Beatrice Leigh at College

by Frank Cobb

  CHAPTER IV

  HER FRESHMAN VALENTINES

  WHEN Bea straightened her head from its anxious tilt over the desk, shedrew the tip of her tongue from its perilous position between two rows ofwhite teeth, and heaved a mighty sigh of relief.

  Then she blinked admiringly upon the white pile of envelopes lying in theglow of the drop-light. "There! That makes fifteen valentines all forher. She will be sure to receive more than any other senior, and thatwill teach Berta Abbott a thing or two. The idea of her insisting thather senior is more popular than my senior!"

  With a smile that was rather more sleepy than dreamy, the industriousyoung freshman picked up the precious missives.

  "O Lila,--my magnanimous roommate,--are you asleep? Do you want to listento my last valentines? I intend to run down and put them in the seniorcaldron presently. Is this sentimental? When I read it to Berta, shelaughed at it.

  "My Music

  "At thy birth were gathered voices of the sea, Murmur of the breezes in the forest tree, Songs of birds and laughter--"

  At this point an open umbrella, which hid the pillow on the farthernarrow bed, gave a convulsive shiver, and a fretful voice complained:

  "Will you turn off that gas and stop your nonsense? Here it is midnight,if it's an hour, and I haven't slept a wink, with that light blazing. Iknow I shall fail in the written test to-morrow, Valentine's day or not."

  Bea stared pensively at the Topsy-like corona above the flushed face. "Idon't believe she ever puts her hair up in curlers now, do you? She issuperior to such vanities, and anyway, it is naturally curly, you know,and that probably makes a difference. I wonder if she even stoops tomaking verses. Do you suppose she sends valentines to other girls? Ofcourse, she doesn't care a snap whether she receives more than any, andis declared the most popular senior. H'm-m-m!" drifting into reverieafresh. "I dare say I could compose a poem on that idea. For instance:

  "I know a senior all sedate--"

  The umbrella bounced tempestuously across the floor, and was followed bya pillow driven hard and straight at a tousled head that ducked just intime.

  "U-huh!" ferociously. "Well,

  "I know a freshman, sure as fate! Who shall no longer sit up late, Because her long-suffering roommate--"

  Here the gas flared suddenly into darkness, and slippered feet scurriedaway from the desk. The door opened and shut quickly; and Bea, hervalentines clutched safely against her dressing gown, was speedingthrough the dark corridors toward the senior parlor. There a kettle,overflowing with bits of white, swung from a tripod before the shadowyfolds of the parlor portieres.

  Ah! Bea, bending toward the caldron with arm extended, stiffened withoutmoving. She had heard something. Yes, there it was again--a muffledfootfall on the stairs near by. Hark! Down the black shaft from the caveabove came stealing a second slender figure in a flowing robe of somepale woolly stuff. In her hands also was clasped a packet of envelopes.

  "Hello, Berta!" Bea said.

  "Oh, good-morning, Miss Leigh!" responded Berta, advancing with a treadthe stateliness of which was somewhat impaired by a loosely flappingsole. "Did you rise early in order to prepare for the Latin test?"

  Bea brushed aside the query with the contempt it deserved. "Are all thosefor your senior? I don't think it's fair for you to copy verses out ofany old book, while every one of mine is original; and yet yours countexactly as much. Well, anyway, I wouldn't send my senior anything thatwas ordinary and unworthy of her acceptance. How many have you?"

  This ignoble curiosity was likewise ignored by Miss Berta, who proceededwith dignified slowness to drop her valentines one by one into thecaldron. Bea, with lingering care, deposited her contribution on the verytop. One slid over the edge, and in rescuing it she disturbed a fold ofthe portiere. 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 notafraid! Let's," and two flowing, woolly robes glided into the warm room,with its heart of glowing coals. One bold intruder nestled in the biggestarm-chair, the other fumbled for the tongs.

  "Aren't we wicked! Robbie wouldn't do it." Berta cuddled deeper among thecomforting cushions. "But--oh!--doesn't it feel good in here!"

  Bea poked a coal until it split into a faint blue blaze. "We're worsethan wicked. We're cheeky,--that's what,--coming into this room withoutbeing invited. Suppose some senior should discover us!" She paused,smitten by the terror of the new thought. "Just suppose my senior shouldfind me here! She has a horror of anything underhanded or sly. I shoulddie of shame!" It was a genuine groan, and Berta was too startled tolaugh.

  "I guess it isn't very nice of us," she acknowledged meekly.

  "I'm going this instant." Bea's hand was on the portiere when a rustlingin the kettle caught her attention. Through a rift between the folds shespied lace ruffles about a delicate hand that was dropping envelopes downupon the others. Over the tripod a face appeared for one moment in thedim light, and then was gone. Light steps retreated swiftly, and a doorclosed not far away on the senior corridor. Bea had recognized hersenior.

  When the two midnight visitors stole timorously forth a moment later,Bea's eyes traveled wistfully toward the big envelope lying squarely ontop of all the valentines.

