“Yes. Where did you ever see her?” demanded Jerry. “Where was I that I didn’t?”
“Oh, I saw her one day in the post-office with Mignon. It was after you had gone away. I thought she must be a guest at the La Salles’.”
“You thought wrong. She lives in that big house with the immense grounds just the other side of the La Salles’ home. It’s the one with that terribly high, ornamental iron fence. I always used to call it the Jail. It made me think of one. But that’s not my news, either. This new girl is going to be a sophomore at Sanford High. I’m sorry for poor old Sanford High.”
“Why?” A curious note of alarm sprang into Marjorie’s question. After two stormy years at high school, she longed for uneventful peace. Jerry’s emphatic grumble came like a far-off roll of thunder, prophesying storm.
“Why?” Jerry warmed to her subject. “Because she is a terror. I can see it in her eye. Just now she and Mignon are as chummy as can be. If they stay chummy, look out for trouble. If they don’t, look out for more trouble.”
“Perhaps you may find this new girl quite different,” suggested Mary hopefully. “It’s not fair to judge her by Mignon. Very likely she hasn’t any idea that—that——” She was thinking of how completely she had once fallen under Mignon’s spell.
“That Mignon is Mignon, you mean,” interrupted Jerry. “She ought to know her after being with her all summer. I’ll bet she does. That’s just why I think she’s a trouble-maker. They always hang together, you know.”
Marjorie slipped from the swing and faced her friends with the air of one who has suddenly arrived at a definite conclusion. For a moment she stood regarding Jerry in silence, hands clasped behind her back.
“There’s just one thing about it, Jerry,” she began firmly, “and that is: I will not have my junior year spoiled by Mignon La Salle or her friends. Last year we tried to help Mignon and our plan didn’t work. I thought once that she had a better self, but now it would take a good deal to make me believe it. She caused me a great deal of unnecessary unhappiness and she almost made Constance lose her part in the operetta. And little Charlie! I can’t forgive her for the way she treated that baby. This year I am going to go on with my school just as though I had never known her. I hope I won’t have to play on the same basket ball team with her or against any team that she plays on. I’ve had enough of Mignon La Salle. I’m going to steer clear of her.”