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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Senior Days, by Nell Speed
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Molly Brown's Senior Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn
+
+Release Date: March 23, 2008 [EBook #24903]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SENIOR DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jacqueline Jeremy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "You're right in the fashion, Miss Brown," observed
+Adele.--_Page_ 25.]
+
+
+
+
+    MOLLY BROWN'S
+    SENIOR DAYS
+
+    BY
+    NELL SPEED
+
+    AUTHOR OF "MOLLY BROWN'S FRESHMAN DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S
+    SOPHOMORE DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+    _WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS
+    BY CHARLES L. WRENN_
+
+    NEW YORK
+    HURST & COMPANY
+    PUBLISHERS
+
+
+    Copyright, 1913
+    BY
+    HURST & COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER                                                  PAGE
+
+        I. GOOD NEWS AND BAD                                    5
+
+       II. A TROUBLED SUNDAY                                   20
+
+      III. GOSSIP OVER THE TEACUPS                             38
+
+       IV. THE SENIOR RAMBLE                                   51
+
+        V. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL                           66
+
+       VI. THE RETORT COURTEOUS                                77
+
+      VII. A STOLEN VISIT                                      89
+
+     VIII. BARBED ARROWS                                      104
+
+       IX. THE SUBSTITUTE                                     114
+
+        X. THE POLITE FREEZE-OUT                              126
+
+       XI. THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE                             138
+
+      XII. FRIENDLY RIVALS                                    152
+
+     XIII. THE DROP OF POISON                                 164
+
+      XIV. JUDY DEFIANT                                       180
+
+       XV. THE CAMPUS GHOST                                   195
+
+      XVI. ON THE GRILL                                       208
+
+     XVII. A CHRISTMAS EVE MISUNDERSTANDING                   220
+
+    XVIII. TWO CHRISTMAS BREAKFASTS                           236
+
+      XIX. FACING THE ENEMY                                   251
+
+       XX. THE JUBILEE                                        267
+
+      XXI. FAREWELLS                                          277
+
+     XXII. THE FINAL DAYS                                     289
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+    "You're Right in the Fashion, Miss Brown," observed
+    Adele                                          _Frontispiece_
+
+    Before She Had Time to Realize the Danger, Jimmy
+    Lufton Had Torn Off His Coat                              132
+
+    Molly Glanced Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom ... was
+    Running Behind Them                                       198
+
+    Good-bye to Wellington and the Old Happy Days             303
+
+
+
+
+~Molly Brown's Senior Days~
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GOOD NEWS AND BAD.
+
+
+Summer still lingered in the land when Wellington College opened her
+gates one morning in September. Frequent heavy rains had freshened the
+thirsty fields and meadows, and autumn had not yet touched the foliage
+with scarlet and gold. The breeze that fluttered the curtains at the
+windows of No. 5 Quadrangle was as soft and humid as a breath of May. It
+was as if spring was in the air and the note of things awakening,
+pushing up through the damp earth to catch the warm rays of the sun. It
+was Nature's last effort before she entered into her long sleep.
+
+Molly Brown, standing by the open window, gazed thoughtfully across the
+campus. Snatches of song and laughter, fragments of conversation and
+the tinkle of the mandolin floated up to her from the darkness. It was
+like an oft-told but ever delightful story to her now.
+
+"Shall I ever be glad to leave it all?" she asked herself. "Wellington
+and the girls and the hard work and the play?"
+
+How were they to bear parting, the old crowd, after four years of
+intimate association? Did Judy love it as she did, or would she not
+rather feel like a bird loosed from a cage when at last the gates were
+opened and she could fly away. But Molly felt sure that Nance would feel
+the pangs of homesickness for Wellington when the good old days were
+over.
+
+All these half-melancholy thoughts crowded through Molly's mind while
+Judy thrummed the guitar and Nance, busy soul, arranged the books on the
+new white book shelves.
+
+Presently the other girls would come trailing in, the "old guard," to
+talk over the events of that busy first day: Margaret Wakefield,
+bursting with opinions about politics and woman's suffrage; pretty
+Jessie Lynch, and the Williams sisters whose dark lustrous eyes seemed
+to see beyond the outer crust of things. Last of all, after a discreet
+interval, would come a soft, deprecating tap at the door, and Otoyo Sen,
+most charming of little Japanese ladies, with a beaming, apologetic
+smile, would glide into the room on her marshmallow soled slippers.
+
+"Everybody's late," exclaimed Judy, unexpectedly breaking in on her
+friend's preoccupation. "I do wish my trunk were unpacked. I can't bear
+to be unsettled. It's the most disagreeable thing about the first day of
+college."
+
+"Why don't you go unpack it, then, lazybones?" asked Nance, a trifle
+sternly. As much as she loved her care-free Judy, she never quite
+approved of her.
+
+"How little you understand my nature, Nance," answered Judy,
+reproachfully.
+
+"I know that people who pride themselves on having the artistic
+temperament never like to unpack trunks or do any kind of so-called
+menial work, for that matter. But there can be just as much art in
+unpacking a trunk as in a painting a picture----"
+
+"Ho, ho!" interrupted Judy, who loved these discussions with her
+serious-minded friend. "How would you like to engage for all your life
+in the immortal work of unpacking trunks?"
+
+"I never said anything about doing it always--" broke in Nance, when the
+argument was brought to a sudden end by the arrival of the other girls.
+
+There was a great noise of talk and laughter while they draped
+themselves about the room.
+
+College girls in kimonos never sit in straight-backed chairs. They
+usually curl themselves up on divans or in Morris chairs, or sit,
+Turkish fashion, on cushions on the floor.
+
+"Well, and what's the news?" they asked. Most of them had caught only
+flying glimpses of each other during the day.
+
+"Wait until I make my annual inspection," ordered Judy, carefully
+examining the fourth finger of the left hand of every girl. "No rings or
+marks of rings," she said at each inspection until she came to Jessie,
+who was endeavoring to sit on her left hand while she pushed Judy away
+with her right. "Now, Jessica, no concealments," cried Judy, "and from
+your seven bosom friends! It's not fair. Are you actually wearing a
+solitaire?"
+
+"I assure you it's my mother's engagement ring," Jessie protested, but
+Judy had extricated the pretty little hand on the fourth finger of which
+sparkled not one, but two, rings.
+
+"Caught! Caught, the first of all!" they cried in a chorus.
+
+"Honestly and truly I'm not."
+
+"It looks to me as if you had been caught twice, Jessie," said Molly
+laughing.
+
+"No, no, one of them is really Mama's and the other--well, it was lent
+to me. It's not mine. I simply promised to wear it for a few months."
+
+Jeers and incredulous laughter followed this statement.
+
+"We only hope you'll hold out to the end, Jessie," remarked Katherine in
+tones of reproach.
+
+"What, leave dear old Wellington and all of you for any ordinary, stupid
+man? I'd never think of it," cried Jessie.
+
+"I'm not afraid," here put in Edith. "Fickle Jessica may change her mind
+and her ring half a dozen times before June. Who can tell?"
+
+"I'm not fickle where all of you are concerned, anyhow," answered Jessie
+reproachfully.
+
+"You're a dear, Jessie," broke in Molly. She never did quite enjoy
+seeing other people teased.
+
+"Will some one kindlee make for me explanation of the word 'jubilee'?"
+asked Otoyo Sen, seated cross-legged on a cushion in the very center of
+the group, like an Oriental story-teller.
+
+"Jubilee?" said Edith. By an unspoken arrangement, it was always left to
+her to answer such questions. "Why jubilee means a rejoicing, a
+celebration."
+
+"There will be singing and dancing and feasting greatlee of many days
+enduring?" asked Otoyo.
+
+"It depends on who's doing the enduring," Edith said, smiling.
+
+"Wellington will be enduring of greatlee much rejoicing," went on the
+little Japanese. "For Wellington will give jubilee entertainment for
+fifty years of birthday, perhaps, maybe."
+
+Here was news indeed for seven seniors at the very head and front of
+college affairs.
+
+"And where did you get this interesting information, little one?"
+demanded Margaret.
+
+Otoyo blushed and hesitated; then cocked her head on one side exactly
+like a little song sparrow and glancing timidly at Nance, replied:
+
+"Mr. Andrew McLean, second, he told it to me."
+
+Nance smiled unconcernedly. She never dreamed of being jealous of the
+funny little Japanese.
+
+"And why, pray, didn't Miss Walker announce it this morning at chapel
+when she made her opening address?" asked Margaret.
+
+"Ah, that is for another veree sadlee reason," answered Otoyo, her voice
+taking on a mournful note. "You have not heard?"
+
+"No, what?" they demanded, bursting with curiosity.
+
+"Professor Edwin Green, the noble, honorable gentleman of English
+Literature, he is veree ill. You have not heard such badlee news? Miss
+Walker, she will announce nothing of jubilee while this poor gentleman
+lies in his bed so veree, greatlee ill."
+
+"Why, Otoyo," cried Molly, her voice rising above the excited chorus,
+"is it really true? You mean dangerously ill? What is the matter with
+him?"
+
+"He has been two weeks in the infirmaree with a great fever."
+
+"You mean typhoid?"
+
+Otoyo nodded. It was a new name to her. She had not had much to do with
+illness during her two years in America, but she remembered the dread
+name of typhoid. It had a sad association to her, for she had been
+passing the infirmary at the very moment when a black, sinister looking
+ambulance had brought Professor Edwin Green from his rooms to the
+hospital.
+
+Molly relapsed into silence. Somehow, the joy of reunion had been
+spoiled and she tasted the bitterness of dark forebodings. It came to
+her with unexpected vividness that Wellington would not be the same
+without the Professor of English Literature, whose kind assistance and
+advice had meant so much to her. Only a little while ago she had made a
+secret resolution to seek him in his office on the morrow for counsel on
+a very vital question. In plain words: how to avoid being a school
+teacher. And now this brilliant and learned man, by far the brightest
+star in the Wellington faculty, was dangerously ill. Molly felt suddenly
+the cold clutch of disappointment.
+
+The other girls were sorry but not really shaken or unnerved by the
+news.
+
+"The jubilee must be to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the new
+Wellington--" began Margaret, after an interval of silence. "Do you
+suppose--" she began again and then broke off.
+
+"Suppose what?" asked the inquisitive Judy.
+
+"Oh, nothing. It would seem rather unfeeling to put in words what I had
+in my mind. I think I'll leave it unsaid."
+
+There was a silence and again came that cold clutch at Molly's heart.
+She felt pretty certain that Margaret had started to say:
+
+"Do you suppose, if Professor Green dies, it will interfere with the
+jubilee?"
+
+"If there is a jubilee," suddenly burst out Judy, who had been lying
+quite still with her eyes closed, "if they do give it, we shall be at
+the head and front of it being seniors, and I already have a wonderful
+suggestion to make. Would it not be splendid to have an old English
+pageant? The whole college could take part in it. Think of the beautiful
+costumes; the lovely colors; the rustic dances and open air plays on the
+campus."
+
+Judy's eyes sparkled and her face was flushed with excitement. With her
+amazing faculty for visualizing, the spectacle of the pageant stretched
+before her imagination like a great colored print. She saw the capering
+jesters in cap and bells; ox carts filled with rustics; the pageant of
+knights and ladies and royal personages; the players; the dancers----
+
+"It would be too glorious," she cried, beside herself from her inflamed
+imagination.
+
+The other girls, unable to follow Judy's brilliant vision, watched her
+with amused curiosity.
+
+"I should think you would remember that Professor Green was at his
+death's door before you began making plans for a jubilee," admonished
+Nance.
+
+But Judy, too intoxicated with her visions to notice Nance's reproof,
+continued:
+
+"They would have it in May, of course, when the weather is warm and
+everything is in bloom. First would come the pageant; then the king and
+queen and court would gather as spectators in front of all the various
+side shows; morality plays and----"
+
+The picture had now become so real to Judy that her galloping
+imagination had leaped over every difficulty, as the hunter leaps the
+intervening fence rail. In a flash she had decided on her own costume,
+of violet velvet and silk--a gentleman of the court, perhaps--when
+Molly, sitting pale and quiet beside the window, suddenly remarked:
+
+"Miss Walker did look very serious this morning, I thought. Just before
+chapel I saw her in the court talking to Dr. McLean. She must have had
+bad news then."
+
+Judy's inflated enthusiasm collapsed like a pricked balloon. She flushed
+hotly and relapsed into silence. Presently, after the others had
+departed to their rooms, she crept over to Molly and sunk on her knees
+beside her at the open window.
+
+"I didn't mean to be such a brute, Molly, darling," she said. "I forgot
+about your being such friends with the Greens and I really am awfully
+sorry about the Professor. Will you forgive me?"
+
+"You foolish, fond old Judy," said Molly, slipping an arm around her
+friend's neck. "I only dimly heard your wanderings. I was so busy
+thinking of--of other things; sending out hope thoughts like Madeleine
+Petit. Poor Miss Green! I wonder if she knows. She has been in Europe
+all summer. I had post cards from her every now and then."
+
+Molly looked wistfully through the darkness in the direction of the
+infirmary. "I wish I knew how he was to-night," she added.
+
+"I'll go and inquire," cried Judy, leaping to her feet, eager to make
+amends for past offenses. She glanced at the clock. "The gate isn't
+locked until a quarter past to-night on account of the late train.
+There'll be time if I sprint there and back."
+
+"But, Judy," objected Molly.
+
+"Don't interfere, and don't try to come, too. You can't run and I can,"
+and before either of the other girls could say a word, Judy was out of
+the room and gone.
+
+"I don't know what we are going to do about her, Molly," Nance observed,
+as soon as the door had slammed behind that impetuous young woman,
+"she's worse than ever."
+
+Molly shook her head silently. Suddenly she felt quite old and
+apathetic, like a person who has lost all ambitions and given up the
+fight.
+
+"I think I'll turn in, Nance. I'm tired to death."
+
+With silent sympathy, Nance turned down the cover of Molly's little
+white bed and laid out her night-gown.
+
+It seemed an incredibly short time when Judy burst into the room again,
+too breathless to speak, her face scarlet with running.
+
+"I just did make it," she gasped presently. "The night nurse said
+Professor Green was very ill, but that Dr. McLean was hopeful because of
+his strong constitution."
+
+"I feel hopeful, too. Thank you, Judy, dearest," said Molly, drawing the
+covers up over her shoulders while Nance turned out the light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A TROUBLED SUNDAY.
+
+
+It was Sunday morning and Molly had been washing her head. She had
+spread a towel on the window-sill and now hung her hair out of the
+window that sun and wind might play upon her auburn locks.
+
+"I always heard it was better to dry the hair by the sun than by a fire;
+hot air dries up the natural oils," she observed to Nance in a muffled
+voice.
+
+Nance was engaged in the meditative occupation of manicuring her nails.
+As she rubbed them back and forth on a chamois buffer her thoughts were
+busy in far other fields.
+
+"Yes," she replied absently to Molly's observation. "I suppose you
+learned that from Judy's new friend," she added, coming back to her
+present beautifying occupation. "She'll be introducing rouge to us
+next," Nance went on in a disgusted tone.
+
+Molly smiled and gave her hair a vigorous shake in the breeze. In the
+bright sunlight it sparkled with glints of gold as if a fairy wand had
+touched it.
+
+"No, I didn't, really," she answered. "I read it on the beauty page of a
+Sunday paper, but I knew it anyhow instinctively before I read it."
+
+"Do you think her hair is naturally red," asked Nance, punching the dull
+end of her orange stick into a sofa cushion with unusual force.
+
+"I suppose lots of people ask the same question about mine," Molly
+answered evasively.
+
+"Never," Nance asserted hotly. "I don't know much about the subject but
+I do know that no dyes have ever been invented that could imitate the
+color of your hair."
+
+"How do you know it, Nance, dear?"
+
+"Well, because so many people would dye their hair that color. There
+would be no more drab browns like mine, or rusty blacks or faded tans."
+
+"But, Nance, your hair is lovely. It's smooth and glossy and fine and
+thick. Has that girl been talking to you about your looks?"
+
+"They both have," admitted Nance. "They've got me to thinking I'm plain
+but would be greatly improved if I wore a rat and waved my bang and did
+my hair in a bunch of curls in the back like Jessie."
+
+"But Jessie's hair curls naturally," put in Molly.
+
+"Yes, of course, and mine doesn't. It would be a fearful nuisance, but
+one can't help listening to such talk when it concerns oneself. You know
+how Judy does run away to things, and there is something convincing
+about Adele's arguments."
+
+"She's very bright," admitted Molly. "What do you think she wants me to
+do, Nance? Something much worse than crimping."
+
+"There is no telling. Probably lather your face with that horrible
+white-wash stuff called 'Youthful Bloom,' Judy was telling us about."
+
+"No, worse still. She says my face is too thin and that I am getting
+lines from nose to mouth. She wants me to have it filled."
+
+Nance gave a wild whoop of derision.
+
+"Can't you see Judy Kean's head being stuffed with such nonsense until
+it bursts?" she cried, breaking off suddenly as the door opened and Judy
+herself appeared on the threshold.
+
+"May I bring in a visitor?" she asked stiffly, feeling from the sudden
+stillness that her own name had been under discussion. "Nobody likes to
+have her name bandied back and forth even between intimate friends," she
+thought with some indignation. But Judy's little fly-ups never lasted
+long and when Molly called out hospitably: "Yes, indeed, delighted," and
+Nance said: "Certainly, Judy," her sensitive feelings immediately
+withdrew into the dark caverns of her mind.
+
+"I've brought a _friend_ up to see our rooms," Judy went on, putting
+special emphasis on friend.
+
+Judy had introduced a new member to the Old Queen's circle and while
+that body was only exclusive in the matter of intelligence and good
+breeding, and the new member seemed to meet both requirements, still the
+circle as a whole was not entirely agreeable to Judy's latest find.
+
+The new girl had a very grand sounding name, "Adele Windsor," and Judy
+was hurt when Edith Williams demanded if Adele was related to "The Widow
+of Windsor." Adele was certainly very handsome,--tall, with a beautiful
+figure, dark eyes and hair more red than brown.
+
+"She dresses with artful simplicity," Margaret had remarked, but hardly
+a girl in college had handsomer clothes than Adele Windsor.
+
+Nobody could cast aspersions against her intelligence, either. She had
+entered the junior class of Wellington as a special; which was pretty
+good work, in the opinions of our girls. If any name could be given to
+the objections they all secretly felt for Judy's new friend, it was that
+she was so excessively modern. She was a product of New York City; and
+so thoroughly up to date was this bewildering young person regarding
+topics of the day, from fashions and beauty remedies to international
+politics, that she fairly took the breath away even of such advanced
+persons as Margaret Wakefield.
+
+Adele now followed Judy into the room, and Molly, shaking back the hair
+from her face, bowed and smiled politely. Nance was not so cordial in
+her greeting. She had already prophesied what the history of Judy's
+friendship with this girl would be.
+
+"Judy will get terribly intimate and then awfully bored. I know her of
+old."
+
+"You're right in the fashion, Miss Brown," observed Adele, taking a seat
+near Molly and regarding her hair with admiration.
+
+"That's the first time anybody ever said such a thing about me,"
+exclaimed Molly with a laugh. "I'm usually three years behind. Now, you
+couldn't mean this gray kimono, could you? Or maybe it's my pumps," she
+added. "I know low heels are coming back again." Thrusting out one of
+her long, narrow feet, she looked at it quizzically.
+
+"No, no, it's your hair," replied Adele. "Red hair is the fashion now.
+You see it everywhere; at the theaters, in society, at the opera----"
+
+"You mean everywhere in New York," corrected Nance.
+
+Adele smiled, showing a row of even white teeth. She was really very
+handsome.
+
+"Well, isn't New York the hub of the world?" put in Judy.
+
+"No," answered Nance firmly. "Boston and San Francisco and Chicago and
+St. Louis are just as much hubs as New York--to say nothing of the
+smaller cities. Any place with telegraph wires and competent people at
+both ends can keep up with the times nowadays----"
+
+"Yes, but what about the theaters and operas," Judy began hotly.
+
+"And clothes," added Adele softly, with a quick glance at Molly's old
+blue suit which had been well brushed and cleaned that morning and hung
+on the back of a chair to dry. Molly had not even noticed the glance.
+She was looking across the campus in the direction of the infirmary and
+at the same time forming a resolution to go over and inquire for
+Professor Green as soon as she could arrange her tumbled hair.
+
+But Nance had caught the slightly contemptuous expression in Adele's
+eyes and resented it with warm loyalty.
+
+"I don't see what clothes have to do with it," she asserted. "Because in
+New York people look at one's clothes before they look at one's face, it
+doesn't follow that they are more advanced than people in other places."
+
+"New York only shows one how to improve one's clothes and one's face,"
+put in Adele calmly.
+
+Nance felt somehow reproved by this elegant cold-blooded creature whom
+Judy had thrust upon them. And now Judy must needs take a flying leap
+into the discussion.
+
+"Nance, you are behind the times," she cried. "There is no excuse now
+for women to be badly dressed or plain. Even poor people can dress in
+taste and there are ways for improving looks so that the most ordinary
+face can be beautified."
+
+"Can you make little eyes big?" demanded Nance.
+
+"Don't be silly," said Judy.
+
+And it looked for a moment as if a quarrel were about to be precipitated
+between the friends, when Molly, glancing at Adele Windsor, began to
+laugh.
+
+"And all this because somebody said red hair was the fashion," she said,
+but she had an uncomfortable feeling that Adele was fond of starting a
+fight in order to look on and see the fun, and she wished in her heart
+that her beloved Judy had not taken up with such a dangerous young
+woman. She now tactfully changed the subject to the theater.
+
+Adele had signed photographs of almost all the actors and actresses in
+the country and could give interesting bits of personal history about
+many of them. Having launched the company on this safe topic, Molly
+seized the old blue suit and departed into her bedroom. Judy and
+presently Nance also were soon absorbed in an account of Miss Windsor's
+visit at the home of a famous actress. Molly, indeed, was careful to
+leave her door open a crack in order not to miss a word. After all, it
+was fun to live at "the hub," as Judy called it, and know great people
+and see the best plays and hear all the best music. But this stunning
+metropolitan person did make one feel dreadfully provincial and shabby.
+She wondered if Adele had noticed the shabby dress. Molly sighed.
+
+"I don't think clothes would interfere so much with my good times," she
+thought, "if only I didn't love them so."
+
+Then she resolutely pinned on the soft blue felt, which at least was new
+if not expensive, slipped on her jacket and returned to the next room.
+
+"I'll see you at dinner, girls," she said. "Good-bye, Miss Windsor."
+
+"I'm going to dinner with Adele at Beta Phi," announced Judy.
+
+Adele occupied what the girls now called the "hoodoo suite" at Beta Phi.
+This was none other than Judith Blount's old apartment, afterwards
+sub-let to the unfortunate Millicent Porter.
+
+"Shall Nance and I call by for you on the way to vespers, then?" asked
+Molly.
+
+"I'm not going to vespers. You don't mind, do you, Molly?"
+
+Ever since they had been at college the three girls had kept their
+engagement for vespers on Sunday afternoons. They had actually been
+known to refuse other invitations in order to keep this friendly
+compact. And Judy was breaking away from what had come to be an
+established custom. Of course, it was just this once and absurd to feel
+disappointed, only Molly, glancing over Judy's head at Adele standing by
+the window, had caught a glint of triumph in her eyes. What was she
+after, anyway? Did she wish to wean the tempestuous Judy from her old
+friends? The two girls exchanged a quick, meaningful look.
+
+"We'll miss you, Judy," said Molly, and went into the corridor, closing
+the door softly behind her. Hardly had she reached the head of the
+staircase, when Judy came tearing after her.
+
+"You aren't angry with me, Molly, dearest?" she cried. "Adele and I have
+a wonderful scheme on hand. I'll tell you what it is some day. Don't you
+think she's perfectly fine? So handsome--so clever----"
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Molly, trying to be truthful. "I hope you'll
+have a beautiful time, Judy, but we'll miss you just the same,
+especially on the walk afterwards. Had you forgotten about the walk?"
+
+"Oh dear, Molly, you are hurt," ejaculated Judy, who couldn't bear to be
+in anybody's black books, yet, nevertheless, desired to have her own
+way.
+
+"I'm not, indeed, Judy. We can't tie ourselves to Sunday afternoon
+engagements. Nance and I wouldn't have you feel that way for anything."
+
+The stormy Judy, calmed by these assuring words, returned to her rooms,
+while Molly hurried downstairs and across the campus toward the
+infirmary.
+
+A number of people had gathered at the door of the hospital. Dr.
+McLean's buggy and a doctor's motor car waited outside. There was an
+ominous look about the picture that filled Molly with dark forebodings.
+Most of the people in the group at the door were members of the
+faculty, Miss Pomeroy, Miss Bowles and the Professor of French
+literature. They were talking in low voices. Dodo Green and Andy McLean
+leaned against the wall of the house, their hands thrust deep in their
+pockets, their faces the very picture of dejection. Molly began to run.
+
+"He's dead!" a voice cried in her heart. "Oh, Dodo," she exclaimed to
+the Professor's young brother, who had run out to meet her, "please tell
+me quickly what has happened."
+
+"The old boy's had a tough time, Miss Molly," said Dodo, struggling hard
+to keep his voice from breaking. "He had one of those infernal sinking
+spells about ten this morning. It was his heart, they say. It's been
+something awful, just a fight to keep him alive. But he's come through
+it. The doctor from Exmoor came over to help Andy's father." Dodo paused
+and gulped back his tears and Molly did not dare trust herself to speak.
+
+"Let's walk a little way down the avenue," he said presently. "I feel
+all bowled over from anxiety and waiting around so long."
+
+"I know, I know, poor Dodo," said Molly sympathetically. "But he'll get
+well, now. I'm sure of it. The doctor said his fine constitution would
+carry him along."
+
+"The doctor was thinking of what Edwin used to be, say a year ago. The
+old boy has been overworking. The truth is," he added in a burst of
+confidence, "he got into debt somehow; borrowed money on prospects that
+didn't materialize, or something."
+
+Instantly the thought of the comic opera came into Molly's head.
+
+"And he worked all summer without taking any vacation, night and day.
+Grace was abroad or she never would have allowed it. He just weakened
+his constitution until he was ready to take any disease that happened to
+be floating around."
+
+It was a great relief to Dodo's pent-up feelings to talk and he now
+poured out his troubles to listening, sympathetic Molly.
+
+"Grace and I don't know what he wanted to use the money for----"
+
+"Maybe it was for the opera."
+
+"No, I know for a fact it wasn't that infernal old opera, though writing
+it was one of the things, that pulled him down. But the debt's all paid
+now and the good old boy is lying at death's door as a result. By the
+way," he added, drawing a key from his pocket, "Sister wants me to get
+something out of Edwin's office on the cloisters. Will you come with me,
+Miss Molly? There are such a lot of girls always in the court on
+Sunday."
+
+"I only wish I could do more for you, Dodo," answered Molly, as the two
+young people hastened across the campus.
+
+"I guess you know as much about the old boy's office as I do, Miss
+Molly," said Dodo opening the study door. "I'm glad you came along to
+help me find what I am looking for."
+
+"What are you looking for?"
+
+"Did you ever see a blue paper weight on his desk?"
+
+"Oh, yes. Lots of times."
+
+"Well, that's just what he wants. He's got a sort of delirious notion in
+his poor old head that he'd like that blue paper weight. It's enough to
+make a strong man shed tears, and he's so weak he couldn't pick up a
+straw. Alice Fern brought it to him from Italy."
+
+"Oh," said Molly.
+
+They found the blue paper weight in one of the drawers of the desk and
+Dodo thrust it into his pocket. There was a strong smell of over-ripe
+apples in the office and Molly presently discovered two disintegrated
+wine saps in the Japanese basket on the table.
+
+"We'd better take these," she said, seizing one in each hand and
+following Dodo into the corridor.
+
+The young people parted in the arcade and Molly went into the library
+and hid herself in one of the deep window embrasures with a book she
+only pretended to be reading. That afternoon the Reverend Gustavus
+Larsen repeated the prayers for the sick, and Molly in a far back pew
+hoped that Nance could not see the tears that trickled down her cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+GOSSIP OVER THE TEACUPS.
+
+
+The gloom that had been hanging over Wellington since Professor Green's
+illness gradually lifted as the young man steadily improved. Each
+morning Molly received the latest news from one of the nurses. Miss
+Grace was never visible. She was sitting up at night with her brother
+and slept during the day. One morning Molly encountered not the day
+nurse but Miss Alice Fern in the hall of the infirmary. She was dressed
+in white linen and might have been taken for a post-graduate nurse
+except that she wore no cap. Miss Fern had a cold greeting for Molly,
+and for Judith Blount, also, who presently joined them.
+
+"Edwin is much better," she informed them.
+
+"He is seeing people now, isn't he?" asked Judith eagerly.
+
+Miss Fern stiffened.
+
+"No," she answered, "only me--and his brother and sister, of course."
+She added this as an afterthought. "It will be many weeks before he is
+allowed to see any of the Wellington people. The doctor is particularly
+anxious for him not to be reminded of his work. Excitement would be very
+dangerous for him."
+
+"Is that what the doctor says or is it your verdict, Alice?" put in
+Judith, who had small liking for the Professor's cousin on the other
+side of the family.
+
+"I'm in entire authority here," answered Miss Fern in such a hostile
+tone that Molly felt as if they had been accused of forcing their way
+into the sick room. "I am nursing during the day in conjunction with the
+infirmary nurse."
+
+"Why don't you wear a cap, Alice?" asked Judith tauntingly. "It would
+make you look more like the real thing."
+
+With a hurried excuse, Molly hastened out of the hall. It went against
+her grain to be involved in the quarrels of Alice Fern and Judith
+Blount. She was walking rapidly toward the village when she heard
+Judith's voice behind her calling.
+
+"Wait, and I'll walk with you. I see you're going my way. I had to stay
+and give a last dig to that catty Alice Fern," she added breathlessly,
+catching up with Molly.
+
+Molly smiled. She didn't know but that she agreed with Judith, but it
+was not her way to call people "cats."
+
+"I'm so glad you arranged to take the post-grad., Judith," she began as
+they started down the avenue.
+
+"Isn't it great?" answered Judith exultantly. "It's all Madeleine's
+doing, you know. We've had a wonderful summer, Molly. Almost the first
+summer I can remember when I wasn't bored."
+
+"What have you two been up to?" Molly asked with some curiosity. The
+cloak of enthusiasm was a new one for Judith to wear and it was very
+becoming to her, Molly thought.
+
+"We've been making money," Judith announced with sparkling eyes. "I've
+made almost enough to carry me through another year here."
+
+"Goodness," Molly thought, "how the world does change. Think of the
+proud Judith working and then telling me about it, me whom she used to
+detest!"
+
+"It's been jolly fun, too, and I didn't mind the work a bit."
+
+"I hope you made a great deal," remarked Molly, not liking to ask too
+many questions but burning to know how money had been made by a girl who
+had once stamped her foot and declared she would never work for a
+living.
+
+"A friend of brother Richard's, an actor, lent him his bungalow on the
+coast for the summer, and Mama and Madeleine and I spent four months in
+it, with Richard down for the week-ends. It was a pretty bungalow with a
+big living-room and a broad piazza at the back looking right out to sea,
+and Madeleine conceived the notion of opening a tea-room there. Richard
+was willing and so was Mama and we started in right away. Madeleine had
+all sorts of schemes for advertising in the post office and at the
+general store, and at last we had a sign painted and hung out in front
+on a post. The coast road goes by the house and streams of automobiles
+are passing all day long, so that we began to have lots of customers
+immediately. I don't know how it happened, but it was a sort of
+fashionable meeting place for all the people in the neighborhood. Pretty
+soon we had to buy dozens of little blue teapots and crates of cup and
+saucers and plates. Even Mama helped with the sandwiches and Richard,
+too, when he could come down. But you should have seen Madeleine. Every
+afternoon she put on a cap and apron and turned waitress. She served
+everybody. She was the neatest, quickest, prettiest little waiting maid
+you ever saw. Mama and I worked in the kitchen filling orders. Sometimes
+the sandwiches would give out and then Mama and I and Bridget, our
+Irish maid who has stayed with us through everything, would slice bread
+like mad. Madeleine knew dozens of different ways of making sandwiches.
+We used to make up dishes of fillings ahead of time and keep them on
+ice. Sometimes at night we were so tired we'd simply fall into bed, but
+we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams and we had a splendid time in
+spite of the hard work."
+
+"I think you are wonderful," cried Molly. "I should never even have
+hoped to make anything like that go."
+
+"It's Madeleine who is the wonder," broke in Judith loyally. "She has
+the brains and energy of a real genius."
+
+"Are you down at O'Reilly's this winter? I haven't seen either one of
+you to speak to before."
+
+"Oh, yes, we have the same old rooms. I'm working up in two or three
+different subjects and taking a course in physical culture with a view
+to teaching it. You know, we are going to open a school, Madeleine and
+I?"
+
+"Where?" demanded Molly, filled with interest in her old-time enemy's
+schemes.
+
+"We don't know yet. It may be in the South. Madeleine has two more years
+here. I shall go to Paris next year for a course at the Sorbonne, so
+that I shall be up in French by the time we are ready to start."
+
+Molly was almost too amazed over the change Madeleine had wrought in
+Judith to comment politely on the glowing future Judith mapped out for
+herself. She recalled how Judith had once insulted the little Southern
+girl at a Sophomore ball, and she remembered how Madeleine had said: "I
+shall make a friend of her, yet. You'll see."
+
+"I wish I could make plans and stick to them," Molly thought. "How can I
+ever get anywhere when I don't even know where I want to get? If I am
+not to teach school, then what am I to do?"
+
+Many times a day Molly asked herself this question. There were times
+during the summer when she heard the call still infinitely far away to
+write, and on hot afternoons when the others were napping she would
+steal down to the big cool parlor with a pencil and pad. Here in the
+quiet of the darkened room, with strained mind and thoughts on tiptoe
+for inspiration, she would try to write, but the stories were crude and
+childish. Sometimes she would read over Professor Green's letter of
+advice about writing. "Be as simple and natural as if you were writing a
+letter," he had said, and her efforts to be natural and simple were
+invariably elaborately studied and self-conscious.
+
+"I don't see why I want to do what I can't do," she would cry with
+despair in her heart, and then the next day perhaps she would try it
+again.
+
+So it was that Molly had a feeling of unrest that was quite new to her.
+It was like entertaining a stranger within the gates to admit this
+unfamiliar spirit into her mind. And now, as she parted with Judith
+with a friendly handclasp, she felt the dissatisfaction more keenly than
+ever before.
+
+Her errand in the village that afternoon was really to call on Mrs.
+Murphy, who, you will recall, was once housekeeper for Queen's. For many
+months the good soul had been laid up with rheumatism and for the sake
+of old times the Queen's girls plied her with attentions. The Murphys
+now lived in a small cottage near the depot and they were exceedingly
+poor, since the office of baggage-master brought in only a small pay.
+But Mrs. Murphy, crippled as she was, her fingers knotted at the joints
+like the limbs of old apple trees, managed to keep her rooms shining
+with neatness.
+
+"And it's glad I am to see you, Miss," exclaimed the good woman, much
+aged since the days at Queen's.
+
+She led Molly through a little hallway into the kitchen opening upon a
+small garden now bright with rows of cosmos, graceful and delicate in
+color, and brilliant masses of vari-colored, ragged chrysanthemums.
+
+"It's the little Japanese lady that's tended my garden for me all
+summer, Miss. She may be a haythen, but she's as good as gold. Our
+Blessed Mother herself could not have been kinder."
+
+Molly's heart was filled with admiration for Otoyo, who instead of
+moping about by herself all summer had been making herself useful.
+
+"I'm ashamed," she thought. "Madeleine and Judith and Otoyo all make me
+feel awfully ashamed."
+
+In the meantime, Mrs. Murphy had spread a cloth on the little kitchen
+table and laid out her best cups and saucers. It was her heart's delight
+to drink tea with the young ladies.
+
+"And how is the poor gintleman, Mr. Edwin, I mean?"
+
+"He's getting better every day, Mrs. Murphy."
+
+"And I'm that glad to hear the news. It would have been a sad day for
+the poor young lady if she had lost him--though, may the Howly Mother
+forgive me for saying it, she's not good enough for the loikes of him,
+I'm thinkin'."
+
+"Let me pour the tea for you, Mrs. Murphy," Molly interposed, taking the
+blue teapot out of Mrs. Murphy's crippled hands after it had been filled
+with boiling water. "What young lady did you say it was?" she asked
+presently, her eyes on a tea leaf swirling round and round in her cup.
+
+"'Tis Miss Fern, the gintleman's cousin, and they do say they're to be
+married before spring. I'm not for sayin' she ain't pretty, Miss. She's
+prettier than most and she's kind to the gintleman. Oh, you may be sure
+but she's got a different set of manners for him! And the day she had
+tea here with little Miss Sen and the Professor, she was all graces, to
+be sure. But another day she was here to meet him and little Miss Sen
+brought the message he could not come. It was a regular spitfire she
+was that day, Miss, and no mistake."
+
+So that was why the Professor had wanted the blue paper weight. Perhaps
+there was some reason in his delirium after all.
+
+"Have you seen her, Miss?" asked Mrs. Murphy.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Molly. "I think she is very pretty. May I look at
+your garden, Mrs. Murphy? Dear little Otoyo, I can see her working out
+here in the flowers. Don't you just love her, Mrs. Murphy?"
+
+But the Irish woman had gone into the next room to get an old pair of
+shears.
+
+"I'll take it as a favor, Miss Molly, if you'll cut two bunches, one for
+yourself and one for the Professor, God bless him and the Saints
+preserve him for strength and happiness; though I ain't sayin' I wish
+him to be preserved for Miss Alice Fern, pretty though she be."
+
+When Molly appeared at the hospital some half an hour later she made a
+picture the infirmary nurse would not soon forget.
+
+"These are for Professor Green from Mrs. Murphy," Molly said, giving the
+nurse the largest half of the bunch.
+
+The nurse gave her a long quizzical look. She was new at Wellington and
+not familiar with the girls.
+
+"Are you Miss Molly Brown?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"Why, yes," answered Molly, surprised.
+
+"I thought so," said the nurse, and departed before the astonished Molly
+could say another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SENIOR RAMBLE.
+
+
+    "Ramblers, ramblers,
+       Ramblers all are we:
+     Life is gay,
+       Life is free,
+     Rambling all the day.
+
+    "When the sun sinks to his rest,
+       Our rambling days are gone,
+     Seniors, Seniors,
+       Sound the call!
+       Back to Wellington!"
+
+"Did you put in the olives?" some one cried over the confusion of
+singing and talking.
+
+"Do be careful of the stuffed eggs. It would be a shame to ruin an hour
+and a half of hard work."
+
+"Tell the man to wait. I forgot my tea basket."
+
+"Haste thee, nymph," called Edith Williams, after the fleeing Judy.
+"And bring your volume of Shelley along, there's a dear. I forgot mine."
+
+"Bring my sweater," Nance called.
+
+Already the van load of girls in front was moving down the avenue, while
+the crowd in the second van waited impatiently for Judy's return. The
+two big vehicles were decorated with lavender and primrose, the class
+colors, for this was the day of the Senior Ramble, and the whole class
+was off for the woods.
+
+At last Judy appeared, laden with many things--a tea basket, a book, her
+camera and two sweaters; also a brass trumpet.
+
+"Who says I'm not good-natured?" she exclaimed, handing up the articles
+and clambering into the vehicle. "I'm the kindest soul that ever lived."
+
+"I'm glad you feel that way about it, Juliana. It must be a sweet
+personal satisfaction," remarked Edith, seizing the book and thrusting
+it into the pocket of her ulster.
+
+The seniors were to ramble in Fern Woods that year, so-called not
+because of the superabundance of ferns, but because they were a part of
+the estate of Major Fern, father of Alice Fern. The Major had no
+objections to the students of Wellington and Exmoor using his woods for
+picnics, but the Exmoor boys were not given to such excursions and it
+was a long drive from Wellington, six miles over a rough road. However,
+Fern Woods it was to be this time, and away went the two vans, Judy
+blowing her trumpet with a grand flourish as they passed out of the
+Wellington grounds.
+
+The Ramble was always the occasion for the most childish behavior among
+the seniors; a last frenzied outburst, as it were, before putting away
+childish things for all time and settling down to the serious work of
+life.
+
+And now the seniors in the first wagon stood up and began singing back
+to the girls in the second wagon:
+
+    "Seniors, do you hear the call?
+       Great Pan has blest the day.
+     Heed the summons, one and all,
+       _Voulez vous danser?_"
+
+The seniors behind answered:
+
+    "We will make the welkin ring,
+       _Voulez vous danser?_
+     Sound the trumpet, shout and sing,
+       _Voulez vous danser?_"
+
+"I think this should be called the 'Senior Rumble,' and not ramble,"
+some one said, as the wagon groaned and creaked on the hilly road.
+
+"What's the matter with 'Grumble'?" asked Mabel Hinton.
+
+But there was no real grumbling, although the six miles that lay between
+Fern Woods and Wellington included some rough roads. They were jolted
+and shaken and tumbled about and there were shrieks of laughter and
+cries of "Wait, wait! I'd rather walk!" But the stolid driver went
+calmly on without taking the slightest notice.
+
+"One would think we were a lot of inmates in a crazy wagon," cried
+Molly, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes.
+
+A box of salted nuts had come open and the contents were scattered all
+over the bed of the wagon, and some apples had tumbled out of a hamper
+and were rolling about under people's feet.
+
+"If I had known--if I had only known that this was going to be the rocky
+road to Dublin, wild horses couldn't have dragged me," cried Jessie.
+
+At last after a time of infinite confusion the wagons drew up at the
+edge of a forest and there was sudden quiet in the noisy company. It was
+as if they stood at the threshold of a great cathedral, so still and
+majestic were the woods. Through the dense greenness of the pines there
+was an occasional flash of a silver birch. The scarlets and yellows of
+oak and maple trees gleamed here and there, making a rich background for
+the somber company of pines.
+
+"It was worth it! It was worth it," exclaimed the seniors, now that the
+worst was over.
+
+The class had divided itself into three "messes" for lunch. After lunch
+it was to assemble in a body, sing the class songs to be bequeathed to
+the juniors, and do the class stunts which were familiar enough to all
+of them now. And first of all, by the unwritten law of custom, the
+seniors were to spend an hour communing with nature. This constituted
+the "Ramble." Judy had been delegated by the Ramble Committee to blow a
+blast on her trumpet when the time came to eat. In the meantime the
+drivers had taken themselves and their wagons down the road two miles to
+a small village where they were to rest and refresh themselves with food
+until half past four o'clock, when they were to return for the rambling
+seniors.
+
+So it was that the three hampers of food were deposited in a safe and
+secluded spot under some bushes and left unguarded while everybody went
+off for the ramble.
+
+Of course all this had been planned weeks ahead of time by the committee
+and the destination kept a profound secret, according to the traditions
+of the school.
+
+Scarcely had the last unsuspecting senior disappeared in the pine woods,
+when a motor car rounded the curve in the road and stopped at the signal
+of an individual in a long dark ulster and a slouch hat well down over
+the face, who had leaped out from behind a clump of bushes on the other
+side of the road. Two other persons similarly disguised now jumped out
+of the car, leaving the chauffeur quietly examining the speedometer and
+seeing nothing.
+
+"Do you know where they put them?" whispered one.
+
+The other did not reply, but led the way at a run to the clump of bushes
+where the hampers had been left. In five minutes the three thieves, for
+such they certainly were, had stored the hampers on the floor of the
+car. Then they jumped in themselves.
+
+"Go ahead!" cried the thief on the front seat, and presently the motor
+car was a mere speck in the distance.
+
+In the meantime, the unconscious seniors rambled happily on. There were
+places to visit in the woods: a beautiful spring that bubbled out of the
+side of a rock and broadened into a basin below; an old log cabin, long
+since deserted and open to the weather, and last of all, "Charlie's
+Oak." Half a century ago, an Exmoor boy had hanged himself on this tree.
+Another Exmoor boy, many years later, had carved a cross on the tree and
+by that sign and others learned from Exmoor boys, they finally found the
+gruesome spot.
+
+"Why did he do it?" asked Judy.
+
+"It was never told," answered Nance, who had learned all there was to
+know concerning the tragedy from Andy McLean.
+
+"Poor boy," cried Molly, seeing in her mind a picture of the body
+dangling from a lower limb of the old oak. "Let's make him a garland of
+leaves," she proposed, "just to signify that we are sorry for him."
+
+The whole class now assembled at Charlie's Oak and proceeded to gather
+branches of autumn leaves. With the aid of a handkerchief and a ribbon,
+these were arranged in the semblance of a large wreath. On the fly leaf,
+torn from the volume of Shelley, Judy wrote:
+
+"In memory of poor Charlie. May his soul rest in peace. Class of 19--,
+Wellington."
+
+The wreath was laid against the tree and the inscription secured with a
+pin stuck into the bark. Then the Class of 19--Wellington went on its
+way rejoicing, never dreaming of the reward the wreath of autumn leaves
+was to bring them. Perhaps the restless spirit of poor Charlie felt
+grateful for the sympathy and whispered into the ear of somebody--at any
+rate, luck came of the incident of the wreath.
+
+Not long after this, seniors roaming about the woods heard the blast of
+Judy's trumpet. It was still too early for lunch and they felt
+instinctively that it was a call to arms. Presently wandering classmates
+came running up from every direction like a company of frightened
+nymphs.
+
+Just about this time an old gentleman, strolling down the wood path,
+paused at Charlie's Oak. He was a very youthful looking old man, his
+cheeks as ruddy as winter apples and his blue eyes as clear and bright
+as a boy's. He carried a cane which he used to toss twigs from his path.
+Two Irish setters followed at his heels sniffing the ground trodden down
+a little while before by the feet of numerous Wellington maids.
+
+"Ahem! What's this?" remarked the old gentleman aloud, fitting his
+glasses on his nose and leaning over to examine the wreath. Then he
+released the inscription from the pin and carefully read it twice,
+replacing it afterward just over the wreath. Baring his head, he stood
+quite still under the limb for so long a time that the impatient dogs
+trotted off down the path, and then came back again to look for their
+master.
+
+"Poor Charlie," repeated the old man. "May his soul rest in peace." With
+a sigh he put on his hat and started slowly down the path. "Poor
+Charlie, poor old Charlie," he was still saying, when he found himself
+on the edge of a company of very indignant and excited young women.
+
+"This must be the Class of 19--Wellington," he was thinking as he turned
+to go the other way, when Margaret Wakefield in the very center of the
+crowd thundered out:
+
+"It's an outrage! A miserable, cowardly trick!"
+
+Some of the girls were actually crying; others looked grave, while still
+others conferred together in low indignant tones.
+
+"I beg pardon, young ladies, has anything serious happened?" asked the
+old gentleman, lifting his hat politely.
+
+There was a complete silence at this unexpected interruption, and then
+Margaret, ever the spokesman of her class, replied in a suspiciously
+tearful tone of voice:
+
+"We've been robbed, sir. Somebody has stolen our luncheon."
+
+"Dear, dear!" murmured the old gentleman, looking from one face to
+another with real sympathy, "dear, dear! but that was an unkind
+trick--and quite a large meal, too, I imagine," he added, noting the
+size of the company.
+
+"Three hampers full," cried one girl.
+
+"And we had worked so hard over it," cried another.
+
+"Is this the Class of 19--Wellington?" asked the old gentleman.
+
+"Yes, sir. We were giving the Senior Ramble."
+
+"And while you were rambling thieves came and robbed you, eh?"
+
+"We are disgraced," ejaculated Margaret.
+
+"Do you suppose tramps could have done it?" Jessie asked.
+
+"It would have been difficult to dispose of three hampers full,"
+answered the old gentleman. "A tramp would have helped himself to what
+he could carry and nothing more."
+
+"Could it have been Gypsies?" suggested Judy, fired with the romantic
+notion.
+
+The old gentleman shook his head.
+
+"I think the thieves rode in a motor car," he said. "As I crossed the
+road some little time ago I saw one waiting there for no apparent
+reason. I hardly noticed who was in it. Perhaps it was some of your own
+classmates. In my day the boys used to play tricks like that, worse
+ones, even. Exmoor was a lively place fifty years ago."
+
+The old gentleman sighed.
+
+"Wellington girls play tricks, too, sometimes, but not such mean ones,"
+put in Margaret. "Once a girl cut the electric light wiring during an
+entertainment in the gym. But even that wasn't so low as this: making a
+crowd of people go hungry."
+
+"Ah, I see," answered the old gentleman. "Well, that is scarcely to be
+mentioned in the same breath with cutting wires." He paused a moment and
+dug into the ground with the end of his cane thoughtfully. "Young
+ladies," he said presently, "would you do an old Exmoor boy the honor of
+lunching with him to-day?"
+
+"Oh, how kind!"
+
+"So many of us?"
+
+"It's too much," a dozen voices answered.
+
+"Not at all. There could not be too many of you. I am Major Fern. I live
+down the road a bit. You can find the house by the big iron gates
+opening onto the avenue." Major Fern looked at his watch. "It's now a
+little past twelve. May I expect you at a quarter past one? Mrs. Fern
+will be delighted. There are--how many of you?"
+
+Margaret told him promptly.
+
+"That's as small as an Exmoor class," he observed. "An unusually small
+class. But--I've heard of you from Miss Walker--an unusually bright
+one, I understand. It will be a great pleasure to entertain so many
+charming young ladies at once."
+
+The girls were almost speechless with surprise and gratitude. Even
+Margaret was for once reduced to a state of shyness.
+
+"We are very grateful to you, Major Fern," she said, after some
+hesitation, "and if you are sure it is not too much of an imposition, we
+accept with pleasure."
+
+So it was that Charlie's Oak was the indirect means of bringing the
+Senior Ramble of that year to a successful termination.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
+
+
+"Will somebody please inform me how they can get up a lunch for this
+crowd in an hour's time?" asked Nance, who, having spent her life in the
+narrow quarters of a boarding house, was not accustomed to avalanches of
+unexpected guests.
+
+"Oh, I don't think it will be very difficult," Molly replied. "Major
+Fern is a farmer. He probably has lots of hams in the smoke house and
+plenty of eggs in the hen house and milk in the dairy and preserves and
+pickles in the pantry, and if there isn't enough bread the cook can make
+up some hot biscuits or corn bread."
+
+"I know it couldn't embarrass you, Molly, dear. You'd be sure to find
+plenty of food for company," laughed Nance.
+
+But Molly was not far wrong in her suppositions of the lunch that Major
+Fern unexpectedly called upon his wife and daughters and servants to
+prepare. Alice was the only member of his family who was not entirely
+cordial when the senior class of Wellington at last descended upon the
+big old farmhouse at lunch time. She had buttered and sliced bread until
+her back ached, and she cast many angry glances at her ruddy-faced
+father tranquilly slicing ham in the pantry.
+
+"There are times when Papa is a real nuisance," she thought angrily.
+
+While Mrs. Fern pointed out piles of plates on the pantry shelf to a
+maid, her husband told her the history of the morning.
+
+"So you see, my dear," he finished, "that this party is really Charlie's
+party. We are doing it for his sake. It would be just the sort of thing
+he would have done himself. I remember he brought his entire class home
+once to Sunday morning breakfast. He had invited them and forgotten to
+mention it to Mother."
+
+"And they made a wreath for him?" asked Mrs. Fern irrelevantly, as she
+wiped a tear from her eye.
+
+The Major blinked and went on slicing ham industriously.
+
+"It's as fresh in my mind as if it had happened yesterday," he said
+presently in a low voice.
+
+"How handsome and gay he was," added his wife, sighing, as she counted
+out a pile of napkins.
+
+And now there came the sound of singing in front of the house. The
+seniors had arrived and were serenading the Major and his family.
+"Wellington, my Wellington," they sang, and Mrs. Fern paused in her
+counting to listen to the song she herself had sung as a girl.
+
+"Listen to the children, they are serenading us, Major. Do come out with
+me and meet them."
+
+The Major laid down his carving knife and fork and followed his wife to
+the front door, and presently the girls found themselves in the
+comfortable, sunny parlor of the big old house that seemed to ramble
+off at each side into wings and meander back into other additions in the
+rear. They forgot their grievances in the fun of that lunch party. By
+the miracle which always provides for generosity to give, there was
+plenty of lunch, just as Molly had predicted.
+
+"It wasn't a very difficult guess," she observed to Nance. "If you had
+lived in the country and were subject to unexpected arrivals, you'd know
+just how to go about getting up an impromptu meal for a lot of people."
+
+As for the good old Major, he was quite determined to enjoy himself. He
+wanted to hear all the college jokes and songs. He even told some Exmoor
+jokes, and after each joke he laughed until his face turned an
+apoplectic red and the tears rolled down his cheeks. Mrs. Fern laughed,
+too. She was an old Wellington girl and her eldest daughter, Natalie,
+had graduated from the college a year before Molly had entered. It had
+been a great disappointment to Mrs. Fern that Alice, the youngest
+daughter, was not inclined to college and had gone to a fashionable
+boarding school.
+
+After the senior stunts, when Judy had succeeded in throwing the Major
+into another apoplectic fit of laughing by playing "Birdie's Dead" on
+the piano, it was time to go back to Fern Woods where they were to meet
+the wagons. While the girls were pinning on their hats the Major, in a
+voice husky from much laughing, asked Nance, as it happened to be, which
+girl had suggested the wreath he had seen at the foot of the oak tree.
+Nance pointed out Molly and the Major presently beckoned her to follow
+him into his library. Unlocking one of the desk drawers, he drew out a
+faded photograph. The picture showed a laughing, handsome boy not more
+than eighteen. His curly hair was ruffled all over his head as if he had
+just come in out of the wind, and his merry eyes looked straight into
+Molly's.
+
+"That is Charlie," said the Major, looking over Molly's shoulder at the
+picture. "My younger brother, Charlie. His death was the greatest sorrow
+I have ever known. Poor Charlie! Poor boy!"
+
+The old man turned away to hide the tears in his eyes and Molly laid the
+photograph back in the drawer.
+
+"Charlie would have enjoyed all this even more than I have," went on the
+Major. "It would have been just what he would have done under the
+circumstances. I saw the wreath, you see, and it touched me very
+deeply."
+
+"The girls will appreciate your kindness all the more when I tell them,"
+said Molly, not knowing how else to express the sympathy she felt.
+
+"Ah, well, it all happened half a century ago," he said, shaking her
+hand and patting it gently at the same time.
+
+"He is a dear," thought Molly, following him into the hall.
+
+She saw one other photograph in the Fern house that interested her. It
+was a picture of Professor Edwin Green, very elaborately framed,
+standing on a dressing table in one of the bedrooms.
+
+Alice Fern kept well in the background while her mother and father and
+elder sister entertained the senior class of Wellington. She had done
+her duty by the lunch and she was not going to mingle in this crowd of
+unknowns.
+
+"I never could bear a college romp," she had said to her mother who had
+remonstrated with her daughter.
+
+"I trust you don't call your mother a college romp," answered the old
+lady indignantly.
+
+"Not at all, Mama. You belonged to the early days of Wellington before
+romps came into existence," Alice replied sharply.
+
+"I'm sure you may have to see a great deal of college, if----" began
+Mrs. Fern, and broke off abruptly.
+
+Alice shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"If--if----" she thought. "How I detest that word."
+
+On the way back that afternoon the old Queen's girls held a council of
+war.
+
+"I think we ought to make it our business to find out who played this
+trick on us," cried Margaret, "if it takes detective work to do it. Our
+dignity as seniors has been attacked and the standards of Wellington
+lowered."
+
+"I don't believe any juniors had a hand in it," put in Judy, "because we
+are so friendly with them."
+
+Nance nudged Molly.
+
+"She's afraid somebody's going to blame that charming Adele," she
+whispered.
+
+"If it's any of the Wellington girls, it's more likely to be among the
+sophomores," announced Edith decisively. "They were rather a wild lot
+last year but we were too busy to notice them; a good deal like a gang
+of bad boys in their own set; always playing practical jokes----"
+
+"Yes, but would they dare play jokes on us?" interrupted Margaret.
+
+"They'd dare do anything," answered Edith. "Anne White is the
+ringleader. I only know her by sight so I can't judge of her character,
+but I heard that Miss Walker had her on the grill several times last
+winter."
+
+"What does she look like?" some one asked.
+
+"Why, she's as demure as anything; a petite, brown-haired, inconspicuous
+little person. You'd never suspect her of being so daring, but I happen
+to know of one reckless performance of hers that Prexy hasn't heard of."
+
+"Do tell," they demanded with breathless curiosity.
+
+"You'll let it go no farther? Word of honor, now?"
+
+"Word of honor," they repeated in a chorus.
+
+"One night last spring she let herself down from the dormitory with a
+rope ladder and went--well, I don't know where she went, but she got
+back safely enough----"
+
+"Up the ladder?"
+
+"No. That was the wonderful part. She simply waited till morning and
+when the gates were open slipped in in time for chapel."
+
+The girls were rather horrified at this story.
+
+"It's shocking," the chorus exclaimed.
+
+"It does sound so," went on Edith impressively, "if I didn't happen to
+know that she spent the night with good old Mrs. Murphy, who told it to
+me herself one day in a burst of tea-cup confidence, and I never let it
+out to any one but Katherine until to-day. But it does seem the moment
+for telling it, if she did play that dastardly trick----"
+
+"But we aren't sure it was Anne White," put in Molly.
+
+"No, but it's her style. She sent a girl a live mouse through the mail
+and she broke up one of the sophomore class meetings by putting
+ticktacks on the window."
+
+"How silly," ejaculated Mabel Hinton.
+
+"But what was she doing down on the campus and what did Mrs. Murphy
+think of being waked up at midnight?" asked Judy.
+
+"It wasn't midnight. It was only a little before eleven and Anne told
+Mrs. Murphy she had done it for a lark. She was awfully frightened and
+Mrs. Murphy began by being shocked and ended by being kind-hearted. The
+ladder had slipped down and she couldn't get up and she didn't know what
+to do."
+
+So it happened, that without meaning to be unjust, the seniors secretly
+blamed Anne White for the pillaging of their lunch hampers. But there
+was no evidence and they could only wait and be watchful, as Margaret
+expressed it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE RETORT COURTEOUS.
+
+
+Because of the happy ending of the Ramble the seniors made no secret of
+the theft of the lunch hampers. If they had been obliged to go hungry,
+they would probably have kept the entire story to themselves. Such is
+human nature. When the story reached Miss Walker's ears, as most things
+about Wellington did sooner or later, she sent for Margaret Wakefield
+and got the history of the case from her in an exceedingly dramatic and
+well connected form.
+
+"And we had gone to no end of trouble, Miss Walker, and a good deal of
+expense," Margaret finished. "Lots of us had had cakes and pickles and
+things sent on from home."
+
+Miss Walker smiled. She could have named the contents of those hampers
+without any outside assistance.
+
+"What none of us understands is where they took the hampers afterward.
+They couldn't have brought them back to college without being found
+out."
+
+"No," answered the Principal, "that would have been impossible, of
+course, and yet the hampers have managed to find their way back."
+Shifting her chair from the table desk, she pointed underneath. "So, you
+see," she continued, "that the sandwiches and pickles and stuffed eggs
+and fudge may have found their way into college after all. Major Fern
+discovered the hampers. They had been tossed into a ditch near his
+place." Miss Walker sighed and frowned. "If the Exmoor boys were given
+to this kind of thing, I might have suspected some of them. But the
+standards at Exmoor are above such things as this," she indicated the
+hampers with a gesture of mingled disgust and pain. "If only--only I
+could bring my Wellington to that point. But every year there is
+something."
+
+Margaret felt sorry for the Principal who had striven so hard for the
+honor of Wellington in the face of so many discouragements.
+
+"It was a thoroughly silly and undignified act," she remarked later to
+the Queen's crowd, telling them of the interview, "to break up a
+time-honored custom like the Senior Ramble by stealing all the food; and
+I'm sorry for the girl who did it if she ever gets caught."
+
+An effort had been made to find out if there had been any sophomore
+spreads the night of the Ramble with the stolen banquet, but these young
+women were either very wily or very innocent, for nothing was found
+against them.
+
+In the meantime, things went on happily enough at Wellington and there
+were no more escapades to wrinkle the President's brow or enrage the
+girls who happened to be the victims. Molly's life was so filled with
+work and interests that she had little leisure for reflection, and
+about this time there came to her an unsolicited and entirely unexpected
+honor. She was elected sub-editor of the Wellington _Commune_, the
+fortnightly review of college news and college writings. Edith Williams,
+beyond a doubt the most literary girl in college, was editor-in-chief,
+Caroline Brinton was business manager, and there was besides a staff of
+six girls from other classes who gathered news and ran their various
+departments.
+
+"I can't imagine why they chose me," Molly exclaimed one afternoon to
+Edith, when the two girls were closeted in the _Commune_ office.
+
+"For your literary discrimination," answered Edith.
+
+"But I think my themes are dreadfully crude and forced. I can't help
+feeling self-conscious when I write."
+
+"That's because you try too hard," answered Edith, who always spoke the
+brutal truth regarding the literary efforts of her friends. "Let your
+thoughts flow easily, lightly," she added, making a flowing gesture with
+her pencil to illustrate the gentle trickling of ideas from an
+overcharged brain.
+
+Molly laughed.
+
+"You remind me of Professor Green. 'Be simple,' was his advice--as if an
+amateur can be simple."
+
+Edith, in the act of writing an editorial, smiled enigmatically.
+
+"It's about as hard as getting a cheap dressmaker to make simple
+clothes," she said. "Amateurs always want to put in ruffles and
+puffles."
+
+The two girls were seated at the editorial desk. There was a pile of
+manuscript in front of Molly: themes recommended by Miss Pomeroy for
+publication and contributed book reviews. Presently only the ticking of
+the clock on the book shelves broke the stillness. Both girls had
+plunged into work with a will. Edith's soft pencil was already flying
+over the sheets.
+
+"Flowing easily and lightly," Molly thought, smiling as she turned a
+page.
+
+For more than half an hour they worked in silence. At last Molly, having
+selected from the reviews the ones she considered best for publication,
+leaned her chin on her hand and closed her eyes. How peaceful it was in
+this little office, and how nice to be with Edith who went at her
+work--this kind of work--with force and swiftness.
+
+Rap, rap, rap, came the sound of knuckles on the door, while some one
+shook the knob and the voice of Judy called:
+
+"Let me in, let me in, girls, I've got something to show you that will
+make your blood boil."
+
+"Run away, we're awfully busy," answered Edith, who kept the door to the
+private office locked.
+
+"I tell you it will make your blood boil with rage and fury," went on
+the extravagant Judy. "As editors of the _Commune_, everybody calls on
+you to resent an insult to college. Please let me in," she pleaded.
+
+Molly opened the door and her impetuous friend rushed in, waving a
+newspaper.
+
+"Be calm, child. Don't take on so. Sit down and tell us easily and
+lightly and flowingly what's the matter," she said.
+
+"Look at this base, libelous article," Judy ejaculated, spreading the
+paper on the table.
+
+With an expression of amused toleration as of one who must bear the
+whims of a spoiled child, Edith drew the paper in front of her while
+Molly and Judy seated themselves on the arms of her chair and read over
+her shoulders.
+
+The first things that caught their eyes were the pictures: drawings of
+wildly disheveled beings in gymnasium suits playing basket ball and
+hockey. One picture, also, represented a blousy looking young person in
+a sweater, carrying a bundle of linen under one arm and a bottle of milk
+under the other. In still another this same blousy model was yelling
+"Hello" to her twin sister across the page. They saw her again in the
+drug store dissipating in chocolate sundaes; and once more, chewing gum;
+hobnobbing with the grocery boy, too, or perhaps it was the baggage man
+or the postman. The article occupied a full page under flaring
+headlines:
+
+    "THE PRESENT DAY COLLEGE GIRL, NO LONGER A PLEASING FEMININE
+    TYPE. SHE IS VULGAR, AGGRESSIVE, SLANGY. COLLEGES FOR GIRLS THE
+    RUIN OF AMERICAN HOMES--So says Miss Beatrice Slammer, the
+    popular writer and well-known anti-suffragist."
+
+"It's ironic, untrue and insulting," observed Edith, in a choking voice
+as her eyes traveled down the columns.
+
+"She seems especially hard on poor girls who have to get their own
+meals," broke in Molly. "Is there anything unfeminine in getting a
+bottle of milk from the corner grocery, I wonder? Or saying good-morning
+to the postman or Mr. Murphy? What would Miss Slammer think of us if she
+knew how often we had tea with Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Murphy, too?"
+
+"She recommends colleges for women to pattern themselves after a Fifth
+Avenue school that teaches manners before it teaches classics," burst
+out Judy. "I wonder if she went to that school?"
+
+"She is evidently opposed to higher education for women," remarked
+Edith. "The style of her writing shows that as much as her sentiments
+do."
+
+"I know one thing," cried Judy, "this settles it. I'm going to join the
+Woman's Suffrage Society to-day. If this is the way an anti thinks, I'm
+for the other side."
+
+Edith and Molly laughed.
+
+"It's an excellent reason for changing your political views, Judy," said
+Molly.
+
+And now the office of the _Commune_ was besieged by numbers of students
+from the three upper classes. There were even one or two indignant
+freshmen present. Those who had received the article by the first mail
+had handed it to those who had not. Many of the girls had already
+written letters in reply and sent them to be published in New York
+papers. Would the editors of the _Commune_ do anything about the base,
+libelous article? Were these stinging falsehoods about college girls to
+be allowed to be scattered over the country without a single protest?
+
+"You may add my name to the Suffrage Club, Miss Wakefield," called a
+junior.
+
+"And mine."
+
+"And mine."
+
+So Margaret's list of converts swelled amazingly that afternoon.
+
+Edith was enjoying herself immensely.
+
+"What funny creatures girls are," she said to Molly, still sitting on
+the arm of the editorial chair.
+
+The question was: how was the article to be answered? No doubt college
+girls everywhere were thinking the same thing; therefore, the Wellington
+girls would not like to be backward in coming forward.
+
+"I suppose all the other colleges will be answering the article in
+about the same way," said Margaret. "I wish we could think of something
+original and different. Something more personal than a letter to a
+newspaper."
+
+"She speaks on anti-suffrage, doesn't she?" asked Edith.
+
+"Oh, yes," cried Margaret. "She is evidently one of those women who
+believes she can stem the tide of human progress by taking a stand
+against higher education and universal suffrage. Do you think women like
+that are ever silent? They are always standing on the street corners
+trying to lift their little puny voices above the multitude--but who
+hears them?"
+
+There was a burst of laughter at Margaret's eloquence.
+
+"Why not ask her to speak here?" suggested Edith.
+
+"What good would that do?"
+
+"Besides, she wouldn't come."
+
+"Oh, yes she would. Wait until all this blows over and then send her
+the invitation. People who write like that always want to talk."
+
+"But how will we get any personal satisfaction out of it?" Margaret
+asked.
+
+"Well, by showing her what perfect ladies we are, in the first place. We
+can be very attentive and still 'freeze' her. We can entertain her
+without talking to her any more than is necessary, and we can listen to
+her speech and make no comments."
+
+After consideration of the suggestion, most of the girls began to see a
+good many possibilities in this courteous revenge. They were taken with
+the notion of inviting Miss Slammer into the enemy's camp and treating
+her as a guest too honored to be familiar with. It was agreed that the
+invitation should be dispatched in about two weeks, so that Miss Slammer
+would feel no suspicions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A STOLEN VISIT.
+
+
+One morning not long after the stormy meeting in the _Commune_ room,
+Molly, racking her brain over "The Theory of Mathematics," heard Otoyo's
+tap at the door. She knew it was the little Japanese. Nobody else could
+knock so faintly and still so distinctly.
+
+"Come in," she called, and Otoyo glided in as softly as a mouse.
+
+"You are much busy, Mees Brown?" she asked, retreating toward the door
+when she saw Molly bending over her book.
+
+"Oh, I can spare a few moments for a dear little friend any day,"
+answered Molly. "What's happened? Nothing wrong, I hope?"
+
+The Japanese girl appeared excited. Her eyes shone with more than their
+usual luster and she seemed hardly able to keep back the news she had to
+tell.
+
+"No, no, nothing wrong. Something very right. My honorable father is
+coming to Wellington to see his humble little daughter. O, I am so
+happee!" and Miss Sen executed a few steps of the "Boston," she had
+lately learned to dance. Molly watched the plump little figure gliding
+about the room and smiled. What a dear, funny little person Otoyo was.
+
+"I am so glad. How joyful you must be. When is he coming, Otoyo?"
+
+"He has arriving----" Otoyo broke off quickly. Excitement always
+strangely affected her English. "He has arrived now in New York and he
+will come here to-morrow for the end-week."
+
+"Week-end, you mean, child. Now, what shall we do to amuse him besides
+showing him the sights? Wouldn't you like us to give him a dance or a
+fudge party or something?"
+
+Otoyo clasped her hands joyfully.
+
+"It will be enough for my honorable father to see all the beautiful
+young American ladees and the buildeengs. He will not require of his
+humble daughter amusements. He is much grateful to young ladees for
+kindness to little Otoyo. My honorable father will be thankful to you."
+
+"Perhaps you would like us to go with you to the train to meet him?"
+Molly suggested, wondering why Otoyo still lingered, now that she had
+unburdened herself of the good news and had seen plainly that Molly was
+very, very busy. But no, Otoyo thought so many young ladees at once
+might embarrass her honorable parent. She would prefer to bring him to
+call at No. 5 Quadrangle on Sunday afternoon if entirely acceptable.
+
+It would be acceptable. They would all be delighted and the crowd would
+be there to receive the honorable gentleman. And now, Molly was sure
+Otoyo would go. But Otoyo had something else on her mind, evidently.
+Molly sighed. Not for worlds would she hurt her small friend's feelings,
+but she did wish she had put a busy sign on the door. It had been such a
+perfect time to study, with Nance at a lecture and Judy practicing
+basket ball.
+
+"Will Mees Brown do me one great beeg favor?" began Otoyo with some
+embarrassment.
+
+"Yes, indeed. Anything."
+
+It appeared that Otoyo was very anxious to call on Professor Green and
+she wished Miss Brown to go with her.
+
+"You have seen the honorable Professor?" she asked innocently.
+
+"No, I have been to inquire every day, but Miss Fern told me he was not
+permitted to see visitors."
+
+For the first time in their acquaintance Molly saw Otoyo show signs of
+real displeasure.
+
+"Mees Fern?" she repeated. "She cannot say no and yes. It is for the
+nurse to say."
+
+Molly admitted that she had not seen the nurse.
+
+"Then you will come?" cried Otoyo, with almost as much enthusiasm as she
+had shown over the coming visit of her honorable father.
+
+"But----" began Molly.
+
+"You will so kindlee go this afternoon?" broke in the voluble little
+Japanese. "Will four o'clock be an hour of convenience?"
+
+"I really don't----" began Molly again.
+
+"You said 'anything,'" interrupted Otoyo. "You will not go back on poor
+little Japanese? You will come?" she finished, cocking her head on one
+side in her own peculiarly irresistible manner.
+
+Molly glanced at the clock. She had already lost nearly twenty minutes
+of her precious study hour.
+
+"Very well, little one, come for me at four," she said, and Otoyo fairly
+flew from the room before Molly could change her mind. Out in the
+corridor Miss Sen danced the Boston again, just a _pas seul_ to express
+her happiness. Of course Mees Brown should never know that she had just
+that moment come from seeing the great Professor.
+
+At four o'clock Otoyo again appeared at the door of No. 5. It was
+pouring down rain, but she had no intention of releasing Molly from her
+promise. In her miniature rain coat and jaunty red felt hat, she looked
+like a plump little robin hopping into the room.
+
+"You are readee?" asked Otoyo.
+
+"Why, I never dreamed you would go in the rain!" began Molly, looking up
+from her writing.
+
+Otoyo's face lengthened and the corners of her mouth drooped
+disconsolately.
+
+"Why, bless the child! Molly, aren't you ashamed to disappoint her?"
+cried Judy from the divan where she was resting after her athletic
+labors.
+
+"Why, Otoyo, dear, I didn't know you were so keen about it. Of course
+I'll go," said Molly remorsefully, fumbling in the closet for her
+over-shoes, while Nance calmly appropriated Judy's rain coat from the
+back of a chair where that young woman had flung it and held it up for
+Molly to slip into.
+
+"Better take my umbrella," she said. Molly had never owned a rain coat
+and couldn't keep an umbrella.
+
+"You know we may not be allowed to see him," Molly observed, when the
+two girls had started on their wet walk down the avenue. "Miss Fern
+distinctly told Judith Blount and me one day that he was not to see any
+one except the family. The doctor particularly did not wish him to see
+students who would remind him of his work and worry him."
+
+"Mees Fern know too much," said Otoyo, making what she called a "scare
+face" by wrinkling her nose and screwing up her mouth. "Mees Fern veree
+crosslee sometimes."
+
+"Adverbs, adverbs, Otoyo," admonished Molly.
+
+"Excusa-me," said Otoyo. "It is when I become a little warm here in my
+brain that I grow adverbial."
+
+Molly laughed. In her heart there was a secret, unacknowledged feeling
+of relief that she was going to try to see Professor Green in spite of
+Miss Fern. It was a relief, too, to find herself in the outdoors after
+her long vigil of study. The rain beat on her face and the fresh wind
+nipped her cheeks until they glowed with color.
+
+"You are much too small and feeble to come out in all this weather,
+Otoyo," she said, slipping her arm through her friend's. "You are so
+tiny you might easily fall into a puddle and drown."
+
+"Ah, thees is notheeng," cried Otoyo. "In Japan it rains--oceans! And
+for so long. Days and days without refraining from." She was very apt to
+use big words instead of smaller ones, her own language being
+exceedingly formal and grandiose. "Notheeng is dry. Not even within the
+edifices."
+
+"Houses, Otoyo."
+
+"But a house is an edifice, is it not so?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but we wouldn't use such a showy word."
+
+Otoyo was still puzzling out why the longer word was not the better when
+they reached the infirmary. The regular nurse of the infirmary who
+usually sat in the waiting room was not visible to-day. A freshman was
+ill and she was probably busy, Otoyo explained.
+
+"Who is looking after the Professor?" Molly asked.
+
+Miss Fern, it appeared, assisted by the infirmary nurse, attended her
+cousin during the day, and his sister nursed him at night. Having
+imparted this information in a loud whisper, Otoyo started upstairs on
+tiptoe, Molly following. Somehow, she felt quite courageous and not at
+all afraid of Miss Fern, with the little Japanese to lead her on.
+
+All the doors were closed in the corridor above and on the ward room
+door hung a sign, "No Admittance."
+
+"She must be quite ill," whispered Molly.
+
+"She has a taking disease," answered Otoyo. "Like this." And she puffed
+out both jaws to the roundness of the full moon.
+
+Molly stifled a laugh.
+
+"Mumps, do you mean?"
+
+Otoyo nodded.
+
+"It was so called to me by the honorable nurse," she added gravely.
+
+The two girls lingered a moment in the hall. Molly was opposed to
+rapping on the Professor's door, but Otoyo, amiably but unswervingly
+persistent in attaining her ends, gently tapped on the door.
+
+"Come in," called Professor Green's voice, weak almost beyond
+recognition.
+
+Otoyo peeped into the room.
+
+"He is alone," she whispered, and with that she pushed Molly through the
+door with arm of steel. "I will keep watch for ten minutes without.
+Then I will call." She closed the door and Molly found herself looking
+fearfully through the dim shadows cast by half-drawn green blinds, at an
+emaciated face on the pillow. Her pulses throbbed and she wanted very
+much to cry. Indeed, it required almost superhuman effort to keep back
+the tears. Was this emaciated, wax-like face on the pillows her
+Professor's?
+
+"I'm afraid I ought not to be here," she began in a low voice.
+
+"If you leave I shall cry," said the Professor. "Won't you come nearer?"
+
+Molly crept over to the bedside and stood looking down into the changed
+face. Only the brown eyes seemed the same. She choked and tried to
+smile. One must be cheerful with sick people, and she hoped the
+Professor would think it was the rain that had wet her cheeks.
+
+"Shake hands, Miss Molly," said the Professor, lifting one transparent
+hand and then dropping it weakly.
+
+With an impulse she could hardly explain she knelt beside the bed and
+put her hand over his.
+
+"You are much better?" she whispered.
+
+"I'll soon be well, now," he replied. "But I've been on a long journey.
+It seemed endless--so many mountains to climb and rivers to cross--such
+impenetrable forests----" he paused and shook his head. "I was beginning
+to get very tired and lonely, too--it's dismal taking the journey
+alone--but I've come to the end now--it's over----" again he paused and
+smiled. "I'm glad to find you at last. I've been looking for you a long
+time."
+
+"I would have come sooner, but they--but she said no one was to see
+you."
+
+"The nurse?"
+
+Molly shook her head.
+
+"My sister?"
+
+"No, Miss Fern."
+
+"I never was so bossed in my life----" a sudden strength came into his
+voice. "These women!" he added in a tone of disgust.
+
+The door opened and Otoyo's voice was heard saying in a loud whisper.
+
+"The ten minutes have passed away."
+
+"Good-bye," whispered Molly.
+
+"Will you come again?" he asked.
+
+She nodded and tiptoed hurriedly out of the room. She had caught a
+glimpse of the blue paper weight on the table during that stolen
+interview.
+
+"No wonder Miss Alice Fern is so bossy with him," she thought. "I
+suppose she has a right to be." Molly sighed. Somehow she wished she had
+not seen the blue paper weight. It had spoiled all the happiness in the
+visit, except of course her happiness over his recovery.
+
+When the two girls reached the head of the stairs, the door to the ward
+opened and the nurse looked out. She exchanged a smiling nod with Otoyo.
+
+"Why, Miss Sen, you naughty little thing, I believe this visit was all
+arranged beforehand," exclaimed Molly.
+
+But Miss Sen only laughed and not one word of excuse or explanation
+would she give.
+
+"Otoyo, you are as deep as deep----" Molly began.
+
+But Otoyo pressing closely to her side, looked up into Molly's face and
+smiled so sweetly it was impossible to scold her.
+
+"You are very kindlee to humble little Japanese girl," she said. "Better
+than all the young ladies of Wellington, I like you best, Mees Brown.
+There is no one so good and so beautiful----"
+
+"You outrageous little flatterer, you are changing the subject," cried
+Molly.
+
+"With all my honor, I give you assurance that I speak trulee."
+
+"You make me very happee, then," laughed Molly, "but what has that got
+to do with Professor Green?"
+
+"Did I say there was any connecting?" asked Otoyo innocently.
+
+And so Miss Sen, unfathomable and still guileless, never explained about
+the stolen visit, and Molly Brown, baffled and still glad in her heart,
+had to think up any explanation she could.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+BARBED ARROWS.
+
+
+"I don't know which was the most highly polished, his manners or his
+shiny bronze face," ejaculated Judy when the door of No. 5 had closed
+upon Otoyo and her honorable father.
+
+The small grizzled Japanese gentleman had taken tea American fashion
+with his daughter's Quadrangle friends. With punctilious enjoyment he
+had eaten everything that was offered to him, cloudbursts, salmon
+sandwiches, stuffed olives and chocolate cake. The girls had heard that
+raw carp was a favorite Japanese dish, and salmon being the only fish
+convenient, they had bought several cans of it in the village in honor
+of the national taste.
+
+"Wasn't his English wonderful?" put in Margaret. "He said to me, 'I
+entertain exceedingly hopes in my daughter's educationally efforts.'"
+
+"He asked me if I were quadrangular," laughed Edith. "I said no,
+quadrilateral."
+
+"The funny part of it was that he used all those big words and spoke
+with such a perfect accent and yet he didn't understand anything we
+said," observed Molly. "All the time I was telling him how much we loved
+Otoyo and what a dear clever child she was, he blinked and smiled and
+said: 'Indeed. Is it truly? Exceedingly interestingly.'"
+
+While they were laughing and discussing Otoyo's father, Adele Windsor,
+Judy's new bosom friend, walked into the room. She had formed a habit of
+entering their room without announcing herself, an unpardonable breach
+of etiquette at Wellington, as well it might be anywhere. Lately she had
+made herself very much at home at No. 5, lounging on the divan with a
+novel between lectures, or occupying the most comfortable chair while
+she jotted down notes on a tablet. Nance called her "the intruder" to
+Molly, and once she had even ventured to remark to Judy:
+
+"I should think your friend would know that it's customary to knock on a
+door before opening it."
+
+"It's because she's never had any privacy," explained Judy
+apologetically. "She was brought up in a New York flat and slept on a
+parlor sofa all her life until two years ago when her father began
+suddenly to make money."
+
+"Being brought up in a parlor ought to give her parlor manners," Nance
+thought, but she had not voiced her thought to the sensitive Judy, who
+really had not intended to force Adele Windsor on her chums. It was only
+that Adele had a way of taking for granted she was _persona grata_, that
+Nance thought was rather too free.
+
+Molly, always polite to guests whether welcome or not, greeted Adele
+cordially and made her a cup of tea.
+
+"We were just discussing Otoyo Sen's funny little father," she
+explained, in order to draw Adele into the conversation. "He's been here
+to call--the queerest English!" And Molly repeated some of Mr. Sen's
+absurd speeches.
+
+Adele listened with interest. She was always interested in everything,
+one might almost say inquisitive, and she had a peculiar way of making
+people say things they regretted. Judy, artless soul, had told her
+everything she knew long ago. And now, turning her intelligent dark eyes
+from one to another and occasionally putting out a pointed question,
+Adele succeeded in starting a new discussion on Otoyo's father. With the
+most innocent intentions in the world, they imitated his voice and
+manner, his stiff formal bows and his funny squeaky laugh.
+
+It was not until later when the friends had scattered to tidy up for
+supper that Molly felt any misgivings about having made fun of Otoyo's
+father, and these she kept to herself, feeling, indeed, that they were
+unworthy of her. Adele had not left with the others. She was to remain
+for supper with Judy, and the two girls sat chatting together while
+Molly took a cat-nap and Nance began clearing away the tea things.
+
+"You shall not help," she had insisted, when Molly had offered to do her
+share. "You are dead tired and I'm not, so go and rest and don't
+bother."
+
+Nance's manner was often brusquest when she was tenderest, but Molly
+understood her perfectly. She _was_ very tired. What with her new duties
+on the _Commune_, club meetings and the pressure of studies, the world
+was turning so fast she felt that she might fly off into space at any
+moment.
+
+"Professor Green would have scolded me for trying to overdo things," she
+was thinking, half sadly. Gradually her body relaxed and her eyelids
+dropped. Through the mists of half consciousness she heard the musical
+rattle of the tea things, and presently there came the catchy, rather
+nasal tones of Adele's voice over the clatter of china and silver.
+
+"I like all your friends, Judy. They are remarkably bright."
+
+"Aren't they a sparkling little coterie," answered Judy proudly.
+
+"Now, Miss Wakefield is a born leader. Of course a leader must have the
+gift of gab. She's a great talker, isn't she? Takes the conversation
+right into her own hands and keeps it there, doesn't she?"
+
+"Margaret does talk a lot," Judy admitted.
+
+"Too much perhaps for any one not deeply interested, but then of course
+I always am. Now, Edith Williams is the brighter of the two, but she
+knows it, don't you think so?"
+
+"Well, I suppose she does," replied Judy reluctantly.
+
+"Katherine has more surface brightness, but of course she's superficial,
+that is, compared with her sister."
+
+"Edith is the brightest," said Judy.
+
+"Mabel Hinton is all right, but she does dress so atrociously. And those
+glasses! Can you imagine how she can wear them?"
+
+Molly felt suddenly hot. She flung the comfort off and sat up
+impatiently.
+
+"I should think Judy would have sense enough to see she's being made to
+discuss every friend she has," she thought.
+
+"The Intruder" had now commenced on pretty Jessie Lynch. "Awfully jolly
+to have so many beaux. Most men-crazy girls have none," she was saying,
+when Molly marched into the room. She had not decided what she was going
+to say, but she intended to say something.
+
+"How red your face is, Molly, dear," observed Judy carelessly.
+
+"And how fortunate that it's so seldom that way," went on the
+imperturbable Miss Windsor. "Red faces are not becoming to red heads,
+that is, generally speaking, but your skin is such an exquisite
+texture, Miss Brown, that it doesn't matter whether it's red or white.
+Did you see where a girl had written to a beauty editor and asked for a
+cure for blushing? The editor told her that age was the only cure.
+Sometimes, however, one gets very good suggestions off those pages, good
+hygienic suggestions, I mean."
+
+And so Adele carried the conversation along at such a swift pace that
+Molly did not have the chance to say what she had intended. She had
+always regarded that kind of talk with supreme contempt: praise that
+tapered into a sting. "It would have been more honest to have given the
+sting without the praise," she thought, "and less hypocritical and
+censorious."
+
+It was Adele's trick to make you agree with her, and if you did, lead
+you on to further and more dangerous ground, until you suddenly felt
+yourself placed in the awkward position of saying something unkind
+without having intended it.
+
+It was strange that Judy was so blind to this trait of Adele's. But
+then Adele was very attractive. There was a kind of abandon about her
+that suited Judy's style. They had a great many tastes in common. Adele
+was very talented and the two girls often went off on Saturday afternoon
+sketching expeditions together.
+
+"Nance, I'm ashamed of myself for thinking such things," whispered
+Molly, on the way down to supper, "but there is something almost
+Mephistophelean about Adele Windsor."
+
+"She-devil, you mean," broke in Nance bluntly.
+
+Molly laughed.
+
+"Mephistophelean was more high sounding. Besides she's just like
+Mephistopheles in 'Faust.' She doesn't speak right out, only whispers
+and suggests. Innuendo is the word, isn't it? Sometimes I'm really
+frightened for Judy."
+
+"She is awfully crushed, but she'll wake up soon enough. She always
+does," answered Nance carelessly.
+
+But Molly had secret misgivings, in spite of Nance's assurances, and
+furthermore, she was convinced that the crafty Adele was well aware of
+these misgivings and that it gave her much private enjoyment to make
+Molly uncomfortable.
+
+"The trouble is I can't fight her with her own weapons," Molly thought.
+"I'm not clever enough, and besides I wouldn't if I could. After all,
+boys' methods of settling disputes by drawing a circle and fighting it
+out are somehow much more honest. It would be worth a black eye and a
+bloody nose to lay forever all that innuendo and sly insinuation."
+
+"She's hypnotized Judy into putting her up for the Shakespeareans and
+the Olla Podridas," said Nance. "And she'll get in. Nobody will dream of
+blackballing her, you'll see."
+
+Molly compressed her lips into a firm red line and said nothing, but she
+was almost led to wish that school societies did not exist at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE SUBSTITUTE.
+
+
+Miss Walker had not failed to see the stinging article against women's
+colleges written by Miss Beatrice Slammer for a newspaper, and when she
+recalled that Miss Slammer had recently spent a day at Wellington as a
+guest of the college under plea of gathering material, she felt somewhat
+embittered. When, therefore, it came to her ears that the students
+intended to ask Miss Slammer to Wellington ostensibly for the purpose of
+hearing her views on anti-suffrage, she smiled and said nothing to
+anybody except Miss Pomeroy, who had raised some objections.
+
+"Don't worry over it, my dear," said Miss Walker, "they won't do
+anything to make us ashamed. It's Miss Slammer who will be ashamed, I
+rather imagine."
