“She stood beaming her delight of the flower-like group that had invaded her room.”

[Page [57]] [Marjorie Dean Macy’s Hamilton Colony]

Marjorie Dean Macy’s
Hamilton Colony

By PAULINE LESTER

Author of

“The Marjorie Dean High School Series,” “The

Marjorie Dean College Series,” “The Marjorie

Dean Post-Graduate Series,” etc.

A. L. BURT COMPANY

Publishers New York

Printed in U. S. A.

THE MARJORIE DEAN

POST-GRADUATE SERIES

A SERIES FOR GIRLS 12 TO 18 YEARS OF AGE

By PAULINE LESTER

MARJORIE DEAN, POST-GRADUATE

MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER

MARJORIE DEAN AT HAMILTON ARMS

MARJORIE DEAN’S ROMANCE

MARJORIE DEAN MACY

MARJORIE DEAN MACY’S HAMILTON COLONY

Copyright, 1930

By A. L. BURT COMPANY

MARJORIE DEAN MACY’S HAMILTON COLONY

Printed in U. S. A.

MARJORIE DEAN MACY’S

HAMILTON COLONY

CHAPTER I

“Something fine is going to happen, Bean.”

Jerry Macy leaned back in the roomy porch rocker, half-closed blue eyes squinting prophetically up at the turquoise August sky. “Yes, sir; it is.”

“Several fine things ought to happen, but they haven’t.” Marjorie Dean Macy’s emphasis upon the “ought” was energetically wistful.

“Something celostrous is coming this way,” Jerry continued to maintain. “It’s in the air.”

“I wish it would hurry up, and come, then. Captain was to be home from the beach yesterday. She hasn’t happened. Leila owes me a letter. That hasn’t happened yet. I haven’t heard from her for over a month, or from Vera, either. And there is Hamilton Arms, still boarded up and with no sign of Miss Susanna, or Jonas. Where is everybody? That’s what I’d like to know.”

“I’m with you yet, Mrs. Macy,” Jerry reminded pertinently. “And incidentally, you still have a nice kind husband.” She beamed upon the lovely occupant of the porch swing with pretended solicitude.

“Thank you for reminding me of my blessings.” Marjorie nodded laughing gratitude at Jerry. “What do you think is going to happen, wise sooth-sayer?” she asked in the next breath.

“Um-m-m.” Jerry’s eyes opened a trifle wider. She thrust her dimpled chin forward at a ridiculous angle, peering owlishly about her as though about to pick an answer to Marjorie’s question out of the sunlit August air. “Search me,” she said after a moment, then giggled.

“You are a fake.” Marjorie pointed a derisive finger at Jerry.

“Nope. I’m not. I have a pleasant little hunch that we’re either going to see somebody we’ve not expected to see, or else hear from somebody we’ve not expected to hear from. Now, do you get me, Marjorie Bean Macy?”

“Who, I wonder?” Marjorie said speculatively. “Not Ronny. I used to call her the great unexpected. But I needn’t hope, this time, to see her. I received her first honeymoon letter to me only last week. No, Ronny will have to be counted out of your hunch, Jeremiah.” Marjorie sighed regretfully. Her affection for Veronica Lynne, her California comrade and chum, was deep-rooted.

“She certainly handed the Travelers the surprise of their lives last June. I’ll never forget that last spread in her room on Commencement night, and her calm announcement to us that she was going home to be married to Professor Leonard in July at the old mission at Mañana. She was the great unexpected that night, I’ll say. I haven’t got over it yet. I never even suspected those two were miles deep in love, and Jeremiah nearly lost her reputation then and there, for knowing something about everything.”

“Ronny was always a mystery from the first time I met her playing maid at Miss Archer’s. She was always a delightful mystery, too. Somehow, it seemed quite in keeping that she should have given us all such a surprise about Professor Leonard. I’d never even dreamed of Ronny as in love with any man. Perhaps I might have suspected last year how things were between her and Professor Leonard if I hadn’t been so dreadfully unsettled in mind about Hal. I doubt it, though. I’m still surprised that you let it get by you, Jeremiah.”

“And I’m even more surprised that Leila Harper never suspected them as on the brink of love,” Jerry returned.

“I’m going to tell you something, Jerry.” Marjorie was smiling reminiscently. “I promised Ronny never to tell anyone except you, something she told me just before she left Hamilton, and I was not to tell you until after we’d received her announcement cards.”

“Go ahead. Shoot.” Jerry sat suddenly straight in her chair, eyes fastened interestedly upon Marjorie’s smiling features.

“Ronny never even dreamed Professor Leonard loved her until just before my wedding. They were alone together after classes in the gymnasium on the day before my wedding. They had been talking of Hal and me, and—well—suddenly he began to tell her about himself. His mother was a Spanish Mexican of very good family, and his father met her while he was professor in a Mexican university. Professor Leonard told Ronny that he hoped someday to establish a welfare station and school for poor Mexican children in Mexico. Then quite suddenly he told her how dearly he loved her, but would not ask her to share such a life of sacrifice, and perhaps privation, as his future would undoubtedly hold.

“She’d known for quite a while that she cared for him, but thought he hadn’t cared for her in any other than a friendly way. She was so dumbfounded she couldn’t say a word at first. He thought he had displeased her, and she had a hard time trying to make him understand that he hadn’t; that she truly loved him, and wished more than anything else to marry him and help him carry out his great plan. She never said a word to him about his plan being one of her father’s pet dreams, but she wrote her father to come to Hamilton for a flying visit, so as to meet Professor Leonard, and talk with him. He came and stayed in town at the Hamilton house for two days, and, during that time, the three of them came to a perfect understanding of one another. No one except they two knew Mr. Lynne was in Hamilton.”

“Good night!” Jerry thus vented her astonishment. “I know one thing, Ronny would have told you. She’d have included you in that little family confab, too, if you hadn’t been up North, on your own honeymoon.”

“Yes, she told me she would have,” Marjorie admitted, coloring. “But that was only because I was the first friend she made in Sanford, you know.”

“Yep. I know. Bing, bang; here goes a new jingle.” Jerry raised a declaiming hand and recited:

“Oh glorious Bean, why hide your sheen,

Beneath a bushel’s shade.

Your friends all lean on you, good Bean,

On you their hopes are stayed.”

“If your jingle were about someone else, I’d praise it as a triumphant inspiration. Since it isn’t—you’re a ridiculous person, Jeremiah. I think I’ve told you that before now.” Marjorie was regarding Jerry with tolerant amusement. “Kindly repeat that jingle, before you forget it. Oh, yes, and wait until I go for a pencil and paper. I promised Leila faithfully never to let the fruits of your jingling get by me, complimentary to me, or no.”

Laughing, Marjorie sprang from the swing and hurried lightly into the house. She was smiling to herself in pure contentment of spirit as she passed through the reception hall and on into the library. Her new home, to which she had come only two weeks before from a lengthy honeymoon, spent in the Adirondacks, was still a matter of delighted wonder to her. During Hal’s and her absence, Mr. and Mrs. Dean had been happily occupied in putting the new home of the happy pair to rights, against the day when they should turn their faces toward Hamilton Estates.

Readers of the Marjorie Dean High School, College and Post Graduate Series can already claim Marjorie and her intimate girl-associates as old friends. They have followed the fortunes of this particular band of devoted chums through both bright and stormy days.

