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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 + + + + + + +</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"> </a> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus-01.jpg" width="400" height="574" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"You're right in the fashion, Miss Brown," observed +Adele.—<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 & 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 & 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 ... 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——"</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—" 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—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—" began Margaret, after an interval of silence. "Do you +suppose—" 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——</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——"</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—a gentleman of the court, perhaps—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—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,—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——"</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—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——"<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—so clever——"</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——"</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—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—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—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—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—, +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—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.</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—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—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—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—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—I've<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> 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."</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——" 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—if——" 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——"<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—well, I don't know where she went, but she got +back safely enough——"<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——"</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—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—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—this kind of work—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>—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—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——" 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——" 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——" 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—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—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."</p> + +<p>"I would have come sooner, but they—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——" 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——" 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——"</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—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—'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——"</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—I mean Miss Slammer," Judy +stammered.</p> + +<p>"I'll get something—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—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—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——"</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"> </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.—<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—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—("Meaning my clothes," thought Jimmy)—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—Lufton—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—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 +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.</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,—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——"</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——"</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 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> 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."</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—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"—"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—and that some one——</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——" +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——"<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—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 +rôle 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—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——"</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"> </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 ... was +Running Behind Them—<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—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—and it was Miss Walker's voice—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——"</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—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—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—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."</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——" 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——"</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—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—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—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—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——" 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——"</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—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,—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——" 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——"</p> + +<p>"The grand opera," repeated Molly.</p> + +<p>"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<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——"</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——" began Molly.</p> + +<p>"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——"</p> + +<p>Molly's face was burning now.</p> + +<p>"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.</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——" 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——"</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—stronger than you usually make it, please—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—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.</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——"</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——" 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.</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"—she choked—"and I spoke to him like that. No wonder he's a woman +hater—no wonder he wants books——"</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——"</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——"</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—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—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——" 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—well——"</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——"</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—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—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<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——"</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"—Molly +hesitated, she hardly knew why—"in English and—and a few other things. +I've got no style——"</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——"</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,—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;—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,—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,—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,—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—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,—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,—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,—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,—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—back—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—; 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—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"> </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.— +<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 ... was Running Behind Them—<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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SENIOR DAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 24903-h.htm or 24903-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/0/24903/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jacqueline Jeremy and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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