“Whatever will we do?” asked Mae, “elect new members?”
“We’re not allowed to,” replied the president. “Vacancies can only be filled once a year—six weeks after school starts. We’ll have to go on as we are. But if more than eight girls resign, the sorority must be abolished. We have to keep eight girls to allow it to exist. Oh, girls,” she pleaded, “don’t follow the impulse. Wait! Think of the Alumnæ! Think if you ever had a daughter and sent her here, she would stand a good chance of belonging.”
“And she might be left out like poor Virginia Hall, whose mother was an ΦΑΒ!” Marian Guard laughed. “You know Virginia is impossible!” she exclaimed.
Doris had been thinking hard. “Girls,” she said, “I don’t want to be mean, and you know I’m not athletic, so I probably won’t make the troop; but I think the sorority ought to be abolished, and now is the best time to do it. So I, too, resign.”
“Oh, Doris—you’re president of the freshman class!” exclaimed one of the seniors.
“Yes, and for that reason more than any other, I want to do away with ΦΑΒ!”
The senior president intervened. “Girls, that makes six resignations. But let’s don’t take them as final. We’ll wait till next week, and give everybody the chance to think it over.”
Marjorie made one request. “May Miss Phillips be invited to come in next week after the business part is over?”
The president frowned; but several of the girls seemed to want it, so she finally consented.
“And remember, girls,” she said, “this must be kept secret until at least next week. You are still members of ΦΑΒ. Promise!”