“So that’s the reason for these nods and becks and wreathed smiles!”
Marjorie made an energetic grab at the square creamy envelope which
Leila was waving slowly back and forth before her eyes. “I’ll assume
it’s for me,” she said as her fingers closed around it. Leila purposely
allowed the envelope to slip through her hand.
“Oh, it’s from Miss Susanna!” Marjorie gave a little joyful cry. “Now I
know you must have seen her. There’s no stamp on the envelope.”
“Might not Jonas have brought the letter to the Hall?” Leila suggested.
“He might have, but he didn’t,” Marjorie cannily retorted. “You’ve been
to Hamilton Arms.” Her eyes sparkled with the pleasure of her guess.
“So we have,” Vera corroborated as though quite surprised at the fact.
“Yes, ‘So we have,’” mimicked Marjorie as she hastily tore open the
envelope and drew out the letter it contained. “I’m going to read you
Miss Susanna’s letter. I shouldn’t, to pay you for teasing me. But, as
Muriel loves to say, ‘I’m always amiable when I’m not peevish.’ I’m sure
Miss Susanna would like you to hear it,” she added more seriously. She
began:
“Dear Child:
“How glad I shall be to see you again. I am looking forward
earnestly to your return to Hamilton. I must remind you of
your promise to spend at least a part of your time with me
at the Arms. I am sending you my greetings and love by two
trusted messengers. I wonder if you will be as greatly
surprised and delighted to see them as I was? Will you come
to the Arms as soon as you conveniently can after you arrive
on the campus? Bring Robin Page and Leila and Vera with you.
Pardon the fond impatience of
“Your devoted friend,
Susanna Craig Hamilton
“How dearly she loves you, Marjorie,” Robin said unenviously. “But then,
how could she help it? So do we all. You have reason to be proud of
having annexed the last of the Hamiltons to your train, Marvelous
Manager.”
“I had nothing to do with it. No one could annex Miss Susanna to
anything,” Marjorie disclaimed, shaking her head in sturdy fashion. “I
always loved her from the first. She was like an odd, rare, lonely
little bird to me. She was wonderful to me for her own dearness and
still more wonderful because she was Brooke Hamilton’s great niece.”
“You’ve had nothing to do with any good work that has gone on on the
campus in the past four years,” Leila agreed with satiric emphasis. “So
you say. Now tell me, which of us could have softened Miss Susanna’s
heart to the college? Never think you are not of small use in the world,
Beauty.”
“I decline to think of it at all,” Marjorie evaded. “I’d rather think
about when to go to see Miss Susanna. Why can’t we go to the Arms today?
We’ve had such a late luncheon. Suppose we hurry along to the Hall, see
Miss Remson for a little while then go to Hamilton Arms? By that time it
will be six o’clock and Miss Susanna will have had tea. We can stay with
her until about eight and stop at Baretti’s to dinner on the way to the
Hall.”
“Fine, fine!” applauded Vera, “more marvelous managing by M. M. Dean.”
At the same time, happening to catch Leila’s eye the two exchanged
significant glances which Marjorie intercepted.
“There, I caught you exchanging eye messages!” she exclaimed in triumph.
“You know something I ought to know that you haven’t told me.” She
glanced quickly at Robin. “No, Robin doesn’t know this time, either.”
“What is this odd talk I’m hearing?” Leila inquired guilelessly. “Have I
a thousand secrets because I give Midget a friendly eye-beam?”
“That was more than a merely friendly eye-beam,” disagreed Marjorie.
“Besides, Midget had the mate to it ready.”
“Did she, indeed?” Leila’s black brows lifted with exaggerated interest.
“You will have it that we are a designing pair. Only the stars know
we’re not that. My luck is poor.” Leila sighed heavily. “How can I prove
my words. Not a star will be around until tonight.”
“You’re worse than designing. You’re a fake,” emphasized Marjorie.
Leila received the assertion with the broad, ingenuous smile for which
she was famed on the campus. “I believe you, Beauty,” she said with an
admiring candor which produced ready laughter.
“We ought to make a start for the campus, girls.” Robin consulted her
wrist watch.
“Away we go. Remember this is my feast.” Leila was on her feet, the
luncheon check in one hand.
“Remember the Baretti dinner is to be mine,” Marjorie impressed upon her
companions. “The Dean Entertainment fund _must_ be used, you know.”
“Don’t forget the grand banquet at the Colonial tomorrow night,” Robin
announced in a managerial voice. “You’re not the only person on the
campus with an entertainment fund.”
“My treat will be a dinner at Orchard Inn,” Vera promised. “You two
girls have never been to Orchard Inn. Wait until you see it.” She grew
enthusiastic. “Leila and I just happened to discover it while we were
out driving. There; that’s all I intend to tell you about it.”
“Is not Midget cruel?” Leila shook a disapproving head.
“Is not Leila aggravating,” retaliated Vera, imitating Leila’s tone.
