[Illustration: Leslie had posted herself behind the barrier of leafy
green for the express purpose of watching the working out of a little
plan of her own.]
(_Page 120_) (_Marjorie Dean, Marvelous Manager_)
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MARJORIE DEAN
MARVELOUS MANAGER
BY PAULINE LESTER
AUTHOR OF
“The Marjorie Dean High School Series,” “The
Marjorie Dean College Series,” “The Marjorie
Dean Post-Graduate Series,” etc.
[Illustration]
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
Printed in U. S. A.
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THE MARJORIE DEAN
POST-GRADUATE SERIES
A SERIES FOR GIRLS 12 TO 18 YEARS OF AGE
BY PAULINE LESTER
MARJORIE DEAN, POST-GRADUATE
MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER
MARJORIE DEAN AT HAMILTON ARMS
MARJORIE DEAN’S ROMANCE
Copyright, 1925
By A. L. BURT COMPANY
MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER
Made in “U. S. A.”
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MARJORIE DEAN
MARVELOUS MANAGER
CHAPTER I.
ACROSS THE CAMPUS
“To go, or not to go?—that is the question,” paraphrased Marjorie Dean
glancing up from the open letter in her hand. She fixed her eyes on
Jerry Macy, her room-mate as though trying to read what was in her
chum’s mind.
“Whether ’tis nobler to eat Baretti’s turk,
And circulate upon the campus drear;
Or to take luggage and be off for home
To roost four days upon the family tree.”
Jerry aptly supplied.
“Fine, Jeremiah. I certainly would love to roost on the Deans’ family
tree for four blessed days.” Marjorie’s voice rang with wistfulness.
“I’ve tried to persuade myself into believing that it won’t make much
difference to the dormitory girls if we decide we’d best go home for
Thanksgiving. But I’m not sure.” Marjorie knitted troubled brows. “This
is the tenth,” she reflected aloud. “Whether we go home, or whether we
stay on the campus over Thanksgiving, we’ve enough to do beforehand to
keep us hustling.” She sprang up from her chair as though animated anew
by the mere recollection of work yet to be done.
“Why remind me, beautiful Bean? I’m sadly aware of the fact. What we
must do is organize the new Travelers’ sorority and let them see the
dormitory girls through Thanksgiving. If they do nicely,” Jerry
continued in patronizing tones, “their reward’ll be more work, and lots
of it. If they flivver—but they won’t. We old Travelers knew how to pick
out our successors. We’re safe to go home and leave our Thanksgiving
stunts to our little Traveler sisters to carry out. Ha; great
intellect!” Jerry admiringly patted one of her own plump shoulders. “You
always do suggest such brilliant ideas, Jeremiah,” she gushed.
“How conceited you are! Still, there’s a grain of wisdom in your vain
remarks.” Marjorie patted Jerry’s other shoulder. “I hereby confer upon
you the high and noble order of the pat,” she declared in a deep pompous
voice. She accompanied her words with several pats, each one more
forceful than the last.
“The hard and croo-il order of the whack, I’ll say.” Jerry caught the
conferring hand in time to save herself one last thump. “Now that I’ve
been initiated into this wonderful order what happens to me next?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute. Let me think.” Marjorie fixed absent eyes on
Jerry as she considered the situation. “You’re to go downstairs and
telephone Kathie and Lillian to come over to dinner at the Hall this
evening. If they can’t come to dinner, then they must come afterward.
Tell them the time has come to open the box. That will bring them.”
“You bet it will,” Jerry made slangy concurrence.
“Then I’ll depend on you to hunt Leila, Vera, Ronny, Lucy and Muriel.
They’re not to dare think of another engagement.”
“Yessum.” Jerry made a respectful, bobbing bow to Marjorie. “Please,
mum, may I ask what you’ll be doing, mum, about the same time I’m
rushing upstairs and down?”
“I’m going over to Silverton Hall,” Marjorie returned as she crossed the
room to her dress closet and reached for coat and fur cap. “I’ll see
Robin, Phil and Barbara; bring them back to dinner, if I can. Thank
fortune Barbara is at Silverton Hall this year instead of Acasia House.
I’ll be back by five o’clock. It’s ten minutes to four now.”
“Then you’ll have to go some,” Jerry said skeptically. “If you are back
here with those three girls by six o’clock I’ll give you a prize.
Remember, you can’t stay to dinner at Silverton Hall. We’ve Kathie and
Lillian to consider.”
“The prize is as good as won. What are you going to give me?” Marjorie’s
inquiry was slyly coaxing. She sidled confidently up to Jerry.
“Never mind now.” Jerry waved her away. “Come back at five o’clock and
ask me.”
“I will. I’m going z-i-p-p across the campus. Just like that!” Marjorie
made a lightning forward pass with one arm. “I’m going to have a wind
sail. There’s a dandy stiff wind blowing today. Mary Raymond and I used
to take our school umbrellas when we were little girls and go out on a
windy day with them. It was a regular game. We named it ‘wind sails.’
