Returned to Hamilton from the Thanksgiving holiday, the most important
subject on Marjorie's horizon was that of the real estate transaction
she and Robin Page hoped to close with Mr. Cutler. He had stated that
the owner of the boarding house properties would be in Hamilton after
Thanksgiving. Both she and Robin were impatient to hear from the agent,
yet neither felt like forcing matters.
It was over a week after Thanksgiving when Marjorie joyfully pounced
upon a letter in the Hall bulletin board, addressed to her, and bearing
the agent's printed address in the upper left hand corner. The four
typed lines which comprised the letter stated that the owner of the
properties in which they were interested would be in Hamilton on the
following Monday. Mr. Cutler requested them to call at his office at
four o'clock of the succeeding Wednesday afternoon.
"I'll be glad to have this part of our great undertaking settled and off
my mind," Marjorie buoyantly told Robin that afternoon as the two girls
left Science Hall together. Marjorie had stopped at the Biological
Laboratory for Robin in order to acquaint her with the welcome news.
"When we know definitely how much the properties are going to cost us we
will have more incentive to go ahead and rush our first show of the
season through. Nothing like knowing exactly where one stands, is
there?" Robin finished interrogatively.
Marjorie quickly agreed with this statement. Her naturally orderly mind
clamored for the suspense to end so that the real work might begin.
"It will be a good thing to have it off our chests by Wednesday," she
congratulated. "Saturday's the first freshie-soph game, you know. We
will have to be present. I can look forward to enjoying it, with this
important question settled."
"Did that Miss Hurst answer your note?" Robin inquired. "I meant to ask
you that before and kept forgetting it."
"No, she did not. The team practiced on the Friday after I wrote it. I
dropped in purposely to watch those four girls. There were at least
fifty students there besides myself. Miss Forbes made a beautiful toss
to basket. You should have heard the applause. The four kickers looked
miffed but they didn't try any hatefulness with her, so far as I could
see. I asked her that evening if matters had improved in that respect
and she said they certainly had. I haven't been to practice since
Thanksgiving."
"I stopped at the gym yesterday to watch the freshies. Phil was anxious
to see them work. Miss Forbes was leading the team, as usual, in fast
work. She seemed to be getting along with them very well. Your letter
had a potent effect, I guess. I have no patience with small natures."
Robin frowned her utter contempt for such marked ignobility.
"Nor I. If Miss Forbes should play a brilliant game on next Saturday she
would be established as a star and her team-mates would have to be very
careful how they treated her afterward. I hope she does. I believe she
will."
With that Marjorie changed the subject by asking Robin to go to the Hall
with her and remain to dinner. "We can go a long way toward planning our
next entertainment. I imagine a play would be interesting for a starter.
Leila makes a fine stage manager. Katherine Langly wrote a romantic play
called 'The Maid of Honor.' It is a truly thrilling drama of the English
Court during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. During my soph year we talked
of giving it. Miss Remson said there was a large cedar chest in the
attic of the Hall full of courtier costumes. The students of several
years back used them in giving Shakespearian plays." Marjorie's usual
resourcefulness came to the surface.
"That would be great!" Robin was all enthusiasm at the proposal.
"Katherine Langly ought to become a writer or a playwright or something
literary. She has written articles and verses and short stories, so I
have heard, just for literary practice. She has never tried to sell one
of them. She belongs to the Silver Pen, doesn't she?"
"Yes. She was invited to join it during her freshman year. Think of
that! She composed a theme for her English class, and the style was so
perfect, Miss Faber read it out to the class," related Marjorie. "Soon
after that she was invited to join the Silver Pen. Leila has often
spoken of what fine girls some of the seniors were that year. She
belongs to the Silver Pen, too. She was invited to join in her soph
year."
"Portia belongs," returned Robin. "She is the only one of our crowd who
made it. The others of us incline more toward music, I suppose. Phil is
thinking of founding a musical sorority. That would be an innovation at
Hamilton."
Full of the new project of producing Katherine's play, Marjorie and
Robin could not resist going over to Randolph House that evening to see
Kathie and ask her permission to their plan. At first she demurred.
Finally she went to the trouble of hunting for it in the bottom of her
trunk so that Robin might read it. The fact that the two girls desired
it as a money-maker for their worthy undertaking carried weight with
her. She gave her consent, her only objection having been that it was
only "trash" and not good enough for a production in a literary sense.
When Marjorie opened her eyes the following Wednesday, on a cold
December morning, her first thought was of her appointment that day. She
half dreaded consulting the Hall bulletin board for fear of finding
another disappointing letter from the agent. None appeared. She met
Robin at half-past two that afternoon. They hailed a taxicab for the
town of Hamilton, arriving at Mr. Cutler's office a few minutes before
three.
As they were a little early, they were obliged to wait for the agent to
finish the business he was transacting with two men. Marjorie drew a
long expectant breath as the door to the street closed finally on the
agent's masculine callers.
"Will you young ladies please come into my private office?" he said,
after greeting them in his courteous fashion. He opened the door for
them and stood aside for them to enter.
The trio seated in the inner office, Mr. Cutler faced the two seniors
with an expression that vaguely discomfited Marjorie. While she never
tried to read the faces of those with whom she came into contact, she
had a peculiar sense of divination which rarely failed her. The agent's
features betrayed no indication of having pleasant news to offer them.
