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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Sophomore Days, by Nell Speed
+
+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: Molly Brown's Sophomore Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32453]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+    MOLLY BROWN'S
+    SOPHOMORE DAYS
+
+    BY NELL SPEED
+
+    AUTHOR OF
+
+    "The Tucker Twins Series," "The Carter
+    Girls Series," etc.
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    A. L. BURT COMPANY
+    Publishers New York
+    Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+    Copyright, 1912,
+    BY
+    HURST & COMPANY
+
+    Printed in the U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                  PAGE
+
+        I. THE RETURN OF THE WANDERERS          5
+
+       II. OTOYO                               17
+
+      III. A CLASHING OF WITS                  33
+
+       IV. A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT               47
+
+        V. AN UNWILLING EAVESDROPPER           62
+
+       VI. TWO LONG-DISTANCE CALLS             76
+
+      VII. THE GLEE CLUB CONCERT               94
+
+     VIII. A JAPANESE SPREAD                  111
+
+       IX. VESPERS                            126
+
+        X. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL          140
+
+       XI. THE GREAT SLEET OF 19--            158
+
+      XII. THE SKATING CARNIVAL               169
+
+     XIII. THE THAW                           182
+
+      XIV. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS              196
+
+       XV. A RECOVERY AND A VISIT             212
+
+      XVI. CHRISTMAS EVE PLOTS                230
+
+     XVII. A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE               245
+
+    XVIII. BREAKING THE NEWS                  258
+
+      XIX. HOW O'REILLY'S BECAME QUEEN'S      269
+
+       XX. THE TURN OF THE WHEEL              283
+
+      XXI. IN THE GARDEN                      295
+
+
+
+
+Molly Brown's Sophomore Days
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE RETURN OF THE WANDERERS.
+
+
+"I never thought I could be so glad to be anywhere except home," thought
+Molly Brown as she swung off the 'bus, and, seizing her suit case, ran
+into Queen's Cottage without so much as ringing the bell.
+
+Two juniors whom Molly had known only by sight the year before and
+several freshmen had been in the Wellington omnibus; no one in whom she
+could confide her enthusiasm as the 'bus turned a bend in the road and
+Wellington's towers came into view.
+
+"Molly! Molly!" cried a voice from somewhere in the upper regions of
+Queen's, and down three flights of stairs rushed a wild figure, her
+fluffy light brown hair standing out all over her head and her
+voluminous kimono sailing behind her like the tail of a kite.
+
+"Oh, Judy, it's good to see you again," cried Molly, and the two girls
+were instantly folded in each other's arms in a long, loving embrace.
+
+"You remind me strongly of Meg Merriles," continued Molly, holding her
+friend off at arms' length and giving her a joyful little shake. "You
+look as if you had been running over the moors in the wind."
+
+"You'd think I was a bit daffy if you could see my room," replied Julia
+Kean, who, those of you who have met her in an earlier story will
+recall, was nicknamed "Judy" by her friends. "I'm unpacking. It looks
+like the world in the era of chaos: mountains of clothes and islands of
+shoes and archipelagoes of hats all jumbled into a hopeless mass. But,
+never mind that now. Let's talk about each other. Come on upstairs. Your
+room's ready. I looked in half an hour ago. You've got new wall paper
+and a fresh coat of paint. That's because you are one of Mrs. Markham's
+little pets."
+
+"Really," cried Molly, delighted. "How charmed Nance will be. And I've
+brought some white dimity curtains with ruffled edges to hang at the
+windows. I made them last summer when it was ninety-eight in the shade.
+Where is Nance, by the way? And where are all the Queen's girls, and
+what new ones are here?"
+
+"One at a time, Miss Brown," laughed Judy, following Molly up to the
+third story and into the large room shared by Molly and her friend,
+Nance Oldham.
+
+"How sweet it's going to look," cried Molly, clasping her hands and
+gazing around her with all the ardor of a returned wanderer. "But where
+is Nance?"
+
+Judy's face became very grave.
+
+"Is it possible you haven't heard the news about Nance?" she said.
+
+"Judy, what do you mean?" cried Molly, taking off her hat and running
+her fingers through her rumpled auburn hair, a trick she had when she
+was excited and overwrought. "Now, tell me at once what has happened to
+Nance. How could you have kept it from me? Dear old Nance!"
+
+Judy blew her nose violently.
+
+"Why don't you answer me, Judy? Isn't Nance coming back? I haven't heard
+from her for weeks. Oh, do tell me."
+
+"I'm going to tell you in a minute," answered Judy. "I can't blow my
+nose and talk at the same time. It's a physical impossibility. I've got
+a wretched cold, you see. I am afraid it's going into influenza."
+
+"Julia Kean, you are keeping something from me. I don't care a rap about
+your nose. Isn't Nance coming back?"
+
+Molly almost fell on her knees in the excess of her anxiety. Judy turned
+her face away from those appealing blue eyes and coughed a forced
+throaty cough.
+
+"Suppose I should say she wasn't coming back, Molly? Would you mind
+it?"
+
+"Would I mind it?" repeated Molly, her eyes filling with tears.
+
+Suddenly the closet door was flung open and out rushed Nance.
+
+"Oh, Molly, forgive me," she cried, throwing her arms around her
+roommate's neck. "Judy thought it would be a good practical joke, but I
+couldn't stand the deception any longer. It was worth it, though, if
+only to know you would miss me."
+
+"Miss you?" exclaimed Molly. "I should think I would. Judy, you wretch!"
+
+"I never did say she wasn't coming," replied Judy. "I simply said, 'Is
+it possible you haven't heard the news about Nance?' It shows how your
+heart rules your head, Molly. You shouldn't take on so until you get at
+the real truth. Your impetuous nature needs----"
+
+Here Judy was interrupted by the noise of a headlong rush down the hall.
+Then the door was burst open and three girls blew into the room all
+laughing and talking at once.
+
+"My goodness, it sounds like a stampede of wild cattle," exclaimed
+Judy. "How are you, old pals?"
+
+A general all-round embrace followed.
+
+It was Margaret Wakefield, last year's class president; her chum, Jessie
+Lynch; and Sallie Marks, now a senior, but not in the least set up by
+her exalted state.
+
+"Where's Mabel Hinton?" someone demanded.
+
+"She's moved over to the Quadrangle into a singleton. She wanted to be
+nearer the scene of action, she said, and Queen's was too diverting for
+her serious life's work," so Margaret explained.
+
+"I'm sorry," said Molly. "I'm one of those nice comfortable home bodies
+that likes the family to keep right on just the same forever, but I
+suppose we can't expect everybody to be as fond of this old brown house
+as we are. Sit down, everybody," she added, hospitably. "And--oh, yes,
+wait a moment--I didn't open this on the train at all."
+
+She fell on her knees and opened her suit case while her friends
+exchanged knowing smiles.
+
+"Ruling passion even strong in death," observed Judy.
+
+"Of course it's something good to eat," laughed pretty Jessie.
+
+"Of course," replied Molly, pitching articles of clothing out of her
+satchel with all the carelessness of one who pursues a single idea at a
+time. "And why not? My sister made them for me the morning I left and
+packed them carefully in a tin box with oiled paper."
+
+"Cloudbursts!" they cried ecstatically and pounced on the box without
+ceremony, while Molly, who, like most good cooks, had a small appetite,
+leaned back in a Morris chair and regarded them with the pleased
+satisfaction of a host who has provided satisfactory refreshment for his
+guests.
+
+The summer had made few changes in the faces of her last year's friends.
+Margaret was a bit taller and more massive, and her handsome face a
+little heavier. Already her youthful lines were maturing and she might
+easily have been mistaken for a senior.
+
+Nance was as round and plump as a partridge and there was a new
+happiness in her face, the happiness of returning to the first place she
+had ever known that in any way resembled a home. Nance had lived in a
+boarding house ever since she could remember; but Queen's was not like a
+boarding house; at least not like the one to which she was accustomed,
+where the boarders consisted of two crusty old bachelors; a widow who
+was hipped about her health and always talked "symptoms"; a spinster who
+had taught school for thirty years; and Nance's parents--that is, one of
+them, and at intervals the other. Mrs. Oldham only returned to her
+family to rest between club conventions and lecture tours.
+
+Judy had a beautiful creamy tan on her face which went admirably with
+her dreamy gray eyes and soft light brown hair. There were times when
+she looked much like a boy, and she did at this moment, Molly thought,
+with her hair parted on one side and a brilliant Roman scarf knotted
+around her rolling Byronic collar.
+
+Jessie, just now engaged in the pleasing occupation of smiling at her
+own image in the mirror over the mantel, was as pretty as ever. As for
+Sallie Marks, every familiar freckle was in its familiar place, and, as
+Judy remarked later, she had changed neither her spots nor her skin. She
+had merely added a pair of eye-glasses to her tip-tilted critical nose
+and there was, perhaps, an extra spark of dry humor in her pale eyes.
+
+Molly was a little thin. She always "fell-off" after a
+ninety-eight-in-the-shade summer; but she was the same old Molly to her
+friends, possessed with an indescribable charm and sweetness: the
+"nameless charm," it had been called, but there were many who could name
+it as being a certain kindly gentleness and unselfishness.
+
+"What's the news, girls?" she demanded, giving a general all-round smile
+like that of a famous orator, which seemed to be meant for everybody at
+once and no one in particular.
+
+"News is scarce; or should I say 'are'?" replied Margaret. "Epiménides
+Antinous Green, 'the handsomest man ever seen,' was offered a chair in
+one of the big colleges and refused."
+
+"But why?" cried Molly, round-eyed with amazement.
+
+"Because he has more liberty at Wellington and more time to devote to
+his writings."
+
+Molly walked over to the window to hide a smile.
+
+"The comic opera," she thought.
+
+"He's just published a book, you know, on the 'Elizabethan Drama,'" went
+on Margaret, "which is to be used as a text book in lots of private
+schools. And he's been on a walking trip through England this summer
+with George Theodore----"
+
+"How did you know all that?" interrupted Judy.
+
+"Well, to tell you the truth, I came up to Wellington on the train with
+Andy McLean and he answered all the questions I asked him," replied
+Margaret, laughing. "I also answered all the questions he asked me about
+a particular young lady----"
+
+Nance pretended to be very busy at this moment with the contents of her
+work bag. The other girls began laughing and she looked up, disclosing
+a scarlet countenance.
+
+"Don't you know she never could take a teasing?" cried Judy.
+
+"Who's teasing?" answered Margaret. "No names were mentioned."
+
+"Don't you mind, Nance, dear," said Molly, always tender-hearted when it
+came to teasing. "The rest of us haven't had one 'inquiring friend,' as
+Ca'line, our cook, used to call them. When I wrote letters for her to
+her family in Georgia, she always finished up with 'Now, Miss Molly,
+jes' end with love to all inquirin' friends.'"
+
+The dainty little French clock on the mantel, one of Nance's new
+possessions, tinkled five times in a subdued, fairy chime and the
+friends scattered to their various rooms to unpack. Judy was now in
+Frances Andrews' old room, next to the one occupied by Molly and Nance.
+
+"I think I'll take a gimlet and bore a hole through the wall," she
+announced as she lingered a moment after the others had gone, "so that
+we can communicate without having to walk ten steps--I counted them
+this morning--and open two doors."
+
+"Who has your old room, Judy?" inquired Molly.
+
+"You'd never guess in a thousand years, so I'll have to enlighten you,"
+answered Judy. "A young Japanese lady."
+
+"For heaven's sake!" cried Molly and Nance in one breath, while Judy,
+who loved a climax, sailed from the room without vouchsafing any more
+information.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+OTOYO.
+
+
+Molly and Nance were very busy that night arranging their belongings.
+Molly's tastes were simple and Nance's were what might be called
+complicated. Molly had been reared all her life in large spaces, big,
+airy rooms, and broad halls, and the few pieces of heavy old mahogany in
+them were of the kind that cannot be bought for a song. Nance had been
+reared in an atmosphere of oiled walnut and boarding house bric-à-brac.
+She was learning because she had an exceedingly observing and
+intelligent mind, but she had not learned.
+
+Therefore, that night, when Molly hung the white muslin curtains, and
+spread out the beautiful blue antique rug left by Frances Andrews, she
+devoutly hoped that Nance would "go easy" with the pictures and
+ornaments.
+
+"What we want to try to do this year, Nance," she announced from the top
+of the step ladder, "is to keep things empty. We got fairly messy last
+winter after Christmas. I'm going to keep all those banners and things
+packed this year."
+
+"Perhaps I'd better not get out those passe-partouted Gibson pictures,"
+began Nance a little doubtfully.
+
+"Just as you like, Nance, dear," said Molly.
+
+She would rather have hung the wall with bill posters than have hurt her
+friend's feelings.
+
+"Honestly, you aren't fond of them, are you?" asked Nance.
+
+"Oh, it isn't that," apologized Molly. "But I think so many small
+pictures scattered over a big wall space are--well, rather tiring to the
+optic nerves."
+
+Nance looked sad, but she had unbounded faith in Molly's opinions.
+
+"What shall we do with this big empty wall space, then?" she asked,
+pausing in her unpacking to regard a sea of blue-gray cartridge paper
+with a critical eye.
+
+At this juncture there came a light, timid tap, so faint, indeed, that
+it might have been the swish of a mouse's tail as he brushed past the
+door.
+
+Molly paused in her contemplation of blank walls and listened.
+
+"Did you hear anything, Nance?" she asked. "I thought I heard a tapping
+at our chamber door."
+
+"Come in," called Nance briskly.
+
+The door opened first a mere crack. Then the space widened and there
+stood on the threshold the diminutive figure of a little Japanese girl
+who by subsequent measurements proved to be exactly five feet one-half
+an inch in height. She was dressed "like white people," to quote Molly,
+that is, in a neat cloth suit and a straw turban, and her slanting black
+eyes were like highly polished pieces of ebony.
+
+"I beg the honorable pardon of the young ladies," she began with a prim,
+funny accent. "I arrive this moment which have passing at the honorable
+home of young ladies. I not find no one save serving girl who have
+informing me of room of sleeping in. Honorable lady of the house, her
+you calling 'matronly,' not in at present passing moment. I feeling
+little frighting. You will forgive poor Otoyo?"
+
+With an almost superhuman effort Molly controlled her face and choked
+back the laughter that bubbled up irrepressibly. Nance had buried her
+head in her trunk until she could regain her composure.
+
+"Indeed I do forgive you, poor dear. You must feel strange and lonely.
+Just wait until I get down from the ladder and I'll show you your
+bedroom. It used to be the room of one of my best friends, so I happen
+to know it very well."
+
+Molly crawled down from the heights of the step ladder and took the
+little Japanese girl's brown hand in hers. "Shall we not shake hands and
+be friends?" she said. "We are such near neighbors. You are just down
+there at the end of the hall, you see. My name is Brown, Molly Brown,
+and this is my roommate, Nance Oldham."
+
+"I with much pleasure feel to making acquaintance of beautiful young
+ladies," said the Japanese girl, smiling charmingly and showing two rows
+of teeth as pointed and white as a spaniel's.
+
+Nance had also risen to the occasion by this time, and now shook Miss
+Otoyo Sen's hand with a great show of cordiality, to make up for her
+crimson face and mouth still unsteady with laughter. They conducted the
+Japanese girl to her room and turned on the lights. There were two
+new-looking American trunks in the room and two cases covered with
+matting and inscribed with mystic Japanese hieroglyphics. Wired to the
+cord wrapping was an express tag with "Miss O. Sen, Queen's Cottage,
+Wellington," written across it in plain handwriting.
+
+"Oh," exclaimed Miss Otoyo, clasping her hands with timid pleasure, "my
+estates have unto this place arriving come."
+
+Nance turned and rushed from the room and Molly opened the closet door.
+
+"You can hang all your things in here," she said unsteadily, "and of
+course lay some of them in the bureau drawers. Better unpack to-night,
+because to-morrow will be a busy day for you. It's the opening day, you
+know. If we can help you, don't hesitate to ask."
+
+"I am with gratitude much filled up," said the little Japanese, making a
+low, ceremonious bow.
+
+"Don't mention it," replied Molly, hastening back to her room.
+
+She found Nance giving vent to noiseless laughter in the Morris chair.
+Tears were rolling down her cheeks and her face was purple with
+suppressed amusement. Molly often said that, when Nance did laugh, she
+was like the pig who died in clover. When he died, he died all over.
+When Nance succumbed to laughter, her entire being was given over to
+merriment.
+
+"Wasn't it beautiful?" she exclaimed in a low voice. "Did you ever
+imagine such ludicrous English? It was all participles. How do you
+suppose she ever made the entrance examinations?"
+
+"Oh, she's probably good enough at writing. It's just speaking that
+stumps her. But wasn't she killingly funny? When she said 'my estates
+have unto this place arriving come,' I thought I should have to
+departing go along with you. But it would have been rude beyond words.
+What a dear little thing she is! I think I'll go over later and see how
+she is. America must be polite to her visitors."
+
+But Japan, always beforehand in ceremonious politeness, was again ahead
+of America in this respect. Just before ten o'clock the mouse's tail
+once more brushed their door and Nance's sharp ears catching the faint
+sound, she called, "Come in."
+
+Miss Otoyo Sen entered, this time less timidly, but with the same
+deprecating smile on her diminutive face.
+
+"Begging honorable pardon of beautiful young ladies," she began, "will
+condescendingly to accept unworthy gift from Otoyo in gratitude of
+favors receiving?"
+
+Then she produced a beautiful Japanese scroll at least four feet in
+length. In the background loomed up the snow-capped peak of the
+ever-present sacred mountain, Fujiyama, and the foreground disclosed a
+pleasing combination of sky-blue waters dotted with picturesque little
+islands connected with graceful curving bridges, and here and there were
+cherry trees aglow with delicate pink blossoms.
+
+"Oh, how perfectly sweet," exclaimed the girls, delighted.
+
+"And just the place on this bare wall space!" continued Molly. "It's
+really a heaven-sent gift, Miss Sen, because we were wishing for
+something really beautiful to hang over that divan. But aren't you
+robbing yourself?"
+
+"No, no. I beg you assurance. Otoyo have many suchly. It is nothing.
+Beautiful young ladies do honor by accepting humbly gift."
+
+"Let's hang it at once," suggested Molly, "while the step ladder is yet
+with us. Queen's step ladder is so much in demand that it's very much
+like the snowfall in the river, 'a moment there, then gone forever.'"
+
+The two girls moved the homely but coveted ladder across the room, and,
+with much careful shifting and after several suggestions timidly made
+by Otoyo, finally hung up the scroll. It really glorified the whole room
+and made a framed lithograph of a tea-drinking lady in a boudoir costume
+and a kitten that trifled with a ball of yarn on the floor, Nance's
+possession, appear so commonplace that she shamefacedly removed it from
+its tack and put it back in her trunk, to Molly's secret relief.
+
+"Won't you sit down and talk to us a few minutes?" asked Nance. "We
+still have a quarter of an hour before bed time."
+
+Otoyo timidly took a seat on a corner of one of the divans. The girls
+could not help noticing another small package which she had not yet
+proffered for their acceptance. But she now placed it in Nance's hand.
+
+"A little of what American lady call 'meat-sweet,'" she said
+apologetically. "It all way from Japan have coming. Will beautiful
+ladies accept so humbly gift?"
+
+The box contained candied ginger and was much appreciated by young
+American ladies, the humble giver of this delightful confection being
+far too shy to eat any of it herself.
+
+By dint of some questioning, it came out that Otoyo's father was a
+merchant of Tokio. She had been sent to an American school in Japan for
+two years and had also studied under an English governess. She could
+read English perfectly and, strange to say, could write it fairly
+accurately, but, when it came to speaking it, she clung to her early
+participial-adverbial faults, although she trusted to overcome them in a
+very little while. She had several conditions to work off before
+Thanksgiving, but she was cheerful and her ambition was to be "beautiful
+American young lady."
+
+She was, indeed, the most charming little doll-like creature the girls
+had ever seen, so unreal and different from themselves, that they could
+hardly credit her with the feelings and sensibilities of a human being.
+So correctly polite was she with such formal, stiff little manners that
+she seemed almost an automaton wound up to bow and nod at the proper
+moment. But Otoyo Sen was a creature of feeling, as they were to find
+out before very long.
+
+"Did many girls come down on the train with you to-night, Miss Sen?"
+asked Nance, by way of making conversation.
+
+Several young ladies had come, Miss Sen replied in her best participial
+manner. All had been kind to Otoyo but one, who had frightened poor
+Japanese very, very much. One very kind American gentleman had been
+commissioned to bring little Japanese down from big city to University.
+He had look after her all day and brought her sandwiches. He friend of
+her father and most, most kindly. He had receiving letters from her
+honorable father to look after little Japanese girl.
+
+Across the aisle from Otoyo had sat a "beeg young American lady, beeg as
+kindly young lady there with peenk hair," indicating Molly. The "beeg"
+young American lady, it seems, had great "beeg" eyes, so: Otoyo made two
+circles with her thumbs and forefingers to indicate size of young
+American lady's optics. She called Otoyo "Yum-Yum" and she made to
+laugh at humble Japanese girl, but Otoyo could see that young American
+lady with beeg eyes feeling great anger toward little strange girl.
+
+"But for what reason?" asked Molly, slipping her arm around Otoyo's
+plump waist. "How could she be unkind to sweet little Japanese
+stranger?"
+
+"Young great-eyed lady laugh at me mostly and I very uncomfortably." She
+brought out the big word with proud effort.
+
+"But how cruel! Why did she do it?" exclaimed Nance.
+
+Here Otoyo gave a delicious melodious laugh for the first time that
+evening.
+
+"She not like kindly gentlemanly friend to be attentionly to humble
+Japanese."
+
+"What was the gentleman's name, Otoyo?" asked Molly; and somewhat to her
+surprise Otoyo, who, as they were to learn later, never forgot a name,
+came out patly with:
+
+"Professor Edwin Green, kindly friend of honorable father."
+
+"Did the young lady call him 'Cousin'?" asked Nance in the tone of one
+who knows what the answer will be beforehand.
+
+"Yes," answered Otoyo Sen.
+
+"The same old Judith Blount," laughed Molly.
+
+And Nance recalled Judy's prophetic speech on the last day of college in
+June: "Can the le-o-pard change his spots?"
+
+Then the first stroke of the tower clock began to chime the hour of ten
+and they promptly conducted Otoyo to her bedroom with the caution that
+all lights must be out at ten, a rule she followed thereafter with
+implicit obedience.
+
+The next morning, Molly and Nance took Otoyo under their especial care.
+They introduced her to all the girls at Queen's, placed her between them
+at Chapel, showed her how to register and finally took her on a
+sight-seeing expedition.
+
+It turned out that through Professor Green her room had been engaged
+since early the winter before. Why he should have chosen Queen's they
+hardly knew, since Otoyo appeared to have plenty of money and might
+have lived in more expensive quarters. But Queen's he had selected, and
+that very evening he called on Mrs. Markham to see that his little
+charge was comfortably settled. Molly caught a glimpse of him as he
+followed the maid through the hall to Mrs. Markham's sitting room, and
+made him a polite bow. She felt somewhat in awe of the Professor of
+English Literature this winter, since she was to be in one of his
+classes, Lit. II, and was very fearful that he might consider her a
+perfect dunce. But Professor Green would not pass Molly with a bow. He
+paused at the door of the living room and held out his hand.
+
+"I'm glad to see you back and looking so well," he said. "My sister
+asked to be remembered to you. I saw her only yesterday."
+
+The Professor looked well, also. His brown eyes were as clear as two
+brown pools in the forest and there was a healthy glow on his face; but
+Molly could not help noticing that he was growing bald about the
+temples.
+
+"Too bad he's so old," she thought, "because sometimes he's really
+handsome."
+
+"I am commissioned," he continued, "to find a tutor for a young Japanese
+girl boarding here, and I wondered if you would like to undertake the
+work. She needs lessons in English chiefly, but she has several
+conditions to work off and it would be a steady position for anyone who
+has time to take it. Her father is a rich man and willing to pay more
+than the usual price if he can get someone specially interested who will
+take pains with his daughter's education."
+
+"I'm willing to do all that," said Molly, "but it goes with the job,
+don't you think? I have no right to ask more than is usually asked."
+
+"Oh, yes, you have," answered the Professor quickly. "What you can give
+her means everything to the child. She is naturally very timid and
+strange. If you are willing to give up several hours to her, say four
+times a week, I will arrange about salary with her father and the
+lessons may begin immediately."
+
+It was impossible for Molly to disguise her feelings of relief and joy
+at this windfall. Her lack of funds was, as usual, an ever-present
+shadow in the background of her mind, although, through some fine
+investments which Mrs. Brown had been able to make that summer, the
+Brown family hoped to be relieved by another year of the pressure of
+poverty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A CLASHING OF WITS.
+
+
+Queen's Cottage seemed destined to shelter girls of interesting and
+unusual types.
+
+"They always do flock together, you know," Miss Pomeroy had remarked to
+the President, as the two women sat talking in the President's office
+one day. The question had come up with the subject of the new Japanese
+student, the first of her nation ever to seek learning in the halls of
+Wellington.
+
+"They do," said the President, "but whether it's the first comers
+actively persuading the next ones or whether it's a matter of
+unconscious attraction is hard to tell."
+
+"In this case I understand it's a matter of very conscious attraction on
+one side and no persuasion on the other," replied Miss Pomeroy. "That
+charming overgrown girl from Kentucky, Miss Brown, although she's as
+poor as a church mouse and last year even blacked boots to earn a little
+money, is one of the chief attractions, I think. But some of the other
+girls are quite remarkable. Margaret Wakefield lives there, you know.
+She makes as good a speech as her politician father. It will be
+interesting to watch her career if she only doesn't spoil everything by
+marrying."
+
+The two spinsters looked at each other and laughed.
+
+"She won't," answered the President. "She's much too ambitious."
+
+"Then," went on Miss Pomeroy, "there's Julia Kean. She could do almost
+anything she wished, and like all such people she doesn't want to do
+anything. She hasn't a spark of ambition. It's Miss Brown who keeps
+her up to the mark. The girl was actually about to run away last winter
+just at mid-years. She lost her courage, I believe, and there was a
+remarkable scene, but she was induced to stay."
+
+"Who are the other girls?" asked the President thoughtfully.
+
+"One of them, you recall, is a daughter of the famous suffragette, Mrs.
+Anna Oldham. But I fancy the poor daughter has had quite enough of
+suffrage. The only other really interesting characters at Queen's,
+besides your Japanese, are two sophomores who roomed at Plympton's last
+year. They are the Williams sisters, Katherine and Edith, and they are
+remarkably bright. They work in a team, and I have not been able to
+discover which is the brighter of the two, although I had them to tea
+once or twice last year. One is talkative and the other is quiet, but I
+suspect the quiet one of doing a deal of thinking."
+
+The two women enjoyed these occasional chats about Wellington students.
+They were accustomed to regard most of the classes as units rather than
+the members as individuals. Sometimes it was a colorless, uninteresting
+class with no special traits worthy of admiration. Sometimes it was a
+snobbish, purse-proud class, as in the case of the present juniors. And
+again, as with last year's seniors, it was a class of sterling qualities
+made up of big girls with fine minds. Seldom did a class contain more
+than one or two brilliant members, often not one. The present sophomore
+class was one of those "freak" bodies which appear once in a life time.
+It was an unusually small class, there being only thirty-eight members.
+Some twenty of these girls were extremely bright and at least ten gave
+promise of something more than ordinary. As the fastest skaters keep
+together on the ice, so the brightest girls gradually drifted into
+Queen's and became as one family. It was known that there was a good
+deal of jealousy in the less distinguished portion of the class because
+of this sparkling group. But, all unconscious of the feeling they were
+exciting, the Queen's girls settled themselves down to the enjoyment of
+life, each in her own peculiar way.
+
+The two new sophomores at Queen's were, in fact, a welcome addition, and
+Molly and her friends found them exceedingly amusing. They were tall,
+rather raw-boned types, with sallow skins and large, lustrous,
+melancholy eyes. There was only a year's difference in their ages, and
+at first it was difficult to tell one from the other, but Edith, the
+younger of the sisters, was an inch taller than Katherine and was very
+quiet, while Katherine talked enough for the two of them. Because they
+were always together they were called "the Gemini," although
+occasionally they had terrific battles and ceased to be on speaking
+terms for a day or two.
+
+One afternoon, not long after the opening day at college, the Williams
+sisters and Mabel Hinton, who now lived in the Quadrangle, paid a visit
+to Molly in her room.
+
+"We came in to discuss with you who you consider would make the best
+class president this year, Molly," began Katherine. "It's rather hard to
+choose one among so many who could fill the place with distinction----"
+
+"But I think Margaret should be chosen," interrupted Molly. "She was a
+good one last year. Why change?"
+
+"Don't you think it looks rather like favoritism?" put in Mabel. "Some
+of the other girls should have a chance. There's you, for instance."
+
+"Me?" cried Molly. "Why, I wouldn't know how to act in a president's
+chair. I'd be embarrassed to death."
+
+"You'd soon learn," said Katherine. "It's very easy to become accustomed
+to an exalted state."
+
+"But why not one of you?" began Molly.
+
+"It's a question," here remarked the silent Edith, "whether a class
+president should be the most popular girl or the best executive."
+
+"Margaret is both," exclaimed Molly loyally; "but, after all, why not
+leave it to the vote at the class meeting?"
+
+"Oh, it will be finally decided in that way, of course," said Katherine,
+"but such things are really decided beforehand by a little
+electioneering, and I was proposing to do some stump speaking in your
+behalf, Molly, if you cared to take the place."
+
+"Oh, no," cried Molly, flushing with embarrassment; "it's awfully nice
+of you, but I wouldn't for anything interfere with Margaret. She is the
+one to have it. Besides, as Queen's girls, we ought to vote for her.
+She belongs to the family."
+
+"But some of the girls are kicking. They say we are running the class,
+and are sure to ring in one of our own crowd just to have things our
+way."
+
+"How absurd!" ejaculated Molly. "I'm sure I never thought of such a
+thing. But if that's the case, why vote for me, then?"
+
+"Because," replied Mabel, "the Caroline Brinton faction proposed you.
+They say, if they must have a Queen's girl, they'll take you."
+
+"'Must' is a ridiculous word to use at an honest election," broke in
+Molly hotly. "Let them choose their candidate and vote as they like.
+We'll choose ours and vote as we like."
+
+"That's exactly the point," said Katherine. "They are something like
+Kipling's monkey tribe, the 'banderlog.' They do a lot of chattering,
+but they can't come to any agreement. They need a head, and I propose to
+be that head and tell them whom to vote for. Shall it be Molly or
+Margaret?"
+
+"Margaret," cried Molly; "a thousand times, Margaret. I wouldn't usurp
+her place for worlds. She's perfectly equipped in every possible way for
+the position."
+
+Nance and Judy now came into the room. Nance looked a little excited and
+Judy was red in the face.
+
+"Do you know," burst out the impetuous Judy, "that Caroline Brinton has
+called a mass meeting of all the sophomores not at Queen's? She has
+started up some cock-and-bull tale about the Queen's girls trying to run
+the class. She says we're a ring of politicians. We ran in all our
+officers last year and we're going to try and do it this year."
+
+"What a ridiculous notion," laughed Molly. "Margaret was elected by her
+own silver-tongued oratory, and Jessie was made secretary because she
+was so pretty and popular and seemed to belong next to Margaret anyway."
+
+"But the question is: are the Queen's girls going to sit back and let
+themselves be libeled?" demanded Nance.
+
+Here Edith spoke up.
+
+"Of course," she said, "let them talk. Don't you know that people who
+denounce weaken their own cause always, and it's the people who keep
+still who have all the strength on their side? Let them talk and at the
+class meeting to-morrow some of us might say a few quiet words to the
+point."
+
+The girls recognized the wisdom of this decision and concluded to keep
+well away from any forced meeting of sophomores that evening. It had not
+occurred to simple-hearted Molly that it was jealousy that had fanned
+the flame of indignation against Queen's girls, but it had occurred to
+some of the others, the Williamses in particular, who were very shrewd
+in regard to human nature. As for Margaret Wakefield, she was openly and
+shamelessly enjoying the fight.
+
+"Let them talk," she said. "To-morrow we'll have some fun. Just because
+they have made such unjust accusations against us they ought to be
+punished by being made to vote for us."
+
+It was noted that Margaret used the word "us" in speaking of future
+votes. She had been too well-bred to declare herself openly as candidate
+for the place of class president, but it was generally known that she
+would not be displeased to become the successful candidate. The next
+morning they heard that only ten sophomores attended the mass meeting
+and that they had all talked at once.
+
+Later in the day when the class met to elect its president for the year,
+as Edith remarked: "The hoi polloi did look black and threatening."
+
+Molly felt decidedly uncomfortable and out of it. She didn't know how to
+make a speech for one thing and she hoped they'd leave her alone. It was
+utterly untrue about Queen's girls. The cleverest girls in the class
+happened to live there. That was all.
+
+Margaret, the Williamses and Judy wore what might be called "pugilistic
+smiles." They intended to have a sweet revenge for the things that had
+been said about them and on the whole they were enjoying themselves
+immensely. They had not taken Molly into their confidence, but what
+they intended to do was well planned beforehand.
+
+Former President Margaret occupied the chair and opened the meeting with
+a charming little speech that would have done credit to the wiliest
+politician. She moved her hearers by her reference to class feeling and
+their ambition to make the class the most notable that ever graduated
+from Wellington. She flattered and cajoled them and put them in such a
+good humor with themselves that there was wild applause when she
+finished and the Brinton forces sheepishly avoided each other's eyes.
+
+There was a long pause after this. Evidently the opposing side did not
+feel capable of competing with so much oratory as that. Margaret rose
+again.
+
+"Since no one seems to have anything to say," she said, "I beg to start
+the election by nominating Miss Caroline Brinton of Philadelphia for our
+next class president."
+
+If a bomb shell had burst in the room, there couldn't have been more
+surprise. Molly could have laughed aloud at the rebellious and
+fractious young woman from Philadelphia, who sat embarrassed and
+tongue-tied, unable to say a word.
+
+Again there was a long pause. The Brinton forces appeared incapable of
+expressing themselves.
+
+"I second the nomination of Miss Brinton," called Judy, with a bland,
+innocent look in her gray eyes.
+
+Then Katherine Williams arose and delivered a deliciously humorous and
+delightful little speech that caused laughter to ripple all over the
+room. She ended by nominating Margaret Wakefield for re-election and
+before they knew it everybody in the room was applauding.
+
+Nominations for other officers were made after this and a girl from
+Montana was heard to remark:
+
+"I'm for Queen's. They're a long sight brighter than any of us."
+
+When the candidates stood lined up on the platform just before the votes
+were cast, Caroline Brinton looked shriveled and dried up beside the
+ample proportions of Margaret Wakefield, who beamed handsomely on her
+classmates and smiled so charmingly that in comparison there appeared to
+be no two ways about it.
+
+"She's the right one for president," Judy heard a girl say. "She looks
+like a queen bee beside little Carrie Brinton. And nobody could say she
+ran the election this time, either. Carrie has had the chance she
+wanted."
+
+Molly was one of the nominees for secretary and, standing beside a
+nominee from the opposing side, she also shone in comparison.
+
+When the votes were counted, it was found that Margaret and Molly had
+each won by a large majority, and Caroline Brinton was ignominiously
+defeated.
+
+That night Jessie Lynch, who had not in the least minded being
+superseded as secretary by Molly, gave a supper party in honor of her
+chum's re-election. Only Queen's girls were there, except Mabel Hinton,
+and there was a good deal of fun at the expense of Caroline Brinton of
+Philadelphia.
+
+"Poor thing," said Molly, "I couldn't help feeling sorry for her."
+
+"But why?" demanded Katherine. "She had the chance she wanted. She was
+nominated, but she was such a poor leader that her own forces wouldn't
+stand by her at the crucial moment. Oh, but it was rich! What a lesson!
+And how charming Margaret was! How courteous and polite through it all.
+What a beautiful way to treat an enemy!"
+
+"What a beautiful way to treat wrath, you mean," said her sister; "with
+'a soft answer.'"
+
+"It was as good as a play," laughed Judy. "I never enjoyed myself more
+in all my life."
+
+But, somehow, Molly felt a little uncomfortable always when she recalled
+that election, although it was an honest, straightforward election, won
+by the force of oratory and personality, and so skillfully that the
+opposing side never knew it had been duped by a prearranged plan of four
+extremely clever young women.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT.
+
+
+"Do you think those little feet of yours will be able to carry you so
+far, Otoyo?" asked Molly anxiously, one Saturday morning.
+
+Otoyo gave one of her delightfully ingenuous smiles.
+
+"My body is smally, too," she said. "The weight is not grandly."
+
+"Not smally; just small, Otoyo," admonished Molly, who was now well
+launched in her tutoring of the little Japanese, and had almost broken
+her of her participial habits. But the adverbial habit appeared to grow
+as the participial habit vanished.
+
+"And you won't get too tired?" asked Judy.
+
+"No, no, no," protested Otoyo, her voice rising with each no until it
+ended in a sweet high note like a bird's. "You not know the Japanese
+when you say that. I have received training. You have heard of jiu
+jitsu? Some day Otoyo will teach beautiful young American lady some
+things."
+
+"Yes, but the jiu jitsu doesn't help you when you're tired, does it?"
+
+"Ah, but I shall not be tired. You will see. Otoyo's feet great bigly."
+
+She stuck out her funny stubby little feet for inspection and the girls
+all laughed. As a matter of fact, she was a sturdy little body and knew
+the secret of keeping her strength. She achieved marvels in her studies;
+was up with the dawn and the last person in the house to tumble into
+bed, but she was never tired, never cross and out of humor, and was
+always a model of cheerful politeness.
+
+"Art ready?" asked Katherine Williams, appearing at the door in a natty
+brown corduroy walking suit.
+
+"Can'st have the face to ask the question when we've been waiting for
+you ten minutes?" replied Judy.
+
+It was a glorious September day when the walking club from Queen's
+started on its first expedition. The rules of the club were few, very
+elastic and susceptible to changes. It met when it could, walked until
+it was tired and had no fixed object except that of resting the eyes
+from the printed page, relaxing the mind from its arduous labors and
+accelerating the circulation. Anyone who wanted to invite a guest could,
+and those who wished to remain at home were not bound to go.
+
+"Did anybody decide where we were going?" asked Molly.
+
+"Yes, I did," announced Margaret. "Knob Ledge is our destination. It's
+the highest point in Wellington County and commands a most wonderful
+view of the surrounding country-side----"
+
+"Dear me, you sound like a guide book, Margaret," put in Judy.
+
+"Professor Green is the guide book," answered Margaret. "He told me
+about it. You know he is the only real walker at Wellington. Twenty
+miles is nothing to him and Knob Ledge is one of his favorite trips."
+
+"I hope that isn't twenty miles," said Jessie anxiously.
+
+"Oh, no, it's barely six by the short way and ten by the road. We shall
+go by the short way."
+
+"Isn't Molly lovely to-day?" whispered Nance to Judy, after the walking
+expedition had crossed the campus and started on its way in good
+earnest.
+
+Molly was a picture in an old gray skirt and a long sweater and tam of
+"Wellington blue," knitted by one of her devoted sisters during the
+summer.
+
+"She's a dream," exclaimed Judy with loyal enthusiasm. "She glorifies
+everything she wears. Just an ordinary blue tam o'shanter, exactly the
+same shape and color that a hundred other Wellington girls wear, looks
+like a halo on a saint's head when she wears it."
+
+"It's her auburn hair that's the halo," said Nance.
+
+"And her heavenly blue eyes that are saint's eyes," finished Judy.
+
+Molly, all unconscious of the admiration of her friends, walked steadily
+along between Otoyo and Jessie, a package of sandwiches in one hand and
+a long staff, picked up on the road, in the other.
+
+They were not exactly out for adventure that day, being simply a jolly
+party of girls off in the woods to enjoy the last sunny days in
+September, and they were not prepared for all the excitements which
+greeted them on the way.
+
+Scarcely had they left the path along the bank of the lake and skirted
+the foot of "Round Head," at the top of which Molly and her two chums
+had once met Professor Green and his brother, when Margaret Wakefield,
+well in advance of the others, gave a wild scream and rushed madly back
+into their midst. Trotting sedately after her came an amiable looking
+cow. The creature paused when she saw the girls, emitted the bovine call
+of the cow-mother separated from her only child, turned and trotted
+slowly back.
+
+"Why, Margaret, I didn't know you were such a coward," began Jessie
+reproachfully.
+
+"Coward, indeed," answered the other indignantly. "I don't believe Queen
+Boadicea herself in a red sweater would have passed that animal. Listen
+to the creature. She's begun mooing like a foghorn. I suppose she held
+me personally responsible for her loss. Anyhow, she began chasing me and
+I wasn't going to be gored to death in the flower of my youth."
+
+There was no arguing this fact, and several daring spirits, creeping
+along the path until it curved around the hill, hid behind a clump of
+trees and took in the prospect. There stood the cow with ears erect and
+quivering nostrils. She had a suspicious look in her lustrous eyes and
+at intervals she let out a deep bellow that had a hint of disaster in it
+for all who passed that way.
+
+The brave spirits went back again.
+
+"What are we to do?" exclaimed Katherine. "If it got out in college that
+an old cow kept ten sophomores from having a picnic, we'd never hear the
+last of it."
+
+"Unless we behave like Indian scouts and creep along one at a time, I
+don't see what we are to do," said Molly. "If we went further up the
+hill, she'd see us just the same and if we crossed the brook and took to
+the meadow, we'd get stuck in the swamp."
+
+"Suppose we make a run for it," suggested Judy with high courage. "Just
+dash past until we reach that group of trees over there."
+
+"Not me," exclaimed Jessie, shaking her head vigorously. "Excuse me, if
+you please."
+
+There was another conference in low voices behind the protecting clump
+of alder bushes. At last the cow began to ease her mental suffering by
+nibbling at the damp green turf on the bank of the little brook.
+
+"She's forgotten all about us. Let's make a break for it," cried Molly.
+There was a certain stubbornness in her nature that made her want to
+finish anything she began no matter whether it was a task or a pleasure.
+
+The cow flicked a fly from her flank with her tail and went on placidly
+cropping grass. Apparently, creature comforts had restored her
+equanimity.
+
+"One, two, three, run!" shouted Judy, and the ten students began the
+race of their lives.
+
+Not once did the flower and wit of 19-- pause to look back, and so
+closely did they stick together, the strong helping the weak, that to
+the watchers on the hill--and, alas! there were several of them--they
+resembled all together an enormous animal of the imagination with ten
+pairs of legs and a coat of many colors. At last they fell down, one on
+top of the other, in a laughing, tumbling heap, in the protecting grove
+of pine trees, and pausing to look back beheld the ferocious cow amiably
+swishing her tail as she cropped the luscious turf on the bank of the
+little stream.
+
+"Asinine old thing," cried Margaret. "She's just an alarmist of the
+worst kind."
+
+"Who was the alarmist, did you say, Margaret?" asked Edith, with a
+wicked smile. But Margaret made no answer, because, as her close
+friends well knew, she never could stand being teased.
+
+And now the watchers on the hill, having witnessed the entire episode
+from behind a granite boulder and enjoyed it to the limit of their
+natures, proceeded to return to Wellington with the story that was too
+good to keep, and Queen's girls went on their way rejoicing as the
+strong man who runs a race and wins.
+
+At two o'clock, after a long, hard climb, they reached the ledges. To
+Molly and Judy, the leading spirits of the expedition, the beautiful
+view amply repaid their efforts, but there were those who were too weary
+to enjoy the scenery. Jessie was one of these.
+
+"I'm not meant for hard work," she groaned, as she reposed on one of the
+flat rocks which gave the place its name and pillowed her head on
+Margaret's lap.
+
+They opened the packages of luncheon and ate with ravenous appetites,
+finishing off with fudge and cheese sticks. Then they spread themselves
+on the table rocks and regarded the scenery pensively. Having climbed
+up at great expense of strength and effort, it was now necessary to
+retrace their footsteps. The thought was disconcerting.
+
+Edith, who never moved without a book, pulled a small edition of Keats
+from her pocket and began to read aloud:
+
+    "My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains
+     My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk--"
+
+A short laugh interrupted this scene of intellectual repose. Edith
+paused and looked up, annoyed.
+
+"I see nothing to laugh at," she said. But the faces of her classmates
+were quite serious.
+
+"No one laughed," said Molly.
+
+"A rudely person did laugh," announced Otoyo decisively. "But not of us.
+Another hidden behind the rock."
+
+The girls looked around them uneasily. There was no one in sight,
+apparently, and yet there had been a laugh from somewhere close by.
+Coming to think of it, they had all heard it.
+
+"I think we'd better be going," said Margaret, rising hastily. "We can
+see the view on the other side some other day."
+
+Twice that day Margaret, the coming suffragette, had proved herself
+lacking in a certain courage generally attributed to the new and
+independent woman.
+
+"Come on," she continued, irritably. "Don't stop to gather up those
+sandwiches. We must hurry."
+
+Perhaps they were all of them a little frightened, but nobody was quite
+so openly and shamelessly scared as President Wakefield. They had seized
+their sweaters and were about to follow her down the steep path, when
+another laugh was heard, and suddenly a strange man rushed from behind
+one of the large boulders and seized Margaret by the arm.
+
+The President gave one long, despairing shriek that waked the echoes,
+while the other girls, too frightened to move, crouched together in a
+trembling group.
+
+Then the little Japanese bounded from their midst with the most
+surprising agility, seized the man by his thumb and with a lightning
+movement of the arm struck him under the chin.
+
+With a cry of intense pain, the tramp, for such he appeared to be, fell
+back against the rock, his black slouch hat fell off, and a quantity of
+dark hair tumbled down on his shoulders. Judith Blount, looking
+exceedingly ludicrous in a heavy black mustache, stood before them.
+
+"Oh, how you hurt me," she cried, turning angrily on Otoyo.
+
+Otoyo shrank back in amazement.
+
+"Pardon," she said timidly. "I did not know the rudely man was a woman."
+
+The girls were now treated to the rare spectacle of Margaret Wakefield
+in a rage. The Goddess of War herself could not have been more majestic
+in her anger, and her choice of words was wonderful as she emptied the
+vials of her wrath on the head of the luckless Judith. The Williams
+sisters sat down on a rock, prepared to enjoy the splendid exhibition
+and the discomfiture of Judith Blount, who for once had gone too far in
+her practical joking. Molly withdrew somewhat from the scene. Anger
+always frightened her, but she felt that Margaret was quite justified in
+what she said.
+
+"How dare you masquerade in those disreputable clothes and frighten us?"
+Margaret thundered out. "Do you think such behavior will be tolerated
+for a moment at a college of the standing of Wellington University? Are
+you aware that some of us might have been seriously injured by what you
+would call, I suppose, a practical joke? Is this your idea of amusement?
+It is not mine. Do you get any enjoyment from such a farce?"
+
+At last Margaret paused for breath, but for once Judith had nothing to
+say. She hung her head shamefacedly and the girls who were with her,
+whoever they were, hung back as if they would feign have their share in
+the affair kept secret.
+
+"I'm sorry," said Judith with unusual humility. "I didn't realize it was
+going to frighten you so much. You see, I don't look much like a man in
+my gymnasium suit. Of course the mackintosh and hat did look rather
+realistic, I'll admit. When we saw you run from the cow this morning, it
+was so perfectly ludicrous, we decided to have some fun. I put on these
+togs and we got a vehicle and drove around by the Exmoor road. I'm sorry
+if you were scared, but I think I came out the worst. My thumb is
+sprained and I know my neck will be black and blue by to-morrow."
+
+"I advise you to give up playing practical jokes hereafter," said the
+unrelenting Goddess of War. "If your thumb is sprained, it's your own
+fault."
+
+Judith flashed a black glance at her.
+
+"When I lower myself to make you an apology," she ejaculated, "I should
+think you'd have the courtesy to accept it," and with that she walked
+swiftly around the edge of the rock, where she joined her confederates,
+while the Queen's girls demurely took their way down the side of the
+hill.
+
+"Was my deed wrongly, then?" asked Otoyo, innocently, feeling somehow
+that she had been the cause of the great outburst.
+
+"No, indeed, child, your deed was rightly," laughed Margaret. "And I'm
+going to take jiu jitsu lessons from you right away. If I could twirl a
+robber around the thumb like that and hit a cow under her chin, I don't
+think I'd be such a coward."
+
+Everybody burst out laughing and Molly felt greatly relieved that
+harmony was once more established. The walk ended happily, and by the
+time they had reached home, Judith Blount had been relegated to an
+unimportant place in their minds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AN UNWILLING EAVESDROPPER.
+
+
+Busy days followed for Molly. She had been made chairman of the
+committee on decoration for the sophomore-freshman reception along with
+all her many other duties, and had entered into it as conscientiously as
+she went into everything. Some days before the semi-official party for
+the gathering of autumn foliage and evergreens, Chairman Molly and Judy
+had a consultation.
+
+"What we want is something different," Judy remarked, and Molly smiled,
+remembering that her friend's greatest fear in life was to appear
+commonplace.
+
+"Caroline Brinton will want cheese cloth, of course," said Molly, "but I
+think she'll be out-voted if we can only talk to the committee
+beforehand. My plan is to mass all the greens around the pillars and
+hang strings of Japanese lanterns between the galleries."
+
+"And," went on fanciful Judy, who adored decoration, "let's make a big
+primrose and violet banner exactly the same size as the Wellington
+banner and hang them from the center of the gymnasium, one on each side
+of the chandelier."
+
+A meeting of the class was called to consider the question of the banner
+and it was decided not only to have the largest class banner ever seen
+at Wellington, but to give the entire class a hand in the making of it.
+The money was to be raised partly by subscription and partly by an
+entertainment to be given later.
+
+The girls were very proud of the gorgeous pennant when it was completed.
+Every sophomore had lent a helping hand in its construction, which had
+taken several hours a day for the better part of a week. It was of silk,
+one side lavender and the other side primrose color. On the lavender
+side "WELLINGTON" in yellow silk letters had been briar-stitched on by
+two skillful sophomores and on the primrose side was "19--" in
+lavender.
+
+The Wellington banner, a gift from the alumnae, was also of silk in the
+soft blue which every Wellington girl loved. It was necessary to obtain
+a special permission from President Walker to use this flag, which was
+brought out only on state occasions, and it devolved on Molly, as
+chairman, to make the formal request for her class. That this intrepid
+class of sophomores was the first ever to ask to use the banner had not
+occurred to her when she knocked at the door of the President's office.
+
+Miss Walker would see her in ten minutes, she was told by Miss Maxwell,
+the President's secretary, and she sat down in the long drawing room to
+await her summons. It was a pleasant place in which to linger, Molly
+thought, as she leaned back in a beautiful old arm chair of the
+sixteenth century, which had come from a Florentine palace. Most of the
+furniture and ornaments in the room had been brought over from Italy by
+Miss Walker at various times. There were mirrors and high-backed carved
+chairs from Venice. Over the mantel was a beautiful frieze of singing
+children, and at one side was a photograph, larger even than Mary
+Stewart's, of the "Primavera"; on the other side of the mantel was a
+lovely round Madonna which Molly thought also might be a Botticelli.
+
+As her eyes wandered from one object to another in the charming room,
+her tense nerves began to relax. At last her gaze rested on the
+photograph of a pretty, dark-haired girl in an old-fashioned black
+dress. There was something very appealing about the sweet face looking
+out from the carved gilt frame, a certain peaceful calmness in her
+expression. And peace had not been infused into Molly's daily life
+lately. What a rush things had been in; every moment of the day
+occupied. There were times when it was so overwhelming, this college
+life, that she felt she could not breast the great wave of duties and
+pleasures that surged about her. And now, at last, in the subdued soft
+light of President Walker's drawing room she found herself alone and in
+delightful, perfect stillness. How polished the floors were! They were
+like dim mirrors in which the soft colors of old hangings were
+reflected. Two Venetian glass vases on the mantel gave out an opalescent
+gleam in the twilight.
+
+"Some day I shall have a room like this," Molly thought, closing her
+eyes. "I shall wear peacock blue and old rose dresses like the
+Florentine ladies and do my hair in a gold net----"
+
+Her heavy eyelids fluttered and drooped, her hands slipped from the arms
+of her chair into her lap and her breathing came regularly and even like
+a child's. She was sound asleep, and while she slept Miss Maxwell peeped
+into the room. Seeing no one, apparently, in the dim light, she went out
+again. Evidently the sophomore had not waited, she decided, so she said
+nothing to Miss Walker about it.
+
+Half an hour slipped noiselessly by; the sun set. For a few minutes the
+western window reflected a deep crimson light; then the shadows deepened
+and the room was almost dark.
+
+"Never mind the lights, Mary. I'll see Miss Walker in her office at five
+thirty," said a voice at the door. "She expects me and I'll wait here
+until it's time."
+
+"Very well, sir," answered the maid.
+
+Someone came softly into the room and sat down near the window, well
+removed from the sleeping Molly. Again the stillness was unbroken and
+the young girl, sitting in the antique chair in which noble lords and
+ladies and perhaps cardinals and archbishops had sat, began to dream.
+She thought the dark-haired girl in the photograph was standing beside
+her. She wore a long, straight, black dress that seemed to fade off into
+the shadows. Molly remembered the face perfectly. There was a sorrowful
+look on it now. Then suddenly the sadness changed inexplicably and the
+face was the face in the photograph, the peaceful calmness returned and
+the eyes looked straight into Molly's, as they did from the picture.
+
+Molly started slightly and opened her eyes.
+
+"I must have been asleep," she thought.
+
+"My dear Edwin," Miss Walker's voice was saying, "this is terrible. I am
+so shocked and sorry. What's to be done?"
+
+"I don't know. I haven't been able to think yet, it was all so sudden. I
+had just heard when I telephoned you half an hour ago. It's a great blow
+to the family. Grace is with them now, and she's a tower of strength,
+you know."
+
+"What's to be done about Judith? She was getting on so well this year. I
+think her punishment last winter did her good."
+
+"She did appear to be in a better frame of mind," said Professor Green
+drily.
+
+"Is she to be told at once?"
+
+"She has to be told about the money, of course, but the disgraceful part
+is to be kept from her as much as possible."
+
+Molly's heart began to beat. What should she do? Make her presence known
+to Professor Green and Miss Walker? But how very embarrassing that would
+be, to break suddenly into this intimate conversation and confess that
+she had overheard a family secret.
+
+"The thing has been kept quiet so far," went on the Professor. "The
+newspapers, strange to say, have not got hold of it, but it's going to
+take every cent the family can get together to pull out of the hole.
+Hardly half a dozen persons outside the family know the real state of
+the case. I have taken you into my confidence because you are an old and
+intimate friend of the family and because we must reach some decision
+about Judith. Her mother wants her to stay right where she is now, just
+as if nothing had happened. Judith has always been very proud and her
+mother thinks it would be too much of a come-down for her to live in
+cheaper quarters."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Miss Walker. "On the contrary, I think it would do
+Judith good to associate with girls who are not so well off. Put her
+with a group of clever, hard-working girls like the ones at Queen's, for
+instance."
+
+Molly's heart gave a leap. How much she would like to tell the girls
+this compliment the President had paid them! Then again the
+embarrassment of her position overwhelmed her. She was about to force
+herself to rise and confess that she had been an unwitting eavesdropper
+when she heard the Professor's voice from the door saying:
+
+"Well, you advise me to do nothing this evening? Richard is going to
+call me up again in an hour on the long distance in the village for the
+sake of privacy. If he agrees with you, I'll wait until to-morrow."
+
+"Where's Mr. Blount now?"
+
+"They think he's on his way to South America. You see, Richard, in some
+way, found out about the fake mining deal and the family is trying to
+get together enough money to pay back the stockholders. There are not
+many local people involved. Most of it was sold in the West and South
+and we hope to refund all the money in the course of time. It's nearly
+half a million, you know, and while the Blounts have a good deal of real
+estate, it takes time to raise money on it."
+
+"What did you say the name of the mine was? I have heard, but it has
+slipped my memory."
+
+"'The Square Deal Mine'; a bad name, considering it was about the
+crookedest deal ever perpetrated."
+
+Molly started so violently that the Venetian vases on the mantel
+quivered and the little table on which stood the picture in the gilt
+frame trembled like an aspen.
+
+"The Square Deal Mine!" Had she heard anything else but that name all
+summer? Had not her mother, on the advice of an old friend, invested
+every cent she could rake and scrape together, except the fund for her
+own college expenses, in that very mine? And everybody in the
+neighborhood had done the same thing.
+
+"It's a sure thing, Mrs. Brown," Colonel Gray had told her mother. "I'm
+going to put in all I have because an old friend at the head of one of
+the oldest and most reliable firms in the country is backing it."
+
+The voices grew muffled as the President and Professor Green moved
+slowly down the hall. Molly felt ill and tired. Would the Blounts be
+able to pay back the money? Suppose they were not and she had to leave
+college while Judith was to be allowed to finish her education and live
+in the most expensive rooms in Wellington.
+
+She pressed her lips together. Such thoughts were unworthy of her and
+she tried to brush them out of her mind.
+
+"Poor Judith!" she said to herself.
+
+The President's footsteps sounded on the stairs. She paused on the
+landing, cleared her throat and mounted the second flight.
+
+How dark it had grown. A feeling of sickening fear came over Molly, and
+suddenly she rushed blindly into the hall and out of the house without
+once looking behind her. Down the steps she flew, and, in her headlong
+flight, collided with Professor Green, who had evidently started to go
+in one direction and, changing his mind, turned to go toward the
+village.
+
+"Why, Miss Brown, has anything frightened you? You are trembling like a
+leaf."
+
+"I--I was only hurrying," she replied lamely.
+
+"Have you been to see the President?"
+
+"I didn't see her. It was too late," answered Molly evasively.
+
+They walked on in silence for a moment.
+
+"I am going down to the village for a long-distance message. May I see
+you to your door on my way?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Molly, half inclined to confide to the Professor that
+she had just overheard his conversation. But a kind of shyness closed
+her lips. They began talking of other things, chiefly of the little
+Japanese, Molly's pupil.
+
+At the door of Queen's, the Professor took her hand and looked down at
+her kindly.
+
+"You were frightened at something," he said, smiling gravely. "Confess,
+now, were you not?"
+
+"There was nothing to frighten me," she answered. "Did you ever see a
+picture," she continued irrelevantly, "a photograph in a gilt frame on a
+little table in the President's drawing room? It's a picture of a
+slender girl in an old-fashioned black dress. Her hair is dark and her
+face is rather pale-looking."
+
+"Oh, yes. That's a photograph of Miss Elaine Walker, President Walker's
+sister."
+
+"Where is she now?" asked Molly.
+
+"She died in that house some twenty-five years ago. You know, Miss
+Walker succeeded her father as President and they have always lived
+there. Miss Elaine was in her senior year when she had typhoid fever and
+died. It was a good deal of a blow, I believe, to the family and to the
+entire University. She was very popular and very talented. She wrote
+charming poetry. I have read some of it. No doubt she would have done
+great things if she had lived."
+
+"After all," Molly argued with herself, "I went to sleep looking at her
+photograph. It was the most natural thing in the world to dream about
+it. But why did she look so sorrowful and then so hopeful? I can't
+forget her face."
+
+Once again she was on the point of speaking to Professor Green about the
+mine, and once again she checked her confidence. The cautious Nance had
+often said to her: "If there's any doubt about mentioning a thing, I
+never mention it."
+
+"By the way, Miss Brown, I wonder if there are any vacant rooms here at
+Queen's?"
+
+"Yes," said Molly, "there happens to be a singleton. It was to have been
+taken by a junior who broke her arm or something and couldn't come back
+to college this year. Why? Have you any more little Japs for me to
+tutor?"
+
+"No, but I was thinking there might have to be some changes a little
+later, and Miss Blount, my cousin, would perhaps be looking
+for--er--less commodious quarters. But don't mention it, please. It may
+not be necessary."
+
+"I may have to make some changes myself for the same reason," thought
+poor Molly, but she said nothing except a trembly, shaky "good-night,"
+which made the Professor look into her face closely and then stand
+watching her as she hastened up the steps and was absorbed by the
+shadowy interior of Queen's still unlighted hallway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+TWO LONG DISTANCE CALLS.
+
+
+The President readily granted her gracious permission for the sophomores
+to use the Wellington alumnae banner. She was pleased at the class
+spirit which had engendered the request and which had also prompted the
+sophomores to make a banner of their own.
+
+With reverent hands the young girls hoisted the two splendid pennants on
+the evening of the reception. And another unusual distinction was
+granted this extraordinary class of 19--. The President and several of
+the faculty appeared that evening in the gallery to view the effect.
+Never before in the memory of students had Prexy attended a
+sophomore-freshman ball.
+
+"They have certainly made the place attractive," said the President,
+looking down between the interstices of garlands of Japanese lanterns
+on the scene of whirling dancers below. "The banners are really
+beautiful. I feel quite proud of my sophomores this evening."
+
+The sophomores were proud of themselves and worked hard to make the
+freshmen have a good time and feel at home. Molly, remembering her own
+timidity of the year before, took care that there were no wall flowers
+this gala evening.
+
+She had invited Madeleine Petit, a lonely little Southern girl, who had
+a room over the post office in the village and was working her way
+through college somehow. In spite of her own depleted purse, Molly had
+sent Madeleine a bunch of violets and had hired a carriage for the
+evening. As for the little freshman, she was ecstatic with pleasure. She
+never dreamed that her sophomore escort was nearly as poor as she was.
+People of Molly's type never look poor. The richness of her coloring,
+her red gold hair and deep blue eyes and a certain graciousness of
+manner overcame all deficiencies in the style and material of her
+lavender organdy frock.
+
+But, in spite of her glowing cheeks and outward gaiety, Molly was far
+from being happy that night. No word had come to her from her family all
+the week, although they were the most prolific letter writers, all of
+them. No doubt they hesitated for a while to let her know the truth
+about the Square Deal Mine. Molly was prepared for anything; prepared to
+give up college at mid-years and get a position to teach school in the
+country somewhere; prepared to look the worst in the face bravely. But
+Wellington was like a second home to her now. She loved its twin gray
+towers, its classic quadrangle and beautiful cloisters; its spacious
+campus shaded with elm trees.
+
+How dear these things had grown to her now that the thought of leaving
+them forced its way into her mind!
+
+She was debating these questions inwardly, as she gallantly led her
+partner over to the lemonade table, where Mary Stewart, in a beautiful
+liberty dress of pigeon blue that matched her eyes, was presiding with
+Judith Blount and two other juniors.
+
+"Why, Molly Brown," exclaimed Mary, "in spite of all your glowingness,
+you don't seem quite like yourself this evening. Has anything happened
+to roughen your gentle disposition? No bad news from home, I hope?"
+
+"Oh, no," returned Molly. "No news at all. I haven't heard all week."
+
+Judith, who still had a grudge against Queen's girls, although she was
+endeavoring to overcome it, here remarked:
+
+"Why, I think you are looking particularly well to-night, Molly. Such a
+becoming dress!"
+
+Molly flushed as she glanced hastily down at her two-year-old organdy.
+Mary Stewart put a hand over her cold, slim fingers.
+
+"You always wear becoming dresses, Molly, dear. In fact, they are so
+becoming that no one ever looks at the dress for looking at you."
+
+Molly smiled and pressed her friend's hand in return. She was wondering
+if Judith Blount would learn to curb her tongue when she had to curb her
+expenses.
+
+"I want you to meet Miss Petit," she said, introducing the little
+freshman to the two older girls.
+
+Mary Stewart shook hands kindly and Judith bowed distantly. Certainly
+Judith was in a bad humor that night.
+
+"How do you like Wellington?" asked Mary of Miss Petit by way of making
+conversation.
+
+"I think it's jus' lovely," drawled the little Southerner with her
+inimitable Louisiana accent. "I never danced on a better flo' befo' in
+all my life."
+
+Mary Stewart smiled. The soft, melodious voice was music to her ears.
+
+"You live in the Quadrangle, don't you? I think I saw you there the
+other day," continued Mary.
+
+"Oh, no, I reckon you saw some other girl. I live over the post office
+in the village."
+
+"She has a charming room," broke in Molly, when she was interrupted by a
+stifled laugh. Looking up quickly, they were confronted with Judith and
+one of her boon companions, their faces crimson with suppressed
+laughter.
+
+Miss Petit regarded the two juniors with a kind of gentle amazement.
+Then, without the slightest embarrassment, she said to Mary and Molly:
+
+"What lovely manners some of the Wellington girls have!"
+
+At this uncomfortable juncture Edith Williams sailed up.
+
+"This is my dance isn't it, Mademoiselle _Petite_? And while we dance, I
+want you to talk all the time so that my ears can drink in your liquid
+tones. Have you heard her speak, Miss Stewart? Isn't it beautiful? It's
+like the call of the wood-pigeon, so soft and persuasive and delicious."
+
+"Now, you're flattering me," said little Miss Petit, "but I'm glad it
+doesn't make you laugh, anyhow," and she floated off in the arms of the
+tall Edith as gracefully as a fluffy little cloud carried along by the
+breezes.
+
+"Isn't she sweet?" said Molly presently. "And you can't imagine what she
+is doing to make both ends meet here. She won a scholarship which pays
+her tuition, but she has to earn the money for board and clothes and all
+the rest. She washes dishes at a boarding house for her dinners and
+cooks her own breakfasts in her room and eats, well, any old thing, for
+her lunch. On her door is a sign that says, 'Darning, copying, pressing
+and fine laundry work, shampooing and manicuring.' It makes me feel
+awfully ashamed of my small efforts."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Mary. "How can I help her, Molly, without
+her knowing it? She seems to be a proud little thing."
+
+"Oh, I don't know. Give her some jabots to do up or have your hair
+shampooed. She does hand-painting on china, too, but I don't think you
+could quite go her pink rose designs. She'll out-grow hand-painted china
+in another year, just as I outgrew framed lithographs and antimacassars
+in one evening, after seeing your rooms in the Quadrangle."
+
+"By the way, Molly, have you invited anyone for the Glee Club concert
+yet?"
+
+"No, because I didn't know anyone well enough to ask except Lawrence
+Upton from Exmoor, and Judith has already asked him."
+
+"Good," said Mary. "Then, will you do me a favor? Brother Willie is
+coming down to the concert and expects to bring two friends. Will you
+take one of them under your wing?"
+
+Molly was only too delighted to be of service to the friend who had done
+so much for her.
+
+"It will be a pleasure and a joy," she said, as she hastened away to
+find her small partner for the next waltz.
+
+The "Jokes and Croaks" stage of the sophomore-freshman reception had
+been reached, and Katherine Williams, speaking through the megaphone,
+was saying:
+
+"An art contribution from the juniors, with accompanying verse:
+
+    "'I never saw a purple cow,
+      And never hope to see one;
+      But this I know, I vow, I trow:
+      I'd rather see than be one.'"
+
+While Katherine read the verse, another girl held up a large picture
+entitled "The Flight of the Royal Family." In the foreground was a
+little purple cow grazing on purple turf, and in the background, running
+at full speed, with every indication of extreme terror on their faces,
+were a dozen queens, wearing gold crowns and lavender and primrose
+robes.
+
+Hardly a girl at Wellington but had heard of the absurd adventure of the
+Queen's girls, and a tremendous laugh shook the walls of the gymnasium.
+In the midst of this uproar, someone touched Molly on the shoulder. It
+was a junior known to her only by sight, who whispered:
+
+"You're wanted on the telephone."
+
+Now, all telegrams to Wellington College were received at the telegraph
+office in the village and telephoned over, and when Molly was notified
+that there was a message for her, she felt instinctively that it was a
+telegram from home; and they would only telegraph bad news, she was
+certain.
+
+Her face was pale and her heart thumping as she hurried out of the
+gymnasium. Nance and Judy rose and followed her. If anything was the
+matter with their beloved friend, they were determined to share her
+trouble.
+
+Molly hastened to the telephone booths in the main corridor.
+
+"Is it a telegram?" she asked the young woman in charge of the
+switchboard; for, in the last few years telephones had been installed in
+all the houses of the faculty and their respective offices as well,
+thereby saving many steps and much time.
+
+"Hello! Long distance?" called the girl, without answering Molly's
+question. "Here's your party. Booth No. 2," she ordered.
+
+The operator had very little patience with college girls, and this
+Adamless Eden palled on her city-bred soul.
+
+"Hello!" said Molly.
+
+Then came a small, thin voice, an immense distance away, but strangely
+familiar.
+
+"Is this Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky?"
+
+"Yes. Who is this?"
+
+"This is Richard Blount. Have you forgotten me?"
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"Is your mother Mrs. Mildred Carmichael Brown, of Carmichael Station,
+Kentucky?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Um! I suppose you think it's very strange, Miss Brown, my asking you
+this question," called the thin, far-away voice. "I had a very good
+reason for asking it. Have you heard from home lately?"
+
+"Not for a week. Is anything the matter with my family besides the----"
+
+"No, no, nothing that I know of."
+
+"Is it about the mine?"
+
+"Yes, but you are not to worry. You understand, you are not to worry one
+instant. Everything will come out all right."
+
+"It was nearly ten thousand dollars," said Molly, almost sobbing; "our
+house and garden and the rest of the apple orchard that was sending me
+to college--" Here she broke down completely. "I may have to give up
+all this--I may----"
+
+"Now, Miss Molly, you mustn't cry. You make me feel like the very--very
+unhappy, way off here."
+
+"Five minutes up," called the voice of the exchange.
+
+"Good-by, good-by," called Molly. "I'm sorry I cried, Mr. Blount."
+
+Poor man! It was all terribly hard on him, and it was cruel of her to
+have given way, but it had come so unawares!
+
+From a corner of her eye, she could see her friends waiting anxiously
+outside the booth. She pretended to be writing something on the
+telephone pad with a stubby pencil tied to a string, until she recovered
+her composure.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded the two girls as she emerged from the
+booth.
+
+"It was just a long distance from Richard Blount," said Molly, not
+knowing what else to say.
+
+"I didn't know you had asked him to go to the Glee Club concert," said
+Nance.
+
+"He can't go," Molly replied quickly, relieved that they had been
+willing to accept this explanation.
+
+"I should think he couldn't," put in Judy, in a low voice. "Mamma has
+just written me such news about the Blounts. The letter came by the late
+mail and I didn't have a chance to read it until a little while ago. Mr.
+Blount has failed and gone away, no one knows where. They thought they
+could pay off his creditors and his family found that he had mortgaged
+all his property and there wasn't any money left."
+
+In the dimly-lighted corridor the girls had not noticed that Molly had
+turned perfectly white and was clasping and unclasping her hands
+convulsively in an effort to retain her self-control.
+
+"No money left?" she repeated in a low voice.
+
+"Not a cent," said Judy. "Papa knows because he had some friends who
+lost money in a mine or something Mr. Blount owned."
+
+"Poor Judith," observed Nance. "Do you suppose she hasn't been told?"
+
+"Of course not. She wouldn't be flaunting around here to-night if she
+knew her family were in trouble."
+
+"How strange for us to know and for her not to!" pursued Nance.
+
+"It isn't generally known. Mamma says the papers haven't got hold of it
+yet, and I'm not to tell. You see mamma and I met Judith Blount one
+afternoon at a matinee just before college opened. That's why she was
+interested, because she remembered that Judith was Mr. Blount's
+daughter."
+
+All this time Molly's mind was busy working out the problem of how to
+remain at college without any money. Of course, the Blounts couldn't pay
+their father's debts on nothing, although Richard Blount had told her
+not to worry. The family would have to move out of their old home, she
+supposed, and take a small house in town, and everybody would have to
+just turn in and go to work. Oh, why had her mother heeded the advice
+of old Colonel Gray? He had assured her that she would make at least
+fifteen thousand from the money invested, while he, poor man, had
+squandered his entire inheritance in the enterprise, just because an old
+and intimate friend was backing it. That old and intimate friend was Mr.
+Blount, and Molly had never guessed it.
+
+Pretty soon it was time to go home. Molly found herself in the carriage,
+trying to listen politely to the ceaseless flow of Miss Petit's
+conversation, while she wrapped her old, gray eider-down cape about her
+and thought and thought. Suddenly the words of Madeleine Petit pierced
+her troubled mind.
+
+"Do you write, Miss Brown? I wish I could. I'd like to try for some of
+the prizes for short stories. Think of winning a thousand dollars for
+one story! Wouldn't it be glorious? Then, there are some advertisement
+prizes, too. One for five hundred dollars; think of that! I always cut
+out every one I see, meaning to compete, but I never do. It isn't in my
+line, you see. I'm going to major in mathematics."
+
+Molly smiled that the dainty little creature should have chosen that
+hated subject for her life's work.
+
+"You say you saved the clippings about prizes?" she asked when they had
+reached Madeleine's lodging.
+
+"Oh, yes; I have them all in my room. Would you like to see some of
+them? Tell the man to wait, and I'll bring them down."
+
+Molly reached Queen's that night before the other girls, and hastening
+to the student's lamp, she proceeded to look over the clippings.
+
+One was from a leading woman's magazine; one from a magazine of short
+stories; several from advertising firms--the best jingle about a stove
+polish; the best catchy phrase about a laundry soap; the best
+advertisement in verse or prose for a real estate company which had
+purchased an entire mountain and was engaged in erecting numbers of
+Swiss chalets for summer residents. The pictures of these pretty little
+houses were very attractive. Many of them had poetical names. One of
+them, called "The Chalet of the West Wind," occupied the centre of the
+page. From its broad gallery could be seen a long vista of valley,
+flanked by mountain ranges.
