Kitabı oku: «Marjorie Dean, College Senior», sayfa 5
CHAPTER X – A WRATHFUL AWAKENING
Despite the good offices of her chums as peace makers, Haughty Gus, as Jerry had privately named Augusta Forbes, refused to be placated.
“They were making fun of me, I know,” she persisted. “You can’t say anything that will make me change my opinion.” This to Calista Wilmot, who had endeavored to reason with her.
“Talk with Miss Dean yourself, Gus,” calmly advised Charlotte. “You will find out in about two minutes that she is a perfect darling. Miss Macy is nice, too. Both of those girls are true blue.”
“You and Flossie act like a couple of geese about those seniors,” criticized Anna Perry, who chanced to be present at the discussion.
“The two sensitive plants.” Charlotte indicated Gussie and Florence with a wave of the hand.
It being a rainy Saturday afternoon, the five girls were sitting about Calista’s and Charlotte’s room drinking the fruit lemonade which Calista had just finished making.
Augusta and Florence both giggled at Charlotte’s fling, by no means offended.
“Don’t care,” defied Gussie. “When I am sore at anyone it is because I have good reason to be. No one can ridicule me and get away with it.”
“You talk like an offended potentate, Gus,” Calista told her.
“Why shouldn’t I, if I want to?” Gussie demanded.
“Why? Because you are a lowly freshman. You ought to be meek along with the lowly; only you aren’t.”
“I guess not. Don’t intend to be ever. I am just as important in my own way as any of those old seniors.”
“No, you are not,” Calista contradicted with great decision. “None of us are – yet. Those girls have three more years of accomplishment to their credit than we. That’s the way I look at it. Besides, I hear they are the best-liked crowd on the campus. Miss Dean is considered the sweetest, kindest girl at Hamilton. Miss Lynne is a wonderful dancer. All of them have something especial they are noted and prized for in college. They have done noteworthy things. We are lucky to be noticed by them.”
“Not when they merely notice us to poke fun at us,” persisted Gussie stubbornly.
“You are hopeless.” Calista threw up her hands in despair. “You will have to learn the truth of what I’ve said for yourself. I see that plainly.”
“I’ll never learn it, for I don’t see things as you do, at all,” Gussie retorted, determined to have the last word.
A few days afterward Augusta announced proudly at the dinner table that she had been invited to the freshman frolic. She was greatly elated to find that she had been the first of the group of five Bertram girls, who usually kept together, to be invited to the merry-making. More, she crowed over the fact that her escort-to-be was a junior. Announcing, however, that it was Elizabeth Walbert who had invited her, she met with the disapproval of Calista and Charlotte.
“How could you accept, Gus?” reproached Calista. “You know how that girl misrepresented Miss Dean to us. Of course, I know you have a grudge against Miss Dean. I am sure Miss Dean is truthful. I am positive Miss Walbert isn’t.”
“You don’t really know much about Miss Dean,” sputtered Gussie, growing angry. “You only think you do. I wish you wouldn’t mention that girl’s name to me. She makes me tired, and so do you. If Miss Walbert isn’t truthful, it won’t take me long to discover it. At least, she is thoughtful enough to invite me to the reception. Your wonderful Miss Dean hasn’t invited you.”
Calista merely laughed. “You large-sized infant, give her time. You happen to be the first person I’ve heard of thus far, with an invitation.”
The next evening Calista announced, a triumphant twinkle in her shrewd black eyes, that Miss Dean had invited her to the frolic.
“Miss Macy has invited Charlotte. We have all been asked to go to Miss Dean’s room this evening for a spread. She and her crowd want to meet the rest of you girls and invite you to the dance. Miss Dean says Miss Harper was going to invite you, Gus. Now you see what you’ve missed by accepting that horrid Miss Walbert’s invitation. Miss Harper is a power here at Hamilton. She’s considered the most original girl who ever attended this college.”
“Mercy!” was Gussie’s sarcastic reception of this piece of information. “Don’t worry about me. I’m satisfied. I sha’n’t go near Miss Dean’s room.”
“All right, suit yourself,” Calista replied in a tired voice. “I am all through bothering my head about you, Gus. Have things your own way and see trouble in the long run. I’ll make your apologies to Miss Dean and Miss Harper, then I’m done.”
“Apologies, nothing,” scoffed Gussie. “Tell ’em I said they made me tired, and to keep a hundred miles away from me.”
Secretly she was regretful of the fact that she had too quickly accepted an invitation from a student for whom she cherished no special preference. In her heart she did not like Elizabeth Walbert, but she had not yet become clearly conscious of this.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, had invited Augusta merely to serve her own ends. A cutting remark on Gussie’s part during their first acquaintance concerning the Lookouts had resolved Elizabeth to cultivate the disgruntled freshman’s society. Possessed of a reckless spirit, Gussie would be just the one to help in any scheme she might plan against the girls she detested.