+
+Perhaps Miss Slammer was surprised at receiving an invitation from
+Wellington University after her lampoon of college girls. Whatever
+qualms she may have felt in writing it had been hushed to sleep with the
+insidious thought that the views, if not true, were at least sensational
+enough to catch the public eye; and this was more important to Miss
+Slammer than anything else. It flattered her to be asked to speak at
+this small but distinguished college. Of course they had never seen the
+article or they would never have sent the invitation. Miss Slammer had
+her doubts as to whether any person outside New York ever read a
+newspaper, especially a lot of college girls who had no interests beyond
+amateur plays and basket ball. So she promptly dispatched a polite note
+of acceptance to "Miss Julia Kean." Then at the last moment, only a few
+hours before train time, her courage failed her.
+
+"I can't do it," she said. "I simply haven't the nerve."
+
+"Do what?" asked Jimmy Lufton, glancing up from his typewriter to the
+somewhat battered and worn countenance of Miss Slammer.
+
+"Face a lot of women and talk to them about anti-suffrage."
+
+Jimmy grinned. He had the face of a mischievous schoolboy. In his eyes
+there lurked two little imps of adventure while his broad and sunny
+smile was completely disarming. "Sunny Jim" was the name given him by
+his friends in the office, a name that still clung to him after five
+tempestuous years of newspaper work.
+
+"Would you like a substitute?" he asked. "I think I could give some
+pretty convincing arguments."
+
+"What do you know about it?" demanded Miss Slammer doubtfully.
+
+"Did you read the article that came out last Sunday--'Anti's to the
+front, by a Wife and Mother.' That was me. I thought I gave a pretty
+fair line of argument."
+
+"Jimmie, you are the limit," exclaimed Miss Slammer. Then she paused and
+began to think quickly. Suppose Jimmy did go up to Wellington with a
+letter of introduction from her, and take her place? Well, why not? She
+was too ill to come, and had sent the well-known young writer on this
+vital subject. She would be keeping her engagement in a way, and Jimmy
+would be getting a holiday and perhaps material for another story at the
+same time. The editor's consent was gained. "See if you can't get
+something about basket ball," he had ordered, and Jimmy dashed out of
+the office, the railroad ticket contributed by Wellington in one pocket
+and Miss Slammer's note in the other.
+
+Miss Slammer's nature was a casual one. Life had been so hard with her
+that she had long since grown callous under the blows of fate and grimly
+indifferent to other people's feelings. Somewhere she had heard that
+Jimmy Lufton was a born orator. At any rate, she thought he could carry
+off the adventure and her conscience was easy.
+
+At eight o'clock the next morning when the night train from New York
+pulled into Wellington station, a crowd of well-dressed young women on
+the platform gazed at the door of the Pullman car with expectant eyes.
+Judy Kean in a black velvet suit and a big picture hat headed the
+delegation. Only two passengers descended from the sleeper: a
+middle-aged, worn-looking woman in shabby black and a young man whose
+alert brown eyes took in at once the crowd of college girls and Judy,
+resplendent in velvet and plumes.
+
+"Miss Slammer?" began Judy, intercepting the woman passenger who was
+looking up and down the platform, somewhat bewildered.
+
+"No, no, that is not my name. I am looking for Miss Windsor," answered
+the woman nervously.
+
+"Oh," said Judy, rather surprised. "You will find her at her rooms in
+the Beta Phi House. Take the 'bus up. It's quite a walk."
+
+The woman bowed and hurried over to the 'bus just as the young man with
+the alert brown eyes came up, hat in hand. Judy noticed at once that his
+head was large and rather distinguished in outline and that his
+close-cropped black hair had a tendency to curl.
+
+"You were looking for Miss Slammer?" he asked, speaking to Judy, whose
+face, as the train receded, showed mingled feelings of disappointment
+and anger.
+
+"Oh, yes," she replied, startled somewhat at being addressed by a
+strange young man.
+
+"She couldn't come, and I came down as a substitute," he went on,
+handing her the note hastily dashed off by the intrepid Beatrice.
+
+Judy's eyes only half took in the words of the note. She read it
+silently and passed it on to the rest of the delegation.
+
+"A man!" she thought. "Now, isn't that too much? Everything is ruined.
+We can't teach Miss Slammer a lesson in politeness through a proxy."
+
+"I hope it's all right," Jimmy began, watching Judy's face with
+undisguised admiration.
+
+"Oh, yes," she answered hastily. "We are very glad to see you, Mr.
+Slammer----"
+
+Jimmy broke into his inimitable laugh.
+
+"My name is Lufton," he said, and the mistake seemed so funny that Judy
+laughed, too, and everybody felt more at ease immediately.
+
+"We were to have had you up to breakfast--I mean Miss Slammer," Judy
+stammered.
+
+"I'll get something--er somewhere," said Jimmy in a reassuring tone.
+
+"There's an inn in Wellington village," suggested one of the girls.
+
+"Miss Slammer was scheduled to speak at three o'clock this afternoon,"
+began Judy.
+
+"And am I banished to the village all that time?" Jimmy broke in. "You
+don't bar men from the grounds, do you? I'd like to look around the
+place a little."
+
+"No, indeed. This isn't a convent. If you will come up to the Quadrangle
+after breakfast, we'll be delighted to show you the buildings and the
+cloisters--whatever would interest you."
+
+"Thanks, awfully," said Jimmy, and presently they watched him stroll off
+up the road to the village, whistling as gaily as a schoolboy.
+
+There were scores of faces at the windows of the Quadrangle when the
+special 'bus drew up at the archway.
+
+"She didn't come," Judy called to a group of girls lingering in the
+tower room. "A man came."
+
+"Young or old?" cried half a dozen voices.
+
+"Young and passing fair," said Jessie.
+
+"Passing dark, you mean. He had black hair."
+
+"But where is old Miss Slammer?" demanded Edith Williams.
+
+"Old Miss Slammer was afraid to face the music, I suppose. Anyway, she
+sent Mr. James Lufton down to take her place and he is at present
+breakfasting in the village."
+
+"Somehow, all the sweetness has gone out of revenge!" exclaimed Edith.
+"I foresee that nobody will be willing to practice the 'freeze-out' on
+an innocent man, passing fair, if he is a substitute."
+
+"Well, he's coming up this morning to be shown around college. If any
+one wants to take the job of showing him, I'm willing to resign my
+place. Anybody who is willing to do the 'freeze-out' act, I mean. I
+don't think it will be easy. He has a way of laughing that makes other
+people laugh. You couldn't be mean to him if you tried."
+
+Already, Judy had unconsciously set herself the task of protecting Mr.
+James Lufton from the fate planned for Miss Slammer.
+
+"Aren't we to listen in cold silence when he makes his speech?" asked a
+girl.
+
+"Of course," put in Margaret, "you couldn't listen in any other way to a
+speech against suffrage. I shan't applaud him, I know. If he represents
+Miss Slammer, like as not he shares her views about college girls, too,
+and is just as deserving as she is to a polite 'freeze-out.'"
+
+"It was a mad scheme from the first," put in Katherine Williams. "I
+never did approve of it. I don't imagine such a subtle revenge would
+have had the slightest effect on Miss Slammer."
+
+"We intend to have our revenge," cried a dozen voices, followers of
+Margaret.
+
+In the midst of the hot argument that followed this statement, Judy
+hurried off to Beta Phi House to eat her share of the fine breakfast
+some of the girls there had undertaken to give to the enemy of women's
+colleges. She felt that things looked pretty black for Mr. James Lufton.
+Running upstairs to Adele Windsor's rooms, she knocked on the door
+impatiently. It was quite two minutes before it was cautiously opened
+by Adele, whose face looked flushed and there were two white dents at
+the corners of her mouth.
+
+"I heard she didn't come," Adele began, without waiting for Judy to
+speak. "Let's go down to breakfast. We're late as it is." She closed the
+door with a slam and pushed Judy in front of her toward the stairs.
+
+"By the way, did a visitor find you?" asked Judy. "She inquired where
+you lived at the station."
+
+"Oh, yes. Just a woman--on business. About some clothes," she added
+carelessly. "Dressmakers are dreadful nuisances sometimes."
+
+Judy said nothing, but it occurred to her that Adele must be a very good
+customer for a dressmaker to come all the way to Wellington to consult
+her.
+
+While the Beta Phi girls and their guests were breakfasting in the
+paneled dining-room, the little woman in shabby black came softly out of
+Adele's rooms and tiptoed downstairs. Under cover of the noise of
+laughter and talk she opened the front door and went out. Jimmy Lufton
+saw her later at the inn in the village where she had coffee and toast
+and inquired the hour for the next train to New York. Jimmy himself was
+occupied in jotting down notes on an old envelope.
+
+"If it makes me laugh, I should think it would make them," he chuckled
+to himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE POLITE FREEZE-OUT.
+
+
+They had seen the cloisters and the library and the Hall of Science and
+all the show places at Wellington, and now Miss Julia Kean and Mr. James
+Lufton might be seen strolling across the campus in the direction of the
+lake.
+
+It was one of those hazy, mid-autumnal days, neither cold nor hot; a
+blue mist clothed the fields and hung like a canopy between sun and
+earth.
+
+Judy had changed her best velvet for a walking skirt and a red sweater
+and Jimmy Lufton glanced at her with admiration from time to time.
+
+"It's a mighty becoming way of dressing you young ladies have here," he
+said. "Those sweaters and tam o' shanters are prettier to me than the
+fittest clothes on Fifth Avenue."
+
+"Then you don't agree with Miss Slammer?" asked Judy.
+
+"I probably don't, but, as it happens, I never asked her opinion."
+
+"You don't know what Miss Slammer thinks of college girls, the way they
+dress and talk?"
+
+Jimmy hesitated. As a matter of fact he had never seen the libelous
+article by Miss Slammer. He had been absent in a remote village in the
+mountains writing a murder trial when the article had appeared.
+Therefore he was not suspicious of Judy's unexpected question.
+
+"I can tell you what I think of college girls," he went on as they
+neared the edge of the lake. "I think they are the jolliest, most
+natural, interesting, wholesome, best looking, companionable----"
+
+Judy began to blush. He was looking straight at her as he delivered
+himself of this stream of adjectives.
+
+"Would you like to canoe a little?" she asked, changing the subject.
+
+"Would I," exclaimed Jimmy, with the sudden boyish expression that made
+his face so attractive. "I should rather think I would. I haven't had
+the chance to paddle a canoe since I left college."
+
+It was just the day for canoeing. The surface of the lake was as smooth
+as glass except where the paddles of other canoeists stirred its placid
+surface into little ripples and miniature waves.
+
+Judy thought it would be nice, too. She was enjoying herself immensely
+with this lecturer who looked like a boy without any of a boy's
+diffidence.
+
+"Do you lecture often?" she asked, when they had settled themselves in
+the canoe and he was paddling with a skill she recognized as far from
+being amateur.
+
+"I don't mind making speeches," answered Jimmy. "I made a lot of them
+the last campaign. 'Cart-tail' speeches they are called, only our cart
+was an automobile. There were four or five of us who toured the East
+Side and took turns talking to the crowds."
+
+"I should think you'd be a politician instead of a writer on
+anti-suffrage," remarked Judy.
+
+Jimmy grinned as he shot the canoe toward the center of the lake.
+
+"Is that what I'm credited as being?" he asked.
+
+"'A well-known writer on the subject,'" quoted Judy.
+
+"If I had read that note over I think I would have been tempted to
+scratch out the 'well-known,'" he said, "especially as the only article
+I ever wrote was signed 'A Wife and a Mother.'"
+
+Judy's eyes darkened. Was Miss Slammer to libel them and then send down
+an impostor to make fun of them? Her impressionable mind was as subject
+to as many changes as an April day and her recent pleasure in Mr.
+Lufton's society changed to displeasure as the suspicion clouded her
+thoughts.
+
+"You had a good deal of courage to come to Wellington, then," she
+observed after a pause. "At least we think you did after what Miss
+Slammer wrote about us."
+
+A hunting dog on the scent of quarry was not keener than Jimmy when it
+came to scenting out news, and it took about five minutes of careful and
+skillful questioning for Judy to explain the entire situation.
+
+"By Jove, but that was like old 'Bee-trice' to send me down here into a
+hornet's nest," he thought. "I'll have to get square with them somehow
+before the lecture or it will never come off. I assure you I didn't know
+anything about the article," he said aloud to Judy. "I only came to
+accommodate Miss Slammer. She told me yesterday at the office she was
+ill."
+
+"Then you aren't a lecturer or a writer?" broke in Judy.
+
+"Miss Slammer and I work on the same paper. Didn't she say that in the
+letter?"
+
+Judy shook her head.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll think I'm an impostor, Miss Kean, but I had no
+intention of sailing under false colors. I think I'd better take the
+next train back to New York and give up the lecture. It would be better
+to run away before I'm frozen out, don't you think so?"
+
+Judy was silent for a moment. Her rage against Mr. James Lufton had
+entirely disappeared and she again had that feeling that she would like
+to protect him from the wrath to come.
+
+"What is a 'polite freeze-out' exactly?" Jimmy asked.
+
+"Well, while you lecture, you are to look into rows of stony faces and
+when you finish, there is not to be a word spoken, not a single
+handclap, nothing but stillness as the girls file out of the hall."
+
+Jimmy laughed.
+
+"A sort of glacial exit, I suppose. It makes me chilly to think of it.
+Miss Slammer had a lucky escape."
+
+They were paddling now in the very center of the upper lake, but so
+absorbed were they in their conversation that they had scarcely noticed
+a canoe in front of them.
+
+Suddenly there came a cry, a splash and then a moment of perfect
+stillness followed by a confused sound of voices from the shore. The
+next instant Judy saw in front of them an upturned canoe and two heads
+just rising above the water. Before she had time to realize the danger,
+Jimmy Lufton had torn off his coat, flung his hat into the bottom of the
+canoe and, with a carefully planned leap, had cleared the side of the
+canoe, sending it spinning over the water, shaking and quivering like a
+frightened animal. And now Judy beheld him swimming with long strokes
+toward the place where the two heads had appeared, disappeared and once
+more reappeared. In that flash of a moment she had recognized the blonde
+plaits of Margaret Wakefield and the wet curls of Jessie Lynch. As she
+mechanically paddled toward the struggling figures, she remembered that
+Jessie could not swim a stroke and that Margaret could only swim under
+the most favorable circumstances in a shallow tank.
+
+[Illustration: Before she had time to realize the danger, Jimmy Lufton
+had torn off his coat.--_Page_ 132.]
+
+"He can't hold them both up at once," thought Judy, with a throb of fear
+as she frantically beat the water with her paddle in her effort to reach
+them.
+
+For a moment Jimmy himself was in a quandary. It looked as if he would
+have to let one girl go to save the other, when he saw one of the canoe
+paddles floating within reach. He gave it a swift push toward the
+struggling Margaret.
+
+"Put that under your arms and go slow," he shouted, and made for Jessie.
+In two strokes he had caught her by her coat collar and was swimming
+swiftly toward the upturned canoe.
+
+"Even in the water, Jessie's irresistible attraction had prevailed," the
+girls said afterward when they could discuss this almost tragic event
+with calmness.
+
+"Hold on tight to the canoe, little girl," he said, and turned toward
+Margaret, who was all but exhausted now. He caught her just as she was
+sinking, and held her up until a row boat from shore reached them.
+Margaret was pulled in, with much difficulty owing to her large bulk,
+and at last Jimmy, feeling a trifle weary himself, returned to Jessie
+and helped her into another boat. She was still sufficiently herself to
+achieve a smile of thanks to the handsome young man who had saved her
+life.
+
+It was all over in a flash, and yet it seemed as if the entire college
+of Wellington could be seen running across the campus to the lakeside.
+
+By the time the half-drowned trio reached land Miss Walker herself was
+there looking frightened and pale. The girls were to go straight to the
+Quadrangle, be rubbed down with alcohol and put to bed. As for the brave
+young man who had saved their lives, he was to be taken to the infirmary
+where he could be made comfortable while his clothes were being dried.
+
+When Jimmy Lufton, dripping like a sea god, found himself in the center
+of a group of beautiful young ladies all eager to show him honor as
+they hurried him along to the infirmary, he gave a low, amused chuckle.
+
+"I hope I've squared myself with them now," he thought, "and there'll be
+no polite freeze-out for me and no lecture, either, thank heavens."
+
+While a delegation of three went to the village inn and ordered his suit
+case sent up to the infirmary, another delegation made him a hot
+lemonade in the infirmary pantry, and a third went to the flower store
+in the village and purchased a huge bunch of violets. This was laid on
+his lunch tray with a card, "From the Senior Class of 19--in grateful
+recognition of your brave deed."
+
+And so the world goes. He who is down one day is up the next and Jimmy
+who was to have been the victim of a blighting freeze-out by the
+Wellington students was now an object of tender attention.
+
+There came to Mr. Lufton that afternoon a note stating that if he were
+quite recovered--("Meaning my clothes," thought Jimmy)--the students of
+the Quadrangle would be glad to have him dine with them that evening at
+six-thirty.
+
+"I do feel like a blooming hypocrite," he exclaimed to himself
+remorsefully. "Here I came down to Wellington at their expense to give
+them a fake lecture and they are treating me like a king."
+
+But he accepted the invitation, trusting to luck that his clothes would
+be dry and tipping the infirmary cook to press his trousers and black
+his shoes.
+
+At half past six, then, Jimmy appeared at the Quadrangle archway. He
+wore some of the violets in his buttonhole and his keen, dark eyes shone
+with suppressed humor. A delegation of seniors met him and conducted him
+back to the dining-hall, where several hundreds of young persons all in
+their very best stood up to receive him. A seat of honor was given to
+him at the end of the long table and every girl in the room liked him
+immensely, not only for his broad jolly smile, but because at the end
+of dinner he arose and, without the slightest embarrassment, made the
+most deliciously funny speech ever heard. Then the walls resounded with
+the college yell, ending with "What's the matter with Mr. Lufton? He's
+all right. Who's all right? Lufton--Lufton--James Lufton." Never was one
+unknown and entirely unworthy individual more honored.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE.
+
+
+Providence had not gone to such lengths to bring Jimmy Lufton to
+Wellington and set him in the good graces of the college without some
+purpose. It was not only that he had been sent in time to save two
+prominent seniors from drowning, but Jimmy's destiny was henceforth to
+weave itself like a brightly colored thread in and out of the destinies
+of some of Wellington's daughters.
+
+Wherever Jimmy went he brought with him gaiety and good will. The
+sympathy and charm of his nature had made him so many friends that of
+himself did not know the number. And now he had come down to Wellington
+and made a host of new ones eager to show him how much Wellington
+thought of courage.
+
+On Sunday morning Jimmy not only met Dodo Green and Andy McLean, but he
+was led in and introduced to Professor Green, now sitting up against a
+back rest. There was an expression of ineffable happiness on the
+Professor's face because his bed had been moved near the window where he
+might catch a glimpse of the campus and of an occasional group of
+students strolling under the trees. Such are the simple pleasures of the
+convalescent.
+
+Furthermore, Jimmy had met Miss Alice Fern, immaculate in white linen,
+and now he was carried off to the McLeans' to breakfast where he was to
+meet Molly Brown.
+
+This was Molly's first glimpse of the famous hero. She had not gone down
+to dinner the evening before, having remained with Nance to minister to
+the wants of Margaret and Jessie.
+
+Nance and Judy were at the breakfast, too, and Otoyo Sen, and Lawrence
+Upton who had come over on the trolley from Exmoor. It was, indeed, a
+meeting of old friends and the genial doctor gave them a gruff and
+hearty welcome as they gathered in the drawing-room.
+
+"Gude morning to you," he said, rubbing his hands and beaming on them
+from under his shaggy eyebrows. "I'm verra glad to see the lads and
+lassies once more. The wife was only saying last week that in another
+year they'd be scattered to the four ends of the earth. And is this the
+young lad who picked up the drowning lassies out of the lake? Shake
+hands, boy. It was a brave and bonny thing to do."
+
+"Any man would have done it in my place, doctor," said Jimmy, grasping
+the big hand warmly.
+
+"Not any man, but some would. Andy and Larry, I make no doubt, and that
+wild buffalo, Dodo."
+
+Dodo didn't mind being called a wild buffalo by the doctor if only he
+was given the credit of courage at the same time, but Mrs. McLean
+objected.
+
+"Now, doctor," she said, "you mustn't call your guests ugly names. You
+know I won't permit it at all."
+
+"Don't scold him, Mrs. McLean," said Dodo. "I think it's better to be
+called a wild buffalo than a wild boar."
+
+"A bore is never wild, if that's the kind you mean," answered Mrs.
+McLean. "That's why they are bores, because they are so tame."
+
+"Mither, mither," put in the doctor, laughing, "how you go on. As if
+you'd like 'em any way but tame. She's a great talker, Mr. Lufton, as
+you'll perceive before the morning's half over, but she doesn't mean the
+half she says, like every other woman under the sun."
+
+Jimmy laughed. How delightful it was to him to be among these gay,
+simple-hearted people who found a good deal of enjoyment in life without
+the aid of things he had been accustomed to. Presently he heard Andy
+McLean's voice saying:
+
+"Miss Brown, Mr. Lufton," and turning quickly, he confronted a tall
+slender girl with very blue eyes and red-gold hair. Miss Brown smiled a
+heavenly smile and gave him her hand.
+
+"I'm glad to meet you," she said. "I've been hearing a great deal about
+you in the last few hours."
+
+The soft musical quality of her voice stirred Jimmy's soul.
+
+"It's like the harp in the orchestra. When a hand sweeps over the harp
+strings, you can hear it above all the trumpets and drums, it's so--so
+ineffably sweet, only there's never enough of it."
+
+All this Jimmy thought as he exchanged Molly's greetings.
+
+"Are you from the South?" he asked later when he found himself beside
+her at the breakfast table.
+
+"I'm from Kentucky," she answered promptly and proudly.
+
+"So am I," he almost shouted, and then they exchanged new glances of
+deeper interest and presently were plunged in a conversation about
+home.
+
+Jimmy forgot that Judy, his sponsor at Wellington, sat at his right hand
+and Molly was oblivious to Lawrence Upton on her left.
+
+"I suppose you never get any corn bread here?" Jimmy asked.
+
+"Not our kind," replied Molly. "What they have here is made of fine meal
+with sugar in it."
+
+Jimmy made a wry face.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to have some fried chicken with cream gravy?" he
+whispered.
+
+"And some candied sweet potatoes and corn pones and pear pickle," Molly
+broke in.
+
+"And hot biscuits. But what shall we finish off with, Miss Brown?"
+
+"Brandied peaches and ice cream and hickory-nut cake."
+
+Jimmy gave a delighted laugh.
+
+"That's a good old home dessert I used to get at Grandma's," he said.
+"At least the peaches and the ice cream were. She always had cup-cake
+with frosted icing."
+
+"Do you ever have kidney hash and waffles Sunday mornings, nowadays?"
+asked Molly.
+
+"I haven't had any for years, Miss Brown. But at the restaurant where I
+get breakfast I do get 'batty' cakes and molasses."
+
+"'Batty' cakes," repeated Molly. "How funny that is. Do you know I've
+always said that, too, just because I learned to say it that way as a
+child. And hook and 'laddy' wagon. I can't seem to break myself of the
+habit."
+
+"Don't try," said Jimmy. "I'd rather hear the good old talk than
+Bernhardt speaking French."
+
+And so from food they came to discuss pronunciation, as most Southerners
+do sooner or later, and from that subject they drifted into mutual
+friendships and thence naturally into newspaper work.
+
+"I'm a sub-editor," announced Molly proudly, and she told him about the
+_Commune_ and her work. "Perhaps you'd like to see our office after a
+while?" she said.
+
+"I'd be only too glad," said Jimmy, delighted to be able to prolong his
+tête-à-tête with this gracefully angular young woman with blue eyes and
+red hair, who spoke with the "tongue of angels" and had the same
+yearnings he did for corn-bread and fried chicken with cream gravy.
+
+And all this time something strange was taking place in Judy's mind that
+she could not understand. At first she thought she was catching the
+grippe. She felt cold and then hot and finally unreasonably irritated
+against everybody except Molly. At least, she put it that way to
+herself.
+
+"She never looked more charming," thought Judy to herself.
+
+Molly in her faded blue corduroy skirt and blue silk blouse was a
+picture to charm the eye. Judy herself looked unusually lovely in her
+pretty gray serge piped in scarlet with Irish lace collar and cuffs.
+There were glints of gold in her fluffy hair and her eyes shone with
+unusual brightness. But Mrs. McLean's good food tasted as sawdust on
+her palate and the conversation of the eager Dodo sounded trite and
+stupid to her. Once she had said a word or two to Jimmy Lufton and he
+had turned and answered her politely and agreeably, but as soon as he
+decently could he was back with Molly again deep in bluegrass
+reminiscences.
+
+There were other people who were disgruntled that morning at Mrs.
+McLean's breakfast. Not Nance and Andy, who seemed well pleased with
+themselves and the bright fall day; not the doctor nor the doctor's wife
+beaming at her guests behind the silver tea urn, but Otoyo was strangely
+silent and averted her face from Molly's if by chance their glances met;
+looked carefully over Nance's head and avoided Judy's gaze as much as
+possible. Lawrence Upton, too, had little to say, except to Dr. McLean
+at his end of the table.
+
+So it was that half the guests thought the breakfast had been a great
+success and the other half put it down as stupid and dull.
+
+"Would anybody like to go over to the _Commune_ office with us?" Molly
+vouchsafed some three-quarters of an hour later when the company was
+breaking up. "I am going to show Mr. Lufton our offices."
+
+But nobody seemed anxious to accept.
+
+"You'll come, won't you, Judy?" Molly asked.
+
+No, Judy had other things to do apparently.
+
+"Won't you come, Otoyo, dear?" asked Molly, slipping her arm around the
+little Japanese's waist and giving it a squeeze.
+
+"It is not possible. I am exceedingly sorrowful," answered Otoyo a
+little stiffly and drew away from Molly's embrace.
+
+"Aren't you well, little one?" asked Molly. "Is anything the matter?"
+
+"Oh, exceedingly, quite well, but I cannot go to-day, Mees Brown," Otoyo
+answered, trying to infuse a little warmth into her tone.
+
+So it ended by Molly's going off alone with the young man from New York
+to the _Commune_ office, where she showed him their files and the
+proofs sent up by the printer in the village, which had to be corrected;
+then she introduced him into the little alcove office where Edith was
+wont to write her famous editorials.
+
+"How would you like to write an article for my paper, Miss Brown?" Jimmy
+asked suddenly. "We run a page of college news, you know."
+
+He had no idea that Molly could write or that the paper would take
+anything from her if she did. He had merely talked at random and was a
+little taken back when Molly clasped her hands joyously and cried:
+
+"Oh, and would they pay me?"
+
+"Of course," he answered, hoping devoutly in his heart they would. "I'll
+tell you what you do. This is the Jubilee Year at Wellington, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes; it's been officially announced at last."
+
+"Well, you could use that as a starter, with a little of the history of
+Wellington and the big festival you're going to have, and then you
+could go on and give some talk about the girls,--what you do and all
+that. There could be pictures of the cloisters and the library,
+perhaps."
+
+"What a wonderful chance to answer Miss Slammer's article," Molly
+thought. "It's just what we would have wanted and never dreamed of
+getting. It's so kind of you," she said aloud. "I would be proud to do
+it for nothing if the paper doesn't want to pay----"
+
+"Oh, it'll pay you all right if it takes the story. You may get anywhere
+from ten to thirty-five dollars for it."
+
+"Why, that's enough to buy a dress," she exclaimed involuntarily, and
+Jimmy decided in his heart that he would sell that article if he had to
+wear the soles off his boots walking up and down Park Row.
+
+"I suppose you'd like it simple," said Molly.
+
+Jimmy laughed.
+
+"Well, we don't like anything flowery," he said, "but you write it the
+way you like and I'll change it if necessary. Just tell about things as
+if you were writing a letter home."
+
+"There it is again," thought Molly. "First the Professor and now Mr.
+Lufton."
+
+They finished the morning with a walk and Jimmy Lufton entertained Molly
+with a hundred stories about his life in New York, and then he listened
+to her while she talked about college and home and her hopes.
+
+At last they parted at the Quadrangle gates, where Andy McLean was
+waiting to take Jimmy home with him to dinner, and Molly saw him no
+more, since he was to catch the three-thirty train back to New York; but
+she had his address carefully written on a scrap of paper and already
+the opening paragraph of the newspaper article was beginning to shape
+itself in her mind. She saw nothing of Judy until bedtime. Judy had been
+with her friend, Adele, she said. But when the two friends parted that
+night Judy flung her arms around Molly's neck and kissed her so
+tenderly that Molly could not help feeling a bit surprised, since only a
+few hours before Judy had seemed cold somehow.
+
+A few days after Jimmy Lufton had returned to New York he received six
+letters from the following persons: Margaret Wakefield, Senator and Mrs.
+Wakefield, Jessie Lynch, and Colonel and Mrs. Lynch. Any time James
+Lufton tired of his job he could get another from Senator Wakefield or
+Colonel Lynch. That was stated plainly in the letters of the two
+fathers.
+
+"And all because of an anti-suffrage speech that was never made,"
+thought Jimmy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+FRIENDLY RIVALS.
+
+
+It is not often that rivals for the same office are champions for each
+other, and yet that is what happened when the seniors elected their
+permanent president toward the end of October. It followed that Molly,
+as the most popular girl in the junior class, would be elected president
+the next year.
+
+"Of course you'll get it," Nance assured her as the time approached.
+
+"It's a great honor," replied Molly, "but, oh, Nance, I'm such a
+diffident, shy person with a shrinking nature----"
+
+"You mean," interrupted Nance, "that Margaret wants it so badly, you
+can't bear to deprive her of it."
+
+"No, that isn't it. It's not sentiment, really, but I can't make
+speeches and I haven't got the organizing nature."
+
+Nance shook her head.
+
+"You ought not to throw away gifts from the gods. It's as bad as hiding
+your light under a bushel."
+
+Nevertheless, Molly was sure she did not want the place and she hoped
+Margaret would get it. As for Margaret, the spirit of a politician and
+the spirit of a loyal friend were struggling for mastery within her
+soul. The girls knew by this time what sort of president _she_ could
+make. They were well acquainted with her powers of oratory and
+organization. Nobody understood as well as she did the ins and outs of
+parliamentary law; how to appoint committees and chairmen and count yeas
+and nays; in other words, how to swing the class along in proper form.
+They knew all this, but hitherto it had been necessary to call it to
+their minds each year, when by the sheer force of oratory, Margaret won
+the election.
+
+But, as luck would have it, on the day set for the election Margaret,
+who had taken a deep cold from her upsetting in the lake, was too hoarse
+to say a word. It would have moved a heart of stone to see her, sitting
+in the president's chair sucking a lemon, as she called the class to
+order in a husky tone of voice that had not the faintest resemblance to
+the organ she had used with such force for three years.
+
+There were only two nominations for the office of president, and it was
+difficult to judge toward which of the nominees the sentiment of the
+class leaned. Nance had nominated Molly, who had tried to drag her
+friend back on the bench.
+
+"Don't you see they might think I had put you up to it?" Molly had
+exclaimed.
+
+"They never would think that about you, Molly," whispered Nance, and
+promptly had announced her candidate and the nomination was immediately
+seconded. Then Molly shot up blushingly and nominated Margaret
+Wakefield, almost taking the words out of Jessie's mouth. Margaret
+smiled at her rather shamefacedly, knowing full well that she would not
+have nominated Molly for that coveted office.
+
+Other nominations followed. Edith Williams and her sister were rival
+candidates for the office of vice president, and Caroline Brinton and
+Nance were put up for secretary.
+
+"Has anybody anything to say?" asked Margaret, still sucking the lemon
+frantically as a last effort to clear her fogbound voice.
+
+Molly stood up.
+
+"I think I'd like to speak a few words, Madam President," she said.
+Then, blushing deeply and trembling in her knees she turned toward the
+familiar faces of her classmates and began:
+
+"I'm not much of a speechmaker, girls, and I don't know that I ever
+really addressed you before, but I feel I must say something in favor
+of my candidate, Miss Margaret Wakefield, who has made us such an
+excellent president for three years."
+
+There were sounds of hand-clapping and calls of "Hear! Hear!"
+
+Molly paused and cleared her throat. She did wish they wouldn't
+interrupt until she had finished.
+
+"I think we ought to remember, girls, that when we elect a president for
+this last year, we are choosing some one to represent us for always; at
+class reunions and alumnæ meetings and all kinds of things. When there
+is a distinguished visitor, it's always the senior president who has to
+step up and do the talking. The kind of president we want is some one
+with presence and dignity. We want a handsome president who dresses in
+good taste and can talk. Girls,"--Molly raised her hand as if calling
+upon heaven to strengthen the force of her arguments,--"we don't want a
+thin, lank president without any shape" (sounds of tumultuous laughter
+and the beginning of applause)--"one of those formless, backboneless
+people who can't talk and who dress in--well, ragtags. I tell you,
+girls, Margaret is the president for us. She's been a mighty fine
+president for three years and I don't think we ought to try experiments
+on a new one at this stage in the game."
+
+Then there came wild applause and Margaret presently arose and raised
+her hand for silence after the manner of the true speechmaker. She was
+much moved by what Molly had said. It was more than she herself would
+have been capable of doing, but she intended to speak now if it cracked
+her voice till doomsday.
+
+"I can't talk much, girls, on account of hoarseness, but I do want to
+say that nobody could represent this class better than Molly Brown, the
+most beloved girl not only of the senior class, but of all Wellington. I
+hope you will cast your votes for her, girls, and I'm proud to write
+down her name as my choice for president."
+
+"Three cheers for Molly and Margaret," cried Judy, always the leader of
+the mobs.
+
+Edith, funny and diffident, now rose and addressed the class. She said
+she sincerely hoped the class was not looking for handsome, plump
+vice-presidents, since the two candidates for that office were neither
+the one nor the other; but that if they placed any confidence in a "rag
+and a bone and a hank of hair," she felt sure she could fill the bill
+just as well as the opposing candidate.
+
+Then Katherine shot up and said she could prove that she weighed a pound
+more than her sister, and instead of putting her allowance into books
+that autumn, she had laid in a stock of clothes.
+
+It was all very funny and good natured: the most friendly close election
+that had ever taken place, some one said, and when the votes were
+counted it was found that Margaret had won by one vote and Katherine by
+two in excess of the other candidates. Edith and Molly locked arms and
+rushed over to congratulate the successful opponents.
+
+"You won it for me, Molly," announced Margaret in a voice husky as much
+from emotion as cold. "I doubt if I should have got half a dozen votes
+if it hadn't been for your speech and I shall never forget it. It was
+what father calls 'a nice thing.'"
+
+"You are the president for me, Margaret," Molly laughed. "I can't see
+myself in that chair, not in a thousand years. I should be all wobbly
+like a puppet on a throne and I'd probably slide under the table from
+fright at the first class meeting."
+
+"You would have adorned it far better than I would, Molly, and
+popularity will outweigh speechmaking any day; not but what you didn't
+make a fine speech."
+
+But neither Edith nor Molly felt any regrets over the election. They had
+all they could do to attend to the _Commune_, go to society meetings and
+keep up their studies.
+
+That very day, too, there came a letter for Molly that added to her
+labors. Judy brought it up from the office below. She looked at her
+friend curiously, as Molly glanced at the address written in a rather
+large, scrawly masculine hand. In a corner of the envelope was printed
+the name of a New York newspaper.
+
+"Corresponding already?" Judy asked. "You lose no time, Molly, darling."
+
+Molly was so much occupied in tearing open the envelope that she did not
+notice the strained tone in Judy's voice.
+
+"I'm so excited," she exclaimed, drawing out the letter. "This will
+decide my fate."
+
+"Are you ready, Judy?" called Adele Windsor, opening the door and
+walking in, in her usual unceremonious fashion. Her quick glance took in
+the envelope Molly had flung on the table in her haste to read the note.
+"Oh, these southern girls," she remarked, raising her eyebrows and
+blinking at Judy.
+
+Molly looked up quickly. It was certainly no affair of Adele's and still
+she felt like making an explanation.
+
+"This is a business letter," she said quickly, the blood rushing into
+her face.
+
+"Do business letters make one blush?" Adele said teasingly.
+
+Molly could not tell why Adele irritated her so profoundly. She was
+ashamed afterward of what she called her unreasonable behavior.
+Certainly she did not appear very well in the passage of arms that now
+followed.
+
+"It's none of your business at any rate," she exclaimed hotly, "and I'm
+not blushing."
+
+After this outburst, she turned and walked into her room. Her face was
+crimson and she knew she would have wept if she had stayed another
+minute, and so have been further disgraced.
+
+"Really, Molly, don't you think you are rather hard on poor Adele?" she
+heard Judy's voice saying. But not a word of apology would she make to
+Adele Windsor, whose high nasal tones now came to her through the half
+closed door.
+
+"Never mind, I don't care, Judy. She can't help it. Didn't you ever hear
+about the temper that goes with red heads?"
+
+Molly paid for her outburst of temper by having a headache all the
+afternoon and an achey lump in her chest--indigestion, no doubt.
+
+She stretched herself on her little bed, her haven of refuge in time of
+trouble and the safe confidante unto whose soft bosom she poured her
+secrets and hopes. At last, calmed and remorseful for her hasty tongue,
+she opened the note again and reread it:
+
+    "DEAR MISS BROWN:
+
+    "I have hypnotized the editor into accepting that article of
+    yours; only you must hurry up with it. It will run probably for
+    two and a half columns on the College Notes page and we can use
+    three pictures. Just tell whatever you want about the college
+    and the girls and what they do, starting off with the Jubilee,
+    as I suggested. Send it to me here by Friday and I will
+    appreciate it. Thank you for the wonderful time you gave me at
+    Wellington.
+
+    "Sincerely your friend,
+        "JAMES LUFTON."
+
+Late that afternoon Molly rushed over to the _Commune_ office, and,
+seizing a pencil and paper, began to write. At the top of the page she
+wrote, "Dearest Mother"--"just to make myself think it's a letter," she
+thought. But the words worked like a magic talisman, for the pencil
+traveled busily and by suppertime she had almost finished.
+
+On the way back from the village next morning, where she had been to buy
+the photographs, she stopped at the Beta Phi House and left a note on
+the hall table for Miss Windsor.
+
+"I am sorry I was rude to you. I suppose red-headed people have got high
+tempers and henceforth I shall try to curb mine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE DROP OF POISON.
+
+
+Molly was very proud of her first newspaper article and exultant at
+being able to answer the unjust libels of Miss Slammer. She could
+scarcely wait to tell Nance and Judy about it, but decided to drop in at
+the infirmary and relate her triumph to the Professor if it was possible
+to see him. Alice Fern was on guard that morning, however, and the Swiss
+Guards at the Vatican could not have been more formidable.
+
+"I'm sure the Pope of Rome doesn't live a more secluded life," thought
+Molly as she departed.
+
+Glancing at the tower clock, Molly saw that she still had three quarters
+of an hour before the lecture on early Victorian Poets by the Professor
+of English Literature from Exmoor, who came over several times a week
+to substitute for Professor Green.
+
+"I think I'll run in and see Otoyo a few minutes," Molly said to
+herself. "The girls can wait. There's been something queer about Otoyo
+lately. She keeps to herself like a little sick animal. I can't make her
+out at all."
+
+There was no response to Molly's knock on Otoyo's door a few minutes
+later, and, after a pause, she opened the door and peeped in.
+
+The blinds had been drawn, an unwonted thing with the little Japanese,
+who usually let the sunlight flood her room through unshaded windows.
+But a shaft of light from the open door disclosed her seated
+cross-legged on the floor in front of a beautiful screen showing
+Fujiyama, the sacred Japanese mountain. At the foot of the screen she
+had placed two statues, one of Saint Anthony of Padua and one of Saint
+Francis of Assisi, presents from Mr. and Mrs. Murphy on two successive
+Christmases. And still another graven image caught Molly's eye as she
+tiptoed into the room: a small figure of Buddha seated cross-legged. He
+was placed at a little distance from the two saints and his antique,
+blurred countenance contrasted strangely with the delicately molded and
+tinted faces of the new statues.
+
+If Molly had come unannounced upon Nance on her knees or Judy at her
+devotions, she would have beat a hasty retreat, but it came to her that
+Otoyo, sitting there cross-legged before the images of strange gods,
+needed help of some sort.
+
+"You aren't angry with me for coming in, Otoyo?" she began. "I knocked
+and you didn't hear. I'm afraid something is the matter. Won't you let
+me help you? I have not forgotten how you helped me once when I was
+unhappy. Don't you remember how you let me sit in your room and think
+over my troubles that Sunday afternoon at Queen's?"
+
+Otoyo rose quickly, flushing a little under her dark skin. She seemed
+very foreign to Molly at that moment, in her beautiful embroidered
+kimono of black and gold. Also she seemed very formal in her manner and
+distant, like an exiled princess who still clings to the dignity of her
+former position.
+
+First she made a low Japanese bow, quite different from the little
+smiling nods she had learned to give her friends at Wellington.
+
+"I feel much honored, Mees Brown. Will you be seated and I will bring
+refreshments."
+
+"Why, Otoyo," exclaimed Molly, filled with wonder at this new phase in
+her friend, "I don't want any refreshments. I thought I'd drop in for
+half an hour before English V. and find out what has happened to you.
+You never come to see me any more," she added reproachfully. "You
+haven't been since that Sunday afternoon with your father, and you
+always have a 'Busy' sign on your door. Are you really so busy or are
+you trying to avoid us?"
+
+Otoyo drew up her one chair she used for visitors and sat down again on
+the floor.
+
+"I have been much engaged," she said, avoiding Molly's eye. Molly
+noticed that her English was perfect. She spoke with great precision and
+avoided adverbial mistakes with painful care.
+
+She had had a great deal to think about lately, Otoyo continued, and she
+was reading a book of Charles Dickens, the English novelist. It was very
+difficult.
+
+With an impetuous gesture, Molly rose and pushed the chair out of the
+way. Then she sat flat on the floor beside Otoyo, and took one of the
+little plump brown hands in hers.
+
+"Otoyo, you're unhappy. Something has happened and you're praying to
+Catholic saints and Fuji and Buddha all at once. Isn't it so?"
+
+"The saints are very honorable gentlemen," answered Otoyo quickly. "Mrs.
+Murphy has told me many things of their goodness. And Fuji is the
+mountain that brings comfort to all Japanese people. Holy men dwell on
+Fuji and pilgrims climb to the summit each year to worship. And Buddha,
+he is a great god," she added. "He is kind to lonely little Japanese
+girl."
+
+As she neared the end of her speech her voice was as faint and thin as a
+sick child's, but she steadily repressed all emotion, for no well-bred
+Japanese lady is ever seen to weep.
+
+"Otoyo, my dear, my dear, what can have happened?" cried Molly,
+turning the averted face toward her so that she might look into
+the almond-shaped eyes. "I can't bear to see you so miserable.
+It makes me unhappy, too. Don't you know that you are one of the
+dearest friends I have in the world and that we all love you?"
+
+"It is not easy to believe that is true," said Otoyo, looking at her
+with an expression of mingled reproach and incredulity. "I cannot
+believe it is so, Mees Brown."
+
+A look of utter amazement came into Molly's face. It had never entered
+her head that Otoyo was angry with her.
+
+"What is that? Say it again, Otoyo. I can't believe my own ears."
+
+"I say it is not easy to believe that is true," said Otoyo, repeating
+her words with the precision of a Japanese.
+
+Molly rose to her feet, and grasping Otoyo's hands pulled her up.
+
+"I can't talk sitting on the floor, Otoyo. Come over here and sit on the
+bed where I can look at you. Now, tell me exactly what you meant by that
+speech."
+
+The two girls now sat face to face on the bed and there was a look of
+sternness in Molly's eyes that Otoyo had never seen there before.
+Otoyo's eyes dropped before her gaze and she began plucking at the
+Japanese crepe of her kimono.
+
+"You must speak, Otoyo," Molly insisted.
+
+There was a long silence and then Otoyo looked up again.
+
+"It was my father, my honorable good father. I am too humble to care.
+But my noble father!"
+
+She rose quickly and walked across to the window. If there were tears in
+her eyes Molly should not see them. Having drawn the blind, she drew a
+deep breath and came back to the bed. But Molly was doing some rapid
+thinking during that brief interval. Some one had been telling Otoyo
+that they had made game of her father--and that some one----
+
+But Molly was too angry to think coherently.
+
+"Otoyo," she began, "you know how much all the Queen's girls think of
+you. You are really our property, child. If any of us felt that we had
+hurt or grieved you, we would really never forgive ourselves."
+
+"But my father, he was mock-ed. Of me it was of not much matter."
+
+"Child, what we did was in innocent fun. It was only that we repeated
+his funny English, even funnier than yours, and we have often teased you
+about your adverbs, haven't we?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Otoyo, "but this was made to be so cruel. It cut me----"
+she choked.
+
+"Who repeated it to you, Otoyo?" asked Molly with sudden calmness,
+afraid to give rein to her indignation for fear of doing rash things.
+"People who tell things like that are quite capable of inventing them or
+at least making them much worse."
+
+"I have given my word not to speak the name," answered Otoyo.
+
+It was almost time for the lecture now and Molly slipped down on her
+knees beside the bed and put her arms around Otoyo's waist.
+
+"Dear little Otoyo, before I go, I want you to tell me that you have
+forgiven us. None of us meant to be cruel or unkind. We are too fond of
+you for that. I shall tell all the other girls what has happened and
+to-night they will come in and make you an apology themselves. We will
+all come. As for the girl who made the trouble, she is a wicked mischief
+maker and I wish she had never come to Wellington. And now, will you say
+'Molly, I forgive you?'"
+
+"I do, I do," cried Otoyo, her face transformed with happiness. "I
+should not have listened to her ugly speeches, but it was the way she
+did it. She told me my father had been mock-ed and ridiculed. I was
+veree unhappee."
+
+"Never, never let her get her clutches on you again," said Molly,
+opening the door.
+
+"Never, never, never," repeated the Japanese girl.
+
+It was a real reconciliation surprise party that took place in Otoyo's
+room that evening. All the Queen's girls were there except Judy, who had
+been absent for a whole day, having cut two lectures and taken supper
+with Adele Windsor at Beta Phi House. It had been agreed among them that
+Adele should never be welcomed in their circle again; for they were
+morally certain that it was Adele who had done the mischief, although
+Otoyo loyally kept her word not to tell the name.
+
+Otoyo, bewildered and happy over this avalanche of company, toddled
+about the room in her soft house slippers looking for refreshments.
+From strange foreign looking packing boxes in the closet she produced
+tin cases of candied ginger and pineapple, boxes of rice cakes, nuts and
+American chocolate creams which Otoyo liked better than the daintiest
+American dish that could be devised.
+
+Every guest had brought Otoyo a gift of flowers. They made her sit in
+the armchair while they circled around her, singing:
+
+    "Old friends are the best friends,
+     The friends that are tried and true."
+
+Then they made her dress up in her finest kimono and sit cross-legged at
+the foot of the bed while one by one they filed before her and each made
+an humble apology.
+
+"Oh, it is too much," Otoyo cried. "I implore you forgeeve _me_. It was
+madlee of me to listen to so much weekedness. Humble little Japanese
+girl is bad to entertain such meanly thoughts."
+
+At last when all the rites and ceremonies were over and they had
+settled down to refreshments in good earnest, Edith began the tale of
+"The Fall of the House of Usher," which she recited in thrilling
+fashion. The girls always huddled together in a frightened group at this
+performance. At the most dramatic moment, as if it had been timed
+purposely, the door was flung open and a tall lady in black stood on the
+threshold. She hesitated a moment and then sailed in, her black chiffon
+draperies floating about her like a dark cloud. Then she flung a lace
+mantilla from her head and stood before them revealed as Judy, in a
+black wig apparently.
+
+"Judy Kean, what have you been up to?" asked Nance suspiciously.
+
+"Where did you get your black wig?" demanded Molly.
+
+"Don't you think it becoming?" asked Judy. "Don't you think it enhances
+the whiteness of my skin and the brightness of my eye?"
+
+"All very well for a fancy dress party, but you don't look yourself,
+Judy. Do take it off."
+
+"Now, don't say that," answered Judy, "because I can't take it off
+without cutting it. I've changed the color. That's where I've been all
+day. It's awfully exciting. You've no idea how many things you have to
+do to change your hair dark. Of course, it's perfectly ladylike to make
+it dark. It's only bad form to dye it light."
+
+"Judy, you haven't?" they cried.
+
+"I certainly have," she answered carelessly, and she proceeded to take
+out all the hair pins from her fluffy thick hair and let it down. "It's
+raven black."
+
+It was, in fact, an unnatural blue-black, something the color of shoe
+blacking.
+
+"Oh, Judy, Judy, what will you do next?" cried Molly in real distress.
+
+"What will that girl make her do next?" put in Nance, in a disgusted
+tone.
+
+"Now, Nance, I knew you'd say just that, but it's not true. I did it of
+my own free will. I always loved black and I've wanted black hair all my
+life."
+
+"What will Miss Walker say?" asked some one.
+
+"She probably won't know anything about it. I doubt if she remembers the
+original color of my hair, anyhow. I'm sorry you don't think it's
+becoming to me. Adele thought it suited me perfectly. Much better than
+the original mousy-brown shade."
+
+"I recognize Adele's fine touch in that expression, 'mousy-brown,'" put
+in Edith.
+
+"Did Adele do anything to change her appearance?" asked Margaret.
+
+"Oh, no, she is just right as she is. Her hair is a perfect shade,
+'Titian Brown,' it's called. But, girls, I must tell you about the
+marvelous face cream, 'Cucumber Velvet'; it bleaches and heals at the
+same time."
+
+"Oh, go to," cried Katherine. "Judy, you are so benighted, I don't know
+what's coming to you. Don't you know that Adele Windsor made Otoyo,
+here----"
+
+"No, no," broke in Otoyo. "I have never told the name. I gave my
+honorable promise not to. I beg you not to mention it."
+
+"What's all this?" Judy began when the ten o'clock bell boomed and the
+girls scattered to their various rooms.
+
+That night, undressing in the dark, Nance and Molly explained to Judy
+what had happened.
+
+"But are you sure she did it?" Judy demanded. "Otoyo never said so, did
+she?"
+
+"No, but we are sure, anyway."
+
+"I don't believe it," exclaimed Judy hotly. "Adele is the soul of honor.
+I shall never believe it unless Otoyo really tells the name."
+
+And so Judy went off to bed entirely unreasonable about this new and
+fascinating friend.
+
+"All I can say for you, Judy," said Molly, standing in Judy's bedroom
+doorway, "is that I hate your black hair, but do you remember that old
+poem we used to sing as children? I'm sure you must have known it. Most
+children have."
+
+Then Molly recited in her musical clear voice:
+
+    "'I once had a sweet little doll, dears,
+        The prettiest doll in the world,
+      Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears,
+        And her hair was so charmingly curled.
+      But I lost my poor little doll, dears,
+        As I played on the heath one day;
+      And I cried for her more than a week, dears,
+        But I never could find where she lay.
+
+    "'I found my poor little doll, dears,
+        As I played in the heath one day:
+      Folks say she is terribly changed, dears,
+        For her paint is all washed away,
+      And her arm trodden off by the cows, dears,
+        And her hair not the least bit curled:
+      Yet for old sake's sake, she is still, dears,
+        The prettiest doll in the world.'"
+
+"Humph!" said Judy. "Is that the way you feel about it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Thanks, awfully," and with a defiant fling of the covers, Judy turned
+her face to the wall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+JUDY DEFIANT.
+
+
+When Judy Kean appeared at Chapel next morning she seemed serenely
+unconscious of the sensation she was creating. Her usual black dress and
+widow's bands had always made her conspicuous and those who only knew
+her by sight, yet carried with them a vivid impression of her face: the
+large gray eyes swimming with visions, the oval creamy face, the mouth
+rather large, the lips a little too full, perhaps, and framing all this,
+her fluffy bright hair.
+
+The Quadrangle dining-room had already buzzed with the news of Judy's
+reckless act, and now, as the seniors marched two by two up the aisle
+after the faculty, a ripple of laughter swept over the chapel. Necks
+were craned all over the room to see Judy's mop of blue-black hair
+arranged in a loose knot on the back of her neck, drawn well down over
+the forehead in a heavy dark mantle, carefully concealing the ears.
+
+But Miss Walker was not pleased with the liberties Judy had taken with
+her appearance. She had heard the ripple of laughter, stifled almost as
+soon as it had commenced, and having reached her chair and faced the
+audience while the procession was still on its way up the aisle she
+noticed the amused glances directed toward Judy's head. It took only a
+second glance to assure herself of what Judy had done and she frowned
+and compressed her lips. When the service was over, she made a little
+impromptu address to the students. College, she said, was a place for
+serious work and not for frivolity. Of course there were no objections
+to innocent fun, but absurdities would not be tolerated. All the time
+she was speaking she was looking straight at Judy, who, with chin
+resting on her hand and eyelids drooped, apparently read a hymn book.
+That afternoon Miss Julia Kean received a summons to appear at Miss
+Walker's office immediately. From this interview Judy emerged in a
+stubborn, angry humor. Miss Walker was a wise woman in her generation,
+but she had never had a girl of Judy's temperament to deal with before.
+Judy's rather contemptuous indifference had inflamed the President into
+saying some rather harsh things.
+
+If one girl dyed her hair a great many others might. Such things often
+struck a college in waves and she was not going to tolerate it.
+
+Therefore, Judy, unreasonably angry, as she always was under reproof,
+had no word to say to her anxious friends awaiting her at No. 5,
+Quadrangle.
+
+"Was it very bad, Judy, dear?" Nance asked, when Judy walked into the
+room, white and silent.
+
+"It was worse than that," replied Judy in a steady even voice. "If she
+had given me twenty lashes on my bare shoulders I should have liked it
+better. What business is it of hers what color I turn my hair? This is
+not a boarding school. I detest her!" Whereupon, she slammed her door
+and the girls did not see her again for several hours.
+
+When she did finally emerge, she was calm and smiling, but the girls
+felt instinctively that her dangerous mood had not passed, only
+deepened, and Molly felt she would give a great deal to win her friend
+away from the malign influence of Adele Windsor.
+
+It seemed to her sometimes that Judy was cherishing a secret grievance
+against her as well as against Miss Walker. But Molly had little time
+for brooding over such things in the daytime and at night sleep overtook
+her as soon as her tired head dropped on the pillow.
+
+A great many things were in the air at Wellington just now. A prize had
+been offered for the best suggestion for a jubilee entertainment. It
+was only ten dollars, but every girl in college competed except Judy.
+One morning Adele Windsor's name was posted on the bulletin board as
+winner of the prize, and not long afterward they learned that it was
+Judy's scheme, unfolded on the opening night of college, that Adele had
+appropriated, no doubt with Judy's full consent.
+
+Molly's exchange of brief notes with Jimmy Lufton had ripened into a
+correspondence, and she was prepared therefore for the enormous package
+containing at least a dozen Sunday newspapers that came to her one
+morning--also a check for fifteen dollars. With eager fingers she tore
+wrappers from the papers, and began to search through multitudinous
+columns for her article about Wellington.
+
+At last, with Nance's and Judy's help, she found it, not tucked away in
+a corner as she had half expected, but spread out over the page. It is
+true the pictures were rather blurred, but there were the columns of
+writing, all hers, so she fondly believed, so skillfully had Mr. Lufton
+wrought the changes he had been obliged to make.
+
+The article was signed "M. W. C. B." and a framed copy of it hangs to
+this day on the crowded walls of the _Commune_ office. There was not
+much doubt who "M. W. C. B." was and Molly was deluged with calls and
+congratulations all day. It was glorious to have been the means of
+refuting Miss Beatrice Slammer's criticisms, and she could not help
+feeling very proud as she hurried down the avenue to the infirmary, one
+of the papers tucked under her arm, devoutly hoping that Alice Fern had
+gone home by now. It was reported that the Professor was walking about
+and in a few days was to go to Bermuda to stay until after the Christmas
+holidays. The Professor himself, and not Miss Fern, opened the door for
+Molly before Miss Grace Green, reading aloud by the window, could
+remonstrate with him. He was a mere ghost of his former self, pale,
+emaciated. His clothes seemed three sizes too big for his wasted frame
+and he had grown quite bald around the temples. Molly thought him very
+old that afternoon.
+
+"I've brought something to show you," she said, after she had shaken
+hands with the brother and sister and the three had drawn up their
+chairs by the window. Then Miss Grace Green read the article aloud and
+Molly explained that it was Mr. Lufton, to whom they were already so
+deeply indebted, who had arranged to get it published.
+
+"I took him over to the _Commune_ office," said Molly, "and that started
+it."
+
+Miss Green smiled and the Professor shifted uneasily in his chair.
+Presently Miss Green rose.
+
+"It's time for your buttermilk, Edwin, and you and I shall have some
+tea, Miss Molly," she added as she slipped out of the room.
+
+"Tell me a little about yourself, Miss Molly," observed the Professor,
+when they were left alone. "Did you have a pleasant summer and how is
+the old orchard?"
+
+"Oh, the orchard was most shamefully neglected," replied Molly. "Simply
+a mass of weeds and the apples left rotting on the ground all this fall,
+so mother writes. William, our colored man, cut down the worst of the
+weeds with a scythe last summer and I kept the ground cleared where the
+hammock hangs. It's been such a rainy summer, I suppose that's why
+things grew so rank, but I'm sorry the old gentleman is neglecting his
+property after making such a noble start."
+
+The Professor laughed.
+
+"You have made the acquaintance of the owner, then?" he asked.
+
+"Oh no, we have never even learned his name, but I feel quite sure he is
+very old. Sometimes I seem to see him in the orchard, an old, old man
+leaning on a stick. I think he is old and eccentric because a young man
+would never have bought property he had never seen."
+
+"Can't a young man be eccentric?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but mother and my brothers and sisters, all of us believe
+this man is old from something the agent said. He told mother that the
+new owner of the orchard had bought it because he was looking for a
+retired spot in which to spend his old age."
+
+Again the Professor laughed and the color rose in his face and spread
+over his cheeks and forehead.
+
+Presently Miss Green returned with the tea things and the buttermilk.
+
+"Has Miss Fern gone?" asked Molly.
+
+"Oh yes, we finally prevailed on her to go home," answered Miss Green.
+"She really need not have been here at all. The infirmary nurse would
+have looked after Edwin, but she seemed to think she was indispensable."
+
+"Grace, my dear sister," remonstrated the Professor.
+
+From Miss Fern the talk drifted to many things. Molly told them more of
+Jimmy Lufton: how he had charmed everybody and what a wonderful life he
+led in New York.
+
+"I should like to be on a newspaper," she said suddenly. "It would be
+lots more exciting than teaching school."
+
+The Professor looked up quickly.
+
+"I should be sorry to see you take that step, Miss Molly."
+
+"Well, I haven't taken it yet, but I was only thinking that Mr. Lufton
+might be a great deal of help to me."
+
+"You must not," said the Professor sternly. "Don't think of it for a
+moment. The _Commune_ is putting ideas into your head, or this Mr.
+Lufton."
+
+Molly felt uncomfortable for some reason and Miss Green changed the
+subject.
+
+"By the way," she said, "I heard the other day what had become of some
+of the luncheon you seniors lost the day the Major took you in and fed
+you. The thieves probably took all they could carry with them and dumped
+the rest in a field between Exmoor and Round Head. Like as not they
+picnicked on top of Round Head. Some of the Exmoor boys found a pile of
+desiccated sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs and cake one day when they
+were out walking, and Dodo and Andy brought the story to me."
+
+"Think of the waste of it," exclaimed Molly. "They might at least have
+given what they didn't want to the poor."
+
+"There aren't any poor people around there, child."
+
+"Well, to Mrs. Murphy, then. She's poor and we wouldn't have minded
+having worked so hard to feed Mrs. Murphy."
+
+"I wonder who did it," put in the Professor.
+
+"None of the Exmoor boys, I'm sure," said his sister, who had a very
+soft spot for the boys of her younger brother's college.
+
+"Some day it will come out," announced Molly. "Things always do sooner
+or later and we needn't bother about playing detective. It's a horrible
+rôle to act, anyway."
+
+"I remember when I was a boy at college," began the Professor, "some
+fellows played rather a nasty practical joke on some of us and they were
+caught by a trick of fate. On the night of the senior class elections,
+which always take place just before a banquet at the Exmoor Inn, some of
+the students broke into the inn kitchen, masked, overpowered the cook
+and the waiter and stole all the food they conveniently could carry
+away. One of the saucepans contained lobster, and the next morning there
+were six very ill young men at the infirmary with ptomaine poisoning and
+it was not hard to guess who were the thieves of our supper."
+
+"Were they punished?" asked Molly.
+
+"Oh, yes. Exmoor never permits escapades like that. They were suspended
+for six weeks, although they had saved the entire senior class from a
+pretty severe illness."
+
+"At least, you might have felt some gratitude for that," observed Miss
+Green.
+
+"We did, but the President took only a one-sided view of the matter."
+
+"I'm afraid it's too late for attacks of indigestion from our lunch,"
+observed Molly. "The only thing out of common we had at the lunch were
+'snakey-noodles.'"
+
+"What in the world?" asked the brother and sister together.
+
+"It doesn't sound very appetizing, does it? But they are awfully good.
+Our old cook makes them at home. They are coils of very rich pastry with
+raisins and cinnamon all through."
+
+"Don't mention it," exclaimed the Professor, whose appetite was greater
+than his official allowance of food. "I would give anything for a hot
+snakey-noodle with a glass of milk."
+
+"When you come back from Bermuda, I'll see that your wish is gratified,"
+replied Molly, laughing, as she rose to go.
+
+"Miss Molly," said the Professor, as he bade her good-bye at the door,
+"I wish you would promise me three things: don't overwork; don't make
+plans to work on a newspaper instead of teaching school, and--don't
+forget me."
+
+"I'm not likely to do that, Professor. I'm always wanting to go to your
+office and ask you questions and advice. The last time we were there,
+Dodo and I, I found two old rotten apples. I took the liberty of
+throwing them away."
+
+"It's too bad for good apples to be left rotting on the ground or
+anywhere," said the Professor, and he closed the door softly. While this
+surely was a very simple statement, somehow he seemed to mean more than
+he said.
+
+Just why Molly's thoughts were on the lost snakey-noodles as she walked
+up the campus, she could not say. She recalled that they had been
+carefully done up in a box marked on top in large print, "Snakey-noodles
+from Aunt Ma'y Morton." That was the Browns' cook.
+
+"I wonder if they were left with the half of the lunch in Exmoor
+meadow," she thought with fond regret for this wasted gift of their old
+colored cook, who had taken unusual pains to make the snakey-noodles as
+crusty and delicious as possible.
+
+"So passeth snakey-noodles and all good things," she said to herself as
+she entered the Quadrangle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE CAMPUS GHOST.
+
+
+About this time Wellington was filled with strange rumors that were much
+discussed in small sitting rooms behind closed doors. It was said, and
+this part of the story could be credited as truth, that a woman had been
+seen wandering about the campus late at night wringing her hands and
+moaning. Some of the Blakely House girls had seen her from their window
+one night and had rushed to find the matron, but the strange woman had
+disappeared by the time the matron had been summoned. Another night she
+had been seen, or rather heard, under the Quadrangle windows. She had
+been seen at other places and some of the Irish maids had been filled
+with superstitious dread because, absurd as it might seem to sensible
+persons, it was reported that the weeping, moaning lady was the ghost of
+Miss Walker's sister who had died so many years ago.
+
+"It's an evil omen, Miss," a waitress said to Nance one evening. "In
+Ireland ghosts come to foretell bad news. It's no good to the college,
+shure, that she's wandering here the nights."
+
+"Don't you worry, Nora. It's just some poor crazy woman," said Nance
+sensibly.
+
+"Then where does she be after keeping herself hid in the daytime, Miss?"
+
+"I can't say, but it will come out sooner or later. Ghosts don't exist."
+
+"Shure an' you'll foind a-plenty of 'em in the old country, Miss."
+
+"Well, maybe this is an imported ghost," laughed Molly.
+
+Nevertheless, not a girl in college but felt slightly uneasy about being
+out after dark alone, and most trans-campus visitors were careful to
+come home early.
+
+One night Molly and Nance had been down to the village to supper with
+Judith Blount and Madeleine Petit. They had had a gay time and a jolly
+supper and it was quite half past nine before they hurried up the hilly
+road to Wellington. The two girls had locked arms and were walking
+briskly along talking in low voices. It was a wonderful night. There was
+no moon, but the stars were brilliant and Molly was inclined to be
+poetical.
+
+"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art," she began, waving her
+free arm with expressive gestures. "Not in lone splendor hung aloft the
+night----"
+
+"Molly," hissed Nance, in a frightened whisper, "do be still, look!"
+They had turned in at the avenue now, and there, directly over where old
+Queen's once stood, was a tall figure draped in black. As the girls came
+up, she began to moan in a low voice and wring her hands.
+
+"Oh, Molly, I'm so scared, my knees are giving away. What shall we do?"
+
+"Let's run," whispered Molly, admitting silently that the phantom was a
+bit unnerving. "Here, take my hand and let's fly. She's crazy, of
+course, and she might do anything to us."
+
+With hands clasped, the two girls flew up the campus. Glancing over her
+shoulder, Nance gave a wild cry and pressed along faster.
+
+"She's chasing us," she gasped. "Oh, heavens, she'll kill us!"
+
+[Illustration: Molly Glanced Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom ... was
+Running Behind Them--_Page_ 198.]
+
+Molly glanced back. Sure enough, the phantom, keeping well within the
+shadow of the elms, was running behind them.
+
+"Oh, Nance, can't you run a little faster?" she cried, now thoroughly
+frightened.
+
+Not a soul was on the campus that night. The place was entirely
+deserted, and it looked for a few minutes as if they were going to have
+a very uncomfortable time, but as they neared the Quadrangle, the figure
+slipped away and was lost in the dense shadow of the trees that bordered
+the avenue.
+
+"Lay me on a stretcher," gasped Molly, as she dropped on a bench inside
+the gates while Nance went to inform the gate-keeper of the strange
+presence on the campus.
+
+Immediately the gate-keeper, who was also night watchman, rushed out
+with a lantern to chase the phantom, which was a poor way to catch her,
+you will admit.
+
+Once in the privacy of their own sitting room, Nance had a real case of
+hysterics, laughing and weeping alternately, and Molly felt quite faint
+and had to lie on the sofa, while Judy, who had been moodily strumming
+her guitar most of the evening, gave them aromatic spirits of ammonia.
+
+"I should think you would have been frightened," she said
+sympathetically, "but fancy old Nance's running! It's the first time on
+record."
+
+Nance shuddered.
+
+"I don't think you would have stood still under the circumstances," she
+answered.
+
+"I don't think I would, but I should like to have known who the ghost
+was just the same. Suppose you had stopped still and let her come up to
+you, do you think she would?"
+
+"Heavens!" exclaimed the other two in one breath.
+
+"She ran after you because you were running from her," observed the wise
+Judy.
+
+"People always give advice about ghosts and robbers and mad dogs," said
+Molly. "And they are the ones that run the fastest when the ghosts and
+robbers and mad dogs appear."
+
+"Do you think it was a ghost?" asked Judy, ignoring the irritation of
+her friends.
+
+"If it had been a ghost it would have caught up with us," answered
+Molly, while Nance in the same breath said emphatically:
+
+"I don't believe in ghosts."
+
+Nance and Molly were heroines for several days after this, and during
+this time the "ghost" did not reappear on the campus, although a close
+watch was kept for her. The Williams sisters insisted on walking down
+the avenue every night at half past nine in hopes of seeing a real
+phantom, but she was careful to keep herself well out of sight during
+this vigilance.
+
+One night some ten days later, just as the town clock tolled midnight,
+Molly waked suddenly with a draught of cold air in her face. She sat up
+in bed and glanced sleepily through the open door into the sitting room.
+
+"Where did the air come from?" she wondered, and then noticed that
+Judy's door was open and slipped softly out of bed. Why she did not
+simply close her own door she never could explain, but some hidden
+impulse moved her to look into Judy's room. A shaded night lamp turned
+quite low cast a soft luminous shadow right across Judy's bed, which was
+empty. Molly started violently. Once before they had come into Judy's
+room at midnight and found her bed empty. The startling recollection
+caused Molly to run to the open window. As she leaned out her hand
+touched something rough--a rope.
+
+"A rope ladder!" she whispered to herself, horrified. "Great heavens,
+Judy has done for herself now." Just then the rope scraped her knuckles
+and she felt a tug at it from below. "Some one is coming up." Molly
+looked out.
+
+"Judy," she whispered in a tone filled with reproach. "How could you?"
+
+The voice from above must have frightened the climber, for, with an
+excited little gasp, she missed her hold on the rope and fell backward,
+where she lay for a moment perfectly still. It was not a very great
+fall, but it must have hurt, and instantly Molly climbed to the window
+sill and began to make her way slowly down the ladder.
+
+It was not so difficult as she had thought, but she was frightened when
+at last she bounded onto the ground, and she was freezing cold in spite
+of her knitted slippers and woolen dressing gown.
+
+"Have you hurt yourself badly?" she asked, leaning over Judy, who was
+endeavoring to sit up.
+
+"No, only dazed from the fall," whispered Judy. "Go on up, will you, or
+we'll both get caught."
+
+"You'd better go first," said Molly, "I'm afraid to leave you down here
+alone. Go on, instantly," she added, remembering that she must be stern
+since Judy richly deserved all the reproaches she could think of.
+
+Judy began the ascent and pulled herself over the window sill. Then
+exhausted, she sat on the floor, holding her throbbing temples in both
+hands. That is why she did not see what was presently to happen. Just as
+Molly placed her foot on the first rung of the ladder, a firm hand
+grasped her arm. Why she did not shriek aloud with all the power of her
+lungs she never knew, but she remained perfectly silent while a
+voice--and it was Miss Walker's voice--said in her ear:
+
+"You will say nothing about this to-night. I wish you to come to my
+office to-morrow morning at ten. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," answered Molly, reverting to her childhood's method of
+answering older people. She climbed the ladder in a dazed sort of way.
+It was more difficult than climbing down, but at last she scaled the
+window sill and jumped into the room. Judy was still sitting on the
+floor, holding her temples. Perhaps it had been only five minutes, but
+it seemed like a thousand years. However, she felt little sympathy for
+Judy, bruised temple or not.
+
+"Get up from there and get to your bed," she whispered. "And I want to
+hear from you exactly what you were doing down there and where you got
+that ladder."
+
+"The rope ladder belonged to Anne White," Judy answered in a stifled
+voice. "I borrowed it to win a wager from Adele. Of course, I don't mean
+to blame her, but she teased me into it. It was silly, I know, looking
+back on it now."
+
+"What was the bet?"
+
+"She bet that I would be afraid to climb down that ladder at midnight
+when the ghost is supposed to walk. I was simply to climb down, touch
+the ground and climb back again."
+
+"Idiots, both of you," said Molly furiously.
+
+"I know it, and I am sorry now," said the penitent Judy, "but
+fortunately no harm has been done except to my silly head, which needed
+a good whacking, anyhow."
+
+"No harm," thought Molly angrily. "I wonder what's going to happen to me
+to-morrow. One of us will be expelled, I suppose. Miss Walker is already
+down on Judy."
+
+"Thank you for coming down to me, Molly, dearest."
+
+Molly closed the door.
+
+"Judy, I want you to promise me something," she said. "If you get out of
+this scrape----"
+
+"But no one knows it but you."
+
+"I have no idea of telling on you, Judy, but things leak out. How do
+you know you weren't observed?"
+
+Judy looked startled.
+
+"I want you to promise me to give up this Adele Windsor and her crowd.
+She's never done you any good. She's a malicious, dangerous, wicked girl
+and if you haven't the sense to see it, I'll just tell you."
+
+This was strong language coming from Molly.
+
+"If you don't, mid-years will certainly see your finish, if you aren't
+dropped sooner. You're not studying at all and you are simply acting
+outrageously, dyeing your hair and borrowing rope ladders. I'm disgusted
+with you, Judy Kean, I am indeed."
+
+"Miss Walker has a grudge against me," announced Judy, in a hot whisper.
+
+"Nonsense," said Molly, and she swept out of the room and crawled into
+her bed, very weary and cold and frightened, wondering what the morrow
+would bring forth in the way of punishment for her--or was it to be for
+Judy?
+
+In the meantime, foolish Judy carefully coiled up the rope ladder and
+hid it in the bottom of her trunk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ON THE GRILL.
+
+
+Not a word did Molly say to Nance or the unsuspecting Judy next morning
+about her appointment with President Walker.
+
+"Don't forget Latin versification at ten," Nance had cautioned her as
+she left the sitting room a quarter before ten.
+
+Molly had forgotten it and everything else except the matter in hand,
+but the President's word was law and she prepared to obey and skip the
+lecture.
+
+The President was waiting for her in the little study. No one was about
+and an ominous quiet pervaded the whole place.
+
+"Sit down," said Miss Walker, without replying to Molly's greeting of
+good morning. "So it's you, is it, who has been wandering about the
+grounds at night in a gray dressing gown, scaring the students? I need
+not tell you how disgusted and grieved I am, Miss Brown."
+
+Molly turned as white as a sheet. She had never dreamed that Miss Walker
+suspected her of being the campus ghost.
+
+But she answered steadily:
+
+"You are mistaken, Miss Walker. The ghost chased Nance and me the other
+night when we were coming back from the village. We were really
+frightened. I suppose it's some insane person."
+
+"Then what were you doing on the campus at that hour, and where did you
+get that ladder?"
+
+Molly turned her wide blue eyes on the President with reproachful
+protest, and Miss Walker suddenly looked down at the blotter on the
+desk.
+
+"Answer my question, Miss Brown," she asked more gently.
+
+How could Molly explain without telling on
+
+Judy, and yet did not that reckless, silly Judy deserve to be told on?
+
+Suddenly two tears trickled down her cheeks. She let them roll unheeded
+and clasped her hands convulsively in her lap.
+
+"I insist on an answer to my question, Miss Brown," repeated the
+President, without looking up. Molly pressed her lips together to keep
+back the sobs.
+
+"I never saw the ladder until a few minutes before you did," she
+answered hoarsely. "I--oh, Miss Walker, you make it very hard," she
+burst out suddenly, leaning on the table and burying her face in her
+hands.
+
+And then the most surprising thing happened. The President rose quickly
+from her chair, hurried over to where Molly was sitting with bowed head
+and drew the girl to her as tenderly as Molly's own mother might have
+done.
+
+"There, there, my darling child," she said soothingly. "I haven't the
+heart to torture you any longer. I know, of course, that it was your
+friend, Miss Kean, who was at the bottom of last night's performance,
+and as usual you came down to help her when she fell. I only wanted you
+to tell me exactly what you knew."
+
+The truth is, the President had tried an experiment on Molly and the
+experiment had failed, and no one was more pleased than Miss Walker
+herself in the failure. She liked to see her girls loyal to each other.
+But things had not been going well at Wellington that autumn. There was
+an undercurrent of mischief in the air, a dangerous element, carefully
+hidden, and still slowly undermining the standards of Wellington. Miss
+Walker was very much enraged over the rumor that the ghost of her
+beloved sister had been seen wandering about the campus. This was too
+much. Her Irish maid had repeated the story to her and she had
+determined to lay that ghost without the assistance of the night
+watchman or any one else.
+
+The surprise of first being stretched on the grill and then embraced by
+the President of Wellington College brought Molly to herself like a
+shock of cold water. She looked up into the older woman's face and
+smiled and the two sat down side by side on a little sofa, the President
+still holding Molly's hand. There might be some who could resist the
+piteous look in those blue eyes, but not President Walker.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm just a weak old person," she said to herself, giving the
+hand a little squeeze and then releasing it.
+
+"Judy wasn't the ghost, either, Miss Walker," said Molly, glad to be
+able to defend her friend on safe grounds. "The night we were chased
+Judy was in our rooms all the time. Last night was the first time she
+had ever done anything so foolish. It was only because a girl she goes
+with bet she wouldn't. It was the same girl that made her dye her hair,"
+Molly added, without any feeling of disloyalty.
+
+"Ahem! And who is this young woman who has such a bad influence on Miss
+Kean?"
+
+Molly flushed. Was she to be placed on the grill again? But after all
+there was no harm in telling the name of the girl who had brought all
+Judy's trouble on her.
+
+"Adele Windsor."
+
+"And what do you know of her?"
+
+"I don't know anything about her except that she has fascinated Judy."
+
+"And Judy must be punished," mused the President. "Judy is a very
+difficult character and she must be brought to her senses if she expects
+to remain at Wellington."
+
+"Judy loves Wellington, indeed she does, Miss Walker. It's only that she
+has got into a wrong way of thinking this year. I've heard her tell
+freshmen how splendid it was here and how they would grow to love it
+like all the rest of us."
+
+"She has not been doing well at all. She never studies. You see I know
+all about my girls."
+
+"You didn't know," went on Molly, "that the Jubilee entertainment was
+all Judy's idea. She gave it to Adele Windsor--I don't know why--just
+because she was in one of her obstinate moods, but I heard her plan out
+the whole thing the opening night of college--and it was all for the
+glory of Wellington."
+
+The President's face softened.
+
+"Molly," she said, as if she had always called the young girl by her
+first name, "do you wish very much to save your friend?"
+
+"Oh, I do, I do. I can't think of any sacrifice I wouldn't make to keep
+Judy from being----" she paused and lowered her eyes. Was Miss Walker
+thinking of expelling Judy? But Miss Walker was not that kind of a
+manager. She often treated her erring girls very much as a doctor treats
+his patients with a few doses of very nasty but efficacious medicine.
+
+"What is your opinion of what had best be done, then? You know her
+better than I do. What do you advise?"
+
+Molly was amazed.
+
+"Me? You ask my advice?" she asked.
+
+The President nodded briskly.
+
+"Well, the best way to bring Judy to her senses is to give her a good
+scare and let it come out all right in the end."
+
+The President smiled.
+
+"You're one of the wisest of my girls," she said, "now, run along. If
+I've made you miss a lecture I'm sorry."
+
+"It _will_ come out all right in the end, Miss Walker?" asked Molly,
+turning as she reached the door.
+
+"I promise," answered the other, smiling again as if the question
+pleased her.
+
+And so Molly escaped from the grill feeling really very happy, certainly
+much happier than when she entered the office.
+
+Late that evening while Molly and Nance were preparing to take a walk
+before supper, Judy rushed into the room. There was not a ray of color
+in her face and her hair stood out all over her head as if it had been
+charged with electricity.
+
+"Oh, Molly, Molly," she cried, "did you know the President had overheard
+everything that was said last night? She was at the foot of the ladder
+all the time. You are not implicated, I saw to that, and I've not told
+where I got the ladder. I simply said some one had given it to me. No
+one is in it but me. But I'm in it deep. Girls, I've lost out. It's all
+over. I've got to go. Oh, heavens, what a fool I've been."
+
+Judy flung herself on the divan and buried her face in the pillows.
+
+For a moment Molly almost lost faith in the President's promise.
+
+"What do you mean when you say you must go, Judy?" she asked.
+
+"It can't be true," burst out Nance, whose love for Judy sometimes
+clothed that young woman's sins in a garment of light.
+
+"Not expelled?" added Molly, in a whisper.
+
+"No, no, not that; but suspended. I can come back just before mid-years,
+but don't you see the trick? How can I pass my exams then? And Mama and
+Papa, what will they think? And, oh, the Jubilee and all of you and
+Wellington? Molly, I've been a wicked idiot and some of my sins have
+been against you. I was jealous about that Jimmy Lufton because he had
+seemed to be my property and you took him away. And, Nance, I was mad
+with you because you were always preaching. I didn't really like Adele
+Windsor. I think she is horrid. She's malicious and she makes trouble.
+I've found that out, but she got me in her toils somehow----"
+
+And so poor Judy rambled on, confessing her sins and moaning like a
+person in mortal pain. She had worked herself into a fever, her face was
+hot and she looked at the girls with burning, unseeing eyes.
+
+"Papa will be so disappointed," she went on. "It will be harder on him
+than on Mama for me not to graduate with the class, and oh, I did love
+all of you--I really did."
+
+Tears, which Molly had never seen Judy shed but once before, now worked
+two tortuous little paths down her flushed cheeks.
+
+Molly and Nance comforted and nursed her into quiet. They bathed her
+face and loosened her dyed locks which were now beginning to show a
+strange tawny yellow at the roots and a rusty brownish color at the
+ends. All the time Molly was thinking very hard.
+
+"Judy," she said, at last, when they had got her quiet. "There's no
+reason why you shouldn't pass the mid-years and graduate with your class
+if you want to."
+
+"But how? I'm so behind now I can hardly catch up, and if I miss six
+weeks I can never do it."
+
+"Yes, you can," said Molly. "This is what you must do. Go down to the
+village and get board anywhere, with Mrs. Murphy or Mrs. O'Reilly. Take
+all your books and begin to study. Every day some of us will come down
+and coach you, Nance or I, or Edith--I know any of the crowd would be
+glad to, so as not to lose you."
+
+"But the Christmas holidays," put in Judy.
+
+"I shall be here for all the holidays," said Molly. "It will be all
+right."
+
+And so the matter was settled. The very next day Judy's exile began. She
+engaged a room at Mrs. O'Reilly's, her obstinate mood slipped away from
+her and she was happier and more like her old self than she had been in
+weeks. And Molly was happy, too. She felt that she had saved Judy and
+freed her at the same time from the clutches of Adele Windsor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A CHRISTMAS EVE MISUNDERSTANDING.
+
+
+The old Queen's crowd rallied around the exiled Judy, even as Molly had
+predicted, and Judy was prostrated with gratitude. Nothing could have
+stirred her so deeply as this devotion of her friends.
+
+"I feel like Elijah being fed by the ravens in the wilderness, only you
+are bringing me crumbs of learning," she exclaimed to Molly who had
+taken her turn in coaching Judy. "I hope you don't mind being called
+'ravens,'" she added apologetically.
+
+"Not at all," laughed Molly. "I'd rather be called a raven than a
+catbird or a poll parrot or an English sparrow."
+
+But Judy was already deep in her paper. Being a recluse from the world,
+her life consecrated to study, she was playing the part to perfection.
+
+If Adele Windsor knew that Judy was in the village, she gave no sign,
+and so the exile, in her old room at O'Reilly's overlooking the garden,
+had nothing to do but bury herself in her neglected text books. Indeed,
+very few of the girls knew where Judy was. When she went out for her
+walks after dusk she wore a heavy veil and thoroughly enjoyed the
+disguise. One night the old crowd gave her a surprise party which Edith
+had carefully planned. Dressed in absurd piratical costumes with skirts
+draped over one shoulder in the semblance of capes, brilliant sashes
+around their waists, many varieties of slouch hats and heavy black
+mustaches, they stormed Judy's room in a body.
+
+"Hist!" said Edith, "the captive Maiden! We must release her ere
+sunrise!" Then they trooped in, danced a wild fandango which made Judy
+envious that she herself was not in it, and finally opened up
+refreshments.
+
+So it was that Judy's exile was happy enough, and when Christmas
+holidays approached she had made up most of her lost work and was ready
+for Molly's careful coaching.
+
+Thus it is that heaven protects some of the foolish ones of this earth.
+Judy wrote to her mother and father that she was behind in her classes
+and would remain to study with Molly Brown, and as Mr. and Mrs. Kean
+were at this time in Colorado, they thought it a wise decision on the
+part of their daughter.
+
+Molly had grown to love the Christmas holidays at college. It was a
+perfect time of peace after the excitement and hurry of her life--a time
+when she could steal into the big library and read the hours away
+without being disturbed, or scribble things on paper that she would like
+to expand into something, some day, when her diffidence should leave
+her.
+
+To-day, curled up in one of the big window seats, Molly was thinking of
+a curious thing that had happened that morning at O'Reilly's.
+
+She had gone in to say good-bye to Judith Blount and Madeleine Petit,
+who were leaving for New York by the noon train.
+
+"I suppose you'll be visiting all the tea rooms in town for new ideas,"
+Molly had said pleasantly.
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Madeleine. "I never leave a stone unturned and
+everything's grist that comes to my mill. This fall I got six new ideas
+for sandwiches and the idea for a kind of bun that ought to be popular
+if only because of the name. I haven't the recipe, but I think I can
+experiment with it until I get it."
+
+"What's the name?" Molly asked idly, never thinking of what a train of
+consequences that name involved.
+
+"'Snakey-noodles.' Isn't it great? Can't you see it on a little menu and
+people ordering out of curiosity and then ordering more because they're
+so good?"
+
+"Snakey-noodles," Molly repeated in surprise.
+
+"That's the name, isn't it, Judith?" asked Madeleine.
+
+"Oh, yes, I remember it because the bun is formed of twisted dough like
+a snake coiled up."
+
+"It's very strange," said Molly.
+
+"What's strange?"
+
+"Why, that name, snakey-noodle. You see it's a kind of family name with
+us. Our old cook has been making them for years. I really thought she
+had originated it, but I suppose other colored people know it, too.
+Where did you have one?"
+
+"At a spread, oh, weeks and weeks ago."
+
+"But where?" insisted Molly. "I have a real curiosity to know. Was it a
+Southern spread?"
+
+"Far from it," said Madeleine. "Yankee as Yankee. One of the girls in
+Brentley House gave the spread."
+
+"But she didn't provide the snakey-noodles," put in Judith. "What's that
+girl's name who talks through her nose?"
+
+"Miss Windsor."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Coming to think of it, I believe she said they had been sent to her
+from an aunt in the South," went on Madeleine. "So you see, Molly,
+nobody has been poaching on your preserves."
+
+Molly only smiled rather vaguely. She would have liked to ask a dozen
+more questions, but kept silent and presently, after shaking hands with
+the two inseparable friends, she went up to the library to think.
+Somehow Molly was not surprised. Nothing that Adele Windsor could do
+surprised her. The surprising part was how she avoided being found out.
+It was just like her to have planned the theft of the Senior Ramble
+lunch. There was something really diabolical in her notions of
+amusement. And now, what was to be done?
+
+Should she tell the other girls after the holidays, or should she wait?
+It was all weeks off and Molly decided to let the secret rest in her own
+mind safely. Even if she told, it would be hard to prove the accusation
+at this late day, but perhaps--and here Molly's thoughts broke off.
+
+"I detest all this meanness and trickery," she thought. "I don't blame
+Miss Walker for wanting to clean it out of the school. Anyway," she
+added, smiling, "if that girl bothers Judy any more, I intend to
+pronounce the mystic name of snakey-noodles over her head like a curse
+and see what happens."
+
+That afternoon Molly packed a suitcase full of clothes and lugged it
+down to Mrs. O'Reilly's, where she had consented to spend Christmas with
+Judy instead of in her own pretty Quadrangle apartment. Secretly Molly
+would much rather have stayed in No. 5, where she could have rested and
+read poetry as much as she liked. But she was rarely known to consult
+her own comfort when her friends asked her to do them a favor, and,
+after all, if she were going to put Judy through a course of study, she
+had better be on the spot to see that the irresponsible young person
+stuck to her books.
+
+So the two girls established themselves in the pleasant fire-lit room
+overlooking the garden. Judy had brought down two framed photographs of
+her favorite pictures and a big brass jar by way of ornament, and on
+Christmas Eve the girls went out to buy holly and red swamp berries.
+
+They were walking along the crowded sidewalk arm in arm, recalling how
+last year they had done exactly the same thing, when they came
+unexpectedly face to face with Mr. James Lufton.
+
+"Well, if this isn't good luck," he exclaimed. "Nobody at the Quadrangle
+seemed to know where you were."
+
+He included both girls, but he really meant Molly.
+
+"And what are you doing here?" asked Molly, giving him her hand after he
+had shaken Judy's hand.
+
+"Andy McLean asked me down for Christmas," he said.
+
+He failed to mention that he had pawned his watch, a set of Balzac and
+two silver trophies won at an athletic club, and, furthermore, had given
+out at the office that he was down with grippe, in order to accept the
+invitation.
