“Oh, I suppose she could pray,” said the girl called Mame, with a shrug. “She does, you know, often in meeting.”
Then with a giggle toward Leslie she added as if in explanation, “She works out, you know.”
“It must be very hard for her,” said Leslie, purposely ignoring the inference.
“Well, you know she isn’t in our set. Nobody has much to do with her.”
“Why not? I think she is very unusual,” said Leslie with just the least bit of hauteur.
“Well, it wouldn’t be wise to get her into things. 186 It might keep some others out if we made her prominent,” put in Lila Cary with some asperity. “We must have some social distinction, you know.”
“In our frat one fellow is as good as another if he has the right kind of character,” remarked Allison dryly. “That girl sounded to me as if she had some drag with your alumni. But of course you know her better than I.”
“She is a good girl all right and real religious,” hastened Lila to amend. “I suppose she’d be real good on a prayer committee, and would help to fill up there, as you haven’t many.”
“Well, I’ll tell you one thing,” said Allison, “if you really want to succeed, you’ve got to pull together, every member of you, or you won’t get anywhere. And I should think that you’d have to be careful now at first whom you get in. Of course after you’re pretty strong you can take in a few just to help them; but, if you get in too many of that lame kind, your society’ll go bad. The weak kind will rule, and the mischief will be to pay. I shouldn’t think it would help you any just now to get in any folks that would feel that way about a good girl just because she earns her living.”
Mame Beecher and Lila Cary looked at each other in alarm, and hastened to affirm that they never felt that way about Jane Bristol. They thought she was a real good sort, and had always meant to get acquainted with her; only she always slipped out as soon as meeting was over.