A WILD PLAN
“What-t? Do you know what you’re saying?” Leslie’s tones rose higher.
“I ought to know. I’ve heard nothing else since she left the Hall for
Hamilton Arms.” Doris’s tone was the acme of weariness. “It wouldn’t
have been surprising to hear that President Matthews had been asked to
write Brooke Hamilton’s biography,” she continued. “The idea of _Miss
Dean_ as his biographer is, well—_ridiculous_.”
“It’s pure bosh,” Leslie said contemptuously. “She’s a tricky little
hypocrite. She’s managed to curry favor with that wizened old frump at
Hamilton Arms. The last of the Hamiltons! She looks it. I heard when I
was at Hamilton that she was sore at the college; that she had all the
dope for Brooke Hamilton’s biography but wouldn’t come across with it. I
presume Bean slathered her with deceitful sweetness until she grew dizzy
with her own importance and renigged.”
“I don’t like Miss Dean.” Doris’s fair face clouded. “I’m glad she’s not
at the Hall any longer. Miss Harper and her other friends don’t appear
to miss her much, or Miss Macy either. They have parties in one
another’s rooms almost every night.”
“They have found they can live without her,” was Leslie’s satiric
opinion. “You certainly have handed me news, Goldie.”
“Oh, that’s only a beginning,” Doris declared, well pleased with
Leslie’s appreciation. “The other night Miss Dean and Miss Macy were at
the Hall to dinner. Afterward they were in Miss Harper’s room with their
crowd. They had a high old time talking and laughing. I could hear them,
but not very plainly. They were planning shows, though. Since then a
notice for a piano recital, featuring Candace Oliver, a freshie musical
genius, has appeared on all the bulletin boards. Since that notice there
has come another of an Irish play by Miss Harper. It’s to be given in
May. The name of the play and the cast hasn’t yet been announced. Miss
Harper is awfully tantalizing. She always waits until campus curiosity
is at fever height about her plays before she gives out any more
information.”
“She’s a foxy proposition.” Leslie showed signs of growing sulkiness.
Her earlier affability had begun to wane at first mention of Marjorie
Dean. Next to Marjorie, Leila Harper was registered in her black books.
“She’s clever, Leslie; not foxy,” Doris calmly corrected. She went on to
tell Leslie of the part Leila had asked her to play in “The Knight of
the Northern Sun.”
Leslie’s deep-rooted jealousy of the two girls who were college
successes where she had been a rank failure rushed to the surface.
“Leila Harper has nerve to ask you to be in a play when she knows you
are a friend of mine. I see her game. She knows just how useful you can
be to her in her confounded old play. It’s some feather in her theatre
bonnet to keep the college beauty at her beck and call. She has planned
to break up our friendship by flattering you into believing you are a
dramatic wonder. Bean is probably back of Harper’s scheme. She can’t and
never could bear to see me enjoy myself.”
Leslie jerked out the final sentence of her tirade against Leila with
angry force. Her face had darkened in the jealous way which invariably
reminded Doris of the driving of thunder clouds across a graying sky.
“Miss Harper was impersonal in asking me to be in the play,” Doris
defended. The sea shell pink in her cheeks had deepened perceptibly.
“She dislikes me. I know she wants me in the cast because she thinks I’d
be a feature. You see I’m the true Norse type. The heroine of the play
is a Norse princess. I want to be in the play because I like to be in
things. I’ll enjoy the praise and the excitement. I may go on the
English stage when I have been graduated from Hamilton. My father would
not object if I were to play in a high class London company.”
“The same old Goldie who cares for nobody but herself.” Leslie gave vent
to a sarcastic little snicker. “Why not take up with Bean, too?”
“Oh, Leslie, don’t be hateful,” Doris said with an air of resigned
patience. “You know I detest Miss Dean. Nothing could induce me to take
up with her. It’s different with Miss Harper. She’s not American, you
know. She is so cosmopolitan in manner. She is really more my own style.
But, of course, she’s hopelessly devoted to that Sanford crowd of
girls.”
