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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36313-8.txt b/36313-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2964626 --- /dev/null +++ b/36313-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9238 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak +Cabinet, by Elizabeth W. Champney + +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: Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet + The Story of a King's Daughter + +Author: Elizabeth W. Champney + +Illustrator: C. D. Gibson + J. Wells Champney + +Release Date: June 4, 2011 [EBook #36313] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY, OR *** + + + + +Produced by eagkw, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY + + + + + [Illustration] + + + + + WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY + + OR + + THE OLD OAK CABINET + + _THE STORY OF A KING'S DAUGHTER_ + + + BY + + ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY + + AUTHOR OF "WITCH WINNIE," "VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD," ETC. + + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY C. D. GIBSON AND + J. WELLS CHAMPNEY. + + + NEW YORK + DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1891, + BY + DODD, MEAD & COMPANY. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION, 7 + + I. THE FIRST ESCAPADE OF THE SEASON, 15 + + II. THE CABINET, 25 + + III. THE ROBBERY, 41 + + IV. TROUBLE IN THE AMEN CORNER, 61 + + V. L. MUDGE, DETECTIVE, 76 + + VI. HALLOWEEN TRICKS, 96 + + VII. A STATE OF "DREADFULNESS," 111 + + VIII. IN THE MESHES OF A GOLDEN NET, 138 + + IX. "POLO," 161 + + X. THE CATACOMB PARTY 183 + + XI. A FALSE SCENT, 210 + + XII. THE INTER-SCHOLASTIC GAMES, 229 + + XIII. POLO IS SHADOWED, 265 + + XIV. THE CLOUDS PART, 304 + + XV. THE OLD CABINET TELLS ITS STORY, 330 + + XVI. THE MYSTERY DISCLOSED, 354 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +For those who have not read the first volume of this series, "Witch +Winnie, the Story of a King's Daughter." + +We four girls, + + Adelaide Armstrong, + Milly Roseveldt, + Emma Jane Anton, + Nellie Smith, + +had been chums at boarding school. + +(Let it here be explained that although my name is Nellie, I am never +called anything but Tib by my friends.) + +We occupied a little suite of apartments in the tower, consisting of a +small study parlor from which opened two double bedrooms and one single +one. Our family was called the Amen Corner, because our initials, +arranged as an acrostic, spelled the word Amen, and because we were a +set of little Pharisees, prigs, and "digs," not particularly admired by +the rest of the school, but exceedingly virtuous and preternaturally +perfect in our own estimation. + +This was our status at the beginning of our first school year +together, and the change that came over us, owing to the introduction +into our circle of Witch Winnie, the greatest scape-grace in the most +mischief-making set of the school, the "Queen of the Hornets," has +already been told. A quieting, earnest influence acted upon Winnie, and +a natural, merry-hearted love of fun reacted on us, and we were all the +better for the companionship. + +The greatest practical result outside the change in our own characters +was the formation, by the uniting of the "Amen Corner" and the +"Hornets," of a Ten of King's Daughters, who founded the Home of the +Elder Brother, for little children. This institution was adopted by our +parents, who formed themselves into a board of managers, but left much +of the working of the enterprise in our hands.[1] The Home prospered +during the first year of its existence in a truly wonderful manner. It +was undenominational and unendowed. No rich church or wealthy man stood +behind it. It was entirely dependent on the efforts of a few young +girls, and on the voluntary subscriptions of benevolent people. But it +grew day by day. Little ripples of influence widened out from our circle +to others. During the vacation our ten separated, and at each of their +homes they formed other tens, who worked for the same object. Every one +who visited the Home was interested in its plan of work, which was to +help the poor without pauperizing them; to aid struggling women whose +husbands had died, or were in hospitals or prisons, and who could have +no homes of their own, by providing them with a substitute for the baby +farming, so extensively carried on in the tenement districts, by +offering them, on the same low terms, a sweet and wholesome shelter +for their little ones. Some wondered why we charged these poor women +anything; why the _half_ charity was not made a free gift. But wiser +philanthropists saw the superior kindness of this demand. The women whom +we wished to aid were not beggars, but that worthy, struggling class +who, overburdened, but still desperately striving, must sink in the +conflict unless helped, but who still wished to do all in their power +for their children, and brought the small sum asked for their board +with a proud and happy self-respect. + + [1] This Home is a truthful picture of one really founded by a + band of little girls--the Messiah Home, at 4 Rutherford Place, + Stuyvesant Square, New York, which is aided in its good work by + different circles of King's Daughters. + +One of our own members, Emma Jane Anton, on graduating at Madame's, +became matron of the Home, assisted by dear Miss Prillwitz, formerly our +teacher of botany, from whose heart this beautiful thought had +blossomed. + +The Home was just across the park from the school building and we +frequently visited it; but though we were all deeply interested in this +sweet charity, it did not interfere with our studies or with a great +deal of girlish, innocent fun. Since Winnie had become my room-mate we +had lost much of the prestige which was formerly the boast of the Amen +Corner, and after Emma Jane left the little single room, Madame, feeling +that our influence had done much for Winnie, sent another of the +"Hornets" into our midst. + +We had accepted and adopted Winnie with all our hearts, for her many +lovable qualities, and above all for her genuine good fellowship and +affectionate nature, but Cynthia Vaughn was a very different character. +There was nothing but enjoyable fun in any of Winnie's tricks; Cynthia's +were mean and malicious. We never liked her, and she openly showed her +scorn of Winnie and of me, while she fawned in a hypocritical manner, +striving to ingratiate herself with aristocratic Adelaide and with +gentle Milly, who was the wealthiest girl at Madame's. + +We were no longer the best behaved set in school, and an acrostic formed +from our initials could not now be made to spell anything; but the name +"Amen Corner" clung to the little apartment, and Madame still looked +upon us with favor. She knew that Adelaide and Milly, Winnie and I, were +all, beneath our mischief, true-hearted, earnest girls, and she +charitably hoped for great improvement in Cynthia. + +There was one person who did not believe in us--Miss Noakes, our +corridor teacher. She believed that Winnie was filled with all iniquity +and that Adelaide was far too attractive to be allowed the confidence +which Madame reposed in her. It was Miss Noakes's great grievance +that she could never discover the least approach to a flirtation in +Adelaide's conduct. I believe that she fairly gloated with anticipated +triumph when Madame engaged a handsome young artist to take charge of +our art department, and that from this time she watched and peeped and +listened with an industry which would have done credit to a better +cause. She seemed to argue that as no lover of the beautiful could fail +to appreciate Adelaide's beauty, therefore our artist must admire +Adelaide, and in this deduction she was not far from the truth, but she +ought not to have taken it for granted that Adelaide must be equally +pleased with her admirer. How her espionage tracked us through several +innocent tricks and capers, and was finally foiled by our beloved +Winnie; how the great mystery of the robbery for a time brought doubt +and suspicion between four dear friends who would, and did, go through +fire and water for one another; and how, in spite of doubt and jealousy +and trouble, our love and devotion for one another: burned brightly +and steadily on to the end of the school year, and into the life +beyond--this little book will tell. + +That the events which I am about to relate may be better understood, I +subjoin a plan of the "Amen Corner." + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE =AMEN CORNER=] + + + + +WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE FIRST ESCAPADE OF THE SEASON. + + +[Illustration] + +"Girls!" Winnie exclaimed excitedly as we entered our study parlor after +recitation, "I am wild with curiosity to know what they are doing in the +hospital. All the morning, while I have been trying to study, there has +been the greatest thumping and bumping going on in there. I wonder +whether they are chaining down an insane patient, or if the ghostly +nurses are having a war dance." + +"Why didn't you look and see?" Cynthia Vaughn asked, pointing to the +transom over a locked door, which formerly opened from our parlor into +the hospital ward. + +Madame had made abundant provision for sickness in the original +arrangement of the school building. A large sky-lighted room had been +set apart as an infirmary, and a little suite of rooms in the great +tower adjoining as the physician's quarters. But it was rare indeed +that any one was ill at Madame's, and when a pupil was taken sick, her +parents usually took her home at once. So the doctor, having nothing to +do but to hear the recitations in physiology, preferred not to reside in +the school building, and the pretty suite of rooms, consisting of a +parlor and three bedrooms, was assigned to us, and the hospital proper +was used as a trunk room. Winnie always maintained that ghosts of +medical students experimented there in the night watches on imaginary +cases of vivisection, that corpses were embalmed, and shrieks and howls +were to be heard, in the wee small hours, while phantom lights fumed +blue on the other side of the transom, and sickly odors of ether and +other drugs penetrated through the keyhole. We all laughed at Winnie's +phantasms, but there were none of us so brave as to care to visit that +room after nightfall. The trunks looked too much like coffins, and there +were dresses of Madame's sewed up in bags made of sheets, and suspended +from the roof, which had the uncanny look of corpses of people who had +hanged themselves. + +It was broad daylight now, and we were not at all nervous, and Cynthia +remarked scornfully, "Winnie has told us so many of her bug-a-boo +stories that she has come to actually believe in them herself. She dare +not for her life look through that transom to see what occasions the +noise in the hospital." + +"You dare me to do it?" Winnie asked, confronting Cynthia with flashing +eyes. + +"Don't, Winnie," I pled. "We have no right to peep." + +Winnie hesitated. + +"I told you so," Cynthia said provokingly. "She dares not look. It is +only a lumber room. The noise was probably made by some cat chasing a +rat around." + +"It would take a whole army of cats to make the noises I have heard," +Winnie replied hotly, at the same time rolling Adelaide's great +Saratoga trunk in front of the door. + +"There it goes again!" and as a loud hammering re-echoed through the +adjoining room, she sprang upon the trunk. The transom was still too +high for her to reach. "Quick, girls, something else," she exclaimed, +and Milly dragged the "Commissary Department" from its retirement under +my bed. + +The "commissary" was a small, old-fashioned trunk, which had belonged +to my great-grandmother. It was covered with cow-skin, the hair only +partially worn off, and studded with brass-headed nails which formed the +initials of my ancestors. It was lined with newspapers bearing the date +1790, and was altogether a very quaint and curious relic. Its chief +interest to us, however, lay in the fact that it had come to us from +my home filled with all the good things that a farm can produce and a +mistakenly soft-hearted mother send. There were mince pies and pickles, +a great wedge of cheese, a box of honey, pounds of maple-sugar, tiny +sausages, a great fruitcake, jars of pickled peaches, ginger snaps, +walnuts and chestnuts, pop-corn and molasses candy, and what Milly +called the _interstixes_ were filled in with delicious doughnuts. It was +a treasure house of richness upon which we revelled in the night after +the gas was turned out and we all met in our nightgowns, and formed a +semicircle sitting on the floor around the register, while Winnie told +the most deliciously frightful ghost and robber stories. + +Then, it was that the "commissary" yielded up its contraband stores and +we ate, and shivered, partly with cold and partly with delightful terror +inspired by the rehearsal of legends for which Winnie ransacked, during +the day, the pages of the detective Vidocq and Poe's prose tales. + +Then if a mouse did but squeak in the deserted hospital ward, or the +shuffle of Miss Noakes's slippers was heard in the corridor outside, we +all scuttled incontinently to our beds, and Winnie snored loudly, while +Milly buried her head beneath the blankets. Miss Noakes occupied a large +room opposite the hospital. She was a disagreeable, prowling teacher and +we had nicknamed her _Snooks_. + +The "commissary" being now carefully poised upon the curved top of +Adelaide's trunk, Winnie mounted upon it, and found that it was exactly +what was needed, as it brought her face just on a level with the +transom. + +"O girls!" she exclaimed, "the trunks are all gone, and they are making +the room over into a studio. And that handsome man that sat at Madame's +table yesterday at dinner is in there hanging pictures. I wonder if he +is an artist and is going to teach us. My! he is looking this way," +and Winnie crouched suddenly. The movement was a careless one, and +the commissary slid down the sloping cover of the trunk upon which it +rested, striking the door with its end like a battering-ram, and with +such force that the rusted lock yielded, and the commissary, with Winnie +seated upon it, swept forward, like a toboggan, far into the center of +the hospital. + +It was strange that Winnie was not hurt, but she was not; and before the +astonished artist could quite comprehend what had happened, she had +picked herself up, scampered back into our room, and we had closed the +door behind her, and were fastening it to the best of our ability by +tying the knob to Adelaide's trunk by means of a piece of clothes-line +which had formerly served to cord the commissary. + +At first we laughed long and merrily over the adventure, but by degrees +its serious aspects were appreciated. + +In the first place, Milly suggested dolorously that the commissary had +fallen into the hands of the enemy, while Cynthia Vaughn drew attention +to the fact of the broken lock. + +"However you girls will explain that to Madame is more than I know," she +remarked maliciously. + +"_You_ girls!" Winnie repeated indignantly, "as if you were not as much +concerned in it as any of us." + +"Indeed," Cynthia exclaimed scornfully, "if I remember rightly, it was +Milly who brought the commissary from its retirement, Tib who balanced +it so judiciously, and Winnie who dawned so unceremoniously on that +strange man in the other room. I had absolutely nothing to do with the +affair." + +"You were the instigator of it all," I retorted hotly. "If you had not +dared Winnie to do it she would never have tried to look in." + +"That is like you, Tib," Cynthia replied icily, "to get into a scrape +and then lay the blame on some one else." + +"I take all the blame," Winnie exclaimed loftily. "If inquisition is +ever made into this affair, I and I alone am responsible," and then she +uttered a little shriek and scampered into her own bedroom, for some +one was knocking at the door, which we had just attempted to fasten. + +"Who is there?" I asked, with as much boldness as I could muster; "and +what do you want?" + +"I am Carrington Waite, the new Professor of Art, and I would like to +return property which has been most unexpectedly introduced into my +studio, unless it is possible that the articles to which I refer were +intended as a donation." + +We all laughed at this sally, and made haste to unfasten the door, +whereupon Professor Waite handed in the commissary. He had a pleasant +face, and there was a merry twinkle in his eye as he said: "I tried to +bundle everything in, but the trunk collided with my box of colors, and +you may find rose madder in your jam, while the pickle jar actually +seemed to explode, and showered pickles all over the studio. I have no +doubt I shall find them along the cornice when I hang the pictures on +that side of the room. The doughnuts, too, flew in every direction. Some +rolled under the cabinets, and a mince pie applied itself like a plaster +to the back of my neck. A bottle of tomato catsup was emptied on one of +my canvases, and made a fine impressionistic study of a sunset. I am +afraid I stepped on the cheese, but I believe everything else is all +right." + +He looked about him with interest, and asked, "Where is the heroine who +performed this astonishing acrobatic feat? I trust she was not hurt. It +must have been a thrilling experience. Is it a customary form of +exercise with you young ladies?" + +We did not deign to reply to these questions, but I opened the +commissary and offered the artist some of our choicest dainties. He +accepted our largess, and retired with polite invitations for us to be +"neighborly" and "to call again." + +"Not in just that way," I replied, and I entreated him, if possible, to +repair the broken lock. He examined it carefully. + +"I am afraid," he said, "that it will require a locksmith to do it +thoroughly, but I can make it look all right, and you can screw a little +bolt on your side which will fasten the door securely." + +We thanked him and he was about to close the door, when Adelaide, +who was the only one of our circle who had not had a part in the +escapade, entered the room hastily from the corridor. "O girls," she +exclaimed--but stopped suddenly as she caught sight of the open door +and the young artist. At first her face showed only blank surprise, +then, as she told herself that this must be a joke of Winnie's, who +was fond of masquerading in costume, she remarked with dignity. + +"Really, this is quite too childish; where did you ever get that absurd +costume? You look too ridiculous for anything----" + +Cynthia Vaughn shrieked with laughter. + +The artist bowed, but colored to the roots of his hair and closed the +door, while Milly threw her arms around Adelaide, laughing hysterically, +Winnie appeared from behind her door also laughing, and I vainly +attempted to explain matters. + +"What a mortifying situation," Adelaide remarked, when she finally +understood the case. "I must apologize for my rudeness, and I am sure I +would rather put my hand in boiling water than speak to that man." + +"I am sure I only wish that I may never see him again," said Winnie. +"Nothing in this world could induce me to join the painting class, and +if there is one thing that I am profoundly grateful for, it is that I +have no talent for art." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE CABINET. + + +[Illustration] + +Winnie's queer toboggan ride was innocent enough in itself but it +brought in its train many unforeseen circumstances, chief among which +was the affair of the old oak cabinet. + +This cabinet stood in our study parlor, in the corner diagonally +opposite the door leading into the new studio, and was used as a +depository of the funds of all the occupants of the Amen Corner. + +The cabinet was always left locked and there was but one key to it, +which was kept in the match-box, well covered with matches. Only we +five knew its hiding place, or the fact that the cabinet was used as +a bank. We had agreed that it was best to keep this a secret among +ourselves--and it was so kept until the day after the robbery, weeks +after Winnie's escapade. We intended to follow Professor Waite's advice +and buy a bolt for the door, but what was everybody's business was +nobody's business, and whenever we went shopping there were so many +errands that we forgot it, or some other girl, or one of the teachers +was with us, and it would have been embarrassing to explain why the +bolt was needed. + +The door, as has been explained, opened outward from our parlor into the +studio. Professor Waite had placed a heavy carved chest against it on +his side, so that there was no danger of its flying open, and we had +uncorded the knob and rolled Adelaide's trunk back to her bedroom. No +one occupied the studio at night, and, though I spent several hours +there during the day, I always entered the room by its corridor door, +and we never thought when we locked our own corridor door at night how +easily any one so minded could push aside the chest and enter our +apartment from the studio. + +That the contents of the old oak cabinet on the night of the robbery may +be understood, an explanation of the finances of the different occupants +of the Amen Corner is possibly now in order. + +Adelaide's father and mother had gone West for the winter. Mr. Armstrong +was an able financier, and he wished to make Adelaide a thorough +business woman. She was eighteen years old and she might be a great +heiress some day, if his wealth continued to accumulate, and he wished +to accustom her to the management of money. + +He had given her the year before a model tenement house, built after the +most approved principles, on the site of Richetts' Court, previously +occupied by one of the worst tenement houses in the city. The new +building contained accommodations for ten families; the sanitation was +perfect; there were no dark rooms, but bath rooms, fire escapes, and +provision for every necessity. A good janitor, Stephen Trimble, occupied +the lower apartment and looked after the order and comfort of the +building, and every month Adelaide, attended by one of the teachers, +went down and personally collected her rents, and listened to the +complaints and requests of her tenants. There were few of either, and as +a general rule the pay was prompt, for the rent was low, and Adelaide +did all she could to oblige her tenants, having a small drying room +built for the laundress, Mrs. McCarthy, who had contracted rheumatic +fever from hanging out her wash on the roof and so exposing herself to +the icy winds, when over-heated from the steaming tubs. Adelaide had no +stringent rules against pets. She caused kennels to be built in the +court for several pet dogs, and added some blossoming plants to Mrs. +Blumenthal's small conservatory in the sunny south window. Noticing that +the Morettis were fond of art, and had pasted cigarette pictures on +their walls and driven nails to suspend some gaudy prints of the virgin +and saints, she had a narrow moulding with picture hooks placed just +under the ceiling in every sitting-room. She patronized all their small +industries as far as it was in her power, and interested her friends in +them; having her boots made by the little shoemaker on the top floor, +who was really a good workman, but had been turned away from a prominent +firm, as they had cut down their list of employees. Her underclothing +was made by the little seamstress on the third floor back. She gave each +of her tenants a Thanksgiving dinner and a substantial present on +Christmas Day, and only allowed those to be evicted whose flagrant +misbehaviour showed that nothing could be done for them. + +From the income of this building her father had insisted that Adelaide +must pay all her expenses. As Madame's boarding school was a fashionable +one, the margin left, after the payment of tuition, to be divided +between dress and charity, was not very large. + +Mr. Armstrong knew that Adelaide's weakness was a love for beautiful +clothing; that she delighted in sumptuous velvets, in the sheen of +satin, and the shimmer of gauze. Her regal beauty would not have been +over-powered by a queen's toilette, but she adorned the simplest +costume, and set the fashion in hats for the school season. + +Mr. Armstrong also knew that Adelaide was very tender of heart, and that +if left entirely to herself she would gladly have opened the doors of +her tenement house freely to unscrupulous and undeserving people; that +she would have easily credited every woeful story, and have remitted +rents when it would have been no real kindness to do so. He therefore +pitted these two weaknesses against each other. "We will see what comes +of it at the close of the year," he said. "She may become a grinding, +close-fisted proprietress, screwing the last possible dollar out of the +poor to lavish it on her own personal adornment, but I hope better +things of Adelaide than that. It would be more like her, I think, to go +to the opposite extreme--dress like an Ursuline nun and take nothing +from her tenants; but let us hope that she may be able to strike the +golden mean." + +It was a hard thing to do, and Adelaide went without a new winter cloak +until nearly Christmas time, waiting for the Morettis to pay up an +arrearage; and only consented to the turning out of a shiftless family +who occupied the best apartment, and were three months behind hand, +because the tuition for the first term at Madame's would be due in a +few days, and a respectable wood engraver offered to pay two months in +advance. It was hard, because she did not wish to spend all the money on +herself. She was as interested as any of us in the Home of the Elder +Brother, and longed to contribute more generously to it; but since these +poor people were her tenants, they were in some sense her own family, +and she felt that charity began at home. Often I know that Adelaide +denied herself as really, in not being more lenient, as her tenants did +to scrape together their monthly rental. She was a generous girl to her +friends, and before her father had made this arrangement she deluged +us all with her presents. Milly, who had unlimited credit at several +stores, kept up this pernicious custom of lavishly giving presents of +flowers and candies. It was hard for Winnie and me, who were in moderate +circumstances, not to return them, but doubly so for Adelaide--who +entreated her to desist, as we all did, but without avail. Milly was +incorrigible. "You don't seem to understand," Winnie said to her at +Christmas time, "that the receipt of a gift which one cannot return in +kind is a bitter pill to a sensitive nature." + +"No," replied Milly, "I don't understand anything of the sort. Adelaide +always translates my Cæsar for me. You help me with my algebra, and Tib +as good as writes my compositions. I couldn't return any of those favors +'_in kind_,' and they are pills that are not the least bit bitter to +me----" + +"It's of no use, Adelaide," laughed Winnie, "we must let Milly have her +own way. It is such a pleasure to Milly to give that we will sacrifice +our own feelings and bear the infliction." + +Mr. Armstrong had given Adelaide an old oak cabinet, beautifully carved +in the style of the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century, with +architectural columns, caryatides, scroll work, and arabesques. The +upper cupboard of this cabinet was used as a strong box to hold the +funds of our little circle. The interior was divided into pigeon holes +and shelves, and the door was provided with a curious key with a +delicate wrought-iron handle. + +Adelaide had given each of us a compartment in this little safe, but +when its entire contents were counted there was rarely much money kept +here, for Adelaide had a bank account, and after collecting her rents +usually deposited them at the bank before returning to school, paying +all her debts by cheque. Milly, as before explained, had her running +accounts charged to her father,--a book at Arnold's, at the florist's, +the confectioner's, the dressmaker's, stationer's, etc.,--but her supply +of ready cash was never equal to demand, and though she could telephone +for a messenger and order a coupé at any time, she was always in debt to +the other girls, and I have frequently lent her postage stamps and paid +her car fare. + +Mr. Roseveldt had a horror of entrusting funds to young girls with no +limitation of the way in which they were to be spent; he felt that in +looking over the shop-keeper's accounts he knew exactly how much Milly +expended, and for what the money went. But his plan was a mistaken one; +and the perfect freedom which Adelaide enjoyed was training her in a +sense of responsibility, while Milly was becoming unscrupulous as to +waste, where waste was encouraged, and frequently ordered a coupé when +the street car would have done just as well, or rang for a messenger to +save a postage stamp. + +Winnie and I, the two poorer girls, were the ones who usually had money +in the safe. Winnie received a moderate allowance from her father +outside of her tuition, which he sent directly to Madame. As soon as +the cheque arrived, she cashed it and placed the new, crisp bills in +separate envelopes labelled, "Personal expenses," "Charity." She was +very generous, but she had a horror of debt, and she never expended the +funds in the latter envelope until she had received another remittance. +As Winnie abhorred sweets, and would rather any day have gone to the +dentist's than the dressmaker's, and as she had a supreme contempt for +display of any kind, the charity envelope was always full, and she had +usually a comfortable margin in personal expenditure to lend or bestow +on others. Winnie had always been generous, but this quality of +foresight had only come to her during the past year in her work as a +member of the finance committee of the Home of the Elder Brother. + +My own case was different from that of the others. My father was a +Long Island farmer, and my allowance, though meagre as related to my +necessities, was liberal when compared with his own income. Miss +Sartoris, Madame's former drawing teacher, had boarded with us one +summer, during which I had sketched with her, and she had persuaded +father that I possessed a talent for art and had taken me back with +her to Madame's. So far I had easily led all the art students, and my +studies, although abounding in faults, presumptuous and immature, were +considered by the school as something quite remarkable. During the past +summer a young man of engaging address, and otherwise irreproachable +honesty, had stolen our beloved teacher, and Miss Sartoris, now Mrs. +Stillman, was known to Madame's no more. When the school reorganized +in the fall, Madame engaged me to take charge of the art department, +temporarily, until she could provide herself with a more competent +instructor. We had a small, crowded studio, with a poor light, but the +class was large. I did the best I could, but we sorely needed ampler +accommodations, and a head whose ability in his profession should be +unquestioned. Both were now provided. Carrington Waite was a young +artist fresh from the _École des Beaux Arts_ at Paris, and he brought to +us the training traditions of the schools, and the latest European ideas +in art. + +There were very few girls in the school sufficiently advanced to +understand his instruction, but they flocked into the studio and +listened with undisguised admiration to words that might as well have +been uttered in an unknown tongue. Poor little Milly gazed at him in a +rapt, adoring way, without ever comprehending what he said. The tears +came to her eyes and rolled swiftly down her cheeks when he told her +that it was manifestly absurd to draw a full face seen from the front +with its nose in profile, but she smiled a brave little quiver of a +smile while he reviled her work, and thanked him as though he had +uttered the most fulsome compliments. + +Even Winnie had felt the wave of influence and joined the class in spite +of her assertion that she had no taste for art and never wished to see +Professor Waite again. Only Adelaide held firmly out and would none of +him. Winnie was not at all afraid of the Professor, and seemed to devote +herself especially to making his life miserable. When he informed her +that she must join the "preparatory antique" section and draw in +charcoal, she calmly explained that she "perfectly loathed" casts, and +she had purchased an outfit of oil paints and intended to devote herself +at once to color. Strange to say, Professor Waite humored her and gave +her some of his landscape studies to copy. She was never contented with +reproducing these faithfully, but always "improved" upon them, as she +audaciously expressed it. + +It was a common thing for Professor Waite to remark, when he sat down +before Winnie's easel, "Well, this is about the worst atrocity you have +yet committed." + +Winnie, standing behind him, would make eyes at the rest of the girls, +and remark penitently, "I am very sorry." + +"You look sorry," Professor Waite replied, on one occasion. + +"I don't see how you can tell how I look," Winnie answered, "when you +are sitting with your back to me." + +I do not know whether Milly's denseness or Winnie's impudence was the +more irritating to Professor Waite. Winnie resented his severity to +Milly and was always more provoking whenever he had grieved her pet and +left her sobbing in a mire of charcoal and tears. + +"You give me more trouble than a three-week's-old baby," Professor Waite +had remarked to poor Milly, and Winnie had retorted spitefully, "I wish +you had to take care of one--I guess you would find a difference." + +Winnie's sauciness and Milly's dulness, combined with that of many of +his other pupils, drove the Professor to despair after a week's trial. +He told Madame, as I learned later, that he must give up the position, +as her pupils were all "too hopelessly elementary." + +Madame was disappointed. Her art department had always been an +attractive feature, and since the name of Professor Carrington Waite, +late of the _Académie des Beaux Arts_, had appeared in her circulars, +many had joined the school purely for the sake of the studio +instruction. Madame explained this to the young artist. + +He ran his fingers through his hair in despair. "Of what manner of use +is it for me to remain?" he asked. "There is only one pupil sufficiently +advanced to gain anything from my instruction, and that is Miss Smith. +The others made as much advance, perhaps more, under her teaching as +they have under mine." + +A happy thought came to Madame. "If I engage Miss Smith as your +assistant, Professor Waite, perhaps she can translate your ideas into +terms which will be intelligible by the students of lower intelligence +or advancement, and possibly she can so enlighten some of them that they +can profit later by your personal teaching." + +This plan struck Professor Waite as practicable. He now only visited the +studio for an hour each morning, during which time he criticised the +work which had been done under my supervision during the previous day. +The new arrangement was an excellent one for me, for I profited by all +his remarks, listening to them with the keenest attention, and thus +received thirty lessons during the hour instead of one. As I had +but three other studies, and these were in the senior class, it was +possible for me to give the necessary time by preparing all of my +lessons in the evening. It was unremitting, incessant work, but my +health was excellent, and art was my supreme delight. Moreover, Madame +had offered me a salary of three hundred dollars beyond my school +expenses, and it was perfect joy to be able to relieve father of this +burden. I had a high ambition to go abroad some day and study art in +Paris, and I wished to save as much as possible of my salary toward this +purpose. I had the lower compartment in the safe, and here I laid away +every dollar that I could spare, limiting myself in everything but my +subscription to the Home of the Elder Brother; but for this outlet I +would have grown niggardly and avaricious. The same charity which made +Winnie prudently retrench her propensity to lavish expenditure, and take +thought carefully for the morrow, kept me from utter selfishness and +penuriousness by keeping one channel of generous giving open and pulsing +freely toward others. + +Cynthia Vaughn's affairs were kept closely to herself. We sometimes +fancied that she pretended to greater wealth and consequence than she +really possessed. Certainly, if the sums of which she frequently spoke +of receiving were at her disposal she was a veritable miser; for her +subscription to the Home was the smallest of any girl in the King's +Daughters' Ten; the presents which she ostentatiously bestowed upon +Adelaide and Milly were cheap though showy, as was her own clothing. + +The treasures which she committed to the cabinet safe were carefully +locked in a small japanned tin box, the key of which she kept in her +pocket-book, and she was the only one of us whose belongings within the +safe were so protected. We had perfect confidence in one another, and +our funds lay open to the observation or handling of any one possessing +the pass key in the match box. It is needless to say that up to the +night of the robbery our security had been inviolate. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ROBBERY. + + +[Illustration] + +Adelaide led the school in more respects than in the style of hats, and +in the Amen Corner she reigned as absolute queen. + +It may seem strange that this was so, for Winnie was the genius of our +coterie. She was perhaps too active and restless. She seemed born to be +a leader, but the leader of a revolt, while Adelaide had the calm +assurance of a princess who had no need to assert her rights, but to +whom allegiance came as a matter of course. Even Winnie was her loyal +subject and delighted in being her prime minister. + +I have spoken of Winnie's fondness for reading and telling detective +stories. It really seemed as if in so doing she was preparing us for the +events which followed, and the time when every one of us felt that she +was a special detective charged with the mission of finding a clue to a +great and sorrowful mystery. + +It all came about through the robbery. + +On the eve of my birthday it so happened that there was an unusual +amount of money in the little safe. Adelaide had returned from +collecting her rents too late to deposit her funds in the bank. She +looked very much relieved as she slipped a roll of bills, amounting to +nearly one hundred dollars, into her pigeon-hole, and turning the key, +deposited it in the match safe. + +Winnie had that morning cashed a check just received from her father, +and had brought back from the bank some crisp, new notes, with which she +filled her envelopes for the coming month. Cynthia had ostentatiously +and yet mysteriously dropped some silver dollars into her cash box, and +even Milly had laid aside an unwonted sum, for her father had called at +the school and contrary to his usual custom had given her five bright +ten-dollar gold pieces. Milly seemed very happy as she slipped them into +her snakeskin and tucked it into her own particular corner of the safe. + +"Unlimited pocket money this month, eh! Milly?" I asked. + +Milly laughed and shook her head. + +"Don't know that I am obliged to account to you for everything," she +said, saucily, but the sting was taken out of the speech by the kiss +with which it was immediately followed, and I more than half suspected +that Milly intended one of those gold pieces as a birthday present for +me. + +Late in the evening I counted over my own hoard. We were all in the +study parlor, with the exception of Winnie, and as I counted I looked up +and saw that Adelaide and Milly were regarding me with interest, though +their glances instantly fell to the books which they had apparently been +studying. + +"How much have you, Tib?" Adelaide asked; "enough yet to buy the steamer +ticket for the ocean passage?" + +"No," I replied, "only forty-seven dollars as yet, but I hope to make it +before the close of school." + +"Of course you will," Milly replied reassuringly. + +Cynthia laughed raspingly. "You have almost enough now, if you go in the +steerage," she sneered. + +Adelaide suddenly threw a bit of drawn linen work belonging to Cynthia +over the money, which I had spread out in the chair before me. + +"What are you doing with my embroidery?" Cynthia snapped. "Did you +mistake it for a dust rag?" + +"Natural mistake," Milly giggled. + +Adelaide lifted her finger warningly. "Hush!" she said, "I saw a face at +the transom; some one was looking in from the studio." + +Milly turned pale and clutched my hand, and we all looked at the transom +with straining eyes. It was almost dark in the studio and for a few +moments we saw nothing but some one was moving about, for we heard +cautious steps, and a creaking sound just the other side of the door. +Presently a hat cautiously lifted itself into view through the transom. +It was a broad-brimmed, soft felt hat of the Rembrandt style, which +Professor Waite sometimes wore. It moved about silently from one side of +the transom to the other, descended, and appeared again. + +"I never thought that Professor Waite would peep or listen," Cynthia +whispered. + +"He would not," I replied aloud. "He must be at work there hanging +pictures or doing something else of the sort." + +"Then he would make more noise," Cynthia suggested, as the hat continued +its stealthy movements. + +"It may be some one else who has put on the Professor's hat as a +disguise," Milly gasped. + +"That was the reason I covered up the money," Adelaide replied, in a low +voice. "You had better put it away, Tib." + +I hastily bundled my money into the safe and locked the door, and we sat +for some moments quietly watching the transom, but the spectre did not +come again. Winnie entered a few moments later and seemed greatly +interested by our accounts of the incident. + +"Do you suppose that it could have been one of that band of Italian +bravos who has climbed up on the fire-escape and who intends to murder +us?" she asked with an assumption of terror. + +"Hush," I whispered, pulling her dress, and pointing to Milly whose eyes +were staring with fright. + +"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Winnie; "can't you tell when I'm joking? It was +Professor Waite. Of course it was Professor Waite. He has been in love +with Adelaide ever since she complimented him on his appearance at their +first meeting. He is dying for a glimpse at her fair face, and as she +won't join his painting class he relieves his yearning heart by gazing +over the transom." + +There was more joking, and Milly's fears were as quickly quieted as they +had been raised. Professor Waite had undoubtedly been at work in the +studio, I insisted, and I knocked on the door and called his name. + +No answer, and I tried to open the door, but the chest held it firmly in +place. "Shall I look over the transom?" I asked. + +"For pity's sake do not repeat Winnie's experience," Adelaide begged. + +"Then I will look in by the corridor door," I said resolutely, and I +stepped down the hall and into the studio. The door was open, so was +Miss Noakes's door just opposite, and that watchful lady sat rocking and +reading beside her little centre table. She was not too much absorbed, +however, to give me a keen questioning glance--but she said nothing, +for as assistant teacher in art I had a perfect right to frequent the +studio. + +The moon was shining in clearly through the great window, and every +object was distinctly visible, but there was no one in the room. I +opened the door leading to the turret staircase and listened; all was +silent, and I screwed up my courage and descended, finding the door at +the foot safely locked. The great Rembrandt hat lay on the chest in +front of our door, and the Professor's mahl-stick, or long support on +which he rested his arm when painting, leaned beside it. I could not see +any change in the disposition of the pictures on the wall, or other +indications of what the Professor had been doing, if indeed it was the +Professor, and I did not know of his ever before visiting the studio at +that hour. As I came out I noticed that Miss Noakes was still rocking +before her open door, her slits of eyes glancing sharply up. + +"Have you seen any one go into the studio lately?" I asked. + +"No one has passed through the corridor since the beginning of study +hour, with the exception of Miss Winifred De Witt." + +"Then this door must have been open all the time, and you have seen no +one in the studio?" + +"I have observed no one. Why do you ask?" + +"We thought we saw the shadow of a man on the transom." + +"Nonsense--it is silly to be frightened at nothing. It was probably +Professor Waite. If you young ladies would interest yourselves less in +the movements of that young man it would be much more becoming in you." + +I turned away quickly, not relishing her tone, and looked at the +corridor window, which opened on the balcony of the fire escape. It was +securely fastened. I was puzzled, but did not wish to alarm Milly, and I +now reported only what seemed to me the favorable aspects of the case. + +No one there, all quiet and in order; lower turret door opening on the +street, and the corridor window opening on the balcony, both locked, +showing that no one could have come up the stairs or the fire escape. +Miss Noakes, on guard, had seen no one enter the studio. + +Of course it must have been Professor Waite. + +"Of course," Winnie echoed. "Tib knows him too well to be mistaken even +when she only sees him through a glass darkly. But think what that +devotion must be, which leads a man to keep guard before his lady's door +at night," and Winnie shouldered an umbrella and paced back and forward, +singing in a deep bass voice, "Thy Sentinel am I." + +Winnie was irresistible and we all laughed merrily at her pranks. But +for all that I locked the cabinet with unusual care that night and +Adelaide tried the door afterward to see that it was securely fastened. +While doing so, she noticed something which we had not hitherto +discovered--a little steel ornament like a nail head at the foot of one +of the columns. Touching this, a small shelf shot forward. It had +evidently been intended for a writing table, for it was ink-stained. +Adelaide pushed it easily back into its place and its edge formed one of +the three moldings which formed the base of the upper division of the +cabinet. + +"That is a very convenient little arrangement," Adelaide said. "I wonder +that I have never noticed it before." + +I soon fell asleep, and slept long and dreamlessly. I awoke at last with +an uneasy feeling of cold. It was quite dark, and putting out my hand I +found that Winnie's place at my side was vacant. I started up alarmed, +and called her name. There was a little pause, during which I stumbled +out of bed and groped vainly for a candle, which usually stood on a +stand at the head of the bed. Not finding it, I noticed a beam of light +streaming from beneath the closed door leading into the study-parlor, +and I remembered vividly that when I went to bed I had left that door +open, as I always did, for more perfect ventilation. I stood hesitating, +vaguely alarmed, when the door was opened from the parlor side and +Winnie stood before me holding a lighted candle--her face white as that +of a spirit. + +"How you frightened me!" I exclaimed. "What is the matter?" + +"Nothing, I merely went out to see whether the door into the corridor +was locked. I was lying awake, and I could not remember seeing any one +lock it." + +She spoke mechanically, and her voice sounded strange and hollow. + +"Why, you did it yourself!" I exclaimed. + +"Did I? Strange I should forget." + +"You found everything all right, didn't you?" + +"The door was not only locked but bolted," Winnie replied; but her +manner was constrained, and her hand, which I happened to touch, was +cold as ice. + +"Come right to bed," I exclaimed, "you have taken cold." + +Winnie did not reply, but her teeth were chattering. She curled up in +bed and buried her face in her pillow. I was sleepy and soon dozed +off, but I was vaguely conscious in my slumbers that I had an uneasy +bedfellow; that Winnie tossed and tumbled and even groaned. When I awoke +she was sitting, dressed, on the window sill. It may have been the early +light but her face looked gray, and there was a drawn, set expression +about the mouth which I had never seen there before. + +"What is the matter?" I asked again. + +She replied, in that cold, unnatural voice, "Nothing." + +Just then there was a hard knocking at my door. Milly shouted joyfully, +"Many happy returns of the day," and swooping down upon me buried +me with kisses. Adelaide followed, and in a more dignified manner +congratulated me on my birthday. "No flowers, Tib," Milly explained, +"because you set your face against that sort of thing, and I was +determined to let you have your own way on your birthday. Winnie, what +makes you sit over there like a sphinx, with your nose touched with +sunrise? Come here and help us give Tib her seventeen slaps and one to +grow on." + +"Tib will find my present on the stand at the head of the bed," Winnie +replied, and turning, I discovered an envelope labelled, "For the +European tour." It contained a crisp new bill of twenty dollars. + +Adelaide and Milly looked at each other significantly, and Milly +exclaimed: + +"You dear, generous thing! Why didn't you tell us that you meant to do +anything so lovely? Adelaide and I would have helped." + +Winnie did not reply to Milly, but answered my thanks with a close hug. + +"Come," said Milly, "and put your money in the safe, and see how much +you have now toward the fund." + +"Oh! That's easy to calculate," I replied, as I slipped on my clothing, +"twenty and forty-seven--sixty-seven dollars exactly." + +Adelaide coughed significantly. "Tib seems to be very confident that two +and two makes four," she remarked. A suspicion that both Adelaide and +Milly intended to help me suggested itself to my mind, and I hastened my +dressing and unlocked the safe. As I did so Cynthia opened her door. +"Oh! it's you," she exclaimed; "whenever I hear any one at the safe I +always look to see who it is." + +She did not retreat into her room, but stood in the door watching us +with a singular expression on her disagreeable face. Adelaide and Milly +were looking over my shoulder. Milly apparently vainly endeavoring to +conceal a little flutter of excitement. We were all there but Winnie, +who had not left her seat at the window, when I threw open the door of +the safe and disclosed--nothing! + +The space on the floor where I usually kept my money, where the night +before I had placed a long blue envelope containing forty-seven +dollars--was empty. The envelope and its contents gone. + +Milly uttered a little shriek. Adelaide stepped forward and examined the +space, passing her hand far in, and feeling carefully in every corner. +Then she took out her own roll of bills from her little pigeon-hole. I +counted them with her, just fifty-dollars less than the sum which I saw +her place there. She handed me a five dollar bill, saying, "Tib, my +dear, my only disappointment is that I cannot give you as large a +birthday present as I had planned." + +Milly threw her arms around me, "And I can't give you anything, you +darling old Tib. I am so sorry." + +"How do you know you can't?" Cynthia asked. "You haven't looked to see +whether you have lost anything." + +Milly flushed. "If Tib has lost her money, of course I have mine." + +"Why, of course? The thief has obligingly left Adelaide a part of her +money; perhaps yours is all there." + +Milly opened her purse. It was quite empty. She closed it with a snap. + +"I don't see how you knew it," Cynthia remarked unpleasantly. "Now I am +really too curious to see whether I have been as unfortunate as the rest +of you." In spite of this profession of eagerness she had seemed to me +remarkably indifferent, and she unlocked her strong box with great +deliberation, manifesting no surprise or pleasure as she reported "three +dollars and fifty-three cents, precisely what I left there. This shows +the wisdom of my double-lock; the thief evidently had no key which would +fit my strong-box." + +"Winnie," I called, "we have had a burglary; come right here and see +whether you have lost anything." + +Winnie entered the room slowly, almost unwillingly, quite in contrast +with her usual impulsive action, and opened her envelopes before us. "No +one has touched my money," she said; "here is exactly what I placed in +the envelopes last night." + +"Did you go to the safe in the night to get that twenty dollar bill +which you gave me this morning?" I asked. + +Cynthia Vaughn turned and looked at Winnie eagerly. + +"I kept it out last night," Winnie replied, "when I put the rest away. +You will remember that I sealed the envelopes then, and I find them now +unopened." + +An expression of malice and triumph, such as I have never seen on the +face of any human being, rested on Cynthia's countenance. + +"There is something very mysterious about this," she remarked, in an +eager way. "The thief has entirely spared Winnie and me, and has been +obliging enough to take only half of Adelaide's money. Tib and Milly +lose all of theirs, but Tib's was money for which she had no immediate +use. So that she will not feel its loss as much as Winnie or I would +have done, and Milly has no real need of money at all--I wonder whether +the thief was acquainted with our circumstances; if so he or she was +very considerate." + +"I don't know what you mean about Tib's not feeling the loss," Winnie +began indignantly, her glance resting not on Cynthia but on Milly. "It +will be a cruel disappointment to her if she cannot go to Europe to +study, after all." + +"Oh! that's not to be thought of," Milly replied, feeling herself +addressed. "Of course Tib will go. Something will turn up. The money +will be discovered. Perhaps the thief will return it." + +A light flamed up in Winnie's face. It was the first pleasant look that +I had seen there this morning. "It must be so," she exclaimed eagerly, +but very gravely; "let us hope that the person who took that money was +actuated by dire necessity; that it was simply borrowed, and that it +will be returned." + +"Nonsense," exclaimed Cynthia impatiently. "I have no such excuses to +make for a thief, and I am going right now to report the entire affair +to Madame, who will of course put it in the hands of the police----" + +"The police!" Winnie cried, in a tone of dismay. "Oh! no, no!" + +"Wait," said Adelaide commandingly; "that is not the way we do things in +the Amen Corner. This is something in which we are all interested, and +the majority shall rule. Now Winnie, will you please tell us why the +police should not take this matter in charge? My explanation is that +some thief entered this room last night through the studio door. +Probably it was the very individual who was watching us last night +through the transom." + +"Oh! Not Professor Waite," Milly exclaimed, and Winnie started as though +about to speak, but restrained the impulse. + +"No, not Professor Waite, certainly," Adelaide continued, "but some one +disguised in his hat. This thief waited until we were all asleep, and +then began to help himself to the contents of our safe, but was probably +interrupted or frightened by some sound, after securing Milly's and +Tib's money, and hurried away without taking as much as he wished. That +is the simplest, most likely solution, and it seems to me that the +police are the proper authorities to take the affair in hand." + +She paused for several moments. We all chattered together as fast and as +loudly as we could. Then Adelaide rapped on the table with a nutcracker +and said: + +"I shall now put the question. Those in favor of reporting this matter +at once to Madame, please say 'Ay;' those opposed, the contrary +sign--but first, any remarks?" + +Winnie hesitated. "I do not agree with you that it is a matter in which +we are all equally interested," she said slowly. "Tib is the principal +loser. Tib should decide what she wishes to do. Adelaide's theory looks +plausible, but it may be wrong. Some member of this school may have +entered through that door, and taken the money. Whatever is handed over +to the police, goes into the papers. We do not want to bring on the +school scandal and disgrace, which would follow the publishing of the +fact that one of its pupils is a thief." + +"Winnie seems to be very certain that the thief is a pupil," Cynthia +remarked sneeringly. "If so, we can trust that Madame will ferret her +out without outside assistance." + +"My chief reason, however," continued Winnie, "for waiting a day or two +before reporting this thing, is the hope that conscience will lead the +unhappy person who has committed the crime to make restitution. Tib, you +certainly look at the matter as I do. You are not vindictive; give the +wrong-doer a chance." + +"Certainly," I said. + +"The question," called Cynthia. "Adelaide, put the question." + +"Those in favor of reporting at once to Madame?" said Adelaide. + +"Aye," from Cynthia, loud enough for two. + +"Aye," more faintly, from Milly. + +"Those opposed?" + +"No," from Winnie and from me. + +"A tie," announced Adelaide. "Then the chair gives the casting vote. I +am in favor of reporting to Madame, and I think we had better make the +report in a body. There is just time to see her before breakfast." + +"I do not see the necessity of our going _en masse_," Winnie objected. +"Tib, of course, as the individual who has suffered most, and who +discovered the loss; Cynthia, who seems to enjoy telling unpleasant +things; and Adelaide, who is strictly just, and the oldest and most +dignified member of the Amen Corner. But I do not see why you should +drag Milly along; the child has had enough excitement already. Let her +lie down and rest her little head until the breakfast bell rings. As for +me, I'm not going until I'm sent for. Not even a burglary shall make me +miss my morning constitutional," and Winnie quickly equipped herself for +a walk in the grounds. + +"Milly shall do as she pleases," Adelaide said; "there is really no +necessity, as you say, for her to go with us." + +"I think I would rather go," Milly said hesitatingly. + +An expression of keen disappointment swept across Winnie's face. + +"Come, Winnie," I said, "you had better be with us; it looks better." + +"What do you mean?" she asked hotly. + +"Only that the Amen Corner always yields to the wish of the majority, +and we are in the habit of standing by one another, even when we do not +quite agree." + +"Winnie need not trouble herself," Cynthia remarked; "we can get on very +well without her. Of course she knows no more about the affair than the +rest of us." + +The words were innocent enough, but there was something very sarcastic +in the way in which they were uttered. + +"Evidently you would rather I would not go," Winnie said, as though +thinking aloud. "I am sorry to be disobliging, but if that is the case I +believe I will." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +TROUBLE IN THE AMEN CORNER. + + Doubt, + A soul-mist through whose rifts familiar stars + Beholding, we misname. + --_Jean Ingelow_ + + +[Illustration] + +Milly had been unhappy for days. + +And now a great trouble fell upon all of us. It was as though a dense +fog of doubt and suspicion had drifted in upon the Amen Corner, +separating dear friends, so that we could not recognize each other's +faces through its dense folds, and our voices sounded false and far away +as we called and groped for one another. + +Our interview with Madame was very brief. I simply stated the fact of +the disappearance of the money, which the other girls corroborated. + +Cynthia began to enlarge on the statement, but Madame stopped her. + +"I have not time now to investigate this unhappy affair," she said. +"Indeed, it is something which will probably require the assistance of a +detective. Do not look so alarmed," she added to Milly; "I happen to be +acquainted with a gentleman--in fact, he is my lawyer--who has all the +qualifications of a very clever detective. I will write, asking him to +call, and to take charge of the case. He will keep it all very quiet. I +am glad that you have come to me first of all, and I particularly +request that you mention the fact of the robbery to no one." + +With this she dismissed us, and we went to breakfast a little late, +feeling very important in the possession of a mystery. Winnie was the +only one whom this mystery did not seem to elate. Cynthia, who sat +beside me at table, was overflowing with glee. + +"It is better than the most exciting story which Winnie ever told us," +she whispered to me. "Won't it be fun to follow the unravelling of the +crime. Of course the detective will be led off by false clues, and all +that sort of thing, and the real thief will suffer all the torture of +alternate fear of detection and hope of escape; but the toils will +close gradually about the doomed individual. I shall not disclose my +suspicions till toward the last. Oh! what fun it will be to watch the +development of the drama. I should think, Tib, that you would write it +up." + +"Your suspicions?" I repeated. "Do you really suspect any one?" + +"Why, yes; don't you?" + +"No indeed!" + +"Then all I've got to say is that you are a lamb. You think every one as +innocent as yourself. Because you have the innocence of a lamb, you have +a corresponding muttony intelligence." + +I was very indignant, but I did not show it. "Whom do you suspect?" I +asked. + +"That's telling," she replied, "and I said that I would not tell at this +stage of the game." + +Later in the day, as I left the studio to return to our study-parlor, I +met Winnie coming out. She had on her hat and cloak and carried my own. +"Come and walk with me," she said, "I feel all mugged up, and I need +a good tramp. Milly is in there trying to take a nap. Adelaide and +Cynthia are at recitation, and if you will come with me the poor child +can get a little rest." + +As we marched around the school building together, I told her of my +conversation with Cynthia. Winnie started. + +"I don't believe she really knows anything more than we do," I said. +"Cynthia loves to be important and aggravating. If she really knew +anything she couldn't keep it in." + +"Find out whom she suspects," Winnie replied. "Cynthia is a real snake +in the grass, and can do a lot of mischief by fastening the crime on an +innocent person. I do not mean that she would do this wilfully, unless +she had a strong motive for revenge, but she is unscrupulous as to the +results of her actions, and loves to imagine evil and set forth facts in +their most damaging light. Find out, by all means, whether she really +knows anything likely to implicate any one." + +"Cynthia is a hard orange to squeeze," I replied. "If she thinks I want +to know, she will delight in tantalizing me." + +Winnie was silent for a moment. "Find out whether Cynthia slept soundly +all night, or whether she heard or saw any one in the parlor. She might +have heard me, you know, when I went out to look at the door." + +"Sure enough," I replied. "If that is all I will get it out of her right +away." + +We returned to our rooms. There was no one in the parlor. Winnie looked +into the bedrooms. Only Milly sleeping peacefully, and Winnie stepped to +the match box, took the key, and opened the safe. I do not know what she +expected to find, but she looked disappointed. + +"Did you think the thief would help himself again in broad daylight?" I +asked. + +"No," Winnie replied shortly. + +At that instant Cynthia entered, flushed, and as it seemed to me +triumphant. "Mr. Mudge wants to see you, Winnie, in Madame's private +library," she announced importantly. + +"Who is Mr. Mudge?" Winnie asked. + +"He is Madame's lawyer. The keenest, shrewdest man you ever saw, with +little gimletty eyes that bore the truth right out of you; and such a +cross-questioner! If you have a secret, he knows it the minute he looks +at you, and makes you tell it, in spite of yourself, the first time that +you open your mouth. You need not try to keep your suspicions to +yourself, they will be out before you can say Jack Robinson." + +Winnie gave a little sigh. "And you say he wants to see me?" she asked, +rising with a palpable effort. + +"Yes, he wants to question us each separately, to see if our testimony +agrees, I suppose. He asked Madame, as I went in, if she had kept us +apart since the robbery to guard against any--collision--I think that +was the word!" + +"Collusion," I corrected. + +"No matter; he meant that we might have hatched up a story between us, +but Madame assured him that we were all honorable girls and incapable of +such a thing." + +"Of course," he replied, "unless they happen to know or suspect the +culprit, and wish to shield her. In such cases, I have known the most +religious young persons to lie like a jockey." + +Winnie left the room, throwing me a look of piteous appeal as she did +so, which I understood to beg me to find out all I could from Cynthia. I +rocked silently for a few moments, to disclaim all eagerness, and then +said casually: "I don't believe you would ever lie to save a friend." +This in a propitiating tone, adding to myself, "you would be much more +likely to tell a lie to get one into trouble." + +Cynthia could not hear the thought, and she stretched herself +luxuriously on the divan. + +"No," she replied, "I don't make any pretense of being good; but I +wouldn't do that. Whenever the Hornets got into scrapes, I always told. +Madame could depend on me for that. It is sneaky not to be willing to +take the consequences. Besides, you get off a great deal easier if you +own up; and others will be sure to throw the blame on you if you are not +smart enough to get ahead of them." + +How I despised her. "I wonder if she thinks she is in danger of being +called in question for this crime," I thought, "and has made haste to +accuse some one else." + +"You said you meant to keep your testimony until the end, so I suppose +you did not tell Mr. Mudge your suspicions," I remarked. + +"Didn't I just say that I did tell him?" + +"Well, as they are only suspicions I presume he paid no attention to +them. Lawyers generally tell witnesses to confine their testimony to +facts." + +"But I had facts, suspicious facts; not ideas of my own, but important +circumstantial evidence." + +"_In_deed!" I purposely threw as much incredulity as I could into the +way in which I uttered the word. + +Cynthia sprang from the lounge, her eyes flashing with anger. "Yes, +_indeed_; very awkward facts for your precious friend Winnie to explain +away." + +"Winnie!" I exclaimed, and then laughed outright. + +Cynthia was furious. "What do you say to this Tib Smith? I saw Winnie, +with my own eyes, come into this room in her nightgown, with a lighted +candle in her hand, carefully close all the doors, and----" + +"Pooh! that's nothing," I replied cheerfully. "I was awake; I saw her, +too. She merely crossed the room to see whether the corridor-door was +locked." + +"Yes, and after that?" + +"Came back to bed again." + +"There you are telling a fib to save your friend. She did not go back +immediately. I was awakened by her softly closing my door, I got up and +peeked through the keyhole, and I saw her open the safe and rummage +around in it for quite a while, undoubtedly possessing herself of the +money. Then she locked it and hurried back to her room looking as +frightened as the criminal she was." + +"It is not so! It is a wicked, cruel falsehood!" Milly cried, springing +into the room. I had forgotten her presence in the bedroom and Cynthia +of course did not know of it. + +Cynthia was taken aback for a moment. "I will tell you why I know it was +so," she said at length. "After Winnie went back to the room, and before +any one else could have entered the parlor, I examined the safe and the +money was gone." + +"That proves nothing," I said; "it was probably taken before Winnie +opened the safe." + +"Then she knew of the robbery in the morning before the rest of you, and +never told." + +"You knew and never told either," said Milly. + +"I was waiting for the proper time," replied Cynthia. "If Winnie did not +take that money then she suspects who did. If she does not tell Mr. +Mudge her suspicions, she is trying to shield the guilty person, and +the--the shielder is as bad as the thief." + +"There is no proverb that says so," I replied; "beside, you have proved +nothing. If all that you say is true--and I don't mind telling you, +Cynthia Vaughn, that I am not entirely sure of that--if what you say +_is_ true, you are as deep in the mud as Winnie is in the mire." + +"You think Winnie a saint!" Cynthia sneered. "You don't half know her. +Before she came to room in the Amen Corner, and we were both in the +Hornets Nest up under the eaves, she was the Queen Hornet of all. There +was nothing which she would not dare to do, from letting down bouquets +in her scrap-basket to the cadet band when they serenaded us, to bribing +the janitor to let her slip out at night and buy goodies at the corner +grocery for our spreads. She was a regular case, and her pet name all +over the school was: + + 'The malicious, seditious, insubordinate, + Disreputable, sceptical Queen of the Hornets.'" + +"We know all that," I replied, "but there are some things which Winnie +_could_ not do. She could not tell a lie, and she could not steal." + +"I don't know about that," Cynthia continued coldly. "She comes from an +uncertain sort of Bohemian ancestry. You know her mother was an actress +and her father a playwright." + +Cynthia told this with great triumph, evidently thinking that we had +never heard it. + +"Madame told us," I replied, "that Mrs. De Witt was a very lovely +woman, who only acted in her husband's plays; that she made it her life +purpose to realize and explain her husband's ideals: and that he wrote +the part of the heroine especially to suit her, so that their creations +were among the most charming that have ever been presented on the +stage. They were devoted to one another, and when she died his heart +was broken. He does not write plays any more, but articles for +encyclopædias, which is an extremely respectable profession." + +"And you dared prejudice this Mr. Mudge against our own precious +Winnie," Milly continued. "You are just the meanest girl, Cynthia +Vaughn, that ever lived! But you never can make any one believe anything +against her. If, as Tib says, it lies between you two, we all know who +is the more likely to have done it." + +Cynthia turned green. "Do you dare to accuse me?" she hissed. + +"No, Milly; don't do that," I cried warningly, and the overwrought girl +burst into a flood of tears and threw herself into my arms. "We accuse +no one," I said to Cynthia. "I trust that you have been equally cautious +with Mr. Mudge." + +"What I may have said or may not have said is no business of yours," +Cynthia replied. "You have both of you insulted me beyond endurance, and +from this time forth I shall never speak to any of you. I except +Adelaide," she added, after a moment's consideration. "Adelaide is the +only member of the Amen Corner who has treated me like a lady." + +"I think it would be pleasanter for you and for us if you would ask +Madame to let you room somewhere else," Milly suggested. + +"I shall not go simply because you wish it," Cynthia replied. "I shall +stay to watch developments." + +"And, meantime, I believe you said we were to be deprived of the +pleasure of any conversation with you," I remarked, rather flippantly. + +Cynthia turned her back upon me and from that time kept her word, +maintaining a sullen silence with every one but Adelaide. + +The bell rang for luncheon. The forenoon had seemed very long, and the +afternoon was simply interminable. Milly left the room with me. Cynthia +did not stir. + +"Do you think she took it?" Milly asked, nodding back at the parlor. + +"No," I replied, "she is altogether too gay. She evidently enjoys the +investigation. If she were the culprit she would be constrained, +nervous, averse to having the affair examined." I stopped suddenly, +realizing how exactly this description fitted Winnie. + +"Adelaide believes," Milly said slowly, "that it was some sneak thief +from outside the house. Have you looked about in the studio for any +suspicious circumstances?" + +I replied that I would do so after dinner, and then, as we passed into +the dining-room together, the subject was dropped. + +Winnie came to the table late and passed me a note, which I read beneath +my napkin. + +"Mr. Mudge wants to question you next. You are to meet him in Madame's +parlor immediately after luncheon. Hurry and finish, so that I can have +a minute with you before you see him." + +I bolted my dinner, and Winnie sat silently staring before her, eating +nothing. We left the dining-room five minutes before the conclusion of +the meal, bowing as we passed Madame's table, as was our custom when we +wished to be excused before the others. Madame's attention was absorbed +by the teacher with whom she was conversing, and we passed out +unhindered. + +"What did you find out from Cynthia?" Winnie asked, as we walked toward +the Amen Corner. "Does she suspect any one?" + +"Yes," I replied. "She is perfectly absurd. It is just as you said; she +insists on fastening the crime on a perfectly innocent person." + +Winnie drew in her breath. "One of us, I presume?" + +"Yes, Winnie dear. But," I hastened to add, for she grew suddenly deadly +pale, "she can do no harm; her suspicions are too manifestly impossible." + +"I don't know," Winnie chattered; "the reputation of many an innocent +person has been blasted by mere circumstantial evidence. What does +Cynthia know? What has she told?" + +"That she saw you go to the safe in the night." + +"Me? Then I am the one whom she suspects, and not--you are sure she saw +no one else?" Winnie laughed a long, joyous laugh. "I can stand it, +Tib," she said, "I can stand it. It's too good a joke." + +"Of course," I said, "no one can prove anything against you. But did you +go to the safe? I didn't see you do so." + +Winnie's face clouded. "Yes, I looked in to see if everything was +right. Mr. Mudge asked me if I had opened the safe during the night. +He said that some one of us had been seen to do it, but he led me +to suppose that he suspected some one else. I knew that he had his +information from Cynthia, and I was afraid she had seen some one else. +I mean--" and here Winnie corrected herself with some confusion--"I was +afraid that she might have taken me for some other person, and I was +very glad to acknowledge that I was the one who had opened the safe. I +don't think that Mr. Mudge believes that I am the culprit, for he smiled +at me in a very friendly way." + +"How could he believe such a thing?" I asked. "It is perfectly +nonsensical." + +"But if he does not suspect me, his suspicions will probably fasten on +some one else. On you, for instance, or Adelaide,--and I would rather be +the scapegoat than have any annoyance come to the rest of you." + +We had reached the Amen Corner, and had just opened the study-parlor +door. Winnie gave a little cry of surprise. The door into the studio was +open and a strange man stood looking at the broken lock. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +L. MUDGE, DETECTIVE. + + "The look o' the thing, the chance of mistake, + All were against me. That I knew the first; + But knowing also what my duty was, I did it." + + +[Illustration] + +"Why, Mr. Mudge!" Winnie exclaimed, recovering herself, "excuse me for +crying out, but really I did not expect to see you here." + +"I presume not," the gentleman replied dryly. "Under other circumstances +such intrusion would be unwarrantable, but I presume you understand +that in a case like this we must question not only human witnesses but +the place itself, and often our most valuable testimony is of a +circumstantial character. This broken lock, for instance, would seem to +prove that the thief entered through the studio." + +"Oh! that," I cried, "proves nothing; it has been broken this long +while--since the very beginning of the term." + +Winnie clasped my hand tightly, and I understood that she did not wish +her escapade with the sliding trunk explained. + +"Are you sure of that?" Mr. Mudge asked, looking slightly disappointed. +"Even if the lock was not broken on the night of the robbery, the fact +still remains that an entrance was practicable here at that time." + +"Why, of course!" I exclaimed. "It must have been the man who looked in +at the transom." + +"What man?" asked Mr. Mudge; and I told the story of the appearance the +night before. Winnie came forward impulsively, as though she wished to +interrupt me, then seemed to change her mind and walked to the window, +standing with her back to us. + +"And why is it," asked Mr. Mudge, "that neither Miss Cynthia nor Miss +Winnie have mentioned this very suspicious circumstance?" + +"I was not in the room when it happened, I did not see the man," Winnie +replied, without turning her head. + +"This thief may have made an earlier attempt which was foiled," Mr. +Mudge continued. "It seems to me a little careless that you did not +report the fact of the broken lock when you first discovered it, and +have the fastening mended." + +Winnie's eyes shone with suppressed amusement. "You think, then, Mr. +Mudge, that some one from the outside committed the burglary? I am very +glad that you have renounced the idea that any member of this school +could have been guilty of such a thing." + +"My dear young lady," replied Mr. Mudge, "I never indulge in +preconceived ideas, but I give every possibility a hearing. I have +nearly completed my examination of the _locale_, but must ask one +trifling favor. Will you kindly lend me all your keys?" + +"You don't mean to say that you are going through all our things?" I +exclaimed, aghast at the thought that the secret of the commissary must +now be disclosed. + +"A mere matter of form," he murmured, extending his hand with persuasive +authority. Winnie delivered her one key promptly, saying, "I will go and +tell the other girls." + +"Quite unnecessary," Mr. Mudge replied. "I have a pass key which opened +Miss Adelaide's capacious trunk. I have shaken out all her furbelows +and tried to fold them again as well as I could, but I fear that the +gowns with trains were a little too difficult for me. Miss Milly's +bureau drawers were in a wild state of mix: ribbons, laces, gloves, +hair crimpers, dried-up cake, perfumery, jewelry, chewing-gum, love +letters (innocent ones from other young ladies), a manicure set, a +bonnet pulled to pieces, a box of Huyler's, fancy work, dressmaker's +and other bills (which I have taken the liberty to borrow for a day +or two), dancing slippers and German favors, a tin box containing +marshmallows and a bottle of French dressing, menthol pencil, pepsum +lozenges for indigestion, box of salted almonds, bangles, sachet, +photograph of Harvard foot-ball team, notes to lectures on evidences of +Christianity, silver bonbonnière containing candied violets, programmes +of symphony rehearsals, caramels and embroidery silks gummed together, +a handsome book of etchings converted into a herbarium or pressing +book for botany class, and strapped together by buckling elastic +garters around it; fine Geneva watch, out of order; match box containing +specimens of live beetles, which I fear I released; pair of embroidered +silk stockings, in need of mending; a diary, disappointing since it +contains but two entries; packet of letters from home, tied with corset +lacing (these I have borrowed), packet of ditto from a certain +'Devotedly yours, Stacey, F. S.' tied with blue ribbon--these are of no +interest to me and I will not violate their secrets; badge of the Kings' +Daughters, button of West Point cadet, a fan bearing some autographs, a +mouldy lemon, a dream book, etc., etc. The more I tried to examine her +affairs the more confused I became, and I finally dumped them all out on +the floor and then shoveled them back again. I don't believe she will +ever suspect that they have been touched." + +I laughed, but Winnie looked uneasy. "I think, sir," she said, "that it +is hardly honorable to carry away Milly's private letters." + +"Any objection to having me read yours?" he asked sharply. + +"None at all," Winnie replied, at the same time handing him her little +writing desk, "but with Milly the case is different. I do not think Mr. +Roseveldt will like it." + +"Mr. Roseveldt will understand the necessity of the case," Mr. Mudge +replied. + +"Have you looked through Cynthia's things?" I asked. + +"Yes, first of all. Everything in admirable order. She sets you other +young ladies an example in point of neatness. And now, Miss Smith, I +will thank you to give me the key to that small, old-fashioned trunk +under your bed. It is the only one which my pass key will not fit; the +lock has gone out of date." + +"Any one but a detective could have opened it without a key," I replied, +somewhat snappishly, "if they had had the penetration to discover that +the hinges are broken. You simply swing the lid around this way." + +"Dear, dear, and so we keep a restaurant, do we? I believe I now +understand the slight trepidation which you manifested on being +requested to deliver up your keys. Reassure yourself. I am retained to +unravel but one mystery; any others which may tumble into my possession +during the search will be as safe as though buried in the grave. I +believe this is all, as far as the rooms are concerned. If Miss Smith +will accompany me now to the library, I will take her personal +deposition." + +Mr. Mudge was in the main kind. He did not alarm me in the least, and +asked but few questions. + +"Have you reason to suspect any one?" + +"No." + +"Very good. Did you see any one in the parlor the night of the robbery?" + +"Yes, Winnie." + +"But you did not suspect her when you discovered that the money was +gone?" + +"No, Winnie was honest and open as the day; it was impossible that she +could take it." + +"Hum, your parlor-mate, Miss Vaughn, does not share your opinion of your +friend. Do you know of any reason for the coolness which apparently +exists between them?" + +"Yes, Winnie has frankly given Cynthia her opinion of certain +underhanded performances of hers." + +"Such as----" + +"I am not a tale-bearer." + +"In this examination, Miss Smith, you will please answer all questions +put to you--and abstain from flippancy. Believe me, I ask nothing from +idle curiosity; nothing which does not have its bearings on this case." + +"Cynthia is continually doing things that exasperate Winnie. She put her +muff between the sheets at the foot of Milly's bed. When Milly slipped +her foot down and felt the fur she thought that it was a rat or some +wild animal, and she nearly shrieked herself into convulsions. Cynthia +laughed till she almost cried, but Winnie was raging with indignation, +and gave her such a scoring that Cynthia has never forgiven her." + +"Is that the only source of unpleasantness between them?" + +"No; such affairs are always coming up," and I related the trick of the +costumes, which has been told in the preceding volume. "And lately," I +added, "Cynthia has been very obsequious to Milly, and they have been +quite intimate. Winnie has not approved of the friendship. She told +Milly that she did not believe Cynthia was sincere, but did not succeed +in separating them. Cynthia surmised that Winnie was not pleased, and +taunted her with being jealous, and Winnie let them proudly alone, until +something happened at Milly's dressmaker, when she interfered again, +declaring that Cynthia was going too far, and that Milly needed some one +to protect her." + +"What happened at the dressmaker's?" + +"I don't know exactly. Milly went to the dressmaker's rooms last week to +have a dress fitted, and Winnie was with her. She came back very much +displeased, and had a long talk with Cynthia in her bedroom. As she came +out we heard her say, 'Downright dishonorable; as bad as stealing;' and +Cynthia called after her: 'I'll pay you for this; we shall see who is a +thief, Miss Winifred De Witt.'" + +"Hum!" said Mr. Mudge. "The importance of these little tiffs between +girls must not be exaggerated. They have probably made it all up by this +time." + +"Indeed they have not," I replied. + +"Can you give me the address of Miss Milly's dressmaker? On second +thought, it is of no consequence. I have it on this bill: 'To Madame +Celeste, Fifth Avenue: For tailor-made costume in dark green cloth, +trimmed with sable, sixty-seven dollars.'" + +"But that was Cynthia's dress," I said. + +"It is charged here to Miss Milly Roseveldt." + +"Oh!" I exclaimed, a light beginning to break in. + +"And you never suspected what it was that occurred at the dressmaker's +which displeased Miss Winnie?" + +"Never, until this moment. Milly has cried a great deal, but she would +not tell her trouble, even to Adelaide." + +"Very well. I will step across to Madame Celeste. No; on reflection I +will speak to Miss Milly first. Will you kindly ask her to come to me?" + +"Then this is all you wish to ask me?" + +"Thank you, yes. No, one question more. Can you tell me the exact time +at which Miss Winnie visited the parlor last night? The young lady +herself was very exact on that point." + +"That is natural!" I replied, "for the great clock at the end of the +corridor was striking twelve as she came back to the bedroom. I thought +it never would stop." + +"That tallies also with Miss Cynthia's testimony. She states that she +saw Miss Winnie go to the safe a few minutes before twelve; that she, +Miss Cynthia, lay still until the clock struck the quarter, and then +examined the safe, finding your money gone. + +"Inference (since Miss Winnie apparently noticed nothing out of the way +when she looked in): if neither of these young ladies took it, the +robbery must have been committed during that fifteen minutes." + +"That seems hardly possible," I said, "since Cynthia, Winnie, and I were +all awake during that time." + +"It is possible, though not probable. Cynthia's bedroom door, opening +into the parlor, was closed. Are you quite certain that you did not fall +asleep before the quarter struck. Did you hear it?" + +"No, I am not at all certain." + +"Very good. Then if the thief were standing in the studio waiting for +his opportunity, he might have slipped in during that time. Is there any +way in which we can ascertain whether any one was in the studio between +twelve and a quarter past?" + +"I know of no way," I replied. "There was no one in the studio at ten +o'clock when I looked in." + +"Very good; the known quantities are being gathered in, the unknown ones +defined; the problem becomes simpler. I think we will be able to solve +it soon. Meantime, if any new developments appear, be so good as to +report them to me." He rose and bowed stiffly in token of dismissal. I +hurried to our rooms and found Adelaide and Winnie. + +"Where is Milly?" I cried; "Mr. Mudge wants to see her next." + +"Milly has gone to Madame Celeste's," Adelaide answered. "She wanted to +pay a bill." + +"But she had no business to leave the house until she had given her +testimony," I exclaimed. "I wonder why Madame gave her permission." + +"I don't think Milly asked it," Adelaide replied; "and I fancy Milly was +not at all anxious to have this interview with the detective and merely +caught at Madame Celeste as a way of escape. She is not often in such a +twitter of promptness in settling her accounts; besides, now I think of +it, all her money was taken. How could she pay Celeste?" + +Winnie looked up from the table on which her elbows were resting, her +head grasped firmly between her hands as though it ached. She took no +part in the conversation until I remarked: + +"Well, if Milly thinks to escape Mr. Mudge by running away to Madame +Celeste's she is badly taken in, for he is going right over there." + +"What?" Winnie almost shrieked. "Does he suspect that she has anything +to do with this miserable business?" + +"Madame Celeste? No, but he wants to find why Cynthia had her dress +charged to Milly's account." + +"O Tib, Tib, why did you ever mention that?" Winnie groaned; "you don't +know what mischief you have made." + +"How did you know it, anyway?" Adelaide asked. "This is the first I have +heard of the matter." + +"I did not know it," I replied. "Mr. Mudge was looking over the papers +he took from Milly's drawer and he came across this bill for Cynthia's +dark green cloth dress, charged up against Milly, and I--I just happened +to say that was Cynthia's dress----" + +"If you could only have just happened to hold your tongue," Winnie +exclaimed, springing from her seat and pacing the floor. "Adelaide," +she added, "won't you go to Mr. Mudge and keep him busy hearing your +testimony until Milly has time to get away from Madame Celeste's. That +woman is a match for a lawyer even, but if he happens to meet Milly +there she will be frightened into anything. I knew there would be +trouble when Mr. Mudge took that bill." + +"Of course I will go, if you would like to have me do so," Adelaide +replied, rising, "but really, Winnie, I can't say that I at all +comprehend the situation." + +Winnie gave each of us a look of despair. "I didn't intend you should," +she said, "but since ignorance bungles in this way I will explain. Milly +has very weakly been getting things for Cynthia and allowing them to be +charged on her bills. I have remonstrated with her and she has promised +to do so no more. I told her how wicked it would be to send these +accounts in to her father as her own, and she has not done that. She has +kept them separate, intending to settle them whenever Cynthia paid up." + +"I don't see why Cynthia could not have taken her debts on her own +shoulders instead of entangling Milly," Adelaide remarked. + +"Simply because Cynthia has no credit. Madame Celeste would not trust +her for a penny, while she would let Milly run up any amount. Well, +either Cynthia has paid or Milly has obtained the money in some other +way. One thing is certain, she has it and she has gone down to pay +Madame Celeste; anxious, as you may well imagine, to get her feet out of +the quicksand and not by any mischance to have that bill sent home to +her father. Now, don't you see that if Mr. Mudge ascertains that Milly +has a secret of this kind, that the next thing he will do will be to +suspect that Milly stole the money in order to extricate herself from +this trouble." + +"Impossible," Adelaide exclaimed. "Milly has only to tell where the +money came from." + +"And I have asked her and she will not tell. It is all right, she +assures me, but she can not or will not tell how." + +"Silly goose! I will get it out of her," said Adelaide. "And meantime +there is no need whatever that she should be even suspected. She did not +do it--and suspicion might as well start out from the first on the right +track. I will go at once to Mr. Mudge, and enlighten his benighted +mind." + +"What is your theory, Adelaide?" I cried, but not before the door had +closed behind her. + +"Don't stop her," Winnie pleaded. "Time is precious; Mr. Mudge may have +tired waiting for Milly and have gone. No matter what her theory is, so +long as it takes suspicion from Milly. I had great hopes that Cynthia +would succeed in making him think I had done it." + +"He did have you in his mind at one time," I said. "He said, 'If neither +Miss Winnie nor Miss Cynthia took it, the robbery must have been +committed during the fifteen minutes between their visits to the +safe!'" + +"He said that?" Winnie inquired, with interest. + +"Yes, and Winnie, the thing is plain to me--I believe Cynthia took that +money." Winnie shook her head. + +"Now just listen to my reasoning. Milly has been insisting that Cynthia +shall pay up. We know that Cynthia has received no money lately. She +stole it and gave it to Milly, and made her promise not to tell who gave +it to her. It's as plain as the nose on my face. And then," I continued +triumphantly, warming to my conclusion, "she artfully throws the +suspicions of the robbery on you, as a revenge for the straightforward +talk you gave her. Haven't I ferretted it all out well? Isn't it the +most likely way in the world that it could have happened? Are you not +perfectly convinced?" + +"It is the most likely story," Winnie replied, "and so very feasible +does it seem that even I am almost convinced, although I know positively +that it did not happen that way, even Cynthia must not be unjustly +suspected." + +"How do you know it?" + +"Because Cynthia told the truth when she said that the money was stolen +when she looked into the safe. It was gone when I looked in." + +"Winifred! But you told Mr. Mudge that it was there." + +"I told Mr. Mudge that I found _my_ money just as I left it. It was not +touched at all, you know; but yours, Milly's, and a part of Adelaide's, +all that was stolen, was already taken." + +"But Mr. Mudge did not understand you so." + +"That is his own fault." + +"Did you want him to misunderstand the situation?" + +"Apparently, Tib; but don't ask so many questions. Let him proceed on +the assumption that the robbery was committed in that fifteen minutes. +If any innocent person is apparently implicated, I will confess. +Meantime, you are shocked to find that I am delaying the course of +justice in order to keep suspicion from myself." + +"A thousand times no; you could never act a lie unless it was to shield +some one else. Was it to shield Milly, and how?" + +"Tib, it breaks my heart--I can't tell you--I love her so--I love her--" + +A great fear came over me; Milly had taken the money and Winnie knew it. +But Milly had lost all her money, and yet that was a very transparent +subterfuge. What more natural than that the thief would pretend to be +an innocent sufferer and steal from herself? And Milly knew before she +looked that there was nothing in her purse. I asked relentlessly, "Was +Milly at the safe during the night at some time earlier than you and +Cynthia?" + +"Milly will not admit that she was," Winnie replied, her manner +hardening as she realized that she had not quite disclosed her secret, +and her determination to guard it returning with redoubled force. + +"Then why do you suspect it?" + +"I do not suspect it." + +The fixed despair in her eyes added the words, "I know it," as plainly +as if she had spoken them. + +"Did you see Milly take the money?" I insisted. "Was that what wakened +you? And is that the reason why you wish it to appear that the safe was +intact at the time you examined it?" + +Winnie covered her face with her hands and did not reply. I felt that +I had divined the truth. A solemn silence fell upon us both for a few +minutes, then Winnie straightened herself with the old resolute look in +her face. + +"Tib," she said, "I have told you nothing. You know nothing from your +own personal observation. Whatever you may _think_ is purely guess-work, +and you have no right to imagine evil against Milly. She is the sweetest +and dearest girl in our set. She is innocent and unsuspicious, and so +kind-hearted that she is easily led. She has gone wrong in some things, +terribly wrong; but she is the youngest of us all and it is Cynthia's +fault, and I believe she is trying desperately to get straight again. As +for this terrible thing, you must not suspect her of it. It is your +duty, on the contrary, to try to turn the attention of Mr. Mudge in some +other direction." + +As she spoke, Cynthia opened the door and Winnie relapsed into silence. +I felt a strange, dizzy sensation, as if the foundations were being +removed. The more I tried to puzzle out the affair the more bewildered +I became. There was Cynthia, who believed that Winnie was the culprit, +or at all events was striving to make Mr. Mudge believe so; and when I +weighed the evidence the case was strongly against her. Here again was +Winnie, who seemed to believe that it was Milly, and I knew that the +evidence which could shake her faith in Milly must be overwhelming. I +had made it seem entirely clear to myself that Cynthia had done it, and +in a blind, unreasoning way, although Winnie's testimony had showed +that this could not possibly be, the suspicion, once started, grew and +strengthened. I watched her as she sat working out algebra problems with +a disagreeable smile on her face--and I said to myself over and over +again, "You did it, and the truth will come out at last." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HALLOWEEN TRICKS AND WHAT CAME OF THEM. + + +[Illustration] + +Evening was falling when Adelaide returned from her interview with Mr. +Mudge. + +"Has not Milly returned yet?" she asked, as she entered the door. + +"No," replied Winnie. "Has Mr. Mudge gone to interview Celeste?" + +"No, he is off on another scent. He has gone to interview Professor +Waite." + +"What does Professor Waite know about the matter?" I asked in surprise. + +"Nothing. It only shows the imbecility of these detectives who insist on +pursuing every impossible as well as every possible clew." + +"Tell us all about it," I entreated. "I should like to know how it was +possible to drag Professor Waite into the business." + +"Why, through the transom, of course," Adelaide replied, and we all +laughed at the absurd suggestion. "The first question that Mr. Mudge +asked was, 'Have you any theory or suspicions in regard to this affair, +Miss Armstrong?' I answered that I had determined from the first that it +was the act of some sneak-thief, who had watched us, through the +transom, put the money into the safe." + +Again Winnie made an involuntary movement as though about to speak, but +restrained herself, and Adelaide continued: + +"I told him about the face at the transom in the Rembrandt hat, and he +asked me if it was Professor Waite. I told him that I thought not. The +head looked smaller and the hat came lower down over the eyes and at the +back than it would have done on the professor. Besides, the professor +has that little pointed Paris beard, and this face had a smooth chin. I +saw it plainly for a moment in profile. Mr. Mudge did not seem to be +satisfied and made me admit that I might have been mistaken. Professor +Waite's beard is such a very immature affair. Then he asked me how an +outsider could have introduced himself into the studio without coming in +at the front door, which is guarded by the janitor, and coming up the +grand staircase past Madame's room and twenty other rooms, all occupied, +and likely to have their doors open in the evening. I told him that +there were two other ways: the fire escape----" + +"Both the corridor window and our own were locked on the inside," I +interrupted. + +"He said he found it so--and agreed with me that the turret staircase +was the more likely entrance. I explained that the spiral staircase in +the turret was built especially for the use of the physician when this +part of the building was the infirmary, and that in order to quarantine +it from the rest of the school, there were no entrances to the turret +on any of the other floors--that it led directly from the studio to the +street, and that no one used it but Professor Waite, who kept the key of +the outer door; that he might have negligently left this door unlocked, +and in that case a tramp could easily have slipped in, and as there was +no communication with any other room he would have found himself, on +reaching the end of the staircase, in the studio and in front of our +door. Mr. Mudge then questioned me as to Professor Waite's habits. Did +he usually spend his evenings in the studio, and were we in the habit of +visiting back and forward in a friendly manner through the door with +the broken lock? This made me very indignant. Such a thing, I assured +Mr. Mudge, would be contrary to the rules of the school, and to the +instincts of any self-respecting girl. The door had never been opened +since the lock was first broken, and even Tib, whose duties required her +to be in the studio during half of the day, always entered it by the +corridor door. As to Professor Waite, he did not board in the house. I +believed he belonged to several artist clubs--the Salmagundi, the Kit +Kat, and others--and that he probably spent his evenings there, or in +society, or at his boarding house around the corner; at all events, he +never painted in the studio in the evening, for I had heard Tib say that +the lighting was not sufficient for night work. There was a rumor, too, +that Professor Waite was very popular in society; but that Tib could +inform Mr. Mudge much more explicitly than I on all matters relative to +the professor's habits, as I had never interested myself in him, and +what he did or did not do was of no manner of consequence to me. This +seemed to amuse Mr. Mudge very much, but he replied politely enough +that he had never for an instant imagined that a young artist, like the +professor, could be anything else than an object of supreme indifference +to any right-minded young lady, and then he proceeded to question me +more closely than ever. Though Professor Waite did not usually spend his +evenings in the studio, did he not occasionally drop in on his way home? +Had we ever heard him ascending or descending the turret stairs at about +midnight, for instance. I was obliged to confess that I knew of one +instance when he had visited the studio at that hour, for I had met +him on the staircase; that he was returning from an evening spent in +sketching at the life-class of the Kit Kat Club, and he had run up to +the studio to leave his drawings and materials before returning to his +room at the boarding house. That it was very possible that he did this +frequently. Then, of course, he asked me how it happened that I was +going down that staircase at such an unseemly hour on the occasion when +I met Professor Waite, and I had to confess all that maddening Halloween +business." + +We all shouted, for this was a particularly painful subject with +Adelaide. It was the one practical joke which we had ever had the heart +to play on our queen. + +Such grave consequences attended this Halloween trick that it is +possibly worth while for me to turn aside from the direct record of the +robbery and devote a chapter or two to a confession of one of our most +serious scrapes. + +It had been suggested by Cynthia and approved and carried out by Winnie +before the days of the breaking off of their friendship. Cynthia had a +way of suggesting plots for less cautious people to carry out, whereby +they burned their fingers like the cat in the fable of the chestnuts. + +The Amen Corner had conducted itself with praiseworthy propriety +after the opening escapade of the season--that of the roller-coaster +trunk--for the space of a few weeks. But when Halloween came we all +felt the need of what Winnie called an explosion. We had been too +preternaturally goody-goody, and the escape valve must be opened. We +decided to celebrate the eve of "antics and of fooleries" befittingly, +and we arranged to bob for apples, to snatch raisins from burning +alcohol, thereby ascertaining the number of our future lovers. + + We tied our garters around our feet + And crossed our stockings under our head; + We turned our shoes toward the street + And dreamed of the ones we were going to wed. + +We poured molten lead into water, striving to ascertain the occupation +of our future husbands from the forms which it took. Adelaide's emblem +was something like a letter A, and we all declared that it was a perfect +easel and quite wonderful; but when we threw apple peelings over our +heads, Milly's broke into two sections, remotely resembling a scrawling +C and a W. Milly herself was the first to recognize the letters and to +blushingly declare that of course it was too absurd, it could not mean +Carrington Waite. + +Adelaide's younger brother Jim was attending the cadet school in the +city. He admired Milly exceedingly, as did many of the cadets who had +met her at a fair given at Madame's, the previous year, for the benefit +of the Home of the Elder Brother. Stacey Fitz Simmons, drum major of the +cadet band, and the best dodger and runner of the school foot-ball team, +was also her devoted admirer. The button which Mr. Mudge had discovered +in Milly's bureau drawer was not from a West Point uniform but from +Stacey's; and the foot-ball team was not the Harvard--but the Cadet +Eleven. We all tried to find emblems in the molten lead, or initials in +the apple parings, suggesting the cadets, but Milly would none of them. + +There was a Mr. Van Silver, much favored by Milly's family, a caller at +their cottage at Narragansett Pier, whom Adelaide had met while visiting +Milly the previous summer. He was principally remarkable for owning a +coach and four-in-hand, and as he had on one occasion invited Adelaide +to a seat on the box, it was a little fiction of Milly's that Mr. Van +Silver was her humble slave. But we were all innocent in the ways of +flirtations and, with the exception of Milly, heart whole and fancy +free, and it was really a difficult thing to conjure up imaginary +lovers--for the occasion. + +The _pièce de resistance_ of the evening was the trick played upon +Adelaide. We planned on our programme that just as the clock struck the +hour of midnight we would all try the experiment of walking downstairs +backward with a lighted candle in one hand and a looking-glass in the +other. Of course it would never do for the procession to file down the +grand staircase in front of Madame's rooms, but the spiral staircase, +secluded in the turret, offered peculiar advantages for the scheme. It +communicated with no other floor, only Professor Waite had the key to +the door at the foot, and he was never in the studio at night. So the +girls believed, until I informed them that he always came in for a few +moments on Wednesday nights to leave his sketches made at the Kit +Kat--and Halloween that year happened to fall upon a Wednesday. + +"So much the better," said Cynthia. "We will make Adelaide head the +procession, and she will see Professor Waite's face in her mirror. It +will be too good a joke for anything, for she can't bear the sight of +him since she made that unfortunate speech when she saw him standing in +the open door and thought it was Winnie _en masquerade_." + +"I am afraid it will be twitting on facts," I said; "for I more than +half suspect that Professor Waite admires Adelaide as much as she +detests him. He has asked me more than once why she does not join the +drawing class--and even suggested that I should induce her to pose for +the portrait class. He said her profile was purely classical, and that +she took naturally the most superb poses of any girl that he had ever +met." + +"So much the better," Cynthia declared. "It will be the best joke of +the season. What time does he usually arrive?" + +"He said, in telling one of the class, that he always leaves the Kit Kat +at half past eleven, and reaches the street door of the turret on the +stroke of twelve." + +"Delightful!" exclaimed Winnie. "Fortune favors our plans. What fun it +will be!" + +It was thought best not to admit Milly into our confidence, for fear +that she could not keep the secret. All went well. We played our tricks +and Winnie told ghost stories, but it seemed as if midnight would never +come. At one time we fancied we heard a noise in the turret and we +looked at each other apprehensively. Had anything happened to bring +Professor Waite back earlier than usual, and would our plans miscarry, +after all? At ten minutes before twelve we organized the procession. +Milly was timid and persisted in being in the middle. To our disgust +Adelaide refused to lead. "Winnie proposes it; let Winnie go first," +she said resolutely. + +"All right," Winnie assented, after a thoughtful pause. "I will if +Adelaide will come next." + +Cynthia and I looked at her inquiringly. We did not quite see how this +would answer. + +"Tib, let's go and see if Snooks is in bed and the coast is clear," +Winnie suggested. "It's a pity that we can't get into the studio through +this door, but that chest is too heavy for us to push aside." + +Winnie and I reconnoitered, and as we opened the door into the turret +she told me her plan. + +"I will lead rapidly and when I get to the bottom will scud into that +little closet under the stairs where they keep the lawn mower, so that +Adelaide will be virtually at the head. We must start right away, so as +to give me a chance to get into my haven of refuge before Professor +Waite arrives." + +We all tiptoed into the studio and lighted our candles there, after +we had closed the corridor door. We had had quite a time collecting +mirrors. Adelaide and Milly possessed handsome silver-backed +hand-glasses. Winnie carried a pretty toilet mirror with three folding +leaves. I had a work box with looking-glass inside the lid, and Cynthia +had unscrewed the large mirror from her bureau. We were all giggling +and shivering when Winnie, our marshal, gave the signal for the start +in the following order: Winnie, Adelaide, Milly, myself, and Cynthia +bringing up the rear. + +The steps winding around the central pillar were narrower at one end +than the other and it was rather difficult to tread them backward. The +fall wind blew through the slits of unglazed windows and extinguished my +candle. Winnie, in her haste to get to the bottom, fell, extinguished +hers also, and hurt herself quite severely, but she had determination +enough to pick herself up again and limp on. Suddenly there came a +strong draught of air and there was a halt in our march. Milly whispered +that she could hear voices, then Adelaide, who was a little way in +advance, shrieked and came running up the stairs. We were all huddled +together in a jam. Cynthia was shouting with laughter, Milly crying with +fright, Adelaide choking and incoherent with indignation. + +"Hurry, hurry!" she cried, pushing us back; "he is coming; he is just +behind me." + +We were only a few steps from the studio and we all bundled in--but in +the confusion Milly had dropped her candle, and the light Mother Hubbard +wrapper was all in a blaze. + +Cynthia rushed wildly out of the room. I have no recollection of what I +did, but Adelaide fought the flames with her hands; but she would never +have conquered them, and our darling might have died a cruel death in +torturing flames, if Professor Waite had not dashed into the room, +wrapped her in a Persian rug, and extinguished the fire. Strange to say, +she was entirely unhurt. Only her beautiful blond hair was singed, and +that was afterward attributed by her friends to an injudicious use of +the curling irons. Adelaide's hands were badly burned and Professor +Waite bathed them in oil, while an older, serious looking man, who had +followed Professor Waite, whom we only noticed at this stage of the +proceedings, wrapped them in his white silk muffler. Then Cynthia +appeared at the door with a white face and a small water pitcher, and we +were able for the first time to laugh in a hysterical way. Fortunately, +no one had heard us, and we slipped back to the Amen Corner. + +Milly was awe-stricken by the peril through which she had passed, but +there was a strange, happy look upon her face which I did not understand +until, as I tucked her away in bed, she pulled me down to her and +whispered in my ear: + +"He held me in his arms, Tib; for one heavenly minute he held me close, +close in his arms. I felt the hot breath of the flames, but I did not +care. I was willing to die, I was so happy----" + +"My poor little girl," I said, as I kissed her, "you must not let +yourself care for Professor Waite, for he does not----" + +"I know," she replied, "he loves Adelaide; he can't help it any more +than I can help----" + +"Hush," I said, "this is all foolishness; put it right out of your +little head. You are only sixteen; you are not old enough to care for +any one. You will laugh at this by and by." + +She shook her head solemnly. "I shall always remember, Tib--that for one +heavenly minute he held me tight--so." And she embraced her pillow with +all her small might, nestling her hot cheek against it in a way which +would have been absurd if it had not been so unspeakably pathetic. + +Adelaide strode into the room at this juncture with the air of a tragedy +queen. + +"Thank Heaven, you are safe, Milly dear!" she said, pausing beside the +bed, but her look was not one of pious thanksgiving. Her voice had a +sharp sound, and a crimson spot flamed on her dark cheeks. "He dared +to hold my hands in his," she murmured, "and, worse still, to call me +'noble girl,' and his 'poor child'; and he will think that I went down +those stairs on purpose to see his face in my mirror. Oh, how I hate +him, how I hate him!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A STATE OF "DREADFULNESS." + + +[Illustration] + +Miss Noakes had not heard us, but our troubles were not over. + +It was not until I had helped Adelaide to retire (for her poor hands +were too badly burned to put up her own hair), and had gone away into my +own room that I realized that Winnie was not with us and that she had +been left behind in the stampede up the turret stairs. I crept around +through the corridor into the darkened studio. Professor Waite and his +friend had gone, why had not Winnie returned? I opened the door leading +to the turret and called her name softly. I was answered by a groan. I +hastened to light a candle and stole down the winding stair. Half way +down I found Winnie sitting on the steps, a bundle of misery. + +"I came up once," she exclaimed, "but Professor Waite was in the studio +and I had to go back to the closet and wait until he left the house." + +"It must have been very chilly and unpleasant with nothing but a +watering can and a lawn mower to sit on," I remarked; "but why didn't +you come all the way up this time. You surely don't intend to spend the +night where you are." + +"I don't know," Winnie replied, with another groan; "I've sprained my +ankle or something, and I can't bear my weight on it. It was all that I +could do to drag myself up and back again, and then as far as this. Ow! +how it hurts! No, I just cannot take another step." + +"Dear! dear!" I exclaimed; "what a night this has been! With Milly's +narrow escape from death, and Adelaide's burned hands, and your sprained +ankle, we have had enough Halloween for one year." + +"What do you mean?" Winnie asked, in her absorption taking several +little hops up the stairs. "Milly's escape? What has happened? Ow! wow! +You'll have to get a derrick, Tib, and hoist me up. I cannot budge an +inch." + +"Lean on me," I said, "and listen while I tell you all about it"; and I +rehearsed the thrilling story of Professor Waite's rescue. + +"I can smell the smoke still. Snooks will think the house is on fire," +Winnie declared, snuffing vigorously as we reached the studio. "You had +better open the windows a bit and air off. And there are some burned +scraps of Milly's wrapper on the floor; let's pick them all up. Ow! +don't let go of me. This is really what Milly calls a state of +dreadfulness--no other word will describe it. How can I ever stand it +until morning?" + +I helped her to her bed and bound up her ankle with Pond's Extract; but +it had swollen so much and was so painful that when morning came Winnie +consented to have the school physician called. He kindly asked no +questions, and treated Adelaide's hands, only remarking, "I see you have +been celebrating Halloween." + +"He thinks I burned them in snatching the raisins out of the lighted +alcohol," Adelaide said; "or perhaps in putting out some clothing which +was set on fire in that way." + +Even Madame was considerate and did not inquire closely into the details +of the trouble. + +"I hope you have learned from this," she said, "that it is a dangerous +thing to play with fire." + +Halloween was a disagreeable subject after this to all of us, but +especially to Winnie. "Don't mention it," she would say. "I shall never +play another trick in all my mortal days. I feel as mean and demoralized +as a lunch-basket on its way home from a picnic." + +The state of dreadfulness deepened as time went on. Winnie kept her room +for days, and it was necessary to feed Adelaide at table, and dress and +undress her; but their hurts troubled me less than the heart bruise +received by my poor Milly. I kept her secret and she was brave, and no +one else suspected it. Professor Waite was very impatient with her, +treating her work contemptuously, and disregarding her personally +altogether. He never alluded to the accident, treating it, as Winnie +said, as of no more consequence than if he had extinguished a bale of +cotton that had happened to take fire. + +"That man is utterly incapable of sentiment," Winnie remarked +wrathfully. "Now how natural it would be to make a romance out of +such a rescue, but Professor Waite's heart is as stony as that of the +Apollo Belvedere." + +Milly smiled piteously and shook her head, while she looked +significantly from me toward Adelaide, as much as to say: "We know +better; he is not so stony-hearted as he seems." + +Having my attention directed to the matter, I kept my eyes open for +little indications of the state of Professor Waite's sentiments, and +presently found that they were not lacking. The studio was not occupied +by classes until after ten o'clock in the morning, and Professor Waite +came every day very early, and painted there alone until the first wave +of pupils swept in and filled the room with an encampment of easels. +He explained to me that he was preparing a picture for the Academy +exhibition, the morning light was good, and as his studio in the city +was shared with another young artist, he preferred to come here where he +could work quietly and undisturbed for a few hours each morning. He +always bolted the corridor door to secure complete seclusion, and we +had often to wait a few moments until he admitted us. He did not show us +the painting, but it was evident that he was deeply interested in it, +for he was frequently distraught, and apparently vexed at being obliged +to turn his attention to our offences against art, just as he was worked +up to a fine phrensy of production. At such times he would run his +fingers through his hair, and stare at the work which the first +unfortunate pupil presented with a repugnance which was often more +clearly than politely expressed. Sometimes his ill humour vented itself +on the model. We were in the habit of taking turns and, dressed in some +picturesque costume, of posing for the class for a week at a time. After +the Halloween experience it happened to be Milly's turn. We had costumed +her as an Italian contadina, and thought that she looked very prettily. +But Professor Waite was not satisfied. + +"Why have you chosen a blonde for such a character?" he asked me +impatiently. "That little snub nose and milk-and-water complexion have +nothing Italian in their make up. If you could induce that superb +creature, Miss Armstrong, to wear the costume, you would see the +difference." + +Milly had heard the remark though he did not intend she should do so, +and her eyes suffused with tears as usual. "I will ask Adelaide," she +said meekly, "but I don't believe she will be willing to pose for the +class." + +"Never mind the class," Professor Waite replied eagerly. "If Miss +Armstrong will honor me by giving me personally a few sittings each +morning for my Academy picture I shall be more gratified than I can +express." + +Milly, more than happy to attempt to do the professor a favor, besought +Adelaide, who was obdurate and even indignant. + +"The very idea!" she exclaimed. "I never heard of such assurance. _I_ +figure in his picture at a public exhibition, indeed." + +"Why, I am sure it's a great honor," Milly replied, bridling feebly; +"and I won't have you treat him in such a _desultory_ manner." + +We all laughed, for Milly, as usual when excited, had mixed her +words--insulting and derogatory clamoring at the same time in her small +mind for utterance. + +"I think it would be perfectly scrum to be in an Academy picture," +Winnie exclaimed. "I wish he would ask me." + +Perfectly "scrum," or "scrumptious," was Winnie's superlative; while +Adelaide, to express a similar delight, would have quoted the +Anglicism, "Quite too far more than most awfully delicious." + +"I wonder what his Academy picture is, anyway," Winnie went on, "and why +he never shows it to us. I mean to ask him to let me see it; I am sure I +might help him with some suggestions." + +"Well you _are_ unassuming," I exclaimed, never dreaming that Winnie, +with all her audacity, would dare to criticise a picture by our +professor. What was my astonishment, therefore, on awakening the next +morning, to find that Winnie was already dressed. + +"I am going into the studio," she remarked coolly, "to take a look at +Professor Waite's picture before he arrives." + +"O Winnie!" I begged, "don't; you've no business to do such a thing." +Winnie made a little face, courtesied, and flounced out of the room. She +returned presently, all aglow with excitement. + +"He was already there at work," she exclaimed, "painting, as the French +say, like an _enragé_. He had forgotten to bolt the door and I slipped +right in. His back was toward me, and he did not notice me at first, so +I had one good solid look. And what do you suppose it is, Tib? Why, +Adelaide, holding a candle and glancing over her shoulder as he must +have seen her going down the stairs. The Rembrandtesque effect of +artificial light and deep shadow is stunning. He has rigged up his +lay-figure on the landing in the dark turret, and had a lighted candle +wedged into her woodeny fingers, so that he gets the lighting on the +face and drapery, while he has daylight on his canvas. + +"Of course he has had to do the face from imagination or memory, but it +was perfect. I screamed right out: 'Don't touch that again or you'll +spoil it!' He turned the canvas back forward quicker than a wink, and +looked at me as if he would like to eat me, but I didn't care, and I +begged him not to disturb himself or interrupt his work on my account; +that I had only dropped in in a friendly way to give him a little +helpful criticism. With that he put on his eye-glasses and remarked; +'Well, you _are_ about the coolest young lady that it has ever been +my privilege to meet,' but he had to come right down from that nifty +position, for I said, 'If my opinions are of no use, perhaps Madame's +will be more helpful; shall I ask her to come up and take a look at the +picture?' That made him wince. He turned all sorts of colors, chewed +his mustache, and hadn't a word to say. I felt sort of sorry for him and +I assured him that I had no intention of telling, at least not if he was +nice; and I reminded him that he owed the subject to me in the first +place, for if I had not suggested the trick he would never have seen +Adelaide in that particular lighting. With that he changed his tune and +said that he was very grateful for my kind intention, and that if I +would kindly lend him a photograph of Adelaide he would be still more +grateful. But I told him that I did not think that it was fair to +exhibit a portrait of Adelaide, and he admitted that it was not, and +said that he had decided not to send the picture to the exhibition, but +merely to keep it himself." + +Adelaide happened to knock at our door at this juncture, and Winnie told +her what she had discovered. + +"This is past endurance," Adelaide exclaimed angrily; "you must come +with me, Tib, and insist on Professor Waite's showing me this picture. +If the face is recognizable as my portrait I shall destroy it then and +there." + +"Don't, Adelaide," I begged. "Professor Waite is a gentleman; he has +already told Winnie that he does not intend to exhibit the picture----" + +"But I do not choose that he shall possess it," she cried; "if you +will not go with me I shall go alone," and she hurried to the studio +door. It was locked, and Professor Waite did not choose to reply to +her oft-repeated knocks. He evidently considered Winnie's visit +all-sufficient for one morning. Adelaide came back in a towering +passion. "If my poor hands would only let me write," she exclaimed, "I +would give him such a piece of my mind. Winnie, be my amanuensis. +Write what I dictate." + +Winnie sat down good-humoredly and dashed off in her large scrawling +script, which filled a page with these lines, the following indignant +protest: + + PROFESSOR WAITE: + + I regret that I consider the liberty you have taken in painting + my portrait for the Academy Exhibition, without my knowledge or + consent, a dishonorable act of which no gentleman would be guilty, + and I demand that you destroy it instantly. + + ADELAIDE ARMSTRONG. + +She was excited and she spoke loudly. When she finished, there was dead +silence in the little parlor. We all felt that Adelaide had put it a +little too strongly. That silence was broken by a half-suppressed +sneeze on the balcony outside the window. A sneeze which we all +recognized as belonging to Miss Noakes. Had she been listening? Had +she heard? Winnie balanced the ink bottle over the letter ready to +obliterate its contents by an "accident" if Miss Noakes suddenly +knocked. No one appeared, and going to the window a moment afterward, I +saw Miss Noakes walking between her window and ours, and taking in great +sniffs of the keen morning air with much apparent enjoyment. + +The bell rang for breakfast and Adelaide and I walked along together, +pausing to slip the note under the studio door. It would not go quite +through, a little end protruding, but that did not strike us as of any +consequence. I had descended one flight of stairs when I found that I +had forgotten my geometry and I hastened back to get it. I met Winnie +before I turned into the corridor. "Hurry," she exclaimed, "Snooks is +just leaving her door; she will mark you for tardiness." I flew along at +the top of my speed, but on reaching our corridor I saw a sight which +suddenly arrested my footsteps. Miss Noakes stood before the studio +door, carefully adjusting her eye-glasses and looking at the note; +presently she stooped, picked it up, and read the address. She +hesitated a moment, seemed half inclined to replace it, turned it over +as though she wished to open it, then glancing down the hall and spying +me, she placed it in the great leather bag which hung at her side. She +closed the bag with a savage click and glared at me as I turned and +fled, for I had not the courage to meet her. + +I reported the calamity at breakfast table in an awe-stricken whisper to +Milly, who turned a trifle pale. + +"I am afraid it will get Professor Waite into trouble," she said, +"Adelaide is still very angry with him, but I am sure she does not want +to make him lose his position in the school." + +"It may make her lose her own position," Cynthia Vaughn suggested. +"Writing notes to young men is against the rules. It's an expellable +offence. But then," she added, "this wasn't exactly a love letter." + +"I should think not," I exclaimed. + +"It's all the worse," Milly groaned, as she scalded her throat with hot +coffee. + +"Adelaide can say she didn't write it, you know," Cynthia suggested +cheerfully. "Winnie wrote it; and she didn't poke it under the door +either--Tib did that." + +"Do you suppose, Cynthia Vaughn, that Adelaide would do such a mean +thing as not to take the consequences of her own actions?" Milly asked +indignantly. Then she clasped my hand, for Miss Noakes stood at Madame's +table, and had opened her black bag and was handing Madame the note. We +could see even at that distance that the seal was unbroken, but this +gave us scant comfort; it was only putting off the evil day. + +"Winnie might steal that note for us," Cynthia suggested, "before Madame +has a chance to read it." + +"Why are you always thinking up scrapes for Winnie to get into?" Milly +asked. + +Winnie pricked her ears, at the other side of the table. "What about +Winnie?" she asked. + +"Nothing," Milly replied shortly; but as we went up to the studio a +little before ten o'clock, I explained the situation. To my surprise +Winnie's eyes danced with merriment. "Snooks listened," she exclaimed, +"she heard Adelaide, I knew she did, and now we know how she finds out +things that happen in the Amen Corner; often and often I have thought +that I heard her, and have opened the door quickly only to find the +corridor empty. Of course she is smart enough to know that she would +get caught if she listened at the door; she would never in the world +have time enough to scuttle down to her own room before we would see +her. But the balcony! Strange we never thought of that. I'll lay a trap +for her--no, I need not; she has trapped herself; this affair is proof +enough that she peeks and listens." + +"But I don't see how this helps us," I exclaimed. "This is the worst +scrape of the season. Don't you see it is? Such glee on your part is +positively idiotic. We may all be expelled and Professor Waite too." + +"Fret not your dear little sympathetic, apprehensive gizzard. Don't say +one word, except to answer questions. Don't volunteer any confessions, +or let Adelaide do so. Remember, the prisoner is not obliged to +criminate himself, the burden of proof lies with Snooks, and she will +find it a pretty heavy burden." + +"Not with that note!" I replied. + +"That note! Ha! ha! But I won't tell you. It's too good a joke." + +"And Professor Waite's picture of Adelaide?" + +"The picture, I had forgotten that," and Winnie became grave at once. +"He must take it right away," she added. "I will tell him to." + +"You talk as if you could make him do anything," I said. + +"Anything I choose to try," Winnie replied confidently. We were at the +studio door a little ahead of time, and Professor Waite threw it open at +our knock, and welcomed us in with his palette still on his thumb. "Come +and see my picture," he said, with a smile. + +"Poor man!" I thought, "he would not look so happy if he knew how angry +Adelaide is, and what a mine is waiting to be exploded beneath him." + +He led us to the easel and displayed the canvas triumphantly. + +It was an effective, striking picture, but it did not in the least +resemble Adelaide. + +Winnie uttered an exclamation of disgust. "There now, you've spoiled it. +I knew you would. It was just perfect, and you've ruined it. I'm sure I +never want to look at that thing again. I told you not to touch it. Why +couldn't you let it alone?" and a half dozen other wails of the same +order. + +Professor Waite did not attempt to put a stop to her somewhat +impertinent remarks. He was plainly annoyed, however, and when she had +emptied the vials of her indignation, he replied: "I thought you would +approve of the change, Miss DeWitt. It was a remark of yours this +morning which made me realize that I had no right to paint Miss +Armstrong's portrait without her permission; that probably she would be +unwilling that I should possess it; and as I would gladly sacrifice any +ambition or pleasure of my own for the sake of not offending her, I +have, as you see, painted in an entirely new face." + +"You are quite right, Professor," I exclaimed warmly; "and Adelaide will +be grateful for your consideration." + +At this juncture the girls trooped in and took their places at their +easels, and Professor Waite laid the picture in the great chest in front +of our door. The correction of work went on as usual until the latter +part of the hour, when an ominous knock was heard at the door, and +Madame, accompanied by Miss Noakes, sailed majestically into the room. +Professor Waite bowed deeply and expressed himself as highly honored. +Madame lifted her lorgnette and surveyed the class. Milly was posing in +her despised Italian costume. Madame smiled kindly at her, and then +passed about from easel to easel examining the girls' work. "I do not +know whether it is exactly the thing for the young ladies to allow +themselves to be painted in this way," she said, "though to be sure the +studies are hardly recognizable as likenesses." + +"The young ladies have all asked the permission of their parents to sit +for each other," Professor Waite explained. + +"For each other," Madame repeated doubtfully; "but do you never make +sketches of them also, Professor? A parent might well object to having +his daughter's portrait exhibited in a public place, sold to a stranger, +or even shown among studies of professional models in your studio." + +"I have made no studies from life from any of the young ladies," +Professor Waite replied promptly. + +Miss Noakes drew a long breath and seemed to bristle with anticipated +triumph. + +"I am glad that you can assure me of this," Madame replied in her +softest, most purring accents. Then she glanced around the room again +and asked, "Are all of the art students present? I do not see Miss +Armstrong." + +"Miss Armstrong has not honoured me by joining the class," Professor +Waite replied stiffly. + +"But she at least sits for the others, does she not? She is such a +strikingly picturesque girl, I should think you would ask her." + +"We have asked her," Milly replied, "but she is just as obstinate as she +can be. I wish, Madame, you would make her." + +Madame shook her little wiry curls. "This is a matter which must be left +entirely to individual preference, my dear. It would be very wrong, +indeed, for any of you to make a portrait of Miss Armstrong without her +consent. I have known young amateur photographers to lay themselves open +to an action at law by taking photographs of people without their +knowledge. Our personality is a very sacred thing, and whoever possesses +himself of that without warrant commits a dishonorable action." + +Milly looked as if she were about to faint, while Professor Waite, who +felt the intention of Madame's remarks, and his own thoughtlessness, bit +his mustache nervously. Winnie was tittering in an unseemly manner +behind her easel, but, thankful as I was that the professor had changed +the portrait, I still felt the gravity of the occasion. + +Madame's manner changed. "Miss Vaughn," she said to Cynthia, "will you +ask Miss Armstrong to step to the studio for a moment." Then turning to +our teacher, she added, "I have a very painful duty to perform, my +dear Professor, and you must pardon me if my questions seem to you +unwarranted. Will you tell me whether, for any reason whatever, you have +carried on a written correspondence with Miss Armstrong or with any +other member of this school?" + +"I have not, Madame." + +"Have never either written to her or received letters from her?" + +"Never, Madame. Who has charged me with such a clandestine and +dishonourable act?" + +Madame did not reply, for Adelaide entered the room. She was very +stately and pale. Cynthia had not had far to go, and Adelaide had come +instantly. + +"Why have you sent for me?" she asked resolutely. + +"Merely to ask you one or two simple questions," Madame replied. "But +first, Professor, may we be permitted to see the picture which you are +preparing for the Academy exhibition?" + +Adelaide leaned forward eagerly. Professor Waite was about to be +punished for his presumption and yet she was not so glad as she fancied +that she would be. Her anger had faded out and she almost pitied him. +A hot blush swept up to his forehead as he felt her gaze, and silently +placed the painting upon the easel. Madame examined it critically +through her lorgnette; it was evidently not what she had expected to +see. + +Milly, who had not known of the change, could hardly believe her eyes, +and seemed to fancy that a miracle had been performed to save her dear +professor. Miss Noakes stood at the canvas with a look of disappointed +malignity on her unattractive features. + +"Is this the only picture which you intend to exhibit?" Madame asked, +after a moment, during which she had assured herself that the face on +the canvas was utterly unlike any of her pupils. + +"It is the only one that I have had time to paint this season," +Professor Waite replied. "The face bore at one time a resemblance to +Miss Armstrong's, but I purposely destroyed that resemblance and shall +send it in as you see it." + +Madame seemed somewhat relieved, but she turned toward Adelaide, who +had seated herself and was staring at the picture, her heart filled with +a vague regret that she had written so unkind a letter. + +"Young ladies," said Madame solemnly, "you have heard the questions +which I have asked Professor Waite. Certain accusations have been made +which have greatly troubled me. It has been suspected that a clandestine +flirtation and correspondence has for some time been carried on between +your professor and one of the members of this school. Hitherto I have +paid no attention to these reports, as they rested only on suspicion, +but this morning startling evidence has been produced, and before +bringing it forward I call upon any young lady who has been guilty of +such an indiscretion to anticipate the discovery of her fault by a full +confession." No one responded. The accusation was so much more serious +than the truth, that Adelaide did not imagine that she was the suspected +culprit. Dead silence, in the midst of which Madame produced the fateful +letter. Adelaide started and Madame asked in awful tones: + +"Will any young lady present acknowledge that she has written this +letter?" + +Winnie and Adelaide each rose promptly. + +Madame frowned. "Have we two claimants?" she asked. + +"I am responsible for the contents of that note," said Adelaide. + +"But I wrote it," added Winnie, "and I demand that it be read aloud." + +It seemed to me that Winnie was absolutely insane, and even Adelaide +seemed to feel that there was no necessity of rushing so recklessly on +the spears of the enemy. + +Professor Waite looked completely mystified, and Madame said very +seriously: + +"You will see, Professor, that this note is directed to you, and that +it has not been opened. I could not take that liberty; but Miss Noakes +discovered it being sent in a very irregular manner, which justified her +in confiscating it. There are other suspicious matters connected with +it, which I trust its contents will fully explain." + +I felt that the crucial moment had arrived. Miss Noakes was absolutely +radiant, and sat rubbing her hands with ghoulish glee. Madame looked +troubled but judicial. The professor was a favourite of hers, but Miss +Noakes had brought too weighty an accusation to be glossed over. + +A silence like that before a thunder-clap reigned. Winnie covered her +face with her handkerchief and shook--could it be with suppressed +laughter? If so, it seemed to me that she must be going insane. + +Professor Waite opened the letter and glanced over its contents. "This +note is from Miss Winifred De Witt," he said to Madame, "and since +I have her permission, I will read it aloud." And to our utter +astonishment, Professor Waite read--not the indignant letter which +Adelaide had dictated, but the following: + + PROFESSOR WAITE. + + _Dear Sir_: May I have your permission to place my easel on the + balcony in front of the corridor window and make a study of a + sunrise effect as seen across the roofs? The view is so very + beautiful that Miss Noakes spends much of her time there absorbed + in its enjoyment. + + Very respectfully yours, + WINIFRED DE WITT. + +Professor Waite politely handed this effusion to Madame. Miss Noakes +snatched it from her hand and glared at it with the look of a foiled +assassin. Madame bit her lips with annoyance and scowled at Miss +Noakes. She was evidently angry with her for having caused her to +arraign Professor Waite on insufficient testimony and creating a scene +derogatory to her own dignity. She quickly recovered her +self-possession, however, and remarked loftily: + +"Miss De Witt, when you have any future communications to make with your +professor, pray do so in a more fitting manner. Placing notes under +doors is really unworthy of any young lady in my school." + +"So is listening at windows," Cynthia whispered to Winnie. Madame turned +to Professor Waite and expressed herself as much pleased that this very +serious accusation had been proved to be founded on an entire mistake. +She had herself felt perfect confidence in the integrity of Professor +Waite and the propriety of her pupils throughout the entire affair, and +had only investigated it to give the slander its proper refutation: and +her stiff silk dress rustled with dignity out of the studio. + +As for Miss Noakes, she simply disappeared, "evaporated," as Milly +expressed it. The door had hardly closed upon Madame before our +long-repressed feelings found vent in laughter. Winnie congratulated +Professor Waite on the part of the school that he had been found +innocent of so heinous a crime. The girls swarmed up to shake hands with +him. Those who could not grasp his hand shook the skirts of his coat. +Exuberant confusion reigned. Milly was dissolved in happy tears, and +even Adelaide smiled when Professor Waite expressed his regret that Miss +Noakes had connected their names in so disagreeable a manner. + +It was not until the occupants of the Amen Corner had gathered in their +study parlor that Adelaide said: + +"But I really do not understand what became of my note; the one I +dictated to Winnie and tucked under the door." + +"Winnie, how did you manage to steal it?" Cynthia asked. + +"I didn't take it from Snooks," Winnie replied. "It struck me that +Adelaide had expressed herself rather strongly, and that she would +regret it after she had cooled down, and if she didn't, she ought to. So +while you were investigating the eavesdropping I destroyed that note, +wrote one of my own and sealed it up in its place." + +"And I've really put this note of yours under the door?" Adelaide asked. + +"Yes, my dear, and that is why I have not shared Tib's anxiety since we +knew that it had been confiscated. Don't you think that dig about +Snooks enjoying the scenery of the back yard was rather good?" and +Winnie chuckled with enjoyment of her own impertinence. "You should have +seen her face when Professor Waite read that. Nebuchadnezzar's when he +ordered Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego to the burning, fiery furnace +must have been amiable in comparison. She would have seen me boiled in +oil with pleasure. I haven't enjoyed anything so much for ages." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +IN THE MESHES OF A GOLDEN NET. + + +[Illustration] + +Of course Adelaide did not feel it necessary to tell Mr. Mudge all the +consequences of our Halloween party, but only the facts of our having +used the turret staircase on that memorable night. + +"And now," she said, with a laugh, "Mr. Mudge has gone racing off to +investigate Professor Waite. I seem doomed to get that poor man into +trouble. Though of course he never could be suspected of this robbery." + +Milly had entered while Adelaide was speaking, and she uttered a little +cry of dismay. "Professor Waite suspected! that could never be!" + +"Circumstances are against him," Winnie replied. "Mr. Mudge believes +that the robbery was committed between twelve o'clock and a quarter +past. Now, if Professor Waite was in the studio at that time----" + +"He was earlier than usual," Milly replied. "I heard him come up the +staircase. You know the head of our bed is right against the turret +wall. Someway, I always hear his step on the stair, and then he usually +whistles an air from one of the operas. Last night he whistled the +Wedding March in 'Lohengrin.'" + +"Then you were lying awake, too, last night," Winnie remarked. "Did you +hear me moving about in this room?" + +"Yes," Milly replied hesitatingly. + +"Why didn't you say so before?" + +"There didn't seem to be any necessity of telling of it," Milly replied. + +"You thought it might throw suspicion on me?" + +"Oh, no," Milly disclaimed. "No one could suspect you, Winnie, or +Professor Waite, either; the ideas are equally absurd." + +"Unless it is proved that the robbery was committed before Professor +Waite came up the stairs, it may not seem at all absurd to Mr. Mudge," +Winnie continued mercilessly. "Tib and I saw him examining the door into +the studio, and he seemed possessed with the idea that the burglar +entered the room from the studio. I know, too, that Mr. Mudge examined +Professor Waite's tool chest in the studio, and that he found the broken +lock in it, with a screw-driver and other tools, showing that Professor +Waite had been tinkering with the door, trying unsuccessfully to mend +the lock, as we all know." + +"You know this! How did you find it out?" Adelaide asked, and Winnie +replied: + +"Professor Waite wanted to use his screw-driver and went to his tool +chest after it during the painting lesson to-day. It was gone; so was +the lock to the door. He hunted everywhere, and told me that he was +afraid that Miss Noakes had been in his studio and had discovered the +broken lock, and that we would be called in question for that old +scrape. I felt sure from the first that it was Mr. Mudge, but I did not +mention him, for Madame told us to say nothing about the robbery outside +of our own circle." + +"I would do anything to keep Professor Waite out of trouble," Milly +said. "I am the only one who knows that he was in the studio, and I +will not tell." + +"Nothing will help Professor Waite so much as the entire truth," Winnie +replied. "Of course he is not the one who took the money. If the person +really responsible can be discovered, or will confess, the Professor and +all other innocent persons will be cleared from suspicion." + +"Of course," Milly replied, looking at Winnie in a puzzled way. "And I +am sure," she added hopefully, "that Mr. Mudge will find the guilty +individual soon, if he is as keen as you all seem to think him. I really +dread meeting him, and I am glad he has gone away for to-day. There goes +the supper bell. What a long day this has been!" + +After supper Milly woke to a consciousness that she had not prepared +one of her lessons for the next day. She sat puckering her pretty +forehead into ugly wrinkles, and repeating helplessly, "'Populi +Romani!' I am sure I've had that before." Then she began a wild attempt +at translation, with manifold running comments. "'Because Ariovistus, +King of the Germans, had sat down on their boundaries--' Now, was there +anything ever so absurd as that? Why did old Ariovistus want to sit +down on their boundaries?" + +"Perhaps the word doesn't mean boundaries here," Adelaide suggested, and +Milly turned patiently to her lexicon--"If _finibus_ comes from +_finitimus_ it may mean neighbors--and then Ariovistus sat down on his +neighbors; well I must say that was cool----" + +Milly worked on for a little while in silence, and then exclaimed, "I'm +getting into the sensibility of it now--how's this? 'These things having +been known, Cæsar confirmed the mind of all Gaul with words.' He was +always very generous of his words. We have a review to-morrow, and the +ridiculosity of the whole thing comes out. Now just listen to this: +'Wherefore it pleased him to send legates to Ariovistus, who should ask +him to appoint some place in the middle of the others for a colloquy. To +these legates he responded if it was too much trouble for him to come to +himself, himself would come to him and he--Cæsar--would then find out +who ought to do the coming. Besides, he would admire to see all Gaul in +a row, and it was no business of Cæsar's or his old Populo Romano.' I +rather like his pluck but I'm afraid my translation is rather free. +Then here is a place that I am not quite sure about; 'The Helvetians, +the Tulingians, and the Lotobigians, and all the other igians, in their +boundaries or something, whence they had something else--he commanded +to--thingummy; and because all their fruits were--were--frost bitten, I +guess, and at home nothing was which could tolerate hunger--he commanded +the other ninkums that they should make for them copious corn--' I +perfectly hate Cæsar. He was always boasting of his own benefits and +clemency to one tribe in making another support it, and then 'pacifying' +the other tribes by slaying a few thousand of their soldiers, and I just +don't see the use of our muddling our heads with what that stupid, +cruel, conceited old bandit did, anyhow. But if I don't know this lesson +I shall not be able to pass in examination, and you will all graduate +and leave me behind for ages and ages----" + +Ordinarily Winnie could not have resisted such an appeal as this. I have +known her to patiently translate all of Milly's lessons for her, and +then as patiently explain them to her over and over again, until some +faint idea of their meaning had penetrated her befogged little brain. +And having spent the evening thus, go unprepared to her geometry, and +stoically receive a cipher as her class mark, and see Cynthia carry off +the honors of the day. But to-night Winnie did not seem to see the +forget-me-not eyes turned appealingly to her. She appeared to be +completely absorbed in her Cicero. I endured Milly's frowns as long as I +could, and finally pushed aside my own studies, and said, "Come into my +bedroom where we will not disturb the other girls, and I will straighten +it out for you." + +Milly was delighted. She threw her arms around my neck and thrust some +cream peppermints into my pocket. + +We were in the midst of Cæsar's negotiations with Ariovistus, and had +nearly finished the paragraph, when Milly suddenly looked up. + +"Tib," she said, "do you know whatever became of Madame Celeste's last +bill? I thought I put it in my bureau drawer, but I must have left it +around somewhere. Have you seen it? I can't find it." + +"Then you could not pay it this afternoon?" I asked evasively. + +"Oh, yes! she made out another bill and receipted it for me, but I want +to be sure that the first one is destroyed." + +"I thought all your money was taken; where did you get enough to pay +this bill?" + +"Oh! that is a secret," she replied, with a pleased little flutter of +importance. "It's no manner of consequence how I came by it. I've paid +the bill--that's the essential thing--and I've got out of that dreadful +quicksand. Oh, Tib, I have been so unhappy, and Cynthia has been so +mean! I did not think it possible that any one could be so horrid." + +"Tell me all about it, dear," I said, caressing the curly blond head +which nestled on my knee. + +"I believe I will. I feel like telling somebody, and Winnie is so queer +lately--she freezes me. She has disapproved of me and scolded me ever +since she found out about Cynthia's dress, and I can't bear to be +disapproved of. It isn't one bit nice. Adelaide is perfectly splendid; +she likes me and pets me, but perhaps she wouldn't if she knew +everything; but you are just my dear old Tib. You would always like me, +wouldn't you, even if I were real wicked?" + +"Yes indeed, Milly," I replied; "and so would Winnie; you don't half +realize her love for you." + +"Then she has a very queer way of showing it. She makes me feel as if I +had committed some dreadful sin, and she was urging me to confess. She +is just about as pleasant a companion as that Florentine monk--what's +his name? who kept nagging Lorenzo de Medici--even when the poor man was +just as busy as he could be a-dying." + +"Savonarola acted as he thought was kindest and best for his poor guilty +friend. Sometimes the surgeon who probes our wound is the truest +friend--But you are going to tell me about your trouble--I've noticed +how red your little nose has been of late." + +"It was partly Celeste's fault, too," Milly said. "Cynthia's and +Celeste's and mine. Of course the fault was mostly mine. You see it all +started with the minuet--with which Professor Fafalata closed his +dancing class just before the Christmas holidays. He wished us to be +costumed in the Florentine style of the early part of the sixteenth +century. I was talking it over with Celeste, and she said I ought to +have the front of my petticoat covered with some jewelled net which she +had just imported from Paris. It was very expensive, but very beautiful, +and showy in the evening. The net was made of gold thread set with +imitation amethysts and rubies, an arabesque design, copied from some +mediæval embroidery, and just the thing for me, since I was to represent +a young princess of the house of Medici. I thought that I would write +mother, who was in Florida then, and ask her to lend me one of her party +dresses, and that it would be just the thing to put over it; and while I +was admiring it and before I had really ordered it, or realized what she +was doing, Celeste had cut me off a yard of it, and had charged it to my +account--fifteen dollars. I brought it here, you remember, only to find +that Madame had interested Professor Waite in the minuet, and that he +had promised to lend the girls some beautiful costumes of the period +which he had brought back from Paris. There was that lovely heliotrope +velvet edged with ermine for Adelaide, and a faded pink brocade sprigged +with primroses for me. + +"So of course there wasn't the slightest need for my golden net. I +carried it to Celeste to see if she would take it back. She said that +she would like to oblige me, but as it was cut she couldn't quite do +that, but she would try to dispose of it for me. And she did sell it a +few days later for ten dollars. I thought that was better than to lose +the entire sum. She handed me the money, saying that it would put her +to some trouble to change her accounts, and I had better let the bill go +in just as she had made it out, and I could hand mother the ten dollars +and explain matters. I really intended to do so, but I was nearly +bankrupt that month. My pocket money just seemed to walk away. I had +invited Adelaide to see the play of the 'Harvard Hasty Pudding,' and of +course I had to have Miss Noakes chaperone us, and I hadn't money enough +left to buy the tickets." + +"Why didn't you tell her so?" I asked. + +"Oh! I couldn't back out after I had asked her; and I owed her a little +treat of some kind, for she invited me to see the cadet drill at her +brother's school. + +"Well, after I had broken the ten dollar bill to get the tickets, the +first thing I knew it was all gone. I knew mother wouldn't mind, and +that I could tell her any time after she came home, but it never seemed +necessary to mention it in my letters and I never did." + +"Oh, Milly!" + +"Horrid of me, wasn't it? But I had worse temptations. My pocket money +is so very skimpy compared with what the other girls have, and with +what I have, too, in the way of credit for certain things, that I am +often really embarrassed and have to turn and twist and borrow and pinch +to make it stretch out. When you girls clubbed together and paid for +Polo's sisters at the Home, I wanted awfully to help, but I couldn't. +You see father lets me subscribe so much annually to the Home and he +sends in a check every year for me, and thinks that ought to be enough. +But I don't feel as though I was giving it at all, for it does not even +pass through my hands. I don't deny myself to give it, as Adelaide does +for her charities, and I haven't a penny for any special case of +distress or sudden emergency which I may happen to hear of. + +"Do you know, Tib, that Satan actually suggested to me how easily I +might have extra pocket money by ordering things from Celeste, and +letting her sell them again in just the same way that she managed with +the golden net? I knew that she would be glad enough to do it, for I +found out afterward that Rosario Ricos bought that net of Celeste and +paid her full price for it! So you see she kept back five dollars on the +second sale, besides making a good commission on the first." + +"But you didn't do it, Milly dear; you surely did not obtain your +charity money in any such dishonest way as that?" + +"No, Tib. I didn't do it for charity. I some way felt that God would not +accept such a gift from me; but there came a time when I had a worse +temptation still. You know all last term papa used to ride with me every +Saturday afternoon either at the riding academy or in the Park. Well, +something is the matter with his liver; it hurts him to trot, and he has +had to give it up, and Wiggins took me out. But I hate riding with a +groom, and so one day when papa called I told him I didn't care for any +more riding this winter. This happened the week you went home to help +tend your mother when she was sick, and that is the reason you never +heard of it. I was taking father up to the studio when I said it, to +show him Professor Waite's Academy picture, and papa was so vexed with +me about my not wanting to ride that he didn't half notice the pictures. + +"He took to Professor Waite, though, right away; and just as he was +leaving asked him if he rode. 'When I am so fortunate as to have the +opportunity,' Professor Waite replied. + +"'Very good,' said papa. 'Then possibly you will oblige me by +accompanying my daughter and one of her friends on an occasional ride +in the park.' He explained that he had a good saddle horse, which +needed exercise, which he would be glad to have him use; and that, +what was more important, I needed exercise too, and was so perverse +that I did not want to take it alone. 'And now,' said he, 'the cruel +parent proposes, Milly, to pay for another horse for one of your other +girl friends. I suppose you will choose Adelaide, and if Professor +Waite will act as your escort occasionally, I think you can manage to +extract some pleasure from the exercise.' + +"Of course I was perfectly delighted, and hugged papa, and called him a +dear old thing. Professor Waite, who had looked awfully bored and had +even begun to mumble something about being too busy, began to take an +interest in the matter as soon as Adelaide's name was mentioned, and +papa had an interview with Madame and got her permission to let us ride +every Saturday morning. Adelaide was down at her tenement, and it was +left that I was to tell her when she returned, and I thought everything +was settled. But when Adelaide came in she was looking troubled over +some of her tenants' tribulations and she only half listened to me. + +"'I would like above all things to ride again,' she said 'as I used to +on the plains when I lived out West; but there is no use talking about +it, Milly dear, I can't do it. I have no riding habit, and I cannot +afford to have one made. Thank you just as much, but don't say another +word about it.' + +"You can imagine how disappointed I was. I knew very well that neither +Madame nor mamma would let me ride alone with Professor Waite, even if +papa would permit it; and I knew, too, that the Professor would lose +every bit of interest in the plan if Adelaide did not go. I was not +thoroughly selfish, Tib. I wanted Adelaide to have a good time too, and +I wanted Professor Waite to be happy. I told myself that if he loved +Adelaide, I would do all I could to help him, and perhaps some day he +would remember that it was through me that he had won her, and like me +a little for it, and never suspect that I--that I----" + +Her voice broke and she buried her head on my shoulder. "Dear Milly," I +said, caressing and soothing her as best I could. "Of course you were +not selfish. Well, and what happened next?" + +"I couldn't give up the plan, Tib, and I thought that if all that kept +Adelaide from joining in it was the lack of a habit, that could be +easily arranged. I would make her a present of it. I was sure that +father would give me twenty-five dollars for my next birthday present, +and I thought it would do no harm to spend it in advance. So I asked +Celeste how much cloth it would take, and I had it sent her from +Arnold's, a beautiful fine dark-green broadcloth. And then I told +Adelaide what I had done and that she must go around to Celeste's with +me and be fitted. Do you believe it, she would not? She said that it +would be wrong for her to accept such a present from me; and besides, +nothing would induce her to ride with Professor Waite, for she couldn't +endure him. That put an end to the ride in the Park. Cynthia would have +taken Adelaide's place, but when I told Professor Waite that Adelaide +would not go, he looked so angry that I saw he wanted to get out of the +arrangement, and I suggested that perhaps we had better give up the +plan. He said, very well, just as I pleased, and looked so relieved that +I almost cried then and there. Papa was so provoked when I told him of +it that I did not dare say a word about the riding-habit, especially as +he had just handed me my little Swiss watch as my birthday present. So I +pretended to be pleased with it, and there was that dreadful cloth for +the riding-habit on my hands, and I didn't know what to do. Mamma was +still in Florida, and papa said that she was not very strong and must +not be worried--I must only write cheerful letters to her. I didn't feel +very cheerful, I assure you. Then Cynthia told me one day that she had +twenty dollars with which she wanted to purchase a winter suit and she +would like my advice about it. I was in debt just twenty dollars for the +cloth for the habit, and I told her about it and begged her to take it +off my hands. She went with me to Celeste's and liked it very much. The +only trouble was that her mother had intended the twenty dollars to pay +for both material and making, and of course she ought to get something +not nearly so nice. + +"She said at last that if I would get Celeste to wait for her pay she +would take the dress and pay her later. I thought only of paying for the +material at Arnold's, for I had expected to have the money by that time, +and had asked them to make a separate bill out, and not put it on my +book that goes every month to papa. So we arranged it. Cynthia gave me +her twenty dollars and I settled for the cloth, and Celeste made the +dress for her, and furnished the trimmings. But how she did run them up! +She had a band of real sable around the hem of the skirt and trimmed the +jacket with it too; and made her that cute little toque with heads and +tails on it, and when the bill came in it was sixty dollars. Cynthia was +frightened. 'I never can pay it in the world,' she said. 'I think your +dressmaker is frightfully extortionate; and I had no idea it would be so +much.' I felt sorry for her and I felt, too, that I was to blame for +getting her into the predicament; so I said we would divide the expense, +and she should only pay half. But she grumbled at that, and said that I +had inveigled her into the trouble, and that she had a dressmaker on +125th Street who would have made the suit for ten dollars. When I +reminded her of the fur, she said she did not believe it was real sable, +and she didn't want it any way. + +"I offered to take it to Gunther's and see if I could get something for +it, if she would rip it off, but she said she would do no such thing; +the dress would be a fright without it. It was all a miserable mess, and +I was so unhappy. It would have been some consolation if Cynthia had +been grateful, but she blamed me for everything, and I think that, +considering all I have done for her, she treated me very shabbily when +she said that Adelaide was the only lady in the Amen Corner, and she did +not care to speak to any of us again." + +"That was like Cynthia, and I am sure that the loss of her friendship +can only be a benefit to you. But, Milly, you must bravely shoulder the +greater part of the blame yourself. Your first wrong step was in getting +the golden net without permission, then in letting Celeste pay you for +it and yet having it charged to your father. Then, again, in getting +the cloth for Adelaide's habit without consulting your father you +deliberately did wrong; and in bargaining with Cynthia, instead of going +straight to your father and confessing your fault, you waded still more +deeply in----" + +"I know it; but there you are scolding me just like Winnie, and it +doesn't make the trouble a bit easier to bear to be told that I deserve +it all, and am a miserable little sinner. You needn't imagine that I did +not realize what a wretch I was; only I didn't seem to see the way out. +Everything I did to extricate myself got me deeper into the quicksand. I +saved every way, all that I could; one month I laid by two dollars and +thirty-seven cents, but the next I slipped back three and a quarter, and +Cynthia handed me a five dollar bill one day, and told me that was every +cent that she could pay, and I must let her off from the rest. And to +crown it all, Winnie found out about it, and nearly drove me wild. Oh, +Tib, I have been in such trouble, what with this dreadful bill that I +didn't dare tell papa about, and Professor Waite, and all my lessons so +hard, and my marks getting worse than ever, and Winnie turning on me. It +just seemed as if I would die, and I almost wished I could. I thought +seriously about killing myself only the night before last. I think if I +could have found any poison that would not have hurt I would have taken +it." + +"Don't talk so, Milly; it is wicked. You would have done nothing of the +sort." + +"But I would. I went into the chemical laboratory and looked at the +green and blue stuff in the test tubes, but I couldn't quite screw my +courage up to do more than taste just a little bit of one kind that +looked more deadly than the rest. It was horrid, and took the skin off +of the tip of my tongue. I ate a quarter of a pound of assorted mints +before I could get the taste out of my mouth. If I could have found some +laudanum, or something that would not have tasted so bad, or would have +killed me by putting me to sleep, I would have taken it that night, for +I was miserable enough to do anything, however unscrupulous and +reckless. If I hadn't been so very desperate perhaps I would never have +dared to do what I did do; the thing which really broke the meshes of +the golden net which seemed to have me in its toils. I didn't mean to +tell any one, but I was just driven to it, and I know you will keep my +secret--besides I have told you so much that you might as well know all. +Tib, I----" + +"Milly, it is time we were all in bed." It was Winnie who spoke. She +stood in the doorway, cold and commanding, and Milly cowered before her. +She did not offer to kiss her, but shrank, frightened, away to her room. + +"Oh, Winnie," I said, "why did you come in just then? Milly was just +about to confess to me what she did to get the money with which she has +just paid Celeste." + +"You have no business to coax her secret from her," Winnie replied +angrily. "Whatever it is, you have no right to know it unless she has +wronged you. I am afraid our dear Milly is in deep waters. But whatever +she may have done lies between her own conscience and God, and I believe +that He will show her how to make restitution and keep, in the future, +strictly to the right. Oh, my poor, precious Milly! I wish I could +suffer all the consequences of your wrong doing for you, but I can't. +Every sin brings suffering, and it is the suffering that purifies. I +can't save you that experience, but I will shield you from open shame if +I can. I forbid you, Tib, to pry into Milly's affairs any further, to +question her, or allow her to confide in you, or even suspect her. Only +pray for her, and love her; that is all you can do." + +"It is you who suspect her," I exclaimed hotly, "and unjustly, Winnie. +Milly has been extravagant and thoughtless; worse than that, she has +been underhanded and deceitful in regard to expenditures, but she did +not take the money from the cabinet; of that I am positive." + +"Have I ever charged her with anything so dreadful?" Winnie asked. "Have +I not tried in every way to keep that suspicion from every one? Give me +credit for that, at least." + +"In words, Winnie; but in your secret thought you have wronged her. I +know that you love her with a sort of a fierce, maternal love which +makes you want her to be perfect, and which fears the worst and tortures +yourself with imaginary impossibilities. I tell you that Milly has +learned a very thorough lesson in regard to deception; she will never +offend in that way again; and as to this affair of the cabinet, I would +as soon suspect you as her." + +"Suspect me, then," Winnie cried. "I wish you would. I hoped that +Cynthia was going to lead suspicion my way, but it seems she can't do +it. I have too good a reputation." And Winnie laughed cynically. "Well, +the time may come when you may not think so well of me. Meantime, I +thank you with all my heart for believing in Milly." