RANK INJUSTICE
At half-past four o'clock on the Wednesday following the sophomore class
elections, the sophomore basket-ball try-out took place in the
gymnasium. Twenty girls of the sophomore class had elected to enter the
lists, while the usual number of freshmen and upper class spectators
lined the walls of the big room.
Among the ten bloomer-clad girls who were finally picked for the
deciding tussle, five wore the dark green uniforms that had identified
them the previous year as the official freshman team. They were Judith,
Jane, Adrienne, Christine Ellis and Marian Seaton. Among the other five
contestants, Barbara Temple and Olive Hurst, both of last year's
practice team, had survived. The other three girls were disappointed
aspirants of the previous year's try-out, who had sturdily returned to
the lists for a try at making the sophomore team.
When the shrill notes of the whistle sent the ten into deciding action,
it became immediately evident that it would be nip and tuck as to the
winners. In every girlish heart lived the strong determination to be
among the elect. In consequence, the zealous ten treated the spectators
to a most spirited exhibition of basket-ball prowess.
When it had ended, the players ran off the floor, breathlessly to await
the verdict. With the exception of two of them, opinion was divided.
Regarding these two, there was no doubt in the minds of the watchers
that Jane Allen and Adrienne Dupree, at least, had made the team. They
were distinctly eligible.
Each in her own fashion had shown actual brilliancy of playing. The
others had done extremely well. How well was a matter which must be left
to the three judges to decide.
While the ten impatiently waited for the decision, over in the judges'
corner a spirited discussion was going on between Dorothy Martin and the
two seniors who were officiating with her in the capacity of judges. One
of them, Selina Brown, had already been appointed as basket-ball
manager of the teams for the year.
"I do not agree with you, Miss Brown," Dorothy was protesting, her fine
face alive with righteous vexation. "In my opinion, Miss Stearns has
completely outplayed Miss Seaton. In fact she has always been the better
player of the two. Granted, Miss Seaton is an excellent player, but Miss
Stearns outclasses her. I say this in absolute fairness. Try them out
again and you will see, even if you don't now."
"I am sorry to be obliged to differ with you regarding Miss Stearns, but
Miss Seaton must be my first and last choice. Miss Nelson quite agrees
with me. Do you not?"
She turned triumphantly to the third judge for corroboration.
"I--really--yes, I think Miss Seaton is the better player."
The reply, begun hesitatingly, went on to firmness. Laura Nelson had the
grace to color slightly, however, as she made it. Indebted to Marian
Seaton for several rides in the latter's limousine, as well as
hospitable entertainment at Rutherford Inn, she felt compelled to stand
by at the critical moment. She had been privately given to understand
beforehand that Marian was to make the team, whoever else failed.
"The majority rules, I believe, Miss Martin."
A disagreeable smile hovered about Miss Brown's thin lips as she said
this.
"It does, but----" Patent contempt looked out from Dorothy's steady
eyes.
"But what?" sharply challenged Selina Brown.
"It is an unfair majority," was the quiet accusation. "As the other four
players have been chosen, I will leave you to make the announcement."
So saying, Dorothy turned abruptly and walked away, too greatly incensed
to trust herself longer in the company of the pair whom she had flatly
accused of unfairness. Straight across the gymnasium she walked to where
Judith, Jane, Christine, Barbara and Adrienne stood, an eager group.
"Girls," she said, in a wrathfully impressive voice, "I'm going to stand
here beside you. When the announcement of the team is made you'll
understand why."
"What's the matter, Dorothy?" anxiously questioned Christine.
Four pairs of eyes riveted themselves wonderingly on Dorothy's flushed,
indignant face. None of the quartette had ever before seen
sweet-tempered Dorothy Martin so manifestly angry. Something of an
unusual nature must have happened.
"Don't ask me now. Listen!"
A loud blast from the whistle, held to Selina Brown's lips, was now
enjoining silence. Immediately after the sound had died away, a hush
fell upon the great room as the senior manager stepped forward and
announced:
"For the official sophomore team the following players have been chosen:
Adrienne Dupree, Barbara Temple, Christine Ellis, Jane Allen, and Marian
Seaton. To act as subs: Olive Hurst and Marjory Upton."
Immediately she went on with a speech, meant to be politely consoling to
the defeated contestants.
A faint, concerted gasp arose from the little group collected about
Dorothy. This, then, was the explanation of Dorothy's indignation.
"It's an outrage! I'm going to protest!" muttered Jane, her tones thick
with wrath. "No, I'm going to refuse to play on the team."
"And I also," echoed Adrienne hotly.
"Let's do it!" urged Christine, catching Barbara by the arm. "Right now,
before that Miss Brown gets through with her hypocritical speech."
