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diff --git a/33806-8.txt b/33806-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b10dc2f --- /dev/null +++ b/33806-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4946 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Camp Fire Girls Across the Seas, by +Margaret Vandercook + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Camp Fire Girls Across the Seas + +Author: Margaret Vandercook + +Release Date: September 23, 2010 [EBook #33806] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS *** + + + + +Produced by Mary Meehan and The Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ACROSS THE SEAS + + BY MARGARET VANDERCOOK + + Author of "The Ranch Girls Series," etc. + + + ILLUSTRATED + + PHILADELPHIA + THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. + PUBLISHERS + + Copyright, 1914, by + THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY + + +[Illustration: "LOOK HERE, ESTHER," HE BEGAN] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. TWO YEARS LATER + + II. THE WHEEL REVOLVES + + III. FAREWELLS + + IV. UNTER DEN LINDEN + + V. CHANGES + + VI. A COSMOPOLITAN COMPANY + + VII. DAS RHEINGOLD + + VIII. OTHER SCENES + + IX. THE MEETING + + X. AN ADVENTURE + + XI. AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + XII. THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE + + XIII. RICHARD ASHTON + + XIV. BETTY'S STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE + + XV. THE FINDING OF BRUNHILDE + + XVI. A HEART-TO-HEART TALK + + XVII. THE DAY BEFORE ESTHER'S DÉBUT + + XVIII. THAT NIGHT + + XIX. TEA AT THE CASTLE + + XX. ESTHER AND DICK + + XXI. SUNRISE CABIN + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"LOOK HERE, ESTHER," HE BEGAN + +THERE WAS A SLIGHT SOUND FROM HIS LISTENER + +"TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE PLACES NEAR HERE" + +"FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS TO ME!" + + + + +The Camp Fire Girls Across the Seas + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Two Years Later + + +A young man strode along through one of the principal streets of the +town of Woodford, New Hampshire, with his blue eyes clouded and an +expression of mingled displeasure and purpose about the firm lines of +his mouth. + +It was an April afternoon and the warm sunshine uncurling the tiny buds +on the old elm trees lit to a brighter hue the yellow Forsythia bushes +already in bloom in the gardens along the way. + +Standing in front of an inconspicuous brown cottage was a large touring +car, empty of occupants. Within a few yards of this car the young man +paused, frowning, and then gazed anxiously up toward the closed door of +the house. A short time afterwards this door opened when a girl, wearing +a scarlet coat and a felt hat of the same shade pinned carelessly on her +dark hair, hurried forth and with her eyes cast down and an air of +suppressed excitement moved off in the opposite direction, without +becoming aware of the onlooker. And although the bystander's lips moved +once as if forming her name with the intention of calling after her, his +impulse must have immediately died, for he continued motionless in the +same spot until the girl had finally turned a corner and was lost to his +view. Then the young man walked on again, but not so rapidly or +resolutely as at first. + +Indeed, he was so intensely absorbed in his own line of thought as to be +unconscious of the other passers-by, until some one stopped directly in +front of him and a familiar voice pronounced his name. + +"Why, Billy Webster, where are you going?" Meg Everett demanded. "You +look as if you were giving Atlas a holiday this afternoon and had +transferred the weight of the world to your own shoulders." + +Two years had changed the greater number of the old Sunrise Hill Camp +Fire members from girls to young women, but they had not made a +conspicuous difference in Margaret Everett. Her sunny yellow hair was +tucked up, but today the April winds had loosened it, and though she was +dressed with greater care than before the Camp Fire influence, she would +never altogether approach her brother John's ideal of quiet elegance, as +the Princess always had. Yet her eyes were so gay and friendly and her +face so full of quick color and sympathy, that there were few other +young men besides her older brother who found much to criticize in her. +And certainly not the small boy at her side, who had once been "Hai-yi," +the Indian name for "Little Brother," to the twelve girls at Sunrise +Hill. + +Returning Meg's interested gaze, Billy Webster, who was never given to +subterfuges, had a sudden impulse to seek information and possible aid +from her. + +"Is it true, Meg," he asked, "that Miss Adams, the actress, is here in +Woodford visiting her cousin and that Polly O'Neill has been going to +see her every day and riding over the country in her motor car? I +thought Mrs. Wharton had insisted that Polly was to have nothing to do +with anything or anybody connected with the stage until three years had +passed. It has been only two since Polly's escapade, and it seems to me +that nothing could so awaken a girl's interest as being made the +companion and friend of a famous woman. I thought Mrs. Wharton had +better judgment. Polly had almost forgotten the whole business!" + +As she shook her head Meg Everett's face wore a slightly puzzled look. +For she was wondering at the instant if it could be possible that Billy +had any special right to his concern in Polly O'Neill's proceedings. +Mollie O'Neill was her dearest friend and for several years she knew +Mollie and Billy had been apparently devoted to each other. Yet she +would have been almost sure to have guessed had their old affection +developed into something deeper. Moreover, Mollie was only nineteen and +Mrs. Wharton would have insisted upon their waiting before agreeing to +an engagement between them. + +"Oh, I don't think it worth while for you and Mollie to worry over +Polly," Meg returned, even in the midst of her meditations, which is a +fortunate faculty one has sometimes of being able to think of one thing +and speak of another at the same instant. "Miss Adams is going away in a +few days, I believe, and though she has invited Polly to be her guest +and travel with her in Europe this summer, Mrs. Wharton has positively +refused to agree to it. I can't help being sorry for Polly, somehow, for +think what it would mean to see Esther and Betty again! Two years has +seemed a dreadfully long time to me without the Princess; I only wish +that there was a chance for me to go abroad this summer." + +And in the midst of her own wave of the spring "Wanderlust," which is +aroused each year in the hearts of the young and the old alike, the girl +had a moment of unconsciousness of her companion's nearness and of the +manner in which he had received her news. The next instant he had +lifted his hat and with a few muttered words of apology for his haste, +had walked off with his shoulders squarer than ever and his head more +splendidly erect. + +Meg's eyes followed him with admiration. "I hope you may look like Billy +Webster some day, Horace," she said to the small boy at her side, who +was now all long legs and arms and tousled hair. "But I don't know that +I want you to be too much like him. Billy is the old-fashioned type of +man, I think--honest and brave and kind. But he does not understand in +the least that the world has changed for women and that some of us may +not wish just to stay at home and get married and then keep on staying +at home forever afterwards." And Meg laughed, feeling that her little +brother was hardly old enough to understand her criticism or her +protest. She herself hardly realized why she had made it, except that +the spring restlessness must still be lingering within her. Meg was not +usually a psychologist and there was no reason to doubt that Mollie +would always continue a home-loving soul. + +On the broad stone steps of the Wharton home, which was the largest and +finest in Woodford, except the old Ashton place, Billy Webster was +compelled to wait for several moments before the front door bell was +answered. And then the maid insisted that the entire family had gone +out. Mr. and Mrs. Wharton were both driving, Mollie was taking a walk +with friends, and Polly paying a visit. Sylvia was not living in +Woodford at present, but true to her Camp Fire purpose was in +Philadelphia studying to become a trained nurse. + +"Do you mean that Miss Polly gave you instructions to say she was not +in?" the young man inquired, trying his best to betray no shadow of +offended pride in his question. "Because if she did not, I am sure that +you must be mistaken. I saw her leave the place where she was calling +some little time ago and----" + +But the maid was crimsoning uncomfortably, for at this moment there +arose the sound of some one playing the piano in the music room near +by. + +"No, sir," the girl stammered, "no one asked to be excused. Miss Polly +must have come in without my knowing." And in her confusion the girl +ushered the visitor into an almost dark room, without announcing his +name or even suggesting his approach. + +However, the recent visitor was so much in the habit of going frequently +to the Wharton home that he did not feel in any sense a stranger there. +Besides, had he not spied the familiar scarlet coat and hat on a chair +outside the music room, where no one but Polly would have placed them? +And was it not like her to be sitting in the semi-darkness with the +shutters of four big windows tightly closed, playing pensively and none +too well on the piano, when the rest of the world was out of doors? + +Billy felt a sudden and almost overmastering desire to take the +musician's slender shoulders in his hands and give them a slight shake, +as she continued sitting on the stool with her back deliberately turned +toward him. + +"I hope I am not disturbing you," he began with a little laugh, which +even to his own ears did not sound altogether natural. + +And then, when the girl had swung slowly around, he walked up toward her +and leaning one elbow on the piano, with his eyes down, continued +speaking, without giving his companion the opportunity even for greeting +him. + +"Polly," he said, "I have just heard that Miss Adams has invited you to +go abroad with her this summer and that your mother has refused to let +you accept. But I cannot entirely believe this last part of my news. I +don't dare unless you tell me." + +[Illustration: THERE WAS A SLIGHT SOUND FROM HIS LISTENER] + +There was a slight sound from his listener, an effort at interruption, +but the young man went on without regarding it. + +"I did not mean to speak to you so soon. I know you are too young and I +expected to wait another year. And certainly you have not given me much +encouragement. Sometimes I have not felt that you liked me any better +than when first we knew each other. But you can't have completely +forgotten what I said to you that day in the woods two years ago. And +you know I never change my mind. Now I can't bear to have you go so far +away from Woodford without saying again that I care for you, Polly, in +spite of our sometimes disagreeing about things and that I will do my +level best to make you happy if you, if you----" + +But the girl at the piano had risen and Billy now lifted his eager blue +eyes to her face. Immediately his expression changed, the hot blood +poured into his cheeks, and he moved forward a few steps. Then he stood +still with his hands hanging limply at his sides. + +For the girl, whose pallor showed even in the semi-darkness of the room +and whose lips trembled so that it was difficult for her to command her +voice, was not Polly O'Neill! Although her hair was almost equally dark, +her chin was less pointed, her lips less scarlet and her whole +appearance gentler and more appealing. + +"I am sorry," Mollie O'Neill faltered, "I did not understand when you +began, Billy, or I should not have listened. But I didn't dream that you +and Polly--oh, I didn't suppose that people could quarrel as you do and +yet be fond of each other. And you were my friend, Billy, and Polly is +my twin sister. I cannot understand why one of you did not tell me how +you felt without waiting to have me find out like this." And in spite of +her struggle for self-control, there was a break in Mollie O'Neill's +soft voice that Billy would have given a great deal never to have heard, +and a look on her face which, though he did not entirely understand, he +was not soon to forget. She had put out one arm and stood steadying +herself against the piano stool like a child who had been unexpectedly +hurt and frightened and who wished to run away, yet felt that if she +lingered a little longer she might better understand the puzzle. + +Nevertheless Billy said nothing for a moment. He was too angry with +himself, too worried over the surprise and sorrow in Mollie's eyes, to +speak. For they were deeply attached to each other and nothing had come +between their friendship since the morning, now almost five years ago, +when she had cleverly bandaged up the wound in his head. They had been +foolish children then, but so long an intimacy should surely have taught +him by this time the difference between the twin sisters. If only the +room had not been so dark when he came in, if only he had not been +deceived by the crimson coat and cap and by his own excitement! + +"There was nothing to tell you before, Mollie, at least nothing that +counts," Billy began humbly. "Sometimes I have wanted to explain to you +my feeling for Polly. We do quarrel and she makes me angrier than anyone +I know in the world, and yet somehow I can't forget her. And I like +being with her always, even when she is in a bad temper. Then I don't +wish her to go on the stage. I think it a horrid profession, and Polly +is not strong enough. I would do anything that I could to prevent it. +But you see, Mollie, I have no reason to believe that Polly cares for +me; though now and then she has seemed to like me better than she once +did. Still I am determined to try whatever means I can to keep her away +from this Miss Adams' influence. For if once Polly leaves Woodford with +her, the old Polly whom we both know and love will never come back to us +again." And Billy appeared so disconsolate and so unlike his usual +confident, masterful self, that Mollie smiled at him, a little wistfully +it is true, but in a perfectly friendly and forgiving fashion. + +"I'll go and find whether Polly has come home," she answered. "I ran in +for a moment to call on Miss Adams and found that Polly had left there +half an hour before. I wore her old coat and cap, so I think she must be +dressed in her best clothes and paying visits somewhere." And Mollie +laid a hand lightly on her friend's arm. + +"Don't be discouraged at whatever Polly says to you," she begged. "You +know that she may be angry at the idea of your opposing her having this +European trip with Miss Adams. But she is not going. Mother is positive +and Polly will not do more than ask for permission since there is a +whole year more before her promise ends." + +And Mollie slipped quietly away, grateful for the darkness and her old +friend's absorption. + +In the hall, a few feet from the music room door, she encountered Polly +herself, with her eyes shining and her face aglow with the beauty and +fragrance of the April afternoon. And before she could slip past her +Polly's arms were about her, holding her fast, while she demanded, +"Whatever has happened to make you so white and miserable, Mollie +Mavourneen? Are you ill? If anyone has been unkind to you----" + +But Mollie could only shake her head. "Don't be absurd; there is nothing +the matter. Billy Webster is here waiting to see you." + +Nevertheless, a moment afterwards, when Polly had marched into the music +room and opened wide a shutter, her first words as she turned toward her +visitor were, "Billy Webster, what in the world have you said or done to +make Mollie so unhappy?" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The Wheel Revolves + + +It was midnight, yet Polly O'Neill had not gotten into bed. + +Instead she sat before a tiny, dying fire in her own bedroom with her +hands clasped about her knees and her black hair hanging gypsy-fashion +over her crimson dressing gown. Mollie had gone to her own room several +hours before. In a moment there was a light knock at the door and Polly +had scarcely turned her head when her mother stood beside her. + +Mrs. Wharton looked younger than she had several years before, absurdly +young to be the mother of two almost grown-up daughters! Her face had +lost the fatigue and strain of another spring evening, when Betty Ashton +had first hurried across the street to confide the dream of her Camp +Fire club to her dearest friends. Of course her hair was grayer and she +was a good deal less thin. Notwithstanding her eyes held the same soft +light of understanding that was so curiously combined with quiet +firmness. + +"Why aren't you in bed, Polly mine?" she asked. "I saw that the gas was +shining or I should never have disturbed you." + +In answer Polly without rising pushed a low rocking chair toward her +mother. "I wasn't sleepy. Is that the same reason that keeps you awake, +Mrs. Wharton?" she queried. + +In all their lives together Polly O'Neill and her mother had always held +a different relation toward each other than ordinarily exists between +most mothers and daughters. In the first place Mrs. Wharton was so very +little older than her children that in the days in the cottage when they +had lived and worked for one another, they had seemed more like three +devoted and intimate friends. Of course the two girls had always +understood that when a serious question was to be decided their mother +remained the court of the last decision. However, in those years few +serious questions had ever arisen beyond the finding of sufficient +money for their food and clothes and occasional good times. So that +there had been nothing to disturb the perfection of their attitude +toward one another until Mrs. O'Neill's marriage to her former employer, +Mr. Wharton. And then there is no doubt that Polly for a time had been +difficult. Naturally she was glad for her mother's sake that she had the +new love and wealth and position; nevertheless she was homesick for +their old life and its intimacy and in her heart half sorry that her own +dream of some day bringing fortune and ease to her mother and Mollie was +now of so little account. And then all too soon, before matters had +really become adjusted between the two families, had followed her own +act of insurbordination and deception and her mother's mandate. + +Of course Polly had bowed before it and had even understood that it was +both right and just. She had been happy enough in these last two years, +in spite of missing Betty Ashton almost every hour, and had come to like +and admire her stepfather immensely. Nevertheless there had remained a +slight shadow between herself and her mother, a misapprehension so +intangible that Polly herself did not realize it, although Mrs. Wharton +did. + +"I suppose you are not sleepy, dear, because you are sitting here +thinking that never in the whole world was there ever a mother so narrow +and so dictatorial as I am," Mrs. Wharton began. "Oh, I have been in +bed, but I have been lying awake for the past hour looking at myself +with Polly's eyes." + +Polly frowned, shaking her head, yet her mother went on without +appearing to notice her. + +"I wonder if you think that I have no realization of the wonderful +opportunity I have just made you refuse. Do you think, Polly, that I +don't appreciate what it must mean to a girl like you to have made a +friend of a great woman like Margaret Adams? And to have her so desire +your companionship that she has asked you to be her guest during her +summer abroad? Why such a chance does not come to one girl in a hundred +thousand and yet I have made you give it up!" + +With a little protesting gesture Polly stretched out her hand. "Then let +us not discuss it any further, mother of mine," she demanded. "I +promised you not to speak of it again after our talk the other day and I +am going to exact the same promise of you." + +The girl shut her lips together in a tight line of scarlet and all +unconsciously began rocking herself slowly backward and forward with her +expression turned inside instead of out, as her sister Mollie used +sometimes to say. But Mrs. Wharton leaned over, and putting her finger +under Polly's chin tilted it back until her eyes were upturned toward +hers. + +"But was I fair to you, dear? Have I decided what was best for you, as +well as for Mollie and me? We have not spoken of it; we have both felt +that silence was the wisest course; but tonight I should like to know +whether, when the three years of your promise to me have passed, do you +still intend going upon the stage?" Mrs. Wharton asked. + +"Would you mind so very, very much?" Polly inquired quietly. And then +with a sudden rush of confidence, which she had never before shown in +any of their talks together on this subject, Polly faced their old +difference of opinion squarely. "It has always been hard for me to +understand, mother, why you are so opposed to my trying to become an +actress. You are broad-minded enough on other subjects. You have worked +for your own living and ours; and you were willing enough to have +Sylvia, who is younger than I am and who will be very rich some day, go +away and study to become a trained nurse, just because she believed it +her calling. Yet because I want to learn to act, why the whole stage and +everything connected with it is anathema. You do not even like Miss +Margaret Adams as much as you would if she were in some other kind of +work. Oh, of course I appreciate that people used to feel that no woman +could be good and be on the stage, but no sensible person thinks that +nowadays." Polly stopped abruptly. "I don't mean to be rude, mother," +she concluded. + +But Mrs. Wharton nodded. "Please go on. I came in tonight to find out +just what you were thinking. I don't believe you realize how little you +have explained your real feeling to me on this subject since that +unfortunate time in New York." + +"I didn't want to trouble you," again Polly hesitated. "It is hardly +worth while doing it now. Because honestly I have not made up my mind +just how to answer the question that you asked me a few minutes ago. +Whether at the end of another year, when you have agreed to let me do as +I like, I shall still insist upon going upon the stage, knowing that you +and Mollie are at heart unwilling to have me, I can't tell. Perhaps I +shall give up and stay on here at Woodford and maybe marry some one I +don't care about and then be sorry ever afterwards." + +Instead of replying Mrs. Wharton got up and walked several times +backwards and forwards across the length of the room, not glancing +toward the girl who still sat before the fire with her hands clasped +tightly over her knees. But Polly had small doubt where her mother's +thoughts were. And a few moments afterwards she too rose and the next +instant pulled her mother down on a cushion before the fire, and resting +close beside her put her head on her shoulder. + +"Dear, you were mistaken when you came in and found me awake," Polly +explained, "in supposing that I was thinking of my own disappointment in +not being allowed to make the journey with Miss Adams or feeling hurt or +angry with you because you decided against it. Really, I never dreamed +in the first place that you would be willing. Still, I was thinking of +asking you to let me break my word to you after all! You said that I was +to stay here in Woodford for three years, and yet I want you to let me +go away somewhere very soon. I don't care where, any place will do." + +Now for the first time since the beginning of their conversation Mrs. +Wharton appeared mystified and deeply hurt. + +"Is your own home so disagreeable to you, Polly, that you would rather +go anywhere than stay with us?" she queried. And then to her further +surprise, turning she discovered that tears were standing unshed in +Polly's eyes and that her lips were trembling. + +"I don't know how to tell you, mother. It is all so mixed up and so +uncertain in my own mind and so foolish. But I wonder if you have ever +thought that Mollie liked Billy Webster better than our other friends?" + +"Mollie?" Mrs. Wharton could hardly summon her thoughts back from the +subject which had lately absorbed them, to follow what she believed a +quickly changing idea of Polly's. "Why, yes, I think I have," she +answered slowly. "But I have never let the supposition trouble me. +Mollie is so young and her deepest affections are for you and me. +Besides, Billy is a fine fellow and perhaps when the time comes I shall +not be quite so selfish with her." + +But Polly's cheeks were so crimson that she had to put up her cold hands +to try and cool them. + +"And you have always believed that Billy almost hated me, haven't you?" + +Mrs. Wharton laughed. "Well, I have never thought a great deal about it, +except that you argued a great deal about nothing and that each one of +you was determined to influence the other without producing the smallest +result." + +"Yes, mother, and that is what makes what I want to tell you so horrid +and silly," Polly went on, intentionally making a screen for her face +with her dark hair. "Because Billy Webster has a perfectly absurd idea +that he cares for me, simply because he wishes to manage me. And--and he +was tiresome enough to tell me so this afternoon." + +Surprise and consternation for the moment kept Mrs. Wharton silent. "But +you, Polly?" she managed to inquire finally. "How do you feel? What did +you answer him?" + +Then for an instant the girl's former expression changed and the old +Irish contrariness of spirit hovered in a half smile about her lips. + +"Oh, I told him that I did not like him any better than I had in the +beginning of our acquaintance and that I had only been nicer to him now +and then lately because he was your friend and Mollie's. And no matter +what happened to me, if I never, never stirred a foot out of Woodford, I +should never dream of marrying him even when I am a hundred years old." + +A sigh of some kind escaped Mrs. Wharton, partly of relief and partly of +annoyance. + +"Then why should you wish to go away, dear?" she queried. "If you said +all that, surely Billy will never trouble you again!" + +A characteristic shrug was Polly's first answer. "Oh, Billy only cares +about me because he can't have me," she replied the next minute. "But he +insists that he will go on trying to win me until doomsday. Still it +isn't either about Billy or about me that I am thinking at present. +Can't you understand, mother, without my having to explain? It is so +hard to say. It's Mollie! Not for anything in the world would I have her +feelings hurt or have her think that I had come between her and her +friendship for Billy." + +But Mrs. Wharton's manner was immediately quiet and reassuring. "Mollie +would never think anything unfair of you, Polly. And perhaps it will be +better for you to speak of this to her. If Mollie has had any false +impression, if her feeling for Billy has been anything but simple +friendliness, now it will not be difficult for her to adjust herself. +When later--" However, Mrs. Wharton was not able to finish her sentence, +for Polly had murmured, "She does know. Of course she has not said +anything to me and I never want to have to refer to it to her. But you +need not trouble. Billy was so stupid." Here Polly gave an irrepressible +giggle. "He proposed to both of us this afternoon. And I think he was +much more worried over Mollie's telling him that she should have been +taken into his confidence sooner, than he was over my refusal." + +The clock on Polly's mantel shelf was striking one long stroke. Hearing +it Mrs. Wharton rose to leave the room, first pulling Polly up beside +her. The girl was several inches taller than her mother. + +"Polly dear," she said, "so far as Mollie is concerned I don't agree +with the wisdom of your going away from home. But I want you to +understand something else, something that I have never properly +explained to you. It is not just narrowness or prejudice, this +opposition of mine to your going upon the stage. You remember, dear, why +your father left Ireland and came here to live in these New Hampshire +hills. And you know you are not so strong as Mollie, and I used to be +afraid that you had less judgment. Recently, however, you have seemed +stronger and more poised. And I had almost decided before I came in to +you tonight, that if in another year you are still sure that you wish to +make the stage your profession, I shall not stand in the way of your +giving it a fair trial. You don't know, but in your father's family not +so many years ago there was a great actress. She ran away from home and +her people never forgave her. I don't even know what became of her. +Nothing like that must ever happen between you and me." Mrs. Wharton +kissed Polly good night. "Have faith in me, dear, for I have understood +the ambition and the heart-burning you have suffered better than you +dreamed. I shall go to see Miss Adams again tomorrow. If you must try +your wings some day, perhaps there could be no better beginning than +that you should learn to know intimately one woman who has fought +through most of the difficulties of one of the hardest professions in +the world and has earned for herself the right kind of fame and +fortune." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Farewells + + +Polly O'Neill was entertaining at a farewell reception. April had passed +away and May and it was now the first week in June. In a few days more +she would be sailing for Southampton with Miss Margaret Adams to be gone +all summer. The party was not a large one, for Polly had preferred +having only her most intimate friends together this afternoon. + +So of course the old members of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire Club were +there and a few outside people, besides the group of young men who had +always shared their good times. + +Moreover, the past two years had given the old Camp Fire Club an +entirely new distinction, since one of its girl members had recently +married. + +At this moment she was approaching Polly O'Neill, and Polly held out +both hands in welcome, as she had not seen the newcomer since the +return from her wedding journey. Edith Norton it was, who was dressed, +as she had always hoped to be, in a costume that neither Betty nor Rose +Dyer could have improved upon, a soft blue crêpe with a hat of the same +color and a long feather curling about its brim. For Edith had confessed +her fault to her employer soon after her difficulty in the last story +and had been forgiven. And, as a good-by present to Betty Ashton, she +had promised never to have anything more to do with the young man of +whom her Camp Fire friends had disapproved. The result was that she had +married one of the leading dry goods merchants in Woodford, and hard +times and Edith were through with each other forever. + +Now her cheeks were flushed with happiness instead of the color that she +had used in the days before her membership in the Camp Fire Club, and +her pretty light hair made a kind of halo about her face. + +"Apoi-a-kimi," Polly smiled at her guest, "you have not forgotten our +Indian name for you, have you, Mrs. Keating, now that you are the first +of us to acquire an altogether new name?" + +Edith shook her head with perhaps more feeling than she might have been +expected to show and at the same time touching an enameled pin which she +wore fastened on her dress she said: "I am a Camp Fire girl once and +forever, no matter how old I may become! And I never needed or +understood the value of our experiences together so much as I do now. +Tell Betty for me, please, that I sometimes think it is to our Camp Fire +Club that I owe even my husband. He could not possibly have liked me had +he known me before those good old times. So since Betty brought me into +the club and has stood by me always----" + +With a smile Polly now made a pretense of putting her fingers to her +ears; nevertheless she glanced around with a kind of challenging +amusement at the half a dozen or more friends who were standing near, as +she interrupted her visitor. + +"Betty! Betty!" she exclaimed. "I have been wondering the greater part +of this afternoon whether this is a farewell party to me or an +opportunity to send messages to Betty Ashton." Purposely Polly waited +until she was able to catch John Everett's eye, for he stood talking to +Eleanor Meade only a few feet away. John pretended not to have heard +her. He had only returned to Woodford for the week in order to see his +father and sister, for he had graduated at Dartmouth some time before +and was now in a broker's office in New York City. And already he was +under the impression that he had attained the distinction of a New York +millionaire and that his presence in Woodford was a unique experience +for his former village acquaintances. So he was now being extremely kind +to his sister Meg's old friends, although it was, of course, absurd for +any one to presume that he had more than a passing, pleasant +recollection of any girl whom he had ever known in Woodford. + +All this that he was thinking Polly appreciated when she had watched +the young man's face for less than half a moment. And as she had a +reprehensible fondness for getting even with persons, she then +registered a private vow to let Betty hear just how much John Everett +had changed. + +However, she had but scant time to devote to this resolution, for almost +at the same instant another young man, excusing himself from his sister, +walked toward her with an expression which was rarely anything except +grave and reserved. + +Polly spoke to him with especial pleasure. For the past two years had +changed not only her attitude toward Anthony Graham, but that of a good +many other persons in Woodford. + +Two years can be made to count for a great deal at certain times in +one's life and Anthony had made the past two do for him the work of +four. He was no longer an office boy and student in Judge Maynard's +office, for he had graduated at law and was now helping the old man with +the simpler part of his practice. And because Judge Maynard was seventy +and childless he had taken a liking to Anthony and had asked him to +live in his home, for the sake of both his protection and his society. +And this perhaps was a forward step for the young fellow which the +people in the village appreciated even more than the boy's own efforts +at self-improvement; for Judge Maynard was eccentric and wealthy and no +one could foretell what might happen in the future. + +Edith had moved away to make room for the newcomer, so that Polly and +her guest stood apart from the others. + +Anthony was as lean as ever, although it was the leanness of muscular +strength, not weakness; his skin was dark and clear and his hazel eyes +gazed at one frankly, almost too directly. One had the sensation that it +might be difficult to conceal from him anything that he really wished to +know. + +"Miss Polly," he began rather humbly, "I wonder if you would be willing +to do a favor for me?" He smiled, so that the lines about his mouth +became less grave. "Oh, I have not forgotten that you did not altogether +approve of Miss Betty's friendship for me when I came back to Woodford, +and I do not blame you." + +"It was not Betty's friendliness for you that I minded," Polly returned +with a directness that was very often disconcerting. + +The young man reddened and then laughed outright. "I thought it better +to put it that way, but if you must have the truth, of course I know it +was my liking for her to which you objected. But look here, Miss Polly, +no one knew of my admiration except you. So I suppose you know also that +every once in a while in these past two years Miss Betty has written me +a letter--perhaps half a dozen in all. So now I want you to take her +something from me. It does not amount to much, it is only a tiny package +that won't require a great deal of room in your trunk. Still I have not +the courage to send it her directly and yet I want her to know that I +have never forgotten that what she did for me gave me my first start. I +have improved a little in these past two years, don't you think? Am I +quite so impossible as I used to be?" + +Polly frowned in reply; but she reached forward for the small parcel +that Anthony was extending toward her. + +"Look here, Anthony," she protested, "for goodness sake don't make a +mountain out of a molehill, as the old saying goes. Betty Ashton did not +do anything more for you than she has done for dozens of other persons +when she could afford it, not half as much. So please cease feeling any +kind of obligation to her; she would hate it. And don't have any other +feeling either. Goodness only knows how these past two years in foreign +lands may have altered the Princess! Very probably she will even refuse +to have anything to do with me, if ever Miss Adams and I do manage to +arrive in Germany." + +Polly ended her speech in this fashion with the intention of making it +seem a trifle less impertinent. However, Anthony appeared not to have +understood her. Nevertheless, having been trained in a difficult school +in life perhaps he had the ability for not revealing his emotions on all +occasions. + +For Herr Crippen and Mrs. Crippen, Betty's father and stepmother, were +at this moment trying to shake hands with him. Herr Crippen looked much +more prosperous and happy since his marriage to the girls' first Camp +Fire Guardian. He had now almost as many music pupils in Woodford as he +had time to teach, while Miss McMurtry had lost every single angular +curve that had once been supposed by the girls to proclaim her an old +maid for life and as Mrs. Crippen was growing almost as stout and +housewifely as a real German Frau. + +In the interval after Anthony's desertion, as Mrs. and the Herr +Professor had already spent some time in talking with her, Polly found +herself alone. + +She was a little tired and so glanced about her for a chair. Her mother +and Mollie were both in the dining room as well as Sylvia, who had come +home for a week to say farewell to her beloved step-sister. But before +Polly could locate a chair for herself, she observed that two were being +pushed toward her from opposite sides of the room. Therefore she waited, +smiling, to find out which should arrive first. Then she sank down into +the one that John Everett presented her, thanking Billy Webster for his, +which had arrived a second too late. + +Excitement always added to Polly O'Neill's beauty, and so this afternoon +she was looking unusually pretty. As it was the month of June she wore a +white organdie dress with a bunch of red roses pinned at her belt and +one caught in the coiled braids of her dark hair. + +She had been perfectly friendly with Billy, even more so than usual, +since their April talk. For having her own way made Polly delightfully +amiable to the whole world. Billy, however, had not responded to her +friendliness. He was still deeply opposed to her going away with Miss +Adams. And though he was doggedly determined to have his own will in the +end, he seemed to have lost all his former interest and pleasure in +being often at the Wharton home. For not only was Polly in what he +considered a seventh heaven of selfish happiness at her mother's change +of mind, but Mollie no longer treated him with her former intimacy. She +was friendly and sweet-tempered, of course, but she never asked his +advice about things as she once had, nor seemed to care to give him a +great amount of her time. Instead she appeared to be as fond of Frank +Wharton and as dependent upon him as though he had been in reality her +own brother. And Frank having recently returned to Woodford to live, had +gone into business with his father. Truly Billy felt that he had not +deserved the situation in which he now found himself. Of course one +might have expected anything from so uncertain a quantity as Polly, but +to Mollie he had been truly attached and she had been to him like a +little sister. So it was difficult to comprehend what had now come +between them. + +Billy had no special fancy for playing third person and remaining to +talk to Polly and John Everett, so considering that both his chair and +his presence were unnecessary, he moved off in the direction of the +dining room. + +Polly smiled up at her latest companion with two points of rather +dangerous light at the back of her Irish blue eyes. Then she let her +glance travel slowly from the tips of John Everett's patent leather +shoes, along the immaculate expanse of his frock coat and fluted shirt, +until finally it reached the crown of his well-brushed golden brown +hair. + +"It must be a wonderful feeling, John, to be so kind of--glorious!" +Polly exclaimed, in a perfectly serious manner. + +"Glorious," John frowned; "what do you mean?" He was an intelligent, +capable fellow, but not especially quick. + +"Oh, don't you feel that you are giving poor little Woodford a treat +every now and then by allowing it the chance of beholding so perfect an +imitation of a gentleman. I don't mean imitation, John, that does not +sound polite of me. Of course I mean so perfect a picture. I have been +feasting my eyes on you whenever I have had the opportunity all +afternoon. For I want to tell Betty Ashton when I see her who is the +most distinguished-looking person among us. And of course----" + +John flushed, though he laughed good-naturedly. "What a horrid +disposition you still have, Polly O'Neill. One would think that you +were now old enough to make yourself agreeable to your superiors." He +stooped, for whether by accident or design, the girl had dropped a small +paste-board box on the floor. + +"This is something or other that Anthony Graham is sending over to Betty +Ashton," Polly explained with pretended carelessness. "I suppose you can +remember Betty?" + +But John Everett was at the present moment engaged in extracting a small +pin from the lapel of his coat. "Don't be ridiculous, Polly, and don't +impart your impressions of me to Betty, if you please. Just ask her if +she will be good enough to accept this fraternity pin of mine in +remembrance of old times." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Unter den Linden + + +A tall girl with red hair and a fair skin, carrying a roll of music, was +walking alone down the principal street in Berlin. She did not look like +a foreigner and yet she must have been familiar with the sights of the +city. For although the famous thoroughfare was crowded with people, some +of them on foot, the greater number in carriages and automobiles, she +paid them only a casual attention and finally found herself a seat on a +bench under a tall linden tree near the monument of Frederick the Great. +Here she sighed, allowing the discouragement which she had been trying +to overcome for some little time to show in every line of her face and +figure. + +She was not handsome enough to attract attention for that reason, and +she had too much personal dignity to suffer it under any circumstances. +So now she seemed as much alone as if she had been in her own sitting +room. + +Only once was she startled out of the absorption of her own thoughts. +And then there was a sudden noise near the palace of the Emperor; +carriages and motor cars paused, crowding closer to the sidewalks; +soldiers stood at attention, civilians lifted their hats. And a moment +afterwards an automobile dashed past with a man on the back seat in a +close fitting, military suit, with a light cape thrown back over one +shoulder, his head slightly bowed and his arms folded across his chest. +He had an iron-gray mustache, waxed until the ends stood out fiercely, +dark, haughty eyes, and an intensely nervous manner. And on the doors of +his swiftly moving car were the Imperial Arms of Germany. + +The girl felt a curious little thrill of admiration and antagonism. For +although she had seen him more than a dozen times before, the Kaiser +Wilhelm could hardly pass so near to one without making an impression. +And although the American girl was not in sympathy with many of his +views, she could not escape the interest which his personality has +excited throughout the civilized world. + +But a moment after the street grew quiet once more and she returned to +her own reflections. + +In spite of her pallor she did not seem in the least unhealthy, only +tired and down-hearted. For her eyes, though light in color, were clear +and bright, and the lips of her large, firmly modeled mouth bright red. +She wore a handsome and becoming gray cloth dress and a soft white +blouse, her gray hat having a white feather stuck through a band of +folded silk. The coolness and simplicity of her toilet was refreshing in +the warmth of the late June day and a pleasant contrast to the brighter +colors affected by the German Frauen and Fräulein. + +Finally the girl opened her roll of music and taking out a sheet began +slowly reading it over to herself. Then her dejection appeared to +deepen, for eventually the tears rolled down her cheeks. She continued +holding up her music in order to shield herself from observation. Even +when she was disturbed by hearing some one sit down beside her on the +bench, she did not dare turn her head. + +But the figure deliberately moved closer and before she could protest +had actually taken the sheet of paper out of her hands. + +"Esther, my dear, what is the matter with you? Have you no home and no +friends, that you have to shed your tears in the public streets?" a +slightly amused though sympathetic voice demanded. + +Naturally Esther started. But the next instant she was shaking her head +reproachfully. "Dr. Ashton, however in the world did you manage to +discover me?" she demanded. "I am resting here for the special pleasure +of being miserable all by myself. For I knew if I went back to the +pension Betty and your mother would find me out. And the worst of it is +that neither one of them understands in the least why I am unhappy. +Betty is really angry and I am afraid that Mrs. Ashton thinks I am +stupid and ungrateful." + +Instead of replying, Richard Ashton picked up Esther's hand and slipped +it through his own arm. He looked a good deal older than his companion. +For he was now a graduated physician with three years of added foreign +experience, and besides his natural seriousness he wore the reserved, +thoughtful air peculiar to his profession. So his present attitude +toward Esther Crippen seemed that of an older friend. + +"I don't know what you are talking about or what dark secret you seem to +be trying to conceal," he returned. "All that I do know is that I have +been sent out to find you and that you are please to come home with me. +Betty and mother have been expecting you to return from your music +lesson for an hour. And Betty is so in the habit of getting herself lost +or of mixing up in some adventure where she does not belong, that she is +convinced a like fate has overtaken you. Then I believe that something +or other has happened which she has not confided to me, but which she is +dying to tell you. There are times, Esther, when I wish that our sister, +Betty, was not quite so pretty. I am always afraid that some day or +other these German students, whom she seems to have for her friends, +will be involved in a duel over her. And if that happens I shall very +promptly send her home." + +Dick and Esther had now left the broad, park-like square and had turned +into a narrower side street adjoining it. Ordinarily any such suggestion +concerning Betty would have aroused Esther's immediate interest and +protest. However, whatever was now on her mind was troubling her too +much for her to pay any real attention to what Dick had just said. So +they walked on for another block in silence, until finally Esther spoke +in her old timid, hesitating manner, quite unconsciously locking her +hands together, as she had on that day, long ago, of her first meeting +with Richard Ashton. + +"I am sorry to be so stupid and unentertaining. It was good of you to +come and look for me," she began apologetically. "I wish I could stop +thinking of what troubles me, but somehow I can't. For Betty will insist +on my doing a thing that I simply know I shall not be able to do. And I +do hate having to argue." + +They were still some distance from the German pension where Dick, his +mother and sister and Esther were boarding, so the young man did not +make haste to continue their conversation, as he and Esther knew each +other too intimately to consider silences. + +"Look here, Esther," Richard Ashton finally began, "you know that Betty +considers me the worst old gray-beard and lecturer on earth. So I am +going to be true to my reputation and lecture you. Why do you allow +yourself to be so much influenced by Betty? Don't you realize every now +and then that you are the older and that the Princess ought to come +around to your way of thinking? Why don't you tell her this time that +_you_ are right and she is wrong and that you won't hear anything more +on the subject that is worrying you." + +Esther laughed, swerving suddenly to get a swift view of the earnest +face of her companion. How often he had befriended her, ever since those +first days of shy misery and rapture when she had made her original +appearance in the Ashton home, little realizing then that the Betty +whom she already adored was her own sister. + +"I am not really afraid of the Princess, you know, Mr. Dick," she +replied, laughing and using an odd, old-fashioned title that she had +once given him. "The truth is that if you were able to guess what I have +on my mind you might also disagree with me. Because in this particular +instance there is a possibility that Betty may be right in her judgment +and I in the wrong." + +They had walked by this time a little distance beyond the crowded +portion of the big city. Now the houses were private residences and +boarding places. Finally they stopped before a tall yellow building, +five stories in height, with red and yellow flowers growing in a narrow +strip along its front. Before an open window on the third floor a girl +could be seen sitting with a book in her lap. But she must have become +at once aware of the presence of the young man and his companion, +because the instant that Dr. Ashton's hand touched the door knob, she +disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Changes + + +Dick Ashton's laughing wish that his sister Betty were a little less +pretty was not so unreasonable as you might suppose, had you seen her on +this particular late June afternoon as she ran down the narrow, ugly +hall of the German pension to greet her brother and sister. + +She had on a pale blue muslin dress open at the throat with a tiny frill +of lace. Her red bronze hair had coppery tones in it as well as pure +gold and was parted a little on one side and coiled up in the simplest +fashion at the back of her head. The darkness of her lashes and the +delicate lines of her brows gave the gray of her eyes a peculiar luster +like the shine on old silk. And this afternoon her cheeks were the deep +rose color that often accompanies this especial coloring. + +She put one arm around Esther, drawing her into their sitting room, +while Dick followed them. It was an odd room, a curious mixture of +German and American taste and yet not unattractive. The ceiling was +high, the furniture heavy and dark, and the walls covered with a +flowered yellow paper. But the two girls had removed the paintings of +unnatural flowers and fruits that once decorated them, and instead had +hung up framed photographs of the famous pictures that had most pleased +them in their visits to different art galleries. There was Franz Hals' +"Smiling Cavalier" gazing down at them with irresistible camaraderie in +his eyes which followed you with their smile no matter in what portion +of the room you chanced to be. On an opposite wall hung a Rembrandt +painting of an old woman, and further along the magical "Mona Lisa." In +all the history of art there is no more fascinating story than that +relating to this great picture by Leonardo da Vinci. For the woman who +was the original of the picture was a great Italian princess whom many +people adored because of her strange beauty. She had scores of lovers +of noble blood and lowly, but no one is supposed to have understood the +secret of her inscrutable smile, not even the artist who painted it. +This picture was first the property of Italy and then carried away to +hang for many years in the most celebrated room in the great gallery of +the Louvre in Paris. From there it was stolen by an Italian workman, +taken back into Italy and later restored to the French Government. But +before Mona Lisa's return to her niche in the Louvre she made a kind of +triumphal progress through the great cities of her former home, Rome, +Florence and Venice. And in each place men, women and little children +came flocking in thousands to pay their tribute to beauty. And so for +those of us who think of beauty as a passing, an ephemeral thing, there +is this lesson of its universal, its eternal quality. For the smile of +one woman, dead these hundreds of years, yet fixed by genius on a square +of canvas, can still stir the pulses of the world. + +Betty happened to be standing under this picture as she helped Esther +remove her coat and hat. And though there was nothing mysterious in her +youthful, American prettiness, there is always a poignant and appealing +quality in all beauty. Esther suddenly leaned over and placing her hands +on both her sister's cheeks, kissed her. + +"What have you been doing alone all day?" she asked. "Was your mother +well enough to go out with you?" + +Betty shook her head without replying and, though Esther saw nothing, +Dick Ashton had an idea that his sister was merely waiting for a more +propitious time for the account of her own day. For she asked +immediately after: "What difference in the world does it make, Esther +Crippen, what I have been doing? The thing I wish to know this instant +is whether Professor Hecksher has asked you to sing at his big concert +with his really star singers? And if he has asked you what did you +answer?" + +"So that was what was worrying you, Esther?" Dick said and walked over +to the high window, pretending to look out. + +For Esther was beginning to grow as pale and wretched as she had been +an hour before and was once more twisting her hands together like an +awkward child. + +Betty caught her sister's hands, holding them close. "Tell me the +truth," she insisted. + +First the older girl nodded, as though not trusting herself to speak and +then said: "Yes, Professor Hecksher _has_ asked me. He wants me to make +my musical _début_ even though I go on studying afterwards. But I can't +do it, Betty dear. I wish you and the Professor would both understand. I +appreciate his thinking I can sing well enough, but it is not true. I +should break down; my voice would fail utterly. Oh, I am sorry I ever +came abroad to study. I have been realizing for months and months that +my voice is not worth the trouble and expense father and the rest of you +have taken. I am simply going to be a disappointment to all of you." + +"Esther, you are a great big goose!" Betty exclaimed indignantly. "I +thought we ended this discussion last night and you decided to let +Professor Hecksher judge whether or not you could sing. One would think +he might know, as he is the biggest singing teacher in Berlin. And +certainly if you don't sing I shall die of disappointment. And I _shall_ +believe that you are ungrateful to father and to--to all of us." + +She was obliged to break off, for Esther had left the room. + +Then Dick swung around, facing his sister. "Look here, Betty," he began +more angrily than she had often heard him speak. "Has it ever occurred +to you that you may all be forcing Esther into a life for which she is +not fitted, which will never make her happy? Of course there is no +denying her talent; her voice is wonderful and grows more so each day. +But she is intensely shy. She hates notoriety and strange +people--everything that a musical life must mean. I don't think that you +ought to insist upon her singing at this special concert if she does not +wish it. You do not understand her." + +Utter amazement during her brother's long speech kept Betty silent. For +it was too absurd that any one should seriously suggest Esther's +turning her back on the big opportunity for which she had been working +for the past two years. Why, for what other purpose had they come to +Germany? And for Esther to be invited to sing at Professor Hecksher's +annual autumn concert was to have the seal of his approval set upon her +ability. For of course the great man selected from his pupils only those +whose appearance in public would reflect credit upon him. And often an +appearance at one of these much-talked-of recitals meant the beginning +of a musical reputation in the outside world. So Betty stared at her +brother curiously, at loss to appreciate his point of view. She felt +offended, too, at the tone he had just taken with her. + +"So you think you understand Esther better than I do, Dick?" she +answered slowly. "I suppose you and Esther must have talked this matter +over on your way home. Certainly it is Esther's own choice and I shall +say nothing more about it. And I'll ask mother not to mention the +subject either." Betty picked up a small piece of embroidery lying on a +table near by and began sewing industriously, keeping her face bent over +it so as to hide her flushed cheeks and the light in her eyes. For Betty +had not forgotten her Camp Fire training in self-control. Besides, she +did not like quarreling with her brother. Dick was ordinarily so +reasonable, she felt even more mystified than hurt by his behavior. It +was so unlike him to argue that one should turn back from a long-sought +goal just because there were difficulties to be overcome. Had he not +fought through every kind of obstacle for the sake of his profession? + +The silence in the room was interrupted only by the ticking of a Swiss +clock, until finally a deep gong sounded from below stairs. It might +easily have given the impression that the house was on fire, but as +neither Dick nor Betty appeared surprised, it was plainly a summons to +the early dinner, which is so important a feature of German pension +life. + +Folding up her work Betty moved quietly toward the door. But she had +only gone a few steps when she heard Dick coming after her. Then in +spite of trying her best to hurry from the room, he caught up with her, +putting his arms about her. + +"Tell me you are sorry, Princess, or you shan't have any dinner," he +demanded. For it had been a fashion of theirs years before when they +were children to have the offender pretend to demand an apology from the +offended. But Betty did not feel in the mood for jesting at present and +so shook her head. + +Then Dick met her gaze with an expression so unusual that Betty +instantly felt her resentment fading. + +"Perhaps I was wrong in what I said just then, little sister, I don't +feel sure," he apologized. "But at least I realize that you wish Esther +to gain fame and fortune for her own sake and not for yours. I was only +wondering which makes a woman happier in the end, a home or a career? +Now please relate me your day's experience, which you have been keeping +such a profound secret, so that I may know I am forgiven." + +"It is too late now," Betty returned, slipping away from his grasp. "I +must find out whether mother is coming down to dinner. Perhaps I may +tell you afterwards." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A Cosmopolitan Company + + +Sitting opposite Betty at the dinner table were the two German youths to +whom Dick most objected. And yet they were totally unlike both in +appearance and position. For one of them was apparently a humble person, +with long light hair hanging in poetic fashion below his shirt collar, a +big nose and small, hungry, light-blue eyes that seemed always to be +swimming in a mist of embarrassment. He was a clerk in a bank and +occupied the smallest room on the highest floor of the pension. So it +would have been natural enough to suppose from his manner and behavior +that he was of plebeian origin. But exactly the opposite was the case. +For the landlady, Mrs. Hohler, who was herself an impoverished +gentlewoman, had confided to Mrs. Ashton that the strange youth was in +reality of noble birth. He had an uncle who was a count, and though +this uncle had one son, the nephew Frederick stood second in the line of +succession. To Richard Ashton, however, this added nothing to the young +man's charms, nor did it make him the less provoked over Frederick von +Reuter's attitude toward Betty. Nevertheless he rather preferred +Frederick, who seemed utterly without brains, to her second admirer, +Franz. For Franz was dark and aggressive and had an extremely rich +father, a merchant in Hamburg. Also Franz hoped to be able to purchase a +commission in the German army, so that already he was assuming the +dictatorial, disagreeable manner for which many German officers are +unpleasantly distinguished. + +However, neither young man had ever done anything in the least offensive +either to Betty or to any member of her family, so that Dick Ashton's +feeling was largely prejudice. And although Esther shared his point of +view, Mrs. Ashton was somewhat flattered at the amount of admiration +that Betty's beauty had excited ever since their arrival in Europe. As +for Betty herself, she gave the whole question very little attention. +All her life she had been accustomed to attention. Now and then her two +suitors amused her and at other times she was bored by them. +Notwithstanding she did not find it disagreeable to be able to tease her +serious-minded brother. Moreover, the widow with her two daughters, +about whom Betty and her mother had been making guesses for several +years, continued making her home at the pension, and without a shadow of +a doubt one of the girls regarded Dick with especial favor. + +So tonight Betty, who had not yet entirely recovered from her +irritation, was unusually gracious to the two young Germans. She even +lingered downstairs in the small, overcrowded parlor after dinner with +her mother, allowing Dick and Esther, who were not so friendly with the +other boarders, to go up alone to their private sitting room. + +"Fritz and Franz," as Betty's adorers were called, although Herr von +Reuter and Herr Schmidt were their proper titles, were regarded with a +good deal of quiet amusement by their fellow boarders. While this filled +the autocratic soul of Franz with a variety of suppressed emotions, the +gentle Fritz seemed totally unaware of it. He was content to sit +silently on one side of the _schönes Fräulein_, even when she devoted +the greater part of her attention to his rival. This evening, without +openly flinching, he overheard her accepting with her mother's approval +an invitation from the wealthy Franz for both of them to attend a +performance at the Royal Opera House the next evening. Then, although +Frederick's eyes grew mistier and his figure more dejected in +consequence, he did not leave the parlor until Betty and her mother had +gone up stairs. Late into the night, however, had anyone been in the +German youth's neighborhood, strains of exquisitely melancholy music +might have been heard drifting forth from a fifth floor back room. It +was the music of the oboe. + +Even after Betty Ashton had seen her mother in bed, helping her undress +for the night, she did not immediately join Esther and Dick, although +Mrs. Ashton had asked her to explain to them that she was not well +enough to remain up any longer. Instead Betty went first into her own +bedroom and there re-read the two letters which she carried in her +pocket. For if Dick and Esther were of so much the same opinion in +regard to her sister's refusal to sing in public, it was best that they +be allowed to discuss the matter without interruption from her. For +although she had promised not to speak of it again to her sister, Betty +felt that it would be impossible for her to disguise how she actually +felt. It was wicked of Esther, utterly foolish and unreasonable, to +intend surrendering to her own shyness and lack of self-confidence, as +with Dick's abetting she evidently intended doing. Why, Esther might +have a truly great future! Professor Hecksher had assured Mrs. Ashton +that she only required time, training and more self-confidence. For, +although when Esther was finally under the sway of her music, she was +able to throw her whole force and fervor into it, in the beginning of +any performance she was often awkward and shy, alarming her audience +with the impression that she might break down. Professor Hecksher had +even suggested that Esther's voice might be beautiful enough for grand +opera when she grew older and had more experience. + +With this last thought still in mind, Betty finally returned to the +sitting room to spend the rest of the evening with her brother and +sister. Often she had thought of how curious it was that she could speak +of Dick and Esther in this fashion when they bore not the slightest +relation to each other! + +She found them sitting on opposite sides of a small table, a complete +silence pervading the room, although neither one of them was reading. +Esther's face was flushed and Dick's a little pale. As Dick rose to give +his chair to the newcomer, Esther spoke: + +"Please don't go, Dr. Ashton," she said. And Betty wondered idly why +Esther should suppose that Dick intended leaving the room. More often +than not he spent his evenings at home with them. "I only want to tell +you, Betty dear," she continued, "that you were quite right this +afternoon in saying that I was wrong in refusing this chance to sing at +Professor Hecksher's concert. Of course I am not going to give up my +work now, when I have been struggling and struggling to learn even the +little bit I know. Then if I never sing in public how am I ever to earn +that fortune which I have promised to bestow on you, Princess?" + +Esther laughed, but Betty frowned with an expression unusual to her. + +"I don't want you to keep on with your singing, Esther, for my sake," +she protested. "Mother and I are accustomed now to being poor and don't +mind it. So if there is anything else you would prefer to do with your +life, please don't waste a thought on me." + +Esther shook her head reproachfully. "Don't be silly and don't be cross, +Princess," she pleaded. "You know perfectly well that I can no more help +thinking about you than I can help breathing. But so far as my keeping +on with my music is concerned, I can't see that I shall ever have the +right not to do that. So I am going to make the biggest effort I +possibly can at the concert, and then if I fail, why at least I shall +have been true to 'the Law of the Fire.'" + +At this Betty's face softened, but Dick Ashton marched abruptly out of +the room. + +Neither of the two girls, though far away from their old Camp Fire +circle now for two years, had ever forgotten its purposes and teaching. +So often when they were lonely the three Wohelo candles were lighted and +the old ceremony followed, usually ending by Esther's singing a Camp +Fire song. + +Tonight Betty walked over to a kind of shrine or shelf which they had +erected in one corner of their room. German houses have queer stoves and +no fireplaces. There she lighted three tall white candles. The long +northern twilight was fading and the room had become almost dark. + +A moment after, Betty came and sat down on a stool at Esther's feet. + +"I had a letter from Polly today," she began. "She and Miss Adams have +landed and are in England. They want to join us later if----if----" + +"If what, Betty?" Esther demanded. "Surely you and Polly are not to be +disappointed in being with each other!" + +"Well, it is just this that I have been dying to tell you ever since +you came home," Betty protested, her words now running over each other +in her effort to tell all her story at once. "Polly wrote that Miss +Adams would love to come and spend a part of the summer near us if we +were only in some place in the country. But she is too worn out from her +work last winter to feel that she can endure the city for any length of +time. And you know mother and I have been getting pretty tired of Berlin +ourselves lately, since the warm weather has come and you and Dick are +away so much of the day. So this morning while you were out I got one of +the maids to go with me and we went for miles into the country until we +came to an enchanting place, all forests and brooks, near the village of +Waldheim. I can't tell you all that happened to me or the queer +experience I had, only that I found a delightful place where we may +live. It is near enough for you and Dick to come back and forth into +town. And it is so still and cool with such wonderful green hills behind +it that somehow it made me think of Sunrise Mountain and our cabin and +the girls and--" But in a sudden wave of homesickness Betty's voice +failed and she dropped her face in her hands. + +Esther's own voice was unsteady. "Then we will move out to this spot at +once, Betty. And don't you ever dare tell me that I am not to think of +you in connection with my music, when I realize how much you have given +up for me. Oh, yes, I know you have enjoyed Europe and Berlin and all of +our interesting experiences. Yet somehow I don't believe that you will +ever be so fond of any place in the world as you are of your old home in +Woodford. You see that is the way I comfort myself and Dr. Ashton about +your new foreign admirers. You wouldn't, Betty, ever seriously care for +anyone who lives in Europe, would you?" Esther asked so anxiously that +her sister laughed, refusing to make a reply. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Das Rheingold + + +A girl sat on a flat rock beside a small stream of water, evidently +drying her hair in the rays of the sun, for it hung loose over her +shoulders and shone red and gold and brown, seeming to ripple down from +the crown of her head to the ground. She was entirely alone and a close +group of trees formed a kind of green temple behind her. It had been an +extremely warm day so that even the birds were resting from song and +from labor. + +Suddenly the girl tore into small pieces the letter that she had been +writing, tossing them into the air like a troop of white butterflies. + +"There is no use of my trying to do anything sensible this afternoon," +Betty Ashton sighed, "I am so happy over being in the country once more +with nothing to do but to do nothing. I was dead tired of all those +people at the pension, of Fritz and Franz and all the rest of them. It +is lovely to be alone here in the German forests----" + +Then unexpectedly Betty Ashton straightened up, looking about her in +every possible direction in a puzzled fashion while hurriedly arranging +her hair. For although she could see no one approaching, she could hear +an unmistakable sound, a kind of mellow whistling, then flute-like notes +and afterwards a low throbbing, as though the wings of imprisoned things +were beating in the air. + +Betty stared through the open spaces between the trees, since from that +direction the sound was now approaching. But when and where had she +heard that peculiar music before? However, the Germans were such a +strangely musical race that probably any one of her neighbors could +play. + +Then with a smothered expression of vexation, the girl got up on her +feet and took a few steps forward. There was no mistaking the figure +slowly advancing, the long light hair, the mild eyes and timid though +persistent manner. But how in the world had Frederick von Reuter found +her, when she had been careful not to mention where they were going in +saying farewell at the pension? + +"Why, Herr von Reuter," Betty exclaimed, divided between vexation and +the thought that she must not be rude, "what are you doing in this part +of the world and how did you happen to discover me?" + +At this question the young man abruptly ceased his sentimental playing, +though instead of answering Betty in a sensible fashion, he pointed +first toward her hair and then toward the water behind her and the +circle of hills. + +"I haf come in search of '_Das Rheingold_,'" he murmured in his funny, +broken English, "and I haf found a Rhein _mädchen, nicht wahr_?" + +Betty bit her lips. She was not in the mood for nonsense and it was +difficult to conceive of her present companion as the hero of Wagner's +great opera. + +"Let's not be absurd," she returned coldly. "And please answer my +questions." Betty did not mean to be disagreeable, for she did not +actually dislike this young man--he was too queer and apparently too +simple. Nevertheless it was impossible for her to appreciate how unlike +she was to any other girl with whom the young German had ever +associated. Her frankness, her self-possession, her brightness and of +course her beauty, all of which were ordinary characteristics of most +American girls, were a kind of miracle to Fritz. + +"I haf come into this place that I may see _you_," he replied. "And your +_Mutter_ has told me where I must come to look. But this neighborhood I +know _sehr wohl_. It is the castle of my uncle which you may haf seen on +a hill not far away. It is of stone with a high wall around it----" + +But Betty's expression had now changed, her eyes were sparkling and her +color rapidly changing. How could poor Fritz have guessed that no higher +emotion than curiosity stirred her? She now pointed invitingly toward a +fallen tree, seating herself on one end of it. + +[Illustration: "TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE PLACES NEAR HERE"] + +"Do tell me more about the places near here, if you know about them," +she suggested. "I was perfectly sure that they had strange and romantic +histories. I think I can guess which is your uncle's estate. Has it a +long avenue of linden trees and a lodge covered with ivy and a lake with +a waterfall?" + +Betty hesitated, for even Fritz was looking somewhat startled at her +knowledge of details. + +"And it may all be yours some day!" the girl added, hoping to change the +current of her companion's thoughts. + +But the young man shook his head. "No," he returned honestly, "I haf in +my heart no such idea. My cousin is younger than I am, stronger----" + +Betty glanced over toward the blue rim of hills. "Is your cousin a +girl?" she queried softly. + +Young Herr von Reuter was again surprised. "I thought I haf told you. +No, he is a man, like me. Oh, no, not like me," he added sadly. "My +cousin is tall like me, but he carries of himself so otherwise." Fritz +touched his own shoulders, owing their stoop perhaps to the long hours +spent in going over his accounts in the bank. "And his hair it is light +and his eyes blue. And there is a shine on his hair that makes it so +golden as Siegfried's. And when he laughs!" Poor Fritz's face now wore +the same expression of mild adoration which he had oftentimes bestowed +upon Betty. + +"But if you are so awfully fond of your cousin and he is a count living +in that old stone castle, why does he not do something for you? I should +think your uncle----" + +"You do not _verstehen_, you _Amerikaner_" Fritz answered. "My uncle is +_sehr_ poor himself. It is hard to live as he must. Some day my cousin +must marry a rich girl with his title and his good looks." + +Betty laughed. "Oh, that's the plan, is it? Well, let us walk on back to +the cottage and find mother. I am sure she will enjoy talking to you." + +Again Betty Ashton's manner had changed to its original indifference. + +Fritz seemed bewildered and a little depressed. "It is _schöner_ here," +he replied. However, he got up and obediently followed Betty out of her +retreat. She was more than half a mile from the cottage which they had +secured for the summer time. And they were compelled to pass out of the +woods and walk along a country lane for a part of the way. There were +few persons using this lane at four o'clock on a hot July afternoon, and +so Betty had felt that she would be perfectly safe from observation. She +had left home with her hair still damp from washing and simply tucked up +under a big summer hat. + +Now she was feeling disheveled and uncomfortable and most devoutly +anxious not to meet anyone on their return journey. It had been tiresome +of her mother to have revealed her whereabouts. + +Then all at once Betty found herself blushing and wishing that she could +hide somewhere along the road. For there advancing toward them was a +handsome riding horse. Could it be possible that Herr von Reuter's +cousin was seeking him? She must not meet him under the present +conditions, not if what she believed were true. + +But the horse kept moving toward them with greater rapidity, while Fritz +plodded on slowly at her side, telling her some story of the history of +the neighborhood and not understanding that for the time being she had +lost interest in it. + +Betty glanced about her. There was no place where she might hide herself +without being seen in the act; besides her companion could never be made +to understand her behavior and would be sure to reveal his bewilderment. +No, she must simply continue walking on with her head averted and her +attention too concentrated upon Herr von Reuter's information to be +conscious of anything else. + +Now the low voice at her ear abruptly ceased, and turning in surprise to +glance at him, Betty beheld Fritz's ordinarily placid countenance +crimsoning with what certainly looked like anger instead of pleasure at +the appearance of his admired cousin. + +"_Ach Himmel!_" exclaimed poor Fritz, "is one never to lose him?" + +Betty would have liked to stamp her foot with vexation. For the figure +on horseback was wholly unlike the German knight whom her companion had +recently described. Here was no Siegfried with shining hair and armor, +but a small dark person whom she had hoped never to see again. He reined +up his horse, slid off, and after a surprised scowl at Fritz, greeted +Betty as though she could hardly fail to be gratified by his appearance. + +"You had neglected to tell me where I might find you, but Frau Hohler +was kinder," Franz Schmidt declared at once. + +Surely Betty's manner might have discouraged almost anyone else, but not +so pompous and self-satisfied a character as Franz. Money appeared to +him as the only really important thing in the world and he had an idea +that Betty Ashton had but little of it. Therefore she must be impressed +by his attentions. Notwithstanding he decided at this moment she would +soon have to choose between him and the ridiculous Fritz. + +Franz was now walking along by the other side of Betty, leading his +horse. And all the time the girl kept wondering what she could do or say +to get rid of one or both of her escorts. Fortunately she would find no +one at home except her mother. Esther's and Dick's train did not arrive +for another hour. They doubtless would have been amused and Dick very +probably angry. How nonsensical she must appear marching along in such a +company! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Other Scenes + + +A taxicab was driving slowly down Regent Street in the neighborhood of +Piccadilly Circus in London with a woman and a girl inside it. The woman +leaned back in a relaxed position with her eyes not on the scene about +her, but on the face of the girl. For she was sitting upright with her +hands clasped tight together in her lap, her eyes sparkling and her +cheeks glowing. + +It was nearly six o'clock in the afternoon, the hour when English +people, having just finished their "afternoon tea," were returning to +their homes, so that the streets were crowded with fashionably dressed +men and women. And to the girl in the cab they were entirely absorbing +and interesting. For whatever the closeness of their relation, American +and English people when seen in any numbers are strikingly different in +their appearance. The English are taller and fairer, the men better +dressed than the women, and with less energy and less grace than +Americans. And to a young girl's eyes there were also hundreds of other +details of unlikeness and of fascination that older persons possibly +might not have noticed. Besides there was the spectacle of big, +beautiful, gray old London itself! + +"Is there any other place on earth quite so wonderful?" Polly O'Neill +queried, turning to glance shyly into the face of the woman beside her. +"I feel that I should like to do nothing else for the rest of my life +but just sit here in this cab and drive about Piccadilly." + +Miss Adams smiled. For Polly's exaggerations, that oftentimes annoyed +other people, merely amused her. Thus far, and they had been away for a +number of weeks, the great lady had not repented her invitation to the +girl to be her guest in Europe during the summer. For some reason she +had taken an odd fancy to Polly. Moreover, she was weary of her usual +summer amusements, wishing to enjoy life through younger eyes than her +own. And the special value of Polly O'Neill as a companion was that +with her ardent Irish temperament she could see and feel more in half an +hour than many persons do in half a life time. + +Now, however, with her swift vision of her companion's expression, the +girl's altered. "You are tired," she murmured, with one of her quick +changes of mood and of opinion, "and I am sure that I have seen all I +wish to this afternoon. Don't you think we had better drive back to the +hotel?" + +Miss Adams made a little sign to the cabman. "It is getting late, Polly, +and I forgot to tell you that I am having a friend to dinner." + +The girl was silent for the next few moments after this speech, yet her +cheeks were flushing and her eyes so intent that it was evident she was +trying to say something without having sufficient courage to begin. +Finally she did speak in an embarrassed fashion: + +"Miss Adams, I don't quite know how to say this, but I have been +wondering lately if you were not growing tired of London and staying on +longer here on my account. You remember that you told me before we +sailed that you were going to find some quiet place in the country to +rest. And it has not been much rest for you showing me both Paris and +London, with people after you all the time, even though you do refuse +most of their invitations." A sudden overwhelming shyness confused the +girl so that she could not continue for the moment. For in spite of the +weeks of daily intimacy with her new friend, Polly was not yet able to +think of her nor to treat her like any other human being. Not that Miss +Adams was ever anything but simple and kind like most great people. She +made no effort to be impressive and was not beautiful--only a slight, +frail-looking woman with a figure like a girl's, chestnut brown hair and +big, indescribably wonderful eyes. But to Polly she represented +everything in life worth attaining. Although still comparatively young, +Margaret Adams had won for herself the position of one of America's +leading actresses. Moreover, she had the world's respect as well as its +admiration, and besides her reputation a large fortune. So it was small +wonder that Polly should not so soon have recovered from her first +combination of awe and devotion for this celebrated woman, nor yet +understand the miracle of her choice of her as a traveling companion. It +was true that Miss Adams had no family and no close relatives except her +cousin, Mary Adams, who had been Polly's elocution teacher in Woodford. +The effort to persuade this cousin to accompany her on the European trip +had been the cause of Margaret Adams' visit to Woodford earlier in the +spring. There, finding that her cousin could not join her and yielding +to a sudden impulse, she had transferred her invitation to Polly. And +the thought that Miss Adams may have repented her rashness since their +departure from home had oftentimes made Polly O'Neill grow suddenly hot +and then cold. Some day, perhaps, her mother would discover that this +trip of Polly's with Miss Adams was to teach her the lessons that at the +present time she most needed--a new humility and the desire to place +another person's comfort and wishes before her own. + +Perhaps Miss Adams partly understood the girl's sensations, for without +waiting for her to continue her speech she immediately asked: "What was +the name of that place in the German forests about which your friends +have written you? Did they not say that they had found a little house +for themselves and another not far away for us? It might be pleasant to +go there for a time." + +In endeavoring to hide her excitement Polly now had to turn her head and +pretend to be looking at something out of the opposite side of the cab. +For this suggestion of Miss Adams represented the summit of her own +desires. Of course she had adored the sights and experiences of the +weeks in Paris and London, and life had never been so fascinating; yet +never for a moment had she ceased to look forward and yearn for a +reunion with Betty and Esther. Moreover, Betty's picture of the country +where they now were sounded like a scene from one of the German operas. + +But Polly only murmured: "The village is called 'Waldheim,'" and made no +reply when Miss Adams returned: "Perhaps it may be a good idea for us to +go on there in a week or ten days, if we can make the necessary +arrangements." + +By this time, however, their cab had stopped in front of a small, +inconspicuous brown hotel, which was one of the quietest and yet most +fashionable hotels in London, and within a few moments the two women +disappeared into their own rooms. + +Half an hour afterwards Polly walked into their private sitting room. +There she sat down at a desk, intending to write to Betty Ashton before +the dinner hour. + +In making her European trip under such unusual circumstances Polly had +not brought with her a great number of clothes. Nevertheless her +stepfather had insisted that she have whatever might be necessary and +Mrs. Wharton had taken great care and forethought to see that her things +were beautiful and appropriate. For Polly was not an easy person to +dress suitably. Persons who have more temperament than sheer physical +beauty always are difficult. It is impossible that they should look well +in any character of changing fashion or in the colors that are out of +harmony with their natures. For instance, one could never conceive of +Polly O'Neill in a pale blue gown, though for Mollie or Betty Ashton it +might be one's immediate choice. White and red, pale yellow or pink were +Polly's shades for evening wear and either brown or green for the +street. + +Tonight at work on her letter she appeared younger than in truth she +was, like a girl of sixteen instead of nineteen. For although her hair +was worn in a heavy braided coil encircling her head, her dress was +extremely simple. It was of messaline silk of ivory whiteness and made +with a short Empire waist and narrow, clinging skirt. There was no sign +of trimming, except where the dress was cut low into a square at the +throat and edged with a fold of tulle. + +On first coming into the sitting room, Polly, who had always an +instinctive attraction toward bright colors, had taken a red carnation +from a vase on a table and was now wearing the flower carelessly +fastened inside her belt. + +During the first absorption of her writing she had paid no heed to the +door's quiet opening. Nor did she stir when a strange man entering the +room took his seat before the tiny fire which Miss Adams always had +lighted in the evenings, since the English summer is so often +unpleasantly cool to American people. Neither did the man appear to have +observed Polly. + +When the girl finally did become aware of his presence she remembered +that Miss Adams had neglected to mention the name of the guest whom they +were expecting to dinner. And although Polly was becoming more +accustomed to the almost daily meetings with strangers, she always +suffered a few first moments of painful shyness. + +The man happened to have his back turned toward her and had seated +himself in a comfortable big leather chair. Nevertheless as soon as she +stirred from her desk he got up instantly, facing her with a kind of +smiling and vague politeness such as one often employs in greeting a +stranger. Their guest was a good-looking man, with clear-cut features, +a smooth face and brown hair. He wore evening dress, of course, and held +himself with exceptional dignity and grace. He must have been about +twenty-seven or -eight years old. There was nothing in the least +formidable or disconcerting in his appearance, so it seemed distinctly +ungracious and stupid of Polly to commence their acquaintance by +stammering, "Oh, Oh, why--" and then continue to gaze into their +visitor's face without attempting to finish her utterly unintelligible +speech. + +Also for the space of a moment the man seemed surprised and a trifle +embarrassed by this odd form of greeting. Nevertheless the next instant +he was staring at the girl in equal amazement. Then suddenly he held out +both his hands. "It is the 'Fairy of the Woods,' or I am dreaming!" he +exclaimed, closing and then opening his eyes again. + +Polly at once dispelled all possible uncertainty. "If I am the 'Fairy of +the Woods,' then you are 'Grazioso' in 'The Castle of Youth,'" she +laughed, allowing her own hands to rest for the space of a second in +those of her former acquaintance. "But as I happen to remember your real +name, Mr. Hunt, and you cannot possibly recall mine, I am Polly +O'Neill." + +"Then will you please sit down and tell me everything that has been +happening to you and how I chance to find you here in London with Miss +Adams?" Richard Hunt insisted, drawing up a chair to within a few feet +of his own. + +Polly sat down. And quite unconsciously dropped her pointed chin into +the palm of her hand, murmuring with her elbow resting on the arm of her +chair: + +"You remember that time when I met you in New York, we were both playing +in a fairy story," she said. "Well, sometimes fairy stories come true," +she said. + +Ten minutes afterwards when Miss Adams entered the drawing room to greet +her guest, to her surprise she found that he and Polly were already deep +in intimate conversation, so much so that they did not immediately hear +her approach. And Polly was ordinarily so diffident and tongue-tied with +strangers! + +"I am glad that you and Mr. Hunt have not waited for me to introduce +you, Polly," Miss Adams began. Polly jumped to her feet, and her face +grew suddenly white. For she had never spoken of her escapade of two +years before to Miss Adams, and did not know just how the great lady +might receive it. Richard Hunt waited politely for the girl to +acknowledge her previous acquaintance with him. For if she did not wish +to speak he must, of course, by no word or sign betray her. However, in +less than a moment Polly had fought out a silent battle with herself. +There was no positive reason why she should confess her misdeed to this +woman whom she admired beyond all others. And yet to pretend a falsehood +to her friend, Polly could not endure the thought. + +The girl made a charming picture as she stood there in her white dress +with her eyes cast down, not trusting herself to look into the face of +either of her friends. Quite frankly, then, she told the entire story of +her sudden yielding to temptation and of her two weeks' experience in +stage life, which had resulted in her meeting with Mr. Hunt. + +Nor did she allow her speech to take but a few moments of time, not +wishing to draw too much attention to herself. At the instant of her +finishing, it happened that dinner was announced, so that Miss Adams had +no opportunity for expressing an opinion of Polly's conduct either one +way or the other. As they walked out of the room, however, she did +manage to give Polly's arm a tiny sympathetic squeeze, whispering, "I'll +tell you of my own first stage appearance some day, dear, if you remind +me of my promise." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Meeting + + +"They are not coming, Esther, and I am so dreadfully disappointed I +think I shall weep," Betty Ashton announced one afternoon about two +weeks later. The two girls were waiting in front of a tumble-down little +German station in the country, apparently several miles from any thickly +settled spot. Esther was seated in a carriage with a driver, but Betty +was leaning disconsolately over the station platform raised by a few +steps from the ground. A few moments before she had been walking rapidly +up and down in far too great a state of excitement and pleasure to keep +still. Now, however, the train had pulled in and stopped, letting off +several stout passengers, but revealing no sign of Polly O'Neill and the +maid, whom Miss Adams was sending on ahead to make things ready for +her. + +"They must have missed the train; they will be sure to come down early +in the morning," Esther comforted. + +But Betty mournfully shook her head. "It won't be quite the same if they +do. Of course I shall always be happy to see Polly O'Neill at any time +or place in this world or the next; still, a postponed pleasure is not +as agreeable as one that takes place on time. And think of all we had +planned for this evening!" + +Under the circumstances there was nothing for Betty to do now but to +climb back into the carriage and take her seat next her sister. For the +little station was by this time completely deserted and had few +attractions for making one linger long in its neighborhood. It was too +lonely and dilapidated. There was another station at Waldheim, where +passengers usually got out, but the two girls had given Polly special +directions to use this one, so that they might have a long drive home +through the German forests at sundown, bringing her to their little +house in the woods amid the best scenic effects. + +"We won't even be able to receive a telegram tonight telling us what +has occurred, the office closes so early," Betty continued. "I wish at +least that Dick had not chosen to spend tonight in Berlin. Don't you +think he is behaving rather curiously lately, Esther? He is so unlike +himself and sometimes so cross. Of course I realized that he had a right +to be angry when those absurd German youths came wandering out here. But +I was glad enough to have him write to Franz Schmidt that he was never +to see me again. And we have not exactly the right to forbid Frederick +von Reuter's coming to this neighborhood. You don't believe, do you, +Esther child, that Dick can be staying in town so often lately to see +that abominable girl at our old pension?" + +Esther chanced to be gazing at the beautiful landscape through which +they were passing, so that the younger girl had no opportunity for +observing her face. Moreover, Esther's rather weary and wistful +expression would not have altogether surprised her, as both she and her +mother had been worrying recently over Esther's appearance. Undoubtedly +she was working too hard over her music. She went into town twice a week +for lessons and the thought of her appearance in the early autumn might +also be making her nervous. + +Esther made no answer now to Betty's complaints, but instead pointed +toward a hill at the left of them. Near the summit they could see a gray +stone house, looking more like a prison than the American ideal of a +home, and yet possessing a kind of lonely beauty and dignity. + +"Whose castle is that, Betty, do you know?" Esther queried. Betty +wondered if the question was intended to change the current of her +thoughts. + +"It looks far more like one of the castles that we saw during our trip +along the Rhine than the estates near Berlin." + +Then for some absurd reason Betty blushed. "It is Fritz von Reuter's +uncle's place, I believe. I have always intended telling you, Esther, if +you will promise not to mention it to Dick. The day I first came to this +neighborhood to look for a place for us to live I had rather an odd +experience." + +Betty would have continued her confession, but at this moment they were +driving through a wonderful stretch of woodland road. The way was narrow +and on one side was a sharp decline and on the other a thick growth of +evergreens. Moving toward them was a horse with a young man upon it in a +suit of light gray riding clothes, which in the afternoon sunlight +looked almost the color of silver. He was carrying his hat in his hand +and his hair was a bright yellow such as one seldom sees except in young +children. Indeed, he was so remarkably handsome that even Esther, who +rarely paid much attention to strangers, gazed at him for the moment +with interest, temporarily forgetting what Betty had been trying to +confess. + +To her amazement, however, the rider made not the faintest effort to +give their carriage the right of way, but moved on directly in the +center of the road. Their driver, evidently recognizing the young man as +a person of distinction, then drove so close to the underbrush on their +right that both girls felt a momentary fear of being tumbled out. + +Betty kept her lips demurely closed and her head held upright, with the +expression of pride and self-possession which she reserved for very +special occasions. However, it was difficult to maintain an atmosphere +of cold dignity when one was in immediate danger of being tipped out of +a rickety old carriage into a ditch. + +The horse and rider approached nearly opposite the carriage, the young +fellow gazing haughtily but none the less curiously toward the two +American girls. Then almost instantly his unprepossessing manner changed +and his face broke into a smile which was singularly charming. Neither +of the two girls had often seen in Germany just this type of youth. He +was of only medium height, but perfectly proportioned, with square +military shoulders, and he rode his horse as though he and it were +carved from the same block of stone. Nevertheless there was no doubt but +that he was looking at Betty as if he expected some sign of recognition. +He was mistaken, however, for she let him pass them without even +turning her head in his direction. + +It was after eight o'clock that evening when Mrs. Ashton, Betty and +Esther had finally come to the end of their melancholy dinner. For there +are few things drearier than eating alone the banquet prepared for a +long expected guest, when the guest has failed to arrive. + +The dinner table had a miniature pine tree in the center, which Betty +had dug out of the earth with her own hands and decorated with the tiny +Camp Fire emblems which she and Esther always carried about in their +trunks, while waving from its summit was a tiny American flag. On either +side of the tree were the three candles sacred to all their Camp Fire +memories, and the table was also loaded with plates of German sweets and +nuts and favors sent out from town for this evening's feast. + +Esther and Mrs. Ashton had been trying to keep up a semblance of +cheerfulness during dinner, but Betty had refused to make any such +effort. Now the front doorbell unexpectedly rang and their funny little +German _Mädchen_ went out of the room to open it. Betty did not even +glance up. She supposed that it must be Dick, who had changed his mind +about remaining in Berlin and had taken a later train home. However, +even Dick's return was of only limited interest this evening. + +The next moment and two arms were tight about her neck, almost stifling +her. Then a voice that could only be Polly O'Neill's, though Betty could +not turn her head, was whispering: + +"Oh, Princess, Princess, has it been two years or two centuries since we +met? And are you as pretty as ever, and do you love me as much?" + +A little later, when both girls had laughed and cried in each other's +arms, Polly was at last able to explain to Mrs. Ashton that she and her +maid had made a mistake in their train and had taken one which did not +stop at the out-of-the-way station mentioned in the girls' letters. So +they had been compelled to go on further and then to have an automobile +to bring them back to Waldheim. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +An Adventure + + +"Margaret, if you don't mind, we are going for a walk. Betty has been +talking to some girls in the next village about starting a Camp Fire +club with six dear little German maidens who make us think of Meg and +Mollie when they were tiny. Would you care to come with us?" + +Margaret Adams shook her head. She was lying in a hammock under a tree +which made a complete green canopy above her head. At no great distance +away was the brook where Betty had thought herself in hiding several +weeks before, and by dint of keeping very quiet and concentrating all +one's senses into the single one of listening, the music of the running +water might be heard. The woman in the hammock had no desire for other +entertainment. She had been thinking but a few moments before that she +had not felt so well or so young in half a dozen years. The three girls, +Esther, Betty and Polly, had been laughing and talking not far away from +her for the past hour, but she must have been asleep since she had heard +no word of what they were saying until Polly's direct question to her. + +"I am awfully lazy, Polly dear," she apologized. "You know I have been +insisting each day that the next I was going to do exactly what you +girls do and try to pretend I am as young as the rest of you. But I have +not the valor, and besides you will have a far more thrilling time +without a chaperon. Kiss me good-by and take care of pretty Betty." And +Margaret Adams waved her hand in farewell to the other two girls. + +Since their stay in the German forests she had insisted that the girls +treat her as much as possible like one of themselves, that they forget +her profession and her age, and as a sign they were all to call one +another by their first names. + +To Betty Ashton this act of friendliness had not been difficult; it had +actually been harder for Polly, who had known Miss Adams so much more +intimately, and most trying of all to Esther because of her natural +timidity. + +In the first place Betty did not often think of their new acquaintance +as a great actress. Once several years before she had been introduced to +Miss Adams in Woodford, but later had considered her merely in her +relation to Polly. She of course felt very strongly the older woman's +magnetism, just as the world did, and was proud and grateful for this +opportunity to know her. Indeed, Polly in the past few days had to have +several serious talks with herself in order to stifle a growing +sensation of jealousy. Of course she perfectly appreciated how pretty +and charming the Princess was and how she had attracted people all her +life. Yet she was not going to pretend that she was noble enough to be +willing to have Miss Adams prefer the Princess to her humble self. + +As Polly joined her two friends she found herself surveying Betty with +an air that tried hard to be critical; but there was no use in +attempting it this morning. Betty was too ridiculously pretty and +unconscious of it. For, seeing that Polly seemed slightly annoyed with +her, she slipped her hand into hers, as the three of them started off +for the village. In her other hand she carried her old Camp Fire Manual. + +Betty was dressed in an inexpensive white muslin with a broad white +leather belt and a big straw hat encircled with a wreath of blue corn +flowers. Probably her entire outfit had cost less than a single pair of +slippers in the days of their wealth. + +"I hope, Esther, that you have not allowed Betty to go about the country +alone before I joined you," Polly began in her old half-mocking and +half-serious tones. + +Betty laughed at the idea of Polly O'Neill grown suddenly conventional; +however, Esther took the suggestion gravely. + +"I don't know and I am truly glad you have arrived, Polly dear, for a +great many reasons," she replied. "You know I have to be in Berlin two +days every week and Dr. Ashton is away the greater part of the time. And +somehow neither one of us has ever been able to persuade Mrs. Ashton or +Betty to appreciate the difference between Germany and America. Betty +seems to think she can wander about here as freely as if she were in +Woodford." + +"Well, I shall see that she does not wander alone any more if I can help +it," Polly added with decision. And then, "Tell me, please, for goodness +sake, Betty Ashton, how you are going to manage to start a Camp Fire +club in Waldheim? In the first place do you know enough of the German +language to teach other people, and otherwise how will you ever be able +to explain all that the Camp Fire means, its ceremonies and ideals?" + +For the moment Betty's face clouded, as any lack of faith on Polly's +part had always checked her enthusiasm. + +"I can't teach them _all_ of anything, Polly, for in the first place I +have never begun to understand myself one half that our Camp Fire +organization stands for. But I have the feeling that because it has +always given me so much help and happiness I should at least try to +suggest the idea to other people. You see the Camp Fire is not just an +American institution. It is almost equally popular in England, though +there it is called 'The Girl Guides.' And of course in time its +influence is obliged to spread to Germany, so I hope to be a pioneer. I +have been to the school for girls in Waldheim and managed to interest +one of the teachers. She has promised me that when we have read and +studied enough together she will form a Camp Fire club among her pupils +and be their first guardian. So you see I shall not count for much." + +"Angel child!" exclaimed Polly enigmatically, but she offered no further +criticism. + +And indeed the three girls spent a wonderfully interesting two hours +among Betty's new acquaintances. For Esther and Betty both spoke German +extremely well after their two years' residence in Berlin, and although +Polly had to be unusually quiet, she did remember enough of her school +German to understand the others. And when their call had finally ended +Betty promised to return twice each week to continue their work, and +though Polly made no such promise, her enthusiasm was almost equally +great. + +Later on the girls found a tiny restaurant in the village where they +drank hot coffee and ate innumerable delicious German cookies. For they +had left word that they were not to be expected at home for luncheon, +since the best of their excursion was to take place after the trip to +the village. + +For a long time Betty had a place in mind she had particularly wished +Esther and Polly to see and now this was their first opportunity since +Polly's arrival for a long walk. + +"It is only a specially lovely bit of woods with a little house inside, +which looks as though it might be the place where the old witch lived in +the story of 'Hansel and Gretel,'" she explained. "The house is built of +logs, but there are the same tiny window panes and a front door with a +great bolt across it. It is so gloomy and terrifying that it is +perfectly delicious," she concluded gaily, for they had been walking for +some distance to get into her enchanted forest and so far no sign of it +had appeared. Plainly the other two girls were growing weary. + +Half an hour later, however, both Esther and Polly were sufficiently +good sportsmen to confess that their long walk had not been in vain. For +Betty's forest, as they chose to call the place, was entrancingly +lovely, the greenest, darkest, coolest spot in all that country round. +And so curiously secluded! Hundreds of great forest trees and shrubbery +so thick that it must have been left uncut and untrampled upon for many +years. Indeed, except for Betty's previous acquaintance with a path that +led to the house in the woods, there could have been no possibility of +the girls' discovering it. For once having climbed a low stone fence, +they had seen and heard nothing except a solitary deer that had fled at +their approach and an unusual number of wild birds. + +Not far away from the little house Polly and Esther found seats within a +few feet of each other on the trunks of two old trees, while Betty +stretched herself along the ground, closing her eyes as though she had +been a veritable Sleeping Princess. The three girls had no thought of +being disturbed, for the little house was locked and barred and entirely +deserted. + +Then in the midst of the peace and silence of the scene a bullet +whistled through the air. And following the report of a rifle Esther +tumbled quietly off her resting place. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +And Its Consequences + + +Betty bent over her sister first, saying with a kind of quick intake of +her breath: "Esther, what is the matter? Are you hurt? Oh, I have always +been afraid that something dreadful would happen to you, you are so +good!" + +And at this Esther smiled, although somewhat faintly, allowing Polly to +assist her to her feet. + +"Well, I am not being punished for my virtues this time, Betty child," +she answered. "I was just a ridiculous coward, and when that bullet +passed so close to my head that I am quite sure it cut off a lock of my +hair, it made me so faint and ill for an instant that I collapsed. I am +all right now. But I wonder where the shot could have come from?" + +Then the three girls stood silently listening, almost equally pale and +shaken from their recent experience. In another moment they heard the +noise of some one stirring about in the underbrush at no great distance +away and walking in their direction. They waited speechless and without +moving. + +Then suddenly, before they could see the speaker, a voice called out +angrily: "Don't try to escape; stay where you are or I shall fire again. +For I will not endure this lawlessness any longer." + +And almost immediately a young man appeared before them in a hunter's +costume of rough gray tweed, carrying his gun in his hand. His +expression was angry and masterful, his face crimson and his eyes had +ugly lights in their blue depths. Yet instantly Esther recognized the +speaker as the same young fellow whom they had met on horseback a week +or ten days before. + +At his first glance toward Esther and Polly his face changed; for +obviously he was both startled and mystified. Then as he caught sight of +Betty, who was standing just back of the other two girls, another wave +of crimson crossed his face, but this time it was due to embarrassment +and not anger. With a swift movement he lifted his hat and bowed so low +that in an American it would have seemed an absurdity. Yet somehow with +him the movement had both dignity and grace. Straightway Polly O'Neill, +in spite of her vexation, decided that never before had she seen a more +perfect "Prince Charming." The young man's hair was bright gold, his +skin naturally fair and yet sufficiently browned from exposure, his +features almost classic in shape. And while he was not exceptionally +tall, his figure was that of a young soldier in action with the same +muscular strength and virility. + +"I shall never be able to express to you my chagrin and my regret," he +began, including the three girls in his speech but in reality addressing +himself to Betty. He spoke English with only the slightest foreign +accent. "These happen to be my woods and I have been greatly annoyed +recently by trespassers who destroy my game at a season of the year when +there can be neither profit nor pleasure in it. And this when the park +is posted with signs warning intruders." + +"I am sorry that we did not chance to see the signs," Esther murmured. + +"You can understand that we are strangers in this neighborhood, +Americans," Polly defended more hotly. "But of course we should not have +wandered in here without inquiring of some one whether or not we had the +privilege. In the United States we know very little about game preserves +and people are willing to have you enjoy the beauty of their forests. +But we shall leave immediately and promise never to trouble you again." + +"But that means that you have not forgiven me and I ask your pardon with +all my heart. It is my pride, my great pleasure to have you consider my +place worthy of your attention. Miss Ashton," the young foreigner now +turned directly to Betty, "surely you can appreciate and pardon my +mistake." + +Neither of the other two girls had been paying any special attention to +Betty, but at the stranger's surprising knowledge of her name they +turned toward her at once. And both decided that they had never seen +her look so pretty or so angry in her life. Apparently she had not +spoken before because she had not been willing to trust herself. And +Polly had a sudden sense of satisfaction in the knowledge that the +Princess did not lose her poise and self-control in her anger, as she so +invariably did. + +"You ask us to understand and pardon your mistake," Betty now began +quietly. "But suppose that the bullet which you fired so carelessly had +killed my sister. Would you still have expected us to make the same +answer? Of course we are just as much intruders upon your property as if +we were men instead of American girls. But I presume that when you +fired, thinking that we might be poachers, you would have been +indifferent had you wounded one of us. For I believe in Germany it is +the fashion for the soldiers who are intended for the defense of their +country to have little respect for the lives of their country_men_." + +This was a long and bitter speech for a young girl to have made. But +remember that Betty Ashton had been living in Germany for the past two +years at a time when the army had been frequently criticized and had +suffered just as most travelers do from the rudeness of German officers +upon the streets and in places of public amusement. Moreover, she had +not yet recovered from her moment of fright over Esther and was annoyed +at having their pleasure so destroyed. + +Her accusation so surprised the young man to whom it was addressed that +for a moment he did not reply. For evidently he did not often find +himself obliged to be placed on the defensive side in a discussion and +the position did not please him. + +"I regret to have frightened you. And I had no intention of injuring any +one," he remarked stiffly. "It was my plan to fire into the air, but I +stumbled at the critical moment. However, I did not suppose that the +shot came anywhere in your direction. And I am sorry that you should +consider this but another instance of the lack of courtesy in His +Majesty's officers." + +There was an awkward pause. Betty was holding her big flowered hat +pressed close against her white dress, her lips were scarlet and her +face so pale that her gray eyes looked almost smoke-colored. The wind +and the long walk had loosened her hair until it was curling and blowing +about her forehead like tiny red-gold clouds. Honestly no young man +could have remained angry with her for any great length of time. + +She slipped one arm through Esther's, as Esther had continued white and +nervous, and beckoning Polly with the other to join them, with the +merest inclination of her head the Princess started to lead the little +company away. But before she had gone more than a few feet she stopped +and turned around. + +The young man was standing exactly where they had left him with his hat +still in his hand and his face and figure rigid. + +Betty advanced nearer toward him. "Lieutenant von Reuter," she said, "it +is I who must now beg your pardon. You were kind to me once when my +maid and I lost our way in trying to find the village of Waldheim. But +under no circumstances should I have said anything that reflected upon +you or your friends. I know that you are an officer in the German army, +so naturally you must think as little of American courtesy as--" But not +knowing just how to end her sentence Betty did the wisest possible thing +and smiled. + +And at once the young man was figuratively on his knees before her +again. "Don't go away just yet," he pleaded; "you must know that I have +been asking my cousin Frederick about you. It is he who has told me your +name and he must also have spoken of me to you. You yourselves have said +that it was lovely here in my forest and surely you must be weary enough +to remain a little time longer. It is not as though we were entire +strangers, with Frederick your friend and my relative." + +This time Betty laughed outright. "Your cousin is scarcely our friend; +we have only boarded in the same pension with him in Berlin while my +sister was there studying music." She looked a little more searchingly +at Esther. Esther had not been very well for several weeks and now +certainly was unfit for the long walk home in the hottest part of the +afternoon without more rest. + +With an inclination of her pretty head the Princess surrendered. + +"If you really are sure that you won't mind we should like to sit here +in the shade a little longer," she confessed. "That is if we will not +trouble you. You must not feel that you must remain with us, for I +promise that we shall do nothing any harm." + +Without replying, Carl von Reuter then led Esther to her discarded tree +trunk, the other girls having already found seats. + +"If you will be good enough to wait for a few moments I should like very +much to bring you some tea. The little house there is my hunting lodge +and I have all sorts of bachelor arrangements inside," he announced. And +the suggestion was far too welcome for any one of the girls to decline. + +Then in the five minutes of the young man's absence as rapidly as +possible Betty sketched the outline of her acquaintance with him and the +knowledge of his history which she had since been able to acquire. He +was the son of the German count whose stone castle they had seen, and of +course the heir to the title and estate. He was also, as she had already +revealed, a lieutenant in the German army and probably about twenty-two +or-three years old. The family was a very old and proud one and although +they still owned a great deal of land, they were extremely poor. + +But Betty had to cease her confidences abruptly, seeing that their +unexpected host was coming toward them with four cups of tea and a tray +of small crackers and cakes. + +No American man could have performed these small social services with so +little embarrassment, but as Carl explained he had had an English mother +and had been taught to assist her with their guests from the time he was +a boy. + +And by the time the tea had been drunk and the cakes eaten the little +company had apparently reached terms of complete friendliness, having +already forgotten their uncomfortable earlier meeting. + +"I am dreadfully sorry to find that your little house in the woods is +nothing but a hunting lodge," Betty confided. "For you see I have been +telling my sister and Miss O'Neill that this place was a kind of +enchanted forest where 'Hansel and Gretel' must once upon a time have +lost their way." + +However, Carl von Reuter shook his head protestingly. "Why not think of +it instead as Siegfried's forest before he went forth in search of +Brunhilde." + +"Won't you tell us the story of Siegfried?" Polly asked. "I have never +heard the opera and it has been such a long time since I read it." + +Carl laughed. "I am a soldier, not a poet," he explained, "and the +legend is too long and too complicated for me to repeat all of it to +you. Besides, you are sure to recall it as soon as I begin. Siegfried, +you remember, was the son of Siegmund and Sieglinde and the youth who +knew no fear. He is brought up in a forest by a wicked dwarf named +Mime, who desires that Siegfried wrest the magic treasure of the +Nibelung from the giant Fafnir who guards it in the gaping cave of the +Niedhole. With the sword of his father Siegfried goes forth and destroys +the giant and then appears wearing the glittering tarn helmet, the +invincible armor and the magic ring. From the blood of the dead Fafnir, +with which Siegfried touches his lips, he is enabled to understand the +voices of birds. And when one of these sings to him of a maiden +surrounded by flames who can be won only by the man who knows no fear, +Siegfried sets out in search of Brunhilde. On a grassy mound he +discovers a sleeping figure clad in armor and surrounded by flames. +Removing the shield and helmet, he sees a flood of red-gold hair +rippling around the form of a sleeping woman." + +The story teller stopped and Esther inquired: + +"You know the story of Siegfried so well, I wonder if you sing?" + +"Not very well," the young man replied. And then, as though to disprove +his own words and without further urging, he began singing in a fine, +clear tenor, glancing now and then toward Betty Ashton, the beautiful +song of Siegfried's that awakens the sleeping Brunhilde: + + "No man it is! + Hallowed rapture + Thrills through my heart; + Fiery anguish + Enfolds my eyes. + My senses wander + And waver. + Whom shall I summon + Hither to help me? + Mother, mother! + Be mindful of me." + +Later in the afternoon when they had almost reached their own cottage in +the woods, Betty suddenly slipped an arm across her older sister's +shoulder. Polly had already said good-by. + +"After all we did discover a kind of enchanted forest, didn't we, +Esther?" she whispered. + +But Esther was tired and annoyed. "Lieutenant von Reuter was an +agreeable enough fellow for a foreigner, if that is what you mean, +Betty," she returned. "But I got rather tired of his telling us the +story of Siegfried which I certainly knew perfectly well. Besides, it +seemed to me that he was trying to make an impression upon us. And I +shall never, never be able to understand how you can like these German +youths so much. I should feel a great deal happier about you and so +would your brother if you were safely back in Woodford." + +"Don't be a goose, dear," was Betty's only answer. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The Uncertain Future + + +"Have you ever wished some days that you were nine years old instead of +nineteen, Miss Adams--Margaret?" Polly O'Neill corrected herself +hastily. + +The girl and the older woman were sitting out in the yard in front of +their funny little German cottage one afternoon just before twilight. +Polly had been reading aloud until the dusk had settled down too +thickly, and since then had been silent, gazing pensively at the far +line of hills toward the west. + +Margaret Adams looked closely at the girl before replying. For the past +few days she had seen that there was something unusual weighing upon +Polly's mind, since she was never able to conceal her emotions, and had +wondered whether she was feeling homesick or if something had occurred +to worry her. But she only answered lightly: "No, Polly, I am afraid +when one is thirty-five one is more apt to wish to be nineteen than +nine. But would you like to tell me, dear, what special objection there +is to your present age? Don't, if you feel that you would rather not, or +if you would be betraying a confidence." + +But Polly gave a characteristic shrug. "No," she returned, "I would not +be betraying a confidence, only an imagination, and since the +imagination happens to be my own, I suppose I have the right to betray +it." + +Not comprehending exactly what the younger girl was trying to say and +yet understanding that she would make herself plain later on, the woman +quietly waited. She was interested in the processes of Polly's mind and +liked to see them work themselves out. + +"Do you like foreign men?" was the girl's next apparently irrelevant +question. + +But by this time Miss Adams had begun to have a faint suspicion of what +might be at the end of her companion's confession. For in the past two +weeks since Polly's, Betty's and Esther's visit to the German forest, +she too had become interested in some of its consequences. Yet she +answered with entire truthfulness: + +"Why, of course, Polly child, I like foreign men. Why should not one? It +is absurd and prejudiced to like or dislike a person because of his +nationality; it is the man's own character that counts." + +"Oh, yes, I know that is what one should feel and say. I don't mean to +be rude," Polly added quickly, blushing over her fatal habit of saying +whatever was uppermost in her mind. "I was just wondering whether it was +actually true. Don't most of us really in the end like best the kind of +people and life to which we have been accustomed. Now, for example, just +suppose that we take a girl who has been brought up in the United States +almost all her life, where she has had boy acquaintances and friends +whom she has known in a simple, intimate way, without thinking of any +one of them seriously. Then bring her to a foreign country, take +Germany, just when she is about grown. All of a sudden imagine a young +fellow turning up entirely unlike her old boy friends, handsome, +charming and behaving as though he were falling in love with her. Do you +believe that the girl could honestly care for him? Don't you think that +it would just be a mistaken fancy on her part and that some day when she +grew older she would want her old friends and associations again. Why, +she might even meet one of her former acquaintances and find that she +liked him best, because after all he was also an American and thought +about life and women and lots of other things more in the way that she +did." + +Margaret Adams covered both ears with her hands. "My dear Polly," she +began, "if you think I have imagination enough to follow all those +supposings and all those mixed-up sentences and ideas, you must consider +me cleverer than I am. But as long as I happen to be able to guess whom +you are talking about, don't you think we might be straightforward. We +will never speak of it to any one else, nor to each other if it seems +wiser not. But of course you mean----" + +"Betty!" finished Polly. And then sighing profoundly: "You see, ever +since our meeting in the woods the other day with Carl von Reuter he has +been coming to see Betty. He brought his father, the old count, to call +on Mrs. Ashton and has been sending Betty flowers and they have been +riding together and he does not even pretend not to admire her +tremendously. He makes Esther and me perfectly miserable, for you see +Germans seem so different from Americans, so sentimental and silly, I +think. Why, I overheard Lieutenant von Reuter calling Betty Brunhilde, +and instead of being bored she actually appeared pleased. Esther and I +can't understand it. Of course we realize that it is absurd to believe +that people can learn to care for each other in two weeks, yet just the +same Betty is behaving strangely. And Esther wonders if it is her duty +to speak to Richard Ashton before things go any further. Mrs. Ashton +would be no good; she is too pleased over Betty's being admired by a +member of the German nobility. She would never be able to see all the +mischief that might result from it. But then Esther and Dick Ashton are +not friends as they once were. Dick has hardly anything to do with +Esther nowadays--even leaves on an earlier train the mornings that she +has to go into Berlin for her music lessons. And yet when Esther first +came to live with Mrs. Ashton, when she was a hundred times less +attractive than she is now, why he was kinder to her than any of the +rest of us. Oh me, oh my, it is a strange world!" And down went Polly's +chin into the palm of her hand in a characteristic manner. + +For a moment Margaret Adams did not reply. For perhaps a good deal +better than Polly she appreciated the disaster that might result from +the present circumstances. Betty was only nineteen and of course Polly +was right in presuming that she could hardly know her own mind. And yet +the romance and beauty of her surroundings, the good looks of the young +lieutenant with the glamour of his title and position, were sufficiently +strong influences to affect a much older person. + +Yet notwithstanding Betty's beauty and charm, Miss Adams did not have +the same uneasiness that Esther and Polly suffered. For she did not +believe that Lieutenant von Reuter could marry a girl without a dower, +no matter what his personal inclination might be. And Betty had no money +and so far as any one knew no chance of receiving any amount except what +her brother and sister might some day be able to earn. The danger that +the older woman dreaded was that Betty herself might possibly +misunderstand the young foreigner's attentions and that she might learn +to care for him more than would be wise for her happiness. + +Frowning, Miss Adams waited for a moment without speaking. And yet she +looked so entirely interested and sympathetic that Polly dropped to the +ground at her feet, taking one of her slim hands in hers and pressing it +softly to her lips. For it was wonderfully kind of this famous lady to +have forgotten herself so completely that she felt as deep a concern +over Betty Ashton as though she had known her all her life. + +"It was Betty herself who told me that young Count von Reuter had been +brought up with the idea that he must marry a wealthy girl. Don't you +suppose that she understands that anything else is impossible for him?" +she asked. "The family is deeply in debt and even if the young man had +the faintest knowledge of any kind of work it would be regarded as a +disgrace for him to engage in it. Besides, he has chosen his career of a +soldier, which also requires a fortune back of him. Don't you think we +might be able to make Betty see this, even supposing that she does not +already appreciate it?" Margaret Adams finally inquired. + +"I don't know," Polly answered. "For you see, Margaret, it is like this. +All her life Betty Ashton has never known anything but love and +admiration. Why, when we were little children and began having beaux +that nobody knew about except just ourselves, we always expected the +admirers to be Betty's and were surprised when they were not. Oh, I +don't mean that she expected it. The Princess used to be spoiled in lots +of ways before our Camp Fire club and the change in their family +fortunes, but she never has been silly or vain. Then when we grew up +together it was pretty much the same thing. I remember how cross I once +was in Woodford because a young fellow there, who was not Betty's equal +then in any kind of way, in money or family or education, had the +presumption to feel a kind of fancy for her. But now I wish that he or +John Everett or any one of our old friends would turn up here and show +her how much nicer an American fellow is. Any old kind of an American!" +Polly ended almost viciously. + +Miss Adams laughed, touching the girl's dark braids of hair and looking +closely into her emotional, sensitive face. + +"Don't let us worry before it is necessary," she suggested. "But tell +me, Polly, and I am not asking you for curiosity, with all these +admirers whom you insist your beloved Betty has had, hasn't there ever +been any one who has cared for you and whom you may some day care for?" + +For the moment the unexpectedness of this question took Polly's breath. +And then to her deep chagrin she felt herself blushing, even while +vigorously shaking her head in denial. + +And yet at the same time in her intense desire to be perfectly +straightforward with her new friend she was wondering if her denial had +been entirely truthful. Or was it her duty to confess Billy Webster's +stupidity? + +"There was some one once," she murmured after her little period of +hesitation had passed. "But really, Margaret, he did not care for me a +bit; he only wanted to manage me. And I--I didn't care for him in the +least. I never shall care for anybody," Polly insisted with the absolute +conviction of youth. + +Then completely forgetting everybody and everything else, Polly O'Neill +put both arms about her slender knees and there on the grass at the feet +of the great Miss Adams began slowly swaying herself backwards and +forwards as she always had ever since she was a little girl when in the +thrall of some dominant idea. + +She did not look at Miss Adams; she did not even look at the hills or +trees, nor feel the summer darkness that was beginning to close about +them like a soft cloak. For Polly was having one of her moments when the +things inside her mind were so much more visible and important to her +than any outside scene. Never since leaving New York had she mentioned +to Miss Adams her own desire to go upon the stage. It had not seemed +fair to take advantage of her friend's kindness by annoying her with her +own ambition. For it might look as though she expected or hoped for aid +and advice from Miss Adams' friendship. But tonight Polly had forgotten +her past resolutions and reserves. + +"I shall not care for anyone, Margaret, because you know in another year +I intend either going upon the stage in some little part, or if mother +will give me the money, I shall go to a dramatic school. For I am going +to make the stage my career whether I succeed or fail." There was a +catch in the girl's breath and although it was too dark to see her face, +the older woman could imagine the glow in her cheeks and the light in +her curious blue eyes. She looked like an elf or a sprite, something +born of the woods or the sky and hardly an ordinary flesh-and-blood +girl, as she sat in her curious position, dreamily rocking herself back +and forth in the evening dusk and silence. + +"I suppose there are some women great enough to have a career and to +marry besides," she added so solemnly that Miss Adams did not dare +smile, "but I don't believe I am one of them. And I want a career. Yet +it is odd, isn't it? I don't think I have any special talent and Esther +Crippen is so talented we think she is almost a genius. I wish you could +hear her sing, but she is too afraid of you yet. Nevertheless Esther +does not want to be famous one bit and Betty and I don't even dare +mention the word 'career' before her. I am sure she would much rather +marry some day and have babies and sing to her husband and to them, or +perhaps in a church where no one would think much about her. For she +does love her music for itself." + +"But why then does she go on working so intensely, if she does not +intend making a profession of her singing? The poor child is actually +wearing herself out," Miss Adams avowed. + +"Why, don't you know?" Polly faced her companion and though it was now +almost entirely dark, they could yet catch the outlines of each other's +faces. "Esther Crippen does not care for money for herself, but she +cares for it beyond anything for Betty. You see, she and Betty were +separated during all their childhood and now that they have found each +other again Esther fairly worships her sister. She is going to earn all +the money she can with her voice so as to be able to lavish on Betty the +things that she used to have when the Ashtons were rich. Of course Betty +does not know that this is the chief reason that is urging Esther to +sacrifice everything in the world for her work. For naturally Betty +thinks that Esther has so wonderful a talent that she ought to wish to +cultivate it for its own sake. And so does their father, Herr Crippen. I +believe he has the feeling that he has failed with his own music, but +that if Esther succeeds in some way it will redeem his failure. In a way +it does seem rather hard upon Esther if she should ever happen to fall +in love." + +But before Miss Adams could answer her maid had announced an unexpected +visitor. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Richard Ashton + + +Esther Crippen ran out of the front door of their little house with her +coat still on her arm, so great was her hurry. + +"Dr. Ashton," she called several times. And at last the young man +striding on ahead turned and glanced back in surprise. Esther was +carrying her usual music roll, a book and a box of lunch which she +always bore into town on her lesson days. + +Richard Ashton took these from her. + +"I beg your pardon, Esther. I did not know that you were going in on the +early train or of course I should have waited. What is taking you in so +soon? Have you a special appointment?" + +And Esther could only blush and stammer nervously. For intimately as she +had known Dick Ashton, living in the same house with him for several +years in a curious position as though she were a member of his family +yet without any real bond of relationship between them, she could not +now quietly tell him that she was taking this train into town because +she wished to accompany him. At one time in their acquaintance this +would have been a simple and natural enough confession, but recently +Dick Ashton had been so unlike his former self. Or at least if he had +not changed personally, his manner toward her was different. And in +these weeks in the country when Esther had been pondering over the +change it had seemed to her that she could almost remember the day and +hour when the transformation began. + +Now as Esther made no reply to his question Richard Ashton looked at her +more steadily. He was a physician and the girl's pallor and weariness +were more conspicuous to him than to other people, although he was not +alone in noticing it. + +"There isn't any point in your going into the city at daybreak for these +singing lessons of yours," the young man protested in a friendly tone. +"I should think that your wretched old Professor would have brains +enough to know that you won't do him or yourself half as much credit if +he wears you out completely before the date of his concert. When does it +take place?" + +"In October," Esther returned, apparently with little interest. However, +Dick was walking her toward the station with such rapidity that she had +little breath for any other exertion. And yet they had plenty of time, +there was no reason for such hurry. The young man himself did not seem +to be aware of their haste. + +"Look here, Esther," he began a little later, "I am glad of this chance +for our having a talk together. There is something that I have had on my +mind to say for some time without having had the courage or the +opportunity." + +Just for the moment Esther's pallor left her, a slight flush coming into +her cheeks and her lips parting. + +"You see, I think it will be better for you to break the news to mother +and Betty than for me to speak of it first," he continued. "But I--I +have got to go back to the United States this autumn for good. I have +spent all the time studying over here that I have the right to spend and +if ever I am to make a success of my profession I have to get down to +hard work building up a practice. I suppose they will both take it kind +of hard, my deserting them in this way, but they must have anticipated +it." + +In reply Esther's voice was less interested and sympathetic than Dick +Ashton was accustomed to hearing it. + +"Why, I don't believe they will mind half so much as you think; at any +rate your mother will not," she returned. "I have heard Mrs. Ashton say +half a dozen times lately that she wished we were all to go home when +Polly and Miss Adams sail in November. And as far as Betty is concerned +I shall be glad to have you take her back with you." + +"Take Betty home with me!" Dick Ashton's exclamation was in itself a +denial of any such intention. "Why, Esther, I hadn't the faintest +thought of either mother or the Princess coming along with me. You don't +mean that Professor Hecksher has suggested that _you_ take a rest and +that you are going to see your father?" + +With a frown and a sudden nervous movement of her hands Esther shook her +head. But they were now within sight of their little station, where +several other passengers were waiting and no other word of intimate +conversation was possible between them until they were on the train. And +Esther made no protest when Dick, in spite of their poverty, discarding +his regular ticket, bought seats for them both in an empty first-class +coach. There they could be alone and without interruption. And there was +no denying that their conversation, which had just been broken off so +abruptly, must be continued as soon as possible. They were both too full +of things too long left unsaid. + +"Of course you know, Dr. Ashton, that there is not the remotest chance +of my going back home for a long time," Esther went on when once again +they were settled, just as though no interruption to their talk had ever +taken place. "For you see after I make my _début_ at this concert I have +to go on studying. I have even to make a reputation here in Europe if I +can before I return to the United States. Professor Hecksher says that +it is absolutely necessary, and he is willing to help me get engagements +to earn some money, so I shall not continue to be so dreadful an +expense." + +"Sounds rather glorious, doesn't it, Esther, fame and fortune all ready +and waiting to drop at your feet? What a wonderful thing it is to be +born into this world with a great talent and how it must make you look +down on us poor mortals who have to grind and grind for just a bare +existence. I'll be proud some day to say that I have had the honor of +knowing you. You won't forget we were acquaintances, will you, Esther?" +the young man concluded, it was hard to tell whether in bitterness or +joking. + +And his companion turned her face away, pretending to glance out of the +car window at the uninteresting stretch of country and the rapidly +disappearing telegraph poles. + +"I shall never forget that I was a girl being raised in an orphan asylum +and that your mother took me to her home and did what she could to give +me my first start in learning to sing, if that is what you mean, Dr. +Ashton," Esther continued. "Neither can I forget what you have always +done for Betty, though I feel of course that Betty will more than repay +all the people who love her. But if you mean that you only wish us to be +acquaintances in the future, why--" But in spite of her strong effort at +self-control Esther's lips were trembling and the tears gathering in her +eyes. + +Nevertheless she made no effort at withdrawal when Dick Ashton for an +instant placed his hands over her own tightly clasped ones. + +"You are not playing fair, Esther," he urged, "for you know in your +heart that I meant no such thing." + +Then both the girl and the man were silent with the vision of their +possible futures before them. If only Dick Ashton could have asked +Esther to give up the career ahead of her, to renounce her music, to +come back home with him to the United States to be his wife. But what +had he to offer in exchange for these great sacrifices? He was a +penniless young doctor without more than a hundred dollars in the world +once he had paid his passage home and set up some kind of office. +Moreover, suppose he should win patients and success sooner than other +men? Did he not owe his first earnings to his mother and to his sister, +Betty, whose courage and resourcefulness had helped him prepare for his +career? Besides, what did Esther not also feel that she owed to this +same sister? Plainly she had let him know her views on that afternoon +some time ago when he had tried dissuading her from making her _début_ +if the thought of a professional life made her unhappy. Esther had then +said that she felt that she must work until she was able to take care of +herself and Betty and even to assist her father and new stepmother. For +Herr Crippen was growing older and had nothing except what he earned by +his music pupils. No, Esther's way was straight before her and one owed +it to a great talent like hers to make the best of it. She had never +manifested for Richard Ashton more than a warm friendliness which was +natural enough to their position. Neither had he ever given Esther any +reason to believe that the old kindness and sympathy which he had once +felt for her had deepened into emotions much stronger. Yet, to him +Esther's plain face, with its pallor and serious sweetness, with its big +mouth and splendidly modeled lips was more beautiful than all his sister +Betty's vivid prettiness. + +"Betty!" The thought of her brought him back to the every-day world +again. He laughed good-humoredly. + +"Esther, Betty has everlastingly been saying that you had a perfectly +determined passion for sacrificing yourself. Please get it out of your +head at once that I have the faintest idea of taking Mistress Betty home +with me. For if ever you needed her in all your life it seems to me you +will need her in the next few years. And as long as half your effort is +being made for her sake don't you think that she might at least be +allowed to stand shoulder to shoulder with you? The Princess is rather a +nice person, you know, Esther, in spite of us, and I don't believe that +all the pleading in the world that I could do would persuade her to +desert you." + +"But it must," Esther replied so solemnly that Richard Ashton stared at +her in fresh astonishment. For now that they were talking of Betty and +not of herself she was looking directly at him. + +"You see, it is for just this reason that I wanted to talk to you +alone," Esther went on hurriedly. "Of course I may be mistaken or +perhaps I have not exactly the right to interfere, but I am awfully +afraid, Dick, that Betty is learning to care for that young German +fellow, Carl von Reuter. Oh, I can understand that you may consider it +absurd of me to be so suspicious, because Betty has been having dozens +of admirers ever since we came to Germany. But I am sure this affair is +quite different. In the first place the man himself is so much more +attractive. He is heir to an old title and----" + +"But Betty could not be such an utter goose as to care about a title," +Dick interrupted; "and this fellow is as poor as a church mouse and she +has only known him a few weeks. Don't you think it is rather looking for +trouble? Why, I shouldn't dream of allowing Betty to consider the fellow +seriously. I'll tell him not to come to the house again, as I did that +other youth, if you say the word. Anyhow, I'll give Betty a piece of my +mind tonight." + +"You won't do any such a thing, Richard Ashton," Esther remarked firmly, +actually shaking the young man's arm to express her scorn of his +stupidity, "for if you do you will involve us all in a great deal of +discomfort if nothing worse. In the first place I don't think Betty yet +dreams that she is beginning to care seriously for this young German and +perhaps she won't if no one says anything to her. But from what Polly +and I have seen she does like him a great deal already and she tries to +see him by himself without Polly or me. And you know that isn't in the +least like the Princess. But she is awfully interested in her Camp Fire +club in the village and perhaps if you take her home pretty soon +nothing serious will happen. Lieutenant von Reuter is awfully poor, I +know, and everybody says he simply has to marry a rich girl. But I don't +know which I should hate the most: to have Betty care for him and he not +return her affection or to have them both care and----" + +"For goodness' sake, don't say another word, Esther, or I shall take the +next train back home and sit and watch every breath Betty draws for the +rest of the day," Dick answered miserably. "Please remember that I have +a particularly hard lecture on anatomy in another hour. But I shall meet +you on the train going out this afternoon and perhaps we can think up +some plan of campaign together." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Betty's Strange Disappearance + + +When Dick and Esther returned home just before dusk on that same +afternoon, Betty was not there. They found Mrs. Ashton in tears from +nervousness and fright, Polly O'Neill divided between anger and +solicitude, and only Miss Adams sufficiently composed to have been +making the necessary investigations. + +So far as the newcomers could learn Betty had left the cottage at about +eleven o'clock in the morning to go to the village of Waldheim for the +work with the Camp Fire club which she had recently organized. But +instead of waiting for Polly to accompany her after their regular custom +she had seemed restless and in a most unusual hurry, and when Polly +happened to be ten or fifteen minutes late for their appointment, Betty +had gone off without her, taking their little German maid-of-all-work +as her companion for the walk. + +Afterwards the maid had reported that _das Fräulein_ had arrived safely +at the school and had joined her German friend, who was learning the +business of a Camp Fire guardian. Later the girl had returned home +expecting Betty to appear at lunch time; but it was now half-past five +and no word had come from her, notwithstanding that several hours before +Mrs. Ashton herself had gone into Waldheim and learned that Betty had +presumably started for the cottage a short time after noon. + +She had no other acquaintances in the village to detain her, so that the +mystery of her disappearance was complete. There were, however, several +persons who claimed to have seen her leaving for home at about the +accustomed hour. + +Naturally for the first few moments after their arrival both Dick and +Esther were more astounded and stunned over the Princess' unaccountable +behavior than frightened. For it seemed impossible to imagine that +anything serious could have happened to her. Yet ten minutes later both +the girl and man were suffering from even greater apprehension than Mrs. +Ashton had endured. For whatever had induced Betty to attempt the walk +from the village to their cottage alone? Of course the neighborhood in +which they were spending the summer was presumably a quiet and peaceful +one; still the two older women and Richard Ashton had objected to any +one of the girls going any distance from their homes without +companionship. And Betty was ordinarily obedient to her mother's +slightest wish, fearing to cause her anxiety. + +Rather helplessly Richard Ashton turned toward Margaret Adams, as a +stranger is oftentimes of more use in an emergency of this kind than a +member of one's own family. + +"I had better go down to the village at once, don't you think?" he +suggested. "There must be police, some one to whom I can appeal for +assistance. If we were only in our own country one would know so readily +what to do." + +"I will go with you, Dick," Polly answered, beginning to put on her hat +and light wrap. "No, Esther dear, you look tired to death already and +some one must stay here with Mrs. Ashton and Margaret. In all +probability Betty will return before we are able to get back." + +Esther had gone to their front door to look out, but at Polly's words +she returned and faced Mrs. Ashton. + +"Don't you think we had best find Lieutenant von Reuter and ask his +assistance?" she volunteered. "We know no one in this part of the +country who would have so much influence. If Betty has lost her way, if +the woods have to be searched, why no one could give us such valuable +aid." + +Mrs. Ashton's expression changed; she looked much relieved. "Esther +dear, you are such a comfort. Why in the world did I not think of that +idea at once? Lieutenant von Reuter is such a friend of Betty's and of +mine that I am sure he will tell us what to do, even if he is unable to +discover Betty himself." She put her hand on her son's shoulder, for +Dick Ashton was growing more and more stern and uneasy. "Don't you +think you had best drive up to the castle and see him yourself? Or if +you could telephone that would be quicker." + +"I dislike very much asking a stranger to have any part in a family +affair of this kind, mother," Dick answered severely. "I have met +Lieutenant von Reuter only two or three times and it surprises me to +find that you appear to regard an acquaintance of a few weeks as a +friend. I shall prefer to make my own investigations first without +asking his advice." + +So accustomed was Mrs. Ashton to yielding to her son's wishes that for +the moment, although she was plainly unconvinced of his wisdom, she +seemed about to give up. However, Esther Crippen laid her hand quietly +on Richard Ashton's arm. "Please, please," she whispered so faintly that +no one else