Marjorie Dean High School Senior Part 4

"I should think ten or twelve would be enough to start with," returned Marjorie meditatively. "If we decide later that we need more we can have the pleasure of initiating them. Has anyone of you a pencil and paper?"

Muriel immediately brought forth a notebook from her leather school bag.

Susan Atwell promptly produced the required pencil.

"Write on the back page of it, Marjorie," directed Muriel. "If you put down our ill.u.s.trious names anywhere else in the book, I am likely to mix them with my zoology notes."

"Imagine Muriel standing up in cla.s.s and innocently reading: 'To the Crustacean family belong Jerry Macy, Marjorie Dean, Harriet Delaney, etc.,'" giggled Susan Atwell. Whereupon a ripple of giggles swept the zealous organizers.

"Let me see." Turning obediently to the last leaf of the notebook Marjorie glanced about the circle and began to write. "We are seven,"

she commented after a moment. "Now for the others. Esther Lind, Rita Talbot and Daisy Griggs, of course. That makes ten. I'd like to ask Lucy Warner. Have you any objections?" Marjorie had resolved to overlook Lucy's recent cavalier treatment of herself.

No one objected and Lucy's name went down on the list.

"We ought to ask Veronica," reminded thoughtful Constance.

"Of course." Marjorie jotted down their new friend's name. Suddenly she raised her eyes, a faint frown touching her smooth forehead. "Girls,"

she said slowly, "it's our duty to ask Mignon La Salle to join the club."

"I knew it!" exclaimed Jerry disgustedly. "I've been expecting to hear you say that. Must we always have _her_ tied to our ap.r.o.n strings?"

"Oh, I wouldn't ask her, Marjorie." Muriel's face registered plain disapproval. "If you do, we won't have a peaceful minute. Besides, she would be the thirteenth member."

"I'd hate to belong to a thirteen-member club," declared Harriet superst.i.tiously. "We'd never have a minute's luck."

"We'll never have even that much luck if we drag Mignon into our club,"

was Jerry's gruff prediction.

Marjorie's troubled gaze strayed from one to another of her schoolmates.

Constance and Irma alone looked tranquil. She read strong opposition in the faces of the others.

"I am perfectly willing that Mignon shall become a member of the club."

Constance ranged herself boldly on Marjorie's side.

"So am I," reinforced Irma. "We all gave Marjorie our promise to help Mignon in any way that we could. I won't go back on my part of it."

"If you put it that way, neither ought the rest of us," grumbled Muriel.

"Still, we have the welfare of the club to consider. Mignon is, and always has been, a disturber. Just at present she is pretending to behave herself because her father has taken her in hand. The hateful way she has acted about Veronica shows very plainly that she hasn't really reformed. If Rowena Farnham hadn't left Sanford High, she and Mignon would be as chummy as ever by this time."

"I said that same thing to Marjorie last year," confessed Constance. "I am perfectly willing to admit it. Even so, that has nothing to do with our agreement to try to help Mignon. If Rowena were here, and she and Mignon began to go around together again, it would be our duty to look out for Mignon just the same, or else go frankly to Mr. La Salle and ask him to release us from our promise."

"I'd rather do that than have Mignon in our club," a.s.serted Jerry stubbornly. "As long as you've mentioned Rowena I'll tell you something that I've been keeping to myself. You know that the La Salles always go to Severn Beach for the summer, and so does our family. Last year the Farnhams were there, too. But this year they were at Tanglewood. It's not more than ten miles from Severn Beach.

"Twice, while Hal and I were motoring through Tanglewood in his roadster, we saw Mignon and Rowena together. Once, in their bathing suits on the beach, and another time we saw them walking together in a little grove about a mile above Tanglewood. They didn't see us either time. I know perfectly well that Mignon slipped away to visit Rowena without permission. It proves that they can't be kept apart. I understand that Rowena went away to boarding school last week. That means the two will correspond. Rowena will do her best to bother Marjorie through Mignon. She will never forgive her for last year. All I have to say is that in order to protect Marjorie from her spite we ought to keep Mignon out of the club. We can try to help her in other ways."

"That settles it!" exclaimed Muriel Harding. "I mean that I think Jerry's reason for not asking Mignon to join the club is a good one.

