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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When Patty Went to College, by Jean Webster
+
+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: When Patty Went to College
+
+Author: Jean Webster
+
+Illustrator: C. D. Williams
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2007 [EBook #21639]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Patty]
+
+
+When Patty Went to College
+
+By
+
+Jean Webster
+
+          With Illustrations
+          by C. D. Williams
+
+[Illustration]
+
+          New York
+          The Century Co.
+          1903
+
+          Copyright, 1903, by
+          THE CENTURY CO.
+
+          Copyright, 1901, 1902, by TRUTH CO.
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+          _Published March, 1903_
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+          THE DEVINNE PRESS
+
+          TO
+          234 MAIN AND THE GOOD
+          TIMES WE HAVE HAD THERE
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+                                                            PAGE
+             I  PETERS THE SUSCEPTIBLE                         1
+            II  AN EARLY FRIGHT                               21
+           III  THE IMPRESSIONABLE MR. TODHUNTER              39
+            IV  A QUESTION OF ETHICS                          57
+             V  THE ELUSIVE KATE FERRIS                       73
+            VI  A STORY WITH FOUR SEQUELS                     89
+           VII  IN PURSUIT OF OLD ENGLISH                    103
+          VIII  THE DECEASED ROBERT                          121
+            IX  PATTY THE COMFORTER                          133
+             X  "PER L'ITALIA"                               147
+            XI  "LOCAL COLOR"                                177
+           XII  THE EXIGENCIES OF ETIQUETTE                  203
+          XIII  A CRASH WITHOUT                              215
+           XIV  THE MYSTERY OF THE SHADOWED SOPHOMORE        237
+            XV  PATTY AND THE BISHOP                         257
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+
+                                                         FACING PAGE
+
+  Patty                                                 _Frontispiece_
+
+  Men know such a lot about such things!                      18
+
+  Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly sitting on the
+    edge of a chair                                           54
+
+  What's the matter, Patty?                                  110
+
+  Olivia Copeland                                            172
+
+  I have just run away from you, Bishop Copeley              266
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+Peters the Susceptible
+
+
+"Paper-weights," observed Patty, sucking an injured thumb, "were
+evidently not made for driving in tacks. I wish I had a hammer."
+
+This remark called forth no response, and Patty peered down from the top
+of the step-ladder at her room-mate, who was sitting on the floor
+dragging sofa-pillows and curtains from a dry-goods box.
+
+"Priscilla," she begged, "you aren't doing anything useful. Go down and
+ask Peters for a hammer."
+
+Priscilla rose reluctantly. "I dare say fifty girls have already been
+after a hammer."
+
+"Oh, he has a private one in his back pocket. Borrow that. And,
+Pris,"--Patty called after her over the transom,--"just tell him to
+send up a man to take that closet door off its hinges."
+
+Patty, in the interval, sat down on the top step and surveyed the chaos
+beneath her. An Oriental rush chair, very much out at the elbows,
+several miscellaneous chairs, two desks, a divan, a table, and two
+dry-goods boxes radiated from the center of the room. The floor, as it
+showed through the interstices, was covered with a grass-green carpet,
+while the curtains and hangings were of a not very subdued crimson.
+
+"One would scarcely," Patty remarked to the furniture in general, "call
+it a symphony in color."
+
+A knock sounded on the door.
+
+"Come in," she called.
+
+A girl in a blue linen sailor-suit reaching to her ankles, and with a
+braid of hair hanging down her back, appeared in the doorway. Patty
+examined her in silence. The girl's eyes traveled around the room in
+some surprise, and finally reached the top of the ladder.
+
+"I--I'm a freshman," she began.
+
+"My dear," murmured Patty, in a deprecatory tone, "I should have taken
+you for a senior; but"--with a wave of her hand toward the nearest
+dry-goods box--"come in and sit down. I need your advice. Now, there are
+shades of green," she went on, as if continuing a conversation, "which
+are not so bad with red; but I ask you frankly if _that_ shade of green
+would go with anything?"
+
+The freshman looked at Patty, and looked at the carpet, and smiled
+dubiously. "No," she admitted; "I don't believe it would."
+
+"I knew you would say that!" exclaimed Patty, in a tone of relief. "Now
+what would you advise us to do with the carpet?"
+
+The freshman looked blank. "I--I don't know, unless you take it up," she
+stammered.
+
+"The very thing!" said Patty. "I wonder we hadn't thought of it before."
+
+Priscilla reappeared at this point with the announcement, "Peters is
+the most suspicious man I ever knew!" But she stopped uncertainly as she
+caught sight of the freshman.
+
+"Priscilla," said Patty, severely, "I _hope_ you didn't divulge the fact
+that we are hanging the walls with tapestry"--this with a wave of her
+hand toward the printed cotton cloth dangling from the molding.
+
+"I tried not to," said Priscilla, guiltily, "but he read 'tapestry' in
+my eyes. He had no sooner looked at me than he said, 'See here, miss;
+you know it's against the rules to hang curtains on the walls, and you
+mustn't put nails in the plastering, and I don't believe you need a
+hammer anyway.'"
+
+"Disgusting creature!" said Patty.
+
+"But," continued Priscilla, hastily, "I stopped and borrowed Georgie
+Merriles's hammer on my way back. Oh, I forgot," she added; "he says we
+can't take the closet door off its hinges--that as soon as we get ours
+off five hundred other young ladies will be wanting theirs off, and
+that it would take half a dozen men all summer to put them back again."
+
+A portentous frown was gathering on Patty's brow, and the freshman,
+wishing to avert a possible domestic tragedy, inquired timidly, "Who is
+Peters?"
+
+"Peters," said Priscilla, "is a short, bow-legged gentleman with a red
+Vandyke beard, whose technical title is janitor, but who is really
+dictator. Every one is afraid of him--even Prexy."
+
+"I'm not," said Patty; "and," she added firmly, "that door is coming
+down whether he says so or not, so I suppose we shall have to do it
+ourselves." Her eyes wandered back to the carpet and her face
+brightened. "Oh, Pris, we've got a beautiful new scheme. My friend here
+says she doesn't like the carpet at all, and suggests that we take it
+up, get some black paint, and put it on the floor ourselves. I agree,"
+she added, "that a Flemish oak floor covered with rugs would be a great
+improvement."
+
+Priscilla glanced uncertainly from the freshman to the floor. "Do you
+think they'd let us do it?"
+
+"It would never do to ask them," said Patty.
+
+The freshman rose uneasily. "I came," she said hesitatingly, "to find
+out--that is, I understand that the girls rent their old books, and I
+thought, if you wouldn't mind--"
+
+"Mind!" said Patty, reassuringly. "We'd rent our souls for fifty cents a
+semester."
+
+"It--it was a Latin dictionary I wanted," said the freshman, "and the
+girls next door said perhaps you had one."
+
+"A beautiful one," said Patty.
+
+"No," interrupted Priscilla; "hers is lost from O to R, and it's all
+torn; but mine,"--she dived down into one of the boxes and hauled out a
+chunky volume without any covers,--"while it is not so beautiful as it
+was once, it is still as useful."
+
+"Mine's annotated," said Patty, "and illustrated. I'll show you what a
+superior book it is," and she began descending the ladder; but
+Priscilla charged upon her and she retreated to the top again. "Why,"
+she wailed to the terrified freshman, "did you not say you wanted a
+dictionary before she came back? Let me give you some advice at the
+beginning of your college career," she added warningly. "Never choose a
+room-mate bigger than yourself. They're dangerous."
+
+The freshman was backing precipitously toward the door, when it opened
+and revealed an attractive-looking girl with fluffy reddish hair.
+
+"Pris, you wretch, you walked off with my hammer!"
+
+"Oh, Georgie, we need it worse than you do! Come in and help tack."
+
+"Hello, Georgie," called Patty, from the ladder. "Isn't this room going
+to be beautiful when it's finished?"
+
+Georgie looked about. "You are more sanguine than I should be," she
+laughed.
+
+"You can't tell yet," Patty returned. "We're going to cover the
+wall-paper with this red stuff, and paint the floor black, and have dark
+furniture, and red hangings, and soft lights. It will look just like the
+Oriental Room in the Waldorf."
+
+"How in the world," Georgie demanded, "do you ever make them let you do
+all these things? I stuck in three innocent little thumb-tacks to-day,
+and Peters descended upon me bristling with wrath, and said he'd report
+me if I didn't pull them out."
+
+"We never ask," explained Patty. "It's the only way."
+
+"You've got enough to do if you expect to get settled by Monday,"
+Georgie remarked.
+
+"_C'est vrai_," agreed Patty, descending the ladder with a sudden access
+of energy; "and you've got to stay and help us. We have to get all this
+furniture moved into the bedrooms and the carpet up before we even
+_begin_ to paint." She regarded the freshman tentatively. "Are you
+awfully busy?"
+
+"Not very. My room-mate hasn't come yet, so I can't settle."
+
+"That's nice; then you can help us move furniture."
+
+"Patty!" said Priscilla, "I think you are too bad."
+
+"I should really love to stay and help, if you'll let me."
+
+"Certainly," said Patty, obligingly. "I forgot to ask your name," she
+continued, "and I don't suppose you like to be called 'Freshman'; it's
+not specific enough."
+
+"My name is Genevieve Ainslee Randolph."
+
+"Genevieve Ains--dear me! I can't remember anything like that. Do you
+mind if I call you Lady Clara Vere de Vere for short?"
+
+The freshman looked doubtful, and Patty proceeded: "Lady Clara, allow me
+to present my room-mate Miss Priscilla Pond--no relation to the extract.
+She's athletic and wins hundred-yard dashes and hurdle races, and gets
+her name in the paper to a really gratifying extent. And my dear friend
+Miss Georgie Merriles, one of the oldest families in Dakota. Miss
+Merriles is very talented--sings in the glee club, plays on the comb--"
+
+"And," interrupted Georgie, "let me present Miss Patty Wyatt, who--"
+
+"Has no specialty," said Patty, modestly, "but is merely good and
+beautiful and bright."
+
+A knock sounded on the door, which opened without waiting for a
+response. "Miss Theodora Bartlet," continued Patty, "commonly known as
+the Twin, Miss Vere de Vere."
+
+The Twin looked dazed, murmured, "Miss Vere de Vere," and dropped down
+on a dry-goods box.
+
+"The term 'Twin,'" explained Patty, "is used in a merely allegorical
+sense. There is really only one of her. The title was conferred in her
+freshman year, and the reason has been lost in the dim dawn of
+antiquity."
+
+The freshman looked at the Twin and opened her mouth, but shut it again
+without saying anything.
+
+"My favorite maxim," said Patty, "has always been, 'Silence is golden.'
+I observe that we are kindred spirits."
+
+"Patty," said Priscilla, "do stop bothering that poor child and get to
+work."
+
+"Bothering?" said Patty. "I am not bothering her; we are just getting
+acquainted. However, I dare say it is not the time for hollow
+civilities. Do you want to borrow anything?" she added, turning to the
+Twin, "or did you just drop in to pay a social call?"
+
+"Just a social call; but I think I'll come in again when there's no
+furniture to move."
+
+"You don't happen to be going into town this afternoon?"
+
+"Yes," said the Twin. "But," she added guardedly, "if it's a
+curtain-pole, I refuse to bring it out. I offered to bring one out for
+Lucille Carter last night, because she was in a hurry to give a
+house-warming, and I speared the conductor with it getting into the car;
+and while I was apologizing to him I knocked Mrs. Prexy's hat off with
+the other end."
+
+"We have all the curtain-poles we need," said Patty. "It's just some
+paint--five cans of black paint, and three brushes at the ten-cent
+store, and thank you very much. Good-by. Now," she continued, "the first
+thing is to get that door down, and I will wrest a screw-driver from the
+unwilling Peters while you remove tacks from the carpet."
+
+"He won't give you one," said Priscilla.
+
+"You'll see," said Patty.
+
+Five minutes later she returned waving above her head an unmistakable
+screw-driver. "_Voilà, mes amies!_ Peters's own private screw-driver,
+for which I am to be personally responsible."
+
+"How did you get it?" inquired Priscilla, suspiciously.
+
+"You act," said Patty, "as if you thought I knocked him down in some
+dark corner and robbed him. I merely asked him for it politely, and he
+asked me what I wanted to do with it. I told him I wanted to take out
+screws, and the reason impressed him so that he handed it over without
+a word. Peters," she added, "is a dear; only he's like every other
+man--you have to use diplomacy."
+
+By ten o'clock that night the study carpet of 399 was neatly folded and
+deposited at the end of the corridor above, whence its origin would be
+difficult to trace. The entire region was steeped in an odor of
+turpentine, and the study floor of 399 was a shining black, except for
+four or five unpainted spots which Patty designated as "stepping-stones,"
+and which were to be treated later. Every caller that had dropped in
+during the afternoon or evening had had a brush thrust into her hand and
+had been made to go down upon her knees and paint. Besides the floor,
+three bookcases and a chair had been transferred from mahogany to
+Flemish oak, and there was still half a can of paint left which Patty
+was anxiously trying to dispose of.
+
+The next morning, in spite of the difficulty of getting about, the
+step-ladder had been reërected, and the business of tapestry-hanging
+was going forward with enthusiasm, when a knock suddenly interrupted the
+work.
+
+Patty, all unconscious of impending doom, cheerily called, "Come in!"
+
+The door opened, and the figure of Peters appeared on the threshold; and
+Priscilla basely fled, leaving her room-mate stranded on the ladder.
+
+"Are you the young lady who borrowed my screw--" Peters stopped and
+looked at the floor, and his jaw dropped in astonishment. "Where is that
+there carpet?" he demanded, in a tone which seemed to imply that he
+thought it was under the paint.
+
+"It's out in the hall," said Patty, pleasantly. "Please be careful and
+don't step on the paint. It's a great improvement, don't you think?"
+
+"You oughter got permission--" he began, but his eye fell on the
+tapestry and he stopped again.
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "but we knew you couldn't spare a man just now to
+paint it for us, so we didn't like to trouble you."
+
+"It's against the rules to hang curtains on the walls."
+
+"I have heard that it was," said Patty, affably, "and I think ordinarily
+it's a very good rule. But just look at the color of that wall-paper.
+It's pea-green. You have had enough experience with wall-paper, Mr.
+Peters, to know that _that_ is impossible, especially when our
+window-curtains and portières are red."
+
+Peters's eyes had traveled to the closet, bereft of its door. "Are you
+the young lady," he demanded gruffly, "who asked me to have that door
+taken off its hinges?"
+
+"No," said Patty; "I think that must have been my room-mate. It was
+_very_ heavy," she continued plaintively, "and we had a great deal of
+trouble getting it down, but of course we realized that you were awfully
+busy, and that it really wasn't your fault. That's what I wanted the
+screw-driver for," she added. "I'm sorry that I didn't get it back last
+night, but I was very tired, and I forgot."
+
+[Illustration: Men know such a lot about such things!]
+
+Peters merely grunted. He was examining a corner cabinet hanging on the
+wall. "Didn't you know," he asked severely, "that it's against the rules
+to put nails in the plaster?"
+
+"Those aren't nails," expostulated Patty. "They're hooks. I remembered
+that you didn't like holes, so I only put in two, though I am really
+afraid that three are necessary. What do you think, Mr. Peters? Does it
+seem solid?"
+
+Peters shook it. "It's solid enough," he said sulkily. As he turned, his
+eye fell on the table in Priscilla's bedroom. "Is that a gas-stove in
+there?" he demanded.
+
+Patty shrugged her shoulders. "An apology for one--be _careful_, Mr.
+Peters! _Don't_ get against that bookcase. It's just painted."
+
+Peters jumped aside, and stood like the Colossus of Rhodes, with one
+foot on one stepping-stone, and the other on another three feet away. It
+is hard for even a janitor to be dignified in such a position, and
+while he was gathering his scattered impressions Patty looked longingly
+around the room for some one to enjoy the spectacle with her. She felt
+that the silence was becoming ominous, however, and she hastened to
+interrupt it.
+
+"There's something wrong with that stove; it won't burn a bit. I am
+afraid we didn't put it together just right. I shouldn't be surprised if
+_you_ might be able to tell what's the matter with it, Mr. Peters." She
+smiled sweetly. "Men know such a lot about such things! Would you mind
+looking at it?"
+
+Peters grunted again; but he approached the stove.
+
+Five minutes later, when Priscilla stuck her head in to find out if, by
+chance, anything remained of Patty, she saw Peters on his knees on the
+floor of her bedroom, with the dismembered stove scattered about him,
+and heard him saying, "I don't know as I have any call to report you,
+for I s'pose, since they're up, they might as well stay"; and Patty's
+voice returning: "You're _very_ kind, Mr. Peters. Of course if we'd
+_known_--" Priscilla shut the door softly, and retired around the corner
+to await Peters's departure.
+
+"How in the world did you manage him?" she asked, bursting in as soon as
+the sound of his footsteps had died away down the corridor. "I expected
+to sing a requiem over your remains, and I found Peters on his knees,
+engaged in amicable conversation."
+
+Patty smiled inscrutably. "You must remember," she said, "that Peters is
+not only a janitor: he is also a man."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+An Early Fright
+
+
+"I'll make the tea to-day," said Patty, graciously.
+
+"As you please," said Priscilla, with a skeptical shrug.
+
+Patty bustled about amid a rattle of china. "The cups are rather dusty,"
+she observed dubiously.
+
+"You'd better wash them," Priscilla returned.
+
+"No," said Patty; "it's too much trouble. Just close the blinds, please,
+and we'll light the candles, and that will do as well. Come in," she
+called in answer to a knock.
+
+Georgie Merriles, Lucille Carter, and the Bartlet Twin appeared in the
+doorway.
+
+"Did I hear the two P's were going to serve tea this afternoon?"
+inquired the Twin.
+
+"Yes; come in. I'm going to make it myself," answered Patty, "and you'll
+see how much more attentive a hostess I am than Priscilla. Here, Twin,"
+she added, "you take the kettle out and fill it with water; and,
+Lucille, please go and borrow some alcohol from the freshmen at the end
+of the corridor; our bottle's empty. I'd do it myself, only I've
+borrowed such a lot lately, and they don't know you, you see. And--oh,
+Georgie, you're an obliging dear; just run down-stairs to the store and
+get some sugar. I think I saw some money in that silver inkstand on
+Priscilla's desk."
+
+"We've got some sugar," objected Priscilla. "I bought a whole pound
+yesterday."
+
+"No, my lamb; we haven't got it any more. I lent it to Bonnie Connaught
+last night. Just hunt around for the spoons," she added. "I think I saw
+them on the bottom shelf of the bookcase, behind Kipling."
+
+"And what, may I ask, are _you_ going to do?" inquired Priscilla.
+
+"I?" said Patty. "Oh, I am going to sit in the arm-chair and preside."
+
+Ten minutes later, the company being disposed about the room on
+cushions, and the party well under way, it was discovered that there
+were no lemons.
+
+"Are you sure?" asked Patty, anxiously.
+
+"Not one," said Priscilla, peering into the stein where the lemons were
+kept.
+
+"I," said Georgie, "refuse to go to the store again."
+
+"No matter," said Patty, graciously; "we can do very well without them."
+(She did not take lemon herself.) "The object of tea is not for the sake
+of the tea, but for the conversation which accompanies it, and one must
+not let accidents annoy him. You see, young ladies," she went on, in the
+tone of an instructor giving a lecture, "though I have just spilled the
+alcohol over the sugar, I appear not to notice it, but keep up an easy
+flow of conversation to divert my guests. A repose of manner is above
+all things to be cultivated." Patty leaned languidly back in her chair.
+"To-morrow is Founder's Day," she resumed in a conversational tone. "I
+wonder if many--"
+
+"That reminds me," interrupted the Twin. "You girls needn't save any
+dances for my brother. I got a letter from him this morning saying he
+couldn't come."
+
+"He hasn't broken anything, has he?" Patty asked sympathetically.
+
+"Broken anything?"
+
+"Ah--an arm, or a leg, or a neck. Accidents are so prevalent about
+Founder's time."
+
+"No; he was called out of town on important business."
+
+"Important business!" Patty laughed. "Dear man! why couldn't he have
+thought of something new?"
+
+"I think myself it was just an excuse," the Twin acknowledged. "He
+seemed to have an idea that he would be the only man here, and that,
+alone and unaided, he would have to dance with all six hundred girls."
+
+Patty shook her head sadly. "They're all alike. Founder's wouldn't be
+Founder's if half the guests didn't develop serious illness or important
+business or dead relations the last minute. The only safe way is to
+invite three men and make out one program."
+
+"I simply can't realize that to-morrow is Founder's," said Priscilla.
+"It doesn't seem a week since we unpacked our trunks after vacation, and
+before we know it we shall be packing them again for Christmas."
+
+"Yes; and before we know it we'll be unpacking them again, with
+examinations three weeks ahead," said Georgie the pessimist.
+
+"Oh, for the matter of that," returned Patty the optimist, "before we
+know it we'll be walking up one side of the platform for our diplomas
+and coming down the other side blooming alumnæ."
+
+"And then," sighed Georgie, "before we even have time to decide on a
+career, we'll be old ladies, telling our grandchildren to stand up
+straight and remember their rubbers."
+
+"And," said Priscilla, "before any of us get any tea we'll be in our
+graves, if you don't stop talking and watch that kettle."
+
+"It's boiling," said Patty.
+
+"Yes," said Priscilla; "it's been boiling for ten minutes."
+
+"It's hot," said Patty.
+
+"I should think it might be," said Priscilla.
+
+"And now the problem is, how to get it off without burning one's self."
+
+"You're presiding to-day; you must solve your own problems."
+
+"'Tis an easy matter," and Patty hooked it off on the end of a
+golf-club. "Young ladies," she said, with a wave of the kettle, "there
+is nothing like a college education to teach you a way out of every
+difficulty. If, when you are out in the wide, wide world--"
+
+          "Where, oh, where are the grave old seniors?"
+
+chanted the Twin.
+
+          "Where, oh, where are they?"
+
+The rest took it up, and Patty waited patiently.
+
+          "They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,
+           They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,
+           They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,
+           Into the wide, wide w-o-r-l-d."
+
+"If you have finished your ovation, young ladies, I will proceed with my
+lecture. When, as I say, you are out in the wide, wide world, making
+five-o'clock tea some afternoon for one of the young men popularly
+supposed to be there, who have dropped in to make an afternoon call--Do
+you follow me, young ladies, or do I speak too fast? If, while you are
+engaged in conversation, the kettle should become too hot, do not put
+your finger in your mouth and shriek 'Ouch!' and coquettishly say to the
+young man, '_You_ take it off,' as might a young woman who has not
+enjoyed your advantages; but, rather, rise to the emergency; say to him
+calmly, 'This kettle has become over-heated; may I trouble you to go
+into the hall and bring an umbrella?' and when he returns you can hook
+it off gracefully and expeditiously as you have seen me do, young
+ladies, and the young--"
+
+"Patty, take care!" This from Priscilla.
+
+"O-u-c-h!" in a long-drawn wail. This from Georgie.
+
+Patty hastily set the kettle down on the floor. "I'm awfully sorry,
+Georgie. Does it hurt?"
+
+"Not in the least. It's really a pleasant sensation to have boiling
+water poured over you."
+
+The Bartlet Twin sniffed. "I smell burning rug."
+
+Patty groaned. "I resign, Pris; I resign. Here, you preside. I'll never
+ask to make it again."
+
+"I should like," observed the Twin, "to see Patty entertaining a young
+man."
+
+"It's not such an unprecedented event," said Patty, with some warmth.
+"You can watch me to-morrow night if it will give you so much
+pleasure."
+
+"To-morrow night? Are you going to have a man for the Prom?"
+
+"That," said Patty, "is my intention."
+
+"And you haven't asked me for a dance!" This in an aggrieved chorus from
+the entire room.
+
+"I haven't asked any one," said Patty, with dignity.
+
+"Do you mean you're going to have all of the twenty dances with him
+yourself?"
+
+"Oh, no; I don't expect to dance more than ten with him myself--I
+haven't made out his card yet," she added.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I never do."
+
+"Has he been here before, then?"
+
+"No; that's the reason."
+
+"The reason for what?"
+
+"Well," Patty deigned to explain, "I've invited him for every party
+since freshman year."
+
+"And did he decline?"
+
+"No; he accepted, but he never came."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"He was scared."
+
+"Scared? Of the girls?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, "partly--but mostly of the faculty."
+
+"The _faculty_ wouldn't hurt him."
+
+"Of course not; but he couldn't understand that. You see, he had a
+fright when he was young."
+
+"A fright? What was it?"
+
+"Well," said Patty, "it happened this way: It was while I was at
+boarding-school. He was at Andover then, and his home was in the South;
+and one time when he went through Washington he stopped off to call on
+me. As it happened, the butler had left two days before, and had taken
+with him all the knives and forks, and all the money he could find, and
+Nancy Lee's gold watch and two hat-pins, and my silver hair-brush, and a
+bottle of brandy, and a pie," she enumerated with a conscientious regard
+for details; "and Mrs. Trent--that's the principal--had advertised for a
+new butler."
+
+"I should have thought the old one would have discouraged her from
+keeping butlers," said Georgie.
+
+"You _would_ think so," said Patty; "but she was a very persevering
+woman. On the day that Raoul--that's his name--came to call, nineteen
+people had applied for the place, and Mrs. Trent was worn out from
+interviewing them. So she told Miss Sarah--that's her daughter--to
+attend to those who came in the evening. Miss Sarah was tall and wore
+spectacles, and was--was--"
+
+"A good disciplinarian," suggested the Twin.
+
+"Yes," said Patty, feelingly, "an _awfully_ good disciplinarian. Well,
+when Raoul got there he gave his card to Ellen and asked for me; but
+Ellen didn't understand, and she called Miss Sarah, and when Miss Sarah
+saw him in his evening clothes she--"
+
+"Took him for a butler," put in Georgie.
+
+"Yes, she took him for a butler; and she looked at the card he'd given
+Ellen, and said icily, 'What does this mean?'
+
+"'It's--it's my name,' he stammered.
+
+"'I see,' said Miss Sarah; 'but where is your recommendation?'
+
+"'I didn't know it was necessary,' he said, terribly scared.
+
+"'Of course it's necessary,' Miss Sarah returned. 'I can't allow you to
+come into the house unless I have letters from the places where you've
+been before.'
+
+"'I didn't suppose you were so strict,' he said.
+
+"'We have to be strict,' Miss Sarah answered firmly. 'Have you had much
+experience?'
+
+"He didn't know what she meant, but he thought it would be safest to say
+he hadn't.
+
+"'Then of course you won't do,' she replied. 'How old are you?'
+
+"He was so frightened by this time that he couldn't remember.
+'Nineteen,' he gasped--'I mean twenty.'
+
+"Miss Sarah saw his confusion, and thought he had designs on some of
+the heiresses intrusted to her care. 'I don't see how you _dared_ to
+come here,' she said severely. 'I should not think of having you in the
+house for a moment. You're altogether too young and too good-looking.'
+And with that Raoul got up and bolted.
+
+"When Ellen told Miss Sarah the next day that he'd asked for me, she was
+terribly mortified, and she made me write and explain, and invite him to
+dinner; but wild horses couldn't have dragged him into the house again.
+He's been afraid to stop off in Washington ever since. He always goes
+straight through on a sleeper, and says he has nightmares even then."
+
+"And is that why he won't come to the college?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "that's the reason. I told him we didn't have any
+butlers here; but he said we had lady faculty, and that's as bad."
+
+"But I thought you said he _was_ coming to the Prom."
+
+"He is this time."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, with ominous emphasis, "I'm sure. He knows," she
+added, "what will happen if he doesn't."
+
+"What will happen?" asked the Twin.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+The Twin shook her head, and Georgie inquired, "Then why don't you make
+out his program?"
+
+"I suppose I might as well. I didn't do it before because it sort of
+seemed like tempting Providence. I didn't want to be the cause of any
+really _serious_ accident happening to him," she explained a trifle
+ambiguously as she got out pencil and paper. "What dances can you give
+me, Lucille? And you, Georgie, have you got the third taken?"
+
+While this business was being settled, a knock unheeded had sounded on
+the door. It came again.
+
+"What's that?" asked Priscilla. "Did some one knock? Come in."
+
+The door opened, and a maid stood upon the threshold with a yellow
+envelop in her hand. She peered uncertainly around the darkened room
+from one face to another. "Miss Patty Wyatt?" she asked.
+
+Patty stretched out her hand in silence for the envelop, and, propping
+it up on her desk, looked at it with a grim smile.
+
+"What is it, Patty? Aren't you going to read it?"
+
+"There's no need. I know what it says."
+
+"Then I'll read it," said Priscilla, ripping it open.
+
+"Is it a leg or an arm?" Patty inquired with mild curiosity.
+
+"Neither," said Priscilla; "it's a collar-bone."
+
+"Oh," murmured Patty.
+
+"What is it?" demanded Georgie the curious. "Read it out loud."
+
+                               "NEW HAVEN, November 29.
+
+          "Broke collar-bone playing foot-ball. Honest
+          Injun. Terribly sorry. Better luck next time."
+
+                                             "RAOUL."
+
+"There will not," observed Patty, "_be_ a next time."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+The Impressionable Mr. Todhunter
+
+
+"Has the mail been around yet?" called Priscilla to a girl at the other
+end of the corridor.
+
+"Don't believe so. It hasn't been in our room."
+
+"There she comes now!" and Priscilla swooped down upon the mail-girl.
+"Got anything for 399?"
+
+"Do you want Miss Wyatt's mail too?"
+
+"Yes; I'll take everything. What a lot! Is that all for us?" And
+Priscilla walked down the corridor swinging her note-book by its
+shoe-string, and opening envelops as she went. She was presently joined
+by Georgie Merriles, likewise swinging a note-book by a shoe-string.
+
+"Hello, Pris; going to English? Want me to help carry your mail?"
+
+"Thank you," said Priscilla; "you may keep the most of it. Now, that,"
+she added, holding out a blue envelop, "is an advertisement for cold
+cream which no lady should be without; and that"--holding out a yellow
+envelop--"is an advertisement for beef extract which no brain-worker
+should be without; and that"--holding out a white envelop--"is the worst
+of all, because it looks like a legitimate letter, and it's nothing but
+a 'Dear Madam' thing, telling me my tailor has moved from Twenty-second
+to Forty-third Street, and hopes I'll continue to favor him with my
+patronage.
+
+"And here," she went on, turning to her room-mate's correspondence, "is
+a cold-cream and a beef-extract letter for Patty, and one from Yale;
+that's probably Raoul explaining why he couldn't come to the Prom. It
+won't do any good, though. No mortal man can ever make her believe he
+didn't have his collar-bone broken on purpose. And I don't know whom
+that's from," Priscilla continued, examining the last letter. "It's
+marked 'Hotel A----, New York.' Never heard of it, did you? Never saw
+the writing before, either."
+
+Georgie laughed. "Do you keep tab on all of Patty's correspondents?"
+
+"Oh, I know the most of them by this time. She usually reads the
+interesting ones out loud, and the ones that aren't interesting she
+never answers, so they stop writing. Hurry up; the bell's going to
+ring"; and they pushed in among the crowd of girls on the steps of the
+recitation-hall.
+
+The bell did ring just as they reached the class-room, and Priscilla
+dropped the letters, without comment, into Patty's lap as she went past.
+Patty was reading poetry and did not look up. She had assimilated some
+ten pages of Shelley since the first bell rang, and as she was not sure
+which would be taken up in class, she was now swallowing Wordsworth in
+the same voracious manner. Patty's method in Romantic Poetry was to be
+very fresh on the first part of the lesson, catch the instructor's eye
+early in the hour, make a brilliant recitation, and pass the remainder
+of the time in gentle meditation.
+
+To-day, however, the unwonted bulk of her correspondence diverted her
+mind from its immediate duty. She failed to catch the instructor's eye,
+and the recitation proceeded without her assistance. Priscilla watched
+her from the back seat as she read the Yale letter with a skeptical
+frown, and made a grimace over the blue and the yellow; but before she
+had reached the Hotel A----, Priscilla was paying attention to the
+recitation again. It was coming her way, and she was anxiously forming
+an opinion on the essential characteristics of Wordsworth's view of
+immortality.
+
+Suddenly the room was startled by an audible titter from Patty, who
+hastily composed her face and assumed a look of vacuous innocence--but
+too late. She had caught the instructor's eye at last.
+
+"Miss Wyatt, what do you consider the most serious limitations of our
+author?"
+
+Miss Wyatt blinked once or twice. This question out of its context was
+not illuminating. It was a part of her philosophy, however, never to
+flunk flat; she always crawled.
+
+"Well," she began with an air of profound deliberation, "that question
+might be considered in two ways, either from an artistic or a
+philosophic standpoint."
+
+This sounded promising, and the instructor smiled encouragingly. "Yes?"
+she said.
+
+"And yet," continued Patty, after still profounder deliberation, "I
+think the same reason will be found to be the ultimate explanation of
+both."
+
+The instructor might have inquired, "Both what?" but she refrained and
+merely waited.
+
+Patty thought she had done enough, but she plunged on desperately: "In
+spite of his really deep philosophy we notice a certain--one might
+almost say _dash_ about his poetry, and a lack of--er--meditation which
+I should attribute to his immaturity and his a--rather wild life. If he
+had lived longer I think he might have overcome it in time."
+
+The class looked dazed, and the corners of the instructor's mouth
+twitched. "It is certainly an interesting point of view, Miss Wyatt,
+and, as far as I know, entirely original."
+
+As they were crowding out at the end of the recitation Priscilla pounced
+upon Patty. "What on earth were you saying about Wordsworth's youth and
+immaturity?" she demanded. "The man lived to be over eighty, and
+composed a poem with his last gasp."
+
+"Wordsworth? I was talking about Shelley."
+
+"Well, the class wasn't."
+
+"How should I know?" Patty demanded indignantly. "She said 'our author,'
+and I avoided specific details as long as I could."
+
+"Oh, Patty, Patty! and you said he was wild--the lamblike Wordsworth!"
+
+"What were you laughing at, anyway?" demanded Georgie.
+
+Patty smiled again. "Why, _this_" she said, unfolding the Hotel A----
+letter. "It's from an Englishman, Mr. Todhunter, some one my father
+discovered last summer and invited out to stay with us for a few days.
+I'd forgotten all about him, and here he writes to know whether and when
+he may call, and, if so, will it be convenient for him to come to-night.
+That's a comprehensive sentence, isn't it? His train gets in at
+half-past five and he'll be out about six."
+
+"He isn't going to take any chances," said Priscilla.
+
+"No," said Patty; "but I don't mind. I invited him to come out to dinner
+some night, though I'd forgotten it. He's really very nice, and, in
+spite of what the funny papers say about Englishmen, quite
+entertaining."
+
+"Intentionally or unintentionally?" inquired Georgie.
+
+"Both," said Patty.
+
+"What's he doing in America?" asked Priscilla. "Not writing a book on
+the American Girl, I hope."
+
+"Not quite as bad as that," said Patty. "He's corresponding for a
+newspaper, though." She smiled dreamily. "He's very curious about
+college."
+
+"Patty, I _hope_ you were not guilty of trying to make an Englishman, a
+guest in your father's house, believe any of your absurd fabrications!"
+
+"Of course not," said Patty; "I was most careful in everything I told
+him. But," she acknowledged, "he--he gets impressions easily."
+
+"It is easy to get impressions when one is talking with you," observed
+Georgie.
+
+"He asked me," Patty continued, ignoring this remark, "what we studied
+in college! But I remembered that he was an alien in a foreign land, and
+I curbed my natural instincts, and outlined the courses in the catalogue
+verbatim, and I explained the different methods of instruction, and
+described the library and laboratories and lecture-rooms."
+
+"Was he impressed?" asked Priscilla.
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "I think you might almost say dazed. He asked me
+apologetically if we ever did anything to relieve the strain,--had any
+amusements, you know,--and I said, oh, yes; we had a Browning and an
+Ibsen club, and we sometimes gave Greek tragedies in the original. He
+was positively afraid to come near me again, for fear I'd forget and
+talk to him in Greek instead of English."
+
+In view of the facts, Patty's friends considered this last remark
+distinctly humorous, for she had flunked her freshman Greek three times,
+and had been advised by the faculty to take it over sophomore year.
+
+"I hope, since he's a newspaper writer," said Priscilla, "that you'll do
+something to lighten his impression, or he'll never favor women's
+colleges in England."
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," said Patty; "perhaps I ought."
+
+They had reached the steps of the dormitory. "Let's not go in," said
+Georgie; "let's go down to Mrs. Muldoon's and get some chocolate cake."
+
+"Thank you," said Priscilla; "I'm in training."
+
+"Soup, then."
+
+"Can't eat between meals."
+
+"You come, then, Patty."
+
+"Sorry, but I've got to take my white dress down to the laundry and have
+it pressed."
+
+"Are you going to dress up for him to the extent of evening clothes?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "I think I owe it to the American Girl."
+
+"Well," sighed Georgie, "I'm hungry, but I suppose I might as well go in
+and dress that doll for the College Settlement Association. The show's
+to-night."
+
+"Mine's done," said Priscilla; "and Patty wouldn't take one. Did you see
+Bonnie Connaught sitting on the back seat in biology this morning,
+hemming her doll's petticoat straight through the lecture?"
+
+"Really?" laughed Patty. "It's a good thing Professor Hitchcock's
+near-sighted."
+
+The College Settlement Association, by way of parenthesis, was in the
+habit of distributing three hundred dolls among the students every year
+before Christmas, to be dressed and sent to the settlement in New York.
+The dolls were supposed to be so well dressed that the East Side mothers
+could use them as models for the clothing of their own children, though
+it must be confessed that the tendency among the girls was to strive for
+effect and not for detail. On the evening before the dolls were to be
+shipped a doll show was regularly held, at which two cents admittance
+was charged (stamps accepted) to pay the expressage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IT was ten minutes past six, and Phillips Hall (such of it as was not
+late) was dining, when the maid arrived with Mr. Algernon Vivian
+Todhunter's card. Patty, radiant in a white evening gown, was trying,
+with much squirming, to fasten it in the middle of the back.
+
+"Oh, Sadie," she called to the maid, "would you mind coming in here and
+buttoning my dress? I can't reach it from above or below."
+
+"You look just beautiful, Miss Wyatt," said Sadie, admiringly.
+
+Patty laughed. "Do you think I can uphold the honor of the nation?"
+
+"To be sure, miss," said Sadie, politely.
+
+Patty ran down the corridor to the door of the reception-room, and then
+swept slowly in with what she called an air of continental repose. The
+room was empty. She glanced about in some surprise, for she knew that
+the two reception-rooms on the other side of the hall were being used
+for the doll show. She tiptoed over and peered in through the half-open
+door. The room was filled with dolls in rows and tiers; every piece of
+furniture was covered with them; and in a far corner, at the end of a
+long vista of dolls, appeared Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly
+sitting on the edge of a sofa, surrounded by flaxen-haired baby dolls,
+and awkwardly holding in his lap the three he had displaced.
+
+Patty drew back behind the door, and spent fully three minutes in
+regaining her continental repose; then she entered the room and greeted
+Mr. Todhunter effusively. He carefully transferred the dolls to his left
+arm and stood up and shook hands.
+
+"Let me take the little dears," said Patty, kindly; "I'm afraid they're
+in your way."
+
+Mr. Todhunter murmured something about its being a pleasure and a
+privilege to hold them.
+
+Patty plumped up their clothes and rearranged them on the sofa with
+motherly solicitude, while Mr. Todhunter watched her gravely, his
+national politeness and his reportorial instinct each struggling for the
+mastery. Finally he began tentatively: "I say, Miss Wyatt, do--er--the
+young ladies spend much time playing with dolls?"
+
+"No," said Patty, candidly; "I don't think you could say they spend
+_too_ much. I have never heard of but one girl actually neglecting her
+work for it. You mustn't think that we have as many dolls as this here
+_every_ night," she went on. "It is rather an unusual occurrence. Once a
+year the girls hold what they call a doll show to see who has dressed
+her doll the best."
+
+"Ah, I see," said Mr. Todhunter; "a little friendly rivalry."
+
+"Purely friendly," said Patty.
+
+As they started for the dining-room Mr. Todhunter adjusted his monocle
+and took a parting look at the doll show.
+
+"I'm afraid you think us childish, Mr. Todhunter," said Patty.
+
+"Not at all, Miss Wyatt," he assured her hastily. "I think it quite
+charming, you know, and so--er--unexpected. I had always been told that
+they played somewhat peculiar games at these women's colleges, but I
+never supposed they did anything so feminine as to play with dolls."
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly sitting on the
+edge of a chair]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WHEN Patty returned to her room that night, she found Georgie and
+Priscilla surrounded by grammars and dictionaries, doing German prose.
+Her appearance was hailed with a cry of indignant protest.
+
+"When _I_ have a man," said Priscilla, "I divide him up among my
+friends."
+
+"_Especially_ when he's a curiosity," added Georgie.
+
+"And we dressed up in grand clothes, and stood in your way coming out of
+chapel," went on Priscilla, "and you never even looked at us."
+
+"Englishmen are so bashful," apologized Patty; "I didn't want to
+frighten him."
+
+Priscilla looked at her suspiciously. "Patty, I hope you didn't impose
+on the poor man's credulity."
+
+"Certainly not!" said Patty, with dignity. "I explained everything he
+asked me, and was most careful not to exaggerate. But," she added with
+engaging frankness, "I cannot be responsible for any _impressions_ he
+may have obtained. When an Englishman once gets an idea, you know, it's
+almost impossible to change it."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+A Question of Ethics
+
+
+Patty's class-room methods were the result of a wide experience in the
+professorial type of mind. By her senior year she had reduced the matter
+of recitation to a system, and could foretell with unvarying precision
+the day she would be called on and the question she would be asked. Her
+tactics varied with the subject and the instructor, and were the result
+of a penetration and knowledge of human nature that might have
+accomplished something in a worthier cause.
+
+In chemistry, for example, her instructor was a man who had outlived any
+early illusions in regard to the superior conscientiousness of girls
+over boys. He was not by nature a suspicious person, but a long
+experience in teaching had inculcated an inordinate wariness which was
+sometimes out of season. He allowed no napping in his classes, and those
+who did not pay attention suffered. Patty discovered his weakness early
+in the year, and planned her campaign accordingly. As long as she did
+not understand the experiment in hand, she would watch him with a face
+beaming with intelligence; but when she did understand, and wished to
+recite, she would let her eyes wander to the window with a dreamy,
+far-away smile, and, being asked a question, would come back to the
+realities of chemistry with a start, and, after a moment of ostentatious
+pondering, make a brilliant recitation. It must be confessed that her
+moments of abstraction were rare; she was far too often radiantly
+interested.
+
+In French her tactics were exactly opposite. The instructor, with all
+the native politeness of his race, called on those only who caught his
+eye and appeared willing and anxious to recite. This made the matter
+comparatively simple, but still required considerable finesse. Patty
+dropped her pen, spilled the pages from her note-book, tied her
+shoe-string, and even sneezed opportunely in order not to catch his eye
+at inconvenient moments. The rest of the class, who were not artists,
+contented themselves with merely lowering their eyes as he looked along
+the line--a method which in Patty's scornful estimation said as plainly
+as words, "Please don't call on me; I don't know."
+
+But with Professor Cairnsley, who taught philosophy, it was more
+difficult to form a working hypothesis. He had grown old in the service
+of the college, and after thirty years' experience of girl-nature he was
+still as unsuspiciously trustful as he had been in the beginning. Taking
+it for granted that his pupils were as interested in the contemplation
+of philosophic truths as he himself, the professor conducted his
+recitations without a suspicion of guile, and based his procedure
+entirely upon the inspiration of the moment. The key to his method had
+always remained a mystery, and several generations of classes had
+searched for it in vain. Some averred that he called on every seventh
+girl; others, that he drew lots. Patty triumphantly announced early in
+the course that she had discovered the secret at last--that on Monday he
+called on the red-haired girls; on Tuesday, those with yellow hair; on
+Wednesday and Thursday, those with brown; and on Friday, those with
+black. But this solution, like the others, was found to break down in
+actual practice; and Patty, for one, discovered that it required all her
+ingenuity, and even a good deal of studying, to maintain her reputation
+for brilliancy in Professor Cairnsley's classes. And she cared about
+maintaining it, for she liked the professor and was one of his favorite
+pupils. She had known his wife before she entered college, and she often
+called upon them in their home, and, in short, exemplified the ideal
+relations between faculty and students.
+
+Owing to the pressure of many interests, Patty's researches into
+philosophy were not as deep as the intentions of the course, but she had
+a very good working knowledge, which, in its details, would have
+astonished Professor Cairnsley could he have got behind the scenes.
+Though her knowledge was not based strictly on the text-book, her
+reputation in the class was good, and, as Patty admitted with a sigh,
+"It's a great strain on the imagination to keep up a reputation in
+philosophy."
+
+It had been established, indeed, as far back as her sophomore year, when
+the psychology class was awed into silence by its first introduction to
+the abstractions of science, and Patty alone had dared to lift her
+voice. The professor, one morning, had been placidly lecturing along on
+the subject of sensation, and in the course of the lecture had remarked:
+"It is probable that the individual experiences all the primary
+sensations during the first few months of infancy, and that in after
+life there is no such thing as a new sensation."
+
+"Professor Cairnsley," Patty piped up, "did you ever shoot the chutes?"
+
+The ice was broken at last, and the class felt at home, even in the
+somewhat deep waters of philosophy; and Patty, however undeservedly, had
+gained the credit of having a deeper insight than most into matters
+psychical.
+
+And so into her senior year, when she entered upon the study of ethics,
+she carried along an unearned and fragile reputation, built upon
+subterfuges and likely to crumble at the slightest touch. She had
+maintained it very creditably up to the Christmas vacation, and had
+argued upon the ultimate ground of moral obligation and the origin of
+conscience quite as intelligently as though she had previously read what
+the text-book had to say on the subject. But when they had commenced the
+study of specific theologies, based upon definite historical facts,
+Patty found her imagination of little use, and on several occasions it
+had been purely good luck that had saved her from exposure. Once the
+bell had rung at an opportune moment, and twice she had been able to
+avert a direct answer by leading the discussion into side issues. She
+realized, however, that fortune would not always favor her, and as the
+professor usually forgot to call the roll, she formed the nefarious
+practice of cutting class when she did not have her lesson.
+
+For a week or so in particular, her pressure of work in other directions
+(not all of them scholastic) had prevented her from devoting her usual
+amount of energy to the task of maintaining her philosophy reputation,
+and she had, without conscience, cut ethics several days in succession,
+and had failed to comment upon the fact to the professor.
+
+"What did he lecture about in ethics--those recitations I missed?" she
+inquired of Priscilla, one afternoon.
+
+"Swedenborg."
+
+"Swedenborg," repeated Patty, dreamily. "He got up a new religion,
+didn't he? Or was it a new system of gymnastics? I've heard about him,
+but I don't seem to remember any details."
+
+"You'd better make him up; he's important."
+
+"I dare say; but I've lived twenty-one years without knowing about him,
+and I can wait a month longer. I'm saving up Confucius and the Jesuits
+for examination-time, and I'll add Swedenborg to the list."
+
+"You'd better not. Professor Cairnsley's fond of him, and is likely to
+pop a special examination at any moment."
+
+"Not Professor Cairnsley," laughed Patty. "He doesn't want to waste the
+time. He's going to lecture straight on for two weeks--nice man; I see
+it in his eye. What I admire in a professor is a good, steady, plodding
+disposition that doesn't go in for sensational surprises."
+
+"You'll find yourself mistaken some day," warned Priscilla.
+
+"No danger, my dear Cassandra. I know Professor Cairnsley, and Professor
+Cairnsley thinks he knows me; and we just get along together
+beautifully. I wish there were more like him," Patty added with a sigh.
+
+Professor Cairnsley began a lecture the next morning which was evidently
+calculated to extend through the hour, and Patty cast a triumphant
+glance at Priscilla as she unscrewed the top of her fountain-pen and
+settled down to work. In the course of the lecture, however, he had
+occasion to refer to Swedenborg, and, pausing a moment, he casually
+asked a girl on the front seat for a résumé of Swedenborg's philosophy.
+She, unfortunately confusing him with Schopenhauer, glibly attributed to
+him doctrines which would have outraged his soul could he have heard
+them. It is written that the worm will turn, and the professor's bland
+smile deserted him as he passed the question to a second girl without
+much better result. The class in general had evidently been laboring
+under Patty's delusion that the time had not come in which to learn back
+notes. Amazed and indignant, he pursued the matter with a persistency
+and a rancor he seldom showed. He began going straight through the
+class, growing more and more sarcastic with each recitation.
+
+As she saw him finish with the row in front and begin on her row, Patty
+knew that she was doomed. She racked her brain for some memory of
+Swedenborg. He was a name to her and nothing more. He might have been an
+ancient Greek or a modern American, for all she knew. As Professor
+Cairnsley came along the line he was gradually eliciting from the
+terrified class the superficial points which were more or less common to
+all philosophers. Patty perceived that her imagination could not help
+her out, that for once the placid professor was on the war-path, and
+that Swedenborg, and nothing but Swedenborg, would serve. She cast an
+agonized glance up at Priscilla, and Priscilla grinned back with "I told
+you so" written on every feature.
+
+Patty looked about desperately. The lecture-room was shaped like an
+amphitheater, with part of the seats on a level with the main floor,
+and the rest rising in tiers. Patty sat on the main floor, well toward
+the rear. She could barely see the professor's head, but he was coming
+irrevocably. She did not have to see very clearly to know that. The girl
+before her answered wildly; the professor frowned, and, looking down at
+his roll-book, slowly and deliberately made a zero.
+
+When he raised his eyes again Patty's seat was empty. She was kneeling
+on the floor, with her head bowed behind the girl in front. The
+unconscious professor passed over her bent head and called on the girl
+on the other side, who coughed hysterically once or twice, and flunked
+flat; and while he was crediting the fact in his roll-book Patty resumed
+her seat. A ripple of laughter ran around the room; the professor
+frowned, and remarked that he saw no occasion for amusement. The bell
+rang, and the class somewhat sheepishly filed out.
+
+That afternoon Patty burst into the study where Priscilla and Georgie
+Merriles were making tea. "Did you ever think I had much of a
+conscience?" she demanded.
+
+"Never thought it was your strong point," said Georgie.
+
+"Well, I've got a perfectly tremendous one! What do you think I've been
+doing?"
+
+"Making up your ethics lectures," suggested Priscilla.
+
+"Worse than that."
+
+"You _haven't_ been to gym, Patty!" said Georgie.
+
+"Goodness, no! I'm not so far gone as that. Well, I'll tell you. I met
+Professor Cairnsley by the gate and walked in with him, and, if you
+please, he complimented me on my work in ethics!"
+
+"That ought to have been embarrassing," said Georgie.
+
+"It was," acknowledged Patty. "I told him I didn't really know as much
+as he thought I did."
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"He said I was too modest. He's such a trustful old man, you know, that
+you sort of hate to deceive him. And what do you think? I told him about
+the seat!"
+
+Priscilla smiled approvingly upon her usually recreant room-mate. "Well,
+Patty, you certainly are better than I gave you credit for!"
+
+"Thank you," murmured Patty.
+
+"I begin to believe you _have_ got a conscience," said Georgie.
+
+"An excellent one," said Patty, complacently.
+
+"It pays in the end," said Priscilla.
+
+"It does," agreed Patty. "Professor Cairnsley said he would explain
+Swedenborg to me himself, and he invited me over to dinner to-night!"
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+The Elusive Kate Ferris
+
+
+The mysterious Kate Ferris, who kept Priscilla on the verge of nervous
+prostration for a whole semester, entered upon her college career in an
+entirely unpremeditated and impromptu manner. It began one day away back
+in November. Georgie Merriles and Patty had just strolled home from the
+athletic field, where they had been witnessing the start of a
+paper-chase cross country, in which Priscilla was impersonating a fox.
+As they entered the study, Georgie stopped to examine some loose sheets
+of paper which were impaled upon the door.
+
+"What's this, Patty?"
+
+"Oh, that's the registration-list for the German Club. Priscilla's
+secretary, you know, and every one who wants to join comes here. The
+study has been so full of freshmen all the time that I told her to hang
+it on the door and let them join outside; it works beautifully." Patty
+turned the leaves and ran her eyes down the list of sprawling
+signatures. "It's a popular organization, isn't it? The freshmen are
+simply scrambling to get in."
+
+"They're trying to show Fräulein Scherin how much interest they take in
+the subject," Georgie laughed.
+
+Patty picked up the pencil. "Would you like to join? I know Priscilla
+would be gratified."
+
+"No, thank you; I pay club dues enough already."
+
+"I'm afraid I'm not exactly eligible myself, as I don't know any German.
+It's such a beautifully sharp pencil, though, that I hate not to write
+with it." Patty poised the pencil a moment, and abstractedly traced the
+name "Kate Ferris."
+
+Georgie laughed. "If there should happen to be a Kate Ferris in college,
+she would be surprised to find herself a member of the German Club,"
+and the incident was forgotten.
+
+A few days later the two came in from class, to find Priscilla and the
+president of the German Club sitting on the divan with their heads
+together, frantically turning the leaves of the catalogue.
+
+"She isn't a sophomore," the president announced. "She _must_ be a
+freshman, Priscilla. Look again."
+
+"I've gone over this list three times, and there isn't a single Ferris
+down."
+
+Georgie and Patty exchanged glances and inquired the trouble.
+
+"A girl named Kate Ferris has registered for the German Club, and we've
+gone through all the classes, and there simply isn't any such girl in
+college."
+
+"Possibly a special," Patty suggested.
+
+"Of course! Why didn't we think of that?" And Priscilla turned to the
+list of special students. "No; she isn't here."
+
+"Let me look"; and Patty ran her eyes down the column. "You've mistaken
+the name," she remarked, handing the book back with a shrug.
+
+Priscilla produced the registration-list, and triumphantly exhibited an
+unmistakable Kate Ferris.
+
+"They forgot to put her in the catalogue."
+
+"I never knew them to make such a mistake before," said the president,
+dubiously. "I don't believe we'd better put her in the roll-book till we
+find out who she is."
+
+"Then you'll hurt her feelings," said Georgie. "Freshmen are terribly
+sensitive about being slighted."
+
+"Oh, very well; it doesn't matter." And Kate Ferris was accordingly
+enrolled in the club records.
+
+Several weeks later Priscilla was engaged in laboriously turning the
+minutes of the last meeting into grammatical German, and as she closed
+the dictionary and grammar with a sigh of relief, she remarked to Patty:
+"Do you know, it's very queer about that Kate Ferris. She hasn't paid
+her dues, and, as far as I can make out, she hasn't attended a single
+meeting. Wouldn't you take her name off the roll? I don't believe she's
+in college any more."
+
+"You might as well," said Patty, and she listlessly watched Priscilla as
+she scratched out the name with a penknife. Patty never made the mistake
+of over-acting.
+
+The next morning, as Priscilla came in from a class, she found a note on
+her door-block, written in the perpendicular characters of Kate Ferris.
+It ran:
+
+          DEAR MISS POND: I came to pay my German Club dues,
+          and as you are not in, I have left the money on
+          the bookcase. Am sorry to have missed so many
+          meetings, but have not been able to attend classes
+          lately.                   KATE FERRIS.
+
+Priscilla exhibited the note to the president as a tangible proof that
+Kate Ferris still existed, and reinscribed the name in the roll-book.
+
+A few weeks later she found a second note on her door-block:
+
+          DEAR MISS POND: As I am very busy with my class
+          work, I find that I have not time to attend the
+          German Club meetings, and so have decided to
+          resign. I left my letter of resignation on the
+          bookcase.
+
+                                            KATE FERRIS.
+
+As Priscilla scratched the name out of the roll-book again she remarked
+to Patty: "I am glad this Kate Ferris has left the club at last. She has
+caused me more trouble than all the rest of the members put together."
+
+The next morning a third note appeared on the block:
+
+          DEAR MISS POND: I happened to mention the fact of
+          my having resigned from the German Club to
+          Fräulein Scherin last night, and she said that the
+          club would help me in my work, and advised me to
+          stay in it. So I shall be much obliged if you will
+          not present my letter at the meeting after all, as
+          I have decided to follow her advice.
+
+                                              KATE FERRIS.
+
+Priscilla tossed the note to Patty with a groan, and getting out the
+roll-book, she turned to the F's and reënrolled Kate Ferris.
+
+Patty sympathetically watched the process over her shoulder. "The book
+is getting so thin in that spot," she laughed, "that Kate Ferris is
+actually coming through on the other side. If she changes her mind many
+more times there won't be anything left."
+
+"I'm going to ask Fräulein Scherin about her," Priscilla declared.
+"She's made me so much trouble that I'm curious to see what she looks
+like."
+
+She did ask Fräulein Scherin, but Fräulein denied all knowledge of the
+girl. "I have so many freshmen," she apologized, "I cannot all of them
+with their queer names remember."
+
+Priscilla inquired about Kate Ferris from the freshmen she knew, but
+though all of them thought that the name sounded familiar, none of them
+could exactly place her. She was variously described as tall and dark
+and small and light, but further inquiry always proved that the girl
+they had in mind was some one else.
+
+Priscilla kept hearing about the girl on all sides, but could never
+catch a glimpse of her. Miss Ferris called several times on business,
+but Priscilla always happened to be out. Her name was posted on the
+bulletin-board for having library books that were overdue. She even
+wrote a paper for one of the German Club meetings (Georgie was not a
+facile German scholar, and it had required a whole Saturday); but owing
+to the fact that she was suddenly called out of town, she did not read
+it in person.
+
+A month or two after Kate Ferris's advent, Priscilla had friends
+visiting her from New York, for whom she gave a tea in the study.
+
+"I am going to invite Kate Ferris," she announced. "I _insist_ upon
+finding out what she looks like."
+
+"Do," said Patty. "I should like to find out myself."
+
+The invitation was despatched, and on the next day Priscilla received a
+formal acceptance.
+
+"It's strange that she should send an acceptance for a tea," she
+remarked as she read it, "but I'm glad to get it, anyway. I like to
+feel sure that I'm to see her at last."
+
+On the evening of the tea, after the guests had gone and the furniture
+had been moved back, the weary hostesses, in somewhat rumpled evening
+dresses (a considerable crush results when fifty are entertained in a
+room whose utmost capacity is fifteen), were reëntertaining one or two
+friends on the lettuce sandwiches and cakes the obliging guests had
+failed to consume. The company and the clothes having passed in review,
+the conversation flagged a little, and Georgie suddenly asked: "Was Kate
+Ferris here? I was so busy passing cakes that I didn't look, and I
+wanted to see her especially!"
+
+"That's so!" Patty exclaimed. "I didn't see her, either. She's the most
+abnormally inconspicuous person I ever heard of. What did she look like,
+Pris?"
+
+Priscilla knit her brows. "She couldn't have come. I kept watching for
+her all the evening. It's strange, isn't it?--when she was so careful
+to send an acceptance. I'm growing positively morbid over the girl; I
+begin to think she's invisible."
+
+"I begin to think so myself," said Patty.
+
+The next morning's mail brought a bunch of violets and an apology from
+Kate Ferris. "She had been unavoidably detained."
+
+"It's positively uncanny!" Priscilla declared. "I shall go to the
+registrar and tell her that this Kate Ferris is neither down in the
+catalogue nor the college directory, and find out where she lives."
+
+"Don't do anything reckless," Georgie pleaded. "Take what the gods send
+and be grateful."
+
+But Priscilla was as good as her word, and she returned from the
+registrar's office flushed and defiant. "She insists that there isn't
+any such person in college, and that I must have made a mistake in the
+name! Did you ever hear anything so absurd?"
+
+"That seems to me the only reasonable explanation," Patty agreed
+amicably. "Perhaps it is Harris instead of Ferris."
+
+Priscilla faced her ominously. "You read the name yourself. It was as
+plain as printing."
+
+"We're all liable to make mistakes," Patty murmured soothingly.
+
+"Do you know," said Georgie, "I begin to think it's all a hallucination,
+and that there really isn't any Kate Ferris. It's strange, of course,
+but not any stranger than some of those cases you read about in
+psychology."
+
+"Hallucinations don't send flowers," said Priscilla, hotly; and she
+stalked out of the room, leaving Patty and Georgie to review the
+campaign.
+
+"I'm afraid it's gone far enough," said Georgie. "If she bothers the
+office very much there'll be an official investigation."
+
+"I'm afraid so," sighed Patty. "It's been very entertaining, but she is
+really getting sensitive on the subject, and I don't dare mention Kate
+Ferris's name when we're alone."
+
+"Shall we tell her?"
+
+Patty shook her head. "Not just now--I shouldn't dare. She believes in
+corporal punishment."
+
+A few days later Priscilla received another note directed in the hand
+she had come to dread. She threw it into the waste-basket unopened; but,
+curiosity prevailing, she drew it out again and read it:
+
+          DEAR MISS POND: As I have been obliged to leave
+          college on account of my health, I inclose my
+          resignation to the German Club. I thank you very
+          sincerely for your kindness to me this year, and
+          shall always look back upon our friendship as one
+          of the happiest memories of my college life.
+
+                                 Yours sincerely,
+                                               KATE FERRIS.
+
+When Patty came in she found Priscilla silently and grimly scratching a
+hole into the roll-book where Kate Ferris's name had been.
+
+"Changed her mind again?" Patty asked pleasantly.
+
+"She's left college," Priscilla snapped, "and don't you ever mention her
+name to me again."
+
+Patty sighed sympathetically and remarked to the room in general: "It's
+sort of pathetic to have your whole college life summed up in a hole in
+the German Club archives. I can't help feeling sorry for her!"
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A Story with Four Sequels
+
+
+It was Saturday, and Patty had been working ever since breakfast, with a
+brief pause for luncheon, on a paper entitled "Shakspere, the Man." At
+four o'clock she laid down her pen, pushed her manuscript into the
+waste-basket, and faced her room-mate defiantly.
+
+"What do I care about Shakspere, the man? He's been dead three hundred
+years."
+
+Priscilla laughed unfeelingly. "What do I care about a frog's nervous
+system, for the matter of that? But I am writing an interesting
+monograph on it, just the same."
+
+"Ah, I dare say you are making a valuable addition to the subject."
+
+"It's quite as valuable as your addition to Shaksperiana."
+
+Patty dropped a voluble sigh and turned to the window to note that it
+was raining dismally.
+
+"Oh, hand it in," said Priscilla, comfortingly. "You've worked on it all
+day, and it's probably no worse than the most of your things."
+
+"No sense to it," said Patty.
+
+"They're used to that," laughed Priscilla.
+
+"What are you laughing at, anyway?" Patty asked crossly. "I don't see
+anything to laugh at in this beastly place. Always having to do what you
+don't want to do when you most don't want to do it. Just the same, day
+after day: get up by bells, eat by bells, sleep by bells. I feel like
+some sort of a delinquent living in an asylum."
+
+Priscilla treated this outburst with the silence it deserved, and Patty
+turned back to her perusal of the rain-soaked campus.
+
+"I wish something would happen," she said discontentedly. "I think I'll
+put on a mackintosh and go out in search of adventure."
+
+"Pneumonia will happen if you do."
+
+"What business has it to be raining, anyway, when it ought to be
+snowing?"
+
+As this was unanswerable, Priscilla returned to her frogs, and Patty
+drummed gloomily on the window-pane until a maid appeared with a card.
+
+"A caller?" cried Patty. "A missionary! A rescuer! A deliverer! Heaven
+send it's for me!"
+
+"Miss Pond," said Sadie, laying the card on the table.
+
+Patty pounced upon it. "'Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope.' Who's he, Pris?"
+
+Priscilla wrinkled up her brows. "I don't know; I never heard of him.
+What do you suppose it can be?"
+
+"An adventure--I know it's an adventure. Probably your uncle, that you
+never heard of, has just died in the South Sea Islands, and left you a
+fortune because you're his namesake; or else you're a countess by
+rights, and were stolen from your cradle in infancy, and he's the lawyer
+come to tell you about it. I think it might have happened to me, when
+I'm so bored to death! But hurry up and tell me about it, at least; a
+second-hand adventure's better than no adventure at all. Yes, your hair
+is all right; never mind looking in the glass." And Patty pushed her
+room-mate out of the door, and, sitting down at her desk again, quite
+cheerfully pulled her discarded paper out of the waste-basket and began
+re-reading it with evident approval.
+
+Priscilla returned before she had finished. "He didn't ask for me at
+all," she announced. "He asked for Miss McKay."
+
+"Miss McKay?"
+
+"That junior with the hair," she explained a trifle vaguely.
+
+"How disgusting!" cried Patty. "I had it all planned how I was going to
+live with you in your castle up in the Hartz Mountains, and now it turns
+out that Miss McKay is the countess, and I don't even know her. What did
+the man look like, and what did he do?"
+
+"Well, he looked rather frightened, and didn't do anything but stammer.
+There were two men in the reception-room, and of course I picked out the
+wrong one and begged his pardon and asked if he were Mr. Stanthrope. He
+said no; his name was Wiggins. So then the only thing left for me to do
+was to beg the other one's pardon.
+
+"He was sitting in that high-backed green chair, with his eyes glued to
+his shoes, and holding his hat and cane in front of him like
+breastworks, as if he were preparing to repel an attack. He didn't look
+very approachable, but I boldly accosted him and asked if he were Mr.
+Stanthrope. He stood up and stammered and blushed and looked as if he
+wanted to deny it, but finally acknowledged that he was, and then stood
+politely waiting for me to state my business! I explained, and he
+stammered some more, and finally got out that he had called to see Miss
+McKay, and that the maid must have made a mistake. He was quite cross
+about it, you know, and acted as if I had insulted him; and the other
+man--the horrible Wiggins one--laughed, and then looked out of the
+window and pretended he hadn't. I apologized,--though I couldn't for the
+life of me see what there was to apologize for,--and told him I would
+send the maid for Miss McKay, and backed out."
+
+"Is that all?" Patty asked disappointedly. "If I couldn't have a better
+adventure than that, I shouldn't have any."
+
+"But the funny thing is that when I told Sadie, she _insisted_ that he
+had asked for me."
+
+"Ha! The plot thickens, after all. What does it mean? Did he look like a
+detective, or merely a pickpocket?"
+
+"He looked like a very ordinarily embarrassed young man."
+
+Patty shook her head dejectedly. "There's a mystery somewhere, but I
+don't see that it affords much entertainment. I dare say that when Miss
+McKay came he told her he hadn't asked for her at all; he had asked for
+Miss Higginbotham. The only explanation I can think of is that he is
+insane, and there are so many insane people in the world that it isn't
+even interesting."
+
+Patty recounted the story of Priscilla's caller at the dinner-table that
+night.
+
+"I know the sequel," said Lucille Carter. "The other man, the Mr.
+Wiggins, is Bonnie Connaught's cousin; and he told her about some young
+man who came out in the car with him, and asked for Miss Pond at the
+door, and then all of a sudden seemed to change his mind, and went
+tearing down the corridor after the maid, yelling, 'Hi, there! Hi,
+there!' at the top of his voice; but he couldn't catch her, and when
+Miss Pond came he pretended he had asked for some one else."
+
+"Is that all?" asked Patty. "I don't think it is much of a sequel. It
+just proves that there's a plot against Priscilla's life, and I already
+knew that. I intend to ask Miss McKay about him. I don't know her,
+except by sight, but in a case of life and death like this, I don't
+think it's necessary to wait for an introduction."
+
+The next evening Patty announced: "Sequel number two! Mr. Frederick K.
+Stanthrope lives in New York, and is Miss McKay's brother's best friend.
+She has only met him once before, and doesn't know any of his past
+affiliations. But the queer thing is that he never mentioned to her
+anything about Priscilla. Shouldn't you naturally think he would have
+told her about such a funny mistake?
+
+"In my opinion," Patty continued solemnly, "it was plainly premeditated.
+He is undoubtedly a villain in disguise, and he used his acquaintance
+with Miss McKay as a cloak to elude detection. My theory is this: He got
+Priscilla's name out of the catalogue, and came here intending to murder
+her for her _jools_; but when he saw how big she was he was scared and
+so abandoned his dastardly intent. Now if he had chosen me, my body
+would, at this moment, have been concealed behind the sofa, and my
+class-pin reposing in the murderer's pocket."
+
+Patty shuddered. "Think what I escaped. And all the time I was grumbling
+because nothing ever happens here!"
+
+A few days later she appeared at the table with a further announcement:
+"I have the pleasure of offering for your perusal, young ladies, the
+third and last sequel in the great Stanthrope-Pond-McKay mystery. And I
+hereby take the opportunity of apologizing to Mr. Stanthrope for my
+unworthy suspicions. He is not a burglar, nor a detective, nor a
+murderer, nor even a lawyer, but just a poor young man with a buried
+romance."
+
+"How did you find out?"--in a chorus of voices.
+
+"I just met Miss McKay in the hall, and she has been in New York, where
+her brother told her the particulars. It seems that three or four years
+ago Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope was engaged to a girl here in college
+named Alice Pond--she is now Mrs. Hiram Brown, but that has nothing to
+do with the story.
+
+"Being in town last Saturday on business, he decided to run out and call
+on Miss McKay, as he was such a friend of her brother's--and also for
+the sake of old times. He amused himself all the way out in the car by
+resurrecting his buried romance, and he kept getting more and more
+pensive with every mile. When he finally reached the door and handed his
+card to the maid, he abstractedly called for Miss Pond just as he used
+to do four years ago. He didn't realize at first what he had done. Then
+it came over him in a flash, but he couldn't catch Sadie. He knew, of
+course, that the other man had heard, and he sat there scared to death,
+trying to think of some plausible excuse, and momentarily expecting a
+strange Miss Pond to pop in and demand an explanation.
+
+"Sure enough, the curtains parted, and a tall, beautiful, stately
+creature (I quote Miss McKay's brother) swept into the room, and,
+approaching the wrong man, asked him in haughty tones if he were Mr.
+Frederick K. Stanthrope. He very properly denied it, whereupon there was
+nothing for the right Mr. Stanthrope to do but stand up and acknowledge
+it like a man, which he did; but there he stuck. His imagination was
+numbed, paralyzed; so he turned it off on poor Sadie, and all the time
+he knew that the other man knew that he was lying. And that is all,"
+Patty finished. "It's not much of a story, but such as it is, it's a
+blessing to have it concluded."
+
+"Patty," called Priscilla, from the other end of the table, "have you
+been telling them that absurd story?"
+
+"Why not?" asked Patty. "Having heard so many sequels, they naturally
+wanted to hear the last."
+
+Priscilla laughed. "But yours doesn't happen to be the last. I know a
+still later one."
+
+"Later than Patty's?" the table demanded.
+
+"Yes, later than Patty's. It isn't really a sequel; it's just an
+appendix. I shouldn't tell you, only you'll find it out, so I might as
+well. Miss McKay has invited two men for the junior party, and both have
+accepted. As two men are hard to manage, she has (by request) asked me
+to take care of one of them--namely, Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope."
+
+Patty sighed. "I see a whole series of sequels stretching away into the
+future. It's worse than the Elsie Books!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+In Pursuit of Old English
+
+
+"Hello, Patty! Have you read the bulletin-board this morning?" called
+Cathy Fair, as she caught up with Patty on the way home from a
+third-hour recitation.
+
+"No," said Patty; "I think it's a bad habit. You see too many unpleasant
+things there."
+
+"Well, there's certainly an unpleasant one to-day. Miss Skelling wishes
+the Old English class to be provided with writing materials this
+afternoon."
+
+Patty stopped with a groan. "I think it's absolutely abominable to give
+an examination without a word of warning."
+
+"Not an examination," quoted Cathy; "just a 'little test to see how
+much you know.'"
+
+"I don't know a thing," wailed Patty--"not a blessed thing."
+
+"Nonsense, Patty; you know more than any one else in the class."
+
+"Bluff--it's all pure bluff. I come in strong on the literary criticism
+and the general discussions, and she never realizes that I don't know a
+word of the grammar."
+
+"You've got two hours. You can cut your classes and review it up."
+
+"Two hours!" said Patty, sadly. "I need two days. I've never learned it,
+I tell you. The Anglo-Saxon grammar is a thing no mortal can carry in
+his head, and I thought I might as well wait and learn it before
+examinations."
+
+"I don't wish to appear unfeeling," laughed Cathy, "but I should say, my
+dear, that it serves you right."
+
+"Oh, I dare say," said Patty. "You are as bad as Priscilla"; and she
+trailed gloomily homeward.
+
+She found her friends reviewing biology and eating olives. "Have one?"
+asked Lucille Carter, who, provided with a hat-pin by way of fork, was
+presiding over the bottle for the moment.
+
+"No, thanks," returned Patty, in the tone of one who has exhausted life
+and longs for death.
+
+"What's the matter?" inquired Priscilla. "You don't mean to say that
+woman has given you another special topic?"
+
+"Worse than that!" and Patty laid bare the tragedy.
+
+A sympathetic silence followed; they realized that while she was,
+perhaps, not strictly deserving of sympathy, still her impending fate
+was of the kind that might overtake any one.
+
+"You know, Pris," said Patty, miserably, "that I simply _can't_ pass."
+
+"No," said Priscilla, soothingly; "I don't believe you can."
+
+"I shall flunk _flat_--absolutely _flat_. Miss Skelling will never have
+any confidence in me again, and will make me recite every bit of
+grammar for the rest of the semester."
+
+"I should think you'd cut," ventured Georgie--that being, in her
+opinion, the most obvious method of escaping an examination.