Marjorie Dean Macy saw the happy culmination of the romance between Marjorie and Hal Macy in her marriage to him, on a balmy May Day evening at Hamilton Arms, the home of her friend, Miss Susanna Hamilton.

It was now the last of August. Marjorie and Hal had taken possession of their new home the middle of August in order to see Mr. and Mrs. Dean off for a two weeks’ stay at their old standby, Severn Beach. Jerry Macy, deep in preparations for her marriage to Danny Seabrooke to take place on the eighth of September, had been unable to resist Marjorie’s affectionate invitation to come to her and Hal’s new home as the first guest to enter the hospitable portals of “Travelers’ Rest.”

“I’ve been here over a week, Mrs. M. D. Macy,” she announced as Marjorie returned to the veranda with a pencil and small leather note book. “I simply must hit the trail for Sanford, not later than day after tomorrow. Danny’ll think I’ve lost interest in the marriage idea, and quit him cold.”

“I know you ought to go,” Marjorie nodded. “I’ve loved having you here with Hal and me.”

“You might have a worse sister-in-law,” Jerry pointed out with a sly grin.

“I couldn’t have a better one. I know that,” came with quick loyalty from Marjorie. “What a lot of wonderful things have happened to the Big Six since they paraded home from high school together in good old Sanford.”

“Um-m-m. I should say there had. But, do you know, Marjorie, I used to hope, back in those days that some day you’d marry Hal, and become my sister-in-law. After we entered Hamilton and you seemed to care nothing at all for him, except as a friend, it made me feel blue as sixty, at times. Honestly, I never believed then you would finally wake up and fall in love with him.” Jerry’s chubby features grew reminiscently solemn.

“I wonder now that I could have been so hard-hearted,” Marjorie made frank reply. “How could I have hurt Hal so deeply? That’s what I ask myself sometimes in the midst of the happiness his love has brought me. I can understand now how Brooke Hamilton must have grieved over Angela. It was his diary that woke me up. And to think! I almost missed love.” Marjorie was looking very sober herself.

“Here we sit, solemn as two owls, talking about what didn’t happen, thank goodness.” Jerry’s roguish smile crinkled her lips. “While we’re on the subject, I’ll tell you a secret. It was the way you turned Hal down that started me to thinking seriously about Danny. I’d always liked Danny a whole lot, but, somehow, I could never take him seriously. Whenever he’d show signs of growing serious, I’d laugh at him. Finally, when you and Hal flivvered, it worried both Danny and me. We did manage one or two serious talks about that. It drew us closer together in sympathy, somehow, and the night we went sailing in the Oriole, you remember that night, I realized that he meant a great deal more to me than I’d believed he could. That very night, while we were at the wheel together, I fell in love with him. And you’re the first person I ever told it to, and you’ll be the last. Believe me, I never let him suspect it, though, until a whole year later.”

“I’m highly honored, Jeremiah.” Marjorie’s words held fond appreciation. “I’m so glad you wished me to know about you and Danny. Frankly, I’d often wondered when and how you and he came to an understanding. You’re such a secretive old dear. I used to imagine you didn’t care the least little bit about Danny. I was sure he cared for you, though.”

“I wasn’t sure,” Jerry made blunt response. “I mean, not until that summer we were at Severn Beach.” Jerry became silent, an absent gleam springing into her merry blue eyes. “And I’m going home day after tomorrow to get ready to be married to Dan-yell,” she suddenly broke out with a half humorous inflection. “Can you beat that?”

“No, I can’t.” Marjorie shook a smiling head. “I think it’s——”

“There’s the mail man!” Jerry sang out, the absent gleam in her eyes changing to one of eager expectation. “Come on.” She sprang up from her chair, and ran down the steps, waving a beckoning arm to Marjorie.

The porch swing rocked wildly as Marjorie left it in a quick rush after Jerry. The pair raced down the wide stone walk to the high arched stone gateway, bringing up, laughing, beside the mail box, fastened to a post, just inside the entrance gates.

“Oh, bother! I forgot the key!” Marjorie exclaimed in mild vexation.

“I have it. I brought it out on the veranda with me. Kindly recall that I’ve been expecting a love letter from my intended,” she reminded, chuckling. “I got ready to grab it.” She fished the little key from a diminutive, lace-trimmed pocket of her frock.

“You’re a life-saver,” Marjorie sighed relief.

Jerry had already busied herself with fitting the key to the lock. “Great guns!” she ejaculated, as she swung open the little door of the box. “Some mail.”

There were eleven letters, according to her pleasantly-excited count.

“Seven for you, two for old Hal, and three for me,” she announced, handing Marjorie her letters and Hal’s. “One of mine is from Mother. I’ll say it’s a ‘Why don’t you come home, Jerry,’ message. One’s from Ronny. It’s high time she wrote me. This one’s from Muriel Harding, and it’s postmarked ‘New York.’ Now what the dickens is she doing in New York? I thought she was at Severn Beach. Curiosity wins. I’ll read hers first.”

Jerry conducted this lively monologue as she hastily tore open an end of the envelope addressed in Muriel Harding’s familiar swinging hand. She extracted the letter from the envelope, glanced quickly down the first page, then gave a funny little shout of surprise.

“Catch me,” she implored. “I’m going to drop dead of surprise. Muriel Harding, you rascal. I told you something was going to happen, Bean. Well, has it happened? I guess, yes.”

CHAPTER II
A JOLT FOR LESLIE

“What is it? Hurry up, and tell me.” Marjorie gave Jerry’s arm a playfully impatient little shake, her own letters for the moment forgotten.

“Listen to this,” Jerry began.

“Dear Old Jeremiah:

“When you read this letter I shall be Mrs. Harry Lenox, and on my way with Harry to South America. Some little jolt, Jeremiah, but you’ll survive it. Harry’s father, now Muriel’s highly-respected papa-in-law, has important business interests in the Argentine. It was impossible for him to make the trip to the Argentine at present, so Harry had to fall in line. That meant he would not return to Sanford until next summer. Poor Muriel. She had grown so used to having Harry around. As you know, we expected to be married in November. Harry said, ‘Why not now?’ I said, ‘It does seem as though something ought to be done about it.’ And that’s what it’s all about.

“Father and Mother went to New York with us, and we were married in the parsonage of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church last Monday afternoon, August twenty-fifth. Don’t forget the date. I was married in the ducky pale tan traveling ensemble that I had had made for my November going-away gown. I hadn’t yet decided upon my wedding dress, and it was a good thing.

“I’m not yet over my own surprise at the sudden way all my nice, artistic wedding plans went up in the air. One thing, however, I insisted upon—a great big wedding cake. You and Marjorie, and all my other good little pals, will receive a piece of that glorious cake by parcel post.

“It seems awfully strange to be hurrying away from the good old U. S., adventure-bound. I’d always planned a wonderful wedding, with the big Sanford Six strictly on the job. Love is really a serious matter. There could be only one thing more serious, to me—not to be in love.

