Marjorie Dean, High School Junior Part 16

Still, I imagine that she might not always do so well as she did in this game. If she saw that things were going against her, she would be quite likely to get furiously angry and lose her head." Quiet Constance had been making a close study of Rowena during the game. Raised in the hard school of experience, she had considerable insight into character. She seldom criticized openly, but when she did, her opinions were received with respect.

"Your head's on the same level plane with Marjorie's, Connie," agreed Jerry. "I think, too, that Rowena Farnham would be apt to make blunders if she got good and mad. Speaking of getting mad reminds me that Lucy Warner is pouting about those suits of ours. She told Harriet to-day that she thought they were simply hideous. Harriet said that she wouldn't go in with you girls when you ordered them. She considered them a waste of money. Said if she had one, she'd never get a chance to wear it. Pleasant young person, isn't she?"

"Perhaps she couldn't afford to have one," remarked Constance thoughtfully. "You know her mother is a widow and supports the two of them by doing plain sewing. I imagine they must be quite poor. They live in a tiny house on Radcliffe Street, and Lucy never goes to even the high school parties, or to Sargent's, or any place that costs money. She is a queer little thing. I've tried ever so many times to be nice to her, but she always snubs me. Maybe she thinks I'm trying to patronize her. I can't help feeling sorry for her. You see I know so well what it means to be very poor-and proud," ended Constance, flushing.

"She's a born grouch," a.s.serted Jerry. "She's been one ever since I've known her. Even in grammar school she was like that. She's always had a fixed idea that because she's poor everyone looks down on her. It's too bad. She's very bright in her studies, and she'd be quite pretty if she didn't go around all the time looking ready to bite."

"Isn't it funny?" mused Marjorie. "I've never noticed her particularly or thought much about her until she made the team as a sub. Since then I've tried several times to talk to her. Each time she has acted as though she didn't like to have me speak to her. I thought maybe she might be a friend of Mignon's. But I suppose it's just because she feels so ashamed of being poor. As if that mattered. We ought to try to make her think differently. She must be terribly unhappy."

"I doubt it," contradicted Jerry. "Some people enjoy being miserable.

Probably she's one of that sort. As I said before, 'it's too bad.'

Still, one doesn't care to get down on one's knees to somebody, just because that somebody hates herself. She can't expect people are going to like her if she keeps them a mile away from her."

"You are both right," commented Constance. "She ought to be made to understand that being poor isn't a crime. But you can't force that into her head. The only way to do is to wait until a chance comes to prove it to her. We must watch for the psychological moment." Her droll utterance of the last words set her listeners to giggling. Miss Merton was p.r.o.ne to dwell upon that same marvelous psychological moment.

That evening, as Marjorie diligently studied her lessons, the queer, green-eyed little junior again invaded her thoughts. A vision rose of her thin, white face with its pointed chin, sensitive, close-lipped mouth, and wide eyes of bluish-green that frequently changed to a decided green. What a curious, secretive face she had. Marjorie wondered how she had happened to pa.s.s by so lightly such a baffling personality.

She charitably determined to make up for it by learning to know the true Lucy Warner. She upbraided herself severely for having been so selfish.

Absorbed in her own friends, she had neglected to think of how much there was to be done to make the outsiders happy.

Entering the study hall on Monday morning she cast a swift glance toward Lucy's desk. She was rather surprised to note that the blue-green eyes had come to rest on her at the same instant. Marjorie smiled and nodded pleasantly. The other girl only continued to stare fixedly at her, but made no answering sign. Forewarned, Marjorie was not specially concerned over this plain snub. She merely smiled to herself and decided that the psychological moment had evidently not yet arrived.

Slipping into her seat she was about to slide her books into place on the shelf under her desk, when one hand came into contact with something that made her color rise. She drew a sharp breath as she brought it to light. So the Observer was at work again! With a sudden, swift movement of her arm she shoved her find back to cover. Casting a startled look about the study hall, she wondered if whoever had placed it there were now watching her. Strangely enough, the only pair of eyes she caught fastened upon her belonged to Mignon La Salle. In them was a light of brooding scorn, which plainly expressed her opinion of Marjorie.

"Could Mignon be the mysterious Observer?" was again the question that a.s.sailed Marjorie's mind. She longed to read the letter, but her pride whispered, "not now." She would save it until school was over for the day. She and Captain would read it together in the living room.