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"POLO." + + +[Illustration] + +It must not be inferred that our life that winter was all intense and +tragical; if it had been so we could not have endured it. There were +patches of clear sky, and the sunlight of generous acts glinted through +the storm. We had all merry hearts and good digestions, and these bore +us up under our troubles with the buoyancy which is so mercifully +granted to youth and inexperience. Then, too, our thoughts were not +entirely taken up with ourselves and our own affairs. For a few days +after this we saw nothing of Mr. Mudge, and our attention was partly +diverted to another matter. + +One day, earlier in the school year, Mrs. Booth, of the Salvation Army, +had addressed Madame's school on the need of work among the poor of New +York. One little parable which she gave made a great impression upon us. +I cannot repeat Mrs. Booth's eloquent language, but will give the main +points of the story. + +"As a young girl," said Mrs. Booth, "I was very selfish and +hard-hearted. I did not care for the suffering and anguish of others. +It was not that I was naturally cruel, but I did not think of them at +all. I thought and cared only for myself, of parties and dresses, and of +having a good time--and this Dead Sea of selfishness was numbing every +generous impulse within me. My heart was growing to resemble a certain +spring which my mother took me to see when a little child. I remember +the walk through the wood beside a little brook which babbled over the +stones, and how the light of the sky shone down into its clear amber +waters, and the trees and the clouds were reflected in its quiet pools; +how long mosses fringed its stones, and water plants made a little +forest under its ripples; and how its depths were all alive with tiny +fish and happy living creatures seeking their food and sporting among +the cresses. But we came presently to a spring quite apart and very +different from the brook. The water was deep, and quiet, and clear, but +when I looked into it I was struck by a death-like influence, weird and +sinister. There were no minnows darting through the depths like silver +needles, or craw-fish burrowing in the banks, or water beetles skimming +the surface like oarsmen rowing their light wherries. There was no life +to be seen anywhere. The very stones had a strange, unnatural look; they +were white as marble; no mosses covered them, no water-lilies or algae +grew through the deadly water. The very leaves which had fallen into the +pool were white and heavy, as though carved in marble. The grasses which +grew downward and dipped into the spring were marble grasses, more like +clumsy branching coral than the delicate bending sprays above the waves. +It was a petrifying spring, and everything dipped in its waters was +presently coated with a fine, stony sediment and practically turned +to stone. + +"So the deadly, petrifying spring of selfishness will turn the heart to +stone, and while having the form of life it will be cold and hard and +dead." + +This was Mrs. Booth's little parable, and while none of our hearts had +been dipped in this petrifying spring, it woke us to new desires to do +more for the suffering poor. + +Something happened a little after this talk, and several weeks previous +to the robbery, which gave a direction to our impulses. Milly and I were +returning from a shopping excursion one very cold and rainy Saturday, +when we were approached by a poor girl who was selling pencils on a +corner. "They are always useful," I said; "suppose we take some." + +"I should perfectly love to," Milly replied, "but I haven't a cent." + +The girl had noticed our hesitation and came to us. "Please buy some, +young ladies," she said; "I haven't had a thing to eat to-day." + +"Then come right along with me," said Milly. "Mother lets me lunch at +Sherry's, whenever I am out shopping." + +The girl followed us but stopped beneath the awning of the handsome +entrance. "That's too fine a place for me, Miss," she said. "Only swells +go there. It costs the eyes out of your head just for a clean plate and +napkin in there. How much do you s'pose now, a lunch would cost in that +there palace?" + +"Not more than a dollar," Milly replied cheerfully. + +"Glory!" exclaimed the girl, "if you mean to lay out as much as that on +me, why ten cents will get me all I want to eat at a bakery on Third +Avenue, and I'll take the balance home to the children." + +"That is just where the awkwardness of papa's way of doing comes in," +Milly said to me. "You see," she explained to the girl, "I've spent all +my money to-day, but I can have a lunch charged here." + +Still the girl hesitated. "I'm not fit," she said, looking at her +dripping, ragged clothes. We were sheltered from view by the awning, and +in an instant Milly had taken off her handsome London-made mackintosh +and had thrown it around the girl. "There, that covers you all up," she +said, "and your hat isn't so very bad." + +It was a tarpaulin, and, though a little frayed at the edges, its glazed +surface had shed the rain and it was not conspicuously shabby. + +We passed into the ladies' restaurant and seated ourselves at one of +the little tables. Milly took up a menu and looked it over critically. +"Now I am going to order a very sensible, plain luncheon," she +announced. "No frills, but something hot and nourishing. We will begin +with soup. Papa would approve of that. He is always provoked when I cut +the soup. Green turtle? Yes, waiter, three plates of green turtle soup." + +"Please excuse me," I interrupted. "I do not care for anything." + +"No? Well, two plates. I usually loathe turtle soup, but I'm determined +to be sensible and have a solid lunch. Some way, I don't know why, I'm +not very hungry this afternoon." + +"Perhaps the ice-cream soda we had at Huyler's has taken away your +appetite," I suggested. + +The soup was brought and Milly sipped a little daintily, as she +afterward said merely to keep her guest company. The guest devoured it +ravenously; she had evidently never tasted anything so delicious; but +perhaps plain beef-stew would have seemed as good, for her feast was +seasoned with that most appetizing of sauces--hunger. + +"What will you have next?" Milly asked politely, as the waiter removed +their plates. + +"Whatever you take, Miss," the girl replied. "I ain't particular. I +guess anything here's good enough for me." + +"I declare I don't feel as if I could worry down another morsel," Milly +answered. "There is nothing so surfeiting as green turtle. It makes me +almost sick to think of crabs or birds, or even shrimp salad. Let's skip +all that, and take the desert. Waiter, bring us two ices. Which flavor +do you prefer?" she asked of the pencil vender, and again the bewildered +girl left the choice to her hostess. + +"Strawberry, mousse, and chocolate are too cloying," Milly remarked +meditatively. "Bring us lemon water ice and pistache. Don't you just +dote on pistache?" + +"I never ate any, Miss." + +"Then I shall have the pleasure of introducing you to something new. +You'll be sure to like it." + +The girl did like it. She ate every morsel. Possibly something more +solid would have proved as satisfying, but Milly was pleased with her +evident appreciation. + +"Why don't you eat the macaroons? Don't you like them? Would you rather +have kisses?" + +"If you please Miss, might I take them home to the children?" + +"Yes, I suppose so. It isn't exactly good form to put things in your +pocket, but they will be charged for just the same, even if we leave +them, so take them, quick, now that the waiter is not looking." + +Although the waiter was not watching us, some one else was. A +faultlessly dressed gentleman approached at this juncture and greeted +Milly in an impressive manner. + +"Why, Mr. Van Silver!" she exclaimed, a little fluttered by the +unexpected meeting. "I haven't seen you since last summer at +Narragansett Pier." + +"And whose fault is that?" Mr. Van Silver asked plaintively. "If young +ladies will shut themselves up in convents, and never send their adoring +friends any invitation to a four o'clock tea or a reception or even a +school examination or a prayer meeting, where they might catch a glimpse +of them, it is the poor adorer's misfortune, and not his fault, if he is +forgotten. Won't you introduce me to your friends?" + +"Certainly. Tib, this is Mr. Van Silver. Mr. Van Silver, allow me to +present you to Tib--I mean to Miss Smith. I can't introduce you to the +other young lady, because I don't know her name." + +We had all risen and the last remark was made _sotto voce_. As we left +the building Mr. Van Silver sheltered Milly with his umbrella and the +waif followed with me. "Come with us to Madame's," I had said, "and +perhaps we can do something for you." + +As we walked on together Milly and Mr. Van Silver carried on a lively +conversation, part of which I overheard, and the remainder Milly +reported afterward. She first told him of how we had met our new +acquaintance, and he seemed much interested. + +"And so you have just given her a very solid and sensible lunch, +consisting of green turtle soup and ice cream." He laughed a low, +gurgling laugh and appeared infinitely amused. + +"And macaroons," Milly added; "she has at least five macaroons in her +pocket for the children." + +"Oh! yes, a macaroon a piece for the children. I wonder if I couldn't +contribute a cigarette for each of them," and he gurgled again in a +purring, pleasant way. + +"You are making fun of me," Milly pouted, in an aggrieved way. + +"Not at all. I think it was just like you, Miss Milly, to do such a +lovely thing. You are one of the most kind-hearted girls I know,--to +beggars, I mean,--but the young men tell a different story. There's poor +Stacey Fitz Simmons. I saw him the other day and he was complaining +bitterly of your hard-heartedness. He said you hardly spoke to him at +Professor Fafalata's costume dance." + +"How unfair! he was my partner in the minuet. What more could he ask?" + +"There's nothing mean about Stacey. He probably wanted you to dance all +the other dances with him. I told him that he was a lucky young dog to +be invited at all. Why did you leave me out?" + +"I didn't think that a grown-up gentleman, in society, would care for +a little dance at a boarding-school, where he would only meet +bread-and-butter school girls." + +"Oh! I'm too old, am I? Well, I must say you are complimentary. And it's +a fault that doesn't decrease as time passes. Well, I shall tell Stacey +that there's hope for him. You only care for very young men. Why did you +send back the tickets which he sent you for the Inter-scholastic Games! +You nearly broke his heart. He has been training for the past six +months simply and solely in the hope that you will see him win the mile +run." + +"But I will see him. I wrote him that Adelaide's brother, Jim, had +already sent her tickets, which we should use, and as he might like to +bestow his elsewhere, I returned them." + +"'Bestow them elsewhere?' Not he. Stacey is constant as the pole. He's +as loyal as he is thoroughbred. He was telling me about the serenade +that the cadet band gave your school last year. Some girl let down a +scrap basket from her window full of buttonhole bouquets. He wore one +pinned to the breast of his uniform for a week because he thought you +had a hand in it; and you never saw a fellow so cut up as he was when he +heard last summer that you had nothing to do with it, and even slept +sweetly through the entire serenade." + +"Stacey is too silly for anything. It is perfectly ridiculous for a +little boy like him to talk that way." + +"Little boy--let me see, just how old is Stacey, anyway! About +seventeen. Six months your senior, is he not? At what age should you say +that one might fall quite seriously and sensibly in love?" + +"Oh! not till one is twenty at least," Milly answered quickly; but she +blushed furiously while she spoke. + +"Sensible girl! But to return to the subject of the Inter-scholastic +Games. I am glad that you and your friend Miss Adelaide are going. They +are to take place out at the Berkeley Oval, you know. I have no doubt +that the roads will be settled and we shall have fine weather by that +time. May I have the pleasure of driving you out on my coach?" + +"Certainly. That is, I must coax papa to write a note to Madame, asking +her to let us go." + +"I will call at the bank and see your papa about it to-morrow, and +meantime do beam upon poor Stacey. And, by the way, here is something +which you may as well add to the macaroons for those poor children," and +he pressed a dollar bill into Milly's hand. Some one passed us rapidly +at that instant and gave the young man so questioning a glance that he +raised his hat, asking Milly a moment later if she knew the lady. + +"Why, that is Miss Noakes!" Milly exclaimed, in dismay. "You must not go +a step further with us, Mr. Van Silver, or we will be reported for +'conduct.'" + +"Far be it from me to gratify the evidently malicious desire of that +estimable person to report you young ladies. Good-by until the games," +and with another bow he was gone. + +As we approached the school building we saw Professor Waite leaving by +the turret door, and I asked him to allow us to enter by it, at the same +time requesting him to buy some of our new friend's pencils. He looked +at the girl closely, and as Milly led the way with her I explained how +we had found her. + +"She is a picturesque creature," Professor Waite remarked. "I could make +her useful as a model. The girls pose so badly and dislike to do it so +much, it might be well to try this waif. Tell her to come on Monday, and +if the class like her well enough to club together and pay a small +amount for her services, we will engage her to sit for us." + +He scribbled a line on one of his visiting cards for her to show +Cerberus, as we called our dignified janitor, who was very particular +about whom he admitted to the building; and I hastily followed our +_protégé_ to the Amen Corner, where I found Adelaide talking with her +while Milly ransacked her wardrobe for cast-off clothing, finding only a +Tam O'Shanter, a parasol, and some soiled gloves. + +"Can't you find her a pair of rubbers?" Adelaide asked. "The girl's feet +are soaked." + +"Do you keep your own rubbers?" the waif asked. "That was my father's +business." + +"What do you mean?" inquired Adelaide. + +"My father was a rubber--a massage man for the Earl of Cairngorm." + +"Oh!" said Adelaide, a light beginning to dawn upon her mind. "I meant +rubber overshoes, not a bath woman." + +"We call those galoshes," said the girl, as Milly produced a pair which +were not mates. "I'm sure you've given me a fine setting out, young +ladies. I'll do as much for you if I ever has the chance. Who knowses? +Maybe some day I'll be a swell and you poor. Then you just call on me, +and don't you forget it." With which cheerful suggestion she left us, +grateful and happy. I took her down to the main entrance, and, showing +the card to Cerberus, explained that she had been engaged by Professor +Waite, and was to be allowed to enter every morning. He granted a +grudging consent, not at all approving of her appearance without the +waterproof, and I flew back to the Amen Corner to join in the general +conference. She had told Adelaide that her name was Pauline Terwilliger. +Her father had been English, her mother Swiss. They had knocked about +the world as foot-balls of fortune, but had lived longest in London, +where her father had died. Her brother had come to New York some years +previous, and her mother had brought the family over on his insistence. +But this brother had failed to meet them, as he had promised to do, on +their landing at Castle Garden. Their mother had lost his address, and +they were stranded in a strange city. They had advertised in the papers, +and had left their own address at the Barge Office, but her brother had +never appeared. They had taken a room in a tenement house, and the +mother had obtained some work, scrubbing offices and cleaning windows. +But she had taken cold and was now in a hospital, and Polo was trying to +support the two younger children. + +"They are living in one of the worst tenement houses in Mulberry Bend," +said Adelaide. "I would like to give them a room in my house, but it is +full; and cheap as the rent is, they could never pay it." + +"The younger children ought to go to the Home," I suggested. + +"The Home is full," Winnie replied. "I called there to-day. Emma Jane +says it just breaks her heart to look at the list of applications +waiting for a vacancy. Our dear Princess[2] has in mind a little +old-fashioned house which fronts on a side street, whose yard backs +against ours. She would like to have it rented as an annex. She says the +Home ought to have a nursery for very little babies. You know it does +not now take children under two years of age, on account of the expense +of nurses; but this would be such a charming place for them, and we +could call it the 'Manger,' and have it connected with the main building +with a long glass piazza. The scheme is a perfect one. All it needs +is money to carry it out. Unfortunately, that is lacking. I have +corresponded with all our out-of-town circles of King's Daughters. They +are doing all they can, and have pledged enough, with our other +subscriptions, to carry the Home through the coming year on its old +basis; but there isn't a cent to spare for a 'manger.'" + + [2] "The Princess" was a quaint little foreigner, who gave the + girls botany lessons, and who originated the idea of the Home, + whose founding is related in the initial volume of this series. + +"Would all of the new house be taken up by the nursery?" Adelaide asked. + +"No; the Princess proposed that the upper story, which consists of four +little bedrooms, should be used as 'guest chambers' for emergency cases, +convalescent children returned from hospitals, and children who, on +account of peculiar distress,--like Polo's sisters,--it seemed best to +receive for a short time entirely free. The Princess thought that we +might like to club together and pay for one such room, and then we could +designate at any time the persons we would like to have occupy it. There +is always a list of applicants, which would be submitted to us to choose +from, in case we had no candidates of our own to suggest. The occupants +of such a room would then be as truly our guests as if we entertained +them in our own home. It would come in very nicely now in Polo's case." + +Milly gave a deep sigh. "I wish I could help you, girls, but you know +just how I am situated." + +Adelaide knitted her brows. "We must get up some sort of an +entertainment. It makes me tired to think of it, but there's no other +way." + +"And in the mean time, Emma Jane must find room for those children some +way," said Winnie. "I will call a meeting of the Hornets in our corner +to-night, and we will pledge ourselves to raise money enough for one +guest chamber for these children, and until it is arranged for, Emma +Jane must make up beds for them on the school desks, or we can buy a +_retroussé_ bedstead for the parlor." + +"_Retroussé_ bedstead! What's that?" Milly asked, in a puzzled way. + +"Don't be dense, Milly; it's vulgar to speak of a turn-up nose, you +know; and I don't know why we should insult a parlor organ bedstead in +the same way. If we can't afford that sort of thing, they might turn the +dining tables upside down; they would make better cribs than the +children have now, I'll venture to say." + +"You will tuck them up, I suppose, with napkins and table-cloths," +Cynthia sneered. But Winnie paid no attention to the interruption. + +"They will not mind a little crowding, and the thing will march right +along if we only plunge into it. They must not stay another night in +that old tenement. Polo said there was a rag-picker under them, and a +woman who had delirium tremens in the next room. I am going down +to-morrow afternoon to take them to the Home." + +A meeting of our own particular circle of King's Daughters, which was +made up of ourselves and the "Hornets," took place that evening in the +Hornets' Nest. The Hornets were a coterie of mischievous girls rooming +in a little family like the Amen Corner, but in the attic story under +the very eaves. They took up the idea of the guest chamber with great +enthusiasm, but they were nearly as impecunious as ourselves. Suddenly +Little Breeze--our pet name for Tina Gale--exclaimed, "I have a notion! +We will invite the school to a 'Catacomb Party, and the underground +Feast of the Ghouls.'" + +"How very scareful that sounds!" said Trude Middleton. "What is it, +anyway?" + +"Oh! it's a mystery, a blood-curdling mystery. It will cost everybody +fifty cents, but it will be worth it. I want Witch Winnie to be on the +committee of arrangements with me, and you must all give us full +authority to do just as we please; and it is to be a surprise, and you +must ask no questions." + +"We trust you. Where's it to be? In the sewers, or the cathedral +crypts?" + +But Little Breeze refused to waft the least zephyr of information our +way, and there was nothing for it but to wait. + +As we were returning rather noisily from the Hornets' Nest, we passed +Miss Noakes's open door, and she rang her little bell in a peremptory +manner. This meant that we were to report ourselves immediately to her, +and we did so. + +"Young ladies," said Miss Noakes in her most disagreeable manner, +"before reporting you to Madame, I would like to give you an opportunity +of explaining a very irregular performance. As I was returning from a +meeting of the Young Women's Christian Association this afternoon, I saw +three occupants of your corner taking a promenade with a gentleman. This +is, as you know, an infringement of school rules, and I would like to +inquire whether the young man has any authorization from your parents +for such attention." + +"Only two of us were concerned in this matter," I replied. "We met Mr. +Van Silver quite by chance, and he very politely offered Milly the +protection of his umbrella for a part of the way home, as she had none. +He is an old friend of her family and thoroughly approved of by Mr. +Roseveldt." + +"How often have I told you young ladies never to go out, on the +pleasantest day, without an umbrella or waterproof, since a storm may +come up at any minute?" + +"I did take my waterproof," Milly replied. + +"Then you had no occasion to accept the gentleman's umbrella," Miss +Noakes said sternly. + +"But I gave it to Polo," Milly stammered, quite fluttered. + +"Polo! Who is Polo? and how can you tell me, Miss Smith, that Miss +Roseveldt and you were the only ones implicated in this disgraceful +affair, when I saw three of you enter the turret door?" + +"The third girl was Polo, the new model whom Professor Waite has engaged +to pose for the portrait class." + +"A professional model? Worse and worse! and how comes it that you were +walking with such a questionable character?" + +I related the entire story as simply as possible; but it was evident +that Miss Noakes did not approve. + +"A most extraordinary performance," she commented. "I feel it my duty to +report it to Madame." + +"You may spare yourself that trouble, Miss Noakes," Adelaide replied. +"Tib, Winnie, and I are going to tell Madame all about it at her +next office hour. We want to ask her permission to get up a little +entertainment in behalf of Polo's little brother and sisters." + +"And I shall suggest to Madame," Miss Noakes added, "the advisability of +inquiring into the character and antecedents of this girl, before she +allows her to become an accredited dependent of her establishment, or +authorizes the bestowal of charity upon her family. Artists' models are +often disreputable people with whom your parents would not be willing +that you should associate, and I advise you not to become too intimate +with a perfect stranger." + +We had come through the ordeal on the whole quite triumphantly, but Polo +had excited Miss Noakes's enmity. She could never be won to regard her +as anything but a vagabond, and always spoke of her as 'that model girl' +in a tone that belied the literal signification of the words; and later, +when by dint of spying and listening Miss Noakes learned that a robbery +had been committed in the Amen Corner, her dislike and suspicion of poor +Polo led to very painful consequences. The relation of which, however, +belongs to a later chapter. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE CATACOMB PARTY. + + +[Illustration] + +Polo came on Monday and posed to the satisfaction of Professor Waite and +of the class. Winnie was successful in entering the two children at the +Home, and Adelaide had a happy thought for Polo herself, who was too old +to be received there. One of the smallest apartments in her tenement had +been taken by Miss Billings and Miss Cohens, two seamstresses, honest, +industrious old maids, who had lived and worked together since they were +girls. Adelaide called them the two turtle doves, the odd combination of +their name suggesting the nickname, and their fondness for each other +bearing it out. They were a cheerful pair, and their rooms were bright +with flowers and canaries. One morning Miss Billings woke to find her +friend dead at her side, having passed from life in sleep so peacefully +that she neither woke nor disturbed the faithful friend close beside +her. + +The poor old lady was very lonely and was glad to take Polo in. The +young girl brightened her life, and her own influence on the nearly +friendless waif was excellent. In the intervals of posing Miss Billings +taught Polo how to cut and fit dresses. Polo helped her with her sewing, +and Miss Billings promised to take her into partnership by and by. Polo +was very happy and grateful, and the girls all liked her immensely. She +was a character in her way, an irresistible mimic. She would take off +Miss Noakes to the life, while she had a talent which I have never seen +equalled for making the most ludicrous and horrible faces. She was +almost pretty, and with Miss Billings's help, made over the odds and +ends of clothing bestowed upon her very nicely. Her one trinket was a +string of coral beads and a little cross which her brother had sent her +before she left England. She never gave up her faith in this brother. +"Albert Edward'll turn up some day rich," she said. She flouted the +idea that he might be dead. "He ain't the dying kind," she said, when +Cynthia suggested the possibility. "None of our family ain't, except +father. Why, I've been through enough to kill a cat, and I haven't died +yet." + +She was especially devoted to Milly, to whom she felt, with reason, that +she owed all her good fortune. Professor Waite found her remarkably +serviceable as a model, from her versatility and ability to adapt +herself to any character, giving a great variety of types for us to +copy. When she wore the Italian costume, one would have thought her an +Italian, and a complete change came over her when she donned the German +cap and wooden shoes. "May be that's because I've lived amongst all +sorts of foreigners so much," she said, "and Albert Edward always said +I'd make an actress equal to the best. He said I had talent. I do pity +them as hasn't. I wouldn't be one of the common herd for anything." + +Polo was certainly uncommon. Her use of the English language had an +individuality of its own. She hated Miss Noakes and said she had no +business to be "tryannic" (meaning tyrannical). She spoke of native +Americans as abor-jines (a distortion of aborigines), and intermingled +these little variations of her own with cockney phrases which were new +to our untravelled ears. + +She found difficulty in understanding our words and expressions, and +once when Professor Waite told her to set up a screen she astonished us +all by uttering a most blood-curdling yell, under the impression that he +had commanded her to set up a _scream_. + +She disliked Cerberus, and to save her from his scornful scrutiny and +contemptuous remarks, Professor Waite had a duplicate key made to the +turret door, by which Polo entered each morning and mounted directly to +the studio. + +She was very diverting, but much as we liked her we could not forget +that we had assumed a grave responsibility in taking the support of her +little sisters upon our hands, and we now began to actively agitate the +plans for the Catacomb Party, which was to raise funds for the Annex +with its "Manger and Guest Chambers." + +One event of interest to us occurred before the evening of the Catacomb +Party. This was the Annual Drill of the Cadet School. All of the Amen +Corner and the Hornets had invitations. We occupied front seats in the +east balcony of the great armory, vigilantly chaperoned by Miss Noakes. +Her best intentions could not prevent the young cadets from paying their +respects to us during the intervals of the drill. + +The young men looked handsomely in their gala uniforms of white trousers +and gloves, blue coats, and caps set off with plenty of frogging and +brass buttons. They performed their evolutions with a precision which +would have done credit to a regiment of regulars--and received the +praise of General Howard, who reviewed them. + +Out of all the battalion there were two boys in whom we were chiefly +interested: Adelaide's younger brother Jim, color sergeant of the +baby company, and Milly's friend Stacey Fitz Simmons, the handsome +drum-major. + +Winnie insisted that Malcolm Douglas must have been thinking of the +practising of this cadet drum corps when he wrote: + + "And all of the people for blocks around, + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + Kept time at their tasks to the martial sound, + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + While children to windows and stoops would fly, + Expecting to see a procession pass by, + And they couldn't make out why it never drew nigh, + With its boom-tidera-da--boom-a-diddle-dee; + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + + It would seem such vigor must soon abate; + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + But they still keep at it, early and late; + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + So if it should be that a war breaks out, + They'll all be ready, I have no doubt, + To help in putting the foe to rout, + With their boom-tidera-da-boom-- + _Boom-tidera-da-boom--_ + Boom-tidera-da--boom-a-diddle-dee, + Boom-Boom-_Boom_!" + +Stacey was seventeen, tall for his age, with a little feathery mustache +outlining his finely cut upper lip. He was elegant in appearance and +manners, and we all admired and liked him with the exception of +perverse, wilful Milly. Jim was thirteen and small for his years. The +life of privation which he had led during a period when he had been +lost, the account of which has been given in the previous volume, had +stunted his growth, and given him an appearance of delicacy. But Jim was +wiry, and possessed great endurance, and his drilling that evening was +noticeable for its accuracy and spirit. Adelaide and Jim were deeply +attached to one another. They wrote each other long letters every week, +remarkable for their perfect confidence. As Jim's letters give an +insight not only into his life at the cadet school, but also into the +relations which subsisted between several of the cadets and members of +our own school, as well as into a _contretemps_ which introduced great +consternation into the Catacomb Party, I will choose two from Adelaide's +packet and insert them before describing the mystic entertainment of the +Council of Ten. + + + LETTER NO. 1. + + DEAR SISTER: + + I like the barracks better than I did. I almost have gotten over + being homesick, and the fellows are awfully nice now that I have + come to know them. I miss mother, but I would rather die than let + any one know it. I've put her photograph down at the bottom of my + trunk, for it gave me the snuffles to see it, and Stacey Fitz + Simmons caught me kissing it once, and I was so ashamed. He is one + of the nicest fellows here, and he didn't rough me a bit about it, + only whistled, and said: "You've got a mighty pretty mother; I + guess she takes after your sister. Pity there wasn't more beauty + left for the rest of the family." He knows you, and I guess you + must remember meeting him when you visited the Roseveldts last + summer at Narragansett Pier. He asked if you and Milly Roseveldt + were at the same school, and would I please send his regards when + I wrote. He is one of the Senior A boys, and is going to college + next year. I am only Middle C, but he is ever so good to me, I am + sure I don't know why. We are drilling, drilling all the time now + for the annual drill at the Seventh Regiment Armory. + + Stacey is an awfully good fellow. He's the head of everything. + He's drum-major, and you just ought to see him in his uniform + leading the drum corps [Jim spelled it _core_]. He's the cockatoo + of the school. Stacey's folks are rich, and his mother wrote the + military tailor not to spare expense, but to get Stacey up just as + fine as they make 'em, and I don't believe there's a drum-major of + any of the crack regiments that can hold a candle to him for + style. In the first place he has a high furry hat that looks like + the big muffs they carried at the old folks' concerts. Then he has + a bright scarlet coat all frogged and padded and laced with lots + of gold cord, and the nattiest trousers and patent leather boots. + But his baton--oh, Adelaide! words cannot express. I don't believe + old Ahasuerus ever had a sceptre half as gorgeous, with a great + gold ball on the top, and it will do your eyes good to see him + swing it. Doesn't he put on airs, though! Put on isn't the word, + for Stacey is airy naturally, and dignified, too. Buttertub says + he walks as if he owned the earth. When he marches backward + holding his baton crosswise, I'm always afraid that he will fall + and that somebody might laugh, and that would kill him. But he + never does fall. He seems to see with the buttons on the small of + his back, and he stepped over a banana skin while marching to the + armory just as dandified as you please. And he never fails to + catch his baton when he tosses it into the air, and makes it whirl + around twice before it comes down. He never bows to any of the + fellows or seems to see them--except me. They are going to have + Gilmore's Band at the drill, and Stacey was practising leading + them around the armory. I was in the lower balcony, hanging over + and watching him. He was going through his fanciest evolutions + when he passed me. He looked straight ahead and never winked an + eye. I didn't think he saw me till I heard him say, "How's that, + dear boy?" and I clapped so hard that I nearly fell over. + + Buttertub hates Stacey; he wanted to be drum-major himself. + + He calls Stacey wasp-waist, but it only calls attention to his own + big stomach. He is always eating, and he won't train, and he can't + run without having a fit of apoplexy. He weighs too much for the + crew and he can't even ride a bicycle, or do anything except the + heavy work on the foot ball team and study. Yes, he can study; + that's the disgusting part. + + Stacy can do everything. He's a splendid sprinter. There's only + one other boy in the school that can equal him, and that's a + red-headed boy they call Woodpecker. He has longer legs than + Stacey and of course takes a longer stride, and that counts. But + Stacey is livelier and puts in four strides to three of the + Woodpecker's, so they are pretty nearly equal. Stacey is a + prettier runner, too. He does it just as _easy_, while the + Woodpecker works all over, arms _and_ legs, and bites on his + handkerchief, and his eyes pop out, and when it's all over he + falls in a heap and looks as if he were dying, while Stacey takes + another lap in better time than the last, just for fun. + + Stacey rides the bicycle, too, splendidly. He has one of those big + wheels and he can manage it with his feet and do all sorts of + tricks with his hands. He has been giving me points on bicycle + riding. He picked out my safety for me, and has been coaching me + how to manage it. He says I am the best rider for a little chap + that he ever saw, and that he means to make me win the race at the + inter-scholastic. I tell you Stacey is a trump. He's an all-around + athlete. He dances, and he rides, and he shoots in the summer when + he goes hunting with his uncle; and he fences, and he's stroke on + the crew, and he's our best high jump and there isn't anything + that he can't do, except his lessons--sometimes--but they don't + count. He says that if it wasn't for the beastly lessons school + would be heavenly, and we all agree with him. Ricos said that he + would head a petition to have lessons abolished and the boys would + all sign it, but Stacey said that parents were so unprogressive he + didn't believe they would, and he was afraid the head master + wouldn't pay much attention to such a petition unless it bore the + parents' signatures. + + I've written an awfully long letter, but I like to write to you, + and it was rainy to-day, and we couldn't go to the grounds, and + I've hurt my ankle by falling from my bicycle so that I could not + practise in the gymnasium. Now don't go and get scared, like a + girl, and disapprove of athletics for such a little thing as that. + It was only a little sprain, that will all be well before the + drill, and I only barked my shin the least bit, nothing at all to + what the Woodpecker does most every day. + + I hope I shall be big enough to go on the foot-ball team next + year. I know you think it's dangerous, but I've calculated the + chances of getting hurt and they are so very slight that I guess + I'll risk it. Why, out of the whole eleven last year there were + only nine that got hurt. + + Be sure you all come to the exhibition drill. I enclose two + tickets and Stacey sends two more. He wants it distinctly + understood that you and Miss Roseveldt are his guests. So you can + give mine with my compliments to Miss T. Smith and Miss Winnie De + Witt. I don't send any for that Vaughn girl, for Buttertub knows + her and told me he was going to invite her. + + No more at present, + + From your affectionate brother, + JAMES HALSEY ARMSTRONG. + + P. S. Stacey sends his regards to Miss Roseveldt. + + P. S. No. 2. And to you. + + + LETTER NO. 2. + + THE BARRACKS, April. + + DEAR SISTER: + + Wasn't the drill splendid? I knew you would enjoy it. How I wish + father and mother had been in New York so they could have seen it. + + You looked just stunning in that stylish hat. Stacey said so. You + must excuse him if he didn't pay you very much attention. He could + only leave the band during the intermission and of course he had + to be polite to Miss Roseveldt. Besides he said I stuck so close + to you that he hadn't any chance. He says he never saw a fellow so + spooney over his own sister as I am. I tell him there aren't many + chaps who have such a nice sister as you are, and then we were + separated so long that I am making up for lost time. + + I am glad you liked the French Army Bicycle drill. That was + something quite new. Stacey was detailed to command it because + he's a splendid cyclist himself, and he knew how to put us + through. I didn't know till the day before that he was going to + call me out to skirmish. He said: "Jimmy, you can manage your + wheel better than any one else except the Woodpecker, and I am + going to have you two go through with a little fancy business that + will bring the house down." And didn't it? When I fired off my + gun going at full speed, they clapped so that I nearly lost my + head. Ricos was mad because he wasn't selected for the special + manoeuvres. Ricos is better for speed than I am, and he's + awfully quick-tempered--he's a Spaniard, you know, and he said to + me, "Never mind, youngster, I'll pay you up for this at the + inter-scholastic races." I suppose he means to win the gold medal, + and I told Stacey that I believed he would, and I should be + thankful to be second, or even third, for there are the best + cyclists from all the other schools in the city to contend + against. But Stacey says, "He can't do it, you know," meaning + Ricos; and our trainer says that if he enters me at all he enters + me to win. So I am going to try my level best. + + Wasn't Cynthia Vaughn stunning in that green dress trimmed with + fur! Buttertub said she was the most stylish girl at the drill. + Stacey made him mad by saying that she was hardly that, though, as + a Harvard chap once said of some one else, he had no doubt that + she was a well-meaning girl and a comfort to her mother! + + Ricos invited all the Hornets, and some one of them told him that + you girls are going to have a great lark--a Catacombing Party. He + thought it was to represent the games of the Roman arena with cats + instead of lions and tigers. I told him it must be a mistake, + and that if he supposed Madame's young ladies, and my sister + especially, would do anything so low as to look on at a cat-fight, + he didn't know what he was talking about. But Stacey said that + there was something up, he knew, for when he asked Milly Roseveldt + if the girls were going to have a Venetian Fête for the benefit of + the Home, as they did last year, she said it was a sheet and + pillow-case party this time, and boys were not admitted. He told + her he would surely disguise himself in a sheet and pillow-case + and come; but he only said so to tease her, and when he saw how + distressed she was he told her he was only fooling. Buttertub + said Cynthia mentioned it too, and Stacey's idea was a good one + and he believed he should try it. But Stacey said he would like to + see him do it and that he would have him court-martialled for + ungentlemanly conduct, and reduced to the ranks if he attempted to + play the spy at one of the girl's frolics. + + Stacey wanted me to be sure to tell you to tell Milly Roseveldt + not to worry about what he said, for the cadets are all gentlemen + and wouldn't think of going anywhere where they were not invited. + That's so as far as Stacey is concerned, but I don't know about + Ricos. + + Do tell me what you are going to do, anyway--and for pity's sake + don't have any cats in it. + + Your affectionate brother, + J. H. ARMSTRONG. + +Jim's misunderstanding of the Catacomb Party amused us very much. No one +was alarmed by the boys' threats to attend it but Milly, who insisted +that she had no confidence in Stacey and believed him fully capable of +committing even this atrocious act. + +As soon as the drill was over our interest centred on this party. The +committee from our circle of King's Daughters waited upon Madame, and +obtained her permission for the projected entertainment. She stipulated, +however, that it must be strictly confined to members of the school and +no outsiders admitted. + +"The Literary Society," she said, "will give its public entertainment +in the spring, and we do not wish to have the reputation of spending +our entire time in getting up charity bazaars, and imposing on our +friends to buy tickets. Anything in reason which you care to do among +yourselves, I will consent to. It does young girls good to have an +occasional frolic." + +Emboldened by the unusually happy frame of mind in which Madame seemed +to be basking, Winnie asked if we might act a play and have "gentlemen +characters" in it. Formerly the assumption of masculine attire had been +prohibited, and at one of our Literary Society dramas, a half curtain +had been stretched across the stage, giving a view of only the upper +portion of the persons of the actors. The young ladies taking the part +of the male personages in the play, wore cutaway coats outside their +dresses, and riding hats or Tam O'Shanter caps. + +Madame laughed as she recalled that absurd spectacle. "Since your +audience is strictly limited to your associates, I think I may suspend +that rule for this occasion," she said leniently. "When do you intend to +give the play? I cannot allow you to use the chapel. How would the +studio do?" + +"If you please," said Winnie, "we would like the laundry." + +"The laundry!" Madame exclaimed in surprise. + +"Yes, Madame. Tina Gale explored the lower regions under the school +building one day, and the furnace room, and the long dim galleries +connecting the coal bins, the cellars, and the laundry seemed to her so +mysterious and pokerish that she thought it would be a nice idea to call +it a Catacomb Party, especially as the girls have been so much +interested in Professor Todd's early history of the Christian Church." + +Madame's eyes twinkled as she heard this, for Professor Todd had been +generally voted a prosy old nuisance; but Winnie was earnestness itself. + +"Very well," said Madame kindly. "I do not want the girls to think that +I am a cruel tyrant, or unduly strict or suspicious. ["She was thinking +of the way in which she arraigned Adelaide for corresponding with +Professor Waite," Winnie commented afterward.] If your committee will +submit the programme to me, I have no doubt I shall be able to approve +of everything. Let me see--the laundry will be your circus maximus, or +theatre. Where will you have your refreshments?" + +We had not thought of that. + +"I will give you the key to the preserve closet; it is at the end of the +drying-room, and you may make a raid upon it for your provisions. Only +please be careful not to waste or destroy any more than you can dispose +of. I will have some tables placed in the drying-room, and you may +partake of your collation there." + +This was all we needed. The preparations for the Catacomb Party went +merrily on. + +Trude Middleton dramatized Cardinal Wiseman's novel, "Fabiola." We who +had remained at school during the Christmas Holidays had read it aloud +together, and its thrilling pictures of the persecutions of the martyrs, +the games of the arena, and all the life of imperial Rome, had made a +deep impression upon us. Trude Middleton had a genius for writing, and +Little Breeze distributed the parts, rehearsed the play, took the rôle +of the sorceress _Afra_, and acted as stage manager. The classical +costumes were easily arranged. Professor Waite showed us how to drape +crinkled cheese cloth and to manage the folds of peplum and toga, to +trace a key-pattern border, to fillet our hair, and lace our sandals. +The rehearsals were carried on in the most secret manner. Only the +actors knew exactly what the play was to be. Expectancy was on the _qui +vive_. Winnie had written some mysteriously attractive admission +tickets, and had ornamented each one with a tiny white wire skeleton. +These tickets the ten sold to the other members of the school to the +number of one hundred and twenty, not a single member of the school +declining to patronize us. + +The sale of these tickets had been materially aided by a manifesto, +printed in red ink, supposed to simulate blood, and left dangling +conspicuously from the wrist of old "Bonaparte" (Bonypart), the anatomy +class skeleton. + +This manifesto read as follows: + + The Council of Ten, in secret session assembled, hereby summon + you, each and all, severally and individually, to the Torture + Chambers of the Inquisition (otherwise known as the studio), on + the ringing of the great tocsin (sometimes called the eight + o'clock study bell). At that hour let each be prepared to render + up her earthly goods to the amount of one ticket, vouching for + fifty cents; and having donned a winding sheet, and likewise a + winding pillow-case as headgear, submit to the office of the + Inquisition, which will transform her, with that happy despatch + due to long experience, into a disembodied spirit. At the same + time the Arch Witch Winnie will turn back the clock of Time to the + first century, and each ghost, being first securely blindfolded, + will be led by a spirit guide, experienced in the charge of + personally conducting spirits, into the great amphitheatre of the + Coliseum, where she will mingle with the most renowned personages + of ancient Rome, and will be permitted to live a short and + exciting life under the cheerful persecution of the amiable and + playful Cæsars. + + After the final scene of the gladiatorial combat in the arena + each spirit will be led by her guide through the grewsome and + labyrinthine Catacombs--faint not! fear not! to the + + _Feast of the Ghouls!_ + + Thence, conducted by Orpheus with his lute, and Beatrice, the + guide of Dante, they will cross the Styx and join in the + + _Dance of the Dead_ + + in the shadowy Purgatorio. + + At the stroke of midnight each spirit who has passed through this + ordeal with a steadfast mind will be wafted to upper regions to + the rest of the blessed. + + Signed by the Council of Ten, as represented by Witch Winnie, of + the Amen Corner, and Little Breeze, of the Hornets; and sealed + with the great seal of our office, this ---- day of ---- 18--. + + SEAL. + +These preparations were going on simultaneously with the investigation +of the robbery, and served in a measure to relieve the tension to which +we were all subjected. Still the trouble was there, and we never quite +forgot it. Mr. Mudge called twice, and made inquiries, from which Winnie +inferred that he was hopelessly puzzled. Milly was sure that he had +found a clew, but if so, he did not impart his discoveries. + +The mystic evening arrived. Cynthia, who, for some reason inexplicable +to us, was in a highly self-satisfied and gracious mood, invited Polo to +sleep with her in order that she might be able to attend the party. It +was necessary to prefer this request to our corridor teacher, Miss +Noakes, who gave us a very grudging consent; but we cared very little +for her iciness since we had effected our wishes. + +The girls met in the studio, where all were draped in sheets, a small +mask cut from white cotton cloth tied on, and a pillow case fitted about +the back of the head in the fashion of a long capuchin hood. When thus +robed our dearest friends were unrecognizable. Then, marshalled by +Winnie, the company of spectres paraded through the hall and down the +main staircase. Miss Noakes and the other teachers stood in their doors +and watched the procession, but as it was known that we had Madame's +permission no attempt was made to stop us, and we passed on unabashed. +Arrived at the lower floor each of the guests was securely blindfolded +and conducted by one of our ten down the cellar stairs, and through +winding passages to the laundry, which had been converted for the +evening into an auditorium, sheets having been hung on clothes-lines +across one end, and the space in front filled with camp chairs brought +from the recitation rooms. The set tubs on one side of the improvised +stage were fitted up as boxes, while a semi-circle of clothes-baskets +marked the space assigned to the comb orchestra. As fast as the girls +arrived in the laundry they were seated, and when the last instalment +was in position the lights were turned nearly out, and they were told to +remove the handkerchiefs which bandaged their eyes. At the same time the +comb orchestra, led by Cynthia, struck up a dismal dirge-like overture, +broken in upon at intervals by a tremendous thump with a potato masher +on the great copper boiler. The curtain was drawn slowly aside, the +lights suddenly turned on, and the play began. Adelaide made a very +beautiful _Fabiola_. Winnie acted the part of _Pancratius_ with great +expression. Milly looked the saintly _Agnes_ to perfection. I was +_Sebastian_. We did not indulge in all the dialogue with which the book +is overloaded. Our play was rather a series of tableaux, for which I had +painted the scenery with the assistance of the other art students. +Professor Waite had borrowed various classical properties from his +brother artists for us. The plaster casts of the studio were made to +serve as marble statues, and Madame had sent us several palms in +urn-shaped pots. + +When the play was nearly over, Polo, who had acted as doorkeeper, made +her way behind the scenes and took my attention from the prompter's book +with the horrified whisper, "If you please, there are two girls out +there that are boys." + +"Who? Where? How do you know it?" I asked in a breath. + +"They came in at the end of the procession, without any guides, and sat +down near the door, apart from the others. One is little enough to be a +girl, but the other is taller, even, than Miss Adelaide." + +"It is Snooks," Winnie exclaimed. "Just like her to come spying and +speculating here to see what we are up to." + +"If that's so, Miss Noakes has bigger feet than I ever gave her credit +for," Polo replied; "and she wears boots too." + +"Then those cadets have actually dared!" Winnie exclaimed, and Milly +gave a little shriek. "Oh, that horrid Stacey Fitz Simmons!" + +"Hush!" commanded Winnie. "We will make them wish they had never been +born. Oh, I will manage these gay young gentlemen. Go back to your post, +Polo. Keep the door locked, and be sure that no one leaves except in +the regular order and conducted by her guide." + +A few moments later and the curtains were drawn at the close of the +final act, tremendous applause testifying the approval of the audience. +Winnie now stepped to the front of the curtain and announced that the +ghosts must now each submit once more to be blindfolded and "to be led +through the grewsome and labyrinthine catacombs to the Feast of the +Ghouls." + +Little Breeze and Milly first led away two of the girls, and then Winnie +stepped boldly up to the taller of the two suspected intruders and +offered to blindfold him. The rogue could only follow the example of +those who had preceded him, and submit with a good grace, as any other +course would have led to detection. I followed with the shorter +impostor, tying the handkerchief very tight, and detecting the odor of +cigarettes as I did so. Winnie beckoned to me to follow, and conducted +her victim to the root cellar, a dark, unwholesome little room, with a +small orated window--a veritable dungeon. We led our prisoners into the +centre of this gloomy cell, and, making them kneel on the cemented +floor, bade them remain there until the coming of the ghouls. Hastening +from the place, we chained and padlocked the door securely. + +"Now that we have secured our prisoners, what do you propose to do with +them?" I asked of Winnie. + +"Call the Amen Corner together after supper to deliberate on their fate. +In the mean time they are very well off where they are. I fancy they +will hardly care to repeat this experiment." + +We returned to the laundry and continued the ceremony of leading our +guests to the supper. When all had been led in, the bandages were +removed from their eyes, and they found themselves before tables +provided with plates, knives, and forks, but no edibles. Little Breeze, +beating upon a tin pan with a great beef bone, called the meeting to +order, and, indicating the preserve closet, announced that the ghouls +would now search the neighboring tombs for their prey. At the same time +the door of the preserve closet was thrown open, and Trude Middleton set +the example by capturing a can of peaches. The girls fancied that they +were robbing the pantry, and this gave zest to the performance to a few +of the more reckless ones, but the rest held back, and Winnie found it +necessary to circulate the whisper that even this apparently high-handed +proceeding was authorized by Madame, before the raid became general. A +very heterogeneous repast, consisting of pickles, crackers, dried +apples, canned fruit, prunes, dried beef, and lemonade hastily mixed in +a great earthen bowl, was now participated in by the hilarious ghouls. +One bowl of the lemonade was ruined, after the lemons and sugar were +mingled, by a ludicrous mistake. Milly, mistaking it for water, filled +the bowl from a jar of liquid bluing. The error was discovered when we +began filling some empty jelly tumblers with the strange blue mixture, +and, fortunately, no one was poisoned by drinking the ghoulish liquor. + +Under cover of the confusion I managed to tell Adelaide of the captives +in the cellar, and later in the evening, while the ghosts were engaged +in a Virginia Reel in the long underground passage leading from the +furnace room to the other end of the school building, met in solemn +conclave to deliberate on their fate. Adelaide was for delivering the +keys to Madame with a statement of the case. Cynthia argued strongly in +favor of releasing the young men, sending them home, and saying nothing +about it. While we were in the midst of the argument, a far away cry was +heard. It was from Polo, who had been left to guard the door of the root +cellar. We rushed to the spot, only to find that the rusty staple had +yielded to the efforts of two athletic boys, one of whom was heavy of +weight as well as strong of muscle, and had been forced out of the wall, +and our captives had escaped. Polo had followed them in their flight, +and returned breathless to report that they had made a dash, not for the +outside door, but straight up the great staircase to the studio and had +then descended the turret staircase, showing clearly that they had made +their entrance in the same way. + +We talked the matter over for a long time. How could they have known of +this staircase, and have timed their coming so as to follow the +procession of sheeted ghosts as they left the studio for their march to +the lower regions? The suspicion instantly suggested itself that some +one of the ten had furnished the information, and this suspicion +deepened to certainty as we considered the excellence of their disguise, +the sheets draped exactly as ours had been, the pillow-case Capuchin +hood fitted about the mask cut from cotton cloth. How, too, could they +have entered, since Polo declared that she had locked the turret door +when she came in that afternoon, and had left the key on a nail in the +studio? + +"Show me the nail," Winnie commanded promptly, and Polo led her to the +studio. The nail was there, but the key had gone. We descended the +staircase and found the lower door locked. + +As we were returning to the studio we heard the door open and Professor +Waite mounted the stairs, as was his usual custom at this time. +"Heigho!" he exclaimed, "what are you all doing in the studio at this +time of night? Oh! I forgot; this is the evening of the lark. Has it +been a jovial bird? Why do you all look so solemn? By the way, Polo, I +found your key in the lock on the outside of the door. It was very +careless of you to leave it there; you must not let such a thing happen +again. Some thief might have entered the house. I met two young men +running with all their might as I came across the park. They made +something of a detour to avoid me--I thought at the time that they had a +suspicious look. If you are so thoughtless a second time I shall take +the key from you." + +"I didn't leave it there," Polo protested. "I hung it on the nail, Miss +Cynthia saw me. Didn't you, Miss Cynthia?" + +But Cynthia had gone, and as the quarter-bell struck we were all +reminded that we must descend to our dancers to be present at the +unmasking and close the frolic. We hurried unceremoniously away without +replying to Professor Waite's questions. + +After we had dismissed our guests, we adjourned to the Amen Corner and +we again discussed the affair. It was agreed that it was sufficiently +serious to report to Madame, and to this there was only one dissenting +voice--that of Cynthia's. It was too late to disturb Madame that night, +but we presented ourselves at her morning office hour and told her all +the circumstances of the case. + +She looked very grave, but did not blame us. "I am very sorry," she +said, "that some one of my pupils has abused my leniency in this way. It +will of course make me hesitate to grant you such frolics in the future. +The matter shall be thoroughly investigated and the offender severely +punished. Again I must ask you to keep this affair strictly among +yourselves. You have kept the secret of the robbery wonderfully; be +equally discrete with this. We do not as yet know certainly that these +young men were cadets, and I shall not make any complaint to the head +master until we have ascertained the culprits. Mr. Mudge will call +to-morrow. He writes me that he has found a clue to the robbery, and we +will place this matter also in his hands. You have done right to bring +it directly to me, and your action only confirms the confidence I have +always reposed in the Amen Corner. Be assured that the truth will out at +last. Meantime don't talk this over too much, even among yourselves, for +Tennyson never wrote truer lines than these: + + I never whispered a private affair + Within the hearing of cat or mouse, + No, not to myself in the closet alone, + But I heard it shouted at once from the top of the house. + Everything came to be known." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A FALSE SCENT. + + +[Illustration] + +I think the visit of Mr. Mudge was much dreaded by all of us, even +though we longed to have the mystery cleared up. I know that Winnie, +at least, trembled for the result, and she turned quite pale the next +morning when she received a message from Madame to meet Mr. Mudge in her +office. It was only a few moments before she returned. + +"Mr. Mudge wishes to see us all," she said. "Where are the other girls? +He's coming to this room in five minutes." + +"Milly is in the studio, Adelaide in the music-room. Cynthia, I don't +know where." + +"Please summon Adelaide and Milly, I will wait for you here--I feel +almost faint." + +"What is the matter, Winnie?" I asked anxiously. + +"Mr. Mudge says that he now knows to a certainty who the thief is, and +that he will announce the name to us this morning. I am afraid, Tib, +that he suspects Milly. He put me on oath this morning and made me +confess something which I did not mean he should know." + +"Never mind, Winnie," I replied, as reassuringly as I could, "we both +know that Milly is perfectly innocent, and, as Madame said, the truth +will come out at last." + +Winnie shaded her face with her hands but did not reply. I brought +Adelaide and Milly to the Corner, and chancing to find Cynthia, summoned +her also. Mr. Mudge was in the little study parlor when I returned. He +greeted me cheerfully as he stood by the cabinet polishing his glasses +with a large silk handkerchief. Then he stepped across the room and +examined the door leading into the studio. + +"So," he said. "You have had a little bolt put on this door. It is an +old proverb that people always lock the stable after the horse has been +stolen. But it is just as well, just as well. I agree with you that the +thief came from that quarter, and having been so successful he may come +again." + +"He!" Winnie gasped. + +"Yes; much as it may pain you to learn the fact, I must inform you that +all indications now make it a certainty that the thief can be no other +than your Professor of Art, Carrington Waite." + +Milly gave a little cry and fainted dead away. The others all sprang to +her assistance, but as I was quite a distance from her I did not move, +and I heard Mr. Mudge give a suppressed chuckle, and remark below his +breath: "Ah! my little lady, I thought that would make you show your +hand." + +Milly speedily recovered; and with her first breath exclaimed, "Oh, no, +no! You are mistaken; it cannot be so." + +"Why not?" Mr. Mudge asked. "Was not Professor Waite in the studio at +the time that the robbery was committed? Did I not find the lock of this +door in his tool chest? Is it not a well-known fact that he is a poor +man, and yet a few days after the robbery did he not deposit in the +savings bank just one hundred dollars more than his quarter's salary? +What stronger proof do we require?" + +"I can explain all these circumstances." Milly replied eagerly, and she +told the story of the broken lock, which amused Mr. Mudge greatly. + +"That disposes of one bit of circumstantial evidence," he admitted; "but +the other items?" + +"As to the money," Milly continued, with a slight flush, "papa bought +one of Mr. Waite's small pictures, and sent him a check for a hundred +dollars just at the time you speak of. I think if you inquire more +particularly at the bank you will find that it was papa's check which he +deposited; and I can testify that he was not in the studio at the time +the robbery was committed. I was lying awake and I heard him come up the +stairs. He was earlier than usual. It was some time before twelve. He +hardly remained a moment, merely left his canvases and paint-box, and +went right away." + +"That is all very well under the supposition that the robbery was +committed between the time that Miss Winnie looked into the cabinet and +Miss Cynthia's discovery. But Miss Winnie has just admitted to me that +the money was gone when she opened the cabinet, so the theft must have +occurred before that time." Winnie threw a piteous glance at Milly, +which Milly did not notice. + +"But still, after Professor Waite went away," Milly insisted. + +"Why are you so sure of this?" asked Mr. Mudge. + +"Because, when I went to the cabinet fully five minutes after he had +gone it was all there." + +Mr. Mudge's gray eyes gave a snap which reminded me of the springing +of a trap. "Indeed!" he said. "How many more of you young ladies +investigated the cabinet during that eventful night? Will you kindly +inform me, Miss Roseveldt, for what purpose you opened the cabinet, and +why we are only informed of the fact in this inadvertent way." + +Winnie crossed the room and deliberately placed her arm around Milly. +"Milly, dear," she said, "the truth is always the best way, though it +may seem the hardest way; and, whatever you may have to confess, I for +one shall love you just the same." + +"Perhaps it is just as well," Milly replied cheerfully, "though +Adelaide and I did not intend that Tib should know it. You remember that +it was the eve of Tib's birthday; Adelaide and I each wanted to give her +fifty dollars toward her European fund. So after we were sure that she +must be asleep, I slipped out into the parlor and took the money from +Adelaide's pigeon-hole and from my purse, and laid it on Tib's shelf, +where we intended she should find it in the morning. Professor Waite had +gone when I did this, so he could not have taken it. Adelaide told me to +put hers with mine, for she didn't see the use of both of us going into +the parlor. We were afraid we might wake the other girls." + +"You did waken me, Milly dear," Winnie said. "I heard you, and standing +just behind my door I saw you go to the cabinet as you have said, and +take out Adelaide's money and count out fifty dollars, and then take the +gold pieces from your own little purse. Then I went back to bed and did +not see any more until you went away, when I stepped out and examined +the cabinet, and the money was gone." + +Milly did not then comprehend the terrible suspicion which had been in +Winnie's mind, and she was very much pleased to find her testimony +corroborated. "Adelaide saw me, too," she said. "You were watching me +all the time, weren't you, Adelaide?" + +"Yes," Adelaide replied. "Tell about the note, too, Milly." + +"Oh! that isn't of any consequence. After I had put the money in Tib's +compartment, I thought it would be a good idea to write her a note with +it, and I pulled out the shelf in the cabinet that serves as a writing +desk, but I didn't write anything for I heard a noise in Tib's room. It +must have been Winnie going back to bed. So I shoved the shelf in and +scooted back to my own room. We didn't say anything about it in the +morning because Adelaide and I didn't feel like boasting of the presents +we had given Tib, especially as she never received them." + +There was a great light in Winnie's eyes. It was evident that the +suspicion which had poisoned her life ever since the robbery had +vanished. To Winnie's satisfaction, at least, Milly had cleared herself. + +Mr. Mudge, too, had certainly shared this suspicion. His announcement +that Professor Waite was the culprit had been only a clever trick to +make Milly criminate herself, for he had guessed her attachment to the +Professor, and felt sure that, rather than let the blame rest with him, +she would confess her crime. His next question showed that he was not +yet fully satisfied. + +"Miss Roseveldt," he asked, "will you tell me where you obtained the +money with which you paid Madame Celeste's bill for Miss Cynthia's +costume the day after the robbery?" + +"I would rather not tell that," Milly replied. + +"I must insist upon it." + +"Papa called the day before, and I confessed all about the bill to him, +and he forgave me, and gave me the money." + +"We know that he gave you the gold pieces which you placed in your +purse, but these were stolen, and you were apparently penniless on the +morning after the robbery." + +"Papa drew a check for Celeste for the amount of the bill, and that was +in my pocket. I did not put it in the cabinet at all. Then he said that +it was a very sad, disgraceful affair, but he knew that I would never do +so again, and he was glad I told him, and he forgave me freely, and now +it was all over we would bury it in the Dead Sea and never let mortal +man or woman know a word about it, and that is why I could not tell +Winnie how I had paid the debt. Papa said too--what was not true--that +it was partly his own fault, for keeping me so short in pocket money and +leaving me free to run up large bills. And then he said that he would +change his tactics and give me an allowance in cash every month, and I +am not to have anything charged any more, but manage my expenses as +Adelaide does. And with that he gave me the gold pieces, and I told him +that I wanted to give them to Tib, and he said, 'Very well, do what you +please, but you will have nothing more for a fortnight, when I will give +you your allowance for the coming month.'" + +We each of us drew a long breath. It all seemed so simple now that Milly +explained it that I wondered how we could ever have mistrusted her. +Winnie clasped her more tightly. There was a look of remorse in her +eyes, which told how she reproached herself for having wronged her +darling. + +Mr. Mudge tapped the table with his pencil thoughtfully. + +"I must acknowledge, Miss Roseveldt," he said, "that you have completely +cleared Professor Waite. It is perfectly evident that he could not have +taken the money; but the question still remains, Who did? How long an +interval was there, Miss De Witt, between the time that Miss Roseveldt +returned to her bedroom, and your examination of the cabinet?" + +"I do not know exactly. I waited only until I fancied Milly might be +asleep, then I slipped out softly, closed the doors opening into all the +bedrooms, lighted my candle, and examined the cabinet." + +"And when Miss Roseveldt left the room the money was there, and when you +looked----" + +"It was gone." + +"It seems to me," said Cynthia maliciously, "that Winnie is placed in a +very disagreeable position by these revelations. Her testimony has been +very contradictory and her manner from the first, to say the least, +peculiar. She acknowledges that she was awake during the time that +intervened between Milly's visit to the safe and her own. If a thief +came in it is very strange that she did not hear him." + +"It is strange," Winnie acknowledged. "I can hardly believe it possible, +but these are the facts in the case. I certainly did not take the money, +as Cynthia implies." + +"Tut, tut," Mr. Mudge remarked sharply. "I am convinced that the thief +is not a member of the Amen Corner. I have in turn taken up the +supposition that the robbery might have been committed by each of you +young ladies, beginning with Miss Cynthia and ending just now with Miss +Milly, and I have proved to my own satisfaction that you are all +innocent. Miss Winnie may have fallen asleep, and during her brief nap +some one may have slipped in from the studio. Professor Waite had gone, +but he may have left the turret door unlocked." + +"I heard no one mount the stairs," said Milly. + +"True, but a sneak thief might steal up so softly as to disturb no one. +A man bent on such an errand does not usually whistle opera tunes, and +then again the rogue may have been in the studio during Professor +Waite's hasty call. You told me, Miss Armstrong, that the Professor was +the only one who had a key to the turret door." + +"I did," Adelaide replied, "but I was mistaken; Polo has a duplicate +key." + +"And who is this lawn tennis girl?" + +"Polo, Mr. Mudge, not tennis. Her name is Polo, a contraction for +Pauline," said Adelaide. + +"Very extraordinary name. Lawn tennis is a much more suitable game for +a young lady. Who is she, anyway?" + +"She is a model, and a very good girl. Polo is above suspicion," Winnie +remarked authoritatively. + +"Hum--of course," replied Mr. Mudge. "Let me see, this Base-ball must be +the young lady of whom Miss Noakes spoke to Madame as having conducted +herself in a rather peculiar manner night before last, the evening of +the subterranean entertainment." + +We all looked up in surprise, and Mr. Mudge continued: + +"Madame has confided to me the fact that you young ladies were +unpleasantly intruded upon by certain unknown persons, who may, or may +not, have been connected with one of our well known schools. Madame felt +that they could not have effected their entrance and disguise without +the connivance of some member of this household. This individual need +not necessarily have been one of the young ladies; it may have been a +servant. I have known it to be a fact that the chamber-maids at Vassar +have carried on flirtations with young gentlemen who supposed themselves +to be in correspondence with Vassar girls. Now it is quite possible that +your chambermaid may have heard of this frolic and have mentioned it to +her admirers." + +"Oh, no," we all exclaimed; while Adelaide continued: "We never +mentioned it in her presence; besides, she is as stupid and honest as +she is old and homely. I would as soon suspect Miss Noakes." + +"But this Lawn Tennis, I beg pardon, Base-ball, of whom we were just +speaking, is neither stupid, nor old, nor ugly, and we know very little +in regard to her honesty----" + +"That is so," Cynthia assented, and we all turned and scowled upon her. + +"You tell me that she possesses a key to the turret door, and now Miss +Noakes's testimony fits in like the pieces in a Chinese puzzle. On the +afternoon of your entertainment Miss Noakes says that a request was +preferred from you to allow Lawn Tennis--no, Croquet--to share Miss +Vaughn's bedroom for the night. Miss Noakes says she felt a strange +hesitancy about granting this request----" + +"Not at all strange," Winnie interrupted. "It is a hesitancy which is +quite habitual in her case." + +Mr. Mudge waved his hand in a deprecatory manner and continued. "Miss +Noakes further testifies that in the early evening, as she was sitting +at her open window, the night being especially balmy for the season, +she was startled by a long whistle, which was not that of the postman. +As there was no light in her own room she could look out without being +observed. The gas was lighted in Miss Vaughn's room, and though from +its oblique position she could not see what passed within she could +recognize any one leaning from it." [See plan of Amen Corner.] + +Cynthia straightened herself up, and as it seemed to me turned a trifle +pale, while Mr. Mudge went on. + +"Miss Noakes says that the first whistle did not appear to be noticed, +and stepping on to her balcony she saw two young men, or boys, standing +at the foot of the tower, looking up at Miss Vaughn's windows. She +instantly retreated into her own room and awaited further developments. +A second whistle, and some one in Miss Vaughn's room turned down the +gas, and coming to the window gave an answering whistle. Miss Noakes +says she could hardly credit her senses, for she has looked upon Miss +Vaughn as a model of propriety; an instant later she observed that the +girl now leaning out of the window and talking with the boys wore a dark +blue Tam O'Shanter cap, and she comprehended that it was not Miss +Vaughn, but Lawn Tennis, or Cricket, or whatever her name is, who had +been given permission to pass the night in Miss Vaughn's room. She could +not hear the entire conversation, her desire to remain undiscovered +keeping her well within her own room, but she distinctly heard one of +the young men say, 'Throw it out--I'll catch it.' The girl replied, +'Here it is,' and said something about the sheets and things being on +the upper landing. She added quite distinctly, 'Don't come into the +studio until I give the signal.' + +"Miss Noakes says she was too horrified to act promptly, as she should +have done; but that a few moments later she visited the Amen Corner and +found it deserted by all the young ladies with the exception of Miss +Vaughn, who was studying quietly in the parlor. She asked where the +others were, and was told that they were in the studio, where the +procession was to form. On asking Miss Vaughn why she had not joined +them, she replied that she intended to do so in a short time, but had +been improving every moment for study. Miss Noakes asked for Lawn Tennis +and was told that she had been appointed door-keeper for the evening. +On intimating that she had seen her in Miss Vaughn's room, Miss Vaughn +had replied that this was very possible as she had just left the room." + +During this relation of Mr. Mudge's, Cynthia had turned different +colors, from livid purple to greenish pallor. And had several times been +on the point of replying, but the lawyer-detective had continued his +narrative in a sing-song, monotonous way, as though reading it from a +written deposition, and had left her no opportunity for interrupting. He +now turned to her and remarked: + +"I repeat all this here, Miss Vaughn, in order to hear your side of the +story." + +"I have nothing to say," Cynthia replied sullenly. + +"Then Miss Noakes's statement is substantially correct?" + +"I don't understand what you are driving at." Cynthia flashed out +passionately. "If you mean to insinuate that I threw the key out to some +of the cadets, and helped disguise them, and gave them the signal when +to join in the procession--why then all I have to say is that it is a +very pretty story, but you will find it very hard to prove it." + +"Not so hasty, not so hasty," replied Mr. Mudge. "My dear young lady, +if you will reflect a moment, you will perceive that nothing of this +kind has been charged against you. The question does not concern you at +all, but this athletic young lady--Lawn Tennis." + +Mr. Mudge had become so firmly convinced in his own mind that Polo's +name was Lawn Tennis that we saw the futility of correcting him and gave +up the attempt. + +"Mr. Mudge," Winnie exclaimed, "we protest! Cynthia, I call upon you to +own up. It wasn't such a very bad frolic. You meant no particular harm. +We will all sign a petition to Madame asking her to let you off. Don't +let Polo be unjustly suspected. You know you did it; own up to it like a +man." + +But Cynthia was in no mood to own up to anything like a man, or like a +decent girl. She simply turned her nose several degrees higher and +remained silent. + +"Your cowardly silence will not shield you," Adelaide exclaimed +scornfully. "I have some letters from my brother which make me very +positive that this is one of your scrapes, and I will show them to Mr. +Mudge unless you confess instantly." + +"I have nothing to confess," Cynthia replied in a low voice, but the +words seemed to stick in her throat. + +Mr. Mudge next asked us, in a thoughtful manner, whether "Lawn Tennis" +was connected with the institution at the time of the robbery. I replied +that she was, but that I could not see any relation between that crime +and the present escapade. + +"Perhaps not," Mr. Mudge replied; "and then again we never can tell what +apparently trifling circumstance may lead up to the great discovery. As +I have previously remarked, it is more than probable that the thief +having been once successful will try the same game again. Then, too, if +your thief happens to be a kleptomaniac, she could not refrain from +pilfering. Have you lost anything since that eventful night?" + +"Nothing whatever." + +"And you have used the cabinet since as a depository for your funds?" + +"Certainly," I replied. "We consider that we have used sufficient +precaution in having the bolt put upon the door. The result seems to +justify our confidence. To be sure, until night before last we have had +no important sums to deposit." + +"How about night before last?" Mr. Mudge asked. + +"I had charge of the ticket money for the Home that we gained by the +Catacomb Party," I replied, "and I placed it in my division of the +cabinet. There is just sixty dollars of it, and it is there now." + +"And was there during the night that Lawn Tennis slept in this +apartment? And she knew it?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then that is very good evidence that she was not the thief on the +previous occasion." + +So confident was I in our security and in Polo's honesty that I +unlocked the cabinet to give Mr. Mudge convincing proof. What was our +astonishment to find my compartment again empty. The floor of the +cabinet was as clean as though swept by a brush. The sixty dollars +which we held in trust for the Home were gone! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE INTER-SCHOLASTIC GAMES. + + +[Illustration] + +Mr. Mudge informed us that he did not intend to arrest Polo immediately, +but merely to have her "shadowed," which meant that all her habits and +those of her friends and relatives were to be ascertained and every +movement watched. + +"You will not hurt her feelings by letting her know that you suspect +her?" Milly begged, and Mr. Mudge assured her that such a thing was +furthest from his intention, and in his turn he urged us not to allow +Polo to imagine that we suspected her. + +"We can't let her see that," Winnie replied, "since we do not suspect +her in the least." + +Mr. Mudge coughed. "I hope your confidence will be proved to be not +misplaced," he replied; "but Miss Noakes does not share it, and I deem +Miss Noakes to be a very discriminating woman." + +He bowed stiffly, and for that day the conference was ended. Cynthia +retired to her room, and shut the door with a bang. Milly threw herself +into Winnie's arms, and Winnie caressed her and cried over her in +mingled happiness and remorse--joy that Milly had been proved innocent, +and repentance that she had ever doubted her. + +"Oh! my darling, my darling," she sobbed; "can you ever forgive me for +believing you capable of so dreadful a thing? I could not blame you if +you refused to ever speak to me again." + +"Don't feel so badly," Milly pleaded. "Appearances were awfully against +me, and if papa had not come and helped me out just in the nick of time, +I don't know what I might have been tempted to do. I have been so bad, +Winnie, that I am very humble. I shall never say I never could have +done such a thing, for I cannot know what the temptation might have +been. I am almost glad that you believed me so wicked, because it shows +me that you would have stood by me even then. I am going to try to be a +better girl for this experience, and worthier of your love." + +Adelaide and I retired discretely, and talked over the new aspects of +the second robbery. The trust funds must be made up between us. To help +do this I subscribed the twenty dollars which Winnie had given me on my +birthday, and which fortunately had been placed in my portfolio before +we had regained our confidence in the cabinet, and had never been +transferred to my compartment. As the other girls had not suffered this +time, they made up the amount, though it necessitated considerable +self-denial. It took some time for Milly to become accustomed to +properly dividing her spending money, so that she need not come short +before the date for receiving her allowance, but the practice was good +for her and in the end she became an excellent manager. + +One peculiar circumstance in regard to this robbery was remarked by +Winnie--the fact that on both occasions money had only been taken from +my shelf. It was true that Adelaide and Milly had each lost fifty +dollars the first night, but not until it had been taken by Milly from +their hoards and placed with mine. + +"It would seem," said Adelaide, "as if the thief had a special grudge +against Tib; a determination that she shall not save up enough to go to +Europe next year." + +"It can't be that," Winnie replied, "for although the last sum stolen +was taken from Tib's compartment, it was not her money. The whole thing +is very peculiar, and seems to be the work of some unreasoning agent, +for this time, as the last, Adelaide had some bills lying loosely in her +pigeon hole in full sight, which were not touched at all. I have heard +of things having been stolen by jackdaws and mice--and monkeys--and I +believe there has been some monkey business here." + +"I heard a story when I was in Boston," said Adelaide. "It was told me +by a member of a prominent firm of jewellers. It is the custom at the +close of the day for one of the clerks to lock up all the jewelry in the +safe for the night. He had done so, and was just about to leave the +store when a box containing a valuable pair of diamond sleeve buttons +was handed him. It was late, and as it would take some time to go over +the combination which locked and unlocked the safe, he tucked the little +box far under the safe and thrust some old newspapers in front of it. In +the morning when he searched for it, what was his consternation to find +that the sleeve buttons were gone. The box was there, but some one had +opened it and abstracted the sleeve buttons. He reported the loss at +once to one of the members of the firm, who reproved him for his +carelessness in not unlocking the safe and placing the box where it +would have been secure. Then the gentlemen put their heads together to +track the thief; and some one suggested that he had seen mice in the +store, and this might be their work. The safe was moved, and a small +hole was discovered in the base-board of the room. A carpenter was sent +for and the wall opened, and there, cozily established in a nest formed +of twine and nibbled paper, and other odds and ends, a family of little +pink mice was discovered, and in their nest were the missing sleeve +buttons. The mother mouse had evidently been attracted by the glitter of +the gems, for she had taken great pains to convey them to her home. She +had stored here many other curious articles: pieces of shiny tin foil, +which she may have used as mirrors; bits of broken glass, and scraps of +narrow, bright ribbon, intended for tying the boxes, all showing that +she had an eye for decorative art. I am very sorry that it was +considered best to kill her, for I believe that mouse could have been +educated. Now, the reason that I have told this long story is that I +half suspect that this is a case of mouse, and not, as Winnie says, of +monkey business." + +Winnie immediately examined the cabinet. The panelling was intact, not +even worm-eaten; it fitted apparently as closely as the covering of a +drum; not a crevice large enough for even a cricket to penetrate. + +"It is very mysterious, all the same," Winnie remarked; "but I here and +now vow, in the presence of these witnesses, to make this mystery mine, +and to unravel it before the close of school, so surely as my name is +Witch Winnie." + +From that time we spoke of the affair of the cabinet as Witch Winnie's +mystery, and we all had faith that some way or other Winnie would find +the clue if Mr. Mudge did not. + +One day in May she said: "I feel as if there was something uncanny about +the cabinet itself. I wonder who was its first owner. Perhaps Lucrezia +Borgia kept her poisons in it, and it is haunted by dreadful secrets of +the middle ages. It may be that Lorenzo de Medici confided to its +keeping a will, giving back to Florence the city's liberties, and that +this will was stolen by the Magnificent's heir while the poor man lay +dying. We can imagine that the ghost of the guilty man having, as Mr. +Mudge says, been once successful, has contracted a habit of stealing +from the cabinet, and comes in the wee small hours with stealthy tread +to take whatever occupies the spot where once Lorenzo's testament +reposed." + +"What a romantic idea!" Milly murmured. "You could make a lovely +composition out of it, Winnie." + +"Good idea!" Winnie exclaimed. "I will. I have got to have something for +the closing exercises of school, and Madame advised me to write on +Raphael. She said that Professor Waite's lectures on the Italian artists +ought to inspire me. Some way they never have, but this old cabinet +does. I shall pretend that I have found a package of letters in a secret +compartment; and in this package I shall tell all the early history of +Raphael--which is not known to the world--his love story with Maria +Bibbiena, and all the criticism and envy which he must have undergone +before he arrived at success. It will be great fun and I shall go to +work at once. No, I shall not go to see the inter-scholastic games +to-morrow. I shall have a solid quiet afternoon to myself while you +girls are skylarking, and I shall have to work like a house on fire on +every Saturday I can get to make my essay the success which I mean it +shall be." + +From this decision we could not move her, though it greatly disappointed +Milly, who desired that Mr. Van Silver should meet Winnie. Mrs. +Roseveldt had returned from the South, and had consented to chaperone +the girls, Mr. Van Silver taking us out on his handsome coach. + +It was a perfect day and the drive to the Berkeley Oval, where the games +took place, was a delightful one. + +Mr. Van Silver's Brewster coach was a glorious affair. It was painted +canary yellow. The four horses were perfectly matched roans. The grooms +were in liveries of bottle-green coats with white breeches and top boots +faced with yellow. Mr. Van Silver wore a light-coloured overcoat, and +the lap robe was of white broadcloth. All the brass about the harness +had been burnished till it shone like gold. Mrs. Roseveldt and Milly sat +beside him on the box. Mrs. Roseveldt wore a Paris costume of white +cloth with Louis XVI jacket with velvet sleeves and vest heavily +embroidered in gold. A little bonnet formed of gold beads fitted her +aristocratic head like a coronet. Milly was bewitchingly pretty in a +fawn coloured shoulder cape, and a pancake hat piled with yellow +buttercups. She seemed, as Adelaide said, cut out of a piece with her +surroundings. Adelaide and I occupied the back seat, with Little Breeze +beside us in the place which had been intended for Winnie. Little Breeze +wore a simple spring suit and I had only one best gown--a gray cashmere; +but Adelaide made up for our simplicity. Her dress was not very +expensive, but Milly's exclamation that it was "too exasperatingly, +excruciatingly becoming" will give an idea of its effect. It was a white +foulard, sprigged in black and caught here and there with black velvet +bows; there was a vest of fluffy white chiffon, and her hat was trimmed +with white marabout pompons powdered with black. The costume was her own +design, executed by Miss Billings. She carried a cheap white silk +parasol, made to look elaborate by a cover constructed from an old black +lace flounce. + +"Papa has forbidden me ever to enter Celeste's rooms again," Milly said +to Adelaide; "and I am sure if Miss Billings can make me look as +_recherché_ as you do, she is good enough for me." + +"I seem fated never to meet Miss Winnie," Mr. Van Silver said as he +started. + +"She is to visit us during the summer," said Mrs. Roseveldt, "and you +must come out to the Pier and see her." + +"You are very good, but I am going to take my coach over to the other +side this summer. My mother is visiting at the castle of the Earl of +Cairngorm and wants me to take a lot of people for a coaching trip +through the Scottish Highlands." + +"How many of our friends are going to Europe in the summer," Adelaide +remarked. "Professor Waite told me he intended to return to France for +a term of years, and Tib here is going over to study----" + +"I'm afraid not," I replied doubtfully. + +"Oh, yes you are," Milly insisted; "that will all come out right." + +"What a lovely day for the games," Mrs. Roseveldt remarked. "What is +your favorite school, Milly? Columbia, Berkeley, Cutler, Morse? Oh! yes, +I remember--the cadets. But where is your badge? I see that Miss +Armstrong and Miss Smith wear theirs quite conspicuously, and Mr. Van +Silver, too, has decorated his whip and the coach horn with the cadet +colours." + +"Adelaide has a brother among the cadets, which accounts for her +preference," Milly replied evasively; "but I don't see why I should +prefer them to any other school." + +"Why, have you forgotten," Mrs. Roseveldt asked, much surprised, "your +old friend Stacey Fitz Simmons is a cadet?" + +Milly tossed her head disdainfully. She could not tell the story of the +intrusion of the two boys whom we believed to be cadets, for we had +promised Madame not to bruit it abroad; but her reason for not wearing +the cadet colours was her indignation on account of this act. She +believed, or affected to believe, that one of these boys was Stacey, and +she had determined to punish him for the outrage. "Girls," she had said, +before leaving, "after the insult which our school has received from the +cadets, I do not see how any of you can wear their colours." + +"We do not know certainly that those interlopers were cadets," Adelaide +replied; "and, even if they were, my brother is still a member of the +school. He rides in the bicycle race and he expects to see me wear his +colours." + +I sympathized with Adelaide and made myself a badge to encourage little +Jim. + +"Stacey is a friend of mine," Mr. Van Silver asserted. "I expect to see +him carry off several events to-day, and I have come out prepared to +wave and cheer and bawl myself hoarse in his honour." + +What a charming drive it was through the park, where many of the trees +and shrubs were in blossom. We passed many a merry party bound in the +same direction, and several great stages laden with boys, who carried +flags, tooted horns, and shook immense rattles. Arrived at Morris +Heights the sight was even still more inspiring, for every train emptied +several carloads of passengers, who hastened to the grounds to be in +time for the opening. As we drove in we could see that the grand stand +and the long rows of seats on either side were well filled. There were +at least four thousand spectators gathered to witness this athletic +contest between the champions of the principal schools of the city. Some +of the contestants were grouped on the verandas of the Pavilion waiting +for their turn to take part. Others were already on the field, +practising the long jumps, or pacing about with "sweaters," or knit +woollen blouses, over their scanty running costumes. + +On the grand stand and the "bleaching boards" the adherents of the +different schools had collected in groups, which displayed the school +colours as prominently as possible. These groups were now engaged in +making as hideous an instrumental and vocal din as possible. Each +orchestra, if it might be called so, was led by a sort of master of +discord, who called at intervals upon his constituency for cheers for +the different school favorites, as, "Now, boys, a loud one for Harrison. +One, two, three, 'rah! 'rah! 'rah! C-u-t-l-e-r, Cutler!--Harrison!" +While the Columbia grammar boys would reply, "C-o-l-u-m-b-i-a--Burke!" +and the Berkeleys would yell forth the name of Allen, who has so long +covered the school with glory. + +Buttertub was conspicuous as leader of the chorus for the cadets. He +wore an immense cockade, made of sash ribbon, pinned to the front of his +coat, while his hat and a great cane with a knobby handle, too large +for insertion even in his wide mouth, also flaunted the school colours. +Our coach had hardly taken its position before Stacey and Jim spied it +and came toward us. Stacey was in running costume--"undress uniform," he +called it--but he had knotted a rose-coloured Russian bath gown about +him to keep him from taking cold. + +"Doesn't he look exactly like a girl?" Milly remarked as he approached, +and then she gave him a curt little bow and turned with great +_empressement_ to Professor Waite, who had come out on horseback, and +who now rode up, hoping for a word with Adelaide. But Jim had clambered +up on the wheel on the other side of the coach, and Adelaide was glad of +this excuse to turn her back squarely on Professor Waite, who felt the +avoidance and would have turned instantly away had not Milly insisted on +introducing him to her mother. Meantime Stacey stood quite neglected. I +longed to speak to him, but as I had never been introduced, did not dare +to do so. Just as a hot flush was sweeping up toward his forehead, Mr. +Van Silver, whose attention had been taken up with his horses, noticed +him. "Hello, Stacey," he cried, "make that little chap get down off +that wheel, will you? These horses are pretty nervous, even with the +grooms at their heads. They are not used to all this racket. See how +they are pawing up the driveway." + +Stacey laughed. "Jim is a splendid wheel-man," he said. "You needn't be +afraid for him. But aren't you going to get down? You can see ever so +much better from the grand stand. Did the girls get the tickets that Jim +and I sent?" + +Adelaide acknowledged the receipt of the tickets, and spoke so +pleasantly that Stacey seemed a little comforted. One of the grooms set +up the steps and we all climbed down, Stacey assisting. When it was +Milly's turn he spoke to her very earnestly in a low tone, but Milly did +not reply. Mr. Van Silver called to us to keep together, and led the way +to seats near the centre of the stand; and Stacey retired to the field, +much displeased and puzzled by Milly's conduct. + +Professor Waite looked after us longingly. He did not dare to leave his +horse, and he was disappointed that we had left the coach, near which he +had intended to hover. + +"How very provokingly things do arrange themselves," I thought to +myself. "Cupid must certainly be playing a game of cross purposes with +us. Here is Stacey longing for a kind word from Milly, and Milly +breaking her little heart for Professor Waite, and Professor Waite +desperate because of Adelaide's indifference, Adelaide trying politely +to entertain Mr. Van Silver, who, in his turn, is provoked because +Winnie has not come; and I, who would be very grateful if any of these +gentlemen would be agreeable to me--left quite out in the cold, without +the shadow of an admirer." + +I soon forgot this circumstance, however, in my interest in the games. + +"There is the cup," said Mr. Van Silver, "on that table with the gold +and silver medals, Berkeley holds it now. See, it is draped with blue +and gold ribbons, the Berkeley colours. The school which wins the +greatest number of points will take it after the games are over. This is +the first heat of the hundred yard dash. Now we shall see some fun. It's +a foregone conclusion that Allen of Berkeley will win. He does not enter +for long distances, but as a sprinter he has no equal in the other +schools." Very easily and handsomely Allen won this race and several +others. + +Then we admired the light and graceful way in which an agile youth took +the hurdles, and the professional style of two walkers, and after this +my glance wandered for a time over the spectators. + +Cynthia Vaughn and Rosario Ricos had come out in the cars, chaperoned by +Miss Noakes. They did not desire her company, and it was a great bore to +her to come, but Madame would not let the girls come unattended. I was +much surprised presently to see a gentleman make his way to her side. I +nudged Adelaide, exclaiming under my breath, "Only see, Miss Noakes +actually has an admirer!" + +Adelaide lifted her opera-glass. "Tib," she ejaculated, "it is Mr. +Mudge. You know he said she was a most discriminating woman. See, she is +so much entertained that she does not notice that Ricos and Buttertub +have made their way to Cynthia and are talking with her." + +"Mr. Mudge notices them, though," I replied; "see how sharply he eyes +them." + +Mr. Mudge came to us presently, and chatted pleasantly in regard to the +games. + +"I did not know that you were so much interested in athletics," I +remarked. + +"A lawyer and a detective must be interested in everything which +interests his clients," he replied. + +"Did you come out alone?" I asked, more for the purpose of making +conversation than from any desire to know. + +"No; I had very charming company," he replied. + +"Miss Noakes?" Adelaide asked mischievously. + +Mr. Mudge looked at her with stern reproof in his gray eyes. + +"Lawn Tennis," he remarked snappishly. "I came out with that young lady, +though she is quite unconscious of my escort." + +"What! is Polo here?" I asked. + +"One of the most interested spectators. Her eyes are nearly popping out +of her head with every strain of the muscles of that tug-of-war team." + +The team to which Mr. Mudge referred was now pulling, and was made up of +members of the Cadet School. They were finely developed young men, and +in their leather apron-like protections, with their muscular arms and +glowing faces, looked like blacksmiths' apprentices. They lay on the +cleats, pulling at the great rope, and the cords swelled in their necks, +as from time to time they ground their teeth, and threw their heads +back with a jerk, which told how intense was the strain. The trainer of +the team, a wiry, eager young man, in a jockey cap, stood with his hands +on his knees, watching the white mark on the rope, which the team were +very slowly working toward their side. + +"That is a professional trainer," said Mr. Van Silver. "He has coached +the cadets, and is intensely interested in their success." + +At intervals, the captain and anchor of the cadets uttered exclamations +of encouragement to his team, or vituperated at the other. "We're in it, +boys, we're in it," he shrieked, as he gave another twist to the rope. +"Steady, hold your own, and you'll pull 'em right off the cleats. Heave, +now--heave! Oh! those fellows don't know how to pull," he cried again; +"they're weakening! See how purple they're getting in the face. Hold on +another two seconds, and you'll pull them into the middle of next week." + +"What a noisy fellow!" Adelaide remarked. "Why doesn't Colonel Grey shut +him up?" + +"Not he," replied Mr. Van Silver. "See how his ribald and irreverent +remarks put new courage into the team. I should not wonder if they won +back that three inches which the other side pulled away from them during +the first minute. Time's up. Which side won?" for the announcement of +the judges was drowned in a roar of the cadet claque, led by Buttertub, +who had struggled back to his place in time to head the 'Rah! 'Rah! 'Rah! + +Stacey had been looking on close to the rope, and he now shouted across +to Mr. Van Silver, "The cadets have it by half an inch!" and waving +the skirts of his bath-robe with great _abandon_, he threw himself +into the arms of the little man in the jockey cap, and hugged him +enthusiastically. + +"Now, notice your friend," Mr. Mudge said to me, in a low voice; and, +looking in the direction in which he pointed, I saw Polo standing on one +of the front seats of the bleaching boards, waving her Tam O'Shanter, +and shouting as wildly as the cadets. + +"I did not know that Polo knew any of the boys who go to that school," +I said, much puzzled. + +"I don't believe she does," Mr. Mudge replied, "but Terwilliger, the +trainer there, is her brother, and he hasn't the best record that was +ever known. He was a jockey in England, but outgrew that profession, and +has been a little of everything since. He came over to this country on +the Earl of Cairngorm's yacht. He was associated shortly after with a +noted pickpocket called Limber Tim, and some months since was sent with +him to the Island to serve a term of imprisonment for participation in a +confidence swindle. All of which, you see, has a rather damaging look +for your friend Lawn Tennis. What I would like to know is, how he ever +came to get the position of trainer at the Cadet School." + +"The boys seem to be very fond of him," I ventured. + +"Naturally; it was his training which has just won the school this +event. Did you notice that young swell, Fitz Simmons, give him a +greenback as soon as the victory was assured. I have not been able to +discover yet whether Terwilliger has renewed his friendship with Limber +Tim. If he has, it is more than likely that they are the two unknown +boys who introduced themselves into your school on the night of your +party." + +"Has Adelaide shown you her brother's letters?" I asked. "We think that +the young man who leads the applause and Rosario Ricos's brother are the +scamps." + +"That supposition might be entertained provided it had been only a +boyish caper; but the two robberies can hardly be attributed to these +young gentlemen." + +I groaned. So our poor Polo was beginning to be "shadowed." She had told +us with such delight, a few days before this, that she had found her +brother. He had been away from New York for two years, but had left no +stone unturned on his return in his search for them. He had a kind +friend who had secured him a fine position, and she was so happy. The +good news had nearly cured her mother. + +I was drawn from my reverie by Adelaide's announcement that the time had +come for the one mile safety bicycle race for boys under fifteen, in +which Jim was to take part. This was the great event of the day for us. +There were two entries from the Cadet School--Jim and Ricos. + +"Ricos is certainly over fifteen," I said to Adelaide. + +"He is no taller than Jim," Adelaide replied doubtfully. + +"He is a little fellow," I admitted, "but those Cubans are all stunted, +weazened little monkeys." + +Adelaide smiled faintly, but watched the preparations for the race with +straining eyes. So did all the cadets. There were many entries from the +other schools, but they were confident in the prowess of their own +champions. The only question was which would be successful. + +"Come boys," shouted Buttertub, "let's give them a rousing send-off. +Whoop her up for Ricos! One, two, three,--'Rah! 'Rah! 'Rah! _Ricos!_" + +A red-haired boy, whom I at once recognized as the Woodpecker, shouted +from the field, "Cheer Armstrong, too!" but Buttertub either did not +hear him, or wilfully disregarded his request. + +Stacey's rose-coloured bath-gown was conspicuous, fluttering here and +there; he got a bottle of alcohol from the trainer and was presently +seen kneeling on the track, vigorously rubbing down Jim's legs. He +mounted him carefully, and scrutinized every part of his little safety +bicycle, with the most zealous care. The starter gave Jim the inside of +the track, which was an advantage loudly contested by Ricos. + +"No use kicking," Stacey remarked. "You've had one medal for cycling, +and Jim is the youngest chap entered. I should like to know now just +when you passed your fourteenth birthday." + +Ricos was silent and sullenly took his place. Jim turned and waved his +hand to his sister. Stacey was holding his bicycle, ready to push it off +at the signal. How jaunty and gay he looked in his dark blue jersey, +with the silver C on his breast, and with the wind blowing his blonde +hair from his eager face. + +"He's a jolly little chap," Mr. Van Silver remarked admiringly; and +Milly murmured, "I think he's perfectly sweet." + +Adelaide said nothing, but the tears came to her eyes. I think that just +for that moment she was perfectly happy. Her mood was contagious. The +glamour of spring was in the hazy atmosphere. The plum trees were +blossoming white out beyond the track, and the blue of bursting buds and +the tender green of the earliest leafage spread itself in a shimmering +haze over all the sweet spring landscape. It was a good world, after +all. + +At the report of the starter's pistol, all of the boys were off in line, +but they had hardly made half a lap when two, Jim and Ricos, shot from +the rank and sped on in advance of the others. + +"'Rah! 'Rah! for the cadets!" shouted Buttertub. + +"'Rah! for Armstrong!" yelled the Woodpecker. + +"He's second!" shouted Buttertub. + +"He's first!" shrieked the Woodpecker, "and gaining every instant. 'Rah! +'Rah! 'Rah!" + +"He can't keep it! Ricos won't let himself be beaten as easily as that," +replied Buttertub. "See him bend to it. There, he's up with him! They're +even! He's trying to get the inside! 'Rah! 'Rah!" + +"Look out! there'll be a smash-up!" cried the trainer. "Keep to the +right, you lummox." + +"Hi!" cried Mr. Van Silver, springing to his feet, "that's a bad +tumble." + +"Ricos fouled him on purpose," cried the Woodpecker. + +A groan ran round the stand. "They are both down--no, only one." + +"Which one?" cried Adelaide. + +"I don't know," I replied, but I held her down firmly on my shoulder, +for I saw a rose-coloured bath-robe skimming across the field like a +pink comet, and I knew that Stacey would not have manifested such +concern if an accident had happened to Ricos. + +"Armstrong's up!" yelled the trainer in the jockey cap. "He's mounting +again!" + +"He is!" ejaculated Mr. Van Silver. "By George! Jim's the pluckiest +little fellow I ever saw in my life!" + +For an instant the spectators went crazy with cheers, then they quieted +down and watched. + +Ricos swept by, he had gained the first lap easily; but only a faint +cheer greeted him. It was thought by many that the collision was +intended, and all eyes were fixed on the little figure in the blue +jersey, now the very last in the race, but who, having been assisted to +his seat by the rose-coloured bath-robe, was now wheeling manfully along +in the rear. Adelaide opened her eyes and waved her handkerchief as he +passed the stand. + +"Go it, Jim; go it! You've got the sand," yelled the Woodpecker; while +Stacey, the bath-robe cast aside, came forging up, running at Jim's +side; in his friendly anxiety to see that all was right, unconsciously +breaking his own previous record as a sprinter. If he had been timed +just then even his most enthusiastic friends would have been astonished. +But, convinced that Jim was gaining, he contented himself with cutting +across the Oval to note his place at the end of the second lap. Ricos +had held his own, and passed the stand well ahead of all the other +competitors; but Jim was making up and had distanced two of the +laggards, his legs propelling like the driving-bars of an engine. + +"He's gaining!" cried Mr. Van Silver. "I should not wonder if he caught +up with the other fellow; for, see, he has two more rounds to make." + +When he passed the stand for the third time and the starter rang the +bell which announced that this was the last lap, Jim had passed all the +others and was following Ricos at a distance of only a few rods. He +looked up toward us with a pitiful smile on his wan face. "Cheer, boys, +cheer!" cried the Woodpecker, "you don't applaud half enough. Whoop 'em +up, Tub! Hurry up, Jim! Hurry up! Go it for all you're worth!" + +"Take it easy--easy!" roared Stacey, who saw that the boy was +straining every nerve. "Take your time, Jim. You've got him, now. +Take--your--time!" + +The spectators were nearly all silent. The boys belonging to other +schools, seeing that there was no hope for their own champions, had +ceased to applaud and were now deeply interested in the two cadets. +Rosario Ricos had fainted, and Miss Noakes was calling shrilly for +water, but even Mr. Mudge was so much absorbed in the contest that he +paid no attention to her appeal. People near me held their breath in +suspense. It reminded me of Gérome's picture of the chariot race, and +the fall had been not unlike the one described in "Ben Hur." + +"Why is it," whispered Adelaide, "that Jim has tied a crimson ribbon +just below his knee? Red is not a cadet colour; see it flutter against +his leg." + +I saw the crimson streak to which she referred; but a swift intimation +flashed upon me that this was no ribbon, but a little rill of blood +flowing from a gash cut by Ricos's wheel. I contrasted Jim's face, +deadly pale, with that of Ricos's, flushed to a dark purple, and +wondered whether his strength would hold out to the end. I need have had +no fear, Jim was clear grit through and through. As he neared the goal +he set his teeth and bent nearly flat, throwing no glance this time in +our direction, but with graze fixed straight before him, he worked the +pedals with wonderful velocity and swooped forward, like a little hawk, +far beyond Ricos, and past the finish, on, on, as though the momentum +of that final spurt would never be exhausted. The thunder of applause +which burst forth at this exploit was something which I had never heard +equalled. The spectators all stood upon the benches, the ladies waving +their handkerchiefs, hats, and scarfs, crying and laughing hysterically. +The men yelled and shouted themselves hoarse. Every kazoo, tin horn, +rattle, and other instrument of torture sounded forth its discordant +triumph. The boys stamped and hooted. The cadets, to a man, acted like +raving maniacs. Even Buttertub, who had no love for Jim, led his gang +with "Bully for Armstrong!" "Hi--yi--whoop, three times three and a +tiger!" "Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! What's the matter with Armstrong? He's +all right!" + + "'Rah, 'Rah, 'Rah--ta-tara-da + Boomerum a boom-er-um. + Boom, boom, bang!" + +But Jim was not all right. He heard the great roar of applause, but it +sounded far, far away to his numbing senses. Then all the light went out +of the sweet spring landscape, and he toppled over, bicycle and all, +into Stacey's friendly arms. No one was surprised to see him stretched +upon the grass wrapped in the rose-coloured bath-gown, for it was a +common thing for victors to faint just as they secured their laurels. +"He'll be up in a minute; Stacey is rubbing his feet," Mr. Van Silver +asserted reassuringly. "Good-hearted fellow, that Stacey. He's devoted +to your brother." But Adelaide watched him anxiously, until a crowd of +boys closed around him and hid him from her view. How terribly long he +lay there--could anything serious be the matter? Suddenly Polo's brother +came running toward us. "Is there any doctor on the grand stand!" he +shouted; "if so, he's wanted _immejiently_." + +Adelaide sprang to her feet and clambered down the ranks of seats. I +followed. I have no clear idea of how we reached the ground, but we +hurried on together, the boys making way for us as we came. They had an +instinctive feeling that this handsome, imperious girl, with the white +face, had a right to pass. A panting boy, lying with his face to the +ground, looked up and asked, "What's up?" + +"They can't bring Armstrong to," replied the trainer. "Looks like he is +going to die." + +"Glad of it," retorted the other, turning his face to the sod again. +It was Ricos, deserted by every one, unnoticed in his defeat. But +through his humiliation and resentment there presently shot a pang of +conscience. "What if Jim should die? Would I not be a murderer?" and +with pallid face he staggered to his feet and tottered after us. The +crowd around Jim opened for us. There he lay with his head on Stacey's +lap. A portly surgeon, with a river of watch-chain flowing around his +vest, knelt at Jim's side examining the wound below his knee. Colonel +Grey, the principal of the school, a retired army officer, and a tall +soldierly man, bent his white head over the doctor and inquired into +Jim's condition. + +"The wound is not a serious one, only a minor artery cut, which I have +just tied. The only question is whether the little fellow has lost too +much blood." + +"Oh, my darling brother!" Adelaide cried. + +"For Heaven's sake, control yourself, my dear Miss Armstrong!" exclaimed +Colonel Grey. He realized the importance of not exciting Jim, and he +loved the boy tenderly. He offered his arm to Adelaide now, while four +of the cadets lifted Jim and bore him very gently to the piazza of the +pavilion. "To think," said the Colonel, "that I was just congratulating +myself on the number of points he was winning for the school. Why, I +would rather the school had not gained a single point than have had this +happen." + +"Darn the games," muttered Stacey, switching his bath-robe about +savagely. + +When we reached the piazza and Jim had been stretched on a bench, his +eyes opened feebly. He recognized Adelaide fanning him and smiled. + +"They are calling the mile run," said the trainer. "You entered for +that, Mr. Fitz Simmons. They say you are sure of winning the race, and +if you do you'll gain the cup for the school." + +"Confound the race!" ejaculated Stacey. "Do you suppose I am going to +leave Jim in this condition?" + +"I cannot ask it, my boy," said the Colonel. But Jim's forehead furrowed +slightly, and he said very feebly: "Go, Stacey; don't--let the +school--lose the cup." + +"Go!" cried Adelaide. "He wishes it." And Stacey strode out to the +track. + +Milly told me afterward that she was greatly surprised, and not a little +indignant, to see him take his place with the runners, who were +mustering just in front of us. + +"How's Armstrong?" Mr. Van Silver called to him. + +Stacey came nearer. "Badly hurt, I'm afraid," he replied. + +"Then I think it is very heartless in you to run," Milly exclaimed. It +was the only thing she had said to him that day. He flushed violently. +"Jim begged me to do so," he said, "or else you may be sure that I would +not be here." + +The race was called, and Stacey threw himself into the "set," his chin +protruding with bull-dog determination, but Milly's thoughtless remark +had taken all of the spirit out of him. "He was the very last to get +off," said the trainer. "He's running in awful bad form, too. Fifth from +the front. What's he thinking of to let Harrison pass him?" + +Around they came, and Stacey looked appealingly to Milly, but with nose +turned in the air, she was waving the Morse colours, snatched from a +girl sitting near her, and applauding the Morse champion, Emerson. + +The sight stung him. He would show her that he was a better runner than +the boy she had selected as her favorite, and he put forth every energy, +and gained rapidly. + +"I told 'em," said the trainer oracularly, "that Fitz Simmons would wake +up, and sprint further on. _He_ wasn't running this first lap. He ain't +a-running now, he's just taking it easy, to show us some tall running +toward the finish, when he'll have it all to himself." + +The cadets evidently thought so too, and Stacey's own drum corps, who +had brought out their drums on the top of a stage in expectation of this +event, beat an encouraging charge as he came around for the second time. +Stacey smiled as he recognized the familiar: + + Boom a tid-e-ra-da + Boom a diddle dee, + Boom a tid-e-ra-da + Boom! + +He turned for an instant, waved his hand to the boys, and then buckled +down to his very best effort. + + "It's one in a million + If any civilian + His figure and form can surpass," + +hummed Mr. Van Silver. + +"How's that for the cup?" shouted Buttertub, who forgot personal +animosities in the school triumph. He flapped his arms like a rooster +about to crow, and yelled across to the drum corps, "Who's Fitz +Simmons?" + +It was a well-known school cry and the boys on the stage responded +lustily: + + "First in peace, first in war; + He'll be there again, he's been there before; + _First in the hearts of his own drum corps_; + That's Fitz Simmons!" + +Stacey was leading--only a little way now to the finish. He said to +himself, "Now's the time to sprint." How strange that his muscles would +_not_ obey the command telegraphed to them by his brain. Strain every +nerve as he did, he could not increase the pace. Emerson, the Morse +flyer, shot by him with his magnificent stride, as fresh and unwearied +in this final burst of speed as Milton's conception of a young +archangel. Stacey staggered on, but the drum corps was suddenly silent, +and there was no shout as he passed the cadet contingent. They and he +knew that the contest was now hopeless. He did not look up at Milly. He +knew, without looking, that she was applauding his rival, who had won +the race and was now being borne off the field on the shoulders of his +rejoicing comrades, amidst their delirious cheers. Stacey finished the +course, then stalked moodily a little distance and sat down upon the +grass, with his forehead resting on his knees. His disappointment was +very bitter. The Woodpecker, who had not run in this race, came up to +Stacey with his bath-gown, which he threw thoughtfully about the +exhausted runner. + +"Played out, are you, Stacey?" he asked kindly. "Well, I don't wonder; +you tired yourself out keeping up with Armstrong in the bicycle race. +You made staving good time then, but you'd ought to have saved yourself +and put in the licks now, old chap. Never mind, we all know what your +record has been." + +"I don't care beans for my own record," groaned Stacey, "but I've lost +the school the cup, and I can never look the fellows in the face +again." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +POLO IS SHADOWED. + + +[Illustration] + +Polo ran up and with her was her brother, and Mrs. Roseveldt left her +seat on the stand, as soon as the mile run was decided, and joined us as +we stood around Jim. She was a woman of kindly impulses in spite of her +fondness for fashionable life. + +"You must let me have the boy conveyed to my house," she said to Colonel +Grey. "His father and mother are abroad, and you have no conveniences at +the 'Barracks' for sickness." + +"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Roseveldt," Adelaide murmured, "and will you let me +come too and nurse him?" + +"You had better not sacrifice your studies," Mrs. Roseveldt replied +kindly. "We will have a trained nurse and you shall come and sit with +him for a time every afternoon. The hospitalities of my house are just +now taxed by company. I shall have to give Jim Milly's old room and put +a cot in my dressing-room for the nurse." + +"But my studies are of no consequence whatever in comparison with Jim," +Adelaide pleaded; "and the cot in the dressing-room will do finely for +me. Please let me be the nurse, Mrs. Roseveldt." + +Mrs. Roseveldt, seeing how much in earnest Adelaide was, turned to the +physician and asked, "Doctor, do you think that an untrained girl like +Miss Adelaide, with all the good intentions in the world, is capable of +nursing your patient?" + +"Perfectly," the physician replied. "I am assured now that the boy will +recover. The artery cut was an unimportant one, but the gash just missed +the tibialis; he has had a very fortunate escape. All he needs now is +rest, and careful attendance, to recuperate. I have no doubt that his +sister's society would enliven and benefit him far more than that of a +stranger." + +"How shall I get him to my home?" Mrs. Roseveldt asked. "He is hardly +able to ride on the coach." + +"Some one must go to the station and telegraph for an ambulance," said +the physician. + +"I will undertake that service. I have a good horse here," volunteered +Professor Waite, who had hurried to the pavilion as soon as he saw that +Adelaide was in trouble. No one had noticed him up to this time, but +Adelaide now accepted his offer very gratefully. + +"Anything that I can do for you, Miss Armstrong----" Professor Waite +replied; but Adelaide was not listening to him, and he left his remark +unfinished. + +"If we can do nothing further here," said Mrs. Roseveldt, "I will ask +Mr. Van Silver to take us home at once. I would like to order some +preparations for the reception of my little guest." + +"If you please, Mrs. Roseveldt," said Adelaide. "I would rather wait for +the ambulance and ride down with Jim." + +"I will take charge of Miss Armstrong and her brother until the arrival +of the ambulance," said Colonel Grey. And so Adelaide was left. + +Mrs. Roseveldt collected her party and Mr. Van Silver gathered up the +reins; but before we started Milly noticed that Miss Noakes was fanning +Rosario Ricos, who had only partially recovered from her fainting fit, +and that the poor woman looked dejected and puzzled. "Oh, Mr. Van +Silver," said Milly, "won't you invite Rosario to take Adelaide's place? +She doesn't look able to go back in the cars." + +"Anything you please, Miss Milly," Mr. Van Silver replied; and Milly was +down from her seat in a moment, Miss Noakes accepting the offer most +joyfully. + +Stacey came up just as we were leaving. He made no attempt to speak to +Milly, but asked Mrs. Roseveldt if he might call on Jim occasionally. + +"My house is always open to you, Stacey," Mrs. Roseveldt replied kindly, +and Stacey thanked her and assisted Rosario to climb up beside her. + +"Aren't you going to compete for the high jump?" asked Mr. Van Silver. +Stacey shook his head. + +"That accident took all the starch out of you, didn't it?" Mr. Van +Silver continued. "Well, I don't wonder; a nervous shock like that makes +a fellow as weak as a rag. Never mind, Stacey, we'll hear from you next +year at Harvard. I shouldn't wonder if you got on the 'Varsity crew." + +On our way home, Mrs. Roseveldt condoled with Rosario. "I am sorry for +your brother's disappointment," she said; "though we were all interested +in Adelaide's brother. It is the great pity in these contests that every +one cannot win." + +"It was not him to lose the race what troubled me," said Rosario. "It +was that he to hurt little Jim Armstrong, and some so bad boys near by +to me did say he to do it upon purpose. They called him one 'chump' and +'mucker.' I know not what these words to mean, but I think that they are +not of compliment." + +We assured her that we did not believe it possible that her brother had +intentionally hurt Jim, and she was somewhat comforted. + +"Fabrique is one little wild," she said, "and his temper is not of the +angels, but he could not be so bad." + +"Who was that old gentleman who came and spoke to you during the games?" +Mr. Van Silver asked of me. + +"He is Madame's lawyer," I replied. "We see him sometimes at the +school." + +"Didn't I hear him mention the Earl of Cairngorm?" + +"Did he? Oh, yes! I remember, he said that the Earl of Cairngorm brought +Polo's brother to this country on his yacht." + +"He must mean Terwilliger, the ex-jockey and cabin-boy, now trainer at +the Cadet School." + +"Exactly. Do you know him?" + +"Rather. I got him his present position. If it had not been for me I +don't think Colonel Grey would have engaged him." + +"I'm so glad," I cried, "if you can vouch for his character. You +see----" and then I hesitated, bound by Madame's orders not to mention +our trouble. + +"What interests you particularly in Terwilliger?" asked Mr. Van Silver. + +"He is Polo's brother, for one thing." + +"And Polo is the young lady that Miss Milly was lunching so sumptuously +on turtle-soup and ice-cream the afternoon I saw you at Sherry's? I +wanted to inquire whether that large family of starving children were +still subsisting on macaroons." + +"Mr. Van Silver, you are just as mean as you can be," Milly pouted. + +"Oh, no! you have yet to learn my capabilities in that direction. I am +glad to know that your _protégé_ is a sister of my favorite, for I like +Terwilliger, and I think he has had a harder time than he deserves. +There is one portion of his history that I could have testified to if I +had been in the city and possibly have saved his being sent unjustly to +prison, so I feel that I owe it to him to do him any kindness that I +can." + +"What was it, Mr. Van Silver?" I asked eagerly. + +"Oh! it's my secret; and as it is too late to help Terwilliger now, I +shan't confess." + +"Perhaps it is not too late to help him," I exclaimed. "Mr. Van Silver, +I can't tell you now, but Mr. Mudge will explain everything, and when I +send him to you will you please tell him all you can in Terwilliger's +favor. Indeed, he never needed your friendship more." + +"I'm there," Mr. Van Silver replied; "and in return what will you do for +me?" + +"Winnie is writing a composition on the life of Raphael. I will copy it +and send it to you," said Milly. + +Mr. Van Silver made a wry face; he had not a very favorable opinion of +school-girl compositions. "I would rather see the young lady herself," +he replied; "but I don't believe there is any Witch Winnie. She is a +Will-o'-the-Wisp, Margery Daw sort of girl." + +"She is thoroughly real, I do assure you." + +"What does she look like? How does she dress?" + +"Well, out of doors she likes to wear a boy's jockey cap of white cloth +and a jaunty little jacket, and I regret to say that she is not +unfrequently seen with her hands in its pockets, and her elbows making +aggressive angles." + +"And, I presume, she also wears stiffly-laundried shirt waists, with +men's ties, and divided skirts, and her hair is short and parted on the +side, and she rides a bicycle. I know the type--the young lady who +affects the masculine in her attire." + +"She has just the loveliest long hair in the world, and her skirts are +not divided, and she doesn't ride a bicycle, nor wear shirt waists, at +least not horrid, starched, manny ones. She likes the soft, washable +silk kind; and she is a great deal more lady-like than you are, and +lovely, and just splendid; so there!" + +Mr. Van Silver chuckled; he liked to tease Milly. + +Adelaide remained at Mrs. Roseveldt's for two weeks. Jim did not gain as +fast as the physician had expected. The nervous shock and the great +strain of the race after the accident had been more than the boy's +slight physique could well endure. + +Adelaide read to him, and played endless games of halma and backgammon, +and discussed plans for the summer, or told him of the people in her +tenement, in whom Jim was even more interested, if that were possible, +than Adelaide herself. Polo called and brought a bouquet, for which she +had paid seven cents on Fourteenth Street. Jim was glad to meet Polo +when he knew that she was Terwilliger's sister, for the trainer had been +especially proud of Jim, and had given him many points on bicycling. + +One day when Polo was present, Jim suddenly asked Adelaide, "Say, +sister, did the boys really go to your cat-combing party?" + +"I don't know," Adelaide replied. "There were two suspicious characters +there, but we never found out who they were." + +"They was boys," Polo insisted; "and one of 'em was fat, and trod on my +toe, and one of 'em was little, and smelled of cigarettes." + +"If I was only back at school," Jim replied, a little fretfully, "I'd +find out for you, fast enough, whether it was Buttertub and Ricos. But +what can a fellow do penned up here?" + +"Never mind, Jim," Adelaide replied soothingly. "The truth will all come +out at last." + +Polo's great eyes snapped. "Albert Edward could find out," she said. +"The boys tell him lots of things." + +Adelaide did not tell Polo that her brother's testimony would count for +little, as he was himself suspected, and the girl went away determined +to assist in unravelling the mystery. + +Stacey called frequently and Adelaide could but admire his patience with +the whims of the sick boy. Jim asked him to try to find out whether +Buttertub and Ricos were the intruders on our Catacomb party, and this +was one of the very few requests which Jim made that Stacey refused. + +"I don't want to have anything to do with those fellows," he said, "and +you know I never could act the spy." + +"I have been thinking," Stacey said, after Adelaide had told him Polo's +history and the needs of the Home, "that we boys might get up some sort +of an athletic entertainment in behalf of the Home of the Elder Brother. +The cadets all like Terwilliger, and if they knew that his little +brother and sister were supported by the Home, they would all chip in +willingly." + +"Terwilliger has such a good salary," Adelaide replied, "that Polo tells +me they intend, as soon as their mother is able to leave the hospital, +to take the children from the Home, rent an apartment in my tenement, +and set up housekeeping for themselves. But, if the Terwilligers do not +need it, you may be sure there will always be poor children enough who +do. And something might happen, Terwilliger might lose his place at your +gymnasium, and not be able to support his brother and sister, after +all." + +Adelaide was thinking uneasily as she spoke of the cloud which shadowed +Polo and her brother. What if it should be proved that the ex-convict +had committed the two robberies in the Amen Corner with the assistance +of his sister. + +"Oh, Terwilliger won't lose his situation," Stacey remarked confidently. +"Colonel Grey likes him, and so do all the fellows. He's up on every +kind of athletics; knows all the English ways of doing things, for he +has been a jockey at the Ascot races and a coach to the Cambridge crew. +He's so good-natured too; doesn't mind helping fellows outside of hours. +He goes out rowing with me every Wednesday night in a two-oared gig on +the Harlem." + +"Were you rowing with him on the 10th?" Adelaide inquired eagerly, for +this was the night of the Catacomb party. + +"Yes," Stacey laughed, "and we were late, and I got a special blowing up +for it, too. You see, they lock the door at ten, and I had to ring the +janitor up, and he was raving, for he had already been disturbed to let +Ricos and Buttertub in, and he was in no mood to pass it over. He +reported us all to Colonel Grey, who gave us order marks for it." + +"Ah!" thought Adelaide, "this is encouraging. Buttertub and Ricos were +out late on the night of our party, and Stacey can prove an alibi for +Terwilliger. I shall report all this to Mr. Mudge." + +Jim returned persistently to the idea of the entertainment for the Home +of the Elder Brother. "I wish you would see to it, Stacey. What are the +boys doing now?" + +"Tennis, and base-ball. You ought to see Woodpecker; he is going to be +our tennis champion; he can make the neatest underhand cut. He's simply +great." + +"Any better than the club down at the Pier?" Jim asked. + +"What! the Sand-flies? They can't hold a candle to us." + +"It would be nice to have the Cadets play the Sand-flies," Jim +suggested. "Colonel Grey would give the tennis club a field-day if you +asked him, and the excursion to the Pier by boat would be lovely. Mrs. +Roseveldt says she's going to open her cottage earlier than usual this +year, and she will get the Sand-flies interested. Say, is it a go?" + +Stacey lashed his boots lightly with his riding-whip; for he was on his +way to the Park for a ride. + +"We couldn't make a success of the affair without Miss Milly's help," he +said, "and after the way she treated me at the games I'll never ask +another favor of her--never." + +Jim was much distressed. + +"That tournament scheme was such a good one," he said. "The Sand-flies +are already interested in the Home of the Elder Brother, and we could +make a big affair of it and rake in lots of money for the Home. I mean +to talk with Mrs. Roseveldt about it, any way." + +"All right," Stacey replied as he rose to take his leave; "so long as +you don't talk with Miss Milly. She would think it a put-up job between +us." + +"Now it was real vexatious in Stacey to say that," Jim remarked, after +his friend had left. "I meant to have it out with Miss Milly the next +time I saw her. Won't you wrestle with her, Adelaide?" + +"I'm afraid it's of no use," Adelaide replied, but Jim would not give +up the idea so easily. He talked it over with Mrs. Roseveldt, who +approved of the tennis tournament. It would be just the thing with +which to open the season. The Cadet team would be a great attraction. +She would intercede with Colonel Grey to allow them to remain several +days. "It must take place early in June," she said, "just after +Milly's commencement exercises, and while Adelaide and you are +visiting us, before your father and mother return and take you away. I +will drop a line to Milly that I want her to come home for my last +reception this season, and I'll invite Stacey to talk it over." + +Jim was afraid that Milly might not be inclined to receive Stacey's +proposal with favor, and he accordingly wrote her a long and labored +epistle, urging her, for the sake of the Home of the Elder Brother, to +bury the war hatchet. Jim's intentions were better than his spelling, +which was even worse than Milly's, and his letter amused her very much. +One phrase struck her as especially diverting: "Stacey says you treated +him worse than a Niger." + +Jim had spelled the word with an economy of g's, and a capital letter, +which suggested visions of Darkest Africa. Milly laughed till she cried. + +"Perhaps I have been impolite to him," she thought. Milly had a horror +of being discourteous, and she wrote Jim that if Stacey would not be +"soft," she would be nice to him for the sake of the Home of the Elder +Brother. Jim considered this quite a triumph, and showed the letter to +Stacey on the occasion of his next visit. + +Stacey did not look as pleased as Jim had expected. + +"Catch me being soft with her," he muttered. "I'll show Miss Milly +how much I care for her airs. By the way, Jim, we are to have two +invitations each to give away for the prize essays and declamations +at the close of school. I intend to invite Miss Winnie De Witt and +Miss Vaughn. I thought I would mention it, as it might influence your +invitations." + +Jim opened his eyes aghast at what he heard. "You don't mean to say that +you are not going to send Miss Milly one of your tickets?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"And you are going to invite that hateful, horrid Vaughn girl?" + +"I heard Buttertub boast that he was going to invite her, and I thought +it would be rather a pleasant thing for him to receive his ticket back +again with the information that as she had already accepted mine she had +no need for it." + +Jim could hardly believe his ears. "Well, of all things," he said. "You +shan't do it, Stacey; you shan't do it! I'll invite Miss Milly, with +sister, if you don't want to, but it's a downright insult to fill her +place with such a pimply faced, common, loud----" + +"I do not see that it is the young lady's fault if she has a _humorous +disposition_, and as for her being loud----" + +"You said yourself that you could hear her hat at the Battery if she was +walking in Central Park. Sister says she toadies fearfully, and she +flirted like a silly at the games, and at the drill. I think you must be +hard up to ask her." + +Stacey coloured, but was too proud to back down, and he left Jim in +tears. Poor little fellow, as he expressed it, it seemed as if all the +sticks which he tried to stand up straight were determined to fall down. +He could see that something was wrong with his hero, for Stacey's +disappointment at the games had cut deeply, and the boy was on the verge +of falling into a dangerous state of "don't care." When Jim asked him +what subject he intended to choose for his essay, Stacey said that he +had about decided not to compete. The subject must be connected with +Greek history or life, and he despised the whole business, and the +honour wasn't worth the trouble. + +Adelaide took Stacey in hand and suggested a subject, in which he +manifested some interest, but all this worried Jim and kept him from +recovery. + +Adelaide watched him anxiously. She had at first thought it best not to +notify her parents of Jim's accident, fearing to spoil their tour; but +as she felt certain that he was not improving she sent a cablegram, and +received an answering one stating that they would sail for America at +once. Adelaide watched eagerly for their coming. Jim pined for his +mother, and one day, to give her little invalid something pleasant to +look forward to, Adelaide told him that their parents were on the way +home. The news did him more good than all the physician's tonics. He +brightened every day and talked of his mother incessantly. Once it +seemed to occur to him that his delight was a poor return for Adelaide's +care, and he asked her anxiously, "You don't mind, do you, sister, that +I am so glad mother is coming? You are the very best sister in all the +world, but then you are not quite mother. You never can know just what +she was to me when we were so very poor." + +"Of course, I am not jealous, dear Jim," Adelaide replied. "I can well +understand that you and mother are bound together even more closely than +most mothers and sons, by that long fight together with poverty. I only +wish that I had been with you to help you bear it. But then I do not +know what father would have done. He suffered so much while you were +lost to us, that if I had not been there to live for I think he would +have died or have gone insane." + +"I don't wonder that father loves you so much and is so proud of you, +sister. I am very glad you were not with us when we were so very +wretched. You ought not to know what it is to be poor, Adelaide. You +ought to be a queen." + +"I am a queen now, Jim, and I think I do know what it is to be poor. +When you told me all your bitter experiences, I felt them as keenly, it +seemed to me, as if I had passed through them myself. I believe that God +sent us this intimate knowledge of how the poor suffer in order that we +might sympathize with and help them." Then Adelaide told him of the +tenement and described each of the families. Some of them Jim had known +in that other life which has been related in a former volume, and he +inquired eagerly for the inventor, Stephen Trimble, and for the Rumples, +and others. Adelaide told him, too, of the two turtle-doves, and of the +sad death of Miss Cohens, and how the Terwilligers were soon to be +established in one of the best suites. This last information pleased Jim +very much. + +"I like Terwilliger," he said. "He is so funny; he drops all his h's, +and calls everything 'bloomin'.' Buttertub is a 'bloomin' fool,' and +Stacey is a 'bloomin' swell,' and when I got hurt he said it was a +'bloomin' shame,' and Ricos was a 'bloomin' cad,' and the fellows ought +to have made a 'bloomin' row' about it." + +That evening it happened that Mrs. Roseveldt was to give a _musicale_, +and as Jim was feeling very bright, Adelaide had consented to take part. +She was a creditable performer upon the violin, and had decided upon a +romance by Rubenstein. She came to the school early in the afternoon for +her music, and, to give her more of a visit with us, Mrs. Roseveldt had +suggested that she should remain until after dinner, promising to send +the carriage for her. Stacey was expected to call that afternoon and +would keep Jim from being lonely. + +We were all delighted to have Adelaide with us once more, for we had +missed her greatly. + +I was painting in the studio, and Professor Waite had just told me that +it was all for the best that I could not probably go to Europe in +vacation. + +"You are not ready for it," he said. "You will profit far more by +European instruction after a year of thorough training in the Art +Students' League. I would advise you to attend it next winter. Our +disappointments are often blessings in disguise. Providence keeps the +things for which we are not prepared, saved on an upper shelf for us +until we deserve them." + +As he said this, a joyful hub-bub rang out in the Amen Corner, led by a +wild, Comanche shriek from Polo, who happened to be in the corridor: +"Miss Adelaide's come! Glory! Oh, glory!" + +Professor Waite flushed and paled, took two steps impulsively toward the +door, and then sat down before my easel, and began insanely to spoil a +sky with idiotic dabs of green paint. I wondered whether Providence was +saving up Adelaide until he deserved her. If so, the shelf was for the +present a very high one. + +To my surprise, Adelaide tapped at the studio door a moment later. She +greeted Professor Waite cordially. "I am so glad to find you," she said, +"for I want to impose upon you for a little help." + +Professor Waite beamed. + +"Stacey Fitz Simmons has asked me for a subject for an essay and I have +suggested 'The Athletic Contests of Ancient Greece,' as giving a +subject in which he is greatly interested--athletic sports--a classical +turn, suitable for the dignified occasion. At first he thought he could +make nothing original of it, but would have to crib everything from +books of reference; but it occurred to me that he might treat it from a +rather new standpoint by taking his information from remains of ancient +sculpture. I told him he had better study the casts at the Metropolitan +Museum, as that would be the next best thing to attending the games at +Corinth. Can you give him any additional sources of information?" + +Professor Waite threw himself into the idea with enthusiasm and poured +forth at once a dissertation which would have taken the highest honours +at the competition. Then he made a memorandum of several works on art, +which Stacey would do well to consult, and rummaged about in his +portfolios for photographs of ancient statues of athletes and heroes, +the procession from the frieze of the Parthenon, and the like. + +When we finally got Adelaide into the Amen Corner, we scarcely gave her +an opportunity to dress for the _musicale_, we had so many little +nothings to talk over with her. + +In the midst of it all Mr. Mudge called, and we opened fire upon him at +once with the testimony which we had collected in favor of Polo and her +brother. He was not greatly impressed with Stacey's avowal that he had +been out rowing with Terwilliger on the night of the Catacomb party. + +"I had already ascertained that he was out late that night," he said. +"Miss Milly told me that young Fitz Simmons on the night of the drill +threatened to attend your party. What assurance have we that he did not +attend it with Terwilliger as his companion? A lark on the young +gentleman's part, and a clever opportunity to steal on the part of the +trainer. My assistant has discovered that Terwilliger has had no +dealings with his old associate Nimble Tim since his release from +prison. Having to discard the idea that Tim was his companion, I have +been looking about to find another possible one. I thank you for your +assistance." + +Milly was very angry. With true womanly inconsistency she scouted the +idea that Stacey could have had any part in the proceedings, although +she was the very one who had at first suggested it. + +"And here," she said, "is something which ought to be perfectly +convincing to any sane man. Polo told me last night that her brother +heard Ricos and Buttertub boasting that they had fooled us all so +nicely, and had seen our play. They made fun of Winnie, and said she had +a little squeaky voice for so manly a part, and that it was 'nuts' to +see us try to manage our togas. Oh! I'd just like to choke them." + +Mr. Mudge smiled. "It is very natural," he said, "that Terwilliger +should attempt to throw suspicion on some one else." + +"But you know that Buttertub and Ricos were out late that night," I +suggested. + +"Ricos obtained permission from Colonel Grey to hear Professor Ware's +lecture on Architecture, at Columbia College." + +"And did they say they attended it?" Adelaide asked. + +"Ricos so reported at the Barracks." + +"Well, I happen to know that Professor Ware delivers those lectures on +Tuesday evenings," Adelaide replied triumphantly; "and this was +Wednesday night." + +"Are you sure of this?" + +"I am sure because I attend the lectures, and neither of those boys were +there." + +Mr. Mudge rubbed his brow with his pencil. "Terwilliger's previous bad +record counts against him," he said persistently. + +"Mr. Mudge," I entreated, "will you do me the favor to call on a friend +of ours, Mr. Van Silver, who knows all about that previous record of +Terwilliger's." + +"How is that?" Mr. Mudge asked, and I related my conversation with Mr. +Van Silver on our return from the games. + +"I will interview this gentleman," said Mr. Mudge, "for though +appearances are strongly against Terwilliger, I do not wish to act on +appearances alone. And meantime, if you could find some other witness +than young Fitz Simmons who could prove that he and the trainer were +really boating on the Harlem the night of your party, and some other +witness than Terwilliger to the admission of Ricos and his friend of the +dairy nickname, the cause of Lawn Tennis and her brother would be +materially strengthened." + +"I agree to produce such witnesses," said Winnie rashly. "I have called +it my mystery and I intend to fathom it, if it takes all summer." + +Mr. Mudge bowed and withdrew. His boots creaked down the hall a little +way and then we heard a knock and the opening of a door. + +"Girls, he's calling on Miss Noakes," Winnie cried, in high glee. "Now, +what's to hinder my running out on the balcony and showing her that two +can play at the game of peek-a-boo." + +"Nothing but the honour of the Amen Corner," Adelaide remarked. The +words threw a wet blanket on Winnie's proposal, but there was a +flickering smile about Adelaide's lips which showed that she was bent +upon mischief, a rare thing for Adelaide. + +"I will wait until Mr. Mudge is gone," she said,--"I would not interrupt +two young lovers for the world,--and then I think I'll call on Miss +Noakes. I want her to help me translate the visit of Æneas to Queen +Dido." + +"That's just like Winnie," Milly exclaimed; "but you would never do such +a thing." + +"Won't I? You don't half know me, Milly, dear," and Adelaide actually +fulfilled her threat. + +[Illustration] + +"She expected him," Adelaide exclaimed, when she returned. "I found her +all gotten up regardless--that low-necked black net of hers! She did +look too absurd for anything, but happy is no name for it. There was a +blush on her withered old cheeks, and I actually believe a real tear in +her eye. When I told her what I wanted her to translate, she glared +at me haughtily, but I looked as demure as I could, and she went through +it without flinching. 'Men are deceivers ever, aren't they, Miss +Noakes?' I said. 'Just think of Pious Æneas behaving so cruelly to his +dear Dido.' 'How should I know, child?' she replied rather curtly." + +While we were laughing, Cerberus knocked to inform us that Mrs. +Roseveldt's carriage waited and had sent him to inquire for Miss +Armstrong. + +Adelaide found that Stacey had waited for her return. He woke to +animation over the photographs. "This decides me," he said. "I shall try +for the prize. I didn't imagine there was anything in Greek civilization +that I cared a rap for; but that quoit player is fine. Just look at his +muscles. I always thought that Discobolus was the fellow's name. It +never dawned upon me that it meant a quoit player. And this Mercury +hardly needs wings on his heels, his legs are built for a runner. And +isn't that Fighting Gladiator superb? And that Hercules and Vulcan? +Well, now, here is something curious. I do believe that Baker got his +'set' from that statue; the left arm is extended in the very same way, +and the boys all thought it was original with him." + +So he ran on, his eyes kindling once more with enthusiasm. "Well, I must +go now and 'bone' on my geometry--beastly bore; but Buttertub has been +having very good marks lately, and I am not going to let him rank me." + +He had hardly gone before it was time for Adelaide's Romance, and after +that Mr. Van Silver came up to express his compliments. + +"I was sorry Stacey could not stay to hear you play," he said, "but he +seems to have a virtuous fit on, and said he must hurry to the barracks +and spend the evening in study. Perhaps, however, it was only an excuse +for mischief." + +"Do you think so?" Adelaide asked. "It has seemed to me of late that +Stacey has had little heart for anything, even for mischief." + +"That's a fact. I haven't seen him on the river since the games, and he +used to be very fond of rowing." + +Adelaide gave a little gesture of despair. "There," she said, "I forgot +to ask him whether any one knew of his going out boating, the night of +our party, with Terwilliger, and Winnie was so particular about it. How +provoked she will be with me." + +"Why is it that you young ladies have developed an overweening interest +in Terwilliger?" asked Mr. Van Silver. They were sitting on the +staircase apart from the others, and Adelaide replied: + +"It is because he is suspected of a robbery which has occurred at our +school. We have been cautioned not to mention it, but I think I may say +as much to you, for Mr. Mudge, the detective who has been engaged to +investigate the affair, told me this afternoon that he intended to +interview you in regard to Terwilliger's part in the crime for which he +was sent to prison." + +A cloud passed over Mr. Van Silver's face. "I hoped that thing was dead +and buried," he said. "It only proves that nothing is really ever +settled unless it is settled right. If it will do Terwilliger any good, +I will testify openly, as I ought to have done in the first place." + +Adelaide looked at Mr. Van Silver wonderingly. He understood and said +quickly, "I cannot bear to lose your respect, Miss Armstrong; perhaps I +had better tell you just how it all happened." + +"Not to gratify any curiosity on my part," Adelaide replied; "you might +be sorry afterward. And if it is something that the world has no +business to know----" + +"The _World_! Heaven forbid that an account of the affair should get +into the _World_, the _Herald_, or any of our newspapers. I would rather +no one knew anything about it; but when I have told you the entire story +you will be able to judge how much of it I ought to confide to your +friend Mudge, in order to aid Terwilliger. You see, young Cairngorm is a +regular cub. His father sent him across on his yacht to us. He wanted +mother to comb him out, introduce him in New York circles, and get him +married, if she could, to some American heiress. If you girls only knew +what scamps some of those slips of nobility are you would not be so +crazy for titles." + +Adelaide's eyes snapped. "I do not care a fig for a title," she +said indignantly. "I think a great deal more of an enterprising, +hard-working, true-hearted American, than of a mere name. I think that +the American pride of having accomplished some worthy work in life is +much more allowable than the English pride of belonging to a leisure +class." + +"I beg pardon. I did not intend to be personal. When my mother saw what +sort of a specimen had been confided to her hands, she made no efforts +in the matrimonial direction, but simply tried to keep the chap out of +harm's way for a season, using me as her aide-de-camp. He had a passion +for betting and gaming, and I was at my wits end sometimes to head him +off. Terwilliger came over with him, you know; but he left the yacht on +its arrival for he wanted to establish himself permanently in America. +Cairngorm liked Terwilliger, tipped him handsomely on parting, and asked +me to take an interest in him. I promised to look out for him and +immediately forgot his existence. Terwilliger drifted about, waiting for +something to turn up, and Satan, who is the only employer who is on the +lookout for poor fellows who are out of work, appeared to Terwilliger, +in the person of a new acquaintance, Limber Tim. Tim told him that he +was connected with a sort of club devoted to athletics. It was really a +gambling saloon. Tim knew of Terwilliger's acquaintance with Cairngorm, +and he promised Terwilliger a five dollar bill if he would persuade +Cairngorm to patronize his establishment. 'Tell him,' he said, 'that we +are to have a very select game of poker to-night, only gentlemen +present, and get him to come down.' + +"Now, how Terwilliger happened to be such a lamb, I can't say; but he +had never heard of poker, and he asked Tim if it was anything like +single stick. This amused Tim and he did not undeceive Terwilliger, who +appeared at our house in search of Cairngorm, and, not finding him, left +a labored epistle inviting him to come to No. -- Bowery, and see some +fun in the way of a sleight of hand performance with a 'poker.' +Cairngorm saw through it, though Terwilliger did not, and went out after +dinner without explaining where he was going. He took the note with him +for fear he might forget the number of the house, and thought that he +replaced it in his pocket, after consulting it under a corner gaslight; +but, as his luck would have it, he dropped the note there, and a +policeman, who had seen him read it, picked it up. The policeman knew +that the house was a gambling saloon, and immediately surmised the +truth, that this finely dressed young swell had been decoyed to his +ruin. Terwilliger had begun his letter simply, 'Nobble Sur,' and our +address was not on the letter, so that there was no clue to Cairngorm's +identity; but he had signed his own name in full, and the astute +policeman had this bit of convincing evidence of Terwilliger's +complicity in the confidence game. + +"We knew nothing of this at the time, but it was late at night before +Cairngorm returned to our house, and we had all been very anxious about +him. His statements were to the point, for he had been thoroughly +frightened. He had lost heavily, and in the midst of the game the +police had raided the place, and he had escaped by springing into a +dumb-waiter, which had landed him in a kitchen, where he had remained +secreted until all was quiet. + +"'It is very fortunate for you,' my father said sternly, 'that the +police did not secure you, for in that case the reporters would have had +a sensation for the morning papers, and your noble father would have +learned of your lodgment in the Tombs. As it is, you had better leave +New York at once. Your yacht is at Newport. I advise you to report at +home as soon as possible. It is your own fault that your American visit +has had so sudden and so disgraceful an ending.' + +"I saw Cairngorm off, much relieved to get him off my hands, for we had +very little in common, and he was so lacking in principle that my +feeling for him was only one of contemptuous pity. On our way to +Newport Cairngorm told me that Terwilliger was perfectly innocent of any +connivance with the gamblers, and that as soon as he saw that they were +playing for money had attempted to induce him to leave the place, using +every persuasion possible, and making the gamblers very angry with him. +They had tried to put him out of the room, but he had insisted on +remaining, and when the police appeared it was Terwilliger who had shown +Cairngorm into the dumb-waiter. Immediately after Cairngorm's departure +to Scotland, I sailed for a long trip around the world, so that it was +over a year before I returned to New York. + +"What was my chagrin to find that Terwilliger had been arrested and sent +to prison with the gamblers. My father had succeeded in keeping +Cairngorm's name out of the papers, but as he believed that Terwilliger +had knowingly acted as a decoy he had made no attempt to save him. +Terwilliger would not disclose Cairngorm's name at the trial when +confronted with the letter which he acknowledged having written. Nor did +he write him asking his assistance, so determined was he not to +implicate his patron in the affair. I looked up Terwilliger, and finding +that he had only a few weeks more to serve, set myself to work in +earnest to secure him a good position. I told the entire story to +Colonel Grey, who met him with me, on his release, and feeling confident +that he had not been contaminated by his prison associations, gave him +the position of trainer at his gymnasium. He has had a good record there +ever since, and I have been very unhappy that he has suffered so much on +my graceless friend's account. If I had known that an innocent person +was to be sent to prison I would never have helped him away after his +scrape, but would have insisted on his disclosing the entire truth, and +braving the consequences like a man. As it is I am going to make +Cairngorm do something for Terwilliger this summer. One of my grooms +does not care to go to Europe with me, and if Terwilliger has nothing +better to do while the cadets are on vacation, I will take him across. I +shall bring him back in the fall in time for the opening of the school." + +Adelaide was intensely interested in this story. "You will tell it all +to Mr. Mudge, will you not?" she asked, "and convince him that +Terwilliger was unjustly imprisoned." + +Mr. Van Silver promised to do this, and soon after took his leave. + +Adelaide had not intended to tell Jim anything of the suspicion which +had fallen upon the trainer, but Jim had left his bedroom and come out +upon the landing to listen to the music, and had overheard all of Mr. +Van Silver's account. + +When Adelaide went in to kiss Jim goodnight, she found his cheeks hot +and his eyes quite wild. "You will go to Mr. Mudge right away, will you +not, sister?" he urged. And he was not at all satisfied when Adelaide +assured him that this was not necessary, as Mr. Mudge had promised to +call on Mr. Van Silver on the following day. + +The next day Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong arrived, and Jim's delight threw him +into a fever of excitement. Such alternations of happiness and worry +were bad for the boy, who needed calm, and Mr. Armstrong wished to +remove him to Old Point Comfort, but Jim begged that he might not be +taken from the city until the closing exercises of the Cadet School. "I +shall be well enough to attend them, I know," he pleaded, "and I want to +see sister graduate, and to know how the mystery turns out, and whether +Terwilliger is all right." + +To gratify the boy Mr. Armstrong took furnished apartments fronting on +Central Park, and Mrs. Armstrong devoted herself to the care of her +little invalid, while Adelaide returned to school. + +Commencement was near at hand, and Adelaide felt that she must work hard +to pass the final examination creditably. Our life at Madame's was not +all frolic, though I am conscious that my story would seem to indicate +that such was the case. Naturally, a full report of the solid lessons +which we learned would make a very stupid story, but the lessons formed +our daily diet, and the scrapes and good times that I have chronicled +occurred only at intervals. + +We had what Milly called a thousand miles of desert, without even the +least little oasis of fun, between the Inter-scholastic Games and the +examinations. Winnie had taken a fit of serious study, and when Winnie +studied she did it, as she played, with all her might. Our only lark for +quite a time was a house-warming which we gave the Terwilligers. Polo +told us how she was fitting up the little flat of three rooms with the +assistance of her brother, and it certainly seemed as if the cloud which +had shadowed her had drifted away. The largest room was the kitchen, +also used as a dining-room. Adelaide had provided a range, and many +other things, with the rooms. The cadets clubbed together and made +Terwilliger a handsome present in money, with which he purchased a +lounge, which served for his own bed, and an easy chair for his mother; +and our King's Daughters Ten provided all the tinware and crockery. +Madame sent down a nice bedstead and some bedding. Professor Waite +contributed a neatly framed portrait of Polo, and Miss Noakes gave a box +of soap. Polo purchased the table linen, towels, etc., with her own +earnings, and Miss Billings hemmed them and the curtains, which were +made of cheese cloth. Mrs. Roseveldt sent her carriage to take Mrs. +Terwilliger from the hospital to her new home and gave a carpet, and Mr. +Van Silver ordered a barrel of flour and a half ton of coal. Mrs. +Armstrong selected a lamp as Jim's present, and took the two children +from the Home to one of the large stores and provided them well with +clothing for the summer before delivering them to their mother. It was a +very happy and united family that met together that evening in +Adelaide's tenement, and Mrs. Terwilliger, who had not been credited by +her acquaintances as being a religious woman, exclaimed reverently, "It +seems to me we'd orter be grateful to Providence for all these mercies;" +and her son responded emphatically: + +"Grateful to Providence? You bet your life, I am!