“I can’t stop to write any more just now. It is almost ten o’clock, and we have to be on board the steamer by eleven. We are to sail for Buenos Aires on the Maraquita at midnight. There’s no use in trying to tell you how sorry I am about going so far away without having you and the girls on hand to wish me bon voyage. You and Marjorie, my dear comrades of years, can understand, above all others, just how I feel about it. I’ll write you a long letter as soon as I’m settled on shipboard. Be good, Jeremiah, and remember me to Dan-yell. More about everything then, including several pages of regrets at not being able to join your bridesmaid line on the fateful eighth of September. Oceans of love. You’ll hear from me again soon.

“Hastily,

“Muriel.”

“What do you think of that?” Jerry’s tone conveyed her own feelings. “Muriel was right about the jolt. After all, it’s just about what one might expect of Muriel Harding. Maybe I shan’t miss her, though. We’d planned a lot of things to do in Sanford next winter.” She vented a long, regretful sigh.

“Your hunch came true, Jeremiah. We hadn’t expected to hear from Muriel Harding Lenox, in New York, and all ready to sail for South America. You’re the only one of the Big Six still single. And your fate is sealed. Four of us are married to the boys who were our high school cavaliers. You’re going to marry yours. Susan Atwell is the only one of us who has loved and married far away from Sanford.” Marjorie’s lovely features had grown dreamily reminiscent.

“There’s no use in denying it. We’re getting old, Bean; getting old.” Jerry gave an elaborately disconsolate sniffle.

It set both chums to giggling as whole-heartedly as in the days when they were freshmen at Sanford High, with the future a closed book, the pages of which neither was curious to scan.

“I’ve a letter here from Muriel, too,” Marjorie said. “Let’s go back to the veranda and have a letter-reading bee. One of mine is from Leslie Cairns,” Marjorie was busily going over the envelopes in her hand, “and this one’s from Robin Page. This one looks like a high-class advertisement. Oh, here’s one from Gussie Forbes, postmarked California. Then I’ve a Paris one from Connie, and last and best one from General. That means he and Captain aren’t coming home just yet. Hurry up, Jerry.” She began to tow Jerry speedily up the walk to the house. “I’m in a grand rush to begin the bee.”

Marjorie laid the two letters for Hal on the willow porch stand, hurriedly returning to the swing, there to enjoy her own. Jerry had plumped down again in her rocker and was already perusing her mother’s letter. “What did I tell you?” she commented to Marjorie as she continued to read. “Mother is worrying like mad because I’m lingering longer here than becomes the station of one, Jerry Macy, about to be wed. It’s time for me to hit the home plate. I can see that.”

“Never mind. We’ll all be together again soon,” Marjorie reminded.

“And that rascal, Muriel Harding was to have been my maid of honor,” Jerry groaned. “Why can’t you be my matron of honor, since she’s left me in the lurch. I’d rather have you as a first aid to the altar than anyone else.” She turned coaxingly to Marjorie.

“I’d love to be, except for one thing. I’d rather stand aside in favor of the unmarried girls,” Marjorie said simply. “Let me see. You’re going to have Leila, Vera, Leslie, Lucy, Helen Trent and Robin Page as your bridesmaids.” She wrinkled her dark brows in a reflective frown. After a moment’s silence she spoke: “Jerry, why don’t you have Lucy as your maid of honor? Next to the Big Six, she’s really nearest to us all. It would make her wonderfully happy.”

“Luciferous?” Jerry eyed Marjorie with a contemplative squint. “I never thought of her. I was thinking just this minute that I might ask Helen Trent to take Muriel’s place. Helen was my first Hamilton chum, you know. Lucy——” Jerry became suddenly silent. “Right, as usual, beneficent Bean.” She nodded conclusively. “I ought to ask Lucy to be my maid of honor. I’ll do it, too. Mother says in her letter that the girls’ gowns are finished, and waiting for a grand try-on. Lucy’s will have to be altered, though. She’s considerably shorter than Muriel.”

“You haven’t told me about the dresses yet, Jeremiah,” Marjorie dimpled as she made ingratiating reminder. Thus far Jerry had declined to give details. “I’m going to give you a treat, Bean, so don’t ask questions,” had been her reply.

“And I’m not going to, either,” Jerry came back with her tantalizing grin. “I’ll invite you to the try-on. Curb your curiosity till then, or I’ll compose a jingle about it,” she now threatened.

“You’re awfully mean,” Marjorie’s amused tone belied her words.

“Don’t you want to be delightfully surprised?” Jerry demanded.

“Of course I do. I was only funning, my dear Miss Macy.”

“Glad to hear it. I’d hate to hurt your feelings, Mrs. Macy.”

“Don’t mention it. There ain’t no such animal,” Marjorie retorted.

Smilingly, the two friends again went back to their letters. Jerry was soon lost in the many pages of Ronny’s long friendly message. Marjorie was finding equal pleasure in a long letter from Constance Armitage. Every now and then, one of the pair would read aloud a particular paragraph of her letter for the edification of the other.

Jerry had finished Ronny’s letter before Marjorie had come to the end of the one from Constance. She busied herself with a rereading of Muriel’s, smiling broadly to herself over it.

Marjorie was also smiling, as though she had suddenly come into the knowledge of an extremely pleasant secret. The affectionate sidelong glance she shot at Jerry seemed to indicate that it strictly concerned the latter.

Presently she took up the letter from Leslie Cairns. It was hardly more than a note, phrased in Leslie’s pithy fashion.

“Dearest Bean,” it began. “September’s near, and I’m glad of it. I’ve tried Newport, the Catskills, and various other lady-like resorts just to please Mrs. Gaylord, who is on the job, keeping an eye on Cairns II while Peter is carrying on a snappy financial war with the wolf pack in London. We’re home in little old New York now, and Hamilton will be my next stop. Have you a night’s lodging for a weary Traveler, should the spirit move me to drop down, just like that, upon you? Gaylord is so full of plans concerning what she ought to do, may do, and intends to do, next, she doesn’t know where she’s at. I hope she decides to visit her relatives, pronto. I can then gracefully kiss her good-bye, and beat it for Hamilton. I suppose the campus is looking as lively just now as a ten-acre lot after a circus has moved off it. Nothing doing there yet. What? I’m going to descend on Remson, and good old Fifteen again, though Peter hopes we’ll be housed at Carden Hedge by Christmas. I have a new car. It’s some speedy flash. I let it out the other day for Gaylord’s benefit. She almost lost her breath, and her confidence in Leslie is now missing. What’s the use in trying to write the news? I’d rather tell it to you. You may expect me. Love, as per usual, dear Bean.

“Faithfully (but bored to a frazzle),

“Leslie.”

“Listen to Leslie’s funny letter,” Marjorie commanded.

“I’m listening.” Raising her head from her own letters, Jerry’s eyes strayed toward the pike. With a quick exclamation she sprang to her feet. “Look!” she cried, and rushed across the lawn to the drive.

One swift glance, and Marjorie had dashed down the steps in Jerry’s wake. A station taxicab was just turning into the drive through the open gates. She gave a jubilant little shout as she glimpsed a laughing face peering out of an open window of the tonneau, and re-doubled her pace.

“Leila!” Her voice rose to a happy staccato. “You dear, precious old fake. Whoever would have thought of seeing you today. No wonder I haven’t heard from you.” She was at the opened door of the machine now, grabbing enthusiastically at the tall, blued-eyed Irish girl just emerging from the car.

“It is myself, and none other.” Leila was out of the car now, clinging affectionately to Marjorie. “Ah, Beauty, you are a rare sight to a poor Irish emigrant.”

