Altogether, it made an exciting story to tell Aunt Sula after school, and it was a story with a happy ending, too, for, when Winifred’s father had finally gone, Mr. Branch had dismissed the girls with nothing worse than a serious warning as to their manner of conducting future initiations.
The first thing Aunt Sula said was, “What a friend Mademoiselle is!”
“Tia, she’s a wonder! She never pries around to find out things; she just understands; and she heads us away from trouble every chance she can get. How did she know I wasn’t going to be respectful to Mr. Pierce? But I wouldn’t have been, without her warning.”
“I’ve been wondering what she would think of your determination to resign from Sigma Pi. Suppose you ask her?”
Jacquette’s face grew warm, but she did not drop her eyelids. “I’ve been thinking that over, to-day,” she answered. “Tia, do you realise that, in order to resign, I should have to let the girls expel me? The promise is; ‘Once a Sigma Pi always a Sigma Pi,’ unless you’re put out.”
“Yes, I know. You told me.”
“And it wouldn’t be my own sorority alone that would know about it. Of course every chapter of Sigma Pi would be told, but, besides that, an official notice would be sent out to every fraternity and sorority in Marston, stating that Jacquette Willard had been ‘dishonourably expelled.’ No reason would be given—just the fact.”
Aunt Sula waited.
“I really haven’t any friends at school outside of Sigma Pi,” Jacquette went on, slowly. “If I should resign, all my friends would be my enemies.”
“Suppose some of the girls should decide to go out with you?”