It was a long, weary day for the impatient little girl. At noon she carried the dread missive home with her, gravely intrusting it to her Captain's keeping. "It's another stab from the Observer," she explained soberly. "I haven't opened it. We will read it together when I come home this afternoon. I don't care to read it now."

She returned home that afternoon to find her mother entertaining callers. Despite her feverish impatience to have the thing over, she was her usual charming self to her mother's friends. Nevertheless, she sighed with relief when she saw them depart. Seating herself on the davenport she leaned wearily against its cushioned back. The suspense of not knowing had told severely upon her.

"Now, Lieutenant, I think we are ready," said Mrs. Dean cheerily. Taking the letter from a drawer of the library table, she sat down beside Marjorie and tore open the envelope. Her head against her Captain's shoulder, Marjorie's eyes followed the Observer's latest triumph in letter writing:

"Miss Dean:

"Last Sat.u.r.day showed very plainly that you could not play basket ball. I knew this long ago. Several others must now know it. It would serve you right if you were asked to resign from the team. If you had been thinking less about yourself and more about the game, you might have tied the score and not disgraced the juniors. You are a menace to the team and ought to be removed from it. As I am not alone in this opinion, I imagine and sincerely hope that you will soon receive your dismissal. If you had any honor in you, you would resign without waiting to be asked. But remember that a coward is soon worsted in the fight. Prepare to meet the inevitable.

"The Observer."

Without speaking, Marjorie turned again to the first page of the letter, re-reading thoughtfully the entire communication. "This letter tells me something which the others didn't," she said.

"It tells me that it is high time to stop such nonsense." Mrs. Dean's tones conveyed righteous indignation. "The whole thing is simply outrageous."

"It can't be stopped until we know who is writing these letters,"

reminded Marjorie. "But I think I have a tiny clue. That sentence about disgracing the juniors would make it seem that a junior wrote them. No one would mention it who wasn't a junior. I've tried not to believe it, but now I am almost certain that Mignon wrote them. She would like more than anyone else to see me lose my place on the team. Yes, Mignon and the Observer must be very closely related."

CHAPTER XVII-IN TIME OF NEED

Three days later Marjorie's theory seemed destined to prove itself correct. Ellen Seymour came to her, wrath in her eye. "See here, Marjorie," she burst forth impulsively, "if Miss Davis sends for you to meet her in the gym after school, let me know. I'm going there with you.

Yesterday while you girls were at practice she stood there watching you.

Do you remember?"

"Yes. I noticed her. She stared at me so hard she made me nervous and I played badly. She has always had that effect on me. Last year when she managed the team she was fond of watching me. She used to criticize my playing, too, and call out one thing to me just when I knew I ought to do another. She was awfully fussy. I hope she isn't going to begin it again this year. I thought she had left everything to you."

"So did I," retorted Ellen grimly. "It seems she hasn't. Someone, you can guess who, went to her after the game and said something about your playing. She came to me and said: 'I understand there is a great deal of dissatisfaction on the part of the juniors over Miss Dean's being on the junior team.' You can imagine what I said. When I saw her in the gym after school I knew she had an object. But leave things to me. I know a way to stop her objections very quickly. If she sends for you, go straight to the junior locker room from the study hall and wait there for me. If she doesn't send for you, then you'll know everything is all right. Remember now, don't set foot out of that locker room until I come for you." With this parting injunction Ellen hurried off, leaving Marjorie a victim to many emotions.

So the Observer's, or rather Mignon's, prophesy bordered on fulfillment.

Mignon and the few juniors who still adhered to the La Salle standard had made complaint against her to Miss Davis in the name of the junior cla.s.s. As a friend of Miss Merton, Miss Davis had always favored the French girl. Last year it had been whispered about that her motive in creating a second soph.o.m.ore team had arisen from her wish to help Mignon's fortunes along. No doubt she had been very glad to listen to this latest appeal on Mignon's part.