“Where’s emigrant number two?” Jerry had come up and joined in the embracing. She peered past Leila into the tonneau of the car.

“Right here,” came in prompt tones. Vera Mason’s charming blonde head poked itself into view. She sprang from the car, laughing, a dainty, diminutive figure in her smart gray traveling coat and tight little felt hat.

She was immediately seized and hugged, Marjorie and Jerry exclaiming over the welcome pair, girl fashion. Jerry’s quick eyes had caught sight of a third occupant of the tonneau. The latter, sat huddled in the far corner of the broad seat, face obscured by the folds of a silk scarf, carefully draped over it.

“You can’t fool me. Come out, pronto, and give an account of yourself,” Jerry commanded. Making an agile reach into the tonneau she snatched the concealing scarf from the wearer’s face, revealing Leslie Cairns’ rugged laughing features.

“How are you, Macy?” Leslie made an attempt at a tone of calm nonchalance which ended in a hearty burst of laughter.

“Fine and dandy, Cairns II,” Jerry caught Leslie’s extended hands and began dragging her out of the car.

“Steady, there. You certainly have strong-arm methods.” Leslie came out of the car with a bounce, due to Jerry’s forceful assistance.

“Why, Leslie!” Marjorie’s brown eyes were wide with pleasant astonishment. “You, too! How splendid. I had just finished reading your letter when Jerry saw the taxi turning in at our gate.”

“Gaylord went, and I came. Wait a minute. This taxi man thinks he’s been held up here for an hour.” Leslie paid the fidgeting driver, who had already placed the travelers’ luggage on the drive.

Jerry picked up two of the bags. “More of my strong-arm methods,” she observed.

“I’ll take Vera’s, and mine,” Leslie reached for them.

“Since they seem to love work, why should we interfere?” Leila remarked innocently.

“Why, indeed,” Marjorie gaily agreed.

She and Leila led the way to the house, arms about each other’s waists, talking animatedly as they walked.

“Welcome, Travelers,” she called out as they entered the large square living room. She turned, arms outspread, with a pretty gesture of hospitality. “What does this room remind you of?” she turned to Vera and Leila. She burst into a merry little laugh as a big, gray and white Angora cat sat up, yawning widely, in a deep-cushioned chair. “You old fluffy give-away!” she exclaimed.

“Castle Dean!” both girls cried in concert. “Ruffle!”

“And it’s plain to be seen a good household fairy whisked the castle here from Sanford, Ruffle puss, and all,” Leila declared with an enthusiastic touch of brogue and a fond dive at Ruffle. “The top of the afternoon to you, Ruffle Claws.” She swept down upon Ruffle, gathering him, struggling, into her arms.

“Now, now, now, is this the way to behave? I see you have the same old claws. Have you no welcome, then, for Irish Leila?”

“Nu-u-u.” Ruffle accompanied his loud protest with a wild scramble out of Leila’s prisoning arms. He sprang for his chair, regaining it, and spreading out in it with an air of lofty defiance.

“Never mind. I shall charm you yet with catnip and cunning blarney.” Leila shook her finger at the Angora. “This is the room I loved best at Castle Dean,” she said to Marjorie. “What good fortune to find it again here.”

“We all felt the same about it. Since General and Captain were to make their home ours, and ours, theirs, the four of us got together and decided that we’d better transplant our living room to Hamilton Estates. It forms a link, somehow, between Sanford and here. So many wonderful things have happened in this dear comfy room. You never saw it before, Leslie, but you’ll soon become well acquainted with it.”

Thoughtfulness prompted Marjorie to add this last to her cheery explanation. Despite the fact that she was now on the friendliest of terms with the girls she had once despised, at times Leslie still showed signs of awkward embarrassment when among them.

“I love it already.” The oddly somber look, which had briefly touched Leslie’s dark features, vanished. “It’s the most home-like room I’ve ever stepped into. I’m home-hungry, you know,” she confessed. “I’m going to make a bang-up, homey home for my father at Carden Hedge.”

“We shall all be going there to see you, lucky Leslie. It is only poor Midget and I who have no home. Oh, wurra, wurra!” Leila wailed the last two words soulfully.

“Plenty of noise, but no tears,” Vera commented slyly.

“She knows me,” Leila turned an indicative thumb toward Vera. “Or, it may be she thinks she knows. It is all the same.”

“I hope you will all come and hang around the Hedge—a whole lot,” Leslie said with half wistful emphasis. “Peter the Great and I are planning to be ‘at home’ there by Christmas. I’m going to hold my old stand-by, Fifteen, until our new home is ready. I’m undecided regarding P. G. subjects. I’ll specialize in something—don’t know yet what I want to take up.”

“You had best be satisfied with one subject,” Leila put in. “It is small time you’ll have for more than one after college opens.”

Her eyes on Leila, Marjorie read in the Irish girl’s tone an odd significance which Leslie had missed.

“I shan’t try to mix much in college affairs,” Leslie shook a decided head. “I’ll have time enough on my hands for three subjects, provided I’m ambitious enough to become a faithful study-hound.”

“She says, ‘three subjects.’ Now what do you think of that, Midget?” Leila stared at Vera in pretended wonder.

“What are you trying to do—kid me?” Leslie’s sober features relaxed into a faint smile. Quickly they shadowed again as she said: “You girls can understand why I’m not keen on doing the social side of college. It’s best for me to go quietly about my own affairs on the campus.” A deep flush had risen to her cheeks. She made an abrupt pause, in itself eloquent of her meaning.

“Oh, shucks!” burst impatiently from Jerry. “You don’t know your own worth, Leslie. The social side of Hamilton needs you, in particular, to help make things zip. You’ve already a reputation on the campus——”

“That’s just the trouble,” Leslie interrupted dryly. “Not the pleasant sort of reputation you mean, Jeremiah. It’s the old one—the one that I’ve not yet succeeded in living down. I hope to do it—in time, by hard, unobtrusive work for Hamilton College. That’s the only way it can be done.” Her rugged features settled into purposeful lines.

“Do you hear that, Midget? She is that anxious to be hard-working!”

This time Leslie caught the amused exchange of eye-signals between Leila and Vera.

“See here, you two,” she challenged, “what’s the joke?” For a brief instant a glint of hurt suspicion sprang into her dark eyes. It snapped out as quickly as it had appeared. She said good-humoredly, “Why not tell it to the gang? Then we can all laugh. Is it an Irish joke on Leslie?”

“It is, indeed. Midget and I made it up in Ireland.” Leila flashed Leslie a tantalizing smile.

“Well?” Leslie urged expectantly. “Shoot it at me.”

“Now I warn you, beforehand, that if you should not like our joke it would be a sorry joke on me,” Leila fixed comically-concerned eyes on Leslie.

“I’m already beginning to feel doubtful about it. You’d better shoot,” Leslie warningly advised.

“It seems that I had.” Leila looked solemnly impressed. “Well, it was this way: One day while Midget and I were wandering around the edge of a deep green bog,” Leila began, story fashion, “I said to Midget, ‘Does it not seem hard to you that your friend, Leila, should have to write plays and be a theatrical manager, too?’ ‘It does,’ she said. ‘I can see you will be in a bog as deep as the one over there when you go back to Hamilton.’ ‘What a comfort you are to me, Midget,’ I said with a deep sigh. ‘I have often thought so,’ she replied gently.”

