She sped away to the Andrews group, where Florence Thomas, who had always taken life pleasantly and coolly, was the flushed and eager center of ninety-nine supporters, both those from her own school and the others who had rallied to her cause.
“Girls,” said Peggy, “we’re two ahead of you. Please be reasonable——”
But she saw the curious star-like quality of Florence’s eyes. And she hadn’t the heart to go on.
The plain, kindly, everyday, comfy Florence to light up and shine like that! Well, if she had known in time how honors could bring that girl out, perhaps Peggy would have considered her a perfectly suitable president from the beginning.
“If you had wanted it, Peggy, I wouldn’t have stood a chance,” Florence breathed down to her from the window seat on which she was perched so as to overlook her adherents. “The girls only put me up because you and Katherine failed them.”
Failed them! Peggy’s heart skipped a beat. The cold glances of the other girls let her guess only too plainly how she was viewed by the Andrews contingent, the members of her own school.
“If you give up something that most anybody would want and feel just right about it, then somebody comes and takes the joy out of life by seeing you as a villain still,” mused Peggy aloud.
She didn’t try to get the Corinne Adams votes for Gloria, she didn’t argue with a single Myra Whitewell enthusiast.
And the vote came in again so nearly the same that the pretty Junior was vexed, and looked at her wrist watch and thence out to the waning sunlight over the campus. Really an afternoon spent with her own somewhat intelligent juniors would be greatly preferable to this monotonous and stubborn concourse of freshmen who seemed to have set their hearts on making an election impossible. Corinne Adams had lost seven votes to Myra, and now tragically arose and announced her withdrawal from the contest. Many voices murmured protestingly “no, no,” as she came forward and went toward the door, but these sympathizers had not voted for her when they had the chance.
“I never knew anything so heart-breakingly mixed up,” said Peggy. “That Junior’s mad, the freshmen are near to tears and the candidates are all wobbly.”