As neither had the remotest conception of the other’s true character, they were both due to take part in a summary awakening. On the evening of the hop, Elizabeth lingered at the Lotus with two juniors until after seven o’clock. In consequence Gussie’s chums had gone on to the gymnasium with their escorts an hour before Elizabeth knocked on Gussie’s door. Always impatient of delay, Augusta was growing momentarily more incensed as time slid by and she remained waiting and neglected. Her reception of the junior was sulky rather than affable.
Arrived at the frolic too late for the grand march and minus the usual corsage bouquet of flowers which Elizabeth had forgotten to order sent to Augusta, the tall freshman felt distinctly aggrieved. Not one of her chums were without violets or orchids, generously provided by their escorts.
Courtesy, which had not been shown her, she reflected sullenly, pleaded with her not to flash forth her frank opinion to her escort of these lapses. Gussie, however, was at the boiling point and ready to bubble over at a word.
The climax to Augusta’s displeasure was reached when after two dances with her, Elizabeth deserted her for the society of Alida Burton and Lola Elster. While neither of the latter students liked Elizabeth, both were anxious to find out whether she had seen and talked with Leslie Cairns.
“There’s Walbert across the room,” Lola had remarked in an undertone to Alida. “Let’s find out what she knows about Les. We can jolly her along for awhile and then shake her. She’s always crazy to have us notice her. You pump her; and then I will. Be careful what you say to her. Get all she knows, but don’t give up any information about anyone or anything.”
Shortly after ten o’clock Gussie disappeared from the scene of revelry. She was so angry she felt as though her brown eyes must emit sparks. On account of her spleen against their escorts she had foolishly declined to go near her chums. She was sore at heart and jealous of the new friendships they had formed. Chiefly, her ire was directed against Elizabeth.
“Just wait until I have a good chance to tell her a few things,” she wrathfully ruminated as she scudded across the campus in the moonless darkness. “I wouldn’t have neglected a rag doll the way she slighted me!”
“Where’s Gus?” Charlotte inquired of Flossie Hart late that evening. Flossie had amiably gone to Marjorie’s spread and there buried the hatchet. “I haven’t seen her for over an hour. I’m afraid she isn’t having a good time. I haven’t seen her dancing much. I asked her to dance, but she turned up her nose and said, ‘Go dance with your seniors.’”
Charlotte laughed. “I hope she hasn’t had a good time. It will teach her to keep away from that Miss Walbert. Every time I’ve seen Miss Walbert tonight she has been with those two seniors, Miss Burton and – I can’t remember the other’s name. She’s small and dark and wears awfully flashy, mannish-looking suits. You know the one I mean.”
Flossie nodded. “Too bad Gus wouldn’t be agreeable,” she said wistfully. “I have had a fine time tonight. She might have, too. It’s her own fault if she hasn’t.”
After the frolic the eight Travelers residing at Wayland Hall stopped in Ronny’s room for a chat before retiring.
“Will you have tea, chocolate, – what will you have?” hospitably inquired Ronny. “You can’t have lemonade at this hour of the night. Besides, I have no lemons.”
“Whoever heard of lemonade without lemons?” derided Muriel.
“No one. I merely said you couldn’t have it, etc.,” Ronny sweetly asserted.
“I don’t care for either eats or drinks,” declined Jerry. “I am just hanging around in here for a few minutes to hear what I can hear.”
“Same with me. It is comfy and sociable to compare notes after a jollification, even if one is sleepy.” Marjorie beamed drowsily on her chums. “Girls,” she sat up suddenly, “what has become of Miss Forbes? I didn’t see her after ten o’clock. I sent half a dozen girls over to ask her to dance. I thought Miss Walbert neglected her. She had no flowers, either.”
“I noticed that. Poor infant terrible!” Ronny smiled.
“I sent Martha and Ethel Laird to make her acquaintance,” Leila said. “Even though she would have none of me, I remembered my fine old Irish manners.”
“You’re a credit to old Ireland, Hamilton, or any other spot you happen to set your distinguished Irish foot upon,” Marjorie laughingly assured.
“I am that,” Leila blandly agreed. “I prefer myself any day to Miss Walbert.”
Gussie Forbes had too late arrived at the same opinion. The dance over, Florence Hart had found her curled up in an arm chair fast asleep. She had not removed her party gown and a suspicious pinkness about her eyelids suggested tears. Awakened, she was not tearful at all. She launched forth in a bitter tirade against her discourteous escort.
“You wait, Floss,” she said, her eyes flashing. “I won’t forget this evening, in a hurry! Some day before the year’s over, Miss Smarty Walbert will understand that I haven’t forgotten it. First time I meet her I shall tell her what I think of her. That won’t be the end of it. Later, I’ll pay her up for this evening! See if I don’t!”
