A GREAT DAY FOR THE CAMPUS
Julia Peyton could have forgiven Doris Monroe for disagreeing with her.
To be told by Doris that she was an object of dislike to the lovely
sophomore was not to be borne. She held frequent indignant consultations
with her roommate, Clara Carter, on the double subject of the
ingratitude of Doris and the snippiness of Marjorie Dean. Julia had not
forgiven Marjorie for her “interference” at the Rustic Romp.
Thus far she had not voiced the gossip on the campus that the
foolish-faced farmer at the hop had been Leslie Cairns. She was a little
afraid that such a bit of gossip on her part might bring down upon her
Marjorie’s displeasure. She knew in her heart that she was the only one
of the four girls who would be likely to spread the story. Later on,
when the Romp had been forgotten she would tell her friends about that
horrid Miss Cairns and how she had stealthily slipped into the social
side of Hamilton under cover.
Finding the desire to gossip irresistible she and Clara Carter
entertained a soph with the tale one evening in their room. The soph,
Lena Marsden, a quiet studious girl, had a flourishing crush on Doris.
She promptly acquainted Doris with the ill news under promise of
secrecy. “If some one like Miss Mason or Miss Harper, or any of the P.
G.’s who have poise and influence would reprimand Miss Peyton, maybe
she’d not talk about it any more.” was Lena’s opinion.
Leslie’s repeated unkind and untruthful estimate of Marjorie had tended
to destroy Doris’s confidence in her, at least. Julia herself had spoken
slightingly of Hamilton’s most popular post graduate. Doris decided that
of the seven post graduates she knew the two most likely to command the
difficult silence of Julia were Veronica Lynne and Leila Harper. Her
final choice fell upon Leila. She and Leila had grown quite friendly as
the rehearsals of “The Knight of the Northern Sun” progressed. As her
Norse lover, Godoran, Augusta Forbes and Doris had also progressed from
stiff civility to real friendliness.
“Will you come to my room this afternoon about five, Miss Harper?” Doris
requested on the day before that of a complete rehearsal of the play. In
the act of leaving the dining room after luncheon Doris paused for an
instant behind Leila’s chair.
“With pleasure. I may be a little late, but I won’t fail to come,” Leila
assured. Supposing Doris’s request had something to do with the
approaching rehearsal, Leila thought nothing further about it. It was
twenty minutes past five that afternoon when she knocked on the door of
Doris’s room. It was the first time she had been asked to enter it by
Doris. Muriel never entertained her chums there, “for fear of freezing
them,” she always said.
“There’s something I must ask you, Miss Harper,” Doris opened the
conversation with an anxious little rush. She went on to lay the case of
Julia’s spite against Leslie before Leila. “I am sorry to have to
mention Miss Cairns’s name even to you. There seemed only this one way.
I know I can trust you. I know you can suggest something.”
Leila listened with laughter in her blue eyes. She had already been
agitating her resourceful brain on the matter of Julia’s garrulity. The
plan she had dimly formed on the day when she and Marjorie had driven to
Orchard Inn had developed better even than she had expected.
“I think I have a way of managing her,” she said with a flashing smile
of confidence.
“She is not easy to manage,” warned Doris. “It will take something
unusual to make an impression on her. She is envious and jealous and
that blinds her to see much good in any one.”
“I will see her when I leave you. I have seen Miss Cairns, Miss Monroe.
Miss Dean and I met her on the way from Orchard Inn several days ago.
She spoke to Miss Dean in my presence of the Romp. She is your friend, I
believe, and is anxious that you shall not be blamed for anything. That
is really all I wish to say in the matter.” Leila gave Doris a straight,
significant glance.
Doris settled back limply in her chair, “I—I—am surprised,” she
stammered. “I wish you—no, I don’t, either. I’ll ask Leslie. She will
tell me what it’s all about. I like Leslie, Miss Harper.”
“I like her myself better than I used to,” was Leila’s careful answer.
“Have you—”
Doris did not finish. The door was flung open and a breezy, delighted
shout of “Leila Greatheart!” ascended as Muriel Harding rushed upon
Leila and hugged her. “Welcome to our cubicle! Why didn’t you tell me
you were coming to see me?”
“I cannot tell a lie. I didn’t come here to see you at all, at all. I
came to see Miss Monroe. Now I must be going. You may both come to see
Midget and me this evening.”