+
+"I can't. I just met Miss Skelling in the hall five minutes before the
+blow fell, and she knows I'm alive and able to be about; besides, the
+class meets again to-morrow morning, and I'd have to cram all night or
+cut that too."
+
+"Why don't you go to Miss Skelling and frankly explain the situation,"
+suggested Lucille the virtuous, "and ask her to let you off for a day or
+two? She would like you all the better for it."
+
+"Will you listen to the guileless babe!" said Patty. "What is there to
+explain, may I ask? I can't very well tell her that I prefer not to
+learn the lessons as she gives them out, but think it easier to wait and
+cram them up at one fell swoop, just before examinations. That _would_
+ingratiate myself in her favor!"
+
+"It's your own fault," said Priscilla.
+
+Patty groaned. "I was just waiting to hear you say that! You always do."
+
+"It's always true. Where are you going?" as Patty started for the door.
+
+"I am going," said Patty, "to ask Mrs. Richards to give me a new
+room-mate: one who will understand and appreciate me, and sympathize
+with my afflictions."
+
+Patty walked gloomily down the corridor, lost in meditation. Her way led
+past the door of the doctor's office, which was standing invitingly
+open. Three or four girls were sitting around the room, laughing and
+talking and waiting their turns. Patty glanced in, and a radiant smile
+suddenly lightened her face, but it was instantly replaced by a look of
+settled sadness. She walked in and dropped into an arm-chair with a
+sigh.
+
+"What's the matter, Patty? You look as if you had melancholia."
+
+Patty smiled apathetically. "Not quite so bad as that," she murmured,
+and leaned back and closed her eyes.
+
+[Illustration: What's the matter, Patty?]
+
+"Next," said the doctor from the doorway; but as she caught sight of
+Patty she walked over and shook her arm. "Is this Patty Wyatt? What is
+the matter with you, child?"
+
+Patty opened her eyes with a start. "Nothing," she said; "I'm just a
+little tired."
+
+"Come in here with me."
+
+"It's not my turn," objected Patty.
+
+"That makes no difference," returned the doctor.
+
+Patty dropped limply into the consulting-chair.
+
+"Let me see your tongue. Um-m--isn't coated very much. Your pulse seems
+regular, though possibly a trifle feverish. Have you been working hard?"
+
+"I don't think I've been working any harder than usual," said Patty,
+truthfully.
+
+"Sitting up late nights?"
+
+Patty considered. "I was up rather late twice last week," she confessed.
+
+"If you girls persist in studying until all hours of the night, I
+don't know what we doctors can do."
+
+Patty did not think it necessary to explain that it was a Welsh-rabbit
+party on each occasion, so she merely sighed and looked out of the
+window.
+
+"Is your appetite good?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, in a tone which belied the words; "it seems to be
+very good."
+
+"Um-m," said the doctor.
+
+"I'm just a little tired," pursued Patty, "but I think I shall be all
+right as soon as I get a chance to rest. Perhaps I need a tonic," she
+suggested.
+
+"You'd better stay out of classes for a day or two and get thoroughly
+rested."
+
+"Oh, no," said Patty, in evident perturbation. "Our room is so full of
+girls all the time that it's really more restful to go to classes; and,
+besides, I can't stay out just now."
+
+"Why not?" demanded the doctor, suspiciously.
+
+"Well," said Patty, a trifle reluctantly, "I have a good deal to do.
+I've got to cram for an examination, and--"
+
+The word "cram" was to the doctor as a red rag to a bull. "Nonsense!"
+she ejaculated. "I know what I shall do with you. You are going right
+over to the infirmary for a few days--"
+
+"Oh, doctor!" Patty pleaded, with tears in her eyes, "there's _truly_
+nothing the matter with me, and I've _got_ to take that examination."
+
+"What examination is it?"
+
+"Old English--Miss Skelling."
+
+"I will see Miss Skelling myself," said the doctor, "and explain that
+you cannot take the examination until you come out. And now," she added,
+making a note of Patty's case, "I will have you put in the convalescent
+ward, and we will try the rest cure for a few days, and feed you up on
+chicken-broth and egg-nog, and see if we can get that appetite back."
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, with the resigned air of one who has given up
+struggling against the inevitable.
+
+"I like to see you take an interest in your work," added the doctor,
+kindly; "but you must always remember, my dear, that health is the first
+consideration."
+
+Patty returned to the study and executed an impromptu dance in the
+middle of the floor.
+
+"What's the matter?" exclaimed Priscilla. "Are you crazy?"
+
+"No," said Patty; "only ill." And she went into her bedroom and began
+slinging things into a dress-suit case.
+
+Priscilla stood in the doorway and watched her in amazement. "Are you
+going to New York?" she asked.
+
+"No," said Patty; "to the infirmary."
+
+"Patty Wyatt, you're a wretched little hypocrite!"
+
+"Not at all," said Patty, cheerfully. "I didn't ask to go, but the
+doctor simply insisted. I told her I had an examination, but she said it
+didn't make any difference; health must be the first consideration."
+
+"What's in that bottle?" demanded Priscilla.
+
+"That's for my appetite," said Patty, with a grin; "the doctor hopes to
+improve it. I didn't like to discourage her, but I don't much believe
+she can." She dropped an Old English grammar and a copy of "Beowulf"
+into her suit-case.
+
+"They won't let you study," said Priscilla.
+
+"I shall not ask them," said Patty. "Good-by. Tell the girls to drop in
+occasionally and see me in my incarceration. Visiting hour from five to
+six." She stuck her head in again. "If any one wants to send violets, I
+think they might cheer me up."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE next afternoon Georgie and Priscilla presented themselves at the
+infirmary, and were met at the door by the austere figure of the head
+nurse. "I will see if Miss Wyatt is awake," she said dubiously, "but I
+am afraid you will excite her; she's to be kept very quiet."
+
+"Oh, no; we'll do her good," remonstrated Georgie; and the two girls
+tiptoed in after the nurse.
+
+The convalescent ward was a large, airy room, furnished in green and
+white, with four or five beds, each surrounded with brass poles and
+curtains. Patty was lying in one of the corner beds near a window,
+propped up on pillows, with her hair tumbled about her face, and a table
+beside her covered with flowers and glasses of medicine. This elaborate
+paraphernalia of sickness created a momentary illusion in the minds of
+the visitors. Priscilla ran to the bedside and dropped on her knees
+beside her invalid room-mate.
+
+"Patty dear," she said anxiously, "how do you feel?"
+
+A seraphic smile spread over Patty's face. "I've been able to take a
+little nourishment to-day," she said.
+
+"Patty, you're a scandalous humbug! Who gave you those violets? 'With
+love, from Lady Clara Vere de Vere'--that blessed freshman!--and you've
+borrowed every drop of alcohol the poor child ever thought of owning.
+And whom are those roses from? Miss Skelling! Patty, you ought to be
+ashamed."
+
+Patty had the grace to blush slightly. "I was a trifle embarrassed," she
+admitted; "but when I reflected upon how sorry she would have been to
+find out how little I knew, and how glad she will be to find out how
+much I know, my conscience was appeased."
+
+"Have you been studying?" asked Georgie.
+
+"Studying!" Patty lifted up the corner of her pillow and exhibited a
+blue book. "Two days more of this, and I shall be the chief authority in
+America on Anglo-Saxon roots."
+
+"How do you manage it?"
+
+"Oh," said Patty, "when the rest-hour begins I lie down and shut my
+eyes, and they tiptoe over and look at me, and whisper, 'She's asleep,'
+and softly draw the curtains around the bed; and I get out the book and
+put in two solid hours of irregular verbs, and am still sleeping when
+they come to look at me. They're perfectly astonished at the amount I
+sleep. I heard the nurse telling the doctor that she didn't believe I'd
+had any sleep for a month. And the worst of it is," she added, "that I
+_am_ tired, whether you believe it or not, and I should just love to
+stay over here and sleep all day if I weren't so beastly conscientious
+about that old grammar."
+
+"Poor Patty!" laughed Georgie. "She will be imposing on herself next, as
+well as on the whole college."
+
+Friday morning Patty returned to the world.
+
+"How's Old English?" inquired Priscilla.
+
+"Very well, thank you. It was something of a cram, but I think I know
+that grammar by heart, from the preface to the index."
+
+"You're back in all your other work. Do you think it paid?"
+
+"That remains to be seen," laughed Patty.
+
+She knocked on Miss Skelling's door, and, after the first polite
+greetings, stated her errand: "I should like, if it is convenient for
+you, to take the examination I missed."
+
+"Do you feel able to take it to-day?"
+
+"I feel much better able to take it to-day than I did on Tuesday."
+
+Miss Skelling smiled kindly. "You have done very good work in Old
+English this semester, Miss Wyatt, and I should not ask you to take the
+examination at all if I thought it would be fair to the rest of the
+class."
+
+"Fair to the rest of the class?" Patty looked a trifle blank; she had
+not considered this aspect of the question, and a slow red flush crept
+over her face. She hesitated a moment, and rose uncertainly. "When it
+comes to that, Miss Skelling," she confessed, "I'm afraid it wouldn't be
+quite fair to the rest of the class for me to take it."
+
+Miss Skelling did not understand. "But, Miss Wyatt," she expostulated in
+a puzzled tone, "it was not difficult. I am sure you could pass."
+
+Patty smiled. "I am sure I could, Miss Skelling. I don't believe you
+could ask me a question that I couldn't answer. But the point is that
+it's all learned since Tuesday. The doctor was laboring under a little
+delusion--very natural under the circumstances--when she sent me to the
+infirmary, and I spent my time there studying."
+
+"But, Miss Wyatt, this is very unusual. I shall not know how to mark
+you," Miss Skelling murmured in some distress.
+
+"Oh, mark me zero," said Patty, cheerfully. "It doesn't matter in the
+least--I know such a lot that I'll get through on the finals. Good-by;
+I'm sorry to have troubled you." And she closed the door and turned
+thoughtfully homeward.
+
+"Did it pay?" asked Priscilla.
+
+Patty laughed and murmured softly:
+
+    "'The King of France rode up the hill with full ten thousand men;
+      The King of France did gain the top, and then rode down again.'"
+
+"What are you talking about?" demanded Priscilla.
+
+"Old English," said Patty, as she sat down at her desk and commenced on
+the three days' work she had missed.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+The Deceased Robert
+
+
+It was ten o'clock, and Patty, having just read her ethics over for the
+third time without comprehending it, had announced sleepily, "I shall
+have to be good by inspiration; I can't seem to grasp the rule," when a
+knock sounded on the door and a maid appeared with the announcement,
+"Mrs. Richards wishes to see Miss Wyatt."
+
+"At this hour!" Patty cried in dismay. "It must be something serious.
+Think, Priscilla. What have I been doing lately that would outrage the
+warden sufficiently to call me up at ten o'clock? You don't suppose I'm
+going to be suspended or rusticated or expelled or anything like that,
+do you? I _honestly_ can't think of a thing I've done."
+
+"It's a telegram," the maid said sympathetically.
+
+"A telegram?" Patty's face turned pale, and she left the room without a
+word.
+
+Priscilla and Georgie sat on the couch and looked at each other with
+troubled faces. All ordinary telegrams came directly to the students.
+They knew that something serious must have happened to have it sent to
+the warden. Georgie got up and walked around the room uncertainly.
+
+"Shall I go away, Pris?" she asked. "I suppose Patty would rather be
+alone if anything has happened. But if she's going home and has to pack
+her trunk to-night, come and tell me and I will come down and help."
+
+They stood at the door a few moments talking in low tones, and as
+Georgie started to turn away, Patty's step suddenly sounded in the
+corridor. She came in with a queer smile on her lips, and sat down on
+the couch.
+
+"The warden has certainly reduced the matter of scaring people to a
+fine art," she said. "I was never more frightened in my life. I thought
+that the least that had happened was an earthquake which had engulfed
+the entire family."
+
+"What was the matter?" Georgie and Priscilla asked in a breath.
+
+Patty spread out a crumpled telegram on her knee, and the girls read it
+over her shoulder:
+
+          Robert died of an overdose of chloroform at ten
+          this morning. Funeral to-morrow.
+
+                                         THOMAS M. WYATT.
+
+"Thomas M. Wyatt," said Patty, grimly, "is my small brother Tommy, and
+Robert is short for Bobby Shafto, which was the name of Tommy's bull
+pup, the homeliest and worst-tempered dog that was ever received into
+the bosom of a respectable family."
+
+"But why in the world did he telegraph?"
+
+"It's a joke," said Patty, shaking her head dejectedly. "Joking runs in
+the family, and we've all inherited the tendency. One time my
+father--but, as my friend Kipling says, that's another story. This dog,
+you see--this Robert Shafto--has cast a shadow over my vacations for
+more than a year. He killed my kitten, and ate my Venetian lace
+collar--it didn't even give him indigestion. He went out and wallowed in
+the rain and mud and came in and slept on my bed. He stole the beefsteak
+for breakfast and the rubbers and door-mats for blocks around. Property
+on the street appreciably declined, for prospective purchasers refused
+to purchase so long as Tommy Wyatt kept a dog. Robert was threatened
+with death time and again, but Tommy always managed to conceal him from
+impending justice until the trouble had blown over. But this time I
+suppose he committed some supreme enormity--probably chewed up the baby
+or one of my father's Persian rugs, or something like that. And Tommy,
+knowing how I detested the beast, evidently thought it would be a good
+joke to telegraph, though wherein lies the point I can't make out."
+
+"Ah, I see," said Georgie; "and Mrs. Richards thought that Robert was a
+relation. What did she say?"
+
+"She said, 'Come in, Patty dear,' when I knocked on the door. Usually
+when I have had the honor of being received by her she has somewhat
+frigidly called me 'Miss Wyatt.' I opened the door with my knees shaking
+when I heard that 'Patty dear,' and she took my hand and said, 'I am
+sorry to have to tell you that I have heard bad news from your brother.'
+
+"'Tommy?' I gasped.
+
+"'No; Robert.'
+
+"I was dazed. I racked my brains, but I couldn't remember any brother
+Robert.
+
+"'He is very ill,' she went on. 'Yes, I must tell you the truth, Patty;
+poor little Robert passed away this morning'; and she laid the telegram
+before me. Then, when it flashed over me what it meant, I was so
+relieved that I put my head down on her desk and simply laughed till I
+cried; and she thought I was crying all the time, and kept patting my
+head and quoting Psalms. Well, then I didn't dare to tell her, after she
+had expended all that sympathy; so as soon as I could stop laughing
+(which wasn't very soon, for I had got considerable momentum) I raised
+my head and told her--trying to be truthful and at the same time not
+hurt her feelings--that Robert was not a brother, but just a sort of
+friend. And, do you know, she immediately jumped to the conclusion that
+he was a fiancé, and began stroking my hair and murmuring that it was
+sometimes harder to lose friends than relatives, but that I was still
+young, and I must not let it blast my life, and that maybe in the future
+when time had dulled the pain--and then, remembering that it wouldn't do
+to advise me to adopt a second fiancé before I had buried my first, she
+stopped suddenly and asked if I wished to go home to the funeral.
+
+"I told her no, that I didn't think it would be best; and she said
+perhaps not if it hadn't been announced, and she kissed me and told me
+she was glad to see me bearing up so bravely."
+
+"Patty!" Priscilla exclaimed in horror, "it's dreadful. How could you
+let her think it?"
+
+"How could I help it?" Patty demanded indignantly. "What with being
+frightened into hysterics first, and then having a strange fiancé thrust
+at me without a moment's notice, I think that I carried off the
+situation with rare delicacy and finesse. Do you think it would have
+been tactful to tell her it was nothing but a bull pup she was quoting
+Scripture about?"
+
+"I don't see how it was exactly your fault," Georgie acknowledged.
+
+"Thank you," said Patty. "If you had a brother like Tommy Wyatt you
+would know how to sympathize with me. I suppose I ought to be grateful
+to know that the dog is dead, but I should like to have had the news
+broken a little less gently."
+
+"Patty," exclaimed Priscilla, as a sudden thought struck her, "do you
+happen to remember that you are on the reception committee of the
+Dramatic Club cotillion to-morrow night? What will Mrs. Richards think
+when she sees you in evening dress, receiving at a party, on the very
+day your fiancé has been buried?"
+
+"I wonder?" said Patty, doubtfully. "Do you really think I ought to stay
+away? After working like a little buzz-saw making tissue-paper favors
+for the thing, I hate to have to miss it just because my brother's bull
+pup, that I never even _liked_, is dead.
+
+"I'll go," she added, brightening, "and receive the guests with a forced
+and mechanical smile; and every time I feel the warden's eyes upon me I
+shall with difficulty choke back the tears, and she will say to herself:
+
+"'Brave girl! How nobly she is struggling to present a composed face to
+the world! None would dream, to look at that seemingly radiant
+creature, that, while she is outwardly so gay, she is in reality
+concealing a great sorrow which is gnawing at her very vitals.'"
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+Patty the Comforter
+
+
+It was on the eve of the mid-year examinations, and a gloom had fallen
+over the college. The conscientious ones who had worked all the year
+were working harder than ever, and the frivolous ones who had played all
+the year were working with a desperate frenzy calculated to render their
+minds a blank when the crucial hour should have arrived. But Patty was
+not working. It was a canon of her college philosophy, gained by three
+and a half years' of personal experience, that the day before
+examinations is not the time to begin to study. One has impressed the
+instructor with one's intelligent interest in the subject, or one has
+not, and the result is as sure as if the marks were already down in
+black and white in the college archives. And so Patty, who at least
+lived up to her lights, was, with the exception of a few points which
+she intended to learn for this period only, conscientiously neglecting
+the "judicious review" recommended by the faculty.
+
+Her friends, however, who, though perhaps equally philosophic, were less
+consistent, were subjecting themselves to what was known as a "regular
+freshman cram"; and as no one had any time to talk to Patty, or to make
+anything to eat, she found it an unprofitable period. Her own room-mate
+even drove her from the study because she laughed out loud over the book
+she was reading; and, an exile, she wandered around to the studies of
+her friends, and was confronted by an "engaged" on every door. She was
+sitting on a window-sill in the corridor, pondering on the general
+barrenness of things, when she suddenly remembered her friends the
+freshmen in study 321. She had not visited them for some time, and
+freshmen are usually interesting at this period. She accordingly turned
+down the corridor that led to 321, and found a "POSITIVELY ENGAGED TO
+EVERY ONE!!" in letters three inches high, across the door. This
+promised a richness of entertainment within, and Patty heaved a
+disappointed sigh loud enough to carry through the transom.
+
+The turning of leaves and rustling of paper ceased; evidently they were
+listening, but they gave no sign. Patty wrote a note on the door-block
+with reverberating punctuation-points, and then retired noisily, and
+tiptoed back a moment later, and leaned against the wall. Curiosity
+prevailed; the door opened, and a face wearing a hunted look peered out.
+
+"Oh, Patty Wyatt, was that you?" she asked. "We thought it was Frances
+Stoddard coming down to have geometry explained, and so we kept still.
+Come in."
+
+"Goodness, no; I wouldn't come in over an 'engaged' like that for
+anything. I'm afraid you're busy."
+
+The freshman grasped her by the arm. "Patty, if you love us come in and
+cheer us up. We're so scared we don't know what to do."
+
+Patty consented to be drawn across the threshold. "I don't want to
+interrupt you," she remonstrated, "if you have anything to do." The
+study was occupied by three girls. Patty smiled benignly at the two
+haggard faces before her. "Where's Lady Clara Vere de Vere?" she asked.
+"She surely isn't wasting these precious last moments in anything
+frivolous."
+
+"She's in her bedroom, with a geometry in one hand and a Greek grammar
+in the other, trying to learn them both at once."
+
+"Tell her to come out here; I want to give her some good advice"; and
+Patty sat down on the divan and surveyed the dictionary-bestrewn room
+with an appreciative smile.
+
+"Oh, Patty, I'm so glad to see you!" Lady Clara exclaimed, appearing in
+the doorway. "The sophomores have been telling us the most _dreadful_
+stories about examinations. They aren't true, are they?"
+
+"Mercy, no! Don't believe a word those sophomores tell you. They were
+freshmen themselves last year, and if the examinations were as bad as
+they say, they wouldn't have passed them, either."
+
+A relieved expression stole over the three faces.
+
+"You're such a comfort, Patty. Upper-classmen take things easily, don't
+they?"
+
+"One gets inured to almost anything in time," said Patty. "Examinations
+are even entertaining, if you know the right answers."
+
+"But we won't know the right answers!" one of the freshmen wailed, her
+terror returning. "We simply don't know _anything_, and Latin comes
+to-morrow, and geometry the next day."
+
+"Oh, well, in that case you can't get through anyway, so don't worry.
+You must take it philosophically, you know." Patty settled herself among
+the cushions and smiled upon her frightened auditors with easy
+nonchalance. "As an example of the uselessness of studying at the
+eleventh hour when you haven't done anything through the term, I will
+tell you my experience with freshman Greek. I was badly prepared when I
+came, I didn't study through the term, and, without exaggeration, I
+didn't know anything. Three days before examinations I suddenly
+comprehended the situation, and I began swallowing that grammar in
+chunks. I drank black coffee to keep awake, and worked till two in the
+morning, and scarcely stopped cramming irregular verbs for meals. I
+simply thought in Greek and dreamed in Greek. And, if you will believe
+it, after all that work I flunked in Greek! It shook my faith in
+studying for examinations. I've never done it since, and I've never
+flunked since. I believe that it's just a matter of fate whether you get
+through or not, so I never bother any more."
+
+The freshmen looked at one another disconsolately. "If it's all decided
+beforehand, we're lost."
+
+Patty smiled reassuringly.
+
+          "A little flunking now and then
+           Will happen to the best of men."
+
+"But I've heard they send people home, drop them, you know, if they
+flunk more than a certain amount. Is that so?" Lady Clara inquired in
+hushed tones.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Patty; "they have to. I've known some of the brightest
+girls in college to be dropped."
+
+Lady Clara groaned. "I'm awfully shaky in geometry, Patty. Do they flunk
+many girls in that?"
+
+"Many!" said Patty. "The mere clerical labor of writing out the notes
+occupies the department two days."
+
+"Is the examination terribly hard?"
+
+"I don't remember much about it. It's been such a long time since I was
+a freshman, you see. They picked out the hardest theorems, I
+know--things you couldn't even draw, let alone demonstrate: the pyramid
+that's cut in slices, for one,--I don't remember its name,--and that
+sprawling one that looks like a snail crawling out of its shell: the
+devil's coffin, I believe it's called technically. And--oh, yes! they
+give you originals--_frightful_ originals, like nothing you've ever had
+before; and they put a little note at the top of the page telling you to
+do them first, and you get so muddled trying to think fast that you
+can't think at all. I know a girl who spent all the two hours trying to
+think out an original, and just as she got ready to write it down the
+bell rang and she had to hand in her paper."
+
+"And what happened?"
+
+"Oh, she flunked. You couldn't really blame the instructor, you know,
+for not reading between the lines, for there weren't any lines to read
+between; but it was sort of a pity, for the girl really knew an awful
+lot--but she couldn't express it."
+
+"That's just like me."
+
+"Ah, it's like a good many people." A silence ensued, and the freshmen
+looked at one another dejectedly. "But you can live, even if you should
+flunk math," Patty continued reassuringly. "Other people have done it
+before you."
+
+"If it were only geometry--but we're scared over Latin."
+
+"Oh, Latin! There's no use studying for that, for you can't possibly
+read it all over, and if you just pick out a part, it's sure not to be
+the same part _they_ pick out. The best way is to say incantations over
+the book, and open it with your eyes blindfolded, and study the page it
+opens to; then, in case you don't pass,--and you probably won't,--you
+can throw the blame on fate. My freshman year, if I remember right, they
+gave us for prose composition one of Emerson's essays to translate into
+Latin, and we couldn't even tell what it meant in English."
+
+The three looked at one another again.
+
+"I couldn't do anything like that."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"Nor any one else," said Patty.
+
+"We can flunk Latin and math; but if we flunk any more we're gone."
+
+"I believe so," said Patty.
+
+"And I'm awfully shaky in German."
+
+"And I in French."
+
+"And I in Greek."
+
+"I don't know anything about German," said Patty. "Never had it myself.
+But I remember hearing Priscilla say that the printed examination papers
+didn't come but in time, and Fräulein Scherin, who writes a frightful
+hand, wrote the questions on the board in German script, and they
+couldn't even read them. In French I believe the first question was to
+write out the 'Marseillaise'; there are seven verses, and no one had
+learned them, and the 'Marseillaise,' you know, is a thing that you
+simply _can't_ make up on the spur of the moment. As for Greek, I told
+you my own experience; I am sure nothing could be worse than that."
+
+The freshmen looked at one another hopelessly. "There's only English
+and hygiene and Bible history left."
+
+"English is something you can't tell anything about," said Patty.
+"They're as likely as not to ask you to write a heroic poem in iambic
+pentameters, if you know what they are. You have to depend on
+inspiration; you can't study for it."
+
+"I hope," sighed Lady Clara, "to get through hygiene and Bible history,
+though, as they only count one hour apiece, I suppose it isn't much."
+
+"You mustn't be too sanguine," said Patty. "It all depends on chance.
+The class in hygiene is so big that the professor hasn't time to read
+the papers; he just goes down the list and flunks every thirteenth girl.
+I'm not sure about Bible history, but I think he does the same, because
+I know, freshman year, that I made a mistake and handed in my map of the
+Holy Lands done in colored chalk to the hygiene professor, and my chart
+of the digestive system to the Bible professor, and neither of them
+noticed it. They did look a good deal alike, but not so much but what
+you could tell them apart. All I have to say is that I hope none of you
+will be number thirteen."
+
+The freshmen stared at one another in speechless horror, and Patty rose.
+"Well, good-by, my children, and, above all things, don't worry. I'm
+glad if I've been able to cheer you up a little, for so much depends on
+not being nervous. Don't believe any of the silly stories the sophomores
+tell," she called back over her shoulder; "they're just trying to
+frighten you."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+"Per l'Italia"
+
+
+College is a more or less selfish place. Everybody is so busy with her
+own affairs that she has no time to give to her neighbor, unless her
+neighbor has something to give in return. Olivia Copeland apparently had
+nothing to give in return. She was quiet and inconspicuous, and it took
+a second glance to realize that her face was striking and that there was
+a look in her eyes that other freshmen did not have. By an unfelicitous
+chance she was placed in the same study with Lady Clara Vere de Vere and
+Emily Washburn. They thought her foreign and queer, and she thought them
+crude and boisterous, and after the first week or two of politely trying
+to get acquainted the effort was dropped on both sides.
+
+The year wore on, and nobody knew, or at least no one paid any attention
+to the fact, that Olivia Copeland was homesick and unhappy. Her
+room-mates thought that they had done their duty when they occasionally
+asked her to play golf or go skating with them (an invitation they were
+very safe in giving, as she knew how to do neither). Her instructors
+thought that they had done their duty when they called her up to the
+desk after class and warned her that her work was not as good as it had
+been, and that if she wished to pass she must improve in it.
+
+The English class was the only one in which she was not warned; but she
+had no means of knowing that her themes were handed about among the
+different instructors and that she was referred to in the department as
+"that remarkable Miss Copeland." The department had a theory that if
+they let a girl know she was doing good work she would immediately stop
+and rest upon her reputation; and Olivia, in consequence, did not
+discover that she was remarkable. She merely discovered that she was
+miserable and out of place, and she continued to drip tears of
+homesickness before a sketch of an Italian villa that hung above her
+desk.
+
+It was Patty Wyatt who first discovered her. Patty had dropped into the
+freshmen's room one afternoon on some errand or other (probably to
+borrow alcohol), and had idly picked up a pile of English themes that
+were lying on the study table.
+
+"Whose are these? Do you care if I look at them?" she asked.
+
+"No; you can read them if you want to," said Lady Clara. "They're
+Olivia's, but she won't mind."
+
+Patty carelessly turned the pages, and then, as a title caught her eye,
+she suddenly looked up with a show of interest. "'The Coral-fishers of
+Capri'! What on earth does Olivia Copeland know about the coral-fishers
+of Capri?"
+
+"Oh, she lives somewhere near there--at Sorrento," said Lady Clara,
+indifferently.
+
+"Olivia Copeland lives at Sorrento!" Patty stared. "Why didn't you tell
+me?"
+
+"I supposed you knew it. Her father's an artist or something of the
+sort. She's lived in Italy all her life; that's what makes her so
+queer."
+
+Patty had once spent a sunshiny week in Sorrento herself, and the very
+memory of it was intoxicating. "Where is she?" she asked excitedly. "I
+want to talk to her."
+
+"I don't know where she is. Out walking, probably. She goes off walking
+all by herself, and never speaks to any one, and then when we ask her to
+do something rational, like golf or basket-ball, she pokes in the house
+and reads Dante in Italian. Imagine!"
+
+"Why, she must be interesting!" said Patty, in surprise, and she turned
+back to the themes.
+
+"I think these are splendid!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Sort of queer, I think," said Lady Clara. "But there's one that's
+rather funny. It was read in class--about a peasant that lost his
+donkey. I'll find it"; and she rummaged through the pile.
+
+Patty read it soberly, and Lady Clara watched her with a shade of
+disappointment.
+
+"Don't you think it's pretty good?" she asked.
+
+"Yes; I think it's one of the best things I ever read."
+
+"You never even smiled!"
+
+"My dear child, it isn't funny."
+
+"Isn't funny! Why, the class simply roared over it."
+
+Patty shrugged. "Your appreciation must have gratified Olivia. And here
+it's February, and I've barely spoken to her."
+
+The next afternoon Patty was strolling home from a recitation, when she
+spied Olivia Copeland across the campus, headed for Pine Bluff and
+evidently out for a solitary walk.
+
+"Olivia Copeland, wait a moment," Patty called. "Are you going for a
+walk? May I come too?" she asked, as she panted up behind.
+
+Olivia assented with evident surprise, and Patty fell into step beside
+her. "I just found out yesterday that you live in Sorrento, and I wanted
+to talk to you. I was there myself once, and I think it's the most
+glorious spot on earth."
+
+Olivia's eyes shone. "Really?" she gasped. "Oh, I'm so glad!" And before
+she knew it she was telling Patty the story of how she had come to
+college to please her father, and how she loved Italy and hated America;
+and what she did not tell about her loneliness and homesickness Patty
+divined.
+
+She realized that the girl _was_ remarkable, and she determined in the
+future to take an interest in her and make her like college. But a
+senior's life is busy and taken up with its own affairs, and for the
+next week or two Patty saw little of the freshman beyond an occasional
+chat in the corridors.
+
+One evening she and Priscilla had returned late from a dinner in town,
+to be confronted by a dark room and an empty match-safe.
+
+"Wait a moment and I'll get some matches," said Patty; and she knocked
+on a door across the corridor where a freshman lived with whom they had
+a borrowing acquaintance. She found within her own freshman friends,
+Lady Clara Vere de Vere and Emily Washburn. It was evident by the three
+heads close together, and the hush that fell on the group as she
+entered, that some momentous piece of gossip had been interrupted. Patty
+forgot her room-mate waiting in the dark, and dropped into a chair with
+the evident purpose of staying out the evening.
+
+"Tell me all about it, children," she said cordially.
+
+The freshmen looked at one another and hesitated.
+
+"A new president?" Patty suggested, "or just a class mutiny?"
+
+"It's about Olivia Copeland," Lady Clara returned dubiously; "but I
+don't know that I ought to say anything."
+
+"Olivia Copeland?" Patty straightened up with a new interest in her
+eyes. "What's Olivia Copeland been doing?"
+
+"She's been flunking and--"
+
+"Flunking!" Patty's face was blank. "But I thought she was so bright!"
+
+"Oh, she is bright; only, you know, she hasn't a way of making people
+find it out; and, besides," Lady Clara added with meaning emphasis, "she
+was scared over examinations."
+
+Patty cast a quick look at her. "What do you mean?" she asked.
+
+Lady Clara was fond of Patty, but she was only human, and she had been
+frightened herself. "Well," she explained, "she had heard a lot of
+stories from--er--upper-classmen about how hard the examinations are,
+and the awful things they do to you if you don't pass, and being a
+stranger, she believed them. Of course Emily and I knew better; but she
+was just scared to death, and she went all to pieces, and--"
+
+"Nonsense!" said Patty, impatiently. "You can't make me believe that."
+
+"If it had been a sophomore that had tried to frighten us," pursued Lady
+Clara, "we shouldn't have minded so much: but a senior!"
+
+"Now, Patty, aren't you sorry that you told us all those things?" asked
+Emily.
+
+Patty laughed. "For the matter of that, I never say anything I'm not
+sorry for half an hour later. I'm going to get out a book some day
+entitled 'Things I Wish I Hadn't Said: A Collection of _Faux Pas_,' by
+Patty Wyatt."
+
+"I think it's more than a _faux pas_ when you frighten a girl so she--"
+
+"I suppose you think you're rubbing it in," said Patty, imperturbably;
+"but girls don't flunk because they're frightened: they flunk because
+they don't know."
+
+"Olivia knew five times as much geometry as I did, and I got through and
+she didn't."
+
+Patty examined the carpet in silence.
+
+"She thinks she's going to be dropped, and she's just crying terribly,"
+pursued Emily, with a certain relish in the details.
+
+"Crying!" said Patty, sharply. "What's she crying for?"
+
+"Because she feels bad, I suppose. She'd been out walking, and got
+caught in the rain, and she didn't get back in time for dinner, and then
+found those notes waiting for her. She's up there lying on the bed, and
+she's got hysterics or Roman fever or something like that. She told us
+to go away and let her alone. She's awfully cross all of a sudden."
+
+Patty rose. "I think I'll go and cheer her up."
+
+"Let her alone, Patty," said Emily. "I know the way you cheer people up.
+If you hadn't cheered her up before examinations she wouldn't have
+flunked."
+
+"I didn't know anything about her then," said Patty, a trifle sulkily;
+"and, anyway," she added as she opened the door, "I didn't say anything
+that affected her passing, one way or the other." She turned toward
+Olivia's room, however, with a conscience that was not quite
+comfortable. She could not remember just what she _had_ told those
+freshmen about examinations, but she had an uneasy feeling that it
+might not have been of a reassuring nature.
+
+"I wish I could ever learn when it is time for joking and when it is
+not," she said to herself as she knocked on the study door.
+
+No one answered, and she turned the knob and entered. A stifled sob came
+from one of the bedrooms, and Patty hesitated.
+
+She was not in the habit of crying herself, and she always felt
+uncomfortable when other people did it. Something must be done, however,
+and she advanced to the threshold and silently regarded Olivia, who was
+stretched face downward on the bed. At the sound of Patty's step she
+raised her head and cast a startled glance at the intruder, and then
+buried her face in the pillows again. Patty scribbled an "engaged" sign
+and pinned it on the study door, and drawing up a chair beside the bed,
+she sat down with the air of a physician about to make a diagnosis.
+
+"Well, Olivia," she began in a business-like tone, "what is the
+trouble?"
+
+Olivia opened her hands and disclosed some crumpled papers. Patty spread
+them out and hastily ran her eyes over the official printed slips:
+
+          Miss _Copeland_ is hereby informed that she has
+          been found deficient in _German_ (_three_ hours).
+
+
+          Miss _Copeland_ is hereby informed that she has
+          been found deficient in _Latin prose_ (_one_
+          hour).
+
+
+          Miss _Copeland_ is hereby informed that she has
+          been found deficient in _geometry_ (_four_ hours).
+
+Patty performed a rapid calculation,--"three and one are four and four
+are eight,"--and knit her brows.
+
+"Will they send me home, Patty?"
+
+"Mercy, no, child; I hope not. A person who's done as good work as you
+in English ought to have the right to flunk every other blessed thing,
+if she wants to."
+
+"But you're dropped if you flunk eight hours; you told me so yourself."
+
+"Don't believe anything I told you," said Patty, reassuringly. "I don't
+know what I'm talking about more than half the time."
+
+"I'd hate to be sent back, and have my father know I'd failed, when he
+spent so much time preparing me; but"--Olivia began to cry again--"I
+want to go back so much that I don't believe I care."
+
+"You don't know what you're talking about," said Patty. She put her hand
+on the girl's shoulder. "Mercy, child, you're sopping wet, and you're
+shivering! Sit up and take those shoes off."
+
+Olivia sat up and pulled at the laces with ineffectual fingers, and
+Patty jerked them open and dumped the shoes in a squashy heap on the
+floor.
+
+"Do you know what's the matter with you?" she asked. "You're not crying
+because you've flunked. You're crying because you've caught cold, and
+you're tired and wet and hungry. You take those wet clothes off this
+minute and get into a warm bath-robe, and I'll get you some dinner."
+
+"I don't want any dinner," wailed Olivia, and she showed signs of
+turning back to the pillows again.
+
+"Don't act like a baby, Olivia," said Patty, sharply; "sit up and be
+a--a man."
+
+Ten minutes later Patty returned from a successful looting expedition,
+and deposited her spoils on the bedroom table. Olivia sat on the edge of
+the bed and watched her apathetically, a picture of shivering
+despondency.
+
+"Drink this," commanded Patty, as she extended a steaming glass.
+
+Olivia obediently raised it to her lips, and drew back. "What's in it?"
+she asked faintly.
+
+"Everything I could find that's hot--quinine and whisky and Jamaica
+ginger and cough syrup and a dash of red pepper, and--one or two other
+things. It's my own idea. You can't take cold after _that_."
+
+"I--I don't believe I want any."
+
+"Drink it--every drop," said Patty, grimly; and Olivia shut her eyes and
+gulped it down.
+
+"Now," said Patty, cheerfully bustling about, "I'll get dinner. Have you
+a can-opener? And any alcohol, by chance? That's nice. We'll have three
+courses,--canned soup, canned baked beans, and preserved ginger,--all of
+them hot. It's mighty lucky Georgie Merriles was in New York or she'd
+never have lent them to me."
+
+Olivia, to her own astonishment, presently found herself laughing (she
+had thought that she would never smile again) as she sipped mulligatawny
+soup from a tooth-mug and balanced a pin-trayful of steaming baked beans
+on her knee.
+
+"And now," said Patty, as, the three courses disposed of, she tucked the
+freshman into bed, "we'll map out a campaign. While eight hours are
+pretty serious, they are not of necessity deadly. What made you flunk
+Latin prose?"
+
+"I never had any before I came, and when I told Miss--"
+
+"Certainly; she thought it her duty to flunk you. You shouldn't have
+mentioned the subject. But never mind. It's only one hour, and it won't
+take you a minute to work it off. How about German?"
+
+"German's a little hard because it's so different from Italian and
+French, you know; and I'm sort of frightened when she calls on me,
+and--"
+
+"Pretty stupid, on the whole?" Patty suggested.
+
+"I'm afraid I am," she confessed.
+
+"Well, I dare say you deserved to flunk in that. You can tutor it up and
+pass it off in the spring. How about geometry?"
+
+"I thought I knew that, only she didn't ask what I expected and--"
+
+"An unfortunate circumstance, but it will happen. Could you review it up
+a little and take a reëxamination right away?"
+
+"Yes; I'm sure I could, only they won't give me another chance. They'll
+send me home first."
+
+"Who's your instructor?"
+
+"Miss Prescott."
+
+Patty frowned, and then she laughed. "I thought if it were Miss Hawley
+I could go to her and explain the matter and ask her to give you a
+reëxamination. Miss Hawley's occasionally human. But Miss Prescott! No
+wonder you flunked. I'm afraid of her myself. She's the only woman that
+ever got a degree at some German university, and she simply hasn't a
+thought in the world beyond mathematics. I don't believe the woman has
+any soul. If one of those mediums should come here and dematerialize
+her, all that would be left would be an equilateral triangle."
+
+Patty shook her head. "I'm afraid there's not much use in arguing with a
+person like that. If she once sees a truth, you know, she sees it for
+all time. But never mind; I'll do the best I can. I'll tell her you're
+an undiscovered mathematical genius; that it's latent, but if she'll
+examine you again she'll find it. That ought to appeal to her.
+Good-night. Go to sleep and don't worry; I'll manage her."
+
+"Good night; and thank you, Patty," called a tolerably cheerful voice
+from under the covers.
+
+Patty closed the door, and stood a moment in the hall, pondering the
+situation. Olivia Copeland was too valuable to throw away. The college
+must be made to realize her worth. But that was difficult. Patty had
+tried to make the college realize things before. Miss Prescott was the
+only means of salvation that she could think of, and Miss Prescott was a
+doubtful means. She did not at all relish the prospect of calling on
+her, but there seemed to be nothing else to do. She made a little
+grimace and laughed. "I'm acting like a freshman myself," she thought.
+"Walk up, Patty, and face the guns"; and without giving herself time to
+hesitate she marched up-stairs and knocked on Miss Prescott's door. She
+reflected after she had knocked that perhaps it would have been more
+politic to have postponed her business until the morrow. But the door
+opened before she had time to run away, and she found herself rather
+confusedly bowing to Miss Prescott, who held in her hand, not a book on
+calculus, but a common, every-day magazine.
+
+"Good evening, Miss Wyatt. Won't you come in and sit down?" said Miss
+Prescott, in a very cordially human tone.
+
+As she sank into a deep rush chair Patty had a blurred vision of low
+bookcases, pictures, rugs, and polished brass thrown into soft relief by
+a shaded lamp which stood on the table. Before she had time to mentally
+shake herself and reconstruct her ideas she was gaily chatting to Miss
+Prescott about the probable outcome of a serial story in the magazine.
+
+Miss Prescott did not seem to wonder in the least at this unusual visit,
+but talked along easily on various subjects, and laughed and told
+stories like the humanest of human beings. Patty watched her,
+fascinated. "She's _pretty_," she thought to herself and she began to
+wonder how old she was. Never before had she associated any age whatever
+with Miss Prescott. She had regarded her much in the same light as a
+scientific truth, which exists, but is quite irrespective of time or
+place. She tried to recall some story that had been handed about among
+the girls her freshman year. She remembered vaguely that it had in it
+the suggestion that Miss Prescott had once been in love. At the time
+Patty had scoffingly repudiated the idea, but now she was half willing
+to believe it.
+
+Suddenly, in the midst of the conversation, the ten-o'clock bell rang,
+and Patty recalled her errand with a start.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "you are wondering why I came."
+
+"I was hoping," said Miss Prescott, with a smile, "that it was just to
+see me, without any ulterior motive."
+
+"It will be the next time--if you will let me come again; but to-night I
+had another reason, which I'm afraid you'll think impertinent--and," she
+added frankly, "I don't know just what's the best way to tell it so that
+you _won't_ think it impertinent."
+
+"Tell it to me any way you please, and I will try not to think so,"
+said Miss Prescott, kindly.
+
+"Don't you think sometimes the girls can tell more of one another's
+ability than the instructors?" Patty asked. "I know a girl," she
+continued, "a freshman, who is, in some ways, the most remarkable person
+I have ever met. Of course I can't be sure, but I should say that she is
+going to be very good in English some day--so good, you know, that the
+college will be proud of her. Well, this girl has flunked such a lot
+that I am afraid she is in danger of being sent home, and the college
+simply can't afford to lose her. I don't know anything about your rules,
+of course, but what seems to me the easiest way is for you to give her
+another examination in geometry immediately,--she really knows it,--and
+then tell the faculty about her and urge them to give her another
+trial."
+
+Patty brought out this astounding request in the most matter-of-fact way
+possible, and the corners of Miss Prescott's mouth twitched as she
+asked: "Of whom are you speaking?"
+
+"Olivia Copeland."
+
+Miss Prescott's mouth grew firm, and she looked like the instructor in
+mathematics again.
+
+"Miss Copeland did absolutely nothing on her examination, Miss Wyatt,
+and what little she has recited during the year does not betoken any
+unusual ability. I am sorry, but it would be impossible."
+
+"But, Miss Prescott," Patty expostulated, "the girl has worked under
+such peculiar disadvantages. She's an American, but she lives abroad,
+and all our ways are new to her. She has never been to school a day in
+her life. Her father prepared her for college, and, of course, not in
+the same way that the other girls have been prepared. She is shy, and
+not being used to reciting in a class, she doesn't know how to show off.
+I am sure, Miss Prescott, that if you would take her and examine her
+yourself, you would find that she understands the work--that is, if you
+would let her get over being afraid of you first. I know you're busy,
+and it's asking a good deal," Patty finished apologetically.
+
+"It is not that, Miss Wyatt, for of course I do not wish to mark any
+student unjustly; but I cannot help feeling that you have overestimated
+Miss Copeland's ability. She has really had a chance to show what is in
+her, and if she has failed in as many courses as you say--The college,
+you know, must keep up the standard of its work, and in questions like
+this it is not always possible to consider the individual."
+
+Patty felt that she was being dismissed, and she groped about wildly for
+a new plea. Her eye caught a framed picture of the old monastery of
+Amalfi hanging over the bookcase.
+
+"Perhaps you've lived in Italy?" she asked.
+
+Miss Prescott started slightly. "No," she said; "but I've spent some
+time there."
+
+"That picture of Amalfi, up there, made me think of it. Olivia Copeland,
+you know, lives near there, at Sorrento."
+
+A gleam of interest flashed into Miss Prescott's eye.
+
+"That's how I first came to notice her," continued Patty; "but she
+didn't interest me so much until I talked to her. It seems that her
+father is an artist, and she was born in Italy, and has only visited
+America once when she was a little girl. Her mother is dead, and she and
+her father live in an old villa on that road along the coast leading to
+Sorrento. She has never had any girl friends; just her father's
+friends--artists and diplomats and people like that. She speaks Italian,
+and she knows all about Italian art and politics and the church and the
+agrarian laws and how the people are taxed; and all the peasants around
+Sorrento are her friends. She is so homesick that she nearly dies, and
+the only person here that she can talk to about the things she is
+interested in is the peanut man down-town.
+
+[Illustration: Olivia Copeland]
+
+"The girls she rooms with are just nice exuberant American girls, and
+are interested in golf and basket-ball and Welsh rabbit and Richard
+Harding Davis stories and Gibson pictures--and she never even _heard_ of
+any of them until four months ago. She has a water-color sketch of the
+villa, that her father did. It's white stucco, you know, with terraces
+and marble balustrades and broken statues, and a grove of ilex-trees
+with a fountain in the center. Just think of _belonging_ to a place like
+that, Miss Prescott, and then being suddenly plunged into a place like
+this without any friends or any one who even knows about the things you
+know--think how lonely you would be!"
+
+Patty leaned forward with flushed cheeks, carried away by her own
+eloquence. "You know what Italy's like. It's a sort of disease. If you
+once get fond of it you'll never forget it, and you just can't be happy
+till you get back. And with Olivia it's her home, besides. She's never
+known anything else. And it's hard at first to keep your mind on
+mathematics when you're dreaming all the time of ilex groves and
+fountains and nightingales and--and things like that."
+
+She finished lamely, for Miss Prescott suddenly leaned back in the
+shadow, and it seemed to Patty that her face had grown pale and the hand
+that held the magazine trembled.
+
+Patty flushed uncomfortably and tried to think what she had said. She
+was always saying things that hurt people's feelings without meaning to.
+Suddenly that old story from her freshman year flashed into her mind. He
+had been an artist and had lived in Italy and had died of Roman fever;
+and Miss Prescott had gone to Germany to study mathematics, and had
+never cared for anything else since. It sounded rather made up, but it
+might be true. Had she stumbled on a forbidden subject? she wondered
+miserably. She had, of course; it was just her way.
+
+The silence was becoming unbearable; she struggled to think of something
+to say, but nothing came, and she rose abruptly.
+
+"I'm sorry to have taken so much of your time, Miss Prescott. I hope I
+haven't bored you. Good night."
+
+Miss Prescott rose and took Patty's hand. "Good night, my dear, and
+thank you for coming to me. I am glad to know of Olivia Copeland. I will
+see what can be done about her geometry, and I shall be glad, besides,
+to know her as--as a friend; for I, too, once cared for Italy."
+
+Patty closed the door softly and tiptoed home through the dim corridors.
+
+"Did you bring the matches?" called a sleepy voice from Priscilla's
+bedroom.
+
+Patty started. "Oh, the matches!" she laughed. "No; I forgot them."
+
+"I never knew you to accomplish anything yet that you started out to do,
+Patty Wyatt."
+
+"I've accomplished something to-night, just the same," Patty retorted,
+with a little note of triumph in her voice; "but I haven't an idea how
+I happened to do it," she added frankly to herself.
+
+And she went to bed and fell asleep, quite unaware of how much she _had_
+accomplished; for unconsciously she had laid the foundation of a
+friendship which was to make happy the future of a lonely freshman and
+an equally lonely instructor.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+"Local Color"
+
+
+The third senior table had discovered a new amusement with which to
+enlighten the tedium of waiting while Maggie was in the kitchen foraging
+for food. The game was called "local color," in honor of Patty Wyatt's
+famous definition in English class, "Local color is that which makes a
+lie seem truthful." The object of the game was to see who could tell the
+biggest lie without being found out; and the one rule required that the
+victims be disillusionized before they left the table.
+
+Patty was the instigator, the champion player, and the final victim of
+the game. Baron Münchhausen himself would have blushed at some of her
+creations, and her stories were told with such an air of ingenuous
+honesty that the most outrageous among them obtained credence.
+
+The game in its original conception may have been innocent enough, but
+the rule was not always as carefully observed as it should have been,
+and the most unaccountable scandals began to float about college. The
+president of "Christians" had been called up for cutting chapel. The
+shark of the class had flunked her ethics, and even failed to get
+through on the "re." Cathy Fair was an own cousin of Professor
+Hitchcock's, and called him "Tommy" to his face. These, and far worse,
+were becoming public property; and even personal fabrications in regard
+to the faculty, intended solely for undergraduate consumption, were
+reaching the ears of the faculty themselves.
+
+One day Patty dropped into an under-classman's room on some committee
+work, and she found the children, in the manner of their elders,
+regaling themselves on dainty bits of college gossip.
+
+"I heard the funniest thing about Professor Winters yesterday," piped
+up a sophomore.
+
+"Tell it to us. What was it?" cried a chorus of voices.
+
+"I'd like to hear something funny about Professor Winters; he's the
+solemnest-looking man I ever saw," remarked a freshman.
+
+"Well," resumed the sophomore, "it seems he was going to get married
+last week, and the invitations were all out, and the presents all there,
+when the bride came down with the mumps."
+
+"Really? How funny!" came in a chorus from the delighted auditors.
+
+"Yes--on both sides; and the clergyman had never had it, so the ceremony
+had to be postponed."
+
+Patty's blood froze. She recognized the tale. It was one of her own
+offspring, only shorn of its unessential adornments.
+
+"Where in the world did you hear any such absurd thing as that?" she
+demanded severely.
+
+"I heard Lucille Carter tell it at a fudge party up in Bonnie
+Connaught's room last night," answered the sophomore, stoutly, sure that
+the source was a reputable one.
+
+Patty groaned. "And I suppose that every blessed one of that dozen girls
+has told it to another dozen by this time, and that it's only bounded by
+the boundaries of the campus. Well, there's not a word of truth in it.
+Lucille Carter doesn't know what she is talking about. That's a likely
+story, isn't it?" she added with fine scorn. "Does Professor Winters
+look like a man who'd ever dare propose to a girl, let alone marry her?"
+And she stalked out of the room and up to the single where Lucille
+lived.
+
+"Lucille," said Patty, "what do you mean by spreading that story about
+Professor Winters's bride's mumps?"
+
+"You told it to me yourself," answered Lucille, with some warmth. She
+was a believing creature with an essentially literal mind, and she had
+always been out of her element in the lofty imaginative realms of local
+color.
+
+"I told it to you!" said Patty, indignantly. "You goose, you don't mean
+to tell me you believed it? I was just playing local color."
+
+"How should I know that? You told it as if it were true."
+
+"Of course," said Patty; "that's the game. You wouldn't have believed me
+if I hadn't."
+
+"But you never said it wasn't true. You don't follow the rule."
+
+"I didn't think it was necessary. I never supposed any one would believe
+any such absurd story as that."
+
+"I don't see how it was my fault."
+
+"Of course it was your fault. You shouldn't be spreading malicious tales
+about the faculty; it's irreverent. The story's all over college by this
+time, and Professor Winters has probably heard it himself. He'll flunk
+you on the finals to pay for it; see if he doesn't." And Patty went
+home, leaving a conscience-smitten and thoroughly indignant Lucille
+behind her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ABOUT a month before the introduction of local color, Patty had entered
+upon a new activity, which she referred to impartially as "molding
+public opinion" and "elevating the press." The way of it was this:
+
+The college, which was a modest and retiring institution craving only to
+be unmolested in its atmosphere of academic calm, had been recently
+exploited by a sensational newspaper. The fact that none of the stories
+was true did not mitigate the annoyance. The college was besieged by
+reporters who had heard rumors and wished to have them corroborated for
+exclusive publication in the "Censor" or "Advertiser" or "Star." And
+they would also like a photograph of Miss Bentley as she appeared in the
+character of Portia; and since she refused to give it to them, they
+stated their intention of "faking" one, which, they gallantly assured
+her, would be far homelier than the original.
+
+The climax was reached when Bonnie Connaught was unfortunate enough to
+sprain her ankle in basket-ball. Something more than a life-size
+portrait of her, clothed in a masculine-looking sweater, with a
+basket-ball under her arm, appeared in a New York evening paper, and
+scare-heads three inches high announced in red ink that the champion
+athlete and most popular society girl in college was at death's door,
+owing to injuries received in basket-ball.
+
+Bonnie's eminently respectable family descended upon the college in an
+indignant body for the purpose of taking her home, and were with
+difficulty soothed by an equally indignant faculty. The alumnæ wrote
+that in their day such brutal games as basket-ball had not been
+countenanced, and that they feared the college had deteriorated. Parents
+wrote that they would remove their daughters from college if they were
+to be subjected to such publicity; and the poor president was, of
+course, quite helpless before the glorious American privilege of free
+speech.
+
+Finally the college hit upon a partially protective measure--that of
+furnishing its own news; and a regularly organized newspaper corps was
+formed among the students, with a member of the faculty at the head. The
+more respectable of the papers were very glad to have a correspondent
+from the inside whose facts needed no investigation, and the less
+respectable in due time betook themselves to more fruitful fields of
+scandal and happily forgot the existence of the college.
+
+Patty, having the reputation of being an "English shark," had been duly
+empaneled and presented with a local paper. At first she had been filled
+with a fit sense of the responsibility of the position, and had
+conscientiously neglected her college work for its sake; but in time the
+novelty wore off, and her weekly budgets became more and more
+perfunctory in character.
+
+The choice of Patty for this particular paper perhaps had not been very
+far-sighted, for the editor wished a column a week of what he designated
+as "chatty news," whereas it would have been wiser to have given her a
+city paper which required only a brief statement of important facts.
+Patty's own tendencies, it must be confessed, had a slightly yellow
+tinge, and, with a delighted editor egging her on, it was hard for her
+to suppress her latent love for "local color." The paper, however, had a
+wide circulation among the faculty, which circumstance tended to have a
+chastening effect.
+
+The day following Patty's bride-with-the-mumps contretemps with Lucille
+happened to be Friday, and she was painfully engaged in her weekly
+molding of public opinion. It had been a barren week, and there was
+nothing to write about.
+
+She reviewed at length a set of French encyclopedias which had been
+given to the library, and spoke with enthusiasm of a remarkable
+collection of jaw-bones of the prehistoric cow which had been presented
+to the department of paleontology. She gave in full the list of the
+seventeen girls who had been honored with scholarships, laboriously
+writing out their full names, with "Miss" attached to each, and the name
+of the town and the State in its unabbreviated length. And still it only
+mounted up to ten pages, and it took eighteen of Patty's writing to make
+a column.
+
+She strolled down to examine the bulletin-board again, and discovered a
+new notice which she had overlooked before:
+
+          Friday, January 17. Professor James Harkner Wallis
+          of the Lick Observatory will lecture in the
+          auditorium, at eight o'clock, upon "Theories of
+          the Sidereal System."
+
+Patty regarded the notice without emotion. It did not look capable of
+expansion, and she did not feel the remotest interest in the sidereal
+system. The brief account of the lecturer, however, which was appended
+to the notice, stated that Professor Wallis was one of the best known of
+living astronomers, and that he had conducted important original
+investigations.
+
+"If I knew anything about astronomy," she thought desperately, "I might
+be able to spread him out over two pages."
+
+An acquaintance of Patty's strolled up to the bulletin-board.
+
+"Did you ever hear of that man?" asked Patty, pointing to the notice.
+
+"Never; but I'm not an astronomer."
+
+"I'm not, either," said Patty. "I wonder who he is?" she added
+wistfully. "It seems he's very famous, and I'd really like to know
+something about him."
+
+The girl opened her eyes in some surprise at this thirst for gratuitous
+information; it did not accord with Patty's reputation: and ever after,
+when it was affirmed in her presence that Patty Wyatt was brilliant but
+superficial, she stoutly maintained that Patty was deeper than people
+thought. She pondered a moment, and then returned, "Lucille Carter takes
+astronomy; she could tell you about him."
+
+"So she does. I'd forgotten it"; and Patty swung off toward Lucille's
+room.
+
+She found a number of girls sitting around on the various pieces of
+furniture, eating fudge and discussing the tragedies of one Maeterlinck.
+
+"What's this?" said Patty. "A party?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Lucille; "just an extra session of the Dramatic Theory
+class. Don't be afraid; there's your room-mate up on the window-seat."
+
+"Hello, Pris. What are you doing here?" said Patty, dipping out some
+fudge with a spoon. (There had been a disagreement as to how long it
+should boil.)
+
+"Just paying a social call. What are you doing? I thought you were going
+to hurry up and get through so you could go down-town to dinner."
+
+"I am," said Patty, vaguely; "but I got lonely."
+
+The conversation drifting off to Maeterlinck again, she seized the
+opportunity to inquire of Lucille: "Who's this astronomy man that's
+going to lecture to-night? He's quite famous, isn't he?"
+
+"Very," said Lucille. "Professor Phelps has been talking about him every
+day for the last week."
+
+"Where's the Lick Observatory, anyway?" pursued Patty. "I can't
+remember, for the life of me, whether it's in California or on Pike's
+Peak."
+
+Lucille considered a moment. "It's in Dublin, Ireland."
+
+"Dublin, Ireland?" asked Patty, in some surprise. "I could have sworn
+that it was in California. Are you sure you know where it is, Lucille?"
+
+"Of course I'm sure. Haven't we been having it for three days steady?
+California! You must be crazy, Patty. I think you'd better elect
+astronomy."
+
+"I know it," said Patty, meekly. "I was going to, but I heard that it
+was terribly hard, and I thought senior year you have a right to take
+something a little easy. But, you know, that's the funniest thing about
+the Lick Observatory, for I really know a lot about it--read an article
+on it just a little while ago; and I don't know how I got the
+impression, but I was almost sure it was in the United States. It just
+shows that you can never be sure of anything."
+
+"No," said Lucille; "it isn't safe."
+
+"Is it connected with Dublin University?" asked Patty.
+
+"I believe so," said Lucille.
+
+"And this astronomy person," continued Patty, warming to her work--"I
+suppose he's an Irishman, then."
+
+"Of course," said Lucille. "He's very noted."
+
+"What's he done?" asked Patty. "It said on the bulletin-board he'd made
+some important discoveries. I suppose, though, they're frightful
+technicalities that no one ever heard of."
+
+"Well," said Lucille, considering, "he discovered the rings of Saturn
+and the Milky Way."
+
+"The rings of Saturn! Why, I thought those had been discovered _ages_
+ago. He must be a terribly old man. I remember reading about them when
+I was an infant in arms."
+
+"It was a good while ago," said Lucille. "Eight or nine years, at
+least."
+
+"And the Milky Way!" continued Patty, with a show of incredulity. "I
+don't see how people could have helped discovering that long ago. I
+could have done it myself, and I don't pretend to know anything about
+astronomy."
+
+"Oh, of course," Lucille hastened to explain, "the phenomenon had been
+observed before, but had never been accounted for."
+
+"I see," said Patty, surreptitiously taking notes. "He must really be an
+awfully important man. How did he happen to do all this?"
+
+"He went up in a balloon," said Lucille, vaguely.
+
+"A balloon! What fun!" exclaimed Patty, her reportorial instinct waking
+to the scent. "They use balloons a lot more in Europe than they do
+here."
+
+"I believe he has his balloon with him here in America," said Lucille.
+"He never travels without it."
+
+"What's the good of it?" inquired Patty. "I suppose," she continued,
+furnishing her own explanation, "it gets him such a lot nearer to the
+stars."
+
+"That's without doubt the reason," said Lucille.
+
+"I wish he'd send it up here," sighed Patty. "Do you know any more
+interesting details about him?"
+
+"N--no," said Lucille; "I can't think of any more at present."
+
+"He's certainly the most interesting professor I ever heard of," said
+Patty, "and it's strange I never heard of him before."
+
+"There seem to be a good many things you have never heard of," observed
+Lucille.
+
+"Yes," acknowledged Patty; "there are."
+
+"Well, Patty," said Priscilla, emerging from the discussion on the other
+side of the room, "if you're going to dinner with me, you'd better stop
+fooling with Lucille, and go home and get your work done."
+
+"Very well," said Patty, rising with obliging promptitude. "Good-by,
+girls. Come and see me and I'll give you some fudge that's done. Thank
+you for the information," she called back to Lucille.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE Monday afternoon following, Patty and Priscilla, with two or three
+other girls, came strolling back from the lake, jingling their skates
+over their arms.
+
+"Come in, girls, and have some hot tea," said Priscilla, as they reached
+the study door.
+
+"Here's a note for Patty," said Bonnie Connaught, picking up an envelop
+from the table. "Terribly official-looking. Must have come in the
+college mail. Open it, Patty, and let's see what you've flunked."
+
+"Dear me!" said Patty, "I thought that was a habit I'd outgrown freshman
+year."
+
+They crowded around and read the note over her shoulder. Patty had no
+secrets.
+
+                              THE OBSERVATORY, January 20.
+          Miss Patty Wyatt.
+
+          DEAR MISS WYATT: I am informed that you are the
+          correspondent for the "Saturday Evening
+          Post-Despatch," and I take the liberty of calling
+          your attention to a rather grave error which
+          occurred in last week's issue. You stated that the
+          Lick Observatory is in Dublin, Ireland, while, as
+          is a matter of general information, it is situated
+          near San Francisco, California. Professor James
+          Harkner Wallis is not an Irishman; he is an
+          American. Though he has carried on some very
+          important investigations, he is the discoverer of
+          neither the rings of Saturn nor the Milky Way.
+
+                                    Very truly yours,
+                                            HOWARD D. PHELPS.
+
+"It's from Professor Phelps--what can he mean?" said the Twin, in
+bewilderment.
+
+"Oh, Patty," groaned Priscilla, "you don't mean to say that you actually
+believed all that stuff?"
+
+"Of course I believed it. How could I know she was lying?"
+
+"She wasn't lying. Don't use such reckless language."
+
+"I'd like to know what you call it, then?" said Patty, angrily.
+
+"Local color, my dear, just local color. The worm will turn, you know."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me?" wailed Patty.
+
+"Never supposed for a moment you believed her. Thought you were joking
+all the time."
+
+"What's the matter, Patty? What have you done?" the others demanded,
+divided between a pardonable feeling of curiosity and a sense that they
+ought to retire before this domestic tragedy.
+
+"Oh, tell them," said Patty, bitterly. "Tell every one you see. Shout it
+from the dome of the observatory. You might as well; it'll be all over
+college in a couple of hours."
+
+Priscilla explained, and as she explained the funny side began to strike
+her. By the time she had finished they were all--except Patty--reduced
+to hysterics.
+
+"The poor editor," gurgled Priscilla. "He's always after a scoop, and
+he's certainly got one this time."
+
+"Where is it, Patty--the paper?" gasped Bonnie.
+
+"I threw it away," said Patty, sulkily.
+
+Priscilla rummaged it out of the waste-basket, and the four bent over it
+delightedly.
+
+          Ireland's eminent astronomer spending a few weeks
+          in America lecturing at the principal
+          colleges--His famous discovery of the rings of
+          Saturn made during a balloon ascension three
+          thousand feet in the air--Though this is his first
+          visit to the States, he speaks with only a slight
+          brogue--Loyal son of old Erin
+
+"Patty, Patty! And you, of all people, to be so gullible!"
+
+"Professor James Harkner Wallis's parents will be writing to Prexy next
+to say that their son can't lecture here any more if he is to be
+subjected to this sort of thing."
+
+"It's disgusting!" said Bonnie Connaught, feelingly.
+
+"When you've got through laughing, I wish you'd tell me what to do."
+
+"Tell Professor Phelps it was a slip of the pen."
+
+"A slip of the pen to the extent of half a column is good," said the
+Twin.
+
+"I think you girls are beastly to laugh when I am probably being
+expelled this minute."
+
+"Faculty meeting doesn't come till four," said Bonnie.
+
+Patty sat down by the desk and buried her head in her arms.
+
+"Patty," said Priscilla, "you aren't crying, are you?"
+
+"No," said Patty, savagely; "I'm thinking."
+
+"You will never think of anything that will explain that."
+
+Patty looked up with the air of one who has received an inspiration.
+"I'm going to tell him the truth."
+
+"Don't do anything so rash," pleaded the Twin.
+
+"That is, of course, the only thing you can do," said Priscilla. "Sit
+down and write him a note, and I'll promise not to laugh till you get
+through."
+
+Patty stood up. "I think," she said, "I'll go and see him."
+
+"Oh, no. Write him a note. It's loads easier."
+
+"No," said Patty, with dignity; "I think I owe him a personal
+explanation. Is my hair all right? If you girls reveal this to a single
+person before I come back, I'll not tell you a thing he says," she added
+as she closed the door.
+
+Patty returned half an hour later, just as they were finally settling
+down to tea. She peered around the darkening room; finding only four
+expectant faces, she leisurely seated herself on a cushion on the floor
+and stretched out her hand for a steaming cup.
+
+"What did he say? What kept you so long?"
+
+"Oh, I stopped in the office to change my electives, and it delayed me."
+
+"You don't mean to tell me that man made you elect astronomy?"
+Priscilla asked indignantly.
+
+"Certainly not," said Patty. "I shouldn't have done it if he had."
+
+"Oh, Patty, I know you like to tease, but I think it's odious. You know
+we're in suspense. Tell us what happened."
+
+"Well," said Patty, placidly gathering her skirts about her, "I told him
+exactly how it was. I didn't hide anything--not even the bride with the
+mumps."
+
+"Was he cross, or did he laugh?"
+
+"He laughed," said Patty, "till I thought he was going to fall off his
+chair, and I looked anxiously around for some water and a call-bell. He
+really has a surprising sense of humor for a member of the faculty."
+
+"Was he nice?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "he was a dear. When he got through discussing
+Universal Truth, I asked him if I might elect astronomy, and he said I
+would find it pretty hard the second semester; but I told him I was
+willing to work, and he said I really showed a remarkable aptitude for
+explaining phenomena, and that if I were in earnest he would be glad to
+have me in the class."
+
+"I think a man as forgiving as that _ought_ to be elected," said
+Priscilla.
+
+"You certainly have more courage than I gave you credit for," said
+Bonnie. "I never could have gone over and explained to that man in the
+wide world."
+
+Patty smiled discreetly. "When you have to explain to a woman," she said
+in the tone of one who is stating a natural law, "it is better to write
+a note; but when it is a man, always explain in person."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+The Exigencies of Etiquette
+
+
+"If I had been the one to invent etiquette," said Patty, "I should have
+made party calls payable one year after date, and then should have
+allowed three days' grace at the end."
+
+"In which case," said Priscilla, "I suppose you would get out of calling
+on Mrs. Millard altogether."
+
+"Exactly," said Patty.
+
+Mrs. Millard--more familiarly referred to as Mrs. Prexy--annually
+invited the seniors to dinner in parties of ten. Patty, whose turn had
+come a short time before, owing to an untoward misfortune, had been in
+the infirmary at the time; but, though she had missed the fun, she now
+found it necessary to pay the call.
+
+"Of course," she resumed, "I can see why you should be expected to call
+if you attend the function and partake of the food; but what I _can't_
+understand is why a peaceable citizen who desires only to gang his ain
+gait should, upon the reception of an entirely unsolicited invitation,
+suddenly find it incumbent upon him to put on his best dress and his
+best hat and gloves in order to call upon people he barely knows."
+
+"Your genders," said Priscilla, "are a trifle mixed."
+
+"That," said Patty, "is the fault of the language. The logic, I think,
+you will find correct. You can see what would happen," she pursued, "if
+you carry it out to its logical conclusion. Suppose, for instance, that
+every woman I have ever met in this town should suddenly take it into
+her head to invite me to a dinner. Here I--perfectly unsuspicious and
+innocent of any evil, because of a purely arbitrary law which I did not
+help to make--would not only have to sit down and write a hundred
+regrets, but would have to pay a hundred calls within the next two
+weeks. It makes me shudder to think of it!"
+
+"I don't believe you need worry about it, Patty; of course we know
+you're popular, but you're not as popular as that."
+
+"No," said Patty; "I didn't mean that I thought I really _should_ get
+that many invitations. It's only that one is open to the constant
+danger."
+
+During the progress of this conversation Georgie Merriles had been
+lounging on the couch by the window, reading the "Merchant of Venice" in
+a critically unimpassioned way that the instructor in Dramatic Theory
+could not have praised too much. The room finally having become too dark
+for reading, she threw down the book with something like a yawn. "It
+would have been a joke on Portia," she remarked, "if Bassanio had chosen
+the wrong casket"; and she turned her attention to the campus outside.
+Groups of girls were coming along the path from the lake, and the sound
+of their voices, mingled with laughter and the jingling of skates,
+floated up through the gathering dusk. Across the stretches of snow and
+bare trees lights were beginning to twinkle in the other dormitories,
+while nearer at hand, and more clearly visible, rose the irregular
+outline of the president's house.
+
+"Patty," said Georgie, with her nose against the pane, "if you really
+want to get that call out of the way, now's your chance. Mrs. Millard
+has just gone out."
+
+Patty dashed into her bedroom and began jerking out bureau drawers.
+"Priscilla," she called in an agonized tone, "do you remember where I
+keep my cards?"
+
+"It's ten minutes of six, Patty; you can't go now."
+
+"Yes, I can. It doesn't matter what time it is, so long as she's out.
+I'll go just as I am."
+
+"Not in a golf-cape!"
+
+Patty hesitated an instant. "Well," she admitted, "I suppose the butler
+might tell her. I'll put on a hat"--this with the air of one who is
+making a really great concession. Some more banging of bureau drawers,
+and she appeared in a black velvet hat trimmed with lace, with the brown
+jacket of her suit over her red blouse, and a blue golf-skirt and very
+muddy boots showing below.
+
+"Patty, you're a disgrace to the room!" cried Priscilla. "Do you mean to
+tell me that you are going to Mrs. Millard's in a short skirt and those
+awful skating-shoes?"
+
+"The butler won't look at my feet; I'm so beautiful above"; and Patty
+banged the door behind her.
+
+Georgie and Priscilla flattened themselves against the window to watch
+the progress of the call.
+
+"Look," gasped Priscilla. "There's Mrs. Millard going in at the back
+door."
+
+"And there's Patty. My, but she looks funny!"
+
+"Call her back," cried Priscilla, wildly trying to open the window.
+
+"Let her alone," laughed Georgie; "it will be such fun to gloat over
+her."
+
+The window came up with a jerk. "Patty! Patty!" shrieked Priscilla.
+
+Patty turned and waved her hand airily. "Can't stop now--will be back in
+a moment"; and she sped on around the corner.
+
+The two stood watching the house for several minutes, vaguely expecting
+an explosion of some sort to occur. But nothing happened. Patty was
+swallowed as if by the grave, and the house gave no sign. They
+accordingly shrugged their shoulders and dressed for dinner with the
+philosophy which a life fraught with alarms and surprises gives.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DINNER was half over, and the table had finished discussing Patty's
+demise, when that young lady trailed placidly in, smiled on the
+expectant faces, and inquired what kind of soup they had had.
+
+"Bean soup; it wasn't any good," said Georgie, impatiently. "What
+happened? Did you have a nice call?"
+
+"No, Maggie, I don't care for any soup to-night. Just bring me some
+steak, please."
+
+"Patty!" in a pleading chorus, "what happened?"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Patty, sweetly. "Yes, thank you, I had a
+very pleasant call. May I trouble you for the bread, Lucille?"
+
+"Patty, I think you're obnoxious," said Georgie. "Tell us what
+happened."
+
+"Well," began Patty, in a leisurely manner, "I said to the butler, 'Is
+Mrs. Millard in?' and he said to me (without even a smile), 'I am not
+sure, miss; will you please step into the drawing-room and I'll see.' I
+was going to tell him that he needn't bother, as I knew she was out; but
+I thought that perhaps it would look a little better if I waited and let
+him find out for himself. So I walked in and sat down in a
+pink-and-white embroidered _Louis-Quatorze_ chair. There was a big
+mirror in front of me, and I had plenty of time to study the effect,
+which, I will acknowledge, was a trifle mixed."
+
+"A trifle," Georgie assented.
+
+"I was beginning," pursued Patty, "to feel nervous for fear some of the
+family might drop in, when the man came back and said, 'Mrs. Millard
+will be down in a minute.'
