Julia Augusta Schwartz

“ So Bea considered a reckless disregard for books and persons also a quality of genius. Berta felt a slow blush creeping up to her brow at the candid memory of her tendency to bump into things and brush against people when in a dreamy mood—and to pass on without even a beg pardon.
“You’re evidently new to the business, my cautious and calculating young friend,” she whispered, “you should have ignored the resultant calamity. Ah—why, child!” she stared in surprise, “your collar is pinned crooked and your turnover is flying loose at one end, and your hair is coming down. You look scandalous.” ”

“ Then rising abruptly she jerked a chair in front of her desk, slapped down a fresh pad of paper, jabbed her pen into the inkwell, shook it fiercely over the blotter—and suddenly brushing the pages hither and thither she flung out her arms upon them and buried her face from the light.
A few minutes later Laura entered noiselessly and stopped short at sight of the crouching form with shoulders that rose and fell over a long quivering sob. Laura took one step toward her, next two away; finally setting her teeth resolutely she glided softly across the room and patted the bent, dark head. ”

“ Did Gertrude ever tell you about our playing at politics when we were sophomores? Possibly you have heard politics defined as present history, and history as past politics. On that understanding, this tale is a history. It is the history of a great reform. When I sit down to reflect, a luxury for which I seldom have time even in vacation, it really seems to me that I have been reforming all my life. Lila has reformed a good deal since she entered college, and Berta has been almost as bad as I. Robbie Belle is the best one among us, but she does not realize it. ”

“ Berta tucked a pensive skip in between steps as they moved through the gloomy corridor past rain-beaten windows. “It wasn’t like Gertrude to burst out like that just because Sara came late to our domestic evening, but it did spoil the fudges and the game and everything.”
“And not to give her a chance to explain!” fumed Bea’s temper always ready to flame over any injustice. ”

“ The last copy of the Annual had been sold before the gong whirred out its summons to dinner; and dozens of dilatory students were already besieging the chairman for an extra edition. After dinner Berta was captured for a dance in parlor J till chapel time. The lilt of the music was still echoing in her ears, her heart beating in happy rhythm to its harmony, when at last she slipped into the back pew and leaned her head against the wall, her lips relaxing in happy curves, her hands lying idle in her lap. ”

“ Bea’s brush dropped an impatient splash of yellow in the heart of the flower. Then she glanced up with a penitent smile.
“You’re so awfully loyal yourself, Lila,” she said. “You try to measure everybody up to that standard. I shan’t forget that day in hygiene when you declined to answer the question that floored me. It was like that poem about the girl who wouldn’t spell a word that the boy had missed, because she hated to go above him. And at the tennis tournament you wouldn’t leave till I had finished 26 the match, though you shivered and shook in the frosty October air. ”

“ When they saw Robbie Belle’s face they simply stared. They listened in silence to the few rapid words that stung and burned and smarted. They watched her depart, her head still held at its angle of 58 wrathful justice. Then they looked at one another.
They could not see how, when once safely in the haven of her room, she broke down utterly and lay trembling and sobbing in Miss Cutter’s astonished arms. Now at last she had surely committed an unpardonable offense against the only girls for whom she cared in the whole collegeful—especially Berta. Now Berta would be certain she was queer. ”

“ As she entered, Bea looked up brightly from the cardboard which she was cutting into squares.
“Here you are!” she exclaimed in cheery greeting, though her eyes had shadowed instantly at sight of the unhappy drooping of every line. “Sue Merriam has been in to show me how to make you up for the play next month. It takes quite an artistic touch to darken the brows and touch up the lashes. Catch these corks and put them away. They’re messing up my dinner-cards.”
Lila’s shoulders quivered as if pricked by a spur even while she mechanically caught the bits of black and fumbled them in her fingers. ”

