"I wonder----" Jerry stopped, a displeased pucker between her brows.
"You are not the only one." Leila shrugged her shoulders. "I do not like
the sound of 'four from Alston Terrace.' There might be one of the four
not quite to our taste."
"You mean Miss Walbert, don't you?" Jerry questioned frankly.
"I do. She has been aching to get into Wayland Hall. Vera and I were
told that last year. And what is to prevent her? I doubt if Miss Remson
knows of her friendship with the departed but not regretted Sans," Leila
argued.
"She must have noticed her last year when she same to see Miss Cairns. I
met her in the halls more than once," Muriel said quickly.
"Miss Remson would pay no special attention to visitors from other
campus houses. The maid would admit them to the Hall," returned Leila.
"Don't you know, Miss Remson is famous here at Hamilton for minding her
own affairs? She never interferes with the girls in such matters so long
as they keep within bounds."
"What's the use in borrowing trouble," interposed Marjorie cheerfully.
"Miss Walbert may not be one of the four students from Alston Terrace to
register here. Even if she should be, why need we care one way or the
other? When Miss Remson first mentioned it, I thought of her too. We all
did, I guess."
"And why?" Leila turned quickly to Marjorie. "Because we all know her
for what she is, a snob and a deceitful little peacock. In my old age
and dignity I longed for peace--but not with that trouble-maker in the
house. You remember--Jerry and I both took a rooted dislike to her the
first time we set eyes on her at the station. I never found reason to
change my opinion other." Leila spoke with decided warmth.
"Nor I," echoed Jerry. "I'm going to tell Miss Remson, if she reads off
Miss Walbert's name, precisely what she may expect from her. Phyllis
Moore said she made so much trouble for the freshies as president of
their class that if it hadn't been so near the end of the year they
would have appointed a committee to tell her where she got off at."
Before more could be said on the subject of the disagreeable Miss
Walbert the manager was among them again, register in hand. The five
girls watched her in canny silence as she opened the familiar black book
and let her index finger travel down the page of registrations.
"You asked about the students from Alston Terrace, Leila. They are Miss
Schultz, Miss Kane, Miss Mead and Miss Walbert. Are any of these friends
of yours?" Miss Remson glanced up from the page.
"No. Three of them I do not know. One I do not wish to know." Leila's
bright blue eyes met the manager's squarely.
"Which is the one you do not wish to know, Leila? I ask you the question
because I know your fairness of mind. If you do not care to know this
student you must have good reason for your attitude toward her. Will you
be frank with me?"
"None of us like Miss Walbert," Leila said slowly, after a brief pause
during which she mentally framed what she wished to say. "We don't wish
to keep her out of the Hall. We only wish you to know that she is a
trouble-maker. She was a friend of Leslie Cairns. It is seldom you hear
me speak against anyone, Miss Remson," Leila continued. "Knowing what
you had to endure from the Sans, I feel free to warn you against this
girl. She may never justify my warning. Still you have the truth about
her."
Leila had not spoken from characteristic Irish impulse alone. A sense of
practical friendly duty toward Miss Remson had also prompted her bold
stand. The manager quite understood this.
"Thank you, Leila," she said gravely. "You understand my position here.
I am not a boarding-house keeper who must have references. I am supposed
to take these students changing from another campus house to Wayland
Hall on faith. Now I recall why Miss Walbert's face seemed so familiar.
I must have noticed her last year during her calls here on Miss Cairns,
then paid no further attention to her. It is most unfortunate. Had I
known of her friendship with Miss Cairns, I should have refused her
application. She would have considered me prejudiced, but I should not
have cared. She applied for a single. I had none to give her. She is to
room with Miss Schultz."
"I'm sorry for Miss Schultz," commented irrepressible Jerry.
"You needn't be," laughed Marjorie. "She is independent enough to look
out for herself. She is often in the Chemical Laboratory when I am. She
is a dig of the first water and a very brilliant student. She won't
bother her head about Miss Walbert."
