Part 15 (1/2)
”I did not hear it.” Katherine fixed her clear eyes squarely upon the other girl. ”I heard Jerry scream 'Look out!' and then the car struck me.”
”Hm! Well, all I can say is you girls should not have been strung across the road as you were,” was Leslie's bold criticism.
”We were walking only on the half of the road used by cars coming toward us,” was Katherine's quietly defensive rejoinder. ”But it doesn't matter, Miss Cairns. I do not intend to make any trouble for you. I hope all excitement of the accident has died down before this.”
”It will be dropped unless that crowd of girls you go with keep stirring it up,” retorted Leslie. ”I wish you would ask them to let it drop.
Since you are willing to, why shouldn't they be? I wasn't to blame.
Start an inquiry and the result will be we'll not be allowed to keep our cars at college. That will hit some of your friends as well as myself and mine.”
”I give you my word that I shall drop the matter. I know my friends have no desire to keep it active. I say this in their defense. I cannot allow you to misunderstand or belittle their principles.”
Katherine spoke with marked stiffness. She could endure Leslie's supercilious manner toward herself. When it came to laying the fault at the door of her beloved friends--that was not to be borne.
”I'm not in the least interested in your friends. All I want them to do is to mind their own business about this accident. If you say they will, I look to you to keep your word. If you will accept a money settlement, say what you want and I will hand you a check for that amount.” Leslie made this offer with cool insolence.
”Please don't!” Katherine was ready to cry with weakness and hurt pride.
”I--won't you look upon the whole affair as though it had not happened?
Money is the last thing to be thought of.”
”Very well; since that is your way of looking at it.” Leslie rose. She experienced a malicious satisfaction in having thus ”taken a rise out of the beggar.” Her point gained, she was anxious to be gone. ”Hope you will soon be as well as ever. If you need anything, let me know. I must hurry along. I have a very important dinner engagement this evening.
Goodbye.”
She made a hasty exit, without offering her hand in farewell. Katherine lay back among her pillows with a long sigh of sheer relief. She felt that she could not have endured her caller two minutes longer without telling her frankly how utterly she detested her.
Marjorie and Jerry coming cheerily in upon her soon after cla.s.ses, she confided to them the news of Leslie's call.
”The idea,” sniffed Jerry. ”Wish I had been here. I'd have told Miss Bully Cairns where she gets off at. How does she know but that President Matthews knows about it already? There were several fres.h.i.+es in her car.
No doubt they were all her sort or they wouldn't have been with her.
Look at the fres.h.i.+es in Miss Stephens' car. They were the first on the scene and were awfully sweet to us. What would hinder any one of them from 'stirring things up' if they disapproved of the way Miss Cairns acted? I mean the way she took her time about coming back after she ran Katherine down. She had better make the rounds of the college and tell everyone to keep quiet about it.”
”She knows she is entirely in the wrong,” said Marjorie sternly.
”Further, she has not told the truth. I am sure I would have heard a horn if she had sounded one. She was certainly exceeding the speed limit, and she did not keep her car to the proper side of the road. So long as Katherine wishes the matter dropped, her wish is law in the matter.”
CHAPTER XIV.
A VOLUNTEER MESSENGER.
While the news of Katherine's injury soon spread about the college, it was reported merely as one of those unintentional happenings for which no one was actually culpable. The owners of cherished cars were canny enough to realize that to capitalize the accident meant jeopardy to their privileges. All knew that a certain important college for girls had recently banned cars. None were anxious that Hamilton College should find cause to do likewise.
There was one person, however, upon whose action no one had reckoned.
That particular person chanced to be Professor Wenderblatt. As a friend of his daughter's and his most brilliant pupil, the professor cherished a warm regard for Katherine. One of the freshmen in the car driven by Harriet Stephens chanced to be a friend of Lillian's. The latter received from her a fairly accurate account of the accident on the following Monday. Nor did the freshman fail to place the blame where it belonged.
Highly indignant, Lillian regaled her father with the news at dinner on Monday evening, declaring that she thought something ought to be done to make the Sans stop their reckless driving. Professor Wenderblatt, who was bound by no ties of school-girl honor, decided to have a private word on the subject with President Matthews. The fact that Katherine had just missed having her back broken was serious enough in his belief to warrant a reprimand from headquarters to the offenders.
Utterly unaware that she had a zealous, but an undesired defender, Katherine returned to her cla.s.ses after a two weeks' absence apparently in good trim. With her re-appearance on the campus the Sans took heart again. Leslie had not been summoned to the president's office. Nothing had occurred to point to trouble from that direction.