“Mr. Saxe said she paid cash for the properties,” nodded the agent.
“So far as we are concerned, we could have paid the price in cash of sixty thousand dollars. One of our sorority members had offered to finance us. We were to pay the debt to her at leisure. We felt it not right to tax the students-to-come, at Hamilton, with too heavy a burden of debt. We are in our senior year and just starting this movement. We shall appoint certain students to replace us in this work when we have been graduated from Hamilton. They in turn will choose their successors.” Marjorie took the trouble to make this explanation because of Mr. Cutler’s genuine interest in their venture.
“Well, it is a noble ambition,” praised the agent. “I will remember your need and look about me for a suitable site for your dormitory. One never knows what may develop. Now if you could buy that open strip of ground belonging to the Carden estate, it would be ideal for your purpose. The Cardens, those left of the family, are in Europe most of the time. They might decide suddenly to sell their estate. I’ll keep you in mind,” he assured.
“What do you think of that?” were Robin’s first words, spoken out of earshot of the agent.
“What do you think?” countered Marjorie. Her tones bordered on bitterness. She was disturbed far more than she had shown while in the office.
“Just what I said in there.” Robin indicated the office with a backward movement of her head. “She knew we wanted them and bought them on purpose to thwart us. She has been in Hamilton since last summer. How did she find out our plan, I wonder?”
“That’s a question hard to answer. She must have heard something concerning it last year after our show. It wasn’t what one could call a secret. I mean the talk of building a dormitory. What seems queer to me is this. The moment we got in touch with Mr. Cutler, Miss Cairns hurried to Chicago to head off this Mr. Saxe before we could see him. We know Mr. Cutler did not tell her of us. He said he had never met her. She has heard something about it this fall.”
“Then she must be friendly and in communication with certain students on the campus,” was Robin’s conjecture.
“Undoubtedly.” Marjorie did not mention what she had observed on her way to mail the letter before the Thanksgiving vacation. It was of no particular use, she reflected. The properties were gone, the subject of them and their present owner might better be entirely dismissed.
“Hateful old snake!” was Robin’s wrathful opinion of Leslie Cairns. “The idea of her coming back and living near the college after the disgrace of having been expelled!”