Marjorie Dean, College Junior

“That’s what I think,” concurred Joan Myers. “Even if her tales did bring about a private inquiry, it is our word against hers. We have really walked with a sword over our heads since last Saint Valentine’s night. It has never fallen. I say, simply fire Dulcie from the Sans, and be done with it. Let it be a lesson to the rest of us to be discreet.”

“When is the deed to be done?” Adelaide Forman inquired.

“I don’t know yet. I want you girls to see what you can glean on the campus. I must have every scrap of evidence against her that I can get,” Leslie announced. “We may not be able to spring it on her for a week or two. When we do, the meeting will be in this room. I’ll hang a heavy curtain over the door so we won’t be heard. If she gets very angry she will raise her voice to a positive shriek.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to hold that meeting outside the Hall? Dulcie will raise an awful fuss. If she hadn’t told something I made her swear she wouldn’t tell, I would not hear to having her treated that way. I am down on her for that very reason. Otherwise I would feel very sorry for her,” explained Eleanor Ray.

“I am not on good terms with her. She made trouble between Evangeline and me last week. We only straightened it up today.” Joan volunteered this information. “Leslie’s room is the best place for the meeting. It is situated so that Dulcie won’t be heard if she cries or flies into a temper.”

While among the Sans there was not one girl who had not stooped to dishonorable acts since her entrance into Hamilton College, the fact of Dulcie’s defection seemed monstrous indeed.

“Be careful what you say to Bess Walbert,” Natalie took the liberty of saying. “How much does she know about what we shall do with Dulc? What did you tell her about it?”

“I said I had heard other things Dulcie had been saying; that she was due to hear from me for gossiping. That such yarns must be stopped. I warned her to keep to herself whatever Dulc had told her. She promised silence. I don’t know.” Leslie shrugged dubiously. “Take a leaf from Nat’s book, girls, and keep mum to Bess. She may try to pump you. She’s crazy to know what I am going to say to Dulc and when the fuss is to come off.”

Natalie flushed her gratification of Leslie’s approbation. The others received their leader’s counsel with marked respect. The news of Dulcie’s perfidy had given them food for uneasy reflection.

“We’ll just have to depend on you, Les, to deal with Dulcie,” Joan Myers said emphatically. “You can do it scientifically. Of course, we expect to stand by you. When the time comes you ought to do the talking.”

“The firing, you mean,” corrected Leslie, smiling in her most unpleasant fashion. “Leave it to me. It’s our campus reputation against her feelings; if she has any. We all have a certain pride in ourselves as seniors. I’m not anxious to be looked down upon by the other classes. It is only a few months until Commencement. We must hang on until then, and at the same time keep up an appearance of senior dignity.”

An assenting murmur arose. Allowed to do as they pleased by doting or careless parents, not one of the Sans would escape parental wrath were she to fail in her college course. Even more serious consequences would be attached to expellment.

“How are we to behave toward Dulcie?” was Eleanor Ray’s question as the meeting broke up.

“As though nothing had happened,” Leslie directed. “I shall take her by surprise. I wish her to be so completely broken up she won’t have the nerve to fight back, either on the night of the fuss or afterward.”

CHAPTER XV – PLANNING FOR OTHERS

While the Sans were experiencing the discomfort of internal friction, the Lookouts and their friends were traveling the pleasant ways of harmony and peace. The sophomores had so thoroughly taken their freshman sisters under their genial wing that the juniors had little welfare work to do in that direction.

In the matter of basket ball they lost all active interest after the first game between the freshman and sophomore teams which took place on the first Saturday afternoon in November. The Sans still had friends enough among the seniors to make their influence felt in this respect. With two Sans elected to the sports committee, Professor Leonard had thrown up his hands in disgust after a vain attempt to get along pleasantly with the arrogant committee. He refused to be present at the try-out. Afterward he made it a point to be away from the gymnasium during team practice.

Leslie Cairns kept her word to Elizabeth Walbert to the letter. She was chosen by the committee to play on the official sophomore team. Phyllis Moore was also picked solely on account of her prowess. When she found herself on the same team with Elizabeth, she promptly resigned.