could catch her exact words, "don't let anything that I have +been saying to you today influence you or keep you from following the +wisest course. Mrs. Ashton and I are right. And besides," Esther's voice +trembled in spite of her effort at self-control, "we must find Betty no +matter what method we use. I am afraid she has been taken ill and is +among strangers unable to let us hear. I--I can't imagine what else +could have occurred." + +Dick's face softened. Why did Esther's advice always seem to him so much +more admirable and intelligent than other persons'? Possibly because she +so seldom thought first of herself! + +"Dr. Ashton, do hurry," Polly O'Neill now urged impatiently. "I want to +study every foot of the way from here into Waldheim before it grows too +dark for me to see. If our Camp Fire training only will come to our aid! +For if Betty has lost her way, surely she ought to be able to give us +one of our old signals which we may recognize." + +She was hurrying out of the door when Margaret Adams, who was sitting +next Mrs. Ashton, trying to soothe the older woman's nervousness, said +in a voice whose thrilling and sympathetic quality never failed to hold +any audience that heard it. "Please wait for a moment, Dr. Ashton and +Polly. There is something I want you to hear--a confession I must make. +Earlier this afternoon when we first began to feel afraid that Betty was +not coming home it occurred to me that perhaps Lieutenant von Reuter +might know something about her. You must not think I intended being +officious, but was there not a possibility that she might have gone for +a walk or drive with him? You see, American girls so often fail to +understand that they cannot do away from home the things they do in the +United States without any thought of harm. And so I wondered if the walk +or drive together might not have become a longer one than they realized +or if an accident might not have taken place so as to delay them +unaccountably. Therefore at about four o'clock this afternoon I +telephoned to the castle and asked to speak to Lieutenant von Reuter. +The man servant told me that he was not at home, that he had left the +castle at an early hour in the morning without saying where he was going +or when he would return. However, I left word begging him to let us hear +as soon as he came in. I made the message so emphatic that I hardly +think it could have failed to be delivered. Notwithstanding we have +heard nothing thus far. But if Dr. Ashton feels that it would be best to +inquire again, I want him to know what I have done and----" + +Never in their acquaintance had Polly O'Neill before shown impatience +with her new friend. Now, however, her loyalty to Betty Ashton seemed +the most important issue in the world. Particularly when on the faces of +Mrs. Ashton, of Dick and even Esther, she could observe that Miss Adams' +suggestion had left its influence. Well, she and Betty had been like +sisters always, members of the same Camp Fire club. She knew that Betty +could do no such thing as Margaret Adams suggested, even in a spirit of +thoughtlessness. It would seem too much like an effort to mislead her +mother and deliberately to desert her. + +Just as emphatically as of old Polly shook her head, although she did +manage to speak with more than her usual restraint. "You are mistaken, +Margaret, in supposing that Betty's disappearance has anything to do +with Carl von Reuter. Oh, yes, I--I know it is partly my fault because I +told you the other afternoon that Esther and I were both uneasy because +she seemed to like him so much. But that did not mean that she would +ever do anything wilful or foolish because of him. You see, dear, you +are confusing the Princess and me. Betty thinks before she does things; +I don't as often as I should, though I hope I have improved." Deserting +her position next Richard Ashton, Polly slipped across the room, +dropping on one knee before her friend. "You must not think we do not +appreciate your kindness in trying to help us, but if you had known the +Princess as long as I have you would not misunderstand her." + +"Bravo, Polly," whispered Margaret Adams kindly. Then she turned +gracefully toward Mrs. Ashton. "I hope you do not feel as offended with +me as Polly does. Truly I did not mean that my suggestion should reflect +seriously upon Betty. It has not taken me so long a time to understand +her as one might think. But it did not seem to me that taking a walk or +a drive with a friend would be thought so serious an offense. Also there +is the possibility that she may have met Lieutenant von Reuter on her +way home and that without reflecting on your possible uneasiness----" + +But Miss Adams could not continue her apology, for at this moment there +was an unexpected noise of some one approaching the front door. And as +the sitting room was so close to the small hall everybody started up +with broken words of relief. Betty was doubtless arriving and within a +few seconds would be able to explain the mystery of her delay. + +Almost at the same moment Dick Ashton and Esther managed to reach the +little front door together, although it was Dick's hand that opened it. +The changed expression in his usually serious eyes showed the burden of +anxiety that had been so suddenly lifted from him. + +However, he made no outward sign--it was Esther who gave the muffled cry +of disappointment--when outside they discovered the figures of two young +men, Lieutenant von Reuter and his cousin Frederick. + +"I have been in Berlin for the day," Carl von Reuter explained formally, +"and when I returned, bringing my cousin with me, I found the message +that some one here wished to speak to me. It seemed best that I come in +person. I do not understand, but if I can be of service----" + +Brushing past Richard Ashton, Esther held out her hand. + +"You are very kind, Lieutenant von Reuter. Won't you both please come +in? For you see my sister Betty has been lost for five or six hours and +as we are dreadfully worried, we hoped you would be kind enough to try +to help us find her." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +The Finding of Brunhilde + + +From twilight until almost midnight Dick Ashton, the other two young +men, Polly and Esther and a number of people from the village of +Waldheim searched the surrounding country for Betty Ashton. It seemed +utterly incredible that she could not be found! She was not a child; she +was almost a woman and could not have been lured away by strangers. But +why if she were lost did she not make some sign? There were several +signals learned in her Camp Fire days, which Polly and Esther would +assuredly have understood. + +Earlier in the evening by the aid of a lantern Polly O'Neill had +insisted that she had discovered tracks that were surely Betty's, +turning from the main road which would have brought her to the cottage, +into a small stretch of woods. But at night it was quite impossible to +follow these tracks over the brush and bracken, and after the woods had +been thoroughly searched and no other suggestion of a wanderer +discovered, Polly's idea did not carry much weight. Moreover, the two +girls were too utterly exhausted and frightened to continue the +investigation, though neither of them would consent to return home. + +By chance the two girls, Richard Ashton and Carl von Reuter had +separated from the others and were resting for a moment by the side of a +low stone fence enclosing a forest. + +Dick was leaning over Esther urging her to let him take her into the +village, where a carriage was in waiting to drive any one of them who +might have news, back to Mrs. Ashton and Miss Adams, who were still +together at the cottage. Carl von Reuter happened to be standing close +to Polly, but he was not speaking to her nor observing her. All through +the evening he had seemed as anxious and interested about Betty as her +brother and even more nonplussed at their inability to find any trace of +her; because, of course, he knew so thoroughly well every inch of +ground in the surrounding country and had also called in his servants +from the castle to assist in the search. + +Suddenly Polly clutched at the young lieutenant's arm. She had risen +unexpectedly to her feet and was pointing ahead apparently at nothing so +far as her companions could see. + +The night had been dark and cloudy, the atmosphere sultry with +suggestions of a September storm. Therefore the task of finding Betty, +should she be out of doors, had been the more difficult and the more +imperative. + +"Look, Esther," Polly called sharply, "there over in the woods toward +the west. Do you see anything?" + +Esther had gotten up on her feet more slowly and was leaning on Dick +Ashton's arm. She had become weary of false clues and false hopes. And +Polly with her sanguine temperament had been more often deceived than +any one else. + +"That is only a mist you see rising between the trees, Miss O'Neill," +Carl von Reuter answered before the others spoke. "It very often occurs +in these damp old forests on sultry nights." + +Polly made no reply for the moment, only walking over to where Esther +was standing she whispered something to her that no one else could hear. +And Esther took tight hold of Polly's hand and without regarding their +escorts they both stared unceasingly in the direction that Polly had +first indicated. Were the light clouds they saw at so great a distance +away, rising and floating lightly in the night air like pale ghosts, +really nothing but mist? Then it was curious that the mist should rise +always in double clouds, the one within a few feet of the other. + +A second time the two girls together watched this phenomenon and then +after an interval of ten minutes, during which neither one of them would +change her position, for the third time they saw the two light clouds +unfurl and this time, though they may not have been perfectly certain of +this detail, there appeared tiny sparks and cinders amid the clouds. + +Polly turned deliberately toward Carl von Renter. "Lieutenant von +Reuter," she said, "Betty is somewhere within your woods. I am +perfectly sure of it and so is Esther by this time. You may not +understand, but we have lived together in the woods for over a year and +have studied woodcraft until we know almost as much about it as Indian +women. The two columns of smoke which we have discovered rising at +regular intervals are a woodsman's signal for help. We must go to Betty +at once. It is dark and we are not familiar with your forests, so that +it would take us a longer time to reach her alone. Will you be good +enough to lead the way?" + +There was no disputing the girl's quiet conviction, and as Esther was +now equally convinced, neither young man advanced any denial. Only Carl +von Reuter plunged ahead so rapidly that following him was almost out of +the question. + +By some magic he seemed to know the open spaces between the trees and +where the underbrush could be safely trodden down. Neither did he make +any effort to assist either of the two girls, leaving that task entirely +to Richard Ashton. And though under ordinary circumstances neither girl +would have needed help, tonight Esther was strangely tired. All day, +since the early hour of leaving their little German cottage, she had +been under unusual strain. So that now, though she was ashamed of it, +remembering her long training in outdoor life, now and then she did +manage to stumble and to have to clutch either at Polly or at Dr. Ashton +for support. + +In one of these moments of delay, Carl von Renter did hesitate for an +instant, calling back over his shoulder: "We will reach the path in a +short time. It is the same path which you took through the woods to my +hunting lodge several weeks ago." + +But when they finally reached this path their leader had disappeared +into the distance ahead of them, leaving the three strangers to stumble +on through the darkness alone. + +And if ever in her life Polly O'Neill was to recognize the need which +any woman may some day require of a knowledge of the woods and fields, +she needed it tonight. For here the three of them were in an unknown +forest in a strange land with no light except that made by the dark +lantern which some one in the village had loaned Dick. Esther was too +tired to be of much assistance, and Richard Ashton did not understand +half so much of outdoor life as the two Camp Fire girls. Always he had +been too devoted a student of books for the right kind of acquaintance +with nature. Moreover, Dick was extremely angry at Lieutenant von +Reuter's desertion of them. Of course Betty must be found as promptly as +possible, if it were true that she was signaling for their aid from some +place in the woods. But if Dick had realized it, in his prejudice +against their new acquaintance, he would honestly have preferred that +Betty should have to wait for her deliverance a few moments longer than +that this young foreigner should manage to be her deliverer. And this in +spite of the fact than an occasional drop of rain was beginning to fall +and that now and then a line of lightning streaked the sky. + +Under other circumstances nothing would have persuaded Carl von Reuter +to have so failed in courtesy as his present action showed. For whatever +the difference in points of view between an American and a foreigner, +there is little difference in the code of good breeding between one +civilized nation and another. And Lieutenant von Reuter was a member of +the old German nobility. Indeed, one of the objections to him which both +Esther and Polly had expressed was that he was almost too formal, too +conventional in his manner and behavior for their simpler American +taste. So of course there was some unusual impulse, some strong emotion +and design now urging him ahead almost to the complete forgetting of his +other companions. + +But not since the hour of their original meeting had the young German +failed to acknowledge to himself that Betty Ashton had a charm for him +which no other girl had ever before possessed. He had known no other +American girls until now, and his acquaintance with German girls of his +own position in life had been at solemn parties, where they were usually +too frightened and self-conscious to have much to say for themselves. Of +course he had always been told that American girls were unlike any +others and yet had failed to imagine that they could have the beauty and +fascination that Betty Ashton had for him. Why, he had not even tried to +find out anything about her family, about her position in the world! For +it is a curious fact that foreigners who care so much for class +distinctions in their own countries have no such attitude toward +Americans. Because we have no titles, because a family that is poor and +obscure in one generation may be rich and distinguished in the next, +they consider that all Americans are of equal position except in the +matter of wealth. And this fact Carl von Reuter had learned in +connection with Betty Ashton. She was poor, there was no possibility of +doubting it. One could see it plainly enough in the simple fashion in +which they were living and through their ordinary conversation. +Moreover, Betty had made no effort to hide the fact. Indeed, it had +seemed at times as if she were anxious to speak of it for some secret +reason of her own. Yet she need not have felt this necessary, since +there could be no uncertainty in the young count's mind. Frederick von +Reuter, who seemed to have almost forgotten his own emotion in his deep +interest in his cousin's, having made careful inquiries through his +bank, had sadly reported that Miss Ashton could not possibly be regarded +as an American heiress. + +This information, tragic as it may have sounded at the time, had no +place in Carl's thoughts tonight. He was only possessed of the one +thought that the girl whom he admired and liked so much was alone in the +woods, probably hurt and needing his aid. And that at any moment she +might be caught in a fierce thunderstorm. + +As the young fellow strode swiftly along--he had hunted too frequently +in his own forests not to be entirely familiar with them--he began to +realize that the signal which his two girl companions had recognized +first was coming from the same neighborhood where he had had a previous +meeting with them. For as he drew nearer, once again the signals +flashed, though dimmer now because of the increasing strength of the +storm. + +Curiously enough, as he strode along he was recalling the story of +Siegfried and Brunhilde which he had repeated to the three girls at +Polly's request. And the words of Siegfried's song came back to his +mind. This was not just an idle coincidence. The Germans are a far more +sentimental and music-loving race of people than we can fully +understand. And from the hour when Carl von Reuter had first seen Betty, +the beauty of her gold-red hair had suddenly made him think of his small +boy dream of this best-loved heroine in all the old German legends. +There was hardly a time in his childhood when he had not been devoted to +this story, which is usually unfamiliar to American boys and girls until +such time as they are grown and begin seeing Wagner's wonderful operas, +written about these tales of the Nibelung. + +And in truth the young man found Betty Ashton as much encircled by fire +as ever the famous Brunhilde could have been and with the thunder and +lightning playing over her head like the final scene in "Siegfried." + +The girl lay on the ground between two smouldering fires from which only +feeble columns of smoke were now arising, although there were flames +enough still left among the embers to reveal the outline of her form. +Nevertheless, though Carl von Reuter called her name aloud long before +he could reach her side, Betty made no response. A short time after the +reason was sufficiently plain, for she had fainted. + +For half a moment the young lieutenant stood silent, staring down upon +her, too full of feeling to trust himself to speak. She looked so +utterly worn out and exhausted. Her thin summer dress of some light +color and material was torn and soiled and her hair had come unfastened +and was hanging loose about her shoulders, making a kind of vivid pillow +against the darker background of the earth. For when another sudden +flash of lightning followed the girl's hair was the color of the flame. + +"Miss Ashton," Carl von Reuter called. + +It was evident enough even in these first few minutes what had taken +place. For one of Betty's shoes was off and her ankle had been put into +splints and bandaged with the sleeve torn from her gown. She must have +dragged herself about collecting wood and underbrush for her camp fires +and there was at present no way of guessing how many she may have had to +build before her signals were discovered. + +"Miss Ashton--Betty!" Lieutenant von Reuter called again. But the girl +made no answer and the heavens suddenly seemed to part wide open, +letting forth a heavy downpour of rain. + +In the same instant the young man gathered up the girl in his arms and +ran toward the shelter of his hunting lodge. He had always the key with +him, so that the door was quickly opened. Placing her on a couch, he +then lighted candles; but the next moment, now that Betty was safe, he +had a sudden appreciation of the struggle and anxiety of his three +companions, whom he had so unceremoniously deserted. With a silver +hunting whistle to his lips he blew loudly and then waited for an +answer. None succeeded and he tried again and again. The third time an +answering "hello" came from the lips of Richard Ashton. + +When the young count finally turned and re-entered the room he +discovered that Betty's eyes were now open and that she was looking +gratefully and with entire consciousness at him. + +But without attempting to do anything more than smile at her +reassuringly the young lieutenant knelt and started a fire in his big +open fireplace. And before it had done more than flicker into a light +blaze, Polly, Esther and Dick were also crowding into the room, the +girls kneeling beside Betty, while Carl von Reuter apologized to Dr. +Ashton for his desertion. + +It was now past midnight and out of the question for any one of the +three girls to attempt the journey home. So after seeing that his four +guests were made as comfortable as possible in his lodge for the night, +it was the young German officer who tramped the long distance back +through the rain to assure Mrs. Ashton and Miss Adams of Betty's +discovery. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A Heart-to-Heart Talk + + +Several days later Betty Ashton was driven over to spend the day with +Polly and Miss Adams. Her accident had not been a serious one, since by +putting her ankle into splints at once she had saved it from dangerous +swelling. Nevertheless she was unable to walk about except on crutches +and so the tedium of staying at home was trying. Particularly as this +was one of Esther's days in Berlin devoted to her music lesson, Betty +wished to be with her friends. + +The three women had spent the morning out of doors, but after lunch, as +it grew unexpectedly cool, Polly suggested that a small fire be laid in +their queer German stove, which was built of porcelain and stood like an +odd-shaped monument in a corner of the sitting room. + +Betty was resting on the sofa, Miss Adams writing letters at her desk +and Polly sitting on a low stool as close as possible to the few embers +visible near the base of the stove. She had never forgotten her old +devotion to a camp fire and this was as good a substitute as one could +obtain in their little German household. + +Strangely enough no one of the little company had spoken a single word +for the past ten minutes, so that it might have appeared as though all +possible confidences had been exchanged during the morning. Margaret +Adams finally got up and coming across the room, seated herself on the +edge of Betty's sofa. She was wearing a soft, dark-blue silk made with +no other trimming than a girdle and a little round collar of lace, and +she seemed very few years older than her two companions. + +The Princess looked at the great lady admiringly. It had been difficult +to think of Miss Adams today except as one of themselves. She had been +so gay and friendly, laughing over their jokes and apparently never once +thinking or talking of herself. How wonderful to be able to accept fame +and wealth in so simple a spirit, and what an object lesson for erratic +Polly! Yet some benefit must Miss Adams have received from her friend, +for surely she was looking years younger since her arrival in the German +forests and so rested that she might soon be able to go back to her work +with renewed talent. Think of being rested by being in Polly O'Neill's +society! How surprised Polly's mother and Mollie would be by this +information! And unconsciously Betty began smiling into the lovely face +now bending over hers. + +Could it be possible that Miss Adams was actually blushing, that she was +returning her gaze with a kind of gentle timidity that somehow recalled +either Mollie or Meg? + +Then suddenly Margaret Adams said, "Betty, I have been wishing to +apologize to you ever since the day of your accident. I know that no one +else will tell you, but on the evening when we were so worried over +deciding what might have become of you, I suggested that you might have +gone for a walk or drive alone with Lieutenant von Reuter without +thinking to let your mother know, and that some accident had occurred to +delay you. At the time Polly scolded me dreadfully for my lack of faith +in you, yet I don't feel that it would be quite fair to you unless I +make this confession." + +What on earth would Betty Ashton not have given at this moment to have +prevented her cheeks from suddenly crimsoning in such a ridiculous +fashion? Would she never hear the end of her escapade? Excepting her +mother, her own family had been curiously severe and unsympathetic over +what had seemed to her only an act of foolishness on her part, scarcely +a crime. And here was Polly O'Neill also frowning upon her at this +present instant as if she had been a saint herself during all her past +life. + +"It is all right, Miss Adams, of course," Betty murmured. "I am not in +the least offended by your conjecture. It was natural enough under the +circumstances, I think." And here Betty raised herself on one elbow, +forgetting everything else in her earnestness. "Won't you tell me, +please, Miss Adams, if it would have been so dreadful a thing if I had +done what you supposed? Of course I should have let mother know, but +otherwise I should not have thought anything of it. Why, it seems to me +that it would have been much better had I had a companion on my walk. +Because when I was such a goose as to catch my foot in a tangle of vines +and tumble headlong, had Lieutenant von Reuter been with me he could +have helped me home or at least let mother hear so that I need not have +given so much trouble and uneasiness." + +Miss Adams kissed the girl impetuously, failing to see that Polly was +frowning at them both. + +"Yes, dear, since you honestly wish to know, it would not have been +wise," the older woman answered, "though I understood at the time that +you might have done the thing without thinking. You know there is an old +expression--and of course these old expressions bore us so that we are +apt to forget how vital they are--that when we live in Rome we must do +as the Romans so. I wish American girls would remember this adage a +little better when they are traveling in Europe. You see, these old +countries over here have had their customs much longer than we have had +ours, and a walk with a friend would have meant nothing of any +importance to you, but to them----" + +"Margaret," Polly O'Neil broke into the conversation abruptly, "I don't +mean to be rude in interrupting you. But there is one thing that Betty +Ashton has never yet explained to my satisfaction or anybody else's, and +I don't see why she should not do it now. Will you please tell me, +Betty, whatever induced you to start off on such a journey by yourself? +You must have known that the walk would take you several hours at least, +even if nothing unforeseen had happened. Surely you had sense enough to +know that your wandering around in a strange woods alone without +anyone's knowing where you were would not be safe at any time or place. +What made you do it?" + +Betty bit her lips. It was true that she and Polly had never failed in +the past in being absolutely honest with each other, nor had she ever +hesitated to ask of Polly anything that she herself desired to know. Yet +it was hardly fair that she should be asked this particular question +before a comparative stranger. It had been difficult enough to make Dick +and Esther accept her explanation as a reasonable one after several days +of discussion. So what should she now answer Polly? For her friend's +eyes were upon her with that queer searching gaze they sometimes wore, +and her high cheek bones were flushed with determination--and something +else. + +"Answer me," Polly repeated firmly. + +"Why, I thought I told you the other morning," Betty returned meekly. "I +had no very special reason for taking the walk. I was just nervous and +restless and kind of worried and all of a sudden as I started for home, +why it seemed to me that I could not bear to go indoors so soon. And +then I thought of the beautiful woods where we were together a while ago +and I believed that if I could rest there for a little I should be----" + +"Be what, Betty Ashton?" Polly demanded almost savagely. And then she +shook her head sagely and with her arms about her knees relapsed into +her old habit of rocking herself thoughtfully back and forth. "You need +not try to explain anything further to me or to any one else for that +matter. Your explanations are too absurd. Because if you don't know +yourself what is the trouble with you, Esther and I both do. You are +falling in love. You have not been like yourself for weeks! Why do you +suppose that just now when I asked you a simple question that you should +hesitate and flush? You went to that same old place in the forest alone +just because you wanted to think about----" + +But the Princess was now getting up from her place on the sofa and the +other girl understood perfectly well her pretty air of offended dignity. + +"Miss Adams," Betty began quietly, "it is growing late and if you don't +mind will you ask your maid to send for my carriage. I have had a lovely +day with you. Thank you for having asked me." And as she started limping +into the other room for her wraps it was the older woman who slipped +her arm affectionately about her, in the meantime frowning at Polly with +more displeasure than she had ever before shown. + +But Mistress Polly did not stir from her stool nor cease from rocking +herself after the other two women had disappeared. Nor did she even +repent sufficiently to help Betty out to her carriage, in spite of her +friend's temporary lameness and need of her. The maid and Margaret could +this time fill her place. But it was not only bad temper nor was it +exactly repentance for her impertinence that kept Polly so steadfast in +her childish position. It was ridiculous of her, certainly, and yet she +could not keep back her tears. She had been fearful that her beloved +Betty was beginning to care for this young foreigner; now she felt +absolutely assured of it. For Betty would not even deny her accusation +nor quarrel with her effrontery. How grown-up she had become, her dear +Princess! And what a gracious, high-bred manner she had! It was too +dreadful to have to think of leaving her behind in a foreign country +forever and ever, married to a man whose ideas of life must be so +different from theirs. Well, for her part she should fight against such +a marriage taking place to the bitter end! + +Nevertheless this resolution did not keep Polly from feeling like a very +rude and much-snubbed little girl for the rest of that afternoon and +evening. Miss Adams did not refrain from assuring her that she had +behaved like a bad-mannered child. For whether or not the Princess was +beginning to care for the young lieutenant, it was both unjust and +unkind in Polly to try to tear away the delicate veil of romance which +in the beginning should cover all young eyes. + +As for Betty herself, she of course made no comment on the day's +experiences to her family, except to say that she had had a pleasant +enough time, but was