A funny little treble giggle from Vera broke Leila up in the midst of her recital. She burst out laughing, her companions joining in the wave of mirth that swept the big room.

“Now I have lost the thread of my tale,” Leila declared after two or three mirthfully-ineffectual attempts at continuing it. “Where was I at? Ah, yes, I then said to Midget: ‘I should be one, or the other, but not both.’ She said, ‘Quite true, but don’t ask me to be the one you decide not to be. I cannot write plays, and it is all I can do to manage my own affairs.’ ‘Be aisy,’ I said with a fine touch of brogue. ‘You are not my idea of either.’ ‘Thank goodness,’ she said, not at all peevish. ‘I feel that I was intended to be a playwright,’ I said. ‘I am that temperamental!’ ‘Something like that,’ she said. ‘I have no genius for managing,’ I confessed. ‘I cannot contradict you,’ said Midget. ‘You had best turn that delicate little job over to someone else who has.’”

Leila paused. Her genial smile flashed broadly into evidence. Her eyes strayed inquiringly to Marjorie.

The latter was leaning forward in her chair, a lovely picture of delighted animation. “Oh, Leila!” she exclaimed. “How perfectly splendid!”

“You have guessed something, Beauty. Was it not good advice that Midget gave me? Now to follow it.” Her head made a swift sudden turn from Marjorie to Leslie. “Will you be manager of the Leila Harper Playhouse, Leslie?” she asked practically, then added drolly: “I shall tear my black hair in a fine frenzy if you refuse.”

“Why—I—what?” Seated on the davenport Leslie had been leaning far forward, elbows on knees, hands cupping her chin, her eyes fixed on Leila. The unexpected suddenness of Leila’s question gave her a veritable jolt. She made a startled forward movement, slid off the edge of the davenport and sat down smartly on the floor.

CHAPTER III
LESLIE AND LEILA

“Can you blame me?” Leslie had finally managed to make herself heard above the gale of laughter that had attended her mishap. She still sat on the floor, regarding her laughing companions with half sheepish reproach.

“No-o,” Leila made mirthful answer. “Let us be assisting the new manager to rise, Jeremiah, since we are the strongest of this crowd.”

“Thank you. I can assist myself.” Leslie sprang to her feet, resuming her former seat on the davenport. “You certainly have handed me a jolt, Leila Harper. It’s the last thing I ever thought of.”

“Then let it be the first now.” There was a vibration of earnestness in Leila’s reply. “Summed up in three little words: ‘I need you.’ There’s no other girl on the campus so well-fitted as you for the job. You’re a good business person, Leslie. Better still, you’re thoroughly cosmopolitan.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Flushing at the praise, Leslie shook her head. “It’s my self-assured manner that gives me the impression of knowing a whole lot more than I really do,” she explained frankly.

“Rubbish!” came energetically from Vera. “You are what you are, Leslie Cairns—clever as—as,” she groped mentally for a fitting comparison,—“as Leila.”

“Listen to that.” Leila made Vera a killingly appreciative bow.

“Nothing like it. I wish I were,” Leslie said regretfully.

“Let us have a contest, so that we may learn whether you are more clever than I, or, I than you,” Leila proposed blandly. “If you will have pity on a distracted Irish playwright, and help her out, then we shall both be in a fair way to out-do each other in cleverness.”

Leila had scented refusal of the honor she wished to do Leslie in the latter’s undecided manner. She now proposed to give her no chance to refuse. “We shall have fine times consulting together since we shall be near each other at Wayland Hall,” she smoothly pointed out.

“I’d love to manage the Playhouse, and I know Peter the Great would be delighted to have me do it, except for one thing.” Leslie spoke in her direct way. “There’d surely be ill-natured criticisms raised about it. Suppose it was said that Peter hadn’t been disinterested in giving the Playhouse to Hamilton College; that he had given it with the idea of making me foremost, and important, in campus affairs. Probably more spiteful remarks than that might be circulated.”

She stopped, staring half moodily at Leila. “‘The way of the transgressor is hard.’” She gave a short mirthless laugh. “Those first three years of mine on the campus were a mess. I behaved like a villain. Now it’s up to me to stand the gaff.”

“No, Leslie, it isn’t.” Marjorie cut in decidedly. “You have more than retrieved whatever mistakes you made during your first three years at Hamilton by what you did last year. Leila needs you this year. You would be an ideal manager for the Playhouse. Don’t allow anything else to matter. Depend upon it, Leila has already thought up some nice way of arrangement for you. I can see it in that beaming smile of hers.”

“I have fine arrangements for all occasions.” Leila was now grinning broadly. “When college opens I shall write an article for the ‘Campus Echo,’” she continued. “In it I shall outline the policy of the Playhouse, and give a resumé of what I intend to do in the way of plays during the college year. I shall also state that I have asked Leslie to assume the managership of the theatre, because of her extreme capability. Then let anyone start anything, and watch Irish Leila take the field, five feet at a bound, shillalah in hand.”

“Give us an imitation now of that five-foot bound,” coaxed Jerry.

“Not until I have first practiced it in private,” Leila declared with canny firmness. “And I suppose all is now settled, as amiably as you please, and the Playhouse has a new manager.” She turned ingratiatingly to Leslie, who could not help smiling, despite her doubts.

“I don’t know.” Leslie still demurred. “I——” she glanced about her at the little group of friendly, interested faces. She understood that her friends were hoping she might say “yes.” “I guess—so,” she said uncertainly. “Yes, I’ll accept the honor, mostly, though, to please you girls, and—Peter the Great.”

“Hurrah, hurray, hurroo!” Leila sent up a jubilant little cheer. “The world shall yet hear of us. Cairns and Harper, the greatest living promoters of high-class campus drama. That is what people will presently be saying about us.”

“Nothing succeeds like nerve,” Jerry declared.

“And it is experience that teaches the truth of that fine sentiment,” Leila came back with an innocent air that raised a general laugh at Jerry’s expense.

“I am a most thoughtless and inhospitable hostess!” Marjorie exclaimed as the wave of laughter subsided. “I should have told Delia to make ready a feast, and then——”

“Delia!” came in a concerted, delighted shriek from Leila and Vera.

“Of course. How could the Deans and the Macys ever get along without Delia? She’s our own, heart and soul.”

“Lead us to her,” begged Leila. “We’re not famished, Beauty. We bumped into Leslie on the train, and the three of us had luncheon together. Ah, but there was a happy pow-wow when we met, subdued and ladylike you may be sure. So it is not Delia’s delectable eats, but delectable Delia herself we are bent upon seeing.”

“Come along then.” Marjorie waved them kitchenward.

The visiting party burst into the kitchen upon Delia who sat placidly in her kitchen rocker shelling peas and humming to herself.

“I knew you’d be askin’ right away for me, Miss Leila.” Delia sprang up, hastily dumping a lapful of pea shells into a nearby splint basket. She came forward to meet Leila, her face bright with beaming confidence. “I saw you from the kitchen garden when the taxi stopped on the drive. I just thought then how surprised Miss, I mean, Mrs. Macy must be to see you.” Delia giggled at her own slip of title. “I can’t remember to call Miss Marjorie by her married name,” she confessed.