The freshman team was picked by the committee entirely according to Sans tactics. Therefore, the democratic element of Hamilton foresaw a series of uninteresting games ahead. Dutifully they attended the initial game of the season which the sophs won. Most of the applause came from the seniors present at the game. According to Muriel Harding, she had seen better games played by the grammar school children of Sanford.

Basket ball thus failing to arouse their marked enthusiasm, the former faithful fans and expert players turned their moments of recreation into channels which pleased them better. Incidental with the decline of basket ball, Marjorie and Robin took to looking earnestly about them for a motive for the entertainments they had discussed giving.

Marjorie scouted about diligently in an effort to locate students off the campus who needed financial help. She took Anna Towne into her confidence at last and found out something of interest.

“It isn’t half so much that most of the girls living off the campus can’t pull themselves through college. They manage to do it by working through the summer vacations. It is the way we have to live that is so nerve-racking at times. The food isn’t always good, and there’s so little variety if one boards. The girls who cook for themselves have to market. That’s a strain. One is out of bread or butter or another staple and forgets all about it until supper time. Then the small stores nearby are closed. Perhaps one wishes to spend an hour or two in the library after recitations. There is the marketing to do, or else it has to be done early in the morning when one is hurrying to get ready for a first recitation. That’s merely one of the difficulties attached to trying to lead the student life and doing light housekeeping at the same time.

“On the other hand,” Anna had further explained, “if one boards one isn’t always allowed to do one’s own laundering. That’s quite an item of expense. It costs more in money to board, and it is more of an expense of spirit to keep house on a small scale. It is a great irritation either way. That is the opinion of every girl off the campus I have talked with. You girls in your beautiful campus house are lucky. Many of these boarding and rooming houses are so cold in winter. For the amount of board or rental we pay the proprietors claim they can’t afford to give adequate heat.

“You see, Marjorie, when girls like myself decide on enrolling at a certain college, they have only the prospectus to go by. They read in the Bulletin of Students’ Aids and Bureaus of Self-help but they do not reckon on them. They go to college on their own resources. They wouldn’t dream of asking help as freshmen; perhaps not at all during their whole course.”

“I see,” Marjorie had assented very soberly. It hurt her to hear of the struggles for an education going on so near her, while she had everything and more than heart could desire. “There ought to be one or two houses on the campus where students could live as cheaply as in boarding and rooming houses and still have their time entirely for study and recreation.”

“That won’t be in my time at Hamilton,” Anna had declared with a tired little smile. “I hope it will happen some day.”

When Marjorie had left Anna, it was with a certain generous resolve. That night she made it known to Jerry.

“Do you know what I am going to do?” she asked, after recounting to her room-mate her conversation of the afternoon.

“I do not. I’ll be pleased to hear your remarks, whatever they may be,” encouraged Jerry with one of her wide smiles.

“You know what a lot of vacancies there will be here in June,” Marjorie began. “Those vacancies ought to be filled by off-the-campus girls. Take Anna, for instance. She earns about one-third enough money summers to keep her at Wayland Hall. I shall furnish the other two-thirds for her. I shall begin now and save something from my allowance toward it. I shall ask Captain not to buy me a lot of new clothes for next year, but to give me the money instead. I am going to do a little sacrificing. I shall cut out dinners and luncheons off the campus. I’ll go only to Baretti’s and not so very often.”

“We are an extravagant set,” Jerry confessed. “Our board is paid at the Hall; the very best board, too. Yet away we go every two or three days for a feed at our favorite tea-rooms. That’s a good idea, Marvelous Manager. I shall presently adopt an off-the-campusite myself. Ronny will adopt a dozen.”

“Ronny would finance them all, but I sha’n’t let her. General would give me the money to see Anna through college, but I don’t wish it to be that way. I want it to be self-denial money. I’d like to find a way to help the off-the-campus girls this year.”

“Give shows. Make money. Turn it over to ’em,” suggested Jerry, with an airy wave of the hand. “Nothing easier.”

“Nothing harder, you mean,” corrected Marjorie. “They wouldn’t like to accept it as a private gift, I’m afraid. Besides, some of them board; others do light housekeeping. Those who keep house could use the money we offered to make things easier. Still they’d have the strain of housework on their minds. Those who board wouldn’t be benefited much unless they changed boarding places. There is only that one collection of boarding houses near the campus. One is about the same as another. Hamilton has been a rich girls’ college for a long time. The fine equipment and super-excellent faculty have filled it up with well-to-do and moneyed students.”

