After half an hour spent in Miss Ferris's cozy sitting-room, she started out to find Barbara, armed with the serene conviction that everything would come out right in the end.

"How do people influence other people?" she had demanded early in her call. "There is some one I want to influence, if I could, but I don't know how to begin."

"That's a big question, Betty," Miss Ferris a.s.sured her smilingly. "In general I think the best way to influence people is to be ourselves the things we want them to be--honest and true and kind."

Betty mused on this advice as she crossed the campus. "That was a good deal what Jean said. I guess I must just attend to my own affairs and wait and let things happen, the way Madeline does. This about Jean just happened."

She pa.s.sed Georgia's door on her way up-stairs. The room was full of girls, listening admiringly to their hostess's reminiscences of the afternoon. "That soph.o.m.ore guard was so rattled. She kept saying, 'I will, I will, I will,' between her teeth and she was so busy saying it that she forgot to go for the ball. But she didn't forget to stick her elbow into me between times--not she. I wanted to slug her a little just for fun, but of course I wouldn't. I perfectly hate people who don't play fair."

Betty went on up the stairs smiling happily. She wanted to hug Georgia for that last sentence.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MOONSHINERS' BACON-ROAST

Jean's sudden retirement from the cast of "The Merchant of Venice" was the subject of a good deal of excited conjecture during the few days that remained of the winter term. Betty explained it briefly to Barbara, who in turn confided Jean's story to the rest of her committee. All of them but Clara Ellis thought better of Jean than they ever had before for the courage she had shown in owning herself in the wrong. Teddie Wilson, being in Jean's French division, remembered her letter from the last year's girl and made a shrewd guess at the true state of affairs; but realizing just how sorely Jean had been tempted she was generous enough not to ask any questions or tell anybody what she thought. So the Harding world was divided in its opinions, one party a.s.serting that Jean's acting had proved a disappointment, the other declaring that she had wanted to manage the whole play, and finding that she couldn't had resigned her part in it. Jean herself absolutely refused to discuss the subject, beyond saying that she was tired and had found it necessary to drop something, and she was so sarcastic and ill-tempered that even her best friends began to let her severely alone. Toward Eleanor her manner was as contemptuous as ever, and she kept haughtily aloof from Betty.

But one day when two of the Hill girls, gossiping in her room, made some slighting remarks about Betty's prominence in cla.s.s affairs, Jean flashed out an indignant protest.

"She's one of the finest girls in 19--, and if either of you amounted to a third as much, you could be proud of it. No, I don't like her at all, but I admire her immensely, so please choose somebody else to criticise while you're in here."

Meanwhile the winter term had ended, the spring vacation come and gone, and the lovely spring term was at full tide in Harding. If you were a freshman, it made you feel sleepy and happy and utterly regardless of the future terrors of the conditioned state in comparison with the present joys of tennis and canoeing or the languorous fascination of a hammock on the back campus,--where one goes to study and remains to dream. If you were a senior it made a lump come in your throat,--the fleeting loveliness of this last spring term, when all the trials of being a Harding girl are forgotten and all the joys grow dearer than ever, now that they are so nearly past.

"But it's not going to be any daisy-picking spring-term for 19--," Bob Parker announced gaily to a group of her friends gathered for an after-luncheon conference on the Westcott piazza. "Isn't that a nice expression? Miss Raymond used it in cla.s.s this morning. She wanted to remind us, she said, that the Harding course is four full years long.

Then she gave out a written lesson on Jane Austen for Friday."

"What a bother!" lamented Babbie, who hadn't elected English novelists.

"Now I suppose we can't have either the Moonshiners' doings or the 'Merry Hearts' meeting on Thursday."

"Who on earth are the Moonshiners?" asked Katherine Kittredge curiously.

"Learn to ride horseback and you can be one," explained Babbie.

"They're just a crowd of girls, mostly seniors, who like to ride together in the cool of the evening and make a specialty of moonlight.

