Jane Allen, Center

by George Cary Eggleston

  CHAPTER XVII--POTENTIAL ENEMIES

  The time had come! Disclosures promised real sensations, and Jane,quiet, composed, if a trifle flushed, waited rather uneasily in herplace beside the retiring class president.

  Just across the room, directly below the big desk, sat Marian Seaton,surrounded by a chattering crowd, taking advantage fully of the opensession preceding the formal program.

  Hazel Manners, the retiring president, looking very handsome and verycharming, in her senior gown, with the cap's tassel still to the left,however, made a happy and appropriate little speech in stepping down.She assured the girls of her willingness and wish to assist them, byadvice with any matter her experience might make valuable to them.Hazel was one of the most popular girls in college, and it wasundoubtedly the aspiration of every girl present to become like Hazelin her senior year.

  Jane thanked her gracefully, and took the place at the desk. A fewwords of consecration, as Jane expressed it, opened the new period ofclass history.

  This was the signal for all outsiders to withdraw; that is, all exceptthe guards, these being two of the faculty, always on hand to keeporder.

  With characteristic directness Jane plunged into the most difficultpart of the meeting.

  Instantly everyone changed positions, that shifting move, usuallymarking a new angle in a sermon, and after that one could have heard apin drop in the big room.

  "To sustain my reputation and on that account only," Jane began, "I amprompted to open a subject bound to be rather distressing to all. Irefer to the question of my change of heart on the matter of takingthis office. I had said positively I would not take it, and now here Iam. In such a position I feel obliged to give a reason for my decision,to my splendid supporters."

  Applause interrupted Jane at this point. Not only did the girls want toknow what happened on election night, but they had no hesitancy inpublicly proclaiming their interest.

  "When you began your meeting at which you hoped to elect me (Applause)I had fully intended to decline, but scarcely had I settled down towait for your call than another came--it was an urgent call to go toRutherford Inn, where, the message said, I would meet a relative, whowas in distress! I have few relatives (Jane paused a moment) and thatcall sent me flying out to Rutherford!" Audible breathing marked theinterval.

  "But no sooner did I cross the threshold of the Inn than I was seizedby--someone, or some two or three, and after a rather rough tussle Isucceeded finally in getting free," declared Jane. "Of course, I knewthen it had been a trick to kidnap me!"

  Cries of "shame," "foul," and hisses broke in on the monologue here,and Jane was obliged to rap loudly for order.

  "Kidnapping is positively forbidden in class rules," Minette managed tomake heard, "and the perpetrators should be brought to trial."

  "Madam President! Madam President!" shouted a girl from the opposition."I demand to be heard----"

  "Miss Tracy has the floor," conceded Jane.

  "The rules were not violated. We did not kidnap a candidate. You hadnot yet accepted," Miss Tracy shouted in verbal chunks.

  "No such interpretation can be placed on rule five!" replied Janecalmly. "The secretary will please read rule five, by-laws."

  Theodora Guthrie, known as Ted, fat and flustered, stood up with thelittle typewritten pamphlet of rules and by-rules. She thumbed thepages to find the desired section, and after a preliminary cough andsome squirming of her touseled black head, waited for a signal fromJane (Ted was a very careful secretary), then she proceeded:

  "Section two, by-law five: candidates: No candidate shall be forciblyor strategetically detained from her caucus, at any time calculated todebar her from office. This shall apply to abductions, kidnapping,stunts, and tricks, hitherto allowed, but from this date and by thissection now prohibited."

  "That seems to cover the case," said the president.

  "It does not," shouted the spokesman for the opposition, Rose Bowers,without regard for voice, or its effect on her listeners. "If that weretrue with Jane Allen, it was equally true with Marian Seaton. She waskidnapped by the other side."

  "Nothing of the kind," interrupted Dozia Dalton. "I was----"

  "Silence! Order!" called the crier, Judith. "We shall be obliged toclear the room at the first sign of disorder. We have given our word tothe guards."

  "Yes, and that order must be obeyed," insisted the chair, namely, JaneAllen. "We shall be pleased to hear each in turn. Secretary, who hasthe floor?"

  "The report of the secretary on the rules was just finished," repliedTed Guthrie.