“I’m not quite used myself to my new name,” was Marjorie’s laughing comment. “Once in a while Jerry calls me Mrs. Macy, but not with proper respect. I’m very fond of my Bean name.” She dimpled at Leslie whose answering smile was a mixture of amusement and confusion.

“The tea is ready now, Mrs. Macy. Everything’s on the tea wagon in the pantry. I thought you girls would need a little bit to eat until dinner. I was just goin’ to wheel the lunch into the livin’ room when you come out here. I feel so glad to think you come to see me,” Delia looked her pleased pride of the invasion.

“It’s here we shall take our tea, in honor of you,” Leila said. “I am the one to pour it, and we shall all wait on you.”

“Fine.” Jerry dashed for the pantry, to return trundling the tea wagon.

Vera was already bowing Delia back into her rocker. “Stay seated most magnificent and highly-esteemed Delia,” she directed grandly.

“Te, he, he,” Delia chuckled at the flowery encomium.

“Oh, Delia! I forgot you’d never before met Leslie. This is Leslie Cairns, Delia. Leslie shake hands with Delia.” Marjorie gaily performed the introduction. “Leslie is going to be our neighbor at Carden Hedge, at Christmas, Delia. Won’t that be fine?”

“It will,” Delia nodded, all smiles. “The more of Miss Marjorie’s friends that come to live near her, the better it is for her. I’m glad to know you, Miss Leslie.”

Leslie shook hands warmly with Delia, pleased by the maid’s friendly sincerity. She could not help mentally contrasting her present democratic attitude with that of her former snobbish contempt for persons in humbler circumstances than herself. “Cairns II, you’re improving,” was her whimsical thought. “There’s a lot of room yet for improvement, though, so don’t get chesty.”

The tea party proved to be a hilariously happy event, with Delia the guest of honor, despite her half-abashed, good-natured expostulations.

“I’m going to tear you all away from Delia now,” Marjorie finally made firm announcement. “I’m going to see you safely to your own little corners of Travelers’ Rest. Then I must come back to the kitchen and help Delia, or you won’t have any dinner tonight.” She shot Delia a mischievous glance.

“Oh, now, Miss Marjorie——” Delia began. “Jus’s though I couldn’t get along without Alice. It’s Alice’s day out,” she explained to the newly arrived guests, referring to the absent maid.

“Jerry can keep on playing porter. Only, I’ll be kind to you, and help you with the girls’ luggage, Jeremiah.”

“I’m the one to be helpin’ with the luggage,” Delia insisted.

“Be aisy.” Leila lapsed purposely into brogue. “It’s ourselves’ll be after luggin’ our own luggage up the stairs.”

They were soon ascending the broad open staircase at the back of the reception hall, their happy voices blending in cheerful harmony.

Having triumphantly established Leslie in her room, the rest of the gay party went on to the room which Leila and Vera were to occupy together.

“Close the door, Beauty; and close it softly,” Leila drew a long breath of sheer contentment as the four chums, who had stood shoulder to shoulder, through both adversity and joy, at Hamilton, were once more alone together. “Not that I love Leslie less, but Beauty and Jeremiah more,” she added in light explanation. “Try as I may, I am not yet altogether used to Leslie Cairns as one of us. I’m glad she is, but there’s still an odd strangeness about it. Who could possibly have guessed when we waged war against the San Soucians, for democracy’s sake, that we should one day capture and tame their ringleader?”

“I get you. I feel about the same as you sometimes in regard to Leslie,” Jerry said quickly. “How about you, Vera?”

“I like her immensely,” Vera responded with a little emphatic nod. “I believe she has tried, harder than any other student who has ever enrolled at Hamilton, to conquer her faults. Leila feels the same, only she’s handicapped by a certain sardonic sense of humor.”

“It is the truth,” Leila affirmed solemnly, then she began to smile. “I look at her as she is now, and for the life of me I cannot help remembering the dance she led us for three years about the campus. And it is at her amazing reform that I am ignoble enough, at times, to grin. Only, I shall have a care to grin over it strictly in private,” she finished, her broad, humorous smile still in mischievous evidence.

“Just the same it is splendid in you to wish Leslie to be manager of the Playhouse.” Marjorie spoke with admiring warmth. “Think what it will mean to her, girls.” She turned to Jerry and Vera. “Her father will be so proud of her.”

“And think of the hard work it will save me,” Leila adroitly shunted off Marjorie’s compliment.

“Don’t try to slide out of your good deeds, Leila Greatheart. You’re the same slippery person, when it comes to that, you always were.” Marjorie made one of her funny little-girl rushes at Leila, arms widespread. She caught Leila about the neck and gave her a bear hug.

“Now I thought I had changed for the better.” Leila cocked her head to one side, looking down at Marjorie with her own particular quizzical air. “But you, Beauty, I see little sign in you of the sedate dignity of a Mrs. with a newly-acquired husband, and a manor house.”

“Bean is Bean,” Jerry cut in, “so much the same old Beanie that I was inspired to chant a jingle to her this afternoon.”

“Where then is the jingle?” Leila held out a demanding hand for a copy of it.

“Now you know perfectly well I never set down my works of genius. Apply to Marjorie for it. She got it before we both for-got it.”

“I saved it for you, Leila,” Marjorie assured.

“Uh-h-h.” Leila received the assurance with a gratified gurgle.

“Oh, girls, it’s so satisfying to see you both again, and the four of us have such a lot to talk about,” Marjorie said with a happy little intake of breath, “but,” she paused, her eyes unconsciously roving in the direction of Leslie’s room. “It’s a case of ‘Remember the stranger within thy gates.’” She went on brightly. “We’ve plenty of time before dinner for one of our famous confabs, but it’s apt to be more or less noisy. If Leslie should hear us laughing and talking, it might make her feel—well, rather out of things here. She’s grown as sensitive as she used to be hard since she found herself. We must make it our special pleasure to show her we like to have her with us.”

“The confab is hereby postponed, but it will keep.” Leila nodded understandingly.

“We were going to shoo you two out of here, anyway,” Vera mercilessly announced. “If you were to continue to hang around in here until we unpacked our bags you might see”—she put on a mysterious air,—“well, something that you’re not to see, until later.”

Before Marjorie could reply in kind the loud honk, honk of a motor horn came up to the four friends from the drive.

“Oh, that’s Hal. He’s home earlier than I had expected. I won’t wait to be shooed out of here.” The color had deepened charmingly in Marjorie’s pink cheeks. A warm tender light had leaped into her brown eyes. “Pardon me, children. I’ll see you again in a little while.” She was at the door as she spoke.

An insistent repetition of the call sent her scurrying down the stairs and on to a side door of the house that opened upon the drive.

“Come here, girls, if you want to see—er—well—my ideal of perfect love.” Jerry had crossed the room to one of the windows, which looked down upon the drive, and was beckoning to Leila and Vera.

Peering down, the three girls were just in time to see the meeting between the two who had once so nearly drifted apart forever, but had at the last found love in all its tender glory.

Marjorie had run down the steps of the veranda in the same instant in which Hal had sprung from the driver’s seat of the roadster. They met midway on the walk, catching hold of hands, and laughing like two children. No embrace passed between them, other than the cling of hands, but there was a light upon both young faces that told its own story.