+
+"What a charming place!" thought Molly, and that night she went to bed
+with the "Chalet of the West Wind" so deeply photographed in her mind
+that she almost felt as if she had been there herself. She could see it
+perched on the side of the mountain, looking across the valley. It was
+at the very edge of the forest. The picture showed that, and in her
+imagination she scented the wild flowers that must grow at its feet in
+the springtime. No doubt the west wind, which symbolized health and
+happiness, fair weather and sunshine, blew softly through its open
+casements and across its spacious galleries.
+
+She went to sleep dreaming of the "Chalet of the West Wind," and in the
+morning something throbbed in her pulses. It was a kind of muffled
+pounding at first, like the beginning of a long distance call,
+"lumpty-tum-tum; lumpty-tum-tum." But gradually a poem took shape in
+her mind, and as the fragments came to her she wrote them down on scraps
+of paper and hid them carefully in her desk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE GLEE CLUB CONCERT.
+
+
+"If a cross-section could be made of this house, it would be rather
+amusing," exclaimed Judy Kean. "In every room there would be one girl
+buttoning up another girl."
+
+It was the evening of the Glee Club concert, and nearly everybody not a
+freshman was going to dine somewhere before the concert. Judy and Nance
+were invited to the McLeans', and Molly was to have dinner with Mary
+Stewart and her guests in the Quadrangle apartment. During the process
+of dressing there was a great deal of "cross-talk" going on at Queen's
+that night. Through the open doors along the corridors voices could be
+heard calling:
+
+"Has anyone a piece of narrow black velvet?"
+
+"Margaret, don't you dare go without hooking me up!"
+
+"Who thinks white shoes and stockings are too dressy?"
+
+"Oh my, but you look scrumptious!"
+
+Molly had saved her most prized dress for this occasion. It was the one
+she had purchased the Christmas before in New York and was made of old
+blue chiffon cloth over a "slimsy" satin lining, with two big old rose
+velvet poppies at the belt. It was cut out in the neck and the sleeves
+were short. Just before coming back to college, she had indulged in long
+ecru suède gloves, which she now drew on silently. She had received a
+letter from her mother that morning and her heart was heavy within her.
+The letter said:
+
+"The investment I made last summer has not turned out well. The young
+son has assured me that the family intends to pay back all the
+creditors, and I am trying not to worry. In the meantime, my precious
+daughter, you must not think of giving up college, as you offered in
+your last letter; that is, until this term is over. Then we will see
+what can be done, although I am obliged to tell you that things do not
+look very hopeful about any present funds. Jane is to take a position
+in town as librarian and Minnie intends to start a dancing class. Your
+brothers and sisters and I will get on, but oh, I did so want you to
+have the advantages of a good education."
+
+"But so much else goes with the education," Molly protested to herself.
+"So many pleasures and enjoyments. Somehow, it doesn't seem fair for me
+to be going to glee club concerts when all my family are working so
+hard."
+
+"Have you any stamps, Judy?" she asked suddenly, as she hooked that
+young woman into her dress.
+
+"As many as you want up to a dozen," answered Judy. "They are in the
+pill box on my desk."
+
+Molly made her way through Judy's tumbled apartment and helped herself
+to the stamps.
+
+"I'll return them to-morrow," she said absently, drawing a letter from
+her portfolio, slipping one stamp into the envelope, and sticking the
+other on the back.
+
+"What in the world are you writing to a real estate firm for, Molly?"
+demanded Judy, looking over Molly's shoulder.
+
+"Oh, just answering an ad."
+
+"Are you so rich that you are going to buy a farm?"
+
+"I wish I were."
+
+Judy's curiosity never gave her any peace, and she now desired earnestly
+to know why Molly was corresponding with this strange firm.
+
+"If it turns out well, I'll tell you," said Molly; "but if it doesn't,
+you'll never, never know."
+
+"You mean thing, and I thought you loved me," ejaculated Judy.
+
+"I do. That's why I won't tell you. If I did, I would have to inflict
+something worse on you, and you wouldn't be so thankful for that part."
+
+"I shall burst if I don't know," cried Judy in despair.
+
+"Burst into a million little pieces then, like the Snow Queen's looking
+glass and get into people's eyes and make them see queer Judy pictures
+and think queerer Judy thoughts."
+
+"Meany, meany," called Judy after her friend, who had seized her gray
+eider-down cape and was fleeing down the hall.
+
+"I love all this," thought Molly, as she hastened up the campus to the
+Quadrangle. "I adore the gay talk and the jokes--oh, heavens, but it
+will be hard to leave it! I understand now how Mary Stewart felt when
+she almost decided not to come back this year and then gave up and came
+after all."
+
+Molly felt she would enjoy the sensation of being waited on at table
+that night instead of waiting herself, as she had done about this time
+last year at Judith Blount's dinner. She wondered if there would be a
+poor little trembly freshman to pass the food. But Mary was too
+kind-hearted for such things and had engaged two women in the village to
+cook and serve her dinner.
+
+The other guests had not arrived when Molly let herself into the
+beautiful living room of the apartment, which was now turned into a
+dining room. The drop-leaf mahogany table had been drawn into the middle
+of the floor and was set with dazzling linen and silver for eight
+persons.
+
+"I wonder who the other two are," thought Molly.
+
+"Is that you, Molly, dear?" called Mary from the bedroom. "Well, come
+and hook my dress--" how many yards of hooks and eyes had Molly joined
+together that evening! "And here's something for you. Willie, when he
+found out you were taking him, sent you some violets."
+
+"Heavens!" cried the young girl, after she had finished Mary and opened
+the large purple box. "Oh, Mary, this bunch is big enough for three
+people."
+
+"It's only intended for one, and that's you," laughed the other.
+
+The bouquet was indeed as large as a soup plate.
+
+"I don't think I'd better wear them to dinner. I couldn't see over them.
+I should feel as if I were carrying a violet bed on my chest."
+
+"And so you are. No doubt it took all the violets from one large double
+bed for that bunch. But you had better wear them at first, and take
+them off at the table. Brother Willie is one of the touchiest young
+persons imaginable. Father and I have always called him 'the sensitive
+plant.'"
+
+Hastily Molly pinned on the enormous bunch, which covered the entire
+front of her dress.
+
+"They are coming now," she said, hearing steps in the next room; and,
+peeping through the door, she beheld "Brother Willie" himself,
+resplendent in his evening clothes, in company with two other equally
+resplendent beings, all wearing white gardenias in their buttonholes.
+
+"My goodness, they look like a wedding!" Molly whispered to her friend.
+
+"Aren't they grand?" laughed Mary. "And here I am as plain as an old
+shoe, and never will be anything else."
+
+"You are the finest thing I know," exclaimed Molly, tucking her arm
+through her friend's and allowing herself to be led rather timidly into
+the living room.
+
+The third girl at this fine affair was another post-grad., and presently
+Molly rejoiced to see Miss Grace Green enter with her brother, Edwin.
+Miss Green looked very pretty and young. She kissed Molly and told her
+she was a dear, and smelt the violets and pinched her cheek, glancing
+slyly at the three young men, any one of whom might have burdened her
+with that huge bouquet. And did not such bouquets argue something more
+than ordinary friendship?
+
+As for the Professor, he glanced at the bouquet almost before he looked
+at Molly. Then he shook her stiffly by the hand and, turning away,
+devoted himself to the post-grad.
+
+"Do they know that my mother has lost all her money in their cousin's
+mine?" Molly thought. "Perhaps that's the reason why Professor Green is
+so cold tonight. He's embarrassed."
+
+At dinner Molly sat between Will Stewart and an elegant, rich young man
+named Raymond Bellaire, who talked in rather a drawling voice about
+yachting parties and cross-country riding and motoring. "At college, you
+know, the fellahs are awfully set on those little two-seated electric
+affairs." What car did Molly prefer? Molly was obliged to admit that
+she preferred the Stewart car in New York, whatever that was, it being
+the only one she had ever ridden in.
+
+The young man screwed a monocle into one eye and looked at her. He was
+half English and had half a right to a monocle, but Molly wished he
+wouldn't screw up his eye like that. It made her want to laugh. However,
+he didn't appear to notice at all that she was endeavoring to keep the
+irresistible laugh-curve from her lips. He only looked at her harder,
+and then remarked:
+
+"I say, by Jove, you'd make a jolly fine Portia. Did you ever think of
+going on the stage?"
+
+"Oh, no; I'm going to be a school teacher," answered Molly.
+
+"School teacher?" he repeated aghast. "You? With that hair and--by
+Jove--those violets!" His eyes had lighted on the mammoth bunch. "Tell
+that to the marines."
+
+Molly flushed.
+
+"The violets haven't anything to do with my teaching school," she said a
+little indignantly. "And neither has my hair. Didn't you ever see a
+red-headed school teacher?"
+
+"Not when her hair curled like that and had glints of gold in it."
+
+"You're teasing me because I'm only a sophomore," she said, and turned
+her head away.
+
+"No, by Jove, I'm not though," protested Raymond Bellaire, looking much
+pained. But Molly was talking to Willie Stewart at her right.
+
+That young man was the most correct individual in the matter of clothes,
+deportment and small talk she had ever seen. She thought of his splendid
+father, who had started life as a bootblack.
+
+"I wonder if he's pleased with his fashion-plate son?" she pondered.
+
+She didn't care for him or his friends. They were not like the jolly
+boys over at Exmoor, who talked about basket-ball and football, and
+swopped confidences regarding Latin and Greek and that _awful_ French
+Literature examination, and what this professor was like, and what the
+Prexy said or was supposed to have said, and so on. It was all college
+gossip, but Molly enjoyed it and contributed her share eagerly. She
+tried a little of it on Brother Willie.
+
+"Are you taking up Higher Math. this year, Mr. Stewart?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, after a fashion," he answered. "I don't expect to stay at college
+after this year. I'm going to Paris to finish off."
+
+Molly wondered what "Higher Math. after a fashion" really meant.
+
+At the concert later it was a relief to find herself next to Professor
+Green, who had scarcely looked in her direction all through dinner. At
+first she felt a little embarrassed, sitting next to the Professor, who
+was a great man at Wellington. She began silently to admire the packed
+audience of young girls in light dresses with a generous sprinkling of
+young men in evening clothes.
+
+"You'll probably be a member of the club next year, Miss Brown," the
+Professor was saying. "I'm sure you must sing. I am surprised they have
+not found it out by this time. Next winter you must----"
+
+"I doubt if I am here next winter," interrupted Molly, and then blushed
+furiously and bit her lip. She wished she had not made that speech.
+
+"Is anything going to happen that will keep you from coming to college
+next winter?" he asked, glancing at the violets.
+
+"How can I tell what will happen?" she answered childishly.
+
+"Then, why not come back next year?"
+
+"Because--because----" she began. "Oh, here they come!" she interrupted
+herself to say, as the members of the Glee Club filed slowly out and
+took their seats. "Aren't they sweet in their white dresses?"
+
+"Very!" answered the Professor, "but what's this about next year? It was
+just idle talk, wasn't it?"
+
+"No, no," whispered Molly, for the first number was about to begin;
+"hasn't Mr. Blount told you anything?"
+
+"Why, no. That is, nothing about you. What on earth?"
+
+"Didn't you have a list of the stockholders?"
+
+"You mean of the Square Deal Mine?" he asked in entire amazement.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have a list, but what of it?"
+
+"My mother's name is there--Mrs. Mildred Carmichael Brown."
+
+"Great heavens!" groaned the Professor. Then he sunk far down in his
+seat and buried his face in his program.
+
+Jenny Wren opened the concert with this song, which suited her high,
+bird-like voice to perfection:
+
+    "'Oh, I wish I were a tiny,
+      Browny bird from out the South,
+      Settled among the alderholts
+      And twittering by the stream;
+      I would put my tiny tail down
+      And put up my little mouth,
+      And sing my tiny life away
+      In one melodious dream.
+
+    "'I would sing about the blossoms,
+      And the sunshine and the sky,
+      And the tiny wife I mean to have,
+      In such a cosy nest;
+      And if someone came and shot me dead,
+      Why, then, I could but die,
+      With my tiny life and tiny song
+      Just ended at their best.'"
+
+There was something so moving about the little song that Molly felt she
+could have melted into a fountain of tears like Undine; and she was
+obliged to smile and smile and pretend that her heart wasn't breaking
+because her tiny life and tiny song at Wellington--her beloved
+Wellington--were soon to come to an end. The Professor, too, was
+stirred. He glanced once at Molly's smiling lips and tearful eyes and
+blew his nose violently. Then again he contemplated the program with
+great interest.
+
+During the intermission, Molly and Will Stewart went visiting down the
+aisle. Half the audience was moving about, talking to the other half,
+and the hall was filled with the buzz of laughter and conversation.
+
+"I love it! I love it!" Molly kept repeating to herself. "There couldn't
+be anything more perfect than college. Oh, do I have to give it up?"
+
+"Hey, Miss Molly!" called Andy McLean in a nearby seat, while Judy and
+Nance and George Theodore Green were waving violently to her, and
+Lawrence Upton was shaking hands with her and assuring her that the
+dinner had been a failure because she hadn't been there. Fortunately,
+Judith was well out of ear-shot behind the scenes. The Williams sisters,
+from across the aisle, were calling in one voice:
+
+"Molly, come and meet our brother John."
+
+Margaret Wakefield, causing a sensation with her distinguished father,
+and enduring the gaze of the entire audience with the calmness of one
+reared in the public eye, detained her for a moment to introduce her to
+the famous politician.
+
+"A real belle," said Miss Grace Green to her brother, leaning across two
+seats to speak to him, "is one who is just as popular with women as
+with men, and Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky appears to be a general
+favorite."
+
+The Professor looked at his sister absently. Apparently, he hadn't heard
+a word she said.
+
+He was saying to himself:
+
+"I think I'll let the tenor sing that little lyric that begins: 'Eyes
+like the skies in summer.'"
+
+After a while the delightful affair was over, and Molly, feeling
+immensely happy in spite of her anxious heart, had been escorted to
+Queen's. Professor Edwin Green, hastening into his room, flung his hat
+in one direction and his coat in another, and sat down at his desk.
+Without an instant's hesitation, he seized a pencil and the first scrap
+of paper he found and began to write:
+
+    "Dear Richard:
+
+    "I know that your cares are many, but get to work on the score
+    of the opera. I find that by working at night for a week I shall
+    be able to finish the last act and make all the changes you
+    suggested. We must launch the thing now. I have overcome all
+    scruples, as you called them, and I want nothing more than to
+    get the opera into some manager's hands. If you think that Blum
+    & Starks will take it up, you had better see them at once. My
+    name may be used and everything that goes with it in the way of
+    previous unimportant literary efforts. It's unusual, of course,
+    for a Professor of English Literature to write a comic opera,
+    but the very unusualness may give it some publicity and help the
+    thing along. I have made one change without conferring; given
+    the tenor-lover the baritone-villain's song: 'Eyes like the
+    skies in summer.' Write something very pretty for that, will
+    you, old man? The money we may make on this will help some in
+    the present critical family situation. I understand that there
+    have been a good many failures in light opera this winter, and
+    the managers are looking for good things. It may be that we
+    shall strike at the psychological moment.
+
+        "Yours,      E. G."
+
+The august Professor then wrote two other letters; one to a firm of
+bankers and one to his publishers. At last, getting into an old dressing
+gown and some very rusty slippers, lighting a long, black cigar and
+drawing his student's lamp nearer, he took an immense roll of manuscript
+from a drawer and fell to work. It was three o'clock before he turned in
+for three hours of troubled sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A JAPANESE SPREAD.
+
+
+One morning every girl at Queen's discovered by her plate at the
+breakfast table a strange rice paper document some twelve inches in
+length and very narrow as to width, rolled compactly on a small stick.
+
+"What's this?" demanded Margaret Wakefield, unrolling her scroll and
+regarding it with the legal eye of an attorney perusing documentary
+evidence.
+
+Across the top of the scroll swung a gay little row of Japanese lanterns
+done in delicate water colors, and in characters strangely Japanese was
+inscribed the following invitation:
+
+    "Greetings from
+     Otoyo Sen:
+     Your honorable
+     presence is
+     requested on
+     Saturday evening
+     at the insignificant fête
+     in the unworthily
+     apartment of
+     Otoyo Sen.
+     Otoyo muchly
+     flattered by
+     joyful acceptance."
+
+Fortunately, the little Japanese girl, overcome by shyness after this
+rash venture, had not appeared at breakfast and was spared the mirthful
+expressions on the faces of the girls around the table.
+
+"Well, of all the funny children," laughed Molly. "Nance, let's offer
+her our room. She can't get the crowd into her little place."
+
+"Of course," said Nance, agreeable to anything her roommate might
+suggest.
+
+Not a single girl declined the quaint invitation and formal acceptances
+were sent that very day.
+
+Otoyo was so excited and happy over these missives that she seemed to be
+in a state of semi-exaltation for the better part of a week. She rushed
+to the village and sent off a telegram and before Saturday morning
+received at least a dozen mysterious boxes by express. They were piled
+one on top of the other in her room like an Oriental pyramid and no one
+was permitted to see their contents.
+
+All offers of assistance were refused the day of the party. Otoyo wished
+to carry out her ideas in her own peculiar way and needed only a
+step-ladder. If it was not asking too much, would the beautiful and kind
+friends not enter their room until that evening? Removing all things
+needful in the way of books and clothes to Judy's room, the beautiful
+and kind friends good-naturedly absented themselves from their apartment
+from ten in the morning to seven-thirty that evening. Molly spent the
+afternoon in the library studying, and Nance called on Mrs. McLean and
+drank a cup of tea and ate a buttered scone, while she cast an
+occasional covert glance in the direction of Andy junior's photograph
+on the mantel.
+
+It was well before eight o'clock when the inquisitive guests assembled,
+and there were at least twenty of them; for Otoyo's acquaintance was
+large and numbered girls from all four classes. They met downstairs in a
+body and then marched up to the third story together.
+
+"Let's give her a serenade before we knock," suggested Judy, and they
+sang: "The sweetest girl in Wellington is O-to-yo." Any name could be
+fitted into this convenient and ingenious song.
+
+Otoyo flung open the door and stood smiling before them. Her manner was
+the very quintessence of hospitality. She wore a beautiful embroidered
+kimono and her hair was fixed Japanese fashion. Even her shoes were
+Japanese, and she carried a little fan which she agitated charmingly to
+express her excited emotions.
+
+All her English forsook her in the excitement of greeting her guests and
+she could only repeat over and over again:
+
+"Otoyo delightly--Otoyo delightly."
+
+"Well, I never," ejaculated Nance, entering her old familiar room, now
+transformed into a gay Japanese bazaar.
+
+"Is this the parent of all the umbrella family?" demanded Judy, pointing
+to an enormous parasol swung in some mysterious manner from the centre
+of the ceiling and resembling a large fish swimming among a numerous
+small-fry of lanterns. The divans were spread with Japanese covers, and
+over the white dimity curtains were hung cotton crepe ones of pale blue
+with a pink cherry-blossom design. In one corner stood a vase, from
+which poured the incense of smoking joss-sticks. Funny little handleless
+cups were ranged on the table and lacquered trays of candied fruits,
+rice cakes and other indescribable Japanese "meat-sweets," as Otoyo had
+called them. The little hostess flew about the room exactly as the
+_Three Little Maids_ did in "The Mikado," waving her fan and bowing
+profoundly to her guests. Presently, sitting cross-legged on the floor,
+she sang a song in her own language, accompanying herself on a curious
+stringed instrument, a kind of Japanese banjo. She was, in fact, the
+funniest, queerest, most captivating little creature ever seen. She
+loaded her guests with souvenirs, little lacquered boxes, fans and
+diminutive toys.
+
+"I feel as if I were a belle at a grand cotillion with all these lovely
+favors," exclaimed Jessie Lynch.
+
+"Of course, you would always be laden with favors," said Judy; "that is,
+if you could get all your beaux to come to the same cotillion. You are
+like the sailor who had a lass in every port. I strongly suspect you of
+having an admirer in every prominent city in the country."
+
+Jessie laughed and dimpled.
+
+"No," she said; "I stopped at the Rocky Mountains."
+
+Otoyo, who had been listening closely to this dialogue, suddenly
+bethought herself of a new sensation she had provided for her friends,
+which she was about to forget.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "I nearlee forgetting. American girl love fortune
+telling? So do Japanese. You like to have your fortune told?" she
+asked, cocking her head on one side like a little bird and blinking at
+Jessie.
+
+"Would she?" cried a dozen ironical voices.
+
+"I hope it's nothing disagreeable and there's no bad luck in it," said
+Jessie, drawing a slip of paper from a flat, shiny box. "But it's all in
+Japanese," she added, with much disappointment.
+
+"Otoyo will translate it. Won't you, you cunning little sugar-lump?"
+asked Molly.
+
+"Everybodee choose and then I will make into English," said the small,
+busy hostess, flying from one to another on her marshmallow soles.
+
+"Me first of all," cried the eager Jessie. "I had first draw."
+
+Otoyo took the slip and, holding it under a lantern, translated in a
+high, funny voice:
+
+"He happy who feesh for one and catch heem, than feesh for many and
+catch none."
+
+The wild whoop of joy that went up at this unexpectedly appropriate
+statement made the lanterns quiver and the teacups rattle.
+
+Some of the others were not so appropriate, but they were all very
+amusing. Mabel Hinton, who had been nicknamed "old maid" the year
+before, drew one which announced:
+
+"Your daughters will make good matches."
+
+The girls laughed till the tears ran down their cheeks at this
+prediction, and Mabel was quite teased.
+
+"I'd like to know why I shouldn't have a family of marriageable
+daughters some day," she exclaimed, blinking at them with near-sighted
+eyes while she wiped the moisture from her large round glasses.
+
+Nance's fortune was a very sentimental one and caused her to blush as
+red as a rose.
+
+"Love will not change, neither in the cold weenter time nor in the warm
+spreengtime under the cherry-blossoms when the moon ees bright."
+
+"Oh, thou blushing maiden," cried Judy, "canst look us in the eye after
+this?"
+
+Molly's was rather comforting to her troubled and unquiet heart.
+
+"Look for cleer weather when the sky ees blackest."
+
+Of all the mottoes, Judy's was the funniest.
+
+"Eef thy hus-band beat thee, geeve heem a smile."
+
+"Smile indeed," exclaimed that young woman when the laughter had died
+down; "I'll just turn the tables on him and beat him back, Otoyo.
+American young lady quite capable of giving honorable husband a good
+trouncing with a black-snake whip."
+
+Otoyo opened her eyes at this. It was doubtful whether she could
+appreciate the humor of her mottoes, but she enjoyed hearing the girls
+laugh; she realized they must be having a good time if they laughed like
+that--really genuine, side-shaking laughter and no lip-smiles for
+politeness' sake.
+
+"Who's heard the news about Judith Blount?" asked one of the Williamses,
+after the party had broken up and only the Queen's girls remained.
+
+Molly and Judy and Nance exchanged telegraphic glances. They had been
+careful to keep secret what Mrs. Kean had written her daughter, and they
+were curious to know just how much the others knew on the subject,
+which was now always uppermost, at least in Molly's mind.
+
+"She's sub-let her apartment, furnished, to that rich freshman from New
+York, whose father's worth a fortune a minute from gold mines and oil
+wells, and she, I mean Judith, is taking the empty singleton here."
+
+"You don't mean it!" cried a chorus of voices.
+
+"It seems to me I heard that a Mr. Blount lost a lot of money," observed
+Margaret. "It must have been her father."
+
+"How are the mighty fallen!" exclaimed Edith Williams. "I should think
+she'd have gone anywhere rather than here."
+
+"She couldn't get in any of the less expensive places unless she had
+taken a room over the post office in the village."
+
+"Poor Judith!" ejaculated Jessie. "I've known it for a week."
+
+To save her life Molly could not keep a tiny little barbed thought from
+piercing her mind: "Is it fair for Judith to stay at college when I
+have to leave? Has she any right to the money that's paying her
+tuition?"
+
+Molly turned quickly and began gathering up the débris from the
+tea-tables. Anything to get that bitter notion out of her head.
+
+"Let's be awfully nice to her, girls," she said presently. "I'm sure
+she's terribly unhappy. Remember what success we had with Frances
+Andrews last year just through a little kind treatment."
+
+"Judith is a different subject altogether," said Margaret,
+argumentatively. "She has such a dreadful temper. You never can tell
+when it's going to break loose."
+
+With the Goddess of War sitting among them at this moment, nobody dared
+betray by the flick of an eyelash that there were others whose tempers
+were rather uncertain. Only Jessie observed:
+
+"Well, Margaret, dear, you got the better of her that time at the
+Ledges, temper or no temper."
+
+"I doubt if she takes to poverty as a duck to water," here put in Judy.
+"She'll make a very impatient tutor, and I'd hate to have her black my
+boots. She might throw them at my head."
+
+"She is certainly not subdued by her reverses," remarked Jessie. "She's
+just like a caged animal. I never saw anything to equal her. I went over
+there this afternoon and she was packing. She almost pitched me out of
+the room. Of course, it's very luxurious at Beta Phi House, but her
+little room here isn't to be scorned. It's really quite pretty, with
+lovely paper and matting and chintz curtains and wicker chairs."
+
+Suddenly a wave of indignation swept over Molly. Nobody had ever seen
+her look as she looked now, burning spots of color on her cheeks and her
+eyes black.
+
+"What right has she--how dare she--she should be thankful--" she burst
+out incoherently. Then she stamped both feet up and down like an angry
+child and flung herself face down on the couch in an agony of tears. It
+was a kind of mental tempest, resembling one of those sudden storms
+which come with a flash of lightning, a roaring crash of thunder and
+then a downpour of rain.
+
+"Why, Mary Carmichael Washington Brown," exclaimed Judy, kneeling beside
+poor Molly, "whatever has come over you?"
+
+Little Otoyo was so frightened that she hid behind a Japanese screen,
+while the other girls sat dumb with amazement.
+
+The Williams girls were intensely interested, and Margaret, always
+consistent and logical in her decisions, knew very well that there was
+something serious back of it.
+
+"Please forgive me," said Molly presently, wiping her eyes and sitting
+up as limp as a rag. "I'm awfully sorry to have spoiled the evening like
+this. I didn't mean it. It just slipped out of me before I knew it was
+coming."
+
+"Why, you old sweetness," exclaimed the affectionate Judy, "of course,
+you are forgiven. I guess you ought to be allowed a few outbursts. But
+what caused it?"
+
+"I think it was nervousness," answered Molly evasively.
+
+But the girls began to realize that it was not entirely nervousness. It
+occurred to them now that Molly had been preoccupied and strangely
+silent for some time. Occasionally she gave way to forced gaiety. Twice
+she had started on walks, changed her mind and come back, without giving
+any excuse except that she was a little tired. It was, in fact, a
+condition that had come about so gradually that they were hardly aware
+they had noticed it until this sudden breakdown.
+
+"She's dead tired and ought to get to bed this minute," remarked Nance,
+caressing her friend's hand.
+
+"Dearest Molly," said Jessie, who was moved by a gentle sympathy always
+for those in trouble, "go to bed and get a good rest. It was just nice
+and human of you to get mad once in a thousand years and we love you all
+the better for it."
+
+They were good friends, all of them, Molly felt, as they kissed her or
+pressed her hand good-night, while Nance and Judy hastened to clear off
+the divan and put up the windows to blow out the heavy, incense-scented
+air.
+
+It was Otoyo, however, who brought the tears back to poor Molly's eyes.
+
+"Dear, beautiful Mees Brown," she said. "You must not think it will come
+wrong. It will come right, I feel, surelee."
+
+"What is it, Nance?" whispered Judy, after they had got their friend to
+bed.
+
+Nance shook her head.
+
+"Heaven knows," she answered. "But it's something, and it must be
+serious, Judy, or she never would have let go like that."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+VESPERS.
+
+
+There was a pretty little Episcopal chapel in the village of Wellington,
+where at Vespers on Sunday afternoons the students were wont to
+congregate. Six Wellington girls always served as ushers and the college
+Glee Club formed the Chapel choir.
+
+"It's a good thing to go to Vespers," remarked Judy one Sabbath
+afternoon, pinning on her large velvet hat before the mirror over the
+mantel, notably the most becoming mirror in the house, "not only for the
+welfare of our souls, but also to attire ourselves in decent clothes."
+
+"I suspect you of thinking it's good for your soul to wear good clothes,
+Judy," observed Nance.
+
+"You suspect rightly, then," answered Judy. "If I had to dress in rags,
+I'm afraid my soul would become a thing of shreds and patches, too, all
+shiny at the seams and down at the heels."
+
+Nance laughed.
+
+"That's a funny way to talk, considering you are about to attend Vespers
+at the Chapel of the good St. Francis, who took the vows of poverty and
+lived a roving life on the hills around Assisi."
+
+"That's all very true," said Judy, "and I've seen the picture of him
+being married to Lady Poverty, but our dispositions are different, St.
+Francis's and mine. I like the roving over the hills part, because I'm a
+wanderer by nature, but I like to wander in nice clothes. My manners are
+getting to be regular old gray sweater manners, and if I didn't put on
+my velvet suit and best hat once a week there's no telling what kind of
+a rude creature I would become."
+
+"Why, Julia Kean, I'm ashamed of you," cried Nance, "you've as good as
+confessed that you go to Vespers to show your fine clothes."
+
+"I don't go to show 'em, goosie; I go to wear 'em. But you have no sense
+of humor. What's the good of telling you anything? Molly, there,
+understands my feelings, I am sure."
+
+Molly was not listening. She was making calculations at her desk with a
+blunt pencil on a scrap of paper.
+
+"I've got as good a sense as you have," cried Nance hotly, "only I don't
+approve of being humorous about sacred things."
+
+"Nonsense," broke in Judy, "don't you know, child, that you can't limit
+humor? It spreads over every subject and it's not necessarily profane
+because it touches on clothes at church. I suppose you think there is
+nothing funny about the Reverend Gustavus Adolphus Larsen, and you have
+forgotten how you giggled that Sunday when he announced from the pulpit
+that his text was taken from St. Paul's 'Efistle to the Epeesians.'"
+
+"He's always getting mixed," here put in Molly, who at certain stages in
+the warm discussions between Nance and Judy always sounded a pacifying
+note. "They do say that he was talking to Miss Walker about one of the
+faculty pews, and he said: 'Do you occupew this pi?'"
+
+This was too much for Nance's severity, and she broke down and laughed
+gaily with the others.
+
+"He's a funny little man," she admitted, "but he's well meaning."
+
+"Hurry up," admonished Judy; "it's twenty minutes of four and I want to
+get a good seat this afternoon."
+
+"You want to show off your new fashionable headgear, you mean, Miss
+Vanity," said Nance, pinning on her neat brown velvet toque and
+squinting at herself in the mirror.
+
+"Oh, me," thought Molly, "I wish I had a decent garment to show off."
+
+She had intended to buy some clothes that autumn from a purchasing agent
+who came several times a year to Wellington with catalogues and samples,
+but she had been afraid to spend any of the money she had earned because
+of the precarious state of the family finances.
+
+She ran her hatpin through her old soft gray felt, which had a bright
+blue wing at one side, and slipped on the coat of her last winter's gray
+suit. Then she drew white yarn gloves over her kid ones, because she had
+no muff and her hands were always frozen, and stoically marched across
+the campus with her friends.
+
+The Chapel was already crowded when the girls arrived. They had not
+heard that the Rev. Gustavus's pulpit was to be filled that afternoon by
+a preacher from New York. At any rate, they had to sit in the little
+balcony, which commanded a better view of the minister than it did of
+the congregation. He was a nice-looking young man, with an unaffected
+manner, and he preached to the packed congregation as if he were talking
+quietly and simply to one person; at least, it seemed so to Molly. The
+sermon was a short address on "Faith." It contained no impassioned
+eloquence nor fiery exhortations, but it impressed the students
+profoundly.
+
+"Don't try to instruct God about the management of your lives," he said,
+"any more than you would direct a wise and kind master who employed you
+to work on his estate. All the Great Master asks of you is to work well
+and honestly. The reward is sure to come. You cannot hurry it and you
+cannot make it greater than you deserve. It is useless to struggle and
+rage inwardly. Is not that being rather like a spoiled child, who lies
+on the floor and kicks and screams because his mother won't give him any
+more cake? Just put your affairs in the hands of God and go quietly
+along, doing the best you can. All of a sudden the conditions you once
+struggled against will cease to exist, and before you have realized it,
+the thing you asked for is yours."
+
+Lots of people, the minister said, prayed a great deal without believing
+that their prayers would be heard. It reminded him of a little anecdote.
+
+"One Sunday morning during a terrible drought a country preacher knelt
+in the midst of his family at home and prayed earnestly for rain. When
+it was time to start for church, the minister noticed that his little
+daughter was carrying an umbrella.
+
+"'Why do you take an umbrella, my child?' he asked, glancing at the
+cloudless sky.
+
+"'Didn't you just pray for rain, father?' she answered.
+
+"All the learning of the ages is not greater than the simple faith of a
+little child," finished the young preacher.
+
+And now the sermon was over and the girls were chatting in groups
+outside the Chapel, or strolling along the sidewalk arm in arm. Molly
+had withdrawn from her companions for a moment and was standing alone in
+a corner of the vestibule.
+
+"I'm afraid I've been acting just like the little child who threw
+himself on the floor and kicked and screamed for more cake," she was
+thinking. "I suppose another year at college is just like a nice big
+hunk of chocolate cake and it wouldn't be good for mental digestion. I
+might as well stop struggling and begin to cram mathematics. That's the
+hardest thing I have, and I ought to get in as much of it as I can
+before I go."
+
+"Perhaps you won't have to go at all," spoke another voice in her mind.
+
+But Molly couldn't see it that way. Other letters from her mother had
+made it clear to her that no more money could be raised. There was a
+good place waiting for her to step into, however, in a small private
+school made up of children who lived in the neighborhood. She could come
+home after the mid-year examinations when the present teacher in the
+school was planning to be married.
+
+"Oh, Miss Brown," someone said. Molly looked up quickly. It was
+President Walker. "Will you walk along with me? I had a letter from your
+mother last night and I want to speak to you about it."
+
+The President was a very democratic and motherly woman who not only
+guided the affairs of the college with a wise hand, but kept in personal
+touch with her girls, and it was not unusual to see her walking home
+from Vespers with several students. This time, however, she took Molly's
+arm and led her down the village street without asking any of the
+others to join her.
+
+The young girl was very sensible of the honor paid her, thus singled out
+by the President to walk back to college. She felt a shy pleasure in the
+sensation they created as the crowd of students parted to let them pass.
+
+"I am very, very sorry to receive this news from your mother, Miss
+Brown," began the President. "I suppose you know what it is?"
+
+"You mean about leaving college, Miss Walker?"
+
+"Yes. It's really a great distress to me to think that one of my Queen's
+girls especially must give up in the middle of her course. Instead of
+listening to that young man at Vespers, I was thinking and thinking
+about this unwelcome news."
+
+Molly smiled. She had managed to listen to the preaching and to think
+about her affairs at the same time, because they somehow seemed to fit
+together. Once she almost felt that perhaps he knew all about her case
+and was preaching to her. But, of course, everybody had problems and
+lots of the girls thought the same thing, no doubt,--Madeleine Petit,
+for instance.
+
+"Is there no possible way it could be arranged?" went on the President.
+"Is this decision of your mother's final?"
+
+Evidently Mrs. Brown had not explained why Molly was obliged to come
+home.
+
+"Oh, she didn't decide it," answered the young girl, quickly. "It's
+because--because the money's gone--lost."
+
+"I suspected it was something of that sort," went on the President.
+"Now, there is a way, Miss Brown, by which you could remain if you would
+be willing to leave Queen's Cottage. I am in charge of a Student Fund
+for just such cases as yours. This provides for tuition and board,--not
+on the campus, but in the village. You're making something now tutoring
+the little Japanese girl, I understand. That's good. That will help
+along. You will have to manufacture some excuse to your friends about
+leaving Queen's. Otherwise, the fund arrangement may remain a secret
+between you and me."
+
+Miss Walker pressed the girl's hand and smiled kindly as she searched
+her face for some sign of gladness and relief at this offer.
+
+Molly tried to smile back.
+
+"We'll leave everything as it is until the end of this semester,"
+continued the President.
+
+"Thank you very, very much," Molly said, making a great effort to keep
+her voice from sounding shaky.
+
+Leave Queen's! Was it possible the President didn't know that life at
+Queen's was the best part of college to her? Would there be any pleasure
+left if she had to tear herself away from her beloved chums and take up
+quarters in the village, living on a charity fund?
+
+When she separated from Miss Walker at the McLeans' front door, she was
+so filled with inward lamentations and weeping that she could scarcely
+say good-night to the President, who looked somewhat puzzled at the
+girl's still pale face.
+
+Rushing back to Queen's, Molly flung herself through the front door and
+tore upstairs. On the landing she bumped into Judith Blount, who gave
+her a sullen, angry look.
+
+"Please be careful next time and don't take up the whole stairs,"
+exclaimed that young woman rudely.
+
+Molly glanced at her wildly. What right had she to talk, this wretch of
+a girl who could remain at Queen's and live on other people's money? Oh,
+oh, oh! Misery of miseries! She rushed up the second flight. She was
+having what Judy called "the dry weeps." At the door of Otoyo's room she
+paused. It was half open and the little Japanese was sitting
+cross-legged on the floor with a lamp beside her, studying.
+
+"May I come in?"
+
+"With much gladness," answered Otoyo, rising and bowing ceremoniously.
+
+"I want to stay in here a little while, Otoyo, away from other people.
+May I sit here by the window in this big chair? Go on with your lessons.
+I don't want to talk. I wanted to be with someone who was quite quiet.
+I should have been obliged to hide in a closet if you hadn't let me in."
+
+"I am very happily glad you came to me," said Otoyo.
+
+She helped Molly off with her coat and hat, pulled out the Morris chair
+so that it faced the window and sat down again quietly with her book.
+
+At the end of three-quarters of an hour, Otoyo began to move noiselessly
+about the room. Molly was still sitting in the big arm-chair, her hands
+clasped in her lap. Presently she became aware that Otoyo was standing
+silently before her bearing a lacquer tray on which was a cup of tea and
+a rice cake.
+
+"Otoyo, you sweet, little dear," she said, placing the tray on the arm
+of the chair. She gulped down the tea and ate the cake, and while the
+small hostess made another cupful, Molly continued: "Otoyo, I'm going to
+let God manage my affairs hereafter. I'm not going to lie on the floor
+any more and kick and scream like a spoiled child for another piece of
+chocolate cake. I shall always carry an umbrella now when I pray for
+rain, and I mean to begin to-night to polish up in math."
+
+"I am happily glad," said Otoyo, giving her a gentle, sympathetic
+smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
+
+
+There was no happier girl in Wellington one morning than Nance Oldham,
+and all because she had been invited to the Thanksgiving dance at Exmoor
+College. Nance had never been to a real dance in her life, except a
+"shirtwaist" party at the seashore, where she had been a hopeless
+wallflower because she had known only one man in the room--her father.
+Now, there was no chance of being a wallflower at Exmoor, where a girl's
+card was made out beforehand, and she had that warm glow of predestined
+success from the very beginning of the festivity.
+
+Molly and Judy were also invited and the girls were to go over to Exmoor
+on the 6.45 trolley with Dr. and Mrs. McLean and return on the 10.45
+trolley, permission having been granted them to stay up until midnight.
+Three other Wellington girls were bound for the dance on the same car.
+A young teacher chaperoned this little company, of which Judith Blount
+was one.
+
+"I wonder that Judith Blount can make up her mind to go to a dance,"
+Judy Kean remarked to Molly. "She's been in such a sullen rage for so
+long, she's turned quite yellow. I don't think she will enjoy it."
+
+"It will do her good," answered Molly. "Dancing always makes people
+forget their troubles. Just trying to be graceful puts one in a good
+humor."
+
+"The scientific reason is, child, that it stirs up one's circulation."
+
+"And brooding is bad for the circulation," added Molly.
+
+It had been a very gloomy holiday, the skies black and lowering and a
+dead, warm wind from the south. But there had been no sign of rain, and
+now, as they alighted from the car at Exmoor station, they noticed that
+the wind had shifted slightly to the east and freshened. The great
+blanket of frowning black had broken, and a myriad of small clouds were
+flying across the face of the moon like a flock of frightened sheep.
+Molly shivered. She had often called herself a human barometer and her
+spirits were apt to shift with the wind.
+
+"The wind has changed," she observed to the doctor. "I feel it in my
+bones."
+
+"Correct," said the doctor, scanning the heavens critically. "There's no
+flavoring extract so strong as a drop of East wind. Let us hope it will
+hold back a bit until after the shindig."
+
+With all its penetrating qualities, however, the drop of East wind did
+not affect the air in the beautiful old dining hall of Exmoor, used
+always for the larger entertainments. Its polished hardwood floor and
+paneled walls, its two great open fireplaces, in which immense back logs
+glowed cheerfully, made a picture that drove away all memory of bad
+weather.
+
+Then the music struck up. The dancers whirled and circled. Nance was in
+a seventh heaven. Her cheeks glowed, her eyes shone, and she seemed to
+float over the floor guided by the steady hand of young Andy; while his
+father looked on and smiled laconically.
+
+"Every laddie maun hae his lassie," he observed to his wife, "and it's
+gude luck for him when he draws a plain one with a bonnie brown eye."
+
+"She's not plain," objected Mrs. McLean.
+
+"She has no furbelows in face nor dress that I can see," answered the
+doctor.
+
+"They're just a boy and a girl, Andrew. Don't be anticipating. There's
+no telling how often they may change off before the settling time
+comes."
+
+"And was it your ainsel' that changed so often?" asked the doctor, with
+a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Nay, nay, laddie," she protested, leaning on the doctor's arm
+affectionately, "but those were steadier days, I'm thinking."
+
+"There's not so muckle change," said the doctor, "when it comes to
+sweethearting."
+
+Many old-fashioned dances were introduced that night: the cottage
+lancers, and Sir Roger de Coverly, led off by the doctor and his wife,
+whose old-world curtseys were very amusing to the young dancers.
+
+And while the fun waxed fast and furious indoors, outside queer things
+were happening. The South wind, gently and insistently battling with the
+East wind, had conquered him for the moment. All the little clouds that
+had been scuttling across the heavens before the East wind's icy breath,
+now melted together into a tumbled, fleecy mass. Snowflakes were
+falling, softly and silently, clothing the campus and fields, the
+valleys and hills beyond in a blanket of white. Then the angry East wind
+returned from his lair with a new weapon: a drenching sheet of cold,
+penetrating rain, which changed to drops of ice as it fell and tapped on
+the high windows of the dining hall a warning rat-tat-tat quite drowned
+in the strains of music. The South wind, conquered and crushed, crept
+away and the East wind, summoning his brother from the North to share
+the fun, played a trick on the world which people in that part of the
+country will not soon forget. Together they covered the soft, white
+blanket with a sheet of ice as hard and slippery as plate glass. At
+last, having enjoyed themselves immensely, they retired. Out came the
+moon again, shining in the frozen stillness, like a great round lantern.
+
+In the meantime, the dance went on and joy was unconfined. Nobody had
+the faintest inkling of the drama which had been acted between the East
+and the South winds.
+
+Most unconscious of all was Molly, who, having danced herself into a
+state of exuberant spirits, sat down to rest with Lawrence Upton in an
+ingle-nook of one of the big fireplaces. As chance would have it, they
+were joined by Judith Blount and a very dull young man, who, Lawrence
+informed Molly, had more money than brains. Judith had not noticed Molly
+at first. Probably she would never have chosen that particular spot if
+she had. But the destinies of these two girls had been ordained to touch
+at intervals in their lives and whenever the meeting occurred something
+unfortunate always happened. They were exactly like two fluids which
+would not mix comfortably together. There was a general movement of
+partners for supper at this juncture and the two girls found themselves
+alone for the moment while their escorts departed for coffee and
+sandwiches.
+
+"Are you having a good time?" Molly asked, glancing at Judith timidly.
+
+She would have preferred to have said nothing whatever, but she had made
+a compact with herself to try and overcome her dislike for this girl
+whom she had distrusted from the moment of their first meeting at the
+railroad station when Mr. Murphy had given Molly's baggage check
+preference.
+
+"Did I appear to be a wallflower?" demanded Judith insolently.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Molly. "I didn't mean that of course."
+
+Then she sighed and turned toward the fire with a trembly, unnerved
+feeling.
+
+"I don't believe I'll ever get used to having people cross to me," she
+thought. "It always frightens me. I suppose I'm too sensitive." She
+began to shiver slightly. "The wind is surely in the East now," she
+added to herself.
+
+When the young men came back bearing each a tray with supper for two,
+she was grateful for the cup of steaming coffee.
+
+"Will you hold this for a minute, Miss Molly," asked Lawrence Upton,
+"while I get a chair to rest it on? Lap tables are about as unsteady as
+tables on shipboard."
+
+Judith's partner had followed Lawrence's example, and presently the two
+students were seen hurrying through the throng, each pushing a chair in
+front of him. By some strange fatality, history was to repeat itself.
+Just as he reached the girls, the young person who had more money than
+brains slipped on a fragment of buttered bread which had fallen off
+somebody's plate, skidded along, bumped his chair into Lawrence, who
+lost his balance and fell against poor Molly's tray. Then, oh, dreadful
+calamity! over went the cup of coffee straight onto Judith's yellow
+satin frock.
+
+Molly could have sunk into the floor with the misery of that moment, and
+yet she had not in the least been the cause of the accident. It was the
+small-brained rich individual who was to blame. But Judith was not in
+any condition to reckon with original causes. Molly had been carrying
+the tray with the coffee cups and that was enough for her. She leapt to
+her feet, shaking her drenched dress and scattering drops of coffee in
+every direction.
+
+"You awkward, clumsy creature!" she cried, stamping her foot as she
+faced Molly. "Why do you ever touch a coffee cup? Are you always going
+to upset coffee on me and my family? You have ruined my dress. You did
+it on purpose. I saw you were very angry a moment ago and you did it for
+revenge."
+
+Molly shrank back in her seat, her face turning from crimson to white
+and back to crimson again.
+
+"Don't answer her," said a small voice in her mind. "Be silent! Be
+silent!"
+
+"But, Miss Blount," began her supper partner, feeling vaguely that
+justice must be done, "I stumbled, don't you know? Awfully awkward of
+me, of course, but I slipped on an infernal piece of banana peel or
+something and fell against Upton. Hope your gown isn't ruined."
+
+"It is ruined," cried Judith, her face transformed with rage. "It's
+utterly ruined and she did it. It isn't the first time she's flung
+coffee cups around. Last winter she ruined my cousin's new suit of
+clothes. She's the most careless, awkward, clumsy creature I ever saw.
+I----"
+
+A curious little group had gathered over near the fireplace, but Judith
+was too angry to care who heard what she was saying. In the meantime,
+Lawrence Upton had taken his stand between Judith and Molly, feeling
+somehow that he might protect poor Molly from the onslaught. Presently
+he took her hand and drew it through his arm.
+
+"Suppose we join the McLeans," he said. "I see they are having supper
+all together over there." As they turned to leave, he said to Judith in
+a cold, even voice that seemed to bring her back to her senses:
+
+"I upset the coffee. Blanchard fell against me and joggled my arm. If
+there is any reparation I can make, I shall be glad to do it."
+
+Whereupon, Judith departed to the dressing room and was not seen again
+until it was time to leave.
+
+"What a tiger-cat she is!" whispered Lawrence to Molly, as he led her
+across the room.
+
+Molly did not answer. She was afraid to trust her voice just then, and
+still more afraid of what she might say if she dared speak.
+
+"What was all that rumpus over there?" demanded Judy when the young
+people had joined their friends.
+
+"Oh, just a little volcanic activity on the part of Mount Ætna and a
+good deal of slinging of hot lava. Miss Molly and I are refugees from
+the eruption, and Mount Ætna has gone upstairs."
+
+"You mean Miss Ætna Blount?" asked Judy.
+
+"The same," said Lawrence.
+
+When it was time for the Wellington party to catch the trolley car home,
+they emerged from the warm, cheerful dining hall into a world of
+dazzling whiteness. The trees were clothed in it, and the ground was
+covered with a crust of ice as hard and shining as marble.
+
+A path of ashes was sprinkled before them, so that they walked safely as
+far as the station.
+
+"Heaven help us at the other end," Mrs. McLean exclaimed, clinging to
+the doctor's arm.
+
+The car was late in arriving at Exmoor station. At last it hove into
+sight, moving at a hesitating gait along the slippery rails. But it had
+a comfortably warm interior and they were glad to climb in out of the
+bitter cold.
+
+"All aboard!" called the conductor. "Last car to-night."
+
+There is always a gloomy fatality in the announcement, "Last car
+to-night." It is just as if a doctor might say: "Nothing more can be
+done."
+
+Clang, clang, went the bell, and they moved slowly forward.
+
+After an age of slipping and sliding, frequent stopping and starting and
+exchanges of loud confidences between the motorman and the conductor,
+the car came to a dead stop.
+
+Dr. McLean, who had been sound asleep and snoring loudly, waked up.
+
+"Bless my soul, are we there?" he demanded.
+
+"No, sir, and far from it," answered the conductor, who had opened the
+door and come inside, beating his hands together for warmth.
+
+"Far from it? What do you mean by that, my good man?" asked the doctor.
+
+"There ain't no more power, sir," answered the man. "The trolley's just
+a solid cable of ice and budge she won't. You couldn't move her with a
+derrick."
+
+"But what are we to do?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I couldn't say, sir, unless you walked. It's only a matter of about two
+miles. Otherwise, you'd have to spend the night here and it'll be a
+cold place. There ain't no more heat, is there, Jim?"
+
+"There ain't," was Jim's brief reply.
+
+"I guess Jim and I'll foot it into Wellington and the best you can do is
+to come along."
+
+The doctor and his wife conferred with the young teacher who had
+chaperoned the other party. The question was, would it not be a greater
+risk to walk two miles in thin-soled shoes and party dresses over that
+wilderness of ice than to remain snugly in the car until they could get
+help? The motorman and conductor were well protected from the cold and
+from slipping, too, with heavy overcoats and arctic shoes. While they
+were talking, these two individuals took their departure, letting in a
+cold blast of air as they slid the door back to get out.
+
+The Wellington crowd sat huddled together, hoping to keep warm by human
+contact. They tried to beguile the weary hours with conversation, but
+time dragged heavily and the car grew colder and colder. Some of the
+girls began to move up and down, practicing physical culture exercises
+and beating their hands together.
+
+"I think it would be better to walk," announced Mrs. McLean at last. "We
+are in much greater danger of freezing to death sitting here than
+moving. We'll stick to the track. It won't be so slippery between the
+rails."
+
+Even the doctor was relieved at this suggestion, fearful as he was of
+slipping on the ice. The gude wife was right, as she always was, and the
+lassies had better take the risk and come along quickly. Before they
+realized it, they were on the track with faces turned hopefully toward
+Wellington. Scarcely had they taken six steps, before three of the girls
+tumbled flat, and while they were picking themselves up, Dr. and Mrs.
+McLean sat down plump on the ice, hand in hand, like two astonished
+children. It was quite impossible to keep from laughing at this
+ludicrous situation, especially when the doctor's great "haw-haw" made
+the air tremble. The ones who were standing helped the ones who had
+fallen to rise and fell themselves in the effort.
+
+"If we only had on skates," cried Judy, "wouldn't it be glorious? We
+could skate anywhere, right across the fields or along the road. It's
+just like a sea of solid ice."
+
+For an hour they took their precarious way along the track, which was
+now on the edge of a high embankment.
+
+"A grand place for coasting," remarked Judy, peeping over the edge.
+
+Suddenly her heels went over her head and her horrified friends beheld
+her sliding backwards down the hill.
+
+"Are you hurt at all, my lass?" called the doctor, peeping fearfully
+over the side, and holding onto his wife as a drowning man catches at a
+life preserver.
+
+"Hurt? No," cried Judy, convulsed with laughter.
+
+"Do you think you can crawl back?" asked Mrs. McLean doubtfully.
+
+Then Judy began the most difficult ascent of her life, on hands and
+knees. There was nothing to take hold of and, when she had got half-way
+up, back she slipped to the bottom again.
+
+A second time she had almost reached the top when she lost her footing
+and once more slipped to the base of the embankment.
+
+"You'd better go on without me," she cried, half sobbing and half
+laughing.
+
+The doctor was very uncomfortable. Not for worlds would he have put foot
+outside the trolley rails, but something had to be done.
+
+"Let's make a human ladder," suggested Molly, "as they do in melodramas.
+I'll go first. Nance, you take my foot and someone hold on to yours and
+so on. Then, Judy can climb up, catching hold of us."
+
+The doctor considered this a good scheme and the human chain was
+accordingly formed, the doctor himself grasping the ankle of the last
+volunteer, who happened to be Judith Blount. But hardly had Judy
+commenced the upward climb, when the doctor's heels went over his head
+and the entire human ladder found itself huddled together at the foot of
+the embankment.
+
+"It's a case of every mon for himself and the divvel tak' the hindmost,"
+exclaimed the doctor, sitting up stiffly and rubbing his shins. "Help
+yoursel's, lassies. I can do nae mair."
+
+Some of them reached the track at last and some of them didn't, and
+those who couldn't make it were Molly and Judith Blount.
+
+"You'll have to follow along as best you can down there," called Mrs.
+McLean, grasping her husband's arm. "We'll keep an eye on you from
+above."
+
+Once more the belated revellers started on their way, while Molly and
+Judith Blount pursued a difficult path between a frozen creek and the
+trolley embankment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE GREAT SLEET OF 19--.
+
+
+Many a fall and many a bruise they got that night as they crept along
+the frozen path. At last they reached a point where the creek had been
+turned abruptly from its bed and passed through a culvert under the
+embankment. Here the path also changed its course and headed for the
+golf links of the college.
+
+"They can never get down the embankment and we can never get up,"
+remarked Judith, who appeared to have forgotten that she had lately been
+a human volcano. "Why can't we take the short cut back? It couldn't be
+any worse than this."
+
+"Why not?" answered Molly politely, although it must be confessed she
+was still tingling under the lash of Judith's flaying tongue, and not
+one word had she spoken since they left the others.
+
+"Mrs. McLean," called Judith, making a trumpet of her hands, "we're
+going to cut across the golf links. It will be easier."
+
+"But I'm afraid for you to go alone at this time of night," answered
+Mrs. McLean.
+
+"What could harm them a night like this?" expostulated her husband.
+
+"Very well, then. I suppose it's all right," said the distracted and
+wearied lady.
+
+"Don't be uneasy, Mrs. McLean. You'll tak' the high road and we'll tak'
+the low, but we'll gang to Wellington afore ye," called Molly laughing.
+
+After all, wasn't it absurd enough to make a body laugh--one man, eight
+helpless women slipping and sliding after him, and she herself making
+off in the darkness with the only enemy she had ever known! She wished
+it had been Judy or Nance. She was sure they would have giggled all the
+way. But who ever wanted to laugh in the presence of this black-browed,
+fierce-tempered Judith?
+
+They walked silently on for some time, until they came to a little hill.
+
+"I guess we'll have to crawl it," sighed Molly.
+
+Long before this, they had pinned their long skirts up around their
+waists, and now, on hands and knees, they began the difficult ascent.
+Just as they reached the top, Molly's slipper bag somehow got away from
+her and went sliding to the bottom. Suddenly both girls began to laugh.
+They laughed until the echoes rang, and Molly, losing her grasp on a
+bush, went sliding after the bag.
+
+"Oh," laughed Judith, "oh, Molly, I shall----" and then the twigs she
+had been clutching pulled out of the ice and down she went on top of
+Molly.
+
+The two girls sat up and looked at each other. They felt warmer and
+happier from the laugh.
+
+"Judith," exclaimed Molly, suddenly, "I could never laugh with any one
+like that and not be friends. It's almost like accepting hospitality.
+Shall we be friends again?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Judith eagerly. "I am sorry I was rude to-night about
+the coffee, Molly. You know it's my terrible temper. Once it gets a
+start, I can't seem to hold it in, and I've had a great deal to try me
+lately. I apologize to you now. Will you accept my apology?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," Molly assured her. "Come along, let's try again. Once we
+get to the top of this little 'dis-incline,' as an old colored man at
+home would call it, we'll be on the links."
+
+The girls both reached the summit at the same moment, and as they
+scanned the white expanse before them, they exclaimed in frightened
+whispers:
+
+"There comes a man."
+
+Instantly they slid back to the bottom again and lay in a heap, gasping
+and giggling.
+
+"Where shall we go? What shall we do?" exclaimed Judith.
+
+"Nothing," answered Molly. "We can hardly crawl, much less run, but I
+suppose he can't either, so perhaps we are as safe here as anywhere."
+
+"But what man except a burglar could be prowling around Wellington at
+this hour?" whispered Judith.
+
+"I can't think of anyone, but I should think no sensible burglar would
+come out a night like this. Besides, do burglars ever come to
+Wellington?"
+
+"Once there was one, only he wasn't a real burglar. He was a lunatic who
+had escaped from an asylum near Exmoor."
+
+"Oh, heavens, Judith, a lunatic? I'd rather meet ten burglars. After
+all, only a lunatic would come out on such a night. Can't we run?"
+
+Molly had a fear of crazy people that she had never been able to
+conquer.
+
+They rose unsteadily on their frozen feet and began hurrying back in the
+direction of the trolley embankment. As they ran, they heard a long,
+sliding, scraping sound. Evidently the man had slid down the little
+hill. They could hear the sound of his footsteps on the ice. He was
+running after them. At last he called:
+
+"Wait, wait, whoever you are. I'm not going to hurt you."
+
+In another moment he had caught up with them. Oh, joy of joys, it was
+Professor Green, wearing a thick gray sweater and a cap with ear muffs.
+With a cry of relief, Judith flung herself on her cousin's neck while
+Molly rather timidly clasped his arm. She felt she could have hugged
+him, too, if he had only been a relation.
+
+"We thought you were an escaped lunatic," she exclaimed.
+
+"I am," he answered, "at least I've been nearly crazy trying to get news
+of you." He took her hand and drew it firmly through his arm, while
+Judith appropriated his other arm. "They telephoned over from Exmoor to
+know if you had reached Wellington safely. We found at the village that
+the car had not arrived. Then about twenty minutes ago they called us
+from the car station to say that the conductor and motorman had walked
+but that you had decided to remain in the car all night. I thought I had
+better go over and persuade you not to freeze to death by degrees. I am
+glad you decided to walk. Where are the others?"
+
+"They have gone on by the track," answered Molly. "We slipped down the
+embankment and couldn't crawl up again. Perhaps you could catch them, if
+you branched off here and took the other road."
+
+"Never mind," answered the Professor, tucking her arm more tightly
+through his. "Dr. McLean can look after the others, now that his burdens
+are lightened by two. I'd better see you across this skating rink. Mrs.
+Murphy is up waiting for you. I stopped and told her to get hot soup and
+water bottles and things ready."
+
+"You're a dear, Cousin Edwin," exclaimed Judith. "You are always
+thinking of other people."
+
+"I expect the old doctor will be a good deal knocked up by this little
+jaunt," went on the Professor, not taking the slightest notice of
+Judith's expressions of gratitude, the first Molly had ever heard her
+make about anything.
+
+It was half-past two o'clock when they reached Queen's Cottage, just ten
+minutes before the others arrived.
+
+"It's a good thing you found us," Molly said to the Professor as he
+helped them up the steps. "I believe we'd have been crawling over those
+links another hour or so if you hadn't."
+
+"I can never explain what made me cut across the links," he answered. "I
+had my face turned toward the other road when something urged me to go
+that way."
+
+Dr. McLean always insisted that it was continuous giggling that kept
+them all from freezing that bitter night. Judith Blount was the only one
+in the party who suffered from the experience. She spent a week in the
+Infirmary with a deep cold and sore throat.
+
+"You see," explained Judy Kean sagely to her two friends, "her system
+was weakened by that awful fit of temper; she lost all mental and bodily
+poise and took the first disease that came her way."
+
+"She certainly lost all bodily poise," laughed Molly. "I didn't have any
+more than she did. We slipped around like two helpless infants."
+
+"But you didn't take cold," said Judy.
+
+"I've made up my mind not to have any colds this winter," announced
+Molly seriously. "After all, there's a good deal in just declining to
+entertain them. I think the grip is a sort of bully who attacks people
+who are afraid of him and keeps away from the ones who are not cowards."
+
+The three girls spent half a day in bed sleeping off their weariness,
+and on Friday afternoon they were able to call on Mrs. McLean, who,
+being a hardy Scotchwoman, was none the worse from the walk. The doctor,
+she said, had been up since seven o'clock attending to his patients.
+
+"The truth is," she added, "he would not have missed the sight for
+anything--the whole world turned into a skating rink and the campus the
+centre of it."
+
+Everybody in Wellington who could wear skates was out that afternoon.
+The campus and golf links, as well as the lake, were covered with
+circling, gliding figures. The best skaters coasted down hill on their
+skates, as men do on snow shoes. They went with incredible speed and
+the impetus carried them up the next hill without any effort.
+
+Molly had seen very little skating at home. She had learned as a child,
+but as she grew up the sport had not appealed to her, because somebody
+was always falling in and the ice never lasted longer than a day or so.
+Now, however, the picture of the circling, swaying crowd of skaters
+thrilled her with a new desire to see if she had forgotten how to
+balance herself on steel runners.
+
+"Isn't it beautiful?" she cried. "I never saw anything so graceful. They
+are like birds. First they soar. Then they flap their wings and soar
+again."
+
+"Flap their feet, you mean," interrupted Judy, "and woe to her who flops
+instead of flaps."
+
+Mary Stewart came sailing up to them, gave a beautiful curving turn and
+then stopped.
+
+"Isn't this glorious sport?" she cried, her cheeks glowing with
+exercise. "Has your President told you about the skating carnival? It's
+just been decided, and I suppose you haven't seen her yet. It's to take
+place to-morrow night. Won't it be beautiful?"
+
+"What fun!" cried Molly. "What a wonderful sight!"
+
+"Now, Molly, you are to wrap up very warm," continued Mary, "no matter
+what kind of a costume you decide to wear. No cheesecloth Liberty
+masquerades will go, remember."
+
+"Oh, but I can't be in the carnival. I haven't any skates," said Molly.
+
+"I have another pair," answered Mary quickly. "I'll bring them over to
+you later."
+
+Molly never guessed that this loving friend skated straight down to the
+village that very instant and bought a pair of skates screwed onto stout
+shoes at the general store. Tossing away the wrapping paper and smearing
+the shoes with snow and ashes to take off the new look, she delivered
+them at Queen's before supper.
+
+"It's lucky I knew what number Molly wore," she said to herself, as she
+sailed up the campus on her Canadian skates, with strokes as sweepingly
+broad and generous as her own fine nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The Skating Carnival.
+
+
+All fears of a thaw on the heels of this unprecedented cold wave were
+put to flight next morning. The thermometer hovered at four degrees
+above zero and the air was dry and sparkling. Only those who remained
+indoors and lingered over the registers felt the cold.
+
+There was a great deal to be done before evening. Costumes had to be
+devised, bonfires built along the lake and at intervals on the links,
+lanterns hung everywhere possible and, lastly, a quick rehearsal. The
+best skaters were chosen to give exhibitions of fancy skating; there
+were to be several races and a grand march.
+
+Molly learned the night before that a sense of balance having once been
+acquired is never lost. After supper she had ventured out on the campus
+with Judy and Nance, who were both excellent skaters. With a grace that
+was peculiarly her own in spite of the first unsteadiness, Molly had
+been able to skate to the Quadrangle. There, removing her skating shoes,
+and putting on slippers, she had skipped upstairs to thank Mary Stewart
+for her kindness. The return to Queen's over the campus had been even
+easier, and next morning she felt that she could enter the carnival.
+
+Nobody had a chance to talk about costumes until after lunch on
+Saturday, when there was a meeting of the three friends to decide.
+
+"I don't see how I can go. I haven't a thing picturesque," exclaimed
+Nance dejectedly.
+
+"Now, Nance, you have no imagination," said Judy.
+
+"One day you tell me I have no sense of humor, and another that I have
+no imagination. You'll be telling me I have no brains next."
+
+"Here, eat this and stop quarreling," interrupted Molly, thrusting a
+plate of fudge before them. "When in doubt, eat fudge and wisdom will
+come."
+
+Judy ate her fudge in silence. Then suddenly she cried exultantly.
+
+"Eureka! Wisdom hath come, yea even to the humble in spirit. Heaven hath
+enlightened me. I know what we'll wear, girls."
+
+"What?" they demanded, having racked their brains in vain to think of
+something both warm and picturesque.
+
+"We'll go," continued Judy impressively, "as three Russian princesses."
+
+"What in?"
+
+"Leave that to me. You just do as I tell you. Nance, skate down to the
+village and buy a big roll of cotton batting. Make them wrap it up well,
+so as not to offer suggestions to others."
+
+"What must I do?" asked Molly.
+
+"You must turn up the hems of skirts. Take your old last winter's brown
+one, and Nance's old green one, and--and my velvet one----"
+
+"Your best skirt!" exclaimed Nance aghast.
+
+"Yes, why not? We only live once," replied the reckless Judy. "Turn up
+the hems all around and baste them. They should reach just to the
+shoetops."
+
+That afternoon they hurriedly sewed bands of cotton batting around the
+bottoms of their skirts, bordered their jackets with it, made cuffs and
+muffs and high turbans. Then Judy dotted the cotton with shoe blacking
+and it became a realistic imitation of royal ermine. Each girl wore a
+band of brilliant ribbon across the front of her coat with a gilt
+pasteboard star pinned to it.
+
+"I suppose this might be taken for the Order of the Star and Garter,"
+observed Judy. "At any rate, we are royal princesses of the illustrious
+house of Russia, the Princesses Molitzka, Nanitska and Judiekeanovitch.
+Those are Russian enough, aren't they?"
+
+Never will Molly forget the fun of that glorious evening, nor the
+beautiful picture of the meadows and fields dazzling white in the
+moonlight. While the "workers" of the four classes lit the fires and
+lanterns, the "drones" circled about on the ice singing college songs.
+From over at Exmoor came a crowd of youths who had skated the ten miles
+up-hill and down-dale to see the carnival. Sleighing parties from nearby
+estates drove over with rough-shod teams to draw the sleighs, and all
+Wellington turned out to see the sights.
+
+"I didn't believe there could be so much originality in the world,"
+thought Molly, admiring the costumes of the students.
+
+There were many Teddy Bears and Bunny Rabbits. One girl wore a black
+velvet suit with a leopard's skin over her shoulder. On her head was a
+mythological looking crown with a pair of cow's horns standing upright
+at each side. There were numerous Russian Gypsies and two Dr. Cooks
+wearing long black mustaches, each carrying a little pole with an
+American flag nailed at the top.
+
+Jessie Lynch, not being a skater, sat in a chair on runners, while her
+good-natured chum, Margaret Wakefield, pushed her about the lake.
+Margaret wore a Chinese costume and her long queue was made of black
+skirt braid.
+
+After the parade and the exhibitions of skating, there was general
+skating and the lake became a scene of changing color and variety.
+
+"It's like a gorgeous Christmas card," thought Molly, practicing strokes
+by herself in one corner while she watched the circle of skaters skim by
+her. "And how very light it is. I can plainly recognize Nance going over
+the hill with Andy McLean."
+
+"Here she is," called Lawrence Upton, breaking from the circle and
+skating towards her as easily, apparently, as a bird flies. His body
+leaned slightly. His hands were clasped behind his back, and Mercury
+with his winged shoes could not have moved more gracefully.
+
+"Come on, Miss Molly, and have a turn," he said.
+
+"What, me, the poorest skater on the pond?"
+
+"Nonsense! You couldn't dance so well if you were a poor skater. Just
+cross hands like this and sail along. I won't let you fall."
+
+Off they did sail and never was a more delightful sensation than
+Molly's, flying over the smooth ice with this good-looking young
+Mercury. Around and round they skimmed, until one of the Exmoor boys
+blew a horn, the signal that it was time to start the ten miles back to
+college. Very rough skating it was in places, so Lawrence informed
+Molly; rather dangerous going down some of the steep hills, but glorious
+fun.
+
+"Why don't you do like Baron Munchausen on the mountain? Sit on a silk
+handkerchief and slide down," suggested Molly.
+
+"We have done some sliding of that kind," he answered, laughing, "but it
+was accidental and there was no time to get out a pocket handkerchief."
+
+At last the great carnival was over, and Molly, falling in with a crowd
+of campus girls, started for home, singing with the others:
+
+"Good-night, ladies, we're gwine to leave you now."
+
+It was nearly ten when she tramped upstairs, still on her skates. Judy
+called out to her from her room, but Nance had not returned. Molly
+unlaced the skating boots, removed the Russian Princess costume, and
+flinging her time-worn eiderdown cape around her shoulders, sat down to
+toast her toes.
+
+"Judy," she called presently, "what have you done with Nance?"
+
+"The last I saw of the Lady Nance she was going over the hill with her
+sandy-haired cavalier."
+
+"I saw her, too, but I haven't met up with her since. I'm afraid she
+will get a 'calling' if she isn't back pretty soon."
+
+The girls waited silently. Presently they heard the last of the carnival
+revellers return. The clock in the tower struck ten. Mrs. Markham locked
+the hall door and put out the hall light, and still no Nance.
+
+"She's gone off skating with Sandy Andy and forgot the time," whispered
+Judy, who had crept into Molly's room to confer. "It's a good joke on
+proper old Nance. I think she was never known to break a rule before."
+
+"You don't suppose anything could have happened to them, do you?"
+
+"Of course not. But you know how absorbed they do get in conversation.
+They wouldn't hear a cannon go off a yard away."
+
+"They are awfully strict here about being out with boys," observed Molly
+uneasily. "I do wish she would come home."
+
+The girls lingered over the register talking in whispers until the clock
+struck half-past ten.
+
+"Molly, suppose they have eloped!" Judy observed.
+
+"Eloped!" repeated Molly, amazed. Then she began to laugh. "Judy, is
+there anybody in the world so romantic as you? Why, they are mere
+infants. Andy isn't nineteen yet and Nance was only eighteen last month.
+I think we'd better slip out and find them. Come on."
+
+Very quietly the two girls got into their things. They wore their
+rubbers this time, and Molly very thankfully carried the imitation
+ermine muff. The entire household was sound asleep when out into the
+sparkling, glittering world they crept like two conspirators.
+
+"Suppose we try the links first," suggested Judy, "since both of us saw
+them disappearing last in that direction."
+
+"If we were really ladylike persons we'd be afraid to go scurrying off
+here in the dark," observed Molly.
+
+"I'm not afraid of anything," Judy replied, and Molly knew she spoke the
+truth, for Judy was the most fearless girl she had ever known.
+
+When they reached the summit of the hill, they began calling at the tops
+of their voices, "Nance! Nance Oldham!"
+
+There was no answer and not in all the broad expanse of whiteness could
+they see a human being.
+
+"I wish I knew what to do," exclaimed Molly, growing more and more
+uneasy. "Suppose she has been injured--suppose--suppose----"
+
+"There they are!" cried Judy. "The young rascals, I believe they are
+utterly oblivious to time."
+
+Far over the ice appeared the two figures. They were not skating but
+walking, and several times before they reached the girls they slipped
+and fell down.
+
+"You are a nice pair," cried Judy. "Don't you know it's way after hours
+and everybody is in bed long ago?"
+
+"Why, Nance, dear, what has happened? Why are you walking?" asked Molly,
+who was rarely known to scold anybody.
+
+"I am very sorry," said Nance stiffly. "I couldn't help it. The heel of
+my shoe came off and I couldn't skate. Mr. McLean----"
+
+Judy smiled mischievously.
+
+"They've been quarreling," she said under her breath.
+
+"And Mr. McLean had to bring me back much against his will."
+
+"Nothing of the sort, Miss Oldham," put in "Mr." McLean, flushing
+angrily. "I was very glad to bring you back. I only said----"
+
+"Never mind what you said. It was your manner. Actions speak louder than
+words."
+
+"Come along," put in Molly. "This is no time for quarrels. It's after
+eleven. Andy, what will you do? Skate back to Exmoor or stay at your
+father's?"
+
+"I shall skate back, of course," he answered in an heroic voice. "The
+other fellows might think something had happened to me."
+
+"Here, Nance, put on one of my overshoes," said Judy. "That will keep
+you from slipping and we must hasten e'er the midnight chime doth
+strike. Farewell, Andrew. God bless you, and a safe journey, my boy."
+
+Judy struck a dramatic attitude and Molly was obliged to laugh, in spite
+of the serious faces of the others.
+
+"Hadn't I better see you home?" asked Andrew stiffly.
+
+"Forsooth, no, good gentleman. Begone, and the sooner the better."
+
+"Come on, you silly goose," laughed Molly, and the three girls hurried
+home. Once they stopped to look back, and young Andy, skating as if the
+foul fiends were after him, was almost at the end of the course.
+
+There was no Miss Steel that winter to keep a sharp ear open for
+late-comers and the girls crept safely up to bed. Twice in the night
+Molly heard Nance weeping bitterly. But she said nothing because she
+knew that such quarrels are soon mended.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE THAW.
+
+
+Next day began the thaw and in a week the whole earth appeared to have
+melted into an unpleasant muddy-colored liquid. An icy dampness
+permeated the air. It chilled the warmth of the soul and changed the hue
+of existence to a sad gray.
