Marjorie Dean High School Senior Part 20

"Will you allow me to try in some measure to express my appreciation for your kindness to my daughter, Mignon? You have more than fulfilled the request I made of you on a certain afternoon of last Spring. It is of a truth a great gratification to me to see my Mignon thus surrounded by such estimable young women as yourself and your friends.

It is most pleasurable to me that you have honored her with an office in your club. I rejoice also to observe the important part she took in the Campfire. I feel that you will never regret the consideration you have so graciously shown her. If at any time you desire my services, you have but to command me. With extreme grat.i.tude and the good wishes for your constant success,

"Most sincerely yours, "Victor La Salle."

Marjorie stared at the note, divided between appreciation and dismay. It was a delightful note, but it was also most inopportune. In the face of it, she could not now advocate Jerry's plan. Sudden remembrance of her pet.i.tion for a sign rushed over her. It had been granted. This, then, was the sign. It had served to remind her where her duty lay. All she could do was to accept it. It would not be easy. Jerry was up in arms.

It would be difficult to win her over, especially after she had been informed of Lucy's unreasonable stand. Now it remained to Marjorie to do one of two things. She could go to Mr. La Salle and shatter his faith in her, or she could insist that Mignon must be allowed to escape punishment for her offenses against the Golden Rule. She painfully decided that for her father's sake, Mignon should be allowed to remain in the club. Having come to this decision she soberly gathered up her roses and carried them and the letter downstairs to show both to her captain. To the latter she confided nothing of her latest problem. She had reserved the story to tell at some more fitting moment.

School over for the afternoon, the three Lookouts, who were presently to hold a private session at the Deans, strolled down the street with their chums, keeping a discreet silence regarding their intention. Muriel and Irma soon left them to take their turn at the nursery. Susan, Harriet and Veronica Browning eventually reached their parting of the ways, leaving the trio together.

"Now, Marjorie, tell us everything," was Jerry's instant command as they swung three abreast down the street.

Obediently Marjorie gave a faithful account of her interview with Lucy Warner. "I haven't the least idea why Lucy is angry," she confessed. "I don't know whether she is cross with me, or with the Lookouts."

"I can set you right about that," declared Jerry grimly. "Mignon told Esther Lind this morning that Lucy told her that she intended to have nothing more to do with you. That eliminates the rest of us. You're it, Marjorie. Now you see what sort of girl Mignon is. When I asked her why Lucy wasn't at the Campfire on Sat.u.r.day night she pretended to be very innocent. It seems that she can't keep her troubles to herself. She has to tell someone. After she told she asked Esther to promise that she wouldn't mention it to anyone. Esther wouldn't promise. She came straight to me with it. She thinks, as I do, that we ought to ask Mignon to resign from the club."

"Haven't you the least idea why Lucy is down on you, Marjorie?" was Constance's thoughtful question.

"No." Marjorie shook a despondent head. "I've never said or done anything to hurt her feelings."

"The club meets on Thursday night at my house," announced Jerry briskly.

"What I propose to do is to call an informal meeting there to-morrow night, minus Mignon. We can state our grievances and have Irma set them down on paper. Then she can read them out. If everyone approves of them, we'll have Irma copy them and write a letter to Mignon asking for her resignation. We'll sign the letter, enclose the list of grievances and mail it to her. That's really the best way to do. It will save a lot of fuss."

"I think that would be most cruel and unkind, Jerry," Marjorie burst forth in shocked criticism.

"I fail to see it in that light." For the first time since the beginning of their friends.h.i.+p Jerry was distinctly out of sorts with her beloved friend. "Don't be so babyish, Marjorie. There's a limit to all things."

"I think what you just proposed would certainly be the limit."

Unconsciously Marjorie answered in Jerry's own slangy vernacular. "Let me tell you something." Rapidly she recounted the incident of the receipt of the roses and note from Mr. La Salle. "I must admit," she continued, "that I had intended to say to you to-night that you had better call a special meeting. I didn't realize then how humiliating it would be for Mignon. I saw those beautiful flowers and read that nice note and I felt dreadfully ashamed. It was just as though I had already failed to keep faith with Mr. La Salle. It is terrible to fail someone who believes in one. I've often said that to you."

"Of course it is. That's why I am so disgusted with Mignon. She has failed all of us," Jerry flashed back. "We can't have our club spoiled just to please Mignon's father. He makes me weary. It would be a good thing if he'd take a hand at reforming his daughter, instead of leaving the job to us." Jerry was growing momentarily angrier with Marjorie.

"You ought to stand up for yourself, instead of being so foolish as to allow Mignon to make a goose of you," she finished rudely.

"Why, Jerry Macy!" Marjorie's brown eyes registered sorrowful amazement.

"Don't Jerry Macy me." The stout girl jerked her hand roughly from Marjorie's arm. "You make me tired, Marjorie Dean. If you can't fight for yourself then someone else will."

"I can fight my own battles, thank you." Marjorie's clear retort was freighted with injured dignity. Slow to anger, she was now thoroughly nettled.

"Girls, girls, don't quarrel," intervened Constance, who had thus far taken no part in the altercation. The trio had now pa.s.sed inside the Deans' gate and halted on the stone walk.

"I don't wish to quarrel with Jerry," a.s.serted Marjorie coldly, "but I cannot allow her to accuse me of being cowardly. You have said, Jerry,"

she eyed her explosive friend unflinchingly, "that Lucy Warner is angry with me, and not with the other girls. Very well. It is therefore Lucy's and my affair. We should be the ones to decide what shall be done with Mignon. Personally, I prefer to drop the matter. You may go to Lucy, if you choose, and ask her her views. I doubt, though, if she will give them. As it now stands I think it would be better to bear with Mignon for her father's sake. This is our last year in high school. Let us not darken it by trying to retaliate against Mignon."