“I’d like to see every Hamilton student on the campus,” declared Jerry heartily. “It would take three campus houses to do it. There must be close to seventy-five girls in that bunch of off-campus houses.”

“We could start our fund for that purpose,” was the hopeful response.

“Who’d take care of the plan after we were graduated? It would take a lot of money to build campus houses. Besides, how would we get the site? Maybe the Board wouldn’t hear to the project”

“Too true, too true, Jeremiah,” Marjorie conceded gayly. “That plan is a little far-fetched just yet. Later it may seem feasible. The fact remains that Robin and I yearn to get up a show; object to give away the proceeds.”

“You can do this. Arrange for the show. Advertise it as being given for the purpose of founding a students’ beneficiary association. Take a third of the proceeds and start the society. Give the other two-thirds to Anna and let her distribute it privately among the girls who need it. She knows them. She can get away with it better than you can. If anyone comes down on the treasury for our little lone third we can hand it out and keep it up by private contributions until some more money is earned. I suppose you two marvelous managers will continue in the show business as long as it is profitable.”

“Your head is level, Jeremiah,” laughed Marjorie, her eyes sparkling. “That’s a good plan. I’ll see Robin tomorrow, and Anna too. Robin can begin to gather up the performers. Anna can find out for me as to how her flock are situated. I shall call the girls in tomorrow evening and ask them if they each would like to finance a student next year. Leila, Vera and Helen will like to, even if they have been graduated from Hamilton. Kathie can’t, but she will wish to help in some other way.”

“Anna Towne was my freshie catch. You may have her. I’ll scout around and find someone else,” magnanimously accorded Jerry.

Marjorie spent her leisure hours during the ensuing few days in interviewing her friends and helping Robin plan the show. With Thanksgiving only ten days off, the show would not take place until after that holiday. The girls tackled the programme, however, and completed it within three days.

Ronny was to dance twice. Marjorie had written to Constance Stevens, who had promised to sing at the revue. These two numbers were to be the features. The Silverton Hall orchestra would contribute two numbers. Leila and Vera had promised an ancient Irish contra dance in costume. Phyllis would give a violin solo. Blanche Scott would offer a grand opera selection in her best baritone voice. Ronny agreed to train eight girls in a singing and dancing number. As a wind-up, four Acasia House girls were to put on a one-act French play.

Busy with her new project, Marjorie had not forgotten Miss Susanna. The day after her visit to Hamilton Arms she had written the old lady one of her sincere, friendly notes. She had not expected a reply. Nevertheless, Miss Hamilton had returned a few lines of acknowledgment. Since then the wires of communication between them had been idle.

Marjorie regretted this. She would have liked, during the beautiful autumn weather, to walk about the grounds of Hamilton Arms with its owner. With the last leaves off the trees and the earth frost-bitten, she began to feel that Miss Susanna had not desired her further acquaintance. In passing Hamilton Arms she strained her eyes, invariably, for a sight of the old lady. She saw her but once, and at a distance.

She wondered as Thanksgiving approached what kind of Thanksgiving Miss Hamilton would have. She resolved, before leaving college for home, to write the last of the Hamiltons as cheerful a note as she could compose.

Three days before college closed for the holiday she found a letter in the Hall bulletin board in Miss Susanna’s handwriting. This letter bore the address “Wayland Hall,” and read:

“Dear Child:

“I have a curiosity to meet some of the young women you exalted to me when you took tea at the Arms. Will you bring them with you to five o’clock tea tomorrow afternoon? I had intended writing you before this date, but have been ill and out of sorts. I believe you mentioned eight young women as your particular friends. I can entertain you and the beloved eight, but no more. Do not trouble to answer this note. I shall expect to see you, even if the others can’t come to tea.

“Yours sincerely,“Susanna Craig Hamilton.”

Marjorie uttered a kind of exultant crow and performed a funny little dance of jubilation about the room. Jerry had not yet come from recitations, so she hurried out to find the other Lookouts. Ronny was the only one in. She rejoiced with Marjorie, her interest in Hamilton Arms and its owner being second only to that of her chum.

“She loves flowers. We must take her a big box of roses,” was Marjorie’s generous thought. “Pink, white and red ones; yellow roses, too, if we can find them. It is hard to find a certain kind of fragrant, very double yellow rose at the florist’s now.”

