“Oh, between dancing school and Purt Sweet, Lil has about got her silly head turned,” said Hester, tossing her own head.
“My goodness me!” drawled Mrs. Grimes, “that child doesn’t take young Purt Sweet seriously, does she?”
“Whoever heard of anybody’s taking Pretty seriously?” laughed Hester. “Only Pretty himself believes that he has anything in his head but mush! Last time Mrs. Pendleton had an evening reception, Purt got an invite, and went. Something happened to him – he knocked over a vase, or trod on a lady’s dress, or something awkward – and the next afternoon Lil caught him walking up and down in front of their house, trying to screw up courage enough to ring the bell.
“‘What’s the matter, Purt?’ asked Lily, going up to him.
“‘Oh, Miss Lily!’ cries Purt. ‘What did your mother say when you told her I was sorry for having made a fool of myself at the party last night?’
“‘Why,’ says Lil, ‘she said she didn’t notice anything unusual in your actions.’
“Wasn’t that a slap? And now Lil is letting Purt run around with her and act as if he owned her – just because he’s a good dancer.”
“My dear!” yawned her mother. “I should think you’d join that dancing class.”
“I’ll wait till I’m asked, I hope,” muttered Hester. “Everybody doesn’t get to join it. We’re not in that set – and we might as well admit it. And I don’t believe we ever will be.”
“I’m certainly glad!” complained her mother, rustling the leaves of her book. “Your father is always pushing me into places where I don’t want to go. He had a deal in business with Colonel Swayne, and he insisted that I call on Mrs. Kerrick. They’re awfully stuck-up folks, Hess.”
“I see Mrs. Kerrick’s carriage standing at the Beldings’ gate quite often, just the same,” muttered Hester.
“Yes – I know,” said her mother. “They make a good deal of Laura. Well, they didn’t make much of me. When I walked into the grounds and started up the front stoop, a butler, or footman, or something, all togged up in livery, told me that I must go around to the side door if I had come to see the cook. And he didn’t really seem anxious to take my card.”
“Oh, Mother!” exclaimed Hester.
“You needn’t tell your father. I don’t blame ’em. They’ve got their own friends and we’ve got ourn. No use pushing out of our class.”
“You should have gone in the carriage,” complained Hester.
“I don’t like that stuffy hack,” said her mother. “It smells of – of liv’ry stables and – and funerals! If your father would set up a carriage of his own – ”
“Or buy an automobile instead of hiring one for us occasionally,” finished Hester.
For with all his love of display, the wholesale butcher was a thrifty person.
With Lily so much interested for the time in other matters, Hester found her only recreation at the athletic field; and for several days after the mysterious raid upon the girls’ gymnasium there was not much but talk indulged in about the building. Then new basketballs were procured and the regular practice in that game went on.
In a fortnight would come the first inter-school match of the fall term – a game between Central High girls and the representative team of East High of Centerport. In the last match game the East High girls had won – and many of the girls of Central High believed that the game went to their competitors because of Hester Grimes’s fouling.
There was more talk of this now. Some of the girls did not try to hide their dislike for Hester. Nellie Agnew did not speak to her at all, and the latter was inclined to accuse Nellie of being the leader in this apparent effort to make Hester feel that she was looked upon with more than suspicion. The mystery of the gymnasium raid overshadowed the whole school; but the shadow fell heaviest on Hester Grimes.
“She did it!”
“She’s just mean enough to do it!”
“She said she hated us!”
“It’s just like her – she spoils everything she can’t boss!”
She could read these expressions on the lips of her fellow students. Hester Grimes began to pay for her ill-temper, and the taste of this medicine was bitter indeed.
CHAPTER VI – THE FIRST GAME
It would have been hard to tell how the suspicion took form among the girls of Central High that Hester Grimes knew more than she should regarding the gymnasium mystery. Whether she had spoiled the paraphernalia herself, or hired somebody to do it for her, was the point of the discussion carried on wherever any of the girls – especially those of her own class – met for conference.
Older people scoffed at the idea of a girl having committed the crime. And, indeed, it was a complete mystery how the marauder got into the building and out again. Bill Jackway, the watchman, was worried almost sick over it; he was afraid of losing his job.
Bobby Hargrew was about the only girl in Central High who “lost no sleep over the affair,” as she expressed it. And that wasn’t because she was not keenly interested in the mystery. Indeed, like Nellie, she had seen at the beginning that suspicion pointed to Hester Grimes. And perhaps Bobby believed at the bottom of her heart that Hester had brought about the destruction. Bobby and Hester had forever been at daggers’ points.
Bobby, however, was as full of mischief and fun as ever.
“Oh, girls!” she exclaimed, to a group waiting at the girls’ entrance to the school building one morning. “I’ve got the greatest joke on Gee Gee! Listen to it.”
“What have you done now, you bad, bad child?” demanded Nellie. “You’ll miss playing goal guard against East High if you don’t look out. Miss Carrington is watching you.”
“She’s always watching me,” complained Bobby. “But this joke can’t put a black mark against me, thank goodness!”
“What is it, Bobby?” asked Dorothy Lockwood.
“Don’t keep us on tenter-hooks,” urged her twin.
“Why, Gee Gee called at Alice Long’s yesterday afternoon. You know, she is bound to make a round of the girls’ homes early in the term – she always does. And Alice Long was able to return to school this fall.”
“And I’m glad of that,” said Dorothy. “She’ll finish her senior year and graduate.”
“Well,” chuckled Bobby, “Gee Gee appeared at the house and Tommy, Short and Long’s little brother, met her at the door. Alice wasn’t in, and Gee Gee opened her cardcase. Out fluttered one of those bits of tissue paper that come between engraved cards – to keep ’em from smudging, you know. Tommy jumped and picked it up, and says he:
“‘Say, Missis! you dropped one of your cigarette papers.’ Now, what do you know about that?” cried Bobby, as the other girls went off into a gale of laughter. “Billy heard him, and it certainly tickled that boy. Think of Gee Gee’s feelings!”
Not alone Bobby, but all the members of the basketball team were doing their very best in classes so as to have no marks against them before the game with the East High girls.
Mrs. Case coached them sharply, paying particular attention to Hester. It was too bad that this robust girl, who was so well able to play the game, should mar her playing with roughness and actual rudeness to her fellow-players. And warnings seemed wasted on her.
Hester never received a demerit from Miss Carrington. In class she was always prepared and there was little to ruffle her temper. The instructors – aside from Mrs. Case – seldom found