Not daring to break the appointment she had made with the freshman
committee, Miss Reid met them the next afternoon in the gymnasium at the
time she had set. She had been very careful, in the meantime, not to
come in contact with Leslie Cairns or Lola Elster. Deep in her soul, she
was raging at the choice which had been forced upon her. Fear of losing
her position of years' standing at Hamilton, and the even more active
fear that perhaps her connivance with Leslie Cairns was known in
college, urged her to shun campus publicity. Resignation was the one way
out of her difficulties with both parties. It would check all freshman
activities against her. As for Leslie, what could she say or do in the
face of it? She would be angry, of course, and insulting. Insults,
however, broke no bones. Leslie could not circulate malicious reports
about her without implicating herself. To resign also meant a saving of
dignity. Miss Reid determined, therefore, to resign, but without
appointing a time for a new try-out. She would slide from under and let
the freshmen straighten the snarl as best they might.
A plan is not a success until it has been carried out. This Miss Reid
learned at her second interview with the committee. Portia, backed by
the other members of the committee, insisted that Miss Reid should sign
a notice of her own composition, announcing a new try-out.
"You may say, if you choose, that, owing to the dissatisfaction of the
preponderance of the freshman class with the work of the present basket
ball team, you have been requested by a committee, representing freshman
interests, to call another try-out for the purpose of selecting another
team, composed of players, adequate to the work."
"But no such thing has ever been heard of, much less done, here at
Hamilton," objected Miss Reid, when Portia coolly outlined the notice.
"It has been heard of now and must be done," came the instant answer. "I
assure you, Miss Reid, that you will go further toward gaining the
respect of the students by being impersonal in this affair. You have
been severely criticized for allowing so inadequate a team to take the
floor. On the day of the first try-out good players were ignored and
unskilful ones chosen. You will gain more by rectifying this error. You
owe it to yourself to do so before you resign. We freshmen prefer the
seniors as managers of our college sports. You have not been just with
us and we have resented your injustice."
Portia's denunciation of the physical instructor's methods was,
undoubtedly, candid. It had the desired effect, however. Miss Reid wrote
and posted the notice. Further, she sent a frigid little note to the
senior manager of college sports, whom she had treated so discourteously
on the day of the try-out, renouncing all voice and interest in basket
ball.
The victorious committee's next move was to get in touch with the senior
sports committee of three, which included Miss Clement, the senior
manager, and notify them of the complete revolution of affairs. The two
who had sided with Miss Reid agreed quite meekly now with the
committee's ideas. The try-out was held in the gymnasium shortly after
the notice had been posted, and, for once, a team was made up on its
merits. Robin Page again made good and won the coveted position of
center. The request for her resignation from the other team had not
specially troubled Robin, knowing that a shake-up was imminent.
Four released and exasperated freshmen, headed by Lola Elster and
reinforced by the ten classmates in sympathy with the ex-team besieged
Miss Reid, demanding re-instatement. She very quickly thrust the burden
on the shoulders of the senior sports committee. She made it plain to
her favorites, also, just who was responsible for the affair. As they
had no case they dared not take their grievance higher. What they
proceeded to do was seek the consolation of the Sans, all fourteen of
them being at least eligible to association with these exclusives. Their
domineering sophomore sisters obligingly promised them vengeance against
the obnoxious committee.
Leslie Cairns' receipt of the movement against collusion was a fit of
temper such as she seldom gave way to. Spying the notice on the bulletin
board, she deliberately ripped it off and tore it to bits. Then she set
off for the gymnasium at a pace quite foreign to her usual leisurely
gait. Luckily for Miss Reid, she happened to be elsewhere at the time.
Thus, when she and Leslie came to classes on the following afternoon,
the latter had calmed considerably. She did not spare the older woman's
feelings, but scored her sharply for "bungling" and then leaving her
friends in the lurch in order to save herself.
"You may say what you please, Leslie, but it would have done no good to
defy them," the instructor defended. "The freshman class this year is a
collection of young anarchists. I would advise you to be very careful
what you do. There has not been such a class in years at Hamilton. A few
more like it and Hamilton will lose its reputation as a really exclusive
college."
"What Hamilton ought to lose is some of its freshie freshmen," retorted
Leslie. "I have a friend who knows a lot about one of them, at least,
and she probably knows enough about some others to queer them here. I
mean those ninnies from that little one-horse town of Sanford. The whole
five of them are an eyesore to me. The only one who hates 'em harder
than I do, is Nat. She never will forgive that moon-eyed Miss Dean for
putting it over her at the Beauty contest. Leila Harper was back of
that. She is another I could see leave Hamilton without going into
mourning."
"You can place the blame upon the Silverton Hall crowd, with Miss Graham
and Miss Page as ringleaders," informed Miss Reid sourly.
Leslie shrugged sceptically. "Oh, I don't know," she differed. "Nat
thinks Miss Dean's crowd started it. They took up the cudgels for that
dig, Miss Langly. The minute we started to rag her for being so
bull-headed about her room, this crowd of sillies started in rooting for
her. Now old Proffy Wenderblatt and his family have taken her up and
they make a fuss over her. She and the green-eyed Sanford dig are _so
chummy_. They make me sick. We have to be careful now about ragging her.