Every year of high school, so far, she has managed to make things hard for Marjorie. Now it's time to put a stop to her mischief-making."

"I agree with Muriel," announced Harriet.

"So do I," chimed in Susan.

Marjorie smiled a trifle wistfully. "The majority rules," she said slowly. "It's a case of four against three. I hardly know what to do. If I say that I won't join the club, after being the one to propose it, it will appear that I am backing out just because I can't have my own way.

If I say, 'very well, let us organize the club and leave Mignon out,'

then I shall be breaking my word to Mr. La Salle.

"I have never yet broken a promise I made. I should hate now to feel that I had failed to be true to myself. Please don't think that I am asking you girls to accept my views. You must do whatever you feel to be best. For me it means one of two evils: refuse to join the club or break my promise. To do either would make me feel dreadfully."

As Marjorie finished blank silence reigned. It was Jerry Macy who broke it. "You've set us a pretty stiff example to live up to, Marjorie," she said bluntly. "You haven't left us a foot to stand on. We all gave you our word to help Mignon. As long as you think that this is one of the ways we can help her then it must be so. We want you in the club and we want you to keep your promise to Mr. La Salle. But I've just one thing to say. I've said it before and I say it again. If after she joins the club she starts to make mischief for you or any of us, I'll resign. If I do, you needn't try to coax me back for I shan't come. Remember that."

"Thank you, Jerry, for being so splendid." Marjorie's slender hand reached out to Jerry in token of her grat.i.tude. "I know that all of you would like me to be in the club. That is why it was so hard for me to say what I just said."

"Here's my hand, too." Muriel flushed as she proffered it. "Susan and Harriet, you are beaten. Salute the victor. I agree with Jerry, though, about resigning from the club."

"I'll risk both of you," declared Marjorie happily, as she shook hands with the three girls. "Thank you ever so much. I didn't say so before, because I was afraid you might think that I was trying to influence you, but don't you see that Mignon needs us now more than ever? We must try to win her away from Rowena's hurtful influence over her. For her to join the club may be the very best way to do it. If we can interest her in whatever we may decide to do for others, she will, perhaps, care more for us and less for Rowena."

"I guess there's something in that," nodded Jerry. "But what are we going to do about Mignon being the thirteenth member?"

"We had better add one more name to the list," suggested Irma. "Why not ask Florence Johnston? She is such a nice girl."

Concerted a.s.sent greeted Irma's suggestion, and Marjorie duly inscribed Florence's name below Mignon's.

"We might as well make it fifteen," a.s.serted Jerry. "Gertrude Aldine is a worthy senior. How about her?"

Jerry's choice approved, Marjorie read down the list as she had compiled it. "That much is settled," she declared. "The next thing is to choose a name. Suppose we think hard about it while we eat our ice cream. When we've finished, then each one must tell the name she has thought of. Out of seven names we ought to find one that will suit our club."

In the interest of deciding upon the club members, for once Sargent's toothsome concoctions had stood neglected on the table. The girls now proceeded to make up for lost time and an unusual stillness settled down upon them as they ate their ice cream.

Quick-witted Jerry was the first to make the announcement, "I've thought of one."

Inspiration did not come so easily to the others, however.

"I can never think of anything like that on the spur of the moment,"

lamented Harriet. "The only thing that sticks in my brain is 'The Serious Sanford Seniors,' which is awful."

"Mine is even worse," snickered Susan Atwell. "All I can think of is 'The Happy Hustlers.'"

"Mine's 'The Ever Ready Club,'" smiled Irma. "But that's not an interesting name."

"It wouldn't be a bad name for us," praised Marjorie. "I thought of '_Bon Aventure_' but it really ought to be a good plain English name, instead of a French one."

"'_Bon Aventure_' sounds very pretty," a.s.serted Constance. "Mine is 'The Searchlight Club.'"

"That's good!" came from two or three of the circle.

"My naming faculty isn't working," was Muriel's rueful cry. "I can't think of a single thing. Go ahead and tell us yours, Jerry. I know you are anxious to."

"When first it came to me, it seemed pretty good, but I like the other names just as well. What I thought of was the 'Lookout Club.' You see that is what we are going to pledge ourselves to do. We must look out for others who need our help."