+
+"If I had seen you at that moment, Georgie Merriles, there would have
+been battle, murder, and sudden death. My first thought was of flight;
+but the man was guarding the door, and Mrs. Prexy had my card. While I
+was frenziedly trying to think of a valid excuse for my costume the lady
+came in, and I rose and greeted her graciously, one might almost say
+gushingly. I talked very fast and tried to hypnotize her, so that she
+would keep her eyes on my face; but it was no use: I saw them traveling
+downward, and pretty soon I knew by the amused expression that they had
+arrived at my shoes.
+
+"Concealment was no longer possible," pursued Patty, warming to her
+subject. "I threw myself upon her mercy and confessed the whole damning
+truth. What kind of ice-cream is that?" she demanded, leaning forward
+and gazing anxiously after a passing maid. "_Don't_ tell me they're
+giving us raspberry again!"
+
+"No; it's vanilla. Go on, Patty."
+
+"Well, where was I?"
+
+"You'd just told her the truth."
+
+"Oh, yes. She said she'd always wanted to meet the college girls
+informally and know them just as they are, and she was very glad of this
+opportunity. And there I sat, looking like a kaleidoscope and feeling
+like a fool, and she taking it for granted that I was being perfectly
+natural. Complimentary, wasn't it? At this point dinner was announced,
+and she invited me to stay--quite insisted, in fact, to make up, she
+said, for the one I had missed when I was ill in the infirmary." Patty
+looked around the table with a reminiscent smile.
+
+"What did you say? Did you refuse?" asked Lucille.
+
+"No; I accepted, and am over there at present, eating _pâté de foie
+gras_."
+
+"No, really, Patty; what did you say?"
+
+"Well," said Patty, "I told her that this was ice-cream night at the
+college, and that I sort of hated to miss it; but that to-morrow would
+be mutton night, which I didn't mind missing in the least; so if she
+would just as leave transfer her invitation, I would accept for
+to-morrow with pleasure."
+
+"Patty," exclaimed Lucille, in a horrified tone, "you didn't say that!"
+
+"Just a little local color, Lucille," laughed Priscilla.
+
+"But," objected Lucille, "we'd promised not to play local color any
+more."
+
+"Have you not learned," said Priscilla, "that Patty can no more live
+without local color than she can live without food? It's ingrained in
+her nature."
+
+"Never mind," said Patty, good-naturedly; "you may not believe me now,
+but to-morrow night, when I'm all dressed up in beautiful clothes,
+swapping stories with Prexy and eating lobster salad, while you are over
+here having mutton, _then_ maybe you'll be sorry."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+A Crash Without
+
+
+"I love the smell of powder," said Patty.
+
+"Gunpowder or baking-powder?"
+
+As Patty at the moment had her nose buried in a box of face-powder she
+thought it unnecessary to answer.
+
+"It brings back my youth," she pursued. "The best times of my life have
+been mixed up with powder and rouge--Washington's Birthday nights, and
+minstrel shows, and masquerades, and plays at boarding-school, and even
+Mother Goose tableaux when I was a--"
+
+Patty's reminiscences were interrupted by Georgie, who was anxiously
+pacing up and down the wings. "It's queer some of the cast don't come. I
+told them to be here early, so we could get them all made up and not
+have a rush at the end."
+
+"Oh, there's time enough," said Patty, comfortably. "It isn't seven yet,
+and if they're going to dress in their rooms it won't take any time over
+here just to make them up and put on their wigs. It's a comparatively
+small cast, you see. Now, on the night of the Trig. ceremonies, when we
+had to make up three whole ballets and only had one box of make-up, we
+_were_ rushed. I thought I'd never live to see the curtain go down. Do
+you remember the suit of chain-mail we made for Bonnie Connaught out of
+wire dish-cloths? It took sixty-three, and the ten-cent store was
+terribly dubious about renting them to us; and then, after working every
+spare second for three days over the thing, we found, the last minute,
+that we hadn't left a big enough hole for her to get into, and--"
+
+"Oh, do keep still, Patty," said Georgie, nervously; "I can't remember
+what I have to do when you talk all the time."
+
+A manager on the eve of producing a new play, with his reputation at
+stake, may be excused for being a trifle irritable. Patty merely
+shrugged her shoulders and descended through the stage-door to the
+half-lighted hall, where she found Cathy Fair strolling up and down the
+center aisle in an apparently aimless manner.
+
+"Hello, Cathy," said Patty; "what are you doing over here?"
+
+"I'm head usher, and I wanted to see if those foolish sophomores had
+mixed up the numbers again."
+
+"It strikes me they're a trifle close together," said Patty, sitting
+down and squeezing in her knees.
+
+"Yes, I know; but you can't get eight hundred people into this hall any
+other way. When we once get them packed they'll have to sit still,
+that's all. What are you doing over here yourself?" she continued. "I
+didn't know you were on the committee. Or are you just helping
+Georgie?"
+
+"I'm in the cast," said Patty.
+
+"Oh, are you? I saw the program to-day, but I'd forgotten it. I've often
+wondered why you haven't been in any of the class plays."
+
+"Fortune and the faculty are against it," sighed Patty. "You see, they
+didn't discover my histrionic ability before examinations freshman year,
+and after examinations, when I was asked to be in the play, the faculty
+thought I could spend the time to better advantage studying Greek. At
+the time of the sophomore play I was on something else and couldn't
+serve, and this year I had just been deprived of my privileges for
+coming back late after Christmas."
+
+"But I thought you said you were in it?"
+
+"Oh," said Patty, "it's a minor part, and my name doesn't appear."
+
+"What sort of a part is it?"
+
+"I'm a crash."
+
+"A crash?"
+
+"Yes, 'a crash without.' Lord Bromley says, 'Cynthia, I will brave all
+for your sake. I will follow you to the ends of the earth.' At this
+point a crash is heard without. I," said Patty, proudly, "am the crash.
+I sit behind a moonlit balcony in a space about two feet square, and
+drop a lamp-chimney into a box. It may not sound like a very important
+part, but it is the pivot upon which the whole plot turns."
+
+"I hope you won't be taken with stage-fright," laughed Cathy.
+
+"I'll try not," said Patty. "There comes the butler and Lord Bromley and
+Cynthia. I've got to go and make them up."
+
+"Why are you making people up, if you are not on the committee?"
+
+"Oh, once, during a period of mental weakness, I took china-painting
+lessons, and I'm supposed to know how. Good-by."
+
+"Good-by. If you get any flowers I'll send them in by an usher."
+
+"Do," said Patty. "I'm sure to get a lot."
+
+Behind the scenes all was joyful confusion. Georgie, in a short skirt,
+with her shirt-waist sleeves rolled up and a note-book in her hand, was
+standing in the middle of the stage directing the scene-shifters and
+distracted committee. Patty, in the "green-room," was presiding over the
+cast, with a hare's foot in one hand and the other daubed with red and
+blue grease-paints.
+
+"Oh, Patty," remonstrated Cynthia, with a horrified glance in the
+mirror, "I look more like a soubrette than a heroine."
+
+"That's the way you ought to look," returned Patty. "Here, hold still
+till I put another dab on your chin."
+
+Cynthia appealed to the faithful Lord Bromley, who was sitting in the
+background, politely letting the ladies go first. "Look, Bonnie, don't
+you think I'm too red? I know it'll all come off when you kiss me."
+
+"If it comes off as easily as that, you'll be more fortunate than most
+of the people I make up"; and Patty smiled knowingly as she remembered
+how Priscilla had soaked half the night on the occasion of a previous
+play, and then had appeared at breakfast the next morning with lowering
+eyebrows and a hectic flush on each cheek. "You must remember that
+foot-lights take a lot of color," she explained condescendingly. "You'd
+look ghastly if I let you go the way you wanted to at first. Next!
+
+"No," said Patty, as the butler presented himself; "you don't come till
+the second act. I'll take the Irate Parent first." The Irate Parent was
+dragged from a corner where he had been anxiously mumbling over his
+lines. "What's the matter?" asked Patty, as she began daubing in
+wrinkles with a liberal hand; "are you afraid?"
+
+"N-no," said the Parent; "I'm not afraid, only I'm afraid that I will be
+afraid."
+
+"You'd just better change your mind, then," said Patty, sternly. "We
+aren't going to allow any stage-fright to-night."
+
+"Patty, you can manage Georgie Merriles; make her let me go on without
+any wig," cried Cynthia, returning and holding up to view a mass of
+yellow curls of a shade that was never produced in the course of nature.
+
+Patty looked at the wig critically. "It is, perhaps, a trifle golden for
+the part."
+
+"Golden!" said Cynthia. "It's positively _orange_. Wait till you see how
+it lights up. He calls me his dark-eyed beauty: and I'm sure no one with
+dark eyes, or any other kind of eyes, would have hair like that. My own
+looks a great deal better."
+
+"Why don't you wear your own, then? Wrinkle up your forehead, Parent,
+and let me see which way they run."
+
+"Georgie paid two dollars for renting it, and she's bound to get the
+money's worth of wear out of it, even if she makes me look like a fright
+and spoils the play."
+
+"Nonsense," said Patty, pushing away the Parent and giving her undivided
+attention to the question. "Your own hair does look better. Just mislay
+the wig and keep out of Georgie's way till the curtain goes up. The
+audience are beginning to come," she announced to the room in general,
+"and you've got to keep still back there. You're making an awful racket,
+and they can hear you all over the house. Here, what are you making such
+a noise for?" she demanded of Lord Bromley, who came clumping up with
+footfalls which reverberated through the flies.
+
+"I can't help it," he said crossly. "Look at these boots. They're so big
+that I can step out of them without unlacing them."
+
+"It's not my fault. I haven't anything to do with the costumes."
+
+"I know it; but what can I do?"
+
+"Never mind," said Patty, soothingly; "they don't look so awfully bad.
+You'll have to try and walk without raising your feet."
+
+She went out on the stage, where Georgie was giving her last directions
+to the scene-shifters. "The minute the curtain goes down on the first
+act change this forest to the drawing-room scene, and don't make any
+noise hammering. If you have to hammer, do it while the orchestra's
+playing. How does it look?" she asked anxiously, turning to Patty.
+
+"Beautiful," said Patty. "I'd scarcely recognize it."
+
+The "forest scene" had served in every outdoor capacity for the last
+four years, and it was usually hailed with a groan on the part of the
+audience.
+
+"I was just coming in to see if the cast were ready," said Georgie.
+
+"They're all made up, and are sitting in the green-room getting
+stage-fright. What shall I do now?"
+
+"Let me see," said Georgie, consulting her book. "One of the committee
+is to prompt, one is to stay with the men and see that they manage the
+curtain and the lights in the right places, one is to give the cues, and
+two are to help change costumes. Cynthia has to change from a
+riding-habit to a ball-gown in four minutes. I think you'd better help
+her, too."
+
+"Anything you please," said Patty, obligingly. "I'll stand on a stool
+with the ball-gown in the air ready to drop it over her head the moment
+she appears, like a harness on a fire-horse. Is everything out here
+done? What time is it?"
+
+"Yes; everything's done, and it's five minutes of eight. We can begin as
+soon as the audience is ready."
+
+They peered through the folds of the heavy velvet curtain at the sea of
+faces in front. Eight hundred girls in light evening-gowns were talking
+and laughing and singing. Snatches of song would start up in one corner
+and sweep gaily over the house, and sometimes two would meet and clash
+in the center, to the horror of those who preferred harmony to volume.
+
+"Here come the old girls!" said Patty, as a procession of some fifty
+filed into reserved seats near the front. "There are loads of last
+year's class back. What are the juniors doing? Look; I believe they are
+going to serenade them."
+
+The juniors rose in a body, and, turning to their departed sister class,
+sang a song notable for its sentiment rather than its meter.
+
+"I do hope it will be a success," sighed Georgie. "If it doesn't come up
+to last year's senior play I shall _die_."
+
+"Oh, it will," said Patty, reassuringly. "Anything would be better than
+that."
+
+"Now the glee club's going to sing two songs," said Georgie. "Thank
+heaven, they're new!" she added fervently. "And the orchestra plays an
+overture, and then the curtain goes up. Run and tell them to come out
+here, ready for the first act."
+
+Lord Bromley was standing in the wings disgustedly viewing the
+banquet-table. "See here, Patty," he called as she hurried past. "Look
+at this stuff Georgie Merriles has palmed off on us for wine. You can't
+expect me to drink any such dope as _that_."
+
+Patty paused for an instant. "What's the matter with it?" she inquired,
+pouring out some in a glass and holding it up to the light.
+
+"Matter? It's made of currant jelly and water, with cold tea mixed in."
+
+"I made it myself," said Patty, with some dignity. "It's a beautiful
+color."
+
+"But I have to drain my glass at a draught," expostulated the outraged
+lord.
+
+"I'm sure there's nothing in currant jelly or tea to hurt you. You can
+be thankful it isn't poisonous." And Patty hurried on.
+
+The glee club sang the two new songs, punctuated with the appreciative
+applause of a long-suffering audience, and the orchestra commenced the
+overture.
+
+"Everybody clear the stage," said Georgie, in a low tone, "and you keep
+your eyes on the book," she added sternly to the prompter; "you lost
+your place twice at the dress rehearsal."
+
+The overture died down; a bell tinkled, and the curtain parted in the
+middle, discovering Cynthia sitting on a garden-seat in the castle park
+(originally the Forest of Arden).
+
+As the curtain fell at the end of the act, and the applause gave way to
+an excited buzz in the audience, Patty hugged Georgie gleefully. "It's
+fifty times better than last year!"
+
+"Heaven send Theo Granby is out there!" piously ejaculated Georgie.
+(Theo Granby had been the chairman of last year's senior play.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE curtain had risen on the fourth act, and Patty squeezed herself into
+the somewhat close quarters behind the balcony. There was
+fortunately--or rather unfortunately--a window in the rear of the
+building at this point, and Patty opened it and perched herself at one
+end of the sill, with the lamp-chimney ready for use at the other end.
+The crash was not due for some time, and Patty, having lately elected
+astronomy, whiled away the interval by examining the stars.
+
+On the stage matters were approaching a climax. Lord Bromley was making
+an excellent lover, as was proved by the fact that the audience was
+taking him seriously instead of laughing through the love scenes as
+usual.
+
+"Cynthia," he implored, "say that you will be mine, and I will brave all
+for your sake. I will follow you to the ends of the earth." He gazed
+tenderly into her eyes, and waited for the crash. A silence as of the
+tomb prevailed, and he continued to gaze tenderly, while a grin rapidly
+spread over the audience.
+
+"Hang Patty!" he murmured savagely. "Might have known she'd do something
+like this.--What was that? Did you hear a noise?" he asked aloud.
+
+"No," said Cynthia, truthfully; "I did not hear anything."
+
+"Pretend you did," he whispered, and they continued to improvise. After
+some five minutes of hopeless floundering, the prompter got them back on
+the track again, and the act proceeded, with the audience happily
+unaware that anything was missing.
+
+Ten minutes later Lord Bromley was declaiming: "Cynthia, let us flee
+this place. Its dark rooms haunt me; its silence oppresses me--" And the
+crash came.
+
+For the first moment the audience was too startled to notice that the
+actors were also taken by surprise. Then Lord Bromley, who was getting
+used to emergencies, pulled himself together and ejaculated, "Hark! What
+was that sound?"
+
+"I think it was a crash," said Cynthia.
+
+He grasped her hand and ran back toward the balcony. "Give us our
+lines," he said to the prompter, as he went past.
+
+The prompter had dropped the book, and couldn't find the place.
+
+"Make them up," came in a piercing whisper from behind the balcony.
+
+A silence ensued while the two dashed back and forth, looking excitedly
+up and down the stage. Then the despairing Lord Bromley stretched out
+his arms in a gesture of supplication. "Cynthia," he burst out in tones
+of realistic longing, "I cannot bear this horrible suspense. Let us
+flee." And they fled, fully three pages too early, forgetting to leave
+the letter which should have apprised the Irate Parent of the
+circumstance.
+
+Georgie was tramping up and down the wings, wringing her hands and
+lamenting the day that ever Patty had been born.
+
+"Hurry up that Parent before they stop clapping," said Lord Bromley,
+"and they'll never know the difference."
+
+The poor old man, with his wig over one ear, was unceremoniously hustled
+on to the stage, where he raved up and down and swore never to forgive
+his ungrateful daughter in so realistic a manner that the audience
+forgot to wonder how he found it out. In due time the runaways returned
+from the notary's, overcame the old man's harshness, received the
+parental blessing, and the curtain fell on a scene of domestic felicity
+that delighted the freshmen in the gallery.
+
+Patty crawled out from under the balcony and fell on her knees at
+Georgie's feet.
+
+Lord Bromley raised her up. "Never mind, Patty. The audience doesn't
+know the difference; and, anyway, it was all for the best. My mustache
+wouldn't have stayed on more than two minutes longer."
+
+They could hear some one shouting in the front, "What's the matter with
+Georgie Merriles?" and a hundred voices replied, "She's all right!"
+
+"Who's all right?"
+
+"G-e-o-r-g-i-e M-e-r-r-i-l-e-s."
+
+"What's the matter with the cast?"
+
+"They're all right!"
+
+The stage-door burst open and a crowd of congratulatory friends burst in
+and gathered around the disheveled actors and committee. "It's the best
+senior play since we've been in college." "The freshmen are simply crazy
+over it." "Lord Bromley, your room will be full of flowers for a month."
+"Patty," called the head usher, over the heads of the others, "let me
+congratulate you. I was in the very back of the room, and never heard a
+thing but your crash. It sounded _fine_!"
+
+"Patty," demanded Georgie, "what in the world were you doing?"
+
+"I was counting the stars," said the contrite Patty, "and then I
+remembered too late, and I turned around suddenly, and it fell off. I am
+terribly sorry."
+
+"Never mind," laughed Georgie; "since it turned out well, I'll forgive
+you. All the cast and committee," she said, raising her voice, "come up
+to my room for food. I'm sorry I can't invite you all," she added to the
+girls crowded in the doorway, "but I live in a single."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+The Mystery of the Shadowed Sophomore
+
+
+"Oh, I say, Bonnie--Bonnie Connaught! Priscilla! Wait a minute," called
+a girl from across the links, as the two were strolling homeward one
+afternoon, dragging their caddie-bags behind them. They turned and
+waited while Bonnie's sophomore cousin, Mildred Connaught, dashed up.
+She grasped them excitedly, and at the same time glanced over her
+shoulder with the air of a criminal who is being tracked.
+
+"I want to tell you something," she panted. "Come in here where no one
+will see us"; and she dived into a clump of pine-trees growing by the
+path.
+
+Priscilla and Bonnie followed more leisurely, and dropped down on the
+soft needles with an air of amused tolerance.
+
+"Well, Mildred, what's the matter?" Bonnie inquired mildly.
+
+The sophomore lowered her voice to an impressive whisper, although there
+was not a person within a hundred yards. "I am being _followed_," she
+said solemnly.
+
+"Followed!" exclaimed Bonnie, in amazement. "Are you crazy, child? You
+act like a boy who's been reading dime novels."
+
+"Listen, girls. You mustn't tell a soul, because it's a great secret.
+We're going to plant the class tree to-night, and I am chairman of the
+ceremonies. Everything is ready--the costumes are finished and the plans
+all arranged so that the class can get out to the place without being
+seen. The freshmen haven't a suspicion that it's going to be to-night.
+But they have found out that I'm chairman of the committee, and, if you
+please,"--Mildred's eyes grew wide with excitement,--"they've been
+_tracking_ me for a week. They have _relays_ of girls appointed to
+watch me, and I can't stir without a freshman tagging along behind. When
+I went down to order the ice-cream, there was one right at my elbow, and
+I had to pretend that I'd come for soda-water. I have simply had to let
+the rest of the committee do all of the work, because I was so afraid
+the freshmen would find out the time. It was funny at first, but I am
+getting nervous. It's horrible to think that you're being watched all
+the time. I feel as if I'd committed a murder, and keep looking over my
+shoulder like--like Macbeth."
+
+"It's _awful_," Bonnie shuddered. "I'm thrilled to the bone to think of
+the peril a member of my family is braving for the sake of her class."
+
+"You needn't laugh," said Mildred. "It's a serious matter. If those
+freshmen come to our tree ceremonies, we'll never hear the last of it.
+But they are not going to come," she added with a meaning smile. "They
+have another engagement. We chose to-night because there's a lecture
+before the Archæological Society by some alumna person who's been
+digging up remains in Rome. The freshmen have been told to go and hear
+her on account of their Latin. Imagine their feelings when they are
+cooped up in the auditorium, trying to look intelligent about the Roman
+Forum, and listening to our yells outside!"
+
+Priscilla and Bonnie smiled appreciatively. It was not so long, after
+all, since they themselves were sophomores, and they recalled their own
+tree ceremonies, when the freshmen had _not_ been cooped up.
+
+"But the trouble is," pursued Mildred, "that it's more important for me
+to get there than any one else, because I have to dig the hole,--Peters
+is really going to dig it, you know; I just take out the first
+shovelful,--but I can't get there on account of that beastly scout. As
+soon as she saw me acting suspicious, she'd run and warn the class."
+
+"I see," said Bonnie; "but what have Priscilla and I to do with it?"
+
+"Well," said Mildred, tentatively, "you're both pretty big, you know,
+and you're our sister class, and you ought to help us."
+
+"Certainly," acquiesced Bonnie; "but in just what way?"
+
+"Well, my idea was this. If you would just stroll down by the lake after
+chapel, and loiter sort of inconspicuously among the trees, you know, I
+would come that way a little later, and then, when the detective person
+came along after me, you could just nab her and--"
+
+"Chuck her in the lake?" asked Bonnie.
+
+"No, of course not. Don't use any force. Just politely detain her till
+you hear us yelling--take her for a walk. She'd feel honored."
+
+Bonnie laughed. The program struck her as entertaining. "I don't see
+anything very immoral in delaying a freshman who is going where she has
+no business to go. What do you say, Pris?"
+
+"It's not exactly a Sunday-school excursion," acknowledged Priscilla,
+"but I don't see why it isn't as legitimate for us to play detective as
+for them."
+
+"By all means," said Bonnie. "Behold Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr.
+Watson about to solve the Mystery of the Shadowed Sophomore."
+
+"You've saved my life," said Mildred, feelingly. "Don't forget. Right
+after chapel, by the lake." She peered warily out through the branches.
+"I've got to get the keys to the gymnasium, so the refreshments can be
+put in during chapel. Do you see anybody lurking about? I guess I can
+get off without being seen. Good-by"; and she sped away like a hunted
+animal.
+
+Bonnie looked after her and laughed. "'Youth is a great time, but
+somewhat fussy,'" she quoted; and the two took their homeward way.
+
+They found Patty, who was experiencing a periodical fit of studying,
+immersed in dictionaries and grammars. It was under protest that she
+allowed herself to be interrupted long enough to hear the story of their
+proposed adventure.
+
+"You babies!" she exclaimed. "Haven't you grown up yet? Don't you think
+it's a little undignified for seniors--one might almost say alumnæ--to
+be kidnapping freshmen?"
+
+"We're not kidnapping freshmen," Bonnie remonstrated; "we're teaching
+them manners. It's my duty to protect my little cousin."
+
+"You can come with us and help detect," said Priscilla, generously.
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, loftily. "I haven't time to play with you
+children. Cathy Fair and I are going to do Old English to-night."
+
+That evening, as Patty, keyed to the point of grappling with and
+throwing whole pages of "Beowulf," stood outside the chapel door waiting
+for Cathy to appear, the professor of Latin came out with a stranger.
+
+"Oh, Miss Wyatt!" she exclaimed in a relieved tone, pouncing upon Patty.
+"I wish to present you to Miss Henderson, one of our alumnæ who is to
+lecture to-night before the Archæological Society. She has not been back
+for several years, and wishes to see the new buildings. Have you time to
+show her around the campus a little before the lecture begins?"
+
+Patty bowed and murmured that she would be most happy, and cast an
+agonized glance back at Cathy as she led the lecturer off. As they
+strolled about, Patty poured out all the statistics she knew about the
+various buildings, and Miss Henderson received them with exclamations of
+delighted surprise. She was rather young and gushing for a Ph.D. and an
+archæologist, Patty decided, and she wondered desperately how she could
+dispose of her and get back to "Beowulf" and Cathy.
+
+They rounded the top of a little hill, and Miss Henderson exclaimed
+delightedly, "There is the lake, just as it used to be!"
+
+Patty stifled a desire to remark that lakes had a habit of staying where
+they used to be, and asked politely if Miss Henderson would like to take
+a row.
+
+Miss Henderson thought that it would be pleasant; but she had forgotten
+her watch, and was afraid there would not be time.
+
+Patty glanced about vaguely for some further object of interest, and
+spied Mildred Connaught sauntering toward the lake. She had forgotten
+all about the Sherlock Holmes adventure, and she suddenly had an
+inspiration. Be it said to her credit that she hesitated a moment; but
+the lecturer's next remark led to her own undoing. She was murmuring
+something about feeling like a stranger, and wishing that she might know
+the students informally and see a little of the real college life.
+
+"It would be a pity not to gratify her when I can do it so easily,"
+Patty told herself; and she added out loud, "I am sure we have time for
+a little row, Miss Henderson. You walk on, and I will run back and get
+my watch; it won't take a minute."
+
+"I wouldn't have you do that; it is too much trouble," remonstrated Miss
+Henderson.
+
+"It's no trouble whatever," Patty protested kindly. "I can take a cross
+cut, and meet you at the little summer-house where the boats are moored.
+It's straight down this path; you can't miss it. Just follow that girl
+over there"; and she darted away.
+
+The lecturer gazed dubiously after her a moment, and then started on
+after the girl, who cast a look over her shoulder and quickened her
+pace. It was growing quite dusky under the trees, and the lecturer
+hurried on, trying to keep the girl in sight; but she unexpectedly
+turned a corner and disappeared, and at the same moment two strange
+girls suddenly dropped into the path, apparently from the tree-tops.
+
+"Good evening," they said pleasantly. "Are you taking a walk?"
+
+The lecturer started back with an exclamation of surprise; but as soon
+as she could regain her composure, she replied politely that she was
+strolling about and looking at the campus.
+
+"Perhaps you would like to stroll with us?" they inquired.
+
+"Thank you, you are very kind; but I have an engagement to row with one
+of the students."
+
+Priscilla and Bonnie exchanged delighted glances. They had evidently
+caught a resourceful young person.
+
+"Oh, no; it's too late for a row. You might get malaria," Priscilla
+remonstrated. "Come and sit on the fence with us and admire the stars;
+it's a lovely night."
+
+The lecturer cast an alarmed glance toward the fence, which appeared to
+have an unusually narrow top rail. "You are very kind," she stammered,
+"but I really can't stop. The girl will be waiting."
+
+"Who is the girl?" they inquired.
+
+"I don't know that I remember her name."
+
+"Mildred Connaught?" Bonnie suggested.
+
+"No; I don't think that is it, but I really can't say. I have only just
+met her."
+
+Miss Henderson was growing more and more puzzled. In her day the
+students had not been in the habit of way-laying strangers with
+invitations to go walking and sit on fences.
+
+"Ah, _do_ stay with us," Bonnie begged, laying a hand on her arm. "We're
+lonely and want some one to talk to--we'll tell you a secret if you do."
+
+"I am sorry," Miss Henderson murmured confusedly, "but--"
+
+"We'll tell you the secret anyway," said Bonnie, generously, "and I'm
+sure you'll be interested. The sophomores are going to have their tree
+ceremonies to-night!"
+
+"And you know," Priscilla broke in, "that the freshmen really ought to
+attend them too--it doesn't matter if they aren't invited. But where do
+you suppose the freshmen are to-night? They're attending a foolish
+little lecture on the Roman Forum."
+
+"And though we don't wish to seem insistent," Bonnie added, "we should
+really like to have your company until the lecture is over."
+
+"Until the lecture is over! But I am the lecturer," gasped Miss
+Henderson.
+
+Bonnie grinned delightedly. "I am happy to meet you," she said, with a
+bow. "And perhaps you do not recognize us. I am Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and
+this is my friend Dr. Watson."
+
+Dr. Watson bowed, and remarked that it was an unexpected pleasure. He
+had often heard of the famous lecturer, but had never hoped to meet her.
+
+Miss Henderson, who was not very conversant with recent literature,
+looked more dazed than ever. It flashed across her mind that there was
+an insane asylum in the neighborhood, and the thought was not
+reassuring.
+
+"We'll not handcuff you," said Bonnie, magnanimously, "if you'll come
+with us quietly."
+
+The lecturer, in spite of fervid protestations that she was a lecturer,
+presently found herself sitting on the fence, with a girl on either side
+grasping an elbow. A light was beginning to break upon her, together
+with a poignant realization of the fact that she was seeing more of the
+real college life than she cared for.
+
+"What time is it?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Ten minutes past eight by my watch, but I think it's a little slow,"
+said Bonnie.
+
+"I am afraid you're going to be late for your lecture," said Priscilla.
+"It seems a pity to waste it. Suppose you tell it to us instead."
+
+"Yes, do," urged Bonnie. "I just dote on the Roman Forum."
+
+The lecturer preserved a dignified silence, which was broken only by the
+croaking of the frogs and the occasional remarks of the two detectives.
+She had relinquished all hope of ever seeing the Archæological Society,
+and had philosophically resigned herself to the prospect of sitting on
+the fence all night, when suddenly there burst out from across the
+campus a song of victory, mingled with cheers and inarticulate yells.
+
+At the first sound, Bonnie and Priscilla tumbled down from the fence,
+bringing the lecturer with them, and, each grasping her by a hand, they
+started to run. "Come on and see the fun," they laughed. "You're
+perfectly welcome; it's no secret any more." And, in spite of breathless
+protestations that she much preferred to walk, Miss Henderson found
+herself dashing across the campus in the direction of the sounds.
+
+Heads suddenly appeared in the dormitory windows, doors banged, and
+girls came running from every quarter with excited exclamations: "The
+sophomores are having their tree ceremonies!" "Where are the freshmen?"
+"Why didn't they get there?"
+
+A crowd quickly gathered in the shadow of the trees and watched the
+scene with laughing interest. A wide circle of colored lanterns swayed
+in the breeze, and, within, a line of white-robed figures wound and
+unwound about a tiny tree to the music of a solemn chant.
+
+"Isn't it pretty? Aren't you glad we brought you?" Bonnie demanded as
+they pushed through the crowd.
+
+The lecturer did not answer, for she caught sight of the Latin professor
+hurrying toward them.
+
+"Miss Henderson! I was afraid you were lost. It is nearly half-past
+eight. The audience has been waiting, and we have been filling in the
+time with reports."
+
+For a moment the lecturer was silent, being occupied with an amused
+scrutiny of the faces of her captors; and then she rose to the occasion
+like a lady and a scholar, and delivered a masterly apology, with never
+a reference to her sojourn on the fence.
+
+Bonnie and Priscilla stared at each other without a word, and as Miss
+Henderson was led away to the remnants of her audience Patty suddenly
+appeared.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Did you solve your
+mystery?" she asked sweetly.
+
+Priscilla turned her to the light and scrutinized her face.
+
+Patty smiled back with wide-open, innocent eyes.
+
+Priscilla knew the expression, and she shook her. "You little wretch!"
+she exclaimed.
+
+Patty squirmed out from under her grasp. "If you remember," she
+murmured, "I once said that the Lick Observatory was in Dublin, Ireland.
+It was a very funny mistake, of course, but I know of others that are
+funnier."
+
+"What do you mean?" Bonnie demanded.
+
+"I mean," said Patty, "that I wish you never to mention the Lick
+Observatory again."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+Patty and the Bishop
+
+
+The dressing-bell rang for Sunday morning service, and Patty laid down
+her book with a sigh and went and stood by the open window. The outside
+world was a shimmering green and yellow, the trees showed a feathery
+fringe against the sky, and the breeze was redolent of violets and fresh
+earth.
+
+"Patty," called Priscilla, from her bedroom, "you'll have to hurry if
+you want me to fasten your dress. I have to go to choir rehearsal."
+
+Patty turned back with another sigh, and began slowly unhooking her
+collar. Then she sat down on the edge of the couch and stared absently
+out of the window.
+
+A vigorous banging of bureau drawers in Priscilla's room was presently
+followed by Priscilla herself in the doorway. She surveyed her room-mate
+suspiciously. "Why aren't you dressing?" she demanded.
+
+"I'll fasten my own dress; you needn't wait," said Patty, without
+removing her eyes from the window.
+
+"Bishop Copeley's going to preach to-day, and he's such an old dear; you
+mustn't be late."
+
+Patty elevated her chin a trifle and shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Aren't you going to chapel?"
+
+Patty brought her gaze back from the window and looked up at Priscilla
+beseechingly. "It's such a lovely day," she pleaded, "and I'd so much
+rather spend the time out of doors; I'm sure it would be a lot better
+for my spiritual welfare."
+
+"It's not a question of spiritual welfare; it's a question of cuts.
+You've already over-cut twice. What excuse do you intend to give when
+the Self-Government Committee asks for an explanation?"
+
+"'Sufficient unto the day,'" laughed Patty. "When the time comes I'll
+think of a beautiful new excuse that will charm the committee."
+
+"You ought to be ashamed to evade the rules the way you do."
+
+"Where is the fun of living if you are going to make yourself a slave to
+all sorts of petty rules?" asked Patty, wearily.
+
+"I don't know why you have a right to live outside of rules any more
+than the rest of us."
+
+Patty shrugged. "I take the right, and every one else can do the same."
+
+"Every one else can't," returned Priscilla, hotly, "for there wouldn't
+be any law left in college if they did. I should a good deal rather play
+out of doors myself than go to chapel, but I've used up all my cuts and
+I can't. You couldn't either if you had a shred of proper feeling left.
+The only way you can get out of it is by lying."
+
+"Priscilla dear," Patty murmured, "people in polite society don't put
+things quite so baldly. If you would be respected in the best circles,
+you must practise the art of equivocation."
+
+Priscilla frowned impatiently. "Are you coming, or are you not?" she
+demanded.
+
+"I am not."
+
+Priscilla closed the door--not quite as softly as a door should be
+closed--and Patty was left alone. She sat thinking a few minutes with
+slightly flushed cheeks, and then as the chapel bell rang she shook
+herself and laughed. Even had she wished to go it was too late now, and
+all feeling of responsibility vanished. As soon as the decorous swish of
+Sunday silks had ceased in the corridor outside, she caught up a book
+and a cushion, and, creeping down by the side stairs, set gaily out
+across the sunlit lawn, with the deliciously guilty thrill of a truant
+little boy who has run away from school.
+
+From the open windows of the chapel she could hear the college
+chanting: "Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this
+law." She laughed happily to herself; she was not keeping laws to-day.
+They might stay in there in the gloom, if they wanted to, with their
+commandments and their litanies. She was worshiping under the blue sky,
+to the jubilant chanting of the birds.
+
+She was the only person alive and out that morning, and the spring was
+in her blood, and she felt as though she owned the world. The campus had
+never seemed so radiant. She paused on the little rustic bridge to watch
+the excited swirling of the brook, and she nearly lost her balance while
+trying to launch a tiny boat made of a piece of bark. She dropped
+pebbles into the pool in order to watch the startled frogs splash back
+into the water, and she threw her cushion at a squirrel, and laughed
+aloud at its angry chattering. She raced up the side of Pine Bluff, and
+dropped down panting on the fragrant needles in the shadow of a tall
+pine.
+
+Below her the ivy-covered buildings of the college lay clustered among
+the trees; and in the Sunday quiet, with the sunlight shining on the
+towers, it looked like some medieval village sleeping in the valley.
+Patty gazed down dreamily with half-shut eyes, and imagined that
+presently a band of troubadours and ladies would come riding out on
+milk-white mules. But the sight of Peters, strolling to the gateway in
+his Sunday clothes, spoiled the illusion, and she turned to her book
+with a smile. Presently she closed it, however. This was not the time
+for reading. One could read in winter and when it rained, and even in
+the college library with every one else turning pages; but out here in
+the open, with the real things of life happening all about, it was a
+waste of opportunity.
+
+Her eyes wandered back to the campus again, and she suddenly grew sober
+as the thought swept over her that in a few weeks more it would be hers
+no longer. This happy, irresponsible community life, which had come to
+be the only natural way of living, was suddenly at an end. She
+remembered the first day of being a freshman, when everything but
+herself had looked so big, and she had thought desperately, "Four years
+of this!" It had seemed like an eternity; and now that it was over it
+seemed like a minute. She wanted to clutch the present and hold it fast.
+It was a terrible thing--this growing old.
+
+And there were the girls. She would have to say good-by, with no opening
+day in the fall--and Priscilla lived in California and Georgie in South
+Dakota and Bonnie in Kentucky and she in New England, and they were the
+only people in the world she particularly cared to talk to. She would
+have to get acquainted with her mother's friends--with chronically
+grown-up people, who talked about husbands and children and servants.
+And there would be men. She had never had time to know many men; but
+some day she would probably be marrying one of them, and then all
+_would_ be over; and before she had time to think, she would be an old
+lady, telling her grandchildren stories about when she was a girl.
+
+[Illustration: I have just run away from you, Bishop Copeley]
+
+Patty gazed mournfully down on the campus, almost on the verge of tears
+over her lost youth, when a step suddenly sounded on the gravel path,
+and she looked up with a startled glance to see a churchly figure
+rounding the hill. Involuntarily she prepared for flight; but the bishop
+had spied her, together with a little rustic seat under a tree, and he
+smiled upon the one and dropped down upon the other with a sigh of
+content.
+
+"A beautiful view," he gasped; "but a very steep hill."
+
+"It is steep," Patty agreed politely; and as there seemed to be no
+chance of escape, she resumed her seat and added, with a laugh: "I have
+just run away from you, Bishop Copeley, and here you come following
+along behind like an accusing conscience."
+
+The bishop chuckled. "I've run away myself," he returned; "I knew I
+should have to be introduced to a hundred or so of you after service,
+so I just slipped out the back way for a quiet stroll."
+
+Patty eyed him appreciatively, with a new sense of fellow-feeling.
+
+"I should like to have run away from church as well," he confessed, with
+a twinkle in his eye. "Out of doors is the best church on a day like
+this."
+
+"That's what I think," said Patty, cordially; "but I had no idea that
+bishops were so sensible."
+
+They chatted along in a friendly manner on various subjects, and
+exchanged lay opinions on the college and the clergy.
+
+"It's a funny thing about this place," said Patty, ruminatingly, "that,
+though we have a different preacher every Sunday, we always have the
+same sermon."
+
+"The same sermon?" inquired the bishop, somewhat aghast.
+
+"Practically the same," said Patty. "I've heard it for four years, and I
+think I could almost preach it myself. They all seem to think, you know,
+that because we come to college we must be monsters of reason, and they
+urge us to remember that reason and science are not the only things that
+count in the world--that feeling is, after all, the main factor; and
+they quote a little poem about the flower being beautiful, I know not
+why. That wasn't what yours was about?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Not this time," said the bishop; "I preached an old one."
+
+"It's the best way," said Patty. "We're human beings, if we do come to
+college. I remember once we had a man from Yale or Harvard or some such
+place, and he preached an old sermon: he urged us to become more manly.
+It was very refreshing."
+
+The bishop smiled. "Do you run away from church very often?" he inquired
+mildly.
+
+"No; I don't have a chance when I room with Priscilla. But obligatory
+chapel makes you want to run away," she added. "It's not the chapel I
+object to; it's the obligatoriness."
+
+"But you have a system of--er--cuts," he suggested.
+
+"Three a month," said Patty, sadly. "Evening chapel counts as one, but
+Sunday morning church as two."
+
+"So you expended two cuts to escape me?" he asked with a smile.
+
+"Oh, it wasn't you," Patty remonstrated hastily. "It was just--the
+obligatoriness. And besides," she added frankly, "my legitimate cuts
+were used up days ago, and when I once begin over-cutting, I am
+reckless."
+
+"And may I ask what happens when you over-cut?" the bishop inquired.
+
+"Well," said Patty, "there are proctors, you know, that mark you when
+you are absent; and then, if they find that you've over-cut, the
+Self-Government Committee calls you up and asks the reason. If you can't
+produce a good excuse you are deprived of your privileges for a month,
+and you can't be on committees or in plays or get leave of absence to go
+out of town."
+
+"I see," said the bishop; "and will you have to suffer all of those
+penalties?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Patty, comfortably; "I shall produce a good excuse."
+
+"What will you say?" he inquired.
+
+"I don't know, exactly; I shall have to depend on the inspiration of the
+moment."
+
+The bishop regarded her quizzically. "Do you mean," he asked, "that,
+having broken the rule, you intend to evade the penalty by--to put it
+flatly--a falsehood?"
+
+"Oh, no, bishop," said Patty, in a shocked tone. "Of course I shall tell
+the truth, only"--she looked up in the bishop's face with an
+irresistible smile--"the committee probably won't understand it."
+
+For an instant the bishop's face relaxed, and then he grew grave again.
+"By a subterfuge?" he asked.
+
+"Y-yes," acknowledged Patty; "I suppose you _might_ call it a
+subterfuge. I dare say I am pretty bad," she added, "but you have to
+have a reputation for something in a place like this or you get
+overlooked. I can't compete in goodness or in athletics or in anything
+like that, so there's nothing left for me but to surpass in badness--I
+have quite a gift for it."
+
+The corners of the bishop's mouth twitched. "You don't look like one
+with a criminal record."
+
+"I'm young yet," said Patty. "It hasn't commenced to show."
+
+"My dear little girl," said the bishop, "I have already preached one
+sermon to-day, which you didn't come to hear, and I can't undertake to
+preach another for your benefit,"--Patty looked relieved,--"but there is
+one question I should like to ask you. In after years, when you are
+through college and the question is asked of some of your class-mates,
+'Did you know--' You have not told me your name."
+
+"Patty Wyatt."
+
+"'Did you know Patty Wyatt, and what sort of a girl was she?' will the
+answer be what you would wish?"
+
+Patty considered. "Ye-yes; I think, on the whole, they'd stand by me."
+
+"This morning," the bishop continued placidly, "I asked a professor in
+an entirely casual way about a young woman--a class-mate of your
+own--who is the daughter of an old friend of mine. The answer was
+immediate and unhesitating, and you can imagine how much it gratified
+me. 'There is not a finer girl in college,' he replied. 'She is honest
+in work and honest in play, and thoroughly conscientious in everything
+she does.'"
+
+"Um-m," said Patty; "that must have been Priscilla."
+
+"No," smiled the bishop, "it was not Priscilla. The young woman of whom
+I am speaking is the president of your Student Association, Catherine
+Fair."
+
+"Yes, it's true," said Patty, critically. "Cathy Fair hits straight from
+the shoulder."
+
+"And wouldn't you like to go out with that reputation?"
+
+"I'm really not _very_ bad," pleaded Patty, "that is, as badness goes.
+But I couldn't be as good as Cathy; it would be going against nature."
+
+"I am afraid," suggested the bishop, "that you do not try very hard. You
+may not think that it matters what people think now that you are young,
+but how will it be when you grow older? And it will not be long," he
+added. "Age slips upon you before you realize it."
+
+Patty looked sober.
+
+"You will soon be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty."
+
+Patty sighed.
+
+"And do you think that a woman of that age is attractive if she deals in
+subterfuges and evasions?"
+
+Patty squirmed a trifle, and dug a little hole in the pine-needles with
+her toe.
+
+"You must remember that you cannot form your character in a moment, my
+dear. Character is a plant of slow growth, and the seeds must be planted
+early."
+
+The bishop rose, and Patty scrambled to her feet with a look of relief.
+He took the pillow and the book under his arm, and they started down the
+hill. "I have preached you a sermon, after all," he said apologetically;
+"but preaching is my trade, and you must forgive an old man for being
+prosy."
+
+Patty held out her hand with a smile as they stopped before the door of
+Phillips Hall. "Good-by, bishop," she said, "and thank you for the
+sermon; I guess I needed it--I _am_ getting old."
+
+She climbed the stairs slowly, and, hesitating a moment outside her own
+room, where the sound of laughing voices through the transom betokened
+that the clan was gathered, she kept on to the door of a single at the
+end of the corridor.
+
+"Come in," a voice called in response to her knock.
+
+Patty turned the knob and stuck her head in. "Hello, Cathy! Are you
+busy?"
+
+"Of course not. Come in and talk to me."
+
+Patty shut the door and leaned with her back against it. "This isn't a
+social call," she announced impressively. "I've come to see you
+officially."
+
+"Officially?"
+
+"You're president of students, I believe?"
+
+"I believe I am," sighed Cathy; "and if the President of the United
+States has half as much trouble with his subjects as I have with mine,
+he has my sincerest sympathy."
+
+"I suppose we are a great deal of trouble," said Patty, contritely.
+
+"Trouble! My dear," said Cathy, solemnly. "I've spent the entire week
+running around to the different cottages making speeches to those
+blessed freshmen. They _won't_ hand in chapel excuses, and they _will_
+run off with library books, and, altogether, they're an immoral lot."
+
+"They can afford to be; they're young," sighed Patty, enviously. "But
+I," she added, "am getting old, and it's time I was getting good. I've
+called to tell you that I've over-cut four times, and I haven't any
+excuse."
+
+"What are you talking about?" asked Cathy, in amazement.
+
+"Chapel excuses. I've over-cut four times,--I think it's four, though
+I've rather lost count,--and I haven't any excuse."
+
+"But, Patty, don't tell me that. You must have some excuse, some reason
+for--"
+
+"Not the shadow of one. Just stayed away because I didn't feel like
+going."
+
+"But you must give me _some_ reason," remonstrated Cathy, in distress,
+"or I'll have to report it to the committee and you'll be deprived of
+your privileges. You can't afford that, you know, for you're chairman of
+the Senior Prom."
+
+"But I didn't have any excuse, and I can't make one up," said Patty. "I
+will soon be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty. Do you think a
+woman of that age is attractive if she deals in subterfuges and
+evasions? Character," she added solemnly, "is a plant of slow growth,
+and the seeds must be planted early."
+
+Cathy looked puzzled. "I don't know what you're talking about," she
+said, "but I suppose you do. Anyway," she added, "I'm sorry about the
+chairmanship; but I'm--well, I'm sort of glad, too." She laid a hand on
+Patty's shoulder. "Of course I've always liked you, Patty,--everybody
+does,--but I don't believe I've ever appreciated you, and I'm glad to
+find it out before we leave college."
+
+Patty's face flushed a trifle and she drew away half sheepishly. "You'd
+best postpone your felicitations until to-morrow," she laughed, "for I
+may think of some good excuse in the night. Good-by."
+
+She was greeted in the study with a cry of welcome.
+
+"Well, Patty," said Priscilla, "I hear you've been taking a walk with
+the bishop. Did you tell him you'd cut chapel?"
+
+"I did; and he said he wished he might have cut, too."
+
+"She's incorrigible," sighed Georgie; "she's even been corrupting the
+bishop."
+
+"You'd better be careful, Patty Wyatt," warned Bonnie Connaught.
+"Self-Government will get you if you don't watch out, and _then_ you'll
+be sorry when they take you off the Senior Prom."
+
+Patty sobered for a moment, but she hastily assumed a nonchalant air.
+"They have got me," she laughed, "and I'm already off--or, at least, I
+shall be as soon as they have a meeting."
+
+"Patty!" cried the room, in a horrified chorus. "What do you mean?"
+
+Patty shrugged. "Just what I say: deprived of my privileges for cutting
+chapel."
+
+"It's a shame!" said Georgie, indignantly. "That Self-Government
+Committee is going a little too far when it takes a senior's privileges
+away without even hearing her case." She grasped Patty by the arm and
+started toward the door. "Come on and tell Cathy Fair about it. She
+will fix it all right."
+
+Patty hung back and disengaged her wrist from Georgie's grasp. "Let me
+alone," she said sulkily. "There's nothing to be done. I told her myself
+I hadn't any excuse."
+
+"You told her?" Georgie stared her incredulity, and Bonnie Connaught
+laughed.
+
+"Patty reminds me of the burglar who crawled out the back window with
+the silver, and then rang the front door-bell and handed it back."
+
+"What's the matter, Patty?" Priscilla asked solicitously. "Don't you
+feel well?"
+
+Patty sighed. "I'm getting old," she said.
+
+"You're getting what?"
+
+"Old. Soon I'll be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty; and do you
+think any one will love me then if I deal in subterfuges and evasions?
+Character, my dear girls, is a plant of slow growth, and the seeds must
+be planted early."
+
+"You went and told the committee voluntarily,--of your own
+accord,--without even waiting to be called up?" Georgie persisted,
+determined to get at the facts of the case.
+
+"I'm getting old," repeated Patty. "It's time I was getting good. As I
+said before, character is a plant--"
+
+Georgie looked at the others and shook her head in bewilderment, and
+Bonnie Connaught laughed and murmured to the room in general: "When
+Patty gets to heaven I'm afraid the Recording Angel will have some
+trouble in balancing his books."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+The original text had each Chapter number and title twice. The first of
+these was deleted to aid in ease of reading.
+
+Page 198, the text that begins "Ireland's eminent astronomer spending"
+ends without punctuation to indicate that the reader broke off suddenly.
+This was retained.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's When Patty Went to College, by Jean Webster
+
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When Patty Went to College, by Jean Webster
+
+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: When Patty Went to College
+
+Author: Jean Webster
+
+Illustrator: C. D. Williams
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2007 [EBook #21639]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'><a name="front" id="front"></a>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Front Matter">
+<tr><td align='center'><img src="images/image_0001.jpg" width="213" height="400" alt="Patty" title="Patty" />
+<br /><span class="caption">Patty</span>
+</td><td align='left'><h1>When Patty Went to College</h1>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+
+<h2>Jean Webster</h2>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br />
+With Illustrations<br />
+by C. D. Williams<br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;">
+<img src="images/emblem.png" width="100" height="102" alt="Emblem" title="Emblem" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br />
+New York<br />
+The Century Co.<br />
+1903<br />
+</div></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<div class='center'><small>
+Copyright, 1903, by<br />
+<span class="smcap">The Century Co.</span><br />
+<br />
+Copyright, 1901, 1902, by <span class="smcap">Truth Co.</span><br />
+</small></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 25%;' />
+
+<div class='center'><small><i>Published March, 1903</i></small></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 25%;' />
+
+<div class='center'><small>THE DEVINNE PRESS</small></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>
+TO<br />
+234 MAIN AND THE GOOD<br />
+TIMES WE HAVE HAD THERE<br />
+</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Peters the Susceptible</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">An Early Fright</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Impressionable Mr. Todhunter</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_39'>39</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Question of Ethics</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_57'>57</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Elusive Kate Ferris</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Story with Four Sequels</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In Pursuit of Old English</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_103'>103</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Deceased Robert</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_121'>121</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Patty the Comforter</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">"Per l'Italia"</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_147'>147</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">"Local Color"</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_177'>177</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Exigencies of Etiquette</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_203'>203</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Crash Without</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_215'>215</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Mystery of the Shadowed Sophomore</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_237'>237</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Patty and the Bishop</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_257'>257</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>List of Illustrations</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='center'><span class="smcap">facing page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Patty</td><td align='right'><a href='#front'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Men know such a lot about such things!</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly sitting on the edge of a chair</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>What's the matter, Patty?</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_110'>110</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Olivia Copeland</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>I have just run away from you, Bishop Copeley</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_266'>266</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>I</h2>
+
+<h3>Peters the Susceptible</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 169px;">
+<img src="images/pquot.png" width="169" height="150" alt="P" title="P" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />APER-WEIGHTS," observed Patty, sucking an injured thumb, "were
+evidently not made for driving in tacks. I wish I had a hammer."</div>
+
+<p>This remark called forth no response, and Patty peered down from the top
+of the step-ladder at her room-mate, who was sitting on the floor
+dragging sofa-pillows and curtains from a dry-goods box.</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla," she begged, "you aren't doing anything useful. Go down and
+ask Peters for a hammer."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla rose reluctantly. "I dare say fifty girls have already been
+after a hammer."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he has a private one in his back pocket. Borrow that. And,
+Pris,"&mdash;Patty called after her over the transom,&mdash;"just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> tell him to
+send up a man to take that closet door off its hinges."</p>
+
+<p>Patty, in the interval, sat down on the top step and surveyed the chaos
+beneath her. An Oriental rush chair, very much out at the elbows,
+several miscellaneous chairs, two desks, a divan, a table, and two
+dry-goods boxes radiated from the center of the room. The floor, as it
+showed through the interstices, was covered with a grass-green carpet,
+while the curtains and hangings were of a not very subdued crimson.</p>
+
+<p>"One would scarcely," Patty remarked to the furniture in general, "call
+it a symphony in color."</p>
+
+<p>A knock sounded on the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," she called.</p>
+
+<p>A girl in a blue linen sailor-suit reaching to her ankles, and with a
+braid of hair hanging down her back, appeared in the doorway. Patty
+examined her in silence. The girl's eyes traveled around the room in
+some surprise, and finally reached the top of the ladder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I'm a freshman," she began.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," murmured Patty, in a deprecatory tone, "I should have taken
+you for a senior; but"&mdash;with a wave of her hand toward the nearest
+dry-goods box&mdash;"come in and sit down. I need your advice. Now, there are
+shades of green," she went on, as if continuing a conversation, "which
+are not so bad with red; but I ask you frankly if <i>that</i> shade of green
+would go with anything?"</p>
+
+<p>The freshman looked at Patty, and looked at the carpet, and smiled
+dubiously. "No," she admitted; "I don't believe it would."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you would say that!" exclaimed Patty, in a tone of relief. "Now
+what would you advise us to do with the carpet?"</p>
+
+<p>The freshman looked blank. "I&mdash;I don't know, unless you take it up," she
+stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"The very thing!" said Patty. "I wonder we hadn't thought of it before."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla reappeared at this point with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> the announcement, "Peters is
+the most suspicious man I ever knew!" But she stopped uncertainly as she
+caught sight of the freshman.</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla," said Patty, severely, "I <i>hope</i> you didn't divulge the fact
+that we are hanging the walls with tapestry"&mdash;this with a wave of her
+hand toward the printed cotton cloth dangling from the molding.</p>
+
+<p>"I tried not to," said Priscilla, guiltily, "but he read 'tapestry' in
+my eyes. He had no sooner looked at me than he said, 'See here, miss;
+you know it's against the rules to hang curtains on the walls, and you
+mustn't put nails in the plastering, and I don't believe you need a
+hammer anyway.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Disgusting creature!" said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"But," continued Priscilla, hastily, "I stopped and borrowed Georgie
+Merriles's hammer on my way back. Oh, I forgot," she added; "he says we
+can't take the closet door off its hinges&mdash;that as soon as we get ours
+off five hundred other young ladies will be wanting theirs off,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> and
+that it would take half a dozen men all summer to put them back again."</p>
+
+<p>A portentous frown was gathering on Patty's brow, and the freshman,
+wishing to avert a possible domestic tragedy, inquired timidly, "Who is
+Peters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Peters," said Priscilla, "is a short, bow-legged gentleman with a red
+Vandyke beard, whose technical title is janitor, but who is really
+dictator. Every one is afraid of him&mdash;even Prexy."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not," said Patty; "and," she added firmly, "that door is coming
+down whether he says so or not, so I suppose we shall have to do it
+ourselves." Her eyes wandered back to the carpet and her face
+brightened. "Oh, Pris, we've got a beautiful new scheme. My friend here
+says she doesn't like the carpet at all, and suggests that we take it
+up, get some black paint, and put it on the floor ourselves. I agree,"
+she added, "that a Flemish oak floor covered with rugs would be a great
+improvement."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla glanced uncertainly from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> freshman to the floor. "Do you
+think they'd let us do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would never do to ask them," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>The freshman rose uneasily. "I came," she said hesitatingly, "to find
+out&mdash;that is, I understand that the girls rent their old books, and I
+thought, if you wouldn't mind&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mind!" said Patty, reassuringly. "We'd rent our souls for fifty cents a
+semester."</p>
+
+<p>"It&mdash;it was a Latin dictionary I wanted," said the freshman, "and the
+girls next door said perhaps you had one."</p>
+
+<p>"A beautiful one," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"No," interrupted Priscilla; "hers is lost from O to R, and it's all
+torn; but mine,"&mdash;she dived down into one of the boxes and hauled out a
+chunky volume without any covers,&mdash;"while it is not so beautiful as it
+was once, it is still as useful."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine's annotated," said Patty, "and illustrated. I'll show you what a
+superior<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> book it is," and she began descending the ladder; but
+Priscilla charged upon her and she retreated to the top again. "Why,"
+she wailed to the terrified freshman, "did you not say you wanted a
+dictionary before she came back? Let me give you some advice at the
+beginning of your college career," she added warningly. "Never choose a
+room-mate bigger than yourself. They're dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>The freshman was backing precipitously toward the door, when it opened
+and revealed an attractive-looking girl with fluffy reddish hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Pris, you wretch, you walked off with my hammer!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Georgie, we need it worse than you do! Come in and help tack."</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Georgie," called Patty, from the ladder. "Isn't this room going
+to be beautiful when it's finished?"</p>
+
+<p>Georgie looked about. "You are more sanguine than I should be," she
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't tell yet," Patty returned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> "We're going to cover the
+wall-paper with this red stuff, and paint the floor black, and have dark
+furniture, and red hangings, and soft lights. It will look just like the
+Oriental Room in the Waldorf."</p>
+
+<p>"How in the world," Georgie demanded, "do you ever make them let you do
+all these things? I stuck in three innocent little thumb-tacks to-day,
+and Peters descended upon me bristling with wrath, and said he'd report
+me if I didn't pull them out."</p>
+
+<p>"We never ask," explained Patty. "It's the only way."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got enough to do if you expect to get settled by Monday,"
+Georgie remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>C'est vrai</i>," agreed Patty, descending the ladder with a sudden access
+of energy; "and you've got to stay and help us. We have to get all this
+furniture moved into the bedrooms and the carpet up before we even
+<i>begin</i> to paint." She regarded the freshman tentatively. "Are you
+awfully busy?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not very. My room-mate hasn't come yet, so I can't settle."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nice; then you can help us move furniture."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty!" said Priscilla, "I think you are too bad."</p>
+
+<p>"I should really love to stay and help, if you'll let me."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Patty, obligingly. "I forgot to ask your name," she
+continued, "and I don't suppose you like to be called 'Freshman'; it's
+not specific enough."</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Genevieve Ainslee Randolph."</p>
+
+<p>"Genevieve Ains&mdash;dear me! I can't remember anything like that. Do you
+mind if I call you Lady Clara Vere de Vere for short?"</p>
+
+<p>The freshman looked doubtful, and Patty proceeded: "Lady Clara, allow me
+to present my room-mate Miss Priscilla Pond&mdash;no relation to the extract.
+She's athletic and wins hundred-yard dashes and hurdle races, and gets
+her name in the paper to a really gratifying extent. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> my dear friend
+Miss Georgie Merriles, one of the oldest families in Dakota. Miss
+Merriles is very talented&mdash;sings in the glee club, plays on the comb&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And," interrupted Georgie, "let me present Miss Patty Wyatt, who&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Has no specialty," said Patty, modestly, "but is merely good and
+beautiful and bright."</p>
+
+<p>A knock sounded on the door, which opened without waiting for a
+response. "Miss Theodora Bartlet," continued Patty, "commonly known as
+the Twin, Miss Vere de Vere."</p>
+
+<p>The Twin looked dazed, murmured, "Miss Vere de Vere," and dropped down
+on a dry-goods box.</p>
+
+<p>"The term 'Twin,'" explained Patty, "is used in a merely allegorical
+sense. There is really only one of her. The title was conferred in her
+freshman year, and the reason has been lost in the dim dawn of
+antiquity."</p>
+
+<p>The freshman looked at the Twin and opened her mouth, but shut it again
+without saying anything.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My favorite maxim," said Patty, "has always been, 'Silence is golden.'
+I observe that we are kindred spirits."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty," said Priscilla, "do stop bothering that poor child and get to
+work."</p>
+
+<p>"Bothering?" said Patty. "I am not bothering her; we are just getting
+acquainted. However, I dare say it is not the time for hollow
+civilities. Do you want to borrow anything?" she added, turning to the
+Twin, "or did you just drop in to pay a social call?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a social call; but I think I'll come in again when there's no
+furniture to move."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't happen to be going into town this afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the Twin. "But," she added guardedly, "if it's a
+curtain-pole, I refuse to bring it out. I offered to bring one out for
+Lucille Carter last night, because she was in a hurry to give a
+house-warming, and I speared the conductor with it getting into the car;
+and while I was apologizing to him I knocked Mrs. Prexy's hat off with
+the other end."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We have all the curtain-poles we need," said Patty. "It's just some
+paint&mdash;five cans of black paint, and three brushes at the ten-cent
+store, and thank you very much. Good-by. Now," she continued, "the first
+thing is to get that door down, and I will wrest a screw-driver from the
+unwilling Peters while you remove tacks from the carpet."</p>
+
+<p>"He won't give you one," said Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll see," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later she returned waving above her head an unmistakable
+screw-driver. "<i>Voil&agrave;, mes amies!</i> Peters's own private screw-driver,
+for which I am to be personally responsible."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you get it?" inquired Priscilla, suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"You act," said Patty, "as if you thought I knocked him down in some
+dark corner and robbed him. I merely asked him for it politely, and he
+asked me what I wanted to do with it. I told him I wanted to take out
+screws, and the reason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> impressed him so that he handed it over without
+a word. Peters," she added, "is a dear; only he's like every other
+man&mdash;you have to use diplomacy."</p>
+
+<p>By ten o'clock that night the study carpet of 399 was neatly folded and
+deposited at the end of the corridor above, whence its origin would be
+difficult to trace. The entire region was steeped in an odor of
+turpentine, and the study floor of 399 was a shining black, except for
+four or five unpainted spots which Patty designated as
+"stepping-stones," and which were to be treated later. Every caller that
+had dropped in during the afternoon or evening had had a brush thrust
+into her hand and had been made to go down upon her knees and paint.
+Besides the floor, three bookcases and a chair had been transferred from
+mahogany to Flemish oak, and there was still half a can of paint left
+which Patty was anxiously trying to dispose of.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, in spite of the difficulty of getting about, the
+step-ladder had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> been re&euml;rected, and the business of tapestry-hanging
+was going forward with enthusiasm, when a knock suddenly interrupted the
+work.</p>
+
+<p>Patty, all unconscious of impending doom, cheerily called, "Come in!"</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and the figure of Peters appeared on the threshold; and
+Priscilla basely fled, leaving her room-mate stranded on the ladder.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you the young lady who borrowed my screw&mdash;" Peters stopped and
+looked at the floor, and his jaw dropped in astonishment. "Where is that
+there carpet?" he demanded, in a tone which seemed to imply that he
+thought it was under the paint.</p>
+
+<p>"It's out in the hall," said Patty, pleasantly. "Please be careful and
+don't step on the paint. It's a great improvement, don't you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"You oughter got permission&mdash;" he began, but his eye fell on the
+tapestry and he stopped again.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty; "but we knew you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> couldn't spare a man just now to
+paint it for us, so we didn't like to trouble you."</p>
+
+<p>"It's against the rules to hang curtains on the walls."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard that it was," said Patty, affably, "and I think ordinarily
+it's a very good rule. But just look at the color of that wall-paper.
+It's pea-green. You have had enough experience with wall-paper, Mr.
+Peters, to know that <i>that</i> is impossible, especially when our
+window-curtains and porti&egrave;res are red."</p>
+
+<p>Peters's eyes had traveled to the closet, bereft of its door. "Are you
+the young lady," he demanded gruffly, "who asked me to have that door
+taken off its hinges?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty; "I think that must have been my room-mate. It was
+<i>very</i> heavy," she continued plaintively, "and we had a great deal of
+trouble getting it down, but of course we realized that you were awfully
+busy, and that it really wasn't your fault. That's what I wanted the
+screw-driver for," she added. "I'm sorry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> that I didn't get it back last
+night, but I was very tired, and I forgot."</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 292px;">
+<img src="images/image_0028.jpg" width="292" height="400" alt="Men know such a lot about such things!" title="Men know such a lot about such things!" />
+<span class="caption">Men know such a lot about such things!</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Peters merely grunted. He was examining a corner cabinet hanging on the
+wall. "Didn't you know," he asked severely, "that it's against the rules
+to put nails in the plaster?"</p>
+
+<p>"Those aren't nails," expostulated Patty. "They're hooks. I remembered
+that you didn't like holes, so I only put in two, though I am really
+afraid that three are necessary. What do you think, Mr. Peters? Does it
+seem solid?"</p>
+
+<p>Peters shook it. "It's solid enough," he said sulkily. As he turned, his
+eye fell on the table in Priscilla's bedroom. "Is that a gas-stove in
+there?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>Patty shrugged her shoulders. "An apology for one&mdash;be <i>careful</i>, Mr.
+Peters! <i>Don't</i> get against that bookcase. It's just painted."</p>
+
+<p>Peters jumped aside, and stood like the Colossus of Rhodes, with one
+foot on one stepping-stone, and the other on another three feet away. It
+is hard for even a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> janitor to be dignified in such a position, and
+while he was gathering his scattered impressions Patty looked longingly
+around the room for some one to enjoy the spectacle with her. She felt
+that the silence was becoming ominous, however, and she hastened to
+interrupt it.</p>
+
+<p>"There's something wrong with that stove; it won't burn a bit. I am
+afraid we didn't put it together just right. I shouldn't be surprised if
+<i>you</i> might be able to tell what's the matter with it, Mr. Peters." She
+smiled sweetly. "Men know such a lot about such things! Would you mind
+looking at it?"</p>
+
+<p>Peters grunted again; but he approached the stove.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later, when Priscilla stuck her head in to find out if, by
+chance, anything remained of Patty, she saw Peters on his knees on the
+floor of her bedroom, with the dismembered stove scattered about him,
+and heard him saying, "I don't know as I have any call to report you,
+for I s'pose, since they're up, they might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> as well stay"; and Patty's
+voice returning: "You're <i>very</i> kind, Mr. Peters. Of course if we'd
+<i>known</i>&mdash;" Priscilla shut the door softly, and retired around the corner
+to await Peters's departure.</p>
+
+<p>"How in the world did you manage him?" she asked, bursting in as soon as
+the sound of his footsteps had died away down the corridor. "I expected
+to sing a requiem over your remains, and I found Peters on his knees,
+engaged in amicable conversation."</p>
+
+<p>Patty smiled inscrutably. "You must remember," she said, "that Peters is
+not only a janitor: he is also a man."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>II</h2>
+
+<h3>An Early Fright</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 173px;">
+<img src="images/iquot.png" width="173" height="150" alt="I" title="I" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />'LL make the tea to-day," said Patty, graciously.</div>
+
+<p>"As you please," said Priscilla, with a skeptical shrug.</p>
+
+<p>Patty bustled about amid a rattle of china. "The cups are rather dusty,"
+she observed dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better wash them," Priscilla returned.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty; "it's too much trouble. Just close the blinds, please,
+and we'll light the candles, and that will do as well. Come in," she
+called in answer to a knock.</p>
+
+<p>Georgie Merriles, Lucille Carter, and the Bartlet Twin appeared in the
+doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I hear the two P's were going to serve tea this afternoon?"
+inquired the Twin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes; come in. I'm going to make it myself," answered Patty, "and you'll
+see how much more attentive a hostess I am than Priscilla. Here, Twin,"
+she added, "you take the kettle out and fill it with water; and,
+Lucille, please go and borrow some alcohol from the freshmen at the end
+of the corridor; our bottle's empty. I'd do it myself, only I've
+borrowed such a lot lately, and they don't know you, you see. And&mdash;oh,
+Georgie, you're an obliging dear; just run down-stairs to the store and
+get some sugar. I think I saw some money in that silver inkstand on
+Priscilla's desk."</p>
+
+<p>"We've got some sugar," objected Priscilla. "I bought a whole pound
+yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"No, my lamb; we haven't got it any more. I lent it to Bonnie Connaught
+last night. Just hunt around for the spoons," she added. "I think I saw
+them on the bottom shelf of the bookcase, behind Kipling."</p>
+
+<p>"And what, may I ask, are <i>you</i> going to do?" inquired Priscilla.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I?" said Patty. "Oh, I am going to sit in the arm-chair and preside."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later, the company being disposed about the room on
+cushions, and the party well under way, it was discovered that there
+were no lemons.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?" asked Patty, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Not one," said Priscilla, peering into the stein where the lemons were
+kept.</p>
+
+<p>"I," said Georgie, "refuse to go to the store again."</p>
+
+<p>"No matter," said Patty, graciously; "we can do very well without them."
+(She did not take lemon herself.) "The object of tea is not for the sake
+of the tea, but for the conversation which accompanies it, and one must
+not let accidents annoy him. You see, young ladies," she went on, in the
+tone of an instructor giving a lecture, "though I have just spilled the
+alcohol over the sugar, I appear not to notice it, but keep up an easy
+flow of conversation to divert my guests. A repose of manner is above
+all things to be cultivated." Patty leaned languidly back in her chair.
+"To-morrow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> is Founder's Day," she resumed in a conversational tone. "I
+wonder if many&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That reminds me," interrupted the Twin. "You girls needn't save any
+dances for my brother. I got a letter from him this morning saying he
+couldn't come."</p>
+
+<p>"He hasn't broken anything, has he?" Patty asked sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"Broken anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;an arm, or a leg, or a neck. Accidents are so prevalent about
+Founder's time."</p>
+
+<p>"No; he was called out of town on important business."</p>
+
+<p>"Important business!" Patty laughed. "Dear man! why couldn't he have
+thought of something new?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think myself it was just an excuse," the Twin acknowledged. "He
+seemed to have an idea that he would be the only man here, and that,
+alone and unaided, he would have to dance with all six hundred girls."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Patty shook her head sadly. "They're all alike. Founder's wouldn't be
+Founder's if half the guests didn't develop serious illness or important
+business or dead relations the last minute. The only safe way is to
+invite three men and make out one program."</p>
+
+<p>"I simply can't realize that to-morrow is Founder's," said Priscilla.
+"It doesn't seem a week since we unpacked our trunks after vacation, and
+before we know it we shall be packing them again for Christmas."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and before we know it we'll be unpacking them again, with
+examinations three weeks ahead," said Georgie the pessimist.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for the matter of that," returned Patty the optimist, "before we
+know it we'll be walking up one side of the platform for our diplomas
+and coming down the other side blooming alumn&aelig;."</p>
+
+<p>"And then," sighed Georgie, "before we even have time to decide on a
+career, we'll be old ladies, telling our grandchildren<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> to stand up
+straight and remember their rubbers."</p>
+
+<p>"And," said Priscilla, "before any of us get any tea we'll be in our
+graves, if you don't stop talking and watch that kettle."</p>
+
+<p>"It's boiling," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Priscilla; "it's been boiling for ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"It's hot," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think it might be," said Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"And now the problem is, how to get it off without burning one's self."</p>
+
+<p>"You're presiding to-day; you must solve your own problems."</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis an easy matter," and Patty hooked it off on the end of a
+golf-club. "Young ladies," she said, with a wave of the kettle, "there
+is nothing like a college education to teach you a way out of every
+difficulty. If, when you are out in the wide, wide world&mdash;"</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+"Where, oh, where are the grave old seniors?"<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>chanted the Twin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></div>
+
+<div class='center'>"Where, oh, where are they?"<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>The rest took it up, and Patty waited patiently.</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics">
+<tr><td align='left'>"They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: .5em;">They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: .5em;">They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: .5em;">Into the wide, wide w-o-r-l-d."</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>"If you have finished your ovation, young ladies, I will proceed with my
+lecture. When, as I say, you are out in the wide, wide world, making
+five-o'clock tea some afternoon for one of the young men popularly
+supposed to be there, who have dropped in to make an afternoon call&mdash;Do
+you follow me, young ladies, or do I speak too fast? If, while you are
+engaged in conversation, the kettle should become too hot, do not put
+your finger in your mouth and shriek 'Ouch!' and coquettishly say to the
+young man, '<i>You</i> take it off,' as might a young woman who has not
+enjoyed your advantages; but, rather, rise to the emergency; say to him
+calmly, 'This kettle has become over-heated;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> may I trouble you to go
+into the hall and bring an umbrella?' and when he returns you can hook
+it off gracefully and expeditiously as you have seen me do, young
+ladies, and the young&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Patty, take care!" This from Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"O-u-c-h!" in a long-drawn wail. This from Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>Patty hastily set the kettle down on the floor. "I'm awfully sorry,
+Georgie. Does it hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least. It's really a pleasant sensation to have boiling
+water poured over you."</p>
+
+<p>The Bartlet Twin sniffed. "I smell burning rug."</p>
+
+<p>Patty groaned. "I resign, Pris; I resign. Here, you preside. I'll never
+ask to make it again."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like," observed the Twin, "to see Patty entertaining a young
+man."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not such an unprecedented event," said Patty, with some warmth.
