an
expression of sternness, "Will you come into my office after breakfast?
I have something to show you and also something to tell you." Her lips
tightened to grimness as she made this announcement. "That's all." With
a little nod she passed them and hurried on up the staircase.
As she had been busily engaged with the affairs of the Hall on their
arrival of the preceding afternoon, they had had opportunity only to
greet her and be assigned to their old rooms and places at table.
Entering the dining room, Vera and Leila called "Good morning" from the
next table to their own.
"Be with you in a minute," Leila informed them. "I've something to
report, Lieutenant." This directly to Marjorie. During the Easter visit
she and Vera had made Marjorie, she had taken delightedly to the army
idea as carried out by the Deans. Afterward she frequently addressed
Marjorie as "Lieutenant."
"I know what it is," promptly returned Jerry. "So have we. We just saw
Miss Remson. Is that what you are driving at?"
"It is. Now what shall I do to you for snapping my news from my mouth?"
Leila asked severely.
"Maybe I don't know as much as you do, so you needn't feel grieved,"
conciliated Jerry. "Come over here and we will compare notes. I may know
something you don't know. You may know something I don't know. Think
what a wonderful information session we shall have."
Hurriedly finishing her coffee, Leila rose and joined the Lookouts. "I
won't sit down," she declined, as Ronny motioned her to draw up a nearby
chair. "Miss Remson asked Vera and I to stop at her office after
breakfast."
"She asked us, too. There, I took Jerry's news away from her. That pays
up for what she did to you." Muriel glanced teasingly at Jerry.
"Oh, go as far as you like." Jerry waved an elaborately careless hand.
"Like the race in Alice in Wonderland: 'All won.' Perhaps one of you
wise women of Hamilton can tell us if anyone else is invited to Busy
Buzzy's office party."
"Silence was the answer," put in Marjorie mischievously, as no one
essayed a reply to Jerry's satirical question.
"Helen ought to be," Jerry said stoutly. "She was with us to the letter
last spring. I guess she'll be there. Miss Remson is fond of her."
One and all the eight girls were experiencing inward satisfaction at the
summons to Miss Remson's office. Confident that it had to do with the
readmittance or denial of the Sans to Wayland Hall, they were glad that
the odd little manager had chosen to give them her confidence.
"I'm going over to the garage to see if the new tire is on my car. It
blew out yesterday while I was driving it to cover after I left you
girls. I'll be back by the time you girls have finished breakfast. Going
with me, Midget?" Leila turned to Vera.
"No, Ireland," she declined, with the little rippling smile which was
one of her chief charms. "I am still hungry. I want another cup of
coffee and a nice fat cinnamon bun. By the time I put them away you will
be back."
As Leila went out, Helen Trent appeared, a slightly sleepy look in her
blue eyes. Her arrival was greeted with acclamation. Aside from Vera and
Leila, the long pleasant dining room was empty of students when the
Lookouts and Katherine had entered it. In consequence, they were more
free to laugh and talk. The presence of the Sans in the room during
meals quenched the spirit of comradarie that was so marked at Silverton
Hall.
"Have you seen Miss Remson?" was hurled at Helen in chorus. She dimpled
engagingly and nodded her head.
"I saw her last night after I left you girls. I had to have a new bulb
for one of my lights."
"Glad of it." Jerry beamed at Helen. She had not wished her junior
friend left out of Miss Remson's confidence. "If she had not told you, I
was going to ask her if you might be in on it," she assured.
"Faithful old Jeremiah." Helen reached over from where she had paused
beside the Lookouts' table and patted Jerry on the shoulder.
"One might think you were addressing a valued family watch dog,"
remarked Lucy Warner. Helen's dimples deepened. "You don't say much,
Luciferous, but what you say is _amazin'_. I hadn't the slightest
intention of ranking my respected pardner, Jeremiah, as an animal
friend. With this apologetic explanation, I shall insist that you drop
all such thoughts."
"Oh, I did not say I thought so," calmly corrected Lucy. "I merely said,
'One might think.'" Lucy's features were purposely austere. Her greenish
eyes were dancing. Long since her chums had discovered that her sense
of humor was as keen as her sense of criticism.
Leila presently returned to find the breakfasters feasting on hot,
old-fashioned cinnamon buns. These buns were a specialty at Wayland
Hall, and, with coffee, were a tempting meal in themselves. Another ten
minutes, and they left the dining-room en masse, bound for the little
manager's office, there to learn what they might or might not expect
from the Sans during the coming college year.