+
+"Andy's up the street now looking for you. He thought perhaps Mrs.
+Murphy might know where you were."
+
+"What did he want with us?" asked Judy, lifting her mourning veil.
+
+Jimmy hesitated.
+
+"He was thinking of getting up a Christmas dance, but----" He looked at
+Judy's black dress.
+
+"She's not in mourning, Mr. Lufton," laughed Molly. "It's only that she
+prefers to look like a mourning widow-lady."
+
+"Oh, excuse me, Miss Kean," said Jimmy. "I thought you had had a recent
+bereavement."
+
+"Here, Judy, take off that thing," exclaimed Molly, unpinning the
+mourning veil in the back and snatching it off Judy's glowing face.
+
+"Molly, how can you invade on the privacy of my grief," exclaimed Judy,
+laughing.
+
+"Why, it's Miss Judy Kean," exclaimed Dodo Green, coming up at that
+moment with Andy McLean. "Nothing has hap----"
+
+"No," put in Molly, "it's only one of Judy's absurd notions. She's been
+wearing mourning for years off and on, but she's only lately gone into
+such heavy black."
+
+"And you've no objection to a little fun, then?" asked Andy.
+
+"Not a particle," answered Judy, the old bright look lighting her face.
+"My feelings aren't black, I assure you."
+
+"On with the dance, then, let joy be unconfined," cried Andy. "We'll
+call for you at a quarter of eight, girls--at O'Reilly's, you say? I'll
+have to trot along now and tell the mater."
+
+The three boys hurried off while Molly and Judy rushed home to look over
+their party clothes.
+
+"Isn't life a pleasant thing, after all?" exclaimed Judy, and Molly
+readily agreed that it was.
+
+Such a jolly impromptu Christmas Eve party as it was that night at the
+McLeans'! Mrs. McLean had a niece visiting her from Scotland, an
+interesting girl with snappy brown eyes and straight dark hair. She was
+rather strangely dressed, Molly thought, in a red merino with a high
+white linen collar and a black satin tie, and she looked at Molly and
+Judy in their pretty evening gowns with evident disapproval. Just as
+Jimmy Lufton and Molly had completed the glide waltz for the fifth time
+that evening and had sunk down on a sofa breathless, the parlor door
+opened and in walked Professor Edwin Green, looking as well as he had
+ever looked in his life, with a fine glow of color in his cheeks.
+
+"My dear Professor!" cried Mrs. McLean.
+
+"Ed, I thought you were going to spend Christmas in the south,"
+exclaimed his brother.
+
+"You are a disobedient young man," ejaculated the doctor,--all in one
+chorus.
+
+"Don't scold the returned wanderer," said the Professor, glancing about
+the room swiftly until he caught Molly's eye, and then smiling and
+nodding. "It's dangerous for convalescents to be bored, and realizing
+that Christmas in the tropics might bring on a relapse, I decided to
+lose no time in getting back home."
+
+"And glad we are to see you, lad," said the doctor, seizing his hand and
+shaking it warmly. "You did quite right to come back before the _ennui_
+got in its work. It's worse than the fever."
+
+Molly left Jimmy Lufton's side to shake hands with the Professor, and
+then the Professor remembered the young newspaper man and greeted him
+cordially, and after that all the company went back into the dining-room
+for hot chocolate and sandwiches. And here it was that all the mischief
+started which came very near to breaking up the great friendship that
+existed between Molly and the Professor.
+
+It was simply that the Professor overheard scraps of information that
+Jimmy was pouring into Molly's ready ear while she listened with
+glowing cheeks and a gay smile to what he had to say.
+
+"Oh, you'll enjoy New York all right, Miss Brown, and the newspaper work
+won't be as hard as what you are doing now, I fancy. I'm sure they'd
+take you on if only for your----" he paused. "You have only to ask and
+I'll put in a good word, too," he added. "You can never understand what
+a good time you'll have until you get there--theaters until you have had
+enough and the opera, too. I often get tickets through our critic----"
+
+"The grand opera," repeated Molly.
+
+"Yes, anything you like. Lohengrin, Aïda, La Boheme. Sooner or later you
+will see them all. Then there are the restaurants--such jolly places to
+get little dinners, and you are so independent. You are too busy to be
+lonesome and you can come and go as you like, nobody to boss you except
+the editor, of course, and you'll soon catch on. You have a natural
+knack for writing. I could tell that by your letters----"
+
+Molly, listening to the voice of the tempter, saw a picture of New York
+as one might see a picture of a carnival, all lights and fun and good
+times.
+
+"But I want to work, too, more than anything else," she said suddenly.
+
+"Oh, you'll have plenty to do," laughed the careless Jimmy, who took
+life about as seriously as a humming-bird.
+
+After supper the Professor drew Molly away from the crowd of young
+people and led her to a sofa in the hall.
+
+"I want to talk to you," he said in a tone of authority that a teacher
+might use to a pupil. "I could not help overhearing what your newspaper
+friend was saying to you at supper, and I wish you would take my advice
+and not listen to a word he says. He's just a young fool!"
+
+The Professor was quite red in the face and Molly also flushed and her
+eyes darkened with anger.
+
+"I don't agree with you about that," she said.
+
+"Is it possible you are going to put all this hard studying you have
+been doing for the last three and a half years into writing news items
+for a yellow journal? I'm disgusted."
+
+"But I only expected to start there----" began Molly.
+
+"And is that young idiot trying to persuade you that the sort of life he
+described--a wild carnival life of dissipation and restaurant dinners is
+the right life for you? I tell you he's mistaken. I should like
+to--to----"
+
+Molly's face was burning now.
+
+"I--I--I don't think it's any of your business," she burst out. At this
+astonishing speech the Professor came to himself with a start.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Brown," he said. "I realize now that I entirely
+overstepped the mark. Good evening."
+
+"Miss Brown, shall we have the last dance together?" called Jimmy Lufton
+down the hall, and presently poor Molly, whirling in the waltz, wondered
+why her temples throbbed so and her throat ached.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+TWO CHRISTMAS BREAKFASTS.
+
+
+Early Christmas morning a slender figure in faded blue corduroy could be
+seen hurrying up the road that led from the village to the college
+grounds. The frosty wind nipped two spots of red on her cheeks and under
+the drooping brim of her old blue felt hat her eyes shone like patches
+of sky in the sunlight. Where was Molly bound for at this early hour?
+The church bells were ringing out the glad Christmas tidings; the ground
+sparkled with hoar frost; but not a moment did she linger to listen to
+the cheerful clanging, or even to glance at the lonely vista of hill and
+dale stretched around her. Hurrying across the campus, she skirted the
+college buildings and presently gained the pebbled path that led to the
+old campus in the rear, flanked by a number of old red brick houses,
+formerly the homes of the professors. They were now used for various
+purposes: the college laundry; homes for the employees about the
+building and grounds and rooms for bachelor professors.
+
+Hastening along the path to the house where Professor Green was
+domiciled, Molly was thinking:
+
+"Only a year ago I had to make the same apology to him. Oh, my wicked,
+wicked temper! I am ashamed of myself."
+
+And now she had reached the old brick house and sounded the brass
+knocker with an eager rat-tat-tat. Presently she heard footsteps resound
+along the empty hall and the Irish housekeeper flung open the door.
+
+"Is Professor Green up yet?" Molly demanded.
+
+"And shure I've not an idea whether he be up or slapin'."
+
+"But can't you see?"
+
+"I cannot. It wouldn't be an aisy thing to do, I'm thinkin'."
+
+"And why not, pray? It must be his breakfast time. You have only to rap
+on his door. And it's very important."
+
+"And if it's so important, you'd better be after sendin' him a cable to
+the Bahamas, where the Professor is sunnin' himself at prisint."
+
+"Nonsense, Mrs. Brady, the Professor got back last night. I saw him
+myself. He must be up in his room now. Do go and see. You haven't cooked
+him a bit of breakfast, I suppose?"
+
+Mrs. Brady turned without a word and tiptoed up the stairs. Molly heard
+her breathing heavily as she moved along the hall and tapped on the
+Professor's door. Then came a muffled voice through the closed door.
+
+"I'll git ye some breakfast, sir," called Mrs. Brady, and down she came.
+
+"Shure an' you wuz right an' I wuz wrong, an' I'm obliged to you for the
+information. But he'll not be ready for seein' people for an hour yet,
+maybe longer."
+
+"Mrs. Brady," said Molly, moved by a sudden inspiration. "Let me get his
+breakfast."
+
+"But----" objected the Irish woman.
+
+"I'm a splendid cook and I'll give you no trouble at all. Please." Molly
+put her hands on the Irish woman's shoulders and looked into her face
+appealingly.
+
+"Shure, thim eyes is like the gals' in the old countree, Miss," remarked
+Mrs. Brady, visibly melting under that telling gaze. "Ye can do as you
+like, but if the Professor don't like his breakfast the blame be on
+you."
+
+"He'll like it, I'm perfectly certain," said Molly, following Mrs. Brady
+back to the kitchen.
+
+"It's a very, very funny world," said Mrs. Brady, displaying the
+contents of her larder to the volunteer cook.
+
+Her resources were limited, to be sure, but Molly improvised a breakfast
+out of them that a king would not have scorned. There were pop-overs
+done to a golden brown, a perfect little omelet, bacon crisp enough to
+please the most fastidious palate and an old champagne glass, the spoils
+of some festive occasion, filled with iced orange juice. The coffee was
+strong and fragrant.
+
+"He's very particular about it, Miss, an' he buys his own brand."
+
+Then Molly set the tray. Mrs. Brady's best white linen cover she
+snatched from the shelf without asking leave. In a twinkling she had
+polished and heated the blue china dishes, placed the breakfast on them
+and covered them tight with hot soup plates, since there were no other
+covers. Then she snipped off the top of a red geranium blooming in the
+window sill and dropped it into a finger bowl.
+
+"Lord love ye, Miss, but that's a beautiful tray," exclaimed Mrs. Brady,
+hypnotized by Molly's swift movements and skillful workmanship. "If I
+did not know ye wuz a lady from your looks I should say ye wuz a born
+cook. But Mrs. Murphy be afther tellin' me how you used to make things
+in her kitchen. Ye must be the same one, since it's red hair and blue
+eyes ye have----"
+
+Molly had disappeared into the pantry to replace the flour sifter while
+Mrs. Brady was holding forth, and now through a crack in the pantry door
+she saw the kitchen door open and Professor Green, in a long dressing
+gown, stalk in.
+
+"Don't bother about breakfast for me, Mrs. Brady," he said. "A cup of
+coffee quite strong--stronger than you usually make it, please--that's
+all I want."
+
+Mrs. Brady, glancing at Molly hidden in the pantry, saw her shake her
+head and place a finger on her lips.
+
+The Irish woman smiled broadly. It was a situation in which she saw many
+humorous possibilities and an amusing story to tell over the tea cups to
+Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. O'Reilly.
+
+"Shure an' ye needn't eat it, sir," she said, in an injured tone, "but
+it's all prepared an' of the very best."
+
+The Professor glanced at the tray.
+
+"Why," he exclaimed, in amazement, "this is something really fine, Mrs.
+Brady. I didn't know you were getting up a holiday breakfast."
+
+Visions of slopped-over trays, weak coffee and hard toast passed before
+him, for Mrs. Brady was not a cook to boast of.
+
+"I'll eat it down here, if you've no objection," he continued kindly,
+lifting the covers and glancing curiously underneath. "By Jove, this is
+something like. Omelet, and what are those luscious looking things?"
+
+"They be pop-overs, sir, if I'm not misthaken."
+
+"Pop-overs, ahem! I've heard the name before." He sniffed the small
+coffee pot. "Good and strong; you've anticipated my wants this morning,
+Mrs. Brady."
+
+"Why doesn't he go on and eat?" thought the red-haired cook. "The omelet
+will be ruined."
+
+But the Professor had drawn up a chair to the kitchen table and was
+draining the orange juice at a gulp.
+
+"You're getting very festive, Mrs. Brady. Have you been taking lessons
+in my absence? That orange juice was just the appetizer I needed this
+morning." Then he fell to on the breakfast and never stopped until he
+had eaten every crumb and drained the coffee pot to the dregs.
+
+In the meantime Molly had taken a seat on the pantry floor. A weakness
+had invaded her knees and her head swam dizzily, since she had had no
+breakfast that morning.
+
+"I suppose Judy will think I'm dead," she thought, "but it won't do her
+any harm to be guessing about me for once."
+
+She hoped the Professor would leave in a moment and go to his rooms. He
+had filled a short briar wood pipe and was leaning back in his chair
+musing, but he couldn't stay forever in Mrs. Brady's kitchen.
+
+"Mrs. Brady, that was a very dainty and delicious little meal you
+prepared for me," she heard him say. "I was a bit low in my mind but I
+feel cheered up. A cup of coffee--if it's good--as this was--is often
+enough to restore a man's ambition." And now the kitchen was filled with
+the fragrance of tobacco smoke while the Professor mused in his chair,
+blowing out great clouds at intervals.
+
+"A bachelor is a poor pitiful soul, sir," answered the woman; "now, if
+ye had a wife to look after ye, you'd be afther havin' the like
+breakfasts ivery mornin'."
+
+The Professor blew out a ring of purple smoke and watched it float
+lazily in the air and gradually dissipate.
+
+"Didn't you know I was a woman hater, Mrs. Brady?"
+
+"Indade, I should think ye might be, seein' so many of them every day
+and all the time," answered the housekeeper sympathetically. "Too much
+of a good thing, sir. But, whin old age comes to ye, you'll miss 'em,
+sir. You'll miss a good wife to look after your comforts then."
+
+"I've got something better than that for my old age, Mrs. Brady. I've
+got a bit of land; it's an orchard on the side of a hill sloping down to
+a brook----"
+
+Molly, sitting on the pantry floor, felt a sudden jolt as if some one
+had shaken her by the shoulder. Faintness came over her and her heart
+beat so fast and loud she wondered that the two in the kitchen did not
+hear its palpitations.
+
+"The trees bear plenty of apples; I'll have lots of fruit in my old age.
+I've only to hobble out and knock them down with my cane when I get too
+old to climb up and shake the limbs, and where once swung a hammock in
+my orchard I may build a little hut."
+
+"It's a pretty picture, sir, but lonely, I should say."
+
+"Ah, well, Mrs. Brady, there'll be four walls to my hut and every inch
+of those walls will be covered with books," announced the Professor, as
+he strolled out of the kitchen, leaving the door ajar.
+
+Molly, now thoroughly exhausted, amazed, and quite faint from her
+emotions, was pulling herself to her knees when the Professor marched
+swiftly back into the room and walked into the pantry.
+
+"I wanted to see how much coffee you had left----" he began. "I'll be
+writing for more----" His foot encountered something soft on the floor
+and glancing quickly down he caught a glimpse in the shadow of a figure
+huddled up in the corner. The face was hidden in the curve of the elbow,
+but he saw the red hair, and a beam through a crack in the door cast a
+slanting light across the blue silk blouse.
+
+"Why, Molly Brown, my little friend," he exclaimed. And he lifted her to
+her feet and half carried her to a chair near the fire. "So it was you
+who cooked me that delicious Christmas breakfast, and now you're half
+dead from fatigue and hunger. You've had no breakfast, confess?"
+
+Molly lifted her eyes to his and shook her head. Then she lowered her
+gaze and blushed.
+
+"I'm too ashamed to think of breakfast," she said.
+
+"Mrs. Brady, put the kettle on," ordered the Professor. "Get out the
+eggs. Where's the bacon?"
+
+"In the jar, sliced, sir."
+
+"But," protested Molly.
+
+"Don't say a word, child. Be perfectly quiet."
+
+Then the Professor began to fly about the room, tearing into the pantry,
+rushing from the table to the stove and back again, rummaging in the
+refrigerator for oranges and butter, and upsetting two chairs that stood
+in his way.
+
+All this time Mrs. Brady quietly toasted bread and broiled bacon while
+there hovered on her lips an enigmatic smile. Then she scrambled two
+eggs while the Professor tested the coffee and squeezed an orange
+alternately. Molly watched him in dazed silence.
+
+"He bought the apple orchard and that is how I happen to be at
+Wellington this minute," she kept thinking mechanically. "He worked all
+summer and got into debt and caught typhoid fever in order to furnish
+me"--she choked--"and I spoke to him like that. No wonder he's a woman
+hater--no wonder he wants books----"
+
+"Ready," announced Mrs. Brady, and the next thing Molly knew she was
+sitting at the table drinking orange juice while the Professor buttered
+toast and poured out the coffee.
+
+Presently it was all over. Two Christmas breakfasts had been prepared in
+Mrs. Brady's kitchen that morning where none had been expected.
+
+"'Twas lucky I'd laid in supplies," exclaimed the genial Irish woman. "A
+body can never tell what starvin' crayture's comin' to the door beggin'
+for a crust."
+
+And now Molly Brown found herself, almost without realizing it, walking
+across the college grounds beside her Professor.
+
+"I can never, never thank you," she was saying. "I couldn't even try."
+
+"Don't try," he answered. "Indeed, I ought to thank you for introducing
+me to that lovely bit of orchard. As for the money, it was fairly crying
+out to be invested. I think I made a great bargain."
+
+"But Dodo said----"
+
+"Dodo talks too much," said the Professor, frowning. "He knows nothing
+about me and my affairs."
+
+"Anyhow, you'll let me apologize for the way I answered you last night,"
+said Molly, giving him a heavenly smile.
+
+The Professor looked away quickly.
+
+"The apology is accepted," he said gravely.
+
+"And now we are friends once more, Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky, are we
+not?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," cried Molly joyfully, feeling happy enough to dance at
+that moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FACING THE ENEMY.
+
+
+It was a joyous day when Judy returned to college just before mid-years,
+after her long exile in the back room of O'Reilly's. She was made
+welcome by all her particular friends who killed the "potted" calf, as
+Edith called it, in honor of the prodigal's return.
+
+And Judy was well content with herself and all the world. A hair-dresser
+in Wellington had, by some mysterious process, restored her hair to very
+nearly its natural shade. Thanks to Molly, chiefly, and the others, she
+was well up in her lessons and quite prepared to breast the mid-year
+wave of examinations with the class. Never had the three friends at No.
+5 been more gloriously, radiantly happy than now on the verge of final
+examinations. And then one day, in the midst of all this serenity and
+peace, Adele Windsor dropped in to call on Judy. At once Nance fled from
+the apartment. She could not bear the sight of this sinister young
+woman. Molly would have gone, too, but she remained, at an imploring
+glance from Judy, and slipped quietly into the next room, leaving the
+door ajar.
+
+"Judy knows she can call for help if she needs it," she thought rather
+complacently, for she was no longer afraid of that arch mischief-maker.
+
+As for Judy, she was singularly polite, but cold in her manner, and
+Molly detected a certain tremulousness in her voice.
+
+"She's scared, poor dear," thought Molly indignantly. "Now, I wonder
+why?"
+
+"I haven't seen you for weeks," Adele began in her sharp, assured tone.
+"Where have you been? I heard you had gone home."
+
+"I was away for some time," answered Judy evasively.
+
+"I hope and trust she thinks I have gone out with Nance," thought Molly
+in the next room, feeling a good deal like a conspirator. "She'll never
+come to the point if she knows I'm here, and I'd just like her to show
+her cards for once. It will be a glorious chance to get rid of her
+forever more, amen."
+
+The light of battle came into Molly's eyes. "I feel like a knight
+pricking o'er the plain to slay a dragon," she thought, waving an
+imaginary sword in the air. "When it's all over I wish I had the nerve
+to say, 'Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.'"
+
+She gathered that Adele had moved more closely to Judy, for she heard
+her voice from a new quarter of the room saying:
+
+"Is it true that you were dropped?"
+
+There was a moment's pause.
+
+"Whatever happened, Adele, it's over now and I am installed again and
+forgiven."
+
+"I thought you were being rather reckless, Judy. The rope ladder
+business was bad enough, but those ghost walks were really dangerous;
+really you went too far----"
+
+"I beg your pardon," interrupted Judy stiffly. "You are on the wrong
+track. I wasn't the campus ghost."
+
+"Now, really, Judy, my dearest friend," cried Adele, seizing both of
+Judy's hands and looking into her eyes with an expression of gentle
+toleration, "why can't you confide in me? After all our good times are
+you going to give me the cold shoulder? I know perfectly well that you
+were the ghost. Have I forgotten the night you planned the whole thing
+out? Anne White was there. I daresay she remembers it quite as well as I
+do. Of course, we thought you were enjoying yourself frightening the
+life out of people, but we wondered, both of us, how you dared. I
+remember you said how easy it would be to chase girls if they ran, and
+how easy to escape because you were the swiftest runner in college. Why
+are you trying to deceive your old partner? Especially as I happen to
+know that you had the rope ladder all that time. It would have been easy
+enough. Oh, I'm on to you, subtle, secretive Judy. You are a clever
+little girl, but I'm on to you."
+
+"What does she want?" Molly breathed to herself in the next room.
+
+"But I won't tease you any longer, dearest. I only wanted to let you
+know that I'm at the very bottom of the secret. I came to talk about
+other things."
+
+Molly breathed a long sigh.
+
+"Here it comes," she thought.
+
+Judy straightened up and prepared to hear the worst.
+
+"Have the Shakespeareans and the Olla Podridas had their yearly conclave
+yet about new members?"
+
+"So it's that," Molly almost cried aloud, waving her arms over her
+head.
+
+"We meet on Saturday," answered Judy doggedly.
+
+"You have a good deal of influence in that crowd, haven't you? I mean
+you can command a lot of votes?"
+
+"No, I can't command any," answered Judy.
+
+"Blackmailer," thought Molly.
+
+"I was thinking," went on Adele calmly, "that I would like to become a
+member of one or both those clubs. If I have to make a choice I would
+prefer the Shakespeareans, of course. Can't you fix it up?"
+
+"I'm afraid not, Adele. I can't manage it. I doubt if I could command
+any votes for you. You are mistaken about my influence."
+
+"Oh yes, you can. Now, Judy, think a minute, I'm asking you a very
+simple, ordinary favor. Think of what it means to me and--well, to you,
+too. I might as well tell you right now that I'm a good friend but a bad
+enemy. You promised me once to get me into one of those clubs. Do you
+remember?"
+
+"Yes," said Judy.
+
+"Well, why this sudden change? I expect you to keep your word. I am wild
+to be a member of the Shakespeareans," here Adele changed her manner and
+her voice took on a soft, persuasive tone. "You won't regret it, Judy,
+dearest, you'll be proud of having put me up. I have a real talent for
+acting. I have, indeed, and I shall be able to get stunning costumes."
+
+Judy twisted and squirmed and shrunk away like a bird being gradually
+hypnotized by a serpent--at least so it seemed to Molly peeping through
+a crack in the door.
+
+"I tell you it will be impossible," Judy was saying, after a pause, when
+Adele burst out with:
+
+"Those are unlucky words, Judy Kean. I'll make you sorry you ever
+spoke----" she stopped short off as Molly appeared in one door and Nance
+in the other, followed by Otoyo, Margaret and Jessie and the Williams
+sisters. Nance had evidently gone forth and gathered in the clan for
+Judy's protection. Molly was almost sorry they had come. It had been a
+good opportunity to say what had been seething in her mind for some
+time, and, on the whole, she decided she would say it anyhow.
+
+With a bold spirit and a scornful eye, she marched into the room and
+stood before the astonished Adele.
+
+"Miss Windsor," she said, and she hardly recognized her own voice, so
+deep and vibrant were its tones, "did you ever hear of snakey-noodles?
+Snakey-noodles! snakey-noodles! snakey-noodles!" she repeated three
+times like a magic incantation.
+
+Judy must have thought that she had suddenly lost her mind, for she
+glanced at her with a frightened look and the other girls with
+difficulty concealed their smiles. Edith, whose keen perceptions at once
+informed her that something was up, took a seat by the window where she
+could command a good view of the entire proceedings.
+
+Adele, looking into Molly's honest, stern eyes, shrank a little and
+started to rise.
+
+"No, I shan't let you go until I have finished," said Molly. "Whenever
+the spirit moves you to ask a favor of Judy again, just say the word
+snakey-noodles over several times to yourself and then I think you'll
+leave Judy alone. Now, you may go, and remember that people who tell
+malicious, wicked stories, who impersonate ghosts, steal luncheons and
+get other girls into trouble are not welcome at Wellington. This is not
+that kind of a college."
+
+It was, of course, a random shot about the campus ghost, but Molly put
+it in, feeling fairly certain that none but the daring Adele would have
+attempted that escapade.
+
+"Remember, too," she added, as a parting shot, "that girls don't get
+into clubs here by blackmail. Even if Judy had put you up, you wouldn't
+have had the ghost of a chance."
+
+Nobody was more interested than Edith in wondering what the strange
+Adele would do now. "Will she defend herself or will she fly?" Edith
+asked herself. But Adele did the most surprising thing yet. She burst
+into tears.
+
+"You have no right to speak to me as you did," she wept into a scented
+and hand-embroidered handkerchief.
+
+"Haven't I?" said Molly, drawing her gently but firmly to the door.
+"Well, go to your room and think about it a while and see if you don't
+change your mind." And with that she quietly thrust Adele into the hall,
+closed the door and locked it.
+
+Then, such a burst of subdued laughter rose within No. 5 as was never
+heard before. Molly collapsed on the sofa while the girls gathered
+around her. Judy sat on the floor, her head resting on Molly's shoulder.
+
+"It was as good as a play," cried Edith. "I never saw anything finer.
+Molly, you're certainly full of surprises. But what did you mean by
+snakey-noodles? Wasn't it beautiful?"
+
+Then Molly explained to them about the snakey-noodle box.
+
+"Of course, the rest was just wild guessing, but from the way she took
+it I'm pretty sure I'm right."
+
+"It was better than jiu-jitsu," said Otoyo. "It was, I think, the
+jiu-jitsu of language."
+
+They all laughed at this quaint notion, and Molly relaxed on the couch
+like a very tired young warrior after the battle.
+
+"Judy, you're foolish to be afraid of that girl," said Margaret sternly.
+
+"I'm not exactly afraid of her," answered Judy, "but you see it would
+have gone particularly hard with me just now to have her go to Miss
+Walker with that story about the ghost. It was true that one evening, in
+a wicked humor, I planned the whole thing with her and that little Anne
+who is just as afraid of her as I suppose I am. I don't think Miss
+Walker would have given me another chance. Everything would have been
+against me, the rope ladder and all the things I had said."
+
+"But then you could have proved an alibi," said Nance. "You were up here
+the night the ghost chased Molly and me."
+
+"So I could," Judy exclaimed. "I was so scared I forgot all about that
+night. There's something about Adele that makes you lose your senses.
+She leans over you and looks at you and talks to you in a hot, rapid
+sort of way. I just saw myself, after all the trouble everybody had
+taken with me, being sent away in disgrace. I didn't believe I could
+prove anything when she began talking. I just went under."
+
+"Well, don't you ever do it again," put in Nance.
+
+"Say 'snakey-noodles' the next time she comes at you," said Edith. "Oh,
+dear, that exquisite name," she continued, leaning back in her chair so
+as to indulge in a fit of silent laughter.
+
+"I can tell you another interesting bit about this Miss Windsor," here
+put in pretty Jessie. "Do you remember that shabby little woman in black
+who came down on the same train with Molly's Mr. Lufton?"
+
+"Nonsense," broke in Molly.
+
+"I remember her," said Judy. "Adele said she was a dressmaker, I
+believe."
+
+"Well, she told the truth for once. She is a dressmaker, but she happens
+to be Adele's mother, too."
+
+"Her mother," they gasped in chorus.
+
+"Yes. When Mama and I were in New York for the Christmas holidays, we
+were recommended to go to a French place called 'Annette's' for some
+clothes. There was a French woman named Annette who came out and showed
+us things, but the head of the establishment was Mrs. Windsor. And we
+saw Adele hanging around several times. We also saw Adele's father, very
+dressy with a flower in his buttonhole and yellow gloves. He smiled
+sweetly at me in the hall. The fitter told us secretly that Mrs.
+Windsor spent everything she made on Adele and Mr. Windsor."
+
+"What a shame," cried Judy, "and Adele throws money around like water."
+
+"No wonder she wears such fine clothes. I suppose Annette makes all of
+them."
+
+"Thank heavens, we're rid of her forever," exclaimed Molly. "It's not
+difficult to find a spot of good in the worst of people. There were
+Minerva Higgins and Judith Blount and Frances Andrews. I never did feel
+hopeless about them, but this Adele, who doesn't recognize her own
+mother--well----"
+
+"Ah, well," broke in Otoyo. "She is what we call in Japan 'evil spirit,'
+or 'black spirit.' She will not remain because there are so many good
+spirits. She will fly away."
+
+"On a broomstick," put in Edith.
+
+"But Minerva Higgins, there is some greatly big news about her. You have
+not heard?"
+
+"No," they cried. Otoyo had become quite a little news body among her
+friends.
+
+"She will not finish the course. She will be married in June to learned
+gentleman, a professor of languages of death----"
+
+"You mean dead languages," put in Molly, laughing.
+
+"Ah, well, it is the same."
+
+"That is why Minerva looks so gay and blushing," said Jessie. "I saw her
+this morning reading a letter on one of the corridor benches. I might
+have guessed it was a love letter from her expression of supreme joy."
+
+"I wonder if it was written in Sanskrit."
+
+"I suppose after they marry they will have Latin for breakfast, Greek
+for dinner and ancient Hebrew for supper," observed Katherine.
+
+"But the gold medals, what of them?"
+
+"They will be saved for Pallas Athene, and Socrates, and Alcibiades
+Plato, of course," said Edith.
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"Why, the children, goosie," and the party broke up with a laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE JUBILEE.
+
+
+Molly Brown, in a state of wild excitement, rushed into No. 5 one
+morning waving a slip of yellow paper in her hand.
+
+"They're coming," she cried ecstatically but vaguely.
+
+"Who?" demanded her two bosom friends from the floor where they were
+engaged in fitting a paper pattern to a strip of velvet much too narrow.
+
+"My brother and sister, Minnie and Kent. Isn't it glorious? They get
+here to-morrow morning to stay for the Jubilee. Oh, I'm so happy, I am
+so happy," she sang.
+
+"I'm so glad," said the two friends in one breath.
+
+"I'm getting rooms for them at O'Reilly's and they will arrive on the
+ten train. Isn't it lucky Mrs. O'Reilly is our bright, particular
+friend? We never could have got the rooms. Everything in the village is
+taken."
+
+The crowds had indeed come pouring into Wellington for the great Jubilee
+celebration for which every student at the college had been working for
+months past. And now, almost the first of May, everything was in
+readiness, the pageants, the costumes, the plays--all the splendid and
+complicated arrangements for an Old English May Day Festival. Judy, as
+she had planned on the opening night of college all those long months
+ago, was to be a gentleman of the court and was now engaged in
+constructing a velvet cape with Nance's assistance. Furthermore all the
+girls were to take part in the senior outdoor play to be given on the
+afternoon of the Jubilee celebration, and Molly, wonderful as it seemed
+to her afterward, had won for herself by excellent recitation the part
+of Rosalind. There had been many Rosalind competitors but Professor
+Green and the professional who had come down to coach chose Molly from
+them all.
+
+How they had practiced and rehearsed and worked over that play not one
+of the senior cast will ever forget. But now it was ready and the time
+was ripe for the grand performance. In two days it was to take place.
+
+The next morning, in response to the telegram, the three friends met
+Molly's brother and sister at the station. They were a good looking
+pair, as Nance pronounced them, but not the least like Molly. Minnie or
+Mildred Brown was as pretty as Molly in her way. She had an aquiline
+nose that spoke of family, brown hair curling bewitchingly about her
+face and a beautifully modeled mouth and chin. Kent was different,
+too--tall with gravely humorous gray eyes, his mouth rather large and
+shapely, his nose a little small--but he was very handsome and his
+manners were perfection. He took to Judy at once. She amused and
+mystified him and she volunteered after lunch to show him all the sights
+of Wellington. Another visitor at Wellington was Jimmy Lufton, who had
+come down to see the celebration regardless of work and expenses, and
+ordered Molly a beautiful bouquet of narcissus to be handed to her when
+she appeared as Rosalind.
+
+Molly introduced him to Kent and Minnie and the three were soon good
+friends and looking for the best places along the campus to see the
+sights, while Molly rushed off to attire herself for the morning as a
+Maypole dancer. Old Wellington presented a strange and unusual aspect on
+that beautiful May morning. Far back under the trees gathered the people
+of the pageant waiting for the cue to start the march. Carts drawn by
+yokes of oxen rumbled along the avenue, filled with rustics from the
+country, mostly freshmen dressed in all manner of early English
+costumes. There were shepherds and shepherdesses, maids of low and high
+degree. Gentlemen of the court and plow boys in smock frocks elbowed
+each other on the green. Booths had been set up of a seventeenth century
+pattern, where anachronisms in the form of modern refreshments were
+sold.
+
+Bands of singers and rustic dancers trooped by, jesters in cap and
+bells, page boys and trumpeters. A more animated and brilliantly colored
+scene would be difficult to imagine.
+
+Providence had smiled on Wellington's Jubilee and sent a glorious day
+for the May Day Festival. It was an early spring and everything that
+could do honor to the day had burst into blossom: daffodils that
+bordered the lawns of the campus houses nodded their delicate yellow
+heads in the morning sunlight; clumps of lilac bushes formed bouquets of
+purple and white and from an occasional old apple tree showers of pink
+petals fell softly on the grass.
+
+"It's almost as beautiful as Kentucky, Kent," observed Mildred Brown,
+and Jimmy Lufton laughed joyfully.
+
+"Almost, but not quite," he said. "In Kentucky there would be twice as
+much of everything, and, besides the elms, there would be beech trees
+and maples with a good sprinkling of walnut and locust."
+
+"Twice as many Mildreds, too," observed Kent. "But for my part I think
+the young ladies I have seen here are quite as pretty as the girls at
+home."
+
+"I think you'd have a hard time finding two to match Miss Molly and Miss
+Mildred," put in Jimmy, looking with admiration at the charming Mildred,
+dressed in a cool white linen, a broad brimmed straw hat trimmed with
+pink roses shading her face.
+
+"There's Miss Judy Kean," argued Kent.
+
+What would this young man have thought if at that moment he could have
+had a glimpse of the fair Judy dressed as a court gentleman in lavender
+satin knickers, a long cape of purple velvet, an immense cavalier hat
+with a great plume and over her shapely mouth a flaring yellow
+mustachio?
+
+And all of our other friends, how strange and unnatural they seemed.
+Their most intimate friends would scarcely have recognized them.
+Margaret was a fat, jolly Falstaff, stuffed out to immense proportions.
+Edith was entirely disguised as a jester and enjoyed her own quips
+immensely when she tapped a visitor on the shoulder with her bauble and
+said, "Good morrow, fair maid, art looking for a swain?"
+
+And now four little heralds advanced down the campus bearing long
+trumpets, antique in shape, on which the sun sparkled brilliantly. At
+the center of the campus they paused and blew four long resonant blasts
+and then cried in one voice:
+
+"Make way for their Majesties, the King and Queen, and all the Royal
+Court." And the pageant began to unwind its sinuous length along the
+campus lawn, and all the rustic players who formed the rabble fell in
+behind the royal personages and their brilliant train.
+
+It was really a wonderfully beautiful picture, one to be remembered
+always with pride by Wellingtonians and with pleasure by outsiders who
+had gathered by the hundreds on the lawn. After the pageant came the May
+pole dancers and the wandering musicians, the Morality Play and the
+rustic dances.
+
+There were hundreds of things to see. Mildred Brown, rushing from one
+charming performance to another, felt almost as if it really was an old
+English May Day Festival. The spirit of the actor rustics pervaded her
+and she was full of excitement and wonder at the whole marvelous
+performance.
+
+At last the entire company gathered in front of the now historic site of
+Queen's Cottage and there amid the shrubbery and the tall old forest
+trees the seniors gave their performance of "As You Like It."
+
+"I don't believe Marlowe and Sothern could do it a bit better,"
+exclaimed Mildred proudly. "Aren't they wonderful?"
+
+"Isn't Miss Molly wonderful?" said Jimmy Lufton.
+
+"Yes, indeed, I am proud of my little sister to-day, prouder than ever
+of her."
+
+A man in a gray suit fanning himself with a straw hat turned around and
+looked at Mildred curiously. His face was lined with fatigue, for nobody
+had worked harder than he over the Festival. But he was not too tired to
+be interested in Mildred Brown.
+
+"So they are the brother and sister," he said to himself. "And a very
+good-looking pair they are. I must try and meet them to-morrow. Ask them
+to tea in the Quadrangle. Miss Molly would like that, I think. But not
+that young Lufton," he added half angrily. "Not that young buccaneering
+newspaper fellow."
+
+"Professor Green," said Mrs. McLean, standing next to him, "I think we
+owe most of the success of this day to you. But how about that charming
+Rosalind? Did you train her to act so prettily?"
+
+"No," he replied, "I couldn't do that. It's in her already. One has only
+to bring it out."
+
+Among the flowers which were handed over the row of potted cedars to
+Molly after that charming performance was a big bunch of yellow
+daffodils, and tied to the yellow ribbon was a large yellow apple.
+
+"You've won your second golden apple to-day, Miss Molly, and I am proud
+of my pupil," read the card attached.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+FAREWELLS.
+
+
+The rest of the time until graduation was like a dream to Molly and her
+friends whose hearts were filled with a sort of two-pronged
+homesickness; homesickness for home and for Wellington, which now they
+were about to leave forever more.
+
+A great many things happened in the space that intervened between the
+first of May and the eighteenth of June, when graduation occurred. There
+were dances at Exmoor and dances at Wellington and the senior reception
+to the juniors. Then there were long quiet evenings when the old crowd
+gathered in No. 5 and talked of the future.
+
+It was on one of these warm summer nights that they were draped as usual
+about the couches in the mellow glimmer of one Japanese lantern. Judy,
+thrumming on the guitar, sang:
+
+    "'When all the world is young, lad,
+        And all the trees are green;
+      And every goose a swan, lad,
+        And every lass a queen;
+      Then hey for boot and horse, lad,
+        And round the world away;
+      Young blood must have its course, lad,
+        And every dog his day.
+
+    "'When all the world is old, lad,
+        And all the trees are brown;
+      And all the sport is stale, lad,
+        And all the wheels run down;
+      Creep home and take your place there,
+        The spent and maimed among:
+      God grant you find one face there,
+        You loved when all was young.'"
+
+"My, that makes me sad," said Jessie. "I feel that I've already lived my
+life and am coming back to old Wellington to die with a lot of other
+decrepit old persons who used to be young and beautiful."
+
+"Thanks for the compliment about looks," said Edith. "But I don't feel
+that way. I'm going forth to conquer. I am going to write books and
+books before I come home to die."
+
+"I'm going to write books, too," announced Molly meekly, "but I feel
+that I'm not ready to begin yet----"
+
+"You can't begin too young," interrupted Edith.
+
+"I know, but I'm coming back for a post grad. course in"--Molly
+hesitated, she hardly knew why--"in English and--and a few other things.
+I've got no style----"
+
+"What, are you really coming back?" they cried.
+
+"Nance and I have decided to return," replied Molly. "We are not ready
+to join the ranks yet, are we, Nance? Dear Nance is going to polish up
+her French literature. I'll be busy enough. I expect to do a lot of
+tutoring and other profitable work."
+
+"What shall I do?" groaned Judy. "I don't want to study any more, and,
+yet, how can I bear for you two to be at Wellington without me to bother
+you."
+
+Molly looked at her and smiled.
+
+"Remember, you are to come home with me this summer, Judy, and maybe
+you'll like Kentucky so well you'll want to stay there."
+
+Molly was well aware that her brother Kent had fallen in love with Judy
+at first sight, and it didn't occur to her that anybody could resist the
+charms of her favorite brother.
+
+"Margaret, why don't you come back?" asked Nance.
+
+"Not me," answered Margaret. "I hear the voice of suffrage calling!"
+
+"We all of us hear voices calling," broke in Katherine. "And each is a
+different voice according to our natures. Now Margaret's voice is
+soprano, but Jessie hears a deep baritone----"
+
+"Nothing of the sort," cried Jessie.
+
+"'Fess up, now, Jessie, when is it to be?"
+
+The girls all gathered around pretty Jessie and at last, hard pressed,
+she said:
+
+"When it does come off you'll have to assemble from the four quarters of
+the globe to act as bridesmaids, but the day's not set yet."
+
+"Have you decided on the man?" asked Edith.
+
+"Edith, how can you?" answered Jessie, laughing.
+
+"What are you going to do, Katherine?" asked Molly, when the excitement
+had quieted down.
+
+"Teach," answered Katherine bluntly. "I loathe the thing, but a place
+awaits me, so I suppose next winter will find me sitting behind a little
+table, ringing a bell sharply, and saying, 'Now, girls, pay attention,
+please.'" She turned her large melancholy eyes on her sister. "Edith
+thinks she's the only writer in the family, but in the intervals of
+teaching I intend to surprise her. I've already had one short story
+accepted by an obscure but _bona fide_ magazine which hasn't sent me a
+check yet."
+
+"Have you heard the joke on Katherine?" put in Edith.
+
+"Do tell," they cried, while Katherine said fiercely: "Now, Edith, you
+promised to keep that a secret."
+
+"It's too good to keep. She chose for the subject of her graduating
+essay 'The Juvenile Delinquent,' and got it all written and then it
+occurred to her that Miss Walker would announce 'The Juvenile
+Delinquent, Katherine Williams,' and she could not stand the
+implication."
+
+"Poor Katherine," they cried, laughing joyously.
+
+And now Molly was handing around nut cake and cloud bursts, it seemed
+almost for the last time, and after that these bright spirits in kimonos
+flitted away to their rooms.
+
+A little later, after darkness and quiet had descended, an ecstatic
+little giggle broke from Judy, lying alone and staring at the dim
+outline of her window. It was too soft a sound to disturb the tired
+sleepers in the adjoining rooms, but it meant that Judy had an idea,--an
+idea that she could see already realized by the aid of her remarkable
+imagination.
+
+Her mind had been reviewing the talk of the evening and revolving about
+each of the girls in turn;--Edith and Katherine and Molly, literary and
+ambitious; Nance, serious and studious; Jessie, pretty, romantic and
+destined for marriage; and Margaret, the able and willing champion of
+suffrage. And Judy had smiled as she began to recall certain hours when
+Margaret's enthusiasm had waxed high, even so far back as Freshman year,
+and her first class presidency. That thought had started others, and as
+Judy remembered various amusing incidents of the four years, her "idea"
+had flashed upon her. It was then that Judy had hugged herself and
+laughed aloud, but it was several nights later that she shared with the
+other girls her inspiration.
+
+They had gathered in Otoyo's little room that night,--just the eight
+close friends who now grasped every opportunity for one more good time
+together. They were a little inclined to sadness, for they had all been
+busy with those extra duties that point directly to the closing days of
+college life.
+
+Some had posed before the class photographer's camera, some had borne
+the weariness of having gowns fitted, and at least two had practiced
+their parts for the commencement exercises.
+
+Margaret and Jessie were humming the chorus of one of the Senior class
+songs and Otoyo was just beginning to make the tea, when Judy slipped
+out of the room with a word of excuse and a promise to return.
+
+Molly turned lazily to Nance who sat close beside her on the couch and
+whispered, "Judy is as nervous as a witch these days. She has probably
+thought of something to add to her list!"
+
+"Oh, that list!" returned Nance. "She has everything on it now from
+white gloves to a trunk strap, and still it grows!"
+
+"'Seniors, seniors, seniors,'" chanted Margaret and Jessie dreamily,
+watching Otoyo as she deftly arranged her dainty cups and saucers on
+beautiful lacquered trays.
+
+Edith and Katherine were quietly disputing some point about the class
+program and absent-mindedly accepting lemon for their tea, when the door
+opened and a woman draped closely in black stepped into the room.
+
+"Ah, ha, young ladies," she cried in a high, weird voice that startled
+them into instant silence, "so you would pierce the mysterious veil of
+the future and read in your teacups the fortune that awaits you? Could
+you but possess my occult vision, you would not need to employ such
+puerile methods."
+
+Here the somber figure raised two black-gloved arms and held before her
+eyes a pair of plain black opera glasses. She had reversed their usual
+position and now gazed steadily about the room through the large end of
+the glasses.
+
+"Ah, ha," she began again, fixing her roving attention upon Margaret,
+who returned her gaze easily, "I see far, far away, through a vista of
+crowded seats, a huge platform adorned with distinguished figures. A
+pretty woman stunningly gowned is introducing to a breathlessly
+expectant audience a tall, striking person. The plaudits of the
+multitude drown the sound of her name as it is announced, but our keen
+sight enables us to recognize the famous Miss Wakefield! To those who
+have long known her, it will not be surprising to learn that her
+companion is none other than her college satellite, now Miss
+Jessie,--but I cannot quite pronounce the unfamiliar name."
+
+As the voice stopped for a moment, Jessie started toward the strange
+figure, but Margaret pulled her back and drew her blushing face down
+upon her own shoulder.
+
+At the same time Molly cried, "Where have I seen those shabby old
+glasses before?"
+
+And Nance added, "My old bird glasses, or I'm blind!"
+
+Nothing daunted, the prophetess went on in the same weird key, "I see
+the gray towers of Wellington looming grandly against a wild autumnal
+sky. I see troops of girls crowding across the campus and into
+recitation rooms. I see a single figure walking beside the white-haired
+President as though discussing the schedule of lectures and the merits
+of students, and the figure is that of Miss Oldham,--dear old Nance!"
+And the voice of the soothsayer broke suddenly as she turned the glasses
+on Nance and Molly.
+
+Then she hurried on, "By forcing my keen vision to its utmost capacity,
+I am able to read upon certain profound text books the names of their
+joint compilers, Edith and Katherine Williams, the world-famed writers!"
+
+Again the voice paused as the glasses were leveled at the friendly
+disputants, long since quieted by the eloquence of the seer.
+
+All this time Otoyo had stood spellbound beside her teapot. Now she
+started slightly as the glasses glimmered in her direction.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no," she cried in real distress. "Don't tell me, please,
+Mees Kean!"
+
+At that, Judy flung the draperies back from her hair, the glasses to
+Nance, and her arms about Otoyo, exclaiming at the same moment:
+
+"You precious child, I don't know any more than your little Buddha does
+about your future, but the gods will be good to you and we'll leave it
+to them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE FINAL DAYS.
+
+
+Now as suddenly as she had tossed aside her head coverings, Judy dropped
+her long loose cloak upon the floor and stood revealed clad in motley
+raiment indeed. In an instant all that she had said was forgotten as the
+girls crowded around examining her curiously.
+
+"Why, Judy Kean, where _did_ you find that old necktie?" cried Molly, as
+she spied a long familiar article fastened at Judy's throat.
+
+"And my Russian princess muff!" exclaimed Nance. "It was hidden with my
+treasures at the very bottom of my trunk!"
+
+"And do I not behold my favorite Shelley?" chimed in Edith, seizing a
+book that dangled by a cord from Judy's waist.
+
+"And I--surelee it is my veree ancient kimono that hangs behind?"
+inquired Otoyo curiously.
+
+"I have it," announced judicial Margaret "Judy Kean is now a symbol. She
+represents _us_. Upon her noble person she carries the intimate
+souvenirs of our various stages of collegiate growth. Yea, verily, I
+recognize mine own."
+
+With that, Margaret tried to claim a gorgeous yellow pennant that
+flaunted its aggressive motto in a panel-like arrangement on Judy's
+dress.
+
+Judy dodged Margaret's attempt and lifting her hand dramatically
+exclaimed in oratorical tones:
+
+"You have guessed. I am indeed the spirit of our college days. I
+represent History, and the tokens that I wear mark the incidents of
+humor, pathos, and tragedy that were the crises in our young careers.
+You will pardon me, I know, when I tell you that I have rummaged
+reverently among your personal 'estates,' as Otoyo used to say, seeing,
+touching, disturbing none but the significant articles before you.
+Behold the history of these departing years!"
+
+As Judy swung slowly about before their interested eyes, something
+chinked and clinked gently, like glass meeting glass. Molly's long arm
+shot out and grasped the jingling articles. A not-to-be-suppressed shout
+broke forth as she displayed a china pig and a small bottle of
+blue-black fluid labeled "Hair-dye,--black."
+
+"Oh, Judy, Judy," cried Molly, "if you haven't discovered _another_
+Martin Luther, the ghost of the hero of my Junior days! Give him to me
+and I will feed him faithfully next year,--by the slow earnings of my
+pen, I will!"
+
+Meanwhile, Jessie was laughing over the tell-tale bottle of hair-dye,
+and secretly every one was rejoicing that Judy, too, could look back
+upon that supremely foolish escapade and laugh as heartily as any of
+them at her own expense.
+
+And now Nance claimed her muff,--the one survivor of the three
+cotton-batting masterpieces made for the skating carnival of Sophomore
+year,--and as she thrust her hands inside, they encountered a long, hard
+object. She drew it out and with a flourish waved above her head a
+clean, meatless but unmistakable ham bone!
+
+The laugh was directed toward Molly now, and to turn it again she
+exclaimed, "What do I see gleaming upon your finger, Judy Kean? Verily,
+upon the third finger of your left hand?"
+
+Immediately the girls joined in the cry, chanted like a deep-toned
+school yell, "Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!"
+
+"'Well, it was lent to me. It's not mine. I simply promised to wear it
+for a few months,'" quoted Judy, imitating Jessie's own protesting
+explanation so cleverly that even Otoyo recognized the source. "But it
+is only a five-cent diamond!" added Judy, shaking her head solemnly. "I
+might lose it, you know, and it would take more than a steely inspector
+to locate it in a man's deep coat pocket!"
+
+The girls cast sly glances at Molly, but she was intent on another
+discovery. Hanging under Edith's shabby copy of Shelley was her own
+beloved Rossetti! Instantly she forgot the girls and their fun and saw
+for one fleeting moment a series of quickly moving mental pictures.
+First there flashed before her that Christmas when Professor Green had
+given her the little volume. Then she saw herself in the cloisters lost
+in the beauty of "The blessed damozel," when he had appeared so
+unexpectedly. And finally she realized suddenly how much she loved the
+little worn volume and how she should always keep it to comfort and
+inspire her.
+
+"'_Come--back--to me, Sweetheart_,'" sang Judy teasingly, and Molly came
+back with a start, only just realizing that she had been day-dreaming.
+
+"What is this spiky thing that pricks through the folds of my aged
+sweater?" asked Katherine, who had recognized an old blue sweater that
+Judy wore draped from her waist like a pannier.
+
+"This," replied Judy, "is a bud that grew on a twig that grew on a bush
+that grew from the ground that marks the resting place of the ashes of
+Queen's, and to you, Katherine, as true historian of our noble class, do
+I present it."
+
+"In the name of futurity, I accept it," replied Katherine, not to be
+outdone in formality.
+
+"And now to appease the cravings of the inner man, permit me to share
+with you the contents of this hamper," continued Judy, opening a small
+basket that she carried on her arm. "Although not the original,
+lost-but-not-forgotten snakey-noodles, these are the best imitations
+that Madeleine Petit could make. And Molly the cook has contributed once
+more some of her justly famed cloud bursts, an indispensable exhibit in
+this unequaled historical collection!"
+
+Warm and breathless, Judy sat down and began to remove her borrowed
+plumes, while the girls, each holding aloft a snakey-noodle and a cloud
+burst, chanted appreciatively, "What's the matter with Julia Kean?
+_She's all right!_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Graduation at Wellington was old-fashioned and conventional. The girl
+graduates in white dresses filed onto the platform and took their seats
+in a semi-circle. Those who were so fortunate as to have relatives and
+friends in the large audience searched for their intimate features in
+the sea of upturned, interested faces. As glances met, smiles were
+fleetingly exchanged but quickly subdued on the part of the girls as the
+dignity of the day was borne in upon them anew.
+
+President Walker, never more sweet and womanly than in the formal attire
+demanded by her position, unconsciously inspired them all to imitate her
+fine simplicity and grace of manner. Tears sprang to the eyes of many
+girls as they looked at her and realized as never before that she had
+been the real center of all that had been best and most lasting in their
+college life. The girls who were to read essays, resolved that for the
+President's sake they would do well in spite of trembly knees and shaky
+hands. And of course they did, because in their determination to please
+Miss Walker and to reflect credit upon her and dear old Wellington they
+quite lost their paralyzing self-consciousness. The little buzz of
+pleased conversation that followed each number of the program as the
+applause died down was gratifying without doubt, but the students cared
+more deeply for the President's brief nod and smile of satisfaction.
+After the exercises came the diplomas, those strips of sheepskin for
+which our girls had striven so long and valiantly. It was almost a shock
+to clasp at last that precious token that had seemed so difficult of
+achievement in the far-away Freshman days. If to Molly it meant among
+other things value received for "two perfectly good acres of orchard,"
+to Nance it marked a milestone of happy progress; to Margaret, Edith and
+Katharine it represented an interesting bit of current history; and to
+Judy and Jessie it signified a safe haven after many narrow escapes
+from shipwreck.
+
+After the exciting day was over, came the class supper and then
+everybody did stunts. Edith read the class poem and Katherine was
+historian. Then the oldest girl and the prettiest girl and the class
+baby made speeches, and at the end came three cheers for Molly Brown,
+the most beloved in 19--; and Molly, trembling and blushing, rose and
+thanked them all and assured them that it was the greatest honor she had
+ever known; and they made her sit on the table while they danced in a
+circle around it, singing:
+
+    "Here's to Molly Brown,
+     Drink her down, drink her down, drink her down."
+
+Thus the four years at Wellington came to an end as all good things
+must, and the day for the parting arrived. The "Primavera" and the
+prayer rug were packed away in a box and shipped to Kentucky, because,
+after all, Molly might not return to Wellington. Who could tell what
+the fates had in store? Then came the good-byes. There were tears in
+their eyes and little choky sounds in their voices as they kissed and
+hugged and kissed again.
+
+Otoyo at that last meeting gave a present to each of the old crowd. She
+was smiling bravely, since it is not correct for a young Japanese lady
+to weep, and she kept reiterating:
+
+"I shall mees you, greatlee, muchlee. It will not be the same at
+Wellington."
+
+With Molly's gift, a little carved ivory box, Otoyo handed a letter.
+
+"I promised to deliver it on the last day," she said.
+
+"That sounds a good deal like the Judgment Day," said Molly, laughing,
+as she tore open the envelope. The letter read:
+
+    "The Campus Ghost and the Thief of Lunches has learned from you
+    what nobody ever told her before: that honesty's the best
+    policy. I suppose I always enjoyed the other way because I
+    never was found out. But being found out is different. Honest
+    people who have nothing to conceal are the happiest. I know that
+    now, and henceforth the open and above-board for me.
+
+    "Yours,
+      ADELE WINDSOR."
+
+Molly rolled the paper into a little ball and threw it away. Certainly
+the note of repentance did not sound very strong in Adele's letter. But
+perhaps it was only her way of putting it, and to be honest for any
+reason, no matter how remote from the right one, was something.
+
+"Anyhow, I hope she will think it's best policy to be nice to her poor,
+hard-working mother," she thought indignantly.
+
+But Adele had already passed out of the lives of the Wellington girls
+and none of them ever saw her again. She did not return to college to
+finish out the senior course, and the hoodoo suite was dismantled
+forever of her fine trappings and furniture.
+
+"I have one more good-bye to say, girls," said Molly to her friends a
+little while before train time. "I'll meet you at the archway."
+
+"You'll miss the train," called Nance.
+
+"And that would just spoil everything," cried Judy.
+
+The three friends had planned to travel as far as Philadelphia together.
+There Nance would leave them to join her father, and Molly and Judy
+would continue their journey toward Kentucky.
+
+But Molly was already running down the corridor, suitcase in one hand
+and jacket in the other.
+
+Down the steps she flew and out into the court toward the little door
+which opened into the cloisters. Another dash and she was knocking on
+Professor Green's door.
+
+"Come in," he called, and she flew into the room breathlessly.
+
+"I came to say good-bye again," she said. "I've only five minutes."
+
+"Sit down," he said, drawing up a chair.
+
+"I wanted to ask you," she went on, "if you wouldn't come to Kentucky to
+visit us this summer and--and see your property."
+
+"How do you know it would be convenient for your mother to have me?"
+
+"Because it is always convenient for mother to entertain friends, and
+this is really her very own suggestion. Our house is big and besides
+that we have an office outside with three bedrooms for overflow."
+
+The Professor looked thoughtful. Perhaps he was already forming a
+picture in his mind of the hammock beside the brook and the shady
+orchard, his orchard.
+
+"You will promise to come, won't you?" persisted Molly.
+
+"Do you really want me?" he asked.
+
+"Indeed, indeed I do."
+
+"Perhaps," he answered.
+
+"Good-bye, then," she said, "or rather _au revoir_," and they clasped
+hands while the Professor looked down into Molly's eyes and smiled.
+
+He moved to the door like a sleep-walker and held it open for her as she
+hurried out. Then he went back to his desk and sat down in a sort of
+trance. The next instant the door was flung open again, footsteps
+hurried across the room and two arms slipped over his shoulders.
+
+"Do you remember what I said I was going to do some time to that old
+gentleman who bought the orchard?" said Molly's voice over his head. "I
+said I'd just give him a good hug."
+
+For one instant the arms held him tightly, a cheek was laid lightly on
+his thin reddish hair and then she was gone, flying down the corridor.
+
+"I suppose she regards me as an old gentleman," he said resignedly,
+laying his hand softly on the spot where her cheek had touched.
+
+As for Molly, she had a sudden thought that almost stopped her headlong
+course:
+
+"What _would_ Miss Alice Fern think if she knew!"
+
+[Illustration: Good-bye to Wellington and the old happy days.--_Page_
+303.]
+
+The girls were calling impatiently when Molly reached the arch, and in
+three minutes the crowded bus moved down the avenue.
+
+"Good-bye! Good-bye!" called many voices.
+
+"Good-bye! Good-bye!" echoed the few students who were going to take a
+later train.
+
+Good-bye to Wellington and the old happy days! Good-bye to the
+Quadrangle and the Cloisters! Good-bye to all the dear familiar haunts
+and faces.
+
+Every one of the girls felt the hour of parting keenly, but to two of
+Molly's friends at least there came an additional pang. They had known
+no happier home; no other place held for them such close associations.
+Nance, pale and silent, and Judy, feverish and excited, turned their
+eyes lingeringly toward the twin gray towers. But Molly, her face
+transfigured by some secret happy thought, looked southward down the
+avenue toward Kentucky and home!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The class prophecy which Judy had extemporized on the evening of her
+appearance as "History" may have had some promise of fulfillment, but it
+will be remembered that Otoyo's timely interruption saved her from
+guessing at the most puzzling future of all. It remains, therefore, for
+"Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days" to reveal what Dame Fortune had in
+store for the girl of many possibilities, Molly Brown of Wellington and
+Kentucky.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+    +------------------------------------------------+
+    |Transcriber's Note:                             |
+    |                                                |
+    |The illustration with the caption "Molly Glanced|
+    |Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom ... was Running  |
+    |Behind Them--_Page_ 198." was not available for |
+    |inclusion in this ebook.                        |
+    +------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Senior Days, by Nell Speed
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Senior Days, by Nell Speed
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Molly Brown's Senior Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn
+
+Release Date: March 23, 2008 [EBook #24903]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SENIOR DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jacqueline Jeremy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
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+</pre>
+
+
+<h1 class="title">MOLLIE BROWN'S<br />
+SENIOR DAYS</h1>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="500" height="580" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="nh">
+<a name="you" id="you">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus-01.jpg" width="400" height="574" alt="" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;You&#39;re right in the fashion, Miss Brown,&quot; observed
+Adele.&mdash;<a href="#you2"><em>Page</em> 25</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<p class="title"><span class="title">MOLLY BROWN'S<br />
+SENIOR DAYS</span><br />
+<br /><br />
+<span class="by">BY</span>
+<br />
+<span class="author">NELL SPEED</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="books">AUTHOR OF "MOLLY BROWN'S FRESHMAN DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S
+SOPHOMORE DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS," ETC., ETC.</span><br />
+<br /><br /><br />
+<em><span class="illus">WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS<br />
+BY CHARLES L. WRENN</span></em><br />
+<br /><br /><br />
+<span class="pub">NEW YORK</span><br />
+<span class="pub2">HURST &amp; COMPANY</span><br />
+<span class="pub">PUBLISHERS</span></p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="title"><span class="copy">Copyright, 1913</span><br />
+<span class="copy2">by</span><br />
+HURST &amp; COMPANY</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+<th>CHAPTER</th>
+<th colspan="2">PAGE</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">I.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">Good News and Bad</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#i">5</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">II.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">A Troubled Sunday</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#ii">20</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">III.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">Gossip Over the Teacups</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#iii">38</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">IV.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Senior Ramble</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#iv">51</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">V.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">All's Well That Ends Well</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#v">66</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">VI.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Retort Courteous</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#vi">77</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">VII.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">A Stolen Visit</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#vii">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">VIII.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">Barbed Arrows</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#viii">104</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">IX.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Substitute</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#ix">114</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">X.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Polite Freeze-out</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#x">126</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XI.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Ways of Providence</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xi">138</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XII.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">Friendly Rivals</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xii">152</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XIII.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Drop of Poison</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xiii">164</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XIV.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">Judy Defiant</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xiv">180</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XV.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Campus Ghost</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xv">195</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XVI.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">On the Grill</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xvi">208</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XVII.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">A Christmas Eve Misunderstanding</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xvii">220</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">Two Christmas Breakfasts</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xviii">236</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XIX.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">Facing the Enemy</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xix">251</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XX.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Jubilee</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xx">267</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XXI.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">Farewells</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xxi">277</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="r">XXII.</td>
+<td class="l"><span class="smcap">The Final Days</span></td>
+<td class="r"><a href="#xxii">289</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<table summary="Illustrations">
+<tr>
+<th colspan="2">PAGE</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="ls">"You're Right in the Fashion, Miss Brown," observed Adele</td>
+<td class="rs"><a href="#you"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="ls">Before She Had Time to Realize the Danger, Jimmy
+Lufton Had Torn Off His Coat</td>
+<td class="rs"><a href="#before">132</a></td>
+</tr>
+<!--
+<tr>
+<td class="ls">Molly Glanced Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom&nbsp;...&nbsp;was
+Running Behind Them</td>
+<td class="rs"><a href="#molly">198</a></td>
+</tr>
+-->
+<tr>
+<td class="ls">Good-bye to Wellington and the Old Happy Days</td>
+<td class="rs"><a href="#good">303</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2 class="head"><a name="i" id="i"></a>Molly Brown's Senior Days</h2>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+CHAPTER I.<br />
+<br />
+<small>GOOD NEWS AND BAD.</small></h2>
+
+
+
+<p>Summer still lingered in the land when Wellington College opened her
+gates one morning in September. Frequent heavy rains had freshened the
+thirsty fields and meadows, and autumn had not yet touched the foliage
+with scarlet and gold. The breeze that fluttered the curtains at the
+windows of No. 5 Quadrangle was as soft and humid as a breath of May. It
+was as if spring was in the air and the note of things awakening,
+pushing up through the damp earth to catch the warm rays of the sun. It
+was Nature's last effort before she entered into her long sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Molly Brown, standing by the open window, gazed thoughtfully across the
+campus. Snatches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> of song and laughter, fragments of conversation and
+the tinkle of the mandolin floated up to her from the darkness. It was
+like an oft-told but ever delightful story to her now.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I ever be glad to leave it all?" she asked herself. "Wellington
+and the girls and the hard work and the play?"</p>
+
+<p>How were they to bear parting, the old crowd, after four years of
+intimate association? Did Judy love it as she did, or would she not
+rather feel like a bird loosed from a cage when at last the gates were
+opened and she could fly away. But Molly felt sure that Nance would feel
+the pangs of homesickness for Wellington when the good old days were
+over.</p>
+
+<p>All these half-melancholy thoughts crowded through Molly's mind while
+Judy thrummed the guitar and Nance, busy soul, arranged the books on the
+new white book shelves.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the other girls would come trailing in, the "old guard," to
+talk over the events of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> that busy first day: Margaret Wakefield,
+bursting with opinions about politics and woman's suffrage; pretty
+Jessie Lynch, and the Williams sisters whose dark lustrous eyes seemed
+to see beyond the outer crust of things. Last of all, after a discreet
+interval, would come a soft, deprecating tap at the door, and Otoyo Sen,
+most charming of little Japanese ladies, with a beaming, apologetic
+smile, would glide into the room on her marshmallow soled slippers.</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody's late," exclaimed Judy, unexpectedly breaking in on her
+friend's preoccupation. "I do wish my trunk were unpacked. I can't bear
+to be unsettled. It's the most disagreeable thing about the first day of
+college."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you go unpack it, then, lazybones?" asked Nance, a trifle
+sternly. As much as she loved her care-free Judy, she never quite
+approved of her.</p>
+
+<p>"How little you understand my nature, Nance," answered Judy,
+reproachfully.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know that people who pride themselves on having the artistic
+temperament never like to unpack trunks or do any kind of so-called
+menial work, for that matter. But there can be just as much art in
+unpacking a trunk as in a painting a picture&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ho, ho!" interrupted Judy, who loved these discussions with her
+serious-minded friend. "How would you like to engage for all your life
+in the immortal work of unpacking trunks?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never said anything about doing it always&mdash;" broke in Nance, when the
+argument was brought to a sudden end by the arrival of the other girls.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great noise of talk and laughter while they draped
+themselves about the room.</p>
+
+<p>College girls in kimonos never sit in straight-backed chairs. They
+usually curl themselves up on divans or in Morris chairs, or sit,
+Turkish fashion, on cushions on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what's the news?" they asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> Most of them had caught only
+flying glimpses of each other during the day.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait until I make my annual inspection," ordered Judy, carefully
+examining the fourth finger of the left hand of every girl. "No rings or
+marks of rings," she said at each inspection until she came to Jessie,
+who was endeavoring to sit on her left hand while she pushed Judy away
+with her right. "Now, Jessica, no concealments," cried Judy, "and from
+your seven bosom friends! It's not fair. Are you actually wearing a
+solitaire?"</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you it's my mother's engagement ring," Jessie protested, but
+Judy had extricated the pretty little hand on the fourth finger of which
+sparkled not one, but two, rings.</p>
+
+<p>"Caught! Caught, the first of all!" they cried in a chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"Honestly and truly I'm not."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks to me as if you had been caught twice, Jessie," said Molly
+laughing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, no, one of them is really Mama's and the other&mdash;well, it was lent
+to me. It's not mine. I simply promised to wear it for a few months."</p>
+
+<p>Jeers and incredulous laughter followed this statement.</p>
+
+<p>"We only hope you'll hold out to the end, Jessie," remarked Katherine in
+tones of reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"What, leave dear old Wellington and all of you for any ordinary, stupid
+man? I'd never think of it," cried Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not afraid," here put in Edith. "Fickle Jessica may change her mind
+and her ring half a dozen times before June. Who can tell?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not fickle where all of you are concerned, anyhow," answered Jessie
+reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a dear, Jessie," broke in Molly. She never did quite enjoy
+seeing other people teased.</p>
+
+<p>"Will some one kindlee make for me explanation of the word 'jubilee'?"
+asked Otoyo Sen, seated cross-legged on a cushion in the very center of
+the group, like an Oriental story-teller.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Jubilee?" said Edith. By an unspoken arrangement, it was always left to
+her to answer such questions. "Why jubilee means a rejoicing, a
+celebration."</p>
+
+<p>"There will be singing and dancing and feasting greatlee of many days
+enduring?" asked Otoyo.</p>
+
+<p>"It depends on who's doing the enduring," Edith said, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Wellington will be enduring of greatlee much rejoicing," went on the
+little Japanese. "For Wellington will give jubilee entertainment for
+fifty years of birthday, perhaps, maybe."</p>
+
+<p>Here was news indeed for seven seniors at the very head and front of
+college affairs.</p>
+
+<p>"And where did you get this interesting information, little one?"
+demanded Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo blushed and hesitated; then cocked her head on one side exactly
+like a little song sparrow and glancing timidly at Nance, replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Andrew McLean, second, he told it to me."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nance smiled unconcernedly. She never dreamed of being jealous of the
+funny little Japanese.</p>
+
+<p>"And why, pray, didn't Miss Walker announce it this morning at chapel
+when she made her opening address?" asked Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is for another veree sadlee reason," answered Otoyo, her voice
+taking on a mournful note. "You have not heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, what?" they demanded, bursting with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Edwin Green, the noble, honorable gentleman of English
+Literature, he is veree ill. You have not heard such badlee news? Miss
+Walker, she will announce nothing of jubilee while this poor gentleman
+lies in his bed so veree, greatlee ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Otoyo," cried Molly, her voice rising above the excited chorus,
+"is it really true? You mean dangerously ill? What is the matter with
+him?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He has been two weeks in the infirmaree with a great fever."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean typhoid?"</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo nodded. It was a new name to her. She had not had much to do with
+illness during her two years in America, but she remembered the dread
+name of typhoid. It had a sad association to her, for she had been
+passing the infirmary at the very moment when a black, sinister looking
+ambulance had brought Professor Edwin Green from his rooms to the
+hospital.</p>
+
+<p>Molly relapsed into silence. Somehow, the joy of reunion had been
+spoiled and she tasted the bitterness of dark forebodings. It came to
+her with unexpected vividness that Wellington would not be the same
+without the Professor of English Literature, whose kind assistance and
+advice had meant so much to her. Only a little while ago she had made a
+secret resolution to seek him in his office on the morrow for counsel on
+a very vital question. In plain words: how to avoid being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> a school
+teacher. And now this brilliant and learned man, by far the brightest
+star in the Wellington faculty, was dangerously ill. Molly felt suddenly
+the cold clutch of disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>The other girls were sorry but not really shaken or unnerved by the
+news.</p>
+
+<p>"The jubilee must be to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the new
+Wellington&mdash;" began Margaret, after an interval of silence. "Do you
+suppose&mdash;" she began again and then broke off.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose what?" asked the inquisitive Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing. It would seem rather unfeeling to put in words what I had
+in my mind. I think I'll leave it unsaid."</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence and again came that cold clutch at Molly's heart.
+She felt pretty certain that Margaret had started to say:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose, if Professor Green dies, it will interfere with the
+jubilee?"</p>
+
+<p>"If there is a jubilee," suddenly burst out Judy, who had been lying
+quite still with her eyes closed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> "if they do give it, we shall be at
+the head and front of it being seniors, and I already have a wonderful
+suggestion to make. Would it not be splendid to have an old English
+pageant? The whole college could take part in it. Think of the beautiful
+costumes; the lovely colors; the rustic dances and open air plays on the
+campus."</p>
+
+<p>Judy's eyes sparkled and her face was flushed with excitement. With her
+amazing faculty for visualizing, the spectacle of the pageant stretched
+before her imagination like a great colored print. She saw the capering
+jesters in cap and bells; ox carts filled with rustics; the pageant of
+knights and ladies and royal personages; the players; the dancers&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It would be too glorious," she cried, beside herself from her inflamed
+imagination.</p>
+
+<p>The other girls, unable to follow Judy's brilliant vision, watched her
+with amused curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you would remember that Professor Green was at his
+death's door before you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> began making plans for a jubilee," admonished
+Nance.</p>
+
+<p>But Judy, too intoxicated with her visions to notice Nance's reproof,
+continued:</p>
+
+<p>"They would have it in May, of course, when the weather is warm and
+everything is in bloom. First would come the pageant; then the king and
+queen and court would gather as spectators in front of all the various
+side shows; morality plays and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The picture had now become so real to Judy that her galloping
+imagination had leaped over every difficulty, as the hunter leaps the
+intervening fence rail. In a flash she had decided on her own costume,
+of violet velvet and silk&mdash;a gentleman of the court, perhaps&mdash;when
+Molly, sitting pale and quiet beside the window, suddenly remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Walker did look very serious this morning, I thought. Just before
+chapel I saw her in the court talking to Dr. McLean. She must have had
+bad news then."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Judy's inflated enthusiasm collapsed like a pricked balloon. She flushed
+hotly and relapsed into silence. Presently, after the others had
+departed to their rooms, she crept over to Molly and sunk on her knees
+beside her at the open window.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean to be such a brute, Molly, darling," she said. "I forgot
+about your being such friends with the Greens and I really am awfully
+sorry about the Professor. Will you forgive me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You foolish, fond old Judy," said Molly, slipping an arm around her
+friend's neck. "I only dimly heard your wanderings. I was so busy
+thinking of&mdash;of other things; sending out hope thoughts like Madeleine
+Petit. Poor Miss Green! I wonder if she knows. She has been in Europe
+all summer. I had post cards from her every now and then."</p>
+
+<p>Molly looked wistfully through the darkness in the direction of the
+infirmary. "I wish I knew how he was to-night," she added.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll go and inquire," cried Judy, leaping to her feet, eager to make
+amends for past offenses. She glanced at the clock. "The gate isn't
+locked until a quarter past to-night on account of the late train.
+There'll be time if I sprint there and back."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Judy," objected Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't interfere, and don't try to come, too. You can't run and I can,"
+and before either of the other girls could say a word, Judy was out of
+the room and gone.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what we are going to do about her, Molly," Nance observed,
+as soon as the door had slammed behind that impetuous young woman,
+"she's worse than ever."</p>
+
+<p>Molly shook her head silently. Suddenly she felt quite old and
+apathetic, like a person who has lost all ambitions and given up the
+fight.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll turn in, Nance. I'm tired to death."</p>
+
+<p>With silent sympathy, Nance turned down the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> cover of Molly's little
+white bed and laid out her night-gown.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed an incredibly short time when Judy burst into the room again,
+too breathless to speak, her face scarlet with running.</p>
+
+<p>"I just did make it," she gasped presently. "The night nurse said
+Professor Green was very ill, but that Dr. McLean was hopeful because of
+his strong constitution."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel hopeful, too. Thank you, Judy, dearest," said Molly, drawing the
+covers up over her shoulders while Nance turned out the light.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="ii" id="ii"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<br />
+<small>A TROUBLED SUNDAY.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was Sunday morning and Molly had been washing her head. She had
+spread a towel on the window-sill and now hung her hair out of the
+window that sun and wind might play upon her auburn locks.</p>
+
+<p>"I always heard it was better to dry the hair by the sun than by a fire;
+hot air dries up the natural oils," she observed to Nance in a muffled
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>Nance was engaged in the meditative occupation of manicuring her nails.
+As she rubbed them back and forth on a chamois buffer her thoughts were
+busy in far other fields.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied absently to Molly's observation. "I suppose you
+learned that from Judy's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> new friend," she added, coming back to her
+present beautifying occupation. "She'll be introducing rouge to us
+next," Nance went on in a disgusted tone.</p>
+
+<p>Molly smiled and gave her hair a vigorous shake in the breeze. In the
+bright sunlight it sparkled with glints of gold as if a fairy wand had
+touched it.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I didn't, really," she answered. "I read it on the beauty page of a
+Sunday paper, but I knew it anyhow instinctively before I read it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think her hair is naturally red," asked Nance, punching the dull
+end of her orange stick into a sofa cushion with unusual force.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose lots of people ask the same question about mine," Molly
+answered evasively.</p>
+
+<p>"Never," Nance asserted hotly. "I don't know much about the subject but
+I do know that no dyes have ever been invented that could imitate the
+color of your hair."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know it, Nance, dear?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, because so many people would dye their hair that color. There
+would be no more drab browns like mine, or rusty blacks or faded tans."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Nance, your hair is lovely. It's smooth and glossy and fine and
+thick. Has that girl been talking to you about your looks?"</p>
+
+<p>"They both have," admitted Nance. "They've got me to thinking I'm plain
+but would be greatly improved if I wore a rat and waved my bang and did
+my hair in a bunch of curls in the back like Jessie."</p>
+
+<p>"But Jessie's hair curls naturally," put in Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course, and mine doesn't. It would be a fearful nuisance, but
+one can't help listening to such talk when it concerns oneself. You know
+how Judy does run away to things, and there is something convincing
+about Adele's arguments."</p>
+
+<p>"She's very bright," admitted Molly. "What do you think she wants me to
+do, Nance? Something much worse than crimping."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There is no telling. Probably lather your face with that horrible
+white-wash stuff called 'Youthful Bloom,' Judy was telling us about."</p>
+
+<p>"No, worse still. She says my face is too thin and that I am getting
+lines from nose to mouth. She wants me to have it filled."</p>
+
+<p>Nance gave a wild whoop of derision.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you see Judy Kean's head being stuffed with such nonsense until
+it bursts?" she cried, breaking off suddenly as the door opened and Judy
+herself appeared on the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>"May I bring in a visitor?" she asked stiffly, feeling from the sudden
+stillness that her own name had been under discussion. "Nobody likes to
+have her name bandied back and forth even between intimate friends," she
+thought with some indignation. But Judy's little fly-ups never lasted
+long and when Molly called out hospitably: "Yes, indeed, delighted," and
+Nance said: "Certainly, Judy," her sensitive feelings immediately
+withdrew into the dark caverns of her mind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I've brought a <em>friend</em> up to see our rooms," Judy went on, putting
+special emphasis on friend.</p>
+
+<p>Judy had introduced a new member to the Old Queen's circle and while
+that body was only exclusive in the matter of intelligence and good
+breeding, and the new member seemed to meet both requirements, still the
+circle as a whole was not entirely agreeable to Judy's latest find.</p>
+
+<p>The new girl had a very grand sounding name, "Adele Windsor," and Judy
+was hurt when Edith Williams demanded if Adele was related to "The Widow
+of Windsor." Adele was certainly very handsome,&mdash;tall, with a beautiful
+figure, dark eyes and hair more red than brown.</p>
+
+<p>"She dresses with artful simplicity," Margaret had remarked, but hardly
+a girl in college had handsomer clothes than Adele Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody could cast aspersions against her intelligence, either. She had
+entered the junior class of Wellington as a special; which was pretty
+good work, in the opinions of our girls. If any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> name could be given to
+the objections they all secretly felt for Judy's new friend, it was that
+she was so excessively modern. She was a product of New York City; and
+so thoroughly up to date was this bewildering young person regarding
+topics of the day, from fashions and beauty remedies to international
+politics, that she fairly took the breath away even of such advanced
+persons as Margaret Wakefield.</p>
+
+<p>Adele now followed Judy into the room, and Molly, shaking back the hair
+from her face, bowed and smiled politely. Nance was not so cordial in
+her greeting. She had already prophesied what the history of Judy's
+friendship with this girl would be.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy will get terribly intimate and then awfully bored. I know her of
+old."</p>
+
+<p><a name="you2" id="you2"></a>"You're right in the fashion, Miss Brown," observed Adele, taking a seat
+near Molly and regarding her hair with admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the first time anybody ever said such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> a thing about me,"
+exclaimed Molly with a laugh. "I'm usually three years behind. Now, you
+couldn't mean this gray kimono, could you? Or maybe it's my pumps," she
+added. "I know low heels are coming back again." Thrusting out one of
+her long, narrow feet, she looked at it quizzically.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, it's your hair," replied Adele. "Red hair is the fashion now.
+You see it everywhere; at the theaters, in society, at the opera&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean everywhere in New York," corrected Nance.</p>
+
+<p>Adele smiled, showing a row of even white teeth. She was really very
+handsome.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, isn't New York the hub of the world?" put in Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Nance firmly. "Boston and San Francisco and Chicago and
+St. Louis are just as much hubs as New York&mdash;to say nothing of the
+smaller cities. Any place with telegraph wires and competent people at
+both ends can keep up with the times nowadays&mdash;&mdash;"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but what about the theaters and operas," Judy began hotly.</p>
+
+<p>"And clothes," added Adele softly, with a quick glance at Molly's old
+blue suit which had been well brushed and cleaned that morning and hung
+on the back of a chair to dry. Molly had not even noticed the glance.
+She was looking across the campus in the direction of the infirmary and
+at the same time forming a resolution to go over and inquire for
+Professor Green as soon as she could arrange her tumbled hair.</p>
+
+<p>But Nance had caught the slightly contemptuous expression in Adele's
+eyes and resented it with warm loyalty.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see what clothes have to do with it," she asserted. "Because in
+New York people look at one's clothes before they look at one's face, it
+doesn't follow that they are more advanced than people in other places."</p>
+
+<p>"New York only shows one how to improve one's clothes and one's face,"
+put in Adele calmly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nance felt somehow reproved by this elegant cold-blooded creature whom
+Judy had thrust upon them. And now Judy must needs take a flying leap
+into the discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"Nance, you are behind the times," she cried. "There is no excuse now
+for women to be badly dressed or plain. Even poor people can dress in
+taste and there are ways for improving looks so that the most ordinary
+face can be beautified."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you make little eyes big?" demanded Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly," said Judy.</p>
+
+<p>And it looked for a moment as if a quarrel were about to be precipitated
+between the friends, when Molly, glancing at Adele Windsor, began to
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"And all this because somebody said red hair was the fashion," she said,
+but she had an uncomfortable feeling that Adele was fond of starting a
+fight in order to look on and see the fun, and she wished in her heart
+that her beloved Judy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> had not taken up with such a dangerous young
+woman. She now tactfully changed the subject to the theater.</p>
+
+<p>Adele had signed photographs of almost all the actors and actresses in
+the country and could give interesting bits of personal history about
+many of them. Having launched the company on this safe topic, Molly
+seized the old blue suit and departed into her bedroom. Judy and
+presently Nance also were soon absorbed in an account of Miss Windsor's
+visit at the home of a famous actress. Molly, indeed, was careful to
+leave her door open a crack in order not to miss a word. After all, it
+was fun to live at "the hub," as Judy called it, and know great people
+and see the best plays and hear all the best music. But this stunning
+metropolitan person did make one feel dreadfully provincial and shabby.
+She wondered if Adele had noticed the shabby dress. Molly sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think clothes would interfere so much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> with my good times," she
+thought, "if only I didn't love them so."</p>
+
+<p>Then she resolutely pinned on the soft blue felt, which at least was new
+if not expensive, slipped on her jacket and returned to the next room.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see you at dinner, girls," she said. "Good-bye, Miss Windsor."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to dinner with Adele at Beta Phi," announced Judy.</p>
+
+<p>Adele occupied what the girls now called the "hoodoo suite" at Beta Phi.
+This was none other than Judith Blount's old apartment, afterwards
+sub-let to the unfortunate Millicent Porter.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall Nance and I call by for you on the way to vespers, then?" asked
+Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to vespers. You don't mind, do you, Molly?"</p>
+
+<p>Ever since they had been at college the three girls had kept their
+engagement for vespers on Sunday afternoons. They had actually been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+known to refuse other invitations in order to keep this friendly
+compact. And Judy was breaking away from what had come to be an
+established custom. Of course, it was just this once and absurd to feel
+disappointed, only Molly, glancing over Judy's head at Adele standing by
+the window, had caught a glint of triumph in her eyes. What was she
+after, anyway? Did she wish to wean the tempestuous Judy from her old
+friends? The two girls exchanged a quick, meaningful look.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll miss you, Judy," said Molly, and went into the corridor, closing
+the door softly behind her. Hardly had she reached the head of the
+staircase, when Judy came tearing after her.</p>
+
+<p>"You aren't angry with me, Molly, dearest?" she cried. "Adele and I have
+a wonderful scheme on hand. I'll tell you what it is some day. Don't you
+think she's perfectly fine? So handsome&mdash;so clever&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," answered Molly, trying to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> truthful. "I hope you'll
+have a beautiful time, Judy, but we'll miss you just the same,
+especially on the walk afterwards. Had you forgotten about the walk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, Molly, you are hurt," ejaculated Judy, who couldn't bear to be
+in anybody's black books, yet, nevertheless, desired to have her own
+way.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not, indeed, Judy. We can't tie ourselves to Sunday afternoon
+engagements. Nance and I wouldn't have you feel that way for anything."</p>
+
+<p>The stormy Judy, calmed by these assuring words, returned to her rooms,
+while Molly hurried downstairs and across the campus toward the
+infirmary.</p>
+
+<p>A number of people had gathered at the door of the hospital. Dr.
+McLean's buggy and a doctor's motor car waited outside. There was an
+ominous look about the picture that filled Molly with dark forebodings.
+Most of the people in the group at the door were members of the
+faculty,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> Miss Pomeroy, Miss Bowles and the Professor of French
+literature. They were talking in low voices. Dodo Green and Andy McLean
+leaned against the wall of the house, their hands thrust deep in their
+pockets, their faces the very picture of dejection. Molly began to run.</p>
+
+<p>"He's dead!" a voice cried in her heart. "Oh, Dodo," she exclaimed to
+the Professor's young brother, who had run out to meet her, "please tell
+me quickly what has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"The old boy's had a tough time, Miss Molly," said Dodo, struggling hard
+to keep his voice from breaking. "He had one of those infernal sinking
+spells about ten this morning. It was his heart, they say. It's been
+something awful, just a fight to keep him alive. But he's come through
+it. The doctor from Exmoor came over to help Andy's father." Dodo paused
+and gulped back his tears and Molly did not dare trust herself to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's walk a little way down the avenue," he said presently. "I feel
+all bowled over from anxiety and waiting around so long."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know, poor Dodo," said Molly sympathetically. "But he'll get
+well, now. I'm sure of it. The doctor said his fine constitution would
+carry him along."</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor was thinking of what Edwin used to be, say a year ago. The
+old boy has been overworking. The truth is," he added in a burst of
+confidence, "he got into debt somehow; borrowed money on prospects that
+didn't materialize, or something."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the thought of the comic opera came into Molly's head.</p>
+
+<p>"And he worked all summer without taking any vacation, night and day.
+Grace was abroad or she never would have allowed it. He just weakened
+his constitution until he was ready to take any disease that happened to
+be floating around."</p>
+
+<p>It was a great relief to Dodo's pent-up feelings to talk and he now
+poured out his troubles to listening, sympathetic Molly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Grace and I don't know what he wanted to use the money for&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe it was for the opera."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I know for a fact it wasn't that infernal old opera, though writing
+it was one of the things, that pulled him down. But the debt's all paid
+now and the good old boy is lying at death's door as a result. By the
+way," he added, drawing a key from his pocket, "Sister wants me to get
+something out of Edwin's office on the cloisters. Will you come with me,
+Miss Molly? There are such a lot of girls always in the court on
+Sunday."</p>
+
+<p>"I only wish I could do more for you, Dodo," answered Molly, as the two
+young people hastened across the campus.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you know as much about the old boy's office as I do, Miss
+Molly," said Dodo opening the study door. "I'm glad you came along to
+help me find what I am looking for."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you looking for?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever see a blue paper weight on his desk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. Lots of times."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's just what he wants. He's got a sort of delirious notion in
+his poor old head that he'd like that blue paper weight. It's enough to
+make a strong man shed tears, and he's so weak he couldn't pick up a
+straw. Alice Fern brought it to him from Italy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Molly.</p>
+
+<p>They found the blue paper weight in one of the drawers of the desk and
+Dodo thrust it into his pocket. There was a strong smell of over-ripe
+apples in the office and Molly presently discovered two disintegrated
+wine saps in the Japanese basket on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"We'd better take these," she said, seizing one in each hand and
+following Dodo into the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>The young people parted in the arcade and Molly went into the library
+and hid herself in one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> of the deep window embrasures with a book she
+only pretended to be reading. That afternoon the Reverend Gustavus
+Larsen repeated the prayers for the sick, and Molly in a far back pew
+hoped that Nance could not see the tears that trickled down her cheeks.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="iii" id="iii"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<br />
+<small>GOSSIP OVER THE TEACUPS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The gloom that had been hanging over Wellington since Professor Green's
+illness gradually lifted as the young man steadily improved. Each
+morning Molly received the latest news from one of the nurses. Miss
+Grace was never visible. She was sitting up at night with her brother
+and slept during the day. One morning Molly encountered not the day
+nurse but Miss Alice Fern in the hall of the infirmary. She was dressed
+in white linen and might have been taken for a post-graduate nurse
+except that she wore no cap. Miss Fern had a cold greeting for Molly,
+and for Judith Blount, also, who presently joined them.</p>
+
+<p>"Edwin is much better," she informed them.</p>
+
+<p>"He is seeing people now, isn't he?" asked Judith eagerly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Miss Fern stiffened.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she answered, "only me&mdash;and his brother and sister, of course."