+"You can watch me to-morrow night if it will give you so much
+pleasure."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow night? Are you going to have a man for the Prom?"</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Patty, "is my intention."</p>
+
+<p>"And you haven't asked me for a dance!" This in an aggrieved chorus from
+the entire room.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't asked any one," said Patty, with dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean you're going to have all of the twenty dances with him
+yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; I don't expect to dance more than ten with him myself&mdash;I
+haven't made out his card yet," she added.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never do."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he been here before, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that's the reason."</p>
+
+<p>"The reason for what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Patty deigned to explain, "I've invited him for every party
+since freshman year."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he decline?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; he accepted, but he never came."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He was scared."</p>
+
+<p>"Scared? Of the girls?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty, "partly&mdash;but mostly of the faculty."</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>faculty</i> wouldn't hurt him."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not; but he couldn't understand that. You see, he had a
+fright when he was young."</p>
+
+<p>"A fright? What was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Patty, "it happened this way: It was while I was at
+boarding-school. He was at Andover then, and his home was in the South;
+and one time when he went through Washington he stopped off to call on
+me. As it happened, the butler had left two days before, and had taken
+with him all the knives and forks, and all the money he could find, and
+Nancy Lee's gold watch and two hat-pins, and my silver hair-brush, and a
+bottle of brandy, and a pie," she enumerated with a conscientious regard
+for details; "and Mrs. Trent&mdash;that's the principal&mdash;had advertised for a
+new butler."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have thought the old one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> would have discouraged her from
+keeping butlers," said Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>would</i> think so," said Patty; "but she was a very persevering
+woman. On the day that Raoul&mdash;that's his name&mdash;came to call, nineteen
+people had applied for the place, and Mrs. Trent was worn out from
+interviewing them. So she told Miss Sarah&mdash;that's her daughter&mdash;to
+attend to those who came in the evening. Miss Sarah was tall and wore
+spectacles, and was&mdash;was&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A good disciplinarian," suggested the Twin.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty, feelingly, "an <i>awfully</i> good disciplinarian. Well,
+when Raoul got there he gave his card to Ellen and asked for me; but
+Ellen didn't understand, and she called Miss Sarah, and when Miss Sarah
+saw him in his evening clothes she&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Took him for a butler," put in Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she took him for a butler; and she looked at the card he'd given
+Ellen, and said icily, 'What does this mean?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'It's&mdash;it's my name,' he stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"'I see,' said Miss Sarah; 'but where is your recommendation?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I didn't know it was necessary,' he said, terribly scared.</p>
+
+<p>"'Of course it's necessary,' Miss Sarah returned. 'I can't allow you to
+come into the house unless I have letters from the places where you've
+been before.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I didn't suppose you were so strict,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>"'We have to be strict,' Miss Sarah answered firmly. 'Have you had much
+experience?'</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't know what she meant, but he thought it would be safest to say
+he hadn't.</p>
+
+<p>"'Then of course you won't do,' she replied. 'How old are you?'</p>
+
+<p>"He was so frightened by this time that he couldn't remember.
+'Nineteen,' he gasped&mdash;'I mean twenty.'</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Sarah saw his confusion, and thought he had designs on some of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> heiresses intrusted to her care. 'I don't see how you <i>dared</i> to
+come here,' she said severely. 'I should not think of having you in the
+house for a moment. You're altogether too young and too good-looking.'
+And with that Raoul got up and bolted.</p>
+
+<p>"When Ellen told Miss Sarah the next day that he'd asked for me, she was
+terribly mortified, and she made me write and explain, and invite him to
+dinner; but wild horses couldn't have dragged him into the house again.
+He's been afraid to stop off in Washington ever since. He always goes
+straight through on a sleeper, and says he has nightmares even then."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that why he won't come to the college?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty; "that's the reason. I told him we didn't have any
+butlers here; but he said we had lady faculty, and that's as bad."</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought you said he <i>was</i> coming to the Prom."</p>
+
+<p>"He is this time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty, with ominous emphasis, "I'm sure. He knows," she
+added, "what will happen if he doesn't."</p>
+
+<p>"What will happen?" asked the Twin.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing."</p>
+
+<p>The Twin shook her head, and Georgie inquired, "Then why don't you make
+out his program?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I might as well. I didn't do it before because it sort of
+seemed like tempting Providence. I didn't want to be the cause of any
+really <i>serious</i> accident happening to him," she explained a trifle
+ambiguously as she got out pencil and paper. "What dances can you give
+me, Lucille? And you, Georgie, have you got the third taken?"</p>
+
+<p>While this business was being settled, a knock unheeded had sounded on
+the door. It came again.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" asked Priscilla. "Did some one knock? Come in."</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and a maid stood upon the threshold with a yellow
+envelope in her hand. She peered uncertainly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> around the darkened room
+from one face to another. "Miss Patty Wyatt?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Patty stretched out her hand in silence for the envelop, and, propping
+it up on her desk, looked at it with a grim smile.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Patty? Aren't you going to read it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There's no need. I know what it says."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll read it," said Priscilla, ripping it open.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it a leg or an arm?" Patty inquired with mild curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Neither," said Priscilla; "it's a collar-bone."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," murmured Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" demanded Georgie the curious. "Read it out loud."</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class='right'>
+"<span class="smcap">New Haven</span>, November 29.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Broke collar-bone playing foot-ball. Honest
+Injun. Terribly sorry. Better luck next time."</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+"<span class="smcap">Raoul.</span>"<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"There will not," observed Patty, "<i>be</i> a next time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>III</h2>
+
+<h3>The Impressionable Mr. Todhunter</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 168px;">
+<img src="images/hquot.png" width="168" height="150" alt="H" title="H" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />AS the mail been around yet?" called Priscilla to a girl at the other
+end of the corridor.</div>
+
+<p>"Don't believe so. It hasn't been in our room."</p>
+
+<p>"There she comes now!" and Priscilla swooped down upon the mail-girl.
+"Got anything for 399?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want Miss Wyatt's mail too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I'll take everything. What a lot! Is that all for us?" And
+Priscilla walked down the corridor swinging her note-book by its
+shoe-string, and opening envelops as she went. She was presently joined
+by Georgie Merriles, likewise swinging a note-book by a shoe-string.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Pris; going to English? Want me to help carry your mail?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Priscilla; "you may keep the most of it. Now, that,"
+she added, holding out a blue envelop, "is an advertisement for cold
+cream which no lady should be without; and that"&mdash;holding out a yellow
+envelop&mdash;"is an advertisement for beef extract which no brain-worker
+should be without; and that"&mdash;holding out a white envelop&mdash;"is the worst
+of all, because it looks like a legitimate letter, and it's nothing but
+a 'Dear Madam' thing, telling me my tailor has moved from Twenty-second
+to Forty-third Street, and hopes I'll continue to favor him with my
+patronage.</p>
+
+<p>"And here," she went on, turning to her room-mate's correspondence, "is
+a cold-cream and a beef-extract letter for Patty, and one from Yale;
+that's probably Raoul explaining why he couldn't come to the Prom. It
+won't do any good, though. No mortal man can ever make her believe he
+didn't have his collar-bone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> broken on purpose. And I don't know whom
+that's from," Priscilla continued, examining the last letter. "It's
+marked 'Hotel A&mdash;&mdash;, New York.' Never heard of it, did you? Never saw
+the writing before, either."</p>
+
+<p>Georgie laughed. "Do you keep tab on all of Patty's correspondents?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know the most of them by this time. She usually reads the
+interesting ones out loud, and the ones that aren't interesting she
+never answers, so they stop writing. Hurry up; the bell's going to
+ring"; and they pushed in among the crowd of girls on the steps of the
+recitation-hall.</p>
+
+<p>The bell did ring just as they reached the class-room, and Priscilla
+dropped the letters, without comment, into Patty's lap as she went past.
+Patty was reading poetry and did not look up. She had assimilated some
+ten pages of Shelley since the first bell rang, and as she was not sure
+which would be taken up in class, she was now swallowing Wordsworth in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+the same voracious manner. Patty's method in Romantic Poetry was to be
+very fresh on the first part of the lesson, catch the instructor's eye
+early in the hour, make a brilliant recitation, and pass the remainder
+of the time in gentle meditation.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, however, the unwonted bulk of her correspondence diverted her
+mind from its immediate duty. She failed to catch the instructor's eye,
+and the recitation proceeded without her assistance. Priscilla watched
+her from the back seat as she read the Yale letter with a skeptical
+frown, and made a grimace over the blue and the yellow; but before she
+had reached the Hotel A&mdash;&mdash;, Priscilla was paying attention to the
+recitation again. It was coming her way, and she was anxiously forming
+an opinion on the essential characteristics of Wordsworth's view of
+immortality.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the room was startled by an audible titter from Patty, who
+hastily composed her face and assumed a look of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> vacuous innocence&mdash;but
+too late. She had caught the instructor's eye at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Wyatt, what do you consider the most serious limitations of our
+author?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Wyatt blinked once or twice. This question out of its context was
+not illuminating. It was a part of her philosophy, however, never to
+flunk flat; she always crawled.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she began with an air of profound deliberation, "that question
+might be considered in two ways, either from an artistic or a
+philosophic standpoint."</p>
+
+<p>This sounded promising, and the instructor smiled encouragingly. "Yes?"
+she said.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet," continued Patty, after still profounder deliberation, "I
+think the same reason will be found to be the ultimate explanation of
+both."</p>
+
+<p>The instructor might have inquired, "Both what?" but she refrained and
+merely waited.</p>
+
+<p>Patty thought she had done enough, but she plunged on desperately: "In
+spite of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> his really deep philosophy we notice a certain&mdash;one might
+almost say <i>dash</i> about his poetry, and a lack of&mdash;er&mdash;meditation which
+I should attribute to his immaturity and his a&mdash;rather wild life. If he
+had lived longer I think he might have overcome it in time."</p>
+
+<p>The class looked dazed, and the corners of the instructor's mouth
+twitched. "It is certainly an interesting point of view, Miss Wyatt,
+and, as far as I know, entirely original."</p>
+
+<p>As they were crowding out at the end of the recitation Priscilla pounced
+upon Patty. "What on earth were you saying about Wordsworth's youth and
+immaturity?" she demanded. "The man lived to be over eighty, and
+composed a poem with his last gasp."</p>
+
+<p>"Wordsworth? I was talking about Shelley."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the class wasn't."</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know?" Patty demanded indignantly. "She said 'our author,'
+and I avoided specific details as long as I could."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Patty, Patty! and you said he was wild&mdash;the lamblike Wordsworth!"</p>
+
+<p>"What were you laughing at, anyway?" demanded Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>Patty smiled again. "Why, <i>this</i>" she said, unfolding the Hotel A&mdash;&mdash;
+letter. "It's from an Englishman, Mr. Todhunter, some one my father
+discovered last summer and invited out to stay with us for a few days.
+I'd forgotten all about him, and here he writes to know whether and when
+he may call, and, if so, will it be convenient for him to come to-night.
+That's a comprehensive sentence, isn't it? His train gets in at
+half-past five and he'll be out about six."</p>
+
+<p>"He isn't going to take any chances," said Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty; "but I don't mind. I invited him to come out to dinner
+some night, though I'd forgotten it. He's really very nice, and, in
+spite of what the funny papers say about Englishmen, quite
+entertaining."</p>
+
+<p>"Intentionally or unintentionally?" inquired Georgie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Both," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"What's he doing in America?" asked Priscilla. "Not writing a book on
+the American Girl, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite as bad as that," said Patty. "He's corresponding for a
+newspaper, though." She smiled dreamily. "He's very curious about
+college."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty, I <i>hope</i> you were not guilty of trying to make an Englishman, a
+guest in your father's house, believe any of your absurd fabrications!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," said Patty; "I was most careful in everything I told
+him. But," she acknowledged, "he&mdash;he gets impressions easily."</p>
+
+<p>"It is easy to get impressions when one is talking with you," observed
+Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"He asked me," Patty continued, ignoring this remark, "what we studied
+in college! But I remembered that he was an alien in a foreign land, and
+I curbed my natural instincts, and outlined the courses in the catalogue
+verbatim, and I explained the different methods of instruction, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+described the library and laboratories and lecture-rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he impressed?" asked Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty; "I think you might almost say dazed. He asked me
+apologetically if we ever did anything to relieve the strain,&mdash;had any
+amusements, you know,&mdash;and I said, oh, yes; we had a Browning and an
+Ibsen club, and we sometimes gave Greek tragedies in the original. He
+was positively afraid to come near me again, for fear I'd forget and
+talk to him in Greek instead of English."</p>
+
+<p>In view of the facts, Patty's friends considered this last remark
+distinctly humorous, for she had flunked her freshman Greek three times,
+and had been advised by the faculty to take it over sophomore year.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope, since he's a newspaper writer," said Priscilla, "that you'll do
+something to lighten his impression, or he'll never favor women's
+colleges in England."</p>
+
+<p>"I hadn't thought of that," said Patty; "perhaps I ought."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They had reached the steps of the dormitory. "Let's not go in," said
+Georgie; "let's go down to Mrs. Muldoon's and get some chocolate cake."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Priscilla; "I'm in training."</p>
+
+<p>"Soup, then."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't eat between meals."</p>
+
+<p>"You come, then, Patty."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry, but I've got to take my white dress down to the laundry and have
+it pressed."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to dress up for him to the extent of evening clothes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty; "I think I owe it to the American Girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," sighed Georgie, "I'm hungry, but I suppose I might as well go in
+and dress that doll for the College Settlement Association. The show's
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine's done," said Priscilla; "and Patty wouldn't take one. Did you see
+Bonnie Connaught sitting on the back seat in biology this morning,
+hemming her doll's petticoat straight through the lecture?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Really?" laughed Patty. "It's a good thing Professor Hitchcock's
+near-sighted."</p>
+
+<p>The College Settlement Association, by way of parenthesis, was in the
+habit of distributing three hundred dolls among the students every year
+before Christmas, to be dressed and sent to the settlement in New York.
+The dolls were supposed to be so well dressed that the East Side mothers
+could use them as models for the clothing of their own children, though
+it must be confessed that the tendency among the girls was to strive for
+effect and not for detail. On the evening before the dolls were to be
+shipped a doll show was regularly held, at which two cents admittance
+was charged (stamps accepted) to pay the expressage.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was ten minutes past six, and Phillips Hall (such of it as was not
+late) was dining, when the maid arrived with Mr. Algernon Vivian
+Todhunter's card. Patty, radiant in a white evening gown, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> trying,
+with much squirming, to fasten it in the middle of the back.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Sadie," she called to the maid, "would you mind coming in here and
+buttoning my dress? I can't reach it from above or below."</p>
+
+<p>"You look just beautiful, Miss Wyatt," said Sadie, admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>Patty laughed. "Do you think I can uphold the honor of the nation?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, miss," said Sadie, politely.</p>
+
+<p>Patty ran down the corridor to the door of the reception-room, and then
+swept slowly in with what she called an air of continental repose. The
+room was empty. She glanced about in some surprise, for she knew that
+the two reception-rooms on the other side of the hall were being used
+for the doll show. She tiptoed over and peered in through the half-open
+door. The room was filled with dolls in rows and tiers; every piece of
+furniture was covered with them; and in a far corner, at the end of a
+long vista of dolls, appeared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly
+sitting on the edge of a sofa, surrounded by flaxen-haired baby dolls,
+and awkwardly holding in his lap the three he had displaced.</p>
+
+<p>Patty drew back behind the door, and spent fully three minutes in
+regaining her continental repose; then she entered the room and greeted
+Mr. Todhunter effusively. He carefully transferred the dolls to his left
+arm and stood up and shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me take the little dears," said Patty, kindly; "I'm afraid they're
+in your way."</p>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 269px;">
+<img src="images/image_0066.jpg" width="269" height="400" alt="Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly sitting on the edge of a chair" title="Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly sitting on the edge of a chair" />
+<span class="caption">Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly sitting on the edge of a chair</span>
+</div>
+<p>Mr. Todhunter murmured something about its being a pleasure and a
+privilege to hold them.</p>
+
+<p>Patty plumped up their clothes and rearranged them on the sofa with
+motherly solicitude, while Mr. Todhunter watched her gravely, his
+national politeness and his reportorial instinct each struggling for the
+mastery. Finally he began tentatively:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> "I say, Miss Wyatt, do&mdash;er&mdash;the
+young ladies spend much time playing with dolls?"</p>
+
+
+<p>"No," said Patty, candidly; "I don't think you could say they spend
+<i>too</i> much. I have never heard of but one girl actually neglecting her
+work for it. You mustn't think that we have as many dolls as this here
+<i>every</i> night," she went on. "It is rather an unusual occurrence. Once a
+year the girls hold what they call a doll show to see who has dressed
+her doll the best."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see," said Mr. Todhunter; "a little friendly rivalry."</p>
+
+<p>"Purely friendly," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>As they started for the dining-room Mr. Todhunter adjusted his monocle
+and took a parting look at the doll show.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you think us childish, Mr. Todhunter," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, Miss Wyatt," he assured her hastily. "I think it quite
+charming, you know, and so&mdash;er&mdash;unexpected. I had always been told that
+they played somewhat peculiar games at these women's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> colleges, but I
+never supposed they did anything so feminine as to play with dolls."</p>
+
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Patty returned to her room that night, she found Georgie and
+Priscilla surrounded by grammars and dictionaries, doing German prose.
+Her appearance was hailed with a cry of indignant protest.</p>
+
+<p>"When <i>I</i> have a man," said Priscilla, "I divide him up among my
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Especially</i> when he's a curiosity," added Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"And we dressed up in grand clothes, and stood in your way coming out of
+chapel," went on Priscilla, "and you never even looked at us."</p>
+
+<p>"Englishmen are so bashful," apologized Patty; "I didn't want to
+frighten him."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla looked at her suspiciously. "Patty, I hope you didn't impose
+on the poor man's credulity."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not!" said Patty, with dignity. "I explained everything he
+asked me, and was most careful not to exaggerate. But," she added with
+engaging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> frankness, "I cannot be responsible for any <i>impressions</i> he
+may have obtained. When an Englishman once gets an idea, you know, it's
+almost impossible to change it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h2>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>A Question of Ethics</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 151px;">
+<img src="images/p.png" width="151" height="150" alt="P" title="P" />
+
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />ATTY'S class-room methods were the result of a wide experience in the
+professorial type of mind. By her senior year she had reduced the matter
+of recitation to a system, and could foretell with unvarying precision
+the day she would be called on and the question she would be asked. Her
+tactics varied with the subject and the instructor, and were the result
+of a penetration and knowledge of human nature that might have
+accomplished something in a worthier cause.</div>
+
+<p>In chemistry, for example, her instructor was a man who had outlived any
+early illusions in regard to the superior conscientiousness of girls
+over boys. He was not by nature a suspicious person, but a long
+experience in teaching had inculcated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> an inordinate wariness which was
+sometimes out of season. He allowed no napping in his classes, and those
+who did not pay attention suffered. Patty discovered his weakness early
+in the year, and planned her campaign accordingly. As long as she did
+not understand the experiment in hand, she would watch him with a face
+beaming with intelligence; but when she did understand, and wished to
+recite, she would let her eyes wander to the window with a dreamy,
+far-away smile, and, being asked a question, would come back to the
+realities of chemistry with a start, and, after a moment of ostentatious
+pondering, make a brilliant recitation. It must be confessed that her
+moments of abstraction were rare; she was far too often radiantly
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>In French her tactics were exactly opposite. The instructor, with all
+the native politeness of his race, called on those only who caught his
+eye and appeared willing and anxious to recite. This made the matter
+comparatively simple, but still required<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> considerable finesse. Patty
+dropped her pen, spilled the pages from her note-book, tied her
+shoe-string, and even sneezed opportunely in order not to catch his eye
+at inconvenient moments. The rest of the class, who were not artists,
+contented themselves with merely lowering their eyes as he looked along
+the line&mdash;a method which in Patty's scornful estimation said as plainly
+as words, "Please don't call on me; I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>But with Professor Cairnsley, who taught philosophy, it was more
+difficult to form a working hypothesis. He had grown old in the service
+of the college, and after thirty years' experience of girl-nature he was
+still as unsuspiciously trustful as he had been in the beginning. Taking
+it for granted that his pupils were as interested in the contemplation
+of philosophic truths as he himself, the professor conducted his
+recitations without a suspicion of guile, and based his procedure
+entirely upon the inspiration of the moment. The key to his method had
+always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> remained a mystery, and several generations of classes had
+searched for it in vain. Some averred that he called on every seventh
+girl; others, that he drew lots. Patty triumphantly announced early in
+the course that she had discovered the secret at last&mdash;that on Monday he
+called on the red-haired girls; on Tuesday, those with yellow hair; on
+Wednesday and Thursday, those with brown; and on Friday, those with
+black. But this solution, like the others, was found to break down in
+actual practice; and Patty, for one, discovered that it required all her
+ingenuity, and even a good deal of studying, to maintain her reputation
+for brilliancy in Professor Cairnsley's classes. And she cared about
+maintaining it, for she liked the professor and was one of his favorite
+pupils. She had known his wife before she entered college, and she often
+called upon them in their home, and, in short, exemplified the ideal
+relations between faculty and students.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the pressure of many interests,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> Patty's researches into
+philosophy were not as deep as the intentions of the course, but she had
+a very good working knowledge, which, in its details, would have
+astonished Professor Cairnsley could he have got behind the scenes.
+Though her knowledge was not based strictly on the text-book, her
+reputation in the class was good, and, as Patty admitted with a sigh,
+"It's a great strain on the imagination to keep up a reputation in
+philosophy."</p>
+
+<p>It had been established, indeed, as far back as her sophomore year, when
+the psychology class was awed into silence by its first introduction to
+the abstractions of science, and Patty alone had dared to lift her
+voice. The professor, one morning, had been placidly lecturing along on
+the subject of sensation, and in the course of the lecture had remarked:
+"It is probable that the individual experiences all the primary
+sensations during the first few months of infancy, and that in after
+life there is no such thing as a new sensation."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Professor Cairnsley," Patty piped up, "did you ever shoot the chutes?"</p>
+
+<p>The ice was broken at last, and the class felt at home, even in the
+somewhat deep waters of philosophy; and Patty, however undeservedly, had
+gained the credit of having a deeper insight than most into matters
+psychical.</p>
+
+<p>And so into her senior year, when she entered upon the study of ethics,
+she carried along an unearned and fragile reputation, built upon
+subterfuges and likely to crumble at the slightest touch. She had
+maintained it very creditably up to the Christmas vacation, and had
+argued upon the ultimate ground of moral obligation and the origin of
+conscience quite as intelligently as though she had previously read what
+the text-book had to say on the subject. But when they had commenced the
+study of specific theologies, based upon definite historical facts,
+Patty found her imagination of little use, and on several occasions it
+had been purely good luck that had saved her from exposure. Once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> the
+bell had rung at an opportune moment, and twice she had been able to
+avert a direct answer by leading the discussion into side issues. She
+realized, however, that fortune would not always favor her, and as the
+professor usually forgot to call the roll, she formed the nefarious
+practice of cutting class when she did not have her lesson.</p>
+
+<p>For a week or so in particular, her pressure of work in other directions
+(not all of them scholastic) had prevented her from devoting her usual
+amount of energy to the task of maintaining her philosophy reputation,
+and she had, without conscience, cut ethics several days in succession,
+and had failed to comment upon the fact to the professor.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he lecture about in ethics&mdash;those recitations I missed?" she
+inquired of Priscilla, one afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"Swedenborg."</p>
+
+<p>"Swedenborg," repeated Patty, dreamily. "He got up a new religion,
+didn't he? Or was it a new system of gymnastics?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> I've heard about him,
+but I don't seem to remember any details."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better make him up; he's important."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say; but I've lived twenty-one years without knowing about him,
+and I can wait a month longer. I'm saving up Confucius and the Jesuits
+for examination-time, and I'll add Swedenborg to the list."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better not. Professor Cairnsley's fond of him, and is likely to
+pop a special examination at any moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Not Professor Cairnsley," laughed Patty. "He doesn't want to waste the
+time. He's going to lecture straight on for two weeks&mdash;nice man; I see
+it in his eye. What I admire in a professor is a good, steady, plodding
+disposition that doesn't go in for sensational surprises."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find yourself mistaken some day," warned Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"No danger, my dear Cassandra. I know Professor Cairnsley, and Professor
+Cairnsley thinks he knows me; and we just get along together
+beautifully. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> wish there were more like him," Patty added with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Cairnsley began a lecture the next morning which was evidently
+calculated to extend through the hour, and Patty cast a triumphant
+glance at Priscilla as she unscrewed the top of her fountain-pen and
+settled down to work. In the course of the lecture, however, he had
+occasion to refer to Swedenborg, and, pausing a moment, he casually
+asked a girl on the front seat for a r&eacute;sum&eacute; of Swedenborg's philosophy.
+She, unfortunately confusing him with Schopenhauer, glibly attributed to
+him doctrines which would have outraged his soul could he have heard
+them. It is written that the worm will turn, and the professor's bland
+smile deserted him as he passed the question to a second girl without
+much better result. The class in general had evidently been laboring
+under Patty's delusion that the time had not come in which to learn back
+notes. Amazed and indignant, he pursued the matter with a persistency
+and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> rancor he seldom showed. He began going straight through the
+class, growing more and more sarcastic with each recitation.</p>
+
+<p>As she saw him finish with the row in front and begin on her row, Patty
+knew that she was doomed. She racked her brain for some memory of
+Swedenborg. He was a name to her and nothing more. He might have been an
+ancient Greek or a modern American, for all she knew. As Professor
+Cairnsley came along the line he was gradually eliciting from the
+terrified class the superficial points which were more or less common to
+all philosophers. Patty perceived that her imagination could not help
+her out, that for once the placid professor was on the war-path, and
+that Swedenborg, and nothing but Swedenborg, would serve. She cast an
+agonized glance up at Priscilla, and Priscilla grinned back with "I told
+you so" written on every feature.</p>
+
+<p>Patty looked about desperately. The lecture-room was shaped like an
+amphitheater,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> with part of the seats on a level with the main floor,
+and the rest rising in tiers. Patty sat on the main floor, well toward
+the rear. She could barely see the professor's head, but he was coming
+irrevocably. She did not have to see very clearly to know that. The girl
+before her answered wildly; the professor frowned, and, looking down at
+his roll-book, slowly and deliberately made a zero.</p>
+
+<p>When he raised his eyes again Patty's seat was empty. She was kneeling
+on the floor, with her head bowed behind the girl in front. The
+unconscious professor passed over her bent head and called on the girl
+on the other side, who coughed hysterically once or twice, and flunked
+flat; and while he was crediting the fact in his roll-book Patty resumed
+her seat. A ripple of laughter ran around the room; the professor
+frowned, and remarked that he saw no occasion for amusement. The bell
+rang, and the class somewhat sheepishly filed out.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon Patty burst into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> study where Priscilla and Georgie
+Merriles were making tea. "Did you ever think I had much of a
+conscience?" she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Never thought it was your strong point," said Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've got a perfectly tremendous one! What do you think I've been
+doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Making up your ethics lectures," suggested Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Worse than that."</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>haven't</i> been to gym, Patty!" said Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness, no! I'm not so far gone as that. Well, I'll tell you. I met
+Professor Cairnsley by the gate and walked in with him, and, if you
+please, he complimented me on my work in ethics!"</p>
+
+<p>"That ought to have been embarrassing," said Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"It was," acknowledged Patty. "I told him I didn't really know as much
+as he thought I did."</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He said I was too modest. He's such a trustful old man, you know, that
+you sort of hate to deceive him. And what do you think? I told him about
+the seat!"</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla smiled approvingly upon her usually recreant room-mate. "Well,
+Patty, you certainly are better than I gave you credit for!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," murmured Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"I begin to believe you <i>have</i> got a conscience," said Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"An excellent one," said Patty, complacently.</p>
+
+<p>"It pays in the end," said Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"It does," agreed Patty. "Professor Cairnsley said he would explain
+Swedenborg to me himself, and he invited me over to dinner to-night!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>V</h2>
+
+<h3>The Elusive Kate Ferris</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 151px;">
+<img src="images/t.png" width="151" height="150" alt="T" title="T" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />HE mysterious Kate Ferris, who kept Priscilla on the verge of nervous
+prostration for a whole semester, entered upon her college career in an
+entirely unpremeditated and impromptu manner. It began one day away back
+in November. Georgie Merriles and Patty had just strolled home from the
+athletic field, where they had been witnessing the start of a
+paper-chase cross country, in which Priscilla was impersonating a fox.
+As they entered the study, Georgie stopped to examine some loose sheets
+of paper which were impaled upon the door.</div>
+
+<p>"What's this, Patty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's the registration-list for the German Club. Priscilla's
+secretary, you know, and every one who wants to join<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> comes here. The
+study has been so full of freshmen all the time that I told her to hang
+it on the door and let them join outside; it works beautifully." Patty
+turned the leaves and ran her eyes down the list of sprawling
+signatures. "It's a popular organization, isn't it? The freshmen are
+simply scrambling to get in."</p>
+
+<p>"They're trying to show Fr&auml;ulein Scherin how much interest they take in
+the subject," Georgie laughed.</p>
+
+<p>Patty picked up the pencil. "Would you like to join? I know Priscilla
+would be gratified."</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you; I pay club dues enough already."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I'm not exactly eligible myself, as I don't know any German.
+It's such a beautifully sharp pencil, though, that I hate not to write
+with it." Patty poised the pencil a moment, and abstractedly traced the
+name "Kate Ferris."</p>
+
+<p>Georgie laughed. "If there should happen to be a Kate Ferris in college,
+she would be surprised to find herself a member<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> of the German Club,"
+and the incident was forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later the two came in from class, to find Priscilla and the
+president of the German Club sitting on the divan with their heads
+together, frantically turning the leaves of the catalogue.</p>
+
+<p>"She isn't a sophomore," the president announced. "She <i>must</i> be a
+freshman, Priscilla. Look again."</p>
+
+<p>"I've gone over this list three times, and there isn't a single Ferris
+down."</p>
+
+<p>Georgie and Patty exchanged glances and inquired the trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"A girl named Kate Ferris has registered for the German Club, and we've
+gone through all the classes, and there simply isn't any such girl in
+college."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly a special," Patty suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! Why didn't we think of that?" And Priscilla turned to the
+list of special students. "No; she isn't here."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me look"; and Patty ran her eyes down the column. "You've mistaken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+the name," she remarked, handing the book back with a shrug.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla produced the registration-list, and triumphantly exhibited an
+unmistakable Kate Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"They forgot to put her in the catalogue."</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew them to make such a mistake before," said the president,
+dubiously. "I don't believe we'd better put her in the roll-book till we
+find out who she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you'll hurt her feelings," said Georgie. "Freshmen are terribly
+sensitive about being slighted."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well; it doesn't matter." And Kate Ferris was accordingly
+enrolled in the club records.</p>
+
+<p>Several weeks later Priscilla was engaged in laboriously turning the
+minutes of the last meeting into grammatical German, and as she closed
+the dictionary and grammar with a sigh of relief, she remarked to Patty:
+"Do you know, it's very queer about that Kate Ferris. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> hasn't paid
+her dues, and, as far as I can make out, she hasn't attended a single
+meeting. Wouldn't you take her name off the roll? I don't believe she's
+in college any more."</p>
+
+<p>"You might as well," said Patty, and she listlessly watched Priscilla as
+she scratched out the name with a penknife. Patty never made the mistake
+of over-acting.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, as Priscilla came in from a class, she found a note on
+her door-block, written in the perpendicular characters of Kate Ferris.
+It ran:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Pond</span>: I came to pay my German Club dues,
+and as you are not in, I have left the money on
+the bookcase. Am sorry to have missed so many
+meetings, but have not been able to attend classes
+lately.</p><div class='right'> <span class="smcap">Kate Ferris</span>. </div></div>
+
+<p>Priscilla exhibited the note to the president as a tangible proof that
+Kate Ferris still existed, and reinscribed the name in the roll-book.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks later she found a second note on her door-block:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Pond</span>: As I am very busy with my class
+work, I find that I have not time to attend the
+German Club meetings, and so have decided to
+resign. I left my letter of resignation on the
+bookcase.</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+<span class="smcap">Kate Ferris.</span><br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>As Priscilla scratched the name out of the roll-book again she remarked
+to Patty: "I am glad this Kate Ferris has left the club at last. She has
+caused me more trouble than all the rest of the members put together."</p>
+
+<p>The next morning a third note appeared on the block:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Pond</span>: I happened to mention the fact of
+my having resigned from the German Club to
+Fr&auml;ulein Scherin last night, and she said that the
+club would help me in my work, and advised me to
+stay in it. So I shall be much obliged if you will
+not present my letter at the meeting after all, as
+I have decided to follow her advice.</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+<span class="smcap">Kate Ferris</span>.<br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Priscilla tossed the note to Patty with a groan, and getting out the
+roll-book, she turned to the F's and re&euml;nrolled Kate Ferris.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Patty sympathetically watched the process over her shoulder. "The book
+is getting so thin in that spot," she laughed, "that Kate Ferris is
+actually coming through on the other side. If she changes her mind many
+more times there won't be anything left."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to ask Fr&auml;ulein Scherin about her," Priscilla declared.
+"She's made me so much trouble that I'm curious to see what she looks
+like."</p>
+
+<p>She did ask Fr&auml;ulein Scherin, but Fr&auml;ulein denied all knowledge of the
+girl. "I have so many freshmen," she apologized, "I cannot all of them
+with their queer names remember."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla inquired about Kate Ferris from the freshmen she knew, but
+though all of them thought that the name sounded familiar, none of them
+could exactly place her. She was variously described as tall and dark
+and small and light, but further inquiry always proved that the girl
+they had in mind was some one else.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla kept hearing about the girl on all sides, but could never
+catch a glimpse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> of her. Miss Ferris called several times on business,
+but Priscilla always happened to be out. Her name was posted on the
+bulletin-board for having library books that were overdue. She even
+wrote a paper for one of the German Club meetings (Georgie was not a
+facile German scholar, and it had required a whole Saturday); but owing
+to the fact that she was suddenly called out of town, she did not read
+it in person.</p>
+
+<p>A month or two after Kate Ferris's advent, Priscilla had friends
+visiting her from New York, for whom she gave a tea in the study.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to invite Kate Ferris," she announced. "I <i>insist</i> upon
+finding out what she looks like."</p>
+
+<p>"Do," said Patty. "I should like to find out myself."</p>
+
+<p>The invitation was despatched, and on the next day Priscilla received a
+formal acceptance.</p>
+
+<p>"It's strange that she should send an acceptance for a tea," she
+remarked as she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> read it, "but I'm glad to get it, anyway. I like to
+feel sure that I'm to see her at last."</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the tea, after the guests had gone and the furniture
+had been moved back, the weary hostesses, in somewhat rumpled evening
+dresses (a considerable crush results when fifty are entertained in a
+room whose utmost capacity is fifteen), were re&euml;ntertaining one or two
+friends on the lettuce sandwiches and cakes the obliging guests had
+failed to consume. The company and the clothes having passed in review,
+the conversation flagged a little, and Georgie suddenly asked: "Was Kate
+Ferris here? I was so busy passing cakes that I didn't look, and I
+wanted to see her especially!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's so!" Patty exclaimed. "I didn't see her, either. She's the most
+abnormally inconspicuous person I ever heard of. What did she look like,
+Pris?"</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla knit her brows. "She couldn't have come. I kept watching for
+her all the evening. It's strange, isn't it?&mdash;when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> she was so careful
+to send an acceptance. I'm growing positively morbid over the girl; I
+begin to think she's invisible."</p>
+
+<p>"I begin to think so myself," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning's mail brought a bunch of violets and an apology from
+Kate Ferris. "She had been unavoidably detained."</p>
+
+<p>"It's positively uncanny!" Priscilla declared. "I shall go to the
+registrar and tell her that this Kate Ferris is neither down in the
+catalogue nor the college directory, and find out where she lives."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do anything reckless," Georgie pleaded. "Take what the gods send
+and be grateful."</p>
+
+<p>But Priscilla was as good as her word, and she returned from the
+registrar's office flushed and defiant. "She insists that there isn't
+any such person in college, and that I must have made a mistake in the
+name! Did you ever hear anything so absurd?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That seems to me the only reasonable explanation," Patty agreed
+amicably. "Perhaps it is Harris instead of Ferris."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla faced her ominously. "You read the name yourself. It was as
+plain as printing."</p>
+
+<p>"We're all liable to make mistakes," Patty murmured soothingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," said Georgie, "I begin to think it's all a hallucination,
+and that there really isn't any Kate Ferris. It's strange, of course,
+but not any stranger than some of those cases you read about in
+psychology."</p>
+
+<p>"Hallucinations don't send flowers," said Priscilla, hotly; and she
+stalked out of the room, leaving Patty and Georgie to review the
+campaign.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid it's gone far enough," said Georgie. "If she bothers the
+office very much there'll be an official investigation."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid so," sighed Patty. "It's been very entertaining, but she is
+really getting sensitive on the subject, and I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> dare mention Kate
+Ferris's name when we're alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we tell her?"</p>
+
+<p>Patty shook her head. "Not just now&mdash;I shouldn't dare. She believes in
+corporal punishment."</p>
+
+<p>A few days later Priscilla received another note directed in the hand
+she had come to dread. She threw it into the waste-basket unopened; but,
+curiosity prevailing, she drew it out again and read it:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Pond:</span> As I have been obliged to leave
+college on account of my health, I inclose my
+resignation to the German Club. I thank you very
+sincerely for your kindness to me this year, and
+shall always look back upon our friendship as one
+of the happiest memories of my college life.</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Yours sincerely,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Kate Ferris.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>When Patty came in she found Priscilla silently and grimly scratching a
+hole into the roll-book where Kate Ferris's name had been.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Changed her mind again?" Patty asked pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"She's left college," Priscilla snapped, "and don't you ever mention her
+name to me again."</p>
+
+<p>Patty sighed sympathetically and remarked to the room in general: "It's
+sort of pathetic to have your whole college life summed up in a hole in
+the German Club archives. I can't help feeling sorry for her!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>A Story with Four Sequels</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 149px;">
+<img src="images/i.png" width="149" height="150" alt="I" title="I" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />T was Saturday, and Patty had been working ever since breakfast, with a
+brief pause for luncheon, on a paper entitled "Shakspere, the Man." At
+four o'clock she laid down her pen, pushed her manuscript into the
+waste-basket, and faced her room-mate defiantly.</div>
+
+<p>"What do I care about Shakspere, the man? He's been dead three hundred
+years."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla laughed unfeelingly. "What do I care about a frog's nervous
+system, for the matter of that? But I am writing an interesting
+monograph on it, just the same."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I dare say you are making a valuable addition to the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite as valuable as your addition to Shaksperiana."</p>
+
+<p>Patty dropped a voluble sigh and turned to the window to note that it
+was raining dismally.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hand it in," said Priscilla, comfortingly. "You've worked on it all
+day, and it's probably no worse than the most of your things."</p>
+
+<p>"No sense to it," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"They're used to that," laughed Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you laughing at, anyway?" Patty asked crossly. "I don't see
+anything to laugh at in this beastly place. Always having to do what you
+don't want to do when you most don't want to do it. Just the same, day
+after day: get up by bells, eat by bells, sleep by bells. I feel like
+some sort of a delinquent living in an asylum."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla treated this outburst with the silence it deserved, and Patty
+turned back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> to her perusal of the rain-soaked campus.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish something would happen," she said discontentedly. "I think I'll
+put on a mackintosh and go out in search of adventure."</p>
+
+<p>"Pneumonia will happen if you do."</p>
+
+<p>"What business has it to be raining, anyway, when it ought to be
+snowing?"</p>
+
+<p>As this was unanswerable, Priscilla returned to her frogs, and Patty
+drummed gloomily on the window-pane until a maid appeared with a card.</p>
+
+<p>"A caller?" cried Patty. "A missionary! A rescuer! A deliverer! Heaven
+send it's for me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Pond," said Sadie, laying the card on the table.</p>
+
+<p>Patty pounced upon it. "'Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope.' Who's he, Pris?"</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla wrinkled up her brows. "I don't know; I never heard of him.
+What do you suppose it can be?"</p>
+
+<p>"An adventure&mdash;I know it's an adventure. Probably your uncle, that you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+never heard of, has just died in the South Sea Islands, and left you a
+fortune because you're his namesake; or else you're a countess by
+rights, and were stolen from your cradle in infancy, and he's the lawyer
+come to tell you about it. I think it might have happened to me, when
+I'm so bored to death! But hurry up and tell me about it, at least; a
+second-hand adventure's better than no adventure at all. Yes, your hair
+is all right; never mind looking in the glass." And Patty pushed her
+room-mate out of the door, and, sitting down at her desk again, quite
+cheerfully pulled her discarded paper out of the waste-basket and began
+re-reading it with evident approval.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla returned before she had finished. "He didn't ask for me at
+all," she announced. "He asked for Miss McKay."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss McKay?"</p>
+
+<p>"That junior with the hair," she explained a trifle vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"How disgusting!" cried Patty. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> had it all planned how I was going to
+live with you in your castle up in the Hartz Mountains, and now it turns
+out that Miss McKay is the countess, and I don't even know her. What did
+the man look like, and what did he do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he looked rather frightened, and didn't do anything but stammer.
+There were two men in the reception-room, and of course I picked out the
+wrong one and begged his pardon and asked if he were Mr. Stanthrope. He
+said no; his name was Wiggins. So then the only thing left for me to do
+was to beg the other one's pardon.</p>
+
+<p>"He was sitting in that high-backed green chair, with his eyes glued to
+his shoes, and holding his hat and cane in front of him like
+breastworks, as if he were preparing to repel an attack. He didn't look
+very approachable, but I boldly accosted him and asked if he were Mr.
+Stanthrope. He stood up and stammered and blushed and looked as if he
+wanted to deny it, but finally acknowledged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> that he was, and then stood
+politely waiting for me to state my business! I explained, and he
+stammered some more, and finally got out that he had called to see Miss
+McKay, and that the maid must have made a mistake. He was quite cross
+about it, you know, and acted as if I had insulted him; and the other
+man&mdash;the horrible Wiggins one&mdash;laughed, and then looked out of the
+window and pretended he hadn't. I apologized,&mdash;though I couldn't for the
+life of me see what there was to apologize for,&mdash;and told him I would
+send the maid for Miss McKay, and backed out."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" Patty asked disappointedly. "If I couldn't have a better
+adventure than that, I shouldn't have any."</p>
+
+<p>"But the funny thing is that when I told Sadie, she <i>insisted</i> that he
+had asked for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! The plot thickens, after all. What does it mean? Did he look like a
+detective, or merely a pickpocket?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He looked like a very ordinarily embarrassed young man."</p>
+
+<p>Patty shook her head dejectedly. "There's a mystery somewhere, but I
+don't see that it affords much entertainment. I dare say that when Miss
+McKay came he told her he hadn't asked for her at all; he had asked for
+Miss Higginbotham. The only explanation I can think of is that he is
+insane, and there are so many insane people in the world that it isn't
+even interesting."</p>
+
+<p>Patty recounted the story of Priscilla's caller at the dinner-table that
+night.</p>
+
+<p>"I know the sequel," said Lucille Carter. "The other man, the Mr.
+Wiggins, is Bonnie Connaught's cousin; and he told her about some young
+man who came out in the car with him, and asked for Miss Pond at the
+door, and then all of a sudden seemed to change his mind, and went
+tearing down the corridor after the maid, yelling, "Hi, there! Hi,
+there!" at the top of his voice; but he couldn't catch her, and when
+Miss Pond came he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> pretended he had asked for some one else."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" asked Patty. "I don't think it is much of a sequel. It
+just proves that there's a plot against Priscilla's life, and I already
+knew that. I intend to ask Miss McKay about him. I don't know her,
+except by sight, but in a case of life and death like this, I don't
+think it's necessary to wait for an introduction."</p>
+
+<p>The next evening Patty announced: "Sequel number two! Mr. Frederick K.
+Stanthrope lives in New York, and is Miss McKay's brother's best friend.
+She has only met him once before, and doesn't know any of his past
+affiliations. But the queer thing is that he never mentioned to her
+anything about Priscilla. Shouldn't you naturally think he would have
+told her about such a funny mistake?</p>
+
+<p>"In my opinion," Patty continued solemnly, "it was plainly premeditated.
+He is undoubtedly a villain in disguise, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> he used his acquaintance
+with Miss McKay as a cloak to elude detection. My theory is this: He got
+Priscilla's name out of the catalogue, and came here intending to murder
+her for her <i>jools</i>; but when he saw how big she was he was scared and
+so abandoned his dastardly intent. Now if he had chosen me, my body
+would, at this moment, have been concealed behind the sofa, and my
+class-pin reposing in the murderer's pocket."</p>
+
+<p>Patty shuddered. "Think what I escaped. And all the time I was grumbling
+because nothing ever happens here!"</p>
+
+<p>A few days later she appeared at the table with a further announcement:
+"I have the pleasure of offering for your perusal, young ladies, the
+third and last sequel in the great Stanthrope-Pond-McKay mystery. And I
+hereby take the opportunity of apologizing to Mr. Stanthrope for my
+unworthy suspicions. He is not a burglar, nor a detective, nor a
+murderer, nor even a lawyer, but just a poor young man with a buried
+romance."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How did you find out?"&mdash;in a chorus of voices.</p>
+
+<p>"I just met Miss McKay in the hall, and she has been in New York, where
+her brother told her the particulars. It seems that three or four years
+ago Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope was engaged to a girl here in college
+named Alice Pond&mdash;she is now Mrs. Hiram Brown, but that has nothing to
+do with the story.</p>
+
+<p>"Being in town last Saturday on business, he decided to run out and call
+on Miss McKay, as he was such a friend of her brother's&mdash;and also for
+the sake of old times. He amused himself all the way out in the car by
+resurrecting his buried romance, and he kept getting more and more
+pensive with every mile. When he finally reached the door and handed his
+card to the maid, he abstractedly called for Miss Pond just as he used
+to do four years ago. He didn't realize at first what he had done. Then
+it came over him in a flash, but he couldn't catch Sadie. He knew, of
+course, that the other man had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> heard, and he sat there scared to death,
+trying to think of some plausible excuse, and momentarily expecting a
+strange Miss Pond to pop in and demand an explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure enough, the curtains parted, and a tall, beautiful, stately
+creature (I quote Miss McKay's brother) swept into the room, and,
+approaching the wrong man, asked him in haughty tones if he were Mr.
+Frederick K. Stanthrope. He very properly denied it, whereupon there was
+nothing for the right Mr. Stanthrope to do but stand up and acknowledge
+it like a man, which he did; but there he stuck. His imagination was
+numbed, paralyzed; so he turned it off on poor Sadie, and all the time
+he knew that the other man knew that he was lying. And that is all,"
+Patty finished. "It's not much of a story, but such as it is, it's a
+blessing to have it concluded."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty," called Priscilla, from the other end of the table, "have you
+been telling them that absurd story?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked Patty. "Having heard so many sequels, they naturally
+wanted to hear the last."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla laughed. "But yours doesn't happen to be the last. I know a
+still later one."</p>
+
+<p>"Later than Patty's?" the table demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, later than Patty's. It isn't really a sequel; it's just an
+appendix. I shouldn't tell you, only you'll find it out, so I might as
+well. Miss McKay has invited two men for the junior party, and both have
+accepted. As two men are hard to manage, she has (by request) asked me
+to take care of one of them&mdash;namely, Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope."</p>
+
+<p>Patty sighed. "I see a whole series of sequels stretching away into the
+future. It's worse than the Elsie Books!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>In Pursuit of Old English</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 168px;">
+<img src="images/hquot.png" width="168" height="150" alt="H" title="H" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />
+ELLO, Patty! Have you read the bulletin-board this morning?" called
+Cathy Fair, as she caught up with Patty on the way home from a
+third-hour recitation.</div>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty; "I think it's a bad habit. You see too many unpleasant
+things there."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's certainly an unpleasant one to-day. Miss Skelling wishes
+the Old English class to be provided with writing materials this
+afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Patty stopped with a groan. "I think it's absolutely abominable to give
+an examination without a word of warning."</p>
+
+<p>"Not an examination," quoted Cathy;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> "just a 'little test to see how
+much you know.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know a thing," wailed Patty&mdash;"not a blessed thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, Patty; you know more than any one else in the class."</p>
+
+<p>"Bluff&mdash;it's all pure bluff. I come in strong on the literary criticism
+and the general discussions, and she never realizes that I don't know a
+word of the grammar."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got two hours. You can cut your classes and review it up."</p>
+
+<p>"Two hours!" said Patty, sadly. "I need two days. I've never learned it,
+I tell you. The Anglo-Saxon grammar is a thing no mortal can carry in
+his head, and I thought I might as well wait and learn it before
+examinations."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wish to appear unfeeling," laughed Cathy, "but I should say, my
+dear, that it serves you right."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I dare say," said Patty. "You are as bad as Priscilla"; and she
+trailed gloomily homeward.</p>
+
+<p>She found her friends reviewing biology<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> and eating olives. "Have one?"
+asked Lucille Carter, who, provided with a hat-pin by way of fork, was
+presiding over the bottle for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks," returned Patty, in the tone of one who has exhausted life
+and longs for death.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" inquired Priscilla. "You don't mean to say that
+woman has given you another special topic?"</p>
+
+<p>"Worse than that!" and Patty laid bare the tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>A sympathetic silence followed; they realized that while she was,
+perhaps, not strictly deserving of sympathy, still her impending fate
+was of the kind that might overtake any one.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, Pris," said Patty, miserably, "that I simply <i>can't</i> pass."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Priscilla, soothingly; "I don't believe you can."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall flunk <i>flat</i>&mdash;absolutely <i>flat</i>. Miss Skelling will never have
+any confidence in me again, and will make me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> recite every bit of
+grammar for the rest of the semester."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you'd cut," ventured Georgie&mdash;that being, in her
+opinion, the most obvious method of escaping an examination.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't. I just met Miss Skelling in the hall five minutes before the
+blow fell, and she knows I'm alive and able to be about; besides, the
+class meets again to-morrow morning, and I'd have to cram all night or
+cut that too."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you go to Miss Skelling and frankly explain the situation,"
+suggested Lucille the virtuous, "and ask her to let you off for a day or
+two? She would like you all the better for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you listen to the guileless babe!" said Patty. "What is there to
+explain, may I ask? I can't very well tell her that I prefer not to
+learn the lessons as she gives them out, but think it easier to wait and
+cram them up at one fell swoop, just before examinations. That <i>would</i>
+ingratiate myself in her favor!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It's your own fault," said Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>Patty groaned. "I was just waiting to hear you say that! You always do."</p>
+
+<p>"It's always true. Where are you going?" as Patty started for the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going," said Patty, "to ask Mrs. Richards to give me a new
+room-mate: one who will understand and appreciate me, and sympathize
+with my afflictions."</p>
+
+<p>Patty walked gloomily down the corridor, lost in meditation. Her way led
+past the door of the doctor's office, which was standing invitingly
+open. Three or four girls were sitting around the room, laughing and
+talking and waiting their turns. Patty glanced in, and a radiant smile
+suddenly lightened her face, but it was instantly replaced by a look of
+settled sadness. She walked in and dropped into an arm-chair with a
+sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Patty? You look as if you had melancholia."</p>
+
+<p>Patty smiled apathetically. "Not quite so bad as that," she murmured,
+and leaned back and closed her eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_0124.jpg" width="600" height="390" alt="What&#39;s the matter, Patty?" title="What&#39;s the matter, Patty?" />
+<span class="caption">What&#39;s the matter, Patty?</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Next," said the doctor from the doorway; but as she caught sight of
+Patty she walked over and shook her arm. "Is this Patty Wyatt? What is
+the matter with you, child?"</p>
+
+<p>Patty opened her eyes with a start. "Nothing," she said; "I'm just a
+little tired."</p>
+
+<p>"Come in here with me."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not my turn," objected Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"That makes no difference," returned the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>Patty dropped limply into the consulting-chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see your tongue. Um-m&mdash;isn't coated very much. Your pulse seems
+regular, though possibly a trifle feverish. Have you been working hard?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I've been working any harder than usual," said Patty,
+truthfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Sitting up late nights?"</p>
+
+<p>Patty considered. "I was up rather late twice last week," she confessed.</p>
+
+<p>"If you girls persist in studying until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> all hours of the night, I
+don't know what we doctors can do."</p>
+
+<p>Patty did not think it necessary to explain that it was a Welsh-rabbit
+party on each occasion, so she merely sighed and looked out of the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>"Is your appetite good?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty, in a tone which belied the words; "it seems to be
+very good."</p>
+
+<p>"Um-m," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm just a little tired," pursued Patty, "but I think I shall be all
+right as soon as I get a chance to rest. Perhaps I need a tonic," she
+suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better stay out of classes for a day or two and get thoroughly
+rested."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said Patty, in evident perturbation. "Our room is so full of
+girls all the time that it's really more restful to go to classes; and,
+besides, I can't stay out just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" demanded the doctor, suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Patty, a trifle reluctantly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> "I have a good deal to do.
+I've got to cram for an examination, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The word "cram" was to the doctor as a red rag to a bull. "Nonsense!"
+she ejaculated. "I know what I shall do with you. You are going right
+over to the infirmary for a few days&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, doctor!" Patty pleaded, with tears in her eyes, "there's <i>truly</i>
+nothing the matter with me, and I've <i>got</i> to take that examination."</p>
+
+<p>"What examination is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Old English&mdash;Miss Skelling."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see Miss Skelling myself," said the doctor, "and explain that
+you cannot take the examination until you come out. And now," she added,
+making a note of Patty's case, "I will have you put in the convalescent
+ward, and we will try the rest cure for a few days, and feed you up on
+chicken-broth and egg-nog, and see if we can get that appetite back."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Patty, with the resigned air of one who has given up
+struggling against the inevitable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I like to see you take an interest in your work," added the doctor,
+kindly; "but you must always remember, my dear, that health is the first
+consideration."</p>
+
+<p>Patty returned to the study and executed an impromptu dance in the
+middle of the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" exclaimed Priscilla. "Are you crazy?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty; "only ill." And she went into her bedroom and began
+slinging things into a dress-suit case.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla stood in the doorway and watched her in amazement. "Are you
+going to New York?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty; "to the infirmary."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty Wyatt, you're a wretched little hypocrite!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said Patty, cheerfully. "I didn't ask to go, but the
+doctor simply insisted. I told her I had an examination, but she said it
+didn't make any difference; health must be the first consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"What's in that bottle?" demanded Priscilla.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's for my appetite," said Patty, with a grin; "the doctor hopes to
+improve it. I didn't like to discourage her, but I don't much believe
+she can." She dropped an Old English grammar and a copy of "Beowulf"
+into her suit-case.</p>
+
+<p>"They won't let you study," said Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not ask them," said Patty. "Good-by. Tell the girls to drop in
+occasionally and see me in my incarceration. Visiting hour from five to
+six." She stuck her head in again. "If any one wants to send violets, I
+think they might cheer me up."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> next afternoon Georgie and Priscilla presented themselves at the
+infirmary, and were met at the door by the austere figure of the head
+nurse. "I will see if Miss Wyatt is awake," she said dubiously, "but I
+am afraid you will excite her; she's to be kept very quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; we'll do her good," remonstrated Georgie; and the two girls
+tiptoed in after the nurse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The convalescent ward was a large, airy room, furnished in green and
+white, with four or five beds, each surrounded with brass poles and
+curtains. Patty was lying in one of the corner beds near a window,
+propped up on pillows, with her hair tumbled about her face, and a table
+beside her covered with flowers and glasses of medicine. This elaborate
+paraphernalia of sickness created a momentary illusion in the minds of
+the visitors. Priscilla ran to the bedside and dropped on her knees
+beside her invalid room-mate.</p>
+
+<p>"Patty dear," she said anxiously, "how do you feel?"</p>
+
+<p>A seraphic smile spread over Patty's face. "I've been able to take a
+little nourishment to-day," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Patty, you're a scandalous humbug! Who gave you those violets? 'With
+love, from Lady Clara Vere de Vere'&mdash;that blessed freshman!&mdash;and you've
+borrowed every drop of alcohol the poor child ever thought of owning.
+And whom are those roses from? Miss Skelling! Patty, you ought to be
+ashamed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Patty had the grace to blush slightly. "I was a trifle embarrassed," she
+admitted; "but when I reflected upon how sorry she would have been to
+find out how little I knew, and how glad she will be to find out how
+much I know, my conscience was appeased."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been studying?" asked Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"Studying!" Patty lifted up the corner of her pillow and exhibited a
+blue book. "Two days more of this, and I shall be the chief authority in
+America on Anglo-Saxon roots."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you manage it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Patty, "when the rest-hour begins I lie down and shut my
+eyes, and they tiptoe over and look at me, and whisper, 'She's asleep,'
+and softly draw the curtains around the bed; and I get out the book and
+put in two solid hours of irregular verbs, and am still sleeping when
+they come to look at me. They're perfectly astonished at the amount I
+sleep. I heard the nurse telling the doctor that she didn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> believe I'd
+had any sleep for a month. And the worst of it is," she added, "that I
+<i>am</i> tired, whether you believe it or not, and I should just love to
+stay over here and sleep all day if I weren't so beastly conscientious
+about that old grammar."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Patty!" laughed Georgie. "She will be imposing on herself next, as
+well as on the whole college."</p>
+
+<p>Friday morning Patty returned to the world.</p>
+
+<p>"How's Old English?" inquired Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, thank you. It was something of a cram, but I think I know
+that grammar by heart, from the preface to the index."</p>
+
+<p>"You're back in all your other work. Do you think it paid?"</p>
+
+<p>"That remains to be seen," laughed Patty.</p>
+
+<p>She knocked on Miss Skelling's door, and, after the first polite
+greetings, stated her errand: "I should like, if it is convenient for
+you, to take the examination I missed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel able to take it to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"I feel much better able to take it to-day than I did on Tuesday."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Skelling smiled kindly. "You have done very good work in Old
+English this semester, Miss Wyatt, and I should not ask you to take the
+examination at all if I thought it would be fair to the rest of the
+class."</p>
+
+<p>"Fair to the rest of the class?" Patty looked a trifle blank; she had
+not considered this aspect of the question, and a slow red flush crept
+over her face. She hesitated a moment, and rose uncertainly. "When it
+comes to that, Miss Skelling," she confessed, "I'm afraid it wouldn't be
+quite fair to the rest of the class for me to take it."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Skelling did not understand. "But, Miss Wyatt," she expostulated in
+a puzzled tone, "it was not difficult. I am sure you could pass."</p>
+
+<p>Patty smiled. "I am sure I could, Miss Skelling. I don't believe you
+could ask me a question that I couldn't answer. But the point is that
+it's all learned since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> Tuesday. The doctor was laboring under a little
+delusion&mdash;very natural under the circumstances&mdash;when she sent me to the
+infirmary, and I spent my time there studying."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Miss Wyatt, this is very unusual. I shall not know how to mark
+you," Miss Skelling murmured in some distress.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mark me zero," said Patty, cheerfully. "It doesn't matter in the
+least&mdash;I know such a lot that I'll get through on the finals. Good-by;
+I'm sorry to have troubled you." And she closed the door and turned
+thoughtfully homeward.</p>
+
+<p>"Did it pay?" asked Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>Patty laughed and murmured softly:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="The King of France">
+<tr><td align='left'>"'The King of France rode up the hill with full ten thousand men;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: .5em;">The King of France did gain the top, and then rode down again.'"</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>"What are you talking about?" demanded Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Old English," said Patty, as she sat down at her desk and commenced on
+the three days' work she had missed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>The Deceased Robert</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 149px;">
+<img src="images/i.png" width="149" height="150" alt="I" title="I" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />T was ten o'clock, and Patty, having just read her ethics over for the
+third time without comprehending it, had announced sleepily, "I shall
+have to be good by inspiration; I can't seem to grasp the rule," when a
+knock sounded on the door and a maid appeared with the announcement,
+"Mrs. Richards wishes to see Miss Wyatt."</div>
+
+<p>"At this hour!" Patty cried in dismay. "It must be something serious.
+Think, Priscilla. What have I been doing lately that would outrage the
+warden sufficiently to call me up at ten o'clock? You don't suppose I'm
+going to be suspended or rusticated or expelled or anything like that,
+do you? I <i>honestly</i> can't think of a thing I've done."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It's a telegram," the maid said sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"A telegram?" Patty's face turned pale, and she left the room without a
+word.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla and Georgie sat on the couch and looked at each other with
+troubled faces. All ordinary telegrams came directly to the students.
+They knew that something serious must have happened to have it sent to
+the warden. Georgie got up and walked around the room uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I go away, Pris?" she asked. "I suppose Patty would rather be
+alone if anything has happened. But if she's going home and has to pack
+her trunk to-night, come and tell me and I will come down and help."</p>
+
+<p>They stood at the door a few moments talking in low tones, and as
+Georgie started to turn away, Patty's step suddenly sounded in the
+corridor. She came in with a queer smile on her lips, and sat down on
+the couch.</p>
+
+<p>"The warden has certainly reduced the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> matter of scaring people to a
+fine art," she said. "I was never more frightened in my life. I thought
+that the least that had happened was an earthquake which had engulfed
+the entire family."</p>
+
+<p>"What was the matter?" Georgie and Priscilla asked in a breath.</p>
+
+<p>Patty spread out a crumpled telegram on her knee, and the girls read it
+over her shoulder:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Robert died of an overdose of chloroform at ten
+this morning. Funeral to-morrow.</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+<span class="smcap">Thomas M. Wyatt.</span><br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Thomas M. Wyatt," said Patty, grimly, "is my small brother Tommy, and
+Robert is short for Bobby Shafto, which was the name of Tommy's bull
+pup, the homeliest and worst-tempered dog that was ever received into
+the bosom of a respectable family."</p>
+
+<p>"But why in the world did he telegraph?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a joke," said Patty, shaking her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>head dejectedly. "Joking runs in
+the family, and we've all inherited the tendency. One time my
+father&mdash;but, as my friend Kipling says, that's another story. This dog,
+you see&mdash;this Robert Shafto&mdash;has cast a shadow over my vacations for
+more than a year. He killed my kitten, and ate my Venetian lace
+collar&mdash;it didn't even give him indigestion. He went out and wallowed in
+the rain and mud and came in and slept on my bed. He stole the beefsteak
+for breakfast and the rubbers and door-mats for blocks around. Property
+on the street appreciably declined, for prospective purchasers refused
+to purchase so long as Tommy Wyatt kept a dog. Robert was threatened
+with death time and again, but Tommy always managed to conceal him from
+impending justice until the trouble had blown over. But this time I
+suppose he committed some supreme enormity&mdash;probably chewed up the baby
+or one of my father's Persian rugs, or something like that. And Tommy,
+knowing how I detested the beast, evidently thought it would be a good
+joke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> to telegraph, though wherein lies the point I can't make out."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see," said Georgie; "and Mrs. Richards thought that Robert was a
+relation. What did she say?"</p>
+
+<p>"She said, 'Come in, Patty dear,' when I knocked on the door. Usually
+when I have had the honor of being received by her she has somewhat
+frigidly called me 'Miss Wyatt.' I opened the door with my knees shaking
+when I heard that 'Patty dear,' and she took my hand and said, 'I am
+sorry to have to tell you that I have heard bad news from your brother.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Tommy?' I gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"'No; Robert.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was dazed. I racked my brains, but I couldn't remember any brother
+Robert.</p>
+
+<p>"'He is very ill,' she went on. 'Yes, I must tell you the truth, Patty;
+poor little Robert passed away this morning'; and she laid the telegram
+before me. Then, when it flashed over me what it meant, I was so
+relieved that I put my head down on her desk and simply laughed till I
+cried;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> and she thought I was crying all the time, and kept patting my
+head and quoting Psalms. Well, then I didn't dare to tell her, after she
+had expended all that sympathy; so as soon as I could stop laughing
+(which wasn't very soon, for I had got considerable momentum) I raised
+my head and told her&mdash;trying to be truthful and at the same time not
+hurt her feelings&mdash;that Robert was not a brother, but just a sort of
+friend. And, do you know, she immediately jumped to the conclusion that
+he was a fianc&eacute;, and began stroking my hair and murmuring that it was
+sometimes harder to lose friends than relatives, but that I was still
+young, and I must not let it blast my life, and that maybe in the future
+when time had dulled the pain&mdash;and then, remembering that it wouldn't do
+to advise me to adopt a second fianc&eacute; before I had buried my first, she
+stopped suddenly and asked if I wished to go home to the funeral.</p>
+
+<p>"I told her no, that I didn't think it would be best; and she said
+perhaps not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> if it hadn't been announced, and she kissed me and told me
+she was glad to see me bearing up so bravely."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty!" Priscilla exclaimed in horror, "it's dreadful. How could you
+let her think it?"</p>
+
+<p>"How could I help it?" Patty demanded indignantly. "What with being
+frightened into hysterics first, and then having a strange fianc&eacute; thrust
+at me without a moment's notice, I think that I carried off the
+situation with rare delicacy and finesse. Do you think it would have
+been tactful to tell her it was nothing but a bull pup she was quoting
+Scripture about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how it was exactly your fault," Georgie acknowledged.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Patty. "If you had a brother like Tommy Wyatt you
+would know how to sympathize with me. I suppose I ought to be grateful
+to know that the dog is dead, but I should like to have had the news
+broken a little less gently."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Patty," exclaimed Priscilla, as a sudden thought struck her, "do you
+happen to remember that you are on the reception committee of the
+Dramatic Club cotillion to-morrow night? What will Mrs. Richards think
+when she sees you in evening dress, receiving at a party, on the very
+day your fianc&eacute; has been buried?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder?" said Patty, doubtfully. "Do you really think I ought to stay
+away? After working like a little buzz-saw making tissue-paper favors
+for the thing, I hate to have to miss it just because my brother's bull
+pup, that I never even <i>liked</i>, is dead.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go," she added, brightening, "and receive the guests with a forced
+and mechanical smile; and every time I feel the warden's eyes upon me I
+shall with difficulty choke back the tears, and she will say to herself:</p>
+
+<p>"'Brave girl! How nobly she is struggling to present a composed face to
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> world! None would dream, to look at that seemingly radiant
+creature, that, while she is outwardly so gay, she is in reality
+concealing a great sorrow which is gnawing at her very vitals.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>Patty the Comforter</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 149px;">
+<img src="images/i.png" width="149" height="150" alt="I" title="I" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />T was on the eve of the mid-year examinations, and a gloom had fallen
+over the college. The conscientious ones who had worked all the year
+were working harder than ever, and the frivolous ones who had played all
+the year were working with a desperate frenzy calculated to render their
+minds a blank when the crucial hour should have arrived. But Patty was
+not working. It was a canon of her college philosophy, gained by three
+and a half years' of personal experience, that the day before
+examinations is not the time to begin to study. One has impressed the
+instructor with one's intelligent interest in the subject, or one has
+not, and the result is as sure as if the marks were already down in
+black and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> white in the college archives. And so Patty, who at least
+lived up to her lights, was, with the exception of a few points which
+she intended to learn for this period only, conscientiously neglecting
+the "judicious review" recommended by the faculty.</div>
+
+<p>Her friends, however, who, though perhaps equally philosophic, were less
+consistent, were subjecting themselves to what was known as a "regular
+freshman cram"; and as no one had any time to talk to Patty, or to make
+anything to eat, she found it an unprofitable period. Her own room-mate
+even drove her from the study because she laughed out loud over the book
+she was reading; and, an exile, she wandered around to the studies of
+her friends, and was confronted by an "engaged" on every door. She was
+sitting on a window-sill in the corridor, pondering on the general
+barrenness of things, when she suddenly remembered her friends the
+freshmen in study 321. She had not visited them for some time, and
+freshmen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> are usually interesting at this period. She accordingly turned
+down the corridor that led to 321, and found a "<span class="smcap">positively engaged to
+every one!!</span>" in letters three inches high, across the door. This
+promised a richness of entertainment within, and Patty heaved a
+disappointed sigh loud enough to carry through the transom.</p>
+
+<p>The turning of leaves and rustling of paper ceased; evidently they were
+listening, but they gave no sign. Patty wrote a note on the door-block
+with reverberating punctuation-points, and then retired noisily, and
+tiptoed back a moment later, and leaned against the wall. Curiosity
+prevailed; the door opened, and a face wearing a hunted look peered out.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Patty Wyatt, was that you?" she asked. "We thought it was Frances
+Stoddard coming down to have geometry explained, and so we kept still.
+Come in."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness, no; I wouldn't come in over an 'engaged' like that for
+anything. I'm afraid you're busy."</p>
+
+<p>The freshman grasped her by the arm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> "Patty, if you love us come in and
+cheer us up. We're so scared we don't know what to do."</p>
+
+<p>Patty consented to be drawn across the threshold. "I don't want to
+interrupt you," she remonstrated, "if you have anything to do." The
+study was occupied by three girls. Patty smiled benignly at the two
+haggard faces before her. "Where's Lady Clara Vere de Vere?" she asked.
+"She surely isn't wasting these precious last moments in anything
+frivolous."</p>
+
+<p>"She's in her bedroom, with a geometry in one hand and a Greek grammar
+in the other, trying to learn them both at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her to come out here; I want to give her some good advice"; and
+Patty sat down on the divan and surveyed the dictionary-bestrewn room
+with an appreciative smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Patty, I'm so glad to see you!" Lady Clara exclaimed, appearing in
+the doorway. "The sophomores have been telling us the most <i>dreadful</i>
+stories about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> examinations. They aren't true, are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy, no! Don't believe a word those sophomores tell you. They were
+freshmen themselves last year, and if the examinations were as bad as
+they say, they wouldn't have passed them, either."</p>
+
+<p>A relieved expression stole over the three faces.</p>
+
+<p>"You're such a comfort, Patty. Upper-classmen take things easily, don't
+they?"</p>
+
+<p>"One gets inured to almost anything in time," said Patty. "Examinations
+are even entertaining, if you know the right answers."</p>
+
+<p>"But we won't know the right answers!" one of the freshmen wailed, her
+terror returning. "We simply don't know <i>anything</i>, and Latin comes
+to-morrow, and geometry the next day."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, in that case you can't get through anyway, so don't worry.
+You must take it philosophically, you know." Patty settled herself among
+the cushions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> and smiled upon her frightened auditors with easy
+nonchalance. "As an example of the uselessness of studying at the
+eleventh hour when you haven't done anything through the term, I will
+tell you my experience with freshman Greek. I was badly prepared when I
+came, I didn't study through the term, and, without exaggeration, I
+didn't know anything. Three days before examinations I suddenly
+comprehended the situation, and I began swallowing that grammar in
+chunks. I drank black coffee to keep awake, and worked till two in the
+morning, and scarcely stopped cramming irregular verbs for meals. I
+simply thought in Greek and dreamed in Greek. And, if you will believe
+it, after all that work I flunked in Greek! It shook my faith in
+studying for examinations. I've never done it since, and I've never
+flunked since. I believe that it's just a matter of fate whether you get
+through or not, so I never bother any more."</p>
+
+<p>The freshmen looked at one another disconsolately.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> "If it's all decided
+beforehand, we're lost."</p>
+
+<p>Patty smiled reassuringly.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="A little flunking now and then">
+<tr><td align='left'>"A little flunking now and then</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: .5em;">Will happen to the best of men."</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>"But I've heard they send people home, drop them, you know, if they
+flunk more than a certain amount. Is that so?" Lady Clara inquired in
+hushed tones.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Patty; "they have to. I've known some of the brightest
+girls in college to be dropped."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clara groaned. "I'm awfully shaky in geometry, Patty. Do they flunk
+many girls in that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Many!" said Patty. "The mere clerical labor of writing out the notes
+occupies the department two days."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the examination terribly hard?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't remember much about it. It's been such a long time since I was
+a freshman, you see. They picked out the hardest theorems, I
+know&mdash;things you couldn't even draw, let alone demonstrate: the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> pyramid
+that's cut in slices, for one,&mdash;I don't remember its name,&mdash;and that
+sprawling one that looks like a snail crawling out of its shell: the
+devil's coffin, I believe it's called technically. And&mdash;oh, yes! they
+give you originals&mdash;<i>frightful</i> originals, like nothing you've ever had
+before; and they put a little note at the top of the page telling you to
+do them first, and you get so muddled trying to think fast that you
+can't think at all. I know a girl who spent all the two hours trying to
+think out an original, and just as she got ready to write it down the
+bell rang and she had to hand in her paper."</p>
+
+<p>"And what happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she flunked. You couldn't really blame the instructor, you know,
+for not reading between the lines, for there weren't any lines to read
+between; but it was sort of a pity, for the girl really knew an awful
+lot&mdash;but she couldn't express it."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just like me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, it's like a good many people." A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> silence ensued, and the freshmen
+looked at one another dejectedly. "But you can live, even if you should
+flunk math," Patty continued reassuringly. "Other people have done it
+before you."</p>
+
+<p>"If it were only geometry&mdash;but we're scared over Latin."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Latin! There's no use studying for that, for you can't possibly
+read it all over, and if you just pick out a part, it's sure not to be
+the same part <i>they</i> pick out. The best way is to say incantations over
+the book, and open it with your eyes blindfolded, and study the page it
+opens to; then, in case you don't pass,&mdash;and you probably won't,&mdash;you
+can throw the blame on fate. My freshman year, if I remember right, they
+gave us for prose composition one of Emerson's essays to translate into
+Latin, and we couldn't even tell what it meant in English."</p>
+
+<p>The three looked at one another again.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't do anything like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nor any one else," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"We can flunk Latin and math; but if we flunk any more we're gone."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe so," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm awfully shaky in German."</p>
+
+<p>"And I in French."</p>
+
+<p>"And I in Greek."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know anything about German," said Patty. "Never had it myself.