“Don’t mention Sanford to me. I hate the name of that collection of
one-story huts,” Leslie exploded fiercely. “You ought to detest Bean,
considering the way she has treated me. If she had been half as square
as she pretends to be she would have put the kibosh on old Graham, just
like that, when he began hiring my men away from my architects. My
father said the whole business was a disgrace. He said there was no use
in my trying to buck against an institution. That’s what Bean’s pull
amounts to. She has both Prexy and that ancient Hamilton relict to back
her.”
“If Miss Dean knew that her architect was hiring your men away from your
architects, and ignored the fact for her own business interests then she
must be thoroughly dishonorable,” Doris said flatly.
“If—if—There you go,” sputtered Leslie, wagging her head, her shaggy
eye-brows drawn together. “No ‘if’ about it. She knew. You talk as
though you wanted to believe her honorable. Well, she isn’t, never was;
never will be. It makes me furious to think that she should go nipping
around the campus as a college arc light while I wasn’t even allowed a
look at a sheepskin. Too bad I couldn’t have learned some of her pretty
little dodges. I’d have been able to slide out of the hazing racket.
I’ll tell you something you don’t know. Bean could have helped us when
the Board sent for her by refusing to go to Hamilton Hall to the
inquiry. Not Bean. She went, and made such a fuss about pretending she
didn’t care to talk that it made us appear ten times as much to blame as
we really were.”
“If—” Doris hastily checked herself. “She seems to have tried her best
to down you, Leslie. But, why?” Her green eyes directed themselves upon
Leslie with a disconcerting steadiness.
Leslie gave a short laugh. “I used to ask myself that,” she replied with
a sarcastic straightening of her lips. “Now I understand her better. She
was jealous and wanted to be the whole show, all the time. She is deep
as a well. Take my word for it. I know her better than I wish I knew
her.” She shook her head with slow effective regret.
“I’ll surely remember what you’ve said about her.” Doris meant what she
said. She had been distinctly shocked at both instances which Leslie had
cited of Marjorie Dean’s treachery. What she desired most now was that
Leslie should drop the discussion of her grievances.
This Leslie was not ready to do. She continued on the depressing topic
for several more minutes. Then she began asking Doris questions
concerning the subject of Brooke Hamilton’s biography. Doris knew only
what she had already imparted to Leslie concerning it.
“None of the students know the details concerning it except Miss—I mean,
the Travelers,” she finally said desperately. She stopped short of
mentioning Marjorie’s name again. She did not care to start Leslie anew.
“I imagine there really isn’t much else to know besides what I’ve
already told you.”
“Don’t you ever believe it,” was the skeptical retort. “But I don’t
blame you, Goldie, for what you don’t know.”
“Thank you.” Doris shrugged satiric gratitude. Glad to turn the
conversation into a lighter strain she continued gaily: “We’re soon
going to have a general lark on the campus. The whole college crowd is
to be in it. It’s to be a ‘Rustic Romp.’ One-half of the girls are to
dress up as country maids; the other half as country swains. In order to
be sure of an even number of couples each student has to register her
choice as maid or swain. If not enough girls register as swains then
some of the maids will have to change their minds and do duty as
gallants. Miss Evans, a rather nice senior, has charge of the
registration. And it’s to be a masquerade!” Doris’s exclamation
contained pleased anticipation.
“Wonderful.” Leslie chose to be derisive. Underneath envious interest
prompted her to ask; “Whose fond, fertile flight of foolishness was
that? Mickie Harper’s or Pudge and Beans?”
“I don’t know whose inspiration it was. Probably the seniors had the
most to do with it.” Doris again steered the talk toward peaceful
channels.
“Hm-m.” Leslie glanced at Doris, then at the luncheon which the waitress
was now placing before them on the table. She gazed abstractedly at the
appetizing repast. Her eyes traveled slowly back to Doris. Suddenly she
broke into one of her fits of silent, hob-goblin merriment. “I think
I’ll attend that hayseed carnival myself,” she announced in a tone of
defiant boldness.
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