"Ronny Lynne, who would have expected to see you?" rejoiced Marjorie. "I
can't believe my own eyes." Two welcoming arms embraced the beloved
visitor, regardless of her dripping rain coat.
"Oh, I know I'm the great unexpected," laughed Veronica, warmly
returning Marjorie's embrace. "Now break away, reckless child, before
you are quite as wet as I. See what you get for hugging a rushing
rivulet. Oh, Marjorie Dean, but I'm glad to see you! I can't begin to
tell you how much I have missed you. I received your letter and meant to
answer at once. Then I----"
Veronica broke off in her abrupt fashion. This time it was to greet Mrs.
Dean, who, after leaving the two girls together during the first
enthusiasm of meeting had now come forward to welcome Ronny.
"A bad day for traveling, but a happy one for us," she said, as she
affectionately kissed Miss Archer's God-child. "Help Ronny out of that
wet rain coat, Lieutenant. Better go straight upstairs with Marjorie,
Veronica. She will soon make you comfortable with one of her negligees
and house slippers. I will bring you a cup of consommé. I know you must
be hungry."
"I am hungry, and I would love to dress up in some of Marjorie's
clothes," Ronny made reply. Marjorie was already busy undoing the
buttons of her friend's coat.
"Come right along upstairs then," Marjorie invited. "I'll soon have you
fixed all nice and comfy. I am so happy, Ronny. I've been thinking of
you as away off in California, and here you have been hustling across
the continent to visit me."
"And all the time I have been congratulating myself on the blessed fact
that I would really have a chance to be chummy with you when I finally
arrived," exulted Ronny, as she ran lightly up the wide open staircase
behind her hostess. Mrs. Dean had already hurried kitchenward to see to
the consommé.
"We will be the best chums ever!" Pausing on the top step, Marjorie
stretched forth a hand. "Welcome to my house and heart," she said.
Tucking her friend's hand within her arms she drew her down a short hall
and into her own particular domain. The door of Marjorie's "house" stood
open as though hospitably awaiting the arrival of the guest. Its dainty
pink and whiteness shed a light and beauty, infinitely cheering on a
dark day.
"And now to give you something to dress up in." Loosing Veronica's hand,
Marjorie crossed the room and threw open the door of a large dress
closet. "Yours to command," she offered with a hospitable gesture.
Pressing a button in the wall the wardrobe sprang alight, disclosing the
finery of girlhood in all its rainbow hues.
"Oh, you choose a garment for me to luxuriate in," Ronny returned. "I
don't know the whys and wherefores of your clothes."
Marjorie peered thoughtfully at her array of gowns and selected a
half-fitted negligee of old-rose silk. A moment's search in a cunningly
contrived shoe cupboard at one side of the closet, and she held up
quilted satin slippers to match.
"Thank you, hospitable one." Veronica was already clear of her dark blue
bengaline frock and reaching for the silken comfort of the negligee. Her
wet pumps soon removed, she donned the soft slippers and settled back in
a willow rocker with a sigh of satisfaction. "I can't begin to tell you
how comfortable I am," she said. "I had to change cars this morning
before eight, and in the rain. All I had to console me was the thought
that I would be in Sanford before noon. God-mother doesn't know I am
east. I didn't write her because I was anxious to give her a surprise.
I'll go to see her tomorrow. I wanted to come to you first. I never had
much chance to be here when I was 'Miss Archer's servant.'"
Ronny's tones rippled with amused laughter. An answering smile rose to
Marjorie's lips. Memory recalled the sedate, reserved girl she had known
as Veronica Browning. She was now beginning to glimpse the real Ronny;
brilliant, high-spirited, sure of herself, with the independence of
those who have known the bitterness of poverty.
"You are so different, Ronny," she said. "I mean from last year. Once in
a great while I used to see flashes of you as you are now. I remember
the night you danced that wonderful butterfly number at the Campfire.
You seemed happy and so much more like a real girl than as I saw you in
school each day. You are like a butterfly who is so glad to be free of
the chrysalis."
"How nice in you to compare me to anything so beautiful as a butterfly.
I am glad to be free of the part I played last year. I am not sorry I
played it, though. Is Mignon La Salle going to Hamilton College?" she
asked, with an abrupt change of subject. "I hope not. I think I can
never forgive her for the trouble she made you. I never minded in the
least the way she treated me."
"No; Mignon is going to Smith College. She is all right now, Ronny,"
Marjorie earnestly assured. "When she faced about last spring she truly
meant it."
"You deserve the credit for having hauled her through," was Ronny's
blunt opinion. "I never would have had the patience. A good many times
last year I was tempted to tell you who I really was. I did not care to
have the other girls know, and Jerry was so curious about me. I was
afraid it might make trouble for you if you knew and they didn't. The
Lookouts would have been likely to ask you about me. Then, if I had
pledged you to secrecy, it would have meant your refusal to answer any
questions concerning me. This year----"
Veronica broke off in the old way which had always been so baffling to
Marjorie. For an instant a vague sense of disappointment visited her. It
was as though Ronny had once again suddenly dropped the curtain of
mystery between them.