+But I remember hearing Priscilla say that the printed examination papers
+didn't come but in time, and Fr&auml;ulein Scherin, who writes a frightful
+hand, wrote the questions on the board in German script, and they
+couldn't even read them. In French I believe the first question was to
+write out the 'Marseillaise'; there are seven verses, and no one had
+learned them, and the 'Marseillaise,' you know, is a thing that you
+simply <i>can't</i> make up on the spur of the moment. As for Greek, I told
+you my own experience; I am sure nothing could be worse than that."</p>
+
+<p>The freshmen looked at one another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> hopelessly. "There's only English
+and hygiene and Bible history left."</p>
+
+<p>"English is something you can't tell anything about," said Patty.
+"They're as likely as not to ask you to write a heroic poem in iambic
+pentameters, if you know what they are. You have to depend on
+inspiration; you can't study for it."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," sighed Lady Clara, "to get through hygiene and Bible history,
+though, as they only count one hour apiece, I suppose it isn't much."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't be too sanguine," said Patty. "It all depends on chance.
+The class in hygiene is so big that the professor hasn't time to read
+the papers; he just goes down the list and flunks every thirteenth girl.
+I'm not sure about Bible history, but I think he does the same, because
+I know, freshman year, that I made a mistake and handed in my map of the
+Holy Lands done in colored chalk to the hygiene professor, and my chart
+of the digestive system to the Bible professor, and neither of them
+noticed it. They did look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> a good deal alike, but not so much but what
+you could tell them apart. All I have to say is that I hope none of you
+will be number thirteen."</p>
+
+<p>The freshmen stared at one another in speechless horror, and Patty rose.
+"Well, good-by, my children, and, above all things, don't worry. I'm
+glad if I've been able to cheer you up a little, for so much depends on
+not being nervous. Don't believe any of the silly stories the sophomores
+tell," she called back over her shoulder; "they're just trying to
+frighten you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>X</h2>
+
+<h3>"Per l'Italia"</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 149px;">
+<img src="images/c.png" width="149" height="150" alt="C" title="C" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />OLLEGE is a more or less selfish place. Everybody is so busy with her
+own affairs that she has no time to give to her neighbor, unless her
+neighbor has something to give in return. Olivia Copeland apparently had
+nothing to give in return. She was quiet and inconspicuous, and it took
+a second glance to realize that her face was striking and that there was
+a look in her eyes that other freshmen did not have. By an unfelicitous
+chance she was placed in the same study with Lady Clara Vere de Vere and
+Emily Washburn. They thought her foreign and queer, and she thought them
+crude and boisterous, and after the first week or two of politely trying
+to get acquainted the effort was dropped on both sides.</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The year wore on, and nobody knew, or at least no one paid any attention
+to the fact, that Olivia Copeland was homesick and unhappy. Her
+room-mates thought that they had done their duty when they occasionally
+asked her to play golf or go skating with them (an invitation they were
+very safe in giving, as she knew how to do neither). Her instructors
+thought that they had done their duty when they called her up to the
+desk after class and warned her that her work was not as good as it had
+been, and that if she wished to pass she must improve in it.</p>
+
+<p>The English class was the only one in which she was not warned; but she
+had no means of knowing that her themes were handed about among the
+different instructors and that she was referred to in the department as
+"that remarkable Miss Copeland." The department had a theory that if
+they let a girl know she was doing good work she would immediately stop
+and rest upon her reputation; and Olivia, in consequence, did not
+discover that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> was remarkable. She merely discovered that she was
+miserable and out of place, and she continued to drip tears of
+homesickness before a sketch of an Italian villa that hung above her
+desk.</p>
+
+<p>It was Patty Wyatt who first discovered her. Patty had dropped into the
+freshmen's room one afternoon on some errand or other (probably to
+borrow alcohol), and had idly picked up a pile of English themes that
+were lying on the study table.</p>
+
+<p>"Whose are these? Do you care if I look at them?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No; you can read them if you want to," said Lady Clara. "They're
+Olivia's, but she won't mind."</p>
+
+<p>Patty carelessly turned the pages, and then, as a title caught her eye,
+she suddenly looked up with a show of interest. "'The Coral-fishers of
+Capri'! What on earth does Olivia Copeland know about the coral-fishers
+of Capri?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she lives somewhere near there&mdash;at Sorrento," said Lady Clara,
+indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Olivia Copeland lives at Sorrento!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> Patty stared. "Why didn't you tell
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I supposed you knew it. Her father's an artist or something of the
+sort. She's lived in Italy all her life; that's what makes her so
+queer."</p>
+
+<p>Patty had once spent a sunshiny week in Sorrento herself, and the very
+memory of it was intoxicating. "Where is she?" she asked excitedly. "I
+want to talk to her."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know where she is. Out walking, probably. She goes off walking
+all by herself, and never speaks to any one, and then when we ask her to
+do something rational, like golf or basket-ball, she pokes in the house
+and reads Dante in Italian. Imagine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, she must be interesting!" said Patty, in surprise, and she turned
+back to the themes.</p>
+
+<p>"I think these are splendid!" she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Sort of queer, I think," said Lady Clara. "But there's one that's
+rather funny. It was read in class&mdash;about a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> peasant that lost his
+donkey. I'll find it"; and she rummaged through the pile.</p>
+
+<p>Patty read it soberly, and Lady Clara watched her with a shade of
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think it's pretty good?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I think it's one of the best things I ever read."</p>
+
+<p>"You never even smiled!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child, it isn't funny."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't funny! Why, the class simply roared over it."</p>
+
+<p>Patty shrugged. "Your appreciation must have gratified Olivia. And here
+it's February, and I've barely spoken to her."</p>
+
+<p>The next afternoon Patty was strolling home from a recitation, when she
+spied Olivia Copeland across the campus, headed for Pine Bluff and
+evidently out for a solitary walk.</p>
+
+<p>"Olivia Copeland, wait a moment," Patty called. "Are you going for a
+walk? May I come too?" she asked, as she panted up behind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Olivia assented with evident surprise, and Patty fell into step beside
+her. "I just found out yesterday that you live in Sorrento, and I wanted
+to talk to you. I was there myself once, and I think it's the most
+glorious spot on earth."</p>
+
+<p>Olivia's eyes shone. "Really?" she gasped. "Oh, I'm so glad!" And before
+she knew it she was telling Patty the story of how she had come to
+college to please her father, and how she loved Italy and hated America;
+and what she did not tell about her loneliness and homesickness Patty
+divined.</p>
+
+<p>She realized that the girl <i>was</i> remarkable, and she determined in the
+future to take an interest in her and make her like college. But a
+senior's life is busy and taken up with its own affairs, and for the
+next week or two Patty saw little of the freshman beyond an occasional
+chat in the corridors.</p>
+
+<p>One evening she and Priscilla had returned late from a dinner in town,
+to be confronted by a dark room and an empty match-safe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment and I'll get some matches," said Patty; and she knocked
+on a door across the corridor where a freshman lived with whom they had
+a borrowing acquaintance. She found within her own freshman friends,
+Lady Clara Vere de Vere and Emily Washburn. It was evident by the three
+heads close together, and the hush that fell on the group as she
+entered, that some momentous piece of gossip had been interrupted. Patty
+forgot her room-mate waiting in the dark, and dropped into a chair with
+the evident purpose of staying out the evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me all about it, children," she said cordially.</p>
+
+<p>The freshmen looked at one another and hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"A new president?" Patty suggested, "or just a class mutiny?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's about Olivia Copeland," Lady Clara returned dubiously; "but I
+don't know that I ought to say anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Olivia Copeland?" Patty straightened up with a new interest in her
+eyes. "What's Olivia Copeland been doing?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She's been flunking and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Flunking!" Patty's face was blank. "But I thought she was so bright!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she is bright; only, you know, she hasn't a way of making people
+find it out; and, besides," Lady Clara added with meaning emphasis, "she
+was scared over examinations."</p>
+
+<p>Patty cast a quick look at her. "What do you mean?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clara was fond of Patty, but she was only human, and she had been
+frightened herself. "Well," she explained, "she had heard a lot of
+stories from&mdash;er&mdash;upper-classmen about how hard the examinations are,
+and the awful things they do to you if you don't pass, and being a
+stranger, she believed them. Of course Emily and I knew better; but she
+was just scared to death, and she went all to pieces, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Patty, impatiently. "You can't make me believe that."</p>
+
+<p>"If it had been a sophomore that had tried to frighten us," pursued Lady
+Clara,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> "we shouldn't have minded so much: but a senior!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Patty, aren't you sorry that you told us all those things?" asked
+Emily.</p>
+
+<p>Patty laughed. "For the matter of that, I never say anything I'm not
+sorry for half an hour later. I'm going to get out a book some day
+entitled 'Things I Wish I Hadn't Said: A Collection of <i>Faux Pas</i>,' by
+Patty Wyatt."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's more than a <i>faux pas</i> when you frighten a girl so she&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you think you're rubbing it in," said Patty, imperturbably;
+"but girls don't flunk because they're frightened: they flunk because
+they don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Olivia knew five times as much geometry as I did, and I got through and
+she didn't."</p>
+
+<p>Patty examined the carpet in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"She thinks she's going to be dropped, and she's just crying terribly,"
+pursued Emily, with a certain relish in the details.</p>
+
+<p>"Crying!" said Patty, sharply. "What's she crying for?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Because she feels bad, I suppose. She'd been out walking, and got
+caught in the rain, and she didn't get back in time for dinner, and then
+found those notes waiting for her. She's up there lying on the bed, and
+she's got hysterics or Roman fever or something like that. She told us
+to go away and let her alone. She's awfully cross all of a sudden."</p>
+
+<p>Patty rose. "I think I'll go and cheer her up."</p>
+
+<p>"Let her alone, Patty," said Emily. "I know the way you cheer people up.
+If you hadn't cheered her up before examinations she wouldn't have
+flunked."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know anything about her then," said Patty, a trifle sulkily;
+"and, anyway," she added as she opened the door, "I didn't say anything
+that affected her passing, one way or the other." She turned toward
+Olivia's room, however, with a conscience that was not quite
+comfortable. She could not remember just what she <i>had</i> told those
+freshmen about examinations, but she had an uneasy feeling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> that it
+might not have been of a reassuring nature.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could ever learn when it is time for joking and when it is
+not," she said to herself as she knocked on the study door.</p>
+
+<p>No one answered, and she turned the knob and entered. A stifled sob came
+from one of the bedrooms, and Patty hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>She was not in the habit of crying herself, and she always felt
+uncomfortable when other people did it. Something must be done, however,
+and she advanced to the threshold and silently regarded Olivia, who was
+stretched face downward on the bed. At the sound of Patty's step she
+raised her head and cast a startled glance at the intruder, and then
+buried her face in the pillows again. Patty scribbled an "engaged" sign
+and pinned it on the study door, and drawing up a chair beside the bed,
+she sat down with the air of a physician about to make a diagnosis.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Olivia," she began in a business-like tone, "what is the
+trouble?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Olivia opened her hands and disclosed some crumpled papers. Patty spread
+them out and hastily ran her eyes over the official printed slips:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Miss <i>Copeland</i> is hereby informed that she has
+been found deficient in <i>German</i> (<i>three</i> hours). </p></div>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Miss <i>Copeland</i> is hereby informed that she has
+been found deficient in <i>Latin prose</i> (<i>one</i>
+hour). </p></div>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Miss <i>Copeland</i> is hereby informed that she has
+been found deficient in <i>geometry</i> (<i>four</i> hours). </p></div>
+
+<p>Patty performed a rapid calculation,&mdash;"three and one are four and four
+are eight,"&mdash;and knit her brows.</p>
+
+<p>"Will they send me home, Patty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy, no, child; I hope not. A person who's done as good work as you
+in English ought to have the right to flunk every other blessed thing,
+if she wants to."</p>
+
+<p>"But you're dropped if you flunk eight hours; you told me so yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't believe anything I told you," said Patty, reassuringly. "I don't
+know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> what I'm talking about more than half the time."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd hate to be sent back, and have my father know I'd failed, when he
+spent so much time preparing me; but"&mdash;Olivia began to cry again&mdash;"I
+want to go back so much that I don't believe I care."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what you're talking about," said Patty. She put her hand
+on the girl's shoulder. "Mercy, child, you're sopping wet, and you're
+shivering! Sit up and take those shoes off."</p>
+
+<p>Olivia sat up and pulled at the laces with ineffectual fingers, and
+Patty jerked them open and dumped the shoes in a squashy heap on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what's the matter with you?" she asked. "You're not crying
+because you've flunked. You're crying because you've caught cold, and
+you're tired and wet and hungry. You take those wet clothes off this
+minute and get into a warm bath-robe, and I'll get you some dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want any dinner," wailed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> Olivia, and she showed signs of
+turning back to the pillows again.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't act like a baby, Olivia," said Patty, sharply; "sit up and be
+a&mdash;a man."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later Patty returned from a successful looting expedition,
+and deposited her spoils on the bedroom table. Olivia sat on the edge of
+the bed and watched her apathetically, a picture of shivering
+despondency.</p>
+
+<p>"Drink this," commanded Patty, as she extended a steaming glass.</p>
+
+<p>Olivia obediently raised it to her lips, and drew back. "What's in it?"
+she asked faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything I could find that's hot&mdash;quinine and whisky and Jamaica
+ginger and cough syrup and a dash of red pepper, and&mdash;one or two other
+things. It's my own idea. You can't take cold after <i>that</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I don't believe I want any."</p>
+
+<p>"Drink it&mdash;every drop," said Patty, grimly; and Olivia shut her eyes and
+gulped it down.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Patty, cheerfully bustling about, "I'll get dinner. Have you
+a can-opener? And any alcohol, by chance? That's nice. We'll have three
+courses,&mdash;canned soup, canned baked beans, and preserved ginger,&mdash;all of
+them hot. It's mighty lucky Georgie Merriles was in New York or she'd
+never have lent them to me."</p>
+
+<p>Olivia, to her own astonishment, presently found herself laughing (she
+had thought that she would never smile again) as she sipped mulligatawny
+soup from a tooth-mug and balanced a pin-trayful of steaming baked beans
+on her knee.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said Patty, as, the three courses disposed of, she tucked the
+freshman into bed, "we'll map out a campaign. While eight hours are
+pretty serious, they are not of necessity deadly. What made you flunk
+Latin prose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never had any before I came, and when I told Miss&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly; she thought it her duty to flunk you. You shouldn't have
+mentioned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> the subject. But never mind. It's only one hour, and it won't
+take you a minute to work it off. How about German?"</p>
+
+<p>"German's a little hard because it's so different from Italian and
+French, you know; and I'm sort of frightened when she calls on me,
+and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty stupid, on the whole?" Patty suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I am," she confessed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I dare say you deserved to flunk in that. You can tutor it up and
+pass it off in the spring. How about geometry?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I knew that, only she didn't ask what I expected and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"An unfortunate circumstance, but it will happen. Could you review it up
+a little and take a re&euml;xamination right away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I'm sure I could, only they won't give me another chance. They'll
+send me home first."</p>
+
+<p>"Who's your instructor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Prescott."</p>
+
+<p>Patty frowned, and then she laughed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> "I thought if it were Miss Hawley
+I could go to her and explain the matter and ask her to give you a
+re&euml;xamination. Miss Hawley's occasionally human. But Miss Prescott! No
+wonder you flunked. I'm afraid of her myself. She's the only woman that
+ever got a degree at some German university, and she simply hasn't a
+thought in the world beyond mathematics. I don't believe the woman has
+any soul. If one of those mediums should come here and dematerialize
+her, all that would be left would be an equilateral triangle."</p>
+
+<p>Patty shook her head. "I'm afraid there's not much use in arguing with a
+person like that. If she once sees a truth, you know, she sees it for
+all time. But never mind; I'll do the best I can. I'll tell her you're
+an undiscovered mathematical genius; that it's latent, but if she'll
+examine you again she'll find it. That ought to appeal to her.
+Good-night. Go to sleep and don't worry; I'll manage her."</p>
+
+<p>"Good night; and thank you, Patty,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> called a tolerably cheerful voice
+from under the covers.</p>
+
+<p>Patty closed the door, and stood a moment in the hall, pondering the
+situation. Olivia Copeland was too valuable to throw away. The college
+must be made to realize her worth. But that was difficult. Patty had
+tried to make the college realize things before. Miss Prescott was the
+only means of salvation that she could think of, and Miss Prescott was a
+doubtful means. She did not at all relish the prospect of calling on
+her, but there seemed to be nothing else to do. She made a little
+grimace and laughed. "I'm acting like a freshman myself," she thought.
+"Walk up, Patty, and face the guns"; and without giving herself time to
+hesitate she marched up-stairs and knocked on Miss Prescott's door. She
+reflected after she had knocked that perhaps it would have been more
+politic to have postponed her business until the morrow. But the door
+opened before she had time to run away, and she found herself rather
+confusedly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> bowing to Miss Prescott, who held in her hand, not a book on
+calculus, but a common, every-day magazine.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Miss Wyatt. Won't you come in and sit down?" said Miss
+Prescott, in a very cordially human tone.</p>
+
+<p>As she sank into a deep rush chair Patty had a blurred vision of low
+bookcases, pictures, rugs, and polished brass thrown into soft relief by
+a shaded lamp which stood on the table. Before she had time to mentally
+shake herself and reconstruct her ideas she was gaily chatting to Miss
+Prescott about the probable outcome of a serial story in the magazine.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Prescott did not seem to wonder in the least at this unusual visit,
+but talked along easily on various subjects, and laughed and told
+stories like the humanest of human beings. Patty watched her,
+fascinated. "She's <i>pretty</i>," she thought to herself and she began to
+wonder how old she was. Never before had she associated any age whatever
+with Miss Prescott. She had regarded her much in the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> light as a
+scientific truth, which exists, but is quite irrespective of time or
+place. She tried to recall some story that had been handed about among
+the girls her freshman year. She remembered vaguely that it had in it
+the suggestion that Miss Prescott had once been in love. At the time
+Patty had scoffingly repudiated the idea, but now she was half willing
+to believe it.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, in the midst of the conversation, the ten-o'clock bell rang,
+and Patty recalled her errand with a start.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," she said, "you are wondering why I came."</p>
+
+<p>"I was hoping," said Miss Prescott, with a smile, "that it was just to
+see me, without any ulterior motive."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be the next time&mdash;if you will let me come again; but to-night I
+had another reason, which I'm afraid you'll think impertinent&mdash;and," she
+added frankly, "I don't know just what's the best way to tell it so that
+you <i>won't</i> think it impertinent."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell it to me any way you please, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> I will try not to think so,"
+said Miss Prescott, kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think sometimes the girls can tell more of one another's
+ability than the instructors?" Patty asked. "I know a girl," she
+continued, "a freshman, who is, in some ways, the most remarkable person
+I have ever met. Of course I can't be sure, but I should say that she is
+going to be very good in English some day&mdash;so good, you know, that the
+college will be proud of her. Well, this girl has flunked such a lot
+that I am afraid she is in danger of being sent home, and the college
+simply can't afford to lose her. I don't know anything about your rules,
+of course, but what seems to me the easiest way is for you to give her
+another examination in geometry immediately,&mdash;she really knows it,&mdash;and
+then tell the faculty about her and urge them to give her another
+trial."</p>
+
+<p>Patty brought out this astounding request in the most matter-of-fact way
+possible, and the corners of Miss Prescott's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> mouth twitched as she
+asked: "Of whom are you speaking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Olivia Copeland."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Prescott's mouth grew firm, and she looked like the instructor in
+mathematics again.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Copeland did absolutely nothing on her examination, Miss Wyatt,
+and what little she has recited during the year does not betoken any
+unusual ability. I am sorry, but it would be impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Miss Prescott," Patty expostulated, "the girl has worked under
+such peculiar disadvantages. She's an American, but she lives abroad,
+and all our ways are new to her. She has never been to school a day in
+her life. Her father prepared her for college, and, of course, not in
+the same way that the other girls have been prepared. She is shy, and
+not being used to reciting in a class, she doesn't know how to show off.
+I am sure, Miss Prescott, that if you would take her and examine her
+yourself, you would find that she understands the work&mdash;that is, if you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+would let her get over being afraid of you first. I know you're busy,
+and it's asking a good deal," Patty finished apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not that, Miss Wyatt, for of course I do not wish to mark any
+student unjustly; but I cannot help feeling that you have overestimated
+Miss Copeland's ability. She has really had a chance to show what is in
+her, and if she has failed in as many courses as you say&mdash;The college,
+you know, must keep up the standard of its work, and in questions like
+this it is not always possible to consider the individual."</p>
+
+<p>Patty felt that she was being dismissed, and she groped about wildly for
+a new plea. Her eye caught a framed picture of the old monastery of
+Amalfi hanging over the bookcase.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you've lived in Italy?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Prescott started slightly. "No," she said; "but I've spent some
+time there."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 192px;">
+<img src="images/image_0188.jpg" width="192" height="400" alt="Olivia Copeland" title="Olivia Copeland" />
+<span class="caption">Olivia Copeland</span>
+</div>
+<p>"That picture of Amalfi, up there, made me think of it. Olivia Copeland,
+you know, lives near there, at Sorrento."</p>
+
+<p>A gleam of interest flashed into Miss Prescott's eye.</p>
+
+<p>"That's how I first came to notice her," continued Patty; "but she
+didn't interest me so much until I talked to her. It seems that her
+father is an artist, and she was born in Italy, and has only visited
+America once when she was a little girl. Her mother is dead, and she and
+her father live in an old villa on that road along the coast leading to
+Sorrento. She has never had any girl friends; just her father's
+friends&mdash;artists and diplomats and people like that. She speaks Italian,
+and she knows all about Italian art and politics and the church and the
+agrarian laws and how the people are taxed; and all the peasants around
+Sorrento are her friends. She is so homesick that she nearly dies, and
+the only person here that she can talk to about the things she is
+interested in is the peanut man down-town.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p>
+<p>"The girls she rooms with are just nice exuberant American girls, and
+are interested in golf and basket-ball and Welsh rabbit and Richard
+Harding Davis stories and Gibson pictures&mdash;and she never even <i>heard</i> of
+any of them until four months ago. She has a water-color sketch of the
+villa, that her father did. It's white stucco, you know, with terraces
+and marble balustrades and broken statues, and a grove of ilex-trees
+with a fountain in the center. Just think of <i>belonging</i> to a place like
+that, Miss Prescott, and then being suddenly plunged into a place like
+this without any friends or any one who even knows about the things you
+know&mdash;think how lonely you would be!"</p>
+
+<p>Patty leaned forward with flushed cheeks, carried away by her own
+eloquence. "You know what Italy's like. It's a sort of disease. If you
+once get fond of it you'll never forget it, and you just can't be happy
+till you get back. And with Olivia it's her home, besides. She's never
+known anything else. And it's hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> at first to keep your mind on
+mathematics when you're dreaming all the time of ilex groves and
+fountains and nightingales and&mdash;and things like that."</p>
+
+<p>She finished lamely, for Miss Prescott suddenly leaned back in the
+shadow, and it seemed to Patty that her face had grown pale and the hand
+that held the magazine trembled.</p>
+
+<p>Patty flushed uncomfortably and tried to think what she had said. She
+was always saying things that hurt people's feelings without meaning to.
+Suddenly that old story from her freshman year flashed into her mind. He
+had been an artist and had lived in Italy and had died of Roman fever;
+and Miss Prescott had gone to Germany to study mathematics, and had
+never cared for anything else since. It sounded rather made up, but it
+might be true. Had she stumbled on a forbidden subject? she wondered
+miserably. She had, of course; it was just her way.</p>
+
+<p>The silence was becoming unbearable; she struggled to think of something
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> say, but nothing came, and she rose abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to have taken so much of your time, Miss Prescott. I hope I
+haven't bored you. Good night."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Prescott rose and took Patty's hand. "Good night, my dear, and
+thank you for coming to me. I am glad to know of Olivia Copeland. I will
+see what can be done about her geometry, and I shall be glad, besides,
+to know her as&mdash;as a friend; for I, too, once cared for Italy."</p>
+
+<p>Patty closed the door softly and tiptoed home through the dim corridors.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you bring the matches?" called a sleepy voice from Priscilla's
+bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>Patty started. "Oh, the matches!" she laughed. "No; I forgot them."</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew you to accomplish anything yet that you started out to do,
+Patty Wyatt."</p>
+
+<p>"I've accomplished something to-night, just the same," Patty retorted,
+with a little note of triumph in her voice; "but I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> haven't an idea how
+I happened to do it," she added frankly to herself.</p>
+
+<p>And she went to bed and fell asleep, quite unaware of how much she <i>had</i>
+accomplished; for unconsciously she had laid the foundation of a
+friendship which was to make happy the future of a lonely freshman and
+an equally lonely instructor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>XI</h2>
+
+<h3>"Local Color"</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 151px;">
+<img src="images/t.png" width="151" height="150" alt="T" title="T" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />HE third senior table had discovered a new amusement with which to
+enlighten the tedium of waiting while Maggie was in the kitchen foraging
+for food. The game was called "local color," in honor of Patty Wyatt's
+famous definition in English class, "Local color is that which makes a
+lie seem truthful." The object of the game was to see who could tell the
+biggest lie without being found out; and the one rule required that the
+victims be disillusionized before they left the table.</div>
+
+<p>Patty was the instigator, the champion player, and the final victim of
+the game. Baron M&uuml;nchhausen himself would have blushed at some of her
+creations, and her stories were told with such an air of ingenuous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+honesty that the most outrageous among them obtained credence.</p>
+
+<p>The game in its original conception may have been innocent enough, but
+the rule was not always as carefully observed as it should have been,
+and the most unaccountable scandals began to float about college. The
+president of "Christians" had been called up for cutting chapel. The
+shark of the class had flunked her ethics, and even failed to get
+through on the "re." Cathy Fair was an own cousin of Professor
+Hitchcock's, and called him "Tommy" to his face. These, and far worse,
+were becoming public property; and even personal fabrications in regard
+to the faculty, intended solely for undergraduate consumption, were
+reaching the ears of the faculty themselves.</p>
+
+<p>One day Patty dropped into an under-classman's room on some committee
+work, and she found the children, in the manner of their elders,
+regaling themselves on dainty bits of college gossip.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the funniest thing about Professor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> Winters yesterday," piped
+up a sophomore.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell it to us. What was it?" cried a chorus of voices.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to hear something funny about Professor Winters; he's the
+solemnest-looking man I ever saw," remarked a freshman.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," resumed the sophomore, "it seems he was going to get married
+last week, and the invitations were all out, and the presents all there,
+when the bride came down with the mumps."</p>
+
+<p>"Really? How funny!" came in a chorus from the delighted auditors.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;on both sides; and the clergyman had never had it, so the ceremony
+had to be postponed."</p>
+
+<p>Patty's blood froze. She recognized the tale. It was one of her own
+offspring, only shorn of its unessential adornments.</p>
+
+<p>"Where in the world did you hear any such absurd thing as that?" she
+demanded severely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I heard Lucille Carter tell it at a fudge party up in Bonnie
+Connaught's room last night," answered the sophomore, stoutly, sure that
+the source was a reputable one.</p>
+
+<p>Patty groaned. "And I suppose that every blessed one of that dozen girls
+has told it to another dozen by this time, and that it's only bounded by
+the boundaries of the campus. Well, there's not a word of truth in it.
+Lucille Carter doesn't know what she is talking about. That's a likely
+story, isn't it?" she added with fine scorn. "Does Professor Winters
+look like a man who'd ever dare propose to a girl, let alone marry her?"
+And she stalked out of the room and up to the single where Lucille
+lived.</p>
+
+<p>"Lucille," said Patty, "what do you mean by spreading that story about
+Professor Winters's bride's mumps?"</p>
+
+<p>"You told it to me yourself," answered Lucille, with some warmth. She
+was a believing creature with an essentially literal mind, and she had
+always been out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> of her element in the lofty imaginative realms of local
+color.</p>
+
+<p>"I told it to you!" said Patty, indignantly. "You goose, you don't mean
+to tell me you believed it? I was just playing local color."</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know that? You told it as if it were true."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Patty; "that's the game. You wouldn't have believed me
+if I hadn't."</p>
+
+<p>"But you never said it wasn't true. You don't follow the rule."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't think it was necessary. I never supposed any one would believe
+any such absurd story as that."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how it was my fault."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it was your fault. You shouldn't be spreading malicious tales
+about the faculty; it's irreverent. The story's all over college by this
+time, and Professor Winters has probably heard it himself. He'll flunk
+you on the finals to pay for it; see if he doesn't." And Patty went
+home, leaving a conscience-smitten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> and thoroughly indignant Lucille
+behind her.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">About</span> a month before the introduction of local color, Patty had entered
+upon a new activity, which she referred to impartially as "molding
+public opinion" and "elevating the press." The way of it was this:</p>
+
+<p>The college, which was a modest and retiring institution craving only to
+be unmolested in its atmosphere of academic calm, had been recently
+exploited by a sensational newspaper. The fact that none of the stories
+was true did not mitigate the annoyance. The college was besieged by
+reporters who had heard rumors and wished to have them corroborated for
+exclusive publication in the "Censor" or "Advertiser" or "Star." And
+they would also like a photograph of Miss Bentley as she appeared in the
+character of Portia; and since she refused to give it to them, they
+stated their intention of "faking" one, which, they gallantly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> assured
+her, would be far homelier than the original.</p>
+
+<p>The climax was reached when Bonnie Connaught was unfortunate enough to
+sprain her ankle in basket-ball. Something more than a life-size
+portrait of her, clothed in a masculine-looking sweater, with a
+basket-ball under her arm, appeared in a New York evening paper, and
+scare-heads three inches high announced in red ink that the champion
+athlete and most popular society girl in college was at death's door,
+owing to injuries received in basket-ball.</p>
+
+<p>Bonnie's eminently respectable family descended upon the college in an
+indignant body for the purpose of taking her home, and were with
+difficulty soothed by an equally indignant faculty. The alumn&aelig; wrote
+that in their day such brutal games as basket-ball had not been
+countenanced, and that they feared the college had deteriorated. Parents
+wrote that they would remove their daughters from college if they were
+to be subjected to such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> publicity; and the poor president was, of
+course, quite helpless before the glorious American privilege of free
+speech.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the college hit upon a partially protective measure&mdash;that of
+furnishing its own news; and a regularly organized newspaper corps was
+formed among the students, with a member of the faculty at the head. The
+more respectable of the papers were very glad to have a correspondent
+from the inside whose facts needed no investigation, and the less
+respectable in due time betook themselves to more fruitful fields of
+scandal and happily forgot the existence of the college.</p>
+
+<p>Patty, having the reputation of being an "English shark," had been duly
+empaneled and presented with a local paper. At first she had been filled
+with a fit sense of the responsibility of the position, and had
+conscientiously neglected her college work for its sake; but in time the
+novelty wore off, and her weekly budgets became more and more
+perfunctory in character.</p>
+
+<p>The choice of Patty for this particular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> paper perhaps had not been very
+far-sighted, for the editor wished a column a week of what he designated
+as "chatty news," whereas it would have been wiser to have given her a
+city paper which required only a brief statement of important facts.
+Patty's own tendencies, it must be confessed, had a slightly yellow
+tinge, and, with a delighted editor egging her on, it was hard for her
+to suppress her latent love for "local color." The paper, however, had a
+wide circulation among the faculty, which circumstance tended to have a
+chastening effect.</p>
+
+<p>The day following Patty's bride-with-the-mumps contretemps with Lucille
+happened to be Friday, and she was painfully engaged in her weekly
+molding of public opinion. It had been a barren week, and there was
+nothing to write about.</p>
+
+<p>She reviewed at length a set of French encyclopedias which had been
+given to the library, and spoke with enthusiasm of a remarkable
+collection of jaw-bones of the prehistoric cow which had been presented
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> the department of paleontology. She gave in full the list of the
+seventeen girls who had been honored with scholarships, laboriously
+writing out their full names, with "Miss" attached to each, and the name
+of the town and the State in its unabbreviated length. And still it only
+mounted up to ten pages, and it took eighteen of Patty's writing to make
+a column.</p>
+
+<p>She strolled down to examine the bulletin-board again, and discovered a
+new notice which she had overlooked before:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Friday, January 17. Professor James Harkner Wallis
+of the Lick Observatory will lecture in the
+auditorium, at eight o'clock, upon "Theories of
+the Sidereal System." </p></div>
+
+<p>Patty regarded the notice without emotion. It did not look capable of
+expansion, and she did not feel the remotest interest in the sidereal
+system. The brief account of the lecturer, however, which was appended
+to the notice, stated that Professor Wallis was one of the best known of
+living astronomers, and that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> had conducted important original
+investigations.</p>
+
+<p>"If I knew anything about astronomy," she thought desperately, "I might
+be able to spread him out over two pages."</p>
+
+<p>An acquaintance of Patty's strolled up to the bulletin-board.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever hear of that man?" asked Patty, pointing to the notice.</p>
+
+<p>"Never; but I'm not an astronomer."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not, either," said Patty. "I wonder who he is?" she added
+wistfully. "It seems he's very famous, and I'd really like to know
+something about him."</p>
+
+<p>The girl opened her eyes in some surprise at this thirst for gratuitous
+information; it did not accord with Patty's reputation: and ever after,
+when it was affirmed in her presence that Patty Wyatt was brilliant but
+superficial, she stoutly maintained that Patty was deeper than people
+thought. She pondered a moment, and then returned, "Lucille Carter takes
+astronomy; she could tell you about him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So she does. I'd forgotten it"; and Patty swung off toward Lucille's
+room.</p>
+
+<p>She found a number of girls sitting around on the various pieces of
+furniture, eating fudge and discussing the tragedies of one Maeterlinck.</p>
+
+<p>"What's this?" said Patty. "A party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said Lucille; "just an extra session of the Dramatic Theory
+class. Don't be afraid; there's your room-mate up on the window-seat."</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Pris. What are you doing here?" said Patty, dipping out some
+fudge with a spoon. (There had been a disagreement as to how long it
+should boil.)</p>
+
+<p>"Just paying a social call. What are you doing? I thought you were going
+to hurry up and get through so you could go down-town to dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"I am," said Patty, vaguely; "but I got lonely."</p>
+
+<p>The conversation drifting off to Maeterlinck again, she seized the
+opportunity to inquire of Lucille: "Who's this astronomy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> man that's
+going to lecture to-night? He's quite famous, isn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very," said Lucille. "Professor Phelps has been talking about him every
+day for the last week."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's the Lick Observatory, anyway?" pursued Patty. "I can't
+remember, for the life of me, whether it's in California or on Pike's
+Peak."</p>
+
+<p>Lucille considered a moment. "It's in Dublin, Ireland."</p>
+
+<p>"Dublin, Ireland?" asked Patty, in some surprise. "I could have sworn
+that it was in California. Are you sure you know where it is, Lucille?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I'm sure. Haven't we been having it for three days steady?
+California! You must be crazy, Patty. I think you'd better elect
+astronomy."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it," said Patty, meekly. "I was going to, but I heard that it
+was terribly hard, and I thought senior year you have a right to take
+something a little easy. But, you know, that's the funniest thing about
+the Lick Observatory, for I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> really know a lot about it&mdash;read an article
+on it just a little while ago; and I don't know how I got the
+impression, but I was almost sure it was in the United States. It just
+shows that you can never be sure of anything."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Lucille; "it isn't safe."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it connected with Dublin University?" asked Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe so," said Lucille.</p>
+
+<p>"And this astronomy person," continued Patty, warming to her work&mdash;"I
+suppose he's an Irishman, then."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Lucille. "He's very noted."</p>
+
+<p>"What's he done?" asked Patty. "It said on the bulletin-board he'd made
+some important discoveries. I suppose, though, they're frightful
+technicalities that no one ever heard of."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Lucille, considering, "he discovered the rings of Saturn
+and the Milky Way."</p>
+
+<p>"The rings of Saturn! Why, I thought those had been discovered <i>ages</i>
+ago. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> must be a terribly old man. I remember reading about them when
+I was an infant in arms."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a good while ago," said Lucille. "Eight or nine years, at
+least."</p>
+
+<p>"And the Milky Way!" continued Patty, with a show of incredulity. "I
+don't see how people could have helped discovering that long ago. I
+could have done it myself, and I don't pretend to know anything about
+astronomy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course," Lucille hastened to explain, "the phenomenon had been
+observed before, but had never been accounted for."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Patty, surreptitiously taking notes. "He must really be an
+awfully important man. How did he happen to do all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"He went up in a balloon," said Lucille, vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"A balloon! What fun!" exclaimed Patty, her reportorial instinct waking
+to the scent. "They use balloons a lot more in Europe than they do
+here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I believe he has his balloon with him here in America," said Lucille.
+"He never travels without it."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the good of it?" inquired Patty. "I suppose," she continued,
+furnishing her own explanation, "it gets him such a lot nearer to the
+stars."</p>
+
+<p>"That's without doubt the reason," said Lucille.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish he'd send it up here," sighed Patty. "Do you know any more
+interesting details about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"N&mdash;no," said Lucille; "I can't think of any more at present."</p>
+
+<p>"He's certainly the most interesting professor I ever heard of," said
+Patty, "and it's strange I never heard of him before."</p>
+
+<p>"There seem to be a good many things you have never heard of," observed
+Lucille.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," acknowledged Patty; "there are."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Patty," said Priscilla, emerging from the discussion on the other
+side of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> the room, "if you're going to dinner with me, you'd better stop
+fooling with Lucille, and go home and get your work done."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Patty, rising with obliging promptitude. "Good-by,
+girls. Come and see me and I'll give you some fudge that's done. Thank
+you for the information," she called back to Lucille.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Monday afternoon following, Patty and Priscilla, with two or three
+other girls, came strolling back from the lake, jingling their skates
+over their arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, girls, and have some hot tea," said Priscilla, as they reached
+the study door.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a note for Patty," said Bonnie Connaught, picking up an envelop
+from the table. "Terribly official-looking. Must have come in the
+college mail. Open it, Patty, and let's see what you've flunked."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" said Patty, "I thought that was a habit I'd outgrown freshman
+year."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They crowded around and read the note over her shoulder. Patty had no
+secrets.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class='right'>
+<span class="smcap">The Observatory</span>, January 20.<br /></div>
+Miss Patty Wyatt.<br />
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Wyatt:</span> I am informed that you are the
+correspondent for the "Saturday Evening
+Post-Despatch," and I take the liberty of calling
+your attention to a rather grave error which
+occurred in last week's issue. You stated that the
+Lick Observatory is in Dublin, Ireland, while, as
+is a matter of general information, it is situated
+near San Francisco, California. Professor James
+Harkner Wallis is not an Irishman; he is an
+American. Though he has carried on some very
+important investigations, he is the discoverer of
+neither the rings of Saturn nor the Milky Way.</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Very truly yours,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Howard D. Phelps</span>.<br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>"It's from Professor Phelps&mdash;what can he mean?" said the Twin, in
+bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Patty," groaned Priscilla, "you don't mean to say that you actually
+believed all that stuff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I believed it. How could I know she was lying?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She wasn't lying. Don't use such reckless language."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to know what you call it, then?" said Patty, angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Local color, my dear, just local color. The worm will turn, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you tell me?" wailed Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"Never supposed for a moment you believed her. Thought you were joking
+all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Patty? What have you done?" the others demanded,
+divided between a pardonable feeling of curiosity and a sense that they
+ought to retire before this domestic tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, tell them," said Patty, bitterly. "Tell every one you see. Shout it
+from the dome of the observatory. You might as well; it'll be all over
+college in a couple of hours."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla explained, and as she explained the funny side began to strike
+her. By the time she had finished they were all&mdash;except Patty&mdash;reduced
+to hysterics.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The poor editor," gurgled Priscilla. "He's always after a scoop, and
+he's certainly got one this time."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is it, Patty&mdash;the paper?" gasped Bonnie.</p>
+
+<p>"I threw it away," said Patty, sulkily.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla rummaged it out of the waste-basket, and the four bent over it
+delightedly.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><a name="no" id="no"></a><p>Ireland's eminent astronomer spending a few weeks
+in America lecturing at the principal
+colleges&mdash;His famous discovery of the rings of
+Saturn made during a balloon ascension three
+thousand feet in the air&mdash;Though this is his first
+visit to the States, he speaks with only a slight
+brogue&mdash;Loyal son of old Erin </p></div>
+
+<p>"Patty, Patty! And you, of all people, to be so gullible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Professor James Harkner Wallis's parents will be writing to Prexy next
+to say that their son can't lecture here any more if he is to be
+subjected to this sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"It's disgusting!" said Bonnie Connaught, feelingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"When you've got through laughing, I wish you'd tell me what to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell Professor Phelps it was a slip of the pen."</p>
+
+<p>"A slip of the pen to the extent of half a column is good," said the
+Twin.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you girls are beastly to laugh when I am probably being
+expelled this minute."</p>
+
+<p>"Faculty meeting doesn't come till four," said Bonnie.</p>
+
+<p>Patty sat down by the desk and buried her head in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Patty," said Priscilla, "you aren't crying, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty, savagely; "I'm thinking."</p>
+
+<p>"You will never think of anything that will explain that."</p>
+
+<p>Patty looked up with the air of one who has received an inspiration.
+"I'm going to tell him the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do anything so rash," pleaded the Twin.</p>
+
+<p>"That is, of course, the only thing you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> can do," said Priscilla. "Sit
+down and write him a note, and I'll promise not to laugh till you get
+through."</p>
+
+<p>Patty stood up. "I think," she said, "I'll go and see him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. Write him a note. It's loads easier."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty, with dignity; "I think I owe him a personal
+explanation. Is my hair all right? If you girls reveal this to a single
+person before I come back, I'll not tell you a thing he says," she added
+as she closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>Patty returned half an hour later, just as they were finally settling
+down to tea. She peered around the darkening room; finding only four
+expectant faces, she leisurely seated herself on a cushion on the floor
+and stretched out her hand for a steaming cup.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say? What kept you so long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I stopped in the office to change my electives, and it delayed me."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean to tell me that man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> made you elect astronomy?"
+Priscilla asked indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not," said Patty. "I shouldn't have done it if he had."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Patty, I know you like to tease, but I think it's odious. You know
+we're in suspense. Tell us what happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Patty, placidly gathering her skirts about her, "I told him
+exactly how it was. I didn't hide anything&mdash;not even the bride with the
+mumps."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he cross, or did he laugh?"</p>
+
+<p>"He laughed," said Patty, "till I thought he was going to fall off his
+chair, and I looked anxiously around for some water and a call-bell. He
+really has a surprising sense of humor for a member of the faculty."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he nice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Patty; "he was a dear. When he got through discussing
+Universal Truth, I asked him if I might elect astronomy, and he said I
+would find it pretty hard the second semester; but I told him I was
+willing to work, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> said I really showed a remarkable aptitude for
+explaining phenomena, and that if I were in earnest he would be glad to
+have me in the class."</p>
+
+<p>"I think a man as forgiving as that <i>ought</i> to be elected," said
+Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly have more courage than I gave you credit for," said
+Bonnie. "I never could have gone over and explained to that man in the
+wide world."</p>
+
+<p>Patty smiled discreetly. "When you have to explain to a woman," she said
+in the tone of one who is stating a natural law, "it is better to write
+a note; but when it is a man, always explain in person."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>XII</h2>
+
+<h3>The Exigencies of Etiquette</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 173px;">
+<img src="images/iquot.png" width="173" height="150" alt="I" title="I" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />F I had been the one to invent etiquette," said Patty, "I should have
+made party calls payable one year after date, and then should have
+allowed three days' grace at the end."</div>
+
+<p>"In which case," said Priscilla, "I suppose you would get out of calling
+on Mrs. Millard altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Millard&mdash;more familiarly referred to as Mrs. Prexy&mdash;annually
+invited the seniors to dinner in parties of ten. Patty, whose turn had
+come a short time before, owing to an untoward misfortune, had been in
+the infirmary at the time; but, though she had missed the fun, she now
+found it necessary to pay the call.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she resumed, "I can see why you should be expected to call
+if you attend the function and partake of the food; but what I <i>can't</i>
+understand is why a peaceable citizen who desires only to gang his ain
+gait should, upon the reception of an entirely unsolicited invitation,
+suddenly find it incumbent upon him to put on his best dress and his
+best hat and gloves in order to call upon people he barely knows."</p>
+
+<p>"Your genders," said Priscilla, "are a trifle mixed."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Patty, "is the fault of the language. The logic, I think,
+you will find correct. You can see what would happen," she pursued, "if
+you carry it out to its logical conclusion. Suppose, for instance, that
+every woman I have ever met in this town should suddenly take it into
+her head to invite me to a dinner. Here I&mdash;perfectly unsuspicious and
+innocent of any evil, because of a purely arbitrary law which I did not
+help to make&mdash;would not only have to sit down and write a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> hundred
+regrets, but would have to pay a hundred calls within the next two
+weeks. It makes me shudder to think of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe you need worry about it, Patty; of course we know
+you're popular, but you're not as popular as that."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty; "I didn't mean that I thought I really <i>should</i> get
+that many invitations. It's only that one is open to the constant
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>During the progress of this conversation Georgie Merriles had been
+lounging on the couch by the window, reading the "Merchant of Venice" in
+a critically unimpassioned way that the instructor in Dramatic Theory
+could not have praised too much. The room finally having become too dark
+for reading, she threw down the book with something like a yawn. "It
+would have been a joke on Portia," she remarked, "if Bassanio had chosen
+the wrong casket"; and she turned her attention to the campus outside.
+Groups of girls were coming along the path from the lake, and the sound
+of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> voices, mingled with laughter and the jingling of skates,
+floated up through the gathering dusk. Across the stretches of snow and
+bare trees lights were beginning to twinkle in the other dormitories,
+while nearer at hand, and more clearly visible, rose the irregular
+outline of the president's house.</p>
+
+<p>"Patty," said Georgie, with her nose against the pane, "if you really
+want to get that call out of the way, now's your chance. Mrs. Millard
+has just gone out."</p>
+
+<p>Patty dashed into her bedroom and began jerking out bureau drawers.
+"Priscilla," she called in an agonized tone, "do you remember where I
+keep my cards?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's ten minutes of six, Patty; you can't go now."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can. It doesn't matter what time it is, so long as she's out.
+I'll go just as I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Not in a golf-cape!"</p>
+
+<p>Patty hesitated an instant. "Well," she admitted, "I suppose the butler
+might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> tell her. I'll put on a hat"&mdash;this with the air of one who is
+making a really great concession. Some more banging of bureau drawers,
+and she appeared in a black velvet hat trimmed with lace, with the brown
+jacket of her suit over her red blouse, and a blue golf-skirt and very
+muddy boots showing below.</p>
+
+<p>"Patty, you're a disgrace to the room!" cried Priscilla. "Do you mean to
+tell me that you are going to Mrs. Millard's in a short skirt and those
+awful skating-shoes?"</p>
+
+<p>"The butler won't look at my feet; I'm so beautiful above"; and Patty
+banged the door behind her.</p>
+
+<p>Georgie and Priscilla flattened themselves against the window to watch
+the progress of the call.</p>
+
+<p>"Look," gasped Priscilla. "There's Mrs. Millard going in at the back
+door."</p>
+
+<p>"And there's Patty. My, but she looks funny!"</p>
+
+<p>"Call her back," cried Priscilla, wildly trying to open the window.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let her alone," laughed Georgie; "it will be such fun to gloat over
+her."</p>
+
+<p>The window came up with a jerk. "Patty! Patty!" shrieked Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>Patty turned and waved her hand airily. "Can't stop now&mdash;will be back in
+a moment"; and she sped on around the corner.</p>
+
+<p>The two stood watching the house for several minutes, vaguely expecting
+an explosion of some sort to occur. But nothing happened. Patty was
+swallowed as if by the grave, and the house gave no sign. They
+accordingly shrugged their shoulders and dressed for dinner with the
+philosophy which a life fraught with alarms and surprises gives.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dinner</span> was half over, and the table had finished discussing Patty's
+demise, when that young lady trailed placidly in, smiled on the
+expectant faces, and inquired what kind of soup they had had.</p>
+
+<p>"Bean soup; it wasn't any good," said Georgie, impatiently. "What
+happened? Did you have a nice call?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Maggie, I don't care for any soup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> to-night. Just bring me some
+steak, please."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty!" in a pleading chorus, "what happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Patty, sweetly. "Yes, thank you, I had a
+very pleasant call. May I trouble you for the bread, Lucille?"</p>
+
+<p>"Patty, I think you're obnoxious," said Georgie. "Tell us what
+happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," began Patty, in a leisurely manner, "I said to the butler, 'Is
+Mrs. Millard in?' and he said to me (without even a smile), 'I am not
+sure, miss; will you please step into the drawing-room and I'll see.' I
+was going to tell him that he needn't bother, as I knew she was out; but
+I thought that perhaps it would look a little better if I waited and let
+him find out for himself. So I walked in and sat down in a
+pink-and-white embroidered <i>Louis-Quatorze</i> chair. There was a big
+mirror in front of me, and I had plenty of time to study the effect,
+which, I will acknowledge, was a trifle mixed."</p>
+
+<p>"A trifle," Georgie assented.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I was beginning," pursued Patty, "to feel nervous for fear some of the
+family might drop in, when the man came back and said, 'Mrs. Millard
+will be down in a minute.'</p>
+
+<p>"If I had seen you at that moment, Georgie Merriles, there would have
+been battle, murder, and sudden death. My first thought was of flight;
+but the man was guarding the door, and Mrs. Prexy had my card. While I
+was frenziedly trying to think of a valid excuse for my costume the lady
+came in, and I rose and greeted her graciously, one might almost say
+gushingly. I talked very fast and tried to hypnotize her, so that she
+would keep her eyes on my face; but it was no use: I saw them traveling
+downward, and pretty soon I knew by the amused expression that they had
+arrived at my shoes.</p>
+
+<p>"Concealment was no longer possible," pursued Patty, warming to her
+subject. "I threw myself upon her mercy and confessed the whole damning
+truth. What kind of ice-cream is that?" she demanded,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> leaning forward
+and gazing anxiously after a passing maid. "<i>Don't</i> tell me they're
+giving us raspberry again!"</p>
+
+<p>"No; it's vanilla. Go on, Patty."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, where was I?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'd just told her the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. She said she'd always wanted to meet the college girls
+informally and know them just as they are, and she was very glad of this
+opportunity. And there I sat, looking like a kaleidoscope and feeling
+like a fool, and she taking it for granted that I was being perfectly
+natural. Complimentary, wasn't it? At this point dinner was announced,
+and she invited me to stay&mdash;quite insisted, in fact, to make up, she
+said, for the one I had missed when I was ill in the infirmary." Patty
+looked around the table with a reminiscent smile.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say? Did you refuse?" asked Lucille.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I accepted, and am over there at present, eating <i>p&acirc;t&eacute; de foie
+gras</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"No, really, Patty; what did you say?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Patty, "I told her that this was ice-cream night at the
+college, and that I sort of hated to miss it; but that to-morrow would
+be mutton night, which I didn't mind missing in the least; so if she
+would just as leave transfer her invitation, I would accept for
+to-morrow with pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty," exclaimed Lucille, in a horrified tone, "you didn't say that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a little local color, Lucille," laughed Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"But," objected Lucille, "we'd promised not to play local color any
+more."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not learned," said Priscilla, "that Patty can no more live
+without local color than she can live without food? It's ingrained in
+her nature."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said Patty, good-naturedly; "you may not believe me now,
+but to-morrow night, when I'm all dressed up in beautiful clothes,
+swapping stories with Prexy and eating lobster salad, while you are over
+here having mutton, <i>then</i> maybe you'll be sorry."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A Crash Without</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 173px;">
+<img src="images/iquot.png" width="173" height="150" alt="I" title="I" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br /> LOVE the smell of powder," said Patty.</div>
+
+<p>"Gunpowder or baking-powder?"</p>
+
+<p>As Patty at the moment had her nose buried in a box of face-powder she
+thought it unnecessary to answer.</p>
+
+<p>"It brings back my youth," she pursued. "The best times of my life have
+been mixed up with powder and rouge&mdash;Washington's Birthday nights, and
+minstrel shows, and masquerades, and plays at boarding-school, and even
+Mother Goose tableaux when I was a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Patty's reminiscences were interrupted by Georgie, who was anxiously
+pacing up and down the wings. "It's queer some of the cast don't come. I
+told them to be here early, so we could get them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> all made up and not
+have a rush at the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there's time enough," said Patty, comfortably. "It isn't seven yet,
+and if they're going to dress in their rooms it won't take any time over
+here just to make them up and put on their wigs. It's a comparatively
+small cast, you see. Now, on the night of the Trig. ceremonies, when we
+had to make up three whole ballets and only had one box of make-up, we
+<i>were</i> rushed. I thought I'd never live to see the curtain go down. Do
+you remember the suit of chain-mail we made for Bonnie Connaught out of
+wire dish-cloths? It took sixty-three, and the ten-cent store was
+terribly dubious about renting them to us; and then, after working every
+spare second for three days over the thing, we found, the last minute,
+that we hadn't left a big enough hole for her to get into, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do keep still, Patty," said Georgie, nervously; "I can't remember
+what I have to do when you talk all the time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A manager on the eve of producing a new play, with his reputation at
+stake, may be excused for being a trifle irritable. Patty merely
+shrugged her shoulders and descended through the stage-door to the
+half-lighted hall, where she found Cathy Fair strolling up and down the
+center aisle in an apparently aimless manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Cathy," said Patty; "what are you doing over here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm head usher, and I wanted to see if those foolish sophomores had
+mixed up the numbers again."</p>
+
+<p>"It strikes me they're a trifle close together," said Patty, sitting
+down and squeezing in her knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know; but you can't get eight hundred people into this hall any
+other way. When we once get them packed they'll have to sit still,
+that's all. What are you doing over here yourself?" she continued. "I
+didn't know you were on the committee. Or are you just helping
+Georgie?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm in the cast," said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, are you? I saw the program to-day, but I'd forgotten it. I've often
+wondered why you haven't been in any of the class plays."</p>
+
+<p>"Fortune and the faculty are against it," sighed Patty. "You see, they
+didn't discover my histrionic ability before examinations freshman year,
+and after examinations, when I was asked to be in the play, the faculty
+thought I could spend the time to better advantage studying Greek. At
+the time of the sophomore play I was on something else and couldn't
+serve, and this year I had just been deprived of my privileges for
+coming back late after Christmas."</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought you said you were in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Patty, "it's a minor part, and my name doesn't appear."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a part is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a crash."</p>
+
+<p>"A crash?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, 'a crash without.' Lord Bromley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> says, 'Cynthia, I will brave all
+for your sake. I will follow you to the ends of the earth.' At this
+point a crash is heard without. I," said Patty, proudly, "am the crash.
+I sit behind a moonlit balcony in a space about two feet square, and
+drop a lamp-chimney into a box. It may not sound like a very important
+part, but it is the pivot upon which the whole plot turns."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you won't be taken with stage-fright," laughed Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try not," said Patty. "There comes the butler and Lord Bromley and
+Cynthia. I've got to go and make them up."</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you making people up, if you are not on the committee?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, once, during a period of mental weakness, I took china-painting
+lessons, and I'm supposed to know how. Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by. If you get any flowers I'll send them in by an usher."</p>
+
+<p>"Do," said Patty. "I'm sure to get a lot."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Behind the scenes all was joyful confusion. Georgie, in a short skirt,
+with her shirt-waist sleeves rolled up and a note-book in her hand, was
+standing in the middle of the stage directing the scene-shifters and
+distracted committee. Patty, in the "green-room," was presiding over the
+cast, with a hare's foot in one hand and the other daubed with red and
+blue grease-paints.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Patty," remonstrated Cynthia, with a horrified glance in the
+mirror, "I look more like a soubrette than a heroine."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the way you ought to look," returned Patty. "Here, hold still
+till I put another dab on your chin."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia appealed to the faithful Lord Bromley, who was sitting in the
+background, politely letting the ladies go first. "Look, Bonnie, don't
+you think I'm too red? I know it'll all come off when you kiss me."</p>
+
+<p>"If it comes off as easily as that, you'll be more fortunate than most
+of the people I make up"; and Patty smiled knowingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> as she remembered
+how Priscilla had soaked half the night on the occasion of a previous
+play, and then had appeared at breakfast the next morning with lowering
+eyebrows and a hectic flush on each cheek. "You must remember that
+foot-lights take a lot of color," she explained condescendingly. "You'd
+look ghastly if I let you go the way you wanted to at first. Next!</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patty, as the butler presented himself; "you don't come till
+the second act. I'll take the Irate Parent first." The Irate Parent was
+dragged from a corner where he had been anxiously mumbling over his
+lines. "What's the matter?" asked Patty, as she began daubing in
+wrinkles with a liberal hand; "are you afraid?"</p>
+
+<p>"N-no," said the Parent; "I'm not afraid, only I'm afraid that I will be
+afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd just better change your mind, then," said Patty, sternly. "We
+aren't going to allow any stage-fright to-night."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Patty, you can manage Georgie Merriles; make her let me go on without
+any wig," cried Cynthia, returning and holding up to view a mass of
+yellow curls of a shade that was never produced in the course of nature.</p>
+
+<p>Patty looked at the wig critically. "It is, perhaps, a trifle golden for
+the part."</p>
+
+<p>"Golden!" said Cynthia. "It's positively <i>orange</i>. Wait till you see how
+it lights up. He calls me his dark-eyed beauty: and I'm sure no one with
+dark eyes, or any other kind of eyes, would have hair like that. My own
+looks a great deal better."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you wear your own, then? Wrinkle up your forehead, Parent,
+and let me see which way they run."</p>
+
+<p>"Georgie paid two dollars for renting it, and she's bound to get the
+money's worth of wear out of it, even if she makes me look like a fright
+and spoils the play."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," said Patty, pushing away the Parent and giving her undivided
+attention to the question. "Your own hair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> does look better. Just mislay
+the wig and keep out of Georgie's way till the curtain goes up. The
+audience are beginning to come," she announced to the room in general,
+"and you've got to keep still back there. You're making an awful racket,
+and they can hear you all over the house. Here, what are you making such
+a noise for?" she demanded of Lord Bromley, who came clumping up with
+footfalls which reverberated through the flies.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it," he said crossly. "Look at these boots. They're so big
+that I can step out of them without unlacing them."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not my fault. I haven't anything to do with the costumes."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it; but what can I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said Patty, soothingly; "they don't look so awfully bad.
+You'll have to try and walk without raising your feet."</p>
+
+<p>She went out on the stage, where Georgie was giving her last directions
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> the scene-shifters. "The minute the curtain goes down on the first
+act change this forest to the drawing-room scene, and don't make any
+noise hammering. If you have to hammer, do it while the orchestra's
+playing. How does it look?" she asked anxiously, turning to Patty.</p>
+
+<p>"Beautiful," said Patty. "I'd scarcely recognize it."</p>
+
+<p>The "forest scene" had served in every outdoor capacity for the last
+four years, and it was usually hailed with a groan on the part of the
+audience.</p>
+
+<p>"I was just coming in to see if the cast were ready," said Georgie.</p>
+
+<p>"They're all made up, and are sitting in the green-room getting
+stage-fright. What shall I do now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see," said Georgie, consulting her book. "One of the committee
+is to prompt, one is to stay with the men and see that they manage the
+curtain and the lights in the right places, one is to give the cues, and
+two are to help change costumes. Cynthia has to change from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+riding-habit to a ball-gown in four minutes. I think you'd better help
+her, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything you please," said Patty, obligingly. "I'll stand on a stool
+with the ball-gown in the air ready to drop it over her head the moment
+she appears, like a harness on a fire-horse. Is everything out here
+done? What time is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; everything's done, and it's five minutes of eight. We can begin as
+soon as the audience is ready."</p>
+
+<p>They peered through the folds of the heavy velvet curtain at the sea of
+faces in front. Eight hundred girls in light evening-gowns were talking
+and laughing and singing. Snatches of song would start up in one corner
+and sweep gaily over the house, and sometimes two would meet and clash
+in the center, to the horror of those who preferred harmony to volume.</p>
+
+<p>"Here come the old girls!" said Patty, as a procession of some fifty
+filed into reserved seats near the front. "There are loads of last
+year's class back. What are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> the juniors doing? Look; I believe they are
+going to serenade them."</p>
+
+<p>The juniors rose in a body, and, turning to their departed sister class,
+sang a song notable for its sentiment rather than its meter.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope it will be a success," sighed Georgie. "If it doesn't come up
+to last year's senior play I shall <i>die</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it will," said Patty, reassuringly. "Anything would be better than
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Now the glee club's going to sing two songs," said Georgie. "Thank
+heaven, they're new!" she added fervently. "And the orchestra plays an
+overture, and then the curtain goes up. Run and tell them to come out
+here, ready for the first act."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Bromley was standing in the wings disgustedly viewing the
+banquet-table. "See here, Patty," he called as she hurried past. "Look
+at this stuff Georgie Merriles has palmed off on us for wine. You can't
+expect me to drink any such dope as <i>that</i>."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Patty paused for an instant. "What's the matter with it?" she inquired,
+pouring out some in a glass and holding it up to the light.</p>
+
+<p>"Matter? It's made of currant jelly and water, with cold tea mixed in."</p>
+
+<p>"I made it myself," said Patty, with some dignity. "It's a beautiful
+color."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have to drain my glass at a draught," expostulated the outraged
+lord.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure there's nothing in currant jelly or tea to hurt you. You can
+be thankful it isn't poisonous." And Patty hurried on.</p>
+
+<p>The glee club sang the two new songs, punctuated with the appreciative
+applause of a long-suffering audience, and the orchestra commenced the
+overture.</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody clear the stage," said Georgie, in a low tone, "and you keep
+your eyes on the book," she added sternly to the prompter; "you lost
+your place twice at the dress rehearsal."</p>
+
+<p>The overture died down; a bell tinkled, and the curtain parted in the
+middle, discovering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> Cynthia sitting on a garden-seat in the castle park
+(originally the Forest of Arden).</p>
+
+<p>As the curtain fell at the end of the act, and the applause gave way to
+an excited buzz in the audience, Patty hugged Georgie gleefully. "It's
+fifty times better than last year!"</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven send Theo Granby is out there!" piously ejaculated Georgie.
+(Theo Granby had been the chairman of last year's senior play.)</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> curtain had risen on the fourth act, and Patty squeezed herself into
+the somewhat close quarters behind the balcony. There was
+fortunately&mdash;or rather unfortunately&mdash;a window in the rear of the
+building at this point, and Patty opened it and perched herself at one
+end of the sill, with the lamp-chimney ready for use at the other end.
+The crash was not due for some time, and Patty, having lately elected
+astronomy, whiled away the interval by examining the stars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the stage matters were approaching a climax. Lord Bromley was making
+an excellent lover, as was proved by the fact that the audience was
+taking him seriously instead of laughing through the love scenes as
+usual.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia," he implored, "say that you will be mine, and I will brave all
+for your sake. I will follow you to the ends of the earth." He gazed
+tenderly into her eyes, and waited for the crash. A silence as of the
+tomb prevailed, and he continued to gaze tenderly, while a grin rapidly
+spread over the audience.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang Patty!" he murmured savagely. "Might have known she'd do something
+like this.&mdash;What was that? Did you hear a noise?" he asked aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Cynthia, truthfully; "I did not hear anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Pretend you did," he whispered, and they continued to improvise. After
+some five minutes of hopeless floundering, the prompter got them back on
+the track again, and the act proceeded, with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> audience happily
+unaware that anything was missing.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later Lord Bromley was declaiming: "Cynthia, let us flee
+this place. Its dark rooms haunt me; its silence oppresses me&mdash;" And the
+crash came.</p>
+
+<p>For the first moment the audience was too startled to notice that the
+actors were also taken by surprise. Then Lord Bromley, who was getting
+used to emergencies, pulled himself together and ejaculated, "Hark! What
+was that sound?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it was a crash," said Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>He grasped her hand and ran back toward the balcony. "Give us our
+lines," he said to the prompter, as he went past.</p>
+
+<p>The prompter had dropped the book, and couldn't find the place.</p>
+
+<p>"Make them up," came in a piercing whisper from behind the balcony.</p>
+
+<p>A silence ensued while the two dashed back and forth, looking excitedly
+up and down the stage. Then the despairing Lord Bromley stretched out
+his arms in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> gesture of supplication. "Cynthia," he burst out in tones
+of realistic longing, "I cannot bear this horrible suspense. Let us
+flee." And they fled, fully three pages too early, forgetting to leave
+the letter which should have apprised the Irate Parent of the
+circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>Georgie was tramping up and down the wings, wringing her hands and
+lamenting the day that ever Patty had been born.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry up that Parent before they stop clapping," said Lord Bromley,
+"and they'll never know the difference."</p>
+
+<p>The poor old man, with his wig over one ear, was unceremoniously hustled
+on to the stage, where he raved up and down and swore never to forgive
+his ungrateful daughter in so realistic a manner that the audience
+forgot to wonder how he found it out. In due time the runaways returned
+from the notary's, overcame the old man's harshness, received the
+parental blessing, and the curtain fell on a scene of domestic felicity
+that delighted the freshmen in the gallery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Patty crawled out from under the balcony and fell on her knees at
+Georgie's feet.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Bromley raised her up. "Never mind, Patty. The audience doesn't
+know the difference; and, anyway, it was all for the best. My mustache
+wouldn't have stayed on more than two minutes longer."</p>
+
+<p>They could hear some one shouting in the front, "What's the matter with
+Georgie Merriles?" and a hundred voices replied, "She's all right!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who's all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"G-e-o-r-g-i-e M-e-r-r-i-l-e-s."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with the cast?"</p>
+
+<p>"They're all right!"</p>
+
+<p>The stage-door burst open and a crowd of congratulatory friends burst in
+and gathered around the disheveled actors and committee. "It's the best
+senior play since we've been in college." "The freshmen are simply crazy
+over it." "Lord Bromley, your room will be full of flowers for a month."
+"Patty," called the head usher, over the heads of the others, "let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> me
+congratulate you. I was in the very back of the room, and never heard a
+thing but your crash. It sounded <i>fine</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Patty," demanded Georgie, "what in the world were you doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was counting the stars," said the contrite Patty, "and then I
+remembered too late, and I turned around suddenly, and it fell off. I am
+terribly sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," laughed Georgie; "since it turned out well, I'll forgive
+you. All the cast and committee," she said, raising her voice, "come up
+to my room for food. I'm sorry I can't invite you all," she added to the
+girls crowded in the doorway, "but I live in a single."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>The Mystery of the Shadowed Sophomore</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 170px;">
+<img src="images/oquot.png" width="170" height="150" alt="O" title="O" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />H, I say, Bonnie&mdash;Bonnie Connaught! Priscilla! Wait a minute," called
+a girl from across the links, as the two were strolling homeward one
+afternoon, dragging their caddie-bags behind them. They turned and
+waited while Bonnie's sophomore cousin, Mildred Connaught, dashed up.
+She grasped them excitedly, and at the same time glanced over her
+shoulder with the air of a criminal who is being tracked.</div>
+
+<p>"I want to tell you something," she panted. "Come in here where no one
+will see us"; and she dived into a clump of pine-trees growing by the
+path.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla and Bonnie followed more leisurely,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> and dropped down on the
+soft needles with an air of amused tolerance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mildred, what's the matter?" Bonnie inquired mildly.</p>
+
+<p>The sophomore lowered her voice to an impressive whisper, although there
+was not a person within a hundred yards. "I am being <i>followed</i>," she
+said solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>"Followed!" exclaimed Bonnie, in amazement. "Are you crazy, child? You
+act like a boy who's been reading dime novels."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, girls. You mustn't tell a soul, because it's a great secret.
+We're going to plant the class tree to-night, and I am chairman of the
+ceremonies. Everything is ready&mdash;the costumes are finished and the plans
+all arranged so that the class can get out to the place without being
+seen. The freshmen haven't a suspicion that it's going to be to-night.
+But they have found out that I'm chairman of the committee, and, if you
+please,"&mdash;Mildred's eyes grew wide with excitement,&mdash;"they've been
+<i>tracking</i> me for a week.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> They have <i>relays</i> of girls appointed to
+watch me, and I can't stir without a freshman tagging along behind. When
+I went down to order the ice-cream, there was one right at my elbow, and
+I had to pretend that I'd come for soda-water. I have simply had to let
+the rest of the committee do all of the work, because I was so afraid
+the freshmen would find out the time. It was funny at first, but I am
+getting nervous. It's horrible to think that you're being watched all
+the time. I feel as if I'd committed a murder, and keep looking over my
+shoulder like&mdash;like Macbeth."</p>
+
+<p>"It's <i>awful</i>," Bonnie shuddered. "I'm thrilled to the bone to think of
+the peril a member of my family is braving for the sake of her class."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't laugh," said Mildred. "It's a serious matter. If those
+freshmen come to our tree ceremonies, we'll never hear the last of it.
+But they are not going to come," she added with a meaning smile. "They
+have another engagement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> We chose to-night because there's a lecture
+before the Arch&aelig;ological Society by some alumna person who's been
+digging up remains in Rome. The freshmen have been told to go and hear
+her on account of their Latin. Imagine their feelings when they are
+cooped up in the auditorium, trying to look intelligent about the Roman
+Forum, and listening to our yells outside!"</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla and Bonnie smiled appreciatively. It was not so long, after
+all, since they themselves were sophomores, and they recalled their own
+tree ceremonies, when the freshmen had <i>not</i> been cooped up.</p>
+
+<p>"But the trouble is," pursued Mildred, "that it's more important for me
+to get there than any one else, because I have to dig the hole,&mdash;Peters
+is really going to dig it, you know; I just take out the first
+shovelful,&mdash;but I can't get there on account of that beastly scout. As
+soon as she saw me acting suspicious, she'd run and warn the class."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Bonnie; "but what have Priscilla and I to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mildred, tentatively, "you're both pretty big, you know,
+and you're our sister class, and you ought to help us."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," acquiesced Bonnie; "but in just what way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my idea was this. If you would just stroll down by the lake after
+chapel, and loiter sort of inconspicuously among the trees, you know, I
+would come that way a little later, and then, when the detective person
+came along after me, you could just nab her and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Chuck her in the lake?" asked Bonnie.</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not. Don't use any force. Just politely detain her till
+you hear us yelling&mdash;take her for a walk. She'd feel honored."</p>
+
+<p>Bonnie laughed. The program struck her as entertaining. "I don't see
+anything very immoral in delaying a freshman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> who is going where she has
+no business to go. What do you say, Pris?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's not exactly a Sunday-school excursion," acknowledged Priscilla,
+"but I don't see why it isn't as legitimate for us to play detective as
+for them."</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," said Bonnie. "Behold Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr.
+Watson about to solve the Mystery of the Shadowed Sophomore."</p>
+
+<p>"You've saved my life," said Mildred, feelingly. "Don't forget. Right
+after chapel, by the lake." She peered warily out through the branches.
+"I've got to get the keys to the gymnasium, so the refreshments can be
+put in during chapel. Do you see anybody lurking about? I guess I can
+get off without being seen. Good-by"; and she sped away like a hunted
+animal.</p>
+
+<p>Bonnie looked after her and laughed. "'Youth is a great time, but
+somewhat fussy,'" she quoted; and the two took their homeward way.</p>
+
+<p>They found Patty, who was experiencing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> a periodical fit of studying,
+immersed in dictionaries and grammars. It was under protest that she
+allowed herself to be interrupted long enough to hear the story of their
+proposed adventure.</p>
+
+<p>"You babies!" she exclaimed. "Haven't you grown up yet? Don't you think
+it's a little undignified for seniors&mdash;one might almost say alumn&aelig;&mdash;to
+be kidnapping freshmen?"</p>
+
+<p>"We're not kidnapping freshmen," Bonnie remonstrated; "we're teaching
+them manners. It's my duty to protect my little cousin."</p>
+
+<p>"You can come with us and help detect," said Priscilla, generously.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Patty, loftily. "I haven't time to play with you
+children. Cathy Fair and I are going to do Old English to-night."</p>
+
+<p>That evening, as Patty, keyed to the point of grappling with and
+throwing whole pages of "Beowulf," stood outside the chapel door waiting
+for Cathy to appear, the professor of Latin came out with a stranger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Wyatt!" she exclaimed in a relieved tone, pouncing upon Patty.
+"I wish to present you to Miss Henderson, one of our alumn&aelig; who is to
+lecture to-night before the Arch&aelig;ological Society. She has not been back
+for several years, and wishes to see the new buildings. Have you time to
+show her around the campus a little before the lecture begins?"</p>
+
+<p>Patty bowed and murmured that she would be most happy, and cast an
+agonized glance back at Cathy as she led the lecturer off. As they
+strolled about, Patty poured out all the statistics she knew about the
+various buildings, and Miss Henderson received them with exclamations of
+delighted surprise. She was rather young and gushing for a Ph.D. and an
+arch&aelig;ologist, Patty decided, and she wondered desperately how she could
+dispose of her and get back to "Beowulf" and Cathy.</p>
+
+<p>They rounded the top of a little hill, and Miss Henderson exclaimed
+delightedly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> "There is the lake, just as it used to be!"</p>
+
+<p>Patty stifled a desire to remark that lakes had a habit of staying where
+they used to be, and asked politely if Miss Henderson would like to take
+a row.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Henderson thought that it would be pleasant; but she had forgotten
+her watch, and was afraid there would not be time.</p>
+
+<p>Patty glanced about vaguely for some further object of interest, and
+spied Mildred Connaught sauntering toward the lake. She had forgotten
+all about the Sherlock Holmes adventure, and she suddenly had an
+inspiration. Be it said to her credit that she hesitated a moment; but
+the lecturer's next remark led to her own undoing. She was murmuring
+something about feeling like a stranger, and wishing that she might know
+the students informally and see a little of the real college life.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a pity not to gratify her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> when I can do it so easily,"
+Patty told herself; and she added out loud, "I am sure we have time for
+a little row, Miss Henderson. You walk on, and I will run back and get
+my watch; it won't take a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't have you do that; it is too much trouble," remonstrated Miss
+Henderson.</p>
+
+<p>"It's no trouble whatever," Patty protested kindly. "I can take a cross
+cut, and meet you at the little summer-house where the boats are moored.