"I think Marjorie is right, Jerry," declared Constance.

"Very good. Have it your own way. There will be no special meeting.

Good-bye." Jerry whirled and darted through the half open gate, slamming it behind her.

Her lips quivering ominously, Marjorie watched Jerry's plump figure down the street. Slow tears began to roll down her rosy cheeks. Groping blindly for her handkerchief, she buried her face in it with a grieved little sob.

"Don't cry, dear," soothed Constance, slipping a gentle arm about the sorrowful lieutenant. "By to-morrow Jerry will be all over being mad.

She is too fond of you to stay cross. Inside of half an hour she will probably be telephoning you to say she is sorry. Let's go into the house and wait for her message. She'll be ready to make up by the time she reaches home."

"It's-as-much-my-fault as hers," quavered Marjorie. "I was cross, too.

If she doesn't 'phone me by six o'clock, I'll call her up. It is babyish in me to cry, but I couldn't help it. Jerry and I have always been such dear friends. I'm not going to cry any more, though. Captain will wonder what the trouble is. I'm going to tell her everything, but not until to-night after dinner. You'd better stay and help me, Connie. Perhaps Jerry _will_ telephone before then."

"All right, I will, thank you. I'll telephone Aunt Susan and let her know where I am."

On entering the house Delia met them with the information that Mrs. Dean had gone shopping but would be home by half-past six o'clock. When Constance had telephoned, they established themselves in the living room, keeping up a soft murmur of conversation. Two pairs of ears were sharply trained on the hall, however, to catch the jingling ring of the telephone.

When six o'clock rolled around without the longed-for message from Jerry, Marjorie could no longer endure the suspense. Springing from her chair, she sought the 'phone and gave the operator the Macys' number.

"h.e.l.lo," she called in the transmitter.

"h.e.l.lo," sounded a familiar voice. It was Jerry herself who answered.

"Is that you, Jerry? This is Mar--"

The forbidding click of the receiver cut the last word in two. Constance had not proved a successful prophet. Jerry Macy was still "cross."

CHAPTER XX-WHEN FRIENDS FALL OUT

"For goodness sake, Marjorie, will you kindly tell me what has happened?" Muriel Harding overtook Marjorie in the corridor on the way to her second morning recitation, fairly hissing her question into her friend's ear.

Marjorie turned a concerned face to her. She wondered what new difficulty was about to besiege her. "What do you mean, Muriel?"

"I haven't time to explain now. Here. Take these and read them. They were on my desk this morning. You'll understand later what I mean. I'll run over to your house on the way back to school this noon. Then we can talk. I'm so surprised I can't see straight." Thrusting two envelopes into Marjorie's hand, Muriel left her and hurried on.

Placing the envelopes in the back of her text book, Marjorie proceeded slowly down the corridor to her own recitation in French. Resisting the temptation to examine their contents, she devoted herself strictly to the lesson. The next hour, which would be spent in the study hall, would give her ample time to look at them.

Returned to the study hall and free at last to learn the cause of Muriel's agitation, she forced back the sharp exclamation of dismay that rose to her lips. Both envelopes were addressed; one to Muriel Harding, the other to Jerry Macy. Through the address on the latter a pencil had been drawn. Below the cancelled line it had been readdressed to Muriel.

The writing on the one was Jerry's. The cancelled script on the other was Lucy Warner's. The re-addressing had been done by Jerry.

Marjorie's heart sank. She was almost sure of the nature of the notes within. Bracing herself in the seat, she drew Jerry's note from its envelope. It turned out to be exactly what she feared. Jerry had tendered her formal resignation to the club. Lucy Warner's note contained the same information. It differed little from Jerry's, save for one sentence in the latter's note: "Kindly arrange to hold the club meeting at some place other than my home."

An intensity of bitterness toward Mignon filled Marjorie's heart as she fingered Jerry's note. She resentfully laid the blame for the whole affair at the French girl's door. Jerry, Lucy and herself had all been caught in the meshes of the net which Mignon had set for their unwary feet. Marjorie wrathfully vowed that she would expose Mignon's malicious mischief-making at the meeting of the club on Thursday evening. She hoped the members _would_ demand Mignon's resignation. She deserved to be thus publicly humiliated. Yet the more she considered this revenge, the less it appealed to her. It savored too greatly of Mignon's own tactics. She finally decided to ask Connie to go home to luncheon with her. They could then talk matters over and agree on some plan of action by the time Muriel appeared.

Although Marjorie had prudently eschewed note-writing since that fateful afternoon during her junior year when she and Muriel had come to grief over the latter's note, she resolved for once to yield to temptation.

Scribbling a few hasty lines to Constance, whose desk was not far from her own, she managed successfully to send the missive. Glancing over it, Constance's eyes quickly sought Marjorie's. A smiling nod of her golden head informed the writer of the note that Connie would not fail her.

That point definitely settled, Marjorie speculated gloomily regarding whether Jerry's spleen would remain directed only against herself or whether she intended to desert from the s.e.xtette of girls to which she belonged. Would Muriel at once apprise Susan, Irma and Constance of Jerry's resignation from the club, or would she not? Hardly knowing what to expect, it was a relief to Marjorie when, on entering the locker room at noon, she saw no sign of either the stout girl or the other members of the s.e.xtette. The latter she guessed were waiting outside school. One look at four solemn-faced girls collected together on the opposite side of the street revealed to her that Muriel had put her three friends in possession of the news.

"Oh, Marjorie," she hailed. "Come here. After I spoke to you I decided to tell the girls about Jerry. It's a good thing I did. She hardly spoke to Susan and Irma this morning. They didn't understand, of course, and were dreadfully hurt."