Marjorie Dean, College Sophomore | Page 8

black and white roadster. I think
the car belonged to Miss Cairns. It looked like her. I suppose she and
dear Row-ena had been out for a ride and simply happened to run
across me in the pavilion.
"Now comes the most interesting part of the story." Jerry glanced from
one to another of her attentive little audience. "Three days afterward the
postman left me a letter. The address was typed, so was the letter.
When I opened it, I soon knew the writer. Here it is." Jerry produced a
letter from a white kid bag she was carrying. "The distinguished writer
of this letter is Leslie Cairns. I brought it along to read to you because
what she has to say includes all of us. It's what I would call an open
declaration of war. Listen to this:
"'Miss Macy:
"'Since you refused to listen to me the other day, I must resort to pen
and ink to make you understand that when I have anything to say to a
person I propose to say it. It isn't a case of what you want. It is a case of
what I want. To begin with, I knew all about you and your pals before
ever you came to Hamilton. My friend, Miss Farnham, heard that you
were to enter Hamilton and warned me against all of you. I had you
looked up, as I have powerful ways and means of doing this.
"'As your friend, Miss Dean, the lying little hypocrite, had made my
friend, Miss Farnham, so much trouble at high school, I decided to
even her score for her. At first I did not intend to allow you to enter
Hamilton at all. When I say "you" I include those dear chums of yours.
My father could easily have arranged to keep you out of Hamilton.
Then I concluded it would be better to let you come here and make
things lively for you.

"'I proposed that call on you ninnies on your first evening at college.
We arranged matters so as to fuss you self-satisfied freshies a little and
keep you from your dinner. We didn't care anything about meeting you,
but we thought we might as well look you over. Miss Weyman gave it
out that she would meet your party with her car on purpose to keep
other students away. We wanted you to be a little bit lonesome. When
you said in your room, that you saw Miss Weyman's car at the station,
we thought perhaps you might have seen through the joke. But you
were so thick. You didn't.
"'Miss Weyman had no intention of wasting good gasoline on you. She
loaded her car with girls on purpose. There was no room to spare. She
stopped it above the station yard and stayed there until after the train
had come in. After a while she drove into the yard and out again. Not
one of us set foot on the platform. It was a clever bluff and served you
precisely right.
"'I haven't either the patience or the will to tell you all the clever stunts
we put over on you simpletons last year. Believe me, when I say, it isn't
a circumstance compared to what we intend to do this year. You came
back at us in March in a way we will not forget or overlook. You think
you are pretty strongly intrenched because you and your crowd are
quite pally with certain upper class students who pose as wonders of
smartness. Well, don't build too much on your popularity. Popularity
sometimes has a habit of vanishing over night.
"'It seems too bad to be wasting time and paper on you, but I am square
enough to let you have the truth straight from the shoulder. You girls
have made us trouble from the start, and I predict that it will not be
long before Hamilton will be too small to hold your crowd and mine.
Your crowd will be the one to go; not the Sans. I am not afraid to tell
you this, because there is nothing in this letter that you can get me on.
"'Leslie Cairns.'"
"That is so like Leslie Cairns." Leila's blue eyes flashed their profound
contempt. "She loves to boast of her own ill-doing. She thinks it gives
her a standing among her friends. She poses as being afraid of nothing

and no one.
"That is truly an outrageous letter!" Vera's voice rang with shocked
indignation. "I wonder at her boldness in writing it."
"Ah, but consider! It is a typed letter. Would you mind letting me look
at the signature, Jerry?" Helen requested.
"With pleasure." Jerry willingly surrendered the typed letter to Helen.
The latter studied the signature shrewdly. "I don't think this is