  Berta regarded her keenly. "Why don't you march up and read the name, ifyou want to so much?" was her blunt question.

  "She must be pretty fond of somebody," whispered Bea, "if she stayed uptill now just to write valentines for her. I wish----"

  "Do you think it is sneaking to look?" persisted Berta. "If she objectedto having it seen, she might have turned it address down."

  "It is address down," murmured Bea, sadly, "and I know it would bedishonorable to try to see it. She herself would call any act like thatcontemptible."

  At this crisis Berta sneezed--sneezed hard and long and with suspiciousvehemence. And when Bea cast one lingering farewell glance toward thecaldron, she perceived that the topmost missives were sliding over theedge in the breeze raised by that gusty sneeze. The big square envelopetumbled clumsily down upon its back and lay staring, quite close to theflickering gas. Bea's wilful eyes rested on it one illuminating instant,and then leaped away, while her cheeks whitened suddenly. The name on thevalentine was that of the senior herself.

  Poor little Bea! After the first dazed moment she began to select andgather up the fifteen valentines which she had deposited five minutesbefore.

  "Why, Beatrice Leigh!" gasped Berta. "You haven't any right to take themback after you have mailed them!"

  "Do you imagine for one moment that I shall give valentines to a girl whosends them to herself? And the senior who receives the most is declaredthe most popular in the class!"

  "But--but," stammered Berta, "perhaps she thought--perhaps she didn'tthink----"

  "And I was afraid a girl who could do a thing like that might blame usfor entering the senior parlor uninvited!"

  Bea's hands fell listlessly at her sides as she walked away. "I don'tcare," she said. And Berta, who was wise in some unexpected ways,wondered why people always said they did not care just when they caredthe most.

  Next day various anonymous verses were delivered at the door where LilaAllan wrestled with the rules for indirect discourse, while her roommate,chin in hand, stared gloomily out at the snow-darkened sky. Valentineswere silly, anyway, and it was a shame for any one to waste time andenergy in hunting foolish rhymes for eyes and hair and smiles and hearts.How could a person be sure about anybody, if a girl with a face like awhite flower could send valentines to herself with the address side down?

  All day long the senior caldron bubbled notes faithfully till the verylast minute. After chapel the class fluttered into their little parlor,with its fire blazing merrily and its shaded lamps glowing. Somebody,disguised in a long gray
beard and flowing gray robe, stalked in amidlaughter and clapping, and began to distribute the contents of thekettle.

  Berta, hanging at a perilous angle over the stairway just outside, feltsome one halt silently beside her, and glanced up into Bea's eyes.

  "Hello!" she said, in an excited whisper. "Can you see all right, Bea? Ithink she has called my senior's name about twenty times already. Lookhow the valentines are heaped in her lap! Where's your senior?"

  "That person with the gray beard," began Bea, calmly, only to beinterrupted by, "Why, so it is! What fun! Where does she put theenvelopes addressed to herself? Oh, yes, I see. Why----" Berta caughtBea's skirts in a firm grasp. "See here, young lady, you'll go over thebanisters head first if you don't undouble yourself pretty soon.You'll----"

  "That's the very valentine--that big, square envelope in her hand thisinstant! She sent it to herself----"

  Bea saw Saint Valentine read aloud the name, and then stop short, staringat the address in a puzzled way. She turned the envelope over to examineits back, and study the waxen seal. Suddenly she bent her head in thedelighted laughter that Bea once had thought so charming. She laughedtill the long gray beard threatened to shake itself free.

  "Isn't that the greatest joke! I was scribbling verses last night till Iwas too sleepy to see straight. I didn't mean to send this to myself. Howperfectly ridiculous!" and she tossed the innocent missive into the fire.

  Outside on the shadowy stairway Berta gave a little squeal of pain."Ouch! You're pinching me black and blue! Why, Bea, Bea Leigh, whateverin the world----"

  A packet of white, bound with an elastic, went flying through the air, tofall with a rustling plop into the half-empty caldron. An inquisitivesenior going out to investigate spied only the deserted stairs, and heardnothing but four scampering feet on the corridor overhead. SaintValentine, with a voice that dropped lower and lower into a muffledmurmur, read her own name fifteen times in succession, and blushedrose-pink, from gray beard to powdered hair, while the other seniorslaughed and laughed.

  Two minutes after the valentines had been counted and the resultannounced Bea was waltzing about Berta's room, with that unwillingcaptive in her arms.

  "Ho! Who says your senior is more popular than my senior now?" shejeered. "Who won that time, I want to know?"

  "Before I'd have a senior who sends valentines to herself!" grumbledBerta wickedly, to the ceiling.

  "Ho!" chanted shameless Bea. "I knew it was a mistake all along. That'sthe reason I didn't tear up my valentines."

  "Yes?" commented Miss Berta, with an inflection so maddening that inthree seconds she was fleeing for her life.