CHAPTER XV--INTERNAL WAR

Marjorie thought that she had never longed so much for a holiday to come as Thanksgiving. She was eager to go home and see her general and captain. Then there was Connie's wedding to be considered. Her mother had written her that the gown she was to wear as maid of honor to Constance was ready and waiting for her. Marjorie did not know its color, texture, what kind of wedding Connie was to have as to color scheme. All of that was being kept away from her as a delightful secret. Naturally she had a lively yearning for home and its joyous surprises.

There was also the question of the boarding-house proposition which could not be answered until after Thanksgiving. She hoped the owner would not disappoint her and Robin again by remaining away from Hamilton.

She made a valiant effort to forget her own yearnings in taking a kindly interest in basket ball practice, which went on almost every afternoon in the gymnasium. She soon found that the scrub and official sophomore teams welcomed her presence at practice. The freshman team did not. Gussie Forbes glowered rudely at her whenever she chanced to be near enough. The two freshmen forwards, friends of Elizabeth Walbert's, showed disfavor of Marjorie's attendance. The other two freshman players took color, chameleon-like, from the belligerent trio and cast indifferently unfriendly glances in her direction.

It did not take Marjorie long to fathom this state of affairs. While it amused her, she was mildly resentful of it. Resolved not to be intimidated by a few black looks, she calmly ignored the situation. Soon, however, she began to notice that internal war raged on that particular team. As center, Augusta Forbes had not struck a bed of roses. With four of her team-mates arrayed against her, her position had become well-nigh unbearable.

Her childish heart wrapped up in basket ball, she exhibited a noteworthy patience. She was keenly proud of her position on the team and worked with might and main, schooling herself to be indifferent to the contemptible little stings delivered by her team-mates. Considering her tempestuous disposition, she showed remarkable self-restraint, an indication of the fine young woman she would become when college had worn away the rough edges.

"See here, Marvelous Manager," Jerry began one afternoon as the two stood watching a bit of snappy playing, which Augusta had just exhibited. "_L'enfant terrible_ is not getting a fair deal. Did you know that?"

"Yes, _I know it_," replied Marjorie with savage emphasis. "It is too bad. Something will have to be done about it. I have noticed it before today. I wanted to see if the rest of the committee would. I wished to be sure that I wasn't over critical. Muriel mentioned it to me last week. Robin and Elaine noticed that the team was at loggerheads on Tuesday. I hardly know how to proceed. I hate to call a meeting of the team and lay down the law to them. It will only make Miss Forbes' position more uncomfortable, I am afraid. She plays with her whole heart. They keep one eye on their game and the other on her."

"She's a star player," praised Jerry. "I can't help but admire her for the way she plugs along under such stress. Yes, Marj, _l'enfant terrible_ will turn out well, I predict, even if she never learns to appreciate us."

"It seems to be Marj's duty to wind up this snarl," commented Marjorie satirically. "I do not relish the task. I wish the freshies would not jangle. The soph team is positively seraphic."

While Marjorie was casting about in her fertile brain for a good opening toward adjusting matters on the freshman team, the way opened with amazing celerity. She had attended practice on Thursday. The following Monday she had not. It being a rainy afternoon there were almost no spectators. An altercation rose between a girl on the scrub team which the freshies were pitted against, and Augusta. The scrub player claimed a foul on Gussie which the latter hotly contested. Gussie's team-mates stood up for the scrub. The end of her patience reached, she turned on them all in a fury of words, stinging and truthful.

"The whole trouble with you four girls is you want to see me off the team," she concluded. "Sorry I can't oblige you, I mean glad. I play fairly. But you say, I do not. In your hearts you know I do. You had best tend to your own playing instead of picking flaws with me. I play a better game than any of you. If we lose the first game of the season, it won't be my fault."

"Nothing conceited about you, is there?" sneered Alma Hurst, the most disagreeable of the four objectors.

"I know what I can do on the floor," composedly retorted Gussie.

"Yes, and I know what I can do off the floor," threatened Alma. "We would have a fine team if it weren't for you. It's a case of four against one. I think our word will stand. I shall see that it does."

"Go as far as you like," scornfully dared Gussie. "You can't bother me."

"We'll see about that," asserted Alma, and walked away, accompanied by her three irate supporters.

Gussie left the gymnasium that afternoon with a heavy heart. She had defied the quartette of oppressors, but she had no faith in herself.