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE CLOUDS PART. + + +[Illustration] + +Then suddenly, just as they were sitting down to the first meal in their +new home, there was a knock at the door, and a policeman said: "I am +sorry, Terwilliger, but you are wanted again." + +"What for?" the trainer asked, thunderstruck. + +"Mysterious robbery up at Madame ----'s boarding-school," replied the +officer. "Mudge gave me the order for your arrest." + +"Go and tell Mr. Van Silver," Terwilliger said to Polo. "He won't let me +go to prison again." And Polo was off like the wind. + +Mr. Van Silver came at once, and gave bail for Terwilliger's appearance +at trial, so that he did not go to prison; but this action of Mr. +Mudge's showed that he felt sure that Terwilliger was the thief, and +threw us all into consternation. Mr. Mudge had called on Mr. Van Silver, +but had unfortunately not found him in, and while he had not received +the explanation which had been given Adelaide, one of his detectives +informed him that Terwilliger had made arrangements to leave the country +soon in Mr. Van Silver's employ, and that he had lately been expending +large sums in extravagantly fitting up an apartment for his family. It +was the fear that his man might escape him, which had precipitated Mr. +Mudge's action. He felt that the case was a pretty clear one, and that +the trial would develop more evidence. + +Winnie was at her wits' end. She had promised to produce witnesses +proving that Stacey and Terwilliger were on the river the night of the +Catacomb party; and in her desperation she wrote directly to Stacey in +regard to it. Unfortunately, Stacey could think of no one who had seen +them just at the time when the boys were known to have been in the +school building, and Stacey's own testimony would not be regarded as of +sufficient weight to clear Terwilliger, as Mr. Mudge suspected Stacey +of being the trainer's companion. This rendered Stacey very indignant. +It seemed to him that he had trouble enough before this, and he was +desperate now. His father, Commodore Fitz Simmons, was a naval officer, +a bluff old sea dog, who had married, late in life, a refined and +beautiful woman. She was lonely in her husband's long absences, and her +heart knit itself to her son. Her husband had planned that Stacey should +follow his career, but when he understood how this would afflict his +wife, he partly relinquished this idea. + +"You can have the training of the boy till he is eighteen," he said to +his wife. "If he does you credit up to that time, I shall feel sure of +him for the rest of his life, and he may have a Harvard education and +follow whatever profession he pleases. But if he takes advantage of +petticoat government, and develops a tendency to go wrong, I'll put him +on a school ship, and let the young scamp learn what discipline is." + +Commodore Fitz Simmons had been away for a long cruise, but Stacey's +mother now wrote from Washington that the ship was in, and that the +commodore and she would take great pleasure in attending the closing +exercises of his school. She hoped that her son would distinguish +himself at them, and that there was no doubt about his passing his +Harvard examinations, for his father had referred to their agreement +that Stacey must go to sea if he had not improved his opportunities. +"And you know," she added, "that I could never bear to have you both on +that terrible ocean." + +Stacey could not bear the thought, either, for he loathed the sea, and +he suddenly faced the fact that he had not been distinguishing himself +in his studies and had no certainty of passing the examinations. This +suspicion of being implicated in an escapade which had a possible crime +connected with it, was more than he could bear. When he read, in +Winnie's letter, "Mr. Mudge suspects you," he threw the letter upon the +floor and uttered such a cry that Buttertub, who was studying in the +room, sprang to him, thinking that he had hurt himself. + +"I don't care who knows it," Stacey cried, beside himself with despair; +"I am suspected of being a thief, and it will kill my mother, and my +father will just about kill me." + +Buttertub gave a low whistle. "It can't be so bad as that," he said; +"what do you mean?" + +"Some fellows sneaked into the girls' party, and they think I was one of +them and Terwilliger the other." + +"Well, what if they do?" Buttertub asked. "There is nothing so killing +about a little thing like that." + +"Perhaps not; but there was a robbery committed in the school that very +night, and that's the milk of the cocoanut." + +"They can't suspect a _cadet_ of being a burglar." + +"Well, it looks like it," Stacey replied. "They've arrested Terwilliger, +and I've just had warning that my turn may come next, unless I can prove +that I was boating that night, and I can't." + +"Ginger!" exclaimed Buttertub. "You are in a mess." He was on the point +of confessing his own share in the escapade, when he reflected that it +was not entirely his own secret, he must see Ricos first. Buttertub was +naturally good-natured, and he had no idea that the frolic would take so +serious a turn, but his brain worked slowly, and he did not quite see +what he ought to do. + +Stacey was nearly wild. He strode up and down the room. "I haven't seen +father for two years, and mother has written him such glowing accounts +of me that he expects great things. It would be bad enough, without this +last trouble, to have him find out what a slump I am. I can never look +him in the face--never." + +"Fathers are pretty rough on us fellows, sometimes," said Buttertub. He +was thinking of his own father, bombastic old Bishop Buttertub, and +wondering, after all, whether he could quite bear to shoulder all the +consequences of his frolic. When the Bishop was angry he had been +compared to a wild bull of Bashan, and Buttertub, Jr., would rather have +faced a locomotive on a single track bridge than his paternal parent on +a rampage. He wished now that he had not yielded to the wiles of the +entrancing Cynthia, and attended the party. "Hang that girl!" he growled +aloud. + +"Who?" asked Stacey. + +"Miss Vaughn," Buttertub replied. "Some one was saying you meant to +invite her to the declamations. You are welcome to for all me." + +"Hang all girls," replied Stacey. "I shan't invite any one." + +Buttertub rose awkwardly. "Don't be too blue, Stacey," he said kindly. +"Something's bound to turn up," and he ambled briskly off to find +Ricos. "It's tough," he said to himself, "but I'm no sneak, so here +goes." + +But Ricos was not in the barracks, and Buttertub, thankful for a little +postponement of the evil day, went into the great hall to practice his +declamation. He had chosen a dignified oration, and he possessed a +sonorous voice and a pompous manner. Colonel Grey smiled as he heard +him. + +"You remind me strikingly of your father," he said. "I am sure that I +shall see you in sacred orders one of these days. Perhaps you too will +become a bishop." + +Buttertub hung his head. "Better be a decent, honorable man, first," he +thought. The boys were cheering over in the gymnasium: "Hip! hip! hip!" + +"Yes--hypocrite," he said to himself, "I'll punch Ricos until he +consents to making a clean breast of it." + +But there was no need for resorting to this means of grace. Deliverance +was coming, and, strange to say, through Ricos himself. Ricos had more +food for remorse than Buttertub. His sister had written him from time to +time of Jim's condition, and this morning he had received a letter which +woke the pangs of conscience. Mr. Armstrong had thoughtlessly told Jim +of Terwilliger's arrest, and the news had affected him very seriously. +He could not sleep, and he could talk and think of nothing else. The +physician feared that his reason would give way. He sent for Stacey, +and his friend went to him immediately, but he could give him no +encouragement, and his call only made Jim worse. As Stacey left the door +he met Ricos. + +"You had better not call on Armstrong to-day," Stacey said. "He is +awfully sick. I shouldn't wonder if he died. He had an attack something +like this last year, but the doctor pulled him through because there was +nothing on his mind to worry him; but now everything seems to be in a +snarl, and he isn't strong enough to bear it. You come back with me, +seeing you ain't likely to do him any good." + +"It is of needcessity," Ricos said. His face was white and scared. +"Rosario, she write me that he will die, and if I see him not before, +and assure myself that he carry no ill-will of me to the Paradiso, then +my life shall be one Purgatorio. Indeed, I must see him; it is of great +needcessity." + +Mrs. Armstrong also hesitated when Ricos presented himself, but Jim +heard his voice and called him eagerly. + +"Ricos! Ricos! is it really you? Oh, I'm so glad!" + +"Of a surety, it is I," Ricos replied. "I have come to ask your +forgiveness. Alas! I am one miserable." + +"I will forgive you, Ricos, if you will tell Colonel Grey all about it, +so that Terwilliger need not go to prison. You know they have arrested +him, and really it is he and Stacey who ought to forgive you, and not I +at all." + +"I do not comprehend of what you refer. I ask you to forgive me for your +hurt----" + +"But that is nothing! I am sorry that I beat you, Ricos. I wanted to win +awfully, but I know now that you wanted the medal a great deal more than +I did, and I'm so sorry Stacey did not run the best. Mother read me a +verse that seemed just to be written for our games. I read it to Stacey +and he said it would help him. Mother, please read it to Ricos, perhaps +it will help him, too." + +And Mrs. Armstrong read: + + Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall + utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their + strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall + run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. + +Ricos looked still more frightened. The Bible to him was a book only for +priests. Jim must certainly be at the point of death, or he would not +ask to have it read; but Jim spoke up earnestly: + +"I suppose, Ricos, that waiting on the Lord means doing our whole duty, +and I want you to do something for my sake. I want you to tell that you +went to the girl's Cat-combing party. You know you went, Ricos. We are +all sure of it, but nobody can prove it. Please tell Colonel Grey. It +would be such a noble thing to do." + +"And you will make me assurance of your forgiveness?" + +"With all my heart, and I will stick up for you with all the boys." + +"Thank you, my friend; now I shall enjoy some comfort of the mind. And +you will tell those in Paradise that Ricos is not so devil as they may +have heard." + +Jim looked puzzled. He did not quite understand that Ricos's motive was +fear of retribution. He thought that Jim was going to die, and he felt +himself in a measure responsible for his death; but Jim's forgiveness +and promise of intercession in his behalf was a boon to be purchased at +any price, and he readily promised to disclose everything. Jim fell back +upon his pillow, exhausted but happy, and fell asleep for the first time +in many hours. + +Ricos hurried back to the barracks. He had no scruples about implicating +Buttertub in his confession, and he would have gone to Colonel Grey +without consulting his friend had Buttertub not been on the lookout for +him. They were each relieved to find that they had come separately to +similar conclusions, and they sought Colonel Grey together. + +They were obliged to wait some time, for their instructor was closeted +with Mr. Mudge. + +"I am just going out with this gentleman," said Colonel Grey, as he +noticed them standing in the hall. "Is it anything which cannot wait?" + +"It is of needcessity," said Ricos, and then his tongue clave to the +roof of his mouth, and Buttertub made the confession for both. + +"Your acknowledgment of your fault comes just in time," said Colonel +Grey. "Make your statement once more to this gentleman, and it may save +an innocent classmate from disgrace, and our unfortunate Terwilliger +from unjust imprisonment." + +"You shall imprison me," said Ricos, in a theatrical manner. "That will +make me one supreme happiness." + +Buttertub turned pale, but did not falter, and told the story frankly +and simply. + +"So you are the two gentlemen who introduced yourselves in disguise into +a young ladies' boarding-school," said Mr. Mudge. "Will you tell me how +you made the acquaintance of Terwilliger's sister, the young lady they +call Lawn Tennis, who gave you admittance." + +"But it was not Terwilliger's sister at all. Miss Vaughn threw us out +the key to the turret door," said Buttertub. + +"A reliable witness to the affair assures me that it was Lawn Tennis. +She was recognized partly by a Tam O'Shanter cap which she is in the +habit of wearing." + +"Miss Vaughn wore a Tam O'Shanter when she looked out of the window. She +had it pulled down over her forehead." + +"In view of these disclosures," Mr. Mudge said to Colonel Grey, "I shall +withdraw my prosecution of Terwilliger. I have not sufficient evidence +to make out a case against him, since it is now shown that the other +young gentleman, Mr. Fitz Simmons, did not visit the school on the night +in question, and consequently had no motive for testifying falsely. I +think any court would admit him as a competent witness in Terwilliger's +behalf, and consider the _alibi_ established. There will be no trial of +Terwilliger. I must confess myself completely at fault in this matter." + +Buttertub drew a long breath. He felt dazed and sick. Ricos swayed from +side to side, and sank into a chair. Colonel Grey was bowing Mr. Mudge +out, and Buttertub poured a glass of water and handed it to Ricos in his +absence. "Don't give in yet," he said; "we've fixed it all right for +Fitz Simmons and Terwilliger, but we've got to face the music now on our +own account." + +But Ricos had gone to the extent of his capabilities, and had fainted +dead away. Colonel Grey returned and assisted Buttertub in restoring him +to consciousness. His first words were, "When is it that we go to the +prison?" + +"My dear boy," said the Colonel, "you were not suspected of any +connection with the robbery. But if you imagined that you would be, and +made the avowal which you did in the face of that apprehension, you +deserve all the more credit." + +"Shall we not be expelled, sir?" Buttertub asked. + +"Never! My school has need of young men who can acknowledge a fault so +honourably. I consider that your generous conduct has wiped the +misdemeanour from existence. You have suffered sufficiently, and I have +no fear that such a thing will ever occur again. I shall only ask you to +make this acknowledgment complete by sending Madame ---- a written +apology for intruding in so unwarrantable a manner upon her school. I +shall call upon her personally and deliver it." + +"And my father will not feel that I have disgraced him," Buttertub said +slowly, unconscious that he was speaking aloud. + +"I shall tell the Bishop," said Colonel Grey, "that he has a son to be +proud of." + +Ricos staggered off to bed, and Buttertub sought Stacey and reported. + +"You are a trump!" Stacey cried, "I never realized before what a hero +you are. I beg your pardon for every unkind thing I have thought or said +about you, and if you will accept my friendship it's yours forever. It +is time for supper now, and after that we'll find Terwilliger and tell +him the news." + +Jim improved rapidly after this. If Ricos had known that he would +recover he might not have confessed, and there was a lingering feeling +in his mind that Jim had no right to get well, and was taking a mean +advantage of him in not fulfilling his part of the bargain and winging +his way to Paradise, to tell the angels that Ricos was not such a bad +fellow after all. Still, he never really regretted Jim's recovery or his +own avowal. It cleared his conscience of a great load, and the boys, +having heard that Ricos had made _amende honorable_, no longer +complimented him with the terms "chump and mucker," but accepted his +presents of guava jelly and other West India delicacies, and as he had +the Spanish gift for guitar-playing, elected him to the banjo club. + +A little after this Mrs. Roseveldt gave her last reception for that +season. She had not forgotten the proposed plan of the tennis tournament +at Narragansett Pier, and she invited Stacey to come and talk it up with +Milly. + +In spite of his declaration of war against all womankind, Stacey +accepted the invitation eagerly. Stacey was himself again, yet not quite +his old giddy self. The disappointment and trouble which he had +experienced had changed him for the better. He was less of a fop and +more of a man, than when he tossed his baton so airily before his drum +corps at the annual drill. But he was still something of an exquisite in +dress. His father had given him permission to order a dress suit for the +occasion of prize declamation, and Stacey besieged his tailor until he +agreed to have it done in time for Mrs. Roseveldt's reception. + +Milly went home the day before. We had all been invited, but had decided +virtuously that we could not spare the time from our studies, while I +had, as an additional reason, the knowledge that I had no costume +suitable for such a grand society affair. Milly described it all +afterward, and I enjoyed her description more than I would have cared +for the party itself. + +The mandolin club played softly in the dining-room bay-window, hidden by +a bank of palms and ferns, and the lights glowed through rose-coloured +shades. The supper-table, in honour of a riding club to which Mr. and +Mrs. Roseveldt belonged, whose members were the guests of the evening, +as far as possible suggested their favorite exercise. The table itself +was horseshoe in shape; saddle-rock oysters, and tongue sandwiches were +served. There was whipped cream, the ices were in the form of top-boots, +saddles, jockey-hats, and riding whips, and the bonbonnières were satin +beaver hats. + +Stacey appeared early in the evening. It was the first time that Milly +had seen him in a dress suit, and Milly confided to me privately that he +seemed to her to have suddenly grown several inches taller. He was very +grave and dignified, not at all like the old rollicking, boyish Stacey +with whom Milly was familiar. Milly, quite inexplicably to herself, felt +a little awed by him and was at loss for a subject of conversation. She +referred to the Inter-scholastic Games, and Stacey scowled so violently +that Milly saw that this was an unfortunate beginning, and hastened to +change the subject to that of the proposed tournament at Narragansett +Pier. They were practically alone, for the parlor had been deserted by +the onslaught on the supper table, and Stacey said confidentially: + +"I'll tell you just how it is, Milly; I ought not to take part in that +tournament." + +"Oh, do!" pleaded Milly. + +[Illustration] + +"I will if you say so. It shall be just as you say, for I'll do anything +for you; but if I go into this thing I lose every last chance of +passing my examinations for Harvard. All the same, I'll do it if you +want me to." + +"No, no;" murmured Milly; "not at such a cost; but it can't be as bad +as that. What do you mean?" + +"I mean that I have made a precious fool of myself all winter. I have +gone in for athletics at the expense of my studies, and I've failed +in both; and now that the time is coming for my examinations it will +be a tight squeeze if I pass. I made up my mind to reform after I +extinguished myself at the games, and I've been cramming ever since. +Do you know what the boys call me now?" + +"A regular dig, I suppose." + +"No, that's obsolete. At Harvard a hard student is a 'grind,' and a very +hard student is a 'long-haired grind.' Woodpecker is complimentary +enough to call me a 'Sutherland Sister hair invigorator grind.'" + +Milly laughed. + +"No laughing matter, I tell you. I've broken training. I haven't been to +the oval, or on the river, or riding in the park but once since the +games. Instead of that, I put myself in the hands of our Professor of +Mathematics, and I am letting him give me a private overhauling. His +motto is, 'Find out what the boys don't like and give them lots of it.'" + +"How horrid!" Milly murmured sympathetically. + +"He's just right. If you want to put it in a little kinder way, you +might say, 'Find out where the boys are weak, and then make them +strong.' The trouble is I'm weak all through, so I'm having a rather +serious time just now. I shall have to sit up till one o'clock to pay +for the pleasure of this interview. The examinations take place between +the 25th and 27th of June, inclusive. If I go into this tournament, or +even think of it before then, I lose every ghost of a chance for +Harvard, and will have to take to the sea, and I loathe it. But that's +nothing--if you want me to do it. You don't half know me, Milly. I tell +you, it's nothing at all--why I'd give up life itself for you. There +isn't anything I wouldn't give up for your sake. No, you shan't run +away. We've got to have it out some time, and we might as well +understand one another now. I love you, Milly; I have always loved you; +and if you don't like me--why, I have no use for Harvard, or life +either." + +He looked so despairing and yet so wildly eager, that Milly was very +sorry for him. + +"Of course, I like you, Stacey," she said kindly. + +"You do?" he cried. "I can't believe it. You are fooling me." + +"No, Stacey; but you are fooling yourself. You would be very sorry, by +and bye, if I took you at your word now, and snapped you up before you +had time to know your own mind. Why, Stacey, we are both of us too young +to know whether we are in earnest. We ought to wait, and we ought +neither of us to be bound in any way. Perhaps everything will seem very +different to us four years from now. Don't you think so yourself?" + +"I can never change," Stacey asserted confidently. + +"But I may," Milly said with a smile, thinking of her own foolish little +heart, and of how appropriate the advice she was giving to Stacey was to +her own case. + +"I don't believe you will," Stacey replied. "I am sure it's a great +comfort to know that you care for me a little; it's a great deal better +than I expected." + +"Did I say so? I didn't mean to," Milly exclaimed in consternation. + +"No, you haven't committed yourself to anything, but you have intimated +that I may ask you again after I have graduated from Harvard. And since +I desire that time to come as soon as possible, I presume I have your +permission to give up the tennis tournament and go on preparing for my +examinations." + +"Yes, certainly. But I'm sorry for the Home. I don't quite see how we +are going to raise the money for the annex. Still, I suppose, as +students, our first duty is to our studies." + +"Exactly. But vacation is coming and we will see what we can do for the +Home then. If your mother will only postpone the time I will see if I +can get the boys together in July." + +The old butler came in at this juncture with a tray of ices. He was +followed by Mr. Van Silver, who protested against his introducing +"coolness" between old friends, but who remained all the same, and +spoiled their opportunity for any further conversation on the subject +uppermost in Stacey's mind. + +"I've an idea, Stacey," said Mr. Van Silver. "I want you to go to Europe +with me this summer. You'd enjoy the trip I propose to make among the +Scottish hills and lakes. I know your parents will approve, for it will +be a regular education for you, especially with my improving society +thrown in." Mr. Van Silver winked as he said this, and he was greatly +surprised when Stacey answered promptly: + +"Awfully kind of you, Mr. Van Silver, but I can't go possibly." + +"Why not?" + +"Well, first of all, I'm bound to be conditioned on some of my studies +at my Harvard examinations, and I shall have to coach all summer in a +less agreeable way than the one which you suggest. Then I have engaged +to get up a tennis tournament at the Pier----" + +"Tennis! what's that to such a trip as I propose. Don't be an idiot, +Stacey." + +"It is really not an ordinary tournament," Milly added, with a desire to +make peace between the two. "But, Mr. Van Silver, when do you sail? +Perhaps Stacey can go after the tournament." + +"I sail the last of June." + +"Then there's no use talking," said Stacey. + +"Unless you could join Mr. Van Silver by going over later." + +Stacey shook his head vigorously. He had no desire to be expatriated +this summer. + +"I comprehend," said Mr. Van Silver. "The Pier possesses greater +attractions than I can offer, but you needn't try to humbug me into +believing that tennis is the magnet which draws you thither. Tell that +to the unsophisticated, but strive not to impose on your grandfather. He +has been young himself." + +Mrs. Roseveldt came in with quite a party from the supper, and Stacey +promptly took his leave. + +When Milly confided this to me,--as she did nearly all of her joys and +sorrows,--I could not help expressing my sympathy for Stacey. + +"Stacey will recover," she said confidently. "Men are never as constant +as we women." And Milly nodded her head with the gravity of an elderly +matron who had experienced all the vicissitudes of life, and who could +now regard the ardours of youthful affection and despair with a benign +tolerance, as foreseeing the end from the beginning. + +"Do you know, Tib," she continued, "Mr. Van Silver was joking in the way +that he always does about Stacey, when papa came to us; and papa said, +'Don't put such notions in my little girl's head, Mr. Van Silver. Stacey +has his college course before him and may be able to quote from my +favourite poet when it is over.' With that he took down an old volume +of Praed and read something which is so cute that I copied it afterward. +Here it is: + + We parted; months and years rolled by; + We met again four summers after. + Our parting was all sob and sigh; + Our meeting was all mirth and laughter. + For in my heart's most secret cell + There had been many other lodgers: + And she was not the ball-room's belle + But only--Mrs. Something Rogers. + +"I wonder whether I shall be Mrs. Rogers, or Mrs. Smith, or Mrs. What? +I'd rather be just Miss Milly Roseveldt." + +"And how about Professor Waite?" I asked, hardly daring to believe that +the fresh wind of common sense had cleared away the old miasmatic +glamour. + +"Oh, Adelaide must repent. They would make such a romantic couple. I +have set my heart on it. And Tib, I believe she does like him, just a +little, though she hasn't found it out herself yet. I am going to take +charge of their case, and some day you and I will be bridesmaids, Tib. +I've planned just how it will be. It's a pity Celeste acted so. Do you +really think Miss Billings will be equal to a wedding dress?" + +"What, yours, Milly?" + +"Mine? No, indeed. I don't want to be married. It's a great deal nicer +not to be. Don't you think so?" + +"Milly, darling, I really believe that you have recovered from that old +folly." + +"Why, of course I have--ages and centuries ago." And Milly laughed a +wholesome, gay-hearted laugh, which astonished as much as it pleased me. + +"Alas for woman's constancy," I laughed; "but, indeed, Milly, I am very +glad that you are so thoroughly heart-whole. We will keep a jolly old +maids' hall together, only you must not encourage poor Stacey." + +"Why not?" asked the incomprehensible Milly. "I am sure he is a great +deal happier with matters left unsettled than he would have been if I +had told him that I hated him; and that would not have been true +either." + +"You told him that he might ask you again after he graduates, and you +certainly ought not to allow him any shadow of hope when you know +positively that you can never love him." + +What was my surprise to hear Milly reply very seriously: "But I don't +know that, Tib. Four years may change everything. Stacey may not care a +bit for me at the end of his college course. In that case, I'm sure I +shan't repine. But then, again, if he should happen to hold out +faithful, perhaps my stony heart may be touched by the spectacle of such +devotion. Who knows?" + +And Milly looked up archly, with a pretty blush that augured ill--for +the old maids' hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE OLD CABINET TELLS ITS STORY. + + +[Illustration] + +A few weeks passed with no excitement except Cynthia's withdrawal from +the Amen Corner. Madame was very indignant when Mr. Mudge reported +Cynthia's part in inviting the boys to attend our Catacomb party, and +assisting them in entering and disguising themselves. It was rumoured +that Cynthia was to be publicly expelled as a terrible example to all +would-be offenders. She remained closeted in her room, whence the sound +of weeping and wailing could be heard behind her locked door, but she +steadily refused all overtures of sympathy on our part. We waited upon +Madame in a body, and begged her to pardon Cynthia. Madame replied that +she would consider the matter, and we hurried back and shouted the +hopeful news through Cynthia's keyhole. There was no reply. + +"Do you think she has killed herself?" Milly asked in an awestruck +whisper. + +I applied my ear closely and heard stealthy steps. "She merely wishes to +be let alone," I said; "perhaps we are a little too exuberant in our +expressions of sympathy." + +Miss Noakes entered presently and announced that Madame wished to see +Cynthia; and that young lady went, with a very red nose, turned up at a +very haughty angle. She returned shortly, and addressing herself to +Adelaide, as she always did, even when she had something which she +wished to communicate to the rest of us, said scornfully: + +"Miss Armstrong, will you kindly say to the other young ladies [we were +all present], that Madame has just told me that I am indebted to you for +permission to remain and graduate with the class." + +A murmur of satisfaction ran around the room. + +Cynthia's eyes flashed fire. "Do not imagine for one moment," she +exclaimed, "that I would accept your hypocritical condescension, if I +believed that it had been offered." + +"Don't you believe that we interceded with Madame?" Winnie asked. + +"I believe," Cynthia replied, "that you have done the best you can, by +tale-bearing, to induce Madame to expel me, and have not succeeded; and +as I do not wish to associate with you any longer, I have written my +parents asking them to withdraw me from the school." + +"I am sure no one will regret your departure," Adelaide replied, with +indignation. But Cynthia did not leave the school. Either her parents +were too sensible to take her away just before her graduation, or her +remark had been merely an idle threat. Madame gave her a room in another +part of the building, and her place in the Amen Corner remained vacant +for the rest of the term. + +Winnie had finished her essay, and one evening we gathered in the +little study parlor to hear her read it. The time for our parting was +now very near, and we were all more or less sentimentally inclined. The +old Amen Corner was very dear to us. Every piece of furniture had its +associations, but none of them were quite so tragical as those which +clustered around the old oak cabinet, and it seemed only fitting that +Winnie should celebrate it in her parting essay. She apologized for the +length of her paper. "Don't think, girls," she explained, "that I +intend to read all this at commencement. I am going to ask Madame to +make selections from it. The task that Professor Waite set me was to +give a picture of Florentine life in the early part of the sixteenth +century, and to bring in the characters who lived then as naturally as +I could--Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Fra Bartolommeo, +the Medici, Macchiavelli, Bibbiena and his niece, and others. While I +was writing, my imagination carried me away, and I gave it free rein. +You are the only ones who will have the full dose." + +We were very willing to hear it all. Winnie sat in the great comfortable +wicker armchair with the lamplight gloating o'er her mischievous face. +Adelaide had ensconced herself on the window seat, her classical profile +clear cut against the night. Milly nestled on a cushion at her feet, and +I had stretched myself luxuriously on the old lounge, and watched the +others from the shadowy side of the room. Milly occasionally patted the +cabinet at her side as Winnie referred to it. + +The flickering light almost seemed to make the carved faces with which +it was decorated grin sardonically, or knit their brows with threatening +scowls, as Winnie read: + + +"I am the ghost of the cabinet, Giovanni de' Medici they called me, in +1475, when the drops from the font fell on my forehead in the Baptistry +in Florence, and Leo X, when in 1513 I was made Pope of Rome. I was the +second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Christianly christened as a babe +and created Abbot of Fontedolce at the age of seven and Cardinal at +seventeen, for my father was convinced, since the eldest son must carry +down the family glory in succession, for me promotion lay only in the +way of the Church. + +"Nevertheless, I held, as it were, to that plough but with one hand, +continually looking back, and ready to drop it altogether, so that, +while I enjoyed the rank and revenue of a prince of the Church, I was +not made a priest with vows of celibacy until the papacy was as good as +in my hand, and until I had been determined thereunto by the closing to +me of a fair pathway which led in quite another direction. For of my +father's choice for me I might have said: + + "For that my fancy rather took + The way that led to town, + He did betray me to a lingering book, + And wrap me in a gown. + +"None but the readers of this confession know of my lost love or fancy +that I was capable of any passion save the ambition to reinstate my +family in its ancient position of glory in Florence. Cardinal though I +was, I yet played the spy and the thief to get at the opinions of +Florentines of note and influence, and one of my confederates in my +schemes was a certain carved oak cabinet, which stood in the library of +the palazzo of my nephew by marriage, Filippo Strozzi. This Strozzi was +a man so well regarded in Florence, that although he espoused Maddalena +de' Medici, the daughter of my banished brother Piero, yet was he never +suspected of any plots to advance our family, and lived even with great +freedom and popularity, keeping open house to all the literati of the +city. + +"My niece, who shared not altogether the republican sentiments of her +husband, and in whom family affection was most deeply rooted, did +sometimes entertain me after my banishment when my presence in Florence +was not known by the Florentines in general or even to her most +worshipful spouse. At such times I had for my bedchamber a little room +partitioned only from the library of which I have spoken by heavy +hangings of tapestry. Against this tapestry, on the library side, was +set the oak cabinet, which was also a desk for writing, and here my +nephew, Filippo Strozzi, was accustomed to write his letters. Hearing +the scratch of his pen when he little suspected my neighbourhood, filled +me with such an itching desire to know what he wrote, that one night +after he had finished his writing, and had left the room, I slipped into +the library, and found that, having completed his epistle, he had laid +it inside the cabinet, and that this was without doubt the usual +rendezvous for the letters of the family while awaiting the time for the +departure of the post, for other letters, sealed and directed and ready +for the sending, lay on the same shelf. On further examination of the +cabinet I found that its back was a sliding panel, and that by cutting +through the tapestry with my penknife I could open the cabinet from my +own room, and abstract any letters which might have been placed within +it under surety of lock and key. This seemed to me a most providential +circumstance, for not only did my nephew write his letters here, but +other guests of the house had the same custom, and it was most +convenient for me thus to become acquainted with their secret opinions. + +"I had another motive for lingering in Florence besides my political +schemes, for as I have said I had not at this time so irrevocably +fastened upon myself the vows of the church that they could not be +shaken off, and I was greatly enamoured of the niece of the merry +Cardinal Bibbiena, the incomparable Maria, whom I had met before my +brother's banishment at his court in Florence, she being a maid in +waiting to his wife and greatly attached to her. + +"Maria Bibbiena came frequently to visit my niece Maddalena Strozzi; and +my niece, knowing my passion, gave me opportunity of meeting her, and +I thought that I sped well in my wooing until the cabinet told me +otherwise. My cabinet told me no lies, for Count Baltazar Castiglione, a +most polished man of the world, and guarded in his spoken opinions of +others, opened his mind most frankly in a letter to his friend and +confidante, the gentle and witty Vittoria Colonna, which he wrote in +that room and left in my power, and which was expressed with a freedom +which he would never have allowed himself had he fancied that it would +ever have fallen under my eye. + +"I had one friend in Florence in whom I trusted, Niccolo Macchiavelli. I +admired his statecraft and his policy, and I deemed him devoted to our +family, but a letter from his own hand, obtained in like manner with the +others, showed him to be two-faced and treacherous to all who trusted +him--to the Medicis and to Strozzi, whose hospitality he scrupled not to +abuse. It would seem at first sight that my thefts of letters were of +service to me; but I was never able to really profit by them, and the +knowledge which the letters gave me of the perfidy or dislike of their +writers caused me only fruitless indignation and lasting pain, while the +habit into which I had fallen of suspecting, prying, and stealing grew +upon me day by day, till even death itself was powerless to correct it. +When will mankind learn that habit can be so deeply fixed as to follow +us beyond the portals of death. + +"The old cabinet and I have been so long partners in guilt that my +erring ghost visits it as of old, abstracting from it whatever is left +to its treacherous keeping. I give back herewith the letters, and when +this confession shall have been publicly read, I will render the moneys +which I have more lately filched, and then my troubled spirit will be +laid at rest. For I was not a great villain. + +"Witch Winnie lied when she said I stole from this cabinet the freedom +of the city of Florence, which my father writ out and placed here after +the last visit of the unmannerly monk, Savonarola. I pardoned the +enemies of our family in the day of my triumph, and I pardoned Raphael, +yea, and befriended him and loved him, since he wronged me unwittingly; +and none grieved more than I when we buried him beside his Maria, whom I +fain would have called my own. And so, having forgiven those who have +trespassed against me, and now making restitution, may I also be +pardoned for filching these few letters, whereof the first was from: + + + "_Count Baltazar Castiglione to the Excellent Lady Vittoria + Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara, at Naples._ + + "FLORENCE, 15th October, 1504. + + "MOST WORSHIPFUL MADONNA AND ADMIRED FRIEND: + + "I feel myself highly flattered in that you express yourself + satisfied with my Cortigiano (which I caused to be writ out at + your request), and which endeavoured, in some slight way, to + reproduce the facetious pleasantry joined to the strictest morals + which subsist at the Court of Urbino. And I deem your request for + a like picture of Florentine society as a most pleasing proof that + I have not been hitherto wearisome to you. + + "In Florence, since the passing of the rule of the Medici, there + has been a passing away also of all standards of aristocracy, so + that many of the old families hang their heads in political + disgrace, and there be many upstart ones who flaunt and wanton in + gorgeousness of apparel. Neither is it possible to say what will + be the outcome of this state of social incertitude. I have adopted + what seemed to me a safe rule, and have paid my court neither to + birth nor to fortune, but to genius. For it is not to be gainsayed + that there is gathered in Florence at this time a remarkable + circle of learned and clever men, who form, as it were, an order + of aristocracy by themselves. + + "I paid my respects first to Maestro Pietro Perugino, my sometime + friend at Urbino, and whom we there regarded as the very cream and + quintessence of painting. He has a home here, living in a goodly + and comfortable state, but has grown somewhat crabbed and soured, + as happens to men who feel themselves out of fashion and forgotten + of the world. He has a rival here, one Michael Angelo, and + Perugino having criticised a cartoon which this fellow had set + up, representing I know not what absurdity, of bathing soldiers, + Angelo replied that he considered Perugino to be a man ignorant in + art matters. Which saying so cut to the quick my friend that he + somewhat inconsiderately went to law upon the matter, where he + gained scant salve for his bruises, being dismissed with the + decree that the defendant had only said what was not to be denied. + + "This discourteous fellow Angelo formeth the greatest contrast to + Leonardo da Vinci, now the leading artist of Florence, in whom the + word gentleman hath as full a showing as in any noble living. His + fortune is sufficient to his tastes (which are of no niggard + order), and his audience chamber is frequented by the nobles, the + wits, the fashion, the learning, and beauty of the day. + + "But truly, I must not further speak of this paragon, this + florescence of his day and generation, or I shall have no space in + which to make mention of lesser luminaries, and especially of my + young friend, Raphael Santi of Urbino, who is also visiting at + this time in Florence. Raphael, while he accords to da Vinci a + full meed of praise, and goes daily to sketch from his masterpiece + in the Palazzo Vecchio, and while he is as free from envy as an + egg from vitriol, yet surprised me by this wondrously assuming + assertion, greatly at variance with his usual modesty. 'My dear + Baltazar,' said he, 'keep the sketches and miniature I have made + for thee. They will one day be as valuable as though signed by da + Vinci!' Truly, presumption dwelleth in the heart of youth, but + experience with the world will drive it far from him. + + "I am writing this at the Palazzo Strozzi, where I am for the time + a grateful guest. Mine host and friend Filippo gave recently an + artistic supper, the guests being either artists or lovers of that + guild, whether patricians, such as Giocondo, Nasi, Soderini, and + others; or scriveners, as Vasari, Macchiavelli, and Guicciardini, + and churchmen, as Bibbiena, and Bembo; for all Florence will have + its finger in this art pie, and they who have not the wit to paint + or the money to purchase, affect superior knowledge, and wag their + tongues in dispraise. Finding myself partitioned off between two + of these worthies, I should have died of weariness had I not + closed my ear on the one side to the borings of Macchiavelli (who + had it upon his mind that Giovanni de' Medici was in Florence, + and would have fain tortured from me his hiding place), and on + the other from the sleep-producing maunderings of Vasari, who + delivered himself of condemnatory criticisms on Raphael. I would + not for the world have awakened him to questions by a hint that I + already knew more of Raphael than he was like to know in his whole + life, but I suffered him to wander on, straining my ears the while + to catch some shreds of a merry story with which the Cardinal of + Santa Maria in Portico (Bibbiena) was setting his end of the table + in a roar. Supper being ended, I marked that the Cardinal drew + Raphael's arm within his own, and leading him to the garden, there + left him with his niece Maria, a most sweet and loving damsel, and + one exceptionally endowed by nature; for neither in Florence nor + in the various outlandish cities which it hath been my hap to + visit in the character of diplomatist, have I found in any five + ladies, saving in yourself, worshipful madame, such gentleness, + sprightliness, and wit as is bound up in one bundle in the person + of Maria Bibbiena. + + "Madonna Maddalena Strozzi has confided to me that her uncle + Giovanni de' Medici was in time past so greatly enamoured of this + same Maria that he would fain have given up the Church. This were + madness indeed on his part, since the wisest policy for any of + that family is to keep himself from political ambition, than which + there would seem to be no more convincing evidence to the vulgar + than devotion to a life of celibacy and monkish austerity; a + renouncing of the world, its pomps and vanities, and especially of + family alliances and succession plots, friendships, betrothals, + marriages, and the like; which, if they be not fooleries of + youthful passion, savour of worldly ambition. + + "All of this I imparted as my opinion to my hostess, but she + sighed so deeply as to show that her sympathies are with her + love-lorn uncle. After this we were bidden by her husband to an + upper room, where was displayed a picture of Raphael's. + + "But to report the critiques which followed would be greatly + wearisome to your ladyship, and so I kiss your hands, beseeching + our Lord to make you as happy as you are pious. + + "Your sincere friend and servitor, + "BALTAZAR CASTIGLIONE. + + + "_Maria Bibbiena to the Lady Alfonsina Orsini Medici, wife of + Piero de' Medici, in Exile at Urbino._ + + "FLORENCE, October 12, 1504. + + "MOST MAGNIFICENT, NOBLE, AND UNFORTUNATE LADY: + + "For whom my tears cease not to fall, and my heart to long after + with true devotion. + + "Truly, madame, whatever may have been your heavy and sore trials + in separation from your beloved Florence, you cannot have + experienced more poignant smart than that which wrings the heart + of your little friend, who in lonesomeness and delaying of hope + counts the days of your absence. My uncle's friend, Messer + Macchiavelli, who passes for a man of deep designs, raised my + hopes at one time by whispering that there was a plot to bring you + back. But nothing came of it, and instead we were given up to the + dreadful Piagnoni, so that my uncle, than whom there never was + a more jocund man, so long as he was chancellor to your most + worshipful husband, was forced to abandon politics and even for a + time to hang his head in sadness. But having returned from Rome + with a cardinal's hat, since the death of Savonarola, I discern + some faint return to his old cheerfulness. + + "I was minded of you anew but recently. You will doubtless + remember Madonna Lisa Giocondo. She is now having her portrait + painted by Maestro da Vinci. It is his manner to invite light and + diverting society to his studio to converse with and cheer the + lady during her sitting, and to strive to bring to her lips a + certain marvelous smile about which he is mightily concerned. Now + it chanced that Maestro da Vinci heard that I played upon the lute + at your court, in former days, and so he persuaded my uncle to + bring me to his studio to play for the diversion of Mona Lisa. + Presently there came in with Count Castiglione a young man of a + most beautiful countenance, a divine tenderness suffusing his + eyes; and a smile of such heavenly sweetness upon his lips, that + methought that of Mona Lisa but an affected simper in comparison. + After greeting us he remained a long time in a muse, his eyes + fastened upon the canvas. Mona Lisa, perceiving that his entranced + gaze was not so much in admiration of her beauty as in delight at + the skill of the painter, took her departure, in some pique, while + Maestro da Vinci waited upon her to the door. Raphael Santi, for + so is this young man called, turned to me and spoke of the genius + of da Vinci. After that the Maestro brought forward a portfolio of + sketches and we overlooked them together. I mind me there was one + drawing of the Madonna seated in the lap of Sta. Anna, caressing + the infant Christ, who, in his turn, was toying with a lamb. And + the younger artist said that what pleased him most in da Vinci's + paintings was the lovingness which he displayed, as here Sta. + Anna was beaming proudly and graciously upon her daughter, who + playfully and tenderly yearned over her son, who as charmingly + petted his little lamb. And many more things he said, so sweetly, + and with such courteous and gentle behaviour, that I wondered not + that he was called Saint Raphael, for indeed he seemed unto me as + one of the company of the blessed. + + "But with all this I have not told you why it was that this should + remind me of you. It was because I was told that he was from + Urbino, and because he was able to give me comfortable tidings + concerning you, which did not a little solace and unburden my + heart. + + "After this I met him several times in the outer cloisters of San + Marco, whither I went first by chance with my uncle, who had some + business with the prior of the convent, and who left me to wait + for him in this place, which is assigned to the laity. + + "Presently, while I waited here, Raphael came hastily in, having + just completed his lesson in colouring with the Fra Bartolommeo, + an artist who turned monk under the preaching of Savonarola, and + whom Raphael has chosen as master during his stay in Florence. He + told me somewhat of this good monk; how when he was a talented and + rising young man, with life and ambition all before him, he gave + his paintings to the flames with which the Piagnoni consumed the + vanities of this world in the public streets, because he feared + lest he loved his art more than God. But since he has renounced + the world, the Prior has told him that he can best serve the + Church by painting altar-pieces, so that his cell is changed to a + studio, and God has granted him such access of genius that he + paints more divinely than before, and churches and monasteries in + Venice and other distant cities send daily for his paintings. But + he knows not where they go, nor how much money they bring the + convent, for he paints only for the love of God. + + "Raphael told me also of the heavenly frescoes of Fra Angelico, + with which the walls of the passages and even the cells of the + convent, are covered, and he added, 'Truly, I think that Art and a + monastic life wed well together, and I would willingly retire to + some cloistered garden afar from the world, if I might carry my + box of colours with me, and might sometimes see in a vision a face + like thine to paint from!' + + "Then was I seized with a foolish timidity, so that I could in no + wise answer, but my heart said, 'And why afar from the world, why + not in it, making all things better and happier?' + + "Ah! sweet lady, I know you will say, 'My little Maria is grown + wondrous foolish and love-sick'; but I pray you chide me not, + seeing that the matter cannot grow further, for I am not likely + again to meet with Raphael, since I have come to visit for some + days, on invitation of your sweet daughter Madonna Maddalena + Strozzi. Nor were it best that I should see him often, for I do + fear me that in such case my heart might become so rashly pitched + and fixed upon him that I should in time most inconsiderately fall + in love, which were a bold and unmaidenly thing to do; and I mind + me that you were wont to tell me that no woman should allow her + affections to conduct themselves thus insubordinately, until the + church hath by the sacrament of marriage given her license + thereto. + + "And so, madame, praying Maria Sanctissima and Maria the sister of + Lazarus, my patroness, to keep me constant in this mind, I rest + your loving friend and devoted servitor, + + "MARIA BIBBIENA. + + + "_Niccolo Macchiavelli to Bramante, Architect to Pope Julius I, at + Rome_: + + "MESSER BRAMANTE MIO: + + "We have no longer any politics in Florence. The Medici trusted + to the luck of their name; but Florence would have none of them, + and Piero had not the head for his position. He might have had the + advantage of my brains if he had so chosen; but he had not the wit + to appreciate wit. The Magnificent was right when he said that he + had three sons, the one good, the second crafty, the third a fool. + The good die young: Piero, the fool, has lost his inheritance; it + remains for the crafty Giovanni to make good the prestige of his + family. The chances are against him, but if he has something + better than maccaroni under his tonsure, he will make the Church + his ladder to power. I thought at one time that Savonarola was + perhaps shrewder than he seemed, and that he would succeed in + tumbling Alexander out of the Papal Chair and in taking his seat + therein as the Pope Angelico. But it seemed that the dolt never + cared for the Papacy, but only for saving souls! I fear no such + cause of defeat for a Medici, but I hear rumours concerning + Giovanni which make me fear that he is not crafty enough for + success. He has been dissolute; that is no hindrance to a + cardinal's hat or even to the tiara; the folly I dread is more + fatal. They say that he has reformed his life and is thinking of + marriage. If this is true, I renounce his cause in favor of that + of Cæsar Borgia, who has the audacity of a lion joined to the + rascality of a fox, and who is not hindered from the putting in + practice of my principles by any so cowardly and stupid a thing as + a conscience. And yet they say that his superb physical manhood is + now a wreck, bloated and permeated through and through with the + subtle poison which his family alone knows how to prepare, and + whose effects they can only partially eradicate. Savonarola, + Borgia, Medici, blunderers all! What name will the next wave bring + to the surface? + + "But a truce to politics. You know this is a subject from which I + can no more keep my thoughts than a greedy urchin can forbear + thrusting his fingers into a pot of comfits. I am not so absorbed + in my favourite pastime, however, but I can take an interest in + all that interests my friends, especially in such matters as are + flavoured with a spice of intrigue, than which no condiment soever + is better suited to my palate. Touching, therefore, the matter + concerning which you wrote me, I think that you, as chief + architect to his Holiness, have indeed cause to fear the rivalry + of Michael Angelo, for I am credibly informed that he is minded + presently to journey toward Rome. Moreover, since it is the + practice of popes to be always meddling with works of art, marring + and defacing the excellent things done in the Pontificates of + those preceding them,--when they cannot improve upon them,--and + whereas they are a whimsical lot, not long contented with one + object or one workman, be he ever so excellent, you have + sufficient cause, I say, to fear, having now continued in favour + for some time, that this Michael Angelo will supplant you in the + favour of his Holiness. I would suggest, therefore, that you + search about for some new artist, who shall occupy himself with a + line of work as fresco painting, not in any way interfering with + your own architectural designs, but rather depending upon them; + and that you make haste to introduce him to the Pope, and if + possible ingratiate him into his favour that, his mind being taken + up with this new favourite, and his purse lightened by the + dispensing of moneys for these new works, he will be less inclined + to look favourably upon a new architect such as Michael Angelo. + And inasmuch as it seemeth to me that this thing requireth haste, + I have looked about me somewhat in Florence to find a man suited + to your occasions. + + "I first bethought me of Leonardo da Vinci as being the successful + rival of Michael Angelo in this city, and against whom he could + not for a moment contend. But da Vinci hath no drawings toward + Rome. I have marked for a long time that he cutteth his doublet + after the French fashion. Trust me, he is no man for us; he would + rather trip it merrily with French dames than wear out his knees + on the cold scagliola of the Vatican. I have bethought me also + that Leonardo is too old and subtle for you; you need a man whom + you can manage; who shall look up to you as a patron and as a + superior. My eye hath lately fallen upon a youngster of surprising + talent as a painter, a stranger in Florence, of no great + influence, and utterly unknown to fame. He hath as yet no great + opinion of himself; make haste to secure him before others shall + enlighten him as to his merits. This youth is called Raphael + Santi, and I make sure that the pope will greatly prefer this + silken dove to that porcupine Angelo. + + "I would the more willingly see him advanced in some foreign city + in that my good friend Cardinal Bibbiena seems desirous with all + expedition to get him forth from Florence, and yet it is not so + much from a desire to pleasure Bibbiena, as from a conviction that + I have found here a tool of proper service to thee, that I thus + recommend him to thy good offices. + + "To conclude, my Bramante, make all speed to inform his Holiness + that the walls of the Vatican are cracked, smoky, filthy, and + disgraceful, and above all things fetch thy Raphael quickly and + gain for him a personal interview; for I trust more to the charm + of his presence than to volumes of thy bungling speech. + + "And when thou hast need of further counsel, or seest that the + pope desireth an Ahithophel,--now the counsel of Ahithophel which + he counselled in those days was as if a man had enquired at the + oracle,--why send then and fetch thy ever loving and honest + friend, + + "MACCHIAVELLI. + + "FLORENCE, October 12, 1504. + + + "_Maria Bibbiena to the Lady Alfonsina Orsini Medici, wife of + Piero dei Medici, at Urbino_: + + "FLORENCE, October 15, 1504. + + "MOST MAGNIFICENT, MOST BELOVED, AND MOST SWEET LADY: + + "Since I last made bold to write you of my small matters, others + more weighty to me have transpired, which, as I have made a + beginning, I will also make an end in the way of their narration. + And first I have met with a small disquietness from your + highness's brother-in-law, the Cardinal, concerning whose presence + in Florence I had not heard. For yestreen, when I was playing upon + my lute in the garden of the palazzo of your daughter, Madonna + Strozzi, he came upon me suddenly walking with your daughter. + Whereat he seemed at first taken all aback, but the Lady Maddalena + exclaimed, 'A new Petrarch, and new Laura,' and commanded him on + his fame as a scholar to make some rhymes on that subject. Whereat + he replied that if I would continue playing he would write, as his + patron, St. Cupid, gave him utterance, and with that he improvised + and wrote out the nonsense herewith following: + + "In all Avignon's gardens the nightingales were mute + As at her open casement she played upon her lute. + The lonely scholar Petrarch wandered all listlessly; + 'The old man with the hour-glass has sure some grudge 'gainst me. + The sands they fall so sluggishly that tell the flight of time; + My studies all are tedium, and weariness my rhyme.' + 'Twas then the Lady Laura, with lips like ripened fruit, + And lily-petalled fingers, full sweetly touched the lute. + The lonely Petrarch listened, as she sang, so sweet and low, + A soft love-laden sonnet, writ by Boccaccio. + Till Cupid snatched the hour-glass from loitering Father Time, + And Petrarch's life was all too short to tell his love in rhyme. + + "After the reading, our lady daughter would have me crown the + poet, but this I would in no manner consent unto. Nay, I even + flung down my lute in vexation of spirit, and ran away to another + part of the garden. But I gained nothing thereby, for Giovanni + pursued after me and came up with me at the fountain, where he + caught my hand and would in no wise restore my freedom till he had + delivered his mind of what lay thereon, namely, that he sought me + for his wife. Whereupon I told him very plainly that I knew that + he had been bred up for the Church, and that it were disloyalty to + his brother, your highness's husband, and to his nephew, your son + Lorenzo, for him to think of marriage and a worldly life, for by + so doing the Medici interest would be divided. But he said that if + I would but be his wife he would relinquish all claim to political + power and Lorenzo should not fear for his succession, for he would + go with me to dwell in foreign parts. And while I sought in the + corners of my mind for some answer which should convince him of my + utter lothness, and yet not offend so noble a gentleman, came + suddenly your daughter to warn him that others were entering the + garden; but ere he went he kissed a rose and tossed it to me + saying, 'This rose comes not from Giovanni the Cardinal, but + Giovanni the soldier, for henceforth go I to fight the French and + to win my bride.' + + "Scarcely was he gone than I tore the rose in pieces, wroth that I + had been so tongue-tied in his presence. And while I shred the + petals all about me, I was aware of Raphael coming to meet me, and + holding in his hand a lily such as we see in the pictures of the + Virgin, which lily he placed in my hand, saying: + + Sicut lilium inter spinas + Sic Maria inter filias. + + "And as he saw me to tremble with the vexation and the disquiet of + my interview with the gay cardinal, he most courteously and gently + inquired the cause of my discomfort, and did so comfortably avail + to assuage my distress that I presently forgot it. He told me also + that since he had known me he had so grown into an affection for + the name of Maria, that he had resolved to devote his life, in so + far as choice should be vouchsafed him, to the painting of Maria + Sanctissima. And many other things he said which it is not meet + nor proper that I should write out here. Suffice it that you, who + love your dear lord, can well understand my present joyful state, + and why it is that the nuns, singing now the canticle for the + Feast of the Purification in the convent next to the palazzo, seem + to be addressing their song to me: + + Gaude, virgo gloriosa! + Super omnes speciosa! + + "For happiest of all Virgins is thy little + + "MARIA. + +"It was this last letter which broke my heart, and yet did not so much +break as bend it so that I gave up the hope which I could no longer keep +not in bitterness or in wrath, and resigned myself to my destiny as monk +and pope; when Maria Bibbiena died, all too early, I wept not my own +shattered future alone, but Raphael's as well, and so took him to my +heart, though he knew not the reason, and so I beseech the efficacious +prayers of all Christians for all true lovers. + +"_Et pro nobis Christum Exora._ + + "GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI, + "_The Ghost of the Cabinet._" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE MYSTERY DISCLOSED. + + +[Illustration] + +Winnie's romance of the cabinet pleased us all, but Adelaide was sure +that Madame would not allow it to be read without certain changes, +especially the reference to the robbery in the school, and the +"lovering" parts. + +"You need not imagine," said Milly, "that because you object to +lovering, all the rest of the world does. Why, even Miss Noakes has a +softer heart than Adelaide's. But really and truly, Winnie, how much of +that is true? Was Raphael really engaged?" + +"Most certainly, my dear." + +"And did Leo X love her too? You made me ever so sorry for the poor old +pope." + +"Well, no, that part is the only one for which I have no warrant in +history. That is, I have no doubt that Leo X really did love some one +before he took the irrevocable vows. He was what Browning calls + + 'Sworn fast and tonsured pate, plain heaven's celibate, + And yet earth's clear accepted servitor, + A courtly, spiritual Cupid, + And fit companion for the like of you; + Your gay Abati with the well turned leg, + And rose i' the hat rim. Canon's cross at neck, + And silk mask in the pocket of the gown.'" + +"The cabinet is such an uncanny old thing," said Milly, "that I begin +almost to believe that you have divined the truth, and that an uneasy +spirit really haunts its vicinity." + +"Perhaps the fact that we now only keep school books in the cabinet is +the reason the ghost has been so very quiet of late," said Winnie. "Or, +perhaps it has repented its evil deeds and my essay has given it the +peace of conscience which only comes through confession. If it were an +unrepenting spirit it would, as Milly suggests, be very unwilling that +I should publish its evil deeds by reading this essay. I believe that I +will give it an opportunity of showing whether it approves of my reading +its confessions. Here, Tib, take everything else off your shelf, and I +will lay my essay there and call on the spirit to make away with it, if, +indeed, he is able and wicked enough to do it." + +Adelaide, Milly, and I watched the incantation with much amusement. + +"Guilty ghost," exclaimed Winnie, striking an attitude, "if you have +repented of your crimes, and the reading of this essay will allow you +henceforth to rest in peace, I hereby exorcise you, and command you to +affix some seal of your approval to this paper--either the print of a +bloody hand or at least X your mark." Hereupon Winnie, with a flourish, +laid her essay on my shelf and closed the cabinet door. "If, guilty +ghost," she continued, "you are still up to your tricks, and having +taken the money which Tib confided to her shelf, are determined to go on +in your evil ways, I hereby dare you to steal that essay within the next +half hour, we keeping watch and ward in this room!" + +"I think it is no fair test," I said, "unless you leave it there +overnight. Both of the other robberies were committed just at midnight. +This ghost may be of a bashful disposition, or possibly not good-natured +enough to walk at your call in broad daylight." + +"Well, if he doesn't appear within a half hour I'll give him another +chance, 'in the dead vast and middle of the night,' 'when churchyards +yawn,' et-cetera. Here, Milly, lend me your watch, that I may time our +visitor." + +We all sat for a few moments silently watching the cabinet, but +presently Adelaide tired of this mummery and exclaimed: + +"Really, this is too absurd! I have my Latin prose composition to write, +and cannot spend any more time in such nonsense, Winnie." + +"Write your exercise in this room. We will all keep still, and I must +have all the Amen Corner as witnesses of my little experiment." + +Winnie pulled out the writing shelf, and Adelaide seated herself at the +cabinet and wrote steadily until Winnie cried, "Time's up." + +Milly and I approached the cabinet, and Winnie made a few magical passes +in the air and repeated an ancient hocus-pocus: + + "There was a frog lived in a well, + To a rigstram boney mite kimeo. + And Mistress Mouse she kept the mill, + To a karro karro, delto karro, + Rigstram pummiddle arry boney rigstram + Rigstram boney mitte kimeo, + Keemo kimo darrow wa, + Munri, munro, munrum stump, + Pummididle, nip cat periwinkle, + Sing song, kitchee wunchee kimeo." + +Adelaide pushed in the writing shelf and stepped aside, and Winnie threw +open the cabinet door. We could hardly believe our eyes--the essay had +disappeared. + +Milly gave a shriek of dismay. "It must have been a ghost. How else +could it have vanished with all of us on the watch?" + +"Have you been playing a trick on me, Adelaide?" Winnie asked. "Did you +manage to slip it out while we were not looking?" + +Adelaide disclaimed any such action, and Milly and I confirmed her +assertion, for we had been watching the door all the time. + +Winnie wheeled the cabinet away from the wall, almost expecting to find +a concealed door opening into Cynthia's room. But the wall was perfectly +solid, there was not even a mouse hole in the base-board, while the +back of the cabinet was not a sliding panel. We banged it, and pushed +it, and examined it with a magnifying glass for concealed springs or +hinges. It was simply an honest piece of work, a secure, heavy back, +conspicuously fastened in its place with wooden pegs, a construction to +which cabinet makers give the term dowelling, and to make assurance +doubly sure, the edges had been glued with a cement which had turned +black with age, but had not cracked. There was no possible way in which +the cabinet could have been opened from behind. + +"There goes my pet theory," said Winnie, in an aggrieved tone. "It would +have been just like Cynthia to have removed things from the back of the +cabinet, if we could only have discovered a concealed door in the +partition behind it. You see the cabinet backs so conveniently against +her room." + +But there was no possibility of any door having ever existed here. The +partition wall was not of boards, which might have been sawed through +and removed. It was clean white plaster which had never been papered, +and would have betrayed the least scratch, and Winnie was obliged to +relinquish this romantic method of access to the cabinet. + +"I shall always think," said Adelaide, "that the first robbery was +committed by that individual we saw through the studio transom in +Professor Waite's great Rembrandt hat." + +Winnie laughed heartily. "Girls, I may as well confess," she exclaimed, +"that was your humble servant." + +"You, Winnie?" + +"Yes, I, Winnie. Don't you remember that I was not in the parlor when +the head appeared? I was in the studio, and it struck me that it would +be rather a good joke to pretend to be Professor Waite, tramping up and +down before that door, tormented by a consuming passion for Adelaide. +Wait, I will put the hat on again and let you see." Winnie dashed into +the studio and returned wearing the Rembrandt hat, and we all laughed at +her cavalier appearance. + +"But, girls," she exclaimed, throwing the hat on the floor, "this is +really no laughing matter. Do you realize that my essay is gone? My +essay that I am to read next week. And how I am ever to find time to +write it over again, with examinations and all that I have to do between +now and then, is more than I know. Just see how wickedly Giovanni de' +Medici leers at me!" and Winnie pointed to the carved head which +adorned the centre of the cabinet door. "Oh! what shall I do? what shall +I do?" + +Winnie soon answered that question for herself, by writing another +essay, and improving it in the process. But the disappearance of the +Florentine letters was a nine days' wonder. We searched the room +thoroughly and even stepped out on the fire-escape and looked up and +down for some bird of heaven that might have carried them away. "I shall +always maintain," said Milly, "that it is no real thief at all. Of +course, none of us really believe in the ghost theory, though it is +almost enough to make one turn spiritualist to be made the victim of +such a trick. I believe that in the end it will be found that somebody's +little pet poodle has found his way in here, and like Old Mother +Hubbard's dog has a weakness for cupboards, and has chewed up everything +that he has found. Sometime Nemesis will overtake that little poodle and +he will be laid upon the dissecting table, and all of the money and +Winnie's essay will be found in his little gizzard." + +It was an absurd suggestion, but nothing seemed to explain the mystery, +and we finally all gave it up. All but Winnie. She continued to worry +about it. She laid many traps for her ghost, baiting them with edibles +under the supposition that the thief might be an animal; and with money, +tying silken threads around the cabinet, fastening the handle of the +door to a bell in her own room, but they were all unavailing; the robber +came no more. + +The cadets' prize declamation came before our graduation, and we all +attended the exercises. + +Stacey did not take a prize, but, as he laughingly told Milly, his coat +did, and that was honour enough. + +Woodpecker was the honour man that day, and as Woodpecker was a poor +man's son, he had no dress suit, and Stacey lent him his coat to appear +in while he delivered his oration--Stacey sitting in his shirt sleeves +behind the scenes meantime. Woodpecker's long arms soared and the +stitches in the back cracked, but he spoke with fire, and the committee +unanimously awarded his "Description of a Chariot Race" the first prize, +while Buttertub's sonorous voice and grandiloquent manner secured the +second for his "Philosophy of Socrates," and Stacey's "Athletic Games of +Greece" came off with an "honourable mention" only. There was a good +deal of what Jim called "kicking" at this decision. The drum corps, to +a man, felt that Stacey ought to have had the first prize, and there +was not a boy in the school, not excepting Buttertub, who did not +think Stacey's essay infinitely more entertaining than the Socratic +philosophy. The Commodore, fortunately, was of this opinion. Stacey's +stock had risen rapidly in his father's estimate. The essay interested +the Commodore, and it made no difference to him that the committee did +not agree with him; in his opinion Stacey was the brightest boy in the +school. We girls shared this feeling. Stacey's bouquets proclaimed him +the most popular fellow in the class. The usher kept bringing them up, +and it was impossible for Stacey to carry all his floral tributes from +the stage at one time. + +Woodpecker enjoyed the popularity of his friend more than his own +honors. He had laid a wager with Ricos that Stacey would carry off the +first prize, promising that if he did not, he, Woodpecker, would trundle +a wheelbarrow down Fifth Avenue. Having lost the wager by his own +triumph Woodpecker gaily proceeded to pay the penalty by carrying +Stacey's bouquets in a light wheelbarrow to the Buckingham Hotel--where +Commodore and Mrs. Fitz Simmons had taken rooms--immediately after the +exercises. + +Stacey himself did not overestimate this expression of his friend's +regard, but it helped soften his disappointment at not obtaining the +first prize. He was not embittered as at his failure at the games, but +humbled in a salutary way. He saw his true position: a talented +fellow, who until recently had not tried to make the best use of his +opportunities, and who could not reasonably hope for the highest +rewards after such brief effort. But something within him whispered, +"You can do it yet. You can be something more than a dude and a good +fellow," and he resolved to devote his vacation to serious training in +his studies. + +It gave him a thrill of pleasure, strangely mingled with humility, to +see the Commodore's delight, just as he was handing Mrs. Fitz Simmons +into the carriage, at hearing the old cry from the drum corps, who had +been lined up in front of the barracks by Buttertub for that purpose, +and gave it with a will--Jim's shrill voice joining in the final cheer: + +"Who's Fitz Simmons?" + + "First in peace, first in war, + He'll be there again, as he's been there before, + First in the hearts of his own drum corps, + That's Fitz Simmons!" + +The Roseveldts were coming down the steps, and Milly heard it too, and +waved her handkerchief, and Stacey opened the carriage door and waved +his hat to her--though the drum corps thought it was in acknowledgment +of their salute, and closing round Woodpecker and his wheelbarrow +escorted him down the Avenue. + +There were tears in Mrs. Fitz Simmons's eyes as she pressed her +husband's hand, and the Commodore, not wishing to show his satisfaction +too plainly, asked who that pretty girl was who waved her handkerchief +so enthusiastically. + +"You don't deserve it, you young dog," he asserted. "Now if she had +smiled in that way at me I would have cared more for it than for all the +hullabaloo those young rascals are making." + +"Perhaps I do," was the reply on Stacey's lips, but it was uttered so +quietly that only his mother heard it, and understood as mothers always +do. + +And then through the days that followed, Stacey buckled down to hard +work again, and won, as such work is sure to win, its reward. + +"Passed his examinations, admitted to Harvard! Why, of course," said the +Commodore. "There never was any doubt of it." But Stacey knew that there +had been great doubt, and that the expression of esteem by which he was +held by his classmates, which had pleased his father so much, was a very +slight thing compared to this quiet victory, gained through hours of +unregarded toil and for which no cheers were shouted or flowers borne +after him in noisy triumph. + +The opening of the college gates was the entering of a better race for +Stacey. He felt that he was now indeed a man, and must put away childish +things. + +We of the Amen Corner had been chatting together, the evening before our +commencement, of what we intended to do during vacation. "First of all," +said Adelaide, "I want some home life. I want to get acquainted with my +own mother. I feel now that we can be companionable. I am not very +learned, it is true, but I am certainly more mature than when we were +together last. I ought to be not only a help to her, but a sort of +comrade. She has kept herself young at heart, and her society will +recompense me in part for the loss of yours. We are going to study music +seriously together. She plays my accompaniments very nicely. Indeed, I +think she has more talent than I have, only she is out of practice, and +her repertoire is a little old-fashioned, but it will be very easy for +her to put herself in touch with modern requirements. Then father has +planned a delightful occupation for me. You know how fond I am of +practical architecture. Well, he has purchased a delightful old colonial +mansion in Deerfield, a charming village in western Massachusetts. It is +an old homestead which has fallen into disrepair from having been long +unoccupied, for the family which once inhabited it have all died. The +one distant relative who owns the place lives in the West, and has sold +it to father. I am to have the direction of all the repairs and +restorations, and I mean to truly restore the old house to its original +condition. We will board in the village while the changes are being +made. It will be just the place for Jim to grow strong in. Father writes +that it has the loveliest elm-shaded street, and a hundred different +drives over the hills and along its three rivers." + +"You need not tell us anything about Deerfield," Winnie interrupted. +"Tib and I drove through the old town on our coaching trip. It is the +most charming spot that I ever saw. I congratulate you on having such a +delightful prospect before you." + +"And I hereby invite you all to come to the hanging of the crane when +my restorations are finished," Adelaide continued cordially. "That +will be in September, I think, for they will take all summer at least, +and you've no idea how I shall enjoy planning everything and directing +the workmen. Jim and I are going to carve some of the woodwork +ourselves. We will have a portico like that at Mount Vernon, with +Ionic columns, and the windows will have tiny panes and broad seats, +and there are to be china closets with glass doors, and fan work +carved over the mantelpieces, and a raftered ceiling with a great +'summer-tree' in the 'keeping room.' I shall enjoy it more than I can +make you understand. I don't mean so much the possession of the house +when it is done, as altering it, for I love architecture, and wish I +could be an architect. So much for my plans. What are yours, Tib?" + +"Work," I replied; "solid work." + +"I knew you would say that," Adelaide answered. "I have felt +dissatisfied all this year with Madame's course of instruction. If +it were not that I really must see my mother and have some home life, +I would go to Bryn Mawr. I positively crave some good solid study. +Madame's curriculum makes me think of the course of study Aurora Leigh +pursued." Adelaide took down her favourite blue and gold volume from its +companions in the "poets' corner,"--a set of shelves,--and read with +comments: + + "I learnt a little algebra, a little + Of the mathematics; brushed with extreme flounce + The circle of the sciences, because + She misliked women who are frivolous. + I learnt: The internal laws + Of the Burmese Empire; by how many feet + Mount Chimborazo outsoars Himmeleh. + I learnt much music, such as would have been + As quite impossible in Johnson's day + As still it might be wished--fine sleights of hand + And unimagined fingering, shuffling off + The hearers' soul through hurricanes of notes + To a noisy Tophet." + +"And here you are, Tib." + + "And I drew costumes + From French engravings, nereides neatly draped, + With smirks of simpering godship. I washed in + From nature, landscapes (rather say washed out), + Spun glass, stuffed birds, and modelled flowers in wax, + Because she liked accomplishments in girls." + +"No," I interrupted, "I will not have you malign Professor Waite. His +teaching at least has been thorough, and I feel that I have received +very valuable training in my art." + +"Then I suppose that by solid work you mean that you will devote +yourself to art this summer, and camp under a sketching umbrella in +front of every picturesque nook you can find." + +"Art will have to wait until winter," I replied. "I mean that I shall +cook for the farm hands during haying season, and let mother go off for +a visit to her sisters in Northfield, where she can attend the Moody +meetings, and I shall get all the preserving done before she returns, +too." + +"You are just lovely, Tib," Milly replied, giving me a hug. "And now +won't you be surprised when you hear what I am going to do. Father says +he is going to superintend my education for a while. He sent me a squib +from one of the papers about the sweet girl graduate: + + 'She talks with tears about her mates and quotes from ancient lore. + She says the Past is left behind, the Future is before. + Her gown is simply stunning, but she can't subtract or add, + Oh, what an awful humbug is the Sweet Girl Grad!' + +Father is going through practical business arithmetic with me, and says +he means to teach me how to take care of money, and even fit me to take +a position in his bank." + +"I pity your father," said Winnie. "But seriously, Milly, it is the best +thing you could do." + +"There is something else," Milly said, with a painful blush, "which +father says is the foundation of business, and in which I have already +had one lesson, and that is honesty. He says that all the sad failures, +embezzlements, and defalcations come from borrowing money that does not +belong to one--using money for one purpose that was intended for +another; and he means to go over a great many such cases with me to show +me on what a terrible precipice I have been playing. But indeed he need +not say another word, for I have been severely punished, and I think I +would rather put my hand into fire than go into debt one dollar, or +spend a penny for marsh-mellows that father had given me for chocolate +creams." + +Winnie turned and kissed Milly. "I would trust you with millions," she +said; "but Adelaide is the only one in the Corner who knows anything +about business." + +"I am sure, Winnie," I replied, "that the way you have managed the Home +finances disproves that modest assertion. What are you going to do +during the summer?" + +"I have no mother, you know," Winnie said gravely, "but I am going to my +father, and shall try to make his life a little less lonely for him. He +writes that his eyes have been troubling him. Perhaps he can dictate to +me and I can be his amanuensis. I shall take my paint-box with me, and +mean to daub a little all summer. Professor Waite has no faith in my +genius, but I intend to astonish that gentleman one of these days. He +admits that I have an eye for colour, and the rest can be learned. If +father can spare me for a week I shall accept your invitation, Adelaide, +and when I appear you must give me the interior of a room to decorate. +It will be startling, I tell you. I have a good deal of King's Daughter +work to do, too. You know we have not raised the money for the Manger, +and the Home must have it, for they have been receiving the babies, +though they have no good nursery. Now in the summer we all do more or +less fancy work, and I am going to write to all the circles of King's +Daughters with whom we are in correspondence, and ask them to work for +a fair, which we will hold in New York in the autumn. I have had a talk +with Madame and she favors the idea. She even suggested that each circle +should be invited to send a delegate who should assist in selling the +articles at the tables, and very generously offered to entertain them +here for three days during the continuance of the fair. You see, the +school is never full at the beginning of the term, and perhaps she +thinks it will be a good advertisement of her institution, to have girls +from all over the county meet here, though there is really no need of +imputing such mercenary motives to her. I have spoken about it at the +Home to Emma Jane, and she will see that the proposition is made at the +next meeting of the Board of Managers." + +"Well, you certainly have your hands full," Milly remarked, "but I think +I can help you after our tennis tournament is over. I will get the +girls at the Pier to make fancy work for you if I can get any time from +my arithmetic. Where will you hold the fair?" + +"I haven't planned as far as that." + +"I think the new armory at the barracks will be a splendid place," Milly +suggested. "I will get Stacey to ask Colonel Grey if we can use it, and +then perhaps the cadets will be interested to do something to assist in +the entertainment. They might act a play or furnish the music at least." + +"I will drum up the two circles of King's Daughters at Scup Harbor," I +said, "and we will have a useful table, with holders and aprons and +dish-wipers; pickles, honey, butter, and preserves. Why, certainly, +home-made preserves. While I'm about it this summer I will make you some +currant jelly and pickled peaches." + +"You had better paint something," Adelaide said; "and you must take +charge of the art department." + +"If I can come to town," I said. "And I will start the movement before I +go by asking Professor Waite to get contributions from his artist +friends before he goes abroad." + +"I have been greatly touched by one thing," said Winnie. "The interest +which the Terwilligers have taken in this scheme. I happened to mention +it to Polo, and the entire family have risen to the occasion. Mrs. +Terwilliger sent word that she wouldn't consider it too much if she +worked for us to her dying day, considering the way her young ones had +been 'done for' while she was sick. She has been collecting scraps of +silk for a long time past to make a crazy quilt, and she intends to +donate it to us. I fear me it will be a horror; but it shows her +good-will all the same. Terwilliger, the trainer, says he means to +collect sticks from noted places during Mr. Van Silver's coaching tour, +to be made into canes and other souvenirs for us. Polo will not have +time to work for the fair, for she must sew with Miss Billings this +summer. I wish she could go to the country instead." + +"I am going to invite her to Deerfield for August," said Adelaide. "The +Home children ought to be able to do something for the fair. Have you +thought of them, Winnie?" + +"Emma Jane will see that they manufacture a quantity of little articles +in their sewing class," Winnie replied. "They can hem towels and make +bibs and bags and useful articles. I am really sorry that we cannot have +the reception at the Home, for I would like to have people see those +nice, fat babies." + +"They shall see them," Milly replied. "I've an idea. We will devote one +afternoon at the fair to a baby show. Do you remember the bicycle drill? +Well, I will get Stacey to lend me his artillery tactics, and I will get +up some manoeuvres with baby carriages. We will call it the infantry +brigade. The older children shall wheel the carriages. I will drill them +without the babies at first. And then we will have them well strapped +in, and then there will be a triumphal procession by twos and fours, and +I'll deploy them in line and draw them up in a hollow square, and make +them 'present arms,' and 'carry' and 'shoulder arms,' and double quick +and charge. It will be lots of fun; and one baby carriage shall have a +flag fastened to it, for that baby must be the colour bearer, and we'll +have music, of course, and medals for all the babies. Then when people +see what a lot of children we have, with no annex to put them in, they +will rise to the occasion and contribute."[3] + + [3] The Messiah Home for Children, 4 Rutherford Place, New York + City, the actual analogue of the Home in which the girls of the + Amen Corner was interested, is greatly assisted in its good work + by circles of King's Daughters in different parts of the United + States. These circles intend to unite in a fair to be given in New + York City immediately before the holidays, and they invite other + circles of King's Daughters, and any nimble-fingered, warm-hearted + girl to whom this greeting may come, to aid them in this + enterprise. Any donations may be sent to the Home in care of the + matron, Miss Weaver. + +"I think something of the kind might really be arranged," Winnie +replied. "The Hornets are sure to be equally fertile in expedients. I +foresee that the plan will be a great success, and it has one admirable +feature--it will reunite us all in New York next winter for a week at +least, and I wonder what will happen after that." + + "I do not ask to see + The distant scene; one step enough for me," + +said Adelaide softly, quoting from "Lead, Kindly Light," her favorite +hymn. There was something strangely vibrant in her tone. I knew without +looking that Adelaide was on the point of tears, but I was at a loss to +understand the reason. + +The rest of us had had our fits of hysterical weeping at the idea of +parting from one another, but Adelaide was always so superior to any +weakness of that sort. What could be the matter? + +Our great, last school day, so paradoxically called commencement, came +at last. The exercises were in the evening, and we of the Amen Corner +and many others of the girls would not leave the school until the +following morning. + +We received our diplomas in the school chapel, which had been +beautifully decorated for the occasion. Buttertub's father, who was a +friend of Madame's, addressed us at some length as we stood before him +on the platform. I remember that Adelaide never looked more peerless, +nor Milly more bewitching; and that Winnie, mischievous as ever, found +a rose bug on her bouquet and could not forbear dropping it on +Commodore Fitz Simmons's bald head. The Commodore was in full uniform +and had been shown to a front seat just beneath the platform. I think +Winnie really meant to snap the rose bug at Stacey, but the projectile +fell short of its aim. Then the sweet girl graduates in clouds of mull +and chiffon, drifted into the school parlours, and there was a +reception, and Adelaide and Milly were besieged by battalions of +friends, but I was quite lonely and awkward, and held my bouquet and +rolled diploma stiffly, until Winnie caught me about the waist and +whirled me off for a little dance, for Madame had permitted this. +After the dance there were refreshments in the dining-room, and we all +went down, with the exception of Adelaide, who was on the reception +committee, and had been stationed in the front parlour to receive any +tardy guest. I met Professor Waite bringing up an ice as I went down +the stairs, and Milly drew me into a corner, her eyes dancing with +mischief as I entered the supper-room. + +"Something is going to happen," she said to me mysteriously. "I have +given Professor Waite his opportunity, and if he doesn't seize it and +propose I shall never forgive him. I saw him moving around here, looking +bored to death, and I asked him to please take an ice to Adelaide, who, +I happened to mention, was all alone in the parlour. He seized the idea +and the ice simultaneously. I saw resolve in his eye, and now we must +keep people down here as long as we can." + +"What shall we do with Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong and Jim?" I asked. "They +are all so proud of Adelaide they will be with her in a moment." + +"Winnie is in the plot and has special care of them. Jim thinks there +never was quite so jolly a girl as Winnie. They are discussing the +cabinet now. Mrs. Armstrong thinks that some one of us may be a +somnambulist and have hidden the things in our sleep." + +"What a strategic little girl you are, Milly! What made you think of +this opportunity for Professor Waite?" + +"Oh! that was the way Stacey found his chance, you know. Speak of +angels----How nice of you, Stacey, to bring me that salad. I am +positively dying for something to eat. Wasn't the Bishop too longsome +for anything? I thought I should expire, and I was wild to get across +the stage at Winnie, whose back hair was coming down. No, I shall not +tell you what we were saying about you. Do get me some chicken salad. I +can't endure lobster;" and as the obedient Stacey ambled briskly away, +Milly confided to me: "Do you know, Tib, Adelaide is beginning to care +for Professor Waite? What makes me think so? Oh, I know the symptoms. +She was packing so late last night that I nearly fell asleep, but not +quite, for just as I was dozing off I saw her drop on her knees before +her trunk with her face in a great white handkerchief, and while I was +wondering where she ever got such a great sheet of a thing, it suddenly +dawned upon me that it was the silk muffler which Professor Waite +wrapped around her burned hands the night of our Halloween scrape. +Suddenly it seemed to occur to her that I might be looking, and she +turned to look at me, but I had my eyes shut and was snoring like an +angel. Of course angels snore, Stacey Fitz Simmons. Did you ever catch +an angel asleep? and if not what right have you to make fun of me? Dear +me, there is the Bishop starting to go upstairs, and they don't need him +a bit--as yet." + +Milly darted across the room, planted herself squarely in the Bishop's +way, and exerted her powers of entertainment to such effect that Stacey +became blindly jealous, though Buttertub had not come with his father, +apparently having had quite enough of Madame's young ladies and their +entertainments. + +And meantime, how was Professor Waite thriving with his wooing? Adelaide +told me long afterward, so long that it was too late for any word of +mine to set all right, and filled my heart with pity, not alone for the +Professor, but, alas! for Adelaide also. + +Professor Waite offered her the ice, which she took and thanked him very +sweetly, though he had dripped it awkwardly upon her dress. Then, as +Adelaide began to eat it, he inconsistently took it away from her, +saying, "Don't eat now, I have something important to say to you, and I +want your entire attention." + +"Oh! certainly. What is it?" Adelaide replied, knowing exactly what he +wished to say, and determined to prevent his saying it. + +"Miss Adelaide, I began to say what was on my mind last Halloween----" + +"Oh! yes, and pardon me for interrupting you, but you remind me that I +must return your muffler, which I have kept all this time. I will get it +now," and Adelaide tried to slip by him and out of the door. + +"No, you must not get it now," the Professor exclaimed, barring her way +with his extended hand in which he still held the dish of ice-cream. "I +must speak to you, Miss Adelaide. I may never have another opportunity." + +"In that case do set down that ice-cream, for you are spilling it over +everything." + +The Professor obeyed her. + +"See," she added pathetically, "you have nearly ruined the front of my +gown----" + +"But that is nothing," he asserted, "and you must not try to divert me +from my purpose by calling my attention to such a trifle. These little +subterfuges are unworthy of you, Adelaide. You know what it is that I +wish to say and you must hear me." + +Thus driven into a corner Adelaide looked him squarely in the eyes, and +braced herself for the attack. + +"You know that I love you, Adelaide?" + +"Yes, I know it." + +"That I have loved you from the first moment that I saw you--desperately, +hopelessly?" + +"Thank you for saying that, Professor Waite; it would have been wicked +in me to have given you hope. I never meant to do so. I am glad that +you have not misunderstood me. And since you give me credit for not +encouraging you, rather for striving to keep you from this avowal, why +have you spoken? I would so gladly have spared you the pain, the +humiliation of a refusal." + +"You have not allowed me to finish what I was saying. I loved you at +first hopelessly for I saw that you scorned me; but lately you have not +scorned me. You have pitied me; you have been very kind and considerate; +your manner has wholly changed, and I believed that your feelings had +changed also." + +Something in Adelaide's honest eyes flamed up as he spoke. She could not +even look a lie, though she tried hard to do so. + +"I am right," he cried triumphantly, "you have changed! You love me? +Adelaide, you love me!" + +His arms were almost about her, but she kept him off. + +"It is impossible, Professor Waite. It can never be," she replied +solemnly. + +"Never is a long day. I will not urge you, or hasten you. I will be +patient and wait, for you have changed, and you will love me wholly by +and by. It is our destiny. God meant us for each other. I cannot + + Make thee glorious by my pen + And famous by my sword, + +but I can do it with my brush, and I will spend my life painting you, +Adelaide. Art and Love! It is too much for mortal man to possess and +live." + +"Be content with art," Adelaide replied gently. "It is a great gift, and +must console you, for I cannot be your wife." + +"Cannot? Why not?" + +"I will tell you. You think you love me, but it will pass. I regard you +very highly, but not above duty. The feeling which I have for you, +Professor Waite, cannot be love, since it is perfectly easy for me now +to give you up----" + +"No," he assented; "if that is true you do not love me." + +"Listen! The reason that it is easy for me, is not that I do not respect +and admire you; not that I am not grateful to you, and do not suffer in +giving you pain; not that I might not come to care still more for you, +but because I know that a far tenderer heart than mine is wholly yours; +that some one else, who richly deserves your affection, loves you with +an utter self-abnegation of which I am incapable----" + +"I know of whom you speak," he cried impatiently, "but she is a child, +and will outgrow this fancy. God knows that I am innocent, Adelaide, of +having ever deluded her foolish little heart." + +"All too innocent; you might have treated her more kindly!" + +"What! When I can never love her?" + +"Never is a long day. You have said so. You are going away. Try to +forget me and to love her, and when you return again two years hence to +America----" + +"When I return she will be married; she will, at least, have outgrown +this silly dream." + +Adelaide shook her head. "Promise me that you will do as I ask; that you +will go and ask her when you come again." + +"And if she refuses me, as she certainly will, may I come to you for the +reward of my obedience?" + +Again the tell-tale light flashed in Adelaide's eyes, but she only said: +"She will not refuse you." And in the hall Milly's voice was heard in a +high key, with the best of intentions, announcing the return of the +guests from the dining-room, as she replied to some banter of Stacey's: + +"Indeed, Stacey Fitz Simmons, I never change my mind--never." + +"Good-by," said Adelaide. + +Professor Waite raised the _portière_ for her to pass. "You are very +cruel," he murmured. + +"You will thank me for this some day," she said, and the curtain of an +impenetrable fate fell between them. + +Milly seized my arm a few moments later. "I don't understand it at all," +she said, "but Adelaide has certainly refused Professor Waite. I met +him just now in the hall, and he glared at me like a maniac. I was +positively afraid of him. I ran in to speak to Adelaide, but others had +entered before me, and she only took my hand and squeezed it tight, +while she talked with the Bishop. And Tib, she was as white as a sheet." + +While making allowances for Milly's exaggerations, it seemed probable to +me that her deductions were correct. Something unusual had happened, for +when we went to our rooms we found that Adelaide had already retired for +the night, and had taken Cynthia's empty room, leaving a note for Milly +saying that she had a headache and would rather be alone. + +If we had known, Milly and I, that Adelaide had put from her a love +whose dearness she only realized after its sacrifice, we might have +saved her years of heroic self-abnegation, and so have frustrated God's +plan for making her a resolute, generous, and noble character. + +But we did not know it, and the two girls who loved each other so dearly +looked into each other's eyes at parting, and thought that they read +each other's souls there, and yet misunderstood the reading as +completely as if they had been utter strangers. + +It was fortunate, shall we not say providential, that Adelaide occupied +Cynthia's room that night, and that she was so disturbed that she could +not sleep? for toward morning she noticed a bright light shining through +the transom over the door. Her first thought was that the thief was at +work at the cabinet, and stealing cautiously from her bed she peered +through the key-hole. There was no one near the cabinet, and throwing on +a wrapper she softly opened the door. The room was vacant and the light +which she had noticed streamed in from the window. On looking out what +was her horror to see that the rear of the house was in flames. The fire +had originated in the kitchen, and was making its way toward the front +of the building. Her presence of mind did not desert her. She stepped to +Milly's room, wakened her gently and told her what was the matter, and +then her clear voice rang out, "Fire, fire!" as she hastened to Madame's +room, sounding the telegraphic alarm in the corridor as she went. How +differently people behave during a crisis like this! With the exception +of Adelaide, I think we all lost our wits to a certain extent. Milly, +although wakened so gently, was quite frightened out of hers. She +dressed herself with extreme deliberation, heating her curling irons +in the gas jet and crimping her bangs very prettily. She put on one +high-buttoned boot and one Louis Seize slipper, but was particular about +her gloves--fastening every button--and came to me to be helped with her +graduation dress, which laced in the back. + +Winnie was also greatly excited. She donned a diminutive blazer tennis +jacket over her nightgown, and seeming to consider herself in full +dress, rushed off to awaken Miss Noakes, carrying a small pitcher of +ice-water in her hand with which to help extinguish the fire. Having +forcibly entered Miss Noakes's room, she emptied her pitcher in the face +of that indignant woman. I was not much better. Possessed with the idea +that I must save things, I dragged "the commissary" from under my bed, +and filled it with an absurd collection of useless articles--old school +books, empty pickle jars, the tidies from the chairs, all the soap from +the wash-stand, a soap stone which my mother had insisted on my having +as a remedy for cold feet; this I carefully wrapped in my flannel +petticoat to avoid breakage. I then tossed in the globes from the gas +fixtures, and finding that the cover of the trunk would not go down, +sat upon it, crushing the frail glass globes to atoms. It was at this +juncture that Milly came out to have her dress laced, and I was so dazed +that I obeyed her. Adelaide entered a few moments later, and, spreading +a blanket on the floor, opened the door leading into the studio for the +first time since our initial escapade of the school year. Her intensity +of feeling gave her the strength required to push the heavy chest aside, +and she hastily collected all of Professor Waite's sketches and studies, +wrapped them in the blanket, and descended the turret stairs with them. +Managing--how, she never knew--to burst open the door at the foot, and +to carry the heavy package through the crowd which had now collected +across the park to the Home of the Elder Brother, where Emma Jane +received them. Winnie meantime had returned from her life-saving +expedition, and assisted me in tumbling the commissary out of the +window, following it with every other piece of furniture in the room. +We had some difficulty with the cabinet, but finally our united efforts +succeeded in toppling it over the balcony, narrowly missing crushing a +fireman who was coming up the escape to order us to stop throwing out +the furniture, as the fire had been extinguished. + +"How provoking!" was Winnie's first exclamation. "All this excitement +for nothing!" The fire had merely burned out the interior woodwork of +the kitchen; but had it not been for Adelaide's prompt alarm, it was +impossible to tell how much damage or even loss of life might have +ensued. On ascertaining that there was no longer any danger, Adelaide +attempted to carry back the pictures, but found herself quite unable to +do so, and a procession of four of the Home boys was formed to bring +them. + +Adelaide begged us all to promise not to tell Professor Waite of her +attempt to rescue his property, and as we were all very much mortified +by our own absurd performances, we readily complied with her request. + +It was late in the morning when we bethought ourselves of picking up +our shattered property, which Winnie and I had tossed into the yard. +Fortunately, our trunks of clothing had been so heavily packed that +they had not shared this fate. We descended and viewed the heap of +wreckage with dismay. Cerberus came out to aid us, and, removing the +broken lounge and table, discovered the old oak cabinet an almost +unrecognizable jumble of carved panels, for after it had fallen the +lounge had descended upon it with the force of a catapult. + +Winnie and I picked up the panels, lamenting loudly over the mischief +which we had done. + +"No great harm, after all," said Adelaide consolingly. "The panels are +only separated at the joints; the wood is so hard that they have not +really broken," and then she gave a little cry: "Winnie, what does this +mean? Here is your essay!" + +"Has Giovanni de' Medici returned it?" I asked. + +"It would seem so," Winnie replied, in great excitement. "See, girls, +here is every bit of the stolen money! The ghost has kept his word, and +has returned it after his confession was read publicly." + +"Where did you find it?" I asked, utterly mystified. + +"Right here, in the drawer to which we had lost the key, just under the +upper part of the cabinet. You remember it has been locked since the +very first day of school." + +"But is the money all there?" + +"Yes; your forty-seven dollars, and the sixty from the Catacomb Party +for the Home." + +"How did it ever come there?" + +"That is what I am trying to find out. You know it is my mystery; and, +girls, I have it! This sliding writing shelf which we pulled out to +write upon is really the floor of the cabinet, on which Tib deposited +her treasures. When you pull it out you rake everything upon it into the +drawer below." + +"It must be," said Adelaide, "that some one pulled out that writing +shelf before each of those mysterious disappearances." And when we came +to review the circumstances, we remembered that it had been so in every +instance. The lost money and essay had simply been dropped into the +drawer below. All that had seemed so inexplicable was now made plain, +and in our very last hour together--for, as we carried the fragments +around to the turret door, we saw that the express man had come for our +trunks, and noticed the Roseveldt carriage waiting behind a hansom, +which had just driven up to the main entrance. On the steps Madame was +parting tenderly from Miss Noakes, who was in travelling costume, and +Mr. Mudge sprang from the interior of the hansom to assist her to a +place beside him. Catching sight of his well-known features, Winnie +impulsively waved the drawer of the cabinet and darted across the lawn. + +"No wonder I could not discover the thief," he exclaimed testily, as +Winnie showed the mechanism of the sliding shelf. "The cleverest +detective could not have done that when there was no thief to discover. +But, my dear young lady, pray do not detain us; Miss Noakes and I have a +particular engagement for this very minute at the Church of the Blessed +Unity." As he spoke he dodged an old shoe which the astute Polo +projected from the studio window, and springing into the hansom drove +rapidly away. + +If there had been any doubt as to these indications we would have been +fully enlightened on finding the announcement of their marriage in our +next mail; but the truth was evident to all. + +Madame listened to us with a smile. "It was kind of you, Winnie," she +said, "not to solve your mystery earlier and so take away the excuse for +Mr. Mudge's frequent calls." + +"I shall have the dear old cabinet put in order again," Adelaide said, +"and I shall keep your essay in the drawer, Winnie, for I shall always +believe that you were right, and that there was a ghost." + +And so with tears and embraces, and with vows never to forget, and to +meet again, and to write often, the old delightful school life and Witch +Winnie's Mystery came to an end together. + + +THE END. + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: Obvious printer's errors have been silently + corrected. Otherwise spelling, hyphenation, interpunction and + grammar have been preserved as in the original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak +Cabinet, by Elizabeth W. 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Champney + +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: Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet + The Story of a King's Daughter + +Author: Elizabeth W. Champney + +Illustrator: C. D. Gibson + J. Wells Champney + +Release Date: June 4, 2011 [EBook #36313] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY, OR *** + + + + +Produced by eagkw, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="647" alt="Cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<h1>WITCH WINNIE’S MYSTERY</h1> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="400" height="583" alt="Witch Winnie" title="" /> +</div> + + +<h1><span class="lg1">Witch Winnie’s Mystery</span><br /> + +<span class="sm2">OR</span><br /> + +THE OLD OAK CABINET<br /> + +<span class="sm1">THE STORY OF A KING’S DAUGHTER</span></h1> + +<p class="tp"><small>BY</small><br /> + +<big>ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY</big><br /> + +<small>AUTHOR OF “WITCH WINNIE,” “VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD,” ETC.</small></p> + +<p class="tp">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY C. D. GIBSON AND<br /> +J. WELLS CHAMPNEY.</p> + +<p class="tp">NEW YORK<br /> +<big>DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY</big><br /> +PUBLISHERS</p> +<hr class="l1"/> + + +<p class="tp2"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1891,<br /> +BY<br /></span> +<big>DODD, MEAD & COMPANY.</big></p> + +<p class="tp2"><i>All rights reserved.</i> +</p> +<hr class="l1"/> + + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr><td align="right"><span class="sm3">CHAPTER</span></td><td class="col2"> </td><td align="right"><span class="sm3">PAGE</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> </td><td class="col2">Introduction,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td class="col2">The First Escapade of the Season,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td class="col2">The Cabinet,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td class="col2">The Robbery,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td class="col2">Trouble in the Amen Corner,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td class="col2">L. Mudge, Detective,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td class="col2">Halloween Tricks,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td class="col2">A State of “Dreadfulness,”</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td class="col2">In the Meshes of a Golden Net,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td class="col2">“Polo,”</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td class="col2">The Catacomb Party</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td class="col2">A False Scent,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XII.</td><td class="col2">The Inter-Scholastic Games,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td><td class="col2">Polo is Shadowed,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td><td class="col2">The Clouds Part,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_304">304</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XV.</td><td class="col2">The Old Cabinet Tells its Story,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVI.</td><td class="col2">The Mystery Disclosed,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_354">354</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + + +<p>For those who have not read the first volume +of this series, “Witch Winnie, the Story +of a King’s Daughter.”</p> + +<div>We four girls, +<ul class="lsoff"><li>Adelaide Armstrong,</li> +<li>Milly Roseveldt,</li> +<li>Emma Jane Anton,</li> +<li>Nellie Smith,</li></ul> +had been chums at boarding school.</div> + +<p>(Let it here be explained that although my +name is Nellie, I am never called anything but +Tib by my friends.)</p> + +<p>We occupied a little suite of apartments in +the tower, consisting of a small study parlor +from which opened two double bedrooms and +one single one. Our family was called the +Amen Corner, because our initials, arranged +as an acrostic, spelled the word Amen, and +because we were a set of little Pharisees, prigs, +and “digs,” not particularly admired by the +rest of the school, but exceedingly virtuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +and preternaturally perfect in our own estimation.</p> + +<p>This was our status at the beginning of our +first school year together, and the change that +came over us, owing to the introduction into +our circle of Witch Winnie, the greatest scape-grace +in the most mischief-making set of the +school, the “Queen of the Hornets,” has already +been told. A quieting, earnest influence +acted upon Winnie, and a natural, merry-hearted +love of fun reacted on us, and we were +all the better for the companionship.</p> + +<p>The greatest practical result outside the +change in our own characters was the formation, +by the uniting of the “Amen Corner” +and the “Hornets,” of a Ten of King’s Daughters, +who founded the Home of the Elder +Brother, for little children. This institution +was adopted by our parents, who formed themselves +into a board of managers, but left much +of the working of the enterprise in our hands.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +The Home prospered during the first year of +its existence in a truly wonderful manner. It +was undenominational and unendowed. No<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +rich church or wealthy man stood behind it. +It was entirely dependent on the efforts of a +few young girls, and on the voluntary subscriptions +of benevolent people. But it grew +day by day. Little ripples of influence widened +out from our circle to others. During +the vacation our ten separated, and at each of +their homes they formed other tens, who +worked for the same object. Every one who +visited the Home was interested in its plan of +work, which was to help the poor without pauperizing +them; to aid struggling women whose +husbands had died, or were in hospitals or +prisons, and who could have no homes of their +own, by providing them with a substitute for +the baby farming, so extensively carried on in +the tenement districts, by offering them, on +the same low terms, a sweet and wholesome +shelter for their little ones. Some wondered +why we charged these poor women anything; +why the <em>half</em> charity was not made a free gift. +But wiser philanthropists saw the superior +kindness of this demand. The women whom +we wished to aid were not beggars, but +that worthy, struggling class who, overburdened, +but still desperately striving, must sink +in the conflict unless helped, but who still +wished to do all in their power for their children,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +and brought the small sum asked for +their board with a proud and happy self-respect.</p> + +<p>One of our own members, Emma Jane Anton, +on graduating at Madame’s, became matron +of the Home, assisted by dear Miss Prillwitz, +formerly our teacher of botany, from +whose heart this beautiful thought had blossomed.</p> + +<p>The Home was just across the park from +the school building and we frequently visited +it; but though we were all deeply interested +in this sweet charity, it did not interfere +with our studies or with a great deal of girlish, +innocent fun. Since Winnie had become my +room-mate we had lost much of the prestige +which was formerly the boast of the Amen +Corner, and after Emma Jane left the little +single room, Madame, feeling that our influence +had done much for Winnie, sent another +of the “Hornets” into our midst.</p> + +<p>We had accepted and adopted Winnie with +all our hearts, for her many lovable qualities, +and above all for her genuine good fellowship +and affectionate nature, but Cynthia Vaughn +was a very different character. There was +nothing but enjoyable fun in any of Winnie’s +tricks; Cynthia’s were mean and malicious.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +We never liked her, and she openly showed +her scorn of Winnie and of me, while she +fawned in a hypocritical manner, striving to ingratiate +herself with aristocratic Adelaide and +with gentle Milly, who was the wealthiest girl +at Madame’s.</p> + +<p>We were no longer the best behaved set in +school, and an acrostic formed from our initials +could not now be made to spell anything; but +the name “Amen Corner” clung to the little +apartment, and Madame still looked upon us +with favor. She knew that Adelaide and +Milly, Winnie and I, were all, beneath our +mischief, true-hearted, earnest girls, and she +charitably hoped for great improvement in +Cynthia.</p> + +<p>There was one person who did not believe +in us—Miss Noakes, our corridor teacher. She +believed that Winnie was filled with all iniquity +and that Adelaide was far too attractive to be +allowed the confidence which Madame reposed +in her. It was Miss Noakes’s great grievance +that she could never discover the least approach +to a flirtation in Adelaide’s conduct. +I believe that she fairly gloated with anticipated +triumph when Madame engaged a handsome +young artist to take charge of our art +department, and that from this time she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +watched and peeped and listened with an industry +which would have done credit to a better +cause. She seemed to argue that as no lover +of the beautiful could fail to appreciate Adelaide’s +beauty, therefore our artist must admire +Adelaide, and in this deduction she was not +far from the truth, but she ought not to have +taken it for granted that Adelaide must be +equally pleased with her admirer. How her +espionage tracked us through several innocent +tricks and capers, and was finally foiled by our +beloved Winnie; how the great mystery of +the robbery for a time brought doubt and suspicion +between four dear friends who would, +and did, go through fire and water for one another; +and how, in spite of doubt and jealousy +and trouble, our love and devotion for one another: +burned brightly and steadily on to the +end of the school year, and into the life beyond—this +little book will tell.</p> + +<p>That the events which I am about to relate +may be better understood, I subjoin a plan of +the “Amen Corner.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/gs02-h.jpg"><img src="images/gs02.jpg" width="400" height="314" alt="Plan of the AMEN CORNER" title="" /></a> +<span class="center"><span class="smcap">Plan of the</span> <b>AMEN CORNER</b></span> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<h1>WITCH WINNIE’S MYSTERY.</h1> + +<hr class="l2"/> + + +<h2>CHAPTER I.<br /> + +<small>THE FIRST ESCAPADE OF THE SEASON.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image1"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 301px; height: 140px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 250px; height: 190px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in1"><span class="upper">Girls!</span>” +Winnie +exclaimed +excitedly +as we entered +our +study parlor +after recitation, +“I am wild with +curiosity to +know what they +are doing in the +hospital. All +the morning, +while I have +been trying to study, there has been the +greatest thumping and bumping going on in +there. I wonder whether they are chaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +down an insane patient, or if the ghostly +nurses are having a war dance.”</p> + +<p>“Why didn’t you look and see?” Cynthia +Vaughn asked, pointing to the transom over +a locked door, which formerly opened from +our parlor into the hospital ward.</p> + +<p>Madame had made abundant provision for +sickness in the original arrangement of the +school building. A large sky-lighted room +had been set apart as an infirmary, and a +little suite of rooms in the great tower adjoining +as the physician’s quarters. But it was +rare indeed that any one was ill at Madame’s, +and when a pupil was taken sick, her parents +usually took her home at once. So the +doctor, having nothing to do but to hear the +recitations in physiology, preferred not to +reside in the school building, and the pretty +suite of rooms, consisting of a parlor and three +bedrooms, was assigned to us, and the hospital +proper was used as a trunk room. Winnie +always maintained that ghosts of medical +students experimented there in the night +watches on imaginary cases of vivisection, +that corpses were embalmed, and shrieks and +howls were to be heard, in the wee small +hours, while phantom lights fumed blue on +the other side of the transom, and sickly odors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +of ether and other drugs penetrated through +the keyhole. We all laughed at Winnie’s +phantasms, but there were none of us so brave +as to care to visit that room after nightfall. +The trunks looked too much like coffins, and +there were dresses of Madame’s sewed up in +bags made of sheets, and suspended from the +roof, which had the uncanny look of corpses of +people who had hanged themselves.</p> + +<p>It was broad daylight now, and we were +not at all nervous, and Cynthia remarked +scornfully, “Winnie has told us so many of +her bug-a-boo stories that she has come to +actually believe in them herself. She dare +not for her life look through that transom to +see what occasions the noise in the hospital.”</p> + +<p>“You dare me to do it?” Winnie asked, +confronting Cynthia with flashing eyes.</p> + +<p>“Don’t, Winnie,” I pled. “We have no +right to peep.”</p> + +<p>Winnie hesitated.</p> + +<p>“I told you so,” Cynthia said provokingly. +“She dares not look. It is only a lumber +room. The noise was probably made by some +cat chasing a rat around.”</p> + +<p>“It would take a whole army of cats to +make the noises I have heard,” Winnie replied +hotly, at the same time rolling Adelaide’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +great Saratoga trunk in front of the door.</p> + +<p>“There it goes again!” and as a loud +hammering re-echoed through the adjoining +room, she sprang upon the trunk. The transom +was still too high for her to reach. +“Quick, girls, something else,” she exclaimed, +and Milly dragged the “Commissary Department” +from its retirement under my bed.</p> + +<p>The “commissary” was a small, old-fashioned +trunk, which had belonged to my +great-grandmother. It was covered with cow-skin, +the hair only partially worn off, and +studded with brass-headed nails which formed +the initials of my ancestors. It was lined with +newspapers bearing the date 1790, and was +altogether a very quaint and curious relic. Its +chief interest to us, however, lay in the fact +that it had come to us from my home filled +with all the good things that a farm can produce +and a mistakenly soft-hearted mother +send. There were mince pies and pickles, a +great wedge of cheese, a box of honey, pounds +of maple-sugar, tiny sausages, a great fruitcake, +jars of pickled peaches, ginger snaps, +walnuts and chestnuts, pop-corn and molasses +candy, and what Milly called the <cite>interstixes</cite> +were filled in with delicious doughnuts. It +was a treasure house of richness upon which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +we revelled in the night after the gas was +turned out and we all met in our nightgowns, +and formed a semicircle sitting on the floor +around the register, while Winnie told the +most deliciously frightful ghost and robber +stories.</p> + +<p>Then, it was that the “commissary” yielded +up its contraband stores and we ate, and +shivered, partly with cold and partly with delightful +terror inspired by the rehearsal of +legends for which Winnie ransacked, during +the day, the pages of the detective Vidocq and +Poe’s prose tales.</p> + +<p>Then if a mouse did but squeak in the deserted +hospital ward, or the shuffle of Miss +Noakes’s slippers was heard in the corridor outside, +we all scuttled incontinently to our beds, +and Winnie snored loudly, while Milly buried +her head beneath the blankets. Miss Noakes +occupied a large room opposite the hospital. +She was a disagreeable, prowling teacher and +we had nicknamed her <em>Snooks</em>.</p> + +<p>The “commissary” being now carefully +poised upon the curved top of Adelaide’s +trunk, Winnie mounted upon it, and found +that it was exactly what was needed, as it +brought her face just on a level with the +transom.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> + +<p>“O girls!” she exclaimed, “the trunks are +all gone, and they are making the room over +into a studio. And that handsome man that +sat at Madame’s table yesterday at dinner is +in there hanging pictures. I wonder if he is +an artist and is going to teach us. My! he is +looking this way,” and Winnie crouched suddenly. +The movement was a careless one, and +the commissary slid down the sloping cover of +the trunk upon which it rested, striking the door +with its end like a battering-ram, and with such +force that the rusted lock yielded, and the +commissary, with Winnie seated upon it, swept +forward, like a toboggan, far into the center of +the hospital.</p> + +<p>It was strange that Winnie was not hurt, +but she was not; and before the astonished +artist could quite comprehend what had happened, +she had picked herself up, scampered +back into our room, and we had closed the +door behind her, and were fastening it to the +best of our ability by tying the knob to Adelaide’s +trunk by means of a piece of clothes-line +which had formerly served to cord the +commissary.</p> + +<p>At first we laughed long and merrily over +the adventure, but by degrees its serious aspects +were appreciated.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the first place, Milly suggested dolorously +that the commissary had fallen into the hands +of the enemy, while Cynthia Vaughn drew attention +to the fact of the broken lock.</p> + +<p>“However you girls will explain that to +Madame is more than I know,” she remarked +maliciously.</p> + +<p>“<em>You</em> girls!” Winnie repeated indignantly, +“as if you were not as much concerned in it as +any of us.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed,” Cynthia exclaimed scornfully, +“if I remember rightly, it was Milly who +brought the commissary from its retirement, +Tib who balanced it so judiciously, and Winnie +who dawned so unceremoniously on that +strange man in the other room. I had absolutely +nothing to do with the affair.”</p> + +<p>“You were the instigator of it all,” I retorted +hotly. “If you had not dared Winnie +to do it she would never have tried to look +in.”</p> + +<p>“That is like you, Tib,” Cynthia replied +icily, “to get into a scrape and then lay the +blame on some one else.”</p> + +<p>“I take all the blame,” Winnie exclaimed +loftily. “If inquisition is ever made into this +affair, I and I alone am responsible,” and then +she uttered a little shriek and scampered into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +her own bedroom, for some one was knocking +at the door, which we had just attempted to +fasten.</p> + +<p>“Who is there?” I asked, with as much +boldness as I could muster; “and what do you +want?”</p> + +<p>“I am Carrington Waite, the new Professor +of Art, and I would like to return property +which has been most unexpectedly introduced +into my studio, unless it is possible that the +articles to which I refer were intended as a +donation.”</p> + +<p>We all laughed at this sally, and made +haste to unfasten the door, whereupon Professor +Waite handed in the commissary. He +had a pleasant face, and there was a merry +twinkle in his eye as he said: “I tried to +bundle everything in, but the trunk collided +with my box of colors, and you may find rose +madder in your jam, while the pickle jar actually +seemed to explode, and showered pickles +all over the studio. I have no doubt I +shall find them along the cornice when I hang +the pictures on that side of the room. The +doughnuts, too, flew in every direction. Some +rolled under the cabinets, and a mince pie applied +itself like a plaster to the back of my +neck. A bottle of tomato catsup was emptied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +on one of my canvases, and made a fine impressionistic +study of a sunset. I am afraid I +stepped on the cheese, but I believe everything +else is all right.”</p> + +<p>He looked about him with interest, and +asked, “Where is the heroine who performed +this astonishing acrobatic feat? I trust she +was not hurt. It must have been a thrilling +experience. Is it a customary form of exercise +with you young ladies?”</p> + +<p>We did not deign to reply to these questions, +but I opened the commissary and offered +the artist some of our choicest dainties. He +accepted our largess, and retired with polite +invitations for us to be “neighborly” and “to +call again.”</p> + +<p>“Not in just that way,” I replied, and I +entreated him, if possible, to repair the broken +lock. He examined it carefully.</p> + +<p>“I am afraid,” he said, “that it will require +a locksmith to do it thoroughly, but I can +make it look all right, and you can screw a +little bolt on your side which will fasten the +door securely.”</p> + +<p>We thanked him and he was about to close +the door, when Adelaide, who was the only +one of our circle who had not had a part in +the escapade, entered the room hastily from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +the corridor. “O girls,” she exclaimed—but +stopped suddenly as she caught sight of the +open door and the young artist. At first her +face showed only blank surprise, then, as she +told herself that this must be a joke of Winnie’s, +who was fond of masquerading in costume, +she remarked with dignity.</p> + +<p>“Really, this is quite too childish; where did +you ever get that absurd costume? You look +too ridiculous for anything——”</p> + +<p>Cynthia Vaughn shrieked with laughter.</p> + +<p>The artist bowed, but colored to the roots +of his hair and closed the door, while Milly +threw her arms around Adelaide, laughing +hysterically, Winnie appeared from behind +her door also laughing, and I vainly attempted +to explain matters.</p> + +<p>“What a mortifying situation,” Adelaide +remarked, when she finally understood the +case. “I must apologize for my rudeness, +and I am sure I would rather put my hand in +boiling water than speak to that man.”</p> + +<p>“I am sure I only wish that I may never +see him again,” said Winnie. “Nothing in +this world could induce me to join the painting +class, and if there is one thing that I am +profoundly grateful for, it is that I have no +talent for art.”</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER II.<br /> + +<small>THE CABINET.</small></h2> + +<div class="image2"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 207px; height: 70px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 140px; height: 180px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in1"><span class="upper"> +Winnie’s</span> queer +toboggan ride was +innocent enough in +itself but it brought +in its train many unforeseen +circumstances, chief among +which was the affair of the +old oak cabinet.</p> + +<p>This cabinet stood in our +study parlor, in the corner +diagonally opposite the +door leading into the new +studio, and was used as a depository of the +funds of all the occupants of the Amen Corner.</p> + +<p>The cabinet was always left locked and +there was but one key to it, which was kept +in the match-box, well covered with matches. +Only we five knew its hiding place, or the +fact that the cabinet was used as a bank. We +had agreed that it was best to keep this a +secret among ourselves—and it was so kept<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +until the day after the robbery, weeks after +Winnie’s escapade. We intended to follow +Professor Waite’s advice and buy a bolt for +the door, but what was everybody’s business +was nobody’s business, and whenever we went +shopping there were so many errands that we +forgot it, or some other girl, or one of the +teachers was with us, and it would have been +embarrassing to explain why the bolt was +needed.</p> + +<p>The door, as has been explained, opened outward +from our parlor into the studio. Professor +Waite had placed a heavy carved chest against +it on his side, so that there was no danger of +its flying open, and we had uncorded the knob +and rolled Adelaide’s trunk back to her bedroom. +No one occupied the studio at night, +and, though I spent several hours there during +the day, I always entered the room by its +corridor door, and we never thought when we +locked our own corridor door at night how +easily any one so minded could push aside the +chest and enter our apartment from the studio.</p> + +<p>That the contents of the old oak cabinet +on the night of the robbery may be understood, +an explanation of the finances of the +different occupants of the Amen Corner is +possibly now in order.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + +<p>Adelaide’s father and mother had gone West +for the winter. Mr. Armstrong was an able +financier, and he wished to make Adelaide a +thorough business woman. She was eighteen +years old and she might be a great heiress +some day, if his wealth continued to accumulate, +and he wished to accustom her to the +management of money.</p> + +<p>He had given her the year before a model +tenement house, built after the most approved +principles, on the site of Richetts’ Court, previously +occupied by one of the worst tenement +houses in the city. The new building contained +accommodations for ten families; the +sanitation was perfect; there were no dark +rooms, but bath rooms, fire escapes, and provision +for every necessity. A good janitor, +Stephen Trimble, occupied the lower apartment +and looked after the order and comfort +of the building, and every month Adelaide, +attended by one of the teachers, went +down and personally collected her rents, and +listened to the complaints and requests of +her tenants. There were few of either, and +as a general rule the pay was prompt, for the +rent was low, and Adelaide did all she could +to oblige her tenants, having a small drying +room built for the laundress, Mrs. McCarthy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +who had contracted rheumatic fever from +hanging out her wash on the roof and so exposing +herself to the icy winds, when over-heated +from the steaming tubs. Adelaide had +no stringent rules against pets. She caused +kennels to be built in the court for several pet +dogs, and added some blossoming plants to +Mrs. Blumenthal’s small conservatory in the +sunny south window. Noticing that the +Morettis were fond of art, and had pasted +cigarette pictures on their walls and driven +nails to suspend some gaudy prints of the +virgin and saints, she had a narrow moulding +with picture hooks placed just under +the ceiling in every sitting-room. She patronized +all their small industries as far as it +was in her power, and interested her friends +in them; having her boots made by the little +shoemaker on the top floor, who was really a +good workman, but had been turned away +from a prominent firm, as they had cut down +their list of employees. Her underclothing +was made by the little seamstress on the third +floor back. She gave each of her tenants a +Thanksgiving dinner and a substantial present +on Christmas Day, and only allowed those to +be evicted whose flagrant misbehaviour showed +that nothing could be done for them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> + +<p>From the income of this building her father +had insisted that Adelaide must pay all her +expenses. As Madame’s boarding school was +a fashionable one, the margin left, after the +payment of tuition, to be divided between +dress and charity, was not very large.</p> + +<p>Mr. Armstrong knew that Adelaide’s weakness +was a love for beautiful clothing; that +she delighted in sumptuous velvets, in the +sheen of satin, and the shimmer of gauze. +Her regal beauty would not have been over-powered +by a queen’s toilette, but she adorned +the simplest costume, and set the fashion in +hats for the school season.</p> + +<p>Mr. Armstrong also knew that Adelaide +was very tender of heart, and that if left +entirely to herself she would gladly have +opened the doors of her tenement house +freely to unscrupulous and undeserving people; +that she would have easily credited every +woeful story, and have remitted rents when it +would have been no real kindness to do so. +He therefore pitted these two weaknesses +against each other. “We will see what comes +of it at the close of the year,” he said. “She +may become a grinding, close-fisted proprietress, +screwing the last possible dollar out of +the poor to lavish it on her own personal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +adornment, but I hope better things of Adelaide +than that. It would be more like her, I +think, to go to the opposite extreme—dress +like an Ursuline nun and take nothing from +her tenants; but let us hope that she may be +able to strike the golden mean.”</p> + +<p>It was a hard thing to do, and Adelaide +went without a new winter cloak until nearly +Christmas time, waiting for the Morettis to +pay up an arrearage; and only consented to +the turning out of a shiftless family who occupied +the best apartment, and were three +months behind hand, because the tuition for +the first term at Madame’s would be due in a +few days, and a respectable wood engraver +offered to pay two months in advance. It +was hard, because she did not wish to spend +all the money on herself. She was as interested +as any of us in the Home of the Elder +Brother, and longed to contribute more generously +to it; but since these poor people were +her tenants, they were in some sense her own +family, and she felt that charity began at +home. Often I know that Adelaide denied +herself as really, in not being more lenient, +as her tenants did to scrape together their +monthly rental. She was a generous girl to +her friends, and before her father had made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +this arrangement she deluged us all with her +presents. Milly, who had unlimited credit +at several stores, kept up this pernicious +custom of lavishly giving presents of flowers +and candies. It was hard for Winnie and +me, who were in moderate circumstances, +not to return them, but doubly so for Adelaide—who +entreated her to desist, as we all +did, but without avail. Milly was incorrigible. +“You don’t seem to understand,” +Winnie said to her at Christmas time, “that +the receipt of a gift which one cannot return +in kind is a bitter pill to a sensitive nature.”</p> + +<p>“No,” replied Milly, “I don’t understand +anything of the sort. Adelaide always translates +my Cæsar for me. You help me with my +algebra, and Tib as good as writes my compositions. +I couldn’t return any of those favors +‘<em>in kind</em>,’ and they are pills that are not the +least bit bitter to me——”</p> + +<p>“It’s of no use, Adelaide,” laughed Winnie, +“we must let Milly have her own way. It is +such a pleasure to Milly to give that we will +sacrifice our own feelings and bear the infliction.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Armstrong had given Adelaide an old +oak cabinet, beautifully carved in the style of +the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +with architectural columns, caryatides, +scroll work, and arabesques. The upper cupboard +of this cabinet was used as a strong box +to hold the funds of our little circle. The +interior was divided into pigeon holes and +shelves, and the door was provided with a +curious key with a delicate wrought-iron +handle.</p> + +<p>Adelaide had given each of us a compartment +in this little safe, but when its entire +contents were counted there was rarely much +money kept here, for Adelaide had a bank +account, and after collecting her rents usually +deposited them at the bank before returning +to school, paying all her debts by cheque. +Milly, as before explained, had her running +accounts charged to her father,—a book at +Arnold’s, at the florist’s, the confectioner’s, the +dressmaker’s, stationer’s, etc.,—but her supply +of ready cash was never equal to demand, and +though she could telephone for a messenger +and order a coupé at any time, she was +always in debt to the other girls, and I have +frequently lent her postage stamps and paid +her car fare.</p> + +<p>Mr. Roseveldt had a horror of entrusting +funds to young girls with no limitation of the +way in which they were to be spent; he felt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +that in looking over the shop-keeper’s accounts +he knew exactly how much Milly expended, +and for what the money went. But his plan +was a mistaken one; and the perfect freedom +which Adelaide enjoyed was training her in a +sense of responsibility, while Milly was becoming +unscrupulous as to waste, where waste was +encouraged, and frequently ordered a coupé +when the street car would have done just as +well, or rang for a messenger to save a postage +stamp.</p> + +<p>Winnie and I, the two poorer girls, were +the ones who usually had money in the safe. +Winnie received a moderate allowance from +her father outside of her tuition, which he +sent directly to Madame. As soon as the +cheque arrived, she cashed it and placed the +new, crisp bills in separate envelopes labelled, +“Personal expenses,” “Charity.” She was +very generous, but she had a horror of debt, +and she never expended the funds in the +latter envelope until she had received another +remittance. As Winnie abhorred +sweets, and would rather any day have +gone to the dentist’s than the dressmaker’s, +and as she had a supreme contempt for display +of any kind, the charity envelope was +always full, and she had usually a comfortable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +margin in personal expenditure to lend or +bestow on others. Winnie had always been +generous, but this quality of foresight had only +come to her during the past year in her work +as a member of the finance committee of the +Home of the Elder Brother.</p> + +<p>My own case was different from that of the +others. My father was a Long Island farmer, +and my allowance, though meagre as related +to my necessities, was liberal when compared +with his own income. Miss Sartoris, Madame’s +former drawing teacher, had boarded +with us one summer, during which I had +sketched with her, and she had persuaded +father that I possessed a talent for art and +had taken me back with her to Madame’s. +So far I had easily led all the art students, +and my studies, although abounding +in faults, presumptuous and immature, were +considered by the school as something quite +remarkable. During the past summer a young +man of engaging address, and otherwise +irreproachable honesty, had stolen our beloved +teacher, and Miss Sartoris, now Mrs. Stillman, +was known to Madame’s no more. When +the school reorganized in the fall, Madame +engaged me to take charge of the art department, +temporarily, until she could provide herself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +with a more competent instructor. We +had a small, crowded studio, with a poor light, +but the class was large. I did the best I +could, but we sorely needed ampler accommodations, +and a head whose ability in his profession +should be unquestioned. Both were +now provided. Carrington Waite was a +young artist fresh from the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">École des Beaux Arts</i> +at Paris, and he brought to us the training +traditions of the schools, and the latest +European ideas in art.</p> + +<p>There were very few girls in the school sufficiently +advanced to understand his instruction, +but they flocked into the studio and +listened with undisguised admiration to words +that might as well have been uttered in an +unknown tongue. Poor little Milly gazed at +him in a rapt, adoring way, without ever comprehending +what he said. The tears came to +her eyes and rolled swiftly down her cheeks +when he told her that it was manifestly absurd +to draw a full face seen from the front with its +nose in profile, but she smiled a brave little +quiver of a smile while he reviled her work, +and thanked him as though he had uttered the +most fulsome compliments.</p> + +<p>Even Winnie had felt the wave of influence +and joined the class in spite of her assertion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +that she had no taste for art and never wished +to see Professor Waite again. Only Adelaide +held firmly out and would none of him. +Winnie was not at all afraid of the Professor, +and seemed to devote herself especially to +making his life miserable. When he informed +her that she must join the “preparatory +antique” section and draw in charcoal, she +calmly explained that she “perfectly loathed” +casts, and she had purchased an outfit of oil +paints and intended to devote herself at once +to color. Strange to say, Professor Waite +humored her and gave her some of his landscape +studies to copy. She was never contented +with reproducing these faithfully, but +always “improved” upon them, as she audaciously +expressed it.</p> + +<p>It was a common thing for Professor Waite +to remark, when he sat down before Winnie’s +easel, “Well, this is about the worst atrocity +you have yet committed.”</p> + +<p>Winnie, standing behind him, would make +eyes at the rest of the girls, and remark penitently, +“I am very sorry.”</p> + +<p>“You look sorry,” Professor Waite replied, +on one occasion.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see how you can tell how I look,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +Winnie answered, “when you are sitting with +your back to me.”</p> + +<p>I do not know whether Milly’s denseness or +Winnie’s impudence was the more irritating +to Professor Waite. Winnie resented his +severity to Milly and was always more provoking +whenever he had grieved her pet and +left her sobbing in a mire of charcoal and +tears.</p> + +<p>“You give me more trouble than a three-week’s-old +baby,” Professor Waite had remarked +to poor Milly, and Winnie had retorted +spitefully, “I wish you had to take +care of one—I guess you would find a difference.”</p> + +<p>Winnie’s sauciness and Milly’s dulness, combined +with that of many of his other pupils, +drove the Professor to despair after a week’s +trial. He told Madame, as I learned later, +that he must give up the position, as her pupils +were all “too hopelessly elementary.”</p> + +<p>Madame was disappointed. Her art department +had always been an attractive feature, +and since the name of Professor Carrington +Waite, late of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Académie des Beaux Arts</i>, +had appeared in her circulars, many had joined +the school purely for the sake of the studio<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +instruction. Madame explained this to the +young artist.</p> + +<p>He ran his fingers through his hair in despair. +“Of what manner of use is it for me to +remain?” he asked. “There is only one pupil +sufficiently advanced to gain anything from +my instruction, and that is Miss Smith. The +others made as much advance, perhaps more, +under her teaching as they have under mine.”</p> + +<p>A happy thought came to Madame. “If I +engage Miss Smith as your assistant, Professor +Waite, perhaps she can translate your ideas +into terms which will be intelligible by the +students of lower intelligence or advancement, +and possibly she can so enlighten some +of them that they can profit later by your personal +teaching.”</p> + +<p>This plan struck Professor Waite as practicable. +He now only visited the studio for an +hour each morning, during which time he criticised +the work which had been done under my +supervision during the previous day. The +new arrangement was an excellent one for me, +for I profited by all his remarks, listening to +them with the keenest attention, and thus received +thirty lessons during the hour instead +of one. As I had but three other studies, and +these were in the senior class, it was possible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +for me to give the necessary time by preparing +all of my lessons in the evening. It was unremitting, +incessant work, but my health was +excellent, and art was my supreme delight. +Moreover, Madame had offered me a salary +of three hundred dollars beyond my school +expenses, and it was perfect joy to be able to +relieve father of this burden. I had a high +ambition to go abroad some day and study +art in Paris, and I wished to save as much as +possible of my salary toward this purpose. I +had the lower compartment in the safe, and +here I laid away every dollar that I could +spare, limiting myself in everything but my +subscription to the Home of the Elder Brother; +but for this outlet I would have grown +niggardly and avaricious. The same charity +which made Winnie prudently retrench her +propensity to lavish expenditure, and take +thought carefully for the morrow, kept me +from utter selfishness and penuriousness by +keeping one channel of generous giving open +and pulsing freely toward others.</p> + +<p>Cynthia Vaughn’s affairs were kept closely +to herself. We sometimes fancied that she +pretended to greater wealth and consequence +than she really possessed. Certainly, if the +sums of which she frequently spoke of receiving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +were at her disposal she was a veritable +miser; for her subscription to the Home was +the smallest of any girl in the King’s Daughters’ +Ten; the presents which she ostentatiously +bestowed upon Adelaide and Milly were +cheap though showy, as was her own clothing.</p> + +<p>The treasures which she committed to the +cabinet safe were carefully locked in a small +japanned tin box, the key of which she kept in +her pocket-book, and she was the only one of +us whose belongings within the safe were so +protected. We had perfect confidence in one +another, and our funds lay open to the observation +or handling of any one possessing the +pass key in the match box. It is needless to +say that up to the night of the robbery our +security had been inviolate.</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER III.<br /> + +<small>THE ROBBERY.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image3"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 302px; height: 100px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 230px; height: 260px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in5"><span class="upper">Adelaide</span> +led the +school in +more respects +than in the style +of hats, and in the +Amen Corner she +reigned as absolute +queen.</p> + +<p>It may seem +strange that this +was so, for Winnie +was the genius of +our coterie. She +was perhaps too +active and restless. She seemed born to be a +leader, but the leader of a revolt, while Adelaide +had the calm assurance of a princess who +had no need to assert her rights, but to whom +allegiance came as a matter of course. Even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +Winnie was her loyal subject and delighted in +being her prime minister.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of Winnie’s fondness for +reading and telling detective stories. It really +seemed as if in so doing she was preparing +us for the events which followed, and the time +when every one of us felt that she was a special +detective charged with the mission of +finding a clue to a great and sorrowful mystery.</p> + +<p>It all came about through the robbery.</p> + +<p>On the eve of my birthday it so happened +that there was an unusual amount of money +in the little safe. Adelaide had returned from +collecting her rents too late to deposit her +funds in the bank. She looked very much relieved +as she slipped a roll of bills, amounting +to nearly one hundred dollars, into her pigeon-hole, +and turning the key, deposited it in the +match safe.</p> + +<p>Winnie had that morning cashed a check +just received from her father, and had brought +back from the bank some crisp, new notes, +with which she filled her envelopes for the +coming month. Cynthia had ostentatiously +and yet mysteriously dropped some silver dollars +into her cash box, and even Milly had laid +aside an unwonted sum, for her father had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +called at the school and contrary to his usual +custom had given her five bright ten-dollar +gold pieces. Milly seemed very happy as she +slipped them into her snakeskin and tucked +it into her own particular corner of the safe.</p> + +<p>“Unlimited pocket money this month, eh! +Milly?” I asked.</p> + +<p>Milly laughed and shook her head.</p> + +<p>“Don’t know that I am obliged to account +to you for everything,” she said, saucily, but +the sting was taken out of the speech by the +kiss with which it was immediately followed, +and I more than half suspected that Milly intended +one of those gold pieces as a birthday +present for me.</p> + +<p>Late in the evening I counted over my own +hoard. We were all in the study parlor, with +the exception of Winnie, and as I counted I +looked up and saw that Adelaide and Milly +were regarding me with interest, though their +glances instantly fell to the books which they +had apparently been studying.</p> + +<p>“How much have you, Tib?” Adelaide +asked; “enough yet to buy the steamer ticket +for the ocean passage?”</p> + +<p>“No,” I replied, “only forty-seven dollars as +yet, but I hope to make it before the close of +school.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Of course you will,” Milly replied reassuringly.</p> + +<p>Cynthia laughed raspingly. “You have +almost enough now, if you go in the steerage,” +she sneered.</p> + +<p>Adelaide suddenly threw a bit of drawn linen +work belonging to Cynthia over the money, +which I had spread out in the chair before me.</p> + +<p>“What are you doing with my embroidery?” +Cynthia snapped. “Did you mistake +it for a dust rag?”</p> + +<p>“Natural mistake,” Milly giggled.</p> + +<p>Adelaide lifted her finger warningly. +“Hush!” she said, “I saw a face at the transom; +some one was looking in from the studio.”</p> + +<p>Milly turned pale and clutched my hand, +and we all looked at the transom with straining +eyes. It was almost dark in the studio +and for a few moments we saw nothing but +some one was moving about, for we heard +cautious steps, and a creaking sound just the +other side of the door. Presently a hat cautiously +lifted itself into view through the +transom. It was a broad-brimmed, soft felt +hat of the Rembrandt style, which Professor +Waite sometimes wore. It moved about +silently from one side of the transom to the +other, descended, and appeared again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I never thought that Professor Waite +would peep or listen,” Cynthia whispered.</p> + +<p>“He would not,” I replied aloud. “He +must be at work there hanging pictures or +doing something else of the sort.”</p> + +<p>“Then he would make more noise,” Cynthia +suggested, as the hat continued its stealthy +movements.</p> + +<p>“It may be some one else who has put on +the Professor’s hat as a disguise,” Milly +gasped.</p> + +<p>“That was the reason I covered up the +money,” Adelaide replied, in a low voice. +“You had better put it away, Tib.”</p> + +<p>I hastily bundled my money into the safe +and locked the door, and we sat for some +moments quietly watching the transom, but the +spectre did not come again. Winnie entered +a few moments later and seemed greatly +interested by our accounts of the incident.</p> + +<p>“Do you suppose that it could have been +one of that band of Italian bravos who has +climbed up on the fire-escape and who intends +to murder us?” she asked with an assumption +of terror.</p> + +<p>“Hush,” I whispered, pulling her dress, and +pointing to Milly whose eyes were staring with +fright.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed Winnie; “can’t +you tell when I’m joking? It was Professor +Waite. Of course it was Professor Waite. +He has been in love with Adelaide ever since +she complimented him on his appearance at +their first meeting. He is dying for a glimpse +at her fair face, and as she won’t join his +painting class he relieves his yearning heart by +gazing over the transom.”</p> + +<p>There was more joking, and Milly’s fears +were as quickly quieted as they had been +raised. Professor Waite had undoubtedly +been at work in the studio, I insisted, and I +knocked on the door and called his name.</p> + +<p>No answer, and I tried to open the door, +but the chest held it firmly in place. “Shall I +look over the transom?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“For pity’s sake do not repeat Winnie’s experience,” +Adelaide begged.</p> + +<p>“Then I will look in by the corridor door,” +I said resolutely, and I stepped down the hall +and into the studio. The door was open, so +was Miss Noakes’s door just opposite, and +that watchful lady sat rocking and reading beside +her little centre table. She was not too +much absorbed, however, to give me a keen +questioning glance—but she said nothing, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +as assistant teacher in art I had a perfect +right to frequent the studio.</p> + +<p>The moon was shining in clearly through +the great window, and every object was distinctly +visible, but there was no one in the +room. I opened the door leading to the turret +staircase and listened; all was silent, and I +screwed up my courage and descended, finding +the door at the foot safely locked. The great +Rembrandt hat lay on the chest in front of +our door, and the Professor’s mahl-stick, or +long support on which he rested his arm when +painting, leaned beside it. I could not see +any change in the disposition of the pictures +on the wall, or other indications of what the +Professor had been doing, if indeed it was the +Professor, and I did not know of his ever before +visiting the studio at that hour. As I +came out I noticed that Miss Noakes was +still rocking before her open door, her slits of +eyes glancing sharply up.</p> + +<p>“Have you seen any one go into the studio +lately?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“No one has passed through the corridor +since the beginning of study hour, with the +exception of Miss Winifred De Witt.”</p> + +<p>“Then this door must have been open all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +the time, and you have seen no one in the +studio?”</p> + +<p>“I have observed no one. Why do you +ask?”</p> + +<p>“We thought we saw the shadow of a man +on the transom.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense—it is silly to be frightened at +nothing. It was probably Professor Waite. +If you young ladies would interest yourselves +less in the movements of that young man it +would be much more becoming in you.”</p> + +<p>I turned away quickly, not relishing her +tone, and looked at the corridor window, which +opened on the balcony of the fire escape. It +was securely fastened. I was puzzled, but did +not wish to alarm Milly, and I now reported +only what seemed to me the favorable aspects +of the case.</p> + +<p>No one there, all quiet and in order; lower +turret door opening on the street, and the +corridor window opening on the balcony, both +locked, showing that no one could have come +up the stairs or the fire escape. Miss Noakes, +on guard, had seen no one enter the studio.</p> + +<p>Of course it must have been Professor +Waite.</p> + +<p>“Of course,” Winnie echoed. “Tib knows +him too well to be mistaken even when she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +only sees him through a glass darkly. But +think what that devotion must be, which leads +a man to keep guard before his lady’s door at +night,” and Winnie shouldered an umbrella +and paced back and forward, singing in a deep +bass voice, “Thy Sentinel am I.”</p> + +<p>Winnie was irresistible and we all laughed +merrily at her pranks. But for all that I +locked the cabinet with unusual care that +night and Adelaide tried the door afterward +to see that it was securely fastened. While +doing so, she noticed something which we had +not hitherto discovered—a little steel ornament +like a nail head at the foot of one of the +columns. Touching this, a small shelf shot +forward. It had evidently been intended for a +writing table, for it was ink-stained. Adelaide +pushed it easily back into its place and its edge +formed one of the three moldings which +formed the base of the upper division of the +cabinet.</p> + +<p>“That is a very convenient little arrangement,” +Adelaide said. “I wonder that I have +never noticed it before.”</p> + +<p>I soon fell asleep, and slept long and dreamlessly. +I awoke at last with an uneasy feeling +of cold. It was quite dark, and putting out +my hand I found that Winnie’s place at my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +side was vacant. I started up alarmed, and +called her name. There was a little pause, +during which I stumbled out of bed and +groped vainly for a candle, which usually +stood on a stand at the head of the bed. Not +finding it, I noticed a beam of light streaming +from beneath the closed door leading into the +study-parlor, and I remembered vividly that +when I went to bed I had left that door open, +as I always did, for more perfect ventilation. +I stood hesitating, vaguely alarmed, when the +door was opened from the parlor side and +Winnie stood before me holding a lighted candle—her +face white as that of a spirit.</p> + +<p>“How you frightened me!” I exclaimed. +“What is the matter?”</p> + +<p>“Nothing, I merely went out to see whether +the door into the corridor was locked. I was +lying awake, and I could not remember seeing +any one lock it.”</p> + +<p>She spoke mechanically, and her voice +sounded strange and hollow.</p> + +<p>“Why, you did it yourself!” I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“Did I? Strange I should forget.”</p> + +<p>“You found everything all right, didn’t +you?”</p> + +<p>“The door was not only locked but bolted,” +Winnie replied; but her manner was constrained,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +and her hand, which I happened to +touch, was cold as ice.</p> + +<p>“Come right to bed,” I exclaimed, “you +have taken cold.”</p> + +<p>Winnie did not reply, but her teeth were +chattering. She curled up in bed and buried +her face in her pillow. I was sleepy and soon +dozed off, but I was vaguely conscious in my +slumbers that I had an uneasy bedfellow; that +Winnie tossed and tumbled and even groaned. +When I awoke she was sitting, dressed, on the +window sill. It may have been the early light +but her face looked gray, and there was a +drawn, set expression about the mouth which +I had never seen there before.</p> + +<p>“What is the matter?” I asked again.</p> + +<p>She replied, in that cold, unnatural voice, +“Nothing.”</p> + +<p>Just then there was a hard knocking at my +door. Milly shouted joyfully, “Many happy +returns of the day,” and swooping down upon +me buried me with kisses. Adelaide followed, +and in a more dignified manner congratulated +me on my birthday. “No flowers, Tib,” Milly +explained, “because you set your face against +that sort of thing, and I was determined to +let you have your own way on your birthday. +Winnie, what makes you sit over there like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +a sphinx, with your nose touched with sunrise? +Come here and help us give Tib her seventeen +slaps and one to grow on.”</p> + +<p>“Tib will find my present on the stand at +the head of the bed,” Winnie replied, and turning, +I discovered an envelope labelled, “For +the European tour.” It contained a crisp new +bill of twenty dollars.</p> + +<p>Adelaide and Milly looked at each other +significantly, and Milly exclaimed:</p> + +<p>“You dear, generous thing! Why didn’t +you tell us that you meant to do anything so +lovely? Adelaide and I would have helped.”</p> + +<p>Winnie did not reply to Milly, but answered +my thanks with a close hug.</p> + +<p>“Come,” said Milly, “and put your money in +the safe, and see how much you have now +toward the fund.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! That’s easy to calculate,” I replied, as +I slipped on my clothing, “twenty and +forty-seven—sixty-seven dollars exactly.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide coughed significantly. “Tib seems +to be very confident that two and two makes +four,” she remarked. A suspicion that both +Adelaide and Milly intended to help me suggested +itself to my mind, and I hastened my +dressing and unlocked the safe. As I did so +Cynthia opened her door. “Oh! it’s you,” she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +exclaimed; “whenever I hear any one at the +safe I always look to see who it is.”</p> + +<p>She did not retreat into her room, but stood +in the door watching us with a singular expression +on her disagreeable face. Adelaide +and Milly were looking over my shoulder. +Milly apparently vainly endeavoring to conceal +a little flutter of excitement. We were all +there but Winnie, who had not left her seat at +the window, when I threw open the door of +the safe and disclosed—nothing!</p> + +<p>The space on the floor where I usually kept +my money, where the night before I had +placed a long blue envelope containing +forty-seven dollars—was empty. The envelope and +its contents gone.</p> + +<p>Milly uttered a little shriek. Adelaide +stepped forward and examined the space, passing +her hand far in, and feeling carefully in +every corner. Then she took out her own roll +of bills from her little pigeon-hole. I counted +them with her, just fifty dollars less than the +sum which I saw her place there. She handed +me a five dollar bill, saying, “Tib, my dear, +my only disappointment is that I cannot give +you as large a birthday present as I had +planned.”</p> + +<p>Milly threw her arms around me, “And I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +can’t give you anything, you darling old Tib. +I am so sorry.”</p> + +<p>“How do you know you can’t?” Cynthia +asked. “You haven’t looked to see whether +you have lost anything.”</p> + +<p>Milly flushed. “If Tib has lost her money, +of course I have mine.”</p> + +<p>“Why, of course? The thief has obligingly +left Adelaide a part of her money; perhaps +yours is all there.”</p> + +<p>Milly opened her purse. It was quite +empty. She closed it with a snap.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see how you knew it,” Cynthia +remarked unpleasantly. “Now I am really +too curious to see whether I have been as +unfortunate as the rest of you.” In spite of +this profession of eagerness she had seemed +to me remarkably indifferent, and she unlocked +her strong box with great deliberation, +manifesting no surprise or pleasure as she +reported “three dollars and fifty-three cents, +precisely what I left there. This shows the +wisdom of my double-lock; the thief evidently +had no key which would fit my strong-box.”</p> + +<p>“Winnie,” I called, “we have had a burglary; +come right here and see whether you +have lost anything.”</p> + +<p>Winnie entered the room slowly, almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +unwillingly, quite in contrast with her usual +impulsive action, and opened her envelopes +before us. “No one has touched my money,” +she said; “here is exactly what I placed in the +envelopes last night.”</p> + +<p>“Did you go to the safe in the night to get +that twenty dollar bill which you gave me this +morning?” I asked.</p> + +<p>Cynthia Vaughn turned and looked at +Winnie eagerly.</p> + +<p>“I kept it out last night,” Winnie replied, +“when I put the rest away. You will remember +that I sealed the envelopes then, and I +find them now unopened.”</p> + +<p>An expression of malice and triumph, such +as I have never seen on the face of any human +being, rested on Cynthia’s countenance.</p> + +<p>“There is something very mysterious +about this,” she remarked, in an eager way. +“The thief has entirely spared Winnie and +me, and has been obliging enough to take +only half of Adelaide’s money. Tib and +Milly lose all of theirs, but Tib’s was money +for which she had no immediate use. So +that she will not feel its loss as much as +Winnie or I would have done, and Milly +has no real need of money at all—I wonder +whether the thief was acquainted with our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +circumstances; if so he or she was very +considerate.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what you mean about Tib’s +not feeling the loss,” Winnie began indignantly, +her glance resting not on Cynthia but on Milly. +“It will be a cruel disappointment to her if she +cannot go to Europe to study, after all.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! that’s not to be thought of,” Milly +replied, feeling herself addressed. “Of course +Tib will go. Something will turn up. The +money will be discovered. Perhaps the thief +will return it.”</p> + +<p>A light flamed up in Winnie’s face. It was +the first pleasant look that I had seen there +this morning. “It must be so,” she exclaimed +eagerly, but very gravely; “let us hope that +the person who took that money was actuated +by dire necessity; that it was simply borrowed, +and that it will be returned.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense,” exclaimed Cynthia impatiently. +“I have no such excuses to make for +a thief, and I am going right now to report +the entire affair to Madame, who will of +course put it in the hands of the police——”</p> + +<p>“The police!” Winnie cried, in a tone of +dismay. “Oh! no, no!”</p> + +<p>“Wait,” said Adelaide commandingly; “that +is not the way we do things in the Amen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +Corner. This is something in which we are +all interested, and the majority shall rule. +Now Winnie, will you please tell us why +the police should not take this matter in +charge? My explanation is that some thief +entered this room last night through the studio +door. Probably it was the very individual who +was watching us last night through the transom.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Not Professor Waite,” Milly exclaimed, +and Winnie started as though about +to speak, but restrained the impulse.</p> + +<p>“No, not Professor Waite, certainly,” Adelaide +continued, “but some one disguised in +his hat. This thief waited until we were all +asleep, and then began to help himself to the +contents of our safe, but was probably +interrupted or frightened by some sound, after +securing Milly’s and Tib’s money, and hurried +away without taking as much as he wished. +That is the simplest, most likely solution, and +it seems to me that the police are the proper +authorities to take the affair in hand.”</p> + +<p>She paused for several moments. We all +chattered together as fast and as loudly as +we could. Then Adelaide rapped on the +table with a nutcracker and said:</p> + +<p>“I shall now put the question. Those in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +favor of reporting this matter at once to +Madame, please say ‘Ay;’ those opposed, the +contrary sign—but first, any remarks?”</p> + +<p>Winnie hesitated. “I do not agree with you +that it is a matter in which we are all equally +interested,” she said slowly. “Tib is the +principal loser. Tib should decide what she +wishes to do. Adelaide’s theory looks plausible, +but it may be wrong. Some member of +this school may have entered through that +door, and taken the money. Whatever is +handed over to the police, goes into the +papers. We do not want to bring on the +school scandal and disgrace, which would follow +the publishing of the fact that one of its +pupils is a thief.”</p> + +<p>“Winnie seems to be very certain that the +thief is a pupil,” Cynthia remarked sneeringly. +“If so, we can trust that Madame will ferret +her out without outside assistance.”</p> + +<p>“My chief reason, however,” continued +Winnie, “for waiting a day or two before reporting +this thing, is the hope that conscience +will lead the unhappy person who has committed +the crime to make restitution. Tib, you +certainly look at the matter as I do. You are +not vindictive; give the wrong-doer a chance.”</p> + +<p>“Certainly,” I said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<p>“The question,” called Cynthia. “Adelaide, +put the question.”</p> + +<p>“Those in favor of reporting at once to +Madame?” said Adelaide.</p> + +<p>“Aye,” from Cynthia, loud enough for two.</p> + +<p>“Aye,” more faintly, from Milly.</p> + +<p>“Those opposed?”</p> + +<p>“No,” from Winnie and from me.</p> + +<p>“A tie,” announced Adelaide. “Then the +chair gives the casting vote. I am in favor of +reporting to Madame, and I think we had better +make the report in a body. There is just +time to see her before breakfast.”</p> + +<p>“I do not see the necessity of our going <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en +masse</i>,” Winnie objected. “Tib, of course, as +the individual who has suffered most, and who +discovered the loss; Cynthia, who seems to +enjoy telling unpleasant things; and Adelaide, +who is strictly just, and the oldest and most +dignified member of the Amen Corner. But +I do not see why you should drag Milly along; +the child has had enough excitement already. +Let her lie down and rest her little head until +the breakfast bell rings. As for me, I’m not +going until I’m sent for. Not even a burglary +shall make me miss my morning constitutional,” +and Winnie quickly equipped herself +for a walk in the grounds.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Milly shall do as she pleases,” Adelaide +said; “there is really no necessity, as you say, +for her to go with us.”</p> + +<p>“I think I would rather go,” Milly said hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>An expression of keen disappointment swept +across Winnie’s face.</p> + +<p>“Come, Winnie,” I said, “you had better +be with us; it looks better.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” she asked hotly.</p> + +<p>“Only that the Amen Corner always yields +to the wish of the majority, and we are in the +habit of standing by one another, even when +we do not quite agree.”</p> + +<p>“Winnie need not trouble herself,” Cynthia +remarked; “we can get on very well without +her. Of course she knows no more about the +affair than the rest of us.”</p> + +<p>The words were innocent enough, but there +was something very sarcastic in the way in +which they were uttered.</p> + +<p>“Evidently you would rather I would not +go,” Winnie said, as though thinking aloud. +“I am sorry to be disobliging, but if that is +the case I believe I will.”</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br /> + +<small>TROUBLE IN THE AMEN CORNER.</small></h2> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">Doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A soul-mist through whose rifts familiar stars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beholding, we misname.<br /></span> +<span class="sign">—Jean Ingelow<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + +<div class="image4"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 246px; height: 110px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 170px; height: 210px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in1"><span class="upper">Milly</span> had been +unhappy for +days.</p> + +<p>And now a +great trouble +fell upon all of us. It +was as though a dense +fog of doubt and suspicion +had drifted in +upon the Amen Corner, +separating dear friends, +so that we could not +recognize each other’s +faces through its dense +folds, and our voices +sounded false and far away as we called and +groped for one another.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>Our interview with Madame was very brief. +I simply stated the fact of the disappearance +of the money, which the other girls corroborated.</p> + +<p>Cynthia began to enlarge on the statement, +but Madame stopped her.</p> + +<p>“I have not time now to investigate this +unhappy affair,” she said. “Indeed, it is +something which will probably require the +assistance of a detective. Do not look so +alarmed,” she added to Milly; “I happen to +be acquainted with a gentleman—in fact, he is +my lawyer—who has all the qualifications of a +very clever detective. I will write, asking him +to call, and to take charge of the case. He will +keep it all very quiet. I am glad that you +have come to me first of all, and I particularly +request that you mention the fact of the robbery +to no one.”</p> + +<p>With this she dismissed us, and we went to +breakfast a little late, feeling very important +in the possession of a mystery. Winnie was +the only one whom this mystery did not seem +to elate. Cynthia, who sat beside me at table, +was overflowing with glee.</p> + +<p>“It is better than the most exciting story +which Winnie ever told us,” she whispered to +me. “Won’t it be fun to follow the unravelling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +of the crime. Of course the detective will +be led off by false clues, and all that sort of +thing, and the real thief will suffer all the +torture of alternate fear of detection and hope +of escape; but the toils will close gradually +about the doomed individual. I shall not disclose +my suspicions till toward the last. Oh! +what fun it will be to watch the development +of the drama. I should think, Tib, that you +would write it up.”</p> + +<p>“Your suspicions?” I repeated. “Do you +really suspect any one?”</p> + +<p>“Why, yes; don’t you?”</p> + +<p>“No indeed!”</p> + +<p>“Then all I’ve got to say is that you are a +lamb. You think every one as innocent as +yourself. Because you have the innocence of +a lamb, you have a corresponding muttony +intelligence.”</p> + +<p>I was very indignant, but I did not show it. +“Whom do you suspect?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“That’s telling,” she replied, “and I said +that I would not tell at this stage of the game.”</p> + +<p>Later in the day, as I left the studio to return +to our study-parlor, I met Winnie coming out. +She had on her hat and cloak and carried my +own. “Come and walk with me,” she said, +“I feel all mugged up, and I need a good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +tramp. Milly is in there trying to take a nap. +Adelaide and Cynthia are at recitation, and if +you will come with me the poor child can get +a little rest.”</p> + +<p>As we marched around the school building +together, I told her of my conversation with +Cynthia. Winnie started.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe she really knows anything +more than we do,” I said. “Cynthia loves to +be important and aggravating. If she really +knew anything she couldn’t keep it in.”</p> + +<p>“Find out whom she suspects,” Winnie +replied. “Cynthia is a real snake in the grass, +and can do a lot of mischief by fastening the +crime on an innocent person. I do not mean +that she would do this wilfully, unless she had +a strong motive for revenge, but she is unscrupulous +as to the results of her actions, and +loves to imagine evil and set forth facts in +their most damaging light. Find out, by all +means, whether she really knows anything +likely to implicate any one.”</p> + +<p>“Cynthia is a hard orange to squeeze,” I +replied. “If she thinks I want to know, she +will delight in tantalizing me.”</p> + +<p>Winnie was silent for a moment. “Find +out whether Cynthia slept soundly all night, +or whether she heard or saw any one in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +parlor. She might have heard me, you know, +when I went out to look at the door.”</p> + +<p>“Sure enough,” I replied. “If that is all I +will get it out of her right away.”</p> + +<p>We returned to our rooms. There was no +one in the parlor. Winnie looked into the bedrooms. +Only Milly sleeping peacefully, and Winnie +stepped to the match box, took the key, and +opened the safe. I do not know what she expected +to find, but she looked disappointed.</p> + +<p>“Did you think the thief would help himself +again in broad daylight?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“No,” Winnie replied shortly.</p> + +<p>At that instant Cynthia entered, flushed, +and as it seemed to me triumphant. “Mr. +Mudge wants to see you, Winnie, in Madame’s +private library,” she announced importantly.</p> + +<p>“Who is Mr. Mudge?” Winnie asked.</p> + +<p>“He is Madame’s lawyer. The keenest, +shrewdest man you ever saw, with little gimletty +eyes that bore the truth right out of +you; and such a cross-questioner! If you +have a secret, he knows it the minute he looks +at you, and makes you tell it, in spite of yourself, +the first time that you open your mouth. +You need not try to keep your suspicions to +yourself, they will be out before you can say +Jack Robinson.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>Winnie gave a little sigh. “And you say +he wants to see me?” she asked, rising with a +palpable effort.</p> + +<p>“Yes, he wants to question us each separately, +to see if our testimony agrees, I suppose. +He asked Madame, as I went in, if she +had kept us apart since the robbery to guard +against any—collision—I think that was the +word!”</p> + +<p>“Collusion,” I corrected.</p> + +<p>“No matter; he meant that we might have +hatched up a story between us, but Madame +assured him that we were all honorable girls +and incapable of such a thing.”</p> + +<p>“Of course,” he replied, “unless they happen +to know or suspect the culprit, and wish to +shield her. In such cases, I have known the +most religious young persons to lie like a +jockey.”</p> + +<p>Winnie left the room, throwing me a look +of piteous appeal as she did so, which I understood +to beg me to find out all I could from +Cynthia. I rocked silently for a few moments, +to disclaim all eagerness, and then said casually: +“I don’t believe you would ever lie to +save a friend.” This in a propitiating tone, +adding to myself, “you would be much more +likely to tell a lie to get one into trouble.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + +<p>Cynthia could not hear the thought, and +she stretched herself luxuriously on the divan.</p> + +<p>“No,” she replied, “I don’t make any pretense +of being good; but I wouldn’t do that. +Whenever the Hornets got into scrapes, I +always told. Madame could depend on me +for that. It is sneaky not to be willing to +take the consequences. Besides, you get off +a great deal easier if you own up; and +others will be sure to throw the blame on +you if you are not smart enough to get ahead +of them.”</p> + +<p>How I despised her. “I wonder if she +thinks she is in danger of being called in +question for this crime,” I thought, “and has +made haste to accuse some one else.”</p> + +<p>“You said you meant to keep your testimony +until the end, so I suppose you did not +tell Mr. Mudge your suspicions,” I remarked.</p> + +<p>“Didn’t I just say that I did tell him?”</p> + +<p>“Well, as they are only suspicions I presume +he paid no attention to them. Lawyers +generally tell witnesses to confine their testimony +to facts.”</p> + +<p>“But I had facts, suspicious facts; not +ideas of my own, but important circumstantial +evidence.”</p> + +<p>“<em>In</em>deed!” I purposely threw as much incredulity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +as I could into the way in which I +uttered the word.</p> + +<p>Cynthia sprang from the lounge, her eyes +flashing with anger. “Yes, <em>indeed;</em> very +awkward facts for your precious friend Winnie +to explain away.”</p> + +<p>“Winnie!” I exclaimed, and then laughed +outright.</p> + +<p>Cynthia was furious. “What do you say to +this Tib Smith? I saw Winnie, with my own +eyes, come into this room in her nightgown, +with a lighted candle in her hand, carefully +close all the doors, and——”</p> + +<p>“Pooh! that’s nothing,” I replied cheerfully. +“I was awake; I saw her, too. She +merely crossed the room to see whether the +corridor-door was locked.