“Since you ask outright; yes, to both questions. We couldn’t help
thinking it, but we were too polite to say so,” declared Robin. “We’ve a
grievance of our own against those two. Haven’t we, Marjorie?”
“I should say we had.” Marjorie laid stress on her reply.
“Ah, no; you only think you have,” retorted Leila.
A flash of familiarity came with the words “you only think you have,”
but to Marjorie’s brain only. Now she remembered. That was precisely
what Hal had said to her on their last boat ride when he had declared
that she had never grown up. Her merry look, born of her companions’
repartee, faded, to be replaced by a faint pucker of brow. To think of
Hal meant to recall the hurt expression on his handsome features as she
had last seen them.
Quick as they had been to seek the cool inviting hospitality of the Ivy,
the re-united friends were now as eager to depart from it upon their
light-hearted way to the campus.
“I’m going to hit up a pace,” Vera slangily informed them, swaggering up
to the roadster in an exact imitation of a racing motorcyclist she had
recently seen.
Under her small practiced hands the smart roadster was presently
whisking through the town of Hamilton at a rate just escaping that of
speeding. Soon they had left the dignified town to its late afternoon
drowsing and were skimming along Hamilton Highway. A short stretch of
straight road then the highway began to wind in and out among the
collection of handsome private properties known as Hamilton Estates.
They were beautiful old-style manor houses for the most part surrounded
by green rolling lawns and ancient trees.
“Oh, girls!” Marjorie called from her place on the front seat beside
Vera. She and Robin had exchanged places for the ride to the campus.
“Doesn’t Hamilton Arms look wonderful? As if it were trying to show
summer off at its very best.”
“There’s not another place among Hamilton Estates that compares with the
Arms,” was Vera’s positive opinion.
“And why not? Didn’t Brooke Hamilton plan it?” Leila made loyal demand.
“Now maybe he knew Nature better than she knew herself. I have sometimes
thought so.”
“What a splendid tribute to him, Leila!” was Marjorie’s admiring cry. “I
must save that to tell Miss Susanna. How she will love it.”
“Ah-h.” Leila’s affable grin appeared. “Now you begin to take account of
my smartness.”
“It seems almost unfriendly not to stop and go to Miss Susanna now, but
I hate to disturb her before she has had her tea,” Marjorie commented
with concern.
“Don’t worry, Beauty,” Leila said. “We’ll be coming back before long.
We’ll not ’phone her from the Hall. She has a taste for surprises. She
only knows you are soon to be here. She’ll be highly pleased to have you
walk in on her.”
“I’ll surely do it,” Marjorie returned with a decided little nod. She
half smiled as she recalled a time when she had waited patiently to
receive a summons into the eccentric old lady’s presence. The peremptory
invitation to appear at Hamilton Arms on a certain day to tea had filled
her with the same sort of pleasant trepidation with which she would have
received a summons to a royal court. Hamilton Arms was truly Miss
Susanna’s castle, where she reigned supreme, a lonely little chatelaine
of a big house.
The smile still lingered on the lieutenant’s lips as the car sped on and
made the last turn in the highway before the end of Hamilton Estates was
reached. Between the Estates and the campus of Hamilton College which
had now come into view lay the strip of land on which was built the row
of houses once used by the workmen who had erected the college
buildings. Of the four occupants of the roadster Vera’s eyes were the
only ones turned away from the territory at the left hand side of the
road. The other three girls were gazing in that direction with varying
expressions. Leila’s was purely mischievous. She was enjoying the
amazement which Marjorie and Robin were showing.
“Why—what—who——?” Stupefied by what she was seeing Marjorie forgot to
greet her old friend the campus in her usual devoted fashion.
Once, at this point along the straggling meadow road, dignified by the
name of the street, had stood a shabby row of weather-stained houses.
They had extended for a distance of what might be measured as two city
blocks. An equally straggling cross lane divided the row almost in
halves. Those above the cross lane looked more uncompromisingly ugly and
faded than ever under the afternoon sun.
Those below the cross lane! Where were they? Where they had once stood
were now huge heaps of broken brick, plaster, boards and the debris
which always attends the tearing down of buildings. The ringing sound of
many hammers in motion, the snapping of yielding wooden beams, the
rattle of falling brick and plaster was in the air.
Above the cross lane the upper block of houses stood intact in its dingy
loneliness. They appeared to frown upon the wreck of their companions of
years.
Simultaneously Robin and Marjorie had raised a cry of astonishment. Vera
promptly stopped the car in order to give them a chance to view the
surprise at leisure. She dropped her hands from the wheel and with Leila
enjoyed their amazement.
“Robin Page, can you believe your eyes?” Marjorie’s voice achieved
bewildered heights.
“Seeing is believing. How did it happen? That’s what is bothering me.”
“These two know.” Marjorie turned in her seat, including Vera and Leila,
in a comprehensive wave of the hand. “Now I understand what you two were
so full of laugh about. I knew you had something else on your mind
besides giving me Miss Susanna’s letter. There’s a new firm on the
campus, it seems, Harper and Mason. And they’ve been very very busy!”