"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 soph.o.m.ore 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 j.a.panese 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 soph.o.m.ores. 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 soph.o.m.ores 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 Sat.u.r.day in February, the freshmen gave the soph.o.m.ores a drubbing they would not soon forget. It was not a whitewash, but it was painfully near it. The soph.o.m.ore players took the defeat with very poor grace. The freshman cla.s.s 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 a.s.serted. "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 amus.e.m.e.nt. 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."
CHAPTER XXVI.-FRIENDS GOOD AND TRUE.
"Do you see anything about me to laugh at?" demanded Marjorie one snowy afternoon in early March, as she walked into her room, eyes sparkling, cheeks aglow, not only from the winter air, but from annoyance as well.
Jerry looked up from an ill.u.s.trated magazine she was interestedly perusing. "No; I don"t. I"ll laugh if you say so. Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" This obligingly and without a smile.
"You needn"t mind. That laugh of yours has a hollow sound. It"s not what I would call true mirth."
"No wonder it has a hollow sound. I"m hungry," Jerry complained. "It is almost an hour until dinner, too. Tell me what"s bothering you. It will take my mind off my hungry self."
"Oh, nothing startling, only every time I meet any of the Sans or those few freshmen who go around with them, they look me all over and then they do everything from smiling just the least bit, a hateful sarcastic smile, to laughing outright. Just now, as I came across the campus, I met Miss Cairns. Miss Elster, Miss Myers and Miss Weyman were with her.
As soon as they saw me, they began to talk among themselves, quite loudly. I didn"t hear what they said. I know it was about me. Then they all laughed. The other day I met the same girls and they simply smiled.
I know they are doing it purposely; but why?"
"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jerry, her blue eyes widening in sudden belligerence. "I know why! They have started out to rag you. That"s a nice proposition! I suppose they are sore at you because you were on that committee."
"But that was quite a while ago. This making fun of me has only been of late. I noticed it first the Sunday after the game. I met a crowd of those girls as I came from chapel. I felt just a little hurt. I had had such a peaceful time in chapel. It was the Sunday you had a cold and did not attend chapel. If they keep it up, I shall probably grow so used to it that it won"t trouble me."
"Well, if they confine themselves to snickering, smirking, ha-ha-ing and te-he-ing, let "em enjoy themselves. If they start to say anything to you, for that"s the next stage in ragging, give them one lovely call-down that will settle them for good. You can do it. I"ve heard you speak straight from the shoulder. Will you ever forget the day you and I had the fuss with Rowena Fightena Quarrelena Sc.r.a.pena?"
"No; I will not." Marjorie never could resist giggling at the long name which Jerry had applied to Rowena Farnham on account of the latter"s quarrelsome disposition. "I hope none of those Sans will try her tactics. I don"t wish to come to bitter words with any of those girls.
They are set against me on account of having served on that committee, perhaps. Maybe because Muriel and I went over to the gym occasionally and helped the team along. They have not liked us, you know, from the night Miss Cairns, Miss Weyman and Miss Vale called and privately rated us as n.o.bodies. It is queer they never tried to take Ronny up, for she has made no secret of her name this year. They must surely have heard of Alfred Lynne, her father. Leila says that Miss Cairns is always writing her father and asking him to have this or that student"s parents looked up financially."
"Contemptible!" Jerry"s scorn of such tactics was sweeping. "If ever they try to look me up and I hear of it, even long afterward, I will get them together and give them such a call-down their hair will stand on end and stay that way for a week. If you should happen to see the Sans switching around the campus with their coiffures resembling that of Feejee Islanders, you will know what has occurred to the dear creatures.
I shall probably do that, anyhow, if they don"t let you alone."
"No." Marjorie"s negative was decided. "You must never fuss with them on my account. I daresay they will grow tired before long of making fun of me. All I can do is this. Appear not to see them at all."
"I would just as soon fuss with them as look at them," Jerry declared valorously. "Now who are they, pray tell me? One thing is certain to come to pa.s.s. Sooner or later we will have to tell that crowd where they get off at. I have seen it coming ever since the freshman dance. Miss Weyman is so mad at you she can"t see straight. She expected to win that contest. Helen Trent called my attention to her that night. She was posing to beat the band for the judges" benefit. Helen was worried a little. She thought Leila ought not to have pitted you against Miss Weyman. That is what she did, you know. Afterward Helen said she guessed you would have been unofficially declared the college beauty anyway, for so many of the girls were already raving over you. Now don"t rave at me for telling you that. You are such an old sorehead about that contest. I hardly dare think of it in the same room with you."
