THE SANS' NEW RECRUIT.
"If you will wait just a moment or two I will show you the way to the
station yard. I am Marjorie Dean, of the sophomore class. I am down here
today purposely to help incoming freshmen. I had one in tow a few
minutes ago, but she met some acquaintances of hers and joined them. I
carried off her golf bag and must return it. She is over there."
Marjorie nodded toward the group. "Pardon me. I'll return instantly."
"Thank you, ever so much. I shall be glad to wait for you," sweetly
responded the newcomer. "I am Barbara Severn, of Baltimore."
Marjorie stopped to acknowledge the introduction, then onerous as was
the task, she went staunchly to it. Luckily for her, Miss Walbert stood
at the edge of the group, momentarily neglected by her chosen
acquaintances. They were busily engaged with their junior classmates.
"Here is your golf bag, Miss Walbert. I forgot to give it to you when I
left you." Her tone evenly impersonal, it carried a note of reserve
which the other caught.
"Oh, thank you. I--that is--I forgot about it, too." She attempted a
smile as she reached out to take it from Marjorie's hands.
"You are welcome." A slight inclination of the head and Marjorie was
gone.
Elizabeth Walbert watched the graceful figure in white across the
platform. Certainly this Dean girl was awfully good style, she
reflected.
"What did mamma's precious pet want with you?" For the first time, since
acknowledging an introduction to Elizabeth, Leslie Cairns had
condescended to address her.
"Nothing, except to return this. She carried it and forgot to give it to
me when I shook her. I am glad she didn't wait and bring it over to
Alston Terrace. I don't care much for that type of girl. She's priggish
and goody-goody, isn't she?" Miss Walbert promptly took her cue from
Leslie.
While the babyish-looking freshman regarded Leslie with a perfectly
innocent expression, there was lurking malice in her wide blue eyes. She
had not liked the dignity Marjorie had shown when returning her
property. It rankled in her petty soul. With the gratitude of the
proverbial serpent, she was quite ready to sting the hand which had
befriended her.
"I'll say she is," returned Leslie. "I can't endure the sight of her and
she knows it. You noticed she did not stay long. Lucky you knew Joan and
Harriet. I'd be sorry for you if you had been roped in by that crowd of
muffs." She laughed disagreeably.
"It would take more than that crowd of muffs, as you call them, to rope
me in," boasted the other girl. "I saw at once they were not the kind
that make good pals. Not enough to them, you know. Besides, I prefer not
to be too friendly with a stranger until I know her social position."
Leslie Cairns regarded her meditatively, then held out her hand. "Shake
hands on that," she invited. "You seem to have some sense. I hope you
will stick to what you have said. If you do, you may count yourself a
friend of mine. You will find, after you have been at Hamilton a while,
that my friendship amounts to a good deal."
"Oh, I am _sure_ of that," emphasized the freshman. She was not sure at
all. What she had shrewdly taken stock of was the cut and material of
the English tweed sports suit Leslie was wearing. It was a marvel of
expense. It was conspicuous, even among the smart traveling suits of her
companions. So were her sports hat and English ties. Leslie's assured
manner also impressed her. She decided that this exceedingly ugly but
very "swagger" girl must be a person of importance at Hamilton.
Unmistakable gratification looked out from Leslie Cairns'
roughly-chiseled features at the freshman's flattering response. Like
the majority of the unworthy, she craved flattery. Since she had been
denied physical beauty, she built her hopes on attracting admiration by
her daring personality. During her freshman year at Hamilton she had
acquired a certain kind of popularity by her high-handed methods.
Possessed of an immense fortune, and in her own right, she had acquired
tremendous power over her particular clique by reason of her money.
Leslie never "went broke." The majority of the Sans received liberal
allowances from home and spent them even more liberally. Leslie was a
good port in time of storm--when she chose to be. Once under obligation
to her, she was quite likely, if crossed, to let her debtor feel the
weight of her displeasure.
"Did that Miss Dean have anything to say about us?" Leslie casually
inquired. Finding herself admired, she preferred to cultivate her new
acquaintance rather than devote her attention to those of her class who
had come down to the train.
"She said--let me see." Miss Walbert knitted her light eyebrows in an
elaborate effort at recollection. "She said she had never met any of
you girls and she didn't care for an acquaintance with you. I had
asked who you were because I wanted so much to know you. I recognized
you girls at once as my kind. Just to see your dandy crowd coming along
made me homesick for dear old Welden. I palled with a crowd like that at
prep."