+She added this as an afterthought. "It will be many weeks before he is
+allowed to see any of the Wellington people. The doctor is particularly
+anxious for him not to be reminded of his work. Excitement would be very
+dangerous for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that what the doctor says or is it your verdict, Alice?" put in
+Judith, who had small liking for the Professor's cousin on the other
+side of the family.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm in entire authority here," answered Miss Fern in such a hostile
+tone that Molly felt as if they had been accused of forcing their way
+into the sick room. "I am nursing during the day in conjunction with the
+infirmary nurse."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you wear a cap, Alice?" asked Judith tauntingly. "It would
+make you look more like the real thing."</p>
+
+<p>With a hurried excuse, Molly hastened out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> the hall. It went against
+her grain to be involved in the quarrels of Alice Fern and Judith
+Blount. She was walking rapidly toward the village when she heard
+Judith's voice behind her calling.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, and I'll walk with you. I see you're going my way. I had to stay
+and give a last dig to that catty Alice Fern," she added breathlessly,
+catching up with Molly.</p>
+
+<p>Molly smiled. She didn't know but that she agreed with Judith, but it
+was not her way to call people "cats."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad you arranged to take the post-grad., Judith," she began as
+they started down the avenue.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it great?" answered Judith exultantly. "It's all Madeleine's
+doing, you know. We've had a wonderful summer, Molly. Almost the first
+summer I can remember when I wasn't bored."</p>
+
+<p>"What have you two been up to?" Molly asked with some curiosity. The
+cloak of enthusiasm was a new one for Judith to wear and it was very
+becoming to her, Molly thought.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We've been making money," Judith announced with sparkling eyes. "I've
+made almost enough to carry me through another year here."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness," Molly thought, "how the world does change. Think of the
+proud Judith working and then telling me about it, me whom she used to
+detest!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's been jolly fun, too, and I didn't mind the work a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you made a great deal," remarked Molly, not liking to ask too
+many questions but burning to know how money had been made by a girl who
+had once stamped her foot and declared she would never work for a
+living.</p>
+
+<p>"A friend of brother Richard's, an actor, lent him his bungalow on the
+coast for the summer, and Mama and Madeleine and I spent four months in
+it, with Richard down for the week-ends. It was a pretty bungalow with a
+big living-room and a broad piazza at the back looking right out to sea,
+and Madeleine conceived the notion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> of opening a tea-room there. Richard
+was willing and so was Mama and we started in right away. Madeleine had
+all sorts of schemes for advertising in the post office and at the
+general store, and at last we had a sign painted and hung out in front
+on a post. The coast road goes by the house and streams of automobiles
+are passing all day long, so that we began to have lots of customers
+immediately. I don't know how it happened, but it was a sort of
+fashionable meeting place for all the people in the neighborhood. Pretty
+soon we had to buy dozens of little blue teapots and crates of cup and
+saucers and plates. Even Mama helped with the sandwiches and Richard,
+too, when he could come down. But you should have seen Madeleine. Every
+afternoon she put on a cap and apron and turned waitress. She served
+everybody. She was the neatest, quickest, prettiest little waiting maid
+you ever saw. Mama and I worked in the kitchen filling orders. Sometimes
+the sandwiches would give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> out and then Mama and I and Bridget, our
+Irish maid who has stayed with us through everything, would slice bread
+like mad. Madeleine knew dozens of different ways of making sandwiches.
+We used to make up dishes of fillings ahead of time and keep them on
+ice. Sometimes at night we were so tired we'd simply fall into bed, but
+we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams and we had a splendid time in
+spite of the hard work."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are wonderful," cried Molly. "I should never even have
+hoped to make anything like that go."</p>
+
+<p>"It's Madeleine who is the wonder," broke in Judith loyally. "She has
+the brains and energy of a real genius."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you down at O'Reilly's this winter? I haven't seen either one of
+you to speak to before."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, we have the same old rooms. I'm working up in two or three
+different subjects and taking a course in physical culture with a view
+to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> teaching it. You know, we are going to open a school, Madeleine and
+I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" demanded Molly, filled with interest in her old-time enemy's
+schemes.</p>
+
+<p>"We don't know yet. It may be in the South. Madeleine has two more years
+here. I shall go to Paris next year for a course at the Sorbonne, so
+that I shall be up in French by the time we are ready to start."</p>
+
+<p>Molly was almost too amazed over the change Madeleine had wrought in
+Judith to comment politely on the glowing future Judith mapped out for
+herself. She recalled how Judith had once insulted the little Southern
+girl at a Sophomore ball, and she remembered how Madeleine had said: "I
+shall make a friend of her, yet. You'll see."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could make plans and stick to them," Molly thought. "How can I
+ever get anywhere when I don't even know where I want to get? If I am
+not to teach school, then what am I to do?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Many times a day Molly asked herself this question. There were times
+during the summer when she heard the call still infinitely far away to
+write, and on hot afternoons when the others were napping she would
+steal down to the big cool parlor with a pencil and pad. Here in the
+quiet of the darkened room, with strained mind and thoughts on tiptoe
+for inspiration, she would try to write, but the stories were crude and
+childish. Sometimes she would read over Professor Green's letter of
+advice about writing. "Be as simple and natural as if you were writing a
+letter," he had said, and her efforts to be natural and simple were
+invariably elaborately studied and self-conscious.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why I want to do what I can't do," she would cry with
+despair in her heart, and then the next day perhaps she would try it
+again.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that Molly had a feeling of unrest that was quite new to her.
+It was like entertaining a stranger within the gates to admit this
+unfamiliar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> spirit into her mind. And now, as she parted with Judith
+with a friendly handclasp, she felt the dissatisfaction more keenly than
+ever before.</p>
+
+<p>Her errand in the village that afternoon was really to call on Mrs.
+Murphy, who, you will recall, was once housekeeper for Queen's. For many
+months the good soul had been laid up with rheumatism and for the sake
+of old times the Queen's girls plied her with attentions. The Murphys
+now lived in a small cottage near the depot and they were exceedingly
+poor, since the office of baggage-master brought in only a small pay.
+But Mrs. Murphy, crippled as she was, her fingers knotted at the joints
+like the limbs of old apple trees, managed to keep her rooms shining
+with neatness.</p>
+
+<p>"And it's glad I am to see you, Miss," exclaimed the good woman, much
+aged since the days at Queen's.</p>
+
+<p>She led Molly through a little hallway into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> kitchen opening upon a
+small garden now bright with rows of cosmos, graceful and delicate in
+color, and brilliant masses of vari-colored, ragged chrysanthemums.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the little Japanese lady that's tended my garden for me all
+summer, Miss. She may be a haythen, but she's as good as gold. Our
+Blessed Mother herself could not have been kinder."</p>
+
+<p>Molly's heart was filled with admiration for Otoyo, who instead of
+moping about by herself all summer had been making herself useful.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm ashamed," she thought. "Madeleine and Judith and Otoyo all make me
+feel awfully ashamed."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Mrs. Murphy had spread a cloth on the little kitchen
+table and laid out her best cups and saucers. It was her heart's delight
+to drink tea with the young ladies.</p>
+
+<p>"And how is the poor gintleman, Mr. Edwin, I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's getting better every day, Mrs. Murphy."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And I'm that glad to hear the news. It would have been a sad day for
+the poor young lady if she had lost him&mdash;though, may the Howly Mother
+forgive me for saying it, she's not good enough for the loikes of him,
+I'm thinkin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me pour the tea for you, Mrs. Murphy," Molly interposed, taking the
+blue teapot out of Mrs. Murphy's crippled hands after it had been filled
+with boiling water. "What young lady did you say it was?" she asked
+presently, her eyes on a tea leaf swirling round and round in her cup.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis Miss Fern, the gintleman's cousin, and they do say they're to be
+married before spring. I'm not for sayin' she ain't pretty, Miss. She's
+prettier than most and she's kind to the gintleman. Oh, you may be sure
+but she's got a different set of manners for him! And the day she had
+tea here with little Miss Sen and the Professor, she was all graces, to
+be sure. But another day she was here to meet him and little Miss Sen
+brought the message he could not come. It was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> regular spitfire she
+was that day, Miss, and no mistake."</p>
+
+<p>So that was why the Professor had wanted the blue paper weight. Perhaps
+there was some reason in his delirium after all.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen her, Miss?" asked Mrs. Murphy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," answered Molly. "I think she is very pretty. May I look at
+your garden, Mrs. Murphy? Dear little Otoyo, I can see her working out
+here in the flowers. Don't you just love her, Mrs. Murphy?"</p>
+
+<p>But the Irish woman had gone into the next room to get an old pair of
+shears.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take it as a favor, Miss Molly, if you'll cut two bunches, one for
+yourself and one for the Professor, God bless him and the Saints
+preserve him for strength and happiness; though I ain't sayin' I wish
+him to be preserved for Miss Alice Fern, pretty though she be."</p>
+
+<p>When Molly appeared at the hospital some half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> an hour later she made a
+picture the infirmary nurse would not soon forget.</p>
+
+<p>"These are for Professor Green from Mrs. Murphy," Molly said, giving the
+nurse the largest half of the bunch.</p>
+
+<p>The nurse gave her a long quizzical look. She was new at Wellington and
+not familiar with the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you Miss Molly Brown?" she asked suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," answered Molly, surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," said the nurse, and departed before the astonished Molly
+could say another word.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="iv" id="iv"></a>CHAPTER IV<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE SENIOR RAMBLE.</small></h2>
+
+<div class="con">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Ramblers, ramblers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Ramblers all are we:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Life is gay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Life is free,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rambling all the day.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"When the sun sinks to his rest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Our rambling days are gone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seniors, Seniors,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Sound the call!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Back to Wellington!"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Did you put in the olives?" some one cried over the confusion of
+singing and talking.</p>
+
+<p>"Do be careful of the stuffed eggs. It would be a shame to ruin an hour
+and a half of hard work."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell the man to wait. I forgot my tea basket."</p>
+
+<p>"Haste thee, nymph," called Edith Williams,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> after the fleeing Judy.
+"And bring your volume of Shelley along, there's a dear. I forgot mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring my sweater," Nance called.</p>
+
+<p>Already the van load of girls in front was moving down the avenue, while
+the crowd in the second van waited impatiently for Judy's return. The
+two big vehicles were decorated with lavender and primrose, the class
+colors, for this was the day of the Senior Ramble, and the whole class
+was off for the woods.</p>
+
+<p>At last Judy appeared, laden with many things&mdash;a tea basket, a book, her
+camera and two sweaters; also a brass trumpet.</p>
+
+<p>"Who says I'm not good-natured?" she exclaimed, handing up the articles
+and clambering into the vehicle. "I'm the kindest soul that ever lived."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you feel that way about it, Juliana. It must be a sweet
+personal satisfaction," remarked Edith, seizing the book and thrusting
+it into the pocket of her ulster.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The seniors were to ramble in Fern Woods that year, so-called not
+because of the superabundance of ferns, but because they were a part of
+the estate of Major Fern, father of Alice Fern. The Major had no
+objections to the students of Wellington and Exmoor using his woods for
+picnics, but the Exmoor boys were not given to such excursions and it
+was a long drive from Wellington, six miles over a rough road. However,
+Fern Woods it was to be this time, and away went the two vans, Judy
+blowing her trumpet with a grand flourish as they passed out of the
+Wellington grounds.</p>
+
+<p>The Ramble was always the occasion for the most childish behavior among
+the seniors; a last frenzied outburst, as it were, before putting away
+childish things for all time and settling down to the serious work of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>And now the seniors in the first wagon stood up and began singing back
+to the girls in the second wagon:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="con">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Seniors, do you hear the call?<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Great Pan has blest the day.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Heed the summons, one and all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>Voulez vous danser?</em>"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>The seniors behind answered:</p>
+
+<div class="con">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"We will make the welkin ring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>Voulez vous danser?</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sound the trumpet, shout and sing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>Voulez vous danser?</em>"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"I think this should be called the 'Senior Rumble,' and not ramble,"
+some one said, as the wagon groaned and creaked on the hilly road.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with 'Grumble'?" asked Mabel Hinton.</p>
+
+<p>But there was no real grumbling, although the six miles that lay between
+Fern Woods and Wellington included some rough roads. They were jolted
+and shaken and tumbled about and there were shrieks of laughter and
+cries of "Wait, wait! I'd rather walk!" But the stolid driver went
+calmly on without taking the slightest notice.</p>
+
+<p>"One would think we were a lot of inmates in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> a crazy wagon," cried
+Molly, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>A box of salted nuts had come open and the contents were scattered all
+over the bed of the wagon, and some apples had tumbled out of a hamper
+and were rolling about under people's feet.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had known&mdash;if I had only known that this was going to be the rocky
+road to Dublin, wild horses couldn't have dragged me," cried Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>At last after a time of infinite confusion the wagons drew up at the
+edge of a forest and there was sudden quiet in the noisy company. It was
+as if they stood at the threshold of a great cathedral, so still and
+majestic were the woods. Through the dense greenness of the pines there
+was an occasional flash of a silver birch. The scarlets and yellows of
+oak and maple trees gleamed here and there, making a rich background for
+the somber company of pines.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was worth it! It was worth it," exclaimed the seniors, now that the
+worst was over.</p>
+
+<p>The class had divided itself into three "messes" for lunch. After lunch
+it was to assemble in a body, sing the class songs to be bequeathed to
+the juniors, and do the class stunts which were familiar enough to all
+of them now. And first of all, by the unwritten law of custom, the
+seniors were to spend an hour communing with nature. This constituted
+the "Ramble." Judy had been delegated by the Ramble Committee to blow a
+blast on her trumpet when the time came to eat. In the meantime the
+drivers had taken themselves and their wagons down the road two miles to
+a small village where they were to rest and refresh themselves with food
+until half past four o'clock, when they were to return for the rambling
+seniors.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that the three hampers of food were deposited in a safe and
+secluded spot under some bushes and left unguarded while everybody went
+off for the ramble.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Of course all this had been planned weeks ahead of time by the committee
+and the destination kept a profound secret, according to the traditions
+of the school.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the last unsuspecting senior disappeared in the pine woods,
+when a motor car rounded the curve in the road and stopped at the signal
+of an individual in a long dark ulster and a slouch hat well down over
+the face, who had leaped out from behind a clump of bushes on the other
+side of the road. Two other persons similarly disguised now jumped out
+of the car, leaving the chauffeur quietly examining the speedometer and
+seeing nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where they put them?" whispered one.</p>
+
+<p>The other did not reply, but led the way at a run to the clump of bushes
+where the hampers had been left. In five minutes the three thieves, for
+such they certainly were, had stored the hampers on the floor of the
+car. Then they jumped in themselves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go ahead!" cried the thief on the front seat, and presently the motor
+car was a mere speck in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the unconscious seniors rambled happily on. There were
+places to visit in the woods: a beautiful spring that bubbled out of the
+side of a rock and broadened into a basin below; an old log cabin, long
+since deserted and open to the weather, and last of all, "Charlie's
+Oak." Half a century ago, an Exmoor boy had hanged himself on this tree.
+Another Exmoor boy, many years later, had carved a cross on the tree and
+by that sign and others learned from Exmoor boys, they finally found the
+gruesome spot.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did he do it?" asked Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"It was never told," answered Nance, who had learned all there was to
+know concerning the tragedy from Andy McLean.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor boy," cried Molly, seeing in her mind a picture of the body
+dangling from a lower limb<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> of the old oak. "Let's make him a garland of
+leaves," she proposed, "just to signify that we are sorry for him."</p>
+
+<p>The whole class now assembled at Charlie's Oak and proceeded to gather
+branches of autumn leaves. With the aid of a handkerchief and a ribbon,
+these were arranged in the semblance of a large wreath. On the fly leaf,
+torn from the volume of Shelley, Judy wrote:</p>
+
+<p>"In memory of poor Charlie. May his soul rest in peace. Class of 19&mdash;,
+Wellington."</p>
+
+<p>The wreath was laid against the tree and the inscription secured with a
+pin stuck into the bark. Then the Class of 19&mdash;Wellington went on its
+way rejoicing, never dreaming of the reward the wreath of autumn leaves
+was to bring them. Perhaps the restless spirit of poor Charlie felt
+grateful for the sympathy and whispered into the ear of somebody&mdash;at any
+rate, luck came of the incident of the wreath.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after this, seniors roaming about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> the woods heard the blast of
+Judy's trumpet. It was still too early for lunch and they felt
+instinctively that it was a call to arms. Presently wandering classmates
+came running up from every direction like a company of frightened
+nymphs.</p>
+
+<p>Just about this time an old gentleman, strolling down the wood path,
+paused at Charlie's Oak. He was a very youthful looking old man, his
+cheeks as ruddy as winter apples and his blue eyes as clear and bright
+as a boy's. He carried a cane which he used to toss twigs from his path.
+Two Irish setters followed at his heels sniffing the ground trodden down
+a little while before by the feet of numerous Wellington maids.</p>
+
+<p>"Ahem! What's this?" remarked the old gentleman aloud, fitting his
+glasses on his nose and leaning over to examine the wreath. Then he
+released the inscription from the pin and carefully read it twice,
+replacing it afterward just over the wreath. Baring his head, he stood
+quite still under the limb for so long a time that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> impatient dogs
+trotted off down the path, and then came back again to look for their
+master.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Charlie," repeated the old man. "May his soul rest in peace." With
+a sigh he put on his hat and started slowly down the path. "Poor
+Charlie, poor old Charlie," he was still saying, when he found himself
+on the edge of a company of very indignant and excited young women.</p>
+
+<p>"This must be the Class of 19&mdash;Wellington," he was thinking as he turned
+to go the other way, when Margaret Wakefield in the very center of the
+crowd thundered out:</p>
+
+<p>"It's an outrage! A miserable, cowardly trick!"</p>
+
+<p>Some of the girls were actually crying; others looked grave, while still
+others conferred together in low indignant tones.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon, young ladies, has anything serious happened?" asked the
+old gentleman, lifting his hat politely.</p>
+
+<p>There was a complete silence at this unexpected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> interruption, and then
+Margaret, ever the spokesman of her class, replied in a suspiciously
+tearful tone of voice:</p>
+
+<p>"We've been robbed, sir. Somebody has stolen our luncheon."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear!" murmured the old gentleman, looking from one face to
+another with real sympathy, "dear, dear! but that was an unkind
+trick&mdash;and quite a large meal, too, I imagine," he added, noting the
+size of the company.</p>
+
+<p>"Three hampers full," cried one girl.</p>
+
+<p>"And we had worked so hard over it," cried another.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this the Class of 19&mdash;Wellington?" asked the old gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. We were giving the Senior Ramble."</p>
+
+<p>"And while you were rambling thieves came and robbed you, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are disgraced," ejaculated Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose tramps could have done it?" Jessie asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It would have been difficult to dispose of three hampers full,"
+answered the old gentleman. "A tramp would have helped himself to what
+he could carry and nothing more."</p>
+
+<p>"Could it have been Gypsies?" suggested Judy, fired with the romantic
+notion.</p>
+
+<p>The old gentleman shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I think the thieves rode in a motor car," he said. "As I crossed the
+road some little time ago I saw one waiting there for no apparent
+reason. I hardly noticed who was in it. Perhaps it was some of your own
+classmates. In my day the boys used to play tricks like that, worse
+ones, even. Exmoor was a lively place fifty years ago."</p>
+
+<p>The old gentleman sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"Wellington girls play tricks, too, sometimes, but not such mean ones,"
+put in Margaret. "Once a girl cut the electric light wiring during an
+entertainment in the gym. But even that wasn't so low as this: making a
+crowd of people go hungry."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see," answered the old gentleman. "Well, that is scarcely to be
+mentioned in the same breath with cutting wires." He paused a moment and
+dug into the ground with the end of his cane thoughtfully. "Young
+ladies," he said presently, "would you do an old Exmoor boy the honor of
+lunching with him to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how kind!"</p>
+
+<p>"So many of us?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's too much," a dozen voices answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. There could not be too many of you. I am Major Fern. I live
+down the road a bit. You can find the house by the big iron gates
+opening onto the avenue." Major Fern looked at his watch. "It's now a
+little past twelve. May I expect you at a quarter past one? Mrs. Fern
+will be delighted. There are&mdash;how many of you?"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret told him promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"That's as small as an Exmoor class," he observed. "An unusually small
+class. But&mdash;I've<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> heard of you from Miss Walker&mdash;an unusually bright
+one, I understand. It will be a great pleasure to entertain so many
+charming young ladies at once."</p>
+
+<p>The girls were almost speechless with surprise and gratitude. Even
+Margaret was for once reduced to a state of shyness.</p>
+
+<p>"We are very grateful to you, Major Fern," she said, after some
+hesitation, "and if you are sure it is not too much of an imposition, we
+accept with pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>So it was that Charlie's Oak was the indirect means of bringing the
+Senior Ramble of that year to a successful termination.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="v" id="v"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<br />
+<small>ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>"Will somebody please inform me how they can get up a lunch for this
+crowd in an hour's time?" asked Nance, who, having spent her life in the
+narrow quarters of a boarding house, was not accustomed to avalanches of
+unexpected guests.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't think it will be very difficult," Molly replied. "Major
+Fern is a farmer. He probably has lots of hams in the smoke house and
+plenty of eggs in the hen house and milk in the dairy and preserves and
+pickles in the pantry, and if there isn't enough bread the cook can make
+up some hot biscuits or corn bread."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it couldn't embarrass you, Molly, dear. You'd be sure to find
+plenty of food for company," laughed Nance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Molly was not far wrong in her suppositions of the lunch that Major
+Fern unexpectedly called upon his wife and daughters and servants to
+prepare. Alice was the only member of his family who was not entirely
+cordial when the senior class of Wellington at last descended upon the
+big old farmhouse at lunch time. She had buttered and sliced bread until
+her back ached, and she cast many angry glances at her ruddy-faced
+father tranquilly slicing ham in the pantry.</p>
+
+<p>"There are times when Papa is a real nuisance," she thought angrily.</p>
+
+<p>While Mrs. Fern pointed out piles of plates on the pantry shelf to a
+maid, her husband told her the history of the morning.</p>
+
+<p>"So you see, my dear," he finished, "that this party is really Charlie's
+party. We are doing it for his sake. It would be just the sort of thing
+he would have done himself. I remember he brought his entire class home
+once to Sunday morning breakfast. He had invited them and forgotten to
+mention it to Mother."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And they made a wreath for him?" asked Mrs. Fern irrelevantly, as she
+wiped a tear from her eye.</p>
+
+<p>The Major blinked and went on slicing ham industriously.</p>
+
+<p>"It's as fresh in my mind as if it had happened yesterday," he said
+presently in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"How handsome and gay he was," added his wife, sighing, as she counted
+out a pile of napkins.</p>
+
+<p>And now there came the sound of singing in front of the house. The
+seniors had arrived and were serenading the Major and his family.
+"Wellington, my Wellington," they sang, and Mrs. Fern paused in her
+counting to listen to the song she herself had sung as a girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to the children, they are serenading us, Major. Do come out with
+me and meet them."</p>
+
+<p>The Major laid down his carving knife and fork and followed his wife to
+the front door, and presently the girls found themselves in the
+comfortable,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> sunny parlor of the big old house that seemed to ramble
+off at each side into wings and meander back into other additions in the
+rear. They forgot their grievances in the fun of that lunch party. By
+the miracle which always provides for generosity to give, there was
+plenty of lunch, just as Molly had predicted.</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't a very difficult guess," she observed to Nance. "If you had
+lived in the country and were subject to unexpected arrivals, you'd know
+just how to go about getting up an impromptu meal for a lot of people."</p>
+
+<p>As for the good old Major, he was quite determined to enjoy himself. He
+wanted to hear all the college jokes and songs. He even told some Exmoor
+jokes, and after each joke he laughed until his face turned an
+apoplectic red and the tears rolled down his cheeks. Mrs. Fern laughed,
+too. She was an old Wellington girl and her eldest daughter, Natalie,
+had graduated from the college a year before Molly had entered. It had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+been a great disappointment to Mrs. Fern that Alice, the youngest
+daughter, was not inclined to college and had gone to a fashionable
+boarding school.</p>
+
+<p>After the senior stunts, when Judy had succeeded in throwing the Major
+into another apoplectic fit of laughing by playing "Birdie's Dead" on
+the piano, it was time to go back to Fern Woods where they were to meet
+the wagons. While the girls were pinning on their hats the Major, in a
+voice husky from much laughing, asked Nance, as it happened to be, which
+girl had suggested the wreath he had seen at the foot of the oak tree.
+Nance pointed out Molly and the Major presently beckoned her to follow
+him into his library. Unlocking one of the desk drawers, he drew out a
+faded photograph. The picture showed a laughing, handsome boy not more
+than eighteen. His curly hair was ruffled all over his head as if he had
+just come in out of the wind, and his merry eyes looked straight into
+Molly's.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is Charlie," said the Major, looking over Molly's shoulder at the
+picture. "My younger brother, Charlie. His death was the greatest sorrow
+I have ever known. Poor Charlie! Poor boy!"</p>
+
+<p>The old man turned away to hide the tears in his eyes and Molly laid the
+photograph back in the drawer.</p>
+
+<p>"Charlie would have enjoyed all this even more than I have," went on the
+Major. "It would have been just what he would have done under the
+circumstances. I saw the wreath, you see, and it touched me very
+deeply."</p>
+
+<p>"The girls will appreciate your kindness all the more when I tell them,"
+said Molly, not knowing how else to express the sympathy she felt.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, it all happened half a century ago," he said, shaking her
+hand and patting it gently at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a dear," thought Molly, following him into the hall.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She saw one other photograph in the Fern house that interested her. It
+was a picture of Professor Edwin Green, very elaborately framed,
+standing on a dressing table in one of the bedrooms.</p>
+
+<p>Alice Fern kept well in the background while her mother and father and
+elder sister entertained the senior class of Wellington. She had done
+her duty by the lunch and she was not going to mingle in this crowd of
+unknowns.</p>
+
+<p>"I never could bear a college romp," she had said to her mother who had
+remonstrated with her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust you don't call your mother a college romp," answered the old
+lady indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, Mama. You belonged to the early days of Wellington before
+romps came into existence," Alice replied sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure you may have to see a great deal of college, if&mdash;&mdash;" began
+Mrs. Fern, and broke off abruptly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Alice shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"If&mdash;if&mdash;&mdash;" she thought. "How I detest that word."</p>
+
+<p>On the way back that afternoon the old Queen's girls held a council of
+war.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we ought to make it our business to find out who played this
+trick on us," cried Margaret, "if it takes detective work to do it. Our
+dignity as seniors has been attacked and the standards of Wellington
+lowered."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe any juniors had a hand in it," put in Judy, "because we
+are so friendly with them."</p>
+
+<p>Nance nudged Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"She's afraid somebody's going to blame that charming Adele," she
+whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"If it's any of the Wellington girls, it's more likely to be among the
+sophomores," announced Edith decisively. "They were rather a wild lot
+last year but we were too busy to notice them; a good deal like a gang
+of bad boys in their own set; always playing practical jokes&mdash;&mdash;"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but would they dare play jokes on us?" interrupted Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"They'd dare do anything," answered Edith. "Anne White is the
+ringleader. I only know her by sight so I can't judge of her character,
+but I heard that Miss Walker had her on the grill several times last
+winter."</p>
+
+<p>"What does she look like?" some one asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, she's as demure as anything; a petite, brown-haired, inconspicuous
+little person. You'd never suspect her of being so daring, but I happen
+to know of one reckless performance of hers that Prexy hasn't heard of."</p>
+
+<p>"Do tell," they demanded with breathless curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll let it go no farther? Word of honor, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Word of honor," they repeated in a chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"One night last spring she let herself down from the dormitory with a
+rope ladder and went&mdash;well, I don't know where she went, but she got
+back safely enough&mdash;&mdash;"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Up the ladder?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. That was the wonderful part. She simply waited till morning and
+when the gates were open slipped in in time for chapel."</p>
+
+<p>The girls were rather horrified at this story.</p>
+
+<p>"It's shocking," the chorus exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"It does sound so," went on Edith impressively, "if I didn't happen to
+know that she spent the night with good old Mrs. Murphy, who told it to
+me herself one day in a burst of tea-cup confidence, and I never let it
+out to any one but Katherine until to-day. But it does seem the moment
+for telling it, if she did play that dastardly trick&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But we aren't sure it was Anne White," put in Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but it's her style. She sent a girl a live mouse through the mail
+and she broke up one of the sophomore class meetings by putting
+ticktacks on the window."</p>
+
+<p>"How silly," ejaculated Mabel Hinton.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But what was she doing down on the campus and what did Mrs. Murphy
+think of being waked up at midnight?" asked Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't midnight. It was only a little before eleven and Anne told
+Mrs. Murphy she had done it for a lark. She was awfully frightened and
+Mrs. Murphy began by being shocked and ended by being kind-hearted. The
+ladder had slipped down and she couldn't get up and she didn't know what
+to do."</p>
+
+<p>So it happened, that without meaning to be unjust, the seniors secretly
+blamed Anne White for the pillaging of their lunch hampers. But there
+was no evidence and they could only wait and be watchful, as Margaret
+expressed it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="vi" id="vi"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE RETORT COURTEOUS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Because of the happy ending of the Ramble the seniors made no secret of
+the theft of the lunch hampers. If they had been obliged to go hungry,
+they would probably have kept the entire story to themselves. Such is
+human nature. When the story reached Miss Walker's ears, as most things
+about Wellington did sooner or later, she sent for Margaret Wakefield
+and got the history of the case from her in an exceedingly dramatic and
+well connected form.</p>
+
+<p>"And we had gone to no end of trouble, Miss Walker, and a good deal of
+expense," Margaret finished. "Lots of us had had cakes and pickles and
+things sent on from home."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Walker smiled. She could have named<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> the contents of those hampers
+without any outside assistance.</p>
+
+<p>"What none of us understands is where they took the hampers afterward.
+They couldn't have brought them back to college without being found
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered the Principal, "that would have been impossible, of
+course, and yet the hampers have managed to find their way back."
+Shifting her chair from the table desk, she pointed underneath. "So, you
+see," she continued, "that the sandwiches and pickles and stuffed eggs
+and fudge may have found their way into college after all. Major Fern
+discovered the hampers. They had been tossed into a ditch near his
+place." Miss Walker sighed and frowned. "If the Exmoor boys were given
+to this kind of thing, I might have suspected some of them. But the
+standards at Exmoor are above such things as this," she indicated the
+hampers with a gesture of mingled disgust and pain. "If only&mdash;only I
+could bring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> my Wellington to that point. But every year there is
+something."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret felt sorry for the Principal who had striven so hard for the
+honor of Wellington in the face of so many discouragements.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a thoroughly silly and undignified act," she remarked later to
+the Queen's crowd, telling them of the interview, "to break up a
+time-honored custom like the Senior Ramble by stealing all the food; and
+I'm sorry for the girl who did it if she ever gets caught."</p>
+
+<p>An effort had been made to find out if there had been any sophomore
+spreads the night of the Ramble with the stolen banquet, but these young
+women were either very wily or very innocent, for nothing was found
+against them.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, things went on happily enough at Wellington and there
+were no more escapades to wrinkle the President's brow or enrage the
+girls who happened to be the victims. Molly's life was so filled with
+work and interests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> that she had little leisure for reflection, and
+about this time there came to her an unsolicited and entirely unexpected
+honor. She was elected sub-editor of the Wellington <em>Commune</em>, the
+fortnightly review of college news and college writings. Edith Williams,
+beyond a doubt the most literary girl in college, was editor-in-chief,
+Caroline Brinton was business manager, and there was besides a staff of
+six girls from other classes who gathered news and ran their various
+departments.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't imagine why they chose me," Molly exclaimed one afternoon to
+Edith, when the two girls were closeted in the <em>Commune</em> office.</p>
+
+<p>"For your literary discrimination," answered Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"But I think my themes are dreadfully crude and forced. I can't help
+feeling self-conscious when I write."</p>
+
+<p>"That's because you try too hard," answered Edith, who always spoke the
+brutal truth regarding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> the literary efforts of her friends. "Let your
+thoughts flow easily, lightly," she added, making a flowing gesture with
+her pencil to illustrate the gentle trickling of ideas from an
+overcharged brain.</p>
+
+<p>Molly laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You remind me of Professor Green. 'Be simple,' was his advice&mdash;as if an
+amateur can be simple."</p>
+
+<p>Edith, in the act of writing an editorial, smiled enigmatically.</p>
+
+<p>"It's about as hard as getting a cheap dressmaker to make simple
+clothes," she said. "Amateurs always want to put in ruffles and
+puffles."</p>
+
+<p>The two girls were seated at the editorial desk. There was a pile of
+manuscript in front of Molly: themes recommended by Miss Pomeroy for
+publication and contributed book reviews. Presently only the ticking of
+the clock on the book shelves broke the stillness. Both girls had
+plunged into work with a will. Edith's soft pencil was already flying
+over the sheets.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Flowing easily and lightly," Molly thought, smiling as she turned a
+page.</p>
+
+<p>For more than half an hour they worked in silence. At last Molly, having
+selected from the reviews the ones she considered best for publication,
+leaned her chin on her hand and closed her eyes. How peaceful it was in
+this little office, and how nice to be with Edith who went at her
+work&mdash;this kind of work&mdash;with force and swiftness.</p>
+
+<p>Rap, rap, rap, came the sound of knuckles on the door, while some one
+shook the knob and the voice of Judy called:</p>
+
+<p>"Let me in, let me in, girls, I've got something to show you that will
+make your blood boil."</p>
+
+<p>"Run away, we're awfully busy," answered Edith, who kept the door to the
+private office locked.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you it will make your blood boil with rage and fury," went on
+the extravagant Judy. "As editors of the <em>Commune</em>, everybody calls on
+you to resent an insult to college. Please let me in," she pleaded.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Molly opened the door and her impetuous friend rushed in, waving a
+newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>"Be calm, child. Don't take on so. Sit down and tell us easily and
+lightly and flowingly what's the matter," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at this base, libelous article," Judy ejaculated, spreading the
+paper on the table.</p>
+
+<p>With an expression of amused toleration as of one who must bear the
+whims of a spoiled child, Edith drew the paper in front of her while
+Molly and Judy seated themselves on the arms of her chair and read over
+her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>The first things that caught their eyes were the pictures: drawings of
+wildly disheveled beings in gymnasium suits playing basket ball and
+hockey. One picture, also, represented a blousy looking young person in
+a sweater, carrying a bundle of linen under one arm and a bottle of milk
+under the other. In still another this same blousy model was yelling
+"Hello" to her twin sister across the page. They saw her again in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> the
+drug store dissipating in chocolate sundaes; and once more, chewing gum;
+hobnobbing with the grocery boy, too, or perhaps it was the baggage man
+or the postman. The article occupied a full page under flaring
+headlines:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="block">"THE PRESENT DAY COLLEGE GIRL, NO LONGER A PLEASING FEMININE
+TYPE. SHE IS VULGAR, AGGRESSIVE, SLANGY. COLLEGES FOR GIRLS THE
+RUIN OF AMERICAN HOMES</span>&mdash;So says Miss Beatrice Slammer, the
+popular writer and well-known anti-suffragist."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"It's ironic, untrue and insulting," observed Edith, in a choking voice
+as her eyes traveled down the columns.</p>
+
+<p>"She seems especially hard on poor girls who have to get their own
+meals," broke in Molly. "Is there anything unfeminine in getting a
+bottle of milk from the corner grocery, I wonder? Or saying good-morning
+to the postman or Mr. Murphy? What would Miss Slammer think of us if she
+knew how often we had tea with Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Murphy, too?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She recommends colleges for women to pattern themselves after a Fifth
+Avenue school that teaches manners before it teaches classics," burst
+out Judy. "I wonder if she went to that school?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is evidently opposed to higher education for women," remarked
+Edith. "The style of her writing shows that as much as her sentiments
+do."</p>
+
+<p>"I know one thing," cried Judy, "this settles it. I'm going to join the
+Woman's Suffrage Society to-day. If this is the way an anti thinks, I'm
+for the other side."</p>
+
+<p>Edith and Molly laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an excellent reason for changing your political views, Judy," said
+Molly.</p>
+
+<p>And now the office of the <em>Commune</em> was besieged by numbers of students
+from the three upper classes. There were even one or two indignant
+freshmen present. Those who had received the article by the first mail
+had handed it to those who had not. Many of the girls had already
+written letters in reply and sent them to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> published in New York
+papers. Would the editors of the <em>Commune</em> do anything about the base,
+libelous article? Were these stinging falsehoods about college girls to
+be allowed to be scattered over the country without a single protest?</p>
+
+<p>"You may add my name to the Suffrage Club, Miss Wakefield," called a
+junior.</p>
+
+<p>"And mine."</p>
+
+<p>"And mine."</p>
+
+<p>So Margaret's list of converts swelled amazingly that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Edith was enjoying herself immensely.</p>
+
+<p>"What funny creatures girls are," she said to Molly, still sitting on
+the arm of the editorial chair.</p>
+
+<p>The question was: how was the article to be answered? No doubt college
+girls everywhere were thinking the same thing; therefore, the Wellington
+girls would not like to be backward in coming forward.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose all the other colleges will be answering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> the article in
+about the same way," said Margaret. "I wish we could think of something
+original and different. Something more personal than a letter to a
+newspaper."</p>
+
+<p>"She speaks on anti-suffrage, doesn't she?" asked Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," cried Margaret. "She is evidently one of those women who
+believes she can stem the tide of human progress by taking a stand
+against higher education and universal suffrage. Do you think women like
+that are ever silent? They are always standing on the street corners
+trying to lift their little puny voices above the multitude&mdash;but who
+hears them?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a burst of laughter at Margaret's eloquence.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not ask her to speak here?" suggested Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"What good would that do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, she wouldn't come."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes she would. Wait until all this blows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> over and then send her
+the invitation. People who write like that always want to talk."</p>
+
+<p>"But how will we get any personal satisfaction out of it?" Margaret
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, by showing her what perfect ladies we are, in the first place. We
+can be very attentive and still 'freeze' her. We can entertain her
+without talking to her any more than is necessary, and we can listen to
+her speech and make no comments."</p>
+
+<p>After consideration of the suggestion, most of the girls began to see a
+good many possibilities in this courteous revenge. They were taken with
+the notion of inviting Miss Slammer into the enemy's camp and treating
+her as a guest too honored to be familiar with. It was agreed that the
+invitation should be dispatched in about two weeks, so that Miss Slammer
+would feel no suspicions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="vii" id="vii"></a>CHAPTER VII<br />
+<br />
+<small>A STOLEN VISIT.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>One morning not long after the stormy meeting in the <em>Commune</em> room,
+Molly, racking her brain over "The Theory of Mathematics," heard Otoyo's
+tap at the door. She knew it was the little Japanese. Nobody else could
+knock so faintly and still so distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," she called, and Otoyo glided in as softly as a mouse.</p>
+
+<p>"You are much busy, Mees Brown?" she asked, retreating toward the door
+when she saw Molly bending over her book.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can spare a few moments for a dear little friend any day,"
+answered Molly. "What's happened? Nothing wrong, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese girl appeared excited. Her eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> shone with more than their
+usual luster and she seemed hardly able to keep back the news she had to
+tell.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, nothing wrong. Something very right. My honorable father is
+coming to Wellington to see his humble little daughter. O, I am so
+happee!" and Miss Sen executed a few steps of the "Boston," she had
+lately learned to dance. Molly watched the plump little figure gliding
+about the room and smiled. What a dear, funny little person Otoyo was.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad. How joyful you must be. When is he coming, Otoyo?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has arriving&mdash;&mdash;" Otoyo broke off quickly. Excitement always
+strangely affected her English. "He has arrived now in New York and he
+will come here to-morrow for the end-week."</p>
+
+<p>"Week-end, you mean, child. Now, what shall we do to amuse him besides
+showing him the sights? Wouldn't you like us to give him a dance or a
+fudge party or something?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Otoyo clasped her hands joyfully.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be enough for my honorable father to see all the beautiful
+young American ladees and the buildeengs. He will not require of his
+humble daughter amusements. He is much grateful to young ladees for
+kindness to little Otoyo. My honorable father will be thankful to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you would like us to go with you to the train to meet him?"
+Molly suggested, wondering why Otoyo still lingered, now that she had
+unburdened herself of the good news and had seen plainly that Molly was
+very, very busy. But no, Otoyo thought so many young ladees at once
+might embarrass her honorable parent. She would prefer to bring him to
+call at No. 5 Quadrangle on Sunday afternoon if entirely acceptable.</p>
+
+<p>It would be acceptable. They would all be delighted and the crowd would
+be there to receive the honorable gentleman. And now, Molly was sure
+Otoyo would go. But Otoyo had something<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> else on her mind, evidently.
+Molly sighed. Not for worlds would she hurt her small friend's feelings,
+but she did wish she had put a busy sign on the door. It had been such a
+perfect time to study, with Nance at a lecture and Judy practicing
+basket ball.</p>
+
+<p>"Will Mees Brown do me one great beeg favor?" began Otoyo with some
+embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. Anything."</p>
+
+<p>It appeared that Otoyo was very anxious to call on Professor Green and
+she wished Miss Brown to go with her.</p>
+
+<p>"You have seen the honorable Professor?" she asked innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have been to inquire every day, but Miss Fern told me he was not
+permitted to see visitors."</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in their acquaintance Molly saw Otoyo show signs of
+real displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Mees Fern?" she repeated. "She cannot say no and yes. It is for the
+nurse to say."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Molly admitted that she had not seen the nurse.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will come?" cried Otoyo, with almost as much enthusiasm as she
+had shown over the coming visit of her honorable father.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;" began Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"You will so kindlee go this afternoon?" broke in the voluble little
+Japanese. "Will four o'clock be an hour of convenience?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't&mdash;&mdash;" began Molly again.</p>
+
+<p>"You said 'anything,'" interrupted Otoyo. "You will not go back on poor
+little Japanese? You will come?" she finished, cocking her head on one
+side in her own peculiarly irresistible manner.</p>
+
+<p>Molly glanced at the clock. She had already lost nearly twenty minutes
+of her precious study hour.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, little one, come for me at four," she said, and Otoyo fairly
+flew from the room before Molly could change her mind. Out in the
+corridor Miss Sen danced the Boston again, just a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> <em>pas seul</em> to express
+her happiness. Of course Mees Brown should never know that she had just
+that moment come from seeing the great Professor.</p>
+
+<p>At four o'clock Otoyo again appeared at the door of No. 5. It was
+pouring down rain, but she had no intention of releasing Molly from her
+promise. In her miniature rain coat and jaunty red felt hat, she looked
+like a plump little robin hopping into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"You are readee?" asked Otoyo.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I never dreamed you would go in the rain!" began Molly, looking up
+from her writing.</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo's face lengthened and the corners of her mouth drooped
+disconsolately.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, bless the child! Molly, aren't you ashamed to disappoint her?"
+cried Judy from the divan where she was resting after her athletic
+labors.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Otoyo, dear, I didn't know you were so keen about it. Of course
+I'll go," said Molly remorsefully,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> fumbling in the closet for her
+over-shoes, while Nance calmly appropriated Judy's rain coat from the
+back of a chair where that young woman had flung it and held it up for
+Molly to slip into.</p>
+
+<p>"Better take my umbrella," she said. Molly had never owned a rain coat
+and couldn't keep an umbrella.</p>
+
+<p>"You know we may not be allowed to see him," Molly observed, when the
+two girls had started on their wet walk down the avenue. "Miss Fern
+distinctly told Judith Blount and me one day that he was not to see any
+one except the family. The doctor particularly did not wish him to see
+students who would remind him of his work and worry him."</p>
+
+<p>"Mees Fern know too much," said Otoyo, making what she called a "scare
+face" by wrinkling her nose and screwing up her mouth. "Mees Fern veree
+crosslee sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Adverbs, adverbs, Otoyo," admonished Molly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Excusa-me," said Otoyo. "It is when I become a little warm here in my
+brain that I grow adverbial."</p>
+
+<p>Molly laughed. In her heart there was a secret, unacknowledged feeling
+of relief that she was going to try to see Professor Green in spite of
+Miss Fern. It was a relief, too, to find herself in the outdoors after
+her long vigil of study. The rain beat on her face and the fresh wind
+nipped her cheeks until they glowed with color.</p>
+
+<p>"You are much too small and feeble to come out in all this weather,
+Otoyo," she said, slipping her arm through her friend's. "You are so
+tiny you might easily fall into a puddle and drown."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, thees is notheeng," cried Otoyo. "In Japan it rains&mdash;oceans! And
+for so long. Days and days without refraining from." She was very apt to
+use big words instead of smaller ones, her own language being
+exceedingly formal and grandiose. "Notheeng is dry. Not even within the
+edifices."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Houses, Otoyo."</p>
+
+<p>"But a house is an edifice, is it not so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, but we wouldn't use such a showy word."</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo was still puzzling out why the longer word was not the better when
+they reached the infirmary. The regular nurse of the infirmary who
+usually sat in the waiting room was not visible to-day. A freshman was
+ill and she was probably busy, Otoyo explained.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is looking after the Professor?" Molly asked.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Fern, it appeared, assisted by the infirmary nurse, attended her
+cousin during the day, and his sister nursed him at night. Having
+imparted this information in a loud whisper, Otoyo started upstairs on
+tiptoe, Molly following. Somehow, she felt quite courageous and not at
+all afraid of Miss Fern, with the little Japanese to lead her on.</p>
+
+<p>All the doors were closed in the corridor above<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> and on the ward room
+door hung a sign, "No Admittance."</p>
+
+<p>"She must be quite ill," whispered Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"She has a taking disease," answered Otoyo. "Like this." And she puffed
+out both jaws to the roundness of the full moon.</p>
+
+<p>Molly stifled a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Mumps, do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"It was so called to me by the honorable nurse," she added gravely.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls lingered a moment in the hall. Molly was opposed to
+rapping on the Professor's door, but Otoyo, amiably but unswervingly
+persistent in attaining her ends, gently tapped on the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," called Professor Green's voice, weak almost beyond
+recognition.</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo peeped into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"He is alone," she whispered, and with that she pushed Molly through the
+door with arm of steel.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> "I will keep watch for ten minutes without.
+Then I will call." She closed the door and Molly found herself looking
+fearfully through the dim shadows cast by half-drawn green blinds, at an
+emaciated face on the pillow. Her pulses throbbed and she wanted very
+much to cry. Indeed, it required almost superhuman effort to keep back
+the tears. Was this emaciated, wax-like face on the pillows her
+Professor's?</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I ought not to be here," she began in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"If you leave I shall cry," said the Professor. "Won't you come nearer?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly crept over to the bedside and stood looking down into the changed
+face. Only the brown eyes seemed the same. She choked and tried to
+smile. One must be cheerful with sick people, and she hoped the
+Professor would think it was the rain that had wet her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Shake hands, Miss Molly," said the Professor, lifting one transparent
+hand and then dropping it weakly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With an impulse she could hardly explain she knelt beside the bed and
+put her hand over his.</p>
+
+<p>"You are much better?" she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll soon be well, now," he replied. "But I've been on a long journey.
+It seemed endless&mdash;so many mountains to climb and rivers to cross&mdash;such
+impenetrable forests&mdash;&mdash;" he paused and shook his head. "I was beginning
+to get very tired and lonely, too&mdash;it's dismal taking the journey
+alone&mdash;but I've come to the end now&mdash;it's over&mdash;&mdash;" again he paused and
+smiled. "I'm glad to find you at last. I've been looking for you a long
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"I would have come sooner, but they&mdash;but she said no one was to see
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"The nurse?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"My sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Fern."</p>
+
+<p>"I never was so bossed in my life&mdash;&mdash;" a sudden strength came into his
+voice. "These women!" he added in a tone of disgust.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The door opened and Otoyo's voice was heard saying in a loud whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"The ten minutes have passed away."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," whispered Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come again?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded and tiptoed hurriedly out of the room. She had caught a
+glimpse of the blue paper weight on the table during that stolen
+interview.</p>
+
+<p>"No wonder Miss Alice Fern is so bossy with him," she thought. "I
+suppose she has a right to be." Molly sighed. Somehow she wished she had
+not seen the blue paper weight. It had spoiled all the happiness in the
+visit, except of course her happiness over his recovery.</p>
+
+<p>When the two girls reached the head of the stairs, the door to the ward
+opened and the nurse looked out. She exchanged a smiling nod with Otoyo.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Miss Sen, you naughty little thing, I believe this visit was all
+arranged beforehand," exclaimed Molly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Miss Sen only laughed and not one word of excuse or explanation
+would she give.</p>
+
+<p>"Otoyo, you are as deep as deep&mdash;&mdash;" Molly began.</p>
+
+<p>But Otoyo pressing closely to her side, looked up into Molly's face and
+smiled so sweetly it was impossible to scold her.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kindlee to humble little Japanese girl," she said. "Better
+than all the young ladies of Wellington, I like you best, Mees Brown.
+There is no one so good and so beautiful&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You outrageous little flatterer, you are changing the subject," cried
+Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"With all my honor, I give you assurance that I speak trulee."</p>
+
+<p>"You make me very happee, then," laughed Molly, "but what has that got
+to do with Professor Green?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did I say there was any connecting?" asked Otoyo innocently.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And so Miss Sen, unfathomable and still guileless, never explained about
+the stolen visit, and Molly Brown, baffled and still glad in her heart,
+had to think up any explanation she could.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="viii" id="viii"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>BARBED ARROWS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>"I don't know which was the most highly polished, his manners or his
+shiny bronze face," ejaculated Judy when the door of No. 5 had closed
+upon Otoyo and her honorable father.</p>
+
+<p>The small grizzled Japanese gentleman had taken tea American fashion
+with his daughter's Quadrangle friends. With punctilious enjoyment he
+had eaten everything that was offered to him, cloudbursts, salmon
+sandwiches, stuffed olives and chocolate cake. The girls had heard that
+raw carp was a favorite Japanese dish, and salmon being the only fish
+convenient, they had bought several cans of it in the village in honor
+of the national taste.</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't his English wonderful?" put in Margaret.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> "He said to me, 'I
+entertain exceedingly hopes in my daughter's educationally efforts.'"</p>
+
+<p>"He asked me if I were quadrangular," laughed Edith. "I said no,
+quadrilateral."</p>
+
+<p>"The funny part of it was that he used all those big words and spoke
+with such a perfect accent and yet he didn't understand anything we
+said," observed Molly. "All the time I was telling him how much we loved
+Otoyo and what a dear clever child she was, he blinked and smiled and
+said: 'Indeed. Is it truly? Exceedingly interestingly.'"</p>
+
+<p>While they were laughing and discussing Otoyo's father, Adele Windsor,
+Judy's new bosom friend, walked into the room. She had formed a habit of
+entering their room without announcing herself, an unpardonable breach
+of etiquette at Wellington, as well it might be anywhere. Lately she had
+made herself very much at home at No. 5, lounging on the divan with a
+novel between lectures, or occupying the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> comfortable chair while
+she jotted down notes on a tablet. Nance called her "the intruder" to
+Molly, and once she had even ventured to remark to Judy:</p>
+
+<p>"I should think your friend would know that it's customary to knock on a
+door before opening it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's because she's never had any privacy," explained Judy
+apologetically. "She was brought up in a New York flat and slept on a
+parlor sofa all her life until two years ago when her father began
+suddenly to make money."</p>
+
+<p>"Being brought up in a parlor ought to give her parlor manners," Nance
+thought, but she had not voiced her thought to the sensitive Judy, who
+really had not intended to force Adele Windsor on her chums. It was only
+that Adele had a way of taking for granted she was <em>persona grata</em>, that
+Nance thought was rather too free.</p>
+
+<p>Molly, always polite to guests whether welcome or not, greeted Adele
+cordially and made her a cup of tea.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We were just discussing Otoyo Sen's funny little father," she
+explained, in order to draw Adele into the conversation. "He's been here
+to call&mdash;the queerest English!" And Molly repeated some of Mr. Sen's
+absurd speeches.</p>
+
+<p>Adele listened with interest. She was always interested in everything,
+one might almost say inquisitive, and she had a peculiar way of making
+people say things they regretted. Judy, artless soul, had told her
+everything she knew long ago. And now, turning her intelligent dark eyes
+from one to another and occasionally putting out a pointed question,
+Adele succeeded in starting a new discussion on Otoyo's father. With the
+most innocent intentions in the world, they imitated his voice and
+manner, his stiff formal bows and his funny squeaky laugh.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until later when the friends had scattered to tidy up for
+supper that Molly felt any misgivings about having made fun of Otoyo's
+father, and these she kept to herself, feeling, indeed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> that they were
+unworthy of her. Adele had not left with the others. She was to remain
+for supper with Judy, and the two girls sat chatting together while
+Molly took a cat-nap and Nance began clearing away the tea things.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not help," she had insisted, when Molly had offered to do her
+share. "You are dead tired and I'm not, so go and rest and don't
+bother."</p>
+
+<p>Nance's manner was often brusquest when she was tenderest, but Molly
+understood her perfectly. She <em>was</em> very tired. What with her new duties
+on the <em>Commune</em>, club meetings and the pressure of studies, the world
+was turning so fast she felt that she might fly off into space at any
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Green would have scolded me for trying to overdo things," she
+was thinking, half sadly. Gradually her body relaxed and her eyelids
+dropped. Through the mists of half consciousness she heard the musical
+rattle of the tea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> things, and presently there came the catchy, rather
+nasal tones of Adele's voice over the clatter of china and silver.</p>
+
+<p>"I like all your friends, Judy. They are remarkably bright."</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't they a sparkling little coterie," answered Judy proudly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Miss Wakefield is a born leader. Of course a leader must have the
+gift of gab. She's a great talker, isn't she? Takes the conversation
+right into her own hands and keeps it there, doesn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret does talk a lot," Judy admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Too much perhaps for any one not deeply interested, but then of course
+I always am. Now, Edith Williams is the brighter of the two, but she
+knows it, don't you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose she does," replied Judy reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Katherine has more surface brightness, but of course she's superficial,
+that is, compared with her sister."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Edith is the brightest," said Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Mabel Hinton is all right, but she does dress so atrociously. And those
+glasses! Can you imagine how she can wear them?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly felt suddenly hot. She flung the comfort off and sat up
+impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think Judy would have sense enough to see she's being made to
+discuss every friend she has," she thought.</p>
+
+<p>"The Intruder" had now commenced on pretty Jessie Lynch. "Awfully jolly
+to have so many beaux. Most men-crazy girls have none," she was saying,
+when Molly marched into the room. She had not decided what she was going
+to say, but she intended to say something.</p>
+
+<p>"How red your face is, Molly, dear," observed Judy carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"And how fortunate that it's so seldom that way," went on the
+imperturbable Miss Windsor. "Red faces are not becoming to red heads,
+that is, generally speaking, but your skin is such an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> exquisite
+texture, Miss Brown, that it doesn't matter whether it's red or white.
+Did you see where a girl had written to a beauty editor and asked for a
+cure for blushing? The editor told her that age was the only cure.
+Sometimes, however, one gets very good suggestions off those pages, good
+hygienic suggestions, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>And so Adele carried the conversation along at such a swift pace that
+Molly did not have the chance to say what she had intended. She had
+always regarded that kind of talk with supreme contempt: praise that
+tapered into a sting. "It would have been more honest to have given the
+sting without the praise," she thought, "and less hypocritical and
+censorious."</p>
+
+<p>It was Adele's trick to make you agree with her, and if you did, lead
+you on to further and more dangerous ground, until you suddenly felt
+yourself placed in the awkward position of saying something unkind
+without having intended it.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange that Judy was so blind to this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> trait of Adele's. But
+then Adele was very attractive. There was a kind of abandon about her
+that suited Judy's style. They had a great many tastes in common. Adele
+was very talented and the two girls often went off on Saturday afternoon
+sketching expeditions together.</p>
+
+<p>"Nance, I'm ashamed of myself for thinking such things," whispered
+Molly, on the way down to supper, "but there is something almost
+Mephistophelean about Adele Windsor."</p>
+
+<p>"She-devil, you mean," broke in Nance bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>Molly laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Mephistophelean was more high sounding. Besides she's just like
+Mephistopheles in 'Faust.' She doesn't speak right out, only whispers
+and suggests. Innuendo is the word, isn't it? Sometimes I'm really
+frightened for Judy."</p>
+
+<p>"She is awfully crushed, but she'll wake up soon enough. She always
+does," answered Nance carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>But Molly had secret misgivings, in spite of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> Nance's assurances, and
+furthermore, she was convinced that the crafty Adele was well aware of
+these misgivings and that it gave her much private enjoyment to make
+Molly uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"The trouble is I can't fight her with her own weapons," Molly thought.
+"I'm not clever enough, and besides I wouldn't if I could. After all,
+boys' methods of settling disputes by drawing a circle and fighting it
+out are somehow much more honest. It would be worth a black eye and a
+bloody nose to lay forever all that innuendo and sly insinuation."</p>
+
+<p>"She's hypnotized Judy into putting her up for the Shakespeareans and
+the Olla Podridas," said Nance. "And she'll get in. Nobody will dream of
+blackballing her, you'll see."</p>
+
+<p>Molly compressed her lips into a firm red line and said nothing, but she
+was almost led to wish that school societies did not exist at all.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="ix" id="ix"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE SUBSTITUTE.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Miss Walker had not failed to see the stinging article against women's
+colleges written by Miss Beatrice Slammer for a newspaper, and when she
+recalled that Miss Slammer had recently spent a day at Wellington as a
+guest of the college under plea of gathering material, she felt somewhat
+embittered. When, therefore, it came to her ears that the students
+intended to ask Miss Slammer to Wellington ostensibly for the purpose of
+hearing her views on anti-suffrage, she smiled and said nothing to
+anybody except Miss Pomeroy, who had raised some objections.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't worry over it, my dear," said Miss Walker, "they won't do
+anything to make us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> ashamed. It's Miss Slammer who will be ashamed, I
+rather imagine."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Miss Slammer was surprised at receiving an invitation from
+Wellington University after her lampoon of college girls. Whatever
+qualms she may have felt in writing it had been hushed to sleep with the
+insidious thought that the views, if not true, were at least sensational
+enough to catch the public eye; and this was more important to Miss
+Slammer than anything else. It flattered her to be asked to speak at
+this small but distinguished college. Of course they had never seen the
+article or they would never have sent the invitation. Miss Slammer had
+her doubts as to whether any person outside New York ever read a
+newspaper, especially a lot of college girls who had no interests beyond
+amateur plays and basket ball. So she promptly dispatched a polite note
+of acceptance to "Miss Julia Kean." Then at the last moment, only a few
+hours before train time, her courage failed her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't do it," she said. "I simply haven't the nerve."</p>
+
+<p>"Do what?" asked Jimmy Lufton, glancing up from his typewriter to the
+somewhat battered and worn countenance of Miss Slammer.</p>
+
+<p>"Face a lot of women and talk to them about anti-suffrage."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy grinned. He had the face of a mischievous schoolboy. In his eyes
+there lurked two little imps of adventure while his broad and sunny
+smile was completely disarming. "Sunny Jim" was the name given him by
+his friends in the office, a name that still clung to him after five
+tempestuous years of newspaper work.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like a substitute?" he asked. "I think I could give some
+pretty convincing arguments."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know about it?" demanded Miss Slammer doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you read the article that came out last Sunday&mdash;'Anti's to the
+front, by a Wife and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> Mother.' That was me. I thought I gave a pretty
+fair line of argument."</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmie, you are the limit," exclaimed Miss Slammer. Then she paused and
+began to think quickly. Suppose Jimmy did go up to Wellington with a
+letter of introduction from her, and take her place? Well, why not? She
+was too ill to come, and had sent the well-known young writer on this
+vital subject. She would be keeping her engagement in a way, and Jimmy
+would be getting a holiday and perhaps material for another story at the
+same time. The editor's consent was gained. "See if you can't get
+something about basket ball," he had ordered, and Jimmy dashed out of
+the office, the railroad ticket contributed by Wellington in one pocket
+and Miss Slammer's note in the other.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Slammer's nature was a casual one. Life had been so hard with her
+that she had long since grown callous under the blows of fate and grimly
+indifferent to other people's feelings. Somewhere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> she had heard that
+Jimmy Lufton was a born orator. At any rate, she thought he could carry
+off the adventure and her conscience was easy.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock the next morning when the night train from New York
+pulled into Wellington station, a crowd of well-dressed young women on
+the platform gazed at the door of the Pullman car with expectant eyes.
+Judy Kean in a black velvet suit and a big picture hat headed the
+delegation. Only two passengers descended from the sleeper: a
+middle-aged, worn-looking woman in shabby black and a young man whose
+alert brown eyes took in at once the crowd of college girls and Judy,
+resplendent in velvet and plumes.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Slammer?" began Judy, intercepting the woman passenger who was
+looking up and down the platform, somewhat bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, that is not my name. I am looking for Miss Windsor," answered
+the woman nervously.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Judy, rather surprised. "You will find her at her rooms in
+the Beta Phi House. Take the 'bus up. It's quite a walk."</p>
+
+<p>The woman bowed and hurried over to the 'bus just as the young man with
+the alert brown eyes came up, hat in hand. Judy noticed at once that his
+head was large and rather distinguished in outline and that his
+close-cropped black hair had a tendency to curl.</p>
+
+<p>"You were looking for Miss Slammer?" he asked, speaking to Judy, whose
+face, as the train receded, showed mingled feelings of disappointment
+and anger.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," she replied, startled somewhat at being addressed by a
+strange young man.</p>
+
+<p>"She couldn't come, and I came down as a substitute," he went on,
+handing her the note hastily dashed off by the intrepid Beatrice.</p>
+
+<p>Judy's eyes only half took in the words of the note. She read it
+silently and passed it on to the rest of the delegation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A man!" she thought. "Now, isn't that too much? Everything is ruined.
+We can't teach Miss Slammer a lesson in politeness through a proxy."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it's all right," Jimmy began, watching Judy's face with
+undisguised admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," she answered hastily. "We are very glad to see you, Mr.
+Slammer&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy broke into his inimitable laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Lufton," he said, and the mistake seemed so funny that Judy
+laughed, too, and everybody felt more at ease immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"We were to have had you up to breakfast&mdash;I mean Miss Slammer," Judy
+stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get something&mdash;er somewhere," said Jimmy in a reassuring tone.</p>
+
+<p>"There's an inn in Wellington village," suggested one of the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Slammer was scheduled to speak at three o'clock this afternoon,"
+began Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"And am I banished to the village all that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> time?" Jimmy broke in. "You
+don't bar men from the grounds, do you? I'd like to look around the
+place a little."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. This isn't a convent. If you will come up to the Quadrangle
+after breakfast, we'll be delighted to show you the buildings and the
+cloisters&mdash;whatever would interest you."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, awfully," said Jimmy, and presently they watched him stroll off
+up the road to the village, whistling as gaily as a schoolboy.</p>
+
+<p>There were scores of faces at the windows of the Quadrangle when the
+special 'bus drew up at the archway.</p>
+
+<p>"She didn't come," Judy called to a group of girls lingering in the
+tower room. "A man came."</p>
+
+<p>"Young or old?" cried half a dozen voices.</p>
+
+<p>"Young and passing fair," said Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"Passing dark, you mean. He had black hair."</p>
+
+<p>"But where is old Miss Slammer?" demanded Edith Williams.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Old Miss Slammer was afraid to face the music, I suppose. Anyway, she
+sent Mr. James Lufton down to take her place and he is at present
+breakfasting in the village."</p>
+
+<p>"Somehow, all the sweetness has gone out of revenge!" exclaimed Edith.
+"I foresee that nobody will be willing to practice the 'freeze-out' on
+an innocent man, passing fair, if he is a substitute."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he's coming up this morning to be shown around college. If any
+one wants to take the job of showing him, I'm willing to resign my
+place. Anybody who is willing to do the 'freeze-out' act, I mean. I
+don't think it will be easy. He has a way of laughing that makes other
+people laugh. You couldn't be mean to him if you tried."</p>
+
+<p>Already, Judy had unconsciously set herself the task of protecting Mr.
+James Lufton from the fate planned for Miss Slammer.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't we to listen in cold silence when he makes his speech?" asked a
+girl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course," put in Margaret, "you couldn't listen in any other way to a
+speech against suffrage. I shan't applaud him, I know. If he represents
+Miss Slammer, like as not he shares her views about college girls, too,
+and is just as deserving as she is to a polite 'freeze-out.'"</p>
+
+<p>"It was a mad scheme from the first," put in Katherine Williams. "I
+never did approve of it. I don't imagine such a subtle revenge would
+have had the slightest effect on Miss Slammer."</p>
+
+<p>"We intend to have our revenge," cried a dozen voices, followers of
+Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the hot argument that followed this statement, Judy
+hurried off to Beta Phi House to eat her share of the fine breakfast
+some of the girls there had undertaken to give to the enemy of women's
+colleges. She felt that things looked pretty black for Mr. James Lufton.
+Running upstairs to Adele Windsor's rooms, she knocked on the door
+impatiently. It was quite two minutes before it was cautiously opened
+by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> Adele, whose face looked flushed and there were two white dents at
+the corners of her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard she didn't come," Adele began, without waiting for Judy to
+speak. "Let's go down to breakfast. We're late as it is." She closed the
+door with a slam and pushed Judy in front of her toward the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, did a visitor find you?" asked Judy. "She inquired where
+you lived at the station."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. Just a woman&mdash;on business. About some clothes," she added
+carelessly. "Dressmakers are dreadful nuisances sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>Judy said nothing, but it occurred to her that Adele must be a very good
+customer for a dressmaker to come all the way to Wellington to consult
+her.</p>
+
+<p>While the Beta Phi girls and their guests were breakfasting in the
+paneled dining-room, the little woman in shabby black came softly out of
+Adele's rooms and tiptoed downstairs. Under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> cover of the noise of
+laughter and talk she opened the front door and went out. Jimmy Lufton
+saw her later at the inn in the village where she had coffee and toast
+and inquired the hour for the next train to New York. Jimmy himself was
+occupied in jotting down notes on an old envelope.</p>
+
+<p>"If it makes me laugh, I should think it would make them," he chuckled
+to himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="x" id="x"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE POLITE FREEZE-OUT.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>They had seen the cloisters and the library and the Hall of Science and
+all the show places at Wellington, and now Miss Julia Kean and Mr. James
+Lufton might be seen strolling across the campus in the direction of the
+lake.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of those hazy, mid-autumnal days, neither cold nor hot; a
+blue mist clothed the fields and hung like a canopy between sun and
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Judy had changed her best velvet for a walking skirt and a red sweater
+and Jimmy Lufton glanced at her with admiration from time to time.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a mighty becoming way of dressing you young ladies have here," he
+said. "Those sweaters and tam o' shanters are prettier to me than the
+fittest clothes on Fifth Avenue."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't agree with Miss Slammer?" asked Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"I probably don't, but, as it happens, I never asked her opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what Miss Slammer thinks of college girls, the way they
+dress and talk?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy hesitated. As a matter of fact he had never seen the libelous
+article by Miss Slammer. He had been absent in a remote village in the
+mountains writing a murder trial when the article had appeared.
+Therefore he was not suspicious of Judy's unexpected question.</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you what I think of college girls," he went on as they
+neared the edge of the lake. "I think they are the jolliest, most
+natural, interesting, wholesome, best looking, companionable&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Judy began to blush. He was looking straight at her as he delivered
+himself of this stream of adjectives.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to canoe a little?" she asked, changing the subject.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Would I," exclaimed Jimmy, with the sudden boyish expression that made
+his face so attractive. "I should rather think I would. I haven't had
+the chance to paddle a canoe since I left college."</p>
+
+<p>It was just the day for canoeing. The surface of the lake was as smooth
+as glass except where the paddles of other canoeists stirred its placid
+surface into little ripples and miniature waves.</p>
+
+<p>Judy thought it would be nice, too. She was enjoying herself immensely
+with this lecturer who looked like a boy without any of a boy's
+diffidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you lecture often?" she asked, when they had settled themselves in
+the canoe and he was paddling with a skill she recognized as far from
+being amateur.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind making speeches," answered Jimmy. "I made a lot of them
+the last campaign. 'Cart-tail' speeches they are called, only our cart
+was an automobile. There were four or five of us who toured the East
+Side and took turns talking to the crowds."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should think you'd be a politician instead of a writer on
+anti-suffrage," remarked Judy.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy grinned as he shot the canoe toward the center of the lake.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that what I'm credited as being?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'A well-known writer on the subject,'" quoted Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had read that note over I think I would have been tempted to
+scratch out the 'well-known,'" he said, "especially as the only article
+I ever wrote was signed 'A Wife and a Mother.'"</p>
+
+<p>Judy's eyes darkened. Was Miss Slammer to libel them and then send down
+an impostor to make fun of them? Her impressionable mind was as subject
+to as many changes as an April day and her recent pleasure in Mr.
+Lufton's society changed to displeasure as the suspicion clouded her
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"You had a good deal of courage to come to Wellington, then," she
+observed after a pause. "At least we think you did after what Miss
+Slammer wrote about us."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A hunting dog on the scent of quarry was not keener than Jimmy when it
+came to scenting out news, and it took about five minutes of careful and
+skillful questioning for Judy to explain the entire situation.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, but that was like old 'Bee-trice' to send me down here into a
+hornet's nest," he thought. "I'll have to get square with them somehow
+before the lecture or it will never come off. I assure you I didn't know
+anything about the article," he said aloud to Judy. "I only came to
+accommodate Miss Slammer. She told me yesterday at the office she was
+ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you aren't a lecturer or a writer?" broke in Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Slammer and I work on the same paper. Didn't she say that in the
+letter?"</p>
+
+<p>Judy shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you'll think I'm an impostor, Miss Kean, but I had no
+intention of sailing under false colors. I think I'd better take the
+next train<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> back to New York and give up the lecture. It would be better
+to run away before I'm frozen out, don't you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>Judy was silent for a moment. Her rage against Mr. James Lufton had
+entirely disappeared and she again had that feeling that she would like
+to protect him from the wrath to come.</p>
+
+<p>"What is a 'polite freeze-out' exactly?" Jimmy asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, while you lecture, you are to look into rows of stony faces and
+when you finish, there is not to be a word spoken, not a single
+handclap, nothing but stillness as the girls file out of the hall."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"A sort of glacial exit, I suppose. It makes me chilly to think of it.
+Miss Slammer had a lucky escape."</p>
+
+<p>They were paddling now in the very center of the upper lake, but so
+absorbed were they in their conversation that they had scarcely noticed
+a canoe in front of them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there came a cry, a splash and then a moment of perfect
+stillness followed by a confused sound of voices from the shore. The
+next instant Judy saw in front of them an upturned canoe and two heads
+just rising above the water. <a name="before2" id="before2"></a>Before she had time to realize the danger,
+Jimmy Lufton had torn off his coat, flung his hat into the bottom of the
+canoe and, with a carefully planned leap, had cleared the side of the
+canoe, sending it spinning over the water, shaking and quivering like a
+frightened animal. And now Judy beheld him swimming with long strokes
+toward the place where the two heads had appeared, disappeared and once
+more reappeared. In that flash of a moment she had recognized the blonde
+plaits of Margaret Wakefield and the wet curls of Jessie Lynch. As she
+mechanically paddled toward the struggling figures, she remembered that
+Jessie could not swim a stroke and that Margaret could only swim under
+the most favorable circumstances in a shallow tank.</p>
+
+<div class="">
+<a name="before" id="before">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 395px;">
+<img src="images/illus-02.jpg" width="395" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Before she had time to realize the danger, Jimmy Lufton
+had torn off his coat.&mdash;<a href="#before2"><em>Page</em> 132</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+"He can't hold them both up at once," thought Judy, with a throb of fear
+as she frantically beat the water with her paddle in her effort to reach
+them.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Jimmy himself was in a quandary. It looked as if he would
+have to let one girl go to save the other, when he saw one of the canoe
+paddles floating within reach. He gave it a swift push toward the
+struggling Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"Put that under your arms and go slow," he shouted, and made for Jessie.
+In two strokes he had caught her by her coat collar and was swimming
+swiftly toward the upturned canoe.</p>
+
+<p>"Even in the water, Jessie's irresistible attraction had prevailed," the
+girls said afterward when they could discuss this almost tragic event
+with calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on tight to the canoe, little girl," he said, and turned toward
+Margaret, who was all but exhausted now. He caught her just as she was
+sinking, and held her up until a row boat from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> shore reached them.
+Margaret was pulled in, with much difficulty owing to her large bulk,
+and at last Jimmy, feeling a trifle weary himself, returned to Jessie
+and helped her into another boat. She was still sufficiently herself to
+achieve a smile of thanks to the handsome young man who had saved her
+life.</p>
+
+<p>It was all over in a flash, and yet it seemed as if the entire college
+of Wellington could be seen running across the campus to the lakeside.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the half-drowned trio reached land Miss Walker herself was
+there looking frightened and pale. The girls were to go straight to the
+Quadrangle, be rubbed down with alcohol and put to bed. As for the brave
+young man who had saved their lives, he was to be taken to the infirmary
+where he could be made comfortable while his clothes were being dried.</p>
+
+<p>When Jimmy Lufton, dripping like a sea god, found himself in the center
+of a group of beautiful young ladies all eager to show him honor as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+they hurried him along to the infirmary, he gave a low, amused chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope I've squared myself with them now," he thought, "and there'll be
+no polite freeze-out for me and no lecture, either, thank heavens."</p>
+
+<p>While a delegation of three went to the village inn and ordered his suit
+case sent up to the infirmary, another delegation made him a hot
+lemonade in the infirmary pantry, and a third went to the flower store
+in the village and purchased a huge bunch of violets. This was laid on
+his lunch tray with a card, "From the Senior Class of 19&mdash;in grateful
+recognition of your brave deed."</p>
+
+<p>And so the world goes. He who is down one day is up the next and Jimmy
+who was to have been the victim of a blighting freeze-out by the
+Wellington students was now an object of tender attention.</p>
+
+<p>There came to Mr. Lufton that afternoon a note stating that if he were
+quite recovered&mdash;("Meaning my clothes," thought Jimmy)&mdash;the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> students of
+the Quadrangle would be glad to have him dine with them that evening at
+six-thirty.</p>
+
+<p>"I do feel like a blooming hypocrite," he exclaimed to himself
+remorsefully. "Here I came down to Wellington at their expense to give
+them a fake lecture and they are treating me like a king."</p>
+
+<p>But he accepted the invitation, trusting to luck that his clothes would
+be dry and tipping the infirmary cook to press his trousers and black
+his shoes.</p>
+
+<p>At half past six, then, Jimmy appeared at the Quadrangle archway. He
+wore some of the violets in his buttonhole and his keen, dark eyes shone
+with suppressed humor. A delegation of seniors met him and conducted him
+back to the dining-hall, where several hundreds of young persons all in
+their very best stood up to receive him. A seat of honor was given to
+him at the end of the long table and every girl in the room liked him
+immensely, not only for his broad jolly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> smile, but because at the end
+of dinner he arose and, without the slightest embarrassment, made the
+most deliciously funny speech ever heard. Then the walls resounded with
+the college yell, ending with "What's the matter with Mr. Lufton? He's
+all right. Who's all right? Lufton&mdash;Lufton&mdash;James Lufton." Never was one
+unknown and entirely unworthy individual more honored.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xi" id="xi"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Providence had not gone to such lengths to bring Jimmy Lufton to
+Wellington and set him in the good graces of the college without some
+purpose. It was not only that he had been sent in time to save two
+prominent seniors from drowning, but Jimmy's destiny was henceforth to
+weave itself like a brightly colored thread in and out of the destinies
+of some of Wellington's daughters.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever Jimmy went he brought with him gaiety and good will. The
+sympathy and charm of his nature had made him so many friends that of
+himself did not know the number. And now he had come down to Wellington
+and made a host of new ones eager to show him how much Wellington
+thought of courage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On Sunday morning Jimmy not only met Dodo Green and Andy McLean, but he
+was led in and introduced to Professor Green, now sitting up against a
+back rest. There was an expression of ineffable happiness on the
+Professor's face because his bed had been moved near the window where he
+might catch a glimpse of the campus and of an occasional group of
+students strolling under the trees. Such are the simple pleasures of the
+convalescent.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, Jimmy had met Miss Alice Fern, immaculate in white linen,
+and now he was carried off to the McLeans' to breakfast where he was to
+meet Molly Brown.</p>
+
+<p>This was Molly's first glimpse of the famous hero. She had not gone down
+to dinner the evening before, having remained with Nance to minister to
+the wants of Margaret and Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>Nance and Judy were at the breakfast, too, and Otoyo Sen, and Lawrence
+Upton who had come over on the trolley from Exmoor. It was, indeed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> a
+meeting of old friends and the genial doctor gave them a gruff and
+hearty welcome as they gathered in the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Gude morning to you," he said, rubbing his hands and beaming on them
+from under his shaggy eyebrows. "I'm verra glad to see the lads and
+lassies once more. The wife was only saying last week that in another
+year they'd be scattered to the four ends of the earth. And is this the
+young lad who picked up the drowning lassies out of the lake? Shake
+hands, boy. It was a brave and bonny thing to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Any man would have done it in my place, doctor," said Jimmy, grasping
+the big hand warmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not any man, but some would. Andy and Larry, I make no doubt, and that
+wild buffalo, Dodo."</p>
+
+<p>Dodo didn't mind being called a wild buffalo by the doctor if only he
+was given the credit of courage at the same time, but Mrs. McLean
+objected.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, doctor," she said, "you mustn't call your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> guests ugly names. You
+know I won't permit it at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't scold him, Mrs. McLean," said Dodo. "I think it's better to be
+called a wild buffalo than a wild boar."</p>
+
+<p>"A bore is never wild, if that's the kind you mean," answered Mrs.
+McLean. "That's why they are bores, because they are so tame."</p>
+
+<p>"Mither, mither," put in the doctor, laughing, "how you go on. As if
+you'd like 'em any way but tame. She's a great talker, Mr. Lufton, as
+you'll perceive before the morning's half over, but she doesn't mean the
+half she says, like every other woman under the sun."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy laughed. How delightful it was to him to be among these gay,
+simple-hearted people who found a good deal of enjoyment in life without
+the aid of things he had been accustomed to. Presently he heard Andy
+McLean's voice saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brown, Mr. Lufton," and turning quickly, he confronted a tall
+slender girl with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> very blue eyes and red-gold hair. Miss Brown smiled a
+heavenly smile and gave him her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad to meet you," she said. "I've been hearing a great deal about
+you in the last few hours."</p>
+
+<p>The soft musical quality of her voice stirred Jimmy's soul.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like the harp in the orchestra. When a hand sweeps over the harp
+strings, you can hear it above all the trumpets and drums, it's so&mdash;so
+ineffably sweet, only there's never enough of it."</p>
+
+<p>All this Jimmy thought as he exchanged Molly's greetings.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you from the South?" he asked later when he found himself beside
+her at the breakfast table.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm from Kentucky," she answered promptly and proudly.</p>
+
+<p>"So am I," he almost shouted, and then they exchanged new glances of
+deeper interest and presently were plunged in a conversation about
+home.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jimmy forgot that Judy, his sponsor at Wellington, sat at his right hand
+and Molly was oblivious to Lawrence Upton on her left.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you never get any corn bread here?" Jimmy asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Not our kind," replied Molly. "What they have here is made of fine meal
+with sugar in it."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy made a wry face.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't you like to have some fried chicken with cream gravy?" he
+whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"And some candied sweet potatoes and corn pones and pear pickle," Molly
+broke in.</p>
+
+<p>"And hot biscuits. But what shall we finish off with, Miss Brown?"</p>
+
+<p>"Brandied peaches and ice cream and hickory-nut cake."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy gave a delighted laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good old home dessert I used to get at Grandma's," he said.
+"At least the peaches and the ice cream were. She always had cup-cake
+with frosted icing."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you ever have kidney hash and waffles Sunday mornings, nowadays?"
+asked Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't had any for years, Miss Brown. But at the restaurant where I
+get breakfast I do get 'batty' cakes and molasses."</p>
+
+<p>"'Batty' cakes," repeated Molly. "How funny that is. Do you know I've
+always said that, too, just because I learned to say it that way as a
+child. And hook and 'laddy' wagon. I can't seem to break myself of the
+habit."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try," said Jimmy. "I'd rather hear the good old talk than
+Bernhardt speaking French."</p>
+
+<p>And so from food they came to discuss pronunciation, as most Southerners
+do sooner or later, and from that subject they drifted into mutual
+friendships and thence naturally into newspaper work.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a sub-editor," announced Molly proudly, and she told him about the
+<em>Commune</em> and her work. "Perhaps you'd like to see our office after a
+while?" she said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'd be only too glad," said Jimmy, delighted to be able to prolong his
+t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te with this gracefully angular young woman with blue eyes and
+red hair, who spoke with the "tongue of angels" and had the same
+yearnings he did for corn-bread and fried chicken with cream gravy.</p>
+
+<p>And all this time something strange was taking place in Judy's mind that
+she could not understand. At first she thought she was catching the
+grippe. She felt cold and then hot and finally unreasonably irritated
+against everybody except Molly. At least, she put it that way to
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>"She never looked more charming," thought Judy to herself.</p>
+
+<p>Molly in her faded blue corduroy skirt and blue silk blouse was a
+picture to charm the eye. Judy herself looked unusually lovely in her
+pretty gray serge piped in scarlet with Irish lace collar and cuffs.
+There were glints of gold in her fluffy hair and her eyes shone with
+unusual brightness. But Mrs. McLean's good food tasted as sawdust<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> on
+her palate and the conversation of the eager Dodo sounded trite and
+stupid to her. Once she had said a word or two to Jimmy Lufton and he
+had turned and answered her politely and agreeably, but as soon as he
+decently could he was back with Molly again deep in bluegrass
+reminiscences.</p>
+
+<p>There were other people who were disgruntled that morning at Mrs.
+McLean's breakfast. Not Nance and Andy, who seemed well pleased with
+themselves and the bright fall day; not the doctor nor the doctor's wife
+beaming at her guests behind the silver tea urn, but Otoyo was strangely
+silent and averted her face from Molly's if by chance their glances met;
+looked carefully over Nance's head and avoided Judy's gaze as much as
+possible. Lawrence Upton, too, had little to say, except to Dr. McLean
+at his end of the table.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that half the guests thought the breakfast had been a great
+success and the other half put it down as stupid and dull.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Would anybody like to go over to the <em>Commune</em> office with us?" Molly
+vouchsafed some three-quarters of an hour later when the company was
+breaking up. "I am going to show Mr. Lufton our offices."</p>
+
+<p>But nobody seemed anxious to accept.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll come, won't you, Judy?" Molly asked.</p>
+
+<p>No, Judy had other things to do apparently.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you come, Otoyo, dear?" asked Molly, slipping her arm around the
+little Japanese's waist and giving it a squeeze.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not possible. I am exceedingly sorrowful," answered Otoyo a
+little stiffly and drew away from Molly's embrace.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you well, little one?" asked Molly. "Is anything the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, exceedingly, quite well, but I cannot go to-day, Mees Brown," Otoyo
+answered, trying to infuse a little warmth into her tone.</p>
+
+<p>So it ended by Molly's going off alone with the young man from New York
+to the <em>Commune</em><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> office, where she showed him their files and the
+proofs sent up by the printer in the village, which had to be corrected;
+then she introduced him into the little alcove office where Edith was
+wont to write her famous editorials.</p>
+
+<p>"How would you like to write an article for my paper, Miss Brown?" Jimmy
+asked suddenly. "We run a page of college news, you know."</p>
+
+<p>He had no idea that Molly could write or that the paper would take
+anything from her if she did. He had merely talked at random and was a
+little taken back when Molly clasped her hands joyously and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, and would they pay me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he answered, hoping devoutly in his heart they would. "I'll
+tell you what you do. This is the Jubilee Year at Wellington, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it's been officially announced at last."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you could use that as a starter, with a little of the history of
+Wellington and the big<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> festival you're going to have, and then you
+could go on and give some talk about the girls,&mdash;what you do and all
+that. There could be pictures of the cloisters and the library,
+perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"What a wonderful chance to answer Miss Slammer's article," Molly
+thought. "It's just what we would have wanted and never dreamed of
+getting. It's so kind of you," she said aloud. "I would be proud to do
+it for nothing if the paper doesn't want to pay&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it'll pay you all right if it takes the story. You may get anywhere
+from ten to thirty-five dollars for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that's enough to buy a dress," she exclaimed involuntarily, and
+Jimmy decided in his heart that he would sell that article if he had to
+wear the soles off his boots walking up and down Park Row.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you'd like it simple," said Molly.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we don't like anything flowery," he said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> "but you write it the
+way you like and I'll change it if necessary. Just tell about things as
+if you were writing a letter home."</p>
+
+<p>"There it is again," thought Molly. "First the Professor and now Mr.
+Lufton."</p>
+
+<p>They finished the morning with a walk and Jimmy Lufton entertained Molly
+with a hundred stories about his life in New York, and then he listened
+to her while she talked about college and home and her hopes.</p>
+
+<p>At last they parted at the Quadrangle gates, where Andy McLean was
+waiting to take Jimmy home with him to dinner, and Molly saw him no
+more, since he was to catch the three-thirty train back to New York; but
+she had his address carefully written on a scrap of paper and already
+the opening paragraph of the newspaper article was beginning to shape
+itself in her mind. She saw nothing of Judy until bedtime. Judy had been
+with her friend, Adele, she said. But when the two friends parted that
+night Judy flung her arms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> around Molly's neck and kissed her so
+tenderly that Molly could not help feeling a bit surprised, since only a
+few hours before Judy had seemed cold somehow.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after Jimmy Lufton had returned to New York he received six
+letters from the following persons: Margaret Wakefield, Senator and Mrs.
+Wakefield, Jessie Lynch, and Colonel and Mrs. Lynch. Any time James
+Lufton tired of his job he could get another from Senator Wakefield or
+Colonel Lynch. That was stated plainly in the letters of the two
+fathers.</p>
+
+<p>"And all because of an anti-suffrage speech that was never made,"
+thought Jimmy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xii" id="xii"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>FRIENDLY RIVALS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>It is not often that rivals for the same office are champions for each
+other, and yet that is what happened when the seniors elected their
+permanent president toward the end of October. It followed that Molly,
+as the most popular girl in the junior class, would be elected president
+the next year.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you'll get it," Nance assured her as the time approached.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a great honor," replied Molly, "but, oh, Nance, I'm such a
+diffident, shy person with a shrinking nature&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," interrupted Nance, "that Margaret wants it so badly, you
+can't bear to deprive her of it."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, that isn't it. It's not sentiment, really, but I can't make
+speeches and I haven't got the organizing nature."</p>
+
+<p>Nance shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought not to throw away gifts from the gods. It's as bad as hiding
+your light under a bushel."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, Molly was sure she did not want the place and she hoped
+Margaret would get it. As for Margaret, the spirit of a politician and
+the spirit of a loyal friend were struggling for mastery within her
+soul. The girls knew by this time what sort of president <em>she</em> could
+make. They were well acquainted with her powers of oratory and
+organization. Nobody understood as well as she did the ins and outs of
+parliamentary law; how to appoint committees and chairmen and count yeas
+and nays; in other words, how to swing the class along in proper form.
