REINSTATEMENT
Outside Wellington Hall, Laura and Selina stopped long enough to hold a
hurried conversation. As a result they both set their faces toward
Madison Hall to inform Marian Seaton of what was in store for her.
"It's simply outrageous!" she stormed, when Selina had gloomily finished
relating the dire news. "I won't go to the gym to-morrow. Miss Rutledge
has no right to interfere with the teams."
"She seems to think she has," shrugged Selina. "You'll have to do one of
two things. Either resign now from the team, or go to the try-out
to-morrow and take your chance of winning against Miss Stearns."
"I won't do either," flatly declared Marian. "I made the team and I
won't be cheated of my position on it."
"Do you think you can outplay Miss Stearns?" asked Laura anxiously. "You
didn't the other day, you know."
"You'd best resign," cut in Selina sharply, without giving Marian time
to answer Laura's question. "If you go to the gym to-morrow it's going
to create a lot of gossip about Laura and me. Dorothy Martin hasn't made
a secret of her opinion of the other try-out. With Miss Rutledge there
to-morrow as one of the judges and neither Laura nor I acting with her,
it's going to look pretty bad for us."
"I tell you I sha'n't be there to-morrow," snapped Marian.
"Then you'll get yourself into trouble with Miss Rutledge and lose your
position anyway," returned Selina with equal asperity. "I've already
told you that I have received instructions to post a notice calling the
sophomore team to practice by her order. If you resign now, that will
end the whole thing. Of course the Stearns girl will get your position
on the team. Still you can save your own dignity and ours by pretending
in your resignation that you are deeply hurt. You can say, too, that you
would have been very willing to give up your position on the team to
Miss Stearns if you'd understood that she wanted it so much."
"But I'm not willing to do any such thing," angrily contended Marian.
"I'll take my chance against Judith Stearns to-morrow before I'll tamely
resign like that. Come to think of it, it would be much more dignified
on my part to go to the gym. You, not I, have been accused of
unfairness. You put me on the team, you know."
"Yes, and why did I?" flung back Selina hotly. "Because you asked me to
do it. Now you think you can hang the unfairness on my shoulders and
slip free of it yourself. Well, you can't. I know that Judith Stearns
can outplay you. If I thought she couldn't, I'd say go ahead. But she
can. As you won't resign of your own accord, I'm going to demand your
resignation. If you don't give it to me in writing, I'll go straight
back to Miss Rutledge and tell her the whole thing. I'd rather confess
to her than have everybody down on Laura and me after to-morrow."
"You wouldn't do that. You can't scare me," sneered Marian.
"Oh, wouldn't I? Wait a little. You'll see."
"You'd be expelled from college. Just remember that. You'd find
yourself worse off than if you kept still," triumphantly prophesied
Marian.
"_We_ wouldn't be expelled. _You_ probably would be. We'd be severely
reprimanded and Miss Rutledge would be down on us for the rest of the
year. But you started the whole thing. You're the real offender. It
would go hard with you."
"I'm sorry I asked you to help me, Selina Brown!" Marian exclaimed
bitterly. "You're a treacherous snake! After all I've done for you, you
turn against me like this."
For the next five minutes she continued to express her candid and very
uncomplimentary opinion of Selina.
When she paused to take breath, Selina's only retaliation was, "Come on,
Laura. We'll have to hurry if we expect to catch Miss Rutledge in her
office. I suppose we'd best go to her house and wait for her. We'll be
surer of seeing her then."
It had the desired effect. Marian crumpled, shed a few tears of pure
rage, but finally wrote the resignation which Selina dictated.
"It worked!" was Selina's relieved exclamation, the moment they were out
of Madison Hall. "She's a great coward, for all her boldness. She gave
in more easily than I'd expected. You can imagine me confessing anything
like that to Miss Rutledge, now can't you?"
Selina accompanied the query with a derisive laugh. It was echoed by
Laura, though rather nervously.
"It was horrid to have to bully her." Laura made a gesture of distaste.
"I'm glad we're safely out of it. We'd best keep out of such tangles
hereafter, and let the sophs alone."
"I intend to," Selina said with grim decision. "I shall keep the
managership of the teams, but I'll steer clear of trouble after this.