+It's straight down this path; you can't miss it. Just follow that girl
+over there"; and she darted away.</p>
+
+<p>The lecturer gazed dubiously after her a moment, and then started on
+after the girl, who cast a look over her shoulder and quickened her
+pace. It was growing quite dusky under the trees, and the lecturer
+hurried on, trying to keep the girl in sight; but she unexpectedly
+turned a corner and disappeared, and at the same moment two strange
+girls suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> dropped into the path, apparently from the tree-tops.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening," they said pleasantly. "Are you taking a walk?"</p>
+
+<p>The lecturer started back with an exclamation of surprise; but as soon
+as she could regain her composure, she replied politely that she was
+strolling about and looking at the campus.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you would like to stroll with us?" they inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, you are very kind; but I have an engagement to row with one
+of the students."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla and Bonnie exchanged delighted glances. They had evidently
+caught a resourceful young person.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; it's too late for a row. You might get malaria," Priscilla
+remonstrated. "Come and sit on the fence with us and admire the stars;
+it's a lovely night."</p>
+
+<p>The lecturer cast an alarmed glance toward the fence, which appeared to
+have an unusually narrow top rail. "You are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> very kind," she stammered,
+"but I really can't stop. The girl will be waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is the girl?" they inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I remember her name."</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred Connaught?" Bonnie suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I don't think that is it, but I really can't say. I have only just
+met her."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Henderson was growing more and more puzzled. In her day the
+students had not been in the habit of way-laying strangers with
+invitations to go walking and sit on fences.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, <i>do</i> stay with us," Bonnie begged, laying a hand on her arm. "We're
+lonely and want some one to talk to&mdash;we'll tell you a secret if you do."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry," Miss Henderson murmured confusedly, "but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll tell you the secret anyway," said Bonnie, generously, "and I'm
+sure you'll be interested. The sophomores are going to have their tree
+ceremonies to-night!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And you know," Priscilla broke in, "that the freshmen really ought to
+attend them too&mdash;it doesn't matter if they aren't invited. But where do
+you suppose the freshmen are to-night? They're attending a foolish
+little lecture on the Roman Forum."</p>
+
+<p>"And though we don't wish to seem insistent," Bonnie added, "we should
+really like to have your company until the lecture is over."</p>
+
+<p>"Until the lecture is over! But I am the lecturer," gasped Miss
+Henderson.</p>
+
+<p>Bonnie grinned delightedly. "I am happy to meet you," she said, with a
+bow. "And perhaps you do not recognize us. I am Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and
+this is my friend Dr. Watson."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Watson bowed, and remarked that it was an unexpected pleasure. He
+had often heard of the famous lecturer, but had never hoped to meet her.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Henderson, who was not very conversant with recent literature,
+looked more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>dazed than ever. It flashed across her mind that there was
+an insane asylum in the neighborhood, and the thought was not
+reassuring.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll not handcuff you," said Bonnie, magnanimously, "if you'll come
+with us quietly."</p>
+
+<p>The lecturer, in spite of fervid protestations that she was a lecturer,
+presently found herself sitting on the fence, with a girl on either side
+grasping an elbow. A light was beginning to break upon her, together
+with a poignant realization of the fact that she was seeing more of the
+real college life than she cared for.</p>
+
+<p>"What time is it?" she asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten minutes past eight by my watch, but I think it's a little slow,"
+said Bonnie.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you're going to be late for your lecture," said Priscilla.
+"It seems a pity to waste it. Suppose you tell it to us instead."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, do," urged Bonnie. "I just dote on the Roman Forum."</p>
+
+<p>The lecturer preserved a dignified silence, which was broken only by the
+croaking of the frogs and the occasional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> remarks of the two detectives.
+She had relinquished all hope of ever seeing the Arch&aelig;ological Society,
+and had philosophically resigned herself to the prospect of sitting on
+the fence all night, when suddenly there burst out from across the
+campus a song of victory, mingled with cheers and inarticulate yells.</p>
+
+<p>At the first sound, Bonnie and Priscilla tumbled down from the fence,
+bringing the lecturer with them, and, each grasping her by a hand, they
+started to run. "Come on and see the fun," they laughed. "You're
+perfectly welcome; it's no secret any more." And, in spite of breathless
+protestations that she much preferred to walk, Miss Henderson found
+herself dashing across the campus in the direction of the sounds.</p>
+
+<p>Heads suddenly appeared in the dormitory windows, doors banged, and
+girls came running from every quarter with excited exclamations: "The
+sophomores are having their tree ceremonies!" "Where are the freshmen?"
+"Why didn't they get there?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A crowd quickly gathered in the shadow of the trees and watched the
+scene with laughing interest. A wide circle of colored lanterns swayed
+in the breeze, and, within, a line of white-robed figures wound and
+unwound about a tiny tree to the music of a solemn chant.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it pretty? Aren't you glad we brought you?" Bonnie demanded as
+they pushed through the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>The lecturer did not answer, for she caught sight of the Latin professor
+hurrying toward them.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Henderson! I was afraid you were lost. It is nearly half-past
+eight. The audience has been waiting, and we have been filling in the
+time with reports."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the lecturer was silent, being occupied with an amused
+scrutiny of the faces of her captors; and then she rose to the occasion
+like a lady and a scholar, and delivered a masterly apology, with never
+a reference to her sojourn on the fence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bonnie and Priscilla stared at each other without a word, and as Miss
+Henderson was led away to the remnants of her audience Patty suddenly
+appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Did you solve your
+mystery?" she asked sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla turned her to the light and scrutinized her face.</p>
+
+<p>Patty smiled back with wide-open, innocent eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla knew the expression, and she shook her. "You little wretch!"
+she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Patty squirmed out from under her grasp. "If you remember," she
+murmured, "I once said that the Lick Observatory was in Dublin, Ireland.
+It was a very funny mistake, of course, but I know of others that are
+funnier."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" Bonnie demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," said Patty, "that I wish you never to mention the Lick
+Observatory again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>XV</h2>
+
+<h3>Patty and the Bishop</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 151px;">
+<img src="images/t.png" width="151" height="150" alt="T" title="T" />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br />HE dressing-bell rang for Sunday morning service, and Patty laid down
+her book with a sigh and went and stood by the open window. The outside
+world was a shimmering green and yellow, the trees showed a feathery
+fringe against the sky, and the breeze was redolent of violets and fresh
+earth.</div>
+
+<p>"Patty," called Priscilla, from her bedroom, "you'll have to hurry if
+you want me to fasten your dress. I have to go to choir rehearsal."</p>
+
+<p>Patty turned back with another sigh, and began slowly unhooking her
+collar. Then she sat down on the edge of the couch and stared absently
+out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>A vigorous banging of bureau drawers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> in Priscilla's room was presently
+followed by Priscilla herself in the doorway. She surveyed her room-mate
+suspiciously. "Why aren't you dressing?" she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll fasten my own dress; you needn't wait," said Patty, without
+removing her eyes from the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Bishop Copeley's going to preach to-day, and he's such an old dear; you
+mustn't be late."</p>
+
+<p>Patty elevated her chin a trifle and shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you going to chapel?"</p>
+
+<p>Patty brought her gaze back from the window and looked up at Priscilla
+beseechingly. "It's such a lovely day," she pleaded, "and I'd so much
+rather spend the time out of doors; I'm sure it would be a lot better
+for my spiritual welfare."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not a question of spiritual welfare; it's a question of cuts.
+You've already over-cut twice. What excuse do you intend to give when
+the Self-Government<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> Committee asks for an explanation?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Sufficient unto the day,'" laughed Patty. "When the time comes I'll
+think of a beautiful new excuse that will charm the committee."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be ashamed to evade the rules the way you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the fun of living if you are going to make yourself a slave to
+all sorts of petty rules?" asked Patty, wearily.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know why you have a right to live outside of rules any more
+than the rest of us."</p>
+
+<p>Patty shrugged. "I take the right, and every one else can do the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Every one else can't," returned Priscilla, hotly, "for there wouldn't
+be any law left in college if they did. I should a good deal rather play
+out of doors myself than go to chapel, but I've used up all my cuts and
+I can't. You couldn't either if you had a shred of proper feeling left.
+The only way you can get out of it is by lying."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla dear," Patty murmured, "people in polite society don't put
+things quite so baldly. If you would be respected in the best circles,
+you must practise the art of equivocation."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla frowned impatiently. "Are you coming, or are you not?" she
+demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla closed the door&mdash;not quite as softly as a door should be
+closed&mdash;and Patty was left alone. She sat thinking a few minutes with
+slightly flushed cheeks, and then as the chapel bell rang she shook
+herself and laughed. Even had she wished to go it was too late now, and
+all feeling of responsibility vanished. As soon as the decorous swish of
+Sunday silks had ceased in the corridor outside, she caught up a book
+and a cushion, and, creeping down by the side stairs, set gaily out
+across the sunlit lawn, with the deliciously guilty thrill of a truant
+little boy who has run away from school.</p>
+
+<p>From the open windows of the chapel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> she could hear the college
+chanting: "Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this
+law." She laughed happily to herself; she was not keeping laws to-day.
+They might stay in there in the gloom, if they wanted to, with their
+commandments and their litanies. She was worshiping under the blue sky,
+to the jubilant chanting of the birds.</p>
+
+<p>She was the only person alive and out that morning, and the spring was
+in her blood, and she felt as though she owned the world. The campus had
+never seemed so radiant. She paused on the little rustic bridge to watch
+the excited swirling of the brook, and she nearly lost her balance while
+trying to launch a tiny boat made of a piece of bark. She dropped
+pebbles into the pool in order to watch the startled frogs splash back
+into the water, and she threw her cushion at a squirrel, and laughed
+aloud at its angry chattering. She raced up the side of Pine Bluff, and
+dropped down panting on the fragrant needles in the shadow of a tall
+pine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Below her the ivy-covered buildings of the college lay clustered among
+the trees; and in the Sunday quiet, with the sunlight shining on the
+towers, it looked like some medieval village sleeping in the valley.
+Patty gazed down dreamily with half-shut eyes, and imagined that
+presently a band of troubadours and ladies would come riding out on
+milk-white mules. But the sight of Peters, strolling to the gateway in
+his Sunday clothes, spoiled the illusion, and she turned to her book
+with a smile. Presently she closed it, however. This was not the time
+for reading. One could read in winter and when it rained, and even in
+the college library with every one else turning pages; but out here in
+the open, with the real things of life happening all about, it was a
+waste of opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes wandered back to the campus again, and she suddenly grew sober
+as the thought swept over her that in a few weeks more it would be hers
+no longer. This happy, irresponsible community life, which had come to
+be the only natural way of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> living, was suddenly at an end. She
+remembered the first day of being a freshman, when everything but
+herself had looked so big, and she had thought desperately, "Four years
+of this!" It had seemed like an eternity; and now that it was over it
+seemed like a minute. She wanted to clutch the present and hold it fast.
+It was a terrible thing&mdash;this growing old.</p>
+
+<p>And there were the girls. She would have to say good-by, with no opening
+day in the fall&mdash;and Priscilla lived in California and Georgie in South
+Dakota and Bonnie in Kentucky and she in New England, and they were the
+only people in the world she particularly cared to talk to. She would
+have to get acquainted with her mother's friends&mdash;with chronically
+grown-up people, who talked about husbands and children and servants.
+And there would be men. She had never had time to know many men; but
+some day she would probably be marrying one of them, and then all
+<i>would</i> be over; and before she had time to think, she would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> be an old
+lady, telling her grandchildren stories about when she was a girl.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 286px;">
+<img src="images/image_0284.jpg" width="286" height="400" alt="I have just run away from you, Bishop Copeley" title="I have just run away from you, Bishop Copeley" />
+<span class="caption">I have just run away from you, Bishop Copeley</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Patty gazed mournfully down on the campus, almost on the verge of tears
+over her lost youth, when a step suddenly sounded on the gravel path,
+and she looked up with a startled glance to see a churchly figure
+rounding the hill. Involuntarily she prepared for flight; but the bishop
+had spied her, together with a little rustic seat under a tree, and he
+smiled upon the one and dropped down upon the other with a sigh of
+content.</p>
+
+<p>"A beautiful view," he gasped; "but a very steep hill."</p>
+
+<p>"It is steep," Patty agreed politely; and as there seemed to be no
+chance of escape, she resumed her seat and added, with a laugh: "I have
+just run away from you, Bishop Copeley, and here you come following
+along behind like an accusing conscience."</p>
+
+<p>The bishop chuckled. "I've run away myself," he returned; "I knew I
+should have to be introduced to a hundred or so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> of you after service,
+so I just slipped out the back way for a quiet stroll."</p>
+
+<p>Patty eyed him appreciatively, with a new sense of fellow-feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to have run away from church as well," he confessed, with
+a twinkle in his eye. "Out of doors is the best church on a day like
+this."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I think," said Patty, cordially; "but I had no idea that
+bishops were so sensible."</p>
+
+<p>They chatted along in a friendly manner on various subjects, and
+exchanged lay opinions on the college and the clergy.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a funny thing about this place," said Patty, ruminatingly, "that,
+though we have a different preacher every Sunday, we always have the
+same sermon."</p>
+
+<p>"The same sermon?" inquired the bishop, somewhat aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"Practically the same," said Patty. "I've heard it for four years, and I
+think I could almost preach it myself. They all seem to think, you know,
+that because we come to college we must be monsters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> of reason, and they
+urge us to remember that reason and science are not the only things that
+count in the world&mdash;that feeling is, after all, the main factor; and
+they quote a little poem about the flower being beautiful, I know not
+why. That wasn't what yours was about?" she asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Not this time," said the bishop; "I preached an old one."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the best way," said Patty. "We're human beings, if we do come to
+college. I remember once we had a man from Yale or Harvard or some such
+place, and he preached an old sermon: he urged us to become more manly.
+It was very refreshing."</p>
+
+<p>The bishop smiled. "Do you run away from church very often?" he inquired
+mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I don't have a chance when I room with Priscilla. But obligatory
+chapel makes you want to run away," she added. "It's not the chapel I
+object to; it's the obligatoriness."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But you have a system of&mdash;er&mdash;cuts," he suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Three a month," said Patty, sadly. "Evening chapel counts as one, but
+Sunday morning church as two."</p>
+
+<p>"So you expended two cuts to escape me?" he asked with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it wasn't you," Patty remonstrated hastily. "It was just&mdash;the
+obligatoriness. And besides," she added frankly, "my legitimate cuts
+were used up days ago, and when I once begin over-cutting, I am
+reckless."</p>
+
+<p>"And may I ask what happens when you over-cut?" the bishop inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Patty, "there are proctors, you know, that mark you when
+you are absent; and then, if they find that you've over-cut, the
+Self-Government Committee calls you up and asks the reason. If you can't
+produce a good excuse you are deprived of your privileges for a month,
+and you can't be on committees or in plays or get leave of absence to go
+out of town."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I see," said the bishop; "and will you have to suffer all of those
+penalties?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said Patty, comfortably; "I shall produce a good excuse."</p>
+
+<p>"What will you say?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, exactly; I shall have to depend on the inspiration of the
+moment."</p>
+
+<p>The bishop regarded her quizzically. "Do you mean," he asked, "that,
+having broken the rule, you intend to evade the penalty by&mdash;to put it
+flatly&mdash;a falsehood?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, bishop," said Patty, in a shocked tone. "Of course I shall tell
+the truth, only"&mdash;she looked up in the bishop's face with an
+irresistible smile&mdash;"the committee probably won't understand it."</p>
+
+<p>For an instant the bishop's face relaxed, and then he grew grave again.
+"By a subterfuge?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Y-yes," acknowledged Patty; "I suppose you <i>might</i> call it a
+subterfuge. I dare say I am pretty bad," she added, "but you have to
+have a reputation for something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> in a place like this or you get
+overlooked. I can't compete in goodness or in athletics or in anything
+like that, so there's nothing left for me but to surpass in badness&mdash;I
+have quite a gift for it."</p>
+
+<p>The corners of the bishop's mouth twitched. "You don't look like one
+with a criminal record."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm young yet," said Patty. "It hasn't commenced to show."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear little girl," said the bishop, "I have already preached one
+sermon to-day, which you didn't come to hear, and I can't undertake to
+preach another for your benefit,"&mdash;Patty looked relieved,&mdash;"but there is
+one question I should like to ask you. In after years, when you are
+through college and the question is asked of some of your class-mates,
+'Did you know&mdash;' You have not told me your name."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty Wyatt."</p>
+
+<p>"'Did you know Patty Wyatt, and what sort of a girl was she?' will the
+answer be what you would wish?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Patty considered. "Ye-yes; I think, on the whole, they'd stand by me."</p>
+
+<p>"This morning," the bishop continued placidly, "I asked a professor in
+an entirely casual way about a young woman&mdash;a class-mate of your
+own&mdash;who is the daughter of an old friend of mine. The answer was
+immediate and unhesitating, and you can imagine how much it gratified
+me. 'There is not a finer girl in college,' he replied. 'She is honest
+in work and honest in play, and thoroughly conscientious in everything
+she does.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Um-m," said Patty; "that must have been Priscilla."</p>
+
+<p>"No," smiled the bishop, "it was not Priscilla. The young woman of whom
+I am speaking is the president of your Student Association, Catherine
+Fair."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's true," said Patty, critically. "Cathy Fair hits straight from
+the shoulder."</p>
+
+<p>"And wouldn't you like to go out with that reputation?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm really not <i>very</i> bad," pleaded Patty, "that is, as badness goes.
+But I couldn't be as good as Cathy; it would be going against nature."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," suggested the bishop, "that you do not try very hard. You
+may not think that it matters what people think now that you are young,
+but how will it be when you grow older? And it will not be long," he
+added. "Age slips upon you before you realize it."</p>
+
+<p>Patty looked sober.</p>
+
+<p>"You will soon be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty."</p>
+
+<p>Patty sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you think that a woman of that age is attractive if she deals in
+subterfuges and evasions?"</p>
+
+<p>Patty squirmed a trifle, and dug a little hole in the pine-needles with
+her toe.</p>
+
+<p>"You must remember that you cannot form your character in a moment, my
+dear. Character is a plant of slow growth, and the seeds must be planted
+early."</p>
+
+<p>The bishop rose, and Patty scrambled to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> her feet with a look of relief.
+He took the pillow and the book under his arm, and they started down the
+hill. "I have preached you a sermon, after all," he said apologetically;
+"but preaching is my trade, and you must forgive an old man for being
+prosy."</p>
+
+<p>Patty held out her hand with a smile as they stopped before the door of
+Phillips Hall. "Good-by, bishop," she said, "and thank you for the
+sermon; I guess I needed it&mdash;I <i>am</i> getting old."</p>
+
+<p>She climbed the stairs slowly, and, hesitating a moment outside her own
+room, where the sound of laughing voices through the transom betokened
+that the clan was gathered, she kept on to the door of a single at the
+end of the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," a voice called in response to her knock.</p>
+
+<p>Patty turned the knob and stuck her head in. "Hello, Cathy! Are you
+busy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. Come in and talk to me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Patty shut the door and leaned with her back against it. "This isn't a
+social call," she announced impressively. "I've come to see you
+officially."</p>
+
+<p>"Officially?"</p>
+
+<p>"You're president of students, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I am," sighed Cathy; "and if the President of the United
+States has half as much trouble with his subjects as I have with mine,
+he has my sincerest sympathy."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose we are a great deal of trouble," said Patty, contritely.</p>
+
+<p>"Trouble! My dear," said Cathy, solemnly. "I've spent the entire week
+running around to the different cottages making speeches to those
+blessed freshmen. They <i>won't</i> hand in chapel excuses, and they <i>will</i>
+run off with library books, and, altogether, they're an immoral lot."</p>
+
+<p>"They can afford to be; they're young," sighed Patty, enviously. "But
+I," she added, "am getting old, and it's time I was getting good. I've
+called to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> tell you that I've over-cut four times, and I haven't any
+excuse."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you talking about?" asked Cathy, in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Chapel excuses. I've over-cut four times,&mdash;I think it's four, though
+I've rather lost count,&mdash;and I haven't any excuse."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Patty, don't tell me that. You must have some excuse, some reason
+for&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the shadow of one. Just stayed away because I didn't feel like
+going."</p>
+
+<p>"But you must give me <i>some</i> reason," remonstrated Cathy, in distress,
+"or I'll have to report it to the committee and you'll be deprived of
+your privileges. You can't afford that, you know, for you're chairman of
+the Senior Prom."</p>
+
+<p>"But I didn't have any excuse, and I can't make one up," said Patty. "I
+will soon be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty. Do you think a
+woman of that age is attractive if she deals in subterfuges and
+evasions? Character," she added solemnly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> "is a plant of slow growth,
+and the seeds must be planted early."</p>
+
+<p>Cathy looked puzzled. "I don't know what you're talking about," she
+said, "but I suppose you do. Anyway," she added, "I'm sorry about the
+chairmanship; but I'm&mdash;well, I'm sort of glad, too." She laid a hand on
+Patty's shoulder. "Of course I've always liked you, Patty,&mdash;everybody
+does,&mdash;but I don't believe I've ever appreciated you, and I'm glad to
+find it out before we leave college."</p>
+
+<p>Patty's face flushed a trifle and she drew away half sheepishly. "You'd
+best postpone your felicitations until to-morrow," she laughed, "for I
+may think of some good excuse in the night. Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>She was greeted in the study with a cry of welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Patty," said Priscilla, "I hear you've been taking a walk with
+the bishop. Did you tell him you'd cut chapel?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I did; and he said he wished he might have cut, too."</p>
+
+<p>"She's incorrigible," sighed Georgie; "she's even been corrupting the
+bishop."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better be careful, Patty Wyatt," warned Bonnie Connaught.
+"Self-Government will get you if you don't watch out, and <i>then</i> you'll
+be sorry when they take you off the Senior Prom."</p>
+
+<p>Patty sobered for a moment, but she hastily assumed a nonchalant air.
+"They have got me," she laughed, "and I'm already off&mdash;or, at least, I
+shall be as soon as they have a meeting."</p>
+
+<p>"Patty!" cried the room, in a horrified chorus. "What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Patty shrugged. "Just what I say: deprived of my privileges for cutting
+chapel."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a shame!" said Georgie, indignantly. "That Self-Government
+Committee is going a little too far when it takes a senior's privileges
+away without even hearing her case." She grasped Patty by the arm and
+started toward the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> door. "Come on and tell Cathy Fair about it. She
+will fix it all right."</p>
+
+<p>Patty hung back and disengaged her wrist from Georgie's grasp. "Let me
+alone," she said sulkily. "There's nothing to be done. I told her myself
+I hadn't any excuse."</p>
+
+<p>"You told her?" Georgie stared her incredulity, and Bonnie Connaught
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Patty reminds me of the burglar who crawled out the back window with
+the silver, and then rang the front door-bell and handed it back."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Patty?" Priscilla asked solicitously. "Don't you
+feel well?"</p>
+
+<p>Patty sighed. "I'm getting old," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You're getting what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Old. Soon I'll be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty; and do you
+think any one will love me then if I deal in subterfuges and evasions?
+Character, my dear girls, is a plant of slow growth, and the seeds must
+be planted early."</p>
+
+<p>"You went and told the committee voluntarily,&mdash;of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> your own
+accord,&mdash;without even waiting to be called up?" Georgie persisted,
+determined to get at the facts of the case.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm getting old," repeated Patty. "It's time I was getting good. As I
+said before, character is a plant&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Georgie looked at the others and shook her head in bewilderment, and
+Bonnie Connaught laughed and murmured to the room in general: "When
+Patty gets to heaven I'm afraid the Recording Angel will have some
+trouble in balancing his books."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>
+
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p>
+
+
+<p>The original text had each Chapter number and title twice. The first of
+these was deleted to aid in ease of reading.</p>
+
+<p><a href='#no'>Page 198</a>, the text that begins "Ireland's eminent astronomer spending"
+ends without punctuation to indicate that the reader broke off suddenly.
+This was retained.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's When Patty Went to College, by Jean Webster
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,5411 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When Patty Went to College, by Jean Webster
+
+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: When Patty Went to College
+
+Author: Jean Webster
+
+Illustrator: C. D. Williams
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2007 [EBook #21639]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Patty]
+
+
+When Patty Went to College
+
+By
+
+Jean Webster
+
+          With Illustrations
+          by C. D. Williams
+
+[Illustration]
+
+          New York
+          The Century Co.
+          1903
+
+          Copyright, 1903, by
+          THE CENTURY CO.
+
+          Copyright, 1901, 1902, by TRUTH CO.
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+          _Published March, 1903_
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+          THE DEVINNE PRESS
+
+          TO
+          234 MAIN AND THE GOOD
+          TIMES WE HAVE HAD THERE
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+                                                            PAGE
+             I  PETERS THE SUSCEPTIBLE                         1
+            II  AN EARLY FRIGHT                               21
+           III  THE IMPRESSIONABLE MR. TODHUNTER              39
+            IV  A QUESTION OF ETHICS                          57
+             V  THE ELUSIVE KATE FERRIS                       73
+            VI  A STORY WITH FOUR SEQUELS                     89
+           VII  IN PURSUIT OF OLD ENGLISH                    103
+          VIII  THE DECEASED ROBERT                          121
+            IX  PATTY THE COMFORTER                          133
+             X  "PER L'ITALIA"                               147
+            XI  "LOCAL COLOR"                                177
+           XII  THE EXIGENCIES OF ETIQUETTE                  203
+          XIII  A CRASH WITHOUT                              215
+           XIV  THE MYSTERY OF THE SHADOWED SOPHOMORE        237
+            XV  PATTY AND THE BISHOP                         257
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+
+                                                         FACING PAGE
+
+  Patty                                                 _Frontispiece_
+
+  Men know such a lot about such things!                      18
+
+  Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly sitting on the
+    edge of a chair                                           54
+
+  What's the matter, Patty?                                  110
+
+  Olivia Copeland                                            172
+
+  I have just run away from you, Bishop Copeley              266
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+Peters the Susceptible
+
+
+"Paper-weights," observed Patty, sucking an injured thumb, "were
+evidently not made for driving in tacks. I wish I had a hammer."
+
+This remark called forth no response, and Patty peered down from the top
+of the step-ladder at her room-mate, who was sitting on the floor
+dragging sofa-pillows and curtains from a dry-goods box.
+
+"Priscilla," she begged, "you aren't doing anything useful. Go down and
+ask Peters for a hammer."
+
+Priscilla rose reluctantly. "I dare say fifty girls have already been
+after a hammer."
+
+"Oh, he has a private one in his back pocket. Borrow that. And,
+Pris,"--Patty called after her over the transom,--"just tell him to
+send up a man to take that closet door off its hinges."
+
+Patty, in the interval, sat down on the top step and surveyed the chaos
+beneath her. An Oriental rush chair, very much out at the elbows,
+several miscellaneous chairs, two desks, a divan, a table, and two
+dry-goods boxes radiated from the center of the room. The floor, as it
+showed through the interstices, was covered with a grass-green carpet,
+while the curtains and hangings were of a not very subdued crimson.
+
+"One would scarcely," Patty remarked to the furniture in general, "call
+it a symphony in color."
+
+A knock sounded on the door.
+
+"Come in," she called.
+
+A girl in a blue linen sailor-suit reaching to her ankles, and with a
+braid of hair hanging down her back, appeared in the doorway. Patty
+examined her in silence. The girl's eyes traveled around the room in
+some surprise, and finally reached the top of the ladder.
+
+"I--I'm a freshman," she began.
+
+"My dear," murmured Patty, in a deprecatory tone, "I should have taken
+you for a senior; but"--with a wave of her hand toward the nearest
+dry-goods box--"come in and sit down. I need your advice. Now, there are
+shades of green," she went on, as if continuing a conversation, "which
+are not so bad with red; but I ask you frankly if _that_ shade of green
+would go with anything?"
+
+The freshman looked at Patty, and looked at the carpet, and smiled
+dubiously. "No," she admitted; "I don't believe it would."
+
+"I knew you would say that!" exclaimed Patty, in a tone of relief. "Now
+what would you advise us to do with the carpet?"
+
+The freshman looked blank. "I--I don't know, unless you take it up," she
+stammered.
+
+"The very thing!" said Patty. "I wonder we hadn't thought of it before."
+
+Priscilla reappeared at this point with the announcement, "Peters is
+the most suspicious man I ever knew!" But she stopped uncertainly as she
+caught sight of the freshman.
+
+"Priscilla," said Patty, severely, "I _hope_ you didn't divulge the fact
+that we are hanging the walls with tapestry"--this with a wave of her
+hand toward the printed cotton cloth dangling from the molding.
+
+"I tried not to," said Priscilla, guiltily, "but he read 'tapestry' in
+my eyes. He had no sooner looked at me than he said, 'See here, miss;
+you know it's against the rules to hang curtains on the walls, and you
+mustn't put nails in the plastering, and I don't believe you need a
+hammer anyway.'"
+
+"Disgusting creature!" said Patty.
+
+"But," continued Priscilla, hastily, "I stopped and borrowed Georgie
+Merriles's hammer on my way back. Oh, I forgot," she added; "he says we
+can't take the closet door off its hinges--that as soon as we get ours
+off five hundred other young ladies will be wanting theirs off, and
+that it would take half a dozen men all summer to put them back again."
+
+A portentous frown was gathering on Patty's brow, and the freshman,
+wishing to avert a possible domestic tragedy, inquired timidly, "Who is
+Peters?"
+
+"Peters," said Priscilla, "is a short, bow-legged gentleman with a red
+Vandyke beard, whose technical title is janitor, but who is really
+dictator. Every one is afraid of him--even Prexy."
+
+"I'm not," said Patty; "and," she added firmly, "that door is coming
+down whether he says so or not, so I suppose we shall have to do it
+ourselves." Her eyes wandered back to the carpet and her face
+brightened. "Oh, Pris, we've got a beautiful new scheme. My friend here
+says she doesn't like the carpet at all, and suggests that we take it
+up, get some black paint, and put it on the floor ourselves. I agree,"
+she added, "that a Flemish oak floor covered with rugs would be a great
+improvement."
+
+Priscilla glanced uncertainly from the freshman to the floor. "Do you
+think they'd let us do it?"
+
+"It would never do to ask them," said Patty.
+
+The freshman rose uneasily. "I came," she said hesitatingly, "to find
+out--that is, I understand that the girls rent their old books, and I
+thought, if you wouldn't mind--"
+
+"Mind!" said Patty, reassuringly. "We'd rent our souls for fifty cents a
+semester."
+
+"It--it was a Latin dictionary I wanted," said the freshman, "and the
+girls next door said perhaps you had one."
+
+"A beautiful one," said Patty.
+
+"No," interrupted Priscilla; "hers is lost from O to R, and it's all
+torn; but mine,"--she dived down into one of the boxes and hauled out a
+chunky volume without any covers,--"while it is not so beautiful as it
+was once, it is still as useful."
+
+"Mine's annotated," said Patty, "and illustrated. I'll show you what a
+superior book it is," and she began descending the ladder; but
+Priscilla charged upon her and she retreated to the top again. "Why,"
+she wailed to the terrified freshman, "did you not say you wanted a
+dictionary before she came back? Let me give you some advice at the
+beginning of your college career," she added warningly. "Never choose a
+room-mate bigger than yourself. They're dangerous."
+
+The freshman was backing precipitously toward the door, when it opened
+and revealed an attractive-looking girl with fluffy reddish hair.
+
+"Pris, you wretch, you walked off with my hammer!"
+
+"Oh, Georgie, we need it worse than you do! Come in and help tack."
+
+"Hello, Georgie," called Patty, from the ladder. "Isn't this room going
+to be beautiful when it's finished?"
+
+Georgie looked about. "You are more sanguine than I should be," she
+laughed.
+
+"You can't tell yet," Patty returned. "We're going to cover the
+wall-paper with this red stuff, and paint the floor black, and have dark
+furniture, and red hangings, and soft lights. It will look just like the
+Oriental Room in the Waldorf."
+
+"How in the world," Georgie demanded, "do you ever make them let you do
+all these things? I stuck in three innocent little thumb-tacks to-day,
+and Peters descended upon me bristling with wrath, and said he'd report
+me if I didn't pull them out."
+
+"We never ask," explained Patty. "It's the only way."
+
+"You've got enough to do if you expect to get settled by Monday,"
+Georgie remarked.
+
+"_C'est vrai_," agreed Patty, descending the ladder with a sudden access
+of energy; "and you've got to stay and help us. We have to get all this
+furniture moved into the bedrooms and the carpet up before we even
+_begin_ to paint." She regarded the freshman tentatively. "Are you
+awfully busy?"
+
+"Not very. My room-mate hasn't come yet, so I can't settle."
+
+"That's nice; then you can help us move furniture."
+
+"Patty!" said Priscilla, "I think you are too bad."
+
+"I should really love to stay and help, if you'll let me."
+
+"Certainly," said Patty, obligingly. "I forgot to ask your name," she
+continued, "and I don't suppose you like to be called 'Freshman'; it's
+not specific enough."
+
+"My name is Genevieve Ainslee Randolph."
+
+"Genevieve Ains--dear me! I can't remember anything like that. Do you
+mind if I call you Lady Clara Vere de Vere for short?"
+
+The freshman looked doubtful, and Patty proceeded: "Lady Clara, allow me
+to present my room-mate Miss Priscilla Pond--no relation to the extract.
+She's athletic and wins hundred-yard dashes and hurdle races, and gets
+her name in the paper to a really gratifying extent. And my dear friend
+Miss Georgie Merriles, one of the oldest families in Dakota. Miss
+Merriles is very talented--sings in the glee club, plays on the comb--"
+
+"And," interrupted Georgie, "let me present Miss Patty Wyatt, who--"
+
+"Has no specialty," said Patty, modestly, "but is merely good and
+beautiful and bright."
+
+A knock sounded on the door, which opened without waiting for a
+response. "Miss Theodora Bartlet," continued Patty, "commonly known as
+the Twin, Miss Vere de Vere."
+
+The Twin looked dazed, murmured, "Miss Vere de Vere," and dropped down
+on a dry-goods box.
+
+"The term 'Twin,'" explained Patty, "is used in a merely allegorical
+sense. There is really only one of her. The title was conferred in her
+freshman year, and the reason has been lost in the dim dawn of
+antiquity."
+
+The freshman looked at the Twin and opened her mouth, but shut it again
+without saying anything.
+
+"My favorite maxim," said Patty, "has always been, 'Silence is golden.'
+I observe that we are kindred spirits."
+
+"Patty," said Priscilla, "do stop bothering that poor child and get to
+work."
+
+"Bothering?" said Patty. "I am not bothering her; we are just getting
+acquainted. However, I dare say it is not the time for hollow
+civilities. Do you want to borrow anything?" she added, turning to the
+Twin, "or did you just drop in to pay a social call?"
+
+"Just a social call; but I think I'll come in again when there's no
+furniture to move."
+
+"You don't happen to be going into town this afternoon?"
+
+"Yes," said the Twin. "But," she added guardedly, "if it's a
+curtain-pole, I refuse to bring it out. I offered to bring one out for
+Lucille Carter last night, because she was in a hurry to give a
+house-warming, and I speared the conductor with it getting into the car;
+and while I was apologizing to him I knocked Mrs. Prexy's hat off with
+the other end."
+
+"We have all the curtain-poles we need," said Patty. "It's just some
+paint--five cans of black paint, and three brushes at the ten-cent
+store, and thank you very much. Good-by. Now," she continued, "the first
+thing is to get that door down, and I will wrest a screw-driver from the
+unwilling Peters while you remove tacks from the carpet."
+
+"He won't give you one," said Priscilla.
+
+"You'll see," said Patty.
+
+Five minutes later she returned waving above her head an unmistakable
+screw-driver. "_Voila, mes amies!_ Peters's own private screw-driver,
+for which I am to be personally responsible."
+
+"How did you get it?" inquired Priscilla, suspiciously.
+
+"You act," said Patty, "as if you thought I knocked him down in some
+dark corner and robbed him. I merely asked him for it politely, and he
+asked me what I wanted to do with it. I told him I wanted to take out
+screws, and the reason impressed him so that he handed it over without
+a word. Peters," she added, "is a dear; only he's like every other
+man--you have to use diplomacy."
+
+By ten o'clock that night the study carpet of 399 was neatly folded and
+deposited at the end of the corridor above, whence its origin would be
+difficult to trace. The entire region was steeped in an odor of
+turpentine, and the study floor of 399 was a shining black, except for
+four or five unpainted spots which Patty designated as "stepping-stones,"
+and which were to be treated later. Every caller that had dropped in
+during the afternoon or evening had had a brush thrust into her hand and
+had been made to go down upon her knees and paint. Besides the floor,
+three bookcases and a chair had been transferred from mahogany to
+Flemish oak, and there was still half a can of paint left which Patty
+was anxiously trying to dispose of.
+
+The next morning, in spite of the difficulty of getting about, the
+step-ladder had been reerected, and the business of tapestry-hanging
+was going forward with enthusiasm, when a knock suddenly interrupted the
+work.
+
+Patty, all unconscious of impending doom, cheerily called, "Come in!"
+
+The door opened, and the figure of Peters appeared on the threshold; and
+Priscilla basely fled, leaving her room-mate stranded on the ladder.
+
+"Are you the young lady who borrowed my screw--" Peters stopped and
+looked at the floor, and his jaw dropped in astonishment. "Where is that
+there carpet?" he demanded, in a tone which seemed to imply that he
+thought it was under the paint.
+
+"It's out in the hall," said Patty, pleasantly. "Please be careful and
+don't step on the paint. It's a great improvement, don't you think?"
+
+"You oughter got permission--" he began, but his eye fell on the
+tapestry and he stopped again.
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "but we knew you couldn't spare a man just now to
+paint it for us, so we didn't like to trouble you."
+
+"It's against the rules to hang curtains on the walls."
+
+"I have heard that it was," said Patty, affably, "and I think ordinarily
+it's a very good rule. But just look at the color of that wall-paper.
+It's pea-green. You have had enough experience with wall-paper, Mr.
+Peters, to know that _that_ is impossible, especially when our
+window-curtains and portieres are red."
+
+Peters's eyes had traveled to the closet, bereft of its door. "Are you
+the young lady," he demanded gruffly, "who asked me to have that door
+taken off its hinges?"
+
+"No," said Patty; "I think that must have been my room-mate. It was
+_very_ heavy," she continued plaintively, "and we had a great deal of
+trouble getting it down, but of course we realized that you were awfully
+busy, and that it really wasn't your fault. That's what I wanted the
+screw-driver for," she added. "I'm sorry that I didn't get it back last
+night, but I was very tired, and I forgot."
+
+[Illustration: Men know such a lot about such things!]
+
+Peters merely grunted. He was examining a corner cabinet hanging on the
+wall. "Didn't you know," he asked severely, "that it's against the rules
+to put nails in the plaster?"
+
+"Those aren't nails," expostulated Patty. "They're hooks. I remembered
+that you didn't like holes, so I only put in two, though I am really
+afraid that three are necessary. What do you think, Mr. Peters? Does it
+seem solid?"
+
+Peters shook it. "It's solid enough," he said sulkily. As he turned, his
+eye fell on the table in Priscilla's bedroom. "Is that a gas-stove in
+there?" he demanded.
+
+Patty shrugged her shoulders. "An apology for one--be _careful_, Mr.
+Peters! _Don't_ get against that bookcase. It's just painted."
+
+Peters jumped aside, and stood like the Colossus of Rhodes, with one
+foot on one stepping-stone, and the other on another three feet away. It
+is hard for even a janitor to be dignified in such a position, and
+while he was gathering his scattered impressions Patty looked longingly
+around the room for some one to enjoy the spectacle with her. She felt
+that the silence was becoming ominous, however, and she hastened to
+interrupt it.
+
+"There's something wrong with that stove; it won't burn a bit. I am
+afraid we didn't put it together just right. I shouldn't be surprised if
+_you_ might be able to tell what's the matter with it, Mr. Peters." She
+smiled sweetly. "Men know such a lot about such things! Would you mind
+looking at it?"
+
+Peters grunted again; but he approached the stove.
+
+Five minutes later, when Priscilla stuck her head in to find out if, by
+chance, anything remained of Patty, she saw Peters on his knees on the
+floor of her bedroom, with the dismembered stove scattered about him,
+and heard him saying, "I don't know as I have any call to report you,
+for I s'pose, since they're up, they might as well stay"; and Patty's
+voice returning: "You're _very_ kind, Mr. Peters. Of course if we'd
+_known_--" Priscilla shut the door softly, and retired around the corner
+to await Peters's departure.
+
+"How in the world did you manage him?" she asked, bursting in as soon as
+the sound of his footsteps had died away down the corridor. "I expected
+to sing a requiem over your remains, and I found Peters on his knees,
+engaged in amicable conversation."
+
+Patty smiled inscrutably. "You must remember," she said, "that Peters is
+not only a janitor: he is also a man."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+An Early Fright
+
+
+"I'll make the tea to-day," said Patty, graciously.
+
+"As you please," said Priscilla, with a skeptical shrug.
+
+Patty bustled about amid a rattle of china. "The cups are rather dusty,"
+she observed dubiously.
+
+"You'd better wash them," Priscilla returned.
+
+"No," said Patty; "it's too much trouble. Just close the blinds, please,
+and we'll light the candles, and that will do as well. Come in," she
+called in answer to a knock.
+
+Georgie Merriles, Lucille Carter, and the Bartlet Twin appeared in the
+doorway.
+
+"Did I hear the two P's were going to serve tea this afternoon?"
+inquired the Twin.
+
+"Yes; come in. I'm going to make it myself," answered Patty, "and you'll
+see how much more attentive a hostess I am than Priscilla. Here, Twin,"
+she added, "you take the kettle out and fill it with water; and,
+Lucille, please go and borrow some alcohol from the freshmen at the end
+of the corridor; our bottle's empty. I'd do it myself, only I've
+borrowed such a lot lately, and they don't know you, you see. And--oh,
+Georgie, you're an obliging dear; just run down-stairs to the store and
+get some sugar. I think I saw some money in that silver inkstand on
+Priscilla's desk."
+
+"We've got some sugar," objected Priscilla. "I bought a whole pound
+yesterday."
+
+"No, my lamb; we haven't got it any more. I lent it to Bonnie Connaught
+last night. Just hunt around for the spoons," she added. "I think I saw
+them on the bottom shelf of the bookcase, behind Kipling."
+
+"And what, may I ask, are _you_ going to do?" inquired Priscilla.
+
+"I?" said Patty. "Oh, I am going to sit in the arm-chair and preside."
+
+Ten minutes later, the company being disposed about the room on
+cushions, and the party well under way, it was discovered that there
+were no lemons.
+
+"Are you sure?" asked Patty, anxiously.
+
+"Not one," said Priscilla, peering into the stein where the lemons were
+kept.
+
+"I," said Georgie, "refuse to go to the store again."
+
+"No matter," said Patty, graciously; "we can do very well without them."
+(She did not take lemon herself.) "The object of tea is not for the sake
+of the tea, but for the conversation which accompanies it, and one must
+not let accidents annoy him. You see, young ladies," she went on, in the
+tone of an instructor giving a lecture, "though I have just spilled the
+alcohol over the sugar, I appear not to notice it, but keep up an easy
+flow of conversation to divert my guests. A repose of manner is above
+all things to be cultivated." Patty leaned languidly back in her chair.
+"To-morrow is Founder's Day," she resumed in a conversational tone. "I
+wonder if many--"
+
+"That reminds me," interrupted the Twin. "You girls needn't save any
+dances for my brother. I got a letter from him this morning saying he
+couldn't come."
+
+"He hasn't broken anything, has he?" Patty asked sympathetically.
+
+"Broken anything?"
+
+"Ah--an arm, or a leg, or a neck. Accidents are so prevalent about
+Founder's time."
+
+"No; he was called out of town on important business."
+
+"Important business!" Patty laughed. "Dear man! why couldn't he have
+thought of something new?"
+
+"I think myself it was just an excuse," the Twin acknowledged. "He
+seemed to have an idea that he would be the only man here, and that,
+alone and unaided, he would have to dance with all six hundred girls."
+
+Patty shook her head sadly. "They're all alike. Founder's wouldn't be
+Founder's if half the guests didn't develop serious illness or important
+business or dead relations the last minute. The only safe way is to
+invite three men and make out one program."
+
+"I simply can't realize that to-morrow is Founder's," said Priscilla.
+"It doesn't seem a week since we unpacked our trunks after vacation, and
+before we know it we shall be packing them again for Christmas."
+
+"Yes; and before we know it we'll be unpacking them again, with
+examinations three weeks ahead," said Georgie the pessimist.
+
+"Oh, for the matter of that," returned Patty the optimist, "before we
+know it we'll be walking up one side of the platform for our diplomas
+and coming down the other side blooming alumnae."
+
+"And then," sighed Georgie, "before we even have time to decide on a
+career, we'll be old ladies, telling our grandchildren to stand up
+straight and remember their rubbers."
+
+"And," said Priscilla, "before any of us get any tea we'll be in our
+graves, if you don't stop talking and watch that kettle."
+
+"It's boiling," said Patty.
+
+"Yes," said Priscilla; "it's been boiling for ten minutes."
+
+"It's hot," said Patty.
+
+"I should think it might be," said Priscilla.
+
+"And now the problem is, how to get it off without burning one's self."
+
+"You're presiding to-day; you must solve your own problems."
+
+"'Tis an easy matter," and Patty hooked it off on the end of a
+golf-club. "Young ladies," she said, with a wave of the kettle, "there
+is nothing like a college education to teach you a way out of every
+difficulty. If, when you are out in the wide, wide world--"
+
+          "Where, oh, where are the grave old seniors?"
+
+chanted the Twin.
+
+          "Where, oh, where are they?"
+
+The rest took it up, and Patty waited patiently.
+
+          "They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,
+           They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,
+           They've gone out of Cairnsley's ethics,
+           Into the wide, wide w-o-r-l-d."
+
+"If you have finished your ovation, young ladies, I will proceed with my
+lecture. When, as I say, you are out in the wide, wide world, making
+five-o'clock tea some afternoon for one of the young men popularly
+supposed to be there, who have dropped in to make an afternoon call--Do
+you follow me, young ladies, or do I speak too fast? If, while you are
+engaged in conversation, the kettle should become too hot, do not put
+your finger in your mouth and shriek 'Ouch!' and coquettishly say to the
+young man, '_You_ take it off,' as might a young woman who has not
+enjoyed your advantages; but, rather, rise to the emergency; say to him
+calmly, 'This kettle has become over-heated; may I trouble you to go
+into the hall and bring an umbrella?' and when he returns you can hook
+it off gracefully and expeditiously as you have seen me do, young
+ladies, and the young--"
+
+"Patty, take care!" This from Priscilla.
+
+"O-u-c-h!" in a long-drawn wail. This from Georgie.
+
+Patty hastily set the kettle down on the floor. "I'm awfully sorry,
+Georgie. Does it hurt?"
+
+"Not in the least. It's really a pleasant sensation to have boiling
+water poured over you."
+
+The Bartlet Twin sniffed. "I smell burning rug."
+
+Patty groaned. "I resign, Pris; I resign. Here, you preside. I'll never
+ask to make it again."
+
+"I should like," observed the Twin, "to see Patty entertaining a young
+man."
+
+"It's not such an unprecedented event," said Patty, with some warmth.
+"You can watch me to-morrow night if it will give you so much
+pleasure."
+
+"To-morrow night? Are you going to have a man for the Prom?"
+
+"That," said Patty, "is my intention."
+
+"And you haven't asked me for a dance!" This in an aggrieved chorus from
+the entire room.
+
+"I haven't asked any one," said Patty, with dignity.
+
+"Do you mean you're going to have all of the twenty dances with him
+yourself?"
+
+"Oh, no; I don't expect to dance more than ten with him myself--I
+haven't made out his card yet," she added.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I never do."
+
+"Has he been here before, then?"
+
+"No; that's the reason."
+
+"The reason for what?"
+
+"Well," Patty deigned to explain, "I've invited him for every party
+since freshman year."
+
+"And did he decline?"
+
+"No; he accepted, but he never came."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"He was scared."
+
+"Scared? Of the girls?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, "partly--but mostly of the faculty."
+
+"The _faculty_ wouldn't hurt him."
+
+"Of course not; but he couldn't understand that. You see, he had a
+fright when he was young."
+
+"A fright? What was it?"
+
+"Well," said Patty, "it happened this way: It was while I was at
+boarding-school. He was at Andover then, and his home was in the South;
+and one time when he went through Washington he stopped off to call on
+me. As it happened, the butler had left two days before, and had taken
+with him all the knives and forks, and all the money he could find, and
+Nancy Lee's gold watch and two hat-pins, and my silver hair-brush, and a
+bottle of brandy, and a pie," she enumerated with a conscientious regard
+for details; "and Mrs. Trent--that's the principal--had advertised for a
+new butler."
+
+"I should have thought the old one would have discouraged her from
+keeping butlers," said Georgie.
+
+"You _would_ think so," said Patty; "but she was a very persevering
+woman. On the day that Raoul--that's his name--came to call, nineteen
+people had applied for the place, and Mrs. Trent was worn out from
+interviewing them. So she told Miss Sarah--that's her daughter--to
+attend to those who came in the evening. Miss Sarah was tall and wore
+spectacles, and was--was--"
+
+"A good disciplinarian," suggested the Twin.
+
+"Yes," said Patty, feelingly, "an _awfully_ good disciplinarian. Well,
+when Raoul got there he gave his card to Ellen and asked for me; but
+Ellen didn't understand, and she called Miss Sarah, and when Miss Sarah
+saw him in his evening clothes she--"
+
+"Took him for a butler," put in Georgie.
+
+"Yes, she took him for a butler; and she looked at the card he'd given
+Ellen, and said icily, 'What does this mean?'
+
+"'It's--it's my name,' he stammered.
+
+"'I see,' said Miss Sarah; 'but where is your recommendation?'
+
+"'I didn't know it was necessary,' he said, terribly scared.
+
+"'Of course it's necessary,' Miss Sarah returned. 'I can't allow you to
+come into the house unless I have letters from the places where you've
+been before.'
+
+"'I didn't suppose you were so strict,' he said.
+
+"'We have to be strict,' Miss Sarah answered firmly. 'Have you had much
+experience?'
+
+"He didn't know what she meant, but he thought it would be safest to say
+he hadn't.
+
+"'Then of course you won't do,' she replied. 'How old are you?'
+
+"He was so frightened by this time that he couldn't remember.
+'Nineteen,' he gasped--'I mean twenty.'
+
+"Miss Sarah saw his confusion, and thought he had designs on some of
+the heiresses intrusted to her care. 'I don't see how you _dared_ to
+come here,' she said severely. 'I should not think of having you in the
+house for a moment. You're altogether too young and too good-looking.'
+And with that Raoul got up and bolted.
+
+"When Ellen told Miss Sarah the next day that he'd asked for me, she was
+terribly mortified, and she made me write and explain, and invite him to
+dinner; but wild horses couldn't have dragged him into the house again.
+He's been afraid to stop off in Washington ever since. He always goes
+straight through on a sleeper, and says he has nightmares even then."
+
+"And is that why he won't come to the college?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "that's the reason. I told him we didn't have any
+butlers here; but he said we had lady faculty, and that's as bad."
+
+"But I thought you said he _was_ coming to the Prom."
+
+"He is this time."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, with ominous emphasis, "I'm sure. He knows," she
+added, "what will happen if he doesn't."
+
+"What will happen?" asked the Twin.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+The Twin shook her head, and Georgie inquired, "Then why don't you make
+out his program?"
+
+"I suppose I might as well. I didn't do it before because it sort of
+seemed like tempting Providence. I didn't want to be the cause of any
+really _serious_ accident happening to him," she explained a trifle
+ambiguously as she got out pencil and paper. "What dances can you give
+me, Lucille? And you, Georgie, have you got the third taken?"
+
+While this business was being settled, a knock unheeded had sounded on
+the door. It came again.
+
+"What's that?" asked Priscilla. "Did some one knock? Come in."
+
+The door opened, and a maid stood upon the threshold with a yellow
+envelop in her hand. She peered uncertainly around the darkened room
+from one face to another. "Miss Patty Wyatt?" she asked.
+
+Patty stretched out her hand in silence for the envelop, and, propping
+it up on her desk, looked at it with a grim smile.
+
+"What is it, Patty? Aren't you going to read it?"
+
+"There's no need. I know what it says."
+
+"Then I'll read it," said Priscilla, ripping it open.
+
+"Is it a leg or an arm?" Patty inquired with mild curiosity.
+
+"Neither," said Priscilla; "it's a collar-bone."
+
+"Oh," murmured Patty.
+
+"What is it?" demanded Georgie the curious. "Read it out loud."
+
+                               "NEW HAVEN, November 29.
+
+          "Broke collar-bone playing foot-ball. Honest
+          Injun. Terribly sorry. Better luck next time."
+
+                                             "RAOUL."
+
+"There will not," observed Patty, "_be_ a next time."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+The Impressionable Mr. Todhunter
+
+
+"Has the mail been around yet?" called Priscilla to a girl at the other
+end of the corridor.
+
+"Don't believe so. It hasn't been in our room."
+
+"There she comes now!" and Priscilla swooped down upon the mail-girl.
+"Got anything for 399?"
+
+"Do you want Miss Wyatt's mail too?"
+
+"Yes; I'll take everything. What a lot! Is that all for us?" And
+Priscilla walked down the corridor swinging her note-book by its
+shoe-string, and opening envelops as she went. She was presently joined
+by Georgie Merriles, likewise swinging a note-book by a shoe-string.
+
+"Hello, Pris; going to English? Want me to help carry your mail?"
+
+"Thank you," said Priscilla; "you may keep the most of it. Now, that,"
+she added, holding out a blue envelop, "is an advertisement for cold
+cream which no lady should be without; and that"--holding out a yellow
+envelop--"is an advertisement for beef extract which no brain-worker
+should be without; and that"--holding out a white envelop--"is the worst
+of all, because it looks like a legitimate letter, and it's nothing but
+a 'Dear Madam' thing, telling me my tailor has moved from Twenty-second
+to Forty-third Street, and hopes I'll continue to favor him with my
+patronage.
+
+"And here," she went on, turning to her room-mate's correspondence, "is
+a cold-cream and a beef-extract letter for Patty, and one from Yale;
+that's probably Raoul explaining why he couldn't come to the Prom. It
+won't do any good, though. No mortal man can ever make her believe he
+didn't have his collar-bone broken on purpose. And I don't know whom
+that's from," Priscilla continued, examining the last letter. "It's
+marked 'Hotel A----, New York.' Never heard of it, did you? Never saw
+the writing before, either."
+
+Georgie laughed. "Do you keep tab on all of Patty's correspondents?"
+
+"Oh, I know the most of them by this time. She usually reads the
+interesting ones out loud, and the ones that aren't interesting she
+never answers, so they stop writing. Hurry up; the bell's going to
+ring"; and they pushed in among the crowd of girls on the steps of the
+recitation-hall.
+
+The bell did ring just as they reached the class-room, and Priscilla
+dropped the letters, without comment, into Patty's lap as she went past.
+Patty was reading poetry and did not look up. She had assimilated some
+ten pages of Shelley since the first bell rang, and as she was not sure
+which would be taken up in class, she was now swallowing Wordsworth in
+the same voracious manner. Patty's method in Romantic Poetry was to be
+very fresh on the first part of the lesson, catch the instructor's eye
+early in the hour, make a brilliant recitation, and pass the remainder
+of the time in gentle meditation.
+
+To-day, however, the unwonted bulk of her correspondence diverted her
+mind from its immediate duty. She failed to catch the instructor's eye,
+and the recitation proceeded without her assistance. Priscilla watched
+her from the back seat as she read the Yale letter with a skeptical
+frown, and made a grimace over the blue and the yellow; but before she
+had reached the Hotel A----, Priscilla was paying attention to the
+recitation again. It was coming her way, and she was anxiously forming
+an opinion on the essential characteristics of Wordsworth's view of
+immortality.
+
+Suddenly the room was startled by an audible titter from Patty, who
+hastily composed her face and assumed a look of vacuous innocence--but
+too late. She had caught the instructor's eye at last.
+
+"Miss Wyatt, what do you consider the most serious limitations of our
+author?"
+
+Miss Wyatt blinked once or twice. This question out of its context was
+not illuminating. It was a part of her philosophy, however, never to
+flunk flat; she always crawled.
+
+"Well," she began with an air of profound deliberation, "that question
+might be considered in two ways, either from an artistic or a
+philosophic standpoint."
+
+This sounded promising, and the instructor smiled encouragingly. "Yes?"
+she said.
+
+"And yet," continued Patty, after still profounder deliberation, "I
+think the same reason will be found to be the ultimate explanation of
+both."
+
+The instructor might have inquired, "Both what?" but she refrained and
+merely waited.
+
+Patty thought she had done enough, but she plunged on desperately: "In
+spite of his really deep philosophy we notice a certain--one might
+almost say _dash_ about his poetry, and a lack of--er--meditation which
+I should attribute to his immaturity and his a--rather wild life. If he
+had lived longer I think he might have overcome it in time."
+
+The class looked dazed, and the corners of the instructor's mouth
+twitched. "It is certainly an interesting point of view, Miss Wyatt,
+and, as far as I know, entirely original."
+
+As they were crowding out at the end of the recitation Priscilla pounced
+upon Patty. "What on earth were you saying about Wordsworth's youth and
+immaturity?" she demanded. "The man lived to be over eighty, and
+composed a poem with his last gasp."
+
+"Wordsworth? I was talking about Shelley."
+
+"Well, the class wasn't."
+
+"How should I know?" Patty demanded indignantly. "She said 'our author,'
+and I avoided specific details as long as I could."
+
+"Oh, Patty, Patty! and you said he was wild--the lamblike Wordsworth!"
+
+"What were you laughing at, anyway?" demanded Georgie.
+
+Patty smiled again. "Why, _this_" she said, unfolding the Hotel A----
+letter. "It's from an Englishman, Mr. Todhunter, some one my father
+discovered last summer and invited out to stay with us for a few days.
+I'd forgotten all about him, and here he writes to know whether and when
+he may call, and, if so, will it be convenient for him to come to-night.
+That's a comprehensive sentence, isn't it? His train gets in at
+half-past five and he'll be out about six."
+
+"He isn't going to take any chances," said Priscilla.
+
+"No," said Patty; "but I don't mind. I invited him to come out to dinner
+some night, though I'd forgotten it. He's really very nice, and, in
+spite of what the funny papers say about Englishmen, quite
+entertaining."
+
+"Intentionally or unintentionally?" inquired Georgie.
+
+"Both," said Patty.
+
+"What's he doing in America?" asked Priscilla. "Not writing a book on
+the American Girl, I hope."
+
+"Not quite as bad as that," said Patty. "He's corresponding for a
+newspaper, though." She smiled dreamily. "He's very curious about
+college."
+
+"Patty, I _hope_ you were not guilty of trying to make an Englishman, a
+guest in your father's house, believe any of your absurd fabrications!"
+
+"Of course not," said Patty; "I was most careful in everything I told
+him. But," she acknowledged, "he--he gets impressions easily."
+
+"It is easy to get impressions when one is talking with you," observed
+Georgie.
+
+"He asked me," Patty continued, ignoring this remark, "what we studied
+in college! But I remembered that he was an alien in a foreign land, and
+I curbed my natural instincts, and outlined the courses in the catalogue
+verbatim, and I explained the different methods of instruction, and
+described the library and laboratories and lecture-rooms."
+
+"Was he impressed?" asked Priscilla.
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "I think you might almost say dazed. He asked me
+apologetically if we ever did anything to relieve the strain,--had any
+amusements, you know,--and I said, oh, yes; we had a Browning and an
+Ibsen club, and we sometimes gave Greek tragedies in the original. He
+was positively afraid to come near me again, for fear I'd forget and
+talk to him in Greek instead of English."
+
+In view of the facts, Patty's friends considered this last remark
+distinctly humorous, for she had flunked her freshman Greek three times,
+and had been advised by the faculty to take it over sophomore year.
+
+"I hope, since he's a newspaper writer," said Priscilla, "that you'll do
+something to lighten his impression, or he'll never favor women's
+colleges in England."
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," said Patty; "perhaps I ought."
+
+They had reached the steps of the dormitory. "Let's not go in," said
+Georgie; "let's go down to Mrs. Muldoon's and get some chocolate cake."
+
+"Thank you," said Priscilla; "I'm in training."
+
+"Soup, then."
+
+"Can't eat between meals."
+
+"You come, then, Patty."
+
+"Sorry, but I've got to take my white dress down to the laundry and have
+it pressed."
+
+"Are you going to dress up for him to the extent of evening clothes?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "I think I owe it to the American Girl."
+
+"Well," sighed Georgie, "I'm hungry, but I suppose I might as well go in
+and dress that doll for the College Settlement Association. The show's
+to-night."
+
+"Mine's done," said Priscilla; "and Patty wouldn't take one. Did you see
+Bonnie Connaught sitting on the back seat in biology this morning,
+hemming her doll's petticoat straight through the lecture?"
+
+"Really?" laughed Patty. "It's a good thing Professor Hitchcock's
+near-sighted."
+
+The College Settlement Association, by way of parenthesis, was in the
+habit of distributing three hundred dolls among the students every year
+before Christmas, to be dressed and sent to the settlement in New York.
+The dolls were supposed to be so well dressed that the East Side mothers
+could use them as models for the clothing of their own children, though
+it must be confessed that the tendency among the girls was to strive for
+effect and not for detail. On the evening before the dolls were to be
+shipped a doll show was regularly held, at which two cents admittance
+was charged (stamps accepted) to pay the expressage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IT was ten minutes past six, and Phillips Hall (such of it as was not
+late) was dining, when the maid arrived with Mr. Algernon Vivian
+Todhunter's card. Patty, radiant in a white evening gown, was trying,
+with much squirming, to fasten it in the middle of the back.
+
+"Oh, Sadie," she called to the maid, "would you mind coming in here and
+buttoning my dress? I can't reach it from above or below."
+
+"You look just beautiful, Miss Wyatt," said Sadie, admiringly.
+
+Patty laughed. "Do you think I can uphold the honor of the nation?"
+
+"To be sure, miss," said Sadie, politely.
+
+Patty ran down the corridor to the door of the reception-room, and then
+swept slowly in with what she called an air of continental repose. The
+room was empty. She glanced about in some surprise, for she knew that
+the two reception-rooms on the other side of the hall were being used
+for the doll show. She tiptoed over and peered in through the half-open
+door. The room was filled with dolls in rows and tiers; every piece of
+furniture was covered with them; and in a far corner, at the end of a
+long vista of dolls, appeared Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly
+sitting on the edge of a sofa, surrounded by flaxen-haired baby dolls,
+and awkwardly holding in his lap the three he had displaced.
+
+Patty drew back behind the door, and spent fully three minutes in
+regaining her continental repose; then she entered the room and greeted
+Mr. Todhunter effusively. He carefully transferred the dolls to his left
+arm and stood up and shook hands.
+
+"Let me take the little dears," said Patty, kindly; "I'm afraid they're
+in your way."
+
+Mr. Todhunter murmured something about its being a pleasure and a
+privilege to hold them.
+
+Patty plumped up their clothes and rearranged them on the sofa with
+motherly solicitude, while Mr. Todhunter watched her gravely, his
+national politeness and his reportorial instinct each struggling for the
+mastery. Finally he began tentatively: "I say, Miss Wyatt, do--er--the
+young ladies spend much time playing with dolls?"
+
+"No," said Patty, candidly; "I don't think you could say they spend
+_too_ much. I have never heard of but one girl actually neglecting her
+work for it. You mustn't think that we have as many dolls as this here
+_every_ night," she went on. "It is rather an unusual occurrence. Once a
+year the girls hold what they call a doll show to see who has dressed
+her doll the best."
+
+"Ah, I see," said Mr. Todhunter; "a little friendly rivalry."
+
+"Purely friendly," said Patty.
+
+As they started for the dining-room Mr. Todhunter adjusted his monocle
+and took a parting look at the doll show.
+
+"I'm afraid you think us childish, Mr. Todhunter," said Patty.
+
+"Not at all, Miss Wyatt," he assured her hastily. "I think it quite
+charming, you know, and so--er--unexpected. I had always been told that
+they played somewhat peculiar games at these women's colleges, but I
+never supposed they did anything so feminine as to play with dolls."
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter, gingerly sitting on the
+edge of a chair]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WHEN Patty returned to her room that night, she found Georgie and
+Priscilla surrounded by grammars and dictionaries, doing German prose.
+Her appearance was hailed with a cry of indignant protest.
+
+"When _I_ have a man," said Priscilla, "I divide him up among my
+friends."
+
+"_Especially_ when he's a curiosity," added Georgie.
+
+"And we dressed up in grand clothes, and stood in your way coming out of
+chapel," went on Priscilla, "and you never even looked at us."
+
+"Englishmen are so bashful," apologized Patty; "I didn't want to
+frighten him."
+
+Priscilla looked at her suspiciously. "Patty, I hope you didn't impose
+on the poor man's credulity."
+
+"Certainly not!" said Patty, with dignity. "I explained everything he
+asked me, and was most careful not to exaggerate. But," she added with
+engaging frankness, "I cannot be responsible for any _impressions_ he
+may have obtained. When an Englishman once gets an idea, you know, it's
+almost impossible to change it."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+A Question of Ethics
+
+
+Patty's class-room methods were the result of a wide experience in the
+professorial type of mind. By her senior year she had reduced the matter
+of recitation to a system, and could foretell with unvarying precision
+the day she would be called on and the question she would be asked. Her
+tactics varied with the subject and the instructor, and were the result
+of a penetration and knowledge of human nature that might have
+accomplished something in a worthier cause.
+
+In chemistry, for example, her instructor was a man who had outlived any
+early illusions in regard to the superior conscientiousness of girls
+over boys. He was not by nature a suspicious person, but a long
+experience in teaching had inculcated an inordinate wariness which was
+sometimes out of season. He allowed no napping in his classes, and those
+who did not pay attention suffered. Patty discovered his weakness early
+in the year, and planned her campaign accordingly. As long as she did
+not understand the experiment in hand, she would watch him with a face
+beaming with intelligence; but when she did understand, and wished to
+recite, she would let her eyes wander to the window with a dreamy,
+far-away smile, and, being asked a question, would come back to the
+realities of chemistry with a start, and, after a moment of ostentatious
+pondering, make a brilliant recitation. It must be confessed that her
+moments of abstraction were rare; she was far too often radiantly
+interested.
+
+In French her tactics were exactly opposite. The instructor, with all
+the native politeness of his race, called on those only who caught his
+eye and appeared willing and anxious to recite. This made the matter
+comparatively simple, but still required considerable finesse. Patty
+dropped her pen, spilled the pages from her note-book, tied her
+shoe-string, and even sneezed opportunely in order not to catch his eye
+at inconvenient moments. The rest of the class, who were not artists,
+contented themselves with merely lowering their eyes as he looked along
+the line--a method which in Patty's scornful estimation said as plainly
+as words, "Please don't call on me; I don't know."
+
+But with Professor Cairnsley, who taught philosophy, it was more
+difficult to form a working hypothesis. He had grown old in the service
+of the college, and after thirty years' experience of girl-nature he was
+still as unsuspiciously trustful as he had been in the beginning. Taking
+it for granted that his pupils were as interested in the contemplation
+of philosophic truths as he himself, the professor conducted his
+recitations without a suspicion of guile, and based his procedure
+entirely upon the inspiration of the moment. The key to his method had
+always remained a mystery, and several generations of classes had
+searched for it in vain. Some averred that he called on every seventh
+girl; others, that he drew lots. Patty triumphantly announced early in
+the course that she had discovered the secret at last--that on Monday he
+called on the red-haired girls; on Tuesday, those with yellow hair; on
+Wednesday and Thursday, those with brown; and on Friday, those with
+black. But this solution, like the others, was found to break down in
+actual practice; and Patty, for one, discovered that it required all her
+ingenuity, and even a good deal of studying, to maintain her reputation
+for brilliancy in Professor Cairnsley's classes. And she cared about
+maintaining it, for she liked the professor and was one of his favorite
+pupils. She had known his wife before she entered college, and she often
+called upon them in their home, and, in short, exemplified the ideal
+relations between faculty and students.
+
+Owing to the pressure of many interests, Patty's researches into
+philosophy were not as deep as the intentions of the course, but she had
+a very good working knowledge, which, in its details, would have
+astonished Professor Cairnsley could he have got behind the scenes.
+Though her knowledge was not based strictly on the text-book, her
+reputation in the class was good, and, as Patty admitted with a sigh,
+"It's a great strain on the imagination to keep up a reputation in
+philosophy."
+
+It had been established, indeed, as far back as her sophomore year, when
+the psychology class was awed into silence by its first introduction to
+the abstractions of science, and Patty alone had dared to lift her
+voice. The professor, one morning, had been placidly lecturing along on
+the subject of sensation, and in the course of the lecture had remarked:
+"It is probable that the individual experiences all the primary
+sensations during the first few months of infancy, and that in after
+life there is no such thing as a new sensation."
+
+"Professor Cairnsley," Patty piped up, "did you ever shoot the chutes?"
+
+The ice was broken at last, and the class felt at home, even in the
+somewhat deep waters of philosophy; and Patty, however undeservedly, had
+gained the credit of having a deeper insight than most into matters
+psychical.
+
+And so into her senior year, when she entered upon the study of ethics,
+she carried along an unearned and fragile reputation, built upon
+subterfuges and likely to crumble at the slightest touch. She had
+maintained it very creditably up to the Christmas vacation, and had
+argued upon the ultimate ground of moral obligation and the origin of
+conscience quite as intelligently as though she had previously read what
+the text-book had to say on the subject. But when they had commenced the
+study of specific theologies, based upon definite historical facts,
+Patty found her imagination of little use, and on several occasions it
+had been purely good luck that had saved her from exposure. Once the
+bell had rung at an opportune moment, and twice she had been able to
+avert a direct answer by leading the discussion into side issues. She
+realized, however, that fortune would not always favor her, and as the
+professor usually forgot to call the roll, she formed the nefarious
+practice of cutting class when she did not have her lesson.
+
+For a week or so in particular, her pressure of work in other directions
+(not all of them scholastic) had prevented her from devoting her usual
+amount of energy to the task of maintaining her philosophy reputation,
+and she had, without conscience, cut ethics several days in succession,
+and had failed to comment upon the fact to the professor.
+
+"What did he lecture about in ethics--those recitations I missed?" she
+inquired of Priscilla, one afternoon.
+
+"Swedenborg."
+
+"Swedenborg," repeated Patty, dreamily. "He got up a new religion,
+didn't he? Or was it a new system of gymnastics? I've heard about him,
+but I don't seem to remember any details."
+
+"You'd better make him up; he's important."
+
+"I dare say; but I've lived twenty-one years without knowing about him,
+and I can wait a month longer. I'm saving up Confucius and the Jesuits
+for examination-time, and I'll add Swedenborg to the list."
+
+"You'd better not. Professor Cairnsley's fond of him, and is likely to
+pop a special examination at any moment."
+
+"Not Professor Cairnsley," laughed Patty. "He doesn't want to waste the
+time. He's going to lecture straight on for two weeks--nice man; I see
+it in his eye. What I admire in a professor is a good, steady, plodding
+disposition that doesn't go in for sensational surprises."
+
+"You'll find yourself mistaken some day," warned Priscilla.
+
+"No danger, my dear Cassandra. I know Professor Cairnsley, and Professor
+Cairnsley thinks he knows me; and we just get along together
+beautifully. I wish there were more like him," Patty added with a sigh.
+
+Professor Cairnsley began a lecture the next morning which was evidently
+calculated to extend through the hour, and Patty cast a triumphant
+glance at Priscilla as she unscrewed the top of her fountain-pen and
+settled down to work. In the course of the lecture, however, he had
+occasion to refer to Swedenborg, and, pausing a moment, he casually
+asked a girl on the front seat for a resume of Swedenborg's philosophy.
+She, unfortunately confusing him with Schopenhauer, glibly attributed to
+him doctrines which would have outraged his soul could he have heard
+them. It is written that the worm will turn, and the professor's bland
+smile deserted him as he passed the question to a second girl without
+much better result. The class in general had evidently been laboring
+under Patty's delusion that the time had not come in which to learn back
+notes. Amazed and indignant, he pursued the matter with a persistency
+and a rancor he seldom showed. He began going straight through the
+class, growing more and more sarcastic with each recitation.
+
+As she saw him finish with the row in front and begin on her row, Patty
+knew that she was doomed. She racked her brain for some memory of
+Swedenborg. He was a name to her and nothing more. He might have been an
+ancient Greek or a modern American, for all she knew. As Professor
+Cairnsley came along the line he was gradually eliciting from the
+terrified class the superficial points which were more or less common to
+all philosophers. Patty perceived that her imagination could not help
+her out, that for once the placid professor was on the war-path, and
+that Swedenborg, and nothing but Swedenborg, would serve. She cast an
+agonized glance up at Priscilla, and Priscilla grinned back with "I told
+you so" written on every feature.
