CHAPTER XX
LE PETIT OISEAU
“You are positive of it, Marylyn?” Stephanie Norris’s voice betrayed triumphant excitement. “You must be able to prove, you know, that she really is the person you saw in Paris, before you dare let the news get out on the campus. Otherwise she would fly at you like a hornet, or else take her troubles to Prexy.”
“I’m positive enough of what I tell you. I can prove it, too, by a French theatre program I have with her picture on the front cover. I have always been puzzled, wondering why her face seemed so familiar to me. I was sure I’d seen her somewhere on the Continent when we were abroad last summer. The night of the frolic I was more sure of it than ever when I saw her in that peachblow frock, doing that fancy trot with the tall soph. Even then I couldn’t place her. Yesterday afternoon I was talking to Miss Werner who was in Paris about the same time that we were. We both happened to remember a particularly good vaudeville show we’d seen there. Then it flashed across me, all of a sudden, ‘Le Petit Oiseau.’ That’s the way she was programmed. She came out first in a dress that was almost the same shade of pink as the one she wore to the frolic, and did some marvelously clever acrobatic stunts. Then she changed to a scarlet and black trapeze rig with cunning little black wings. She had a partner then, a catcher, I believe they call him, and then she did some toppo stunts on the flying trapeze.”
Marylyn Spencer, small, and rather pretty, save for a pair of lynx-like, calculating eyes, fairly paused for breath after her rapidly-spoken revelation. She was a faithful satellite of Stephanie’s, far more in harmony with the latter’s high-handed methods than was Laura. “I’ve written to Mother to send me the program. It was so artistic I kept it as a Paris souvenir. I know I’m right about it,” she finished emphatically.
“A common trapeze performer,” Arline Redmond said with infinite disdain. “That is the limit. No wonder she behaved like a wild cat to you at the frolic, Steve. She certainly doesn’t belong at Hamilton. There are colleges, of course, suited to such ambitious persons.” She laughed disagreeably. “She had nerve to come to Hamilton.”
“I imagine she got into Hamilton under false pretenses.” Stephanie took eager advantage of the opening. “Possibly Miss Cairns may know the truth about her. I’ll say the faculty doesn’t. When do you expect to receive that program from home, Marylyn?”
“Within three or four days. Why? What are you going to do?” she demanded curiously. More or less of her curiosity was reflected upon the faces of the other girls who were present in Stephanie’s room. Among the group Laura alone maintained a bored silence. No word of the gossiping conversation, going on animatedly in the room, was “getting by” her.
“Never mind what I’m going to do. Let me have that program as soon as you can. Then look out.” Stephanie gave a soft malicious little laugh.
“You’ll have to be very careful what you do, Steve,” warned Mildred Ferguson half sourly. She had been unable to “think up” a telling revenge against Jewel Ogden and was slightly peeved at Marylyn’s success. “If you start anything about Miss Ogden having been a circus performer going on the campus you’ll soon find both Miss Cairns and Miss Harper on your trail. They can make it hot for you, too.”
“That for Miss Cairns and Miss Harper,” Stephanie snapped contemptuous fingers. “Miss Harper is lovely to me, and Miss Cairns would be, too, if I gave her the slightest opening. Don’t worry, I know how to put this little stunt over, and no one, outside you girls here, will be able to say how it happened.”