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and after that?”</p> + +<p>“Came back to bed again.”</p> + +<p>“There you are telling a fib to save your +friend. She did not go back immediately. I +was awakened by her softly closing my door, I +got up and peeked through the keyhole, and +I saw her open the safe and rummage around +in it for quite a while, undoubtedly possessing +herself of the money. Then she locked it and +hurried back to her room looking as frightened +as the criminal she was.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<p>“It is not so! It is a wicked, cruel falsehood!” +Milly cried, springing into the room. +I had forgotten her presence in the bedroom +and Cynthia of course did not know of it.</p> + +<p>Cynthia was taken aback for a moment. +“I will tell you why I know it was so,” she +said at length. “After Winnie went back to +the room, and before any one else could have +entered the parlor, I examined the safe and the +money was gone.”</p> + +<p>“That proves nothing,” I said; “it was +probably taken before Winnie opened the +safe.”</p> + +<p>“Then she knew of the robbery in the morning +before the rest of you, and never told.”</p> + +<p>“You knew and never told either,” said +Milly.</p> + +<p>“I was waiting for the proper time,” replied +Cynthia. “If Winnie did not take that money +then she suspects who did. If she does not +tell Mr. Mudge her suspicions, she is trying to +shield the guilty person, and the—the shielder +is as bad as the thief.”</p> + +<p>“There is no proverb that says so,” I replied; +“beside, you have proved nothing. If +all that you say is true—and I don’t mind +telling you, Cynthia Vaughn, that I am not +entirely sure of that—if what you say <em>is</em> true,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +you are as deep in the mud as Winnie is in +the mire.”</p> + +<p>“You think Winnie a saint!” Cynthia +sneered. “You don’t half know her. Before +she came to room in the Amen Corner, and +we were both in the Hornets Nest up under +the eaves, she was the Queen Hornet of all. +There was nothing which she would not dare +to do, from letting down bouquets in her scrap-basket +to the cadet band when they serenaded +us, to bribing the janitor to let her slip out at +night and buy goodies at the corner grocery +for our spreads. She was a regular case, and +her pet name all over the school was:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘The malicious, seditious, insubordinate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Disreputable, sceptical Queen of the Hornets.’”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“We know all that,” I replied, “but there are +some things which Winnie <em>could</em> not do. She +could not tell a lie, and she could not steal.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know about that,” Cynthia continued +coldly. “She comes from an uncertain +sort of Bohemian ancestry. You know her +mother was an actress and her father a playwright.”</p> + +<p>Cynthia told this with great triumph, evidently +thinking that we had never heard it.</p> + +<p>“Madame told us,” I replied, “that Mrs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +De Witt was a very lovely woman, who only +acted in her husband’s plays; that she made it +her life purpose to realize and explain her +husband’s ideals: and that he wrote the part +of the heroine especially to suit her, so that +their creations were among the most charming +that have ever been presented on the stage. +They were devoted to one another, and when +she died his heart was broken. He does not +write plays any more, but articles for encyclopædias, +which is an extremely respectable profession.”</p> + +<p>“And you dared prejudice this Mr. Mudge +against our own precious Winnie,” Milly continued. +“You are just the meanest girl, +Cynthia Vaughn, that ever lived! But you +never can make any one believe anything +against her. If, as Tib says, it lies between +you two, we all know who is the more likely +to have done it.”</p> + +<p>Cynthia turned green. “Do you dare to +accuse me?” she hissed.</p> + +<p>“No, Milly; don’t do that,” I cried warningly, +and the overwrought girl burst into a +flood of tears and threw herself into my arms. +“We accuse no one,” I said to Cynthia. “I +trust that you have been equally cautious with +Mr. Mudge.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> + +<p>“What I may have said or may not have +said is no business of yours,” Cynthia replied. +“You have both of you insulted me beyond +endurance, and from this time forth I shall +never speak to any of you. I except Adelaide,” +she added, after a moment’s consideration. +“Adelaide is the only member of the +Amen Corner who has treated me like a lady.”</p> + +<p>“I think it would be pleasanter for you and +for us if you would ask Madame to let you +room somewhere else,” Milly suggested.</p> + +<p>“I shall not go simply because you wish it,” +Cynthia replied. “I shall stay to watch developments.”</p> + +<p>“And, meantime, I believe you said we +were to be deprived of the pleasure of any +conversation with you,” I remarked, rather +flippantly.</p> + +<p>Cynthia turned her back upon me and from +that time kept her word, maintaining a sullen +silence with every one but Adelaide.</p> + +<p>The bell rang for luncheon. The forenoon +had seemed very long, and the afternoon was +simply interminable. Milly left the room with +me. Cynthia did not stir.</p> + +<p>“Do you think she took it?” Milly asked, +nodding back at the parlor.</p> + +<p>“No,” I replied, “she is altogether too gay.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +She evidently enjoys the investigation. If +she were the culprit she would be constrained, +nervous, averse to having the affair examined.” +I stopped suddenly, realizing how +exactly this description fitted Winnie.</p> + +<p>“Adelaide believes,” Milly said slowly, +“that it was some sneak thief from outside +the house. Have you looked about in the +studio for any suspicious circumstances?”</p> + +<p>I replied that I would do so after dinner, +and then, as we passed into the dining-room +together, the subject was dropped.</p> + +<p>Winnie came to the table late and passed +me a note, which I read beneath my napkin.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Mudge wants to question you next. +You are to meet him in Madame’s parlor immediately +after luncheon. Hurry and finish, +so that I can have a minute with you before +you see him.”</p> + +<p>I bolted my dinner, and Winnie sat silently +staring before her, eating nothing. We left +the dining-room five minutes before the conclusion +of the meal, bowing as we passed +Madame’s table, as was our custom when we +wished to be excused before the others. Madame’s +attention was absorbed by the teacher +with whom she was conversing, and we passed +out unhindered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<p>“What did you find out from Cynthia?” +Winnie asked, as we walked toward the Amen +Corner. “Does she suspect any one?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” I replied. “She is perfectly absurd. +It is just as you said; she insists on fastening +the crime on a perfectly innocent person.”</p> + +<p>Winnie drew in her breath. “One of us, I +presume?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Winnie dear. But,” I hastened to +add, for she grew suddenly deadly pale, “she +can do no harm; her suspicions are too manifestly +impossible.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” Winnie chattered; “the +reputation of many an innocent person has +been blasted by mere circumstantial evidence. +What does Cynthia know? What has she +told?”</p> + +<p>“That she saw you go to the safe in the +night.”</p> + +<p>“Me? Then I am the one whom she suspects, +and not—you are sure she saw no one +else?” Winnie laughed a long, joyous laugh. +“I can stand it, Tib,” she said, “I can stand +it. It’s too good a joke.”</p> + +<p>“Of course,” I said, “no one can prove anything +against you. But did you go to the +safe? I didn’t see you do so.”</p> + +<p>Winnie’s face clouded. “Yes, I looked in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +to see if everything was right. Mr. Mudge +asked me if I had opened the safe during the +night. He said that some one of us had been +seen to do it, but he led me to suppose that +he suspected some one else. I knew that he +had his information from Cynthia, and I was +afraid she had seen some one else. I mean—” +and here Winnie corrected herself with some +confusion—“I was afraid that she might have +taken me for some other person, and I was +very glad to acknowledge that I was the one +who had opened the safe. I don’t think that +Mr. Mudge believes that I am the culprit, for +he smiled at me in a very friendly way.”</p> + +<p>“How could he believe such a thing?” I +asked. “It is perfectly nonsensical.”</p> + +<p>“But if he does not suspect me, his suspicions +will probably fasten on some one else. +On you, for instance, or Adelaide,—and I +would rather be the scapegoat than have any +annoyance come to the rest of you.”</p> + +<p>We had reached the Amen Corner, and had +just opened the study-parlor door. Winnie +gave a little cry of surprise. The door into +the studio was open and a strange man stood +looking at the broken lock.</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER V.<br /> + +<small>L. MUDGE, DETECTIVE.</small></h2> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The look o’ the thing, the chance of mistake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All were against me. That I knew the first;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But knowing also what my duty was, I did it.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + +<div class="image5"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 300px; height: 400px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in4"><span class="upper">Why</span>, Mr. +Mudge!” +Winnie +exclaimed, +recovering +herself, +“excuse +me for crying +out, +but really +I did not +expect to +see you +here.”</p> + +<p>“I presume +not,” +the gentleman +replied +dryly. “Under other circumstances +such intrusion would be unwarrantable, but I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +presume you understand that in a case like +this we must question not only human witnesses +but the place itself, and often our most +valuable testimony is of a circumstantial character. +This broken lock, for instance, would +seem to prove that the thief entered through +the studio.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! that,” I cried, “proves nothing; it +has been broken this long while—since the +very beginning of the term.”</p> + +<p>Winnie clasped my hand tightly, and I understood +that she did not wish her escapade +with the sliding trunk explained.</p> + +<p>“Are you sure of that?” Mr. Mudge asked, +looking slightly disappointed. “Even if the +lock was not broken on the night of the robbery, +the fact still remains that an entrance +was practicable here at that time.”</p> + +<p>“Why, of course!” I exclaimed. “It must +have been the man who looked in at the transom.”</p> + +<p>“What man?” asked Mr. Mudge; and I +told the story of the appearance the night +before. Winnie came forward impulsively, as +though she wished to interrupt me, then +seemed to change her mind and walked to +the window, standing with her back to us.</p> + +<p>“And why is it,” asked Mr. Mudge, “that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +neither Miss Cynthia nor Miss Winnie have +mentioned this very suspicious circumstance?”</p> + +<p>“I was not in the room when it happened, +I did not see the man,” Winnie replied, without +turning her head.</p> + +<p>“This thief may have made an earlier attempt +which was foiled,” Mr. Mudge continued. +“It seems to me a little careless that +you did not report the fact of the broken lock +when you first discovered it, and have the fastening +mended.”</p> + +<p>Winnie’s eyes shone with suppressed amusement. +“You think, then, Mr. Mudge, that +some one from the outside committed the +burglary? I am very glad that you have +renounced the idea that any member of this +school could have been guilty of such a +thing.”</p> + +<p>“My dear young lady,” replied Mr. Mudge, +“I never indulge in preconceived ideas, but I +give every possibility a hearing. I have +nearly completed my examination of the +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">locale</i>, but must ask one trifling favor. Will +you kindly lend me all your keys?”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean to say that you are going +through all our things?” I exclaimed, aghast +at the thought that the secret of the commissary +must now be disclosed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + +<p>“A mere matter of form,” he murmured, +extending his hand with persuasive authority. +Winnie delivered her one key promptly, saying, +“I will go and tell the other girls.”</p> + +<p>“Quite unnecessary,” Mr. Mudge replied. +“I have a pass key which opened Miss Adelaide’s +capacious trunk. I have shaken out +all her furbelows and tried to fold them +again as well as I could, but I fear that the +gowns with trains were a little too difficult for +me. Miss Milly’s bureau drawers were in a +wild state of mix: ribbons, laces, gloves, hair +crimpers, dried-up cake, perfumery, jewelry, +chewing-gum, love letters (innocent ones from +other young ladies), a manicure set, a bonnet +pulled to pieces, a box of Huyler’s, fancy +work, dressmaker’s and other bills (which I +have taken the liberty to borrow for a day or +two), dancing slippers and German favors, a tin +box containing marshmallows and a bottle of +French dressing, menthol pencil, pepsum lozenges +for indigestion, box of salted almonds, +bangles, sachet, photograph of Harvard foot-ball +team, notes to lectures on evidences of +Christianity, silver bonbonnière containing +candied violets, programmes of symphony rehearsals, +caramels and embroidery silks +gummed together, a handsome book of etchings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +converted into a herbarium or pressing +book for botany class, and strapped together +by buckling elastic garters around it; fine +Geneva watch, out of order; match box containing +specimens of live beetles, which I fear +I released; pair of embroidered silk stockings, +in need of mending; a diary, disappointing +since it contains but two entries; packet of +letters from home, tied with corset lacing (these +I have borrowed), packet of ditto from a certain +‘Devotedly yours, Stacey, F. S.’ tied with +blue ribbon—these are of no interest to me and +I will not violate their secrets; badge of the +Kings’ Daughters, button of West Point cadet, +a fan bearing some autographs, a mouldy lemon, +a dream book, etc., etc. The more I tried +to examine her affairs the more confused I became, +and I finally dumped them all out on +the floor and then shoveled them back again. +I don’t believe she will ever suspect that they +have been touched.”</p> + +<p>I laughed, but Winnie looked uneasy. “I +think, sir,” she said, “that it is hardly honorable +to carry away Milly’s private letters.”</p> + +<p>“Any objection to having me read yours?” +he asked sharply.</p> + +<p>“None at all,” Winnie replied, at the same +time handing him her little writing desk, “but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +with Milly the case is different. I do not +think Mr. Roseveldt will like it.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Roseveldt will understand the necessity +of the case,” Mr. Mudge replied.</p> + +<p>“Have you looked through Cynthia’s +things?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Yes, first of all. Everything in admirable +order. She sets you other young ladies an +example in point of neatness. And now, Miss +Smith, I will thank you to give me the key to +that small, old-fashioned trunk under your bed. +It is the only one which my pass key will not +fit; the lock has gone out of date.”</p> + +<p>“Any one but a detective could have opened +it without a key,” I replied, somewhat snappishly, +“if they had had the penetration to discover +that the hinges are broken. You simply +swing the lid around this way.”</p> + +<p>“Dear, dear, and so we keep a restaurant, +do we? I believe I now understand the slight +trepidation which you manifested on being +requested to deliver up your keys. Reassure +yourself. I am retained to unravel but one +mystery; any others which may tumble into +my possession during the search will be as safe +as though buried in the grave. I believe +this is all, as far as the rooms are concerned. +If Miss Smith will accompany me now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +to the library, I will take her personal deposition.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge was in the main kind. He did +not alarm me in the least, and asked but few +questions.</p> + +<p>“Have you reason to suspect any one?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>“Very good. Did you see any one in the +parlor the night of the robbery?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Winnie.”</p> + +<p>“But you did not suspect her when you discovered +that the money was gone?”</p> + +<p>“No, Winnie was honest and open as the +day; it was impossible that she could take it.”</p> + +<p>“Hum, your parlor-mate, Miss Vaughn, +does not share your opinion of your friend. +Do you know of any reason for the coolness +which apparently exists between them?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Winnie has frankly given Cynthia her +opinion of certain underhanded performances +of hers.”</p> + +<p>“Such as——”</p> + +<p>“I am not a tale-bearer.”</p> + +<p>“In this examination, Miss Smith, you will +please answer all questions put to you—and +abstain from flippancy. Believe me, I ask +nothing from idle curiosity; nothing which +does not have its bearings on this case.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Cynthia is continually doing things that +exasperate Winnie. She put her muff between +the sheets at the foot of Milly’s bed. When +Milly slipped her foot down and felt the fur +she thought that it was a rat or some wild animal, +and she nearly shrieked herself into convulsions. +Cynthia laughed till she almost +cried, but Winnie was raging with indignation, +and gave her such a scoring that Cynthia has +never forgiven her.”</p> + +<p>“Is that the only source of unpleasantness +between them?”</p> + +<p>“No; such affairs are always coming up,” and +I related the trick of the costumes, which has +been told in the preceding volume. “And +lately,” I added, “Cynthia has been very obsequious +to Milly, and they have been quite intimate. +Winnie has not approved of the friendship. +She told Milly that she did not believe +Cynthia was sincere, but did not succeed in +separating them. Cynthia surmised that Winnie +was not pleased, and taunted her with +being jealous, and Winnie let them proudly +alone, until something happened at Milly’s +dressmaker, when she interfered again, declaring +that Cynthia was going too far, and that +Milly needed some one to protect her.”</p> + +<p>“What happened at the dressmaker’s?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I don’t know exactly. Milly went to the +dressmaker’s rooms last week to have a dress +fitted, and Winnie was with her. She came +back very much displeased, and had a long +talk with Cynthia in her bedroom. As she +came out we heard her say, ‘Downright dishonorable; +as bad as stealing;’ and Cynthia +called after her: ‘I’ll pay you for this; we shall +see who is a thief, Miss Winifred De Witt.’”</p> + +<p>“Hum!” said Mr. Mudge. “The importance +of these little tiffs between girls must +not be exaggerated. They have probably +made it all up by this time.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed they have not,” I replied.</p> + +<p>“Can you give me the address of Miss +Milly’s dressmaker? On second thought, it +is of no consequence. I have it on this bill: +‘To Madame Celeste, Fifth Avenue: For +tailor-made costume in dark green cloth, +trimmed with sable, sixty-seven dollars.’”</p> + +<p>“But that was Cynthia’s dress,” I said.</p> + +<p>“It is charged here to Miss Milly Roseveldt.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” I exclaimed, a light beginning to +break in.</p> + +<p>“And you never suspected what it was that +occurred at the dressmaker’s which displeased +Miss Winnie?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Never, until this moment. Milly has +cried a great deal, but she would not tell her +trouble, even to Adelaide.”</p> + +<p>“Very well. I will step across to Madame +Celeste. No; on reflection I will speak to +Miss Milly first. Will you kindly ask her to +come to me?”</p> + +<p>“Then this is all you wish to ask me?”</p> + +<p>“Thank you, yes. No, one question more. +Can you tell me the exact time at which Miss +Winnie visited the parlor last night? The +young lady herself was very exact on that +point.”</p> + +<p>“That is natural!” I replied, “for the great +clock at the end of the corridor was striking +twelve as she came back to the bedroom. I +thought it never would stop.”</p> + +<p>“That tallies also with Miss Cynthia’s testimony. +She states that she saw Miss Winnie +go to the safe a few minutes before twelve; +that she, Miss Cynthia, lay still until the clock +struck the quarter, and then examined the safe, +finding your money gone.</p> + +<p>“Inference (since Miss Winnie apparently +noticed nothing out of the way when she +looked in): if neither of these young ladies +took it, the robbery must have been committed +during that fifteen minutes.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> + +<p>“That seems hardly possible,” I said, “since +Cynthia, Winnie, and I were all awake during +that time.”</p> + +<p>“It is possible, though not probable. Cynthia’s +bedroom door, opening into the parlor, +was closed. Are you quite certain that you did +not fall asleep before the quarter struck. Did +you hear it?”</p> + +<p>“No, I am not at all certain.”</p> + +<p>“Very good. Then if the thief were +standing in the studio waiting for his opportunity, +he might have slipped in during that +time. Is there any way in which we can +ascertain whether any one was in the studio +between twelve and a quarter past?”</p> + +<p>“I know of no way,” I replied. “There +was no one in the studio at ten o’clock when +I looked in.”</p> + +<p>“Very good; the known quantities are +being gathered in, the unknown ones defined; +the problem becomes simpler. I think we +will be able to solve it soon. Meantime, if +any new developments appear, be so good as +to report them to me.” He rose and bowed +stiffly in token of dismissal. I hurried to +our rooms and found Adelaide and Winnie.</p> + +<p>“Where is Milly?” I cried; “Mr. Mudge +wants to see her next.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Milly has gone to Madame Celeste’s,” +Adelaide answered. “She wanted to pay a bill.”</p> + +<p>“But she had no business to leave the +house until she had given her testimony,” I +exclaimed. “I wonder why Madame gave her +permission.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think Milly asked it,” Adelaide +replied; “and I fancy Milly was not at all +anxious to have this interview with the detective +and merely caught at Madame Celeste +as a way of escape. She is not often in such a +twitter of promptness in settling her accounts; +besides, now I think of it, all her money was +taken. How could she pay Celeste?”</p> + +<p>Winnie looked up from the table on which +her elbows were resting, her head grasped +firmly between her hands as though it ached. +She took no part in the conversation until I +remarked:</p> + +<p>“Well, if Milly thinks to escape Mr. Mudge +by running away to Madame Celeste’s she is +badly taken in, for he is going right over there.”</p> + +<p>“What?” Winnie almost shrieked. “Does +he suspect that she has anything to do with +this miserable business?”</p> + +<p>“Madame Celeste? No, but he wants to +find why Cynthia had her dress charged to +Milly’s account.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>“O Tib, Tib, why did you ever mention +that?” Winnie groaned; “you don’t know +what mischief you have made.”</p> + +<p>“How did you know it, anyway?” Adelaide +asked. “This is the first I have heard of the +matter.”</p> + +<p>“I did not know it,” I replied. “Mr. Mudge +was looking over the papers he took from +Milly’s drawer and he came across this bill for +Cynthia’s dark green cloth dress, charged up +against Milly, and I—I just happened to say +that was Cynthia’s dress——”</p> + +<p>“If you could only have just happened to +hold your tongue,” Winnie exclaimed, springing +from her seat and pacing the floor. “Adelaide,” +she added, “won’t you go to Mr. Mudge +and keep him busy hearing your testimony +until Milly has time to get away from Madame +Celeste’s. That woman is a match for a lawyer +even, but if he happens to meet Milly +there she will be frightened into anything. I +knew there would be trouble when Mr. Mudge +took that bill.”</p> + +<p>“Of course I will go, if you would like to +have me do so,” Adelaide replied, rising, “but +really, Winnie, I can’t say that I at all comprehend +the situation.”</p> + +<p>Winnie gave each of us a look of despair.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +“I didn’t intend you should,” she said, “but +since ignorance bungles in this way I will explain. +Milly has very weakly been getting +things for Cynthia and allowing them to be +charged on her bills. I have remonstrated +with her and she has promised to do so no +more. I told her how wicked it would be to +send these accounts in to her father as her +own, and she has not done that. She has +kept them separate, intending to settle them +whenever Cynthia paid up.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why Cynthia could not have +taken her debts on her own shoulders instead +of entangling Milly,” Adelaide remarked.</p> + +<p>“Simply because Cynthia has no credit. +Madame Celeste would not trust her for a +penny, while she would let Milly run up any +amount. Well, either Cynthia has paid +or Milly has obtained the money in some +other way. One thing is certain, she has it +and she has gone down to pay Madame Celeste; +anxious, as you may well imagine, to get +her feet out of the quicksand and not by any +mischance to have that bill sent home to her +father. Now, don’t you see that if Mr. +Mudge ascertains that Milly has a secret of +this kind, that the next thing he will do +will be to suspect that Milly stole the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +money in order to extricate herself from this +trouble.”</p> + +<p>“Impossible,” Adelaide exclaimed. “Milly +has only to tell where the money came from.”</p> + +<p>“And I have asked her and she will not tell. +It is all right, she assures me, but she can not +or will not tell how.”</p> + +<p>“Silly goose! I will get it out of her,” said +Adelaide. “And meantime there is no need +whatever that she should be even suspected. +She did not do it—and suspicion might as +well start out from the first on the right track. +I will go at once to Mr. Mudge, and enlighten +his benighted mind.”</p> + +<p>“What is your theory, Adelaide?” I cried, +but not before the door had closed behind her.</p> + +<p>“Don’t stop her,” Winnie pleaded. “Time +is precious; Mr. Mudge may have tired waiting +for Milly and have gone. No matter +what her theory is, so long as it takes suspicion +from Milly. I had great hopes that +Cynthia would succeed in making him think I +had done it.”</p> + +<p>“He did have you in his mind at one time,” +I said. “He said, ‘If neither Miss Winnie +nor Miss Cynthia took it, the robbery must +have been committed during the fifteen minutes +between their visits to the safe!’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<p>“He said that?” Winnie inquired, with +interest.</p> + +<p>“Yes, and Winnie, the thing is plain to +me—I believe Cynthia took that money.” +Winnie shook her head.</p> + +<p>“Now just listen to my reasoning. Milly +has been insisting that Cynthia shall pay up. +We know that Cynthia has received no money +lately. She stole it and gave it to Milly, and +made her promise not to tell who gave it to +her. It’s as plain as the nose on my face. +And then,” I continued triumphantly, warming +to my conclusion, “she artfully throws the +suspicions of the robbery on you, as a revenge +for the straightforward talk you gave her. +Haven’t I ferretted it all out well? Isn’t it the +most likely way in the world that it could have +happened? Are you not perfectly convinced?”</p> + +<p>“It is the most likely story,” Winnie replied, +“and so very feasible does it seem that +even I am almost convinced, although I know +positively that it did not happen that way, +even Cynthia must not be unjustly suspected.”</p> + +<p>“How do you know it?”</p> + +<p>“Because Cynthia told the truth when she +said that the money was stolen when she +looked into the safe. It was gone when I +looked in.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Winifred! But you told Mr. Mudge that +it was there.”</p> + +<p>“I told Mr. Mudge that I found <em>my</em> money +just as I left it. It was not touched at all, you +know; but yours, Milly’s, and a part of Adelaide’s, +all that was stolen, was already taken.”</p> + +<p>“But Mr. Mudge did not understand you +so.”</p> + +<p>“That is his own fault.”</p> + +<p>“Did you want him to misunderstand the +situation?”</p> + +<p>“Apparently, Tib; but don’t ask so many +questions. Let him proceed on the assumption +that the robbery was committed in that +fifteen minutes. If any innocent person is +apparently implicated, I will confess. Meantime, +you are shocked to find that I am delaying +the course of justice in order to keep suspicion +from myself.”</p> + +<p>“A thousand times no; you could never act +a lie unless it was to shield some one else. +Was it to shield Milly, and how?”</p> + +<p>“Tib, it breaks my heart—I can’t tell you—I +love her so—I love her—”</p> + +<p>A great fear came over me; Milly had +taken the money and Winnie knew it. But +Milly had lost all her money, and yet that +was a very transparent subterfuge. What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +more natural than that the thief would pretend +to be an innocent sufferer and steal from +herself? And Milly knew before she looked +that there was nothing in her purse. I asked +relentlessly, “Was Milly at the safe during +the night at some time earlier than you and +Cynthia?”</p> + +<p>“Milly will not admit that she was,” Winnie +replied, her manner hardening as she realized +that she had not quite disclosed her secret, +and her determination to guard it returning +with redoubled force.</p> + +<p>“Then why do you suspect it?”</p> + +<p>“I do not suspect it.”</p> + +<p>The fixed despair in her eyes added the +words, “I know it,” as plainly as if she had +spoken them.</p> + +<p>“Did you see Milly take the money?” I +insisted. “Was that what wakened you? And +is that the reason why you wish it to appear +that the safe was intact at the time you examined +it?”</p> + +<p>Winnie covered her face with her hands and +did not reply. I felt that I had divined the truth. +A solemn silence fell upon us both for a few +minutes, then Winnie straightened herself with +the old resolute look in her face.</p> + +<p>“Tib,” she said, “I have told you nothing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +You know nothing from your own personal +observation. Whatever you may <em>think</em> is +purely guess-work, and you have no right to +imagine evil against Milly. She is the sweetest +and dearest girl in our set. She is innocent +and unsuspicious, and so kind-hearted +that she is easily led. She has gone wrong +in some things, terribly wrong; but she is the +youngest of us all and it is Cynthia’s fault, +and I believe she is trying desperately to +get straight again. As for this terrible thing, +you must not suspect her of it. It is your +duty, on the contrary, to try to turn the attention +of Mr. Mudge in some other direction.”</p> + +<p>As she spoke, Cynthia opened the door and +Winnie relapsed into silence. I felt a strange, +dizzy sensation, as if the foundations were +being removed. The more I tried to puzzle +out the affair the more bewildered I became. +There was Cynthia, who believed that Winnie +was the culprit, or at all events was striving +to make Mr. Mudge believe so; and when I +weighed the evidence the case was strongly +against her. Here again was Winnie, who +seemed to believe that it was Milly, and I +knew that the evidence which could shake her +faith in Milly must be overwhelming. I had +made it seem entirely clear to myself that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +Cynthia had done it, and in a blind, unreasoning +way, although Winnie’s testimony had +showed that this could not possibly be, the +suspicion, once started, grew and strengthened. +I watched her as she sat working out +algebra problems with a disagreeable smile on +her face—and I said to myself over and over +again, “You did it, and the truth will come +out at last.”</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.<br /> + +<small>HALLOWEEN TRICKS AND WHAT CAME OF THEM.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image6"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 250px; height: 110px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 180px; height: 170px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in1"><span class="upper">Evening</span> was falling when +Adelaide returned +from +her interview +with Mr. +Mudge.</p> + +<p>“Has not Milly returned +yet?” she +asked, as she entered +the door.</p> + +<p>“No,” replied +Winnie. “Has Mr. +Mudge gone to interview Celeste?”</p> + +<p>“No, he is off on another scent. He has +gone to interview Professor Waite.”</p> + +<p>“What does Professor Waite know about +the matter?” I asked in surprise.</p> + +<p>“Nothing. It only shows the imbecility of +these detectives who insist on pursuing every +impossible as well as every possible clew.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Tell us all about it,” I entreated. “I +should like to know how it was possible to +drag Professor Waite into the business.”</p> + +<p>“Why, through the transom, of course,” +Adelaide replied, and we all laughed at the +absurd suggestion. “The first question that +Mr. Mudge asked was, ‘Have you any +theory or suspicions in regard to this affair, +Miss Armstrong?’ I answered that I had +determined from the first that it was the act +of some sneak-thief, who had watched us, +through the transom, put the money into the +safe.”</p> + +<p>Again Winnie made an involuntary movement +as though about to speak, but restrained +herself, and Adelaide continued:</p> + +<p>“I told him about the face at the transom in +the Rembrandt hat, and he asked me if it was +Professor Waite. I told him that I thought +not. The head looked smaller and the hat +came lower down over the eyes and at the +back than it would have done on the professor. +Besides, the professor has that little pointed +Paris beard, and this face had a smooth chin. +I saw it plainly for a moment in profile. Mr. +Mudge did not seem to be satisfied and made +me admit that I might have been mistaken. +Professor Waite’s beard is such a very immature<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +affair. Then he asked me how an outsider +could have introduced himself into the +studio without coming in at the front door, +which is guarded by the janitor, and coming +up the grand staircase past Madame’s room and +twenty other rooms, all occupied, and likely to +have their doors open in the evening. I told +him that there were two other ways: the fire +escape——”</p> + +<p>“Both the corridor window and our own +were locked on the inside,” I interrupted.</p> + +<p>“He said he found it so—and agreed with me +that the turret staircase was the more likely +entrance. I explained that the spiral staircase +in the turret was built especially for the use +of the physician when this part of the building +was the infirmary, and that in order to +quarantine it from the rest of the school, +there were no entrances to the turret on any +of the other floors—that it led directly from +the studio to the street, and that no one used +it but Professor Waite, who kept the key of +the outer door; that he might have negligently +left this door unlocked, and in that +case a tramp could easily have slipped in, and +as there was no communication with any other +room he would have found himself, on reaching +the end of the staircase, in the studio and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +in front of our door. Mr. Mudge then questioned +me as to Professor Waite’s habits. +Did he usually spend his evenings in the +studio, and were we in the habit of visiting +back and forward in a friendly manner through +the door with the broken lock? This made +me very indignant. Such a thing, I assured +Mr. Mudge, would be contrary to the rules of +the school, and to the instincts of any self-respecting +girl. The door had never been +opened since the lock was first broken, and +even Tib, whose duties required her to be in +the studio during half of the day, always entered +it by the corridor door. As to Professor +Waite, he did not board in the house. I +believed he belonged to several artist clubs—the +Salmagundi, the Kit Kat, and others—and +that he probably spent his evenings there, or +in society, or at his boarding house around the +corner; at all events, he never painted in the +studio in the evening, for I had heard Tib say +that the lighting was not sufficient for night +work. There was a rumor, too, that Professor +Waite was very popular in society; but that +Tib could inform Mr. Mudge much more explicitly +than I on all matters relative to the +professor’s habits, as I had never interested +myself in him, and what he did or did not do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +was of no manner of consequence to me. +This seemed to amuse Mr. Mudge very much, +but he replied politely enough that he had +never for an instant imagined that a young +artist, like the professor, could be anything +else than an object of supreme indifference to +any right-minded young lady, and then he proceeded +to question me more closely than ever. +Though Professor Waite did not usually +spend his evenings in the studio, did he not +occasionally drop in on his way home? Had +we ever heard him ascending or descending the +turret stairs at about midnight, for instance. +I was obliged to confess that I knew of one +instance when he had visited the studio at +that hour, for I had met him on the staircase; +that he was returning from an evening spent +in sketching at the life-class of the Kit Kat +Club, and he had run up to the studio to leave +his drawings and materials before returning +to his room at the boarding house. That it +was very possible that he did this frequently. +Then, of course, he asked me how it happened +that I was going down that staircase at +such an unseemly hour on the occasion when +I met Professor Waite, and I had to confess +all that maddening Halloween business.”</p> + +<p>We all shouted, for this was a particularly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +painful subject with Adelaide. It was the +one practical joke which we had ever had the +heart to play on our queen.</p> + +<p>Such grave consequences attended this Halloween +trick that it is possibly worth while for +me to turn aside from the direct record of the +robbery and devote a chapter or two to a confession +of one of our most serious scrapes.</p> + +<p>It had been suggested by Cynthia and +approved and carried out by Winnie before +the days of the breaking off of their friendship. +Cynthia had a way of suggesting plots for less +cautious people to carry out, whereby they +burned their fingers like the cat in the fable of +the chestnuts.</p> + +<p>The Amen Corner had conducted itself with +praiseworthy propriety after the opening escapade +of the season—that of the roller-coaster +trunk—for the space of a few weeks. But +when Halloween came we all felt the need of +what Winnie called an explosion. We had +been too preternaturally goody-goody, and the +escape valve must be opened. We decided to +celebrate the eve of “antics and of fooleries” +befittingly, and we arranged to bob for apples, +to snatch raisins from burning alcohol, thereby +ascertaining the number of our future +lovers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We tied our garters around our feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crossed our stockings under our head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We turned our shoes toward the street<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dreamed of the ones we were going to wed.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>We poured molten lead into water, striving +to ascertain the occupation of our future husbands +from the forms which it took. Adelaide’s +emblem was something like a letter A, +and we all declared that it was a perfect easel +and quite wonderful; but when we threw apple +peelings over our heads, Milly’s broke into +two sections, remotely resembling a scrawling +C and a W. Milly herself was the first to +recognize the letters and to blushingly declare +that of course it was too absurd, it could not +mean Carrington Waite.</p> + +<p>Adelaide’s younger brother Jim was attending +the cadet school in the city. He admired +Milly exceedingly, as did many of the cadets +who had met her at a fair given at Madame’s, +the previous year, for the benefit of the Home +of the Elder Brother. Stacey Fitz Simmons, +drum major of the cadet band, and the best +dodger and runner of the school foot-ball team, +was also her devoted admirer. The button +which Mr. Mudge had discovered in Milly’s +bureau drawer was not from a West Point +uniform but from Stacey’s; and the foot-ball +team was not the Harvard—but the Cadet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +Eleven. We all tried to find emblems in the +molten lead, or initials in the apple parings, +suggesting the cadets, but Milly would none +of them.</p> + +<p>There was a Mr. Van Silver, much favored +by Milly’s family, a caller at their cottage at +Narragansett Pier, whom Adelaide had met +while visiting Milly the previous summer. +He was principally remarkable for owning a +coach and four-in-hand, and as he had on one +occasion invited Adelaide to a seat on the +box, it was a little fiction of Milly’s that Mr. +Van Silver was her humble slave. But we were +all innocent in the ways of flirtations and, with +the exception of Milly, heart whole and fancy +free, and it was really a difficult thing to +conjure up imaginary lovers—for the occasion.</p> + +<p>The <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pièce de resistance</i> of the evening was +the trick played upon Adelaide. We planned +on our programme that just as the clock +struck the hour of midnight we would all try +the experiment of walking downstairs backward +with a lighted candle in one hand and a +looking-glass in the other. Of course it would +never do for the procession to file down the +grand staircase in front of Madame’s rooms, +but the spiral staircase, secluded in the turret,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +offered peculiar advantages for the scheme. +It communicated with no other floor, only +Professor Waite had the key to the door at the +foot, and he was never in the studio at night. +So the girls believed, until I informed them +that he always came in for a few moments on +Wednesday nights to leave his sketches made +at the Kit Kat—and Halloween that year +happened to fall upon a Wednesday.</p> + +<p>“So much the better,” said Cynthia. “We +will make Adelaide head the procession, and +she will see Professor Waite’s face in her +mirror. It will be too good a joke for anything, +for she can’t bear the sight of him since +she made that unfortunate speech when she +saw him standing in the open door and thought +it was Winnie <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en masquerade</i>.”</p> + +<p>“I am afraid it will be twitting on facts,” I +said; “for I more than half suspect that Professor +Waite admires Adelaide as much as +she detests him. He has asked me more than +once why she does not join the drawing class—and +even suggested that I should induce her +to pose for the portrait class. He said her +profile was purely classical, and that she took +naturally the most superb poses of any girl +that he had ever met.”</p> + +<p>“So much the better,” Cynthia declared.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +“It will be the best joke of the season. What +time does he usually arrive?”</p> + +<p>“He said, in telling one of the class, that he +always leaves the Kit Kat at half past eleven, +and reaches the street door of the turret on +the stroke of twelve.”</p> + +<p>“Delightful!” exclaimed Winnie. “Fortune +favors our plans. What fun it will be!”</p> + +<p>It was thought best not to admit Milly into +our confidence, for fear that she could not +keep the secret. All went well. We played +our tricks and Winnie told ghost stories, +but it seemed as if midnight would never +come. At one time we fancied we heard a +noise in the turret and we looked at each +other apprehensively. Had anything happened +to bring Professor Waite back earlier +than usual, and would our plans miscarry, +after all? At ten minutes before twelve we +organized the procession. Milly was timid +and persisted in being in the middle. To our +disgust Adelaide refused to lead. “Winnie +proposes it; let Winnie go first,” she said +resolutely.</p> + +<p>“All right,” Winnie assented, after a +thoughtful pause. “I will if Adelaide will +come next.”</p> + +<p>Cynthia and I looked at her inquiringly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +We did not quite see how this would answer.</p> + +<p>“Tib, let’s go and see if Snooks is in bed +and the coast is clear,” Winnie suggested. +“It’s a pity that we can’t get into the studio +through this door, but that chest is too heavy +for us to push aside.”</p> + +<p>Winnie and I reconnoitered, and as we +opened the door into the turret she told me +her plan.</p> + +<p>“I will lead rapidly and when I get to the +bottom will scud into that little closet under +the stairs where they keep the lawn mower, so +that Adelaide will be virtually at the head. +We must start right away, so as to give me a +chance to get into my haven of refuge before +Professor Waite arrives.”</p> + +<p>We all tiptoed into the studio and lighted +our candles there, after we had closed the corridor +door. We had had quite a time collecting +mirrors. Adelaide and Milly possessed +handsome silver-backed hand-glasses. Winnie +carried a pretty toilet mirror with three folding +leaves. I had a work box with looking-glass +inside the lid, and Cynthia had unscrewed the +large mirror from her bureau. We were all +giggling and shivering when Winnie, our marshal, +gave the signal for the start in the following<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +order: Winnie, Adelaide, Milly, myself, +and Cynthia bringing up the rear.</p> + +<p>The steps winding around the central pillar +were narrower at one end than the other and +it was rather difficult to tread them backward. +The fall wind blew through the slits +of unglazed windows and extinguished my +candle. Winnie, in her haste to get to the +bottom, fell, extinguished hers also, and hurt +herself quite severely, but she had determination +enough to pick herself up again and +limp on. Suddenly there came a strong +draught of air and there was a halt in our +march. Milly whispered that she could hear +voices, then Adelaide, who was a little way in +advance, shrieked and came running up the +stairs. We were all huddled together in a +jam. Cynthia was shouting with laughter, +Milly crying with fright, Adelaide choking +and incoherent with indignation.</p> + +<p>“Hurry, hurry!” she cried, pushing us back; +“he is coming; he is just behind me.”</p> + +<p>We were only a few steps from the studio +and we all bundled in—but in the confusion +Milly had dropped her candle, and the light +Mother Hubbard wrapper was all in a blaze.</p> + +<p>Cynthia rushed wildly out of the room. I +have no recollection of what I did, but Adelaide<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +fought the flames with her hands; but +she would never have conquered them, and +our darling might have died a cruel death in +torturing flames, if Professor Waite had not +dashed into the room, wrapped her in a Persian +rug, and extinguished the fire. Strange +to say, she was entirely unhurt. Only her +beautiful blond hair was singed, and that was +afterward attributed by her friends to an injudicious +use of the curling irons. Adelaide’s +hands were badly burned and Professor Waite +bathed them in oil, while an older, serious +looking man, who had followed Professor +Waite, whom we only noticed at this stage of +the proceedings, wrapped them in his white +silk muffler. Then Cynthia appeared at the +door with a white face and a small water +pitcher, and we were able for the first time to +laugh in a hysterical way. Fortunately, no +one had heard us, and we slipped back to the +Amen Corner.</p> + +<p>Milly was awe-stricken by the peril through +which she had passed, but there was a strange, +happy look upon her face which I did not +understand until, as I tucked her away in +bed, she pulled me down to her and whispered +in my ear:</p> + +<p>“He held me in his arms, Tib; for one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +heavenly minute he held me close, close in +his arms. I felt the hot breath of the flames, +but I did not care. I was willing to die, I +was so happy——”</p> + +<p>“My poor little girl,” I said, as I kissed +her, “you must not let yourself care for Professor +Waite, for he does not——”</p> + +<p>“I know,” she replied, “he loves Adelaide; +he can’t help it any more than I can +help——”</p> + +<p>“Hush,” I said, “this is all foolishness; +put it right out of your little head. You are +only sixteen; you are not old enough to care +for any one. You will laugh at this by and +by.”</p> + +<p>She shook her head solemnly. “I shall +always remember, Tib—that for one heavenly +minute he held me tight—so.” And she embraced +her pillow with all her small might, +nestling her hot cheek against it in a way +which would have been absurd if it had not +been so unspeakably pathetic.</p> + +<p>Adelaide strode into the room at this juncture +with the air of a tragedy queen.</p> + +<p>“Thank Heaven, you are safe, Milly dear!” +she said, pausing beside the bed, but her look +was not one of pious thanksgiving. Her +voice had a sharp sound, and a crimson spot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +flamed on her dark cheeks. “He dared to +hold my hands in his,” she murmured, “and, +worse still, to call me ‘noble girl,’ and his ‘poor +child’; and he will think that I went down +those stairs on purpose to see his face in +my mirror. Oh, how I hate him, how I hate +him!”</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.<br /> + +<small>A STATE OF “DREADFULNESS.”</small></h2> + + +<div class="image7"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 280px; height: 375px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in2"><span class="upper">Miss Noakes</span> +had not heard +us, but our +troubles were +not over.</p> + +<p>It was not +until I had +helped Adelaide +to retire +(for her poor +hands were too +badly burned +to put up her +own hair), and +had gone away +into my own +room that I +realized that Winnie was not with us and that +she had been left behind in the stampede up +the turret stairs. I crept around through the +corridor into the darkened studio. Professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +Waite and his friend had gone, why had +not Winnie returned? I opened the door +leading to the turret and called her name +softly. I was answered by a groan. I hastened +to light a candle and stole down the +winding stair. Half way down I found Winnie +sitting on the steps, a bundle of misery.</p> + +<p>“I came up once,” she exclaimed, “but +Professor Waite was in the studio and I had +to go back to the closet and wait until he left +the house.”</p> + +<p>“It must have been very chilly and unpleasant +with nothing but a watering can and +a lawn mower to sit on,” I remarked; “but +why didn’t you come all the way up this time. +You surely don’t intend to spend the night +where you are.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” Winnie replied, with another +groan; “I’ve sprained my ankle or something, +and I can’t bear my weight on it. It was all +that I could do to drag myself up and back +again, and then as far as this. Ow! how it +hurts! No, I just cannot take another step.”</p> + +<p>“Dear! dear!” I exclaimed; “what a night +this has been! With Milly’s narrow escape +from death, and Adelaide’s burned hands, and +your sprained ankle, we have had enough +Halloween for one year.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” Winnie asked, in +her absorption taking several little hops up +the stairs. “Milly’s escape? What has happened? +Ow! wow! You’ll have to get a +derrick, Tib, and hoist me up. I cannot budge +an inch.”</p> + +<p>“Lean on me,” I said, “and listen while I +tell you all about it”; and I rehearsed the +thrilling story of Professor Waite’s rescue.</p> + +<p>“I can smell the smoke still. Snooks will +think the house is on fire,” Winnie declared, +snuffing vigorously as we reached the studio. +“You had better open the windows a bit and +air off. And there are some burned scraps of +Milly’s wrapper on the floor; let’s pick them all +up. Ow! don’t let go of me. This is really +what Milly calls a state of dreadfulness—no +other word will describe it. How can I ever +stand it until morning?”</p> + +<p>I helped her to her bed and bound up her +ankle with Pond’s Extract; but it had swollen +so much and was so painful that when morning +came Winnie consented to have the school +physician called. He kindly asked no questions, +and treated Adelaide’s hands, only remarking, +“I see you have been celebrating +Halloween.”</p> + +<p>“He thinks I burned them in snatching the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +raisins out of the lighted alcohol,” Adelaide +said; “or perhaps in putting out some clothing +which was set on fire in that way.”</p> + +<p>Even Madame was considerate and did not +inquire closely into the details of the trouble.</p> + +<p>“I hope you have learned from this,” she +said, “that it is a dangerous thing to play +with fire.”</p> + +<p>Halloween was a disagreeable subject after +this to all of us, but especially to Winnie. +“Don’t mention it,” she would say. “I shall +never play another trick in all my mortal +days. I feel as mean and demoralized as a +lunch-basket on its way home from a picnic.”</p> + +<p>The state of dreadfulness deepened as +time went on. Winnie kept her room for +days, and it was necessary to feed Adelaide at +table, and dress and undress her; but their +hurts troubled me less than the heart bruise +received by my poor Milly. I kept her secret +and she was brave, and no one else suspected +it. Professor Waite was very impatient with +her, treating her work contemptuously, and +disregarding her personally altogether. He +never alluded to the accident, treating it, as +Winnie said, as of no more consequence than +if he had extinguished a bale of cotton that +had happened to take fire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p> + +<p>“That man is utterly incapable of sentiment,” +Winnie remarked wrathfully. “Now +how natural it would be to make a romance +out of such a rescue, but Professor Waite’s +heart is as stony as that of the Apollo Belvedere.”</p> + +<p>Milly smiled piteously and shook her head, +while she looked significantly from me toward +Adelaide, as much as to say: “We know +better; he is not so stony-hearted as he +seems.”</p> + +<p>Having my attention directed to the matter, +I kept my eyes open for little indications of +the state of Professor Waite’s sentiments, and +presently found that they were not lacking. +The studio was not occupied by classes until +after ten o’clock in the morning, and Professor +Waite came every day very early, and +painted there alone until the first wave of +pupils swept in and filled the room with an +encampment of easels. He explained to me +that he was preparing a picture for the Academy +exhibition, the morning light was good, +and as his studio in the city was shared with +another young artist, he preferred to come +here where he could work quietly and undisturbed +for a few hours each morning. He +always bolted the corridor door to secure complete<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +seclusion, and we had often to wait a +few moments until he admitted us. He did +not show us the painting, but it was evident +that he was deeply interested in it, for he was +frequently distraught, and apparently vexed +at being obliged to turn his attention to our +offences against art, just as he was worked +up to a fine phrensy of production. At such +times he would run his fingers through his +hair, and stare at the work which the first +unfortunate pupil presented with a repugnance +which was often more clearly than politely +expressed. Sometimes his ill humour vented +itself on the model. We were in the habit of +taking turns and, dressed in some picturesque +costume, of posing for the class for a week at +a time. After the Halloween experience it +happened to be Milly’s turn. We had costumed +her as an Italian contadina, and thought +that she looked very prettily. But Professor +Waite was not satisfied.</p> + +<p>“Why have you chosen a blonde for such +a character?” he asked me impatiently. “That +little snub nose and milk-and-water complexion +have nothing Italian in their make up. If +you could induce that superb creature, Miss +Armstrong, to wear the costume, you would +see the difference.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<p>Milly had heard the remark though he did +not intend she should do so, and her eyes suffused +with tears as usual. “I will ask Adelaide,” +she said meekly, “but I don’t believe +she will be willing to pose for the class.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind the class,” Professor Waite +replied eagerly. “If Miss Armstrong will +honor me by giving me personally a few sittings +each morning for my Academy picture I +shall be more gratified than I can express.”</p> + +<p>Milly, more than happy to attempt to do the +professor a favor, besought Adelaide, who was +obdurate and even indignant.</p> + +<p>“The very idea!” she exclaimed. “I never +heard of such assurance. <em>I</em> figure in his picture +at a public exhibition, indeed.”</p> + +<p>“Why, I am sure it’s a great honor,” Milly +replied, bridling feebly; “and I won’t have you +treat him in such a <em>desultory</em> manner.”</p> + +<p>We all laughed, for Milly, as usual when +excited, had mixed her words—insulting and +derogatory clamoring at the same time in her +small mind for utterance.</p> + +<p>“I think it would be perfectly scrum to be +in an Academy picture,” Winnie exclaimed. +“I wish he would ask me.”</p> + +<p>Perfectly “scrum,” or “scrumptious,” was +Winnie’s superlative; while Adelaide, to express<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +a similar delight, would have quoted the +Anglicism, “Quite too far more than most +awfully delicious.”</p> + +<p>“I wonder what his Academy picture is, +anyway,” Winnie went on, “and why he never +shows it to us. I mean to ask him to let me +see it; I am sure I might help him with some +suggestions.”</p> + +<p>“Well you <em>are</em> unassuming,” I exclaimed, +never dreaming that Winnie, with all her +audacity, would dare to criticise a picture by +our professor. What was my astonishment, +therefore, on awakening the next morning, to +find that Winnie was already dressed.</p> + +<p>“I am going into the studio,” she remarked +coolly, “to take a look at Professor Waite’s +picture before he arrives.”</p> + +<p>“O Winnie!” I begged, “don’t; you’ve no +business to do such a thing.” Winnie made a +little face, courtesied, and flounced out of the +room. She returned presently, all aglow with +excitement.</p> + +<p>“He was already there at work,” she exclaimed, +“painting, as the French say, like an +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">enragé</i>. He had forgotten to bolt the door and +I slipped right in. His back was toward me, and +he did not notice me at first, so I had one good +solid look. And what do you suppose it is,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +Tib? Why, Adelaide, holding a candle and +glancing over her shoulder as he must have +seen her going down the stairs. The Rembrandtesque +effect of artificial light and deep +shadow is stunning. He has rigged up his +lay-figure on the landing in the dark turret, +and had a lighted candle wedged into her +woodeny fingers, so that he gets the lighting +on the face and drapery, while he has daylight +on his canvas.</p> + +<p>“Of course he has had to do the face from +imagination or memory, but it was perfect. I +screamed right out: ‘Don’t touch that again +or you’ll spoil it!’ He turned the canvas back +forward quicker than a wink, and looked at +me as if he would like to eat me, but I didn’t +care, and I begged him not to disturb himself or +interrupt his work on my account; that I had +only dropped in in a friendly way to give him +a little helpful criticism. With that he put on +his eye-glasses and remarked; ‘Well, you <em>are</em> +about the coolest young lady that it has ever +been my privilege to meet,’ but he had to +come right down from that nifty position, for +I said, ‘If my opinions are of no use, perhaps +Madame’s will be more helpful; shall I ask +her to come up and take a look at the picture?’ +That made him wince. He turned all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +sorts of colors, chewed his mustache, and +hadn’t a word to say. I felt sort of sorry for +him and I assured him that I had no intention +of telling, at least not if he was nice; and +I reminded him that he owed the subject to +me in the first place, for if I had not suggested +the trick he would never have seen +Adelaide in that particular lighting. With +that he changed his tune and said that he was +very grateful for my kind intention, and that +if I would kindly lend him a photograph of +Adelaide he would be still more grateful. +But I told him that I did not think that it was +fair to exhibit a portrait of Adelaide, and he +admitted that it was not, and said that he had +decided not to send the picture to the exhibition, +but merely to keep it himself.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide happened to knock at our door at +this juncture, and Winnie told her what she +had discovered.</p> + +<p>“This is past endurance,” Adelaide exclaimed +angrily; “you must come with me, +Tib, and insist on Professor Waite’s showing +me this picture. If the face is recognizable +as my portrait I shall destroy it then and +there.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t, Adelaide,” I begged. “Professor +Waite is a gentleman; he has already told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +Winnie that he does not intend to exhibit the +picture——”</p> + +<p>“But I do not choose that he shall possess +it,” she cried; “if you will not go with me I +shall go alone,” and she hurried to the studio +door. It was locked, and Professor Waite did +not choose to reply to her oft-repeated knocks. +He evidently considered Winnie’s visit all-sufficient +for one morning. Adelaide came +back in a towering passion. “If my poor +hands would only let me write,” she exclaimed, +“I would give him such a piece of my mind. +Winnie, be my amanuensis. Write what I +dictate.”</p> + +<p>Winnie sat down good-humoredly and +dashed off in her large scrawling script, which +filled a page with these lines, the following +indignant protest:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Professor Waite:</span></p> + +<p>I regret that I consider the liberty you have taken in painting +my portrait for the Academy Exhibition, without my knowledge +or consent, a dishonorable act of which no gentleman would +be guilty, and I demand that you destroy it instantly.</p> + +<p><span class="sign2">Adelaide Armstrong.</span><br /></p> +</div> + +<p>She was excited and she spoke loudly. +When she finished, there was dead silence in +the little parlor. We all felt that Adelaide +had put it a little too strongly. That silence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +was broken by a half-suppressed sneeze on +the balcony outside the window. A sneeze +which we all recognized as belonging to Miss +Noakes. Had she been listening? Had she +heard? Winnie balanced the ink bottle over +the letter ready to obliterate its contents +by an “accident” if Miss Noakes suddenly +knocked. No one appeared, and going to the +window a moment afterward, I saw Miss +Noakes walking between her window and +ours, and taking in great sniffs of the keen +morning air with much apparent enjoyment.</p> + +<p>The bell rang for breakfast and Adelaide +and I walked along together, pausing to slip +the note under the studio door. It would not +go quite through, a little end protruding, but +that did not strike us as of any consequence. +I had descended one flight of stairs when I +found that I had forgotten my geometry and +I hastened back to get it. I met Winnie before +I turned into the corridor. “Hurry,” she +exclaimed, “Snooks is just leaving her door; +she will mark you for tardiness.” I flew along +at the top of my speed, but on reaching our +corridor I saw a sight which suddenly arrested +my footsteps. Miss Noakes stood before the +studio door, carefully adjusting her eye-glasses +and looking at the note; presently she stooped,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +picked it up, and read the address. She hesitated +a moment, seemed half inclined to replace +it, turned it over as though she wished +to open it, then glancing down the hall and +spying me, she placed it in the great leather +bag which hung at her side. She closed the +bag with a savage click and glared at me as I +turned and fled, for I had not the courage to +meet her.</p> + +<p>I reported the calamity at breakfast table in +an awe-stricken whisper to Milly, who turned +a trifle pale.</p> + +<p>“I am afraid it will get Professor Waite into +trouble,” she said, “Adelaide is still very angry +with him, but I am sure she does not want +to make him lose his position in the school.”</p> + +<p>“It may make her lose her own position,” +Cynthia Vaughn suggested. “Writing notes +to young men is against the rules. It’s an +expellable offence. But then,” she added, +“this wasn’t exactly a love letter.”</p> + +<p>“I should think not,” I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“It’s all the worse,” Milly groaned, as she +scalded her throat with hot coffee.</p> + +<p>“Adelaide can say she didn’t write it, you +know,” Cynthia suggested cheerfully. “Winnie +wrote it; and she didn’t poke it under the +door either—Tib did that.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Do you suppose, Cynthia Vaughn, that +Adelaide would do such a mean thing as not +to take the consequences of her own actions?” +Milly asked indignantly. Then she clasped +my hand, for Miss Noakes stood at Madame’s +table, and had opened her black bag and was +handing Madame the note. We could see +even at that distance that the seal was unbroken, +but this gave us scant comfort; it was +only putting off the evil day.</p> + +<p>“Winnie might steal that note for us,” +Cynthia suggested, “before Madame has a +chance to read it.”</p> + +<p>“Why are you always thinking up scrapes +for Winnie to get into?” Milly asked.</p> + +<p>Winnie pricked her ears, at the other side +of the table. “What about Winnie?” she +asked.</p> + +<p>“Nothing,” Milly replied shortly; but as we +went up to the studio a little before ten +o’clock, I explained the situation. To my surprise +Winnie’s eyes danced with merriment. +“Snooks listened,” she exclaimed, “she heard +Adelaide, I knew she did, and now we know +how she finds out things that happen in the +Amen Corner; often and often I have thought +that I heard her, and have opened the door +quickly only to find the corridor empty. Of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +course she is smart enough to know that she +would get caught if she listened at the door; +she would never in the world have time +enough to scuttle down to her own room +before we would see her. But the balcony! +Strange we never thought of that. I’ll lay a +trap for her—no, I need not; she has trapped +herself; this affair is proof enough that she +peeks and listens.”</p> + +<p>“But I don’t see how this helps us,” I exclaimed. +“This is the worst scrape of the +season. Don’t you see it is? Such glee on +your part is positively idiotic. We may all +be expelled and Professor Waite too.”</p> + +<p>“Fret not your dear little sympathetic, +apprehensive gizzard. Don’t say one word, +except to answer questions. Don’t volunteer +any confessions, or let Adelaide do so. Remember, +the prisoner is not obliged to criminate +himself, the burden of proof lies with +Snooks, and she will find it a pretty heavy +burden.”</p> + +<p>“Not with that note!” I replied.</p> + +<p>“That note! Ha! ha! But I won’t tell +you. It’s too good a joke.”</p> + +<p>“And Professor Waite’s picture of Adelaide?”</p> + +<p>“The picture, I had forgotten that,” and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +Winnie became grave at once. “He must +take it right away,” she added. “I will tell +him to.”</p> + +<p>“You talk as if you could make him do +anything,” I said.</p> + +<p>“Anything I choose to try,” Winnie replied +confidently. We were at the studio door a +little ahead of time, and Professor Waite +threw it open at our knock, and welcomed +us in with his palette still on his thumb. +“Come and see my picture,” he said, with +a smile.</p> + +<p>“Poor man!” I thought, “he would not +look so happy if he knew how angry Adelaide +is, and what a mine is waiting to be exploded +beneath him.”</p> + +<p>He led us to the easel and displayed the +canvas triumphantly.</p> + +<p>It was an effective, striking picture, but it +did not in the least resemble Adelaide.</p> + +<p>Winnie uttered an exclamation of disgust. +“There now, you’ve spoiled it. I knew you +would. It was just perfect, and you’ve ruined +it. I’m sure I never want to look at that +thing again. I told you not to touch it. Why +couldn’t you let it alone?” and a half dozen +other wails of the same order.</p> + +<p>Professor Waite did not attempt to put a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +stop to her somewhat impertinent remarks. +He was plainly annoyed, however, and when +she had emptied the vials of her indignation, +he replied: “I thought you would approve of +the change, Miss DeWitt. It was a remark +of yours this morning which made me realize +that I had no right to paint Miss Armstrong’s +portrait without her permission; that probably +she would be unwilling that I should possess +it; and as I would gladly sacrifice any ambition +or pleasure of my own for the sake of +not offending her, I have, as you see, painted +in an entirely new face.”</p> + +<p>“You are quite right, Professor,” I exclaimed +warmly; “and Adelaide will be grateful for +your consideration.”</p> + +<p>At this juncture the girls trooped in and +took their places at their easels, and Professor +Waite laid the picture in the great chest in +front of our door. The correction of work +went on as usual until the latter part of the +hour, when an ominous knock was heard at +the door, and Madame, accompanied by Miss +Noakes, sailed majestically into the room. +Professor Waite bowed deeply and expressed +himself as highly honored. Madame lifted +her lorgnette and surveyed the class. Milly +was posing in her despised Italian costume.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +Madame smiled kindly at her, and then passed +about from easel to easel examining the girls’ +work. “I do not know whether it is exactly +the thing for the young ladies to allow themselves +to be painted in this way,” she said, +“though to be sure the studies are hardly +recognizable as likenesses.”</p> + +<p>“The young ladies have all asked the permission +of their parents to sit for each other,” +Professor Waite explained.</p> + +<p>“For each other,” Madame repeated doubtfully; +“but do you never make sketches of them +also, Professor? A parent might well object +to having his daughter’s portrait exhibited in +a public place, sold to a stranger, or even +shown among studies of professional models +in your studio.”</p> + +<p>“I have made no studies from life from any +of the young ladies,” Professor Waite replied +promptly.</p> + +<p>Miss Noakes drew a long breath and seemed +to bristle with anticipated triumph.</p> + +<p>“I am glad that you can assure me of this,” +Madame replied in her softest, most purring +accents. Then she glanced around the room +again and asked, “Are all of the art students +present? I do not see Miss Armstrong.”</p> + +<p>“Miss Armstrong has not honoured me by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +joining the class,” Professor Waite replied +stiffly.</p> + +<p>“But she at least sits for the others, does +she not? She is such a strikingly picturesque +girl, I should think you would ask her.”</p> + +<p>“We have asked her,” Milly replied, “but +she is just as obstinate as she can be. I wish, +Madame, you would make her.”</p> + +<p>Madame shook her little wiry curls. “This +is a matter which must be left entirely to individual +preference, my dear. It would be +very wrong, indeed, for any of you to +make a portrait of Miss Armstrong without +her consent. I have known young amateur +photographers to lay themselves open to an +action at law by taking photographs of people +without their knowledge. Our personality is +a very sacred thing, and whoever possesses +himself of that without warrant commits a +dishonorable action.”</p> + +<p>Milly looked as if she were about to faint, +while Professor Waite, who felt the intention +of Madame’s remarks, and his own thoughtlessness, +bit his mustache nervously. Winnie +was tittering in an unseemly manner behind +her easel, but, thankful as I was that the professor +had changed the portrait, I still felt the +gravity of the occasion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p> + +<p>Madame’s manner changed. “Miss +Vaughn,” she said to Cynthia, “will you ask +Miss Armstrong to step to the studio for a +moment.” Then turning to our teacher, she +added, “I have a very painful duty to perform, +my dear Professor, and you must pardon +me if my questions seem to you unwarranted. +Will you tell me whether, for any +reason whatever, you have carried on a written +correspondence with Miss Armstrong or +with any other member of this school?”</p> + +<p>“I have not, Madame.”</p> + +<p>“Have never either written to her or received +letters from her?”</p> + +<p>“Never, Madame. Who has charged me +with such a clandestine and dishonourable +act?”</p> + +<p>Madame did not reply, for Adelaide entered +the room. She was very stately and pale. +Cynthia had not had far to go, and Adelaide +had come instantly.</p> + +<p>“Why have you sent for me?” she asked +resolutely.</p> + +<p>“Merely to ask you one or two simple questions,” +Madame replied. “But first, Professor, +may we be permitted to see the picture which +you are preparing for the Academy exhibition?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<p>Adelaide leaned forward eagerly. Professor +Waite was about to be punished for his +presumption and yet she was not so glad as +she fancied that she would be. Her anger +had faded out and she almost pitied him. A +hot blush swept up to his forehead as he felt +her gaze, and silently placed the painting +upon the easel. Madame examined it critically +through her lorgnette; it was evidently +not what she had expected to see.</p> + +<p>Milly, who had not known of the change, +could hardly believe her eyes, and seemed to +fancy that a miracle had been performed to +save her dear professor. Miss Noakes stood +at the canvas with a look of disappointed +malignity on her unattractive features.</p> + +<p>“Is this the only picture which you intend +to exhibit?” Madame asked, after a moment, +during which she had assured herself that the +face on the canvas was utterly unlike any of +her pupils.</p> + +<p>“It is the only one that I have had time to +paint this season,” Professor Waite replied. +“The face bore at one time a resemblance to +Miss Armstrong’s, but I purposely destroyed +that resemblance and shall send it in as you +see it.”</p> + +<p>Madame seemed somewhat relieved, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +she turned toward Adelaide, who had seated +herself and was staring at the picture, her +heart filled with a vague regret that she had +written so unkind a letter.</p> + +<p>“Young ladies,” said Madame solemnly, +“you have heard the questions which I have +asked Professor Waite. Certain accusations +have been made which have greatly troubled +me. It has been suspected that a clandestine +flirtation and correspondence has for some +time been carried on between your professor +and one of the members of this school. +Hitherto I have paid no attention to these +reports, as they rested only on suspicion, but +this morning startling evidence has been produced, +and before bringing it forward I call +upon any young lady who has been guilty of +such an indiscretion to anticipate the discovery +of her fault by a full confession.” No +one responded. The accusation was so much +more serious than the truth, that Adelaide +did not imagine that she was the suspected +culprit. Dead silence, in the midst of which +Madame produced the fateful letter. Adelaide +started and Madame asked in awful +tones:</p> + +<p>“Will any young lady present acknowledge +that she has written this letter?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + +<p>Winnie and Adelaide each rose promptly.</p> + +<p>Madame frowned. “Have we two claimants?” +she asked.</p> + +<p>“I am responsible for the contents of that +note,” said Adelaide.</p> + +<p>“But I wrote it,” added Winnie, “and I +demand that it be read aloud.”</p> + +<p>It seemed to me that Winnie was absolutely +insane, and even Adelaide seemed to feel that +there was no necessity of rushing so recklessly +on the spears of the enemy.</p> + +<p>Professor Waite looked completely mystified, +and Madame said very seriously:</p> + +<p>“You will see, Professor, that this note is +directed to you, and that it has not been +opened. I could not take that liberty; but +Miss Noakes discovered it being sent in a +very irregular manner, which justified her in +confiscating it. There are other suspicious +matters connected with it, which I trust its +contents will fully explain.”</p> + +<p>I felt that the crucial moment had arrived. +Miss Noakes was absolutely radiant, and sat +rubbing her hands with ghoulish glee. Madame +looked troubled but judicial. The professor +was a favourite of hers, but Miss Noakes +had brought too weighty an accusation to be +glossed over.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> + +<p>A silence like that before a thunder-clap +reigned. Winnie covered her face with her +handkerchief and shook—could it be with +suppressed laughter? If so, it seemed to me +that she must be going insane.</p> + +<p>Professor Waite opened the letter and +glanced over its contents. “This note is +from Miss Winifred De Witt,” he said to +Madame, “and since I have her permission, I +will read it aloud.” And to our utter astonishment, +Professor Waite read—not the +indignant letter which Adelaide had dictated, +but the following:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Professor Waite.</span></p> + +<p><cite>Dear Sir:</cite> May I have your permission to place my easel on +the balcony in front of the corridor window and make a study +of a sunrise effect as seen across the roofs? The view is so +very beautiful that Miss Noakes spends much of her time there +absorbed in its enjoyment.</p> + +<p><span class="sign3">Very respectfully yours,</span><br /> +<span class="sign2">Winifred De Witt.</span><br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Professor Waite politely handed this effusion +to Madame. Miss Noakes snatched it +from her hand and glared at it with the look +of a foiled assassin. Madame bit her lips with +annoyance and scowled at Miss Noakes. She +was evidently angry with her for having +caused her to arraign Professor Waite on insufficient +testimony and creating a scene derogatory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +to her own dignity. She quickly recovered +her self-possession, however, and remarked +loftily:</p> + +<p>“Miss De Witt, when you have any future +communications to make with your professor, +pray do so in a more fitting manner. Placing +notes under doors is really unworthy of any +young lady in my school.”</p> + +<p>“So is listening at windows,” Cynthia +whispered to Winnie. Madame turned to +Professor Waite and expressed herself as +much pleased that this very serious accusation +had been proved to be founded on an entire +mistake. She had herself felt perfect confidence +in the integrity of Professor Waite +and the propriety of her pupils throughout +the entire affair, and had only investigated +it to give the slander its proper refutation: +and her stiff silk dress rustled with dignity out +of the studio.</p> + +<p>As for Miss Noakes, she simply disappeared, +“evaporated,” as Milly expressed it. +The door had hardly closed upon Madame +before our long-repressed feelings found vent +in laughter. Winnie congratulated Professor +Waite on the part of the school that he had +been found innocent of so heinous a crime. +The girls swarmed up to shake hands with him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +Those who could not grasp his hand shook +the skirts of his coat. Exuberant confusion +reigned. Milly was dissolved in happy tears, +and even Adelaide smiled when Professor +Waite expressed his regret that Miss Noakes +had connected their names in so disagreeable a +manner.</p> + +<p>It was not until the occupants of the Amen +Corner had gathered in their study parlor that +Adelaide said:</p> + +<p>“But I really do not understand what became +of my note; the one I dictated to Winnie +and tucked under the door.”</p> + +<p>“Winnie, how did you manage to steal it?” +Cynthia asked.</p> + +<p>“I didn’t take it from Snooks,” Winnie +replied. “It struck me that Adelaide had expressed +herself rather strongly, and that she +would regret it after she had cooled down, +and if she didn’t, she ought to. So while you +were investigating the eavesdropping I destroyed +that note, wrote one of my own and +sealed it up in its place.”</p> + +<p>“And I’ve really put this note of yours +under the door?” Adelaide asked.</p> + +<p>“Yes, my dear, and that is why I have not +shared Tib’s anxiety since we knew that it had +been confiscated. Don’t you think that dig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +about Snooks enjoying the scenery of the +back yard was rather good?” and Winnie +chuckled with enjoyment of her own impertinence. +“You should have seen her face +when Professor Waite read that. Nebuchadnezzar’s +when he ordered Shadrach, Meshech, +and Abednego to the burning, fiery furnace +must have been amiable in comparison. She +would have seen me boiled in oil with pleasure. +I haven’t enjoyed anything so much for +ages.”</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> + +<small>IN THE MESHES OF A GOLDEN NET.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image8"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 200px; height: 100px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 160px; height: 220px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in3"><span class="upper">Of</span> course Adelaide did +not feel it necessary +to tell Mr. Mudge +all the consequences +of our Halloween +party, but only the facts +of our having used the +turret staircase on that +memorable night.</p> + +<p>“And now,” she said, +with a laugh, “Mr. Mudge +has gone racing off to +investigate Professor +Waite. I seem doomed +to get that poor man into +trouble. Though of course he never could be +suspected of this robbery.”</p> + +<p>Milly had entered while Adelaide was +speaking, and she uttered a little cry of dismay.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +“Professor Waite suspected! that +could never be!”</p> + +<p>“Circumstances are against him,” Winnie +replied. “Mr. Mudge believes that the robbery +was committed between twelve o’clock +and a quarter past. Now, if Professor Waite +was in the studio at that time——”</p> + +<p>“He was earlier than usual,” Milly replied. +“I heard him come up the staircase. You +know the head of our bed is right against the +turret wall. Someway, I always hear his step +on the stair, and then he usually whistles an +air from one of the operas. Last night he +whistled the Wedding March in ‘Lohengrin.’”</p> + +<p>“Then you were lying awake, too, last +night,” Winnie remarked. “Did you hear +me moving about in this room?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Milly replied hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>“Why didn’t you say so before?”</p> + +<p>“There didn’t seem to be any necessity of +telling of it,” Milly replied.</p> + +<p>“You thought it might throw suspicion on +me?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no,” Milly disclaimed. “No one could +suspect you, Winnie, or Professor Waite, +either; the ideas are equally absurd.”</p> + +<p>“Unless it is proved that the robbery +was committed before Professor Waite came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +up the stairs, it may not seem at all absurd to +Mr. Mudge,” Winnie continued mercilessly. +“Tib and I saw him examining the door into +the studio, and he seemed possessed with the +idea that the burglar entered the room from +the studio. I know, too, that Mr. Mudge examined +Professor Waite’s tool chest in the +studio, and that he found the broken lock in +it, with a screw-driver and other tools, showing +that Professor Waite had been tinkering +with the door, trying unsuccessfully to mend +the lock, as we all know.”</p> + +<p>“You know this! How did you find it +out?” Adelaide asked, and Winnie replied:</p> + +<p>“Professor Waite wanted to use his screw-driver +and went to his tool chest after it during +the painting lesson to-day. It was gone; +so was the lock to the door. He hunted +everywhere, and told me that he was afraid +that Miss Noakes had been in his studio and +had discovered the broken lock, and that we +would be called in question for that old scrape. +I felt sure from the first that it was Mr. +Mudge, but I did not mention him, for +Madame told us to say nothing about the robbery +outside of our own circle.”</p> + +<p>“I would do anything to keep Professor +Waite out of trouble,” Milly said. “I am<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +the only one who knows that he was in the +studio, and I will not tell.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing will help Professor Waite so much +as the entire truth,” Winnie replied. “Of +course he is not the one who took the money. +If the person really responsible can be discovered, +or will confess, the Professor and all +other innocent persons will be cleared from +suspicion.”</p> + +<p>“Of course,” Milly replied, looking at +Winnie in a puzzled way. “And I am sure,” +she added hopefully, “that Mr. Mudge will +find the guilty individual soon, if he is as +keen as you all seem to think him. I really +dread meeting him, and I am glad he has +gone away for to-day. There goes the +supper bell. What a long day this has +been!”</p> + +<p>After supper Milly woke to a consciousness +that she had not prepared one of her lessons +for the next day. She sat puckering her +pretty forehead into ugly wrinkles, and repeating +helplessly, “‘Populi Romani!’ I am +sure I’ve had that before.” Then she began +a wild attempt at translation, with manifold +running comments. “‘Because Ariovistus, +King of the Germans, had sat down on their +boundaries—’ Now, was there anything ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +so absurd as that? Why did old Ariovistus +want to sit down on their boundaries?”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps the word doesn’t mean boundaries +here,” Adelaide suggested, and Milly +turned patiently to her lexicon—“If <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">finibus</i> +comes from <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">finitimus</i> it may mean neighbors—and +then Ariovistus sat down on his +neighbors; well I must say that was cool——”</p> + +<p>Milly worked on for a little while in silence, +and then exclaimed, “I’m getting into the +sensibility of it now—how’s this? ‘These +things having been known, Cæsar confirmed +the mind of all Gaul with words.’ He was +always very generous of his words. We have +a review to-morrow, and the ridiculosity of +the whole thing comes out. Now just listen +to this: ‘Wherefore it pleased him to send +legates to Ariovistus, who should ask him to +appoint some place in the middle of the +others for a colloquy. To these legates he +responded if it was too much trouble for him +to come to himself, himself would come to +him and he—Cæsar—would then find out +who ought to do the coming. Besides, he +would admire to see all Gaul in a row, and it +was no business of Cæsar’s or his old Populo +Romano.’ I rather like his pluck but I’m +afraid my translation is rather free. Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +here is a place that I am not quite sure about; +‘The Helvetians, the Tulingians, and the +Lotobigians, and all the other igians, in their +boundaries or something, whence they had +something else—he commanded to—thingummy; +and because all their fruits were—were—frost +bitten, I guess, and at home +nothing was which could tolerate hunger—he +commanded the other ninkums that they +should make for them copious corn—’ I perfectly +hate Cæsar. He was always boasting +of his own benefits and clemency to one tribe +in making another support it, and then ‘pacifying’ +the other tribes by slaying a few thousand +of their soldiers, and I just don’t see the use +of our muddling our heads with what that +stupid, cruel, conceited old bandit did, anyhow. +But if I don’t know this lesson I shall +not be able to pass in examination, and you +will all graduate and leave me behind for +ages and ages——”</p> + +<p>Ordinarily Winnie could not have resisted +such an appeal as this. I have known her to +patiently translate all of Milly’s lessons for her, +and then as patiently explain them to her over +and over again, until some faint idea of their +meaning had penetrated her befogged little +brain. And having spent the evening thus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +go unprepared to her geometry, and stoically +receive a cipher as her class mark, and see +Cynthia carry off the honors of the day. But +to-night Winnie did not seem to see the forget-me-not +eyes turned appealingly to her. +She appeared to be completely absorbed in +her Cicero. I endured Milly’s frowns as long +as I could, and finally pushed aside my own +studies, and said, “Come into my bedroom +where we will not disturb the other girls, and +I will straighten it out for you.”</p> + +<p>Milly was delighted. She threw her arms +around my neck and thrust some cream peppermints +into my pocket.</p> + +<p>We were in the midst of Cæsar’s negotiations +with Ariovistus, and had nearly finished +the paragraph, when Milly suddenly looked +up.</p> + +<p>“Tib,” she said, “do you know whatever +became of Madame Celeste’s last bill? I +thought I put it in my bureau drawer, but I +must have left it around somewhere. Have +you seen it? I can’t find it.”</p> + +<p>“Then you could not pay it this afternoon?” +I asked evasively.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes! she made out another bill and +receipted it for me, but I want to be sure +that the first one is destroyed.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I thought all your money was taken; +where did you get enough to pay this bill?”</p> + +<p>“Oh! that is a secret,” she replied, with a +pleased little flutter of importance. “It’s +no manner of consequence how I came by it. +I’ve paid the bill—that’s the essential thing—and +I’ve got out of that dreadful quicksand. +Oh, Tib, I have been so unhappy, and Cynthia +has been so mean! I did not think it +possible that any one could be so horrid.”</p> + +<p>“Tell me all about it, dear,” I said, caressing +the curly blond head which nestled on my +knee.</p> + +<p>“I believe I will. I feel like telling somebody, +and Winnie is so queer lately—she +freezes me. She has disapproved of me and +scolded me ever since she found out about +Cynthia’s dress, and I can’t bear to be disapproved +of. It isn’t one bit nice. Adelaide is +perfectly splendid; she likes me and pets me, +but perhaps she wouldn’t if she knew everything; +but you are just my dear old Tib. +You would always like me, wouldn’t you, +even if I were real wicked?”</p> + +<p>“Yes indeed, Milly,” I replied; “and so +would Winnie; you don’t half realize her love +for you.”</p> + +<p>“Then she has a very queer way of showing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +it. She makes me feel as if I had committed +some dreadful sin, and she was urging +me to confess. She is just about as pleasant +a companion as that Florentine monk—what’s +his name? who kept nagging Lorenzo de +Medici—even when the poor man was just as +busy as he could be a-dying.”</p> + +<p>“Savonarola acted as he thought was kindest +and best for his poor guilty friend. +Sometimes the surgeon who probes our +wound is the truest friend—But you are +going to tell me about your trouble—I’ve +noticed how red your little nose has been +of late.”</p> + +<p>“It was partly Celeste’s fault, too,” Milly +said. “Cynthia’s and Celeste’s and mine. +Of course the fault was mostly mine. You +see it all started with the minuet—with +which Professor Fafalata closed his dancing +class just before the Christmas holidays. +He wished us to be costumed in the Florentine +style of the early part of the sixteenth +century. I was talking it over with Celeste, +and she said I ought to have the front of my +petticoat covered with some jewelled net which +she had just imported from Paris. It was very +expensive, but very beautiful, and showy in +the evening. The net was made of gold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +thread set with imitation amethysts and rubies, +an arabesque design, copied from some mediæval +embroidery, and just the thing for me, +since I was to represent a young princess of +the house of Medici. I thought that I would +write mother, who was in Florida then, and +ask her to lend me one of her party dresses, +and that it would be just the thing to put +over it; and while I was admiring it and before +I had really ordered it, or realized what she was +doing, Celeste had cut me off a yard of it, and +had charged it to my account—fifteen dollars. +I brought it here, you remember, only to find +that Madame had interested Professor Waite +in the minuet, and that he had promised to +lend the girls some beautiful costumes of the +period which he had brought back from Paris. +There was that lovely heliotrope velvet edged +with ermine for Adelaide, and a faded pink +brocade sprigged with primroses for me.</p> + +<p>“So of course there wasn’t the slightest +need for my golden net. I carried it to Celeste +to see if she would take it back. She +said that she would like to oblige me, but as +it was cut she couldn’t quite do that, but she +would try to dispose of it for me. And she +did sell it a few days later for ten dollars. I +thought that was better than to lose the entire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +sum. She handed me the money, saying that +it would put her to some trouble to change +her accounts, and I had better let the bill go +in just as she had made it out, and I could +hand mother the ten dollars and explain matters. +I really intended to do so, but I was +nearly bankrupt that month. My pocket +money just seemed to walk away. I had +invited Adelaide to see the play of the ‘Harvard +Hasty Pudding,’ and of course I had to +have Miss Noakes chaperone us, and I hadn’t +money enough left to buy the tickets.”</p> + +<p>“Why didn’t you tell her so?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Oh! I couldn’t back out after I had asked +her; and I owed her a little treat of some +kind, for she invited me to see the cadet +drill at her brother’s school.</p> + +<p>“Well, after I had broken the ten dollar +bill to get the tickets, the first thing I knew +it was all gone. I knew mother wouldn’t +mind, and that I could tell her any time +after she came home, but it never seemed +necessary to mention it in my letters and I +never did.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Milly!”</p> + +<p>“Horrid of me, wasn’t it? But I had worse +temptations. My pocket money is so very +skimpy compared with what the other girls<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +have, and with what I have, too, in the way of +credit for certain things, that I am often really +embarrassed and have to turn and twist and +borrow and pinch to make it stretch out. +When you girls clubbed together and paid +for Polo’s sisters at the Home, I wanted +awfully to help, but I couldn’t. You see +father lets me subscribe so much annually to +the Home and he sends in a check every year +for me, and thinks that ought to be enough. +But I don’t feel as though I was giving it at +all, for it does not even pass through my +hands. I don’t deny myself to give it, as +Adelaide does for her charities, and I haven’t +a penny for any special case of distress or +sudden emergency which I may happen to +hear of.</p> + +<p>“Do you know, Tib, that Satan actually +suggested to me how easily I might have +extra pocket money by ordering things from +Celeste, and letting her sell them again in +just the same way that she managed with the +golden net? I knew that she would be glad +enough to do it, for I found out afterward that +Rosario Ricos bought that net of Celeste and +paid her full price for it! So you see she +kept back five dollars on the second sale, besides +making a good commission on the first.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p>“But you didn’t do it, Milly dear; you +surely did not obtain your charity money in +any such dishonest way as that?”</p> + +<p>“No, Tib. I didn’t do it for charity. I +some way felt that God would not accept such +a gift from me; but there came a time when +I had a worse temptation still. You know +all last term papa used to ride with me every +Saturday afternoon either at the riding academy +or in the Park. Well, something is the +matter with his liver; it hurts him to trot, and +he has had to give it up, and Wiggins took +me out. But I hate riding with a groom, and +so one day when papa called I told him I +didn’t care for any more riding this winter. +This happened the week you went home to +help tend your mother when she was sick, and +that is the reason you never heard of it. I +was taking father up to the studio when I said +it, to show him Professor Waite’s Academy +picture, and papa was so vexed with me +about my not wanting to ride that he didn’t +half notice the pictures.</p> + +<p>“He took to Professor Waite, though, right +away; and just as he was leaving asked him +if he rode. ‘When I am so fortunate as to +have the opportunity,’ Professor Waite replied.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> + +<p>“‘Very good,’ said papa. ‘Then possibly +you will oblige me by accompanying my +daughter and one of her friends on an occasional +ride in the park.’ He explained that +he had a good saddle horse, which needed +exercise, which he would be glad to have him +use; and that, what was more important, I +needed exercise too, and was so perverse that +I did not want to take it alone. ‘And now,’ +said he, ‘the cruel parent proposes, Milly, to +pay for another horse for one of your other +girl friends. I suppose you will choose Adelaide, +and if Professor Waite will act as +your escort occasionally, I think you can +manage to extract some pleasure from the +exercise.’</p> + +<p>“Of course I was perfectly delighted, and +hugged papa, and called him a dear old thing. +Professor Waite, who had looked awfully +bored and had even begun to mumble something +about being too busy, began to take an +interest in the matter as soon as Adelaide’s +name was mentioned, and papa had an interview +with Madame and got her permission to +let us ride every Saturday morning. Adelaide +was down at her tenement, and it was +left that I was to tell her when she returned, +and I thought everything was settled. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +when Adelaide came in she was looking +troubled over some of her tenants’ tribulations +and she only half listened to me.</p> + +<p>“‘I would like above all things to ride +again,’ she said ‘as I used to on the plains +when I lived out West; but there is no use +talking about it, Milly dear, I can’t do it. I +have no riding habit, and I cannot afford to +have one made. Thank you just as much, +but don’t say another word about it.’</p> + +<p>“You can imagine how disappointed I was. +I knew very well that neither Madame nor +mamma would let me ride alone with Professor +Waite, even if papa would permit it; and I +knew, too, that the Professor would lose every +bit of interest in the plan if Adelaide did not +go. I was not thoroughly selfish, Tib. I +wanted Adelaide to have a good time too, +and I wanted Professor Waite to be happy. +I told myself that if he loved Adelaide, I +would do all I could to help him, and perhaps +some day he would remember that it +was through me that he had won her, and like +me a little for it, and never suspect that I—that +I——”</p> + +<p>Her voice broke and she buried her head +on my shoulder. “Dear Milly,” I said, +caressing and soothing her as best I could.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +“Of course you were not selfish. Well, and +what happened next?”</p> + +<p>“I couldn’t give up the plan, Tib, and I +thought that if all that kept Adelaide from +joining in it was the lack of a habit, that could +be easily arranged. I would make her a present +of it. I was sure that father would give +me twenty-five dollars for my next birthday +present, and I thought it would do no harm +to spend it in advance. So I asked Celeste +how much cloth it would take, and I had it +sent her from Arnold’s, a beautiful fine dark-green +broadcloth. And then I told Adelaide +what I had done and that she must go +around to Celeste’s with me and be fitted. +Do you believe it, she would not? She said +that it would be wrong for her to accept such +a present from me; and besides, nothing would +induce her to ride with Professor Waite, for +she couldn’t endure him. That put an end to +the ride in the Park. Cynthia would have +taken Adelaide’s place, but when I told Professor +Waite that Adelaide would not go, he +looked so angry that I saw he wanted to get +out of the arrangement, and I suggested that +perhaps we had better give up the plan. He +said, very well, just as I pleased, and looked so +relieved that I almost cried then and there.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +Papa was so provoked when I told him of it +that I did not dare say a word about the riding-habit, +especially as he had just handed me +my little Swiss watch as my birthday present. +So I pretended to be pleased with it, and +there was that dreadful cloth for the riding-habit +on my hands, and I didn’t know what to +do. Mamma was still in Florida, and papa +said that she was not very strong and must +not be worried—I must only write cheerful +letters to her. I didn’t feel very cheerful, I +assure you. Then Cynthia told me one day +that she had twenty dollars with which she +wanted to purchase a winter suit and she +would like my advice about it. I was in +debt just twenty dollars for the cloth for the +habit, and I told her about it and begged her +to take it off my hands. She went with me +to Celeste’s and liked it very much. The +only trouble was that her mother had intended +the twenty dollars to pay for both +material and making, and of course she +ought to get something not nearly so nice.</p> + +<p>“She said at last that if I would get Celeste +to wait for her pay she would take the dress +and pay her later. I thought only of paying +for the material at Arnold’s, for I had expected +to have the money by that time, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +had asked them to make a separate bill out, +and not put it on my book that goes every +month to papa. So we arranged it. Cynthia +gave me her twenty dollars and I settled +for the cloth, and Celeste made the dress for +her, and furnished the trimmings. But how +she did run them up! She had a band of real +sable around the hem of the skirt and trimmed +the jacket with it too; and made her that cute +little toque with heads and tails on it, and +when the bill came in it was sixty dollars. +Cynthia was frightened. ‘I never can pay +it in the world,’ she said. ‘I think your +dressmaker is frightfully extortionate; and I +had no idea it would be so much.’ I felt sorry +for her and I felt, too, that I was to blame +for getting her into the predicament; so I said +we would divide the expense, and she should +only pay half. But she grumbled at that, and +said that I had inveigled her into the trouble, +and that she had a dressmaker on 125th Street +who would have made the suit for ten dollars. +When I reminded her of the fur, she said she +did not believe it was real sable, and she +didn’t want it any way.</p> + +<p>“I offered to take it to Gunther’s and see +if I could get something for it, if she would +rip it off, but she said she would do no such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +thing; the dress would be a fright without it. +It was all a miserable mess, and I was so unhappy. +It would have been some consolation +if Cynthia had been grateful, but she blamed +me for everything, and I think that, considering +all I have done for her, she treated me very +shabbily when she said that Adelaide was the +only lady in the Amen Corner, and she did +not care to speak to any of us again.”</p> + +<p>“That was like Cynthia, and I am sure that +the loss of her friendship can only be a benefit +to you. But, Milly, you must bravely +shoulder the greater part of the blame yourself. +Your first wrong step was in getting +the golden net without permission, then in +letting Celeste pay you for it and yet having +it charged to your father. Then, again, in +getting the cloth for Adelaide’s habit without +consulting your father you deliberately did +wrong; and in bargaining with Cynthia, instead +of going straight to your father and +confessing your fault, you waded still more +deeply in——”</p> + +<p>“I know it; but there you are scolding me +just like Winnie, and it doesn’t make the +trouble a bit easier to bear to be told that I +deserve it all, and am a miserable little sinner. +You needn’t imagine that I did not realize<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +what a wretch I was; only I didn’t seem to +see the way out. Everything I did to extricate +myself got me deeper into the quicksand. +I saved every way, all that I could; one month +I laid by two dollars and thirty-seven cents, +but the next I slipped back three and a quarter, +and Cynthia handed me a five dollar bill +one day, and told me that was every cent that +she could pay, and I must let her off from the +rest. And to crown it all, Winnie found out +about it, and nearly drove me wild. Oh, Tib, +I have been in such trouble, what with this +dreadful bill that I didn’t dare tell papa +about, and Professor Waite, and all my lessons +so hard, and my marks getting worse than +ever, and Winnie turning on me. It just +seemed as if I would die, and I almost wished +I could. I thought seriously about killing +myself only the night before last. I think if +I could have found any poison that would not +have hurt I would have taken it.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t talk so, Milly; it is wicked. You +would have done nothing of the sort.”</p> + +<p>“But I would. I went into the chemical +laboratory and looked at the green and blue +stuff in the test tubes, but I couldn’t quite +screw my courage up to do more than taste +just a little bit of one kind that looked more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +deadly than the rest. It was horrid, and took +the skin off of the tip of my tongue. I ate a +quarter of a pound of assorted mints before +I could get the taste out of my mouth. If I +could have found some laudanum, or something +that would not have tasted so bad, or +would have killed me by putting me to sleep, +I would have taken it that night, for I was +miserable enough to do anything, however unscrupulous +and reckless. If I hadn’t been so +very desperate perhaps I would never have +dared to do what I did do; the thing which +really broke the meshes of the golden net +which seemed to have me in its toils. I didn’t +mean to tell any one, but I was just driven to +it, and I know you will keep my secret—besides +I have told you so much that you might +as well know all. Tib, I——”</p> + +<p>“Milly, it is time we were all in bed.” It +was Winnie who spoke. She stood in the +doorway, cold and commanding, and Milly +cowered before her. She did not offer to +kiss her, but shrank, frightened, away to her +room.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Winnie,” I said, “why did you come +in just then? Milly was just about to confess +to me what she did to get the money with +which she has just paid Celeste.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p> + +<p>“You have no business to coax her secret +from her,” Winnie replied angrily. “Whatever +it is, you have no right to know it unless +she has wronged you. I am afraid our dear +Milly is in deep waters. But whatever she +may have done lies between her own conscience +and God, and I believe that He will +show her how to make restitution and keep, +in the future, strictly to the right. Oh, my +poor, precious Milly! I wish I could suffer +all the consequences of your wrong doing for +you, but I can’t. Every sin brings suffering, +and it is the suffering that purifies. I can’t +save you that experience, but I will shield +you from open shame if I can. I forbid you, +Tib, to pry into Milly’s affairs any further, to +question her, or allow her to confide in you, +or even suspect her. Only pray for her, and +love her; that is all you can do.”</p> + +<p>“It is you who suspect her,” I exclaimed +hotly, “and unjustly, Winnie. Milly has been +extravagant and thoughtless; worse than that, +she has been underhanded and deceitful in +regard to expenditures, but she did not take +the money from the cabinet; of that I am +positive.”</p> + +<p>“Have I ever charged her with anything +so dreadful?” Winnie asked. “Have I not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +tried in every way to keep that suspicion from +every one? Give me credit for that, at least.”</p> + +<p>“In words, Winnie; but in your secret +thought you have wronged her. I know that +you love her with a sort of a fierce, maternal +love which makes you want her to be perfect, +and which fears the worst and tortures yourself +with imaginary impossibilities. I tell you that +Milly has learned a very thorough lesson in +regard to deception; she will never offend in +that way again; and as to this affair of the +cabinet, I would as soon suspect you as her.”</p> + +<p>“Suspect me, then,” Winnie cried. “I +wish you would. I hoped that Cynthia was +going to lead suspicion my way, but it seems +she can’t do it. I have too good a reputation.” +And Winnie laughed cynically. +“Well, the time may come when you may +not think so well of me. Meantime, I thank +you with all my heart for believing in Milly.”</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER IX.<br /> + +<small>“POLO.”</small></h2> + + +<div class="image9"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 190px; height: 90px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 170px; height: 230px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in3"><span class="upper">It</span> must not be inferred +that our life that +winter was all intense +and tragical; if it had +been so we could not +have endured it. There +were patches of clear +sky, and the sunlight of +generous acts glinted +through the storm. We +had all merry hearts and +good digestions, and +these bore us up under +our troubles with the +buoyancy which is so +mercifully granted to youth and inexperience. +Then, too, our thoughts were not entirely +taken up with ourselves and our own affairs. +For a few days after this we saw nothing of +Mr. Mudge, and our attention was partly +diverted to another matter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p> + +<p>One day, earlier in the school year, Mrs. +Booth, of the Salvation Army, had addressed +Madame’s school on the need of +work among the poor of New York. One +little parable which she gave made a great +impression upon us. I cannot repeat Mrs. +Booth’s eloquent language, but will give the +main points of the story.</p> + +<p>“As a young girl,” said Mrs. Booth, “I was +very selfish and hard-hearted. I did not care +for the suffering and anguish of others. It +was not that I was naturally cruel, but I did +not think of them at all. I thought and cared +only for myself, of parties and dresses, and of +having a good time—and this Dead Sea of +selfishness was numbing every generous impulse +within me. My heart was growing to +resemble a certain spring which my mother +took me to see when a little child. I remember +the walk through the wood beside a little +brook which babbled over the stones, and how +the light of the sky shone down into its clear +amber waters, and the trees and the clouds +were reflected in its quiet pools; how long +mosses fringed its stones, and water plants +made a little forest under its ripples; and how +its depths were all alive with tiny fish and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +happy living creatures seeking their food and +sporting among the cresses. But we came +presently to a spring quite apart and very different +from the brook. The water was deep, +and quiet, and clear, but when I looked +into it I was struck by a death-like influence, +weird and sinister. There were no +minnows darting through the depths like +silver needles, or craw-fish burrowing in +the banks, or water beetles skimming the +surface like oarsmen rowing their light +wherries. There was no life to be seen anywhere. +The very stones had a strange, +unnatural look; they were white as marble; +no mosses covered them, no water-lilies or +algae grew through the deadly water. The +very leaves which had fallen into the pool +were white and heavy, as though carved in +marble. The grasses which grew downward +and dipped into the spring were marble +grasses, more like clumsy branching coral +than the delicate bending sprays above the +waves. It was a petrifying spring, and everything +dipped in its waters was presently +coated with a fine, stony sediment and practically +turned to stone.</p> + +<p>“So the deadly, petrifying spring of selfishness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +will turn the heart to stone, and while +having the form of life it will be cold and +hard and dead.”</p> + +<p>This was Mrs. Booth’s little parable, and +while none of our hearts had been dipped in +this petrifying spring, it woke us to new desires +to do more for the suffering poor.</p> + +<p>Something happened a little after this talk, +and several weeks previous to the robbery, +which gave a direction to our impulses. Milly +and I were returning from a shopping excursion +one very cold and rainy Saturday, when +we were approached by a poor girl who was +selling pencils on a corner. “They are always +useful,” I said; “suppose we take some.”</p> + +<p>“I should perfectly love to,” Milly replied, +“but I haven’t a cent.”</p> + +<p>The girl had noticed our hesitation and +came to us. “Please buy some, young ladies,” +she said; “I haven’t had a thing to eat to-day.”</p> + +<p>“Then come right along with me,” said +Milly. “Mother lets me lunch at Sherry’s, +whenever I am out shopping.”</p> + +<p>The girl followed us but stopped beneath +the awning of the handsome entrance. +“That’s too fine a place for me, Miss,” she +said. “Only swells go there. It costs the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +eyes out of your head just for a clean plate +and napkin in there. How much do you +s’pose now, a lunch would cost in that there +palace?”</p> + +<p>“Not more than a dollar,” Milly replied +cheerfully.</p> + +<p>“Glory!” exclaimed the girl, “if you mean +to lay out as much as that on me, why ten +cents will get me all I want to eat at a bakery +on Third Avenue, and I’ll take the balance +home to the children.”</p> + +<p>“That is just where the awkwardness of +papa’s way of doing comes in,” Milly said to +me. “You see,” she explained to the girl, +“I’ve spent all my money to-day, but I can +have a lunch charged here.”</p> + +<p>Still the girl hesitated. “I’m not fit,” she +said, looking at her dripping, ragged clothes. +We were sheltered from view by the awning, +and in an instant Milly had taken off her +handsome London-made mackintosh and had +thrown it around the girl. “There, that +covers you all up,” she said, “and your hat +isn’t so very bad.”</p> + +<p>It was a tarpaulin, and, though a little frayed +at the edges, its glazed surface had shed the +rain and it was not conspicuously shabby.</p> + +<p>We passed into the ladies’ restaurant and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +seated ourselves at one of the little tables. +Milly took up a menu and looked it over +critically. “Now I am going to order a very +sensible, plain luncheon,” she announced. +“No frills, but something hot and nourishing. +We will begin with soup. Papa would approve +of that. He is always provoked when +I cut the soup. Green turtle? Yes, waiter, +three plates of green turtle soup.”</p> + +<p>“Please excuse me,” I interrupted. “I do +not care for anything.”</p> + +<p>“No? Well, two plates. I usually loathe +turtle soup, but I’m determined to be sensible +and have a solid lunch. Some way, I don’t +know why, I’m not very hungry this afternoon.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps the ice-cream soda we had at +Huyler’s has taken away your appetite,” I suggested.</p> + +<p>The soup was brought and Milly sipped a +little daintily, as she afterward said merely to +keep her guest company. The guest devoured +it ravenously; she had evidently never tasted +anything so delicious; but perhaps plain beef-stew +would have seemed as good, for her feast +was seasoned with that most appetizing of +sauces—hunger.</p> + +<p>“What will you have next?” Milly asked +politely, as the waiter removed their plates.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Whatever you take, Miss,” the girl replied. +“I ain’t particular. I guess anything here’s +good enough for me.”</p> + +<p>“I declare I don’t feel as if I could worry +down another morsel,” Milly answered. “There +is nothing so surfeiting as green turtle. It +makes me almost sick to think of crabs or birds, +or even shrimp salad. Let’s skip all that, and +take the desert. Waiter, bring us two ices. +Which flavor do you prefer?” she asked of the +pencil vender, and again the bewildered girl +left the choice to her hostess.</p> + +<p>“Strawberry, mousse, and chocolate are +too cloying,” Milly remarked meditatively. +“Bring us lemon water ice and pistache. +Don’t you just dote on pistache?”</p> + +<p>“I never ate any, Miss.”</p> + +<p>“Then I shall have the pleasure of introducing +you to something new. You’ll be sure to +like it.”</p> + +<p>The girl did like it. She ate every morsel. +Possibly something more solid would have +proved as satisfying, but Milly was pleased +with her evident appreciation.</p> + +<p>“Why don’t you eat the macaroons? +Don’t you like them? Would you rather have +kisses?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> + +<p>“If you please Miss, might I take them +home to the children?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I suppose so. It isn’t exactly good +form to put things in your pocket, but they +will be charged for just the same, even if we +leave them, so take them, quick, now that the +waiter is not looking.”</p> + +<p>Although the waiter was not watching us, +some one else was. A faultlessly dressed +gentleman approached at this juncture and +greeted Milly in an impressive manner.</p> + +<p>“Why, Mr. Van Silver!” she exclaimed, a +little fluttered by the unexpected meeting. “I +haven’t seen you since last summer at Narragansett +Pier.”</p> + +<p>“And whose fault is that?” Mr. Van Silver +asked plaintively. “If young ladies will shut +themselves up in convents, and never send +their adoring friends any invitation to a four +o’clock tea or a reception or even a school examination +or a prayer meeting, where they +might catch a glimpse of them, it is the poor +adorer’s misfortune, and not his fault, if he is +forgotten. Won’t you introduce me to your +friends?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly. Tib, this is Mr. Van Silver. +Mr. Van Silver, allow me to present you to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +Tib—I mean to Miss Smith. I can’t introduce +you to the other young lady, because I don’t +know her name.”</p> + +<p>We had all risen and the last remark was +made <i lang="it" xml:lang="it">sotto voce</i>. As we left the building Mr. +Van Silver sheltered Milly with his umbrella +and the waif followed with me. “Come with +us to Madame’s,” I had said, “and perhaps we +can do something for you.”</p> + +<p>As we walked on together Milly and Mr. +Van Silver carried on a lively conversation, +part of which I overheard, and the remainder +Milly reported afterward. She first told him +of how we had met our new acquaintance, and +he seemed much interested.</p> + +<p>“And so you have just given her a very +solid and sensible lunch, consisting of green +turtle soup and ice cream.” He laughed a low, +gurgling laugh and appeared infinitely amused.</p> + +<p>“And macaroons,” Milly added; “she has +at least five macaroons in her pocket for the +children.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! yes, a macaroon a piece for the children. +I wonder if I couldn’t contribute a cigarette +for each of them,” and he gurgled again +in a purring, pleasant way.</p> + +<p>“You are making fun of me,” Milly pouted, +in an aggrieved way.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Not at all. I think it was just like you, +Miss Milly, to do such a lovely thing. You +are one of the most kind-hearted girls I +know,—to beggars, I mean,—but the young +men tell a different story. There’s poor +Stacey Fitz Simmons. I saw him the other +day and he was complaining bitterly of your +hard-heartedness. He said you hardly spoke +to him at Professor Fafalata’s costume dance.”</p> + +<p>“How unfair! he was my partner in the +minuet. What more could he ask?”</p> + +<p>“There’s nothing mean about Stacey. He +probably wanted you to dance all the other +dances with him. I told him that he was a +lucky young dog to be invited at all. Why +did you leave me out?”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t think that a grown-up gentleman, +in society, would care for a little dance +at a boarding-school, where he would only +meet bread-and-butter school girls.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I’m too old, am I? Well, I must say +you are complimentary. And it’s a fault that +doesn’t decrease as time passes. Well, I shall +tell Stacey that there’s hope for him. You +only care for very young men. Why did you +send back the tickets which he sent you for +the Inter-scholastic Games! You nearly broke +his heart. He has been training for the past<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +six months simply and solely in the hope that +you will see him win the mile run.”</p> + +<p>“But I will see him. I wrote him that +Adelaide’s brother, Jim, had already sent her +tickets, which we should use, and as he might +like to bestow his elsewhere, I returned them.”</p> + +<p>“‘Bestow them elsewhere?’ Not he. Stacey +is constant as the pole. He’s as loyal as +he is thoroughbred. He was telling me about +the serenade that the cadet band gave your +school last year. Some girl let down a scrap +basket from her window full of buttonhole +bouquets. He wore one pinned to the breast +of his uniform for a week because he thought +you had a hand in it; and you never saw a fellow +so cut up as he was when he heard last +summer that you had nothing to do with it, +and even slept sweetly through the entire serenade.”</p> + +<p>“Stacey is too silly for anything. It is perfectly +ridiculous for a little boy like him to +talk that way.”</p> + +<p>“Little boy—let me see, just how old +is Stacey, anyway! About seventeen. Six +months your senior, is he not? At what +age should you say that one might fall quite +seriously and sensibly in love?”</p> + +<p>“Oh! not till one is twenty at least,” Milly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +answered quickly; but she blushed furiously +while she spoke.</p> + +<p>“Sensible girl! But to return to the subject +of the Inter-scholastic Games. I am glad that +you and your friend Miss Adelaide are going. +They are to take place out at the Berkeley +Oval, you know. I have no doubt that the +roads will be settled and we shall have fine +weather by that time. May I have the pleasure +of driving you out on my coach?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly. That is, I must coax papa to +write a note to Madame, asking her to let us +go.”</p> + +<p>“I will call at the bank and see your papa +about it to-morrow, and meantime do beam +upon poor Stacey. And, by the way, here is +something which you may as well add to the +macaroons for those poor children,” and he +pressed a dollar bill into Milly’s hand. Some +one passed us rapidly at that instant and gave +the young man so questioning a glance that he +raised his hat, asking Milly a moment later if +she knew the lady.</p> + +<p>“Why, that is Miss Noakes!” Milly exclaimed, +in dismay. “You must not go a +step further with us, Mr. Van Silver, or we +will be reported for ‘conduct.’”</p> + +<p>“Far be it from me to gratify the evidently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +malicious desire of that estimable person to +report you young ladies. Good-by until +the games,” and with another bow he was +gone.</p> + +<p>As we approached the school building we saw +Professor Waite leaving by the turret door, +and I asked him to allow us to enter by it, at +the same time requesting him to buy some of +our new friend’s pencils. He looked at the girl +closely, and as Milly led the way with her I +explained how we had found her.</p> + +<p>“She is a picturesque creature,” Professor +Waite remarked. “I could make her useful +as a model. The girls pose so badly and dislike +to do it so much, it might be well to try +this waif. Tell her to come on Monday, and +if the class like her well enough to club together +and pay a small amount for her services, +we will engage her to sit for us.”</p> + +<p>He scribbled a line on one of his visiting +cards for her to show Cerberus, as we called +our dignified janitor, who was very particular +about whom he admitted to the building; and +I hastily followed our <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">protégé</i> to the Amen +Corner, where I found Adelaide talking with +her while Milly ransacked her wardrobe for +cast-off clothing, finding only a Tam O’Shanter, +a parasol, and some soiled gloves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Can’t you find her a pair of rubbers?” +Adelaide asked. “The girl’s feet are soaked.”</p> + +<p>“Do you keep your own rubbers?” the +waif asked. “That was my father’s business.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” inquired Adelaide.</p> + +<p>“My father was a rubber—a massage man +for the Earl of Cairngorm.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” said Adelaide, a light beginning to +dawn upon her mind. “I meant rubber overshoes, +not a bath woman.”</p> + +<p>“We call those galoshes,” said the girl, as +Milly produced a pair which were not mates. +“I’m sure you’ve given me a fine setting out, +young ladies. I’ll do as much for you if I +ever has the chance. Who knowses? Maybe +some day I’ll be a swell and you poor. Then +you just call on me, and don’t you forget it.” +With which cheerful suggestion she left us, +grateful and happy. I took her down to the +main entrance, and, showing the card to Cerberus, +explained that she had been engaged +by Professor Waite, and was to be allowed to +enter every morning. He granted a grudging +consent, not at all approving of her appearance +without the waterproof, and I flew +back to the Amen Corner to join in the +general conference. She had told Adelaide +that her name was Pauline Terwilliger. Her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +father had been English, her mother Swiss. +They had knocked about the world as foot-balls +of fortune, but had lived longest in London, +where her father had died. Her brother +had come to New York some years previous, +and her mother had brought the family over +on his insistence. But this brother had failed +to meet them, as he had promised to do, on +their landing at Castle Garden. Their mother +had lost his address, and they were stranded +in a strange city. They had advertised in +the papers, and had left their own address +at the Barge Office, but her brother had never +appeared. They had taken a room in a tenement +house, and the mother had obtained +some work, scrubbing offices and cleaning +windows. But she had taken cold and was +now in a hospital, and Polo was trying to +support the two younger children.</p> + +<p>“They are living in one of the worst tenement +houses in Mulberry Bend,” said Adelaide. +“I would like to give them a room in +my house, but it is full; and cheap as the rent +is, they could never pay it.”</p> + +<p>“The younger children ought to go to the +Home,” I suggested.</p> + +<p>“The Home is full,” Winnie replied. “I +called there to-day. Emma Jane says it just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +breaks her heart to look at the list of applications +waiting for a vacancy. Our dear +Princess<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> has in mind a little old-fashioned +house which fronts on a side street, whose +yard backs against ours. She would like to +have it rented as an annex. She says the +Home ought to have a nursery for very little +babies. You know it does not now take +children under two years of age, on account +of the expense of nurses; but this would be +such a charming place for them, and we could +call it the ‘Manger,’ and have it connected +with the main building with a long glass +piazza. The scheme is a perfect one. All +it needs is money to carry it out. Unfortunately, +that is lacking. I have corresponded +with all our out-of-town circles of King’s +Daughters. They are doing all they can, +and have pledged enough, with our other +subscriptions, to carry the Home through the +coming year on its old basis; but there isn’t +a cent to spare for a ‘manger.’”</p> + +<p>“Would all of the new house be taken up +by the nursery?” Adelaide asked.</p> + +<p>“No; the Princess proposed that the upper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +story, which consists of four little bedrooms, +should be used as ‘guest chambers’ for emergency +cases, convalescent children returned +from hospitals, and children who, on account +of peculiar distress,—like Polo’s sisters,—it +seemed best to receive for a short time entirely +free. The Princess thought that we +might like to club together and pay for one +such room, and then we could designate at +any time the persons we would like to have +occupy it. There is always a list of applicants, +which would be submitted to us to +choose from, in case we had no candidates of +our own to suggest. The occupants of such +a room would then be as truly our guests as +if we entertained them in our own home. It +would come in very nicely now in Polo’s +case.”</p> + +<p>Milly gave a deep sigh. “I wish I could +help you, girls, but you know just how I am +situated.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide knitted her brows. “We must +get up some sort of an entertainment. It +makes me tired to think of it, but there’s no +other way.”</p> + +<p>“And in the mean time, Emma Jane must +find room for those children some way,” said +Winnie. “I will call a meeting of the Hornets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +in our corner to-night, and we will pledge +ourselves to raise money enough for one guest +chamber for these children, and until it is arranged +for, Emma Jane must make up beds +for them on the school desks, or we can buy a +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">retroussé</i> bedstead for the parlor.”</p> + +<p>“<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Retroussé</i> bedstead! What’s that?” Milly +asked, in a puzzled way.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be dense, Milly; it’s vulgar to speak +of a turn-up nose, you know; and I don’t know +why we should insult a parlor organ bedstead +in the same way. If we can’t afford that sort +of thing, they might turn the dining tables +upside down; they would make better cribs +than the children have now, I’ll venture to +say.”</p> + +<p>“You will tuck them up, I suppose, with +napkins and table-cloths,” Cynthia sneered. +But Winnie paid no attention to the interruption.</p> + +<p>“They will not mind a little crowding, and +the thing will march right along if we only +plunge into it. They must not stay another +night in that old tenement. Polo said there +was a rag-picker under them, and a woman +who had delirium tremens in the next room. +I am going down to-morrow afternoon to take +them to the Home.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> + +<p>A meeting of our own particular circle of +King’s Daughters, which was made up of ourselves +and the “Hornets,” took place that +evening in the Hornets’ Nest. The Hornets +were a coterie of mischievous girls rooming +in a little family like the Amen Corner, but in +the attic story under the very eaves. They +took up the idea of the guest chamber with +great enthusiasm, but they were nearly as impecunious +as ourselves. Suddenly Little +Breeze—our pet name for Tina Gale—exclaimed, +“I have a notion! We will invite +the school to a ‘Catacomb Party, and the +underground Feast of the Ghouls.’”</p> + +<p>“How very scareful that sounds!” said +Trude Middleton. “What is it, anyway?”</p> + +<p>“Oh! it’s a mystery, a blood-curdling mystery. +It will cost everybody fifty cents, but it +will be worth it. I want Witch Winnie to be +on the committee of arrangements with me, +and you must all give us full authority to do +just as we please; and it is to be a surprise, +and you must ask no questions.”</p> + +<p>“We trust you. Where’s it to be? In the +sewers, or the cathedral crypts?”</p> + +<p>But Little Breeze refused to waft the least +zephyr of information our way, and there was +nothing for it but to wait.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p> + +<p>As we were returning rather noisily from +the Hornets’ Nest, we passed Miss Noakes’s +open door, and she rang her little bell in a +peremptory manner. This meant that we +were to report ourselves immediately to her, +and we did so.</p> + +<p>“Young ladies,” said Miss Noakes in her +most disagreeable manner, “before reporting +you to Madame, I would like to give you an +opportunity of explaining a very irregular +performance. As I was returning from a +meeting of the Young Women’s Christian +Association this afternoon, I saw three occupants +of your corner taking a promenade with +a gentleman. This is, as you know, an infringement +of school rules, and I would like +to inquire whether the young man has any +authorization from your parents for such attention.”</p> + +<p>“Only two of us were concerned in this +matter,” I replied. “We met Mr. Van Silver +quite by chance, and he very politely offered +Milly the protection of his umbrella for a +part of the way home, as she had none. He +is an old friend of her family and thoroughly +approved of by Mr. Roseveldt.”</p> + +<p>“How often have I told you young ladies +never to go out, on the pleasantest day, without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +an umbrella or waterproof, since a storm +may come up at any minute?”</p> + +<p>“I did take my waterproof,” Milly replied.</p> + +<p>“Then you had no occasion to accept the +gentleman’s umbrella,” Miss Noakes said +sternly.</p> + +<p>“But I gave it to Polo,” Milly stammered, +quite fluttered.</p> + +<p>“Polo! Who is Polo? and how can you +tell me, Miss Smith, that Miss Roseveldt and +you were the only ones implicated in this disgraceful +affair, when I saw three of you enter +the turret door?”</p> + +<p>“The third girl was Polo, the new model +whom Professor Waite has engaged to pose +for the portrait class.”</p> + +<p>“A professional model? Worse and worse! +and how comes it that you were walking with +such a questionable character?”</p> + +<p>I related the entire story as simply as possible; +but it was evident that Miss Noakes did +not approve.</p> + +<p>“A most extraordinary performance,” she +commented. “I feel it my duty to report it +to Madame.”</p> + +<p>“You may spare yourself that trouble, Miss +Noakes,” Adelaide replied. “Tib, Winnie, +and I are going to tell Madame all about it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +at her next office hour. We want to ask her +permission to get up a little entertainment in +behalf of Polo’s little brother and sisters.”</p> + +<p>“And I shall suggest to Madame,” Miss +Noakes added, “the advisability of inquiring +into the character and antecedents of this girl, +before she allows her to become an accredited +dependent of her establishment, or authorizes +the bestowal of charity upon her family. +Artists’ models are often disreputable people +with whom your parents would not be willing +that you should associate, and I advise you +not to become too intimate with a perfect +stranger.”</p> + +<p>We had come through the ordeal on the +whole quite triumphantly, but Polo had excited +Miss Noakes’s enmity. She could never be +won to regard her as anything but a vagabond, +and always spoke of her as ‘that model girl’ in +a tone that belied the literal signification of the +words; and later, when by dint of spying and +listening Miss Noakes learned that a robbery +had been committed in the Amen Corner, her +dislike and suspicion of poor Polo led to very +painful consequences. The relation of which, +however, belongs to a later chapter.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/gs03.jpg" width="400" height="637" alt="Professor Waite raised the portière for her to pass." title="" /> +</div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER X.<br /> + +<small>THE CATACOMB PARTY.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image10"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 200px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 190px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 180px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 170px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 160px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 150px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 140px; height: 50px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 130px; height: 50px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 120px; height: 60px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in2"><span class="upper">Polo</span> came on Monday +and posed to the +satisfaction of Professor +Waite and of +the class. Winnie was +successful in entering +the two children at the +Home, and Adelaide had +a happy thought for Polo +herself, who was too old +to be received there. One +of the smallest apartments +in her tenement had been +taken by Miss Billings and +Miss Cohens, two seamstresses, +honest, industrious old maids, who +had lived and worked together since they +were girls. Adelaide called them the two +turtle doves, the odd combination of their +name suggesting the nickname, and their +fondness for each other bearing it out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +They were a cheerful pair, and their rooms +were bright with flowers and canaries. One +morning Miss Billings woke to find her +friend dead at her side, having passed from +life in sleep so peacefully that she neither +woke nor disturbed the faithful friend close +beside her.</p> + +<p>The poor old lady was very lonely and was +glad to take Polo in. The young girl brightened +her life, and her own influence on the +nearly friendless waif was excellent. In the +intervals of posing Miss Billings taught Polo +how to cut and fit dresses. Polo helped her +with her sewing, and Miss Billings promised +to take her into partnership by and by. Polo +was very happy and grateful, and the girls all +liked her immensely. She was a character in +her way, an irresistible mimic. She would +take off Miss Noakes to the life, while she +had a talent which I have never seen equalled +for making the most ludicrous and horrible +faces. She was almost pretty, and with Miss +Billings’s help, made over the odds and ends +of clothing bestowed upon her very nicely. +Her one trinket was a string of coral beads +and a little cross which her brother had sent +her before she left England. She never gave +up her faith in this brother. “Albert Edward’ll<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +turn up some day rich,” she said. +She flouted the idea that he might be dead. +“He ain’t the dying kind,” she said, when +Cynthia suggested the possibility. “None of +our family ain’t, except father. Why, I’ve +been through enough to kill a cat, and I +haven’t died yet.”</p> + +<p>She was especially devoted to Milly, to +whom she felt, with reason, that she owed all +her good fortune. Professor Waite found +her remarkably serviceable as a model, from +her versatility and ability to adapt herself to +any character, giving a great variety of types +for us to copy. When she wore the Italian +costume, one would have thought her an Italian, +and a complete change came over her +when she donned the German cap and wooden +shoes. “May be that’s because I’ve lived +amongst all sorts of foreigners so much,” she +said, “and Albert Edward always said I’d +make an actress equal to the best. He said +I had talent. I do pity them as hasn’t. I +wouldn’t be one of the common herd for anything.”</p> + +<p>Polo was certainly uncommon. Her use of +the English language had an individuality of +its own. She hated Miss Noakes and said +she had no business to be “tryannic” (meaning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +tyrannical). She spoke of native Americans +as abor-jines (a distortion of aborigines), +and intermingled these little variations of her +own with cockney phrases which were new to +our untravelled ears.</p> + +<p>She found difficulty in understanding our +words and expressions, and once when Professor +Waite told her to set up a screen she astonished +us all by uttering a most blood-curdling +yell, under the impression that he had +commanded her to set up a <em>scream</em>.</p> + +<p>She disliked Cerberus, and to save her +from his scornful scrutiny and contemptuous +remarks, Professor Waite had a duplicate key +made to the turret door, by which Polo entered +each morning and mounted directly to +the studio.</p> + +<p>She was very diverting, but much as we +liked her we could not forget that we had assumed +a grave responsibility in taking the +support of her little sisters upon our hands, +and we now began to actively agitate the +plans for the Catacomb Party, which was to +raise funds for the Annex with its “Manger +and Guest Chambers.”</p> + +<p>One event of interest to us occurred before +the evening of the Catacomb Party. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +was the Annual Drill of the Cadet School. +All of the Amen Corner and the Hornets had +invitations. We occupied front seats in the +east balcony of the great armory, vigilantly +chaperoned by Miss Noakes. Her best intentions +could not prevent the young cadets from +paying their respects to us during the intervals +of the drill.</p> + +<p>The young men looked handsomely in their +gala uniforms of white trousers and gloves, +blue coats, and caps set off with plenty of frogging +and brass buttons. They performed their +evolutions with a precision which would have +done credit to a regiment of regulars—and received +the praise of General Howard, who reviewed +them.</p> + +<p>Out of all the battalion there were two boys +in whom we were chiefly interested: Adelaide’s +younger brother Jim, color sergeant of the baby +company, and Milly’s friend Stacey Fitz Simmons, +the handsome drum-major.</p> + +<p>Winnie insisted that Malcolm Douglas must +have been thinking of the practising of this +cadet drum corps when he wrote:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“And all of the people for blocks around,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Boom-tidera-da-boom!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kept time at their tasks to the martial sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Boom-tidera-da-boom!</span><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +<span class="i0">While children to windows and stoops would fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Expecting to see a procession pass by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they couldn’t make out why it never drew nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With its boom-tidera-da—boom-a-diddle-dee;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Boom-tidera-da-boom!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It would seem such vigor must soon abate;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Boom-tidera-da-boom!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they still keep at it, early and late;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Boom-tidera-da-boom!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So if it should be that a war breaks out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They’ll all be ready, I have no doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To help in putting the foe to rout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With their boom-tidera-da-boom—<br /></span> +<span class="i2"><em>Boom-tidera-da-boom—</em><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boom-tidera-da—boom-a-diddle-dee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Boom-Boom-<em>Boom!”</em><br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Stacey was seventeen, tall for his age, with +a little feathery mustache outlining his finely +cut upper lip. He was elegant in appearance +and manners, and we all admired and liked him +with the exception of perverse, wilful Milly. +Jim was thirteen and small for his years. The +life of privation which he had led during a +period when he had been lost, the account +of which has been given in the previous volume, +had stunted his growth, and given him an appearance +of delicacy. But Jim was wiry, and +possessed great endurance, and his drilling that +evening was noticeable for its accuracy and +spirit. Adelaide and Jim were deeply attached +to one another. They wrote each other long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +letters every week, remarkable for their perfect +confidence. As Jim’s letters give an insight +not only into his life at the cadet school, but +also into the relations which subsisted between +several of the cadets and members of our own +school, as well as into a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">contretemps</i> which introduced +great consternation into the Catacomb +Party, I will choose two from Adelaide’s +packet and insert them before describing the +mystic entertainment of the Council of Ten.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Letter No. 1.</span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sister:</span></p> + +<p>I like the barracks better than I did. I almost have gotten +over being homesick, and the fellows are awfully nice now that +I have come to know them. I miss mother, but I would rather +die than let any one know it. I’ve put her photograph down +at the bottom of my trunk, for it gave me the snuffles to see +it, and Stacey Fitz Simmons caught me kissing it once, and I +was so ashamed. He is one of the nicest fellows here, and he +didn’t rough me a bit about it, only whistled, and said: “You’ve +got a mighty pretty mother; I guess she takes after your sister. +Pity there wasn’t more beauty left for the rest of the family.” +He knows you, and I guess you must remember meeting him +when you visited the Roseveldts last summer at Narragansett +Pier. He asked if you and Milly Roseveldt were at the same +school, and would I please send his regards when I wrote. He +is one of the Senior A boys, and is going to college next year. +I am only Middle C, but he is ever so good to me, I am sure I +don’t know why. We are drilling, drilling all the time now for +the annual drill at the Seventh Regiment Armory.</p> + +<p>Stacey is an awfully good fellow. He’s the head of everything. +He’s drum-major, and you just ought to see him in his uniform +leading the drum corps [Jim spelled it <cite>core</cite>]. He’s the cockatoo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +of the school. Stacey’s folks are rich, and his mother wrote the +military tailor not to spare expense, but to get Stacey up just +as fine as they make ’em, and I don’t believe there’s a drum-major +of any of the crack regiments that can hold a candle +to him for style. In the first place he has a high furry hat +that looks like the big muffs they carried at the old folks’ concerts. +Then he has a bright scarlet coat all frogged and padded +and laced with lots of gold cord, and the nattiest trousers +and patent leather boots. But his baton—oh, Adelaide! words +cannot express. I don’t believe old Ahasuerus ever had a +sceptre half as gorgeous, with a great gold ball on the top, and +it will do your eyes good to see him swing it. Doesn’t he put +on airs, though! Put on isn’t the word, for Stacey is airy +naturally, and dignified, too. Buttertub says he walks as if he +owned the earth. When he marches backward holding his +baton crosswise, I’m always afraid that he will fall and that +somebody might laugh, and that would kill him. But he never +does fall. He seems to see with the buttons on the small of +his back, and he stepped over a banana skin while marching to +the armory just as dandified as you please. And he never fails +to catch his baton when he tosses it into the air, and makes it +whirl around twice before it comes down. He never bows to +any of the fellows or seems to see them—except me. They are +going to have Gilmore’s Band at the drill, and Stacey was +practising leading them around the armory. I was in the lower +balcony, hanging over and watching him. He was going +through his fanciest evolutions when he passed me. He looked +straight ahead and never winked an eye. I didn’t think he saw +me till I heard him say, “How’s that, dear boy?” and I clapped +so hard that I nearly fell over.</p> + +<p>Buttertub hates Stacey; he wanted to be drum-major himself.</p> + +<p>He calls Stacey wasp-waist, but it only calls attention to his +own big stomach. He is always eating, and he won’t train, and +he can’t run without having a fit of apoplexy. He weighs too +much for the crew and he can’t even ride a bicycle, or do anything +except the heavy work on the foot ball team and study. +Yes, he can study; that’s the disgusting part.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p> + +<p>Stacy can do everything. He’s a splendid sprinter. There’s +only one other boy in the school that can equal him, and that’s a +red-headed boy they call Woodpecker. He has longer legs than +Stacey and of course takes a longer stride, and that counts. But +Stacey is livelier and puts in four strides to three of the Woodpecker’s, +so they are pretty nearly equal. Stacey is a prettier +runner, too. He does it just as <em>easy</em>, while the Woodpecker +works all over, arms <em>and</em> legs, and bites on his handkerchief, +and his eyes pop out, and when it’s all over he falls in a heap +and looks as if he were dying, while Stacey takes another lap in +better time than the last, just for fun.</p> + +<p>Stacey rides the bicycle, too, splendidly. He has one of those +big wheels and he can manage it with his feet and do all sorts +of tricks with his hands. He has been giving me points on bicycle +riding. He picked out my safety for me, and has been +coaching me how to manage it. He says I am the best rider +for a little chap that he ever saw, and that he means to make +me win the race at the inter-scholastic. I tell you Stacey is a +trump. He’s an all-around athlete. He dances, and he rides, +and he shoots in the summer when he goes hunting with his +uncle; and he fences, and he’s stroke on the crew, and he’s our +best high jump and there isn’t anything that he can’t do, except +his lessons—sometimes—but they don’t count. He says that if +it wasn’t for the beastly lessons school would be heavenly, and +we all agree with him. Ricos said that he would head a petition +to have lessons abolished and the boys would all sign it, but +Stacey said that parents were so unprogressive he didn’t believe +they would, and he was afraid the head master wouldn’t pay much +attention to such a petition unless it bore the parents’ signatures.</p> + +<p>I’ve written an awfully long letter, but I like to write to you, +and it was rainy to-day, and we couldn’t go to the grounds, and +I’ve hurt my ankle by falling from my bicycle so that I could +not practise in the gymnasium. Now don’t go and get scared, +like a girl, and disapprove of athletics for such a little thing as +that. It was only a little sprain, that will all be well before the +drill, and I only barked my shin the least bit, nothing at all to +what the Woodpecker does most every day.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> + +<p>I hope I shall be big enough to go on the foot-ball team next +year. I know you think it’s dangerous, but I’ve calculated the +chances of getting hurt and they are so very slight that I guess +I’ll risk it. Why, out of the whole eleven last year there were +only nine that got hurt.</p> + +<p>Be sure you all come to the exhibition drill. I enclose +two tickets and Stacey sends two more. He wants it distinctly +understood that you and Miss Roseveldt are his guests. So you +can give mine with my compliments to Miss T. Smith and Miss +Winnie De Witt. I don’t send any for that Vaughn girl, for +Buttertub knows her and told me he was going to invite her.</p> + +<p>No more at present,<br /> +<span class="sign4">From your affectionate brother,</span><br /> +<span class="sign2">James Halsey Armstrong.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>P. S. Stacey sends his regards to Miss Roseveldt.</p> + +<p>P. S. No. 2. And to you.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Letter No. 2.</span></p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">The Barracks</span>, April.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sister:</span></p> + +<p>Wasn’t the drill splendid? I knew you would enjoy it. +How I wish father and mother had been in New York so they +could have seen it.</p> + +<p>You looked just stunning in that stylish hat. Stacey said so. +You must excuse him if he didn’t pay you very much attention. +He could only leave the band during the intermission and of +course he had to be polite to Miss Roseveldt. Besides he said +I stuck so close to you that he hadn’t any chance. He says he +never saw a fellow so spooney over his own sister as I am. I +tell him there aren’t many chaps who have such a nice sister as +you are, and then we were separated so long that I am making +up for lost time.</p> + +<p>I am glad you liked the French Army Bicycle drill. That +was something quite new. Stacey was detailed to command it +because he’s a splendid cyclist himself, and he knew how to put +us through. I didn’t know till the day before that he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +going to call me out to skirmish. He said: “Jimmy, you can +manage your wheel better than any one else except the Woodpecker, +and I am going to have you two go through with a +little fancy business that will bring the house down.” And +didn’t it? When I fired off my gun going at full speed, they +clapped so that I nearly lost my head. Ricos was mad because +he wasn’t selected for the special manœuvres. Ricos is better +for speed than I am, and he’s awfully quick-tempered—he’s a +Spaniard, you know, and he said to me, “Never mind, youngster, +I’ll pay you up for this at the inter-scholastic races.” I suppose +he means to win the gold medal, and I told Stacey that I +believed he would, and I should be thankful to be second, or +even third, for there are the best cyclists from all the other +schools in the city to contend against. But Stacey says, “He +can’t do it, you know,” meaning Ricos; and our trainer says +that if he enters me at all he enters me to win. So I am going +to try my level best.</p> + +<p>Wasn’t Cynthia Vaughn stunning in that green dress trimmed +with fur! Buttertub said she was the most stylish girl at the +drill. Stacey made him mad by saying that she was hardly that, +though, as a Harvard chap once said of some one else, he had +no doubt that she was a well-meaning girl and a comfort to her +mother!</p> + +<p>Ricos invited all the Hornets, and some one of them told him +that you girls are going to have a great lark—a Catacombing +Party. He thought it was to represent the games of the +Roman arena with cats instead of lions and tigers. I told +him it must be a mistake, and that if he supposed Madame’s +young ladies, and my sister especially, would do anything so +low as to look on at a cat-fight, he didn’t know what he was +talking about. But Stacey said that there was something up, +he knew, for when he asked Milly Roseveldt if the girls were +going to have a Venetian Fête for the benefit of the Home, as +they did last year, she said it was a sheet and pillow-case party +this time, and boys were not admitted. He told her he would +surely disguise himself in a sheet and pillow-case and come; +but he only said so to tease her, and when he saw how distressed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +she was he told her he was only fooling. Buttertub said Cynthia +mentioned it too, and Stacey’s idea was a good one and he believed +he should try it. But Stacey said he would like to see +him do it and that he would have him court-martialled for ungentlemanly +conduct, and reduced to the ranks if he attempted +to play the spy at one of the girl’s frolics.</p> + +<p>Stacey wanted me to be sure to tell you to tell Milly Roseveldt +not to worry about what he said, for the cadets are all gentlemen +and wouldn’t think of going anywhere where they were not +invited. That’s so as far as Stacey is concerned, but I don’t +know about Ricos.</p> + +<p>Do tell me what you are going to do, anyway—and for pity’s +sake don’t have any cats in it.</p> + +<p><span class="sign3">Your affectionate brother,</span><br /> +<span class="sign2">J. H. Armstrong.</span><br /></p> +</div> + +<p>Jim’s misunderstanding of the Catacomb +Party amused us very much. No one was +alarmed by the boys’ threats to attend it but +Milly, who insisted that she had no confidence +in Stacey and believed him fully capable of +committing even this atrocious act.</p> + +<p>As soon as the drill was over our interest +centred on this party. The committee from +our circle of King’s Daughters waited upon +Madame, and obtained her permission for the +projected entertainment. She stipulated, however, +that it must be strictly confined to members +of the school and no outsiders admitted.</p> + +<p>“The Literary Society,” she said, “will give +its public entertainment in the spring, and we +do not wish to have the reputation of spending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +our entire time in getting up charity bazaars, +and imposing on our friends to buy tickets. +Anything in reason which you care to do among +yourselves, I will consent to. It does young +girls good to have an occasional frolic.”</p> + +<p>Emboldened by the unusually happy frame +of mind in which Madame seemed to be basking, +Winnie asked if we might act a play and +have “gentlemen characters” in it. Formerly +the assumption of masculine attire had been +prohibited, and at one of our Literary Society +dramas, a half curtain had been stretched across +the stage, giving a view of only the upper portion +of the persons of the actors. The young +ladies taking the part of the male personages in +the play, wore cutaway coats outside their +dresses, and riding hats or Tam O’Shanter caps.</p> + +<p>Madame laughed as she recalled that absurd +spectacle. “Since your audience is strictly +limited to your associates, I think I may suspend +that rule for this occasion,” she said +leniently. “When do you intend to give the +play? I cannot allow you to use the chapel. +How would the studio do?”</p> + +<p>“If you please,” said Winnie, “we would like +the laundry.”</p> + +<p>“The laundry!” Madame exclaimed in surprise.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes, Madame. Tina Gale explored the +lower regions under the school building one +day, and the furnace room, and the long dim +galleries connecting the coal bins, the cellars, +and the laundry seemed to her so mysterious +and pokerish that she thought it would be a +nice idea to call it a Catacomb Party, especially +as the girls have been so much interested in +Professor Todd’s early history of the Christian +Church.”</p> + +<p>Madame’s eyes twinkled as she heard this, for +Professor Todd had been generally voted a +prosy old nuisance; but Winnie was earnestness +itself.</p> + +<p>“Very well,” said Madame kindly. “I do +not want the girls to think that I am a cruel +tyrant, or unduly strict or suspicious. [“She +was thinking of the way in which she arraigned +Adelaide for corresponding with Professor +Waite,” Winnie commented afterward.] If +your committee will submit the programme to +me, I have no doubt I shall be able to approve +of everything. Let me see—the laundry will +be your circus maximus, or theatre. Where +will you have your refreshments?”</p> + +<p>We had not thought of that.</p> + +<p>“I will give you the key to the preserve +closet; it is at the end of the drying-room, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +you may make a raid upon it for your provisions. +Only please be careful not to waste or +destroy any more than you can dispose of. I +will have some tables placed in the drying-room, +and you may partake of your collation +there.”</p> + +<p>This was all we needed. The preparations +for the Catacomb Party went merrily on.</p> + +<p>Trude Middleton dramatized Cardinal Wiseman’s +novel, “Fabiola.” We who had remained +at school during the Christmas Holidays +had read it aloud together, and its thrilling +pictures of the persecutions of the +martyrs, the games of the arena, and all the +life of imperial Rome, had made a deep impression +upon us. Trude Middleton had a +genius for writing, and Little Breeze distributed +the parts, rehearsed the play, took the +rôle of the sorceress <cite>Afra</cite>, and acted as stage +manager. The classical costumes were easily +arranged. Professor Waite showed us how +to drape crinkled cheese cloth and to manage +the folds of peplum and toga, to trace a key-pattern +border, to fillet our hair, and lace our +sandals. The rehearsals were carried on in +the most secret manner. Only the actors +knew exactly what the play was to be. Expectancy +was on the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">qui vive</i>. Winnie had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +written some mysteriously attractive admission +tickets, and had ornamented each one with a +tiny white wire skeleton. These tickets the +ten sold to the other members of the school +to the number of one hundred and twenty, +not a single member of the school declining +to patronize us.</p> + +<p>The sale of these tickets had been materially +aided by a manifesto, printed in red ink, +supposed to simulate blood, and left dangling +conspicuously from the wrist of old “Bonaparte” +(Bonypart), the anatomy class skeleton.</p> + +<p>This manifesto read as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Council of Ten, in secret session assembled, hereby summon +you, each and all, severally and individually, to the Torture +Chambers of the Inquisition (otherwise known as the studio), +on the ringing of the great tocsin (sometimes called the eight +o’clock study bell). At that hour let each be prepared to render +up her earthly goods to the amount of one ticket, vouching +for fifty cents; and having donned a winding sheet, and likewise +a winding pillow-case as headgear, submit to the office of the +Inquisition, which will transform her, with that happy despatch +due to long experience, into a disembodied spirit. At the same +time the Arch Witch Winnie will turn back the clock of Time +to the first century, and each ghost, being first securely blindfolded, +will be led by a spirit guide, experienced in the charge +of personally conducting spirits, into the great amphitheatre of +the Coliseum, where she will mingle with the most renowned +personages of ancient Rome, and will be permitted to live a +short and exciting life under the cheerful persecution of the +amiable and playful Cæsars.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> + +<p>After the final scene of the gladiatorial combat in the arena +each spirit will be led by her guide through the grewsome and +labyrinthine Catacombs—faint not! fear not! to the</p> + +<p class="center"><cite>Feast of the Ghouls!</cite></p> + +<p>Thence, conducted by Orpheus with his lute, and Beatrice, the +guide of Dante, they will cross the Styx and join in the</p> + +<p class="center"><cite>Dance of the Dead</cite></p> + +<p>in the shadowy Purgatorio.</p> + +<p>At the stroke of midnight each spirit who has passed through +this ordeal with a steadfast mind will be wafted to upper regions +to the rest of the blessed.</p> + +<p>Signed by the Council of Ten, as represented by Witch +Winnie, of the Amen Corner, and Little Breeze, of the Hornets; +and sealed with the great seal of our office, this —— day of +—— 18—.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Seal.</span></p></div> + +<p>These preparations were going on simultaneously +with the investigation of the robbery, +and served in a measure to relieve the tension +to which we were all subjected. Still the +trouble was there, and we never quite forgot +it. Mr. Mudge called twice, and made inquiries, +from which Winnie inferred that he +was hopelessly puzzled. Milly was sure that +he had found a clew, but if so, he did not impart +his discoveries.</p> + +<p>The mystic evening arrived. Cynthia, who, +for some reason inexplicable to us, was in a +highly self-satisfied and gracious mood, invited +Polo to sleep with her in order that she might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +be able to attend the party. It was necessary +to prefer this request to our corridor teacher, +Miss Noakes, who gave us a very grudging +consent; but we cared very little for her iciness +since we had effected our wishes.</p> + +<p>The girls met in the studio, where all were +draped in sheets, a small mask cut from white +cotton cloth tied on, and a pillow case fitted +about the back of the head in the fashion of +a long capuchin hood. When thus robed our +dearest friends were unrecognizable. Then, +marshalled by Winnie, the company of spectres +paraded through the hall and down the +main staircase. Miss Noakes and the other +teachers stood in their doors and watched the +procession, but as it was known that we had +Madame’s permission no attempt was made to +stop us, and we passed on unabashed. Arrived +at the lower floor each of the guests +was securely blindfolded and conducted by +one of our ten down the cellar stairs, and +through winding passages to the laundry, +which had been converted for the evening into +an auditorium, sheets having been hung on +clothes-lines across one end, and the space in +front filled with camp chairs brought from the +recitation rooms. The set tubs on one side +of the improvised stage were fitted up as boxes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +while a semi-circle of clothes-baskets marked +the space assigned to the comb orchestra. As +fast as the girls arrived in the laundry they +were seated, and when the last instalment was +in position the lights were turned nearly out, +and they were told to remove the handkerchiefs +which bandaged their eyes. At the +same time the comb orchestra, led by Cynthia, +struck up a dismal dirge-like overture, broken +in upon at intervals by a tremendous thump +with a potato masher on the great copper +boiler. The curtain was drawn slowly aside, +the lights suddenly turned on, and the play +began. Adelaide made a very beautiful <cite>Fabiola</cite>. +Winnie acted the part of <cite>Pancratius</cite> with +great expression. Milly looked the saintly +<cite>Agnes</cite> to perfection. I was <cite>Sebastian</cite>. We +did not indulge in all the dialogue with +which the book is overloaded. Our play +was rather a series of tableaux, for which +I had painted the scenery with the assistance +of the other art students. Professor Waite +had borrowed various classical properties from +his brother artists for us. The plaster casts +of the studio were made to serve as marble +statues, and Madame had sent us several palms +in urn-shaped pots.</p> + +<p>When the play was nearly over, Polo, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +had acted as doorkeeper, made her way behind +the scenes and took my attention from +the prompter’s book with the horrified whisper, +“If you please, there are two girls out +there that are boys.”</p> + +<p>“Who? Where? How do you know it?” +I asked in a breath.</p> + +<p>“They came in at the end of the procession, +without any guides, and sat down near +the door, apart from the others. One is little +enough to be a girl, but the other is taller, +even, than Miss Adelaide.”</p> + +<p>“It is Snooks,” Winnie exclaimed. “Just +like her to come spying and speculating here +to see what we are up to.”</p> + +<p>“If that’s so, Miss Noakes has bigger feet +than I ever gave her credit for,” Polo replied; +“and she wears boots too.”</p> + +<p>“Then those cadets have actually dared!” +Winnie exclaimed, and Milly gave a little +shriek. “Oh, that horrid Stacey Fitz Simmons!”</p> + +<p>“Hush!” commanded Winnie. “We will +make them wish they had never been born. +Oh, I will manage these gay young gentlemen. +Go back to your post, Polo. Keep the +door locked, and be sure that no one leaves except<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +in the regular order and conducted by +her guide.”</p> + +<p>A few moments later and the curtains were +drawn at the close of the final act, tremendous +applause testifying the approval of the audience. +Winnie now stepped to the front of +the curtain and announced that the ghosts +must now each submit once more to be blindfolded +and “to be led through the grewsome +and labyrinthine catacombs to the Feast of +the Ghouls.”</p> + +<p>Little Breeze and Milly first led away two +of the girls, and then Winnie stepped boldly +up to the taller of the two suspected intruders +and offered to blindfold him. The +rogue could only follow the example of those +who had preceded him, and submit with a +good grace, as any other course would have +led to detection. I followed with the shorter +impostor, tying the handkerchief very tight, +and detecting the odor of cigarettes as I did +so. Winnie beckoned to me to follow, and +conducted her victim to the root cellar, a +dark, unwholesome little room, with a small +orated window—a veritable dungeon. We +led our prisoners into the centre of this +gloomy cell, and, making them kneel on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +the cemented floor, bade them remain there +until the coming of the ghouls. Hastening +from the place, we chained and padlocked the +door securely.