CHAPTER VIII
BILLIE AGAINST HER WORLD
There was a moment of silence broken only by the night sounds of thewoods and the gentle lapping of the lake against the shore.
Then Edina Tooker drew a long, tremulous breath.
“It--sounds like--a fairy tale,” she said huskily. “Seems like I’d haveto change a lot to have that happen.”
“So you will,” said Billie Bradley eagerly. She was beginning towarm to her plan as it took form in her mind. “Not in yourself, youunderstand, but in, well, in externals--like clothes, for instance.”
There! It was out! Even in the darkness Billie could guess at the hotflush that mantled the face of the girl from the West. As the silencecontinued and Edina sat with clenched hands, staring out toward thelake, Billie began to fear she had gone too far--that Edina’s fiercepride would resent the insinuation in her friendly suggestion.
In a moment, however, Edina’s quiet voice put her fears to rest.
“Everything about me’s wrong. Don’t you think I know that? All I needis eyes in my head to tell me I don’t stack up against these girls herewith their purty clothes and their airs and graces. We’re a hundred--athousand miles apart.”
“Would you like to be like them, Edina--look like them, I mean?”
For the first time the girl showed animation.
“Oh, would I just!” she breathed. “Would I _just_! But I don’t knowhow. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“Well, _I_ would,” said Billie. “I’ll guarantee to make you over intoa perfect picture of the modern schoolgirl, Edina Tooker, as soonas--well, as soon as we can get a day off to do some shopping.”
“Would you help me?” asked Edina, in a stifled tone. “_Would_ you?”
“You’d be surprised,” Billie retorted gaily. “I hope you have some sortof indelible identification mark on you, Edina Tooker. Otherwise, whenI get through with you, you won’t know yourself!”
There was no doubt but that the girl from Oklahoma, Billie’s “roughdiamond,” was dazzled by the prospect.
“It don’t seem hardly possible, but if you could fix me up like yousay, I’d be grateful to you all the rest of my life.”
“There’s only one condition,” said Billie severely; “and that is thatyou will agree to do exactly as I tell you, that you will let me havemy own way about everything. It’s the only way I can get results.”
“Done!” cried Edina, and reached out a big rough hand that almostcrushed Billie’s little one in its grip. “You’re sure a good sport andI’m sorry for the way I--I talked to you before.”
“That’s all right.” Billie began to gather up the remnants of thebasket lunch. “We’d best be getting back to the Hall or they will besending out a posse in search of us. Besides, I promised Vi I’d helpher with her math.”
As the two girls approached the Hall, Edina walking close to Billie,her eyes downcast and sullen, they found that the school grounds werealmost deserted.
The groups of girls had broken up and scattered indoors, most of themfor study, some few of them for reading or other diversions, somemerely to enjoy that half hour or so of school gossip they all found soenjoyable.
Billie found that a few of her friends still lingered in the grounds.Laura and Vi with Connie Danvers and Ray Carew were discussing thetennis tournament which was to be an exciting feature of the fall term.
These girls turned interested and speculative eyes toward Billie andher companion.
Edina would have avoided Billie’s friends. She murmured something underher breath about having to get back to her dormitory; but Billie seizedher hand and drew her on toward the group of amused and interestedgirls.
“You promised you’d do as I say,” she reminded her companion. “Andthe first thing you’ve got to learn is never to run away from anysituation. You’ve got to square your chin and look it straight in theeye.”
Billie marched straight up to her friends, Edina’s big, rough handclenched tightly in her own.
“Girls,” she said, in her forthright fashion, “Edina Tooker and I havedecided to be friends. We are going to be the best of pals from now on.And I am depending upon all my friends to be nice to her.”
There was a brief, uncomfortable silence. The girls did not like EdinaTooker. Nevertheless, they knew that if Billie took her up, sooner orlater they would all be forced to accept her. Not too graciously, theybowed to the inevitable.
“Anything you say goes with me, Billie,” Laura observed.
“Me, too,” said Vi.
“Welcome to the fold, Edina,” drawled Ray Carew.
“We welcome you as one of ourselves,” added Connie, the sarcasm behindher words not too well disguised.
“I knew you would,” said Billie sweetly, wanting, privately, to slapthem all. To her new protégé she said: “It’s only Tuesday, Edina. Wewill have to wait until Saturday, I guess, to get a day off and carryout our plans. Remember, we are going to make them all sit up and takenotice. Until then, don’t forget our bargain.”
“I won’t,” returned Edina. She released her hand from Billie’s andwithout so much as a good-by to the other girls made her way throughthe beautiful grounds toward the first-year dormitories. In thatbeautiful setting, she looked grotesque enough, as much out of place asthe proverbial bull in the china shop.
“Well, I see you’ve gone and done it, Billie,” sighed Vi. “I was afraidyou would. But it’s no use. You can’t tame that girl.”
“Like making friends with a lion cub,” observed Laura. “You never cantell when it will turn and rend you with its fangs. That sounds a bitfar-fetched, but I guess you catch my meaning.”
Billie shook her head.
“You’re dead wrong, all of you. Edina isn’t a bit like that. She isheadstrong and untamed, I’ll admit; but at heart she’s very much likethe rest of us, wanting what we want and desperately anxious for aneducation.”
Ray Carew’s mocking laugh floated on the darkness.
“I hadn’t an idea you were so credulous, Billie. The girl is nothingbut a savage. If you try to help that sort of person you will only getyour trouble for your pains. I’m warning you.”
It was being slowly borne in upon Billie Bradley that she was alonein her championship of the strange, lonely girl from Oklahoma. Herfriends, the girls upon whom she depended for understanding andsupport in what she had come to regard as an interesting and evenexciting experiment, were subtly, but none the less decidedly, rangingthemselves against her.
She turned to Connie Danvers.
“Do you feel that way about it, too, Connie?” she asked.
“I’m willing to be nice to anybody, if you say so, Billie. But I can’thelp thinking you are making a mistake, taking up this freak girl fromOklahoma. It seems to me you are letting yourself in for a heap oftrouble.”
“You feel that way about it, too, Vi?”
“’Fraid I do, Billie. Though I’ll try to be nice to her, if you say so.”
“And you, Laura?”
“You will never be able to make anything of that sort of girl, Billie.She has nothing in common with the rest of us. If you try to take herup, you will be only wasting your time. I feel sure of it.”
Billie was silent for a moment. She was troubled and hurt, but thedefection of her friends in no wise altered her determination to helpthe strange, wild, half-tamed girl from Oklahoma.
“Very well,” she said quietly. “I am glad to know how you all stand,anyway. From now on, it will be my business to prove you wrong!”
As Billie limped up the gravel path alone, there was a curious weightupon her spirit. The disapproval of her friends was a new experience toher. Even Vi and Laura had deserted.
“I’ll show them I can make something of Edina Tooker!” she toldherself. “I’ll make them admit it! I’ve got to now, to justify myself.”