Marjorie Dean, College Senior Part 11

"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 a.s.serted.

"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 a.s.sured.

"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 cla.s.ses 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.