CHAPTER XI – A PATCHED-UP FRIENDSHIP
“A guilty conscience need no accuser.” Elizabeth Walbert was well aware that she had been guilty of great discourtesy to Augusta Forbes. She had no intention of admitting it, though. Meeting Augusta in the lavatory the following morning, she fixed her large blue eyes on the freshman in simulated reproach.
“Where did you go to last night?” she coolly inquired. “Just before the hop ended I hunted all over for you.”
Augusta turned a stony face toward her. “Did you, indeed? You amaze me,” she said with biting sarcasm. “So you took that much trouble? Sorry! Since you did not concern yourself about me earlier in the evening, it doesn’t matter whether or not you know where I went.”
“Why, Augusta!” exclaimed Elizabeth with a rising inflection. “What on earth is – ”
“Miss Forbes, if you please,” cut in Gussie sharply. “I wish you to know that I think you the rudest, most discourteous person in the whole world. You slighted me last night and I resented it. I resent it still. I was invited to the frolic by a really fine girl; I am sorry she did not invite me first. All my chums had a splendid time. Thanks to you, I didn’t. They did not wish me to accept your invitation, for they don’t approve of you. I stood up for you and accepted. Of course, then, I did not go near them. I depended on you to introduce me to other girls, and you paid hardly any attention to me after we were inside the gym. You – ”
“Don’t be so silly,” pettishly interrupted Elizabeth. “I – ”
“Truth is never silly,” Gussie flashed back. She had said her say in low enough tones so that they were attracting no attention from the two girls at the other end of the lavatory. “Now forget that you ever spoke to me. I’ve forgotten already that I ever met you. Good morning.”
Gussie marched out of the lavatory, head held high, leaving Elizabeth red-faced and angry. This was the beginning of war between the two. Not since Leslie Cairns had scored her for her treachery that day on the campus had Elizabeth been thus arraigned. She spitefully resolved to make Gussie a mark for ridicule at Hamilton. She could do it. Was she not a junior? As for Augusta, she was nothing but a big, stupid freshie!
Elizabeth had awakened that morning quite out of sorts. Her eagerness to cling to Alida and Lola at the frolic had lost her much of the evening’s pleasure. The two seniors had declared the frolic “an awful bore.” They had danced but little, preferring to sit back and criticize. Though they had called her to join them early in the evening and had been more friendly than for a long time, toward the close of the frolic they simply drifted away from her. So cleverly did they manage she was not aware until afterward that they had deliberately dropped her. It hurt her vanity, but not her feelings.
To discover that Gussie had decamped did not add to her peace of mind. She determined not to attend any more college entertainments. They were stupid and silly. Anything Elizabeth disapproved usually went under this ban. Her head aching from a repast of two chocolate eclairs and a nougat bar, eaten after she came from the frolic, Elizabeth decided to cut her classes that day. She would take two headache powders, sleep until noon, and go for a long ride in the afternoon. All this she planned after her tilt with Augusta.
Shortly before two o’clock that afternoon she went to the garage for her car and was soon speeding toward the town of Hamilton. Her object was a trip to Breton Hill, a village twenty miles south of Hamilton. First she planned to stop in Hamilton and eat a light luncheon.
Wavering between the Lotus and the Ivy, she finally went to the Ivy. Twenty minutes after she entered the tea shop, a girl drove by in a roadster. Her glance resting on a familiar blue and buff car, she smiled sourly, drove on for perhaps a block, then came back and parked her roadster in front of the Ivy. Leaving her car in slow, deliberate fashion, she sauntered up the wide stone walk and into the shop. One swift survey of the room showed her Elizabeth Walbert at a side table. She stood for a moment, her eyes narrowing, then walked boldly to where Elizabeth sat and took the vacant chair opposite her.
The latter looked up from her plate and encountered Leslie Cairns’ eyes. Elizabeth was genuinely surprised. Leslie pretended to be.
“Where – why Leslie Cairns!” stammered the unsuspecting junior.
“This is a surprise, Miss Walbert!” Leslie returned in not quite friendly tones.
“I see you are angry with me still, Leslie,” she said plaintively. “You blamed me for saying a lot of things I never said. I heard Dulcie was the cause of your – er – trouble last year. She wrote me after she left Hamilton. I didn’t answer her letter.”
“Oh, forget it.” Leslie made an indifferent gesture. “What’s done can’t be undone. You were wise not to write to Dulcie. She was the most treacherous little reptile I ever knew. How’s college?”
“Oh, so, so. I am at Wayland Hall now. It is full of freshies. Miss Harper and Miss Mason are there again. So are Miss Merrick and Miss Trent. Four P. G’s at Wayland.”
“Four N. G’s, you mean,” corrected Leslie bitterly. “I heard they were back. I met Lola and Alida not long ago.”