“You know whereof you speak, Jeremiah.” It was Leila who lifted the brief silence that had fallen upon the three unseen watchers at the window after Hal had taken Marjorie by an arm and piloted her fondly up the steps and into the house. “There is an old Irish saying,” she continued: “‘Love is like a four-leaved shamrock, hard to find, but of great good luck to the finder.’ And it’s easy to point out the two lucky finders.”

CHAPTER IV
TRUE LOVE’S OWN SYMBOL

“My dear child, I’m going to say good-bye now to Jerry Macy and take myself off downstairs so as to be ready to be among the first to say, ‘Good fortune to Jerry Seabrooke’.”

Miss Susanna Hamilton folded Jerry in her arms, kissing her gently upon both cheeks, and then upon her lips. The little old lady, charming in her gown of ecru satin and duchess lace, was smiling at Jerry, a world of affection in her small bright eyes.

“Dearest Goldendede.” Jerry returned the embrace with fervor. “I love you bushels as Jerry Macy, and when I’m Jerry Seabrooke, I’ll go on loving you, even more than bushels.”

“That’s worth looking forward to.” Miss Susanna wagged her head with amused appreciation.

“I’m next, Jerry, dear.” Mrs. Dean now claimed Jerry. “It seems hardly more than yesterday since you and Marjorie went raiding the Dean kitchen after school on a hunt for chocolate cake. Romance was far from your thoughts then. Marjorie found hers, and you yours. We are all happy in your happiness tonight.” Mrs. Dean’s tones bespoke her love for Jerry. “Wonderful things have befallen the Dean Army.”

“I think I’m the luckiest girl in the world, Captain.” Jerry brought a hand to her forehead in playful salute. “Besides Father and Mother and Hal I’ve you and General and Miss Susanna as special superior officers to wish me happiness. Some honor for Lieutenant Macy, I’ll say.”

“And you never counted me in.” Marjorie shook a finger at Jerry. Seated on a chaise longue she had thus far been a contentedly-smiling, silent spectator to the fond little scene of which Jerry formed the center.

“Oh, you’re my brother officer. I take you for granted,” Jerry assured her.

It was half-past seven by the busily ticking Dresden clock on Jerry’s chiffonier. At eight o’clock that evening Jerry was to be married to Danny Seabrooke in the Macy’s beautiful salon-like drawing room downstairs. She had been dressed for half an hour for the momentous journey she was soon to take down the grand staircase, and on her flower-decked way to keep a high tryst with Danny, her devoted cavalier of high school days.

Mrs. Dean, Miss Susanna and Marjorie had been spending an intimate half hour with the bride-to-be in accordance to her forceful plea: “For goodness sake stick to me.” The two older women now left the room to take their places among the guests. Only Marjorie remained with her chum, knowing that Jerry wished her to do so.

As the door closed upon Miss Susanna and Mrs. Dean, Jerry walked over to the long triple-plated floor mirror and began a critical survey of her resplendent self in it. Marjorie sat watching her with proud, admiring eyes. She thought she had never before seen Jerry look so pretty.

“Well, Bean,” Jerry presently turned away from the mirror to fix round, inquiring blue eyes almost solemnly upon Marjorie, “what’s the verdict? I mean, how does Jeremiah look?”

“You are so lovely in your wedding dress, Jerry.” Marjorie gave a sigh of delighted admiration.

“Honestly, and truly am I—do I look as nice as that?” Jerry’s cheeks grew pinker at the tribute.

“Honestly, and truly you are—you do,” Marjorie assured with amused emphasis. “You know I’ve always liked best to see you wear white. But tonight—you are positively stunning, Jeremiah. Your wedding dress is a dream, and so are you in it.”

“Oh, gee, but I’m glad of it,” Jerry gave a sigh of profound relief. “Since it’s you who is saying it, I have to believe it. I’d like to look—um-m, something celostrous, all on Danny’s account. I want him to be properly impressed by my—ahem—resplendent beauty,” Jerry giggled, her sense of humor ever to the fore. There was, nevertheless, something of girlish wistfulness in her joking words.

“He will be,” Marjorie devotedly predicted. “What do you think of yourself in your wedding finery?” she continued mischievously.

“Oh, pretty fair, Bean; just middling.” There was a pleased gleam in Jerry’s eyes, however, as she turned once more to the mirror.

She made a charming picture standing before it, looking taller and slimmer than was her wont in the straight beautiful lines of her ivory satin wedding gown with its garniture of pearls and rare old lace. The lace-trimmed court train, falling from the shoulders, the long tight sleeves and the V-shaped pearl-embroidered neck also served to heighten the stately effect of her costume.

“I shan’t put on my veil until the last minute,” she announced matter-of-factly. “Just let me tell you this, Bean, it’s a whole lot more trouble to dress for one’s own wedding than it is for some one else’s.”

Mindful of her snowy finery she sat down carefully on the edge of her bed and viewed Marjorie with a half abashed, half impish air. “How’s that for a sweetly sentimental thought to trot along to the altar?” she asked.

“It’s strictly a la Jeremiah, only you’ll forget it the instant you hear the wedding march.” A reminiscent gleam had appeared in Marjorie’s eyes.

“I guess you know what you are talking about.” Jerry fell into sudden silence. Apparently unsentimental Jerry was not lacking in either sentiment, or emotion. She was feeling deeply the tension of the moment, but was endeavoring to hide it, even from Marjorie. “I only hope I keep in step with it,” she added with a reflective air.

“In step with what?” Marjorie came suddenly out of her moment of dreaming.

“The wedding march, of course,” Jerry replied with a faint chuckle.

“Oh,” Marjorie had to laugh with her. She understood Jerry, and the way she was feeling, also the facetious effort her chum was making to conceal her real feelings.

“I never did like having a lot of fuss made over me.” Jerry rose and walked to a side table on which reposed her wedding bouquet of lilies of the valley and white orchids. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she said, lifting it up almost reverently. Her humorous expression had vanished into one of girlish seriousness.

“I love it. It’s so perfect”—Marjorie paused—“as perfect as love. It’s true love’s own symbol.”

“True love,” Jerry repeated musingly. “I never dreamed for a minute when Danny and I used to squabble and play jokes on each other as high school pals that I’d ever love him enough to marry him. You know I always said I was never never going to be married.” For a moment she bent her face over the mass of exquisite white blooms, hiding it from view. She presently raised it from the bouquet with: “Times have certainly changed, Beanie. They certainly have changed.”

“It looks that way, Macy,” Marjorie gaily agreed. Gradually her smile faded. “Jerry,” she began slowly, “you know you and I have never talked much to each other about Hal—and—and—the way things were for so long between us before—well—before I discovered that I really had a heart for love. At that time I was relieved because you tried never to let me think you were disappointed because I didn’t then love Hal. I felt that you were, and I often wished to have a talk with you about him. Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to speak of him, even to you. I was so sure that I could never learn to love him in the beautiful way I believed he loved me. Captain was the only one I confided my troubles to.”

“You weren’t to blame because you didn’t know your own heart,” Jerry made loyal defense. “I used to feel a little out of patience with you at times. It hurt me like sixty to see Hal try to buck up, determined not to show what a crusher you had handed him. Still, I couldn’t blame you, either. Love’s the world’s great mystery, even if it is love that sends the old ball dizzying around,” Jerry finished with slangy philosophy.

