Part 4 (1/2)

”Stay at home then,” advised Jerry. ”If that last remark of yours was meant for me, I am _not_ misguided and I shall _not_ be friendly if you hurl such adjectives at me.”

”Neither was meant for you. You are only the bearer of the invitation.

Why stir up a breeze over nothing?”

”If you don't go to Elaine's birthday party she will think you stayed away because you were too stingy to buy her a present. We are all going to drive to Hamilton this afternoon after cla.s.ses to buy gifts for her.

Don't you wish you were going, too?” Ronny regarded Muriel with tantalizing eyes.

”Oh, I'm going along,” Muriel glibly a.s.sured. ”You can't lose me. What I like to do and what I ought to do are two very different things. After this week I shall settle down to the student life in earnest. My subjects are terrific this term. I am sorry I started calculus. I had enough to do without that.”

”This will have to be my last party for a week or two,” Marjorie declared. ”I haven't done any real studying this week, and I owe all my correspondents letters. I feel guilty for not having done more toward helping this year's fres.h.i.+es. I've only been down to the station twice.”

”They're in good hands. Phil and Barbara have done glorious work. They have had at least twenty sophs helping them. It's a cinch this year.

Very different from last.” Jerry gave a short laugh. ”Phil says,” Jerry discreetly lowered her voice, ”that not a Sans has come near the station since she has been on committee duty there to welcome the fres.h.i.+es. I told her it didn't surprise me.”

”I didn't know Miss Cairns and Miss Weyman had come back until I happened to pa.s.s them in the upstairs hall,” Muriel said.

”They were here for a couple of days before Leila knew it, and she generally knows who is back and who isn't. Miss Remson told Leila she didn't know it herself until the next day after they arrived. The two of them came back together on the night we were serenaded. They simply walked into the house and went to their rooms. She didn't see them until noon the next day.” It was Veronica who delivered this information.

”Did Miss Remson say anything to them on account of it?” questioned Muriel.

”No; she wasn't pleased, but she said she thought it best to ignore it.

It was just one more discourtesy on their part.”

”That accounts for our meeting Miss Sayres on the veranda.” Lucy's greenish eyes had grown speculative. ”She had been calling on those two.

We spoke of it after she pa.s.sed, you will remember. Leila said 'No,'

they had not come back yet. We wondered on whom she had been calling at the Hall. While we can't prove that it was Miss Cairns and Miss Weyman she had come to see, that would be the natural conclusion,” Lucy summed up with the gravity of a lawyer.

”I object, your honor. The evidence is too fragmentary to be considered,” put in Muriel in mannish tones. She bowed directly to Marjorie.

”Court's adjourned. I have nothing to say.” Marjorie laughed and pushed back her chair from the table. ”I'm not making light of what you said, Lucy.” She turned to the latter. ”I was only funning with Muriel. I think as you do. Still none of us can prove it.”

”I wish the whole thing would be cleared up before those girls are graduated and gone from Hamilton,” Katherine Langly said almost vindictively. ”I wouldn't care if it made a lot of trouble for them all.

Miss Remson has stood so much from them and she still feels so hurt at Doctor Matthews' unjust treatment of her. I can't believe he wrote that letter. She believes it.”

”I don't see how she can in face of all the contemptible things the Sans have done,” a.s.serted Jerry.

”She believes it because she says he signed the letter, so he must have written it. I told her the signature might be a forgery. She said 'No, it could hardly be that.' I saw she was set on that point, so I didn't argue it further.”

”Excuse me for abruptly changing the subject, but where are we to meet after cla.s.ses this P.M.?” inquired Muriel.

The chums had left the table and proceeded as far as the hall, where their ways separated.

”Go straight over to the garage. Our two Old Reliables will be there with their buzz wagons. Be on time, too,” called Jerry, as with an ”All right, much obliged, Jeremiah,” Muriel started up the stairs. Half way up she turned and asked, ”What time?”

”Quarter past four. If you aren't there on the dot we shall go without you. None of us know what we are going to buy, so we want all the time we can have to look around. Remember, we have to hustle back to the Hall, have dinner and dress.”

”I'll remember.” With a wag of her head Muriel resumed her ascent of the stairs and quickly disappeared.