"Our little angel, Miss Bean,--I always call her Bean instead of
Dean,--doesn't care what she does with the truth," sneered Leslie. "Last
fall we came down to the train to meet her crowd. We knew they were
greenies from a little one-horse town called Sanford. They were to be at
the same campus house as we. A few of us thought we would try to help
them. We took my friend, Miss Weyman's, car and went to the station.
Missed 'em by about two minutes. They hired a taxi. We felt mortified
and went around to this Miss Dean's room to apologize. We were almost
frost-bitten. They were so rude I felt ashamed for them. Afterward they
started a lot of lies about us that made trouble for us at the Hall."
"My goodness!" fluttered Miss Walbert. "I had a narrow escape, didn't I?
I will take pains to steer clear of that whole crowd. I don't know
whether I would recognize most of them if I happened to meet them on the
campus. I would certainly know Miss Dean."
"Where are you going to live?" Leslie dropped back into her usual
indifferent drawl.
"Alston Terrace. I have an exam. in math. to try. I'm pretty sure of
staying, though. Is Alston Terrace as nice as the house where you are?
What did you say the name of your house was? Could I change and get in
there?" There was suppressed eagerness in the last question.
"You could not." Leslie regarded the questioner with a superior smile.
"I live at Wayland Hall. Our crowd live there, too. It's the best house
on the campus, and hard to get into. It has two drawbacks; an idiot of a
manager, and dear Miss Bean and her crowd. We have made complaint
against the manager and she may have to go. She's a hateful old fossil
and shows partiality. We can't do much about this crowd of which I've
been telling you, unless they do something very malicious against us.
Just let them start anything, though----" Her small black eyes narrowed
unpleasantly.
At this juncture Natalie Weyman appealed to her to corroborate a
statement she had just made to one of the juniors who had come down to
the train to meet the Sans. Natalie had not been too busy with her
friends to note that Leslie had condescended to show interest in the
freshman. She, therefore, decided to break up the conversation going on
between them. It was bad enough to have Lola Elster to contend with.
She did not propose to allow this forward little snip, as she mentally
characterized Miss Walbert, any leeway toward Leslie's favor which she
could prevent.
"She doesn't like me and I don't like her," was the freshman's
conclusion. When speaking to Leslie, Natalie had regarded her out of two
very cold gray-blue eyes. The polite smile which had touched her lips
was suggestive of frost.
It was the last thing needed to fire Elizabeth Walbert's ambition toward
an intimate friendship with Leslie Cairns. She resolved that she would
not only be chums with Leslie. Sooner or later she would take up her
residence at Wayland Hall. She had always been clever at obtaining
whatever she desired. To attain a residence at the Hall might not be so
very difficult. At least it was worth the effort. She did not care who
might be shoved out in order to make room for her.
Meanwhile Marjorie had safely conducted her second venture in freshmen
to the spot where a knot of girls stood patiently awaiting her tardy
appearance. Helen alone was missing, having gone into the town on an
errand.
"Where were you? We thought you were right behind us. What has become of
your blonde freshie? We knew something had happened," was the reception
which greeted her and her charge.
"Do blondes change to brunettes in the twinkling of an eye?" laughed
Leila, her blue eyes resting very kindly on Marjorie's pretty companion.
"They do not. Miss Walbert deserted me. She knew Miss Myers and Miss
Stephens. She went with them." Marjorie made the explanation in a calm,
level voice which did not invite present questioning.
"Then we can't count her in with this select aggregation," Vera said
dryly. "Helen's gone, too, but her going was legitimate."
"Ah, well. We have gained one and lost one. Let us run off with our gain
before someone happens along and coaxes her away from us. Might we not
know her by name?" Leila turned to Marjorie with a wide ingratiating
smile. The stranger was already regarding Leila with open amusement.
"You shall know her by name at once. You don't have to remind me to
introduce her," retorted Marjorie. "I'll present you to her first of
all. Miss Impatience, I mean Miss Harper, this is Miss Severn, of
Baltimore." Marjorie again went through the ceremony of introduction,
this time with smiles and whole-heartedness.
"We are thirteen in number, but who cares?" Leila announced. "Seven to
one and six to the other car, Midget. As we aren't in the jitney
business we won't come to blows over the one extra fare."
While they were disposing themselves in the two automobiles for the ride
to Hamilton College, the sound of high-pitched voices announced the
arrival on the scene of the Sans. Three of the juniors who had elected
to meet them had driven their own cars to the station. Thus the
illustrious Sans did not have to depend on the station's taxicabs.
While Leila would have liked to drive off in a hurry rather than
encounter at such close range the girls she so heartily despised, she
moved, instead, with the utmost deliberation. She was just climbing into
the driver's seat when the small but noisy procession of young women
came opposite to her car. Vera sat ready to start, her slender hands
resting idly on the wheel as she waited for Leila's signal. The
occupants of both cars, save for the freshman from Baltimore, were
making a commendable effort to appear impersonal. Miss Severn, of
Baltimore, was innocently interested in the newcomers from the fact that
they were also students of Hamilton College.
