GLADYS LEAVES THE CLUB.
Dorothy was the first to see Marion at the door of their room after
the tableaux. She hoped she had not heard what Sue had said, but that
she had she could not doubt when she saw the pained expression on
Marion's face. In the after discussion of the entertainment, Marion
took no part, but went quietly to her bed, with only a brief
"good-night."
"They have hurt her feelings, and they ought to have been ashamed of
themselves," said kind Dorothy to the two members of the club sitting
beside her. "Girls, if that is what you mean to do in your Demosthenic
Club, I am most thankful I never joined it, and the sooner you both
leave it the better."
"Grandmarm!" said Sue, her hot temper flashing into her face, "when we
want your advice, we will ask it."
"What's up, Dody? Whose feelings are hurt, and who ought to be ashamed
of themselves?" asked Gladys. "I don't know what you are talking
about."
"About Marion and the Demosthenic Club!" answered Dorothy briefly.
"What for? What has Marion to do with the club?"
Dorothy looked straight into Gladys's face for a moment. Whatever
other faults Gladys had, she had never, even in trifles, been
otherwise than honest and straightforward. There was nothing in her
face now but surprise; so Dorothy, much relieved that she was not a
partaker in the unkindness, explained to her that, as Susan had just
told them, the club had taken Marion's country cousin for a butt, and
had made him, with the old aunt,--the knowledge of whom must have come
to them from some one in their room,--the characters in the farce; and
that Marion, coming into the room just as Susan was telling of it, had
heard her; and it had hurt her feelings.
Now, strange as it may seem, it was nevertheless true that the club,
knowing Gladys well, and how impossible it would be for her to do
anything that might injure another, had carefully kept from her any
direct participation in it. She knew in a general way what was to be
done, but was ignorant of particulars.
No sooner had the whole been made known to her, than without a word,
though it was after the time when the girls were allowed to leave
their rooms, without the slightest effort to move softly, she passed
the doors of several teachers, up into another corridor, not stopping
until she tapped at Jenny Barton's room.
The tap was followed by the muffled sound of scurrying feet, of a
table pulled hastily away, of whispers intended to be soft, but in the
hurry having a strangely sibilant tone, that made them almost words
spoken aloud, to the impatient Gladys.
She rapped a second time, a little louder than the first, and the door
was opened by Jenny, in her nightdress. The gas in the room was out,
and there was no one to be seen.
"Why, Gladys Philbrick!" she exclaimed crossly, pulling Gladys hastily
in; "you frightened us almost out of our wits. Girls! it's only
Gladys!"
Out from under the beds and from the closets in the two bedrooms crept
one after another the girls of the club. All were there but Susan and
Gladys; and they would have been invited, but it was well known that
if Gladys broke a rule of the school, she never rested until she had
made full confession to one of the teachers. She was not to be trusted
in the least; and, of course, Susan could not be invited without her,
so the knowledge of the spread which was to succeed the tableaux had
been carefully kept from them. No wonder at Jenny's reception of her!
Somewhat staggered by this, and by the appearance of the hidden,
laughing girls, Gladys stood for a moment staring blankly around her,
then she asked, singling Kate Underwood out from among the others,--
"Kate! did you write that poem to make fun of Marion Parke's country
cousin?"
"Why do you ask?" answered Kate, turning brusquely upon Gladys.
"Because, if you did, and if, as Sue says, you got up those tableaux
to make fun of him, I think you are the meanest girl in the school;
and as for the club--a club that would do such a thing, I wouldn't be
a member of a moment longer, not if you would give me a million
dollars!"
"Well, as we have no million to give you, and wouldn't part with even
a copper to have you stay, you can have your name taken off the roll
any time," said the president majestically.
"All right, it's done then; but my question is not answered. Kate
Underwood, did, or did you not, intend to make fun of Marion Parke's
cousin?"
"When I know by what right you ask me, I will answer you; until then,
Gladys Philbrick, will you be kind enough to speak in a lower voice,
unless you wish to bring some of the teachers down upon us, or perhaps
you will report us to Miss Ashton; I think she has just come in the
late train, I heard a carriage stop at the door."
"You want to know my right?" answered Gladys, without taking any
notice of Kate's taunts. "It's the right of being ashamed to hold a
girl up to ridicule for what she couldn't help, and a girl like Marion
Parke. I hoped you could say you didn't mean to; but I see you can't."
Then Gladys, without another word, left the room, leaving behind her a
set of girls who, to say the least, were not in a mood to
congratulate themselves on the events of the evening.
The spread was hastily put on the table again, but it was eaten by
them with sober faces and troubled hearts.
"Well," said Sue, as Gladys came noisily into their room, "now I
suppose you've made all the girls so mad they will never speak to me
again."
"I have told them what I think of them," and Gladys looked at Sue
askance over her shoulder as she spoke, "and I advise you to quit a
club that can be as unkind as this has been to-night."
"When I want your advice I will ask it; I advise you to keep it until
then. Whom did you see?"
"All of them, hiding under beds and in closets."
"That means a spread without leave, and we not invited. You're a
tell-tale Gladys; they are afraid of you."
"Good!" said Gladys with a scornful laugh.
"Girls," said a gentle voice from the bedroom door, "don't mind; it's
foolish in me I dare say, and--and the tableaux were real funny," and
an odd attempt at a laugh ended in a burst of tears.
In a moment both of Gladys's arms were around Marion's neck.
"You dear, darling old Marion," she said, whimpering herself.
"Too much noise in this room!" said Miss Palmer's voice at their door.
"I did not expect this, Marion! Dorothy, what does it mean?"
"We are going to bed, Miss Palmer," said Dorothy, opening the door
immediately. "It was about the tableaux we were talking."
"You should have been in bed half an hour ago; I am sorry to be
obliged to report you. Let this never happen again. Your room has been
in most respects a model room until now."
Not a girl spoke, and if Miss Palmer had come again fifteen minutes
later, she would have found the gas out and the girls in bed.