+
+Judy and Molly were prepared to see Nance thaw with the great sleet and
+melt into little rivulets of feeling and remorse. She had seemed rather
+hard on Andy, junior, that night; but Nance remained implacable and had
+no word to say on the subject.
+
+"She's as ice-bound as ever," exclaimed Judy, shaking her head ruefully.
+"I am afraid she still belongs to the glacial period. Don't you think
+you can warm her up a little and make her forgive poor Andy?"
+
+"Perhaps the sun will do it," said Molly, lifting her skirts as she
+waded through the slush on the campus.
+
+The two girls were on their way to a class and there was no time to
+linger for discussions about Nance's unforgiving nature. But there was
+nothing Judy enjoyed more than making what she learnedly termed
+"psychological speculations" concerning her friends' sentiments.
+
+"Do stop tearing along, Molly, while I talk. I have something
+interesting to say."
+
+"Judy Kean, there must be a depression on your head where there should
+be a perfectly good bump of duty. Don't you know we have only five
+minutes to get to the class? I'd rather be late to almost anything that
+Lit. II."
+
+"And why, pray?" demanded Judy, rushing to keep up with Molly's long
+steps.
+
+"Oh, well, because it's interesting."
+
+"Is that the only reason?"
+
+"Why don't you turn into a period occasionally, Juliana? You are
+every other variety of punctuation mark,--dashes, exclamations,
+interrogations. Sometimes you're a comma and I've known you to be
+a semicolon, but when, oh, when have you come to a full stop?"
+
+"All this long peroration----"
+
+"Pero--what?"
+
+"Means that you are avoiding the real question."
+
+"Here we are," ejaculated Molly with a sigh of relief as she ran
+upstairs and entered the class room at the same moment that Professor
+Green appeared from another door.
+
+Molly freely admitted to her friends that English Literature was the
+most interesting study she had. She took more pains over the preparation
+for this class than for any of her other lessons. She was always careful
+not to be late, but then sat timidly and modestly in the back row with
+the girls who wished to avoid being called upon to recite. The
+Professor's lectures, however, led her into an enchanted country, the
+land of poetry and romance. Perhaps, at first, he thought she really
+wished to avoid being questioned and that her spellbound expression was
+only indifference. Certainly he had seldom tested her interest until one
+day during a lecture on the Pre-Raphaelite artists and poets he calmly
+requested her to stand up before the entire class and read Rossetti's
+"Blessed Damozel." Blushing hotly, she began the reading in a thin,
+frightened voice, but presently the amused faces of her friends faded
+away; her voice regained its full measure of strength and beauty, and
+when she had finished, she became aware that somewhere hidden within the
+wellsprings of her mind was a power she had not known of before. Molly's
+classmates were much impressed by her performance, but there was a faint
+smile on the Professor's face that seemed to imply that he was not in
+the least surprised.
+
+Among all the little happenings that infest our daily lives it is often
+the least and most accidental that wields the strongest influence. This
+chance discovery by Molly that she could read poetry aloud gave her
+infinite secret pleasure. She began to memorize and repeat to herself
+all her favorite poems. Sometimes her pulses beat time to the rhythm in
+her head; even her speech at such times became unconsciously metrical,
+and as she walked she felt her body swing to the music of the verse.
+With a strange shyness she hid this secret from her friends, who never
+guessed when she sat quietly with them that she was chanting poetry to
+herself.
+
+Molly had planned to do several errands that afternoon, after the class
+in Lit. II. The first one took her to the village to see Madeleine
+Petit, the little Southern girl, who was willing to do almost any kind
+of work to earn money. Molly had never returned the magazine clippings
+of prize offers, and she had also another reason for wanting to see
+Madeleine. She wished to find out just how different life in a room over
+the post-office was from life at Queen's. She was thankful when the
+lesson was over, that Judy was engaged for basket-ball practice in the
+gym., for she wished to be alone when she made this call.
+
+Only a few days before, Miss Walker had called to her after chapel and
+suggested that she look over the rooms the postmistress rented to
+students, and make her choice so that lodgings could be spoken for
+before Christmas.
+
+Molly paused at Madeleine's door and read the sign carefully.
+
+"I suppose I shall have to be fixing up something like that," she
+thought, "only I never could do up jabots and I'd rather scrub floors
+than shampoo people's heads."
+
+"Come in," called the liquid, melting voice of the Southern girl in
+answer to Molly's tap. "Oh, how do you do? What a delightful, welcome
+surprise," cried the hospitable little person. "Put your feet over the
+register. That's where I spend most of my time now. I'm not used to this
+awful climate. Now, give me your hat and coat. You're to have tea with
+me, you know. You won't mind if I go on working, will you? I'm doing up
+some jabots and things for that sweet Miss Stewart. She has given me a
+lot of work. Such a lady, if she is a Yankee! I can safely say that to
+you because you aren't one, you know. But, really, I'm beginning to like
+these Northern girls so much. They are quite as nice as the girls from
+home, only quieter," rattled on Miss Petit.
+
+Molly groaned inwardly.
+
+"If she only didn't talk so much," she thought. "I'm always putting up
+milestones during her ramblings to remind me of something I wanted to
+say, but there's never any chance to go back, even if I could remember
+where I put them."
+
+"I wanted to return these clippings," she managed to edge in at last,
+producing the slips of papers.
+
+"Oh, you needn't have bothered. I shall never use any of them. I told
+you there was nothing but mathematics in my soul. I can't write at all.
+The themes are the horror of my life. But you tried, I am sure. Was it
+the short story or one of the advertising ones? They are all of them
+terribly unsatisfactory because you never know where you stand until
+months and months afterwards when you read that somebody has won the
+prize. But, of course, I never expect to win prizes. I could never make
+a _coup de tête_ like that."
+
+"You could make a _coup de_ tongue," thought Molly, sighing helplessly.
+
+"But did you try?" asked Madeleine, now actually pausing for a reply to
+her question.
+
+"I did try one of them, a little poem that came into my head, but it was
+weeks ago and I know nothing will come of it. I felt when I sent it off
+that it wasn't the kind of thing they wanted, wasn't advertisey enough.
+I had really almost forgotten I wrote it, so many other things have
+happened since. Can you keep a secret, Miss Petit?"
+
+"I certainly can," replied the busy little creature, pausing in her
+labors to test the iron. "Dear me, I must be careful not to scorch any
+of these pretty things. But the tea kettle is boiling. Suppose we have
+some refreshment and you can tell me the secret in comfort."
+
+Molly smiled at her own Southern peculiarities cropping out in this
+little friend.
+
+"Mommer sent me this caramel cake yesterday. It's made from a very old
+recipe. I hope you'll like the tea. I'm sorry I can't offer you any
+real cream. I would just as soon eat cold cream for the complexion as
+condensed cream. It's all right for cooking with, but it doesn't go well
+with tea and coffee, which I always make in my own rooms, especially
+coffee. It's never strong enough at the place I take my meals. But you
+said something about a secret?"
+
+Somehow Molly's affairs seemed to dwindle into insignificance in
+comparison with this great tidal wave of conversation, and she resolved
+not to take Madeleine into her confidence after all. It occurred to her
+that she would soon become a raving maniac if she lived next door to
+anyone who talked as much as that.
+
+"It's really not much of a secret," answered Molly lightly. "Miss Walker
+asked me to come down and look over some empty rooms here for someone,
+and I thought, maybe, if you could spare the time you would come with
+me."
+
+"I can always spare the time to be of service to you," exclaimed
+Madeleine. "You have done so much for me. You really gave me my start
+here, you know."
+
+"Nonsense!" put in Molly.
+
+"Yes, you did. You sent Miss Stewart to me and introduced me to some of
+the older girls, who have all been very nice. They would probably never
+have heard of me but for you."
+
+When they had finished the tea and cake, which were delicious, they
+inspected the vacant rooms, to a steady accompaniment of Madeleine's
+conversation. Molly wondered how the capable, clever, industrious little
+creature could accomplish so much when her tongue went like a
+clap-hammer most of the time. But there was no doubt that she achieved
+marvels and was already well up in her classes. Poor Molly's temples
+ached with the steady hum. Her tongue was dry and she had a wild impulse
+to jump out the window. How could she explain to kind Miss Walker that
+she could not live over the post-office? Would it not be an unfriendly
+act to tell the real reason?
+
+"It's bad enough as it is," she thought, "leaving my sweet old Queen's,
+but this would be beyond human endurance. It will have to be a room
+over the general store or at Mrs. O'Reilly's. Anything but this."
+
+The post-office rooms were bare and crude, and poor Molly was sick at
+heart when at last she took her leave of the little friend, who was
+still babbling unceasingly when the door closed.
+
+Molly breathed a deep sigh of relief as she waded through the slush on
+the sidewalk.
+
+"It will be a good deal like being banished from the promised land," she
+said to herself, "wherever it is."
+
+Pausing at the door of the general store, she noticed a big, black,
+funereal-looking vehicle coming up the street at a slow pace. Passers-by
+paused to look at it, with a kind of morbid curiosity, as it drew
+nearer.
+
+"Oh, heavens, I hope that isn't an undertaker's wagon," Molly thought,
+preparing to flee from the dread sight which always filled her with the
+horrors. The big vehicle passed slowly by. On the front seat with the
+driver sat Dr. McLean. He bowed to her gravely, barely lifting his hat.
+"One of his patients," her thoughts continued, "but it's strange for
+him to ride on the same wagon. I don't think I can possibly look at
+those other rooms today."
+
+She turned her face away from the general store and hastened back to the
+University, which seemed to be the only thing that retained its dignity
+and beauty under the disenchanting influences of this muggy, damp day.
+As she walked up the avenue, there some distance ahead was the gruesome
+equipage.
+
+"Heavens! Heavens! I haven't heard about anything," she exclaimed.
+
+The wagon did not pause at the Infirmary as she expected, but pursued
+its way until it reached the McLean house. Molly began to run, and just
+as she arrived breathless and excited, the vehicle had backed up to the
+steps, two doors swung open, and Mrs. McLean, accompanied by a trained
+nurse, stepped out. The doctor climbed down from one side of the vehicle
+and the driver from the other. Professor Green sprung up from
+somewhere,--he had probably been waiting in the McLeans' hall--and the
+three men gently lifted out a stretcher on which lay the almost
+unrecognizable form of Andy, junior. A large bandage encircled his head
+and one arm was done up in splints.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. McLean," whispered Molly, "I didn't know----"
+
+But Mrs. McLean only shook her head and hurried after the stretcher.
+
+Molly sat down on the muddy steps and waited. After what seemed an age,
+Professor Green emerged from the house.
+
+"You are a reckless girl to sit there in all that dampness," he
+exclaimed.
+
+"Never mind me. What about Andy?"
+
+"He's in pretty bad shape, I am afraid," answered the Professor. "He was
+hurt the night of the carnival in some way. I don't know just how it
+happened that he lost the others. At any rate, they found him after a
+long hunt half frozen to death, a gash in his head, and several broken
+bones. They thought they had better bring him home, where the doctor
+could look after him, but he hasn't stood the journey as well as they
+hoped."
+
+"Poor Nance!" said Molly, as she hastened back to Queen's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
+
+
+"Oh, Molly, what was that awful black wagon that went up the avenue a
+few minutes ago?" demanded half a dozen voices as she opened the door
+into her own room.
+
+"The freshman at the Infirmary who was threatened with typhoid fever is
+getting well," remarked Margaret Wakefield.
+
+"Surely, nothing has happened to any of the Wellington girls?" put in
+Jessie uneasily.
+
+"No, no," answered Molly, "nothing so terrible as that, thank goodness.
+It wasn't an undertaker's wagon, but an ambulance." She paused. It would
+be rather hard on Nance to tell the news about Andy before all the
+girls.
+
+"It looked something like the Exmoor ambulance," here observed Katherine
+Williams.
+
+Molly was silent. Suppose she should tell the sad news and Nance should
+break down and make a scene. It would be cruel. "I'll wait until they
+go," she decided. But this was not easy.
+
+"Who was in the ambulance, Molly?" asked Judy impatiently. "I should
+think you would have had curiosity enough to have noticed where it
+stopped."
+
+It was no use wrinkling her eyebrows at Judy or trying to evade her
+direct questions. The inquisitive girl went on:
+
+"Wasn't that Dr. McLean on the seat with the driver?"
+
+"Naturally he would be there, being the only physician in Wellington,"
+replied Molly.
+
+Then Lawyer Wakefield began a series of cross-questions that fairly made
+the poor girl quail.
+
+"In which direction were you going when you met the ambulance?" asked
+this persistent judge.
+
+"I was coming this way, of course."
+
+"And you mean to say your curiosity didn't prompt you to turn around and
+see where the ambulance stopped?"
+
+"I didn't say that," faltered Molly, feeling very much like a prisoner
+at the bar.
+
+"You did turn and look then? Was it toward the faculty houses or the
+Quadrangle that the ambulance was driving?"
+
+"Well, really, Judge Wakefield, I think I had better seek legal advice
+before replying to your questions."
+
+Margaret laughed.
+
+"I only wanted to prove to myself that the only way to get at the truth
+of a matter is by a system of questions which require direct answers.
+It's like the game of 'Twenty Questions,' which is the most interesting
+game in the world when it's properly played. Once I guessed the ring on
+the Pope's finger in six questions just by careful deduction. It's
+easier to get at the truth by subtracting than adding----"
+
+"Truth, indeed. You haven't got a bit nearer than any of us," burst in
+the incorrigible Judy. "With all your legal mind you haven't made Molly
+tell us who was in the ambulance, and of course she knows. She has
+never said she didn't, yet."
+
+Molly felt desperately uncomfortable. She wished now that she had told
+them in the beginning. It had only made matters worse not to tell.
+
+"Molly, you are the strangest person. What possible reason could you
+have for keeping secret who was in the ambulance? Was it one of the
+students or one of the faculty?" demanded Nance.
+
+"People who live in the country say that calves are the most inquisitive
+creatures in the world, but I think girls are," remarked Molly.
+
+"This is as good as a play," cried one of the Williams girls, "a real
+play behind footlights, to sit here and look on at this little comedy of
+curiosity. You've asked every conceivable question under the sun, and
+Molly there has never told a thing. Now I happen to know that the
+ambulance is connected with the sanitarium over near Exmoor. I saw it
+once when we were walking, and it is therefore probably bringing someone
+from Exmoor here. Then if you wish to inquire further by the 'deductive
+method,' as Judge Wakefield calls it: who at Exmoor has connections at
+Wellington?"
+
+"Dodo Green and Andy McLean," said Judy quickly.
+
+"Exactly," answered Edith.
+
+Nance's eyes met Molly's and in a flash she understood why her friend
+had been parrying the questions of the other girls. It was to save her
+from a shock.
+
+Perhaps some of the other girls recognized this, too, for Margaret and
+the Williamses rose at the same moment and made excuses to go, and the
+others soon followed. Only blundering and thoughtless Judy remained to
+blunder more.
+
+"Molly Brown," she exclaimed, "you have been getting so full of
+mysteries and secrets lately that you might as well live in a tower all
+alone. Now, why----"
+
+"Is he very badly hurt, Molly?" interrupted Nance in a cold, even voice,
+not taking the slightest notice of Judy's complaints.
+
+"Pretty badly, Nance. The journey over from Exmoor was harder on him
+than they thought it would be. I stood beside the stretcher for a
+minute."
+
+Nance walked over to the side window and looked across the campus in the
+direction of the McLean house. On the small section of the avenue which
+could be seen from that point she caught a glimpse of the ambulance
+making its return trip to Exmoor.
+
+She turned quickly and went back to her chair.
+
+"It looks like a hearse," she said miserably.
+
+"Is it Andy?" asked Judy of Molly in a whisper.
+
+Molly nodded her head.
+
+"What a chump I've been!" ejaculated Judy.
+
+"It happened the night of the carnival, of course," pursued Nance.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It was all my fault," she went on quietly. "I would coast down one of
+those long hills and Andy didn't want me to. I knew I could, and I
+wanted to show him how well I could skate. Then, just as we got to the
+bottom, my heel came off and we both tumbled. It didn't hurt us, but
+Andy was provoked, and then we quarreled. Of course, walking back made
+us late and he missed the others."
+
+"But, dear Nance, it might have happened just the same, even if he had
+been with the others," argued Molly.
+
+"No, it couldn't have been so bad. He must have been lying in the snow a
+long time before they found him, and was probably half frozen," she went
+on, ruthlessly inflicting pain on herself.
+
+"They did go back and find him, fortunately," admitted Molly.
+
+"He was the first and only boy friend I have ever had," continued Nance
+in a tone of extreme bitterness. "I always thought I was a wallflower
+until I met him. Other girls like you two and Jessie have lots of
+friends and can spare one. But I haven't any to spare. I only have
+Andy." Her voice broke and she began to sob, "Oh, why was I so stubborn
+and cruel that night?"
+
+Judy crept over and locked the door. She was sore in mind and body at
+sight of Nance's misery.
+
+"I feel like a whipped cur," she thought. "Just as if someone had beaten
+me with a stick. Poor old Nance!"
+
+"You mustn't feel so hopeless about it, Nance dear," Molly was saying.
+"I'm sure he'll pull through. They wouldn't have brought him all this
+distance if he had been so badly off."
+
+"They have brought him home to die!" cried Nance fiercely. "And I did
+it. I did it!" she rocked herself back and forth. "I want to be alone,"
+she said suddenly.
+
+"Of course, dear Nance, no one shall disturb you," said Molly, taking a
+pile of books off the table and a "Busy" sign, which she hung on the
+door. "We'll bring up your supper. Don't come down this evening."
+
+But when the girls returned some hours later with a tray of food, Nance
+had gone to bed and turned her face to the wall, and she refused to eat
+a morsel. All next day it was the same. Nance remained in bed,
+ruthlessly cutting lessons and refusing to take anything but a cup of
+soup at lunch time. The girls called at Dr. McLean's to inquire for
+Andy and found that his condition was much the same. Nance's condition
+was the same, too. She turned a deaf ear to all their arguments and
+declined to be reasoned with.
+
+"She can't lie there forever," Judy exclaimed at last.
+
+"But what are we to do, Judy?" Molly asked. "She's just nursing her
+troubles until she'll go into melancholia! I would go to Mrs. McLean,
+but she won't see anyone and the doctor is too unhappy to listen. I
+tried to tell him about Nance and he didn't hear a word I was saying. I
+didn't realize how much they adored Andy."
+
+Judy could offer no suggestion and Molly went off to the Library to
+think.
+
+It occurred to her that Professor Green might give her some advice. He
+knew all about the friendship between Nance and Andy, and, besides, he
+had interested himself once before in Nance's troubles when he arranged
+for her to go to the McLeans' supper party the year before. Molly
+glanced at the clock. It was nearly half-past four.
+
+"He'll probably be in his little cloister study right now," she said to
+herself, and in three minutes she was rapping on the oak door in the
+corridor marked "E. Green."
+
+"Come in," called the Professor.
+
+He was sitting at his study table, his back turned to her, writing
+busily.
+
+"You're late, Dodo," he continued, without looking up. "I expected you
+in time for lunch. Sit down and wait. I can't stop now. Don't speak to
+me for fifteen minutes. I'm finishing something that must go by the six
+o'clock mail."
+
+Molly sank into the depths of the nearest chair while the Professor's
+pen scratched up and down monotonously. Not since the famous night of
+her Freshman year when she was locked in the cloisters had she been in
+the Professor's sanctum, and she looked about her with much curiosity.
+
+"I wish I had one just like it," she thought. "It's so peaceful and
+quiet, just the place to work in and write books on 'The Elizabethan
+Drama,' and lyric poetry, and comic operas----"
+
+There was a nice leathery smell in the atmosphere of book bindings
+mingled with tobacco smoke, and the only ornament she could discover,
+except a small bronze bust of Voltaire and a life mask of Keats, was a
+glazed paper weight in the very cerulean blue she herself was so fond
+of. It caught the fading light from the window and shone forth from the
+desk like a bit of blue sky.
+
+Molly was sitting in a high back leather chair, which quite hid her from
+Judith Blount, who presently, knocking on the door and opening it at the
+same moment, entered the room like a hurricane.
+
+"Cousin Edwin, may I come in? I want to ask you something----"
+
+"I can't possibly see you now, Judith. You must wait until to-morrow.
+I'm very busy."
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed the girl and banged the door as she departed into
+the corridor.
+
+What a jarring element she was in all that peaceful stillness! The
+muffled noises in the Quadrangle seemed a hundred miles away. Molly
+rose and tiptoed to the door.
+
+"He'll be angrier than ever if he should find me here," she thought.
+"I'll just get out quietly and explain some other time."
+
+Her hand was already on the doorknob when the Professor wheeled around
+and faced her.
+
+"Why, Miss Brown," he exclaimed, "was it you all the time? I might have
+known my clumsy brother couldn't have been so quiet."
+
+"Please excuse me," faltered Molly. "I am sure you are very busy. I am
+awfully sorry to have disturbed you."
+
+"Nonsense! It's only unimportant things I won't be bothered with, like
+the absurd questions Judith thinks up to ask me and Dodo's gossip about
+the fellows at Exmoor. But I am well aware that you never waste time. I
+suspect you of being one of the busiest little ladies in Wellington."
+
+Molly smiled. Somehow, she liked to be called a "little lady" by this
+distinguished professor.
+
+"But your letter that must go by the six mail?"
+
+"That can wait until morning," he said.
+
+He had just said it was to go at six, but, of course, he had a right to
+change his mind.
+
+"Sit down and tell me what's the trouble. Have you had bad news from
+home?"
+
+"No, it's about Nance," she began, and told him the whole story. "You
+see," she finished, "Nance has had so few friends, and she is very fond
+of Andy. Because she thinks the accident was her fault, she is just
+grieving herself into an awful state."
+
+The Professor sat with his chin resting on his hand.
+
+"Poor little girl!" he said. "And the Doctor and Mrs. McLean are in
+almost as bad a state themselves. You know it's just a chance that Andy
+will pull through. He has developed pneumonia."
+
+"Oh, dear, with all those broken bones and that terrible gash! Isn't it
+dreadful?"
+
+"Pretty bad. Have you tried talking to Miss Oldham?"
+
+"I've tried everything and nothing will move her. It's just a kind of
+stubborn misery that seems to have paralyzed her, mind and body."
+
+The two sat in silence for a moment, then the Professor said:
+
+"Suppose I go down to Queen's to-night and see Miss Oldham? Do you think
+she could be induced to come down into Mrs. Markham's sitting room and
+have a talk with me?"
+
+"I should think so. She wouldn't have the courage to decline to see one
+of the faculty."
+
+"Very well. If she is roused to get up and come down stairs, she may
+come to her senses. But don't go yet. I have something to tell you,
+something that doesn't concern Miss Oldham but--er--myself. Do you
+remember the opera I told you about?"
+
+Molly nodded.
+
+"It's going into rehearsal Christmas week and will open in six weeks.
+Are you pleased?"
+
+Molly was pleased, of course. She was always glad of other people's good
+luck.
+
+"How would you like to go to the opening?" he asked.
+
+"It would be wonderful, but--but I don't see how I can. I told you there
+were complications."
+
+"Yes, I know," he answered, "but you're to forget complications that
+night and enjoy my first attempt to be amusing."
+
+"I'll try," answered Molly, not realizing how her reply might sound to
+the author of the comic opera, who only smiled good-naturedly and said:
+
+"The music will be pretty at any rate."
+
+They sat talking about the opera for some time, in fact, until the tower
+clock clanged six.
+
+"I never dreamed it was so late," apologized Molly, "and I have kept you
+all this time. I know you must be awfully busy. I hope you will forgive
+me."
+
+"Didn't I just say that your time was quite as important as mine?" he
+said. "And when two very important people get together the moments are
+not wasted."
+
+That night the Professor did call on Nance at Queen's, and the unhappy
+girl was obliged to get into her things as quickly as possible and go
+down. What he said to her Molly and Judy never knew, but in an hour
+Nance returned to them in a normal, sensible state of mind, and not
+again did she turn her face to the wall and refuse to be comforted.
+
+"There is no doubt in my mind that Professor Green is the nicest person
+in Wellington, that is, of the faculty," thought Molly as she settled
+under the reading lamp, and prepared to study her Lit. lesson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A RECOVERY AND A VISIT.
+
+
+Young Andy McLean was not destined to be gathered to his forefathers
+yet, however, and before Christmas he was able to sit up in bed and beg
+his mother fretfully to telephone to Exmoor and ask some of the fellows
+to come over.
+
+"The doctor says you're not to see any of the boys yet, Andy," replied
+his mother firmly.
+
+"If I can't see boys, is there anything I can see?" he demanded with
+extreme irritability.
+
+Mrs. McLean smiled and a little later dispatched a note to Queen's
+Cottage. That afternoon Nance came shyly into Andy's room and sat down
+in a low chair beside the white iron hospital bed which had been
+substituted for the big old mahogany one.
+
+"Your mother says you are lots better, Andy," she said.
+
+Andy gave a happy, sheepish smile and wiggled two fingers weakly, which
+meant they were to shake hands.
+
+"Mother was afraid for the fellows to come," he said, "on account of my
+heart. I suppose she thinks a girl can't affect anybody's heart."
+
+"I'm so quiet, you see," said Nance, "but I'll go if you think it's
+going to hurt you."
+
+"You wouldn't like to see me cry, would you? I boohooed like a kid this
+morning because they wouldn't let me have broiled ham for breakfast. I
+smelt it cooking. It would be just like having to give up broiled ham
+for breakfast to have you go, Nance. Sit down again, will you, and don't
+leave me until I tell you. Since I've been sick I've learned to be a
+boss."
+
+"I'm sorry I didn't let you boss me that night, Andy," remarked Nance
+meekly. "I ought never to have coasted down the hill. I've wanted to
+apologize ever since."
+
+"Have you been blaming yourself?" he broke in. "It wasn't your fault at
+all. It all happened because I was angry and didn't look where I was
+going. I have had a lot of time to think lately, and I've decided that
+there is nothing so stupid as getting mad. You always have to pay for it
+somehow. Look at me: a human wreck for indulging in a fit of rage.
+There's a fellow at Ex. who lost his temper in an argument over a
+baseball game and walked into a door and broke his nose."
+
+Nance laughed.
+
+"There are other ways of curing tempers besides broken bones," she said.
+"Just plain remorse is as good as a broken nose; at least I've found it
+so."
+
+"Did you have the remorse, Nance?" asked Andy, wiggling the fingers of
+his good hand again.
+
+"Yes, awfully, Andy," answered the young girl, slipping her hand into
+his. "I felt just like a murderer."
+
+The nurse came in presently to say that the fifteen minutes allotted for
+the call was up. It had slipped by on the wings of the wind, but their
+friendship had been re-established on the old happy basis. Andy was
+unusually polite to his mother and the nurse that day, and Nance went
+straight to the village and bought two big bunches of violets, one for
+Molly and one for Judy. In some way she must give expression to the
+rejoicing in her heart, and this was the only means she could think of.
+
+Besides Andy McLean's recovery, several other nice things happened
+before Christmas. One morning Judy burst into her friend's room like a
+wild creature, waving a letter in each hand.
+
+"They are coming," she cried. "They have each written to tell me so.
+Isn't it perfect? Isn't it glorious?"
+
+No need to tell Molly and Nance who "they" were. These girls were fully
+aware that Judy treated her mother and father exactly like two
+sweethearts, giving each an equal share of her abundant affections; but
+the others were not so well informed about Judy's family relations.
+Otoyo Sen began to clap her hands and laugh joyously in sympathy.
+
+"Is it two honorable young gentlemen who arriving come to see Mees
+Kean?"
+
+"Now, Otoyo, how often have I told you not to say 'arriving come,'"
+exclaimed Molly. "I know it's a fascinating combination and difficult to
+forget in moments of excitement, but it's very bad English."
+
+"Mees Kean, she is so happee," replied the Japanese girl, speaking
+slowly and carefully. "I cannot remembering when I see so much great
+joy."
+
+"Wouldn't you be happy, too, if your honorable mamma and papa were
+coming to Wellington to visit you, you cunning little sparrow-bird?"
+asked Judy, seizing Otoyo's hands and dancing her wildly about the room.
+
+"Oh, it is honorable mother and father! That is differently. It is not
+the same in Japan. Young Japanese girl might make great deal of noise
+over something new and very pretty,--you see? But it is not respectful
+to jump-up-so about parents arriving."
+
+There was a great laugh at this. Otoyo was an especial pet at Queen's
+with the older girls.
+
+"She's like a continuous performance of 'The Mikado,'" remarked Edith
+Williams. "Three little maids from school rolled into one,--the
+quaintest, most adorable little person."
+
+"And when do these honorable parents arriving come?" asked Margaret
+Wakefield.
+
+"To-morrow afternoon," answered Judy. "Where shall I get rooms? What
+shall I take them to see? Shall I give a tea and ask the girls to meet
+them? Don't you think a sleighing party would be fun? And a fudge party
+in the evening? Papa loves fudge. Do you think it would be a good idea
+to have dinner up here in Molly's and Nance's room, or let papa give a
+banquet at the Inn? Do suggest, everybody."
+
+Judy was too excited to sit down. She was walking up and down the room,
+her cheeks blazing and her eyes as uncannily bright as two elfin lights
+on a dark night.
+
+"Be calm, Judy," said Molly, taking her friend by the shoulders and
+pushing her into a chair. "You'll work yourself into a high fever with
+your excitable ways. Now, sit down there and we'll talk it over quietly
+and arrange a program."
+
+Judy sat down obediently.
+
+"I suppose it does seem funny to all of you, but, you see, mamma and
+papa and I have been brought up together----"
+
+"You mean you brought them up?" asked Edith.
+
+"We brought each other up. They call me 'little sister', and until I
+went off to college, because papa insisted I must have some education,
+life was just one beautiful lark."
+
+"What a jolly time you must have had!" observed Nance with a wistful
+smile which reminded the self-centred Judy at last that it was not
+exactly kind to pile it on too thickly about her delightful parents.
+
+Not a little curiosity was felt by the Queen's girls to see Mr. and Mrs.
+Kean, whom Judy had described as paragons of beauty and wit, and they
+assembled at Wellington station in a body to meet the distinguished
+pair. Judy herself was in a quiver of happy excitement and when finally
+the train pulled into the station, she rushed from one platform to
+another in her eagerness. Of course they had taken the chair car down,
+but she was too bewildered to remember that there was but one such coach
+on the Wellington train, and it was usually the rear car.
+
+"I don't find them. Oh, mamma! Oh, papa! You couldn't have missed the
+train!" she cried, addressing the spirits of the air.
+
+Just then a very tall, handsome man with eyes exactly like Judy's
+pinioned her arms from behind.
+
+"Well, little sister, don't you know your own father?"
+
+He was just as Judy had described him; and her word-picture also fitted
+Mrs. Kean, a dainty, pretty, little woman, with a doll-like face and
+flaxen hair, who would never have given the impression that she was in
+the habit of roughing it in engineering camps, sleeping out of doors,
+riding across sun-baked plains on Texas bronchos, and accompanying her
+husband wherever he went on his bridge and railroad-building trips.
+
+"Judy hasn't had much home life," she said later to Molly. "We had to
+take our choice, little sister and I, between a home without papa or
+papa without a home, and we decided that he was ten thousand times more
+delightful than the most wonderful palace ever built."
+
+Her extravagant speeches reminded Molly of Judy; but the mother was much
+gentler and quieter than her excitable daughter, and perhaps not so
+clever.
+
+They dined at Queen's that night and made a tour of the entire house,
+except Judith Blount's room, all apartments having been previously
+spruced up for inspection. Otoyo had shown her respect for the occasion
+by hanging a Japanese lantern from the chandelier and loading a little
+table with "meat-sweets," which she offered to the guests when they
+paused in her room during their triumphal progress through the house.
+
+Later Molly and Nance entertained at a fudge and stunt party and Mr. and
+Mrs. Kean were initiated into the secrets of life at Queen's.
+
+They entered into the fun like two children, and one of the stunts, a
+dialogue between the Williams sisters, amused Mr. Kean so much that he
+laughed loud and long, until his wife shook him by the shoulder and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Hush, Bobbie. Remember, you're not on the plains, but in a girls'
+boarding school."
+
+"Yes, Robert," said Judy, who frequently spoke to her parents by their
+first names, "remember that you are in a place where law and order must
+be maintained."
+
+"You shouldn't give such laugh-provoking stunts, then," answered Mr.
+Kean, "but I'll try and remember to put on the soft pedal hereafter."
+
+Then Molly, accompanying herself on Judy's guitar, sang:
+
+    "Big camp meetin' down the swamp,
+     Oh, my! Hallelujah!"
+
+Mr. Kean suddenly joined in with a deep, booming bass. He had learned
+that song many years before in the south, he said, and had never
+forgotten it.
+
+"He never forgets anything," said Judy proudly, laying her cheek against
+her father's. "And now, what will you sing, Bobbie, to amuse the
+ladies?"
+
+Mr. Kean, without the least embarrassment, took the guitar, and, looking
+so amazingly like Judy that they might have been twins, sang:
+
+    "Young Jeremy Jilson Johnson Jenks
+     Was a lad of scarce nineteen----"
+
+It was a delightful song and the chorus so catchy that after the second
+verse the entire fudge and stunt party joined in with:
+
+    "'Oh, merry-me, merry-me,'
+      Sang young Jeremy,
+     'Merry-me, Lovely Lou----'"
+
+Presently Mr. Kean, seizing his daughter around the waist, began
+dancing, and in a moment everybody was twirling to that lively tune,
+bumping against each other and tumbling on the divans in an effort to
+circle around the room. All the time. Mrs. Kean, standing on a chair in
+the corner, was gently remonstrating and calling out:
+
+"Now, Bobbie, you mustn't make so much noise. This isn't a mining camp."
+
+Nobody heard her soft expostulations, and only the little lady herself
+heard the sharp rap on the door and noticed a piece of paper shoved
+under the crack. Rescuing it from under the feet of the dancers, and
+seeing that it was addressed to "Miss Kean," she opened and read it.
+
+"Oh, how very mortifying," she exclaimed. "Now, Bobbie, I knew you would
+get these girls into some scrape. You are always so noisy. See here! Our
+own Judy being reprimanded! You must make your father explain to the
+President or Matron or whoever this Miss Blount is, that it was all his
+fault."
+
+"What in the world are you talking about, Julia Kean?" demanded Judy,
+snatching the note from her mother and reading it rapidly. "Well, of all
+the unexampled impudence!" she cried when she had finished. "Will you be
+good enough to listen to this?
+
+"'Miss Kean: You and your family are a little too noisy for the comfort
+of the other tenants in this house. Those of us who wish to study and
+rest cannot do so. This is not a dance hall nor a mining camp. Will you
+kindly arrange to entertain more quietly? The singing is especially
+obnoxious.
+
+    "'JUDITH BLOUNT.'"
+
+Judy was in such a white heat of rage when she finished reading the
+note, that her mother was obliged to quiet her by smoothing her forehead
+and saying over and over:
+
+"There, there, my darling, don't mind it so much. No doubt the young
+person was quite right."
+
+Mr. Kean was intensely amused over the letter. He read it to himself
+twice; then laughed and slapped his knee, exclaiming:
+
+"By Jove, Judy, my love, it takes a woman to write a note like that."
+
+"A woman? A cat!" broke in Judy.
+
+Mrs. Kean put her hand over her daughter's mouth and looked shocked.
+
+"Oh, Judy, my dearest, you mustn't say such unladylike things," she
+cried.
+
+"It's just because she wasn't invited," continued Judy. "I wouldn't let
+the girls ask her this time. She usually is invited and makes as much
+racket as any of us."
+
+"It was rather mean to leave her out," observed Molly. "I suppose she's
+sore about it. But we didn't ask all the girls at Queen's. Sallie Marks
+and two freshmen were not invited, and if we had gone outside, we'd have
+invited Mary Stewart and Mabel Hinton."
+
+"Still," said Mr. Kean, "there's nothing meaner than the 'left-out'
+feeling. It cuts deep. Suppose we smooth things over by asking her to
+our next party. Let me see. Will all of you give Mrs. Kean and me the
+pleasure of having you dine with us to-morrow evening at the Inn? Now,
+may I borrow some writing materials?" he added, after a chorus of
+acceptances had been raised.
+
+Nance conducted him to her writing desk, which was always the acme of
+neatness, and well stocked with stationery. Here is the letter that Mr.
+Kean wrote to Judith Blount, which Judy, looking over her father's
+shoulder, read aloud as it evolved:
+
+"'Dear Miss Blount:' (Blount, did you say her name was? Humph!) 'You
+were quite right to scold Mr. Kean and me for making so much noise. It
+was inconsiderate of us----'"
+
+"But, Bobbie," protested Mrs. Kean, "it isn't fair to lay the blame on
+me and make me write the letter, too."
+
+"Be quiet, my love," answered her husband.
+
+"'Will you not give us the pleasure of your company at dinner to-morrow
+evening at the Inn? We are anxious to show you what really quiet,
+law-abiding people we are, and Mr. Kean and I will be much disappointed
+if you do not allow us the opportunity to prove it to you.'"
+
+Judy's father paused, his pen suspended, while he asked:
+
+"Didn't I see bill posters at the station announcing a performance at
+the Opera House?"
+
+"Yes," cried Judy. "They're giving 'The Silver King.'"
+
+"'Dinner will be a little early,'" he wrote, "'because Mr. Kean is
+planning to take us all to the play afterwards. He will call for you
+in'----what shall I call for you in?"
+
+"The bus," promptly answered every girl in the room.
+
+"'--the bus at six fifteen. Anticipating much pleasure in having you
+with us to-morrow, believe me,
+
+    Most cordially yours,
+        JULIA S. KEAN.'"
+
+"Now, Julia, my love, sit down and copy what I've written in your best
+handwriting, and we'll try to smooth down this fiery young person's
+ruffled feathers."
+
+Mrs. Kean obediently copied the note. After all, it wasn't an unkind
+revenge, and Otoyo delivered it at Judith's door while the others
+chatted quietly and absorbed quantities of hot fudge and crackers.
+
+Presently Otoyo stole softly back into the room.
+
+"What did she say, little one?" asked Judy.
+
+"She was very stilly," answered Otoyo shyly. "She spoke nothing
+whatever. I thought it more wisely to departing go."
+
+The laugh that was raised at this lucid report restored good humor in
+the company.
+
+A vehicle called for Mr. and Mrs. Kean at a quarter before ten to take
+them down into the village, and it was not long before every light was
+out in Queen's Cottage but one in a small single room in an upper story.
+Here, in front of the mirror over the dressing table, sat a black-eyed
+girl in a red silk dressing gown.
+
+"Judith," she said fiercely to her image in the glass, "can't you
+remember that you are too poor to insult people any longer?"
+
+Then she rolled up Mrs. Kean's note into a little ball and flung it
+across the room with such force that it hit the other wall and bounded
+back again to her feet, and she ground it under her heel. After this
+exhibition of impotent rage, she put out her light and flung herself
+into the bed, where she tossed about uneasily and exclaimed to herself:
+
+"I won't be poor! I won't work. I hate this hideous little room and I
+loathe Queen's Cottage. I wish I had never been born."
+
+Nevertheless, Judith Blount did humble herself next day to accept Mrs.
+Kean's invitation. At the dinner she was sullen and quiet, but she could
+not hide her enjoyment of the melodrama later.
+
+The one taste which she had in common with her brother Richard was an
+affection for the theatre, no matter how crude the acting, nor how
+hackneyed the play.
+
+But the insulting letter that she had sent to Judy Kean widened the
+breach between her and the Queen's girls, and no amount of effort on her
+part after that could bridge it over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CHRISTMAS EVE PLOTS.
+
+
+Molly was not sorry to spend Christmas in Wellington this year. Numbers
+of invitations had come to her, but even Mary Stewart could not tempt
+her away from Queen's Cottage.
+
+"Otoyo and I shan't be lonesome," she said. "We have a lot of work to do
+before the mid-year exams. and by the time you come back, Otoyo's
+adverbs are going to modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. You'll
+see," she assured her friends cheerfully.
+
+And when the last train-load pulled out of Wellington, and she trudged
+back along the deserted avenue, there was a strange gladness in her
+heart.
+
+"I'm not homesick and I'm not lonesome," she said to herself. "I'm just
+happy. Except for Otoyo's lessons, I'm going to give myself a holiday.
+I'm going to read--poetry--lots of it, all I want, and to sit in the
+library and think. I'm going to take long walks alone. It will be like
+seeing the last of a dear friend, because Wellington will not be
+Wellington to me when I am installed at O'Reilly's."
+
+Hardly half a dozen girls remained at college that Christmas, and Molly
+was glad that she knew them only by sight. She was almost glad that the
+doctor and Mrs. McLean had taken Andy south. She could not explain this
+unusual lack of sociability on her part, but she did not want to be
+asked anywhere. It was a pleasure to sit with Otoyo at one end of the
+long table in Queen's dining room, and talk about the good times they
+had been having. As for the future, Molly hung a thick veil between
+these quiet days and the days to come. Through it dimly she could see
+the bare little room at O'Reilly's, sometimes, but whenever this vision
+rose in her mind, she resolutely began to think of something else.
+
+It would be time enough to look it in the face at the end of the
+semester, when she must break the news to Nance and Judy and pack her
+things for the move.
+
+Most of the girls had left on Saturday, and it seemed to Molly that
+Sunday was the quietest day of her whole life. Scarcely a dozen persons
+appeared at the Chapel for Vespers and the responses had to be spoken,
+the choir having departed for the holidays. Monday was Christmas Eve,
+and on that morning Mrs. Murphy, kind, good-natured soul that she was,
+carried Molly's breakfast to her room with a pile of letters from home.
+Molly read them while she drank her coffee, and saw plainly through
+their thinly veiled attempts at cheerfulness. It was evident that her
+family's fortunes were at a low ebb. Her mother was glad that Miss
+Walker had arranged for her to stay at college and she hoped Molly would
+be happy in her new quarters.
+
+Molly finished her dressing.
+
+"If I could only _do_ something," she said to herself fiercely as she
+pinned on the blue tam, buttoned up her sweater and started out for a
+walk. Otoyo, that model of industry, was deep in her lessons as Molly
+passed her door.
+
+"I'll be back for lunch, Otoyo," she called as she hurried downstairs.
+
+She had no sooner left the house than Queen's Cottage became the scene
+of the most surprising activities. Little Otoyo leaped to her feet as if
+she had unexpectedly sat on a hornet's nest and trotted downstairs as
+fast as her diminutive legs could carry her.
+
+"Mrs. Murphee, I am readee," she called.
+
+There was no telling what plot they were hatching, these two souls from
+nations as widely different as night from day. Boxes were pulled from
+mysterious closets. Mrs. Murphy and one of the maids emerged from the
+cellar with their arms full of greens and, stranger still, the dignified
+Professor of English Literature actually made his appearance at the
+kitchen door with a big market basket on one arm and--but what the
+Professor carried under the other arm had been carefully concealed with
+wrapping paper. These things he deposited with Mrs. Murphy.
+
+"It's a pleasant sight, surely, to see you this Christmas Eve marnin',
+Professor," exclaimed the Irish woman. "You're as ruddy as a holly
+berry, sir, and no mistake."
+
+"Well, Mrs. Murphy, I'm a Christmas Green, you know," answered the
+Professor, and Mrs. Murphy laughed like a child over the little joke.
+
+"As for the young Japanese lady, she is that busy, sir. You would niver
+expect a haythen born to take on so about the birthday of our blessed
+Lord. But she's half a Catholic already, sir, and she's bought a holy
+candle to burn to-night."
+
+"You're a good woman, Mrs. Murphy," said the Professor, standing beside
+the well-laden kitchen table, "and whatever she learns from you will do
+her good, too. She's a long way from home and I have no doubt she'll be
+very thankful for a little mothering, poor child."
+
+"Indade, and she's as cheerful as the day is long, sir. And so is the
+other young lady, and she's used to a deal of rejicin' in her family,
+too. I can tell by the way she loves the entertainin'. Her company
+niver goes away hungry and thirsty, sir. It's tea and cake always and
+more besides. 'Have you a little spare room in your oven so that I can
+bake some muffins for some friends this mornin', Mrs. Murphy?' she'll
+say of a Sunday. She's that hospitable and kind, sir. There's nobody
+like her in Queen's. I'd be sorry ever to lose her."
+
+"Should you call her hair red, Mrs. Murphy?" asked the Professor
+irrelevantly.
+
+"It's more red than anything else, sir, especially when the weather's
+damp."
+
+"And what color should you say her eyes were, Mrs. Murphy?"
+
+"An' you've not seen her eyes, surely, sir, if you can be askin' me that
+question. They're as blue--as blue, sir, like the skies in summer."
+
+The Professor blinked his own brown eyes very thoughtfully.
+
+"Well, good day, Mrs. Murphy, I must be off. Do you think you and Miss
+Sen together can manage things?"
+
+"We can, surely," said Mrs. Murphy. "She's as neat and quick a little
+body as I've seen this side the Atlantic."
+
+"My sister gets here at noon. Good day," and the Professor was off,
+around the house, and across the campus, before Mrs. Murphy could take
+breath to continue her conversation.
+
+In the meantime, Molly was hastening through the pine woods to a grove
+where she had once seen some holly bushes. In the pocket of her sweater
+were a pair of scissors and a penknife.
+
+"We must have a little holiday decoration, Otoyo and I," she said to
+herself. "And it's lots nicer to gather it than buy it at the grocery
+store. I suppose my box from home will reach here to-night. I'll ask Mr.
+and Mrs. Murphy up to-morrow and give a party. There'll be turkey in it,
+of course, and plum cake and blackberry cordial--it won't be such a bad
+Christmas. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are dears--I must do up their presents
+this afternoon. I hope Otoyo will like the little book. She'll be
+interested to know that Professor Green wrote it."
+
+As she hurried along, breathing in the frosty air, like Pilgrim she
+spied a figure a great way off coming toward her.
+
+"Another left-over," she thought and went on her way, her steps keeping
+time to a poem she was repeating out loud:
+
+    "'St. Agnes' Eve--ah, bitter chill it was!
+        The owl for all his feathers was a-cold;
+      The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass
+        And silent was the flock in woolly fold----'"
+
+Molly had just repeated the last line over, too absorbed to notice the
+advancing figure through the pine trees, except sub-consciously to see
+that it was a girl.
+
+"Ah, here's the holly," she exclaimed.
+
+"'Numb were the beadsman's fingers----'"
+
+She knelt on the frozen ground and began cutting off branches with the
+penknife.
+
+"I suppose you are rather surprised to see me, aren't you?"
+
+Molly looked up. It was Judith Blount.
+
+"Why, where did you come from, Judith?" she asked. "Didn't you go up to
+New York Friday, after all?"
+
+"I was supposed to, but I didn't. I am staying down in the village at
+the Inn. I may go this afternoon. I haven't decided yet. To tell the
+truth, I am not very anxious to see my family. Papa--isn't at home and
+Richard and mamma are rather gloomy company. I think I'd rather spend
+Christmas almost anywhere than with them, this year."
+
+"But your mother, Judith," exclaimed Molly, shocked at Judith's lack of
+feeling, "doesn't she need you now more than ever?"
+
+"Why?" demanded Judith suspiciously. "What do you know of my affairs?"
+
+"I happen to know a great deal," answered Molly, "since they have a good
+deal to do with my own affairs."
+
+"Why, what do you mean?"
+
+"Now, Judith," went on Molly, "this is Christmas and we won't quarrel
+about our misfortunes. Whatever mine are, it's not your fault. I'm
+gathering some holly to decorate for Otoyo and me. Won't you help me?"
+
+"No, thanks," answered the other coldly. "I don't feel much like
+Christmas this year," she burst out, after a pause. "I'm seeing my last
+of college now, unless I choose to stay under certain conditions--and I
+won't--I won't," she repeated, stamping her foot fiercely on the frozen
+earth, which gave out a rhythmic sound under the blow. "Queen's is bad
+enough, but if I am to descend to a room over the post-office after this
+semester, I'd--I'd rather die!" she added furiously.
+
+"We're in the same box," thought Molly. "I can appreciate how she feels,
+poor soul. I was just about as bad myself at first."
+
+"Do you blame me?" went on the unhappy Judith. "Through no fault of mine
+I've had troubles heaped on me all winter--first one and then another. I
+have had to suffer for another person's sins; to be crushed into a
+nobody; taken from my rightful place and shoved off first into one
+miserable little hole and then another. I tell you I don't think it's
+fair--it's unkind--it's cruel!"
+
+Molly was not accustomed to hear people pity themselves. She had been
+brought up to regard it as an evidence of cowardice and low breeding.
+
+"I've just about made up my mind," continued Judith, "to chuck the whole
+thing and go on the stage. I can sing and dance, and I believe I could
+get into almost any chorus. Richard, of course, wouldn't hear of my
+taking part in his new opera and he could arrange it just as easily as
+not, but he doesn't approve and neither does mamma. But it would be less
+humiliating than this." She pointed to Wellington.
+
+"But Judith, it would be a great deal more humiliating," ejaculated
+Molly. "You would be fussed with and scolded, and you'd hear horrid
+language, and live in wretched hotels and boarding houses a great deal
+worse than the rooms over the post-office!"
+
+It was very little Molly knew about chorus girl life, but that little
+she now turned to good account.
+
+"You would have to travel a lot on smoky, uncomfortable trains and stay
+up late at night, whether you wanted to or not. You wouldn't be treated
+like a lady," she added innocently, "and you'd have to cover your face
+with grease and paint every night."
+
+"I don't care," answered Judith. "Anything would be better than being
+banished from Wellington and living in a room next to that talkative
+little southern girl who does laundry work."
+
+"Judith," exclaimed Molly, "I'm being banished from Wellington, too.
+I've taken a room at O'Reilly's. I've been through all the misery you're
+going through, and I know what you are suffering. I was almost at the
+point of going home once. But Judith, don't you see that it's rather
+cowardly to enjoy prosperity and the good things that come in time of
+peace, and then run away when the real fight begins? And it wouldn't do
+any good, either. It would only make other people suffer and we'd be
+much worse off ourselves. Don't you think Judith Blount, B. A., would
+be a more important person than Judith Blount, Chorus Girl?"
+
+Judith began picking the leaves off a piece of holly. Almost everything
+she did was destructive.
+
+"I suppose you're right," she said at last. "Mamma and Richard would
+have a fit and the chorus girl rôle wouldn't suit me, either. I'm too
+high-tempered and I can't stand criticism. But you're going to
+O'Reilly's? That puts a new face on it. I'll change to O'Reilly's, too."
+
+Molly groaned inwardly. She would almost rather live next to a talking
+machine than a firebrand.
+
+"They aren't such bad rooms," she said quietly. "When we get our things
+in, they'll be quite nice."
+
+"And now, I'll hurry on," continued Judith, utterly absorbed in her own
+affairs. "I think I will take the train to New York this afternoon. I
+suppose it would be rather cowardly to leave mamma and Richard alone,
+this Christmas, especially. Good-by." She held out her hand. "What are
+your plans? Are you going to do anything tonight to celebrate?"
+
+"No," answered Molly, shaking Judith's hand with as much cordiality as
+she could muster. "Just go to bed."
+
+"I thought perhaps you had formed some scheme of entertainment with my
+cousins."
+
+"You mean the Greens? I didn't know they were here."
+
+"I don't know that they are here, either. They have been careful to keep
+their plans from me."
+
+Molly ignored this implication.
+
+"I hope you'll enjoy your Christmas, Judith," she said. "Perhaps
+something will turn up."
+
+"Something will have to turn up after next year," exclaimed Judith, "for
+I have made up my mind to one thing. I shall never work for a living."
+
+And she strode off through the pine woods with her chin in the air, as
+if she were defying all the powers in heaven to make her change this
+resolution.
+
+Molly shivered as she knelt to clip the holly. She seemed to see a
+picture of a tiny little Judith standing in the middle of a vast,
+endless plain raging and shaking her fists at--what? The empty air. She
+sighed.
+
+"I don't suppose I could ever make her understand that she'd be lots
+happier if she'd just let go and stop thinking that God has a grudge
+against her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE.
+
+
+At six o'clock that evening a mouse's tail brushed Molly's door.
+
+"Come in, little one," called Molly, recognizing Otoyo's tap. "My, how
+dressed up you are!" she cried as the little Japanese appeared in the
+doorway blushing and hesitating.
+
+"You like it? This is real American young lady's toilet. It came from a
+greatly big store in New York."
+
+Molly felt a real regret sometimes in correcting Otoyo's funny English.
+Was not the Brown family careful for many years to call bears "b'ars"
+just because the youngest brother said it when he was a little child?
+
+"But why did you wear your pink cashmere this evening, dear?" she
+asked.
+
+"Ah, but this is a holidee. In Japan we wear always best on holidee."
+
+"Then I must dress up, too, I suppose," remarked Molly, sighing, "and I
+had thought to let myself off easy to-night, Otoyo. But I couldn't
+appear before Mrs. Murphy in this old garment and you so resplendent.
+What shall I wear, chicken?" she asked, pinching Otoyo's cheek.
+
+"The dress of sky blue."
+
+"What, my last year's best?" laughed Molly. "My lady, you ask too much.
+I must preserve that for year after next best. But, seeing that you are
+doing honor to this happy occasion, Miss Sen, I'll wear it to please
+you."
+
+She soon attired herself in the blue crêpe de chine over which she and
+Nance had labored so industriously the winter before.
+
+The two girls strolled downstairs together and at the first landing
+Molly began sniffing the air.
+
+    "'If my ole nose don't tell no lies,
+      It 'pears like I smells custard pies,'"
+
+she remarked smiling.
+
+"It's meence," said Otoyo.
+
+Molly squeezed the little Japanese's plump waist.
+
+"Yes, I know it's 'meence,'" she said, "but custard pies stand for mince
+and turkey and baked macaroni and all sorts of good things. We'll soon
+find out what Mrs. Murphy's been up to."
+
+Pushing open the dining room door, she gave a start of surprise. The
+room was deserted and almost dark, and the long table was not even set
+for two.
+
+"Why, we must have come down too soon, Otoyo. You little monkey, you led
+me to believe it was quite late."
+
+Otoyo smiled and winked both eyes rapidly several times.
+
+"I think Mrs. Murphee is a very week-ed ladee," she said slowly. "She
+run away from thees house and leave us all alone. We shall have no
+deener? Ah, that will be very sadlee."
+
+They retreated from the dismal, deserted dining room into the hall.
+Immediately a door at the far end was thrown open and a flood of light
+poured from Mrs. Markham's sitting room. Then Mrs. Murphy's ample figure
+blocked the doorway, and in her rich Irish brogue she called:
+
+"You poor little lost lambs, is it for me you're lookin', then? Here I
+am and here's your supper waitin' for you."
+
+Mrs. Markham was away for the holidays.
+
+"All right, Mrs. Murphy," called Molly cheerfully. Taking Otoyo's hand,
+she led her down the hall. "Why, little one, I don't believe you are
+well," she exclaimed. "Your hands are cold and you are trembling."
+
+The truth is, Miss Sen was almost hysterical with suppressed excitement.
+
+"No, no, no," she replied. "I am feeling quite, quitely well."
+
+Grasping Molly's hand more firmly, she began running as if the strain
+were too great to be endured longer.
+
+All this time Molly had not the faintest suspicion of the surprises
+awaiting her in Mrs. Markham's sitting room. Imagine her amazement when
+she found herself confronting Miss Grace Green, her two brothers and
+Lawrence Upton in that cozy apartment! In the center was a round table
+set for six, and in the center of the round table was the most adorable
+miniature Christmas tree decorated with tiny ornaments and little
+candles, their diminutive points of light blinking cheerfully. Four tall
+silver candlesticks with red shades flanked the Christmas tree at each
+side; a wood fire crackled in the open fireplace and everywhere were
+bunches and garlands of holly.
+
+Molly was quite speechless at first and she came very near crying. But
+she choked back the lump which would rise in her throat and smiled
+bravely at the company.
+
+"I hope you are pleased with the surprise, dear," said Miss Grace Green,
+kissing her. "It seemed to Edwin and me that six homeless people should
+unite in making a Christmas for themselves. Lawrence is like you. He
+lives too far away for Christmas at home, and I am at the mercies of a
+boarding house. So, Mrs. Murphy has agreed to be a mother to all of us
+this Christmas and cheer us up."
+
+"Shure, and I'd like to be the mother of such a foine family," said Mrs.
+Murphy. "Me old man wouldn't mind the responsibility, either, I'm
+thinkin'."
+
+They all laughed and Molly found herself shaking hands with Professor
+Green and Dodo and Lawrence Upton; kissing Miss Green again; rapturously
+admiring the exquisite little tree and rushing from one holly decoration
+to another, to the joy of Otoyo, who had arranged the greens with her
+own hands.
+
+Surely such a happy Christmas party had never taken place before at old
+brown Queen's. Mrs. Murphy herself waited on the table and joined in the
+conversation whenever she chose, and once Mr. Murphy, baggage master at
+Wellington station, popped his head in at the door and smiling broadly,
+remarked:
+
+"Shure, 'tis a happy party ye're after makin' the night; brothers and
+sisters; swatehearts and frinds--all gathered togither around the same
+board. It'll be a merry evenin' for ye, young ladies and gintlemin, and
+it's wishin' ye well I am with all me heart."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Murphy," said the Professor, "and we be wishin' the same
+to you and many Christmasses to follow."
+
+"Which one of us is your swateheart, Miss Sen?" asked Lawrence Upton
+mischievously.
+
+"I like better the 'meat-sweet' than the sweet-heart," answered Miss Sen
+demurely. There was no doubt, however, that she knew the meaning of the
+word "sweetheart."
+
+How they all laughed at this and teased Lawrence.
+
+"Just be _bonbon_ and you'll be a 'meat-sweet' Larry," said the
+Professor, who appeared this evening to have laid aside all official
+dignity and become as youthful as his brother Dodo.
+
+After dinner the table was cleared, the fire built up, and the company
+gathered around the hearth. They roasted chestnuts and told ghost
+stories. Otoyo in the quaintest English told a blood-curdling Japanese
+story which interested Professor Green so deeply that he took out a
+little book and jotted down notes, and questioned her regarding names
+and places.
+
+Molly knew a true story of a haunted house in Kentucky, fallen into
+ruins because no one had dared live in it for years.
+
+Then Mrs. Murphy brought in the lamps and Professor Green drew up at the
+table and read aloud Dickens's "Christmas Carol." Molly's mother had
+read to her children the immortal story of "Tiny Tim" ever since they
+could remember on Christmas day, and it gave Molly much secret pleasure
+to know that these dear kind friends had kept up the same practice.
+After that they fetched down Judy's guitar and, with Molly accompanying,
+they sang some of the good old songs that people think they have
+forgotten until they hear the thrum of the guitar and someone starts the
+singing.
+
+At last the tower clock boomed midnight, and as the echo of the final
+stroke vibrated in the room, the door opened and Santa Claus stood on
+the threshold.
+
+"Shure, an' I'm just on the nick of time," he said with a good Irish
+accent, as he unstrapped his pack and proceeded to distribute packages
+done up in white tissue paper tied with red ribbons.
+
+There were presents for everyone with no names attached, but Molly
+suspected Professor Green of being the giver of the pretty things. Hers
+was a volume of Rossetti's poems bound in dark blue leather. There was a
+pretty volume of Tennyson's poems for Otoyo; and funny gifts for
+everybody, with delightful jingles attached which the Professor read
+very gravely. Otoyo almost had hysterics over her toy, which was simply
+a small, imitation book shelf on which was a row of the works of Emerson
+and Carlyle, filled with "meat-sweets."
+
+Only one thing happened to mar that evening's pleasure, and this was the
+fault of the little Japanese herself, to her undying mortification and
+sorrow. When the party was at its very height and they had joined hands
+and were circling around Santa Claus, who was singing "The Wearing of
+the Green," Otoyo unexpectedly broke from the circle and with a funny,
+squeaky little scream pointed wildly at the window.
+
+"Why, child, what frightened you?" asked Miss Grace Green, taking the
+girl's hand and looking into her white, scared face.
+
+But Otoyo refused to explain and would only say over and over:
+
+"I ask pardon. I feel so sorrowfully to make this beeg disturbance. Will
+you forgive Otoyo?"
+
+"Of course we forgive you, dear. And won't you tell us what you saw?"
+
+"No, no, no. It was notheeng."
+
+"We ought to be going, at any rate," said the Professor. "Miss Sen isn't
+accustomed to celebrations like this when old people turn into children
+and children turn into infants."
+
+"Am I an infant?" asked Molly, "or a child?"
+
+"I am afraid you still belong to the infant class, Miss Brown," replied
+the Professor regretfully.
+
+They attributed Otoyo's fright to nervousness caused from
+over-excitement, and a few minutes later the party broke up.
+
+It was one o'clock when the two girls finally climbed upstairs to the
+lonely silent third floor. Molly escorted Otoyo to her little room and
+turned on the light.
+
+"Now, little one," she said, putting her hands on the Japanese girl's
+shoulders and searching her face, "what was it you saw at the window?"
+
+Otoyo closed the door carefully and, tipping back to Molly's side,
+whispered:
+
+"The greatly beeg black eyes of Mees Blount look in from the window
+outside. She was very angree. Oh, so angree! She look like an eevil
+spirit."
+
+"Then she didn't go to New York, after all! But how silly not to have
+joined us. What a jealous, strange girl she is!"
+
+Molly could not know, however, with what care and secrecy the Greens had
+guarded their Christmas plans from Judith, who had caught a glimpse of
+the Professor and his sister at the general store that afternoon. It was
+revealed to her that her cousins would much rather not spend Christmas
+with her, and with a sullen, stubborn determination she changed her mind
+about going to New York. There was a good deal of the savage in her
+untamed nature, and that night, wandering unhappily about the college
+grounds and hearing sounds of laughter and singing from Queen's, she
+pressed her face against the window and the gay picture she saw inflamed
+her mind with rage and bitterness. The poor girl did resemble an evil
+spirit at that moment. There was hatred in her heart for every
+merrymaker in the room, and if she had had a dynamite bomb she would
+have thrown it into the midst of the company without a moment's
+hesitation.
+
+When Molly went to her own room after her talk with Otoyo, she found a
+note on her dressing table which did not worry her in the least
+considering she was quite innocent of the charge.
+
+    "You told me a falsehood this morning with all your preaching.
+    I'd rather live over the post-office next to an incessant talker
+    who does laundry work than stay in the same house with a person
+    as deceitful and untruthful as you. J. B."
+
+"I'm sorry for the poor soul," thought Molly, as she contemplated her
+own happy image in the glass. "She is like a traveller who deliberately
+takes the hardest road and chooses all the most disagreeable places to
+walk in. If she would just turn around and go the other way she would
+find it so much more agreeable for herself and all concerned."
+
+Nevertheless, Molly felt a secret relief that Judith had chosen to stay
+over the post-office.
+
+As for the incorrigible Judith, she did leave for New York early next
+morning and spent the rest of the holidays with her mother and brother.
+
+Molly saw a great deal of the Greens for the next few days. They had tea
+together and long walks, and once the Professor read aloud to his sister
+and the little girl from Kentucky in the privacy of his own study. Miss
+Green and her two brothers left Wellington on New Year's Eve to visit
+some cousins in the next county, and still Molly was not lonely, for
+Lawrence Upton put in a great deal of time teaching her to skate and
+showing Otoyo and her the country around Wellington.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BREAKING THE NEWS.
+
+
+Mrs. Markham had received due notice that Molly Brown of Kentucky would
+be obliged to give up her half of the big room on the third floor at
+Queen's. The matron was very sorry. Miss Blount also was moving to other
+quarters, she said; but she was too accustomed to the transitory tenants
+of Queen's to feel any real grief over sudden departures.
+
+"It only remains to break the news to the others," thought Molly, but
+she mercifully determined to wait until after the mid-year examinations.
+She was very modest regarding her popularity, but she was pretty sure
+that Judy's highly emotional temperament might work itself into a fever
+from such a shock. Remembering her last year's experience at mid-years,
+Molly guarded her secret carefully until after the great crisis.
+
+At last, however, the fateful moment came. All the Queen's circle was
+gathered in that center of hospitality in which Molly had spent so many
+happy months. The walls never looked so serenely blue as on that bright
+Sunday morning in January, nor the Japanese scroll more alluring and
+ornamental. A ray of sunlight filtering through the white dimity
+curtains cast a checkered shadow on the antique rug. Even the
+imperfections of the old room were dear to Molly's heart now that she
+must leave them forever; the spot in the ceiling where the roof had
+leaked; the worn place in the carpet where they had sat around the
+register, and the mischievous chair with the "game leg" which
+precipitated people to the floor unexpectedly.
+
+Everybody was in a good humor.
+
+"There are no shipwrecks on the strand this year," Margaret Wakefield
+was saying. "Everybody's safe in harbor, glory be."
+
+"Even me," put in Jessie meekly. "I never thought I'd pull through in
+that awful chemistry exam., and I was morally certain I'd flunk in
+math., too. I'm so afraid of Miss Bowles that my hair stands on end
+whenever she speaks to me."
+
+"She is rather formidable," said Edith Williams. "Why is it that Higher
+Mathematics seems to freeze a body's soul and turn one into an early
+Puritan?"
+
+"It simply trains the mind to be exact," said Margaret, who always
+defended the study of mathematics in these discussions. "And exactness
+means sticking to facts, and that's an excellent quality in a woman."
+
+"Meaning to say," broke in Katherine Williams, "that all un-mathematical
+minds are untruthful----"
+
+"Nothing of the sort," cried Margaret hotly. "I never made any such
+statement. Did I, girls? I said----"
+
+There was a bumping, tumbling noise in the hall. Judy, the ever-curious,
+opened the door.
+
+"The trunks are here, Miss," called Mr. Murphy, "and sorry we are to
+lose you, the old woman and I."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Murphy," answered Molly.
+
+"Well, for the love of Mike," cried Judy, turning around and facing
+Molly. "What are you talking about?"
+
+"I'm not talking about anything," answered Molly, trying to keep her
+voice steady.
+
+"Did you flunk in any of the exams., Molly Brown?" asked Edith in a
+whisper.
+
+"No," whispered Molly in reply. It was going to be even worse than she
+had pictured to herself. "No," she repeated. A pulse throbbed in her
+throat and made her voice sound all tremolo like a beginner's in
+singing. "I waited to tell you until after mid-years. I'm not going very
+far away--only to O'Reilly's."
+
+Nance, who had been sitting on the floor with her head against Molly's
+knee, began softly to weep. It was certainly one of the most desolating
+experiences of Molly's life.
+
+"O'Reilly's?" they cried in one loud protesting shriek.
+
+"Yes, you see, we--we've lost some money and I have to move," began
+Molly apologetically. "We can be friends just the same, only I won't see
+quite as much of you--it--it will be harder on me than on you----"
+
+It would have been gratifying if it had not been so sad, this circle of
+tear-stained faces and every tear shed on her account.
+
+"We simply can't do without you, Molly," cried pretty, affectionate
+Jessie Lynch. "You belong to the 'body corporate' of Queen's, as
+Margaret calls it, to such an extent that if you leave us, we'll--well,
+we'll just fall to pieces, that's all."
+
+It remained for Judy Kean, however, that creature of impulse and
+emotion, to prove the depths of her affection. When she rushed blindly
+from the room, her friends had judged that she wished to be alone. Molly
+had once been a witness to the awful struggle of Judy in tears and she
+knew that weeping was not a surface emotion with her.
+
+For some time, Molly went on quietly explaining and talking, answering
+their questions and assuring them that there would be many meetings at
+O'Reilly's of Queen's girls.
+
+"I expect you'll have to move into Judith Blount's singleton, Nance,"
+she continued, patting her friend's cheek. "That is, unless you can
+arrange to get someone to share this one with you."
+
+"Don't, don't," sobbed Nance. "I can't bear it."
+
+Again there was a noise outside of trunks being carried upstairs and
+dumped down in the hall.
+
+"There go poor Judith's trunks," observed Molly. "It will be harder on
+her than on me because she takes it so hard. She's----"
+
+Molly broke off and opened the door. Judy's voice was heard outside
+giving directions.
+
+"Just pull them inside for me, will you, Mr. Murphy? I know they fill up
+the room, but I like to pack all at once. Will you see about the room
+for me at Mrs. O'Reilly's as you go down to the station? I'll notify the
+registrar and Mrs. Markham. And Mr. Murphy, get a room next to Miss
+Brown's, if possible. I don't care whether it's little or big."
+
+Nance pushed Molly aside and rushed into the hall.
+
+"Why hadn't I thought of that?" she cried. "Mr. Murphy, I want a room at
+O'Reilly's. Will you engage one for me as near Miss Brown's as you can,
+and before you go bring up my trunks, please?"
+
+"Now, may the saints defind us," cried the distracted Mr. Murphy. "It
+looks as if the whole of Queen's was movin' down to the village. You're
+a foine lot of young ladies, Miss, and loyalty ain't so usual a trait in
+a woman, either."
+
+"But Nance, but Judy!" protested Molly. "I can't--you mustn't----"
+
+"Don't say another word," put in Judy as if she were scolding a bad
+child. "Nance and I would rather live at O'Reilly's with you than at
+Queen's without you, that's all. We mean no reflection on the others,
+but I suppose you all understand. Edith and Katherine wouldn't be
+separated, and Jessie and Margaret wouldn't. Well, it's the same with
+us."
+
+"You'll be sorry," cried Molly. "Oh, Judy, I know you'll regret it the
+very first day. It will be very different from Queen's. We'll have to
+get our own breakfasts, and take meals at the place next door, and the
+rooms are plain with ugly wall paper, and there isn't any white
+woodwork, and it's a big empty old place. It used to be a small hotel,
+you know, and Mrs. O'Reilly is trying to sell it. The only
+recommendation it has, is that it's very cheap."
+
+"Why didn't you go over to the post-office, Molly?" asked Margaret.
+
+"They are nicer rooms," admitted Molly, "but----"
+
+"Judith Blount is going there," put in Judy.
+
+"That wasn't the only reason. I really had arranged about O'Reilly's
+before I knew Judith Blount was going to leave here."
+
+The girls looked puzzled.
+
+"I know," said Edith. "There's a young person with a soft cooing voice
+at the post-office who talks a mile a minute."
+
+"She's a very nice girl," broke in Molly, "and works so hard. I really
+like her ever so much. She's very clever, but I have a sort of
+bewildered feeling when I am with her."
+
+"I know," said Edith. "It's like standing on the banks of a rushing
+river. There's no way to stop it and there's no way to get across. You
+might as well retreat to O'Reilly's in good order."
+
+"O'Reilly's it is," cried Judy with the gallant air of one about to go
+forth in search of adventure.
+
+It was in vain that Molly protested. Her friends had made up their minds
+and nothing could swerve them. By good luck, the checks in payment for
+board and lodging at Queen's for the new quarter had not arrived, and
+the two girls were free to move if they chose.
+
+Together the three friends, more closely united than ever by the
+sacrifice of two of them, walked down into the village that afternoon to
+have a look at O'Reilly's, and they were obliged to confess that they
+were not impressed with its possibilities as a home. But it was a dark,
+cold day--when even cheerful, pretty rooms would not have looked their
+best.
+
+"These two back rooms will be rather nice when the spring comes,"
+observed Nance, with a forced gaiety. "They look over the garden, you
+see. Perhaps Mrs. O'Reilly will let us plant some seeds in March."
+
+"It won't be nice," Molly cried. "It will be miserable. I've known it
+all along myself, but I wouldn't admit it until now. Girls, I implore
+you to stay at Queen's. You never will be happy here, and I shall be
+twice as unhappy."
+
+"Now, don't say another word, Molly Brown," said Judy. "We're going to
+follow you if it's to the Inferno."
+
+"Think how you'll miss the others."
+
+"Think how we'd miss you."
+
+"We'd better go back and pack our things, then," sighed Molly, feeling
+very much like a culprit who had drawn her friends into mischief.
+
+That night they packed their belongings, and not once by the blink of
+an eyelash did Judy or Nance show what they felt about leaving Queen's
+forever. At last with walls cleared of pictures, curtains neatly folded,
+books piled into boxes and rugs rolled up, the three girls went to bed,
+worn out with the day's labors and emotions.
+
+In the night, Nance, shivering, crawled into Molly's bed and brought all
+her covering with her. Under a double layer of comforts they snuggled
+while the thermometer went down, down until it reached ten degrees below
+zero.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HOW O'REILLY'S BECAME QUEEN'S.
+
+
+Molly often looked back on that famous bitter Monday as the most
+exciting day of her entire life. Surprises began in the morning when
+they learned for a fact that it was ten degrees below zero. Barometers
+in a house always make the weather seem ten times worse. In the night
+the water pipes had burst and flooded the kitchen floor, which by
+morning was covered with a layer of ice. On this, the unfortunate Mrs.
+Murphy, entering unawares, slipped and sprained her ankle. The gas was
+frozen, and neither the gas nor the coal range could be used that
+eventful morning. The girls prepared their own breakfasts on chafing
+dishes, and wrapped in blankets they shivered over the registers, up
+which rose a thin stream of heat that made but a feeble impression on
+the freezing atmosphere.
+
+"We do look something like a mass meeting of Siberian exiles," observed
+Judy grimly, looking about her in Chapel a little later.
+
+Miss Walker herself wore a long fur coat and a pair of arctic shoes and
+in the assembled company of students there appeared every variety of
+winter covering known to the civilized world, apparently: ulsters, golf
+capes, fur coats, sweaters, steamer rugs and shawls.
+
+Molly was numb with cold; fur coats were the only garments warm enough
+that day, and a blue sweater under a gray cloth jacket was as nothing
+against the frigid atmosphere.
