“I suppose you are satisfied now, Ellen,” drawled Miss Horner sweetly. “You are lucky, Miss Dean, to have Ellen for a champion. She insisted that we must wait for you.”
“I am very grateful to her,” Marjorie made courteous reply. Had there lurked a touch of sarcasm in the other’s polite comment?
“Miss Merton is altogether too fussy,” remarked Miss Elbert. Her blunt tone quite belied her reserved nod. “She tried that with me last year. It didn’t work, though.” Her air of constraint vanished in a bright glance, which indicated friendliness.
“You must remember that she has a great deal to try her,” reminded Miss Horner softly.
Again Marjorie thought she sensed hostility. She laid it to the supposition that Miss Horner was, perhaps, a trifle peevish at being delayed. Yet she could not resist the quiet comment, “Miss Merton is also very trying.”
“Of course she is,” agreed Ellen warmly. “You know it as well as we do, Charlotte Horner. You have no cause to love her. Just remember how cranky she was to you during your freshman year.”
“That was a long time ago,” shrugged the senior. “I understand her much better now than then.” The placid answer held a suspicion of condescending approval of Miss Merton.
“I’m glad someone does,” flung back Ellen with careless good humor. “Hurry along, Marjorie, and get into your basket ball suit. I shouldn’t have kept you talking.” Drawing her aside, she whispered: “I’d rather see you play center on the team than any girl I know.”
“It seems to me, Ellen,” drawled Charlotte Horner, as her indolent gaze followed Marjorie across the floor to the dressing room, “that you are babying that Miss Dean entirely too much. Someone told me the other day that she has a bad attack of swelled head. I must say, I think her self-opinionated. She answered me very pertly.”
“If you mean her remark about Miss Merton, she only spoke the truth,” defended Ellen hotly, completely astonished by this unexpected attack on Marjorie. “She is not in the least self-opinionated nor vain. It’s remarkable that she isn’t. She is very pretty and awfully popular.”