Marjorie Dean High School Senior Part 6

"Isn't that too bad?" deplored Jerry in deep disgust. "I suppose it's on account of Mignon that she won't belong to the club. I can't say I blame her much. Daisy Griggs told me this morning that Mignon said she wouldn't be seen a.s.sociating with a menial like that Browning girl.

Isn't that the limit? No apology for using slang, either. I mean what I say. There's just one thing about it, Marjorie, we'll have to do something to stop Mignon from making such malicious remarks about Veronica. All morning I kept thinking about what Daisy had said. While I was eating luncheon an idea popped into my head. We might as well make a special rule along with the regular club rules that the members must pledge themselves not to gossip or say hateful things about anyone. All the girls except Mignon will live up to it, I know. I've thought of another way, too, to keep her from gossiping. You'll think I've surely gone crazy when I tell you. Yet there's some method in my madness."

"What is it?" asked Marjorie curiously. She could think of no effectual method of sealing Mignon's wayward lips.

"Well, the best thing to do with Mignon is to elect her to an office in the club. Then she won't dare to do anything but behave herself. The eyes of the club will be on her all the time. She'll just have to walk a chalk line. She'll do it, too. You know how well she behaved when Laurie gave her back her part in the operetta last Spring. She loves power and position. Make her an officer in the club and she'll walk softly for fear of putting out her own bright light. What do you think about it, anyway?"

"It's a good plan," was Marjorie's unhesitating answer. "I don't believe it would be wise to have her for president, though, or even vice-president."

"No, she'll have to be secretary or treasurer," declared Jerry quickly.

"In a club of fourteen, four officers will be about as many as we shall need."

"But suppose the girls don't care to vote for her?" Tardy remembrance of this obstacle now confronted Marjorie.

"Oh, it will have to be a cut-and-dried election as far as Mignon is concerned." Jerry grinned cheerfully as she made this bald statement.

"You and I will have to do some electioneering. I'll interview one half of the girls and leave the other half to you. We'd better decide now on the office she's to have," she added with the judicial air of a seasoned politician.

"We might propose her for treasurer," said Marjorie after a moment's reflection. "Very likely we won't have much money at first, but it would make her feel more important to take care of it than to be secretary and just set down the minutes of the different meetings."

"All right, we'll see to it that she is elected treasurer. I expect it will be _some_ surprise to her. I hope to goodness she appreciates it enough to behave like a Christian. If she doesn't, you can blame me for the whole thing."

"It will be just as much my fault as yours if the plan doesn't work out well. It's rather queer, Jerry, but just before you came I was wondering whether I had done right after all in proposing Mignon as a member of the Lookouts. I had just decided that I had, when you came and proved it to me by proposing that we elect her to an office in the club. It looks as though there were some hidden influence at work, far greater than we are, which is urging us on to help her find herself. Who knows how wonderfully our little plot may turn out after all?"

"You might better say, 'Who knows _how_ our little plot may turn out?'"

grumbled Jerry. "It reminds me of a problem in algebra. Let X equal the unknown quant.i.ty, or rather let Mignon equal the unknown quant.i.ty. But let us once more be reformers or die in the attempt. We've started the ball rolling, so we'll have to run along behind it and see that it keeps on rolling in the right direction."

Their entrance into the school building cut the earnest conversation short. Marjorie left Jerry in the corridor and went on alone to Miss Archer's office to apprise Lucy Warner of the new project and that the first meeting of the club was to take place at her home on the following evening. There was a distinct tinge of reserve in the green-eyed girl's greeting, which informed Marjorie that Lucy was still slightly peeved over the incident of the lost letter. Diligent inquiry had failed to bring forth any news of it. It was now over a week since Marjorie had lost it, and there seemed small chance that it would materialize at this late date.

"I have an invitation to deliver to you, Lucy," was Marjorie's frank address. "Can you come to my house to-morrow evening after dinner? A number of other girls will be there, too. We are going to organize a club, and we should like to have you belong to it."

For a moment Lucy regarded the winsome face before her with scowling indecision. She was very fond of Marjorie, yet she still cherished a slight resentment toward her. The friendly light in the other girl's brown eyes, however, filled her with an overwhelming sense of shame for her own stubbornness. Her wrinkled forehead suddenly cleared and she said contritely: "I hope you'll forgive me, Marjorie, for being so hateful to you about that old letter. I am sorry. Please forget that it ever happened. It is sweet of you to ask me to belong to your club. I'd love to come to your house to-morrow night, and I surely will. Thank you for asking me."

Marjorie's lovely face broke into smiles. "Thank you for saying you'll come," she nodded brightly. "The meeting is to begin at eight o'clock.

Come over earlier if you can. I must hurry along now. It's almost half-past one."

"I'll be there before eight," a.s.sured Lucy. Her uncompromising manner had vanished, and her stolid features shone with renewed good will.

As Marjorie hurried toward the senior locker room to dispose of her hat before entering the study hall, she felt as though a sudden weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It was not only her own remorse at losing the letter which had troubled her. Lucy's frosty att.i.tude had belonged strictly to the embittered Observer. Having successfully dragged her out of that rut, Marjorie had deplored that she should be the one to shove poor Lucy back into it again. It was vastly comforting to her to find that the Observer had not risen again to dominate Lucy Warner.