+
+"Bed's the only comfortable place to be in," she whispered to Judy, "and
+here we've got classes till twelve thirty and moving in the afternoon!
+The trunks are going this morning. Oh, heavens, how I do dread it!"
+
+"At least O'Reilly's couldn't be any colder than Queen's is at present,"
+replied Judy, "and there's a grate in the room I am to have. We'll have
+a big coal fire and cheer things up considerably."
+
+Everything was done on the run that day. Groups of girls could be seen
+tearing from one building to another. They dashed through corridors like
+wild ponies and rushed up and down stairs as if the foul fiends were
+chasing them.
+
+The weather was like a famous invalid rapidly sinking. They frequently
+took his temperature and cried to one another:
+
+"It's gone down two degrees."
+
+"The bulletin says it will be fifteen by night."
+
+"Oh," groaned Molly, thinking of her friends at that dismal O'Reilly's.
+
+Having half an hour to spare between classes, she went to the library
+where she met Nance.
+
+"There are some letters for you, Molly. They came by the late mail. I
+saw them in the hall," Nance informed her.
+
+But Molly was not deeply interested in letters that morning.
+
+"Never mind mail," she said. "I can only think of two things. How cold I
+am this minute, and how uncomfortable you and Judy are going to be for
+my sake."
+
+"Don't think about it, Molly, dear," said Nance. "We'll soon get
+adjusted at O'Reilly's with you, and we never would at Queen's without
+you."
+
+Molly could not find her mail when she returned to Queen's for lunch,
+which had been prepared with much difficulty on several chafing dishes
+and a small charcoal brazier by Mrs. Markham and the maid. Nobody seemed
+to know anything about letters in the upset and half-frozen household,
+until it was finally discovered that Mr. Murphy had taken Molly's mail
+down to O'Reilly's when he had moved the trunks.
+
+Having disposed of indifferently warmed canned soup and creamed boned
+chicken that was chilled to its heart, the three friends went down to
+the village. They looked at the rooms; they stood gazing pensively at
+their trunks; it seemed too cold to make the physical effort to unpack
+their clothes. Again the fugitive letters had escaped Molly. Mr. Murphy,
+finding she was not to come down until afternoon had kept them in his
+pocket and was at that moment at the station awaiting the three fifteen
+train.
+
+"It's too cold to follow him," said Molly, never dreaming that Mr.
+Murphy was carrying about with him a letter which was to change the
+whole tenor of her life. "I'm so homesick," she exclaimed, "let's go
+back to Queen's for awhile."
+
+And back they hastened. Somehow they didn't know what to do with
+themselves in their new quarters. It seemed unnatural to sit down and
+chat in those strange rooms.
+
+As they neared the avenue they noticed groups of girls ahead of them,
+all running. The three friends began to run, too, beating their hands
+together to stir up the circulation. A bell was ringing violently. Its
+clang in the frosty air sounded harsh and unnatural.
+
+"That's the fire bell," cried Judy.
+
+They dashed into the avenue. The campus was alive with students all
+running in the same direction.
+
+"It's Queen's," shrieked Nance. "Queen's is burning!"
+
+Smoke was pouring from every window in the old brown house. The lawn in
+front was filled with a jumbled mass of furniture and clothes. Margaret
+and Jessie appeared on the porch dragging a great bundle of their
+belongings tied up in a bedspread. Otoyo rushed from the house, her arms
+filled with things. Mrs. Murphy, seated in a big chair on the campus,
+was rocking back and forth and moaning:
+
+"Queen's is gone. Nothing can save her. The pipes is froze."
+
+Out of the front door Edith Williams now emerged, quite calmly, with an
+armload of books.
+
+"Edith," cried Katherine, who had run at full speed all the way from the
+Quadrangle, "why didn't you bring our clothes?"
+
+For an answer her sister pointed at a pile of things on the ground.
+
+"I made two trips," she replied.
+
+All this the girls heard as in a dream as they stood in a shivering row
+on the campus. Old brown Queen's was about to be reduced to ashes and
+cinders! No need to summon the fire brigade or call in the volunteer
+fire department from the village, although this organization presently
+came dashing up with a small engine. Flames were already licking their
+way hungrily along the lower story of the house, and the slight stream
+of water from the engine hose only seemed to rouse them to greater fury.
+
+"I'm only thankful it didn't happen at night," they heard Miss Walker
+cry as she pushed her way through the throng of girls. "And you, my dear
+child," she continued, laying a hand on Molly's shoulder, "did you save
+your things?"
+
+Molly started from her lethargy. She was so cold and unhappy, she had
+forgotten all about her belongings.
+
+"Oh, yes, Miss Walker," she answered. "You see, we moved this morning.
+Wasn't it fortunate?"
+
+"We?" repeated Miss Walker.
+
+"Yes. My two friends, Miss Oldham and Miss Kean, moved, too. They--well,
+they wouldn't stay at Queen's without me."
+
+"Is it possible?" said the President. "And their trunks had gone down to
+the village? Dear, dear, what a remarkably providential thing. And what
+devoted friends you seem to make, Miss Brown," she added, patting
+Molly's hand and then turning away to speak to Professor Green, who had
+hurried up.
+
+"Is everybody safe?" he asked breathlessly.
+
+"Yes, yes, Professor, everybody's safe and everything has been done that
+could be done. I am afraid some of the girls have lost a good many
+things, but you will be glad to know that three of them had only this
+morning sent their trunks to rooms in the village--Miss Brown and her
+two friends."
+
+"Miss Brown moving to the village?"
+
+Molly looked up and caught the Professor's glance turned searchingly on
+her.
+
+"I am going to live at O'Reilly's," she said.
+
+"And you are safe and your things are safe?" he asked her, frowning so
+sternly that she felt she must have displeased him somehow. "I'm glad,
+very glad," he added, turning abruptly away. "Is there nothing I can do,
+Miss Walker?"
+
+For answer she pointed to the volunteers from the village who had leaped
+away from the house. The crowd swerved back. There was a crackling
+sound, a crash; a great wave of heat swept across the campus and the
+front wall of Queen's fell in. They had one fleeting view of the
+familiar rooms, and then a cloud of ashes and smoke choked the picture.
+It was not long before only the rear wall of old brown Queen's was left
+standing.
+
+"Dust to dust and ashes to ashes," said Edith Williams, solemnly.
+
+It did seem very much like a funeral to the crowd of Queen's girls who
+stood in a shivering, loyal row to the end.
+
+"So much for Queen's," said Margaret Wakefield. "She's dead and now
+what's to be done?"
+
+It was decided that the girls should go to O'Reilly's for the time
+being, all other available quarters being about filled. If they
+preferred the post-office they could stay there; but they preferred
+O'Reilly's.
+
+And thither, also, went Mrs. Markham and the Murphys and the maids from
+Queen's. In a few short hours, it would seem, Queen's had been changed
+to O'Reilly's, or O'Reilly's to Queen's. It turned out, too, that Mrs.
+O'Reilly was nearly related to Mr. Murphy, and all things, therefore,
+worked together in harmony.
+
+O'Reilly's seemed a place of warmth and comfort to the half-frozen girls
+who clustered around the big fire in Judy's room at five o'clock that
+afternoon, scalding their tongues with hot tea and coffee while they
+discussed their plans for the future.
+
+"Mrs. Markham told _me_," announced Margaret, a recognized authority on
+all subjects, political, domestic, financial and literary, "that it
+would probably be arranged to make O'Reilly's into a college house for
+the rest of the winter. She said they might even do over the rooms. It
+would be a smaller household than Queen's, of course--only eight or
+nine--but it would be rather cosy and--there would be no breaking up of
+old ties. If this isn't approved," she continued, exactly as if she were
+addressing a class meeting, "we shall have to scatter. There's another
+apartment in the Quadrangle and there are a few singletons left in some
+of the campus houses. Now, girls,"--her voice took on an oratorical
+ring--"of course, I know that we are nearly fifteen minutes' walk by the
+short cut from the college and that we may not be _in_ things as much;
+but the best part of college we have here at O'Reilly's. And that's
+ourselves. I move that we change O'Reilly's into Queen's and make the
+best of it for the rest of the winter."
+
+"Hurrah! I second the motion," cried Katherine Williams.
+
+"All those in favor of this motion will please say 'aye'," said the
+President.
+
+"Aye," burst from the throats of the eight friends, Otoyo's shrill high
+note sounding with the others.
+
+"Hurrah for our President," cried Molly, dancing around the room in an
+excess of happiness.
+
+"_Unitus et concordia_," said Edith gravely.
+
+"It's really Molly that's transformed O'Reilly's into Queen's,"
+continued Margaret, who had a generous, big way of saying things when
+she chose. "It's Molly who has kept us all together. With Molly and
+Nance and Judy gone, Queen's would have been a different place."
+
+"It would! It would!" they cried. "Three cheers for Molly Brown!"
+
+    "'Here's to Molly Brown, drink her down!
+      Here's to dear old Queen's, drink her down.'"
+
+Through the din of singing and cheering, there came a loud knocking at
+the door and a voice cried:
+
+"Open in the name of the law!"
+
+Then the door was thrust open and Sallie Marks marched in flourishing a
+hot-water bag in one hand and a thermos bottle in the other.
+
+"Well," she exclaimed, "you're the most cheerful lot of refugees I ever
+saw. I came down expecting to find eight frozen corpses stretched on the
+shining strand, and here you are singing hilarious songs and yelling
+like a lot of Comanche Indians."
+
+"What are you bringing us, Sallie?" demanded Judy.
+
+"I'm bringing you myself," said Sallie. "I've arranged to come down
+here. They shelved me with a lot of freshies at Martin's and I said I'd
+rather be at O'Reilly's with the Old Guard. So Mr. Murphy brought me
+down with two sheet-loads of my things and some beds from the hospital,
+and here I am."
+
+"Hurrah!" they cried again, joining hands and dancing in a circle around
+Sallie.
+
+    "'Here's to good old Sallie, drink her down,
+      Drink her down, drink her down, drink her down!'"
+
+After this wild outburst of joy over the return of another wanderer to
+the fold, Sallie began to remove her outer wrappings.
+
+"I feel like an Egyptian mummy," she remarked as she skinned off two
+long coats and unwound several scarfs.
+
+"You look like a pouter pigeon," said Judy, "what have you got stuffed
+in there?"
+
+"Mail," said Sallie, unbuttoning another jacket, "mail for Queen's. Mr.
+Murphy gave it to me when he came to get my things. And, by the way,"
+she added, "I saved my rocking chair and sat in it as I drove down to
+the village. Wasn't it beautiful? I suppose I'll be lampooned now as
+'Sallie, the emigrant.' But it was too cold to care much. I was only
+thankful I had taken the precaution to fill the hot-water bag and the
+thermos bottle before I started on the drive."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE TURN OF THE WHEEL.
+
+
+Sallie Marks had, indeed, received a royal welcome from her friends.
+They were as glad to see her as if she had just returned from a long
+voyage. Now they poked the fire and made fresh tea and petted and
+caressed her until her pale, near-sighted eyes were quite watery and she
+was obliged to wipe the moisture from her glasses.
+
+"We'll make out the winter here, girls," she assured them. "It may take
+a week to get the house in order, but we can put up with a little
+discomfort to have O'Reilly's to ourselves. If they would only strip off
+this bilious paper and lay a few mattings! The plumbing is better than
+it was at Queen's, and the heating arrangements, too."
+
+The room was really very comfortable what with the fire in the grate
+and the heat pouring up the register.
+
+"It was a defective flue that made old Queen's go under," observed
+Katherine sadly, as if she were speaking of a dear friend who had lately
+passed into another life. "I am afraid her heating apparatus was a
+little second class."
+
+"Speak no evil of the dead," admonished her sister Edith.
+
+"_Requiescat in pace_," said Sallie in a solemn voice.
+
+"_La reine est morte; vive la reine_," said Margaret.
+
+"After all, we are really 'Queen's'" said Judy, "so let's be as happy as
+we can. Where are those letters, Sallie?"
+
+Sallie unbuttoned the last layer of sweater and drew out a pile of mail
+which she distributed, calling the name of each girl.
+
+"Molly Brown," she called, handing Molly a letter from Kentucky.
+
+"Miss Sen, a letter from the Land of the Rising Sun. I hope it will rise
+warmer there than it set here this evening. Miss Jessie Lynch, a letter
+addressed in the handwriting of a male. Ahem! Miss Lynch, another letter
+in the same handwriting of presumably the same male."
+
+Much laughter among those not already absorbed in letters.
+
+"Miss Margaret Wakefield, an official document from the capital of these
+United States of America. Miss Julia S. Kean, a parental epistle which
+no doubt contains other things. Miss Molly Brown, who appears to be
+secretly purchasing a farm."
+
+Sallie handed Molly a long envelope, while the others snatched their
+letters and turned away. Only Nance had received no mail that day; yet,
+more than any girl there, she enjoyed corresponding and sent off weekly
+voluminous letters to her father, her only correspondent except Andy
+McLean, who was not yet considered strong enough to write letters.
+
+It was with something very near to envy that she watched the faces of
+her friends as they waded through long family letters with an
+occasional laugh or comment:
+
+"It's been ten below at home."
+
+"Father forgot to put in my check. He's getting very thoughtless."
+
+"My wandering parents are going to Florida. They can't stand the cold in
+New York."
+
+"Here's a state of things," exclaimed Edith, "another book bill for
+books that were burned. Isn't that the limit?"
+
+"Yes, and you'll borrow from me again," said Katherine. "And I shall
+refuse to lend you another cent. You are getting entirely too crazy
+about buying books."
+
+Nobody took any notice of this sisterly dialogue which went on
+continuously and never had any real meaning, because in the end
+Katherine always paid her sister's debts.
+
+Nance's gaze shifted to Molly, who might have been turned into a graven
+image, so still was she sitting. She had not opened the letter from
+home, but the long envelope from the real estate company lay at her
+feet. In one hand she held a typewritten letter and in the other a long
+blue slip of paper which, beyond a doubt, was a check. Picking up the
+envelope, Molly gave a covert glance around the absorbed circle and
+slipped the check inside. Then she noticed Nance gazing at her
+curiously. She smiled, and then began to laugh so joyously that
+everybody stopped reading and regarded her almost anxiously. There was a
+peculiar ring of excitement in her voice.
+
+"Molly, hasn't something awfully nice happened to you?" asked Nance.
+
+"Why, yes," she answered, "to tell the truth, there has."
+
+"What is it? What is it?" cried the chorus of voices.
+
+Molly hesitated and blushed, and laughed again.
+
+"I don't think you would believe it if I were to tell you," she said.
+"It's too absurd. I can hardly believe it myself, even after reading the
+letter and seeing the--the----"
+
+"The what, Molly?" demanded Judy, beside herself with curiosity.
+
+Molly laughed again.
+
+"I'm so happy," she cried. "It's made me warm all over. The temperature
+has risen ten degrees."
+
+"Molly Brown, will you explain yourself? Can't you see we are
+palpitating to know what it is?" cried Judy.
+
+"I've won a prize," exclaimed Molly. "I've won a prize. Can't you see
+what it means to me? I needed the money and it came. A perfect windfall.
+Oh, isn't this world a delightful place? I don't mind the cold weather
+and O'Reilly's. I'm so happy. I prayed for rain and carried my umbrella.
+Oh, I'm so happy, happy, happy!"
+
+"Has the child gone daffy?" said Sallie Marks, while Judy seized the
+envelope and drew out a check for two hundred dollars made out in the
+name of "Mary C. W. Brown." Then she opened the letter and read aloud:
+
+    "'Dear Madam:
+
+    It gives us much pleasure to inform you that among several
+    hundred contestants you have won the prize of $200, offered by
+    this company for the best advertisement in prose or verse for
+    one of our mountain chalets. Your poem will occupy the first
+    page in an elaborate booklet now under way and we hope will
+    attract many customers. We offer you our congratulations and
+    good wishes for other literary successes and enclose the check
+    herewith.
+        Very cordially yours, etc., etc.'"
+
+"Am I sleeping or waking?" cried Molly. "This, at the end of this awful
+day! Isn't it wonderful?"
+
+The reunited friends made so much noise over this triumph of their
+favorite that Mrs. Markham, superintending the setting up of beds and
+arranging of rooms with Mrs. O'Reilly, smilingly observed:
+
+"Dear me, they don't seem to take their misfortune much to heart, do
+they?"
+
+"They're that glad to get in out of the cold, ma'am, and warm themselves
+with some tea. It's thawed them out, I expect, the poor young things.
+They was half froze when they come an hour ago."
+
+"But where's the poem, Molly," cried Judy, when the racket had
+subsided. "We must see the poem."
+
+"It's locked in my trunk."
+
+"Get it out, get it out," they ordered, and she had no peace until she
+unlocked the trunk and, rummaging in her portfolio, found the original
+manuscript of "The Chalet of the West Wind."
+
+"I can't see why it won the prize," she said. "I hadn't even the shadow
+of a hope when I sent it. It's not a bit like an ad."
+
+"It was certainly what they wanted," said Sallie. "They didn't have to
+give you the prize, seeing that they had several hundred to choose from.
+But read it, because I'm in a fever of curiosity to hear it."
+
+In the meantime, Judy had lit the gas, and taking Molly by the
+shoulders, pushed her into a chair under the light.
+
+"I'm most awfully embarrassed," announced Molly, "but here goes," and
+she read the following verses:
+
+    The Chalet of the West Wind.
+
+    "Wind of the West, Wind of the West,
+     Breathe on my little chalet.
+     Blow over summer fields,
+     Bring all their perfume yields,
+     Lily and clover and hay.
+
+    "Bring all the joys of spring,
+     Soft-kissing zephyrs bring,
+     Peace of the mountains and hills,
+     Waken the columbine,
+     Stir the sweet breath of pine,
+     Hasten the late daffodils.
+
+    "Gentle Wind from the Isles of the Blest,
+     Breathe on my little chalet,
+     Fill it with music and laughter and rest;
+     Fill it with love and with dreams that are best;
+     Breathe on it softly, sweet Wind of the West,
+     Breathe on my little chalet."
+
+There was certainly nothing very remarkable about the little song, and
+yet it had caught the eye of the real estate men as having a certain
+quality which would attract people to that sunny mountainside whereon
+were perched the quaint Swiss chalets they desired to sell. There was a
+subtle suggestion to the buyer that he might find rest and happiness in
+this peaceful home. The piney air, the flowers and the sunshine had all
+been poetically but quite truthfully described. With a picture of the
+"Chalet of the West Wind" on the opposite page, people of discerning
+tastes, looking for summer homes, would surely be attracted.
+
+"How ever did you happen to write it, Molly?" they asked her after
+re-reading the poem and admiring it with friendly loyalty. "Have you
+ever been to the mountains?"
+
+"No," she answered, "I actually never have. But something in me that
+wasn't me wrote the verses. They just seemed to come, first the meter
+and then, gradually, the lines. I can't explain it. I had some bad news
+and was afraid I would have to leave college and then the poem came.
+That was all. Two hundred dollars," she added, looking at the check.
+"It seems too good to be true. What must I do with it?"
+
+"Put it in the Wellington Bank to-morrow morning," answered Margaret
+promptly.
+
+Between them, Mrs. Markham and Mrs. O'Reilly prepared a very good dinner
+for the girls that night, and instead of being a funeral feast it was
+changed into a jolly banquet. The old Queen's dinner table was restored
+and there was as much gay, humorous conversation as there ever had been
+in the brown shingled house now reduced to a heap of ashes.
+
+Paperhangers and painters did go into the new college house on the
+following Monday morning and in less than ten days the dingy rooms were
+transformed by white woodwork and light paper. If the Queen's girls felt
+a little out of it at first, not being on the campus, they were too
+proud to admit it, and nobody ever heard a complaint from them. They had
+a great many visitors at O'Reilly's. Crowds of their friends came down
+to drink tea or spend the evening. The President herself called one
+morning and had a look at the place.
+
+In the meantime Molly had called at Miss Walker's office and informed
+her that she had come into a little money unexpectedly and, with the
+money she was earning, she would be able to pay her own board at
+O'Reilly's for the rest of the winter. It was only by chance that Miss
+Walker learned how Molly had earned this sum of money.
+
+"Think of the child's modesty in keeping the secret from me," she said
+to Miss Pomeroy. "Have you seen the poem that won the prize, by the
+way?"
+
+"Why, yes," answered that critical individual. "It's a sweet little
+thing and I suppose struck the exact note they wanted, but I assure you
+it's nothing wonderful."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+IN THE GARDEN.
+
+
+"Who would have thought this place could ever blossom like the rose,"
+exclaimed Margaret Wakefield, settling comfortably in a long steamer
+chair and looking about her with an expression of extreme contentment.
+
+"It's the early summer that did it," remarked Judy Kean. "It came to
+console us after that brutal winter."
+
+"It's Mrs. O'Reilly's labors chiefly," put in Katherine Williams. "She
+told me that this garden had been the comfort of her life."
+
+"It's the comfort of mine," said Margaret lazily. "Watching you girls
+there hoeing and raking and pulling up weeds reminds me of a scene from
+the opera of 'The Juggler of Notre Dame,'--the monks in the cloister
+working among their flowers."
+
+Molly paused in her operation of the lawn mower.
+
+"It is a peaceful occupation," she said. "It's the nicest thing that
+ever happened to us, this garden, because it was such a surprise. I
+never suspected it was anything but a desert until one day I looked down
+and saw Mrs. O'Reilly digging up the earth around some little green
+points sticking out of the ground, and then it only seemed a few days
+before the points were daffodils and everything had burst into bloom at
+once. This apple tree was like a bride's bouquet."
+
+"That's stretching your imagination a bit," interrupted Judy, reclining
+at full length on a steamer rug on the ground. "Think of the gigantic
+bride who could carry an apple tree for a bouquet."
+
+"Get up from there and go to work," cried Molly, poking her friend in
+the side with her foot. "Here's company coming this afternoon, and you
+at your ease on the ground!"
+
+"I don't notice that Margaret W. is bestirring herself," answered Judy.
+
+"A President never should work," answered Molly. "It's her office to
+look on and direct."
+
+Judy pulled herself lazily from the ground.
+
+"I'll be official lemon squeezer, then," she said. "I will not weed; I
+refuse to cut grass, or to pick up sticks with the Williamses. You look
+like a pair of peasant fagot gatherers," she called to the two sisters
+who were clearing away a small pile of brush gathered by the industrious
+hands of Mrs. O'Reilly.
+
+"And what do you think you are? A bloomin' aristocrat?" demanded Edith.
+
+"If I am," answered Judy, "my noblesse has obleeged me to squeeze lemons
+for the party. It's a lowly job, but I'd rather do it than pick up
+sticks."
+
+"Anything like work is lowly to you, Miss Judy," said Katherine.
+
+Summer had really come on the heels of spring with such breathless haste
+that before they knew it they were plunged into warm weather. And nobody
+rejoiced more than Molly over the passing of the long cold winter. When
+at last the sun's rays broke through the crust of the frost-bound earth
+and wakened the sleeping things underneath, it had seemed to the young
+girl that her cup of happiness was overflowing. Not even to Judy and
+Nance could she explain how much she loved the spring. One day, seizing
+a trowel from some tools on the porch, she rushed into the garden and
+began digging in the flower beds.
+
+"You don't mind, do you, Mrs. O'Reilly?" she apologized. "I'm so glad
+spring is here at last that I've got to take it out in something besides
+book-learning."
+
+"I'm only too happy, Miss," said the widow. "Young ladies ain't often so
+fond of the smell of the earth."
+
+It was Molly who had introduced the cult of the garden to the other
+girls, and it was she who had first induced Mrs. O'Reilly to resurrect
+some garden seats from the cellar and a rustic table. Even as early as
+the first of May they had tea under the apple trees, and as the days
+grew warmer their friends found them reading and studying in the sunny
+enclosure.
+
+They had no idea of the charming picture they made grouped about in
+their garden; nor did they dream that Mrs. O'Reilly had occasionally
+allowed a visitor or two to peer at them through a crack in the dining
+room shutters. Mrs. McLean and Professor Green were two such privileged
+characters one afternoon when they called at O'Reilly's to leave notes
+of acceptance to a tea to which they had been invited by the old Queen's
+circle. The invitations in themselves were rather unusual. They were
+little water-color sketches done by Judy and Otoyo on oblong cards. Each
+sketch showed a bit of the garden, and the invitations stated that on
+the afternoon of June second there would be tea in the Garden of
+O'Reilly's.
+
+"Where is this garden, Mrs. O'Reilly?" Mrs. McLean had demanded, and the
+Irish woman, beckoning mysteriously, had shown them the scene through
+the crack in the shutter.
+
+"Why, bless the bairns," exclaimed Mrs. McLean, gazing through the
+opening, while Professor Green impatiently awaited his turn. "They
+might be a lot of wood nymphs disporting themselves under the trees."
+
+Then the Professor had looked and had discovered Molly Brown, in her
+usual blue linen--which was probably only an imitation linen--raking
+grass. Judy was softly twanging her guitar. Nance on her knees beside a
+bed of lilies was digging in the earth, and the others were variously
+engaged while Edith read aloud.
+
+The Professor looked long at the charming scene and then observed:
+
+"It is a pretty picture. Wherever these girls go they create an
+atmosphere."
+
+But he was thinking of only one girl.
+
+Someone else had called at O'Reilly's privately and asked to see the
+garden.
+
+It was Judith Blount who stood like a dark shadow against the window and
+peered through the crack in the green shutter. She had come on the
+pretext of looking at rooms for next year, but after watching the scene
+in the garden had hurried away.
+
+"And I might have been with them now," she thought bitterly, "if it
+hadn't been for my vile temper that Christmas Eve."
+
+Judith had learned a good many hard lessons during the winter. She had
+found out that friends in prosperity are not always friends in
+adversity. Her old-time rich associates at the Beta Phi House had paid
+her one or two perfunctory calls in the room over the post-office, but
+the days of her leadership were over forever. Mary Stewart came often to
+see her and Jenny Wren was faithful, but there was great bitterness in
+Judith's heart and she chose frequently to hang a "Busy" sign on her
+door so that she might brood over her troubles alone. She grew very
+sallow and thin, and sat up late at night reading, there being no ten
+o'clock rules at the post-office. Many times Madeleine Petit, her
+neighbor, was wakened by the fragrant aroma of coffee floating down the
+hall into her little bedroom.
+
+"If she was my daughter," Madeleine observed to Molly one day, "I'd
+first put her through a course of broken doses of calomel, and then I'd
+put her to work on something besides lessons. Even laundry is good to
+keep people from brooding. If I stopped to think about all my troubles
+and all that is before me in the way of work and struggles to get on,"
+she rattled along, "I wouldn't have time to study, much less do up
+jabots and things. But I just trust to luck and go ahead. I find it
+comes out all right. Mighty few people seem to understand that it makes
+a thing much bigger to think and think about it. I'd rather enlarge
+something more worth while than my misfortunes."
+
+Molly smiled over Madeleine's philosophy.
+
+"I mean to make friends with her next year," went on Madeleine. "She was
+rude to me once, but I am sorry for her because we are both going
+through the same struggle and I think I can give her some ideas. You may
+not believe me, but I always succeed in doing the thing I set out to do.
+College was as far off from me two years ago as Judith seems to be
+now----"
+
+"It will be a fine thing for Judith if she gains a friend like you,
+Madeleine," interrupted Molly warmly. "See if you can't start it by
+bringing her to our garden party with you next Saturday."
+
+Molly delivered the invitations with which she had called, and giving
+Madeleine a friendly kiss, she hastened on her way.
+
+But Madeleine's words were prophetic, as we shall show you in the story
+of "Molly Brown's Junior Days." Judith Blount was to learn much from
+this energetic little person and to listen with the patience of a tried
+friend to her stream of conversation.
+
+Molly felt very much like embracing all her friends that day and kissing
+both hands to the entire world besides. A letter had come from her
+mother which settled the one great question in Molly's mind just then:
+Should she be able to return to college for her junior year and share
+with Judy and Nance a little three-roomed apartment in the Quadrangle
+near their other friends, who were all engaging rooms in that same
+corridor? And that very morning all doubt had been dispelled. Her
+mother had written her the wonderful news:
+
+"The stockholders of the Square Deal Mine will get back their money,
+after all. It seems that Mrs. Blount had some property which she was
+induced to hand over. I am sorry that they should be impoverished, but
+it seems just, nevertheless. It will be some time before matters are
+arranged, however. In the meantime, I have had the most extraordinary
+piece of luck in connection with the two acres of orchard on which I
+borrowed the money for your college expenses. I have just sold it for a
+splendid amount--enough to cover all debts on the land, including the
+one to the President of Wellington University, and to furnish your
+tuition and board for the next two years. Scarcely anything in all my
+life has pleased me more than this. I don't even know the name of the
+buyer. The land was purchased through an agent. But whoever the person
+was, he must have been charmed with our old orchard. It is a pretty bit
+of property. Your father used to call it 'his lucky two acres,' because
+it always yielded a little income."
+
+Therefore, it was with a light heart that Molly delivered invitations
+that afternoon to the garden party at O'Reilly's.
+
+She had intended to shove an envelope under the door of Professor
+Green's office in the cloisters and hurry on, not wishing to disturb
+that busy and important personage, but he had opened the door himself
+while she was in the very act of slipping the invitation through the
+crack between the door and the sill.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, blushing with embarrassment. "Please excuse me. I
+only wanted to give you this. We hope you'll come. We shall feel it a
+great honor if you will accept."
+
+"I accept without even knowing what it is, if that's the way you feel,"
+replied the Professor, smiling. "I would go to a fudge party or a picnic
+or anything in the nature of an entertainment, if I felt--er--that
+is----" the Professor was getting decidedly mixed, and Molly saw with
+surprise that he was blushing. "That is, if the fire refugees wished it
+so much," he finished.
+
+"You look a little tired, Professor," she remarked, noticing for the
+first time that he was hollow-eyed and his face was thin and worn, as if
+he had been working at night.
+
+"My pallor is due entirely to disappointment," he answered laughing,
+"our little opera passed into oblivion the other night. Perhaps you
+would have brought it better luck if you had been with us."
+
+"I would have clapped and cheered the loudest of all," exclaimed Molly.
+"But I'm so sorry. I am sure it must have been splendid. What was the
+reason?"
+
+"It was just one of those unfortunate infants destined to die young,"
+said the Professor. "I thought it was quite a neat little thing, myself,
+but Richard believes that the plot had too much story and it was a
+little--well--too refined, if I may put it that way. It needed more
+buffoonery of a lighter vein. It was a joke, my writing it in the first
+place. However, I haven't lost anything but time over it, and I've
+gained a good deal of experience."
+
+"I am so sorry," exclaimed Molly with real sympathy, giving him her
+hand. "It seems rather tactless," she said starting to leave and turning
+back, "to tell you about our good luck just now, but of course you knew
+about the Square Deal. Mine, anyway."
+
+"Oh, yes," he answered. "They are going to pay off all the creditors. An
+old cousin of Mrs. Blount's in Switzerland died the other day without
+leaving a will, and she inherits his property. It's pretty hard on her
+to give it up just now when she needs it dreadfully, but Richard has
+induced her to do it and I suppose it is right. It will take a year at
+least to straighten out the affair though. There is so much red tape
+about American heirs getting European property."
+
+"Then, _I've_ had some luck, too," said Molly, making an effort to keep
+the Professor from seeing how really joyously happy she was. "Some
+perfectly delightful and charming person has bought my two acres of
+apple orchard at last, and I shall not be down at O'Reilly's next
+winter. I'm going to be in the Quadrangle with the others. Isn't it
+wonderful?"
+
+The Professor looked at her with his quizzical brown eyes; then he shook
+hands with her again.
+
+"Does it really make you very happy?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, you can't think!" she cried. "You can never know how relieved and
+happy I am. I've been walking on air all day. I shall always feel that
+the man who bought that orchard did it just for me, although of course
+he has never heard of me. Some day I am going to thank him, myself."
+
+"You are?" he asked, "and how will you thank him?"
+
+"Why," she replied, "why, I think I'll just give him a hug. I have a
+feeling that he's an old gentleman."
+
+The Professor sat down in his chair very suddenly and began to laugh,
+and he was still laughing when Molly sped down the corridor to the door
+into the court. She did not see him again until the day of the farewell
+tea in the garden of O'Reilly's.
+
+* * * And it is in the garden that we will leave our girls now, at the
+close of their sophomore year.
+
+They look very charming in their long white dresses, dispensing tea and
+lemonade and sandwiches to the small company of guests. It is the last
+time we shall see the old Queen's circle as a separate group. O'Reilly's
+had filled the need of the moment, but the friends agreed that nothing
+could ever take the place of Queen's unless it were the long-coveted
+quarters in the dormitories behind the twin gray towers of Wellington.
+
+There we shall find them during "MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS," living
+broader and less secluded lives in the fine old Quadrangle which had
+always been the center of interest and influence at Wellington College
+and now promised to add a unique chapter to her history.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SAVE THE WRAPPER!
+
+
+_If_ you have enjoyed reading about the adventures of the new friends
+you have made in this book and would like to read more clean, wholesome
+stories of their entertaining experiences, turn to the book jacket--on
+the inside of it, a comprehensive list of Burt's fine series of
+carefully selected books for young people has been placed for your
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+
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+Publishers, will receive prompt attention._
+
+
+
+
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+
+By HARRIET PYNE GROVE
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Stories of Ranch and College Life For Girls 12 to 16 Years
+
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+
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+ANN STERLING
+
+    The strange gift of Old Never-Run, an Indian whom she has
+    befriended, brings exciting events into Ann's life.
+
+THE COURAGE OF ANN
+
+    Ann makes many new, worthwhile friends during her first year at
+    Forest Hill College.
+
+ANN AND THE JOLLY SIX
+
+    At the close of their Freshman year Ann and the Jolly Six enjoy
+    a house party at the Sterling's mountain ranch.
+
+ANN CROSSES A SECRET TRAIL
+
+    The Sterling family, with a group of friends, spend a thrilling
+    vacation under the southern Pines of Florida.
+
+ANN'S SEARCH REWARDED
+
+    In solving the disappearance of her father, Ann finds exciting
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+
+ANN'S AMBITIONS
+
+    The end of her Senior year at Forest Hill brings a whirl of new
+    events into the career of "Ann of the Singing Fingers."
+
+ANN'S STERLING HEART
+
+    Ann returns home, after completing a busy year of musical study
+    abroad.
+
+
+    A. L. BURT COMPANY, Publishers,
+    114-120 EAST 23rd STREET      NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
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+
+[Illustration]
+
+By GRACE MAY NORTH
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+
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+All Clothbound. Copyright Titles.
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+
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+
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+
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+    114-120 EAST 23rd STREET      NEW YORK
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+
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+    THE GIRL SCOUTS ON THE RANCH
+    THE GIRL SCOUTS' VACATION ADVENTURES
+    THE GIRL SCOUTS' MOTOR TRIP
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+    THE GIRL SCOUTS' DIRECTOR
+
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
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+
+[Illustration]
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+    GREYCLIFF GIRLS' GREAT ADVENTURE
+
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
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+BY PAULINE LESTER
+
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+    MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE
+    MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR
+    MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR
+
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
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+By HARRIET PYNE GROVE
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+    MERILYN ENTERS BEECHWOLD
+    MERILYN AT CAMP MEENAHGA
+    MERILYN TESTS LOYALTY
+    MERILYN'S NEW ADVENTURE
+    MERILYN FORRESTER, CO-ED.
+    THE "MERRY LYNN" MINE
+
+
+    A. L. BURT COMPANY, _Publishers_
+    114-120 EAST 23rd STREET      NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+The Virginia Davis Series
+
+By GRACE MAY NORTH
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Clean, Wholesome Stories of Ranch Life. For Girls 12 to 16 Years. All
+Clothbound.
+
+_With Individual Jackets in Colors._
+
+PRICE, 75 CENTS EACH
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+POSTAGE 10c EXTRA
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+    VIRGINIA OF V. M. RANCH
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+    VIRGINIA'S ADVENTURE CLUB
+    VIRGINIA'S RANCH NEIGHBORS
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+
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+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
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+Princess Polly Series
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+By AMY BROOKS
+
+[Illustration]
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+Author of "Dorothy Dainty" series, Etc. Stories of Sweet-Tempered,
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+
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+
+    PRINCESS POLLY
+    PRINCESS POLLY'S PLAYMATES
+    PRINCESS POLLY AT SCHOOL
+    PRINCESS POLLY BY THE SEA
+    PRINCESS POLLY'S GAY WINTER
+    PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY
+    PRINCESS POLLY AT CLIFFMORE
+
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Spelling, alternative hyphenation, and abbreviations have been retained
+as they appear in the original publication.
+
+Changes have been made to punctuation as follows:
+
+    Page 262: Removed quotation mark--shed on her account."
+
+    Page 213: Added fullstop--were to shake hands.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Sophomore Days, by Nell Speed
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Sophomore Days, by Nell Speed
+
+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: Molly Brown's Sophomore Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32453]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1>MOLLY BROWN'S<br />
+SOPHOMORE DAYS</h1>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="450" height="541" alt="Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;">
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="432" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div id="tp">
+<p class="title"><span class="head1">MOLLY BROWN'S</span><br />
+<span class="head2">SOPHOMORE DAYS</span></p>
+
+<hr class="double" />
+
+<p class="title"><span class="smcap author">By NELL SPEED</span></p>
+
+<hr class="single" />
+
+<p class="title"><span class="smcap books">Author of</span><br />
+<br />
+"The Tucker Twins Series," "The Carter<br />
+Girls Series," etc.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 108px;">
+<img src="images/tp.jpg" width="108" height="200" alt="Title Page" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="double" />
+
+<p class="title"><span class="publisher">A. L. BURT COMPANY</span></p>
+<p><span class="publ">Publishers</span>  <span class="pubr">New York</span></p>
+<p class="title printed">Printed in U. S. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div id="copy">
+<h5>Copyright, 1912,<br />
+<small>BY</small><br />
+HURST &amp; COMPANY</h5>
+
+<p class="right"><small>Printed in the U. S. A.</small></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table summary="Contents">
+
+<tr>
+<th class="thr1">CHAPTER</th>
+<th class="thr2" colspan="2">PAGE</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">I.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Return of the Wanderers</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#i">5</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Otoyo</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ii">17</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Clashing of Wits</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iii">33</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Tempest in a Teapot</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iv">47</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">An Unwilling Eavesdropper</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#v">62</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Two Long-Distance Calls</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vi">76</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Glee Club Concert</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vii">94</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Japanese Spread</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#viii">111</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Vespers</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ix">126</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">X.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">All's Well that Ends Well</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#x">140</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Great Sleet of 19&mdash;</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xi">158</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Skating Carnival</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xii">169</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Thaw</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiii">182</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Questions and Answers</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiv">196</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Recovery and a Visit</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xv">212</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Christmas Eve Plots</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvi">230</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Christmas Surprise</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvii">245</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Breaking the News</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xviii">258</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">How O'Reilly's became Queen's</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xix">269</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Turn of the Wheel</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xx">283</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">In the Garden</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxi">295</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+<big>Molly Brown's Sophomore Days</big></h2>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<h2><a name="i" id="i"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE RETURN OF THE WANDERERS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>"I never thought I could be so glad to be anywhere except home," thought
+Molly Brown as she swung off the 'bus, and, seizing her suit case, ran
+into Queen's Cottage without so much as ringing the bell.</p>
+
+<p>Two juniors whom Molly had known only by sight the year before and
+several freshmen had been in the Wellington omnibus; no one in whom she
+could confide her enthusiasm as the 'bus turned a bend in the road and
+Wellington's towers came into view.</p>
+
+<p>"Molly! Molly!" cried a voice from somewhere in the upper regions of
+Queen's, and down three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> flights of stairs rushed a wild figure, her
+fluffy light brown hair standing out all over her head and her
+voluminous kimono sailing behind her like the tail of a kite.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Judy, it's good to see you again," cried Molly, and the two girls
+were instantly folded in each other's arms in a long, loving embrace.</p>
+
+<p>"You remind me strongly of Meg Merriles," continued Molly, holding her
+friend off at arms' length and giving her a joyful little shake. "You
+look as if you had been running over the moors in the wind."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd think I was a bit daffy if you could see my room," replied Julia
+Kean, who, those of you who have met her in an earlier story will
+recall, was nicknamed "Judy" by her friends. "I'm unpacking. It looks
+like the world in the era of chaos: mountains of clothes and islands of
+shoes and archipelagoes of hats all jumbled into a hopeless mass. But,
+never mind that now. Let's talk about each other. Come on upstairs. Your
+room's ready. I looked in half an hour ago. You've got new wall paper
+and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> fresh coat of paint. That's because you are one of Mrs. Markham's
+little pets."</p>
+
+<p>"Really," cried Molly, delighted. "How charmed Nance will be. And I've
+brought some white dimity curtains with ruffled edges to hang at the
+windows. I made them last summer when it was ninety-eight in the shade.
+Where is Nance, by the way? And where are all the Queen's girls, and
+what new ones are here?"</p>
+
+<p>"One at a time, Miss Brown," laughed Judy, following Molly up to the
+third story and into the large room shared by Molly and her friend,
+Nance Oldham.</p>
+
+<p>"How sweet it's going to look," cried Molly, clasping her hands and
+gazing around her with all the ardor of a returned wanderer. "But where
+is Nance?"</p>
+
+<p>Judy's face became very grave.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible you haven't heard the news about Nance?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy, what do you mean?" cried Molly, taking off her hat and running
+her fingers through her rumpled auburn hair, a trick she had when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> she
+was excited and overwrought. "Now, tell me at once what has happened to
+Nance. How could you have kept it from me? Dear old Nance!"</p>
+
+<p>Judy blew her nose violently.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you answer me, Judy? Isn't Nance coming back? I haven't heard
+from her for weeks. Oh, do tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to tell you in a minute," answered Judy. "I can't blow my
+nose and talk at the same time. It's a physical impossibility. I've got
+a wretched cold, you see. I am afraid it's going into influenza."</p>
+
+<p>"Julia Kean, you are keeping something from me. I don't care a rap about
+your nose. Isn't Nance coming back?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly almost fell on her knees in the excess of her anxiety. Judy turned
+her face away from those appealing blue eyes and coughed a forced
+throaty cough.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I should say she wasn't coming back, Molly? Would you mind
+it?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+"Would I mind it?" repeated Molly, her eyes filling with tears.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the closet door was flung open and out rushed Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Molly, forgive me," she cried, throwing her arms around her
+roommate's neck. "Judy thought it would be a good practical joke, but I
+couldn't stand the deception any longer. It was worth it, though, if
+only to know you would miss me."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss you?" exclaimed Molly. "I should think I would. Judy, you wretch!"</p>
+
+<p>"I never did say she wasn't coming," replied Judy. "I simply said, 'Is
+it possible you haven't heard the news about Nance?' It shows how your
+heart rules your head, Molly. You shouldn't take on so until you get at
+the real truth. Your impetuous nature needs&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here Judy was interrupted by the noise of a headlong rush down the hall.
+Then the door was burst open and three girls blew into the room all
+laughing and talking at once.</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness, it sounds like a stampede of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> wild cattle," exclaimed
+Judy. "How are you, old pals?"</p>
+
+<p>A general all-round embrace followed.</p>
+
+<p>It was Margaret Wakefield, last year's class president; her chum, Jessie
+Lynch; and Sallie Marks, now a senior, but not in the least set up by
+her exalted state.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Mabel Hinton?" someone demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"She's moved over to the Quadrangle into a singleton. She wanted to be
+nearer the scene of action, she said, and Queen's was too diverting for
+her serious life's work," so Margaret explained.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," said Molly. "I'm one of those nice comfortable home bodies
+that likes the family to keep right on just the same forever, but I
+suppose we can't expect everybody to be as fond of this old brown house
+as we are. Sit down, everybody," she added, hospitably. "And&mdash;oh, yes,
+wait a moment&mdash;I didn't open this on the train at all."</p>
+
+<p>She fell on her knees and opened her suit case while her friends
+exchanged knowing smiles.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+"Ruling passion even strong in death," observed Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it's something good to eat," laughed pretty Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," replied Molly, pitching articles of clothing out of her
+satchel with all the carelessness of one who pursues a single idea at a
+time. "And why not? My sister made them for me the morning I left and
+packed them carefully in a tin box with oiled paper."</p>
+
+<p>"Cloudbursts!" they cried ecstatically and pounced on the box without
+ceremony, while Molly, who, like most good cooks, had a small appetite,
+leaned back in a Morris chair and regarded them with the pleased
+satisfaction of a host who has provided satisfactory refreshment for his
+guests.</p>
+
+<p>The summer had made few changes in the faces of her last year's friends.
+Margaret was a bit taller and more massive, and her handsome face a
+little heavier. Already her youthful lines were maturing and she might
+easily have been mistaken for a senior.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+Nance was as round and plump as a partridge and there was a new
+happiness in her face, the happiness of returning to the first place she
+had ever known that in any way resembled a home. Nance had lived in a
+boarding house ever since she could remember; but Queen's was not like a
+boarding house; at least not like the one to which she was accustomed,
+where the boarders consisted of two crusty old bachelors; a widow who
+was hipped about her health and always talked "symptoms"; a spinster who
+had taught school for thirty years; and Nance's parents&mdash;that is, one of
+them, and at intervals the other. Mrs. Oldham only returned to her
+family to rest between club conventions and lecture tours.</p>
+
+<p>Judy had a beautiful creamy tan on her face which went admirably with
+her dreamy gray eyes and soft light brown hair. There were times when
+she looked much like a boy, and she did at this moment, Molly thought,
+with her hair parted on one side and a brilliant Roman scarf knotted
+around her rolling Byronic collar.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie, just now engaged in the pleasing occupation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> of smiling at her
+own image in the mirror over the mantel, was as pretty as ever. As for
+Sallie Marks, every familiar freckle was in its familiar place, and, as
+Judy remarked later, she had changed neither her spots nor her skin. She
+had merely added a pair of eye-glasses to her tip-tilted critical nose
+and there was, perhaps, an extra spark of dry humor in her pale eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Molly was a little thin. She always "fell-off" after a
+ninety-eight-in-the-shade summer; but she was the same old Molly to her
+friends, possessed with an indescribable charm and sweetness: the
+"nameless charm," it had been called, but there were many who could name
+it as being a certain kindly gentleness and unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the news, girls?" she demanded, giving a general all-round smile
+like that of a famous orator, which seemed to be meant for everybody at
+once and no one in particular.</p>
+
+<p>"News is scarce; or should I say 'are'?" replied Margaret. "Epim&eacute;nides
+Antinous Green, 'the handsomest man ever seen,' was offered a chair in
+one of the big colleges and refused."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+"But why?" cried Molly, round-eyed with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Because he has more liberty at Wellington and more time to devote to
+his writings."</p>
+
+<p>Molly walked over to the window to hide a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"The comic opera," she thought.</p>
+
+<p>"He's just published a book, you know, on the 'Elizabethan Drama,'" went
+on Margaret, "which is to be used as a text book in lots of private
+schools. And he's been on a walking trip through England this summer
+with George Theodore&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know all that?" interrupted Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, to tell you the truth, I came up to Wellington on the train with
+Andy McLean and he answered all the questions I asked him," replied
+Margaret, laughing. "I also answered all the questions he asked me about
+a particular young lady&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nance pretended to be very busy at this moment with the contents of her
+work bag. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> other girls began laughing and she looked up, disclosing
+a scarlet countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know she never could take a teasing?" cried Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's teasing?" answered Margaret. "No names were mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you mind, Nance, dear," said Molly, always tender-hearted when it
+came to teasing. "The rest of us haven't had one 'inquiring friend,' as
+Ca'line, our cook, used to call them. When I wrote letters for her to
+her family in Georgia, she always finished up with 'Now, Miss Molly,
+jes' end with love to all inquirin' friends.'"</p>
+
+<p>The dainty little French clock on the mantel, one of Nance's new
+possessions, tinkled five times in a subdued, fairy chime and the
+friends scattered to their various rooms to unpack. Judy was now in
+Frances Andrews' old room, next to the one occupied by Molly and Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll take a gimlet and bore a hole through the wall," she
+announced as she lingered a moment after the others had gone, "so that
+we can communicate without having to walk ten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> steps&mdash;I counted them
+this morning&mdash;and open two doors."</p>
+
+<p>"Who has your old room, Judy?" inquired Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd never guess in a thousand years, so I'll have to enlighten you,"
+answered Judy. "A young Japanese lady."</p>
+
+<p>"For heaven's sake!" cried Molly and Nance in one breath, while Judy,
+who loved a climax, sailed from the room without vouchsafing any more
+information.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+<a name="ii" id="ii"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<br />
+<small>OTOYO.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Molly and Nance were very busy that night arranging their belongings.
+Molly's tastes were simple and Nance's were what might be called
+complicated. Molly had been reared all her life in large spaces, big,
+airy rooms, and broad halls, and the few pieces of heavy old mahogany in
+them were of the kind that cannot be bought for a song. Nance had been
+reared in an atmosphere of oiled walnut and boarding house bric-&agrave;-brac.
+She was learning because she had an exceedingly observing and
+intelligent mind, but she had not learned.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, that night, when Molly hung the white muslin curtains, and
+spread out the beautiful blue antique rug left by Frances Andrews, she
+devoutly hoped that Nance would "go easy" with the pictures and
+ornaments.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+"What we want to try to do this year, Nance," she announced from the top
+of the step ladder, "is to keep things empty. We got fairly messy last
+winter after Christmas. I'm going to keep all those banners and things
+packed this year."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I'd better not get out those passe-partouted Gibson pictures,"
+began Nance a little doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you like, Nance, dear," said Molly.</p>
+
+<p>She would rather have hung the wall with bill posters than have hurt her
+friend's feelings.</p>
+
+<p>"Honestly, you aren't fond of them, are you?" asked Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it isn't that," apologized Molly. "But I think so many small
+pictures scattered over a big wall space are&mdash;well, rather tiring to the
+optic nerves."</p>
+
+<p>Nance looked sad, but she had unbounded faith in Molly's opinions.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall we do with this big empty wall space, then?" she asked,
+pausing in her unpacking to regard a sea of blue-gray cartridge paper
+with a critical eye.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+At this juncture there came a light, timid tap, so faint, indeed, that
+it might have been the swish of a mouse's tail as he brushed past the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Molly paused in her contemplation of blank walls and listened.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear anything, Nance?" she asked. "I thought I heard a tapping
+at our chamber door."</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," called Nance briskly.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened first a mere crack. Then the space widened and there
+stood on the threshold the diminutive figure of a little Japanese girl
+who by subsequent measurements proved to be exactly five feet one-half
+an inch in height. She was dressed "like white people," to quote Molly,
+that is, in a neat cloth suit and a straw turban, and her slanting black
+eyes were like highly polished pieces of ebony.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg the honorable pardon of the young ladies," she began with a prim,
+funny accent. "I arrive this moment which have passing at the honorable
+home of young ladies. I not find no one save serving girl who have
+informing me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> of room of sleeping in. Honorable lady of the house, her
+you calling 'matronly,' not in at present passing moment. I feeling
+little frighting. You will forgive poor Otoyo?"</p>
+
+<p>With an almost superhuman effort Molly controlled her face and choked
+back the laughter that bubbled up irrepressibly. Nance had buried her
+head in her trunk until she could regain her composure.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do forgive you, poor dear. You must feel strange and lonely.
+Just wait until I get down from the ladder and I'll show you your
+bedroom. It used to be the room of one of my best friends, so I happen
+to know it very well."</p>
+
+<p>Molly crawled down from the heights of the step ladder and took the
+little Japanese girl's brown hand in hers. "Shall we not shake hands and
+be friends?" she said. "We are such near neighbors. You are just down
+there at the end of the hall, you see. My name is Brown, Molly Brown,
+and this is my roommate, Nance Oldham."</p>
+
+<p>"I with much pleasure feel to making acquaintance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> of beautiful young
+ladies," said the Japanese girl, smiling charmingly and showing two rows
+of teeth as pointed and white as a spaniel's.</p>
+
+<p>Nance had also risen to the occasion by this time, and now shook Miss
+Otoyo Sen's hand with a great show of cordiality, to make up for her
+crimson face and mouth still unsteady with laughter. They conducted the
+Japanese girl to her room and turned on the lights. There were two
+new-looking American trunks in the room and two cases covered with
+matting and inscribed with mystic Japanese hieroglyphics. Wired to the
+cord wrapping was an express tag with "Miss O. Sen, Queen's Cottage,
+Wellington," written across it in plain handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," exclaimed Miss Otoyo, clasping her hands with timid pleasure, "my
+estates have unto this place arriving come."</p>
+
+<p>Nance turned and rushed from the room and Molly opened the closet door.</p>
+
+<p>"You can hang all your things in here," she said unsteadily, "and of
+course lay some of them in the bureau drawers. Better unpack to-night,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+because to-morrow will be a busy day for you. It's the opening day, you
+know. If we can help you, don't hesitate to ask."</p>
+
+<p>"I am with gratitude much filled up," said the little Japanese, making a
+low, ceremonious bow.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention it," replied Molly, hastening back to her room.</p>
+
+<p>She found Nance giving vent to noiseless laughter in the Morris chair.
+Tears were rolling down her cheeks and her face was purple with
+suppressed amusement. Molly often said that, when Nance did laugh, she
+was like the pig who died in clover. When he died, he died all over.
+When Nance succumbed to laughter, her entire being was given over to
+merriment.</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it beautiful?" she exclaimed in a low voice. "Did you ever
+imagine such ludicrous English? It was all participles. How do you
+suppose she ever made the entrance examinations?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's probably good enough at writing. It's just speaking that
+stumps her. But wasn't she killingly funny? When she said 'my estates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+have unto this place arriving come,' I thought I should have to
+departing go along with you. But it would have been rude beyond words.
+What a dear little thing she is! I think I'll go over later and see how
+she is. America must be polite to her visitors."</p>
+
+<p>But Japan, always beforehand in ceremonious politeness, was again ahead
+of America in this respect. Just before ten o'clock the mouse's tail
+once more brushed their door and Nance's sharp ears catching the faint
+sound, she called, "Come in."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Otoyo Sen entered, this time less timidly, but with the same
+deprecating smile on her diminutive face.</p>
+
+<p>"Begging honorable pardon of beautiful young ladies," she began, "will
+condescendingly to accept unworthy gift from Otoyo in gratitude of
+favors receiving?"</p>
+
+<p>Then she produced a beautiful Japanese scroll at least four feet in
+length. In the background loomed up the snow-capped peak of the
+ever-present sacred mountain, Fujiyama, and the foreground<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> disclosed a
+pleasing combination of sky-blue waters dotted with picturesque little
+islands connected with graceful curving bridges, and here and there were
+cherry trees aglow with delicate pink blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how perfectly sweet," exclaimed the girls, delighted.</p>
+
+<p>"And just the place on this bare wall space!" continued Molly. "It's
+really a heaven-sent gift, Miss Sen, because we were wishing for
+something really beautiful to hang over that divan. But aren't you
+robbing yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no. I beg you assurance. Otoyo have many suchly. It is nothing.
+Beautiful young ladies do honor by accepting humbly gift."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hang it at once," suggested Molly, "while the step ladder is yet
+with us. Queen's step ladder is so much in demand that it's very much
+like the snowfall in the river, 'a moment there, then gone forever.'"</p>
+
+<p>The two girls moved the homely but coveted ladder across the room, and,
+with much careful shifting and after several suggestions timidly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> made
+by Otoyo, finally hung up the scroll. It really glorified the whole room
+and made a framed lithograph of a tea-drinking lady in a boudoir costume
+and a kitten that trifled with a ball of yarn on the floor, Nance's
+possession, appear so commonplace that she shamefacedly removed it from
+its tack and put it back in her trunk, to Molly's secret relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you sit down and talk to us a few minutes?" asked Nance. "We
+still have a quarter of an hour before bed time."</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo timidly took a seat on a corner of one of the divans. The girls
+could not help noticing another small package which she had not yet
+proffered for their acceptance. But she now placed it in Nance's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"A little of what American lady call 'meat-sweet,'" she said
+apologetically. "It all way from Japan have coming. Will beautiful
+ladies accept so humbly gift?"</p>
+
+<p>The box contained candied ginger and was much appreciated by young
+American ladies, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> humble giver of this delightful confection being
+far too shy to eat any of it herself.</p>
+
+<p>By dint of some questioning, it came out that Otoyo's father was a
+merchant of Tokio. She had been sent to an American school in Japan for
+two years and had also studied under an English governess. She could
+read English perfectly and, strange to say, could write it fairly
+accurately, but, when it came to speaking it, she clung to her early
+participial-adverbial faults, although she trusted to overcome them in a
+very little while. She had several conditions to work off before
+Thanksgiving, but she was cheerful and her ambition was to be "beautiful
+American young lady."</p>
+
+<p>She was, indeed, the most charming little doll-like creature the girls
+had ever seen, so unreal and different from themselves, that they could
+hardly credit her with the feelings and sensibilities of a human being.
+So correctly polite was she with such formal, stiff little manners that
+she seemed almost an automaton wound up to bow and nod at the proper
+moment. But Otoyo Sen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> was a creature of feeling, as they were to find
+out before very long.</p>
+
+<p>"Did many girls come down on the train with you to-night, Miss Sen?"
+asked Nance, by way of making conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Several young ladies had come, Miss Sen replied in her best participial
+manner. All had been kind to Otoyo but one, who had frightened poor
+Japanese very, very much. One very kind American gentleman had been
+commissioned to bring little Japanese down from big city to University.
+He had look after her all day and brought her sandwiches. He friend of
+her father and most, most kindly. He had receiving letters from her
+honorable father to look after little Japanese girl.</p>
+
+<p>Across the aisle from Otoyo had sat a "beeg young American lady, beeg as
+kindly young lady there with peenk hair," indicating Molly. The "beeg"
+young American lady, it seems, had great "beeg" eyes, so: Otoyo made two
+circles with her thumbs and forefingers to indicate size of young
+American lady's optics. She called Otoyo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> "Yum-Yum" and she made to
+laugh at humble Japanese girl, but Otoyo could see that young American
+lady with beeg eyes feeling great anger toward little strange girl.</p>
+
+<p>"But for what reason?" asked Molly, slipping her arm around Otoyo's
+plump waist. "How could she be unkind to sweet little Japanese
+stranger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Young great-eyed lady laugh at me mostly and I very uncomfortably." She
+brought out the big word with proud effort.</p>
+
+<p>"But how cruel! Why did she do it?" exclaimed Nance.</p>
+
+<p>Here Otoyo gave a delicious melodious laugh for the first time that
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>"She not like kindly gentlemanly friend to be attentionly to humble
+Japanese."</p>
+
+<p>"What was the gentleman's name, Otoyo?" asked Molly; and somewhat to her
+surprise Otoyo, who, as they were to learn later, never forgot a name,
+came out patly with:</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Edwin Green, kindly friend of honorable father."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+"Did the young lady call him 'Cousin'?" asked Nance in the tone of one
+who knows what the answer will be beforehand.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Otoyo Sen.</p>
+
+<p>"The same old Judith Blount," laughed Molly.</p>
+
+<p>And Nance recalled Judy's prophetic speech on the last day of college in
+June: "Can the le-o-pard change his spots?"</p>
+
+<p>Then the first stroke of the tower clock began to chime the hour of ten
+and they promptly conducted Otoyo to her bedroom with the caution that
+all lights must be out at ten, a rule she followed thereafter with
+implicit obedience.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, Molly and Nance took Otoyo under their especial care.
+They introduced her to all the girls at Queen's, placed her between them
+at Chapel, showed her how to register and finally took her on a
+sight-seeing expedition.</p>
+
+<p>It turned out that through Professor Green her room had been engaged
+since early the winter before. Why he should have chosen Queen's they
+hardly knew, since Otoyo appeared to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> plenty of money and might
+have lived in more expensive quarters. But Queen's he had selected, and
+that very evening he called on Mrs. Markham to see that his little
+charge was comfortably settled. Molly caught a glimpse of him as he
+followed the maid through the hall to Mrs. Markham's sitting room, and
+made him a polite bow. She felt somewhat in awe of the Professor of
+English Literature this winter, since she was to be in one of his
+classes, Lit. II, and was very fearful that he might consider her a
+perfect dunce. But Professor Green would not pass Molly with a bow. He
+paused at the door of the living room and held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad to see you back and looking so well," he said. "My sister
+asked to be remembered to you. I saw her only yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor looked well, also. His brown eyes were as clear as two
+brown pools in the forest and there was a healthy glow on his face; but
+Molly could not help noticing that he was growing bald about the
+temples.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+"Too bad he's so old," she thought, "because sometimes he's really
+handsome."</p>
+
+<p>"I am commissioned," he continued, "to find a tutor for a young Japanese
+girl boarding here, and I wondered if you would like to undertake the
+work. She needs lessons in English chiefly, but she has several
+conditions to work off and it would be a steady position for anyone who
+has time to take it. Her father is a rich man and willing to pay more
+than the usual price if he can get someone specially interested who will
+take pains with his daughter's education."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm willing to do all that," said Molly, "but it goes with the job,
+don't you think? I have no right to ask more than is usually asked."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you have," answered the Professor quickly. "What you can give
+her means everything to the child. She is naturally very timid and
+strange. If you are willing to give up several hours to her, say four
+times a week, I will arrange about salary with her father and the
+lessons may begin immediately."</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible for Molly to disguise her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> feelings of relief and joy
+at this windfall. Her lack of funds was, as usual, an ever-present
+shadow in the background of her mind, although, through some fine
+investments which Mrs. Brown had been able to make that summer, the
+Brown family hoped to be relieved by another year of the pressure of
+poverty.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+<a name="iii" id="iii"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<br />
+<small>A CLASHING OF WITS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Queen's Cottage seemed destined to shelter girls of interesting and
+unusual types.</p>
+
+<p>"They always do flock together, you know," Miss Pomeroy had remarked to
+the President, as the two women sat talking in the President's office
+one day. The question had come up with the subject of the new Japanese
+student, the first of her nation ever to seek learning in the halls of
+Wellington.</p>
+
+<p>"They do," said the President, "but whether it's the first comers
+actively persuading the next ones or whether it's a matter of
+unconscious attraction is hard to tell."</p>
+
+<p>"In this case I understand it's a matter of very conscious attraction on
+one side and no persuasion on the other," replied Miss Pomeroy. "That
+charming overgrown girl from Kentucky, Miss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> Brown, although she's as
+poor as a church mouse and last year even blacked boots to earn a little
+money, is one of the chief attractions, I think. But some of the other
+girls are quite remarkable. Margaret Wakefield lives there, you know.
+She makes as good a speech as her politician father. It will be
+interesting to watch her career if she only doesn't spoil everything by
+marrying."</p>
+
+<p>The two spinsters looked at each other and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"She won't," answered the President. "She's much too ambitious."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," went on Miss Pomeroy, "there's Julia Kean. She could do almost
+anything she wished, and like all such people she doesn't want to do
+anything. She hasn't a spark of ambition. It's Miss Brown who keeps her
+up to the mark. The girl was actually about to run away last winter just
+at mid-years. She lost her courage, I believe, and there was a
+remarkable scene, but she was induced to stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are the other girls?" asked the President thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+"One of them, you recall, is a daughter of the famous suffragette, Mrs.
+Anna Oldham. But I fancy the poor daughter has had quite enough of
+suffrage. The only other really interesting characters at Queen's,
+besides your Japanese, are two sophomores who roomed at Plympton's last
+year. They are the Williams sisters, Katherine and Edith, and they are
+remarkably bright. They work in a team, and I have not been able to
+discover which is the brighter of the two, although I had them to tea
+once or twice last year. One is talkative and the other is quiet, but I
+suspect the quiet one of doing a deal of thinking."</p>
+
+<p>The two women enjoyed these occasional chats about Wellington students.
+They were accustomed to regard most of the classes as units rather than
+the members as individuals. Sometimes it was a colorless, uninteresting
+class with no special traits worthy of admiration. Sometimes it was a
+snobbish, purse-proud class, as in the case of the present juniors. And
+again, as with last year's seniors, it was a class of sterling qualities
+made up of big girls with fine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> minds. Seldom did a class contain more
+than one or two brilliant members, often not one. The present sophomore
+class was one of those "freak" bodies which appear once in a life time.
+It was an unusually small class, there being only thirty-eight members.
+Some twenty of these girls were extremely bright and at least ten gave
+promise of something more than ordinary. As the fastest skaters keep
+together on the ice, so the brightest girls gradually drifted into
+Queen's and became as one family. It was known that there was a good
+deal of jealousy in the less distinguished portion of the class because
+of this sparkling group. But, all unconscious of the feeling they were
+exciting, the Queen's girls settled themselves down to the enjoyment of
+life, each in her own peculiar way.</p>
+
+<p>The two new sophomores at Queen's were, in fact, a welcome addition, and
+Molly and her friends found them exceedingly amusing. They were tall,
+rather raw-boned types, with sallow skins and large, lustrous,
+melancholy eyes. There was only a year's difference in their ages,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> and
+at first it was difficult to tell one from the other, but Edith, the
+younger of the sisters, was an inch taller than Katherine and was very
+quiet, while Katherine talked enough for the two of them. Because they
+were always together they were called "the Gemini," although
+occasionally they had terrific battles and ceased to be on speaking
+terms for a day or two.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon, not long after the opening day at college, the Williams
+sisters and Mabel Hinton, who now lived in the Quadrangle, paid a visit
+to Molly in her room.</p>
+
+<p>"We came in to discuss with you who you consider would make the best
+class president this year, Molly," began Katherine. "It's rather hard to
+choose one among so many who could fill the place with distinction&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I think Margaret should be chosen," interrupted Molly. "She was a
+good one last year. Why change?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think it looks rather like favoritism?" put in Mabel. "Some
+of the other girls should have a chance. There's you, for instance."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+"Me?" cried Molly. "Why, I wouldn't know how to act in a president's
+chair. I'd be embarrassed to death."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd soon learn," said Katherine. "It's very easy to become accustomed
+to an exalted state."</p>
+
+<p>"But why not one of you?" began Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a question," here remarked the silent Edith, "whether a class
+president should be the most popular girl or the best executive."</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret is both," exclaimed Molly loyally; "but, after all, why not
+leave it to the vote at the class meeting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it will be finally decided in that way, of course," said Katherine,
+"but such things are really decided beforehand by a little
+electioneering, and I was proposing to do some stump speaking in your
+behalf, Molly, if you cared to take the place."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," cried Molly, flushing with embarrassment; "it's awfully nice
+of you, but I wouldn't for anything interfere with Margaret. She is the
+one to have it. Besides, as Queen's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> girls, we ought to vote for her.
+She belongs to the family."</p>
+
+<p>"But some of the girls are kicking. They say we are running the class,
+and are sure to ring in one of our own crowd just to have things our
+way."</p>
+
+<p>"How absurd!" ejaculated Molly. "I'm sure I never thought of such a
+thing. But if that's the case, why vote for me, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," replied Mabel, "the Caroline Brinton faction proposed you.
+They say, if they must have a Queen's girl, they'll take you."</p>
+
+<p>"'Must' is a ridiculous word to use at an honest election," broke in
+Molly hotly. "Let them choose their candidate and vote as they like.
+We'll choose ours and vote as we like."</p>
+
+<p>"That's exactly the point," said Katherine. "They are something like
+Kipling's monkey tribe, the 'banderlog.' They do a lot of chattering,
+but they can't come to any agreement. They need a head, and I propose to
+be that head and tell them whom to vote for. Shall it be Molly or
+Margaret?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+"Margaret," cried Molly; "a thousand times, Margaret. I wouldn't usurp
+her place for worlds. She's perfectly equipped in every possible way for
+the position."</p>
+
+<p>Nance and Judy now came into the room. Nance looked a little excited and
+Judy was red in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," burst out the impetuous Judy, "that Caroline Brinton has
+called a mass meeting of all the sophomores not at Queen's? She has
+started up some cock-and-bull tale about the Queen's girls trying to run
+the class. She says we're a ring of politicians. We ran in all our
+officers last year and we're going to try and do it this year."</p>
+
+<p>"What a ridiculous notion," laughed Molly. "Margaret was elected by her
+own silver-tongued oratory, and Jessie was made secretary because she
+was so pretty and popular and seemed to belong next to Margaret anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"But the question is: are the Queen's girls going to sit back and let
+themselves be libeled?" demanded Nance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+Here Edith spoke up.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she said, "let them talk. Don't you know that people who
+denounce weaken their own cause always, and it's the people who keep
+still who have all the strength on their side? Let them talk and at the
+class meeting to-morrow some of us might say a few quiet words to the
+point."</p>
+
+<p>The girls recognized the wisdom of this decision and concluded to keep
+well away from any forced meeting of sophomores that evening. It had not
+occurred to simple-hearted Molly that it was jealousy that had fanned
+the flame of indignation against Queen's girls, but it had occurred to
+some of the others, the Williamses in particular, who were very shrewd
+in regard to human nature. As for Margaret Wakefield, she was openly and
+shamelessly enjoying the fight.</p>
+
+<p>"Let them talk," she said. "To-morrow we'll have some fun. Just because
+they have made such unjust accusations against us they ought to be
+punished by being made to vote for us."</p>
+
+<p>It was noted that Margaret used the word<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> "us" in speaking of future
+votes. She had been too well-bred to declare herself openly as candidate
+for the place of class president, but it was generally known that she
+would not be displeased to become the successful candidate. The next
+morning they heard that only ten sophomores attended the mass meeting
+and that they had all talked at once.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day when the class met to elect its president for the year,
+as Edith remarked: "The hoi polloi did look black and threatening."</p>
+
+<p>Molly felt decidedly uncomfortable and out of it. She didn't know how to
+make a speech for one thing and she hoped they'd leave her alone. It was
+utterly untrue about Queen's girls. The cleverest girls in the class
+happened to live there. That was all.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, the Williamses and Judy wore what might be called "pugilistic
+smiles." They intended to have a sweet revenge for the things that had
+been said about them and on the whole they were enjoying themselves
+immensely. They had not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> taken Molly into their confidence, but what
+they intended to do was well planned beforehand.</p>
+
+<p>Former President Margaret occupied the chair and opened the meeting with
+a charming little speech that would have done credit to the wiliest
+politician. She moved her hearers by her reference to class feeling and
+their ambition to make the class the most notable that ever graduated
+from Wellington. She flattered and cajoled them and put them in such a
+good humor with themselves that there was wild applause when she
+finished and the Brinton forces sheepishly avoided each other's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>There was a long pause after this. Evidently the opposing side did not
+feel capable of competing with so much oratory as that. Margaret rose
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Since no one seems to have anything to say," she said, "I beg to start
+the election by nominating Miss Caroline Brinton of Philadelphia for our
+next class president."</p>
+
+<p>If a bomb shell had burst in the room, there couldn't have been more
+surprise. Molly could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> have laughed aloud at the rebellious and
+fractious young woman from Philadelphia, who sat embarrassed and
+tongue-tied, unable to say a word.</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a long pause. The Brinton forces appeared incapable of
+expressing themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"I second the nomination of Miss Brinton," called Judy, with a bland,
+innocent look in her gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then Katherine Williams arose and delivered a deliciously humorous and
+delightful little speech that caused laughter to ripple all over the
+room. She ended by nominating Margaret Wakefield for re-election and
+before they knew it everybody in the room was applauding.</p>
+
+<p>Nominations for other officers were made after this and a girl from
+Montana was heard to remark:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm for Queen's. They're a long sight brighter than any of us."</p>
+
+<p>When the candidates stood lined up on the platform just before the votes
+were cast, Caroline<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> Brinton looked shriveled and dried up beside the
+ample proportions of Margaret Wakefield, who beamed handsomely on her
+classmates and smiled so charmingly that in comparison there appeared to
+be no two ways about it.</p>
+
+<p>"She's the right one for president," Judy heard a girl say. "She looks
+like a queen bee beside little Carrie Brinton. And nobody could say she
+ran the election this time, either. Carrie has had the chance she
+wanted."</p>
+
+<p>Molly was one of the nominees for secretary and, standing beside a
+nominee from the opposing side, she also shone in comparison.</p>
+
+<p>When the votes were counted, it was found that Margaret and Molly had
+each won by a large majority, and Caroline Brinton was ignominiously
+defeated.</p>
+
+<p>That night Jessie Lynch, who had not in the least minded being
+superseded as secretary by Molly, gave a supper party in honor of her
+chum's re-election. Only Queen's girls were there, except Mabel Hinton,
+and there was a good deal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> of fun at the expense of Caroline Brinton of
+Philadelphia.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor thing," said Molly, "I couldn't help feeling sorry for her."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" demanded Katherine. "She had the chance she wanted. She was
+nominated, but she was such a poor leader that her own forces wouldn't
+stand by her at the crucial moment. Oh, but it was rich! What a lesson!
+And how charming Margaret was! How courteous and polite through it all.
