After Marjorie and Ronny had left them, the two freshmen regarded each other in silence for a moment.

"Now we have gone and done it!" exclaimed Charlotte with a short laugh.

"What else could we have done?"

"Nothing," replied Calista with conviction. "Gus is going to be as cross as two sticks. She is so stubborn, once she makes up her mind to be."

"She has made a mistake about Miss Dean and Miss Lynne, at least. They are sweet."

"I don't want to quarrel with Gussie over this business." Calista knitted reflective brows. "In spite of the numerous wordy tilts she and I are always having, I'm awfully fond of Gus. A more generous girl never lived, and she is so square, too."

"She's the baby who wouldn't grow up," Charlotte said with a whimsical smile. "She's good as gold when she wants to be good. She roars like a spoiled infant when she is crossed. The best way to do is to stand by the courage of our convictions. We like these two seniors. They appear to like us. We'll just have to make Gus understand that."

CHAPTER VIII-FAITHLESS FRIENDS

"Leslie Cairns! The very last person I expected to see in this part of the country!"

With this exclamation of amazement, Lola Elster brought the small electric machine she was driving to a quick stop. The surprised cry was the result of being hailed by a young woman driving a roadster. The latter had spied the electric motor containing Alida Burton and Lola Elster and promptly raised her voice to a shout of greeting. The meeting occurring on one of the staid residence avenues of Hamilton, she had had no difficulty in attracting the attention of the two seniors.

"Why, Leslie, this _is_ a surprise!" echoed Alida. "I haven't seen you since the day-" Alida stopped, her color rising. "I mean since-" again she stammered.

"Oh, say it and be done with it." Leslie exhibited her old impatience.

She was already shaking hands with Lola, who had climbed out of the electric and now stood beside the roadster. "Since I got it in the neck for hazing. That's what the trouble was all about. If Matthews hadn't been both feet down on hazing the whole thing would have blown over."

"We couldn't imagine what had become of you," Lola said hastily. She was anxious to keep off the subject of the Sans' downfall. She had exhibited so little sympathy for Leslie during her last week on the campus that she feared Leslie might, given the opportunity, upbraid her for her lack of loyalty. "Why didn't you write me, Leslie? I never heard a word from you all summer."

"Oh, I was busy. I don't like to write letters." The reply was coolly evasive.

"Are you staying in town?" Alida was now out of the car and ranged next to Lola beside the roadster.

"West Hamilton. I have an aunt there, you know."

"Is that so?" Lola opened her eyes. "I never knew that."

Conversation languished for an instant. Lola and Alida were both curious concerning Leslie, but tried not to show it.

"There's a rather nice little confectioner's store about two blocks further down the street. Suppose we go there," proposed Leslie. "We are blocking the road, as it is. Some of these Hamilton fossils would kick if we happened to take up an inch more of room than their ideas call for."

"I know the place you mean. Delighted!" Lola turned toward her car, Alida following. Again at the wheel, she called out, "Park your car on the lower side of the street opposite the shop. The parking's better there. Go ahead. We'll be right behind you."

"Sure thing," Leslie returned laconically. "I know all about that place."

"Leslie has nerve," was Lola's first remark out of the former's hearing.

"If I had been expelled from college you wouldn't catch me within a hundred miles of the fatal spot afterward. First I ever heard she had an aunt in West Hamilton."

"Don't you believe it?" queried Alida.

"I doubt it. Les is here for some special reason of her own which she will keep to herself unless she happens to feel confidential. I understand her. She used to tell me a lot about her affairs when I was a freshie. After you and I grew pally, she grew shut-mouth," Lola slangily continued. "I was glad not to be her pal. She took too many risks and she was always dragging her pals into trouble. She thought money would help her out all the time. You see for yourself, it didn't. I made up my mind to keep away from Les long before the end of my freshman year."

"She thought a lot of you, though, Lola. She really did," Alida said earnestly.

