“I must talk with you. A lot of miserable things have happened. I was elected. I don’t want to be president. I don’t know what to do.” Gussie leaned her arm against a side of the open door, dropped her head upon it and burst into tears.
Next moment Marjorie had gently drawn the weeping sophomore inside the room and closed the door. “Poor old Gus,” she soothed, “wrapping her arms about Augusta. Go ahead and cry as much as you please. You’ll feel better afterward.”
The three other girls now joined Marjorie in her earnest effort to comfort Augusta. In place of the breezy, self-reliant Gussie they had been used to meeting had now appeared this woe-begone, tear-drenched stranger.
“Buck up, Gentleman Gus,” encouraged Jerry, giving the weeper a friendly slap between the shoulders.
The slangy consolation and the slap had a potent effect on Gussie. She stopped crying with a gulping sigh and even managed to coax a wavering, quivery smile to her lips.
“Ah, aha! That’s better.” Jerry made capital of the smile. “Have a chair, and tell us your troubles. If you see a chair here you fancy, grab it before anyone else has a chance at it. This isn’t my room but I run it just the same. I run everything I can, and sometimes I get the run.”
Gussie’s smile grew at Jerry’s nonsense. “No, I won’t sit down. I can’t stay. I ran away from the girls. I was looking for Marjorie.” She stopped, looking distressed. “I’ll tell you about the election,” she slowly continued. “I wasn’t going to tell anyone but Marjorie, but I’d like you to know.” Her gaze swept the trio of girls. Apparently satisfied with what she saw, she said:
“There were three nominations for president—Miss Monroe, Evelyn Burtis and myself. The girls who were rooting for Miss Monroe were the ones who said I reported Ida Weir and Alma Hurst for hazing Flossie and me last year. You know I did not report Miss Weir and Miss Hurst. It was Miss Walbert who did that. I didn’t know any such hateful thing had been said about me until Flossie told me after the election. If I had known it beforehand I wouldn’t have accepted a nomination. Flossie knew it, and didn’t tell me.”
“Finally the voting began. I won by a third majority.” Gussie could not keep a note of pride out of her voice. “Miss Monroe had more votes than Miss Burtis. My party began cheering me. Before they had stopped a soph who has a crush on Miss Monroe stood up and began fussing with the chairman. She said she had a perfect right to protest against the election; that the chairman had no business to accept my nomination for president when she had been informed beforehand by letter of my true character. She said that I was not fit to be the president of my class; that I was not truthful or honorable; that I had reported two worthy students for hazing who were entirely innocent of such a charge. Then she demanded that the ballot should be cast all over again with my name left out.
“The chairman said she had received the letter against me which the soph had written and had showed it to the other members of the committee. I wish you might have seen how scornful she looked. They had all agreed to ignore it as unworthy of attention.”