Her brown eyes fixed with unconscious solemnity on her guest, she became
aware that Veronica was laughing at her. "I know what you are thinking,"
Ronny declared. "You think I am the same aggravating old mystery who
used never to finish a sentence. Good reason why I chopped off a remark
I was about to make. I almost told you a secret." Her tone was now
purposely tantalizing. "Had I best tell you now or wait awhile?"
The entrance into the room of Mrs. Dean, bearing a lacquered tray, on
which was a steaming cup of consommé and a plate of small crisp rolls,
interrupted any confidence Ronny might have been on the point of making.
Lingering for a few minutes' talk with Veronica, Mrs. Dean left the two
girls with the reminder that the luncheon bell would soon ring.
Marjorie, meanwhile, had learned something new of Ronny. She realized
that now her friend was only playing at secrecy. Ronny would never again
be a mystery to her as in the past.
"I've learned something about you, Ronny Lynne," she commented in merry
accusation. "You love to tease. Well, you can't tease me. As for your
old secret you may do just as you please. You may tell me now or after
while. I'm not a bit curious. Ahem! I won't say I am not _interested_.
Wouldn't you like to tell me now?"
She laid a coaxing hand on Ronny's arm. The latter's radiant face was an
index to pleasant news.
"Would I? Perhaps." Ronny pretended to deliberate. "Well, listen hard.
Once upon a time there was a person named Ronny who decided to go to
college. She had heard about a college named Hamilton, and----"
"You're going to Hamilton! You're going to Hamilton!" Marjorie had
sprung from her chair and was performing a dance of jubilation about
Veronica. "It is the best old secret I ever heard!"
"I hoped you would be pleased." There were tears just back of Ronny's
eyes. She loved Marjorie with the great strength of a first friendship.
Naturally she was moved by the hearty reception of her news.
"_Pleased!_ That doesn't express it! This morning I was lonesome and
wished something pleasant would happen. The girls are all away from
Sanford. Lucy Warner and I are the only Lookouts at home. Lucy is
secretary to Mr. Forbes, a Sanford lawyer, so I don't see her very
often. I never dreamed that the rain would bring me you. And now comes
the crowning happiness! You are going to be with me at Hamilton. I think
I am a very lucky Lookout." Marjorie had paused in front of Veronica,
hands resting lightly on the arms of the latter's chair. "When you left
Sanford last June, Ronny, had you any idea then of entering Hamilton?"
"No." Ronny shook a decided head. "I was not sure of coming east again
for a long while. Father missed me dreadfully last year. I could tell
that from his letters. I thought he would ask me to stay at home and
engage a tutor for me. After I had been at home awhile we went on a pony
riding trip over some of his fruit ranches. We had lots of long talks
and I told him a great deal about you. He was much interested in the
Lookouts and asked a good many questions about the club. He asked which
college you expected to enter, and if I would like to go east again to
college. I found that he really wished me to go to an eastern college,
provided I was of the same mind. He always gives me the privilege of
choice. Of course, I chose Hamilton. So here I am. I shall divide my
visits between you and God-mother until time to go to Hamilton, and then
we'll journey into the far country of college together along with as
many of the Lookouts as shall decide for Hamilton."
"Jerry is going to be a Hamiltonite," returned Marjorie, her bright face
showing her happiness. "Muriel Harding, too. I am not sure about Lucy
Warner, Ronny. She may have to wait until next year to enter college.
She won't let anyone help her with her personal expenses."
"I expected some such hitch in her plans," was Ronny's almost grim
reply. "I would have offered her personal aid last June, but knew it
would not be best then. I intended to write you about it. When I decided
for college I knew I could talk things over with you and plan how to
help Lucy while on this visit."
"If anyone can persuade her that she really ought to enter Hamilton,
this year, it will be you," Marjorie asserted confidently.
"I will do my best," promised Ronny. "I ought to have made that
scholarship cover everything in the way of expense down to a shoestring.
I was positive Lucy would win it. She is so proud. I merely tried to
save her dignity by offering the regulation scholarship."
The musical tinkle of a bell from below stairs announced luncheon.
Marjorie caught Ronny's hands and drew her up from her chair.
"There's the luncheon bell," she announced. "Come along, Ronny. We have
some glorious news to tell Captain."
Their arms twined about each other's waists, the two friends walked
slowly toward the half open door. There they stopped to talk. A second
and louder jingling of the bells soon informed them that they were
loiterers.
"That's Captain," laughed Marjorie. "She knows we've stopped to talk.
Delia rang the bell first time. She only tinkled it a little."
Accelerating their pace, the two gaily descended the stairs. More fully
the joy of the occasion was borne upon Veronica. It was wonderful to her
to be so near and dear to a girl like Marjorie. More, this happy state
of affairs would continue all year. There would be no cloud of mystery
between them as had been at high school. She was determined also that no
clouds should obscure Marjorie's college sky if she could prevent their
gathering. If Marjorie's strict adherence to truth and justice brought
her the disfavor of the unworthy, she would not have to contend against
them single-handed.