Presently she rallied from her downcast mood and took sturdy hope.
Perhaps, after all, she would not be detained long. She was sure Anna
had done nothing wrong. It was more likely a financial difficulty which
confronted her. That would not be so hard to adjust. Jerry would have to
know. She decided that the other three Lookouts were entitled to know
also. She might have to call on them for help in Anna's case. They were
her close friends and fit to be trusted with a confidence. She claimed
the right to use her own judgment in the matter.
"What a shame!" was Jerry's disgruntled reception of the news. "I think
it is selfish in her. Why couldn't she have waited until tomorrow? It is
probably a financial difficulty. She isn't the kind of girl to break
rules."
"A member of her family may have died and she hasn't the money to go
home. It must be really serious," Marjorie soberly contended. "I ought
to go and I will. There is no snow on the ground. I can dress before I
go and wear high overshoes and my fur coat and cap. Then, if I am not
kept there long, I can hustle to the gym and be there before the
unmasking."
Better pleased with this arrangement, Marjorie hastily gathered up
towels and toilet accessories and trotted off to the lavatory, leaving
Jerry to frowningly re-read the note. Jerry did not like it at all. She
wondered why Miss Towne could not have come to Wayland Hall instead of
putting her chum to the extra trouble of seeking her.
Dinner was eaten post haste that night by the excited participants in
the masquerade. Preparations having been the order so long beforehand,
it did not take the maskers long after dinner to get into their
costumes. They were eager to go outdoors and parade the campus, the
night being pleasantly snappy with an overhead studding of countless
stars.
Fearless in the matter of going out alone after dark where an errand
called her, Marjorie did not mind the rather lonely walk after leaving
the campus. In order to escape parties of maskers on the campus she wore
her own mask and therefore escaped special notice. Without it she would
have been challenged by every party of masks she met. This was a
favorite custom on this night. Frequently a member of the faculty was
caught in crossing the stretch of ground and gleefully interviewed.
Coming to the row of houses, in one of which Miss Towne resided,
Marjorie kept a sharp lookout for the number. The house where she had
formerly lived stood about the middle of the block. Finally she came to
852, which she found by means of a small pocket flashlight which she
usually carried at night. The arc light was too far up the street to be
of use to her in this.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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