"Yes, _I know it_," replied Marjorie with savage emphasis. "It is too bad. Something will have to be done about it. I have noticed it before today. I wanted to see if the rest of the committee would. I wished to be sure that I wasn"t over critical. Muriel mentioned it to me last week. Robin and Elaine noticed that the team was at loggerheads on Tuesday. I hardly know how to proceed. I hate to call a meeting of the team and lay down the law to them. It will only make Miss Forbes"
position more uncomfortable, I am afraid. She plays with her whole heart. They keep one eye on their game and the other on her."
"She"s a star player," praised Jerry. "I can"t help but admire her for the way she plugs along under such stress. Yes, Marj, _l"enfant terrible_ will turn out well, I predict, even if she never learns to appreciate us."
"It seems to be Marj"s duty to wind up this snarl," commented Marjorie satirically. "I do not relish the task. I wish the freshies would not jangle. The soph team is positively seraphic."
While Marjorie was casting about in her fertile brain for a good opening toward adjusting matters on the freshman team, the way opened with amazing celerity. She had attended practice on Thursday. The following Monday she had not. It being a rainy afternoon there were almost no spectators. An altercation rose between a girl on the scrub team which the freshies were pitted against, and Augusta. The scrub player claimed a foul on Gussie which the latter hotly contested. Gussie"s team-mates stood up for the scrub. The end of her patience reached, she turned on them all in a fury of words, stinging and truthful.
"The whole trouble with you four girls is you want to see me off the team," she concluded. "Sorry I can"t oblige you, I mean glad. I play fairly. But you say, I do not. In your hearts you know I do. You had best tend to your own playing instead of picking flaws with me. I play a better game than any of you. If we lose the first game of the season, it won"t be my fault."
"Nothing conceited about you, is there?" sneered Alma Hurst, the most disagreeable of the four objectors.
"I know what I can do on the floor," composedly retorted Gussie.
"Yes, and I know what I can do off the floor," threatened Alma. "We would have a fine team if it weren"t for you. It"s a case of four against one. I think our word will stand. I shall see that it does."
"Go as far as you like," scornfully dared Gussie. "You can"t bother me."
"We"ll see about that," a.s.serted Alma, and walked away, accompanied by her three irate supporters.
Gussie left the gymnasium that afternoon with a heavy heart. She had defied the quartette of oppressors, but she had no faith in herself.
"I suppose I"m done for," she reflected gloomily, as she forged through a driving rain to Wayland Hall. "They will complain to the sports committee or to Professor Leonard. Those seniors on the sports committee hate me. They will be perfectly delighted to put me off the team. They will make Professor Leonard think I am the most hateful, cheating person on the campus and he will ask me to resign. Just as though I would cheat in basket ball. There"d be no fun in playing unfairly." Gussie choked back a low sob. She dashed her hand angrily across her eyes. "I won"t cry. I"m not such a big baby as that, I hope."
On the following afternoon Marjorie found a note, in the bulletin board at the Hall, which brought a quick light of anger to her brown eyes. It read:
Miss Marjorie Dean, Chairman, Sports Committee, Wayland Hall, Campus.
Dear Miss Dean:
We appeal to you to take prompt action in the case of Miss Augusta Forbes who is a detriment to the freshman team. She is rough and unfair in her playing. Besides, she has accused us of being untruthful and used what we should call harsh language to us. We try to work peacefully and in harmony, but she is so unruly we simply cannot endure her. As there are four of us, all of the same opinion, I think our plea should be heard and this disturber removed from the team. Let us hear from you in the way of justice.
Yours truly,
Alma Hurst, Official Freshman Team.
"They"ll certainly hear from me," Marjorie commented, a smile flickering about the corners of her mouth. "As for _l"enfant terrible_. Poor old child!"
She sat down on the top step of the landing, where she had so often paused to read her letters, and re-read the preemptory letter. She continued to sit there for a little while, evidently turning over in her mind something that had more than once visited it.
Unable to decide, she rose and went on up the stairs. Stopping only to lay her notebooks on the center table of her room, she next sought Muriel.
"Read that." She dropped the letter on the table before which Muriel sat writing industriously.
Muriel glanced through and gave a short, scornful laugh, "Nothing like asking for what one wants. Such a modest request! Strip the team of its shining light to please four sore-heads! What are you going to say to the big four?"
"Enough in a few words to let them understand that I understand them. I needed your official support. I see I have it. I knew I had already. Now I shall show this effusion to Robin and Elaine. I am going over to Silverton Hall. If Jerry comes here hunting me, tell her I"ll be back in time for dinner."