“Oh, I can’t—that is—not this evening,” Doris protested weakly. She
dearly wished to accept the invitation.
“She means she won’t come if I do,” Muriel cheerfully supplied. Muriel’s
tone did not accord with her feelings. She was actually hurt, but gamely
refused to show it.
“I meant nothing of the sort,” Doris contradicted. Instantly she
reflected that she had meant precisely that. “I beg your pardon,” she
addressed Muriel stiffly. “I did mean that. I don’t now. I will come
this evening, Miss Harper.”
“Good night! I shall expect you both.” Leila flashed out of the door,
hurriedly closing it after her. Left to themselves the two girls might
effect an understanding. She knew that Muriel was still vague as to why
Doris had suddenly turned against her.
“Suppose we have it out this time, just to see how wrathful we can be,”
Muriel proposed, a shade of satire in the proposal. “That’s the only way
I know to break up a situation that’s been hard on both of us. I’ve
always thought the wires were crossed somewhere in Harding’s and
Monroe’s last fight, but I couldn’t prove it. Harding’s and Monroe’s
last fight! Doesn’t that sound thrilling? It makes one think of Indians,
cowboys, rattlesnakes, buffaloes, prairies and—geese,” she ended with a
laugh.
“I hope it will be Harding’s and Monroe’s last fight,” Doris said with
sudden energy. “I know now that a certain other person was to blame for
most of it. I know that you were not trying to be kind to me or belittle
me. I’m not so sure about Miss Dean.”
“She loves you, Doris Monroe.” Muriel sprang into affectionate defense
of Marjorie. “You never had a more faithful crush. She is the one who
started the name of the fairy-tale princess for you. She has adored your
beauty and wanted you to be in theatricals so that you could be seen and
admired. She was the judge who delivered the adjuration to Beauty at the
beauty contest. She is the best friend you have on the—”
Muriel stopped at sound of an odd little murmur from Doris. The
fairy-tale princess had dropped into a chair with her golden head
pillowed on one arm. Muriel’s torrent of loving defense had fallen upon
Doris like verbal hailstones. In fending for Marjorie she had forgotten
her own side of the estrangement.
While the two were deep in amiable and verbose adjustment of their
disagreement Leila was calling upon Julia Peyton. As she afterward
confided to Vera: “I was there, Midget, with my tongue in my cheek.”
Her interview with moon-eyed Julia appeared to be eminently
satisfactory. She soon left the garrulous sophomore’s room, followed by
Julia to the door. Leila managed to walk down the hall to her own room
after the interview with an air of dignity becoming to a post graduate.
She was well aware that Julia stood in the doorway of her room watching
her. When she was safely within the walls of her own domicile she
astonished Vera by making a laughing dive for her couch bed. She flung
herself upon it and gave way to merriment.
“You should have been with me, Midget,” she gasped. “I have had a lively
time with the Screech Owl and the Phonograph. I have written a part for
Miss Peyton in my new Irish play of ‘Desmond O’Dowd.’ It is that of
Derina, the village gossip. She has not read it yet. When she does, I
may have the part but no Screech Owl to play it. If you wish to tie your
enemy’s hands, offer him an honor. I have written the part of Derina
especially to show this soph what she is. By the time she has rehearsed
the part several dozen times she will wish to be any body but this one.
I shall give her my personal attention. You know what that means. She
may need a rehearsal every day. Hard on Leila. But think of the good to
humanity!”
“Ingenious, you old star worshipper,” laughed Vera. “Do you know she is,
I believe, almost the only gossip on the campus. That’s fine for
Hamilton, isn’t it? Every day we are growing better and better. Speaking
of goodness reminds me of our own Marjorie. She and Jerry are coming
over this evening.”
“And I am expecting company; Matchless Muriel and the Ice Queen. Are
they not a fine combination?” Leila cast a sly smile of triumph toward
Vera. “How do you like my news, Midget?”
“I’m flabbergasted. Honestly, Leila, have those two patched up their
quarrel?” Vera exhibited delighted wonder.
“Honestly, they have. Know, Midget, that I am always honest.” She drew
down a disapproving face. “How can you ask me such a question?”
Immediately her engaging smile broke forth. “I have certainly a cheering
budget of news for Beauty tonight. What with the thawing of the Ice
Queen and the taming of the Screech Owl this has been a grander day on
the campus than that of the Kerriberry Fair, in County Kerry, ould
Ireland.”
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