“You mean ‘Perle de Jaddin,’” Ronny said quickly. “We have acres of them at ‘Manana.’ They are my favorite rose.”

“I love them, too,” Marjorie nodded. “I remember that name now. I will collect two dollars apiece from the girls. Two times nine are eighteen. We ought to be able to buy an armful of roses for eighteen dollars. I’ll ask Leila to drive to Hamilton for them. She has no class the last hour. I think we had better walk to Hamilton Arms. Miss Susanna seems to be rather down on girls who drive cars. So there is no use in flaunting her dislike in her face. I may be in error on that point. She made a remark on the day I met her that led me to think so.”

“You go and find the other girls. I’ll tell Lucy as soon as she comes in,” Ronny offered. “The sooner you see them, the better. If they have engagements for tomorrow afternoon they will have to gracefully slide out of them. We all must accept Miss Susanna’s invitation. It is a case of now or never.”

Marjorie left Ronny to go joyfully on her pleasant errand. Her second quest was more successful. Leila and Vera had returned while she was in Ronny’s room. Both were elated over the unexpected honor. Leila was more than willing to make the trip to the florist’s shop. Marjorie met Katherine in the hall just as she was leaving Leila’s room.

The trio of absentees, Helen, Muriel and Jerry, she decided must be out somewhere together. She smiled to herself as she pictured Jerry’s face when she heard the news. “Just because I am in a hurry to tell Jerry she will probably go to dinner off the campus and come marching in about nine o’clock,” was her half-vexed rumination.

To her satisfaction Jerry walked into the room at ten minutes to six. She and Helen had taken a ride in the latter’s car. Jerry was full of mirth over the fact that they had met Elizabeth Walbert’s car at the side of the road with a blown-out tire. A mechanician from a Hamilton garage was on the scene adjusting a new one under the verbose direction of the owner.

“Helen drove her car past at a crawl. We wanted to hear what she was saying to the man from the garage. Honestly, we could hear her voice before we came very near her. She shrieks at the top of her lungs. She was trying to tell him what to do. He wasn’t paying any more attention to her than if she hadn’t been there. That blond freshie, who snubbed Phil the day she tried to help her at the station, was with her. I heard her say, ‘My, but he is slow. Our chauffeur could have put on three tires while he was thinking about putting on one.’ So encouraging to the workman!” Jerry’s tones registered gleeful sarcasm. “I wish she had been stuck there for about four hours.”

“You should not rejoice at the downfall of others,” Marjorie reproved with a giggle. “That is, if you can class a bursted tire as a downfall.”

“It did me a world of good to see those two little snips stuck at the side of the road,” returned Jerry. “That Walbert girl and her car are a joke. I wish we had a college paper. I’d write her up. Funny there isn’t one at Hamilton. Almost every other college has one, sometimes two. I think I shall start one next year, if I’m not too busy.”

“You might call it ‘Jeremiah’s Journal,’” suggested Marjorie. Both girls laughed at this conceit. Marjorie then acquainted her room-mate with the invitation, at the same time handing her Miss Hamilton’s note.

“Will wonders never cease!” Jerry laid down the note and beamed at Marjorie. “All your fault, Marvelous Manager. You went ahead and paved the way into Miss Susanna’s good graces for the rest of us. You certainly do get on the soft side of people without trying.”

“Not a bit of it,” Marjorie stoutly contested. “Any one of you girls would have done as I did and with the same results. I am so glad you are all going to meet her. She can’t help but have a better opinion of our dear old Alma Mater after she has met some of her nicest children. I guess that basket handle broke at the psychological moment.”

CHAPTER XVI – OUT OF THE PAST

The invited guests were in scarcely more of an anticipatory flutter than Miss Susanna herself. She had broken down her prejudice against girls partly out of curiosity to see and know Marjorie’s friends, partly because of her growing fondness for Marjorie. The innocent beauty of the young girl, and her utter lack of conceit and affectation, had made a deep impression on the suspicious, embittered old lady. She had no expectation of liking Marjorie’s friends as she was learning to like the courteous, gracious lieutenant. It was her skeptical opinion, uttered to Jonas, that, if one of the “new ones” turned out to be half as worthy as “that pretty child,” she would not regret the experiment.

