igh as it
disappeared through the receiving slot. How glad she was that the idea
had come to her. She wondered only why she had never thought of it
before.

CHAPTER IX

SEEKERS OF DISCORD

Fifteen minutes after the arrival of Marian and Maizie a disgruntled
trio of girls sat closeted in the room belonging to Marian and Maizie.

"It's all your fault," stormed Elsie Noble, her sharp black eyes full of
rancor. "If you'd come here as you promised instead of being a week late
you could have used the wonderful influence you _say_ you have with Mrs.
Weatherbee to let me keep that room. It's forty times nicer than the one
I have."

"I couldn't get here any sooner. Howard Armstead gave a dinner dance
specially in honor of _me_ and we had to stay for it."

Marian crested her blonde head as she flung forth this triumphant
excuse.

"Of course you did. You're so boy-struck you can't see straight. I
might have known it was because of one of your silly old beaux. I'm glad
I have more sense."

"You don't show any signs of it," sneered Marian.

"Stop quarreling, both of you," drawled Maizie. "Go go ahead, Elsie, and
tell us what happened about the room. That's the thing we want to know.
For goodness' sake keep your voice down though. You don't talk. You
shout."

"I'd rather shout than drawl my words as if I were too lazy to say
them," retaliated Elsie wrathfully.

"All right, shout then and let everybody in the Hall know your
business," was Maizie's tranquil response.

"If you came here to fuss, Elsie, then we can get along very well
without you. If you expect to go around with us, you'll have to behave
like a human being."

Marian's cool insolence had an instantly subduing effect on her
belligerent relative. She knew that Marian was quite capable of dropping
her, then and there.

"I don't know what happened about the room," she said sulkily, but in a
decidedly lower key. "I came here at nine o'clock in the morning. Mrs.
Weatherbee sent the maid with me to the room. That Stearns girl said I
must have made a mistake. I knew that she wasn't exactly pleased. She
said hardly a word to me. She went out and stayed out until just before
luncheon. Then she came in for about ten minutes and went downstairs. I
didn't see her again."

"She was probably running around the campus telling her friends about
it," lazily surmised Maizie. "I'll bet she was all at sea. Wonder if she
went to Weatherbee with a string of complai