Aside from considerable laughter, which sounded too pointed to be
impersonal, the party of arriving juniors strolled past. Among the last
came Leslie Cairns. She had insisted on walking with Elizabeth Walbert,
greatly to Natalie's vexation. As she lounged past Leila's car she cast
an insolent glance at the Irish girl. Leila returned it with an
expression so inscrutably Celtic that Leslie hastily removed her gaze to
Jerry, who sat beside Leila. She glared an intensity of ill-feeling at
Jerry, which the latter longed to return, but did nothing worse than
look blank.
Leila drove her car almost savagely around the station yard and out into
the wide avenue. Sight of the Sans, particularly Leslie Cairns, had put
her momentarily in a bad humor. Her virile Irish temperament forbade her
to do other than love or hate with all her strength of being. She hated
Leslie as energetically as she adored Marjorie.
"That Miss Walbert makes me sick," was Jerry's incensed comment as they
bowled smoothly along the avenue. "I'd like to know just what happened
to Marjorie. Of course she will tell us later. The idea of that little
shrimp marching past us as though we were a collection of sign posts,
particularly after we had treated her so decently. It's a good thing she
showed her mettle from the start. Did you notice the way she snubbed my
freshman?"
"I did. How, may I ask, do you happen to be out here with me instead of
sitting faithfully in the tonneau beside your find?" quizzed Leila.
"Oh, Katherine and Lucy took her away from me. I guess I scared her. She
is in Vera's car with them. If you don't enjoy my society, stop the
buzz buggy and I will get out and walk. I may lose a pound or two, even
if my feelings are hurt."
"It is here you'll stay. Tongue cannot tell how much I enjoy your
society," Leila extravagantly assured. "I see you are liking the Sans a
little less than ever. I am of the same mind. Did you see Leslie Cairns
look at us; first at me, then you? I did not expect them back so soon.
For all their private car they met with a tiny reception. Four or five
juniors; that is quite different from two years ago."
"Maybe they've come back early to be on the scene and get a stand-in
with the freshies," cannily suggested Jerry. "Wouldn't it be funny to
see us and the Sans down at the station every day, grabbing the freshies
as they came off the train, like a couple of jitney drivers?"
Leila laughed. "They will never go that far. That would take some
kindness of heart and consideration. If they rushed the incoming
freshies just to spite us, they would soon sicken of their project. They
are like the bandarlog in Kipling's Jungle books, they gather leaves
only to throw them into the air."
"Some of them will take a trip up into the air this year if they don't
mind their own affairs," threatened Jerry. "The freshman crop was small
today. We garnered two and the Sans one. I suppose there were some
others who were met by students besides ourselves. Marjorie thinks we
ought to meet two trains a day, at least. The rest of our committee
ought to be here. We could divide up the trains among us. You and Vera
are really doing the work of the absent members."
"Say nothing about it. There is little to do this week. Vera and I were
talking last night. We should have done this last year. We did not."
Leila shrugged disapproval of her own former lack of interest in the
welfare of other students.
"Leila," Marjorie leaned forward and called out, "Miss Severn is going
to Acasia House. Do you know where Miss Towne is to go?"
"Somewhere off the campus," returned Leila. "Vera has her and her
address. We are to take her to her boarding place first."
Miss Towne's boarding house turned out to be a modest two-story brick
house about half a mile off the campus. It was one of a scattered row,
there being only a few houses in the immediate vicinity of the college.
Muriel and Katherine helped her to the door with her luggage. Her
friendly escort called her a cordial good-bye from the automobiles,
after promising to look her up as soon as she should be fairly settled.
She went to her new quarters in a daze of sheer happiness, feeling much
as Cinderella must have when she unexpectedly found a fairy God-mother.
Acasia House being Miss Severn's destination, the two cars wound their
way in and out of the beautiful campus driveway. At the center drive
they separated, Vera taking her car straight to Wayland Hall on account
of Selma, Nella and Hortense. Muriel went with them, declining to be
parted from her recently regained room-mate.
Leila drove slowly toward Acasia House, endeavoring to give their
freshman charge full opportunity to see the campus in its early autumn
glory. Brimming with eager enthusiasm, Marjorie pointed out the various
halls, the library, the chapel and the campus houses. She was pleased to
find her freshman no less enthusiastic than herself over the campus
itself. Marjorie took that as another good sign. No one who was really
sincere at heart could fail to be impressed by the campus.