“Is it necessary for me to say, Bean, dear Bean, that I will never desert you?” Jerry contributed reproachfully.
“You are darling old dears.” Marjorie beamed warmest affection on the group of white-clad girls who had just sworn fealty afresh to her standard.
“And you are the same beautiful Beauty that you were five years ago when you walked into Baretti’s one fine September evening and began the conquest of Leslie Cairns which has ended in her unconditional surrender.” Leila was looking a world of affectionate admiration at Marjorie. “Did I not say to you then, Midget, that Beauty had arrived on the campus, and that great doings would come to pass?”
“You surely did say it, and that is at least one of your prophesies which has come true,” Vera made ready response.
“Nonsense. It was not I. It was my faithful Beanstalks. What could I have done for democracy without them? You are the same splendid Leila Harper, who worked like mad to make things come right on the campus and then wouldn’t believe she’d done anything worth while. You see I can say as much about you as you said about me,” Marjorie triumphantly retaliated. “Who was it—.”
“Never mind who it was,” Leila cut in hastily. “Let us talk of the campus. It is a beautiful piece of ground. Is it not?” She inquired of Marjorie with polite affability. “Have I not heard you say you admire it?”
“I wish I could see it from my windows at Hamilton Arms,” Marjorie said half wistfully, though she smiled at Leila’s ridiculous air and questions. “I do miss you girls and the Hall and the campus dreadfully, much as I love the Arms. It was fine, you know, to be right in the middle of the campus, as it were. I shan’t settle down again at the biography much before the first of November. As soon as Robin comes back, Page and Dean will have to get busy in the show business again.”
“Robin ought to be here by this time. We received a letter from her just before we sailed for home in which she wrote that she was coming back to Hamilton as early as the first of September.” Vera gave out this news as she hospitably replenished the glasses from the case of ginger ale on the floor.
“She has probably waited for Phil, and Phil may have been delayed by an influx of visiting relatives,” was Marjorie’s guess. “The Moores are the most hospitable of southerners Robin says.”
“It will be a week before the campus begins to be inhabited,” Ronny predicted. “Then the campus dwellers will arrive in numbers. Did you and Vera see Doris Monroe while you were abroad, Leila? Of course you had her Paris address.”