"No, girls, you mustn't. I--I--don't--want you to," quavered Judith.
"We've got to, Judy! It's rank injustice, piled high!" declared
Christine tempestuously.
"If you do--I'll hate all of you!" Judith desperately threatened.
"You've got to stay on the team, simply because I'm not on it. I'm not
blind and neither are you. One of us had to go to make room for Marian
Seaton. It would have been Jane, I'm sure, if she hadn't played so well.
They didn't quite dare do it. So I had to take it. We don't know what's
back of it. Maybe it's been done on purpose to bring about the very
thing you want to do. I say, don't give in to it. Stick to the team."
"Judy's right, girls," interposed Dorothy. "Don't resign. You might only
be pleasing a number of persons by doing so."
Further counsel on her part was cut off by a flock of sophomores who had
come up to congratulate the winners. The latter were wearing their
triumph far from exultantly. Jane was scowling in her most ferocious
fashion. Adrienne's piquant features were set and unsmiling. Christine
and Barbara appeared constrained and ill at ease. Judith alone had
conjured up a brave little smile with which to mask the hurt of her
defeat.
"It's a shame you didn't make the team, Judy!" sympathized one tactless
sophomore.
"Judy _did_ make the team, by rights," Dorothy defended, unflinching
purpose in the calm assertion. "I want it distinctly understood that she
was _my_ choice."
"We thought, too, that she should have been chosen," exclaimed Alice
Kirby, another sophomore, with a vigorous nod of her head. "It seems
funny----"
"It's anything but funny," Dorothy cut in sharply. "Pardon me, Alice, I
didn't intend to be rude to you. I'm dreadfully disgusted over this
affair. I'll leave you to guess the reason."
"It's not hard to guess," retorted Alice significantly. "With Judy a
better player than Miss Seaton and yet not even chosen to sub,
something's twisted at Wellington. I rather think it will stay twisted,
too, as long as a certain person has two out of three judges on her
side."
Alice had been one of Judith's most ardent supporters at the recent
class election.
"Well, I'm glad you have such a clear idea of things," grimly returned
Dorothy. "Kindly pass it on. I'm not saying that vindictively, either.
I want everybody I know to understand that I consider this an unfair
decision and that I absolutely refuse to countenance it. Miss Brown
recently asked me to act as referee in the games this year. I accepted.
Now I'm going straight to my room to write her my resignation."
"You mustn't do that, Dorothy," Judith again protested. "It's dear in
you. I surely appreciate it. Really, I don't mind so very----"
Judith stopped, the wistfulness in her blue eyes contradicting her
unfinished denial.
"But if you resign, Dorothy, there'll be no one to stand by us later,"
reminded Christine gloomily.
"I've thought of that, too, but it doesn't sway me. This is a matter of
principle. I could not be Judith's friend if I accepted this injustice
to her."
"It is indeed wise that Dorothy should do this," Adrienne sagely wagged
her curly head. "First, it is but fair to you, Judy. Again we shall gain
rather than lose for this reason. Soon all must know why Dorothy has
thus resigned. She wishes it to be no secret. _Voila!_ For the rest of
the year these two most unfair seniors must have a care. The eyes of
many will be upon them. The pitcher may go once too often to the well.
_N'est ce pas?_"
She turned to her listeners for corroboration. Wily child that she was,
she had decided to impress this view on those present, knowing that it
would be accepted and remembered.
"We had thought, the four of us," she impressively continued, including
her three teammates and herself in a sweeping gesture, "to resign from
the team. Because Judy does not desire it, we shall remain only to
please her. Judy has the great heart and the broad mind. She has not the
narrow soul of some persons of whom I might speak, only that these names
leave the bad taste in my mouth."
"Hurrah for Judy! Three cheers for Adrienne!" enthusiastically proposed
one of the highly impressed sophomores.
The hearty burst of acclamation which suddenly rent the air was anything
but welcome to a number of girls still lingering in the gymnasium.
Surrounded by a coterie of her own adherents, which included Leila
Brooks, Elsie Noble, Maizie Gilbert, and a number of upper class girls,
Marian Seaton's pale eyes darted a spiteful glance at the noisy
worshippers of the girls she detested.
"Boisterous things!" she exclaimed disdainfully. "The idea of their
setting up such a howl about that Judy Stearns when she didn't even make
sub, let alone making the team. If they knew what I know about her, not
one of those sophs outside of her own crowd would ever speak to her
again."
"What do you know about her? Don't be stingy, Marian." "Why not let us
into the know?" were some of the cries that greeted Marian's dark
insinuation.
"I'll keep what I know to myself for the present. I am too charitable to
make trouble for that girl, even if she has done her utmost to injure
me. I'll never tell anyone unless there comes a time when I feel it
necessary to speak."
