CHAPTER XI
THE HALLOWE'EN DANCE
Saturday dawned as inauspiciously as any other day in the week, but tothe high school boys and girls of the little city of Sanford it was aday set apart. Aside from commencement, the great event of their highschool year was about to take place.
As early as eight o'clock that morning the decorating committee ofWeston High School was up and laboring manfully at the task of turningWeston's big gymnasium into a veritable bower of beauty, which should,in due season, draw forth plenty of admiring "Ohs!" and "Ahs!" fromtheir gentle guests. For three days the committee had been borrowing,with lavish promises of safe return, as many cushions, draperies,chairs, divans and various other articles calculated to fitly adorn theballroom, as their families and friends confidingly allowed them tocarry off.
Their progress along this line had been painstakingly watched bynumerous pairs of sharp, young eyes, and the report had gone forth amongthe girls that this particular Hallowe'en party was going to be "thenicest dance the boys had ever given."
To Marjorie Dean, however, the event promised more than the usualinterest. It was to be her first opportunity of entering into the sociallife of the boys and girls of Sanford. In B---- she had numbered manystanch friends among the young men of Lafayette High School, but she hadlived in Sanford for, what seemed to her, a very long time and had notmet a single Weston boy. Jerry had promised to introduce Marjorie to herbrother and to the tall, fair-haired youth known as the Crane, but sofar the young people had not been thrown together. Marjorie had nosilly, sentimental ideas in her curly brown head about boys. From earlychildhood she had been allowed to play with them. She was fond of theirgames and had always evinced far more interest in marbles, tops and evenbaseball than she had in dolls. Still, at sixteen, she was not a hoydennor a tomboy, but a merry, light-hearted girl with a strong, healthybody and a feeling of comradeship toward boys in general which was tocarry her far in her later life.
At the time she had given Constance the blue gown she had also gainedher friend's rather reluctant consent to come to dinner at the Deans' onthe great night and dress with her for the dance. Marjorie attributedConstance's hesitation to shyness. Always reticent regarding her homelife, Constance, aside from her one outburst relating to her familyon the day when she had advised Marjorie against her friendship, hadsaid little or nothing further of her home. So Marjorie did not knowthat it was not a matter of shyness, but rather a question of who wouldkeep house and get the supper while she was out enjoying herself, thatcaused Constance to demur before accepting the invitation. Then sheremembered that Hallowe'en came on Saturday and decided that she couldmanage after all.
The momentous Saturday dawned clear and cold, with just the suspicion ofa fall tang to the air. It was a busy day for the Weston boys, and whenat four o'clock the last garland of green had been twined about thegymnasium posts and the gallery railing, while the last flag had beenpainstakingly hung at the proper angle, the dozen or more of young menwho formed the decorating committee viewed their work with boyish pride.
"It looks bully," shouted an enthusiastic freshman, with a sweep of hisarm which was intended to include the whole room. "If the girls aren'tsuited with this, they won't be invited over here again in a hurry."
"Hear him rave!" sadly commented a sophomore. "It takes a freshman tofall all over himself."
"That's because we are young and have more enthusiasm," retorted thefreshman, his freckled face alive with an impish grin.
"Desist from your squabbles And join in the waltz,"
caroled an extremely tall, thin youth, pirouetting on his toes, andwaving a long trail of ground pine about his head in true premieredanseuse fashion.
There was a shout of laughter from the boys at this burst ofterpsichorean art. The tall youth pranced and whirled the length of thegymnasium and back, ending his performance with a swift, high kick and abow that bade fair to dislocate his spine.
"Did I hear someone laugh?" he asked severely, drawing down his facewith such an indescribably funny expression that the laughter brokeforth afresh. "It is evident that you don't appreciate my rare abilityas a dancer."
"You mean as a grasshopper," jeered the freckle-faced youth.
"Exactly. No, I don't either. How dare you insult me?" He made a lengthylunge toward the freshman, who promptly dodged behind a tall,good-looking young man who had at that moment joined the group.
The lunging youth brought up short with, "Hello, Hal, I thought you hadgone."
"So I had. Got halfway home and found I'd left my pocketknife here.Maybe I didn't hotfoot it back though. Hope the girls will like thelooks of things." He cast approving eyes about the transformedgymnasium. "Jerry's been raving to me ever since school began about hernew friend, Marjorie Dean. Have you met her? I understand she is comingto-night."
