Kitabı oku: «Marjorie Dean, College Senior», sayfa 7
“Don’t I know it?” nodded Alida. “Bess is good company when she chooses to be, but I never feel that she can be trusted. If I had mentioned to her tonight that I did not like Miss Forbes, I’d probably hear next week that I had said she was a villain of the deepest dye and that I was going to have her expelled from Hamilton. Bess weaves a whole hut from one wisp of straw.”
“I decline to furnish a single wisp, then,” Lola said lightly. “Bess is riding to a fall. I propose to be so far away from her when it happens that I won’t hear the crash.”
CHAPTER XV – INTERNAL WAR
Marjorie thought that she had never longed so much for a holiday to come as Thanksgiving. She was eager to go home and see her general and captain. Then there was Connie’s wedding to be considered. Her mother had written her that the gown she was to wear as maid of honor to Constance was ready and waiting for her. Marjorie did not know its color, texture, what kind of wedding Connie was to have as to color scheme. All of that was being kept away from her as a delightful secret. Naturally she had a lively yearning for home and its joyous surprises.
There was also the question of the boarding-house proposition which could not be answered until after Thanksgiving. She hoped the owner would not disappoint her and Robin again by remaining away from Hamilton.
She made a valiant effort to forget her own yearnings in taking a kindly interest in basket ball practice, which went on almost every afternoon in the gymnasium. She soon found that the scrub and official sophomore teams welcomed her presence at practice. The freshman team did not. Gussie Forbes glowered rudely at her whenever she chanced to be near enough. The two freshmen forwards, friends of Elizabeth Walbert’s, showed disfavor of Marjorie’s attendance. The other two freshman players took color, chameleon-like, from the belligerent trio and cast indifferently unfriendly glances in her direction.
It did not take Marjorie long to fathom this state of affairs. While it amused her, she was mildly resentful of it. Resolved not to be intimidated by a few black looks, she calmly ignored the situation. Soon, however, she began to notice that internal war raged on that particular team. As center, Augusta Forbes had not struck a bed of roses. With four of her team-mates arrayed against her, her position had become well-nigh unbearable.
Her childish heart wrapped up in basket ball, she exhibited a noteworthy patience. She was keenly proud of her position on the team and worked with might and main, schooling herself to be indifferent to the contemptible little stings delivered by her team-mates. Considering her tempestuous disposition, she showed remarkable self-restraint, an indication of the fine young woman she would become when college had worn away the rough edges.
“See here, Marvelous Manager,” Jerry began one afternoon as the two stood watching a bit of snappy playing, which Augusta had just exhibited. “L’enfant terrible is not getting a fair deal. Did you know that?”
“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,” asserted 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 attitude 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 pass 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.”
Augusta’s face had begun to clear as Marjorie talked. It brightened with each succeeding word. She forgot her earlier grudge against the other girl. She was hearing herself appreciated and it was very sweet to her.
“If these four players on the freshman team,” Marjorie continued, “refuse to be amicable on the floor, the sports committee will demand their resignations. We have the authority to do so and shall use it if necessary. It is our aim to have only pleasantness in connection with basket ball. Friendly rivalry between teams and harmony among the members of each team. That is the only basis on which to conduct college sports. I have seen it tried the other way, and it doesn’t pay.”
“If they resigned, then there wouldn’t be any freshman team,” stammered Gussie, thinking instantly of this dire calamity.
“Oh, yes there would,” Marjorie assured with a friendly laugh. “You would be center on a new team. Your position on the freshman team is safe. Please understand that, Miss Forbes. The other freshmen may find theirs shaky.”
Gussie stared at Marjorie with wide, solemn eyes. “I did not know you were like this,” she blurted. “What was the matter with me that I misjudged you so? I thought you and Miss Macy made fun of me on the first evening we were at Hamilton.”
“Miss Macy made some funny remarks about the noise you were all making and about you being freshies,” Marjorie felt impelled to confess, “but she did not intend to be ill-natured. We laughed, because, Jeremiah, as we call her, is almost always funny.”
“You will never forgive me,” was Gussie’s shame-faced prognostication. “The girls told me I had made a mistake. I wouldn’t listen to them. I don’t deserve your kindness to me, Miss Dean. When Miss Hurst said she was going to have me dropped from the team, I thought you would be glad of an excuse to drop me. So you can see for yourself what a horrid, suspicious person I am.”
For answer Marjorie laughed merrily. “I think you are very honest and straightforward,” she differed. “I am not sorry this letter was written. It has brought us an understanding of each other which should lead to friendship. If I were in your place, Miss Forbes, I would go on working on the team precisely as though nothing had happened. I shall write Miss Hurst this evening. I imagine after she receives my letter she will stop this annoying persecution. That is what it amounts to.”