“ Robbie Belle continued to stare at her thoughtfully. “If you truly want to, Berta, we might save up and go to the opera some other day. I’m willing.”
“Willing! Dear child! Willing! Behold how she immolates herself upon the altar of friendship! She is willing to go to grand opera and sit listening to sweet sounds from dawn to dark——”
“Oh, Berta!” interrupting in alarm, “not from dawn to dark really? How about——”
“Luncheon?” the other caught up the sentence tragically. “Ah, no, but calm thyself, dear one. Be serene—as usual. There is an intermission for luncheon. We could go to a restaurant. ”

“ When tired of standing around the tree, the class fluttered across the campus to the broad stone steps in front of the recitation hall.
Bea clung to Robbie’s arm again and reached for Lila in their flight. “I’m ’most sure we look like nymphs flying through the glades, with our draperies blowing in the lines of swift motion. I love to run when I feel like it. Robbie Belle, shall we ever dare to run when we get home?” ”

“ An inquisitive senior going out to investigate 91 spied only the deserted stairs, and heard nothing but four scampering feet on the corridor overhead. Saint Valentine, with a voice that dropped lower and lower into a muffled murmur, read her own name fifteen times in succession, and blushed rose-pink, from gray beard to powdered hair, while the other seniors laughed and laughed.
Two minutes after the valentines had been counted and the result announced Bea was waltzing about Berta’s room, with that unwilling captive in her arms.
“Ho! Who says your senior is more popular than my senior now?” ”

“ Miss Benton did not hear. “We exclaim—we point our fingers—we groan over the trickery of officials, scandals, bribery, treachery, lawlessness. And yet we—is it honest to bluff in recitations—to lay claim to knowledge which we do not possess? Is it honest to injure a library book and not pay for the damage? Is it honest to neglect to return borrowed property? Some of us rob the maids of strength by obliging them to work overtime in waiting on us at the table. Our lack of punctuality steals valuable time from tutors and teachers and each other. ”

“ A glimpse within set her eyes to sparkling.
“Berta, there’s an open fire in the senior parlor, and it’s still red!”
“Ho,” whispered Berta, in reply to the unspoken challenge, “I’m not afraid! Let’s,” and two flowing, woolly robes glided into the warm room, with its heart of glowing coals. One bold intruder nestled in the biggest arm-chair, the other fumbled for the tongs.
“Aren’t we wicked! Robbie wouldn’t do it.” Berta cuddled deeper among the comforting cushions. “But—oh!—doesn’t it feel good in here!”
Bea poked a coal until it split into a faint blue blaze. “We’re worse than wicked. ”

“ At her imperious gesture Laura slid out of the room at an apologetic angle, her head twisted for a final shy glance back at Lucine who was apparently absorbed in her papers.
When safely outside in the corridor Berta seized her about the waist and whirled her away from all possible earshot through cracks and transom.
“Now then, exit the ogre, or rather eximus nos, leaving the ogre alone. For what particular reason is she trampling all over you to-day? I didn’t catch all her last speech. You don’t mean to say that you have promised to help her with her writing?” ”

“ And then when she tries to cheer up, you treat her so abominably! Lila, you are growing more and more spoiled every day. People praise you too much. You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You’ve improved a lot since you first began to room with me, but still——”
Lila had vanished. Winding her swift way between the circling pairs, she hurried into the corridor where girls were strolling idly as they waited for the gong to summon them to chapel. Beyond the broad staircase Ellen’s disconsolate little figure stood in the glare of the gas-jet over the bulletin-board. ”

“ Poor little Bea! After the first dazed moment she began to select and gather up the fifteen valentines which she had deposited five minutes before.
“Why, Beatrice Leigh!” gasped Berta. “You haven’t any right to take them back after you have mailed them!” 88
“Do you imagine for one moment that I shall give valentines to a girl who sends them to herself? And the senior who receives the most is declared the most popular in the class!” ”