On the contrary they were rather tensely set.
"I am very sorry to tell you," he began, and the hearts of both girls
sank, "that the properties which you wished to buy have been sold." He
jerked the words out as though anxious to be done with the disheartening
information.
"Sold?" came the questioning chorus. Marjorie and Robin stared at Mr.
Cutler, then at each other.
"Yes. Let me explain. When I wrote you, Miss Dean, and made the
appointment for today, I did not know this. The properties were unsold
when Mr. Saxe, the owner, went to Chicago. In fact, there had been no
demand for them. The surprising part of the affair is that the
purchaser, on learning that Mr. Saxe was in Chicago, went there to see
him. I did not furnish the address nor the information concerning these
properties. The sale was conducted entirely away from me. The purchaser
must have wanted them very much. Mr. Saxe was offered sixty thousand
dollars for them. Naturally he accepted, at once."
"_Sixty thousand dollars!_" exclaimed Robin in a wondering tone. "That
is a great deal more than we could have paid."
"I asked him what his own price would have been," continued Mr. Cutler.
"He put it at forty thousand dollars. Not far, you see, from my
estimate. They were purchased by a young woman, a Miss Cairns, I believe
her name was. She may have been acting as agent for a private party. I
don't know. It is rather a mystery to me--the whole transaction. I was
sorry for myself as well," he added whimsically. "It lost me a good fat
commission."
Neither Marjorie nor Robin said a word. It had taken not more than an
instant's reckoning to decide that "Miss Cairns" must be Leslie Cairns,
ex-student of Hamilton College. They knew she had been staying in the
town of Hamilton. They knew of no other Miss Cairns.
"She must have known we wanted them!" Robin cried out resentfully,
forgetting for a second the agent's presence.
"Did I understand you to say--" Mr. Cutler stopped. He did not in the
least understand Robin's remark.
"Then there is no use in our wasting your time, Mr. Cutler," Marjorie
said, rising. "We are disappointed, of course. We must look about us for
another site. That's all. When we find one we will come to you and have
you make the inquiries about it. We shall build our dormitory somewhere
in the neighborhood of the campus, some day." She flashed the agent a
dauntless little smile.
"It is too bad; too bad," he repeated. "I was greatly interested in your
plan. Do either of you, by chance, know this Miss Cairns? The name is
unfamiliar to me as of this town."
"We know of her. We do not know her personally. She is a very rich
woman, in her own right, I have been told." It was Robin who now made
answer.
"Mr. Saxe said she paid cash for the properties," nodded the agent.
"So far as we are concerned, we could have paid the price in cash of
sixty thousand dollars. One of our sorority members had offered to
finance us. We were to pay the debt to her at leisure. We felt it not
right to tax the students-to-come, at Hamilton, with too heavy a burden
of debt. We are in our senior year and just starting this movement. We
shall appoint certain students to replace us in this work when we have
been graduated from Hamilton. They in turn will choose their
successors." Marjorie took the trouble to make this explanation because
of Mr. Cutler's genuine interest in their venture.
"Well, it is a noble ambition," praised the agent. "I will remember your
need and look about me for a suitable site for your dormitory. One never
knows what may develop. Now if you could buy that open strip of ground
belonging to the Carden estate, it would be ideal for your purpose. The
Cardens, those left of the family, are in Europe most of the time. They
might decide suddenly to sell their estate. I'll keep you in mind," he
assured.
"What do you think of that?" were Robin's first words, spoken out of
earshot of the agent.
"What do _you_ think?" countered Marjorie. Her tones bordered on
bitterness. She was disturbed far more than she had shown while in the
office.
"Just what I said in there." Robin indicated the office with a backward
movement of her head. "She knew we wanted them and bought them on
purpose to thwart us. She has been in Hamilton since last summer. How
did she find out our plan, I wonder?"
"That's a question hard to answer. She must have heard something
concerning it last year after our show. It wasn't what one could call a
secret. I mean the talk of building a dormitory. What seems queer to me
is this. The moment we got in touch with Mr. Cutler, Miss Cairns hurried
to Chicago to head off this Mr. Saxe before we could see him. We know
Mr. Cutler did not tell her of us. He said he had never met her. She has
heard something about it this fall."
"Then she must be friendly and in communication with certain students on
the campus," was Robin's conjecture.
"Undoubtedly." Marjorie did not mention what she had observed on her way
to mail the letter before the Thanksgiving vacation. It was of no
particular use, she reflected. The properties were gone, the subject of
them and their present owner might better be entirely dismissed.
"Hateful old snake!" was Robin's wrathful opinion of Leslie Cairns. "The
idea of her coming back and living near the college after the disgrace
of having been expelled!"
"We'll have to make the best of it. It needn't hinder us from going on
and giving our play. The more money we earn, the more of our own we'll
have when we find a site. Never say die, Robin. That is the only way to
do." Marjorie was recovering from the damper she had lately received.
"It will all come out for the best. Remember what I say, and see if it
doesn't. Some day we may be very glad we didn't get those properties.
That is poor consolation just now, I know."
"Oh, I'm not cast into the depths," Robin replied in a lighter tone.
"Nothing worth while is ever gained without a struggle. Leslie Cairns
may find one of these days that she'd far rather have her sixty thousand
dollars back than be the owner of those properties. I only hope she
does."