+What a beautiful way to treat an enemy!"</p>
+
+<p>"What a beautiful way to treat wrath, you mean," said her sister; "with
+'a soft answer.'"</p>
+
+<p>"It was as good as a play," laughed Judy. "I never enjoyed myself more
+in all my life."</p>
+
+<p>But, somehow, Molly felt a little uncomfortable always when she recalled
+that election, although it was an honest, straightforward election, won
+by the force of oratory and personality, and so skillfully that the
+opposing side never knew it had been duped by a prearranged plan of four
+extremely clever young women.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+<a name="iv" id="iv"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<br />
+<small>A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>"Do you think those little feet of yours will be able to carry you so
+far, Otoyo?" asked Molly anxiously, one Saturday morning.</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo gave one of her delightfully ingenuous smiles.</p>
+
+<p>"My body is smally, too," she said. "The weight is not grandly."</p>
+
+<p>"Not smally; just small, Otoyo," admonished Molly, who was now well
+launched in her tutoring of the little Japanese, and had almost broken
+her of her participial habits. But the adverbial habit appeared to grow
+as the participial habit vanished.</p>
+
+<p>"And you won't get too tired?" asked Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no," protested Otoyo, her voice rising with each no until it
+ended in a sweet high note like a bird's. "You not know the Japanese
+when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> you say that. I have received training. You have heard of jiu
+jitsu? Some day Otoyo will teach beautiful young American lady some
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but the jiu jitsu doesn't help you when you're tired, does it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but I shall not be tired. You will see. Otoyo's feet great bigly."</p>
+
+<p>She stuck out her funny stubby little feet for inspection and the girls
+all laughed. As a matter of fact, she was a sturdy little body and knew
+the secret of keeping her strength. She achieved marvels in her studies;
+was up with the dawn and the last person in the house to tumble into
+bed, but she was never tired, never cross and out of humor, and was
+always a model of cheerful politeness.</p>
+
+<p>"Art ready?" asked Katherine Williams, appearing at the door in a natty
+brown corduroy walking suit.</p>
+
+<p>"Can'st have the face to ask the question when we've been waiting for
+you ten minutes?" replied Judy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+It was a glorious September day when the walking club from Queen's
+started on its first expedition. The rules of the club were few, very
+elastic and susceptible to changes. It met when it could, walked until
+it was tired and had no fixed object except that of resting the eyes
+from the printed page, relaxing the mind from its arduous labors and
+accelerating the circulation. Anyone who wanted to invite a guest could,
+and those who wished to remain at home were not bound to go.</p>
+
+<p>"Did anybody decide where we were going?" asked Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I did," announced Margaret. "Knob Ledge is our destination. It's
+the highest point in Wellington County and commands a most wonderful
+view of the surrounding country-side&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, you sound like a guide book, Margaret," put in Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Green is the guide book," answered Margaret. "He told me
+about it. You know he is the only real walker at Wellington. Twenty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+miles is nothing to him and Knob Ledge is one of his favorite trips."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that isn't twenty miles," said Jessie anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, it's barely six by the short way and ten by the road. We shall
+go by the short way."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't Molly lovely to-day?" whispered Nance to Judy, after the walking
+expedition had crossed the campus and started on its way in good
+earnest.</p>
+
+<p>Molly was a picture in an old gray skirt and a long sweater and tam of
+"Wellington blue," knitted by one of her devoted sisters during the
+summer.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a dream," exclaimed Judy with loyal enthusiasm. "She glorifies
+everything she wears. Just an ordinary blue tam o'shanter, exactly the
+same shape and color that a hundred other Wellington girls wear, looks
+like a halo on a saint's head when she wears it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's her auburn hair that's the halo," said Nance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+"And her heavenly blue eyes that are saint's eyes," finished Judy.</p>
+
+<p>Molly, all unconscious of the admiration of her friends, walked steadily
+along between Otoyo and Jessie, a package of sandwiches in one hand and
+a long staff, picked up on the road, in the other.</p>
+
+<p>They were not exactly out for adventure that day, being simply a jolly
+party of girls off in the woods to enjoy the last sunny days in
+September, and they were not prepared for all the excitements which
+greeted them on the way.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had they left the path along the bank of the lake and skirted
+the foot of "Round Head," at the top of which Molly and her two chums
+had once met Professor Green and his brother, when Margaret Wakefield,
+well in advance of the others, gave a wild scream and rushed madly back
+into their midst. Trotting sedately after her came an amiable looking
+cow. The creature paused when she saw the girls, emitted the bovine call
+of the cow-mother separated from her only child, turned and trotted
+slowly back.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+"Why, Margaret, I didn't know you were such a coward," began Jessie
+reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Coward, indeed," answered the other indignantly. "I don't believe Queen
+Boadicea herself in a red sweater would have passed that animal. Listen
+to the creature. She's begun mooing like a foghorn. I suppose she held
+me personally responsible for her loss. Anyhow, she began chasing me and
+I wasn't going to be gored to death in the flower of my youth."</p>
+
+<p>There was no arguing this fact, and several daring spirits, creeping
+along the path until it curved around the hill, hid behind a clump of
+trees and took in the prospect. There stood the cow with ears erect and
+quivering nostrils. She had a suspicious look in her lustrous eyes and
+at intervals she let out a deep bellow that had a hint of disaster in it
+for all who passed that way.</p>
+
+<p>The brave spirits went back again.</p>
+
+<p>"What are we to do?" exclaimed Katherine. "If it got out in college that
+an old cow kept ten sophomores from having a picnic, we'd never hear the
+last of it."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+"Unless we behave like Indian scouts and creep along one at a time, I
+don't see what we are to do," said Molly. "If we went further up the
+hill, she'd see us just the same and if we crossed the brook and took to
+the meadow, we'd get stuck in the swamp."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose we make a run for it," suggested Judy with high courage. "Just
+dash past until we reach that group of trees over there."</p>
+
+<p>"Not me," exclaimed Jessie, shaking her head vigorously. "Excuse me, if
+you please."</p>
+
+<p>There was another conference in low voices behind the protecting clump
+of alder bushes. At last the cow began to ease her mental suffering by
+nibbling at the damp green turf on the bank of the little brook.</p>
+
+<p>"She's forgotten all about us. Let's make a break for it," cried Molly.
+There was a certain stubbornness in her nature that made her want to
+finish anything she began no matter whether it was a task or a pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>The cow flicked a fly from her flank with her tail and went on placidly
+cropping grass. Apparently,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> creature comforts had restored her
+equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>"One, two, three, run!" shouted Judy, and the ten students began the
+race of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>Not once did the flower and wit of 19&mdash; pause to look back, and so
+closely did they stick together, the strong helping the weak, that to
+the watchers on the hill&mdash;and, alas! there were several of them&mdash;they
+resembled all together an enormous animal of the imagination with ten
+pairs of legs and a coat of many colors. At last they fell down, one on
+top of the other, in a laughing, tumbling heap, in the protecting grove
+of pine trees, and pausing to look back beheld the ferocious cow amiably
+swishing her tail as she cropped the luscious turf on the bank of the
+little stream.</p>
+
+<p>"Asinine old thing," cried Margaret. "She's just an alarmist of the
+worst kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Who was the alarmist, did you say, Margaret?" asked Edith, with a
+wicked smile. But Margaret made no answer, because, as her close<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+friends well knew, she never could stand being teased.</p>
+
+<p>And now the watchers on the hill, having witnessed the entire episode
+from behind a granite boulder and enjoyed it to the limit of their
+natures, proceeded to return to Wellington with the story that was too
+good to keep, and Queen's girls went on their way rejoicing as the
+strong man who runs a race and wins.</p>
+
+<p>At two o'clock, after a long, hard climb, they reached the ledges. To
+Molly and Judy, the leading spirits of the expedition, the beautiful
+view amply repaid their efforts, but there were those who were too weary
+to enjoy the scenery. Jessie was one of these.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not meant for hard work," she groaned, as she reposed on one of the
+flat rocks which gave the place its name and pillowed her head on
+Margaret's lap.</p>
+
+<p>They opened the packages of luncheon and ate with ravenous appetites,
+finishing off with fudge and cheese sticks. Then they spread themselves
+on the table rocks and regarded the scenery pensively.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> Having climbed
+up at great expense of strength and effort, it was now necessary to
+retrace their footsteps. The thought was disconcerting.</p>
+
+<p>Edith, who never moved without a book, pulled a small edition of Keats
+from her pocket and began to read aloud:</p>
+
+<div class="block28">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>A short laugh interrupted this scene of intellectual repose. Edith
+paused and looked up, annoyed.</p>
+
+<p>"I see nothing to laugh at," she said. But the faces of her classmates
+were quite serious.</p>
+
+<p>"No one laughed," said Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"A rudely person did laugh," announced Otoyo decisively. "But not of us.
+Another hidden behind the rock."</p>
+
+<p>The girls looked around them uneasily. There was no one in sight,
+apparently, and yet there had been a laugh from somewhere close by.
+Coming to think of it, they had all heard it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+"I think we'd better be going," said Margaret, rising hastily. "We can
+see the view on the other side some other day."</p>
+
+<p>Twice that day Margaret, the coming suffragette, had proved herself
+lacking in a certain courage generally attributed to the new and
+independent woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on," she continued, irritably. "Don't stop to gather up those
+sandwiches. We must hurry."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps they were all of them a little frightened, but nobody was quite
+so openly and shamelessly scared as President Wakefield. They had seized
+their sweaters and were about to follow her down the steep path, when
+another laugh was heard, and suddenly a strange man rushed from behind
+one of the large boulders and seized Margaret by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>The President gave one long, despairing shriek that waked the echoes,
+while the other girls, too frightened to move, crouched together in a
+trembling group.</p>
+
+<p>Then the little Japanese bounded from their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> midst with the most
+surprising agility, seized the man by his thumb and with a lightning
+movement of the arm struck him under the chin.</p>
+
+<p>With a cry of intense pain, the tramp, for such he appeared to be, fell
+back against the rock, his black slouch hat fell off, and a quantity of
+dark hair tumbled down on his shoulders. Judith Blount, looking
+exceedingly ludicrous in a heavy black mustache, stood before them.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how you hurt me," she cried, turning angrily on Otoyo.</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo shrank back in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon," she said timidly. "I did not know the rudely man was a woman."</p>
+
+<p>The girls were now treated to the rare spectacle of Margaret Wakefield
+in a rage. The Goddess of War herself could not have been more majestic
+in her anger, and her choice of words was wonderful as she emptied the
+vials of her wrath on the head of the luckless Judith. The Williams
+sisters sat down on a rock, prepared to enjoy the splendid exhibition
+and the discomfiture of Judith Blount, who for once had gone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> too far in
+her practical joking. Molly withdrew somewhat from the scene. Anger
+always frightened her, but she felt that Margaret was quite justified in
+what she said.</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you masquerade in those disreputable clothes and frighten us?"
+Margaret thundered out. "Do you think such behavior will be tolerated
+for a moment at a college of the standing of Wellington University? Are
+you aware that some of us might have been seriously injured by what you
+would call, I suppose, a practical joke? Is this your idea of amusement?
+It is not mine. Do you get any enjoyment from such a farce?"</p>
+
+<p>At last Margaret paused for breath, but for once Judith had nothing to
+say. She hung her head shamefacedly and the girls who were with her,
+whoever they were, hung back as if they would feign have their share in
+the affair kept secret.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," said Judith with unusual humility. "I didn't realize it was
+going to frighten you so much. You see, I don't look much like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> a man in
+my gymnasium suit. Of course the mackintosh and hat did look rather
+realistic, I'll admit. When we saw you run from the cow this morning, it
+was so perfectly ludicrous, we decided to have some fun. I put on these
+togs and we got a vehicle and drove around by the Exmoor road. I'm sorry
+if you were scared, but I think I came out the worst. My thumb is
+sprained and I know my neck will be black and blue by to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I advise you to give up playing practical jokes hereafter," said the
+unrelenting Goddess of War. "If your thumb is sprained, it's your own
+fault."</p>
+
+<p>Judith flashed a black glance at her.</p>
+
+<p>"When I lower myself to make you an apology," she ejaculated, "I should
+think you'd have the courtesy to accept it," and with that she walked
+swiftly around the edge of the rock, where she joined her confederates,
+while the Queen's girls demurely took their way down the side of the
+hill.</p>
+
+<p>"Was my deed wrongly, then?" asked Otoyo,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> innocently, feeling somehow
+that she had been the cause of the great outburst.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, child, your deed was rightly," laughed Margaret. "And I'm
+going to take jiu jitsu lessons from you right away. If I could twirl a
+robber around the thumb like that and hit a cow under her chin, I don't
+think I'd be such a coward."</p>
+
+<p>Everybody burst out laughing and Molly felt greatly relieved that
+harmony was once more established. The walk ended happily, and by the
+time they had reached home, Judith Blount had been relegated to an
+unimportant place in their minds.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+<a name="v" id="v"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<br />
+<small>AN UNWILLING EAVESDROPPER.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Busy days followed for Molly. She had been made chairman of the
+committee on decoration for the sophomore-freshman reception along with
+all her many other duties, and had entered into it as conscientiously as
+she went into everything. Some days before the semi-official party for
+the gathering of autumn foliage and evergreens, Chairman Molly and Judy
+had a consultation.</p>
+
+<p>"What we want is something different," Judy remarked, and Molly smiled,
+remembering that her friend's greatest fear in life was to appear
+commonplace.</p>
+
+<p>"Caroline Brinton will want cheese cloth, of course," said Molly, "but I
+think she'll be out-voted if we can only talk to the committee
+beforehand. My plan is to mass all the greens<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> around the pillars and
+hang strings of Japanese lanterns between the galleries."</p>
+
+<p>"And," went on fanciful Judy, who adored decoration, "let's make a big
+primrose and violet banner exactly the same size as the Wellington
+banner and hang them from the center of the gymnasium, one on each side
+of the chandelier."</p>
+
+<p>A meeting of the class was called to consider the question of the banner
+and it was decided not only to have the largest class banner ever seen
+at Wellington, but to give the entire class a hand in the making of it.
+The money was to be raised partly by subscription and partly by an
+entertainment to be given later.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were very proud of the gorgeous pennant when it was completed.
+Every sophomore had lent a helping hand in its construction, which had
+taken several hours a day for the better part of a week. It was of silk,
+one side lavender and the other side primrose color. On the lavender
+side "<span class="smcap">Wellington</span>" in yellow silk letters had been briar-stitched on by
+two skillful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> sophomores and on the primrose side was "19&mdash;" in
+lavender.</p>
+
+<p>The Wellington banner, a gift from the alumnae, was also of silk in the
+soft blue which every Wellington girl loved. It was necessary to obtain
+a special permission from President Walker to use this flag, which was
+brought out only on state occasions, and it devolved on Molly, as
+chairman, to make the formal request for her class. That this intrepid
+class of sophomores was the first ever to ask to use the banner had not
+occurred to her when she knocked at the door of the President's office.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Walker would see her in ten minutes, she was told by Miss Maxwell,
+the President's secretary, and she sat down in the long drawing room to
+await her summons. It was a pleasant place in which to linger, Molly
+thought, as she leaned back in a beautiful old arm chair of the
+sixteenth century, which had come from a Florentine palace. Most of the
+furniture and ornaments in the room had been brought over from Italy by
+Miss Walker at various times. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> were mirrors and high-backed carved
+chairs from Venice. Over the mantel was a beautiful frieze of singing
+children, and at one side was a photograph, larger even than Mary
+Stewart's, of the "Primavera"; on the other side of the mantel was a
+lovely round Madonna which Molly thought also might be a Botticelli.</p>
+
+<p>As her eyes wandered from one object to another in the charming room,
+her tense nerves began to relax. At last her gaze rested on the
+photograph of a pretty, dark-haired girl in an old-fashioned black
+dress. There was something very appealing about the sweet face looking
+out from the carved gilt frame, a certain peaceful calmness in her
+expression. And peace had not been infused into Molly's daily life
+lately. What a rush things had been in; every moment of the day
+occupied. There were times when it was so overwhelming, this college
+life, that she felt she could not breast the great wave of duties and
+pleasures that surged about her. And now, at last, in the subdued soft
+light of President Walker's drawing room she found herself alone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> and in
+delightful, perfect stillness. How polished the floors were! They were
+like dim mirrors in which the soft colors of old hangings were
+reflected. Two Venetian glass vases on the mantel gave out an opalescent
+gleam in the twilight.</p>
+
+<p>"Some day I shall have a room like this," Molly thought, closing her
+eyes. "I shall wear peacock blue and old rose dresses like the
+Florentine ladies and do my hair in a gold net&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her heavy eyelids fluttered and drooped, her hands slipped from the arms
+of her chair into her lap and her breathing came regularly and even like
+a child's. She was sound asleep, and while she slept Miss Maxwell peeped
+into the room. Seeing no one, apparently, in the dim light, she went out
+again. Evidently the sophomore had not waited, she decided, so she said
+nothing to Miss Walker about it.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour slipped noiselessly by; the sun set. For a few minutes the
+western window reflected a deep crimson light; then the shadows deepened
+and the room was almost dark.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+"Never mind the lights, Mary. I'll see Miss Walker in her office at five
+thirty," said a voice at the door. "She expects me and I'll wait here
+until it's time."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, sir," answered the maid.</p>
+
+<p>Someone came softly into the room and sat down near the window, well
+removed from the sleeping Molly. Again the stillness was unbroken and
+the young girl, sitting in the antique chair in which noble lords and
+ladies and perhaps cardinals and archbishops had sat, began to dream.
+She thought the dark-haired girl in the photograph was standing beside
+her. She wore a long, straight, black dress that seemed to fade off into
+the shadows. Molly remembered the face perfectly. There was a sorrowful
+look on it now. Then suddenly the sadness changed inexplicably and the
+face was the face in the photograph, the peaceful calmness returned and
+the eyes looked straight into Molly's, as they did from the picture.</p>
+
+<p>Molly started slightly and opened her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I must have been asleep," she thought.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+"My dear Edwin," Miss Walker's voice was saying, "this is terrible. I am
+so shocked and sorry. What's to be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I haven't been able to think yet, it was all so sudden. I
+had just heard when I telephoned you half an hour ago. It's a great blow
+to the family. Grace is with them now, and she's a tower of strength,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"What's to be done about Judith? She was getting on so well this year. I
+think her punishment last winter did her good."</p>
+
+<p>"She did appear to be in a better frame of mind," said Professor Green
+drily.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she to be told at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has to be told about the money, of course, but the disgraceful part
+is to be kept from her as much as possible."</p>
+
+<p>Molly's heart began to beat. What should she do? Make her presence known
+to Professor Green and Miss Walker? But how very embarrassing that would
+be, to break suddenly into this intimate conversation and confess that
+she had overheard a family secret.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+"The thing has been kept quiet so far," went on the Professor. "The
+newspapers, strange to say, have not got hold of it, but it's going to
+take every cent the family can get together to pull out of the hole.
+Hardly half a dozen persons outside the family know the real state of
+the case. I have taken you into my confidence because you are an old and
+intimate friend of the family and because we must reach some decision
+about Judith. Her mother wants her to stay right where she is now, just
+as if nothing had happened. Judith has always been very proud and her
+mother thinks it would be too much of a come-down for her to live in
+cheaper quarters."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" exclaimed Miss Walker. "On the contrary, I think it would do
+Judith good to associate with girls who are not so well off. Put her
+with a group of clever, hard-working girls like the ones at Queen's, for
+instance."</p>
+
+<p>Molly's heart gave a leap. How much she would like to tell the girls
+this compliment the President had paid them! Then again the
+embarrassment of her position overwhelmed her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> She was about to force
+herself to rise and confess that she had been an unwitting eavesdropper
+when she heard the Professor's voice from the door saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you advise me to do nothing this evening? Richard is going to
+call me up again in an hour on the long distance in the village for the
+sake of privacy. If he agrees with you, I'll wait until to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Mr. Blount now?"</p>
+
+<p>"They think he's on his way to South America. You see, Richard, in some
+way, found out about the fake mining deal and the family is trying to
+get together enough money to pay back the stockholders. There are not
+many local people involved. Most of it was sold in the West and South
+and we hope to refund all the money in the course of time. It's nearly
+half a million, you know, and while the Blounts have a good deal of real
+estate, it takes time to raise money on it."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say the name of the mine was? I have heard, but it has
+slipped my memory."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+"'The Square Deal Mine'; a bad name, considering it was about the
+crookedest deal ever perpetrated."</p>
+
+<p>Molly started so violently that the Venetian vases on the mantel
+quivered and the little table on which stood the picture in the gilt
+frame trembled like an aspen.</p>
+
+<p>"The Square Deal Mine!" Had she heard anything else but that name all
+summer? Had not her mother, on the advice of an old friend, invested
+every cent she could rake and scrape together, except the fund for her
+own college expenses, in that very mine? And everybody in the
+neighborhood had done the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a sure thing, Mrs. Brown," Colonel Gray had told her mother. "I'm
+going to put in all I have because an old friend at the head of one of
+the oldest and most reliable firms in the country is backing it."</p>
+
+<p>The voices grew muffled as the President and Professor Green moved
+slowly down the hall. Molly felt ill and tired. Would the Blounts be
+able to pay back the money? Suppose they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> not and she had to leave
+college while Judith was to be allowed to finish her education and live
+in the most expensive rooms in Wellington.</p>
+
+<p>She pressed her lips together. Such thoughts were unworthy of her and
+she tried to brush them out of her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Judith!" she said to herself.</p>
+
+<p>The President's footsteps sounded on the stairs. She paused on the
+landing, cleared her throat and mounted the second flight.</p>
+
+<p>How dark it had grown. A feeling of sickening fear came over Molly, and
+suddenly she rushed blindly into the hall and out of the house without
+once looking behind her. Down the steps she flew, and, in her headlong
+flight, collided with Professor Green, who had evidently started to go
+in one direction and, changing his mind, turned to go toward the
+village.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Miss Brown, has anything frightened you? You are trembling like a
+leaf."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I was only hurrying," she replied lamely.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been to see the President?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+"I didn't see her. It was too late," answered Molly evasively.</p>
+
+<p>They walked on in silence for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going down to the village for a long-distance message. May I see
+you to your door on my way?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Molly, half inclined to confide to the Professor that
+she had just overheard his conversation. But a kind of shyness closed
+her lips. They began talking of other things, chiefly of the little
+Japanese, Molly's pupil.</p>
+
+<p>At the door of Queen's, the Professor took her hand and looked down at
+her kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"You were frightened at something," he said, smiling gravely. "Confess,
+now, were you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was nothing to frighten me," she answered. "Did you ever see a
+picture," she continued irrelevantly, "a photograph in a gilt frame on a
+little table in the President's drawing room? It's a picture of a
+slender girl in an old-fashioned black dress. Her hair is dark and her
+face is rather pale-looking."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+"Oh, yes. That's a photograph of Miss Elaine Walker, President Walker's
+sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she now?" asked Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"She died in that house some twenty-five years ago. You know, Miss
+Walker succeeded her father as President and they have always lived
+there. Miss Elaine was in her senior year when she had typhoid fever and
+died. It was a good deal of a blow, I believe, to the family and to the
+entire University. She was very popular and very talented. She wrote
+charming poetry. I have read some of it. No doubt she would have done
+great things if she had lived."</p>
+
+<p>"After all," Molly argued with herself, "I went to sleep looking at her
+photograph. It was the most natural thing in the world to dream about
+it. But why did she look so sorrowful and then so hopeful? I can't
+forget her face."</p>
+
+<p>Once again she was on the point of speaking to Professor Green about the
+mine, and once again she checked her confidence. The cautious Nance had
+often said to her: "If there's any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> doubt about mentioning a thing, I
+never mention it."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Miss Brown, I wonder if there are any vacant rooms here at
+Queen's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Molly, "there happens to be a singleton. It was to have been
+taken by a junior who broke her arm or something and couldn't come back
+to college this year. Why? Have you any more little Japs for me to
+tutor?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I was thinking there might have to be some changes a little
+later, and Miss Blount, my cousin, would perhaps be looking
+for&mdash;er&mdash;less commodious quarters. But don't mention it, please. It may
+not be necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"I may have to make some changes myself for the same reason," thought
+poor Molly, but she said nothing except a trembly, shaky "good-night,"
+which made the Professor look into her face closely and then stand
+watching her as she hastened up the steps and was absorbed by the
+shadowy interior of Queen's still unlighted hallway.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+<a name="vi" id="vi"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>TWO LONG DISTANCE CALLS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The President readily granted her gracious permission for the sophomores
+to use the Wellington alumnae banner. She was pleased at the class
+spirit which had engendered the request and which had also prompted the
+sophomores to make a banner of their own.</p>
+
+<p>With reverent hands the young girls hoisted the two splendid pennants on
+the evening of the reception. And another unusual distinction was
+granted this extraordinary class of 19&mdash;. The President and several of
+the faculty appeared that evening in the gallery to view the effect.
+Never before in the memory of students had Prexy attended a
+sophomore-freshman ball.</p>
+
+<p>"They have certainly made the place attractive," said the President,
+looking down between the interstices of garlands of Japanese lanterns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+on the scene of whirling dancers below. "The banners are really
+beautiful. I feel quite proud of my sophomores this evening."</p>
+
+<p>The sophomores were proud of themselves and worked hard to make the
+freshmen have a good time and feel at home. Molly, remembering her own
+timidity of the year before, took care that there were no wall flowers
+this gala evening.</p>
+
+<p>She had invited Madeleine Petit, a lonely little Southern girl, who had
+a room over the post office in the village and was working her way
+through college somehow. In spite of her own depleted purse, Molly had
+sent Madeleine a bunch of violets and had hired a carriage for the
+evening. As for the little freshman, she was ecstatic with pleasure. She
+never dreamed that her sophomore escort was nearly as poor as she was.
+People of Molly's type never look poor. The richness of her coloring,
+her red gold hair and deep blue eyes and a certain graciousness of
+manner overcame all deficiencies in the style and material of her
+lavender organdy frock.</p>
+
+<p>But, in spite of her glowing cheeks and outward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> gaiety, Molly was far
+from being happy that night. No word had come to her from her family all
+the week, although they were the most prolific letter writers, all of
+them. No doubt they hesitated for a while to let her know the truth
+about the Square Deal Mine. Molly was prepared for anything; prepared to
+give up college at mid-years and get a position to teach school in the
+country somewhere; prepared to look the worst in the face bravely. But
+Wellington was like a second home to her now. She loved its twin gray
+towers, its classic quadrangle and beautiful cloisters; its spacious
+campus shaded with elm trees.</p>
+
+<p>How dear these things had grown to her now that the thought of leaving
+them forced its way into her mind!</p>
+
+<p>She was debating these questions inwardly, as she gallantly led her
+partner over to the lemonade table, where Mary Stewart, in a beautiful
+liberty dress of pigeon blue that matched her eyes, was presiding with
+Judith Blount and two other juniors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+"Why, Molly Brown," exclaimed Mary, "in spite of all your glowingness,
+you don't seem quite like yourself this evening. Has anything happened
+to roughen your gentle disposition? No bad news from home, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," returned Molly. "No news at all. I haven't heard all week."</p>
+
+<p>Judith, who still had a grudge against Queen's girls, although she was
+endeavoring to overcome it, here remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I think you are looking particularly well to-night, Molly. Such a
+becoming dress!"</p>
+
+<p>Molly flushed as she glanced hastily down at her two-year-old organdy.
+Mary Stewart put a hand over her cold, slim fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"You always wear becoming dresses, Molly, dear. In fact, they are so
+becoming that no one ever looks at the dress for looking at you."</p>
+
+<p>Molly smiled and pressed her friend's hand in return. She was wondering
+if Judith Blount would learn to curb her tongue when she had to curb her
+expenses.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to meet Miss Petit," she said, introducing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> the little
+freshman to the two older girls.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Stewart shook hands kindly and Judith bowed distantly. Certainly
+Judith was in a bad humor that night.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you like Wellington?" asked Mary of Miss Petit by way of making
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's jus' lovely," drawled the little Southerner with her
+inimitable Louisiana accent. "I never danced on a better flo' befo' in
+all my life."</p>
+
+<p>Mary Stewart smiled. The soft, melodious voice was music to her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"You live in the Quadrangle, don't you? I think I saw you there the
+other day," continued Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I reckon you saw some other girl. I live over the post office
+in the village."</p>
+
+<p>"She has a charming room," broke in Molly, when she was interrupted by a
+stifled laugh. Looking up quickly, they were confronted with Judith and
+one of her boon companions, their faces crimson with suppressed
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+Miss Petit regarded the two juniors with a kind of gentle amazement.
+Then, without the slightest embarrassment, she said to Mary and Molly:</p>
+
+<p>"What lovely manners some of the Wellington girls have!"</p>
+
+<p>At this uncomfortable juncture Edith Williams sailed up.</p>
+
+<p>"This is my dance isn't it, Mademoiselle <i>Petite</i>? And while we dance, I
+want you to talk all the time so that my ears can drink in your liquid
+tones. Have you heard her speak, Miss Stewart? Isn't it beautiful? It's
+like the call of the wood-pigeon, so soft and persuasive and delicious."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, you're flattering me," said little Miss Petit, "but I'm glad it
+doesn't make you laugh, anyhow," and she floated off in the arms of the
+tall Edith as gracefully as a fluffy little cloud carried along by the
+breezes.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't she sweet?" said Molly presently. "And you can't imagine what she
+is doing to make both ends meet here. She won a scholarship<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> which pays
+her tuition, but she has to earn the money for board and clothes and all
+the rest. She washes dishes at a boarding house for her dinners and
+cooks her own breakfasts in her room and eats, well, any old thing, for
+her lunch. On her door is a sign that says, 'Darning, copying, pressing
+and fine laundry work, shampooing and manicuring.' It makes me feel
+awfully ashamed of my small efforts."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible?" exclaimed Mary. "How can I help her, Molly, without
+her knowing it? She seems to be a proud little thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know. Give her some jabots to do up or have your hair
+shampooed. She does hand-painting on china, too, but I don't think you
+could quite go her pink rose designs. She'll out-grow hand-painted china
+in another year, just as I outgrew framed lithographs and antimacassars
+in one evening, after seeing your rooms in the Quadrangle."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Molly, have you invited anyone for the Glee Club concert
+yet?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+"No, because I didn't know anyone well enough to ask except Lawrence
+Upton from Exmoor, and Judith has already asked him."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," said Mary. "Then, will you do me a favor? Brother Willie is
+coming down to the concert and expects to bring two friends. Will you
+take one of them under your wing?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly was only too delighted to be of service to the friend who had done
+so much for her.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a pleasure and a joy," she said, as she hastened away to
+find her small partner for the next waltz.</p>
+
+<p>The "Jokes and Croaks" stage of the sophomore-freshman reception had
+been reached, and Katherine Williams, speaking through the megaphone,
+was saying:</p>
+
+<p>"An art contribution from the juniors, with accompanying verse:</p>
+
+<div class="block20">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'I never saw a purple cow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And never hope to see one;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But this I know, I vow, I trow:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'd rather see than be one.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+While Katherine read the verse, another girl held up a large picture
+entitled "The Flight of the Royal Family." In the foreground was a
+little purple cow grazing on purple turf, and in the background, running
+at full speed, with every indication of extreme terror on their faces,
+were a dozen queens, wearing gold crowns and lavender and primrose
+robes.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly a girl at Wellington but had heard of the absurd adventure of the
+Queen's girls, and a tremendous laugh shook the walls of the gymnasium.
+In the midst of this uproar, someone touched Molly on the shoulder. It
+was a junior known to her only by sight, who whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"You're wanted on the telephone."</p>
+
+<p>Now, all telegrams to Wellington College were received at the telegraph
+office in the village and telephoned over, and when Molly was notified
+that there was a message for her, she felt instinctively that it was a
+telegram from home; and they would only telegraph bad news, she was
+certain.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was pale and her heart thumping as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> she hurried out of the
+gymnasium. Nance and Judy rose and followed her. If anything was the
+matter with their beloved friend, they were determined to share her
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Molly hastened to the telephone booths in the main corridor.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it a telegram?" she asked the young woman in charge of the
+switchboard; for, in the last few years telephones had been installed in
+all the houses of the faculty and their respective offices as well,
+thereby saving many steps and much time.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! Long distance?" called the girl, without answering Molly's
+question. "Here's your party. Booth No. 2," she ordered.</p>
+
+<p>The operator had very little patience with college girls, and this
+Adamless Eden palled on her city-bred soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" said Molly.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a small, thin voice, an immense distance away, but strangely
+familiar.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Who is this?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+"This is Richard Blount. Have you forgotten me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not."</p>
+
+<p>"Is your mother Mrs. Mildred Carmichael Brown, of Carmichael Station,
+Kentucky?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Um! I suppose you think it's very strange, Miss Brown, my asking you
+this question," called the thin, far-away voice. "I had a very good
+reason for asking it. Have you heard from home lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for a week. Is anything the matter with my family besides the&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, nothing that I know of."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it about the mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but you are not to worry. You understand, you are not to worry one
+instant. Everything will come out all right."</p>
+
+<p>"It was nearly ten thousand dollars," said Molly, almost sobbing; "our
+house and garden and the rest of the apple orchard that was sending me
+to college&mdash;" Here she broke down completely.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> "I may have to give up
+all this&mdash;I may&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Miss Molly, you mustn't cry. You make me feel like the very&mdash;very
+unhappy, way off here."</p>
+
+<p>"Five minutes up," called the voice of the exchange.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, good-by," called Molly. "I'm sorry I cried, Mr. Blount."</p>
+
+<p>Poor man! It was all terribly hard on him, and it was cruel of her to
+have given way, but it had come so unawares!</p>
+
+<p>From a corner of her eye, she could see her friends waiting anxiously
+outside the booth. She pretended to be writing something on the
+telephone pad with a stubby pencil tied to a string, until she recovered
+her composure.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" demanded the two girls as she emerged from the
+booth.</p>
+
+<p>"It was just a long distance from Richard Blount," said Molly, not
+knowing what else to say.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+"I didn't know you had asked him to go to the Glee Club concert," said
+Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"He can't go," Molly replied quickly, relieved that they had been
+willing to accept this explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think he couldn't," put in Judy, in a low voice. "Mamma has
+just written me such news about the Blounts. The letter came by the late
+mail and I didn't have a chance to read it until a little while ago. Mr.
+Blount has failed and gone away, no one knows where. They thought they
+could pay off his creditors and his family found that he had mortgaged
+all his property and there wasn't any money left."</p>
+
+<p>In the dimly-lighted corridor the girls had not noticed that Molly had
+turned perfectly white and was clasping and unclasping her hands
+convulsively in an effort to retain her self-control.</p>
+
+<p>"No money left?" she repeated in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a cent," said Judy. "Papa knows because he had some friends who
+lost money in a mine or something Mr. Blount owned."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+"Poor Judith," observed Nance. "Do you suppose she hasn't been told?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. She wouldn't be flaunting around here to-night if she
+knew her family were in trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"How strange for us to know and for her not to!" pursued Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't generally known. Mamma says the papers haven't got hold of it
+yet, and I'm not to tell. You see mamma and I met Judith Blount one
+afternoon at a matinee just before college opened. That's why she was
+interested, because she remembered that Judith was Mr. Blount's
+daughter."</p>
+
+<p>All this time Molly's mind was busy working out the problem of how to
+remain at college without any money. Of course, the Blounts couldn't pay
+their father's debts on nothing, although Richard Blount had told her
+not to worry. The family would have to move out of their old home, she
+supposed, and take a small house in town, and everybody would have to
+just turn in and go to work. Oh, why had her mother heeded the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> advice
+of old Colonel Gray? He had assured her that she would make at least
+fifteen thousand from the money invested, while he, poor man, had
+squandered his entire inheritance in the enterprise, just because an old
+and intimate friend was backing it. That old and intimate friend was Mr.
+Blount, and Molly had never guessed it.</p>
+
+<p>Pretty soon it was time to go home. Molly found herself in the carriage,
+trying to listen politely to the ceaseless flow of Miss Petit's
+conversation, while she wrapped her old, gray eider-down cape about her
+and thought and thought. Suddenly the words of Madeleine Petit pierced
+her troubled mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you write, Miss Brown? I wish I could. I'd like to try for some of
+the prizes for short stories. Think of winning a thousand dollars for
+one story! Wouldn't it be glorious? Then, there are some advertisement
+prizes, too. One for five hundred dollars; think of that! I always cut
+out every one I see, meaning to compete, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> I never do. It isn't in my
+line, you see. I'm going to major in mathematics."</p>
+
+<p>Molly smiled that the dainty little creature should have chosen that
+hated subject for her life's work.</p>
+
+<p>"You say you saved the clippings about prizes?" she asked when they had
+reached Madeleine's lodging.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I have them all in my room. Would you like to see some of
+them? Tell the man to wait, and I'll bring them down."</p>
+
+<p>Molly reached Queen's that night before the other girls, and hastening
+to the student's lamp, she proceeded to look over the clippings.</p>
+
+<p>One was from a leading woman's magazine; one from a magazine of short
+stories; several from advertising firms&mdash;the best jingle about a stove
+polish; the best catchy phrase about a laundry soap; the best
+advertisement in verse or prose for a real estate company which had
+purchased an entire mountain and was engaged in erecting numbers of
+Swiss chalets for summer residents. The pictures of these pretty little
+houses were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> very attractive. Many of them had poetical names. One of
+them, called "The Chalet of the West Wind," occupied the centre of the
+page. From its broad gallery could be seen a long vista of valley,
+flanked by mountain ranges.</p>
+
+<p>"What a charming place!" thought Molly, and that night she went to bed
+with the "Chalet of the West Wind" so deeply photographed in her mind
+that she almost felt as if she had been there herself. She could see it
+perched on the side of the mountain, looking across the valley. It was
+at the very edge of the forest. The picture showed that, and in her
+imagination she scented the wild flowers that must grow at its feet in
+the springtime. No doubt the west wind, which symbolized health and
+happiness, fair weather and sunshine, blew softly through its open
+casements and across its spacious galleries.</p>
+
+<p>She went to sleep dreaming of the "Chalet of the West Wind," and in the
+morning something throbbed in her pulses. It was a kind of muffled
+pounding at first, like the beginning of a long distance call,
+"lumpty-tum-tum; lumpty-tum-tum."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> But gradually a poem took shape in
+her mind, and as the fragments came to her she wrote them down on scraps
+of paper and hid them carefully in her desk.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+<a name="vii" id="vii"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE GLEE CLUB CONCERT.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>"If a cross-section could be made of this house, it would be rather
+amusing," exclaimed Judy Kean. "In every room there would be one girl
+buttoning up another girl."</p>
+
+<p>It was the evening of the Glee Club concert, and nearly everybody not a
+freshman was going to dine somewhere before the concert. Judy and Nance
+were invited to the McLeans', and Molly was to have dinner with Mary
+Stewart and her guests in the Quadrangle apartment. During the process
+of dressing there was a great deal of "cross-talk" going on at Queen's
+that night. Through the open doors along the corridors voices could be
+heard calling:</p>
+
+<p>"Has anyone a piece of narrow black velvet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret, don't you dare go without hooking me up!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+"Who thinks white shoes and stockings are too dressy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh my, but you look scrumptious!"</p>
+
+<p>Molly had saved her most prized dress for this occasion. It was the one
+she had purchased the Christmas before in New York and was made of old
+blue chiffon cloth over a "slimsy" satin lining, with two big old rose
+velvet poppies at the belt. It was cut out in the neck and the sleeves
+were short. Just before coming back to college, she had indulged in long
+ecru su&egrave;de gloves, which she now drew on silently. She had received a
+letter from her mother that morning and her heart was heavy within her.
+The letter said:</p>
+
+<p>"The investment I made last summer has not turned out well. The young
+son has assured me that the family intends to pay back all the
+creditors, and I am trying not to worry. In the meantime, my precious
+daughter, you must not think of giving up college, as you offered in
+your last letter; that is, until this term is over. Then we will see
+what can be done, although I am obliged to tell you that things do not
+look very hopeful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> about any present funds. Jane is to take a position
+in town as librarian and Minnie intends to start a dancing class. Your
+brothers and sisters and I will get on, but oh, I did so want you to
+have the advantages of a good education."</p>
+
+<p>"But so much else goes with the education," Molly protested to herself.
+"So many pleasures and enjoyments. Somehow, it doesn't seem fair for me
+to be going to glee club concerts when all my family are working so
+hard."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any stamps, Judy?" she asked suddenly, as she hooked that
+young woman into her dress.</p>
+
+<p>"As many as you want up to a dozen," answered Judy. "They are in the
+pill box on my desk."</p>
+
+<p>Molly made her way through Judy's tumbled apartment and helped herself
+to the stamps.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll return them to-morrow," she said absently, drawing a letter from
+her portfolio, slipping one stamp into the envelope, and sticking the
+other on the back.</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world are you writing to a real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> estate firm for, Molly?"
+demanded Judy, looking over Molly's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, just answering an ad."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you so rich that you are going to buy a farm?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I were."</p>
+
+<p>Judy's curiosity never gave her any peace, and she now desired earnestly
+to know why Molly was corresponding with this strange firm.</p>
+
+<p>"If it turns out well, I'll tell you," said Molly; "but if it doesn't,
+you'll never, never know."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean thing, and I thought you loved me," ejaculated Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"I do. That's why I won't tell you. If I did, I would have to inflict
+something worse on you, and you wouldn't be so thankful for that part."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall burst if I don't know," cried Judy in despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Burst into a million little pieces then, like the Snow Queen's looking
+glass and get into people's eyes and make them see queer Judy pictures
+and think queerer Judy thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>"Meany, meany," called Judy after her friend,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> who had seized her gray
+eider-down cape and was fleeing down the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"I love all this," thought Molly, as she hastened up the campus to the
+Quadrangle. "I adore the gay talk and the jokes&mdash;oh, heavens, but it
+will be hard to leave it! I understand now how Mary Stewart felt when
+she almost decided not to come back this year and then gave up and came
+after all."</p>
+
+<p>Molly felt she would enjoy the sensation of being waited on at table
+that night instead of waiting herself, as she had done about this time
+last year at Judith Blount's dinner. She wondered if there would be a
+poor little trembly freshman to pass the food. But Mary was too
+kind-hearted for such things and had engaged two women in the village to
+cook and serve her dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The other guests had not arrived when Molly let herself into the
+beautiful living room of the apartment, which was now turned into a
+dining room. The drop-leaf mahogany table had been drawn into the middle
+of the floor and was set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> with dazzling linen and silver for eight
+persons.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder who the other two are," thought Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Molly, dear?" called Mary from the bedroom. "Well, come
+and hook my dress&mdash;" how many yards of hooks and eyes had Molly joined
+together that evening! "And here's something for you. Willie, when he
+found out you were taking him, sent you some violets."</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens!" cried the young girl, after she had finished Mary and opened
+the large purple box. "Oh, Mary, this bunch is big enough for three
+people."</p>
+
+<p>"It's only intended for one, and that's you," laughed the other.</p>
+
+<p>The bouquet was indeed as large as a soup plate.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I'd better wear them to dinner. I couldn't see over them.
+I should feel as if I were carrying a violet bed on my chest."</p>
+
+<p>"And so you are. No doubt it took all the violets from one large double
+bed for that bunch. But you had better wear them at first, and take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+them off at the table. Brother Willie is one of the touchiest young
+persons imaginable. Father and I have always called him 'the sensitive
+plant.'"</p>
+
+<p>Hastily Molly pinned on the enormous bunch, which covered the entire
+front of her dress.</p>
+
+<p>"They are coming now," she said, hearing steps in the next room; and,
+peeping through the door, she beheld "Brother Willie" himself,
+resplendent in his evening clothes, in company with two other equally
+resplendent beings, all wearing white gardenias in their buttonholes.</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness, they look like a wedding!" Molly whispered to her friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't they grand?" laughed Mary. "And here I am as plain as an old
+shoe, and never will be anything else."</p>
+
+<p>"You are the finest thing I know," exclaimed Molly, tucking her arm
+through her friend's and allowing herself to be led rather timidly into
+the living room.</p>
+
+<p>The third girl at this fine affair was another post-grad., and presently
+Molly rejoiced to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> Miss Grace Green enter with her brother, Edwin.
+Miss Green looked very pretty and young. She kissed Molly and told her
+she was a dear, and smelt the violets and pinched her cheek, glancing
+slyly at the three young men, any one of whom might have burdened her
+with that huge bouquet. And did not such bouquets argue something more
+than ordinary friendship?</p>
+
+<p>As for the Professor, he glanced at the bouquet almost before he looked
+at Molly. Then he shook her stiffly by the hand and, turning away,
+devoted himself to the post-grad.</p>
+
+<p>"Do they know that my mother has lost all her money in their cousin's
+mine?" Molly thought. "Perhaps that's the reason why Professor Green is
+so cold tonight. He's embarrassed."</p>
+
+<p>At dinner Molly sat between Will Stewart and an elegant, rich young man
+named Raymond Bellaire, who talked in rather a drawling voice about
+yachting parties and cross-country riding and motoring. "At college, you
+know, the fellahs are awfully set on those little two-seated electric
+affairs." What car did Molly prefer?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> Molly was obliged to admit that
+she preferred the Stewart car in New York, whatever that was, it being
+the only one she had ever ridden in.</p>
+
+<p>The young man screwed a monocle into one eye and looked at her. He was
+half English and had half a right to a monocle, but Molly wished he
+wouldn't screw up his eye like that. It made her want to laugh. However,
+he didn't appear to notice at all that she was endeavoring to keep the
+irresistible laugh-curve from her lips. He only looked at her harder,
+and then remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"I say, by Jove, you'd make a jolly fine Portia. Did you ever think of
+going on the stage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; I'm going to be a school teacher," answered Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"School teacher?" he repeated aghast. "You? With that hair and&mdash;by
+Jove&mdash;those violets!" His eyes had lighted on the mammoth bunch. "Tell
+that to the marines."</p>
+
+<p>Molly flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"The violets haven't anything to do with my teaching school," she said a
+little indignantly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> "And neither has my hair. Didn't you ever see a
+red-headed school teacher?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not when her hair curled like that and had glints of gold in it."</p>
+
+<p>"You're teasing me because I'm only a sophomore," she said, and turned
+her head away.</p>
+
+<p>"No, by Jove, I'm not though," protested Raymond Bellaire, looking much
+pained. But Molly was talking to Willie Stewart at her right.</p>
+
+<p>That young man was the most correct individual in the matter of clothes,
+deportment and small talk she had ever seen. She thought of his splendid
+father, who had started life as a bootblack.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if he's pleased with his fashion-plate son?" she pondered.</p>
+
+<p>She didn't care for him or his friends. They were not like the jolly
+boys over at Exmoor, who talked about basket-ball and football, and
+swopped confidences regarding Latin and Greek and that <i>awful</i> French
+Literature examination, and what this professor was like, and what the
+Prexy said or was supposed to have said, and so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> on. It was all college
+gossip, but Molly enjoyed it and contributed her share eagerly. She
+tried a little of it on Brother Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you taking up Higher Math. this year, Mr. Stewart?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, after a fashion," he answered. "I don't expect to stay at college
+after this year. I'm going to Paris to finish off."</p>
+
+<p>Molly wondered what "Higher Math. after a fashion" really meant.</p>
+
+<p>At the concert later it was a relief to find herself next to Professor
+Green, who had scarcely looked in her direction all through dinner. At
+first she felt a little embarrassed, sitting next to the Professor, who
+was a great man at Wellington. She began silently to admire the packed
+audience of young girls in light dresses with a generous sprinkling of
+young men in evening clothes.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll probably be a member of the club next year, Miss Brown," the
+Professor was saying. "I'm sure you must sing. I am surprised they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> have
+not found it out by this time. Next winter you must&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt if I am here next winter," interrupted Molly, and then blushed
+furiously and bit her lip. She wished she had not made that speech.</p>
+
+<p>"Is anything going to happen that will keep you from coming to college
+next winter?" he asked, glancing at the violets.</p>
+
+<p>"How can I tell what will happen?" she answered childishly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, why not come back next year?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;because&mdash;&mdash;" she began. "Oh, here they come!" she interrupted
+herself to say, as the members of the Glee Club filed slowly out and
+took their seats. "Aren't they sweet in their white dresses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very!" answered the Professor, "but what's this about next year? It was
+just idle talk, wasn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," whispered Molly, for the first number was about to begin;
+"hasn't Mr. Blount told you anything?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+"Why, no. That is, nothing about you. What on earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you have a list of the stockholders?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean of the Square Deal Mine?" he asked in entire amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a list, but what of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"My mother's name is there&mdash;Mrs. Mildred Carmichael Brown."</p>
+
+<p>"Great heavens!" groaned the Professor. Then he sunk far down in his
+seat and buried his face in his program.</p>
+
+<p>Jenny Wren opened the concert with this song, which suited her high,
+bird-like voice to perfection:</p>
+
+<div class="block24">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'Oh, I wish I were a tiny,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Browny bird from out the South,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Settled among the alderholts<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And twittering by the stream;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I would put my tiny tail down<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And put up my little mouth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sing my tiny life away<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In one melodious dream.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'I would sing about the blossoms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the sunshine and the sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the tiny wife I mean to have,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In such a cosy nest;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And if someone came and shot me dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why, then, I could but die,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With my tiny life and tiny song<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Just ended at their best.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>There was something so moving about the little song that Molly felt she
+could have melted into a fountain of tears like Undine; and she was
+obliged to smile and smile and pretend that her heart wasn't breaking
+because her tiny life and tiny song at Wellington&mdash;her beloved
+Wellington&mdash;were soon to come to an end. The Professor, too, was
+stirred. He glanced once at Molly's smiling lips and tearful eyes and
+blew his nose violently. Then again he contemplated the program with
+great interest.</p>
+
+<p>During the intermission, Molly and Will Stewart went visiting down the
+aisle. Half the audience was moving about, talking to the other half,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+and the hall was filled with the buzz of laughter and conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I love it! I love it!" Molly kept repeating to herself. "There couldn't
+be anything more perfect than college. Oh, do I have to give it up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, Miss Molly!" called Andy McLean in a nearby seat, while Judy and
+Nance and George Theodore Green were waving violently to her, and
+Lawrence Upton was shaking hands with her and assuring her that the
+dinner had been a failure because she hadn't been there. Fortunately,
+Judith was well out of ear-shot behind the scenes. The Williams sisters,
+from across the aisle, were calling in one voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Molly, come and meet our brother John."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret Wakefield, causing a sensation with her distinguished father,
+and enduring the gaze of the entire audience with the calmness of one
+reared in the public eye, detained her for a moment to introduce her to
+the famous politician.</p>
+
+<p>"A real belle," said Miss Grace Green to her brother, leaning across two
+seats to speak to him, "is one who is just as popular with women as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+with men, and Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky appears to be a general
+favorite."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor looked at his sister absently. Apparently, he hadn't heard
+a word she said.</p>
+
+<p>He was saying to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll let the tenor sing that little lyric that begins: 'Eyes
+like the skies in summer.'"</p>
+
+<p>After a while the delightful affair was over, and Molly, feeling
+immensely happy in spite of her anxious heart, had been escorted to
+Queen's. Professor Edwin Green, hastening into his room, flung his hat
+in one direction and his coat in another, and sat down at his desk.
+Without an instant's hesitation, he seized a pencil and the first scrap
+of paper he found and began to write:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noi">"Dear Richard:</p>
+
+<p>"I know that your cares are many, but get to work on the score
+of the opera. I find that by working at night for a week I shall
+be able to finish the last act and make all the changes you
+suggested. We must launch the thing now. I have overcome all
+scruples, as you called them, and I want nothing more than to
+get the opera into some manager's hands. If you think that Blum
+&amp; Starks will take it up, you had better see them at once. My
+name may be used and everything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> that goes with it in the way of
+previous unimportant literary efforts. It's unusual, of course,
+for a Professor of English Literature to write a comic opera,
+but the very unusualness may give it some publicity and help the
+thing along. I have made one change without conferring; given
+the tenor-lover the baritone-villain's song: 'Eyes like the
+skies in summer.' Write something very pretty for that, will
+you, old man? The money we may make on this will help some in
+the present critical family situation. I understand that there
+have been a good many failures in light opera this winter, and
+the managers are looking for good things. It may be that we
+shall strike at the psychological moment.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"Yours, E. G."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The august Professor then wrote two other letters; one to a firm of
+bankers and one to his publishers. At last, getting into an old dressing
+gown and some very rusty slippers, lighting a long, black cigar and
+drawing his student's lamp nearer, he took an immense roll of manuscript
+from a drawer and fell to work. It was three o'clock before he turned in
+for three hours of troubled sleep.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+<a name="viii" id="viii"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>A JAPANESE SPREAD.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>One morning every girl at Queen's discovered by her plate at the
+breakfast table a strange rice paper document some twelve inches in
+length and very narrow as to width, rolled compactly on a small stick.</p>
+
+<p>"What's this?" demanded Margaret Wakefield, unrolling her scroll and
+regarding it with the legal eye of an attorney perusing documentary
+evidence.</p>
+
+<p>Across the top of the scroll swung a gay little row of Japanese lanterns
+done in delicate water colors, and in characters strangely Japanese was
+inscribed the following invitation:</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<p class="noi"><span class="ml">"Greetings from</span><br />
+Otoyo Sen:<br />
+Your honorable<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+presence is<br />
+requested on<br />
+Saturday evening<br />
+at the insignificant f&ecirc;te<br />
+in the unworthily<br />
+apartment of<br />
+Otoyo Sen.<br />
+Otoyo muchly<br />
+flattered by<br />
+joyful acceptance."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Fortunately, the little Japanese girl, overcome by shyness after this
+rash venture, had not appeared at breakfast and was spared the mirthful
+expressions on the faces of the girls around the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of all the funny children," laughed Molly. "Nance, let's offer
+her our room. She can't get the crowd into her little place."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Nance, agreeable to anything her roommate might
+suggest.</p>
+
+<p>Not a single girl declined the quaint invitation and formal acceptances
+were sent that very day.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+Otoyo was so excited and happy over these missives that she seemed to be
+in a state of semi-exaltation for the better part of a week. She rushed
+to the village and sent off a telegram and before Saturday morning
+received at least a dozen mysterious boxes by express. They were piled
+one on top of the other in her room like an Oriental pyramid and no one
+was permitted to see their contents.</p>
+
+<p>All offers of assistance were refused the day of the party. Otoyo wished
+to carry out her ideas in her own peculiar way and needed only a
+step-ladder. If it was not asking too much, would the beautiful and kind
+friends not enter their room until that evening? Removing all things
+needful in the way of books and clothes to Judy's room, the beautiful
+and kind friends good-naturedly absented themselves from their apartment
+from ten in the morning to seven-thirty that evening. Molly spent the
+afternoon in the library studying, and Nance called on Mrs. McLean and
+drank a cup of tea and ate a buttered scone, while she cast an
+occasional covert<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> glance in the direction of Andy junior's photograph
+on the mantel.</p>
+
+<p>It was well before eight o'clock when the inquisitive guests assembled,
+and there were at least twenty of them; for Otoyo's acquaintance was
+large and numbered girls from all four classes. They met downstairs in a
+body and then marched up to the third story together.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's give her a serenade before we knock," suggested Judy, and they
+sang: "The sweetest girl in Wellington is O-to-yo." Any name could be
+fitted into this convenient and ingenious song.</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo flung open the door and stood smiling before them. Her manner was
+the very quintessence of hospitality. She wore a beautiful embroidered
+kimono and her hair was fixed Japanese fashion. Even her shoes were
+Japanese, and she carried a little fan which she agitated charmingly to
+express her excited emotions.</p>
+
+<p>All her English forsook her in the excitement of greeting her guests and
+she could only repeat over and over again:</p>
+
+<p>"Otoyo delightly&mdash;Otoyo delightly."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+"Well, I never," ejaculated Nance, entering her old familiar room, now
+transformed into a gay Japanese bazaar.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this the parent of all the umbrella family?" demanded Judy, pointing
+to an enormous parasol swung in some mysterious manner from the centre
+of the ceiling and resembling a large fish swimming among a numerous
+small-fry of lanterns. The divans were spread with Japanese covers, and
+over the white dimity curtains were hung cotton crepe ones of pale blue
+with a pink cherry-blossom design. In one corner stood a vase, from
+which poured the incense of smoking joss-sticks. Funny little handleless
+cups were ranged on the table and lacquered trays of candied fruits,
+rice cakes and other indescribable Japanese "meat-sweets," as Otoyo had
+called them. The little hostess flew about the room exactly as the
+<i>Three Little Maids</i> did in "The Mikado," waving her fan and bowing
+profoundly to her guests. Presently, sitting cross-legged on the floor,
+she sang a song in her own language, accompanying herself on a curious
+stringed instrument,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> a kind of Japanese banjo. She was, in fact, the
+funniest, queerest, most captivating little creature ever seen. She
+loaded her guests with souvenirs, little lacquered boxes, fans and
+diminutive toys.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel as if I were a belle at a grand cotillion with all these lovely
+favors," exclaimed Jessie Lynch.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you would always be laden with favors," said Judy; "that is,
+if you could get all your beaux to come to the same cotillion. You are
+like the sailor who had a lass in every port. I strongly suspect you of
+having an admirer in every prominent city in the country."</p>
+
+<p>Jessie laughed and dimpled.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said; "I stopped at the Rocky Mountains."</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo, who had been listening closely to this dialogue, suddenly
+bethought herself of a new sensation she had provided for her friends,
+which she was about to forget.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she cried, "I nearlee forgetting. American girl love fortune
+telling? So do Japanese.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> You like to have your fortune told?" she
+asked, cocking her head on one side like a little bird and blinking at
+Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"Would she?" cried a dozen ironical voices.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it's nothing disagreeable and there's no bad luck in it," said
+Jessie, drawing a slip of paper from a flat, shiny box. "But it's all in
+Japanese," she added, with much disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"Otoyo will translate it. Won't you, you cunning little sugar-lump?"
+asked Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Everybodee choose and then I will make into English," said the small,
+busy hostess, flying from one to another on her marshmallow soles.</p>
+
+<p>"Me first of all," cried the eager Jessie. "I had first draw."</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo took the slip and, holding it under a lantern, translated in a
+high, funny voice:</p>
+
+<p>"He happy who feesh for one and catch heem, than feesh for many and
+catch none."</p>
+
+<p>The wild whoop of joy that went up at this unexpectedly appropriate
+statement made the lanterns quiver and the teacups rattle.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the others were not so appropriate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> but they were all very
+amusing. Mabel Hinton, who had been nicknamed "old maid" the year
+before, drew one which announced:</p>
+
+<p>"Your daughters will make good matches."</p>
+
+<p>The girls laughed till the tears ran down their cheeks at this
+prediction, and Mabel was quite teased.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to know why I shouldn't have a family of marriageable
+daughters some day," she exclaimed, blinking at them with near-sighted
+eyes while she wiped the moisture from her large round glasses.</p>
+
+<p>Nance's fortune was a very sentimental one and caused her to blush as
+red as a rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Love will not change, neither in the cold weenter time nor in the warm
+spreengtime under the cherry-blossoms when the moon ees bright."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thou blushing maiden," cried Judy, "canst look us in the eye after
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly's was rather comforting to her troubled and unquiet heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Look for cleer weather when the sky ees blackest."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+Of all the mottoes, Judy's was the funniest.</p>
+
+<p>"Eef thy hus-band beat thee, geeve heem a smile."</p>
+
+<p>"Smile indeed," exclaimed that young woman when the laughter had died
+down; "I'll just turn the tables on him and beat him back, Otoyo.
+American young lady quite capable of giving honorable husband a good
+trouncing with a black-snake whip."</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo opened her eyes at this. It was doubtful whether she could
+appreciate the humor of her mottoes, but she enjoyed hearing the girls
+laugh; she realized they must be having a good time if they laughed like
+that&mdash;really genuine, side-shaking laughter and no lip-smiles for
+politeness' sake.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's heard the news about Judith Blount?" asked one of the Williamses,
+after the party had broken up and only the Queen's girls remained.</p>
+
+<p>Molly and Judy and Nance exchanged telegraphic glances. They had been
+careful to keep secret what Mrs. Kean had written her daughter, and they
+were curious to know just how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> much the others knew on the subject,
+which was now always uppermost, at least in Molly's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"She's sub-let her apartment, furnished, to that rich freshman from New
+York, whose father's worth a fortune a minute from gold mines and oil
+wells, and she, I mean Judith, is taking the empty singleton here."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean it!" cried a chorus of voices.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me I heard that a Mr. Blount lost a lot of money," observed
+Margaret. "It must have been her father."</p>
+
+<p>"How are the mighty fallen!" exclaimed Edith Williams. "I should think
+she'd have gone anywhere rather than here."</p>
+
+<p>"She couldn't get in any of the less expensive places unless she had
+taken a room over the post office in the village."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Judith!" ejaculated Jessie. "I've known it for a week."</p>
+
+<p>To save her life Molly could not keep a tiny little barbed thought from
+piercing her mind: "Is it fair for Judith to stay at college when I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+have to leave? Has she any right to the money that's paying her
+tuition?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly turned quickly and began gathering up the d&eacute;bris from the
+tea-tables. Anything to get that bitter notion out of her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's be awfully nice to her, girls," she said presently. "I'm sure
+she's terribly unhappy. Remember what success we had with Frances
+Andrews last year just through a little kind treatment."</p>
+
+<p>"Judith is a different subject altogether," said Margaret,
+argumentatively. "She has such a dreadful temper. You never can tell
+when it's going to break loose."</p>
+
+<p>With the Goddess of War sitting among them at this moment, nobody dared
+betray by the flick of an eyelash that there were others whose tempers
+were rather uncertain. Only Jessie observed:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Margaret, dear, you got the better of her that time at the
+Ledges, temper or no temper."</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt if she takes to poverty as a duck to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> water," here put in Judy.
+"She'll make a very impatient tutor, and I'd hate to have her black my
+boots. She might throw them at my head."</p>
+
+<p>"She is certainly not subdued by her reverses," remarked Jessie. "She's
+just like a caged animal. I never saw anything to equal her. I went over
+there this afternoon and she was packing. She almost pitched me out of
+the room. Of course, it's very luxurious at Beta Phi House, but her
+little room here isn't to be scorned. It's really quite pretty, with
+lovely paper and matting and chintz curtains and wicker chairs."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a wave of indignation swept over Molly. Nobody had ever seen
+her look as she looked now, burning spots of color on her cheeks and her
+eyes black.</p>
+
+<p>"What right has she&mdash;how dare she&mdash;she should be thankful&mdash;" she burst
+out incoherently. Then she stamped both feet up and down like an angry
+child and flung herself face down on the couch in an agony of tears. It
+was a kind of mental tempest, resembling one of those sudden storms
+which come with a flash of lightning, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> roaring crash of thunder and
+then a downpour of rain.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Mary Carmichael Washington Brown," exclaimed Judy, kneeling beside
+poor Molly, "whatever has come over you?"</p>
+
+<p>Little Otoyo was so frightened that she hid behind a Japanese screen,
+while the other girls sat dumb with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>The Williams girls were intensely interested, and Margaret, always
+consistent and logical in her decisions, knew very well that there was
+something serious back of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Please forgive me," said Molly presently, wiping her eyes and sitting
+up as limp as a rag. "I'm awfully sorry to have spoiled the evening like
+this. I didn't mean it. It just slipped out of me before I knew it was
+coming."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you old sweetness," exclaimed the affectionate Judy, "of course,
+you are forgiven. I guess you ought to be allowed a few outbursts. But
+what caused it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it was nervousness," answered Molly evasively.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+But the girls began to realize that it was not entirely nervousness. It
+occurred to them now that Molly had been preoccupied and strangely
+silent for some time. Occasionally she gave way to forced gaiety. Twice
+she had started on walks, changed her mind and come back, without giving
+any excuse except that she was a little tired. It was, in fact, a
+condition that had come about so gradually that they were hardly aware
+they had noticed it until this sudden breakdown.</p>
+
+<p>"She's dead tired and ought to get to bed this minute," remarked Nance,
+caressing her friend's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest Molly," said Jessie, who was moved by a gentle sympathy always
+for those in trouble, "go to bed and get a good rest. It was just nice
+and human of you to get mad once in a thousand years and we love you all
+the better for it."</p>
+
+<p>They were good friends, all of them, Molly felt, as they kissed her or
+pressed her hand good-night, while Nance and Judy hastened to clear off
+the divan and put up the windows to blow out the heavy, incense-scented
+air.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+It was Otoyo, however, who brought the tears back to poor Molly's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, beautiful Mees Brown," she said. "You must not think it will come
+wrong. It will come right, I feel, surelee."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Nance?" whispered Judy, after they had got their friend to
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>Nance shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven knows," she answered. "But it's something, and it must be
+serious, Judy, or she never would have let go like that."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+<a name="ix" id="ix"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+<br />
+<small>VESPERS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>There was a pretty little Episcopal chapel in the village of Wellington,
+where at Vespers on Sunday afternoons the students were wont to
+congregate. Six Wellington girls always served as ushers and the college
+Glee Club formed the Chapel choir.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good thing to go to Vespers," remarked Judy one Sabbath
+afternoon, pinning on her large velvet hat before the mirror over the
+mantel, notably the most becoming mirror in the house, "not only for the
+welfare of our souls, but also to attire ourselves in decent clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"I suspect you of thinking it's good for your soul to wear good clothes,
+Judy," observed Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"You suspect rightly, then," answered Judy. "If I had to dress in rags,
+I'm afraid my soul<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> would become a thing of shreds and patches, too, all
+shiny at the seams and down at the heels."</p>
+
+<p>Nance laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a funny way to talk, considering you are about to attend Vespers
+at the Chapel of the good St. Francis, who took the vows of poverty and
+lived a roving life on the hills around Assisi."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very true," said Judy, "and I've seen the picture of him
+being married to Lady Poverty, but our dispositions are different, St.
+Francis's and mine. I like the roving over the hills part, because I'm a
+wanderer by nature, but I like to wander in nice clothes. My manners are
+getting to be regular old gray sweater manners, and if I didn't put on
+my velvet suit and best hat once a week there's no telling what kind of
+a rude creature I would become."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Julia Kean, I'm ashamed of you," cried Nance, "you've as good as
+confessed that you go to Vespers to show your fine clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't go to show 'em, goosie; I go to wear 'em. But you have no sense
+of humor. What's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> the good of telling you anything? Molly, there,
+understands my feelings, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>Molly was not listening. She was making calculations at her desk with a
+blunt pencil on a scrap of paper.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got as good a sense as you have," cried Nance hotly, "only I don't
+approve of being humorous about sacred things."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," broke in Judy, "don't you know, child, that you can't limit
+humor? It spreads over every subject and it's not necessarily profane
+because it touches on clothes at church. I suppose you think there is
+nothing funny about the Reverend Gustavus Adolphus Larsen, and you have
+forgotten how you giggled that Sunday when he announced from the pulpit
+that his text was taken from St. Paul's 'Efistle to the Epeesians.'"</p>
+
+<p>"He's always getting mixed," here put in Molly, who at certain stages in
+the warm discussions between Nance and Judy always sounded a pacifying
+note. "They do say that he was talking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> to Miss Walker about one of the
+faculty pews, and he said: 'Do you occupew this pi?'"</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for Nance's severity, and she broke down and laughed
+gaily with the others.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a funny little man," she admitted, "but he's well meaning."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry up," admonished Judy; "it's twenty minutes of four and I want to
+get a good seat this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"You want to show off your new fashionable headgear, you mean, Miss
+Vanity," said Nance, pinning on her neat brown velvet toque and
+squinting at herself in the mirror.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, me," thought Molly, "I wish I had a decent garment to show off."</p>
+
+<p>She had intended to buy some clothes that autumn from a purchasing agent
+who came several times a year to Wellington with catalogues and samples,
+but she had been afraid to spend any of the money she had earned because
+of the precarious state of the family finances.</p>
+
+<p>She ran her hatpin through her old soft gray<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> felt, which had a bright
+blue wing at one side, and slipped on the coat of her last winter's gray
+suit. Then she drew white yarn gloves over her kid ones, because she had
+no muff and her hands were always frozen, and stoically marched across
+the campus with her friends.</p>
+
+<p>The Chapel was already crowded when the girls arrived. They had not
+heard that the Rev. Gustavus's pulpit was to be filled that afternoon by
+a preacher from New York. At any rate, they had to sit in the little
+balcony, which commanded a better view of the minister than it did of
+the congregation. He was a nice-looking young man, with an unaffected
+manner, and he preached to the packed congregation as if he were talking
+quietly and simply to one person; at least, it seemed so to Molly. The
+sermon was a short address on "Faith." It contained no impassioned
+eloquence nor fiery exhortations, but it impressed the students
+profoundly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try to instruct God about the management of your lives," he said,
+"any more than you would direct a wise and kind master who employed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> you
+to work on his estate. All the Great Master asks of you is to work well
+and honestly. The reward is sure to come. You cannot hurry it and you
+cannot make it greater than you deserve. It is useless to struggle and
+rage inwardly. Is not that being rather like a spoiled child, who lies
+on the floor and kicks and screams because his mother won't give him any
+more cake? Just put your affairs in the hands of God and go quietly
+along, doing the best you can. All of a sudden the conditions you once
+struggled against will cease to exist, and before you have realized it,
+the thing you asked for is yours."</p>
+
+<p>Lots of people, the minister said, prayed a great deal without believing
+that their prayers would be heard. It reminded him of a little anecdote.</p>
+
+<p>"One Sunday morning during a terrible drought a country preacher knelt
+in the midst of his family at home and prayed earnestly for rain. When
+it was time to start for church, the minister noticed that his little
+daughter was carrying an umbrella.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+"'Why do you take an umbrella, my child?' he asked, glancing at the
+cloudless sky.</p>
+
+<p>"'Didn't you just pray for rain, father?' she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"All the learning of the ages is not greater than the simple faith of a
+little child," finished the young preacher.</p>
+
+<p>And now the sermon was over and the girls were chatting in groups
+outside the Chapel, or strolling along the sidewalk arm in arm. Molly
+had withdrawn from her companions for a moment and was standing alone in
+a corner of the vestibule.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I've been acting just like the little child who threw
+himself on the floor and kicked and screamed for more cake," she was
+thinking. "I suppose another year at college is just like a nice big
+hunk of chocolate cake and it wouldn't be good for mental digestion. I
+might as well stop struggling and begin to cram mathematics. That's the
+hardest thing I have, and I ought to get in as much of it as I can
+before I go."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+"Perhaps you won't have to go at all," spoke another voice in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>But Molly couldn't see it that way. Other letters from her mother had
+made it clear to her that no more money could be raised. There was a
+good place waiting for her to step into, however, in a small private
+school made up of children who lived in the neighborhood. She could come
+home after the mid-year examinations when the present teacher in the
+school was planning to be married.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Brown," someone said. Molly looked up quickly. It was
+President Walker. "Will you walk along with me? I had a letter from your
+mother last night and I want to speak to you about it."</p>
+
+<p>The President was a very democratic and motherly woman who not only
+guided the affairs of the college with a wise hand, but kept in personal
+touch with her girls, and it was not unusual to see her walking home
+from Vespers with several students. This time, however, she took Molly's
+arm and led her down the village<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> street without asking any of the
+others to join her.</p>
+
+<p>The young girl was very sensible of the honor paid her, thus singled out
+by the President to walk back to college. She felt a shy pleasure in the
+sensation they created as the crowd of students parted to let them pass.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very, very sorry to receive this news from your mother, Miss
+Brown," began the President. "I suppose you know what it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean about leaving college, Miss Walker?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It's really a great distress to me to think that one of my Queen's
+girls especially must give up in the middle of her course. Instead of
+listening to that young man at Vespers, I was thinking and thinking
+about this unwelcome news."</p>
+
+<p>Molly smiled. She had managed to listen to the preaching and to think
+about her affairs at the same time, because they somehow seemed to fit
+together. Once she almost felt that perhaps he knew all about her case
+and was preaching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> to her. But, of course, everybody had problems and
+lots of the girls thought the same thing, no doubt,&mdash;Madeleine Petit,
+for instance.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there no possible way it could be arranged?" went on the President.
+"Is this decision of your mother's final?"</p>
+
+<p>Evidently Mrs. Brown had not explained why Molly was obliged to come
+home.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she didn't decide it," answered the young girl, quickly. "It's
+because&mdash;because the money's gone&mdash;lost."</p>
+
+<p>"I suspected it was something of that sort," went on the President.
+"Now, there is a way, Miss Brown, by which you could remain if you would
+be willing to leave Queen's Cottage. I am in charge of a Student Fund
+for just such cases as yours. This provides for tuition and board,&mdash;not
+on the campus, but in the village. You're making something now tutoring
+the little Japanese girl, I understand. That's good. That will help
+along. You will have to manufacture some excuse to your friends about
+leaving Queen's.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> Otherwise, the fund arrangement may remain a secret
+between you and me."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Walker pressed the girl's hand and smiled kindly as she searched
+her face for some sign of gladness and relief at this offer.</p>
+
+<p>Molly tried to smile back.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll leave everything as it is until the end of this semester,"
+continued the President.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you very, very much," Molly said, making a great effort to keep
+her voice from sounding shaky.</p>
+
+<p>Leave Queen's! Was it possible the President didn't know that life at
+Queen's was the best part of college to her? Would there be any pleasure
+left if she had to tear herself away from her beloved chums and take up
+quarters in the village, living on a charity fund?</p>
+
+<p>When she separated from Miss Walker at the McLeans' front door, she was
+so filled with inward lamentations and weeping that she could scarcely
+say good-night to the President, who looked somewhat puzzled at the
+girl's still pale face.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+Rushing back to Queen's, Molly flung herself through the front door and
+tore upstairs. On the landing she bumped into Judith Blount, who gave
+her a sullen, angry look.</p>
+
+<p>"Please be careful next time and don't take up the whole stairs,"
+exclaimed that young woman rudely.</p>
+
+<p>Molly glanced at her wildly. What right had she to talk, this wretch of
+a girl who could remain at Queen's and live on other people's money? Oh,
+oh, oh! Misery of miseries! She rushed up the second flight. She was
+having what Judy called "the dry weeps." At the door of Otoyo's room she
+paused. It was half open and the little Japanese was sitting
+cross-legged on the floor with a lamp beside her, studying.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come in?"</p>
+
+<p>"With much gladness," answered Otoyo, rising and bowing ceremoniously.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to stay in here a little while, Otoyo, away from other people.
