Following on the heels of exultation, however, came disappointment. On
the day before that set for their call at Mr. Cutler's office, Marjorie
received a line from him stating that the owner of the properties was in
Chicago and would not return until after Thanksgiving. Immediately he
returned, she would be apprised of the fact.
"There's no use in being disappointed about it," she said bravely to
Jerry. "We have the first chance to buy the properties. I shall not
think much about it until nearer the time. The freshies are going to
play their first game against the sophs one week from Saturday. I may as
well turn my attention to my committee duties. Ahem!"
"You are a person of some importance, aren't you?" Jerry struck an
attitude before Marjorie of mock respect. "Who's going to win, freshies
or sophs?"
"Freshies, I believe. _L'enfant terrible_ is a fine player. She is so
clever. For a girl of her height and weight she moves like lightning.
One might think she was rough to watch her. She isn't. She plays a close
game, but a clean one. Those two freshmen who go around with Miss
Walbert are good players, too. I am glad Miss Forbes was picked for
center. She is a fine girl, Jerry, even though she doesn't like me,"
Marjorie praised with a tolerant smile.
"She is not so worse," Jerry reluctantly conceded. "I don't mind her
turning up her already turned-up nose at me. I am not stuck on myself. I
object to her not appreciating you."
"So long as I have the fond regard of Jeremiah I can stand a few cold
breezes." Marjorie reached across the width of the table and
administered a fond pat to Jerry's plump hand.
"There's worse'n me, lady," croaked Jerry in her tramp voice, which made
them both laugh.
It having been decided by the Nineteen Travelers not to undertake the
giving of an entertainment until after Thanksgiving, Marjorie had a fair
amount of time to give to basket ball. Professor Leonard had asked her
and her three assistants on committee to drop in at the gymnasium
occasionally during practice. "It will give you a line on the teams. I
am anxious for fair play and no favors. I want the morale of these teams
kept up. I recall a time when it was sadly lacking."
The instructor was brutally candid in referring to the underhanded
methods of the departed Sans. He would never get over his utter loathing
for their lack of principle.
As for Augusta Forbes, energetic center on her team, her unreasoning
dislike for Marjorie and Jerry had not abated. She was greatly
displeased to find Marjorie at the head of the sports committee. She
talked loudly in the privacy of her room about not expecting a square
deal from the "wonderful" committee. She attributed her position on the
freshman team entirely to Professor Leonard's superior judgment. As a
matter of fact, the committee had had the deciding word. Contrary to
usual custom, the players received notices of their election to the
teams the following day instead of on the floor. This gave the director
and his committee an opportunity to talk matters over before deciding.
Unlike the rest of her Bertram chums, Gussie had put in a more or less
stormy fall on the campus. She was not specially tactful and often gave
unnecessary offense. She had a habit of blurting out the truth
regardless of whose feelings might suffer. Yet she was quick to praise
when something pleased her, and generous to a fault.
Unfortunately, she had made the one mistake of briefly cultivating
Elizabeth Walbert. The after effects of that mistake still lingered to
disturb her peace of mind. In keeping with her spiteful resolve,
Elizabeth had not lost an opportunity to ridicule or annoy Gussie. Her
influence among the half dozen freshmen at the Hall with whom she
consorted was great enough to incite them to mischief against tall,
babyish Gussie.
One evening she returned from dinner to find all her framed pictures
turned toward the wall, her bed dismantled, the sheets and covers tied
in hard knots, her text books lodged in the wastebasket. Another rainy
evening she returned from the dining room to open windows. The rain was
beating in the room and no amount of pressure would close them. Wrathful
examination discovered nails as the opposing force--cleverly driven in
the sashes so as almost to escape notice. On still another occasion, she
was decidedly startled to come upon a masked, black-garbed figure
stretched on her couch bed. It turned out to be a dummy made of her
clothing and attired in an old black domino; one of the very dominos
worn by the Sans on the night they had hazed Marjorie. Elizabeth Walbert
had found it tucked away on a top closet shelf of her room, where it had
escaped the notice of the maid during the summer house cleaning.
Such practical jokes, to Elizabeth's mind, amounted to nothing. She
yearned to do something really malicious. Ridicule of Gussie appeared to
do her little damage. What the "baby elephant" needed was a good scare.
With this in mind, she sought the help of Lola Elster and Alida Burton.
Gussie had scoffed openly at Lola's mannish attire and bold manner. She
had been treated by both seniors with a haughty disdain which she deeply
resented. Therefore she had not hesitated to express to other freshmen a
frankly unflattering opinion of Lola and Alida. During her brief stretch
of friendship with Elizabeth, Gussie had repeated it to the junior.
It was on a rainy evening in late October that Elizabeth laid her
grievance before the two seniors. She had hardly stepped over their
threshold when she burst forth with: "I came to have a talk with you
about that horrid Miss Forbes. I won't endure any more insults from her.
Will you two help me teach her a lesson?"
"How?" inquired Alida, laying down her text book and staring
interestedly.