"All right. Be sure to write those snippies a good, stiff letter, and let me see it," called Muriel after Marjorie as she went out the door.
Robin and Elaine were equally disapproving of the letter written by Miss Hurst.
"I think Miss Forbes should be told of this attempt to oust her from the team. Of course she must have known all along of their feeling against her. That accounts for the lack of fellowship among them that I noticed last Tuesday. It is not fair to keep her in the dark about it," Robin declared.
"I had thought of telling her," Marjorie said slowly. "I could write these kickers the kind of letter they need. They would then either have to treat Miss Forbes well or I should ask for their resignations from the team. They are in the wrong, I am sure. I will not countenance any injustice to any player while I am chairman of the sports committee. I feel, however, that I ought to ask Miss Forbes for her side of the matter in fairness to them. They have stated their case against her."
"So you should," Robin was quick to agree.
"Oh, by all means, tell her, Marjorie," advocated gentle Elaine. "Then she will be sure that we are standing up for her."
This was good advice. Unfortunately, neither Robin nor Elaine knew of Gussie"s unreasonable att.i.tude toward Marjorie. She considered this phase of the affair rather ruefully as she walked across the campus through the November dusk. Her best method of approaching Gussie was to go to her room. Then if the recalcitrant "Gus" refused to talk with her, no one other than Florence Hart, Gussie"s room-mate, would be present at the failure.
"I"ll have to in and see Miss Forbes," Marjorie informed Jerry with a sigh. Jerry had been allowed to read the annoying letter.
"How nice!" satirized Jerry. "You had better poke your head in at her door, say what you must and beat it back here in a hurry. You will be perfectly safe, at least, if you follow my advice."
Marjorie pictured this move on her part and giggled. "I think I"ll go and see her now. I have just time enough before dinner. If I put it off it will be harder and harder to do. I don"t wish to go one single bit, Jeremiah." Her laughing face suddenly sobered.
"I don"t blame you. Still, it may all turn out for the best. Perhaps if this big goose understands that you are trying to help her she will change her policy. Glad I"m not on that sports committee. I have all I can do to manage Jerry Jeremiah Geraldine Macy, let alone managing anyone else."
CHAPTER XVI-ADMINISTRATING JUSTICE
Marjorie started down the hall on her difficult errand, wondering what to say first to Gussie Forbes. She hoped Miss Hart would answer the door. Were Gussie to do so she might easily close the door in her caller"s face. Having something of importance to say, Marjorie was anxious to say it and close the subject.
She knocked twice before an answer came. When the door opened, she found herself looking into the frowning face of _l"enfant terrible_. Before Gussie could close the door, had she intended to do so, Marjorie spoke with pretty impulsiveness.
"May I come in for a few moments, Miss Forbes? I wish particularly to see you."
For answer Gussie merely opened the door wider and stood aside for Marjorie to pa.s.s her. She thought she understood the nature of the call.
Miss Dean had come to tell her she was no longer a member of the freshman team. Well, she was not afraid to face this senior who had made fun of her on sight.
"Will you have a chair?" she said formally, closing the door and coming forward until she stood directly in front of her caller.
"Thank you." Marjorie sat down, her brown eyes fixed on her reserved hostess. There was a world of kindness in their beautiful depths which Gussie could not overlook. She reluctantly sprang to the conclusion: "She"s sorry for me. She wants to let me down easily."
"I have brought with me a letter, Miss Forbes. I should like you to read it. It displeased the sports committee very much. I beg of you not to take it to heart. It is not worth one minute"s discomfort on your part."
Gussie accepted the letter in wonder. This explanation of Marjorie"s did not tally with what she had expected the senior would say. A bright flush mantled her checks as she read it.
"They threatened to do this," she said dully as she returned the letter to Marjorie. "I play basket ball fairly. I am not rough, either. I had a fuss with a girl on the scrub team yesterday. The rest of our team stood up for her instead of me. I would have resigned before this, only I like to play basket ball. I saw no reason why I should give up my position."
"There is no reason why you should not play," warmly returned Marjorie.
"No one could play a fairer game than you. Our committee have watched and admired your playing. All four of us used to play on the college teams. So we know a star player when we see one. Only lately we all saw that you were not being fairly treated. We had decided to put an end to such unfairness when I received this letter. I have seen the others on the sports committee. They are of the same mind as myself. We shall see that justice is done you."