We're going to have a bacon-roast the first moonlight night that everybody can come."

"Which will be the night after never," declared Madeline Ayres sagely.

"What's the awful rush about that bacon-roast?" asked Babe. "I should think it would be nicer to wait awhile and have it for a sort of grand end-up to the riding season."

"Why, there isn't but one more moon before commencement," explained Babbie, "and if we wait for that it may be too hot. Who wants to go on a bacon-roast in hot weather?"

"The 'Merry Hearts' are going to decide about pa.s.sing on the society, aren't they?" asked Rachel. "That's a very important matter and we ought to get it off our hands before too many other things come up. Girls, do you realize that commencement is only five weeks off?"

"Oh, please don't begin on that," begged Babe, who hated sentiment and was desperately afraid that somebody would guess how tear-y she felt about leaving Harding. "I'll tell you how to settle things. Let's go over all the different afternoons and evenings and see which ones are vacant. Most of the 'Merry Hearts' are here and several Moonshiners. We can tell pretty well what the other girls have on for the different days."

"I'll keep tab," volunteered Katherine, "because I belong to only one of these famous organizations. Shall I begin with to-morrow afternoon? Who can't come then to a 'Merry Hearts' meeting?"

"We can't. Play committee meets," chanted Rachel and Betty together.

"Mob rehearsal from four to six," added Bob.

"Helen Adams has to go to a conference with the new board of editors,"

put in Madeline. "I heard her talking to Christy about it. It begins early and they're going to have tea."

"To-morrow evening--Moonshiners' engagements please," said Katherine briskly.

"Cla.s.s supper committee meets to see about caterers," cried Babe. "We can't put it off either. Last year's cla.s.s has engaged Cuyler's already,--the pills! That committee takes out me and Nita and Alice Waite."

"Rehearsal of the carnival dance in the play," added Babbie promptly, "and Jessica, alias me, has to go."

"Thursday as I understand it is to be devoted to picking, not daisies, but the flowers of Jane Austen's thought for Miss Raymond." Katherine looked at Babbie for directions. "Shall I go on to Friday afternoon?"

"Cla.s.s meeting," chanted several voices at once.

"It won't be out a minute before six," declared Bob. "We've got to elect the rest of our commencement performers----"

"Which isn't very many," interposed Madeline.

"Well, there'll be reports from dozens and dozens of committees,"

concluded Bob serenely, "and there'll be quant.i.ties of things to discuss. 19-- is great on discussions."

"In the evening," Betty took her up, "Marie is going to a.s.sign the junior ushers to the various functions, and she's asked most of us to advise her about it, hasn't she?"

Several girls in the circle nodded.

"Then we come to Sat.u.r.day," proclaimed Katherine. "Evening's out, I know, for Dramatic Club's open meeting."

"I'm on the reception committee," added Betty. "We shall have to trim up the rooms in the afternoon."

"All the play people have rehearsals Sat.u.r.day."

"Sat.u.r.day seems to be impossible," said Katherine. "How about Monday afternoon?"

"The Ivy Day committee has a meeting," announced Rachel in apologetic tones. "But don't mind me, if the rest can come then."

"The Prince of Morocco has a special audience granted him by Miss Kingston for Monday at five," said Madeline. "But don't mind him."

"Dear me," laughed Betty. "I hadn't any idea we were such busy ladies.

Is everybody in 19-- on so many committees, do you suppose?"

"Of course not, simple child," answered Bob. "We're prominent seniors,--one of the leading crowds in 19--. I heard Nan Whipple call us to a freshman that she had at dinner last Sunday."

"And all of us but Madeline work early and late to keep up the position," added Babbie grandly.

"The Watson lady is an idler too," put in Madeline, with quick tact, remembering that Eleanor had mentioned no engagements. "We're content to bask in the reflected glory of our friends, aren't we, Eleanor?"