“ The first thing Robbie Belle did was to stumble over the threshold.
“Oho!” jeered Berta, “you’re careless. That’s as easy as alpha, beta, gamma.”
She meant a, b, c, you understand, but she prefers to say it in Greek, being a sophomore.
“But she isn’t careless,” protested Lila, “she’s the most careful person I ever met. The sole of her shoe is split, and that is the reason she stumbled.”
“Why is it split?” demanded Berta in her most argumentative tone; “would a nobly careful and painstakingly fastidious person insist upon wearing a shoe with a split sole? No, no! ”

“ Robbie Belle caught a glimpse of figures emerging from the dining-room. “There come those two seniors who forgot to get seats in advance. Isn’t it lucky! Now we can sell them ours.”
“Give me my ticket,” demanded Berta’s voice sullenly, “you never cared.”
“But it is not honest,” repeated Robbie Belle stubbornly. “I never thought of it in that light before. It is not honest to spend five dollars and more for a luxury while we are living on borrowed money.”
“Give—me—my—ticket.”
The seniors rustled past. To Berta their laughter sounded far away. “Oh, girls, we’ll have to hurry! ”

“ To have your essay praised by Miss Thorne the terrible, who never approves of anything, and yet you stand there like a common mortal! You live, you breathe, you walk, you talk, just the same as you used to do! She says it has promise. I do believe that she never said as much before about anybody except maybe 324 Shakespeare when he was young. Oh, just wait until she sees the Annual!”
Berta had colored hotly. “Bea, don’t tell anybody, please. Of course, I care what she says. I care most of all—I care heaps—about her opinion that the qualities are—are promising. ”

“ She paused in dispensing the main dish and rolled up her eyes vacantly for a moment before she dropped the spoon without a glance 106 at the cloth to see if it left a stain and rising walked dreamily out of the dining-room.
The other girls stared. Robbie looked alarmed till Gertrude caught the likeness and explained: “It’s ‘sincerest flattery’ for you, Berta. Imitation, you understand. When an idea strikes you, you drop everything and wander away while Robbie or Bea picks up the spoon and goes on ladling out the stuff in the dish at your place. What a monkey!” ”

“ This world was full of queer people—all sorts of people who did not care for music, and even some who did not care for books. Wasn’t it the strangest thing—not to care!
When somebody consulting her watch announced that the special electric car was to leave the Lodge Gates for the station in seven minutes, Berta dropped spoon and napkin in eager haste to depart. Out into the corridor and around the balusters to the messenger room where they were required to register their names and destination. At the foot of the broad staircase hung the bulletin board in the pale flicker of a lowered gas-jet. ”

“ Faithful Robbie Belle had found out her refuge somehow and was waiting in the corridor. With that comforting arm across her shoulders, Berta poured out the story of her sudden disappointment.
At first Robbie was silent. Then she spoke gently: “But, Berta, you have had the four 338 years at college, you know, and four years are a good deal. There are thousands and thousands of girls who never have even that.”
“I know,” answered Berta, her voice smothered against the convenient shoulder. “And that thought helps—at least, I think it will help to-morrow.” ”

“ Lila raised her shoulders slightly. “She isn’t worth noticing, I dare say. Such people never are. I can’t help wishing that you were not acquainted with her. I want you all to myself. I’m glad she belongs to another class anyhow.”
Into Bea’s puzzled face crept a troubled expression. “You’re a funny girl, Lila,” she said; “let’s go to the orchard.”
On their way across the campus, they passed countless girls hurrying from building to building. Every doorway seemed to blossom with a chattering group, a loitering pair, or an energetic single lady on pressing business bent. ”

“ Once when I myself was a freshman I nearly lost my faith in human nature because a senior whom I admired did something that looked dishonest. But sending valentines to yourself in order to win a prize is different from bluffing. ”

“ At dinner I slid two butterballs into my glass of milk, and Lila filled her glass with sugar from the bowl and then poured enough milk over it to hide the grainy look. Robbie Belle kept her eyes in another direction, but Berta said we had a right to one of the balls anyhow, because she had not eaten butter all day. Berta is the brightest girl in the class and she can argue about everything, and let the other person choose her side of the question first too. ”