Wenderblatt is a terror when he isn't pleased. He would report us to
Doctor Matthews. Ragging is forbidden here, same as hazing. I'd do both
to any one I didn't like, if I thought I could get away with it."
Despite Leslie Cairns' threats, made not only to Miss Reid but to
Natalie Weyman and a few others, life slid along very peacefully for the
Five Travelers. The holidays past, they found enjoyment in settling down
for the winter term to uninterrupted study, lightened by impromptu
social gatherings, held in one another's rooms. Occasionally they made
dinner engagements at Silverton or Acasia House or entertained at
Baretti's, their favorite haunt when in search of good cheer. Once a
week they spent an hour together as the Five Travelers, and found the
little confidential session helpful. No misunderstandings had crept in
among them. Often their talks branched off into impersonalities, of
interest to all.
Neither Marjorie nor Muriel had entered the second basket ball try-out.
Both had decided to wait until their sophomore year. Fond of the game,
they dropped into the gymnasium occasionally for an hour's work with the
ball by way of keeping up practice. There were always plenty of subs
willing to make up a team.
February came, bringing with it St. Valentine's day, and the masque
which the juniors always gave on St. Valentine's night. A Valentine post
box was one of the features. For days beforehand the girls spent odd
moments in making valentines, the rule being that all valentines posted
must have been hand wrought. Marjorie, remembering the cunning
little-girl costume Mary Raymond had worn to Mignon La Salle's fancy
dress party, shortened a frilled pink organdie gown of hers and went
back to childhood for a night. With pink flat-heeled kid slippers and
pink silk stockings, an immense pink top-knot bow tying up a portion of
her curls, she was a pretty sight. Ronny went as a Watteau shepherdess,
Lucy as a Japanese girl, Muriel as Rosalind in Shakespeare's "As You
Like It," and Jerry as a clown.
The valentine party was always a delightful feature of the college year,
for the reason that it was a masquerade. Though the Sans had been
holding themselves rigidly aloof from all but a few students since the
downfall of Lola Elster as a basket ball star, they could not resist the
lure of a masquerade. They took good care to keep together until after
the unmasking, presumably for fear of mingling with what they considered
as "the common herd."
"Anyone with a good pair of keen eyes can tell the precious Sans though
they should be happening to wear a dozen masks," Leila Harper had
derided. "They wear such silks and satins and velvets and jewels! They
are wearying to the sight with their fine clothes. Look at me. A poor
Irish colleen with nothing silk about me but one small neckerchief."
Following the masquerade by only a few days came the excitement of the
first game between the new team and the sophomores. The latter had not
challenged the freshman team after its reorganization, as Leslie Cairns
had voiced against it and neither Natalie nor Joan Myers cared to oppose
her. Leslie possessed a very large fortune in her own right. In
consequence she always had money in abundance. While the former had
large allowances, they managed usually to overstep them. In such case
they fell back on Leslie and were invariably in her debt.
Later Leslie changed her mind about not wishing the sophomores to play
against the "upstarts," as she termed them. Having overheard on the
campus that the sophs were afraid to meet the freshies, she accordingly
urged Joan to challenge the freshman team.
When the game came off on the third Saturday in February, the freshmen
gave the sophomores a drubbing they would not soon forget. It was not a
whitewash, but it was painfully near it. The sophomore players took the
defeat with very poor grace. The freshman class had gone wild when the
game had ended 26-10 in favor of the freshmen. While the sophs had not
expected a walk-away victory, they had confidently expected to win.
Further, Leslie had promised them a dinner at Baretti's that should
outdo anything she had given that year. Now that they had lost the game,
she obstinately refused to keep her word.
"Why spend my good money on a crowd of no accounts like you?" she had
roughly queried. "I said if you _won_ I'd give the dinner. You did not,
so what's the use in celebrating. The fault with you girls is you've
been slackers about practicing. You've gone motoring when you should
have been in the gym and after the ball." This rebuke was delivered in
the sophs' dressing room after the game, whence the team had hurried to
hide their diminished heads.
"Do you know what I heard out on the floor?" she continued, with intent
to hurt. "I heard that the sophs might have won if they had practiced
once in a while."
"Just the same the freshies had coaching all the time and we didn't,"
Dulcie Vale asserted. "Miss Dean and Miss Harding are both expert
players. It seems that they play basket ball a lot at these high
schools. These girls get to be very clever at it. Like the Indians, you
know, who make such good foot ball players. They showed the team
different plays to use against us. That's why they won. They have been
over to the gym almost every day."
Dulcie's comparison of Muriel and Marjorie to the Indians raised a
laugh, as she intended it should. Even Leslie laughed in her peculiar
silent fashion. Next instant she frowned. She had again been thwarted by
the girls she despised. Things were not going rightly at all. Born a
bully, she looked upon even her friends as created only for her
amusement. She had the insatiable desire for power, and could not bear
defeat. Tucked in an inner pocket of her tweed top coat was a letter she
had recently received. It was not the first one she had received from
the same source. This particular letter had appeared to afford her great
satisfaction on reading. Her hand strayed to the pocket which held it.
"I have a letter here I would like to read to you girls," she drawled.
"On second thoughts I'll take back what I said. I'll stand for that
blowout at Baretti's. That would be a good place to read you the letter.
Then I would like your advice on it."