"Not I, I can't tell one of those girls from another," grumbled theCrane. "You know just how much I like girls. I don't mind helping getready for this business, but I'd rather take a licking than come backhere to-night. You'll see me vanishing around the corner and out of hereat the very first chance. Girls are an awful nuisance anyway."
"Nothing like true chivalry," murmured the freckle-faced freshman. Aninstant later he was sprinting down the gymnasium as fast as his shortlegs could carry him, the Crane in hot pursuit.
"Cut it out, fellows," laughed Harold Macy. "You'll upset something orother, and then, look out."
"If we do it will be the Crane's fault," came plaintively from thefreckle-faced freshman, as he dodged his pursuer with an agility born oflong practice. "I don't see why he wants to chase me. I merely made asimple remark."
"Now that you've owned up to its being simple I'll let you off thistime," declared the Crane, magnanimously, "but see that it doesn'thappen again."
"I will," was the glib promise. "I'm sorry I said you were agrasshopper. You look more like a giraffe."
Then he made a hurried exit through a nearby side door, leaving theCrane to vow dire vengeance the next time he ventured within reach.
A little further loitering and the group of boys broke up, and, leavingthe gymnasium, went home to get ready for the evening's fun and be backin good season to help receive their guests.
There were two guests, however, who dressed for the party with entirelydifferent emotions. To Constance it was the most wonderful night of herlife. She stole frequent, half-startled glances at her blue satin-shodfeet and even pinched a fold of her chiffon gown between her fingers tofeel if it were real. Mrs. Dean had arranged the girl's fair curlinghair in precisely the same fashion that Mary Raymond wore hers, and whenshe had been hooked into the precious gown, with its exquisite littlesprays of rosebuds, she thought she knew just how poor, lowly Cinderellafelt when the fairy godmother touched her with her wand. While she wasbeing dressed she said little, yet Marjorie and her mother knew by thehappy light that crowded the wistful look quite out of her expressiveeyes that their guest was too deeply appreciative for words.
Marjorie, who looked radiantly pretty in her frock of pink silk with itsoverdress of delicate pink net, welcomed the dance with all theenthusiasm of one who was heartily glad to get in touch with the socialside of her school life. She had forgotten for the moment that certaingirls in the freshman class had turned against her; that she was nolonger a member of the freshman basketball team. She remembered onlythat it seemed ages since she had attended a party and she hopedfervently that someone would ask her to dance.
Jerry and Irma had arranged to call for Marjorie and Constance, as thequartette were to use the Macys' limousine. When the automobile stoppedbefore the house, Jerry insisted on getting out and running into thehouse to see her friends' gowns. Irma followed her, a smile ofgood-natured tolerance on her placid face.
"Jerry couldn't wait to see your dresses," she said, then exclaimed inwonder: "How lovely you look, Constance, and what a perfectly sweetgown!"
Constance colored to the tips of her small ears. Jerry, too, beganvoicing loud appr
oval, and when, after having stood in line and beeninspected by Mrs. Dean, the four girls piled into the limousine,Constance was overcome with the peculiar sensation of experiencing toomuch happiness. She felt that it could not possibly last.
The gymnasium was fairly well filled when they entered and by half pasteight o'clock the majority of the guests had arrived. Hardly had theydeposited their scarfs in the dressing-room and administered lastjudicious pats to straying fluffy locks of hair when Jerry, who haddisappeared the moment they reached the dressing-room, came hurryingback with the information that Hal was waiting outside to do the honors."You'd better hurry out and console the Crane, Irma," she added slyly."He looks about ten feet tall in his evening clothes and perfectlymiserable."
Following in Jerry's wake Marjorie stepped into the gaily decorated roomand the next instant was shaking hands with handsome Hal Macy, the mostpopular fellow in Weston High. As the brown eyes met the frank manlygaze of the gray, there passed between the two young people a vividflash of liking and comradeship that was later to develop into a stanchand beautiful friendship.
"I am so glad to know you," said Marjorie, earnestly. "I am very fond ofyour sister."
"I am sure we shall be friends," declared Hal Macy. Involuntarily he putout his hand. Marjorie's hand met it, and thus began the friendshipbetween Marjorie Dean and Hal Macy.