CHAPTER XXI

ALL IN THE NAME OF WELFARE

“Suppose she shouldn’t come?” Behind the gray of her mask Joyce Rawlston gave a faint giggle.

“She will, I think,” Mildred Ferguson predicted. “I heard today that she was all broke-up over the write-up. She has been taking her meals at Baretti’s, too. That’s why we haven’t seen her in the dining room at the Hall.”

“It’s a wonder Miss Cairns hasn’t been trotting around with her, trying to show how much democracy she has,” Marylyn Spencer curled a red upper lip. “They’ve not been seen together since the afternoon when the story came out in the ‘Gazette.’”

“Miss Cairns is looking after her own interests by dropping her, I presume. She had better watch her step. She used to be considered the most lawless student that ever enrolled at Hamilton. She made a wise change in her ways when she managed to get back again on the campus. Now she plumes herself on being so intimate with Marjorie Dean Macy and that crowd of wonder workers. I _detest_ Leslie Cairns,” Mildred exclaimed with bitter energy.

“For goodness’ sake, Laura, don’t fall down on your speech,” Stephanie interposed nervously. She was tired of hearing Mildred’s tirade against Leslie, from a too frequent repetition of it.

“I won’t. Let me alone,” Laura replied to Stephanie in the deep forbidding voice she was soon to use as chairman.

“Will she knock on the door?” Reba Franklin cast a quick glance toward the appointed portal by which Jewel Marie Ogden must enter, provided she obeyed the dread summons.

“No. The note directed her to open the door, and walk in. Sh-h-h. I’m sure I heard a step,” Mildred raised a warning finger.

Came the turn of the knob. A muffled sigh ascended from the masked tribunal. Jewel Ogden had stepped into the room, her black eyes fixed upon the waiting gray dominos in an expression of anxious dread. For an instant she stood poised on the threshold as though about to turn and flee, then she came slowly forward until she was within a few feet of the long oak bench on which were seated the fearsome company of masks.

“I received a note,” she began bravely, “from the Chairman of the Campus Welfare Committee. I should like to speak to her, please.” Her eyes roved timidly up and down the line of masks.

“I am the chairman.” Laura had risen. She stepped forward a little, standing between the diminutive freshman and the row of silent dominos. “My dear Miss Ogden,” she began, “it has long been the custom in almost every college for the unjust to persecute the just. You have been summoned here tonight by a certain group of girls who have yet to learn how to live, or how to let others live.”

“Oh-h! Oh-h! Why, the idea!” The impressiveness of the masked figures had been suddenly lost in the angry babble of girl voices that rose from behind the gray masks.

“_Silence._” The sternness of the command, spoken in a voice that was certainly not Laura Taylor’s, pre-empted an odd uncomfortable hush. “_I_ am the chairman of this committee, and I am going to deliver a speech suitable to the occasion. It will not be a long speech, but it will be strictly to the point. It seems hardly necessary for me to inform you students that you are hazing. It is a dangerous pastime on Hamilton campus.”

“You are not Laura Taylor!” Stephanie had sprung angrily to her feet. “You have no right to be here spying upon us.”

“What right have you to be here in the existing circumstances?” lashed out the stern voice.

“We are—we are going to rehearse a play,” Stephanie declared defiantly.

“Not now; the show is over, and the play is played out.”

“We had permission to use this room this evening. You are intruding.” Mildred Ferguson had rallied stormily to Stephanie’s aid.

“Very true, Miss Ferguson, but, circumstances alter cases. I came here tonight to see that Miss Ogden received fair treatment. Also to say to you that hazing does not pay; neither does spite and malice. I tried them all once, here at Hamilton, so I know now that advice to you is sound.”

“Leslie Cairns,” Mildred Ferguson almost shouted out the name.

“Yes; Leslie Cairns, the most lawless student who ever enrolled at Hamilton College.” As she spoke Leslie threw back the hood of the domino and stripped the mask from her face. “I’m trying now to live down that reputation. I _was_ expelled, you see. You have merely run the risk, but it’s a bad risk to run.”

“_Laura_,” gasped Marylyn, “Where is she? She’s to blame for—” she checked herself.

“Yes; she is. She came to me in confidence today because she had the courage of her convictions. She wishes you to know this; asked me to tell you. That’s all, I believe. Come on. Jewel, let’s go over to Baretti’s for ice cream. Good night, masks. The next time you decide to start on a student you don’t happen to fancy, think it over, and don’t start.”

Her arm linked in Jewel’s, the tiny girl had begun to cry, quietly, pitifully, she drew her freshie catch toward the door, leaving an oddly silent row of chagrined girls behind them.