Part 18 (2/2)
Remson.
”Very well.” It was the only thing she could think of to say.
Miss Remson turned from the door and went on down the long hall. Leslie was seized with a savage inclination to bang the door. She refrained from indulging it. There had been enough noise already.
She returned to her companions to find Dulcie furious because she had been reported to Miss Remson as the author of the commotion.
”Talk about anyone being treacherous,” she stormed, but in a more subdued key. ”_You're_ treacherous as a snake. _You'd_ tell tales on-on your own father, if it would save you from disgrace.”
”That's enough.” Leslie's last atom of self-control vanished. ”I am tired of your foolishness. Get out of my room, instantly. Don't you ever dare even speak to me again. Let me hear one word you have said against any of us and I will have you expelled within twenty-four hours afterward. I can do it, too. If you go to headquarters with any tales against us, remember you are one and we are seventeen who will act as one in denying your fairy stories. You--”
”Not fairy stories,” sneered Dulcie. ”I'd be satisfied to tell the truth about you deceitful things. It would more than run you out of Hamilton.”
”You couldn't tell the truth to save your life,” retorted Leslie with a caustic contempt which hit Dulcie harder than anything else Leslie had said to her.
”I-I-think--” Dulcie struggled with her emotions, then suddenly burst into hysterical sobs. Her arm against her face to shut her distorted features from sight of her accusers, she stumbled to the door, groping for the k.n.o.b with her free hand. An instant and she had gone, too thoroughly humiliated to slam the door after her. The sounds of her weeping could be faintly heard by the others until her own door closed behind her.
”Gone!” Joan Myers sighed exaggerated relief.
”Yes; and _broken_,” announced Leslie Cairns with cruel satisfaction.
”Oh, I don't know,” differed Margaret Wayne. She had not forgotten Dulcie's a.s.sertion as to what Leslie had said of her and Loretta. ”Dulc had s.p.u.n.k enough to answer you back to the very last. I don't see that--”
”No, you don't see. Well, I do. I say that Dulcie Vale left here just now _utterly crushed_,” argued Leslie with stress. ”You are peeved, Margaret, because of what she claimed I said of you and Retta. She lied.”
”Certainly, Dulcie lied,” supported Natalie. ”Do you believe that _I_, Leslie's best friend, would say hateful things about her? Yet Dulc said I had. Didn't Les warn you not to pay any attention to what she said? We knew she would try to make trouble among the Sans the minute we called her down.”
”We did, indeed.” Leslie made a movement of her head that betokened Dulcie's utter hopelessness.
”I didn't say I believed what Dulcie said,” half-apologized Margaret. In her heart she did not trust Leslie, however. It was like her to make just such remarks about any of the Sans if in bad humor.
”Never mind. It isn't worrying me,” was the purposely careless response.
”To go back to what you said about Dulc not being broken. I have known her longer than you, Margaret. She can keep up a row about so long, then she crumples. After that there isn't a spark of fight left in her. She always ends by a fit of crying, next door to hysterics. Isn't that true of her, Nat?”
Natalie nodded. ”Yes; Dulcie will mind her own affairs now and keep her mouth closed for a long time to come.”
”She's afraid of me,” Leslie continued, her intonation harsh. ”She doesn't know just the extent of my influence here.”
”Could you truly have her expelled within twenty-four hours?” queried Harriet Stephens somewhat incredulously.
”You heard me say so. It would take a very slight effort to do that. I could wire my father, then--” Leslie paused, looking mysterious. ”Sorry, girls, but I can't tell you any more than that. I'll simply say that my wonderful father's influence can remove mountains, if necessary. That's why I was so furious with that little sneak for daring even to mention his name.”
”Could your father's influence save you from being expelled if different things you have done here were brought up against you?” demanded Adelaide Forman.
Leslie's eyes narrowed at the question. It was a little too searching for comfort. In reality her father's influence at Hamilton was a minus quant.i.ty. She had been boasting with a view toward increasing her own importance.
”It would depend entirely on what I had done,” she answered after a moment's thought. ”You must understand that my father would be wild if he knew I had gone out hazing when it is strictly against rules. He wouldn't do a thing to help me if I had trouble with Matthews over that.
If I wrote him that Dulcie, for instance, was trying, by lies, to have me or my friends expelled from Hamilton, he would fight for me in a minute.”
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