"That's what I must think out. She has said rude, cutting things about
all of us. This afternoon I met her and a gang of girls coming across
the campus. The minute she spied me she said something to the rest of
them. The whole crowd turned and walked away around me; just as though
they couldn't bear to come near me, even in passing. I felt _so_
humiliated. That is only a very small item compared to some of the
hateful things she has said about me. And why? Simply because I didn't
stay near her every minute at the frolic."
"Yes, Bess; we have heard all that lingo before," Lola said with a touch
of insolent indifference. "We know your trials with the 'baby elephant.'
What do you expect us to do about it? _We_ simply ignore her. You do the
same and she will let you alone."
"I'll do more than that. I think," Elizabeth lowered her voice, "she
ought to be hazed."
"No _sir-ee_!" Lola's lips set tightly after the totally disapproving
ejaculation. "Don't you ever mention hazing in this room. You must be
crazy. Why were the Sans expelled? For hazing Miss Dean. You know that.
Do you imagine for a second that Alida and I, in our _senior year_,
would take the chances Les Cairns did?"
"I wouldn't haze _anyone_," declared Alida emphatically.
"Wise child; neither would I." Lola fixed half scornful eyes on
Elizabeth. "What ever made you light upon such a foolhardy idea? Where
and how would you haze her?"
"I don't know yet what I would do," pouted Elizabeth. "There are lots of
ways of hazing a person. The girls have done a few little things to her
room, as it is. Nothing was said to them about it." She related with
relish the tricks that had been played on Gussie.
"All that's _hazing_," flatly maintained Lola. "This freshie must be
pretty white or she would have reported it to Remson. You say nothing's
been said. That means she can keep her affairs to herself."
"Hm-m!" Elizabeth made a pettish gesture. "You are queer. One minute you
talk against this hateful creature, the next you praise her. It's a
clear case of blow hot, blow cold with you, Lola."
"If you don't like my ways, you had best stay away from me." Lola half
closed her eyes. Her expression was one of utter boredom.
Elizabeth made no answer to this. She was not ready to stay away from
Lola.
"Let me tell you something, Bess." Alida now took the floor, shaking a
warning finger at their caller. "Don't come to us with any scheme for
getting even with someone you don't like. We are not going in for
revenge this season. If a really clever scout like Leslie Cairns
couldn't get away with it, neither you nor I could. That is certain."
"Oh, I don't know. I can't say I think Leslie was so very clever. She
bore the reputation of being a wonder worker, but she made plenty of
flivvers. I could have engineered that hazing of Miss Dean and carried
it through successfully. She made an awful mess of it."
"I never heard the rights of that affair, so I can't pass opinion on
what you just said." Lola's tones were dry to displeasure. She knew
enough concerning their caller's proclivity toward malicious gossiping
to weigh well her words. "I prefer to drop the subject entirely, Bess.
It does not interest me. Get it straight, once and for all, Alida and I
know when we are well off. We aren't contemplating any changes in our
programme, least of all foolish changes."
"Very well." The reply bristled with offended vanity. It was gall to the
conscienceless junior to be thus baldly snubbed. "You girls are _very_
magnanimous. Perhaps you haven't heard much that Miss Forbes has said
against both of you. I assure you it has been _considerable_."
"Let her rave." Lola shrewdly ignored the bait thrown out by Elizabeth.
"How does it happen that you always hear more of such gossip than any
other girl on the campus whom we know?" demanded Alida a trifle sharply.
"I don't." The red poured into Elizabeth's cheeks at this thrust. "You
two stick together all the time. That's why you are not in touch with
campus gossip, as you call it."
"I see as much of this lovely aggregation as I care to," Lola yawned.
"Forget it, Bess. You can't stir us into action with that kind of bluff.
You are looking for trouble. You thought it would be nice to have us
help you hunt it. Nay, nay, my child! It simply isn't being done in our
circle."
"I might have known better than come to you. I----"
"First sensible thing you've said since you came in here," murmured
Lola.
"You are simply _hateful_, Lola Elster! Good night!" Elizabeth rose with
an angry flop and made for the door.
"Oh, good night," called Lola tantalizingly after her, as she banged the
door. Lola turned to Alida, laughing. "That settles her. How she does
hate to have her bluff called! Little she cares what that Forbes kid
says against us. She only thinks of herself. If we were silly enough to
help her in her schemes, we'd get the worst of it in the long run. If
trouble came she'd slide from under and leave us to bear the brunt of
it."
"Don't I know it?" nodded Alida. "Bess is good company when she chooses
to be, but I never feel that she can be trusted. If I had mentioned to
her tonight that I did not like Miss Forbes, I'd probably hear next week
that I had said she was a villain of the deepest dye and that I was
going to have her expelled from Hamilton. Bess weaves a whole hut from
one wisp of straw."
"I decline to furnish a single wisp, then," Lola said lightly. "Bess is
riding to a fall. I propose to be so far away from her when it happens
that I won't hear the crash."