“You did? They never said a word about it to me. I was with them a long time last night, too. The sophs gave their dance last night. Hateful things! They might have told me. I think Lola is so selfish!” Elizabeth pouted her displeasure.
“Selfish! You are right about that. She is.” Leslie spoke with sudden energy. “She winds Alida around her finger.”
“Of course.” Elizabeth leaned forward, her interest rising. It was good to see Leslie again. Leslie never cared what she said about others.
The waitress approaching, Leslie ordered a luncheon which she did not want, then turned her attention to her companion again.
“Tell me the college news; everything you can think of,” she commanded. “I’m visiting an aunt in town. Don’t know just how long I shall be here. That’s all there is to tell about me. But you must really have news.”
“Oh, there isn’t much going on, as yet. I’ll tell you about the frolic first.” Elizabeth recounted the affair from her viewpoint. From that she went from one bit of campus gossip to another.
Leslie listened, careful not to interrupt. She was tactfully pursuing a certain course.
“Do you know anything about this students’ beneficiary business that Bean and her beanstalks organized last year, Bess?” she finally asked with a careless air. “I heard Lola mention it the day I saw her. I didn’t care to ask her about it. Last year, just before the Sans were fired from Hamilton, I heard the organizers were going to take up a collection among themselves to create a scholarship fund or something like that. I thought I might like to contribute, if I knew just what it was all about. I’d do it anonymously. I wouldn’t for worlds let anyone but you know. Do you think you could find out all about it for me?”
“Certainly,” was the ready promise. Re-established thus easily in Leslie’s favor, Elizabeth was feeling elated. To be entrusted with this commission meant she would see Leslie often. Loyal to no one, she had liked Leslie better than the majority of girls she had known.
“I know a freshie at Acasia House who is quite friendly with Miss Laird. Bean, as you call her, is a great friend of Miss Laird’s. I think this freshman could get the information from Miss Laird. She is clever.”
“Ask her then, and I will appreciate it and do something for you in return. Above all, Bess, don’t mention this to a soul. If you do, I’ll know it. In spite of the way I was treated I have a wish to do something for old Hamilton.” Leslie put on a becomingly serious expression.
“I won’t tell,” promised the other girl. “It is fine in you to feel so about Hamilton. I should call it true nobility of spirit. You weren’t understood in college, Leslie.”
“No, I wasn’t.” Leslie sighed her make-believe regret. She had begun to enjoy the part she was now playing.
The two did not leave the tea room for over an hour after meeting. When they emerged to the street each was satisfied with what she had gained from the other. They had agreed to meet the next Wednesday at four o’clock at the Ivy.
“How are you getting along as a driver?” Leslie asked, not without a smile as she sighted Elizabeth’s brightly painted car. It was reminiscent of last year’s disasters.
“Oh, very well. I’ve always told you that I could keep the road if people would keep out of my way. Every near accident I’ve ever had has been the fault of someone else’s poor driving.”
To this airy, self-exonerative statement Leslie made no response save by a twist of her loose-lipped mouth. She was very near derisive laughter. Elizabeth, blandly complacent, did not notice her companion’s peculiar expression.
“Let me give you one piece of advice, Bess,” she said brusquely. “Get through with that giddy blue and tan car of yours. It is a dead give-away. One can recognize it a mile away. You think you are O. K. as a driver. You’re not. Don’t deceive yourself. You can’t put it over me. I know your style of driving and it’s punk. Why don’t you learn to drive?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Elizabeth bridled. “I like my car blue. Blue is my color.” She ignored Leslie’s fling at her driving abilities.
“It will be your finish some day; on that car, I mean. Get a black car. You need a new one. This one is passé. You could have it painted black, but what’s the use? Trade this one in on a new machine. Maybe you’ll do better driving a new car.”
“Perhaps you are right. I think my father will let me have a new machine.” Possession of a brand new car appealed to vain Elizabeth.
“I know I’m right. Suppose you were to have trouble along the pike as you had with that driver last year. If anyone reported you the tag that gave you away would be: ‘The student I mean was driving a blue and buff car.’” Leslie imitated to perfection a high, complaining voice. “With a black car you could simply scud away from trouble and no one would remember how you looked. What?”
“You are right, Leslie,” Elizabeth reluctantly conceded. “I never before looked at the matter in that light.”
Leslie was tempted to reply, “That was because you were too stupidly vain of your gay, blue ice wagon.” She refrained. Discretion warned her to allow matters to rest as they were. She had no desire to arouse resentment in the shallow, but tricky, junior. Her advice concerning a change of cars was sound and she knew it. While Leslie had neither liking nor faith in Elizabeth Walbert, she needed her services. She thought she had learned by past bitter experience precisely how to manage Elizabeth.
