“Oh-h! Oh-h! Why, the idea!” The impressiveness of the masked figures had been suddenly lost in the angry babble of girl voices that rose from behind the gray masks.
“Silence.” The sternness of the command, spoken in a voice that was certainly not Laura Taylor’s, pre-empted an odd uncomfortable hush. “I am the chairman of this committee, and I am going to deliver a speech suitable to the occasion. It will not be a long speech, but it will be strictly to the point. It seems hardly necessary for me to inform you students that you are hazing. It is a dangerous pastime on Hamilton campus.”
“You are not Laura Taylor!” Stephanie had sprung angrily to her feet. “You have no right to be here spying upon us.”
“What right have you to be here in the existing circumstances?” lashed out the stern voice.
“We are—we are going to rehearse a play,” Stephanie declared defiantly.
“Not now; the show is over, and the play is played out.”
“We had permission to use this room this evening. You are intruding.” Mildred Ferguson had rallied stormily to Stephanie’s aid.
“Very true, Miss Ferguson, but, circumstances alter cases. I came here tonight to see that Miss Ogden received fair treatment. Also to say to you that hazing does not pay; neither does spite and malice. I tried them all once, here at Hamilton, so I know now that advice to you is sound.”
“Leslie Cairns,” Mildred Ferguson almost shouted out the name.
“Yes; Leslie Cairns, the most lawless student who ever enrolled at Hamilton College.” As she spoke Leslie threw back the hood of the domino and stripped the mask from her face. “I’m trying now to live down that reputation. I was expelled, you see. You have merely run the risk, but it’s a bad risk to run.”