Now let's hustle home. I must write Miss Rutledge a note and enclose
Marian's resignation. I'll ask her to answer, stating whether it is
satisfactory and asking what I am to do. I'll pretend that I found the
resignation waiting for me at Creston Hall."
Half an hour later, Selina had written her letter and dispatched it to
Warburton Hall, the faculty house where Miss Rutledge lived, by the
small son of Mrs. Ingram, the matron of Creston Hall.
When the dean had read and re-read the two communications, she looked
decidedly grave. After a brief interval of thoughtful meditation, she
wrote Selina the following reply:
"DEAR MISS BROWN:
"Kindly write to Miss Seaton and accept her resignation from the
sophomore team. Do not post the notice I requested you to post. It
will not be necessary. Write to Miss Stearns notifying her that
Miss Seaton has resigned from the team and that I wish her to
accept the position thus left vacant.
"Yours truly,
"GERTRUDE RUTLEDGE."
When the next morning's mail brought Judith the amazing news,
unwillingly penned by Selina Brown, she was literally dumfounded. The
mail arriving while she was at breakfast, she garnered the note from the
house bulletin board on her way upstairs from the dining-room.
"For goodness' sake, read this!" she almost shouted, bursting in upon
Jane, who was preparing to go to her first recitation. "I don't know
what to make of it!"
A slow smile dawned on Jane's lips as she perused the agitating note.
"Marian never resigned by her own accord," she said. "It looks as
though her scheme had somehow proved a boomerang. Someone stood up for
you, Judy, mighty loyally. Miss Rutledge's name being mentioned in the
note tells me that. Was it Dorothy, I wonder? No; it wasn't. She
promised us that she wouldn't go to Miss Rutledge about it."
"It's a mystery to me," declared Judith. "I don't know what to do. I
wonder----"
A rapping at the door sent her scurrying to open it.
"Why, Dorothy!" she exclaimed. "How did you know I wanted to see you?"
"I didn't know. I came because I have a special message for you from
Miss Rutledge. She sent for me to come to her last night after dinner. I
spent the evening with her and arrived here too late to see you. I was
dying to tell Jane this morning at breakfast, but couldn't, of course,
until I'd seen you. I'm glad you're both here. By the way, Judy, did you
receive a note from Selina Brown?"
"I certainly did," emphasized Judith. "What's the answer to all this,
Dorothy? I was never more astonished in all my life than when I read her
note. What made Marian Seaton resign from the team, and why does Miss
Rutledge want me to take her place? I'd just about made up my mind to
go and ask her, when you came."
"You needn't," smiled Dorothy. "She has asked me to explain things to
you in confidence. I'm going to take the liberty of including Jane. I'll
explain why presently."
"I won't feel hurt if you don't, Dorothy," Jane said earnestly. "Perhaps
you'd really rather tell Judy alone."
"No. I want you to hear the whole thing," Dorothy insisted. Whereupon
she recounted what had occurred on the previous afternoon in the dean's
office.
"I wanted you to know, Jane, just why I told Miss Rutledge that this
affair was a hang-over from last year. I know she has no idea of whom I
meant by the girl who was standing up for right. She may suspect Marian
as being the other girl. I can't say as to that. I'm glad she knows now
that there is such a condition of affairs at Wellington. She will not
forget it if anything else comes up. She will be very well able to put
two and two together, if need be."
"I'd never go to her of my own accord," Jane said with an emphatic shake
of her russet head.
"You might be sent for some day, just as I was yesterday," returned
Dorothy.
"But you haven't yet explained why Marian resigned, Dorothy," reminded
Judith. "What did Miss Rutledge say about it?"
"She said that she had received a note from Selina, with Marian's
resignation enclosed. Marian's reason for resigning was that she had
learned you were dissatisfied over her appointment on the team. She
preferred to give you her position rather than have you continue to make
trouble about it."
Dorothy's lips curled scornfully as she said this.
"Then I won't accept it!" Judith blazed into sudden anger. "The idea of
her writing such things about me! How can Miss Rutledge ask me to
replace Marian after that? I won't do it."