  "And I ask the secretary to make a record that the rule covered thecase of illegal abduction," went on Jane. "I may add further that thetrick of bringing my relations into the fight was, in my opinion, smalland cowardly. At a call from home I would have gotten into an airshipwithout question--any girl would."

  Applause and hisses mingled at this, until the latter caught up withthe former, merging all the sounds into a conglomeration of noises suchas only school girls know how to issue. Order at length restored, themeeting proceeded.

  "Madam President! May I speak?" called Dozia Dalton.

  "Miss Dalton has the floor," replied Jane, before anyone else could cutin.

  "I would like to tell what happened to me on election night," Doziabegan, and again the apprehensive silence, preluding something of deepinterest, was so loud it could almost be heard.

  "Proceed," ordered Jane.

  "When I took the password and grip from our contingent I found astranger in our lines. I called her out and she ran!"

  "That was----"

  "No interruptions, please! Miss Dalton, go on."

  "When I followed I found the runaway was Miss Seaton!"

  "Oh, shame!" came from more than one voice. "Spying! Sneaking!"

  "I was not," declared Miss Seaton hotly, now on her feet. "I had aperfect right to be in the Allen lines. Why shouldn't I?"

  "Miss Dalton has not finished," Jane ordered with a very consideratenod to Marian who still stood, thus claiming the floor. She finally satdown but kept up a mumble for some moments.

  "Yes, I found the leader, Marian Seaton, had stolen into our ranks,perhaps to give all our secrets to the opposition," went on Doziamercilessly, and plainly excited.

  "And you tried to tie my feet!" swung in Marian.

  "And you tried to gag me!" almost shouted Dozia.

  "They both tumbled into the lake," fired in a freshman who never shouldhave spoken, but was too new to know of her disbarment.

  A roar of honest laughter greeted this announcement. It was notdifficult to picture Dozia trying to tie Marian's feet, and Mariantrying to gag Dozia, with the result of both girls rolling into thelake.

  "And of course," continued Dozia, "I could not get to the meeting atall. I had to stay in that cold, dark boat house----"

  "What about me?" again interrupted the indignant Marian. "I was keptaway from the hall, and I got a very bad cold----"

  "Oh, too bad. Wasn't that awful! Dear little thing!" and similarexclamations crowded out Marian's attempt to gain sympathy.

  "We have two different charges here, it seems to me," replied the nowjudicial Jane. "One is, that a girl from the other side stole into theranks of the right with the intention of betraying secrets, and----"

  "No such thing, that isn't so. We had a right there with our ownclass," and a string of such outcries from Marian's corner interruptedJane.

  "Not after sides had been taken and candidates chosen," declared Janeindomitably.

  "But why could I not vote--for your--candidate?" asked Marian in aquaking voice.

  "Oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! As if you would!" came the call of the squad thatshould have saved its tones for cheering on other occasions.

  "Well, I claim I had a perfect right to be in that line. And I am goingto take the matter to the faculty," persisted Marian rather feebly.

  "You will have no occasion to," snapped Jane, forgetting the dignity ofher office. "I dislike, very much, this petty
squabbling and I amdetermined, this year, to keep our reputation clear of it. If you wantany redress other than to stand by the result of all our meetings youcan ask for a special session, and we will thrash it out, if it takesall night, but I am against any one carrying tales to the faculty. Itis a small and--childish thing to do, and we all claim to be at leastold enough to be in college," finished Jane.

  "I move that we give three rousing cheers for our new president," spokeup little Dorothy Blyden. This was responded to by so many "second its"the secretary was obliged to ask: "Who seconded that motion?" Butmeanwhile the three rousing cheers were echoing through the old studyhall.

  "And will someone move that we invite the opposition to come in on thecommittees?" generously asked Jane.

  "No need to do that," snapped Marian Seaton, "for until this matter isadjusted, I, as leader, shall oppose uniting with the Allens," shealmost sneered at the word Allens. "And I will ask for a specialinvestigation, in spite of the opposite views having been expressed,"grandiloquently finished the vanquished leader.

  "Any other business? If not, we stand adjourned," called Janeresonantly, and the celebration which followed seemed to lack nothingfrom the fact that all the class was not represented in its numbers.

  A feature of the occasion, as reported in "The Trumpet," was the newpresident, Jane Allen, seated on a pyramid of cushions, crowned with aglorious feather duster, meanwhile dispensing sweet music from herhome-made uke.