+May I sit here by the window in this big chair? Go on with your lessons.
+I don't want to talk. I wanted to be with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> someone who was quite quiet.
+I should have been obliged to hide in a closet if you hadn't let me in."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very happily glad you came to me," said Otoyo.</p>
+
+<p>She helped Molly off with her coat and hat, pulled out the Morris chair
+so that it faced the window and sat down again quietly with her book.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of three-quarters of an hour, Otoyo began to move noiselessly
+about the room. Molly was still sitting in the big arm-chair, her hands
+clasped in her lap. Presently she became aware that Otoyo was standing
+silently before her bearing a lacquer tray on which was a cup of tea and
+a rice cake.</p>
+
+<p>"Otoyo, you sweet, little dear," she said, placing the tray on the arm
+of the chair. She gulped down the tea and ate the cake, and while the
+small hostess made another cupful, Molly continued: "Otoyo, I'm going to
+let God manage my affairs hereafter. I'm not going to lie on the floor
+any more and kick and scream like a spoiled child for another piece of
+chocolate cake.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> I shall always carry an umbrella now when I pray for
+rain, and I mean to begin to-night to polish up in math."</p>
+
+<p>"I am happily glad," said Otoyo, giving her a gentle, sympathetic
+smile.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+<a name="x" id="x"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+<br />
+<small>ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>There was no happier girl in Wellington one morning than Nance Oldham,
+and all because she had been invited to the Thanksgiving dance at Exmoor
+College. Nance had never been to a real dance in her life, except a
+"shirtwaist" party at the seashore, where she had been a hopeless
+wallflower because she had known only one man in the room&mdash;her father.
+Now, there was no chance of being a wallflower at Exmoor, where a girl's
+card was made out beforehand, and she had that warm glow of predestined
+success from the very beginning of the festivity.</p>
+
+<p>Molly and Judy were also invited and the girls were to go over to Exmoor
+on the 6.45 trolley with Dr. and Mrs. McLean and return on the 10.45
+trolley, permission having been granted them to stay up until midnight.
+Three other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> Wellington girls were bound for the dance on the same car.
+A young teacher chaperoned this little company, of which Judith Blount
+was one.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder that Judith Blount can make up her mind to go to a dance,"
+Judy Kean remarked to Molly. "She's been in such a sullen rage for so
+long, she's turned quite yellow. I don't think she will enjoy it."</p>
+
+<p>"It will do her good," answered Molly. "Dancing always makes people
+forget their troubles. Just trying to be graceful puts one in a good
+humor."</p>
+
+<p>"The scientific reason is, child, that it stirs up one's circulation."</p>
+
+<p>"And brooding is bad for the circulation," added Molly.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a very gloomy holiday, the skies black and lowering and a
+dead, warm wind from the south. But there had been no sign of rain, and
+now, as they alighted from the car at Exmoor station, they noticed that
+the wind had shifted slightly to the east and freshened. The great
+blanket of frowning black had broken, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> a myriad of small clouds were
+flying across the face of the moon like a flock of frightened sheep.
+Molly shivered. She had often called herself a human barometer and her
+spirits were apt to shift with the wind.</p>
+
+<p>"The wind has changed," she observed to the doctor. "I feel it in my
+bones."</p>
+
+<p>"Correct," said the doctor, scanning the heavens critically. "There's no
+flavoring extract so strong as a drop of East wind. Let us hope it will
+hold back a bit until after the shindig."</p>
+
+<p>With all its penetrating qualities, however, the drop of East wind did
+not affect the air in the beautiful old dining hall of Exmoor, used
+always for the larger entertainments. Its polished hardwood floor and
+paneled walls, its two great open fireplaces, in which immense back logs
+glowed cheerfully, made a picture that drove away all memory of bad
+weather.</p>
+
+<p>Then the music struck up. The dancers whirled and circled. Nance was in
+a seventh heaven. Her cheeks glowed, her eyes shone, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> she seemed to
+float over the floor guided by the steady hand of young Andy; while his
+father looked on and smiled laconically.</p>
+
+<p>"Every laddie maun hae his lassie," he observed to his wife, "and it's
+gude luck for him when he draws a plain one with a bonnie brown eye."</p>
+
+<p>"She's not plain," objected Mrs. McLean.</p>
+
+<p>"She has no furbelows in face nor dress that I can see," answered the
+doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"They're just a boy and a girl, Andrew. Don't be anticipating. There's
+no telling how often they may change off before the settling time
+comes."</p>
+
+<p>"And was it your ainsel' that changed so often?" asked the doctor, with
+a twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, nay, laddie," she protested, leaning on the doctor's arm
+affectionately, "but those were steadier days, I'm thinking."</p>
+
+<p>"There's not so muckle change," said the doctor, "when it comes to
+sweethearting."</p>
+
+<p>Many old-fashioned dances were introduced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> that night: the cottage
+lancers, and Sir Roger de Coverly, led off by the doctor and his wife,
+whose old-world curtseys were very amusing to the young dancers.</p>
+
+<p>And while the fun waxed fast and furious indoors, outside queer things
+were happening. The South wind, gently and insistently battling with the
+East wind, had conquered him for the moment. All the little clouds that
+had been scuttling across the heavens before the East wind's icy breath,
+now melted together into a tumbled, fleecy mass. Snowflakes were
+falling, softly and silently, clothing the campus and fields, the
+valleys and hills beyond in a blanket of white. Then the angry East wind
+returned from his lair with a new weapon: a drenching sheet of cold,
+penetrating rain, which changed to drops of ice as it fell and tapped on
+the high windows of the dining hall a warning rat-tat-tat quite drowned
+in the strains of music. The South wind, conquered and crushed, crept
+away and the East wind, summoning his brother from the North to share
+the fun, played a trick on the world which people in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> that part of the
+country will not soon forget. Together they covered the soft, white
+blanket with a sheet of ice as hard and slippery as plate glass. At
+last, having enjoyed themselves immensely, they retired. Out came the
+moon again, shining in the frozen stillness, like a great round lantern.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the dance went on and joy was unconfined. Nobody had
+the faintest inkling of the drama which had been acted between the East
+and the South winds.</p>
+
+<p>Most unconscious of all was Molly, who, having danced herself into a
+state of exuberant spirits, sat down to rest with Lawrence Upton in an
+ingle-nook of one of the big fireplaces. As chance would have it, they
+were joined by Judith Blount and a very dull young man, who, Lawrence
+informed Molly, had more money than brains. Judith had not noticed Molly
+at first. Probably she would never have chosen that particular spot if
+she had. But the destinies of these two girls had been ordained to touch
+at intervals in their lives and whenever the meeting occurred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> something
+unfortunate always happened. They were exactly like two fluids which
+would not mix comfortably together. There was a general movement of
+partners for supper at this juncture and the two girls found themselves
+alone for the moment while their escorts departed for coffee and
+sandwiches.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you having a good time?" Molly asked, glancing at Judith timidly.</p>
+
+<p>She would have preferred to have said nothing whatever, but she had made
+a compact with herself to try and overcome her dislike for this girl
+whom she had distrusted from the moment of their first meeting at the
+railroad station when Mr. Murphy had given Molly's baggage check
+preference.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I appear to be a wallflower?" demanded Judith insolently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Molly. "I didn't mean that of course."</p>
+
+<p>Then she sighed and turned toward the fire with a trembly, unnerved
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe I'll ever get used to having<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> people cross to me," she
+thought. "It always frightens me. I suppose I'm too sensitive." She
+began to shiver slightly. "The wind is surely in the East now," she
+added to herself.</p>
+
+<p>When the young men came back bearing each a tray with supper for two,
+she was grateful for the cup of steaming coffee.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you hold this for a minute, Miss Molly," asked Lawrence Upton,
+"while I get a chair to rest it on? Lap tables are about as unsteady as
+tables on shipboard."</p>
+
+<p>Judith's partner had followed Lawrence's example, and presently the two
+students were seen hurrying through the throng, each pushing a chair in
+front of him. By some strange fatality, history was to repeat itself.
+Just as he reached the girls, the young person who had more money than
+brains slipped on a fragment of buttered bread which had fallen off
+somebody's plate, skidded along, bumped his chair into Lawrence, who
+lost his balance and fell against poor Molly's tray. Then, oh, dreadful
+calamity! over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> went the cup of coffee straight onto Judith's yellow
+satin frock.</p>
+
+<p>Molly could have sunk into the floor with the misery of that moment, and
+yet she had not in the least been the cause of the accident. It was the
+small-brained rich individual who was to blame. But Judith was not in
+any condition to reckon with original causes. Molly had been carrying
+the tray with the coffee cups and that was enough for her. She leapt to
+her feet, shaking her drenched dress and scattering drops of coffee in
+every direction.</p>
+
+<p>"You awkward, clumsy creature!" she cried, stamping her foot as she
+faced Molly. "Why do you ever touch a coffee cup? Are you always going
+to upset coffee on me and my family? You have ruined my dress. You did
+it on purpose. I saw you were very angry a moment ago and you did it for
+revenge."</p>
+
+<p>Molly shrank back in her seat, her face turning from crimson to white
+and back to crimson again.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+"Don't answer her," said a small voice in her mind. "Be silent! Be
+silent!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Miss Blount," began her supper partner, feeling vaguely that
+justice must be done, "I stumbled, don't you know? Awfully awkward of
+me, of course, but I slipped on an infernal piece of banana peel or
+something and fell against Upton. Hope your gown isn't ruined."</p>
+
+<p>"It is ruined," cried Judith, her face transformed with rage. "It's
+utterly ruined and she did it. It isn't the first time she's flung
+coffee cups around. Last winter she ruined my cousin's new suit of
+clothes. She's the most careless, awkward, clumsy creature I ever saw.
+I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A curious little group had gathered over near the fireplace, but Judith
+was too angry to care who heard what she was saying. In the meantime,
+Lawrence Upton had taken his stand between Judith and Molly, feeling
+somehow that he might protect poor Molly from the onslaught. Presently
+he took her hand and drew it through his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose we join the McLeans," he said. "I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> see they are having supper
+all together over there." As they turned to leave, he said to Judith in
+a cold, even voice that seemed to bring her back to her senses:</p>
+
+<p>"I upset the coffee. Blanchard fell against me and joggled my arm. If
+there is any reparation I can make, I shall be glad to do it."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon, Judith departed to the dressing room and was not seen again
+until it was time to leave.</p>
+
+<p>"What a tiger-cat she is!" whispered Lawrence to Molly, as he led her
+across the room.</p>
+
+<p>Molly did not answer. She was afraid to trust her voice just then, and
+still more afraid of what she might say if she dared speak.</p>
+
+<p>"What was all that rumpus over there?" demanded Judy when the young
+people had joined their friends.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, just a little volcanic activity on the part of Mount &AElig;tna and a
+good deal of slinging of hot lava. Miss Molly and I are refugees from
+the eruption, and Mount &AElig;tna has gone upstairs."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+"You mean Miss &AElig;tna Blount?" asked Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"The same," said Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>When it was time for the Wellington party to catch the trolley car home,
+they emerged from the warm, cheerful dining hall into a world of
+dazzling whiteness. The trees were clothed in it, and the ground was
+covered with a crust of ice as hard and shining as marble.</p>
+
+<p>A path of ashes was sprinkled before them, so that they walked safely as
+far as the station.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven help us at the other end," Mrs. McLean exclaimed, clinging to
+the doctor's arm.</p>
+
+<p>The car was late in arriving at Exmoor station. At last it hove into
+sight, moving at a hesitating gait along the slippery rails. But it had
+a comfortably warm interior and they were glad to climb in out of the
+bitter cold.</p>
+
+<p>"All aboard!" called the conductor. "Last car to-night."</p>
+
+<p>There is always a gloomy fatality in the announcement, "Last car
+to-night." It is just as if a doctor might say: "Nothing more can be
+done."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+Clang, clang, went the bell, and they moved slowly forward.</p>
+
+<p>After an age of slipping and sliding, frequent stopping and starting and
+exchanges of loud confidences between the motorman and the conductor,
+the car came to a dead stop.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. McLean, who had been sound asleep and snoring loudly, waked up.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless my soul, are we there?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, and far from it," answered the conductor, who had opened the
+door and come inside, beating his hands together for warmth.</p>
+
+<p>"Far from it? What do you mean by that, my good man?" asked the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"There ain't no more power, sir," answered the man. "The trolley's just
+a solid cable of ice and budge she won't. You couldn't move her with a
+derrick."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are we to do?" asked the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't say, sir, unless you walked. It's only a matter of about two
+miles. Otherwise, you'd have to spend the night here and it'll be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> a
+cold place. There ain't no more heat, is there, Jim?"</p>
+
+<p>"There ain't," was Jim's brief reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess Jim and I'll foot it into Wellington and the best you can do is
+to come along."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor and his wife conferred with the young teacher who had
+chaperoned the other party. The question was, would it not be a greater
+risk to walk two miles in thin-soled shoes and party dresses over that
+wilderness of ice than to remain snugly in the car until they could get
+help? The motorman and conductor were well protected from the cold and
+from slipping, too, with heavy overcoats and arctic shoes. While they
+were talking, these two individuals took their departure, letting in a
+cold blast of air as they slid the door back to get out.</p>
+
+<p>The Wellington crowd sat huddled together, hoping to keep warm by human
+contact. They tried to beguile the weary hours with conversation, but
+time dragged heavily and the car grew colder and colder. Some of the
+girls began to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> move up and down, practicing physical culture exercises
+and beating their hands together.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would be better to walk," announced Mrs. McLean at last. "We
+are in much greater danger of freezing to death sitting here than
+moving. We'll stick to the track. It won't be so slippery between the
+rails."</p>
+
+<p>Even the doctor was relieved at this suggestion, fearful as he was of
+slipping on the ice. The gude wife was right, as she always was, and the
+lassies had better take the risk and come along quickly. Before they
+realized it, they were on the track with faces turned hopefully toward
+Wellington. Scarcely had they taken six steps, before three of the girls
+tumbled flat, and while they were picking themselves up, Dr. and Mrs.
+McLean sat down plump on the ice, hand in hand, like two astonished
+children. It was quite impossible to keep from laughing at this
+ludicrous situation, especially when the doctor's great "haw-haw" made
+the air tremble. The ones who were standing helped the ones who had
+fallen to rise and fell themselves in the effort.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+"If we only had on skates," cried Judy, "wouldn't it be glorious? We
+could skate anywhere, right across the fields or along the road. It's
+just like a sea of solid ice."</p>
+
+<p>For an hour they took their precarious way along the track, which was
+now on the edge of a high embankment.</p>
+
+<p>"A grand place for coasting," remarked Judy, peeping over the edge.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly her heels went over her head and her horrified friends beheld
+her sliding backwards down the hill.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you hurt at all, my lass?" called the doctor, peeping fearfully
+over the side, and holding onto his wife as a drowning man catches at a
+life preserver.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurt? No," cried Judy, convulsed with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you can crawl back?" asked Mrs. McLean doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>Then Judy began the most difficult ascent of her life, on hands and
+knees. There was nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> to take hold of and, when she had got half-way
+up, back she slipped to the bottom again.</p>
+
+<p>A second time she had almost reached the top when she lost her footing
+and once more slipped to the base of the embankment.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better go on without me," she cried, half sobbing and half
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor was very uncomfortable. Not for worlds would he have put foot
+outside the trolley rails, but something had to be done.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's make a human ladder," suggested Molly, "as they do in melodramas.
+I'll go first. Nance, you take my foot and someone hold on to yours and
+so on. Then, Judy can climb up, catching hold of us."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor considered this a good scheme and the human chain was
+accordingly formed, the doctor himself grasping the ankle of the last
+volunteer, who happened to be Judith Blount. But hardly had Judy
+commenced the upward climb, when the doctor's heels went over his head
+and the entire human ladder found itself huddled together at the foot of
+the embankment.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+"It's a case of every mon for himself and the divvel tak' the hindmost,"
+exclaimed the doctor, sitting up stiffly and rubbing his shins. "Help
+yoursel's, lassies. I can do nae mair."</p>
+
+<p>Some of them reached the track at last and some of them didn't, and
+those who couldn't make it were Molly and Judith Blount.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to follow along as best you can down there," called Mrs.
+McLean, grasping her husband's arm. "We'll keep an eye on you from
+above."</p>
+
+<p>Once more the belated revellers started on their way, while Molly and
+Judith Blount pursued a difficult path between a frozen creek and the
+trolley embankment.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+<a name="xi" id="xi"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE GREAT SLEET OF 19&mdash;.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Many a fall and many a bruise they got that night as they crept along
+the frozen path. At last they reached a point where the creek had been
+turned abruptly from its bed and passed through a culvert under the
+embankment. Here the path also changed its course and headed for the
+golf links of the college.</p>
+
+<p>"They can never get down the embankment and we can never get up,"
+remarked Judith, who appeared to have forgotten that she had lately been
+a human volcano. "Why can't we take the short cut back? It couldn't be
+any worse than this."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" answered Molly politely, although it must be confessed she
+was still tingling under the lash of Judith's flaying tongue, and not
+one word had she spoken since they left the others.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+"Mrs. McLean," called Judith, making a trumpet of her hands, "we're
+going to cut across the golf links. It will be easier."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm afraid for you to go alone at this time of night," answered
+Mrs. McLean.</p>
+
+<p>"What could harm them a night like this?" expostulated her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then. I suppose it's all right," said the distracted and
+wearied lady.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be uneasy, Mrs. McLean. You'll tak' the high road and we'll tak'
+the low, but we'll gang to Wellington afore ye," called Molly laughing.</p>
+
+<p>After all, wasn't it absurd enough to make a body laugh&mdash;one man, eight
+helpless women slipping and sliding after him, and she herself making
+off in the darkness with the only enemy she had ever known! She wished
+it had been Judy or Nance. She was sure they would have giggled all the
+way. But who ever wanted to laugh in the presence of this black-browed,
+fierce-tempered Judith?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+They walked silently on for some time, until they came to a little hill.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess we'll have to crawl it," sighed Molly.</p>
+
+<p>Long before this, they had pinned their long skirts up around their
+waists, and now, on hands and knees, they began the difficult ascent.
+Just as they reached the top, Molly's slipper bag somehow got away from
+her and went sliding to the bottom. Suddenly both girls began to laugh.
+They laughed until the echoes rang, and Molly, losing her grasp on a
+bush, went sliding after the bag.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," laughed Judith, "oh, Molly, I shall&mdash;&mdash;" and then the twigs she
+had been clutching pulled out of the ice and down she went on top of
+Molly.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls sat up and looked at each other. They felt warmer and
+happier from the laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Judith," exclaimed Molly, suddenly, "I could never laugh with any one
+like that and not be friends. It's almost like accepting hospitality.
+Shall we be friends again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," replied Judith eagerly. "I am sorry I was rude to-night about
+the coffee, Molly. You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> know it's my terrible temper. Once it gets a
+start, I can't seem to hold it in, and I've had a great deal to try me
+lately. I apologize to you now. Will you accept my apology?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," Molly assured her. "Come along, let's try again. Once we
+get to the top of this little 'dis-incline,' as an old colored man at
+home would call it, we'll be on the links."</p>
+
+<p>The girls both reached the summit at the same moment, and as they
+scanned the white expanse before them, they exclaimed in frightened
+whispers:</p>
+
+<p>"There comes a man."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly they slid back to the bottom again and lay in a heap, gasping
+and giggling.</p>
+
+<p>"Where shall we go? What shall we do?" exclaimed Judith.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," answered Molly. "We can hardly crawl, much less run, but I
+suppose he can't either, so perhaps we are as safe here as anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"But what man except a burglar could be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> prowling around Wellington at
+this hour?" whispered Judith.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't think of anyone, but I should think no sensible burglar would
+come out a night like this. Besides, do burglars ever come to
+Wellington?"</p>
+
+<p>"Once there was one, only he wasn't a real burglar. He was a lunatic who
+had escaped from an asylum near Exmoor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, heavens, Judith, a lunatic? I'd rather meet ten burglars. After
+all, only a lunatic would come out on such a night. Can't we run?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly had a fear of crazy people that she had never been able to
+conquer.</p>
+
+<p>They rose unsteadily on their frozen feet and began hurrying back in the
+direction of the trolley embankment. As they ran, they heard a long,
+sliding, scraping sound. Evidently the man had slid down the little
+hill. They could hear the sound of his footsteps on the ice. He was
+running after them. At last he called:</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, wait, whoever you are. I'm not going to hurt you."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+In another moment he had caught up with them. Oh, joy of joys, it was
+Professor Green, wearing a thick gray sweater and a cap with ear muffs.
+With a cry of relief, Judith flung herself on her cousin's neck while
+Molly rather timidly clasped his arm. She felt she could have hugged
+him, too, if he had only been a relation.</p>
+
+<p>"We thought you were an escaped lunatic," she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am," he answered, "at least I've been nearly crazy trying to get news
+of you." He took her hand and drew it firmly through his arm, while
+Judith appropriated his other arm. "They telephoned over from Exmoor to
+know if you had reached Wellington safely. We found at the village that
+the car had not arrived. Then about twenty minutes ago they called us
+from the car station to say that the conductor and motorman had walked
+but that you had decided to remain in the car all night. I thought I had
+better go over and persuade you not to freeze to death by degrees. I am
+glad you decided to walk. Where are the others?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+"They have gone on by the track," answered Molly. "We slipped down the
+embankment and couldn't crawl up again. Perhaps you could catch them, if
+you branched off here and took the other road."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," answered the Professor, tucking her arm more tightly
+through his. "Dr. McLean can look after the others, now that his burdens
+are lightened by two. I'd better see you across this skating rink. Mrs.
+Murphy is up waiting for you. I stopped and told her to get hot soup and
+water bottles and things ready."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a dear, Cousin Edwin," exclaimed Judith. "You are always
+thinking of other people."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect the old doctor will be a good deal knocked up by this little
+jaunt," went on the Professor, not taking the slightest notice of
+Judith's expressions of gratitude, the first Molly had ever heard her
+make about anything.</p>
+
+<p>It was half-past two o'clock when they reached Queen's Cottage, just ten
+minutes before the others arrived.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+"It's a good thing you found us," Molly said to the Professor as he
+helped them up the steps. "I believe we'd have been crawling over those
+links another hour or so if you hadn't."</p>
+
+<p>"I can never explain what made me cut across the links," he answered. "I
+had my face turned toward the other road when something urged me to go
+that way."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. McLean always insisted that it was continuous giggling that kept
+them all from freezing that bitter night. Judith Blount was the only one
+in the party who suffered from the experience. She spent a week in the
+Infirmary with a deep cold and sore throat.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," explained Judy Kean sagely to her two friends, "her system
+was weakened by that awful fit of temper; she lost all mental and bodily
+poise and took the first disease that came her way."</p>
+
+<p>"She certainly lost all bodily poise," laughed Molly. "I didn't have any
+more than she did. We slipped around like two helpless infants."</p>
+
+<p>"But you didn't take cold," said Judy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+"I've made up my mind not to have any colds this winter," announced
+Molly seriously. "After all, there's a good deal in just declining to
+entertain them. I think the grip is a sort of bully who attacks people
+who are afraid of him and keeps away from the ones who are not cowards."</p>
+
+<p>The three girls spent half a day in bed sleeping off their weariness,
+and on Friday afternoon they were able to call on Mrs. McLean, who,
+being a hardy Scotchwoman, was none the worse from the walk. The doctor,
+she said, had been up since seven o'clock attending to his patients.</p>
+
+<p>"The truth is," she added, "he would not have missed the sight for
+anything&mdash;the whole world turned into a skating rink and the campus the
+centre of it."</p>
+
+<p>Everybody in Wellington who could wear skates was out that afternoon.
+The campus and golf links, as well as the lake, were covered with
+circling, gliding figures. The best skaters coasted down hill on their
+skates, as men do on snow shoes. They went with incredible speed and
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> impetus carried them up the next hill without any effort.</p>
+
+<p>Molly had seen very little skating at home. She had learned as a child,
+but as she grew up the sport had not appealed to her, because somebody
+was always falling in and the ice never lasted longer than a day or so.
+Now, however, the picture of the circling, swaying crowd of skaters
+thrilled her with a new desire to see if she had forgotten how to
+balance herself on steel runners.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it beautiful?" she cried. "I never saw anything so graceful. They
+are like birds. First they soar. Then they flap their wings and soar
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"Flap their feet, you mean," interrupted Judy, "and woe to her who flops
+instead of flaps."</p>
+
+<p>Mary Stewart came sailing up to them, gave a beautiful curving turn and
+then stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't this glorious sport?" she cried, her cheeks glowing with
+exercise. "Has your President told you about the skating carnival? It's
+just been decided, and I suppose you haven't seen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> her yet. It's to take
+place to-morrow night. Won't it be beautiful?"</p>
+
+<p>"What fun!" cried Molly. "What a wonderful sight!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Molly, you are to wrap up very warm," continued Mary, "no matter
+what kind of a costume you decide to wear. No cheesecloth Liberty
+masquerades will go, remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I can't be in the carnival. I haven't any skates," said Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have another pair," answered Mary quickly. "I'll bring them over to
+you later."</p>
+
+<p>Molly never guessed that this loving friend skated straight down to the
+village that very instant and bought a pair of skates screwed onto stout
+shoes at the general store. Tossing away the wrapping paper and smearing
+the shoes with snow and ashes to take off the new look, she delivered
+them at Queen's before supper.</p>
+
+<p>"It's lucky I knew what number Molly wore," she said to herself, as she
+sailed up the campus on her Canadian skates, with strokes as sweepingly
+broad and generous as her own fine nature.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+<a name="xii" id="xii"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>The Skating Carnival.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>All fears of a thaw on the heels of this unprecedented cold wave were
+put to flight next morning. The thermometer hovered at four degrees
+above zero and the air was dry and sparkling. Only those who remained
+indoors and lingered over the registers felt the cold.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great deal to be done before evening. Costumes had to be
+devised, bonfires built along the lake and at intervals on the links,
+lanterns hung everywhere possible and, lastly, a quick rehearsal. The
+best skaters were chosen to give exhibitions of fancy skating; there
+were to be several races and a grand march.</p>
+
+<p>Molly learned the night before that a sense of balance having once been
+acquired is never lost. After supper she had ventured out on the campus
+with Judy and Nance, who were both excellent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> skaters. With a grace that
+was peculiarly her own in spite of the first unsteadiness, Molly had
+been able to skate to the Quadrangle. There, removing her skating shoes,
+and putting on slippers, she had skipped upstairs to thank Mary Stewart
+for her kindness. The return to Queen's over the campus had been even
+easier, and next morning she felt that she could enter the carnival.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody had a chance to talk about costumes until after lunch on
+Saturday, when there was a meeting of the three friends to decide.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how I can go. I haven't a thing picturesque," exclaimed
+Nance dejectedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Nance, you have no imagination," said Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"One day you tell me I have no sense of humor, and another that I have
+no imagination. You'll be telling me I have no brains next."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, eat this and stop quarreling," interrupted Molly, thrusting a
+plate of fudge before them. "When in doubt, eat fudge and wisdom will
+come."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+Judy ate her fudge in silence. Then suddenly she cried exultantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Eureka! Wisdom hath come, yea even to the humble in spirit. Heaven hath
+enlightened me. I know what we'll wear, girls."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" they demanded, having racked their brains in vain to think of
+something both warm and picturesque.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll go," continued Judy impressively, "as three Russian princesses."</p>
+
+<p>"What in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Leave that to me. You just do as I tell you. Nance, skate down to the
+village and buy a big roll of cotton batting. Make them wrap it up well,
+so as not to offer suggestions to others."</p>
+
+<p>"What must I do?" asked Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"You must turn up the hems of skirts. Take your old last winter's brown
+one, and Nance's old green one, and&mdash;and my velvet one&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your best skirt!" exclaimed Nance aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, why not? We only live once," replied the reckless Judy. "Turn up
+the hems all around<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> and baste them. They should reach just to the
+shoetops."</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon they hurriedly sewed bands of cotton batting around the
+bottoms of their skirts, bordered their jackets with it, made cuffs and
+muffs and high turbans. Then Judy dotted the cotton with shoe blacking
+and it became a realistic imitation of royal ermine. Each girl wore a
+band of brilliant ribbon across the front of her coat with a gilt
+pasteboard star pinned to it.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose this might be taken for the Order of the Star and Garter,"
+observed Judy. "At any rate, we are royal princesses of the illustrious
+house of Russia, the Princesses Molitzka, Nanitska and Judiekeanovitch.
+Those are Russian enough, aren't they?"</p>
+
+<p>Never will Molly forget the fun of that glorious evening, nor the
+beautiful picture of the meadows and fields dazzling white in the
+moonlight. While the "workers" of the four classes lit the fires and
+lanterns, the "drones" circled about on the ice singing college songs.
+From over at Exmoor came a crowd of youths who had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> skated the ten miles
+up-hill and down-dale to see the carnival. Sleighing parties from nearby
+estates drove over with rough-shod teams to draw the sleighs, and all
+Wellington turned out to see the sights.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't believe there could be so much originality in the world,"
+thought Molly, admiring the costumes of the students.</p>
+
+<p>There were many Teddy Bears and Bunny Rabbits. One girl wore a black
+velvet suit with a leopard's skin over her shoulder. On her head was a
+mythological looking crown with a pair of cow's horns standing upright
+at each side. There were numerous Russian Gypsies and two Dr. Cooks
+wearing long black mustaches, each carrying a little pole with an
+American flag nailed at the top.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie Lynch, not being a skater, sat in a chair on runners, while her
+good-natured chum, Margaret Wakefield, pushed her about the lake.
+Margaret wore a Chinese costume and her long queue was made of black
+skirt braid.</p>
+
+<p>After the parade and the exhibitions of skating,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> there was general
+skating and the lake became a scene of changing color and variety.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like a gorgeous Christmas card," thought Molly, practicing strokes
+by herself in one corner while she watched the circle of skaters skim by
+her. "And how very light it is. I can plainly recognize Nance going over
+the hill with Andy McLean."</p>
+
+<p>"Here she is," called Lawrence Upton, breaking from the circle and
+skating towards her as easily, apparently, as a bird flies. His body
+leaned slightly. His hands were clasped behind his back, and Mercury
+with his winged shoes could not have moved more gracefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Miss Molly, and have a turn," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"What, me, the poorest skater on the pond?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! You couldn't dance so well if you were a poor skater. Just
+cross hands like this and sail along. I won't let you fall."</p>
+
+<p>Off they did sail and never was a more delightful sensation than
+Molly's, flying over the smooth ice with this good-looking young
+Mercury.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> Around and round they skimmed, until one of the Exmoor boys
+blew a horn, the signal that it was time to start the ten miles back to
+college. Very rough skating it was in places, so Lawrence informed
+Molly; rather dangerous going down some of the steep hills, but glorious
+fun.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you do like Baron Munchausen on the mountain? Sit on a silk
+handkerchief and slide down," suggested Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"We have done some sliding of that kind," he answered, laughing, "but it
+was accidental and there was no time to get out a pocket handkerchief."</p>
+
+<p>At last the great carnival was over, and Molly, falling in with a crowd
+of campus girls, started for home, singing with the others:</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, ladies, we're gwine to leave you now."</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly ten when she tramped upstairs, still on her skates. Judy
+called out to her from her room, but Nance had not returned. Molly
+unlaced the skating boots, removed the Russian Princess costume, and
+flinging her time-worn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> eiderdown cape around her shoulders, sat down to
+toast her toes.</p>
+
+<p>"Judy," she called presently, "what have you done with Nance?"</p>
+
+<p>"The last I saw of the Lady Nance she was going over the hill with her
+sandy-haired cavalier."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw her, too, but I haven't met up with her since. I'm afraid she
+will get a 'calling' if she isn't back pretty soon."</p>
+
+<p>The girls waited silently. Presently they heard the last of the carnival
+revellers return. The clock in the tower struck ten. Mrs. Markham locked
+the hall door and put out the hall light, and still no Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"She's gone off skating with Sandy Andy and forgot the time," whispered
+Judy, who had crept into Molly's room to confer. "It's a good joke on
+proper old Nance. I think she was never known to break a rule before."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't suppose anything could have happened to them, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. But you know how absorbed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> they do get in conversation.
+They wouldn't hear a cannon go off a yard away."</p>
+
+<p>"They are awfully strict here about being out with boys," observed Molly
+uneasily. "I do wish she would come home."</p>
+
+<p>The girls lingered over the register talking in whispers until the clock
+struck half-past ten.</p>
+
+<p>"Molly, suppose they have eloped!" Judy observed.</p>
+
+<p>"Eloped!" repeated Molly, amazed. Then she began to laugh. "Judy, is
+there anybody in the world so romantic as you? Why, they are mere
+infants. Andy isn't nineteen yet and Nance was only eighteen last month.
+I think we'd better slip out and find them. Come on."</p>
+
+<p>Very quietly the two girls got into their things. They wore their
+rubbers this time, and Molly very thankfully carried the imitation
+ermine muff. The entire household was sound asleep when out into the
+sparkling, glittering world they crept like two conspirators.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose we try the links first," suggested<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> Judy, "since both of us saw
+them disappearing last in that direction."</p>
+
+<p>"If we were really ladylike persons we'd be afraid to go scurrying off
+here in the dark," observed Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not afraid of anything," Judy replied, and Molly knew she spoke the
+truth, for Judy was the most fearless girl she had ever known.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the summit of the hill, they began calling at the tops
+of their voices, "Nance! Nance Oldham!"</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer and not in all the broad expanse of whiteness could
+they see a human being.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I knew what to do," exclaimed Molly, growing more and more
+uneasy. "Suppose she has been injured&mdash;suppose&mdash;suppose&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There they are!" cried Judy. "The young rascals, I believe they are
+utterly oblivious to time."</p>
+
+<p>Far over the ice appeared the two figures. They were not skating but
+walking, and several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> times before they reached the girls they slipped
+and fell down.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a nice pair," cried Judy. "Don't you know it's way after hours
+and everybody is in bed long ago?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Nance, dear, what has happened? Why are you walking?" asked Molly,
+who was rarely known to scold anybody.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry," said Nance stiffly. "I couldn't help it. The heel of
+my shoe came off and I couldn't skate. Mr. McLean&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Judy smiled mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>"They've been quarreling," she said under her breath.</p>
+
+<p>"And Mr. McLean had to bring me back much against his will."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing of the sort, Miss Oldham," put in "Mr." McLean, flushing
+angrily. "I was very glad to bring you back. I only said&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind what you said. It was your manner. Actions speak louder than
+words."</p>
+
+<p>"Come along," put in Molly. "This is no time for quarrels. It's after
+eleven. Andy, what will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> you do? Skate back to Exmoor or stay at your
+father's?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall skate back, of course," he answered in an heroic voice. "The
+other fellows might think something had happened to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Nance, put on one of my overshoes," said Judy. "That will keep
+you from slipping and we must hasten e'er the midnight chime doth
+strike. Farewell, Andrew. God bless you, and a safe journey, my boy."</p>
+
+<p>Judy struck a dramatic attitude and Molly was obliged to laugh, in spite
+of the serious faces of the others.</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't I better see you home?" asked Andrew stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"Forsooth, no, good gentleman. Begone, and the sooner the better."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, you silly goose," laughed Molly, and the three girls hurried
+home. Once they stopped to look back, and young Andy, skating as if the
+foul fiends were after him, was almost at the end of the course.</p>
+
+<p>There was no Miss Steel that winter to keep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> a sharp ear open for
+late-comers and the girls crept safely up to bed. Twice in the night
+Molly heard Nance weeping bitterly. But she said nothing because she
+knew that such quarrels are soon mended.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+<a name="xiii" id="xiii"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE THAW.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Next day began the thaw and in a week the whole earth appeared to have
+melted into an unpleasant muddy-colored liquid. An icy dampness
+permeated the air. It chilled the warmth of the soul and changed the hue
+of existence to a sad gray.</p>
+
+<p>Judy and Molly were prepared to see Nance thaw with the great sleet and
+melt into little rivulets of feeling and remorse. She had seemed rather
+hard on Andy, junior, that night; but Nance remained implacable and had
+no word to say on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"She's as ice-bound as ever," exclaimed Judy, shaking her head ruefully.
+"I am afraid she still belongs to the glacial period. Don't you think
+you can warm her up a little and make her forgive poor Andy?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+"Perhaps the sun will do it," said Molly, lifting her skirts as she
+waded through the slush on the campus.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls were on their way to a class and there was no time to
+linger for discussions about Nance's unforgiving nature. But there was
+nothing Judy enjoyed more than making what she learnedly termed
+"psychological speculations" concerning her friends' sentiments.</p>
+
+<p>"Do stop tearing along, Molly, while I talk. I have something
+interesting to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Judy Kean, there must be a depression on your head where there should
+be a perfectly good bump of duty. Don't you know we have only five
+minutes to get to the class? I'd rather be late to almost anything that
+Lit. II."</p>
+
+<p>"And why, pray?" demanded Judy, rushing to keep up with Molly's long
+steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, because it's interesting."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the only reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you turn into a period occasionally, Juliana? You are every
+other variety of punctuation mark,&mdash;dashes, exclamations,
+interrogations.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> Sometimes you're a comma and I've known you to be a
+semicolon, but when, oh, when have you come to a full stop?"</p>
+
+<p>"All this long peroration&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pero&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Means that you are avoiding the real question."</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are," ejaculated Molly with a sigh of relief as she ran
+upstairs and entered the class room at the same moment that Professor
+Green appeared from another door.</p>
+
+<p>Molly freely admitted to her friends that English Literature was the
+most interesting study she had. She took more pains over the preparation
+for this class than for any of her other lessons. She was always careful
+not to be late, but then sat timidly and modestly in the back row with
+the girls who wished to avoid being called upon to recite. The
+Professor's lectures, however, led her into an enchanted country, the
+land of poetry and romance. Perhaps, at first, he thought she really
+wished to avoid being questioned and that her spellbound expression was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+only indifference. Certainly he had seldom tested her interest until one
+day during a lecture on the Pre-Raphaelite artists and poets he calmly
+requested her to stand up before the entire class and read Rossetti's
+"Blessed Damozel." Blushing hotly, she began the reading in a thin,
+frightened voice, but presently the amused faces of her friends faded
+away; her voice regained its full measure of strength and beauty, and
+when she had finished, she became aware that somewhere hidden within the
+wellsprings of her mind was a power she had not known of before. Molly's
+classmates were much impressed by her performance, but there was a faint
+smile on the Professor's face that seemed to imply that he was not in
+the least surprised.</p>
+
+<p>Among all the little happenings that infest our daily lives it is often
+the least and most accidental that wields the strongest influence. This
+chance discovery by Molly that she could read poetry aloud gave her
+infinite secret pleasure. She began to memorize and repeat to herself
+all her favorite poems. Sometimes her pulses beat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> time to the rhythm in
+her head; even her speech at such times became unconsciously metrical,
+and as she walked she felt her body swing to the music of the verse.
+With a strange shyness she hid this secret from her friends, who never
+guessed when she sat quietly with them that she was chanting poetry to
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>Molly had planned to do several errands that afternoon, after the class
+in Lit. II. The first one took her to the village to see Madeleine
+Petit, the little Southern girl, who was willing to do almost any kind
+of work to earn money. Molly had never returned the magazine clippings
+of prize offers, and she had also another reason for wanting to see
+Madeleine. She wished to find out just how different life in a room over
+the post-office was from life at Queen's. She was thankful when the
+lesson was over, that Judy was engaged for basket-ball practice in the
+gym., for she wished to be alone when she made this call.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few days before, Miss Walker had called to her after chapel and
+suggested that she look over the rooms the postmistress rented to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+students, and make her choice so that lodgings could be spoken for
+before Christmas.</p>
+
+<p>Molly paused at Madeleine's door and read the sign carefully.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I shall have to be fixing up something like that," she
+thought, "only I never could do up jabots and I'd rather scrub floors
+than shampoo people's heads."</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," called the liquid, melting voice of the Southern girl in
+answer to Molly's tap. "Oh, how do you do? What a delightful, welcome
+surprise," cried the hospitable little person. "Put your feet over the
+register. That's where I spend most of my time now. I'm not used to this
+awful climate. Now, give me your hat and coat. You're to have tea with
+me, you know. You won't mind if I go on working, will you? I'm doing up
+some jabots and things for that sweet Miss Stewart. She has given me a
+lot of work. Such a lady, if she is a Yankee! I can safely say that to
+you because you aren't one, you know. But, really, I'm beginning to like
+these Northern girls so much. They are quite as nice as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> girls from
+home, only quieter," rattled on Miss Petit.</p>
+
+<p>Molly groaned inwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"If she only didn't talk so much," she thought. "I'm always putting up
+milestones during her ramblings to remind me of something I wanted to
+say, but there's never any chance to go back, even if I could remember
+where I put them."</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to return these clippings," she managed to edge in at last,
+producing the slips of papers.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you needn't have bothered. I shall never use any of them. I told
+you there was nothing but mathematics in my soul. I can't write at all.
+The themes are the horror of my life. But you tried, I am sure. Was it
+the short story or one of the advertising ones? They are all of them
+terribly unsatisfactory because you never know where you stand until
+months and months afterwards when you read that somebody has won the
+prize. But, of course, I never expect to win prizes. I could never make
+a <i>coup de t&ecirc;te</i> like that."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+"You could make a <i>coup de</i> tongue," thought Molly, sighing helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>"But did you try?" asked Madeleine, now actually pausing for a reply to
+her question.</p>
+
+<p>"I did try one of them, a little poem that came into my head, but it was
+weeks ago and I know nothing will come of it. I felt when I sent it off
+that it wasn't the kind of thing they wanted, wasn't advertisey enough.
+I had really almost forgotten I wrote it, so many other things have
+happened since. Can you keep a secret, Miss Petit?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly can," replied the busy little creature, pausing in her
+labors to test the iron. "Dear me, I must be careful not to scorch any
+of these pretty things. But the tea kettle is boiling. Suppose we have
+some refreshment and you can tell me the secret in comfort."</p>
+
+<p>Molly smiled at her own Southern peculiarities cropping out in this
+little friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Mommer sent me this caramel cake yesterday. It's made from a very old
+recipe. I hope you'll like the tea. I'm sorry I can't offer you any
+real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> cream. I would just as soon eat cold cream for the complexion as
+condensed cream. It's all right for cooking with, but it doesn't go well
+with tea and coffee, which I always make in my own rooms, especially
+coffee. It's never strong enough at the place I take my meals. But you
+said something about a secret?"</p>
+
+<p>Somehow Molly's affairs seemed to dwindle into insignificance in
+comparison with this great tidal wave of conversation, and she resolved
+not to take Madeleine into her confidence after all. It occurred to her
+that she would soon become a raving maniac if she lived next door to
+anyone who talked as much as that.</p>
+
+<p>"It's really not much of a secret," answered Molly lightly. "Miss Walker
+asked me to come down and look over some empty rooms here for someone,
+and I thought, maybe, if you could spare the time you would come with
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"I can always spare the time to be of service to you," exclaimed
+Madeleine. "You have done so much for me. You really gave me my start
+here, you know."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+"Nonsense!" put in Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you did. You sent Miss Stewart to me and introduced me to some of
+the older girls, who have all been very nice. They would probably never
+have heard of me but for you."</p>
+
+<p>When they had finished the tea and cake, which were delicious, they
+inspected the vacant rooms, to a steady accompaniment of Madeleine's
+conversation. Molly wondered how the capable, clever, industrious little
+creature could accomplish so much when her tongue went like a
+clap-hammer most of the time. But there was no doubt that she achieved
+marvels and was already well up in her classes. Poor Molly's temples
+ached with the steady hum. Her tongue was dry and she had a wild impulse
+to jump out the window. How could she explain to kind Miss Walker that
+she could not live over the post-office? Would it not be an unfriendly
+act to tell the real reason?</p>
+
+<p>"It's bad enough as it is," she thought, "leaving my sweet old Queen's,
+but this would be beyond human endurance. It will have to be a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> room
+over the general store or at Mrs. O'Reilly's. Anything but this."</p>
+
+<p>The post-office rooms were bare and crude, and poor Molly was sick at
+heart when at last she took her leave of the little friend, who was
+still babbling unceasingly when the door closed.</p>
+
+<p>Molly breathed a deep sigh of relief as she waded through the slush on
+the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a good deal like being banished from the promised land," she
+said to herself, "wherever it is."</p>
+
+<p>Pausing at the door of the general store, she noticed a big, black,
+funereal-looking vehicle coming up the street at a slow pace. Passers-by
+paused to look at it, with a kind of morbid curiosity, as it drew
+nearer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, heavens, I hope that isn't an undertaker's wagon," Molly thought,
+preparing to flee from the dread sight which always filled her with the
+horrors. The big vehicle passed slowly by. On the front seat with the
+driver sat Dr. McLean. He bowed to her gravely, barely lifting his hat.
+"One of his patients," her thoughts continued,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> "but it's strange for
+him to ride on the same wagon. I don't think I can possibly look at
+those other rooms today."</p>
+
+<p>She turned her face away from the general store and hastened back to the
+University, which seemed to be the only thing that retained its dignity
+and beauty under the disenchanting influences of this muggy, damp day.
+As she walked up the avenue, there some distance ahead was the gruesome
+equipage.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens! Heavens! I haven't heard about anything," she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>The wagon did not pause at the Infirmary as she expected, but pursued
+its way until it reached the McLean house. Molly began to run, and just
+as she arrived breathless and excited, the vehicle had backed up to the
+steps, two doors swung open, and Mrs. McLean, accompanied by a trained
+nurse, stepped out. The doctor climbed down from one side of the vehicle
+and the driver from the other. Professor Green sprung up from
+somewhere,&mdash;he had probably been waiting in the McLeans' hall&mdash;and the
+three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> men gently lifted out a stretcher on which lay the almost
+unrecognizable form of Andy, junior. A large bandage encircled his head
+and one arm was done up in splints.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mrs. McLean," whispered Molly, "I didn't know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. McLean only shook her head and hurried after the stretcher.</p>
+
+<p>Molly sat down on the muddy steps and waited. After what seemed an age,
+Professor Green emerged from the house.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a reckless girl to sit there in all that dampness," he
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind me. What about Andy?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's in pretty bad shape, I am afraid," answered the Professor. "He was
+hurt the night of the carnival in some way. I don't know just how it
+happened that he lost the others. At any rate, they found him after a
+long hunt half frozen to death, a gash in his head, and several broken
+bones. They thought they had better bring him home, where the doctor
+could look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> after him, but he hasn't stood the journey as well as they
+hoped."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Nance!" said Molly, as she hastened back to Queen's.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+<a name="xiv" id="xiv"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+<br />
+<small>QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>"Oh, Molly, what was that awful black wagon that went up the avenue a
+few minutes ago?" demanded half a dozen voices as she opened the door
+into her own room.</p>
+
+<p>"The freshman at the Infirmary who was threatened with typhoid fever is
+getting well," remarked Margaret Wakefield.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, nothing has happened to any of the Wellington girls?" put in
+Jessie uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," answered Molly, "nothing so terrible as that, thank goodness.
+It wasn't an undertaker's wagon, but an ambulance." She paused. It would
+be rather hard on Nance to tell the news about Andy before all the
+girls.</p>
+
+<p>"It looked something like the Exmoor ambulance," here observed Katherine
+Williams.</p>
+
+<p>Molly was silent. Suppose she should tell the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> sad news and Nance should
+break down and make a scene. It would be cruel. "I'll wait until they
+go," she decided. But this was not easy.</p>
+
+<p>"Who was in the ambulance, Molly?" asked Judy impatiently. "I should
+think you would have had curiosity enough to have noticed where it
+stopped."</p>
+
+<p>It was no use wrinkling her eyebrows at Judy or trying to evade her
+direct questions. The inquisitive girl went on:</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't that Dr. McLean on the seat with the driver?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally he would be there, being the only physician in Wellington,"
+replied Molly.</p>
+
+<p>Then Lawyer Wakefield began a series of cross-questions that fairly made
+the poor girl quail.</p>
+
+<p>"In which direction were you going when you met the ambulance?" asked
+this persistent judge.</p>
+
+<p>"I was coming this way, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"And you mean to say your curiosity didn't prompt you to turn around and
+see where the ambulance stopped?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+"I didn't say that," faltered Molly, feeling very much like a prisoner
+at the bar.</p>
+
+<p>"You did turn and look then? Was it toward the faculty houses or the
+Quadrangle that the ambulance was driving?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really, Judge Wakefield, I think I had better seek legal advice
+before replying to your questions."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I only wanted to prove to myself that the only way to get at the truth
+of a matter is by a system of questions which require direct answers.
+It's like the game of 'Twenty Questions,' which is the most interesting
+game in the world when it's properly played. Once I guessed the ring on
+the Pope's finger in six questions just by careful deduction. It's
+easier to get at the truth by subtracting than adding&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Truth, indeed. You haven't got a bit nearer than any of us," burst in
+the incorrigible Judy. "With all your legal mind you haven't made Molly
+tell us who was in the ambulance, and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> course she knows. She has
+never said she didn't, yet."</p>
+
+<p>Molly felt desperately uncomfortable. She wished now that she had told
+them in the beginning. It had only made matters worse not to tell.</p>
+
+<p>"Molly, you are the strangest person. What possible reason could you
+have for keeping secret who was in the ambulance? Was it one of the
+students or one of the faculty?" demanded Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"People who live in the country say that calves are the most inquisitive
+creatures in the world, but I think girls are," remarked Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"This is as good as a play," cried one of the Williams girls, "a real
+play behind footlights, to sit here and look on at this little comedy of
+curiosity. You've asked every conceivable question under the sun, and
+Molly there has never told a thing. Now I happen to know that the
+ambulance is connected with the sanitarium over near Exmoor. I saw it
+once when we were walking, and it is therefore probably bringing someone
+from Exmoor here. Then if you wish to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> inquire further by the 'deductive
+method,' as Judge Wakefield calls it: who at Exmoor has connections at
+Wellington?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dodo Green and Andy McLean," said Judy quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," answered Edith.</p>
+
+<p>Nance's eyes met Molly's and in a flash she understood why her friend
+had been parrying the questions of the other girls. It was to save her
+from a shock.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps some of the other girls recognized this, too, for Margaret and
+the Williamses rose at the same moment and made excuses to go, and the
+others soon followed. Only blundering and thoughtless Judy remained to
+blunder more.</p>
+
+<p>"Molly Brown," she exclaimed, "you have been getting so full of
+mysteries and secrets lately that you might as well live in a tower all
+alone. Now, why&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Is he very badly hurt, Molly?" interrupted Nance in a cold, even voice,
+not taking the slightest notice of Judy's complaints.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty badly, Nance. The journey over from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> Exmoor was harder on him
+than they thought it would be. I stood beside the stretcher for a
+minute."</p>
+
+<p>Nance walked over to the side window and looked across the campus in the
+direction of the McLean house. On the small section of the avenue which
+could be seen from that point she caught a glimpse of the ambulance
+making its return trip to Exmoor.</p>
+
+<p>She turned quickly and went back to her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"It looks like a hearse," she said miserably.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it Andy?" asked Judy of Molly in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>Molly nodded her head.</p>
+
+<p>"What a chump I've been!" ejaculated Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"It happened the night of the carnival, of course," pursued Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"It was all my fault," she went on quietly. "I would coast down one of
+those long hills and Andy didn't want me to. I knew I could, and I
+wanted to show him how well I could skate. Then, just as we got to the
+bottom, my heel came off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> and we both tumbled. It didn't hurt us, but
+Andy was provoked, and then we quarreled. Of course, walking back made
+us late and he missed the others."</p>
+
+<p>"But, dear Nance, it might have happened just the same, even if he had
+been with the others," argued Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it couldn't have been so bad. He must have been lying in the snow a
+long time before they found him, and was probably half frozen," she went
+on, ruthlessly inflicting pain on herself.</p>
+
+<p>"They did go back and find him, fortunately," admitted Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"He was the first and only boy friend I have ever had," continued Nance
+in a tone of extreme bitterness. "I always thought I was a wallflower
+until I met him. Other girls like you two and Jessie have lots of
+friends and can spare one. But I haven't any to spare. I only have
+Andy." Her voice broke and she began to sob, "Oh, why was I so stubborn
+and cruel that night?"</p>
+
+<p>Judy crept over and locked the door. She was sore in mind and body at
+sight of Nance's misery.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+"I feel like a whipped cur," she thought. "Just as if someone had beaten
+me with a stick. Poor old Nance!"</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't feel so hopeless about it, Nance dear," Molly was saying.
+"I'm sure he'll pull through. They wouldn't have brought him all this
+distance if he had been so badly off."</p>
+
+<p>"They have brought him home to die!" cried Nance fiercely. "And I did
+it. I did it!" she rocked herself back and forth. "I want to be alone,"
+she said suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, dear Nance, no one shall disturb you," said Molly, taking a
+pile of books off the table and a "Busy" sign, which she hung on the
+door. "We'll bring up your supper. Don't come down this evening."</p>
+
+<p>But when the girls returned some hours later with a tray of food, Nance
+had gone to bed and turned her face to the wall, and she refused to eat
+a morsel. All next day it was the same. Nance remained in bed,
+ruthlessly cutting lessons and refusing to take anything but a cup of
+soup at lunch time. The girls called at Dr. McLean's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> to inquire for
+Andy and found that his condition was much the same. Nance's condition
+was the same, too. She turned a deaf ear to all their arguments and
+declined to be reasoned with.</p>
+
+<p>"She can't lie there forever," Judy exclaimed at last.</p>
+
+<p>"But what are we to do, Judy?" Molly asked. "She's just nursing her
+troubles until she'll go into melancholia! I would go to Mrs. McLean,
+but she won't see anyone and the doctor is too unhappy to listen. I
+tried to tell him about Nance and he didn't hear a word I was saying. I
+didn't realize how much they adored Andy."</p>
+
+<p>Judy could offer no suggestion and Molly went off to the Library to
+think.</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to her that Professor Green might give her some advice. He
+knew all about the friendship between Nance and Andy, and, besides, he
+had interested himself once before in Nance's troubles when he arranged
+for her to go to the McLeans' supper party the year before. Molly
+glanced at the clock. It was nearly half-past four.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+"He'll probably be in his little cloister study right now," she said to
+herself, and in three minutes she was rapping on the oak door in the
+corridor marked "E. Green."</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," called the Professor.</p>
+
+<p>He was sitting at his study table, his back turned to her, writing
+busily.</p>
+
+<p>"You're late, Dodo," he continued, without looking up. "I expected you
+in time for lunch. Sit down and wait. I can't stop now. Don't speak to
+me for fifteen minutes. I'm finishing something that must go by the six
+o'clock mail."</p>
+
+<p>Molly sank into the depths of the nearest chair while the Professor's
+pen scratched up and down monotonously. Not since the famous night of
+her Freshman year when she was locked in the cloisters had she been in
+the Professor's sanctum, and she looked about her with much curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had one just like it," she thought. "It's so peaceful and
+quiet, just the place to work in and write books on 'The Elizabethan
+Drama,' and lyric poetry, and comic operas&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+There was a nice leathery smell in the atmosphere of book bindings
+mingled with tobacco smoke, and the only ornament she could discover,
+except a small bronze bust of Voltaire and a life mask of Keats, was a
+glazed paper weight in the very cerulean blue she herself was so fond
+of. It caught the fading light from the window and shone forth from the
+desk like a bit of blue sky.</p>
+
+<p>Molly was sitting in a high back leather chair, which quite hid her from
+Judith Blount, who presently, knocking on the door and opening it at the
+same moment, entered the room like a hurricane.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Edwin, may I come in? I want to ask you something&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't possibly see you now, Judith. You must wait until to-morrow.
+I'm very busy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed the girl and banged the door as she departed into
+the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>What a jarring element she was in all that peaceful stillness! The
+muffled noises in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> Quadrangle seemed a hundred miles away. Molly
+rose and tiptoed to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"He'll be angrier than ever if he should find me here," she thought.
+"I'll just get out quietly and explain some other time."</p>
+
+<p>Her hand was already on the doorknob when the Professor wheeled around
+and faced her.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Miss Brown," he exclaimed, "was it you all the time? I might have
+known my clumsy brother couldn't have been so quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"Please excuse me," faltered Molly. "I am sure you are very busy. I am
+awfully sorry to have disturbed you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! It's only unimportant things I won't be bothered with, like
+the absurd questions Judith thinks up to ask me and Dodo's gossip about
+the fellows at Exmoor. But I am well aware that you never waste time. I
+suspect you of being one of the busiest little ladies in Wellington."</p>
+
+<p>Molly smiled. Somehow, she liked to be called a "little lady" by this
+distinguished professor.</p>
+
+<p>"But your letter that must go by the six mail?"</p>
+
+<p>"That can wait until morning," he said.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+He had just said it was to go at six, but, of course, he had a right to
+change his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down and tell me what's the trouble. Have you had bad news from
+home?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it's about Nance," she began, and told him the whole story. "You
+see," she finished, "Nance has had so few friends, and she is very fond
+of Andy. Because she thinks the accident was her fault, she is just
+grieving herself into an awful state."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor sat with his chin resting on his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little girl!" he said. "And the Doctor and Mrs. McLean are in
+almost as bad a state themselves. You know it's just a chance that Andy
+will pull through. He has developed pneumonia."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, with all those broken bones and that terrible gash! Isn't it
+dreadful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty bad. Have you tried talking to Miss Oldham?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've tried everything and nothing will move<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> her. It's just a kind of
+stubborn misery that seems to have paralyzed her, mind and body."</p>
+
+<p>The two sat in silence for a moment, then the Professor said:</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I go down to Queen's to-night and see Miss Oldham? Do you think
+she could be induced to come down into Mrs. Markham's sitting room and
+have a talk with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so. She wouldn't have the courage to decline to see one
+of the faculty."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. If she is roused to get up and come down stairs, she may
+come to her senses. But don't go yet. I have something to tell you,
+something that doesn't concern Miss Oldham but&mdash;er&mdash;myself. Do you
+remember the opera I told you about?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"It's going into rehearsal Christmas week and will open in six weeks.
+Are you pleased?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly was pleased, of course. She was always glad of other people's good
+luck.</p>
+
+<p>"How would you like to go to the opening?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+"It would be wonderful, but&mdash;but I don't see how I can. I told you there
+were complications."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know," he answered, "but you're to forget complications that
+night and enjoy my first attempt to be amusing."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try," answered Molly, not realizing how her reply might sound to
+the author of the comic opera, who only smiled good-naturedly and said:</p>
+
+<p>"The music will be pretty at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>They sat talking about the opera for some time, in fact, until the tower
+clock clanged six.</p>
+
+<p>"I never dreamed it was so late," apologized Molly, "and I have kept you
+all this time. I know you must be awfully busy. I hope you will forgive
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I just say that your time was quite as important as mine?" he
+said. "And when two very important people get together the moments are
+not wasted."</p>
+
+<p>That night the Professor did call on Nance at Queen's, and the unhappy
+girl was obliged to get into her things as quickly as possible and go
+down. What he said to her Molly and Judy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> never knew, but in an hour
+Nance returned to them in a normal, sensible state of mind, and not
+again did she turn her face to the wall and refuse to be comforted.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt in my mind that Professor Green is the nicest person
+in Wellington, that is, of the faculty," thought Molly as she settled
+under the reading lamp, and prepared to study her Lit. lesson.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+<a name="xv" id="xv"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+<br />
+<small>A RECOVERY AND A VISIT.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Young Andy McLean was not destined to be gathered to his forefathers
+yet, however, and before Christmas he was able to sit up in bed and beg
+his mother fretfully to telephone to Exmoor and ask some of the fellows
+to come over.</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor says you're not to see any of the boys yet, Andy," replied
+his mother firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"If I can't see boys, is there anything I can see?" he demanded with
+extreme irritability.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. McLean smiled and a little later dispatched a note to Queen's
+Cottage. That afternoon Nance came shyly into Andy's room and sat down
+in a low chair beside the white iron hospital bed which had been
+substituted for the big old mahogany one.</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother says you are lots better, Andy," she said.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+Andy gave a happy, sheepish smile and wiggled two fingers weakly, which
+meant they were to shake <a name="stop" id="stop"></a><ins title="added fullstop">hands.</ins></p>
+
+<p>"Mother was afraid for the fellows to come," he said, "on account of my
+heart. I suppose she thinks a girl can't affect anybody's heart."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so quiet, you see," said Nance, "but I'll go if you think it's
+going to hurt you."</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't like to see me cry, would you? I boohooed like a kid this
+morning because they wouldn't let me have broiled ham for breakfast. I
+smelt it cooking. It would be just like having to give up broiled ham
+for breakfast to have you go, Nance. Sit down again, will you, and don't
+leave me until I tell you. Since I've been sick I've learned to be a
+boss."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I didn't let you boss me that night, Andy," remarked Nance
+meekly. "I ought never to have coasted down the hill. I've wanted to
+apologize ever since."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been blaming yourself?" he broke in. "It wasn't your fault at
+all. It all happened because I was angry and didn't look where I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> was
+going. I have had a lot of time to think lately, and I've decided that
+there is nothing so stupid as getting mad. You always have to pay for it
+somehow. Look at me: a human wreck for indulging in a fit of rage.
+There's a fellow at Ex. who lost his temper in an argument over a
+baseball game and walked into a door and broke his nose."</p>
+
+<p>Nance laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"There are other ways of curing tempers besides broken bones," she said.
+"Just plain remorse is as good as a broken nose; at least I've found it
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you have the remorse, Nance?" asked Andy, wiggling the fingers of
+his good hand again.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, awfully, Andy," answered the young girl, slipping her hand into
+his. "I felt just like a murderer."</p>
+
+<p>The nurse came in presently to say that the fifteen minutes allotted for
+the call was up. It had slipped by on the wings of the wind, but their
+friendship had been re-established on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> old happy basis. Andy was
+unusually polite to his mother and the nurse that day, and Nance went
+straight to the village and bought two big bunches of violets, one for
+Molly and one for Judy. In some way she must give expression to the
+rejoicing in her heart, and this was the only means she could think of.</p>
+
+<p>Besides Andy McLean's recovery, several other nice things happened
+before Christmas. One morning Judy burst into her friend's room like a
+wild creature, waving a letter in each hand.</p>
+
+<p>"They are coming," she cried. "They have each written to tell me so.
+Isn't it perfect? Isn't it glorious?"</p>
+
+<p>No need to tell Molly and Nance who "they" were. These girls were fully
+aware that Judy treated her mother and father exactly like two
+sweethearts, giving each an equal share of her abundant affections; but
+the others were not so well informed about Judy's family relations.
+Otoyo Sen began to clap her hands and laugh joyously in sympathy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+"Is it two honorable young gentlemen who arriving come to see Mees
+Kean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Otoyo, how often have I told you not to say 'arriving come,'"
+exclaimed Molly. "I know it's a fascinating combination and difficult to
+forget in moments of excitement, but it's very bad English."</p>
+
+<p>"Mees Kean, she is so happee," replied the Japanese girl, speaking
+slowly and carefully. "I cannot remembering when I see so much great
+joy."</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't you be happy, too, if your honorable mamma and papa were
+coming to Wellington to visit you, you cunning little sparrow-bird?"
+asked Judy, seizing Otoyo's hands and dancing her wildly about the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is honorable mother and father! That is differently. It is not
+the same in Japan. Young Japanese girl might make great deal of noise
+over something new and very pretty,&mdash;you see? But it is not respectful
+to jump-up-so about parents arriving."</p>
+
+<p>There was a great laugh at this. Otoyo was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> an especial pet at Queen's
+with the older girls.</p>
+
+<p>"She's like a continuous performance of 'The Mikado,'" remarked Edith
+Williams. "Three little maids from school rolled into one,&mdash;the
+quaintest, most adorable little person."</p>
+
+<p>"And when do these honorable parents arriving come?" asked Margaret
+Wakefield.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow afternoon," answered Judy. "Where shall I get rooms? What
+shall I take them to see? Shall I give a tea and ask the girls to meet
+them? Don't you think a sleighing party would be fun? And a fudge party
+in the evening? Papa loves fudge. Do you think it would be a good idea
+to have dinner up here in Molly's and Nance's room, or let papa give a
+banquet at the Inn? Do suggest, everybody."</p>
+
+<p>Judy was too excited to sit down. She was walking up and down the room,
+her cheeks blazing and her eyes as uncannily bright as two elfin lights
+on a dark night.</p>
+
+<p>"Be calm, Judy," said Molly, taking her friend by the shoulders and
+pushing her into a chair. "You'll work yourself into a high fever with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+your excitable ways. Now, sit down there and we'll talk it over quietly
+and arrange a program."</p>
+
+<p>Judy sat down obediently.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it does seem funny to all of you, but, you see, mamma and
+papa and I have been brought up together&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean you brought them up?" asked Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"We brought each other up. They call me 'little sister', and until I
+went off to college, because papa insisted I must have some education,
+life was just one beautiful lark."</p>
+
+<p>"What a jolly time you must have had!" observed Nance with a wistful
+smile which reminded the self-centred Judy at last that it was not
+exactly kind to pile it on too thickly about her delightful parents.</p>
+
+<p>Not a little curiosity was felt by the Queen's girls to see Mr. and Mrs.
+Kean, whom Judy had described as paragons of beauty and wit, and they
+assembled at Wellington station in a body to meet the distinguished
+pair. Judy herself was in a quiver of happy excitement and when finally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+the train pulled into the station, she rushed from one platform to
+another in her eagerness. Of course they had taken the chair car down,
+but she was too bewildered to remember that there was but one such coach
+on the Wellington train, and it was usually the rear car.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't find them. Oh, mamma! Oh, papa! You couldn't have missed the
+train!" she cried, addressing the spirits of the air.</p>
+
+<p>Just then a very tall, handsome man with eyes exactly like Judy's
+pinioned her arms from behind.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, little sister, don't you know your own father?"</p>
+
+<p>He was just as Judy had described him; and her word-picture also fitted
+Mrs. Kean, a dainty, pretty, little woman, with a doll-like face and
+flaxen hair, who would never have given the impression that she was in
+the habit of roughing it in engineering camps, sleeping out of doors,
+riding across sun-baked plains on Texas bronchos, and accompanying her
+husband wherever he went on his bridge and railroad-building trips.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+"Judy hasn't had much home life," she said later to Molly. "We had to
+take our choice, little sister and I, between a home without papa or
+papa without a home, and we decided that he was ten thousand times more
+delightful than the most wonderful palace ever built."</p>
+
+<p>Her extravagant speeches reminded Molly of Judy; but the mother was much
+gentler and quieter than her excitable daughter, and perhaps not so
+clever.</p>
+
+<p>They dined at Queen's that night and made a tour of the entire house,
+except Judith Blount's room, all apartments having been previously
+spruced up for inspection. Otoyo had shown her respect for the occasion
+by hanging a Japanese lantern from the chandelier and loading a little
+table with "meat-sweets," which she offered to the guests when they
+paused in her room during their triumphal progress through the house.</p>
+
+<p>Later Molly and Nance entertained at a fudge and stunt party and Mr. and
+Mrs. Kean were initiated into the secrets of life at Queen's.</p>
+
+<p>They entered into the fun like two children,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> and one of the stunts, a
+dialogue between the Williams sisters, amused Mr. Kean so much that he
+laughed loud and long, until his wife shook him by the shoulder and
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Bobbie. Remember, you're not on the plains, but in a girls'
+boarding school."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Robert," said Judy, who frequently spoke to her parents by their
+first names, "remember that you are in a place where law and order must
+be maintained."</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't give such laugh-provoking stunts, then," answered Mr.
+Kean, "but I'll try and remember to put on the soft pedal hereafter."</p>
+
+<p>Then Molly, accompanying herself on Judy's guitar, sang:</p>
+
+<div class="poem20">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Big camp meetin' down the swamp,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, my! Hallelujah!"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Kean suddenly joined in with a deep, booming bass. He had learned
+that song many years before in the south, he said, and had never
+forgotten it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+"He never forgets anything," said Judy proudly, laying her cheek against
+her father's. "And now, what will you sing, Bobbie, to amuse the
+ladies?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kean, without the least embarrassment, took the guitar, and, looking
+so amazingly like Judy that they might have been twins, sang:</p>
+
+<div class="block24">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Young Jeremy Jilson Johnson Jenks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was a lad of scarce nineteen&mdash;&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>It was a delightful song and the chorus so catchy that after the second
+verse the entire fudge and stunt party joined in with:</p>
+
+<div class="block18">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'Oh, merry-me, merry-me,'<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sang young Jeremy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Merry-me, Lovely Lou&mdash;&mdash;'"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Presently Mr. Kean, seizing his daughter around the waist, began
+dancing, and in a moment everybody was twirling to that lively tune,
+bumping against each other and tumbling on the divans in an effort to
+circle around the room. All<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> the time. Mrs. Kean, standing on a chair in
+the corner, was gently remonstrating and calling out:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Bobbie, you mustn't make so much noise. This isn't a mining camp."</p>
+
+<p>Nobody heard her soft expostulations, and only the little lady herself
+heard the sharp rap on the door and noticed a piece of paper shoved
+under the crack. Rescuing it from under the feet of the dancers, and
+seeing that it was addressed to "Miss Kean," she opened and read it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how very mortifying," she exclaimed. "Now, Bobbie, I knew you would
+get these girls into some scrape. You are always so noisy. See here! Our
+own Judy being reprimanded! You must make your father explain to the
+President or Matron or whoever this Miss Blount is, that it was all his
+fault."</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world are you talking about, Julia Kean?" demanded Judy,
+snatching the note from her mother and reading it rapidly. "Well, of all
+the unexampled impudence!" she cried when she had finished. "Will you be
+good enough to listen to this?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+"'Miss Kean: You and your family are a little too noisy for the comfort
+of the other tenants in this house. Those of us who wish to study and
+rest cannot do so. This is not a dance hall nor a mining camp. Will you
+kindly arrange to entertain more quietly? The singing is especially
+obnoxious.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"'<span class="smcap">Judith Blount</span>.'"</p>
+
+<p>Judy was in such a white heat of rage when she finished reading the
+note, that her mother was obliged to quiet her by smoothing her forehead
+and saying over and over:</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, my darling, don't mind it so much. No doubt the young
+person was quite right."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kean was intensely amused over the letter. He read it to himself
+twice; then laughed and slapped his knee, exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, Judy, my love, it takes a woman to write a note like that."</p>
+
+<p>"A woman? A cat!" broke in Judy.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kean put her hand over her daughter's mouth and looked shocked.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+"Oh, Judy, my dearest, you mustn't say such unladylike things," she
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just because she wasn't invited," continued Judy. "I wouldn't let
+the girls ask her this time. She usually is invited and makes as much
+racket as any of us."</p>
+
+<p>"It was rather mean to leave her out," observed Molly. "I suppose she's
+sore about it. But we didn't ask all the girls at Queen's. Sallie Marks
+and two freshmen were not invited, and if we had gone outside, we'd have
+invited Mary Stewart and Mabel Hinton."</p>
+
+<p>"Still," said Mr. Kean, "there's nothing meaner than the 'left-out'
+feeling. It cuts deep. Suppose we smooth things over by asking her to
+our next party. Let me see. Will all of you give Mrs. Kean and me the
+pleasure of having you dine with us to-morrow evening at the Inn? Now,
+may I borrow some writing materials?" he added, after a chorus of
+acceptances had been raised.</p>
+
+<p>Nance conducted him to her writing desk, which was always the acme of
+neatness, and well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> stocked with stationery. Here is the letter that Mr.
+Kean wrote to Judith Blount, which Judy, looking over her father's
+shoulder, read aloud as it evolved:</p>
+
+<p>"'Dear Miss Blount:' (Blount, did you say her name was? Humph!) 'You
+were quite right to scold Mr. Kean and me for making so much noise. It
+was inconsiderate of us&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Bobbie," protested Mrs. Kean, "it isn't fair to lay the blame on
+me and make me write the letter, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Be quiet, my love," answered her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"'Will you not give us the pleasure of your company at dinner to-morrow
+evening at the Inn? We are anxious to show you what really quiet,
+law-abiding people we are, and Mr. Kean and I will be much disappointed
+if you do not allow us the opportunity to prove it to you.'"</p>
+
+<p>Judy's father paused, his pen suspended, while he asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I see bill posters at the station announcing a performance at
+the Opera House?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+"Yes," cried Judy. "They're giving 'The Silver King.'"</p>
+
+<p>"'Dinner will be a little early,'" he wrote, "'because Mr. Kean is
+planning to take us all to the play afterwards. He will call for you
+in'&mdash;&mdash;what shall I call for you in?"</p>
+
+<p>"The bus," promptly answered every girl in the room.</p>
+
+<p class="nmb">"'&mdash;the bus at six fifteen. Anticipating much pleasure in having you
+with us to-morrow, believe me,</p>
+
+<p class="right2">Most cordially yours,</p>
+<p class="right3"><span class="smcap">Julia S. Kean</span>.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Julia, my love, sit down and copy what I've written in your best
+handwriting, and we'll try to smooth down this fiery young person's
+ruffled feathers."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kean obediently copied the note. After all, it wasn't an unkind
+revenge, and Otoyo delivered it at Judith's door while the others
+chatted quietly and absorbed quantities of hot fudge and crackers.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Otoyo stole softly back into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"What did she say, little one?" asked Judy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+"She was very stilly," answered Otoyo shyly. "She spoke nothing
+whatever. I thought it more wisely to departing go."</p>
+
+<p>The laugh that was raised at this lucid report restored good humor in
+the company.</p>
+
+<p>A vehicle called for Mr. and Mrs. Kean at a quarter before ten to take
+them down into the village, and it was not long before every light was
+out in Queen's Cottage but one in a small single room in an upper story.