</p> + +<p>“Now that we have secured our prisoners, +what do you propose to do with them?” I +asked of Winnie.</p> + +<p>“Call the Amen Corner together after supper +to deliberate on their fate. In the mean +time they are very well off where they are. I +fancy they will hardly care to repeat this experiment.”</p> + +<p>We returned to the laundry and continued +the ceremony of leading our guests to the +supper. When all had been led in, the bandages +were removed from their eyes, and they +found themselves before tables provided with +plates, knives, and forks, but no edibles. Little +Breeze, beating upon a tin pan with a +great beef bone, called the meeting to order, +and, indicating the preserve closet, announced +that the ghouls would now search the neighboring +tombs for their prey. At the same +time the door of the preserve closet was +thrown open, and Trude Middleton set the +example by capturing a can of peaches. The +girls fancied that they were robbing the +pantry, and this gave zest to the performance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +to a few of the more reckless ones, but the +rest held back, and Winnie found it necessary +to circulate the whisper that even this +apparently high-handed proceeding was authorized +by Madame, before the raid became +general. A very heterogeneous repast, consisting +of pickles, crackers, dried apples, +canned fruit, prunes, dried beef, and lemonade +hastily mixed in a great earthen bowl, was now +participated in by the hilarious ghouls. One +bowl of the lemonade was ruined, after the +lemons and sugar were mingled, by a ludicrous +mistake. Milly, mistaking it for water, filled +the bowl from a jar of liquid bluing. The +error was discovered when we began filling +some empty jelly tumblers with the strange +blue mixture, and, fortunately, no one was +poisoned by drinking the ghoulish liquor.</p> + +<p>Under cover of the confusion I managed to +tell Adelaide of the captives in the cellar, and +later in the evening, while the ghosts were +engaged in a Virginia Reel in the long underground +passage leading from the furnace +room to the other end of the school building, +met in solemn conclave to deliberate on their +fate. Adelaide was for delivering the keys +to Madame with a statement of the case. +Cynthia argued strongly in favor of releasing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +the young men, sending them home, and +saying nothing about it. While we were in +the midst of the argument, a far away cry +was heard. It was from Polo, who had +been left to guard the door of the root cellar. +We rushed to the spot, only to find that +the rusty staple had yielded to the efforts +of two athletic boys, one of whom was heavy +of weight as well as strong of muscle, and +had been forced out of the wall, and our captives +had escaped. Polo had followed them +in their flight, and returned breathless to +report that they had made a dash, not for the +outside door, but straight up the great staircase +to the studio and had then descended +the turret staircase, showing clearly that they +had made their entrance in the same way.</p> + +<p>We talked the matter over for a long time. +How could they have known of this staircase, +and have timed their coming so as to follow +the procession of sheeted ghosts as they left +the studio for their march to the lower +regions? The suspicion instantly suggested +itself that some one of the ten had furnished +the information, and this suspicion deepened +to certainty as we considered the excellence +of their disguise, the sheets draped exactly +as ours had been, the pillow-case Capuchin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +hood fitted about the mask cut from cotton +cloth. How, too, could they have entered, +since Polo declared that she had locked the +turret door when she came in that afternoon, +and had left the key on a nail in the +studio?</p> + +<p>“Show me the nail,” Winnie commanded +promptly, and Polo led her to the studio. +The nail was there, but the key had gone. +We descended the staircase and found the +lower door locked.</p> + +<p>As we were returning to the studio we +heard the door open and Professor Waite +mounted the stairs, as was his usual custom +at this time. “Heigho!” he exclaimed, +“what are you all doing in the studio at this +time of night? Oh! I forgot; this is the +evening of the lark. Has it been a jovial +bird? Why do you all look so solemn? By +the way, Polo, I found your key in the lock +on the outside of the door. It was very +careless of you to leave it there; you must +not let such a thing happen again. Some +thief might have entered the house. I met +two young men running with all their might +as I came across the park. They made something +of a detour to avoid me—I thought at +the time that they had a suspicious look. If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +you are so thoughtless a second time I shall +take the key from you.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t leave it there,” Polo protested. +“I hung it on the nail, Miss Cynthia saw me. +Didn’t you, Miss Cynthia?”</p> + +<p>But Cynthia had gone, and as the quarter-bell +struck we were all reminded that we must +descend to our dancers to be present at the +unmasking and close the frolic. We hurried +unceremoniously away without replying to +Professor Waite’s questions.</p> + +<p>After we had dismissed our guests, we +adjourned to the Amen Corner and we again +discussed the affair. It was agreed that it +was sufficiently serious to report to Madame, +and to this there was only one dissenting +voice—that of Cynthia’s. It was too late to +disturb Madame that night, but we presented +ourselves at her morning office hour and told +her all the circumstances of the case.</p> + +<p>She looked very grave, but did not blame +us. “I am very sorry,” she said, “that some +one of my pupils has abused my leniency in +this way. It will of course make me hesitate +to grant you such frolics in the future. The +matter shall be thoroughly investigated and +the offender severely punished. Again I +must ask you to keep this affair strictly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +among yourselves. You have kept the secret +of the robbery wonderfully; be equally discrete +with this. We do not as yet know +certainly that these young men were cadets, +and I shall not make any complaint to the +head master until we have ascertained the +culprits. Mr. Mudge will call to-morrow. +He writes me that he has found a clue to the +robbery, and we will place this matter also in +his hands. You have done right to bring it +directly to me, and your action only confirms +the confidence I have always reposed in the +Amen Corner. Be assured that the truth will +out at last. Meantime don’t talk this over +too much, even among yourselves, for Tennyson +never wrote truer lines than these:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">I never whispered a private affair<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Within the hearing of cat or mouse,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">No, not to myself in the closet alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I heard it shouted at once from the top of the house.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Everything came to be known.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div></div> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XI.<br /> + +<small>A FALSE SCENT.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image11"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 290px; height: 150px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 280px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 270px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 260px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 240px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 190px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 120px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 80px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 60px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 40px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in2"><span class="upper">I think</span> +the visit +of Mr. +Mudge +was much +dreaded +by all of +us, even +though we +longed to +have the mystery +cleared up. +I know that Winnie, +at least, trembled +for the result, and she turned quite +pale the next morning when she received +a message from Madame to meet +Mr. Mudge in her office. It was only a few +moments before she returned.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Mudge wishes to see us all,” she said. +“Where are the other girls? He’s coming to +this room in five minutes.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Milly is in the studio, Adelaide in the +music-room. Cynthia, I don’t know where.”</p> + +<p>“Please summon Adelaide and Milly, I will +wait for you here—I feel almost faint.”</p> + +<p>“What is the matter, Winnie?” I asked +anxiously.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Mudge says that he now knows to a +certainty who the thief is, and that he will +announce the name to us this morning. I am +afraid, Tib, that he suspects Milly. He put +me on oath this morning and made me confess +something which I did not mean he +should know.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Winnie,” I replied, as reassuringly +as I could, “we both know that Milly +is perfectly innocent, and, as Madame said, the +truth will come out at last.”</p> + +<p>Winnie shaded her face with her hands but +did not reply. I brought Adelaide and Milly +to the Corner, and chancing to find Cynthia, +summoned her also. Mr. Mudge was in the +little study parlor when I returned. He +greeted me cheerfully as he stood by the cabinet +polishing his glasses with a large silk +handkerchief. Then he stepped across the +room and examined the door leading into the +studio.</p> + +<p>“So,” he said. “You have had a little bolt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +put on this door. It is an old proverb that +people always lock the stable after the horse +has been stolen. But it is just as well, just as +well. I agree with you that the thief came +from that quarter, and having been so successful +he may come again.”</p> + +<p>“He!” Winnie gasped.</p> + +<p>“Yes; much as it may pain you to learn +the fact, I must inform you that all indications +now make it a certainty that the thief can be +no other than your Professor of Art, Carrington +Waite.”</p> + +<p>Milly gave a little cry and fainted dead +away. The others all sprang to her assistance, +but as I was quite a distance from her +I did not move, and I heard Mr. Mudge give +a suppressed chuckle, and remark below his +breath: “Ah! my little lady, I thought that +would make you show your hand.”</p> + +<p>Milly speedily recovered; and with her +first breath exclaimed, “Oh, no, no! You +are mistaken; it cannot be so.”</p> + +<p>“Why not?” Mr. Mudge asked. “Was +not Professor Waite in the studio at the +time that the robbery was committed? Did +I not find the lock of this door in his tool +chest? Is it not a well-known fact that he is +a poor man, and yet a few days after the robbery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +did he not deposit in the savings bank +just one hundred dollars more than his quarter’s +salary? What stronger proof do we +require?”</p> + +<p>“I can explain all these circumstances.” +Milly replied eagerly, and she told the story +of the broken lock, which amused Mr. Mudge +greatly.</p> + +<p>“That disposes of one bit of circumstantial +evidence,” he admitted; “but the other +items?”</p> + +<p>“As to the money,” Milly continued, with a +slight flush, “papa bought one of Mr. Waite’s +small pictures, and sent him a check for a +hundred dollars just at the time you speak of. +I think if you inquire more particularly at the +bank you will find that it was papa’s check +which he deposited; and I can testify that he +was not in the studio at the time the robbery +was committed. I was lying awake and I +heard him come up the stairs. He was +earlier than usual. It was some time before +twelve. He hardly remained a moment, +merely left his canvases and paint-box, and +went right away.”</p> + +<p>“That is all very well under the supposition +that the robbery was committed between +the time that Miss Winnie looked into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +cabinet and Miss Cynthia’s discovery. But +Miss Winnie has just admitted to me that the +money was gone when she opened the cabinet, +so the theft must have occurred before that +time.” Winnie threw a piteous glance at +Milly, which Milly did not notice.</p> + +<p>“But still, after Professor Waite went +away,” Milly insisted.</p> + +<p>“Why are you so sure of this?” asked Mr. +Mudge.</p> + +<p>“Because, when I went to the cabinet fully +five minutes after he had gone it was all +there.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge’s gray eyes gave a snap which +reminded me of the springing of a trap. +“Indeed!” he said. “How many more of +you young ladies investigated the cabinet +during that eventful night? Will you kindly +inform me, Miss Roseveldt, for what purpose +you opened the cabinet, and why we are only +informed of the fact in this inadvertent way.”</p> + +<p>Winnie crossed the room and deliberately +placed her arm around Milly. “Milly, dear,” +she said, “the truth is always the best way, +though it may seem the hardest way; and, +whatever you may have to confess, I for one +shall love you just the same.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps it is just as well,” Milly replied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +cheerfully, “though Adelaide and I did not +intend that Tib should know it. You remember +that it was the eve of Tib’s birthday; Adelaide +and I each wanted to give her fifty dollars +toward her European fund. So after we +were sure that she must be asleep, I slipped +out into the parlor and took the money from +Adelaide’s pigeon-hole and from my purse, and +laid it on Tib’s shelf, where we intended she +should find it in the morning. Professor +Waite had gone when I did this, so he could +not have taken it. Adelaide told me to put +hers with mine, for she didn’t see the use of +both of us going into the parlor. We were +afraid we might wake the other girls.”</p> + +<p>“You did waken me, Milly dear,” Winnie +said. “I heard you, and standing just behind +my door I saw you go to the cabinet as you +have said, and take out Adelaide’s money and +count out fifty dollars, and then take the gold +pieces from your own little purse. Then I +went back to bed and did not see any more +until you went away, when I stepped out and +examined the cabinet, and the money was +gone.”</p> + +<p>Milly did not then comprehend the terrible +suspicion which had been in Winnie’s mind, +and she was very much pleased to find her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +testimony corroborated. “Adelaide saw me, +too,” she said. “You were watching me all +the time, weren’t you, Adelaide?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Adelaide replied. “Tell about the +note, too, Milly.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! that isn’t of any consequence. +After I had put the money in Tib’s compartment, +I thought it would be a good idea to +write her a note with it, and I pulled out the +shelf in the cabinet that serves as a writing +desk, but I didn’t write anything for I heard a +noise in Tib’s room. It must have been Winnie +going back to bed. So I shoved the shelf +in and scooted back to my own room. We +didn’t say anything about it in the morning +because Adelaide and I didn’t feel like boasting +of the presents we had given Tib, especially +as she never received them.”</p> + +<p>There was a great light in Winnie’s eyes. +It was evident that the suspicion which had +poisoned her life ever since the robbery had +vanished. To Winnie’s satisfaction, at least, +Milly had cleared herself.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge, too, had certainly shared this +suspicion. His announcement that Professor +Waite was the culprit had been only a clever +trick to make Milly criminate herself, for he +had guessed her attachment to the Professor,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +and felt sure that, rather than let the blame +rest with him, she would confess her crime. +His next question showed that he was not yet +fully satisfied.</p> + +<p>“Miss Roseveldt,” he asked, “will you tell +me where you obtained the money with which +you paid Madame Celeste’s bill for Miss Cynthia’s +costume the day after the robbery?”</p> + +<p>“I would rather not tell that,” Milly replied.</p> + +<p>“I must insist upon it.”</p> + +<p>“Papa called the day before, and I confessed +all about the bill to him, and he forgave +me, and gave me the money.”</p> + +<p>“We know that he gave you the gold pieces +which you placed in your purse, but these +were stolen, and you were apparently penniless +on the morning after the robbery.”</p> + +<p>“Papa drew a check for Celeste for the +amount of the bill, and that was in my pocket. +I did not put it in the cabinet at all. Then he +said that it was a very sad, disgraceful affair, +but he knew that I would never do so again, +and he was glad I told him, and he forgave +me freely, and now it was all over we would +bury it in the Dead Sea and never let mortal +man or woman know a word about it, and that +is why I could not tell Winnie how I had paid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +the debt. Papa said too—what was not true—that +it was partly his own fault, for keeping +me so short in pocket money and leaving me +free to run up large bills. And then he said +that he would change his tactics and give me +an allowance in cash every month, and I am +not to have anything charged any more, but +manage my expenses as Adelaide does. And +with that he gave me the gold pieces, and I +told him that I wanted to give them to Tib, +and he said, ‘Very well, do what you please, +but you will have nothing more for a fortnight, +when I will give you your allowance for the +coming month.’”</p> + +<p>We each of us drew a long breath. It all +seemed so simple now that Milly explained it +that I wondered how we could ever have mistrusted +her. Winnie clasped her more tightly. +There was a look of remorse in her eyes, +which told how she reproached herself for +having wronged her darling.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge tapped the table with his pencil +thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>“I must acknowledge, Miss Roseveldt,” he +said, “that you have completely cleared Professor +Waite. It is perfectly evident that he +could not have taken the money; but the question +still remains, Who did? How long an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +interval was there, Miss De Witt, between the +time that Miss Roseveldt returned to her bedroom, +and your examination of the cabinet?”</p> + +<p>“I do not know exactly. I waited only +until I fancied Milly might be asleep, then I +slipped out softly, closed the doors opening +into all the bedrooms, lighted my candle, and +examined the cabinet.”</p> + +<p>“And when Miss Roseveldt left the room +the money was there, and when you looked——”</p> + +<p>“It was gone.”</p> + +<p>“It seems to me,” said Cynthia maliciously, +“that Winnie is placed in a very disagreeable +position by these revelations. Her testimony +has been very contradictory and her manner +from the first, to say the least, peculiar. She +acknowledges that she was awake during the +time that intervened between Milly’s visit to +the safe and her own. If a thief came in it is +very strange that she did not hear him.”</p> + +<p>“It is strange,” Winnie acknowledged. “I +can hardly believe it possible, but these are +the facts in the case. I certainly did not take +the money, as Cynthia implies.”</p> + +<p>“Tut, tut,” Mr. Mudge remarked sharply. +“I am convinced that the thief is not a member +of the Amen Corner. I have in turn +taken up the supposition that the robbery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +might have been committed by each of you +young ladies, beginning with Miss Cynthia +and ending just now with Miss Milly, and I +have proved to my own satisfaction that you +are all innocent. Miss Winnie may have +fallen asleep, and during her brief nap some +one may have slipped in from the studio. +Professor Waite had gone, but he may have +left the turret door unlocked.”</p> + +<p>“I heard no one mount the stairs,” said +Milly.</p> + +<p>“True, but a sneak thief might steal up so +softly as to disturb no one. A man bent on +such an errand does not usually whistle opera +tunes, and then again the rogue may have been +in the studio during Professor Waite’s hasty +call. You told me, Miss Armstrong, that the +Professor was the only one who had a key to +the turret door.”</p> + +<p>“I did,” Adelaide replied, “but I was mistaken; +Polo has a duplicate key.”</p> + +<p>“And who is this lawn tennis girl?”</p> + +<p>“Polo, Mr. Mudge, not tennis. Her name +is Polo, a contraction for Pauline,” said +Adelaide.</p> + +<p>“Very extraordinary name. Lawn tennis +is a much more suitable game for a young +lady. Who is she, anyway?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p> + +<p>“She is a model, and a very good girl. +Polo is above suspicion,” Winnie remarked +authoritatively.</p> + +<p>“Hum—of course,” replied Mr. Mudge. +“Let me see, this Base-ball must be the +young lady of whom Miss Noakes spoke to +Madame as having conducted herself in a +rather peculiar manner night before last, the +evening of the subterranean entertainment.”</p> + +<p>We all looked up in surprise, and Mr. +Mudge continued:</p> + +<p>“Madame has confided to me the fact that +you young ladies were unpleasantly intruded +upon by certain unknown persons, who may, +or may not, have been connected with one of +our well known schools. Madame felt that +they could not have effected their entrance +and disguise without the connivance of some +member of this household. This individual +need not necessarily have been one of the +young ladies; it may have been a servant. I +have known it to be a fact that the chamber-maids +at Vassar have carried on flirtations +with young gentlemen who supposed themselves +to be in correspondence with Vassar +girls. Now it is quite possible that your +chambermaid may have heard of this frolic +and have mentioned it to her admirers.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Oh, no,” we all exclaimed; while Adelaide +continued: “We never mentioned it in her +presence; besides, she is as stupid and honest +as she is old and homely. I would as soon +suspect Miss Noakes.”</p> + +<p>“But this Lawn Tennis, I beg pardon, Base-ball, +of whom we were just speaking, is +neither stupid, nor old, nor ugly, and we know +very little in regard to her honesty——”</p> + +<p>“That is so,” Cynthia assented, and we all +turned and scowled upon her.</p> + +<p>“You tell me that she possesses a key to +the turret door, and now Miss Noakes’s testimony +fits in like the pieces in a Chinese +puzzle. On the afternoon of your entertainment +Miss Noakes says that a request was +preferred from you to allow Lawn Tennis—no, +Croquet—to share Miss Vaughn’s bedroom +for the night. Miss Noakes says she +felt a strange hesitancy about granting this +request——”</p> + +<p>“Not at all strange,” Winnie interrupted. +“It is a hesitancy which is quite habitual in +her case.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge waved his hand in a deprecatory +manner and continued. “Miss Noakes +further testifies that in the early evening, as +she was sitting at her open window, the night<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +being especially balmy for the season, she was +startled by a long whistle, which was not that +of the postman. As there was no light in +her own room she could look out without +being observed. The gas was lighted in Miss +Vaughn’s room, and though from its oblique +position she could not see what passed within +she could recognize any one leaning from it.” +[<a href="images/gs02-h.jpg">See plan of Amen Corner.</a>]</p> + +<p>Cynthia straightened herself up, and as it +seemed to me turned a trifle pale, while Mr. +Mudge went on.</p> + +<p>“Miss Noakes says that the first whistle +did not appear to be noticed, and stepping on +to her balcony she saw two young men, or +boys, standing at the foot of the tower, looking +up at Miss Vaughn’s windows. She +instantly retreated into her own room and +awaited further developments. A second +whistle, and some one in Miss Vaughn’s room +turned down the gas, and coming to the window +gave an answering whistle. Miss Noakes +says she could hardly credit her senses, for +she has looked upon Miss Vaughn as a model +of propriety; an instant later she observed +that the girl now leaning out of the window +and talking with the boys wore a dark blue +Tam O’Shanter cap, and she comprehended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +that it was not Miss Vaughn, but Lawn Tennis, +or Cricket, or whatever her name is, who had +been given permission to pass the night in +Miss Vaughn’s room. She could not hear +the entire conversation, her desire to remain +undiscovered keeping her well within her own +room, but she distinctly heard one of the +young men say, ‘Throw it out—I’ll catch it.’ +The girl replied, ‘Here it is,’ and said something +about the sheets and things being on +the upper landing. She added quite distinctly, +‘Don’t come into the studio until I give the +signal.’</p> + +<p>“Miss Noakes says she was too horrified to +act promptly, as she should have done; but +that a few moments later she visited the +Amen Corner and found it deserted by all the +young ladies with the exception of Miss +Vaughn, who was studying quietly in the +parlor. She asked where the others were, +and was told that they were in the studio, +where the procession was to form. On asking +Miss Vaughn why she had not joined them, +she replied that she intended to do so in a +short time, but had been improving every +moment for study. Miss Noakes asked for +Lawn Tennis and was told that she had been +appointed door-keeper for the evening. On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +intimating that she had seen her in Miss +Vaughn’s room, Miss Vaughn had replied that +this was very possible as she had just left the +room.”</p> + +<p>During this relation of Mr. Mudge’s, Cynthia +had turned different colors, from livid purple +to greenish pallor. And had several times +been on the point of replying, but the lawyer-detective +had continued his narrative in a +sing-song, monotonous way, as though reading +it from a written deposition, and had left +her no opportunity for interrupting. He now +turned to her and remarked:</p> + +<p>“I repeat all this here, Miss Vaughn, in +order to hear your side of the story.”</p> + +<p>“I have nothing to say,” Cynthia replied +sullenly.</p> + +<p>“Then Miss Noakes’s statement is substantially +correct?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t understand what you are driving +at.” Cynthia flashed out passionately. “If +you mean to insinuate that I threw the key +out to some of the cadets, and helped disguise +them, and gave them the signal when to join +in the procession—why then all I have to say +is that it is a very pretty story, but you will +find it very hard to prove it.”</p> + +<p>“Not so hasty, not so hasty,” replied Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +Mudge. “My dear young lady, if you will +reflect a moment, you will perceive that nothing +of this kind has been charged against you. +The question does not concern you at all, but +this athletic young lady—Lawn Tennis.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge had become so firmly convinced +in his own mind that Polo’s name was Lawn +Tennis that we saw the futility of correcting +him and gave up the attempt.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Mudge,” Winnie exclaimed, “we +protest! Cynthia, I call upon you to own up. +It wasn’t such a very bad frolic. You meant +no particular harm. We will all sign a petition +to Madame asking her to let you off. Don’t +let Polo be unjustly suspected. You know +you did it; own up to it like a man.”</p> + +<p>But Cynthia was in no mood to own up to +anything like a man, or like a decent girl. She +simply turned her nose several degrees higher +and remained silent.</p> + +<p>“Your cowardly silence will not shield you,” +Adelaide exclaimed scornfully. “I have some +letters from my brother which make me very +positive that this is one of your scrapes, and +I will show them to Mr. Mudge unless you +confess instantly.”</p> + +<p>“I have nothing to confess,” Cynthia replied +in a low voice, but the words seemed to +stick in her throat.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge next asked us, in a thoughtful +manner, whether “Lawn Tennis” was connected +with the institution at the time of the +robbery. I replied that she was, but that I +could not see any relation between that crime +and the present escapade.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps not,” Mr. Mudge replied; “and +then again we never can tell what apparently +trifling circumstance may lead up to the great +discovery. As I have previously remarked, it +is more than probable that the thief having +been once successful will try the same game +again. Then, too, if your thief happens to be +a kleptomaniac, she could not refrain from +pilfering. Have you lost anything since that +eventful night?”</p> + +<p>“Nothing whatever.”</p> + +<p>“And you have used the cabinet since as a +depository for your funds?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly,” I replied. “We consider that +we have used sufficient precaution in having +the bolt put upon the door. The result +seems to justify our confidence. To be sure, +until night before last we have had no important +sums to deposit.”</p> + +<p>“How about night before last?” Mr. +Mudge asked.</p> + +<p>“I had charge of the ticket money for the +Home that we gained by the Catacomb<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +Party,” I replied, “and I placed it in my +division of the cabinet. There is just sixty +dollars of it, and it is there now.”</p> + +<p>“And was there during the night that +Lawn Tennis slept in this apartment? And +she knew it?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Then that is very good evidence that she +was not the thief on the previous occasion.”</p> + +<p>So confident was I in our security and in +Polo’s honesty that I unlocked the cabinet to +give Mr. Mudge convincing proof. What was +our astonishment to find my compartment +again empty. The floor of the cabinet was as +clean as though swept by a brush. The sixty +dollars which we held in trust for the Home +were gone!</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XII.<br /> + +<small>THE INTER-SCHOLASTIC GAMES.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image12"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 260px; height: 110px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 210px; height: 230px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in3"><span class="upper">Mr. Mudge</span> +informed us +that he did +not intend +to arrest +Polo immediately, +but merely to have +her “shadowed,” +which meant that +all her habits and +those of her friends +and relatives were +to be ascertained +and every movement +watched.</p> + +<p>“You will not +hurt her feelings by letting her know that you +suspect her?” Milly begged, and Mr. Mudge +assured her that such a thing was furthest +from his intention, and in his turn he urged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +us not to allow Polo to imagine that we suspected +her.</p> + +<p>“We can’t let her see that,” Winnie replied, +“since we do not suspect her in the least.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge coughed. “I hope your confidence +will be proved to be not misplaced,” he +replied; “but Miss Noakes does not share it, +and I deem Miss Noakes to be a very discriminating +woman.”</p> + +<p>He bowed stiffly, and for that day the conference +was ended. Cynthia retired to her +room, and shut the door with a bang. Milly +threw herself into Winnie’s arms, and Winnie +caressed her and cried over her in mingled +happiness and remorse—joy that Milly had +been proved innocent, and repentance that +she had ever doubted her.</p> + +<p>“Oh! my darling, my darling,” she sobbed; +“can you ever forgive me for believing you +capable of so dreadful a thing? I could not +blame you if you refused to ever speak to me +again.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t feel so badly,” Milly pleaded. “Appearances +were awfully against me, and if +papa had not come and helped me out just in +the nick of time, I don’t know what I might +have been tempted to do. I have been so bad, +Winnie, that I am very humble. I shall never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +say I never could have done such a thing, for +I cannot know what the temptation might +have been. I am almost glad that you believed +me so wicked, because it shows me that +you would have stood by me even then. I +am going to try to be a better girl for this experience, +and worthier of your love.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide and I retired discretely, and talked +over the new aspects of the second robbery. +The trust funds must be made up between us. +To help do this I subscribed the twenty dollars +which Winnie had given me on my birthday, +and which fortunately had been placed +in my portfolio before we had regained our +confidence in the cabinet, and had never been +transferred to my compartment. As the other +girls had not suffered this time, they made up +the amount, though it necessitated considerable +self-denial. It took some time for Milly +to become accustomed to properly dividing +her spending money, so that she need not +come short before the date for receiving her +allowance, but the practice was good for her +and in the end she became an excellent manager.</p> + +<p>One peculiar circumstance in regard to this +robbery was remarked by Winnie—the fact +that on both occasions money had only been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +taken from my shelf. It was true that Adelaide +and Milly had each lost fifty dollars the +first night, but not until it had been taken +by Milly from their hoards and placed with +mine.</p> + +<p>“It would seem,” said Adelaide, “as if the +thief had a special grudge against Tib; a determination +that she shall not save up enough +to go to Europe next year.”</p> + +<p>“It can’t be that,” Winnie replied, “for +although the last sum stolen was taken from +Tib’s compartment, it was not her money. +The whole thing is very peculiar, and seems +to be the work of some unreasoning agent, +for this time, as the last, Adelaide had some +bills lying loosely in her pigeon hole in full +sight, which were not touched at all. I have +heard of things having been stolen by jackdaws +and mice—and monkeys—and I believe +there has been some monkey business here.”</p> + +<p>“I heard a story when I was in Boston,” +said Adelaide. “It was told me by a member +of a prominent firm of jewellers. It is +the custom at the close of the day for one +of the clerks to lock up all the jewelry in the +safe for the night. He had done so, and was +just about to leave the store when a box +containing a valuable pair of diamond sleeve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +buttons was handed him. It was late, and as it +would take some time to go over the combination +which locked and unlocked the safe, he +tucked the little box far under the safe and +thrust some old newspapers in front of it. In +the morning when he searched for it, what +was his consternation to find that the sleeve +buttons were gone. The box was there, but +some one had opened it and abstracted the +sleeve buttons. He reported the loss at once +to one of the members of the firm, who reproved +him for his carelessness in not unlocking +the safe and placing the box where it +would have been secure. Then the gentlemen +put their heads together to track the thief; +and some one suggested that he had seen mice +in the store, and this might be their work. +The safe was moved, and a small hole was +discovered in the base-board of the room. A +carpenter was sent for and the wall opened, +and there, cozily established in a nest formed +of twine and nibbled paper, and other odds +and ends, a family of little pink mice was +discovered, and in their nest were the missing +sleeve buttons. The mother mouse had evidently +been attracted by the glitter of the +gems, for she had taken great pains to convey +them to her home. She had stored here many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +other curious articles: pieces of shiny tin foil, +which she may have used as mirrors; bits of +broken glass, and scraps of narrow, bright +ribbon, intended for tying the boxes, all showing +that she had an eye for decorative art. I +am very sorry that it was considered best to +kill her, for I believe that mouse could have +been educated. Now, the reason that I have +told this long story is that I half suspect that +this is a case of mouse, and not, as Winnie +says, of monkey business.”</p> + +<p>Winnie immediately examined the cabinet. +The panelling was intact, not even worm-eaten; +it fitted apparently as closely as the +covering of a drum; not a crevice large +enough for even a cricket to penetrate.</p> + +<p>“It is very mysterious, all the same,” +Winnie remarked; “but I here and now vow, +in the presence of these witnesses, to make this +mystery mine, and to unravel it before the +close of school, so surely as my name is Witch +Winnie.”</p> + +<p>From that time we spoke of the affair of +the cabinet as Witch Winnie’s mystery, and we +all had faith that some way or other Winnie +would find the clue if Mr. Mudge did not.</p> + +<p>One day in May she said: “I feel as if +there was something uncanny about the cabinet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +itself. I wonder who was its first owner. +Perhaps Lucrezia Borgia kept her poisons in +it, and it is haunted by dreadful secrets of the +middle ages. It may be that Lorenzo de +Medici confided to its keeping a will, giving +back to Florence the city’s liberties, and that +this will was stolen by the Magnificent’s heir +while the poor man lay dying. We can imagine +that the ghost of the guilty man having, as +Mr. Mudge says, been once successful, has +contracted a habit of stealing from the cabinet, +and comes in the wee small hours with +stealthy tread to take whatever occupies the +spot where once Lorenzo’s testament reposed.”</p> + +<p>“What a romantic idea!” Milly murmured. +“You could make a lovely composition out of +it, Winnie.”</p> + +<p>“Good idea!” Winnie exclaimed. “I +will. I have got to have something for the +closing exercises of school, and Madame advised +me to write on Raphael. She said that +Professor Waite’s lectures on the Italian +artists ought to inspire me. Some way they +never have, but this old cabinet does. I shall +pretend that I have found a package of letters +in a secret compartment; and in this package +I shall tell all the early history of Raphael—which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +is not known to the world—his love +story with Maria Bibbiena, and all the criticism +and envy which he must have undergone +before he arrived at success. It will be great +fun and I shall go to work at once. No, I +shall not go to see the inter-scholastic games +to-morrow. I shall have a solid quiet afternoon +to myself while you girls are skylarking, +and I shall have to work like a house on fire +on every Saturday I can get to make my essay +the success which I mean it shall be.”</p> + +<p>From this decision we could not move her, +though it greatly disappointed Milly, who +desired that Mr. Van Silver should meet Winnie. +Mrs. Roseveldt had returned from the +South, and had consented to chaperone the +girls, Mr. Van Silver taking us out on his +handsome coach.</p> + +<p>It was a perfect day and the drive to the +Berkeley Oval, where the games took place, +was a delightful one.</p> + +<p>Mr. Van Silver’s Brewster coach was a +glorious affair. It was painted canary yellow. +The four horses were perfectly matched +roans. The grooms were in liveries of bottle-green +coats with white breeches and top +boots faced with yellow. Mr. Van Silver wore +a light-coloured overcoat, and the lap robe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +was of white broadcloth. All the brass +about the harness had been burnished till it +shone like gold. Mrs. Roseveldt and Milly +sat beside him on the box. Mrs. Roseveldt +wore a Paris costume of white cloth with +Louis XVI jacket with velvet sleeves and +vest heavily embroidered in gold. A little +bonnet formed of gold beads fitted her aristocratic +head like a coronet. Milly was bewitchingly +pretty in a fawn coloured shoulder +cape, and a pancake hat piled with yellow +buttercups. She seemed, as Adelaide said, cut +out of a piece with her surroundings. Adelaide +and I occupied the back seat, with Little +Breeze beside us in the place which had been +intended for Winnie. Little Breeze wore a +simple spring suit and I had only one best +gown—a gray cashmere; but Adelaide made +up for our simplicity. Her dress was not +very expensive, but Milly’s exclamation that +it was “too exasperatingly, excruciatingly becoming” +will give an idea of its effect. It was +a white foulard, sprigged in black and caught +here and there with black velvet bows; there +was a vest of fluffy white chiffon, and her hat +was trimmed with white marabout pompons +powdered with black. The costume was her +own design, executed by Miss Billings. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +carried a cheap white silk parasol, made to +look elaborate by a cover constructed from +an old black lace flounce.</p> + +<p>“Papa has forbidden me ever to enter +Celeste’s rooms again,” Milly said to Adelaide; +“and I am sure if Miss Billings can +make me look as <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">recherché</i> as you do, she is +good enough for me.”</p> + +<p>“I seem fated never to meet Miss Winnie,” +Mr. Van Silver said as he started.</p> + +<p>“She is to visit us during the summer,” +said Mrs. Roseveldt, “and you must come out +to the Pier and see her.”</p> + +<p>“You are very good, but I am going to +take my coach over to the other side this +summer. My mother is visiting at the castle +of the Earl of Cairngorm and wants me to +take a lot of people for a coaching trip through +the Scottish Highlands.”</p> + +<p>“How many of our friends are going to +Europe in the summer,” Adelaide remarked. +“Professor Waite told me he intended to +return to France for a term of years, and Tib +here is going over to study——”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid not,” I replied doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes you are,” Milly insisted; “that +will all come out right.”</p> + +<p>“What a lovely day for the games,” Mrs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +Roseveldt remarked. “What is your favorite +school, Milly? Columbia, Berkeley, Cutler, +Morse? Oh! yes, I remember—the cadets. +But where is your badge? I see that Miss +Armstrong and Miss Smith wear theirs quite +conspicuously, and Mr. Van Silver, too, has +decorated his whip and the coach horn with +the cadet colours.”</p> + +<p>“Adelaide has a brother among the cadets, +which accounts for her preference,” Milly replied +evasively; “but I don’t see why I should +prefer them to any other school.”</p> + +<p>“Why, have you forgotten,” Mrs. Roseveldt +asked, much surprised, “your old friend +Stacey Fitz Simmons is a cadet?”</p> + +<p>Milly tossed her head disdainfully. She +could not tell the story of the intrusion of the +two boys whom we believed to be cadets, for +we had promised Madame not to bruit it +abroad; but her reason for not wearing the +cadet colours was her indignation on account +of this act. She believed, or affected to believe, +that one of these boys was Stacey, and +she had determined to punish him for the outrage. +“Girls,” she had said, before leaving, +“after the insult which our school has received +from the cadets, I do not see how any of you +can wear their colours.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p> + +<p>“We do not know certainly that those interlopers +were cadets,” Adelaide replied; “and, +even if they were, my brother is still a member +of the school. He rides in the bicycle +race and he expects to see me wear his colours.”</p> + +<p>I sympathized with Adelaide and made myself +a badge to encourage little Jim.</p> + +<p>“Stacey is a friend of mine,” Mr. Van Silver +asserted. “I expect to see him carry off several +events to-day, and I have come out prepared +to wave and cheer and bawl myself +hoarse in his honour.”</p> + +<p>What a charming drive it was through the +park, where many of the trees and shrubs were +in blossom. We passed many a merry party +bound in the same direction, and several great +stages laden with boys, who carried flags, +tooted horns, and shook immense rattles. Arrived +at Morris Heights the sight was even +still more inspiring, for every train emptied +several carloads of passengers, who hastened +to the grounds to be in time for the opening. +As we drove in we could see that the grand +stand and the long rows of seats on either +side were well filled. There were at least four +thousand spectators gathered to witness this +athletic contest between the champions of the +principal schools of the city. Some of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +contestants were grouped on the verandas of +the Pavilion waiting for their turn to take +part. Others were already on the field, practising +the long jumps, or pacing about with +“sweaters,” or knit woollen blouses, over their +scanty running costumes.</p> + +<p>On the grand stand and the “bleaching +boards” the adherents of the different schools +had collected in groups, which displayed the +school colours as prominently as possible. +These groups were now engaged in making +as hideous an instrumental and vocal din as +possible. Each orchestra, if it might be +called so, was led by a sort of master of +discord, who called at intervals upon his constituency +for cheers for the different school +favorites, as, “Now, boys, a loud one for +Harrison. One, two, three, ’rah! ’rah! ’rah! +C-u-t-l-e-r, Cutler!—Harrison!” While the +Columbia grammar boys would reply, “C-o-l-u-m-b-i-a—Burke!” +and the Berkeleys would +yell forth the name of Allen, who has so long +covered the school with glory.</p> + +<p>Buttertub was conspicuous as leader of +the chorus for the cadets. He wore an immense +cockade, made of sash ribbon, pinned +to the front of his coat, while his hat and a +great cane with a knobby handle, too large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +for insertion even in his wide mouth, also +flaunted the school colours. Our coach had +hardly taken its position before Stacey and +Jim spied it and came toward us. Stacey was +in running costume—“undress uniform,” he +called it—but he had knotted a rose-coloured +Russian bath gown about him to keep him +from taking cold.</p> + +<p>“Doesn’t he look exactly like a girl?” Milly +remarked as he approached, and then she +gave him a curt little bow and turned with +great <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">empressement</i> to Professor Waite, who +had come out on horseback, and who now +rode up, hoping for a word with Adelaide. +But Jim had clambered up on the wheel on +the other side of the coach, and Adelaide was +glad of this excuse to turn her back squarely +on Professor Waite, who felt the avoidance +and would have turned instantly away had not +Milly insisted on introducing him to her +mother. Meantime Stacey stood quite neglected. +I longed to speak to him, but as I +had never been introduced, did not dare to do +so. Just as a hot flush was sweeping up +toward his forehead, Mr. Van Silver, whose +attention had been taken up with his horses, +noticed him. “Hello, Stacey,” he cried, +“make that little chap get down off that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +wheel, will you? These horses are pretty +nervous, even with the grooms at their heads. +They are not used to all this racket. See how +they are pawing up the driveway.”</p> + +<p>Stacey laughed. “Jim is a splendid wheel-man,” +he said. “You needn’t be afraid for +him. But aren’t you going to get down? +You can see ever so much better from the +grand stand. Did the girls get the tickets +that Jim and I sent?”</p> + +<p>Adelaide acknowledged the receipt of the +tickets, and spoke so pleasantly that Stacey +seemed a little comforted. One of the grooms +set up the steps and we all climbed down, +Stacey assisting. When it was Milly’s turn +he spoke to her very earnestly in a low tone, +but Milly did not reply. Mr. Van Silver +called to us to keep together, and led the way +to seats near the centre of the stand; and +Stacey retired to the field, much displeased +and puzzled by Milly’s conduct.</p> + +<p>Professor Waite looked after us longingly. +He did not dare to leave his horse, and he +was disappointed that we had left the coach, +near which he had intended to hover.</p> + +<p>“How very provokingly things do arrange +themselves,” I thought to myself. “Cupid +must certainly be playing a game of cross purposes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +with us. Here is Stacey longing for a +kind word from Milly, and Milly breaking her +little heart for Professor Waite, and Professor +Waite desperate because of Adelaide’s indifference, +Adelaide trying politely to entertain +Mr. Van Silver, who, in his turn, is provoked +because Winnie has not come; and I, who +would be very grateful if any of these gentlemen +would be agreeable to me—left quite out +in the cold, without the shadow of an admirer.”</p> + +<p>I soon forgot this circumstance, however, in +my interest in the games.</p> + +<p>“There is the cup,” said Mr. Van Silver, +“on that table with the gold and silver medals, +Berkeley holds it now. See, it is draped with +blue and gold ribbons, the Berkeley colours. +The school which wins the greatest number +of points will take it after the games are over. +This is the first heat of the hundred yard +dash. Now we shall see some fun. It’s a +foregone conclusion that Allen of Berkeley +will win. He does not enter for long distances, +but as a sprinter he has no equal in +the other schools.” Very easily and handsomely +Allen won this race and several +others.</p> + +<p>Then we admired the light and graceful way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +in which an agile youth took the hurdles, and +the professional style of two walkers, and +after this my glance wandered for a time over +the spectators.</p> + +<p>Cynthia Vaughn and Rosario Ricos had +come out in the cars, chaperoned by Miss +Noakes. They did not desire her company, +and it was a great bore to her to come, but +Madame would not let the girls come unattended. +I was much surprised presently to +see a gentleman make his way to her side. +I nudged Adelaide, exclaiming under my +breath, “Only see, Miss Noakes actually +has an admirer!”</p> + +<p>Adelaide lifted her opera-glass. “Tib,” she +ejaculated, “it is Mr. Mudge. You know he +said she was a most discriminating woman. +See, she is so much entertained that she does +not notice that Ricos and Buttertub have +made their way to Cynthia and are talking +with her.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Mudge notices them, though,” I replied; +“see how sharply he eyes them.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge came to us presently, and +chatted pleasantly in regard to the games.</p> + +<p>“I did not know that you were so much +interested in athletics,” I remarked.</p> + +<p>“A lawyer and a detective must be interested<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +in everything which interests his +clients,” he replied.</p> + +<p>“Did you come out alone?” I asked, more +for the purpose of making conversation than +from any desire to know.</p> + +<p>“No; I had very charming company,” he +replied.</p> + +<p>“Miss Noakes?” Adelaide asked mischievously.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge looked at her with stern reproof +in his gray eyes.</p> + +<p>“Lawn Tennis,” he remarked snappishly. +“I came out with that young lady, though +she is quite unconscious of my escort.”</p> + +<p>“What! is Polo here?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“One of the most interested spectators. +Her eyes are nearly popping out of her head +with every strain of the muscles of that tug-of-war +team.”</p> + +<p>The team to which Mr. Mudge referred was +now pulling, and was made up of members of +the Cadet School. They were finely developed +young men, and in their leather apron-like +protections, with their muscular arms and +glowing faces, looked like blacksmiths’ apprentices. +They lay on the cleats, pulling at +the great rope, and the cords swelled in their +necks, as from time to time they ground their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +teeth, and threw their heads back with a jerk, +which told how intense was the strain. The +trainer of the team, a wiry, eager young man, +in a jockey cap, stood with his hands on +his knees, watching the white mark on the +rope, which the team were very slowly working +toward their side.</p> + +<p>“That is a professional trainer,” said Mr. +Van Silver. “He has coached the cadets, +and is intensely interested in their success.”</p> + +<p>At intervals, the captain and anchor of the +cadets uttered exclamations of encouragement +to his team, or vituperated at the other. +“We’re in it, boys, we’re in it,” he shrieked, +as he gave another twist to the rope. “Steady, +hold your own, and you’ll pull ’em right off the +cleats. Heave, now—heave! Oh! those +fellows don’t know how to pull,” he cried again; +“they’re weakening! See how purple they’re +getting in the face. Hold on another two +seconds, and you’ll pull them into the middle +of next week.”</p> + +<p>“What a noisy fellow!” Adelaide remarked. +“Why doesn’t Colonel Grey shut him up?”</p> + +<p>“Not he,” replied Mr. Van Silver. “See +how his ribald and irreverent remarks put new +courage into the team. I should not wonder +if they won back that three inches which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +other side pulled away from them during the +first minute. Time’s up. Which side won?” +for the announcement of the judges was +drowned in a roar of the cadet claque, led by +Buttertub, who had struggled back to his +place in time to head the ’Rah! ’Rah! ’Rah!</p> + +<p>Stacey had been looking on close to the +rope, and he now shouted across to Mr. Van +Silver, “The cadets have it by half an inch!” +and waving the skirts of his bath-robe with +great <em>abandon</em>, he threw himself into the arms +of the little man in the jockey cap, and +hugged him enthusiastically.</p> + +<p>“Now, notice your friend,” Mr. Mudge said +to me, in a low voice; and, looking in the direction +in which he pointed, I saw Polo standing +on one of the front seats of the bleaching +boards, waving her Tam O’Shanter, and shouting +as wildly as the cadets.</p> + +<p>“I did not know that Polo knew any of the +boys who go to that school,” I said, much +puzzled.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe she does,” Mr. Mudge replied, +“but Terwilliger, the trainer there, is her +brother, and he hasn’t the best record that was +ever known. He was a jockey in England, but +outgrew that profession, and has been a little +of everything since. He came over to this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +country on the Earl of Cairngorm’s yacht. +He was associated shortly after with a noted +pickpocket called Limber Tim, and some +months since was sent with him to the Island +to serve a term of imprisonment for participation +in a confidence swindle. All of which, +you see, has a rather damaging look for your +friend Lawn Tennis. What I would like to +know is, how he ever came to get the position +of trainer at the Cadet School.”</p> + +<p>“The boys seem to be very fond of him,” I +ventured.</p> + +<p>“Naturally; it was his training which has +just won the school this event. Did you notice +that young swell, Fitz Simmons, give him +a greenback as soon as the victory was assured. +I have not been able to discover yet +whether Terwilliger has renewed his friendship +with Limber Tim. If he has, it is more than +likely that they are the two unknown boys +who introduced themselves into your school +on the night of your party.”</p> + +<p>“Has Adelaide shown you her brother’s +letters?” I asked. “We think that the young +man who leads the applause and Rosario +Ricos’s brother are the scamps.”</p> + +<p>“That supposition might be entertained +provided it had been only a boyish caper;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +but the two robberies can hardly be attributed +to these young gentlemen.”</p> + +<p>I groaned. So our poor Polo was beginning +to be “shadowed.” She had told us with +such delight, a few days before this, that she +had found her brother. He had been away +from New York for two years, but had left no +stone unturned on his return in his search for +them. He had a kind friend who had secured +him a fine position, and she was so happy. +The good news had nearly cured her mother.</p> + +<p>I was drawn from my reverie by Adelaide’s +announcement that the time had come for the +one mile safety bicycle race for boys under +fifteen, in which Jim was to take part. This +was the great event of the day for us. There +were two entries from the Cadet School—Jim +and Ricos.</p> + +<p>“Ricos is certainly over fifteen,” I said to +Adelaide.</p> + +<p>“He is no taller than Jim,” Adelaide replied +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“He is a little fellow,” I admitted, “but those +Cubans are all stunted, weazened little monkeys.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide smiled faintly, but watched the +preparations for the race with straining eyes. +So did all the cadets. There were many entries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +from the other schools, but they were +confident in the prowess of their own champions. +The only question was which would +be successful.</p> + +<p>“Come boys,” shouted Buttertub, “let’s +give them a rousing send-off. Whoop her up +for Ricos! One, two, three,—’Rah! ’Rah! +’Rah! <em>Ricos!</em>”</p> + +<p>A red-haired boy, whom I at once recognized +as the Woodpecker, shouted from the +field, “Cheer Armstrong, too!” but Buttertub +either did not hear him, or wilfully disregarded +his request.</p> + +<p>Stacey’s rose-coloured bath-gown was conspicuous, +fluttering here and there; he got a +bottle of alcohol from the trainer and was +presently seen kneeling on the track, vigorously +rubbing down Jim’s legs. He mounted +him carefully, and scrutinized every part of +his little safety bicycle, with the most zealous +care. The starter gave Jim the inside of the +track, which was an advantage loudly contested +by Ricos.</p> + +<p>“No use kicking,” Stacey remarked. +“You’ve had one medal for cycling, and Jim +is the youngest chap entered. I should +like to know now just when you passed your +fourteenth birthday.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ricos was silent and sullenly took his place. +Jim turned and waved his hand to his sister. +Stacey was holding his bicycle, ready to push +it off at the signal. How jaunty and gay he +looked in his dark blue jersey, with the silver +C on his breast, and with the wind blowing +his blonde hair from his eager face.</p> + +<p>“He’s a jolly little chap,” Mr. Van Silver +remarked admiringly; and Milly murmured, +“I think he’s perfectly sweet.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide said nothing, but the tears came +to her eyes. I think that just for that moment +she was perfectly happy. Her mood +was contagious. The glamour of spring was +in the hazy atmosphere. The plum trees +were blossoming white out beyond the track, +and the blue of bursting buds and the tender +green of the earliest leafage spread itself in a +shimmering haze over all the sweet spring +landscape. It was a good world, after all.</p> + +<p>At the report of the starter’s pistol, all of +the boys were off in line, but they had hardly +made half a lap when two, Jim and Ricos, shot +from the rank and sped on in advance of the +others.</p> + +<p>“’Rah! ’Rah! for the cadets!” shouted Buttertub.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p> + +<p>“’Rah! for Armstrong!” yelled the Woodpecker.</p> + +<p>“He’s second!” shouted Buttertub.</p> + +<p>“He’s first!” shrieked the Woodpecker, +“and gaining every instant. ’Rah! ’Rah! +’Rah!”</p> + +<p>“He can’t keep it! Ricos won’t let himself +be beaten as easily as that,” replied Buttertub. +“See him bend to it. There, he’s up +with him! They’re even! He’s trying to +get the inside! ’Rah! ’Rah!”</p> + +<p>“Look out! there’ll be a smash-up!” cried +the trainer. “Keep to the right, you lummox.”</p> + +<p>“Hi!” cried Mr. Van Silver, springing to +his feet, “that’s a bad tumble.”</p> + +<p>“Ricos fouled him on purpose,” cried the +Woodpecker.</p> + +<p>A groan ran round the stand. “They are +both down—no, only one.”</p> + +<p>“Which one?” cried Adelaide.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” I replied, but I held her +down firmly on my shoulder, for I saw a rose-coloured +bath-robe skimming across the field +like a pink comet, and I knew that Stacey +would not have manifested such concern if +an accident had happened to Ricos.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Armstrong’s up!” yelled the trainer in the +jockey cap. “He’s mounting again!”</p> + +<p>“He is!” ejaculated Mr. Van Silver. “By +George! Jim’s the pluckiest little fellow I +ever saw in my life!”</p> + +<p>For an instant the spectators went crazy +with cheers, then they quieted down and +watched.</p> + +<p>Ricos swept by, he had gained the first lap +easily; but only a faint cheer greeted him. +It was thought by many that the collision +was intended, and all eyes were fixed on the +little figure in the blue jersey, now the very +last in the race, but who, having been assisted +to his seat by the rose-coloured bath-robe, was +now wheeling manfully along in the rear. +Adelaide opened her eyes and waved her +handkerchief as he passed the stand.</p> + +<p>“Go it, Jim; go it! You’ve got the +sand,” yelled the Woodpecker; while Stacey, +the bath-robe cast aside, came forging up, running +at Jim’s side; in his friendly anxiety to +see that all was right, unconsciously breaking +his own previous record as a sprinter. If he +had been timed just then even his most enthusiastic +friends would have been astonished. +But, convinced that Jim was gaining, he contented +himself with cutting across the Oval to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +note his place at the end of the second lap. +Ricos had held his own, and passed the stand +well ahead of all the other competitors; but +Jim was making up and had distanced two of +the laggards, his legs propelling like the driving-bars +of an engine.</p> + +<p>“He’s gaining!” cried Mr. Van Silver. “I +should not wonder if he caught up with the +other fellow; for, see, he has two more rounds +to make.”</p> + +<p>When he passed the stand for the third +time and the starter rang the bell which announced +that this was the last lap, Jim had +passed all the others and was following Ricos +at a distance of only a few rods. He looked +up toward us with a pitiful smile on his wan +face. “Cheer, boys, cheer!” cried the Woodpecker, +“you don’t applaud half enough. +Whoop ’em up, Tub! Hurry up, Jim! Hurry +up! Go it for all you’re worth!”</p> + +<p>“Take it easy—easy!” roared Stacey, who +saw that the boy was straining every nerve. +“Take your time, Jim. You’ve got him, now. +Take—your—time!”</p> + +<p>The spectators were nearly all silent. The +boys belonging to other schools, seeing that +there was no hope for their own champions, +had ceased to applaud and were now deeply<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +interested in the two cadets. Rosario Ricos +had fainted, and Miss Noakes was calling +shrilly for water, but even Mr. Mudge was so +much absorbed in the contest that he paid no +attention to her appeal. People near me +held their breath in suspense. It reminded +me of Gérome’s picture of the chariot race, +and the fall had been not unlike the one +described in “Ben Hur.”</p> + +<p>“Why is it,” whispered Adelaide, “that +Jim has tied a crimson ribbon just below his +knee? Red is not a cadet colour; see it flutter +against his leg.”</p> + +<p>I saw the crimson streak to which she referred; +but a swift intimation flashed upon +me that this was no ribbon, but a little rill of +blood flowing from a gash cut by Ricos’s wheel. +I contrasted Jim’s face, deadly pale, with that +of Ricos’s, flushed to a dark purple, and wondered +whether his strength would hold out to +the end. I need have had no fear, Jim was +clear grit through and through. As he neared +the goal he set his teeth and bent nearly flat, +throwing no glance this time in our direction, +but with graze fixed straight before him, he +worked the pedals with wonderful velocity and +swooped forward, like a little hawk, far beyond +Ricos, and past the finish, on, on, as though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +the momentum of that final spurt would +never be exhausted. The thunder of applause +which burst forth at this exploit +was something which I had never heard +equalled. The spectators all stood upon the +benches, the ladies waving their handkerchiefs, +hats, and scarfs, crying and laughing +hysterically. The men yelled and shouted +themselves hoarse. Every kazoo, tin horn, +rattle, and other instrument of torture sounded +forth its discordant triumph. The boys +stamped and hooted. The cadets, to a man, +acted like raving maniacs. Even Buttertub, +who had no love for Jim, led his gang with +“Bully for Armstrong!” “Hi—yi—whoop, +three times three and a tiger!” “Hooray! +Hooray! Hooray! What’s the matter with +Armstrong? He’s all right!”</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“’Rah, ’Rah, ’Rah—ta-tara-da<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boomerum a boom-er-um.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boom, boom, bang!”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>But Jim was not all right. He heard the +great roar of applause, but it sounded far, +far away to his numbing senses. Then all +the light went out of the sweet spring landscape, +and he toppled over, bicycle and all, +into Stacey’s friendly arms. No one was surprised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +to see him stretched upon the grass +wrapped in the rose-coloured bath-gown, for it +was a common thing for victors to faint just +as they secured their laurels. “He’ll be up in +a minute; Stacey is rubbing his feet,” Mr. Van +Silver asserted reassuringly. “Good-hearted +fellow, that Stacey. He’s devoted to your +brother.” But Adelaide watched him anxiously, +until a crowd of boys closed around +him and hid him from her view. How terribly +long he lay there—could anything serious +be the matter? Suddenly Polo’s brother +came running toward us. “Is there any +doctor on the grand stand!” he shouted; “if +so, he’s wanted <cite>immejiently</cite>.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide sprang to her feet and clambered +down the ranks of seats. I followed. I have +no clear idea of how we reached the ground, +but we hurried on together, the boys making +way for us as we came. They had an instinctive +feeling that this handsome, imperious girl, +with the white face, had a right to pass. A +panting boy, lying with his face to the ground, +looked up and asked, “What’s up?”</p> + +<p>“They can’t bring Armstrong to,” replied +the trainer. “Looks like he is going to die.”</p> + +<p>“Glad of it,” retorted the other, turning his +face to the sod again. It was Ricos, deserted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +by every one, unnoticed in his defeat. But +through his humiliation and resentment there +presently shot a pang of conscience. “What +if Jim should die? Would I not be a murderer?” +and with pallid face he staggered to +his feet and tottered after us. The crowd +around Jim opened for us. There he lay with +his head on Stacey’s lap. A portly surgeon, +with a river of watch-chain flowing around his +vest, knelt at Jim’s side examining the wound +below his knee. Colonel Grey, the principal +of the school, a retired army officer, and a tall +soldierly man, bent his white head over the +doctor and inquired into Jim’s condition.</p> + +<p>“The wound is not a serious one, only a +minor artery cut, which I have just tied. The +only question is whether the little fellow has +lost too much blood.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my darling brother!” Adelaide cried.</p> + +<p>“For Heaven’s sake, control yourself, my +dear Miss Armstrong!” exclaimed Colonel +Grey. He realized the importance of not exciting +Jim, and he loved the boy tenderly. +He offered his arm to Adelaide now, while +four of the cadets lifted Jim and bore him +very gently to the piazza of the pavilion. +“To think,” said the Colonel, “that I was just +congratulating myself on the number of points<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +he was winning for the school. Why, I would +rather the school had not gained a single +point than have had this happen.”</p> + +<p>“Darn the games,” muttered Stacey, switching +his bath-robe about savagely.</p> + +<p>When we reached the piazza and Jim had +been stretched on a bench, his eyes opened +feebly. He recognized Adelaide fanning him +and smiled.</p> + +<p>“They are calling the mile run,” said the +trainer. “You entered for that, Mr. Fitz +Simmons. They say you are sure of winning +the race, and if you do you’ll gain the cup for +the school.”</p> + +<p>“Confound the race!” ejaculated Stacey. +“Do you suppose I am going to leave Jim +in this condition?”</p> + +<p>“I cannot ask it, my boy,” said the Colonel. +But Jim’s forehead furrowed slightly, and he +said very feebly: “Go, Stacey; don’t—let the +school—lose the cup.”</p> + +<p>“Go!” cried Adelaide. “He wishes it.” +And Stacey strode out to the track.</p> + +<p>Milly told me afterward that she was +greatly surprised, and not a little indignant, to +see him take his place with the runners, who +were mustering just in front of us.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p> + +<p>“How’s Armstrong?” Mr. Van Silver +called to him.</p> + +<p>Stacey came nearer. “Badly hurt, I’m +afraid,” he replied.</p> + +<p>“Then I think it is very heartless in you to +run,” Milly exclaimed. It was the only thing +she had said to him that day. He flushed +violently. “Jim begged me to do so,” he said, +“or else you may be sure that I would not be +here.”</p> + +<p>The race was called, and Stacey threw himself +into the “set,” his chin protruding with +bull-dog determination, but Milly’s thoughtless +remark had taken all of the spirit out of +him. “He was the very last to get off,” said +the trainer. “He’s running in awful bad form, +too. Fifth from the front. What’s he thinking +of to let Harrison pass him?”</p> + +<p>Around they came, and Stacey looked appealingly +to Milly, but with nose turned in +the air, she was waving the Morse colours, +snatched from a girl sitting near her, and applauding +the Morse champion, Emerson.</p> + +<p>The sight stung him. He would show her +that he was a better runner than the boy she +had selected as her favorite, and he put forth +every energy, and gained rapidly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I told ’em,” said the trainer oracularly, +“that Fitz Simmons would wake up, and +sprint further on. <em>He</em> wasn’t running this +first lap. He ain’t a-running now, he’s just +taking it easy, to show us some tall running +toward the finish, when he’ll have it all to +himself.”</p> + +<p>The cadets evidently thought so too, and +Stacey’s own drum corps, who had brought +out their drums on the top of a stage in expectation +of this event, beat an encouraging +charge as he came around for the second time. +Stacey smiled as he recognized the familiar:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Boom a tid-e-ra-da<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boom a diddle dee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boom a tid-e-ra-da<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Boom!<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>He turned for an instant, waved his hand +to the boys, and then buckled down to his +very best effort.</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“It’s one in a million<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If any civilian<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His figure and form can surpass,”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>hummed Mr. Van Silver.</p> + +<p>“How’s that for the cup?” shouted Buttertub, +who forgot personal animosities in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +school triumph. He flapped his arms like a +rooster about to crow, and yelled across to the +drum corps, “Who’s Fitz Simmons?”</p> + +<p>It was a well-known school cry and the boys +on the stage responded lustily:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“First in peace, first in war;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He’ll be there again, he’s been there before;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><em>First in the hearts of his own drum corps;</em><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That’s Fitz Simmons!”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Stacey was leading—only a little way now +to the finish. He said to himself, “Now’s +the time to sprint.” How strange that his +muscles would <em>not</em> obey the command telegraphed +to them by his brain. Strain +every nerve as he did, he could not increase +the pace. Emerson, the Morse flyer, shot +by him with his magnificent stride, as fresh +and unwearied in this final burst of speed as +Milton’s conception of a young archangel. +Stacey staggered on, but the drum corps was +suddenly silent, and there was no shout as he +passed the cadet contingent. They and he +knew that the contest was now hopeless. He +did not look up at Milly. He knew, without +looking, that she was applauding his rival, +who had won the race and was now being +borne off the field on the shoulders of his rejoicing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +comrades, amidst their delirious cheers. +Stacey finished the course, then stalked moodily +a little distance and sat down upon the +grass, with his forehead resting on his knees. +His disappointment was very bitter. The +Woodpecker, who had not run in this race, +came up to Stacey with his bath-gown, which +he threw thoughtfully about the exhausted +runner.</p> + +<p>“Played out, are you, Stacey?” he asked +kindly. “Well, I don’t wonder; you tired +yourself out keeping up with Armstrong in the +bicycle race. You made staving good time +then, but you’d ought to have saved yourself +and put in the licks now, old chap. Never +mind, we all know what your record has +been.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care beans for my own record,” +groaned Stacey, “but I’ve lost the school the +cup, and I can never look the fellows in the +face again.”</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.<br /> + +<small>POLO IS SHADOWED.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image13"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 290px; height: 50px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 280px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 270px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 250px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 230px; height: 180px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in2"><span class="upper">Polo</span> ran +up and +with her +was her brother, +and Mrs. +Roseveldt left +her seat on the +stand, as soon as +the mile run was +decided, and +joined us as we +stood around +Jim. She was a +woman of kindly +impulses in spite of her fondness for fashionable +life.</p> + +<p>“You must let me have the boy conveyed to +my house,” she said to Colonel Grey. “His +father and mother are abroad, and you have no +conveniences at the ‘Barracks’ for sickness.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Oh, thank you, Mrs. Roseveldt,” Adelaide +murmured, “and will you let me come too and +nurse him?”</p> + +<p>“You had better not sacrifice your studies,” +Mrs. Roseveldt replied kindly. “We +will have a trained nurse and you shall +come and sit with him for a time every afternoon. +The hospitalities of my house are +just now taxed by company. I shall have to +give Jim Milly’s old room and put a cot in my +dressing-room for the nurse.”</p> + +<p>“But my studies are of no consequence +whatever in comparison with Jim,” Adelaide +pleaded; “and the cot in the dressing-room +will do finely for me. Please let me be the +nurse, Mrs. Roseveldt.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Roseveldt, seeing how much in earnest +Adelaide was, turned to the physician and +asked, “Doctor, do you think that an untrained +girl like Miss Adelaide, with all the good intentions +in the world, is capable of nursing your +patient?”</p> + +<p>“Perfectly,” the physician replied. “I am +assured now that the boy will recover. The +artery cut was an unimportant one, but the +gash just missed the tibialis; he has had a very +fortunate escape. All he needs now is rest, +and careful attendance, to recuperate. I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +no doubt that his sister’s society would enliven +and benefit him far more than that of a +stranger.”</p> + +<p>“How shall I get him to my home?” Mrs. +Roseveldt asked. “He is hardly able to ride +on the coach.”</p> + +<p>“Some one must go to the station and telegraph +for an ambulance,” said the physician.</p> + +<p>“I will undertake that service. I have a +good horse here,” volunteered Professor +Waite, who had hurried to the pavilion as +soon as he saw that Adelaide was in trouble. +No one had noticed him up to this time, but +Adelaide now accepted his offer very gratefully.</p> + +<p>“Anything that I can do for you, Miss +Armstrong——” Professor Waite replied; but +Adelaide was not listening to him, and he left +his remark unfinished.</p> + +<p>“If we can do nothing further here,” said +Mrs. Roseveldt, “I will ask Mr. Van Silver to +take us home at once. I would like to order +some preparations for the reception of my +little guest.”</p> + +<p>“If you please, Mrs. Roseveldt,” said +Adelaide. “I would rather wait for the ambulance +and ride down with Jim.”</p> + +<p>“I will take charge of Miss Armstrong and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +her brother until the arrival of the ambulance,” +said Colonel Grey. And so Adelaide +was left.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Roseveldt collected her party and Mr. +Van Silver gathered up the reins; but before +we started Milly noticed that Miss Noakes +was fanning Rosario Ricos, who had only +partially recovered from her fainting fit, and +that the poor woman looked dejected and +puzzled. “Oh, Mr. Van Silver,” said Milly, +“won’t you invite Rosario to take Adelaide’s +place? She doesn’t look able to go back in +the cars.”</p> + +<p>“Anything you please, Miss Milly,” Mr. +Van Silver replied; and Milly was down from +her seat in a moment, Miss Noakes accepting +the offer most joyfully.</p> + +<p>Stacey came up just as we were leaving. +He made no attempt to speak to Milly, but +asked Mrs. Roseveldt if he might call on Jim +occasionally.</p> + +<p>“My house is always open to you, Stacey,” +Mrs. Roseveldt replied kindly, and Stacey +thanked her and assisted Rosario to climb +up beside her.</p> + +<p>“Aren’t you going to compete for the high +jump?” asked Mr. Van Silver. Stacey shook +his head.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p> + +<p>“That accident took all the starch out of +you, didn’t it?” Mr. Van Silver continued. +“Well, I don’t wonder; a nervous shock like +that makes a fellow as weak as a rag. Never +mind, Stacey, we’ll hear from you next year +at Harvard. I shouldn’t wonder if you got +on the ’Varsity crew.”</p> + +<p>On our way home, Mrs. Roseveldt condoled +with Rosario. “I am sorry for your +brother’s disappointment,” she said; “though +we were all interested in Adelaide’s brother. +It is the great pity in these contests that +every one cannot win.”</p> + +<p>“It was not him to lose the race what +troubled me,” said Rosario. “It was that he +to hurt little Jim Armstrong, and some so +bad boys near by to me did say he to do it +upon purpose. They called him one ‘chump’ +and ‘mucker.’ I know not what these words +to mean, but I think that they are not of +compliment.”</p> + +<p>We assured her that we did not believe +it possible that her brother had intentionally +hurt Jim, and she was somewhat comforted.</p> + +<p>“Fabrique is one little wild,” she said, “and +his temper is not of the angels, but he could +not be so bad.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Who was that old gentleman who came +and spoke to you during the games?” Mr. +Van Silver asked of me.</p> + +<p>“He is Madame’s lawyer,” I replied. “We +see him sometimes at the school.”</p> + +<p>“Didn’t I hear him mention the Earl of +Cairngorm?”</p> + +<p>“Did he? Oh, yes! I remember, he said +that the Earl of Cairngorm brought Polo’s +brother to this country on his yacht.”</p> + +<p>“He must mean Terwilliger, the ex-jockey +and cabin-boy, now trainer at the Cadet +School.”</p> + +<p>“Exactly. Do you know him?”</p> + +<p>“Rather. I got him his present position. +If it had not been for me I don’t think Colonel +Grey would have engaged him.”</p> + +<p>“I’m so glad,” I cried, “if you can vouch +for his character. You see——” and then I +hesitated, bound by Madame’s orders not to +mention our trouble.</p> + +<p>“What interests you particularly in Terwilliger?” +asked Mr. Van Silver.</p> + +<p>“He is Polo’s brother, for one thing.”</p> + +<p>“And Polo is the young lady that Miss +Milly was lunching so sumptuously on turtle-soup +and ice-cream the afternoon I saw you +at Sherry’s? I wanted to inquire whether that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +large family of starving children were still subsisting +on macaroons.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Van Silver, you are just as mean as +you can be,” Milly pouted.</p> + +<p>“Oh, no! you have yet to learn my capabilities +in that direction. I am glad to know +that your <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">protégé</i> is a sister of my favorite, for +I like Terwilliger, and I think he has had a +harder time than he deserves. There is one +portion of his history that I could have testified +to if I had been in the city and possibly +have saved his being sent unjustly to prison, +so I feel that I owe it to him to do him any +kindness that I can.”</p> + +<p>“What was it, Mr. Van Silver?” I asked +eagerly.</p> + +<p>“Oh! it’s my secret; and as it is too late +to help Terwilliger now, I shan’t confess.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps it is not too late to help him,” I +exclaimed. “Mr. Van Silver, I can’t tell you +now, but Mr. Mudge will explain everything, +and when I send him to you will you please +tell him all you can in Terwilliger’s favor. +Indeed, he never needed your friendship +more.”</p> + +<p>“I’m there,” Mr. Van Silver replied; “and +in return what will you do for me?”</p> + +<p>“Winnie is writing a composition on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +life of Raphael. I will copy it and send it to +you,” said Milly.</p> + +<p>Mr. Van Silver made a wry face; he had +not a very favorable opinion of school-girl +compositions. “I would rather see the young +lady herself,” he replied; “but I don’t believe +there is any Witch Winnie. She is a Will-o’-the-Wisp, +Margery Daw sort of girl.”</p> + +<p>“She is thoroughly real, I do assure you.”</p> + +<p>“What does she look like? How does she +dress?”</p> + +<p>“Well, out of doors she likes to wear a +boy’s jockey cap of white cloth and a jaunty +little jacket, and I regret to say that she is +not unfrequently seen with her hands in its +pockets, and her elbows making aggressive +angles.”</p> + +<p>“And, I presume, she also wears stiffly-laundried +shirt waists, with men’s ties, and +divided skirts, and her hair is short and +parted on the side, and she rides a bicycle. +I know the type—the young lady who affects +the masculine in her attire.”</p> + +<p>“She has just the loveliest long hair in the +world, and her skirts are not divided, and +she doesn’t ride a bicycle, nor wear shirt +waists, at least not horrid, starched, manny +ones. She likes the soft, washable silk kind;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +and she is a great deal more lady-like than you +are, and lovely, and just splendid; so there!”</p> + +<p>Mr. Van Silver chuckled; he liked to tease +Milly.</p> + +<p>Adelaide remained at Mrs. Roseveldt’s for +two weeks. Jim did not gain as fast as the +physician had expected. The nervous shock +and the great strain of the race after the accident +had been more than the boy’s slight physique +could well endure.</p> + +<p>Adelaide read to him, and played endless +games of halma and backgammon, and discussed +plans for the summer, or told him of +the people in her tenement, in whom Jim was +even more interested, if that were possible, +than Adelaide herself. Polo called and +brought a bouquet, for which she had paid +seven cents on Fourteenth Street. Jim was +glad to meet Polo when he knew that she was +Terwilliger’s sister, for the trainer had been +especially proud of Jim, and had given him +many points on bicycling.</p> + +<p>One day when Polo was present, Jim suddenly +asked Adelaide, “Say, sister, did the +boys really go to your cat-combing party?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” Adelaide replied. “There +were two suspicious characters there, but we +never found out who they were.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p> + +<p>“They was boys,” Polo insisted; “and one +of ’em was fat, and trod on my toe, and one of +’em was little, and smelled of cigarettes.”</p> + +<p>“If I was only back at school,” Jim replied, +a little fretfully, “I’d find out for you, fast +enough, whether it was Buttertub and Ricos. +But what can a fellow do penned up here?”</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Jim,” Adelaide replied soothingly. +“The truth will all come out at last.”</p> + +<p>Polo’s great eyes snapped. “Albert Edward +could find out,” she said. “The boys +tell him lots of things.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide did not tell Polo that her brother’s +testimony would count for little, as he was +himself suspected, and the girl went away determined +to assist in unravelling the mystery.</p> + +<p>Stacey called frequently and Adelaide could +but admire his patience with the whims of the +sick boy. Jim asked him to try to find out +whether Buttertub and Ricos were the intruders +on our Catacomb party, and this was one +of the very few requests which Jim made that +Stacey refused.</p> + +<p>“I don’t want to have anything to do with +those fellows,” he said, “and you know I +never could act the spy.”</p> + +<p>“I have been thinking,” Stacey said, after +Adelaide had told him Polo’s history and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +needs of the Home, “that we boys might get +up some sort of an athletic entertainment in +behalf of the Home of the Elder Brother. +The cadets all like Terwilliger, and if they +knew that his little brother and sister were +supported by the Home, they would all chip +in willingly.”</p> + +<p>“Terwilliger has such a good salary,” Adelaide +replied, “that Polo tells me they intend, +as soon as their mother is able to leave the +hospital, to take the children from the Home, +rent an apartment in my tenement, and set +up housekeeping for themselves. But, if the +Terwilligers do not need it, you may be sure +there will always be poor children enough who +do. And something might happen, Terwilliger +might lose his place at your gymnasium, and +not be able to support his brother and sister, +after all.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide was thinking uneasily as she spoke +of the cloud which shadowed Polo and her +brother. What if it should be proved that +the ex-convict had committed the two robberies +in the Amen Corner with the assistance +of his sister.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Terwilliger won’t lose his situation,” +Stacey remarked confidently. “Colonel Grey +likes him, and so do all the fellows. He’s up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +on every kind of athletics; knows all the +English ways of doing things, for he has been +a jockey at the Ascot races and a coach to the +Cambridge crew. He’s so good-natured too; +doesn’t mind helping fellows outside of hours. +He goes out rowing with me every Wednesday +night in a two-oared gig on the Harlem.”</p> + +<p>“Were you rowing with him on the 10th?” +Adelaide inquired eagerly, for this was the +night of the Catacomb party.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Stacey laughed, “and we were late, +and I got a special blowing up for it, too. +You see, they lock the door at ten, and I had +to ring the janitor up, and he was raving, for +he had already been disturbed to let Ricos and +Buttertub in, and he was in no mood to pass +it over. He reported us all to Colonel Grey, +who gave us order marks for it.”</p> + +<p>“Ah!” thought Adelaide, “this is encouraging. +Buttertub and Ricos were out late on +the night of our party, and Stacey can prove +an alibi for Terwilliger. I shall report all this +to Mr. Mudge.”</p> + +<p>Jim returned persistently to the idea of the +entertainment for the Home of the Elder +Brother. “I wish you would see to it, Stacey. +What are the boys doing now?”</p> + +<p>“Tennis, and base-ball. You ought to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +Woodpecker; he is going to be our tennis +champion; he can make the neatest underhand +cut. He’s simply great.”</p> + +<p>“Any better than the club down at the +Pier?” Jim asked.</p> + +<p>“What! the Sand-flies? They can’t hold +a candle to us.”</p> + +<p>“It would be nice to have the Cadets play +the Sand-flies,” Jim suggested. “Colonel Grey +would give the tennis club a field-day if you +asked him, and the excursion to the Pier by +boat would be lovely. Mrs. Roseveldt says +she’s going to open her cottage earlier than +usual this year, and she will get the Sand-flies +interested. Say, is it a go?”</p> + +<p>Stacey lashed his boots lightly with his +riding-whip; for he was on his way to the +Park for a ride.</p> + +<p>“We couldn’t make a success of the affair +without Miss Milly’s help,” he said, “and after +the way she treated me at the games I’ll never +ask another favor of her—never.”</p> + +<p>Jim was much distressed.</p> + +<p>“That tournament scheme was such a good +one,” he said. “The Sand-flies are already +interested in the Home of the Elder Brother, +and we could make a big affair of it and rake +in lots of money for the Home. I mean<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +to talk with Mrs. Roseveldt about it, any +way.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” Stacey replied as he rose to +take his leave; “so long as you don’t talk +with Miss Milly. She would think it a put-up +job between us.”</p> + +<p>“Now it was real vexatious in Stacey to +say that,” Jim remarked, after his friend had +left. “I meant to have it out with Miss Milly +the next time I saw her. Won’t you wrestle +with her, Adelaide?”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid it’s of no use,” Adelaide replied, +but Jim would not give up the idea so easily. +He talked it over with Mrs. Roseveldt, who +approved of the tennis tournament. It would +be just the thing with which to open the season. +The Cadet team would be a great attraction. +She would intercede with Colonel +Grey to allow them to remain several days. +“It must take place early in June,” she +said, “just after Milly’s commencement exercises, +and while Adelaide and you are visiting +us, before your father and mother return and +take you away. I will drop a line to Milly +that I want her to come home for my last reception +this season, and I’ll invite Stacey to +talk it over.”</p> + +<p>Jim was afraid that Milly might not be inclined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +to receive Stacey’s proposal with favor, +and he accordingly wrote her a long and labored +epistle, urging her, for the sake of the +Home of the Elder Brother, to bury the war +hatchet. Jim’s intentions were better than +his spelling, which was even worse than +Milly’s, and his letter amused her very much. +One phrase struck her as especially diverting: +“Stacey says you treated him worse than a +Niger.”</p> + +<p>Jim had spelled the word with an economy +of g’s, and a capital letter, which suggested +visions of Darkest Africa. Milly laughed till +she cried.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps I have been impolite to him,” she +thought. Milly had a horror of being discourteous, +and she wrote Jim that if Stacey +would not be “soft,” she would be nice to him +for the sake of the Home of the Elder Brother. +Jim considered this quite a triumph, and +showed the letter to Stacey on the occasion of +his next visit.</p> + +<p>Stacey did not look as pleased as Jim had +expected.</p> + +<p>“Catch me being soft with her,” he muttered. +“I’ll show Miss Milly how much I care +for her airs. By the way, Jim, we are to have +two invitations each to give away for the prize<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +essays and declamations at the close of school. +I intend to invite Miss Winnie De Witt and +Miss Vaughn. I thought I would mention it, +as it might influence your invitations.”</p> + +<p>Jim opened his eyes aghast at what he +heard. “You don’t mean to say that you are +not going to send Miss Milly one of your +tickets?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I do.”</p> + +<p>“And you are going to invite that hateful, +horrid Vaughn girl?”</p> + +<p>“I heard Buttertub boast that he was going +to invite her, and I thought it would be rather +a pleasant thing for him to receive his ticket +back again with the information that as she +had already accepted mine she had no need +for it.”</p> + +<p>Jim could hardly believe his ears. “Well, +of all things,” he said. “You shan’t do it, Stacey; +you shan’t do it! I’ll invite Miss Milly, +with sister, if you don’t want to, but it’s a +downright insult to fill her place with such a +pimply faced, common, loud——”</p> + +<p>“I do not see that it is the young lady’s +fault if she has a <em>humorous disposition</em>, and as +for her being loud——”</p> + +<p>“You said yourself that you could hear her +hat at the Battery if she was walking in Central<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +Park. Sister says she toadies fearfully, and +she flirted like a silly at the games, and at the +drill. I think you must be hard up to ask +her.”</p> + +<p>Stacey coloured, but was too proud to back +down, and he left Jim in tears. Poor little +fellow, as he expressed it, it seemed as if all +the sticks which he tried to stand up straight +were determined to fall down. He could see +that something was wrong with his hero, for +Stacey’s disappointment at the games had cut +deeply, and the boy was on the verge of falling +into a dangerous state of “don’t care.” +When Jim asked him what subject he intended +to choose for his essay, Stacey said that he +had about decided not to compete. The subject +must be connected with Greek history or +life, and he despised the whole business, and +the honour wasn’t worth the trouble.</p> + +<p>Adelaide took Stacey in hand and suggested +a subject, in which he manifested some interest, +but all this worried Jim and kept him from +recovery.</p> + +<p>Adelaide watched him anxiously. She had +at first thought it best not to notify her parents +of Jim’s accident, fearing to spoil their +tour; but as she felt certain that he was not +improving she sent a cablegram, and received<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +an answering one stating that they would sail +for America at once. Adelaide watched +eagerly for their coming. Jim pined for his +mother, and one day, to give her little invalid +something pleasant to look forward to, Adelaide +told him that their parents were on the +way home. The news did him more good +than all the physician’s tonics. He brightened +every day and talked of his mother incessantly. +Once it seemed to occur to him +that his delight was a poor return for Adelaide’s +care, and he asked her anxiously, +“You don’t mind, do you, sister, that I am so +glad mother is coming? You are the very +best sister in all the world, but then you are not +quite mother. You never can know just what +she was to me when we were so very poor.”</p> + +<p>“Of course, I am not jealous, dear Jim,” +Adelaide replied. “I can well understand that +you and mother are bound together even more +closely than most mothers and sons, by that +long fight together with poverty. I only wish +that I had been with you to help you bear it. +But then I do not know what father would +have done. He suffered so much while you +were lost to us, that if I had not been there to +live for I think he would have died or have +gone insane.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I don’t wonder that father loves you so +much and is so proud of you, sister. I am +very glad you were not with us when we were +so very wretched. You ought not to know +what it is to be poor, Adelaide. You ought +to be a queen.”</p> + +<p>“I am a queen now, Jim, and I think I do +know what it is to be poor. When you told +me all your bitter experiences, I felt them as +keenly, it seemed to me, as if I had passed +through them myself. I believe that God +sent us this intimate knowledge of how the +poor suffer in order that we might sympathize +with and help them.” Then Adelaide told +him of the tenement and described each of +the families. Some of them Jim had known +in that other life which has been related in +a former volume, and he inquired eagerly for +the inventor, Stephen Trimble, and for the +Rumples, and others. Adelaide told him, too, +of the two turtle-doves, and of the sad death +of Miss Cohens, and how the Terwilligers +were soon to be established in one of the best +suites. This last information pleased Jim +very much.</p> + +<p>“I like Terwilliger,” he said. “He is so +funny; he drops all his h’s, and calls everything +‘bloomin’.’ Buttertub is a ‘bloomin’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +fool,’ and Stacey is a ‘bloomin’ swell,’ and +when I got hurt he said it was a ‘bloomin’ +shame,’ and Ricos was a ‘bloomin’ cad,’ and +the fellows ought to have made a ‘bloomin’ +row’ about it.”</p> + +<p>That evening it happened that Mrs. Roseveldt +was to give a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">musicale</i>, and as Jim was +feeling very bright, Adelaide had consented +to take part. She was a creditable performer +upon the violin, and had decided upon a +romance by Rubenstein. She came to the +school early in the afternoon for her music, +and, to give her more of a visit with us, Mrs. +Roseveldt had suggested that she should +remain until after dinner, promising to send +the carriage for her. Stacey was expected +to call that afternoon and would keep Jim +from being lonely.</p> + +<p>We were all delighted to have Adelaide +with us once more, for we had missed her +greatly.</p> + +<p>I was painting in the studio, and Professor +Waite had just told me that it was all for the +best that I could not probably go to Europe +in vacation.</p> + +<p>“You are not ready for it,” he said. “You +will profit far more by European instruction +after a year of thorough training in the Art<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +Students’ League. I would advise you to +attend it next winter. Our disappointments +are often blessings in disguise. Providence +keeps the things for which we are not prepared, +saved on an upper shelf for us until we +deserve them.”</p> + +<p>As he said this, a joyful hub-bub rang out +in the Amen Corner, led by a wild, Comanche +shriek from Polo, who happened to be in the +corridor: “Miss Adelaide’s come! Glory! +Oh, glory!”</p> + +<p>Professor Waite flushed and paled, took +two steps impulsively toward the door, and +then sat down before my easel, and began insanely +to spoil a sky with idiotic dabs of green +paint. I wondered whether Providence was +saving up Adelaide until he deserved her. If +so, the shelf was for the present a very high +one.</p> + +<p>To my surprise, Adelaide tapped at the +studio door a moment later. She greeted +Professor Waite cordially. “I am so glad to +find you,” she said, “for I want to impose +upon you for a little help.”</p> + +<p>Professor Waite beamed.</p> + +<p>“Stacey Fitz Simmons has asked me for a +subject for an essay and I have suggested +‘The Athletic Contests of Ancient Greece,’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +as giving a subject in which he is greatly interested—athletic +sports—a classical turn, suitable +for the dignified occasion. At first he +thought he could make nothing original of it, +but would have to crib everything from books +of reference; but it occurred to me that he +might treat it from a rather new standpoint +by taking his information from remains of ancient +sculpture. I told him he had better +study the casts at the Metropolitan Museum, +as that would be the next best thing to attending +the games at Corinth. Can you give him +any additional sources of information?”</p> + +<p>Professor Waite threw himself into the idea +with enthusiasm and poured forth at once a +dissertation which would have taken the highest +honours at the competition. Then he made +a memorandum of several works on art, which +Stacey would do well to consult, and rummaged +about in his portfolios for photographs +of ancient statues of athletes and heroes, the +procession from the frieze of the Parthenon, +and the like.</p> + +<p>When we finally got Adelaide into the +Amen Corner, we scarcely gave her an opportunity +to dress for the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">musicale</i>, we had +so many little nothings to talk over with +her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the midst of it all Mr. Mudge called, +and we opened fire upon him at once with the +testimony which we had collected in favor of +Polo and her brother. He was not greatly impressed +with Stacey’s avowal that he had +been out rowing with Terwilliger on the night +of the Catacomb party.</p> + +<p>“I had already ascertained that he was out +late that night,” he said. “Miss Milly told +me that young Fitz Simmons on the night of +the drill threatened to attend your party. +What assurance have we that he did not +attend it with Terwilliger as his companion? +A lark on the young gentleman’s part, and a +clever opportunity to steal on the part of the +trainer. My assistant has discovered that +Terwilliger has had no dealings with his old +associate Nimble Tim since his release from +prison. Having to discard the idea that Tim +was his companion, I have been looking about +to find another possible one. I thank you +for your assistance.”</p> + +<p>Milly was very angry. With true womanly +inconsistency she scouted the idea that Stacey +could have had any part in the proceedings, +although she was the very one who had at +first suggested it.</p> + +<p>“And here,” she said, “is something which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +ought to be perfectly convincing to any sane +man. Polo told me last night that her brother +heard Ricos and Buttertub boasting that they +had fooled us all so nicely, and had seen our +play. They made fun of Winnie, and said +she had a little squeaky voice for so manly a +part, and that it was ‘nuts’ to see us try to +manage our togas. Oh! I’d just like to choke +them.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge smiled. “It is very natural,” +he said, “that Terwilliger should attempt to +throw suspicion on some one else.”</p> + +<p>“But you know that Buttertub and Ricos +were out late that night,” I suggested.</p> + +<p>“Ricos obtained permission from Colonel +Grey to hear Professor Ware’s lecture on +Architecture, at Columbia College.”</p> + +<p>“And did they say they attended it?” +Adelaide asked.</p> + +<p>“Ricos so reported at the Barracks.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I happen to know that Professor +Ware delivers those lectures on Tuesday +evenings,” Adelaide replied triumphantly; +“and this was Wednesday night.”</p> + +<p>“Are you sure of this?”</p> + +<p>“I am sure because I attend the lectures, +and neither of those boys were there.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge rubbed his brow with his pencil.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +“Terwilliger’s previous bad record counts +against him,” he said persistently.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Mudge,” I entreated, “will you do me +the favor to call on a friend of ours, Mr. Van +Silver, who knows all about that previous +record of Terwilliger’s.”</p> + +<p>“How is that?” Mr. Mudge asked, and I +related my conversation with Mr. Van Silver +on our return from the games.</p> + +<p>“I will interview this gentleman,” said Mr. +Mudge, “for though appearances are strongly +against Terwilliger, I do not wish to act on +appearances alone. And meantime, if you +could find some other witness than young +Fitz Simmons who could prove that he and +the trainer were really boating on the Harlem +the night of your party, and some other witness +than Terwilliger to the admission of +Ricos and his friend of the dairy nickname, +the cause of Lawn Tennis and her brother +would be materially strengthened.”</p> + +<p>“I agree to produce such witnesses,” said +Winnie rashly. “I have called it my mystery +and I intend to fathom it, if it takes all summer.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mudge bowed and withdrew. His boots +creaked down the hall a little way and then we +heard a knock and the opening of a door.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Girls, he’s calling on Miss Noakes,” Winnie +cried, in high glee. “Now, what’s to hinder +my running out on the balcony and showing +her that two can play at the game of peek-a-boo.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing but the honour of the Amen Corner,” +Adelaide remarked. The words threw a +wet blanket on Winnie’s proposal, but there +was a flickering smile about Adelaide’s lips +which showed that she was bent upon mischief, +a rare thing for Adelaide.</p> + +<p>“I will wait until Mr. Mudge is gone,” she +said,—“I would not interrupt two young lovers +for the world,—and then I think I’ll call on +Miss Noakes. I want her to help me translate +the visit of Æneas to Queen Dido.”</p> + +<p>“That’s just like Winnie,” Milly exclaimed; +“but you would never do such a thing.”</p> + +<p>“Won’t I? You don’t half know me, +Milly, dear,” and Adelaide actually fulfilled her +threat.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/gs04.jpg" width="400" height="497" alt="Miss Noakes and Adelaide" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>“She expected him,” Adelaide exclaimed, +when she returned. “I found her all gotten +up regardless—that low-necked black net of +hers! She did look too absurd for anything, +but happy is no name for it. There was a +blush on her withered old cheeks, and I +actually believe a real tear in her eye. When +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>I told her what I wanted her to translate, she +glared at me haughtily, but I looked as demure +as I could, and she went through it +without flinching. ‘Men are deceivers ever, +aren’t they, Miss Noakes?’ I said. ‘Just think +of Pious Æneas behaving so cruelly to his dear +Dido.’ ‘How should I know, child?’ she replied +rather curtly.”</p> + +<p>While we were laughing, Cerberus knocked +to inform us that Mrs. Roseveldt’s carriage +waited and had sent him to inquire for Miss +Armstrong.</p> + +<p>Adelaide found that Stacey had waited for +her return. He woke to animation over the +photographs. “This decides me,” he said. +“I shall try for the prize. I didn’t imagine +there was anything in Greek civilization that I +cared a rap for; but that quoit player is fine. +Just look at his muscles. I always thought +that Discobolus was the fellow’s name. It +never dawned upon me that it meant a quoit +player. And this Mercury hardly needs +wings on his heels, his legs are built for a +runner. And isn’t that Fighting Gladiator +superb? And that Hercules and Vulcan? +Well, now, here is something curious. I do +believe that Baker got his ‘set’ from that statue; +the left arm is extended in the very same way,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +and the boys all thought it was original with +him.”</p> + +<p>So he ran on, his eyes kindling once more +with enthusiasm. “Well, I must go now and +‘bone’ on my geometry—beastly bore; but +Buttertub has been having very good marks +lately, and I am not going to let him rank +me.”</p> + +<p>He had hardly gone before it was time for +Adelaide’s Romance, and after that Mr. Van +Silver came up to express his compliments.</p> + +<p>“I was sorry Stacey could not stay to hear +you play,” he said, “but he seems to have a +virtuous fit on, and said he must hurry to the +barracks and spend the evening in study. +Perhaps, however, it was only an excuse for +mischief.”</p> + +<p>“Do you think so?” Adelaide asked. “It +has seemed to me of late that Stacey has +had little heart for anything, even for mischief.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a fact. I haven’t seen him on the +river since the games, and he used to be very +fond of rowing.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide gave a little gesture of despair. +“There,” she said, “I forgot to ask him +whether any one knew of his going out boating, +the night of our party, with Terwilliger,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +and Winnie was so particular about it. How +provoked she will be with me.”</p> + +<p>“Why is it that you young ladies have developed +an overweening interest in Terwilliger?” +asked Mr. Van Silver. They were sitting +on the staircase apart from the others, and +Adelaide replied:</p> + +<p>“It is because he is suspected of a robbery +which has occurred at our school. We have +been cautioned not to mention it, but I think +I may say as much to you, for Mr. Mudge, +the detective who has been engaged to investigate +the affair, told me this afternoon that he +intended to interview you in regard to Terwilliger’s +part in the crime for which he was sent +to prison.”</p> + +<p>A cloud passed over Mr. Van Silver’s face. +“I hoped that thing was dead and buried,” he +said. “It only proves that nothing is really +ever settled unless it is settled right. If it will +do Terwilliger any good, I will testify openly, +as I ought to have done in the first place.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide looked at Mr. Van Silver wonderingly. +He understood and said quickly, “I +cannot bear to lose your respect, Miss Armstrong; +perhaps I had better tell you just +how it all happened.”</p> + +<p>“Not to gratify any curiosity on my part,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +Adelaide replied; “you might be sorry afterward. +And if it is something that the world +has no business to know——”</p> + +<p>“The <cite>World!</cite> Heaven forbid that an account +of the affair should get into the <cite>World</cite>, +the <cite>Herald</cite>, or any of our newspapers. I +would rather no one knew anything about it; +but when I have told you the entire story you +will be able to judge how much of it I ought +to confide to your friend Mudge, in order to +aid Terwilliger. You see, young Cairngorm +is a regular cub. His father sent him across +on his yacht to us. He wanted mother to +comb him out, introduce him in New York +circles, and get him married, if she could, to +some American heiress. If you girls only +knew what scamps some of those slips of +nobility are you would not be so crazy for +titles.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide’s eyes snapped. “I do not care a +fig for a title,” she said indignantly. “I +think a great deal more of an enterprising, +hard-working, true-hearted American, than of +a mere name. I think that the American +pride of having accomplished some worthy +work in life is much more allowable than the +English pride of belonging to a leisure class.”</p> + +<p>“I beg pardon. I did not intend to be personal.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +When my mother saw what sort of a +specimen had been confided to her hands, she +made no efforts in the matrimonial direction, +but simply tried to keep the chap out of +harm’s way for a season, using me as her aide-de-camp. +He had a passion for betting and +gaming, and I was at my wits end sometimes +to head him off. Terwilliger came over with +him, you know; but he left the yacht on its +arrival for he wanted to establish himself permanently +in America. Cairngorm liked Terwilliger, +tipped him handsomely on parting, +and asked me to take an interest in him. I +promised to look out for him and immediately +forgot his existence. Terwilliger drifted +about, waiting for something to turn up, and +Satan, who is the only employer who is on +the lookout for poor fellows who are out of +work, appeared to Terwilliger, in the person +of a new acquaintance, Limber Tim. Tim +told him that he was connected with a sort of +club devoted to athletics. It was really a +gambling saloon. Tim knew of Terwilliger’s +acquaintance with Cairngorm, and he promised +Terwilliger a five dollar bill if he would +persuade Cairngorm to patronize his establishment. +‘Tell him,’ he said, ‘that we are to +have a very select game of poker to-night,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +only gentlemen present, and get him to come +down.’</p> + +<p>“Now, how Terwilliger happened to be such +a lamb, I can’t say; but he had never heard of +poker, and he asked Tim if it was anything +like single stick. This amused Tim and he +did not undeceive Terwilliger, who appeared +at our house in search of Cairngorm, and, not +finding him, left a labored epistle inviting him +to come to No. — Bowery, and see some fun +in the way of a sleight of hand performance +with a ‘poker.’ Cairngorm saw through +it, though Terwilliger did not, and went out +after dinner without explaining where he was +going. He took the note with him for fear +he might forget the number of the house, and +thought that he replaced it in his pocket, after +consulting it under a corner gaslight; but, as +his luck would have it, he dropped the note +there, and a policeman, who had seen him +read it, picked it up. The policeman knew +that the house was a gambling saloon, and +immediately surmised the truth, that this finely +dressed young swell had been decoyed to his +ruin. Terwilliger had begun his letter simply, +‘Nobble Sur,’ and our address was not on the +letter, so that there was no clue to Cairngorm’s +identity; but he had signed his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +name in full, and the astute policeman had +this bit of convincing evidence of Terwilliger’s +complicity in the confidence game.</p> + +<p>“We knew nothing of this at the time, but +it was late at night before Cairngorm returned +to our house, and we had all been very anxious +about him. His statements were to the +point, for he had been thoroughly frightened. +He had lost heavily, and in the midst of the +game the police had raided the place, and he +had escaped by springing into a dumb-waiter, +which had landed him in a kitchen, where +he had remained secreted until all was quiet.</p> + +<p>“‘It is very fortunate for you,’ my father +said sternly, ‘that the police did not secure +you, for in that case the reporters would have +had a sensation for the morning papers, and +your noble father would have learned of your +lodgment in the Tombs. As it is, you had +better leave New York at once. Your yacht +is at Newport. I advise you to report at +home as soon as possible. It is your own +fault that your American visit has had so sudden +and so disgraceful an ending.’</p> + +<p>“I saw Cairngorm off, much relieved to get +him off my hands, for we had very little in +common, and he was so lacking in principle +that my feeling for him was only one of contemptuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +pity. On our way to Newport +Cairngorm told me that Terwilliger was perfectly +innocent of any connivance with the +gamblers, and that as soon as he saw that +they were playing for money had attempted +to induce him to leave the place, using every +persuasion possible, and making the gamblers +very angry with him. They had tried to put +him out of the room, but he had insisted on +remaining, and when the police appeared it +was Terwilliger who had shown Cairngorm into +the dumb-waiter. Immediately after Cairngorm’s +departure to Scotland, I sailed for a +long trip around the world, so that it was over +a year before I returned to New York.</p> + +<p>“What was my chagrin to find that Terwilliger +had been arrested and sent to prison +with the gamblers. My father had succeeded +in keeping Cairngorm’s name out of the papers, +but as he believed that Terwilliger had knowingly +acted as a decoy he had made no attempt +to save him. Terwilliger would not +disclose Cairngorm’s name at the trial when +confronted with the letter which he acknowledged +having written. Nor did he write him +asking his assistance, so determined was he +not to implicate his patron in the affair. I +looked up Terwilliger, and finding that he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +only a few weeks more to serve, set myself to +work in earnest to secure him a good position. +I told the entire story to Colonel Grey, who +met him with me, on his release, and feeling +confident that he had not been contaminated +by his prison associations, gave him the position +of trainer at his gymnasium. He has had +a good record there ever since, and I have +been very unhappy that he has suffered so +much on my graceless friend’s account. If I +had known that an innocent person was to be +sent to prison I would never have helped him +away after his scrape, but would have insisted +on his disclosing the entire truth, and braving +the consequences like a man. As it is I am +going to make Cairngorm do something for +Terwilliger this summer. One of my grooms +does not care to go to Europe with me, and +if Terwilliger has nothing better to do while +the cadets are on vacation, I will take him +across. I shall bring him back in the fall in +time for the opening of the school.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide was intensely interested in this +story. “You will tell it all to Mr. Mudge, +will you not?” she asked, “and convince him +that Terwilliger was unjustly imprisoned.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Van Silver promised to do this, and +soon after took his leave.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></p> + +<p>Adelaide had not intended to tell Jim anything +of the suspicion which had fallen upon +the trainer, but Jim had left his bedroom and +come out upon the landing to listen to the +music, and had overheard all of Mr. Van +Silver’s account.</p> + +<p>When Adelaide went in to kiss Jim goodnight, +she found his cheeks hot and his eyes +quite wild. “You will go to Mr. Mudge right +away, will you not, sister?” he urged. And +he was not at all satisfied when Adelaide assured +him that this was not necessary, as Mr. +Mudge had promised to call on Mr. Van +Silver on the following day.</p> + +<p>The next day Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong +arrived, and Jim’s delight threw him into a +fever of excitement. Such alternations of +happiness and worry were bad for the boy, +who needed calm, and Mr. Armstrong wished +to remove him to Old Point Comfort, but Jim +begged that he might not be taken from the +city until the closing exercises of the Cadet +School. “I shall be well enough to attend +them, I know,” he pleaded, “and I want to +see sister graduate, and to know how the +mystery turns out, and whether Terwilliger is +all right.”</p> + +<p>To gratify the boy Mr. Armstrong took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +furnished apartments fronting on Central +Park, and Mrs. Armstrong devoted herself to +the care of her little invalid, while Adelaide +returned to school.</p> + +<p>Commencement was near at hand, and +Adelaide felt that she must work hard to pass +the final examination creditably. Our life at +Madame’s was not all frolic, though I am conscious +that my story would seem to indicate +that such was the case. Naturally, a full report +of the solid lessons which we learned +would make a very stupid story, but the lessons +formed our daily diet, and the scrapes +and good times that I have chronicled occurred +only at intervals.</p> + +<p>We had what Milly called a thousand miles +of desert, without even the least little oasis of +fun, between the Inter-scholastic Games and +the examinations. Winnie had taken a fit of +serious study, and when Winnie studied she +did it, as she played, with all her might. Our +only lark for quite a time was a house-warming +which we gave the Terwilligers. Polo told us +how she was fitting up the little flat of three +rooms with the assistance of her brother, and +it certainly seemed as if the cloud which had +shadowed her had drifted away. The largest +room was the kitchen, also used as a dining-room.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +Adelaide had provided a range, and +many other things, with the rooms. The +cadets clubbed together and made Terwilliger +a handsome present in money, with which he +purchased a lounge, which served for his own +bed, and an easy chair for his mother; and +our King’s Daughters Ten provided all the +tinware and crockery. Madame sent down a +nice bedstead and some bedding. Professor +Waite contributed a neatly framed portrait of +Polo, and Miss Noakes gave a box of soap. +Polo purchased the table linen, towels, etc., +with her own earnings, and Miss Billings +hemmed them and the curtains, which were +made of cheese cloth. Mrs. Roseveldt sent +her carriage to take Mrs. Terwilliger from the +hospital to her new home and gave a carpet, +and Mr. Van Silver ordered a barrel of flour +and a half ton of coal. Mrs. Armstrong +selected a lamp as Jim’s present, and took the +two children from the Home to one of the +large stores and provided them well with +clothing for the summer before delivering +them to their mother. It was a very happy +and united family that met together that evening +in Adelaide’s tenement, and Mrs. Terwilliger, +who had not been credited by her +acquaintances as being a religious woman, exclaimed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +reverently, “It seems to me we’d +orter be grateful to Providence for all these +mercies;” and her son responded emphatically:</p> + +<p>“Grateful to Providence? You bet your +life, I am!”</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.<br /> + +<small>THE CLOUDS PART.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image14"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 195px; height: 110px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 220px; height: 100px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in1"><span class="upper">Then</span> suddenly, just +as they were sitting +down to the first meal +in their new home, +there was a knock at +the door, and a policeman +said: “I +am sorry, Terwilliger, +but you are +wanted again.”</p> + +<p>“What for?” the trainer asked, thunderstruck.</p> + +<p>“Mysterious robbery up at Madame ——’s +boarding-school,” replied the officer. “Mudge +gave me the order for your arrest.”</p> + +<p>“Go and tell Mr. Van Silver,” Terwilliger +said to Polo. “He won’t let me go to prison +again.” And Polo was off like the wind.</p> + +<p>Mr. Van Silver came at once, and gave bail +for Terwilliger’s appearance at trial, so that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +he did not go to prison; but this action of +Mr. Mudge’s showed that he felt sure that +Terwilliger was the thief, and threw us all into +consternation. Mr. Mudge had called on Mr. +Van Silver, but had unfortunately not found +him in, and while he had not received the explanation +which had been given Adelaide, one +of his detectives informed him that Terwilliger +had made arrangements to leave the country +soon in Mr. Van Silver’s employ, and that +he had lately been expending large sums in extravagantly +fitting up an apartment for his +family. It was the fear that his man might escape +him, which had precipitated Mr. Mudge’s +action. He felt that the case was a pretty +clear one, and that the trial would develop +more evidence.</p> + +<p>Winnie was at her wits’ end. She had +promised to produce witnesses proving that +Stacey and Terwilliger were on the river the +night of the Catacomb party; and in her desperation +she wrote directly to Stacey in regard +to it. Unfortunately, Stacey could think of +no one who had seen them just at the time +when the boys were known to have been in +the school building, and Stacey’s own testimony +would not be regarded as of sufficient +weight to clear Terwilliger, as Mr. Mudge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +suspected Stacey of being the trainer’s companion. +This rendered Stacey very indignant. +It seemed to him that he had trouble enough +before this, and he was desperate now. His +father, Commodore Fitz Simmons, was a naval +officer, a bluff old sea dog, who had married, +late in life, a refined and beautiful woman. +She was lonely in her husband’s long absences, +and her heart knit itself to her son. Her husband +had planned that Stacey should follow +his career, but when he understood how this +would afflict his wife, he partly relinquished +this idea.</p> + +<p>“You can have the training of the boy till +he is eighteen,” he said to his wife. “If he +does you credit up to that time, I shall feel +sure of him for the rest of his life, and he may +have a Harvard education and follow whatever +profession he pleases. But if he takes +advantage of petticoat government, and develops +a tendency to go wrong, I’ll put him +on a school ship, and let the young scamp +learn what discipline is.”</p> + +<p>Commodore Fitz Simmons had been away +for a long cruise, but Stacey’s mother now +wrote from Washington that the ship was in, +and that the commodore and she would take +great pleasure in attending the closing exercises<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +of his school. She hoped that her son +would distinguish himself at them, and that +there was no doubt about his passing his Harvard +examinations, for his father had referred +to their agreement that Stacey must go to +sea if he had not improved his opportunities. +“And you know,” she added, “that I could +never bear to have you both on that terrible +ocean.”</p> + +<p>Stacey could not bear the thought, either, +for he loathed the sea, and he suddenly faced +the fact that he had not been distinguishing +himself in his studies and had no certainty of +passing the examinations. This suspicion of +being implicated in an escapade which had a +possible crime connected with it, was more +than he could bear. When he read, in Winnie’s +letter, “Mr. Mudge suspects you,” he threw +the letter upon the floor and uttered such a +cry that Buttertub, who was studying in the +room, sprang to him, thinking that he had +hurt himself.</p> + +<p>“I don’t care who knows it,” Stacey cried, +beside himself with despair; “I am suspected +of being a thief, and it will kill my mother, +and my father will just about kill me.”</p> + +<p>Buttertub gave a low whistle. “It can’t be +so bad as that,” he said; “what do you mean?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Some fellows sneaked into the girls’ party, +and they think I was one of them and Terwilliger +the other.”</p> + +<p>“Well, what if they do?” Buttertub asked. +“There is nothing so killing about a little +thing like that.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps not; but there was a robbery +committed in the school that very night, and +that’s the milk of the cocoanut.”</p> + +<p>“They can’t suspect a <em>cadet</em> of being a +burglar.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it looks like it,” Stacey replied. +“They’ve arrested Terwilliger, and I’ve just +had warning that my turn may come next, +unless I can prove that I was boating that +night, and I can’t.”</p> + +<p>“Ginger!” exclaimed Buttertub. “You +are in a mess.” He was on the point of confessing +his own share in the escapade, when +he reflected that it was not entirely his own +secret, he must see Ricos first. Buttertub +was naturally good-natured, and he had no idea +that the frolic would take so serious a turn, +but his brain worked slowly, and he did not +quite see what he ought to do.</p> + +<p>Stacey was nearly wild. He strode up and +down the room. “I haven’t seen father for +two years, and mother has written him such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +glowing accounts of me that he expects great +things. It would be bad enough, without this +last trouble, to have him find out what a slump +I am. I can never look him in the face—never.”</p> + +<p>“Fathers are pretty rough on us fellows, +sometimes,” said Buttertub. He was thinking +of his own father, bombastic old Bishop +Buttertub, and wondering, after all, whether +he could quite bear to shoulder all the consequences +of his frolic. When the Bishop +was angry he had been compared to a wild +bull of Bashan, and Buttertub, Jr., would +rather have faced a locomotive on a single +track bridge than his paternal parent on a +rampage. He wished now that he had not +yielded to the wiles of the entrancing Cynthia, +and attended the party. “Hang that girl!” +he growled aloud.</p> + +<p>“Who?” asked Stacey.</p> + +<p>“Miss Vaughn,” Buttertub replied. “Some +one was saying you meant to invite her to the +declamations. You are welcome to for all +me.”</p> + +<p>“Hang all girls,” replied Stacey. “I shan’t +invite any one.”</p> + +<p>Buttertub rose awkwardly. “Don’t be too +blue, Stacey,” he said kindly. “Something’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +bound to turn up,” and he ambled briskly off +to find Ricos. “It’s tough,” he said to himself, +“but I’m no sneak, so here goes.”</p> + +<p>But Ricos was not in the barracks, and +Buttertub, thankful for a little postponement +of the evil day, went into the great hall to +practice his declamation. He had chosen a +dignified oration, and he possessed a sonorous +voice and a pompous manner. Colonel Grey +smiled as he heard him.</p> + +<p>“You remind me strikingly of your father,” +he said. “I am sure that I shall see you in +sacred orders one of these days. Perhaps +you too will become a bishop.”</p> + +<p>Buttertub hung his head. “Better be a +decent, honorable man, first,” he thought. +The boys were cheering over in the gymnasium: +“Hip! hip! hip!”</p> + +<p>“Yes—hypocrite,” he said to himself, “I’ll +punch Ricos until he consents to making a +clean breast of it.”</p> + +<p>But there was no need for resorting to this +means of grace. Deliverance was coming, +and, strange to say, through Ricos himself. +Ricos had more food for remorse than Buttertub. +His sister had written him from time to +time of Jim’s condition, and this morning he +had received a letter which woke the pangs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +of conscience. Mr. Armstrong had thoughtlessly +told Jim of Terwilliger’s arrest, and the +news had affected him very seriously. He +could not sleep, and he could talk and think +of nothing else. The physician feared that +his reason would give way. He sent for +Stacey, and his friend went to him immediately, +but he could give him no encouragement, +and his call only made Jim worse. As +Stacey left the door he met Ricos.</p> + +<p>“You had better not call on Armstrong to-day,” +Stacey said. “He is awfully sick. I +shouldn’t wonder if he died. He had an +attack something like this last year, but the +doctor pulled him through because there was +nothing on his mind to worry him; but now +everything seems to be in a snarl, and he isn’t +strong enough to bear it. You come back +with me, seeing you ain’t likely to do him any +good.”</p> + +<p>“It is of needcessity,” Ricos said. His face +was white and scared. “Rosario, she write +me that he will die, and if I see him not before, +and assure myself that he carry no ill-will +of me to the Paradiso, then my life shall +be one Purgatorio. Indeed, I must see him; +it is of great needcessity.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Armstrong also hesitated when Ricos<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +presented himself, but Jim heard his voice +and called him eagerly.</p> + +<p>“Ricos! Ricos! is it really you? Oh, I’m +so glad!”</p> + +<p>“Of a surety, it is I,” Ricos replied. “I +have come to ask your forgiveness. Alas! I +am one miserable.”</p> + +<p>“I will forgive you, Ricos, if you will tell +Colonel Grey all about it, so that Terwilliger +need not go to prison. You know they +have arrested him, and really it is he and +Stacey who ought to forgive you, and not I +at all.”</p> + +<p>“I do not comprehend of what you refer. +I ask you to forgive me for your hurt——”</p> + +<p>“But that is nothing! I am sorry that I +beat you, Ricos. I wanted to win awfully, +but I know now that you wanted the medal +a great deal more than I did, and I’m so sorry +Stacey did not run the best. Mother read me +a verse that seemed just to be written for our +games. I read it to Stacey and he said it +would help him. Mother, please read it to +Ricos, perhaps it will help him, too.”</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Armstrong read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the +young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon +the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be +weary; and they shall walk and not faint.</p></div> + +<p>Ricos looked still more frightened. The +Bible to him was a book only for priests. Jim +must certainly be at the point of death, or he +would not ask to have it read; but Jim spoke +up earnestly:</p> + +<p>“I suppose, Ricos, that waiting on the +Lord means doing our whole duty, and I want +you to do something for my sake. I want +you to tell that you went to the girl’s Cat-combing +party. You know you went, Ricos. +We are all sure of it, but nobody can prove +it. Please tell Colonel Grey. It would be +such a noble thing to do.”</p> + +<p>“And you will make me assurance of your +forgiveness?”</p> + +<p>“With all my heart, and I will stick up for +you with all the boys.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you, my friend; now I shall enjoy +some comfort of the mind. And you will tell +those in Paradise that Ricos is not so devil +as they may have heard.”</p> + +<p>Jim looked puzzled. He did not quite +understand that Ricos’s motive was fear of +retribution. He thought that Jim was going +to die, and he felt himself in a measure +responsible for his death; but Jim’s forgiveness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +and promise of intercession in his behalf +was a boon to be purchased at any price, and +he readily promised to disclose everything. +Jim fell back upon his pillow, exhausted but +happy, and fell asleep for the first time in +many hours.</p> + +<p>Ricos hurried back to the barracks. He had +no scruples about implicating Buttertub in his +confession, and he would have gone to Colonel +Grey without consulting his friend had +Buttertub not been on the lookout for him. +They were each relieved to find that they had +come separately to similar conclusions, and +they sought Colonel Grey together.</p> + +<p>They were obliged to wait some time, +for their instructor was closeted with Mr. +Mudge.</p> + +<p>“I am just going out with this gentleman,” +said Colonel Grey, as he noticed them standing +in the hall. “Is it anything which cannot +wait?”</p> + +<p>“It is of needcessity,” said Ricos, and then +his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth, and +Buttertub made the confession for both.</p> + +<p>“Your acknowledgment of your fault +comes just in time,” said Colonel Grey. +“Make your statement once more to this +gentleman, and it may save an innocent classmate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +from disgrace, and our unfortunate Terwilliger +from unjust imprisonment.”</p> + +<p>“You shall imprison me,” said Ricos, in a +theatrical manner. “That will make me one +supreme happiness.”</p> + +<p>Buttertub turned pale, but did not falter, +and told the story frankly and simply.</p> + +<p>“So you are the two gentlemen who introduced +yourselves in disguise into a young +ladies’ boarding-school,” said Mr. Mudge. +“Will you tell me how you made the +acquaintance of Terwilliger’s sister, the +young lady they call Lawn Tennis, who gave +you admittance.”</p> + +<p>“But it was not Terwilliger’s sister at all. +Miss Vaughn threw us out the key to the +turret door,” said Buttertub.</p> + +<p>“A reliable witness to the affair assures me +that it was Lawn Tennis. She was recognized +partly by a Tam O’Shanter cap which +she is in the habit of wearing.”</p> + +<p>“Miss Vaughn wore a Tam O’Shanter +when she looked out of the window. She +had it pulled down over her forehead.”</p> + +<p>“In view of these disclosures,” Mr. Mudge +said to Colonel Grey, “I shall withdraw my +prosecution of Terwilliger. I have not sufficient +evidence to make out a case against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +him, since it is now shown that the other +young gentleman, Mr. Fitz Simmons, did not +visit the school on the night in question, and +consequently had no motive for testifying +falsely. I think any court would admit him +as a competent witness in Terwilliger’s behalf, +and consider the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">alibi</i> established. There will +be no trial of Terwilliger. I must confess +myself completely at fault in this matter.”</p> + +<p>Buttertub drew a long breath. He felt +dazed and sick. Ricos swayed from side to +side, and sank into a chair. Colonel Grey +was bowing Mr. Mudge out, and Buttertub +poured a glass of water and handed it to Ricos +in his absence. “Don’t give in yet,” he +said; “we’ve fixed it all right for Fitz Simmons +and Terwilliger, but we’ve got to face +the music now on our own account.”</p> + +<p>But Ricos had gone to the extent of his +capabilities, and had fainted dead away. Colonel +Grey returned and assisted Buttertub +in restoring him to consciousness. His first +words were, “When is it that we go to the +prison?”</p> + +<p>“My dear boy,” said the Colonel, “you +were not suspected of any connection with +the robbery. But if you imagined that you +would be, and made the avowal which you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +did in the face of that apprehension, you deserve +all the more credit.”</p> + +<p>“Shall we not be expelled, sir?” Buttertub +asked.</p> + +<p>“Never! My school has need of young +men who can acknowledge a fault so honourably. +I consider that your generous conduct +has wiped the misdemeanour from existence. +You have suffered sufficiently, and +I have no fear that such a thing will ever +occur again. I shall only ask you to make +this acknowledgment complete by sending +Madame —— a written apology for intruding +in so unwarrantable a manner upon her +school. I shall call upon her personally and +deliver it.”</p> + +<p>“And my father will not feel that I have +disgraced him,” Buttertub said slowly, unconscious +that he was speaking aloud.</p> + +<p>“I shall tell the Bishop,” said Colonel Grey, +“that he has a son to be proud of.”</p> + +<p>Ricos staggered off to bed, and Buttertub +sought Stacey and reported.</p> + +<p>“You are a trump!” Stacey cried, “I never +realized before what a hero you are. I beg +your pardon for every unkind thing I have +thought or said about you, and if you will accept +my friendship it’s yours forever. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +time for supper now, and after that we’ll find +Terwilliger and tell him the news.”</p> + +<p>Jim improved rapidly after this. If Ricos +had known that he would recover he might +not have confessed, and there was a lingering +feeling in his mind that Jim had no right to +get well, and was taking a mean advantage of +him in not fulfilling his part of the bargain +and winging his way to Paradise, to tell the +angels that Ricos was not such a bad fellow +after all. Still, he never really regretted Jim’s +recovery or his own avowal. It cleared his +conscience of a great load, and the boys, having +heard that Ricos had made <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">amende honorable</i>, +no longer complimented him with the +terms “chump and mucker,” but accepted his +presents of guava jelly and other West India +delicacies, and as he had the Spanish gift for +guitar-playing, elected him to the banjo club.</p> + +<p>A little after this Mrs. Roseveldt gave her +last reception for that season. She had not +forgotten the proposed plan of the tennis tournament +at Narragansett Pier, and she invited +Stacey to come and talk it up with Milly.</p> + +<p>In spite of his declaration of war against +all womankind, Stacey accepted the invitation +eagerly. Stacey was himself again, yet not +quite his old giddy self. The disappointment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +and trouble which he had experienced had +changed him for the better. He was less of a +fop and more of a man, than when he tossed +his baton so airily before his drum corps at +the annual drill. But he was still something +of an exquisite in dress. His father had given +him permission to order a dress suit for the +occasion of prize declamation, and Stacey besieged +his tailor until he agreed to have it +done in time for Mrs. Roseveldt’s reception.</p> + +<p>Milly went home the day before. We had +all been invited, but had decided virtuously +that we could not spare the time from our +studies, while I had, as an additional reason, +the knowledge that I had no costume suitable +for such a grand society affair. Milly described +it all afterward, and I enjoyed her +description more than I would have cared for +the party itself.</p> + +<p>The mandolin club played softly in the +dining-room bay-window, hidden by a bank +of palms and ferns, and the lights glowed +through rose-coloured shades. The supper-table, +in honour of a riding club to which Mr. +and Mrs. Roseveldt belonged, whose members +were the guests of the evening, as far +as possible suggested their favorite exercise. +The table itself was horseshoe in shape; saddle-rock<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +oysters, and tongue sandwiches were +served. There was whipped cream, the ices +were in the form of top-boots, saddles, jockey-hats, +and riding whips, and the bonbonnières +were satin beaver hats.</p> + +<p>Stacey appeared early in the evening. It +was the first time that Milly had seen him in +a dress suit, and Milly confided to me privately +that he seemed to her to have suddenly +grown several inches taller. He was very +grave and dignified, not at all like the old +rollicking, boyish Stacey with whom Milly +was familiar. Milly, quite inexplicably to herself, +felt a little awed by him and was at loss +for a subject of conversation. She referred +to the Inter-scholastic Games, and Stacey +scowled so violently that Milly saw that this +was an unfortunate beginning, and hastened +to change the subject to that of the proposed +tournament at Narragansett Pier. They were +practically alone, for the parlor had been deserted +by the onslaught on the supper table, +and Stacey said confidentially:</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you just how it is, Milly; I ought +not to take part in that tournament.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, do!” pleaded Milly.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/gs05.jpg" width="400" height="476" alt="Milly and Stacey" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>“I will if you say so. It shall be just as +you say, for I’ll do anything for you; but if I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>go into this thing I lose every last chance of +passing my examinations for Harvard. All +the same, I’ll do it if you want me to.”</p> + +<p>“No, no;” murmured Milly; “not at such +a cost; but it can’t be as bad as that. What +do you mean?”</p> + +<p>“I mean that I have made a precious fool +of myself all winter. I have gone in for athletics +at the expense of my studies, and I’ve +failed in both; and now that the time is coming +for my examinations it will be a tight +squeeze if I pass. I made up my mind to reform +after I extinguished myself at the games, +and I’ve been cramming ever since. Do you +know what the boys call me now?”</p> + +<p>“A regular dig, I suppose.”</p> + +<p>“No, that’s obsolete. At Harvard a hard +student is a ‘grind,’ and a very hard student +is a ‘long-haired grind.’ Woodpecker is complimentary +enough to call me a ‘Sutherland +Sister hair invigorator grind.’”</p> + +<p>Milly laughed.</p> + +<p>“No laughing matter, I tell you. I’ve +broken training. I haven’t been to the oval, +or on the river, or riding in the park but once +since the games. Instead of that, I put myself +in the hands of our Professor of Mathematics, +and I am letting him give me a private<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +overhauling. His motto is, ‘Find out what +the boys don’t like and give them lots of it.’”</p> + +<p>“How horrid!” Milly murmured sympathetically.</p> + +<p>“He’s just right. If you want to put it in +a little kinder way, you might say, ‘Find out +where the boys are weak, and then make them +strong.’ The trouble is I’m weak all through, +so I’m having a rather serious time just now. +I shall have to sit up till one o’clock to pay +for the pleasure of this interview. The examinations +take place between the 25th and +27th of June, inclusive. If I go into this +tournament, or even think of it before then, I +lose every ghost of a chance for Harvard, and +will have to take to the sea, and I loathe it. +But that’s nothing—if you want me to do it. +You don’t half know me, Milly. I tell you, +it’s nothing at all—why I’d give up life itself +for you. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t +give up for your sake. No, you shan’t run +away. We’ve got to have it out some time, +and we might as well understand one another +now. I love you, Milly; I have always +loved you; and if you don’t like me—why, I +have no use for Harvard, or life either.”</p> + +<p>He looked so despairing and yet so wildly +eager, that Milly was very sorry for him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Of course, I like you, Stacey,” she said +kindly.</p> + +<p>“You do?” he cried. “I can’t believe it. +You are fooling me.”</p> + +<p>“No, Stacey; but you are fooling yourself. +You would be very sorry, by and bye, if I took +you at your word now, and snapped you up +before you had time to know your own mind. +Why, Stacey, we are both of us too young to +know whether we are in earnest. We ought +to wait, and we ought neither of us to be +bound in any way. Perhaps everything will +seem very different to us four years from now. +Don’t you think so yourself?”</p> + +<p>“I can never change,” Stacey asserted confidently.</p> + +<p>“But I may,” Milly said with a smile, thinking +of her own foolish little heart, and of how +appropriate the advice she was giving to Stacey +was to her own case.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe you will,” Stacey replied. +“I am sure it’s a great comfort to know that +you care for me a little; it’s a great deal better +than I expected.”</p> + +<p>“Did I say so? I didn’t mean to,” Milly +exclaimed in consternation.</p> + +<p>“No, you haven’t committed yourself to +anything, but you have intimated that I may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +ask you again after I have graduated from +Harvard. And since I desire that time to +come as soon as possible, I presume I have +your permission to give up the tennis tournament +and go on preparing for my examinations.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, certainly. But I’m sorry for the +Home. I don’t quite see how we are going +to raise the money for the annex. Still, I +suppose, as students, our first duty is to our +studies.”</p> + +<p>“Exactly. But vacation is coming and we +will see what we can do for the Home then. +If your mother will only postpone the time I +will see if I can get the boys together in +July.”</p> + +<p>The old butler came in at this juncture with +a tray of ices. He was followed by Mr. Van +Silver, who protested against his introducing +“coolness” between old friends, but who remained +all the same, and spoiled their opportunity +for any further conversation on the +subject uppermost in Stacey’s mind.</p> + +<p>“I’ve an idea, Stacey,” said Mr. Van Silver. +“I want you to go to Europe with me this +summer. You’d enjoy the trip I propose to +make among the Scottish hills and lakes. +I know your parents will approve, for it will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +be a regular education for you, especially with +my improving society thrown in.” Mr. Van +Silver winked as he said this, and he was +greatly surprised when Stacey answered +promptly:</p> + +<p>“Awfully kind of you, Mr. Van Silver, but I +can’t go possibly.”</p> + +<p>“Why not?”</p> + +<p>“Well, first of all, I’m bound to be conditioned +on some of my studies at my Harvard +examinations, and I shall have to coach +all summer in a less agreeable way than the +one which you suggest. Then I have engaged +to get up a tennis tournament at the +Pier——”</p> + +<p>“Tennis! what’s that to such a trip as I +propose. Don’t be an idiot, Stacey.”</p> + +<p>“It is really not an ordinary tournament,” +Milly added, with a desire to make peace +between the two. “But, Mr. Van Silver, +when do you sail? Perhaps Stacey can go +after the tournament.”</p> + +<p>“I sail the last of June.”</p> + +<p>“Then there’s no use talking,” said Stacey.</p> + +<p>“Unless you could join Mr. Van Silver by +going over later.”</p> + +<p>Stacey shook his head vigorously. He +had no desire to be expatriated this summer.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I comprehend,” said Mr. Van Silver. +“The Pier possesses greater attractions than +I can offer, but you needn’t try to humbug me +into believing that tennis is the magnet which +draws you thither. Tell that to the unsophisticated, +but strive not to impose on your +grandfather. He has been young himself.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Roseveldt came in with quite a party +from the supper, and Stacey promptly took +his leave.</p> + +<p>When Milly confided this to me,—as she did +nearly all of her joys and sorrows,—I could +not help expressing my sympathy for Stacey.</p> + +<p>“Stacey will recover,” she said confidently. +“Men are never as constant as we women.” +And Milly nodded her head with the gravity +of an elderly matron who had experienced all +the vicissitudes of life, and who could now regard +the ardours of youthful affection and +despair with a benign tolerance, as foreseeing +the end from the beginning.</p> + +<p>“Do you know, Tib,” she continued, “Mr. +Van Silver was joking in the way that he +always does about Stacey, when papa came to +us; and papa said, ‘Don’t put such notions in +my little girl’s head, Mr. Van Silver. Stacey +has his college course before him and may be +able to quote from my favourite poet when it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +is over.’ With that he took down an old volume +of Praed and read something which is so +cute that I copied it afterward. Here it is:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We parted; months and years rolled by;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We met again four summers after.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our parting was all sob and sigh;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our meeting was all mirth and laughter.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For in my heart’s most secret cell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There had been many other lodgers:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she was not the ball-room’s belle<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But only—Mrs. Something Rogers.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“I wonder whether I shall be Mrs. Rogers, +or Mrs. Smith, or Mrs. What? I’d rather be +just Miss Milly Roseveldt.”</p> + +<p>“And how about Professor Waite?” I +asked, hardly daring to believe that the fresh +wind of common sense had cleared away the +old miasmatic glamour.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Adelaide must repent. They would +make such a romantic couple. I have set my +heart on it. And Tib, I believe she does like +him, just a little, though she hasn’t found it +out herself yet. I am going to take charge +of their case, and some day you and I will be +bridesmaids, Tib. I’ve planned just how it +will be. It’s a pity Celeste acted so. Do you +really think Miss Billings will be equal to a +wedding dress?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span></p> + +<p>“What, yours, Milly?”</p> + +<p>“Mine? No, indeed. I don’t want to be +married. It’s a great deal nicer not to be. +Don’t you think so?”</p> + +<p>“Milly, darling, I really believe that you +have recovered from that old folly.”</p> + +<p>“Why, of course I have—ages and centuries +ago.” And Milly laughed a wholesome, +gay-hearted laugh, which astonished as much +as it pleased me.</p> + +<p>“Alas for woman’s constancy,” I laughed; +“but, indeed, Milly, I am very glad that you +are so thoroughly heart-whole. We will keep +a jolly old maids’ hall together, only you must +not encourage poor Stacey.”</p> + +<p>“Why not?” asked the incomprehensible +Milly. “I am sure he is a great deal happier +with matters left unsettled than he would have +been if I had told him that I hated him; and +that would not have been true either.”</p> + +<p>“You told him that he might ask you again +after he graduates, and you certainly ought +not to allow him any shadow of hope when +you know positively that you can never love +him.”</p> + +<p>What was my surprise to hear Milly reply +very seriously: “But I don’t know that, Tib. +Four years may change everything. Stacey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +may not care a bit for me at the end of his +college course. In that case, I’m sure I shan’t +repine. But then, again, if he should happen +to hold out faithful, perhaps my stony heart +may be touched by the spectacle of such devotion. +Who knows?”</p> + +<p>And Milly looked up archly, with a pretty +blush that augured ill—for the old maids’ hall.</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XV.<br /> + +<small>THE OLD CABINET TELLS ITS STORY.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image15"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 235px; height: 170px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 170px; height: 120px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in2"><span class="upper">A few</span> weeks +passed with no +excitement except +Cynthia’s +withdrawal +from the Amen +Corner. Madame +was very +indignant when Mr. +Mudge reported Cynthia’s +part in inviting the boys +to attend our Catacomb +party, and assisting them +in entering and disguising themselves. It was +rumoured that Cynthia was to be publicly expelled +as a terrible example to all would-be +offenders. She remained closeted in her room, +whence the sound of weeping and wailing could +be heard behind her locked door, but she +steadily refused all overtures of sympathy on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +our part. We waited upon Madame in a body, +and begged her to pardon Cynthia. Madame +replied that she would consider the matter, +and we hurried back and shouted the hopeful +news through Cynthia’s keyhole. There was +no reply.</p> + +<p>“Do you think she has killed herself?” +Milly asked in an awestruck whisper.</p> + +<p>I applied my ear closely and heard stealthy +steps. “She merely wishes to be let alone,” +I said; “perhaps we are a little too exuberant +in our expressions of sympathy.”</p> + +<p>Miss Noakes entered presently and announced +that Madame wished to see Cynthia; +and that young lady went, with a very red +nose, turned up at a very haughty angle. +She returned shortly, and addressing herself +to Adelaide, as she always did, even when she +had something which she wished to communicate +to the rest of us, said scornfully:</p> + +<p>“Miss Armstrong, will you kindly say to +the other young ladies [we were all present], +that Madame has just told me that I am indebted +to you for permission to remain and +graduate with the class.”</p> + +<p>A murmur of satisfaction ran around the +room.</p> + +<p>Cynthia’s eyes flashed fire. “Do not imagine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +for one moment,” she exclaimed, “that +I would accept your hypocritical condescension, +if I believed that it had been offered.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you believe that we interceded with +Madame?” Winnie asked.</p> + +<p>“I believe,” Cynthia replied, “that you +have done the best you can, by tale-bearing, to +induce Madame to expel me, and have not +succeeded; and as I do not wish to associate +with you any longer, I have written my parents +asking them to withdraw me from the school.”</p> + +<p>“I am sure no one will regret your departure,” +Adelaide replied, with indignation. But +Cynthia did not leave the school. Either her +parents were too sensible to take her away +just before her graduation, or her remark had +been merely an idle threat. Madame gave her +a room in another part of the building, and +her place in the Amen Corner remained vacant +for the rest of the term.</p> + +<p>Winnie had finished her essay, and one +evening we gathered in the little study parlor +to hear her read it. The time for our parting +was now very near, and we were all more or +less sentimentally inclined. The old Amen +Corner was very dear to us. Every piece of +furniture had its associations, but none of them +were quite so tragical as those which clustered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +around the old oak cabinet, and it seemed +only fitting that Winnie should celebrate it in +her parting essay. She apologized for the +length of her paper. “Don’t think, girls,” +she explained, “that I intend to read all this +at commencement. I am going to ask +Madame to make selections from it. The +task that Professor Waite set me was to give +a picture of Florentine life in the early part +of the sixteenth century, and to bring in the +characters who lived then as naturally as I +could—Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael +Angelo, Fra Bartolommeo, the Medici, +Macchiavelli, Bibbiena and his niece, and +others. While I was writing, my imagination +carried me away, and I gave it free rein. You +are the only ones who will have the full dose.”</p> + +<p>We were very willing to hear it all. Winnie +sat in the great comfortable wicker armchair +with the lamplight gloating o’er her +mischievous face. Adelaide had ensconced +herself on the window seat, her classical profile +clear cut against the night. Milly nestled +on a cushion at her feet, and I had stretched +myself luxuriously on the old lounge, and +watched the others from the shadowy side of +the room. Milly occasionally patted the cabinet +at her side as Winnie referred to it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span></p> + +<p>The flickering light almost seemed to make +the carved faces with which it was decorated +grin sardonically, or knit their brows with +threatening scowls, as Winnie read:</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>“I am the ghost of the cabinet, Giovanni +de’ Medici they called me, in 1475, when the +drops from the font fell on my forehead in +the Baptistry in Florence, and Leo X, when +in 1513 I was made Pope of Rome. I was +the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, +Christianly christened as a babe and created +Abbot of Fontedolce at the age of seven and +Cardinal at seventeen, for my father was convinced, +since the eldest son must carry down +the family glory in succession, for me promotion +lay only in the way of the Church.</p> + +<p>“Nevertheless, I held, as it were, to that +plough but with one hand, continually looking +back, and ready to drop it altogether, so that, +while I enjoyed the rank and revenue of a +prince of the Church, I was not made a priest +with vows of celibacy until the papacy was as +good as in my hand, and until I had been determined +thereunto by the closing to me of a +fair pathway which led in quite another direction. +For of my father’s choice for me I +might have said:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“For that my fancy rather took<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The way that led to town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He did betray me to a lingering book,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And wrap me in a gown.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“None but the readers of this confession +know of my lost love or fancy that I was capable +of any passion save the ambition to reinstate +my family in its ancient position of glory +in Florence. Cardinal though I was, I yet +played the spy and the thief to get at the +opinions of Florentines of note and influence, +and one of my confederates in my schemes +was a certain carved oak cabinet, which stood +in the library of the palazzo of my nephew by +marriage, Filippo Strozzi. This Strozzi was +a man so well regarded in Florence, that +although he espoused Maddalena de’ Medici, +the daughter of my banished brother Piero, +yet was he never suspected of any plots to +advance our family, and lived even with +great freedom and popularity, keeping open +house to all the literati of the city.</p> + +<p>“My niece, who shared not altogether the +republican sentiments of her husband, and in +whom family affection was most deeply rooted, +did sometimes entertain me after my banishment +when my presence in Florence was not +known by the Florentines in general or even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +to her most worshipful spouse. At such times +I had for my bedchamber a little room partitioned +only from the library of which I have +spoken by heavy hangings of tapestry. +Against this tapestry, on the library side, was +set the oak cabinet, which was also a desk for +writing, and here my nephew, Filippo Strozzi, +was accustomed to write his letters. Hearing +the scratch of his pen when he little suspected +my neighbourhood, filled me with such an itching +desire to know what he wrote, that one +night after he had finished his writing, and +had left the room, I slipped into the library, +and found that, having completed his epistle, +he had laid it inside the cabinet, and that this +was without doubt the usual rendezvous for +the letters of the family while awaiting the +time for the departure of the post, for other +letters, sealed and directed and ready for the +sending, lay on the same shelf. On further +examination of the cabinet I found that its +back was a sliding panel, and that by cutting +through the tapestry with my penknife I could +open the cabinet from my own room, and +abstract any letters which might have been +placed within it under surety of lock and key. +This seemed to me a most providential circumstance, +for not only did my nephew write<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +his letters here, but other guests of the house +had the same custom, and it was most convenient +for me thus to become acquainted with +their secret opinions.</p> + +<p>“I had another motive for lingering in +Florence besides my political schemes, for as I +have said I had not at this time so irrevocably +fastened upon myself the vows of the church +that they could not be shaken off, and I was +greatly enamoured of the niece of the merry +Cardinal Bibbiena, the incomparable Maria, +whom I had met before my brother’s banishment +at his court in Florence, she being a +maid in waiting to his wife and greatly attached +to her.</p> + +<p>“Maria Bibbiena came frequently to visit +my niece Maddalena Strozzi; and my niece, +knowing my passion, gave me opportunity of +meeting her, and I thought that I sped well +in my wooing until the cabinet told me otherwise. +My cabinet told me no lies, for Count +Baltazar Castiglione, a most polished man of +the world, and guarded in his spoken opinions +of others, opened his mind most frankly in a +letter to his friend and confidante, the gentle +and witty Vittoria Colonna, which he wrote +in that room and left in my power, and which +was expressed with a freedom which he would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +never have allowed himself had he fancied +that it would ever have fallen under my +eye.</p> + +<p>“I had one friend in Florence in whom I +trusted, Niccolo Macchiavelli. I admired his +statecraft and his policy, and I deemed him +devoted to our family, but a letter from his +own hand, obtained in like manner with the +others, showed him to be two-faced and +treacherous to all who trusted him—to the +Medicis and to Strozzi, whose hospitality he +scrupled not to abuse. It would seem at first +sight that my thefts of letters were of service +to me; but I was never able to really profit by +them, and the knowledge which the letters +gave me of the perfidy or dislike of their +writers caused me only fruitless indignation +and lasting pain, while the habit into which I +had fallen of suspecting, prying, and stealing +grew upon me day by day, till even death itself +was powerless to correct it. When will +mankind learn that habit can be so deeply +fixed as to follow us beyond the portals of +death.</p> + +<p>“The old cabinet and I have been so long +partners in guilt that my erring ghost visits +it as of old, abstracting from it whatever is +left to its treacherous keeping. I give back<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +herewith the letters, and when this confession +shall have been publicly read, I will render +the moneys which I have more lately filched, +and then my troubled spirit will be laid at +rest. For I was not a great villain.</p> + +<p>“Witch Winnie lied when she said I stole +from this cabinet the freedom of the city of +Florence, which my father writ out and placed +here after the last visit of the unmannerly +monk, Savonarola. I pardoned the enemies +of our family in the day of my triumph, and I +pardoned Raphael, yea, and befriended him +and loved him, since he wronged me unwittingly; +and none grieved more than I when +we buried him beside his Maria, whom I fain +would have called my own. And so, having +forgiven those who have trespassed against +me, and now making restitution, may I also +be pardoned for filching these few letters, +whereof the first was from:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hangingindent">“<cite>Count Baltazar Castiglione to the Excellent Lady Vittoria +Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara, at Naples.</cite></p> + +<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Florence</span>, 15th October, 1504.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">Most Worshipful Madonna and Admired Friend:</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>“I feel myself highly flattered in that you express +yourself satisfied with my Cortigiano (which I caused to +be writ out at your request), and which endeavoured, in +some slight way, to reproduce the facetious pleasantry +joined to the strictest morals which subsist at the Court<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +of Urbino. And I deem your request for a like picture +of Florentine society as a most pleasing proof that I have +not been hitherto wearisome to you.</p> + +<p>“In Florence, since the passing of the rule of the Medici, +there has been a passing away also of all standards of +aristocracy, so that many of the old families hang their +heads in political disgrace, and there be many upstart +ones who flaunt and wanton in gorgeousness of apparel. +Neither is it possible to say what will be the outcome of +this state of social incertitude. I have adopted what +seemed to me a safe rule, and have paid my court neither +to birth nor to fortune, but to genius. For it is not to be +gainsayed that there is gathered in Florence at this time +a remarkable circle of learned and clever men, who form, +as it were, an order of aristocracy by themselves.</p> + +<p>“I paid my respects first to Maestro Pietro Perugino, +my sometime friend at Urbino, and whom we there regarded +as the very cream and quintessence of painting. +He has a home here, living in a goodly and comfortable +state, but has grown somewhat crabbed and soured, as +happens to men who feel themselves out of fashion and +forgotten of the world. He has a rival here, one Michael +Angelo, and Perugino having criticised a cartoon which +this fellow had set up, representing I know not what absurdity, +of bathing soldiers, Angelo replied that he considered +Perugino to be a man ignorant in art matters. +Which saying so cut to the quick my friend that +he somewhat inconsiderately went to law upon the matter, +where he gained scant salve for his bruises, being +dismissed with the decree that the defendant had only +said what was not to be denied.</p> + +<p>“This discourteous fellow Angelo formeth the greatest +contrast to Leonardo da Vinci, now the leading artist of +Florence, in whom the word gentleman hath as full a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +showing as in any noble living. His fortune is sufficient +to his tastes (which are of no niggard order), and his +audience chamber is frequented by the nobles, the wits, +the fashion, the learning, and beauty of the day.</p> + +<p>“But truly, I must not further speak of this paragon, +this florescence of his day and generation, or I shall +have no space in which to make mention of lesser luminaries, +and especially of my young friend, Raphael Santi +of Urbino, who is also visiting at this time in Florence. +Raphael, while he accords to da Vinci a full meed of +praise, and goes daily to sketch from his masterpiece in +the Palazzo Vecchio, and while he is as free from envy +as an egg from vitriol, yet surprised me by this wondrously +assuming assertion, greatly at variance with his +usual modesty. ‘My dear Baltazar,’ said he, ‘keep the +sketches and miniature I have made for thee. They +will one day be as valuable as though signed by da +Vinci!’ Truly, presumption dwelleth in the heart of +youth, but experience with the world will drive it far +from him.</p> + +<p>“I am writing this at the Palazzo Strozzi, where I +am for the time a grateful guest. Mine host and friend +Filippo gave recently an artistic supper, the guests being +either artists or lovers of that guild, whether patricians, +such as Giocondo, Nasi, Soderini, and others; or scriveners, +as Vasari, Macchiavelli, and Guicciardini, and +churchmen, as Bibbiena, and Bembo; for all Florence +will have its finger in this art pie, and they who have +not the wit to paint or the money to purchase, affect +superior knowledge, and wag their tongues in dispraise. +Finding myself partitioned off between two of these +worthies, I should have died of weariness had I not +closed my ear on the one side to the borings of Macchiavelli +(who had it upon his mind that Giovanni de’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +Medici was in Florence, and would have fain tortured +from me his hiding place), and on the other from the +sleep-producing maunderings of Vasari, who delivered +himself of condemnatory criticisms on Raphael. I +would not for the world have awakened him to questions +by a hint that I already knew more of Raphael than he +was like to know in his whole life, but I suffered him to +wander on, straining my ears the while to catch some +shreds of a merry story with which the Cardinal of Santa +Maria in Portico (Bibbiena) was setting his end of the +table in a roar. Supper being ended, I marked that the +Cardinal drew Raphael’s arm within his own, and leading +him to the garden, there left him with his niece Maria, a +most sweet and loving damsel, and one exceptionally +endowed by nature; for neither in Florence nor in the +various outlandish cities which it hath been my hap to +visit in the character of diplomatist, have I found in any +five ladies, saving in yourself, worshipful madame, such +gentleness, sprightliness, and wit as is bound up in one +bundle in the person of Maria Bibbiena.