Part 7 (1/2)
”They don't know what they want or what they don't want,” calmly observed Jerry. ”I am not enthusiastic over them, Marvelous Manager.
I'll try to be a conscientious elder sister to them, but it will be an awful struggle.”
Marjorie laughed at this. Jerry chuckled faintly in unison. The unexpected invasion of Lucy, Katherine Langly and Lillian Wenderblatt put an end to confidence. The will to labor also languished and was lost in the ardor of meeting and greeting.
Invited to stay to luncheon, the ringing of the bell found Jerry's and Marjorie's room in a state of temporary disorder. Every available s.p.a.ce was piled with feminine effects.
”Things are in an awful uproar.” Jerry waved her arm over the chaotic array. ”The worst is over with our unpacking done. It won't take long after luncheon to put this stuff where it belongs. Glad you girls came to the Hall. It saves us the trouble of going after you.”
Ronny and Muriel now appearing, the seven girls went happily down to luncheon. As a result of Jerry's and Marjorie's talk regarding the freshman arrivals at Wayland Hall, both were prepared to be conscientiously friendly on sight.
A trifle ahead of their companions in descending the stairs, at the foot of the staircase they encountered Augusta Forbes, Calista Wilmot and Florence Hart, the ”tow-head,” just entering the hall from the veranda.
The eyes of the two sets of girls met for an instant. Marjorie smiled in friendly, unaffected fas.h.i.+on, intending to speak. Jerry emulated her example. To their surprise Augusta Forbes put on an expression of extreme hauteur; Florence Hart stared icily out of two pale blue eyes.
Calista Wilmot, however, smiled cheerfully, taking no notice of her companions' frozen att.i.tude.
It was all done in a second or two. Marjorie's color heightened. She felt as though she had received a slap in the face. The smile fleeing from her lips, she treated the haughty pair to a steady, searching glance. Then she quietly withdrew her gaze.
CHAPTER VII-MAKING SURE PROGRESS
”Now what was the matter with them?” Jerry demanded, as she and Marjorie entered the dining room. ”Were we properly snubbed? No mistake about it.
They must have heard what I said about them last night.”
”I don't recall that you said anything very dreadful about them,”
returned Marjorie.
”I compared them to Comanches and expressed my general disapproval of their howls,” confessed Jerry cheerfully. ”Only they didn't hear me say anything. Leila said as much as I. Neither of us meant to be ill-natured. You know I usually say outright whatever I think in a case of that kind.”
”Those two fres.h.i.+es acted as though they were angry with us for some unknown reason or other.” Marjorie knitted her brows. ”They'd hardly have behaved like that simply because they didn't know us and resented our smiling at them on that account.”
”That _would_ be the height of sn.o.bbishness,” replied Jerry. ”We'd better tell the girls. They may try to be helpful and get a snubbing, same as we did.”
Seated at table, Jerry proceeded to tell the others of the incident. Be it said to her credit she made no attempt to retail it as gossip. She bluntly stated what had happened and warned them to keep their helpfulness at home.
”That's too bad,” Lillian Wenderblatt said sympathetically. ”It puts you all at sea as to what to do next. You say the one girl returned your smile. Perhaps when you know her better you can find out what ails the other two.”
”They can't have a grievance against us when they don't know us,”
Marjorie said. ”I shall let those two alone for the present and confine my attention to some of the other fres.h.i.+es.”
With this she dropped the incident from her thought and speech. After luncheon, as she redressed her hair to go to the station, it recurred to her disagreeably. She half formed the guess that Elizabeth Walbert might have made the acquaintance already of these two freshmen and prejudiced them against herself and her friends. Miss Walbert could not possibly have a just grievance against her. Their acquaintance had been too brief. As a former friend of Leslie Cairns, however, she probably held rancor against the Lookouts.
Marjorie st.u.r.dily dismissed this conjecture as not in keeping with her principles. She felt it unfair to accuse Elizabeth Walbert, even in thought, of such an act. She resolved to take Lillian Wenderblatt's advice and cultivate the acquaintance of the black-eyed girl who had shown signs of affability. She might then, eventually, learn wherein lay the difficulty.
A rollicking afternoon with her chums, crowded with meeting and welcoming at least twenty seniors who had returned to college on the same train as Helen Trent, drove the disquieting incident from her mind.
Helen was the last one of the nine girls, who had long been intimate friends, to return to Hamilton. Lillian now added as the tenth ”Traveler,” the band of friends were in high feather. Helen was triumphantly escorted to the Lotus from the station and there feted and made much of. Arriving at ten minutes past four o'clock, it was after six before she saw the inside of Wayland Hall. Three rounds of ices apiece had also dampened the ardor of all concerned for dinner.
”These joyful ice cream sociables are appet.i.te killers. There goes the dinner gong and yours truly is listening to it without a snark of enthusiasm. I think I'll forego dinner and finish straightening my traps,” declared Jerry. Now returned to her room, Jerry viewed her still scattered possessions with distinct disfavor.