+Here, in front of the mirror over the dressing table, sat a black-eyed
+girl in a red silk dressing gown.</p>
+
+<p>"Judith," she said fiercely to her image in the glass, "can't you
+remember that you are too poor to insult people any longer?"</p>
+
+<p>Then she rolled up Mrs. Kean's note into a little ball and flung it
+across the room with such force that it hit the other wall and bounded
+back again to her feet, and she ground it under her heel. After this
+exhibition of impotent rage, she put out her light and flung herself
+into the bed, where she tossed about uneasily and exclaimed to herself:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+"I won't be poor! I won't work. I hate this hideous little room and I
+loathe Queen's Cottage. I wish I had never been born."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, Judith Blount did humble herself next day to accept Mrs.
+Kean's invitation. At the dinner she was sullen and quiet, but she could
+not hide her enjoyment of the melodrama later.</p>
+
+<p>The one taste which she had in common with her brother Richard was an
+affection for the theatre, no matter how crude the acting, nor how
+hackneyed the play.</p>
+
+<p>But the insulting letter that she had sent to Judy Kean widened the
+breach between her and the Queen's girls, and no amount of effort on her
+part after that could bridge it over.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+<a name="xvi" id="xvi"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>CHRISTMAS EVE PLOTS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Molly was not sorry to spend Christmas in Wellington this year. Numbers
+of invitations had come to her, but even Mary Stewart could not tempt
+her away from Queen's Cottage.</p>
+
+<p>"Otoyo and I shan't be lonesome," she said. "We have a lot of work to do
+before the mid-year exams. and by the time you come back, Otoyo's
+adverbs are going to modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. You'll
+see," she assured her friends cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>And when the last train-load pulled out of Wellington, and she trudged
+back along the deserted avenue, there was a strange gladness in her
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not homesick and I'm not lonesome," she said to herself. "I'm just
+happy. Except for Otoyo's lessons, I'm going to give myself a holiday.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+I'm going to read&mdash;poetry&mdash;lots of it, all I want, and to sit in the
+library and think. I'm going to take long walks alone. It will be like
+seeing the last of a dear friend, because Wellington will not be
+Wellington to me when I am installed at O'Reilly's."</p>
+
+<p>Hardly half a dozen girls remained at college that Christmas, and Molly
+was glad that she knew them only by sight. She was almost glad that the
+doctor and Mrs. McLean had taken Andy south. She could not explain this
+unusual lack of sociability on her part, but she did not want to be
+asked anywhere. It was a pleasure to sit with Otoyo at one end of the
+long table in Queen's dining room, and talk about the good times they
+had been having. As for the future, Molly hung a thick veil between
+these quiet days and the days to come. Through it dimly she could see
+the bare little room at O'Reilly's, sometimes, but whenever this vision
+rose in her mind, she resolutely began to think of something else.</p>
+
+<p>It would be time enough to look it in the face at the end of the
+semester, when she must break<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> the news to Nance and Judy and pack her
+things for the move.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the girls had left on Saturday, and it seemed to Molly that
+Sunday was the quietest day of her whole life. Scarcely a dozen persons
+appeared at the Chapel for Vespers and the responses had to be spoken,
+the choir having departed for the holidays. Monday was Christmas Eve,
+and on that morning Mrs. Murphy, kind, good-natured soul that she was,
+carried Molly's breakfast to her room with a pile of letters from home.
+Molly read them while she drank her coffee, and saw plainly through
+their thinly veiled attempts at cheerfulness. It was evident that her
+family's fortunes were at a low ebb. Her mother was glad that Miss
+Walker had arranged for her to stay at college and she hoped Molly would
+be happy in her new quarters.</p>
+
+<p>Molly finished her dressing.</p>
+
+<p>"If I could only <i>do</i> something," she said to herself fiercely as she
+pinned on the blue tam, buttoned up her sweater and started out for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+walk. Otoyo, that model of industry, was deep in her lessons as Molly
+passed her door.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be back for lunch, Otoyo," she called as she hurried downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>She had no sooner left the house than Queen's Cottage became the scene
+of the most surprising activities. Little Otoyo leaped to her feet as if
+she had unexpectedly sat on a hornet's nest and trotted downstairs as
+fast as her diminutive legs could carry her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Murphee, I am readee," she called.</p>
+
+<p>There was no telling what plot they were hatching, these two souls from
+nations as widely different as night from day. Boxes were pulled from
+mysterious closets. Mrs. Murphy and one of the maids emerged from the
+cellar with their arms full of greens and, stranger still, the dignified
+Professor of English Literature actually made his appearance at the
+kitchen door with a big market basket on one arm and&mdash;but what the
+Professor carried under the other arm had been carefully concealed with
+wrapping paper. These things he deposited with Mrs. Murphy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+"It's a pleasant sight, surely, to see you this Christmas Eve marnin',
+Professor," exclaimed the Irish woman. "You're as ruddy as a holly
+berry, sir, and no mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mrs. Murphy, I'm a Christmas Green, you know," answered the
+Professor, and Mrs. Murphy laughed like a child over the little joke.</p>
+
+<p>"As for the young Japanese lady, she is that busy, sir. You would niver
+expect a haythen born to take on so about the birthday of our blessed
+Lord. But she's half a Catholic already, sir, and she's bought a holy
+candle to burn to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a good woman, Mrs. Murphy," said the Professor, standing beside
+the well-laden kitchen table, "and whatever she learns from you will do
+her good, too. She's a long way from home and I have no doubt she'll be
+very thankful for a little mothering, poor child."</p>
+
+<p>"Indade, and she's as cheerful as the day is long, sir. And so is the
+other young lady, and she's used to a deal of rejicin' in her family,
+too. I can tell by the way she loves the entertainin'.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> Her company
+niver goes away hungry and thirsty, sir. It's tea and cake always and
+more besides. 'Have you a little spare room in your oven so that I can
+bake some muffins for some friends this mornin', Mrs. Murphy?' she'll
+say of a Sunday. She's that hospitable and kind, sir. There's nobody
+like her in Queen's. I'd be sorry ever to lose her."</p>
+
+<p>"Should you call her hair red, Mrs. Murphy?" asked the Professor
+irrelevantly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's more red than anything else, sir, especially when the weather's
+damp."</p>
+
+<p>"And what color should you say her eyes were, Mrs. Murphy?"</p>
+
+<p>"An' you've not seen her eyes, surely, sir, if you can be askin' me that
+question. They're as blue&mdash;as blue, sir, like the skies in summer."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor blinked his own brown eyes very thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, good day, Mrs. Murphy, I must be off. Do you think you and Miss
+Sen together can manage things?"</p>
+
+<p>"We can, surely," said Mrs. Murphy. "She's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> as neat and quick a little
+body as I've seen this side the Atlantic."</p>
+
+<p>"My sister gets here at noon. Good day," and the Professor was off,
+around the house, and across the campus, before Mrs. Murphy could take
+breath to continue her conversation.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Molly was hastening through the pine woods to a grove
+where she had once seen some holly bushes. In the pocket of her sweater
+were a pair of scissors and a penknife.</p>
+
+<p>"We must have a little holiday decoration, Otoyo and I," she said to
+herself. "And it's lots nicer to gather it than buy it at the grocery
+store. I suppose my box from home will reach here to-night. I'll ask Mr.
+and Mrs. Murphy up to-morrow and give a party. There'll be turkey in it,
+of course, and plum cake and blackberry cordial&mdash;it won't be such a bad
+Christmas. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are dears&mdash;I must do up their presents
+this afternoon. I hope Otoyo will like the little book. She'll be
+interested to know that Professor Green wrote it."</p>
+
+<p>As she hurried along, breathing in the frosty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> air, like Pilgrim she
+spied a figure a great way off coming toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Another left-over," she thought and went on her way, her steps keeping
+time to a poem she was repeating out loud:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'St. Agnes' Eve&mdash;ah, bitter chill it was!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The owl for all his feathers was a-cold;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And silent was the flock in woolly fold&mdash;&mdash;'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Molly had just repeated the last line over, too absorbed to notice the
+advancing figure through the pine trees, except sub-consciously to see
+that it was a girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, here's the holly," she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"'Numb were the beadsman's fingers&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>She knelt on the frozen ground and began cutting off branches with the
+penknife.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you are rather surprised to see me, aren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly looked up. It was Judith Blount.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+"Why, where did you come from, Judith?" she asked. "Didn't you go up to
+New York Friday, after all?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was supposed to, but I didn't. I am staying down in the village at
+the Inn. I may go this afternoon. I haven't decided yet. To tell the
+truth, I am not very anxious to see my family. Papa&mdash;isn't at home and
+Richard and mamma are rather gloomy company. I think I'd rather spend
+Christmas almost anywhere than with them, this year."</p>
+
+<p>"But your mother, Judith," exclaimed Molly, shocked at Judith's lack of
+feeling, "doesn't she need you now more than ever?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" demanded Judith suspiciously. "What do you know of my affairs?"</p>
+
+<p>"I happen to know a great deal," answered Molly, "since they have a good
+deal to do with my own affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Judith," went on Molly, "this is Christmas and we won't quarrel
+about our misfortunes. Whatever mine are, it's not your fault. I'm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+gathering some holly to decorate for Otoyo and me. Won't you help me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks," answered the other coldly. "I don't feel much like
+Christmas this year," she burst out, after a pause. "I'm seeing my last
+of college now, unless I choose to stay under certain conditions&mdash;and I
+won't&mdash;I won't," she repeated, stamping her foot fiercely on the frozen
+earth, which gave out a rhythmic sound under the blow. "Queen's is bad
+enough, but if I am to descend to a room over the post-office after this
+semester, I'd&mdash;I'd rather die!" she added furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"We're in the same box," thought Molly. "I can appreciate how she feels,
+poor soul. I was just about as bad myself at first."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you blame me?" went on the unhappy Judith. "Through no fault of mine
+I've had troubles heaped on me all winter&mdash;first one and then another. I
+have had to suffer for another person's sins; to be crushed into a
+nobody; taken from my rightful place and shoved off first into one
+miserable little hole and then another. I tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> you I don't think it's
+fair&mdash;it's unkind&mdash;it's cruel!"</p>
+
+<p>Molly was not accustomed to hear people pity themselves. She had been
+brought up to regard it as an evidence of cowardice and low breeding.</p>
+
+<p>"I've just about made up my mind," continued Judith, "to chuck the whole
+thing and go on the stage. I can sing and dance, and I believe I could
+get into almost any chorus. Richard, of course, wouldn't hear of my
+taking part in his new opera and he could arrange it just as easily as
+not, but he doesn't approve and neither does mamma. But it would be less
+humiliating than this." She pointed to Wellington.</p>
+
+<p>"But Judith, it would be a great deal more humiliating," ejaculated
+Molly. "You would be fussed with and scolded, and you'd hear horrid
+language, and live in wretched hotels and boarding houses a great deal
+worse than the rooms over the post-office!"</p>
+
+<p>It was very little Molly knew about chorus girl life, but that little
+she now turned to good account.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+"You would have to travel a lot on smoky, uncomfortable trains and stay
+up late at night, whether you wanted to or not. You wouldn't be treated
+like a lady," she added innocently, "and you'd have to cover your face
+with grease and paint every night."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care," answered Judith. "Anything would be better than being
+banished from Wellington and living in a room next to that talkative
+little southern girl who does laundry work."</p>
+
+<p>"Judith," exclaimed Molly, "I'm being banished from Wellington, too.
+I've taken a room at O'Reilly's. I've been through all the misery you're
+going through, and I know what you are suffering. I was almost at the
+point of going home once. But Judith, don't you see that it's rather
+cowardly to enjoy prosperity and the good things that come in time of
+peace, and then run away when the real fight begins? And it wouldn't do
+any good, either. It would only make other people suffer and we'd be
+much worse off ourselves. Don't you think Judith Blount, B. A.,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> would
+be a more important person than Judith Blount, Chorus Girl?"</p>
+
+<p>Judith began picking the leaves off a piece of holly. Almost everything
+she did was destructive.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you're right," she said at last. "Mamma and Richard would
+have a fit and the chorus girl r&ocirc;le wouldn't suit me, either. I'm too
+high-tempered and I can't stand criticism. But you're going to
+O'Reilly's? That puts a new face on it. I'll change to O'Reilly's, too."</p>
+
+<p>Molly groaned inwardly. She would almost rather live next to a talking
+machine than a firebrand.</p>
+
+<p>"They aren't such bad rooms," she said quietly. "When we get our things
+in, they'll be quite nice."</p>
+
+<p>"And now, I'll hurry on," continued Judith, utterly absorbed in her own
+affairs. "I think I will take the train to New York this afternoon. I
+suppose it would be rather cowardly to leave mamma and Richard alone,
+this Christmas, especially. Good-by." She held out her hand.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> "What are
+your plans? Are you going to do anything tonight to celebrate?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Molly, shaking Judith's hand with as much cordiality as
+she could muster. "Just go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought perhaps you had formed some scheme of entertainment with my
+cousins."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the Greens? I didn't know they were here."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that they are here, either. They have been careful to keep
+their plans from me."</p>
+
+<p>Molly ignored this implication.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you'll enjoy your Christmas, Judith," she said. "Perhaps
+something will turn up."</p>
+
+<p>"Something will have to turn up after next year," exclaimed Judith, "for
+I have made up my mind to one thing. I shall never work for a living."</p>
+
+<p>And she strode off through the pine woods with her chin in the air, as
+if she were defying all the powers in heaven to make her change this
+resolution.</p>
+
+<p>Molly shivered as she knelt to clip the holly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> She seemed to see a
+picture of a tiny little Judith standing in the middle of a vast,
+endless plain raging and shaking her fists at&mdash;what? The empty air. She
+sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose I could ever make her understand that she'd be lots
+happier if she'd just let go and stop thinking that God has a grudge
+against her."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+<a name="xvii" id="xvii"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>At six o'clock that evening a mouse's tail brushed Molly's door.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, little one," called Molly, recognizing Otoyo's tap. "My, how
+dressed up you are!" she cried as the little Japanese appeared in the
+doorway blushing and hesitating.</p>
+
+<p>"You like it? This is real American young lady's toilet. It came from a
+greatly big store in New York."</p>
+
+<p>Molly felt a real regret sometimes in correcting Otoyo's funny English.
+Was not the Brown family careful for many years to call bears "b'ars"
+just because the youngest brother said it when he was a little child?</p>
+
+<p>"But why did you wear your pink cashmere this evening, dear?" she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+"Ah, but this is a holidee. In Japan we wear always best on holidee."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must dress up, too, I suppose," remarked Molly, sighing, "and I
+had thought to let myself off easy to-night, Otoyo. But I couldn't
+appear before Mrs. Murphy in this old garment and you so resplendent.
+What shall I wear, chicken?" she asked, pinching Otoyo's cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"The dress of sky blue."</p>
+
+<p>"What, my last year's best?" laughed Molly. "My lady, you ask too much.
+I must preserve that for year after next best. But, seeing that you are
+doing honor to this happy occasion, Miss Sen, I'll wear it to please
+you."</p>
+
+<p>She soon attired herself in the blue cr&ecirc;pe de chine over which she and
+Nance had labored so industriously the winter before.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls strolled downstairs together and at the first landing
+Molly began sniffing the air.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'If my ole nose don't tell no lies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It 'pears like I smells custard pies,'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>she remarked smiling.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+"It's meence," said Otoyo.</p>
+
+<p>Molly squeezed the little Japanese's plump waist.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know it's 'meence,'" she said, "but custard pies stand for mince
+and turkey and baked macaroni and all sorts of good things. We'll soon
+find out what Mrs. Murphy's been up to."</p>
+
+<p>Pushing open the dining room door, she gave a start of surprise. The
+room was deserted and almost dark, and the long table was not even set
+for two.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we must have come down too soon, Otoyo. You little monkey, you led
+me to believe it was quite late."</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo smiled and winked both eyes rapidly several times.</p>
+
+<p>"I think Mrs. Murphee is a very week-ed ladee," she said slowly. "She
+run away from thees house and leave us all alone. We shall have no
+deener? Ah, that will be very sadlee."</p>
+
+<p>They retreated from the dismal, deserted dining room into the hall.
+Immediately a door at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> the far end was thrown open and a flood of light
+poured from Mrs. Markham's sitting room. Then Mrs. Murphy's ample figure
+blocked the doorway, and in her rich Irish brogue she called:</p>
+
+<p>"You poor little lost lambs, is it for me you're lookin', then? Here I
+am and here's your supper waitin' for you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Markham was away for the holidays.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Mrs. Murphy," called Molly cheerfully. Taking Otoyo's hand,
+she led her down the hall. "Why, little one, I don't believe you are
+well," she exclaimed. "Your hands are cold and you are trembling."</p>
+
+<p>The truth is, Miss Sen was almost hysterical with suppressed excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no," she replied. "I am feeling quite, quitely well."</p>
+
+<p>Grasping Molly's hand more firmly, she began running as if the strain
+were too great to be endured longer.</p>
+
+<p>All this time Molly had not the faintest suspicion of the surprises
+awaiting her in Mrs. Markham's sitting room. Imagine her amazement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> when
+she found herself confronting Miss Grace Green, her two brothers and
+Lawrence Upton in that cozy apartment! In the center was a round table
+set for six, and in the center of the round table was the most adorable
+miniature Christmas tree decorated with tiny ornaments and little
+candles, their diminutive points of light blinking cheerfully. Four tall
+silver candlesticks with red shades flanked the Christmas tree at each
+side; a wood fire crackled in the open fireplace and everywhere were
+bunches and garlands of holly.</p>
+
+<p>Molly was quite speechless at first and she came very near crying. But
+she choked back the lump which would rise in her throat and smiled
+bravely at the company.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are pleased with the surprise, dear," said Miss Grace Green,
+kissing her. "It seemed to Edwin and me that six homeless people should
+unite in making a Christmas for themselves. Lawrence is like you. He
+lives too far away for Christmas at home, and I am at the mercies of a
+boarding house. So, Mrs. Murphy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> has agreed to be a mother to all of us
+this Christmas and cheer us up."</p>
+
+<p>"Shure, and I'd like to be the mother of such a foine family," said Mrs.
+Murphy. "Me old man wouldn't mind the responsibility, either, I'm
+thinkin'."</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed and Molly found herself shaking hands with Professor
+Green and Dodo and Lawrence Upton; kissing Miss Green again; rapturously
+admiring the exquisite little tree and rushing from one holly decoration
+to another, to the joy of Otoyo, who had arranged the greens with her
+own hands.</p>
+
+<p>Surely such a happy Christmas party had never taken place before at old
+brown Queen's. Mrs. Murphy herself waited on the table and joined in the
+conversation whenever she chose, and once Mr. Murphy, baggage master at
+Wellington station, popped his head in at the door and smiling broadly,
+remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Shure, 'tis a happy party ye're after makin' the night; brothers and
+sisters; swatehearts and frinds&mdash;all gathered togither around the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+board. It'll be a merry evenin' for ye, young ladies and gintlemin, and
+it's wishin' ye well I am with all me heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Mr. Murphy," said the Professor, "and we be wishin' the same
+to you and many Christmasses to follow."</p>
+
+<p>"Which one of us is your swateheart, Miss Sen?" asked Lawrence Upton
+mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>"I like better the 'meat-sweet' than the sweet-heart," answered Miss Sen
+demurely. There was no doubt, however, that she knew the meaning of the
+word "sweetheart."</p>
+
+<p>How they all laughed at this and teased Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>"Just be <i>bonbon</i> and you'll be a 'meat-sweet' Larry," said the
+Professor, who appeared this evening to have laid aside all official
+dignity and become as youthful as his brother Dodo.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner the table was cleared, the fire built up, and the company
+gathered around the hearth. They roasted chestnuts and told ghost
+stories. Otoyo in the quaintest English told a blood-curdling Japanese
+story which interested<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> Professor Green so deeply that he took out a
+little book and jotted down notes, and questioned her regarding names
+and places.</p>
+
+<p>Molly knew a true story of a haunted house in Kentucky, fallen into
+ruins because no one had dared live in it for years.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mrs. Murphy brought in the lamps and Professor Green drew up at the
+table and read aloud Dickens's "Christmas Carol." Molly's mother had
+read to her children the immortal story of "Tiny Tim" ever since they
+could remember on Christmas day, and it gave Molly much secret pleasure
+to know that these dear kind friends had kept up the same practice.
+After that they fetched down Judy's guitar and, with Molly accompanying,
+they sang some of the good old songs that people think they have
+forgotten until they hear the thrum of the guitar and someone starts the
+singing.</p>
+
+<p>At last the tower clock boomed midnight, and as the echo of the final
+stroke vibrated in the room, the door opened and Santa Claus stood on
+the threshold.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+"Shure, an' I'm just on the nick of time," he said with a good Irish
+accent, as he unstrapped his pack and proceeded to distribute packages
+done up in white tissue paper tied with red ribbons.</p>
+
+<p>There were presents for everyone with no names attached, but Molly
+suspected Professor Green of being the giver of the pretty things. Hers
+was a volume of Rossetti's poems bound in dark blue leather. There was a
+pretty volume of Tennyson's poems for Otoyo; and funny gifts for
+everybody, with delightful jingles attached which the Professor read
+very gravely. Otoyo almost had hysterics over her toy, which was simply
+a small, imitation book shelf on which was a row of the works of Emerson
+and Carlyle, filled with "meat-sweets."</p>
+
+<p>Only one thing happened to mar that evening's pleasure, and this was the
+fault of the little Japanese herself, to her undying mortification and
+sorrow. When the party was at its very height and they had joined hands
+and were circling around Santa Claus, who was singing "The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> Wearing of
+the Green," Otoyo unexpectedly broke from the circle and with a funny,
+squeaky little scream pointed wildly at the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, child, what frightened you?" asked Miss Grace Green, taking the
+girl's hand and looking into her white, scared face.</p>
+
+<p>But Otoyo refused to explain and would only say over and over:</p>
+
+<p>"I ask pardon. I feel so sorrowfully to make this beeg disturbance. Will
+you forgive Otoyo?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we forgive you, dear. And won't you tell us what you saw?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no. It was notheeng."</p>
+
+<p>"We ought to be going, at any rate," said the Professor. "Miss Sen isn't
+accustomed to celebrations like this when old people turn into children
+and children turn into infants."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I an infant?" asked Molly, "or a child?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you still belong to the infant class, Miss Brown," replied
+the Professor regretfully.</p>
+
+<p>They attributed Otoyo's fright to nervousness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> caused from
+over-excitement, and a few minutes later the party broke up.</p>
+
+<p>It was one o'clock when the two girls finally climbed upstairs to the
+lonely silent third floor. Molly escorted Otoyo to her little room and
+turned on the light.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, little one," she said, putting her hands on the Japanese girl's
+shoulders and searching her face, "what was it you saw at the window?"</p>
+
+<p>Otoyo closed the door carefully and, tipping back to Molly's side,
+whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"The greatly beeg black eyes of Mees Blount look in from the window
+outside. She was very angree. Oh, so angree! She look like an eevil
+spirit."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she didn't go to New York, after all! But how silly not to have
+joined us. What a jealous, strange girl she is!"</p>
+
+<p>Molly could not know, however, with what care and secrecy the Greens had
+guarded their Christmas plans from Judith, who had caught a glimpse of
+the Professor and his sister at the general store that afternoon. It was
+revealed to her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> that her cousins would much rather not spend Christmas
+with her, and with a sullen, stubborn determination she changed her mind
+about going to New York. There was a good deal of the savage in her
+untamed nature, and that night, wandering unhappily about the college
+grounds and hearing sounds of laughter and singing from Queen's, she
+pressed her face against the window and the gay picture she saw inflamed
+her mind with rage and bitterness. The poor girl did resemble an evil
+spirit at that moment. There was hatred in her heart for every
+merrymaker in the room, and if she had had a dynamite bomb she would
+have thrown it into the midst of the company without a moment's
+hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>When Molly went to her own room after her talk with Otoyo, she found a
+note on her dressing table which did not worry her in the least
+considering she was quite innocent of the charge.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"You told me a falsehood this morning with all your preaching.
+I'd rather live over the post-office next to an incessant talker
+who does laundry work than stay in the same house with a person
+as deceitful and untruthful as you. J. B."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+"I'm sorry for the poor soul," thought Molly, as she contemplated her
+own happy image in the glass. "She is like a traveller who deliberately
+takes the hardest road and chooses all the most disagreeable places to
+walk in. If she would just turn around and go the other way she would
+find it so much more agreeable for herself and all concerned."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, Molly felt a secret relief that Judith had chosen to stay
+over the post-office.</p>
+
+<p>As for the incorrigible Judith, she did leave for New York early next
+morning and spent the rest of the holidays with her mother and brother.</p>
+
+<p>Molly saw a great deal of the Greens for the next few days. They had tea
+together and long walks, and once the Professor read aloud to his sister
+and the little girl from Kentucky in the privacy of his own study. Miss
+Green and her two brothers left Wellington on New Year's Eve to visit
+some cousins in the next county, and still Molly was not lonely, for
+Lawrence Upton put in a great deal of time teaching her to skate and
+showing Otoyo and her the country around Wellington.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+<a name="xviii" id="xviii"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>BREAKING THE NEWS.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Mrs. Markham had received due notice that Molly Brown of Kentucky would
+be obliged to give up her half of the big room on the third floor at
+Queen's. The matron was very sorry. Miss Blount also was moving to other
+quarters, she said; but she was too accustomed to the transitory tenants
+of Queen's to feel any real grief over sudden departures.</p>
+
+<p>"It only remains to break the news to the others," thought Molly, but
+she mercifully determined to wait until after the mid-year examinations.
+She was very modest regarding her popularity, but she was pretty sure
+that Judy's highly emotional temperament might work itself into a fever
+from such a shock. Remembering her last year's experience at mid-years,
+Molly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> guarded her secret carefully until after the great crisis.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, the fateful moment came. All the Queen's circle was
+gathered in that center of hospitality in which Molly had spent so many
+happy months. The walls never looked so serenely blue as on that bright
+Sunday morning in January, nor the Japanese scroll more alluring and
+ornamental. A ray of sunlight filtering through the white dimity
+curtains cast a checkered shadow on the antique rug. Even the
+imperfections of the old room were dear to Molly's heart now that she
+must leave them forever; the spot in the ceiling where the roof had
+leaked; the worn place in the carpet where they had sat around the
+register, and the mischievous chair with the "game leg" which
+precipitated people to the floor unexpectedly.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody was in a good humor.</p>
+
+<p>"There are no shipwrecks on the strand this year," Margaret Wakefield
+was saying. "Everybody's safe in harbor, glory be."</p>
+
+<p>"Even me," put in Jessie meekly. "I never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> thought I'd pull through in
+that awful chemistry exam., and I was morally certain I'd flunk in
+math., too. I'm so afraid of Miss Bowles that my hair stands on end
+whenever she speaks to me."</p>
+
+<p>"She is rather formidable," said Edith Williams. "Why is it that Higher
+Mathematics seems to freeze a body's soul and turn one into an early
+Puritan?"</p>
+
+<p>"It simply trains the mind to be exact," said Margaret, who always
+defended the study of mathematics in these discussions. "And exactness
+means sticking to facts, and that's an excellent quality in a woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning to say," broke in Katherine Williams, "that all un-mathematical
+minds are untruthful&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing of the sort," cried Margaret hotly. "I never made any such
+statement. Did I, girls? I said&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There was a bumping, tumbling noise in the hall. Judy, the ever-curious,
+opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"The trunks are here, Miss," called Mr. Murphy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> "and sorry we are to
+lose you, the old woman and I."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Mr. Murphy," answered Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, for the love of Mike," cried Judy, turning around and facing
+Molly. "What are you talking about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not talking about anything," answered Molly, trying to keep her
+voice steady.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you flunk in any of the exams., Molly Brown?" asked Edith in a
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"No," whispered Molly in reply. It was going to be even worse than she
+had pictured to herself. "No," she repeated. A pulse throbbed in her
+throat and made her voice sound all tremolo like a beginner's in
+singing. "I waited to tell you until after mid-years. I'm not going very
+far away&mdash;only to O'Reilly's."</p>
+
+<p>Nance, who had been sitting on the floor with her head against Molly's
+knee, began softly to weep. It was certainly one of the most desolating
+experiences of Molly's life.</p>
+
+<p>"O'Reilly's?" they cried in one loud protesting shriek.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+"Yes, you see, we&mdash;we've lost some money and I have to move," began
+Molly apologetically. "We can be friends just the same, only I won't see
+quite as much of you&mdash;it&mdash;it will be harder on me than on you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>It would have been gratifying if it had not been so sad, this circle of
+tear-stained faces and every tear shed on her <a name="quote" id="quote"></a><ins title="removed
+quotation mark">account.</ins></p>
+
+<p>"We simply can't do without you, Molly," cried pretty, affectionate
+Jessie Lynch. "You belong to the 'body corporate' of Queen's, as
+Margaret calls it, to such an extent that if you leave us, we'll&mdash;well,
+we'll just fall to pieces, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>It remained for Judy Kean, however, that creature of impulse and
+emotion, to prove the depths of her affection. When she rushed blindly
+from the room, her friends had judged that she wished to be alone. Molly
+had once been a witness to the awful struggle of Judy in tears and she
+knew that weeping was not a surface emotion with her.</p>
+
+<p>For some time, Molly went on quietly explaining and talking, answering
+their questions and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> assuring them that there would be many meetings at
+O'Reilly's of Queen's girls.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect you'll have to move into Judith Blount's singleton, Nance,"
+she continued, patting her friend's cheek. "That is, unless you can
+arrange to get someone to share this one with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, don't," sobbed Nance. "I can't bear it."</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a noise outside of trunks being carried upstairs and
+dumped down in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"There go poor Judith's trunks," observed Molly. "It will be harder on
+her than on me because she takes it so hard. She's&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Molly broke off and opened the door. Judy's voice was heard outside
+giving directions.</p>
+
+<p>"Just pull them inside for me, will you, Mr. Murphy? I know they fill up
+the room, but I like to pack all at once. Will you see about the room
+for me at Mrs. O'Reilly's as you go down to the station? I'll notify the
+registrar and Mrs. Markham. And Mr. Murphy, get a room next<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> to Miss
+Brown's, if possible. I don't care whether it's little or big."</p>
+
+<p>Nance pushed Molly aside and rushed into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Why hadn't I thought of that?" she cried. "Mr. Murphy, I want a room at
+O'Reilly's. Will you engage one for me as near Miss Brown's as you can,
+and before you go bring up my trunks, please?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, may the saints defind us," cried the distracted Mr. Murphy. "It
+looks as if the whole of Queen's was movin' down to the village. You're
+a foine lot of young ladies, Miss, and loyalty ain't so usual a trait in
+a woman, either."</p>
+
+<p>"But Nance, but Judy!" protested Molly. "I can't&mdash;you mustn't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say another word," put in Judy as if she were scolding a bad
+child. "Nance and I would rather live at O'Reilly's with you than at
+Queen's without you, that's all. We mean no reflection on the others,
+but I suppose you all understand. Edith and Katherine wouldn't be
+separated,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> and Jessie and Margaret wouldn't. Well, it's the same with
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be sorry," cried Molly. "Oh, Judy, I know you'll regret it the
+very first day. It will be very different from Queen's. We'll have to
+get our own breakfasts, and take meals at the place next door, and the
+rooms are plain with ugly wall paper, and there isn't any white
+woodwork, and it's a big empty old place. It used to be a small hotel,
+you know, and Mrs. O'Reilly is trying to sell it. The only
+recommendation it has, is that it's very cheap."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you go over to the post-office, Molly?" asked Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"They are nicer rooms," admitted Molly, "but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Judith Blount is going there," put in Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"That wasn't the only reason. I really had arranged about O'Reilly's
+before I knew Judith Blount was going to leave here."</p>
+
+<p>The girls looked puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Edith. "There's a young person<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> with a soft cooing voice
+at the post-office who talks a mile a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"She's a very nice girl," broke in Molly, "and works so hard. I really
+like her ever so much. She's very clever, but I have a sort of
+bewildered feeling when I am with her."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Edith. "It's like standing on the banks of a rushing
+river. There's no way to stop it and there's no way to get across. You
+might as well retreat to O'Reilly's in good order."</p>
+
+<p>"O'Reilly's it is," cried Judy with the gallant air of one about to go
+forth in search of adventure.</p>
+
+<p>It was in vain that Molly protested. Her friends had made up their minds
+and nothing could swerve them. By good luck, the checks in payment for
+board and lodging at Queen's for the new quarter had not arrived, and
+the two girls were free to move if they chose.</p>
+
+<p>Together the three friends, more closely united than ever by the
+sacrifice of two of them, walked down into the village that afternoon to
+have a look at O'Reilly's, and they were obliged to confess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> that they
+were not impressed with its possibilities as a home. But it was a dark,
+cold day&mdash;when even cheerful, pretty rooms would not have looked their
+best.</p>
+
+<p>"These two back rooms will be rather nice when the spring comes,"
+observed Nance, with a forced gaiety. "They look over the garden, you
+see. Perhaps Mrs. O'Reilly will let us plant some seeds in March."</p>
+
+<p>"It won't be nice," Molly cried. "It will be miserable. I've known it
+all along myself, but I wouldn't admit it until now. Girls, I implore
+you to stay at Queen's. You never will be happy here, and I shall be
+twice as unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't say another word, Molly Brown," said Judy. "We're going to
+follow you if it's to the Inferno."</p>
+
+<p>"Think how you'll miss the others."</p>
+
+<p>"Think how we'd miss you."</p>
+
+<p>"We'd better go back and pack our things, then," sighed Molly, feeling
+very much like a culprit who had drawn her friends into mischief.</p>
+
+<p>That night they packed their belongings, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> not once by the blink of
+an eyelash did Judy or Nance show what they felt about leaving Queen's
+forever. At last with walls cleared of pictures, curtains neatly folded,
+books piled into boxes and rugs rolled up, the three girls went to bed,
+worn out with the day's labors and emotions.</p>
+
+<p>In the night, Nance, shivering, crawled into Molly's bed and brought all
+her covering with her. Under a double layer of comforts they snuggled
+while the thermometer went down, down until it reached ten degrees below
+zero.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+<a name="xix" id="xix"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+<br />
+<small>HOW O'REILLY'S BECAME QUEEN'S.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Molly often looked back on that famous bitter Monday as the most
+exciting day of her entire life. Surprises began in the morning when
+they learned for a fact that it was ten degrees below zero. Barometers
+in a house always make the weather seem ten times worse. In the night
+the water pipes had burst and flooded the kitchen floor, which by
+morning was covered with a layer of ice. On this, the unfortunate Mrs.
+Murphy, entering unawares, slipped and sprained her ankle. The gas was
+frozen, and neither the gas nor the coal range could be used that
+eventful morning. The girls prepared their own breakfasts on chafing
+dishes, and wrapped in blankets they shivered over the registers, up
+which rose a thin stream of heat that made but a feeble impression on
+the freezing atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+"We do look something like a mass meeting of Siberian exiles," observed
+Judy grimly, looking about her in Chapel a little later.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Walker herself wore a long fur coat and a pair of arctic shoes and
+in the assembled company of students there appeared every variety of
+winter covering known to the civilized world, apparently: ulsters, golf
+capes, fur coats, sweaters, steamer rugs and shawls.</p>
+
+<p>Molly was numb with cold; fur coats were the only garments warm enough
+that day, and a blue sweater under a gray cloth jacket was as nothing
+against the frigid atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>"Bed's the only comfortable place to be in," she whispered to Judy, "and
+here we've got classes till twelve thirty and moving in the afternoon!
+The trunks are going this morning. Oh, heavens, how I do dread it!"</p>
+
+<p>"At least O'Reilly's couldn't be any colder than Queen's is at present,"
+replied Judy, "and there's a grate in the room I am to have. We'll have
+a big coal fire and cheer things up considerably."</p>
+
+<p>Everything was done on the run that day.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> Groups of girls could be seen
+tearing from one building to another. They dashed through corridors like
+wild ponies and rushed up and down stairs as if the foul fiends were
+chasing them.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was like a famous invalid rapidly sinking. They frequently
+took his temperature and cried to one another:</p>
+
+<p>"It's gone down two degrees."</p>
+
+<p>"The bulletin says it will be fifteen by night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," groaned Molly, thinking of her friends at that dismal O'Reilly's.</p>
+
+<p>Having half an hour to spare between classes, she went to the library
+where she met Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"There are some letters for you, Molly. They came by the late mail. I
+saw them in the hall," Nance informed her.</p>
+
+<p>But Molly was not deeply interested in letters that morning.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind mail," she said. "I can only think of two things. How cold I
+am this minute, and how uncomfortable you and Judy are going to be for
+my sake."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think about it, Molly, dear," said Nance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> "We'll soon get
+adjusted at O'Reilly's with you, and we never would at Queen's without
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Molly could not find her mail when she returned to Queen's for lunch,
+which had been prepared with much difficulty on several chafing dishes
+and a small charcoal brazier by Mrs. Markham and the maid. Nobody seemed
+to know anything about letters in the upset and half-frozen household,
+until it was finally discovered that Mr. Murphy had taken Molly's mail
+down to O'Reilly's when he had moved the trunks.</p>
+
+<p>Having disposed of indifferently warmed canned soup and creamed boned
+chicken that was chilled to its heart, the three friends went down to
+the village. They looked at the rooms; they stood gazing pensively at
+their trunks; it seemed too cold to make the physical effort to unpack
+their clothes. Again the fugitive letters had escaped Molly. Mr. Murphy,
+finding she was not to come down until afternoon had kept them in his
+pocket and was at that moment at the station awaiting the three fifteen
+train.</p>
+
+<p>"It's too cold to follow him," said Molly, never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> dreaming that Mr.
+Murphy was carrying about with him a letter which was to change the
+whole tenor of her life. "I'm so homesick," she exclaimed, "let's go
+back to Queen's for awhile."</p>
+
+<p>And back they hastened. Somehow they didn't know what to do with
+themselves in their new quarters. It seemed unnatural to sit down and
+chat in those strange rooms.</p>
+
+<p>As they neared the avenue they noticed groups of girls ahead of them,
+all running. The three friends began to run, too, beating their hands
+together to stir up the circulation. A bell was ringing violently. Its
+clang in the frosty air sounded harsh and unnatural.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the fire bell," cried Judy.</p>
+
+<p>They dashed into the avenue. The campus was alive with students all
+running in the same direction.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Queen's," shrieked Nance. "Queen's is burning!"</p>
+
+<p>Smoke was pouring from every window in the old brown house. The lawn in
+front was filled with a jumbled mass of furniture and clothes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> Margaret
+and Jessie appeared on the porch dragging a great bundle of their
+belongings tied up in a bedspread. Otoyo rushed from the house, her arms
+filled with things. Mrs. Murphy, seated in a big chair on the campus,
+was rocking back and forth and moaning:</p>
+
+<p>"Queen's is gone. Nothing can save her. The pipes is froze."</p>
+
+<p>Out of the front door Edith Williams now emerged, quite calmly, with an
+armload of books.</p>
+
+<p>"Edith," cried Katherine, who had run at full speed all the way from the
+Quadrangle, "why didn't you bring our clothes?"</p>
+
+<p>For an answer her sister pointed at a pile of things on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"I made two trips," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>All this the girls heard as in a dream as they stood in a shivering row
+on the campus. Old brown Queen's was about to be reduced to ashes and
+cinders! No need to summon the fire brigade or call in the volunteer
+fire department from the village, although this organization presently
+came dashing up with a small engine. Flames<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> were already licking their
+way hungrily along the lower story of the house, and the slight stream
+of water from the engine hose only seemed to rouse them to greater fury.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm only thankful it didn't happen at night," they heard Miss Walker
+cry as she pushed her way through the throng of girls. "And you, my dear
+child," she continued, laying a hand on Molly's shoulder, "did you save
+your things?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly started from her lethargy. She was so cold and unhappy, she had
+forgotten all about her belongings.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, Miss Walker," she answered. "You see, we moved this morning.
+Wasn't it fortunate?"</p>
+
+<p>"We?" repeated Miss Walker.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. My two friends, Miss Oldham and Miss Kean, moved, too. They&mdash;well,
+they wouldn't stay at Queen's without me."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible?" said the President. "And their trunks had gone down to
+the village? Dear, dear, what a remarkably providential thing. And what
+devoted friends you seem to make, Miss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> Brown," she added, patting
+Molly's hand and then turning away to speak to Professor Green, who had
+hurried up.</p>
+
+<p>"Is everybody safe?" he asked breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, Professor, everybody's safe and everything has been done that
+could be done. I am afraid some of the girls have lost a good many
+things, but you will be glad to know that three of them had only this
+morning sent their trunks to rooms in the village&mdash;Miss Brown and her
+two friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brown moving to the village?"</p>
+
+<p>Molly looked up and caught the Professor's glance turned searchingly on
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to live at O'Reilly's," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"And you are safe and your things are safe?" he asked her, frowning so
+sternly that she felt she must have displeased him somehow. "I'm glad,
+very glad," he added, turning abruptly away. "Is there nothing I can do,
+Miss Walker?"</p>
+
+<p>For answer she pointed to the volunteers from the village who had leaped
+away from the house.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> The crowd swerved back. There was a crackling
+sound, a crash; a great wave of heat swept across the campus and the
+front wall of Queen's fell in. They had one fleeting view of the
+familiar rooms, and then a cloud of ashes and smoke choked the picture.
+It was not long before only the rear wall of old brown Queen's was left
+standing.</p>
+
+<p>"Dust to dust and ashes to ashes," said Edith Williams, solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>It did seem very much like a funeral to the crowd of Queen's girls who
+stood in a shivering, loyal row to the end.</p>
+
+<p>"So much for Queen's," said Margaret Wakefield. "She's dead and now
+what's to be done?"</p>
+
+<p>It was decided that the girls should go to O'Reilly's for the time
+being, all other available quarters being about filled. If they
+preferred the post-office they could stay there; but they preferred
+O'Reilly's.</p>
+
+<p>And thither, also, went Mrs. Markham and the Murphys and the maids from
+Queen's. In a few short hours, it would seem, Queen's had been changed
+to O'Reilly's, or O'Reilly's to Queen's.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> It turned out, too, that Mrs.
+O'Reilly was nearly related to Mr. Murphy, and all things, therefore,
+worked together in harmony.</p>
+
+<p>O'Reilly's seemed a place of warmth and comfort to the half-frozen girls
+who clustered around the big fire in Judy's room at five o'clock that
+afternoon, scalding their tongues with hot tea and coffee while they
+discussed their plans for the future.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Markham told <i>me</i>," announced Margaret, a recognized authority on
+all subjects, political, domestic, financial and literary, "that it
+would probably be arranged to make O'Reilly's into a college house for
+the rest of the winter. She said they might even do over the rooms. It
+would be a smaller household than Queen's, of course&mdash;only eight or
+nine&mdash;but it would be rather cosy and&mdash;there would be no breaking up of
+old ties. If this isn't approved," she continued, exactly as if she were
+addressing a class meeting, "we shall have to scatter. There's another
+apartment in the Quadrangle and there are a few singletons left in some
+of the campus houses. Now,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> girls,"&mdash;her voice took on an oratorical
+ring&mdash;"of course, I know that we are nearly fifteen minutes' walk by the
+short cut from the college and that we may not be <i>in</i> things as much;
+but the best part of college we have here at O'Reilly's. And that's
+ourselves. I move that we change O'Reilly's into Queen's and make the
+best of it for the rest of the winter."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah! I second the motion," cried Katherine Williams.</p>
+
+<p>"All those in favor of this motion will please say 'aye'," said the
+President.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," burst from the throats of the eight friends, Otoyo's shrill high
+note sounding with the others.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah for our President," cried Molly, dancing around the room in an
+excess of happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Unitus et concordia</i>," said Edith gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"It's really Molly that's transformed O'Reilly's into Queen's,"
+continued Margaret, who had a generous, big way of saying things when
+she chose. "It's Molly who has kept us all together.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> With Molly and
+Nance and Judy gone, Queen's would have been a different place."</p>
+
+<p>"It would! It would!" they cried. "Three cheers for Molly Brown!"</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Here's to Molly Brown, drink her down!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here's to dear old Queen's, drink her down.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Through the din of singing and cheering, there came a loud knocking at
+the door and a voice cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Open in the name of the law!"</p>
+
+<p>Then the door was thrust open and Sallie Marks marched in flourishing a
+hot-water bag in one hand and a thermos bottle in the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she exclaimed, "you're the most cheerful lot of refugees I ever
+saw. I came down expecting to find eight frozen corpses stretched on the
+shining strand, and here you are singing hilarious songs and yelling
+like a lot of Comanche Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you bringing us, Sallie?" demanded Judy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+"I'm bringing you myself," said Sallie. "I've arranged to come down
+here. They shelved me with a lot of freshies at Martin's and I said I'd
+rather be at O'Reilly's with the Old Guard. So Mr. Murphy brought me
+down with two sheet-loads of my things and some beds from the hospital,
+and here I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah!" they cried again, joining hands and dancing in a circle around
+Sallie.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Here's to good old Sallie, drink her down,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drink her down, drink her down, drink her down!'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>After this wild outburst of joy over the return of another wanderer to
+the fold, Sallie began to remove her outer wrappings.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel like an Egyptian mummy," she remarked as she skinned off two
+long coats and unwound several scarfs.</p>
+
+<p>"You look like a pouter pigeon," said Judy, "what have you got stuffed
+in there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mail," said Sallie, unbuttoning another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> jacket, "mail for Queen's. Mr.
+Murphy gave it to me when he came to get my things. And, by the way,"
+she added, "I saved my rocking chair and sat in it as I drove down to
+the village. Wasn't it beautiful? I suppose I'll be lampooned now as
+'Sallie, the emigrant.' But it was too cold to care much. I was only
+thankful I had taken the precaution to fill the hot-water bag and the
+thermos bottle before I started on the drive."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+<a name="xx" id="xx"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE TURN OF THE WHEEL.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Sallie Marks had, indeed, received a royal welcome from her friends.
+They were as glad to see her as if she had just returned from a long
+voyage. Now they poked the fire and made fresh tea and petted and
+caressed her until her pale, near-sighted eyes were quite watery and she
+was obliged to wipe the moisture from her glasses.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll make out the winter here, girls," she assured them. "It may take
+a week to get the house in order, but we can put up with a little
+discomfort to have O'Reilly's to ourselves. If they would only strip off
+this bilious paper and lay a few mattings! The plumbing is better than
+it was at Queen's, and the heating arrangements, too."</p>
+
+<p>The room was really very comfortable what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> with the fire in the grate
+and the heat pouring up the register.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a defective flue that made old Queen's go under," observed
+Katherine sadly, as if she were speaking of a dear friend who had lately
+passed into another life. "I am afraid her heating apparatus was a
+little second class."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak no evil of the dead," admonished her sister Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Requiescat in pace</i>," said Sallie in a solemn voice.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>La reine est morte; vive la reine</i>," said Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"After all, we are really 'Queen's'" said Judy, "so let's be as happy as
+we can. Where are those letters, Sallie?"</p>
+
+<p>Sallie unbuttoned the last layer of sweater and drew out a pile of mail
+which she distributed, calling the name of each girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Molly Brown," she called, handing Molly a letter from Kentucky.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Sen, a letter from the Land of the Rising Sun. I hope it will rise
+warmer there than it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> set here this evening. Miss Jessie Lynch, a letter
+addressed in the handwriting of a male. Ahem! Miss Lynch, another letter
+in the same handwriting of presumably the same male."</p>
+
+<p>Much laughter among those not already absorbed in letters.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Margaret Wakefield, an official document from the capital of these
+United States of America. Miss Julia S. Kean, a parental epistle which
+no doubt contains other things. Miss Molly Brown, who appears to be
+secretly purchasing a farm."</p>
+
+<p>Sallie handed Molly a long envelope, while the others snatched their
+letters and turned away. Only Nance had received no mail that day; yet,
+more than any girl there, she enjoyed corresponding and sent off weekly
+voluminous letters to her father, her only correspondent except Andy
+McLean, who was not yet considered strong enough to write letters.</p>
+
+<p>It was with something very near to envy that she watched the faces of
+her friends as they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> waded through long family letters with an
+occasional laugh or comment:</p>
+
+<p>"It's been ten below at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Father forgot to put in my check. He's getting very thoughtless."</p>
+
+<p>"My wandering parents are going to Florida. They can't stand the cold in
+New York."</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a state of things," exclaimed Edith, "another book bill for
+books that were burned. Isn't that the limit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and you'll borrow from me again," said Katherine. "And I shall
+refuse to lend you another cent. You are getting entirely too crazy
+about buying books."</p>
+
+<p>Nobody took any notice of this sisterly dialogue which went on
+continuously and never had any real meaning, because in the end
+Katherine always paid her sister's debts.</p>
+
+<p>Nance's gaze shifted to Molly, who might have been turned into a graven
+image, so still was she sitting. She had not opened the letter from
+home, but the long envelope from the real estate company lay at her
+feet. In one hand she held<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> a typewritten letter and in the other a long
+blue slip of paper which, beyond a doubt, was a check. Picking up the
+envelope, Molly gave a covert glance around the absorbed circle and
+slipped the check inside. Then she noticed Nance gazing at her
+curiously. She smiled, and then began to laugh so joyously that
+everybody stopped reading and regarded her almost anxiously. There was a
+peculiar ring of excitement in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Molly, hasn't something awfully nice happened to you?" asked Nance.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," she answered, "to tell the truth, there has."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? What is it?" cried the chorus of voices.</p>
+
+<p>Molly hesitated and blushed, and laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you would believe it if I were to tell you," she said.
+"It's too absurd. I can hardly believe it myself, even after reading the
+letter and seeing the&mdash;the&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The what, Molly?" demanded Judy, beside herself with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+Molly laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so happy," she cried. "It's made me warm all over. The temperature
+has risen ten degrees."</p>
+
+<p>"Molly Brown, will you explain yourself? Can't you see we are
+palpitating to know what it is?" cried Judy.</p>
+
+<p>"I've won a prize," exclaimed Molly. "I've won a prize. Can't you see
+what it means to me? I needed the money and it came. A perfect windfall.
+Oh, isn't this world a delightful place? I don't mind the cold weather
+and O'Reilly's. I'm so happy. I prayed for rain and carried my umbrella.
+Oh, I'm so happy, happy, happy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Has the child gone daffy?" said Sallie Marks, while Judy seized the
+envelope and drew out a check for two hundred dollars made out in the
+name of "Mary C. W. Brown." Then she opened the letter and read aloud:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noi nmb">"'Dear Madam:</p>
+
+<p class="nmt nmb">It gives us much pleasure to inform you that among several
+hundred contestants you have won the prize of $200, offered by
+this company for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> best advertisement in prose or verse for
+one of our mountain chalets. Your poem will occupy the first
+page in an elaborate booklet now under way and we hope will
+attract many customers. We offer you our congratulations and
+good wishes for other literary successes and enclose the check
+herewith.</p>
+
+<p class="right3">Very cordially yours, etc., etc.'"</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Am I sleeping or waking?" cried Molly. "This, at the end of this awful
+day! Isn't it wonderful?"</p>
+
+<p>The reunited friends made so much noise over this triumph of their
+favorite that Mrs. Markham, superintending the setting up of beds and
+arranging of rooms with Mrs. O'Reilly, smilingly observed:</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, they don't seem to take their misfortune much to heart, do
+they?"</p>
+
+<p>"They're that glad to get in out of the cold, ma'am, and warm themselves
+with some tea. It's thawed them out, I expect, the poor young things.
+They was half froze when they come an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"But where's the poem, Molly," cried Judy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> when the racket had
+subsided. "We must see the poem."</p>
+
+<p>"It's locked in my trunk."</p>
+
+<p>"Get it out, get it out," they ordered, and she had no peace until she
+unlocked the trunk and, rummaging in her portfolio, found the original
+manuscript of "The Chalet of the West Wind."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't see why it won the prize," she said. "I hadn't even the shadow
+of a hope when I sent it. It's not a bit like an ad."</p>
+
+<p>"It was certainly what they wanted," said Sallie. "They didn't have to
+give you the prize, seeing that they had several hundred to choose from.
+But read it, because I'm in a fever of curiosity to hear it."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Judy had lit the gas, and taking Molly by the
+shoulders, pushed her into a chair under the light.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm most awfully embarrassed," announced Molly, "but here goes," and
+she read the following verses:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">The Chalet of the West Wind.</p>
+
+<div class="block27">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Wind of the West, Wind of the West,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Breathe on my little chalet.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Blow over summer fields,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bring all their perfume yields,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lily and clover and hay.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Bring all the joys of spring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soft-kissing zephyrs bring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Peace of the mountains and hills,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Waken the columbine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stir the sweet breath of pine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hasten the late daffodils.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"Gentle Wind from the Isles of the Blest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Breathe on my little chalet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fill it with music and laughter and rest;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fill it with love and with dreams that are best;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Breathe on it softly, sweet Wind of the West,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Breathe on my little chalet."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>There was certainly nothing very remarkable about the little song, and
+yet it had caught the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> eye of the real estate men as having a certain
+quality which would attract people to that sunny mountainside whereon
+were perched the quaint Swiss chalets they desired to sell. There was a
+subtle suggestion to the buyer that he might find rest and happiness in
+this peaceful home. The piney air, the flowers and the sunshine had all
+been poetically but quite truthfully described. With a picture of the
+"Chalet of the West Wind" on the opposite page, people of discerning
+tastes, looking for summer homes, would surely be attracted.</p>
+
+<p>"How ever did you happen to write it, Molly?" they asked her after
+re-reading the poem and admiring it with friendly loyalty. "Have you
+ever been to the mountains?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she answered, "I actually never have. But something in me that
+wasn't me wrote the verses. They just seemed to come, first the meter
+and then, gradually, the lines. I can't explain it. I had some bad news
+and was afraid I would have to leave college and then the poem came.
+That was all. Two hundred dollars," she added,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> looking at the check.
+"It seems too good to be true. What must I do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Put it in the Wellington Bank to-morrow morning," answered Margaret
+promptly.</p>
+
+<p>Between them, Mrs. Markham and Mrs. O'Reilly prepared a very good dinner
+for the girls that night, and instead of being a funeral feast it was
+changed into a jolly banquet. The old Queen's dinner table was restored
+and there was as much gay, humorous conversation as there ever had been
+in the brown shingled house now reduced to a heap of ashes.</p>
+
+<p>Paperhangers and painters did go into the new college house on the
+following Monday morning and in less than ten days the dingy rooms were
+transformed by white woodwork and light paper. If the Queen's girls felt
+a little out of it at first, not being on the campus, they were too
+proud to admit it, and nobody ever heard a complaint from them. They had
+a great many visitors at O'Reilly's. Crowds of their friends came down
+to drink tea or spend the evening.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> The President herself called one
+morning and had a look at the place.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Molly had called at Miss Walker's office and informed
+her that she had come into a little money unexpectedly and, with the
+money she was earning, she would be able to pay her own board at
+O'Reilly's for the rest of the winter. It was only by chance that Miss
+Walker learned how Molly had earned this sum of money.</p>
+
+<p>"Think of the child's modesty in keeping the secret from me," she said
+to Miss Pomeroy. "Have you seen the poem that won the prize, by the
+way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," answered that critical individual. "It's a sweet little
+thing and I suppose struck the exact note they wanted, but I assure you
+it's nothing wonderful."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+<a name="xxi" id="xxi"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>IN THE GARDEN.</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>"Who would have thought this place could ever blossom like the rose,"
+exclaimed Margaret Wakefield, settling comfortably in a long steamer
+chair and looking about her with an expression of extreme contentment.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the early summer that did it," remarked Judy Kean. "It came to
+console us after that brutal winter."</p>
+
+<p>"It's Mrs. O'Reilly's labors chiefly," put in Katherine Williams. "She
+told me that this garden had been the comfort of her life."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the comfort of mine," said Margaret lazily. "Watching you girls
+there hoeing and raking and pulling up weeds reminds me of a scene from
+the opera of 'The Juggler of Notre Dame,'&mdash;the monks in the cloister
+working among their flowers."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+Molly paused in her operation of the lawn mower.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a peaceful occupation," she said. "It's the nicest thing that
+ever happened to us, this garden, because it was such a surprise. I
+never suspected it was anything but a desert until one day I looked down
+and saw Mrs. O'Reilly digging up the earth around some little green
+points sticking out of the ground, and then it only seemed a few days
+before the points were daffodils and everything had burst into bloom at
+once. This apple tree was like a bride's bouquet."</p>
+
+<p>"That's stretching your imagination a bit," interrupted Judy, reclining
+at full length on a steamer rug on the ground. "Think of the gigantic
+bride who could carry an apple tree for a bouquet."</p>
+
+<p>"Get up from there and go to work," cried Molly, poking her friend in
+the side with her foot. "Here's company coming this afternoon, and you
+at your ease on the ground!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't notice that Margaret W. is bestirring herself," answered Judy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+"A President never should work," answered Molly. "It's her office to
+look on and direct."</p>
+
+<p>Judy pulled herself lazily from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be official lemon squeezer, then," she said. "I will not weed; I
+refuse to cut grass, or to pick up sticks with the Williamses. You look
+like a pair of peasant fagot gatherers," she called to the two sisters
+who were clearing away a small pile of brush gathered by the industrious
+hands of Mrs. O'Reilly.</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you think you are? A bloomin' aristocrat?" demanded Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"If I am," answered Judy, "my noblesse has obleeged me to squeeze lemons
+for the party. It's a lowly job, but I'd rather do it than pick up
+sticks."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything like work is lowly to you, Miss Judy," said Katherine.</p>
+
+<p>Summer had really come on the heels of spring with such breathless haste
+that before they knew it they were plunged into warm weather. And nobody
+rejoiced more than Molly over the passing of the long cold winter. When
+at last the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> sun's rays broke through the crust of the frost-bound earth
+and wakened the sleeping things underneath, it had seemed to the young
+girl that her cup of happiness was overflowing. Not even to Judy and
+Nance could she explain how much she loved the spring. One day, seizing
+a trowel from some tools on the porch, she rushed into the garden and
+began digging in the flower beds.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mind, do you, Mrs. O'Reilly?" she apologized. "I'm so glad
+spring is here at last that I've got to take it out in something besides
+book-learning."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm only too happy, Miss," said the widow. "Young ladies ain't often so
+fond of the smell of the earth."</p>
+
+<p>It was Molly who had introduced the cult of the garden to the other
+girls, and it was she who had first induced Mrs. O'Reilly to resurrect
+some garden seats from the cellar and a rustic table. Even as early as
+the first of May they had tea under the apple trees, and as the days
+grew warmer their friends found them reading and studying in the sunny
+enclosure.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>
+They had no idea of the charming picture they made grouped about in
+their garden; nor did they dream that Mrs. O'Reilly had occasionally
+allowed a visitor or two to peer at them through a crack in the dining
+room shutters. Mrs. McLean and Professor Green were two such privileged
+characters one afternoon when they called at O'Reilly's to leave notes
+of acceptance to a tea to which they had been invited by the old Queen's
+circle. The invitations in themselves were rather unusual. They were
+little water-color sketches done by Judy and Otoyo on oblong cards. Each
+sketch showed a bit of the garden, and the invitations stated that on
+the afternoon of June second there would be tea in the Garden of
+O'Reilly's.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is this garden, Mrs. O'Reilly?" Mrs. McLean had demanded, and the
+Irish woman, beckoning mysteriously, had shown them the scene through
+the crack in the shutter.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, bless the bairns," exclaimed Mrs. McLean, gazing through the
+opening, while Professor Green impatiently awaited his turn. "They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+might be a lot of wood nymphs disporting themselves under the trees."</p>
+
+<p>Then the Professor had looked and had discovered Molly Brown, in her
+usual blue linen&mdash;which was probably only an imitation linen&mdash;raking
+grass. Judy was softly twanging her guitar. Nance on her knees beside a
+bed of lilies was digging in the earth, and the others were variously
+engaged while Edith read aloud.</p>
+
+<p>The Professor looked long at the charming scene and then observed:</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pretty picture. Wherever these girls go they create an
+atmosphere."</p>
+
+<p>But he was thinking of only one girl.</p>
+
+<p>Someone else had called at O'Reilly's privately and asked to see the
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>It was Judith Blount who stood like a dark shadow against the window and
+peered through the crack in the green shutter. She had come on the
+pretext of looking at rooms for next year, but after watching the scene
+in the garden had hurried away.</p>
+
+<p>"And I might have been with them now," she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> thought bitterly, "if it
+hadn't been for my vile temper that Christmas Eve."</p>
+
+<p>Judith had learned a good many hard lessons during the winter. She had
+found out that friends in prosperity are not always friends in
+adversity. Her old-time rich associates at the Beta Phi House had paid
+her one or two perfunctory calls in the room over the post-office, but
+the days of her leadership were over forever. Mary Stewart came often to
+see her and Jenny Wren was faithful, but there was great bitterness in
+Judith's heart and she chose frequently to hang a "Busy" sign on her
+door so that she might brood over her troubles alone. She grew very
+sallow and thin, and sat up late at night reading, there being no ten
+o'clock rules at the post-office. Many times Madeleine Petit, her
+neighbor, was wakened by the fragrant aroma of coffee floating down the
+hall into her little bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>"If she was my daughter," Madeleine observed to Molly one day, "I'd
+first put her through a course of broken doses of calomel, and then I'd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+put her to work on something besides lessons. Even laundry is good to
+keep people from brooding. If I stopped to think about all my troubles
+and all that is before me in the way of work and struggles to get on,"
+she rattled along, "I wouldn't have time to study, much less do up
+jabots and things. But I just trust to luck and go ahead. I find it
+comes out all right. Mighty few people seem to understand that it makes
+a thing much bigger to think and think about it. I'd rather enlarge
+something more worth while than my misfortunes."</p>
+
+<p>Molly smiled over Madeleine's philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to make friends with her next year," went on Madeleine. "She was
+rude to me once, but I am sorry for her because we are both going
+through the same struggle and I think I can give her some ideas. You may
+not believe me, but I always succeed in doing the thing I set out to do.
+College was as far off from me two years ago as Judith seems to be
+now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a fine thing for Judith if she gains a friend like you,
+Madeleine," interrupted Molly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> warmly. "See if you can't start it by
+bringing her to our garden party with you next Saturday."</p>
+
+<p>Molly delivered the invitations with which she had called, and giving
+Madeleine a friendly kiss, she hastened on her way.</p>
+
+<p>But Madeleine's words were prophetic, as we shall show you in the story
+of "Molly Brown's Junior Days." Judith Blount was to learn much from
+this energetic little person and to listen with the patience of a tried
+friend to her stream of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Molly felt very much like embracing all her friends that day and kissing
+both hands to the entire world besides. A letter had come from her
+mother which settled the one great question in Molly's mind just then:
+Should she be able to return to college for her junior year and share
+with Judy and Nance a little three-roomed apartment in the Quadrangle
+near their other friends, who were all engaging rooms in that same
+corridor? And that very morning all doubt had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> been dispelled. Her
+mother had written her the wonderful news:</p>
+
+<p>"The stockholders of the Square Deal Mine will get back their money,
+after all. It seems that Mrs. Blount had some property which she was
+induced to hand over. I am sorry that they should be impoverished, but
+it seems just, nevertheless. It will be some time before matters are
+arranged, however. In the meantime, I have had the most extraordinary
+piece of luck in connection with the two acres of orchard on which I
+borrowed the money for your college expenses. I have just sold it for a
+splendid amount&mdash;enough to cover all debts on the land, including the
+one to the President of Wellington University, and to furnish your
+tuition and board for the next two years. Scarcely anything in all my
+life has pleased me more than this. I don't even know the name of the
+buyer. The land was purchased through an agent. But whoever the person
+was, he must have been charmed with our old orchard. It is a pretty bit
+of property. Your father used<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> to call it 'his lucky two acres,' because
+it always yielded a little income."</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, it was with a light heart that Molly delivered invitations
+that afternoon to the garden party at O'Reilly's.</p>
+
+<p>She had intended to shove an envelope under the door of Professor
+Green's office in the cloisters and hurry on, not wishing to disturb
+that busy and important personage, but he had opened the door himself
+while she was in the very act of slipping the invitation through the
+crack between the door and the sill.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she exclaimed, blushing with embarrassment. "Please excuse me. I
+only wanted to give you this. We hope you'll come. We shall feel it a
+great honor if you will accept."</p>
+
+<p>"I accept without even knowing what it is, if that's the way you feel,"
+replied the Professor, smiling. "I would go to a fudge party or a picnic
+or anything in the nature of an entertainment, if I felt&mdash;er&mdash;that
+is&mdash;&mdash;" the Professor was getting decidedly mixed, and Molly saw with
+surprise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> that he was blushing. "That is, if the fire refugees wished it
+so much," he finished.</p>
+
+<p>"You look a little tired, Professor," she remarked, noticing for the
+first time that he was hollow-eyed and his face was thin and worn, as if
+he had been working at night.</p>
+
+<p>"My pallor is due entirely to disappointment," he answered laughing,
+"our little opera passed into oblivion the other night. Perhaps you
+would have brought it better luck if you had been with us."</p>
+
+<p>"I would have clapped and cheered the loudest of all," exclaimed Molly.
+"But I'm so sorry. I am sure it must have been splendid. What was the
+reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was just one of those unfortunate infants destined to die young,"
+said the Professor. "I thought it was quite a neat little thing, myself,
+but Richard believes that the plot had too much story and it was a
+little&mdash;well&mdash;too refined, if I may put it that way. It needed more
+buffoonery of a lighter vein. It was a joke, my writing it in the first
+place. However, I haven't lost anything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> but time over it, and I've
+gained a good deal of experience."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry," exclaimed Molly with real sympathy, giving him her
+hand. "It seems rather tactless," she said starting to leave and turning
+back, "to tell you about our good luck just now, but of course you knew
+about the Square Deal. Mine, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," he answered. "They are going to pay off all the creditors. An
+old cousin of Mrs. Blount's in Switzerland died the other day without
+leaving a will, and she inherits his property. It's pretty hard on her
+to give it up just now when she needs it dreadfully, but Richard has
+induced her to do it and I suppose it is right. It will take a year at
+least to straighten out the affair though. There is so much red tape
+about American heirs getting European property."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, <i>I've</i> had some luck, too," said Molly, making an effort to keep
+the Professor from seeing how really joyously happy she was. "Some
+perfectly delightful and charming person has bought my two acres of
+apple orchard at last,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> and I shall not be down at O'Reilly's next
+winter. I'm going to be in the Quadrangle with the others. Isn't it
+wonderful?"</p>
+
+<p>The Professor looked at her with his quizzical brown eyes; then he shook
+hands with her again.</p>
+
+<p>"Does it really make you very happy?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you can't think!" she cried. "You can never know how relieved and
+happy I am. I've been walking on air all day. I shall always feel that
+the man who bought that orchard did it just for me, although of course
+he has never heard of me. Some day I am going to thank him, myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You are?" he asked, "and how will you thank him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," she replied, "why, I think I'll just give him a hug. I have a
+feeling that he's an old gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor sat down in his chair very suddenly and began to laugh,
+and he was still laughing when Molly sped down the corridor to the door
+into the court. She did not see him again<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> until the day of the farewell
+tea in the garden of O'Reilly's.</p>
+
+<p>* &nbsp; * &nbsp; * And it is in the garden that we will leave our girls now, at the
+close of their sophomore year.</p>
+
+<p>They look very charming in their long white dresses, dispensing tea and
+lemonade and sandwiches to the small company of guests. It is the last
+time we shall see the old Queen's circle as a separate group. O'Reilly's
+had filled the need of the moment, but the friends agreed that nothing
+could ever take the place of Queen's unless it were the long-coveted
+quarters in the dormitories behind the twin gray towers of Wellington.</p>
+
+<p>There we shall find them during "<span class="smcap">Molly Brown's Junior Days</span>," living
+broader and less secluded lives in the fine old Quadrangle which had
+always been the center of interest and influence at Wellington College
+and now promised to add a unique chapter to her history.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<h2>SAVE THE WRAPPER!</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">I<i>F</i> you have enjoyed reading about the adventures of the new friends
+you have made in this book and would like to read more clean, wholesome
+stories of their entertaining experiences, turn to the book jacket&mdash;on
+the inside of it, a comprehensive list of Burt's fine series of
+carefully selected books for young people has been placed for your
+convenience.</p>
+
+<p><i>Orders for these books, placed with your bookstore or sent to the
+Publishers, will receive prompt attention.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="bt">
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/i01.jpg" width="120" height="161" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="book1">THE</span><br />
+<span class="book2">Ann Sterling Series</span><br />
+<span class="book1">By HARRIET PYNE GROVE</span></p>
+
+<p class="center b">Stories of Ranch and College Life For Girls 12 to 16 Years</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Handsome Cloth Binding with Attractive Jackets in Color</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">ANN STERLING</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The strange gift of Old Never-Run, an Indian whom she has
+befriended, brings exciting events into Ann's life.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">THE COURAGE OF ANN</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ann makes many new, worthwhile friends during her first year at
+Forest Hill College.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">ANN AND THE JOLLY SIX</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At the close of their Freshman year Ann and the Jolly Six enjoy
+a house party at the Sterling's mountain ranch.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">ANN CROSSES A SECRET TRAIL</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Sterling family, with a group of friends, spend a thrilling
+vacation under the southern Pines of Florida.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">ANN'S SEARCH REWARDED</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In solving the disappearance of her father, Ann finds exciting
+adventures, Indians and bandits in the West.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">ANN'S AMBITIONS</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The end of her Senior year at Forest Hill brings a whirl of new
+events into the career of "Ann of the Singing Fingers."</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">ANN'S STERLING HEART</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ann returns home, after completing a busy year of musical study
+abroad.</p>
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+
+<p class="title b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, Publishers,</p>
+<p><small><span class="publ b">114-120 EAST 23rd STREET</span>
+<span class="pubr b">NEW YORK</span></small></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 120px;">
+<img src="images/i02.jpg" width="120" height="165" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="book2"><br />Books for Girls</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="book1">By GRACE MAY NORTH</span></p>
+
+<p class="center b">Author of<br />
+THE VIRGINIA DAVIS SERIES</p>
+
+<p class="center b">All Clothbound. &nbsp; Copyright Titles.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>With Individual Jackets in Colors</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">MEG OF MYSTERY MOUNTAIN</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This story tells of the summer vacation some young people spent
+in the mountains and how they cleared up the mystery of the lost
+cabin at Crazy Creek Mine.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">RILLA OF THE LIGHTHOUSE</p>
+
+<p class="indent">"Rilla" had lived all her life with only her grandfather and
+"Uncle Barney" as companions, but finally, at High Cliff
+Seminary, her great test came and the lovable girl from Windy
+Island Lighthouse met it brilliantly.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">NAN OF THE GYPSIES</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In this tale of a wandering gypsy band, Nan, who has spent her
+childhood with the gypsies, is adopted by a woman of wealth, and
+by her love and loyalty to her, she proves her fine character
+and true worth.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nmb b">SISTERS</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The personal characteristics and incidents in the lives of two
+girls&mdash;one thoughtless and proud, the other devoted and
+self-sacrificing&mdash;are vividly described in this story, told as
+it is with sympathy and understanding for both.</p>
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+<p class="title b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, Publishers,</p>
+<p><small><span class="publ b">114-120 EAST 23rd STREET</span>
+<span class="pubr b">NEW YORK</span></small></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 120px;">
+<img src="images/i03.jpg" width="120" height="160" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><br /><span class="book2">The Camp Fire Girls Series</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="book1">By HILDEGARD G. FREY</span></p>
+
+<hr class="hr4" />
+
+<p class="center">A Series of Outdoor Stories for Girls 12 to 16 Years.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles</b></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>PRICE 50 CENTS EACH<br />
+Postage 10c. Extra.</b></p>
+
+<hr class="hr5" />
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The Winnebagos go
+Camping.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo Weavers.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic Garden.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the Road That Leads
+the Way.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open
+Door.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven
+Cedars.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the
+Winnebagos.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure
+at Carver House.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles.</p>
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+
+<p class="center pub b"><small>For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers</small></p>
+
+<p class="center b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 120px;">
+<img src="images/i04.jpg" width="120" height="170" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="book2">The<br />
+Girl Scouts<br />
+Series</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="book1">BY EDITH LAVELL</span></p>
+
+
+<p>A new copyright series of Girl Scouts stories by an author of wide
+experience in Scouts' craft, as Director of Girl Scouts of Philadelphia.</p>
+
+<p class="center b">Clothbound, with Attractive Color Designs.</p>
+
+<p class="center b"><big>PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH<br />
+<small>POSTAGE 10c EXTRA</small></big></p>
+
+<hr class="hr6" />
+
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS AT MISS ALLENS SCHOOL</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS' GOOD TURN</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS' CANOE TRIP</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS' RIVALS</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS ON THE RANCH</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS' VACATION ADVENTURES</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS' MOTOR TRIP</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS' CAPTAIN</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRL SCOUTS' DIRECTOR</p>
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+
+<p class="center pub b"><small>For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers</small></p>
+
+<p class="center b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 120px;">
+<img src="images/i05.jpg" width="120" height="159" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center book2">The<br />
+Greycliff Girls<br />
+Series</p>
+
+<p class="book1">By HARRIET PYNE GROVE</p>
+
+<p>Stories of Adventure, Fun, Study and Personalities of girls attending
+Greycliff School.</p>
+
+<p class="center b">For Girls 10 to 15 Years</p>
+
+<p class="center b"><big>PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH</big><br />
+POSTAGE 10c EXTRA</p>
+
+<p class="center b">Cloth bound, with Individual Jackets in Color.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr6" />
+
+<p class="hang">CATHALINA AT GREYCLIFF</p>
+<p class="hang">THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF</p>
+<p class="hang">GREYCLIFF WINGS</p>
+<p class="hang">GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN CAMP</p>
+<p class="hang">GREYCLIFF HEROINES</p>
+<p class="hang">GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN GEORGIA</p>
+<p class="hang">GREYCLIFF GIRLS' RANCHING</p>
+<p class="hang">GREYCLIFF GIRLS' GREAT ADVENTURE</p>
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+
+<p class="center pub b"><small>For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers</small></p>
+
+<p class="center b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 120px;">
+<img src="images/i06.jpg" width="120" height="160" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="book2"><br />Marjorie Dean<br />
+High School<br />
+Series</p>
+
+<p class="center b">BY PAULINE LESTER</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean College Series</p>
+
+<p>These are clean, wholesome stories that will be of great interest to all
+girls of high school age.</p>
+
+<p><span class="publ2 b">All Cloth Bound</span>
+<span class="pubr2 b">Copyright Titles</span></p>
+
+<p class="center b clear">PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH</p>
+<p class="center b">Postage 10c. Extra.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr6" />
+
+<p class="hang">MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN</p>
+<p class="hang">MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE</p>
+<p class="hang">MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR</p>
+<p class="hang">MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR</p>
+
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+
+<p class="center pub b"><small>For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers</small></p>
+
+<p class="center b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<p class="book2">THE MERRY LYNN<br />
+SERIES</p>
+
+<p class="center b">By HARRIET PYNE GROVE</p>
+
+<p class="center b">Cloth Bound. Jackets in Colors.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr6" />
+
+<p>The charm of school and camp life, out-door sports and European travel
+is found in these winning tales of Merilyn and her friends at boarding
+school and college. These realistic stories of the everyday life, the
+fun, frolic and special adventures of the Beechwood girls will be
+enjoyed by all girls of high school age.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr6" />
+
+<p class="hang">MERILYN ENTERS BEECHWOLD</p>
+<p class="hang">MERILYN AT CAMP MEENAHGA</p>
+<p class="hang">MERILYN TESTS LOYALTY</p>
+<p class="hang">MERILYN'S NEW ADVENTURE</p>
+<p class="hang">MERILYN FORRESTER, CO-ED.</p>
+<p class="hang">THE "MERRY LYNN" MINE</p>
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+
+<p class="title b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i>,</p>
+<p><small><span class="publ b">114-120 EAST 23rd STREET</span>
+<span class="pubr b">NEW YORK</span></small></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 120px;">
+<img src="images/i07.jpg" width="120" height="164" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="book2"><br />The<br />
+Virginia Davis<br />
+Series</p>
+
+<p class="book1">By GRACE MAY NORTH</p>
+
+
+
+<p class="center b">Clean, Wholesome Stories of Ranch Life.<br />
+For Girls 12 to 16 Years.<br />
+All Clothbound.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>With Individual Jackets in Colors.</i></p>
+
+<p class="book1">PRICE, 75 CENTS EACH<br />
+<small>POSTAGE 10c EXTRA</small></p>
+
+<hr class="hr6" />
+
+<p class="hang">VIRGINIA OF V. M. RANCH</p>
+<p class="hang">VIRGINIA AT VINE HAVEN</p>
+<p class="hang">VIRGINIA'S ADVENTURE CLUB</p>
+<p class="hang">VIRGINIA'S RANCH NEIGHBORS</p>
+<p class="hang">VIRGINIA'S ROMANCE</p>
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+
+<p class="center pub b"><small>For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers</small></p>
+
+<p class="center b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bt">
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 120px;">
+<img src="images/i08.jpg" width="120" height="159" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="book2"><br /><big>Princess<br />
+Polly Series</big></p>
+
+<p class="book1 clear">By AMY BROOKS</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">Author of "Dorothy Dainty" series, Etc. Stories of Sweet-Tempered,
+Sunny, Lovable Little "Princess Polly."</p>
+
+<p class="center">For girls 12 to 16 years.</p>
+<p class="center">Each Volume Illustrated.</p>
+
+<p class="center b">Cloth Bound</p>
+
+<p class="center b"><i>With Individual Jackets in Colors.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center b"><big>PRICE, 75 CENTS EACH</big><br />
+<small>POSTAGE 10c EXTRA</small></p>
+
+<hr class="hr6" />
+
+<p class="hang">PRINCESS POLLY</p>
+<p class="hang">PRINCESS POLLY'S PLAYMATES</p>
+<p class="hang">PRINCESS POLLY AT SCHOOL</p>
+<p class="hang">PRINCESS POLLY BY THE SEA</p>
+<p class="hang">PRINCESS POLLY'S GAY WINTER</p>
+<p class="hang">PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY</p>
+<p class="hang">PRINCESS POLLY AT CLIFFMORE</p>
+
+<hr class="double2" />
+
+<p class="center pub b"><small>For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers</small></p>
+
+<p class="center b">A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div id="tn">
+<h5>Transcriber's Note:</h5>
+
+<p>Spelling, alternative hyphenation, and abbreviations have been retained
+as they appear in the original publication.</p>
+
+<p>Changes have been made to punctuation as follows:</p>
+
+<p>Page 262: Removed quotation mark&mdash;shed on her <a href="#quote">account."</a></p>
+
+<p>Page 213: Added fullstop&mdash;were to shake <a href="#stop">hands.</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Sophomore Days, by Nell Speed
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Molly Brown's Sophomore Days, by Nell Speed
+
+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: Molly Brown's Sophomore Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32453]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+    MOLLY BROWN'S
+    SOPHOMORE DAYS
+
+    BY NELL SPEED
+
+    AUTHOR OF
+
+    "The Tucker Twins Series," "The Carter
+    Girls Series," etc.