</p> + +<p>“Madonna Maddalena Strozzi has confided to me that +her uncle Giovanni de’ Medici was in time past so greatly +enamoured of this same Maria that he would fain have +given up the Church. This were madness indeed on his +part, since the wisest policy for any of that family is to +keep himself from political ambition, than which there +would seem to be no more convincing evidence to the +vulgar than devotion to a life of celibacy and monkish +austerity; a renouncing of the world, its pomps and +vanities, and especially of family alliances and succession +plots, friendships, betrothals, marriages, and the +like; which, if they be not fooleries of youthful passion, +savour of worldly ambition.</p> + +<p>“All of this I imparted as my opinion to my hostess,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> +but she sighed so deeply as to show that her sympathies +are with her love-lorn uncle. After this we were bidden +by her husband to an upper room, where was displayed +a picture of Raphael’s.</p> + +<p>“But to report the critiques which followed would be +greatly wearisome to your ladyship, and so I kiss your +hands, beseeching our Lord to make you as happy as +you are pious.</p> + +<p> +<span class="sign3">“Your sincere friend and servitor,</span><br /> +<span class="sign2">“Baltazar Castiglione.</span><br /> +</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hangingindent">“<cite>Maria Bibbiena to the Lady Alfonsina Orsini Medici, +wife of Piero de’ Medici, in Exile at Urbino.</cite>,</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">“Florence</span>, October 12, 1504.</p> + +<p class="hangingindent">“<span class="smcap">Most magnificent, noble, and unfortunate +Lady:</span><br /></p> + +<p>“For whom my tears cease not to fall, and my heart to +long after with true devotion.</p> + +<p>“Truly, madame, whatever may have been your heavy +and sore trials in separation from your beloved Florence, +you cannot have experienced more poignant smart than +that which wrings the heart of your little friend, who in +lonesomeness and delaying of hope counts the days of +your absence. My uncle’s friend, Messer Macchiavelli, +who passes for a man of deep designs, raised my hopes +at one time by whispering that there was a plot to bring +you back. But nothing came of it, and instead we were +given up to the dreadful Piagnoni, so that my uncle, +than whom there never was a more jocund man, so long +as he was chancellor to your most worshipful husband, +was forced to abandon politics and even for a time to +hang his head in sadness. But having returned from +Rome with a cardinal’s hat, since the death of Savonarola, +I discern some faint return to his old cheerfulness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I was minded of you anew but recently. You will +doubtless remember Madonna Lisa Giocondo. She is +now having her portrait painted by Maestro da Vinci. +It is his manner to invite light and diverting society to +his studio to converse with and cheer the lady during her +sitting, and to strive to bring to her lips a certain marvelous +smile about which he is mightily concerned. Now +it chanced that Maestro da Vinci heard that I played +upon the lute at your court, in former days, and so he +persuaded my uncle to bring me to his studio to play +for the diversion of Mona Lisa. Presently there came +in with Count Castiglione a young man of a most beautiful +countenance, a divine tenderness suffusing his eyes; +and a smile of such heavenly sweetness upon his lips, +that methought that of Mona Lisa but an affected simper +in comparison. After greeting us he remained a +long time in a muse, his eyes fastened upon the canvas. +Mona Lisa, perceiving that his entranced gaze was not +so much in admiration of her beauty as in delight at the +skill of the painter, took her departure, in some pique, +while Maestro da Vinci waited upon her to the door. +Raphael Santi, for so is this young man called, turned +to me and spoke of the genius of da Vinci. After that +the Maestro brought forward a portfolio of sketches and +we overlooked them together. I mind me there was one +drawing of the Madonna seated in the lap of Sta. Anna, +caressing the infant Christ, who, in his turn, was toying +with a lamb. And the younger artist said that what +pleased him most in da Vinci’s paintings was the lovingness +which he displayed, as here Sta. Anna was beaming +proudly and graciously upon her daughter, who playfully +and tenderly yearned over her son, who as charmingly +petted his little lamb. And many more things he said, +so sweetly, and with such courteous and gentle behaviour,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +that I wondered not that he was called Saint Raphael, +for indeed he seemed unto me as one of the company of +the blessed.</p> + +<p>“But with all this I have not told you why it was that +this should remind me of you. It was because I was +told that he was from Urbino, and because he was able +to give me comfortable tidings concerning you, which did +not a little solace and unburden my heart.</p> + +<p>“After this I met him several times in the outer cloisters +of San Marco, whither I went first by chance with my +uncle, who had some business with the prior of the convent, +and who left me to wait for him in this place, which +is assigned to the laity.</p> + +<p>“Presently, while I waited here, Raphael came hastily +in, having just completed his lesson in colouring with the +Fra Bartolommeo, an artist who turned monk under the +preaching of Savonarola, and whom Raphael has chosen +as master during his stay in Florence. He told me +somewhat of this good monk; how when he was a talented +and rising young man, with life and ambition all +before him, he gave his paintings to the flames with +which the Piagnoni consumed the vanities of this world +in the public streets, because he feared lest he loved his +art more than God. But since he has renounced the +world, the Prior has told him that he can best serve the +Church by painting altar-pieces, so that his cell is changed +to a studio, and God has granted him such access of +genius that he paints more divinely than before, and +churches and monasteries in Venice and other distant +cities send daily for his paintings. But he knows not +where they go, nor how much money they bring the convent, +for he paints only for the love of God.</p> + +<p>“Raphael told me also of the heavenly frescoes of Fra +Angelico, with which the walls of the passages and even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +the cells of the convent, are covered, and he added, ‘Truly, +I think that Art and a monastic life wed well together, and +I would willingly retire to some cloistered garden afar +from the world, if I might carry my box of colours with me, +and might sometimes see in a vision a face like thine to +paint from!’</p> + +<p>“Then was I seized with a foolish timidity, so that I +could in no wise answer, but my heart said, ‘And why +afar from the world, why not in it, making all things better +and happier?’</p> + +<p>“Ah! sweet lady, I know you will say, ‘My little +Maria is grown wondrous foolish and love-sick’; but I +pray you chide me not, seeing that the matter cannot +grow further, for I am not likely again to meet with Raphael, +since I have come to visit for some days, on invitation +of your sweet daughter Madonna Maddalena +Strozzi. Nor were it best that I should see him often, for +I do fear me that in such case my heart might become so +rashly pitched and fixed upon him that I should in time +most inconsiderately fall in love, which were a bold and +unmaidenly thing to do; and I mind me that you were +wont to tell me that no woman should allow her affections +to conduct themselves thus insubordinately, until +the church hath by the sacrament of marriage given her +license thereto.</p> + +<p>“And so, madame, praying Maria Sanctissima and +Maria the sister of Lazarus, my patroness, to keep me +constant in this mind, I rest your loving friend and +devoted servitor,<br /> + +<span class="sign2">“Maria Bibbiena.</span></p><br /></div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hangingindent">“<cite>Niccolo Macchiavelli to Bramante, Architect to Pope +Julius I, at Rome:</cite></p> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">Messer Bramante mio:</span></p> + +<p>“We have no longer any politics in Florence. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +Medici trusted to the luck of their name; but Florence +would have none of them, and Piero had not the head +for his position. He might have had the advantage of +my brains if he had so chosen; but he had not the wit +to appreciate wit. The Magnificent was right when he +said that he had three sons, the one good, the second +crafty, the third a fool. The good die young: Piero, +the fool, has lost his inheritance; it remains for the +crafty Giovanni to make good the prestige of his family. +The chances are against him, but if he has something +better than maccaroni under his tonsure, he will make +the Church his ladder to power. I thought at one time +that Savonarola was perhaps shrewder than he seemed, +and that he would succeed in tumbling Alexander out of +the Papal Chair and in taking his seat therein as the +Pope Angelico. But it seemed that the dolt never cared +for the Papacy, but only for saving souls! I fear no +such cause of defeat for a Medici, but I hear rumours +concerning Giovanni which make me fear that he is not +crafty enough for success. He has been dissolute; that +is no hindrance to a cardinal’s hat or even to the tiara; +the folly I dread is more fatal. They say that he has +reformed his life and is thinking of marriage. If this is +true, I renounce his cause in favor of that of Cæsar +Borgia, who has the audacity of a lion joined to the +rascality of a fox, and who is not hindered from the +putting in practice of my principles by any so cowardly +and stupid a thing as a conscience. And yet they say +that his superb physical manhood is now a wreck, +bloated and permeated through and through with the +subtle poison which his family alone knows how to prepare, +and whose effects they can only partially eradicate. +Savonarola, Borgia, Medici, blunderers all! What name +will the next wave bring to the surface?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span></p> + +<p>“But a truce to politics. You know this is a subject +from which I can no more keep my thoughts than a +greedy urchin can forbear thrusting his fingers into a pot +of comfits. I am not so absorbed in my favourite pastime, +however, but I can take an interest in all that interests +my friends, especially in such matters as are flavoured +with a spice of intrigue, than which no condiment soever +is better suited to my palate. Touching, therefore, +the matter concerning which you wrote me, I think that +you, as chief architect to his Holiness, have indeed cause +to fear the rivalry of Michael Angelo, for I am credibly +informed that he is minded presently to journey toward +Rome. Moreover, since it is the practice of popes to be +always meddling with works of art, marring and defacing +the excellent things done in the Pontificates of those +preceding them,—when they cannot improve upon them,—and +whereas they are a whimsical lot, not long contented +with one object or one workman, be he ever so +excellent, you have sufficient cause, I say, to fear, having +now continued in favour for some time, that this Michael +Angelo will supplant you in the favour of his Holiness. I +would suggest, therefore, that you search about for some +new artist, who shall occupy himself with a line of +work as fresco painting, not in any way interfering with +your own architectural designs, but rather depending +upon them; and that you make haste to introduce him +to the Pope, and if possible ingratiate him into his favour +that, his mind being taken up with this new favourite, and +his purse lightened by the dispensing of moneys for +these new works, he will be less inclined to look favourably +upon a new architect such as Michael Angelo. +And inasmuch as it seemeth to me that this thing requireth +haste, I have looked about me somewhat in +Florence to find a man suited to your occasions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I first bethought me of Leonardo da Vinci as being +the successful rival of Michael Angelo in this city, and +against whom he could not for a moment contend. But +da Vinci hath no drawings toward Rome. I have +marked for a long time that he cutteth his doublet after +the French fashion. Trust me, he is no man for us; he +would rather trip it merrily with French dames than +wear out his knees on the cold scagliola of the Vatican. +I have bethought me also that Leonardo is too old and +subtle for you; you need a man whom you can manage; +who shall look up to you as a patron and as a superior. +My eye hath lately fallen upon a youngster of surprising +talent as a painter, a stranger in Florence, of no great +influence, and utterly unknown to fame. He hath as yet +no great opinion of himself; make haste to secure him +before others shall enlighten him as to his merits. This +youth is called Raphael Santi, and I make sure that the +pope will greatly prefer this silken dove to that porcupine +Angelo.</p> + +<p>“I would the more willingly see him advanced in some +foreign city in that my good friend Cardinal Bibbiena +seems desirous with all expedition to get him forth from +Florence, and yet it is not so much from a desire to +pleasure Bibbiena, as from a conviction that I have +found here a tool of proper service to thee, that I thus +recommend him to thy good offices.</p> + +<p>“To conclude, my Bramante, make all speed to inform +his Holiness that the walls of the Vatican are cracked, +smoky, filthy, and disgraceful, and above all things fetch +thy Raphael quickly and gain for him a personal interview; +for I trust more to the charm of his presence +than to volumes of thy bungling speech.</p> + +<p>“And when thou hast need of further counsel, or +seest that the pope desireth an Ahithophel,—now the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +counsel of Ahithophel which he counselled in those days +was as if a man had enquired at the oracle,—why send +then and fetch thy ever loving and honest friend,<br /> + +<span class="sign2">“Macchiavelli.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">“Florence</span>, October 12, 1504.<br /> +</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hangingindent">“<cite>Maria Bibbiena to the Lady Alfonsina Orsini Medici, +wife of Piero dei Medici, at Urbino:</cite></p> + +<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Florence</span>, October 15, 1504.</p> + +<p class="hangingindent"><span class="smcap">“Most magnificent, most beloved, and most sweet +lady:</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>“Since I last made bold to write you of my small +matters, others more weighty to me have transpired, +which, as I have made a beginning, I will also make an +end in the way of their narration. And first I have met +with a small disquietness from your highness’s brother-in-law, +the Cardinal, concerning whose presence in +Florence I had not heard. For yestreen, when I was +playing upon my lute in the garden of the palazzo of +your daughter, Madonna Strozzi, he came upon me suddenly +walking with your daughter. Whereat he seemed +at first taken all aback, but the Lady Maddalena exclaimed, +‘A new Petrarch, and new Laura,’ and commanded +him on his fame as a scholar to make some +rhymes on that subject. Whereat he replied that if I +would continue playing he would write, as his patron, St. +Cupid, gave him utterance, and with that he improvised +and wrote out the nonsense herewith following:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“In all Avignon’s gardens the nightingales were mute<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As at her open casement she played upon her lute.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lonely scholar Petrarch wandered all listlessly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘The old man with the hour-glass has sure some grudge ’gainst me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sands they fall so sluggishly that tell the flight of time;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My studies all are tedium, and weariness my rhyme.’</span><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +<span class="i0">’Twas then the Lady Laura, with lips like ripened fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lily-petalled fingers, full sweetly touched the lute.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lonely Petrarch listened, as she sang, so sweet and low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A soft love-laden sonnet, writ by Boccaccio.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till Cupid snatched the hour-glass from loitering Father Time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Petrarch’s life was all too short to tell his love in rhyme.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“After the reading, our lady daughter would have +me crown the poet, but this I would in no manner consent +unto. Nay, I even flung down my lute in vexation +of spirit, and ran away to another part of the garden. +But I gained nothing thereby, for Giovanni pursued +after me and came up with me at the fountain, where he +caught my hand and would in no wise restore my freedom +till he had delivered his mind of what lay thereon, +namely, that he sought me for his wife. Whereupon I +told him very plainly that I knew that he had been bred +up for the Church, and that it were disloyalty to his +brother, your highness’s husband, and to his nephew, +your son Lorenzo, for him to think of marriage and a +worldly life, for by so doing the Medici interest would +be divided. But he said that if I would but be his wife +he would relinquish all claim to political power and +Lorenzo should not fear for his succession, for he would +go with me to dwell in foreign parts. And while I +sought in the corners of my mind for some answer +which should convince him of my utter lothness, and +yet not offend so noble a gentleman, came suddenly your +daughter to warn him that others were entering the garden; +but ere he went he kissed a rose and tossed it to +me saying, ‘This rose comes not from Giovanni the +Cardinal, but Giovanni the soldier, for henceforth go I +to fight the French and to win my bride.’</p> + +<p>“Scarcely was he gone than I tore the rose in pieces, +wroth that I had been so tongue-tied in his presence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> +And while I shred the petals all about me, I was aware +of Raphael coming to meet me, and holding in his hand +a lily such as we see in the pictures of the Virgin, which +lily he placed in my hand, saying:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sicut lilium inter spinas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sic Maria inter filias.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“And as he saw me to tremble with the vexation and +the disquiet of my interview with the gay cardinal, he +most courteously and gently inquired the cause of my +discomfort, and did so comfortably avail to assuage my +distress that I presently forgot it. He told me also that +since he had known me he had so grown into an affection +for the name of Maria, that he had resolved to devote +his life, in so far as choice should be vouchsafed +him, to the painting of Maria Sanctissima. And many +other things he said which it is not meet nor proper that +I should write out here. Suffice it that you, who love +your dear lord, can well understand my present joyful +state, and why it is that the nuns, singing now the canticle +for the Feast of the Purification in the convent next +to the palazzo, seem to be addressing their song to me:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gaude, virgo gloriosa!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Super omnes speciosa!<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“For happiest of all Virgins is thy little<br /> +<span class="sign2">“Maria.</span><br /> +</p></div> + + +<p>“It was this last letter which broke my +heart, and yet did not so much break as bend +it so that I gave up the hope which I could +no longer keep not in bitterness or in wrath, +and resigned myself to my destiny as monk +and pope; when Maria Bibbiena died, all too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +early, I wept not my own shattered future +alone, but Raphael’s as well, and so took him +to my heart, though he knew not the reason, +and so I beseech the efficacious prayers of all +Christians for all true lovers.</p> + +<p> +“<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Et pro nobis Christum Exora.</i><br /> +<span class="sign5">“Giovanni de’ Medici,</span><br /> +<span class="sign6">“The Ghost of the Cabinet.”</span><br /> +</p></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.<br /> + +<small>THE MYSTERY DISCLOSED.</small></h2> + + +<div class="image16"> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 270px; height: 90px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 240px; height: 30px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 220px; height: 80px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 200px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 190px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 160px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<div class="sandbag" style="width: 110px; height: 25px;"> </div> +<p class="cap in2"><span class="upper">Winnie’s</span> +romance of +the cabinet +pleased us +all, but Adelaide +was sure +that Madame +would not allow it +to be read without +certain +changes, especially +the reference to the +robbery in the school, +and the “lovering” parts.</p> + +<p>“You need not imagine,” said Milly, “that +because you object to lovering, all the rest of +the world does. Why, even Miss Noakes has +a softer heart than Adelaide’s. But really +and truly, Winnie, how much of that is true? +Was Raphael really engaged?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Most certainly, my dear.”</p> + +<p>“And did Leo X love her too? You made +me ever so sorry for the poor old pope.”</p> + +<p>“Well, no, that part is the only one for +which I have no warrant in history. That is, +I have no doubt that Leo X really did love +some one before he took the irrevocable +vows. He was what Browning calls</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Sworn fast and tonsured pate, plain heaven’s celibate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet earth’s clear accepted servitor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A courtly, spiritual Cupid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fit companion for the like of you;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your gay Abati with the well turned leg,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rose i’ the hat rim. Canon’s cross at neck,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And silk mask in the pocket of the gown.’”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“The cabinet is such an uncanny old +thing,” said Milly, “that I begin almost to +believe that you have divined the truth, and +that an uneasy spirit really haunts its +vicinity.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps the fact that we now only keep +school books in the cabinet is the reason the +ghost has been so very quiet of late,” said +Winnie. “Or, perhaps it has repented its +evil deeds and my essay has given it the peace +of conscience which only comes through confession. +If it were an unrepenting spirit it +would, as Milly suggests, be very unwilling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +that I should publish its evil deeds by reading +this essay. I believe that I will give it an +opportunity of showing whether it approves +of my reading its confessions. Here, Tib, +take everything else off your shelf, and I will +lay my essay there and call on the spirit to +make away with it, if, indeed, he is able and +wicked enough to do it.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide, Milly, and I watched the incantation +with much amusement.</p> + +<p>“Guilty ghost,” exclaimed Winnie, striking +an attitude, “if you have repented of +your crimes, and the reading of this essay will +allow you henceforth to rest in peace, I hereby +exorcise you, and command you to affix +some seal of your approval to this paper—either +the print of a bloody hand or at least +X your mark.” Hereupon Winnie, with a +flourish, laid her essay on my shelf and closed +the cabinet door. “If, guilty ghost,” she continued, +“you are still up to your tricks, and +having taken the money which Tib confided +to her shelf, are determined to go on in your +evil ways, I hereby dare you to steal that +essay within the next half hour, we keeping +watch and ward in this room!”</p> + +<p>“I think it is no fair test,” I said, “unless +you leave it there overnight. Both of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +other robberies were committed just at midnight. +This ghost may be of a bashful disposition, +or possibly not good-natured enough +to walk at your call in broad daylight.”</p> + +<p>“Well, if he doesn’t appear within a half +hour I’ll give him another chance, ‘in the +dead vast and middle of the night,’ ‘when +churchyards yawn,’ et-cetera. Here, Milly, +lend me your watch, that I may time our +visitor.”</p> + +<p>We all sat for a few moments silently +watching the cabinet, but presently Adelaide +tired of this mummery and exclaimed:</p> + +<p>“Really, this is too absurd! I have my +Latin prose composition to write, and cannot +spend any more time in such nonsense, +Winnie.”</p> + +<p>“Write your exercise in this room. We +will all keep still, and I must have all the +Amen Corner as witnesses of my little experiment.”</p> + +<p>Winnie pulled out the writing shelf, and +Adelaide seated herself at the cabinet and +wrote steadily until Winnie cried, “Time’s +up.”</p> + +<p>Milly and I approached the cabinet, and +Winnie made a few magical passes in the air +and repeated an ancient hocus-pocus:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“There was a frog lived in a well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a rigstram boney mite kimeo.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Mistress Mouse she kept the mill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a karro karro, delto karro,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rigstram pummiddle arry boney rigstram<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rigstram boney mitte kimeo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keemo kimo darrow wa,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Munri, munro, munrum stump,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pummididle, nip cat periwinkle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sing song, kitchee wunchee kimeo.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Adelaide pushed in the writing shelf and +stepped aside, and Winnie threw open the +cabinet door. We could hardly believe our +eyes—the essay had disappeared.</p> + +<p>Milly gave a shriek of dismay. “It must +have been a ghost. How else could it have +vanished with all of us on the watch?”</p> + +<p>“Have you been playing a trick on me, +Adelaide?” Winnie asked. “Did you manage +to slip it out while we were not looking?”</p> + +<p>Adelaide disclaimed any such action, and +Milly and I confirmed her assertion, for we +had been watching the door all the time.</p> + +<p>Winnie wheeled the cabinet away from the +wall, almost expecting to find a concealed +door opening into Cynthia’s room. But the +wall was perfectly solid, there was not even a +mouse hole in the base-board, while the back<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +of the cabinet was not a sliding panel. We +banged it, and pushed it, and examined it +with a magnifying glass for concealed springs +or hinges. It was simply an honest piece of +work, a secure, heavy back, conspicuously fastened +in its place with wooden pegs, a construction +to which cabinet makers give the term +dowelling, and to make assurance doubly sure, +the edges had been glued with a cement which +had turned black with age, but had not +cracked. There was no possible way in +which the cabinet could have been opened +from behind.</p> + +<p>“There goes my pet theory,” said Winnie, +in an aggrieved tone. “It would have been +just like Cynthia to have removed things from +the back of the cabinet, if we could only have +discovered a concealed door in the partition +behind it. You see the cabinet backs so conveniently +against her room.”</p> + +<p>But there was no possibility of any door +having ever existed here. The partition wall +was not of boards, which might have been +sawed through and removed. It was clean +white plaster which had never been papered, +and would have betrayed the least scratch, +and Winnie was obliged to relinquish this romantic +method of access to the cabinet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I shall always think,” said Adelaide, “that +the first robbery was committed by that individual +we saw through the studio transom in +Professor Waite’s great Rembrandt hat.”</p> + +<p>Winnie laughed heartily. “Girls, I may as +well confess,” she exclaimed, “that was your +humble servant.”</p> + +<p>“You, Winnie?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I, Winnie. Don’t you remember +that I was not in the parlor when the head +appeared? I was in the studio, and it struck +me that it would be rather a good joke to pretend +to be Professor Waite, tramping up and +down before that door, tormented by a consuming +passion for Adelaide. Wait, I will +put the hat on again and let you see.” Winnie +dashed into the studio and returned wearing +the Rembrandt hat, and we all laughed at +her cavalier appearance.</p> + +<p>“But, girls,” she exclaimed, throwing the hat +on the floor, “this is really no laughing matter. +Do you realize that my essay is gone? +My essay that I am to read next week. And +how I am ever to find time to write it over +again, with examinations and all that I have +to do between now and then, is more than I +know. Just see how wickedly Giovanni de’ +Medici leers at me!” and Winnie pointed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +the carved head which adorned the centre of +the cabinet door. “Oh! what shall I do? +what shall I do?”</p> + +<p>Winnie soon answered that question for +herself, by writing another essay, and improving +it in the process. But the disappearance +of the Florentine letters was a nine days’ wonder. +We searched the room thoroughly and +even stepped out on the fire-escape and looked +up and down for some bird of heaven that +might have carried them away. “I shall always +maintain,” said Milly, “that it is no real +thief at all. Of course, none of us really believe +in the ghost theory, though it is almost +enough to make one turn spiritualist to be +made the victim of such a trick. I believe +that in the end it will be found that somebody’s +little pet poodle has found his way in +here, and like Old Mother Hubbard’s dog has +a weakness for cupboards, and has chewed up +everything that he has found. Sometime +Nemesis will overtake that little poodle and he +will be laid upon the dissecting table, and +all of the money and Winnie’s essay will be +found in his little gizzard.”</p> + +<p>It was an absurd suggestion, but nothing +seemed to explain the mystery, and we finally +all gave it up. All but Winnie. She continued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +to worry about it. She laid many +traps for her ghost, baiting them with edibles +under the supposition that the thief might be +an animal; and with money, tying silken +threads around the cabinet, fastening the +handle of the door to a bell in her own room, +but they were all unavailing; the robber came +no more.</p> + +<p>The cadets’ prize declamation came before +our graduation, and we all attended the exercises.</p> + +<p>Stacey did not take a prize, but, as he +laughingly told Milly, his coat did, and that +was honour enough.</p> + +<p>Woodpecker was the honour man that day, +and as Woodpecker was a poor man’s son, he +had no dress suit, and Stacey lent him his +coat to appear in while he delivered his oration—Stacey +sitting in his shirt sleeves behind +the scenes meantime. Woodpecker’s +long arms soared and the stitches in the back +cracked, but he spoke with fire, and the committee +unanimously awarded his “Description +of a Chariot Race” the first prize, while +Buttertub’s sonorous voice and grandiloquent +manner secured the second for his “Philosophy +of Socrates,” and Stacey’s “Athletic +Games of Greece” came off with an “honourable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +mention” only. There was a good deal +of what Jim called “kicking” at this decision. +The drum corps, to a man, felt that Stacey +ought to have had the first prize, and there +was not a boy in the school, not excepting +Buttertub, who did not think Stacey’s essay +infinitely more entertaining than the Socratic +philosophy. The Commodore, fortunately, +was of this opinion. Stacey’s stock had risen +rapidly in his father’s estimate. The essay +interested the Commodore, and it made no +difference to him that the committee did not +agree with him; in his opinion Stacey was the +brightest boy in the school. We girls shared +this feeling. Stacey’s bouquets proclaimed +him the most popular fellow in the class. The +usher kept bringing them up, and it was impossible +for Stacey to carry all his floral tributes +from the stage at one time.</p> + +<p>Woodpecker enjoyed the popularity of his +friend more than his own honors. He had +laid a wager with Ricos that Stacey would +carry off the first prize, promising that if he +did not, he, Woodpecker, would trundle a +wheelbarrow down Fifth Avenue. Having +lost the wager by his own triumph Woodpecker +gaily proceeded to pay the penalty by +carrying Stacey’s bouquets in a light wheelbarrow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +to the Buckingham Hotel—where +Commodore and Mrs. Fitz Simmons had taken +rooms—immediately after the exercises.</p> + +<p>Stacey himself did not overestimate this +expression of his friend’s regard, but it helped +soften his disappointment at not obtaining the +first prize. He was not embittered as at his +failure at the games, but humbled in a salutary +way. He saw his true position: a +talented fellow, who until recently had not +tried to make the best use of his opportunities, +and who could not reasonably hope for +the highest rewards after such brief effort. +But something within him whispered, “You +can do it yet. You can be something more +than a dude and a good fellow,” and he resolved +to devote his vacation to serious training +in his studies.</p> + +<p>It gave him a thrill of pleasure, strangely +mingled with humility, to see the Commodore’s +delight, just as he was handing Mrs. Fitz +Simmons into the carriage, at hearing the old +cry from the drum corps, who had been lined +up in front of the barracks by Buttertub for +that purpose, and gave it with a will—Jim’s +shrill voice joining in the final cheer:</p> + +<p>“Who’s Fitz Simmons?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p> +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“First in peace, first in war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He’ll be there again, as he’s been there before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First in the hearts of his own drum corps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That’s Fitz Simmons!”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>The Roseveldts were coming down the +steps, and Milly heard it too, and waved her +handkerchief, and Stacey opened the carriage +door and waved his hat to her—though the +drum corps thought it was in acknowledgment +of their salute, and closing round Woodpecker +and his wheelbarrow escorted him +down the Avenue.</p> + +<p>There were tears in Mrs. Fitz Simmons’s +eyes as she pressed her husband’s hand, and +the Commodore, not wishing to show his satisfaction +too plainly, asked who that pretty +girl was who waved her handkerchief so enthusiastically.</p> + +<p>“You don’t deserve it, you young dog,” he +asserted. “Now if she had smiled in that +way at me I would have cared more for it +than for all the hullabaloo those young rascals +are making.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps I do,” was the reply on Stacey’s +lips, but it was uttered so quietly that only +his mother heard it, and understood as +mothers always do.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span></p> + +<p>And then through the days that followed, +Stacey buckled down to hard work again, and +won, as such work is sure to win, its reward.</p> + +<p>“Passed his examinations, admitted to Harvard! +Why, of course,” said the Commodore. +“There never was any doubt of it.” But +Stacey knew that there had been great doubt, +and that the expression of esteem by which he +was held by his classmates, which had pleased +his father so much, was a very slight thing +compared to this quiet victory, gained through +hours of unregarded toil and for which no +cheers were shouted or flowers borne after +him in noisy triumph.</p> + +<p>The opening of the college gates was the +entering of a better race for Stacey. He felt +that he was now indeed a man, and must put +away childish things.</p> + +<p>We of the Amen Corner had been chatting +together, the evening before our commencement, +of what we intended to do during vacation. +“First of all,” said Adelaide, “I want +some home life. I want to get acquainted +with my own mother. I feel now that we can +be companionable. I am not very learned, it +is true, but I am certainly more mature than +when we were together last. I ought to be +not only a help to her, but a sort of comrade.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +She has kept herself young at heart, and her +society will recompense me in part for the +loss of yours. We are going to study music +seriously together. She plays my accompaniments +very nicely. Indeed, I think she has +more talent than I have, only she is out of +practice, and her repertoire is a little old-fashioned, +but it will be very easy for her to +put herself in touch with modern requirements. +Then father has planned a delightful +occupation for me. You know how fond I am +of practical architecture. Well, he has purchased +a delightful old colonial mansion in +Deerfield, a charming village in western +Massachusetts. It is an old homestead which +has fallen into disrepair from having been +long unoccupied, for the family which once +inhabited it have all died. The one distant +relative who owns the place lives in the West, +and has sold it to father. I am to have the +direction of all the repairs and restorations, +and I mean to truly restore the old house to +its original condition. We will board in the +village while the changes are being made. It +will be just the place for Jim to grow strong in. +Father writes that it has the loveliest elm-shaded +street, and a hundred different drives +over the hills and along its three rivers.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span></p> + +<p>“You need not tell us anything about +Deerfield,” Winnie interrupted. “Tib and I +drove through the old town on our coaching +trip. It is the most charming spot that I +ever saw. I congratulate you on having such +a delightful prospect before you.”</p> + +<p>“And I hereby invite you all to come to +the hanging of the crane when my restorations +are finished,” Adelaide continued cordially. +“That will be in September, I think, +for they will take all summer at least, and +you’ve no idea how I shall enjoy planning +everything and directing the workmen. Jim +and I are going to carve some of the woodwork +ourselves. We will have a portico like +that at Mount Vernon, with Ionic columns, +and the windows will have tiny panes and +broad seats, and there are to be china closets +with glass doors, and fan work carved over +the mantelpieces, and a raftered ceiling with +a great ‘summer-tree’ in the ‘keeping room.’ +I shall enjoy it more than I can make you +understand. I don’t mean so much the possession +of the house when it is done, as altering +it, for I love architecture, and wish I +could be an architect. So much for my plans. +What are yours, Tib?”</p> + +<p>“Work,” I replied; “solid work.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I knew you would say that,” Adelaide answered. +“I have felt dissatisfied all this year +with Madame’s course of instruction. If it +were not that I really must see my mother +and have some home life, I would go to Bryn +Mawr. I positively crave some good solid +study. Madame’s curriculum makes me think +of the course of study Aurora Leigh pursued.” +Adelaide took down her favourite blue +and gold volume from its companions in the +“poets’ corner,”—a set of shelves,—and read +with comments:</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I learnt a little algebra, a little<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the mathematics; brushed with extreme flounce<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The circle of the sciences, because<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She misliked women who are frivolous.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I learnt: The internal laws<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the Burmese Empire; by how many feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mount Chimborazo outsoars Himmeleh.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I learnt much music, such as would have been<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As quite impossible in Johnson’s day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As still it might be wished—fine sleights of hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unimagined fingering, shuffling off<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hearers’ soul through hurricanes of notes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a noisy Tophet.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“And here you are, Tib.”</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">“And I drew costumes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From French engravings, nereides neatly draped,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With smirks of simpering godship. I washed in</span><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +<span class="i0">From nature, landscapes (rather say washed out),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spun glass, stuffed birds, and modelled flowers in wax,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because she liked accomplishments in girls.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>“No,” I interrupted, “I will not have you +malign Professor Waite. His teaching at +least has been thorough, and I feel that I +have received very valuable training in my +art.”</p> + +<p>“Then I suppose that by solid work you +mean that you will devote yourself to art this +summer, and camp under a sketching umbrella +in front of every picturesque nook you can +find.”</p> + +<p>“Art will have to wait until winter,” I replied. +“I mean that I shall cook for the +farm hands during haying season, and let +mother go off for a visit to her sisters in +Northfield, where she can attend the Moody +meetings, and I shall get all the preserving +done before she returns, too.”</p> + +<p>“You are just lovely, Tib,” Milly replied, +giving me a hug. “And now won’t you be surprised +when you hear what I am going to do. +Father says he is going to superintend my +education for a while. He sent me a squib +from one of the papers about the sweet girl +graduate:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘She talks with tears about her mates and quotes from ancient lore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She says the Past is left behind, the Future is before.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her gown is simply stunning, but she can’t subtract or add,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, what an awful humbug is the Sweet Girl Grad!’<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Father is going through practical business +arithmetic with me, and says he means to +teach me how to take care of money, and even +fit me to take a position in his bank.”</p> + +<p>“I pity your father,” said Winnie. “But +seriously, Milly, it is the best thing you could +do.”</p> + +<p>“There is something else,” Milly said, with +a painful blush, “which father says is the +foundation of business, and in which I have +already had one lesson, and that is honesty. +He says that all the sad failures, embezzlements, +and defalcations come from borrowing +money that does not belong to one—using +money for one purpose that was intended for +another; and he means to go over a great +many such cases with me to show me on what +a terrible precipice I have been playing. But +indeed he need not say another word, for I +have been severely punished, and I think I +would rather put my hand into fire than go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +into debt one dollar, or spend a penny for +marsh-mellows that father had given me for +chocolate creams.”</p> + +<p>Winnie turned and kissed Milly. “I would +trust you with millions,” she said; “but +Adelaide is the only one in the Corner who +knows anything about business.”</p> + +<p>“I am sure, Winnie,” I replied, “that the +way you have managed the Home finances +disproves that modest assertion. What are +you going to do during the summer?”</p> + +<p>“I have no mother, you know,” Winnie +said gravely, “but I am going to my father, +and shall try to make his life a little less +lonely for him. He writes that his eyes have +been troubling him. Perhaps he can dictate +to me and I can be his amanuensis. I shall +take my paint-box with me, and mean to daub +a little all summer. Professor Waite has no +faith in my genius, but I intend to astonish +that gentleman one of these days. He admits +that I have an eye for colour, and the +rest can be learned. If father can spare me +for a week I shall accept your invitation, +Adelaide, and when I appear you must give +me the interior of a room to decorate. It +will be startling, I tell you. I have a good +deal of King’s Daughter work to do, too.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +You know we have not raised the money for +the Manger, and the Home must have it, for +they have been receiving the babies, though +they have no good nursery. Now in the +summer we all do more or less fancy work, +and I am going to write to all the circles of +King’s Daughters with whom we are in correspondence, +and ask them to work for a fair, +which we will hold in New York in the +autumn. I have had a talk with Madame and +she favors the idea. She even suggested that +each circle should be invited to send a delegate +who should assist in selling the articles +at the tables, and very generously offered to +entertain them here for three days during the +continuance of the fair. You see, the school +is never full at the beginning of the term, and +perhaps she thinks it will be a good advertisement +of her institution, to have girls from all +over the county meet here, though there is +really no need of imputing such mercenary +motives to her. I have spoken about it at +the Home to Emma Jane, and she will see +that the proposition is made at the next +meeting of the Board of Managers.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you certainly have your hands full,” +Milly remarked, “but I think I can help you +after our tennis tournament is over. I will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +get the girls at the Pier to make fancy work +for you if I can get any time from my arithmetic. +Where will you hold the fair?”</p> + +<p>“I haven’t planned as far as that.”</p> + +<p>“I think the new armory at the barracks +will be a splendid place,” Milly suggested. +“I will get Stacey to ask Colonel Grey if we +can use it, and then perhaps the cadets will +be interested to do something to assist in the +entertainment. They might act a play or +furnish the music at least.”</p> + +<p>“I will drum up the two circles of King’s +Daughters at Scup Harbor,” I said, “and we +will have a useful table, with holders and +aprons and dish-wipers; pickles, honey, butter, +and preserves. Why, certainly, home-made +preserves. While I’m about it this summer I +will make you some currant jelly and pickled +peaches.”</p> + +<p>“You had better paint something,” Adelaide +said; “and you must take charge of the art +department.”</p> + +<p>“If I can come to town,” I said. “And I +will start the movement before I go by asking +Professor Waite to get contributions from his +artist friends before he goes abroad.”</p> + +<p>“I have been greatly touched by one thing,” +said Winnie. “The interest which the Terwilligers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +have taken in this scheme. I happened +to mention it to Polo, and the entire +family have risen to the occasion. Mrs. Terwilliger +sent word that she wouldn’t consider it +too much if she worked for us to her dying +day, considering the way her young ones had +been ‘done for’ while she was sick. She has +been collecting scraps of silk for a long time +past to make a crazy quilt, and she intends to +donate it to us. I fear me it will be a horror; +but it shows her good-will all the same. Terwilliger, +the trainer, says he means to collect +sticks from noted places during Mr. Van Silver’s +coaching tour, to be made into canes and +other souvenirs for us. Polo will not have +time to work for the fair, for she must sew +with Miss Billings this summer. I wish she +could go to the country instead.”</p> + +<p>“I am going to invite her to Deerfield for +August,” said Adelaide. “The Home children +ought to be able to do something for the +fair. Have you thought of them, Winnie?”</p> + +<p>“Emma Jane will see that they manufacture +a quantity of little articles in their sewing +class,” Winnie replied. “They can hem +towels and make bibs and bags and useful +articles. I am really sorry that we cannot +have the reception at the Home, for I would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +like to have people see those nice, fat +babies.”</p> + +<p>“They shall see them,” Milly replied. “I’ve +an idea. We will devote one afternoon at +the fair to a baby show. Do you remember +the bicycle drill? Well, I will get Stacey to +lend me his artillery tactics, and I will get up +some manœuvres with baby carriages. We +will call it the infantry brigade. The older +children shall wheel the carriages. I will +drill them without the babies at first. And +then we will have them well strapped in, and +then there will be a triumphal procession by +twos and fours, and I’ll deploy them in line +and draw them up in a hollow square, and +make them ‘present arms,’ and ‘carry’ and +‘shoulder arms,’ and double quick and +charge. It will be lots of fun; and one baby +carriage shall have a flag fastened to it, for +that baby must be the colour bearer, and we’ll +have music, of course, and medals for all the +babies. Then when people see what a lot of +children we have, with no annex to put them +in, they will rise to the occasion and contribute.”<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p> +<p>“I think something of the kind might +really be arranged,” Winnie replied. “The +Hornets are sure to be equally fertile in expedients. +I foresee that the plan will be a +great success, and it has one admirable feature—it +will reunite us all in New York next +winter for a week at least, and I wonder what +will happen after that.”</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">“I do not ask to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The distant scene; one step enough for me,”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>said Adelaide softly, quoting from “Lead, +Kindly Light,” her favorite hymn. There +was something strangely vibrant in her tone. +I knew without looking that Adelaide was on +the point of tears, but I was at a loss to +understand the reason.</p> + +<p>The rest of us had had our fits of hysterical +weeping at the idea of parting from one +another, but Adelaide was always so superior<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +to any weakness of that sort. What could +be the matter?</p> + +<p>Our great, last school day, so paradoxically +called commencement, came at last. The +exercises were in the evening, and we of the +Amen Corner and many others of the girls +would not leave the school until the following +morning.</p> + +<p>We received our diplomas in the school +chapel, which had been beautifully decorated +for the occasion. Buttertub’s father, who was +a friend of Madame’s, addressed us at some +length as we stood before him on the platform. +I remember that Adelaide never +looked more peerless, nor Milly more bewitching; +and that Winnie, mischievous as +ever, found a rose bug on her bouquet and +could not forbear dropping it on Commodore +Fitz Simmons’s bald head. The Commodore +was in full uniform and had been shown to a +front seat just beneath the platform. I think +Winnie really meant to snap the rose bug at +Stacey, but the projectile fell short of its aim. +Then the sweet girl graduates in clouds of +mull and chiffon, drifted into the school parlours, +and there was a reception, and Adelaide +and Milly were besieged by battalions of +friends, but I was quite lonely and awkward,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +and held my bouquet and rolled diploma +stiffly, until Winnie caught me about the waist +and whirled me off for a little dance, for +Madame had permitted this. After the dance +there were refreshments in the dining-room, +and we all went down, with the exception of +Adelaide, who was on the reception committee, +and had been stationed in the front parlour +to receive any tardy guest. I met +Professor Waite bringing up an ice as I went +down the stairs, and Milly drew me into a +corner, her eyes dancing with mischief as I +entered the supper-room.</p> + +<p>“Something is going to happen,” she said +to me mysteriously. “I have given Professor +Waite his opportunity, and if he doesn’t seize +it and propose I shall never forgive him. I +saw him moving around here, looking bored +to death, and I asked him to please take an +ice to Adelaide, who, I happened to mention, +was all alone in the parlour. He seized the +idea and the ice simultaneously. I saw resolve +in his eye, and now we must keep people +down here as long as we can.”</p> + +<p>“What shall we do with Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong +and Jim?” I asked. “They are all so +proud of Adelaide they will be with her in a +moment.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Winnie is in the plot and has special care +of them. Jim thinks there never was quite so +jolly a girl as Winnie. They are discussing +the cabinet now. Mrs. Armstrong thinks +that some one of us may be a somnambulist +and have hidden the things in our sleep.”</p> + +<p>“What a strategic little girl you are, Milly! +What made you think of this opportunity for +Professor Waite?”</p> + +<p>“Oh! that was the way Stacey found his +chance, you know. Speak of angels——How +nice of you, Stacey, to bring me that +salad. I am positively dying for something +to eat. Wasn’t the Bishop too longsome for +anything? I thought I should expire, and I +was wild to get across the stage at Winnie, +whose back hair was coming down. No, I +shall not tell you what we were saying about +you. Do get me some chicken salad. I can’t +endure lobster;” and as the obedient Stacey +ambled briskly away, Milly confided to me: +“Do you know, Tib, Adelaide is beginning +to care for Professor Waite? What makes +me think so? Oh, I know the symptoms. +She was packing so late last night that I +nearly fell asleep, but not quite, for just as I was +dozing off I saw her drop on her knees before +her trunk with her face in a great white<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +handkerchief, and while I was wondering +where she ever got such a great sheet of a +thing, it suddenly dawned upon me that it +was the silk muffler which Professor Waite +wrapped around her burned hands the night +of our Halloween scrape. Suddenly it seemed +to occur to her that I might be looking, and +she turned to look at me, but I had my +eyes shut and was snoring like an angel. +Of course angels snore, Stacey Fitz Simmons. +Did you ever catch an angel asleep? and if +not what right have you to make fun of me? +Dear me, there is the Bishop starting to go +upstairs, and they don’t need him a bit—as +yet.”</p> + +<p>Milly darted across the room, planted herself +squarely in the Bishop’s way, and exerted +her powers of entertainment to such effect +that Stacey became blindly jealous, though +Buttertub had not come with his father, apparently +having had quite enough of Madame’s +young ladies and their entertainments.</p> + +<p>And meantime, how was Professor Waite +thriving with his wooing? Adelaide told me +long afterward, so long that it was too late for +any word of mine to set all right, and filled +my heart with pity, not alone for the Professor, +but, alas! for Adelaide also.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span></p> + +<p>Professor Waite offered her the ice, which +she took and thanked him very sweetly, though +he had dripped it awkwardly upon her dress. +Then, as Adelaide began to eat it, he inconsistently +took it away from her, saying, “Don’t +eat now, I have something important to say +to you, and I want your entire attention.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! certainly. What is it?” Adelaide +replied, knowing exactly what he wished to +say, and determined to prevent his saying it.</p> + +<p>“Miss Adelaide, I began to say what was on +my mind last Halloween——”</p> + +<p>“Oh! yes, and pardon me for interrupting +you, but you remind me that I must return +your muffler, which I have kept all this time. +I will get it now,” and Adelaide tried to slip +by him and out of the door.</p> + +<p>“No, you must not get it now,” the Professor +exclaimed, barring her way with his extended +hand in which he still held the dish of +ice-cream. “I must speak to you, Miss Adelaide. +I may never have another opportunity.”</p> + +<p>“In that case do set down that ice-cream, +for you are spilling it over everything.”</p> + +<p>The Professor obeyed her.</p> + +<p>“See,” she added pathetically, “you have +nearly ruined the front of my gown——”</p> + +<p>“But that is nothing,” he asserted, “and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +you must not try to divert me from my purpose +by calling my attention to such a trifle. +These little subterfuges are unworthy of you, +Adelaide. You know what it is that I wish to +say and you must hear me.”</p> + +<p>Thus driven into a corner Adelaide looked +him squarely in the eyes, and braced herself +for the attack.</p> + +<p>“You know that I love you, Adelaide?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know it.”</p> + +<p>“That I have loved you from the first moment +that I saw you—desperately, hopelessly?”</p> + +<p>“Thank you for saying that, Professor +Waite; it would have been wicked in me to +have given you hope. I never meant to do +so. I am glad that you have not misunderstood +me. And since you give me credit +for not encouraging you, rather for striving +to keep you from this avowal, why have you +spoken? I would so gladly have spared you +the pain, the humiliation of a refusal.”</p> + +<p>“You have not allowed me to finish what I +was saying. I loved you at first hopelessly +for I saw that you scorned me; but lately you +have not scorned me. You have pitied me; +you have been very kind and considerate; +your manner has wholly changed, and I believed +that your feelings had changed also.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span></p> + +<p>Something in Adelaide’s honest eyes +flamed up as he spoke. She could not even +look a lie, though she tried hard to do so.</p> + +<p>“I am right,” he cried triumphantly, “you +have changed! You love me? Adelaide, +you love me!”</p> + +<p>His arms were almost about her, but she +kept him off.</p> + +<p>“It is impossible, Professor Waite. It can +never be,” she replied solemnly.</p> + +<p>“Never is a long day. I will not urge you, +or hasten you. I will be patient and wait, for +you have changed, and you will love me +wholly by and by. It is our destiny. God +meant us for each other. I cannot</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Make thee glorious by my pen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And famous by my sword,<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>but I can do it with my brush, and I will +spend my life painting you, Adelaide. Art +and Love! It is too much for mortal man to +possess and live.”</p> + +<p>“Be content with art,” Adelaide replied +gently. “It is a great gift, and must console +you, for I cannot be your wife.”</p> + +<p>“Cannot? Why not?”</p> + +<p>“I will tell you. You think you love me, +but it will pass. I regard you very highly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +but not above duty. The feeling which I +have for you, Professor Waite, cannot be love, +since it is perfectly easy for me now to give +you up——”</p> + +<p>“No,” he assented; “if that is true you do +not love me.”</p> + +<p>“Listen! The reason that it is easy for me, +is not that I do not respect and admire you; +not that I am not grateful to you, and do not +suffer in giving you pain; not that I might +not come to care still more for you, but because +I know that a far tenderer heart than mine is +wholly yours; that some one else, who richly +deserves your affection, loves you with an +utter self-abnegation of which I am incapable——”</p> + +<p>“I know of whom you speak,” he cried impatiently, +“but she is a child, and will outgrow +this fancy. God knows that I am innocent, +Adelaide, of having ever deluded her +foolish little heart.”</p> + +<p>“All too innocent; you might have treated +her more kindly!”</p> + +<p>“What! When I can never love her?”</p> + +<p>“Never is a long day. You have said so. +You are going away. Try to forget me and +to love her, and when you return again two +years hence to America——”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span></p> + +<p>“When I return she will be married; she +will, at least, have outgrown this silly dream.”</p> + +<p>Adelaide shook her head. “Promise me +that you will do as I ask; that you will go and +ask her when you come again.”</p> + +<p>“And if she refuses me, as she certainly +will, may I come to you for the reward of my +obedience?”</p> + +<p>Again the tell-tale light flashed in Adelaide’s +eyes, but she only said: “She will not refuse +you.” And in the hall Milly’s voice was heard +in a high key, with the best of intentions, +announcing the return of the guests from the +dining-room, as she replied to some banter of +Stacey’s:</p> + +<p>“Indeed, Stacey Fitz Simmons, I never +change my mind—never.”</p> + +<p>“Good-by,” said Adelaide.</p> + +<p>Professor Waite raised the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">portière</i> for her +to pass. “You are very cruel,” he murmured.</p> + +<p>“You will thank me for this some day,” +she said, and the curtain of an impenetrable +fate fell between them.</p> + +<p>Milly seized my arm a few moments later. +“I don’t understand it at all,” she said, +“but Adelaide has certainly refused Professor +Waite. I met him just now in the hall, and +he glared at me like a maniac. I was positively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +afraid of him. I ran in to speak to +Adelaide, but others had entered before me, +and she only took my hand and squeezed +it tight, while she talked with the Bishop. +And Tib, she was as white as a sheet.”</p> + +<p>While making allowances for Milly’s exaggerations, +it seemed probable to me that her +deductions were correct. Something unusual +had happened, for when we went to our rooms +we found that Adelaide had already retired +for the night, and had taken Cynthia’s empty +room, leaving a note for Milly saying that she +had a headache and would rather be alone.</p> + +<p>If we had known, Milly and I, that +Adelaide had put from her a love whose +dearness she only realized after its sacrifice, +we might have saved her years of heroic self-abnegation, +and so have frustrated God’s plan +for making her a resolute, generous, and noble +character.</p> + +<p>But we did not know it, and the two girls +who loved each other so dearly looked into +each other’s eyes at parting, and thought that +they read each other’s souls there, and yet +misunderstood the reading as completely as if +they had been utter strangers.</p> + +<p>It was fortunate, shall we not say providential, +that Adelaide occupied Cynthia’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +room that night, and that she was so disturbed +that she could not sleep? for toward morning +she noticed a bright light shining through the +transom over the door. Her first thought was +that the thief was at work at the cabinet, and +stealing cautiously from her bed she peered +through the key-hole. There was no one +near the cabinet, and throwing on a wrapper +she softly opened the door. The room was +vacant and the light which she had noticed +streamed in from the window. On looking +out what was her horror to see that the rear +of the house was in flames. The fire had +originated in the kitchen, and was making its +way toward the front of the building. Her +presence of mind did not desert her. She +stepped to Milly’s room, wakened her gently +and told her what was the matter, and then +her clear voice rang out, “Fire, fire!” as she +hastened to Madame’s room, sounding the +telegraphic alarm in the corridor as she went. +How differently people behave during a crisis +like this! With the exception of Adelaide, I +think we all lost our wits to a certain extent. +Milly, although wakened so gently, was quite +frightened out of hers. She dressed herself +with extreme deliberation, heating her curling +irons in the gas jet and crimping her bangs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +very prettily. She put on one high-buttoned +boot and one Louis Seize slipper, but was +particular about her gloves—fastening every +button—and came to me to be helped with +her graduation dress, which laced in the +back.</p> + +<p>Winnie was also greatly excited. She +donned a diminutive blazer tennis jacket over +her nightgown, and seeming to consider herself +in full dress, rushed off to awaken Miss +Noakes, carrying a small pitcher of ice-water +in her hand with which to help extinguish the +fire. Having forcibly entered Miss Noakes’s +room, she emptied her pitcher in the face of +that indignant woman. I was not much better. +Possessed with the idea that I must save +things, I dragged “the commissary” from +under my bed, and filled it with an absurd collection +of useless articles—old school books, +empty pickle jars, the tidies from the chairs, +all the soap from the wash-stand, a soap stone +which my mother had insisted on my having +as a remedy for cold feet; this I carefully +wrapped in my flannel petticoat to avoid +breakage. I then tossed in the globes from +the gas fixtures, and finding that the cover of +the trunk would not go down, sat upon it, +crushing the frail glass globes to atoms. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +was at this juncture that Milly came out to +have her dress laced, and I was so dazed that I +obeyed her. Adelaide entered a few moments +later, and, spreading a blanket on the floor, +opened the door leading into the studio for +the first time since our initial escapade of the +school year. Her intensity of feeling gave +her the strength required to push the heavy +chest aside, and she hastily collected all of +Professor Waite’s sketches and studies, +wrapped them in the blanket, and descended +the turret stairs with them. Managing—how, +she never knew—to burst open the +door at the foot, and to carry the heavy package +through the crowd which had now collected +across the park to the Home of the Elder +Brother, where Emma Jane received them. +Winnie meantime had returned from her life-saving +expedition, and assisted me in tumbling +the commissary out of the window, following +it with every other piece of furniture in +the room. We had some difficulty with the +cabinet, but finally our united efforts succeeded +in toppling it over the balcony, narrowly +missing crushing a fireman who was +coming up the escape to order us to stop +throwing out the furniture, as the fire had +been extinguished.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span></p> + +<p>“How provoking!” was Winnie’s first +exclamation. “All this excitement for nothing!” +The fire had merely burned out the interior +woodwork of the kitchen; but had it not been +for Adelaide’s prompt alarm, it was impossible +to tell how much damage or even loss of life +might have ensued. On ascertaining that +there was no longer any danger, Adelaide +attempted to carry back the pictures, but +found herself quite unable to do so, and a +procession of four of the Home boys was +formed to bring them.</p> + +<p>Adelaide begged us all to promise not to +tell Professor Waite of her attempt to rescue +his property, and as we were all very much +mortified by our own absurd performances, +we readily complied with her request.</p> + +<p>It was late in the morning when we bethought +ourselves of picking up our shattered +property, which Winnie and I had tossed into +the yard. Fortunately, our trunks of clothing +had been so heavily packed that they had not +shared this fate. We descended and viewed +the heap of wreckage with dismay. Cerberus +came out to aid us, and, removing the +broken lounge and table, discovered the old +oak cabinet an almost unrecognizable jumble +of carved panels, for after it had fallen the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +lounge had descended upon it with the force +of a catapult.</p> + +<p>Winnie and I picked up the panels, lamenting +loudly over the mischief which we had +done.</p> + +<p>“No great harm, after all,” said Adelaide +consolingly. “The panels are only separated +at the joints; the wood is so hard that they +have not really broken,” and then she gave a +little cry: “Winnie, what does this mean? +Here is your essay!”</p> + +<p>“Has Giovanni de’ Medici returned it?” I +asked.</p> + +<p>“It would seem so,” Winnie replied, in +great excitement. “See, girls, here is every +bit of the stolen money! The ghost has kept +his word, and has returned it after his confession +was read publicly.”</p> + +<p>“Where did you find it?” I asked, utterly +mystified.</p> + +<p>“Right here, in the drawer to which we had +lost the key, just under the upper part of the +cabinet. You remember it has been locked +since the very first day of school.”</p> + +<p>“But is the money all there?”</p> + +<p>“Yes; your forty-seven dollars, and the +sixty from the Catacomb Party for the +Home.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span></p> + +<p>“How did it ever come there?”</p> + +<p>“That is what I am trying to find out. +You know it is my mystery; and, girls, I +have it! This sliding writing shelf which we +pulled out to write upon is really the floor of +the cabinet, on which Tib deposited her treasures. +When you pull it out you rake everything +upon it into the drawer below.”</p> + +<p>“It must be,” said Adelaide, “that some +one pulled out that writing shelf before each +of those mysterious disappearances.” And +when we came to review the circumstances, +we remembered that it had been so in every +instance. The lost money and essay had +simply been dropped into the drawer below. +All that had seemed so inexplicable was now +made plain, and in our very last hour together—for, +as we carried the fragments +around to the turret door, we saw that the +express man had come for our trunks, and +noticed the Roseveldt carriage waiting behind +a hansom, which had just driven up to +the main entrance. On the steps Madame +was parting tenderly from Miss Noakes, who +was in travelling costume, and Mr. Mudge +sprang from the interior of the hansom to +assist her to a place beside him. Catching +sight of his well-known features, Winnie impulsively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> +waved the drawer of the cabinet and +darted across the lawn.</p> + +<p>“No wonder I could not discover the +thief,” he exclaimed testily, as Winnie showed +the mechanism of the sliding shelf. “The +cleverest detective could not have done that +when there was no thief to discover. But, +my dear young lady, pray do not detain us; +Miss Noakes and I have a particular engagement +for this very minute at the Church of +the Blessed Unity.” As he spoke he dodged +an old shoe which the astute Polo projected +from the studio window, and springing into +the hansom drove rapidly away.</p> + +<p>If there had been any doubt as to these +indications we would have been fully enlightened +on finding the announcement of their +marriage in our next mail; but the truth was +evident to all.</p> + +<p>Madame listened to us with a smile. “It +was kind of you, Winnie,” she said, “not to +solve your mystery earlier and so take away +the excuse for Mr. Mudge’s frequent calls.”</p> + +<p>“I shall have the dear old cabinet put in +order again,” Adelaide said, “and I shall keep +your essay in the drawer, Winnie, for I shall +always believe that you were right, and that +there was a ghost.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span></p> + +<p>And so with tears and embraces, and with +vows never to forget, and to meet again, and +to write often, the old delightful school life +and Witch Winnie’s Mystery came to an end +together.</p></div> + + +<p class="center end">THE END.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This Home is a truthful picture of one really founded by +a band of little girls—the Messiah Home, at 4 Rutherford Place, +Stuyvesant Square, New York, which is aided in its good work +by different circles of King’s Daughters.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> “The Princess” was a quaint little foreigner, who gave the +girls botany lessons, and who originated the idea of the Home, +whose founding is related in the initial volume of this series.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The Messiah Home for Children, 4 Rutherford Place, +New York City, the actual analogue of the Home in +which the girls of the Amen Corner were interested, is +greatly assisted in its good work by circles of King’s +Daughters in different parts of the United States. These +circles intend to unite in a fair to be given in New York +City immediately before the holidays, and they invite +other circles of King’s Daughters, and any nimble-fingered, +warm-hearted girl to whom this greeting may +come, to aid them in this enterprise. Any donations +may be sent to the Home in care of the matron, Miss +Weaver.</p></div> + +</div> + +<div class="tnote"><p class="center">Transcriber's Notes:</p> + +<p>Obvious printer's errors have been silently corrected. Otherwise +spelling, hyphenation, interpunction and grammar have been preserved +as in the original.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak +Cabinet, by Elizabeth W. 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Champney + +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: Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet + The Story of a King's Daughter + +Author: Elizabeth W. Champney + +Illustrator: C. D. Gibson + J. Wells Champney + +Release Date: June 4, 2011 [EBook #36313] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY, OR *** + + + + +Produced by eagkw, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY + + + + + [Illustration] + + + + + WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY + + OR + + THE OLD OAK CABINET + + _THE STORY OF A KING'S DAUGHTER_ + + + BY + + ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY + + AUTHOR OF "WITCH WINNIE," "VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD," ETC. + + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY C. D. GIBSON AND + J. WELLS CHAMPNEY. + + + NEW YORK + DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1891, + BY + DODD, MEAD & COMPANY. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION, 7 + + I. THE FIRST ESCAPADE OF THE SEASON, 15 + + II. THE CABINET, 25 + + III. THE ROBBERY, 41 + + IV. TROUBLE IN THE AMEN CORNER, 61 + + V. L. MUDGE, DETECTIVE, 76 + + VI. HALLOWEEN TRICKS, 96 + + VII. A STATE OF "DREADFULNESS," 111 + + VIII. IN THE MESHES OF A GOLDEN NET, 138 + + IX. "POLO," 161 + + X. THE CATACOMB PARTY 183 + + XI. A FALSE SCENT, 210 + + XII. THE INTER-SCHOLASTIC GAMES, 229 + + XIII. POLO IS SHADOWED, 265 + + XIV. THE CLOUDS PART, 304 + + XV. THE OLD CABINET TELLS ITS STORY, 330 + + XVI. THE MYSTERY DISCLOSED, 354 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +For those who have not read the first volume of this series, "Witch +Winnie, the Story of a King's Daughter." + +We four girls, + + Adelaide Armstrong, + Milly Roseveldt, + Emma Jane Anton, + Nellie Smith, + +had been chums at boarding school. + +(Let it here be explained that although my name is Nellie, I am never +called anything but Tib by my friends.) + +We occupied a little suite of apartments in the tower, consisting of a +small study parlor from which opened two double bedrooms and one single +one. Our family was called the Amen Corner, because our initials, +arranged as an acrostic, spelled the word Amen, and because we were a +set of little Pharisees, prigs, and "digs," not particularly admired by +the rest of the school, but exceedingly virtuous and preternaturally +perfect in our own estimation. + +This was our status at the beginning of our first school year +together, and the change that came over us, owing to the introduction +into our circle of Witch Winnie, the greatest scape-grace in the most +mischief-making set of the school, the "Queen of the Hornets," has +already been told. A quieting, earnest influence acted upon Winnie, and +a natural, merry-hearted love of fun reacted on us, and we were all the +better for the companionship. + +The greatest practical result outside the change in our own characters +was the formation, by the uniting of the "Amen Corner" and the +"Hornets," of a Ten of King's Daughters, who founded the Home of the +Elder Brother, for little children. This institution was adopted by our +parents, who formed themselves into a board of managers, but left much +of the working of the enterprise in our hands.[1] The Home prospered +during the first year of its existence in a truly wonderful manner. It +was undenominational and unendowed. No rich church or wealthy man stood +behind it. It was entirely dependent on the efforts of a few young +girls, and on the voluntary subscriptions of benevolent people. But it +grew day by day. Little ripples of influence widened out from our circle +to others. During the vacation our ten separated, and at each of their +homes they formed other tens, who worked for the same object. Every one +who visited the Home was interested in its plan of work, which was to +help the poor without pauperizing them; to aid struggling women whose +husbands had died, or were in hospitals or prisons, and who could have +no homes of their own, by providing them with a substitute for the baby +farming, so extensively carried on in the tenement districts, by +offering them, on the same low terms, a sweet and wholesome shelter +for their little ones. Some wondered why we charged these poor women +anything; why the _half_ charity was not made a free gift. But wiser +philanthropists saw the superior kindness of this demand. The women whom +we wished to aid were not beggars, but that worthy, struggling class +who, overburdened, but still desperately striving, must sink in the +conflict unless helped, but who still wished to do all in their power +for their children, and brought the small sum asked for their board +with a proud and happy self-respect. + + [1] This Home is a truthful picture of one really founded by a + band of little girls--the Messiah Home, at 4 Rutherford Place, + Stuyvesant Square, New York, which is aided in its good work by + different circles of King's Daughters. + +One of our own members, Emma Jane Anton, on graduating at Madame's, +became matron of the Home, assisted by dear Miss Prillwitz, formerly our +teacher of botany, from whose heart this beautiful thought had +blossomed. + +The Home was just across the park from the school building and we +frequently visited it; but though we were all deeply interested in this +sweet charity, it did not interfere with our studies or with a great +deal of girlish, innocent fun. Since Winnie had become my room-mate we +had lost much of the prestige which was formerly the boast of the Amen +Corner, and after Emma Jane left the little single room, Madame, feeling +that our influence had done much for Winnie, sent another of the +"Hornets" into our midst. + +We had accepted and adopted Winnie with all our hearts, for her many +lovable qualities, and above all for her genuine good fellowship and +affectionate nature, but Cynthia Vaughn was a very different character. +There was nothing but enjoyable fun in any of Winnie's tricks; Cynthia's +were mean and malicious. We never liked her, and she openly showed her +scorn of Winnie and of me, while she fawned in a hypocritical manner, +striving to ingratiate herself with aristocratic Adelaide and with +gentle Milly, who was the wealthiest girl at Madame's. + +We were no longer the best behaved set in school, and an acrostic formed +from our initials could not now be made to spell anything; but the name +"Amen Corner" clung to the little apartment, and Madame still looked +upon us with favor. She knew that Adelaide and Milly, Winnie and I, were +all, beneath our mischief, true-hearted, earnest girls, and she +charitably hoped for great improvement in Cynthia. + +There was one person who did not believe in us--Miss Noakes, our +corridor teacher. She believed that Winnie was filled with all iniquity +and that Adelaide was far too attractive to be allowed the confidence +which Madame reposed in her. It was Miss Noakes's great grievance +that she could never discover the least approach to a flirtation in +Adelaide's conduct. I believe that she fairly gloated with anticipated +triumph when Madame engaged a handsome young artist to take charge of +our art department, and that from this time she watched and peeped and +listened with an industry which would have done credit to a better +cause. She seemed to argue that as no lover of the beautiful could fail +to appreciate Adelaide's beauty, therefore our artist must admire +Adelaide, and in this deduction she was not far from the truth, but she +ought not to have taken it for granted that Adelaide must be equally +pleased with her admirer. How her espionage tracked us through several +innocent tricks and capers, and was finally foiled by our beloved +Winnie; how the great mystery of the robbery for a time brought doubt +and suspicion between four dear friends who would, and did, go through +fire and water for one another; and how, in spite of doubt and jealousy +and trouble, our love and devotion for one another: burned brightly +and steadily on to the end of the school year, and into the life +beyond--this little book will tell. + +That the events which I am about to relate may be better understood, I +subjoin a plan of the "Amen Corner." + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE =AMEN CORNER=] + + + + +WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE FIRST ESCAPADE OF THE SEASON. + + +[Illustration] + +"Girls!" Winnie exclaimed excitedly as we entered our study parlor after +recitation, "I am wild with curiosity to know what they are doing in the +hospital. All the morning, while I have been trying to study, there has +been the greatest thumping and bumping going on in there. I wonder +whether they are chaining down an insane patient, or if the ghostly +nurses are having a war dance." + +"Why didn't you look and see?" Cynthia Vaughn asked, pointing to the +transom over a locked door, which formerly opened from our parlor into +the hospital ward. + +Madame had made abundant provision for sickness in the original +arrangement of the school building. A large sky-lighted room had been +set apart as an infirmary, and a little suite of rooms in the great +tower adjoining as the physician's quarters. But it was rare indeed +that any one was ill at Madame's, and when a pupil was taken sick, her +parents usually took her home at once. So the doctor, having nothing to +do but to hear the recitations in physiology, preferred not to reside in +the school building, and the pretty suite of rooms, consisting of a +parlor and three bedrooms, was assigned to us, and the hospital proper +was used as a trunk room. Winnie always maintained that ghosts of +medical students experimented there in the night watches on imaginary +cases of vivisection, that corpses were embalmed, and shrieks and howls +were to be heard, in the wee small hours, while phantom lights fumed +blue on the other side of the transom, and sickly odors of ether and +other drugs penetrated through the keyhole. We all laughed at Winnie's +phantasms, but there were none of us so brave as to care to visit that +room after nightfall. The trunks looked too much like coffins, and there +were dresses of Madame's sewed up in bags made of sheets, and suspended +from the roof, which had the uncanny look of corpses of people who had +hanged themselves. + +It was broad daylight now, and we were not at all nervous, and Cynthia +remarked scornfully, "Winnie has told us so many of her bug-a-boo +stories that she has come to actually believe in them herself. She dare +not for her life look through that transom to see what occasions the +noise in the hospital." + +"You dare me to do it?" Winnie asked, confronting Cynthia with flashing +eyes. + +"Don't, Winnie," I pled. "We have no right to peep." + +Winnie hesitated. + +"I told you so," Cynthia said provokingly. "She dares not look. It is +only a lumber room. The noise was probably made by some cat chasing a +rat around." + +"It would take a whole army of cats to make the noises I have heard," +Winnie replied hotly, at the same time rolling Adelaide's great +Saratoga trunk in front of the door. + +"There it goes again!" and as a loud hammering re-echoed through the +adjoining room, she sprang upon the trunk. The transom was still too +high for her to reach. "Quick, girls, something else," she exclaimed, +and Milly dragged the "Commissary Department" from its retirement under +my bed. + +The "commissary" was a small, old-fashioned trunk, which had belonged +to my great-grandmother. It was covered with cow-skin, the hair only +partially worn off, and studded with brass-headed nails which formed the +initials of my ancestors. It was lined with newspapers bearing the date +1790, and was altogether a very quaint and curious relic. Its chief +interest to us, however, lay in the fact that it had come to us from +my home filled with all the good things that a farm can produce and a +mistakenly soft-hearted mother send. There were mince pies and pickles, +a great wedge of cheese, a box of honey, pounds of maple-sugar, tiny +sausages, a great fruitcake, jars of pickled peaches, ginger snaps, +walnuts and chestnuts, pop-corn and molasses candy, and what Milly +called the _interstixes_ were filled in with delicious doughnuts. It was +a treasure house of richness upon which we revelled in the night after +the gas was turned out and we all met in our nightgowns, and formed a +semicircle sitting on the floor around the register, while Winnie told +the most deliciously frightful ghost and robber stories. + +Then, it was that the "commissary" yielded up its contraband stores and +we ate, and shivered, partly with cold and partly with delightful terror +inspired by the rehearsal of legends for which Winnie ransacked, during +the day, the pages of the detective Vidocq and Poe's prose tales. + +Then if a mouse did but squeak in the deserted hospital ward, or the +shuffle of Miss Noakes's slippers was heard in the corridor outside, we +all scuttled incontinently to our beds, and Winnie snored loudly, while +Milly buried her head beneath the blankets. Miss Noakes occupied a large +room opposite the hospital. She was a disagreeable, prowling teacher and +we had nicknamed her _Snooks_. + +The "commissary" being now carefully poised upon the curved top of +Adelaide's trunk, Winnie mounted upon it, and found that it was exactly +what was needed, as it brought her face just on a level with the +transom. + +"O girls!" she exclaimed, "the trunks are all gone, and they are making +the room over into a studio. And that handsome man that sat at Madame's +table yesterday at dinner is in there hanging pictures. I wonder if he +is an artist and is going to teach us. My! he is looking this way," +and Winnie crouched suddenly. The movement was a careless one, and +the commissary slid down the sloping cover of the trunk upon which it +rested, striking the door with its end like a battering-ram, and with +such force that the rusted lock yielded, and the commissary, with Winnie +seated upon it, swept forward, like a toboggan, far into the center of +the hospital. + +It was strange that Winnie was not hurt, but she was not; and before the +astonished artist could quite comprehend what had happened, she had +picked herself up, scampered back into our room, and we had closed the +door behind her, and were fastening it to the best of our ability by +tying the knob to Adelaide's trunk by means of a piece of clothes-line +which had formerly served to cord the commissary. + +At first we laughed long and merrily over the adventure, but by degrees +its serious aspects were appreciated. + +In the first place, Milly suggested dolorously that the commissary had +fallen into the hands of the enemy, while Cynthia Vaughn drew attention +to the fact of the broken lock. + +"However you girls will explain that to Madame is more than I know," she +remarked maliciously. + +"_You_ girls!" Winnie repeated indignantly, "as if you were not as much +concerned in it as any of us." + +"Indeed," Cynthia exclaimed scornfully, "if I remember rightly, it was +Milly who brought the commissary from its retirement, Tib who balanced +it so judiciously, and Winnie who dawned so unceremoniously on that +strange man in the other room. I had absolutely nothing to do with the +affair." + +"You were the instigator of it all," I retorted hotly. "If you had not +dared Winnie to do it she would never have tried to look in." + +"That is like you, Tib," Cynthia replied icily, "to get into a scrape +and then lay the blame on some one else." + +"I take all the blame," Winnie exclaimed loftily. "If inquisition is +ever made into this affair, I and I alone am responsible," and then she +uttered a little shriek and scampered into her own bedroom, for some +one was knocking at the door, which we had just attempted to fasten. + +"Who is there?" I asked, with as much boldness as I could muster; "and +what do you want?" + +"I am Carrington Waite, the new Professor of Art, and I would like to +return property which has been most unexpectedly introduced into my +studio, unless it is possible that the articles to which I refer were +intended as a donation." + +We all laughed at this sally, and made haste to unfasten the door, +whereupon Professor Waite handed in the commissary. He had a pleasant +face, and there was a merry twinkle in his eye as he said: "I tried to +bundle everything in, but the trunk collided with my box of colors, and +you may find rose madder in your jam, while the pickle jar actually +seemed to explode, and showered pickles all over the studio. I have no +doubt I shall find them along the cornice when I hang the pictures on +that side of the room. The doughnuts, too, flew in every direction. Some +rolled under the cabinets, and a mince pie applied itself like a plaster +to the back of my neck. A bottle of tomato catsup was emptied on one of +my canvases, and made a fine impressionistic study of a sunset. I am +afraid I stepped on the cheese, but I believe everything else is all +right." + +He looked about him with interest, and asked, "Where is the heroine who +performed this astonishing acrobatic feat? I trust she was not hurt. It +must have been a thrilling experience. Is it a customary form of +exercise with you young ladies?" + +We did not deign to reply to these questions, but I opened the +commissary and offered the artist some of our choicest dainties. He +accepted our largess, and retired with polite invitations for us to be +"neighborly" and "to call again." + +"Not in just that way," I replied, and I entreated him, if possible, to +repair the broken lock. He examined it carefully. + +"I am afraid," he said, "that it will require a locksmith to do it +thoroughly, but I can make it look all right, and you can screw a little +bolt on your side which will fasten the door securely." + +We thanked him and he was about to close the door, when Adelaide, +who was the only one of our circle who had not had a part in the +escapade, entered the room hastily from the corridor. "O girls," she +exclaimed--but stopped suddenly as she caught sight of the open door +and the young artist. At first her face showed only blank surprise, +then, as she told herself that this must be a joke of Winnie's, who +was fond of masquerading in costume, she remarked with dignity. + +"Really, this is quite too childish; where did you ever get that absurd +costume? You look too ridiculous for anything----" + +Cynthia Vaughn shrieked with laughter. + +The artist bowed, but colored to the roots of his hair and closed the +door, while Milly threw her arms around Adelaide, laughing hysterically, +Winnie appeared from behind her door also laughing, and I vainly +attempted to explain matters. + +"What a mortifying situation," Adelaide remarked, when she finally +understood the case. "I must apologize for my rudeness, and I am sure I +would rather put my hand in boiling water than speak to that man." + +"I am sure I only wish that I may never see him again," said Winnie. +"Nothing in this world could induce me to join the painting class, and +if there is one thing that I am profoundly grateful for, it is that I +have no talent for art." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE CABINET. + + +[Illustration] + +Winnie's queer toboggan ride was innocent enough in itself but it +brought in its train many unforeseen circumstances, chief among which +was the affair of the old oak cabinet. + +This cabinet stood in our study parlor, in the corner diagonally +opposite the door leading into the new studio, and was used as a +depository of the funds of all the occupants of the Amen Corner. + +The cabinet was always left locked and there was but one key to it, +which was kept in the match-box, well covered with matches. Only we +five knew its hiding place, or the fact that the cabinet was used as +a bank. We had agreed that it was best to keep this a secret among +ourselves--and it was so kept until the day after the robbery, weeks +after Winnie's escapade. We intended to follow Professor Waite's advice +and buy a bolt for the door, but what was everybody's business was +nobody's business, and whenever we went shopping there were so many +errands that we forgot it, or some other girl, or one of the teachers +was with us, and it would have been embarrassing to explain why the +bolt was needed. + +The door, as has been explained, opened outward from our parlor into the +studio. Professor Waite had placed a heavy carved chest against it on +his side, so that there was no danger of its flying open, and we had +uncorded the knob and rolled Adelaide's trunk back to her bedroom. No +one occupied the studio at night, and, though I spent several hours +there during the day, I always entered the room by its corridor door, +and we never thought when we locked our own corridor door at night how +easily any one so minded could push aside the chest and enter our +apartment from the studio. + +That the contents of the old oak cabinet on the night of the robbery may +be understood, an explanation of the finances of the different occupants +of the Amen Corner is possibly now in order. + +Adelaide's father and mother had gone West for the winter. Mr. Armstrong +was an able financier, and he wished to make Adelaide a thorough +business woman. She was eighteen years old and she might be a great +heiress some day, if his wealth continued to accumulate, and he wished +to accustom her to the management of money. + +He had given her the year before a model tenement house, built after the +most approved principles, on the site of Richetts' Court, previously +occupied by one of the worst tenement houses in the city. The new +building contained accommodations for ten families; the sanitation was +perfect; there were no dark rooms, but bath rooms, fire escapes, and +provision for every necessity. A good janitor, Stephen Trimble, occupied +the lower apartment and looked after the order and comfort of the +building, and every month Adelaide, attended by one of the teachers, +went down and personally collected her rents, and listened to the +complaints and requests of her tenants. There were few of either, and as +a general rule the pay was prompt, for the rent was low, and Adelaide +did all she could to oblige her tenants, having a small drying room +built for the laundress, Mrs. McCarthy, who had contracted rheumatic +fever from hanging out her wash on the roof and so exposing herself to +the icy winds, when over-heated from the steaming tubs. Adelaide had no +stringent rules against pets. She caused kennels to be built in the +court for several pet dogs, and added some blossoming plants to Mrs. +Blumenthal's small conservatory in the sunny south window. Noticing that +the Morettis were fond of art, and had pasted cigarette pictures on +their walls and driven nails to suspend some gaudy prints of the virgin +and saints, she had a narrow moulding with picture hooks placed just +under the ceiling in every sitting-room. She patronized all their small +industries as far as it was in her power, and interested her friends in +them; having her boots made by the little shoemaker on the top floor, +who was really a good workman, but had been turned away from a prominent +firm, as they had cut down their list of employees. Her underclothing +was made by the little seamstress on the third floor back. She gave each +of her tenants a Thanksgiving dinner and a substantial present on +Christmas Day, and only allowed those to be evicted whose flagrant +misbehaviour showed that nothing could be done for them. + +From the income of this building her father had insisted that Adelaide +must pay all her expenses. As Madame's boarding school was a fashionable +one, the margin left, after the payment of tuition, to be divided +between dress and charity, was not very large. + +Mr. Armstrong knew that Adelaide's weakness was a love for beautiful +clothing; that she delighted in sumptuous velvets, in the sheen of +satin, and the shimmer of gauze. Her regal beauty would not have been +over-powered by a queen's toilette, but she adorned the simplest +costume, and set the fashion in hats for the school season. + +Mr. Armstrong also knew that Adelaide was very tender of heart, and that +if left entirely to herself she would gladly have opened the doors of +her tenement house freely to unscrupulous and undeserving people; that +she would have easily credited every woeful story, and have remitted +rents when it would have been no real kindness to do so. He therefore +pitted these two weaknesses against each other. "We will see what comes +of it at the close of the year," he said. "She may become a grinding, +close-fisted proprietress, screwing the last possible dollar out of the +poor to lavish it on her own personal adornment, but I hope better +things of Adelaide than that. It would be more like her, I think, to go +to the opposite extreme--dress like an Ursuline nun and take nothing +from her tenants; but let us hope that she may be able to strike the +golden mean." + +It was a hard thing to do, and Adelaide went without a new winter cloak +until nearly Christmas time, waiting for the Morettis to pay up an +arrearage; and only consented to the turning out of a shiftless family +who occupied the best apartment, and were three months behind hand, +because the tuition for the first term at Madame's would be due in a +few days, and a respectable wood engraver offered to pay two months in +advance. It was hard, because she did not wish to spend all the money on +herself. She was as interested as any of us in the Home of the Elder +Brother, and longed to contribute more generously to it; but since these +poor people were her tenants, they were in some sense her own family, +and she felt that charity began at home. Often I know that Adelaide +denied herself as really, in not being more lenient, as her tenants did +to scrape together their monthly rental. She was a generous girl to her +friends, and before her father had made this arrangement she deluged +us all with her presents. Milly, who had unlimited credit at several +stores, kept up this pernicious custom of lavishly giving presents of +flowers and candies. It was hard for Winnie and me, who were in moderate +circumstances, not to return them, but doubly so for Adelaide--who +entreated her to desist, as we all did, but without avail. Milly was +incorrigible. "You don't seem to understand," Winnie said to her at +Christmas time, "that the receipt of a gift which one cannot return in +kind is a bitter pill to a sensitive nature." + +"No," replied Milly, "I don't understand anything of the sort. Adelaide +always translates my Caesar for me. You help me with my algebra, and Tib +as good as writes my compositions. I couldn't return any of those favors +'_in kind_,' and they are pills that are not the least bit bitter to +me----" + +"It's of no use, Adelaide," laughed Winnie, "we must let Milly have her +own way. It is such a pleasure to Milly to give that we will sacrifice +our own feelings and bear the infliction." + +Mr. Armstrong had given Adelaide an old oak cabinet, beautifully carved +in the style of the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century, with +architectural columns, caryatides, scroll work, and arabesques. The +upper cupboard of this cabinet was used as a strong box to hold the +funds of our little circle. The interior was divided into pigeon holes +and shelves, and the door was provided with a curious key with a +delicate wrought-iron handle. + +Adelaide had given each of us a compartment in this little safe, but +when its entire contents were counted there was rarely much money kept +here, for Adelaide had a bank account, and after collecting her rents +usually deposited them at the bank before returning to school, paying +all her debts by cheque. Milly, as before explained, had her running +accounts charged to her father,--a book at Arnold's, at the florist's, +the confectioner's, the dressmaker's, stationer's, etc.,--but her supply +of ready cash was never equal to demand, and though she could telephone +for a messenger and order a coupe at any time, she was always in debt to +the other girls, and I have frequently lent her postage stamps and paid +her car fare. + +Mr. Roseveldt had a horror of entrusting funds to young girls with no +limitation of the way in which they were to be spent; he felt that in +looking over the shop-keeper's accounts he knew exactly how much Milly +expended, and for what the money went. But his plan was a mistaken one; +and the perfect freedom which Adelaide enjoyed was training her in a +sense of responsibility, while Milly was becoming unscrupulous as to +waste, where waste was encouraged, and frequently ordered a coupe when +the street car would have done just as well, or rang for a messenger to +save a postage stamp. + +Winnie and I, the two poorer girls, were the ones who usually had money +in the safe. Winnie received a moderate allowance from her father +outside of her tuition, which he sent directly to Madame. As soon as +the cheque arrived, she cashed it and placed the new, crisp bills in +separate envelopes labelled, "Personal expenses," "Charity." She was +very generous, but she had a horror of debt, and she never expended the +funds in the latter envelope until she had received another remittance. +As Winnie abhorred sweets, and would rather any day have gone to the +dentist's than the dressmaker's, and as she had a supreme contempt for +display of any kind, the charity envelope was always full, and she had +usually a comfortable margin in personal expenditure to lend or bestow +on others. Winnie had always been generous, but this quality of +foresight had only come to her during the past year in her work as a +member of the finance committee of the Home of the Elder Brother. + +My own case was different from that of the others. My father was a +Long Island farmer, and my allowance, though meagre as related to my +necessities, was liberal when compared with his own income. Miss +Sartoris, Madame's former drawing teacher, had boarded with us one +summer, during which I had sketched with her, and she had persuaded +father that I possessed a talent for art and had taken me back with +her to Madame's. So far I had easily led all the art students, and my +studies, although abounding in faults, presumptuous and immature, were +considered by the school as something quite remarkable. During the past +summer a young man of engaging address, and otherwise irreproachable +honesty, had stolen our beloved teacher, and Miss Sartoris, now Mrs. +Stillman, was known to Madame's no more. When the school reorganized +in the fall, Madame engaged me to take charge of the art department, +temporarily, until she could provide herself with a more competent +instructor. We had a small, crowded studio, with a poor light, but the +class was large. I did the best I could, but we sorely needed ampler +accommodations, and a head whose ability in his profession should be +unquestioned. Both were now provided. Carrington Waite was a young +artist fresh from the _Ecole des Beaux Arts_ at Paris, and he brought to +us the training traditions of the schools, and the latest European ideas +in art. + +There were very few girls in the school sufficiently advanced to +understand his instruction, but they flocked into the studio and +listened with undisguised admiration to words that might as well have +been uttered in an unknown tongue. Poor little Milly gazed at him in a +rapt, adoring way, without ever comprehending what he said. The tears +came to her eyes and rolled swiftly down her cheeks when he told her +that it was manifestly absurd to draw a full face seen from the front +with its nose in profile, but she smiled a brave little quiver of a +smile while he reviled her work, and thanked him as though he had +uttered the most fulsome compliments. + +Even Winnie had felt the wave of influence and joined the class in spite +of her assertion that she had no taste for art and never wished to see +Professor Waite again. Only Adelaide held firmly out and would none of +him. Winnie was not at all afraid of the Professor, and seemed to devote +herself especially to making his life miserable. When he informed her +that she must join the "preparatory antique" section and draw in +charcoal, she calmly explained that she "perfectly loathed" casts, and +she had purchased an outfit of oil paints and intended to devote herself +at once to color. Strange to say, Professor Waite humored her and gave +her some of his landscape studies to copy. She was never contented with +reproducing these faithfully, but always "improved" upon them, as she +audaciously expressed it. + +It was a common thing for Professor Waite to remark, when he sat down +before Winnie's easel, "Well, this is about the worst atrocity you have +yet committed." + +Winnie, standing behind him, would make eyes at the rest of the girls, +and remark penitently, "I am very sorry." + +"You look sorry," Professor Waite replied, on one occasion. + +"I don't see how you can tell how I look," Winnie answered, "when you +are sitting with your back to me." + +I do not know whether Milly's denseness or Winnie's impudence was the +more irritating to Professor Waite. Winnie resented his severity to +Milly and was always more provoking whenever he had grieved her pet and +left her sobbing in a mire of charcoal and tears. + +"You give me more trouble than a three-week's-old baby," Professor Waite +had remarked to poor Milly, and Winnie had retorted spitefully, "I wish +you had to take care of one--I guess you would find a difference." + +Winnie's sauciness and Milly's dulness, combined with that of many of +his other pupils, drove the Professor to despair after a week's trial. +He told Madame, as I learned later, that he must give up the position, +as her pupils were all "too hopelessly elementary." + +Madame was disappointed. Her art department had always been an +attractive feature, and since the name of Professor Carrington Waite, +late of the _Academie des Beaux Arts_, had appeared in her circulars, +many had joined the school purely for the sake of the studio +instruction. Madame explained this to the young artist. + +He ran his fingers through his hair in despair. "Of what manner of use +is it for me to remain?" he asked. "There is only one pupil sufficiently +advanced to gain anything from my instruction, and that is Miss Smith. +The others made as much advance, perhaps more, under her teaching as +they have under mine." + +A happy thought came to Madame. "If I engage Miss Smith as your +assistant, Professor Waite, perhaps she can translate your ideas into +terms which will be intelligible by the students of lower intelligence +or advancement, and possibly she can so enlighten some of them that they +can profit later by your personal teaching." + +This plan struck Professor Waite as practicable. He now only visited the +studio for an hour each morning, during which time he criticised the +work which had been done under my supervision during the previous day. +The new arrangement was an excellent one for me, for I profited by all +his remarks, listening to them with the keenest attention, and thus +received thirty lessons during the hour instead of one. As I had +but three other studies, and these were in the senior class, it was +possible for me to give the necessary time by preparing all of my +lessons in the evening. It was unremitting, incessant work, but my +health was excellent, and art was my supreme delight. Moreover, Madame +had offered me a salary of three hundred dollars beyond my school +expenses, and it was perfect joy to be able to relieve father of this +burden. I had a high ambition to go abroad some day and study art in +Paris, and I wished to save as much as possible of my salary toward this +purpose. I had the lower compartment in the safe, and here I laid away +every dollar that I could spare, limiting myself in everything but my +subscription to the Home of the Elder Brother; but for this outlet I +would have grown niggardly and avaricious. The same charity which made +Winnie prudently retrench her propensity to lavish expenditure, and take +thought carefully for the morrow, kept me from utter selfishness and +penuriousness by keeping one channel of generous giving open and pulsing +freely toward others. + +Cynthia Vaughn's affairs were kept closely to herself. We sometimes +fancied that she pretended to greater wealth and consequence than she +really possessed. Certainly, if the sums of which she frequently spoke +of receiving were at her disposal she was a veritable miser; for her +subscription to the Home was the smallest of any girl in the King's +Daughters' Ten; the presents which she ostentatiously bestowed upon +Adelaide and Milly were cheap though showy, as was her own clothing. + +The treasures which she committed to the cabinet safe were carefully +locked in a small japanned tin box, the key of which she kept in her +pocket-book, and she was the only one of us whose belongings within the +safe were so protected. We had perfect confidence in one another, and +our funds lay open to the observation or handling of any one possessing +the pass key in the match box. It is needless to say that up to the +night of the robbery our security had been inviolate. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ROBBERY. + + +[Illustration] + +Adelaide led the school in more respects than in the style of hats, and +in the Amen Corner she reigned as absolute queen. + +It may seem strange that this was so, for Winnie was the genius of our +coterie. She was perhaps too active and restless. She seemed born to be +a leader, but the leader of a revolt, while Adelaide had the calm +assurance of a princess who had no need to assert her rights, but to +whom allegiance came as a matter of course. Even Winnie was her loyal +subject and delighted in being her prime minister. + +I have spoken of Winnie's fondness for reading and telling detective +stories. It really seemed as if in so doing she was preparing us for the +events which followed, and the time when every one of us felt that she +was a special detective charged with the mission of finding a clue to a +great and sorrowful mystery. + +It all came about through the robbery. + +On the eve of my birthday it so happened that there was an unusual +amount of money in the little safe. Adelaide had returned from +collecting her rents too late to deposit her funds in the bank. She +looked very much relieved as she slipped a roll of bills, amounting to +nearly one hundred dollars, into her pigeon-hole, and turning the key, +deposited it in the match safe. + +Winnie had that morning cashed a check just received from her father, +and had brought back from the bank some crisp, new notes, with which she +filled her envelopes for the coming month. Cynthia had ostentatiously +and yet mysteriously dropped some silver dollars into her cash box, and +even Milly had laid aside an unwonted sum, for her father had called at +the school and contrary to his usual custom had given her five bright +ten-dollar gold pieces. Milly seemed very happy as she slipped them into +her snakeskin and tucked it into her own particular corner of the safe. + +"Unlimited pocket money this month, eh! Milly?" I asked. + +Milly laughed and shook her head. + +"Don't know that I am obliged to account to you for everything," she +said, saucily, but the sting was taken out of the speech by the kiss +with which it was immediately followed, and I more than half suspected +that Milly intended one of those gold pieces as a birthday present for +me. + +Late in the evening I counted over my own hoard. We were all in the +study parlor, with the exception of Winnie, and as I counted I looked up +and saw that Adelaide and Milly were regarding me with interest, though +their glances instantly fell to the books which they had apparently been +studying. + +"How much have you, Tib?" Adelaide asked; "enough yet to buy the steamer +ticket for the ocean passage?" + +"No," I replied, "only forty-seven dollars as yet, but I hope to make it +before the close of school." + +"Of course you will," Milly replied reassuringly. + +Cynthia laughed raspingly. "You have almost enough now, if you go in the +steerage," she sneered. + +Adelaide suddenly threw a bit of drawn linen work belonging to Cynthia +over the money, which I had spread out in the chair before me. + +"What are you doing with my embroidery?" Cynthia snapped. "Did you +mistake it for a dust rag?" + +"Natural mistake," Milly giggled. + +Adelaide lifted her finger warningly. "Hush!" she said, "I saw a face at +the transom; some one was looking in from the studio." + +Milly turned pale and clutched my hand, and we all looked at the transom +with straining eyes. It was almost dark in the studio and for a few +moments we saw nothing but some one was moving about, for we heard +cautious steps, and a creaking sound just the other side of the door. +Presently a hat cautiously lifted itself into view through the transom. +It was a broad-brimmed, soft felt hat of the Rembrandt style, which +Professor Waite sometimes wore. It moved about silently from one side of +the transom to the other, descended, and appeared again. + +"I never thought that Professor Waite would peep or listen," Cynthia +whispered. + +"He would not," I replied aloud. "He must be at work there hanging +pictures or doing something else of the sort." + +"Then he would make more noise," Cynthia suggested, as the hat continued +its stealthy movements. + +"It may be some one else who has put on the Professor's hat as a +disguise," Milly gasped. + +"That was the reason I covered up the money," Adelaide replied, in a low +voice. "You had better put it away, Tib." + +I hastily bundled my money into the safe and locked the door, and we sat +for some moments quietly watching the transom, but the spectre did not +come again. Winnie entered a few moments later and seemed greatly +interested by our accounts of the incident. + +"Do you suppose that it could have been one of that band of Italian +bravos who has climbed up on the fire-escape and who intends to murder +us?" she asked with an assumption of terror. + +"Hush," I whispered, pulling her dress, and pointing to Milly whose eyes +were staring with fright. + +"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Winnie; "can't you tell when I'm joking? It was +Professor Waite. Of course it was Professor Waite. He has been in love +with Adelaide ever since she complimented him on his appearance at their +first meeting. He is dying for a glimpse at her fair face, and as she +won't join his painting class he relieves his yearning heart by gazing +over the transom." + +There was more joking, and Milly's fears were as quickly quieted as they +had been raised. Professor Waite had undoubtedly been at work in the +studio, I insisted, and I knocked on the door and called his name. + +No answer, and I tried to open the door, but the chest held it firmly in +place. "Shall I look over the transom?" I asked. + +"For pity's sake do not repeat Winnie's experience," Adelaide begged. + +"Then I will look in by the corridor door," I said resolutely, and I +stepped down the hall and into the studio. The door was open, so was +Miss Noakes's door just opposite, and that watchful lady sat rocking and +reading beside her little centre table. She was not too much absorbed, +however, to give me a keen questioning glance--but she said nothing, +for as assistant teacher in art I had a perfect right to frequent the +studio. + +The moon was shining in clearly through the great window, and every +object was distinctly visible, but there was no one in the room. I +opened the door leading to the turret staircase and listened; all was +silent, and I screwed up my courage and descended, finding the door at +the foot safely locked. The great Rembrandt hat lay on the chest in +front of our door, and the Professor's mahl-stick, or long support on +which he rested his arm when painting, leaned beside it. I could not see +any change in the disposition of the pictures on the wall, or other +indications of what the Professor had been doing, if indeed it was the +Professor, and I did not know of his ever before visiting the studio at +that hour. As I came out I noticed that Miss Noakes was still rocking +before her open door, her slits of eyes glancing sharply up. + +"Have you seen any one go into the studio lately?" I asked. + +"No one has passed through the corridor since the beginning of study +hour, with the exception of Miss Winifred De Witt." + +"Then this door must have been open all the time, and you have seen no +one in the studio?" + +"I have observed no one. Why do you ask?" + +"We thought we saw the shadow of a man on the transom." + +"Nonsense--it is silly to be frightened at nothing. It was probably +Professor Waite. If you young ladies would interest yourselves less in +the movements of that young man it would be much more becoming in you." + +I turned away quickly, not relishing her tone, and looked at the +corridor window, which opened on the balcony of the fire escape. It was +securely fastened. I was puzzled, but did not wish to alarm Milly, and I +now reported only what seemed to me the favorable aspects of the case. + +No one there, all quiet and in order; lower turret door opening on the +street, and the corridor window opening on the balcony, both locked, +showing that no one could have come up the stairs or the fire escape. +Miss Noakes, on guard, had seen no one enter the studio. + +Of course it must have been Professor Waite. + +"Of course," Winnie echoed. "Tib knows him too well to be mistaken even +when she only sees him through a glass darkly. But think what that +devotion must be, which leads a man to keep guard before his lady's door +at night," and Winnie shouldered an umbrella and paced back and forward, +singing in a deep bass voice, "Thy Sentinel am I." + +Winnie was irresistible and we all laughed merrily at her pranks. But +for all that I locked the cabinet with unusual care that night and +Adelaide tried the door afterward to see that it was securely fastened. +While doing so, she noticed something which we had not hitherto +discovered--a little steel ornament like a nail head at the foot of one +of the columns. Touching this, a small shelf shot forward. It had +evidently been intended for a writing table, for it was ink-stained. +Adelaide pushed it easily back into its place and its edge formed one of +the three moldings which formed the base of the upper division of the +cabinet. + +"That is a very convenient little arrangement," Adelaide said. "I wonder +that I have never noticed it before." + +I soon fell asleep, and slept long and dreamlessly. I awoke at last with +an uneasy feeling of cold. It was quite dark, and putting out my hand I +found that Winnie's place at my side was vacant. I started up alarmed, +and called her name. There was a little pause, during which I stumbled +out of bed and groped vainly for a candle, which usually stood on a +stand at the head of the bed. Not finding it, I noticed a beam of light +streaming from beneath the closed door leading into the study-parlor, +and I remembered vividly that when I went to bed I had left that door +open, as I always did, for more perfect ventilation. I stood hesitating, +vaguely alarmed, when the door was opened from the parlor side and +Winnie stood before me holding a lighted candle--her face white as that +of a spirit. + +"How you frightened me!" I exclaimed. "What is the matter?" + +"Nothing, I merely went out to see whether the door into the corridor +was locked. I was lying awake, and I could not remember seeing any one +lock it." + +She spoke mechanically, and her voice sounded strange and hollow. + +"Why, you did it yourself!" I exclaimed. + +"Did I? Strange I should forget." + +"You found everything all right, didn't you?" + +"The door was not only locked but bolted," Winnie replied; but her +manner was constrained, and her hand, which I happened to touch, was +cold as ice. + +"Come right to bed," I exclaimed, "you have taken cold." + +Winnie did not reply, but her teeth were chattering. She curled up in +bed and buried her face in her pillow. I was sleepy and soon dozed +off, but I was vaguely conscious in my slumbers that I had an uneasy +bedfellow; that Winnie tossed and tumbled and even groaned. When I awoke +she was sitting, dressed, on the window sill. It may have been the early +light but her face looked gray, and there was a drawn, set expression +about the mouth which I had never seen there before. + +"What is the matter?" I asked again. + +She replied, in that cold, unnatural voice, "Nothing." + +Just then there was a hard knocking at my door. Milly shouted joyfully, +"Many happy returns of the day," and swooping down upon me buried +me with kisses. Adelaide followed, and in a more dignified manner +congratulated me on my birthday. "No flowers, Tib," Milly explained, +"because you set your face against that sort of thing, and I was +determined to let you have your own way on your birthday. Winnie, what +makes you sit over there like a sphinx, with your nose touched with +sunrise? Come here and help us give Tib her seventeen slaps and one to +grow on." + +"Tib will find my present on the stand at the head of the bed," Winnie +replied, and turning, I discovered an envelope labelled, "For the +European tour." It contained a crisp new bill of twenty dollars. + +Adelaide and Milly looked at each other significantly, and Milly +exclaimed: + +"You dear, generous thing! Why didn't you tell us that you meant to do +anything so lovely? Adelaide and I would have helped." + +Winnie did not reply to Milly, but answered my thanks with a close hug. + +"Come," said Milly, "and put your money in the safe, and see how much +you have now toward the fund." + +"Oh! That's easy to calculate," I replied, as I slipped on my clothing, +"twenty and forty-seven--sixty-seven dollars exactly." + +Adelaide coughed significantly. "Tib seems to be very confident that two +and two makes four," she remarked. A suspicion that both Adelaide and +Milly intended to help me suggested itself to my mind, and I hastened my +dressing and unlocked the safe. As I did so Cynthia opened her door. +"Oh! it's you," she exclaimed; "whenever I hear any one at the safe I +always look to see who it is." + +She did not retreat into her room, but stood in the door watching us +with a singular expression on her disagreeable face. Adelaide and Milly +were looking over my shoulder. Milly apparently vainly endeavoring to +conceal a little flutter of excitement. We were all there but Winnie, +who had not left her seat at the window, when I threw open the door of +the safe and disclosed--nothing! + +The space on the floor where I usually kept my money, where the night +before I had placed a long blue envelope containing forty-seven +dollars--was empty. The envelope and its contents gone. + +Milly uttered a little shriek. Adelaide stepped forward and examined the +space, passing her hand far in, and feeling carefully in every corner. +Then she took out her own roll of bills from her little pigeon-hole. I +counted them with her, just fifty-dollars less than the sum which I saw +her place there. She handed me a five dollar bill, saying, "Tib, my +dear, my only disappointment is that I cannot give you as large a +birthday present as I had planned." + +Milly threw her arms around me, "And I can't give you anything, you +darling old Tib. I am so sorry." + +"How do you know you can't?" Cynthia asked. "You haven't looked to see +whether you have lost anything." + +Milly flushed. "If Tib has lost her money, of course I have mine." + +"Why, of course? The thief has obligingly left Adelaide a part of her +money; perhaps yours is all there." + +Milly opened her purse. It was quite empty. She closed it with a snap. + +"I don't see how you knew it," Cynthia remarked unpleasantly. "Now I am +really too curious to see whether I have been as unfortunate as the rest +of you." In spite of this profession of eagerness she had seemed to me +remarkably indifferent, and she unlocked her strong box with great +deliberation, manifesting no surprise or pleasure as she reported "three +dollars and fifty-three cents, precisely what I left there. This shows +the wisdom of my double-lock; the thief evidently had no key which would +fit my strong-box." + +"Winnie," I called, "we have had a burglary; come right here and see +whether you have lost anything." + +Winnie entered the room slowly, almost unwillingly, quite in contrast +with her usual impulsive action, and opened her envelopes before us. "No +one has touched my money," she said; "here is exactly what I placed in +the envelopes last night." + +"Did you go to the safe in the night to get that twenty dollar bill +which you gave me this morning?" I asked. + +Cynthia Vaughn turned and looked at Winnie eagerly. + +"I kept it out last night," Winnie replied, "when I put the rest away. +You will remember that I sealed the envelopes then, and I find them now +unopened." + +An expression of malice and triumph, such as I have never seen on the +face of any human being, rested on Cynthia's countenance. + +"There is something very mysterious about this," she remarked, in an +eager way. "The thief has entirely spared Winnie and me, and has been +obliging enough to take only half of Adelaide's money. Tib and Milly +lose all of theirs, but Tib's was money for which she had no immediate +use. So that she will not feel its loss as much as Winnie or I would +have done, and Milly has no real need of money at all--I wonder whether +the thief was acquainted with our circumstances; if so he or she was +very considerate." + +"I don't know what you mean about Tib's not feeling the loss," Winnie +began indignantly, her glance resting not on Cynthia but on Milly. "It +will be a cruel disappointment to her if she cannot go to Europe to +study, after all." + +"Oh! that's not to be thought of," Milly replied, feeling herself +addressed. "Of course Tib will go. Something will turn up. The money +will be discovered. Perhaps the thief will return it." + +A light flamed up in Winnie's face. It was the first pleasant look that +I had seen there this morning. "It must be so," she exclaimed eagerly, +but very gravely; "let us hope that the person who took that money was +actuated by dire necessity; that it was simply borrowed, and that it +will be returned." + +"Nonsense," exclaimed Cynthia impatiently. "I have no such excuses to +make for a thief, and I am going right now to report the entire affair +to Madame, who will of course put it in the hands of the police----" + +"The police!" Winnie cried, in a tone of dismay. "Oh! no, no!" + +"Wait," said Adelaide commandingly; "that is not the way we do things in +the Amen Corner. This is something in which we are all interested, and +the majority shall rule. Now Winnie, will you please tell us why the +police should not take this matter in charge? My explanation is that +some thief entered this room last night through the studio door. +Probably it was the very individual who was watching us last night +through the transom." + +"Oh! Not Professor Waite," Milly exclaimed, and Winnie started as though +about to speak, but restrained the impulse. + +"No, not Professor Waite, certainly," Adelaide continued, "but some one +disguised in his hat. This thief waited until we were all asleep, and +then began to help himself to the contents of our safe, but was probably +interrupted or frightened by some sound, after securing Milly's and +Tib's money, and hurried away without taking as much as he wished. That +is the simplest, most likely solution, and it seems to me that the +police are the proper authorities to take the affair in hand." + +She paused for several moments. We all chattered together as fast and as +loudly as we could. Then Adelaide rapped on the table with a nutcracker +and said: + +"I shall now put the question. Those in favor of reporting this matter +at once to Madame, please say 'Ay;' those opposed, the contrary +sign--but first, any remarks?" + +Winnie hesitated. "I do not agree with you that it is a matter in which +we are all equally interested," she said slowly. "Tib is the principal +loser. Tib should decide what she wishes to do. Adelaide's theory looks +plausible, but it may be wrong. Some member of this school may have +entered through that door, and taken the money. Whatever is handed over +to the police, goes into the papers. We do not want to bring on the +school scandal and disgrace, which would follow the publishing of the +fact that one of its pupils is a thief." + +"Winnie seems to be very certain that the thief is a pupil," Cynthia +remarked sneeringly. "If so, we can trust that Madame will ferret her +out without outside assistance." + +"My chief reason, however," continued Winnie, "for waiting a day or two +before reporting this thing, is the hope that conscience will lead the +unhappy person who has committed the crime to make restitution. Tib, you +certainly look at the matter as I do. You are not vindictive; give the +wrong-doer a chance." + +"Certainly," I said. + +"The question," called Cynthia. "Adelaide, put the question." + +"Those in favor of reporting at once to Madame?" said Adelaide. + +"Aye," from Cynthia, loud enough for two. + +"Aye," more faintly, from Milly. + +"Those opposed?" + +"No," from Winnie and from me. + +"A tie," announced Adelaide. "Then the chair gives the casting vote. I +am in favor of reporting to Madame, and I think we had better make the +report in a body. There is just time to see her before breakfast." + +"I do not see the necessity of our going _en masse_," Winnie objected. +"Tib, of course, as the individual who has suffered most, and who +discovered the loss; Cynthia, who seems to enjoy telling unpleasant +things; and Adelaide, who is strictly just, and the oldest and most +dignified member of the Amen Corner. But I do not see why you should +drag Milly along; the child has had enough excitement already. Let her +lie down and rest her little head until the breakfast bell rings. As for +me, I'm not going until I'm sent for. Not even a burglary shall make me +miss my morning constitutional," and Winnie quickly equipped herself for +a walk in the grounds. + +"Milly shall do as she pleases," Adelaide said; "there is really no +necessity, as you say, for her to go with us." + +"I think I would rather go," Milly said hesitatingly. + +An expression of keen disappointment swept across Winnie's face. + +"Come, Winnie," I said, "you had better be with us; it looks better." + +"What do you mean?" she asked hotly. + +"Only that the Amen Corner always yields to the wish of the majority, +and we are in the habit of standing by one another, even when we do not +quite agree." + +"Winnie need not trouble herself," Cynthia remarked; "we can get on very +well without her. Of course she knows no more about the affair than the +rest of us." + +The words were innocent enough, but there was something very sarcastic +in the way in which they were uttered. + +"Evidently you would rather I would not go," Winnie said, as though +thinking aloud. "I am sorry to be disobliging, but if that is the case I +believe I will." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +TROUBLE IN THE AMEN CORNER. + + Doubt, + A soul-mist through whose rifts familiar stars + Beholding, we misname. + --_Jean Ingelow_ + + +[Illustration] + +Milly had been unhappy for days. + +And now a great trouble fell upon all of us. It was as though a dense +fog of doubt and suspicion had drifted in upon the Amen Corner, +separating dear friends, so that we could not recognize each other's +faces through its dense folds, and our voices sounded false and far away +as we called and groped for one another. + +Our interview with Madame was very brief. I simply stated the fact of +the disappearance of the money, which the other girls corroborated. + +Cynthia began to enlarge on the statement, but Madame stopped her. + +"I have not time now to investigate this unhappy affair," she said. +"Indeed, it is something which will probably require the assistance of a +detective. Do not look so alarmed," she added to Milly; "I happen to be +acquainted with a gentleman--in fact, he is my lawyer--who has all the +qualifications of a very clever detective. I will write, asking him to +call, and to take charge of the case. He will keep it all very quiet. I +am glad that you have come to me first of all, and I particularly +request that you mention the fact of the robbery to no one." + +With this she dismissed us, and we went to breakfast a little late, +feeling very important in the possession of a mystery. Winnie was the +only one whom this mystery did not seem to elate. Cynthia, who sat +beside me at table, was overflowing with glee. + +"It is better than the most exciting story which Winnie ever told us," +she whispered to me. "Won't it be fun to follow the unravelling of the +crime. Of course the detective will be led off by false clues, and all +that sort of thing, and the real thief will suffer all the torture of +alternate fear of detection and hope of escape; but the toils will +close gradually about the doomed individual. I shall not disclose my +suspicions till toward the last. Oh! what fun it will be to watch the +development of the drama. I should think, Tib, that you would write it +up." + +"Your suspicions?" I repeated. "Do you really suspect any one?" + +"Why, yes; don't you?" + +"No indeed!" + +"Then all I've got to say is that you are a lamb. You think every one as +innocent as yourself. Because you have the innocence of a lamb, you have +a corresponding muttony intelligence." + +I was very indignant, but I did not show it. "Whom do you suspect?" I +asked. + +"That's telling," she replied, "and I said that I would not tell at this +stage of the game." + +Later in the day, as I left the studio to return to our study-parlor, I +met Winnie coming out. She had on her hat and cloak and carried my own. +"Come and walk with me," she said, "I feel all mugged up, and I need +a good tramp. Milly is in there trying to take a nap. Adelaide and +Cynthia are at recitation, and if you will come with me the poor child +can get a little rest." + +As we marched around the school building together, I told her of my +conversation with Cynthia. Winnie started. + +"I don't believe she really knows anything more than we do," I said. +"Cynthia loves to be important and aggravating. If she really knew +anything she couldn't keep it in." + +"Find out whom she suspects," Winnie replied. "Cynthia is a real snake +in the grass, and can do a lot of mischief by fastening the crime on an +innocent person. I do not mean that she would do this wilfully, unless +she had a strong motive for revenge, but she is unscrupulous as to the +results of her actions, and loves to imagine evil and set forth facts in +their most damaging light. Find out, by all means, whether she really +knows anything likely to implicate any one." + +"Cynthia is a hard orange to squeeze," I replied. "If she thinks I want +to know, she will delight in tantalizing me." + +Winnie was silent for a moment. "Find out whether Cynthia slept soundly +all night, or whether she heard or saw any one in the parlor. She might +have heard me, you know, when I went out to look at the door." + +"Sure enough," I replied. "If that is all I will get it out of her right +away." + +We returned to our rooms. There was no one in the parlor. Winnie looked +into the bedrooms. Only Milly sleeping peacefully, and Winnie stepped to +the match box, took the key, and opened the safe. I do not know what she +expected to find, but she looked disappointed. + +"Did you think the thief would help himself again in broad daylight?" I +asked. + +"No," Winnie replied shortly. + +At that instant Cynthia entered, flushed, and as it seemed to me +triumphant. "Mr. Mudge wants to see you, Winnie, in Madame's private +library," she announced importantly. + +"Who is Mr. Mudge?" Winnie asked. + +"He is Madame's lawyer. The keenest, shrewdest man you ever saw, with +little gimletty eyes that bore the truth right out of you; and such a +cross-questioner! If you have a secret, he knows it the minute he looks +at you, and makes you tell it, in spite of yourself, the first time that +you open your mouth. You need not try to keep your suspicions to +yourself, they will be out before you can say Jack Robinson." + +Winnie gave a little sigh. "And you say he wants to see me?" she asked, +rising with a palpable effort. + +"Yes, he wants to question us each separately, to see if our testimony +agrees, I suppose. He asked Madame, as I went in, if she had kept us +apart since the robbery to guard against any--collision--I think that +was the word!" + +"Collusion," I corrected. + +"No matter; he meant that we might have hatched up a story between us, +but Madame assured him that we were all honorable girls and incapable of +such a thing." + +"Of course," he replied, "unless they happen to know or suspect the +culprit, and wish to shield her. In such cases, I have known the most +religious young persons to lie like a jockey." + +Winnie left the room, throwing me a look of piteous appeal as she did +so, which I understood to beg me to find out all I could from Cynthia. I +rocked silently for a few moments, to disclaim all eagerness, and then +said casually: "I don't believe you would ever lie to save a friend." +This in a propitiating tone, adding to myself, "you would be much more +likely to tell a lie to get one into trouble." + +Cynthia could not hear the thought, and she stretched herself +luxuriously on the divan. + +"No," she replied, "I don't make any pretense of being good; but I +wouldn't do that. Whenever the Hornets got into scrapes, I always told. +Madame could depend on me for that. It is sneaky not to be willing to +take the consequences. Besides, you get off a great deal easier if you +own up; and others will be sure to throw the blame on you if you are not +smart enough to get ahead of them." + +How I despised her. "I wonder if she thinks she is in danger of being +called in question for this crime," I thought, "and has made haste to +accuse some one else." + +"You said you meant to keep your testimony until the end, so I suppose +you did not tell Mr. Mudge your suspicions," I remarked. + +"Didn't I just say that I did tell him?" + +"Well, as they are only suspicions I presume he paid no attention to +them. Lawyers generally tell witnesses to confine their testimony to +facts." + +"But I had facts, suspicious facts; not ideas of my own, but important +circumstantial evidence." + +"_In_deed!" I purposely threw as much incredulity as I could into the +way in which I uttered the word. + +Cynthia sprang from the lounge, her eyes flashing with anger. "Yes, +_indeed_; very awkward facts for your precious friend Winnie to explain +away." + +"Winnie!" I exclaimed, and then laughed outright. + +Cynthia was furious. "What do you say to this Tib Smith? I saw Winnie, +with my own eyes, come into this room in her nightgown, with a lighted +candle in her hand, carefully close all the doors, and----" + +"Pooh! that's nothing," I replied cheerfully. "I was awake; I saw her, +too. She merely crossed the room to see whether the corridor-door was +locked." + +"Yes, and after that?" + +"Came back to bed again." + +"There you are telling a fib to save your friend. She did not go back +immediately. I was awakened by her softly closing my door, I got up and +peeked through the keyhole, and I saw her open the safe and rummage +around in it for quite a while, undoubtedly possessing herself of the +money. Then she locked it and hurried back to her room looking as +frightened as the criminal she was." + +"It is not so! It is a wicked, cruel falsehood!" Milly cried, springing +into the room. I had forgotten her presence in the bedroom and Cynthia +of course did not know of it. + +Cynthia was taken aback for a moment. "I will tell you why I know it was +so," she said at length. "After Winnie went back to the room, and before +any one else could have entered the parlor, I examined the safe and the +money was gone." + +"That proves nothing," I said; "it was probably taken before Winnie +opened the safe." + +"Then she knew of the robbery in the morning before the rest of you, and +never told." + +"You knew and never told either," said Milly. + +"I was waiting for the proper time," replied Cynthia. "If Winnie did not +take that money then she suspects who did. If she does not tell Mr. +Mudge her suspicions, she is trying to shield the guilty person, and +the--the shielder is as bad as the thief." + +"There is no proverb that says so," I replied; "beside, you have proved +nothing. If all that you say is true--and I don't mind telling you, +Cynthia Vaughn, that I am not entirely sure of that--if what you say +_is_ true, you are as deep in the mud as Winnie is in the mire." + +"You think Winnie a saint!" Cynthia sneered. "You don't half know her. +Before she came to room in the Amen Corner, and we were both in the +Hornets Nest up under the eaves, she was the Queen Hornet of all. There +was nothing which she would not dare to do, from letting down bouquets +in her scrap-basket to the cadet band when they serenaded us, to bribing +the janitor to let her slip out at night and buy goodies at the corner +grocery for our spreads. She was a regular case, and her pet name all +over the school was: + + 'The malicious, seditious, insubordinate, + Disreputable, sceptical Queen of the Hornets.'" + +"We know all that," I replied, "but there are some things which Winnie +_could_ not do. She could not tell a lie, and she could not steal." + +"I don't know about that," Cynthia continued coldly. "She comes from an +uncertain sort of Bohemian ancestry. You know her mother was an actress +and her father a playwright." + +Cynthia told this with great triumph, evidently thinking that we had +never heard it. + +"Madame told us," I replied, "that Mrs. De Witt was a very lovely +woman, who only acted in her husband's plays; that she made it her life +purpose to realize and explain her husband's ideals: and that he wrote +the part of the heroine especially to suit her, so that their creations +were among the most charming that have ever been presented on the +stage. They were devoted to one another, and when she died his heart +was broken. He does not write plays any more, but articles for +encyclopaedias, which is an extremely respectable profession." + +"And you dared prejudice this Mr. Mudge against our own precious +Winnie," Milly continued. "You are just the meanest girl, Cynthia +Vaughn, that ever lived! But you never can make any one believe anything +against her. If, as Tib says, it lies between you two, we all know who +is the more likely to have done it." + +Cynthia turned green. "Do you dare to accuse me?" she hissed. + +"No, Milly; don't do that," I cried warningly, and the overwrought girl +burst into a flood of tears and threw herself into my arms. "We accuse +no one," I said to Cynthia. "I trust that you have been equally cautious +with Mr. Mudge." + +"What I may have said or may not have said is no business of yours," +Cynthia replied. "You have both of you insulted me beyond endurance, and +from this time forth I shall never speak to any of you. I except +Adelaide," she added, after a moment's consideration. "Adelaide is the +only member of the Amen Corner who has treated me like a lady." + +"I think it would be pleasanter for you and for us if you would ask +Madame to let you room somewhere else," Milly suggested. + +"I shall not go simply because you wish it," Cynthia replied. "I shall +stay to watch developments." + +"And, meantime, I believe you said we were to be deprived of the +pleasure of any conversation with you," I remarked, rather flippantly. + +Cynthia turned her back upon me and from that time kept her word, +maintaining a sullen silence with every one but Adelaide. + +The bell rang for luncheon. The forenoon had seemed very long, and the +afternoon was simply interminable. Milly left the room with me. Cynthia +did not stir. + +"Do you think she took it?" Milly asked, nodding back at the parlor. + +"No," I replied, "she is altogether too gay. She evidently enjoys the +investigation. If she were the culprit she would be constrained, +nervous, averse to having the affair examined." I stopped suddenly, +realizing how exactly this description fitted Winnie. + +"Adelaide believes," Milly said slowly, "that it was some sneak thief +from outside the house. Have you looked about in the studio for any +suspicious circumstances?" + +I replied that I would do so after dinner, and then, as we passed into +the dining-room together, the subject was dropped. + +Winnie came to the table late and passed me a note, which I read beneath +my napkin. + +"Mr. Mudge wants to question you next. You are to meet him in Madame's +parlor immediately after luncheon. Hurry and finish, so that I can have +a minute with you before you see him." + +I bolted my dinner, and Winnie sat silently staring before her, eating +nothing. We left the dining-room five minutes before the conclusion of +the meal, bowing as we passed Madame's table, as was our custom when we +wished to be excused before the others. Madame's attention was absorbed +by the teacher with whom she was conversing, and we passed out +unhindered. + +"What did you find out from Cynthia?" Winnie asked, as we walked toward +the Amen Corner. "Does she suspect any one?" + +"Yes," I replied. "She is perfectly absurd. It is just as you said; she +insists on fastening the crime on a perfectly innocent person." + +Winnie drew in her breath. "One of us, I presume?" + +"Yes, Winnie dear. But," I hastened to add, for she grew suddenly deadly +pale, "she can do no harm; her suspicions are too manifestly impossible." + +"I don't know," Winnie chattered; "the reputation of many an innocent +person has been blasted by mere circumstantial evidence. What does +Cynthia know? What has she told?" + +"That she saw you go to the safe in the night." + +"Me? Then I am the one whom she suspects, and not--you are sure she saw +no one else?" Winnie laughed a long, joyous laugh. "I can stand it, +Tib," she said, "I can stand it. It's too good a joke." + +"Of course," I said, "no one can prove anything against you. But did you +go to the safe? I didn't see you do so." + +Winnie's face clouded. "Yes, I looked in to see if everything was +right. Mr. Mudge asked me if I had opened the safe during the night. +He said that some one of us had been seen to do it, but he led me +to suppose that he suspected some one else. I knew that he had his +information from Cynthia, and I was afraid she had seen some one else. +I mean--" and here Winnie corrected herself with some confusion--"I was +afraid that she might have taken me for some other person, and I was +very glad to acknowledge that I was the one who had opened the safe. I +don't think that Mr. Mudge believes that I am the culprit, for he smiled +at me in a very friendly way." + +"How could he believe such a thing?" I asked. "It is perfectly +nonsensical." + +"But if he does not suspect me, his suspicions will probably fasten on +some one else. On you, for instance, or Adelaide,--and I would rather be +the scapegoat than have any annoyance come to the rest of you." + +We had reached the Amen Corner, and had just opened the study-parlor +door. Winnie gave a little cry of surprise. The door into the studio was +open and a strange man stood looking at the broken lock. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +L. MUDGE, DETECTIVE. + + "The look o' the thing, the chance of mistake, + All were against me. That I knew the first; + But knowing also what my duty was, I did it." + + +[Illustration] + +"Why, Mr. Mudge!" Winnie exclaimed, recovering herself, "excuse me for +crying out, but really I did not expect to see you here." + +"I presume not," the gentleman replied dryly. "Under other circumstances +such intrusion would be unwarrantable, but I presume you understand +that in a case like this we must question not only human witnesses but +the place itself, and often our most valuable testimony is of a +circumstantial character. This broken lock, for instance, would seem to +prove that the thief entered through the studio." + +"Oh! that," I cried, "proves nothing; it has been broken this long +while--since the very beginning of the term." + +Winnie clasped my hand tightly, and I understood that she did not wish +her escapade with the sliding trunk explained. + +"Are you sure of that?" Mr. Mudge asked, looking slightly disappointed. +"Even if the lock was not broken on the night of the robbery, the fact +still remains that an entrance was practicable here at that time." + +"Why, of course!" I exclaimed. "It must have been the man who looked in +at the transom." + +"What man?" asked Mr. Mudge; and I told the story of the appearance the +night before. Winnie came forward impulsively, as though she wished to +interrupt me, then seemed to change her mind and walked to the window, +standing with her back to us. + +"And why is it," asked Mr. Mudge, "that neither Miss Cynthia nor Miss +Winnie have mentioned this very suspicious circumstance?" + +"I was not in the room when it happened, I did not see the man," Winnie +replied, without turning her head. + +"This thief may have made an earlier attempt which was foiled," Mr. +Mudge continued. "It seems to me a little careless that you did not +report the fact of the broken lock when you first discovered it, and +have the fastening mended." + +Winnie's eyes shone with suppressed amusement. "You think, then, Mr. +Mudge, that some one from the outside committed the burglary? I am very +glad that you have renounced the idea that any member of this school +could have been guilty of such a thing." + +"My dear young lady," replied Mr. Mudge, "I never indulge in +preconceived ideas, but I give every possibility a hearing. I have +nearly completed my examination of the _locale_, but must ask one +trifling favor. Will you kindly lend me all your keys?" + +"You don't mean to say that you are going through all our things?" I +exclaimed, aghast at the thought that the secret of the commissary must +now be disclosed. + +"A mere matter of form," he murmured, extending his hand with persuasive +authority. Winnie delivered her one key promptly, saying, "I will go and +tell the other girls." + +"Quite unnecessary," Mr. Mudge replied. "I have a pass key which opened +Miss Adelaide's capacious trunk. I have shaken out all her furbelows +and tried to fold them again as well as I could, but I fear that the +gowns with trains were a little too difficult for me. Miss Milly's +bureau drawers were in a wild state of mix: ribbons, laces, gloves, +hair crimpers, dried-up cake, perfumery, jewelry, chewing-gum, love +letters (innocent ones from other young ladies), a manicure set, a +bonnet pulled to pieces, a box of Huyler's, fancy work, dressmaker's +and other bills (which I have taken the liberty to borrow for a day +or two), dancing slippers and German favors, a tin box containing +marshmallows and a bottle of French dressing, menthol pencil, pepsum +lozenges for indigestion, box of salted almonds, bangles, sachet, +photograph of Harvard foot-ball team, notes to lectures on evidences of +Christianity, silver bonbonniere containing candied violets, programmes +of symphony rehearsals, caramels and embroidery silks gummed together, +a handsome book of etchings converted into a herbarium or pressing +book for botany class, and strapped together by buckling elastic +garters around it; fine Geneva watch, out of order; match box containing +specimens of live beetles, which I fear I released; pair of embroidered +silk stockings, in need of mending; a diary, disappointing since it +contains but two entries; packet of letters from home, tied with corset +lacing (these I have borrowed), packet of ditto from a certain +'Devotedly yours, Stacey, F. S.' tied with blue ribbon--these are of no +interest to me and I will not violate their secrets; badge of the Kings' +Daughters, button of West Point cadet, a fan bearing some autographs, a +mouldy lemon, a dream book, etc., etc. The more I tried to examine her +affairs the more confused I became, and I finally dumped them all out on +the floor and then shoveled them back again. I don't believe she will +ever suspect that they have been touched." + +I laughed, but Winnie looked uneasy. "I think, sir," she said, "that it +is hardly honorable to carry away Milly's private letters." + +"Any objection to having me read yours?" he asked sharply. + +"None at all," Winnie replied, at the same time handing him her little +writing desk, "but with Milly the case is different. I do not think Mr. +Roseveldt will like it." + +"Mr. Roseveldt will understand the necessity of the case," Mr. Mudge +replied. + +"Have you looked through Cynthia's things?" I asked. + +"Yes, first of all. Everything in admirable order. She sets you other +young ladies an example in point of neatness. And now, Miss Smith, I +will thank you to give me the key to that small, old-fashioned trunk +under your bed. It is the only one which my pass key will not fit; the +lock has gone out of date." + +"Any one but a detective could have opened it without a key," I replied, +somewhat snappishly, "if they had had the penetration to discover that +the hinges are broken. You simply swing the lid around this way." + +"Dear, dear, and so we keep a restaurant, do we? I believe I now +understand the slight trepidation which you manifested on being +requested to deliver up your keys. Reassure yourself. I am retained to +unravel but one mystery; any others which may tumble into my possession +during the search will be as safe as though buried in the grave. I +believe this is all, as far as the rooms are concerned. If Miss Smith +will accompany me now to the library, I will take her personal +deposition." + +Mr. Mudge was in the main kind. He did not alarm me in the least, and +asked but few questions. + +"Have you reason to suspect any one?" + +"No." + +"Very good. Did you see any one in the parlor the night of the robbery?" + +"Yes, Winnie." + +"But you did not suspect her when you discovered that the money was +gone?" + +"No, Winnie was honest and open as the day; it was impossible that she +could take it." + +"Hum, your parlor-mate, Miss Vaughn, does not share your opinion of your +friend. Do you know of any reason for the coolness which apparently +exists between them?" + +"Yes, Winnie has frankly given Cynthia her opinion of certain +underhanded performances of hers." + +"Such as----" + +"I am not a tale-bearer." + +"In this examination, Miss Smith, you will please answer all questions +put to you--and abstain from flippancy. Believe me, I ask nothing from +idle curiosity; nothing which does not have its bearings on this case." + +"Cynthia is continually doing things that exasperate Winnie. She put her +muff between the sheets at the foot of Milly's bed. When Milly slipped +her foot down and felt the fur she thought that it was a rat or some +wild animal, and she nearly shrieked herself into convulsions. Cynthia +laughed till she almost cried, but Winnie was raging with indignation, +and gave her such a scoring that Cynthia has never forgiven her." + +"Is that the only source of unpleasantness between them?" + +"No; such affairs are always coming up," and I related the trick of the +costumes, which has been told in the preceding volume. "And lately," I +added, "Cynthia has been very obsequious to Milly, and they have been +quite intimate. Winnie has not approved of the friendship. She told +Milly that she did not believe Cynthia was sincere, but did not succeed +in separating them. Cynthia surmised that Winnie was not pleased, and +taunted her with being jealous, and Winnie let them proudly alone, until +something happened at Milly's dressmaker, when she interfered again, +declaring that Cynthia was going too far, and that Milly needed some one +to protect her." + +"What happened at the dressmaker's?" + +"I don't know exactly. Milly went to the dressmaker's rooms last week to +have a dress fitted, and Winnie was with her. She came back very much +displeased, and had a long talk with Cynthia in her bedroom. As she came +out we heard her say, 'Downright dishonorable; as bad as stealing;' and +Cynthia called after her: 'I'll pay you for this; we shall see who is a +thief, Miss Winifred De Witt.'" + +"Hum!" said Mr. Mudge. "The importance of these little tiffs between +girls must not be exaggerated. They have probably made it all up by this +time." + +"Indeed they have not," I replied. + +"Can you give me the address of Miss Milly's dressmaker? On second +thought, it is of no consequence. I have it on this bill: 'To Madame +Celeste, Fifth Avenue: For tailor-made costume in dark green cloth, +trimmed with sable, sixty-seven dollars.'" + +"But that was Cynthia's dress," I said. + +"It is charged here to Miss Milly Roseveldt." + +"Oh!" I exclaimed, a light beginning to break in. + +"And you never suspected what it was that occurred at the dressmaker's +which displeased Miss Winnie?" + +"Never, until this moment. Milly has cried a great deal, but she would +not tell her trouble, even to Adelaide." + +"Very well. I will step across to Madame Celeste. No; on reflection I +will speak to Miss Milly first. Will you kindly ask her to come to me?" + +"Then this is all you wish to ask me?" + +"Thank you, yes. No, one question more. Can you tell me the exact time +at which Miss Winnie visited the parlor last night? The young lady +herself was very exact on that point." + +"That is natural!" I replied, "for the great clock at the end of the +corridor was striking twelve as she came back to the bedroom. I thought +it never would stop." + +"That tallies also with Miss Cynthia's testimony. She states that she +saw Miss Winnie go to the safe a few minutes before twelve; that she, +Miss Cynthia, lay still until the clock struck the quarter, and then +examined the safe, finding your money gone. + +"Inference (since Miss Winnie apparently noticed nothing out of the way +when she looked in): if neither of these young ladies took it, the +robbery must have been committed during that fifteen minutes." + +"That seems hardly possible," I said, "since Cynthia, Winnie, and I were +all awake during that time." + +"It is possible, though not probable. Cynthia's bedroom door, opening +into the parlor, was closed. Are you quite certain that you did not fall +asleep before the quarter struck. Did you hear it?" + +"No, I am not at all certain." + +"Very good. Then if the thief were standing in the studio waiting for +his opportunity, he might have slipped in during that time. Is there any +way in which we can ascertain whether any one was in the studio between +twelve and a quarter past?" + +"I know of no way," I replied. "There was no one in the studio at ten +o'clock when I looked in." + +"Very good; the known quantities are being gathered in, the unknown ones +defined; the problem becomes simpler. I think we will be able to solve +it soon. Meantime, if any new developments appear, be so good as to +report them to me." He rose and bowed stiffly in token of dismissal. I +hurried to our rooms and found Adelaide and Winnie. + +"Where is Milly?" I cried; "Mr. Mudge wants to see her next." + +"Milly has gone to Madame Celeste's," Adelaide answered. "She wanted to +pay a bill." + +"But she had no business to leave the house until she had given her +testimony," I exclaimed. "I wonder why Madame gave her permission." + +"I don't think Milly asked it," Adelaide replied; "and I fancy Milly was +not at all anxious to have this interview with the detective and merely +caught at Madame Celeste as a way of escape. She is not often in such a +twitter of promptness in settling her accounts; besides, now I think of +it, all her money was taken. How could she pay Celeste?" + +Winnie looked up from the table on which her elbows were resting, her +head grasped firmly between her hands as though it ached. She took no +part in the conversation until I remarked: + +"Well, if Milly thinks to escape Mr. Mudge by running away to Madame +Celeste's she is badly taken in, for he is going right over there." + +"What?" Winnie almost shrieked. "Does he suspect that she has anything +to do with this miserable business?" + +"Madame Celeste? No, but he wants to find why Cynthia had her dress +charged to Milly's account." + +"O Tib, Tib, why did you ever mention that?" Winnie groaned; "you don't +know what mischief you have made." + +"How did you know it, anyway?" Adelaide asked. "This is the first I have +heard of the matter." + +"I did not know it," I replied. "Mr. Mudge was looking over the papers +he took from Milly's drawer and he came across this bill for Cynthia's +dark green cloth dress, charged up against Milly, and I--I just happened +to say that was Cynthia's dress----" + +"If you could only have just happened to hold your tongue," Winnie +exclaimed, springing from her seat and pacing the floor. "Adelaide," +she added, "won't you go to Mr. Mudge and keep him busy hearing your +testimony until Milly has time to get away from Madame Celeste's. That +woman is a match for a lawyer even, but if he happens to meet Milly +there she will be frightened into anything. I knew there would be +trouble when Mr. Mudge took that bill." + +"Of course I will go, if you would like to have me do so," Adelaide +replied, rising, "but really, Winnie, I can't say that I at all +comprehend the situation." + +Winnie gave each of us a look of despair. "I didn't intend you should," +she said, "but since ignorance bungles in this way I will explain. Milly +has very weakly been getting things for Cynthia and allowing them to be +charged on her bills. I have remonstrated with her and she has promised +to do so no more. I told her how wicked it would be to send these +accounts in to her father as her own, and she has not done that. She has +kept them separate, intending to settle them whenever Cynthia paid up." + +"I don't see why Cynthia could not have taken her debts on her own +shoulders instead of entangling Milly," Adelaide remarked. + +"Simply because Cynthia has no credit. Madame Celeste would not trust +her for a penny, while she would let Milly run up any amount. Well, +either Cynthia has paid or Milly has obtained the money in some other +way. One thing is certain, she has it and she has gone down to pay +Madame Celeste; anxious, as you may well imagine, to get her feet out of +the quicksand and not by any mischance to have that bill sent home to +her father. Now, don't you see that if Mr. Mudge ascertains that Milly +has a secret of this kind, that the next thing he will do will be to +suspect that Milly stole the money in order to extricate herself from +this trouble." + +"Impossible," Adelaide exclaimed. "Milly has only to tell where the +money came from." + +"And I have asked her and she will not tell. It is all right, she +assures me, but she can not or will not tell how." + +"Silly goose! I will get it out of her," said Adelaide. "And meantime +there is no need whatever that she should be even suspected. She did not +do it--and suspicion might as well start out from the first on the right +track. I will go at once to Mr. Mudge, and enlighten his benighted +mind." + +"What is your theory, Adelaide?" I cried, but not before the door had +closed behind her. + +"Don't stop her," Winnie pleaded. "Time is precious; Mr. Mudge may have +tired waiting for Milly and have gone. No matter what her theory is, so +long as it takes suspicion from Milly. I had great hopes that Cynthia +would succeed in making him think I had done it." + +"He did have you in his mind at one time," I said. "He said, 'If neither +Miss Winnie nor Miss Cynthia took it, the robbery must have been +committed during the fifteen minutes between their visits to the +safe!'" + +"He said that?" Winnie inquired, with interest. + +"Yes, and Winnie, the thing is plain to me--I believe Cynthia took that +money." Winnie shook her head. + +"Now just listen to my reasoning. Milly has been insisting that Cynthia +shall pay up. We know that Cynthia has received no money lately. She +stole it and gave it to Milly, and made her promise not to tell who gave +it to her. It's as plain as the nose on my face. And then," I continued +triumphantly, warming to my conclusion, "she artfully throws the +suspicions of the robbery on you, as a revenge for the straightforward +talk you gave her. Haven't I ferretted it all out well? Isn't it the +most likely way in the world that it could have happened? Are you not +perfectly convinced?" + +"It is the most likely story," Winnie replied, "and so very feasible +does it seem that even I am almost convinced, although I know positively +that it did not happen that way, even Cynthia must not be unjustly +suspected." + +"How do you know it?" + +"Because Cynthia told the truth when she said that the money was stolen +when she looked into the safe. It was gone when I looked in." + +"Winifred! But you told Mr. Mudge that it was there." + +"I told Mr. Mudge that I found _my_ money just as I left it. It was not +touched at all, you know; but yours, Milly's, and a part of Adelaide's, +all that was stolen, was already taken." + +"But Mr. Mudge did not understand you so." + +"That is his own fault." + +"Did you want him to misunderstand the situation?" + +"Apparently, Tib; but don't ask so many questions. Let him proceed on +the assumption that the robbery was committed in that fifteen minutes. +If any innocent person is apparently implicated, I will confess. +Meantime, you are shocked to find that I am delaying the course of +justice in order to keep suspicion from myself." + +"A thousand times no; you could never act a lie unless it was to shield +some one else. Was it to shield Milly, and how?" + +"Tib, it breaks my heart--I can't tell you--I love her so--I love her--" + +A great fear came over me; Milly had taken the money and Winnie knew it. +But Milly had lost all her money, and yet that was a very transparent +subterfuge. What more natural than that the thief would pretend to be +an innocent sufferer and steal from herself? And Milly knew before she +looked that there was nothing in her purse. I asked relentlessly, "Was +Milly at the safe during the night at some time earlier than you and +Cynthia?" + +"Milly will not admit that she was," Winnie replied, her manner +hardening as she realized that she had not quite disclosed her secret, +and her determination to guard it returning with redoubled force. + +"Then why do you suspect it?" + +"I do not suspect it." + +The fixed despair in her eyes added the words, "I know it," as plainly +as if she had spoken them. + +"Did you see Milly take the money?" I insisted. "Was that what wakened +you? And is that the reason why you wish it to appear that the safe was +intact at the time you examined it?" + +Winnie covered her face with her hands and did not reply. I felt that +I had divined the truth. A solemn silence fell upon us both for a few +minutes, then Winnie straightened herself with the old resolute look in +her face. + +"Tib," she said, "I have told you nothing. You know nothing from your +own personal observation. Whatever you may _think_ is purely guess-work, +and you have no right to imagine evil against Milly. She is the sweetest +and dearest girl in our set. She is innocent and unsuspicious, and so +kind-hearted that she is easily led. She has gone wrong in some things, +terribly wrong; but she is the youngest of us all and it is Cynthia's +fault, and I believe she is trying desperately to get straight again. As +for this terrible thing, you must not suspect her of it. It is your +duty, on the contrary, to try to turn the attention of Mr. Mudge in some +other direction." + +As she spoke, Cynthia opened the door and Winnie relapsed into silence. +I felt a strange, dizzy sensation, as if the foundations were being +removed. The more I tried to puzzle out the affair the more bewildered +I became. There was Cynthia, who believed that Winnie was the culprit, +or at all events was striving to make Mr. Mudge believe so; and when I +weighed the evidence the case was strongly against her. Here again was +Winnie, who seemed to believe that it was Milly, and I knew that the +evidence which could shake her faith in Milly must be overwhelming. I +had made it seem entirely clear to myself that Cynthia had done it, and +in a blind, unreasoning way, although Winnie's testimony had showed +that this could not possibly be, the suspicion, once started, grew and +strengthened. I watched her as she sat working out algebra problems with +a disagreeable smile on her face--and I said to myself over and over +again, "You did it, and the truth will come out at last." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HALLOWEEN TRICKS AND WHAT CAME OF THEM. + + +[Illustration] + +Evening was falling when Adelaide returned from her interview with Mr. +Mudge. + +"Has not Milly returned yet?" she asked, as she entered the door. + +"No," replied Winnie. "Has Mr. Mudge gone to interview Celeste?" + +"No, he is off on another scent. He has gone to interview Professor +Waite." + +"What does Professor Waite know about the matter?" I asked in surprise. + +"Nothing. It only shows the imbecility of these detectives who insist on +pursuing every impossible as well as every possible clew." + +"Tell us all about it," I entreated. "I should like to know how it was +possible to drag Professor Waite into the business." + +"Why, through the transom, of course," Adelaide replied, and we all +laughed at the absurd suggestion. "The first question that Mr. Mudge +asked was, 'Have you any theory or suspicions in regard to this affair, +Miss Armstrong?' I answered that I had determined from the first that it +was the act of some sneak-thief, who had watched us, through the +transom, put the money into the safe." + +Again Winnie made an involuntary movement as though about to speak, but +restrained herself, and Adelaide continued: + +"I told him about the face at the transom in the Rembrandt hat, and he +asked me if it was Professor Waite. I told him that I thought not. The +head looked smaller and the hat came lower down over the eyes and at the +back than it would have done on the professor. Besides, the professor +has that little pointed Paris beard, and this face had a smooth chin. I +saw it plainly for a moment in profile. Mr. Mudge did not seem to be +satisfied and made me admit that I might have been mistaken. Professor +Waite's beard is such a very immature affair. Then he asked me how an +outsider could have introduced himself into the studio without coming in +at the front door, which is guarded by the janitor, and coming up the +grand staircase past Madame's room and twenty other rooms, all occupied, +and likely to have their doors open in the evening. I told him that +there were two other ways: the fire escape----" + +"Both the corridor window and our own were locked on the inside," I +interrupted. + +"He said he found it so--and agreed with me that the turret staircase +was the more likely entrance. I explained that the spiral staircase in +the turret was built especially for the use of the physician when this +part of the building was the infirmary, and that in order to quarantine +it from the rest of the school, there were no entrances to the turret +on any of the other floors--that it led directly from the studio to the +street, and that no one used it but Professor Waite, who kept the key of +the outer door; that he might have negligently left this door unlocked, +and in that case a tramp could easily have slipped in, and as there was +no communication with any other room he would have found himself, on +reaching the end of the staircase, in the studio and in front of our +door. Mr. Mudge then questioned me as to Professor Waite's habits. Did +he usually spend his evenings in the studio, and were we in the habit of +visiting back and forward in a friendly manner through the door with +the broken lock? This made me very indignant. Such a thing, I assured +Mr. Mudge, would be contrary to the rules of the school, and to the +instincts of any self-respecting girl. The door had never been opened +since the lock was first broken, and even Tib, whose duties required her +to be in the studio during half of the day, always entered it by the +corridor door. As to Professor Waite, he did not board in the house. I +believed he belonged to several artist clubs--the Salmagundi, the Kit +Kat, and others--and that he probably spent his evenings there, or in +society, or at his boarding house around the corner; at all events, he +never painted in the studio in the evening, for I had heard Tib say that +the lighting was not sufficient for night work. There was a rumor, too, +that Professor Waite was very popular in society; but that Tib could +inform Mr. Mudge much more explicitly than I on all matters relative to +the professor's habits, as I had never interested myself in him, and +what he did or did not do was of no manner of consequence to me. This +seemed to amuse Mr. Mudge very much, but he replied politely enough +that he had never for an instant imagined that a young artist, like the +professor, could be anything else than an object of supreme indifference +to any right-minded young lady, and then he proceeded to question me +more closely than ever. Though Professor Waite did not usually spend his +evenings in the studio, did he not occasionally drop in on his way home? +Had we ever heard him ascending or descending the turret stairs at about +midnight, for instance. I was obliged to confess that I knew of one +instance when he had visited the studio at that hour, for I had met +him on the staircase; that he was returning from an evening spent in +sketching at the life-class of the Kit Kat Club, and he had run up to +the studio to leave his drawings and materials before returning to his +room at the boarding house. That it was very possible that he did this +frequently. Then, of course, he asked me how it happened that I was +going down that staircase at such an unseemly hour on the occasion when +I met Professor Waite, and I had to confess all that maddening Halloween +business." + +We all shouted, for this was a particularly painful subject with +Adelaide. It was the one practical joke which we had ever had the heart +to play on our queen. + +Such grave consequences attended this Halloween trick that it is +possibly worth while for me to turn aside from the direct record of the +robbery and devote a chapter or two to a confession of one of our most +serious scrapes. + +It had been suggested by Cynthia and approved and carried out by Winnie +before the days of the breaking off of their friendship. Cynthia had a +way of suggesting plots for less cautious people to carry out, whereby +they burned their fingers like the cat in the fable of the chestnuts. + +The Amen Corner had conducted itself with praiseworthy propriety +after the opening escapade of the season--that of the roller-coaster +trunk--for the space of a few weeks. But when Halloween came we all +felt the need of what Winnie called an explosion. We had been too +preternaturally goody-goody, and the escape valve must be opened. We +decided to celebrate the eve of "antics and of fooleries" befittingly, +and we arranged to bob for apples, to snatch raisins from burning +alcohol, thereby ascertaining the number of our future lovers. + + We tied our garters around our feet + And crossed our stockings under our head; + We turned our shoes toward the street + And dreamed of the ones we were going to wed. + +We poured molten lead into water, striving to ascertain the occupation +of our future husbands from the forms which it took. Adelaide's emblem +was something like a letter A, and we all declared that it was a perfect +easel and quite wonderful; but when we threw apple peelings over our +heads, Milly's broke into two sections, remotely resembling a scrawling +C and a W. Milly herself was the first to recognize the letters and to +blushingly declare that of course it was too absurd, it could not mean +Carrington Waite. + +Adelaide's younger brother Jim was attending the cadet school in the +city. He admired Milly exceedingly, as did many of the cadets who had +met her at a fair given at Madame's, the previous year, for the benefit +of the Home of the Elder Brother. Stacey Fitz Simmons, drum major of the +cadet band, and the best dodger and runner of the school foot-ball team, +was also her devoted admirer. The button which Mr. Mudge had discovered +in Milly's bureau drawer was not from a West Point uniform but from +Stacey's; and the foot-ball team was not the Harvard--but the Cadet +Eleven. We all tried to find emblems in the molten lead, or initials in +the apple parings, suggesting the cadets, but Milly would none of them. + +There was a Mr. Van Silver, much favored by Milly's family, a caller at +their cottage at Narragansett Pier, whom Adelaide had met while visiting +Milly the previous summer. He was principally remarkable for owning a +coach and four-in-hand, and as he had on one occasion invited Adelaide +to a seat on the box, it was a little fiction of Milly's that Mr. Van +Silver was her humble slave. But we were all innocent in the ways of +flirtations and, with the exception of Milly, heart whole and fancy +free, and it was really a difficult thing to conjure up imaginary +lovers--for the occasion. + +The _piece de resistance_ of the evening was the trick played upon +Adelaide. We planned on our programme that just as the clock struck the +hour of midnight we would all try the experiment of walking downstairs +backward with a lighted candle in one hand and a looking-glass in the +other. Of course it would never do for the procession to file down the +grand staircase in front of Madame's rooms, but the spiral staircase, +secluded in the turret, offered peculiar advantages for the scheme. It +communicated with no other floor, only Professor Waite had the key to +the door at the foot, and he was never in the studio at night. So the +girls believed, until I informed them that he always came in for a few +moments on Wednesday nights to leave his sketches made at the Kit +Kat--and Halloween that year happened to fall upon a Wednesday. + +"So much the better," said Cynthia. "We will make Adelaide head the +procession, and she will see Professor Waite's face in her mirror. It +will be too good a joke for anything, for she can't bear the sight of +him since she made that unfortunate speech when she saw him standing in +the open door and thought it was Winnie _en masquerade_." + +"I am afraid it will be twitting on facts," I said; "for I more than +half suspect that Professor Waite admires Adelaide as much as she +detests him. He has asked me more than once why she does not join the +drawing class--and even suggested that I should induce her to pose for +the portrait class. He said her profile was purely classical, and that +she took naturally the most superb poses of any girl that he had ever +met." + +"So much the better," Cynthia declared. "It will be the best joke of +the season. What time does he usually arrive?" + +"He said, in telling one of the class, that he always leaves the Kit Kat +at half past eleven, and reaches the street door of the turret on the +stroke of twelve." + +"Delightful!" exclaimed Winnie. "Fortune favors our plans. What fun it +will be!" + +It was thought best not to admit Milly into our confidence, for fear +that she could not keep the secret. All went well. We played our tricks +and Winnie told ghost stories, but it seemed as if midnight would never +come. At one time we fancied we heard a noise in the turret and we +looked at each other apprehensively. Had anything happened to bring +Professor Waite back earlier than usual, and would our plans miscarry, +after all? At ten minutes before twelve we organized the procession. +Milly was timid and persisted in being in the middle. To our disgust +Adelaide refused to lead. "Winnie proposes it; let Winnie go first," +she said resolutely. + +"All right," Winnie assented, after a thoughtful pause. "I will if +Adelaide will come next." + +Cynthia and I looked at her inquiringly. We did not quite see how this +would answer. + +"Tib, let's go and see if Snooks is in bed and the coast is clear," +Winnie suggested. "It's a pity that we can't get into the studio through +this door, but that chest is too heavy for us to push aside." + +Winnie and I reconnoitered, and as we opened the door into the turret +she told me her plan. + +"I will lead rapidly and when I get to the bottom will scud into that +little closet under the stairs where they keep the lawn mower, so that +Adelaide will be virtually at the head. We must start right away, so as +to give me a chance to get into my haven of refuge before Professor +Waite arrives." + +We all tiptoed into the studio and lighted our candles there, after +we had closed the corridor door. We had had quite a time collecting +mirrors. Adelaide and Milly possessed handsome silver-backed +hand-glasses. Winnie carried a pretty toilet mirror with three folding +leaves. I had a work box with looking-glass inside the lid, and Cynthia +had unscrewed the large mirror from her bureau. We were all giggling +and shivering when Winnie, our marshal, gave the signal for the start +in the following order: Winnie, Adelaide, Milly, myself, and Cynthia +bringing up the rear. + +The steps winding around the central pillar were narrower at one end +than the other and it was rather difficult to tread them backward. The +fall wind blew through the slits of unglazed windows and extinguished my +candle. Winnie, in her haste to get to the bottom, fell, extinguished +hers also, and hurt herself quite severely, but she had determination +enough to pick herself up again and limp on. Suddenly there came a +strong draught of air and there was a halt in our march. Milly whispered +that she could hear voices, then Adelaide, who was a little way in +advance, shrieked and came running up the stairs. We were all huddled +together in a jam. Cynthia was shouting with laughter, Milly crying with +fright, Adelaide choking and incoherent with indignation. + +"Hurry, hurry!" she cried, pushing us back; "he is coming; he is just +behind me." + +We were only a few steps from the studio and we all bundled in--but in +the confusion Milly had dropped her candle, and the light Mother Hubbard +wrapper was all in a blaze. + +Cynthia rushed wildly out of the room. I have no recollection of what I +did, but Adelaide fought the flames with her hands; but she would never +have conquered them, and our darling might have died a cruel death in +torturing flames, if Professor Waite had not dashed into the room, +wrapped her in a Persian rug, and extinguished the fire. Strange to say, +she was entirely unhurt. Only her beautiful blond hair was singed, and +that was afterward attributed by her friends to an injudicious use of +the curling irons. Adelaide's hands were badly burned and Professor +Waite bathed them in oil, while an older, serious looking man, who had +followed Professor Waite, whom we only noticed at this stage of the +proceedings, wrapped them in his white silk muffler. Then Cynthia +appeared at the door with a white face and a small water pitcher, and we +were able for the first time to laugh in a hysterical way. Fortunately, +no one had heard us, and we slipped back to the Amen Corner. + +Milly was awe-stricken by the peril through which she had passed, but +there was a strange, happy look upon her face which I did not understand +until, as I tucked her away in bed, she pulled me down to her and +whispered in my ear: + +"He held me in his arms, Tib; for one heavenly minute he held me close, +close in his arms. I felt the hot breath of the flames, but I did not +care. I was willing to die, I was so happy----" + +"My poor little girl," I said, as I kissed her, "you must not let +yourself care for Professor Waite, for he does not----" + +"I know," she replied, "he loves Adelaide; he can't help it any more +than I can help----" + +"Hush," I said, "this is all foolishness; put it right out of your +little head. You are only sixteen; you are not old enough to care for +any one. You will laugh at this by and by." + +She shook her head solemnly. "I shall always remember, Tib--that for one +heavenly minute he held me tight--so." And she embraced her pillow with +all her small might, nestling her hot cheek against it in a way which +would have been absurd if it had not been so unspeakably pathetic. + +Adelaide strode into the room at this juncture with the air of a tragedy +queen. + +"Thank Heaven, you are safe, Milly dear!" she said, pausing beside the +bed, but her look was not one of pious thanksgiving. Her voice had a +sharp sound, and a crimson spot flamed on her dark cheeks. "He dared +to hold my hands in his," she murmured, "and, worse still, to call me +'noble girl,' and his 'poor child'; and he will think that I went down +those stairs on purpose to see his face in my mirror. Oh, how I hate +him, how I hate him!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A STATE OF "DREADFULNESS." + + +[Illustration] + +Miss Noakes had not heard us, but our troubles were not over. + +It was not until I had helped Adelaide to retire (for her poor hands +were too badly burned to put up her own hair), and had gone away into my +own room that I realized that Winnie was not with us and that she had +been left behind in the stampede up the turret stairs. I crept around +through the corridor into the darkened studio. Professor Waite and his +friend had gone, why had not Winnie returned? I opened the door leading +to the turret and called her name softly. I was answered by a groan. I +hastened to light a candle and stole down the winding stair. Half way +down I found Winnie sitting on the steps, a bundle of misery. + +"I came up once," she exclaimed, "but Professor Waite was in the studio +and I had to go back to the closet and wait until he left the house." + +"It must have been very chilly and unpleasant with nothing but a +watering can and a lawn mower to sit on," I remarked; "but why didn't +you come all the way up this time. You surely don't intend to spend the +night where you are." + +"I don't know," Winnie replied, with another groan; "I've sprained my +ankle or something, and I can't bear my weight on it. It was all that I +could do to drag myself up and back again, and then as far as this. Ow! +how it hurts! No, I just cannot take another step." + +"Dear! dear!" I exclaimed; "what a night this has been! With Milly's +narrow escape from death, and Adelaide's burned hands, and your sprained +ankle, we have had enough Halloween for one year." + +"What do you mean?" Winnie asked, in her absorption taking several +little hops up the stairs. "Milly's escape? What has happened? Ow! wow! +You'll have to get a derrick, Tib, and hoist me up. I cannot budge an +inch." + +"Lean on me," I said, "and listen while I tell you all about it"; and I +rehearsed the thrilling story of Professor Waite's rescue. + +"I can smell the smoke still. Snooks will think the house is on fire," +Winnie declared, snuffing vigorously as we reached the studio. "You had +better open the windows a bit and air off. And there are some burned +scraps of Milly's wrapper on the floor; let's pick them all up. Ow! +don't let go of me. This is really what Milly calls a state of +dreadfulness--no other word will describe it. How can I ever stand it +until morning?" + +I helped her to her bed and bound up her ankle with Pond's Extract; but +it had swollen so much and was so painful that when morning came Winnie +consented to have the school physician called. He kindly asked no +questions, and treated Adelaide's hands, only remarking, "I see you have +been celebrating Halloween." + +"He thinks I burned them in snatching the raisins out of the lighted +alcohol," Adelaide said; "or perhaps in putting out some clothing which +was set on fire in that way." + +Even Madame was considerate and did not inquire closely into the details +of the trouble. + +"I hope you have learned from this," she said, "that it is a dangerous +thing to play with fire." + +Halloween was a disagreeable subject after this to all of us, but +especially to Winnie. "Don't mention it," she would say. "I shall never +play another trick in all my mortal days. I feel as mean and demoralized +as a lunch-basket on its way home from a picnic." + +The state of dreadfulness deepened as time went on. Winnie kept her room +for days, and it was necessary to feed Adelaide at table, and dress and +undress her; but their hurts troubled me less than the heart bruise +received by my poor Milly. I kept her secret and she was brave, and no +one else suspected it. Professor Waite was very impatient with her, +treating her work contemptuously, and disregarding her personally +altogether. He never alluded to the accident, treating it, as Winnie +said, as of no more consequence than if he had extinguished a bale of +cotton that had happened to take fire. + +"That man is utterly incapable of sentiment," Winnie remarked +wrathfully. "Now how natural it would be to make a romance out of +such a rescue, but Professor Waite's heart is as stony as that of the +Apollo Belvedere." + +Milly smiled piteously and shook her head, while she looked +significantly from me toward Adelaide, as much as to say: "We know +better; he is not so stony-hearted as he seems." + +Having my attention directed to the matter, I kept my eyes open for +little indications of the state of Professor Waite's sentiments, and +presently found that they were not lacking. The studio was not occupied +by classes until after ten o'clock in the morning, and Professor Waite +came every day very early, and painted there alone until the first wave +of pupils swept in and filled the room with an encampment of easels. +He explained to me that he was preparing a picture for the Academy +exhibition, the morning light was good, and as his studio in the city +was shared with another young artist, he preferred to come here where he +could work quietly and undisturbed for a few hours each morning. He +always bolted the corridor door to secure complete seclusion, and we +had often to wait a few moments until he admitted us. He did not show us +the painting, but it was evident that he was deeply interested in it, +for he was frequently distraught, and apparently vexed at being obliged +to turn his attention to our offences against art, just as he was worked +up to a fine phrensy of production. At such times he would run his +fingers through his hair, and stare at the work which the first +unfortunate pupil presented with a repugnance which was often more +clearly than politely expressed. Sometimes his ill humour vented itself +on the model. We were in the habit of taking turns and, dressed in some +picturesque costume, of posing for the class for a week at a time. After +the Halloween experience it happened to be Milly's turn. We had costumed +her as an Italian contadina, and thought that she looked very prettily. +But Professor Waite was not satisfied. + +"Why have you chosen a blonde for such a character?" he asked me +impatiently. "That little snub nose and milk-and-water complexion have +nothing Italian in their make up. If you could induce that superb +creature, Miss Armstrong, to wear the costume, you would see the +difference." + +Milly had heard the remark though he did not intend she should do so, +and her eyes suffused with tears as usual. "I will ask Adelaide," she +said meekly, "but I don't believe she will be willing to pose for the +class." + +"Never mind the class," Professor Waite replied eagerly. "If Miss +Armstrong will honor me by giving me personally a few sittings each +morning for my Academy picture I shall be more gratified than I can +express." + +Milly, more than happy to attempt to do the professor a favor, besought +Adelaide, who was obdurate and even indignant. + +"The very idea!" she exclaimed. "I never heard of such assurance. _I_ +figure in his picture at a public exhibition, indeed." + +"Why, I am sure it's a great honor," Milly replied, bridling feebly; +"and I won't have you treat him in such a _desultory_ manner." + +We all laughed, for Milly, as usual when excited, had mixed her +words--insulting and derogatory clamoring at the same time in her small +mind for utterance. + +"I think it would be perfectly scrum to be in an Academy picture," +Winnie exclaimed. "I wish he would ask me." + +Perfectly "scrum," or "scrumptious," was Winnie's superlative; while +Adelaide, to express a similar delight, would have quoted the +Anglicism, "Quite too far more than most awfully delicious." + +"I wonder what his Academy picture is, anyway," Winnie went on, "and why +he never shows it to us. I mean to ask him to let me see it; I am sure I +might help him with some suggestions." + +"Well you _are_ unassuming," I exclaimed, never dreaming that Winnie, +with all her audacity, would dare to criticise a picture by our +professor. What was my astonishment, therefore, on awakening the next +morning, to find that Winnie was already dressed. + +"I am going into the studio," she remarked coolly, "to take a look at +Professor Waite's picture before he arrives." + +"O Winnie!" I begged, "don't; you've no business to do such a thing." +Winnie made a little face, courtesied, and flounced out of the room. She +returned presently, all aglow with excitement. + +"He was already there at work," she exclaimed, "painting, as the French +say, like an _enrage_. He had forgotten to bolt the door and I slipped +right in. His back was toward me, and he did not notice me at first, so +I had one good solid look. And what do you suppose it is, Tib? Why, +Adelaide, holding a candle and glancing over her shoulder as he must +have seen her going down the stairs. The Rembrandtesque effect of +artificial light and deep shadow is stunning. He has rigged up his +lay-figure on the landing in the dark turret, and had a lighted candle +wedged into her woodeny fingers, so that he gets the lighting on the +face and drapery, while he has daylight on his canvas. + +"Of course he has had to do the face from imagination or memory, but it +was perfect. I screamed right out: 'Don't touch that again or you'll +spoil it!' He turned the canvas back forward quicker than a wink, and +looked at me as if he would like to eat me, but I didn't care, and I +begged him not to disturb himself or interrupt his work on my account; +that I had only dropped in in a friendly way to give him a little +helpful criticism. With that he put on his eye-glasses and remarked; +'Well, you _are_ about the coolest young lady that it has ever been +my privilege to meet,' but he had to come right down from that nifty +position, for I said, 'If my opinions are of no use, perhaps Madame's +will be more helpful; shall I ask her to come up and take a look at the +picture?' That made him wince. He turned all sorts of colors, chewed +his mustache, and hadn't a word to say. I felt sort of sorry for him and +I assured him that I had no intention of telling, at least not if he was +nice; and I reminded him that he owed the subject to me in the first +place, for if I had not suggested the trick he would never have seen +Adelaide in that particular lighting. With that he changed his tune and +said that he was very grateful for my kind intention, and that if I +would kindly lend him a photograph of Adelaide he would be still more +grateful. But I told him that I did not think that it was fair to +exhibit a portrait of Adelaide, and he admitted that it was not, and +said that he had decided not to send the picture to the exhibition, but +merely to keep it himself." + +Adelaide happened to knock at our door at this juncture, and Winnie told +her what she had discovered. + +"This is past endurance," Adelaide exclaimed angrily; "you must come +with me, Tib, and insist on Professor Waite's showing me this picture. +If the face is recognizable as my portrait I shall destroy it then and +there." + +"Don't, Adelaide," I begged. "Professor Waite is a gentleman; he has +already told Winnie that he does not intend to exhibit the picture----" + +"But I do not choose that he shall possess it," she cried; "if you +will not go with me I shall go alone," and she hurried to the studio +door. It was locked, and Professor Waite did not choose to reply to +her oft-repeated knocks. He evidently considered Winnie's visit +all-sufficient for one morning. Adelaide came back in a towering +passion. "If my poor hands would only let me write," she exclaimed, "I +would give him such a piece of my mind. Winnie, be my amanuensis. +Write what I dictate." + +Winnie sat down good-humoredly and dashed off in her large scrawling +script, which filled a page with these lines, the following indignant +protest: + + PROFESSOR WAITE: + + I regret that I consider the liberty you have taken in painting + my portrait for the Academy Exhibition, without my knowledge or + consent, a dishonorable act of which no gentleman would be guilty, + and I demand that you destroy it instantly. + + ADELAIDE ARMSTRONG. + +She was excited and she spoke loudly. When she finished, there was dead +silence in the little parlor. We all felt that Adelaide had put it a +little too strongly. That silence was broken by a half-suppressed +sneeze on the balcony outside the window. A sneeze which we all +recognized as belonging to Miss Noakes. Had she been listening? Had +she heard? Winnie balanced the ink bottle over the letter ready to +obliterate its contents by an "accident" if Miss Noakes suddenly +knocked. No one appeared, and going to the window a moment afterward, I +saw Miss Noakes walking between her window and ours, and taking in great +sniffs of the keen morning air with much apparent enjoyment. + +The bell rang for breakfast and Adelaide and I walked along together, +pausing to slip the note under the studio door. It would not go quite +through, a little end protruding, but that did not strike us as of any +consequence. I had descended one flight of stairs when I found that I +had forgotten my geometry and I hastened back to get it. I met Winnie +before I turned into the corridor. "Hurry," she exclaimed, "Snooks is +just leaving her door; she will mark you for tardiness." I flew along at +the top of my speed, but on reaching our corridor I saw a sight which +suddenly arrested my footsteps. Miss Noakes stood before the studio +door, carefully adjusting her eye-glasses and looking at the note; +presently she stooped, picked it up, and read the address. She +hesitated a moment, seemed half inclined to replace it, turned it over +as though she wished to open it, then glancing down the hall and spying +me, she placed it in the great leather bag which hung at her side. She +closed the bag with a savage click and glared at me as I turned and +fled, for I had not the courage to meet her. + +I reported the calamity at breakfast table in an awe-stricken whisper to +Milly, who turned a trifle pale. + +"I am afraid it will get Professor Waite into trouble," she said, +"Adelaide is still very angry with him, but I am sure she does not want +to make him lose his position in the school." + +"It may make her lose her own position," Cynthia Vaughn suggested. +"Writing notes to young men is against the rules. It's an expellable +offence. But then," she added, "this wasn't exactly a love letter." + +"I should think not," I exclaimed. + +"It's all the worse," Milly groaned, as she scalded her throat with hot +coffee. + +"Adelaide can say she didn't write it, you know," Cynthia suggested +cheerfully. "Winnie wrote it; and she didn't poke it under the door +either--Tib did that." + +"Do you suppose, Cynthia Vaughn, that Adelaide would do such a mean +thing as not to take the consequences of her own actions?" Milly asked +indignantly. Then she clasped my hand, for Miss Noakes stood at Madame's +table, and had opened her black bag and was handing Madame the note. We +could see even at that distance that the seal was unbroken, but this +gave us scant comfort; it was only putting off the evil day. + +"Winnie might steal that note for us," Cynthia suggested, "before Madame +has a chance to read it." + +"Why are you always thinking up scrapes for Winnie to get into?" Milly +asked. + +Winnie pricked her ears, at the other side of the table. "What about +Winnie?" she asked. + +"Nothing," Milly replied shortly; but as we went up to the studio a +little before ten o'clock, I explained the situation. To my surprise +Winnie's eyes danced with merriment. "Snooks listened," she exclaimed, +"she heard Adelaide, I knew she did, and now we know how she finds out +things that happen in the Amen Corner; often and often I have thought +that I heard her, and have opened the door quickly only to find the +corridor empty. Of course she is smart enough to know that she would +get caught if she listened at the door; she would never in the world +have time enough to scuttle down to her own room before we would see +her. But the balcony! Strange we never thought of that. I'll lay a trap +for her--no, I need not; she has trapped herself; this affair is proof +enough that she peeks and listens." + +"But I don't see how this helps us," I exclaimed. "This is the worst +scrape of the season. Don't you see it is? Such glee on your part is +positively idiotic. We may all be expelled and Professor Waite too." + +"Fret not your dear little sympathetic, apprehensive gizzard. Don't say +one word, except to answer questions. Don't volunteer any confessions, +or let Adelaide do so. Remember, the prisoner is not obliged to +criminate himself, the burden of proof lies with Snooks, and she will +find it a pretty heavy burden." + +"Not with that note!" I replied. + +"That note! Ha! ha! But I won't tell you. It's too good a joke." + +"And Professor Waite's picture of Adelaide?" + +"The picture, I had forgotten that," and Winnie became grave at once. +"He must take it right away," she added. "I will tell him to." + +"You talk as if you could make him do anything," I said. + +"Anything I choose to try," Winnie replied confidently. We were at the +studio door a little ahead of time, and Professor Waite threw it open at +our knock, and welcomed us in with his palette still on his thumb. "Come +and see my picture," he said, with a smile. + +"Poor man!" I thought, "he would not look so happy if he knew how angry +Adelaide is, and what a mine is waiting to be exploded beneath him." + +He led us to the easel and displayed the canvas triumphantly. + +It was an effective, striking picture, but it did not in the least +resemble Adelaide. + +Winnie uttered an exclamation of disgust. "There now, you've spoiled it. +I knew you would. It was just perfect, and you've ruined it. I'm sure I +never want to look at that thing again. I told you not to touch it. Why +couldn't you let it alone?" and a half dozen other wails of the same +order. + +Professor Waite did not attempt to put a stop to her somewhat +impertinent remarks. He was plainly annoyed, however, and when she had +emptied the vials of her indignation, he replied: "I thought you would +approve of the change, Miss DeWitt. It was a remark of yours this +morning which made me realize that I had no right to paint Miss +Armstrong's portrait without her permission; that probably she would be +unwilling that I should possess it; and as I would gladly sacrifice any +ambition or pleasure of my own for the sake of not offending her, I +have, as you see, painted in an entirely new face." + +"You are quite right, Professor," I exclaimed warmly; "and Adelaide will +be grateful for your consideration." + +At this juncture the girls trooped in and took their places at their +easels, and Professor Waite laid the picture in the great chest in front +of our door. The correction of work went on as usual until the latter +part of the hour, when an ominous knock was heard at the door, and +Madame, accompanied by Miss Noakes, sailed majestically into the room. +Professor Waite bowed deeply and expressed himself as highly honored. +Madame lifted her lorgnette and surveyed the class. Milly was posing in +her despised Italian costume. Madame smiled kindly at her, and then +passed about from easel to easel examining the girls' work. "I do not +know whether it is exactly the thing for the young ladies to allow +themselves to be painted in this way," she said, "though to be sure the +studies are hardly recognizable as likenesses." + +"The young ladies have all asked the permission of their parents to sit +for each other," Professor Waite explained. + +"For each other," Madame repeated doubtfully; "but do you never make +sketches of them also, Professor? A parent might well object to having +his daughter's portrait exhibited in a public place, sold to a stranger, +or even shown among studies of professional models in your studio." + +"I have made no studies from life from any of the young ladies," +Professor Waite replied promptly. + +Miss Noakes drew a long breath and seemed to bristle with anticipated +triumph. + +"I am glad that you can assure me of this," Madame replied in her +softest, most purring accents. Then she glanced around the room again +and asked, "Are all of the art students present? I do not see Miss +Armstrong." + +"Miss Armstrong has not honoured me by joining the class," Professor +Waite replied stiffly. + +"But she at least sits for the others, does she not? She is such a +strikingly picturesque girl, I should think you would ask her." + +"We have asked her," Milly replied, "but she is just as obstinate as she +can be. I wish, Madame, you would make her." + +Madame shook her little wiry curls. "This is a matter which must be left +entirely to individual preference, my dear. It would be very wrong, +indeed, for any of you to make a portrait of Miss Armstrong without her +consent. I have known young amateur photographers to lay themselves open +to an action at law by taking photographs of people without their +knowledge. Our personality is a very sacred thing, and whoever possesses +himself of that without warrant commits a dishonorable action." + +Milly looked as if she were about to faint, while Professor Waite, who +felt the intention of Madame's remarks, and his own thoughtlessness, bit +his mustache nervously. Winnie was tittering in an unseemly manner +behind her easel, but, thankful as I was that the professor had changed +the portrait, I still felt the gravity of the occasion. + +Madame's manner changed. "Miss Vaughn," she said to Cynthia, "will you +ask Miss Armstrong to step to the studio for a moment." Then turning to +our teacher, she added, "I have a very painful duty to perform, my +dear Professor, and you must pardon me if my questions seem to you +unwarranted. Will you tell me whether, for any reason whatever, you have +carried on a written correspondence with Miss Armstrong or with any +other member of this school?" + +"I have not, Madame." + +"Have never either written to her or received letters from her?" + +"Never, Madame. Who has charged me with such a clandestine and +dishonourable act?" + +Madame did not reply, for Adelaide entered the room. She was very +stately and pale. Cynthia had not had far to go, and Adelaide had come +instantly. + +"Why have you sent for me?" she asked resolutely. + +"Merely to ask you one or two simple questions," Madame replied. "But +first, Professor, may we be permitted to see the picture which you are +preparing for the Academy exhibition?" + +Adelaide leaned forward eagerly. Professor Waite was about to be +punished for his presumption and yet she was not so glad as she fancied +that she would be. Her anger had faded out and she almost pitied him. +A hot blush swept up to his forehead as he felt her gaze, and silently +placed the painting upon the easel. Madame examined it critically +through her lorgnette; it was evidently not what she had expected to +see. + +Milly, who had not known of the change, could hardly believe her eyes, +and seemed to fancy that a miracle had been performed to save her dear +professor. Miss Noakes stood at the canvas with a look of disappointed +malignity on her unattractive features. + +"Is this the only picture which you intend to exhibit?" Madame asked, +after a moment, during which she had assured herself that the face on +the canvas was utterly unlike any of her pupils. + +"It is the only one that I have had time to paint this season," +Professor Waite replied. "The face bore at one time a resemblance to +Miss Armstrong's, but I purposely destroyed that resemblance and shall +send it in as you see it." + +Madame seemed somewhat relieved, but she turned toward Adelaide, who +had seated herself and was staring at the picture, her heart filled with +a vague regret that she had written so unkind a letter. + +"Young ladies," said Madame solemnly, "you have heard the questions +which I have asked Professor Waite. Certain accusations have been made +which have greatly troubled me. It has been suspected that a clandestine +flirtation and correspondence has for some time been carried on between +your professor and one of the members of this school. Hitherto I have +paid no attention to these reports, as they rested only on suspicion, +but this morning startling evidence has been produced, and before +bringing it forward I call upon any young lady who has been guilty of +such an indiscretion to anticipate the discovery of her fault by a full +confession." No one responded. The accusation was so much more serious +than the truth, that Adelaide did not imagine that she was the suspected +culprit. Dead silence, in the midst of which Madame produced the fateful +letter. Adelaide started and Madame asked in awful tones: + +"Will any young lady present acknowledge that she has written this +letter?" + +Winnie and Adelaide each rose promptly. + +Madame frowned. "Have we two claimants?" she asked. + +"I am responsible for the contents of that note," said Adelaide. + +"But I wrote it," added Winnie, "and I demand that it be read aloud." + +It seemed to me that Winnie was absolutely insane, and even Adelaide +seemed to feel that there was no necessity of rushing so recklessly on +the spears of the enemy. + +Professor Waite looked completely mystified, and Madame said very +seriously: + +"You will see, Professor, that this note is directed to you, and that +it has not been opened. I could not take that liberty; but Miss Noakes +discovered it being sent in a very irregular manner, which justified her +in confiscating it. There are other suspicious matters connected with +it, which I trust its contents will fully explain." + +I felt that the crucial moment had arrived. Miss Noakes was absolutely +radiant, and sat rubbing her hands with ghoulish glee. Madame looked +troubled but judicial. The professor was a favourite of hers, but Miss +Noakes had brought too weighty an accusation to be glossed over. + +A silence like that before a thunder-clap reigned. Winnie covered her +face with her handkerchief and shook--could it be with suppressed +laughter? If so, it seemed to me that she must be going insane. + +Professor Waite opened the letter and glanced over its contents. "This +note is from Miss Winifred De Witt," he said to Madame, "and since +I have her permission, I will read it aloud." And to our utter +astonishment, Professor Waite read--not the indignant letter which +Adelaide had dictated, but the following: + + PROFESSOR WAITE. + + _Dear Sir_: May I have your permission to place my easel on the + balcony in front of the corridor window and make a study of a + sunrise effect as seen across the roofs? The view is so very + beautiful that Miss Noakes spends much of her time there absorbed + in its enjoyment. + + Very respectfully yours, + WINIFRED DE WITT. + +Professor Waite politely handed this effusion to Madame. Miss Noakes +snatched it from her hand and glared at it with the look of a foiled +assassin. Madame bit her lips with annoyance and scowled at Miss +Noakes. She was evidently angry with her for having caused her to +arraign Professor Waite on insufficient testimony and creating a scene +derogatory to her own dignity. She quickly recovered her +self-possession, however, and remarked loftily: + +"Miss De Witt, when you have any future communications to make with your +professor, pray do so in a more fitting manner. Placing notes under +doors is really unworthy of any young lady in my school." + +"So is listening at windows," Cynthia whispered to Winnie. Madame turned +to Professor Waite and expressed herself as much pleased that this very +serious accusation had been proved to be founded on an entire mistake. +She had herself felt perfect confidence in the integrity of Professor +Waite and the propriety of her pupils throughout the entire affair, and +had only investigated it to give the slander its proper refutation: and +her stiff silk dress rustled with dignity out of the studio. + +As for Miss Noakes, she simply disappeared, "evaporated," as Milly +expressed it. The door had hardly closed upon Madame before our +long-repressed feelings found vent in laughter. Winnie congratulated +Professor Waite on the part of the school that he had been found +innocent of so heinous a crime. The girls swarmed up to shake hands with +him. Those who could not grasp his hand shook the skirts of his coat. +Exuberant confusion reigned. Milly was dissolved in happy tears, and +even Adelaide smiled when Professor Waite expressed his regret that Miss +Noakes had connected their names in so disagreeable a manner. + +It was not until the occupants of the Amen Corner had gathered in their +study parlor that Adelaide said: + +"But I really do not understand what became of my note; the one I +dictated to Winnie and tucked under the door." + +"Winnie, how did you manage to steal it?" Cynthia asked. + +"I didn't take it from Snooks," Winnie replied. "It struck me that +Adelaide had expressed herself rather strongly, and that she would +regret it after she had cooled down, and if she didn't, she ought to. So +while you were investigating the eavesdropping I destroyed that note, +wrote one of my own and sealed it up in its place." + +"And I've really put this note of yours under the door?" Adelaide asked. + +"Yes, my dear, and that is why I have not shared Tib's anxiety since we +knew that it had been confiscated. Don't you think that dig about +Snooks enjoying the scenery of the back yard was rather good?" and +Winnie chuckled with enjoyment of her own impertinence. "You should have +seen her face when Professor Waite read that. Nebuchadnezzar's when he +ordered Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego to the burning, fiery furnace +must have been amiable in comparison. She would have seen me boiled in +oil with pleasure. I haven't enjoyed anything so much for ages." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +IN THE MESHES OF A GOLDEN NET. + + +[Illustration] + +Of course Adelaide did not feel it necessary to tell Mr. Mudge all the +consequences of our Halloween party, but only the facts of our having +used the turret staircase on that memorable night. + +"And now," she said, with a laugh, "Mr. Mudge has gone racing off to +investigate Professor Waite. I seem doomed to get that poor man into +trouble. Though of course he never could be suspected of this robbery." + +Milly had entered while Adelaide was speaking, and she uttered a little +cry of dismay. "Professor Waite suspected! that could never be!" + +"Circumstances are against him," Winnie replied. "Mr. Mudge believes +that the robbery was committed between twelve o'clock and a quarter +past. Now, if Professor Waite was in the studio at that time----" + +"He was earlier than usual," Milly replied. "I heard him come up the +staircase. You know the head of our bed is right against the turret +wall. Someway, I always hear his step on the stair, and then he usually +whistles an air from one of the operas. Last night he whistled the +Wedding March in 'Lohengrin.'" + +"Then you were lying awake, too, last night," Winnie remarked. "Did you +hear me moving about in this room?" + +"Yes," Milly replied hesitatingly. + +"Why didn't you say so before?" + +"There didn't seem to be any necessity of telling of it," Milly replied. + +"You thought it might throw suspicion on me?" + +"Oh, no," Milly disclaimed. "No one could suspect you, Winnie, or +Professor Waite, either; the ideas are equally absurd." + +"Unless it is proved that the robbery was committed before Professor +Waite came up the stairs, it may not seem at all absurd to Mr. Mudge," +Winnie continued mercilessly. "Tib and I saw him examining the door into +the studio, and he seemed possessed with the idea that the burglar +entered the room from the studio. I know, too, that Mr. Mudge examined +Professor Waite's tool chest in the studio, and that he found the broken +lock in it, with a screw-driver and other tools, showing that Professor +Waite had been tinkering with the door, trying unsuccessfully to mend +the lock, as we all know." + +"You know this! How did you find it out?" Adelaide asked, and Winnie +replied: + +"Professor Waite wanted to use his screw-driver and went to his tool +chest after it during the painting lesson to-day. It was gone; so was +the lock to the door. He hunted everywhere, and told me that he was +afraid that Miss Noakes had been in his studio and had discovered the +broken lock, and that we would be called in question for that old +scrape. I felt sure from the first that it was Mr. Mudge, but I did not +mention him, for Madame told us to say nothing about the robbery outside +of our own circle." + +"I would do anything to keep Professor Waite out of trouble," Milly +said. "I am the only one who knows that he was in the studio, and I +will not tell." + +"Nothing will help Professor Waite so much as the entire truth," Winnie +replied. "Of course he is not the one who took the money. If the person +really responsible can be discovered, or will confess, the Professor and +all other innocent persons will be cleared from suspicion." + +"Of course," Milly replied, looking at Winnie in a puzzled way. "And I +am sure," she added hopefully, "that Mr. Mudge will find the guilty +individual soon, if he is as keen as you all seem to think him. I really +dread meeting him, and I am glad he has gone away for to-day. There goes +the supper bell. What a long day this has been!" + +After supper Milly woke to a consciousness that she had not prepared +one of her lessons for the next day. She sat puckering her pretty +forehead into ugly wrinkles, and repeating helplessly, "'Populi +Romani!' I am sure I've had that before." Then she began a wild attempt +at translation, with manifold running comments. "'Because Ariovistus, +King of the Germans, had sat down on their boundaries--' Now, was there +anything ever so absurd as that? Why did old Ariovistus want to sit +down on their boundaries?" + +"Perhaps the word doesn't mean boundaries here," Adelaide suggested, and +Milly turned patiently to her lexicon--"If _finibus_ comes from +_finitimus_ it may mean neighbors--and then Ariovistus sat down on his +neighbors; well I must say that was cool----" + +Milly worked on for a little while in silence, and then exclaimed, "I'm +getting into the sensibility of it now--how's this? 'These things having +been known, Caesar confirmed the mind of all Gaul with words.' He was +always very generous of his words. We have a review to-morrow, and the +ridiculosity of the whole thing comes out. Now just listen to this: +'Wherefore it pleased him to send legates to Ariovistus, who should ask +him to appoint some place in the middle of the others for a colloquy. To +these legates he responded if it was too much trouble for him to come to +himself, himself would come to him and he--Caesar--would then find out +who ought to do the coming. Besides, he would admire to see all Gaul in +a row, and it was no business of Caesar's or his old Populo Romano.' I +rather like his pluck but I'm afraid my translation is rather free. +Then here is a place that I am not quite sure about; 'The Helvetians, +the Tulingians, and the Lotobigians, and all the other igians, in their +boundaries or something, whence they had something else--he commanded +to--thingummy; and because all their fruits were--were--frost bitten, I +guess, and at home nothing was which could tolerate hunger--he commanded +the other ninkums that they should make for them copious corn--' I +perfectly hate Caesar. He was always boasting of his own benefits and +clemency to one tribe in making another support it, and then 'pacifying' +the other tribes by slaying a few thousand of their soldiers, and I just +don't see the use of our muddling our heads with what that stupid, +cruel, conceited old bandit did, anyhow. But if I don't know this lesson +I shall not be able to pass in examination, and you will all graduate +and leave me behind for ages and ages----" + +Ordinarily Winnie could not have resisted such an appeal as this. I have +known her to patiently translate all of Milly's lessons for her, and +then as patiently explain them to her over and over again, until some +faint idea of their meaning had penetrated her befogged little brain. +And having spent the evening thus, go unprepared to her geometry, and +stoically receive a cipher as her class mark, and see Cynthia carry off +the honors of the day. But to-night Winnie did not seem to see the +forget-me-not eyes turned appealingly to her. She appeared to be +completely absorbed in her Cicero. I endured Milly's frowns as long as I +could, and finally pushed aside my own studies, and said, "Come into my +bedroom where we will not disturb the other girls, and I will straighten +it out for you." + +Milly was delighted. She threw her arms around my neck and thrust some +cream peppermints into my pocket. + +We were in the midst of Caesar's negotiations with Ariovistus, and had +nearly finished the paragraph, when Milly suddenly looked up. + +"Tib," she said, "do you know whatever became of Madame Celeste's last +bill? I thought I put it in my bureau drawer, but I must have left it +around somewhere. Have you seen it? I can't find it." + +"Then you could not pay it this afternoon?" I asked evasively. + +"Oh, yes! she made out another bill and receipted it for me, but I want +to be sure that the first one is destroyed." + +"I thought all your money was taken; where did you get enough to pay +this bill?" + +"Oh! that is a secret," she replied, with a pleased little flutter of +importance. "It's no manner of consequence how I came by it. I've paid +the bill--that's the essential thing--and I've got out of that dreadful +quicksand. Oh, Tib, I have been so unhappy, and Cynthia has been so +mean! I did not think it possible that any one could be so horrid." + +"Tell me all about it, dear," I said, caressing the curly blond head +which nestled on my knee. + +"I believe I will. I feel like telling somebody, and Winnie is so queer +lately--she freezes me. She has disapproved of me and scolded me ever +since she found out about Cynthia's dress, and I can't bear to be +disapproved of. It isn't one bit nice. Adelaide is perfectly splendid; +she likes me and pets me, but perhaps she wouldn't if she knew +everything; but you are just my dear old Tib. You would always like me, +wouldn't you, even if I were real wicked?" + +"Yes indeed, Milly," I replied; "and so would Winnie; you don't half +realize her love for you." + +"Then she has a very queer way of showing it. She makes me feel as if I +had committed some dreadful sin, and she was urging me to confess. She +is just about as pleasant a companion as that Florentine monk--what's +his name? who kept nagging Lorenzo de Medici--even when the poor man was +just as busy as he could be a-dying." + +"Savonarola acted as he thought was kindest and best for his poor guilty +friend. Sometimes the surgeon who probes our wound is the truest +friend--But you are going to tell me about your trouble--I've noticed +how red your little nose has been of late." + +"It was partly Celeste's fault, too," Milly said. "Cynthia's and +Celeste's and mine. Of course the fault was mostly mine. You see it all +started with the minuet--with which Professor Fafalata closed his +dancing class just before the Christmas holidays. He wished us to be +costumed in the Florentine style of the early part of the sixteenth +century. I was talking it over with Celeste, and she said I ought to +have the front of my petticoat covered with some jewelled net which she +had just imported from Paris. It was very expensive, but very beautiful, +and showy in the evening. The net was made of gold thread set with +imitation amethysts and rubies, an arabesque design, copied from some +mediaeval embroidery, and just the thing for me, since I was to represent +a young princess of the house of Medici. I thought that I would write +mother, who was in Florida then, and ask her to lend me one of her party +dresses, and that it would be just the thing to put over it; and while I +was admiring it and before I had really ordered it, or realized what she +was doing, Celeste had cut me off a yard of it, and had charged it to my +account--fifteen dollars. I brought it here, you remember, only to find +that Madame had interested Professor Waite in the minuet, and that he +had promised to lend the girls some beautiful costumes of the period +which he had brought back from Paris. There was that lovely heliotrope +velvet edged with ermine for Adelaide, and a faded pink brocade sprigged +with primroses for me. + +"So of course there wasn't the slightest need for my golden net. I +carried it to Celeste to see if she would take it back. She said that +she would like to oblige me, but as it was cut she couldn't quite do +that, but she would try to dispose of it for me. And she did sell it a +few days later for ten dollars. I thought that was better than to lose +the entire sum. She handed me the money, saying that it would put her +to some trouble to change her accounts, and I had better let the bill go +in just as she had made it out, and I could hand mother the ten dollars +and explain matters. I really intended to do so, but I was nearly +bankrupt that month. My pocket money just seemed to walk away. I had +invited Adelaide to see the play of the 'Harvard Hasty Pudding,' and of +course I had to have Miss Noakes chaperone us, and I hadn't money enough +left to buy the tickets." + +"Why didn't you tell her so?" I asked. + +"Oh! I couldn't back out after I had asked her; and I owed her a little +treat of some kind, for she invited me to see the cadet drill at her +brother's school. + +"Well, after I had broken the ten dollar bill to get the tickets, the +first thing I knew it was all gone. I knew mother wouldn't mind, and +that I could tell her any time after she came home, but it never seemed +necessary to mention it in my letters and I never did." + +"Oh, Milly!" + +"Horrid of me, wasn't it? But I had worse temptations. My pocket money +is so very skimpy compared with what the other girls have, and with +what I have, too, in the way of credit for certain things, that I am +often really embarrassed and have to turn and twist and borrow and pinch +to make it stretch out. When you girls clubbed together and paid for +Polo's sisters at the Home, I wanted awfully to help, but I couldn't. +You see father lets me subscribe so much annually to the Home and he +sends in a check every year for me, and thinks that ought to be enough. +But I don't feel as though I was giving it at all, for it does not even +pass through my hands. I don't deny myself to give it, as Adelaide does +for her charities, and I haven't a penny for any special case of +distress or sudden emergency which I may happen to hear of. + +"Do you know, Tib, that Satan actually suggested to me how easily I +might have extra pocket money by ordering things from Celeste, and +letting her sell them again in just the same way that she managed with +the golden net? I knew that she would be glad enough to do it, for I +found out afterward that Rosario Ricos bought that net of Celeste and +paid her full price for it! So you see she kept back five dollars on the +second sale, besides making a good commission on the first." + +"But you didn't do it, Milly dear; you surely did not obtain your +charity money in any such dishonest way as that?" + +"No, Tib. I didn't do it for charity. I some way felt that God would not +accept such a gift from me; but there came a time when I had a worse +temptation still. You know all last term papa used to ride with me every +Saturday afternoon either at the riding academy or in the Park. Well, +something is the matter with his liver; it hurts him to trot, and he has +had to give it up, and Wiggins took me out. But I hate riding with a +groom, and so one day when papa called I told him I didn't care for any +more riding this winter. This happened the week you went home to help +tend your mother when she was sick, and that is the reason you never +heard of it. I was taking father up to the studio when I said it, to +show him Professor Waite's Academy picture, and papa was so vexed with +me about my not wanting to ride that he didn't half notice the pictures. + +"He took to Professor Waite, though, right away; and just as he was +leaving asked him if he rode. 'When I am so fortunate as to have the +opportunity,' Professor Waite replied. + +"'Very good,' said papa. 'Then possibly you will oblige me by +accompanying my daughter and one of her friends on an occasional ride +in the park.' He explained that he had a good saddle horse, which +needed exercise, which he would be glad to have him use; and that, +what was more important, I needed exercise too, and was so perverse +that I did not want to take it alone. 'And now,' said he, 'the cruel +parent proposes, Milly, to pay for another horse for one of your other +girl friends. I suppose you will choose Adelaide, and if Professor +Waite will act as your escort occasionally, I think you can manage to +extract some pleasure from the exercise.' + +"Of course I was perfectly delighted, and hugged papa, and called him a +dear old thing. Professor Waite, who had looked awfully bored and had +even begun to mumble something about being too busy, began to take an +interest in the matter as soon as Adelaide's name was mentioned, and +papa had an interview with Madame and got her permission to let us ride +every Saturday morning. Adelaide was down at her tenement, and it was +left that I was to tell her when she returned, and I thought everything +was settled. But when Adelaide came in she was looking troubled over +some of her tenants' tribulations and she only half listened to me. + +"'I would like above all things to ride again,' she said 'as I used to +on the plains when I lived out West; but there is no use talking about +it, Milly dear, I can't do it. I have no riding habit, and I cannot +afford to have one made. Thank you just as much, but don't say another +word about it.' + +"You can imagine how disappointed I was. I knew very well that neither +Madame nor mamma would let me ride alone with Professor Waite, even if +papa would permit it; and I knew, too, that the Professor would lose +every bit of interest in the plan if Adelaide did not go. I was not +thoroughly selfish, Tib. I wanted Adelaide to have a good time too, and +I wanted Professor Waite to be happy. I told myself that if he loved +Adelaide, I would do all I could to help him, and perhaps some day he +would remember that it was through me that he had won her, and like me +a little for it, and never suspect that I--that I----" + +Her voice broke and she buried her head on my shoulder. "Dear Milly," I +said, caressing and soothing her as best I could. "Of course you were +not selfish. Well, and what happened next?" + +"I couldn't give up the plan, Tib, and I thought that if all that kept +Adelaide from joining in it was the lack of a habit, that could be +easily arranged. I would make her a present of it. I was sure that +father would give me twenty-five dollars for my next birthday present, +and I thought it would do no harm to spend it in advance. So I asked +Celeste how much cloth it would take, and I had it sent her from +Arnold's, a beautiful fine dark-green broadcloth. And then I told +Adelaide what I had done and that she must go around to Celeste's with +me and be fitted. Do you believe it, she would not? She said that it +would be wrong for her to accept such a present from me; and besides, +nothing would induce her to ride with Professor Waite, for she couldn't +endure him. That put an end to the ride in the Park. Cynthia would have +taken Adelaide's place, but when I told Professor Waite that Adelaide +would not go, he looked so angry that I saw he wanted to get out of the +arrangement, and I suggested that perhaps we had better give up the +plan. He said, very well, just as I pleased, and looked so relieved that +I almost cried then and there. Papa was so provoked when I told him of +it that I did not dare say a word about the riding-habit, especially as +he had just handed me my little Swiss watch as my birthday present. So I +pretended to be pleased with it, and there was that dreadful cloth for +the riding-habit on my hands, and I didn't know what to do. Mamma was +still in Florida, and papa said that she was not very strong and must +not be worried--I must only write cheerful letters to her. I didn't feel +very cheerful, I assure you. Then Cynthia told me one day that she had +twenty dollars with which she wanted to purchase a winter suit and she +would like my advice about it. I was in debt just twenty dollars for the +cloth for the habit, and I told her about it and begged her to take it +off my hands. She went with me to Celeste's and liked it very much. The +only trouble was that her mother had intended the twenty dollars to pay +for both material and making, and of course she ought to get something +not nearly so nice. + +"She said at last that if I would get Celeste to wait for her pay she +would take the dress and pay her later. I thought only of paying for the +material at Arnold's, for I had expected to have the money by that time, +and had asked them to make a separate bill out, and not put it on my +book that goes every month to papa. So we arranged it. Cynthia gave me +her twenty dollars and I settled for the cloth, and Celeste made the +dress for her, and furnished the trimmings. But how she did run them up! +She had a band of real sable around the hem of the skirt and trimmed the +jacket with it too; and made her that cute little toque with heads and +tails on it, and when the bill came in it was sixty dollars. Cynthia was +frightened. 'I never can pay it in the world,' she said. 'I think your +dressmaker is frightfully extortionate; and I had no idea it would be so +much.' I felt sorry for her and I felt, too, that I was to blame for +getting her into the predicament; so I said we would divide the expense, +and she should only pay half. But she grumbled at that, and said that I +had inveigled her into the trouble, and that she had a dressmaker on +125th Street who would have made the suit for ten dollars. When I +reminded her of the fur, she said she did not believe it was real sable, +and she didn't want it any way. + +"I offered to take it to Gunther's and see if I could get something for +it, if she would rip it off, but she said she would do no such thing; +the dress would be a fright without it. It was all a miserable mess, and +I was so unhappy. It would have been some consolation if Cynthia had +been grateful, but she blamed me for everything, and I think that, +considering all I have done for her, she treated me very shabbily when +she said that Adelaide was the only lady in the Amen Corner, and she did +not care to speak to any of us again." + +"That was like Cynthia, and I am sure that the loss of her friendship +can only be a benefit to you. But, Milly, you must bravely shoulder the +greater part of the blame yourself. Your first wrong step was in getting +the golden net without permission, then in letting Celeste pay you for +it and yet having it charged to your father. Then, again, in getting +the cloth for Adelaide's habit without consulting your father you +deliberately did wrong; and in bargaining with Cynthia, instead of going +straight to your father and confessing your fault, you waded still more +deeply in----" + +"I know it; but there you are scolding me just like Winnie, and it +doesn't make the trouble a bit easier to bear to be told that I deserve +it all, and am a miserable little sinner. You needn't imagine that I did +not realize what a wretch I was; only I didn't seem to see the way out. +Everything I did to extricate myself got me deeper into the quicksand. I +saved every way, all that I could; one month I laid by two dollars and +thirty-seven cents, but the next I slipped back three and a quarter, and +Cynthia handed me a five dollar bill one day, and told me that was every +cent that she could pay, and I must let her off from the rest. And to +crown it all, Winnie found out about it, and nearly drove me wild. Oh, +Tib, I have been in such trouble, what with this dreadful bill that I +didn't dare tell papa about, and Professor Waite, and all my lessons so +hard, and my marks getting worse than ever, and Winnie turning on me. It +just seemed as if I would die, and I almost wished I could. I thought +seriously about killing myself only the night before last. I think if I +could have found any poison that would not have hurt I would have taken +it." + +"Don't talk so, Milly; it is wicked. You would have done nothing of the +sort." + +"But I would. I went into the chemical laboratory and looked at the +green and blue stuff in the test tubes, but I couldn't quite screw my +courage up to do more than taste just a little bit of one kind that +looked more deadly than the rest. It was horrid, and took the skin off +of the tip of my tongue. I ate a quarter of a pound of assorted mints +before I could get the taste out of my mouth. If I could have found some +laudanum, or something that would not have tasted so bad, or would have +killed me by putting me to sleep, I would have taken it that night, for +I was miserable enough to do anything, however unscrupulous and +reckless. If I hadn't been so very desperate perhaps I would never have +dared to do what I did do; the thing which really broke the meshes of +the golden net which seemed to have me in its toils. I didn't mean to +tell any one, but I was just driven to it, and I know you will keep my +secret--besides I have told you so much that you might as well know all. +Tib, I----" + +"Milly, it is time we were all in bed." It was Winnie who spoke. She +stood in the doorway, cold and commanding, and Milly cowered before her. +She did not offer to kiss her, but shrank, frightened, away to her room. + +"Oh, Winnie," I said, "why did you come in just then? Milly was just +about to confess to me what she did to get the money with which she has +just paid Celeste." + +"You have no business to coax her secret from her," Winnie replied +angrily. "Whatever it is, you have no right to know it unless she has +wronged you. I am afraid our dear Milly is in deep waters. But whatever +she may have done lies between her own conscience and God, and I believe +that He will show her how to make restitution and keep, in the future, +strictly to the right. Oh, my poor, precious Milly! I wish I could +suffer all the consequences of your wrong doing for you, but I can't. +Every sin brings suffering, and it is the suffering that purifies. I +can't save you that experience, but I will shield you from open shame if +I can. I forbid you, Tib, to pry into Milly's affairs any further, to +question her, or allow her to confide in you, or even suspect her. Only +pray for her, and love her; that is all you can do." + +"It is you who suspect her," I exclaimed hotly, "and unjustly, Winnie. +Milly has been extravagant and thoughtless; worse than that, she has +been underhanded and deceitful in regard to expenditures, but she did +not take the money from the cabinet; of that I am positive." + +"Have I ever charged her with anything so dreadful?" Winnie asked. "Have +I not tried in every way to keep that suspicion from every one? Give me +credit for that, at least." + +"In words, Winnie; but in your secret thought you have wronged her. I +know that you love her with a sort of a fierce, maternal love which +makes you want her to be perfect, and which fears the worst and tortures +yourself with imaginary impossibilities. I tell you that Milly has +learned a very thorough lesson in regard to deception; she will never +offend in that way again; and as to this affair of the cabinet, I would +as soon suspect you as her." + +"Suspect me, then," Winnie cried. "I wish you would. I hoped that +Cynthia was going to lead suspicion my way, but it seems she can't do +it. I have too good a reputation." And Winnie laughed cynically. "Well, +the time may come when you may not think so well of me. Meantime, I +thank you with all my heart for believing in Milly." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"POLO." + + +[Illustration] + +It must not be inferred that our life that winter was all intense and +tragical; if it had been so we could not have endured it. There were +patches of clear sky, and the sunlight of generous acts glinted through +the storm. We had all merry hearts and good digestions, and these bore +us up under our troubles with the buoyancy which is so mercifully +granted to youth and inexperience. Then, too, our thoughts were not +entirely taken up with ourselves and our own affairs. For a few days +after this we saw nothing of Mr. Mudge, and our attention was partly +diverted to another matter. + +One day, earlier in the school year, Mrs. Booth, of the Salvation Army, +had addressed Madame's school on the need of work among the poor of New +York. One little parable which she gave made a great impression upon us. +I cannot repeat Mrs. Booth's eloquent language, but will give the main +points of the story. + +"As a young girl," said Mrs. Booth, "I was very selfish and +hard-hearted. I did not care for the suffering and anguish of others. +It was not that I was naturally cruel, but I did not think of them at +all. I thought and cared only for myself, of parties and dresses, and of +having a good time--and this Dead Sea of selfishness was numbing every +generous impulse within me. My heart was growing to resemble a certain +spring which my mother took me to see when a little child. I remember +the walk through the wood beside a little brook which babbled over the +stones, and how the light of the sky shone down into its clear amber +waters, and the trees and the clouds were reflected in its quiet pools; +how long mosses fringed its stones, and water plants made a little +forest under its ripples; and how its depths were all alive with tiny +fish and happy living creatures seeking their food and sporting among +the cresses. But we came presently to a spring quite apart and very +different from the brook. The water was deep, and quiet, and clear, but +when I looked into it I was struck by a death-like influence, weird and +sinister. There were no minnows darting through the depths like silver +needles, or craw-fish burrowing in the banks, or water beetles skimming +the surface like oarsmen rowing their light wherries. There was no life +to be seen anywhere. The very stones had a strange, unnatural look; they +were white as marble; no mosses covered them, no water-lilies or algae +grew through the deadly water. The very leaves which had fallen into the +pool were white and heavy, as though carved in marble. The grasses which +grew downward and dipped into the spring were marble grasses, more like +clumsy branching coral than the delicate bending sprays above the waves. +It was a petrifying spring, and everything dipped in its waters was +presently coated with a fine, stony sediment and practically turned +to stone. + +"So the deadly, petrifying spring of selfishness will turn the heart to +stone, and while having the form of life it will be cold and hard and +dead." + +This was Mrs. Booth's little parable, and while none of our hearts had +been dipped in this petrifying spring, it woke us to new desires to do +more for the suffering poor. + +Something happened a little after this talk, and several weeks previous +to the robbery, which gave a direction to our impulses. Milly and I were +returning from a shopping excursion one very cold and rainy Saturday, +when we were approached by a poor girl who was selling pencils on a +corner. "They are always useful," I said; "suppose we take some." + +"I should perfectly love to," Milly replied, "but I haven't a cent." + +The girl had noticed our hesitation and came to us. "Please buy some, +young ladies," she said; "I haven't had a thing to eat to-day." + +"Then come right along with me," said Milly. "Mother lets me lunch at +Sherry's, whenever I am out shopping." + +The girl followed us but stopped beneath the awning of the handsome +entrance. "That's too fine a place for me, Miss," she said. "Only swells +go there. It costs the eyes out of your head just for a clean plate and +napkin in there. How much do you s'pose now, a lunch would cost in that +there palace?" + +"Not more than a dollar," Milly replied cheerfully. + +"Glory!" exclaimed the girl, "if you mean to lay out as much as that on +me, why ten cents will get me all I want to eat at a bakery on Third +Avenue, and I'll take the balance home to the children." + +"That is just where the awkwardness of papa's way of doing comes in," +Milly said to me. "You see," she explained to the girl, "I've spent all +my money to-day, but I can have a lunch charged here." + +Still the girl hesitated. "I'm not fit," she said, looking at her +dripping, ragged clothes. We were sheltered from view by the awning, and +in an instant Milly had taken off her handsome London-made mackintosh +and had thrown it around the girl. "There, that covers you all up," she +said, "and your hat isn't so very bad." + +It was a tarpaulin, and, though a little frayed at the edges, its glazed +surface had shed the rain and it was not conspicuously shabby. + +We passed into the ladies' restaurant and seated ourselves at one of +the little tables. Milly took up a menu and looked it over critically. +"Now I am going to order a very sensible, plain luncheon," she +announced. "No frills, but something hot and nourishing. We will begin +with soup. Papa would approve of that. He is always provoked when I cut +the soup. Green turtle? Yes, waiter, three plates of green turtle soup." + +"Please excuse me," I interrupted. "I do not care for anything." + +"No? Well, two plates. I usually loathe turtle soup, but I'm determined +to be sensible and have a solid lunch. Some way, I don't know why, I'm +not very hungry this afternoon." + +"Perhaps the ice-cream soda we had at Huyler's has taken away your +appetite," I suggested. + +The soup was brought and Milly sipped a little daintily, as she +afterward said merely to keep her guest company. The guest devoured it +ravenously; she had evidently never tasted anything so delicious; but +perhaps plain beef-stew would have seemed as good, for her feast was +seasoned with that most appetizing of sauces--hunger. + +"What will you have next?" Milly asked politely, as the waiter removed +their plates. + +"Whatever you take, Miss," the girl replied. "I ain't particular. I +guess anything here's good enough for me." + +"I declare I don't feel as if I could worry down another morsel," Milly +answered. "There is nothing so surfeiting as green turtle. It makes me +almost sick to think of crabs or birds, or even shrimp salad. Let's skip +all that, and take the desert. Waiter, bring us two ices. Which flavor +do you prefer?" she asked of the pencil vender, and again the bewildered +girl left the choice to her hostess. + +"Strawberry, mousse, and chocolate are too cloying," Milly remarked +meditatively. "Bring us lemon water ice and pistache. Don't you just +dote on pistache?" + +"I never ate any, Miss." + +"Then I shall have the pleasure of introducing you to something new. +You'll be sure to like it." + +The girl did like it. She ate every morsel. Possibly something more +solid would have proved as satisfying, but Milly was pleased with her +evident appreciation. + +"Why don't you eat the macaroons? Don't you like them? Would you rather +have kisses?" + +"If you please Miss, might I take them home to the children?" + +"Yes, I suppose so. It isn't exactly good form to put things in your +pocket, but they will be charged for just the same, even if we leave +them, so take them, quick, now that the waiter is not looking." + +Although the waiter was not watching us, some one else was. A +faultlessly dressed gentleman approached at this juncture and greeted +Milly in an impressive manner. + +"Why, Mr. Van Silver!" she exclaimed, a little fluttered by the +unexpected meeting. "I haven't seen you since last summer at +Narragansett Pier." + +"And whose fault is that?" Mr. Van Silver asked plaintively. "If young +ladies will shut themselves up in convents, and never send their adoring +friends any invitation to a four o'clock tea or a reception or even a +school examination or a prayer meeting, where they might catch a glimpse +of them, it is the poor adorer's misfortune, and not his fault, if he is +forgotten. Won't you introduce me to your friends?" + +"Certainly. Tib, this is Mr. Van Silver. Mr. Van Silver, allow me to +present you to Tib--I mean to Miss Smith. I can't introduce you to the +other young lady, because I don't know her name." + +We had all risen and the last remark was made _sotto voce_. As we left +the building Mr. Van Silver sheltered Milly with his umbrella and the +waif followed with me. "Come with us to Madame's," I had said, "and +perhaps we can do something for you." + +As we walked on together Milly and Mr. Van Silver carried on a lively +conversation, part of which I overheard, and the remainder Milly +reported afterward. She first told him of how we had met our new +acquaintance, and he seemed much interested. + +"And so you have just given her a very solid and sensible lunch, +consisting of green turtle soup and ice cream." He laughed a low, +gurgling laugh and appeared infinitely amused. + +"And macaroons," Milly added; "she has at least five macaroons in her +pocket for the children." + +"Oh! yes, a macaroon a piece for the children. I wonder if I couldn't +contribute a cigarette for each of them," and he gurgled again in a +purring, pleasant way. + +"You are making fun of me," Milly pouted, in an aggrieved way. + +"Not at all. I think it was just like you, Miss Milly, to do such a +lovely thing. You are one of the most kind-hearted girls I know,--to +beggars, I mean,--but the young men tell a different story. There's poor +Stacey Fitz Simmons. I saw him the other day and he was complaining +bitterly of your hard-heartedness. He said you hardly spoke to him at +Professor Fafalata's costume dance." + +"How unfair! he was my partner in the minuet. What more could he ask?" + +"There's nothing mean about Stacey. He probably wanted you to dance all +the other dances with him. I told him that he was a lucky young dog to +be invited at all. Why did you leave me out?" + +"I didn't think that a grown-up gentleman, in society, would care for +a little dance at a boarding-school, where he would only meet +bread-and-butter school girls." + +"Oh! I'm too old, am I? Well, I must say you are complimentary. And it's +a fault that doesn't decrease as time passes. Well, I shall tell Stacey +that there's hope for him. You only care for very young men. Why did you +send back the tickets which he sent you for the Inter-scholastic Games! +You nearly broke his heart. He has been training for the past six +months simply and solely in the hope that you will see him win the mile +run." + +"But I will see him. I wrote him that Adelaide's brother, Jim, had +already sent her tickets, which we should use, and as he might like to +bestow his elsewhere, I returned them." + +"'Bestow them elsewhere?' Not he. Stacey is constant as the pole. He's +as loyal as he is thoroughbred. He was telling me about the serenade +that the cadet band gave your school last year. Some girl let down a +scrap basket from her window full of buttonhole bouquets. He wore one +pinned to the breast of his uniform for a week because he thought you +had a hand in it; and you never saw a fellow so cut up as he was when he +heard last summer that you had nothing to do with it, and even slept +sweetly through the entire serenade." + +"Stacey is too silly for anything. It is perfectly ridiculous for a +little boy like him to talk that way." + +"Little boy--let me see, just how old is Stacey, anyway! About +seventeen. Six months your senior, is he not? At what age should you say +that one might fall quite seriously and sensibly in love?" + +"Oh! not till one is twenty at least," Milly answered quickly; but she +blushed furiously while she spoke. + +"Sensible girl! But to return to the subject of the Inter-scholastic +Games. I am glad that you and your friend Miss Adelaide are going. They +are to take place out at the Berkeley Oval, you know. I have no doubt +that the roads will be settled and we shall have fine weather by that +time. May I have the pleasure of driving you out on my coach?" + +"Certainly. That is, I must coax papa to write a note to Madame, asking +her to let us go." + +"I will call at the bank and see your papa about it to-morrow, and +meantime do beam upon poor Stacey. And, by the way, here is something +which you may as well add to the macaroons for those poor children," and +he pressed a dollar bill into Milly's hand. Some one passed us rapidly +at that instant and gave the young man so questioning a glance that he +raised his hat, asking Milly a moment later if she knew the lady. + +"Why, that is Miss Noakes!" Milly exclaimed, in dismay. "You must not go +a step further with us, Mr. Van Silver, or we will be reported for +'conduct.'" + +"Far be it from me to gratify the evidently malicious desire of that +estimable person to report you young ladies. Good-by until the games," +and with another bow he was gone. + +As we approached the school building we saw Professor Waite leaving by +the turret door, and I asked him to allow us to enter by it, at the same +time requesting him to buy some of our new friend's pencils. He looked +at the girl closely, and as Milly led the way with her I explained how +we had found her. + +"She is a picturesque creature," Professor Waite remarked. "I could make +her useful as a model. The girls pose so badly and dislike to do it so +much, it might be well to try this waif. Tell her to come on Monday, and +if the class like her well enough to club together and pay a small +amount for her services, we will engage her to sit for us." + +He scribbled a line on one of his visiting cards for her to show +Cerberus, as we called our dignified janitor, who was very particular +about whom he admitted to the building; and I hastily followed our +_protege_ to the Amen Corner, where I found Adelaide talking with her +while Milly ransacked her wardrobe for cast-off clothing, finding only a +Tam O'Shanter, a parasol, and some soiled gloves. + +"Can't you find her a pair of rubbers?" Adelaide asked. "The girl's feet +are soaked." + +"Do you keep your own rubbers?" the waif asked. "That was my father's +business." + +"What do you mean?" inquired Adelaide. + +"My father was a rubber--a massage man for the Earl of Cairngorm." + +"Oh!" said Adelaide, a light beginning to dawn upon her mind. "I meant +rubber overshoes, not a bath woman." + +"We call those galoshes," said the girl, as Milly produced a pair which +were not mates. "I'm sure you've given me a fine setting out, young +ladies. I'll do as much for you if I ever has the chance. Who knowses? +Maybe some day I'll be a swell and you poor. Then you just call on me, +and don't you forget it." With which cheerful suggestion she left us, +grateful and happy. I took her down to the main entrance, and, showing +the card to Cerberus, explained that she had been engaged by Professor +Waite, and was to be allowed to enter every morning. He granted a +grudging consent, not at all approving of her appearance without the +waterproof, and I flew back to the Amen Corner to join in the general +conference. She had told Adelaide that her name was Pauline Terwilliger. +Her father had been English, her mother Swiss. They had knocked about +the world as foot-balls of fortune, but had lived longest in London, +where her father had died. Her brother had come to New York some years +previous, and her mother had brought the family over on his insistence. +But this brother had failed to meet them, as he had promised to do, on +their landing at Castle Garden. Their mother had lost his address, and +they were stranded in a strange city. They had advertised in the papers, +and had left their own address at the Barge Office, but her brother had +never appeared. They had taken a room in a tenement house, and the +mother had obtained some work, scrubbing offices and cleaning windows. +But she had taken cold and was now in a hospital, and Polo was trying to +support the two younger children. + +"They are living in one of the worst tenement houses in Mulberry Bend," +said Adelaide. "I would like to give them a room in my house, but it is +full; and cheap as the rent is, they could never pay it." + +"The younger children ought to go to the Home," I suggested. + +"The Home is full," Winnie replied. "I called there to-day. Emma Jane +says it just breaks her heart to look at the list of applications +waiting for a vacancy. Our dear Princess[2] has in mind a little +old-fashioned house which fronts on a side street, whose yard backs +against ours. She would like to have it rented as an annex. She says the +Home ought to have a nursery for very little babies. You know it does +not now take children under two years of age, on account of the expense +of nurses; but this would be such a charming place for them, and we +could call it the 'Manger,' and have it connected with the main building +with a long glass piazza. The scheme is a perfect one. All it needs +is money to carry it out. Unfortunately, that is lacking. I have +corresponded with all our out-of-town circles of King's Daughters. They +are doing all they can, and have pledged enough, with our other +subscriptions, to carry the Home through the coming year on its old +basis; but there isn't a cent to spare for a 'manger.'" + + [2] "The Princess" was a quaint little foreigner, who gave the + girls botany lessons, and who originated the idea of the Home, + whose founding is related in the initial volume of this series. + +"Would all of the new house be taken up by the nursery?" Adelaide asked. + +"No; the Princess proposed that the upper story, which consists of four +little bedrooms, should be used as 'guest chambers' for emergency cases, +convalescent children returned from hospitals, and children who, on +account of peculiar distress,--like Polo's sisters,--it seemed best to +receive for a short time entirely free. The Princess thought that we +might like to club together and pay for one such room, and then we could +designate at any time the persons we would like to have occupy it. There +is always a list of applicants, which would be submitted to us to choose +from, in case we had no candidates of our own to suggest. The occupants +of such a room would then be as truly our guests as if we entertained +them in our own home. It would come in very nicely now in Polo's case." + +Milly gave a deep sigh. "I wish I could help you, girls, but you know +just how I am situated." + +Adelaide knitted her brows. "We must get up some sort of an +entertainment. It makes me tired to think of it, but there's no other +way." + +"And in the mean time, Emma Jane must find room for those children some +way," said Winnie. "I will call a meeting of the Hornets in our corner +to-night, and we will pledge ourselves to raise money enough for one +guest chamber for these children, and until it is arranged for, Emma +Jane must make up beds for them on the school desks, or we can buy a +_retrousse_ bedstead for the parlor." + +"_Retrousse_ bedstead! What's that?" Milly asked, in a puzzled way. + +"Don't be dense, Milly; it's vulgar to speak of a turn-up nose, you +know; and I don't know why we should insult a parlor organ bedstead in +the same way. If we can't afford that sort of thing, they might turn the +dining tables upside down; they would make better cribs than the +children have now, I'll venture to say." + +"You will tuck them up, I suppose, with napkins and table-cloths," +Cynthia sneered. But Winnie paid no attention to the interruption. + +"They will not mind a little crowding, and the thing will march right +along if we only plunge into it. They must not stay another night in +that old tenement. Polo said there was a rag-picker under them, and a +woman who had delirium tremens in the next room. I am going down +to-morrow afternoon to take them to the Home." + +A meeting of our own particular circle of King's Daughters, which was +made up of ourselves and the "Hornets," took place that evening in the +Hornets' Nest. The Hornets were a coterie of mischievous girls rooming +in a little family like the Amen Corner, but in the attic story under +the very eaves. They took up the idea of the guest chamber with great +enthusiasm, but they were nearly as impecunious as ourselves. Suddenly +Little Breeze--our pet name for Tina Gale--exclaimed, "I have a notion! +We will invite the school to a 'Catacomb Party, and the underground +Feast of the Ghouls.'" + +"How very scareful that sounds!" said Trude Middleton. "What is it, +anyway?" + +"Oh! it's a mystery, a blood-curdling mystery. It will cost everybody +fifty cents, but it will be worth it. I want Witch Winnie to be on the +committee of arrangements with me, and you must all give us full +authority to do just as we please; and it is to be a surprise, and you +must ask no questions." + +"We trust you. Where's it to be? In the sewers, or the cathedral +crypts?" + +But Little Breeze refused to waft the least zephyr of information our +way, and there was nothing for it but to wait. + +As we were returning rather noisily from the Hornets' Nest, we passed +Miss Noakes's open door, and she rang her little bell in a peremptory +manner. This meant that we were to report ourselves immediately to her, +and we did so. + +"Young ladies," said Miss Noakes in her most disagreeable manner, +"before reporting you to Madame, I would like to give you an opportunity +of explaining a very irregular performance. As I was returning from a +meeting of the Young Women's Christian Association this afternoon, I saw +three occupants of your corner taking a promenade with a gentleman. This +is, as you know, an infringement of school rules, and I would like to +inquire whether the young man has any authorization from your parents +for such attention." + +"Only two of us were concerned in this matter," I replied. "We met Mr. +Van Silver quite by chance, and he very politely offered Milly the +protection of his umbrella for a part of the way home, as she had none. +He is an old friend of her family and thoroughly approved of by Mr. +Roseveldt." + +"How often have I told you young ladies never to go out, on the +pleasantest day, without an umbrella or waterproof, since a storm may +come up at any minute?" + +"I did take my waterproof," Milly replied. + +"Then you had no occasion to accept the gentleman's umbrella," Miss +Noakes said sternly. + +"But I gave it to Polo," Milly stammered, quite fluttered. + +"Polo! Who is Polo? and how can you tell me, Miss Smith, that Miss +Roseveldt and you were the only ones implicated in this disgraceful +affair, when I saw three of you enter the turret door?" + +"The third girl was Polo, the new model whom Professor Waite has engaged +to pose for the portrait class." + +"A professional model? Worse and worse! and how comes it that you were +walking with such a questionable character?" + +I related the entire story as simply as possible; but it was evident +that Miss Noakes did not approve. + +"A most extraordinary performance," she commented. "I feel it my duty to +report it to Madame." + +"You may spare yourself that trouble, Miss Noakes," Adelaide replied. +"Tib, Winnie, and I are going to tell Madame all about it at her +next office hour. We want to ask her permission to get up a little +entertainment in behalf of Polo's little brother and sisters." + +"And I shall suggest to Madame," Miss Noakes added, "the advisability of +inquiring into the character and antecedents of this girl, before she +allows her to become an accredited dependent of her establishment, or +authorizes the bestowal of charity upon her family. Artists' models are +often disreputable people with whom your parents would not be willing +that you should associate, and I advise you not to become too intimate +with a perfect stranger." + +We had come through the ordeal on the whole quite triumphantly, but Polo +had excited Miss Noakes's enmity. She could never be won to regard her +as anything but a vagabond, and always spoke of her as 'that model girl' +in a tone that belied the literal signification of the words; and later, +when by dint of spying and listening Miss Noakes learned that a robbery +had been committed in the Amen Corner, her dislike and suspicion of poor +Polo led to very painful consequences. The relation of which, however, +belongs to a later chapter. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE CATACOMB PARTY. + + +[Illustration] + +Polo came on Monday and posed to the satisfaction of Professor Waite and +of the class. Winnie was successful in entering the two children at the +Home, and Adelaide had a happy thought for Polo herself, who was too old +to be received there. One of the smallest apartments in her tenement had +been taken by Miss Billings and Miss Cohens, two seamstresses, honest, +industrious old maids, who had lived and worked together since they were +girls. Adelaide called them the two turtle doves, the odd combination of +their name suggesting the nickname, and their fondness for each other +bearing it out. They were a cheerful pair, and their rooms were bright +with flowers and canaries. One morning Miss Billings woke to find her +friend dead at her side, having passed from life in sleep so peacefully +that she neither woke nor disturbed the faithful friend close beside +her. + +The poor old lady was very lonely and was glad to take Polo in. The +young girl brightened her life, and her own influence on the nearly +friendless waif was excellent. In the intervals of posing Miss Billings +taught Polo how to cut and fit dresses. Polo helped her with her sewing, +and Miss Billings promised to take her into partnership by and by. Polo +was very happy and grateful, and the girls all liked her immensely. She +was a character in her way, an irresistible mimic. She would take off +Miss Noakes to the life, while she had a talent which I have never seen +equalled for making the most ludicrous and horrible faces. She was +almost pretty, and with Miss Billings's help, made over the odds and +ends of clothing bestowed upon her very nicely. Her one trinket was a +string of coral beads and a little cross which her brother had sent her +before she left England. She never gave up her faith in this brother. +"Albert Edward'll turn up some day rich," she said. She flouted the +idea that he might be dead. "He ain't the dying kind," she said, when +Cynthia suggested the possibility. "None of our family ain't, except +father. Why, I've been through enough to kill a cat, and I haven't died +yet." + +She was especially devoted to Milly, to whom she felt, with reason, that +she owed all her good fortune. Professor Waite found her remarkably +serviceable as a model, from her versatility and ability to adapt +herself to any character, giving a great variety of types for us to +copy. When she wore the Italian costume, one would have thought her an +Italian, and a complete change came over her when she donned the German +cap and wooden shoes. "May be that's because I've lived amongst all +sorts of foreigners so much," she said, "and Albert Edward always said +I'd make an actress equal to the best. He said I had talent. I do pity +them as hasn't. I wouldn't be one of the common herd for anything." + +Polo was certainly uncommon. Her use of the English language had an +individuality of its own. She hated Miss Noakes and said she had no +business to be "tryannic" (meaning tyrannical). She spoke of native +Americans as abor-jines (a distortion of aborigines), and intermingled +these little variations of her own with cockney phrases which were new +to our untravelled ears. + +She found difficulty in understanding our words and expressions, and +once when Professor Waite told her to set up a screen she astonished us +all by uttering a most blood-curdling yell, under the impression that he +had commanded her to set up a _scream_. + +She disliked Cerberus, and to save her from his scornful scrutiny and +contemptuous remarks, Professor Waite had a duplicate key made to the +turret door, by which Polo entered each morning and mounted directly to +the studio. + +She was very diverting, but much as we liked her we could not forget +that we had assumed a grave responsibility in taking the support of her +little sisters upon our hands, and we now began to actively agitate the +plans for the Catacomb Party, which was to raise funds for the Annex +with its "Manger and Guest Chambers." + +One event of interest to us occurred before the evening of the Catacomb +Party. This was the Annual Drill of the Cadet School. All of the Amen +Corner and the Hornets had invitations. We occupied front seats in the +east balcony of the great armory, vigilantly chaperoned by Miss Noakes. +Her best intentions could not prevent the young cadets from paying their +respects to us during the intervals of the drill. + +The young men looked handsomely in their gala uniforms of white trousers +and gloves, blue coats, and caps set off with plenty of frogging and +brass buttons. They performed their evolutions with a precision which +would have done credit to a regiment of regulars--and received the +praise of General Howard, who reviewed them. + +Out of all the battalion there were two boys in whom we were chiefly +interested: Adelaide's younger brother Jim, color sergeant of the +baby company, and Milly's friend Stacey Fitz Simmons, the handsome +drum-major. + +Winnie insisted that Malcolm Douglas must have been thinking of the +practising of this cadet drum corps when he wrote: + + "And all of the people for blocks around, + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + Kept time at their tasks to the martial sound, + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + While children to windows and stoops would fly, + Expecting to see a procession pass by, + And they couldn't make out why it never drew nigh, + With its boom-tidera-da--boom-a-diddle-dee; + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + + It would seem such vigor must soon abate; + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + But they still keep at it, early and late; + Boom-tidera-da-boom! + So if it should be that a war breaks out, + They'll all be ready, I have no doubt, + To help in putting the foe to rout, + With their boom-tidera-da-boom-- + _Boom-tidera-da-boom--_ + Boom-tidera-da--boom-a-diddle-dee, + Boom-Boom-_Boom_!" + +Stacey was seventeen, tall for his age, with a little feathery mustache +outlining his finely cut upper lip. He was elegant in appearance and +manners, and we all admired and liked him with the exception of +perverse, wilful Milly. Jim was thirteen and small for his years. The +life of privation which he had led during a period when he had been +lost, the account of which has been given in the previous volume, had +stunted his growth, and given him an appearance of delicacy. But Jim was +wiry, and possessed great endurance, and his drilling that evening was +noticeable for its accuracy and spirit. Adelaide and Jim were deeply +attached to one another. They wrote each other long letters every week, +remarkable for their perfect confidence. As Jim's letters give an +insight not only into his life at the cadet school, but also into the +relations which subsisted between several of the cadets and members of +our own school, as well as into a _contretemps_ which introduced great +consternation into the Catacomb Party, I will choose two from Adelaide's +packet and insert them before describing the mystic entertainment of the +Council of Ten. + + + LETTER NO. 1. + + DEAR SISTER: + + I like the barracks better than I did. I almost have gotten over + being homesick, and the fellows are awfully nice now that I have + come to know them. I miss mother, but I would rather die than let + any one know it. I've put her photograph down at the bottom of my + trunk, for it gave me the snuffles to see it, and Stacey Fitz + Simmons caught me kissing it once, and I was so ashamed. He is one + of the nicest fellows here, and he didn't rough me a bit about it, + only whistled, and said: "You've got a mighty pretty mother; I + guess she takes after your sister. Pity there wasn't more beauty + left for the rest of the family." He knows you, and I guess you + must remember meeting him when you visited the Roseveldts last + summer at Narragansett Pier. He asked if you and Milly Roseveldt + were at the same school, and would I please send his regards when + I wrote. He is one of the Senior A boys, and is going to college + next year. I am only Middle C, but he is ever so good to me, I am + sure I don't know why. We are drilling, drilling all the time now + for the annual drill at the Seventh Regiment Armory. + + Stacey is an awfully good fellow. He's the head of everything. + He's drum-major, and you just ought to see him in his uniform + leading the drum corps [Jim spelled it _core_]. He's the cockatoo + of the school. Stacey's folks are rich, and his mother wrote the + military tailor not to spare expense, but to get Stacey up just as + fine as they make 'em, and I don't believe there's a drum-major of + any of the crack regiments that can hold a candle to him for + style. In the first place he has a high furry hat that looks like + the big muffs they carried at the old folks' concerts. Then he has + a bright scarlet coat all frogged and padded and laced with lots + of gold cord, and the nattiest trousers and patent leather boots. + But his baton--oh, Adelaide! words cannot express. I don't believe + old Ahasuerus ever had a sceptre half as gorgeous, with a great + gold ball on the top, and it will do your eyes good to see him + swing it. Doesn't he put on airs, though! Put on isn't the word, + for Stacey is airy naturally, and dignified, too. Buttertub says + he walks as if he owned the earth. When he marches backward + holding his baton crosswise, I'm always afraid that he will fall + and that somebody might laugh, and that would kill him. But he + never does fall. He seems to see with the buttons on the small of + his back, and he stepped over a banana skin while marching to the + armory just as dandified as you please. And he never fails to + catch his baton when he tosses it into the air, and makes it whirl + around twice before it comes down. He never bows to any of the + fellows or seems to see them--except me. They are going to have + Gilmore's Band at the drill, and Stacey was practising leading + them around the armory. I was in the lower balcony, hanging over + and watching him. He was going through his fanciest evolutions + when he passed me. He looked straight ahead and never winked an + eye. I didn't think he saw me till I heard him say, "How's that, + dear boy?" and I clapped so hard that I nearly fell over. + + Buttertub hates Stacey; he wanted to be drum-major himself. + + He calls Stacey wasp-waist, but it only calls attention to his own + big stomach. He is always eating, and he won't train, and he can't + run without having a fit of apoplexy. He weighs too much for the + crew and he can't even ride a bicycle, or do anything except the + heavy work on the foot ball team and study. Yes, he can study; + that's the disgusting part. + + Stacy can do everything. He's a splendid sprinter. There's only + one other boy in the school that can equal him, and that's a + red-headed boy they call Woodpecker. He has longer legs than + Stacey and of course takes a longer stride, and that counts. But + Stacey is livelier and puts in four strides to three of the + Woodpecker's, so they are pretty nearly equal. Stacey is a + prettier runner, too. He does it just as _easy_, while the + Woodpecker works all over, arms _and_ legs, and bites on his + handkerchief, and his eyes pop out, and when it's all over he + falls in a heap and looks as if he were dying, while Stacey takes + another lap in better time than the last, just for fun. + + Stacey rides the bicycle, too, splendidly. He has one of those big + wheels and he can manage it with his feet and do all sorts of + tricks with his hands. He has been giving me points on bicycle + riding. He picked out my safety for me, and has been coaching me + how to manage it. He says I am the best rider for a little chap + that he ever saw, and that he means to make me win the race at the + inter-scholastic. I tell you Stacey is a trump. He's an all-around + athlete. He dances, and he rides, and he shoots in the summer when + he goes hunting with his uncle; and he fences, and he's stroke on + the crew, and he's our best high jump and there isn't anything + that he can't do, except his lessons--sometimes--but they don't + count. He says that if it wasn't for the beastly lessons school + would be heavenly, and we all agree with him. Ricos said that he + would head a petition to have lessons abolished and the boys would + all sign it, but Stacey said that parents were so unprogressive he + didn't believe they would, and he was afraid the head master + wouldn't pay much attention to such a petition unless it bore the + parents' signatures. + + I've written an awfully long letter, but I like to write to you, + and it was rainy to-day, and we couldn't go to the grounds, and + I've hurt my ankle by falling from my bicycle so that I could not + practise in the gymnasium. Now don't go and get scared, like a + girl, and disapprove of athletics for such a little thing as that. + It was only a little sprain, that will all be well before the + drill, and I only barked my shin the least bit, nothing at all to + what the Woodpecker does most every day. + + I hope I shall be big enough to go on the foot-ball team next + year. I know you think it's dangerous, but I've calculated the + chances of getting hurt and they are so very slight that I guess + I'll risk it. Why, out of the whole eleven last year there were + only nine that got hurt. + + Be sure you all come to the exhibition drill. I enclose two + tickets and Stacey sends two more. He wants it distinctly + understood that you and Miss Roseveldt are his guests. So you can + give mine with my compliments to Miss T. Smith and Miss Winnie De + Witt. I don't send any for that Vaughn girl, for Buttertub knows + her and told me he was going to invite her. + + No more at present, + + From your affectionate brother, + JAMES HALSEY ARMSTRONG. + + P. S. Stacey sends his regards to Miss Roseveldt. + + P. S. No. 2. And to you. + + + LETTER NO. 2. + + THE BARRACKS, April. + + DEAR SISTER: + + Wasn't the drill splendid? I knew you would enjoy it. How I wish + father and mother had been in New York so they could have seen it. + + You looked just stunning in that stylish hat. Stacey said so. You + must excuse him if he didn't pay you very much attention. He could + only leave the band during the intermission and of course he had + to be polite to Miss Roseveldt. Besides he said I stuck so close + to you that he hadn't any chance. He says he never saw a fellow so + spooney over his own sister as I am. I tell him there aren't many + chaps who have such a nice sister as you are, and then we were + separated so long that I am making up for lost time. + + I am glad you liked the French Army Bicycle drill. That was + something quite new. Stacey was detailed to command it because + he's a splendid cyclist himself, and he knew how to put us + through. I didn't know till the day before that he was going to + call me out to skirmish. He said: "Jimmy, you can manage your + wheel better than any one else except the Woodpecker, and I am + going to have you two go through with a little fancy business that + will bring the house down." And didn't it? When I fired off my + gun going at full speed, they clapped so that I nearly lost my + head. Ricos was mad because he wasn't selected for the special + manoeuvres. Ricos is better for speed than I am, and he's + awfully quick-tempered--he's a Spaniard, you know, and he said to + me, "Never mind, youngster, I'll pay you up for this at the + inter-scholastic races." I suppose he means to win the gold medal, + and I told Stacey that I believed he would, and I should be + thankful to be second, or even third, for there are the best + cyclists from all the other schools in the city to contend + against. But Stacey says, "He can't do it, you know," meaning + Ricos; and our trainer says that if he enters me at all he enters + me to win. So I am going to try my level best. + + Wasn't Cynthia Vaughn stunning in that green dress trimmed with + fur! Buttertub said she was the most stylish girl at the drill. + Stacey made him mad by saying that she was hardly that, though, as + a Harvard chap once said of some one else, he had no doubt that + she was a well-meaning girl and a comfort to her mother! + + Ricos invited all the Hornets, and some one of them told him that + you girls are going to have a great lark--a Catacombing Party. He + thought it was to represent the games of the Roman arena with cats + instead of lions and tigers. I told him it must be a mistake, + and that if he supposed Madame's young ladies, and my sister + especially, would do anything so low as to look on at a cat-fight, + he didn't know what he was talking about. But Stacey said that + there was something up, he knew, for when he asked Milly Roseveldt + if the girls were going to have a Venetian Fete for the benefit of + the Home, as they did last year, she said it was a sheet and + pillow-case party this time, and boys were not admitted. He told + her he would surely disguise himself in a sheet and pillow-case + and come; but he only said so to tease her, and when he saw how + distressed she was he told her he was only fooling. Buttertub + said Cynthia mentioned it too, and Stacey's idea was a good one + and he believed he should try it. But Stacey said he would like to + see him do it and that he would have him court-martialled for + ungentlemanly conduct, and reduced to the ranks if he attempted to + play the spy at one of the girl's frolics. + + Stacey wanted me to be sure to tell you to tell Milly Roseveldt + not to worry about what he said, for the cadets are all gentlemen + and wouldn't think of going anywhere where they were not invited. + That's so as far as Stacey is concerned, but I don't know about + Ricos. + + Do tell me what you are going to do, anyway--and for pity's sake + don't have any cats in it. + + Your affectionate brother, + J. H. ARMSTRONG. + +Jim's misunderstanding of the Catacomb Party amused us very much. No one +was alarmed by the boys' threats to attend it but Milly, who insisted +that she had no confidence in Stacey and believed him fully capable of +committing even this atrocious act. + +As soon as the drill was over our interest centred on this party. The +committee from our circle of King's Daughters waited upon Madame, and +obtained her permission for the projected entertainment. She stipulated, +however, that it must be strictly confined to members of the school and +no outsiders admitted. + +"The Literary Society," she said, "will give its public entertainment +in the spring, and we do not wish to have the reputation of spending +our entire time in getting up charity bazaars, and imposing on our +friends to buy tickets. Anything in reason which you care to do among +yourselves, I will consent to. It does young girls good to have an +occasional frolic." + +Emboldened by the unusually happy frame of mind in which Madame seemed +to be basking, Winnie asked if we might act a play and have "gentlemen +characters" in it. Formerly the assumption of masculine attire had been +prohibited, and at one of our Literary Society dramas, a half curtain +had been stretched across the stage, giving a view of only the upper +portion of the persons of the actors. The young ladies taking the part +of the male personages in the play, wore cutaway coats outside their +dresses, and riding hats or Tam O'Shanter caps. + +Madame laughed as she recalled that absurd spectacle. "Since your +audience is strictly limited to your associates, I think I may suspend +that rule for this occasion," she said leniently. "When do you intend to +give the play? I cannot allow you to use the chapel. How would the +studio do?" + +"If you please," said Winnie, "we would like the laundry." + +"The laundry!" Madame exclaimed in surprise. + +"Yes, Madame. Tina Gale explored the lower regions under the school +building one day, and the furnace room, and the long dim galleries +connecting the coal bins, the cellars, and the laundry seemed to her so +mysterious and pokerish that she thought it would be a nice idea to call +it a Catacomb Party, especially as the girls have been so much +interested in Professor Todd's early history of the Christian Church." + +Madame's eyes twinkled as she heard this, for Professor Todd had been +generally voted a prosy old nuisance; but Winnie was earnestness itself. + +"Very well," said Madame kindly. "I do not want the girls to think that +I am a cruel tyrant, or unduly strict or suspicious. ["She was thinking +of the way in which she arraigned Adelaide for corresponding with +Professor Waite," Winnie commented afterward.] If your committee will +submit the programme to me, I have no doubt I shall be able to approve +of everything. Let me see--the laundry will be your circus maximus, or +theatre. Where will you have your refreshments?" + +We had not thought of that. + +"I will give you the key to the preserve closet; it is at the end of the +drying-room, and you may make a raid upon it for your provisions. Only +please be careful not to waste or destroy any more than you can dispose +of. I will have some tables placed in the drying-room, and you may +partake of your collation there." + +This was all we needed. The preparations for the Catacomb Party went +merrily on. + +Trude Middleton dramatized Cardinal Wiseman's novel, "Fabiola." We who +had remained at school during the Christmas Holidays had read it aloud +together, and its thrilling pictures of the persecutions of the martyrs, +the games of the arena, and all the life of imperial Rome, had made a +deep impression upon us. Trude Middleton had a genius for writing, and +Little Breeze distributed the parts, rehearsed the play, took the role +of the sorceress _Afra_, and acted as stage manager. The classical +costumes were easily arranged. Professor Waite showed us how to drape +crinkled cheese cloth and to manage the folds of peplum and toga, to +trace a key-pattern border, to fillet our hair, and lace our sandals. +The rehearsals were carried on in the most secret manner. Only the +actors knew exactly what the play was to be. Expectancy was on the _qui +vive_. Winnie had written some mysteriously attractive admission +tickets, and had ornamented each one with a tiny white wire skeleton. +These tickets the ten sold to the other members of the school to the +number of one hundred and twenty, not a single member of the school +declining to patronize us. + +The sale of these tickets had been materially aided by a manifesto, +printed in red ink, supposed to simulate blood, and left dangling +conspicuously from the wrist of old "Bonaparte" (Bonypart), the anatomy +class skeleton. + +This manifesto read as follows: + + The Council of Ten, in secret session assembled, hereby summon + you, each and all, severally and individually, to the Torture + Chambers of the Inquisition (otherwise known as the studio), on + the ringing of the great tocsin (sometimes called the eight + o'clock study bell). At that hour let each be prepared to render + up her earthly goods to the amount of one ticket, vouching for + fifty cents; and having donned a winding sheet, and likewise a + winding pillow-case as headgear, submit to the office of the + Inquisition, which will transform her, with that happy despatch + due to long experience, into a disembodied spirit. At the same + time the Arch Witch Winnie will turn back the clock of Time to the + first century, and each ghost, being first securely blindfolded, + will be led by a spirit guide, experienced in the charge of + personally conducting spirits, into the great amphitheatre of the + Coliseum, where she will mingle with the most renowned personages + of ancient Rome, and will be permitted to live a short and + exciting life under the cheerful persecution of the amiable and + playful Caesars. + + After the final scene of the gladiatorial combat in the arena + each spirit will be led by her guide through the grewsome and + labyrinthine Catacombs--faint not! fear not! to the + + _Feast of the Ghouls!_ + + Thence, conducted by Orpheus with his lute, and Beatrice, the + guide of Dante, they will cross the Styx and join in the + + _Dance of the Dead_ + + in the shadowy Purgatorio. + + At the stroke of midnight each spirit who has passed through this + ordeal with a steadfast mind will be wafted to upper regions to + the rest of the blessed. + + Signed by the Council of Ten, as represented by Witch Winnie, of + the Amen Corner, and Little Breeze, of the Hornets; and sealed + with the great seal of our office, this ---- day of ---- 18--. + + SEAL. + +These preparations were going on simultaneously with the investigation +of the robbery, and served in a measure to relieve the tension to which +we were all subjected. Still the trouble was there, and we never quite +forgot it. Mr. Mudge called twice, and made inquiries, from which Winnie +inferred that he was hopelessly puzzled. Milly was sure that he had +found a clew, but if so, he did not impart his discoveries. + +The mystic evening arrived. Cynthia, who, for some reason inexplicable +to us, was in a highly self-satisfied and gracious mood, invited Polo to +sleep with her in order that she might be able to attend the party. It +was necessary to prefer this request to our corridor teacher, Miss +Noakes, who gave us a very grudging consent; but we cared very little +for her iciness since we had effected our wishes. + +The girls met in the studio, where all were draped in sheets, a small +mask cut from white cotton cloth tied on, and a pillow case fitted about +the back of the head in the fashion of a long capuchin hood. When thus +robed our dearest friends were unrecognizable. Then, marshalled by +Winnie, the company of spectres paraded through the hall and down the +main staircase. Miss Noakes and the other teachers stood in their doors +and watched the procession, but as it was known that we had Madame's +permission no attempt was made to stop us, and we passed on unabashed. +Arrived at the lower floor each of the guests was securely blindfolded +and conducted by one of our ten down the cellar stairs, and through +winding passages to the laundry, which had been converted for the +evening into an auditorium, sheets having been hung on clothes-lines +across one end, and the space in front filled with camp chairs brought +from the recitation rooms. The set tubs on one side of the improvised +stage were fitted up as boxes, while a semi-circle of clothes-baskets +marked the space assigned to the comb orchestra. As fast as the girls +arrived in the laundry they were seated, and when the last instalment +was in position the lights were turned nearly out, and they were told to +remove the handkerchiefs which bandaged their eyes. At the same time the +comb orchestra, led by Cynthia, struck up a dismal dirge-like overture, +broken in upon at intervals by a tremendous thump with a potato masher +on the great copper boiler. The curtain was drawn slowly aside, the +lights suddenly turned on, and the play began. Adelaide made a very +beautiful _Fabiola_. Winnie acted the part of _Pancratius_ with great +expression. Milly looked the saintly _Agnes_ to perfection. I was +_Sebastian_. We did not indulge in all the dialogue with which the book +is overloaded. Our play was rather a series of tableaux, for which I had +painted the scenery with the assistance of the other art students. +Professor Waite had borrowed various classical properties from his +brother artists for us. The plaster casts of the studio were made to +serve as marble statues, and Madame had sent us several palms in +urn-shaped pots. + +When the play was nearly over, Polo, who had acted as doorkeeper, made +her way behind the scenes and took my attention from the prompter's book +with the horrified whisper, "If you please, there are two girls out +there that are boys." + +"Who? Where? How do you know it?" I asked in a breath. + +"They came in at the end of the procession, without any guides, and sat +down near the door, apart from the others. One is little enough to be a +girl, but the other is taller, even, than Miss Adelaide." + +"It is Snooks," Winnie exclaimed. "Just like her to come spying and +speculating here to see what we are up to." + +"If that's so, Miss Noakes has bigger feet than I ever gave her credit +for," Polo replied; "and she wears boots too." + +"Then those cadets have actually dared!" Winnie exclaimed, and Milly +gave a little shriek. "Oh, that horrid Stacey Fitz Simmons!" + +"Hush!" commanded Winnie. "We will make them wish they had never been +born. Oh, I will manage these gay young gentlemen. Go back to your post, +Polo. Keep the door locked, and be sure that no one leaves except in +the regular order and conducted by her guide." + +A few moments later and the curtains were drawn at the close of the +final act, tremendous applause testifying the approval of the audience. +Winnie now stepped to the front of the curtain and announced that the +ghosts must now each submit once more to be blindfolded and "to be led +through the grewsome and labyrinthine catacombs to the Feast of the +Ghouls." + +Little Breeze and Milly first led away two of the girls, and then Winnie +stepped boldly up to the taller of the two suspected intruders and +offered to blindfold him. The rogue could only follow the example of +those who had preceded him, and submit with a good grace, as any other +course would have led to detection. I followed with the shorter +impostor, tying the handkerchief very tight, and detecting the odor of +cigarettes as I did so. Winnie beckoned to me to follow, and conducted +her victim to the root cellar, a dark, unwholesome little room, with a +small orated window--a veritable dungeon. We led our prisoners into the +centre of this gloomy cell, and, making them kneel on the cemented +floor, bade them remain there until the coming of the ghouls. Hastening +from the place, we chained and padlocked the door securely. + +"Now that we have secured our prisoners, what do you propose to do with +them?" I asked of Winnie. + +"Call the Amen Corner together after supper to deliberate on their fate. +In the mean time they are very well off where they are. I fancy they +will hardly care to repeat this experiment." + +We returned to the laundry and continued the ceremony of leading our +guests to the supper. When all had been led in, the bandages were +removed from their eyes, and they found themselves before tables +provided with plates, knives, and forks, but no edibles. Little Breeze, +beating upon a tin pan with a great beef bone, called the meeting to +order, and, indicating the preserve closet, announced that the ghouls +would now search the neighboring tombs for their prey. At the same time +the door of the preserve closet was thrown open, and Trude Middleton set +the example by capturing a can of peaches. The girls fancied that they +were robbing the pantry, and this gave zest to the performance to a few +of the more reckless ones, but the rest held back, and Winnie found it +necessary to circulate the whisper that even this apparently high-handed +proceeding was authorized by Madame, before the raid became general. A +very heterogeneous repast, consisting of pickles, crackers, dried +apples, canned fruit, prunes, dried beef, and lemonade hastily mixed in +a great earthen bowl, was now participated in by the hilarious ghouls. +One bowl of the lemonade was ruined, after the lemons and sugar were +mingled, by a ludicrous mistake. Milly, mistaking it for water, filled +the bowl from a jar of liquid bluing. The error was discovered when we +began filling some empty jelly tumblers with the strange blue mixture, +and, fortunately, no one was poisoned by drinking the ghoulish liquor. + +Under cover of the confusion I managed to tell Adelaide of the captives +in the cellar, and later in the evening, while the ghosts were engaged +in a Virginia Reel in the long underground passage leading from the +furnace room to the other end of the school building, met in solemn +conclave to deliberate on their fate. Adelaide was for delivering the +keys to Madame with a statement of the case. Cynthia argued strongly in +favor of releasing the young men, sending them home, and saying nothing +about it. While we were in the midst of the argument, a far away cry was +heard. It was from Polo, who had been left to guard the door of the root +cellar. We rushed to the spot, only to find that the rusty staple had +yielded to the efforts of two athletic boys, one of whom was heavy of +weight as well as strong of muscle, and had been forced out of the wall, +and our captives had escaped. Polo had followed them in their flight, +and returned breathless to report that they had made a dash, not for the +outside door, but straight up the great staircase to the studio and had +then descended the turret staircase, showing clearly that they had made +their entrance in the same way. + +We talked the matter over for a long time. How could they have known of +this staircase, and have timed their coming so as to follow the +procession of sheeted ghosts as they left the studio for their march to +the lower regions? The suspicion instantly suggested itself that some +one of the ten had furnished the information, and this suspicion +deepened to certainty as we considered the excellence of their disguise, +the sheets draped exactly as ours had been, the pillow-case Capuchin +hood fitted about the mask cut from cotton cloth. How, too, could they +have entered, since Polo declared that she had locked the turret door +when she came in that afternoon, and had left the key on a nail in the +studio? + +"Show me the nail," Winnie commanded promptly, and Polo led her to the +studio. The nail was there, but the key had gone. We descended the +staircase and found the lower door locked. + +As we were returning to the studio we heard the door open and Professor +Waite mounted the stairs, as was his usual custom at this time. +"Heigho!" he exclaimed, "what are you all doing in the studio at this +time of night? Oh! I forgot; this is the evening of the lark. Has it +been a jovial bird? Why do you all look so solemn? By the way, Polo, I +found your key in the lock on the outside of the door. It was very +careless of you to leave it there; you must not let such a thing happen +again. Some thief might have entered the house. I met two young men +running with all their might as I came across the park. They made +something of a detour to avoid me--I thought at the time that they had a +suspicious look. If you are so thoughtless a second time I shall take +the key from you." + +"I didn't leave it there," Polo protested. "I hung it on the nail, Miss +Cynthia saw me. Didn't you, Miss Cynthia?" + +But Cynthia had gone, and as the quarter-bell struck we were all +reminded that we must descend to our dancers to be present at the +unmasking and close the frolic. We hurried unceremoniously away without +replying to Professor Waite's questions. + +After we had dismissed our guests, we adjourned to the Amen Corner and +we again discussed the affair. It was agreed that it was sufficiently +serious to report to Madame, and to this there was only one dissenting +voice--that of Cynthia's. It was too late to disturb Madame that night, +but we presented ourselves at her morning office hour and told her all +the circumstances of the case. + +She looked very grave, but did not blame us. "I am very sorry," she +said, "that some one of my pupils has abused my leniency in this way. It +will of course make me hesitate to grant you such frolics in the future. +The matter shall be thoroughly investigated and the offender severely +punished. Again I must ask you to keep this affair strictly among +yourselves. You have kept the secret of the robbery wonderfully; be +equally discrete with this. We do not as yet know certainly that these +young men were cadets, and I shall not make any complaint to the head +master until we have ascertained the culprits. Mr. Mudge will call +to-morrow. He writes me that he has found a clue to the robbery, and we +will place this matter also in his hands. You have done right to bring +it directly to me, and your action only confirms the confidence I have +always reposed in the Amen Corner. Be assured that the truth will out at +last. Meantime don't talk this over too much, even among yourselves, for +Tennyson never wrote truer lines than these: + + I never whispered a private affair + Within the hearing of cat or mouse, + No, not to myself in the closet alone, + But I heard it shouted at once from the top of the house. + Everything came to be known." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A FALSE SCENT. + + +[Illustration] + +I think the visit of Mr. Mudge was much dreaded by all of us, even +though we longed to have the mystery cleared up. I know that Winnie, +at least, trembled for the result, and she turned quite pale the next +morning when she received a message from Madame to meet Mr. Mudge in her +office. It was only a few moments before she returned. + +"Mr. Mudge wishes to see us all," she said. "Where are the other girls? +He's coming to this room in five minutes." + +"Milly is in the studio, Adelaide in the music-room. Cynthia, I don't +know where." + +"Please summon Adelaide and Milly, I will wait for you here--I feel +almost faint." + +"What is the matter, Winnie?" I asked anxiously. + +"Mr. Mudge says that he now knows to a certainty who the thief is, and +that he will announce the name to us this morning. I am afraid, Tib, +that he suspects Milly. He put me on oath this morning and made me +confess something which I did not mean he should know." + +"Never mind, Winnie," I replied, as reassuringly as I could, "we both +know that Milly is perfectly innocent, and, as Madame said, the truth +will come out at last." + +Winnie shaded her face with her hands but did not reply. I brought +Adelaide and Milly to the Corner, and chancing to find Cynthia, summoned +her also. Mr. Mudge was in the little study parlor when I returned. He +greeted me cheerfully as he stood by the cabinet polishing his glasses +with a large silk handkerchief. Then he stepped across the room and +examined the door leading into the studio. + +"So," he said. "You have had a little bolt put on this door. It is an +old proverb that people always lock the stable after the horse has been +stolen. But it is just as well, just as well. I agree with you that the +thief came from that quarter, and having been so successful he may come +again." + +"He!" Winnie gasped. + +"Yes; much as it may pain you to learn the fact, I must inform you that +all indications now make it a certainty that the thief can be no other +than your Professor of Art, Carrington Waite." + +Milly gave a little cry and fainted dead away. The others all sprang to +her assistance, but as I was quite a distance from her I did not move, +and I heard Mr. Mudge give a suppressed chuckle, and remark below his +breath: "Ah! my little lady, I thought that would make you show your +hand." + +Milly speedily recovered; and with her first breath exclaimed, "Oh, no, +no! You are mistaken; it cannot be so." + +"Why not?" Mr. Mudge asked. "Was not Professor Waite in the studio at +the time that the robbery was committed? Did I not find the lock of this +door in his tool chest? Is it not a well-known fact that he is a poor +man, and yet a few days after the robbery did he not deposit in the +savings bank just one hundred dollars more than his quarter's salary? +What stronger proof do we require?" + +"I can explain all these circumstances." Milly replied eagerly, and she +told the story of the broken lock, which amused Mr. Mudge greatly. + +"That disposes of one bit of circumstantial evidence," he admitted; "but +the other items?" + +"As to the money," Milly continued, with a slight flush, "papa bought +one of Mr. Waite's small pictures, and sent him a check for a hundred +dollars just at the time you speak of. I think if you inquire more +particularly at the bank you will find that it was papa's check which he +deposited; and I can testify that he was not in the studio at the time +the robbery was committed. I was lying awake and I heard him come up the +stairs. He was earlier than usual. It was some time before twelve. He +hardly remained a moment, merely left his canvases and paint-box, and +went right away." + +"That is all very well under the supposition that the robbery was +committed between the time that Miss Winnie looked into the cabinet and +Miss Cynthia's discovery. But Miss Winnie has just admitted to me that +the money was gone when she opened the cabinet, so the theft must have +occurred before that time." Winnie threw a piteous glance at Milly, +which Milly did not notice. + +"But still, after Professor Waite went away," Milly insisted. + +"Why are you so sure of this?" asked Mr. Mudge. + +"Because, when I went to the cabinet fully five minutes after he had +gone it was all there." + +Mr. Mudge's gray eyes gave a snap which reminded me of the springing +of a trap. "Indeed!" he said. "How many more of you young ladies +investigated the cabinet during that eventful night? Will you kindly +inform me, Miss Roseveldt, for what purpose you opened the cabinet, and +why we are only informed of the fact in this inadvertent way." + +Winnie crossed the room and deliberately placed her arm around Milly. +"Milly, dear," she said, "the truth is always the best way, though it +may seem the hardest way; and, whatever you may have to confess, I for +one shall love you just the same." + +"Perhaps it is just as well," Milly replied cheerfully, "though +Adelaide and I did not intend that Tib should know it. You remember that +it was the eve of Tib's birthday; Adelaide and I each wanted to give her +fifty dollars toward her European fund. So after we were sure that she +must be asleep, I slipped out into the parlor and took the money from +Adelaide's pigeon-hole and from my purse, and laid it on Tib's shelf, +where we intended she should find it in the morning. Professor Waite had +gone when I did this, so he could not have taken it. Adelaide told me to +put hers with mine, for she didn't see the use of both of us going into +the parlor. We were afraid we might wake the other girls." + +"You did waken me, Milly dear," Winnie said. "I heard you, and standing +just behind my door I saw you go to the cabinet as you have said, and +take out Adelaide's money and count out fifty dollars, and then take the +gold pieces from your own little purse. Then I went back to bed and did +not see any more until you went away, when I stepped out and examined +the cabinet, and the money was gone." + +Milly did not then comprehend the terrible suspicion which had been in +Winnie's mind, and she was very much pleased to find her testimony +corroborated. "Adelaide saw me, too," she said. "You were watching me +all the time, weren't you, Adelaide?" + +"Yes," Adelaide replied. "Tell about the note, too, Milly." + +"Oh! that isn't of any consequence. After I had put the money in Tib's +compartment, I thought it would be a good idea to write her a note with +it, and I pulled out the shelf in the cabinet that serves as a writing +desk, but I didn't write anything for I heard a noise in Tib's room. It +must have been Winnie going back to bed. So I shoved the shelf in and +scooted back to my own room. We didn't say anything about it in the +morning because Adelaide and I didn't feel like boasting of the presents +we had given Tib, especially as she never received them." + +There was a great light in Winnie's eyes. It was evident that the +suspicion which had poisoned her life ever since the robbery had +vanished. To Winnie's satisfaction, at least, Milly had cleared herself. + +Mr. Mudge, too, had certainly shared this suspicion. His announcement +that Professor Waite was the culprit had been only a clever trick to +make Milly criminate herself, for he had guessed her attachment to the +Professor, and felt sure that, rather than let the blame rest with him, +she would confess her crime. His next question showed that he was not +yet fully satisfied. + +"Miss Roseveldt," he asked, "will you tell me where you obtained the +money with which you paid Madame Celeste's bill for Miss Cynthia's +costume the day after the robbery?" + +"I would rather not tell that," Milly replied. + +"I must insist upon it." + +"Papa called the day before, and I confessed all about the bill to him, +and he forgave me, and gave me the money." + +"We know that he gave you the gold pieces which you placed in your +purse, but these were stolen, and you were apparently penniless on the +morning after the robbery." + +"Papa drew a check for Celeste for the amount of the bill, and that was +in my pocket. I did not put it in the cabinet at all. Then he said that +it was a very sad, disgraceful affair, but he knew that I would never do +so again, and he was glad I told him, and he forgave me freely, and now +it was all over we would bury it in the Dead Sea and never let mortal +man or woman know a word about it, and that is why I could not tell +Winnie how I had paid the debt. Papa said too--what was not true--that +it was partly his own fault, for keeping me so short in pocket money and +leaving me free to run up large bills. And then he said that he would +change his tactics and give me an allowance in cash every month, and I +am not to have anything charged any more, but manage my expenses as +Adelaide does. And with that he gave me the gold pieces, and I told him +that I wanted to give them to Tib, and he said, 'Very well, do what you +please, but you will have nothing more for a fortnight, when I will give +you your allowance for the coming month.'" + +We each of us drew a long breath. It all seemed so simple now that Milly +explained it that I wondered how we could ever have mistrusted her. +Winnie clasped her more tightly. There was a look of remorse in her +eyes, which told how she reproached herself for having wronged her +darling. + +Mr. Mudge tapped the table with his pencil thoughtfully. + +"I must acknowledge, Miss Roseveldt," he said, "that you have completely +cleared Professor Waite. It is perfectly evident that he could not have +taken the money; but the question still remains, Who did? How long an +interval was there, Miss De Witt, between the time that Miss Roseveldt +returned to her bedroom, and your examination of the cabinet?" + +"I do not know exactly. I waited only until I fancied Milly might be +asleep, then I slipped out softly, closed the doors opening into all the +bedrooms, lighted my candle, and examined the cabinet." + +"And when Miss Roseveldt left the room the money was there, and when you +looked----" + +"It was gone." + +"It seems to me," said Cynthia maliciously, "that Winnie is placed in a +very disagreeable position by these revelations. Her testimony has been +very contradictory and her manner from the first, to say the least, +peculiar. She acknowledges that she was awake during the time that +intervened between Milly's visit to the safe and her own. If a thief +came in it is very strange that she did not hear him." + +"It is strange," Winnie acknowledged. "I can hardly believe it possible, +but these are the facts in the case. I certainly did not take the money, +as Cynthia implies." + +"Tut, tut," Mr. Mudge remarked sharply. "I am convinced that the thief +is not a member of the Amen Corner. I have in turn taken up the +supposition that the robbery might have been committed by each of you +young ladies, beginning with Miss Cynthia and ending just now with Miss +Milly, and I have proved to my own satisfaction that you are all +innocent. Miss Winnie may have fallen asleep, and during her brief nap +some one may have slipped in from the studio. Professor Waite had gone, +but he may have left the turret door unlocked." + +"I heard no one mount the stairs," said Milly. + +"True, but a sneak thief might steal up so softly as to disturb no one. +A man bent on such an errand does not usually whistle opera tunes, and +then again the rogue may have been in the studio during Professor +Waite's hasty call. You told me, Miss Armstrong, that the Professor was +the only one who had a key to the turret door." + +"I did," Adelaide replied, "but I was mistaken; Polo has a duplicate +key." + +"And who is this lawn tennis girl?" + +"Polo, Mr. Mudge, not tennis. Her name is Polo, a contraction for +Pauline," said Adelaide. + +"Very extraordinary name. Lawn tennis is a much more suitable game for +a young lady. Who is she, anyway?" + +"She is a model, and a very good girl. Polo is above suspicion," Winnie +remarked authoritatively. + +"Hum--of course," replied Mr. Mudge. "Let me see, this Base-ball must be +the young lady of whom Miss Noakes spoke to Madame as having conducted +herself in a rather peculiar manner night before last, the evening of +the subterranean entertainment." + +We all looked up in surprise, and Mr. Mudge continued: + +"Madame has confided to me the fact that you young ladies were +unpleasantly intruded upon by certain unknown persons, who may, or may +not, have been connected with one of our well known schools. Madame felt +that they could not have effected their entrance and disguise without +the connivance of some member of this household. This individual need +not necessarily have been one of the young ladies; it may have been a +servant. I have known it to be a fact that the chamber-maids at Vassar +have carried on flirtations with young gentlemen who supposed themselves +to be in correspondence with Vassar girls. Now it is quite possible that +your chambermaid may have heard of this frolic and have mentioned it to +her admirers." + +"Oh, no," we all exclaimed; while Adelaide continued: "We never +mentioned it in her presence; besides, she is as stupid and honest as +she is old and homely. I would as soon suspect Miss Noakes." + +"But this Lawn Tennis, I beg pardon, Base-ball, of whom we were just +speaking, is neither stupid, nor old, nor ugly, and we know very little +in regard to her honesty----" + +"That is so," Cynthia assented, and we all turned and scowled upon her. + +"You tell me that she possesses a key to the turret door, and now Miss +Noakes's testimony fits in like the pieces in a Chinese puzzle. On the +afternoon of your entertainment Miss Noakes says that a request was +preferred from you to allow Lawn Tennis--no, Croquet--to share Miss +Vaughn's bedroom for the night. Miss Noakes says she felt a strange +hesitancy about granting this request----" + +"Not at all strange," Winnie interrupted. "It is a hesitancy which is +quite habitual in her case." + +Mr. Mudge waved his hand in a deprecatory manner and continued. "Miss +Noakes further testifies that in the early evening, as she was sitting +at her open window, the night being especially balmy for the season, +she was startled by a long whistle, which was not that of the postman. +As there was no light in her own room she could look out without being +observed. The gas was lighted in Miss Vaughn's room, and though from +its oblique position she could not see what passed within she could +recognize any one leaning from it." [See plan of Amen Corner.] + +Cynthia straightened herself up, and as it seemed to me turned a trifle +pale, while Mr. Mudge went on. + +"Miss Noakes says that the first whistle did not appear to be noticed, +and stepping on to her balcony she saw two young men, or boys, standing +at the foot of the tower, looking up at Miss Vaughn's windows. She +instantly retreated into her own room and awaited further developments. +A second whistle, and some one in Miss Vaughn's room turned down the +gas, and coming to the window gave an answering whistle. Miss Noakes +says she could hardly credit her senses, for she has looked upon Miss +Vaughn as a model of propriety; an instant later she observed that the +girl now leaning out of the window and talking with the boys wore a dark +blue Tam O'Shanter cap, and she comprehended that it was not Miss +Vaughn, but Lawn Tennis, or Cricket, or whatever her name is, who had +been given permission to pass the night in Miss Vaughn's room. She could +not hear the entire conversation, her desire to remain undiscovered +keeping her well within her own room, but she distinctly heard one of +the young men say, 'Throw it out--I'll catch it.' The girl replied, +'Here it is,' and said something about the sheets and things being on +the upper landing. She added quite distinctly, 'Don't come into the +studio until I give the signal.' + +"Miss Noakes says she was too horrified to act promptly, as she should +have done; but that a few moments later she visited the Amen Corner and +found it deserted by all the young ladies with the exception of Miss +Vaughn, who was studying quietly in the parlor. She asked where the +others were, and was told that they were in the studio, where the +procession was to form. On asking Miss Vaughn why she had not joined +them, she replied that she intended to do so in a short time, but had +been improving every moment for study. Miss Noakes asked for Lawn Tennis +and was told that she had been appointed door-keeper for the evening. +On intimating that she had seen her in Miss Vaughn's room, Miss Vaughn +had replied that this was very possible as she had just left the room." + +During this relation of Mr. Mudge's, Cynthia had turned different +colors, from livid purple to greenish pallor. And had several times been +on the point of replying, but the lawyer-detective had continued his +narrative in a sing-song, monotonous way, as though reading it from a +written deposition, and had left her no opportunity for interrupting. He +now turned to her and remarked: + +"I repeat all this here, Miss Vaughn, in order to hear your side of the +story." + +"I have nothing to say," Cynthia replied sullenly. + +"Then Miss Noakes's statement is substantially correct?" + +"I don't understand what you are driving at." Cynthia flashed out +passionately. "If you mean to insinuate that I threw the key out to some +of the cadets, and helped disguise them, and gave them the signal when +to join in the procession--why then all I have to say is that it is a +very pretty story, but you will find it very hard to prove it." + +"Not so hasty, not so hasty," replied Mr. Mudge. "My dear young lady, +if you will reflect a moment, you will perceive that nothing of this +kind has been charged against you. The question does not concern you at +all, but this athletic young lady--Lawn Tennis." + +Mr. Mudge had become so firmly convinced in his own mind that Polo's +name was Lawn Tennis that we saw the futility of correcting him and gave +up the attempt. + +"Mr. Mudge," Winnie exclaimed, "we protest! Cynthia, I call upon you to +own up. It wasn't such a very bad frolic. You meant no particular harm. +We will all sign a petition to Madame asking her to let you off. Don't +let Polo be unjustly suspected. You know you did it; own up to it like a +man." + +But Cynthia was in no mood to own up to anything like a man, or like a +decent girl. She simply turned her nose several degrees higher and +remained silent. + +"Your cowardly silence will not shield you," Adelaide exclaimed +scornfully. "I have some letters from my brother which make me very +positive that this is one of your scrapes, and I will show them to Mr. +Mudge unless you confess instantly." + +"I have nothing to confess," Cynthia replied in a low voice, but the +words seemed to stick in her throat. + +Mr. Mudge next asked us, in a thoughtful manner, whether "Lawn Tennis" +was connected with the institution at the time of the robbery. I replied +that she was, but that I could not see any relation between that crime +and the present escapade. + +"Perhaps not," Mr. Mudge replied; "and then again we never can tell what +apparently trifling circumstance may lead up to the great discovery. As +I have previously remarked, it is more than probable that the thief +having been once successful will try the same game again. Then, too, if +your thief happens to be a kleptomaniac, she could not refrain from +pilfering. Have you lost anything since that eventful night?" + +"Nothing whatever." + +"And you have used the cabinet since as a depository for your funds?" + +"Certainly," I replied. "We consider that we have used sufficient +precaution in having the bolt put upon the door. The result seems to +justify our confidence. To be sure, until night before last we have had +no important sums to deposit." + +"How about night before last?" Mr. Mudge asked. + +"I had charge of the ticket money for the Home that we gained by the +Catacomb Party," I replied, "and I placed it in my division of the +cabinet. There is just sixty dollars of it, and it is there now." + +"And was there during the night that Lawn Tennis slept in this +apartment? And she knew it?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then that is very good evidence that she was not the thief on the +previous occasion." + +So confident was I in our security and in Polo's honesty that I +unlocked the cabinet to give Mr. Mudge convincing proof. What was our +astonishment to find my compartment again empty. The floor of the +cabinet was as clean as though swept by a brush. The sixty dollars +which we held in trust for the Home were gone! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE INTER-SCHOLASTIC GAMES. + + +[Illustration] + +Mr. Mudge informed us that he did not intend to arrest Polo immediately, +but merely to have her "shadowed," which meant that all her habits and +those of her friends and relatives were to be ascertained and every +movement watched. + +"You will not hurt her feelings by letting her know that you suspect +her?" Milly begged, and Mr. Mudge assured her that such a thing was +furthest from his intention, and in his turn he urged us not to allow +Polo to imagine that we suspected her. + +"We can't let her see that," Winnie replied, "since we do not suspect +her in the least." + +Mr. Mudge coughed. "I hope your confidence will be proved to be not +misplaced," he replied; "but Miss Noakes does not share it, and I deem +Miss Noakes to be a very discriminating woman." + +He bowed stiffly, and for that day the conference was ended. Cynthia +retired to her room, and shut the door with a bang. Milly threw herself +into Winnie's arms, and Winnie caressed her and cried over her in +mingled happiness and remorse--joy that Milly had been proved innocent, +and repentance that she had ever doubted her. + +"Oh! my darling, my darling," she sobbed; "can you ever forgive me for +believing you capable of so dreadful a thing? I could not blame you if +you refused to ever speak to me again." + +"Don't feel so badly," Milly pleaded. "Appearances were awfully against +me, and if papa had not come and helped me out just in the nick of time, +I don't know what I might have been tempted to do. I have been so bad, +Winnie, that I am very humble. I shall never say I never could have +done such a thing, for I cannot know what the temptation might have +been. I am almost glad that you believed me so wicked, because it shows +me that you would have stood by me even then. I am going to try to be a +better girl for this experience, and worthier of your love." + +Adelaide and I retired discretely, and talked over the new aspects of +the second robbery. The trust funds must be made up between us. To help +do this I subscribed the twenty dollars which Winnie had given me on my +birthday, and which fortunately had been placed in my portfolio before +we had regained our confidence in the cabinet, and had never been +transferred to my compartment. As the other girls had not suffered this +time, they made up the amount, though it necessitated considerable +self-denial. It took some time for Milly to become accustomed to +properly dividing her spending money, so that she need not come short +before the date for receiving her allowance, but the practice was good +for her and in the end she became an excellent manager. + +One peculiar circumstance in regard to this robbery was remarked by +Winnie--the fact that on both occasions money had only been taken from +my shelf. It was true that Adelaide and Milly had each lost fifty +dollars the first night, but not until it had been taken by Milly from +their hoards and placed with mine. + +"It would seem," said Adelaide, "as if the thief had a special grudge +against Tib; a determination that she shall not save up enough to go to +Europe next year." + +"It can't be that," Winnie replied, "for although the last sum stolen +was taken from Tib's compartment, it was not her money. The whole thing +is very peculiar, and seems to be the work of some unreasoning agent, +for this time, as the last, Adelaide had some bills lying loosely in her +pigeon hole in full sight, which were not touched at all. I have heard +of things having been stolen by jackdaws and mice--and monkeys--and I +believe there has been some monkey business here." + +"I heard a story when I was in Boston," said Adelaide. "It was told me +by a member of a prominent firm of jewellers. It is the custom at the +close of the day for one of the clerks to lock up all the jewelry in the +safe for the night. He had done so, and was just about to leave the +store when a box containing a valuable pair of diamond sleeve buttons +was handed him. It was late, and as it would take some time to go over +the combination which locked and unlocked the safe, he tucked the little +box far under the safe and thrust some old newspapers in front of it. In +the morning when he searched for it, what was his consternation to find +that the sleeve buttons were gone. The box was there, but some one had +opened it and abstracted the sleeve buttons. He reported the loss at +once to one of the members of the firm, who reproved him for his +carelessness in not unlocking the safe and placing the box where it +would have been secure. Then the gentlemen put their heads together to +track the thief; and some one suggested that he had seen mice in the +store, and this might be their work. The safe was moved, and a small +hole was discovered in the base-board of the room. A carpenter was sent +for and the wall opened, and there, cozily established in a nest formed +of twine and nibbled paper, and other odds and ends, a family of little +pink mice was discovered, and in their nest were the missing sleeve +buttons. The mother mouse had evidently been attracted by the glitter of +the gems, for she had taken great pains to convey them to her home. She +had stored here many other curious articles: pieces of shiny tin foil, +which she may have used as mirrors; bits of broken glass, and scraps of +narrow, bright ribbon, intended for tying the boxes, all showing that +she had an eye for decorative art. I am very sorry that it was +considered best to kill her, for I believe that mouse could have been +educated. Now, the reason that I have told this long story is that I +half suspect that this is a case of mouse, and not, as Winnie says, of +monkey business." + +Winnie immediately examined the cabinet. The panelling was intact, not +even worm-eaten; it fitted apparently as closely as the covering of a +drum; not a crevice large enough for even a cricket to penetrate. + +"It is very mysterious, all the same," Winnie remarked; "but I here and +now vow, in the presence of these witnesses, to make this mystery mine, +and to unravel it before the close of school, so surely as my name is +Witch Winnie." + +From that time we spoke of the affair of the cabinet as Witch Winnie's +mystery, and we all had faith that some way or other Winnie would find +the clue if Mr. Mudge did not. + +One day in May she said: "I feel as if there was something uncanny about +the cabinet itself. I wonder who was its first owner. Perhaps Lucrezia +Borgia kept her poisons in it, and it is haunted by dreadful secrets of +the middle ages. It may be that Lorenzo de Medici confided to its +keeping a will, giving back to Florence the city's liberties, and that +this will was stolen by the Magnificent's heir while the poor man lay +dying. We can imagine that the ghost of the guilty man having, as Mr. +Mudge says, been once successful, has contracted a habit of stealing +from the cabinet, and comes in the wee small hours with stealthy tread +to take whatever occupies the spot where once Lorenzo's testament +reposed." + +"What a romantic idea!" Milly murmured. "You could make a lovely +composition out of it, Winnie." + +"Good idea!" Winnie exclaimed. "I will. I have got to have something for +the closing exercises of school, and Madame advised me to write on +Raphael. She said that Professor Waite's lectures on the Italian artists +ought to inspire me. Some way they never have, but this old cabinet +does. I shall pretend that I have found a package of letters in a secret +compartment; and in this package I shall tell all the early history of +Raphael--which is not known to the world--his love story with Maria +Bibbiena, and all the criticism and envy which he must have undergone +before he arrived at success. It will be great fun and I shall go to +work at once. No, I shall not go to see the inter-scholastic games +to-morrow. I shall have a solid quiet afternoon to myself while you +girls are skylarking, and I shall have to work like a house on fire on +every Saturday I can get to make my essay the success which I mean it +shall be." + +From this decision we could not move her, though it greatly disappointed +Milly, who desired that Mr. Van Silver should meet Winnie. Mrs. +Roseveldt had returned from the South, and had consented to chaperone +the girls, Mr. Van Silver taking us out on his handsome coach. + +It was a perfect day and the drive to the Berkeley Oval, where the games +took place, was a delightful one. + +Mr. Van Silver's Brewster coach was a glorious affair. It was painted +canary yellow. The four horses were perfectly matched roans. The grooms +were in liveries of bottle-green coats with white breeches and top boots +faced with yellow. Mr. Van Silver wore a light-coloured overcoat, and +the lap robe was of white broadcloth. All the brass about the harness +had been burnished till it shone like gold. Mrs. Roseveldt and Milly sat +beside him on the box. Mrs. Roseveldt wore a Paris costume of white +cloth with Louis XVI jacket with velvet sleeves and vest heavily +embroidered in gold. A little bonnet formed of gold beads fitted her +aristocratic head like a coronet. Milly was bewitchingly pretty in a +fawn coloured shoulder cape, and a pancake hat piled with yellow +buttercups. She seemed, as Adelaide said, cut out of a piece with her +surroundings. Adelaide and I occupied the back seat, with Little Breeze +beside us in the place which had been intended for Winnie. Little Breeze +wore a simple spring suit and I had only one best gown--a gray cashmere; +but Adelaide made up for our simplicity. Her dress was not very +expensive, but Milly's exclamation that it was "too exasperatingly, +excruciatingly becoming" will give an idea of its effect. It was a white +foulard, sprigged in black and caught here and there with black velvet +bows; there was a vest of fluffy white chiffon, and her hat was trimmed +with white marabout pompons powdered with black. The costume was her own +design, executed by Miss Billings. She carried a cheap white silk +parasol, made to look elaborate by a cover constructed from an old black +lace flounce. + +"Papa has forbidden me ever to enter Celeste's rooms again," Milly said +to Adelaide; "and I am sure if Miss Billings can make me look as +_recherche_ as you do, she is good enough for me." + +"I seem fated never to meet Miss Winnie," Mr. Van Silver said as he +started. + +"She is to visit us during the summer," said Mrs. Roseveldt, "and you +must come out to the Pier and see her." + +"You are very good, but I am going to take my coach over to the other +side this summer. My mother is visiting at the castle of the Earl of +Cairngorm and wants me to take a lot of people for a coaching trip +through the Scottish Highlands." + +"How many of our friends are going to Europe in the summer," Adelaide +remarked. "Professor Waite told me he intended to return to France for +a term of years, and Tib here is going over to study----" + +"I'm afraid not," I replied doubtfully. + +"Oh, yes you are," Milly insisted; "that will all come out right." + +"What a lovely day for the games," Mrs. Roseveldt remarked. "What is +your favorite school, Milly? Columbia, Berkeley, Cutler, Morse? Oh! yes, +I remember--the cadets. But where is your badge? I see that Miss +Armstrong and Miss Smith wear theirs quite conspicuously, and Mr. Van +Silver, too, has decorated his whip and the coach horn with the cadet +colours." + +"Adelaide has a brother among the cadets, which accounts for her +preference," Milly replied evasively; "but I don't see why I should +prefer them to any other school." + +"Why, have you forgotten," Mrs. Roseveldt asked, much surprised, "your +old friend Stacey Fitz Simmons is a cadet?" + +Milly tossed her head disdainfully. She could not tell the story of the +intrusion of the two boys whom we believed to be cadets, for we had +promised Madame not to bruit it abroad; but her reason for not wearing +the cadet colours was her indignation on account of this act. She +believed, or affected to believe, that one of these boys was Stacey, and +she had determined to punish him for the outrage. "Girls," she had said, +before leaving, "after the insult which our school has received from the +cadets, I do not see how any of you can wear their colours." + +"We do not know certainly that those interlopers were cadets," Adelaide +replied; "and, even if they were, my brother is still a member of the +school. He rides in the bicycle race and he expects to see me wear his +colours." + +I sympathized with Adelaide and made myself a badge to encourage little +Jim. + +"Stacey is a friend of mine," Mr. Van Silver asserted. "I expect to see +him carry off several events to-day, and I have come out prepared to +wave and cheer and bawl myself hoarse in his honour." + +What a charming drive it was through the park, where many of the trees +and shrubs were in blossom. We passed many a merry party bound in the +same direction, and several great stages laden with boys, who carried +flags, tooted horns, and shook immense rattles. Arrived at Morris +Heights the sight was even still more inspiring, for every train emptied +several carloads of passengers, who hastened to the grounds to be in +time for the opening. As we drove in we could see that the grand stand +and the long rows of seats on either side were well filled. There were +at least four thousand spectators gathered to witness this athletic +contest between the champions of the principal schools of the city. Some +of the contestants were grouped on the verandas of the Pavilion waiting +for their turn to take part. Others were already on the field, +practising the long jumps, or pacing about with "sweaters," or knit +woollen blouses, over their scanty running costumes. + +On the grand stand and the "bleaching boards" the adherents of the +different schools had collected in groups, which displayed the school +colours as prominently as possible. These groups were now engaged in +making as hideous an instrumental and vocal din as possible. Each +orchestra, if it might be called so, was led by a sort of master of +discord, who called at intervals upon his constituency for cheers for +the different school favorites, as, "Now, boys, a loud one for Harrison. +One, two, three, 'rah! 'rah! 'rah! C-u-t-l-e-r, Cutler!--Harrison!" +While the Columbia grammar boys would reply, "C-o-l-u-m-b-i-a--Burke!" +and the Berkeleys would yell forth the name of Allen, who has so long +covered the school with glory. + +Buttertub was conspicuous as leader of the chorus for the cadets. He +wore an immense cockade, made of sash ribbon, pinned to the front of his +coat, while his hat and a great cane with a knobby handle, too large +for insertion even in his wide mouth, also flaunted the school colours. +Our coach had hardly taken its position before Stacey and Jim spied it +and came toward us. Stacey was in running costume--"undress uniform," he +called it--but he had knotted a rose-coloured Russian bath gown about +him to keep him from taking cold. + +"Doesn't he look exactly like a girl?" Milly remarked as he approached, +and then she gave him a curt little bow and turned with great +_empressement_ to Professor Waite, who had come out on horseback, and +who now rode up, hoping for a word with Adelaide. But Jim had clambered +up on the wheel on the other side of the coach, and Adelaide was glad of +this excuse to turn her back squarely on Professor Waite, who felt the +avoidance and would have turned instantly away had not Milly insisted on +introducing him to her mother. Meantime Stacey stood quite neglected. I +longed to speak to him, but as I had never been introduced, did not dare +to do so. Just as a hot flush was sweeping up toward his forehead, Mr. +Van Silver, whose attention had been taken up with his horses, noticed +him. "Hello, Stacey," he cried, "make that little chap get down off +that wheel, will you? These horses are pretty nervous, even with the +grooms at their heads. They are not used to all this racket. See how +they are pawing up the driveway." + +Stacey laughed. "Jim is a splendid wheel-man," he said. "You needn't be +afraid for him. But aren't you going to get down? You can see ever so +much better from the grand stand. Did the girls get the tickets that Jim +and I sent?" + +Adelaide acknowledged the receipt of the tickets, and spoke so +pleasantly that Stacey seemed a little comforted. One of the grooms set +up the steps and we all climbed down, Stacey assisting. When it was +Milly's turn he spoke to her very earnestly in a low tone, but Milly did +not reply. Mr. Van Silver called to us to keep together, and led the way +to seats near the centre of the stand; and Stacey retired to the field, +much displeased and puzzled by Milly's conduct. + +Professor Waite looked after us longingly. He did not dare to leave his +horse, and he was disappointed that we had left the coach, near which he +had intended to hover. + +"How very provokingly things do arrange themselves," I thought to +myself. "Cupid must certainly be playing a game of cross purposes with +us. Here is Stacey longing for a kind word from Milly, and Milly +breaking her little heart for Professor Waite, and Professor Waite +desperate because of Adelaide's indifference, Adelaide trying politely +to entertain Mr. Van Silver, who, in his turn, is provoked because +Winnie has not come; and I, who would be very grateful if any of these +gentlemen would be agreeable to me--left quite out in the cold, without +the shadow of an admirer." + +I soon forgot this circumstance, however, in my interest in the games. + +"There is the cup," said Mr. Van Silver, "on that table with the gold +and silver medals, Berkeley holds it now. See, it is draped with blue +and gold ribbons, the Berkeley colours. The school which wins the +greatest number of points will take it after the games are over. This is +the first heat of the hundred yard dash. Now we shall see some fun. It's +a foregone conclusion that Allen of Berkeley will win. He does not enter +for long distances, but as a sprinter he has no equal in the other +schools." Very easily and handsomely Allen won this race and several +others. + +Then we admired the light and graceful way in which an agile youth took +the hurdles, and the professional style of two walkers, and after this +my glance wandered for a time over the spectators. + +Cynthia Vaughn and Rosario Ricos had come out in the cars, chaperoned by +Miss Noakes. They did not desire her company, and it was a great bore to +her to come, but Madame would not let the girls come unattended. I was +much surprised presently to see a gentleman make his way to her side. I +nudged Adelaide, exclaiming under my breath, "Only see, Miss Noakes +actually has an admirer!" + +Adelaide lifted her opera-glass. "Tib," she ejaculated, "it is Mr. +Mudge. You know he said she was a most discriminating woman. See, she is +so much entertained that she does not notice that Ricos and Buttertub +have made their way to Cynthia and are talking with her." + +"Mr. Mudge notices them, though," I replied; "see how sharply he eyes +them." + +Mr. Mudge came to us presently, and chatted pleasantly in regard to the +games. + +"I did not know that you were so much interested in athletics," I +remarked. + +"A lawyer and a detective must be interested in everything which +interests his clients," he replied. + +"Did you come out alone?" I asked, more for the purpose of making +conversation than from any desire to know. + +"No; I had very charming company," he replied. + +"Miss Noakes?" Adelaide asked mischievously. + +Mr. Mudge looked at her with stern reproof in his gray eyes. + +"Lawn Tennis," he remarked snappishly. "I came out with that young lady, +though she is quite unconscious of my escort." + +"What! is Polo here?" I asked. + +"One of the most interested spectators. Her eyes are nearly popping out +of her head with every strain of the muscles of that tug-of-war team." + +The team to which Mr. Mudge referred was now pulling, and was made up of +members of the Cadet School. They were finely developed young men, and +in their leather apron-like protections, with their muscular arms and +glowing faces, looked like blacksmiths' apprentices. They lay on the +cleats, pulling at the great rope, and the cords swelled in their necks, +as from time to time they ground their teeth, and threw their heads +back with a jerk, which told how intense was the strain. The trainer of +the team, a wiry, eager young man, in a jockey cap, stood with his hands +on his knees, watching the white mark on the rope, which the team were +very slowly working toward their side. + +"That is a professional trainer," said Mr. Van Silver. "He has coached +the cadets, and is intensely interested in their success." + +At intervals, the captain and anchor of the cadets uttered exclamations +of encouragement to his team, or vituperated at the other. "We're in it, +boys, we're in it," he shrieked, as he gave another twist to the rope. +"Steady, hold your own, and you'll pull 'em right off the cleats. Heave, +now--heave! Oh! those fellows don't know how to pull," he cried again; +"they're weakening! See how purple they're getting in the face. Hold on +another two seconds, and you'll pull them into the middle of next week." + +"What a noisy fellow!" Adelaide remarked. "Why doesn't Colonel Grey shut +him up?" + +"Not he," replied Mr. Van Silver. "See how his ribald and irreverent +remarks put new courage into the team. I should not wonder if they won +back that three inches which the other side pulled away from them during +the first minute. Time's up. Which side won?" for the announcement of +the judges was drowned in a roar of the cadet claque, led by Buttertub, +who had struggled back to his place in time to head the 'Rah! 