+They knew all this, but hitherto it had been necessary to call it to
+their minds each year, when by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> sheer force of oratory, Margaret won
+the election.</p>
+
+<p>But, as luck would have it, on the day set for the election Margaret,
+who had taken a deep cold from her upsetting in the lake, was too hoarse
+to say a word. It would have moved a heart of stone to see her, sitting
+in the president's chair sucking a lemon, as she called the class to
+order in a husky tone of voice that had not the faintest resemblance to
+the organ she had used with such force for three years.</p>
+
+<p>There were only two nominations for the office of president, and it was
+difficult to judge toward which of the nominees the sentiment of the
+class leaned. Nance had nominated Molly, who had tried to drag her
+friend back on the bench.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you see they might think I had put you up to it?" Molly had
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"They never would think that about you, Molly," whispered Nance, and
+promptly had announced her candidate and the nomination was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> immediately
+seconded. Then Molly shot up blushingly and nominated Margaret
+Wakefield, almost taking the words out of Jessie's mouth. Margaret
+smiled at her rather shamefacedly, knowing full well that she would not
+have nominated Molly for that coveted office.</p>
+
+<p>Other nominations followed. Edith Williams and her sister were rival
+candidates for the office of vice president, and Caroline Brinton and
+Nance were put up for secretary.</p>
+
+<p>"Has anybody anything to say?" asked Margaret, still sucking the lemon
+frantically as a last effort to clear her fogbound voice.</p>
+
+<p>Molly stood up.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'd like to speak a few words, Madam President," she said.
+Then, blushing deeply and trembling in her knees she turned toward the
+familiar faces of her classmates and began:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not much of a speechmaker, girls, and I don't know that I ever
+really addressed you before, but I feel I must say something in favor
+of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> my candidate, Miss Margaret Wakefield, who has made us such an
+excellent president for three years."</p>
+
+<p>There were sounds of hand-clapping and calls of "Hear! Hear!"</p>
+
+<p>Molly paused and cleared her throat. She did wish they wouldn't
+interrupt until she had finished.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we ought to remember, girls, that when we elect a president for
+this last year, we are choosing some one to represent us for always; at
+class reunions and alumn&aelig; meetings and all kinds of things. When there
+is a distinguished visitor, it's always the senior president who has to
+step up and do the talking. The kind of president we want is some one
+with presence and dignity. We want a handsome president who dresses in
+good taste and can talk. Girls,"&mdash;Molly raised her hand as if calling
+upon heaven to strengthen the force of her arguments,&mdash;"we don't want a
+thin, lank president without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> any shape" (sounds of tumultuous laughter
+and the beginning of applause)&mdash;"one of those formless, backboneless
+people who can't talk and who dress in&mdash;well, ragtags. I tell you,
+girls, Margaret is the president for us. She's been a mighty fine
+president for three years and I don't think we ought to try experiments
+on a new one at this stage in the game."</p>
+
+<p>Then there came wild applause and Margaret presently arose and raised
+her hand for silence after the manner of the true speechmaker. She was
+much moved by what Molly had said. It was more than she herself would
+have been capable of doing, but she intended to speak now if it cracked
+her voice till doomsday.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't talk much, girls, on account of hoarseness, but I do want to
+say that nobody could represent this class better than Molly Brown, the
+most beloved girl not only of the senior class, but of all Wellington. I
+hope you will cast your votes for her, girls, and I'm proud to write
+down her name as my choice for president."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers for Molly and Margaret," cried Judy, always the leader of
+the mobs.</p>
+
+<p>Edith, funny and diffident, now rose and addressed the class. She said
+she sincerely hoped the class was not looking for handsome, plump
+vice-presidents, since the two candidates for that office were neither
+the one nor the other; but that if they placed any confidence in a "rag
+and a bone and a hank of hair," she felt sure she could fill the bill
+just as well as the opposing candidate.</p>
+
+<p>Then Katherine shot up and said she could prove that she weighed a pound
+more than her sister, and instead of putting her allowance into books
+that autumn, she had laid in a stock of clothes.</p>
+
+<p>It was all very funny and good natured: the most friendly close election
+that had ever taken place, some one said, and when the votes were
+counted it was found that Margaret had won by one vote and Katherine by
+two in excess of the other candidates. Edith and Molly locked arms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> and
+rushed over to congratulate the successful opponents.</p>
+
+<p>"You won it for me, Molly," announced Margaret in a voice husky as much
+from emotion as cold. "I doubt if I should have got half a dozen votes
+if it hadn't been for your speech and I shall never forget it. It was
+what father calls 'a nice thing.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You are the president for me, Margaret," Molly laughed. "I can't see
+myself in that chair, not in a thousand years. I should be all wobbly
+like a puppet on a throne and I'd probably slide under the table from
+fright at the first class meeting."</p>
+
+<p>"You would have adorned it far better than I would, Molly, and
+popularity will outweigh speechmaking any day; not but what you didn't
+make a fine speech."</p>
+
+<p>But neither Edith nor Molly felt any regrets over the election. They had
+all they could do to attend to the <em>Commune</em>, go to society meetings and
+keep up their studies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That very day, too, there came a letter for Molly that added to her
+labors. Judy brought it up from the office below. She looked at her
+friend curiously, as Molly glanced at the address written in a rather
+large, scrawly masculine hand. In a corner of the envelope was printed
+the name of a New York newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>"Corresponding already?" Judy asked. "You lose no time, Molly, darling."</p>
+
+<p>Molly was so much occupied in tearing open the envelope that she did not
+notice the strained tone in Judy's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so excited," she exclaimed, drawing out the letter. "This will
+decide my fate."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready, Judy?" called Adele Windsor, opening the door and
+walking in, in her usual unceremonious fashion. Her quick glance took in
+the envelope Molly had flung on the table in her haste to read the note.
+"Oh, these southern girls," she remarked, raising her eyebrows and
+blinking at Judy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Molly looked up quickly. It was certainly no affair of Adele's and still
+she felt like making an explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a business letter," she said quickly, the blood rushing into
+her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do business letters make one blush?" Adele said teasingly.</p>
+
+<p>Molly could not tell why Adele irritated her so profoundly. She was
+ashamed afterward of what she called her unreasonable behavior.
+Certainly she did not appear very well in the passage of arms that now
+followed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's none of your business at any rate," she exclaimed hotly, "and I'm
+not blushing."</p>
+
+<p>After this outburst, she turned and walked into her room. Her face was
+crimson and she knew she would have wept if she had stayed another
+minute, and so have been further disgraced.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Molly, don't you think you are rather hard on poor Adele?" she
+heard Judy's voice saying. But not a word of apology would she make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> to
+Adele Windsor, whose high nasal tones now came to her through the half
+closed door.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, I don't care, Judy. She can't help it. Didn't you ever hear
+about the temper that goes with red heads?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly paid for her outburst of temper by having a headache all the
+afternoon and an achey lump in her chest&mdash;indigestion, no doubt.</p>
+
+<p>She stretched herself on her little bed, her haven of refuge in time of
+trouble and the safe confidante unto whose soft bosom she poured her
+secrets and hopes. At last, calmed and remorseful for her hasty tongue,
+she opened the note again and reread it:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="smcap noi">Dear Miss Brown:</p>
+
+<p>"I have hypnotized the editor into accepting that article of
+yours; only you must hurry up with it. It will run probably for
+two and a half columns on the College Notes page and we can use
+three pictures. Just tell whatever you want about the college
+and the girls and what they do, starting off with the Jubilee,
+as I suggested. Send it to me here by Friday and I will
+appreciate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> it. Thank you for the wonderful time you gave me at
+Wellington.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+"Sincerely your friend,<br />
+"<span class="smcap">James Lufton.</span>"<br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Late that afternoon Molly rushed over to the <em>Commune</em> office, and,
+seizing a pencil and paper, began to write. At the top of the page she
+wrote, "Dearest Mother"&mdash;"just to make myself think it's a letter," she
+thought. But the words worked like a magic talisman, for the pencil
+traveled busily and by suppertime she had almost finished.</p>
+
+<p>On the way back from the village next morning, where she had been to buy
+the photographs, she stopped at the Beta Phi House and left a note on
+the hall table for Miss Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry I was rude to you. I suppose red-headed people have got high
+tempers and henceforth I shall try to curb mine."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xiii" id="xiii"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE DROP OF POISON.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Molly was very proud of her first newspaper article and exultant at
+being able to answer the unjust libels of Miss Slammer. She could
+scarcely wait to tell Nance and Judy about it, but decided to drop in at
+the infirmary and relate her triumph to the Professor if it was possible
+to see him. Alice Fern was on guard that morning, however, and the Swiss
+Guards at the Vatican could not have been more formidable.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure the Pope of Rome doesn't live a more secluded life," thought
+Molly as she departed.</p>
+
+<p>Glancing at the tower clock, Molly saw that she still had three quarters
+of an hour before the lecture on early Victorian Poets by the Professor
+of English Literature from Exmoor, who came over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> several times a week
+to substitute for Professor Green.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll run in and see Otoyo a few minutes," Molly said to
+herself. "The girls can wait. There's been something queer about Otoyo
+lately. She keeps to herself like a little sick animal. I can't make her
+out at all."</p>
+
+<p>There was no response to Molly's knock on Otoyo's door a few minutes
+later, and, after a pause, she opened the door and peeped in.</p>
+
+<p>The blinds had been drawn, an unwonted thing with the little Japanese,
+who usually let the sunlight flood her room through unshaded windows.
+But a shaft of light from the open door disclosed her seated
+cross-legged on the floor in front of a beautiful screen showing
+Fujiyama, the sacred Japanese mountain. At the foot of the screen she
+had placed two statues, one of Saint Anthony of Padua and one of Saint
+Francis of Assisi, presents from Mr. and Mrs. Murphy on two successive
+Christmases. And still another graven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> image caught Molly's eye as she
+tiptoed into the room: a small figure of Buddha seated cross-legged. He
+was placed at a little distance from the two saints and his antique,
+blurred countenance contrasted strangely with the delicately molded and
+tinted faces of the new statues.</p>
+
+<p>If Molly had come unannounced upon Nance on her knees or Judy at her
+devotions, she would have beat a hasty retreat, but it came to her that
+Otoyo, sitting there cross-legged before the images of strange gods,
+needed help of some sort.</p>
+
+<p>"You aren't angry with me for coming in, Otoyo?" she began. "I knocked
+and you didn't hear. I'm afraid something is the matter. Won't you let
+me help you? I have not forgotten how you helped me once when I was
+unhappy. Don't you remember how you let me sit in your room and think
+over my troubles that Sunday afternoon at Queen's?"</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo rose quickly, flushing a little under her dark skin. She seemed
+very foreign to Molly at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> that moment, in her beautiful embroidered
+kimono of black and gold. Also she seemed very formal in her manner and
+distant, like an exiled princess who still clings to the dignity of her
+former position.</p>
+
+<p>First she made a low Japanese bow, quite different from the little
+smiling nods she had learned to give her friends at Wellington.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel much honored, Mees Brown. Will you be seated and I will bring
+refreshments."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Otoyo," exclaimed Molly, filled with wonder at this new phase in
+her friend, "I don't want any refreshments. I thought I'd drop in for
+half an hour before English V. and find out what has happened to you.
+You never come to see me any more," she added reproachfully. "You
+haven't been since that Sunday afternoon with your father, and you
+always have a 'Busy' sign on your door. Are you really so busy or are
+you trying to avoid us?"</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo drew up her one chair she used for visitors and sat down again on
+the floor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have been much engaged," she said, avoiding Molly's eye. Molly
+noticed that her English was perfect. She spoke with great precision and
+avoided adverbial mistakes with painful care.</p>
+
+<p>She had had a great deal to think about lately, Otoyo continued, and she
+was reading a book of Charles Dickens, the English novelist. It was very
+difficult.</p>
+
+<p>With an impetuous gesture, Molly rose and pushed the chair out of the
+way. Then she sat flat on the floor beside Otoyo, and took one of the
+little plump brown hands in hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Otoyo, you're unhappy. Something has happened and you're praying to
+Catholic saints and Fuji and Buddha all at once. Isn't it so?"</p>
+
+<p>"The saints are very honorable gentlemen," answered Otoyo quickly. "Mrs.
+Murphy has told me many things of their goodness. And Fuji is the
+mountain that brings comfort to all Japanese people. Holy men dwell on
+Fuji and pilgrims climb to the summit each year to worship.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> And Buddha,
+he is a great god," she added. "He is kind to lonely little Japanese
+girl."</p>
+
+<p>As she neared the end of her speech her voice was as faint and thin as a
+sick child's, but she steadily repressed all emotion, for no well-bred
+Japanese lady is ever seen to weep.</p>
+
+<p>"Otoyo, my dear, my dear, what can have happened?" cried Molly, turning
+the averted face toward her so that she might look into the
+almond-shaped eyes. "I can't bear to see you so miserable. It makes me
+unhappy, too. Don't you know that you are one of the dearest friends I
+have in the world and that we all love you?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not easy to believe that is true," said Otoyo, looking at her
+with an expression of mingled reproach and incredulity. "I cannot
+believe it is so, Mees Brown."</p>
+
+<p>A look of utter amazement came into Molly's face. It had never entered
+her head that Otoyo was angry with her.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that? Say it again, Otoyo. I can't believe my own ears."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I say it is not easy to believe that is true," said Otoyo, repeating
+her words with the precision of a Japanese.</p>
+
+<p>Molly rose to her feet, and grasping Otoyo's hands pulled her up.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't talk sitting on the floor, Otoyo. Come over here and sit on the
+bed where I can look at you. Now, tell me exactly what you meant by that
+speech."</p>
+
+<p>The two girls now sat face to face on the bed and there was a look of
+sternness in Molly's eyes that Otoyo had never seen there before.
+Otoyo's eyes dropped before her gaze and she began plucking at the
+Japanese crepe of her kimono.</p>
+
+<p>"You must speak, Otoyo," Molly insisted.</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence and then Otoyo looked up again.</p>
+
+<p>"It was my father, my honorable good father. I am too humble to care.
+But my noble father!"</p>
+
+<p>She rose quickly and walked across to the window. If there were tears in
+her eyes Molly should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> not see them. Having drawn the blind, she drew a
+deep breath and came back to the bed. But Molly was doing some rapid
+thinking during that brief interval. Some one had been telling Otoyo
+that they had made game of her father&mdash;and that some one&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But Molly was too angry to think coherently.</p>
+
+<p>"Otoyo," she began, "you know how much all the Queen's girls think of
+you. You are really our property, child. If any of us felt that we had
+hurt or grieved you, we would really never forgive ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"But my father, he was mock-ed. Of me it was of not much matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Child, what we did was in innocent fun. It was only that we repeated
+his funny English, even funnier than yours, and we have often teased you
+about your adverbs, haven't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," admitted Otoyo, "but this was made to be so cruel. It cut me&mdash;&mdash;"
+she choked.</p>
+
+<p>"Who repeated it to you, Otoyo?" asked Molly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> with sudden calmness,
+afraid to give rein to her indignation for fear of doing rash things.
+"People who tell things like that are quite capable of inventing them or
+at least making them much worse."</p>
+
+<p>"I have given my word not to speak the name," answered Otoyo.</p>
+
+<p>It was almost time for the lecture now and Molly slipped down on her
+knees beside the bed and put her arms around Otoyo's waist.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear little Otoyo, before I go, I want you to tell me that you have
+forgiven us. None of us meant to be cruel or unkind. We are too fond of
+you for that. I shall tell all the other girls what has happened and
+to-night they will come in and make you an apology themselves. We will
+all come. As for the girl who made the trouble, she is a wicked mischief
+maker and I wish she had never come to Wellington. And now, will you say
+'Molly, I forgive you?'"</p>
+
+<p>"I do, I do," cried Otoyo, her face transformed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> with happiness. "I
+should not have listened to her ugly speeches, but it was the way she
+did it. She told me my father had been mock-ed and ridiculed. I was
+veree unhappee."</p>
+
+<p>"Never, never let her get her clutches on you again," said Molly,
+opening the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Never, never, never," repeated the Japanese girl.</p>
+
+<p>It was a real reconciliation surprise party that took place in Otoyo's
+room that evening. All the Queen's girls were there except Judy, who had
+been absent for a whole day, having cut two lectures and taken supper
+with Adele Windsor at Beta Phi House. It had been agreed among them that
+Adele should never be welcomed in their circle again; for they were
+morally certain that it was Adele who had done the mischief, although
+Otoyo loyally kept her word not to tell the name.</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo, bewildered and happy over this avalanche of company, toddled
+about the room in her soft house slippers looking for refreshments.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+From strange foreign looking packing boxes in the closet she produced
+tin cases of candied ginger and pineapple, boxes of rice cakes, nuts and
+American chocolate creams which Otoyo liked better than the daintiest
+American dish that could be devised.</p>
+
+<p>Every guest had brought Otoyo a gift of flowers. They made her sit in
+the armchair while they circled around her, singing:</p>
+
+<div class="con">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Old friends are the best friends,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The friends that are tried and true."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Then they made her dress up in her finest kimono and sit cross-legged at
+the foot of the bed while one by one they filed before her and each made
+an humble apology.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is too much," Otoyo cried. "I implore you forgeeve <em>me</em>. It was
+madlee of me to listen to so much weekedness. Humble little Japanese
+girl is bad to entertain such meanly thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>At last when all the rites and ceremonies were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> over and they had
+settled down to refreshments in good earnest, Edith began the tale of
+"The Fall of the House of Usher," which she recited in thrilling
+fashion. The girls always huddled together in a frightened group at this
+performance. At the most dramatic moment, as if it had been timed
+purposely, the door was flung open and a tall lady in black stood on the
+threshold. She hesitated a moment and then sailed in, her black chiffon
+draperies floating about her like a dark cloud. Then she flung a lace
+mantilla from her head and stood before them revealed as Judy, in a
+black wig apparently.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy Kean, what have you been up to?" asked Nance suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get your black wig?" demanded Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think it becoming?" asked Judy. "Don't you think it enhances
+the whiteness of my skin and the brightness of my eye?"</p>
+
+<p>"All very well for a fancy dress party, but you don't look yourself,
+Judy. Do take it off."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't say that," answered Judy, "because I can't take it off
+without cutting it. I've changed the color. That's where I've been all
+day. It's awfully exciting. You've no idea how many things you have to
+do to change your hair dark. Of course, it's perfectly ladylike to make
+it dark. It's only bad form to dye it light."</p>
+
+<p>"Judy, you haven't?" they cried.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly have," she answered carelessly, and she proceeded to take
+out all the hair pins from her fluffy thick hair and let it down. "It's
+raven black."</p>
+
+<p>It was, in fact, an unnatural blue-black, something the color of shoe
+blacking.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Judy, Judy, what will you do next?" cried Molly in real distress.</p>
+
+<p>"What will that girl make her do next?" put in Nance, in a disgusted
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Nance, I knew you'd say just that, but it's not true. I did it of
+my own free will. I always loved black and I've wanted black hair all my
+life."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What will Miss Walker say?" asked some one.</p>
+
+<p>"She probably won't know anything about it. I doubt if she remembers the
+original color of my hair, anyhow. I'm sorry you don't think it's
+becoming to me. Adele thought it suited me perfectly. Much better than
+the original mousy-brown shade."</p>
+
+<p>"I recognize Adele's fine touch in that expression, 'mousy-brown,'" put
+in Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Adele do anything to change her appearance?" asked Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, she is just right as she is. Her hair is a perfect shade,
+'Titian Brown,' it's called. But, girls, I must tell you about the
+marvelous face cream, 'Cucumber Velvet'; it bleaches and heals at the
+same time."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go to," cried Katherine. "Judy, you are so benighted, I don't know
+what's coming to you. Don't you know that Adele Windsor made Otoyo,
+here&mdash;&mdash;"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, no," broke in Otoyo. "I have never told the name. I gave my
+honorable promise not to. I beg you not to mention it."</p>
+
+<p>"What's all this?" Judy began when the ten o'clock bell boomed and the
+girls scattered to their various rooms.</p>
+
+<p>That night, undressing in the dark, Nance and Molly explained to Judy
+what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>"But are you sure she did it?" Judy demanded. "Otoyo never said so, did
+she?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but we are sure, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it," exclaimed Judy hotly. "Adele is the soul of honor.
+I shall never believe it unless Otoyo really tells the name."</p>
+
+<p>And so Judy went off to bed entirely unreasonable about this new and
+fascinating friend.</p>
+
+<p>"All I can say for you, Judy," said Molly, standing in Judy's bedroom
+doorway, "is that I hate your black hair, but do you remember that old
+poem we used to sing as children? I'm sure you must have known it. Most
+children have."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Molly recited in her musical clear voice:</p>
+
+<div class="con2">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'I once had a sweet little doll, dears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The prettiest doll in the world,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And her hair was so charmingly curled.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But I lost my poor little doll, dears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">As I played on the heath one day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And I cried for her more than a week, dears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But I never could find where she lay.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'I found my poor little doll, dears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">As I played in the heath one day:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Folks say she is terribly changed, dears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">For her paint is all washed away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And her arm trodden off by the cows, dears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And her hair not the least bit curled:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet for old sake's sake, she is still, dears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The prettiest doll in the world.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Humph!" said Judy. "Is that the way you feel about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, awfully," and with a defiant fling of the covers, Judy turned
+her face to the wall.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xiv" id="xiv"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+<br />
+<small>JUDY DEFIANT.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>When Judy Kean appeared at Chapel next morning she seemed serenely
+unconscious of the sensation she was creating. Her usual black dress and
+widow's bands had always made her conspicuous and those who only knew
+her by sight, yet carried with them a vivid impression of her face: the
+large gray eyes swimming with visions, the oval creamy face, the mouth
+rather large, the lips a little too full, perhaps, and framing all this,
+her fluffy bright hair.</p>
+
+<p>The Quadrangle dining-room had already buzzed with the news of Judy's
+reckless act, and now, as the seniors marched two by two up the aisle
+after the faculty, a ripple of laughter swept over the chapel. Necks
+were craned all over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> room to see Judy's mop of blue-black hair
+arranged in a loose knot on the back of her neck, drawn well down over
+the forehead in a heavy dark mantle, carefully concealing the ears.</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Walker was not pleased with the liberties Judy had taken with
+her appearance. She had heard the ripple of laughter, stifled almost as
+soon as it had commenced, and having reached her chair and faced the
+audience while the procession was still on its way up the aisle she
+noticed the amused glances directed toward Judy's head. It took only a
+second glance to assure herself of what Judy had done and she frowned
+and compressed her lips. When the service was over, she made a little
+impromptu address to the students. College, she said, was a place for
+serious work and not for frivolity. Of course there were no objections
+to innocent fun, but absurdities would not be tolerated. All the time
+she was speaking she was looking straight at Judy, who, with chin
+resting on her hand and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> eyelids drooped, apparently read a hymn book.
+That afternoon Miss Julia Kean received a summons to appear at Miss
+Walker's office immediately. From this interview Judy emerged in a
+stubborn, angry humor. Miss Walker was a wise woman in her generation,
+but she had never had a girl of Judy's temperament to deal with before.
+Judy's rather contemptuous indifference had inflamed the President into
+saying some rather harsh things.</p>
+
+<p>If one girl dyed her hair a great many others might. Such things often
+struck a college in waves and she was not going to tolerate it.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, Judy, unreasonably angry, as she always was under reproof,
+had no word to say to her anxious friends awaiting her at No. 5,
+Quadrangle.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it very bad, Judy, dear?" Nance asked, when Judy walked into the
+room, white and silent.</p>
+
+<p>"It was worse than that," replied Judy in a steady even voice. "If she
+had given me twenty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> lashes on my bare shoulders I should have liked it
+better. What business is it of hers what color I turn my hair? This is
+not a boarding school. I detest her!" Whereupon, she slammed her door
+and the girls did not see her again for several hours.</p>
+
+<p>When she did finally emerge, she was calm and smiling, but the girls
+felt instinctively that her dangerous mood had not passed, only
+deepened, and Molly felt she would give a great deal to win her friend
+away from the malign influence of Adele Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to her sometimes that Judy was cherishing a secret grievance
+against her as well as against Miss Walker. But Molly had little time
+for brooding over such things in the daytime and at night sleep overtook
+her as soon as her tired head dropped on the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>A great many things were in the air at Wellington just now. A prize had
+been offered for the best suggestion for a jubilee entertainment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> It
+was only ten dollars, but every girl in college competed except Judy.
+One morning Adele Windsor's name was posted on the bulletin board as
+winner of the prize, and not long afterward they learned that it was
+Judy's scheme, unfolded on the opening night of college, that Adele had
+appropriated, no doubt with Judy's full consent.</p>
+
+<p>Molly's exchange of brief notes with Jimmy Lufton had ripened into a
+correspondence, and she was prepared therefore for the enormous package
+containing at least a dozen Sunday newspapers that came to her one
+morning&mdash;also a check for fifteen dollars. With eager fingers she tore
+wrappers from the papers, and began to search through multitudinous
+columns for her article about Wellington.</p>
+
+<p>At last, with Nance's and Judy's help, she found it, not tucked away in
+a corner as she had half expected, but spread out over the page. It is
+true the pictures were rather blurred, but there were the columns of
+writing, all hers, so she fondly believed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> so skillfully had Mr. Lufton
+wrought the changes he had been obliged to make.</p>
+
+<p>The article was signed "M. W. C. B." and a framed copy of it hangs to
+this day on the crowded walls of the <em>Commune</em> office. There was not
+much doubt who "M. W. C. B." was and Molly was deluged with calls and
+congratulations all day. It was glorious to have been the means of
+refuting Miss Beatrice Slammer's criticisms, and she could not help
+feeling very proud as she hurried down the avenue to the infirmary, one
+of the papers tucked under her arm, devoutly hoping that Alice Fern had
+gone home by now. It was reported that the Professor was walking about
+and in a few days was to go to Bermuda to stay until after the Christmas
+holidays. The Professor himself, and not Miss Fern, opened the door for
+Molly before Miss Grace Green, reading aloud by the window, could
+remonstrate with him. He was a mere ghost of his former self, pale,
+emaciated. His clothes seemed three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> sizes too big for his wasted frame
+and he had grown quite bald around the temples. Molly thought him very
+old that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"I've brought something to show you," she said, after she had shaken
+hands with the brother and sister and the three had drawn up their
+chairs by the window. Then Miss Grace Green read the article aloud and
+Molly explained that it was Mr. Lufton, to whom they were already so
+deeply indebted, who had arranged to get it published.</p>
+
+<p>"I took him over to the <em>Commune</em> office," said Molly, "and that started
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Green smiled and the Professor shifted uneasily in his chair.
+Presently Miss Green rose.</p>
+
+<p>"It's time for your buttermilk, Edwin, and you and I shall have some
+tea, Miss Molly," she added as she slipped out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me a little about yourself, Miss Molly," observed the Professor,
+when they were left alone. "Did you have a pleasant summer and how is
+the old orchard?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the orchard was most shamefully neglected," replied Molly. "Simply
+a mass of weeds and the apples left rotting on the ground all this fall,
+so mother writes. William, our colored man, cut down the worst of the
+weeds with a scythe last summer and I kept the ground cleared where the
+hammock hangs. It's been such a rainy summer, I suppose that's why
+things grew so rank, but I'm sorry the old gentleman is neglecting his
+property after making such a noble start."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You have made the acquaintance of the owner, then?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, we have never even learned his name, but I feel quite sure he is
+very old. Sometimes I seem to see him in the orchard, an old, old man
+leaning on a stick. I think he is old and eccentric because a young man
+would never have bought property he had never seen."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't a young man be eccentric?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, but mother and my brothers and sisters,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> all of us believe
+this man is old from something the agent said. He told mother that the
+new owner of the orchard had bought it because he was looking for a
+retired spot in which to spend his old age."</p>
+
+<p>Again the Professor laughed and the color rose in his face and spread
+over his cheeks and forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Miss Green returned with the tea things and the buttermilk.</p>
+
+<p>"Has Miss Fern gone?" asked Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, we finally prevailed on her to go home," answered Miss Green.
+"She really need not have been here at all. The infirmary nurse would
+have looked after Edwin, but she seemed to think she was indispensable."</p>
+
+<p>"Grace, my dear sister," remonstrated the Professor.</p>
+
+<p>From Miss Fern the talk drifted to many things. Molly told them more of
+Jimmy Lufton: how he had charmed everybody and what a wonderful life he
+led in New York.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should like to be on a newspaper," she said suddenly. "It would be
+lots more exciting than teaching school."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor looked up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be sorry to see you take that step, Miss Molly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I haven't taken it yet, but I was only thinking that Mr. Lufton
+might be a great deal of help to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You must not," said the Professor sternly. "Don't think of it for a
+moment. The <em>Commune</em> is putting ideas into your head, or this Mr.
+Lufton."</p>
+
+<p>Molly felt uncomfortable for some reason and Miss Green changed the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," she said, "I heard the other day what had become of some
+of the luncheon you seniors lost the day the Major took you in and fed
+you. The thieves probably took all they could carry with them and dumped
+the rest in a field between Exmoor and Round Head. Like as not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> they
+picnicked on top of Round Head. Some of the Exmoor boys found a pile of
+desiccated sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs and cake one day when they
+were out walking, and Dodo and Andy brought the story to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Think of the waste of it," exclaimed Molly. "They might at least have
+given what they didn't want to the poor."</p>
+
+<p>"There aren't any poor people around there, child."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, to Mrs. Murphy, then. She's poor and we wouldn't have minded
+having worked so hard to feed Mrs. Murphy."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder who did it," put in the Professor.</p>
+
+<p>"None of the Exmoor boys, I'm sure," said his sister, who had a very
+soft spot for the boys of her younger brother's college.</p>
+
+<p>"Some day it will come out," announced Molly. "Things always do sooner
+or later and we needn't bother about playing detective. It's a horrible
+r&ocirc;le to act, anyway."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I remember when I was a boy at college," began the Professor, "some
+fellows played rather a nasty practical joke on some of us and they were
+caught by a trick of fate. On the night of the senior class elections,
+which always take place just before a banquet at the Exmoor Inn, some of
+the students broke into the inn kitchen, masked, overpowered the cook
+and the waiter and stole all the food they conveniently could carry
+away. One of the saucepans contained lobster, and the next morning there
+were six very ill young men at the infirmary with ptomaine poisoning and
+it was not hard to guess who were the thieves of our supper."</p>
+
+<p>"Were they punished?" asked Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. Exmoor never permits escapades like that. They were suspended
+for six weeks, although they had saved the entire senior class from a
+pretty severe illness."</p>
+
+<p>"At least, you might have felt some gratitude for that," observed Miss
+Green.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We did, but the President took only a one-sided view of the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid it's too late for attacks of indigestion from our lunch,"
+observed Molly. "The only thing out of common we had at the lunch were
+'snakey-noodles.'"</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world?" asked the brother and sister together.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't sound very appetizing, does it? But they are awfully good.
+Our old cook makes them at home. They are coils of very rich pastry with
+raisins and cinnamon all through."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention it," exclaimed the Professor, whose appetite was greater
+than his official allowance of food. "I would give anything for a hot
+snakey-noodle with a glass of milk."</p>
+
+<p>"When you come back from Bermuda, I'll see that your wish is gratified,"
+replied Molly, laughing, as she rose to go.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Molly," said the Professor, as he bade her good-bye at the door,
+"I wish you would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> promise me three things: don't overwork; don't make
+plans to work on a newspaper instead of teaching school, and&mdash;don't
+forget me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not likely to do that, Professor. I'm always wanting to go to your
+office and ask you questions and advice. The last time we were there,
+Dodo and I, I found two old rotten apples. I took the liberty of
+throwing them away."</p>
+
+<p>"It's too bad for good apples to be left rotting on the ground or
+anywhere," said the Professor, and he closed the door softly. While this
+surely was a very simple statement, somehow he seemed to mean more than
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Just why Molly's thoughts were on the lost snakey-noodles as she walked
+up the campus, she could not say. She recalled that they had been
+carefully done up in a box marked on top in large print, "Snakey-noodles
+from Aunt Ma'y Morton." That was the Browns' cook.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if they were left with the half of the lunch in Exmoor
+meadow," she thought with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> fond regret for this wasted gift of their old
+colored cook, who had taken unusual pains to make the snakey-noodles as
+crusty and delicious as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"So passeth snakey-noodles and all good things," she said to herself as
+she entered the Quadrangle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xv" id="xv"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE CAMPUS GHOST.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>About this time Wellington was filled with strange rumors that were much
+discussed in small sitting rooms behind closed doors. It was said, and
+this part of the story could be credited as truth, that a woman had been
+seen wandering about the campus late at night wringing her hands and
+moaning. Some of the Blakely House girls had seen her from their window
+one night and had rushed to find the matron, but the strange woman had
+disappeared by the time the matron had been summoned. Another night she
+had been seen, or rather heard, under the Quadrangle windows. She had
+been seen at other places and some of the Irish maids had been filled
+with superstitious dread because, absurd as it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> might seem to sensible
+persons, it was reported that the weeping, moaning lady was the ghost of
+Miss Walker's sister who had died so many years ago.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an evil omen, Miss," a waitress said to Nance one evening. "In
+Ireland ghosts come to foretell bad news. It's no good to the college,
+shure, that she's wandering here the nights."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you worry, Nora. It's just some poor crazy woman," said Nance
+sensibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then where does she be after keeping herself hid in the daytime, Miss?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say, but it will come out sooner or later. Ghosts don't exist."</p>
+
+<p>"Shure an' you'll foind a-plenty of 'em in the old country, Miss."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, maybe this is an imported ghost," laughed Molly.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, not a girl in college but felt slightly uneasy about being
+out after dark alone, and most trans-campus visitors were careful to
+come home early.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One night Molly and Nance had been down to the village to supper with
+Judith Blount and Madeleine Petit. They had had a gay time and a jolly
+supper and it was quite half past nine before they hurried up the hilly
+road to Wellington. The two girls had locked arms and were walking
+briskly along talking in low voices. It was a wonderful night. There was
+no moon, but the stars were brilliant and Molly was inclined to be
+poetical.</p>
+
+<p>"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art," she began, waving her
+free arm with expressive gestures. "Not in lone splendor hung aloft the
+night&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Molly," hissed Nance, in a frightened whisper, "do be still, look!"
+They had turned in at the avenue now, and there, directly over where old
+Queen's once stood, was a tall figure draped in black. As the girls came
+up, she began to moan in a low voice and wring her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Molly, I'm so scared, my knees are giving away. What shall we do?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let's run," whispered Molly, admitting silently that the phantom was a
+bit unnerving. "Here, take my hand and let's fly. She's crazy, of
+course, and she might do anything to us."</p>
+
+<p>With hands clasped, the two girls flew up the campus. Glancing over her
+shoulder, Nance gave a wild cry and pressed along faster.</p>
+
+<p>"She's chasing us," she gasped. "Oh, heavens, she'll kill us!"</p>
+
+<div class="nh">
+<a name="molly" id="molly">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<!--
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 391px;">
+<img src="images/illus-04.jpg" width="391" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Molly Glanced Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom&nbsp;...&nbsp;was
+Running Behind Them&mdash;<a href="#molly2"><em>Page</em> 198</a>.</span>
+</div>
+-->
+
+<p><a name="molly2" id="molly2"></a>Molly glanced back. Sure enough, the phantom, keeping well within the
+shadow of the elms, was running behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Nance, can't you run a little faster?" she cried, now thoroughly
+frightened.</p>
+
+<p>Not a soul was on the campus that night. The place was entirely
+deserted, and it looked for a few minutes as if they were going to have
+a very uncomfortable time, but as they neared the Quadrangle, the figure
+slipped away and was lost in the dense shadow of the trees that bordered
+the avenue.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Lay me on a stretcher," gasped Molly, as she dropped on a bench inside
+the gates while Nance went to inform the gate-keeper of the strange
+presence on the campus.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately the gate-keeper, who was also night watchman, rushed out
+with a lantern to chase the phantom, which was a poor way to catch her,
+you will admit.</p>
+
+<p>Once in the privacy of their own sitting room, Nance had a real case of
+hysterics, laughing and weeping alternately, and Molly felt quite faint
+and had to lie on the sofa, while Judy, who had been moodily strumming
+her guitar most of the evening, gave them aromatic spirits of ammonia.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you would have been frightened," she said
+sympathetically, "but fancy old Nance's running! It's the first time on
+record."</p>
+
+<p>Nance shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you would have stood still under the circumstances," she
+answered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I would, but I should like to have known who the ghost
+was just the same. Suppose you had stopped still and let her come up to
+you, do you think she would?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens!" exclaimed the other two in one breath.</p>
+
+<p>"She ran after you because you were running from her," observed the wise
+Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"People always give advice about ghosts and robbers and mad dogs," said
+Molly. "And they are the ones that run the fastest when the ghosts and
+robbers and mad dogs appear."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it was a ghost?" asked Judy, ignoring the irritation of
+her friends.</p>
+
+<p>"If it had been a ghost it would have caught up with us," answered
+Molly, while Nance in the same breath said emphatically:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe in ghosts."</p>
+
+<p>Nance and Molly were heroines for several days after this, and during
+this time the "ghost" did not reappear on the campus, although a close<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+watch was kept for her. The Williams sisters insisted on walking down
+the avenue every night at half past nine in hopes of seeing a real
+phantom, but she was careful to keep herself well out of sight during
+this vigilance.</p>
+
+<p>One night some ten days later, just as the town clock tolled midnight,
+Molly waked suddenly with a draught of cold air in her face. She sat up
+in bed and glanced sleepily through the open door into the sitting room.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did the air come from?" she wondered, and then noticed that
+Judy's door was open and slipped softly out of bed. Why she did not
+simply close her own door she never could explain, but some hidden
+impulse moved her to look into Judy's room. A shaded night lamp turned
+quite low cast a soft luminous shadow right across Judy's bed, which was
+empty. Molly started violently. Once before they had come into Judy's
+room at midnight and found her bed empty. The startling recollection
+caused Molly to run to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> open window. As she leaned out her hand
+touched something rough&mdash;a rope.</p>
+
+<p>"A rope ladder!" she whispered to herself, horrified. "Great heavens,
+Judy has done for herself now." Just then the rope scraped her knuckles
+and she felt a tug at it from below. "Some one is coming up." Molly
+looked out.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy," she whispered in a tone filled with reproach. "How could you?"</p>
+
+<p>The voice from above must have frightened the climber, for, with an
+excited little gasp, she missed her hold on the rope and fell backward,
+where she lay for a moment perfectly still. It was not a very great
+fall, but it must have hurt, and instantly Molly climbed to the window
+sill and began to make her way slowly down the ladder.</p>
+
+<p>It was not so difficult as she had thought, but she was frightened when
+at last she bounded onto the ground, and she was freezing cold in spite
+of her knitted slippers and woolen dressing gown.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Have you hurt yourself badly?" she asked, leaning over Judy, who was
+endeavoring to sit up.</p>
+
+<p>"No, only dazed from the fall," whispered Judy. "Go on up, will you, or
+we'll both get caught."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better go first," said Molly, "I'm afraid to leave you down here
+alone. Go on, instantly," she added, remembering that she must be stern
+since Judy richly deserved all the reproaches she could think of.</p>
+
+<p>Judy began the ascent and pulled herself over the window sill. Then
+exhausted, she sat on the floor, holding her throbbing temples in both
+hands. That is why she did not see what was presently to happen. Just as
+Molly placed her foot on the first rung of the ladder, a firm hand
+grasped her arm. Why she did not shriek aloud with all the power of her
+lungs she never knew, but she remained perfectly silent while a
+voice&mdash;and it was Miss Walker's voice&mdash;said in her ear:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You will say nothing about this to-night. I wish you to come to my
+office to-morrow morning at ten. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," answered Molly, reverting to her childhood's method of
+answering older people. She climbed the ladder in a dazed sort of way.
+It was more difficult than climbing down, but at last she scaled the
+window sill and jumped into the room. Judy was still sitting on the
+floor, holding her temples. Perhaps it had been only five minutes, but
+it seemed like a thousand years. However, she felt little sympathy for
+Judy, bruised temple or not.</p>
+
+<p>"Get up from there and get to your bed," she whispered. "And I want to
+hear from you exactly what you were doing down there and where you got
+that ladder."</p>
+
+<p>"The rope ladder belonged to Anne White," Judy answered in a stifled
+voice. "I borrowed it to win a wager from Adele. Of course, I don't mean
+to blame her, but she teased me into it. It was silly, I know, looking
+back on it now."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What was the bet?"</p>
+
+<p>"She bet that I would be afraid to climb down that ladder at midnight
+when the ghost is supposed to walk. I was simply to climb down, touch
+the ground and climb back again."</p>
+
+<p>"Idiots, both of you," said Molly furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, and I am sorry now," said the penitent Judy, "but
+fortunately no harm has been done except to my silly head, which needed
+a good whacking, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"No harm," thought Molly angrily. "I wonder what's going to happen to me
+to-morrow. One of us will be expelled, I suppose. Miss Walker is already
+down on Judy."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for coming down to me, Molly, dearest."</p>
+
+<p>Molly closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy, I want you to promise me something," she said. "If you get out of
+this scrape&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But no one knows it but you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no idea of telling on you, Judy, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> things leak out. How do
+you know you weren't observed?"</p>
+
+<p>Judy looked startled.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to promise me to give up this Adele Windsor and her crowd.
+She's never done you any good. She's a malicious, dangerous, wicked girl
+and if you haven't the sense to see it, I'll just tell you."</p>
+
+<p>This was strong language coming from Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't, mid-years will certainly see your finish, if you aren't
+dropped sooner. You're not studying at all and you are simply acting
+outrageously, dyeing your hair and borrowing rope ladders. I'm disgusted
+with you, Judy Kean, I am indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Walker has a grudge against me," announced Judy, in a hot whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," said Molly, and she swept out of the room and crawled into
+her bed, very weary and cold and frightened, wondering what the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> morrow
+would bring forth in the way of punishment for her&mdash;or was it to be for
+Judy?</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, foolish Judy carefully coiled up the rope ladder and
+hid it in the bottom of her trunk.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xvi" id="xvi"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>ON THE GRILL.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Not a word did Molly say to Nance or the unsuspecting Judy next morning
+about her appointment with President Walker.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't forget Latin versification at ten," Nance had cautioned her as
+she left the sitting room a quarter before ten.</p>
+
+<p>Molly had forgotten it and everything else except the matter in hand,
+but the President's word was law and she prepared to obey and skip the
+lecture.</p>
+
+<p>The President was waiting for her in the little study. No one was about
+and an ominous quiet pervaded the whole place.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down," said Miss Walker, without replying to Molly's greeting of
+good morning. "So<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> it's you, is it, who has been wandering about the
+grounds at night in a gray dressing gown, scaring the students? I need
+not tell you how disgusted and grieved I am, Miss Brown."</p>
+
+<p>Molly turned as white as a sheet. She had never dreamed that Miss Walker
+suspected her of being the campus ghost.</p>
+
+<p>But she answered steadily:</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken, Miss Walker. The ghost chased Nance and me the other
+night when we were coming back from the village. We were really
+frightened. I suppose it's some insane person."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what were you doing on the campus at that hour, and where did you
+get that ladder?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly turned her wide blue eyes on the President with reproachful
+protest, and Miss Walker suddenly looked down at the blotter on the
+desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer my question, Miss Brown," she asked more gently.</p>
+
+<p>How could Molly explain without telling on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Judy, and yet did not that reckless, silly Judy deserve to be told on?</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly two tears trickled down her cheeks. She let them roll unheeded
+and clasped her hands convulsively in her lap.</p>
+
+<p>"I insist on an answer to my question, Miss Brown," repeated the
+President, without looking up. Molly pressed her lips together to keep
+back the sobs.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw the ladder until a few minutes before you did," she
+answered hoarsely. "I&mdash;oh, Miss Walker, you make it very hard," she
+burst out suddenly, leaning on the table and burying her face in her
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>And then the most surprising thing happened. The President rose quickly
+from her chair, hurried over to where Molly was sitting with bowed head
+and drew the girl to her as tenderly as Molly's own mother might have
+done.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, my darling child," she said soothingly. "I haven't the
+heart to torture you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> any longer. I know, of course, that it was your
+friend, Miss Kean, who was at the bottom of last night's performance,
+and as usual you came down to help her when she fell. I only wanted you
+to tell me exactly what you knew."</p>
+
+<p>The truth is, the President had tried an experiment on Molly and the
+experiment had failed, and no one was more pleased than Miss Walker
+herself in the failure. She liked to see her girls loyal to each other.
+But things had not been going well at Wellington that autumn. There was
+an undercurrent of mischief in the air, a dangerous element, carefully
+hidden, and still slowly undermining the standards of Wellington. Miss
+Walker was very much enraged over the rumor that the ghost of her
+beloved sister had been seen wandering about the campus. This was too
+much. Her Irish maid had repeated the story to her and she had
+determined to lay that ghost without the assistance of the night
+watchman or any one else.</p>
+
+<p>The surprise of first being stretched on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> grill and then embraced by
+the President of Wellington College brought Molly to herself like a
+shock of cold water. She looked up into the older woman's face and
+smiled and the two sat down side by side on a little sofa, the President
+still holding Molly's hand. There might be some who could resist the
+piteous look in those blue eyes, but not President Walker.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I'm just a weak old person," she said to herself, giving the
+hand a little squeeze and then releasing it.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy wasn't the ghost, either, Miss Walker," said Molly, glad to be
+able to defend her friend on safe grounds. "The night we were chased
+Judy was in our rooms all the time. Last night was the first time she
+had ever done anything so foolish. It was only because a girl she goes
+with bet she wouldn't. It was the same girl that made her dye her hair,"
+Molly added, without any feeling of disloyalty.</p>
+
+<p>"Ahem! And who is this young woman who has such a bad influence on Miss
+Kean?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Molly flushed. Was she to be placed on the grill again? But after all
+there was no harm in telling the name of the girl who had brought all
+Judy's trouble on her.</p>
+
+<p>"Adele Windsor."</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you know of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know anything about her except that she has fascinated Judy."</p>
+
+<p>"And Judy must be punished," mused the President. "Judy is a very
+difficult character and she must be brought to her senses if she expects
+to remain at Wellington."</p>
+
+<p>"Judy loves Wellington, indeed she does, Miss Walker. It's only that she
+has got into a wrong way of thinking this year. I've heard her tell
+freshmen how splendid it was here and how they would grow to love it
+like all the rest of us."</p>
+
+<p>"She has not been doing well at all. She never studies. You see I know
+all about my girls."</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't know," went on Molly, "that the Jubilee entertainment was
+all Judy's idea. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> gave it to Adele Windsor&mdash;I don't know why&mdash;just
+because she was in one of her obstinate moods, but I heard her plan out
+the whole thing the opening night of college&mdash;and it was all for the
+glory of Wellington."</p>
+
+<p>The President's face softened.</p>
+
+<p>"Molly," she said, as if she had always called the young girl by her
+first name, "do you wish very much to save your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do, I do. I can't think of any sacrifice I wouldn't make to keep
+Judy from being&mdash;&mdash;" she paused and lowered her eyes. Was Miss Walker
+thinking of expelling Judy? But Miss Walker was not that kind of a
+manager. She often treated her erring girls very much as a doctor treats
+his patients with a few doses of very nasty but efficacious medicine.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your opinion of what had best be done, then? You know her
+better than I do. What do you advise?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly was amazed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Me? You ask my advice?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>The President nodded briskly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the best way to bring Judy to her senses is to give her a good
+scare and let it come out all right in the end."</p>
+
+<p>The President smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You're one of the wisest of my girls," she said, "now, run along. If
+I've made you miss a lecture I'm sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"It <em>will</em> come out all right in the end, Miss Walker?" asked Molly,
+turning as she reached the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I promise," answered the other, smiling again as if the question
+pleased her.</p>
+
+<p>And so Molly escaped from the grill feeling really very happy, certainly
+much happier than when she entered the office.</p>
+
+<p>Late that evening while Molly and Nance were preparing to take a walk
+before supper, Judy rushed into the room. There was not a ray of color
+in her face and her hair stood out all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> over her head as if it had been
+charged with electricity.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Molly, Molly," she cried, "did you know the President had overheard
+everything that was said last night? She was at the foot of the ladder
+all the time. You are not implicated, I saw to that, and I've not told
+where I got the ladder. I simply said some one had given it to me. No
+one is in it but me. But I'm in it deep. Girls, I've lost out. It's all
+over. I've got to go. Oh, heavens, what a fool I've been."</p>
+
+<p>Judy flung herself on the divan and buried her face in the pillows.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Molly almost lost faith in the President's promise.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean when you say you must go, Judy?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be true," burst out Nance, whose love for Judy sometimes
+clothed that young woman's sins in a garment of light.</p>
+
+<p>"Not expelled?" added Molly, in a whisper.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, no, not that; but suspended. I can come back just before mid-years,
+but don't you see the trick? How can I pass my exams then? And Mama and
+Papa, what will they think? And, oh, the Jubilee and all of you and
+Wellington? Molly, I've been a wicked idiot and some of my sins have
+been against you. I was jealous about that Jimmy Lufton because he had
+seemed to be my property and you took him away. And, Nance, I was mad
+with you because you were always preaching. I didn't really like Adele
+Windsor. I think she is horrid. She's malicious and she makes trouble.
+I've found that out, but she got me in her toils somehow&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And so poor Judy rambled on, confessing her sins and moaning like a
+person in mortal pain. She had worked herself into a fever, her face was
+hot and she looked at the girls with burning, unseeing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa will be so disappointed," she went on. "It will be harder on him
+than on Mama for me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> not to graduate with the class, and oh, I did love
+all of you&mdash;I really did."</p>
+
+<p>Tears, which Molly had never seen Judy shed but once before, now worked
+two tortuous little paths down her flushed cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Molly and Nance comforted and nursed her into quiet. They bathed her
+face and loosened her dyed locks which were now beginning to show a
+strange tawny yellow at the roots and a rusty brownish color at the
+ends. All the time Molly was thinking very hard.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy," she said, at last, when they had got her quiet. "There's no
+reason why you shouldn't pass the mid-years and graduate with your class
+if you want to."</p>
+
+<p>"But how? I'm so behind now I can hardly catch up, and if I miss six
+weeks I can never do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you can," said Molly. "This is what you must do. Go down to the
+village and get board anywhere, with Mrs. Murphy or Mrs. O'Reilly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> Take
+all your books and begin to study. Every day some of us will come down
+and coach you, Nance or I, or Edith&mdash;I know any of the crowd would be
+glad to, so as not to lose you."</p>
+
+<p>"But the Christmas holidays," put in Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be here for all the holidays," said Molly. "It will be all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>And so the matter was settled. The very next day Judy's exile began. She
+engaged a room at Mrs. O'Reilly's, her obstinate mood slipped away from
+her and she was happier and more like her old self than she had been in
+weeks. And Molly was happy, too. She felt that she had saved Judy and
+freed her at the same time from the clutches of Adele Windsor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xvii" id="xvii"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>A CHRISTMAS EVE MISUNDERSTANDING.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The old Queen's crowd rallied around the exiled Judy, even as Molly had
+predicted, and Judy was prostrated with gratitude. Nothing could have
+stirred her so deeply as this devotion of her friends.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel like Elijah being fed by the ravens in the wilderness, only you
+are bringing me crumbs of learning," she exclaimed to Molly who had
+taken her turn in coaching Judy. "I hope you don't mind being called
+'ravens,'" she added apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," laughed Molly. "I'd rather be called a raven than a
+catbird or a poll parrot or an English sparrow."</p>
+
+<p>But Judy was already deep in her paper. Being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> a recluse from the world,
+her life consecrated to study, she was playing the part to perfection.</p>
+
+<p>If Adele Windsor knew that Judy was in the village, she gave no sign,
+and so the exile, in her old room at O'Reilly's overlooking the garden,
+had nothing to do but bury herself in her neglected text books. Indeed,
+very few of the girls knew where Judy was. When she went out for her
+walks after dusk she wore a heavy veil and thoroughly enjoyed the
+disguise. One night the old crowd gave her a surprise party which Edith
+had carefully planned. Dressed in absurd piratical costumes with skirts
+draped over one shoulder in the semblance of capes, brilliant sashes
+around their waists, many varieties of slouch hats and heavy black
+mustaches, they stormed Judy's room in a body.</p>
+
+<p>"Hist!" said Edith, "the captive Maiden! We must release her ere
+sunrise!" Then they trooped in, danced a wild fandango which made Judy
+envious that she herself was not in it, and finally opened up
+refreshments.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So it was that Judy's exile was happy enough, and when Christmas
+holidays approached she had made up most of her lost work and was ready
+for Molly's careful coaching.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it is that heaven protects some of the foolish ones of this earth.
+Judy wrote to her mother and father that she was behind in her classes
+and would remain to study with Molly Brown, and as Mr. and Mrs. Kean
+were at this time in Colorado, they thought it a wise decision on the
+part of their daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Molly had grown to love the Christmas holidays at college. It was a
+perfect time of peace after the excitement and hurry of her life&mdash;a time
+when she could steal into the big library and read the hours away
+without being disturbed, or scribble things on paper that she would like
+to expand into something, some day, when her diffidence should leave
+her.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, curled up in one of the big window seats, Molly was thinking of
+a curious thing that had happened that morning at O'Reilly's.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She had gone in to say good-bye to Judith Blount and Madeleine Petit,
+who were leaving for New York by the noon train.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you'll be visiting all the tea rooms in town for new ideas,"
+Molly had said pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," said Madeleine. "I never leave a stone unturned and
+everything's grist that comes to my mill. This fall I got six new ideas
+for sandwiches and the idea for a kind of bun that ought to be popular
+if only because of the name. I haven't the recipe, but I think I can
+experiment with it until I get it."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the name?" Molly asked idly, never thinking of what a train of
+consequences that name involved.</p>
+
+<p>"'Snakey-noodles.' Isn't it great? Can't you see it on a little menu and
+people ordering out of curiosity and then ordering more because they're
+so good?"</p>
+
+<p>"Snakey-noodles," Molly repeated in surprise.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's the name, isn't it, Judith?" asked Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I remember it because the bun is formed of twisted dough like
+a snake coiled up."</p>
+
+<p>"It's very strange," said Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"What's strange?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that name, snakey-noodle. You see it's a kind of family name with
+us. Our old cook has been making them for years. I really thought she
+had originated it, but I suppose other colored people know it, too.
+Where did you have one?"</p>
+
+<p>"At a spread, oh, weeks and weeks ago."</p>
+
+<p>"But where?" insisted Molly. "I have a real curiosity to know. Was it a
+Southern spread?"</p>
+
+<p>"Far from it," said Madeleine. "Yankee as Yankee. One of the girls in
+Brentley House gave the spread."</p>
+
+<p>"But she didn't provide the snakey-noodles," put in Judith. "What's that
+girl's name who talks through her nose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Windsor."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>"Coming to think of it, I believe she said they had been sent to her
+from an aunt in the South," went on Madeleine. "So you see, Molly,
+nobody has been poaching on your preserves."</p>
+
+<p>Molly only smiled rather vaguely. She would have liked to ask a dozen
+more questions, but kept silent and presently, after shaking hands with
+the two inseparable friends, she went up to the library to think.
+Somehow Molly was not surprised. Nothing that Adele Windsor could do
+surprised her. The surprising part was how she avoided being found out.
+It was just like her to have planned the theft of the Senior Ramble
+lunch. There was something really diabolical in her notions of
+amusement. And now, what was to be done?</p>
+
+<p>Should she tell the other girls after the holidays, or should she wait?
+It was all weeks off and Molly decided to let the secret rest in her own
+mind safely. Even if she told, it would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> hard to prove the accusation
+at this late day, but perhaps&mdash;and here Molly's thoughts broke off.</p>
+
+<p>"I detest all this meanness and trickery," she thought. "I don't blame
+Miss Walker for wanting to clean it out of the school. Anyway," she
+added, smiling, "if that girl bothers Judy any more, I intend to
+pronounce the mystic name of snakey-noodles over her head like a curse
+and see what happens."</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon Molly packed a suitcase full of clothes and lugged it
+down to Mrs. O'Reilly's, where she had consented to spend Christmas with
+Judy instead of in her own pretty Quadrangle apartment. Secretly Molly
+would much rather have stayed in No. 5, where she could have rested and
+read poetry as much as she liked. But she was rarely known to consult
+her own comfort when her friends asked her to do them a favor, and,
+after all, if she were going to put Judy through a course of study, she
+had better be on the spot to see that the irresponsible young person
+stuck to her books.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So the two girls established themselves in the pleasant fire-lit room
+overlooking the garden. Judy had brought down two framed photographs of
+her favorite pictures and a big brass jar by way of ornament, and on
+Christmas Eve the girls went out to buy holly and red swamp berries.</p>
+
+<p>They were walking along the crowded sidewalk arm in arm, recalling how
+last year they had done exactly the same thing, when they came
+unexpectedly face to face with Mr. James Lufton.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if this isn't good luck," he exclaimed. "Nobody at the Quadrangle
+seemed to know where you were."</p>
+
+<p>He included both girls, but he really meant Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"And what are you doing here?" asked Molly, giving him her hand after he
+had shaken Judy's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Andy McLean asked me down for Christmas," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He failed to mention that he had pawned his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> watch, a set of Balzac and
+two silver trophies won at an athletic club, and, furthermore, had given
+out at the office that he was down with grippe, in order to accept the
+invitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Andy's up the street now looking for you. He thought perhaps Mrs.
+Murphy might know where you were."</p>
+
+<p>"What did he want with us?" asked Judy, lifting her mourning veil.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"He was thinking of getting up a Christmas dance, but&mdash;&mdash;" He looked at
+Judy's black dress.</p>
+
+<p>"She's not in mourning, Mr. Lufton," laughed Molly. "It's only that she
+prefers to look like a mourning widow-lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, excuse me, Miss Kean," said Jimmy. "I thought you had had a recent
+bereavement."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Judy, take off that thing," exclaimed Molly, unpinning the
+mourning veil in the back and snatching it off Judy's glowing face.</p>
+
+<p>"Molly, how can you invade on the privacy of my grief," exclaimed Judy,
+laughing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's Miss Judy Kean," exclaimed Dodo Green, coming up at that
+moment with Andy McLean. "Nothing has hap&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No," put in Molly, "it's only one of Judy's absurd notions. She's been
+wearing mourning for years off and on, but she's only lately gone into
+such heavy black."</p>
+
+<p>"And you've no objection to a little fun, then?" asked Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a particle," answered Judy, the old bright look lighting her face.
+"My feelings aren't black, I assure you."</p>
+
+<p>"On with the dance, then, let joy be unconfined," cried Andy. "We'll
+call for you at a quarter of eight, girls&mdash;at O'Reilly's, you say? I'll
+have to trot along now and tell the mater."</p>
+
+<p>The three boys hurried off while Molly and Judy rushed home to look over
+their party clothes.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't life a pleasant thing, after all?" exclaimed Judy, and Molly
+readily agreed that it was.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Such a jolly impromptu Christmas Eve party as it was that night at the
+McLeans'! Mrs. McLean had a niece visiting her from Scotland, an
+interesting girl with snappy brown eyes and straight dark hair. She was
+rather strangely dressed, Molly thought, in a red merino with a high
+white linen collar and a black satin tie, and she looked at Molly and
+Judy in their pretty evening gowns with evident disapproval. Just as
+Jimmy Lufton and Molly had completed the glide waltz for the fifth time
+that evening and had sunk down on a sofa breathless, the parlor door
+opened and in walked Professor Edwin Green, looking as well as he had
+ever looked in his life, with a fine glow of color in his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Professor!" cried Mrs. McLean.</p>
+
+<p>"Ed, I thought you were going to spend Christmas in the south,"
+exclaimed his brother.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a disobedient young man," ejaculated the doctor,&mdash;all in one
+chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't scold the returned wanderer," said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> Professor, glancing about
+the room swiftly until he caught Molly's eye, and then smiling and
+nodding. "It's dangerous for convalescents to be bored, and realizing
+that Christmas in the tropics might bring on a relapse, I decided to
+lose no time in getting back home."</p>
+
+<p>"And glad we are to see you, lad," said the doctor, seizing his hand and
+shaking it warmly. "You did quite right to come back before the <em>ennui</em>
+got in its work. It's worse than the fever."</p>
+
+<p>Molly left Jimmy Lufton's side to shake hands with the Professor, and
+then the Professor remembered the young newspaper man and greeted him
+cordially, and after that all the company went back into the dining-room
+for hot chocolate and sandwiches. And here it was that all the mischief
+started which came very near to breaking up the great friendship that
+existed between Molly and the Professor.</p>
+
+<p>It was simply that the Professor overheard scraps of information that
+Jimmy was pouring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> into Molly's ready ear while she listened with
+glowing cheeks and a gay smile to what he had to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you'll enjoy New York all right, Miss Brown, and the newspaper work
+won't be as hard as what you are doing now, I fancy. I'm sure they'd
+take you on if only for your&mdash;&mdash;" he paused. "You have only to ask and
+I'll put in a good word, too," he added. "You can never understand what
+a good time you'll have until you get there&mdash;theaters until you have had
+enough and the opera, too. I often get tickets through our critic&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The grand opera," repeated Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, anything you like. Lohengrin, A&iuml;da, La Boheme. Sooner or later you
+will see them all. Then there are the restaurants&mdash;such jolly places to
+get little dinners, and you are so independent. You are too busy to be
+lonesome and you can come and go as you like, nobody to boss you except
+the editor, of course, and you'll soon catch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> on. You have a natural
+knack for writing. I could tell that by your letters&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Molly, listening to the voice of the tempter, saw a picture of New York
+as one might see a picture of a carnival, all lights and fun and good
+times.</p>
+
+<p>"But I want to work, too, more than anything else," she said suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you'll have plenty to do," laughed the careless Jimmy, who took
+life about as seriously as a humming-bird.</p>
+
+<p>After supper the Professor drew Molly away from the crowd of young
+people and led her to a sofa in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to talk to you," he said in a tone of authority that a teacher
+might use to a pupil. "I could not help overhearing what your newspaper
+friend was saying to you at supper, and I wish you would take my advice
+and not listen to a word he says. He's just a young fool!"</p>
+
+<p>The Professor was quite red in the face and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> Molly also flushed and her
+eyes darkened with anger.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't agree with you about that," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible you are going to put all this hard studying you have
+been doing for the last three and a half years into writing news items
+for a yellow journal? I'm disgusted."</p>
+
+<p>"But I only expected to start there&mdash;&mdash;" began Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"And is that young idiot trying to persuade you that the sort of life he
+described&mdash;a wild carnival life of dissipation and restaurant dinners is
+the right life for you? I tell you he's mistaken. I should like
+to&mdash;to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Molly's face was burning now.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;I don't think it's any of your business," she burst out. At this
+astonishing speech the Professor came to himself with a start.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Miss Brown," he said. "I realize now that I entirely
+overstepped the mark. Good evening."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brown, shall we have the last dance together?" called Jimmy Lufton
+down the hall, and presently poor Molly, whirling in the waltz, wondered
+why her temples throbbed so and her throat ached.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xviii" id="xviii"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>TWO CHRISTMAS BREAKFASTS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Early Christmas morning a slender figure in faded blue corduroy could be
+seen hurrying up the road that led from the village to the college
+grounds. The frosty wind nipped two spots of red on her cheeks and under
+the drooping brim of her old blue felt hat her eyes shone like patches
+of sky in the sunlight. Where was Molly bound for at this early hour?
+The church bells were ringing out the glad Christmas tidings; the ground
+sparkled with hoar frost; but not a moment did she linger to listen to
+the cheerful clanging, or even to glance at the lonely vista of hill and
+dale stretched around her. Hurrying across the campus, she skirted the
+college buildings and presently gained the pebbled path that led to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+old campus in the rear, flanked by a number of old red brick houses,
+formerly the homes of the professors. They were now used for various
+purposes: the college laundry; homes for the employees about the
+building and grounds and rooms for bachelor professors.</p>
+
+<p>Hastening along the path to the house where Professor Green was
+domiciled, Molly was thinking:</p>
+
+<p>"Only a year ago I had to make the same apology to him. Oh, my wicked,
+wicked temper! I am ashamed of myself."</p>
+
+<p>And now she had reached the old brick house and sounded the brass
+knocker with an eager rat-tat-tat. Presently she heard footsteps resound
+along the empty hall and the Irish housekeeper flung open the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Professor Green up yet?" Molly demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"And shure I've not an idea whether he be up or slapin'."</p>
+
+<p>"But can't you see?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I cannot. It wouldn't be an aisy thing to do, I'm thinkin'."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not, pray? It must be his breakfast time. You have only to rap
+on his door. And it's very important."</p>
+
+<p>"And if it's so important, you'd better be after sendin' him a cable to
+the Bahamas, where the Professor is sunnin' himself at prisint."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, Mrs. Brady, the Professor got back last night. I saw him
+myself. He must be up in his room now. Do go and see. You haven't cooked
+him a bit of breakfast, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Brady turned without a word and tiptoed up the stairs. Molly heard
+her breathing heavily as she moved along the hall and tapped on the
+Professor's door. Then came a muffled voice through the closed door.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll git ye some breakfast, sir," called Mrs. Brady, and down she came.</p>
+
+<p>"Shure an' you wuz right an' I wuz wrong, an' I'm obliged to you for the
+information. But he'll<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> not be ready for seein' people for an hour yet,
+maybe longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Brady," said Molly, moved by a sudden inspiration. "Let me get his
+breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;" objected the Irish woman.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a splendid cook and I'll give you no trouble at all. Please." Molly
+put her hands on the Irish woman's shoulders and looked into her face
+appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Shure, thim eyes is like the gals' in the old countree, Miss," remarked
+Mrs. Brady, visibly melting under that telling gaze. "Ye can do as you
+like, but if the Professor don't like his breakfast the blame be on
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"He'll like it, I'm perfectly certain," said Molly, following Mrs. Brady
+back to the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a very, very funny world," said Mrs. Brady, displaying the
+contents of her larder to the volunteer cook.</p>
+
+<p>Her resources were limited, to be sure, but Molly improvised a breakfast
+out of them that a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> king would not have scorned. There were pop-overs
+done to a golden brown, a perfect little omelet, bacon crisp enough to
+please the most fastidious palate and an old champagne glass, the spoils
+of some festive occasion, filled with iced orange juice. The coffee was
+strong and fragrant.</p>
+
+<p>"He's very particular about it, Miss, an' he buys his own brand."</p>
+
+<p>Then Molly set the tray. Mrs. Brady's best white linen cover she
+snatched from the shelf without asking leave. In a twinkling she had
+polished and heated the blue china dishes, placed the breakfast on them
+and covered them tight with hot soup plates, since there were no other
+covers. Then she snipped off the top of a red geranium blooming in the
+window sill and dropped it into a finger bowl.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord love ye, Miss, but that's a beautiful tray," exclaimed Mrs. Brady,
+hypnotized by Molly's swift movements and skillful workmanship.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> "If I
+did not know ye wuz a lady from your looks I should say ye wuz a born
+cook. But Mrs. Murphy be afther tellin' me how you used to make things
+in her kitchen. Ye must be the same one, since it's red hair and blue
+eyes ye have&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Molly had disappeared into the pantry to replace the flour sifter while
+Mrs. Brady was holding forth, and now through a crack in the pantry door
+she saw the kitchen door open and Professor Green, in a long dressing
+gown, stalk in.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't bother about breakfast for me, Mrs. Brady," he said. "A cup of
+coffee quite strong&mdash;stronger than you usually make it, please&mdash;that's
+all I want."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Brady, glancing at Molly hidden in the pantry, saw her shake her
+head and place a finger on her lips.</p>
+
+<p>The Irish woman smiled broadly. It was a situation in which she saw many
+humorous possibilities and an amusing story to tell over the tea cups to
+Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. O'Reilly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Shure an' ye needn't eat it, sir," she said, in an injured tone, "but
+it's all prepared an' of the very best."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor glanced at the tray.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," he exclaimed, in amazement, "this is something really fine, Mrs.
+Brady. I didn't know you were getting up a holiday breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>Visions of slopped-over trays, weak coffee and hard toast passed before
+him, for Mrs. Brady was not a cook to boast of.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll eat it down here, if you've no objection," he continued kindly,
+lifting the covers and glancing curiously underneath. "By Jove, this is
+something like. Omelet, and what are those luscious looking things?"</p>
+
+<p>"They be pop-overs, sir, if I'm not misthaken."</p>
+
+<p>"Pop-overs, ahem! I've heard the name before." He sniffed the small
+coffee pot. "Good and strong; you've anticipated my wants this morning,
+Mrs. Brady."</p>
+
+<p>"Why doesn't he go on and eat?" thought the red-haired cook. "The omelet
+will be ruined."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the Professor had drawn up a chair to the kitchen table and was
+draining the orange juice at a gulp.</p>
+
+<p>"You're getting very festive, Mrs. Brady. Have you been taking lessons
+in my absence? That orange juice was just the appetizer I needed this
+morning." Then he fell to on the breakfast and never stopped until he
+had eaten every crumb and drained the coffee pot to the dregs.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Molly had taken a seat on the pantry floor. A weakness
+had invaded her knees and her head swam dizzily, since she had had no
+breakfast that morning.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose Judy will think I'm dead," she thought, "but it won't do her
+any harm to be guessing about me for once."</p>
+
+<p>She hoped the Professor would leave in a moment and go to his rooms. He
+had filled a short briar wood pipe and was leaning back in his chair
+musing, but he couldn't stay forever in Mrs. Brady's kitchen.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Brady, that was a very dainty and delicious little meal you
+prepared for me," she heard him say. "I was a bit low in my mind but I
+feel cheered up. A cup of coffee&mdash;if it's good&mdash;as this was&mdash;is often
+enough to restore a man's ambition." And now the kitchen was filled with
+the fragrance of tobacco smoke while the Professor mused in his chair,
+blowing out great clouds at intervals.</p>
+
+<p>"A bachelor is a poor pitiful soul, sir," answered the woman; "now, if
+ye had a wife to look after ye, you'd be afther havin' the like
+breakfasts ivery mornin'."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor blew out a ring of purple smoke and watched it float
+lazily in the air and gradually dissipate.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you know I was a woman hater, Mrs. Brady?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indade, I should think ye might be, seein' so many of them every day
+and all the time," answered the housekeeper sympathetically. "Too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> much
+of a good thing, sir. But, whin old age comes to ye, you'll miss 'em,
+sir. You'll miss a good wife to look after your comforts then."</p>
+
+<p>"I've got something better than that for my old age, Mrs. Brady. I've
+got a bit of land; it's an orchard on the side of a hill sloping down to
+a brook&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Molly, sitting on the pantry floor, felt a sudden jolt as if some one
+had shaken her by the shoulder. Faintness came over her and her heart
+beat so fast and loud she wondered that the two in the kitchen did not
+hear its palpitations.</p>
+
+<p>"The trees bear plenty of apples; I'll have lots of fruit in my old age.
+I've only to hobble out and knock them down with my cane when I get too
+old to climb up and shake the limbs, and where once swung a hammock in
+my orchard I may build a little hut."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pretty picture, sir, but lonely, I should say."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, Mrs. Brady, there'll be four walls to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> my hut and every inch
+of those walls will be covered with books," announced the Professor, as
+he strolled out of the kitchen, leaving the door ajar.</p>
+
+<p>Molly, now thoroughly exhausted, amazed, and quite faint from her
+emotions, was pulling herself to her knees when the Professor marched
+swiftly back into the room and walked into the pantry.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to see how much coffee you had left&mdash;&mdash;" he began. "I'll be
+writing for more&mdash;&mdash;" His foot encountered something soft on the floor
+and glancing quickly down he caught a glimpse in the shadow of a figure
+huddled up in the corner. The face was hidden in the curve of the elbow,
+but he saw the red hair, and a beam through a crack in the door cast a
+slanting light across the blue silk blouse.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Molly Brown, my little friend," he exclaimed. And he lifted her to
+her feet and half carried her to a chair near the fire. "So it was you
+who cooked me that delicious Christmas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> breakfast, and now you're half
+dead from fatigue and hunger. You've had no breakfast, confess?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly lifted her eyes to his and shook her head. Then she lowered her
+gaze and blushed.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm too ashamed to think of breakfast," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Brady, put the kettle on," ordered the Professor. "Get out the
+eggs. Where's the bacon?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the jar, sliced, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"But," protested Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say a word, child. Be perfectly quiet."</p>
+
+<p>Then the Professor began to fly about the room, tearing into the pantry,
+rushing from the table to the stove and back again, rummaging in the
+refrigerator for oranges and butter, and upsetting two chairs that stood
+in his way.</p>
+
+<p>All this time Mrs. Brady quietly toasted bread and broiled bacon while
+there hovered on her lips<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> an enigmatic smile. Then she scrambled two
+eggs while the Professor tested the coffee and squeezed an orange
+alternately. Molly watched him in dazed silence.</p>
+
+<p>"He bought the apple orchard and that is how I happen to be at
+Wellington this minute," she kept thinking mechanically. "He worked all
+summer and got into debt and caught typhoid fever in order to furnish
+me"&mdash;she choked&mdash;"and I spoke to him like that. No wonder he's a woman
+hater&mdash;no wonder he wants books&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ready," announced Mrs. Brady, and the next thing Molly knew she was
+sitting at the table drinking orange juice while the Professor buttered
+toast and poured out the coffee.</p>
+
+<p>Presently it was all over. Two Christmas breakfasts had been prepared in
+Mrs. Brady's kitchen that morning where none had been expected.</p>
+
+<p>"'Twas lucky I'd laid in supplies," exclaimed the genial Irish woman. "A
+body can never tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> what starvin' crayture's comin' to the door beggin'
+for a crust."</p>
+
+<p>And now Molly Brown found herself, almost without realizing it, walking
+across the college grounds beside her Professor.</p>
+
+<p>"I can never, never thank you," she was saying. "I couldn't even try."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try," he answered. "Indeed, I ought to thank you for introducing
+me to that lovely bit of orchard. As for the money, it was fairly crying
+out to be invested. I think I made a great bargain."</p>
+
+<p>"But Dodo said&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dodo talks too much," said the Professor, frowning. "He knows nothing
+about me and my affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow, you'll let me apologize for the way I answered you last night,"
+said Molly, giving him a heavenly smile.</p>
+
+<p>The Professor looked away quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"The apology is accepted," he said gravely.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And now we are friends once more, Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky, are we
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," cried Molly joyfully, feeling happy enough to dance at
+that moment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xix" id="xix"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+<br />
+<small>FACING THE ENEMY.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was a joyous day when Judy returned to college just before mid-years,
+after her long exile in the back room of O'Reilly's. She was made
+welcome by all her particular friends who killed the "potted" calf, as
+Edith called it, in honor of the prodigal's return.</p>
+
+<p>And Judy was well content with herself and all the world. A hair-dresser
+in Wellington had, by some mysterious process, restored her hair to very
+nearly its natural shade. Thanks to Molly, chiefly, and the others, she
+was well up in her lessons and quite prepared to breast the mid-year
+wave of examinations with the class. Never had the three friends at No.
+5 been more gloriously, radiantly happy than now on the verge of final<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+examinations. And then one day, in the midst of all this serenity and
+peace, Adele Windsor dropped in to call on Judy. At once Nance fled from
+the apartment. She could not bear the sight of this sinister young
+woman. Molly would have gone, too, but she remained, at an imploring
+glance from Judy, and slipped quietly into the next room, leaving the
+door ajar.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy knows she can call for help if she needs it," she thought rather
+complacently, for she was no longer afraid of that arch mischief-maker.</p>
+
+<p>As for Judy, she was singularly polite, but cold in her manner, and
+Molly detected a certain tremulousness in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"She's scared, poor dear," thought Molly indignantly. "Now, I wonder
+why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't seen you for weeks," Adele began in her sharp, assured tone.
+"Where have you been? I heard you had gone home."</p>
+
+<p>"I was away for some time," answered Judy evasively.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I hope and trust she thinks I have gone out with Nance," thought Molly
+in the next room, feeling a good deal like a conspirator. "She'll never
+come to the point if she knows I'm here, and I'd just like her to show
+her cards for once. It will be a glorious chance to get rid of her
+forever more, amen."</p>
+
+<p>The light of battle came into Molly's eyes. "I feel like a knight
+pricking o'er the plain to slay a dragon," she thought, waving an
+imaginary sword in the air. "When it's all over I wish I had the nerve
+to say, 'Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.'"</p>
+
+<p>She gathered that Adele had moved more closely to Judy, for she heard
+her voice from a new quarter of the room saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true that you were dropped?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever happened, Adele, it's over now and I am installed again and
+forgiven."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were being rather reckless,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> Judy. The rope ladder
+business was bad enough, but those ghost walks were really dangerous;
+really you went too far&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," interrupted Judy stiffly. "You are on the wrong
+track. I wasn't the campus ghost."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, really, Judy, my dearest friend," cried Adele, seizing both of
+Judy's hands and looking into her eyes with an expression of gentle
+toleration, "why can't you confide in me? After all our good times are
+you going to give me the cold shoulder? I know perfectly well that you
+were the ghost. Have I forgotten the night you planned the whole thing
+out? Anne White was there. I daresay she remembers it quite as well as I
+do. Of course, we thought you were enjoying yourself frightening the
+life out of people, but we wondered, both of us, how you dared. I
+remember you said how easy it would be to chase girls if they ran, and
+how easy to escape because you were the swiftest runner in college.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> Why
+are you trying to deceive your old partner? Especially as I happen to
+know that you had the rope ladder all that time. It would have been easy
+enough. Oh, I'm on to you, subtle, secretive Judy. You are a clever
+little girl, but I'm on to you."</p>
+
+<p>"What does she want?" Molly breathed to herself in the next room.</p>
+
+<p>"But I won't tease you any longer, dearest. I only wanted to let you
+know that I'm at the very bottom of the secret. I came to talk about
+other things."</p>
+
+<p>Molly breathed a long sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Here it comes," she thought.</p>
+
+<p>Judy straightened up and prepared to hear the worst.</p>
+
+<p>"Have the Shakespeareans and the Olla Podridas had their yearly conclave
+yet about new members?"</p>
+
+<p>"So it's that," Molly almost cried aloud, waving her arms over her
+head.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We meet on Saturday," answered Judy doggedly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a good deal of influence in that crowd, haven't you? I mean
+you can command a lot of votes?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can't command any," answered Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Blackmailer," thought Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking," went on Adele calmly, "that I would like to become a
+member of one or both those clubs. If I have to make a choice I would
+prefer the Shakespeareans, of course. Can't you fix it up?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid not, Adele. I can't manage it. I doubt if I could command
+any votes for you. You are mistaken about my influence."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, you can. Now, Judy, think a minute, I'm asking you a very
+simple, ordinary favor. Think of what it means to me and&mdash;well, to you,
+too. I might as well tell you right now that I'm a good friend but a bad
+enemy. You promised me once to get me into one of those clubs. Do you
+remember?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why this sudden change? I expect you to keep your word. I am wild
+to be a member of the Shakespeareans," here Adele changed her manner and
+her voice took on a soft, persuasive tone. "You won't regret it, Judy,
+dearest, you'll be proud of having put me up. I have a real talent for
+acting. I have, indeed, and I shall be able to get stunning costumes."</p>
+
+<p>Judy twisted and squirmed and shrunk away like a bird being gradually
+hypnotized by a serpent&mdash;at least so it seemed to Molly peeping through
+a crack in the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you it will be impossible," Judy was saying, after a pause, when
+Adele burst out with:</p>
+
+<p>"Those are unlucky words, Judy Kean. I'll make you sorry you ever
+spoke&mdash;&mdash;" she stopped short off as Molly appeared in one door and Nance
+in the other, followed by Otoyo, Margaret and Jessie and the Williams
+sisters. Nance had evidently gone forth and gathered in the clan for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+Judy's protection. Molly was almost sorry they had come. It had been a
+good opportunity to say what had been seething in her mind for some
+time, and, on the whole, she decided she would say it anyhow.</p>
+
+<p>With a bold spirit and a scornful eye, she marched into the room and
+stood before the astonished Adele.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Windsor," she said, and she hardly recognized her own voice, so
+deep and vibrant were its tones, "did you ever hear of snakey-noodles?
+Snakey-noodles! snakey-noodles! snakey-noodles!" she repeated three
+times like a magic incantation.</p>
+
+<p>Judy must have thought that she had suddenly lost her mind, for she
+glanced at her with a frightened look and the other girls with
+difficulty concealed their smiles. Edith, whose keen perceptions at once
+informed her that something was up, took a seat by the window where she
+could command a good view of the entire proceedings.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Adele, looking into Molly's honest, stern eyes, shrank a little and
+started to rise.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I shan't let you go until I have finished," said Molly. "Whenever
+the spirit moves you to ask a favor of Judy again, just say the word
+snakey-noodles over several times to yourself and then I think you'll
+leave Judy alone. Now, you may go, and remember that people who tell
+malicious, wicked stories, who impersonate ghosts, steal luncheons and
+get other girls into trouble are not welcome at Wellington. This is not
+that kind of a college."</p>
+
+<p>It was, of course, a random shot about the campus ghost, but Molly put
+it in, feeling fairly certain that none but the daring Adele would have
+attempted that escapade.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, too," she added, as a parting shot, "that girls don't get
+into clubs here by blackmail. Even if Judy had put you up, you wouldn't
+have had the ghost of a chance."</p>
+
+<p>Nobody was more interested than Edith in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> wondering what the strange
+Adele would do now. "Will she defend herself or will she fly?" Edith
+asked herself. But Adele did the most surprising thing yet. She burst
+into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"You have no right to speak to me as you did," she wept into a scented
+and hand-embroidered handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't I?" said Molly, drawing her gently but firmly to the door.
+"Well, go to your room and think about it a while and see if you don't
+change your mind." And with that she quietly thrust Adele into the hall,
+closed the door and locked it.</p>
+
+<p>Then, such a burst of subdued laughter rose within No. 5 as was never
+heard before. Molly collapsed on the sofa while the girls gathered
+around her. Judy sat on the floor, her head resting on Molly's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"It was as good as a play," cried Edith. "I never saw anything finer.
+Molly, you're certainly full of surprises. But what did you mean by
+snakey-noodles? Wasn't it beautiful?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Molly explained to them about the snakey-noodle box.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, the rest was just wild guessing, but from the way she took
+it I'm pretty sure I'm right."</p>
+
+<p>"It was better than jiu-jitsu," said Otoyo. "It was, I think, the
+jiu-jitsu of language."</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed at this quaint notion, and Molly relaxed on the couch
+like a very tired young warrior after the battle.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy, you're foolish to be afraid of that girl," said Margaret sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not exactly afraid of her," answered Judy, "but you see it would
+have gone particularly hard with me just now to have her go to Miss
+Walker with that story about the ghost. It was true that one evening, in
+a wicked humor, I planned the whole thing with her and that little Anne
+who is just as afraid of her as I suppose I am. I don't think Miss
+Walker would have given me another chance. Everything would have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+against me, the rope ladder and all the things I had said."</p>
+
+<p>"But then you could have proved an alibi," said Nance. "You were up here
+the night the ghost chased Molly and me."</p>
+
+<p>"So I could," Judy exclaimed. "I was so scared I forgot all about that
+night. There's something about Adele that makes you lose your senses.
+She leans over you and looks at you and talks to you in a hot, rapid
+sort of way. I just saw myself, after all the trouble everybody had
+taken with me, being sent away in disgrace. I didn't believe I could
+prove anything when she began talking. I just went under."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, don't you ever do it again," put in Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"Say 'snakey-noodles' the next time she comes at you," said Edith. "Oh,
+dear, that exquisite name," she continued, leaning back in her chair so
+as to indulge in a fit of silent laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you another interesting bit about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> this Miss Windsor," here
+put in pretty Jessie. "Do you remember that shabby little woman in black
+who came down on the same train with Molly's Mr. Lufton?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," broke in Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember her," said Judy. "Adele said she was a dressmaker, I
+believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she told the truth for once. She is a dressmaker, but she happens
+to be Adele's mother, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Her mother," they gasped in chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. When Mama and I were in New York for the Christmas holidays, we
+were recommended to go to a French place called 'Annette's' for some
+clothes. There was a French woman named Annette who came out and showed
+us things, but the head of the establishment was Mrs. Windsor. And we
+saw Adele hanging around several times. We also saw Adele's father, very
+dressy with a flower in his buttonhole and yellow gloves. He smiled
+sweetly at me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> in the hall. The fitter told us secretly that Mrs.