+
+Patty looked about desperately. The lecture-room was shaped like an
+amphitheater, with part of the seats on a level with the main floor,
+and the rest rising in tiers. Patty sat on the main floor, well toward
+the rear. She could barely see the professor's head, but he was coming
+irrevocably. She did not have to see very clearly to know that. The girl
+before her answered wildly; the professor frowned, and, looking down at
+his roll-book, slowly and deliberately made a zero.
+
+When he raised his eyes again Patty's seat was empty. She was kneeling
+on the floor, with her head bowed behind the girl in front. The
+unconscious professor passed over her bent head and called on the girl
+on the other side, who coughed hysterically once or twice, and flunked
+flat; and while he was crediting the fact in his roll-book Patty resumed
+her seat. A ripple of laughter ran around the room; the professor
+frowned, and remarked that he saw no occasion for amusement. The bell
+rang, and the class somewhat sheepishly filed out.
+
+That afternoon Patty burst into the study where Priscilla and Georgie
+Merriles were making tea. "Did you ever think I had much of a
+conscience?" she demanded.
+
+"Never thought it was your strong point," said Georgie.
+
+"Well, I've got a perfectly tremendous one! What do you think I've been
+doing?"
+
+"Making up your ethics lectures," suggested Priscilla.
+
+"Worse than that."
+
+"You _haven't_ been to gym, Patty!" said Georgie.
+
+"Goodness, no! I'm not so far gone as that. Well, I'll tell you. I met
+Professor Cairnsley by the gate and walked in with him, and, if you
+please, he complimented me on my work in ethics!"
+
+"That ought to have been embarrassing," said Georgie.
+
+"It was," acknowledged Patty. "I told him I didn't really know as much
+as he thought I did."
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"He said I was too modest. He's such a trustful old man, you know, that
+you sort of hate to deceive him. And what do you think? I told him about
+the seat!"
+
+Priscilla smiled approvingly upon her usually recreant room-mate. "Well,
+Patty, you certainly are better than I gave you credit for!"
+
+"Thank you," murmured Patty.
+
+"I begin to believe you _have_ got a conscience," said Georgie.
+
+"An excellent one," said Patty, complacently.
+
+"It pays in the end," said Priscilla.
+
+"It does," agreed Patty. "Professor Cairnsley said he would explain
+Swedenborg to me himself, and he invited me over to dinner to-night!"
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+The Elusive Kate Ferris
+
+
+The mysterious Kate Ferris, who kept Priscilla on the verge of nervous
+prostration for a whole semester, entered upon her college career in an
+entirely unpremeditated and impromptu manner. It began one day away back
+in November. Georgie Merriles and Patty had just strolled home from the
+athletic field, where they had been witnessing the start of a
+paper-chase cross country, in which Priscilla was impersonating a fox.
+As they entered the study, Georgie stopped to examine some loose sheets
+of paper which were impaled upon the door.
+
+"What's this, Patty?"
+
+"Oh, that's the registration-list for the German Club. Priscilla's
+secretary, you know, and every one who wants to join comes here. The
+study has been so full of freshmen all the time that I told her to hang
+it on the door and let them join outside; it works beautifully." Patty
+turned the leaves and ran her eyes down the list of sprawling
+signatures. "It's a popular organization, isn't it? The freshmen are
+simply scrambling to get in."
+
+"They're trying to show Fraeulein Scherin how much interest they take in
+the subject," Georgie laughed.
+
+Patty picked up the pencil. "Would you like to join? I know Priscilla
+would be gratified."
+
+"No, thank you; I pay club dues enough already."
+
+"I'm afraid I'm not exactly eligible myself, as I don't know any German.
+It's such a beautifully sharp pencil, though, that I hate not to write
+with it." Patty poised the pencil a moment, and abstractedly traced the
+name "Kate Ferris."
+
+Georgie laughed. "If there should happen to be a Kate Ferris in college,
+she would be surprised to find herself a member of the German Club,"
+and the incident was forgotten.
+
+A few days later the two came in from class, to find Priscilla and the
+president of the German Club sitting on the divan with their heads
+together, frantically turning the leaves of the catalogue.
+
+"She isn't a sophomore," the president announced. "She _must_ be a
+freshman, Priscilla. Look again."
+
+"I've gone over this list three times, and there isn't a single Ferris
+down."
+
+Georgie and Patty exchanged glances and inquired the trouble.
+
+"A girl named Kate Ferris has registered for the German Club, and we've
+gone through all the classes, and there simply isn't any such girl in
+college."
+
+"Possibly a special," Patty suggested.
+
+"Of course! Why didn't we think of that?" And Priscilla turned to the
+list of special students. "No; she isn't here."
+
+"Let me look"; and Patty ran her eyes down the column. "You've mistaken
+the name," she remarked, handing the book back with a shrug.
+
+Priscilla produced the registration-list, and triumphantly exhibited an
+unmistakable Kate Ferris.
+
+"They forgot to put her in the catalogue."
+
+"I never knew them to make such a mistake before," said the president,
+dubiously. "I don't believe we'd better put her in the roll-book till we
+find out who she is."
+
+"Then you'll hurt her feelings," said Georgie. "Freshmen are terribly
+sensitive about being slighted."
+
+"Oh, very well; it doesn't matter." And Kate Ferris was accordingly
+enrolled in the club records.
+
+Several weeks later Priscilla was engaged in laboriously turning the
+minutes of the last meeting into grammatical German, and as she closed
+the dictionary and grammar with a sigh of relief, she remarked to Patty:
+"Do you know, it's very queer about that Kate Ferris. She hasn't paid
+her dues, and, as far as I can make out, she hasn't attended a single
+meeting. Wouldn't you take her name off the roll? I don't believe she's
+in college any more."
+
+"You might as well," said Patty, and she listlessly watched Priscilla as
+she scratched out the name with a penknife. Patty never made the mistake
+of over-acting.
+
+The next morning, as Priscilla came in from a class, she found a note on
+her door-block, written in the perpendicular characters of Kate Ferris.
+It ran:
+
+          DEAR MISS POND: I came to pay my German Club dues,
+          and as you are not in, I have left the money on
+          the bookcase. Am sorry to have missed so many
+          meetings, but have not been able to attend classes
+          lately.                   KATE FERRIS.
+
+Priscilla exhibited the note to the president as a tangible proof that
+Kate Ferris still existed, and reinscribed the name in the roll-book.
+
+A few weeks later she found a second note on her door-block:
+
+          DEAR MISS POND: As I am very busy with my class
+          work, I find that I have not time to attend the
+          German Club meetings, and so have decided to
+          resign. I left my letter of resignation on the
+          bookcase.
+
+                                            KATE FERRIS.
+
+As Priscilla scratched the name out of the roll-book again she remarked
+to Patty: "I am glad this Kate Ferris has left the club at last. She has
+caused me more trouble than all the rest of the members put together."
+
+The next morning a third note appeared on the block:
+
+          DEAR MISS POND: I happened to mention the fact of
+          my having resigned from the German Club to
+          Fraeulein Scherin last night, and she said that the
+          club would help me in my work, and advised me to
+          stay in it. So I shall be much obliged if you will
+          not present my letter at the meeting after all, as
+          I have decided to follow her advice.
+
+                                              KATE FERRIS.
+
+Priscilla tossed the note to Patty with a groan, and getting out the
+roll-book, she turned to the F's and reenrolled Kate Ferris.
+
+Patty sympathetically watched the process over her shoulder. "The book
+is getting so thin in that spot," she laughed, "that Kate Ferris is
+actually coming through on the other side. If she changes her mind many
+more times there won't be anything left."
+
+"I'm going to ask Fraeulein Scherin about her," Priscilla declared.
+"She's made me so much trouble that I'm curious to see what she looks
+like."
+
+She did ask Fraeulein Scherin, but Fraeulein denied all knowledge of the
+girl. "I have so many freshmen," she apologized, "I cannot all of them
+with their queer names remember."
+
+Priscilla inquired about Kate Ferris from the freshmen she knew, but
+though all of them thought that the name sounded familiar, none of them
+could exactly place her. She was variously described as tall and dark
+and small and light, but further inquiry always proved that the girl
+they had in mind was some one else.
+
+Priscilla kept hearing about the girl on all sides, but could never
+catch a glimpse of her. Miss Ferris called several times on business,
+but Priscilla always happened to be out. Her name was posted on the
+bulletin-board for having library books that were overdue. She even
+wrote a paper for one of the German Club meetings (Georgie was not a
+facile German scholar, and it had required a whole Saturday); but owing
+to the fact that she was suddenly called out of town, she did not read
+it in person.
+
+A month or two after Kate Ferris's advent, Priscilla had friends
+visiting her from New York, for whom she gave a tea in the study.
+
+"I am going to invite Kate Ferris," she announced. "I _insist_ upon
+finding out what she looks like."
+
+"Do," said Patty. "I should like to find out myself."
+
+The invitation was despatched, and on the next day Priscilla received a
+formal acceptance.
+
+"It's strange that she should send an acceptance for a tea," she
+remarked as she read it, "but I'm glad to get it, anyway. I like to
+feel sure that I'm to see her at last."
+
+On the evening of the tea, after the guests had gone and the furniture
+had been moved back, the weary hostesses, in somewhat rumpled evening
+dresses (a considerable crush results when fifty are entertained in a
+room whose utmost capacity is fifteen), were reentertaining one or two
+friends on the lettuce sandwiches and cakes the obliging guests had
+failed to consume. The company and the clothes having passed in review,
+the conversation flagged a little, and Georgie suddenly asked: "Was Kate
+Ferris here? I was so busy passing cakes that I didn't look, and I
+wanted to see her especially!"
+
+"That's so!" Patty exclaimed. "I didn't see her, either. She's the most
+abnormally inconspicuous person I ever heard of. What did she look like,
+Pris?"
+
+Priscilla knit her brows. "She couldn't have come. I kept watching for
+her all the evening. It's strange, isn't it?--when she was so careful
+to send an acceptance. I'm growing positively morbid over the girl; I
+begin to think she's invisible."
+
+"I begin to think so myself," said Patty.
+
+The next morning's mail brought a bunch of violets and an apology from
+Kate Ferris. "She had been unavoidably detained."
+
+"It's positively uncanny!" Priscilla declared. "I shall go to the
+registrar and tell her that this Kate Ferris is neither down in the
+catalogue nor the college directory, and find out where she lives."
+
+"Don't do anything reckless," Georgie pleaded. "Take what the gods send
+and be grateful."
+
+But Priscilla was as good as her word, and she returned from the
+registrar's office flushed and defiant. "She insists that there isn't
+any such person in college, and that I must have made a mistake in the
+name! Did you ever hear anything so absurd?"
+
+"That seems to me the only reasonable explanation," Patty agreed
+amicably. "Perhaps it is Harris instead of Ferris."
+
+Priscilla faced her ominously. "You read the name yourself. It was as
+plain as printing."
+
+"We're all liable to make mistakes," Patty murmured soothingly.
+
+"Do you know," said Georgie, "I begin to think it's all a hallucination,
+and that there really isn't any Kate Ferris. It's strange, of course,
+but not any stranger than some of those cases you read about in
+psychology."
+
+"Hallucinations don't send flowers," said Priscilla, hotly; and she
+stalked out of the room, leaving Patty and Georgie to review the
+campaign.
+
+"I'm afraid it's gone far enough," said Georgie. "If she bothers the
+office very much there'll be an official investigation."
+
+"I'm afraid so," sighed Patty. "It's been very entertaining, but she is
+really getting sensitive on the subject, and I don't dare mention Kate
+Ferris's name when we're alone."
+
+"Shall we tell her?"
+
+Patty shook her head. "Not just now--I shouldn't dare. She believes in
+corporal punishment."
+
+A few days later Priscilla received another note directed in the hand
+she had come to dread. She threw it into the waste-basket unopened; but,
+curiosity prevailing, she drew it out again and read it:
+
+          DEAR MISS POND: As I have been obliged to leave
+          college on account of my health, I inclose my
+          resignation to the German Club. I thank you very
+          sincerely for your kindness to me this year, and
+          shall always look back upon our friendship as one
+          of the happiest memories of my college life.
+
+                                 Yours sincerely,
+                                               KATE FERRIS.
+
+When Patty came in she found Priscilla silently and grimly scratching a
+hole into the roll-book where Kate Ferris's name had been.
+
+"Changed her mind again?" Patty asked pleasantly.
+
+"She's left college," Priscilla snapped, "and don't you ever mention her
+name to me again."
+
+Patty sighed sympathetically and remarked to the room in general: "It's
+sort of pathetic to have your whole college life summed up in a hole in
+the German Club archives. I can't help feeling sorry for her!"
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A Story with Four Sequels
+
+
+It was Saturday, and Patty had been working ever since breakfast, with a
+brief pause for luncheon, on a paper entitled "Shakspere, the Man." At
+four o'clock she laid down her pen, pushed her manuscript into the
+waste-basket, and faced her room-mate defiantly.
+
+"What do I care about Shakspere, the man? He's been dead three hundred
+years."
+
+Priscilla laughed unfeelingly. "What do I care about a frog's nervous
+system, for the matter of that? But I am writing an interesting
+monograph on it, just the same."
+
+"Ah, I dare say you are making a valuable addition to the subject."
+
+"It's quite as valuable as your addition to Shaksperiana."
+
+Patty dropped a voluble sigh and turned to the window to note that it
+was raining dismally.
+
+"Oh, hand it in," said Priscilla, comfortingly. "You've worked on it all
+day, and it's probably no worse than the most of your things."
+
+"No sense to it," said Patty.
+
+"They're used to that," laughed Priscilla.
+
+"What are you laughing at, anyway?" Patty asked crossly. "I don't see
+anything to laugh at in this beastly place. Always having to do what you
+don't want to do when you most don't want to do it. Just the same, day
+after day: get up by bells, eat by bells, sleep by bells. I feel like
+some sort of a delinquent living in an asylum."
+
+Priscilla treated this outburst with the silence it deserved, and Patty
+turned back to her perusal of the rain-soaked campus.
+
+"I wish something would happen," she said discontentedly. "I think I'll
+put on a mackintosh and go out in search of adventure."
+
+"Pneumonia will happen if you do."
+
+"What business has it to be raining, anyway, when it ought to be
+snowing?"
+
+As this was unanswerable, Priscilla returned to her frogs, and Patty
+drummed gloomily on the window-pane until a maid appeared with a card.
+
+"A caller?" cried Patty. "A missionary! A rescuer! A deliverer! Heaven
+send it's for me!"
+
+"Miss Pond," said Sadie, laying the card on the table.
+
+Patty pounced upon it. "'Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope.' Who's he, Pris?"
+
+Priscilla wrinkled up her brows. "I don't know; I never heard of him.
+What do you suppose it can be?"
+
+"An adventure--I know it's an adventure. Probably your uncle, that you
+never heard of, has just died in the South Sea Islands, and left you a
+fortune because you're his namesake; or else you're a countess by
+rights, and were stolen from your cradle in infancy, and he's the lawyer
+come to tell you about it. I think it might have happened to me, when
+I'm so bored to death! But hurry up and tell me about it, at least; a
+second-hand adventure's better than no adventure at all. Yes, your hair
+is all right; never mind looking in the glass." And Patty pushed her
+room-mate out of the door, and, sitting down at her desk again, quite
+cheerfully pulled her discarded paper out of the waste-basket and began
+re-reading it with evident approval.
+
+Priscilla returned before she had finished. "He didn't ask for me at
+all," she announced. "He asked for Miss McKay."
+
+"Miss McKay?"
+
+"That junior with the hair," she explained a trifle vaguely.
+
+"How disgusting!" cried Patty. "I had it all planned how I was going to
+live with you in your castle up in the Hartz Mountains, and now it turns
+out that Miss McKay is the countess, and I don't even know her. What did
+the man look like, and what did he do?"
+
+"Well, he looked rather frightened, and didn't do anything but stammer.
+There were two men in the reception-room, and of course I picked out the
+wrong one and begged his pardon and asked if he were Mr. Stanthrope. He
+said no; his name was Wiggins. So then the only thing left for me to do
+was to beg the other one's pardon.
+
+"He was sitting in that high-backed green chair, with his eyes glued to
+his shoes, and holding his hat and cane in front of him like
+breastworks, as if he were preparing to repel an attack. He didn't look
+very approachable, but I boldly accosted him and asked if he were Mr.
+Stanthrope. He stood up and stammered and blushed and looked as if he
+wanted to deny it, but finally acknowledged that he was, and then stood
+politely waiting for me to state my business! I explained, and he
+stammered some more, and finally got out that he had called to see Miss
+McKay, and that the maid must have made a mistake. He was quite cross
+about it, you know, and acted as if I had insulted him; and the other
+man--the horrible Wiggins one--laughed, and then looked out of the
+window and pretended he hadn't. I apologized,--though I couldn't for the
+life of me see what there was to apologize for,--and told him I would
+send the maid for Miss McKay, and backed out."
+
+"Is that all?" Patty asked disappointedly. "If I couldn't have a better
+adventure than that, I shouldn't have any."
+
+"But the funny thing is that when I told Sadie, she _insisted_ that he
+had asked for me."
+
+"Ha! The plot thickens, after all. What does it mean? Did he look like a
+detective, or merely a pickpocket?"
+
+"He looked like a very ordinarily embarrassed young man."
+
+Patty shook her head dejectedly. "There's a mystery somewhere, but I
+don't see that it affords much entertainment. I dare say that when Miss
+McKay came he told her he hadn't asked for her at all; he had asked for
+Miss Higginbotham. The only explanation I can think of is that he is
+insane, and there are so many insane people in the world that it isn't
+even interesting."
+
+Patty recounted the story of Priscilla's caller at the dinner-table that
+night.
+
+"I know the sequel," said Lucille Carter. "The other man, the Mr.
+Wiggins, is Bonnie Connaught's cousin; and he told her about some young
+man who came out in the car with him, and asked for Miss Pond at the
+door, and then all of a sudden seemed to change his mind, and went
+tearing down the corridor after the maid, yelling, 'Hi, there! Hi,
+there!' at the top of his voice; but he couldn't catch her, and when
+Miss Pond came he pretended he had asked for some one else."
+
+"Is that all?" asked Patty. "I don't think it is much of a sequel. It
+just proves that there's a plot against Priscilla's life, and I already
+knew that. I intend to ask Miss McKay about him. I don't know her,
+except by sight, but in a case of life and death like this, I don't
+think it's necessary to wait for an introduction."
+
+The next evening Patty announced: "Sequel number two! Mr. Frederick K.
+Stanthrope lives in New York, and is Miss McKay's brother's best friend.
+She has only met him once before, and doesn't know any of his past
+affiliations. But the queer thing is that he never mentioned to her
+anything about Priscilla. Shouldn't you naturally think he would have
+told her about such a funny mistake?
+
+"In my opinion," Patty continued solemnly, "it was plainly premeditated.
+He is undoubtedly a villain in disguise, and he used his acquaintance
+with Miss McKay as a cloak to elude detection. My theory is this: He got
+Priscilla's name out of the catalogue, and came here intending to murder
+her for her _jools_; but when he saw how big she was he was scared and
+so abandoned his dastardly intent. Now if he had chosen me, my body
+would, at this moment, have been concealed behind the sofa, and my
+class-pin reposing in the murderer's pocket."
+
+Patty shuddered. "Think what I escaped. And all the time I was grumbling
+because nothing ever happens here!"
+
+A few days later she appeared at the table with a further announcement:
+"I have the pleasure of offering for your perusal, young ladies, the
+third and last sequel in the great Stanthrope-Pond-McKay mystery. And I
+hereby take the opportunity of apologizing to Mr. Stanthrope for my
+unworthy suspicions. He is not a burglar, nor a detective, nor a
+murderer, nor even a lawyer, but just a poor young man with a buried
+romance."
+
+"How did you find out?"--in a chorus of voices.
+
+"I just met Miss McKay in the hall, and she has been in New York, where
+her brother told her the particulars. It seems that three or four years
+ago Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope was engaged to a girl here in college
+named Alice Pond--she is now Mrs. Hiram Brown, but that has nothing to
+do with the story.
+
+"Being in town last Saturday on business, he decided to run out and call
+on Miss McKay, as he was such a friend of her brother's--and also for
+the sake of old times. He amused himself all the way out in the car by
+resurrecting his buried romance, and he kept getting more and more
+pensive with every mile. When he finally reached the door and handed his
+card to the maid, he abstractedly called for Miss Pond just as he used
+to do four years ago. He didn't realize at first what he had done. Then
+it came over him in a flash, but he couldn't catch Sadie. He knew, of
+course, that the other man had heard, and he sat there scared to death,
+trying to think of some plausible excuse, and momentarily expecting a
+strange Miss Pond to pop in and demand an explanation.
+
+"Sure enough, the curtains parted, and a tall, beautiful, stately
+creature (I quote Miss McKay's brother) swept into the room, and,
+approaching the wrong man, asked him in haughty tones if he were Mr.
+Frederick K. Stanthrope. He very properly denied it, whereupon there was
+nothing for the right Mr. Stanthrope to do but stand up and acknowledge
+it like a man, which he did; but there he stuck. His imagination was
+numbed, paralyzed; so he turned it off on poor Sadie, and all the time
+he knew that the other man knew that he was lying. And that is all,"
+Patty finished. "It's not much of a story, but such as it is, it's a
+blessing to have it concluded."
+
+"Patty," called Priscilla, from the other end of the table, "have you
+been telling them that absurd story?"
+
+"Why not?" asked Patty. "Having heard so many sequels, they naturally
+wanted to hear the last."
+
+Priscilla laughed. "But yours doesn't happen to be the last. I know a
+still later one."
+
+"Later than Patty's?" the table demanded.
+
+"Yes, later than Patty's. It isn't really a sequel; it's just an
+appendix. I shouldn't tell you, only you'll find it out, so I might as
+well. Miss McKay has invited two men for the junior party, and both have
+accepted. As two men are hard to manage, she has (by request) asked me
+to take care of one of them--namely, Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope."
+
+Patty sighed. "I see a whole series of sequels stretching away into the
+future. It's worse than the Elsie Books!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+In Pursuit of Old English
+
+
+"Hello, Patty! Have you read the bulletin-board this morning?" called
+Cathy Fair, as she caught up with Patty on the way home from a
+third-hour recitation.
+
+"No," said Patty; "I think it's a bad habit. You see too many unpleasant
+things there."
+
+"Well, there's certainly an unpleasant one to-day. Miss Skelling wishes
+the Old English class to be provided with writing materials this
+afternoon."
+
+Patty stopped with a groan. "I think it's absolutely abominable to give
+an examination without a word of warning."
+
+"Not an examination," quoted Cathy; "just a 'little test to see how
+much you know.'"
+
+"I don't know a thing," wailed Patty--"not a blessed thing."
+
+"Nonsense, Patty; you know more than any one else in the class."
+
+"Bluff--it's all pure bluff. I come in strong on the literary criticism
+and the general discussions, and she never realizes that I don't know a
+word of the grammar."
+
+"You've got two hours. You can cut your classes and review it up."
+
+"Two hours!" said Patty, sadly. "I need two days. I've never learned it,
+I tell you. The Anglo-Saxon grammar is a thing no mortal can carry in
+his head, and I thought I might as well wait and learn it before
+examinations."
+
+"I don't wish to appear unfeeling," laughed Cathy, "but I should say, my
+dear, that it serves you right."
+
+"Oh, I dare say," said Patty. "You are as bad as Priscilla"; and she
+trailed gloomily homeward.
+
+She found her friends reviewing biology and eating olives. "Have one?"
+asked Lucille Carter, who, provided with a hat-pin by way of fork, was
+presiding over the bottle for the moment.
+
+"No, thanks," returned Patty, in the tone of one who has exhausted life
+and longs for death.
+
+"What's the matter?" inquired Priscilla. "You don't mean to say that
+woman has given you another special topic?"
+
+"Worse than that!" and Patty laid bare the tragedy.
+
+A sympathetic silence followed; they realized that while she was,
+perhaps, not strictly deserving of sympathy, still her impending fate
+was of the kind that might overtake any one.
+
+"You know, Pris," said Patty, miserably, "that I simply _can't_ pass."
+
+"No," said Priscilla, soothingly; "I don't believe you can."
+
+"I shall flunk _flat_--absolutely _flat_. Miss Skelling will never have
+any confidence in me again, and will make me recite every bit of
+grammar for the rest of the semester."
+
+"I should think you'd cut," ventured Georgie--that being, in her
+opinion, the most obvious method of escaping an examination.
+
+"I can't. I just met Miss Skelling in the hall five minutes before the
+blow fell, and she knows I'm alive and able to be about; besides, the
+class meets again to-morrow morning, and I'd have to cram all night or
+cut that too."
+
+"Why don't you go to Miss Skelling and frankly explain the situation,"
+suggested Lucille the virtuous, "and ask her to let you off for a day or
+two? She would like you all the better for it."
+
+"Will you listen to the guileless babe!" said Patty. "What is there to
+explain, may I ask? I can't very well tell her that I prefer not to
+learn the lessons as she gives them out, but think it easier to wait and
+cram them up at one fell swoop, just before examinations. That _would_
+ingratiate myself in her favor!"
+
+"It's your own fault," said Priscilla.
+
+Patty groaned. "I was just waiting to hear you say that! You always do."
+
+"It's always true. Where are you going?" as Patty started for the door.
+
+"I am going," said Patty, "to ask Mrs. Richards to give me a new
+room-mate: one who will understand and appreciate me, and sympathize
+with my afflictions."
+
+Patty walked gloomily down the corridor, lost in meditation. Her way led
+past the door of the doctor's office, which was standing invitingly
+open. Three or four girls were sitting around the room, laughing and
+talking and waiting their turns. Patty glanced in, and a radiant smile
+suddenly lightened her face, but it was instantly replaced by a look of
+settled sadness. She walked in and dropped into an arm-chair with a
+sigh.
+
+"What's the matter, Patty? You look as if you had melancholia."
+
+Patty smiled apathetically. "Not quite so bad as that," she murmured,
+and leaned back and closed her eyes.
+
+[Illustration: What's the matter, Patty?]
+
+"Next," said the doctor from the doorway; but as she caught sight of
+Patty she walked over and shook her arm. "Is this Patty Wyatt? What is
+the matter with you, child?"
+
+Patty opened her eyes with a start. "Nothing," she said; "I'm just a
+little tired."
+
+"Come in here with me."
+
+"It's not my turn," objected Patty.
+
+"That makes no difference," returned the doctor.
+
+Patty dropped limply into the consulting-chair.
+
+"Let me see your tongue. Um-m--isn't coated very much. Your pulse seems
+regular, though possibly a trifle feverish. Have you been working hard?"
+
+"I don't think I've been working any harder than usual," said Patty,
+truthfully.
+
+"Sitting up late nights?"
+
+Patty considered. "I was up rather late twice last week," she confessed.
+
+"If you girls persist in studying until all hours of the night, I
+don't know what we doctors can do."
+
+Patty did not think it necessary to explain that it was a Welsh-rabbit
+party on each occasion, so she merely sighed and looked out of the
+window.
+
+"Is your appetite good?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty, in a tone which belied the words; "it seems to be
+very good."
+
+"Um-m," said the doctor.
+
+"I'm just a little tired," pursued Patty, "but I think I shall be all
+right as soon as I get a chance to rest. Perhaps I need a tonic," she
+suggested.
+
+"You'd better stay out of classes for a day or two and get thoroughly
+rested."
+
+"Oh, no," said Patty, in evident perturbation. "Our room is so full of
+girls all the time that it's really more restful to go to classes; and,
+besides, I can't stay out just now."
+
+"Why not?" demanded the doctor, suspiciously.
+
+"Well," said Patty, a trifle reluctantly, "I have a good deal to do.
+I've got to cram for an examination, and--"
+
+The word "cram" was to the doctor as a red rag to a bull. "Nonsense!"
+she ejaculated. "I know what I shall do with you. You are going right
+over to the infirmary for a few days--"
+
+"Oh, doctor!" Patty pleaded, with tears in her eyes, "there's _truly_
+nothing the matter with me, and I've _got_ to take that examination."
+
+"What examination is it?"
+
+"Old English--Miss Skelling."
+
+"I will see Miss Skelling myself," said the doctor, "and explain that
+you cannot take the examination until you come out. And now," she added,
+making a note of Patty's case, "I will have you put in the convalescent
+ward, and we will try the rest cure for a few days, and feed you up on
+chicken-broth and egg-nog, and see if we can get that appetite back."
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, with the resigned air of one who has given up
+struggling against the inevitable.
+
+"I like to see you take an interest in your work," added the doctor,
+kindly; "but you must always remember, my dear, that health is the first
+consideration."
+
+Patty returned to the study and executed an impromptu dance in the
+middle of the floor.
+
+"What's the matter?" exclaimed Priscilla. "Are you crazy?"
+
+"No," said Patty; "only ill." And she went into her bedroom and began
+slinging things into a dress-suit case.
+
+Priscilla stood in the doorway and watched her in amazement. "Are you
+going to New York?" she asked.
+
+"No," said Patty; "to the infirmary."
+
+"Patty Wyatt, you're a wretched little hypocrite!"
+
+"Not at all," said Patty, cheerfully. "I didn't ask to go, but the
+doctor simply insisted. I told her I had an examination, but she said it
+didn't make any difference; health must be the first consideration."
+
+"What's in that bottle?" demanded Priscilla.
+
+"That's for my appetite," said Patty, with a grin; "the doctor hopes to
+improve it. I didn't like to discourage her, but I don't much believe
+she can." She dropped an Old English grammar and a copy of "Beowulf"
+into her suit-case.
+
+"They won't let you study," said Priscilla.
+
+"I shall not ask them," said Patty. "Good-by. Tell the girls to drop in
+occasionally and see me in my incarceration. Visiting hour from five to
+six." She stuck her head in again. "If any one wants to send violets, I
+think they might cheer me up."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE next afternoon Georgie and Priscilla presented themselves at the
+infirmary, and were met at the door by the austere figure of the head
+nurse. "I will see if Miss Wyatt is awake," she said dubiously, "but I
+am afraid you will excite her; she's to be kept very quiet."
+
+"Oh, no; we'll do her good," remonstrated Georgie; and the two girls
+tiptoed in after the nurse.
+
+The convalescent ward was a large, airy room, furnished in green and
+white, with four or five beds, each surrounded with brass poles and
+curtains. Patty was lying in one of the corner beds near a window,
+propped up on pillows, with her hair tumbled about her face, and a table
+beside her covered with flowers and glasses of medicine. This elaborate
+paraphernalia of sickness created a momentary illusion in the minds of
+the visitors. Priscilla ran to the bedside and dropped on her knees
+beside her invalid room-mate.
+
+"Patty dear," she said anxiously, "how do you feel?"
+
+A seraphic smile spread over Patty's face. "I've been able to take a
+little nourishment to-day," she said.
+
+"Patty, you're a scandalous humbug! Who gave you those violets? 'With
+love, from Lady Clara Vere de Vere'--that blessed freshman!--and you've
+borrowed every drop of alcohol the poor child ever thought of owning.
+And whom are those roses from? Miss Skelling! Patty, you ought to be
+ashamed."
+
+Patty had the grace to blush slightly. "I was a trifle embarrassed," she
+admitted; "but when I reflected upon how sorry she would have been to
+find out how little I knew, and how glad she will be to find out how
+much I know, my conscience was appeased."
+
+"Have you been studying?" asked Georgie.
+
+"Studying!" Patty lifted up the corner of her pillow and exhibited a
+blue book. "Two days more of this, and I shall be the chief authority in
+America on Anglo-Saxon roots."
+
+"How do you manage it?"
+
+"Oh," said Patty, "when the rest-hour begins I lie down and shut my
+eyes, and they tiptoe over and look at me, and whisper, 'She's asleep,'
+and softly draw the curtains around the bed; and I get out the book and
+put in two solid hours of irregular verbs, and am still sleeping when
+they come to look at me. They're perfectly astonished at the amount I
+sleep. I heard the nurse telling the doctor that she didn't believe I'd
+had any sleep for a month. And the worst of it is," she added, "that I
+_am_ tired, whether you believe it or not, and I should just love to
+stay over here and sleep all day if I weren't so beastly conscientious
+about that old grammar."
+
+"Poor Patty!" laughed Georgie. "She will be imposing on herself next, as
+well as on the whole college."
+
+Friday morning Patty returned to the world.
+
+"How's Old English?" inquired Priscilla.
+
+"Very well, thank you. It was something of a cram, but I think I know
+that grammar by heart, from the preface to the index."
+
+"You're back in all your other work. Do you think it paid?"
+
+"That remains to be seen," laughed Patty.
+
+She knocked on Miss Skelling's door, and, after the first polite
+greetings, stated her errand: "I should like, if it is convenient for
+you, to take the examination I missed."
+
+"Do you feel able to take it to-day?"
+
+"I feel much better able to take it to-day than I did on Tuesday."
+
+Miss Skelling smiled kindly. "You have done very good work in Old
+English this semester, Miss Wyatt, and I should not ask you to take the
+examination at all if I thought it would be fair to the rest of the
+class."
+
+"Fair to the rest of the class?" Patty looked a trifle blank; she had
+not considered this aspect of the question, and a slow red flush crept
+over her face. She hesitated a moment, and rose uncertainly. "When it
+comes to that, Miss Skelling," she confessed, "I'm afraid it wouldn't be
+quite fair to the rest of the class for me to take it."
+
+Miss Skelling did not understand. "But, Miss Wyatt," she expostulated in
+a puzzled tone, "it was not difficult. I am sure you could pass."
+
+Patty smiled. "I am sure I could, Miss Skelling. I don't believe you
+could ask me a question that I couldn't answer. But the point is that
+it's all learned since Tuesday. The doctor was laboring under a little
+delusion--very natural under the circumstances--when she sent me to the
+infirmary, and I spent my time there studying."
+
+"But, Miss Wyatt, this is very unusual. I shall not know how to mark
+you," Miss Skelling murmured in some distress.
+
+"Oh, mark me zero," said Patty, cheerfully. "It doesn't matter in the
+least--I know such a lot that I'll get through on the finals. Good-by;
+I'm sorry to have troubled you." And she closed the door and turned
+thoughtfully homeward.
+
+"Did it pay?" asked Priscilla.
+
+Patty laughed and murmured softly:
+
+    "'The King of France rode up the hill with full ten thousand men;
+      The King of France did gain the top, and then rode down again.'"
+
+"What are you talking about?" demanded Priscilla.
+
+"Old English," said Patty, as she sat down at her desk and commenced on
+the three days' work she had missed.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+The Deceased Robert
+
+
+It was ten o'clock, and Patty, having just read her ethics over for the
+third time without comprehending it, had announced sleepily, "I shall
+have to be good by inspiration; I can't seem to grasp the rule," when a
+knock sounded on the door and a maid appeared with the announcement,
+"Mrs. Richards wishes to see Miss Wyatt."
+
+"At this hour!" Patty cried in dismay. "It must be something serious.
+Think, Priscilla. What have I been doing lately that would outrage the
+warden sufficiently to call me up at ten o'clock? You don't suppose I'm
+going to be suspended or rusticated or expelled or anything like that,
+do you? I _honestly_ can't think of a thing I've done."
+
+"It's a telegram," the maid said sympathetically.
+
+"A telegram?" Patty's face turned pale, and she left the room without a
+word.
+
+Priscilla and Georgie sat on the couch and looked at each other with
+troubled faces. All ordinary telegrams came directly to the students.
+They knew that something serious must have happened to have it sent to
+the warden. Georgie got up and walked around the room uncertainly.
+
+"Shall I go away, Pris?" she asked. "I suppose Patty would rather be
+alone if anything has happened. But if she's going home and has to pack
+her trunk to-night, come and tell me and I will come down and help."
+
+They stood at the door a few moments talking in low tones, and as
+Georgie started to turn away, Patty's step suddenly sounded in the
+corridor. She came in with a queer smile on her lips, and sat down on
+the couch.
+
+"The warden has certainly reduced the matter of scaring people to a
+fine art," she said. "I was never more frightened in my life. I thought
+that the least that had happened was an earthquake which had engulfed
+the entire family."
+
+"What was the matter?" Georgie and Priscilla asked in a breath.
+
+Patty spread out a crumpled telegram on her knee, and the girls read it
+over her shoulder:
+
+          Robert died of an overdose of chloroform at ten
+          this morning. Funeral to-morrow.
+
+                                         THOMAS M. WYATT.
+
+"Thomas M. Wyatt," said Patty, grimly, "is my small brother Tommy, and
+Robert is short for Bobby Shafto, which was the name of Tommy's bull
+pup, the homeliest and worst-tempered dog that was ever received into
+the bosom of a respectable family."
+
+"But why in the world did he telegraph?"
+
+"It's a joke," said Patty, shaking her head dejectedly. "Joking runs in
+the family, and we've all inherited the tendency. One time my
+father--but, as my friend Kipling says, that's another story. This dog,
+you see--this Robert Shafto--has cast a shadow over my vacations for
+more than a year. He killed my kitten, and ate my Venetian lace
+collar--it didn't even give him indigestion. He went out and wallowed in
+the rain and mud and came in and slept on my bed. He stole the beefsteak
+for breakfast and the rubbers and door-mats for blocks around. Property
+on the street appreciably declined, for prospective purchasers refused
+to purchase so long as Tommy Wyatt kept a dog. Robert was threatened
+with death time and again, but Tommy always managed to conceal him from
+impending justice until the trouble had blown over. But this time I
+suppose he committed some supreme enormity--probably chewed up the baby
+or one of my father's Persian rugs, or something like that. And Tommy,
+knowing how I detested the beast, evidently thought it would be a good
+joke to telegraph, though wherein lies the point I can't make out."
+
+"Ah, I see," said Georgie; "and Mrs. Richards thought that Robert was a
+relation. What did she say?"
+
+"She said, 'Come in, Patty dear,' when I knocked on the door. Usually
+when I have had the honor of being received by her she has somewhat
+frigidly called me 'Miss Wyatt.' I opened the door with my knees shaking
+when I heard that 'Patty dear,' and she took my hand and said, 'I am
+sorry to have to tell you that I have heard bad news from your brother.'
+
+"'Tommy?' I gasped.
+
+"'No; Robert.'
+
+"I was dazed. I racked my brains, but I couldn't remember any brother
+Robert.
+
+"'He is very ill,' she went on. 'Yes, I must tell you the truth, Patty;
+poor little Robert passed away this morning'; and she laid the telegram
+before me. Then, when it flashed over me what it meant, I was so
+relieved that I put my head down on her desk and simply laughed till I
+cried; and she thought I was crying all the time, and kept patting my
+head and quoting Psalms. Well, then I didn't dare to tell her, after she
+had expended all that sympathy; so as soon as I could stop laughing
+(which wasn't very soon, for I had got considerable momentum) I raised
+my head and told her--trying to be truthful and at the same time not
+hurt her feelings--that Robert was not a brother, but just a sort of
+friend. And, do you know, she immediately jumped to the conclusion that
+he was a fiance, and began stroking my hair and murmuring that it was
+sometimes harder to lose friends than relatives, but that I was still
+young, and I must not let it blast my life, and that maybe in the future
+when time had dulled the pain--and then, remembering that it wouldn't do
+to advise me to adopt a second fiance before I had buried my first, she
+stopped suddenly and asked if I wished to go home to the funeral.
+
+"I told her no, that I didn't think it would be best; and she said
+perhaps not if it hadn't been announced, and she kissed me and told me
+she was glad to see me bearing up so bravely."
+
+"Patty!" Priscilla exclaimed in horror, "it's dreadful. How could you
+let her think it?"
+
+"How could I help it?" Patty demanded indignantly. "What with being
+frightened into hysterics first, and then having a strange fiance thrust
+at me without a moment's notice, I think that I carried off the
+situation with rare delicacy and finesse. Do you think it would have
+been tactful to tell her it was nothing but a bull pup she was quoting
+Scripture about?"
+
+"I don't see how it was exactly your fault," Georgie acknowledged.
+
+"Thank you," said Patty. "If you had a brother like Tommy Wyatt you
+would know how to sympathize with me. I suppose I ought to be grateful
+to know that the dog is dead, but I should like to have had the news
+broken a little less gently."
+
+"Patty," exclaimed Priscilla, as a sudden thought struck her, "do you
+happen to remember that you are on the reception committee of the
+Dramatic Club cotillion to-morrow night? What will Mrs. Richards think
+when she sees you in evening dress, receiving at a party, on the very
+day your fiance has been buried?"
+
+"I wonder?" said Patty, doubtfully. "Do you really think I ought to stay
+away? After working like a little buzz-saw making tissue-paper favors
+for the thing, I hate to have to miss it just because my brother's bull
+pup, that I never even _liked_, is dead.
+
+"I'll go," she added, brightening, "and receive the guests with a forced
+and mechanical smile; and every time I feel the warden's eyes upon me I
+shall with difficulty choke back the tears, and she will say to herself:
+
+"'Brave girl! How nobly she is struggling to present a composed face to
+the world! None would dream, to look at that seemingly radiant
+creature, that, while she is outwardly so gay, she is in reality
+concealing a great sorrow which is gnawing at her very vitals.'"
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+Patty the Comforter
+
+
+It was on the eve of the mid-year examinations, and a gloom had fallen
+over the college. The conscientious ones who had worked all the year
+were working harder than ever, and the frivolous ones who had played all
+the year were working with a desperate frenzy calculated to render their
+minds a blank when the crucial hour should have arrived. But Patty was
+not working. It was a canon of her college philosophy, gained by three
+and a half years' of personal experience, that the day before
+examinations is not the time to begin to study. One has impressed the
+instructor with one's intelligent interest in the subject, or one has
+not, and the result is as sure as if the marks were already down in
+black and white in the college archives. And so Patty, who at least
+lived up to her lights, was, with the exception of a few points which
+she intended to learn for this period only, conscientiously neglecting
+the "judicious review" recommended by the faculty.
+
+Her friends, however, who, though perhaps equally philosophic, were less
+consistent, were subjecting themselves to what was known as a "regular
+freshman cram"; and as no one had any time to talk to Patty, or to make
+anything to eat, she found it an unprofitable period. Her own room-mate
+even drove her from the study because she laughed out loud over the book
+she was reading; and, an exile, she wandered around to the studies of
+her friends, and was confronted by an "engaged" on every door. She was
+sitting on a window-sill in the corridor, pondering on the general
+barrenness of things, when she suddenly remembered her friends the
+freshmen in study 321. She had not visited them for some time, and
+freshmen are usually interesting at this period. She accordingly turned
+down the corridor that led to 321, and found a "POSITIVELY ENGAGED TO
+EVERY ONE!!" in letters three inches high, across the door. This
+promised a richness of entertainment within, and Patty heaved a
+disappointed sigh loud enough to carry through the transom.
+
+The turning of leaves and rustling of paper ceased; evidently they were
+listening, but they gave no sign. Patty wrote a note on the door-block
+with reverberating punctuation-points, and then retired noisily, and
+tiptoed back a moment later, and leaned against the wall. Curiosity
+prevailed; the door opened, and a face wearing a hunted look peered out.
+
+"Oh, Patty Wyatt, was that you?" she asked. "We thought it was Frances
+Stoddard coming down to have geometry explained, and so we kept still.
+Come in."
+
+"Goodness, no; I wouldn't come in over an 'engaged' like that for
+anything. I'm afraid you're busy."
+
+The freshman grasped her by the arm. "Patty, if you love us come in and
+cheer us up. We're so scared we don't know what to do."
+
+Patty consented to be drawn across the threshold. "I don't want to
+interrupt you," she remonstrated, "if you have anything to do." The
+study was occupied by three girls. Patty smiled benignly at the two
+haggard faces before her. "Where's Lady Clara Vere de Vere?" she asked.
+"She surely isn't wasting these precious last moments in anything
+frivolous."
+
+"She's in her bedroom, with a geometry in one hand and a Greek grammar
+in the other, trying to learn them both at once."
+
+"Tell her to come out here; I want to give her some good advice"; and
+Patty sat down on the divan and surveyed the dictionary-bestrewn room
+with an appreciative smile.
+
+"Oh, Patty, I'm so glad to see you!" Lady Clara exclaimed, appearing in
+the doorway. "The sophomores have been telling us the most _dreadful_
+stories about examinations. They aren't true, are they?"
+
+"Mercy, no! Don't believe a word those sophomores tell you. They were
+freshmen themselves last year, and if the examinations were as bad as
+they say, they wouldn't have passed them, either."
+
+A relieved expression stole over the three faces.
+
+"You're such a comfort, Patty. Upper-classmen take things easily, don't
+they?"
+
+"One gets inured to almost anything in time," said Patty. "Examinations
+are even entertaining, if you know the right answers."
+
+"But we won't know the right answers!" one of the freshmen wailed, her
+terror returning. "We simply don't know _anything_, and Latin comes
+to-morrow, and geometry the next day."
+
+"Oh, well, in that case you can't get through anyway, so don't worry.
+You must take it philosophically, you know." Patty settled herself among
+the cushions and smiled upon her frightened auditors with easy
+nonchalance. "As an example of the uselessness of studying at the
+eleventh hour when you haven't done anything through the term, I will
+tell you my experience with freshman Greek. I was badly prepared when I
+came, I didn't study through the term, and, without exaggeration, I
+didn't know anything. Three days before examinations I suddenly
+comprehended the situation, and I began swallowing that grammar in
+chunks. I drank black coffee to keep awake, and worked till two in the
+morning, and scarcely stopped cramming irregular verbs for meals. I
+simply thought in Greek and dreamed in Greek. And, if you will believe
+it, after all that work I flunked in Greek! It shook my faith in
+studying for examinations. I've never done it since, and I've never
+flunked since. I believe that it's just a matter of fate whether you get
+through or not, so I never bother any more."
+
+The freshmen looked at one another disconsolately. "If it's all decided
+beforehand, we're lost."
+
+Patty smiled reassuringly.
+
+          "A little flunking now and then
+           Will happen to the best of men."
+
+"But I've heard they send people home, drop them, you know, if they
+flunk more than a certain amount. Is that so?" Lady Clara inquired in
+hushed tones.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Patty; "they have to. I've known some of the brightest
+girls in college to be dropped."
+
+Lady Clara groaned. "I'm awfully shaky in geometry, Patty. Do they flunk
+many girls in that?"
+
+"Many!" said Patty. "The mere clerical labor of writing out the notes
+occupies the department two days."
+
+"Is the examination terribly hard?"
+
+"I don't remember much about it. It's been such a long time since I was
+a freshman, you see. They picked out the hardest theorems, I
+know--things you couldn't even draw, let alone demonstrate: the pyramid
+that's cut in slices, for one,--I don't remember its name,--and that
+sprawling one that looks like a snail crawling out of its shell: the
+devil's coffin, I believe it's called technically. And--oh, yes! they
+give you originals--_frightful_ originals, like nothing you've ever had
+before; and they put a little note at the top of the page telling you to
+do them first, and you get so muddled trying to think fast that you
+can't think at all. I know a girl who spent all the two hours trying to
+think out an original, and just as she got ready to write it down the
+bell rang and she had to hand in her paper."
+
+"And what happened?"
+
+"Oh, she flunked. You couldn't really blame the instructor, you know,
+for not reading between the lines, for there weren't any lines to read
+between; but it was sort of a pity, for the girl really knew an awful
+lot--but she couldn't express it."
+
+"That's just like me."
+
+"Ah, it's like a good many people." A silence ensued, and the freshmen
+looked at one another dejectedly. "But you can live, even if you should
+flunk math," Patty continued reassuringly. "Other people have done it
+before you."
+
+"If it were only geometry--but we're scared over Latin."
+
+"Oh, Latin! There's no use studying for that, for you can't possibly
+read it all over, and if you just pick out a part, it's sure not to be
+the same part _they_ pick out. The best way is to say incantations over
+the book, and open it with your eyes blindfolded, and study the page it
+opens to; then, in case you don't pass,--and you probably won't,--you
+can throw the blame on fate. My freshman year, if I remember right, they
+gave us for prose composition one of Emerson's essays to translate into
+Latin, and we couldn't even tell what it meant in English."
+
+The three looked at one another again.
+
+"I couldn't do anything like that."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"Nor any one else," said Patty.
+
+"We can flunk Latin and math; but if we flunk any more we're gone."
+
+"I believe so," said Patty.
+
+"And I'm awfully shaky in German."
+
+"And I in French."
+
+"And I in Greek."
+
+"I don't know anything about German," said Patty. "Never had it myself.
+But I remember hearing Priscilla say that the printed examination papers
+didn't come but in time, and Fraeulein Scherin, who writes a frightful
+hand, wrote the questions on the board in German script, and they
+couldn't even read them. In French I believe the first question was to
+write out the 'Marseillaise'; there are seven verses, and no one had
+learned them, and the 'Marseillaise,' you know, is a thing that you
+simply _can't_ make up on the spur of the moment. As for Greek, I told
+you my own experience; I am sure nothing could be worse than that."
+
+The freshmen looked at one another hopelessly. "There's only English
+and hygiene and Bible history left."
+
+"English is something you can't tell anything about," said Patty.
+"They're as likely as not to ask you to write a heroic poem in iambic
+pentameters, if you know what they are. You have to depend on
+inspiration; you can't study for it."
+
+"I hope," sighed Lady Clara, "to get through hygiene and Bible history,
+though, as they only count one hour apiece, I suppose it isn't much."
+
+"You mustn't be too sanguine," said Patty. "It all depends on chance.
+The class in hygiene is so big that the professor hasn't time to read
+the papers; he just goes down the list and flunks every thirteenth girl.
+I'm not sure about Bible history, but I think he does the same, because
+I know, freshman year, that I made a mistake and handed in my map of the
+Holy Lands done in colored chalk to the hygiene professor, and my chart
+of the digestive system to the Bible professor, and neither of them
+noticed it. They did look a good deal alike, but not so much but what
+you could tell them apart. All I have to say is that I hope none of you
+will be number thirteen."
+
+The freshmen stared at one another in speechless horror, and Patty rose.
+"Well, good-by, my children, and, above all things, don't worry. I'm
+glad if I've been able to cheer you up a little, for so much depends on
+not being nervous. Don't believe any of the silly stories the sophomores
+tell," she called back over her shoulder; "they're just trying to
+frighten you."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+"Per l'Italia"
+
+
+College is a more or less selfish place. Everybody is so busy with her
+own affairs that she has no time to give to her neighbor, unless her
+neighbor has something to give in return. Olivia Copeland apparently had
+nothing to give in return. She was quiet and inconspicuous, and it took
+a second glance to realize that her face was striking and that there was
+a look in her eyes that other freshmen did not have. By an unfelicitous
+chance she was placed in the same study with Lady Clara Vere de Vere and
+Emily Washburn. They thought her foreign and queer, and she thought them
+crude and boisterous, and after the first week or two of politely trying
+to get acquainted the effort was dropped on both sides.
+
+The year wore on, and nobody knew, or at least no one paid any attention
+to the fact, that Olivia Copeland was homesick and unhappy. Her
+room-mates thought that they had done their duty when they occasionally
+asked her to play golf or go skating with them (an invitation they were
+very safe in giving, as she knew how to do neither). Her instructors
+thought that they had done their duty when they called her up to the
+desk after class and warned her that her work was not as good as it had
+been, and that if she wished to pass she must improve in it.
+
+The English class was the only one in which she was not warned; but she
+had no means of knowing that her themes were handed about among the
+different instructors and that she was referred to in the department as
+"that remarkable Miss Copeland." The department had a theory that if
+they let a girl know she was doing good work she would immediately stop
+and rest upon her reputation; and Olivia, in consequence, did not
+discover that she was remarkable. She merely discovered that she was
+miserable and out of place, and she continued to drip tears of
+homesickness before a sketch of an Italian villa that hung above her
+desk.
+
+It was Patty Wyatt who first discovered her. Patty had dropped into the
+freshmen's room one afternoon on some errand or other (probably to
+borrow alcohol), and had idly picked up a pile of English themes that
+were lying on the study table.
+
+"Whose are these? Do you care if I look at them?" she asked.
+
+"No; you can read them if you want to," said Lady Clara. "They're
+Olivia's, but she won't mind."
+
+Patty carelessly turned the pages, and then, as a title caught her eye,
+she suddenly looked up with a show of interest. "'The Coral-fishers of
+Capri'! What on earth does Olivia Copeland know about the coral-fishers
+of Capri?"
+
+"Oh, she lives somewhere near there--at Sorrento," said Lady Clara,
+indifferently.
+
+"Olivia Copeland lives at Sorrento!" Patty stared. "Why didn't you tell
+me?"
+
+"I supposed you knew it. Her father's an artist or something of the
+sort. She's lived in Italy all her life; that's what makes her so
+queer."
+
+Patty had once spent a sunshiny week in Sorrento herself, and the very
+memory of it was intoxicating. "Where is she?" she asked excitedly. "I
+want to talk to her."
+
+"I don't know where she is. Out walking, probably. She goes off walking
+all by herself, and never speaks to any one, and then when we ask her to
+do something rational, like golf or basket-ball, she pokes in the house
+and reads Dante in Italian. Imagine!"
+
+"Why, she must be interesting!" said Patty, in surprise, and she turned
+back to the themes.
+
+"I think these are splendid!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Sort of queer, I think," said Lady Clara. "But there's one that's
+rather funny. It was read in class--about a peasant that lost his
+donkey. I'll find it"; and she rummaged through the pile.
+
+Patty read it soberly, and Lady Clara watched her with a shade of
+disappointment.
+
+"Don't you think it's pretty good?" she asked.
+
+"Yes; I think it's one of the best things I ever read."
+
+"You never even smiled!"
+
+"My dear child, it isn't funny."
+
+"Isn't funny! Why, the class simply roared over it."
+
+Patty shrugged. "Your appreciation must have gratified Olivia. And here
+it's February, and I've barely spoken to her."
+
+The next afternoon Patty was strolling home from a recitation, when she
+spied Olivia Copeland across the campus, headed for Pine Bluff and
+evidently out for a solitary walk.
+
+"Olivia Copeland, wait a moment," Patty called. "Are you going for a
+walk? May I come too?" she asked, as she panted up behind.
+
+Olivia assented with evident surprise, and Patty fell into step beside
+her. "I just found out yesterday that you live in Sorrento, and I wanted
+to talk to you. I was there myself once, and I think it's the most
+glorious spot on earth."
+
+Olivia's eyes shone. "Really?" she gasped. "Oh, I'm so glad!" And before
+she knew it she was telling Patty the story of how she had come to
+college to please her father, and how she loved Italy and hated America;
+and what she did not tell about her loneliness and homesickness Patty
+divined.
+
+She realized that the girl _was_ remarkable, and she determined in the
+future to take an interest in her and make her like college. But a
+senior's life is busy and taken up with its own affairs, and for the
+next week or two Patty saw little of the freshman beyond an occasional
+chat in the corridors.
+
+One evening she and Priscilla had returned late from a dinner in town,
+to be confronted by a dark room and an empty match-safe.
+
+"Wait a moment and I'll get some matches," said Patty; and she knocked
+on a door across the corridor where a freshman lived with whom they had
+a borrowing acquaintance. She found within her own freshman friends,
+Lady Clara Vere de Vere and Emily Washburn. It was evident by the three
+heads close together, and the hush that fell on the group as she
+entered, that some momentous piece of gossip had been interrupted. Patty
+forgot her room-mate waiting in the dark, and dropped into a chair with
+the evident purpose of staying out the evening.
+
+"Tell me all about it, children," she said cordially.
+
+The freshmen looked at one another and hesitated.
+
+"A new president?" Patty suggested, "or just a class mutiny?"
+
+"It's about Olivia Copeland," Lady Clara returned dubiously; "but I
+don't know that I ought to say anything."
+
+"Olivia Copeland?" Patty straightened up with a new interest in her
+eyes. "What's Olivia Copeland been doing?"
+
+"She's been flunking and--"
+
+"Flunking!" Patty's face was blank. "But I thought she was so bright!"
+
+"Oh, she is bright; only, you know, she hasn't a way of making people
+find it out; and, besides," Lady Clara added with meaning emphasis, "she
+was scared over examinations."
+
+Patty cast a quick look at her. "What do you mean?" she asked.
+
+Lady Clara was fond of Patty, but she was only human, and she had been
+frightened herself. "Well," she explained, "she had heard a lot of
+stories from--er--upper-classmen about how hard the examinations are,
+and the awful things they do to you if you don't pass, and being a
+stranger, she believed them. Of course Emily and I knew better; but she
+was just scared to death, and she went all to pieces, and--"
+
+"Nonsense!" said Patty, impatiently. "You can't make me believe that."
+
+"If it had been a sophomore that had tried to frighten us," pursued Lady
+Clara, "we shouldn't have minded so much: but a senior!"
+
+"Now, Patty, aren't you sorry that you told us all those things?" asked
+Emily.
+
+Patty laughed. "For the matter of that, I never say anything I'm not
+sorry for half an hour later. I'm going to get out a book some day
+entitled 'Things I Wish I Hadn't Said: A Collection of _Faux Pas_,' by
+Patty Wyatt."
+
+"I think it's more than a _faux pas_ when you frighten a girl so she--"
+
+"I suppose you think you're rubbing it in," said Patty, imperturbably;
+"but girls don't flunk because they're frightened: they flunk because
+they don't know."
+
+"Olivia knew five times as much geometry as I did, and I got through and
+she didn't."
+
+Patty examined the carpet in silence.
+
+"She thinks she's going to be dropped, and she's just crying terribly,"
+pursued Emily, with a certain relish in the details.
+
+"Crying!" said Patty, sharply. "What's she crying for?"
+
+"Because she feels bad, I suppose. She'd been out walking, and got
+caught in the rain, and she didn't get back in time for dinner, and then
+found those notes waiting for her. She's up there lying on the bed, and
+she's got hysterics or Roman fever or something like that. She told us
+to go away and let her alone. She's awfully cross all of a sudden."
+
+Patty rose. "I think I'll go and cheer her up."
+
+"Let her alone, Patty," said Emily. "I know the way you cheer people up.
+If you hadn't cheered her up before examinations she wouldn't have
+flunked."
+
+"I didn't know anything about her then," said Patty, a trifle sulkily;
+"and, anyway," she added as she opened the door, "I didn't say anything
+that affected her passing, one way or the other." She turned toward
+Olivia's room, however, with a conscience that was not quite
+comfortable. She could not remember just what she _had_ told those
+freshmen about examinations, but she had an uneasy feeling that it
+might not have been of a reassuring nature.
+
+"I wish I could ever learn when it is time for joking and when it is
+not," she said to herself as she knocked on the study door.
+
+No one answered, and she turned the knob and entered. A stifled sob came
+from one of the bedrooms, and Patty hesitated.
+
+She was not in the habit of crying herself, and she always felt
+uncomfortable when other people did it. Something must be done, however,
+and she advanced to the threshold and silently regarded Olivia, who was
+stretched face downward on the bed. At the sound of Patty's step she
+raised her head and cast a startled glance at the intruder, and then
+buried her face in the pillows again. Patty scribbled an "engaged" sign
+and pinned it on the study door, and drawing up a chair beside the bed,
+she sat down with the air of a physician about to make a diagnosis.
+
+"Well, Olivia," she began in a business-like tone, "what is the
+trouble?"
+
+Olivia opened her hands and disclosed some crumpled papers. Patty spread
+them out and hastily ran her eyes over the official printed slips:
+
+          Miss _Copeland_ is hereby informed that she has
+          been found deficient in _German_ (_three_ hours).
+
+
+          Miss _Copeland_ is hereby informed that she has
+          been found deficient in _Latin prose_ (_one_
+          hour).
+
+
+          Miss _Copeland_ is hereby informed that she has
+          been found deficient in _geometry_ (_four_ hours).
+
+Patty performed a rapid calculation,--"three and one are four and four
+are eight,"--and knit her brows.
+
+"Will they send me home, Patty?"
+
+"Mercy, no, child; I hope not. A person who's done as good work as you
+in English ought to have the right to flunk every other blessed thing,
+if she wants to."
+
+"But you're dropped if you flunk eight hours; you told me so yourself."
+
+"Don't believe anything I told you," said Patty, reassuringly. "I don't
+know what I'm talking about more than half the time."
+
+"I'd hate to be sent back, and have my father know I'd failed, when he
+spent so much time preparing me; but"--Olivia began to cry again--"I
+want to go back so much that I don't believe I care."
+
+"You don't know what you're talking about," said Patty. She put her hand
+on the girl's shoulder. "Mercy, child, you're sopping wet, and you're
+shivering! Sit up and take those shoes off."
+
+Olivia sat up and pulled at the laces with ineffectual fingers, and
+Patty jerked them open and dumped the shoes in a squashy heap on the
+floor.
+
+"Do you know what's the matter with you?" she asked. "You're not crying
+because you've flunked. You're crying because you've caught cold, and
+you're tired and wet and hungry. You take those wet clothes off this
+minute and get into a warm bath-robe, and I'll get you some dinner."
+
+"I don't want any dinner," wailed Olivia, and she showed signs of
+turning back to the pillows again.
+
+"Don't act like a baby, Olivia," said Patty, sharply; "sit up and be
+a--a man."
+
+Ten minutes later Patty returned from a successful looting expedition,
+and deposited her spoils on the bedroom table. Olivia sat on the edge of
+the bed and watched her apathetically, a picture of shivering
+despondency.
+
+"Drink this," commanded Patty, as she extended a steaming glass.
+
+Olivia obediently raised it to her lips, and drew back. "What's in it?"
+she asked faintly.
+
+"Everything I could find that's hot--quinine and whisky and Jamaica
+ginger and cough syrup and a dash of red pepper, and--one or two other
+things. It's my own idea. You can't take cold after _that_."
+
+"I--I don't believe I want any."
+
+"Drink it--every drop," said Patty, grimly; and Olivia shut her eyes and
+gulped it down.
+
+"Now," said Patty, cheerfully bustling about, "I'll get dinner. Have you
+a can-opener? And any alcohol, by chance? That's nice. We'll have three
+courses,--canned soup, canned baked beans, and preserved ginger,--all of
+them hot. It's mighty lucky Georgie Merriles was in New York or she'd
+never have lent them to me."
+
+Olivia, to her own astonishment, presently found herself laughing (she
+had thought that she would never smile again) as she sipped mulligatawny
+soup from a tooth-mug and balanced a pin-trayful of steaming baked beans
+on her knee.
+
+"And now," said Patty, as, the three courses disposed of, she tucked the
+freshman into bed, "we'll map out a campaign. While eight hours are
+pretty serious, they are not of necessity deadly. What made you flunk
+Latin prose?"
+
+"I never had any before I came, and when I told Miss--"
+
+"Certainly; she thought it her duty to flunk you. You shouldn't have
+mentioned the subject. But never mind. It's only one hour, and it won't
+take you a minute to work it off. How about German?"
+
+"German's a little hard because it's so different from Italian and
+French, you know; and I'm sort of frightened when she calls on me,
+and--"
+
+"Pretty stupid, on the whole?" Patty suggested.
+
+"I'm afraid I am," she confessed.
+
+"Well, I dare say you deserved to flunk in that. You can tutor it up and
+pass it off in the spring. How about geometry?"
+
+"I thought I knew that, only she didn't ask what I expected and--"
+
+"An unfortunate circumstance, but it will happen. Could you review it up
+a little and take a reexamination right away?"
+
+"Yes; I'm sure I could, only they won't give me another chance. They'll
+send me home first."
+
+"Who's your instructor?"
+
+"Miss Prescott."
+
+Patty frowned, and then she laughed. "I thought if it were Miss Hawley
+I could go to her and explain the matter and ask her to give you a
+reexamination. Miss Hawley's occasionally human. But Miss Prescott! No
+wonder you flunked. I'm afraid of her myself. She's the only woman that
+ever got a degree at some German university, and she simply hasn't a
+thought in the world beyond mathematics. I don't believe the woman has
+any soul. If one of those mediums should come here and dematerialize
+her, all that would be left would be an equilateral triangle."
+
+Patty shook her head. "I'm afraid there's not much use in arguing with a
+person like that. If she once sees a truth, you know, she sees it for
+all time. But never mind; I'll do the best I can. I'll tell her you're
+an undiscovered mathematical genius; that it's latent, but if she'll
+examine you again she'll find it. That ought to appeal to her.
+Good-night. Go to sleep and don't worry; I'll manage her."
+
+"Good night; and thank you, Patty," called a tolerably cheerful voice
+from under the covers.
+
+Patty closed the door, and stood a moment in the hall, pondering the
+situation. Olivia Copeland was too valuable to throw away. The college
+must be made to realize her worth. But that was difficult. Patty had
+tried to make the college realize things before. Miss Prescott was the
+only means of salvation that she could think of, and Miss Prescott was a
+doubtful means. She did not at all relish the prospect of calling on
+her, but there seemed to be nothing else to do. She made a little
+grimace and laughed. "I'm acting like a freshman myself," she thought.
+"Walk up, Patty, and face the guns"; and without giving herself time to
+hesitate she marched up-stairs and knocked on Miss Prescott's door. She
+reflected after she had knocked that perhaps it would have been more
+politic to have postponed her business until the morrow. But the door
+opened before she had time to run away, and she found herself rather
+confusedly bowing to Miss Prescott, who held in her hand, not a book on
+calculus, but a common, every-day magazine.
+
+"Good evening, Miss Wyatt. Won't you come in and sit down?" said Miss
+Prescott, in a very cordially human tone.
+
+As she sank into a deep rush chair Patty had a blurred vision of low
+bookcases, pictures, rugs, and polished brass thrown into soft relief by
+a shaded lamp which stood on the table. Before she had time to mentally
+shake herself and reconstruct her ideas she was gaily chatting to Miss
+Prescott about the probable outcome of a serial story in the magazine.
+
+Miss Prescott did not seem to wonder in the least at this unusual visit,
+but talked along easily on various subjects, and laughed and told
+stories like the humanest of human beings. Patty watched her,
+fascinated. "She's _pretty_," she thought to herself and she began to
+wonder how old she was. Never before had she associated any age whatever
+with Miss Prescott. She had regarded her much in the same light as a
+scientific truth, which exists, but is quite irrespective of time or
+place. She tried to recall some story that had been handed about among
+the girls her freshman year. She remembered vaguely that it had in it
+the suggestion that Miss Prescott had once been in love. At the time
+Patty had scoffingly repudiated the idea, but now she was half willing
+to believe it.
+
+Suddenly, in the midst of the conversation, the ten-o'clock bell rang,
+and Patty recalled her errand with a start.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "you are wondering why I came."
+
+"I was hoping," said Miss Prescott, with a smile, "that it was just to
+see me, without any ulterior motive."
+
+"It will be the next time--if you will let me come again; but to-night I
+had another reason, which I'm afraid you'll think impertinent--and," she
+added frankly, "I don't know just what's the best way to tell it so that
+you _won't_ think it impertinent."
+
+"Tell it to me any way you please, and I will try not to think so,"
+said Miss Prescott, kindly.
+
+"Don't you think sometimes the girls can tell more of one another's
+ability than the instructors?" Patty asked. "I know a girl," she
+continued, "a freshman, who is, in some ways, the most remarkable person
+I have ever met. Of course I can't be sure, but I should say that she is
+going to be very good in English some day--so good, you know, that the
+college will be proud of her. Well, this girl has flunked such a lot
+that I am afraid she is in danger of being sent home, and the college
+simply can't afford to lose her. I don't know anything about your rules,
+of course, but what seems to me the easiest way is for you to give her
+another examination in geometry immediately,--she really knows it,--and
+then tell the faculty about her and urge them to give her another
+trial."
+
+Patty brought out this astounding request in the most matter-of-fact way
+possible, and the corners of Miss Prescott's mouth twitched as she
+asked: "Of whom are you speaking?"
+
+"Olivia Copeland."
+
+Miss Prescott's mouth grew firm, and she looked like the instructor in
+mathematics again.
+
+"Miss Copeland did absolutely nothing on her examination, Miss Wyatt,
+and what little she has recited during the year does not betoken any
+unusual ability. I am sorry, but it would be impossible."
+
+"But, Miss Prescott," Patty expostulated, "the girl has worked under
+such peculiar disadvantages. She's an American, but she lives abroad,
+and all our ways are new to her. She has never been to school a day in
+her life. Her father prepared her for college, and, of course, not in
+the same way that the other girls have been prepared. She is shy, and
+not being used to reciting in a class, she doesn't know how to show off.
+I am sure, Miss Prescott, that if you would take her and examine her
+yourself, you would find that she understands the work--that is, if you
+would let her get over being afraid of you first. I know you're busy,
+and it's asking a good deal," Patty finished apologetically.
+
+"It is not that, Miss Wyatt, for of course I do not wish to mark any
+student unjustly; but I cannot help feeling that you have overestimated
+Miss Copeland's ability. She has really had a chance to show what is in
+her, and if she has failed in as many courses as you say--The college,
+you know, must keep up the standard of its work, and in questions like
+this it is not always possible to consider the individual."
+
+Patty felt that she was being dismissed, and she groped about wildly for
+a new plea. Her eye caught a framed picture of the old monastery of
+Amalfi hanging over the bookcase.
+
+"Perhaps you've lived in Italy?" she asked.
+
+Miss Prescott started slightly. "No," she said; "but I've spent some
+time there."
+
+"That picture of Amalfi, up there, made me think of it. Olivia Copeland,
+you know, lives near there, at Sorrento."
+
+A gleam of interest flashed into Miss Prescott's eye.
+
+"That's how I first came to notice her," continued Patty; "but she
+didn't interest me so much until I talked to her. It seems that her
+father is an artist, and she was born in Italy, and has only visited
+America once when she was a little girl. Her mother is dead, and she and
+her father live in an old villa on that road along the coast leading to
+Sorrento. She has never had any girl friends; just her father's
+friends--artists and diplomats and people like that. She speaks Italian,
+and she knows all about Italian art and politics and the church and the
+agrarian laws and how the people are taxed; and all the peasants around
+Sorrento are her friends. She is so homesick that she nearly dies, and
+the only person here that she can talk to about the things she is
+interested in is the peanut man down-town.
+
+[Illustration: Olivia Copeland]
+
+"The girls she rooms with are just nice exuberant American girls, and
+are interested in golf and basket-ball and Welsh rabbit and Richard
+Harding Davis stories and Gibson pictures--and she never even _heard_ of
+any of them until four months ago. She has a water-color sketch of the
+villa, that her father did. It's white stucco, you know, with terraces
+and marble balustrades and broken statues, and a grove of ilex-trees
+with a fountain in the center. Just think of _belonging_ to a place like
+that, Miss Prescott, and then being suddenly plunged into a place like
+this without any friends or any one who even knows about the things you
+know--think how lonely you would be!"
+
+Patty leaned forward with flushed cheeks, carried away by her own
+eloquence. "You know what Italy's like. It's a sort of disease. If you
+once get fond of it you'll never forget it, and you just can't be happy
+till you get back. And with Olivia it's her home, besides. She's never
+known anything else. And it's hard at first to keep your mind on
+mathematics when you're dreaming all the time of ilex groves and
+fountains and nightingales and--and things like that."
+
+She finished lamely, for Miss Prescott suddenly leaned back in the
+shadow, and it seemed to Patty that her face had grown pale and the hand
+that held the magazine trembled.
+
+Patty flushed uncomfortably and tried to think what she had said. She
+was always saying things that hurt people's feelings without meaning to.
+Suddenly that old story from her freshman year flashed into her mind. He
+had been an artist and had lived in Italy and had died of Roman fever;
+and Miss Prescott had gone to Germany to study mathematics, and had
+never cared for anything else since. It sounded rather made up, but it
+might be true. Had she stumbled on a forbidden subject? she wondered
+miserably. She had, of course; it was just her way.
+
+The silence was becoming unbearable; she struggled to think of something
+to say, but nothing came, and she rose abruptly.
+
+"I'm sorry to have taken so much of your time, Miss Prescott. I hope I
+haven't bored you. Good night."
+
+Miss Prescott rose and took Patty's hand. "Good night, my dear, and
+thank you for coming to me. I am glad to know of Olivia Copeland. I will
+see what can be done about her geometry, and I shall be glad, besides,
+to know her as--as a friend; for I, too, once cared for Italy."
+
+Patty closed the door softly and tiptoed home through the dim corridors.
+
+"Did you bring the matches?" called a sleepy voice from Priscilla's
+bedroom.
+
+Patty started. "Oh, the matches!" she laughed. "No; I forgot them."
+
+"I never knew you to accomplish anything yet that you started out to do,
+Patty Wyatt."
+
+"I've accomplished something to-night, just the same," Patty retorted,
+with a little note of triumph in her voice; "but I haven't an idea how
+I happened to do it," she added frankly to herself.
+
+And she went to bed and fell asleep, quite unaware of how much she _had_
+accomplished; for unconsciously she had laid the foundation of a
+friendship which was to make happy the future of a lonely freshman and
+an equally lonely instructor.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+"Local Color"
+
+
+The third senior table had discovered a new amusement with which to
+enlighten the tedium of waiting while Maggie was in the kitchen foraging
+for food. The game was called "local color," in honor of Patty Wyatt's
+famous definition in English class, "Local color is that which makes a
+lie seem truthful." The object of the game was to see who could tell the
+biggest lie without being found out; and the one rule required that the
+victims be disillusionized before they left the table.
+
+Patty was the instigator, the champion player, and the final victim of
+the game. Baron Muenchhausen himself would have blushed at some of her
+creations, and her stories were told with such an air of ingenuous
+honesty that the most outrageous among them obtained credence.
