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+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. Champney
+
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