But Marjorie was only partially correct in her conclusions. Though it was, indeed, true that Mignon had besieged Miss Davis with a plea that Marjorie be removed from the team, no other member of the junior cla.s.s had accompanied her. She was flanked by the far more powerful allies, Charlotte Horner and Rowena Farnham. The plan of attack had originated in Rowena's fertile brain as the result of a bitter outburst against Marjorie on Mignon's part. It was directly after the game that she had stormed out her grievances to Rowena and Charlotte. Personally, Rowena cared little about Mignon's woes. Her mischief-making faculties were aroused merely on Marjorie's account. Had it been Susan, or Muriel against whom Mignon raved she would have laughed and dubbed her friend, "a big baby." But Marjorie-there was a chance to even her score.

"You just let me manage this," Rowena had declared boastfully. "This Miss Davis is easy. She's a sn.o.b. So is Miss Merton. If they weren't they'd have put you in your place long ago. They can see through you.

It's money that counts with both of them. I've made it a point right along to be nice to Miss Davis. In case that frosty Miss Seymour tried to make trouble for me, I knew I needed a substantial backing. Now I'll ask her to my house to dinner to-morrow night. If she can't come, so much the better for me. If she can, so much the better for you. Of course you'll be there, too. Then we'll see what we can do. You ought to be very grateful to me. I expect she'll bore me to death. I'm only doing it for your sake."

Rowena was too crafty not to hang the heavy mantle of obligation on Mignon's shoulders. Thus indebted to her, Mignon would one day be reminded of the debt. As a last perfect touch to her scheme she had shrewdly included Charlotte Horner in the invitation. Providentially for Mignon, Miss Davis had no previous engagement. So it fell about that Rowena became hostess to three guests. At home a young despot, who bullied her timid little mother and coaxed her indulgent father into doing her will, she merely announced her intention to entertain at dinner and let that end it. The final results of that highly successful dinner party were yet to be announced.

Unwittingly, however, Miss Davis had blundered. In order to strengthen her case she had purposely complained of Marjorie to Ellen Seymour.

Knowing nothing of Ellen's devotion to the pretty junior, she had not dreamed that Ellen would set the wheels in motion to defeat her. She was in reality more to be pitied than blamed. Of a nature which accepted hearsay evidence, declining to go below the surface, it is not to be wondered at that Rowena's clever persuasion, backed by Mignon's and Charlotte's able support, caused her to spring to the French girl's aid.

She was one of those aggravating persons who refuse to see whatever they do not wish to see. She was undoubtedly proficient in the business of physical culture. She was extremely inefficient in the art of reading girls. Sufficient unto herself, she, therefore, felt no compunction in sending forth the word that should summon Marjorie to the gymnasium, there to be deprived of that which she had rightfully earned.

Like many other days that had come to poor Marjorie since the beginning of her junior year, suspense became the ruling power. Two things she knew definitely. Ellen Seymour was for her. Miss Davis against her. The rest she could only guess at, losing herself in a maze of troubled conjecture. Judge her surprise when on reaching the locker room, she found not only Ellen awaiting her, but her teammates as well. They had made a most precipitate flight from the study hall in order to be in the locker room when she arrived.

"Why, Ellen! Why, girls!" she stammered. A deeper pink rushed to her cheeks; a mist gathered in her eyes as she realized the meaning of their presence. They had come in a body to help her.

"We're here because we're here," trilled Captain Muriel Harding. "In a few minutes we'll be in the gym. Then someone else will get a surprise.

Are we ready to march? I rather think we are. Lead the procession, Ellen."

"Come on, Marjorie, you and I will walk together. Fall in, girls. The invincible s.e.xtette will now take the trail."

Amid much laughter on their part and openly curious glances from constantly arriving juniors who wondered what was on foot, the six girls had swung off down the corridor before the curious ones found opportunity to relieve their curiosity.

"She's not here yet," commented Susan, as they entered the place of tryst. "Isn't that too bad. I hoped she'd be on hand to see the mighty host advancing."

"Here she comes," warned Rita Talbot. "Now, for it."

CHAPTER XVIII-DOING BATTLE FOR MARJORIE

Two spots of angry color appeared high up on Miss Davis's lean face as she viewed the waiting six. It came to her that she was in for a lively scene. Setting her mouth firmly, she approached them. Addressing herself to Marjorie, she opened with: "I sent for _you_, Miss Dean; not your friends."

"I asked these girls to come here." Ellen Seymour turned an unflinching gaze upon the nettled instructor.

"Then you may invite them into one of the dressing rooms for a time. My business with Miss Dean is strictly personal."