"Yes, Judy, you must," Jane declared quietly. "Marian wrote that hoping
you'd hear of it and refuse. She knew you'd insist on learning the
particulars before you accepted. Miss Rutledge has shown her faith in
you by asking you to replace Marian on the team."
"Selina Brown is behind the whole thing," asserted Dorothy.
"I believe it," quickly concurred Jane. "It's easy to see through
things. She didn't want another try-out; so she made Marian resign. She
must have used a pretty strong argument to do it. It was a case of the
biter being bitten, I imagine."
"Exactly," Dorothy agreed. "Selina Brown and Laura Nelson ought to have
more principle than engage in anything so dishonorable. They've managed
to wriggle out of it at Marian's expense, but they have both lost caste
by it. Depend upon it, a great many girls here will have their own
opinion of the whole affair and it won't be complimentary to Marian,
Selina and Laura."
"Someone may say that I am to blame for Marian's resigning," advanced
Judith doubtfully.
"Someone undoubtedly will," concurred Jane, "but it won't carry much
weight. You have too many friends, Judy, to bother your head about the
spiteful minority. You were unfairly dealt with at the try-out. That's
generally known. Now you've come into your own through a hitch in
Marian's plans. She couldn't get back on the team again under any
circumstances. You're not standing in her way. Don't stand in your own."
"I guess I'd better accept," Judith reluctantly conceded. "From now on I
shall go armed to the teeth. Marian Seaton is apt to camp on my trail,"
she added with a giggle. "Good gracious, girls! Look at the time! We'll
be late to chapel."
Absorbed in conversation, the trio had completely forgotten how swiftly
time was scudding along.
"Late to chapel! Chapel will be over before ever we get there if you
don't hurry!" exclaimed Jane ruefully.
Accordingly the three made a hasty exit from the room and the Hall,
hurrying chapelwards at a most undignified pace.
That afternoon Judith sent her letter of acceptance to Selina Brown. The
next day she reported in the gymnasium for practice with her old
teammates. It was a joyful reunion, made more conspicuous by the
attendance of a goodly number of sophomores, who had got wind of the
news and who cheered Judith lustily when she appeared. The freshman
team, who had so loyally fought for her, also made it a point to drop in
on the practice and offer their congratulations.
The jubilant majority was undoubtedly heart and soul for Judith.
Whatever the "spiteful minority," as Jane had put it, thought of her,
she quite forgot in the delight of being at last really and truly on the
official team.
"We certainly are a fine combination!" exulted Christine at the end of
an hour's spirited work with the ball. "The freshmen will have to look
out. And to think they were the ones to give Judy back to us!"
Christine, Adrienne and Barbara were among the few who knew that the
freshman team had protested to Miss Rutledge. The five freshmen
themselves had kept the matter fairly quiet. They had been sent for and
privately informed by Miss Rutledge that Miss Seaton had resigned from
the sophomore team of her own accord and that Miss Stearns was entitled
to the vacancy.
They had also been gravely charged to let that end all discussion of the
subject. Their point gained, they obeyed orders, except for a certain
amount of curious speculation among themselves as to how it had come
about.
In the end they agreed that Marian must have heard of their visit to
Miss Rutledge and resigned out of pure mortification.
Jane, Judith and Dorothy kept the greater knowledge of the affair to
themselves. Not even Adrienne knew the true facts. Selina Brown and
Laura Nelson also found wisdom in silence. They were not hunting further
trouble. They had had enough.
Selina had been allowed to keep her managership of the teams, and was
shrewd enough to appreciate that another slip would be decidedly
disastrous to her. Thereafter she became such a stickler for fair play
as to prove decidedly amusing to at least three girls.
Marian Seaton found refuge in the "hurt feelings" policy as dictated to
her by Selina. To her particular satellites she posed as a martyr and
affected a lofty disdain for "certain girls who have no principle."
Inwardly she was seething with resentment against Judith. She confided
to Maizie, her stand-by, that she didn't know which of the two she hated
most, Judith Stearns or Jane Allen. She laid her latest defeat, however,
at Judith's door. She believed that Judith had been the secret means of
inciting the freshman team to protest and she was determined to be even.
Furthermore, she confided to Maizie that it would be only a matter of
time until Judith Stearns must lose every friend she had.