College stories; Women college students -- Fiction
“Why, I know the man who wrote that,” she gasped. “There! J. E. N.--see
those initials at the end?--they mean Jack Newbold. I remember now he is
writing for that paper. He told me this summer at the sea-shore that he
was going in for newspaper work. His grandfather owns this paper, you
know, and has promised him half a million when he is twenty-five if he
will go through the whole thing--learn everything a newspaper man must
know. He didn’t want to do it much, but, of course, he would go in for
almost anything sooner than lose all that pile of money.”
Miss Atterbury looked thoughtfully and intently at Miss Thayer.
“You say he is a friend of yours?” she demanded, slowly.
“Oh, yes; we got to be very good friends this summer. He taught me how
to play fifteen-ball pool--that’s about all he knows,” went on the girl,
scornfully. “He’s an awful duffer about everything else. You ought to
see him play tennis! It’s not very edifying, but it’s awfully funny.”
Miss Atterbury gave a little gasp of delight.
“That’s too good to be true,” she said, enthusiastically.
Miss Thayer rather stared. “Why?” she demanded, and then, without
waiting for a reply, she swept on. “You wouldn’t think so if you had to
play doubles with him! And he simply can’t walk--gets awfully tired, he
says. _I_ think it’s his clothes. Gets ’em in London, and they are
terribly swell and uncomfortable. And he is always afraid his collar is
going to melt; it’s quite painful to be with him on a warm day. And I
couldn’t induce him to come out in my cat-boat with me. Said he didn’t
think a girl could learn to handle one with any degree of safety. Did
you ever hear of anything so unjust? I think he was _afraid_.”
Miss Atterbury was leaning on the table now, and her countenance had
assumed such a cheerful look that the freshman felt quite relieved and
ventured to pick up her mandolin again.
“Go on!” demanded the senior, delightedly.
“Well, I don’t know anything more,” declared Miss Thayer, impatiently.
“Isn’t that enough for you? He’s no good at out-door sports, and what he
is doing writing us up or down is more than I can imagine. He oughtn’t
to be allowed to do so. He don’t know anything about it at all, and I
should think he would be ashamed of himself. I suppose his editor told
him to do it, and he simply ‘made up’ and put down everything he had
ever heard about us, and worked in all the old jokes about girls’
colleges.”
Miss Atterbury got up slowly.
“Well!” she said, impressively, to Miss Thayer, “I’m sorry if that young
man is much of a friend of yours, for we have got to make an example of
him. I suppose you know him well enough to invite him out here Monday
afternoon?--for you’ve got to do it,” she added, with calm decision.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account