+Windsor spent everything she made on Adele and Mr. Windsor."</p>
+
+<p>"What a shame," cried Judy, "and Adele throws money around like water."</p>
+
+<p>"No wonder she wears such fine clothes. I suppose Annette makes all of
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank heavens, we're rid of her forever," exclaimed Molly. "It's not
+difficult to find a spot of good in the worst of people. There were
+Minerva Higgins and Judith Blount and Frances Andrews. I never did feel
+hopeless about them, but this Adele, who doesn't recognize her own
+mother&mdash;well&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well," broke in Otoyo. "She is what we call in Japan 'evil spirit,'
+or 'black spirit.' She will not remain because there are so many good
+spirits. She will fly away."</p>
+
+<p>"On a broomstick," put in Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"But Minerva Higgins, there is some greatly big news about her. You have
+not heard?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No," they cried. Otoyo had become quite a little news body among her
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>"She will not finish the course. She will be married in June to learned
+gentleman, a professor of languages of death&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean dead languages," put in Molly, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, it is the same."</p>
+
+<p>"That is why Minerva looks so gay and blushing," said Jessie. "I saw her
+this morning reading a letter on one of the corridor benches. I might
+have guessed it was a love letter from her expression of supreme joy."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if it was written in Sanskrit."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose after they marry they will have Latin for breakfast, Greek
+for dinner and ancient Hebrew for supper," observed Katherine.</p>
+
+<p>"But the gold medals, what of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"They will be saved for Pallas Athene, and Socrates, and Alcibiades
+Plato, of course," said Edith.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Who are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the children, goosie," and the party broke up with a laugh.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xx" id="xx"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE JUBILEE.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Molly Brown, in a state of wild excitement, rushed into No. 5 one
+morning waving a slip of yellow paper in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"They're coming," she cried ecstatically but vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"Who?" demanded her two bosom friends from the floor where they were
+engaged in fitting a paper pattern to a strip of velvet much too narrow.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother and sister, Minnie and Kent. Isn't it glorious? They get
+here to-morrow morning to stay for the Jubilee. Oh, I'm so happy, I am
+so happy," she sang.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad," said the two friends in one breath.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm getting rooms for them at O'Reilly's and they will arrive on the
+ten train. Isn't it lucky Mrs. O'Reilly is our bright, particular
+friend? We never could have got the rooms. Everything in the village is
+taken."</p>
+
+<p>The crowds had indeed come pouring into Wellington for the great Jubilee
+celebration for which every student at the college had been working for
+months past. And now, almost the first of May, everything was in
+readiness, the pageants, the costumes, the plays&mdash;all the splendid and
+complicated arrangements for an Old English May Day Festival. Judy, as
+she had planned on the opening night of college all those long months
+ago, was to be a gentleman of the court and was now engaged in
+constructing a velvet cape with Nance's assistance. Furthermore all the
+girls were to take part in the senior outdoor play to be given on the
+afternoon of the Jubilee celebration, and Molly, wonderful as it seemed
+to her afterward, had won for herself by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> excellent recitation the part
+of Rosalind. There had been many Rosalind competitors but Professor
+Green and the professional who had come down to coach chose Molly from
+them all.</p>
+
+<p>How they had practiced and rehearsed and worked over that play not one
+of the senior cast will ever forget. But now it was ready and the time
+was ripe for the grand performance. In two days it was to take place.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, in response to the telegram, the three friends met
+Molly's brother and sister at the station. They were a good looking
+pair, as Nance pronounced them, but not the least like Molly. Minnie or
+Mildred Brown was as pretty as Molly in her way. She had an aquiline
+nose that spoke of family, brown hair curling bewitchingly about her
+face and a beautifully modeled mouth and chin. Kent was different,
+too&mdash;tall with gravely humorous gray eyes, his mouth rather large and
+shapely, his nose a little small&mdash;but he was very handsome and his
+manners were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> perfection. He took to Judy at once. She amused and
+mystified him and she volunteered after lunch to show him all the sights
+of Wellington. Another visitor at Wellington was Jimmy Lufton, who had
+come down to see the celebration regardless of work and expenses, and
+ordered Molly a beautiful bouquet of narcissus to be handed to her when
+she appeared as Rosalind.</p>
+
+<p>Molly introduced him to Kent and Minnie and the three were soon good
+friends and looking for the best places along the campus to see the
+sights, while Molly rushed off to attire herself for the morning as a
+Maypole dancer. Old Wellington presented a strange and unusual aspect on
+that beautiful May morning. Far back under the trees gathered the people
+of the pageant waiting for the cue to start the march. Carts drawn by
+yokes of oxen rumbled along the avenue, filled with rustics from the
+country, mostly freshmen dressed in all manner of early English
+costumes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> There were shepherds and shepherdesses, maids of low and high
+degree. Gentlemen of the court and plow boys in smock frocks elbowed
+each other on the green. Booths had been set up of a seventeenth century
+pattern, where anachronisms in the form of modern refreshments were
+sold.</p>
+
+<p>Bands of singers and rustic dancers trooped by, jesters in cap and
+bells, page boys and trumpeters. A more animated and brilliantly colored
+scene would be difficult to imagine.</p>
+
+<p>Providence had smiled on Wellington's Jubilee and sent a glorious day
+for the May Day Festival. It was an early spring and everything that
+could do honor to the day had burst into blossom: daffodils that
+bordered the lawns of the campus houses nodded their delicate yellow
+heads in the morning sunlight; clumps of lilac bushes formed bouquets of
+purple and white and from an occasional old apple tree showers of pink
+petals fell softly on the grass.</p>
+
+<p>"It's almost as beautiful as Kentucky, Kent,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> observed Mildred Brown,
+and Jimmy Lufton laughed joyfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Almost, but not quite," he said. "In Kentucky there would be twice as
+much of everything, and, besides the elms, there would be beech trees
+and maples with a good sprinkling of walnut and locust."</p>
+
+<p>"Twice as many Mildreds, too," observed Kent. "But for my part I think
+the young ladies I have seen here are quite as pretty as the girls at
+home."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you'd have a hard time finding two to match Miss Molly and Miss
+Mildred," put in Jimmy, looking with admiration at the charming Mildred,
+dressed in a cool white linen, a broad brimmed straw hat trimmed with
+pink roses shading her face.</p>
+
+<p>"There's Miss Judy Kean," argued Kent.</p>
+
+<p>What would this young man have thought if at that moment he could have
+had a glimpse of the fair Judy dressed as a court gentleman in lavender
+satin knickers, a long cape of purple<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> velvet, an immense cavalier hat
+with a great plume and over her shapely mouth a flaring yellow
+mustachio?</p>
+
+<p>And all of our other friends, how strange and unnatural they seemed.
+Their most intimate friends would scarcely have recognized them.
+Margaret was a fat, jolly Falstaff, stuffed out to immense proportions.
+Edith was entirely disguised as a jester and enjoyed her own quips
+immensely when she tapped a visitor on the shoulder with her bauble and
+said, "Good morrow, fair maid, art looking for a swain?"</p>
+
+<p>And now four little heralds advanced down the campus bearing long
+trumpets, antique in shape, on which the sun sparkled brilliantly. At
+the center of the campus they paused and blew four long resonant blasts
+and then cried in one voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Make way for their Majesties, the King and Queen, and all the Royal
+Court." And the pageant began to unwind its sinuous length along the
+campus lawn, and all the rustic players who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> formed the rabble fell in
+behind the royal personages and their brilliant train.</p>
+
+<p>It was really a wonderfully beautiful picture, one to be remembered
+always with pride by Wellingtonians and with pleasure by outsiders who
+had gathered by the hundreds on the lawn. After the pageant came the May
+pole dancers and the wandering musicians, the Morality Play and the
+rustic dances.</p>
+
+<p>There were hundreds of things to see. Mildred Brown, rushing from one
+charming performance to another, felt almost as if it really was an old
+English May Day Festival. The spirit of the actor rustics pervaded her
+and she was full of excitement and wonder at the whole marvelous
+performance.</p>
+
+<p>At last the entire company gathered in front of the now historic site of
+Queen's Cottage and there amid the shrubbery and the tall old forest
+trees the seniors gave their performance of "As You Like It."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe Marlowe and Sothern could do it a bit better,"
+exclaimed Mildred proudly. "Aren't they wonderful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't Miss Molly wonderful?" said Jimmy Lufton.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, I am proud of my little sister to-day, prouder than ever
+of her."</p>
+
+<p>A man in a gray suit fanning himself with a straw hat turned around and
+looked at Mildred curiously. His face was lined with fatigue, for nobody
+had worked harder than he over the Festival. But he was not too tired to
+be interested in Mildred Brown.</p>
+
+<p>"So they are the brother and sister," he said to himself. "And a very
+good-looking pair they are. I must try and meet them to-morrow. Ask them
+to tea in the Quadrangle. Miss Molly would like that, I think. But not
+that young Lufton," he added half angrily. "Not that young buccaneering
+newspaper fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Green," said Mrs. McLean, standing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> next to him, "I think we
+owe most of the success of this day to you. But how about that charming
+Rosalind? Did you train her to act so prettily?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied, "I couldn't do that. It's in her already. One has only
+to bring it out."</p>
+
+<p>Among the flowers which were handed over the row of potted cedars to
+Molly after that charming performance was a big bunch of yellow
+daffodils, and tied to the yellow ribbon was a large yellow apple.</p>
+
+<p>"You've won your second golden apple to-day, Miss Molly, and I am proud
+of my pupil," read the card attached.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xxi" id="xxi"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>FAREWELLS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The rest of the time until graduation was like a dream to Molly and her
+friends whose hearts were filled with a sort of two-pronged
+homesickness; homesickness for home and for Wellington, which now they
+were about to leave forever more.</p>
+
+<p>A great many things happened in the space that intervened between the
+first of May and the eighteenth of June, when graduation occurred. There
+were dances at Exmoor and dances at Wellington and the senior reception
+to the juniors. Then there were long quiet evenings when the old crowd
+gathered in No. 5 and talked of the future.</p>
+
+<p>It was on one of these warm summer nights that they were draped as usual
+about the couches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> in the mellow glimmer of one Japanese lantern. Judy,
+thrumming on the guitar, sang:</p>
+
+<div class="con3">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'When all the world is young, lad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And all the trees are green;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And every goose a swan, lad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And every lass a queen;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then hey for boot and horse, lad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And round the world away;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Young blood must have its course, lad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And every dog his day.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'When all the world is old, lad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And all the trees are brown;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all the sport is stale, lad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And all the wheels run down;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Creep home and take your place there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The spent and maimed among:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">God grant you find one face there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">You loved when all was young.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"My, that makes me sad," said Jessie. "I feel that I've already lived my
+life and am coming back to old Wellington to die with a lot of other
+decrepit old persons who used to be young and beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks for the compliment about looks," said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> Edith. "But I don't feel
+that way. I'm going forth to conquer. I am going to write books and
+books before I come home to die."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to write books, too," announced Molly meekly, "but I feel
+that I'm not ready to begin yet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't begin too young," interrupted Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, but I'm coming back for a post grad. course in"&mdash;Molly
+hesitated, she hardly knew why&mdash;"in English and&mdash;and a few other things.
+I've got no style&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What, are you really coming back?" they cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Nance and I have decided to return," replied Molly. "We are not ready
+to join the ranks yet, are we, Nance? Dear Nance is going to polish up
+her French literature. I'll be busy enough. I expect to do a lot of
+tutoring and other profitable work."</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do?" groaned Judy. "I don't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> want to study any more, and,
+yet, how can I bear for you two to be at Wellington without me to bother
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Molly looked at her and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, you are to come home with me this summer, Judy, and maybe
+you'll like Kentucky so well you'll want to stay there."</p>
+
+<p>Molly was well aware that her brother Kent had fallen in love with Judy
+at first sight, and it didn't occur to her that anybody could resist the
+charms of her favorite brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret, why don't you come back?" asked Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"Not me," answered Margaret. "I hear the voice of suffrage calling!"</p>
+
+<p>"We all of us hear voices calling," broke in Katherine. "And each is a
+different voice according to our natures. Now Margaret's voice is
+soprano, but Jessie hears a deep baritone&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing of the sort," cried Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"'Fess up, now, Jessie, when is it to be?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The girls all gathered around pretty Jessie and at last, hard pressed,
+she said:</p>
+
+<p>"When it does come off you'll have to assemble from the four quarters of
+the globe to act as bridesmaids, but the day's not set yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you decided on the man?" asked Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"Edith, how can you?" answered Jessie, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do, Katherine?" asked Molly, when the excitement
+had quieted down.</p>
+
+<p>"Teach," answered Katherine bluntly. "I loathe the thing, but a place
+awaits me, so I suppose next winter will find me sitting behind a little
+table, ringing a bell sharply, and saying, 'Now, girls, pay attention,
+please.'" She turned her large melancholy eyes on her sister. "Edith
+thinks she's the only writer in the family, but in the intervals of
+teaching I intend to surprise her. I've already had one short story
+accepted by an obscure but <em>bona fide</em> magazine which hasn't sent me a
+check yet."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard the joke on Katherine?" put in Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"Do tell," they cried, while Katherine said fiercely: "Now, Edith, you
+promised to keep that a secret."</p>
+
+<p>"It's too good to keep. She chose for the subject of her graduating
+essay 'The Juvenile Delinquent,' and got it all written and then it
+occurred to her that Miss Walker would announce 'The Juvenile
+Delinquent, Katherine Williams,' and she could not stand the
+implication."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Katherine," they cried, laughing joyously.</p>
+
+<p>And now Molly was handing around nut cake and cloud bursts, it seemed
+almost for the last time, and after that these bright spirits in kimonos
+flitted away to their rooms.</p>
+
+<p>A little later, after darkness and quiet had descended, an ecstatic
+little giggle broke from Judy, lying alone and staring at the dim
+outline of her window. It was too soft a sound to disturb the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> tired
+sleepers in the adjoining rooms, but it meant that Judy had an idea,&mdash;an
+idea that she could see already realized by the aid of her remarkable
+imagination.</p>
+
+<p>Her mind had been reviewing the talk of the evening and revolving about
+each of the girls in turn;&mdash;Edith and Katherine and Molly, literary and
+ambitious; Nance, serious and studious; Jessie, pretty, romantic and
+destined for marriage; and Margaret, the able and willing champion of
+suffrage. And Judy had smiled as she began to recall certain hours when
+Margaret's enthusiasm had waxed high, even so far back as Freshman year,
+and her first class presidency. That thought had started others, and as
+Judy remembered various amusing incidents of the four years, her "idea"
+had flashed upon her. It was then that Judy had hugged herself and
+laughed aloud, but it was several nights later that she shared with the
+other girls her inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>They had gathered in Otoyo's little room that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> night,&mdash;just the eight
+close friends who now grasped every opportunity for one more good time
+together. They were a little inclined to sadness, for they had all been
+busy with those extra duties that point directly to the closing days of
+college life.</p>
+
+<p>Some had posed before the class photographer's camera, some had borne
+the weariness of having gowns fitted, and at least two had practiced
+their parts for the commencement exercises.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret and Jessie were humming the chorus of one of the Senior class
+songs and Otoyo was just beginning to make the tea, when Judy slipped
+out of the room with a word of excuse and a promise to return.</p>
+
+<p>Molly turned lazily to Nance who sat close beside her on the couch and
+whispered, "Judy is as nervous as a witch these days. She has probably
+thought of something to add to her list!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that list!" returned Nance. "She has everything on it now from
+white gloves to a trunk strap, and still it grows!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Seniors, seniors, seniors,'" chanted Margaret and Jessie dreamily,
+watching Otoyo as she deftly arranged her dainty cups and saucers on
+beautiful lacquered trays.</p>
+
+<p>Edith and Katherine were quietly disputing some point about the class
+program and absent-mindedly accepting lemon for their tea, when the door
+opened and a woman draped closely in black stepped into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, ha, young ladies," she cried in a high, weird voice that startled
+them into instant silence, "so you would pierce the mysterious veil of
+the future and read in your teacups the fortune that awaits you? Could
+you but possess my occult vision, you would not need to employ such
+puerile methods."</p>
+
+<p>Here the somber figure raised two black-gloved arms and held before her
+eyes a pair of plain black opera glasses. She had reversed their usual
+position and now gazed steadily about the room through the large end of
+the glasses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, ha," she began again, fixing her roving attention upon Margaret,
+who returned her gaze easily, "I see far, far away, through a vista of
+crowded seats, a huge platform adorned with distinguished figures. A
+pretty woman stunningly gowned is introducing to a breathlessly
+expectant audience a tall, striking person. The plaudits of the
+multitude drown the sound of her name as it is announced, but our keen
+sight enables us to recognize the famous Miss Wakefield! To those who
+have long known her, it will not be surprising to learn that her
+companion is none other than her college satellite, now Miss
+Jessie,&mdash;but I cannot quite pronounce the unfamiliar name."</p>
+
+<p>As the voice stopped for a moment, Jessie started toward the strange
+figure, but Margaret pulled her back and drew her blushing face down
+upon her own shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time Molly cried, "Where have I seen those shabby old
+glasses before?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And Nance added, "My old bird glasses, or I'm blind!"</p>
+
+<p>Nothing daunted, the prophetess went on in the same weird key, "I see
+the gray towers of Wellington looming grandly against a wild autumnal
+sky. I see troops of girls crowding across the campus and into
+recitation rooms. I see a single figure walking beside the white-haired
+President as though discussing the schedule of lectures and the merits
+of students, and the figure is that of Miss Oldham,&mdash;dear old Nance!"
+And the voice of the soothsayer broke suddenly as she turned the glasses
+on Nance and Molly.</p>
+
+<p>Then she hurried on, "By forcing my keen vision to its utmost capacity,
+I am able to read upon certain profound text books the names of their
+joint compilers, Edith and Katherine Williams, the world-famed writers!"</p>
+
+<p>Again the voice paused as the glasses were leveled at the friendly
+disputants, long since quieted by the eloquence of the seer.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>All this time Otoyo had stood spellbound beside her teapot. Now she
+started slightly as the glasses glimmered in her direction.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no, no," she cried in real distress. "Don't tell me, please,
+Mees Kean!"</p>
+
+<p>At that, Judy flung the draperies back from her hair, the glasses to
+Nance, and her arms about Otoyo, exclaiming at the same moment:</p>
+
+<p>"You precious child, I don't know any more than your little Buddha does
+about your future, but the gods will be good to you and we'll leave it
+to them."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="link"><a href="#contents">Contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="xxii" id="xxii"></a>CHAPTER XXII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE FINAL DAYS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Now as suddenly as she had tossed aside her head coverings, Judy dropped
+her long loose cloak upon the floor and stood revealed clad in motley
+raiment indeed. In an instant all that she had said was forgotten as the
+girls crowded around examining her curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Judy Kean, where <em>did</em> you find that old necktie?" cried Molly, as
+she spied a long familiar article fastened at Judy's throat.</p>
+
+<p>"And my Russian princess muff!" exclaimed Nance. "It was hidden with my
+treasures at the very bottom of my trunk!"</p>
+
+<p>"And do I not behold my favorite Shelley?" chimed in Edith, seizing a
+book that dangled by a cord from Judy's waist.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And I&mdash;surelee it is my veree ancient kimono that hangs behind?"
+inquired Otoyo curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I have it," announced judicial Margaret "Judy Kean is now a symbol. She
+represents <em>us</em>. Upon her noble person she carries the intimate
+souvenirs of our various stages of collegiate growth. Yea, verily, I
+recognize mine own."</p>
+
+<p>With that, Margaret tried to claim a gorgeous yellow pennant that
+flaunted its aggressive motto in a panel-like arrangement on Judy's
+dress.</p>
+
+<p>Judy dodged Margaret's attempt and lifting her hand dramatically
+exclaimed in oratorical tones:</p>
+
+<p>"You have guessed. I am indeed the spirit of our college days. I
+represent History, and the tokens that I wear mark the incidents of
+humor, pathos, and tragedy that were the crises in our young careers.
+You will pardon me, I know, when I tell you that I have rummaged
+reverently among your personal 'estates,' as Otoyo used to say, seeing,
+touching, disturbing none but the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> significant articles before you.
+Behold the history of these departing years!"</p>
+
+<p>As Judy swung slowly about before their interested eyes, something
+chinked and clinked gently, like glass meeting glass. Molly's long arm
+shot out and grasped the jingling articles. A not-to-be-suppressed shout
+broke forth as she displayed a china pig and a small bottle of
+blue-black fluid labeled "Hair-dye,&mdash;black."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Judy, Judy," cried Molly, "if you haven't discovered <em>another</em>
+Martin Luther, the ghost of the hero of my Junior days! Give him to me
+and I will feed him faithfully next year,&mdash;by the slow earnings of my
+pen, I will!"</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Jessie was laughing over the tell-tale bottle of hair-dye,
+and secretly every one was rejoicing that Judy, too, could look back
+upon that supremely foolish escapade and laugh as heartily as any of
+them at her own expense.</p>
+
+<p>And now Nance claimed her muff,&mdash;the one survivor of the three
+cotton-batting masterpieces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> made for the skating carnival of Sophomore
+year,&mdash;and as she thrust her hands inside, they encountered a long, hard
+object. She drew it out and with a flourish waved above her head a
+clean, meatless but unmistakable ham bone!</p>
+
+<p>The laugh was directed toward Molly now, and to turn it again she
+exclaimed, "What do I see gleaming upon your finger, Judy Kean? Verily,
+upon the third finger of your left hand?"</p>
+
+<p>Immediately the girls joined in the cry, chanted like a deep-toned
+school yell, "Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!"</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, it was lent to me. It's not mine. I simply promised to wear it
+for a few months,'" quoted Judy, imitating Jessie's own protesting
+explanation so cleverly that even Otoyo recognized the source. "But it
+is only a five-cent diamond!" added Judy, shaking her head solemnly. "I
+might lose it, you know, and it would take more than a steely inspector
+to locate it in a man's deep coat pocket!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The girls cast sly glances at Molly, but she was intent on another
+discovery. Hanging under Edith's shabby copy of Shelley was her own
+beloved Rossetti! Instantly she forgot the girls and their fun and saw
+for one fleeting moment a series of quickly moving mental pictures.
+First there flashed before her that Christmas when Professor Green had
+given her the little volume. Then she saw herself in the cloisters lost
+in the beauty of "The blessed damozel," when he had appeared so
+unexpectedly. And finally she realized suddenly how much she loved the
+little worn volume and how she should always keep it to comfort and
+inspire her.</p>
+
+<p>"'<em>Come&mdash;back&mdash;to me, Sweetheart</em>,'" sang Judy teasingly, and Molly came
+back with a start, only just realizing that she had been day-dreaming.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this spiky thing that pricks through the folds of my aged
+sweater?" asked Katherine, who had recognized an old blue sweater that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+Judy wore draped from her waist like a pannier.</p>
+
+<p>"This," replied Judy, "is a bud that grew on a twig that grew on a bush
+that grew from the ground that marks the resting place of the ashes of
+Queen's, and to you, Katherine, as true historian of our noble class, do
+I present it."</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of futurity, I accept it," replied Katherine, not to be
+outdone in formality.</p>
+
+<p>"And now to appease the cravings of the inner man, permit me to share
+with you the contents of this hamper," continued Judy, opening a small
+basket that she carried on her arm. "Although not the original,
+lost-but-not-forgotten snakey-noodles, these are the best imitations
+that Madeleine Petit could make. And Molly the cook has contributed once
+more some of her justly famed cloud bursts, an indispensable exhibit in
+this unequaled historical collection!"</p>
+
+<p>Warm and breathless, Judy sat down and began to remove her borrowed
+plumes, while the girls, each holding aloft a snakey-noodle and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> cloud
+burst, chanted appreciatively, "What's the matter with Julia Kean?
+<em>She's all right!</em>"</p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>Graduation at Wellington was old-fashioned and conventional. The girl
+graduates in white dresses filed onto the platform and took their seats
+in a semi-circle. Those who were so fortunate as to have relatives and
+friends in the large audience searched for their intimate features in
+the sea of upturned, interested faces. As glances met, smiles were
+fleetingly exchanged but quickly subdued on the part of the girls as the
+dignity of the day was borne in upon them anew.</p>
+
+<p>President Walker, never more sweet and womanly than in the formal attire
+demanded by her position, unconsciously inspired them all to imitate her
+fine simplicity and grace of manner. Tears sprang to the eyes of many
+girls as they looked at her and realized as never before that she had
+been the real center of all that had been best and most lasting in their
+college life. The girls who were to read essays, resolved that for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> the
+President's sake they would do well in spite of trembly knees and shaky
+hands. And of course they did, because in their determination to please
+Miss Walker and to reflect credit upon her and dear old Wellington they
+quite lost their paralyzing self-consciousness. The little buzz of
+pleased conversation that followed each number of the program as the
+applause died down was gratifying without doubt, but the students cared
+more deeply for the President's brief nod and smile of satisfaction.
+After the exercises came the diplomas, those strips of sheepskin for
+which our girls had striven so long and valiantly. It was almost a shock
+to clasp at last that precious token that had seemed so difficult of
+achievement in the far-away Freshman days. If to Molly it meant among
+other things value received for "two perfectly good acres of orchard,"
+to Nance it marked a milestone of happy progress; to Margaret, Edith and
+Katharine it represented an interesting bit of current history; and to
+Judy and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> Jessie it signified a safe haven after many narrow escapes
+from shipwreck.</p>
+
+<p>After the exciting day was over, came the class supper and then
+everybody did stunts. Edith read the class poem and Katherine was
+historian. Then the oldest girl and the prettiest girl and the class
+baby made speeches, and at the end came three cheers for Molly Brown,
+the most beloved in 19&mdash;; and Molly, trembling and blushing, rose and
+thanked them all and assured them that it was the greatest honor she had
+ever known; and they made her sit on the table while they danced in a
+circle around it, singing:</p>
+
+<div class="con2">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Here's to Molly Brown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drink her down, drink her down, drink her down."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Thus the four years at Wellington came to an end as all good things
+must, and the day for the parting arrived. The "Primavera" and the
+prayer rug were packed away in a box and shipped to Kentucky, because,
+after all, Molly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> might not return to Wellington. Who could tell what
+the fates had in store? Then came the good-byes. There were tears in
+their eyes and little choky sounds in their voices as they kissed and
+hugged and kissed again.</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo at that last meeting gave a present to each of the old crowd. She
+was smiling bravely, since it is not correct for a young Japanese lady
+to weep, and she kept reiterating:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall mees you, greatlee, muchlee. It will not be the same at
+Wellington."</p>
+
+<p>With Molly's gift, a little carved ivory box, Otoyo handed a letter.</p>
+
+<p>"I promised to deliver it on the last day," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds a good deal like the Judgment Day," said Molly, laughing,
+as she tore open the envelope. The letter read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The Campus Ghost and the Thief of Lunches has learned from you
+what nobody ever told her before: that honesty's the best
+policy. I suppose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> I always enjoyed the other way because I
+never was found out. But being found out is different. Honest
+people who have nothing to conceal are the happiest. I know that
+now, and henceforth the open and above-board for me.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span style="padding-right: 6em;">"Yours,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">"Adele Windsor."</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Molly rolled the paper into a little ball and threw it away. Certainly
+the note of repentance did not sound very strong in Adele's letter. But
+perhaps it was only her way of putting it, and to be honest for any
+reason, no matter how remote from the right one, was something.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow, I hope she will think it's best policy to be nice to her poor,
+hard-working mother," she thought indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>But Adele had already passed out of the lives of the Wellington girls
+and none of them ever saw her again. She did not return to college to
+finish out the senior course, and the hoodoo suite was dismantled
+forever of her fine trappings and furniture.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have one more good-bye to say, girls," said Molly to her friends a
+little while before train time. "I'll meet you at the archway."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll miss the train," called Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"And that would just spoil everything," cried Judy.</p>
+
+<p>The three friends had planned to travel as far as Philadelphia together.
+There Nance would leave them to join her father, and Molly and Judy
+would continue their journey toward Kentucky.</p>
+
+<p>But Molly was already running down the corridor, suitcase in one hand
+and jacket in the other.</p>
+
+<p>Down the steps she flew and out into the court toward the little door
+which opened into the cloisters. Another dash and she was knocking on
+Professor Green's door.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," he called, and she flew into the room breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"I came to say good-bye again," she said. "I've only five minutes."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Sit down," he said, drawing up a chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to ask you," she went on, "if you wouldn't come to Kentucky to
+visit us this summer and&mdash;and see your property."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know it would be convenient for your mother to have me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is always convenient for mother to entertain friends, and
+this is really her very own suggestion. Our house is big and besides
+that we have an office outside with three bedrooms for overflow."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor looked thoughtful. Perhaps he was already forming a
+picture in his mind of the hammock beside the brook and the shady
+orchard, his orchard.</p>
+
+<p>"You will promise to come, won't you?" persisted Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really want me?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, indeed I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, then," she said, "or rather <em>au revoir</em>,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> and they clasped
+hands while the Professor looked down into Molly's eyes and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>He moved to the door like a sleep-walker and held it open for her as she
+hurried out. Then he went back to his desk and sat down in a sort of
+trance. The next instant the door was flung open again, footsteps
+hurried across the room and two arms slipped over his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember what I said I was going to do some time to that old
+gentleman who bought the orchard?" said Molly's voice over his head. "I
+said I'd just give him a good hug."</p>
+
+<p>For one instant the arms held him tightly, a cheek was laid lightly on
+his thin reddish hair and then she was gone, flying down the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she regards me as an old gentleman," he said resignedly,
+laying his hand softly on the spot where her cheek had touched.</p>
+
+<p>As for Molly, she had a sudden thought that almost stopped her headlong
+course:</p>
+
+<p>"What <em>would</em> Miss Alice Fern think if she knew!"</p>
+
+<p>The girls were calling impatiently when Molly reached the arch, and in
+three minutes the crowded bus moved down the avenue.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye! Good-bye!" called many voices.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye! Good-bye!" echoed the few students who were going to take a
+later train.</p>
+
+<div class="nh">
+<a name="good" id="good">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 391px;">
+<img src="images/illus-04.jpg" width="391" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Good-bye to Wellington and the old happy days.&mdash;
+<a href="#good2"><em>Page</em> 303</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span><a name="good2" id="good2"></a>Good-bye to Wellington and the old happy days! Good-bye to the
+Quadrangle and the Cloisters! Good-bye to all the dear familiar haunts
+and faces.</p>
+
+<p>Every one of the girls felt the hour of parting keenly, but to two of
+Molly's friends at least there came an additional pang. They had known
+no happier home; no other place held for them such close associations.
+Nance, pale and silent, and Judy, feverish and excited, turned their
+eyes lingeringly toward the twin gray towers. But Molly, her face
+transfigured by some secret happy thought, looked southward down the
+avenue toward Kentucky and home!</p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>The class prophecy which Judy had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> extemporized on the evening of her
+appearance as "History" may have had some promise of fulfillment, but it
+will be remembered that Otoyo's timely interruption saved her from
+guessing at the most puzzling future of all. It remains, therefore, for
+"Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days" to reveal what Dame Fortune had in
+store for the girl of many possibilities, Molly Brown of Wellington and
+Kentucky.</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+
+<div class="tnbox">
+<p class="tn"><b>Transcriber's Note</b>:<br />
+<br />
+The illustration with the caption "Molly Glanced Back. Sure Enough,
+The Phantom&nbsp;...&nbsp;was Running Behind Them&mdash;<a href="#molly"><em>Page</em>
+198</a>." was not available for inclusion in this ebook.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Senior Days, by Nell Speed
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Senior Days, by Nell Speed
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Molly Brown's Senior Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn
+
+Release Date: March 23, 2008 [EBook #24903]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SENIOR DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jacqueline Jeremy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "You're right in the fashion, Miss Brown," observed
+Adele.--_Page_ 25.]
+
+
+
+
+    MOLLY BROWN'S
+    SENIOR DAYS
+
+    BY
+    NELL SPEED
+
+    AUTHOR OF "MOLLY BROWN'S FRESHMAN DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S
+    SOPHOMORE DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+    _WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS
+    BY CHARLES L. WRENN_
+
+    NEW YORK
+    HURST & COMPANY
+    PUBLISHERS
+
+
+    Copyright, 1913
+    BY
+    HURST & COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER                                                  PAGE
+
+        I. GOOD NEWS AND BAD                                    5
+
+       II. A TROUBLED SUNDAY                                   20
+
+      III. GOSSIP OVER THE TEACUPS                             38
+
+       IV. THE SENIOR RAMBLE                                   51
+
+        V. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL                           66
+
+       VI. THE RETORT COURTEOUS                                77
+
+      VII. A STOLEN VISIT                                      89
+
+     VIII. BARBED ARROWS                                      104
+
+       IX. THE SUBSTITUTE                                     114
+
+        X. THE POLITE FREEZE-OUT                              126
+
+       XI. THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE                             138
+
+      XII. FRIENDLY RIVALS                                    152
+
+     XIII. THE DROP OF POISON                                 164
+
+      XIV. JUDY DEFIANT                                       180
+
+       XV. THE CAMPUS GHOST                                   195
+
+      XVI. ON THE GRILL                                       208
+
+     XVII. A CHRISTMAS EVE MISUNDERSTANDING                   220
+
+    XVIII. TWO CHRISTMAS BREAKFASTS                           236
+
+      XIX. FACING THE ENEMY                                   251
+
+       XX. THE JUBILEE                                        267
+
+      XXI. FAREWELLS                                          277
+
+     XXII. THE FINAL DAYS                                     289
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+    "You're Right in the Fashion, Miss Brown," observed
+    Adele                                          _Frontispiece_
+
+    Before She Had Time to Realize the Danger, Jimmy
+    Lufton Had Torn Off His Coat                              132
+
+    Molly Glanced Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom ... was
+    Running Behind Them                                       198
+
+    Good-bye to Wellington and the Old Happy Days             303
+
+
+
+
+~Molly Brown's Senior Days~
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GOOD NEWS AND BAD.
+
+
+Summer still lingered in the land when Wellington College opened her
+gates one morning in September. Frequent heavy rains had freshened the
+thirsty fields and meadows, and autumn had not yet touched the foliage
+with scarlet and gold. The breeze that fluttered the curtains at the
+windows of No. 5 Quadrangle was as soft and humid as a breath of May. It
+was as if spring was in the air and the note of things awakening,
+pushing up through the damp earth to catch the warm rays of the sun. It
+was Nature's last effort before she entered into her long sleep.
+
+Molly Brown, standing by the open window, gazed thoughtfully across the
+campus. Snatches of song and laughter, fragments of conversation and
+the tinkle of the mandolin floated up to her from the darkness. It was
+like an oft-told but ever delightful story to her now.
+
+"Shall I ever be glad to leave it all?" she asked herself. "Wellington
+and the girls and the hard work and the play?"
+
+How were they to bear parting, the old crowd, after four years of
+intimate association? Did Judy love it as she did, or would she not
+rather feel like a bird loosed from a cage when at last the gates were
+opened and she could fly away. But Molly felt sure that Nance would feel
+the pangs of homesickness for Wellington when the good old days were
+over.
+
+All these half-melancholy thoughts crowded through Molly's mind while
+Judy thrummed the guitar and Nance, busy soul, arranged the books on the
+new white book shelves.
+
+Presently the other girls would come trailing in, the "old guard," to
+talk over the events of that busy first day: Margaret Wakefield,
+bursting with opinions about politics and woman's suffrage; pretty
+Jessie Lynch, and the Williams sisters whose dark lustrous eyes seemed
+to see beyond the outer crust of things. Last of all, after a discreet
+interval, would come a soft, deprecating tap at the door, and Otoyo Sen,
+most charming of little Japanese ladies, with a beaming, apologetic
+smile, would glide into the room on her marshmallow soled slippers.
+
+"Everybody's late," exclaimed Judy, unexpectedly breaking in on her
+friend's preoccupation. "I do wish my trunk were unpacked. I can't bear
+to be unsettled. It's the most disagreeable thing about the first day of
+college."
+
+"Why don't you go unpack it, then, lazybones?" asked Nance, a trifle
+sternly. As much as she loved her care-free Judy, she never quite
+approved of her.
+
+"How little you understand my nature, Nance," answered Judy,
+reproachfully.
+
+"I know that people who pride themselves on having the artistic
+temperament never like to unpack trunks or do any kind of so-called
+menial work, for that matter. But there can be just as much art in
+unpacking a trunk as in a painting a picture----"
+
+"Ho, ho!" interrupted Judy, who loved these discussions with her
+serious-minded friend. "How would you like to engage for all your life
+in the immortal work of unpacking trunks?"
+
+"I never said anything about doing it always--" broke in Nance, when the
+argument was brought to a sudden end by the arrival of the other girls.
+
+There was a great noise of talk and laughter while they draped
+themselves about the room.
+
+College girls in kimonos never sit in straight-backed chairs. They
+usually curl themselves up on divans or in Morris chairs, or sit,
+Turkish fashion, on cushions on the floor.
+
+"Well, and what's the news?" they asked. Most of them had caught only
+flying glimpses of each other during the day.
+
+"Wait until I make my annual inspection," ordered Judy, carefully
+examining the fourth finger of the left hand of every girl. "No rings or
+marks of rings," she said at each inspection until she came to Jessie,
+who was endeavoring to sit on her left hand while she pushed Judy away
+with her right. "Now, Jessica, no concealments," cried Judy, "and from
+your seven bosom friends! It's not fair. Are you actually wearing a
+solitaire?"
+
+"I assure you it's my mother's engagement ring," Jessie protested, but
+Judy had extricated the pretty little hand on the fourth finger of which
+sparkled not one, but two, rings.
+
+"Caught! Caught, the first of all!" they cried in a chorus.
+
+"Honestly and truly I'm not."
+
+"It looks to me as if you had been caught twice, Jessie," said Molly
+laughing.
+
+"No, no, one of them is really Mama's and the other--well, it was lent
+to me. It's not mine. I simply promised to wear it for a few months."
+
+Jeers and incredulous laughter followed this statement.
+
+"We only hope you'll hold out to the end, Jessie," remarked Katherine in
+tones of reproach.
+
+"What, leave dear old Wellington and all of you for any ordinary, stupid
+man? I'd never think of it," cried Jessie.
+
+"I'm not afraid," here put in Edith. "Fickle Jessica may change her mind
+and her ring half a dozen times before June. Who can tell?"
+
+"I'm not fickle where all of you are concerned, anyhow," answered Jessie
+reproachfully.
+
+"You're a dear, Jessie," broke in Molly. She never did quite enjoy
+seeing other people teased.
+
+"Will some one kindlee make for me explanation of the word 'jubilee'?"
+asked Otoyo Sen, seated cross-legged on a cushion in the very center of
+the group, like an Oriental story-teller.
+
+"Jubilee?" said Edith. By an unspoken arrangement, it was always left to
+her to answer such questions. "Why jubilee means a rejoicing, a
+celebration."
+
+"There will be singing and dancing and feasting greatlee of many days
+enduring?" asked Otoyo.
+
+"It depends on who's doing the enduring," Edith said, smiling.
+
+"Wellington will be enduring of greatlee much rejoicing," went on the
+little Japanese. "For Wellington will give jubilee entertainment for
+fifty years of birthday, perhaps, maybe."
+
+Here was news indeed for seven seniors at the very head and front of
+college affairs.
+
+"And where did you get this interesting information, little one?"
+demanded Margaret.
+
+Otoyo blushed and hesitated; then cocked her head on one side exactly
+like a little song sparrow and glancing timidly at Nance, replied:
+
+"Mr. Andrew McLean, second, he told it to me."
+
+Nance smiled unconcernedly. She never dreamed of being jealous of the
+funny little Japanese.
+
+"And why, pray, didn't Miss Walker announce it this morning at chapel
+when she made her opening address?" asked Margaret.
+
+"Ah, that is for another veree sadlee reason," answered Otoyo, her voice
+taking on a mournful note. "You have not heard?"
+
+"No, what?" they demanded, bursting with curiosity.
+
+"Professor Edwin Green, the noble, honorable gentleman of English
+Literature, he is veree ill. You have not heard such badlee news? Miss
+Walker, she will announce nothing of jubilee while this poor gentleman
+lies in his bed so veree, greatlee ill."
+
+"Why, Otoyo," cried Molly, her voice rising above the excited chorus,
+"is it really true? You mean dangerously ill? What is the matter with
+him?"
+
+"He has been two weeks in the infirmaree with a great fever."
+
+"You mean typhoid?"
+
+Otoyo nodded. It was a new name to her. She had not had much to do with
+illness during her two years in America, but she remembered the dread
+name of typhoid. It had a sad association to her, for she had been
+passing the infirmary at the very moment when a black, sinister looking
+ambulance had brought Professor Edwin Green from his rooms to the
+hospital.
+
+Molly relapsed into silence. Somehow, the joy of reunion had been
+spoiled and she tasted the bitterness of dark forebodings. It came to
+her with unexpected vividness that Wellington would not be the same
+without the Professor of English Literature, whose kind assistance and
+advice had meant so much to her. Only a little while ago she had made a
+secret resolution to seek him in his office on the morrow for counsel on
+a very vital question. In plain words: how to avoid being a school
+teacher. And now this brilliant and learned man, by far the brightest
+star in the Wellington faculty, was dangerously ill. Molly felt suddenly
+the cold clutch of disappointment.
+
+The other girls were sorry but not really shaken or unnerved by the
+news.
+
+"The jubilee must be to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the new
+Wellington--" began Margaret, after an interval of silence. "Do you
+suppose--" she began again and then broke off.
+
+"Suppose what?" asked the inquisitive Judy.
+
+"Oh, nothing. It would seem rather unfeeling to put in words what I had
+in my mind. I think I'll leave it unsaid."
+
+There was a silence and again came that cold clutch at Molly's heart.
+She felt pretty certain that Margaret had started to say:
+
+"Do you suppose, if Professor Green dies, it will interfere with the
+jubilee?"
+
+"If there is a jubilee," suddenly burst out Judy, who had been lying
+quite still with her eyes closed, "if they do give it, we shall be at
+the head and front of it being seniors, and I already have a wonderful
+suggestion to make. Would it not be splendid to have an old English
+pageant? The whole college could take part in it. Think of the beautiful
+costumes; the lovely colors; the rustic dances and open air plays on the
+campus."
+
+Judy's eyes sparkled and her face was flushed with excitement. With her
+amazing faculty for visualizing, the spectacle of the pageant stretched
+before her imagination like a great colored print. She saw the capering
+jesters in cap and bells; ox carts filled with rustics; the pageant of
+knights and ladies and royal personages; the players; the dancers----
+
+"It would be too glorious," she cried, beside herself from her inflamed
+imagination.
+
+The other girls, unable to follow Judy's brilliant vision, watched her
+with amused curiosity.
+
+"I should think you would remember that Professor Green was at his
+death's door before you began making plans for a jubilee," admonished
+Nance.
+
+But Judy, too intoxicated with her visions to notice Nance's reproof,
+continued:
+
+"They would have it in May, of course, when the weather is warm and
+everything is in bloom. First would come the pageant; then the king and
+queen and court would gather as spectators in front of all the various
+side shows; morality plays and----"
+
+The picture had now become so real to Judy that her galloping
+imagination had leaped over every difficulty, as the hunter leaps the
+intervening fence rail. In a flash she had decided on her own costume,
+of violet velvet and silk--a gentleman of the court, perhaps--when
+Molly, sitting pale and quiet beside the window, suddenly remarked:
+
+"Miss Walker did look very serious this morning, I thought. Just before
+chapel I saw her in the court talking to Dr. McLean. She must have had
+bad news then."
+
+Judy's inflated enthusiasm collapsed like a pricked balloon. She flushed
+hotly and relapsed into silence. Presently, after the others had
+departed to their rooms, she crept over to Molly and sunk on her knees
+beside her at the open window.
+
+"I didn't mean to be such a brute, Molly, darling," she said. "I forgot
+about your being such friends with the Greens and I really am awfully
+sorry about the Professor. Will you forgive me?"
+
+"You foolish, fond old Judy," said Molly, slipping an arm around her
+friend's neck. "I only dimly heard your wanderings. I was so busy
+thinking of--of other things; sending out hope thoughts like Madeleine
+Petit. Poor Miss Green! I wonder if she knows. She has been in Europe
+all summer. I had post cards from her every now and then."
+
+Molly looked wistfully through the darkness in the direction of the
+infirmary. "I wish I knew how he was to-night," she added.
+
+"I'll go and inquire," cried Judy, leaping to her feet, eager to make
+amends for past offenses. She glanced at the clock. "The gate isn't
+locked until a quarter past to-night on account of the late train.
+There'll be time if I sprint there and back."
+
+"But, Judy," objected Molly.
+
+"Don't interfere, and don't try to come, too. You can't run and I can,"
+and before either of the other girls could say a word, Judy was out of
+the room and gone.
+
+"I don't know what we are going to do about her, Molly," Nance observed,
+as soon as the door had slammed behind that impetuous young woman,
+"she's worse than ever."
+
+Molly shook her head silently. Suddenly she felt quite old and
+apathetic, like a person who has lost all ambitions and given up the
+fight.
+
+"I think I'll turn in, Nance. I'm tired to death."
+
+With silent sympathy, Nance turned down the cover of Molly's little
+white bed and laid out her night-gown.
+
+It seemed an incredibly short time when Judy burst into the room again,
+too breathless to speak, her face scarlet with running.
+
+"I just did make it," she gasped presently. "The night nurse said
+Professor Green was very ill, but that Dr. McLean was hopeful because of
+his strong constitution."
+
+"I feel hopeful, too. Thank you, Judy, dearest," said Molly, drawing the
+covers up over her shoulders while Nance turned out the light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A TROUBLED SUNDAY.
+
+
+It was Sunday morning and Molly had been washing her head. She had
+spread a towel on the window-sill and now hung her hair out of the
+window that sun and wind might play upon her auburn locks.
+
+"I always heard it was better to dry the hair by the sun than by a fire;
+hot air dries up the natural oils," she observed to Nance in a muffled
+voice.
+
+Nance was engaged in the meditative occupation of manicuring her nails.
+As she rubbed them back and forth on a chamois buffer her thoughts were
+busy in far other fields.
+
+"Yes," she replied absently to Molly's observation. "I suppose you
+learned that from Judy's new friend," she added, coming back to her
+present beautifying occupation. "She'll be introducing rouge to us
+next," Nance went on in a disgusted tone.
+
+Molly smiled and gave her hair a vigorous shake in the breeze. In the
+bright sunlight it sparkled with glints of gold as if a fairy wand had
+touched it.
+
+"No, I didn't, really," she answered. "I read it on the beauty page of a
+Sunday paper, but I knew it anyhow instinctively before I read it."
+
+"Do you think her hair is naturally red," asked Nance, punching the dull
+end of her orange stick into a sofa cushion with unusual force.
+
+"I suppose lots of people ask the same question about mine," Molly
+answered evasively.
+
+"Never," Nance asserted hotly. "I don't know much about the subject but
+I do know that no dyes have ever been invented that could imitate the
+color of your hair."
+
+"How do you know it, Nance, dear?"
+
+"Well, because so many people would dye their hair that color. There
+would be no more drab browns like mine, or rusty blacks or faded tans."
+
+"But, Nance, your hair is lovely. It's smooth and glossy and fine and
+thick. Has that girl been talking to you about your looks?"
+
+"They both have," admitted Nance. "They've got me to thinking I'm plain
+but would be greatly improved if I wore a rat and waved my bang and did
+my hair in a bunch of curls in the back like Jessie."
+
+"But Jessie's hair curls naturally," put in Molly.
+
+"Yes, of course, and mine doesn't. It would be a fearful nuisance, but
+one can't help listening to such talk when it concerns oneself. You know
+how Judy does run away to things, and there is something convincing
+about Adele's arguments."
+
+"She's very bright," admitted Molly. "What do you think she wants me to
+do, Nance? Something much worse than crimping."
+
+"There is no telling. Probably lather your face with that horrible
+white-wash stuff called 'Youthful Bloom,' Judy was telling us about."
+
+"No, worse still. She says my face is too thin and that I am getting
+lines from nose to mouth. She wants me to have it filled."
+
+Nance gave a wild whoop of derision.
+
+"Can't you see Judy Kean's head being stuffed with such nonsense until
+it bursts?" she cried, breaking off suddenly as the door opened and Judy
+herself appeared on the threshold.
+
+"May I bring in a visitor?" she asked stiffly, feeling from the sudden
+stillness that her own name had been under discussion. "Nobody likes to
+have her name bandied back and forth even between intimate friends," she
+thought with some indignation. But Judy's little fly-ups never lasted
+long and when Molly called out hospitably: "Yes, indeed, delighted," and
+Nance said: "Certainly, Judy," her sensitive feelings immediately
+withdrew into the dark caverns of her mind.
+
+"I've brought a _friend_ up to see our rooms," Judy went on, putting
+special emphasis on friend.
+
+Judy had introduced a new member to the Old Queen's circle and while
+that body was only exclusive in the matter of intelligence and good
+breeding, and the new member seemed to meet both requirements, still the
+circle as a whole was not entirely agreeable to Judy's latest find.
+
+The new girl had a very grand sounding name, "Adele Windsor," and Judy
+was hurt when Edith Williams demanded if Adele was related to "The Widow
+of Windsor." Adele was certainly very handsome,--tall, with a beautiful
+figure, dark eyes and hair more red than brown.
+
+"She dresses with artful simplicity," Margaret had remarked, but hardly
+a girl in college had handsomer clothes than Adele Windsor.
+
+Nobody could cast aspersions against her intelligence, either. She had
+entered the junior class of Wellington as a special; which was pretty
+good work, in the opinions of our girls. If any name could be given to
+the objections they all secretly felt for Judy's new friend, it was that
+she was so excessively modern. She was a product of New York City; and
+so thoroughly up to date was this bewildering young person regarding
+topics of the day, from fashions and beauty remedies to international
+politics, that she fairly took the breath away even of such advanced
+persons as Margaret Wakefield.
+
+Adele now followed Judy into the room, and Molly, shaking back the hair
+from her face, bowed and smiled politely. Nance was not so cordial in
+her greeting. She had already prophesied what the history of Judy's
+friendship with this girl would be.
+
+"Judy will get terribly intimate and then awfully bored. I know her of
+old."
+
+"You're right in the fashion, Miss Brown," observed Adele, taking a seat
+near Molly and regarding her hair with admiration.
+
+"That's the first time anybody ever said such a thing about me,"
+exclaimed Molly with a laugh. "I'm usually three years behind. Now, you
+couldn't mean this gray kimono, could you? Or maybe it's my pumps," she
+added. "I know low heels are coming back again." Thrusting out one of
+her long, narrow feet, she looked at it quizzically.
+
+"No, no, it's your hair," replied Adele. "Red hair is the fashion now.
+You see it everywhere; at the theaters, in society, at the opera----"
+
+"You mean everywhere in New York," corrected Nance.
+
+Adele smiled, showing a row of even white teeth. She was really very
+handsome.
+
+"Well, isn't New York the hub of the world?" put in Judy.
+
+"No," answered Nance firmly. "Boston and San Francisco and Chicago and
+St. Louis are just as much hubs as New York--to say nothing of the
+smaller cities. Any place with telegraph wires and competent people at
+both ends can keep up with the times nowadays----"
+
+"Yes, but what about the theaters and operas," Judy began hotly.
+
+"And clothes," added Adele softly, with a quick glance at Molly's old
+blue suit which had been well brushed and cleaned that morning and hung
+on the back of a chair to dry. Molly had not even noticed the glance.
+She was looking across the campus in the direction of the infirmary and
+at the same time forming a resolution to go over and inquire for
+Professor Green as soon as she could arrange her tumbled hair.
+
+But Nance had caught the slightly contemptuous expression in Adele's
+eyes and resented it with warm loyalty.
+
+"I don't see what clothes have to do with it," she asserted. "Because in
+New York people look at one's clothes before they look at one's face, it
+doesn't follow that they are more advanced than people in other places."
+
+"New York only shows one how to improve one's clothes and one's face,"
+put in Adele calmly.
+
+Nance felt somehow reproved by this elegant cold-blooded creature whom
+Judy had thrust upon them. And now Judy must needs take a flying leap
+into the discussion.
+
+"Nance, you are behind the times," she cried. "There is no excuse now
+for women to be badly dressed or plain. Even poor people can dress in
+taste and there are ways for improving looks so that the most ordinary
+face can be beautified."
+
+"Can you make little eyes big?" demanded Nance.
+
+"Don't be silly," said Judy.
+
+And it looked for a moment as if a quarrel were about to be precipitated
+between the friends, when Molly, glancing at Adele Windsor, began to
+laugh.
+
+"And all this because somebody said red hair was the fashion," she said,
+but she had an uncomfortable feeling that Adele was fond of starting a
+fight in order to look on and see the fun, and she wished in her heart
+that her beloved Judy had not taken up with such a dangerous young
+woman. She now tactfully changed the subject to the theater.
+
+Adele had signed photographs of almost all the actors and actresses in
+the country and could give interesting bits of personal history about
+many of them. Having launched the company on this safe topic, Molly
+seized the old blue suit and departed into her bedroom. Judy and
+presently Nance also were soon absorbed in an account of Miss Windsor's
+visit at the home of a famous actress. Molly, indeed, was careful to
+leave her door open a crack in order not to miss a word. After all, it
+was fun to live at "the hub," as Judy called it, and know great people
+and see the best plays and hear all the best music. But this stunning
+metropolitan person did make one feel dreadfully provincial and shabby.
+She wondered if Adele had noticed the shabby dress. Molly sighed.
+
+"I don't think clothes would interfere so much with my good times," she
+thought, "if only I didn't love them so."
+
+Then she resolutely pinned on the soft blue felt, which at least was new
+if not expensive, slipped on her jacket and returned to the next room.
+
+"I'll see you at dinner, girls," she said. "Good-bye, Miss Windsor."
+
+"I'm going to dinner with Adele at Beta Phi," announced Judy.
+
+Adele occupied what the girls now called the "hoodoo suite" at Beta Phi.
+This was none other than Judith Blount's old apartment, afterwards
+sub-let to the unfortunate Millicent Porter.
+
+"Shall Nance and I call by for you on the way to vespers, then?" asked
+Molly.
+
+"I'm not going to vespers. You don't mind, do you, Molly?"
+
+Ever since they had been at college the three girls had kept their
+engagement for vespers on Sunday afternoons. They had actually been
+known to refuse other invitations in order to keep this friendly
+compact. And Judy was breaking away from what had come to be an
+established custom. Of course, it was just this once and absurd to feel
+disappointed, only Molly, glancing over Judy's head at Adele standing by
+the window, had caught a glint of triumph in her eyes. What was she
+after, anyway? Did she wish to wean the tempestuous Judy from her old
+friends? The two girls exchanged a quick, meaningful look.
+
+"We'll miss you, Judy," said Molly, and went into the corridor, closing
+the door softly behind her. Hardly had she reached the head of the
+staircase, when Judy came tearing after her.
+
+"You aren't angry with me, Molly, dearest?" she cried. "Adele and I have
+a wonderful scheme on hand. I'll tell you what it is some day. Don't you
+think she's perfectly fine? So handsome--so clever----"
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Molly, trying to be truthful. "I hope you'll
+have a beautiful time, Judy, but we'll miss you just the same,
+especially on the walk afterwards. Had you forgotten about the walk?"
+
+"Oh dear, Molly, you are hurt," ejaculated Judy, who couldn't bear to be
+in anybody's black books, yet, nevertheless, desired to have her own
+way.
+
+"I'm not, indeed, Judy. We can't tie ourselves to Sunday afternoon
+engagements. Nance and I wouldn't have you feel that way for anything."
+
+The stormy Judy, calmed by these assuring words, returned to her rooms,
+while Molly hurried downstairs and across the campus toward the
+infirmary.
+
+A number of people had gathered at the door of the hospital. Dr.
+McLean's buggy and a doctor's motor car waited outside. There was an
+ominous look about the picture that filled Molly with dark forebodings.
+Most of the people in the group at the door were members of the
+faculty, Miss Pomeroy, Miss Bowles and the Professor of French
+literature. They were talking in low voices. Dodo Green and Andy McLean
+leaned against the wall of the house, their hands thrust deep in their
+pockets, their faces the very picture of dejection. Molly began to run.
+
+"He's dead!" a voice cried in her heart. "Oh, Dodo," she exclaimed to
+the Professor's young brother, who had run out to meet her, "please tell
+me quickly what has happened."
+
+"The old boy's had a tough time, Miss Molly," said Dodo, struggling hard
+to keep his voice from breaking. "He had one of those infernal sinking
+spells about ten this morning. It was his heart, they say. It's been
+something awful, just a fight to keep him alive. But he's come through
+it. The doctor from Exmoor came over to help Andy's father." Dodo paused
+and gulped back his tears and Molly did not dare trust herself to speak.
+
+"Let's walk a little way down the avenue," he said presently. "I feel
+all bowled over from anxiety and waiting around so long."
+
+"I know, I know, poor Dodo," said Molly sympathetically. "But he'll get
+well, now. I'm sure of it. The doctor said his fine constitution would
+carry him along."
+
+"The doctor was thinking of what Edwin used to be, say a year ago. The
+old boy has been overworking. The truth is," he added in a burst of
+confidence, "he got into debt somehow; borrowed money on prospects that
+didn't materialize, or something."
+
+Instantly the thought of the comic opera came into Molly's head.
+
+"And he worked all summer without taking any vacation, night and day.
+Grace was abroad or she never would have allowed it. He just weakened
+his constitution until he was ready to take any disease that happened to
+be floating around."
+
+It was a great relief to Dodo's pent-up feelings to talk and he now
+poured out his troubles to listening, sympathetic Molly.
+
+"Grace and I don't know what he wanted to use the money for----"
+
+"Maybe it was for the opera."
+
+"No, I know for a fact it wasn't that infernal old opera, though writing
+it was one of the things, that pulled him down. But the debt's all paid
+now and the good old boy is lying at death's door as a result. By the
+way," he added, drawing a key from his pocket, "Sister wants me to get
+something out of Edwin's office on the cloisters. Will you come with me,
+Miss Molly? There are such a lot of girls always in the court on
+Sunday."
+
+"I only wish I could do more for you, Dodo," answered Molly, as the two
+young people hastened across the campus.
+
+"I guess you know as much about the old boy's office as I do, Miss
+Molly," said Dodo opening the study door. "I'm glad you came along to
+help me find what I am looking for."
+
+"What are you looking for?"
+
+"Did you ever see a blue paper weight on his desk?"
+
+"Oh, yes. Lots of times."
+
+"Well, that's just what he wants. He's got a sort of delirious notion in
+his poor old head that he'd like that blue paper weight. It's enough to
+make a strong man shed tears, and he's so weak he couldn't pick up a
+straw. Alice Fern brought it to him from Italy."
+
+"Oh," said Molly.
+
+They found the blue paper weight in one of the drawers of the desk and
+Dodo thrust it into his pocket. There was a strong smell of over-ripe
+apples in the office and Molly presently discovered two disintegrated
+wine saps in the Japanese basket on the table.
+
+"We'd better take these," she said, seizing one in each hand and
+following Dodo into the corridor.
+
+The young people parted in the arcade and Molly went into the library
+and hid herself in one of the deep window embrasures with a book she
+only pretended to be reading. That afternoon the Reverend Gustavus
+Larsen repeated the prayers for the sick, and Molly in a far back pew
+hoped that Nance could not see the tears that trickled down her cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+GOSSIP OVER THE TEACUPS.
+
+
+The gloom that had been hanging over Wellington since Professor Green's
+illness gradually lifted as the young man steadily improved. Each
+morning Molly received the latest news from one of the nurses. Miss
+Grace was never visible. She was sitting up at night with her brother
+and slept during the day. One morning Molly encountered not the day
+nurse but Miss Alice Fern in the hall of the infirmary. She was dressed
+in white linen and might have been taken for a post-graduate nurse
+except that she wore no cap. Miss Fern had a cold greeting for Molly,
+and for Judith Blount, also, who presently joined them.
+
+"Edwin is much better," she informed them.
+
+"He is seeing people now, isn't he?" asked Judith eagerly.
+
+Miss Fern stiffened.
+
+"No," she answered, "only me--and his brother and sister, of course."
+She added this as an afterthought. "It will be many weeks before he is
+allowed to see any of the Wellington people. The doctor is particularly
+anxious for him not to be reminded of his work. Excitement would be very
+dangerous for him."
+
+"Is that what the doctor says or is it your verdict, Alice?" put in
+Judith, who had small liking for the Professor's cousin on the other
+side of the family.
+
+"I'm in entire authority here," answered Miss Fern in such a hostile
+tone that Molly felt as if they had been accused of forcing their way
+into the sick room. "I am nursing during the day in conjunction with the
+infirmary nurse."
+
+"Why don't you wear a cap, Alice?" asked Judith tauntingly. "It would
+make you look more like the real thing."
+
+With a hurried excuse, Molly hastened out of the hall. It went against
+her grain to be involved in the quarrels of Alice Fern and Judith
+Blount. She was walking rapidly toward the village when she heard
+Judith's voice behind her calling.
+
+"Wait, and I'll walk with you. I see you're going my way. I had to stay
+and give a last dig to that catty Alice Fern," she added breathlessly,
+catching up with Molly.
+
+Molly smiled. She didn't know but that she agreed with Judith, but it
+was not her way to call people "cats."
+
+"I'm so glad you arranged to take the post-grad., Judith," she began as
+they started down the avenue.
+
+"Isn't it great?" answered Judith exultantly. "It's all Madeleine's
+doing, you know. We've had a wonderful summer, Molly. Almost the first
+summer I can remember when I wasn't bored."
+
+"What have you two been up to?" Molly asked with some curiosity. The
+cloak of enthusiasm was a new one for Judith to wear and it was very
+becoming to her, Molly thought.
+
+"We've been making money," Judith announced with sparkling eyes. "I've
+made almost enough to carry me through another year here."
+
+"Goodness," Molly thought, "how the world does change. Think of the
+proud Judith working and then telling me about it, me whom she used to
+detest!"
+
+"It's been jolly fun, too, and I didn't mind the work a bit."
+
+"I hope you made a great deal," remarked Molly, not liking to ask too
+many questions but burning to know how money had been made by a girl who
+had once stamped her foot and declared she would never work for a
+living.
+
+"A friend of brother Richard's, an actor, lent him his bungalow on the
+coast for the summer, and Mama and Madeleine and I spent four months in
+it, with Richard down for the week-ends. It was a pretty bungalow with a
+big living-room and a broad piazza at the back looking right out to sea,
+and Madeleine conceived the notion of opening a tea-room there. Richard
+was willing and so was Mama and we started in right away. Madeleine had
+all sorts of schemes for advertising in the post office and at the
+general store, and at last we had a sign painted and hung out in front
+on a post. The coast road goes by the house and streams of automobiles
+are passing all day long, so that we began to have lots of customers
+immediately. I don't know how it happened, but it was a sort of
+fashionable meeting place for all the people in the neighborhood. Pretty
+soon we had to buy dozens of little blue teapots and crates of cup and
+saucers and plates. Even Mama helped with the sandwiches and Richard,
+too, when he could come down. But you should have seen Madeleine. Every
+afternoon she put on a cap and apron and turned waitress. She served
+everybody. She was the neatest, quickest, prettiest little waiting maid
+you ever saw. Mama and I worked in the kitchen filling orders. Sometimes
+the sandwiches would give out and then Mama and I and Bridget, our
+Irish maid who has stayed with us through everything, would slice bread
+like mad. Madeleine knew dozens of different ways of making sandwiches.
+We used to make up dishes of fillings ahead of time and keep them on
+ice. Sometimes at night we were so tired we'd simply fall into bed, but
+we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams and we had a splendid time in
+spite of the hard work."
+
+"I think you are wonderful," cried Molly. "I should never even have
+hoped to make anything like that go."
+
+"It's Madeleine who is the wonder," broke in Judith loyally. "She has
+the brains and energy of a real genius."
+
+"Are you down at O'Reilly's this winter? I haven't seen either one of
+you to speak to before."
+
+"Oh, yes, we have the same old rooms. I'm working up in two or three
+different subjects and taking a course in physical culture with a view
+to teaching it. You know, we are going to open a school, Madeleine and
+I?"
+
+"Where?" demanded Molly, filled with interest in her old-time enemy's
+schemes.
+
+"We don't know yet. It may be in the South. Madeleine has two more years
+here. I shall go to Paris next year for a course at the Sorbonne, so
+that I shall be up in French by the time we are ready to start."
+
+Molly was almost too amazed over the change Madeleine had wrought in
+Judith to comment politely on the glowing future Judith mapped out for
+herself. She recalled how Judith had once insulted the little Southern
+girl at a Sophomore ball, and she remembered how Madeleine had said: "I
+shall make a friend of her, yet. You'll see."
+
+"I wish I could make plans and stick to them," Molly thought. "How can I
+ever get anywhere when I don't even know where I want to get? If I am
+not to teach school, then what am I to do?"
+
+Many times a day Molly asked herself this question. There were times
+during the summer when she heard the call still infinitely far away to
+write, and on hot afternoons when the others were napping she would
+steal down to the big cool parlor with a pencil and pad. Here in the
+quiet of the darkened room, with strained mind and thoughts on tiptoe
+for inspiration, she would try to write, but the stories were crude and
+childish. Sometimes she would read over Professor Green's letter of
+advice about writing. "Be as simple and natural as if you were writing a
+letter," he had said, and her efforts to be natural and simple were
+invariably elaborately studied and self-conscious.
+
+"I don't see why I want to do what I can't do," she would cry with
+despair in her heart, and then the next day perhaps she would try it
+again.
+
+So it was that Molly had a feeling of unrest that was quite new to her.
+It was like entertaining a stranger within the gates to admit this
+unfamiliar spirit into her mind. And now, as she parted with Judith
+with a friendly handclasp, she felt the dissatisfaction more keenly than
+ever before.
+
+Her errand in the village that afternoon was really to call on Mrs.
+Murphy, who, you will recall, was once housekeeper for Queen's. For many
+months the good soul had been laid up with rheumatism and for the sake
+of old times the Queen's girls plied her with attentions. The Murphys
+now lived in a small cottage near the depot and they were exceedingly
+poor, since the office of baggage-master brought in only a small pay.
+But Mrs. Murphy, crippled as she was, her fingers knotted at the joints
+like the limbs of old apple trees, managed to keep her rooms shining
+with neatness.
+
+"And it's glad I am to see you, Miss," exclaimed the good woman, much
+aged since the days at Queen's.
+
+She led Molly through a little hallway into the kitchen opening upon a
+small garden now bright with rows of cosmos, graceful and delicate in
+color, and brilliant masses of vari-colored, ragged chrysanthemums.
+
+"It's the little Japanese lady that's tended my garden for me all
+summer, Miss. She may be a haythen, but she's as good as gold. Our
+Blessed Mother herself could not have been kinder."
+
+Molly's heart was filled with admiration for Otoyo, who instead of
+moping about by herself all summer had been making herself useful.
+
+"I'm ashamed," she thought. "Madeleine and Judith and Otoyo all make me
+feel awfully ashamed."
+
+In the meantime, Mrs. Murphy had spread a cloth on the little kitchen
+table and laid out her best cups and saucers. It was her heart's delight
+to drink tea with the young ladies.
+
+"And how is the poor gintleman, Mr. Edwin, I mean?"
+
+"He's getting better every day, Mrs. Murphy."
+
+"And I'm that glad to hear the news. It would have been a sad day for
+the poor young lady if she had lost him--though, may the Howly Mother
+forgive me for saying it, she's not good enough for the loikes of him,
+I'm thinkin'."
+
+"Let me pour the tea for you, Mrs. Murphy," Molly interposed, taking the
+blue teapot out of Mrs. Murphy's crippled hands after it had been filled
+with boiling water. "What young lady did you say it was?" she asked
+presently, her eyes on a tea leaf swirling round and round in her cup.
+
+"'Tis Miss Fern, the gintleman's cousin, and they do say they're to be
+married before spring. I'm not for sayin' she ain't pretty, Miss. She's
+prettier than most and she's kind to the gintleman. Oh, you may be sure
+but she's got a different set of manners for him! And the day she had
+tea here with little Miss Sen and the Professor, she was all graces, to
+be sure. But another day she was here to meet him and little Miss Sen
+brought the message he could not come. It was a regular spitfire she
+was that day, Miss, and no mistake."
+
+So that was why the Professor had wanted the blue paper weight. Perhaps
+there was some reason in his delirium after all.
+
+"Have you seen her, Miss?" asked Mrs. Murphy.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Molly. "I think she is very pretty. May I look at
+your garden, Mrs. Murphy? Dear little Otoyo, I can see her working out
+here in the flowers. Don't you just love her, Mrs. Murphy?"
+
+But the Irish woman had gone into the next room to get an old pair of
+shears.
+
+"I'll take it as a favor, Miss Molly, if you'll cut two bunches, one for
+yourself and one for the Professor, God bless him and the Saints
+preserve him for strength and happiness; though I ain't sayin' I wish
+him to be preserved for Miss Alice Fern, pretty though she be."
+
+When Molly appeared at the hospital some half an hour later she made a
+picture the infirmary nurse would not soon forget.
+
+"These are for Professor Green from Mrs. Murphy," Molly said, giving the
+nurse the largest half of the bunch.
+
+The nurse gave her a long quizzical look. She was new at Wellington and
+not familiar with the girls.
+
+"Are you Miss Molly Brown?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"Why, yes," answered Molly, surprised.
+
+"I thought so," said the nurse, and departed before the astonished Molly
+could say another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SENIOR RAMBLE.
+
+
+    "Ramblers, ramblers,
+       Ramblers all are we:
+     Life is gay,
+       Life is free,
+     Rambling all the day.
+
+    "When the sun sinks to his rest,
+       Our rambling days are gone,
+     Seniors, Seniors,
+       Sound the call!
+       Back to Wellington!"
+
+"Did you put in the olives?" some one cried over the confusion of
+singing and talking.
+
+"Do be careful of the stuffed eggs. It would be a shame to ruin an hour
+and a half of hard work."
+
+"Tell the man to wait. I forgot my tea basket."
+
+"Haste thee, nymph," called Edith Williams, after the fleeing Judy.
+"And bring your volume of Shelley along, there's a dear. I forgot mine."
+
+"Bring my sweater," Nance called.
+
+Already the van load of girls in front was moving down the avenue, while
+the crowd in the second van waited impatiently for Judy's return. The
+two big vehicles were decorated with lavender and primrose, the class
+colors, for this was the day of the Senior Ramble, and the whole class
+was off for the woods.
+
+At last Judy appeared, laden with many things--a tea basket, a book, her
+camera and two sweaters; also a brass trumpet.
+
+"Who says I'm not good-natured?" she exclaimed, handing up the articles
+and clambering into the vehicle. "I'm the kindest soul that ever lived."
+
+"I'm glad you feel that way about it, Juliana. It must be a sweet
+personal satisfaction," remarked Edith, seizing the book and thrusting
+it into the pocket of her ulster.
+
+The seniors were to ramble in Fern Woods that year, so-called not
+because of the superabundance of ferns, but because they were a part of
+the estate of Major Fern, father of Alice Fern. The Major had no
+objections to the students of Wellington and Exmoor using his woods for
+picnics, but the Exmoor boys were not given to such excursions and it
+was a long drive from Wellington, six miles over a rough road. However,
+Fern Woods it was to be this time, and away went the two vans, Judy
+blowing her trumpet with a grand flourish as they passed out of the
+Wellington grounds.
+
+The Ramble was always the occasion for the most childish behavior among
+the seniors; a last frenzied outburst, as it were, before putting away
+childish things for all time and settling down to the serious work of
+life.
+
+And now the seniors in the first wagon stood up and began singing back
+to the girls in the second wagon:
+
+    "Seniors, do you hear the call?
+       Great Pan has blest the day.
+     Heed the summons, one and all,
+       _Voulez vous danser?_"
+
+The seniors behind answered:
+
+    "We will make the welkin ring,
+       _Voulez vous danser?_
+     Sound the trumpet, shout and sing,
+       _Voulez vous danser?_"
+
+"I think this should be called the 'Senior Rumble,' and not ramble,"
+some one said, as the wagon groaned and creaked on the hilly road.
+
+"What's the matter with 'Grumble'?" asked Mabel Hinton.
+
+But there was no real grumbling, although the six miles that lay between
+Fern Woods and Wellington included some rough roads. They were jolted
+and shaken and tumbled about and there were shrieks of laughter and
+cries of "Wait, wait! I'd rather walk!" But the stolid driver went
+calmly on without taking the slightest notice.
+
+"One would think we were a lot of inmates in a crazy wagon," cried
+Molly, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes.
+
+A box of salted nuts had come open and the contents were scattered all
+over the bed of the wagon, and some apples had tumbled out of a hamper
+and were rolling about under people's feet.
+
+"If I had known--if I had only known that this was going to be the rocky
+road to Dublin, wild horses couldn't have dragged me," cried Jessie.
+
+At last after a time of infinite confusion the wagons drew up at the
+edge of a forest and there was sudden quiet in the noisy company. It was
+as if they stood at the threshold of a great cathedral, so still and
+majestic were the woods. Through the dense greenness of the pines there
+was an occasional flash of a silver birch. The scarlets and yellows of
+oak and maple trees gleamed here and there, making a rich background for
+the somber company of pines.
+
+"It was worth it! It was worth it," exclaimed the seniors, now that the
+worst was over.
+
+The class had divided itself into three "messes" for lunch. After lunch
+it was to assemble in a body, sing the class songs to be bequeathed to
+the juniors, and do the class stunts which were familiar enough to all
+of them now. And first of all, by the unwritten law of custom, the
+seniors were to spend an hour communing with nature. This constituted
+the "Ramble." Judy had been delegated by the Ramble Committee to blow a
+blast on her trumpet when the time came to eat. In the meantime the
+drivers had taken themselves and their wagons down the road two miles to
+a small village where they were to rest and refresh themselves with food
+until half past four o'clock, when they were to return for the rambling
+seniors.
+
+So it was that the three hampers of food were deposited in a safe and
+secluded spot under some bushes and left unguarded while everybody went
+off for the ramble.
+
+Of course all this had been planned weeks ahead of time by the committee
+and the destination kept a profound secret, according to the traditions
+of the school.
+
+Scarcely had the last unsuspecting senior disappeared in the pine woods,
+when a motor car rounded the curve in the road and stopped at the signal
+of an individual in a long dark ulster and a slouch hat well down over
+the face, who had leaped out from behind a clump of bushes on the other
+side of the road. Two other persons similarly disguised now jumped out
+of the car, leaving the chauffeur quietly examining the speedometer and
+seeing nothing.
+
+"Do you know where they put them?" whispered one.
+
+The other did not reply, but led the way at a run to the clump of bushes
+where the hampers had been left. In five minutes the three thieves, for
+such they certainly were, had stored the hampers on the floor of the
+car. Then they jumped in themselves.
+
+"Go ahead!" cried the thief on the front seat, and presently the motor
+car was a mere speck in the distance.
+
+In the meantime, the unconscious seniors rambled happily on. There were
+places to visit in the woods: a beautiful spring that bubbled out of the
+side of a rock and broadened into a basin below; an old log cabin, long
+since deserted and open to the weather, and last of all, "Charlie's
+Oak." Half a century ago, an Exmoor boy had hanged himself on this tree.
+Another Exmoor boy, many years later, had carved a cross on the tree and
+by that sign and others learned from Exmoor boys, they finally found the
+gruesome spot.
+
+"Why did he do it?" asked Judy.
+
+"It was never told," answered Nance, who had learned all there was to
+know concerning the tragedy from Andy McLean.
+
+"Poor boy," cried Molly, seeing in her mind a picture of the body
+dangling from a lower limb of the old oak. "Let's make him a garland of
+leaves," she proposed, "just to signify that we are sorry for him."
+
+The whole class now assembled at Charlie's Oak and proceeded to gather
+branches of autumn leaves. With the aid of a handkerchief and a ribbon,
+these were arranged in the semblance of a large wreath. On the fly leaf,
+torn from the volume of Shelley, Judy wrote:
+
+"In memory of poor Charlie. May his soul rest in peace. Class of 19--,
+Wellington."
+
+The wreath was laid against the tree and the inscription secured with a
+pin stuck into the bark. Then the Class of 19--Wellington went on its
+way rejoicing, never dreaming of the reward the wreath of autumn leaves
+was to bring them. Perhaps the restless spirit of poor Charlie felt
+grateful for the sympathy and whispered into the ear of somebody--at any
+rate, luck came of the incident of the wreath.
+
+Not long after this, seniors roaming about the woods heard the blast of
+Judy's trumpet. It was still too early for lunch and they felt
+instinctively that it was a call to arms. Presently wandering classmates
+came running up from every direction like a company of frightened
+nymphs.
+
+Just about this time an old gentleman, strolling down the wood path,
+paused at Charlie's Oak. He was a very youthful looking old man, his
+cheeks as ruddy as winter apples and his blue eyes as clear and bright
+as a boy's. He carried a cane which he used to toss twigs from his path.
+Two Irish setters followed at his heels sniffing the ground trodden down
+a little while before by the feet of numerous Wellington maids.
+
+"Ahem! What's this?" remarked the old gentleman aloud, fitting his
+glasses on his nose and leaning over to examine the wreath. Then he
+released the inscription from the pin and carefully read it twice,
+replacing it afterward just over the wreath. Baring his head, he stood
+quite still under the limb for so long a time that the impatient dogs
+trotted off down the path, and then came back again to look for their
+master.
+
+"Poor Charlie," repeated the old man. "May his soul rest in peace." With
+a sigh he put on his hat and started slowly down the path. "Poor
+Charlie, poor old Charlie," he was still saying, when he found himself
+on the edge of a company of very indignant and excited young women.
+
+"This must be the Class of 19--Wellington," he was thinking as he turned
+to go the other way, when Margaret Wakefield in the very center of the
+crowd thundered out:
+
+"It's an outrage! A miserable, cowardly trick!"
+
+Some of the girls were actually crying; others looked grave, while still
+others conferred together in low indignant tones.
+
+"I beg pardon, young ladies, has anything serious happened?" asked the
+old gentleman, lifting his hat politely.
+
+There was a complete silence at this unexpected interruption, and then
+Margaret, ever the spokesman of her class, replied in a suspiciously
+tearful tone of voice:
+
+"We've been robbed, sir. Somebody has stolen our luncheon."
+
+"Dear, dear!" murmured the old gentleman, looking from one face to
+another with real sympathy, "dear, dear! but that was an unkind
+trick--and quite a large meal, too, I imagine," he added, noting the
+size of the company.
+
+"Three hampers full," cried one girl.
+
+"And we had worked so hard over it," cried another.
+
+"Is this the Class of 19--Wellington?" asked the old gentleman.
+
+"Yes, sir. We were giving the Senior Ramble."
+
+"And while you were rambling thieves came and robbed you, eh?"
+
+"We are disgraced," ejaculated Margaret.
+
+"Do you suppose tramps could have done it?" Jessie asked.
+
+"It would have been difficult to dispose of three hampers full,"
+answered the old gentleman. "A tramp would have helped himself to what
+he could carry and nothing more."
+
+"Could it have been Gypsies?" suggested Judy, fired with the romantic
+notion.
+
+The old gentleman shook his head.
+
+"I think the thieves rode in a motor car," he said. "As I crossed the
+road some little time ago I saw one waiting there for no apparent
+reason. I hardly noticed who was in it. Perhaps it was some of your own
+classmates. In my day the boys used to play tricks like that, worse
+ones, even. Exmoor was a lively place fifty years ago."
+
+The old gentleman sighed.
+
+"Wellington girls play tricks, too, sometimes, but not such mean ones,"
+put in Margaret. "Once a girl cut the electric light wiring during an
+entertainment in the gym. But even that wasn't so low as this: making a
+crowd of people go hungry."
+
+"Ah, I see," answered the old gentleman. "Well, that is scarcely to be
+mentioned in the same breath with cutting wires." He paused a moment and
+dug into the ground with the end of his cane thoughtfully. "Young
+ladies," he said presently, "would you do an old Exmoor boy the honor of
+lunching with him to-day?"
+
+"Oh, how kind!"
+
+"So many of us?"
+
+"It's too much," a dozen voices answered.
+
+"Not at all. There could not be too many of you. I am Major Fern. I live
+down the road a bit. You can find the house by the big iron gates
+opening onto the avenue." Major Fern looked at his watch. "It's now a
+little past twelve. May I expect you at a quarter past one? Mrs. Fern
+will be delighted. There are--how many of you?"
+
+Margaret told him promptly.
+
+"That's as small as an Exmoor class," he observed. "An unusually small
+class. But--I've heard of you from Miss Walker--an unusually bright
+one, I understand. It will be a great pleasure to entertain so many
+charming young ladies at once."
+
+The girls were almost speechless with surprise and gratitude. Even
+Margaret was for once reduced to a state of shyness.
+
+"We are very grateful to you, Major Fern," she said, after some
+hesitation, "and if you are sure it is not too much of an imposition, we
+accept with pleasure."
+
+So it was that Charlie's Oak was the indirect means of bringing the
+Senior Ramble of that year to a successful termination.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
+
+
+"Will somebody please inform me how they can get up a lunch for this
+crowd in an hour's time?" asked Nance, who, having spent her life in the
+narrow quarters of a boarding house, was not accustomed to avalanches of
+unexpected guests.
+
+"Oh, I don't think it will be very difficult," Molly replied. "Major
+Fern is a farmer. He probably has lots of hams in the smoke house and
+plenty of eggs in the hen house and milk in the dairy and preserves and
+pickles in the pantry, and if there isn't enough bread the cook can make
+up some hot biscuits or corn bread."
+
+"I know it couldn't embarrass you, Molly, dear. You'd be sure to find
+plenty of food for company," laughed Nance.
+
+But Molly was not far wrong in her suppositions of the lunch that Major
+Fern unexpectedly called upon his wife and daughters and servants to
+prepare. Alice was the only member of his family who was not entirely
+cordial when the senior class of Wellington at last descended upon the
+big old farmhouse at lunch time. She had buttered and sliced bread until
+her back ached, and she cast many angry glances at her ruddy-faced
+father tranquilly slicing ham in the pantry.
+
+"There are times when Papa is a real nuisance," she thought angrily.
+
+While Mrs. Fern pointed out piles of plates on the pantry shelf to a
+maid, her husband told her the history of the morning.
+
+"So you see, my dear," he finished, "that this party is really Charlie's
+party. We are doing it for his sake. It would be just the sort of thing
+he would have done himself. I remember he brought his entire class home
+once to Sunday morning breakfast. He had invited them and forgotten to
+mention it to Mother."
+
+"And they made a wreath for him?" asked Mrs. Fern irrelevantly, as she
+wiped a tear from her eye.
+
+The Major blinked and went on slicing ham industriously.
+
+"It's as fresh in my mind as if it had happened yesterday," he said
+presently in a low voice.
+
+"How handsome and gay he was," added his wife, sighing, as she counted
+out a pile of napkins.
+
+And now there came the sound of singing in front of the house. The
+seniors had arrived and were serenading the Major and his family.
+"Wellington, my Wellington," they sang, and Mrs. Fern paused in her
+counting to listen to the song she herself had sung as a girl.
+
+"Listen to the children, they are serenading us, Major. Do come out with
+me and meet them."
+
+The Major laid down his carving knife and fork and followed his wife to
+the front door, and presently the girls found themselves in the
+comfortable, sunny parlor of the big old house that seemed to ramble
+off at each side into wings and meander back into other additions in the
+rear. They forgot their grievances in the fun of that lunch party. By
+the miracle which always provides for generosity to give, there was
+plenty of lunch, just as Molly had predicted.
+
+"It wasn't a very difficult guess," she observed to Nance. "If you had
+lived in the country and were subject to unexpected arrivals, you'd know
+just how to go about getting up an impromptu meal for a lot of people."
+
+As for the good old Major, he was quite determined to enjoy himself. He
+wanted to hear all the college jokes and songs. He even told some Exmoor
+jokes, and after each joke he laughed until his face turned an
+apoplectic red and the tears rolled down his cheeks. Mrs. Fern laughed,
+too. She was an old Wellington girl and her eldest daughter, Natalie,
+had graduated from the college a year before Molly had entered. It had
+been a great disappointment to Mrs. Fern that Alice, the youngest
+daughter, was not inclined to college and had gone to a fashionable
+boarding school.
+
+After the senior stunts, when Judy had succeeded in throwing the Major
+into another apoplectic fit of laughing by playing "Birdie's Dead" on
+the piano, it was time to go back to Fern Woods where they were to meet
+the wagons. While the girls were pinning on their hats the Major, in a
+voice husky from much laughing, asked Nance, as it happened to be, which
+girl had suggested the wreath he had seen at the foot of the oak tree.
+Nance pointed out Molly and the Major presently beckoned her to follow
+him into his library. Unlocking one of the desk drawers, he drew out a
+faded photograph. The picture showed a laughing, handsome boy not more
+than eighteen. His curly hair was ruffled all over his head as if he had
+just come in out of the wind, and his merry eyes looked straight into
+Molly's.
+
+"That is Charlie," said the Major, looking over Molly's shoulder at the
+picture. "My younger brother, Charlie. His death was the greatest sorrow
+I have ever known. Poor Charlie! Poor boy!"
+
+The old man turned away to hide the tears in his eyes and Molly laid the
+photograph back in the drawer.
+
+"Charlie would have enjoyed all this even more than I have," went on the
+Major. "It would have been just what he would have done under the
+circumstances. I saw the wreath, you see, and it touched me very
+deeply."
+
+"The girls will appreciate your kindness all the more when I tell them,"
+said Molly, not knowing how else to express the sympathy she felt.
+
+"Ah, well, it all happened half a century ago," he said, shaking her
+hand and patting it gently at the same time.
+
+"He is a dear," thought Molly, following him into the hall.
+
+She saw one other photograph in the Fern house that interested her. It
+was a picture of Professor Edwin Green, very elaborately framed,
+standing on a dressing table in one of the bedrooms.
+
+Alice Fern kept well in the background while her mother and father and
+elder sister entertained the senior class of Wellington. She had done
+her duty by the lunch and she was not going to mingle in this crowd of
+unknowns.
+
+"I never could bear a college romp," she had said to her mother who had
+remonstrated with her daughter.
+
+"I trust you don't call your mother a college romp," answered the old
+lady indignantly.
+
+"Not at all, Mama. You belonged to the early days of Wellington before
+romps came into existence," Alice replied sharply.
+
+"I'm sure you may have to see a great deal of college, if----" began
+Mrs. Fern, and broke off abruptly.
+
+Alice shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"If--if----" she thought. "How I detest that word."
+
+On the way back that afternoon the old Queen's girls held a council of
+war.
+
+"I think we ought to make it our business to find out who played this
+trick on us," cried Margaret, "if it takes detective work to do it. Our
+dignity as seniors has been attacked and the standards of Wellington
+lowered."
+
+"I don't believe any juniors had a hand in it," put in Judy, "because we
+are so friendly with them."
+
+Nance nudged Molly.
+
+"She's afraid somebody's going to blame that charming Adele," she
+whispered.
+
+"If it's any of the Wellington girls, it's more likely to be among the
+sophomores," announced Edith decisively. "They were rather a wild lot
+last year but we were too busy to notice them; a good deal like a gang
+of bad boys in their own set; always playing practical jokes----"
+
+"Yes, but would they dare play jokes on us?" interrupted Margaret.
+
+"They'd dare do anything," answered Edith. "Anne White is the
+ringleader. I only know her by sight so I can't judge of her character,
+but I heard that Miss Walker had her on the grill several times last
+winter."
+
+"What does she look like?" some one asked.
+
+"Why, she's as demure as anything; a petite, brown-haired, inconspicuous
+little person. You'd never suspect her of being so daring, but I happen
+to know of one reckless performance of hers that Prexy hasn't heard of."
+
+"Do tell," they demanded with breathless curiosity.
+
+"You'll let it go no farther? Word of honor, now?"
+
+"Word of honor," they repeated in a chorus.
+
+"One night last spring she let herself down from the dormitory with a
+rope ladder and went--well, I don't know where she went, but she got
+back safely enough----"
+
+"Up the ladder?"
+
+"No. That was the wonderful part. She simply waited till morning and
+when the gates were open slipped in in time for chapel."
+
+The girls were rather horrified at this story.
+
+"It's shocking," the chorus exclaimed.
+
+"It does sound so," went on Edith impressively, "if I didn't happen to
+know that she spent the night with good old Mrs. Murphy, who told it to
+me herself one day in a burst of tea-cup confidence, and I never let it
+out to any one but Katherine until to-day. But it does seem the moment
+for telling it, if she did play that dastardly trick----"
+
+"But we aren't sure it was Anne White," put in Molly.
+
+"No, but it's her style. She sent a girl a live mouse through the mail
+and she broke up one of the sophomore class meetings by putting
+ticktacks on the window."
+
+"How silly," ejaculated Mabel Hinton.
+
+"But what was she doing down on the campus and what did Mrs. Murphy
+think of being waked up at midnight?" asked Judy.
+
+"It wasn't midnight. It was only a little before eleven and Anne told
+Mrs. Murphy she had done it for a lark. She was awfully frightened and
+Mrs. Murphy began by being shocked and ended by being kind-hearted. The
+ladder had slipped down and she couldn't get up and she didn't know what
+to do."
+
+So it happened, that without meaning to be unjust, the seniors secretly
+blamed Anne White for the pillaging of their lunch hampers. But there
+was no evidence and they could only wait and be watchful, as Margaret
+expressed it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE RETORT COURTEOUS.
+
+
+Because of the happy ending of the Ramble the seniors made no secret of
+the theft of the lunch hampers. If they had been obliged to go hungry,
+they would probably have kept the entire story to themselves. Such is
+human nature. When the story reached Miss Walker's ears, as most things
+about Wellington did sooner or later, she sent for Margaret Wakefield
+and got the history of the case from her in an exceedingly dramatic and
+well connected form.
+
+"And we had gone to no end of trouble, Miss Walker, and a good deal of
+expense," Margaret finished. "Lots of us had had cakes and pickles and
+things sent on from home."
+
+Miss Walker smiled. She could have named the contents of those hampers
+without any outside assistance.
+
+"What none of us understands is where they took the hampers afterward.
+They couldn't have brought them back to college without being found
+out."
+
+"No," answered the Principal, "that would have been impossible, of
+course, and yet the hampers have managed to find their way back."
