“NEARER TO THE HEART’S DESIRE.”
Due to the numerous details Marjorie had on hand, on Saturday afternoon,
Marjorie and Jerry still found themselves facing the call upon Miss
Walker. They deplored the fact to each other as they made ready to go to
town with Leila, Ronny, Lucy and Katherine Langly to shop for Muriel’s
approaching birthday. Muriel had been left out of the shopping party. As
a consequence she had made dire threats to disappear on her birthday and
“spoil everything.” Jerry declared that no one was foolish enough to
believe she would.
“I never realized how much work you put into that first Beauty contest,
Leila Greatheart, until I saw the working out of this last one,”
Marjorie confided to Leila on the way to town that afternoon. She was
occupying her usual place beside Leila on the front seat. “I felt so
differently about the one last night. I had a chance to hide away. I was
so glad not to be in it, and on parade. It was darling in you to give me
the judges’ last speech in the contest. And didn’t my fairy-tale
princess look beautiful when she came forward to receive the guerdon?
Those wonderful long-stemmed pink roses went so well with that
crystal-beaded white frock she wore.”
“It was a dream of a dress,” Leila nodded. “At last we have a new Beauty
on the campus. Only I am glad I was not one of the judges. I should
never have displaced you for her. She is still too much the Ice Queen to
be to my taste.”
“You are the loyalest of loyal old dears,” Marjorie’s hand came to rest
for a moment on Leila’s shoulder. “I know you went strictly against your
inclinations; just to please me. Someday you’ll see that there was
method in my madness. The enchantment will be broken and the freed
princess will yet prove herself a credit to Hamilton.”
“I doubt if I shall be here to see it,” Leila made skeptical reply. “You
are feeling most optimistic because you have succeeded in wishing your
beauty reputation onto someone else.”
Marjorie merely smiled. “I’m a venerable P. G. now. I’m beyond such vain
frivolousness.”
“I see no signs of it,” Leila told her discouragingly. “I am sorry now
that I hid you on the judges’ stand.”
“Too late,” Marjorie’s merry little laugh rippled out. Her mood was
decidedly optimistic as a result of the successful way in which clever
Leila had carried on the Beauty contest.
As the president of the sophs, Augusta Forbes had signed the notice of
the coming contest which Leila had first posted on the main bulletin
board. This fact had appeared to point to the sophs as the promoters of
the Beauty contest. Privately directed by Leila, Gussie had next called
a class meeting for the express purpose of arousing sophomore interest
and had tactfully suggested that the contest should be held under
sophomore auspices.
While the sophs were still divided into two factions, as a result of the
fall elections, basket ball had done something to mitigate their wrath
against one another. It seemed the irony of fate that Louise Walker and
Augusta Forbes, rival centers and unfriendly classmates, should have
each admired the other’s basket ball prowess. Such, however, was the
situation between them. More, they were hovering on the verge of
friendly acquaintance.
This marvel Marjorie had already faintly divined by a curious mental
process of deduction which had developed within as a result of
long-patient working and waiting. She also saw signs which pointed to a
re-united sophomore class in the not far distant future. Her conviction
was borne out in this respect by the eager good-will with which the
sophs boosted the Beauty walk beforehand and confidently paraded
themselves around the gym for the judges’ inspection on the fateful
night.
The girls of the other three classes were no less anxious to take part
in it. Even the dormitory girls made an extra trip from town so as to be
in the fun. Of the old Travelers only Ronny and Muriel competed. Vera
had not yet returned to Hamilton. As manager Leila had a good excuse for
staying out of it. Jerry demanded also to be a judge. She gave Leila
such a strenuous sample of the strength and volume of her tones that
Leila promptly accepted her. The senior class furnished the third judge;
a stentorian-voiced senior who often acted as referee at basket ball
games, and had developed amazing lung power as a result.
While the Forbes faction of the sophs was supposedly hostile of attitude
toward Doris Monroe, its members had agreed among themselves that, as a
possible winner of the Beauty contest, she was “the sophs’ best bet.” In
consequence they suddenly began exhibiting toward her a new friendliness
which warmed with the near approach of the contest. This put Doris on
her mettle as nothing else could have done. She had been saving the
crystal-beaded frock for what she might deem a really great occasion.
She now felt the occasion had arrived. Her one disturbing thought was
that Marjorie Dean would undoubtedly enter the contest. She resolved
that she must, yes, she would completely outshine her.
When the much-heralded contest was finally over and Doris stood
triumphant in front of the judges’ stand, the light gleaming on her wavy
golden hair, her strange green eyes dark with excitement, her white,
graceful arms laden with the long-stemmed pink roses, she might have
been posing as lovely summer in her early rose-decked beauty. The faint,
fascinating smile that came and went on her red lips gave no clue to
what was going on in her mind. Her slow, occasional careless glances
about the gymnasium were motivated by the distinct secret purpose of
locating Marjorie. Nor did she learn until long afterward that the
clear, vibrant voice of the judge who spoke the final charge to Beautye
brighte, reverence in its intonation, was that of the girl she affected
to despise. Having enjoyed the contest incognito Marjorie had
disappeared during the first congratulatory rush toward Doris.
She found remembrance of last night’s contest lingering persistently in
her mind as she and her chums essayed the round of the shops. None of
the party knew what they wished to buy for Muriel. They were in a
wondrous merry mood and had difficulty in settling down to a selection
of gifts. As they trooped, chattering, out of the town’s one art store
with arms full of birthday bundles a familiar white car shot past them
down the street, disappearing into a side street. The occupants of the
white car were Doris Monroe and Leslie Cairns.
Marjorie gave a kind of disappointed gulp as she glimpsed the stunning
white car and its passengers. It was the first time she had either seen
or heard of these two as having been together since before Thanksgiving.
Augusta Forbes and her two chums had later confidentially reported to
Marjorie the occasion at the Colonial when Leslie and Doris had
quarreled. Marjorie had hoped then that the breach between the two girls
might widen. Robin’s assurance that Doris had been “perfectly sweet” to
her at the old-fashioned hop was a hopeful sign. Freed from Leslie’s
pernicious influence, Doris’s college future was likely to be rosy.
Now it appeared that Doris was not estranged, perhaps did not desire to
be free from Leslie. Marjorie felt chagrin and disappointment take hold
of her. She half concluded that her chums were correct in holding the
opinion that further effort to win over the ungracious and ungrateful
sophomore would be a useless expense of time and spirit. Should she, now
that through her private effort Doris had been acclaimed the college
beauty, allow Doris to continue her college journey without further
solicitude on her part? Her generous soul instantly rebelled against the
thought. She had the principle to consider in the peculiar task she had
whimsically set for herself. So far as she knew the work of moulding
beautiful Doris Monroe “nearer to the heart’s desire” had only begun.
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