“But of course the fact that he has a special admiration for your cousin doesn’t win him any favour in your eyes,” Quis said, stiffly.
“Of course it does! In fact that’s the only reason I haven’t let myself take a prejudice against him. Why, Quis!”—turning a surprised face to him—“what’s the matter?”
But Marquis met her questioning look coldly. “I suppose you haven’t forgotten that Bobs Drake is an Epsilon Lambda Kappa,” he answered.
There was something irresistibly funny to Jacquette in his solemn way of pronouncing those three Greek letters, especially as the members of Bobs’s fraternity were universally known around school as the “Elks.” In spite of herself, she smiled mischievously as she answered, “No; I haven’t forgotten.”
“Perhaps that doesn’t mean anything to you,” Marquis went on, severely, noting the smile. “I’ve heard, before, that girls had no sense of honour, so probably the fact that the Elks are recognised as good friends of Kappa Delta, always working to land the best girls in that sorority, wouldn’t make any difference to you—a Sigma Pi. Of course, my frat makes it a point to help Sigma Pi, and, naturally, it expects a little appreciation in return, but that’s not my point, now. How do you suppose it made me feel to have the other fellows in the frat house, just now, see you, my own cousin, walk past with a fellow that has treated me the way Bobs Drake has?”
“Quis, what on earth do you mean?”
“I mean that when he was elected captain he put Ned Woodward on the team instead of me, just because I’m a Beta Sig and Ned’s an Elk. Yes, he did! Fraternity prejudice isn’t supposed to rule in the make-up of a football team, but it got in its work that time. Ned’s no better man than I am, and most of the fellows will tell you he isn’t as good. Then Bobs made me his sub. That means I have no chance to play, ever, unless he falls below in his marks or gets hurt in the game. Haven’t you caught on to the fact that the reason I could play in those two games, early in the season, was because Bobs Drake wasn’t above, those weeks? Do you know that a fellow has to play at least two games and a half, in order to win his football emblem? Unless I play another half-game with the team—and there’s precious little hope of it, now—I won’t have a right to wear the letters of my school on my sweater, this year.”
“But Quis——”
“I tell you, Bobs Drake doesn’t intend I shall have that right. He thinks I need taking down because I’ve lived abroad, or some such rot. But he’s hurting himself, all right! Talk about his being the idol of the school! You wouldn’t think so if you could hear the fellows talk, down at the Beta Sig house. They won’t get over his slight to me in a hurry, and, for my part, I never shall. You can choose between Bobs Drake and me, right here and now, Jacquette. You know the facts. Are you going to have anything more to do with him?”
Jacquette hesitated an instant, but that instant was too much for Marquis’s hurt pride. He said something that stung, and she answered back as sharply as she could. They went around the block, not once, but five times, before Jacquette finally rushed into the house and up to Aunt Sula’s room, where she flung herself on the couch in a tempest of tears.