Part 23 (1/2)
During one of these talks a gleam of light shone for a moment on the mystery Lucy never gave up hoping to solve. In mentioning Wayland Hall, the president referred to Miss Remson as one of his oldest friends on the campus. ”I have not seen Miss Remson for a very long time,” he said with a slight frown. ”Let me see. It will be--can it be possible?--two years in June. And she living so near me! She used to be a fairly frequent visitor at our house. I must ask Mrs. Matthews to write her to dine with us soon. Kindly remind me of that, Miss Warner; say this afternoon before you leave. I will make a note of it.”
Lucy reminded him of the matter that afternoon with a glad heart. She confided it to her Lookout chums and they rejoiced with her. She would have liked to tell Miss Remson the good news but courtesy forbade the doing. The Lookouts agreed among themselves that it showed very plainly who was responsible for the misunderstanding.
At the beginning of the fourth week Miss Sayres returned. Lucy could only hope that Doctor Matthews had not forgotten to remind his wife of the dinner invitation. She was sure, had Miss Remson received it, that she would have mentioned it to them. She would have wished the Nine Travelers to know it. Whether Miss Remson would have accepted it was a question. She had her own proper pride in the matter. The girls had agreed that should she mention it, Lucy was then to tell her of the conversation with Doctor Matthews.
”Queer, but Miss Remson hasn't said a word about receiving that invitation,” Ronny said to Lucy one evening shortly before the closing of college for the Easter holidays. ”The doctor must have forgotten all about it. That shows his conscience is clear. It would appear that he doesn't even suspect Miss Remson has a grievance against him.”
”I am sure he forgot it.” Lucy looked rather gloomy over the doctor's omission. ”It was such a fine opportunity, and now it's lost. If I should work for him again I might remind him of it. If I did, I'd do more than mere reminding. I'd ask him to try to see Miss Remson and tell him I thought there had been a misunderstanding. I would have said so this time, but when he spoke of inviting her to their house for dinner, I supposed the tangle would be straightened post haste.”
”He may happen to recall it months from now,” Ronny consoled. ”That's the way my father does. Men of affairs hardly ever forget things for good. Sooner or later a memory of that kind crops up again.”
While Lucy worried because the doctor had forgotten his kindly intention toward their faithful elderly friend, Leslie Cairns was plunged in the depths of apprehension because of Lucy's subst.i.tution for Laura Sayres.
Each day she wondered if the sword would fall. She visited Laura and made her worse by her irritating questions regarding the secretary's methods of filing. Was there any danger of old Matthews going through the files himself? Was Laura sure that she had eliminated every bit of evidence against them? Was she positive she had destroyed the letter Miss Remson had written him, supposedly? Nor had Leslie any mercy on the secretary's weakened condition. Laura bore her unfeeling selfishness without much protest. Leslie had given her one hundred dollars in her first visit. This palliated the senior's faults.
When at the end of the third week nothing had occurred of a dismaying nature, Leslie began to believe that her college career was safe. With Easter just ahead, a very late Easter, too, only two months stretched between her and Commencement, that dear day of honor and freedom for her. She had worried but little over Dulcie's threats. Elizabeth Walbert's parting shot, ”You'll be sorry,” crossed her mind occasionally. She attached not much importance to it at first and less as winter drew on toward spring.
Dulcie Vale, however, was only biding her time. She never relinquished for an hour her resolve to bring disgrace upon the Sans. Leslie having ordered her chums to steer clear of Bess Walbert, the latter also burned for revenge. She and Dulcie, after one glorious quarrel over what each had said about the other to Leslie, had made up and joined forces. They had a common object. Thus they clung together. They made elaborate plans for retaliation, only to abandon them for the one great plan, the betrayal of the Sans to Doctor Matthews.
Dulcie had at first decided to go to the president of Hamilton College within a few days after her unsuccessful talk with Marjorie. Then she thought of something else which pleased her better. She would wait until after Easter. If the Sans were expelled from college just before Easter, they would endeavor to slip away quietly, making it appear that they had left of their own accord. If she waited until they had returned, the blow would be far more crus.h.i.+ng.
Regarding herself, Dulcie had her own plans. Her family, including her father, were in Europe. Her mother would not return until the next July.
Her father, luckily for her, was to be in Paris until the following January. Her mother allowed her to do as she pleased. What Dulcie intended to do to please herself was to leave Hamilton on the Easter vacation not to return. She was not too stupid to realize that the Sans, accused of many faults by her, would turn on her _en ma.s.se_ and implicate her. She could not hold out against them if arraigned in the presence of Doctor Matthews. She was also too heavily conditioned to graduate, and she hated college since her ostracization by the Sans. She was more than ready to leave. She would walk out and let her former chums bear the consequences. They had not spared her. She would not spare them.
CHAPTER XXV-WHEN THE SWORD FELL
The longer Dulcie pondered the matter, the more she became convinced she could do more damage by letter than to go to the doctor in person.
Elizabeth Walbert had several times advised this course. The latter knew nothing of Dulcie's resolve to leave college. Dulcie did not purpose she should until she wrote the soph.o.m.ore from her New York apartment after leaving Hamilton. She had planned to take an apartment in an exclusive hotel on Central Park West. From there she would write her mother that she was too ill to return to college. She left it to her mother's tact to break the news to her father. He was not to know she had failed miserably in all respects at Hamilton.
Over and over again she wrote the damaging letter to Doctor Matthews.
She wrote at first at length, putting in everything she could think of against the Sans. She made effort to stick to facts. There were enough of them to create havoc. Then she rewrote the letter, eliminating and revising until the finished product of her spite was worded to suit her.
It was necessarily a long letter and could not fail in its object.
When college closed for Easter, Dulcie shook the dust of Hamilton from her feet and took her letter to New York with her. She did not inform the registrar that she would not return. She would write that from New York. The day after college reopened, following the ten days' vacation, Dulcie mailed four letters. One to Elizabeth Walbert, one to Miss Humphrey, one to Leslie Cairns, and _the_ letter.
Those four letters created amazement, displeasure, consternation, according to the recipient. Miss Humphrey was annoyed as only a registrar can be annoyed by such a procedure. Elizabeth Walbert was surprised and miffed because Dulcie had not confided in her. Doctor Matthews' indignation soared to still heights. Leslie Cairns opened her letter at the breakfast table. She read the first page and hurriedly rose, tipping over her coffee in her haste. Paying no attention to the stream of coffee which flowed to the floor, she rushed from the dining room to her own. Locking the door, she sat down with trembling knees to read the letter. She read it twice, uttered a half sob of agony and threw herself face downward on her bed. The sword had fallen, the end had come.
Of the four letters, the one Dulcie had written her was the shortest and read:
”Leslie:
”When you read this you will not feel so secure as you did the night you humiliated me so. You thought I would not dare say a word about a number of things because I was afraid of being expelled from college. You will see now that you made a serious mistake; so serious you won't be at Hamilton long after President Matthews receives the letter I have written him. I have told him _everything_. The Sans are in for trouble with him. It doesn't make a particle of difference to me what happens to you and your pals, for I am not coming back to Hamilton. My letter to Doctor Matthews is convincing. You will surely receive a summons. What? Oh, yes! I think I have proved myself almost as clever as you.
”Dulciana Maud Vale.”
Not far behind Leslie came Natalie Weyman to her friend's room. Startled by Leslie's peculiar behavior she had followed her upstairs, her own breakfast untouched.
”Leslie,” she called softly, ”May I come in? It's Nat.”