In spite of her practical tone Marjorie glimpsed a glint of tenderness in her chum’s eyes as she gently deposited the white armful of fragrance upon the table again.

“I’ve not yet forgiven myself for having hurt Hal so. Whenever I think of how nearly I lost him forever by my own blindness, it sends my heart away down for a minute. It will take a lifetime of devotion on my part to make it up to him. We’re so happy together now. It doesn’t seem as though I deserved such happiness,” Marjorie ended half wistfully.

“Shucks,” was Jerry’s comforting opinion. “You deserved happiness more than any one of us did.”

“Oh, no,” Marjorie shook her head gravely. “No one deserves to be happier than you and Danny are going to be. You two just simply drifted beautifully into love. There haven’t been any misunderstandings, or heartaches, in your romance. It’s been ideal.”

“That’s so.” Jerry considered Marjorie’s assertion with a half embarrassed flush. It was the witching, intimate hour for confidences between the chums. “I guess we began to miss each other a lot at about the same time. I missed Danny dreadfully during my senior year at Hamilton. When we came to compare notes, last summer at Severn Beach, we found we weren’t crazy about having to be so far away from each other and—that’s the way it all happened,” she confessed half shyly. “Danny wanted to ask me to marry him on that night when we went for a sail in the Oriole and Hal sang the ‘Venetian Boat Song’ with a kind of heart-break in his voice that he hadn’t the least idea was there. You missed it entirely, but it got both Danny and me. I’ll never forget that night as long as I live.” Jerry made an eloquently reminiscent gesture. “He told me after we became engaged that he hadn’t the courage to ask me that night to marry him, for fear I might turn him down as you had Hal.”

“That was a night I had some very sad memories of, long afterward, when I came to a realization that I really loved Hal, but too late. I surmised he was going to ask me to marry him before I went back to Hamilton, and I was determined not to give him an opportunity. Wasn’t I stony-hearted though?” Marjorie laughed rather tremulously.

“You’re bravely over it now, and that’s what counts,” was Jerry’s sturdy philosophy. “I think that when——”

“Jerry, dear, the girls will be here in a minute.” Mrs. Macy’s hurried entrance into the room broke up the confidential session. A plump dainty little figure in her handsome gown of pearly gray and white, her bright blue eyes adoringly took in the charming spectacle of Jerry in her brave white array. “Shall I help you with your veil?” She nodded briskly toward the beautiful, voluminous veil of brussels net which swept fairy-like folds across the foot of Jerry’s bed.

“Please do, Mother.” The two exchanged fond smiles.

Mrs. Macy lifted the misty, exquisite lace cloud from the bed and trotted over to Jerry with it. Jerry stood very still while her mother placed the coronet-like cap, with its garniture of pearls and orange blossoms, on her head, and adjusted it to her critical satisfaction.

The pretty service performed, Jerry placed her hands on her mother’s cheeks and kissed her on the lips. “Thank you, Mother,” she said. The uncontrollable impulse toward humor overcoming her she pulled a fold of the veil over her face and peered owlishly through the lace meshes at Marjorie. “It’s too late for regrets,” she quavered in a doleful tone. “Good night, Jerry Macy.”

“Do try to behave well during the ceremony, at least, Jerry,” was her mother’s laughing advice as she circled about her irrepressible daughter in anxious mother-proud survey.

“I will,” Jerry promised in a hollow voice that set the trio laughing. A murmur of voices outside her door, and she added encouragingly: “Here come the girls. Kindly note my exemplary behavior from now on. Jeremiah is going to step strictly into line for the great occasion.”

CHAPTER V
ALL ON ACCOUNT OF JEREMIAH

“Don’t hand me all the verbal bouquets. Keep a few for your own use.” Surrounded by an enthusiastic bevy of bridesmaids Jerry had at last managed to make herself heard above the buzz of admiring compliments they had been hurling at her from all sides. “Talk about a rosebud garden of girls. I’ll say you’re it.” She stood beaming her delight of the flower-like group that had invaded her room.

Jerry had had pronounced ideas of her own concerning the color scheme for her wedding. She had elected that it should be a rose wedding, since the rose was both Danny’s and her favorite flower. Moreover, Danny had a preference for a certain apricot-tinted variety of rose, deep apricot in bud, but shading when open to a delicate pink. “Marvel” was the name the originator of the variety had bestowed upon the rose, and it had quickly come into fashionable popularity. Jerry, in search of an attractive color scheme for her wedding had hit upon the plan of using the dainty Marvel rose for her purpose.

She had made a careful study of the exquisite apricot-pink shading of the rose with the result that her maid of honor and six bridesmaids, now gowned in the stunning dresses she herself had designed and had made for them, bore delightful resemblance to a bouquet of “Marvels.”

Lucy Warner, brimming with happiness over the unexpected privilege of serving as Jerry’s maid of honor, wore a frock of deep-tinted apricot tulle over apricot silk with apricot satin slippers and stockings to match. Beneath a wreath of tiny Marvel rosebuds her small earnest features looked demurely out, giving her the semblance of the rosebud she was dressed to represent. A large bouquet of the tight-petaled buds added the final artistic touch to her costume.

Leila Harper and Leslie Cairns, as bridesmaids, wore frocks of slightly paler apricot tulle, their wreaths and bouquets of half open Marvel buds exactly matching the shade of their gowns. Helen Trent and Phyllis Moore continued further to carry out the color scheme in still paler-shaded apricot tulle, worn over silk underslips of a delicate pink. Their wreaths and bouquets were of Marvel roses, well-opened, but not full blown.

Vera Mason and Robin Page completed the color scheme in frocks of pale pink tulle with wreaths and bouquets of the full-blown Marvel roses. The two tiny flower girls, Reba and Nella Macy, kiddie cousins of Jerry’s, wore bouffant frocks of chiffon, many-skirted and of the four shades of the rose in which the maid of honor and the bridesmaids’ gowns had been carried out. They had long-handled, ribbon-tied baskets filled to over-flowing with half-blown and full-blown roses and wore rosebud wreaths upon their curly golden heads.

As Jerry happily took in the gorgeous human flower garden about her she could not forbear teasing Lucy a little. Fixing her eyes upon the latter with a certain ridiculous expression which always made Lucy giggle, she said: “Luciferous Warniferous, you are positively stunning. You are enchanting, imposing, arresting, resplendent—wait a minute till I think up a few more glowing terms. Oh, yes, you are celostrous, Luciferous, absolutely and undeniably celostrous—and that lets you out. Be very very careful of yourself this evening. Some worshipping young man may fall hard for you, and try to kidnap you.”

“Oh-h, Jeremiah Macy,” Lucy brandished her bouquet at Jerry, laughing, but looking half vexed. “You are—well—you are——”

“What am I?” Jerry inquired with a quizzical grin.

“The same ridiculous old tease,” Lucy retorted. “When first I caught sight of you in your wedding dress, with your lovely veil, I felt positively impressed by your grandeur and dignity. Now I don’t feel in the least like that about you,” Lucy ended with a faint chuckle.

“Never judge by appearances, my child. A bran span new wedding dress and veil may cloak an awful disposition. Try to regard me, Luciferous, as your former friend and razzberry, Jerry, Jeremiah, Geraldine Macy, and none other. I’m going to continue to be her to the very last minute.”