“Thank you both. That’s all, I believe, except—I’m sorry. I’m saying it, though about five years too late,” Leslie declared bitterly.
Marjorie made no verbal reply. She bent upon Leslie a glance brimming with toleration. Its frank kindness made Leslie feel like bursting into tears. Pride alone kept her from it.
After a moment Marjorie said: “We have something to thank you for, Miss Cairns; the hundred dollar note you dropped into the money box the evening of the Romp. We understand and appreciate the spirit that prompted the gift. When I say we, I mean the Travelers.”
Marjorie made the assumption boldly, hoping thus to take Leslie unawares. She succeeded. Leslie colored hotly. Hastily she started the motor. “Good-bye.” She smiled a queer, wry smile; nodded first to Leila, then to Marjorie. Next instant her car had passed theirs and was speeding away from them.
CHAPTER XX.
BEGINNING TO GROW UP
“Can that be Leslie Cairns?” marveled Leila. “You will now kindly tell me a great many facts about her recent history which I have somehow missed. You intended to tell me about them, did you not?” She regarded Marjorie with laughing suspicion.
“I had not intended to tell you or anyone else that she attended the Romp,” Marjorie said emphatically. “I never even mentioned it to Jerry. You see what a good secret keeper I am. Since you have heard a part of the story from the heroine herself, I may as well tell you the rest.”
“Leslie Cairns’s wits are as ready as Jerry’s when it come to giving out names,” was Leila’s comment after Marjorie had informed her of the set of circumstance at the Romp in which Leslie had so prominently figured. “Jerry and Muriel named Miss Peyton the Prime Minister. That was appropriate enough last fall when she tried so earnestly to dictate a policy of her own to we poor timid P. G.’s. It seems she has practiced screeching as well as dictating. And she looks like an owl!” Leila’s intonation was full of false enthusiasm.
“I made up my mind not to tell Miss Cairns about Miss Peyton and Jane Everest. It wasn’t necessary. She is worried now for fear Miss Monroe may be blamed. It seems odd, Leila, that Leslie Cairns should have shown consideration for another. I say it candidly; not spitefully. She ought to be protected if only for that change toward growth.” Marjorie was very earnest in her conviction regarding Leslie.