“I understand. You mean if Miss Monroe has enough interests to keep her occupied and happy on the campus she won’t turn to Miss Cairns for entertainment.”
“Yes,” Marjorie returned. “We Travelers have been watching over her. She is not only beautiful. Her room-mate is Muriel Harding, you know. Muriel says she is brilliant in her subjects. She can draw, paint, play the piano and knows a good deal about outdoor sports. We can’t afford to have such good material go to waste, can we?”
“No, we can’t.” Louise’s hand reached for Marjorie’s. The two looked into each other’s eyes and made a wordless compact which had to do with the deliverance of the enchanted princess from the power of the wicked wizard.
CHAPTER XXVII.
MARVELOUS MANAGER
While the discussion concerning herself was going on between Marjorie and Louise Walker, the enchanted princess and the wicked wizard were amicably eating dinner at the Colonial. Leslie was listening with acute attention to Doris’s unemotional account of the Beauty contest related in the drawling English diction which she had used since childhood.
“You think you’re it, don’t you, Goldie?” she said with a slow grin when Doris had finished her recital.
“Yes; why shouldn’t I?” countered Doris, unruffled by the slangy question. She was very desirous of going to New York with Leslie for the Christmas holidays. She had no intention of quarreling with her and thus defeating her own ends.
“I’ve no objection,” Leslie amiably assured her. “You haven’t told me where Bean was, though. Certainly she wasn’t in the gym or you’d never have got away with the prize. She must have purposely effaced herself. She has it put all over every other girl I ever saw when it comes to Beauty. I hate the ground she walks on, yet Bean is beautiful Bean. Don’t let it worry you, though.”
Doris smiled rather condescendingly at Leslie. “You know it doesn’t worry me, Leslie. You are absurd. No, Miss Dean was not at the contest. Some of her friends were, but she was no where to be seen. Don’t you think the contest itself is very quaint? Miss Harper is really immensely clever.”