After a little further conversation with the now placated Gussie, Marjorie shook hands with her and left her in a beatified state of mind.
“There is nothing truer than that old proverb, ‘It’s an ill wind that blows no one good,’” was Marjorie’s salutation as she entered her room. “By rights I should send Miss Hurst a note of thanks for putting me on good terms with Miss Forbes.”
Marjorie’s gay utterance was indicative of the success of her errand. She was genuinely happy over the change in Augusta Forbes toward herself. Had Gussie been one of whom her upright mind could not truly approve, she would not have been annoyed at the freshman’s misunderstanding of her. Knowing the stubborn girl to be sterling at heart, it had hurt Marjorie to be thus misjudged. It had hurt her still more to know that Augusta saw Jerry in a false light
“I notice you weren’t extinguished,” commented Jerry, her eyes resting with fond humor upon her pretty chum. “Tell me about it.”
Marjorie complied with the request. She finished with: “I explained a little about that night we saw her at Baretti’s; assured her we weren’t making fun of her. I asked her to come and see us soon. She said she would. She will know, after she has talked with you about five minutes, Jeremiah, that you are the best old treasure that ever was.”
“Am I so wonderful as all that? Dear me!” Jerry simpered, raising her chubby hands in mock surprise.
“Yes, you are, and you know it.” Marjorie made an affectionate little rush at Jerry and caught her around the waist. In the absence of Captain and General, she sometimes treated Jerry to these sudden, playful proofs of her affection. Nothing pleased Jerry more.
“I won’t have time to write an answer to Miss Hurst’s note,” she said, glancing at the clock. “I’ll do it directly after dinner and mail it before eight-thirty. There is a mail collection at nine. I want it to reach her tomorrow morning. I shall attend practice tomorrow afternoon and see that Miss Forbes has fair play.” The determined glint in Marjorie’s eyes spelled justice to the injured party.
Marjorie did not linger at the dinner table that evening. She hastened upstairs the moment she had eaten dessert and set to work at the letter. Her fountain pen poised thoughtfully over the paper, she considered Miss Hurst’s note for a brief season. Then she wrote:
“DEAR MISS HURST:
“Your letter received. In justice to Miss Forbes I would say that her case has been under observation of the sports committee for the past week. The findings are these – she is a fine and honorable player, conforming to the rules of basket ball in every respect. She is not a disturber, in any sense, and the sports committee must refuse to countenance unfair reports against her. I find her scrupulously truthful. The committee have not been pleased with the churlish treatment which has been accorded Miss Forbes by the other members of the team. We would advocate a marked change on the part of yourself and your team-mates in this direction. Personal spite makes poor team work.
“Yours sincerely,“MARJORIE DEAN,“Chairman Sports Committee.”
“There!” she exclaimed, as she addressed an envelope to Alma Hurst at Acasia House. “That unpleasant labor is out of the way.”
“Let me read it?” begged Jerry. “You need my official criticism.”
“Read it, then. You don’t allow me to have any secrets from you,” Marjorie complained in feigned vexation.
“No indeed,” emphasized Jerry. “Good work,” she approved, having read the letter. “The real straight-from-the-shoulder variety. That ought to give pause to the Amalgamated Sorehead Society. That’s a fine name for them. I shall tell it to Gloomy Gus when she and I grow to be bosom friends.”
“Better not,” warned Marjorie, breaking into laughter. “She is quite capable of hurling it at them in a moment of wrath. Don’t furnish her with ammunition. She is a handful, all by herself.”
Drawing on her fur coat, for the evening was snappy with frost, Marjorie went bareheaded out of the Hall and across the campus, diagonally to the nearest mail-box. About to cross the main drive on the return to the house, she stood aside for a passing car. The glare of an arc light over the drive picked out plainly the faces of the two occupants of the car. They did not note her, she being in the shadow.
“Oh-h!” a soft little breath of surprise escaped her. She remained in the shadow watching the car. It stopped in front of Wayland Hall. One of the occupants, Elizabeth Walbert, left the car and hurried up the steps of the Hall. The car turned in the open space before the house, darted away instantly. It shot past Marjorie at high speed. This time she hardly glimpsed the driver’s face. She had already recognized it, however, as that of Leslie Cairns. She had not withdrawn into the shadow for the purpose of spying upon the two girls. She had merely preferred not to encounter them. She resolved to tell no one of having seen Leslie on the campus. She could not refrain from wondering at the ex-senior’s temerity, in thus invading a territory now forbidden to her.