Marian assumed an air of virtuous tolerance that caused Maizie Gilbert
to eye her with reluctant admiration. She alone knew what her roommate
was driving at.
"I'm really relieved because you girls haven't carried on like wild
Indians about my making the team," she continued sweetly. "I hate being
made conspicuous."
She was inwardly furious because her supporters had failed to become
wildly jubilant over her success.
"Three cheers for Marian!" hastily proposed Elsie, realizing that it was
not yet too late to save herself from Marian's private displeasure.
Far from being disgusted with the belated mead of praise, for which she
had fished, Marian beamed patronizingly as the cheers were given.
These sounds of requisitioned acclamation were wafted to the ears of
Selina Brown and Laura Nelson, who were in the act of leaving the
gymnasium.
"Well, she partly got what she wanted," remarked Selina Brown grimly as
they left the building and set off for Creston Hall where both lived.
"I expect that she'll be peeved because things didn't go entirely her
way. I made a fatal mistake in asking Dorothy Martin to be one of the
judges," pursued Selina. "I had forgotten about her being so thick with
that Allen girl. Marian never mentioned it, either, until afterward.
Then she made a big fuss, but it was too late to renege. Last year I let
basket-ball alone. I'd had enough of it the first two years here at
Wellington. I wasn't in touch with these girls that Marian's so down on.
Roberta Hurley was managing the teams then, you know. She recommended
me to Miss Rutledge as her successor. I wish now I'd refused to act as
manager."
"I'm sorry _I_ had anything to do with it," regretted Laura Nelson. "Of
course, Marian has been lovely to both of us. I was stupid enough to
mistake it for real friendship until she came right out the other night
and asked us to keep those three girls off the team. Then I knew she'd
only been getting an axe ready for us to grind."
"Oh, I saw through her from the first, but I thought I'd humor her.
We've had a good many rides and dinners at her expense. I supposed it
would be easy enough to keep those three off the team. When I saw them
play I knew differently. That Jane Allen is a wonder with the ball; the
little French girl, too. If I had dropped either of them the sophs would
have raised the roof. I had to save my own reputation. It didn't matter
so much about the Stearns girl. She and Marian were pretty evenly
matched."
"She's a better player than Marian," frankly disagreed Laura. "As it is,
I think we are in for trouble. We've antagonized Dorothy Martin. You
heard what she said to us. She won't hesitate to say it to anyone else
who claims Miss Stearns ought to have made the team. Dorothy's always
stood high at Wellington. She has lots of friends."
"Oh, she'll calm down," predicted Selina. "She hates to be crossed.
Personally, I don't admire her. She poses too much. She's either a prig
or a hypocrite. A little of both, I guess. When Marian raged about my
asking her to act as judge she said she knew for a fact that Dorothy's
father had lost all his money and that Dorothy was hanging on to Jane
Allen and this French girl, I never can remember her name, because they
took her around with them and spent lots of money on luncheons and
dinners."
"Then she's no better than we are!" exclaimed Laura, looking relief at
this piece of news.
"Of course she isn't," retorted Selina. "As nearly as I can make out
it's nip and tuck between Marian and this Jane Allen as to which of them
will run the sophomore class. One has about as much principle as the
other. Marian has been nice to us. The Allen girl has never bothered
herself to get acquainted with us. I understand she's very haughty. I
should have really enjoyed keeping her off the team, but I didn't dare
do it."
"Then you think we ought to stick to Marian?" Laura asked rather
dubiously.
"Yes. Why not? So long as it suits us to do it. We can easily handle her
if she shows her claws. She won't, though. She knows that I could drop
her from the team if I chose. She won't dare say a word because the rest
of the team are against her. I'll very quickly remind her of it if she
is wrathy about to-day's affair."
"Suppose anything--well--disagreeable for us--should come of it?"
Despite Selina's assurances, Laura was not quite satisfied.
"What do you mean?" queried Selina impatiently.
"Suppose Miss Stearns' friends should take it up and raise a regular
riot about it? A lot of sophs went over to her after the try-out. You
saw them and heard them cheering her. Dorothy Martin was there with the
crowd. She went straight to them from us. I tell you, I don't like it,
Selina. I think we were foolish to lay ourselves open to criticism.
We're seniors, you know, and so are supposed to set a good example for
the other classes."
"Oh, stop worrying about it," roughly advised Selina. "Wait and see what
happens. If the sophs start to fuss, I can soon settle them."
"How?" demanded Laura incredulously.
"By taking Marian off the team and putting the Stearns girls on,"
promptly informed Selina. "If I lose Marian's friendship by it, I'll
gain Dorothy Martin's and Jane Allen's. As I'm not devoted to any of
these girls, I'm not particular which side I'm on, so long as it's the
side that does the most for me."