'Rah! 'Rah! + +Stacey had been looking on close to the rope, and he now shouted across +to Mr. Van Silver, "The cadets have it by half an inch!" and waving +the skirts of his bath-robe with great _abandon_, he threw himself +into the arms of the little man in the jockey cap, and hugged him +enthusiastically. + +"Now, notice your friend," Mr. Mudge said to me, in a low voice; and, +looking in the direction in which he pointed, I saw Polo standing on one +of the front seats of the bleaching boards, waving her Tam O'Shanter, +and shouting as wildly as the cadets. + +"I did not know that Polo knew any of the boys who go to that school," +I said, much puzzled. + +"I don't believe she does," Mr. Mudge replied, "but Terwilliger, the +trainer there, is her brother, and he hasn't the best record that was +ever known. He was a jockey in England, but outgrew that profession, and +has been a little of everything since. He came over to this country on +the Earl of Cairngorm's yacht. He was associated shortly after with a +noted pickpocket called Limber Tim, and some months since was sent with +him to the Island to serve a term of imprisonment for participation in a +confidence swindle. All of which, you see, has a rather damaging look +for your friend Lawn Tennis. What I would like to know is, how he ever +came to get the position of trainer at the Cadet School." + +"The boys seem to be very fond of him," I ventured. + +"Naturally; it was his training which has just won the school this +event. Did you notice that young swell, Fitz Simmons, give him a +greenback as soon as the victory was assured. I have not been able to +discover yet whether Terwilliger has renewed his friendship with Limber +Tim. If he has, it is more than likely that they are the two unknown +boys who introduced themselves into your school on the night of your +party." + +"Has Adelaide shown you her brother's letters?" I asked. "We think that +the young man who leads the applause and Rosario Ricos's brother are the +scamps." + +"That supposition might be entertained provided it had been only a +boyish caper; but the two robberies can hardly be attributed to these +young gentlemen." + +I groaned. So our poor Polo was beginning to be "shadowed." She had told +us with such delight, a few days before this, that she had found her +brother. He had been away from New York for two years, but had left no +stone unturned on his return in his search for them. He had a kind +friend who had secured him a fine position, and she was so happy. The +good news had nearly cured her mother. + +I was drawn from my reverie by Adelaide's announcement that the time had +come for the one mile safety bicycle race for boys under fifteen, in +which Jim was to take part. This was the great event of the day for us. +There were two entries from the Cadet School--Jim and Ricos. + +"Ricos is certainly over fifteen," I said to Adelaide. + +"He is no taller than Jim," Adelaide replied doubtfully. + +"He is a little fellow," I admitted, "but those Cubans are all stunted, +weazened little monkeys." + +Adelaide smiled faintly, but watched the preparations for the race with +straining eyes. So did all the cadets. There were many entries from the +other schools, but they were confident in the prowess of their own +champions. The only question was which would be successful. + +"Come boys," shouted Buttertub, "let's give them a rousing send-off. +Whoop her up for Ricos! One, two, three,--'Rah! 'Rah! 'Rah! _Ricos!_" + +A red-haired boy, whom I at once recognized as the Woodpecker, shouted +from the field, "Cheer Armstrong, too!" but Buttertub either did not +hear him, or wilfully disregarded his request. + +Stacey's rose-coloured bath-gown was conspicuous, fluttering here and +there; he got a bottle of alcohol from the trainer and was presently +seen kneeling on the track, vigorously rubbing down Jim's legs. He +mounted him carefully, and scrutinized every part of his little safety +bicycle, with the most zealous care. The starter gave Jim the inside of +the track, which was an advantage loudly contested by Ricos. + +"No use kicking," Stacey remarked. "You've had one medal for cycling, +and Jim is the youngest chap entered. I should like to know now just +when you passed your fourteenth birthday." + +Ricos was silent and sullenly took his place. Jim turned and waved his +hand to his sister. Stacey was holding his bicycle, ready to push it off +at the signal. How jaunty and gay he looked in his dark blue jersey, +with the silver C on his breast, and with the wind blowing his blonde +hair from his eager face. + +"He's a jolly little chap," Mr. Van Silver remarked admiringly; and +Milly murmured, "I think he's perfectly sweet." + +Adelaide said nothing, but the tears came to her eyes. I think that just +for that moment she was perfectly happy. Her mood was contagious. The +glamour of spring was in the hazy atmosphere. The plum trees were +blossoming white out beyond the track, and the blue of bursting buds and +the tender green of the earliest leafage spread itself in a shimmering +haze over all the sweet spring landscape. It was a good world, after +all. + +At the report of the starter's pistol, all of the boys were off in line, +but they had hardly made half a lap when two, Jim and Ricos, shot from +the rank and sped on in advance of the others. + +"'Rah! 'Rah! for the cadets!" shouted Buttertub. + +"'Rah! for Armstrong!" yelled the Woodpecker. + +"He's second!" shouted Buttertub. + +"He's first!" shrieked the Woodpecker, "and gaining every instant. 'Rah! +'Rah! 'Rah!" + +"He can't keep it! Ricos won't let himself be beaten as easily as that," +replied Buttertub. "See him bend to it. There, he's up with him! They're +even! He's trying to get the inside! 'Rah! 'Rah!" + +"Look out! there'll be a smash-up!" cried the trainer. "Keep to the +right, you lummox." + +"Hi!" cried Mr. Van Silver, springing to his feet, "that's a bad +tumble." + +"Ricos fouled him on purpose," cried the Woodpecker. + +A groan ran round the stand. "They are both down--no, only one." + +"Which one?" cried Adelaide. + +"I don't know," I replied, but I held her down firmly on my shoulder, +for I saw a rose-coloured bath-robe skimming across the field like a +pink comet, and I knew that Stacey would not have manifested such +concern if an accident had happened to Ricos. + +"Armstrong's up!" yelled the trainer in the jockey cap. "He's mounting +again!" + +"He is!" ejaculated Mr. Van Silver. "By George! Jim's the pluckiest +little fellow I ever saw in my life!" + +For an instant the spectators went crazy with cheers, then they quieted +down and watched. + +Ricos swept by, he had gained the first lap easily; but only a faint +cheer greeted him. It was thought by many that the collision was +intended, and all eyes were fixed on the little figure in the blue +jersey, now the very last in the race, but who, having been assisted to +his seat by the rose-coloured bath-robe, was now wheeling manfully along +in the rear. Adelaide opened her eyes and waved her handkerchief as he +passed the stand. + +"Go it, Jim; go it! You've got the sand," yelled the Woodpecker; while +Stacey, the bath-robe cast aside, came forging up, running at Jim's +side; in his friendly anxiety to see that all was right, unconsciously +breaking his own previous record as a sprinter. If he had been timed +just then even his most enthusiastic friends would have been astonished. +But, convinced that Jim was gaining, he contented himself with cutting +across the Oval to note his place at the end of the second lap. Ricos +had held his own, and passed the stand well ahead of all the other +competitors; but Jim was making up and had distanced two of the +laggards, his legs propelling like the driving-bars of an engine. + +"He's gaining!" cried Mr. Van Silver. "I should not wonder if he caught +up with the other fellow; for, see, he has two more rounds to make." + +When he passed the stand for the third time and the starter rang the +bell which announced that this was the last lap, Jim had passed all the +others and was following Ricos at a distance of only a few rods. He +looked up toward us with a pitiful smile on his wan face. "Cheer, boys, +cheer!" cried the Woodpecker, "you don't applaud half enough. Whoop 'em +up, Tub! Hurry up, Jim! Hurry up! Go it for all you're worth!" + +"Take it easy--easy!" roared Stacey, who saw that the boy was +straining every nerve. "Take your time, Jim. You've got him, now. +Take--your--time!" + +The spectators were nearly all silent. The boys belonging to other +schools, seeing that there was no hope for their own champions, had +ceased to applaud and were now deeply interested in the two cadets. +Rosario Ricos had fainted, and Miss Noakes was calling shrilly for +water, but even Mr. Mudge was so much absorbed in the contest that he +paid no attention to her appeal. People near me held their breath in +suspense. It reminded me of Gerome's picture of the chariot race, and +the fall had been not unlike the one described in "Ben Hur." + +"Why is it," whispered Adelaide, "that Jim has tied a crimson ribbon +just below his knee? Red is not a cadet colour; see it flutter against +his leg." + +I saw the crimson streak to which she referred; but a swift intimation +flashed upon me that this was no ribbon, but a little rill of blood +flowing from a gash cut by Ricos's wheel. I contrasted Jim's face, +deadly pale, with that of Ricos's, flushed to a dark purple, and +wondered whether his strength would hold out to the end. I need have had +no fear, Jim was clear grit through and through. As he neared the goal +he set his teeth and bent nearly flat, throwing no glance this time in +our direction, but with graze fixed straight before him, he worked the +pedals with wonderful velocity and swooped forward, like a little hawk, +far beyond Ricos, and past the finish, on, on, as though the momentum +of that final spurt would never be exhausted. The thunder of applause +which burst forth at this exploit was something which I had never heard +equalled. The spectators all stood upon the benches, the ladies waving +their handkerchiefs, hats, and scarfs, crying and laughing hysterically. +The men yelled and shouted themselves hoarse. Every kazoo, tin horn, +rattle, and other instrument of torture sounded forth its discordant +triumph. The boys stamped and hooted. The cadets, to a man, acted like +raving maniacs. Even Buttertub, who had no love for Jim, led his gang +with "Bully for Armstrong!" "Hi--yi--whoop, three times three and a +tiger!" "Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! What's the matter with Armstrong? He's +all right!" + + "'Rah, 'Rah, 'Rah--ta-tara-da + Boomerum a boom-er-um. + Boom, boom, bang!" + +But Jim was not all right. He heard the great roar of applause, but it +sounded far, far away to his numbing senses. Then all the light went out +of the sweet spring landscape, and he toppled over, bicycle and all, +into Stacey's friendly arms. No one was surprised to see him stretched +upon the grass wrapped in the rose-coloured bath-gown, for it was a +common thing for victors to faint just as they secured their laurels. +"He'll be up in a minute; Stacey is rubbing his feet," Mr. Van Silver +asserted reassuringly. "Good-hearted fellow, that Stacey. He's devoted +to your brother." But Adelaide watched him anxiously, until a crowd of +boys closed around him and hid him from her view. How terribly long he +lay there--could anything serious be the matter? Suddenly Polo's brother +came running toward us. "Is there any doctor on the grand stand!" he +shouted; "if so, he's wanted _immejiently_." + +Adelaide sprang to her feet and clambered down the ranks of seats. I +followed. I have no clear idea of how we reached the ground, but we +hurried on together, the boys making way for us as we came. They had an +instinctive feeling that this handsome, imperious girl, with the white +face, had a right to pass. A panting boy, lying with his face to the +ground, looked up and asked, "What's up?" + +"They can't bring Armstrong to," replied the trainer. "Looks like he is +going to die." + +"Glad of it," retorted the other, turning his face to the sod again. +It was Ricos, deserted by every one, unnoticed in his defeat. But +through his humiliation and resentment there presently shot a pang of +conscience. "What if Jim should die? Would I not be a murderer?" and +with pallid face he staggered to his feet and tottered after us. The +crowd around Jim opened for us. There he lay with his head on Stacey's +lap. A portly surgeon, with a river of watch-chain flowing around his +vest, knelt at Jim's side examining the wound below his knee. Colonel +Grey, the principal of the school, a retired army officer, and a tall +soldierly man, bent his white head over the doctor and inquired into +Jim's condition. + +"The wound is not a serious one, only a minor artery cut, which I have +just tied. The only question is whether the little fellow has lost too +much blood." + +"Oh, my darling brother!" Adelaide cried. + +"For Heaven's sake, control yourself, my dear Miss Armstrong!" exclaimed +Colonel Grey. He realized the importance of not exciting Jim, and he +loved the boy tenderly. He offered his arm to Adelaide now, while four +of the cadets lifted Jim and bore him very gently to the piazza of the +pavilion. "To think," said the Colonel, "that I was just congratulating +myself on the number of points he was winning for the school. Why, I +would rather the school had not gained a single point than have had this +happen." + +"Darn the games," muttered Stacey, switching his bath-robe about +savagely. + +When we reached the piazza and Jim had been stretched on a bench, his +eyes opened feebly. He recognized Adelaide fanning him and smiled. + +"They are calling the mile run," said the trainer. "You entered for +that, Mr. Fitz Simmons. They say you are sure of winning the race, and +if you do you'll gain the cup for the school." + +"Confound the race!" ejaculated Stacey. "Do you suppose I am going to +leave Jim in this condition?" + +"I cannot ask it, my boy," said the Colonel. But Jim's forehead furrowed +slightly, and he said very feebly: "Go, Stacey; don't--let the +school--lose the cup." + +"Go!" cried Adelaide. "He wishes it." And Stacey strode out to the +track. + +Milly told me afterward that she was greatly surprised, and not a little +indignant, to see him take his place with the runners, who were +mustering just in front of us. + +"How's Armstrong?" Mr. Van Silver called to him. + +Stacey came nearer. "Badly hurt, I'm afraid," he replied. + +"Then I think it is very heartless in you to run," Milly exclaimed. It +was the only thing she had said to him that day. He flushed violently. +"Jim begged me to do so," he said, "or else you may be sure that I would +not be here." + +The race was called, and Stacey threw himself into the "set," his chin +protruding with bull-dog determination, but Milly's thoughtless remark +had taken all of the spirit out of him. "He was the very last to get +off," said the trainer. "He's running in awful bad form, too. Fifth from +the front. What's he thinking of to let Harrison pass him?" + +Around they came, and Stacey looked appealingly to Milly, but with nose +turned in the air, she was waving the Morse colours, snatched from a +girl sitting near her, and applauding the Morse champion, Emerson. + +The sight stung him. He would show her that he was a better runner than +the boy she had selected as her favorite, and he put forth every energy, +and gained rapidly. + +"I told 'em," said the trainer oracularly, "that Fitz Simmons would wake +up, and sprint further on. _He_ wasn't running this first lap. He ain't +a-running now, he's just taking it easy, to show us some tall running +toward the finish, when he'll have it all to himself." + +The cadets evidently thought so too, and Stacey's own drum corps, who +had brought out their drums on the top of a stage in expectation of this +event, beat an encouraging charge as he came around for the second time. +Stacey smiled as he recognized the familiar: + + Boom a tid-e-ra-da + Boom a diddle dee, + Boom a tid-e-ra-da + Boom! + +He turned for an instant, waved his hand to the boys, and then buckled +down to his very best effort. + + "It's one in a million + If any civilian + His figure and form can surpass," + +hummed Mr. Van Silver. + +"How's that for the cup?" shouted Buttertub, who forgot personal +animosities in the school triumph. He flapped his arms like a rooster +about to crow, and yelled across to the drum corps, "Who's Fitz +Simmons?" + +It was a well-known school cry and the boys on the stage responded +lustily: + + "First in peace, first in war; + He'll be there again, he's been there before; + _First in the hearts of his own drum corps_; + That's Fitz Simmons!" + +Stacey was leading--only a little way now to the finish. He said to +himself, "Now's the time to sprint." How strange that his muscles would +_not_ obey the command telegraphed to them by his brain. Strain every +nerve as he did, he could not increase the pace. Emerson, the Morse +flyer, shot by him with his magnificent stride, as fresh and unwearied +in this final burst of speed as Milton's conception of a young +archangel. Stacey staggered on, but the drum corps was suddenly silent, +and there was no shout as he passed the cadet contingent. They and he +knew that the contest was now hopeless. He did not look up at Milly. He +knew, without looking, that she was applauding his rival, who had won +the race and was now being borne off the field on the shoulders of his +rejoicing comrades, amidst their delirious cheers. Stacey finished the +course, then stalked moodily a little distance and sat down upon the +grass, with his forehead resting on his knees. His disappointment was +very bitter. The Woodpecker, who had not run in this race, came up to +Stacey with his bath-gown, which he threw thoughtfully about the +exhausted runner. + +"Played out, are you, Stacey?" he asked kindly. "Well, I don't wonder; +you tired yourself out keeping up with Armstrong in the bicycle race. +You made staving good time then, but you'd ought to have saved yourself +and put in the licks now, old chap. Never mind, we all know what your +record has been." + +"I don't care beans for my own record," groaned Stacey, "but I've lost +the school the cup, and I can never look the fellows in the face +again." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +POLO IS SHADOWED. + + +[Illustration] + +Polo ran up and with her was her brother, and Mrs. Roseveldt left her +seat on the stand, as soon as the mile run was decided, and joined us as +we stood around Jim. She was a woman of kindly impulses in spite of her +fondness for fashionable life. + +"You must let me have the boy conveyed to my house," she said to Colonel +Grey. "His father and mother are abroad, and you have no conveniences at +the 'Barracks' for sickness." + +"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Roseveldt," Adelaide murmured, "and will you let me +come too and nurse him?" + +"You had better not sacrifice your studies," Mrs. Roseveldt replied +kindly. "We will have a trained nurse and you shall come and sit with +him for a time every afternoon. The hospitalities of my house are just +now taxed by company. I shall have to give Jim Milly's old room and put +a cot in my dressing-room for the nurse." + +"But my studies are of no consequence whatever in comparison with Jim," +Adelaide pleaded; "and the cot in the dressing-room will do finely for +me. Please let me be the nurse, Mrs. Roseveldt." + +Mrs. Roseveldt, seeing how much in earnest Adelaide was, turned to the +physician and asked, "Doctor, do you think that an untrained girl like +Miss Adelaide, with all the good intentions in the world, is capable of +nursing your patient?" + +"Perfectly," the physician replied. "I am assured now that the boy will +recover. The artery cut was an unimportant one, but the gash just missed +the tibialis; he has had a very fortunate escape. All he needs now is +rest, and careful attendance, to recuperate. I have no doubt that his +sister's society would enliven and benefit him far more than that of a +stranger." + +"How shall I get him to my home?" Mrs. Roseveldt asked. "He is hardly +able to ride on the coach." + +"Some one must go to the station and telegraph for an ambulance," said +the physician. + +"I will undertake that service. I have a good horse here," volunteered +Professor Waite, who had hurried to the pavilion as soon as he saw that +Adelaide was in trouble. No one had noticed him up to this time, but +Adelaide now accepted his offer very gratefully. + +"Anything that I can do for you, Miss Armstrong----" Professor Waite +replied; but Adelaide was not listening to him, and he left his remark +unfinished. + +"If we can do nothing further here," said Mrs. Roseveldt, "I will ask +Mr. Van Silver to take us home at once. I would like to order some +preparations for the reception of my little guest." + +"If you please, Mrs. Roseveldt," said Adelaide. "I would rather wait for +the ambulance and ride down with Jim." + +"I will take charge of Miss Armstrong and her brother until the arrival +of the ambulance," said Colonel Grey. And so Adelaide was left. + +Mrs. Roseveldt collected her party and Mr. Van Silver gathered up the +reins; but before we started Milly noticed that Miss Noakes was fanning +Rosario Ricos, who had only partially recovered from her fainting fit, +and that the poor woman looked dejected and puzzled. "Oh, Mr. Van +Silver," said Milly, "won't you invite Rosario to take Adelaide's place? +She doesn't look able to go back in the cars." + +"Anything you please, Miss Milly," Mr. Van Silver replied; and Milly was +down from her seat in a moment, Miss Noakes accepting the offer most +joyfully. + +Stacey came up just as we were leaving. He made no attempt to speak to +Milly, but asked Mrs. Roseveldt if he might call on Jim occasionally. + +"My house is always open to you, Stacey," Mrs. Roseveldt replied kindly, +and Stacey thanked her and assisted Rosario to climb up beside her. + +"Aren't you going to compete for the high jump?" asked Mr. Van Silver. +Stacey shook his head. + +"That accident took all the starch out of you, didn't it?" Mr. Van +Silver continued. "Well, I don't wonder; a nervous shock like that makes +a fellow as weak as a rag. Never mind, Stacey, we'll hear from you next +year at Harvard. I shouldn't wonder if you got on the 'Varsity crew." + +On our way home, Mrs. Roseveldt condoled with Rosario. "I am sorry for +your brother's disappointment," she said; "though we were all interested +in Adelaide's brother. It is the great pity in these contests that every +one cannot win." + +"It was not him to lose the race what troubled me," said Rosario. "It +was that he to hurt little Jim Armstrong, and some so bad boys near by +to me did say he to do it upon purpose. They called him one 'chump' and +'mucker.' I know not what these words to mean, but I think that they are +not of compliment." + +We assured her that we did not believe it possible that her brother had +intentionally hurt Jim, and she was somewhat comforted. + +"Fabrique is one little wild," she said, "and his temper is not of the +angels, but he could not be so bad." + +"Who was that old gentleman who came and spoke to you during the games?" +Mr. Van Silver asked of me. + +"He is Madame's lawyer," I replied. "We see him sometimes at the +school." + +"Didn't I hear him mention the Earl of Cairngorm?" + +"Did he? Oh, yes! I remember, he said that the Earl of Cairngorm brought +Polo's brother to this country on his yacht." + +"He must mean Terwilliger, the ex-jockey and cabin-boy, now trainer at +the Cadet School." + +"Exactly. Do you know him?" + +"Rather. I got him his present position. If it had not been for me I +don't think Colonel Grey would have engaged him." + +"I'm so glad," I cried, "if you can vouch for his character. You +see----" and then I hesitated, bound by Madame's orders not to mention +our trouble. + +"What interests you particularly in Terwilliger?" asked Mr. Van Silver. + +"He is Polo's brother, for one thing." + +"And Polo is the young lady that Miss Milly was lunching so sumptuously +on turtle-soup and ice-cream the afternoon I saw you at Sherry's? I +wanted to inquire whether that large family of starving children were +still subsisting on macaroons." + +"Mr. Van Silver, you are just as mean as you can be," Milly pouted. + +"Oh, no! you have yet to learn my capabilities in that direction. I am +glad to know that your _protege_ is a sister of my favorite, for I like +Terwilliger, and I think he has had a harder time than he deserves. +There is one portion of his history that I could have testified to if I +had been in the city and possibly have saved his being sent unjustly to +prison, so I feel that I owe it to him to do him any kindness that I +can." + +"What was it, Mr. Van Silver?" I asked eagerly. + +"Oh! it's my secret; and as it is too late to help Terwilliger now, I +shan't confess." + +"Perhaps it is not too late to help him," I exclaimed. "Mr. Van Silver, +I can't tell you now, but Mr. Mudge will explain everything, and when I +send him to you will you please tell him all you can in Terwilliger's +favor. Indeed, he never needed your friendship more." + +"I'm there," Mr. Van Silver replied; "and in return what will you do for +me?" + +"Winnie is writing a composition on the life of Raphael. I will copy it +and send it to you," said Milly. + +Mr. Van Silver made a wry face; he had not a very favorable opinion of +school-girl compositions. "I would rather see the young lady herself," +he replied; "but I don't believe there is any Witch Winnie. She is a +Will-o'-the-Wisp, Margery Daw sort of girl." + +"She is thoroughly real, I do assure you." + +"What does she look like? How does she dress?" + +"Well, out of doors she likes to wear a boy's jockey cap of white cloth +and a jaunty little jacket, and I regret to say that she is not +unfrequently seen with her hands in its pockets, and her elbows making +aggressive angles." + +"And, I presume, she also wears stiffly-laundried shirt waists, with +men's ties, and divided skirts, and her hair is short and parted on the +side, and she rides a bicycle. I know the type--the young lady who +affects the masculine in her attire." + +"She has just the loveliest long hair in the world, and her skirts are +not divided, and she doesn't ride a bicycle, nor wear shirt waists, at +least not horrid, starched, manny ones. She likes the soft, washable +silk kind; and she is a great deal more lady-like than you are, and +lovely, and just splendid; so there!" + +Mr. Van Silver chuckled; he liked to tease Milly. + +Adelaide remained at Mrs. Roseveldt's for two weeks. Jim did not gain as +fast as the physician had expected. The nervous shock and the great +strain of the race after the accident had been more than the boy's +slight physique could well endure. + +Adelaide read to him, and played endless games of halma and backgammon, +and discussed plans for the summer, or told him of the people in her +tenement, in whom Jim was even more interested, if that were possible, +than Adelaide herself. Polo called and brought a bouquet, for which she +had paid seven cents on Fourteenth Street. Jim was glad to meet Polo +when he knew that she was Terwilliger's sister, for the trainer had been +especially proud of Jim, and had given him many points on bicycling. + +One day when Polo was present, Jim suddenly asked Adelaide, "Say, +sister, did the boys really go to your cat-combing party?" + +"I don't know," Adelaide replied. "There were two suspicious characters +there, but we never found out who they were." + +"They was boys," Polo insisted; "and one of 'em was fat, and trod on my +toe, and one of 'em was little, and smelled of cigarettes." + +"If I was only back at school," Jim replied, a little fretfully, "I'd +find out for you, fast enough, whether it was Buttertub and Ricos. But +what can a fellow do penned up here?" + +"Never mind, Jim," Adelaide replied soothingly. "The truth will all come +out at last." + +Polo's great eyes snapped. "Albert Edward could find out," she said. +"The boys tell him lots of things." + +Adelaide did not tell Polo that her brother's testimony would count for +little, as he was himself suspected, and the girl went away determined +to assist in unravelling the mystery. + +Stacey called frequently and Adelaide could but admire his patience with +the whims of the sick boy. Jim asked him to try to find out whether +Buttertub and Ricos were the intruders on our Catacomb party, and this +was one of the very few requests which Jim made that Stacey refused. + +"I don't want to have anything to do with those fellows," he said, "and +you know I never could act the spy." + +"I have been thinking," Stacey said, after Adelaide had told him Polo's +history and the needs of the Home, "that we boys might get up some sort +of an athletic entertainment in behalf of the Home of the Elder Brother. +The cadets all like Terwilliger, and if they knew that his little +brother and sister were supported by the Home, they would all chip in +willingly." + +"Terwilliger has such a good salary," Adelaide replied, "that Polo tells +me they intend, as soon as their mother is able to leave the hospital, +to take the children from the Home, rent an apartment in my tenement, +and set up housekeeping for themselves. But, if the Terwilligers do not +need it, you may be sure there will always be poor children enough who +do. And something might happen, Terwilliger might lose his place at your +gymnasium, and not be able to support his brother and sister, after +all." + +Adelaide was thinking uneasily as she spoke of the cloud which shadowed +Polo and her brother. What if it should be proved that the ex-convict +had committed the two robberies in the Amen Corner with the assistance +of his sister. + +"Oh, Terwilliger won't lose his situation," Stacey remarked confidently. +"Colonel Grey likes him, and so do all the fellows. He's up on every +kind of athletics; knows all the English ways of doing things, for he +has been a jockey at the Ascot races and a coach to the Cambridge crew. +He's so good-natured too; doesn't mind helping fellows outside of hours. +He goes out rowing with me every Wednesday night in a two-oared gig on +the Harlem." + +"Were you rowing with him on the 10th?" Adelaide inquired eagerly, for +this was the night of the Catacomb party. + +"Yes," Stacey laughed, "and we were late, and I got a special blowing up +for it, too. You see, they lock the door at ten, and I had to ring the +janitor up, and he was raving, for he had already been disturbed to let +Ricos and Buttertub in, and he was in no mood to pass it over. He +reported us all to Colonel Grey, who gave us order marks for it." + +"Ah!" thought Adelaide, "this is encouraging. Buttertub and Ricos were +out late on the night of our party, and Stacey can prove an alibi for +Terwilliger. I shall report all this to Mr. Mudge." + +Jim returned persistently to the idea of the entertainment for the Home +of the Elder Brother. "I wish you would see to it, Stacey. What are the +boys doing now?" + +"Tennis, and base-ball. You ought to see Woodpecker; he is going to be +our tennis champion; he can make the neatest underhand cut. He's simply +great." + +"Any better than the club down at the Pier?" Jim asked. + +"What! the Sand-flies? They can't hold a candle to us." + +"It would be nice to have the Cadets play the Sand-flies," Jim +suggested. "Colonel Grey would give the tennis club a field-day if you +asked him, and the excursion to the Pier by boat would be lovely. Mrs. +Roseveldt says she's going to open her cottage earlier than usual this +year, and she will get the Sand-flies interested. Say, is it a go?" + +Stacey lashed his boots lightly with his riding-whip; for he was on his +way to the Park for a ride. + +"We couldn't make a success of the affair without Miss Milly's help," he +said, "and after the way she treated me at the games I'll never ask +another favor of her--never." + +Jim was much distressed. + +"That tournament scheme was such a good one," he said. "The Sand-flies +are already interested in the Home of the Elder Brother, and we could +make a big affair of it and rake in lots of money for the Home. I mean +to talk with Mrs. Roseveldt about it, any way." + +"All right," Stacey replied as he rose to take his leave; "so long as +you don't talk with Miss Milly. She would think it a put-up job between +us." + +"Now it was real vexatious in Stacey to say that," Jim remarked, after +his friend had left. "I meant to have it out with Miss Milly the next +time I saw her. Won't you wrestle with her, Adelaide?" + +"I'm afraid it's of no use," Adelaide replied, but Jim would not give +up the idea so easily. He talked it over with Mrs. Roseveldt, who +approved of the tennis tournament. It would be just the thing with +which to open the season. The Cadet team would be a great attraction. +She would intercede with Colonel Grey to allow them to remain several +days. "It must take place early in June," she said, "just after +Milly's commencement exercises, and while Adelaide and you are +visiting us, before your father and mother return and take you away. I +will drop a line to Milly that I want her to come home for my last +reception this season, and I'll invite Stacey to talk it over." + +Jim was afraid that Milly might not be inclined to receive Stacey's +proposal with favor, and he accordingly wrote her a long and labored +epistle, urging her, for the sake of the Home of the Elder Brother, to +bury the war hatchet. Jim's intentions were better than his spelling, +which was even worse than Milly's, and his letter amused her very much. +One phrase struck her as especially diverting: "Stacey says you treated +him worse than a Niger." + +Jim had spelled the word with an economy of g's, and a capital letter, +which suggested visions of Darkest Africa. Milly laughed till she cried. + +"Perhaps I have been impolite to him," she thought. Milly had a horror +of being discourteous, and she wrote Jim that if Stacey would not be +"soft," she would be nice to him for the sake of the Home of the Elder +Brother. Jim considered this quite a triumph, and showed the letter to +Stacey on the occasion of his next visit. + +Stacey did not look as pleased as Jim had expected. + +"Catch me being soft with her," he muttered. "I'll show Miss Milly +how much I care for her airs. By the way, Jim, we are to have two +invitations each to give away for the prize essays and declamations +at the close of school. I intend to invite Miss Winnie De Witt and +Miss Vaughn. I thought I would mention it, as it might influence your +invitations." + +Jim opened his eyes aghast at what he heard. "You don't mean to say that +you are not going to send Miss Milly one of your tickets?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"And you are going to invite that hateful, horrid Vaughn girl?" + +"I heard Buttertub boast that he was going to invite her, and I thought +it would be rather a pleasant thing for him to receive his ticket back +again with the information that as she had already accepted mine she had +no need for it." + +Jim could hardly believe his ears. "Well, of all things," he said. "You +shan't do it, Stacey; you shan't do it! I'll invite Miss Milly, with +sister, if you don't want to, but it's a downright insult to fill her +place with such a pimply faced, common, loud----" + +"I do not see that it is the young lady's fault if she has a _humorous +disposition_, and as for her being loud----" + +"You said yourself that you could hear her hat at the Battery if she was +walking in Central Park. Sister says she toadies fearfully, and she +flirted like a silly at the games, and at the drill. I think you must be +hard up to ask her." + +Stacey coloured, but was too proud to back down, and he left Jim in +tears. Poor little fellow, as he expressed it, it seemed as if all the +sticks which he tried to stand up straight were determined to fall down. +He could see that something was wrong with his hero, for Stacey's +disappointment at the games had cut deeply, and the boy was on the verge +of falling into a dangerous state of "don't care." When Jim asked him +what subject he intended to choose for his essay, Stacey said that he +had about decided not to compete. The subject must be connected with +Greek history or life, and he despised the whole business, and the +honour wasn't worth the trouble. + +Adelaide took Stacey in hand and suggested a subject, in which he +manifested some interest, but all this worried Jim and kept him from +recovery. + +Adelaide watched him anxiously. She had at first thought it best not to +notify her parents of Jim's accident, fearing to spoil their tour; but +as she felt certain that he was not improving she sent a cablegram, and +received an answering one stating that they would sail for America at +once. Adelaide watched eagerly for their coming. Jim pined for his +mother, and one day, to give her little invalid something pleasant to +look forward to, Adelaide told him that their parents were on the way +home. The news did him more good than all the physician's tonics. He +brightened every day and talked of his mother incessantly. Once it +seemed to occur to him that his delight was a poor return for Adelaide's +care, and he asked her anxiously, "You don't mind, do you, sister, that +I am so glad mother is coming? You are the very best sister in all the +world, but then you are not quite mother. You never can know just what +she was to me when we were so very poor." + +"Of course, I am not jealous, dear Jim," Adelaide replied. "I can well +understand that you and mother are bound together even more closely than +most mothers and sons, by that long fight together with poverty. I only +wish that I had been with you to help you bear it. But then I do not +know what father would have done. He suffered so much while you were +lost to us, that if I had not been there to live for I think he would +have died or have gone insane." + +"I don't wonder that father loves you so much and is so proud of you, +sister. I am very glad you were not with us when we were so very +wretched. You ought not to know what it is to be poor, Adelaide. You +ought to be a queen." + +"I am a queen now, Jim, and I think I do know what it is to be poor. +When you told me all your bitter experiences, I felt them as keenly, it +seemed to me, as if I had passed through them myself. I believe that God +sent us this intimate knowledge of how the poor suffer in order that we +might sympathize with and help them." Then Adelaide told him of the +tenement and described each of the families. Some of them Jim had known +in that other life which has been related in a former volume, and he +inquired eagerly for the inventor, Stephen Trimble, and for the Rumples, +and others. Adelaide told him, too, of the two turtle-doves, and of the +sad death of Miss Cohens, and how the Terwilligers were soon to be +established in one of the best suites. This last information pleased Jim +very much. + +"I like Terwilliger," he said. "He is so funny; he drops all his h's, +and calls everything 'bloomin'.' Buttertub is a 'bloomin' fool,' and +Stacey is a 'bloomin' swell,' and when I got hurt he said it was a +'bloomin' shame,' and Ricos was a 'bloomin' cad,' and the fellows ought +to have made a 'bloomin' row' about it." + +That evening it happened that Mrs. Roseveldt was to give a _musicale_, +and as Jim was feeling very bright, Adelaide had consented to take part. +She was a creditable performer upon the violin, and had decided upon a +romance by Rubenstein. She came to the school early in the afternoon for +her music, and, to give her more of a visit with us, Mrs. Roseveldt had +suggested that she should remain until after dinner, promising to send +the carriage for her. Stacey was expected to call that afternoon and +would keep Jim from being lonely. + +We were all delighted to have Adelaide with us once more, for we had +missed her greatly. + +I was painting in the studio, and Professor Waite had just told me that +it was all for the best that I could not probably go to Europe in +vacation. + +"You are not ready for it," he said. "You will profit far more by +European instruction after a year of thorough training in the Art +Students' League. I would advise you to attend it next winter. Our +disappointments are often blessings in disguise. Providence keeps the +things for which we are not prepared, saved on an upper shelf for us +until we deserve them." + +As he said this, a joyful hub-bub rang out in the Amen Corner, led by a +wild, Comanche shriek from Polo, who happened to be in the corridor: +"Miss Adelaide's come! Glory! Oh, glory!" + +Professor Waite flushed and paled, took two steps impulsively toward the +door, and then sat down before my easel, and began insanely to spoil a +sky with idiotic dabs of green paint. I wondered whether Providence was +saving up Adelaide until he deserved her. If so, the shelf was for the +present a very high one. + +To my surprise, Adelaide tapped at the studio door a moment later. She +greeted Professor Waite cordially. "I am so glad to find you," she said, +"for I want to impose upon you for a little help." + +Professor Waite beamed. + +"Stacey Fitz Simmons has asked me for a subject for an essay and I have +suggested 'The Athletic Contests of Ancient Greece,' as giving a +subject in which he is greatly interested--athletic sports--a classical +turn, suitable for the dignified occasion. At first he thought he could +make nothing original of it, but would have to crib everything from +books of reference; but it occurred to me that he might treat it from a +rather new standpoint by taking his information from remains of ancient +sculpture. I told him he had better study the casts at the Metropolitan +Museum, as that would be the next best thing to attending the games at +Corinth. Can you give him any additional sources of information?" + +Professor Waite threw himself into the idea with enthusiasm and poured +forth at once a dissertation which would have taken the highest honours +at the competition. Then he made a memorandum of several works on art, +which Stacey would do well to consult, and rummaged about in his +portfolios for photographs of ancient statues of athletes and heroes, +the procession from the frieze of the Parthenon, and the like. + +When we finally got Adelaide into the Amen Corner, we scarcely gave her +an opportunity to dress for the _musicale_, we had so many little +nothings to talk over with her. + +In the midst of it all Mr. Mudge called, and we opened fire upon him at +once with the testimony which we had collected in favor of Polo and her +brother. He was not greatly impressed with Stacey's avowal that he had +been out rowing with Terwilliger on the night of the Catacomb party. + +"I had already ascertained that he was out late that night," he said. +"Miss Milly told me that young Fitz Simmons on the night of the drill +threatened to attend your party. What assurance have we that he did not +attend it with Terwilliger as his companion? A lark on the young +gentleman's part, and a clever opportunity to steal on the part of the +trainer. My assistant has discovered that Terwilliger has had no +dealings with his old associate Nimble Tim since his release from +prison. Having to discard the idea that Tim was his companion, I have +been looking about to find another possible one. I thank you for your +assistance." + +Milly was very angry. With true womanly inconsistency she scouted the +idea that Stacey could have had any part in the proceedings, although +she was the very one who had at first suggested it. + +"And here," she said, "is something which ought to be perfectly +convincing to any sane man. Polo told me last night that her brother +heard Ricos and Buttertub boasting that they had fooled us all so +nicely, and had seen our play. They made fun of Winnie, and said she had +a little squeaky voice for so manly a part, and that it was 'nuts' to +see us try to manage our togas. Oh! I'd just like to choke them." + +Mr. Mudge smiled. "It is very natural," he said, "that Terwilliger +should attempt to throw suspicion on some one else." + +"But you know that Buttertub and Ricos were out late that night," I +suggested. + +"Ricos obtained permission from Colonel Grey to hear Professor Ware's +lecture on Architecture, at Columbia College." + +"And did they say they attended it?" Adelaide asked. + +"Ricos so reported at the Barracks." + +"Well, I happen to know that Professor Ware delivers those lectures on +Tuesday evenings," Adelaide replied triumphantly; "and this was +Wednesday night." + +"Are you sure of this?" + +"I am sure because I attend the lectures, and neither of those boys were +there." + +Mr. Mudge rubbed his brow with his pencil. "Terwilliger's previous bad +record counts against him," he said persistently. + +"Mr. Mudge," I entreated, "will you do me the favor to call on a friend +of ours, Mr. Van Silver, who knows all about that previous record of +Terwilliger's." + +"How is that?" Mr. Mudge asked, and I related my conversation with Mr. +Van Silver on our return from the games. + +"I will interview this gentleman," said Mr. Mudge, "for though +appearances are strongly against Terwilliger, I do not wish to act on +appearances alone. And meantime, if you could find some other witness +than young Fitz Simmons who could prove that he and the trainer were +really boating on the Harlem the night of your party, and some other +witness than Terwilliger to the admission of Ricos and his friend of the +dairy nickname, the cause of Lawn Tennis and her brother would be +materially strengthened." + +"I agree to produce such witnesses," said Winnie rashly. "I have called +it my mystery and I intend to fathom it, if it takes all summer." + +Mr. Mudge bowed and withdrew. His boots creaked down the hall a little +way and then we heard a knock and the opening of a door. + +"Girls, he's calling on Miss Noakes," Winnie cried, in high glee. "Now, +what's to hinder my running out on the balcony and showing her that two +can play at the game of peek-a-boo." + +"Nothing but the honour of the Amen Corner," Adelaide remarked. The +words threw a wet blanket on Winnie's proposal, but there was a +flickering smile about Adelaide's lips which showed that she was bent +upon mischief, a rare thing for Adelaide. + +"I will wait until Mr. Mudge is gone," she said,--"I would not interrupt +two young lovers for the world,--and then I think I'll call on Miss +Noakes. I want her to help me translate the visit of AEneas to Queen +Dido." + +"That's just like Winnie," Milly exclaimed; "but you would never do such +a thing." + +"Won't I? You don't half know me, Milly, dear," and Adelaide actually +fulfilled her threat. + +[Illustration] + +"She expected him," Adelaide exclaimed, when she returned. "I found her +all gotten up regardless--that low-necked black net of hers! She did +look too absurd for anything, but happy is no name for it. There was a +blush on her withered old cheeks, and I actually believe a real tear in +her eye. When I told her what I wanted her to translate, she glared +at me haughtily, but I looked as demure as I could, and she went through +it without flinching. 'Men are deceivers ever, aren't they, Miss +Noakes?' I said. 'Just think of Pious AEneas behaving so cruelly to his +dear Dido.' 'How should I know, child?' she replied rather curtly." + +While we were laughing, Cerberus knocked to inform us that Mrs. +Roseveldt's carriage waited and had sent him to inquire for Miss +Armstrong. + +Adelaide found that Stacey had waited for her return. He woke to +animation over the photographs. "This decides me," he said. "I shall try +for the prize. I didn't imagine there was anything in Greek civilization +that I cared a rap for; but that quoit player is fine. Just look at his +muscles. I always thought that Discobolus was the fellow's name. It +never dawned upon me that it meant a quoit player. And this Mercury +hardly needs wings on his heels, his legs are built for a runner. And +isn't that Fighting Gladiator superb? And that Hercules and Vulcan? +Well, now, here is something curious. I do believe that Baker got his +'set' from that statue; the left arm is extended in the very same way, +and the boys all thought it was original with him." + +So he ran on, his eyes kindling once more with enthusiasm. "Well, I must +go now and 'bone' on my geometry--beastly bore; but Buttertub has been +having very good marks lately, and I am not going to let him rank me." + +He had hardly gone before it was time for Adelaide's Romance, and after +that Mr. Van Silver came up to express his compliments. + +"I was sorry Stacey could not stay to hear you play," he said, "but he +seems to have a virtuous fit on, and said he must hurry to the barracks +and spend the evening in study. Perhaps, however, it was only an excuse +for mischief." + +"Do you think so?" Adelaide asked. "It has seemed to me of late that +Stacey has had little heart for anything, even for mischief." + +"That's a fact. I haven't seen him on the river since the games, and he +used to be very fond of rowing." + +Adelaide gave a little gesture of despair. "There," she said, "I forgot +to ask him whether any one knew of his going out boating, the night of +our party, with Terwilliger, and Winnie was so particular about it. How +provoked she will be with me." + +"Why is it that you young ladies have developed an overweening interest +in Terwilliger?" asked Mr. Van Silver. They were sitting on the +staircase apart from the others, and Adelaide replied: + +"It is because he is suspected of a robbery which has occurred at our +school. We have been cautioned not to mention it, but I think I may say +as much to you, for Mr. Mudge, the detective who has been engaged to +investigate the affair, told me this afternoon that he intended to +interview you in regard to Terwilliger's part in the crime for which he +was sent to prison." + +A cloud passed over Mr. Van Silver's face. "I hoped that thing was dead +and buried," he said. "It only proves that nothing is really ever +settled unless it is settled right. If it will do Terwilliger any good, +I will testify openly, as I ought to have done in the first place." + +Adelaide looked at Mr. Van Silver wonderingly. He understood and said +quickly, "I cannot bear to lose your respect, Miss Armstrong; perhaps I +had better tell you just how it all happened." + +"Not to gratify any curiosity on my part," Adelaide replied; "you might +be sorry afterward. And if it is something that the world has no +business to know----" + +"The _World_! Heaven forbid that an account of the affair should get +into the _World_, the _Herald_, or any of our newspapers. I would rather +no one knew anything about it; but when I have told you the entire story +you will be able to judge how much of it I ought to confide to your +friend Mudge, in order to aid Terwilliger. You see, young Cairngorm is a +regular cub. His father sent him across on his yacht to us. He wanted +mother to comb him out, introduce him in New York circles, and get him +married, if she could, to some American heiress. If you girls only knew +what scamps some of those slips of nobility are you would not be so +crazy for titles." + +Adelaide's eyes snapped. "I do not care a fig for a title," she +said indignantly. "I think a great deal more of an enterprising, +hard-working, true-hearted American, than of a mere name. I think that +the American pride of having accomplished some worthy work in life is +much more allowable than the English pride of belonging to a leisure +class." + +"I beg pardon. I did not intend to be personal. When my mother saw what +sort of a specimen had been confided to her hands, she made no efforts +in the matrimonial direction, but simply tried to keep the chap out of +harm's way for a season, using me as her aide-de-camp. He had a passion +for betting and gaming, and I was at my wits end sometimes to head him +off. Terwilliger came over with him, you know; but he left the yacht on +its arrival for he wanted to establish himself permanently in America. +Cairngorm liked Terwilliger, tipped him handsomely on parting, and asked +me to take an interest in him. I promised to look out for him and +immediately forgot his existence. Terwilliger drifted about, waiting for +something to turn up, and Satan, who is the only employer who is on the +lookout for poor fellows who are out of work, appeared to Terwilliger, +in the person of a new acquaintance, Limber Tim. Tim told him that he +was connected with a sort of club devoted to athletics. It was really a +gambling saloon. Tim knew of Terwilliger's acquaintance with Cairngorm, +and he promised Terwilliger a five dollar bill if he would persuade +Cairngorm to patronize his establishment. 'Tell him,' he said, 'that we +are to have a very select game of poker to-night, only gentlemen +present, and get him to come down.' + +"Now, how Terwilliger happened to be such a lamb, I can't say; but he +had never heard of poker, and he asked Tim if it was anything like +single stick. This amused Tim and he did not undeceive Terwilliger, who +appeared at our house in search of Cairngorm, and, not finding him, left +a labored epistle inviting him to come to No. -- Bowery, and see some +fun in the way of a sleight of hand performance with a 'poker.' +Cairngorm saw through it, though Terwilliger did not, and went out after +dinner without explaining where he was going. He took the note with him +for fear he might forget the number of the house, and thought that he +replaced it in his pocket, after consulting it under a corner gaslight; +but, as his luck would have it, he dropped the note there, and a +policeman, who had seen him read it, picked it up. The policeman knew +that the house was a gambling saloon, and immediately surmised the +truth, that this finely dressed young swell had been decoyed to his +ruin. Terwilliger had begun his letter simply, 'Nobble Sur,' and our +address was not on the letter, so that there was no clue to Cairngorm's +identity; but he had signed his own name in full, and the astute +policeman had this bit of convincing evidence of Terwilliger's +complicity in the confidence game. + +"We knew nothing of this at the time, but it was late at night before +Cairngorm returned to our house, and we had all been very anxious about +him. His statements were to the point, for he had been thoroughly +frightened. He had lost heavily, and in the midst of the game the +police had raided the place, and he had escaped by springing into a +dumb-waiter, which had landed him in a kitchen, where he had remained +secreted until all was quiet. + +"'It is very fortunate for you,' my father said sternly, 'that the +police did not secure you, for in that case the reporters would have had +a sensation for the morning papers, and your noble father would have +learned of your lodgment in the Tombs. As it is, you had better leave +New York at once. Your yacht is at Newport. I advise you to report at +home as soon as possible. It is your own fault that your American visit +has had so sudden and so disgraceful an ending.' + +"I saw Cairngorm off, much relieved to get him off my hands, for we had +very little in common, and he was so lacking in principle that my +feeling for him was only one of contemptuous pity. On our way to +Newport Cairngorm told me that Terwilliger was perfectly innocent of any +connivance with the gamblers, and that as soon as he saw that they were +playing for money had attempted to induce him to leave the place, using +every persuasion possible, and making the gamblers very angry with him. +They had tried to put him out of the room, but he had insisted on +remaining, and when the police appeared it was Terwilliger who had shown +Cairngorm into the dumb-waiter. Immediately after Cairngorm's departure +to Scotland, I sailed for a long trip around the world, so that it was +over a year before I returned to New York. + +"What was my chagrin to find that Terwilliger had been arrested and sent +to prison with the gamblers. My father had succeeded in keeping +Cairngorm's name out of the papers, but as he believed that Terwilliger +had knowingly acted as a decoy he had made no attempt to save him. +Terwilliger would not disclose Cairngorm's name at the trial when +confronted with the letter which he acknowledged having written. Nor did +he write him asking his assistance, so determined was he not to +implicate his patron in the affair. I looked up Terwilliger, and finding +that he had only a few weeks more to serve, set myself to work in +earnest to secure him a good position. I told the entire story to +Colonel Grey, who met him with me, on his release, and feeling confident +that he had not been contaminated by his prison associations, gave him +the position of trainer at his gymnasium. He has had a good record there +ever since, and I have been very unhappy that he has suffered so much on +my graceless friend's account. If I had known that an innocent person +was to be sent to prison I would never have helped him away after his +scrape, but would have insisted on his disclosing the entire truth, and +braving the consequences like a man. As it is I am going to make +Cairngorm do something for Terwilliger this summer. One of my grooms +does not care to go to Europe with me, and if Terwilliger has nothing +better to do while the cadets are on vacation, I will take him across. I +shall bring him back in the fall in time for the opening of the school." + +Adelaide was intensely interested in this story. "You will tell it all +to Mr. Mudge, will you not?" she asked, "and convince him that +Terwilliger was unjustly imprisoned." + +Mr. Van Silver promised to do this, and soon after took his leave. + +Adelaide had not intended to tell Jim anything of the suspicion which +had fallen upon the trainer, but Jim had left his bedroom and come out +upon the landing to listen to the music, and had overheard all of Mr. +Van Silver's account. + +When Adelaide went in to kiss Jim goodnight, she found his cheeks hot +and his eyes quite wild. "You will go to Mr. Mudge right away, will you +not, sister?" he urged. And he was not at all satisfied when Adelaide +assured him that this was not necessary, as Mr. Mudge had promised to +call on Mr. Van Silver on the following day. + +The next day Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong arrived, and Jim's delight threw him +into a fever of excitement. Such alternations of happiness and worry +were bad for the boy, who needed calm, and Mr. Armstrong wished to +remove him to Old Point Comfort, but Jim begged that he might not be +taken from the city until the closing exercises of the Cadet School. "I +shall be well enough to attend them, I know," he pleaded, "and I want to +see sister graduate, and to know how the mystery turns out, and whether +Terwilliger is all right." + +To gratify the boy Mr. Armstrong took furnished apartments fronting on +Central Park, and Mrs. Armstrong devoted herself to the care of her +little invalid, while Adelaide returned to school. + +Commencement was near at hand, and Adelaide felt that she must work hard +to pass the final examination creditably. Our life at Madame's was not +all frolic, though I am conscious that my story would seem to indicate +that such was the case. Naturally, a full report of the solid lessons +which we learned would make a very stupid story, but the lessons formed +our daily diet, and the scrapes and good times that I have chronicled +occurred only at intervals. + +We had what Milly called a thousand miles of desert, without even the +least little oasis of fun, between the Inter-scholastic Games and the +examinations. Winnie had taken a fit of serious study, and when Winnie +studied she did it, as she played, with all her might. Our only lark for +quite a time was a house-warming which we gave the Terwilligers. Polo +told us how she was fitting up the little flat of three rooms with the +assistance of her brother, and it certainly seemed as if the cloud which +had shadowed her had drifted away. The largest room was the kitchen, +also used as a dining-room. Adelaide had provided a range, and many +other things, with the rooms. The cadets clubbed together and made +Terwilliger a handsome present in money, with which he purchased a +lounge, which served for his own bed, and an easy chair for his mother; +and our King's Daughters Ten provided all the tinware and crockery. +Madame sent down a nice bedstead and some bedding. Professor Waite +contributed a neatly framed portrait of Polo, and Miss Noakes gave a box +of soap. Polo purchased the table linen, towels, etc., with her own +earnings, and Miss Billings hemmed them and the curtains, which were +made of cheese cloth. Mrs. Roseveldt sent her carriage to take Mrs. +Terwilliger from the hospital to her new home and gave a carpet, and Mr. +Van Silver ordered a barrel of flour and a half ton of coal. Mrs. +Armstrong selected a lamp as Jim's present, and took the two children +from the Home to one of the large stores and provided them well with +clothing for the summer before delivering them to their mother. It was a +very happy and united family that met together that evening in +Adelaide's tenement, and Mrs. Terwilliger, who had not been credited by +her acquaintances as being a religious woman, exclaimed reverently, "It +seems to me we'd orter be grateful to Providence for all these mercies;" +and her son responded emphatically: + +"Grateful to Providence? You bet your life, I am!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE CLOUDS PART. + + +[Illustration] + +Then suddenly, just as they were sitting down to the first meal in their +new home, there was a knock at the door, and a policeman said: "I am +sorry, Terwilliger, but you are wanted again." + +"What for?" the trainer asked, thunderstruck. + +"Mysterious robbery up at Madame ----'s boarding-school," replied the +officer. "Mudge gave me the order for your arrest." + +"Go and tell Mr. Van Silver," Terwilliger said to Polo. "He won't let me +go to prison again." And Polo was off like the wind. + +Mr. Van Silver came at once, and gave bail for Terwilliger's appearance +at trial, so that he did not go to prison; but this action of Mr. +Mudge's showed that he felt sure that Terwilliger was the thief, and +threw us all into consternation. Mr. Mudge had called on Mr. Van Silver, +but had unfortunately not found him in, and while he had not received +the explanation which had been given Adelaide, one of his detectives +informed him that Terwilliger had made arrangements to leave the country +soon in Mr. Van Silver's employ, and that he had lately been expending +large sums in extravagantly fitting up an apartment for his family. It +was the fear that his man might escape him, which had precipitated Mr. +Mudge's action. He felt that the case was a pretty clear one, and that +the trial would develop more evidence. + +Winnie was at her wits' end. She had promised to produce witnesses +proving that Stacey and Terwilliger were on the river the night of the +Catacomb party; and in her desperation she wrote directly to Stacey in +regard to it. Unfortunately, Stacey could think of no one who had seen +them just at the time when the boys were known to have been in the +school building, and Stacey's own testimony would not be regarded as of +sufficient weight to clear Terwilliger, as Mr. Mudge suspected Stacey +of being the trainer's companion. This rendered Stacey very indignant. +It seemed to him that he had trouble enough before this, and he was +desperate now. His father, Commodore Fitz Simmons, was a naval officer, +a bluff old sea dog, who had married, late in life, a refined and +beautiful woman. She was lonely in her husband's long absences, and her +heart knit itself to her son. Her husband had planned that Stacey should +follow his career, but when he understood how this would afflict his +wife, he partly relinquished this idea. + +"You can have the training of the boy till he is eighteen," he said to +his wife. "If he does you credit up to that time, I shall feel sure of +him for the rest of his life, and he may have a Harvard education and +follow whatever profession he pleases. But if he takes advantage of +petticoat government, and develops a tendency to go wrong, I'll put him +on a school ship, and let the young scamp learn what discipline is." + +Commodore Fitz Simmons had been away for a long cruise, but Stacey's +mother now wrote from Washington that the ship was in, and that the +commodore and she would take great pleasure in attending the closing +exercises of his school. She hoped that her son would distinguish +himself at them, and that there was no doubt about his passing his +Harvard examinations, for his father had referred to their agreement +that Stacey must go to sea if he had not improved his opportunities. +"And you know," she added, "that I could never bear to have you both on +that terrible ocean." + +Stacey could not bear the thought, either, for he loathed the sea, and +he suddenly faced the fact that he had not been distinguishing himself +in his studies and had no certainty of passing the examinations. This +suspicion of being implicated in an escapade which had a possible crime +connected with it, was more than he could bear. When he read, in +Winnie's letter, "Mr. Mudge suspects you," he threw the letter upon the +floor and uttered such a cry that Buttertub, who was studying in the +room, sprang to him, thinking that he had hurt himself. + +"I don't care who knows it," Stacey cried, beside himself with despair; +"I am suspected of being a thief, and it will kill my mother, and my +father will just about kill me." + +Buttertub gave a low whistle. "It can't be so bad as that," he said; +"what do you mean?" + +"Some fellows sneaked into the girls' party, and they think I was one of +them and Terwilliger the other." + +"Well, what if they do?" Buttertub asked. "There is nothing so killing +about a little thing like that." + +"Perhaps not; but there was a robbery committed in the school that very +night, and that's the milk of the cocoanut." + +"They can't suspect a _cadet_ of being a burglar." + +"Well, it looks like it," Stacey replied. "They've arrested Terwilliger, +and I've just had warning that my turn may come next, unless I can prove +that I was boating that night, and I can't." + +"Ginger!" exclaimed Buttertub. "You are in a mess." He was on the point +of confessing his own share in the escapade, when he reflected that it +was not entirely his own secret, he must see Ricos first. Buttertub was +naturally good-natured, and he had no idea that the frolic would take so +serious a turn, but his brain worked slowly, and he did not quite see +what he ought to do. + +Stacey was nearly wild. He strode up and down the room. "I haven't seen +father for two years, and mother has written him such glowing accounts +of me that he expects great things. It would be bad enough, without this +last trouble, to have him find out what a slump I am. I can never look +him in the face--never." + +"Fathers are pretty rough on us fellows, sometimes," said Buttertub. He +was thinking of his own father, bombastic old Bishop Buttertub, and +wondering, after all, whether he could quite bear to shoulder all the +consequences of his frolic. When the Bishop was angry he had been +compared to a wild bull of Bashan, and Buttertub, Jr., would rather have +faced a locomotive on a single track bridge than his paternal parent on +a rampage. He wished now that he had not yielded to the wiles of the +entrancing Cynthia, and attended the party. "Hang that girl!" he growled +aloud. + +"Who?" asked Stacey. + +"Miss Vaughn," Buttertub replied. "Some one was saying you meant to +invite her to the declamations. You are welcome to for all me." + +"Hang all girls," replied Stacey. "I shan't invite any one." + +Buttertub rose awkwardly. "Don't be too blue, Stacey," he said kindly. +"Something's bound to turn up," and he ambled briskly off to find +Ricos. "It's tough," he said to himself, "but I'm no sneak, so here +goes." + +But Ricos was not in the barracks, and Buttertub, thankful for a little +postponement of the evil day, went into the great hall to practice his +declamation. He had chosen a dignified oration, and he possessed a +sonorous voice and a pompous manner. Colonel Grey smiled as he heard +him. + +"You remind me strikingly of your father," he said. "I am sure that I +shall see you in sacred orders one of these days. Perhaps you too will +become a bishop." + +Buttertub hung his head. "Better be a decent, honorable man, first," he +thought. The boys were cheering over in the gymnasium: "Hip! hip! hip!" + +"Yes--hypocrite," he said to himself, "I'll punch Ricos until he +consents to making a clean breast of it." + +But there was no need for resorting to this means of grace. Deliverance +was coming, and, strange to say, through Ricos himself. Ricos had more +food for remorse than Buttertub. His sister had written him from time to +time of Jim's condition, and this morning he had received a letter which +woke the pangs of conscience. Mr. Armstrong had thoughtlessly told Jim +of Terwilliger's arrest, and the news had affected him very seriously. +He could not sleep, and he could talk and think of nothing else. The +physician feared that his reason would give way. He sent for Stacey, +and his friend went to him immediately, but he could give him no +encouragement, and his call only made Jim worse. As Stacey left the door +he met Ricos. + +"You had better not call on Armstrong to-day," Stacey said. "He is +awfully sick. I shouldn't wonder if he died. He had an attack something +like this last year, but the doctor pulled him through because there was +nothing on his mind to worry him; but now everything seems to be in a +snarl, and he isn't strong enough to bear it. You come back with me, +seeing you ain't likely to do him any good." + +"It is of needcessity," Ricos said. His face was white and scared. +"Rosario, she write me that he will die, and if I see him not before, +and assure myself that he carry no ill-will of me to the Paradiso, then +my life shall be one Purgatorio. Indeed, I must see him; it is of great +needcessity." + +Mrs. Armstrong also hesitated when Ricos presented himself, but Jim +heard his voice and called him eagerly. + +"Ricos! Ricos! is it really you? Oh, I'm so glad!" + +"Of a surety, it is I," Ricos replied. "I have come to ask your +forgiveness. Alas! I am one miserable." + +"I will forgive you, Ricos, if you will tell Colonel Grey all about it, +so that Terwilliger need not go to prison. You know they have arrested +him, and really it is he and Stacey who ought to forgive you, and not I +at all." + +"I do not comprehend of what you refer. I ask you to forgive me for your +hurt----" + +"But that is nothing! I am sorry that I beat you, Ricos. I wanted to win +awfully, but I know now that you wanted the medal a great deal more than +I did, and I'm so sorry Stacey did not run the best. Mother read me a +verse that seemed just to be written for our games. I read it to Stacey +and he said it would help him. Mother, please read it to Ricos, perhaps +it will help him, too." + +And Mrs. Armstrong read: + + Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall + utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their + strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall + run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. + +Ricos looked still more frightened. The Bible to him was a book only for +priests. Jim must certainly be at the point of death, or he would not +ask to have it read; but Jim spoke up earnestly: + +"I suppose, Ricos, that waiting on the Lord means doing our whole duty, +and I want you to do something for my sake. I want you to tell that you +went to the girl's Cat-combing party. You know you went, Ricos. We are +all sure of it, but nobody can prove it. Please tell Colonel Grey. It +would be such a noble thing to do." + +"And you will make me assurance of your forgiveness?" + +"With all my heart, and I will stick up for you with all the boys." + +"Thank you, my friend; now I shall enjoy some comfort of the mind. And +you will tell those in Paradise that Ricos is not so devil as they may +have heard." + +Jim looked puzzled. He did not quite understand that Ricos's motive was +fear of retribution. He thought that Jim was going to die, and he felt +himself in a measure responsible for his death; but Jim's forgiveness +and promise of intercession in his behalf was a boon to be purchased at +any price, and he readily promised to disclose everything. Jim fell back +upon his pillow, exhausted but happy, and fell asleep for the first time +in many hours. + +Ricos hurried back to the barracks. He had no scruples about implicating +Buttertub in his confession, and he would have gone to Colonel Grey +without consulting his friend had Buttertub not been on the lookout for +him. They were each relieved to find that they had come separately to +similar conclusions, and they sought Colonel Grey together. + +They were obliged to wait some time, for their instructor was closeted +with Mr. Mudge. + +"I am just going out with this gentleman," said Colonel Grey, as he +noticed them standing in the hall. "Is it anything which cannot wait?" + +"It is of needcessity," said Ricos, and then his tongue clave to the +roof of his mouth, and Buttertub made the confession for both. + +"Your acknowledgment of your fault comes just in time," said Colonel +Grey. "Make your statement once more to this gentleman, and it may save +an innocent classmate from disgrace, and our unfortunate Terwilliger +from unjust imprisonment." + +"You shall imprison me," said Ricos, in a theatrical manner. "That will +make me one supreme happiness." + +Buttertub turned pale, but did not falter, and told the story frankly +and simply. + +"So you are the two gentlemen who introduced yourselves in disguise into +a young ladies' boarding-school," said Mr. Mudge. "Will you tell me how +you made the acquaintance of Terwilliger's sister, the young lady they +call Lawn Tennis, who gave you admittance." + +"But it was not Terwilliger's sister at all. Miss Vaughn threw us out +the key to the turret door," said Buttertub. + +"A reliable witness to the affair assures me that it was Lawn Tennis. +She was recognized partly by a Tam O'Shanter cap which she is in the +habit of wearing." + +"Miss Vaughn wore a Tam O'Shanter when she looked out of the window. She +had it pulled down over her forehead." + +"In view of these disclosures," Mr. Mudge said to Colonel Grey, "I shall +withdraw my prosecution of Terwilliger. I have not sufficient evidence +to make out a case against him, since it is now shown that the other +young gentleman, Mr. Fitz Simmons, did not visit the school on the night +in question, and consequently had no motive for testifying falsely. I +think any court would admit him as a competent witness in Terwilliger's +behalf, and consider the _alibi_ established. There will be no trial of +Terwilliger. I must confess myself completely at fault in this matter." + +Buttertub drew a long breath. He felt dazed and sick. Ricos swayed from +side to side, and sank into a chair. Colonel Grey was bowing Mr. Mudge +out, and Buttertub poured a glass of water and handed it to Ricos in his +absence. "Don't give in yet," he said; "we've fixed it all right for +Fitz Simmons and Terwilliger, but we've got to face the music now on our +own account." + +But Ricos had gone to the extent of his capabilities, and had fainted +dead away. Colonel Grey returned and assisted Buttertub in restoring him +to consciousness. His first words were, "When is it that we go to the +prison?" + +"My dear boy," said the Colonel, "you were not suspected of any +connection with the robbery. But if you imagined that you would be, and +made the avowal which you did in the face of that apprehension, you +deserve all the more credit." + +"Shall we not be expelled, sir?" Buttertub asked. + +"Never! My school has need of young men who can acknowledge a fault so +honourably. I consider that your generous conduct has wiped the +misdemeanour from existence. You have suffered sufficiently, and I have +no fear that such a thing will ever occur again. I shall only ask you to +make this acknowledgment complete by sending Madame ---- a written +apology for intruding in so unwarrantable a manner upon her school. I +shall call upon her personally and deliver it." + +"And my father will not feel that I have disgraced him," Buttertub said +slowly, unconscious that he was speaking aloud. + +"I shall tell the Bishop," said Colonel Grey, "that he has a son to be +proud of." + +Ricos staggered off to bed, and Buttertub sought Stacey and reported. + +"You are a trump!" Stacey cried, "I never realized before what a hero +you are. I beg your pardon for every unkind thing I have thought or said +about you, and if you will accept my friendship it's yours forever. It +is time for supper now, and after that we'll find Terwilliger and tell +him the news." + +Jim improved rapidly after this. If Ricos had known that he would +recover he might not have confessed, and there was a lingering feeling +in his mind that Jim had no right to get well, and was taking a mean +advantage of him in not fulfilling his part of the bargain and winging +his way to Paradise, to tell the angels that Ricos was not such a bad +fellow after all. Still, he never really regretted Jim's recovery or his +own avowal. It cleared his conscience of a great load, and the boys, +having heard that Ricos had made _amende honorable_, no longer +complimented him with the terms "chump and mucker," but accepted his +presents of guava jelly and other West India delicacies, and as he had +the Spanish gift for guitar-playing, elected him to the banjo club. + +A little after this Mrs. Roseveldt gave her last reception for that +season. She had not forgotten the proposed plan of the tennis tournament +at Narragansett Pier, and she invited Stacey to come and talk it up with +Milly. + +In spite of his declaration of war against all womankind, Stacey +accepted the invitation eagerly. Stacey was himself again, yet not quite +his old giddy self. The disappointment and trouble which he had +experienced had changed him for the better. He was less of a fop and +more of a man, than when he tossed his baton so airily before his drum +corps at the annual drill. But he was still something of an exquisite in +dress. His father had given him permission to order a dress suit for the +occasion of prize declamation, and Stacey besieged his tailor until he +agreed to have it done in time for Mrs. Roseveldt's reception. + +Milly went home the day before. We had all been invited, but had decided +virtuously that we could not spare the time from our studies, while I +had, as an additional reason, the knowledge that I had no costume +suitable for such a grand society affair. Milly described it all +afterward, and I enjoyed her description more than I would have cared +for the party itself. + +The mandolin club played softly in the dining-room bay-window, hidden by +a bank of palms and ferns, and the lights glowed through rose-coloured +shades. The supper-table, in honour of a riding club to which Mr. and +Mrs. Roseveldt belonged, whose members were the guests of the evening, +as far as possible suggested their favorite exercise. The table itself +was horseshoe in shape; saddle-rock oysters, and tongue sandwiches were +served. There was whipped cream, the ices were in the form of top-boots, +saddles, jockey-hats, and riding whips, and the bonbonnieres were satin +beaver hats. + +Stacey appeared early in the evening. It was the first time that Milly +had seen him in a dress suit, and Milly confided to me privately that he +seemed to her to have suddenly grown several inches taller. He was very +grave and dignified, not at all like the old rollicking, boyish Stacey +with whom Milly was familiar. Milly, quite inexplicably to herself, felt +a little awed by him and was at loss for a subject of conversation. She +referred to the Inter-scholastic Games, and Stacey scowled so violently +that Milly saw that this was an unfortunate beginning, and hastened to +change the subject to that of the proposed tournament at Narragansett +Pier. They were practically alone, for the parlor had been deserted by +the onslaught on the supper table, and Stacey said confidentially: + +"I'll tell you just how it is, Milly; I ought not to take part in that +tournament." + +"Oh, do!" pleaded Milly. + +[Illustration] + +"I will if you say so. It shall be just as you say, for I'll do anything +for you; but if I go into this thing I lose every last chance of +passing my examinations for Harvard. All the same, I'll do it if you +want me to." + +"No, no;" murmured Milly; "not at such a cost; but it can't be as bad +as that. What do you mean?" + +"I mean that I have made a precious fool of myself all winter. I have +gone in for athletics at the expense of my studies, and I've failed +in both; and now that the time is coming for my examinations it will +be a tight squeeze if I pass. I made up my mind to reform after I +extinguished myself at the games, and I've been cramming ever since. +Do you know what the boys call me now?" + +"A regular dig, I suppose." + +"No, that's obsolete. At Harvard a hard student is a 'grind,' and a very +hard student is a 'long-haired grind.' Woodpecker is complimentary +enough to call me a 'Sutherland Sister hair invigorator grind.'" + +Milly laughed. + +"No laughing matter, I tell you. I've broken training. I haven't been to +the oval, or on the river, or riding in the park but once since the +games. Instead of that, I put myself in the hands of our Professor of +Mathematics, and I am letting him give me a private overhauling. His +motto is, 'Find out what the boys don't like and give them lots of it.'" + +"How horrid!" Milly murmured sympathetically. + +"He's just right. If you want to put it in a little kinder way, you +might say, 'Find out where the boys are weak, and then make them +strong.' The trouble is I'm weak all through, so I'm having a rather +serious time just now. I shall have to sit up till one o'clock to pay +for the pleasure of this interview. The examinations take place between +the 25th and 27th of June, inclusive. If I go into this tournament, or +even think of it before then, I lose every ghost of a chance for +Harvard, and will have to take to the sea, and I loathe it. But that's +nothing--if you want me to do it. You don't half know me, Milly. I tell +you, it's nothing at all--why I'd give up life itself for you. There +isn't anything I wouldn't give up for your sake. No, you shan't run +away. We've got to have it out some time, and we might as well +understand one another now. I love you, Milly; I have always loved you; +and if you don't like me--why, I have no use for Harvard, or life +either." + +He looked so despairing and yet so wildly eager, that Milly was very +sorry for him. + +"Of course, I like you, Stacey," she said kindly. + +"You do?" he cried. "I can't believe it. You are fooling me." + +"No, Stacey; but you are fooling yourself. You would be very sorry, by +and bye, if I took you at your word now, and snapped you up before you +had time to know your own mind. Why, Stacey, we are both of us too young +to know whether we are in earnest. We ought to wait, and we ought +neither of us to be bound in any way. Perhaps everything will seem very +different to us four years from now. Don't you think so yourself?" + +"I can never change," Stacey asserted confidently. + +"But I may," Milly said with a smile, thinking of her own foolish little +heart, and of how appropriate the advice she was giving to Stacey was to +her own case. + +"I don't believe you will," Stacey replied. "I am sure it's a great +comfort to know that you care for me a little; it's a great deal better +than I expected." + +"Did I say so? I didn't mean to," Milly exclaimed in consternation. + +"No, you haven't committed yourself to anything, but you have intimated +that I may ask you again after I have graduated from Harvard. And since +I desire that time to come as soon as possible, I presume I have your +permission to give up the tennis tournament and go on preparing for my +examinations." + +"Yes, certainly. But I'm sorry for the Home. I don't quite see how we +are going to raise the money for the annex. Still, I suppose, as +students, our first duty is to our studies." + +"Exactly. But vacation is coming and we will see what we can do for the +Home then. If your mother will only postpone the time I will see if I +can get the boys together in July." + +The old butler came in at this juncture with a tray of ices. He was +followed by Mr. Van Silver, who protested against his introducing +"coolness" between old friends, but who remained all the same, and +spoiled their opportunity for any further conversation on the subject +uppermost in Stacey's mind. + +"I've an idea, Stacey," said Mr. Van Silver. "I want you to go to Europe +with me this summer. You'd enjoy the trip I propose to make among the +Scottish hills and lakes. I know your parents will approve, for it will +be a regular education for you, especially with my improving society +thrown in." Mr. Van Silver winked as he said this, and he was greatly +surprised when Stacey answered promptly: + +"Awfully kind of you, Mr. Van Silver, but I can't go possibly." + +"Why not?" + +"Well, first of all, I'm bound to be conditioned on some of my studies +at my Harvard examinations, and I shall have to coach all summer in a +less agreeable way than the one which you suggest. Then I have engaged +to get up a tennis tournament at the Pier----" + +"Tennis! what's that to such a trip as I propose. Don't be an idiot, +Stacey." + +"It is really not an ordinary tournament," Milly added, with a desire to +make peace between the two. "But, Mr. Van Silver, when do you sail? +Perhaps Stacey can go after the tournament." + +"I sail the last of June." + +"Then there's no use talking," said Stacey. + +"Unless you could join Mr. Van Silver by going over later." + +Stacey shook his head vigorously. He had no desire to be expatriated +this summer. + +"I comprehend," said Mr. Van Silver. "The Pier possesses greater +attractions than I can offer, but you needn't try to humbug me into +believing that tennis is the magnet which draws you thither. Tell that +to the unsophisticated, but strive not to impose on your grandfather. He +has been young himself." + +Mrs. Roseveldt came in with quite a party from the supper, and Stacey +promptly took his leave. + +When Milly confided this to me,--as she did nearly all of her joys and +sorrows,--I could not help expressing my sympathy for Stacey. + +"Stacey will recover," she said confidently. "Men are never as constant +as we women." And Milly nodded her head with the gravity of an elderly +matron who had experienced all the vicissitudes of life, and who could +now regard the ardours of youthful affection and despair with a benign +tolerance, as foreseeing the end from the beginning. + +"Do you know, Tib," she continued, "Mr. Van Silver was joking in the way +that he always does about Stacey, when papa came to us; and papa said, +'Don't put such notions in my little girl's head, Mr. Van Silver. Stacey +has his college course before him and may be able to quote from my +favourite poet when it is over.' With that he took down an old volume +of Praed and read something which is so cute that I copied it afterward. +Here it is: + + We parted; months and years rolled by; + We met again four summers after. + Our parting was all sob and sigh; + Our meeting was all mirth and laughter. + For in my heart's most secret cell + There had been many other lodgers: + And she was not the ball-room's belle + But only--Mrs. Something Rogers. + +"I wonder whether I shall be Mrs. Rogers, or Mrs. Smith, or Mrs. What? +I'd rather be just Miss Milly Roseveldt." + +"And how about Professor Waite?" I asked, hardly daring to believe that +the fresh wind of common sense had cleared away the old miasmatic +glamour. + +"Oh, Adelaide must repent. They would make such a romantic couple. I +have set my heart on it. And Tib, I believe she does like him, just a +little, though she hasn't found it out herself yet. I am going to take +charge of their case, and some day you and I will be bridesmaids, Tib. +I've planned just how it will be. It's a pity Celeste acted so. Do you +really think Miss Billings will be equal to a wedding dress?" + +"What, yours, Milly?" + +"Mine? No, indeed. I don't want to be married. It's a great deal nicer +not to be. Don't you think so?" + +"Milly, darling, I really believe that you have recovered from that old +folly." + +"Why, of course I have--ages and centuries ago." And Milly laughed a +wholesome, gay-hearted laugh, which astonished as much as it pleased me. + +"Alas for woman's constancy," I laughed; "but, indeed, Milly, I am very +glad that you are so thoroughly heart-whole. We will keep a jolly old +maids' hall together, only you must not encourage poor Stacey." + +"Why not?" asked the incomprehensible Milly. "I am sure he is a great +deal happier with matters left unsettled than he would have been if I +had told him that I hated him; and that would not have been true +either." + +"You told him that he might ask you again after he graduates, and you +certainly ought not to allow him any shadow of hope when you know +positively that you can never love him." + +What was my surprise to hear Milly reply very seriously: "But I don't +know that, Tib. Four years may change everything. Stacey may not care a +bit for me at the end of his college course. In that case, I'm sure I +shan't repine. But then, again, if he should happen to hold out +faithful, perhaps my stony heart may be touched by the spectacle of such +devotion. Who knows?" + +And Milly looked up archly, with a pretty blush that augured ill--for +the old maids' hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE OLD CABINET TELLS ITS STORY. + + +[Illustration] + +A few weeks passed with no excitement except Cynthia's withdrawal from +the Amen Corner. Madame was very indignant when Mr. Mudge reported +Cynthia's part in inviting the boys to attend our Catacomb party, and +assisting them in entering and disguising themselves. It was rumoured +that Cynthia was to be publicly expelled as a terrible example to all +would-be offenders. She remained closeted in her room, whence the sound +of weeping and wailing could be heard behind her locked door, but she +steadily refused all overtures of sympathy on our part. We waited upon +Madame in a body, and begged her to pardon Cynthia. Madame replied that +she would consider the matter, and we hurried back and shouted the +hopeful news through Cynthia's keyhole. There was no reply. + +"Do you think she has killed herself?" Milly asked in an awestruck +whisper. + +I applied my ear closely and heard stealthy steps. "She merely wishes to +be let alone," I said; "perhaps we are a little too exuberant in our +expressions of sympathy." + +Miss Noakes entered presently and announced that Madame wished to see +Cynthia; and that young lady went, with a very red nose, turned up at a +very haughty angle. She returned shortly, and addressing herself to +Adelaide, as she always did, even when she had something which she +wished to communicate to the rest of us, said scornfully: + +"Miss Armstrong, will you kindly say to the other young ladies [we were +all present], that Madame has just told me that I am indebted to you for +permission to remain and graduate with the class." + +A murmur of satisfaction ran around the room. + +Cynthia's eyes flashed fire. "Do not imagine for one moment," she +exclaimed, "that I would accept your hypocritical condescension, if I +believed that it had been offered." + +"Don't you believe that we interceded with Madame?" Winnie asked. + +"I believe," Cynthia replied, "that you have done the best you can, by +tale-bearing, to induce Madame to expel me, and have not succeeded; and +as I do not wish to associate with you any longer, I have written my +parents asking them to withdraw me from the school." + +"I am sure no one will regret your departure," Adelaide replied, with +indignation. But Cynthia did not leave the school. Either her parents +were too sensible to take her away just before her graduation, or her +remark had been merely an idle threat. Madame gave her a room in another +part of the building, and her place in the Amen Corner remained vacant +for the rest of the term. + +Winnie had finished her essay, and one evening we gathered in the +little study parlor to hear her read it. The time for our parting was +now very near, and we were all more or less sentimentally inclined. The +old Amen Corner was very dear to us. Every piece of furniture had its +associations, but none of them were quite so tragical as those which +clustered around the old oak cabinet, and it seemed only fitting that +Winnie should celebrate it in her parting essay. She apologized for the +length of her paper. "Don't think, girls," she explained, "that I +intend to read all this at commencement. I am going to ask Madame to +make selections from it. The task that Professor Waite set me was to +give a picture of Florentine life in the early part of the sixteenth +century, and to bring in the characters who lived then as naturally as +I could--Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Fra Bartolommeo, +the Medici, Macchiavelli, Bibbiena and his niece, and others. While I +was writing, my imagination carried me away, and I gave it free rein. +You are the only ones who will have the full dose." + +We were very willing to hear it all. Winnie sat in the great comfortable +wicker armchair with the lamplight gloating o'er her mischievous face. +Adelaide had ensconced herself on the window seat, her classical profile +clear cut against the night. Milly nestled on a cushion at her feet, and +I had stretched myself luxuriously on the old lounge, and watched the +others from the shadowy side of the room. Milly occasionally patted the +cabinet at her side as Winnie referred to it. + +The flickering light almost seemed to make the carved faces with which +it was decorated grin sardonically, or knit their brows with threatening +scowls, as Winnie read: + + +"I am the ghost of the cabinet, Giovanni de' Medici they called me, in +1475, when the drops from the font fell on my forehead in the Baptistry +in Florence, and Leo X, when in 1513 I was made Pope of Rome. I was the +second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Christianly christened as a babe +and created Abbot of Fontedolce at the age of seven and Cardinal at +seventeen, for my father was convinced, since the eldest son must carry +down the family glory in succession, for me promotion lay only in the +way of the Church. + +"Nevertheless, I held, as it were, to that plough but with one hand, +continually looking back, and ready to drop it altogether, so that, +while I enjoyed the rank and revenue of a prince of the Church, I was +not made a priest with vows of celibacy until the papacy was as good as +in my hand, and until I had been determined thereunto by the closing to +me of a fair pathway which led in quite another direction. For of my +father's choice for me I might have said: + + "For that my fancy rather took + The way that led to town, + He did betray me to a lingering book, + And wrap me in a gown. + +"None but the readers of this confession know of my lost love or fancy +that I was capable of any passion save the ambition to reinstate my +family in its ancient position of glory in Florence. Cardinal though I +was, I yet played the spy and the thief to get at the opinions of +Florentines of note and influence, and one of my confederates in my +schemes was a certain carved oak cabinet, which stood in the library of +the palazzo of my nephew by marriage, Filippo Strozzi. This Strozzi was +a man so well regarded in Florence, that although he espoused Maddalena +de' Medici, the daughter of my banished brother Piero, yet was he never +suspected of any plots to advance our family, and lived even with great +freedom and popularity, keeping open house to all the literati of the +city. + +"My niece, who shared not altogether the republican sentiments of her +husband, and in whom family affection was most deeply rooted, did +sometimes entertain me after my banishment when my presence in Florence +was not known by the Florentines in general or even to her most +worshipful spouse. At such times I had for my bedchamber a little room +partitioned only from the library of which I have spoken by heavy +hangings of tapestry. Against this tapestry, on the library side, was +set the oak cabinet, which was also a desk for writing, and here my +nephew, Filippo Strozzi, was accustomed to write his letters. Hearing +the scratch of his pen when he little suspected my neighbourhood, filled +me with such an itching desire to know what he wrote, that one night +after he had finished his writing, and had left the room, I slipped into +the library, and found that, having completed his epistle, he had laid +it inside the cabinet, and that this was without doubt the usual +rendezvous for the letters of the family while awaiting the time for the +departure of the post, for other letters, sealed and directed and ready +for the sending, lay on the same shelf. On further examination of the +cabinet I found that its back was a sliding panel, and that by cutting +through the tapestry with my penknife I could open the cabinet from my +own room, and abstract any letters which might have been placed within +it under surety of lock and key. This seemed to me a most providential +circumstance, for not only did my nephew write his letters here, but +other guests of the house had the same custom, and it was most +convenient for me thus to become acquainted with their secret opinions. + +"I had another motive for lingering in Florence besides my political +schemes, for as I have said I had not at this time so irrevocably +fastened upon myself the vows of the church that they could not be +shaken off, and I was greatly enamoured of the niece of the merry +Cardinal Bibbiena, the incomparable Maria, whom I had met before my +brother's banishment at his court in Florence, she being a maid in +waiting to his wife and greatly attached to her. + +"Maria Bibbiena came frequently to visit my niece Maddalena Strozzi; and +my niece, knowing my passion, gave me opportunity of meeting her, and +I thought that I sped well in my wooing until the cabinet told me +otherwise. My cabinet told me no lies, for Count Baltazar Castiglione, a +most polished man of the world, and guarded in his spoken opinions of +others, opened his mind most frankly in a letter to his friend and +confidante, the gentle and witty Vittoria Colonna, which he wrote in +that room and left in my power, and which was expressed with a freedom +which he would never have allowed himself had he fancied that it would +ever have fallen under my eye. + +"I had one friend in Florence in whom I trusted, Niccolo Macchiavelli. I +admired his statecraft and his policy, and I deemed him devoted to our +family, but a letter from his own hand, obtained in like manner with the +others, showed him to be two-faced and treacherous to all who trusted +him--to the Medicis and to Strozzi, whose hospitality he scrupled not to +abuse. It would seem at first sight that my thefts of letters were of +service to me; but I was never able to really profit by them, and the +knowledge which the letters gave me of the perfidy or dislike of their +writers caused me only fruitless indignation and lasting pain, while the +habit into which I had fallen of suspecting, prying, and stealing grew +upon me day by day, till even death itself was powerless to correct it. +When will mankind learn that habit can be so deeply fixed as to follow +us beyond the portals of death. + +"The old cabinet and I have been so long partners in guilt that my +erring ghost visits it as of old, abstracting from it whatever is left +to its treacherous keeping. I give back herewith the letters, and when +this confession shall have been publicly read, I will render the moneys +which I have more lately filched, and then my troubled spirit will be +laid at rest. For I was not a great villain. + +"Witch Winnie lied when she said I stole from this cabinet the freedom +of the city of Florence, which my father writ out and placed here after +the last visit of the unmannerly monk, Savonarola. I pardoned the +enemies of our family in the day of my triumph, and I pardoned Raphael, +yea, and befriended him and loved him, since he wronged me unwittingly; +and none grieved more than I when we buried him beside his Maria, whom I +fain would have called my own. And so, having forgiven those who have +trespassed against me, and now making restitution, may I also be +pardoned for filching these few letters, whereof the first was from: + + + "_Count Baltazar Castiglione to the Excellent Lady Vittoria + Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara, at Naples._ + + "FLORENCE, 15th October, 1504. + + "MOST WORSHIPFUL MADONNA AND ADMIRED FRIEND: + + "I feel myself highly flattered in that you express yourself + satisfied with my Cortigiano (which I caused to be writ out at + your request), and which endeavoured, in some slight way, to + reproduce the facetious pleasantry joined to the strictest morals + which subsist at the Court of Urbino. And I deem your request for + a like picture of Florentine society as a most pleasing proof that + I have not been hitherto wearisome to you. + + "In Florence, since the passing of the rule of the Medici, there + has been a passing away also of all standards of aristocracy, so + that many of the old families hang their heads in political + disgrace, and there be many upstart ones who flaunt and wanton in + gorgeousness of apparel. Neither is it possible to say what will + be the outcome of this state of social incertitude. I have adopted + what seemed to me a safe rule, and have paid my court neither to + birth nor to fortune, but to genius. For it is not to be gainsayed + that there is gathered in Florence at this time a remarkable + circle of learned and clever men, who form, as it were, an order + of aristocracy by themselves. + + "I paid my respects first to Maestro Pietro Perugino, my sometime + friend at Urbino, and whom we there regarded as the very cream and + quintessence of painting. He has a home here, living in a goodly + and comfortable state, but has grown somewhat crabbed and soured, + as happens to men who feel themselves out of fashion and forgotten + of the world. He has a rival here, one Michael Angelo, and + Perugino having criticised a cartoon which this fellow had set + up, representing I know not what absurdity, of bathing soldiers, + Angelo replied that he considered Perugino to be a man ignorant in + art matters. Which saying so cut to the quick my friend that he + somewhat inconsiderately went to law upon the matter, where he + gained scant salve for his bruises, being dismissed with the + decree that the defendant had only said what was not to be denied. + + "This discourteous fellow Angelo formeth the greatest contrast to + Leonardo da Vinci, now the leading artist of Florence, in whom the + word gentleman hath as full a showing as in any noble living. His + fortune is sufficient to his tastes (which are of no niggard + order), and his audience chamber is frequented by the nobles, the + wits, the fashion, the learning, and beauty of the day. + + "But truly, I must not further speak of this paragon, this + florescence of his day and generation, or I shall have no space in + which to make mention of lesser luminaries, and especially of my + young friend, Raphael Santi of Urbino, who is also visiting at + this time in Florence. Raphael, while he accords to da Vinci a + full meed of praise, and goes daily to sketch from his masterpiece + in the Palazzo Vecchio, and while he is as free from envy as an + egg from vitriol, yet surprised me by this wondrously assuming + assertion, greatly at variance with his usual modesty. 'My dear + Baltazar,' said he, 'keep the sketches and miniature I have made + for thee. They will one day be as valuable as though signed by da + Vinci!' Truly, presumption dwelleth in the heart of youth, but + experience with the world will drive it far from him. + + "I am writing this at the Palazzo Strozzi, where I am for the time + a grateful guest. Mine host and friend Filippo gave recently an + artistic supper, the guests being either artists or lovers of that + guild, whether patricians, such as Giocondo, Nasi, Soderini, and + others; or scriveners, as Vasari, Macchiavelli, and Guicciardini, + and churchmen, as Bibbiena, and Bembo; for all Florence will have + its finger in this art pie, and they who have not the wit to paint + or the money to purchase, affect superior knowledge, and wag their + tongues in dispraise. Finding myself partitioned off between two + of these worthies, I should have died of weariness had I not + closed my ear on the one side to the borings of Macchiavelli (who + had it upon his mind that Giovanni de' Medici was in Florence, + and would have fain tortured from me his hiding place), and on + the other from the sleep-producing maunderings of Vasari, who + delivered himself of condemnatory criticisms on Raphael. I would + not for the world have awakened him to questions by a hint that I + already knew more of Raphael than he was like to know in his whole + life, but I suffered him to wander on, straining my ears the while + to catch some shreds of a merry story with which the Cardinal of + Santa Maria in Portico (Bibbiena) was setting his end of the table + in a roar. Supper being ended, I marked that the Cardinal drew + Raphael's arm within his own, and leading him to the garden, there + left him with his niece Maria, a most sweet and loving damsel, and + one exceptionally endowed by nature; for neither in Florence nor + in the various outlandish cities which it hath been my hap to + visit in the character of diplomatist, have I found in any five + ladies, saving in yourself, worshipful madame, such gentleness, + sprightliness, and wit as is bound up in one bundle in the person + of Maria Bibbiena. + + "Madonna Maddalena Strozzi has confided to me that her uncle + Giovanni de' Medici was in time past so greatly enamoured of this + same Maria that he would fain have given up the Church. This were + madness indeed on his part, since the wisest policy for any of + that family is to keep himself from political ambition, than which + there would seem to be no more convincing evidence to the vulgar + than devotion to a life of celibacy and monkish austerity; a + renouncing of the world, its pomps and vanities, and especially of + family alliances and succession plots, friendships, betrothals, + marriages, and the like; which, if they be not fooleries of + youthful passion, savour of worldly ambition. + + "All of this I imparted as my opinion to my hostess, but she + sighed so deeply as to show that her sympathies are with her + love-lorn uncle. After this we were bidden by her husband to an + upper room, where was displayed a picture of Raphael's. + + "But to report the critiques which followed would be greatly + wearisome to your ladyship, and so I kiss your hands, beseeching + our Lord to make you as happy as you are pious. + + "Your sincere friend and servitor, + "BALTAZAR CASTIGLIONE. + + + "_Maria Bibbiena to the Lady Alfonsina Orsini Medici, wife of + Piero de' Medici, in Exile at Urbino._ + + "FLORENCE, October 12, 1504. + + "MOST MAGNIFICENT, NOBLE, AND UNFORTUNATE LADY: + + "For whom my tears cease not to fall, and my heart to long after + with true devotion. + + "Truly, madame, whatever may have been your heavy and sore trials + in separation from your beloved Florence, you cannot have + experienced more poignant smart than that which wrings the heart + of your little friend, who in lonesomeness and delaying of hope + counts the days of your absence. My uncle's friend, Messer + Macchiavelli, who passes for a man of deep designs, raised my + hopes at one time by whispering that there was a plot to bring you + back. But nothing came of it, and instead we were given up to the + dreadful Piagnoni, so that my uncle, than whom there never was + a more jocund man, so long as he was chancellor to your most + worshipful husband, was forced to abandon politics and even for a + time to hang his head in sadness. But having returned from Rome + with a cardinal's hat, since the death of Savonarola, I discern + some faint return to his old cheerfulness. + + "I was minded of you anew but recently. You will doubtless + remember Madonna Lisa Giocondo. She is now having her portrait + painted by Maestro da Vinci. It is his manner to invite light and + diverting society to his studio to converse with and cheer the + lady during her sitting, and to strive to bring to her lips a + certain marvelous smile about which he is mightily concerned. Now + it chanced that Maestro da Vinci heard that I played upon the lute + at your court, in former days, and so he persuaded my uncle to + bring me to his studio to play for the diversion of Mona Lisa. + Presently there came in with Count Castiglione a young man of a + most beautiful countenance, a divine tenderness suffusing his + eyes; and a smile of such heavenly sweetness upon his lips, that + methought that of Mona Lisa but an affected simper in comparison. + After greeting us he remained a long time in a muse, his eyes + fastened upon the canvas. Mona Lisa, perceiving that his entranced + gaze was not so much in admiration of her beauty as in delight at + the skill of the painter, took her departure, in some pique, while + Maestro da Vinci waited upon her to the door. Raphael Santi, for + so is this young man called, turned to me and spoke of the genius + of da Vinci. After that the Maestro brought forward a portfolio of + sketches and we overlooked them together. I mind me there was one + drawing of the Madonna seated in the lap of Sta. Anna, caressing + the infant Christ, who, in his turn, was toying with a lamb. And + the younger artist said that what pleased him most in da Vinci's + paintings was the lovingness which he displayed, as here Sta. + Anna was beaming proudly and graciously upon her daughter, who + playfully and tenderly yearned over her son, who as charmingly + petted his little lamb. And many more things he said, so sweetly, + and with such courteous and gentle behaviour, that I wondered not + that he was called Saint Raphael, for indeed he seemed unto me as + one of the company of the blessed. + + "But with all this I have not told you why it was that this should + remind me of you. It was because I was told that he was from + Urbino, and because he was able to give me comfortable tidings + concerning you, which did not a little solace and unburden my + heart. + + "After this I met him several times in the outer cloisters of San + Marco, whither I went first by chance with my uncle, who had some + business with the prior of the convent, and who left me to wait + for him in this place, which is assigned to the laity. + + "Presently, while I waited here, Raphael came hastily in, having + just completed his lesson in colouring with the Fra Bartolommeo, + an artist who turned monk under the preaching of Savonarola, and + whom Raphael has chosen as master during his stay in Florence. He + told me somewhat of this good monk; how when he was a talented and + rising young man, with life and ambition all before him, he gave + his paintings to the flames with which the Piagnoni consumed the + vanities of this world in the public streets, because he feared + lest he loved his art more than God. But since he has renounced + the world, the Prior has told him that he can best serve the + Church by painting altar-pieces, so that his cell is changed to a + studio, and God has granted him such access of genius that he + paints more divinely than before, and churches and monasteries in + Venice and other distant cities send daily for his paintings. But + he knows not where they go, nor how much money they bring the + convent, for he paints only for the love of God. + + "Raphael told me also of the heavenly frescoes of Fra Angelico, + with which the walls of the passages and even the cells of the + convent, are covered, and he added, 'Truly, I think that Art and a + monastic life wed well together, and I would willingly retire to + some cloistered garden afar from the world, if I might carry my + box of colours with me, and might sometimes see in a vision a face + like thine to paint from!' + + "Then was I seized with a foolish timidity, so that I could in no + wise answer, but my heart said, 'And why afar from the world, why + not in it, making all things better and happier?' + + "Ah! sweet lady, I know you will say, 'My little Maria is grown + wondrous foolish and love-sick'; but I pray you chide me not, + seeing that the matter cannot grow further, for I am not likely + again to meet with Raphael, since I have come to visit for some + days, on invitation of your sweet daughter Madonna Maddalena + Strozzi. Nor were it best that I should see him often, for I do + fear me that in such case my heart might become so rashly pitched + and fixed upon him that I should in time most inconsiderately fall + in love, which were a bold and unmaidenly thing to do; and I mind + me that you were wont to tell me that no woman should allow her + affections to conduct themselves thus insubordinately, until the + church hath by the sacrament of marriage given her license + thereto. + + "And so, madame, praying Maria Sanctissima and Maria the sister of + Lazarus, my patroness, to keep me constant in this mind, I rest + your loving friend and devoted servitor, + + "MARIA BIBBIENA. + + + "_Niccolo Macchiavelli to Bramante, Architect to Pope Julius I, at + Rome_: + + "MESSER BRAMANTE MIO: + + "We have no longer any politics in Florence. The Medici trusted + to the luck of their name; but Florence would have none of them, + and Piero had not the head for his position. He might have had the + advantage of my brains if he had so chosen; but he had not the wit + to appreciate wit. The Magnificent was right when he said that he + had three sons, the one good, the second crafty, the third a fool. + The good die young: Piero, the fool, has lost his inheritance; it + remains for the crafty Giovanni to make good the prestige of his + family. The chances are against him, but if he has something + better than maccaroni under his tonsure, he will make the Church + his ladder to power. I thought at one time that Savonarola was + perhaps shrewder than he seemed, and that he would succeed in + tumbling Alexander out of the Papal Chair and in taking his seat + therein as the Pope Angelico. But it seemed that the dolt never + cared for the Papacy, but only for saving souls! I fear no such + cause of defeat for a Medici, but I hear rumours concerning + Giovanni which make me fear that he is not crafty enough for + success. He has been dissolute; that is no hindrance to a + cardinal's hat or even to the tiara; the folly I dread is more + fatal. They say that he has reformed his life and is thinking of + marriage. If this is true, I renounce his cause in favor of that + of Caesar Borgia, who has the audacity of a lion joined to the + rascality of a fox, and who is not hindered from the putting in + practice of my principles by any so cowardly and stupid a thing as + a conscience. And yet they say that his superb physical manhood is + now a wreck, bloated and permeated through and through with the + subtle poison which his family alone knows how to prepare, and + whose effects they can only partially eradicate. Savonarola, + Borgia, Medici, blunderers all! What name will the next wave bring + to the surface? + + "But a truce to politics. You know this is a subject from which I + can no more keep my thoughts than a greedy urchin can forbear + thrusting his fingers into a pot of comfits. I am not so absorbed + in my favourite pastime, however, but I can take an interest in + all that interests my friends, especially in such matters as are + flavoured with a spice of intrigue, than which no condiment soever + is better suited to my palate. Touching, therefore, the matter + concerning which you wrote me, I think that you, as chief + architect to his Holiness, have indeed cause to fear the rivalry + of Michael Angelo, for I am credibly informed that he is minded + presently to journey toward Rome. Moreover, since it is the + practice of popes to be always meddling with works of art, marring + and defacing the excellent things done in the Pontificates of + those preceding them,--when they cannot improve upon them,--and + whereas they are a whimsical lot, not long contented with one + object or one workman, be he ever so excellent, you have + sufficient cause, I say, to fear, having now continued in favour + for some time, that this Michael Angelo will supplant you in the + favour of his Holiness. I would suggest, therefore, that you + search about for some new artist, who shall occupy himself with a + line of work as fresco painting, not in any way interfering with + your own architectural designs, but rather depending upon them; + and that you make haste to introduce him to the Pope, and if + possible ingratiate him into his favour that, his mind being taken + up with this new favourite, and his purse lightened by the + dispensing of moneys for these new works, he will be less inclined + to look favourably upon a new architect such as Michael Angelo. + And inasmuch as it seemeth to me that this thing requireth haste, + I have looked about me somewhat in Florence to find a man suited + to your occasions. + + "I first bethought me of Leonardo da Vinci as being the successful + rival of Michael Angelo in this city, and against whom he could + not for a moment contend. But da Vinci hath no drawings toward + Rome. I have marked for a long time that he cutteth his doublet + after the French fashion. Trust me, he is no man for us; he would + rather trip it merrily with French dames than wear out his knees + on the cold scagliola of the Vatican. I have bethought me also + that Leonardo is too old and subtle for you; you need a man whom + you can manage; who shall look up to you as a patron and as a + superior. My eye hath lately fallen upon a youngster of surprising + talent as a painter, a stranger in Florence, of no great + influence, and utterly unknown to fame. He hath as yet no great + opinion of himself; make haste to secure him before others shall + enlighten him as to his merits. This youth is called Raphael + Santi, and I make sure that the pope will greatly prefer this + silken dove to that porcupine Angelo. + + "I would the more willingly see him advanced in some foreign city + in that my good friend Cardinal Bibbiena seems desirous with all + expedition to get him forth from Florence, and yet it is not so + much from a desire to pleasure Bibbiena, as from a conviction that + I have found here a tool of proper service to thee, that I thus + recommend him to thy good offices. + + "To conclude, my Bramante, make all speed to inform his Holiness + that the walls of the Vatican are cracked, smoky, filthy, and + disgraceful, and above all things fetch thy Raphael quickly and + gain for him a personal interview; for I trust more to the charm + of his presence than to volumes of thy bungling speech. + + "And when thou hast need of further counsel, or seest that the + pope desireth an Ahithophel,--now the counsel of Ahithophel which + he counselled in those days was as if a man had enquired at the + oracle,--why send then and fetch thy ever loving and honest + friend, + + "MACCHIAVELLI. + + "FLORENCE, October 12, 1504. + + + "_Maria Bibbiena to the Lady Alfonsina Orsini Medici, wife of + Piero dei Medici, at Urbino_: + + "FLORENCE, October 15, 1504. + + "MOST MAGNIFICENT, MOST BELOVED, AND MOST SWEET LADY: + + "Since I last made bold to write you of my small matters, others + more weighty to me have transpired, which, as I have made a + beginning, I will also make an end in the way of their narration. + And first I have met with a small disquietness from your + highness's brother-in-law, the Cardinal, concerning whose presence + in Florence I had not heard. For yestreen, when I was playing upon + my lute in the garden of the palazzo of your daughter, Madonna + Strozzi, he came upon me suddenly walking with your daughter. + Whereat he seemed at first taken all aback, but the Lady Maddalena + exclaimed, 'A new Petrarch, and new Laura,' and commanded him on + his fame as a scholar to make some rhymes on that subject. Whereat + he replied that if I would continue playing he would write, as his + patron, St. Cupid, gave him utterance, and with that he improvised + and wrote out the nonsense herewith following: + + "In all Avignon's gardens the nightingales were mute + As at her open casement she played upon her lute. + The lonely scholar Petrarch wandered all listlessly; + 'The old man with the hour-glass has sure some grudge 'gainst me. + The sands they fall so sluggishly that tell the flight of time; + My studies all are tedium, and weariness my rhyme.' + 'Twas then the Lady Laura, with lips like ripened fruit, + And lily-petalled fingers, full sweetly touched the lute. + The lonely Petrarch listened, as she sang, so sweet and low, + A soft love-laden sonnet, writ by Boccaccio. + Till Cupid snatched the hour-glass from loitering Father Time, + And Petrarch's life was all too short to tell his love in rhyme. + + "After the reading, our lady daughter would have me crown the + poet, but this I would in no manner consent unto. Nay, I even + flung down my lute in vexation of spirit, and ran away to another + part of the garden. But I gained nothing thereby, for Giovanni + pursued after me and came up with me at the fountain, where he + caught my hand and would in no wise restore my freedom till he had + delivered his mind of what lay thereon, namely, that he sought me + for his wife. Whereupon I told him very plainly that I knew that + he had been bred up for the Church, and that it were disloyalty to + his brother, your highness's husband, and to his nephew, your son + Lorenzo, for him to think of marriage and a worldly life, for by + so doing the Medici interest would be divided. But he said that if + I would but be his wife he would relinquish all claim to political + power and Lorenzo should not fear for his succession, for he would + go with me to dwell in foreign parts. And while I sought in the + corners of my mind for some answer which should convince him of my + utter lothness, and yet not offend so noble a gentleman, came + suddenly your daughter to warn him that others were entering the + garden; but ere he went he kissed a rose and tossed it to me + saying, 'This rose comes not from Giovanni the Cardinal, but + Giovanni the soldier, for henceforth go I to fight the French and + to win my bride.' + + "Scarcely was he gone than I tore the rose in pieces, wroth that I + had been so tongue-tied in his presence. And while I shred the + petals all about me, I was aware of Raphael coming to meet me, and + holding in his hand a lily such as we see in the pictures of the + Virgin, which lily he placed in my hand, saying: + + Sicut lilium inter spinas + Sic Maria inter filias. + + "And as he saw me to tremble with the vexation and the disquiet of + my interview with the gay cardinal, he most courteously and gently + inquired the cause of my discomfort, and did so comfortably avail + to assuage my distress that I presently forgot it. He told me also + that since he had known me he had so grown into an affection for + the name of Maria, that he had resolved to devote his life, in so + far as choice should be vouchsafed him, to the painting of Maria + Sanctissima. And many other things he said which it is not meet + nor proper that I should write out here. Suffice it that you, who + love your dear lord, can well understand my present joyful state, + and why it is that the nuns, singing now the canticle for the + Feast of the Purification in the convent next to the palazzo, seem + to be addressing their song to me: + + Gaude, virgo gloriosa! + Super omnes speciosa! + + "For happiest of all Virgins is thy little + + "MARIA. + +"It was this last letter which broke my heart, and yet did not so much +break as bend it so that I gave up the hope which I could no longer keep +not in bitterness or in wrath, and resigned myself to my destiny as monk +and pope; when Maria Bibbiena died, all too early, I wept not my own +shattered future alone, but Raphael's as well, and so took him to my +heart, though he knew not the reason, and so I beseech the efficacious +prayers of all Christians for all true lovers. + +"_Et pro nobis Christum Exora._ + + "GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI, + "_The Ghost of the Cabinet._" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE MYSTERY DISCLOSED. + + +[Illustration] + +Winnie's romance of the cabinet pleased us all, but Adelaide was sure +that Madame would not allow it to be read without certain changes, +especially the reference to the robbery in the school, and the +"lovering" parts. + +"You need not imagine," said Milly, "that because you object to +lovering, all the rest of the world does. Why, even Miss Noakes has a +softer heart than Adelaide's. But really and truly, Winnie, how much of +that is true? Was Raphael really engaged?" + +"Most certainly, my dear." + +"And did Leo X love her too? You made me ever so sorry for the poor old +pope." + +"Well, no, that part is the only one for which I have no warrant in +history. That is, I have no doubt that Leo X really did love some one +before he took the irrevocable vows. He was what Browning calls + + 'Sworn fast and tonsured pate, plain heaven's celibate, + And yet earth's clear accepted servitor, + A courtly, spiritual Cupid, + And fit companion for the like of you; + Your gay Abati with the well turned leg, + And rose i' the hat rim. Canon's cross at neck, + And silk mask in the pocket of the gown.'" + +"The cabinet is such an uncanny old thing," said Milly, "that I begin +almost to believe that you have divined the truth, and that an uneasy +spirit really haunts its vicinity." + +"Perhaps the fact that we now only keep school books in the cabinet is +the reason the ghost has been so very quiet of late," said Winnie. "Or, +perhaps it has repented its evil deeds and my essay has given it the +peace of conscience which only comes through confession. If it were an +unrepenting spirit it would, as Milly suggests, be very unwilling that +I should publish its evil deeds by reading this essay. I believe that I +will give it an opportunity of showing whether it approves of my reading +its confessions. Here, Tib, take everything else off your shelf, and I +will lay my essay there and call on the spirit to make away with it, if, +indeed, he is able and wicked enough to do it." + +Adelaide, Milly, and I watched the incantation with much amusement. + +"Guilty ghost," exclaimed Winnie, striking an attitude, "if you have +repented of your crimes, and the reading of this essay will allow you +henceforth to rest in peace, I hereby exorcise you, and command you to +affix some seal of your approval to this paper--either the print of a +bloody hand or at least X your mark." Hereupon Winnie, with a flourish, +laid her essay on my shelf and closed the cabinet door. "If, guilty +ghost," she continued, "you are still up to your tricks, and having +taken the money which Tib confided to her shelf, are determined to go on +in your evil ways, I hereby dare you to steal that essay within the next +half hour, we keeping watch and ward in this room!" + +"I think it is no fair test," I said, "unless you leave it there +overnight. Both of the other robberies were committed just at midnight. +This ghost may be of a bashful disposition, or possibly not good-natured +enough to walk at your call in broad daylight." + +"Well, if he doesn't appear within a half hour I'll give him another +chance, 'in the dead vast and middle of the night,' 'when churchyards +yawn,' et-cetera. Here, Milly, lend me your watch, that I may time our +visitor." + +We all sat for a few moments silently watching the cabinet, but +presently Adelaide tired of this mummery and exclaimed: + +"Really, this is too absurd! I have my Latin prose composition to write, +and cannot spend any more time in such nonsense, Winnie." + +"Write your exercise in this room. We will all keep still, and I must +have all the Amen Corner as witnesses of my little experiment." + +Winnie pulled out the writing shelf, and Adelaide seated herself at the +cabinet and wrote steadily until Winnie cried, "Time's up." + +Milly and I approached the cabinet, and Winnie made a few magical passes +in the air and repeated an ancient hocus-pocus: + + "There was a frog lived in a well, + To a rigstram boney mite kimeo. + And Mistress Mouse she kept the mill, + To a karro karro, delto karro, + Rigstram pummiddle arry boney rigstram + Rigstram boney mitte kimeo, + Keemo kimo darrow wa, + Munri, munro, munrum stump, + Pummididle, nip cat periwinkle, + Sing song, kitchee wunchee kimeo." + +Adelaide pushed in the writing shelf and stepped aside, and Winnie threw +open the cabinet door. We could hardly believe our eyes--the essay had +disappeared. + +Milly gave a shriek of dismay. "It must have been a ghost. How else +could it have vanished with all of us on the watch?" + +"Have you been playing a trick on me, Adelaide?" Winnie asked. "Did you +manage to slip it out while we were not looking?" + +Adelaide disclaimed any such action, and Milly and I confirmed her +assertion, for we had been watching the door all the time. + +Winnie wheeled the cabinet away from the wall, almost expecting to find +a concealed door opening into Cynthia's room. But the wall was perfectly +solid, there was not even a mouse hole in the base-board, while the +back of the cabinet was not a sliding panel. We banged it, and pushed +it, and examined it with a magnifying glass for concealed springs or +hinges. It was simply an honest piece of work, a secure, heavy back, +conspicuously fastened in its place with wooden pegs, a construction to +which cabinet makers give the term dowelling, and to make assurance +doubly sure, the edges had been glued with a cement which had turned +black with age, but had not cracked. There was no possible way in which +the cabinet could have been opened from behind. + +"There goes my pet theory," said Winnie, in an aggrieved tone. "It would +have been just like Cynthia to have removed things from the back of the +cabinet, if we could only have discovered a concealed door in the +partition behind it. You see the cabinet backs so conveniently against +her room." + +But there was no possibility of any door having ever existed here. The +partition wall was not of boards, which might have been sawed through +and removed. It was clean white plaster which had never been papered, +and would have betrayed the least scratch, and Winnie was obliged to +relinquish this romantic method of access to the cabinet. + +"I shall always think," said Adelaide, "that the first robbery was +committed by that individual we saw through the studio transom in +Professor Waite's great Rembrandt hat." + +Winnie laughed heartily. "Girls, I may as well confess," she exclaimed, +"that was your humble servant." + +"You, Winnie?" + +"Yes, I, Winnie. Don't you remember that I was not in the parlor when +the head appeared? I was in the studio, and it struck me that it would +be rather a good joke to pretend to be Professor Waite, tramping up and +down before that door, tormented by a consuming passion for Adelaide. +Wait, I will put the hat on again and let you see." Winnie dashed into +the studio and returned wearing the Rembrandt hat, and we all laughed at +her cavalier appearance. + +"But, girls," she exclaimed, throwing the hat on the floor, "this is +really no laughing matter. Do you realize that my essay is gone? My +essay that I am to read next week. And how I am ever to find time to +write it over again, with examinations and all that I have to do between +now and then, is more than I know. Just see how wickedly Giovanni de' +Medici leers at me!" and Winnie pointed to the carved head which +adorned the centre of the cabinet door. "Oh! what shall I do? what shall +I do?" + +Winnie soon answered that question for herself, by writing another +essay, and improving it in the process. But the disappearance of the +Florentine letters was a nine days' wonder. We searched the room +thoroughly and even stepped out on the fire-escape and looked up and +down for some bird of heaven that might have carried them away. "I shall +always maintain," said Milly, "that it is no real thief at all. Of +course, none of us really believe in the ghost theory, though it is +almost enough to make one turn spiritualist to be made the victim of +such a trick. I believe that in the end it will be found that somebody's +little pet poodle has found his way in here, and like Old Mother +Hubbard's dog has a weakness for cupboards, and has chewed up everything +that he has found. Sometime Nemesis will overtake that little poodle and +he will be laid upon the dissecting table, and all of the money and +Winnie's essay will be found in his little gizzard." + +It was an absurd suggestion, but nothing seemed to explain the mystery, +and we finally all gave it up. All but Winnie. She continued to worry +about it. She laid many traps for her ghost, baiting them with edibles +under the supposition that the thief might be an animal; and with money, +tying silken threads around the cabinet, fastening the handle of the +door to a bell in her own room, but they were all unavailing; the robber +came no more. + +The cadets' prize declamation came before our graduation, and we all +attended the exercises. + +Stacey did not take a prize, but, as he laughingly told Milly, his coat +did, and that was honour enough. + +Woodpecker was the honour man that day, and as Woodpecker was a poor +man's son, he had no dress suit, and Stacey lent him his coat to appear +in while he delivered his oration--Stacey sitting in his shirt sleeves +behind the scenes meantime. Woodpecker's long arms soared and the +stitches in the back cracked, but he spoke with fire, and the committee +unanimously awarded his "Description of a Chariot Race" the first prize, +while Buttertub's sonorous voice and grandiloquent manner secured the +second for his "Philosophy of Socrates," and Stacey's "Athletic Games of +Greece" came off with an "honourable mention" only. There was a good +deal of what Jim called "kicking" at this decision. The drum corps, to +a man, felt that Stacey ought to have had the first prize, and there +was not a boy in the school, not excepting Buttertub, who did not +think Stacey's essay infinitely more entertaining than the Socratic +philosophy. The Commodore, fortunately, was of this opinion. Stacey's +stock had risen rapidly in his father's estimate. The essay interested +the Commodore, and it made no difference to him that the committee did +not agree with him; in his opinion Stacey was the brightest boy in the +school. We girls shared this feeling. Stacey's bouquets proclaimed him +the most popular fellow in the class. The usher kept bringing them up, +and it was impossible for Stacey to carry all his floral tributes from +the stage at one time. + +Woodpecker enjoyed the popularity of his friend more than his own +honors. He had laid a wager with Ricos that Stacey would carry off the +first prize, promising that if he did not, he, Woodpecker, would trundle +a wheelbarrow down Fifth Avenue. Having lost the wager by his own +triumph Woodpecker gaily proceeded to pay the penalty by carrying +Stacey's bouquets in a light wheelbarrow to the Buckingham Hotel--where +Commodore and Mrs. Fitz Simmons had taken rooms--immediately after the +exercises. + +Stacey himself did not overestimate this expression of his friend's +regard, but it helped soften his disappointment at not obtaining the +first prize. He was not embittered as at his failure at the games, but +humbled in a salutary way. He saw his true position: a talented +fellow, who until recently had not tried to make the best use of his +opportunities, and who could not reasonably hope for the highest +rewards after such brief effort. But something within him whispered, +"You can do it yet. You can be something more than a dude and a good +fellow," and he resolved to devote his vacation to serious training in +his studies. + +It gave him a thrill of pleasure, strangely mingled with humility, to +see the Commodore's delight, just as he was handing Mrs. Fitz Simmons +into the carriage, at hearing the old cry from the drum corps, who had +been lined up in front of the barracks by Buttertub for that purpose, +and gave it with a will--Jim's shrill voice joining in the final cheer: + +"Who's Fitz Simmons?" + + "First in peace, first in war, + He'll be there again, as he's been there before, + First in the hearts of his own drum corps, + That's Fitz Simmons!" + +The Roseveldts were coming down the steps, and Milly heard it too, and +waved her handkerchief, and Stacey opened the carriage door and waved +his hat to her--though the drum corps thought it was in acknowledgment +of their salute, and closing round Woodpecker and his wheelbarrow +escorted him down the Avenue. + +There were tears in Mrs. Fitz Simmons's eyes as she pressed her +husband's hand, and the Commodore, not wishing to show his satisfaction +too plainly, asked who that pretty girl was who waved her handkerchief +so enthusiastically. + +"You don't deserve it, you young dog," he asserted. "Now if she had +smiled in that way at me I would have cared more for it than for all the +hullabaloo those young rascals are making." + +"Perhaps I do," was the reply on Stacey's lips, but it was uttered so +quietly that only his mother heard it, and understood as mothers always +do. + +And then through the days that followed, Stacey buckled down to hard +work again, and won, as such work is sure to win, its reward. + +"Passed his examinations, admitted to Harvard! Why, of course," said the +Commodore. "There never was any doubt of it." But Stacey knew that there +had been great doubt, and that the expression of esteem by which he was +held by his classmates, which had pleased his father so much, was a very +slight thing compared to this quiet victory, gained through hours of +unregarded toil and for which no cheers were shouted or flowers borne +after him in noisy triumph. + +The opening of the college gates was the entering of a better race for +Stacey. He felt that he was now indeed a man, and must put away childish +things. + +We of the Amen Corner had been chatting together, the evening before our +commencement, of what we intended to do during vacation. "First of all," +said Adelaide, "I want some home life. I want to get acquainted with my +own mother. I feel now that we can be companionable. I am not very +learned, it is true, but I am certainly more mature than when we were +together last. I ought to be not only a help to her, but a sort of +comrade. She has kept herself young at heart, and her society will +recompense me in part for the loss of yours. We are going to study music +seriously together. She plays my accompaniments very nicely. Indeed, I +think she has more talent than I have, only she is out of practice, and +her repertoire is a little old-fashioned, but it will be very easy for +her to put herself in touch with modern requirements. Then father has +planned a delightful occupation for me. You know how fond I am of +practical architecture. Well, he has purchased a delightful old colonial +mansion in Deerfield, a charming village in western Massachusetts. It is +an old homestead which has fallen into disrepair from having been long +unoccupied, for the family which once inhabited it have all died. The +one distant relative who owns the place lives in the West, and has sold +it to father. I am to have the direction of all the repairs and +restorations, and I mean to truly restore the old house to its original +condition. We will board in the village while the changes are being +made. It will be just the place for Jim to grow strong in. Father writes +that it has the loveliest elm-shaded street, and a hundred different +drives over the hills and along its three rivers." + +"You need not tell us anything about Deerfield," Winnie interrupted. +"Tib and I drove through the old town on our coaching trip. It is the +most charming spot that I ever saw. I congratulate you on having such a +delightful prospect before you." + +"And I hereby invite you all to come to the hanging of the crane when +my restorations are finished," Adelaide continued cordially. "That +will be in September, I think, for they will take all summer at least, +and you've no idea how I shall enjoy planning everything and directing +the workmen. Jim and I are going to carve some of the woodwork +ourselves. We will have a portico like that at Mount Vernon, with +Ionic columns, and the windows will have tiny panes and broad seats, +and there are to be china closets with glass doors, and fan work +carved over the mantelpieces, and a raftered ceiling with a great +'summer-tree' in the 'keeping room.' I shall enjoy it more than I can +make you understand. I don't mean so much the possession of the house +when it is done, as altering it, for I love architecture, and wish I +could be an architect. So much for my plans. What are yours, Tib?" + +"Work," I replied; "solid work." + +"I knew you would say that," Adelaide answered. "I have felt +dissatisfied all this year with Madame's course of instruction. If +it were not that I really must see my mother and have some home life, +I would go to Bryn Mawr. I positively crave some good solid study. +Madame's curriculum makes me think of the course of study Aurora Leigh +pursued." Adelaide took down her favourite blue and gold volume from its +companions in the "poets' corner,"--a set of shelves,--and read with +comments: + + "I learnt a little algebra, a little + Of the mathematics; brushed with extreme flounce + The circle of the sciences, because + She misliked women who are frivolous. + I learnt: The internal laws + Of the Burmese Empire; by how many feet + Mount Chimborazo outsoars Himmeleh. + I learnt much music, such as would have been + As quite impossible in Johnson's day + As still it might be wished--fine sleights of hand + And unimagined fingering, shuffling off + The hearers' soul through hurricanes of notes + To a noisy Tophet." + +"And here you are, Tib." + + "And I drew costumes + From French engravings, nereides neatly draped, + With smirks of simpering godship. I washed in + From nature, landscapes (rather say washed out), + Spun glass, stuffed birds, and modelled flowers in wax, + Because she liked accomplishments in girls." + +"No," I interrupted, "I will not have you malign Professor Waite. His +teaching at least has been thorough, and I feel that I have received +very valuable training in my art." + +"Then I suppose that by solid work you mean that you will devote +yourself to art this summer, and camp under a sketching umbrella in +front of every picturesque nook you can find." + +"Art will have to wait until winter," I replied. "I mean that I shall +cook for the farm hands during haying season, and let mother go off for +a visit to her sisters in Northfield, where she can attend the Moody +meetings, and I shall get all the preserving done before she returns, +too." + +"You are just lovely, Tib," Milly replied, giving me a hug. "And now +won't you be surprised when you hear what I am going to do. Father says +he is going to superintend my education for a while. He sent me a squib +from one of the papers about the sweet girl graduate: + + 'She talks with tears about her mates and quotes from ancient lore. + She says the Past is left behind, the Future is before. + Her gown is simply stunning, but she can't subtract or add, + Oh, what an awful humbug is the Sweet Girl Grad!' + +Father is going through practical business arithmetic with me, and says +he means to teach me how to take care of money, and even fit me to take +a position in his bank." + +"I pity your father," said Winnie. "But seriously, Milly, it is the best +thing you could do." + +"There is something else," Milly said, with a painful blush, "which +father says is the foundation of business, and in which I have already +had one lesson, and that is honesty. He says that all the sad failures, +embezzlements, and defalcations come from borrowing money that does not +belong to one--using money for one purpose that was intended for +another; and he means to go over a great many such cases with me to show +me on what a terrible precipice I have been playing. But indeed he need +not say another word, for I have been severely punished, and I think I +would rather put my hand into fire than go into debt one dollar, or +spend a penny for marsh-mellows that father had given me for chocolate +creams." + +Winnie turned and kissed Milly. "I would trust you with millions," she +said; "but Adelaide is the only one in the Corner who knows anything +about business." + +"I am sure, Winnie," I replied, "that the way you have managed the Home +finances disproves that modest assertion. What are you going to do +during the summer?" + +"I have no mother, you know," Winnie said gravely, "but I am going to my +father, and shall try to make his life a little less lonely for him. He +writes that his eyes have been troubling him. Perhaps he can dictate to +me and I can be his amanuensis. I shall take my paint-box with me, and +mean to daub a little all summer. Professor Waite has no faith in my +genius, but I intend to astonish that gentleman one of these days. He +admits that I have an eye for colour, and the rest can be learned. If +father can spare me for a week I shall accept your invitation, Adelaide, +and when I appear you must give me the interior of a room to decorate. +It will be startling, I tell you. I have a good deal of King's Daughter +work to do, too. You know we have not raised the money for the Manger, +and the Home must have it, for they have been receiving the babies, +though they have no good nursery. Now in the summer we all do more or +less fancy work, and I am going to write to all the circles of King's +Daughters with whom we are in correspondence, and ask them to work for +a fair, which we will hold in New York in the autumn. I have had a talk +with Madame and she favors the idea. She even suggested that each circle +should be invited to send a delegate who should assist in selling the +articles at the tables, and very generously offered to entertain them +here for three days during the continuance of the fair. You see, the +school is never full at the beginning of the term, and perhaps she +thinks it will be a good advertisement of her institution, to have girls +from all over the county meet here, though there is really no need of +imputing such mercenary motives to her. I have spoken about it at the +Home to Emma Jane, and she will see that the proposition is made at the +next meeting of the Board of Managers." + +"Well, you certainly have your hands full," Milly remarked, "but I think +I can help you after our tennis tournament is over. I will get the +girls at the Pier to make fancy work for you if I can get any time from +my arithmetic. Where will you hold the fair?" + +"I haven't planned as far as that." + +"I think the new armory at the barracks will be a splendid place," Milly +suggested. "I will get Stacey to ask Colonel Grey if we can use it, and +then perhaps the cadets will be interested to do something to assist in +the entertainment. They might act a play or furnish the music at least." + +"I will drum up the two circles of King's Daughters at Scup Harbor," I +said, "and we will have a useful table, with holders and aprons and +dish-wipers; pickles, honey, butter, and preserves. Why, certainly, +home-made preserves. While I'm about it this summer I will make you some +currant jelly and pickled peaches." + +"You had better paint something," Adelaide said; "and you must take +charge of the art department." + +"If I can come to town," I said. "And I will start the movement before I +go by asking Professor Waite to get contributions from his artist +friends before he goes abroad." + +"I have been greatly touched by one thing," said Winnie. "The interest +which the Terwilligers have taken in this scheme. I happened to mention +it to Polo, and the entire family have risen to the occasion. Mrs. +Terwilliger sent word that she wouldn't consider it too much if she +worked for us to her dying day, considering the way her young ones had +been 'done for' while she was sick. She has been collecting scraps of +silk for a long time past to make a crazy quilt, and she intends to +donate it to us. I fear me it will be a horror; but it shows her +good-will all the same. Terwilliger, the trainer, says he means to +collect sticks from noted places during Mr. Van Silver's coaching tour, +to be made into canes and other souvenirs for us. Polo will not have +time to work for the fair, for she must sew with Miss Billings this +summer. I wish she could go to the country instead." + +"I am going to invite her to Deerfield for August," said Adelaide. "The +Home children ought to be able to do something for the fair. Have you +thought of them, Winnie?" + +"Emma Jane will see that they manufacture a quantity of little articles +in their sewing class," Winnie replied. "They can hem towels and make +bibs and bags and useful articles. I am really sorry that we cannot have +the reception at the Home, for I would like to have people see those +nice, fat babies." + +"They shall see them," Milly replied. "I've an idea. We will devote one +afternoon at the fair to a baby show. Do you remember the bicycle drill? +Well, I will get Stacey to lend me his artillery tactics, and I will get +up some manoeuvres with baby carriages. We will call it the infantry +brigade. The older children shall wheel the carriages. I will drill them +without the babies at first. And then we will have them well strapped +in, and then there will be a triumphal procession by twos and fours, and +I'll deploy them in line and draw them up in a hollow square, and make +them 'present arms,' and 'carry' and 'shoulder arms,' and double quick +and charge. It will be lots of fun; and one baby carriage shall have a +flag fastened to it, for that baby must be the colour bearer, and we'll +have music, of course, and medals for all the babies. Then when people +see what a lot of children we have, with no annex to put them in, they +will rise to the occasion and contribute."[3] + + [3] The Messiah Home for Children, 4 Rutherford Place, New York + City, the actual analogue of the Home in which the girls of the + Amen Corner was interested, is greatly assisted in its good work + by circles of King's Daughters in different parts of the United + States. These circles intend to unite in a fair to be given in New + York City immediately before the holidays, and they invite other + circles of King's Daughters, and any nimble-fingered, warm-hearted + girl to whom this greeting may come, to aid them in this + enterprise. Any donations may be sent to the Home in care of the + matron, Miss Weaver. + +"I think something of the kind might really be arranged," Winnie +replied. "The Hornets are sure to be equally fertile in expedients. I +foresee that the plan will be a great success, and it has one admirable +feature--it will reunite us all in New York next winter for a week at +least, and I wonder what will happen after that." + + "I do not ask to see + The distant scene; one step enough for me," + +said Adelaide softly, quoting from "Lead, Kindly Light," her favorite +hymn. There was something strangely vibrant in her tone. I knew without +looking that Adelaide was on the point of tears, but I was at a loss to +understand the reason. + +The rest of us had had our fits of hysterical weeping at the idea of +parting from one another, but Adelaide was always so superior to any +weakness of that sort. What could be the matter? + +Our great, last school day, so paradoxically called commencement, came +at last. The exercises were in the evening, and we of the Amen Corner +and many others of the girls would not leave the school until the +following morning. + +We received our diplomas in the school chapel, which had been +beautifully decorated for the occasion. Buttertub's father, who was a +friend of Madame's, addressed us at some length as we stood before him +on the platform. I remember that Adelaide never looked more peerless, +nor Milly more bewitching; and that Winnie, mischievous as ever, found +a rose bug on her bouquet and could not forbear dropping it on +Commodore Fitz Simmons's bald head. The Commodore was in full uniform +and had been shown to a front seat just beneath the platform. I think +Winnie really meant to snap the rose bug at Stacey, but the projectile +fell short of its aim. Then the sweet girl graduates in clouds of mull +and chiffon, drifted into the school parlours, and there was a +reception, and Adelaide and Milly were besieged by battalions of +friends, but I was quite lonely and awkward, and held my bouquet and +rolled diploma stiffly, until Winnie caught me about the waist and +whirled me off for a little dance, for Madame had permitted this. +After the dance there were refreshments in the dining-room, and we all +went down, with the exception of Adelaide, who was on the reception +committee, and had been stationed in the front parlour to receive any +tardy guest. I met Professor Waite bringing up an ice as I went down +the stairs, and Milly drew me into a corner, her eyes dancing with +mischief as I entered the supper-room. + +"Something is going to happen," she said to me mysteriously. "I have +given Professor Waite his opportunity, and if he doesn't seize it and +propose I shall never forgive him. I saw him moving around here, looking +bored to death, and I asked him to please take an ice to Adelaide, who, +I happened to mention, was all alone in the parlour. He seized the idea +and the ice simultaneously. I saw resolve in his eye, and now we must +keep people down here as long as we can." + +"What shall we do with Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong and Jim?" I asked. "They +are all so proud of Adelaide they will be with her in a moment." + +"Winnie is in the plot and has special care of them. Jim thinks there +never was quite so jolly a girl as Winnie. They are discussing the +cabinet now. Mrs. Armstrong thinks that some one of us may be a +somnambulist and have hidden the things in our sleep." + +"What a strategic little girl you are, Milly! What made you think of +this opportunity for Professor Waite?" + +"Oh! that was the way Stacey found his chance, you know. Speak of +angels----How nice of you, Stacey, to bring me that salad. I am +positively dying for something to eat. Wasn't the Bishop too longsome +for anything? I thought I should expire, and I was wild to get across +the stage at Winnie, whose back hair was coming down. No, I shall not +tell you what we were saying about you. Do get me some chicken salad. I +can't endure lobster;" and as the obedient Stacey ambled briskly away, +Milly confided to me: "Do you know, Tib, Adelaide is beginning to care +for Professor Waite? What makes me think so? Oh, I know the symptoms. +She was packing so late last night that I nearly fell asleep, but not +quite, for just as I was dozing off I saw her drop on her knees before +her trunk with her face in a great white handkerchief, and while I was +wondering where she ever got such a great sheet of a thing, it suddenly +dawned upon me that it was the silk muffler which Professor Waite +wrapped around her burned hands the night of our Halloween scrape. +Suddenly it seemed to occur to her that I might be looking, and she +turned to look at me, but I had my eyes shut and was snoring like an +angel. Of course angels snore, Stacey Fitz Simmons. Did you ever catch +an angel asleep? and if not what right have you to make fun of me? Dear +me, there is the Bishop starting to go upstairs, and they don't need him +a bit--as yet." + +Milly darted across the room, planted herself squarely in the Bishop's +way, and exerted her powers of entertainment to such effect that Stacey +became blindly jealous, though Buttertub had not come with his father, +apparently having had quite enough of Madame's young ladies and their +entertainments. + +And meantime, how was Professor Waite thriving with his wooing? Adelaide +told me long afterward, so long that it was too late for any word of +mine to set all right, and filled my heart with pity, not alone for the +Professor, but, alas! for Adelaide also. + +Professor Waite offered her the ice, which she took and thanked him very +sweetly, though he had dripped it awkwardly upon her dress. Then, as +Adelaide began to eat it, he inconsistently took it away from her, +saying, "Don't eat now, I have something important to say to you, and I +want your entire attention." + +"Oh! certainly. What is it?" Adelaide replied, knowing exactly what he +wished to say, and determined to prevent his saying it. + +"Miss Adelaide, I began to say what was on my mind last Halloween----" + +"Oh! yes, and pardon me for interrupting you, but you remind me that I +must return your muffler, which I have kept all this time. I will get it +now," and Adelaide tried to slip by him and out of the door. + +"No, you must not get it now," the Professor exclaimed, barring her way +with his extended hand in which he still held the dish of ice-cream. "I +must speak to you, Miss Adelaide. I may never have another opportunity." + +"In that case do set down that ice-cream, for you are spilling it over +everything." + +The Professor obeyed her. + +"See," she added pathetically, "you have nearly ruined the front of my +gown----" + +"But that is nothing," he asserted, "and you must not try to divert me +from my purpose by calling my attention to such a trifle. These little +subterfuges are unworthy of you, Adelaide. You know what it is that I +wish to say and you must hear me." + +Thus driven into a corner Adelaide looked him squarely in the eyes, and +braced herself for the attack. + +"You know that I love you, Adelaide?" + +"Yes, I know it." + +"That I have loved you from the first moment that I saw you--desperately, +hopelessly?" + +"Thank you for saying that, Professor Waite; it would have been wicked +in me to have given you hope. I never meant to do so. I am glad that +you have not misunderstood me. And since you give me credit for not +encouraging you, rather for striving to keep you from this avowal, why +have you spoken? I would so gladly have spared you the pain, the +humiliation of a refusal." + +"You have not allowed me to finish what I was saying. I loved you at +first hopelessly for I saw that you scorned me; but lately you have not +scorned me. You have pitied me; you have been very kind and considerate; +your manner has wholly changed, and I believed that your feelings had +changed also." + +Something in Adelaide's honest eyes flamed up as he spoke. She could not +even look a lie, though she tried hard to do so. + +"I am right," he cried triumphantly, "you have changed! You love me? +Adelaide, you love me!" + +His arms were almost about her, but she kept him off. + +"It is impossible, Professor Waite. It can never be," she replied +solemnly. + +"Never is a long day. I will not urge you, or hasten you. I will be +patient and wait, for you have changed, and you will love me wholly by +and by. It is our destiny. God meant us for each other. I cannot + + Make thee glorious by my pen + And famous by my sword, + +but I can do it with my brush, and I will spend my life painting you, +Adelaide. Art and Love! It is too much for mortal man to possess and +live." + +"Be content with art," Adelaide replied gently. "It is a great gift, and +must console you, for I cannot be your wife." + +"Cannot? Why not?" + +"I will tell you. You think you love me, but it will pass. I regard you +very highly, but not above duty. The feeling which I have for you, +Professor Waite, cannot be love, since it is perfectly easy for me now +to give you up----" + +"No," he assented; "if that is true you do not love me." + +"Listen! The reason that it is easy for me, is not that I do not respect +and admire you; not that I am not grateful to you, and do not suffer in +giving you pain; not that I might not come to care still more for you, +but because I know that a far tenderer heart than mine is wholly yours; +that some one else, who richly deserves your affection, loves you with +an utter self-abnegation of which I am incapable----" + +"I know of whom you speak," he cried impatiently, "but she is a child, +and will outgrow this fancy. God knows that I am innocent, Adelaide, of +having ever deluded her foolish little heart." + +"All too innocent; you might have treated her more kindly!" + +"What! When I can never love her?" + +"Never is a long day. You have said so. You are going away. Try to +forget me and to love her, and when you return again two years hence to +America----" + +"When I return she will be married; she will, at least, have outgrown +this silly dream." + +Adelaide shook her head. "Promise me that you will do as I ask; that you +will go and ask her when you come again." + +"And if she refuses me, as she certainly will, may I come to you for the +reward of my obedience?" + +Again the tell-tale light flashed in Adelaide's eyes, but she only said: +"She will not refuse you." And in the hall Milly's voice was heard in a +high key, with the best of intentions, announcing the return of the +guests from the dining-room, as she replied to some banter of Stacey's: + +"Indeed, Stacey Fitz Simmons, I never change my mind--never." + +"Good-by," said Adelaide. + +Professor Waite raised the _portiere_ for her to pass. "You are very +cruel," he murmured. + +"You will thank me for this some day," she said, and the curtain of an +impenetrable fate fell between them. + +Milly seized my arm a few moments later. "I don't understand it at all," +she said, "but Adelaide has certainly refused Professor Waite. I met +him just now in the hall, and he glared at me like a maniac. I was +positively afraid of him. I ran in to speak to Adelaide, but others had +entered before me, and she only took my hand and squeezed it tight, +while she talked with the Bishop. And Tib, she was as white as a sheet." + +While making allowances for Milly's exaggerations, it seemed probable to +me that her deductions were correct. Something unusual had happened, for +when we went to our rooms we found that Adelaide had already retired for +the night, and had taken Cynthia's empty room, leaving a note for Milly +saying that she had a headache and would rather be alone. + +If we had known, Milly and I, that Adelaide had put from her a love +whose dearness she only realized after its sacrifice, we might have +saved her years of heroic self-abnegation, and so have frustrated God's +plan for making her a resolute, generous, and noble character. + +But we did not know it, and the two girls who loved each other so dearly +looked into each other's eyes at parting, and thought that they read +each other's souls there, and yet misunderstood the reading as +completely as if they had been utter strangers. + +It was fortunate, shall we not say providential, that Adelaide occupied +Cynthia's room that night, and that she was so disturbed that she could +not sleep? for toward morning she noticed a bright light shining through +the transom over the door. Her first thought was that the thief was at +work at the cabinet, and stealing cautiously from her bed she peered +through the key-hole. There was no one near the cabinet, and throwing on +a wrapper she softly opened the door. The room was vacant and the light +which she had noticed streamed in from the window. On looking out what +was her horror to see that the rear of the house was in flames. The fire +had originated in the kitchen, and was making its way toward the front +of the building. Her presence of mind did not desert her. She stepped to +Milly's room, wakened her gently and told her what was the matter, and +then her clear voice rang out, "Fire, fire!" as she hastened to Madame's +room, sounding the telegraphic alarm in the corridor as she went. How +differently people behave during a crisis like this! With the exception +of Adelaide, I think we all lost our wits to a certain extent. Milly, +although wakened so gently, was quite frightened out of hers. She +dressed herself with extreme deliberation, heating her curling irons +in the gas jet and crimping her bangs very prettily. She put on one +high-buttoned boot and one Louis Seize slipper, but was particular about +her gloves--fastening every button--and came to me to be helped with her +graduation dress, which laced in the back. + +Winnie was also greatly excited. She donned a diminutive blazer tennis +jacket over her nightgown, and seeming to consider herself in full +dress, rushed off to awaken Miss Noakes, carrying a small pitcher of +ice-water in her hand with which to help extinguish the fire. Having +forcibly entered Miss Noakes's room, she emptied her pitcher in the face +of that indignant woman. I was not much better. Possessed with the idea +that I must save things, I dragged "the commissary" from under my bed, +and filled it with an absurd collection of useless articles--old school +books, empty pickle jars, the tidies from the chairs, all the soap from +the wash-stand, a soap stone which my mother had insisted on my having +as a remedy for cold feet; this I carefully wrapped in my flannel +petticoat to avoid breakage. I then tossed in the globes from the gas +fixtures, and finding that the cover of the trunk would not go down, +sat upon it, crushing the frail glass globes to atoms. It was at this +juncture that Milly came out to have her dress laced, and I was so dazed +that I obeyed her. Adelaide entered a few moments later, and, spreading +a blanket on the floor, opened the door leading into the studio for the +first time since our initial escapade of the school year. Her intensity +of feeling gave her the strength required to push the heavy chest aside, +and she hastily collected all of Professor Waite's sketches and studies, +wrapped them in the blanket, and descended the turret stairs with them. +Managing--how, she never knew--to burst open the door at the foot, and +to carry the heavy package through the crowd which had now collected +across the park to the Home of the Elder Brother, where Emma Jane +received them. Winnie meantime had returned from her life-saving +expedition, and assisted me in tumbling the commissary out of the +window, following it with every other piece of furniture in the room. +We had some difficulty with the cabinet, but finally our united efforts +succeeded in toppling it over the balcony, narrowly missing crushing a +fireman who was coming up the escape to order us to stop throwing out +the furniture, as the fire had been extinguished. + +"How provoking!" was Winnie's first exclamation. "All this excitement +for nothing!" The fire had merely burned out the interior woodwork of +the kitchen; but had it not been for Adelaide's prompt alarm, it was +impossible to tell how much damage or even loss of life might have +ensued. On ascertaining that there was no longer any danger, Adelaide +attempted to carry back the pictures, but found herself quite unable to +do so, and a procession of four of the Home boys was formed to bring +them. + +Adelaide begged us all to promise not to tell Professor Waite of her +attempt to rescue his property, and as we were all very much mortified +by our own absurd performances, we readily complied with her request. + +It was late in the morning when we bethought ourselves of picking up +our shattered property, which Winnie and I had tossed into the yard. +Fortunately, our trunks of clothing had been so heavily packed that +they had not shared this fate. We descended and viewed the heap of +wreckage with dismay. Cerberus came out to aid us, and, removing the +broken lounge and table, discovered the old oak cabinet an almost +unrecognizable jumble of carved panels, for after it had fallen the +lounge had descended upon it with the force of a catapult. + +Winnie and I picked up the panels, lamenting loudly over the mischief +which we had done. + +"No great harm, after all," said Adelaide consolingly. "The panels are +only separated at the joints; the wood is so hard that they have not +really broken," and then she gave a little cry: "Winnie, what does this +mean? Here is your essay!" + +"Has Giovanni de' Medici returned it?" I asked. + +"It would seem so," Winnie replied, in great excitement. "See, girls, +here is every bit of the stolen money! The ghost has kept his word, and +has returned it after his confession was read publicly." + +"Where did you find it?" I asked, utterly mystified. + +"Right here, in the drawer to which we had lost the key, just under the +upper part of the cabinet. You remember it has been locked since the +very first day of school." + +"But is the money all there?" + +"Yes; your forty-seven dollars, and the sixty from the Catacomb Party +for the Home." + +"How did it ever come there?" + +"That is what I am trying to find out. You know it is my mystery; and, +girls, I have it! This sliding writing shelf which we pulled out to +write upon is really the floor of the cabinet, on which Tib deposited +her treasures. When you pull it out you rake everything upon it into the +drawer below." + +"It must be," said Adelaide, "that some one pulled out that writing +shelf before each of those mysterious disappearances." And when we came +to review the circumstances, we remembered that it had been so in every +instance. The lost money and essay had simply been dropped into the +drawer below. All that had seemed so inexplicable was now made plain, +and in our very last hour together--for, as we carried the fragments +around to the turret door, we saw that the express man had come for our +trunks, and noticed the Roseveldt carriage waiting behind a hansom, +which had just driven up to the main entrance. On the steps Madame was +parting tenderly from Miss Noakes, who was in travelling costume, and +Mr. Mudge sprang from the interior of the hansom to assist her to a +place beside him. Catching sight of his well-known features, Winnie +impulsively waved the drawer of the cabinet and darted across the lawn. + +"No wonder I could not discover the thief," he exclaimed testily, as +Winnie showed the mechanism of the sliding shelf. "The cleverest +detective could not have done that when there was no thief to discover. +But, my dear young lady, pray do not detain us; Miss Noakes and I have a +particular engagement for this very minute at the Church of the Blessed +Unity." As he spoke he dodged an old shoe which the astute Polo +projected from the studio window, and springing into the hansom drove +rapidly away. + +If there had been any doubt as to these indications we would have been +fully enlightened on finding the announcement of their marriage in our +next mail; but the truth was evident to all. + +Madame listened to us with a smile. "It was kind of you, Winnie," she +said, "not to solve your mystery earlier and so take away the excuse for +Mr. Mudge's frequent calls." + +"I shall have the dear old cabinet put in order again," Adelaide said, +"and I shall keep your essay in the drawer, Winnie, for I shall always +believe that you were right, and that there was a ghost." + +And so with tears and embraces, and with vows never to forget, and to +meet again, and to write often, the old delightful school life and Witch +Winnie's Mystery came to an end together. + + +THE END. + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: Obvious printer's errors have been silently + corrected. Otherwise spelling, hyphenation, interpunction and + grammar have been preserved as in the original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak +Cabinet, by Elizabeth W. 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