PLAY THE GAME!
BY
RUTH COMFORT MITCHELL
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK :: LONDON :: 1924
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Copyright, 1920, by The Crowell Publishing Company
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
MY BROTHERS
| Books by RUTH COMFORT MITCHELL |
CORDUROY NARRATIVES IN VERSE JANE JOURNEYS ON PLAY THE GAME |
| D. APPLETON AND COMPANY New York London |
CONTENTS
PLAY THE GAME!
CHAPTER I
There was no denying the fact that Honor Carmody liked the boys. No oneever attempted to deny it, least of all Honor herself.
When she finished grammar school her mother and her gay young stepfathertold her they had decided to send her to Marlborough rather than to theLos Angeles High School.
The child looked utterly aghast. "Oh," she said, "I wouldn't like thatat all. I don't believe I could. I couldn't bear it!"
"My dear," her mother chided, "don't be silly! It's a quite wonderfulschool, known all over the country. Girls are sent there from Chicagoand New York, and even Boston. You'll be with the best girls, the verynicest——"
"That's just it," Honor interrupted, forlornly.
"What do you mean?"
"Girls. Just girls. Oodles and oodles of nothing but girls. Honestly,Muzzie, I don't think I could stand it." She was a large, substantialyoung creature with a broad brow and hearty coloring and candid eyes.Her stepfather was sure she would never have her mother's beauty, but hewas almost equally sure that she would never need it. He studied herclosely and her actions and reactions intrigued him. He laughed, now,and his wife turned mildly shocked eyes on him.
"Stephen, dear! Don't encourage her in being queer. I don't like her tobe queer." Mrs. Lorimer was not in the least queer herself, unless,indeed, it was queer to be startlingly lovely and girlish and appealingat forty-one, with a second husband and six children. She was not anespecially mother