tired. No one of them paid her as much attention as +usual, for they were too deeply interested in some news which Dick +Ashton had just received in an American letter. Anthony Graham had +written saying that old Judge Maynard had recently died and that Betty +had been mentioned in the old man's will. The will had not yet been +probated, but would be within the month, when full particulars would be +furnished them. At the time of his death Anthony had been with the old +Judge, who had asked that the Ashton family be advised of his intention. + +It was odd that under the circumstances Betty should appear to be the +least interested of the four persons about their small dinner table in +the news of her own good fortune. + +"I wonder how much the legacy will amount to, mother--only a few hundred +dollars, I presume," Dick Ashton suggested. "It is an amazing thing to +me, however, why Judge Maynard should have left Betty a cent. Of course +he is an old bachelor with no heirs, but he seemed to have taken a great +fancy to this Graham fellow. And moreover, Betty was entirely an +outsider." + +Mrs. Ashton would not entirely agree to her son's line of argument. For +Judge Maynard and her husband had been great friends, and interested in +a number of business ventures together in earlier days, when Mr. Ashton +had helped make the Judge's fortune as well as his own. And the older +man had not had the misfortune to lose his. Moreover, he had been +devoted to Betty when she was a small girl and later had shown much +interest in her effort to hold on to the old Ashton place. + +"I should not be in the least surprised, dear, if the old Judge has left +you as much as a thousand dollars," Mrs. Ashton insisted as she helped +Betty undress and kissed her good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +The Day Before Esther's Début + + +Three weeks had passed and Betty Ashton had fully recovered from her +accident. Today she had been doing a hundred small tasks in the house, +marching up and down their little garden, sometimes alone and sometimes +with Polly, yet never getting beyond calling distance of home. Now and +then she would tiptoe softly to a small bedroom and stand outside for a +moment listening silently. If a voice called her she went inside for a +little while, but if not she would go quietly away. For a solemn edict +had been issued in the family the evening before, that on the following +day no matter what should take place Esther must have absolute rest. At +four o'clock, however, she was to be aroused, dressed and given a light +tea, since at five they were to start for Berlin, where Esther was to +make her _début_ as a singer at Professor Hecksher's celebrated autumn +concert. + +And curiously enough, Esther had been able to sleep the greater part of +the morning. For weeks before it had seemed to her that she had slept +neither day nor night, so intense had been her nervousness and dread. +Suppose she should make a ghastly failure of her songs; suppose as she +stepped out on the stage, facing an audience largely composed of German +critics and musicians,--that one of her old attacks of shyness should +seize her? Her own disgrace she might be able to bear, but not Betty's, +nor her father's, who was writing such eager, excited letters from +Woodford with the sailing of each ship to their port; and not Richard +Ashton's, who had always been her good friend. Through his kindness had +she not first been allowed to play the grand piano at the old Ashton +homestead, in those early days when her hunger for music had been almost +as strong as her hunger for love? + +But after her breakfast, which Betty brought to her sitting beside her +on the bed while she ate, Esther for the time at least forgot her +fears. There was nothing more that she could do--no further thought or +study or preparation of any kind that she could give to her evening's +work. So a feeling of gentle lassitude stole over her with the +conviction that she was now in the hands of fate, and that it was +useless to struggle further. + +But if Esther was spared this final nervous tension before her _début_, +Betty Ashton experienced a double portion of it. Indeed, in after years +she often used to say that never at another time in her life had she +suffered anything like it--not even on her own wedding day when every +girl supposedly reaches the climax of excitement. + +It was not because Betty had any lack of faith in her sister's talent, +for no one who had heard Esther sing in the past few months could have +doubted her ability. Even Miss Adams, who had heard most of the world's +great singers, had assured them that they need have no fear for her +future. Yet Betty knew her sister's disposition so well, knew how little +self-esteem Esther had, how little of the vanity that sometimes seems +necessary to success, and there was a harrowing possibility that she +might suddenly be made ill from stage fright. Yet of course the younger +girl recognized her own foolishness in allowing her imagination to dwell +on such remote chances. Hardly was she able to explain even to herself +the exact reasons for her feeling of stress and strain on that day which +seemed so interminably long. Of course she and Polly had made up their +difficulty long before--they had been having quarrels and making up ever +since they were tiny girls--but today even Polly's society had failed to +offer her any consolation, until at last Polly had gone back home to +rest for an hour or two before dressing for their journey into Berlin. + +And Mrs. Ashton had insisted upon Betty's doing the same thing. The girl +could not make up her mind to stay shut up in the house, for although it +was early October, the day was delightfully warm, so she lay down in a +steamer chair under a tree in the yard, and covering herself with a +light-blue shawl, fell at once into her former train of thought. + +For in some way it was not just this thought of Esther's concert alone +that had so filled her mind, but the idea that this concert in a measure +was to be a turning point in their lives. Soon after it was over Polly +and Miss Adams intended returning to America and Dick Ashton was to go +with them. For not long after his talk with Esther on the train he had +also discussed the same matter with his mother, and though she and Betty +were both deeply grieved over giving him up, it was plain enough to them +that Dick's future now lay in the United States. There he must make his +reputation and establish himself in his profession. Nevertheless Betty +could not now leave Esther to fight her battles alone, and just as +surely Mrs. Ashton must remain with Betty. So Dick was to begin his +struggle without his family. He had received a fine opening with a +prominent physician in Boston, an old friend of his father's who had +always known of his devotion and success in his chosen work, so that +except for his loneliness there was no special reason for troubling +about his immediate future. Notwithstanding, Betty was troubled. For +Dick was not in the least like himself, had not been all summer, and now +was becoming more and more solemn and stern as the time of his +leave-taking approached. Of course she had always remembered him as more +serious than most other young men; yet he had never before been morose +or unhappy. All their lives had they not been having wonderfully good +times together? And now--well, for one thing, Betty knew perfectly that +her brother was feeling uneasy over her friendship with Lieutenant von +Reuter and had not hesitated in telling her so, expressing his own +disapproval of any further intimacy between them. And assuredly she had +failed in giving him any satisfaction in return. For Betty had made no +clearer revelation of her feeling toward the young foreigner to her +brother than she had to Polly O'Neill. She had positively declined +having their friendship interfered with, and as Richard Ashton knew +nothing against him he was forced to yield to his sister's wish. Mrs. +Ashton entirely sympathized with Betty, and made no effort to hide her +pleasure in Carl von Reuter's attentions. + +As the girl lay almost as if she were asleep in her big chair, now and +then opening her eyes to glance up at the deeply blue October sky, it +did not seem to her that her own obstinacy in this one particular was a +sufficient reason for Dick's dejection. And yet what other reason could +there be? He had promised to come home from Berlin earlier this +afternoon in order to escort them back again. And probably if Esther's +_début_ was a tremendous success he might be made more cheerful. + +And then in all probability Betty must have fallen asleep for about ten +minutes, because when next she opened her eyes, Dick was standing within +a few feet of her and some one else was beside him. + +"Betty," she heard her brother's voice saying, "wake up, please, won't +you and speak to an old friend? For otherwise you would never guess in +half a lifetime who has arrived and come to me in Berlin today." + +Making a tremendous effort to attain her usual dignity, Betty opened +wide her gray eyes, stared, tried to get up out of her chair, and then +finding her feet tangled in the blue shawl, stumbled and would have +fallen except for the newcomer's outstretched arm. + +Yet even when he had restored her to her usual equilibrium she did not +immediately recognize their visitor, although she found herself looking +up into a pair of clear hazel eyes and at the strong, clean outline of a +typical American face. The young man must have been about twenty-three +or four years old. He had dark hair, resolutely forbidden to curl, and +curiously brilliant skin; but the contour of his face was almost too +lean and the expression of his lips and chin too set and firm for so +young a fellow. + +"Miss Ashton," he began unsmilingly, "am I always to have to tell you +who I am each time we meet?" + +And then, just as she had once several years before, Betty held out both +hands in a surprised and happy greeting. + +"Why, it is Anthony Graham! But you must please forgive me, because how +in the world could I ever have dreamed of seeing you here? What in the +wide world has brought you to Germany?" + +And as Anthony did not answer at once, Dick Ashton walked away, coming +back a moment later with two porch chairs, which he placed near his +sister's larger one. + +"Sit down again, please, Betty," he asked. "I realize that we have very +little time, but I think it better that you should hear at once what Mr. +Graham has come all the way across the ocean to tell you." And Dick's +face was so queer that it was quite impossible to tell what his emotions +might be, so that Betty clutched the sides of her chair, white and +frightened. + +"Yes, please, if it is bad news, tell me at once," she whispered. + +Anthony Graham's smile, appearing now for the first time, was +immediately reassuring. + +"But it is not bad news and we should not have frightened you," he began +at once. "It is news that almost anybody in the world would be more +than happy to hear. Judge Maynard has left you the greatest part of his +fortune, which will amount to about fifty thousand dollars, I believe, +and as he made me his executor, I have come over to try and make matters +clear to you and your mother and brother." + +[Illustration: "FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS TO ME!"] + +"Fifty thousand dollars to me!" Betty Ashton heard the tones of her own +voice distinctly and yet was hardly conscious of what she was saying. +"Why, what could have influenced Judge Maynard to leave me so much +money? I simply can't understand it." + +"You don't have to understand it, Miss Betty; you just have to accept +and enjoy it," Anthony argued. "But some day when we have more time I +should like to tell you some of the things Judge Maynard said to me at +about the time he was writing his last will. He was a peculiar, +childless old man and he had always been more fond of you than you or +any member of your family dreamed. And after your father's death, when +you went on so cheerfully with your life in spite of the change in your +fortune, he made up his mind to look after your future." + +"But you, Anthony. Polly told me that it was to you the Judge had taken +such a great fancy that most of the people in Woodford expected him to +make _you_ his heir. I cannot take your inheritance." + +Anthony Graham laughed, at the same moment getting up from his chair. "I +have to take the next train back to Berlin, but I mean to see you +tonight at Miss Esther's concert. And please, Dr. Ashton, won't you +explain to your sister that she cannot take from me an inheritance which +I never had nor dreamed of having. Judge Maynard believed that a man +should make his own way in the world. So he has left me the chance to go +on with his law practice if I am big enough to hold on to it, and +besides that a legacy of five thousand dollars." + +"But how could you have come away from home at such a time, running the +risk of losing so much?" Betty queried thoughtfully. "I suppose you +might have written us all the details of my inheritance if you had +chosen." + +Richard Ashton appeared a little annoyed at what seemed to him a lack of +appreciation and of proper friendliness in his sister's speech. Their +guest, however, showed no hurt or concern. He merely looked steadfastly +at Betty, saying with a directness and honesty that was to distinguish +him for the rest of his life, "I don't wonder at your being surprised. +But I have never been out of the state of New Hampshire before in my +life. And it seemed to me about time that I should learn something more +of the outside world. And besides I was not willing to have many more +months go by without seeing you once again." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +That Night + + +Although six persons left the little station at Waldheim to attend the +concert in Berlin by special arrangement, Esther and Betty were allowed +to occupy a coach in the train together without any one else being with +them. Esther had particularly asked that this might be arranged. The two +sisters did not speak very often during the trip, but sat quietly +looking out the window holding each other's hands. Judging from the two +faces, one might reasonably have supposed that it was Betty Ashton who +was about to make her _début_ that evening instead of Esther. For the +older girl's eyes shone with a new happiness and content. Just while she +was dressing for her concert her sister had managed to tell her the news +of Judge Maynard's surprising will. And from that moment Esther had +almost forgotten the trying ordeal ahead of her in her joy over Betty's +good fortune. For now she need no longer worry over her little sister's +future, no longer grieve over the change in her fortune. Why, she might +even fail tonight and Betty would not suffer. + +She gave a sigh, and the Princess drew closer to her. + +"You are not to think about a single thing that has any connection with +the concert tonight, Esther," the younger girl reminded her. "Professor +Hecksher says that you know your song perfectly and your encore is to be +a surprise even to me. Let us talk about our old Camp Fire days in the +woods. Don't you remember when we thought poor little Nan Graham must +have stolen that wretched money of mine, when I had only lost it in the +woods and Polly had discovered it. Dick says that Anthony Graham told +him Nan has a fine position as a teacher of domestic science in a high +school in Dartmouth. And it seems that his father has reformed and gone +to work and the whole family now is quite different. Anthony gives all +the credit of the changes to Nan and Nan ascribes them to what she +learned in our Camp Fire club at Sunrise Hill. It is lovely to think +that may be true, isn't it?" + +"Yes, and even better to reflect that Betty Ashton originated the club," +Esther returned. + +"Yes, and that Esther suggested the idea to her by singing an exquisite +song and then with her own hands starting a fire," Betty added. + +So the two girls talked on fitfully while the train carried them swiftly +onward toward the great German city. + +The concert was to be held in a small opera house close to one of the +more fashionable avenues. It was an old building, but was considered a +particularly fine one for musical purposes. And immediately upon their +arrival Mrs. Ashton and Betty went with Esther to remain in her dressing +room until a short time before her appearance. + +Dick Ashton, Miss Adams and Polly had a box reserved for them near the +stage, where Betty and Mrs. Ashton were to join them. But before they +appeared Anthony Graham in immaculate evening clothes came around to +the box door to extend his greetings to Polly, and Dick insisted that he +be one of their party. And five minutes afterwards Lieutenant von Reuter +also joined them, Betty having invited him several days before. + +The concert was to be a serious musical affair commencing with the +playing of a stringed orchestra led by the great Professor Hecksher +himself. And as Polly had never seen him before, she amused herself +while waiting for Betty's return and fighting off her own apprehensions +about Esther by never taking her eyes from the great man's face. He must +have weighed two hundred and fifty pounds and yet had the face of a +glorified cherub. His hair was long and light, hanging down to his +shoulders and he wore spectacles over his burning, heavy-lidded brown +eyes. + +The first singer on the program was supposed to be the famous teacher's +star pupil. But because she seemed old and ugly to Polly O'Neill and +because the girl could hardly wait for her own friend to be heard, she +took little interest in the really remarkable solo and was almost vexed +with Miss Adams and with Carl von Reuter for their evident admiration of +a stranger. It was a comfort to her to observe that Richard Ashton +seemed to be feeling just as she did and that he spent the greater part +of his time studying the audience, trying to discover just how many +important musical critics were present. + +Anthony Graham also had the air of waiting for something or some one. + +A quartette followed, and then a violin solo, and afterwards Betty and +Mrs. Ashton stole quietly in, taking the two chairs left vacant for +them. Polly and Miss Adams were in the front row with Dick Ashton at one +side of them, near the back of the box and yet facing the stage. In the +second row Betty had the outside seat and she kept her elbow resting on +the plush railing with her chin in her hand, entirely unconscious of the +large crowd about her. Next her Carl von Reuter had arranged his chair, +leaving Mrs. Ashton and Anthony in the rear. + +A young man sang before the time for Esther's appearance, but Betty +never recalled having seen or heard him. She had left her sister +composed and not especially nervous; but there was no way of guessing +what a surge of feeling might since have overtaken her. + +And then Esther's moment came. + +Notwithstanding that Betty had dressed her, fixed her hair and kissed +her only a few moments before, she hardly recognized her own sister as +she walked slowly to the front of the stage. For had they not always +thought of Esther as the homeliest of their group of Camp Fire girls? +What had happened to her, what wonderful transformation had taken place? +Polly O'Neill almost gasped aloud. Of course every one of her friends +had appreciated how much Esther had improved in appearance in the past +two years, but it was hardly credible that she could look and behave +like this, a girl brought up in an orphan asylum with no friends and no +opportunities for so long a time! Well, one should understand that into +each life certain wonderful hours may come when one seems to transcend +one's self. And tonight such an hour had come to Esther. + +She was to sing Elizabeth's farewell song from the opera of Tannhäuser. +And though the concert was not to be sung in costume, so far as possible +in selecting and arranging Esther's dress Betty had been mindful of the +character and the circumstances of her song. + +In the opera there is seen a wayside shrine where the Princess Elizabeth +appears each day to pray for the soul of her lover, the knight +Tannhäuser, who has gone on a pilgrimage to Rome to ask that his sins +may be forgiven him. On this last day the pilgrims have passed on their +journey homeward and among them Elizabeth sees no sign of her lost +lover, so that she knows he must be unforgiven. She then sings this +final song, asking that peace may come to her at last. + +Esther wore a long white gown of _crêpe de chine_ made in simple classic +lines, with the draped tunic which is a modern fashion copied after a +far older model. Ordinarily she was too tall and angular in every-day +clothes, but this toilette seemed to give her just the grace and +dignity her figure and character needed. Her red hair, which had grown a +little darker as she grew older, was tonight a crown of glory, so that +the pallor of her long grave face did not matter, for her always +beautiful mouth had a look both of power and of wistfulness that +surprised the strangers in the audience. + +"The girl is far too young for the song her teacher has chosen for her," +the critics whispered among themselves. It is not fair to make such an +experiment, for this song of Elizabeth's is one of the favorites among +the great prima donnas. What would this young girl do with it? Would she +be too theatrical, too showy, or fail altogether? + +While the orchestra played the opening chords Esther waited with her +hands clasped lightly together in front of her, but not moving them with +her old nervous gesture. Neither did she seem to be looking at anything +or anybody. Not once did she even glance toward the box where her sister +and friends were watching her, though in a kind of subconscious fashion +she was aware of the white intensity in Betty's pretty face and the +look of grave strength and helpfulness in Richard Ashton's. + +Then Esther began to sing--and Betty, Dick, Polly, Mrs. Ashton and +indeed all her friends, both new and old, had a sudden sensation of +bitter disappointment. The tears came into Betty's eyes, rolling +unheeded down her cheeks, though Polly slipped her hand back through the +opening in her chair to press it sympathetically. However, Richard +Ashton only set his lips, hardly breathing for the space of half a +moment. Did he not recall a similar beginning on Esther's part some +years before, when she had sung the Indian Love Song before a group of +their Woodford acquaintances, which he had at first believed would end +in a failure? Esther would not find this audience so ready to forgive or +admire should she take too long a time before winning their attention. + + "O blessed Virgin, hear my prayer! + Thou star of glory, look on me!" + +These lines were whispered in so low a tone that they were almost +inaudible except to the persons nearest the stage and Esther's voice +trembled with nervousness. Was she frightened as she had expected to be? +It was difficult to decide, because she stood so still. + + "Here in the dust I bend before thee, + Now from this earth oh set me free! + Let me a maiden pure and white, + Enter into thy kingdom bright!" + +Betty's tension relaxed. "Bravo," Miss Adams whispered under her breath. +Richard Ashton felt a glow which was oddly commingled of pleasure, pride +and sorrow. Yet one could not think, could not feel any other emotion +now except wonder and delight as the beautiful voice in perfect sympathy +with the music and its theme filled every shadowy space in the opera +house with harmony. + +Betty witnessed the expressions on several previously bored faces near +them changing first to surprise, then interest and finally frank +pleasure. Small wonder that the old German music master had allowed this +young American girl to appear unheralded before them! She could only be +twenty-one or twenty-two years old at the most. What a future lay before +her! + +Still Esther sang on: + + "If vain desires and earthy longing + Have turn'd my heart from thee away, + The sinful hopes within me thronging + Before thy blessed feet I lay. + I'll wrestle with the love I cherished, + Until in death its flame hath perish'd. + If of my sin thou wilt not shrive me, + Yet in this hour, oh grant thy aid! + Till thy eternal peace thou give me, + And on thy bounty I will call, + That heav'nly grace on him may fall." + +And with the closing words of her song Esther suddenly seemed to have +reached the realization of all her worst fears. Surely she had failed +abjectly, for was there not a silence everywhere about her, chilling and +cruel? Would not a single pair of hands applaud? She dared not try to +find the face of her master, for she hoped never to have to see +Professor Hecksher again so long as she lived. Yet here miraculously +enough he had appeared on the stage standing next her, with one of his +powerful hands holding tight to her cold one, bowing and smiling, while +the noise of many bravos and of almost a tumult of applause shook the +house. Esther then wondered why she only felt dreadfully tired and had a +childish disposition to cry as the great maestro led her off the stage. + +But when the girl returned for her encore she was smiling, and her +cheeks were more flushed than ever in her life. And in her hands she +held a great bunch of pink roses which had mysteriously appeared in her +dressing room. And this time she allowed herself to glance smilingly at +Betty and Polly and Mrs. Ashton and even to exchange a single quiet +glance with Richard Ashton. + +Then to the surprise, to the mystification and yet to the pleasure of +her listeners, Esther sang the verses which had first touched Betty +Ashton's heart and inspired her ardor on that day long ago, the song +that is to remain an inspiration to many thousands of women for many +years to come, the Camp Fire song of "The Soul's Desire." + + "Lay me to sleep in sheltering flame, + O Master of the Hidden Fire. + Wash pure my heart, and cleanse for me + My soul's desire. + + "In flame of sunrise bathe my mind, + O Master of the Hidden Fire, + That, when I wake, clear-eyed may be + My soul's desire." + +And ten minutes after the finishing of this second song Esther, Betty +and Richard Ashton were driving to their old pension where the entire +party was to spend the night, Mrs. Ashton, Polly and Miss Adams meaning +to join them when the concert was over. + +And in the carriage, again it was Esther who seemed quiet and composed, +while between tears and laughter Betty poured forth her joy and pride in +her sister's wonderful success. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +Tea at the Castle + + +Several days after Esther's concert Lieutenant von Reuter persuaded Mrs. +Ashton and Miss Adams to bring Betty and Polly with them to afternoon +tea at the castle with his father. And as Anthony Graham, not knowing +their plans, had come from Berlin for a farewell visit on the same day, +he of course was included in the little company. Esther had been urged +and had almost promised to be one of them, but when the morning of the +party arrived she had pleaded to be excused. Immediately then Polly and +Betty had both insisted that she change her mind and had tried coaxing +and scolding and almost every possible form of influence until at last +Mrs. Ashton had come to her rescue. For Esther had been extremely tired +since her _début_ and very unlike herself both girls considered. Indeed, +they even went further in thinking that she failed in proper +appreciation and gratitude for her own success. However, Esther +naturally believed that her friends were overestimating her achievement, +yet she had recently scarcely understood herself. For it was odd and +stupid of her not to feel more elation and more interest in her own +future. Had not Professor Hecksher himself written her that she had sung +better than he expected? And this from the master was praise indeed! +However, he had also written that she was to allow herself a complete +rest before they had a talk about her future plans. So with this defense +and Mrs. Ashton's additional authority Esther was finally allowed the +privilege of staying at home alone except for their maid. + +"Dick may be back a little earlier this afternoon, dear," Betty said as +she kissed her sister good-by. "He has not so much to do in Berlin now +that he has finished his lectures and is just closing up his affairs. +Keep him with you if you feel like talking to him, but if not, ask him +to come over to the castle and drive back home with us. It is absurd +for Dick to be so prejudiced against Lieutenant von Reuter and +dreadfully embarrassing to me. For I am sure he hasn't a reason in the +world, and yet it is plain enough to everybody." + +And as Betty walked away after this final speech Esther had a momentary +pang of regret that she had not conquered her own disinclination and +gone along with them. For they and Mrs. Ashton were leaving the country +for Berlin as soon as the others sailed, and this might prove an +excellent chance for the young foreigner to declare his feeling for +Betty, _if_ his admiration really was serious. Also Esther regretted +that she had failed in asking Polly to keep a careful watch upon them, +although this she understood that Polly was more than inclined to do +without further suggestion. + +After Betty and her mother had climbed into the carriage, Anthony Graham +accompanying them, and Betty had waved her hand in farewell, Esther, who +was standing on the porch watching them depart, suddenly recalled +Richard Ashton's half-jesting wish that their sister Betty were not +quite so pretty. And this afternoon for the first time Esther believed +that she agreed with him. It was absurd to send a girl looking like the +Princess did at this present moment into a young man's home with the +hope that he would cease to feel an interest in her. + +Because it was cold Betty wore a long white cloak over a china blue silk +dress of her favorite shade and a white felt hat with a band of the same +material about it. No costume could have been simpler, and yet +excitement or pleasure or some unusual emotion had made the girl's color +brighter in her eyes, her cheeks and even her hair, so that there seemed +a kind of mysterious shining about her like a star--a glow which Polly +O'Neill recognized instantly as she took her place beside her in the +carriage with Anthony Graham in front with the driver and Miss Adams and +Mrs. Ashton together on the back seat. Indeed, it inspired Polly to give +her friend rather a malicious pinch which actually hurt a little and yet +for which she would neither apologize nor explain. Betty presumed that +it must have something to do with Anthony Graham's presence, since +Polly immediately began making herself more than usually agreeable to +him, insisting that he give them his impressions of Germany and the +Germans, when Anthony would much have preferred remaining silent. Polly +hoped that thus she might be enabled to make her friend realize how much +cleverer and more worth while an American fellow was than any blond +Siegfried whom she might have met by accident in a foreign land. + +Carl von Reuter's old feudal estate, however, was picturesque enough to +excite even Polly's undivided admiration, as they drove along an avenue +of oak trees, some of them more than a century old, and crossed a +drawbridge over a moat, which now formed the bed of a stream flowing +down from the hills. + +Outside in the garden in front of the house the visitors found +Lieutenant von Reuter, his cousin Frederick and his father walking about +in the afternoon sunshine waiting to receive their guests. And the young +count wore his full dress uniform as an officer in one of the Kaiser's +regiments. He was undeniably handsome, and there was no doubt but that +he and Betty made a striking picture as they stood side by side for a +moment before entering the house, while the young man showed the girl +the view of their hunting forests over to the right where she had had +her accident. + +Tea was served in the most splendid apartment that either the two +American girls or Anthony Graham had ever seen before in their lives. +Perhaps there was some motive in their host's inviting them into the big +banqueting hall in an upper part of the castle rather than in the shabby +drawing rooms on the first floor, where the poverty of the family was so +much more apparent. But even if this were true, the selection was a +happy one, for which his guests were unfeignedly thankful. The great +room was fifty feet long and about two-thirds as broad. It had heavy +black oak paneling midway to the ceiling, which was formed of heavy +beams and rafters of the same wood. And along the ledge of the +wainscoting were old tankards of silver and pewter, plates hammered +deep with the armorial bearings of different branches of the family. +Shields hung against the walls and battered helmets, while standing in +groups or in solemn solitary dignity were the "iron men" or the "knights +in armor," who had fought for their war lords long before Germany was an +empire. + +The old count, although he spoke English much less well than his son, +led his guests toward a circular space underneath a great stained-glass +window, where the light of the afternoon sun shone rose and gold upon +the carved table and high-back chairs. He appeared genuinely pleased +with their interest and enthusiasm over his estate and the country near +by, until Polly, whose sense of the dramatic was always stronger than +any other, felt herself becoming as ardently admiring of the older man +as she was critical of his son. And after tea was over and the others +sat discussing unimportant matters, in a moment of thoughtlessness, +Polly allowed the old count to lead her and Anthony Graham to another +part of the house in order to show them his library. Mrs. Ashton and +Miss Adams had expressed themselves as too tired for the climbing of +more stairs, while Betty, Carl and Frederick von Reuter, though making +no excuses, yet failed to join them. + +When nearly midway down the room it did occur to Polly as unwise to be +leaving Betty unchaperoned by her own vigilance, yet as Betty now shook +her head, declining positively to be lured into this excursion, there +was nothing to do but to trust her friend to Mrs. Ashton and Margaret +Adams for a few moments. + +Nevertheless Polly should have understood that Mrs. Ashton would not +oppose any suggestion for a more intimate conversation with Betty that +the young lieutenant might chance to make. And of course it was +impossible for Miss Adams to object unless Betty's mother did. As for +Frederick von Reuter, the attraction he once entertained for the +American girl seemed to continue now only in a kind of transferred +interest in his cousin's success. + +So that five minutes after Polly disappeared out of one door at the far +end of the hall, Carl von Reuter led Betty through another, ostensibly +to show her a celebrated portrait in the family gallery, but without +inviting the others to accompany them. And Betty seemed quite willingly +to have accepted his invitation. + +Once inside the gallery, she appeared more deeply interested in the +pictures than the young man expected or desired. For the greater number +of them were ugly old men and stout elderly _Frauen_ with no very strong +attraction even for their descendant. And there at the end of the dark +room near a window hung with a faded velvet curtain, stood a small oak +seat, while beyond was a particularly fine view of the park. + +But Betty could only be lured to this seat by long effort and the moment +after seating herself suggested that they had best return to the others +now that the pictures had been seen, since it must be almost time for +leaving for home. Nevertheless, as her host did not stir or even seem to +have heard her request, Betty subsided for a few moments. She was +honestly weary, being unaccustomed to such a vast house with its miles +of steps and endless passage-ways. + +"Miss Ashton," said Lieutenant von Reuter suddenly and quite formally, +"will you do me the honor to become my wife? In my country you know it +is the custom to speak first to the parent, but I understand that it is +not so in your United States." + +Then as Betty gazed at him without answering, although her face had +flushed deeply, he went on with more feeling: "You know I have cared for +you always since our first meeting. I have been unable--I have not cared +to conceal it." + +Frightened and uncertain, Betty bit her lips to keep them from +trembling. This was her first proposal, and she could not help thinking +of that for a moment; besides it was so romantic! No one of her friends +would ever be apt to experience anything like it. Here she and +Lieutenant von Reuter were in his splendid, shabby old castle sitting +together in the shadow of his ancestors. Why, what he had just said to +her meant that she might some day be a countess if she wished! But +Betty brought herself together with a slight frown and a feeling of +distaste and shame of herself. What absurd ideas were in her mind in the +presence of so tremendously serious a subject! Here she was thinking and +behaving like a foolish dreaming child. Did she care for Carl von Reuter +for himself? Would she have cared had he been of more humble origin, had +he been less handsome? Betty glanced at the young fellow almost +fearfully. She had been trying to decide how much she liked him before +this without success. Yet because until today he had not declared his +feeling toward her, she had not felt it necessary wholly to make up her +mind. + +"But I thought, Lieutenant von Reuter," Betty answered slowly, "that it +was impossible for you to marry any one who was not wealthy, that your +estates were mortgaged and that your father looked to you to make your +old name prominent once more." + +Until now she had kept her head slightly turned away; but with her +question Betty faced her companion, her expression grave and +interested. + +Yet she was surprised to see that the young man's blue eyes now closed +slightly while his fair face flushed with what appeared to be an odd +combination of satisfaction and regret. + +"But you are no longer poor, Miss Ashton," he answered unexpectedly. "I +have lately heard of your good fortune, and while it is very little +compared to the amount my father expected me to marry, it may be enough. +At least, I have been able to persuade him that I care for you so much +that we must make it do." + +Carl von Reuter spoke quite frankly without any special embarrassment, +for it did not seem to him that his speech was in any way remarkable. +Indeed, it should make Betty realize the extent of his admiration for +her that he had been able to overlook the smallness of her inheritance +in comparison with his own needs. Why, a week before he should not have +been able to make any declaration of his own feelings! Yet now he was +offering his title, his castle, almost his whole future, to an American +girl whose estate was so small that it could scarcely do more than +cover their debts. And that Betty should not be honored by his offer was +beyond his point of view. A German girl would have appreciated the +sacrifice he was making; so why not an American? + +Betty sat perfectly still during his explanation, with her hands clasped +tightly together, showing white against the blue folds of her dress. In +her whole life she had never felt so astounded, so completely +overwhelmed, and in truth so angry. How could any man coolly say to her +that he was willing to marry her in spite of the smallness of her +fortune, plainly insinuating at the same moment that unless she had had +the good luck to come into her unexpected inheritance she should never +have received the honor at all. + +The girl's cheeks first flushed hotly and then she felt herself growing +pale and self-possessed. Never in her life had she had a more important +demand made upon her dignity and good sense. For she must not show any +kind of ill-feeling. Thank goodness that she was able to give the only +kind of reply that could carry any kind of weight or conviction to her +companion and that she could say it with all truthfulness. For never had +Betty Ashton felt less affection for any friend she had ever had than +she did at this instant for the young nobleman. + +"You are very kind, Lieutenant von Reuter," she now answered quietly, +"and I greatly appreciate the honor which you feel you have given me. +But I don't care for you in the way that you wish me to and I am very, +very sure that I never can. Do you not now think it time for us to go +and join the others?" + +And Betty talked pleasantly and unaffectedly of other things, while her +host led her back on the return journey between his lines of +distinguished ancestors, although the young man himself scarcely made a +reply to one of her remarks. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Esther and Dick + + +Not long after the others had driven away Esther found that it was quite +impossible for her to take a nap as she had planned. She seemed to be +growing more restless and fatigued with every moment spent upon the bed. +Besides, had she not been indoors far too much recently, when they would +so soon be going back to the city where only a comparatively small +amount of outdoor life would be possible? + +Esther did not stop to dress with any care; she merely fixed her hair +and slipped a long brown coat over her dress, tying a light scarf about +her hair. And because both Mrs. Ashton and Dick had insisted that no one +of the three girls go any distance from home alone after Betty's +misfortune, she wandered about idly in their small enclosed garden for a +few moments and then sat down in Betty's empty steamer chair under +their single tall linden tree. The light gusts of the October wind sent +down little showers of curled-up yellow leaves and shriveled flowers +upon her head and shoulders, until Esther, glancing up at them, smiled. +When she dropped her eyes again she saw that Dick Ashton was on his way +toward her along the short path from the gate. And he held a bundle of +letters in his hand which he had stopped by the village post-office to +secure. Two of them he dropped into Esther's lap and then sat down on +the ground near her, sighing quite unconsciously. + +"Are you all by yourself?" he inquired. + +Esther nodded. "Yes, I did not feel like being polite to any one this +afternoon. Betty told me to ask you to walk over and join them if you +are not too tired." + +"I am not too tired, yet I have not the remotest idea of going," Dick +returned quietly. "Though I declare to you, Esther, that it seems to me +if Betty really does care for this German fellow, it will be about the +last straw." + +Always if you had asked Esther Crippen's friends what they considered +the dominant trait of her character the answer would have been +"sympathy." So now, observing Richard Ashton's anxiety and depression, +she almost entirely forgot her own. + +"The last straw, Dr. Ashton?" she repeated. And then smiling and yet +wholly gentle she asked, "Why do you say 'the last straw' in such a +desperate fashion? Surely things are not going so wrong with you! If you +feel so dreadfully unhappy over leaving Betty and your mother behind, +why you know I don't wish to be selfish. Take them with you; I shall +manage somehow." + +Leaning over, Dick Ashton touched Esther's hand lightly with his lips in +such a friendly, kindly fashion that the girl did not flush or draw it +away. + +"Who says that I am so desperate over leaving mother and the Princess to +take care of our future great American prima donna?" he asked +half-joking and half-serious. + +The girl's brows drew together in her effort to understand and +appreciate her friend's real meaning. "Why, I don't see what else there +can be to make you unhappy," she replied thoughtfully. "You are going +back to your own country, which you know you have learned to care more +for with each year that you have spent away from it. And you are going +to commence the practice of the profession you have always loved since +you were a child. But of course if there is anything else that is +worrying you which I have not the right to know, I don't want you to +think that I am trying to make you confide in me. I can sympathize with +you without understanding." + +"Then you have a very rare and wonderful gift, Esther," Dick Ashton +replied. "But please read your letters and don't consider me." + +Slowly the girl read a letter from her father, which besides its +interest in her work was so full of bits of Woodford interest and gossip +that she felt herself growing sharply homesick. Then, tucking this +letter inside her dress, to re-read to her sister later, Esther slowly +opened the one from her music master in Berlin. It was just what she had +expected. Professor Hecksher felt that she might have a future in grand +opera, only she was far too young and too untrained to attempt it for +several years. So she must stay on in Germany, working unceasingly with +him until they could both understand more thoroughly her capabilities. + +Esther let this single sheet of paper slip out of her hand to the +ground, where Dick picked it up, returning it to her. But not before he +had recognized the master's handwriting and letter head. + +"It is all right, isn't it?" he queried, surprised at the girl's +expression. + +"Oh, yes, I suppose so," she replied, not looking at him but at a far +stretch of country with her eyes and of years with her mind. "Only I +expect I am what both Betty and Polly think me, an ungrateful and +unreasonable person with no ambition and no imagination." + +Dick was silent for a moment and then answered, "No, Esther, I do not +believe you appreciate what a great gift you have; you are too modest +and care too little for the applause most of the people in the world are +willing to sacrifice everything for." + +Richard Ashton turned his serious dark eyes upward toward the tall, pale +girl sitting in the chair near him. "Esther," he said, "I want to tell +you, to make you believe what a great gift you have. I love you, and +more than anything on earth I want you to be my wife. The other day when +Anthony Graham came with the news from Woodford that Betty had inherited +a small fortune I was happier than I can ever tell you. And it was not +for Betty's sake or even mother's; it was a selfish happiness. For then +I believed that both you and I were released from our first duty to them +and that I had the right to tell you that I cared for you and meant to +try and make you love me. Then came the night of your concert, when I +heard you sing. And since then, Esther, I have realized that I have no +right to ask you to give up the career that is before you and to ask you +to share my uncertain future. For with my work I could not follow yours +and my profession is the one thing I have learned. I had not meant to +tell you this, but, after all, Esther, I don't know why I should not. A +girl can never be hurt by knowing that a man loves her." + +And for the second time Dick kissed Esther's hand and then turned his +face away. + +The next moment the girl had risen from her chair. "Dr. Ashton, will you +take a walk with me?" she asked. "I am tired sitting here." + +Then, without referring to what had just been said between them, the +girl and man walked along, talking quietly of other things until they +came to the stream of water sheltered by trees, with a rim of hills +along the other side. Away from the possibility of being interrupted +Esther stopped, putting her hand on her companion's arm. + +She did not look like her usual self; her face was flooded with color +and her shyness and reserve for the moment seemed swept away. + +"You were not fair to me just now," she declared. "You had not the right +to tell me you cared for me without asking me what my feeling was for +you. Why does everybody in the world think that because I have a talent +I have to sacrifice my whole life to it? I love my music, but I don't +wish to be an opera singer. I hate the kind of existence it forces one +to lead. I want a home of my own and some one to care for me. Why do +people nowadays think that girls are so changed, that all of us are +wishing to be independent and famous? Why, it was because our old Camp +Fire club taught us that all the best things of life are centered about +the hearth fire that means home, that I first cared for it so much. I +wonder if any one realizes because I was brought up in an orphan asylum +and then lived with other people that I have never had a home of my own +in my life. But of course this would not count, Dick, if I did not care +for you more than I do for my music, or even for Betty. Tell me, then, +is it my duty to go on with my work in Berlin, to give up everything I +wish for a career I don't desire?" And here, overcome by the rush of her +own feelings and her own words, Esther ceased speaking, feeling her old +stupid, nervous trembling seize her. + +But Richard Ashton's arms were about her, holding her still. + +"The most perfect home that my love can make for you, Esther, shall be +yours so long as we live. And there are other ways where the gift of a +beautiful voice may bring pleasure and reward outside of the life you +dread." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +Sunrise Cabin + + +It was Christmas once more at the Camp Fire cabin and a wonderful white +night. Everywhere there was snow and enchantment under the "Long-night +Moon." + +Dinner was over, for from the inside of the great living room came the +sound of music and dancing and many gay voices. + +Built like a magic circle about the log house were seven camp fires, +uncurling their long fingers of flame into the frost-laden air. And now +and then fire-makers came out of the cabin, usually in pairs, to pile +more logs and pine branches where the need was greatest. + +First Eleanor Meade and Frank Wharton, and Eleanor looked tall and +picturesque in her Indian costume with a white shawl over her shoulders. +But when they had finished with their fire building they walked on a few +yards and then lingered for a moment close to the tall Totem pole, +which still stood like a faithful sentinel outside the Sunrise Cabin +door, its colors bright with the history of the Camp Fire club it had +been chosen to tell. + +"I thought I was going to be a great artist when I painted that pole and +the walls of our cabin, Frank," Eleanor whispered. "But the paths of a +woman's glory sometimes lead----" + +"To the altar," Frank returned. "Never mind, dear, there is no place +where one so needs to keep the white lights burning." And a little later +he and his companion disappeared along the path that led to the grove of +pines closer to the foot of the mountain. + +For nearly ten minutes no one else opened the cabin door; then two +muffled figures stole out and industriously piled wood on half a dozen +of the dying fires. Out of breath they afterwards paused and began +talking to each other. They were the two girls in the Camp Fire club at +Sunrise Hill who were now the closest friends. + +"I am awfully glad to hear of your new position, Nan. Are you going to +make more money?" Sylvia Wharton asked with her old-time bluntness. + +And as Nan Graham nodded, she went on, "I want everybody in our club to +understand that no matter what any one of us accomplishes, you are the +best of the lot. Because the rest of us have had money and aid from +other persons, but you have done every blessed thing for yourself and +have helped other people besides." + +"Yes, but I don't have to help now," Nan explained. "Anthony is able to +do everything for the family that is necessary beyond what father earns. +And he has made me promise to go to college next year and study all the +courses in domestic science that I can manage, besides chemistry and +physiology and hygiene. I shall be a wonderfully learned person if I +ever know half the things he wishes me to." + +"Anthony is splendid," Sylvia announced, "and you will have a chair in a +college some day." + +At the absurdity of this suggestion, which nevertheless might one day +come true, Nan laughed, putting her arm across Sylvia's shoulder. "We +must go back indoors or you may take cold, Dr. Wharton," she teased. +"Truly I am glad that your father and mother have made you undertake the +study of medicine instead of going on with nursing. For my part I shall +always prefer you as a physician to Dr. Ashton, even though he has a +good many years' start of you." + +Never could Sylvia take things humorously. "Then you will show very poor +judgment, Nan Graham. Richard Ashton is going to be a perfect wonder. +Betty and Esther both say I may be his partner, but I shall not. I am +coming back to Woodford after I graduate and help Dr. Barton. Thank +heavens, he and Rose Dyer finally decided to marry last month. It will +take both of them to look after little Faith. That child is so queer and +fanciful I am afraid she may turn out a poet." And Sylvia did not smile +or have the least understanding that she had said anything amusing when +her friend led her back inside the cabin living room. + +Then Meg Everett and her brother John strolled out into the night air, +arm in arm, and went and piled logs on the camp fire farthest away from +the house. + +Meg wore nothing on her head in spite of the cold, so that her +yellow-brown hair blew about her face in shocking confusion. Yet her +elder brother did not seem to be in a sufficiently critical mood tonight +to notice it. + +"Don't stay outdoors too long or go far away from the cabin, Betty; I am +so afraid you may take cold," Esther Ashton whispered ten minutes after +John and Meg had come in, wrapping her own long white fur coat about her +sister. Esther had been married now for two weeks and she and Richard +Ashton had returned from their honeymoon journey to spend the holidays +with their own people before leaving for Boston. So Esther was in bridal +white, with no other color than her crown of red hair. Betty wore the +last frock she had bought in London before sailing for home, having paid +a great deal more for it than she felt that she should, just to taste +the joy of being extravagant once again. It was of blue velvet with a +silver girdle, with silver embroidery about the throat. Instead of +jewelry she wore her chains of Camp Fire honor beads. + +"No, I won't be gone long, dear," Betty answered. "I have promised too +many people to dance with them. But it is such a glorious night! And I +have told Anthony Graham that I would look at the beautiful picture our +cabin makes with the camp fires burning around it. The moon is now just +above the top of the old hill." + +At this moment Dick Ashton joined them. "Moon, Betty Ashton," he began +with a pretense of sternness, "is the very last word I wish to hear from +your lips." + +Then, as Betty ran away from the possibility of his further objecting to +her departure, Dick turned seriously to Esther. + +"Esther, if you have any influence with Betty, do please stop allowing +her to have admirers. Tell her that she is not to be permitted to +consider any one seriously, say for five or ten years." + +As Esther laughed, he added, "Who is it that she has gone off in the +moonlight with this time? Anthony Graham? Well, he is a fine fellow, +but has his way to make, and thank fortune cannot think of marrying for +several years!" + +Down by the lake, which was frozen over with a thin coating of ice, +forming a kind of mirror for the silver face of the moon, Anthony and +Betty were at this moment standing in the shadow looking out over its +surface. + +"I want to tell you something I never have mentioned, Anthony," Betty +said gravely. "I want to thank you for coming to Germany to bring me the +good news of my inheritance. Oh, it is not that I could not have waited +longer to have heard, but that if the news had not come just when it +did, I might have been the unconscious cause of making the two people I +love almost best in the world unhappy all their lives. For you see I did +not dream that Dick cared for Esther or she for him. So I kept on urging +Esther to devote herself to her music, when all the time she and Dick +wanted to be married, and Esther was only going on with her music +because she wanted to earn money for me and for father. As though +either one of us wished her to sacrifice herself!" + +"Still, your brother was a brave fellow to ask a girl to give up such a +future," Anthony Graham returned. "I don't think I could have done it." + +Betty frowned at him. "Why not?" she demanded. + +Turning toward her, Anthony now looked at her so steadfastly that the +girl's white lids drooped. + +"Well, once I cared for a girl who was miles and miles above me in +family, position, beauty, brains, oh, everything that is worth having, +except one thing!" he explained. "Neither she nor her people had money; +they had lost it through misfortune. So I used to work and dream that +some day I might be able to climb that _one_ hill. But before I was even +halfway up my hill--oh, I can't talk in figures of speech, I must speak +plain English--why the girl inherited a lot of money. So now she has +everything and I have nothing worth while to offer her. Yet I don't wish +her to think that I have ever ceased caring for her or ever will." + +"Anthony," Betty replied unexpectedly, "I always wear that little +enameled pin representing a pine tree that you sent me by Polly a long +time ago. But I have been thinking lately that perhaps you did not +remember that one of the meanings of the pine tree is faithfulness." + +Then she moved away toward the cabin and, as the young man walked along +beside her without speaking, she said half to herself and half to him, +"Not long ago I had one person declare that he cared for me because I +had inherited a fortune. And here is another person who has ceased +caring because I have money. Yet, if I have to choose between the two, I +believe I like the American way best." + +"You don't mean that you like _me_, do you, Betty?" Anthony pleaded. + +The Princess shook her head. "I don't mean anything--yet, Anthony," she +answered. + +Inside the living room on their return they found at least a dozen +friends urging Esther to sing. To Margaret Adams' request she finally +yielded. For Miss Adams had lately come to Woodford to spend the week +with Polly O'Neill's family. And now Polly was standing with her arm +slipped caressingly through her friend's. + +"I shall never, never be able to understand how Esther Crippen could +give up her art and her career for Dick Ashton's sake, fine as he is," +Polly murmured in Miss Adams' ear. "If I only had one-half of Esther's +talent for the work I hope to do I should be down on my knees with +gratitude." Then Polly gave the arm she was holding fast a slight +pressure. "But mother says perhaps I may come and have a small part in +your company next spring, as you said I might. And surely if anybody in +the world can teach me to be a great actress it is you!" + +Then Polly's lips twitched and her expression changed in its odd Irish +fashion, for across the room she now caught sight of her old enemy and +friend, Billy Webster, still glowering disapprovingly at her. But the +next instant he had turned and was smiling a reply to some question that +Mollie O'Neill had just put to him. + +Then no one spoke or moved for several moments, under the spell of +Esther's "Good-night" Camp Fire song. + + "Beneath the quiet sentinel stars, we now rest. + May we arise to greet the new day, give it our best. + Good-night, good-night, God over all." + +The next volume in the Camp Fire Series shall be known as "The Camp Fire +Girls' Careers." The group of girls who first came together to spend a +summer as a Camp Fire Club in the woods are now grown up and life has, +of course, altered and widened for all of them. The question now is, +What will each girl do to make her future happy and successful? Will she +marry well or ill, or will she choose to follow some career in which +marriage has no part? Although the fifth volume is to deal with the +original number of heroines, it will be more largely devoted to the most +brilliant and erratic of the twelve Camp Fire Girls, Polly O'Neill. + + + + +STORIES ABOUT CAMP FIRE GIRLS + + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SUNRISE HILL + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AMID THE SNOWS + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ACROSS THE SEA + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' CAREERS + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN AFTER YEARS + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Camp Fire Girls Across the Seas, by +Margaret Vandercook + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS *** + +***** This file should be named 33806-8.txt or 33806-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/0/33806/ + +Produced by Mary Meehan 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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