"Leslie Cairns! The very last person I expected to see in this part of
the country!"
With this exclamation of amazement, Lola Elster brought the small
electric machine she was driving to a quick stop. The surprised cry was
the result of being hailed by a young woman driving a roadster. The
latter had spied the electric motor containing Alida Burton and Lola
Elster and promptly raised her voice to a shout of greeting. The meeting
occurring on one of the staid residence avenues of Hamilton, she had had
no difficulty in attracting the attention of the two seniors.
"Why, Leslie, this _is_ a surprise!" echoed Alida. "I haven't seen you
since the day--" Alida stopped, her color rising. "I mean since--" again
she stammered.
"Oh, say it and be done with it." Leslie exhibited her old impatience.
She was already shaking hands with Lola, who had climbed out of the
electric and now stood beside the roadster. "Since I got it in the neck
for hazing. That's what the trouble was all about. If Matthews hadn't
been both feet down on hazing the whole thing would have blown over."
"We couldn't imagine what had become of you," Lola said hastily. She was
anxious to keep off the subject of the Sans' downfall. She had exhibited
so little sympathy for Leslie during her last week on the campus that
she feared Leslie might, given the opportunity, upbraid her for her lack
of loyalty. "Why didn't you write me, Leslie? I never heard a word from
you all summer."
"Oh, I was busy. I don't like to write letters." The reply was coolly
evasive.
"Are you staying in town?" Alida was now out of the car and ranged next
to Lola beside the roadster.
"West Hamilton. I have an aunt there, you know."
"Is that so?" Lola opened her eyes. "I never knew that."
Conversation languished for an instant. Lola and Alida were both curious
concerning Leslie, but tried not to show it.
"There's a rather nice little confectioner's store about two blocks
further down the street. Suppose we go there," proposed Leslie. "We are
blocking the road, as it is. Some of these Hamilton fossils would kick
if we happened to take up an inch more of room than their ideas call
for."
"I know the place you mean. Delighted!" Lola turned toward her car,
Alida following. Again at the wheel, she called out, "Park your car on
the lower side of the street opposite the shop. The parking's better
there. Go ahead. We'll be right behind you."
"Sure thing," Leslie returned laconically. "I know all about that
place."
"Leslie has nerve," was Lola's first remark out of the former's hearing.
"If I had been expelled from college you wouldn't catch me within a
hundred miles of the fatal spot afterward. First I ever heard she had an
aunt in West Hamilton."
"Don't you believe it?" queried Alida.
"I doubt it. Les is here for some special reason of her own which she
will keep to herself unless she happens to feel confidential. I
understand her. She used to tell me a lot about her affairs when I was a
freshie. After you and I grew pally, she grew shut-mouth," Lola slangily
continued. "I was glad not to be her pal. She took too many risks and
she was always dragging her pals into trouble. She thought money would
help her out all the time. You see for yourself, it didn't. I made up my
mind to keep away from Les long before the end of my freshman year."
"She thought a lot of you, though, Lola. She really did," Alida said
earnestly.
"Oh, I know." Lola made a little bored movement of the head. "After she
mixed things up for me and made me appear an idiot at basketball, I had
had enough of being chummy with her. Be careful what you say to her
today. Les has some kind of game to play, take it from me. Don't be too
friendly with her. It won't add to our reputation as seniors to be
chummy with her. We'll have to keep her at a distance. Recall she left
Hamilton, _disgraced_."
The confectioner's shop reached, Lola had time for no more advice.
Natalie Weyman had once characterized Lola Elster to Leslie as "a
selfish kid." In all ways she bore out this opinion. She was constantly
alive to her own interests, always placed them first, and callously
trampled down anyone who stood in the way of them.
The trio presently established at one of the small round tables and
their order given for soda fountain concoctions composed of ice cream,
nuts and fruit syrup, Leslie said with an elaborate attempt at
indifference, "Well, what is the news from the knowledge shop? Have you
seen Walbert yet?"
"She's at Wayland Hall," promptly replied Alida. "So are we. Lola and I
room together now." Satisfaction permeated the information.
"What?" Leslie made the monosyllable faintly satiric. "You don't say so.
And Walbert is at the Hall! She tried long and hard enough to get there.
So did you, Lola. Where Walbert should be is off the campus. She
deserved the run far more than we."
"We are awfully provoked about it," went on Alida. "We do not intend to
bother with her at all. Do we, Lola?"
Lola shrugged contemptuously. "I sha'n't lose any sleep over her. I
never liked her."
"You never lost any sleep over admiration for anyone, Lola." Leslie put
a touch of malice in the assertion.
"I know it," Lola replied boldly, though she reddened. She understood
the remark to be a reproach.
"How is Bean, dear creature?" Leslie simulated effusion. "And how are
the beanstalks? Grown clear up to the chapel steeple by this time, I
don't doubt."
"They are back. That's about all I can say. We aren't on speaking terms
with them, you know. By the way, Les, did Bean stand up before the Board
and refuse to answer their questions? I mean last spring when the Sans
got in bad. I heard she did."
"Who told you?" countered Leslie, her face darkening.
"Nell Ray, I think. It was one of the Sans," Lola informed.
"I always knew Nell Ray was a talker." Leslie scowled her disapproval.
"Yes, you may as well know, Bean did precisely that. It was merely a
bluff. I think she had told the whole thing to Matthews before we were
summoned. Very likely he sent for her when he received Dulcie's letter.