+
+The game in its original conception may have been innocent enough, but
+the rule was not always as carefully observed as it should have been,
+and the most unaccountable scandals began to float about college. The
+president of "Christians" had been called up for cutting chapel. The
+shark of the class had flunked her ethics, and even failed to get
+through on the "re." Cathy Fair was an own cousin of Professor
+Hitchcock's, and called him "Tommy" to his face. These, and far worse,
+were becoming public property; and even personal fabrications in regard
+to the faculty, intended solely for undergraduate consumption, were
+reaching the ears of the faculty themselves.
+
+One day Patty dropped into an under-classman's room on some committee
+work, and she found the children, in the manner of their elders,
+regaling themselves on dainty bits of college gossip.
+
+"I heard the funniest thing about Professor Winters yesterday," piped
+up a sophomore.
+
+"Tell it to us. What was it?" cried a chorus of voices.
+
+"I'd like to hear something funny about Professor Winters; he's the
+solemnest-looking man I ever saw," remarked a freshman.
+
+"Well," resumed the sophomore, "it seems he was going to get married
+last week, and the invitations were all out, and the presents all there,
+when the bride came down with the mumps."
+
+"Really? How funny!" came in a chorus from the delighted auditors.
+
+"Yes--on both sides; and the clergyman had never had it, so the ceremony
+had to be postponed."
+
+Patty's blood froze. She recognized the tale. It was one of her own
+offspring, only shorn of its unessential adornments.
+
+"Where in the world did you hear any such absurd thing as that?" she
+demanded severely.
+
+"I heard Lucille Carter tell it at a fudge party up in Bonnie
+Connaught's room last night," answered the sophomore, stoutly, sure that
+the source was a reputable one.
+
+Patty groaned. "And I suppose that every blessed one of that dozen girls
+has told it to another dozen by this time, and that it's only bounded by
+the boundaries of the campus. Well, there's not a word of truth in it.
+Lucille Carter doesn't know what she is talking about. That's a likely
+story, isn't it?" she added with fine scorn. "Does Professor Winters
+look like a man who'd ever dare propose to a girl, let alone marry her?"
+And she stalked out of the room and up to the single where Lucille
+lived.
+
+"Lucille," said Patty, "what do you mean by spreading that story about
+Professor Winters's bride's mumps?"
+
+"You told it to me yourself," answered Lucille, with some warmth. She
+was a believing creature with an essentially literal mind, and she had
+always been out of her element in the lofty imaginative realms of local
+color.
+
+"I told it to you!" said Patty, indignantly. "You goose, you don't mean
+to tell me you believed it? I was just playing local color."
+
+"How should I know that? You told it as if it were true."
+
+"Of course," said Patty; "that's the game. You wouldn't have believed me
+if I hadn't."
+
+"But you never said it wasn't true. You don't follow the rule."
+
+"I didn't think it was necessary. I never supposed any one would believe
+any such absurd story as that."
+
+"I don't see how it was my fault."
+
+"Of course it was your fault. You shouldn't be spreading malicious tales
+about the faculty; it's irreverent. The story's all over college by this
+time, and Professor Winters has probably heard it himself. He'll flunk
+you on the finals to pay for it; see if he doesn't." And Patty went
+home, leaving a conscience-smitten and thoroughly indignant Lucille
+behind her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ABOUT a month before the introduction of local color, Patty had entered
+upon a new activity, which she referred to impartially as "molding
+public opinion" and "elevating the press." The way of it was this:
+
+The college, which was a modest and retiring institution craving only to
+be unmolested in its atmosphere of academic calm, had been recently
+exploited by a sensational newspaper. The fact that none of the stories
+was true did not mitigate the annoyance. The college was besieged by
+reporters who had heard rumors and wished to have them corroborated for
+exclusive publication in the "Censor" or "Advertiser" or "Star." And
+they would also like a photograph of Miss Bentley as she appeared in the
+character of Portia; and since she refused to give it to them, they
+stated their intention of "faking" one, which, they gallantly assured
+her, would be far homelier than the original.
+
+The climax was reached when Bonnie Connaught was unfortunate enough to
+sprain her ankle in basket-ball. Something more than a life-size
+portrait of her, clothed in a masculine-looking sweater, with a
+basket-ball under her arm, appeared in a New York evening paper, and
+scare-heads three inches high announced in red ink that the champion
+athlete and most popular society girl in college was at death's door,
+owing to injuries received in basket-ball.
+
+Bonnie's eminently respectable family descended upon the college in an
+indignant body for the purpose of taking her home, and were with
+difficulty soothed by an equally indignant faculty. The alumnae wrote
+that in their day such brutal games as basket-ball had not been
+countenanced, and that they feared the college had deteriorated. Parents
+wrote that they would remove their daughters from college if they were
+to be subjected to such publicity; and the poor president was, of
+course, quite helpless before the glorious American privilege of free
+speech.
+
+Finally the college hit upon a partially protective measure--that of
+furnishing its own news; and a regularly organized newspaper corps was
+formed among the students, with a member of the faculty at the head. The
+more respectable of the papers were very glad to have a correspondent
+from the inside whose facts needed no investigation, and the less
+respectable in due time betook themselves to more fruitful fields of
+scandal and happily forgot the existence of the college.
+
+Patty, having the reputation of being an "English shark," had been duly
+empaneled and presented with a local paper. At first she had been filled
+with a fit sense of the responsibility of the position, and had
+conscientiously neglected her college work for its sake; but in time the
+novelty wore off, and her weekly budgets became more and more
+perfunctory in character.
+
+The choice of Patty for this particular paper perhaps had not been very
+far-sighted, for the editor wished a column a week of what he designated
+as "chatty news," whereas it would have been wiser to have given her a
+city paper which required only a brief statement of important facts.
+Patty's own tendencies, it must be confessed, had a slightly yellow
+tinge, and, with a delighted editor egging her on, it was hard for her
+to suppress her latent love for "local color." The paper, however, had a
+wide circulation among the faculty, which circumstance tended to have a
+chastening effect.
+
+The day following Patty's bride-with-the-mumps contretemps with Lucille
+happened to be Friday, and she was painfully engaged in her weekly
+molding of public opinion. It had been a barren week, and there was
+nothing to write about.
+
+She reviewed at length a set of French encyclopedias which had been
+given to the library, and spoke with enthusiasm of a remarkable
+collection of jaw-bones of the prehistoric cow which had been presented
+to the department of paleontology. She gave in full the list of the
+seventeen girls who had been honored with scholarships, laboriously
+writing out their full names, with "Miss" attached to each, and the name
+of the town and the State in its unabbreviated length. And still it only
+mounted up to ten pages, and it took eighteen of Patty's writing to make
+a column.
+
+She strolled down to examine the bulletin-board again, and discovered a
+new notice which she had overlooked before:
+
+          Friday, January 17. Professor James Harkner Wallis
+          of the Lick Observatory will lecture in the
+          auditorium, at eight o'clock, upon "Theories of
+          the Sidereal System."
+
+Patty regarded the notice without emotion. It did not look capable of
+expansion, and she did not feel the remotest interest in the sidereal
+system. The brief account of the lecturer, however, which was appended
+to the notice, stated that Professor Wallis was one of the best known of
+living astronomers, and that he had conducted important original
+investigations.
+
+"If I knew anything about astronomy," she thought desperately, "I might
+be able to spread him out over two pages."
+
+An acquaintance of Patty's strolled up to the bulletin-board.
+
+"Did you ever hear of that man?" asked Patty, pointing to the notice.
+
+"Never; but I'm not an astronomer."
+
+"I'm not, either," said Patty. "I wonder who he is?" she added
+wistfully. "It seems he's very famous, and I'd really like to know
+something about him."
+
+The girl opened her eyes in some surprise at this thirst for gratuitous
+information; it did not accord with Patty's reputation: and ever after,
+when it was affirmed in her presence that Patty Wyatt was brilliant but
+superficial, she stoutly maintained that Patty was deeper than people
+thought. She pondered a moment, and then returned, "Lucille Carter takes
+astronomy; she could tell you about him."
+
+"So she does. I'd forgotten it"; and Patty swung off toward Lucille's
+room.
+
+She found a number of girls sitting around on the various pieces of
+furniture, eating fudge and discussing the tragedies of one Maeterlinck.
+
+"What's this?" said Patty. "A party?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Lucille; "just an extra session of the Dramatic Theory
+class. Don't be afraid; there's your room-mate up on the window-seat."
+
+"Hello, Pris. What are you doing here?" said Patty, dipping out some
+fudge with a spoon. (There had been a disagreement as to how long it
+should boil.)
+
+"Just paying a social call. What are you doing? I thought you were going
+to hurry up and get through so you could go down-town to dinner."
+
+"I am," said Patty, vaguely; "but I got lonely."
+
+The conversation drifting off to Maeterlinck again, she seized the
+opportunity to inquire of Lucille: "Who's this astronomy man that's
+going to lecture to-night? He's quite famous, isn't he?"
+
+"Very," said Lucille. "Professor Phelps has been talking about him every
+day for the last week."
+
+"Where's the Lick Observatory, anyway?" pursued Patty. "I can't
+remember, for the life of me, whether it's in California or on Pike's
+Peak."
+
+Lucille considered a moment. "It's in Dublin, Ireland."
+
+"Dublin, Ireland?" asked Patty, in some surprise. "I could have sworn
+that it was in California. Are you sure you know where it is, Lucille?"
+
+"Of course I'm sure. Haven't we been having it for three days steady?
+California! You must be crazy, Patty. I think you'd better elect
+astronomy."
+
+"I know it," said Patty, meekly. "I was going to, but I heard that it
+was terribly hard, and I thought senior year you have a right to take
+something a little easy. But, you know, that's the funniest thing about
+the Lick Observatory, for I really know a lot about it--read an article
+on it just a little while ago; and I don't know how I got the
+impression, but I was almost sure it was in the United States. It just
+shows that you can never be sure of anything."
+
+"No," said Lucille; "it isn't safe."
+
+"Is it connected with Dublin University?" asked Patty.
+
+"I believe so," said Lucille.
+
+"And this astronomy person," continued Patty, warming to her work--"I
+suppose he's an Irishman, then."
+
+"Of course," said Lucille. "He's very noted."
+
+"What's he done?" asked Patty. "It said on the bulletin-board he'd made
+some important discoveries. I suppose, though, they're frightful
+technicalities that no one ever heard of."
+
+"Well," said Lucille, considering, "he discovered the rings of Saturn
+and the Milky Way."
+
+"The rings of Saturn! Why, I thought those had been discovered _ages_
+ago. He must be a terribly old man. I remember reading about them when
+I was an infant in arms."
+
+"It was a good while ago," said Lucille. "Eight or nine years, at
+least."
+
+"And the Milky Way!" continued Patty, with a show of incredulity. "I
+don't see how people could have helped discovering that long ago. I
+could have done it myself, and I don't pretend to know anything about
+astronomy."
+
+"Oh, of course," Lucille hastened to explain, "the phenomenon had been
+observed before, but had never been accounted for."
+
+"I see," said Patty, surreptitiously taking notes. "He must really be an
+awfully important man. How did he happen to do all this?"
+
+"He went up in a balloon," said Lucille, vaguely.
+
+"A balloon! What fun!" exclaimed Patty, her reportorial instinct waking
+to the scent. "They use balloons a lot more in Europe than they do
+here."
+
+"I believe he has his balloon with him here in America," said Lucille.
+"He never travels without it."
+
+"What's the good of it?" inquired Patty. "I suppose," she continued,
+furnishing her own explanation, "it gets him such a lot nearer to the
+stars."
+
+"That's without doubt the reason," said Lucille.
+
+"I wish he'd send it up here," sighed Patty. "Do you know any more
+interesting details about him?"
+
+"N--no," said Lucille; "I can't think of any more at present."
+
+"He's certainly the most interesting professor I ever heard of," said
+Patty, "and it's strange I never heard of him before."
+
+"There seem to be a good many things you have never heard of," observed
+Lucille.
+
+"Yes," acknowledged Patty; "there are."
+
+"Well, Patty," said Priscilla, emerging from the discussion on the other
+side of the room, "if you're going to dinner with me, you'd better stop
+fooling with Lucille, and go home and get your work done."
+
+"Very well," said Patty, rising with obliging promptitude. "Good-by,
+girls. Come and see me and I'll give you some fudge that's done. Thank
+you for the information," she called back to Lucille.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE Monday afternoon following, Patty and Priscilla, with two or three
+other girls, came strolling back from the lake, jingling their skates
+over their arms.
+
+"Come in, girls, and have some hot tea," said Priscilla, as they reached
+the study door.
+
+"Here's a note for Patty," said Bonnie Connaught, picking up an envelop
+from the table. "Terribly official-looking. Must have come in the
+college mail. Open it, Patty, and let's see what you've flunked."
+
+"Dear me!" said Patty, "I thought that was a habit I'd outgrown freshman
+year."
+
+They crowded around and read the note over her shoulder. Patty had no
+secrets.
+
+                              THE OBSERVATORY, January 20.
+          Miss Patty Wyatt.
+
+          DEAR MISS WYATT: I am informed that you are the
+          correspondent for the "Saturday Evening
+          Post-Despatch," and I take the liberty of calling
+          your attention to a rather grave error which
+          occurred in last week's issue. You stated that the
+          Lick Observatory is in Dublin, Ireland, while, as
+          is a matter of general information, it is situated
+          near San Francisco, California. Professor James
+          Harkner Wallis is not an Irishman; he is an
+          American. Though he has carried on some very
+          important investigations, he is the discoverer of
+          neither the rings of Saturn nor the Milky Way.
+
+                                    Very truly yours,
+                                            HOWARD D. PHELPS.
+
+"It's from Professor Phelps--what can he mean?" said the Twin, in
+bewilderment.
+
+"Oh, Patty," groaned Priscilla, "you don't mean to say that you actually
+believed all that stuff?"
+
+"Of course I believed it. How could I know she was lying?"
+
+"She wasn't lying. Don't use such reckless language."
+
+"I'd like to know what you call it, then?" said Patty, angrily.
+
+"Local color, my dear, just local color. The worm will turn, you know."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me?" wailed Patty.
+
+"Never supposed for a moment you believed her. Thought you were joking
+all the time."
+
+"What's the matter, Patty? What have you done?" the others demanded,
+divided between a pardonable feeling of curiosity and a sense that they
+ought to retire before this domestic tragedy.
+
+"Oh, tell them," said Patty, bitterly. "Tell every one you see. Shout it
+from the dome of the observatory. You might as well; it'll be all over
+college in a couple of hours."
+
+Priscilla explained, and as she explained the funny side began to strike
+her. By the time she had finished they were all--except Patty--reduced
+to hysterics.
+
+"The poor editor," gurgled Priscilla. "He's always after a scoop, and
+he's certainly got one this time."
+
+"Where is it, Patty--the paper?" gasped Bonnie.
+
+"I threw it away," said Patty, sulkily.
+
+Priscilla rummaged it out of the waste-basket, and the four bent over it
+delightedly.
+
+          Ireland's eminent astronomer spending a few weeks
+          in America lecturing at the principal
+          colleges--His famous discovery of the rings of
+          Saturn made during a balloon ascension three
+          thousand feet in the air--Though this is his first
+          visit to the States, he speaks with only a slight
+          brogue--Loyal son of old Erin
+
+"Patty, Patty! And you, of all people, to be so gullible!"
+
+"Professor James Harkner Wallis's parents will be writing to Prexy next
+to say that their son can't lecture here any more if he is to be
+subjected to this sort of thing."
+
+"It's disgusting!" said Bonnie Connaught, feelingly.
+
+"When you've got through laughing, I wish you'd tell me what to do."
+
+"Tell Professor Phelps it was a slip of the pen."
+
+"A slip of the pen to the extent of half a column is good," said the
+Twin.
+
+"I think you girls are beastly to laugh when I am probably being
+expelled this minute."
+
+"Faculty meeting doesn't come till four," said Bonnie.
+
+Patty sat down by the desk and buried her head in her arms.
+
+"Patty," said Priscilla, "you aren't crying, are you?"
+
+"No," said Patty, savagely; "I'm thinking."
+
+"You will never think of anything that will explain that."
+
+Patty looked up with the air of one who has received an inspiration.
+"I'm going to tell him the truth."
+
+"Don't do anything so rash," pleaded the Twin.
+
+"That is, of course, the only thing you can do," said Priscilla. "Sit
+down and write him a note, and I'll promise not to laugh till you get
+through."
+
+Patty stood up. "I think," she said, "I'll go and see him."
+
+"Oh, no. Write him a note. It's loads easier."
+
+"No," said Patty, with dignity; "I think I owe him a personal
+explanation. Is my hair all right? If you girls reveal this to a single
+person before I come back, I'll not tell you a thing he says," she added
+as she closed the door.
+
+Patty returned half an hour later, just as they were finally settling
+down to tea. She peered around the darkening room; finding only four
+expectant faces, she leisurely seated herself on a cushion on the floor
+and stretched out her hand for a steaming cup.
+
+"What did he say? What kept you so long?"
+
+"Oh, I stopped in the office to change my electives, and it delayed me."
+
+"You don't mean to tell me that man made you elect astronomy?"
+Priscilla asked indignantly.
+
+"Certainly not," said Patty. "I shouldn't have done it if he had."
+
+"Oh, Patty, I know you like to tease, but I think it's odious. You know
+we're in suspense. Tell us what happened."
+
+"Well," said Patty, placidly gathering her skirts about her, "I told him
+exactly how it was. I didn't hide anything--not even the bride with the
+mumps."
+
+"Was he cross, or did he laugh?"
+
+"He laughed," said Patty, "till I thought he was going to fall off his
+chair, and I looked anxiously around for some water and a call-bell. He
+really has a surprising sense of humor for a member of the faculty."
+
+"Was he nice?"
+
+"Yes," said Patty; "he was a dear. When he got through discussing
+Universal Truth, I asked him if I might elect astronomy, and he said I
+would find it pretty hard the second semester; but I told him I was
+willing to work, and he said I really showed a remarkable aptitude for
+explaining phenomena, and that if I were in earnest he would be glad to
+have me in the class."
+
+"I think a man as forgiving as that _ought_ to be elected," said
+Priscilla.
+
+"You certainly have more courage than I gave you credit for," said
+Bonnie. "I never could have gone over and explained to that man in the
+wide world."
+
+Patty smiled discreetly. "When you have to explain to a woman," she said
+in the tone of one who is stating a natural law, "it is better to write
+a note; but when it is a man, always explain in person."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+The Exigencies of Etiquette
+
+
+"If I had been the one to invent etiquette," said Patty, "I should have
+made party calls payable one year after date, and then should have
+allowed three days' grace at the end."
+
+"In which case," said Priscilla, "I suppose you would get out of calling
+on Mrs. Millard altogether."
+
+"Exactly," said Patty.
+
+Mrs. Millard--more familiarly referred to as Mrs. Prexy--annually
+invited the seniors to dinner in parties of ten. Patty, whose turn had
+come a short time before, owing to an untoward misfortune, had been in
+the infirmary at the time; but, though she had missed the fun, she now
+found it necessary to pay the call.
+
+"Of course," she resumed, "I can see why you should be expected to call
+if you attend the function and partake of the food; but what I _can't_
+understand is why a peaceable citizen who desires only to gang his ain
+gait should, upon the reception of an entirely unsolicited invitation,
+suddenly find it incumbent upon him to put on his best dress and his
+best hat and gloves in order to call upon people he barely knows."
+
+"Your genders," said Priscilla, "are a trifle mixed."
+
+"That," said Patty, "is the fault of the language. The logic, I think,
+you will find correct. You can see what would happen," she pursued, "if
+you carry it out to its logical conclusion. Suppose, for instance, that
+every woman I have ever met in this town should suddenly take it into
+her head to invite me to a dinner. Here I--perfectly unsuspicious and
+innocent of any evil, because of a purely arbitrary law which I did not
+help to make--would not only have to sit down and write a hundred
+regrets, but would have to pay a hundred calls within the next two
+weeks. It makes me shudder to think of it!"
+
+"I don't believe you need worry about it, Patty; of course we know
+you're popular, but you're not as popular as that."
+
+"No," said Patty; "I didn't mean that I thought I really _should_ get
+that many invitations. It's only that one is open to the constant
+danger."
+
+During the progress of this conversation Georgie Merriles had been
+lounging on the couch by the window, reading the "Merchant of Venice" in
+a critically unimpassioned way that the instructor in Dramatic Theory
+could not have praised too much. The room finally having become too dark
+for reading, she threw down the book with something like a yawn. "It
+would have been a joke on Portia," she remarked, "if Bassanio had chosen
+the wrong casket"; and she turned her attention to the campus outside.
+Groups of girls were coming along the path from the lake, and the sound
+of their voices, mingled with laughter and the jingling of skates,
+floated up through the gathering dusk. Across the stretches of snow and
+bare trees lights were beginning to twinkle in the other dormitories,
+while nearer at hand, and more clearly visible, rose the irregular
+outline of the president's house.
+
+"Patty," said Georgie, with her nose against the pane, "if you really
+want to get that call out of the way, now's your chance. Mrs. Millard
+has just gone out."
+
+Patty dashed into her bedroom and began jerking out bureau drawers.
+"Priscilla," she called in an agonized tone, "do you remember where I
+keep my cards?"
+
+"It's ten minutes of six, Patty; you can't go now."
+
+"Yes, I can. It doesn't matter what time it is, so long as she's out.
+I'll go just as I am."
+
+"Not in a golf-cape!"
+
+Patty hesitated an instant. "Well," she admitted, "I suppose the butler
+might tell her. I'll put on a hat"--this with the air of one who is
+making a really great concession. Some more banging of bureau drawers,
+and she appeared in a black velvet hat trimmed with lace, with the brown
+jacket of her suit over her red blouse, and a blue golf-skirt and very
+muddy boots showing below.
+
+"Patty, you're a disgrace to the room!" cried Priscilla. "Do you mean to
+tell me that you are going to Mrs. Millard's in a short skirt and those
+awful skating-shoes?"
+
+"The butler won't look at my feet; I'm so beautiful above"; and Patty
+banged the door behind her.
+
+Georgie and Priscilla flattened themselves against the window to watch
+the progress of the call.
+
+"Look," gasped Priscilla. "There's Mrs. Millard going in at the back
+door."
+
+"And there's Patty. My, but she looks funny!"
+
+"Call her back," cried Priscilla, wildly trying to open the window.
+
+"Let her alone," laughed Georgie; "it will be such fun to gloat over
+her."
+
+The window came up with a jerk. "Patty! Patty!" shrieked Priscilla.
+
+Patty turned and waved her hand airily. "Can't stop now--will be back in
+a moment"; and she sped on around the corner.
+
+The two stood watching the house for several minutes, vaguely expecting
+an explosion of some sort to occur. But nothing happened. Patty was
+swallowed as if by the grave, and the house gave no sign. They
+accordingly shrugged their shoulders and dressed for dinner with the
+philosophy which a life fraught with alarms and surprises gives.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DINNER was half over, and the table had finished discussing Patty's
+demise, when that young lady trailed placidly in, smiled on the
+expectant faces, and inquired what kind of soup they had had.
+
+"Bean soup; it wasn't any good," said Georgie, impatiently. "What
+happened? Did you have a nice call?"
+
+"No, Maggie, I don't care for any soup to-night. Just bring me some
+steak, please."
+
+"Patty!" in a pleading chorus, "what happened?"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Patty, sweetly. "Yes, thank you, I had a
+very pleasant call. May I trouble you for the bread, Lucille?"
+
+"Patty, I think you're obnoxious," said Georgie. "Tell us what
+happened."
+
+"Well," began Patty, in a leisurely manner, "I said to the butler, 'Is
+Mrs. Millard in?' and he said to me (without even a smile), 'I am not
+sure, miss; will you please step into the drawing-room and I'll see.' I
+was going to tell him that he needn't bother, as I knew she was out; but
+I thought that perhaps it would look a little better if I waited and let
+him find out for himself. So I walked in and sat down in a
+pink-and-white embroidered _Louis-Quatorze_ chair. There was a big
+mirror in front of me, and I had plenty of time to study the effect,
+which, I will acknowledge, was a trifle mixed."
+
+"A trifle," Georgie assented.
+
+"I was beginning," pursued Patty, "to feel nervous for fear some of the
+family might drop in, when the man came back and said, 'Mrs. Millard
+will be down in a minute.'
+
+"If I had seen you at that moment, Georgie Merriles, there would have
+been battle, murder, and sudden death. My first thought was of flight;
+but the man was guarding the door, and Mrs. Prexy had my card. While I
+was frenziedly trying to think of a valid excuse for my costume the lady
+came in, and I rose and greeted her graciously, one might almost say
+gushingly. I talked very fast and tried to hypnotize her, so that she
+would keep her eyes on my face; but it was no use: I saw them traveling
+downward, and pretty soon I knew by the amused expression that they had
+arrived at my shoes.
+
+"Concealment was no longer possible," pursued Patty, warming to her
+subject. "I threw myself upon her mercy and confessed the whole damning
+truth. What kind of ice-cream is that?" she demanded, leaning forward
+and gazing anxiously after a passing maid. "_Don't_ tell me they're
+giving us raspberry again!"
+
+"No; it's vanilla. Go on, Patty."
+
+"Well, where was I?"
+
+"You'd just told her the truth."
+
+"Oh, yes. She said she'd always wanted to meet the college girls
+informally and know them just as they are, and she was very glad of this
+opportunity. And there I sat, looking like a kaleidoscope and feeling
+like a fool, and she taking it for granted that I was being perfectly
+natural. Complimentary, wasn't it? At this point dinner was announced,
+and she invited me to stay--quite insisted, in fact, to make up, she
+said, for the one I had missed when I was ill in the infirmary." Patty
+looked around the table with a reminiscent smile.
+
+"What did you say? Did you refuse?" asked Lucille.
+
+"No; I accepted, and am over there at present, eating _pate de foie
+gras_."
+
+"No, really, Patty; what did you say?"
+
+"Well," said Patty, "I told her that this was ice-cream night at the
+college, and that I sort of hated to miss it; but that to-morrow would
+be mutton night, which I didn't mind missing in the least; so if she
+would just as leave transfer her invitation, I would accept for
+to-morrow with pleasure."
+
+"Patty," exclaimed Lucille, in a horrified tone, "you didn't say that!"
+
+"Just a little local color, Lucille," laughed Priscilla.
+
+"But," objected Lucille, "we'd promised not to play local color any
+more."
+
+"Have you not learned," said Priscilla, "that Patty can no more live
+without local color than she can live without food? It's ingrained in
+her nature."
+
+"Never mind," said Patty, good-naturedly; "you may not believe me now,
+but to-morrow night, when I'm all dressed up in beautiful clothes,
+swapping stories with Prexy and eating lobster salad, while you are over
+here having mutton, _then_ maybe you'll be sorry."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+A Crash Without
+
+
+"I love the smell of powder," said Patty.
+
+"Gunpowder or baking-powder?"
+
+As Patty at the moment had her nose buried in a box of face-powder she
+thought it unnecessary to answer.
+
+"It brings back my youth," she pursued. "The best times of my life have
+been mixed up with powder and rouge--Washington's Birthday nights, and
+minstrel shows, and masquerades, and plays at boarding-school, and even
+Mother Goose tableaux when I was a--"
+
+Patty's reminiscences were interrupted by Georgie, who was anxiously
+pacing up and down the wings. "It's queer some of the cast don't come. I
+told them to be here early, so we could get them all made up and not
+have a rush at the end."
+
+"Oh, there's time enough," said Patty, comfortably. "It isn't seven yet,
+and if they're going to dress in their rooms it won't take any time over
+here just to make them up and put on their wigs. It's a comparatively
+small cast, you see. Now, on the night of the Trig. ceremonies, when we
+had to make up three whole ballets and only had one box of make-up, we
+_were_ rushed. I thought I'd never live to see the curtain go down. Do
+you remember the suit of chain-mail we made for Bonnie Connaught out of
+wire dish-cloths? It took sixty-three, and the ten-cent store was
+terribly dubious about renting them to us; and then, after working every
+spare second for three days over the thing, we found, the last minute,
+that we hadn't left a big enough hole for her to get into, and--"
+
+"Oh, do keep still, Patty," said Georgie, nervously; "I can't remember
+what I have to do when you talk all the time."
+
+A manager on the eve of producing a new play, with his reputation at
+stake, may be excused for being a trifle irritable. Patty merely
+shrugged her shoulders and descended through the stage-door to the
+half-lighted hall, where she found Cathy Fair strolling up and down the
+center aisle in an apparently aimless manner.
+
+"Hello, Cathy," said Patty; "what are you doing over here?"
+
+"I'm head usher, and I wanted to see if those foolish sophomores had
+mixed up the numbers again."
+
+"It strikes me they're a trifle close together," said Patty, sitting
+down and squeezing in her knees.
+
+"Yes, I know; but you can't get eight hundred people into this hall any
+other way. When we once get them packed they'll have to sit still,
+that's all. What are you doing over here yourself?" she continued. "I
+didn't know you were on the committee. Or are you just helping
+Georgie?"
+
+"I'm in the cast," said Patty.
+
+"Oh, are you? I saw the program to-day, but I'd forgotten it. I've often
+wondered why you haven't been in any of the class plays."
+
+"Fortune and the faculty are against it," sighed Patty. "You see, they
+didn't discover my histrionic ability before examinations freshman year,
+and after examinations, when I was asked to be in the play, the faculty
+thought I could spend the time to better advantage studying Greek. At
+the time of the sophomore play I was on something else and couldn't
+serve, and this year I had just been deprived of my privileges for
+coming back late after Christmas."
+
+"But I thought you said you were in it?"
+
+"Oh," said Patty, "it's a minor part, and my name doesn't appear."
+
+"What sort of a part is it?"
+
+"I'm a crash."
+
+"A crash?"
+
+"Yes, 'a crash without.' Lord Bromley says, 'Cynthia, I will brave all
+for your sake. I will follow you to the ends of the earth.' At this
+point a crash is heard without. I," said Patty, proudly, "am the crash.
+I sit behind a moonlit balcony in a space about two feet square, and
+drop a lamp-chimney into a box. It may not sound like a very important
+part, but it is the pivot upon which the whole plot turns."
+
+"I hope you won't be taken with stage-fright," laughed Cathy.
+
+"I'll try not," said Patty. "There comes the butler and Lord Bromley and
+Cynthia. I've got to go and make them up."
+
+"Why are you making people up, if you are not on the committee?"
+
+"Oh, once, during a period of mental weakness, I took china-painting
+lessons, and I'm supposed to know how. Good-by."
+
+"Good-by. If you get any flowers I'll send them in by an usher."
+
+"Do," said Patty. "I'm sure to get a lot."
+
+Behind the scenes all was joyful confusion. Georgie, in a short skirt,
+with her shirt-waist sleeves rolled up and a note-book in her hand, was
+standing in the middle of the stage directing the scene-shifters and
+distracted committee. Patty, in the "green-room," was presiding over the
+cast, with a hare's foot in one hand and the other daubed with red and
+blue grease-paints.
+
+"Oh, Patty," remonstrated Cynthia, with a horrified glance in the
+mirror, "I look more like a soubrette than a heroine."
+
+"That's the way you ought to look," returned Patty. "Here, hold still
+till I put another dab on your chin."
+
+Cynthia appealed to the faithful Lord Bromley, who was sitting in the
+background, politely letting the ladies go first. "Look, Bonnie, don't
+you think I'm too red? I know it'll all come off when you kiss me."
+
+"If it comes off as easily as that, you'll be more fortunate than most
+of the people I make up"; and Patty smiled knowingly as she remembered
+how Priscilla had soaked half the night on the occasion of a previous
+play, and then had appeared at breakfast the next morning with lowering
+eyebrows and a hectic flush on each cheek. "You must remember that
+foot-lights take a lot of color," she explained condescendingly. "You'd
+look ghastly if I let you go the way you wanted to at first. Next!
+
+"No," said Patty, as the butler presented himself; "you don't come till
+the second act. I'll take the Irate Parent first." The Irate Parent was
+dragged from a corner where he had been anxiously mumbling over his
+lines. "What's the matter?" asked Patty, as she began daubing in
+wrinkles with a liberal hand; "are you afraid?"
+
+"N-no," said the Parent; "I'm not afraid, only I'm afraid that I will be
+afraid."
+
+"You'd just better change your mind, then," said Patty, sternly. "We
+aren't going to allow any stage-fright to-night."
+
+"Patty, you can manage Georgie Merriles; make her let me go on without
+any wig," cried Cynthia, returning and holding up to view a mass of
+yellow curls of a shade that was never produced in the course of nature.
+
+Patty looked at the wig critically. "It is, perhaps, a trifle golden for
+the part."
+
+"Golden!" said Cynthia. "It's positively _orange_. Wait till you see how
+it lights up. He calls me his dark-eyed beauty: and I'm sure no one with
+dark eyes, or any other kind of eyes, would have hair like that. My own
+looks a great deal better."
+
+"Why don't you wear your own, then? Wrinkle up your forehead, Parent,
+and let me see which way they run."
+
+"Georgie paid two dollars for renting it, and she's bound to get the
+money's worth of wear out of it, even if she makes me look like a fright
+and spoils the play."
+
+"Nonsense," said Patty, pushing away the Parent and giving her undivided
+attention to the question. "Your own hair does look better. Just mislay
+the wig and keep out of Georgie's way till the curtain goes up. The
+audience are beginning to come," she announced to the room in general,
+"and you've got to keep still back there. You're making an awful racket,
+and they can hear you all over the house. Here, what are you making such
+a noise for?" she demanded of Lord Bromley, who came clumping up with
+footfalls which reverberated through the flies.
+
+"I can't help it," he said crossly. "Look at these boots. They're so big
+that I can step out of them without unlacing them."
+
+"It's not my fault. I haven't anything to do with the costumes."
+
+"I know it; but what can I do?"
+
+"Never mind," said Patty, soothingly; "they don't look so awfully bad.
+You'll have to try and walk without raising your feet."
+
+She went out on the stage, where Georgie was giving her last directions
+to the scene-shifters. "The minute the curtain goes down on the first
+act change this forest to the drawing-room scene, and don't make any
+noise hammering. If you have to hammer, do it while the orchestra's
+playing. How does it look?" she asked anxiously, turning to Patty.
+
+"Beautiful," said Patty. "I'd scarcely recognize it."
+
+The "forest scene" had served in every outdoor capacity for the last
+four years, and it was usually hailed with a groan on the part of the
+audience.
+
+"I was just coming in to see if the cast were ready," said Georgie.
+
+"They're all made up, and are sitting in the green-room getting
+stage-fright. What shall I do now?"
+
+"Let me see," said Georgie, consulting her book. "One of the committee
+is to prompt, one is to stay with the men and see that they manage the
+curtain and the lights in the right places, one is to give the cues, and
+two are to help change costumes. Cynthia has to change from a
+riding-habit to a ball-gown in four minutes. I think you'd better help
+her, too."
+
+"Anything you please," said Patty, obligingly. "I'll stand on a stool
+with the ball-gown in the air ready to drop it over her head the moment
+she appears, like a harness on a fire-horse. Is everything out here
+done? What time is it?"
+
+"Yes; everything's done, and it's five minutes of eight. We can begin as
+soon as the audience is ready."
+
+They peered through the folds of the heavy velvet curtain at the sea of
+faces in front. Eight hundred girls in light evening-gowns were talking
+and laughing and singing. Snatches of song would start up in one corner
+and sweep gaily over the house, and sometimes two would meet and clash
+in the center, to the horror of those who preferred harmony to volume.
+
+"Here come the old girls!" said Patty, as a procession of some fifty
+filed into reserved seats near the front. "There are loads of last
+year's class back. What are the juniors doing? Look; I believe they are
+going to serenade them."
+
+The juniors rose in a body, and, turning to their departed sister class,
+sang a song notable for its sentiment rather than its meter.
+
+"I do hope it will be a success," sighed Georgie. "If it doesn't come up
+to last year's senior play I shall _die_."
+
+"Oh, it will," said Patty, reassuringly. "Anything would be better than
+that."
+
+"Now the glee club's going to sing two songs," said Georgie. "Thank
+heaven, they're new!" she added fervently. "And the orchestra plays an
+overture, and then the curtain goes up. Run and tell them to come out
+here, ready for the first act."
+
+Lord Bromley was standing in the wings disgustedly viewing the
+banquet-table. "See here, Patty," he called as she hurried past. "Look
+at this stuff Georgie Merriles has palmed off on us for wine. You can't
+expect me to drink any such dope as _that_."
+
+Patty paused for an instant. "What's the matter with it?" she inquired,
+pouring out some in a glass and holding it up to the light.
+
+"Matter? It's made of currant jelly and water, with cold tea mixed in."
+
+"I made it myself," said Patty, with some dignity. "It's a beautiful
+color."
+
+"But I have to drain my glass at a draught," expostulated the outraged
+lord.
+
+"I'm sure there's nothing in currant jelly or tea to hurt you. You can
+be thankful it isn't poisonous." And Patty hurried on.
+
+The glee club sang the two new songs, punctuated with the appreciative
+applause of a long-suffering audience, and the orchestra commenced the
+overture.
+
+"Everybody clear the stage," said Georgie, in a low tone, "and you keep
+your eyes on the book," she added sternly to the prompter; "you lost
+your place twice at the dress rehearsal."
+
+The overture died down; a bell tinkled, and the curtain parted in the
+middle, discovering Cynthia sitting on a garden-seat in the castle park
+(originally the Forest of Arden).
+
+As the curtain fell at the end of the act, and the applause gave way to
+an excited buzz in the audience, Patty hugged Georgie gleefully. "It's
+fifty times better than last year!"
+
+"Heaven send Theo Granby is out there!" piously ejaculated Georgie.
+(Theo Granby had been the chairman of last year's senior play.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE curtain had risen on the fourth act, and Patty squeezed herself into
+the somewhat close quarters behind the balcony. There was
+fortunately--or rather unfortunately--a window in the rear of the
+building at this point, and Patty opened it and perched herself at one
+end of the sill, with the lamp-chimney ready for use at the other end.
+The crash was not due for some time, and Patty, having lately elected
+astronomy, whiled away the interval by examining the stars.
+
+On the stage matters were approaching a climax. Lord Bromley was making
+an excellent lover, as was proved by the fact that the audience was
+taking him seriously instead of laughing through the love scenes as
+usual.
+
+"Cynthia," he implored, "say that you will be mine, and I will brave all
+for your sake. I will follow you to the ends of the earth." He gazed
+tenderly into her eyes, and waited for the crash. A silence as of the
+tomb prevailed, and he continued to gaze tenderly, while a grin rapidly
+spread over the audience.
+
+"Hang Patty!" he murmured savagely. "Might have known she'd do something
+like this.--What was that? Did you hear a noise?" he asked aloud.
+
+"No," said Cynthia, truthfully; "I did not hear anything."
+
+"Pretend you did," he whispered, and they continued to improvise. After
+some five minutes of hopeless floundering, the prompter got them back on
+the track again, and the act proceeded, with the audience happily
+unaware that anything was missing.
+
+Ten minutes later Lord Bromley was declaiming: "Cynthia, let us flee
+this place. Its dark rooms haunt me; its silence oppresses me--" And the
+crash came.
+
+For the first moment the audience was too startled to notice that the
+actors were also taken by surprise. Then Lord Bromley, who was getting
+used to emergencies, pulled himself together and ejaculated, "Hark! What
+was that sound?"
+
+"I think it was a crash," said Cynthia.
+
+He grasped her hand and ran back toward the balcony. "Give us our
+lines," he said to the prompter, as he went past.
+
+The prompter had dropped the book, and couldn't find the place.
+
+"Make them up," came in a piercing whisper from behind the balcony.
+
+A silence ensued while the two dashed back and forth, looking excitedly
+up and down the stage. Then the despairing Lord Bromley stretched out
+his arms in a gesture of supplication. "Cynthia," he burst out in tones
+of realistic longing, "I cannot bear this horrible suspense. Let us
+flee." And they fled, fully three pages too early, forgetting to leave
+the letter which should have apprised the Irate Parent of the
+circumstance.
+
+Georgie was tramping up and down the wings, wringing her hands and
+lamenting the day that ever Patty had been born.
+
+"Hurry up that Parent before they stop clapping," said Lord Bromley,
+"and they'll never know the difference."
+
+The poor old man, with his wig over one ear, was unceremoniously hustled
+on to the stage, where he raved up and down and swore never to forgive
+his ungrateful daughter in so realistic a manner that the audience
+forgot to wonder how he found it out. In due time the runaways returned
+from the notary's, overcame the old man's harshness, received the
+parental blessing, and the curtain fell on a scene of domestic felicity
+that delighted the freshmen in the gallery.
+
+Patty crawled out from under the balcony and fell on her knees at
+Georgie's feet.
+
+Lord Bromley raised her up. "Never mind, Patty. The audience doesn't
+know the difference; and, anyway, it was all for the best. My mustache
+wouldn't have stayed on more than two minutes longer."
+
+They could hear some one shouting in the front, "What's the matter with
+Georgie Merriles?" and a hundred voices replied, "She's all right!"
+
+"Who's all right?"
+
+"G-e-o-r-g-i-e M-e-r-r-i-l-e-s."
+
+"What's the matter with the cast?"
+
+"They're all right!"
+
+The stage-door burst open and a crowd of congratulatory friends burst in
+and gathered around the disheveled actors and committee. "It's the best
+senior play since we've been in college." "The freshmen are simply crazy
+over it." "Lord Bromley, your room will be full of flowers for a month."
+"Patty," called the head usher, over the heads of the others, "let me
+congratulate you. I was in the very back of the room, and never heard a
+thing but your crash. It sounded _fine_!"
+
+"Patty," demanded Georgie, "what in the world were you doing?"
+
+"I was counting the stars," said the contrite Patty, "and then I
+remembered too late, and I turned around suddenly, and it fell off. I am
+terribly sorry."
+
+"Never mind," laughed Georgie; "since it turned out well, I'll forgive
+you. All the cast and committee," she said, raising her voice, "come up
+to my room for food. I'm sorry I can't invite you all," she added to the
+girls crowded in the doorway, "but I live in a single."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+The Mystery of the Shadowed Sophomore
+
+
+"Oh, I say, Bonnie--Bonnie Connaught! Priscilla! Wait a minute," called
+a girl from across the links, as the two were strolling homeward one
+afternoon, dragging their caddie-bags behind them. They turned and
+waited while Bonnie's sophomore cousin, Mildred Connaught, dashed up.
+She grasped them excitedly, and at the same time glanced over her
+shoulder with the air of a criminal who is being tracked.
+
+"I want to tell you something," she panted. "Come in here where no one
+will see us"; and she dived into a clump of pine-trees growing by the
+path.
+
+Priscilla and Bonnie followed more leisurely, and dropped down on the
+soft needles with an air of amused tolerance.
+
+"Well, Mildred, what's the matter?" Bonnie inquired mildly.
+
+The sophomore lowered her voice to an impressive whisper, although there
+was not a person within a hundred yards. "I am being _followed_," she
+said solemnly.
+
+"Followed!" exclaimed Bonnie, in amazement. "Are you crazy, child? You
+act like a boy who's been reading dime novels."
+
+"Listen, girls. You mustn't tell a soul, because it's a great secret.
+We're going to plant the class tree to-night, and I am chairman of the
+ceremonies. Everything is ready--the costumes are finished and the plans
+all arranged so that the class can get out to the place without being
+seen. The freshmen haven't a suspicion that it's going to be to-night.
+But they have found out that I'm chairman of the committee, and, if you
+please,"--Mildred's eyes grew wide with excitement,--"they've been
+_tracking_ me for a week. They have _relays_ of girls appointed to
+watch me, and I can't stir without a freshman tagging along behind. When
+I went down to order the ice-cream, there was one right at my elbow, and
+I had to pretend that I'd come for soda-water. I have simply had to let
+the rest of the committee do all of the work, because I was so afraid
+the freshmen would find out the time. It was funny at first, but I am
+getting nervous. It's horrible to think that you're being watched all
+the time. I feel as if I'd committed a murder, and keep looking over my
+shoulder like--like Macbeth."
+
+"It's _awful_," Bonnie shuddered. "I'm thrilled to the bone to think of
+the peril a member of my family is braving for the sake of her class."
+
+"You needn't laugh," said Mildred. "It's a serious matter. If those
+freshmen come to our tree ceremonies, we'll never hear the last of it.
+But they are not going to come," she added with a meaning smile. "They
+have another engagement. We chose to-night because there's a lecture
+before the Archaeological Society by some alumna person who's been
+digging up remains in Rome. The freshmen have been told to go and hear
+her on account of their Latin. Imagine their feelings when they are
+cooped up in the auditorium, trying to look intelligent about the Roman
+Forum, and listening to our yells outside!"
+
+Priscilla and Bonnie smiled appreciatively. It was not so long, after
+all, since they themselves were sophomores, and they recalled their own
+tree ceremonies, when the freshmen had _not_ been cooped up.
+
+"But the trouble is," pursued Mildred, "that it's more important for me
+to get there than any one else, because I have to dig the hole,--Peters
+is really going to dig it, you know; I just take out the first
+shovelful,--but I can't get there on account of that beastly scout. As
+soon as she saw me acting suspicious, she'd run and warn the class."
+
+"I see," said Bonnie; "but what have Priscilla and I to do with it?"
+
+"Well," said Mildred, tentatively, "you're both pretty big, you know,
+and you're our sister class, and you ought to help us."
+
+"Certainly," acquiesced Bonnie; "but in just what way?"
+
+"Well, my idea was this. If you would just stroll down by the lake after
+chapel, and loiter sort of inconspicuously among the trees, you know, I
+would come that way a little later, and then, when the detective person
+came along after me, you could just nab her and--"
+
+"Chuck her in the lake?" asked Bonnie.
+
+"No, of course not. Don't use any force. Just politely detain her till
+you hear us yelling--take her for a walk. She'd feel honored."
+
+Bonnie laughed. The program struck her as entertaining. "I don't see
+anything very immoral in delaying a freshman who is going where she has
+no business to go. What do you say, Pris?"
+
+"It's not exactly a Sunday-school excursion," acknowledged Priscilla,
+"but I don't see why it isn't as legitimate for us to play detective as
+for them."
+
+"By all means," said Bonnie. "Behold Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr.
+Watson about to solve the Mystery of the Shadowed Sophomore."
+
+"You've saved my life," said Mildred, feelingly. "Don't forget. Right
+after chapel, by the lake." She peered warily out through the branches.
+"I've got to get the keys to the gymnasium, so the refreshments can be
+put in during chapel. Do you see anybody lurking about? I guess I can
+get off without being seen. Good-by"; and she sped away like a hunted
+animal.
+
+Bonnie looked after her and laughed. "'Youth is a great time, but
+somewhat fussy,'" she quoted; and the two took their homeward way.
+
+They found Patty, who was experiencing a periodical fit of studying,
+immersed in dictionaries and grammars. It was under protest that she
+allowed herself to be interrupted long enough to hear the story of their
+proposed adventure.
+
+"You babies!" she exclaimed. "Haven't you grown up yet? Don't you think
+it's a little undignified for seniors--one might almost say alumnae--to
+be kidnapping freshmen?"
+
+"We're not kidnapping freshmen," Bonnie remonstrated; "we're teaching
+them manners. It's my duty to protect my little cousin."
+
+"You can come with us and help detect," said Priscilla, generously.
+
+"Thank you," said Patty, loftily. "I haven't time to play with you
+children. Cathy Fair and I are going to do Old English to-night."
+
+That evening, as Patty, keyed to the point of grappling with and
+throwing whole pages of "Beowulf," stood outside the chapel door waiting
+for Cathy to appear, the professor of Latin came out with a stranger.
+
+"Oh, Miss Wyatt!" she exclaimed in a relieved tone, pouncing upon Patty.
+"I wish to present you to Miss Henderson, one of our alumnae who is to
+lecture to-night before the Archaeological Society. She has not been back
+for several years, and wishes to see the new buildings. Have you time to
+show her around the campus a little before the lecture begins?"
+
+Patty bowed and murmured that she would be most happy, and cast an
+agonized glance back at Cathy as she led the lecturer off. As they
+strolled about, Patty poured out all the statistics she knew about the
+various buildings, and Miss Henderson received them with exclamations of
+delighted surprise. She was rather young and gushing for a Ph.D. and an
+archaeologist, Patty decided, and she wondered desperately how she could
+dispose of her and get back to "Beowulf" and Cathy.
+
+They rounded the top of a little hill, and Miss Henderson exclaimed
+delightedly, "There is the lake, just as it used to be!"
+
+Patty stifled a desire to remark that lakes had a habit of staying where
+they used to be, and asked politely if Miss Henderson would like to take
+a row.
+
+Miss Henderson thought that it would be pleasant; but she had forgotten
+her watch, and was afraid there would not be time.
+
+Patty glanced about vaguely for some further object of interest, and
+spied Mildred Connaught sauntering toward the lake. She had forgotten
+all about the Sherlock Holmes adventure, and she suddenly had an
+inspiration. Be it said to her credit that she hesitated a moment; but
+the lecturer's next remark led to her own undoing. She was murmuring
+something about feeling like a stranger, and wishing that she might know
+the students informally and see a little of the real college life.
+
+"It would be a pity not to gratify her when I can do it so easily,"
+Patty told herself; and she added out loud, "I am sure we have time for
+a little row, Miss Henderson. You walk on, and I will run back and get
+my watch; it won't take a minute."
+
+"I wouldn't have you do that; it is too much trouble," remonstrated Miss
+Henderson.
+
+"It's no trouble whatever," Patty protested kindly. "I can take a cross
+cut, and meet you at the little summer-house where the boats are moored.
+It's straight down this path; you can't miss it. Just follow that girl
+over there"; and she darted away.
+
+The lecturer gazed dubiously after her a moment, and then started on
+after the girl, who cast a look over her shoulder and quickened her
+pace. It was growing quite dusky under the trees, and the lecturer
+hurried on, trying to keep the girl in sight; but she unexpectedly
+turned a corner and disappeared, and at the same moment two strange
+girls suddenly dropped into the path, apparently from the tree-tops.
+
+"Good evening," they said pleasantly. "Are you taking a walk?"
+
+The lecturer started back with an exclamation of surprise; but as soon
+as she could regain her composure, she replied politely that she was
+strolling about and looking at the campus.
+
+"Perhaps you would like to stroll with us?" they inquired.
+
+"Thank you, you are very kind; but I have an engagement to row with one
+of the students."
+
+Priscilla and Bonnie exchanged delighted glances. They had evidently
+caught a resourceful young person.
+
+"Oh, no; it's too late for a row. You might get malaria," Priscilla
+remonstrated. "Come and sit on the fence with us and admire the stars;
+it's a lovely night."
+
+The lecturer cast an alarmed glance toward the fence, which appeared to
+have an unusually narrow top rail. "You are very kind," she stammered,
+"but I really can't stop. The girl will be waiting."
+
+"Who is the girl?" they inquired.
+
+"I don't know that I remember her name."
+
+"Mildred Connaught?" Bonnie suggested.
+
+"No; I don't think that is it, but I really can't say. I have only just
+met her."
+
+Miss Henderson was growing more and more puzzled. In her day the
+students had not been in the habit of way-laying strangers with
+invitations to go walking and sit on fences.
+
+"Ah, _do_ stay with us," Bonnie begged, laying a hand on her arm. "We're
+lonely and want some one to talk to--we'll tell you a secret if you do."
+
+"I am sorry," Miss Henderson murmured confusedly, "but--"
+
+"We'll tell you the secret anyway," said Bonnie, generously, "and I'm
+sure you'll be interested. The sophomores are going to have their tree
+ceremonies to-night!"
+
+"And you know," Priscilla broke in, "that the freshmen really ought to
+attend them too--it doesn't matter if they aren't invited. But where do
+you suppose the freshmen are to-night? They're attending a foolish
+little lecture on the Roman Forum."
+
+"And though we don't wish to seem insistent," Bonnie added, "we should
+really like to have your company until the lecture is over."
+
+"Until the lecture is over! But I am the lecturer," gasped Miss
+Henderson.
+
+Bonnie grinned delightedly. "I am happy to meet you," she said, with a
+bow. "And perhaps you do not recognize us. I am Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and
+this is my friend Dr. Watson."
+
+Dr. Watson bowed, and remarked that it was an unexpected pleasure. He
+had often heard of the famous lecturer, but had never hoped to meet her.
+
+Miss Henderson, who was not very conversant with recent literature,
+looked more dazed than ever. It flashed across her mind that there was
+an insane asylum in the neighborhood, and the thought was not
+reassuring.
+
+"We'll not handcuff you," said Bonnie, magnanimously, "if you'll come
+with us quietly."
+
+The lecturer, in spite of fervid protestations that she was a lecturer,
+presently found herself sitting on the fence, with a girl on either side
+grasping an elbow. A light was beginning to break upon her, together
+with a poignant realization of the fact that she was seeing more of the
+real college life than she cared for.
+
+"What time is it?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Ten minutes past eight by my watch, but I think it's a little slow,"
+said Bonnie.
+
+"I am afraid you're going to be late for your lecture," said Priscilla.
+"It seems a pity to waste it. Suppose you tell it to us instead."
+
+"Yes, do," urged Bonnie. "I just dote on the Roman Forum."
+
+The lecturer preserved a dignified silence, which was broken only by the
+croaking of the frogs and the occasional remarks of the two detectives.
+She had relinquished all hope of ever seeing the Archaeological Society,
+and had philosophically resigned herself to the prospect of sitting on
+the fence all night, when suddenly there burst out from across the
+campus a song of victory, mingled with cheers and inarticulate yells.
+
+At the first sound, Bonnie and Priscilla tumbled down from the fence,
+bringing the lecturer with them, and, each grasping her by a hand, they
+started to run. "Come on and see the fun," they laughed. "You're
+perfectly welcome; it's no secret any more." And, in spite of breathless
+protestations that she much preferred to walk, Miss Henderson found
+herself dashing across the campus in the direction of the sounds.
+
+Heads suddenly appeared in the dormitory windows, doors banged, and
+girls came running from every quarter with excited exclamations: "The
+sophomores are having their tree ceremonies!" "Where are the freshmen?"
+"Why didn't they get there?"
+
+A crowd quickly gathered in the shadow of the trees and watched the
+scene with laughing interest. A wide circle of colored lanterns swayed
+in the breeze, and, within, a line of white-robed figures wound and
+unwound about a tiny tree to the music of a solemn chant.
+
+"Isn't it pretty? Aren't you glad we brought you?" Bonnie demanded as
+they pushed through the crowd.
+
+The lecturer did not answer, for she caught sight of the Latin professor
+hurrying toward them.
+
+"Miss Henderson! I was afraid you were lost. It is nearly half-past
+eight. The audience has been waiting, and we have been filling in the
+time with reports."
+
+For a moment the lecturer was silent, being occupied with an amused
+scrutiny of the faces of her captors; and then she rose to the occasion
+like a lady and a scholar, and delivered a masterly apology, with never
+a reference to her sojourn on the fence.
+
+Bonnie and Priscilla stared at each other without a word, and as Miss
+Henderson was led away to the remnants of her audience Patty suddenly
+appeared.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Did you solve your
+mystery?" she asked sweetly.
+
+Priscilla turned her to the light and scrutinized her face.
+
+Patty smiled back with wide-open, innocent eyes.
+
+Priscilla knew the expression, and she shook her. "You little wretch!"
+she exclaimed.
+
+Patty squirmed out from under her grasp. "If you remember," she
+murmured, "I once said that the Lick Observatory was in Dublin, Ireland.
+It was a very funny mistake, of course, but I know of others that are
+funnier."
+
+"What do you mean?" Bonnie demanded.
+
+"I mean," said Patty, "that I wish you never to mention the Lick
+Observatory again."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+Patty and the Bishop
+
+
+The dressing-bell rang for Sunday morning service, and Patty laid down
+her book with a sigh and went and stood by the open window. The outside
+world was a shimmering green and yellow, the trees showed a feathery
+fringe against the sky, and the breeze was redolent of violets and fresh
+earth.
+
+"Patty," called Priscilla, from her bedroom, "you'll have to hurry if
+you want me to fasten your dress. I have to go to choir rehearsal."
+
+Patty turned back with another sigh, and began slowly unhooking her
+collar. Then she sat down on the edge of the couch and stared absently
+out of the window.
+
+A vigorous banging of bureau drawers in Priscilla's room was presently
+followed by Priscilla herself in the doorway. She surveyed her room-mate
+suspiciously. "Why aren't you dressing?" she demanded.
+
+"I'll fasten my own dress; you needn't wait," said Patty, without
+removing her eyes from the window.
+
+"Bishop Copeley's going to preach to-day, and he's such an old dear; you
+mustn't be late."
+
+Patty elevated her chin a trifle and shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Aren't you going to chapel?"
+
+Patty brought her gaze back from the window and looked up at Priscilla
+beseechingly. "It's such a lovely day," she pleaded, "and I'd so much
+rather spend the time out of doors; I'm sure it would be a lot better
+for my spiritual welfare."
+
+"It's not a question of spiritual welfare; it's a question of cuts.
+You've already over-cut twice. What excuse do you intend to give when
+the Self-Government Committee asks for an explanation?"
+
+"'Sufficient unto the day,'" laughed Patty. "When the time comes I'll
+think of a beautiful new excuse that will charm the committee."
+
+"You ought to be ashamed to evade the rules the way you do."
+
+"Where is the fun of living if you are going to make yourself a slave to
+all sorts of petty rules?" asked Patty, wearily.
+
+"I don't know why you have a right to live outside of rules any more
+than the rest of us."
+
+Patty shrugged. "I take the right, and every one else can do the same."
+
+"Every one else can't," returned Priscilla, hotly, "for there wouldn't
+be any law left in college if they did. I should a good deal rather play
+out of doors myself than go to chapel, but I've used up all my cuts and
+I can't. You couldn't either if you had a shred of proper feeling left.
+The only way you can get out of it is by lying."
+
+"Priscilla dear," Patty murmured, "people in polite society don't put
+things quite so baldly. If you would be respected in the best circles,
+you must practise the art of equivocation."
+
+Priscilla frowned impatiently. "Are you coming, or are you not?" she
+demanded.
+
+"I am not."
+
+Priscilla closed the door--not quite as softly as a door should be
+closed--and Patty was left alone. She sat thinking a few minutes with
+slightly flushed cheeks, and then as the chapel bell rang she shook
+herself and laughed. Even had she wished to go it was too late now, and
+all feeling of responsibility vanished. As soon as the decorous swish of
+Sunday silks had ceased in the corridor outside, she caught up a book
+and a cushion, and, creeping down by the side stairs, set gaily out
+across the sunlit lawn, with the deliciously guilty thrill of a truant
+little boy who has run away from school.
+
+From the open windows of the chapel she could hear the college
+chanting: "Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this
+law." She laughed happily to herself; she was not keeping laws to-day.
+They might stay in there in the gloom, if they wanted to, with their
+commandments and their litanies. She was worshiping under the blue sky,
+to the jubilant chanting of the birds.
+
+She was the only person alive and out that morning, and the spring was
+in her blood, and she felt as though she owned the world. The campus had
+never seemed so radiant. She paused on the little rustic bridge to watch
+the excited swirling of the brook, and she nearly lost her balance while
+trying to launch a tiny boat made of a piece of bark. She dropped
+pebbles into the pool in order to watch the startled frogs splash back
+into the water, and she threw her cushion at a squirrel, and laughed
+aloud at its angry chattering. She raced up the side of Pine Bluff, and
+dropped down panting on the fragrant needles in the shadow of a tall
+pine.
+
+Below her the ivy-covered buildings of the college lay clustered among
+the trees; and in the Sunday quiet, with the sunlight shining on the
+towers, it looked like some medieval village sleeping in the valley.
+Patty gazed down dreamily with half-shut eyes, and imagined that
+presently a band of troubadours and ladies would come riding out on
+milk-white mules. But the sight of Peters, strolling to the gateway in
+his Sunday clothes, spoiled the illusion, and she turned to her book
+with a smile. Presently she closed it, however. This was not the time
+for reading. One could read in winter and when it rained, and even in
+the college library with every one else turning pages; but out here in
+the open, with the real things of life happening all about, it was a
+waste of opportunity.
+
+Her eyes wandered back to the campus again, and she suddenly grew sober
+as the thought swept over her that in a few weeks more it would be hers
+no longer. This happy, irresponsible community life, which had come to
+be the only natural way of living, was suddenly at an end. She
+remembered the first day of being a freshman, when everything but
+herself had looked so big, and she had thought desperately, "Four years
+of this!" It had seemed like an eternity; and now that it was over it
+seemed like a minute. She wanted to clutch the present and hold it fast.
+It was a terrible thing--this growing old.
+
+And there were the girls. She would have to say good-by, with no opening
+day in the fall--and Priscilla lived in California and Georgie in South
+Dakota and Bonnie in Kentucky and she in New England, and they were the
+only people in the world she particularly cared to talk to. She would
+have to get acquainted with her mother's friends--with chronically
+grown-up people, who talked about husbands and children and servants.
+And there would be men. She had never had time to know many men; but
+some day she would probably be marrying one of them, and then all
+_would_ be over; and before she had time to think, she would be an old
+lady, telling her grandchildren stories about when she was a girl.
+
+[Illustration: I have just run away from you, Bishop Copeley]
+
+Patty gazed mournfully down on the campus, almost on the verge of tears
+over her lost youth, when a step suddenly sounded on the gravel path,
+and she looked up with a startled glance to see a churchly figure
+rounding the hill. Involuntarily she prepared for flight; but the bishop
+had spied her, together with a little rustic seat under a tree, and he
+smiled upon the one and dropped down upon the other with a sigh of
+content.
+
+"A beautiful view," he gasped; "but a very steep hill."
+
+"It is steep," Patty agreed politely; and as there seemed to be no
+chance of escape, she resumed her seat and added, with a laugh: "I have
+just run away from you, Bishop Copeley, and here you come following
+along behind like an accusing conscience."
+
+The bishop chuckled. "I've run away myself," he returned; "I knew I
+should have to be introduced to a hundred or so of you after service,
+so I just slipped out the back way for a quiet stroll."
+
+Patty eyed him appreciatively, with a new sense of fellow-feeling.
+
+"I should like to have run away from church as well," he confessed, with
+a twinkle in his eye. "Out of doors is the best church on a day like
+this."
+
+"That's what I think," said Patty, cordially; "but I had no idea that
+bishops were so sensible."
+
+They chatted along in a friendly manner on various subjects, and
+exchanged lay opinions on the college and the clergy.
+
+"It's a funny thing about this place," said Patty, ruminatingly, "that,
+though we have a different preacher every Sunday, we always have the
+same sermon."
+
+"The same sermon?" inquired the bishop, somewhat aghast.
+
+"Practically the same," said Patty. "I've heard it for four years, and I
+think I could almost preach it myself. They all seem to think, you know,
+that because we come to college we must be monsters of reason, and they
+urge us to remember that reason and science are not the only things that
+count in the world--that feeling is, after all, the main factor; and
+they quote a little poem about the flower being beautiful, I know not
+why. That wasn't what yours was about?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Not this time," said the bishop; "I preached an old one."
+
+"It's the best way," said Patty. "We're human beings, if we do come to
+college. I remember once we had a man from Yale or Harvard or some such
+place, and he preached an old sermon: he urged us to become more manly.
+It was very refreshing."
+
+The bishop smiled. "Do you run away from church very often?" he inquired
+mildly.
+
+"No; I don't have a chance when I room with Priscilla. But obligatory
+chapel makes you want to run away," she added. "It's not the chapel I
+object to; it's the obligatoriness."
+
+"But you have a system of--er--cuts," he suggested.
+
+"Three a month," said Patty, sadly. "Evening chapel counts as one, but
+Sunday morning church as two."
+
+"So you expended two cuts to escape me?" he asked with a smile.
+
+"Oh, it wasn't you," Patty remonstrated hastily. "It was just--the
+obligatoriness. And besides," she added frankly, "my legitimate cuts
+were used up days ago, and when I once begin over-cutting, I am
+reckless."
+
+"And may I ask what happens when you over-cut?" the bishop inquired.
+
+"Well," said Patty, "there are proctors, you know, that mark you when
+you are absent; and then, if they find that you've over-cut, the
+Self-Government Committee calls you up and asks the reason. If you can't
+produce a good excuse you are deprived of your privileges for a month,
+and you can't be on committees or in plays or get leave of absence to go
+out of town."
+
+"I see," said the bishop; "and will you have to suffer all of those
+penalties?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Patty, comfortably; "I shall produce a good excuse."
+
+"What will you say?" he inquired.
+
+"I don't know, exactly; I shall have to depend on the inspiration of the
+moment."
+
+The bishop regarded her quizzically. "Do you mean," he asked, "that,
+having broken the rule, you intend to evade the penalty by--to put it
+flatly--a falsehood?"
+
+"Oh, no, bishop," said Patty, in a shocked tone. "Of course I shall tell
+the truth, only"--she looked up in the bishop's face with an
+irresistible smile--"the committee probably won't understand it."
+
+For an instant the bishop's face relaxed, and then he grew grave again.
+"By a subterfuge?" he asked.
+
+"Y-yes," acknowledged Patty; "I suppose you _might_ call it a
+subterfuge. I dare say I am pretty bad," she added, "but you have to
+have a reputation for something in a place like this or you get
+overlooked. I can't compete in goodness or in athletics or in anything
+like that, so there's nothing left for me but to surpass in badness--I
+have quite a gift for it."
+
+The corners of the bishop's mouth twitched. "You don't look like one
+with a criminal record."
+
+"I'm young yet," said Patty. "It hasn't commenced to show."
+
+"My dear little girl," said the bishop, "I have already preached one
+sermon to-day, which you didn't come to hear, and I can't undertake to
+preach another for your benefit,"--Patty looked relieved,--"but there is
+one question I should like to ask you. In after years, when you are
+through college and the question is asked of some of your class-mates,
+'Did you know--' You have not told me your name."
+
+"Patty Wyatt."
+
+"'Did you know Patty Wyatt, and what sort of a girl was she?' will the
+answer be what you would wish?"
+
+Patty considered. "Ye-yes; I think, on the whole, they'd stand by me."
+
+"This morning," the bishop continued placidly, "I asked a professor in
+an entirely casual way about a young woman--a class-mate of your
+own--who is the daughter of an old friend of mine. The answer was
+immediate and unhesitating, and you can imagine how much it gratified
+me. 'There is not a finer girl in college,' he replied. 'She is honest
+in work and honest in play, and thoroughly conscientious in everything
+she does.'"
+
+"Um-m," said Patty; "that must have been Priscilla."
+
+"No," smiled the bishop, "it was not Priscilla. The young woman of whom
+I am speaking is the president of your Student Association, Catherine
+Fair."
+
+"Yes, it's true," said Patty, critically. "Cathy Fair hits straight from
+the shoulder."
+
+"And wouldn't you like to go out with that reputation?"
+
+"I'm really not _very_ bad," pleaded Patty, "that is, as badness goes.
+But I couldn't be as good as Cathy; it would be going against nature."
+
+"I am afraid," suggested the bishop, "that you do not try very hard. You
+may not think that it matters what people think now that you are young,
+but how will it be when you grow older? And it will not be long," he
+added. "Age slips upon you before you realize it."
+
+Patty looked sober.
+
+"You will soon be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty."
+
+Patty sighed.
+
+"And do you think that a woman of that age is attractive if she deals in
+subterfuges and evasions?"
+
+Patty squirmed a trifle, and dug a little hole in the pine-needles with
+her toe.
+
+"You must remember that you cannot form your character in a moment, my
+dear. Character is a plant of slow growth, and the seeds must be planted
+early."
+
+The bishop rose, and Patty scrambled to her feet with a look of relief.
+He took the pillow and the book under his arm, and they started down the
+hill. "I have preached you a sermon, after all," he said apologetically;
+"but preaching is my trade, and you must forgive an old man for being
+prosy."
+
+Patty held out her hand with a smile as they stopped before the door of
+Phillips Hall. "Good-by, bishop," she said, "and thank you for the
+sermon; I guess I needed it--I _am_ getting old."
+
+She climbed the stairs slowly, and, hesitating a moment outside her own
+room, where the sound of laughing voices through the transom betokened
+that the clan was gathered, she kept on to the door of a single at the
+end of the corridor.
+
+"Come in," a voice called in response to her knock.
+
+Patty turned the knob and stuck her head in. "Hello, Cathy! Are you
+busy?"
+
+"Of course not. Come in and talk to me."
+
+Patty shut the door and leaned with her back against it. "This isn't a
+social call," she announced impressively. "I've come to see you
+officially."
+
+"Officially?"
+
+"You're president of students, I believe?"
+
+"I believe I am," sighed Cathy; "and if the President of the United
+States has half as much trouble with his subjects as I have with mine,
+he has my sincerest sympathy."
+
+"I suppose we are a great deal of trouble," said Patty, contritely.
+
+"Trouble! My dear," said Cathy, solemnly. "I've spent the entire week
+running around to the different cottages making speeches to those
+blessed freshmen. They _won't_ hand in chapel excuses, and they _will_
+run off with library books, and, altogether, they're an immoral lot."
+
+"They can afford to be; they're young," sighed Patty, enviously. "But
+I," she added, "am getting old, and it's time I was getting good. I've
+called to tell you that I've over-cut four times, and I haven't any
+excuse."
+
+"What are you talking about?" asked Cathy, in amazement.
+
+"Chapel excuses. I've over-cut four times,--I think it's four, though
+I've rather lost count,--and I haven't any excuse."
+
+"But, Patty, don't tell me that. You must have some excuse, some reason
+for--"
+
+"Not the shadow of one. Just stayed away because I didn't feel like
+going."
+
+"But you must give me _some_ reason," remonstrated Cathy, in distress,
+"or I'll have to report it to the committee and you'll be deprived of
+your privileges. You can't afford that, you know, for you're chairman of
+the Senior Prom."
+
+"But I didn't have any excuse, and I can't make one up," said Patty. "I
+will soon be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty. Do you think a
+woman of that age is attractive if she deals in subterfuges and
+evasions? Character," she added solemnly, "is a plant of slow growth,
+and the seeds must be planted early."
+
+Cathy looked puzzled. "I don't know what you're talking about," she
+said, "but I suppose you do. Anyway," she added, "I'm sorry about the
+chairmanship; but I'm--well, I'm sort of glad, too." She laid a hand on
+Patty's shoulder. "Of course I've always liked you, Patty,--everybody
+does,--but I don't believe I've ever appreciated you, and I'm glad to
+find it out before we leave college."
+
+Patty's face flushed a trifle and she drew away half sheepishly. "You'd
+best postpone your felicitations until to-morrow," she laughed, "for I
+may think of some good excuse in the night. Good-by."
+
+She was greeted in the study with a cry of welcome.
+
+"Well, Patty," said Priscilla, "I hear you've been taking a walk with
+the bishop. Did you tell him you'd cut chapel?"
+
+"I did; and he said he wished he might have cut, too."
+
+"She's incorrigible," sighed Georgie; "she's even been corrupting the
+bishop."
+
+"You'd better be careful, Patty Wyatt," warned Bonnie Connaught.
+"Self-Government will get you if you don't watch out, and _then_ you'll
+be sorry when they take you off the Senior Prom."
+
+Patty sobered for a moment, but she hastily assumed a nonchalant air.
+"They have got me," she laughed, "and I'm already off--or, at least, I
+shall be as soon as they have a meeting."
+
+"Patty!" cried the room, in a horrified chorus. "What do you mean?"
+
+Patty shrugged. "Just what I say: deprived of my privileges for cutting
+chapel."
+
+"It's a shame!" said Georgie, indignantly. "That Self-Government
+Committee is going a little too far when it takes a senior's privileges
+away without even hearing her case." She grasped Patty by the arm and
+started toward the door. "Come on and tell Cathy Fair about it. She
+will fix it all right."
+
+Patty hung back and disengaged her wrist from Georgie's grasp. "Let me
+alone," she said sulkily. "There's nothing to be done. I told her myself
+I hadn't any excuse."
+
+"You told her?" Georgie stared her incredulity, and Bonnie Connaught
+laughed.
+
+"Patty reminds me of the burglar who crawled out the back window with
+the silver, and then rang the front door-bell and handed it back."
+
+"What's the matter, Patty?" Priscilla asked solicitously. "Don't you
+feel well?"
+
+Patty sighed. "I'm getting old," she said.
+
+"You're getting what?"
+
+"Old. Soon I'll be thirty, and then forty, and then fifty; and do you
+think any one will love me then if I deal in subterfuges and evasions?
+Character, my dear girls, is a plant of slow growth, and the seeds must
+be planted early."
+
+"You went and told the committee voluntarily,--of your own
+accord,--without even waiting to be called up?" Georgie persisted,
+determined to get at the facts of the case.
+
+"I'm getting old," repeated Patty. "It's time I was getting good. As I
+said before, character is a plant--"
+
+Georgie looked at the others and shook her head in bewilderment, and
+Bonnie Connaught laughed and murmured to the room in general: "When
+Patty gets to heaven I'm afraid the Recording Angel will have some
+trouble in balancing his books."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+The original text had each Chapter number and title twice. The first of
+these was deleted to aid in ease of reading.
+
+Page 198, the text that begins "Ireland's eminent astronomer spending"
+ends without punctuation to indicate that the reader broke off suddenly.
+This was retained.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's When Patty Went to College, by Jean Webster
+
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