Most of the people who saw them get on, laughed at poor Winifred’s plight. A few looked disgusted; everyone stared. Two rakish-looking fellows took advantage of the general merriment to attempt a flirtation with Jacquette, who sat as close to Winifred as she could without coming in contact with the spiky braids which stuck out dangerously in all directions.
The party rode to the end of the line and got off without mishap. Winifred was marched a little way in several directions, turned round and round till she was dizzy, to the amusement of a group of spectators who had stopped to watch the unusual sight, and then bundled on to the homeward car, thoroughly convinced that she was bound for the outskirts of the city.
As they started back again, Jacquette, still sitting by Winifred, caught a few words of what Flo and Mamie were saying in their seat across the aisle. They were discussing a spicy, original plan for the afternoon initiation, and they mentioned the name of a senior Sigma Pi who, Mamie was sure, would help them carry it through.
Jacquette knew enough of initiation methods to guess pretty correctly at the part she missed hearing, and into her thoughts, as the car rolled along, came that clause in her bargain with Aunt Sula, “Nothing that could offend the delicacy of a sensitive, modest girl.”
Only lately, Louise and some of the other seniors had finished revising the Sigma Pi constitution so that there was nothing, now, in the written ceremony, which violated this condition, but it was evident that the girls intended to introduce their “stunt” as a surprise, and put it through before anyone had time to object.
At last, cautioning Winifred not to move until she came back, Jacquette slipped into the vacant seat in front of the other girls, and said,
“I couldn’t help hearing, girls, and I just want to say, I wish you wouldn’t. It seems to me it’s cruel—and not very modest.”
“There you go, Jacquette Willard!” Flo answered in an exasperated undertone. “You’re nothing but a freshman, yourself, but you try to run the whole sorority. We know who’s been putting Louise Markham up to spoil the Sigma Pi initiation! It’s the tamest one in school, I do believe. A person might as well join a church and have done with it! It just makes me wish I’d gone some other sorority, where the girls believe in having a little fun!”
“But Flo,” Jacquette protested, determined to keep her temper, “Winifred’s so young, you know—only fourteen! And her mother asked us especially to give her an easy time, because she’s so delicate. Her hands are cold as ice, now, and her heart’s going like a trip-hammer.”
“Pooh! What of it?” Flo retorted, and Mamie added, “What’s an initiation good for, Jacquette, if it doesn’t frighten them? You’re too soft-hearted, that’s the trouble with you.”