“Oh, I see. You mean what the Bible says. Uh-huh! That’s true, I guess.” Dulcie looked vague. “I’m sorry you won’t help me, Miss Dean. I feel that Doctor Matthews ought to know what’s going on, when it is as serious as hazing.”
Marjorie felt her patience winging away. She wished Jerry would suddenly return and thus end the interview. It was evident Dulcie intended to report the hazing, despite her refusal to become a party to the report. That meant she would be dragged into the affair.
“I wish you would not go to Doctor Matthews about the hazing, Miss Vale,” she said abruptly. “If I, who was put to more inconvenience than you by it, have never reported it, I see no reason why you should. If you should succeed in having your former chums expelled you would feel miserably afterward for having betrayed them, no matter how much they might have deserved it.”
“I surely should not.” Dulcie’s short upper lip lifted in scorn. “I would love to see them disgraced. They tried to down me. I have a splendid case against them because you are so well-liked on the campus. The use of your name will be of great help. Sorry you won’t stand by me. You’ll have to admit the truth if you are sent for at the office,” she ended as a triumphant afterthought.
Marjorie contemplated her visitor in some wonder. The small, mean soul of the vengeful girl stood forth in the smile that accompanied her threatening utterance. It seemed strange to the upright lieutenant that a young woman with every material advantage in life could be so devoid of principle.
“Do not count on me.” Marjorie’s reply rang out with deliberate contempt. “If I were to be summoned to Doctor Matthews’ office concerning the hazing, I would answer no questions and give no information.”
This time it was Dulcie who lost patience. She rose with an angry flounce. Sulkiness at being thus thwarted replaced her earlier attempt at amenability.
“I might have known better than ask you,” she sputtered, giving free rein to her displeasure. “I shall do just as I please about going to Matthews. I hope he sends for you. He will make you admit you were hazed by the Sans. Goodnight.” She switched to the door. Her hand on the knob, she called over one shoulder: “I don’t blame Les for having named you ‘Bean.’ You are just about as stupid as one.”
CHAPTER XXIV—“THERE’S MANY A SLIP”
Dulcie’s parting fling drove away Marjorie’s righteous indignation. It was so utterly childish. She smiled as she arranged her books and papers to her mind and sat down to study. Two or three times in the course of study the remark re-occurred to her and she giggled softly. The name ‘Bean,’ as applied to her by Leslie Cairns, had invariably made her laugh whenever she had heard it.