+Shifting her chair from the table desk, she pointed underneath. "So, you
+see," she continued, "that the sandwiches and pickles and stuffed eggs
+and fudge may have found their way into college after all. Major Fern
+discovered the hampers. They had been tossed into a ditch near his
+place." Miss Walker sighed and frowned. "If the Exmoor boys were given
+to this kind of thing, I might have suspected some of them. But the
+standards at Exmoor are above such things as this," she indicated the
+hampers with a gesture of mingled disgust and pain. "If only--only I
+could bring my Wellington to that point. But every year there is
+something."
+
+Margaret felt sorry for the Principal who had striven so hard for the
+honor of Wellington in the face of so many discouragements.
+
+"It was a thoroughly silly and undignified act," she remarked later to
+the Queen's crowd, telling them of the interview, "to break up a
+time-honored custom like the Senior Ramble by stealing all the food; and
+I'm sorry for the girl who did it if she ever gets caught."
+
+An effort had been made to find out if there had been any sophomore
+spreads the night of the Ramble with the stolen banquet, but these young
+women were either very wily or very innocent, for nothing was found
+against them.
+
+In the meantime, things went on happily enough at Wellington and there
+were no more escapades to wrinkle the President's brow or enrage the
+girls who happened to be the victims. Molly's life was so filled with
+work and interests that she had little leisure for reflection, and
+about this time there came to her an unsolicited and entirely unexpected
+honor. She was elected sub-editor of the Wellington _Commune_, the
+fortnightly review of college news and college writings. Edith Williams,
+beyond a doubt the most literary girl in college, was editor-in-chief,
+Caroline Brinton was business manager, and there was besides a staff of
+six girls from other classes who gathered news and ran their various
+departments.
+
+"I can't imagine why they chose me," Molly exclaimed one afternoon to
+Edith, when the two girls were closeted in the _Commune_ office.
+
+"For your literary discrimination," answered Edith.
+
+"But I think my themes are dreadfully crude and forced. I can't help
+feeling self-conscious when I write."
+
+"That's because you try too hard," answered Edith, who always spoke the
+brutal truth regarding the literary efforts of her friends. "Let your
+thoughts flow easily, lightly," she added, making a flowing gesture with
+her pencil to illustrate the gentle trickling of ideas from an
+overcharged brain.
+
+Molly laughed.
+
+"You remind me of Professor Green. 'Be simple,' was his advice--as if an
+amateur can be simple."
+
+Edith, in the act of writing an editorial, smiled enigmatically.
+
+"It's about as hard as getting a cheap dressmaker to make simple
+clothes," she said. "Amateurs always want to put in ruffles and
+puffles."
+
+The two girls were seated at the editorial desk. There was a pile of
+manuscript in front of Molly: themes recommended by Miss Pomeroy for
+publication and contributed book reviews. Presently only the ticking of
+the clock on the book shelves broke the stillness. Both girls had
+plunged into work with a will. Edith's soft pencil was already flying
+over the sheets.
+
+"Flowing easily and lightly," Molly thought, smiling as she turned a
+page.
+
+For more than half an hour they worked in silence. At last Molly, having
+selected from the reviews the ones she considered best for publication,
+leaned her chin on her hand and closed her eyes. How peaceful it was in
+this little office, and how nice to be with Edith who went at her
+work--this kind of work--with force and swiftness.
+
+Rap, rap, rap, came the sound of knuckles on the door, while some one
+shook the knob and the voice of Judy called:
+
+"Let me in, let me in, girls, I've got something to show you that will
+make your blood boil."
+
+"Run away, we're awfully busy," answered Edith, who kept the door to the
+private office locked.
+
+"I tell you it will make your blood boil with rage and fury," went on
+the extravagant Judy. "As editors of the _Commune_, everybody calls on
+you to resent an insult to college. Please let me in," she pleaded.
+
+Molly opened the door and her impetuous friend rushed in, waving a
+newspaper.
+
+"Be calm, child. Don't take on so. Sit down and tell us easily and
+lightly and flowingly what's the matter," she said.
+
+"Look at this base, libelous article," Judy ejaculated, spreading the
+paper on the table.
+
+With an expression of amused toleration as of one who must bear the
+whims of a spoiled child, Edith drew the paper in front of her while
+Molly and Judy seated themselves on the arms of her chair and read over
+her shoulders.
+
+The first things that caught their eyes were the pictures: drawings of
+wildly disheveled beings in gymnasium suits playing basket ball and
+hockey. One picture, also, represented a blousy looking young person in
+a sweater, carrying a bundle of linen under one arm and a bottle of milk
+under the other. In still another this same blousy model was yelling
+"Hello" to her twin sister across the page. They saw her again in the
+drug store dissipating in chocolate sundaes; and once more, chewing gum;
+hobnobbing with the grocery boy, too, or perhaps it was the baggage man
+or the postman. The article occupied a full page under flaring
+headlines:
+
+    "THE PRESENT DAY COLLEGE GIRL, NO LONGER A PLEASING FEMININE
+    TYPE. SHE IS VULGAR, AGGRESSIVE, SLANGY. COLLEGES FOR GIRLS THE
+    RUIN OF AMERICAN HOMES--So says Miss Beatrice Slammer, the
+    popular writer and well-known anti-suffragist."
+
+"It's ironic, untrue and insulting," observed Edith, in a choking voice
+as her eyes traveled down the columns.
+
+"She seems especially hard on poor girls who have to get their own
+meals," broke in Molly. "Is there anything unfeminine in getting a
+bottle of milk from the corner grocery, I wonder? Or saying good-morning
+to the postman or Mr. Murphy? What would Miss Slammer think of us if she
+knew how often we had tea with Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Murphy, too?"
+
+"She recommends colleges for women to pattern themselves after a Fifth
+Avenue school that teaches manners before it teaches classics," burst
+out Judy. "I wonder if she went to that school?"
+
+"She is evidently opposed to higher education for women," remarked
+Edith. "The style of her writing shows that as much as her sentiments
+do."
+
+"I know one thing," cried Judy, "this settles it. I'm going to join the
+Woman's Suffrage Society to-day. If this is the way an anti thinks, I'm
+for the other side."
+
+Edith and Molly laughed.
+
+"It's an excellent reason for changing your political views, Judy," said
+Molly.
+
+And now the office of the _Commune_ was besieged by numbers of students
+from the three upper classes. There were even one or two indignant
+freshmen present. Those who had received the article by the first mail
+had handed it to those who had not. Many of the girls had already
+written letters in reply and sent them to be published in New York
+papers. Would the editors of the _Commune_ do anything about the base,
+libelous article? Were these stinging falsehoods about college girls to
+be allowed to be scattered over the country without a single protest?
+
+"You may add my name to the Suffrage Club, Miss Wakefield," called a
+junior.
+
+"And mine."
+
+"And mine."
+
+So Margaret's list of converts swelled amazingly that afternoon.
+
+Edith was enjoying herself immensely.
+
+"What funny creatures girls are," she said to Molly, still sitting on
+the arm of the editorial chair.
+
+The question was: how was the article to be answered? No doubt college
+girls everywhere were thinking the same thing; therefore, the Wellington
+girls would not like to be backward in coming forward.
+
+"I suppose all the other colleges will be answering the article in
+about the same way," said Margaret. "I wish we could think of something
+original and different. Something more personal than a letter to a
+newspaper."
+
+"She speaks on anti-suffrage, doesn't she?" asked Edith.
+
+"Oh, yes," cried Margaret. "She is evidently one of those women who
+believes she can stem the tide of human progress by taking a stand
+against higher education and universal suffrage. Do you think women like
+that are ever silent? They are always standing on the street corners
+trying to lift their little puny voices above the multitude--but who
+hears them?"
+
+There was a burst of laughter at Margaret's eloquence.
+
+"Why not ask her to speak here?" suggested Edith.
+
+"What good would that do?"
+
+"Besides, she wouldn't come."
+
+"Oh, yes she would. Wait until all this blows over and then send her
+the invitation. People who write like that always want to talk."
+
+"But how will we get any personal satisfaction out of it?" Margaret
+asked.
+
+"Well, by showing her what perfect ladies we are, in the first place. We
+can be very attentive and still 'freeze' her. We can entertain her
+without talking to her any more than is necessary, and we can listen to
+her speech and make no comments."
+
+After consideration of the suggestion, most of the girls began to see a
+good many possibilities in this courteous revenge. They were taken with
+the notion of inviting Miss Slammer into the enemy's camp and treating
+her as a guest too honored to be familiar with. It was agreed that the
+invitation should be dispatched in about two weeks, so that Miss Slammer
+would feel no suspicions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A STOLEN VISIT.
+
+
+One morning not long after the stormy meeting in the _Commune_ room,
+Molly, racking her brain over "The Theory of Mathematics," heard Otoyo's
+tap at the door. She knew it was the little Japanese. Nobody else could
+knock so faintly and still so distinctly.
+
+"Come in," she called, and Otoyo glided in as softly as a mouse.
+
+"You are much busy, Mees Brown?" she asked, retreating toward the door
+when she saw Molly bending over her book.
+
+"Oh, I can spare a few moments for a dear little friend any day,"
+answered Molly. "What's happened? Nothing wrong, I hope?"
+
+The Japanese girl appeared excited. Her eyes shone with more than their
+usual luster and she seemed hardly able to keep back the news she had to
+tell.
+
+"No, no, nothing wrong. Something very right. My honorable father is
+coming to Wellington to see his humble little daughter. O, I am so
+happee!" and Miss Sen executed a few steps of the "Boston," she had
+lately learned to dance. Molly watched the plump little figure gliding
+about the room and smiled. What a dear, funny little person Otoyo was.
+
+"I am so glad. How joyful you must be. When is he coming, Otoyo?"
+
+"He has arriving----" Otoyo broke off quickly. Excitement always
+strangely affected her English. "He has arrived now in New York and he
+will come here to-morrow for the end-week."
+
+"Week-end, you mean, child. Now, what shall we do to amuse him besides
+showing him the sights? Wouldn't you like us to give him a dance or a
+fudge party or something?"
+
+Otoyo clasped her hands joyfully.
+
+"It will be enough for my honorable father to see all the beautiful
+young American ladees and the buildeengs. He will not require of his
+humble daughter amusements. He is much grateful to young ladees for
+kindness to little Otoyo. My honorable father will be thankful to you."
+
+"Perhaps you would like us to go with you to the train to meet him?"
+Molly suggested, wondering why Otoyo still lingered, now that she had
+unburdened herself of the good news and had seen plainly that Molly was
+very, very busy. But no, Otoyo thought so many young ladees at once
+might embarrass her honorable parent. She would prefer to bring him to
+call at No. 5 Quadrangle on Sunday afternoon if entirely acceptable.
+
+It would be acceptable. They would all be delighted and the crowd would
+be there to receive the honorable gentleman. And now, Molly was sure
+Otoyo would go. But Otoyo had something else on her mind, evidently.
+Molly sighed. Not for worlds would she hurt her small friend's feelings,
+but she did wish she had put a busy sign on the door. It had been such a
+perfect time to study, with Nance at a lecture and Judy practicing
+basket ball.
+
+"Will Mees Brown do me one great beeg favor?" began Otoyo with some
+embarrassment.
+
+"Yes, indeed. Anything."
+
+It appeared that Otoyo was very anxious to call on Professor Green and
+she wished Miss Brown to go with her.
+
+"You have seen the honorable Professor?" she asked innocently.
+
+"No, I have been to inquire every day, but Miss Fern told me he was not
+permitted to see visitors."
+
+For the first time in their acquaintance Molly saw Otoyo show signs of
+real displeasure.
+
+"Mees Fern?" she repeated. "She cannot say no and yes. It is for the
+nurse to say."
+
+Molly admitted that she had not seen the nurse.
+
+"Then you will come?" cried Otoyo, with almost as much enthusiasm as she
+had shown over the coming visit of her honorable father.
+
+"But----" began Molly.
+
+"You will so kindlee go this afternoon?" broke in the voluble little
+Japanese. "Will four o'clock be an hour of convenience?"
+
+"I really don't----" began Molly again.
+
+"You said 'anything,'" interrupted Otoyo. "You will not go back on poor
+little Japanese? You will come?" she finished, cocking her head on one
+side in her own peculiarly irresistible manner.
+
+Molly glanced at the clock. She had already lost nearly twenty minutes
+of her precious study hour.
+
+"Very well, little one, come for me at four," she said, and Otoyo fairly
+flew from the room before Molly could change her mind. Out in the
+corridor Miss Sen danced the Boston again, just a _pas seul_ to express
+her happiness. Of course Mees Brown should never know that she had just
+that moment come from seeing the great Professor.
+
+At four o'clock Otoyo again appeared at the door of No. 5. It was
+pouring down rain, but she had no intention of releasing Molly from her
+promise. In her miniature rain coat and jaunty red felt hat, she looked
+like a plump little robin hopping into the room.
+
+"You are readee?" asked Otoyo.
+
+"Why, I never dreamed you would go in the rain!" began Molly, looking up
+from her writing.
+
+Otoyo's face lengthened and the corners of her mouth drooped
+disconsolately.
+
+"Why, bless the child! Molly, aren't you ashamed to disappoint her?"
+cried Judy from the divan where she was resting after her athletic
+labors.
+
+"Why, Otoyo, dear, I didn't know you were so keen about it. Of course
+I'll go," said Molly remorsefully, fumbling in the closet for her
+over-shoes, while Nance calmly appropriated Judy's rain coat from the
+back of a chair where that young woman had flung it and held it up for
+Molly to slip into.
+
+"Better take my umbrella," she said. Molly had never owned a rain coat
+and couldn't keep an umbrella.
+
+"You know we may not be allowed to see him," Molly observed, when the
+two girls had started on their wet walk down the avenue. "Miss Fern
+distinctly told Judith Blount and me one day that he was not to see any
+one except the family. The doctor particularly did not wish him to see
+students who would remind him of his work and worry him."
+
+"Mees Fern know too much," said Otoyo, making what she called a "scare
+face" by wrinkling her nose and screwing up her mouth. "Mees Fern veree
+crosslee sometimes."
+
+"Adverbs, adverbs, Otoyo," admonished Molly.
+
+"Excusa-me," said Otoyo. "It is when I become a little warm here in my
+brain that I grow adverbial."
+
+Molly laughed. In her heart there was a secret, unacknowledged feeling
+of relief that she was going to try to see Professor Green in spite of
+Miss Fern. It was a relief, too, to find herself in the outdoors after
+her long vigil of study. The rain beat on her face and the fresh wind
+nipped her cheeks until they glowed with color.
+
+"You are much too small and feeble to come out in all this weather,
+Otoyo," she said, slipping her arm through her friend's. "You are so
+tiny you might easily fall into a puddle and drown."
+
+"Ah, thees is notheeng," cried Otoyo. "In Japan it rains--oceans! And
+for so long. Days and days without refraining from." She was very apt to
+use big words instead of smaller ones, her own language being
+exceedingly formal and grandiose. "Notheeng is dry. Not even within the
+edifices."
+
+"Houses, Otoyo."
+
+"But a house is an edifice, is it not so?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but we wouldn't use such a showy word."
+
+Otoyo was still puzzling out why the longer word was not the better when
+they reached the infirmary. The regular nurse of the infirmary who
+usually sat in the waiting room was not visible to-day. A freshman was
+ill and she was probably busy, Otoyo explained.
+
+"Who is looking after the Professor?" Molly asked.
+
+Miss Fern, it appeared, assisted by the infirmary nurse, attended her
+cousin during the day, and his sister nursed him at night. Having
+imparted this information in a loud whisper, Otoyo started upstairs on
+tiptoe, Molly following. Somehow, she felt quite courageous and not at
+all afraid of Miss Fern, with the little Japanese to lead her on.
+
+All the doors were closed in the corridor above and on the ward room
+door hung a sign, "No Admittance."
+
+"She must be quite ill," whispered Molly.
+
+"She has a taking disease," answered Otoyo. "Like this." And she puffed
+out both jaws to the roundness of the full moon.
+
+Molly stifled a laugh.
+
+"Mumps, do you mean?"
+
+Otoyo nodded.
+
+"It was so called to me by the honorable nurse," she added gravely.
+
+The two girls lingered a moment in the hall. Molly was opposed to
+rapping on the Professor's door, but Otoyo, amiably but unswervingly
+persistent in attaining her ends, gently tapped on the door.
+
+"Come in," called Professor Green's voice, weak almost beyond
+recognition.
+
+Otoyo peeped into the room.
+
+"He is alone," she whispered, and with that she pushed Molly through the
+door with arm of steel. "I will keep watch for ten minutes without.
+Then I will call." She closed the door and Molly found herself looking
+fearfully through the dim shadows cast by half-drawn green blinds, at an
+emaciated face on the pillow. Her pulses throbbed and she wanted very
+much to cry. Indeed, it required almost superhuman effort to keep back
+the tears. Was this emaciated, wax-like face on the pillows her
+Professor's?
+
+"I'm afraid I ought not to be here," she began in a low voice.
+
+"If you leave I shall cry," said the Professor. "Won't you come nearer?"
+
+Molly crept over to the bedside and stood looking down into the changed
+face. Only the brown eyes seemed the same. She choked and tried to
+smile. One must be cheerful with sick people, and she hoped the
+Professor would think it was the rain that had wet her cheeks.
+
+"Shake hands, Miss Molly," said the Professor, lifting one transparent
+hand and then dropping it weakly.
+
+With an impulse she could hardly explain she knelt beside the bed and
+put her hand over his.
+
+"You are much better?" she whispered.
+
+"I'll soon be well, now," he replied. "But I've been on a long journey.
+It seemed endless--so many mountains to climb and rivers to cross--such
+impenetrable forests----" he paused and shook his head. "I was beginning
+to get very tired and lonely, too--it's dismal taking the journey
+alone--but I've come to the end now--it's over----" again he paused and
+smiled. "I'm glad to find you at last. I've been looking for you a long
+time."
+
+"I would have come sooner, but they--but she said no one was to see
+you."
+
+"The nurse?"
+
+Molly shook her head.
+
+"My sister?"
+
+"No, Miss Fern."
+
+"I never was so bossed in my life----" a sudden strength came into his
+voice. "These women!" he added in a tone of disgust.
+
+The door opened and Otoyo's voice was heard saying in a loud whisper.
+
+"The ten minutes have passed away."
+
+"Good-bye," whispered Molly.
+
+"Will you come again?" he asked.
+
+She nodded and tiptoed hurriedly out of the room. She had caught a
+glimpse of the blue paper weight on the table during that stolen
+interview.
+
+"No wonder Miss Alice Fern is so bossy with him," she thought. "I
+suppose she has a right to be." Molly sighed. Somehow she wished she had
+not seen the blue paper weight. It had spoiled all the happiness in the
+visit, except of course her happiness over his recovery.
+
+When the two girls reached the head of the stairs, the door to the ward
+opened and the nurse looked out. She exchanged a smiling nod with Otoyo.
+
+"Why, Miss Sen, you naughty little thing, I believe this visit was all
+arranged beforehand," exclaimed Molly.
+
+But Miss Sen only laughed and not one word of excuse or explanation
+would she give.
+
+"Otoyo, you are as deep as deep----" Molly began.
+
+But Otoyo pressing closely to her side, looked up into Molly's face and
+smiled so sweetly it was impossible to scold her.
+
+"You are very kindlee to humble little Japanese girl," she said. "Better
+than all the young ladies of Wellington, I like you best, Mees Brown.
+There is no one so good and so beautiful----"
+
+"You outrageous little flatterer, you are changing the subject," cried
+Molly.
+
+"With all my honor, I give you assurance that I speak trulee."
+
+"You make me very happee, then," laughed Molly, "but what has that got
+to do with Professor Green?"
+
+"Did I say there was any connecting?" asked Otoyo innocently.
+
+And so Miss Sen, unfathomable and still guileless, never explained about
+the stolen visit, and Molly Brown, baffled and still glad in her heart,
+had to think up any explanation she could.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+BARBED ARROWS.
+
+
+"I don't know which was the most highly polished, his manners or his
+shiny bronze face," ejaculated Judy when the door of No. 5 had closed
+upon Otoyo and her honorable father.
+
+The small grizzled Japanese gentleman had taken tea American fashion
+with his daughter's Quadrangle friends. With punctilious enjoyment he
+had eaten everything that was offered to him, cloudbursts, salmon
+sandwiches, stuffed olives and chocolate cake. The girls had heard that
+raw carp was a favorite Japanese dish, and salmon being the only fish
+convenient, they had bought several cans of it in the village in honor
+of the national taste.
+
+"Wasn't his English wonderful?" put in Margaret. "He said to me, 'I
+entertain exceedingly hopes in my daughter's educationally efforts.'"
+
+"He asked me if I were quadrangular," laughed Edith. "I said no,
+quadrilateral."
+
+"The funny part of it was that he used all those big words and spoke
+with such a perfect accent and yet he didn't understand anything we
+said," observed Molly. "All the time I was telling him how much we loved
+Otoyo and what a dear clever child she was, he blinked and smiled and
+said: 'Indeed. Is it truly? Exceedingly interestingly.'"
+
+While they were laughing and discussing Otoyo's father, Adele Windsor,
+Judy's new bosom friend, walked into the room. She had formed a habit of
+entering their room without announcing herself, an unpardonable breach
+of etiquette at Wellington, as well it might be anywhere. Lately she had
+made herself very much at home at No. 5, lounging on the divan with a
+novel between lectures, or occupying the most comfortable chair while
+she jotted down notes on a tablet. Nance called her "the intruder" to
+Molly, and once she had even ventured to remark to Judy:
+
+"I should think your friend would know that it's customary to knock on a
+door before opening it."
+
+"It's because she's never had any privacy," explained Judy
+apologetically. "She was brought up in a New York flat and slept on a
+parlor sofa all her life until two years ago when her father began
+suddenly to make money."
+
+"Being brought up in a parlor ought to give her parlor manners," Nance
+thought, but she had not voiced her thought to the sensitive Judy, who
+really had not intended to force Adele Windsor on her chums. It was only
+that Adele had a way of taking for granted she was _persona grata_, that
+Nance thought was rather too free.
+
+Molly, always polite to guests whether welcome or not, greeted Adele
+cordially and made her a cup of tea.
+
+"We were just discussing Otoyo Sen's funny little father," she
+explained, in order to draw Adele into the conversation. "He's been here
+to call--the queerest English!" And Molly repeated some of Mr. Sen's
+absurd speeches.
+
+Adele listened with interest. She was always interested in everything,
+one might almost say inquisitive, and she had a peculiar way of making
+people say things they regretted. Judy, artless soul, had told her
+everything she knew long ago. And now, turning her intelligent dark eyes
+from one to another and occasionally putting out a pointed question,
+Adele succeeded in starting a new discussion on Otoyo's father. With the
+most innocent intentions in the world, they imitated his voice and
+manner, his stiff formal bows and his funny squeaky laugh.
+
+It was not until later when the friends had scattered to tidy up for
+supper that Molly felt any misgivings about having made fun of Otoyo's
+father, and these she kept to herself, feeling, indeed, that they were
+unworthy of her. Adele had not left with the others. She was to remain
+for supper with Judy, and the two girls sat chatting together while
+Molly took a cat-nap and Nance began clearing away the tea things.
+
+"You shall not help," she had insisted, when Molly had offered to do her
+share. "You are dead tired and I'm not, so go and rest and don't
+bother."
+
+Nance's manner was often brusquest when she was tenderest, but Molly
+understood her perfectly. She _was_ very tired. What with her new duties
+on the _Commune_, club meetings and the pressure of studies, the world
+was turning so fast she felt that she might fly off into space at any
+moment.
+
+"Professor Green would have scolded me for trying to overdo things," she
+was thinking, half sadly. Gradually her body relaxed and her eyelids
+dropped. Through the mists of half consciousness she heard the musical
+rattle of the tea things, and presently there came the catchy, rather
+nasal tones of Adele's voice over the clatter of china and silver.
+
+"I like all your friends, Judy. They are remarkably bright."
+
+"Aren't they a sparkling little coterie," answered Judy proudly.
+
+"Now, Miss Wakefield is a born leader. Of course a leader must have the
+gift of gab. She's a great talker, isn't she? Takes the conversation
+right into her own hands and keeps it there, doesn't she?"
+
+"Margaret does talk a lot," Judy admitted.
+
+"Too much perhaps for any one not deeply interested, but then of course
+I always am. Now, Edith Williams is the brighter of the two, but she
+knows it, don't you think so?"
+
+"Well, I suppose she does," replied Judy reluctantly.
+
+"Katherine has more surface brightness, but of course she's superficial,
+that is, compared with her sister."
+
+"Edith is the brightest," said Judy.
+
+"Mabel Hinton is all right, but she does dress so atrociously. And those
+glasses! Can you imagine how she can wear them?"
+
+Molly felt suddenly hot. She flung the comfort off and sat up
+impatiently.
+
+"I should think Judy would have sense enough to see she's being made to
+discuss every friend she has," she thought.
+
+"The Intruder" had now commenced on pretty Jessie Lynch. "Awfully jolly
+to have so many beaux. Most men-crazy girls have none," she was saying,
+when Molly marched into the room. She had not decided what she was going
+to say, but she intended to say something.
+
+"How red your face is, Molly, dear," observed Judy carelessly.
+
+"And how fortunate that it's so seldom that way," went on the
+imperturbable Miss Windsor. "Red faces are not becoming to red heads,
+that is, generally speaking, but your skin is such an exquisite
+texture, Miss Brown, that it doesn't matter whether it's red or white.
+Did you see where a girl had written to a beauty editor and asked for a
+cure for blushing? The editor told her that age was the only cure.
+Sometimes, however, one gets very good suggestions off those pages, good
+hygienic suggestions, I mean."
+
+And so Adele carried the conversation along at such a swift pace that
+Molly did not have the chance to say what she had intended. She had
+always regarded that kind of talk with supreme contempt: praise that
+tapered into a sting. "It would have been more honest to have given the
+sting without the praise," she thought, "and less hypocritical and
+censorious."
+
+It was Adele's trick to make you agree with her, and if you did, lead
+you on to further and more dangerous ground, until you suddenly felt
+yourself placed in the awkward position of saying something unkind
+without having intended it.
+
+It was strange that Judy was so blind to this trait of Adele's. But
+then Adele was very attractive. There was a kind of abandon about her
+that suited Judy's style. They had a great many tastes in common. Adele
+was very talented and the two girls often went off on Saturday afternoon
+sketching expeditions together.
+
+"Nance, I'm ashamed of myself for thinking such things," whispered
+Molly, on the way down to supper, "but there is something almost
+Mephistophelean about Adele Windsor."
+
+"She-devil, you mean," broke in Nance bluntly.
+
+Molly laughed.
+
+"Mephistophelean was more high sounding. Besides she's just like
+Mephistopheles in 'Faust.' She doesn't speak right out, only whispers
+and suggests. Innuendo is the word, isn't it? Sometimes I'm really
+frightened for Judy."
+
+"She is awfully crushed, but she'll wake up soon enough. She always
+does," answered Nance carelessly.
+
+But Molly had secret misgivings, in spite of Nance's assurances, and
+furthermore, she was convinced that the crafty Adele was well aware of
+these misgivings and that it gave her much private enjoyment to make
+Molly uncomfortable.
+
+"The trouble is I can't fight her with her own weapons," Molly thought.
+"I'm not clever enough, and besides I wouldn't if I could. After all,
+boys' methods of settling disputes by drawing a circle and fighting it
+out are somehow much more honest. It would be worth a black eye and a
+bloody nose to lay forever all that innuendo and sly insinuation."
+
+"She's hypnotized Judy into putting her up for the Shakespeareans and
+the Olla Podridas," said Nance. "And she'll get in. Nobody will dream of
+blackballing her, you'll see."
+
+Molly compressed her lips into a firm red line and said nothing, but she
+was almost led to wish that school societies did not exist at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE SUBSTITUTE.
+
+
+Miss Walker had not failed to see the stinging article against women's
+colleges written by Miss Beatrice Slammer for a newspaper, and when she
+recalled that Miss Slammer had recently spent a day at Wellington as a
+guest of the college under plea of gathering material, she felt somewhat
+embittered. When, therefore, it came to her ears that the students
+intended to ask Miss Slammer to Wellington ostensibly for the purpose of
+hearing her views on anti-suffrage, she smiled and said nothing to
+anybody except Miss Pomeroy, who had raised some objections.
+
+"Don't worry over it, my dear," said Miss Walker, "they won't do
+anything to make us ashamed. It's Miss Slammer who will be ashamed, I
+rather imagine."
+
+Perhaps Miss Slammer was surprised at receiving an invitation from
+Wellington University after her lampoon of college girls. Whatever
+qualms she may have felt in writing it had been hushed to sleep with the
+insidious thought that the views, if not true, were at least sensational
+enough to catch the public eye; and this was more important to Miss
+Slammer than anything else. It flattered her to be asked to speak at
+this small but distinguished college. Of course they had never seen the
+article or they would never have sent the invitation. Miss Slammer had
+her doubts as to whether any person outside New York ever read a
+newspaper, especially a lot of college girls who had no interests beyond
+amateur plays and basket ball. So she promptly dispatched a polite note
+of acceptance to "Miss Julia Kean." Then at the last moment, only a few
+hours before train time, her courage failed her.
+
+"I can't do it," she said. "I simply haven't the nerve."
+
+"Do what?" asked Jimmy Lufton, glancing up from his typewriter to the
+somewhat battered and worn countenance of Miss Slammer.
+
+"Face a lot of women and talk to them about anti-suffrage."
+
+Jimmy grinned. He had the face of a mischievous schoolboy. In his eyes
+there lurked two little imps of adventure while his broad and sunny
+smile was completely disarming. "Sunny Jim" was the name given him by
+his friends in the office, a name that still clung to him after five
+tempestuous years of newspaper work.
+
+"Would you like a substitute?" he asked. "I think I could give some
+pretty convincing arguments."
+
+"What do you know about it?" demanded Miss Slammer doubtfully.
+
+"Did you read the article that came out last Sunday--'Anti's to the
+front, by a Wife and Mother.' That was me. I thought I gave a pretty
+fair line of argument."
+
+"Jimmie, you are the limit," exclaimed Miss Slammer. Then she paused and
+began to think quickly. Suppose Jimmy did go up to Wellington with a
+letter of introduction from her, and take her place? Well, why not? She
+was too ill to come, and had sent the well-known young writer on this
+vital subject. She would be keeping her engagement in a way, and Jimmy
+would be getting a holiday and perhaps material for another story at the
+same time. The editor's consent was gained. "See if you can't get
+something about basket ball," he had ordered, and Jimmy dashed out of
+the office, the railroad ticket contributed by Wellington in one pocket
+and Miss Slammer's note in the other.
+
+Miss Slammer's nature was a casual one. Life had been so hard with her
+that she had long since grown callous under the blows of fate and grimly
+indifferent to other people's feelings. Somewhere she had heard that
+Jimmy Lufton was a born orator. At any rate, she thought he could carry
+off the adventure and her conscience was easy.
+
+At eight o'clock the next morning when the night train from New York
+pulled into Wellington station, a crowd of well-dressed young women on
+the platform gazed at the door of the Pullman car with expectant eyes.
+Judy Kean in a black velvet suit and a big picture hat headed the
+delegation. Only two passengers descended from the sleeper: a
+middle-aged, worn-looking woman in shabby black and a young man whose
+alert brown eyes took in at once the crowd of college girls and Judy,
+resplendent in velvet and plumes.
+
+"Miss Slammer?" began Judy, intercepting the woman passenger who was
+looking up and down the platform, somewhat bewildered.
+
+"No, no, that is not my name. I am looking for Miss Windsor," answered
+the woman nervously.
+
+"Oh," said Judy, rather surprised. "You will find her at her rooms in
+the Beta Phi House. Take the 'bus up. It's quite a walk."
+
+The woman bowed and hurried over to the 'bus just as the young man with
+the alert brown eyes came up, hat in hand. Judy noticed at once that his
+head was large and rather distinguished in outline and that his
+close-cropped black hair had a tendency to curl.
+
+"You were looking for Miss Slammer?" he asked, speaking to Judy, whose
+face, as the train receded, showed mingled feelings of disappointment
+and anger.
+
+"Oh, yes," she replied, startled somewhat at being addressed by a
+strange young man.
+
+"She couldn't come, and I came down as a substitute," he went on,
+handing her the note hastily dashed off by the intrepid Beatrice.
+
+Judy's eyes only half took in the words of the note. She read it
+silently and passed it on to the rest of the delegation.
+
+"A man!" she thought. "Now, isn't that too much? Everything is ruined.
+We can't teach Miss Slammer a lesson in politeness through a proxy."
+
+"I hope it's all right," Jimmy began, watching Judy's face with
+undisguised admiration.
+
+"Oh, yes," she answered hastily. "We are very glad to see you, Mr.
+Slammer----"
+
+Jimmy broke into his inimitable laugh.
+
+"My name is Lufton," he said, and the mistake seemed so funny that Judy
+laughed, too, and everybody felt more at ease immediately.
+
+"We were to have had you up to breakfast--I mean Miss Slammer," Judy
+stammered.
+
+"I'll get something--er somewhere," said Jimmy in a reassuring tone.
+
+"There's an inn in Wellington village," suggested one of the girls.
+
+"Miss Slammer was scheduled to speak at three o'clock this afternoon,"
+began Judy.
+
+"And am I banished to the village all that time?" Jimmy broke in. "You
+don't bar men from the grounds, do you? I'd like to look around the
+place a little."
+
+"No, indeed. This isn't a convent. If you will come up to the Quadrangle
+after breakfast, we'll be delighted to show you the buildings and the
+cloisters--whatever would interest you."
+
+"Thanks, awfully," said Jimmy, and presently they watched him stroll off
+up the road to the village, whistling as gaily as a schoolboy.
+
+There were scores of faces at the windows of the Quadrangle when the
+special 'bus drew up at the archway.
+
+"She didn't come," Judy called to a group of girls lingering in the
+tower room. "A man came."
+
+"Young or old?" cried half a dozen voices.
+
+"Young and passing fair," said Jessie.
+
+"Passing dark, you mean. He had black hair."
+
+"But where is old Miss Slammer?" demanded Edith Williams.
+
+"Old Miss Slammer was afraid to face the music, I suppose. Anyway, she
+sent Mr. James Lufton down to take her place and he is at present
+breakfasting in the village."
+
+"Somehow, all the sweetness has gone out of revenge!" exclaimed Edith.
+"I foresee that nobody will be willing to practice the 'freeze-out' on
+an innocent man, passing fair, if he is a substitute."
+
+"Well, he's coming up this morning to be shown around college. If any
+one wants to take the job of showing him, I'm willing to resign my
+place. Anybody who is willing to do the 'freeze-out' act, I mean. I
+don't think it will be easy. He has a way of laughing that makes other
+people laugh. You couldn't be mean to him if you tried."
+
+Already, Judy had unconsciously set herself the task of protecting Mr.
+James Lufton from the fate planned for Miss Slammer.
+
+"Aren't we to listen in cold silence when he makes his speech?" asked a
+girl.
+
+"Of course," put in Margaret, "you couldn't listen in any other way to a
+speech against suffrage. I shan't applaud him, I know. If he represents
+Miss Slammer, like as not he shares her views about college girls, too,
+and is just as deserving as she is to a polite 'freeze-out.'"
+
+"It was a mad scheme from the first," put in Katherine Williams. "I
+never did approve of it. I don't imagine such a subtle revenge would
+have had the slightest effect on Miss Slammer."
+
+"We intend to have our revenge," cried a dozen voices, followers of
+Margaret.
+
+In the midst of the hot argument that followed this statement, Judy
+hurried off to Beta Phi House to eat her share of the fine breakfast
+some of the girls there had undertaken to give to the enemy of women's
+colleges. She felt that things looked pretty black for Mr. James Lufton.
+Running upstairs to Adele Windsor's rooms, she knocked on the door
+impatiently. It was quite two minutes before it was cautiously opened
+by Adele, whose face looked flushed and there were two white dents at
+the corners of her mouth.
+
+"I heard she didn't come," Adele began, without waiting for Judy to
+speak. "Let's go down to breakfast. We're late as it is." She closed the
+door with a slam and pushed Judy in front of her toward the stairs.
+
+"By the way, did a visitor find you?" asked Judy. "She inquired where
+you lived at the station."
+
+"Oh, yes. Just a woman--on business. About some clothes," she added
+carelessly. "Dressmakers are dreadful nuisances sometimes."
+
+Judy said nothing, but it occurred to her that Adele must be a very good
+customer for a dressmaker to come all the way to Wellington to consult
+her.
+
+While the Beta Phi girls and their guests were breakfasting in the
+paneled dining-room, the little woman in shabby black came softly out of
+Adele's rooms and tiptoed downstairs. Under cover of the noise of
+laughter and talk she opened the front door and went out. Jimmy Lufton
+saw her later at the inn in the village where she had coffee and toast
+and inquired the hour for the next train to New York. Jimmy himself was
+occupied in jotting down notes on an old envelope.
+
+"If it makes me laugh, I should think it would make them," he chuckled
+to himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE POLITE FREEZE-OUT.
+
+
+They had seen the cloisters and the library and the Hall of Science and
+all the show places at Wellington, and now Miss Julia Kean and Mr. James
+Lufton might be seen strolling across the campus in the direction of the
+lake.
+
+It was one of those hazy, mid-autumnal days, neither cold nor hot; a
+blue mist clothed the fields and hung like a canopy between sun and
+earth.
+
+Judy had changed her best velvet for a walking skirt and a red sweater
+and Jimmy Lufton glanced at her with admiration from time to time.
+
+"It's a mighty becoming way of dressing you young ladies have here," he
+said. "Those sweaters and tam o' shanters are prettier to me than the
+fittest clothes on Fifth Avenue."
+
+"Then you don't agree with Miss Slammer?" asked Judy.
+
+"I probably don't, but, as it happens, I never asked her opinion."
+
+"You don't know what Miss Slammer thinks of college girls, the way they
+dress and talk?"
+
+Jimmy hesitated. As a matter of fact he had never seen the libelous
+article by Miss Slammer. He had been absent in a remote village in the
+mountains writing a murder trial when the article had appeared.
+Therefore he was not suspicious of Judy's unexpected question.
+
+"I can tell you what I think of college girls," he went on as they
+neared the edge of the lake. "I think they are the jolliest, most
+natural, interesting, wholesome, best looking, companionable----"
+
+Judy began to blush. He was looking straight at her as he delivered
+himself of this stream of adjectives.
+
+"Would you like to canoe a little?" she asked, changing the subject.
+
+"Would I," exclaimed Jimmy, with the sudden boyish expression that made
+his face so attractive. "I should rather think I would. I haven't had
+the chance to paddle a canoe since I left college."
+
+It was just the day for canoeing. The surface of the lake was as smooth
+as glass except where the paddles of other canoeists stirred its placid
+surface into little ripples and miniature waves.
+
+Judy thought it would be nice, too. She was enjoying herself immensely
+with this lecturer who looked like a boy without any of a boy's
+diffidence.
+
+"Do you lecture often?" she asked, when they had settled themselves in
+the canoe and he was paddling with a skill she recognized as far from
+being amateur.
+
+"I don't mind making speeches," answered Jimmy. "I made a lot of them
+the last campaign. 'Cart-tail' speeches they are called, only our cart
+was an automobile. There were four or five of us who toured the East
+Side and took turns talking to the crowds."
+
+"I should think you'd be a politician instead of a writer on
+anti-suffrage," remarked Judy.
+
+Jimmy grinned as he shot the canoe toward the center of the lake.
+
+"Is that what I'm credited as being?" he asked.
+
+"'A well-known writer on the subject,'" quoted Judy.
+
+"If I had read that note over I think I would have been tempted to
+scratch out the 'well-known,'" he said, "especially as the only article
+I ever wrote was signed 'A Wife and a Mother.'"
+
+Judy's eyes darkened. Was Miss Slammer to libel them and then send down
+an impostor to make fun of them? Her impressionable mind was as subject
+to as many changes as an April day and her recent pleasure in Mr.
+Lufton's society changed to displeasure as the suspicion clouded her
+thoughts.
+
+"You had a good deal of courage to come to Wellington, then," she
+observed after a pause. "At least we think you did after what Miss
+Slammer wrote about us."
+
+A hunting dog on the scent of quarry was not keener than Jimmy when it
+came to scenting out news, and it took about five minutes of careful and
+skillful questioning for Judy to explain the entire situation.
+
+"By Jove, but that was like old 'Bee-trice' to send me down here into a
+hornet's nest," he thought. "I'll have to get square with them somehow
+before the lecture or it will never come off. I assure you I didn't know
+anything about the article," he said aloud to Judy. "I only came to
+accommodate Miss Slammer. She told me yesterday at the office she was
+ill."
+
+"Then you aren't a lecturer or a writer?" broke in Judy.
+
+"Miss Slammer and I work on the same paper. Didn't she say that in the
+letter?"
+
+Judy shook her head.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll think I'm an impostor, Miss Kean, but I had no
+intention of sailing under false colors. I think I'd better take the
+next train back to New York and give up the lecture. It would be better
+to run away before I'm frozen out, don't you think so?"
+
+Judy was silent for a moment. Her rage against Mr. James Lufton had
+entirely disappeared and she again had that feeling that she would like
+to protect him from the wrath to come.
+
+"What is a 'polite freeze-out' exactly?" Jimmy asked.
+
+"Well, while you lecture, you are to look into rows of stony faces and
+when you finish, there is not to be a word spoken, not a single
+handclap, nothing but stillness as the girls file out of the hall."
+
+Jimmy laughed.
+
+"A sort of glacial exit, I suppose. It makes me chilly to think of it.
+Miss Slammer had a lucky escape."
+
+They were paddling now in the very center of the upper lake, but so
+absorbed were they in their conversation that they had scarcely noticed
+a canoe in front of them.
+
+Suddenly there came a cry, a splash and then a moment of perfect
+stillness followed by a confused sound of voices from the shore. The
+next instant Judy saw in front of them an upturned canoe and two heads
+just rising above the water. Before she had time to realize the danger,
+Jimmy Lufton had torn off his coat, flung his hat into the bottom of the
+canoe and, with a carefully planned leap, had cleared the side of the
+canoe, sending it spinning over the water, shaking and quivering like a
+frightened animal. And now Judy beheld him swimming with long strokes
+toward the place where the two heads had appeared, disappeared and once
+more reappeared. In that flash of a moment she had recognized the blonde
+plaits of Margaret Wakefield and the wet curls of Jessie Lynch. As she
+mechanically paddled toward the struggling figures, she remembered that
+Jessie could not swim a stroke and that Margaret could only swim under
+the most favorable circumstances in a shallow tank.
+
+[Illustration: Before she had time to realize the danger, Jimmy Lufton
+had torn off his coat.--_Page_ 132.]
+
+"He can't hold them both up at once," thought Judy, with a throb of fear
+as she frantically beat the water with her paddle in her effort to reach
+them.
+
+For a moment Jimmy himself was in a quandary. It looked as if he would
+have to let one girl go to save the other, when he saw one of the canoe
+paddles floating within reach. He gave it a swift push toward the
+struggling Margaret.
+
+"Put that under your arms and go slow," he shouted, and made for Jessie.
+In two strokes he had caught her by her coat collar and was swimming
+swiftly toward the upturned canoe.
+
+"Even in the water, Jessie's irresistible attraction had prevailed," the
+girls said afterward when they could discuss this almost tragic event
+with calmness.
+
+"Hold on tight to the canoe, little girl," he said, and turned toward
+Margaret, who was all but exhausted now. He caught her just as she was
+sinking, and held her up until a row boat from shore reached them.
+Margaret was pulled in, with much difficulty owing to her large bulk,
+and at last Jimmy, feeling a trifle weary himself, returned to Jessie
+and helped her into another boat. She was still sufficiently herself to
+achieve a smile of thanks to the handsome young man who had saved her
+life.
+
+It was all over in a flash, and yet it seemed as if the entire college
+of Wellington could be seen running across the campus to the lakeside.
+
+By the time the half-drowned trio reached land Miss Walker herself was
+there looking frightened and pale. The girls were to go straight to the
+Quadrangle, be rubbed down with alcohol and put to bed. As for the brave
+young man who had saved their lives, he was to be taken to the infirmary
+where he could be made comfortable while his clothes were being dried.
+
+When Jimmy Lufton, dripping like a sea god, found himself in the center
+of a group of beautiful young ladies all eager to show him honor as
+they hurried him along to the infirmary, he gave a low, amused chuckle.
+
+"I hope I've squared myself with them now," he thought, "and there'll be
+no polite freeze-out for me and no lecture, either, thank heavens."
+
+While a delegation of three went to the village inn and ordered his suit
+case sent up to the infirmary, another delegation made him a hot
+lemonade in the infirmary pantry, and a third went to the flower store
+in the village and purchased a huge bunch of violets. This was laid on
+his lunch tray with a card, "From the Senior Class of 19--in grateful
+recognition of your brave deed."
+
+And so the world goes. He who is down one day is up the next and Jimmy
+who was to have been the victim of a blighting freeze-out by the
+Wellington students was now an object of tender attention.
+
+There came to Mr. Lufton that afternoon a note stating that if he were
+quite recovered--("Meaning my clothes," thought Jimmy)--the students of
+the Quadrangle would be glad to have him dine with them that evening at
+six-thirty.
+
+"I do feel like a blooming hypocrite," he exclaimed to himself
+remorsefully. "Here I came down to Wellington at their expense to give
+them a fake lecture and they are treating me like a king."
+
+But he accepted the invitation, trusting to luck that his clothes would
+be dry and tipping the infirmary cook to press his trousers and black
+his shoes.
+
+At half past six, then, Jimmy appeared at the Quadrangle archway. He
+wore some of the violets in his buttonhole and his keen, dark eyes shone
+with suppressed humor. A delegation of seniors met him and conducted him
+back to the dining-hall, where several hundreds of young persons all in
+their very best stood up to receive him. A seat of honor was given to
+him at the end of the long table and every girl in the room liked him
+immensely, not only for his broad jolly smile, but because at the end
+of dinner he arose and, without the slightest embarrassment, made the
+most deliciously funny speech ever heard. Then the walls resounded with
+the college yell, ending with "What's the matter with Mr. Lufton? He's
+all right. Who's all right? Lufton--Lufton--James Lufton." Never was one
+unknown and entirely unworthy individual more honored.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE.
+
+
+Providence had not gone to such lengths to bring Jimmy Lufton to
+Wellington and set him in the good graces of the college without some
+purpose. It was not only that he had been sent in time to save two
+prominent seniors from drowning, but Jimmy's destiny was henceforth to
+weave itself like a brightly colored thread in and out of the destinies
+of some of Wellington's daughters.
+
+Wherever Jimmy went he brought with him gaiety and good will. The
+sympathy and charm of his nature had made him so many friends that of
+himself did not know the number. And now he had come down to Wellington
+and made a host of new ones eager to show him how much Wellington
+thought of courage.
+
+On Sunday morning Jimmy not only met Dodo Green and Andy McLean, but he
+was led in and introduced to Professor Green, now sitting up against a
+back rest. There was an expression of ineffable happiness on the
+Professor's face because his bed had been moved near the window where he
+might catch a glimpse of the campus and of an occasional group of
+students strolling under the trees. Such are the simple pleasures of the
+convalescent.
+
+Furthermore, Jimmy had met Miss Alice Fern, immaculate in white linen,
+and now he was carried off to the McLeans' to breakfast where he was to
+meet Molly Brown.
+
+This was Molly's first glimpse of the famous hero. She had not gone down
+to dinner the evening before, having remained with Nance to minister to
+the wants of Margaret and Jessie.
+
+Nance and Judy were at the breakfast, too, and Otoyo Sen, and Lawrence
+Upton who had come over on the trolley from Exmoor. It was, indeed, a
+meeting of old friends and the genial doctor gave them a gruff and
+hearty welcome as they gathered in the drawing-room.
+
+"Gude morning to you," he said, rubbing his hands and beaming on them
+from under his shaggy eyebrows. "I'm verra glad to see the lads and
+lassies once more. The wife was only saying last week that in another
+year they'd be scattered to the four ends of the earth. And is this the
+young lad who picked up the drowning lassies out of the lake? Shake
+hands, boy. It was a brave and bonny thing to do."
+
+"Any man would have done it in my place, doctor," said Jimmy, grasping
+the big hand warmly.
+
+"Not any man, but some would. Andy and Larry, I make no doubt, and that
+wild buffalo, Dodo."
+
+Dodo didn't mind being called a wild buffalo by the doctor if only he
+was given the credit of courage at the same time, but Mrs. McLean
+objected.
+
+"Now, doctor," she said, "you mustn't call your guests ugly names. You
+know I won't permit it at all."
+
+"Don't scold him, Mrs. McLean," said Dodo. "I think it's better to be
+called a wild buffalo than a wild boar."
+
+"A bore is never wild, if that's the kind you mean," answered Mrs.
+McLean. "That's why they are bores, because they are so tame."
+
+"Mither, mither," put in the doctor, laughing, "how you go on. As if
+you'd like 'em any way but tame. She's a great talker, Mr. Lufton, as
+you'll perceive before the morning's half over, but she doesn't mean the
+half she says, like every other woman under the sun."
+
+Jimmy laughed. How delightful it was to him to be among these gay,
+simple-hearted people who found a good deal of enjoyment in life without
+the aid of things he had been accustomed to. Presently he heard Andy
+McLean's voice saying:
+
+"Miss Brown, Mr. Lufton," and turning quickly, he confronted a tall
+slender girl with very blue eyes and red-gold hair. Miss Brown smiled a
+heavenly smile and gave him her hand.
+
+"I'm glad to meet you," she said. "I've been hearing a great deal about
+you in the last few hours."
+
+The soft musical quality of her voice stirred Jimmy's soul.
+
+"It's like the harp in the orchestra. When a hand sweeps over the harp
+strings, you can hear it above all the trumpets and drums, it's so--so
+ineffably sweet, only there's never enough of it."
+
+All this Jimmy thought as he exchanged Molly's greetings.
+
+"Are you from the South?" he asked later when he found himself beside
+her at the breakfast table.
+
+"I'm from Kentucky," she answered promptly and proudly.
+
+"So am I," he almost shouted, and then they exchanged new glances of
+deeper interest and presently were plunged in a conversation about
+home.
+
+Jimmy forgot that Judy, his sponsor at Wellington, sat at his right hand
+and Molly was oblivious to Lawrence Upton on her left.
+
+"I suppose you never get any corn bread here?" Jimmy asked.
+
+"Not our kind," replied Molly. "What they have here is made of fine meal
+with sugar in it."
+
+Jimmy made a wry face.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to have some fried chicken with cream gravy?" he
+whispered.
+
+"And some candied sweet potatoes and corn pones and pear pickle," Molly
+broke in.
+
+"And hot biscuits. But what shall we finish off with, Miss Brown?"
+
+"Brandied peaches and ice cream and hickory-nut cake."
+
+Jimmy gave a delighted laugh.
+
+"That's a good old home dessert I used to get at Grandma's," he said.
+"At least the peaches and the ice cream were. She always had cup-cake
+with frosted icing."
+
+"Do you ever have kidney hash and waffles Sunday mornings, nowadays?"
+asked Molly.
+
+"I haven't had any for years, Miss Brown. But at the restaurant where I
+get breakfast I do get 'batty' cakes and molasses."
+
+"'Batty' cakes," repeated Molly. "How funny that is. Do you know I've
+always said that, too, just because I learned to say it that way as a
+child. And hook and 'laddy' wagon. I can't seem to break myself of the
+habit."
+
+"Don't try," said Jimmy. "I'd rather hear the good old talk than
+Bernhardt speaking French."
+
+And so from food they came to discuss pronunciation, as most Southerners
+do sooner or later, and from that subject they drifted into mutual
+friendships and thence naturally into newspaper work.
+
+"I'm a sub-editor," announced Molly proudly, and she told him about the
+_Commune_ and her work. "Perhaps you'd like to see our office after a
+while?" she said.
+
+"I'd be only too glad," said Jimmy, delighted to be able to prolong his
+tete-a-tete with this gracefully angular young woman with blue eyes and
+red hair, who spoke with the "tongue of angels" and had the same
+yearnings he did for corn-bread and fried chicken with cream gravy.
+
+And all this time something strange was taking place in Judy's mind that
+she could not understand. At first she thought she was catching the
+grippe. She felt cold and then hot and finally unreasonably irritated
+against everybody except Molly. At least, she put it that way to
+herself.
+
+"She never looked more charming," thought Judy to herself.
+
+Molly in her faded blue corduroy skirt and blue silk blouse was a
+picture to charm the eye. Judy herself looked unusually lovely in her
+pretty gray serge piped in scarlet with Irish lace collar and cuffs.
+There were glints of gold in her fluffy hair and her eyes shone with
+unusual brightness. But Mrs. McLean's good food tasted as sawdust on
+her palate and the conversation of the eager Dodo sounded trite and
+stupid to her. Once she had said a word or two to Jimmy Lufton and he
+had turned and answered her politely and agreeably, but as soon as he
+decently could he was back with Molly again deep in bluegrass
+reminiscences.
+
+There were other people who were disgruntled that morning at Mrs.
+McLean's breakfast. Not Nance and Andy, who seemed well pleased with
+themselves and the bright fall day; not the doctor nor the doctor's wife
+beaming at her guests behind the silver tea urn, but Otoyo was strangely
+silent and averted her face from Molly's if by chance their glances met;
+looked carefully over Nance's head and avoided Judy's gaze as much as
+possible. Lawrence Upton, too, had little to say, except to Dr. McLean
+at his end of the table.
+
+So it was that half the guests thought the breakfast had been a great
+success and the other half put it down as stupid and dull.
+
+"Would anybody like to go over to the _Commune_ office with us?" Molly
+vouchsafed some three-quarters of an hour later when the company was
+breaking up. "I am going to show Mr. Lufton our offices."
+
+But nobody seemed anxious to accept.
+
+"You'll come, won't you, Judy?" Molly asked.
+
+No, Judy had other things to do apparently.
+
+"Won't you come, Otoyo, dear?" asked Molly, slipping her arm around the
+little Japanese's waist and giving it a squeeze.
+
+"It is not possible. I am exceedingly sorrowful," answered Otoyo a
+little stiffly and drew away from Molly's embrace.
+
+"Aren't you well, little one?" asked Molly. "Is anything the matter?"
+
+"Oh, exceedingly, quite well, but I cannot go to-day, Mees Brown," Otoyo
+answered, trying to infuse a little warmth into her tone.
+
+So it ended by Molly's going off alone with the young man from New York
+to the _Commune_ office, where she showed him their files and the
+proofs sent up by the printer in the village, which had to be corrected;
+then she introduced him into the little alcove office where Edith was
+wont to write her famous editorials.
+
+"How would you like to write an article for my paper, Miss Brown?" Jimmy
+asked suddenly. "We run a page of college news, you know."
+
+He had no idea that Molly could write or that the paper would take
+anything from her if she did. He had merely talked at random and was a
+little taken back when Molly clasped her hands joyously and cried:
+
+"Oh, and would they pay me?"
+
+"Of course," he answered, hoping devoutly in his heart they would. "I'll
+tell you what you do. This is the Jubilee Year at Wellington, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes; it's been officially announced at last."
+
+"Well, you could use that as a starter, with a little of the history of
+Wellington and the big festival you're going to have, and then you
+could go on and give some talk about the girls,--what you do and all
+that. There could be pictures of the cloisters and the library,
+perhaps."
+
+"What a wonderful chance to answer Miss Slammer's article," Molly
+thought. "It's just what we would have wanted and never dreamed of
+getting. It's so kind of you," she said aloud. "I would be proud to do
+it for nothing if the paper doesn't want to pay----"
+
+"Oh, it'll pay you all right if it takes the story. You may get anywhere
+from ten to thirty-five dollars for it."
+
+"Why, that's enough to buy a dress," she exclaimed involuntarily, and
+Jimmy decided in his heart that he would sell that article if he had to
+wear the soles off his boots walking up and down Park Row.
+
+"I suppose you'd like it simple," said Molly.
+
+Jimmy laughed.
+
+"Well, we don't like anything flowery," he said, "but you write it the
+way you like and I'll change it if necessary. Just tell about things as
+if you were writing a letter home."
+
+"There it is again," thought Molly. "First the Professor and now Mr.
+Lufton."
+
+They finished the morning with a walk and Jimmy Lufton entertained Molly
+with a hundred stories about his life in New York, and then he listened
+to her while she talked about college and home and her hopes.
+
+At last they parted at the Quadrangle gates, where Andy McLean was
+waiting to take Jimmy home with him to dinner, and Molly saw him no
+more, since he was to catch the three-thirty train back to New York; but
+she had his address carefully written on a scrap of paper and already
+the opening paragraph of the newspaper article was beginning to shape
+itself in her mind. She saw nothing of Judy until bedtime. Judy had been
+with her friend, Adele, she said. But when the two friends parted that
+night Judy flung her arms around Molly's neck and kissed her so
+tenderly that Molly could not help feeling a bit surprised, since only a
+few hours before Judy had seemed cold somehow.
+
+A few days after Jimmy Lufton had returned to New York he received six
+letters from the following persons: Margaret Wakefield, Senator and Mrs.
+Wakefield, Jessie Lynch, and Colonel and Mrs. Lynch. Any time James
+Lufton tired of his job he could get another from Senator Wakefield or
+Colonel Lynch. That was stated plainly in the letters of the two
+fathers.
+
+"And all because of an anti-suffrage speech that was never made,"
+thought Jimmy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+FRIENDLY RIVALS.
+
+
+It is not often that rivals for the same office are champions for each
+other, and yet that is what happened when the seniors elected their
+permanent president toward the end of October. It followed that Molly,
+as the most popular girl in the junior class, would be elected president
+the next year.
+
+"Of course you'll get it," Nance assured her as the time approached.
+
+"It's a great honor," replied Molly, "but, oh, Nance, I'm such a
+diffident, shy person with a shrinking nature----"
+
+"You mean," interrupted Nance, "that Margaret wants it so badly, you
+can't bear to deprive her of it."
+
+"No, that isn't it. It's not sentiment, really, but I can't make
+speeches and I haven't got the organizing nature."
+
+Nance shook her head.
+
+"You ought not to throw away gifts from the gods. It's as bad as hiding
+your light under a bushel."
+
+Nevertheless, Molly was sure she did not want the place and she hoped
+Margaret would get it. As for Margaret, the spirit of a politician and
+the spirit of a loyal friend were struggling for mastery within her
+soul. The girls knew by this time what sort of president _she_ could
+make. They were well acquainted with her powers of oratory and
+organization. Nobody understood as well as she did the ins and outs of
+parliamentary law; how to appoint committees and chairmen and count yeas
+and nays; in other words, how to swing the class along in proper form.
+They knew all this, but hitherto it had been necessary to call it to
+their minds each year, when by the sheer force of oratory, Margaret won
+the election.
+
+But, as luck would have it, on the day set for the election Margaret,
+who had taken a deep cold from her upsetting in the lake, was too hoarse
+to say a word. It would have moved a heart of stone to see her, sitting
+in the president's chair sucking a lemon, as she called the class to
+order in a husky tone of voice that had not the faintest resemblance to
+the organ she had used with such force for three years.
+
+There were only two nominations for the office of president, and it was
+difficult to judge toward which of the nominees the sentiment of the
+class leaned. Nance had nominated Molly, who had tried to drag her
+friend back on the bench.
+
+"Don't you see they might think I had put you up to it?" Molly had
+exclaimed.
+
+"They never would think that about you, Molly," whispered Nance, and
+promptly had announced her candidate and the nomination was immediately
+seconded. Then Molly shot up blushingly and nominated Margaret
+Wakefield, almost taking the words out of Jessie's mouth. Margaret
+smiled at her rather shamefacedly, knowing full well that she would not
+have nominated Molly for that coveted office.
+
+Other nominations followed. Edith Williams and her sister were rival
+candidates for the office of vice president, and Caroline Brinton and
+Nance were put up for secretary.
+
+"Has anybody anything to say?" asked Margaret, still sucking the lemon
+frantically as a last effort to clear her fogbound voice.
+
+Molly stood up.
+
+"I think I'd like to speak a few words, Madam President," she said.
+Then, blushing deeply and trembling in her knees she turned toward the
+familiar faces of her classmates and began:
+
+"I'm not much of a speechmaker, girls, and I don't know that I ever
+really addressed you before, but I feel I must say something in favor
+of my candidate, Miss Margaret Wakefield, who has made us such an
+excellent president for three years."
+
+There were sounds of hand-clapping and calls of "Hear! Hear!"
+
+Molly paused and cleared her throat. She did wish they wouldn't
+interrupt until she had finished.
+
+"I think we ought to remember, girls, that when we elect a president for
+this last year, we are choosing some one to represent us for always; at
+class reunions and alumnae meetings and all kinds of things. When there
+is a distinguished visitor, it's always the senior president who has to
+step up and do the talking. The kind of president we want is some one
+with presence and dignity. We want a handsome president who dresses in
+good taste and can talk. Girls,"--Molly raised her hand as if calling
+upon heaven to strengthen the force of her arguments,--"we don't want a
+thin, lank president without any shape" (sounds of tumultuous laughter
+and the beginning of applause)--"one of those formless, backboneless
+people who can't talk and who dress in--well, ragtags. I tell you,
+girls, Margaret is the president for us. She's been a mighty fine
+president for three years and I don't think we ought to try experiments
+on a new one at this stage in the game."
+
+Then there came wild applause and Margaret presently arose and raised
+her hand for silence after the manner of the true speechmaker. She was
+much moved by what Molly had said. It was more than she herself would
+have been capable of doing, but she intended to speak now if it cracked
+her voice till doomsday.
+
+"I can't talk much, girls, on account of hoarseness, but I do want to
+say that nobody could represent this class better than Molly Brown, the
+most beloved girl not only of the senior class, but of all Wellington. I
+hope you will cast your votes for her, girls, and I'm proud to write
+down her name as my choice for president."
+
+"Three cheers for Molly and Margaret," cried Judy, always the leader of
+the mobs.
+
+Edith, funny and diffident, now rose and addressed the class. She said
+she sincerely hoped the class was not looking for handsome, plump
+vice-presidents, since the two candidates for that office were neither
+the one nor the other; but that if they placed any confidence in a "rag
+and a bone and a hank of hair," she felt sure she could fill the bill
+just as well as the opposing candidate.
+
+Then Katherine shot up and said she could prove that she weighed a pound
+more than her sister, and instead of putting her allowance into books
+that autumn, she had laid in a stock of clothes.
+
+It was all very funny and good natured: the most friendly close election
+that had ever taken place, some one said, and when the votes were
+counted it was found that Margaret had won by one vote and Katherine by
+two in excess of the other candidates. Edith and Molly locked arms and
+rushed over to congratulate the successful opponents.
+
+"You won it for me, Molly," announced Margaret in a voice husky as much
+from emotion as cold. "I doubt if I should have got half a dozen votes
+if it hadn't been for your speech and I shall never forget it. It was
+what father calls 'a nice thing.'"
+
+"You are the president for me, Margaret," Molly laughed. "I can't see
+myself in that chair, not in a thousand years. I should be all wobbly
+like a puppet on a throne and I'd probably slide under the table from
+fright at the first class meeting."
+
+"You would have adorned it far better than I would, Molly, and
+popularity will outweigh speechmaking any day; not but what you didn't
+make a fine speech."
+
+But neither Edith nor Molly felt any regrets over the election. They had
+all they could do to attend to the _Commune_, go to society meetings and
+keep up their studies.
+
+That very day, too, there came a letter for Molly that added to her
+labors. Judy brought it up from the office below. She looked at her
+friend curiously, as Molly glanced at the address written in a rather
+large, scrawly masculine hand. In a corner of the envelope was printed
+the name of a New York newspaper.
+
+"Corresponding already?" Judy asked. "You lose no time, Molly, darling."
+
+Molly was so much occupied in tearing open the envelope that she did not
+notice the strained tone in Judy's voice.
+
+"I'm so excited," she exclaimed, drawing out the letter. "This will
+decide my fate."
+
+"Are you ready, Judy?" called Adele Windsor, opening the door and
+walking in, in her usual unceremonious fashion. Her quick glance took in
+the envelope Molly had flung on the table in her haste to read the note.
+"Oh, these southern girls," she remarked, raising her eyebrows and
+blinking at Judy.
+
+Molly looked up quickly. It was certainly no affair of Adele's and still
+she felt like making an explanation.
+
+"This is a business letter," she said quickly, the blood rushing into
+her face.
+
+"Do business letters make one blush?" Adele said teasingly.
+
+Molly could not tell why Adele irritated her so profoundly. She was
+ashamed afterward of what she called her unreasonable behavior.
+Certainly she did not appear very well in the passage of arms that now
+followed.
+
+"It's none of your business at any rate," she exclaimed hotly, "and I'm
+not blushing."
+
+After this outburst, she turned and walked into her room. Her face was
+crimson and she knew she would have wept if she had stayed another
+minute, and so have been further disgraced.
+
+"Really, Molly, don't you think you are rather hard on poor Adele?" she
+heard Judy's voice saying. But not a word of apology would she make to
+Adele Windsor, whose high nasal tones now came to her through the half
+closed door.
+
+"Never mind, I don't care, Judy. She can't help it. Didn't you ever hear
+about the temper that goes with red heads?"
+
+Molly paid for her outburst of temper by having a headache all the
+afternoon and an achey lump in her chest--indigestion, no doubt.
+
+She stretched herself on her little bed, her haven of refuge in time of
+trouble and the safe confidante unto whose soft bosom she poured her
+secrets and hopes. At last, calmed and remorseful for her hasty tongue,
+she opened the note again and reread it:
+
+    "DEAR MISS BROWN:
+
+    "I have hypnotized the editor into accepting that article of
+    yours; only you must hurry up with it. It will run probably for
+    two and a half columns on the College Notes page and we can use
+    three pictures. Just tell whatever you want about the college
+    and the girls and what they do, starting off with the Jubilee,
+    as I suggested. Send it to me here by Friday and I will
+    appreciate it. Thank you for the wonderful time you gave me at
+    Wellington.
+
+    "Sincerely your friend,
+        "JAMES LUFTON."
+
+Late that afternoon Molly rushed over to the _Commune_ office, and,
+seizing a pencil and paper, began to write. At the top of the page she
+wrote, "Dearest Mother"--"just to make myself think it's a letter," she
+thought. But the words worked like a magic talisman, for the pencil
+traveled busily and by suppertime she had almost finished.
+
+On the way back from the village next morning, where she had been to buy
+the photographs, she stopped at the Beta Phi House and left a note on
+the hall table for Miss Windsor.
+
+"I am sorry I was rude to you. I suppose red-headed people have got high
+tempers and henceforth I shall try to curb mine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE DROP OF POISON.
+
+
+Molly was very proud of her first newspaper article and exultant at
+being able to answer the unjust libels of Miss Slammer. She could
+scarcely wait to tell Nance and Judy about it, but decided to drop in at
+the infirmary and relate her triumph to the Professor if it was possible
+to see him. Alice Fern was on guard that morning, however, and the Swiss
+Guards at the Vatican could not have been more formidable.
+
+"I'm sure the Pope of Rome doesn't live a more secluded life," thought
+Molly as she departed.
+
+Glancing at the tower clock, Molly saw that she still had three quarters
+of an hour before the lecture on early Victorian Poets by the Professor
+of English Literature from Exmoor, who came over several times a week
+to substitute for Professor Green.
+
+"I think I'll run in and see Otoyo a few minutes," Molly said to
+herself. "The girls can wait. There's been something queer about Otoyo
+lately. She keeps to herself like a little sick animal. I can't make her
+out at all."
+
+There was no response to Molly's knock on Otoyo's door a few minutes
+later, and, after a pause, she opened the door and peeped in.
+
+The blinds had been drawn, an unwonted thing with the little Japanese,
+who usually let the sunlight flood her room through unshaded windows.
+But a shaft of light from the open door disclosed her seated
+cross-legged on the floor in front of a beautiful screen showing
+Fujiyama, the sacred Japanese mountain. At the foot of the screen she
+had placed two statues, one of Saint Anthony of Padua and one of Saint
+Francis of Assisi, presents from Mr. and Mrs. Murphy on two successive
+Christmases. And still another graven image caught Molly's eye as she
+tiptoed into the room: a small figure of Buddha seated cross-legged. He
+was placed at a little distance from the two saints and his antique,
+blurred countenance contrasted strangely with the delicately molded and
+tinted faces of the new statues.
+
+If Molly had come unannounced upon Nance on her knees or Judy at her
+devotions, she would have beat a hasty retreat, but it came to her that
+Otoyo, sitting there cross-legged before the images of strange gods,
+needed help of some sort.
+
+"You aren't angry with me for coming in, Otoyo?" she began. "I knocked
+and you didn't hear. I'm afraid something is the matter. Won't you let
+me help you? I have not forgotten how you helped me once when I was
+unhappy. Don't you remember how you let me sit in your room and think
+over my troubles that Sunday afternoon at Queen's?"
+
+Otoyo rose quickly, flushing a little under her dark skin. She seemed
+very foreign to Molly at that moment, in her beautiful embroidered
+kimono of black and gold. Also she seemed very formal in her manner and
+distant, like an exiled princess who still clings to the dignity of her
+former position.
+
+First she made a low Japanese bow, quite different from the little
+smiling nods she had learned to give her friends at Wellington.
+
+"I feel much honored, Mees Brown. Will you be seated and I will bring
+refreshments."
+
+"Why, Otoyo," exclaimed Molly, filled with wonder at this new phase in
+her friend, "I don't want any refreshments. I thought I'd drop in for
+half an hour before English V. and find out what has happened to you.
+You never come to see me any more," she added reproachfully. "You
+haven't been since that Sunday afternoon with your father, and you
+always have a 'Busy' sign on your door. Are you really so busy or are
+you trying to avoid us?"
+
+Otoyo drew up her one chair she used for visitors and sat down again on
+the floor.
+
+"I have been much engaged," she said, avoiding Molly's eye. Molly
+noticed that her English was perfect. She spoke with great precision and
+avoided adverbial mistakes with painful care.
+
+She had had a great deal to think about lately, Otoyo continued, and she
+was reading a book of Charles Dickens, the English novelist. It was very
+difficult.
+
+With an impetuous gesture, Molly rose and pushed the chair out of the
+way. Then she sat flat on the floor beside Otoyo, and took one of the
+little plump brown hands in hers.
+
+"Otoyo, you're unhappy. Something has happened and you're praying to
+Catholic saints and Fuji and Buddha all at once. Isn't it so?"
+
+"The saints are very honorable gentlemen," answered Otoyo quickly. "Mrs.
+Murphy has told me many things of their goodness. And Fuji is the
+mountain that brings comfort to all Japanese people. Holy men dwell on
+Fuji and pilgrims climb to the summit each year to worship. And Buddha,
+he is a great god," she added. "He is kind to lonely little Japanese
+girl."
+
+As she neared the end of her speech her voice was as faint and thin as a
+sick child's, but she steadily repressed all emotion, for no well-bred
+Japanese lady is ever seen to weep.
+
+"Otoyo, my dear, my dear, what can have happened?" cried Molly,
+turning the averted face toward her so that she might look into
+the almond-shaped eyes. "I can't bear to see you so miserable.
+It makes me unhappy, too. Don't you know that you are one of the
+dearest friends I have in the world and that we all love you?"
+
+"It is not easy to believe that is true," said Otoyo, looking at her
+with an expression of mingled reproach and incredulity. "I cannot
+believe it is so, Mees Brown."
+
+A look of utter amazement came into Molly's face. It had never entered
+her head that Otoyo was angry with her.
+
+"What is that? Say it again, Otoyo. I can't believe my own ears."
+
+"I say it is not easy to believe that is true," said Otoyo, repeating
+her words with the precision of a Japanese.
+
+Molly rose to her feet, and grasping Otoyo's hands pulled her up.
+
+"I can't talk sitting on the floor, Otoyo. Come over here and sit on the
+bed where I can look at you. Now, tell me exactly what you meant by that
+speech."
+
+The two girls now sat face to face on the bed and there was a look of
+sternness in Molly's eyes that Otoyo had never seen there before.
+Otoyo's eyes dropped before her gaze and she began plucking at the
+Japanese crepe of her kimono.
+
+"You must speak, Otoyo," Molly insisted.
+
+There was a long silence and then Otoyo looked up again.
+
+"It was my father, my honorable good father. I am too humble to care.
+But my noble father!"
+
+She rose quickly and walked across to the window. If there were tears in
+her eyes Molly should not see them. Having drawn the blind, she drew a
+deep breath and came back to the bed. But Molly was doing some rapid
+thinking during that brief interval. Some one had been telling Otoyo
+that they had made game of her father--and that some one----
+
+But Molly was too angry to think coherently.
+
+"Otoyo," she began, "you know how much all the Queen's girls think of
+you. You are really our property, child. If any of us felt that we had
+hurt or grieved you, we would really never forgive ourselves."
+
+"But my father, he was mock-ed. Of me it was of not much matter."
+
+"Child, what we did was in innocent fun. It was only that we repeated
+his funny English, even funnier than yours, and we have often teased you
+about your adverbs, haven't we?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Otoyo, "but this was made to be so cruel. It cut me----"
+she choked.
+
+"Who repeated it to you, Otoyo?" asked Molly with sudden calmness,
+afraid to give rein to her indignation for fear of doing rash things.
+"People who tell things like that are quite capable of inventing them or
+at least making them much worse."
+
+"I have given my word not to speak the name," answered Otoyo.
+
+It was almost time for the lecture now and Molly slipped down on her
+knees beside the bed and put her arms around Otoyo's waist.
+
+"Dear little Otoyo, before I go, I want you to tell me that you have
+forgiven us. None of us meant to be cruel or unkind. We are too fond of
+you for that. I shall tell all the other girls what has happened and
+to-night they will come in and make you an apology themselves. We will
+all come. As for the girl who made the trouble, she is a wicked mischief
+maker and I wish she had never come to Wellington. And now, will you say
+'Molly, I forgive you?'"
+
+"I do, I do," cried Otoyo, her face transformed with happiness. "I
+should not have listened to her ugly speeches, but it was the way she
+did it. She told me my father had been mock-ed and ridiculed. I was
+veree unhappee."
+
+"Never, never let her get her clutches on you again," said Molly,
+opening the door.
+
+"Never, never, never," repeated the Japanese girl.
+
+It was a real reconciliation surprise party that took place in Otoyo's
+room that evening. All the Queen's girls were there except Judy, who had
+been absent for a whole day, having cut two lectures and taken supper
+with Adele Windsor at Beta Phi House. It had been agreed among them that
+Adele should never be welcomed in their circle again; for they were
+morally certain that it was Adele who had done the mischief, although
+Otoyo loyally kept her word not to tell the name.
+
+Otoyo, bewildered and happy over this avalanche of company, toddled
+about the room in her soft house slippers looking for refreshments.
+From strange foreign looking packing boxes in the closet she produced
+tin cases of candied ginger and pineapple, boxes of rice cakes, nuts and
+American chocolate creams which Otoyo liked better than the daintiest
+American dish that could be devised.
+
+Every guest had brought Otoyo a gift of flowers. They made her sit in
+the armchair while they circled around her, singing:
+
+    "Old friends are the best friends,
+     The friends that are tried and true."
+
+Then they made her dress up in her finest kimono and sit cross-legged at
+the foot of the bed while one by one they filed before her and each made
+an humble apology.
+
+"Oh, it is too much," Otoyo cried. "I implore you forgeeve _me_. It was
+madlee of me to listen to so much weekedness. Humble little Japanese
+girl is bad to entertain such meanly thoughts."
+
+At last when all the rites and ceremonies were over and they had
+settled down to refreshments in good earnest, Edith began the tale of
+"The Fall of the House of Usher," which she recited in thrilling
+fashion. The girls always huddled together in a frightened group at this
+performance. At the most dramatic moment, as if it had been timed
+purposely, the door was flung open and a tall lady in black stood on the
+threshold. She hesitated a moment and then sailed in, her black chiffon
+draperies floating about her like a dark cloud. Then she flung a lace
+mantilla from her head and stood before them revealed as Judy, in a
+black wig apparently.
+
+"Judy Kean, what have you been up to?" asked Nance suspiciously.
+
+"Where did you get your black wig?" demanded Molly.
+
+"Don't you think it becoming?" asked Judy. "Don't you think it enhances
+the whiteness of my skin and the brightness of my eye?"
+
+"All very well for a fancy dress party, but you don't look yourself,
+Judy. Do take it off."
+
+"Now, don't say that," answered Judy, "because I can't take it off
+without cutting it. I've changed the color. That's where I've been all
+day. It's awfully exciting. You've no idea how many things you have to
+do to change your hair dark. Of course, it's perfectly ladylike to make
+it dark. It's only bad form to dye it light."
+
+"Judy, you haven't?" they cried.
+
+"I certainly have," she answered carelessly, and she proceeded to take
+out all the hair pins from her fluffy thick hair and let it down. "It's
+raven black."
+
+It was, in fact, an unnatural blue-black, something the color of shoe
+blacking.
+
+"Oh, Judy, Judy, what will you do next?" cried Molly in real distress.
+
+"What will that girl make her do next?" put in Nance, in a disgusted
+tone.
+
+"Now, Nance, I knew you'd say just that, but it's not true. I did it of
+my own free will. I always loved black and I've wanted black hair all my
+life."
+
+"What will Miss Walker say?" asked some one.
+
+"She probably won't know anything about it. I doubt if she remembers the
+original color of my hair, anyhow. I'm sorry you don't think it's
+becoming to me. Adele thought it suited me perfectly. Much better than
+the original mousy-brown shade."
+
+"I recognize Adele's fine touch in that expression, 'mousy-brown,'" put
+in Edith.
+
+"Did Adele do anything to change her appearance?" asked Margaret.
+
+"Oh, no, she is just right as she is. Her hair is a perfect shade,
+'Titian Brown,' it's called. But, girls, I must tell you about the
+marvelous face cream, 'Cucumber Velvet'; it bleaches and heals at the
+same time."
+
+"Oh, go to," cried Katherine. "Judy, you are so benighted, I don't know
+what's coming to you. Don't you know that Adele Windsor made Otoyo,
+here----"
+
+"No, no," broke in Otoyo. "I have never told the name. I gave my
+honorable promise not to. I beg you not to mention it."
+
+"What's all this?" Judy began when the ten o'clock bell boomed and the
+girls scattered to their various rooms.
+
+That night, undressing in the dark, Nance and Molly explained to Judy
+what had happened.
+
+"But are you sure she did it?" Judy demanded. "Otoyo never said so, did
+she?"
+
+"No, but we are sure, anyway."
+
+"I don't believe it," exclaimed Judy hotly. "Adele is the soul of honor.
+I shall never believe it unless Otoyo really tells the name."
+
+And so Judy went off to bed entirely unreasonable about this new and
+fascinating friend.
+
+"All I can say for you, Judy," said Molly, standing in Judy's bedroom
+doorway, "is that I hate your black hair, but do you remember that old
+poem we used to sing as children? I'm sure you must have known it. Most
+children have."
+
+Then Molly recited in her musical clear voice:
+
+    "'I once had a sweet little doll, dears,
+        The prettiest doll in the world,
+      Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears,
+        And her hair was so charmingly curled.
+      But I lost my poor little doll, dears,
+        As I played on the heath one day;
+      And I cried for her more than a week, dears,
+        But I never could find where she lay.
+
+    "'I found my poor little doll, dears,
+        As I played in the heath one day:
+      Folks say she is terribly changed, dears,
+        For her paint is all washed away,
+      And her arm trodden off by the cows, dears,
+        And her hair not the least bit curled:
+      Yet for old sake's sake, she is still, dears,
+        The prettiest doll in the world.'"
+
+"Humph!" said Judy. "Is that the way you feel about it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Thanks, awfully," and with a defiant fling of the covers, Judy turned
+her face to the wall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+JUDY DEFIANT.
+
+
+When Judy Kean appeared at Chapel next morning she seemed serenely
+unconscious of the sensation she was creating. Her usual black dress and
+widow's bands had always made her conspicuous and those who only knew
+her by sight, yet carried with them a vivid impression of her face: the
+large gray eyes swimming with visions, the oval creamy face, the mouth
+rather large, the lips a little too full, perhaps, and framing all this,
+her fluffy bright hair.
+
+The Quadrangle dining-room had already buzzed with the news of Judy's
+reckless act, and now, as the seniors marched two by two up the aisle
+after the faculty, a ripple of laughter swept over the chapel. Necks
+were craned all over the room to see Judy's mop of blue-black hair
+arranged in a loose knot on the back of her neck, drawn well down over
+the forehead in a heavy dark mantle, carefully concealing the ears.
+
+But Miss Walker was not pleased with the liberties Judy had taken with
+her appearance. She had heard the ripple of laughter, stifled almost as
+soon as it had commenced, and having reached her chair and faced the
+audience while the procession was still on its way up the aisle she
+noticed the amused glances directed toward Judy's head. It took only a
+second glance to assure herself of what Judy had done and she frowned
+and compressed her lips. When the service was over, she made a little
+impromptu address to the students. College, she said, was a place for
+serious work and not for frivolity. Of course there were no objections
+to innocent fun, but absurdities would not be tolerated. All the time
+she was speaking she was looking straight at Judy, who, with chin
+resting on her hand and eyelids drooped, apparently read a hymn book.
+That afternoon Miss Julia Kean received a summons to appear at Miss
+Walker's office immediately. From this interview Judy emerged in a
+stubborn, angry humor. Miss Walker was a wise woman in her generation,
+but she had never had a girl of Judy's temperament to deal with before.
+Judy's rather contemptuous indifference had inflamed the President into
+saying some rather harsh things.
+
+If one girl dyed her hair a great many others might. Such things often
+struck a college in waves and she was not going to tolerate it.
+
+Therefore, Judy, unreasonably angry, as she always was under reproof,
+had no word to say to her anxious friends awaiting her at No. 5,
+Quadrangle.
+
+"Was it very bad, Judy, dear?" Nance asked, when Judy walked into the
+room, white and silent.
+
+"It was worse than that," replied Judy in a steady even voice. "If she
+had given me twenty lashes on my bare shoulders I should have liked it
+better. What business is it of hers what color I turn my hair? This is
+not a boarding school. I detest her!" Whereupon, she slammed her door
+and the girls did not see her again for several hours.
+
+When she did finally emerge, she was calm and smiling, but the girls
+felt instinctively that her dangerous mood had not passed, only
+deepened, and Molly felt she would give a great deal to win her friend
+away from the malign influence of Adele Windsor.
+
+It seemed to her sometimes that Judy was cherishing a secret grievance
+against her as well as against Miss Walker. But Molly had little time
+for brooding over such things in the daytime and at night sleep overtook
+her as soon as her tired head dropped on the pillow.
+
+A great many things were in the air at Wellington just now. A prize had
+been offered for the best suggestion for a jubilee entertainment. It
+was only ten dollars, but every girl in college competed except Judy.
+One morning Adele Windsor's name was posted on the bulletin board as
+winner of the prize, and not long afterward they learned that it was
+Judy's scheme, unfolded on the opening night of college, that Adele had
+appropriated, no doubt with Judy's full consent.
+
+Molly's exchange of brief notes with Jimmy Lufton had ripened into a
+correspondence, and she was prepared therefore for the enormous package
+containing at least a dozen Sunday newspapers that came to her one
+morning--also a check for fifteen dollars. With eager fingers she tore
+wrappers from the papers, and began to search through multitudinous
+columns for her article about Wellington.
+
+At last, with Nance's and Judy's help, she found it, not tucked away in
+a corner as she had half expected, but spread out over the page. It is
+true the pictures were rather blurred, but there were the columns of
+writing, all hers, so she fondly believed, so skillfully had Mr. Lufton
+wrought the changes he had been obliged to make.
+
+The article was signed "M. W. C. B." and a framed copy of it hangs to
+this day on the crowded walls of the _Commune_ office. There was not
+much doubt who "M. W. C. B." was and Molly was deluged with calls and
+congratulations all day. It was glorious to have been the means of
+refuting Miss Beatrice Slammer's criticisms, and she could not help
+feeling very proud as she hurried down the avenue to the infirmary, one
+of the papers tucked under her arm, devoutly hoping that Alice Fern had
+gone home by now. It was reported that the Professor was walking about
+and in a few days was to go to Bermuda to stay until after the Christmas
+holidays. The Professor himself, and not Miss Fern, opened the door for
+Molly before Miss Grace Green, reading aloud by the window, could
+remonstrate with him. He was a mere ghost of his former self, pale,
+emaciated. His clothes seemed three sizes too big for his wasted frame
+and he had grown quite bald around the temples. Molly thought him very
+old that afternoon.
+
+"I've brought something to show you," she said, after she had shaken
+hands with the brother and sister and the three had drawn up their
+chairs by the window. Then Miss Grace Green read the article aloud and
+Molly explained that it was Mr. Lufton, to whom they were already so
+deeply indebted, who had arranged to get it published.
+
+"I took him over to the _Commune_ office," said Molly, "and that started
+it."
+
+Miss Green smiled and the Professor shifted uneasily in his chair.
+Presently Miss Green rose.
+
+"It's time for your buttermilk, Edwin, and you and I shall have some
+tea, Miss Molly," she added as she slipped out of the room.
+
+"Tell me a little about yourself, Miss Molly," observed the Professor,
+when they were left alone. "Did you have a pleasant summer and how is
+the old orchard?"
+
+"Oh, the orchard was most shamefully neglected," replied Molly. "Simply
+a mass of weeds and the apples left rotting on the ground all this fall,
+so mother writes. William, our colored man, cut down the worst of the
+weeds with a scythe last summer and I kept the ground cleared where the
+hammock hangs. It's been such a rainy summer, I suppose that's why
+things grew so rank, but I'm sorry the old gentleman is neglecting his
+property after making such a noble start."
+
+The Professor laughed.
+
+"You have made the acquaintance of the owner, then?" he asked.
+
+"Oh no, we have never even learned his name, but I feel quite sure he is
+very old. Sometimes I seem to see him in the orchard, an old, old man
+leaning on a stick. I think he is old and eccentric because a young man
+would never have bought property he had never seen."
+
+"Can't a young man be eccentric?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but mother and my brothers and sisters, all of us believe
+this man is old from something the agent said. He told mother that the
+new owner of the orchard had bought it because he was looking for a
+retired spot in which to spend his old age."
+
+Again the Professor laughed and the color rose in his face and spread
+over his cheeks and forehead.
+
+Presently Miss Green returned with the tea things and the buttermilk.
+
+"Has Miss Fern gone?" asked Molly.
+
+"Oh yes, we finally prevailed on her to go home," answered Miss Green.
+"She really need not have been here at all. The infirmary nurse would
+have looked after Edwin, but she seemed to think she was indispensable."
+
+"Grace, my dear sister," remonstrated the Professor.
+
+From Miss Fern the talk drifted to many things. Molly told them more of
+Jimmy Lufton: how he had charmed everybody and what a wonderful life he
+led in New York.
+
+"I should like to be on a newspaper," she said suddenly. "It would be
+lots more exciting than teaching school."
+
+The Professor looked up quickly.
+
+"I should be sorry to see you take that step, Miss Molly."
+
+"Well, I haven't taken it yet, but I was only thinking that Mr. Lufton
+might be a great deal of help to me."
+
+"You must not," said the Professor sternly. "Don't think of it for a
+moment. The _Commune_ is putting ideas into your head, or this Mr.
+Lufton."
+
+Molly felt uncomfortable for some reason and Miss Green changed the
+subject.
+
+"By the way," she said, "I heard the other day what had become of some
+of the luncheon you seniors lost the day the Major took you in and fed
+you. The thieves probably took all they could carry with them and dumped
+the rest in a field between Exmoor and Round Head. Like as not they
+picnicked on top of Round Head. Some of the Exmoor boys found a pile of
+desiccated sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs and cake one day when they
+were out walking, and Dodo and Andy brought the story to me."