Marjorie sat very still, an expression of blank amazement on her lovely face. She now recalled her own vexation on the night of the dance when Leila had brought her into too prominent notice by hurrying her across one end of the gymnasium to join the line. So Leila had purposely dragged her into that contest! For a moment or two she wavered on the verge of indignation at Leila. Then the Irish girl"s face, brooding and wistful, as she had seen it so many times when Leila was referring to her own affairs, rose before her. No; it was too late to be angry with Leila. Marjorie was tempted to laugh instead at the clever way in which Leila had managed the whole affair.
"You have told me some news," she said at last. "I had no idea Miss Weyman was anxious to win the contest. I didn"t know, either, that Leila had a hand in it. She didn"t say much about it after it was over, except to congratulate me. I don"t think she has ever mentioned it since."
Marjorie had begun to smile.
"She is a clever one." Jerry grinned appreciation of the absent Leila.
"Why, Marjorie, she arranged that contest! She took it from an old book on the Celts. She brought the book with her from Ireland. She got up the contest to score one against the Sans and take a rise out of Miss Weyman. I would have told you this before, but Helen told me in confidence. She said the other day she didn"t care if I told you, for she felt that you understood Leila well enough now not to be cross with her. She was afraid of making trouble in the beginning if she said anything."
"It"s past now. I don"t care. Miss Weyman is nothing to me. I am glad I know about it, though." Marjorie considered for a brief s.p.a.ce. "Perhaps that is why those girls are acting so queerly toward me. They may think me very much elated over winning the contest. If that"s the case, all the more reason why I should pay no attention to them."
Jerry agreed that this was so and the subject was dropped for the time being. Having resolved to appear oblivious to any ill-bred acts on the part of the Sans, Marjorie proceeded to carry out her resolution. For a week or more she presented a strictly impersonal face whenever she chanced to encounter any of the Sans or their friends in going about the college premises. She was greatly annoyed to find that this method seemed to have no effect. Instead, their derision of herself was growing more p.r.o.nounced. Several times she thought she detected a difference in the salutations of certain upper cla.s.s students who had formerly shown cordiality of greeting. Late one afternoon she met Miss Kingston, one of the seniors on the sports committee, on the steps of the library, and received from her merely a blank stare. Marjorie went on to the Hall, feeling very much crushed. To be sure she was not particularly interested in Miss Kingston. She had sided with Miss Reid at the try-out. Since the freshmen had regulated matters, however, Miss Kingston had been quite affable to her when they had chanced to meet in the gymnasium.
In the growing dusk of the hall, for the maid had not yet turned on the lights, she ran plump into another girl who had just come from upstairs.
"I beg your pardon," she apologized.
"Ex-cuse me!" exclaimed a familiar voice. "Blame the maid for no light, but never yours truly. And where may you be hurrying to, Miss Marjorie of the Deans?"
"Oh, is that you, Leila? I didn"t know you in the dark until you spoke."
"Nor I you," returned Leila. "I have been to your room twice looking for you. I was just going back to see if Miss Remson knew where you were.
Ronny is in my room. I am needing you there, too. Will you come up with me now?" Leila turned toward the stairs.
"Certainly, I will. What has happened, Leila?"
"Nothing, dear heart. Only Vera and I have something to talk over with you and Ronny." Leila spoke in the friendliest kind of tones. Marjorie followed her up the stairs to the third floor where Leila and Nella Sherman roomed. Nella was absent, but Vera and Ronny greeted their entrance with expressions of satisfaction.
"I had the good fortune to b.u.mp into Marjorie in the hall," Leila said, as she ranged herself beside Marjorie, who had taken a seat on Leila"s couch bed. "Now for the talk I must give you. Some of it will make you laugh and some of it will not. May I ask you, Ronny, do you spell your name L-y-n-n or L-i-n-d?"
"Neither way. It is spelled L-y-n-n-e," responded Ronny. "It is an old English name."