"Oh, I know." Lola made a little bored movement of the head. "After she mixed things up for me and made me appear an idiot at basketball, I had had enough of being chummy with her. Be careful what you say to her today. Les has some kind of game to play, take it from me. Don't be too friendly with her. It won't add to our reputation as seniors to be chummy with her. We'll have to keep her at a distance. Recall she left Hamilton, _disgraced_."

The confectioner's shop reached, Lola had time for no more advice.

Natalie Weyman had once characterized Lola Elster to Leslie as "a selfish kid." In all ways she bore out this opinion. She was constantly alive to her own interests, always placed them first, and callously trampled down anyone who stood in the way of them.

The trio presently established at one of the small round tables and their order given for soda fountain concoctions composed of ice cream, nuts and fruit syrup, Leslie said with an elaborate attempt at indifference, "Well, what is the news from the knowledge shop? Have you seen Walbert yet?"

"She's at Wayland Hall," promptly replied Alida. "So are we. Lola and I room together now." Satisfaction permeated the information.

"What?" Leslie made the monosyllable faintly satiric. "You don't say so.

And Walbert is at the Hall! She tried long and hard enough to get there.

So did you, Lola. Where Walbert should be is off the campus. She deserved the run far more than we."

"We are awfully provoked about it," went on Alida. "We do not intend to bother with her at all. Do we, Lola?"

Lola shrugged contemptuously. "I sha'n't lose any sleep over her. I never liked her."

"You never lost any sleep over admiration for anyone, Lola." Leslie put a touch of malice in the a.s.sertion.

"I know it," Lola replied boldly, though she reddened. She understood the remark to be a reproach.

"How is Bean, dear creature?" Leslie simulated effusion. "And how are the beanstalks? Grown clear up to the chapel steeple by this time, I don't doubt."

"They are back. That's about all I can say. We aren't on speaking terms with them, you know. By the way, Les, did Bean stand up before the Board and refuse to answer their questions? I mean last spring when the Sans got in bad. I heard she did."

"Who told you?" countered Leslie, her face darkening.

"Nell Ray, I think. It was one of the Sans," Lola informed.

"I always knew Nell Ray was a talker." Leslie scowled her disapproval.

"Yes, you may as well know, Bean did precisely that. It was merely a bluff. I think she had told the whole thing to Matthews before we were summoned. Very likely he sent for her when he received Dulcie's letter.

She spilled the story of the hazing and he agreed to let her get away with refusing to talk before the Board. That little prig made more trouble for me than anyone else at Hamilton."

"I don't think so, Leslie," differed Lola. "It was Dulcie Vale and Bess who dished you. You always had it in for Bean and she never made a move against you."

"You don't know what I know, or you wouldn't say that. But it doesn't matter. I'll have a chance yet to even my score with that mischief maker. I'm glad I ran across you two. You can keep me posted as to what goes on at the prissy school; provided anything of account happens there."

"Yes, certainly." Lola's a.s.surance lacked warmth. "How long do you expect to be here, Leslie? Are you going to open your New York house this winter? Now that you are done with college, I suppose your father will want you to be near him. If you're going to be in New York, Alicia and I will arrange to spend Thanksgiving with you. Our house is closed and the folks gone to California for the winter."

"I don't know where I'll be at Thanksgiving." Leslie spoke with cold abruptness. She had quickly sensed Lola's lack of interest in herself, immediately topped by self-seeking. That was Lola to a T. "My father and I are on the outs, if you care to know it. He was furious with me about that hazing business. He didn't care a bit about what we did to Remson.

He said that was merely looking out for our own interests. He couldn't see the hazing for a minute. I'm living on my own money. I don't know whether he and I will ever make up or not." A curious expression of gloom crossed her heavy features. The estrangement from her father was her real punishment.

"I shall stay on here for awhile," she went on. "I might as well. Later I'll go to Chicago, perhaps. I have a couple of girl friends who are crazy to have me make them a long visit."

"I am sorry about your trouble with your father." Lola did not show sympathy. Instead she appeared half sulky. Leslie's refusal to take up her Thanksgiving hint had displeased her. She had calculated that she and Alida would enjoy being entertained over Thanksgiving at the Cairns'