We’d let the wind blow us along. Sometimes the umbrellas would turn
inside out, or the wind would whisk them away from us and we’d have to
chase them a long way. Once mine blew into the river, and once a big boy
caught Mary’s umbrella and ran off with it. We never saw either of those
bumbershoots again.”
Marjorie paused at the door to laugh at the recollection of childhood
adventures. “Oh, Jerry,” she changed the subject with sudden abruptness,
“we’ll have to dig up some eats for a spread. Whoever dreamed of
gathering in the Travelers without feeding them?”
“I’ll ask Leila to run us into town for eats as soon as you come back.
That’s an incentive to hurry,” bribed Jerry.
“There are times when I can’t help appreciating you, Jeremiah. Good-bye.
I’m in _such_ a hurry.” Marjorie breezily closed the door and made a
speedy descent of the stairs.
She opened the massive front door of the Hall with the same gusty
energy, and went down the front steps at a frisky jump. The brisk
November wind caught her none too gently, blew a fluff of curls about
her sparkling face and a brighter color into her rosy cheeks. She paused
for an instant on the drive to inhale deeply the crisp, invigorating
November air, then she set off across the campus at her best hiking
stride.
With the wind at her back, noisily urging her along, she laughed
enjoyingly, spread her arms wide in lieu of sails and ran with it.
Passing a little delegation of lingering robins, strung along a tree
limb, their feathers fluffed out, their red breasts making a bit of
autumn color against the brown limb, she whistled cheerily to them.
“Naughty little fellows,” she playfully chided. “You should have started
for the land of flowers long before now. You’ll have to hurry if you
expect to get there in time to eat Thanksgiving dinner with your folks.
I ought to take that advice to myself.”
Bump! Her eyes still lingering on the flock of birds, she collided
forcefully with a girl who had deliberately courted collision. Muriel
Harding, emerging from the library, had spied Marjorie from the library
steps. Her mischievous love of teasing always uppermost, she had
approached Marjorie unseen, bent on surprising her.
“Uh-h-h!” Muriel pretended to stagger back. “Why don’t you look where
you’re going, lady?” she demanded gruffly.
“Why don’t you?” The two girls faced each other, flushed and laughing.
“I did. I decided to let you know I was near you,” confessed Muriel. “If
you had been moderately observing you might have averted the crash.”
“I doubt it.” Marjorie looked her skepticism.
“So do I,” Muriel agreed so amiably that the pair again broke into
laughter.
“You’d best come with me,” Marjorie invited. “Jerry’s hunting for you,
but that’ll be all right. I’ve found you.” She went on to explain her
errand to Silverton Hall. “Forward, march,” she concluded, taking hold
of Muriel’s right arm. “Step lively. I’ve lost at least three precious
minutes exchanging mostly impolite remarks with you.”
“I’ll hit up a pace,” Muriel slangily assured. “I’m nothing if not
obliging. It’s fortunate for you that you met me. I am always _so_
helpful.” Her brown eyes danced roguishly. “You must _know_ that.”
“I’ve heard you say so.” Marjorie was purposely vague. “If I had been
even moderately observing I might have noticed that you were. That is,
if you really——”
“Why dwell on the subject? This is the way the wild wind goes.” She
began whisking Marjorie over the half frozen ground at a mad run.
Marjorie sturdily kept up with her. The two girls tore across the campus
toward their goal, shrieking with laughter, bubbling over with high
spirits.
They were nearing Craig Hall, one of the campus houses which they had to
pass on their diagonal route to Silverton Hall, when the front door of
the house opened and two young women came out on the veranda, then
descended the steps. Evidently their ears caught the sounds of mirth
emanating from the pair of exuberant P. G.’s. Two pairs of eyes, one
pair coldly green, the other small, black and shrewd, immediately
fastened on Marjorie and Muriel.
“Look who’s here. Keep right on going,” Muriel muttered in Marjorie’s
ear. She nodded to one of the two girls who had come from Craig Hall and
were now within a few feet of her and Marjorie. Her nod was courteous
rather than friendly. The response she received was a stiff inclination
from Doris Monroe’s golden head.
Marjorie had obeyed Muriel’s muttered direction. For the barest instant
her clear, truthful gaze met, impersonally, the narrowing, hostile eyes
of Leslie Cairns. She then glanced serenely away from Leslie. She had
long since ceased to regard Leslie Cairns with personal displeasure.
This in spite of the ex-student’s treacherous attempt to frustrate her
and Robin Page’s plans in the matter of the buying of the dormitory
site.
As for Doris Monroe, Marjorie had been rebuffed by chilling looks on
three different occasions when she had encountered and spoken to the
haughty sophomore. She now claimed the privilege of one repeatedly
ignored, to ignore in return. She had not given up the idea of carrying
out a certain gracious little plan she had in mind to further the
popularity of her beautiful “fairy-tale princess.” Marjorie was too
great of spirit to harbor resentment against Doris Monroe, simply
because Doris did not like her. Instead she found herself experiencing
the anxiety of one who had suddenly encountered a friend in a dangerous
position.
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