"I suppose I'm done for," she reflected gloomily, as she forged through a driving rain to Wayland Hall. "They will complain to the sports committee or to Professor Leonard. Those seniors on the sports committee hate me. They will be perfectly delighted to put me off the team. They will make Professor Leonard think I am the most hateful, cheating person on the campus and he will ask me to resign. Just as though I would cheat in basket ball. There'd be no fun in playing unfairly." Gussie choked back a low sob. She dashed her hand angrily across her eyes. "I won't cry. I'm not such a big baby as that, I hope."

On the following afternoon Marjorie found a note, in the bulletin board at the Hall, which brought a quick light of anger to her brown eyes. It read:

Miss Marjorie Dean, Chairman, Sports Committee, Wayland Hall, Campus.

Dear Miss Dean:

We appeal to you to take prompt action in the case of Miss Augusta Forbes who is a detriment to the freshman team. She is rough and unfair in her playing. Besides, she has accused us of being untruthful and used what we should call harsh language to us. We try to work peacefully and in harmony, but she is so unruly we simply cannot endure her. As there are four of us, all of the same opinion, I think our plea should be heard and this disturber removed from the team. Let us hear from you in the way of justice.

Yours truly,

Alma Hurst, Official Freshman Team.

"They'll certainly hear from me," Marjorie commented, a smile flickering about the corners of her mouth. "As for _l'enfant terrible_. Poor old child!"

She sat down on the top step of the landing, where she had so often paused to read her letters, and re-read the preemptory letter. She continued to sit there for a little while, evidently turning over in her mind something that had more than once visited it.

Unable to decide, she rose and went on up the stairs. Stopping only to lay her notebooks on the center table of her room, she next sought Muriel.

"Read that." She dropped the letter on the table before which Muriel sat writing industriously.

Muriel glanced through and gave a short, scornful laugh, "Nothing like asking for what one wants. Such a modest request! Strip the team of its shining light to please four sore-heads! What are you going to say to the big four?"

"Enough in a few words to let them understand that I understand them. I needed your official support. I see I have it. I knew I had already. Now I shall show this effusion to Robin and Elaine. I am going over to Silverton Hall. If Jerry comes here hunting me, tell her I'll be back in time for dinner."

"All right. Be sure to write those snippies a good, stiff letter, and let me see it," called Muriel after Marjorie as she went out the door.

Robin and Elaine were equally disapproving of the letter written by Miss Hurst.

"I think Miss Forbes should be told of this attempt to oust her from the team. Of course she must have known all along of their feeling against her. That accounts for the lack of fellowship among them that I noticed last Tuesday. It is not fair to keep her in the dark about it," Robin declared.

"I had thought of telling her," Marjorie said slowly. "I could write these kickers the kind of letter they need. They would then either have to treat Miss Forbes well or I should ask for their resignations from the team. They are in the wrong, I am sure. I will not countenance any injustice to any player while I am chairman of the sports committee. I feel, however, that I ought to ask Miss Forbes for her side of the matter in fairness to them. They have stated their case against her."

"So you should," Robin was quick to agree.

"Oh, by all means, tell her, Marjorie," advocated gentle Elaine. "Then she will be sure that we are standing up for her."

This was good advice. Unfortunately, neither Robin nor Elaine knew of Gussie's unreasonable attitude toward Marjorie. She considered this phase of the affair rather ruefully as she walked across the campus through the November dusk. Her best method of approaching Gussie was to go to her room. Then if the recalcitrant "Gus" refused to talk with her, no one other than Florence Hart, Gussie's room-mate, would be present at the failure.

"I'll have to in and see Miss Forbes," Marjorie informed Jerry with a sigh. Jerry had been allowed to read the annoying letter.

"How nice!" satirized Jerry. "You had better poke your head in at her door, say what you must and beat it back here in a hurry. You will be perfectly safe, at least, if you follow my advice."

Marjorie pictured this move on her part and giggled. "I think I'll go and see her now. I have just time enough before dinner. If I put it off it will be harder and harder to do. I don't wish to go one single bit, Jeremiah." Her laughing face suddenly sobered.

"I don't blame you. Still, it may all turn out for the best. Perhaps if this big goose understands that you are trying to help her she will change her policy. Glad I'm not on that sports committee. I have all I can do to manage Jerry Jeremiah Geraldine Macy, let alone managing anyone else."