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Read Ebook: Jane Allen Right Guard by Bancroft Edith
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Ebook has 1225 lines and 47499 words, and 25 pages
he root of the matter," assured Dorothy earnestly.
"Yet what could one do thus to bring about the reform?"
Adrienne's shrug was eloquent of the dubiety of such an enterprise.
"Begin as Jane has, by being sorry for her," replied Dorothy thoughtfully.
"I am French," returned Adrienne simply. "The Latin never forgets nor forgives."
Having now reached the fruit stand where Jane had stopped to purchase a large red apple for her horse, the subject of Marian Seaton was dropped.
Arrived at the stable the three girls spent a merry session with Firefly, who demanded much petting from them.
"He's the dearest little horse I ever saw, Jane!" glowed Dorothy when they finally left him finishing the apple which Jane had saved as a good-bye solace. "If ever I owned a horse like Firefly I'd be the happiest girl in the whole world."
"There aren't many like him."
Jane turned for a last look over her shoulder at her beautiful pet. Pursing her lips she whistled to him. Instantly he neighed an answer.
"Is he not cunning?" cried Adrienne.
Dorothy admiringly agreed that he was.
Jane smiled in an absent manner. An idea had taken shape in her mind, the pleasure of which brought a warm flush to her cheeks.
In consequence she suddenly quickened her pace.
"What's the matter, Jane? Training for a walking match?" asked Dorothy humorously.
"I beg your pardon," apologized Jane, slowing down. "I just happened to think of a letter I wanted to write and send by the first mail."
"Run on ahead, then," proposed Dorothy. "We'll excuse you this once."
"Oh, it's not so urgent as all that. I just let my thoughts run away with me for a minute."
Nevertheless there was a preoccupied light in Jane's eyes as the three returned across the campus to the Hall.
The instant she gained her room she went hastily to work on a letter, a pleased smile curving her lips as she wrote. When it was finished she prepared it for mailing and ran lightly down the stairs and across the campus to the nearest mail box. She gave a happy little sigh as it disappeared through the receiving slot. How glad she was that the idea had come to her. She wondered only why she had never thought of it before.
SEEKERS OF DISCORD
Fifteen minutes after the arrival of Marian and Maizie a disgruntled trio of girls sat closeted in the room belonging to Marian and Maizie.
Marian crested her blonde head as she flung forth this triumphant excuse.
"Of course you did. You're so boy-struck you can't see straight. I might have known it was because of one of your silly old beaux. I'm glad I have more sense."
"You don't show any signs of it," sneered Marian.
"Stop quarreling, both of you," drawled Maizie. "Go go ahead, Elsie, and tell us what happened about the room. That's the thing we want to know. For goodness' sake keep your voice down though. You don't talk. You shout."
"I'd rather shout than drawl my words as if I were too lazy to say them," retaliated Elsie wrathfully.
"All right, shout then and let everybody in the Hall know your business," was Maizie's tranquil response.
"If you came here to fuss, Elsie, then we can get along very well without you. If you expect to go around with us, you'll have to behave like a human being."
Marian's cool insolence had an instantly subduing effect on her belligerent relative. She knew that Marian was quite capable of dropping her, then and there.
"I don't know what happened about the room," she said sulkily, but in a decidedly lower key. "I came here at nine o'clock in the morning. Mrs. Weatherbee sent the maid with me to the room. That Stearns girl said I must have made a mistake. I knew that she wasn't exactly pleased. She said hardly a word to me. She went out and stayed out until just before luncheon. Then she came in for about ten minutes and went downstairs. I didn't see her again."
"She was probably running around the campus telling her friends about it," lazily surmised Maizie. "I'll bet she was all at sea. Wonder if she went to Weatherbee with a string of complaints."
"What happened after that?" queried Marian impatiently.
"What happened?" Elsie pitched the question in a shrill angry key. "Enough, I should say. I unpacked part of my things, then finished reading a dandy mystery story I'd begun on the train. About four o'clock Mrs. Weatherbee sailed in here and made me give up the room."
"What did she say?" was the concerted question.
"She said there'd been a misunderstanding about Miss Allen's coming back to the Hall. That Miss Allen was not to blame and so must have her own room. I said I wouldn't give it up and she said it was not for me, but her, to decide that. She said I could have the other room if I wanted it. If I didn't then she had nothing else to offer me. I said I'd go to the registrar about it. She just looked superior and said, 'As you please.' I knew I was beaten. If I went to the registrar, then Mrs. Weatherbee would have a chance to show her that letter. If I gave in, very likely she'd let the whole thing drop. As long as she'd offered me another room here, I thought it was best to take it."
"I didn't think it would turn out like that," frowned Marian. "Weatherbee couldn't bear Jane Allen last year. I was sure she'd be only too glad to get rid of her. That letter was meant to make her furious, enough so that she wouldn't let this Allen girl into the Hall again. Something remarkable must have happened."
"Weatherbee didn't suspect you, anyway," chimed in Maizie. "She was all smiles when we went into her office."
"Yes, she was sweet as cream. She could never trace it to me anyway. I took good care of that."
"Who wrote it for you?" asked Elsie curiously.
"That's my affair," rudely returned Marian. "If I told you all my business you'd know as much as I do. I'm sorry the scheme didn't work, but, at least, you got into the Hall. I'm certainly glad that girl failed in her exams. As for Jane Allen--well, I'm not through with her yet. Who is your roommate?"
"Well of all things!" Marian's pale eyes widened with surprise. "What do you think of that, Maiz?"
"You're in luck, Marian," Maizie averred with a slow smile. "You stand a better chance of getting in with Alicia again. Elsie can help you if she doesn't go to work and fuss with Alicia the first thing."
"What are you talking about? Who is this Alicia Reynolds?" inquired Elsie curiously.
"Oh, we chummed with her last year. She didn't like this Jane Allen any better than we did. Then last spring she went riding and fell off her horse and our dear Miss Allen picked her up and brought her home on her own horse. Alicia wasn't hurt. She thought she was and that the Allen girl was a heroine," glibly related Marian. "She listened to a lot of lies Jane Allen told her about us and now she won't speak to either of us. It's too bad, because we are really her friends and this Allen person isn't. Some day we hope to prove it to her."
"This Jane Allen must be a terrible mischief-maker," was Elsie's opinion. "I told her what I thought of her the afternoon she came."
"You did?" exclaimed Marian.
"Yes, sirree. I went straight to her room and spoke my mind. I was so furious with her. The very next morning Mrs. Weatherbee put me at the same table with her. It was my first meal at the Hall. I went to Rutherford Inn for luncheon and dinner. I was hungry and thought maybe the meals wouldn't suit me. They're all right, though. When I saw her at the table I was going to balk about sitting there, then I changed my mind. I had as much right to be there as she. I told her that, too."
"Some little scrapper," murmured Maizie.
There was cunning significance, however, in the slow glance she cast at Marian.
"What did she say to you?"
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