CHAPTER VII-A STEP TOWARD POPULARITY

The next evening found the Deans' living room in the possession of an ardent band of organizers, all bent on organization. A double row of chairs had been placed at one end of the pretty room, giving it a most business-like appearance. The long library table had been moved to the extreme opposite end, thus allowing sufficient free standing s.p.a.ce before the rows of chairs for whomever should be chosen to conduct the meeting.

"It's eight o'clock, girls," announced Jerry Macy from the midst of a group comprising Muriel, Harriet, Susan and Esther Lind. As though in direct corroboration of her speech, the tall clock in the hall began a majestic intoning of the hour. "Much obliged for agreeing with me,"

commented Jerry with a waggish nod toward the kindly-disposed timepiece.

"It's evident that I'm some little important person. Even the furniture in this house likes me."

"Of course it does," smiled Constance Stevens, who had approached the group just in time to hear Jerry's droll remark. "How could it help itself?"

"Them's my sentiments, too," retorted Jerry modestly, "only I hated to praise myself too much. But forget it. I mean, give Jeremiah's manifold virtues a rest. Let's get busy. Ladies and no gentlemen, take your seats and the show will begin." Jerry raised her voice in a stentorian call: "Our esteemed hostess, Marjorie Dean, will address this noisy throng as soon as she can make herself heard."

"I wish you would do the talking, Jerry," pleaded Marjorie. Her glance suddenly straying to the rows of chairs on which the girls were disposing themselves, she exclaimed: "We can't begin the meeting yet.

Mignon isn't here. I knew someone was missing, but I couldn't say who."

"Oh, bother!" the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n slipped out before Jerry could check it.

"Well, sit down, all of you, just the same. Mignon will be here. She told Marjorie that she would." Under her breath she muttered: "I hope it doesn't take her all evening to get here."

Hardly had Marjorie recognized the fact of Mignon La Salle's absence, when the loud whir of the electric doorbell proclaimed her arrival.

"Good evening," she greeted, as Marjorie ushered her into the hall. "I am sorry to be so late. An unexpected circ.u.mstance arose to delay me."

Mignon did not add, however, that the true cause of her delay was a letter from Rowena Farnham, in which the writer of it rated her scathingly for allowing the letter she had written to fall into Mr. La Salle's hands. It had quite upset Mignon and put her distinctly out of humor with the idea of the meeting at Marjorie's home. In consequence she had sulked in her room in solitary grandeur, and finally decided to go to the meeting merely for the sake of tantalizing Rowena by writing her a defiant account of it afterward.

"Oh, you aren't really late," excused Marjorie courteously. "We knew you'd soon be with us, so we waited for you. I see by your hatless condition that you drove here in your runabout. Come into the living room, Mignon, and take your place in joiner's row."

With a patronizing smile, which she blindly believed to be the acme of graciousness, Mignon followed Marjorie into the living room and seated herself on one of the two vacant chairs in the front row. As she greeted her companions her elfish black eyes kept up the usual incessant roving from face to face.

"Go ahead, Marjorie," Jerry ordered as she slipped into the remaining vacant chair. "It's up to you. I'm no orator."

"Girls," rang out Marjorie's clear tones, "some of you know quite a little bit more about this club idea than others. So I'd better tell you everything from the very beginning." Briefly, she related what had transpired among the seven seniors on the afternoon they had visited Sargent's. This accomplished she continued: "So you see we haven't done much as yet except choose a name and decide what our object is to be.

First let me ask you: Have any of you another name that you think would be better than the 'Lookout Club?'"

Emphatic approval forthcoming for the name already selected, she went on: "You must understand that the object of this club is purely to help anyone or any good cause we can. We must always be on the lookout with that purpose in view. At first we can't do much. Later we may do a good deal. But whatever our hands find to do, we must do it with our might.

If the club proves a success, then we can pa.s.s it on to the next senior cla.s.s of Sanford High. I believe it would make us all very glad some day to be able to say that we founded the first sorority in our high school.

It seems strange to me that there has never been one in Sanford High. At Franklin High, the school I had just entered before I came to Sanford to live, there were several sororities. It would be splendid if we could call ourselves the founders of one at Sanford High.

"That is about all I can say regarding the object of our club. What we ought to do first this evening is to elect our officers. As there are only fourteen of us in the club, we don't need many officers. A president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer will be enough. For president, I wish to nominate Jerry Macy. Are there any other nominations for that office? As there are so few of us we might as well make the election a strictly informal affair. Afterward we can conform to the usual method of club procedure."

"I nominate Marjorie Dean for president," put in Jerry quickly.

"I refuse the nomination." Marjorie smilingly shook her head. "I shall not accept an office. I prefer to be just a member."

"I think Jerry would make a fine president," said Harriet Delaney with emphasis.

"But I--" began Jerry.

"Are there any further nominations?" interrupted Marjorie mischievously.

"I don't want to be president." Jerry's protesting voice alone broke the silence.

"I second the nomination," declared Rita Talbot.

Paying no attention to the protest, Marjorie continued: "It has been regularly moved and seconded that Jerry Macy become president of the Lookout Club. Those in favor of the motion please respond by rising."

Twelve girls immediately stood up. Jerry alone remained seated, scowling ferociously.