“You may take me for an old fool, Jonas,” she declared to her faithful servitor of many years. “Here I am entertaining college misses after I’ve sworn enmity against them for so long. Well, everything once, Jonas; everything once. If I don’t like ’em, they won’t be invited here again.”

“The young lady’s friends will be all right, Miss Susanna,” Jonas had earnestly assured. “She is a fine little lady.”

The “young lady’s friends,” however, were seized with a certain amount of trepidation when, on the designated afternoon, they advanced on Hamilton Arms, looking their prettiest. Each had worn the afternoon frock she liked best in honor of her hostess. Marjorie, Leila and Jerry headed the van, Leila bearing in her arms a huge box of roses. Marjorie had insisted that Leila must present these to Miss Susanna. Leila had sturdily demurred, then accepted the honor thrust upon her. All the way to Hamilton Arms she had kept the party in a gale of laughter with the humorous presentation speeches which she framed en route.

Within a few steps of the house her fund of words deserted her. “Take these yourself, Marjorie,” she implored. “I am in too much of a glee at my own foolishness. I shall laugh and disgrace us all if I undertake to give her the roses.”

“You’ll be all right, you goose. I refuse to help you out.” Marjorie waved aside the proffered box. “Rally your nerve and say the first thing that occurs to you. It will be sure to be the best thing you could possibly say.”

“I doubt it. Well, I can but take firm hold on the box and make the best of a bad matter.” Leila grasped the box with exaggerated force, cleared her throat and burst out laughing. She continued to laugh as they ascended the steps. She had hardly straightened her face when Jonas answered the door and ushered the guests over the threshold they had never expected to cross.

“I have not seen so many girls at close range for a long time,” announced a brisk voice. Miss Susanna had come from the library into the hall to greet her visitors. She was attired in a one-piece dress of dark gray silk with a white fichu at the throat of frost-like lace.

“How are you, my child?” She now took Marjorie’s hand. “And these are your friends.” Her bright brown eyes were inspecting the group of young women with a kind of reflective curiosity. “Introduce them to me and tell me each name slowly. I wish to know each one by name from now on. I used to have a good memory for names.”

Marjorie complied with the instruction, adding some friendly little point descriptive of each chum. This evoked laughter and helped to ease the slight strain attached to the presentation. Leila then proffered the box of roses with a frank, “Here is our good will to you, Miss Hamilton.”

“What’s this?” Miss Susanna viewed the long box in amazement. A swift tide of color rose to her cheeks. She reached for it mechanically as though uncertain what to do next. She held it for an instant, then said: “I thank you, girls. You could have done nothing that would please me more. I love flowers; particularly roses. Come into the library now and let us get acquainted.”

In the library Miss Susanna explored the florist’s box with the pleasure of a child. She exclaimed happily over the masses of gorgeous roses as she lifted them from the box and inhaled their fragrance. She sent Jonas for vases and arranged them to suit her fancy, talking animatedly to her guests as her small hands busied themselves with the pleasant task.

The girls gathered informally about her, looking on with gratified eyes. The flower gift had established a bond of sympathy between them. Already Miss Susanna was beginning to glimpse the reason for Marjorie’s devotion to her special friends. The girls also understood Marjorie’s growing interest in the last of the Hamiltons. Miss Hamilton had an oddly fascinating personality which commanded liking.

“There!” Miss Susanna exclaimed, as the last rose went into a vase to her satisfaction. “I shall leave them in the library while you are here. Afterward I shall take my posies to my room. They will be the last thing I see tonight and the first in the morning. I have selfishly fussed with my lovely roses instead of giving you hungry children your tea. We are going to have it in the tea room today. I will ask you to come now.”

She led the way from the library to an apartment directly behind it. A subdued chorus of admiration ascended from the guests as they stepped into a room which was quite Chinese in character. The walls were hung with rare Chinese embroideries and delicately-tinted prints. A pale green matting rug with intricately-wrought lavender and buff characters covered the floor. The tables and chairs were of polished teak, beautifully inlaid with mother of pearl. In one corner was a tall Chinese cabinet topped by two exquisite peachblow vases. Here and there were other vases of value and beauty. It was an amazing room. With so much to look at, it required time to appreciate fully its worth from an artistic point of view.