She spilled the story of the hazing and he agreed to let her get away
with refusing to talk before the Board. That little prig made more
trouble for me than anyone else at Hamilton."
"I don't think so, Leslie," differed Lola. "It was Dulcie Vale and Bess
who dished you. You always had it in for Bean and she never made a move
against you."
"You don't know what I know, or you wouldn't say that. But it doesn't
matter. I'll have a chance yet to even my score with that mischief
maker. I'm glad I ran across you two. You can keep me posted as to what
goes on at the prissy school; provided anything of account happens
there."
"Yes, certainly." Lola's assurance lacked warmth. "How long do you
expect to be here, Leslie? Are you going to open your New York house
this winter? Now that you are done with college, I suppose your father
will want you to be near him. If you're going to be in New York, Alicia
and I will arrange to spend Thanksgiving with you. Our house is closed
and the folks gone to California for the winter."
"I don't know where I'll be at Thanksgiving." Leslie spoke with cold
abruptness. She had quickly sensed Lola's lack of interest in herself,
immediately topped by self-seeking. That was Lola to a T. "My father and
I are on the outs, if you care to know it. He was furious with me about
that hazing business. He didn't care a bit about what we did to Remson.
He said that was merely looking out for our own interests. He couldn't
see the hazing for a minute. I'm living on my own money. I don't know
whether he and I will ever make up or not." A curious expression of
gloom crossed her heavy features. The estrangement from her father was
her real punishment.
"I shall stay on here for awhile," she went on. "I might as well. Later
I'll go to Chicago, perhaps. I have a couple of girl friends who are
crazy to have me make them a long visit."
"I am sorry about your trouble with your father." Lola did not show
sympathy. Instead she appeared half sulky. Leslie's refusal to take up
her Thanksgiving hint had displeased her. She had calculated that she
and Alida would enjoy being entertained over Thanksgiving at the Cairns'
palatial New York home.
"Oh, he'll get over it. I am his only child. He'll have to come across
with a forgiveness diploma sooner or later. It's the only kind of
diploma I want."
For half an hour longer the three sat around the table, their talk
animated but fragmentary, so far as sticking to one subject was
concerned. During that time Lola kept her ears trained for some catch
word that might explain Leslie's presence in Hamilton. Leslie, however,
was on her guard. When at length they rose to leave the shop, she had
arrived at one definite conclusion. She could not count on the
friendship of either girl. Alida would be ruled by Lola, and Lola would
cut her dead tomorrow if self-interest warranted it.
Leslie Cairns had deceived them in saying she was visiting an aunt in
Hamilton. She had merely taken a furnished house in the town and was
living there with a chaperon whom she called "Aunt Edith." Leslie was
wise enough to know that, after her separation from her father, she
could not defy convention with success. As a young woman alone, she
needed the protection of a chaperon. She therefore engaged the services
of a middle-aged woman of education and social standing who had met with
reverses of fortune. Mrs. Gaylord, her duenna, never interfered with her
plans. She placidly fell in with them.
As it happened, Leslie's father had not entirely abandoned his
unscrupulous daughter. He had determined to teach her a lesson. Shocked
at her lawless conduct and bitterly incensed and disappointed at her
expulsion from Hamilton College, he had treated her with great
harshness. He had bitterly reminded her of his threat to disown her.
"You have your own money," he had said. "Use it to support yourself. I
wish nothing more to do with you. I am going to Chicago for a week. When
I come back, I shall expect to find you gone."
Characteristic of Leslie, she had accepted the verdict without emotion.
She had packed her effects, engaged a chaperon from a private agency,
and left New York for Bar Harbor for the summer. Mr. Cairns had had her
every movement secretly watched, however. Mrs. Alice Gaylord would not
have chaperoned Leslie long had his private seal of approval been
lacking. Assured that she was in safe company, he left her to her own
devices until such time as he should find it in his heart to reclaim
her.
The summer over, Leslie had found time hanging heavily on her hands. She
had had altogether too much time to think, and thinking grew into
brooding over her deserved misfortunes. Strangely enough, she blamed
Marjorie Dean more than all the others for what had happened. She chose
to do so because she had never forgiven Marjorie for turning on her on
the occasion when Leslie had led the verbal affront against Marjorie on
the campus during the latter's freshman year. With that for a basis, she
had laid the failure of every dishonorable scheme she had concocted at
Hamilton at Marjorie's door. It was the old story of the injurer
accusing the innocent injured party of treachery.
Shortly before her expulsion from Hamilton College, Leslie heard a rumor
to which she paid no special attention on hearing. In the stress of the
dismissal agony she forgot about it. Later it returned to her. It was
the recollection of it which decided her to take up her residence in the
town of Hamilton. She also had a certain amount of curiosity regarding
what went on at Hamilton. Lola and Alida were still there. She had
thought she might cultivate their society.
Leslie was shrewd enough to discern, that, while Lola Elster would
gladly accept entertainment from her in New York, she was not desirous
of the old campus intimacy with her.
Back in her roadster, having bade the two seniors a nonchalant farewell
with, "I'll lunch you at my aunt's house some day soon," she drove down
the shady street half hurt, half amused.
"Lola's the same greedy, grabbing kid," she reflected. "That settles
both of them for me. I couldn't depend upon them to find out a thing for
me. Bess Walbert is anything but trustworthy. Still I may have to make
up with her yet."