+
+"Think of the waste of it," exclaimed Molly. "They might at least have
+given what they didn't want to the poor."
+
+"There aren't any poor people around there, child."
+
+"Well, to Mrs. Murphy, then. She's poor and we wouldn't have minded
+having worked so hard to feed Mrs. Murphy."
+
+"I wonder who did it," put in the Professor.
+
+"None of the Exmoor boys, I'm sure," said his sister, who had a very
+soft spot for the boys of her younger brother's college.
+
+"Some day it will come out," announced Molly. "Things always do sooner
+or later and we needn't bother about playing detective. It's a horrible
+role to act, anyway."
+
+"I remember when I was a boy at college," began the Professor, "some
+fellows played rather a nasty practical joke on some of us and they were
+caught by a trick of fate. On the night of the senior class elections,
+which always take place just before a banquet at the Exmoor Inn, some of
+the students broke into the inn kitchen, masked, overpowered the cook
+and the waiter and stole all the food they conveniently could carry
+away. One of the saucepans contained lobster, and the next morning there
+were six very ill young men at the infirmary with ptomaine poisoning and
+it was not hard to guess who were the thieves of our supper."
+
+"Were they punished?" asked Molly.
+
+"Oh, yes. Exmoor never permits escapades like that. They were suspended
+for six weeks, although they had saved the entire senior class from a
+pretty severe illness."
+
+"At least, you might have felt some gratitude for that," observed Miss
+Green.
+
+"We did, but the President took only a one-sided view of the matter."
+
+"I'm afraid it's too late for attacks of indigestion from our lunch,"
+observed Molly. "The only thing out of common we had at the lunch were
+'snakey-noodles.'"
+
+"What in the world?" asked the brother and sister together.
+
+"It doesn't sound very appetizing, does it? But they are awfully good.
+Our old cook makes them at home. They are coils of very rich pastry with
+raisins and cinnamon all through."
+
+"Don't mention it," exclaimed the Professor, whose appetite was greater
+than his official allowance of food. "I would give anything for a hot
+snakey-noodle with a glass of milk."
+
+"When you come back from Bermuda, I'll see that your wish is gratified,"
+replied Molly, laughing, as she rose to go.
+
+"Miss Molly," said the Professor, as he bade her good-bye at the door,
+"I wish you would promise me three things: don't overwork; don't make
+plans to work on a newspaper instead of teaching school, and--don't
+forget me."
+
+"I'm not likely to do that, Professor. I'm always wanting to go to your
+office and ask you questions and advice. The last time we were there,
+Dodo and I, I found two old rotten apples. I took the liberty of
+throwing them away."
+
+"It's too bad for good apples to be left rotting on the ground or
+anywhere," said the Professor, and he closed the door softly. While this
+surely was a very simple statement, somehow he seemed to mean more than
+he said.
+
+Just why Molly's thoughts were on the lost snakey-noodles as she walked
+up the campus, she could not say. She recalled that they had been
+carefully done up in a box marked on top in large print, "Snakey-noodles
+from Aunt Ma'y Morton." That was the Browns' cook.
+
+"I wonder if they were left with the half of the lunch in Exmoor
+meadow," she thought with fond regret for this wasted gift of their old
+colored cook, who had taken unusual pains to make the snakey-noodles as
+crusty and delicious as possible.
+
+"So passeth snakey-noodles and all good things," she said to herself as
+she entered the Quadrangle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE CAMPUS GHOST.
+
+
+About this time Wellington was filled with strange rumors that were much
+discussed in small sitting rooms behind closed doors. It was said, and
+this part of the story could be credited as truth, that a woman had been
+seen wandering about the campus late at night wringing her hands and
+moaning. Some of the Blakely House girls had seen her from their window
+one night and had rushed to find the matron, but the strange woman had
+disappeared by the time the matron had been summoned. Another night she
+had been seen, or rather heard, under the Quadrangle windows. She had
+been seen at other places and some of the Irish maids had been filled
+with superstitious dread because, absurd as it might seem to sensible
+persons, it was reported that the weeping, moaning lady was the ghost of
+Miss Walker's sister who had died so many years ago.
+
+"It's an evil omen, Miss," a waitress said to Nance one evening. "In
+Ireland ghosts come to foretell bad news. It's no good to the college,
+shure, that she's wandering here the nights."
+
+"Don't you worry, Nora. It's just some poor crazy woman," said Nance
+sensibly.
+
+"Then where does she be after keeping herself hid in the daytime, Miss?"
+
+"I can't say, but it will come out sooner or later. Ghosts don't exist."
+
+"Shure an' you'll foind a-plenty of 'em in the old country, Miss."
+
+"Well, maybe this is an imported ghost," laughed Molly.
+
+Nevertheless, not a girl in college but felt slightly uneasy about being
+out after dark alone, and most trans-campus visitors were careful to
+come home early.
+
+One night Molly and Nance had been down to the village to supper with
+Judith Blount and Madeleine Petit. They had had a gay time and a jolly
+supper and it was quite half past nine before they hurried up the hilly
+road to Wellington. The two girls had locked arms and were walking
+briskly along talking in low voices. It was a wonderful night. There was
+no moon, but the stars were brilliant and Molly was inclined to be
+poetical.
+
+"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art," she began, waving her
+free arm with expressive gestures. "Not in lone splendor hung aloft the
+night----"
+
+"Molly," hissed Nance, in a frightened whisper, "do be still, look!"
+They had turned in at the avenue now, and there, directly over where old
+Queen's once stood, was a tall figure draped in black. As the girls came
+up, she began to moan in a low voice and wring her hands.
+
+"Oh, Molly, I'm so scared, my knees are giving away. What shall we do?"
+
+"Let's run," whispered Molly, admitting silently that the phantom was a
+bit unnerving. "Here, take my hand and let's fly. She's crazy, of
+course, and she might do anything to us."
+
+With hands clasped, the two girls flew up the campus. Glancing over her
+shoulder, Nance gave a wild cry and pressed along faster.
+
+"She's chasing us," she gasped. "Oh, heavens, she'll kill us!"
+
+[Illustration: Molly Glanced Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom ... was
+Running Behind Them--_Page_ 198.]
+
+Molly glanced back. Sure enough, the phantom, keeping well within the
+shadow of the elms, was running behind them.
+
+"Oh, Nance, can't you run a little faster?" she cried, now thoroughly
+frightened.
+
+Not a soul was on the campus that night. The place was entirely
+deserted, and it looked for a few minutes as if they were going to have
+a very uncomfortable time, but as they neared the Quadrangle, the figure
+slipped away and was lost in the dense shadow of the trees that bordered
+the avenue.
+
+"Lay me on a stretcher," gasped Molly, as she dropped on a bench inside
+the gates while Nance went to inform the gate-keeper of the strange
+presence on the campus.
+
+Immediately the gate-keeper, who was also night watchman, rushed out
+with a lantern to chase the phantom, which was a poor way to catch her,
+you will admit.
+
+Once in the privacy of their own sitting room, Nance had a real case of
+hysterics, laughing and weeping alternately, and Molly felt quite faint
+and had to lie on the sofa, while Judy, who had been moodily strumming
+her guitar most of the evening, gave them aromatic spirits of ammonia.
+
+"I should think you would have been frightened," she said
+sympathetically, "but fancy old Nance's running! It's the first time on
+record."
+
+Nance shuddered.
+
+"I don't think you would have stood still under the circumstances," she
+answered.
+
+"I don't think I would, but I should like to have known who the ghost
+was just the same. Suppose you had stopped still and let her come up to
+you, do you think she would?"
+
+"Heavens!" exclaimed the other two in one breath.
+
+"She ran after you because you were running from her," observed the wise
+Judy.
+
+"People always give advice about ghosts and robbers and mad dogs," said
+Molly. "And they are the ones that run the fastest when the ghosts and
+robbers and mad dogs appear."
+
+"Do you think it was a ghost?" asked Judy, ignoring the irritation of
+her friends.
+
+"If it had been a ghost it would have caught up with us," answered
+Molly, while Nance in the same breath said emphatically:
+
+"I don't believe in ghosts."
+
+Nance and Molly were heroines for several days after this, and during
+this time the "ghost" did not reappear on the campus, although a close
+watch was kept for her. The Williams sisters insisted on walking down
+the avenue every night at half past nine in hopes of seeing a real
+phantom, but she was careful to keep herself well out of sight during
+this vigilance.
+
+One night some ten days later, just as the town clock tolled midnight,
+Molly waked suddenly with a draught of cold air in her face. She sat up
+in bed and glanced sleepily through the open door into the sitting room.
+
+"Where did the air come from?" she wondered, and then noticed that
+Judy's door was open and slipped softly out of bed. Why she did not
+simply close her own door she never could explain, but some hidden
+impulse moved her to look into Judy's room. A shaded night lamp turned
+quite low cast a soft luminous shadow right across Judy's bed, which was
+empty. Molly started violently. Once before they had come into Judy's
+room at midnight and found her bed empty. The startling recollection
+caused Molly to run to the open window. As she leaned out her hand
+touched something rough--a rope.
+
+"A rope ladder!" she whispered to herself, horrified. "Great heavens,
+Judy has done for herself now." Just then the rope scraped her knuckles
+and she felt a tug at it from below. "Some one is coming up." Molly
+looked out.
+
+"Judy," she whispered in a tone filled with reproach. "How could you?"
+
+The voice from above must have frightened the climber, for, with an
+excited little gasp, she missed her hold on the rope and fell backward,
+where she lay for a moment perfectly still. It was not a very great
+fall, but it must have hurt, and instantly Molly climbed to the window
+sill and began to make her way slowly down the ladder.
+
+It was not so difficult as she had thought, but she was frightened when
+at last she bounded onto the ground, and she was freezing cold in spite
+of her knitted slippers and woolen dressing gown.
+
+"Have you hurt yourself badly?" she asked, leaning over Judy, who was
+endeavoring to sit up.
+
+"No, only dazed from the fall," whispered Judy. "Go on up, will you, or
+we'll both get caught."
+
+"You'd better go first," said Molly, "I'm afraid to leave you down here
+alone. Go on, instantly," she added, remembering that she must be stern
+since Judy richly deserved all the reproaches she could think of.
+
+Judy began the ascent and pulled herself over the window sill. Then
+exhausted, she sat on the floor, holding her throbbing temples in both
+hands. That is why she did not see what was presently to happen. Just as
+Molly placed her foot on the first rung of the ladder, a firm hand
+grasped her arm. Why she did not shriek aloud with all the power of her
+lungs she never knew, but she remained perfectly silent while a
+voice--and it was Miss Walker's voice--said in her ear:
+
+"You will say nothing about this to-night. I wish you to come to my
+office to-morrow morning at ten. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," answered Molly, reverting to her childhood's method of
+answering older people. She climbed the ladder in a dazed sort of way.
+It was more difficult than climbing down, but at last she scaled the
+window sill and jumped into the room. Judy was still sitting on the
+floor, holding her temples. Perhaps it had been only five minutes, but
+it seemed like a thousand years. However, she felt little sympathy for
+Judy, bruised temple or not.
+
+"Get up from there and get to your bed," she whispered. "And I want to
+hear from you exactly what you were doing down there and where you got
+that ladder."
+
+"The rope ladder belonged to Anne White," Judy answered in a stifled
+voice. "I borrowed it to win a wager from Adele. Of course, I don't mean
+to blame her, but she teased me into it. It was silly, I know, looking
+back on it now."
+
+"What was the bet?"
+
+"She bet that I would be afraid to climb down that ladder at midnight
+when the ghost is supposed to walk. I was simply to climb down, touch
+the ground and climb back again."
+
+"Idiots, both of you," said Molly furiously.
+
+"I know it, and I am sorry now," said the penitent Judy, "but
+fortunately no harm has been done except to my silly head, which needed
+a good whacking, anyhow."
+
+"No harm," thought Molly angrily. "I wonder what's going to happen to me
+to-morrow. One of us will be expelled, I suppose. Miss Walker is already
+down on Judy."
+
+"Thank you for coming down to me, Molly, dearest."
+
+Molly closed the door.
+
+"Judy, I want you to promise me something," she said. "If you get out of
+this scrape----"
+
+"But no one knows it but you."
+
+"I have no idea of telling on you, Judy, but things leak out. How do
+you know you weren't observed?"
+
+Judy looked startled.
+
+"I want you to promise me to give up this Adele Windsor and her crowd.
+She's never done you any good. She's a malicious, dangerous, wicked girl
+and if you haven't the sense to see it, I'll just tell you."
+
+This was strong language coming from Molly.
+
+"If you don't, mid-years will certainly see your finish, if you aren't
+dropped sooner. You're not studying at all and you are simply acting
+outrageously, dyeing your hair and borrowing rope ladders. I'm disgusted
+with you, Judy Kean, I am indeed."
+
+"Miss Walker has a grudge against me," announced Judy, in a hot whisper.
+
+"Nonsense," said Molly, and she swept out of the room and crawled into
+her bed, very weary and cold and frightened, wondering what the morrow
+would bring forth in the way of punishment for her--or was it to be for
+Judy?
+
+In the meantime, foolish Judy carefully coiled up the rope ladder and
+hid it in the bottom of her trunk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ON THE GRILL.
+
+
+Not a word did Molly say to Nance or the unsuspecting Judy next morning
+about her appointment with President Walker.
+
+"Don't forget Latin versification at ten," Nance had cautioned her as
+she left the sitting room a quarter before ten.
+
+Molly had forgotten it and everything else except the matter in hand,
+but the President's word was law and she prepared to obey and skip the
+lecture.
+
+The President was waiting for her in the little study. No one was about
+and an ominous quiet pervaded the whole place.
+
+"Sit down," said Miss Walker, without replying to Molly's greeting of
+good morning. "So it's you, is it, who has been wandering about the
+grounds at night in a gray dressing gown, scaring the students? I need
+not tell you how disgusted and grieved I am, Miss Brown."
+
+Molly turned as white as a sheet. She had never dreamed that Miss Walker
+suspected her of being the campus ghost.
+
+But she answered steadily:
+
+"You are mistaken, Miss Walker. The ghost chased Nance and me the other
+night when we were coming back from the village. We were really
+frightened. I suppose it's some insane person."
+
+"Then what were you doing on the campus at that hour, and where did you
+get that ladder?"
+
+Molly turned her wide blue eyes on the President with reproachful
+protest, and Miss Walker suddenly looked down at the blotter on the
+desk.
+
+"Answer my question, Miss Brown," she asked more gently.
+
+How could Molly explain without telling on
+
+Judy, and yet did not that reckless, silly Judy deserve to be told on?
+
+Suddenly two tears trickled down her cheeks. She let them roll unheeded
+and clasped her hands convulsively in her lap.
+
+"I insist on an answer to my question, Miss Brown," repeated the
+President, without looking up. Molly pressed her lips together to keep
+back the sobs.
+
+"I never saw the ladder until a few minutes before you did," she
+answered hoarsely. "I--oh, Miss Walker, you make it very hard," she
+burst out suddenly, leaning on the table and burying her face in her
+hands.
+
+And then the most surprising thing happened. The President rose quickly
+from her chair, hurried over to where Molly was sitting with bowed head
+and drew the girl to her as tenderly as Molly's own mother might have
+done.
+
+"There, there, my darling child," she said soothingly. "I haven't the
+heart to torture you any longer. I know, of course, that it was your
+friend, Miss Kean, who was at the bottom of last night's performance,
+and as usual you came down to help her when she fell. I only wanted you
+to tell me exactly what you knew."
+
+The truth is, the President had tried an experiment on Molly and the
+experiment had failed, and no one was more pleased than Miss Walker
+herself in the failure. She liked to see her girls loyal to each other.
+But things had not been going well at Wellington that autumn. There was
+an undercurrent of mischief in the air, a dangerous element, carefully
+hidden, and still slowly undermining the standards of Wellington. Miss
+Walker was very much enraged over the rumor that the ghost of her
+beloved sister had been seen wandering about the campus. This was too
+much. Her Irish maid had repeated the story to her and she had
+determined to lay that ghost without the assistance of the night
+watchman or any one else.
+
+The surprise of first being stretched on the grill and then embraced by
+the President of Wellington College brought Molly to herself like a
+shock of cold water. She looked up into the older woman's face and
+smiled and the two sat down side by side on a little sofa, the President
+still holding Molly's hand. There might be some who could resist the
+piteous look in those blue eyes, but not President Walker.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm just a weak old person," she said to herself, giving the
+hand a little squeeze and then releasing it.
+
+"Judy wasn't the ghost, either, Miss Walker," said Molly, glad to be
+able to defend her friend on safe grounds. "The night we were chased
+Judy was in our rooms all the time. Last night was the first time she
+had ever done anything so foolish. It was only because a girl she goes
+with bet she wouldn't. It was the same girl that made her dye her hair,"
+Molly added, without any feeling of disloyalty.
+
+"Ahem! And who is this young woman who has such a bad influence on Miss
+Kean?"
+
+Molly flushed. Was she to be placed on the grill again? But after all
+there was no harm in telling the name of the girl who had brought all
+Judy's trouble on her.
+
+"Adele Windsor."
+
+"And what do you know of her?"
+
+"I don't know anything about her except that she has fascinated Judy."
+
+"And Judy must be punished," mused the President. "Judy is a very
+difficult character and she must be brought to her senses if she expects
+to remain at Wellington."
+
+"Judy loves Wellington, indeed she does, Miss Walker. It's only that she
+has got into a wrong way of thinking this year. I've heard her tell
+freshmen how splendid it was here and how they would grow to love it
+like all the rest of us."
+
+"She has not been doing well at all. She never studies. You see I know
+all about my girls."
+
+"You didn't know," went on Molly, "that the Jubilee entertainment was
+all Judy's idea. She gave it to Adele Windsor--I don't know why--just
+because she was in one of her obstinate moods, but I heard her plan out
+the whole thing the opening night of college--and it was all for the
+glory of Wellington."
+
+The President's face softened.
+
+"Molly," she said, as if she had always called the young girl by her
+first name, "do you wish very much to save your friend?"
+
+"Oh, I do, I do. I can't think of any sacrifice I wouldn't make to keep
+Judy from being----" she paused and lowered her eyes. Was Miss Walker
+thinking of expelling Judy? But Miss Walker was not that kind of a
+manager. She often treated her erring girls very much as a doctor treats
+his patients with a few doses of very nasty but efficacious medicine.
+
+"What is your opinion of what had best be done, then? You know her
+better than I do. What do you advise?"
+
+Molly was amazed.
+
+"Me? You ask my advice?" she asked.
+
+The President nodded briskly.
+
+"Well, the best way to bring Judy to her senses is to give her a good
+scare and let it come out all right in the end."
+
+The President smiled.
+
+"You're one of the wisest of my girls," she said, "now, run along. If
+I've made you miss a lecture I'm sorry."
+
+"It _will_ come out all right in the end, Miss Walker?" asked Molly,
+turning as she reached the door.
+
+"I promise," answered the other, smiling again as if the question
+pleased her.
+
+And so Molly escaped from the grill feeling really very happy, certainly
+much happier than when she entered the office.
+
+Late that evening while Molly and Nance were preparing to take a walk
+before supper, Judy rushed into the room. There was not a ray of color
+in her face and her hair stood out all over her head as if it had been
+charged with electricity.
+
+"Oh, Molly, Molly," she cried, "did you know the President had overheard
+everything that was said last night? She was at the foot of the ladder
+all the time. You are not implicated, I saw to that, and I've not told
+where I got the ladder. I simply said some one had given it to me. No
+one is in it but me. But I'm in it deep. Girls, I've lost out. It's all
+over. I've got to go. Oh, heavens, what a fool I've been."
+
+Judy flung herself on the divan and buried her face in the pillows.
+
+For a moment Molly almost lost faith in the President's promise.
+
+"What do you mean when you say you must go, Judy?" she asked.
+
+"It can't be true," burst out Nance, whose love for Judy sometimes
+clothed that young woman's sins in a garment of light.
+
+"Not expelled?" added Molly, in a whisper.
+
+"No, no, not that; but suspended. I can come back just before mid-years,
+but don't you see the trick? How can I pass my exams then? And Mama and
+Papa, what will they think? And, oh, the Jubilee and all of you and
+Wellington? Molly, I've been a wicked idiot and some of my sins have
+been against you. I was jealous about that Jimmy Lufton because he had
+seemed to be my property and you took him away. And, Nance, I was mad
+with you because you were always preaching. I didn't really like Adele
+Windsor. I think she is horrid. She's malicious and she makes trouble.
+I've found that out, but she got me in her toils somehow----"
+
+And so poor Judy rambled on, confessing her sins and moaning like a
+person in mortal pain. She had worked herself into a fever, her face was
+hot and she looked at the girls with burning, unseeing eyes.
+
+"Papa will be so disappointed," she went on. "It will be harder on him
+than on Mama for me not to graduate with the class, and oh, I did love
+all of you--I really did."
+
+Tears, which Molly had never seen Judy shed but once before, now worked
+two tortuous little paths down her flushed cheeks.
+
+Molly and Nance comforted and nursed her into quiet. They bathed her
+face and loosened her dyed locks which were now beginning to show a
+strange tawny yellow at the roots and a rusty brownish color at the
+ends. All the time Molly was thinking very hard.
+
+"Judy," she said, at last, when they had got her quiet. "There's no
+reason why you shouldn't pass the mid-years and graduate with your class
+if you want to."
+
+"But how? I'm so behind now I can hardly catch up, and if I miss six
+weeks I can never do it."
+
+"Yes, you can," said Molly. "This is what you must do. Go down to the
+village and get board anywhere, with Mrs. Murphy or Mrs. O'Reilly. Take
+all your books and begin to study. Every day some of us will come down
+and coach you, Nance or I, or Edith--I know any of the crowd would be
+glad to, so as not to lose you."
+
+"But the Christmas holidays," put in Judy.
+
+"I shall be here for all the holidays," said Molly. "It will be all
+right."
+
+And so the matter was settled. The very next day Judy's exile began. She
+engaged a room at Mrs. O'Reilly's, her obstinate mood slipped away from
+her and she was happier and more like her old self than she had been in
+weeks. And Molly was happy, too. She felt that she had saved Judy and
+freed her at the same time from the clutches of Adele Windsor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A CHRISTMAS EVE MISUNDERSTANDING.
+
+
+The old Queen's crowd rallied around the exiled Judy, even as Molly had
+predicted, and Judy was prostrated with gratitude. Nothing could have
+stirred her so deeply as this devotion of her friends.
+
+"I feel like Elijah being fed by the ravens in the wilderness, only you
+are bringing me crumbs of learning," she exclaimed to Molly who had
+taken her turn in coaching Judy. "I hope you don't mind being called
+'ravens,'" she added apologetically.
+
+"Not at all," laughed Molly. "I'd rather be called a raven than a
+catbird or a poll parrot or an English sparrow."
+
+But Judy was already deep in her paper. Being a recluse from the world,
+her life consecrated to study, she was playing the part to perfection.
+
+If Adele Windsor knew that Judy was in the village, she gave no sign,
+and so the exile, in her old room at O'Reilly's overlooking the garden,
+had nothing to do but bury herself in her neglected text books. Indeed,
+very few of the girls knew where Judy was. When she went out for her
+walks after dusk she wore a heavy veil and thoroughly enjoyed the
+disguise. One night the old crowd gave her a surprise party which Edith
+had carefully planned. Dressed in absurd piratical costumes with skirts
+draped over one shoulder in the semblance of capes, brilliant sashes
+around their waists, many varieties of slouch hats and heavy black
+mustaches, they stormed Judy's room in a body.
+
+"Hist!" said Edith, "the captive Maiden! We must release her ere
+sunrise!" Then they trooped in, danced a wild fandango which made Judy
+envious that she herself was not in it, and finally opened up
+refreshments.
+
+So it was that Judy's exile was happy enough, and when Christmas
+holidays approached she had made up most of her lost work and was ready
+for Molly's careful coaching.
+
+Thus it is that heaven protects some of the foolish ones of this earth.
+Judy wrote to her mother and father that she was behind in her classes
+and would remain to study with Molly Brown, and as Mr. and Mrs. Kean
+were at this time in Colorado, they thought it a wise decision on the
+part of their daughter.
+
+Molly had grown to love the Christmas holidays at college. It was a
+perfect time of peace after the excitement and hurry of her life--a time
+when she could steal into the big library and read the hours away
+without being disturbed, or scribble things on paper that she would like
+to expand into something, some day, when her diffidence should leave
+her.
+
+To-day, curled up in one of the big window seats, Molly was thinking of
+a curious thing that had happened that morning at O'Reilly's.
+
+She had gone in to say good-bye to Judith Blount and Madeleine Petit,
+who were leaving for New York by the noon train.
+
+"I suppose you'll be visiting all the tea rooms in town for new ideas,"
+Molly had said pleasantly.
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Madeleine. "I never leave a stone unturned and
+everything's grist that comes to my mill. This fall I got six new ideas
+for sandwiches and the idea for a kind of bun that ought to be popular
+if only because of the name. I haven't the recipe, but I think I can
+experiment with it until I get it."
+
+"What's the name?" Molly asked idly, never thinking of what a train of
+consequences that name involved.
+
+"'Snakey-noodles.' Isn't it great? Can't you see it on a little menu and
+people ordering out of curiosity and then ordering more because they're
+so good?"
+
+"Snakey-noodles," Molly repeated in surprise.
+
+"That's the name, isn't it, Judith?" asked Madeleine.
+
+"Oh, yes, I remember it because the bun is formed of twisted dough like
+a snake coiled up."
+
+"It's very strange," said Molly.
+
+"What's strange?"
+
+"Why, that name, snakey-noodle. You see it's a kind of family name with
+us. Our old cook has been making them for years. I really thought she
+had originated it, but I suppose other colored people know it, too.
+Where did you have one?"
+
+"At a spread, oh, weeks and weeks ago."
+
+"But where?" insisted Molly. "I have a real curiosity to know. Was it a
+Southern spread?"
+
+"Far from it," said Madeleine. "Yankee as Yankee. One of the girls in
+Brentley House gave the spread."
+
+"But she didn't provide the snakey-noodles," put in Judith. "What's that
+girl's name who talks through her nose?"
+
+"Miss Windsor."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Coming to think of it, I believe she said they had been sent to her
+from an aunt in the South," went on Madeleine. "So you see, Molly,
+nobody has been poaching on your preserves."
+
+Molly only smiled rather vaguely. She would have liked to ask a dozen
+more questions, but kept silent and presently, after shaking hands with
+the two inseparable friends, she went up to the library to think.
+Somehow Molly was not surprised. Nothing that Adele Windsor could do
+surprised her. The surprising part was how she avoided being found out.
+It was just like her to have planned the theft of the Senior Ramble
+lunch. There was something really diabolical in her notions of
+amusement. And now, what was to be done?
+
+Should she tell the other girls after the holidays, or should she wait?
+It was all weeks off and Molly decided to let the secret rest in her own
+mind safely. Even if she told, it would be hard to prove the accusation
+at this late day, but perhaps--and here Molly's thoughts broke off.
+
+"I detest all this meanness and trickery," she thought. "I don't blame
+Miss Walker for wanting to clean it out of the school. Anyway," she
+added, smiling, "if that girl bothers Judy any more, I intend to
+pronounce the mystic name of snakey-noodles over her head like a curse
+and see what happens."
+
+That afternoon Molly packed a suitcase full of clothes and lugged it
+down to Mrs. O'Reilly's, where she had consented to spend Christmas with
+Judy instead of in her own pretty Quadrangle apartment. Secretly Molly
+would much rather have stayed in No. 5, where she could have rested and
+read poetry as much as she liked. But she was rarely known to consult
+her own comfort when her friends asked her to do them a favor, and,
+after all, if she were going to put Judy through a course of study, she
+had better be on the spot to see that the irresponsible young person
+stuck to her books.
+
+So the two girls established themselves in the pleasant fire-lit room
+overlooking the garden. Judy had brought down two framed photographs of
+her favorite pictures and a big brass jar by way of ornament, and on
+Christmas Eve the girls went out to buy holly and red swamp berries.
+
+They were walking along the crowded sidewalk arm in arm, recalling how
+last year they had done exactly the same thing, when they came
+unexpectedly face to face with Mr. James Lufton.
+
+"Well, if this isn't good luck," he exclaimed. "Nobody at the Quadrangle
+seemed to know where you were."
+
+He included both girls, but he really meant Molly.
+
+"And what are you doing here?" asked Molly, giving him her hand after he
+had shaken Judy's hand.
+
+"Andy McLean asked me down for Christmas," he said.
+
+He failed to mention that he had pawned his watch, a set of Balzac and
+two silver trophies won at an athletic club, and, furthermore, had given
+out at the office that he was down with grippe, in order to accept the
+invitation.
+
+"Andy's up the street now looking for you. He thought perhaps Mrs.
+Murphy might know where you were."
+
+"What did he want with us?" asked Judy, lifting her mourning veil.
+
+Jimmy hesitated.
+
+"He was thinking of getting up a Christmas dance, but----" He looked at
+Judy's black dress.
+
+"She's not in mourning, Mr. Lufton," laughed Molly. "It's only that she
+prefers to look like a mourning widow-lady."
+
+"Oh, excuse me, Miss Kean," said Jimmy. "I thought you had had a recent
+bereavement."
+
+"Here, Judy, take off that thing," exclaimed Molly, unpinning the
+mourning veil in the back and snatching it off Judy's glowing face.
+
+"Molly, how can you invade on the privacy of my grief," exclaimed Judy,
+laughing.
+
+"Why, it's Miss Judy Kean," exclaimed Dodo Green, coming up at that
+moment with Andy McLean. "Nothing has hap----"
+
+"No," put in Molly, "it's only one of Judy's absurd notions. She's been
+wearing mourning for years off and on, but she's only lately gone into
+such heavy black."
+
+"And you've no objection to a little fun, then?" asked Andy.
+
+"Not a particle," answered Judy, the old bright look lighting her face.
+"My feelings aren't black, I assure you."
+
+"On with the dance, then, let joy be unconfined," cried Andy. "We'll
+call for you at a quarter of eight, girls--at O'Reilly's, you say? I'll
+have to trot along now and tell the mater."
+
+The three boys hurried off while Molly and Judy rushed home to look over
+their party clothes.
+
+"Isn't life a pleasant thing, after all?" exclaimed Judy, and Molly
+readily agreed that it was.
+
+Such a jolly impromptu Christmas Eve party as it was that night at the
+McLeans'! Mrs. McLean had a niece visiting her from Scotland, an
+interesting girl with snappy brown eyes and straight dark hair. She was
+rather strangely dressed, Molly thought, in a red merino with a high
+white linen collar and a black satin tie, and she looked at Molly and
+Judy in their pretty evening gowns with evident disapproval. Just as
+Jimmy Lufton and Molly had completed the glide waltz for the fifth time
+that evening and had sunk down on a sofa breathless, the parlor door
+opened and in walked Professor Edwin Green, looking as well as he had
+ever looked in his life, with a fine glow of color in his cheeks.
+
+"My dear Professor!" cried Mrs. McLean.
+
+"Ed, I thought you were going to spend Christmas in the south,"
+exclaimed his brother.
+
+"You are a disobedient young man," ejaculated the doctor,--all in one
+chorus.
+
+"Don't scold the returned wanderer," said the Professor, glancing about
+the room swiftly until he caught Molly's eye, and then smiling and
+nodding. "It's dangerous for convalescents to be bored, and realizing
+that Christmas in the tropics might bring on a relapse, I decided to
+lose no time in getting back home."
+
+"And glad we are to see you, lad," said the doctor, seizing his hand and
+shaking it warmly. "You did quite right to come back before the _ennui_
+got in its work. It's worse than the fever."
+
+Molly left Jimmy Lufton's side to shake hands with the Professor, and
+then the Professor remembered the young newspaper man and greeted him
+cordially, and after that all the company went back into the dining-room
+for hot chocolate and sandwiches. And here it was that all the mischief
+started which came very near to breaking up the great friendship that
+existed between Molly and the Professor.
+
+It was simply that the Professor overheard scraps of information that
+Jimmy was pouring into Molly's ready ear while she listened with
+glowing cheeks and a gay smile to what he had to say.
+
+"Oh, you'll enjoy New York all right, Miss Brown, and the newspaper work
+won't be as hard as what you are doing now, I fancy. I'm sure they'd
+take you on if only for your----" he paused. "You have only to ask and
+I'll put in a good word, too," he added. "You can never understand what
+a good time you'll have until you get there--theaters until you have had
+enough and the opera, too. I often get tickets through our critic----"
+
+"The grand opera," repeated Molly.
+
+"Yes, anything you like. Lohengrin, Aida, La Boheme. Sooner or later you
+will see them all. Then there are the restaurants--such jolly places to
+get little dinners, and you are so independent. You are too busy to be
+lonesome and you can come and go as you like, nobody to boss you except
+the editor, of course, and you'll soon catch on. You have a natural
+knack for writing. I could tell that by your letters----"
+
+Molly, listening to the voice of the tempter, saw a picture of New York
+as one might see a picture of a carnival, all lights and fun and good
+times.
+
+"But I want to work, too, more than anything else," she said suddenly.
+
+"Oh, you'll have plenty to do," laughed the careless Jimmy, who took
+life about as seriously as a humming-bird.
+
+After supper the Professor drew Molly away from the crowd of young
+people and led her to a sofa in the hall.
+
+"I want to talk to you," he said in a tone of authority that a teacher
+might use to a pupil. "I could not help overhearing what your newspaper
+friend was saying to you at supper, and I wish you would take my advice
+and not listen to a word he says. He's just a young fool!"
+
+The Professor was quite red in the face and Molly also flushed and her
+eyes darkened with anger.
+
+"I don't agree with you about that," she said.
+
+"Is it possible you are going to put all this hard studying you have
+been doing for the last three and a half years into writing news items
+for a yellow journal? I'm disgusted."
+
+"But I only expected to start there----" began Molly.
+
+"And is that young idiot trying to persuade you that the sort of life he
+described--a wild carnival life of dissipation and restaurant dinners is
+the right life for you? I tell you he's mistaken. I should like
+to--to----"
+
+Molly's face was burning now.
+
+"I--I--I don't think it's any of your business," she burst out. At this
+astonishing speech the Professor came to himself with a start.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Brown," he said. "I realize now that I entirely
+overstepped the mark. Good evening."
+
+"Miss Brown, shall we have the last dance together?" called Jimmy Lufton
+down the hall, and presently poor Molly, whirling in the waltz, wondered
+why her temples throbbed so and her throat ached.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+TWO CHRISTMAS BREAKFASTS.
+
+
+Early Christmas morning a slender figure in faded blue corduroy could be
+seen hurrying up the road that led from the village to the college
+grounds. The frosty wind nipped two spots of red on her cheeks and under
+the drooping brim of her old blue felt hat her eyes shone like patches
+of sky in the sunlight. Where was Molly bound for at this early hour?
+The church bells were ringing out the glad Christmas tidings; the ground
+sparkled with hoar frost; but not a moment did she linger to listen to
+the cheerful clanging, or even to glance at the lonely vista of hill and
+dale stretched around her. Hurrying across the campus, she skirted the
+college buildings and presently gained the pebbled path that led to the
+old campus in the rear, flanked by a number of old red brick houses,
+formerly the homes of the professors. They were now used for various
+purposes: the college laundry; homes for the employees about the
+building and grounds and rooms for bachelor professors.
+
+Hastening along the path to the house where Professor Green was
+domiciled, Molly was thinking:
+
+"Only a year ago I had to make the same apology to him. Oh, my wicked,
+wicked temper! I am ashamed of myself."
+
+And now she had reached the old brick house and sounded the brass
+knocker with an eager rat-tat-tat. Presently she heard footsteps resound
+along the empty hall and the Irish housekeeper flung open the door.
+
+"Is Professor Green up yet?" Molly demanded.
+
+"And shure I've not an idea whether he be up or slapin'."
+
+"But can't you see?"
+
+"I cannot. It wouldn't be an aisy thing to do, I'm thinkin'."
+
+"And why not, pray? It must be his breakfast time. You have only to rap
+on his door. And it's very important."
+
+"And if it's so important, you'd better be after sendin' him a cable to
+the Bahamas, where the Professor is sunnin' himself at prisint."
+
+"Nonsense, Mrs. Brady, the Professor got back last night. I saw him
+myself. He must be up in his room now. Do go and see. You haven't cooked
+him a bit of breakfast, I suppose?"
+
+Mrs. Brady turned without a word and tiptoed up the stairs. Molly heard
+her breathing heavily as she moved along the hall and tapped on the
+Professor's door. Then came a muffled voice through the closed door.
+
+"I'll git ye some breakfast, sir," called Mrs. Brady, and down she came.
+
+"Shure an' you wuz right an' I wuz wrong, an' I'm obliged to you for the
+information. But he'll not be ready for seein' people for an hour yet,
+maybe longer."
+
+"Mrs. Brady," said Molly, moved by a sudden inspiration. "Let me get his
+breakfast."
+
+"But----" objected the Irish woman.
+
+"I'm a splendid cook and I'll give you no trouble at all. Please." Molly
+put her hands on the Irish woman's shoulders and looked into her face
+appealingly.
+
+"Shure, thim eyes is like the gals' in the old countree, Miss," remarked
+Mrs. Brady, visibly melting under that telling gaze. "Ye can do as you
+like, but if the Professor don't like his breakfast the blame be on
+you."
+
+"He'll like it, I'm perfectly certain," said Molly, following Mrs. Brady
+back to the kitchen.
+
+"It's a very, very funny world," said Mrs. Brady, displaying the
+contents of her larder to the volunteer cook.
+
+Her resources were limited, to be sure, but Molly improvised a breakfast
+out of them that a king would not have scorned. There were pop-overs
+done to a golden brown, a perfect little omelet, bacon crisp enough to
+please the most fastidious palate and an old champagne glass, the spoils
+of some festive occasion, filled with iced orange juice. The coffee was
+strong and fragrant.
+
+"He's very particular about it, Miss, an' he buys his own brand."
+
+Then Molly set the tray. Mrs. Brady's best white linen cover she
+snatched from the shelf without asking leave. In a twinkling she had
+polished and heated the blue china dishes, placed the breakfast on them
+and covered them tight with hot soup plates, since there were no other
+covers. Then she snipped off the top of a red geranium blooming in the
+window sill and dropped it into a finger bowl.
+
+"Lord love ye, Miss, but that's a beautiful tray," exclaimed Mrs. Brady,
+hypnotized by Molly's swift movements and skillful workmanship. "If I
+did not know ye wuz a lady from your looks I should say ye wuz a born
+cook. But Mrs. Murphy be afther tellin' me how you used to make things
+in her kitchen. Ye must be the same one, since it's red hair and blue
+eyes ye have----"
+
+Molly had disappeared into the pantry to replace the flour sifter while
+Mrs. Brady was holding forth, and now through a crack in the pantry door
+she saw the kitchen door open and Professor Green, in a long dressing
+gown, stalk in.
+
+"Don't bother about breakfast for me, Mrs. Brady," he said. "A cup of
+coffee quite strong--stronger than you usually make it, please--that's
+all I want."
+
+Mrs. Brady, glancing at Molly hidden in the pantry, saw her shake her
+head and place a finger on her lips.
+
+The Irish woman smiled broadly. It was a situation in which she saw many
+humorous possibilities and an amusing story to tell over the tea cups to
+Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. O'Reilly.
+
+"Shure an' ye needn't eat it, sir," she said, in an injured tone, "but
+it's all prepared an' of the very best."
+
+The Professor glanced at the tray.
+
+"Why," he exclaimed, in amazement, "this is something really fine, Mrs.
+Brady. I didn't know you were getting up a holiday breakfast."
+
+Visions of slopped-over trays, weak coffee and hard toast passed before
+him, for Mrs. Brady was not a cook to boast of.
+
+"I'll eat it down here, if you've no objection," he continued kindly,
+lifting the covers and glancing curiously underneath. "By Jove, this is
+something like. Omelet, and what are those luscious looking things?"
+
+"They be pop-overs, sir, if I'm not misthaken."
+
+"Pop-overs, ahem! I've heard the name before." He sniffed the small
+coffee pot. "Good and strong; you've anticipated my wants this morning,
+Mrs. Brady."
+
+"Why doesn't he go on and eat?" thought the red-haired cook. "The omelet
+will be ruined."
+
+But the Professor had drawn up a chair to the kitchen table and was
+draining the orange juice at a gulp.
+
+"You're getting very festive, Mrs. Brady. Have you been taking lessons
+in my absence? That orange juice was just the appetizer I needed this
+morning." Then he fell to on the breakfast and never stopped until he
+had eaten every crumb and drained the coffee pot to the dregs.
+
+In the meantime Molly had taken a seat on the pantry floor. A weakness
+had invaded her knees and her head swam dizzily, since she had had no
+breakfast that morning.
+
+"I suppose Judy will think I'm dead," she thought, "but it won't do her
+any harm to be guessing about me for once."
+
+She hoped the Professor would leave in a moment and go to his rooms. He
+had filled a short briar wood pipe and was leaning back in his chair
+musing, but he couldn't stay forever in Mrs. Brady's kitchen.
+
+"Mrs. Brady, that was a very dainty and delicious little meal you
+prepared for me," she heard him say. "I was a bit low in my mind but I
+feel cheered up. A cup of coffee--if it's good--as this was--is often
+enough to restore a man's ambition." And now the kitchen was filled with
+the fragrance of tobacco smoke while the Professor mused in his chair,
+blowing out great clouds at intervals.
+
+"A bachelor is a poor pitiful soul, sir," answered the woman; "now, if
+ye had a wife to look after ye, you'd be afther havin' the like
+breakfasts ivery mornin'."
+
+The Professor blew out a ring of purple smoke and watched it float
+lazily in the air and gradually dissipate.
+
+"Didn't you know I was a woman hater, Mrs. Brady?"
+
+"Indade, I should think ye might be, seein' so many of them every day
+and all the time," answered the housekeeper sympathetically. "Too much
+of a good thing, sir. But, whin old age comes to ye, you'll miss 'em,
+sir. You'll miss a good wife to look after your comforts then."
+
+"I've got something better than that for my old age, Mrs. Brady. I've
+got a bit of land; it's an orchard on the side of a hill sloping down to
+a brook----"
+
+Molly, sitting on the pantry floor, felt a sudden jolt as if some one
+had shaken her by the shoulder. Faintness came over her and her heart
+beat so fast and loud she wondered that the two in the kitchen did not
+hear its palpitations.
+
+"The trees bear plenty of apples; I'll have lots of fruit in my old age.
+I've only to hobble out and knock them down with my cane when I get too
+old to climb up and shake the limbs, and where once swung a hammock in
+my orchard I may build a little hut."
+
+"It's a pretty picture, sir, but lonely, I should say."
+
+"Ah, well, Mrs. Brady, there'll be four walls to my hut and every inch
+of those walls will be covered with books," announced the Professor, as
+he strolled out of the kitchen, leaving the door ajar.
+
+Molly, now thoroughly exhausted, amazed, and quite faint from her
+emotions, was pulling herself to her knees when the Professor marched
+swiftly back into the room and walked into the pantry.
+
+"I wanted to see how much coffee you had left----" he began. "I'll be
+writing for more----" His foot encountered something soft on the floor
+and glancing quickly down he caught a glimpse in the shadow of a figure
+huddled up in the corner. The face was hidden in the curve of the elbow,
+but he saw the red hair, and a beam through a crack in the door cast a
+slanting light across the blue silk blouse.
+
+"Why, Molly Brown, my little friend," he exclaimed. And he lifted her to
+her feet and half carried her to a chair near the fire. "So it was you
+who cooked me that delicious Christmas breakfast, and now you're half
+dead from fatigue and hunger. You've had no breakfast, confess?"
+
+Molly lifted her eyes to his and shook her head. Then she lowered her
+gaze and blushed.
+
+"I'm too ashamed to think of breakfast," she said.
+
+"Mrs. Brady, put the kettle on," ordered the Professor. "Get out the
+eggs. Where's the bacon?"
+
+"In the jar, sliced, sir."
+
+"But," protested Molly.
+
+"Don't say a word, child. Be perfectly quiet."
+
+Then the Professor began to fly about the room, tearing into the pantry,
+rushing from the table to the stove and back again, rummaging in the
+refrigerator for oranges and butter, and upsetting two chairs that stood
+in his way.
+
+All this time Mrs. Brady quietly toasted bread and broiled bacon while
+there hovered on her lips an enigmatic smile. Then she scrambled two
+eggs while the Professor tested the coffee and squeezed an orange
+alternately. Molly watched him in dazed silence.
+
+"He bought the apple orchard and that is how I happen to be at
+Wellington this minute," she kept thinking mechanically. "He worked all
+summer and got into debt and caught typhoid fever in order to furnish
+me"--she choked--"and I spoke to him like that. No wonder he's a woman
+hater--no wonder he wants books----"
+
+"Ready," announced Mrs. Brady, and the next thing Molly knew she was
+sitting at the table drinking orange juice while the Professor buttered
+toast and poured out the coffee.
+
+Presently it was all over. Two Christmas breakfasts had been prepared in
+Mrs. Brady's kitchen that morning where none had been expected.
+
+"'Twas lucky I'd laid in supplies," exclaimed the genial Irish woman. "A
+body can never tell what starvin' crayture's comin' to the door beggin'
+for a crust."
+
+And now Molly Brown found herself, almost without realizing it, walking
+across the college grounds beside her Professor.
+
+"I can never, never thank you," she was saying. "I couldn't even try."
+
+"Don't try," he answered. "Indeed, I ought to thank you for introducing
+me to that lovely bit of orchard. As for the money, it was fairly crying
+out to be invested. I think I made a great bargain."
+
+"But Dodo said----"
+
+"Dodo talks too much," said the Professor, frowning. "He knows nothing
+about me and my affairs."
+
+"Anyhow, you'll let me apologize for the way I answered you last night,"
+said Molly, giving him a heavenly smile.
+
+The Professor looked away quickly.
+
+"The apology is accepted," he said gravely.
+
+"And now we are friends once more, Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky, are we
+not?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," cried Molly joyfully, feeling happy enough to dance at
+that moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FACING THE ENEMY.
+
+
+It was a joyous day when Judy returned to college just before mid-years,
+after her long exile in the back room of O'Reilly's. She was made
+welcome by all her particular friends who killed the "potted" calf, as
+Edith called it, in honor of the prodigal's return.
+
+And Judy was well content with herself and all the world. A hair-dresser
+in Wellington had, by some mysterious process, restored her hair to very
+nearly its natural shade. Thanks to Molly, chiefly, and the others, she
+was well up in her lessons and quite prepared to breast the mid-year
+wave of examinations with the class. Never had the three friends at No.
+5 been more gloriously, radiantly happy than now on the verge of final
+examinations. And then one day, in the midst of all this serenity and
+peace, Adele Windsor dropped in to call on Judy. At once Nance fled from
+the apartment. She could not bear the sight of this sinister young
+woman. Molly would have gone, too, but she remained, at an imploring
+glance from Judy, and slipped quietly into the next room, leaving the
+door ajar.
+
+"Judy knows she can call for help if she needs it," she thought rather
+complacently, for she was no longer afraid of that arch mischief-maker.
+
+As for Judy, she was singularly polite, but cold in her manner, and
+Molly detected a certain tremulousness in her voice.
+
+"She's scared, poor dear," thought Molly indignantly. "Now, I wonder
+why?"
+
+"I haven't seen you for weeks," Adele began in her sharp, assured tone.
+"Where have you been? I heard you had gone home."
+
+"I was away for some time," answered Judy evasively.
+
+"I hope and trust she thinks I have gone out with Nance," thought Molly
+in the next room, feeling a good deal like a conspirator. "She'll never
+come to the point if she knows I'm here, and I'd just like her to show
+her cards for once. It will be a glorious chance to get rid of her
+forever more, amen."
+
+The light of battle came into Molly's eyes. "I feel like a knight
+pricking o'er the plain to slay a dragon," she thought, waving an
+imaginary sword in the air. "When it's all over I wish I had the nerve
+to say, 'Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.'"
+
+She gathered that Adele had moved more closely to Judy, for she heard
+her voice from a new quarter of the room saying:
+
+"Is it true that you were dropped?"
+
+There was a moment's pause.
+
+"Whatever happened, Adele, it's over now and I am installed again and
+forgiven."
+
+"I thought you were being rather reckless, Judy. The rope ladder
+business was bad enough, but those ghost walks were really dangerous;
+really you went too far----"
+
+"I beg your pardon," interrupted Judy stiffly. "You are on the wrong
+track. I wasn't the campus ghost."
+
+"Now, really, Judy, my dearest friend," cried Adele, seizing both of
+Judy's hands and looking into her eyes with an expression of gentle
+toleration, "why can't you confide in me? After all our good times are
+you going to give me the cold shoulder? I know perfectly well that you
+were the ghost. Have I forgotten the night you planned the whole thing
+out? Anne White was there. I daresay she remembers it quite as well as I
+do. Of course, we thought you were enjoying yourself frightening the
+life out of people, but we wondered, both of us, how you dared. I
+remember you said how easy it would be to chase girls if they ran, and
+how easy to escape because you were the swiftest runner in college. Why
+are you trying to deceive your old partner? Especially as I happen to
+know that you had the rope ladder all that time. It would have been easy
+enough. Oh, I'm on to you, subtle, secretive Judy. You are a clever
+little girl, but I'm on to you."
+
+"What does she want?" Molly breathed to herself in the next room.
+
+"But I won't tease you any longer, dearest. I only wanted to let you
+know that I'm at the very bottom of the secret. I came to talk about
+other things."
+
+Molly breathed a long sigh.
+
+"Here it comes," she thought.
+
+Judy straightened up and prepared to hear the worst.
+
+"Have the Shakespeareans and the Olla Podridas had their yearly conclave
+yet about new members?"
+
+"So it's that," Molly almost cried aloud, waving her arms over her
+head.
+
+"We meet on Saturday," answered Judy doggedly.
+
+"You have a good deal of influence in that crowd, haven't you? I mean
+you can command a lot of votes?"
+
+"No, I can't command any," answered Judy.
+
+"Blackmailer," thought Molly.
+
+"I was thinking," went on Adele calmly, "that I would like to become a
+member of one or both those clubs. If I have to make a choice I would
+prefer the Shakespeareans, of course. Can't you fix it up?"
+
+"I'm afraid not, Adele. I can't manage it. I doubt if I could command
+any votes for you. You are mistaken about my influence."
+
+"Oh yes, you can. Now, Judy, think a minute, I'm asking you a very
+simple, ordinary favor. Think of what it means to me and--well, to you,
+too. I might as well tell you right now that I'm a good friend but a bad
+enemy. You promised me once to get me into one of those clubs. Do you
+remember?"
+
+"Yes," said Judy.
+
+"Well, why this sudden change? I expect you to keep your word. I am wild
+to be a member of the Shakespeareans," here Adele changed her manner and
+her voice took on a soft, persuasive tone. "You won't regret it, Judy,
+dearest, you'll be proud of having put me up. I have a real talent for
+acting. I have, indeed, and I shall be able to get stunning costumes."
+
+Judy twisted and squirmed and shrunk away like a bird being gradually
+hypnotized by a serpent--at least so it seemed to Molly peeping through
+a crack in the door.
+
+"I tell you it will be impossible," Judy was saying, after a pause, when
+Adele burst out with:
+
+"Those are unlucky words, Judy Kean. I'll make you sorry you ever
+spoke----" she stopped short off as Molly appeared in one door and Nance
+in the other, followed by Otoyo, Margaret and Jessie and the Williams
+sisters. Nance had evidently gone forth and gathered in the clan for
+Judy's protection. Molly was almost sorry they had come. It had been a
+good opportunity to say what had been seething in her mind for some
+time, and, on the whole, she decided she would say it anyhow.
+
+With a bold spirit and a scornful eye, she marched into the room and
+stood before the astonished Adele.
+
+"Miss Windsor," she said, and she hardly recognized her own voice, so
+deep and vibrant were its tones, "did you ever hear of snakey-noodles?
+Snakey-noodles! snakey-noodles! snakey-noodles!" she repeated three
+times like a magic incantation.
+
+Judy must have thought that she had suddenly lost her mind, for she
+glanced at her with a frightened look and the other girls with
+difficulty concealed their smiles. Edith, whose keen perceptions at once
+informed her that something was up, took a seat by the window where she
+could command a good view of the entire proceedings.
+
+Adele, looking into Molly's honest, stern eyes, shrank a little and
+started to rise.
+
+"No, I shan't let you go until I have finished," said Molly. "Whenever
+the spirit moves you to ask a favor of Judy again, just say the word
+snakey-noodles over several times to yourself and then I think you'll
+leave Judy alone. Now, you may go, and remember that people who tell
+malicious, wicked stories, who impersonate ghosts, steal luncheons and
+get other girls into trouble are not welcome at Wellington. This is not
+that kind of a college."
+
+It was, of course, a random shot about the campus ghost, but Molly put
+it in, feeling fairly certain that none but the daring Adele would have
+attempted that escapade.
+
+"Remember, too," she added, as a parting shot, "that girls don't get
+into clubs here by blackmail. Even if Judy had put you up, you wouldn't
+have had the ghost of a chance."
+
+Nobody was more interested than Edith in wondering what the strange
+Adele would do now. "Will she defend herself or will she fly?" Edith
+asked herself. But Adele did the most surprising thing yet. She burst
+into tears.
+
+"You have no right to speak to me as you did," she wept into a scented
+and hand-embroidered handkerchief.
+
+"Haven't I?" said Molly, drawing her gently but firmly to the door.
+"Well, go to your room and think about it a while and see if you don't
+change your mind." And with that she quietly thrust Adele into the hall,
+closed the door and locked it.
+
+Then, such a burst of subdued laughter rose within No. 5 as was never
+heard before. Molly collapsed on the sofa while the girls gathered
+around her. Judy sat on the floor, her head resting on Molly's shoulder.
+
+"It was as good as a play," cried Edith. "I never saw anything finer.
+Molly, you're certainly full of surprises. But what did you mean by
+snakey-noodles? Wasn't it beautiful?"
+
+Then Molly explained to them about the snakey-noodle box.
+
+"Of course, the rest was just wild guessing, but from the way she took
+it I'm pretty sure I'm right."
+
+"It was better than jiu-jitsu," said Otoyo. "It was, I think, the
+jiu-jitsu of language."
+
+They all laughed at this quaint notion, and Molly relaxed on the couch
+like a very tired young warrior after the battle.
+
+"Judy, you're foolish to be afraid of that girl," said Margaret sternly.
+
+"I'm not exactly afraid of her," answered Judy, "but you see it would
+have gone particularly hard with me just now to have her go to Miss
+Walker with that story about the ghost. It was true that one evening, in
+a wicked humor, I planned the whole thing with her and that little Anne
+who is just as afraid of her as I suppose I am. I don't think Miss
+Walker would have given me another chance. Everything would have been
+against me, the rope ladder and all the things I had said."
+
+"But then you could have proved an alibi," said Nance. "You were up here
+the night the ghost chased Molly and me."
+
+"So I could," Judy exclaimed. "I was so scared I forgot all about that
+night. There's something about Adele that makes you lose your senses.
+She leans over you and looks at you and talks to you in a hot, rapid
+sort of way. I just saw myself, after all the trouble everybody had
+taken with me, being sent away in disgrace. I didn't believe I could
+prove anything when she began talking. I just went under."
+
+"Well, don't you ever do it again," put in Nance.
+
+"Say 'snakey-noodles' the next time she comes at you," said Edith. "Oh,
+dear, that exquisite name," she continued, leaning back in her chair so
+as to indulge in a fit of silent laughter.
+
+"I can tell you another interesting bit about this Miss Windsor," here
+put in pretty Jessie. "Do you remember that shabby little woman in black
+who came down on the same train with Molly's Mr. Lufton?"
+
+"Nonsense," broke in Molly.
+
+"I remember her," said Judy. "Adele said she was a dressmaker, I
+believe."
+
+"Well, she told the truth for once. She is a dressmaker, but she happens
+to be Adele's mother, too."
+
+"Her mother," they gasped in chorus.
+
+"Yes. When Mama and I were in New York for the Christmas holidays, we
+were recommended to go to a French place called 'Annette's' for some
+clothes. There was a French woman named Annette who came out and showed
+us things, but the head of the establishment was Mrs. Windsor. And we
+saw Adele hanging around several times. We also saw Adele's father, very
+dressy with a flower in his buttonhole and yellow gloves. He smiled
+sweetly at me in the hall. The fitter told us secretly that Mrs.
+Windsor spent everything she made on Adele and Mr. Windsor."
+
+"What a shame," cried Judy, "and Adele throws money around like water."
+
+"No wonder she wears such fine clothes. I suppose Annette makes all of
+them."
+
+"Thank heavens, we're rid of her forever," exclaimed Molly. "It's not
+difficult to find a spot of good in the worst of people. There were
+Minerva Higgins and Judith Blount and Frances Andrews. I never did feel
+hopeless about them, but this Adele, who doesn't recognize her own
+mother--well----"
+
+"Ah, well," broke in Otoyo. "She is what we call in Japan 'evil spirit,'
+or 'black spirit.' She will not remain because there are so many good
+spirits. She will fly away."
+
+"On a broomstick," put in Edith.
+
+"But Minerva Higgins, there is some greatly big news about her. You have
+not heard?"
+
+"No," they cried. Otoyo had become quite a little news body among her
+friends.
+
+"She will not finish the course. She will be married in June to learned
+gentleman, a professor of languages of death----"
+
+"You mean dead languages," put in Molly, laughing.
+
+"Ah, well, it is the same."
+
+"That is why Minerva looks so gay and blushing," said Jessie. "I saw her
+this morning reading a letter on one of the corridor benches. I might
+have guessed it was a love letter from her expression of supreme joy."
+
+"I wonder if it was written in Sanskrit."
+
+"I suppose after they marry they will have Latin for breakfast, Greek
+for dinner and ancient Hebrew for supper," observed Katherine.
+
+"But the gold medals, what of them?"
+
+"They will be saved for Pallas Athene, and Socrates, and Alcibiades
+Plato, of course," said Edith.
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"Why, the children, goosie," and the party broke up with a laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE JUBILEE.
+
+
+Molly Brown, in a state of wild excitement, rushed into No. 5 one
+morning waving a slip of yellow paper in her hand.
+
+"They're coming," she cried ecstatically but vaguely.
+
+"Who?" demanded her two bosom friends from the floor where they were
+engaged in fitting a paper pattern to a strip of velvet much too narrow.
+
+"My brother and sister, Minnie and Kent. Isn't it glorious? They get
+here to-morrow morning to stay for the Jubilee. Oh, I'm so happy, I am
+so happy," she sang.
+
+"I'm so glad," said the two friends in one breath.
+
+"I'm getting rooms for them at O'Reilly's and they will arrive on the
+ten train. Isn't it lucky Mrs. O'Reilly is our bright, particular
+friend? We never could have got the rooms. Everything in the village is
+taken."
+
+The crowds had indeed come pouring into Wellington for the great Jubilee
+celebration for which every student at the college had been working for
+months past. And now, almost the first of May, everything was in
+readiness, the pageants, the costumes, the plays--all the splendid and
+complicated arrangements for an Old English May Day Festival. Judy, as
+she had planned on the opening night of college all those long months
+ago, was to be a gentleman of the court and was now engaged in
+constructing a velvet cape with Nance's assistance. Furthermore all the
+girls were to take part in the senior outdoor play to be given on the
+afternoon of the Jubilee celebration, and Molly, wonderful as it seemed
+to her afterward, had won for herself by excellent recitation the part
+of Rosalind. There had been many Rosalind competitors but Professor
+Green and the professional who had come down to coach chose Molly from
+them all.
+
+How they had practiced and rehearsed and worked over that play not one
+of the senior cast will ever forget. But now it was ready and the time
+was ripe for the grand performance. In two days it was to take place.
+
+The next morning, in response to the telegram, the three friends met
+Molly's brother and sister at the station. They were a good looking
+pair, as Nance pronounced them, but not the least like Molly. Minnie or
+Mildred Brown was as pretty as Molly in her way. She had an aquiline
+nose that spoke of family, brown hair curling bewitchingly about her
+face and a beautifully modeled mouth and chin. Kent was different,
+too--tall with gravely humorous gray eyes, his mouth rather large and
+shapely, his nose a little small--but he was very handsome and his
+manners were perfection. He took to Judy at once. She amused and
+mystified him and she volunteered after lunch to show him all the sights
+of Wellington. Another visitor at Wellington was Jimmy Lufton, who had
+come down to see the celebration regardless of work and expenses, and
+ordered Molly a beautiful bouquet of narcissus to be handed to her when
+she appeared as Rosalind.
+
+Molly introduced him to Kent and Minnie and the three were soon good
+friends and looking for the best places along the campus to see the
+sights, while Molly rushed off to attire herself for the morning as a
+Maypole dancer. Old Wellington presented a strange and unusual aspect on
+that beautiful May morning. Far back under the trees gathered the people
+of the pageant waiting for the cue to start the march. Carts drawn by
+yokes of oxen rumbled along the avenue, filled with rustics from the
+country, mostly freshmen dressed in all manner of early English
+costumes. There were shepherds and shepherdesses, maids of low and high
+degree. Gentlemen of the court and plow boys in smock frocks elbowed
+each other on the green. Booths had been set up of a seventeenth century
+pattern, where anachronisms in the form of modern refreshments were
+sold.
+
+Bands of singers and rustic dancers trooped by, jesters in cap and
+bells, page boys and trumpeters. A more animated and brilliantly colored
+scene would be difficult to imagine.
+
+Providence had smiled on Wellington's Jubilee and sent a glorious day
+for the May Day Festival. It was an early spring and everything that
+could do honor to the day had burst into blossom: daffodils that
+bordered the lawns of the campus houses nodded their delicate yellow
+heads in the morning sunlight; clumps of lilac bushes formed bouquets of
+purple and white and from an occasional old apple tree showers of pink
+petals fell softly on the grass.
+
+"It's almost as beautiful as Kentucky, Kent," observed Mildred Brown,
+and Jimmy Lufton laughed joyfully.
+
+"Almost, but not quite," he said. "In Kentucky there would be twice as
+much of everything, and, besides the elms, there would be beech trees
+and maples with a good sprinkling of walnut and locust."
+
+"Twice as many Mildreds, too," observed Kent. "But for my part I think
+the young ladies I have seen here are quite as pretty as the girls at
+home."
+
+"I think you'd have a hard time finding two to match Miss Molly and Miss
+Mildred," put in Jimmy, looking with admiration at the charming Mildred,
+dressed in a cool white linen, a broad brimmed straw hat trimmed with
+pink roses shading her face.
+
+"There's Miss Judy Kean," argued Kent.
+
+What would this young man have thought if at that moment he could have
+had a glimpse of the fair Judy dressed as a court gentleman in lavender
+satin knickers, a long cape of purple velvet, an immense cavalier hat
+with a great plume and over her shapely mouth a flaring yellow
+mustachio?
+
+And all of our other friends, how strange and unnatural they seemed.
+Their most intimate friends would scarcely have recognized them.
+Margaret was a fat, jolly Falstaff, stuffed out to immense proportions.
+Edith was entirely disguised as a jester and enjoyed her own quips
+immensely when she tapped a visitor on the shoulder with her bauble and
+said, "Good morrow, fair maid, art looking for a swain?"
+
+And now four little heralds advanced down the campus bearing long
+trumpets, antique in shape, on which the sun sparkled brilliantly. At
+the center of the campus they paused and blew four long resonant blasts
+and then cried in one voice:
+
+"Make way for their Majesties, the King and Queen, and all the Royal
+Court." And the pageant began to unwind its sinuous length along the
+campus lawn, and all the rustic players who formed the rabble fell in
+behind the royal personages and their brilliant train.
+
+It was really a wonderfully beautiful picture, one to be remembered
+always with pride by Wellingtonians and with pleasure by outsiders who
+had gathered by the hundreds on the lawn. After the pageant came the May
+pole dancers and the wandering musicians, the Morality Play and the
+rustic dances.
+
+There were hundreds of things to see. Mildred Brown, rushing from one
+charming performance to another, felt almost as if it really was an old
+English May Day Festival. The spirit of the actor rustics pervaded her
+and she was full of excitement and wonder at the whole marvelous
+performance.
+
+At last the entire company gathered in front of the now historic site of
+Queen's Cottage and there amid the shrubbery and the tall old forest
+trees the seniors gave their performance of "As You Like It."
+
+"I don't believe Marlowe and Sothern could do it a bit better,"
+exclaimed Mildred proudly. "Aren't they wonderful?"
+
+"Isn't Miss Molly wonderful?" said Jimmy Lufton.
+
+"Yes, indeed, I am proud of my little sister to-day, prouder than ever
+of her."
+
+A man in a gray suit fanning himself with a straw hat turned around and
+looked at Mildred curiously. His face was lined with fatigue, for nobody
+had worked harder than he over the Festival. But he was not too tired to
+be interested in Mildred Brown.
+
+"So they are the brother and sister," he said to himself. "And a very
+good-looking pair they are. I must try and meet them to-morrow. Ask them
+to tea in the Quadrangle. Miss Molly would like that, I think. But not
+that young Lufton," he added half angrily. "Not that young buccaneering
+newspaper fellow."
+
+"Professor Green," said Mrs. McLean, standing next to him, "I think we
+owe most of the success of this day to you. But how about that charming
+Rosalind? Did you train her to act so prettily?"
+
+"No," he replied, "I couldn't do that. It's in her already. One has only
+to bring it out."
+
+Among the flowers which were handed over the row of potted cedars to
+Molly after that charming performance was a big bunch of yellow
+daffodils, and tied to the yellow ribbon was a large yellow apple.
+
+"You've won your second golden apple to-day, Miss Molly, and I am proud
+of my pupil," read the card attached.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+FAREWELLS.
+
+
+The rest of the time until graduation was like a dream to Molly and her
+friends whose hearts were filled with a sort of two-pronged
+homesickness; homesickness for home and for Wellington, which now they
+were about to leave forever more.
+
+A great many things happened in the space that intervened between the
+first of May and the eighteenth of June, when graduation occurred. There
+were dances at Exmoor and dances at Wellington and the senior reception
+to the juniors. Then there were long quiet evenings when the old crowd
+gathered in No. 5 and talked of the future.
+
+It was on one of these warm summer nights that they were draped as usual
+about the couches in the mellow glimmer of one Japanese lantern. Judy,
+thrumming on the guitar, sang:
+
+    "'When all the world is young, lad,
+        And all the trees are green;
+      And every goose a swan, lad,
+        And every lass a queen;
+      Then hey for boot and horse, lad,
+        And round the world away;
+      Young blood must have its course, lad,
+        And every dog his day.
+
+    "'When all the world is old, lad,
+        And all the trees are brown;
+      And all the sport is stale, lad,
+        And all the wheels run down;
+      Creep home and take your place there,
+        The spent and maimed among:
+      God grant you find one face there,
+        You loved when all was young.'"
+
+"My, that makes me sad," said Jessie. "I feel that I've already lived my
+life and am coming back to old Wellington to die with a lot of other
+decrepit old persons who used to be young and beautiful."
+
+"Thanks for the compliment about looks," said Edith. "But I don't feel
+that way. I'm going forth to conquer. I am going to write books and
+books before I come home to die."
+
+"I'm going to write books, too," announced Molly meekly, "but I feel
+that I'm not ready to begin yet----"
+
+"You can't begin too young," interrupted Edith.
+
+"I know, but I'm coming back for a post grad. course in"--Molly
+hesitated, she hardly knew why--"in English and--and a few other things.
+I've got no style----"
+
+"What, are you really coming back?" they cried.
+
+"Nance and I have decided to return," replied Molly. "We are not ready
+to join the ranks yet, are we, Nance? Dear Nance is going to polish up
+her French literature. I'll be busy enough. I expect to do a lot of
+tutoring and other profitable work."
+
+"What shall I do?" groaned Judy. "I don't want to study any more, and,
+yet, how can I bear for you two to be at Wellington without me to bother
+you."
+
+Molly looked at her and smiled.
+
+"Remember, you are to come home with me this summer, Judy, and maybe
+you'll like Kentucky so well you'll want to stay there."
+
+Molly was well aware that her brother Kent had fallen in love with Judy
+at first sight, and it didn't occur to her that anybody could resist the
+charms of her favorite brother.
+
+"Margaret, why don't you come back?" asked Nance.
+
+"Not me," answered Margaret. "I hear the voice of suffrage calling!"
+
+"We all of us hear voices calling," broke in Katherine. "And each is a
+different voice according to our natures. Now Margaret's voice is
+soprano, but Jessie hears a deep baritone----"
+
+"Nothing of the sort," cried Jessie.
+
+"'Fess up, now, Jessie, when is it to be?"
+
+The girls all gathered around pretty Jessie and at last, hard pressed,
+she said:
+
+"When it does come off you'll have to assemble from the four quarters of
+the globe to act as bridesmaids, but the day's not set yet."
+
+"Have you decided on the man?" asked Edith.
+
+"Edith, how can you?" answered Jessie, laughing.
+
+"What are you going to do, Katherine?" asked Molly, when the excitement
+had quieted down.
+
+"Teach," answered Katherine bluntly. "I loathe the thing, but a place
+awaits me, so I suppose next winter will find me sitting behind a little
+table, ringing a bell sharply, and saying, 'Now, girls, pay attention,
+please.'" She turned her large melancholy eyes on her sister. "Edith
+thinks she's the only writer in the family, but in the intervals of
+teaching I intend to surprise her. I've already had one short story
+accepted by an obscure but _bona fide_ magazine which hasn't sent me a
+check yet."
+
+"Have you heard the joke on Katherine?" put in Edith.
+
+"Do tell," they cried, while Katherine said fiercely: "Now, Edith, you
+promised to keep that a secret."
+
+"It's too good to keep. She chose for the subject of her graduating
+essay 'The Juvenile Delinquent,' and got it all written and then it
+occurred to her that Miss Walker would announce 'The Juvenile
+Delinquent, Katherine Williams,' and she could not stand the
+implication."
+
+"Poor Katherine," they cried, laughing joyously.
+
+And now Molly was handing around nut cake and cloud bursts, it seemed
+almost for the last time, and after that these bright spirits in kimonos
+flitted away to their rooms.
+
+A little later, after darkness and quiet had descended, an ecstatic
+little giggle broke from Judy, lying alone and staring at the dim
+outline of her window. It was too soft a sound to disturb the tired
+sleepers in the adjoining rooms, but it meant that Judy had an idea,--an
+idea that she could see already realized by the aid of her remarkable
+imagination.
+
+Her mind had been reviewing the talk of the evening and revolving about
+each of the girls in turn;--Edith and Katherine and Molly, literary and
+ambitious; Nance, serious and studious; Jessie, pretty, romantic and
+destined for marriage; and Margaret, the able and willing champion of
+suffrage. And Judy had smiled as she began to recall certain hours when
+Margaret's enthusiasm had waxed high, even so far back as Freshman year,
+and her first class presidency. That thought had started others, and as
+Judy remembered various amusing incidents of the four years, her "idea"
+had flashed upon her. It was then that Judy had hugged herself and
+laughed aloud, but it was several nights later that she shared with the
+other girls her inspiration.
+
+They had gathered in Otoyo's little room that night,--just the eight
+close friends who now grasped every opportunity for one more good time
+together. They were a little inclined to sadness, for they had all been
+busy with those extra duties that point directly to the closing days of
+college life.
+
+Some had posed before the class photographer's camera, some had borne
+the weariness of having gowns fitted, and at least two had practiced
+their parts for the commencement exercises.
+
+Margaret and Jessie were humming the chorus of one of the Senior class
+songs and Otoyo was just beginning to make the tea, when Judy slipped
+out of the room with a word of excuse and a promise to return.
+
+Molly turned lazily to Nance who sat close beside her on the couch and
+whispered, "Judy is as nervous as a witch these days. She has probably
+thought of something to add to her list!"
+
+"Oh, that list!" returned Nance. "She has everything on it now from
+white gloves to a trunk strap, and still it grows!"
+
+"'Seniors, seniors, seniors,'" chanted Margaret and Jessie dreamily,
+watching Otoyo as she deftly arranged her dainty cups and saucers on
+beautiful lacquered trays.
+
+Edith and Katherine were quietly disputing some point about the class
+program and absent-mindedly accepting lemon for their tea, when the door
+opened and a woman draped closely in black stepped into the room.
+
+"Ah, ha, young ladies," she cried in a high, weird voice that startled
+them into instant silence, "so you would pierce the mysterious veil of
+the future and read in your teacups the fortune that awaits you? Could
+you but possess my occult vision, you would not need to employ such
+puerile methods."
+
+Here the somber figure raised two black-gloved arms and held before her
+eyes a pair of plain black opera glasses. She had reversed their usual
+position and now gazed steadily about the room through the large end of
+the glasses.
+
+"Ah, ha," she began again, fixing her roving attention upon Margaret,
+who returned her gaze easily, "I see far, far away, through a vista of
+crowded seats, a huge platform adorned with distinguished figures. A
+pretty woman stunningly gowned is introducing to a breathlessly
+expectant audience a tall, striking person. The plaudits of the
+multitude drown the sound of her name as it is announced, but our keen
+sight enables us to recognize the famous Miss Wakefield! To those who
+have long known her, it will not be surprising to learn that her
+companion is none other than her college satellite, now Miss
+Jessie,--but I cannot quite pronounce the unfamiliar name."
+
+As the voice stopped for a moment, Jessie started toward the strange
+figure, but Margaret pulled her back and drew her blushing face down
+upon her own shoulder.
+
+At the same time Molly cried, "Where have I seen those shabby old
+glasses before?"
+
+And Nance added, "My old bird glasses, or I'm blind!"
+
+Nothing daunted, the prophetess went on in the same weird key, "I see
+the gray towers of Wellington looming grandly against a wild autumnal
+sky. I see troops of girls crowding across the campus and into
+recitation rooms. I see a single figure walking beside the white-haired
+President as though discussing the schedule of lectures and the merits
+of students, and the figure is that of Miss Oldham,--dear old Nance!"
+And the voice of the soothsayer broke suddenly as she turned the glasses
+on Nance and Molly.
+
+Then she hurried on, "By forcing my keen vision to its utmost capacity,
+I am able to read upon certain profound text books the names of their
+joint compilers, Edith and Katherine Williams, the world-famed writers!"
+
+Again the voice paused as the glasses were leveled at the friendly
+disputants, long since quieted by the eloquence of the seer.
+
+All this time Otoyo had stood spellbound beside her teapot. Now she
+started slightly as the glasses glimmered in her direction.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no," she cried in real distress. "Don't tell me, please,
+Mees Kean!"
+
+At that, Judy flung the draperies back from her hair, the glasses to
+Nance, and her arms about Otoyo, exclaiming at the same moment:
+
+"You precious child, I don't know any more than your little Buddha does
+about your future, but the gods will be good to you and we'll leave it
+to them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE FINAL DAYS.
+
+
+Now as suddenly as she had tossed aside her head coverings, Judy dropped
+her long loose cloak upon the floor and stood revealed clad in motley
+raiment indeed. In an instant all that she had said was forgotten as the
+girls crowded around examining her curiously.
+
+"Why, Judy Kean, where _did_ you find that old necktie?" cried Molly, as
+she spied a long familiar article fastened at Judy's throat.
+
+"And my Russian princess muff!" exclaimed Nance. "It was hidden with my
+treasures at the very bottom of my trunk!"
+
+"And do I not behold my favorite Shelley?" chimed in Edith, seizing a
+book that dangled by a cord from Judy's waist.
+
+"And I--surelee it is my veree ancient kimono that hangs behind?"
+inquired Otoyo curiously.
+
+"I have it," announced judicial Margaret "Judy Kean is now a symbol. She
+represents _us_. Upon her noble person she carries the intimate
+souvenirs of our various stages of collegiate growth. Yea, verily, I
+recognize mine own."
+
+With that, Margaret tried to claim a gorgeous yellow pennant that
+flaunted its aggressive motto in a panel-like arrangement on Judy's
+dress.
+
+Judy dodged Margaret's attempt and lifting her hand dramatically
+exclaimed in oratorical tones:
+
+"You have guessed. I am indeed the spirit of our college days. I
+represent History, and the tokens that I wear mark the incidents of
+humor, pathos, and tragedy that were the crises in our young careers.
+You will pardon me, I know, when I tell you that I have rummaged
+reverently among your personal 'estates,' as Otoyo used to say, seeing,
+touching, disturbing none but the significant articles before you.
+Behold the history of these departing years!"
+
+As Judy swung slowly about before their interested eyes, something
+chinked and clinked gently, like glass meeting glass. Molly's long arm
+shot out and grasped the jingling articles. A not-to-be-suppressed shout
+broke forth as she displayed a china pig and a small bottle of
+blue-black fluid labeled "Hair-dye,--black."
+
+"Oh, Judy, Judy," cried Molly, "if you haven't discovered _another_
+Martin Luther, the ghost of the hero of my Junior days! Give him to me
+and I will feed him faithfully next year,--by the slow earnings of my
+pen, I will!"
+
+Meanwhile, Jessie was laughing over the tell-tale bottle of hair-dye,
+and secretly every one was rejoicing that Judy, too, could look back
+upon that supremely foolish escapade and laugh as heartily as any of
+them at her own expense.
+
+And now Nance claimed her muff,--the one survivor of the three
+cotton-batting masterpieces made for the skating carnival of Sophomore
+year,--and as she thrust her hands inside, they encountered a long, hard
+object. She drew it out and with a flourish waved above her head a
+clean, meatless but unmistakable ham bone!
+
+The laugh was directed toward Molly now, and to turn it again she
+exclaimed, "What do I see gleaming upon your finger, Judy Kean? Verily,
+upon the third finger of your left hand?"
+
+Immediately the girls joined in the cry, chanted like a deep-toned
+school yell, "Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!"
+
+"'Well, it was lent to me. It's not mine. I simply promised to wear it
+for a few months,'" quoted Judy, imitating Jessie's own protesting
+explanation so cleverly that even Otoyo recognized the source. "But it
+is only a five-cent diamond!" added Judy, shaking her head solemnly. "I
+might lose it, you know, and it would take more than a steely inspector
+to locate it in a man's deep coat pocket!"
+
+The girls cast sly glances at Molly, but she was intent on another
+discovery. Hanging under Edith's shabby copy of Shelley was her own
+beloved Rossetti! Instantly she forgot the girls and their fun and saw
+for one fleeting moment a series of quickly moving mental pictures.
+First there flashed before her that Christmas when Professor Green had
+given her the little volume. Then she saw herself in the cloisters lost
+in the beauty of "The blessed damozel," when he had appeared so
+unexpectedly. And finally she realized suddenly how much she loved the
+little worn volume and how she should always keep it to comfort and
+inspire her.
+
+"'_Come--back--to me, Sweetheart_,'" sang Judy teasingly, and Molly came
+back with a start, only just realizing that she had been day-dreaming.
+
+"What is this spiky thing that pricks through the folds of my aged
+sweater?" asked Katherine, who had recognized an old blue sweater that
+Judy wore draped from her waist like a pannier.
+
+"This," replied Judy, "is a bud that grew on a twig that grew on a bush
+that grew from the ground that marks the resting place of the ashes of
+Queen's, and to you, Katherine, as true historian of our noble class, do
+I present it."
+
+"In the name of futurity, I accept it," replied Katherine, not to be
+outdone in formality.
+
+"And now to appease the cravings of the inner man, permit me to share
+with you the contents of this hamper," continued Judy, opening a small
+basket that she carried on her arm. "Although not the original,
+lost-but-not-forgotten snakey-noodles, these are the best imitations
+that Madeleine Petit could make. And Molly the cook has contributed once
+more some of her justly famed cloud bursts, an indispensable exhibit in
+this unequaled historical collection!"
+
+Warm and breathless, Judy sat down and began to remove her borrowed
+plumes, while the girls, each holding aloft a snakey-noodle and a cloud
+burst, chanted appreciatively, "What's the matter with Julia Kean?
+_She's all right!_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Graduation at Wellington was old-fashioned and conventional. The girl
+graduates in white dresses filed onto the platform and took their seats
+in a semi-circle. Those who were so fortunate as to have relatives and
+friends in the large audience searched for their intimate features in
+the sea of upturned, interested faces. As glances met, smiles were
+fleetingly exchanged but quickly subdued on the part of the girls as the
+dignity of the day was borne in upon them anew.
+
+President Walker, never more sweet and womanly than in the formal attire
+demanded by her position, unconsciously inspired them all to imitate her
+fine simplicity and grace of manner. Tears sprang to the eyes of many
+girls as they looked at her and realized as never before that she had
+been the real center of all that had been best and most lasting in their
+college life. The girls who were to read essays, resolved that for the
+President's sake they would do well in spite of trembly knees and shaky
+hands. And of course they did, because in their determination to please
+Miss Walker and to reflect credit upon her and dear old Wellington they
+quite lost their paralyzing self-consciousness. The little buzz of
+pleased conversation that followed each number of the program as the
+applause died down was gratifying without doubt, but the students cared
+more deeply for the President's brief nod and smile of satisfaction.
+After the exercises came the diplomas, those strips of sheepskin for
+which our girls had striven so long and valiantly. It was almost a shock
+to clasp at last that precious token that had seemed so difficult of
+achievement in the far-away Freshman days. If to Molly it meant among
+other things value received for "two perfectly good acres of orchard,"
+to Nance it marked a milestone of happy progress; to Margaret, Edith and
+Katharine it represented an interesting bit of current history; and to
+Judy and Jessie it signified a safe haven after many narrow escapes
+from shipwreck.
+
+After the exciting day was over, came the class supper and then
+everybody did stunts. Edith read the class poem and Katherine was
+historian. Then the oldest girl and the prettiest girl and the class
+baby made speeches, and at the end came three cheers for Molly Brown,
+the most beloved in 19--; and Molly, trembling and blushing, rose and
+thanked them all and assured them that it was the greatest honor she had
+ever known; and they made her sit on the table while they danced in a
+circle around it, singing:
+
+    "Here's to Molly Brown,
+     Drink her down, drink her down, drink her down."
+
+Thus the four years at Wellington came to an end as all good things
+must, and the day for the parting arrived. The "Primavera" and the
+prayer rug were packed away in a box and shipped to Kentucky, because,
+after all, Molly might not return to Wellington. Who could tell what
+the fates had in store? Then came the good-byes. There were tears in
+their eyes and little choky sounds in their voices as they kissed and
+hugged and kissed again.
+
+Otoyo at that last meeting gave a present to each of the old crowd. She
+was smiling bravely, since it is not correct for a young Japanese lady
+to weep, and she kept reiterating:
+
+"I shall mees you, greatlee, muchlee. It will not be the same at
+Wellington."
+
+With Molly's gift, a little carved ivory box, Otoyo handed a letter.
+
+"I promised to deliver it on the last day," she said.
+
+"That sounds a good deal like the Judgment Day," said Molly, laughing,
+as she tore open the envelope. The letter read:
+
+    "The Campus Ghost and the Thief of Lunches has learned from you
+    what nobody ever told her before: that honesty's the best
+    policy. I suppose I always enjoyed the other way because I
+    never was found out. But being found out is different. Honest
+    people who have nothing to conceal are the happiest. I know that
+    now, and henceforth the open and above-board for me.
+
+    "Yours,
+      ADELE WINDSOR."
+
+Molly rolled the paper into a little ball and threw it away. Certainly
+the note of repentance did not sound very strong in Adele's letter. But
+perhaps it was only her way of putting it, and to be honest for any
+reason, no matter how remote from the right one, was something.
+
+"Anyhow, I hope she will think it's best policy to be nice to her poor,
+hard-working mother," she thought indignantly.
+
+But Adele had already passed out of the lives of the Wellington girls
+and none of them ever saw her again. She did not return to college to
+finish out the senior course, and the hoodoo suite was dismantled
+forever of her fine trappings and furniture.
+
+"I have one more good-bye to say, girls," said Molly to her friends a
+little while before train time. "I'll meet you at the archway."
+
+"You'll miss the train," called Nance.
+
+"And that would just spoil everything," cried Judy.
+
+The three friends had planned to travel as far as Philadelphia together.
+There Nance would leave them to join her father, and Molly and Judy
+would continue their journey toward Kentucky.
+
+But Molly was already running down the corridor, suitcase in one hand
+and jacket in the other.
+
+Down the steps she flew and out into the court toward the little door
+which opened into the cloisters. Another dash and she was knocking on
+Professor Green's door.
+
+"Come in," he called, and she flew into the room breathlessly.
+
+"I came to say good-bye again," she said. "I've only five minutes."
+
+"Sit down," he said, drawing up a chair.
+
+"I wanted to ask you," she went on, "if you wouldn't come to Kentucky to
+visit us this summer and--and see your property."
+
+"How do you know it would be convenient for your mother to have me?"
+
+"Because it is always convenient for mother to entertain friends, and
+this is really her very own suggestion. Our house is big and besides
+that we have an office outside with three bedrooms for overflow."
+
+The Professor looked thoughtful. Perhaps he was already forming a
+picture in his mind of the hammock beside the brook and the shady
+orchard, his orchard.
+
+"You will promise to come, won't you?" persisted Molly.
+
+"Do you really want me?" he asked.
+
+"Indeed, indeed I do."
+
+"Perhaps," he answered.
+
+"Good-bye, then," she said, "or rather _au revoir_," and they clasped
+hands while the Professor looked down into Molly's eyes and smiled.
+
+He moved to the door like a sleep-walker and held it open for her as she
+hurried out. Then he went back to his desk and sat down in a sort of
+trance. The next instant the door was flung open again, footsteps
+hurried across the room and two arms slipped over his shoulders.
+
+"Do you remember what I said I was going to do some time to that old
+gentleman who bought the orchard?" said Molly's voice over his head. "I
+said I'd just give him a good hug."
+
+For one instant the arms held him tightly, a cheek was laid lightly on
+his thin reddish hair and then she was gone, flying down the corridor.
+
+"I suppose she regards me as an old gentleman," he said resignedly,
+laying his hand softly on the spot where her cheek had touched.
+
+As for Molly, she had a sudden thought that almost stopped her headlong
+course:
+
+"What _would_ Miss Alice Fern think if she knew!"
+
+[Illustration: Good-bye to Wellington and the old happy days.--_Page_
+303.]
+
+The girls were calling impatiently when Molly reached the arch, and in
+three minutes the crowded bus moved down the avenue.
+
+"Good-bye! Good-bye!" called many voices.
+
+"Good-bye! Good-bye!" echoed the few students who were going to take a
+later train.
+
+Good-bye to Wellington and the old happy days! Good-bye to the
+Quadrangle and the Cloisters! Good-bye to all the dear familiar haunts
+and faces.
+
+Every one of the girls felt the hour of parting keenly, but to two of
+Molly's friends at least there came an additional pang. They had known
+no happier home; no other place held for them such close associations.
+Nance, pale and silent, and Judy, feverish and excited, turned their
+eyes lingeringly toward the twin gray towers. But Molly, her face
+transfigured by some secret happy thought, looked southward down the
+avenue toward Kentucky and home!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The class prophecy which Judy had extemporized on the evening of her
+appearance as "History" may have had some promise of fulfillment, but it
+will be remembered that Otoyo's timely interruption saved her from
+guessing at the most puzzling future of all. It remains, therefore, for
+"Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days" to reveal what Dame Fortune had in
+store for the girl of many possibilities, Molly Brown of Wellington and
+Kentucky.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+    +------------------------------------------------+
+    |Transcriber's Note:                             |
+    |                                                |
+    |The illustration with the caption "Molly Glanced|
+    |Back. Sure Enough, the Phantom ... was Running  |
+    |Behind Them--_Page_ 198." was not available for |
+    |inclusion in this ebook.                        |
+    +------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Senior Days, by Nell Speed
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