"It is to be hoped her influence may prove beneficial," remarked the
manager dryly. "I am very certain that I want no repetitions of the
noisy quarrel which took place in Miss Cairns' room one evening last
winter. Luckily Miss Walbert will have no one to aid and abet her in
making mischief, as would be the case if Miss Cairns and that group of
girls were still here. I will read you the other names."
Her listeners were not sorry to close the subject. With relief they
riveted their attention on the list of names read out to them. When it
came to the two students from Acasia House they received another shock.
Miss Remson named Alida Burton and Lola Elster.
The manager's eyes on her book, she did not see the significant glances
which flashed back and forth at this news. None of her hearers made open
comment on either name. While they did not approve of either Lola Elster
or Alida Burton they had seen little of them since their freshman year.
Later, on the way to their rooms, Marjorie expressed herself as
wondering whether, after all, they should have mentioned to Miss Remson
the former intimacy of both girls with the Sans.
"I hated to say anything more." Leila thus explained her silence on that
point. "Those two are very chummy. They troubled no one last year. I
heard Leslie Cairns was very sore at their desertion of her standard."
"I'll mention the fact to Miss Remson some day when it comes just right.
I think she ought to know it," was Jerry's view.
"Wait until Vera comes. She will break the news to Miss Remson in that
nice soft little way of hers which never holds a bit of malice. I am
hoping she will appear tomorrow. Not since I left her in New York in
June have I set eyes on her. Her father spirited her away to visit an
aunt in Idaho. It's our Midget who will come back a wild and woolly
Westerner. Can you not see her in a cowboy hat with a brace of revolvers
at her belt?" Leila humorously painted.
The idea of dainty, diminutive Vera in any such garb was provocative of
laughter.
"Doesn't it make you sick to think that Walbert snip is coming to the
Hall to live?" Jerry vented her supreme disgust the moment she and
Marjorie were behind their door.
"I haven't stopped to think much about it," Marjorie confessed.
"Well, think about it now, then. I never adored the Sans, but I can't
stand _her_. She will stir up a fuss here if she has half a chance. She
is as much of a fusser as Rowena Quarrelena Fightena Scrapena used to
be. I'm positively, heartily and completely disgusted over such bad
news." Jerry's tone was half joking, half serious. "I was looking for
pleasant sailing and no snags."
"Our best plan is to pay no attention to her," Marjorie placidly
returned. "It is her fault that none of us are on speaking terms with
her. She began cutting us the same day we tried to help her at the
station."
"And that lets us out," decreed Jerry slangily. "As seniors we can look
down on her with a cold and unpitying eye. Something like this." Jerry
drew herself up and stared at Marjorie with icy fixity.
"Br-r-r! Don't try that on me again unless I have my fur coat handy,"
was Marjorie's joking reception of that freezing stare. "Excuse me for
changing the subject, but let us go over to Silverton Hall after dinner
this evening. I'd like to see who's back."
"De-lighted. We won't eat much dinner after those sandwiches. We could
cut out dinner tonight and start for Silverton Hall early. We'd then be
hungry enough on the way home to stop at Baretti's. Miss Remson won't
feel hurt if we aren't here for dinner. We had tea with her. Besides,
she knows how it is when one first comes back to college."
"Oh, she won't mind," Marjorie assured confidently. "We'd better tell
the others right away. You go and see Lucy. I'll tell Leila and Muriel."
"As soon as I put away this stuff from my suitcase," Jerry promised. Her
suitcase on the floor beside her couch, she had strewed the contents
from one end of the bed to the other. "I suppose," she began afresh, as
she gathered up her toilet set and moved with it toward her chiffonier,
"that I ought to----"
The speech remained unfinished. Suddenly and without warning the door
opened. A young woman in an automobile dust coat and cap walked serenely
in. At sight of the two startled occupants of the room she set her
leather traveling bag down with a sharp, "Well; may I ask what you two
girls are doing in my room?" The newcomer was Elizabeth Walbert.