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    A. L. BURT COMPANY
+    Publishers New York
+    Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+    Copyright, 1912,
+    BY
+    HURST & COMPANY
+
+    Printed in the U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                  PAGE
+
+        I. THE RETURN OF THE WANDERERS          5
+
+       II. OTOYO                               17
+
+      III. A CLASHING OF WITS                  33
+
+       IV. A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT               47
+
+        V. AN UNWILLING EAVESDROPPER           62
+
+       VI. TWO LONG-DISTANCE CALLS             76
+
+      VII. THE GLEE CLUB CONCERT               94
+
+     VIII. A JAPANESE SPREAD                  111
+
+       IX. VESPERS                            126
+
+        X. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL          140
+
+       XI. THE GREAT SLEET OF 19--            158
+
+      XII. THE SKATING CARNIVAL               169
+
+     XIII. THE THAW                           182
+
+      XIV. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS              196
+
+       XV. A RECOVERY AND A VISIT             212
+
+      XVI. CHRISTMAS EVE PLOTS                230
+
+     XVII. A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE               245
+
+    XVIII. BREAKING THE NEWS                  258
+
+      XIX. HOW O'REILLY'S BECAME QUEEN'S      269
+
+       XX. THE TURN OF THE WHEEL              283
+
+      XXI. IN THE GARDEN                      295
+
+
+
+
+Molly Brown's Sophomore Days
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE RETURN OF THE WANDERERS.
+
+
+"I never thought I could be so glad to be anywhere except home," thought
+Molly Brown as she swung off the 'bus, and, seizing her suit case, ran
+into Queen's Cottage without so much as ringing the bell.
+
+Two juniors whom Molly had known only by sight the year before and
+several freshmen had been in the Wellington omnibus; no one in whom she
+could confide her enthusiasm as the 'bus turned a bend in the road and
+Wellington's towers came into view.
+
+"Molly! Molly!" cried a voice from somewhere in the upper regions of
+Queen's, and down three flights of stairs rushed a wild figure, her
+fluffy light brown hair standing out all over her head and her
+voluminous kimono sailing behind her like the tail of a kite.
+
+"Oh, Judy, it's good to see you again," cried Molly, and the two girls
+were instantly folded in each other's arms in a long, loving embrace.
+
+"You remind me strongly of Meg Merriles," continued Molly, holding her
+friend off at arms' length and giving her a joyful little shake. "You
+look as if you had been running over the moors in the wind."
+
+"You'd think I was a bit daffy if you could see my room," replied Julia
+Kean, who, those of you who have met her in an earlier story will
+recall, was nicknamed "Judy" by her friends. "I'm unpacking. It looks
+like the world in the era of chaos: mountains of clothes and islands of
+shoes and archipelagoes of hats all jumbled into a hopeless mass. But,
+never mind that now. Let's talk about each other. Come on upstairs. Your
+room's ready. I looked in half an hour ago. You've got new wall paper
+and a fresh coat of paint. That's because you are one of Mrs. Markham's
+little pets."
+
+"Really," cried Molly, delighted. "How charmed Nance will be. And I've
+brought some white dimity curtains with ruffled edges to hang at the
+windows. I made them last summer when it was ninety-eight in the shade.
+Where is Nance, by the way? And where are all the Queen's girls, and
+what new ones are here?"
+
+"One at a time, Miss Brown," laughed Judy, following Molly up to the
+third story and into the large room shared by Molly and her friend,
+Nance Oldham.
+
+"How sweet it's going to look," cried Molly, clasping her hands and
+gazing around her with all the ardor of a returned wanderer. "But where
+is Nance?"
+
+Judy's face became very grave.
+
+"Is it possible you haven't heard the news about Nance?" she said.
+
+"Judy, what do you mean?" cried Molly, taking off her hat and running
+her fingers through her rumpled auburn hair, a trick she had when she
+was excited and overwrought. "Now, tell me at once what has happened to
+Nance. How could you have kept it from me? Dear old Nance!"
+
+Judy blew her nose violently.
+
+"Why don't you answer me, Judy? Isn't Nance coming back? I haven't heard
+from her for weeks. Oh, do tell me."
+
+"I'm going to tell you in a minute," answered Judy. "I can't blow my
+nose and talk at the same time. It's a physical impossibility. I've got
+a wretched cold, you see. I am afraid it's going into influenza."
+
+"Julia Kean, you are keeping something from me. I don't care a rap about
+your nose. Isn't Nance coming back?"
+
+Molly almost fell on her knees in the excess of her anxiety. Judy turned
+her face away from those appealing blue eyes and coughed a forced
+throaty cough.
+
+"Suppose I should say she wasn't coming back, Molly? Would you mind
+it?"
+
+"Would I mind it?" repeated Molly, her eyes filling with tears.
+
+Suddenly the closet door was flung open and out rushed Nance.
+
+"Oh, Molly, forgive me," she cried, throwing her arms around her
+roommate's neck. "Judy thought it would be a good practical joke, but I
+couldn't stand the deception any longer. It was worth it, though, if
+only to know you would miss me."
+
+"Miss you?" exclaimed Molly. "I should think I would. Judy, you wretch!"
+
+"I never did say she wasn't coming," replied Judy. "I simply said, 'Is
+it possible you haven't heard the news about Nance?' It shows how your
+heart rules your head, Molly. You shouldn't take on so until you get at
+the real truth. Your impetuous nature needs----"
+
+Here Judy was interrupted by the noise of a headlong rush down the hall.
+Then the door was burst open and three girls blew into the room all
+laughing and talking at once.
+
+"My goodness, it sounds like a stampede of wild cattle," exclaimed
+Judy. "How are you, old pals?"
+
+A general all-round embrace followed.
+
+It was Margaret Wakefield, last year's class president; her chum, Jessie
+Lynch; and Sallie Marks, now a senior, but not in the least set up by
+her exalted state.
+
+"Where's Mabel Hinton?" someone demanded.
+
+"She's moved over to the Quadrangle into a singleton. She wanted to be
+nearer the scene of action, she said, and Queen's was too diverting for
+her serious life's work," so Margaret explained.
+
+"I'm sorry," said Molly. "I'm one of those nice comfortable home bodies
+that likes the family to keep right on just the same forever, but I
+suppose we can't expect everybody to be as fond of this old brown house
+as we are. Sit down, everybody," she added, hospitably. "And--oh, yes,
+wait a moment--I didn't open this on the train at all."
+
+She fell on her knees and opened her suit case while her friends
+exchanged knowing smiles.
+
+"Ruling passion even strong in death," observed Judy.
+
+"Of course it's something good to eat," laughed pretty Jessie.
+
+"Of course," replied Molly, pitching articles of clothing out of her
+satchel with all the carelessness of one who pursues a single idea at a
+time. "And why not? My sister made them for me the morning I left and
+packed them carefully in a tin box with oiled paper."
+
+"Cloudbursts!" they cried ecstatically and pounced on the box without
+ceremony, while Molly, who, like most good cooks, had a small appetite,
+leaned back in a Morris chair and regarded them with the pleased
+satisfaction of a host who has provided satisfactory refreshment for his
+guests.
+
+The summer had made few changes in the faces of her last year's friends.
+Margaret was a bit taller and more massive, and her handsome face a
+little heavier. Already her youthful lines were maturing and she might
+easily have been mistaken for a senior.
+
+Nance was as round and plump as a partridge and there was a new
+happiness in her face, the happiness of returning to the first place she
+had ever known that in any way resembled a home. Nance had lived in a
+boarding house ever since she could remember; but Queen's was not like a
+boarding house; at least not like the one to which she was accustomed,
+where the boarders consisted of two crusty old bachelors; a widow who
+was hipped about her health and always talked "symptoms"; a spinster who
+had taught school for thirty years; and Nance's parents--that is, one of
+them, and at intervals the other. Mrs. Oldham only returned to her
+family to rest between club conventions and lecture tours.
+
+Judy had a beautiful creamy tan on her face which went admirably with
+her dreamy gray eyes and soft light brown hair. There were times when
+she looked much like a boy, and she did at this moment, Molly thought,
+with her hair parted on one side and a brilliant Roman scarf knotted
+around her rolling Byronic collar.
+
+Jessie, just now engaged in the pleasing occupation of smiling at her
+own image in the mirror over the mantel, was as pretty as ever. As for
+Sallie Marks, every familiar freckle was in its familiar place, and, as
+Judy remarked later, she had changed neither her spots nor her skin. She
+had merely added a pair of eye-glasses to her tip-tilted critical nose
+and there was, perhaps, an extra spark of dry humor in her pale eyes.
+
+Molly was a little thin. She always "fell-off" after a
+ninety-eight-in-the-shade summer; but she was the same old Molly to her
+friends, possessed with an indescribable charm and sweetness: the
+"nameless charm," it had been called, but there were many who could name
+it as being a certain kindly gentleness and unselfishness.
+
+"What's the news, girls?" she demanded, giving a general all-round smile
+like that of a famous orator, which seemed to be meant for everybody at
+once and no one in particular.
+
+"News is scarce; or should I say 'are'?" replied Margaret. "Epimenides
+Antinous Green, 'the handsomest man ever seen,' was offered a chair in
+one of the big colleges and refused."
+
+"But why?" cried Molly, round-eyed with amazement.
+
+"Because he has more liberty at Wellington and more time to devote to
+his writings."
+
+Molly walked over to the window to hide a smile.
+
+"The comic opera," she thought.
+
+"He's just published a book, you know, on the 'Elizabethan Drama,'" went
+on Margaret, "which is to be used as a text book in lots of private
+schools. And he's been on a walking trip through England this summer
+with George Theodore----"
+
+"How did you know all that?" interrupted Judy.
+
+"Well, to tell you the truth, I came up to Wellington on the train with
+Andy McLean and he answered all the questions I asked him," replied
+Margaret, laughing. "I also answered all the questions he asked me about
+a particular young lady----"
+
+Nance pretended to be very busy at this moment with the contents of her
+work bag. The other girls began laughing and she looked up, disclosing
+a scarlet countenance.
+
+"Don't you know she never could take a teasing?" cried Judy.
+
+"Who's teasing?" answered Margaret. "No names were mentioned."
+
+"Don't you mind, Nance, dear," said Molly, always tender-hearted when it
+came to teasing. "The rest of us haven't had one 'inquiring friend,' as
+Ca'line, our cook, used to call them. When I wrote letters for her to
+her family in Georgia, she always finished up with 'Now, Miss Molly,
+jes' end with love to all inquirin' friends.'"
+
+The dainty little French clock on the mantel, one of Nance's new
+possessions, tinkled five times in a subdued, fairy chime and the
+friends scattered to their various rooms to unpack. Judy was now in
+Frances Andrews' old room, next to the one occupied by Molly and Nance.
+
+"I think I'll take a gimlet and bore a hole through the wall," she
+announced as she lingered a moment after the others had gone, "so that
+we can communicate without having to walk ten steps--I counted them
+this morning--and open two doors."
+
+"Who has your old room, Judy?" inquired Molly.
+
+"You'd never guess in a thousand years, so I'll have to enlighten you,"
+answered Judy. "A young Japanese lady."
+
+"For heaven's sake!" cried Molly and Nance in one breath, while Judy,
+who loved a climax, sailed from the room without vouchsafing any more
+information.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+OTOYO.
+
+
+Molly and Nance were very busy that night arranging their belongings.
+Molly's tastes were simple and Nance's were what might be called
+complicated. Molly had been reared all her life in large spaces, big,
+airy rooms, and broad halls, and the few pieces of heavy old mahogany in
+them were of the kind that cannot be bought for a song. Nance had been
+reared in an atmosphere of oiled walnut and boarding house bric-a-brac.
+She was learning because she had an exceedingly observing and
+intelligent mind, but she had not learned.
+
+Therefore, that night, when Molly hung the white muslin curtains, and
+spread out the beautiful blue antique rug left by Frances Andrews, she
+devoutly hoped that Nance would "go easy" with the pictures and
+ornaments.
+
+"What we want to try to do this year, Nance," she announced from the top
+of the step ladder, "is to keep things empty. We got fairly messy last
+winter after Christmas. I'm going to keep all those banners and things
+packed this year."
+
+"Perhaps I'd better not get out those passe-partouted Gibson pictures,"
+began Nance a little doubtfully.
+
+"Just as you like, Nance, dear," said Molly.
+
+She would rather have hung the wall with bill posters than have hurt her
+friend's feelings.
+
+"Honestly, you aren't fond of them, are you?" asked Nance.
+
+"Oh, it isn't that," apologized Molly. "But I think so many small
+pictures scattered over a big wall space are--well, rather tiring to the
+optic nerves."
+
+Nance looked sad, but she had unbounded faith in Molly's opinions.
+
+"What shall we do with this big empty wall space, then?" she asked,
+pausing in her unpacking to regard a sea of blue-gray cartridge paper
+with a critical eye.
+
+At this juncture there came a light, timid tap, so faint, indeed, that
+it might have been the swish of a mouse's tail as he brushed past the
+door.
+
+Molly paused in her contemplation of blank walls and listened.
+
+"Did you hear anything, Nance?" she asked. "I thought I heard a tapping
+at our chamber door."
+
+"Come in," called Nance briskly.
+
+The door opened first a mere crack. Then the space widened and there
+stood on the threshold the diminutive figure of a little Japanese girl
+who by subsequent measurements proved to be exactly five feet one-half
+an inch in height. She was dressed "like white people," to quote Molly,
+that is, in a neat cloth suit and a straw turban, and her slanting black
+eyes were like highly polished pieces of ebony.
+
+"I beg the honorable pardon of the young ladies," she began with a prim,
+funny accent. "I arrive this moment which have passing at the honorable
+home of young ladies. I not find no one save serving girl who have
+informing me of room of sleeping in. Honorable lady of the house, her
+you calling 'matronly,' not in at present passing moment. I feeling
+little frighting. You will forgive poor Otoyo?"
+
+With an almost superhuman effort Molly controlled her face and choked
+back the laughter that bubbled up irrepressibly. Nance had buried her
+head in her trunk until she could regain her composure.
+
+"Indeed I do forgive you, poor dear. You must feel strange and lonely.
+Just wait until I get down from the ladder and I'll show you your
+bedroom. It used to be the room of one of my best friends, so I happen
+to know it very well."
+
+Molly crawled down from the heights of the step ladder and took the
+little Japanese girl's brown hand in hers. "Shall we not shake hands and
+be friends?" she said. "We are such near neighbors. You are just down
+there at the end of the hall, you see. My name is Brown, Molly Brown,
+and this is my roommate, Nance Oldham."
+
+"I with much pleasure feel to making acquaintance of beautiful young
+ladies," said the Japanese girl, smiling charmingly and showing two rows
+of teeth as pointed and white as a spaniel's.
+
+Nance had also risen to the occasion by this time, and now shook Miss
+Otoyo Sen's hand with a great show of cordiality, to make up for her
+crimson face and mouth still unsteady with laughter. They conducted the
+Japanese girl to her room and turned on the lights. There were two
+new-looking American trunks in the room and two cases covered with
+matting and inscribed with mystic Japanese hieroglyphics. Wired to the
+cord wrapping was an express tag with "Miss O. Sen, Queen's Cottage,
+Wellington," written across it in plain handwriting.
+
+"Oh," exclaimed Miss Otoyo, clasping her hands with timid pleasure, "my
+estates have unto this place arriving come."
+
+Nance turned and rushed from the room and Molly opened the closet door.
+
+"You can hang all your things in here," she said unsteadily, "and of
+course lay some of them in the bureau drawers. Better unpack to-night,
+because to-morrow will be a busy day for you. It's the opening day, you
+know. If we can help you, don't hesitate to ask."
+
+"I am with gratitude much filled up," said the little Japanese, making a
+low, ceremonious bow.
+
+"Don't mention it," replied Molly, hastening back to her room.
+
+She found Nance giving vent to noiseless laughter in the Morris chair.
+Tears were rolling down her cheeks and her face was purple with
+suppressed amusement. Molly often said that, when Nance did laugh, she
+was like the pig who died in clover. When he died, he died all over.
+When Nance succumbed to laughter, her entire being was given over to
+merriment.
+
+"Wasn't it beautiful?" she exclaimed in a low voice. "Did you ever
+imagine such ludicrous English? It was all participles. How do you
+suppose she ever made the entrance examinations?"
+
+"Oh, she's probably good enough at writing. It's just speaking that
+stumps her. But wasn't she killingly funny? When she said 'my estates
+have unto this place arriving come,' I thought I should have to
+departing go along with you. But it would have been rude beyond words.
+What a dear little thing she is! I think I'll go over later and see how
+she is. America must be polite to her visitors."
+
+But Japan, always beforehand in ceremonious politeness, was again ahead
+of America in this respect. Just before ten o'clock the mouse's tail
+once more brushed their door and Nance's sharp ears catching the faint
+sound, she called, "Come in."
+
+Miss Otoyo Sen entered, this time less timidly, but with the same
+deprecating smile on her diminutive face.
+
+"Begging honorable pardon of beautiful young ladies," she began, "will
+condescendingly to accept unworthy gift from Otoyo in gratitude of
+favors receiving?"
+
+Then she produced a beautiful Japanese scroll at least four feet in
+length. In the background loomed up the snow-capped peak of the
+ever-present sacred mountain, Fujiyama, and the foreground disclosed a
+pleasing combination of sky-blue waters dotted with picturesque little
+islands connected with graceful curving bridges, and here and there were
+cherry trees aglow with delicate pink blossoms.
+
+"Oh, how perfectly sweet," exclaimed the girls, delighted.
+
+"And just the place on this bare wall space!" continued Molly. "It's
+really a heaven-sent gift, Miss Sen, because we were wishing for
+something really beautiful to hang over that divan. But aren't you
+robbing yourself?"
+
+"No, no. I beg you assurance. Otoyo have many suchly. It is nothing.
+Beautiful young ladies do honor by accepting humbly gift."
+
+"Let's hang it at once," suggested Molly, "while the step ladder is yet
+with us. Queen's step ladder is so much in demand that it's very much
+like the snowfall in the river, 'a moment there, then gone forever.'"
+
+The two girls moved the homely but coveted ladder across the room, and,
+with much careful shifting and after several suggestions timidly made
+by Otoyo, finally hung up the scroll. It really glorified the whole room
+and made a framed lithograph of a tea-drinking lady in a boudoir costume
+and a kitten that trifled with a ball of yarn on the floor, Nance's
+possession, appear so commonplace that she shamefacedly removed it from
+its tack and put it back in her trunk, to Molly's secret relief.
+
+"Won't you sit down and talk to us a few minutes?" asked Nance. "We
+still have a quarter of an hour before bed time."
+
+Otoyo timidly took a seat on a corner of one of the divans. The girls
+could not help noticing another small package which she had not yet
+proffered for their acceptance. But she now placed it in Nance's hand.
+
+"A little of what American lady call 'meat-sweet,'" she said
+apologetically. "It all way from Japan have coming. Will beautiful
+ladies accept so humbly gift?"
+
+The box contained candied ginger and was much appreciated by young
+American ladies, the humble giver of this delightful confection being
+far too shy to eat any of it herself.
+
+By dint of some questioning, it came out that Otoyo's father was a
+merchant of Tokio. She had been sent to an American school in Japan for
+two years and had also studied under an English governess. She could
+read English perfectly and, strange to say, could write it fairly
+accurately, but, when it came to speaking it, she clung to her early
+participial-adverbial faults, although she trusted to overcome them in a
+very little while. She had several conditions to work off before
+Thanksgiving, but she was cheerful and her ambition was to be "beautiful
+American young lady."
+
+She was, indeed, the most charming little doll-like creature the girls
+had ever seen, so unreal and different from themselves, that they could
+hardly credit her with the feelings and sensibilities of a human being.
+So correctly polite was she with such formal, stiff little manners that
+she seemed almost an automaton wound up to bow and nod at the proper
+moment. But Otoyo Sen was a creature of feeling, as they were to find
+out before very long.
+
+"Did many girls come down on the train with you to-night, Miss Sen?"
+asked Nance, by way of making conversation.
+
+Several young ladies had come, Miss Sen replied in her best participial
+manner. All had been kind to Otoyo but one, who had frightened poor
+Japanese very, very much. One very kind American gentleman had been
+commissioned to bring little Japanese down from big city to University.
+He had look after her all day and brought her sandwiches. He friend of
+her father and most, most kindly. He had receiving letters from her
+honorable father to look after little Japanese girl.
+
+Across the aisle from Otoyo had sat a "beeg young American lady, beeg as
+kindly young lady there with peenk hair," indicating Molly. The "beeg"
+young American lady, it seems, had great "beeg" eyes, so: Otoyo made two
+circles with her thumbs and forefingers to indicate size of young
+American lady's optics. She called Otoyo "Yum-Yum" and she made to
+laugh at humble Japanese girl, but Otoyo could see that young American
+lady with beeg eyes feeling great anger toward little strange girl.
+
+"But for what reason?" asked Molly, slipping her arm around Otoyo's
+plump waist. "How could she be unkind to sweet little Japanese
+stranger?"
+
+"Young great-eyed lady laugh at me mostly and I very uncomfortably." She
+brought out the big word with proud effort.
+
+"But how cruel! Why did she do it?" exclaimed Nance.
+
+Here Otoyo gave a delicious melodious laugh for the first time that
+evening.
+
+"She not like kindly gentlemanly friend to be attentionly to humble
+Japanese."
+
+"What was the gentleman's name, Otoyo?" asked Molly; and somewhat to her
+surprise Otoyo, who, as they were to learn later, never forgot a name,
+came out patly with:
+
+"Professor Edwin Green, kindly friend of honorable father."
+
+"Did the young lady call him 'Cousin'?" asked Nance in the tone of one
+who knows what the answer will be beforehand.
+
+"Yes," answered Otoyo Sen.
+
+"The same old Judith Blount," laughed Molly.
+
+And Nance recalled Judy's prophetic speech on the last day of college in
+June: "Can the le-o-pard change his spots?"
+
+Then the first stroke of the tower clock began to chime the hour of ten
+and they promptly conducted Otoyo to her bedroom with the caution that
+all lights must be out at ten, a rule she followed thereafter with
+implicit obedience.
+
+The next morning, Molly and Nance took Otoyo under their especial care.
+They introduced her to all the girls at Queen's, placed her between them
+at Chapel, showed her how to register and finally took her on a
+sight-seeing expedition.
+
+It turned out that through Professor Green her room had been engaged
+since early the winter before. Why he should have chosen Queen's they
+hardly knew, since Otoyo appeared to have plenty of money and might
+have lived in more expensive quarters. But Queen's he had selected, and
+that very evening he called on Mrs. Markham to see that his little
+charge was comfortably settled. Molly caught a glimpse of him as he
+followed the maid through the hall to Mrs. Markham's sitting room, and
+made him a polite bow. She felt somewhat in awe of the Professor of
+English Literature this winter, since she was to be in one of his
+classes, Lit. II, and was very fearful that he might consider her a
+perfect dunce. But Professor Green would not pass Molly with a bow. He
+paused at the door of the living room and held out his hand.
+
+"I'm glad to see you back and looking so well," he said. "My sister
+asked to be remembered to you. I saw her only yesterday."
+
+The Professor looked well, also. His brown eyes were as clear as two
+brown pools in the forest and there was a healthy glow on his face; but
+Molly could not help noticing that he was growing bald about the
+temples.
+
+"Too bad he's so old," she thought, "because sometimes he's really
+handsome."
+
+"I am commissioned," he continued, "to find a tutor for a young Japanese
+girl boarding here, and I wondered if you would like to undertake the
+work. She needs lessons in English chiefly, but she has several
+conditions to work off and it would be a steady position for anyone who
+has time to take it. Her father is a rich man and willing to pay more
+than the usual price if he can get someone specially interested who will
+take pains with his daughter's education."
+
+"I'm willing to do all that," said Molly, "but it goes with the job,
+don't you think? I have no right to ask more than is usually asked."
+
+"Oh, yes, you have," answered the Professor quickly. "What you can give
+her means everything to the child. She is naturally very timid and
+strange. If you are willing to give up several hours to her, say four
+times a week, I will arrange about salary with her father and the
+lessons may begin immediately."
+
+It was impossible for Molly to disguise her feelings of relief and joy
+at this windfall. Her lack of funds was, as usual, an ever-present
+shadow in the background of her mind, although, through some fine
+investments which Mrs. Brown had been able to make that summer, the
+Brown family hoped to be relieved by another year of the pressure of
+poverty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A CLASHING OF WITS.
+
+
+Queen's Cottage seemed destined to shelter girls of interesting and
+unusual types.
+
+"They always do flock together, you know," Miss Pomeroy had remarked to
+the President, as the two women sat talking in the President's office
+one day. The question had come up with the subject of the new Japanese
+student, the first of her nation ever to seek learning in the halls of
+Wellington.
+
+"They do," said the President, "but whether it's the first comers
+actively persuading the next ones or whether it's a matter of
+unconscious attraction is hard to tell."
+
+"In this case I understand it's a matter of very conscious attraction on
+one side and no persuasion on the other," replied Miss Pomeroy. "That
+charming overgrown girl from Kentucky, Miss Brown, although she's as
+poor as a church mouse and last year even blacked boots to earn a little
+money, is one of the chief attractions, I think. But some of the other
+girls are quite remarkable. Margaret Wakefield lives there, you know.
+She makes as good a speech as her politician father. It will be
+interesting to watch her career if she only doesn't spoil everything by
+marrying."
+
+The two spinsters looked at each other and laughed.
+
+"She won't," answered the President. "She's much too ambitious."
+
+"Then," went on Miss Pomeroy, "there's Julia Kean. She could do almost
+anything she wished, and like all such people she doesn't want to do
+anything. She hasn't a spark of ambition. It's Miss Brown who keeps
+her up to the mark. The girl was actually about to run away last winter
+just at mid-years. She lost her courage, I believe, and there was a
+remarkable scene, but she was induced to stay."
+
+"Who are the other girls?" asked the President thoughtfully.
+
+"One of them, you recall, is a daughter of the famous suffragette, Mrs.
+Anna Oldham. But I fancy the poor daughter has had quite enough of
+suffrage. The only other really interesting characters at Queen's,
+besides your Japanese, are two sophomores who roomed at Plympton's last
+year. They are the Williams sisters, Katherine and Edith, and they are
+remarkably bright. They work in a team, and I have not been able to
+discover which is the brighter of the two, although I had them to tea
+once or twice last year. One is talkative and the other is quiet, but I
+suspect the quiet one of doing a deal of thinking."
+
+The two women enjoyed these occasional chats about Wellington students.
+They were accustomed to regard most of the classes as units rather than
+the members as individuals. Sometimes it was a colorless, uninteresting
+class with no special traits worthy of admiration. Sometimes it was a
+snobbish, purse-proud class, as in the case of the present juniors. And
+again, as with last year's seniors, it was a class of sterling qualities
+made up of big girls with fine minds. Seldom did a class contain more
+than one or two brilliant members, often not one. The present sophomore
+class was one of those "freak" bodies which appear once in a life time.
+It was an unusually small class, there being only thirty-eight members.
+Some twenty of these girls were extremely bright and at least ten gave
+promise of something more than ordinary. As the fastest skaters keep
+together on the ice, so the brightest girls gradually drifted into
+Queen's and became as one family. It was known that there was a good
+deal of jealousy in the less distinguished portion of the class because
+of this sparkling group. But, all unconscious of the feeling they were
+exciting, the Queen's girls settled themselves down to the enjoyment of
+life, each in her own peculiar way.
+
+The two new sophomores at Queen's were, in fact, a welcome addition, and
+Molly and her friends found them exceedingly amusing. They were tall,
+rather raw-boned types, with sallow skins and large, lustrous,
+melancholy eyes. There was only a year's difference in their ages, and
+at first it was difficult to tell one from the other, but Edith, the
+younger of the sisters, was an inch taller than Katherine and was very
+quiet, while Katherine talked enough for the two of them. Because they
+were always together they were called "the Gemini," although
+occasionally they had terrific battles and ceased to be on speaking
+terms for a day or two.
+
+One afternoon, not long after the opening day at college, the Williams
+sisters and Mabel Hinton, who now lived in the Quadrangle, paid a visit
+to Molly in her room.
+
+"We came in to discuss with you who you consider would make the best
+class president this year, Molly," began Katherine. "It's rather hard to
+choose one among so many who could fill the place with distinction----"
+
+"But I think Margaret should be chosen," interrupted Molly. "She was a
+good one last year. Why change?"
+
+"Don't you think it looks rather like favoritism?" put in Mabel. "Some
+of the other girls should have a chance. There's you, for instance."
+
+"Me?" cried Molly. "Why, I wouldn't know how to act in a president's
+chair. I'd be embarrassed to death."
+
+"You'd soon learn," said Katherine. "It's very easy to become accustomed
+to an exalted state."
+
+"But why not one of you?" began Molly.
+
+"It's a question," here remarked the silent Edith, "whether a class
+president should be the most popular girl or the best executive."
+
+"Margaret is both," exclaimed Molly loyally; "but, after all, why not
+leave it to the vote at the class meeting?"
+
+"Oh, it will be finally decided in that way, of course," said Katherine,
+"but such things are really decided beforehand by a little
+electioneering, and I was proposing to do some stump speaking in your
+behalf, Molly, if you cared to take the place."
+
+"Oh, no," cried Molly, flushing with embarrassment; "it's awfully nice
+of you, but I wouldn't for anything interfere with Margaret. She is the
+one to have it. Besides, as Queen's girls, we ought to vote for her.
+She belongs to the family."
+
+"But some of the girls are kicking. They say we are running the class,
+and are sure to ring in one of our own crowd just to have things our
+way."
+
+"How absurd!" ejaculated Molly. "I'm sure I never thought of such a
+thing. But if that's the case, why vote for me, then?"
+
+"Because," replied Mabel, "the Caroline Brinton faction proposed you.
+They say, if they must have a Queen's girl, they'll take you."
+
+"'Must' is a ridiculous word to use at an honest election," broke in
+Molly hotly. "Let them choose their candidate and vote as they like.
+We'll choose ours and vote as we like."
+
+"That's exactly the point," said Katherine. "They are something like
+Kipling's monkey tribe, the 'banderlog.' They do a lot of chattering,
+but they can't come to any agreement. They need a head, and I propose to
+be that head and tell them whom to vote for. Shall it be Molly or
+Margaret?"
+
+"Margaret," cried Molly; "a thousand times, Margaret. I wouldn't usurp
+her place for worlds. She's perfectly equipped in every possible way for
+the position."
+
+Nance and Judy now came into the room. Nance looked a little excited and
+Judy was red in the face.
+
+"Do you know," burst out the impetuous Judy, "that Caroline Brinton has
+called a mass meeting of all the sophomores not at Queen's? She has
+started up some cock-and-bull tale about the Queen's girls trying to run
+the class. She says we're a ring of politicians. We ran in all our
+officers last year and we're going to try and do it this year."
+
+"What a ridiculous notion," laughed Molly. "Margaret was elected by her
+own silver-tongued oratory, and Jessie was made secretary because she
+was so pretty and popular and seemed to belong next to Margaret anyway."
+
+"But the question is: are the Queen's girls going to sit back and let
+themselves be libeled?" demanded Nance.
+
+Here Edith spoke up.
+
+"Of course," she said, "let them talk. Don't you know that people who
+denounce weaken their own cause always, and it's the people who keep
+still who have all the strength on their side? Let them talk and at the
+class meeting to-morrow some of us might say a few quiet words to the
+point."
+
+The girls recognized the wisdom of this decision and concluded to keep
+well away from any forced meeting of sophomores that evening. It had not
+occurred to simple-hearted Molly that it was jealousy that had fanned
+the flame of indignation against Queen's girls, but it had occurred to
+some of the others, the Williamses in particular, who were very shrewd
+in regard to human nature. As for Margaret Wakefield, she was openly and
+shamelessly enjoying the fight.
+
+"Let them talk," she said. "To-morrow we'll have some fun. Just because
+they have made such unjust accusations against us they ought to be
+punished by being made to vote for us."
+
+It was noted that Margaret used the word "us" in speaking of future
+votes. She had been too well-bred to declare herself openly as candidate
+for the place of class president, but it was generally known that she
+would not be displeased to become the successful candidate. The next
+morning they heard that only ten sophomores attended the mass meeting
+and that they had all talked at once.
+
+Later in the day when the class met to elect its president for the year,
+as Edith remarked: "The hoi polloi did look black and threatening."
+
+Molly felt decidedly uncomfortable and out of it. She didn't know how to
+make a speech for one thing and she hoped they'd leave her alone. It was
+utterly untrue about Queen's girls. The cleverest girls in the class
+happened to live there. That was all.
+
+Margaret, the Williamses and Judy wore what might be called "pugilistic
+smiles." They intended to have a sweet revenge for the things that had
+been said about them and on the whole they were enjoying themselves
+immensely. They had not taken Molly into their confidence, but what
+they intended to do was well planned beforehand.
+
+Former President Margaret occupied the chair and opened the meeting with
+a charming little speech that would have done credit to the wiliest
+politician. She moved her hearers by her reference to class feeling and
+their ambition to make the class the most notable that ever graduated
+from Wellington. She flattered and cajoled them and put them in such a
+good humor with themselves that there was wild applause when she
+finished and the Brinton forces sheepishly avoided each other's eyes.
+
+There was a long pause after this. Evidently the opposing side did not
+feel capable of competing with so much oratory as that. Margaret rose
+again.
+
+"Since no one seems to have anything to say," she said, "I beg to start
+the election by nominating Miss Caroline Brinton of Philadelphia for our
+next class president."
+
+If a bomb shell had burst in the room, there couldn't have been more
+surprise. Molly could have laughed aloud at the rebellious and
+fractious young woman from Philadelphia, who sat embarrassed and
+tongue-tied, unable to say a word.
+
+Again there was a long pause. The Brinton forces appeared incapable of
+expressing themselves.
+
+"I second the nomination of Miss Brinton," called Judy, with a bland,
+innocent look in her gray eyes.
+
+Then Katherine Williams arose and delivered a deliciously humorous and
+delightful little speech that caused laughter to ripple all over the
+room. She ended by nominating Margaret Wakefield for re-election and
+before they knew it everybody in the room was applauding.
+
+Nominations for other officers were made after this and a girl from
+Montana was heard to remark:
+
+"I'm for Queen's. They're a long sight brighter than any of us."
+
+When the candidates stood lined up on the platform just before the votes
+were cast, Caroline Brinton looked shriveled and dried up beside the
+ample proportions of Margaret Wakefield, who beamed handsomely on her
+classmates and smiled so charmingly that in comparison there appeared to
+be no two ways about it.
+
+"She's the right one for president," Judy heard a girl say. "She looks
+like a queen bee beside little Carrie Brinton. And nobody could say she
+ran the election this time, either. Carrie has had the chance she
+wanted."
+
+Molly was one of the nominees for secretary and, standing beside a
+nominee from the opposing side, she also shone in comparison.
+
+When the votes were counted, it was found that Margaret and Molly had
+each won by a large majority, and Caroline Brinton was ignominiously
+defeated.
+
+That night Jessie Lynch, who had not in the least minded being
+superseded as secretary by Molly, gave a supper party in honor of her
+chum's re-election. Only Queen's girls were there, except Mabel Hinton,
+and there was a good deal of fun at the expense of Caroline Brinton of
+Philadelphia.
+
+"Poor thing," said Molly, "I couldn't help feeling sorry for her."
+
+"But why?" demanded Katherine. "She had the chance she wanted. She was
+nominated, but she was such a poor leader that her own forces wouldn't
+stand by her at the crucial moment. Oh, but it was rich! What a lesson!
+And how charming Margaret was! How courteous and polite through it all.
+What a beautiful way to treat an enemy!"
+
+"What a beautiful way to treat wrath, you mean," said her sister; "with
+'a soft answer.'"
+
+"It was as good as a play," laughed Judy. "I never enjoyed myself more
+in all my life."
+
+But, somehow, Molly felt a little uncomfortable always when she recalled
+that election, although it was an honest, straightforward election, won
+by the force of oratory and personality, and so skillfully that the
+opposing side never knew it had been duped by a prearranged plan of four
+extremely clever young women.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT.
+
+
+"Do you think those little feet of yours will be able to carry you so
+far, Otoyo?" asked Molly anxiously, one Saturday morning.
+
+Otoyo gave one of her delightfully ingenuous smiles.
+
+"My body is smally, too," she said. "The weight is not grandly."
+
+"Not smally; just small, Otoyo," admonished Molly, who was now well
+launched in her tutoring of the little Japanese, and had almost broken
+her of her participial habits. But the adverbial habit appeared to grow
+as the participial habit vanished.
+
+"And you won't get too tired?" asked Judy.
+
+"No, no, no," protested Otoyo, her voice rising with each no until it
+ended in a sweet high note like a bird's. "You not know the Japanese
+when you say that. I have received training. You have heard of jiu
+jitsu? Some day Otoyo will teach beautiful young American lady some
+things."
+
+"Yes, but the jiu jitsu doesn't help you when you're tired, does it?"
+
+"Ah, but I shall not be tired. You will see. Otoyo's feet great bigly."
+
+She stuck out her funny stubby little feet for inspection and the girls
+all laughed. As a matter of fact, she was a sturdy little body and knew
+the secret of keeping her strength. She achieved marvels in her studies;
+was up with the dawn and the last person in the house to tumble into
+bed, but she was never tired, never cross and out of humor, and was
+always a model of cheerful politeness.
+
+"Art ready?" asked Katherine Williams, appearing at the door in a natty
+brown corduroy walking suit.
+
+"Can'st have the face to ask the question when we've been waiting for
+you ten minutes?" replied Judy.
+
+It was a glorious September day when the walking club from Queen's
+started on its first expedition. The rules of the club were few, very
+elastic and susceptible to changes. It met when it could, walked until
+it was tired and had no fixed object except that of resting the eyes
+from the printed page, relaxing the mind from its arduous labors and
+accelerating the circulation. Anyone who wanted to invite a guest could,
+and those who wished to remain at home were not bound to go.
+
+"Did anybody decide where we were going?" asked Molly.
+
+"Yes, I did," announced Margaret. "Knob Ledge is our destination. It's
+the highest point in Wellington County and commands a most wonderful
+view of the surrounding country-side----"
+
+"Dear me, you sound like a guide book, Margaret," put in Judy.
+
+"Professor Green is the guide book," answered Margaret. "He told me
+about it. You know he is the only real walker at Wellington. Twenty
+miles is nothing to him and Knob Ledge is one of his favorite trips."
+
+"I hope that isn't twenty miles," said Jessie anxiously.
+
+"Oh, no, it's barely six by the short way and ten by the road. We shall
+go by the short way."
+
+"Isn't Molly lovely to-day?" whispered Nance to Judy, after the walking
+expedition had crossed the campus and started on its way in good
+earnest.
+
+Molly was a picture in an old gray skirt and a long sweater and tam of
+"Wellington blue," knitted by one of her devoted sisters during the
+summer.
+
+"She's a dream," exclaimed Judy with loyal enthusiasm. "She glorifies
+everything she wears. Just an ordinary blue tam o'shanter, exactly the
+same shape and color that a hundred other Wellington girls wear, looks
+like a halo on a saint's head when she wears it."
+
+"It's her auburn hair that's the halo," said Nance.
+
+"And her heavenly blue eyes that are saint's eyes," finished Judy.
+
+Molly, all unconscious of the admiration of her friends, walked steadily
+along between Otoyo and Jessie, a package of sandwiches in one hand and
+a long staff, picked up on the road, in the other.
+
+They were not exactly out for adventure that day, being simply a jolly
+party of girls off in the woods to enjoy the last sunny days in
+September, and they were not prepared for all the excitements which
+greeted them on the way.
+
+Scarcely had they left the path along the bank of the lake and skirted
+the foot of "Round Head," at the top of which Molly and her two chums
+had once met Professor Green and his brother, when Margaret Wakefield,
+well in advance of the others, gave a wild scream and rushed madly back
+into their midst. Trotting sedately after her came an amiable looking
+cow. The creature paused when she saw the girls, emitted the bovine call
+of the cow-mother separated from her only child, turned and trotted
+slowly back.
+
+"Why, Margaret, I didn't know you were such a coward," began Jessie
+reproachfully.
+
+"Coward, indeed," answered the other indignantly. "I don't believe Queen
+Boadicea herself in a red sweater would have passed that animal. Listen
+to the creature. She's begun mooing like a foghorn. I suppose she held
+me personally responsible for her loss. Anyhow, she began chasing me and
+I wasn't going to be gored to death in the flower of my youth."
+
+There was no arguing this fact, and several daring spirits, creeping
+along the path until it curved around the hill, hid behind a clump of
+trees and took in the prospect. There stood the cow with ears erect and
+quivering nostrils. She had a suspicious look in her lustrous eyes and
+at intervals she let out a deep bellow that had a hint of disaster in it
+for all who passed that way.
+
+The brave spirits went back again.
+
+"What are we to do?" exclaimed Katherine. "If it got out in college that
+an old cow kept ten sophomores from having a picnic, we'd never hear the
+last of it."
+
+"Unless we behave like Indian scouts and creep along one at a time, I
+don't see what we are to do," said Molly. "If we went further up the
+hill, she'd see us just the same and if we crossed the brook and took to
+the meadow, we'd get stuck in the swamp."
+
+"Suppose we make a run for it," suggested Judy with high courage. "Just
+dash past until we reach that group of trees over there."
+
+"Not me," exclaimed Jessie, shaking her head vigorously. "Excuse me, if
+you please."
+
+There was another conference in low voices behind the protecting clump
+of alder bushes. At last the cow began to ease her mental suffering by
+nibbling at the damp green turf on the bank of the little brook.
+
+"She's forgotten all about us. Let's make a break for it," cried Molly.
+There was a certain stubbornness in her nature that made her want to
+finish anything she began no matter whether it was a task or a pleasure.
+
+The cow flicked a fly from her flank with her tail and went on placidly
+cropping grass. Apparently, creature comforts had restored her
+equanimity.
+
+"One, two, three, run!" shouted Judy, and the ten students began the
+race of their lives.
+
+Not once did the flower and wit of 19-- pause to look back, and so
+closely did they stick together, the strong helping the weak, that to
+the watchers on the hill--and, alas! there were several of them--they
+resembled all together an enormous animal of the imagination with ten
+pairs of legs and a coat of many colors. At last they fell down, one on
+top of the other, in a laughing, tumbling heap, in the protecting grove
+of pine trees, and pausing to look back beheld the ferocious cow amiably
+swishing her tail as she cropped the luscious turf on the bank of the
+little stream.
+
+"Asinine old thing," cried Margaret. "She's just an alarmist of the
+worst kind."
+
+"Who was the alarmist, did you say, Margaret?" asked Edith, with a
+wicked smile. But Margaret made no answer, because, as her close
+friends well knew, she never could stand being teased.
+
+And now the watchers on the hill, having witnessed the entire episode
+from behind a granite boulder and enjoyed it to the limit of their
+natures, proceeded to return to Wellington with the story that was too
+good to keep, and Queen's girls went on their way rejoicing as the
+strong man who runs a race and wins.
+
+At two o'clock, after a long, hard climb, they reached the ledges. To
+Molly and Judy, the leading spirits of the expedition, the beautiful
+view amply repaid their efforts, but there were those who were too weary
+to enjoy the scenery. Jessie was one of these.
+
+"I'm not meant for hard work," she groaned, as she reposed on one of the
+flat rocks which gave the place its name and pillowed her head on
+Margaret's lap.
+
+They opened the packages of luncheon and ate with ravenous appetites,
+finishing off with fudge and cheese sticks. Then they spread themselves
+on the table rocks and regarded the scenery pensively. Having climbed
+up at great expense of strength and effort, it was now necessary to
+retrace their footsteps. The thought was disconcerting.
+
+Edith, who never moved without a book, pulled a small edition of Keats
+from her pocket and began to read aloud:
+
+    "My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains
+     My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk--"
+
+A short laugh interrupted this scene of intellectual repose. Edith
+paused and looked up, annoyed.
+
+"I see nothing to laugh at," she said. But the faces of her classmates
+were quite serious.
+
+"No one laughed," said Molly.
+
+"A rudely person did laugh," announced Otoyo decisively. "But not of us.
+Another hidden behind the rock."
+
+The girls looked around them uneasily. There was no one in sight,
+apparently, and yet there had been a laugh from somewhere close by.
+Coming to think of it, they had all heard it.
+
+"I think we'd better be going," said Margaret, rising hastily. "We can
+see the view on the other side some other day."
+
+Twice that day Margaret, the coming suffragette, had proved herself
+lacking in a certain courage generally attributed to the new and
+independent woman.
+
+"Come on," she continued, irritably. "Don't stop to gather up those
+sandwiches. We must hurry."
+
+Perhaps they were all of them a little frightened, but nobody was quite
+so openly and shamelessly scared as President Wakefield. They had seized
+their sweaters and were about to follow her down the steep path, when
+another laugh was heard, and suddenly a strange man rushed from behind
+one of the large boulders and seized Margaret by the arm.
+
+The President gave one long, despairing shriek that waked the echoes,
+while the other girls, too frightened to move, crouched together in a
+trembling group.
+
+Then the little Japanese bounded from their midst with the most
+surprising agility, seized the man by his thumb and with a lightning
+movement of the arm struck him under the chin.
+
+With a cry of intense pain, the tramp, for such he appeared to be, fell
+back against the rock, his black slouch hat fell off, and a quantity of
+dark hair tumbled down on his shoulders. Judith Blount, looking
+exceedingly ludicrous in a heavy black mustache, stood before them.
+
+"Oh, how you hurt me," she cried, turning angrily on Otoyo.
+
+Otoyo shrank back in amazement.
+
+"Pardon," she said timidly. "I did not know the rudely man was a woman."
+
+The girls were now treated to the rare spectacle of Margaret Wakefield
+in a rage. The Goddess of War herself could not have been more majestic
+in her anger, and her choice of words was wonderful as she emptied the
+vials of her wrath on the head of the luckless Judith. The Williams
+sisters sat down on a rock, prepared to enjoy the splendid exhibition
+and the discomfiture of Judith Blount, who for once had gone too far in
+her practical joking. Molly withdrew somewhat from the scene. Anger
+always frightened her, but she felt that Margaret was quite justified in
+what she said.
+
+"How dare you masquerade in those disreputable clothes and frighten us?"
+Margaret thundered out. "Do you think such behavior will be tolerated
+for a moment at a college of the standing of Wellington University? Are
+you aware that some of us might have been seriously injured by what you
+would call, I suppose, a practical joke? Is this your idea of amusement?
+It is not mine. Do you get any enjoyment from such a farce?"
+
+At last Margaret paused for breath, but for once Judith had nothing to
+say. She hung her head shamefacedly and the girls who were with her,
+whoever they were, hung back as if they would feign have their share in
+the affair kept secret.
+
+"I'm sorry," said Judith with unusual humility. "I didn't realize it was
+going to frighten you so much. You see, I don't look much like a man in
+my gymnasium suit. Of course the mackintosh and hat did look rather
+realistic, I'll admit. When we saw you run from the cow this morning, it
+was so perfectly ludicrous, we decided to have some fun. I put on these
+togs and we got a vehicle and drove around by the Exmoor road. I'm sorry
+if you were scared, but I think I came out the worst. My thumb is
+sprained and I know my neck will be black and blue by to-morrow."
+
+"I advise you to give up playing practical jokes hereafter," said the
+unrelenting Goddess of War. "If your thumb is sprained, it's your own
+fault."
+
+Judith flashed a black glance at her.
+
+"When I lower myself to make you an apology," she ejaculated, "I should
+think you'd have the courtesy to accept it," and with that she walked
+swiftly around the edge of the rock, where she joined her confederates,
+while the Queen's girls demurely took their way down the side of the
+hill.
+
+"Was my deed wrongly, then?" asked Otoyo, innocently, feeling somehow
+that she had been the cause of the great outburst.
+
+"No, indeed, child, your deed was rightly," laughed Margaret. "And I'm
+going to take jiu jitsu lessons from you right away. If I could twirl a
+robber around the thumb like that and hit a cow under her chin, I don't
+think I'd be such a coward."
+
+Everybody burst out laughing and Molly felt greatly relieved that
+harmony was once more established. The walk ended happily, and by the
+time they had reached home, Judith Blount had been relegated to an
+unimportant place in their minds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AN UNWILLING EAVESDROPPER.
+
+
+Busy days followed for Molly. She had been made chairman of the
+committee on decoration for the sophomore-freshman reception along with
+all her many other duties, and had entered into it as conscientiously as
+she went into everything. Some days before the semi-official party for
+the gathering of autumn foliage and evergreens, Chairman Molly and Judy
+had a consultation.
+
+"What we want is something different," Judy remarked, and Molly smiled,
+remembering that her friend's greatest fear in life was to appear
+commonplace.
+
+"Caroline Brinton will want cheese cloth, of course," said Molly, "but I
+think she'll be out-voted if we can only talk to the committee
+beforehand. My plan is to mass all the greens around the pillars and
+hang strings of Japanese lanterns between the galleries."
+
+"And," went on fanciful Judy, who adored decoration, "let's make a big
+primrose and violet banner exactly the same size as the Wellington
+banner and hang them from the center of the gymnasium, one on each side
+of the chandelier."
+
+A meeting of the class was called to consider the question of the banner
+and it was decided not only to have the largest class banner ever seen
+at Wellington, but to give the entire class a hand in the making of it.
+The money was to be raised partly by subscription and partly by an
+entertainment to be given later.
+
+The girls were very proud of the gorgeous pennant when it was completed.
+Every sophomore had lent a helping hand in its construction, which had
+taken several hours a day for the better part of a week. It was of silk,
+one side lavender and the other side primrose color. On the lavender
+side "WELLINGTON" in yellow silk letters had been briar-stitched on by
+two skillful sophomores and on the primrose side was "19--" in
+lavender.
+
+The Wellington banner, a gift from the alumnae, was also of silk in the
+soft blue which every Wellington girl loved. It was necessary to obtain
+a special permission from President Walker to use this flag, which was
+brought out only on state occasions, and it devolved on Molly, as
+chairman, to make the formal request for her class. That this intrepid
+class of sophomores was the first ever to ask to use the banner had not
+occurred to her when she knocked at the door of the President's office.
+
+Miss Walker would see her in ten minutes, she was told by Miss Maxwell,
+the President's secretary, and she sat down in the long drawing room to
+await her summons. It was a pleasant place in which to linger, Molly
+thought, as she leaned back in a beautiful old arm chair of the
+sixteenth century, which had come from a Florentine palace. Most of the
+furniture and ornaments in the room had been brought over from Italy by
+Miss Walker at various times. There were mirrors and high-backed carved
+chairs from Venice. Over the mantel was a beautiful frieze of singing
+children, and at one side was a photograph, larger even than Mary
+Stewart's, of the "Primavera"; on the other side of the mantel was a
+lovely round Madonna which Molly thought also might be a Botticelli.
+
+As her eyes wandered from one object to another in the charming room,
+her tense nerves began to relax. At last her gaze rested on the
+photograph of a pretty, dark-haired girl in an old-fashioned black
+dress. There was something very appealing about the sweet face looking
+out from the carved gilt frame, a certain peaceful calmness in her
+expression. And peace had not been infused into Molly's daily life
+lately. What a rush things had been in; every moment of the day
+occupied. There were times when it was so overwhelming, this college
+life, that she felt she could not breast the great wave of duties and
+pleasures that surged about her. And now, at last, in the subdued soft
+light of President Walker's drawing room she found herself alone and in
+delightful, perfect stillness. How polished the floors were! They were
+like dim mirrors in which the soft colors of old hangings were
+reflected. Two Venetian glass vases on the mantel gave out an opalescent
+gleam in the twilight.
+
+"Some day I shall have a room like this," Molly thought, closing her
+eyes. "I shall wear peacock blue and old rose dresses like the
+Florentine ladies and do my hair in a gold net----"
+
+Her heavy eyelids fluttered and drooped, her hands slipped from the arms
+of her chair into her lap and her breathing came regularly and even like
+a child's. She was sound asleep, and while she slept Miss Maxwell peeped
+into the room. Seeing no one, apparently, in the dim light, she went out
+again. Evidently the sophomore had not waited, she decided, so she said
+nothing to Miss Walker about it.
+
+Half an hour slipped noiselessly by; the sun set. For a few minutes the
+western window reflected a deep crimson light; then the shadows deepened
+and the room was almost dark.
+
+"Never mind the lights, Mary. I'll see Miss Walker in her office at five
+thirty," said a voice at the door. "She expects me and I'll wait here
+until it's time."
+
+"Very well, sir," answered the maid.
+
+Someone came softly into the room and sat down near the window, well
+removed from the sleeping Molly. Again the stillness was unbroken and
+the young girl, sitting in the antique chair in which noble lords and
+ladies and perhaps cardinals and archbishops had sat, began to dream.
+She thought the dark-haired girl in the photograph was standing beside
+her. She wore a long, straight, black dress that seemed to fade off into
+the shadows. Molly remembered the face perfectly. There was a sorrowful
+look on it now. Then suddenly the sadness changed inexplicably and the
+face was the face in the photograph, the peaceful calmness returned and
+the eyes looked straight into Molly's, as they did from the picture.
+
+Molly started slightly and opened her eyes.
+
+"I must have been asleep," she thought.
+
+"My dear Edwin," Miss Walker's voice was saying, "this is terrible. I am
+so shocked and sorry. What's to be done?"
+
+"I don't know. I haven't been able to think yet, it was all so sudden. I
+had just heard when I telephoned you half an hour ago. It's a great blow
+to the family. Grace is with them now, and she's a tower of strength,
+you know."
+
+"What's to be done about Judith? She was getting on so well this year. I
+think her punishment last winter did her good."
+
+"She did appear to be in a better frame of mind," said Professor Green
+drily.
+
+"Is she to be told at once?"
+
+"She has to be told about the money, of course, but the disgraceful part
+is to be kept from her as much as possible."
+
+Molly's heart began to beat. What should she do? Make her presence known
+to Professor Green and Miss Walker? But how very embarrassing that would
+be, to break suddenly into this intimate conversation and confess that
+she had overheard a family secret.
+
+"The thing has been kept quiet so far," went on the Professor. "The
+newspapers, strange to say, have not got hold of it, but it's going to
+take every cent the family can get together to pull out of the hole.
+Hardly half a dozen persons outside the family know the real state of
+the case. I have taken you into my confidence because you are an old and
+intimate friend of the family and because we must reach some decision
+about Judith. Her mother wants her to stay right where she is now, just
+as if nothing had happened. Judith has always been very proud and her
+mother thinks it would be too much of a come-down for her to live in
+cheaper quarters."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Miss Walker. "On the contrary, I think it would do
+Judith good to associate with girls who are not so well off. Put her
+with a group of clever, hard-working girls like the ones at Queen's, for
+instance."
+
+Molly's heart gave a leap. How much she would like to tell the girls
+this compliment the President had paid them! Then again the
+embarrassment of her position overwhelmed her. She was about to force
+herself to rise and confess that she had been an unwitting eavesdropper
+when she heard the Professor's voice from the door saying:
+
+"Well, you advise me to do nothing this evening? Richard is going to
+call me up again in an hour on the long distance in the village for the
+sake of privacy. If he agrees with you, I'll wait until to-morrow."
+
+"Where's Mr. Blount now?"
+
+"They think he's on his way to South America. You see, Richard, in some
+way, found out about the fake mining deal and the family is trying to
+get together enough money to pay back the stockholders. There are not
+many local people involved. Most of it was sold in the West and South
+and we hope to refund all the money in the course of time. It's nearly
+half a million, you know, and while the Blounts have a good deal of real
+estate, it takes time to raise money on it."
+
+"What did you say the name of the mine was? I have heard, but it has
+slipped my memory."
+
+"'The Square Deal Mine'; a bad name, considering it was about the
+crookedest deal ever perpetrated."
+
+Molly started so violently that the Venetian vases on the mantel
+quivered and the little table on which stood the picture in the gilt
+frame trembled like an aspen.
+
+"The Square Deal Mine!" Had she heard anything else but that name all
+summer? Had not her mother, on the advice of an old friend, invested
+every cent she could rake and scrape together, except the fund for her
+own college expenses, in that very mine? And everybody in the
+neighborhood had done the same thing.
+
+"It's a sure thing, Mrs. Brown," Colonel Gray had told her mother. "I'm
+going to put in all I have because an old friend at the head of one of
+the oldest and most reliable firms in the country is backing it."
+
+The voices grew muffled as the President and Professor Green moved
+slowly down the hall. Molly felt ill and tired. Would the Blounts be
+able to pay back the money? Suppose they were not and she had to leave
+college while Judith was to be allowed to finish her education and live
+in the most expensive rooms in Wellington.
+
+She pressed her lips together. Such thoughts were unworthy of her and
+she tried to brush them out of her mind.
+
+"Poor Judith!" she said to herself.
+
+The President's footsteps sounded on the stairs. She paused on the
+landing, cleared her throat and mounted the second flight.
+
+How dark it had grown. A feeling of sickening fear came over Molly, and
+suddenly she rushed blindly into the hall and out of the house without
+once looking behind her. Down the steps she flew, and, in her headlong
+flight, collided with Professor Green, who had evidently started to go
+in one direction and, changing his mind, turned to go toward the
+village.
+
+"Why, Miss Brown, has anything frightened you? You are trembling like a
+leaf."
+
+"I--I was only hurrying," she replied lamely.
+
+"Have you been to see the President?"
+
+"I didn't see her. It was too late," answered Molly evasively.
+
+They walked on in silence for a moment.
+
+"I am going down to the village for a long-distance message. May I see
+you to your door on my way?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Molly, half inclined to confide to the Professor that
+she had just overheard his conversation. But a kind of shyness closed
+her lips. They began talking of other things, chiefly of the little
+Japanese, Molly's pupil.
+
+At the door of Queen's, the Professor took her hand and looked down at
+her kindly.
+
+"You were frightened at something," he said, smiling gravely. "Confess,
+now, were you not?"
+
+"There was nothing to frighten me," she answered. "Did you ever see a
+picture," she continued irrelevantly, "a photograph in a gilt frame on a
+little table in the President's drawing room? It's a picture of a
+slender girl in an old-fashioned black dress. Her hair is dark and her
+face is rather pale-looking."
+
+"Oh, yes. That's a photograph of Miss Elaine Walker, President Walker's
+sister."
+
+"Where is she now?" asked Molly.
+
+"She died in that house some twenty-five years ago. You know, Miss
+Walker succeeded her father as President and they have always lived
+there. Miss Elaine was in her senior year when she had typhoid fever and
+died. It was a good deal of a blow, I believe, to the family and to the
+entire University. She was very popular and very talented. She wrote
+charming poetry. I have read some of it. No doubt she would have done
+great things if she had lived."
+
+"After all," Molly argued with herself, "I went to sleep looking at her
+photograph. It was the most natural thing in the world to dream about
+it. But why did she look so sorrowful and then so hopeful? I can't
+forget her face."
+
+Once again she was on the point of speaking to Professor Green about the
+mine, and once again she checked her confidence. The cautious Nance had
+often said to her: "If there's any doubt about mentioning a thing, I
+never mention it."
+
+"By the way, Miss Brown, I wonder if there are any vacant rooms here at
+Queen's?"
+
+"Yes," said Molly, "there happens to be a singleton. It was to have been
+taken by a junior who broke her arm or something and couldn't come back
+to college this year. Why? Have you any more little Japs for me to
+tutor?"
+
+"No, but I was thinking there might have to be some changes a little
+later, and Miss Blount, my cousin, would perhaps be looking
+for--er--less commodious quarters. But don't mention it, please. It may
+not be necessary."
+
+"I may have to make some changes myself for the same reason," thought
+poor Molly, but she said nothing except a trembly, shaky "good-night,"
+which made the Professor look into her face closely and then stand
+watching her as she hastened up the steps and was absorbed by the
+shadowy interior of Queen's still unlighted hallway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+TWO LONG DISTANCE CALLS.
+
+
+The President readily granted her gracious permission for the sophomores
+to use the Wellington alumnae banner. She was pleased at the class
+spirit which had engendered the request and which had also prompted the
+sophomores to make a banner of their own.
+
+With reverent hands the young girls hoisted the two splendid pennants on
+the evening of the reception. And another unusual distinction was
+granted this extraordinary class of 19--. The President and several of
+the faculty appeared that evening in the gallery to view the effect.
+Never before in the memory of students had Prexy attended a
+sophomore-freshman ball.
+
+"They have certainly made the place attractive," said the President,
+looking down between the interstices of garlands of Japanese lanterns
+on the scene of whirling dancers below. "The banners are really
+beautiful. I feel quite proud of my sophomores this evening."
+
+The sophomores were proud of themselves and worked hard to make the
+freshmen have a good time and feel at home. Molly, remembering her own
+timidity of the year before, took care that there were no wall flowers
+this gala evening.
+
+She had invited Madeleine Petit, a lonely little Southern girl, who had
+a room over the post office in the village and was working her way
+through college somehow. In spite of her own depleted purse, Molly had
+sent Madeleine a bunch of violets and had hired a carriage for the
+evening. As for the little freshman, she was ecstatic with pleasure. She
+never dreamed that her sophomore escort was nearly as poor as she was.
+People of Molly's type never look poor. The richness of her coloring,
+her red gold hair and deep blue eyes and a certain graciousness of
+manner overcame all deficiencies in the style and material of her
+lavender organdy frock.
+
+But, in spite of her glowing cheeks and outward gaiety, Molly was far
+from being happy that night. No word had come to her from her family all
+the week, although they were the most prolific letter writers, all of
+them. No doubt they hesitated for a while to let her know the truth
+about the Square Deal Mine. Molly was prepared for anything; prepared to
+give up college at mid-years and get a position to teach school in the
+country somewhere; prepared to look the worst in the face bravely. But
+Wellington was like a second home to her now. She loved its twin gray
+towers, its classic quadrangle and beautiful cloisters; its spacious
+campus shaded with elm trees.
+
+How dear these things had grown to her now that the thought of leaving
+them forced its way into her mind!
+
+She was debating these questions inwardly, as she gallantly led her
+partner over to the lemonade table, where Mary Stewart, in a beautiful
+liberty dress of pigeon blue that matched her eyes, was presiding with
+Judith Blount and two other juniors.
+
+"Why, Molly Brown," exclaimed Mary, "in spite of all your glowingness,
+you don't seem quite like yourself this evening. Has anything happened
+to roughen your gentle disposition? No bad news from home, I hope?"
+
+"Oh, no," returned Molly. "No news at all. I haven't heard all week."
+
+Judith, who still had a grudge against Queen's girls, although she was
+endeavoring to overcome it, here remarked:
+
+"Why, I think you are looking particularly well to-night, Molly. Such a
+becoming dress!"
+
+Molly flushed as she glanced hastily down at her two-year-old organdy.
+Mary Stewart put a hand over her cold, slim fingers.
+
+"You always wear becoming dresses, Molly, dear. In fact, they are so
+becoming that no one ever looks at the dress for looking at you."
+
+Molly smiled and pressed her friend's hand in return. She was wondering
+if Judith Blount would learn to curb her tongue when she had to curb her
+expenses.
+
+"I want you to meet Miss Petit," she said, introducing the little
+freshman to the two older girls.
+
+Mary Stewart shook hands kindly and Judith bowed distantly. Certainly
+Judith was in a bad humor that night.
+
+"How do you like Wellington?" asked Mary of Miss Petit by way of making
+conversation.
+
+"I think it's jus' lovely," drawled the little Southerner with her
+inimitable Louisiana accent. "I never danced on a better flo' befo' in
+all my life."
+
+Mary Stewart smiled. The soft, melodious voice was music to her ears.
+
+"You live in the Quadrangle, don't you? I think I saw you there the
+other day," continued Mary.
+
+"Oh, no, I reckon you saw some other girl. I live over the post office
+in the village."
+
+"She has a charming room," broke in Molly, when she was interrupted by a
+stifled laugh. Looking up quickly, they were confronted with Judith and
+one of her boon companions, their faces crimson with suppressed
+laughter.
+
+Miss Petit regarded the two juniors with a kind of gentle amazement.
+Then, without the slightest embarrassment, she said to Mary and Molly:
+
+"What lovely manners some of the Wellington girls have!"
+
+At this uncomfortable juncture Edith Williams sailed up.
+
+"This is my dance isn't it, Mademoiselle _Petite_? And while we dance, I
+want you to talk all the time so that my ears can drink in your liquid
+tones. Have you heard her speak, Miss Stewart? Isn't it beautiful? It's
+like the call of the wood-pigeon, so soft and persuasive and delicious."
+
+"Now, you're flattering me," said little Miss Petit, "but I'm glad it
+doesn't make you laugh, anyhow," and she floated off in the arms of the
+tall Edith as gracefully as a fluffy little cloud carried along by the
+breezes.
+
+"Isn't she sweet?" said Molly presently. "And you can't imagine what she
+is doing to make both ends meet here. She won a scholarship which pays
+her tuition, but she has to earn the money for board and clothes and all
+the rest. She washes dishes at a boarding house for her dinners and
+cooks her own breakfasts in her room and eats, well, any old thing, for
+her lunch. On her door is a sign that says, 'Darning, copying, pressing
+and fine laundry work, shampooing and manicuring.' It makes me feel
+awfully ashamed of my small efforts."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Mary. "How can I help her, Molly, without
+her knowing it? She seems to be a proud little thing."
+
+"Oh, I don't know. Give her some jabots to do up or have your hair
+shampooed. She does hand-painting on china, too, but I don't think you
+could quite go her pink rose designs. She'll out-grow hand-painted china
+in another year, just as I outgrew framed lithographs and antimacassars
+in one evening, after seeing your rooms in the Quadrangle."
+
+"By the way, Molly, have you invited anyone for the Glee Club concert
+yet?"
+
+"No, because I didn't know anyone well enough to ask except Lawrence
+Upton from Exmoor, and Judith has already asked him."
+
+"Good," said Mary. "Then, will you do me a favor? Brother Willie is
+coming down to the concert and expects to bring two friends. Will you
+take one of them under your wing?"
+
+Molly was only too delighted to be of service to the friend who had done
+so much for her.
+
+"It will be a pleasure and a joy," she said, as she hastened away to
+find her small partner for the next waltz.
+
+The "Jokes and Croaks" stage of the sophomore-freshman reception had
+been reached, and Katherine Williams, speaking through the megaphone,
+was saying:
+
+"An art contribution from the juniors, with accompanying verse:
+
+    "'I never saw a purple cow,
+      And never hope to see one;
+      But this I know, I vow, I trow:
+      I'd rather see than be one.'"
+
+While Katherine read the verse, another girl held up a large picture
+entitled "The Flight of the Royal Family." In the foreground was a
+little purple cow grazing on purple turf, and in the background, running
+at full speed, with every indication of extreme terror on their faces,
+were a dozen queens, wearing gold crowns and lavender and primrose
+robes.
+
+Hardly a girl at Wellington but had heard of the absurd adventure of the
+Queen's girls, and a tremendous laugh shook the walls of the gymnasium.
+In the midst of this uproar, someone touched Molly on the shoulder. It
+was a junior known to her only by sight, who whispered:
+
+"You're wanted on the telephone."
+
+Now, all telegrams to Wellington College were received at the telegraph
+office in the village and telephoned over, and when Molly was notified
+that there was a message for her, she felt instinctively that it was a
+telegram from home; and they would only telegraph bad news, she was
+certain.
+
+Her face was pale and her heart thumping as she hurried out of the
+gymnasium. Nance and Judy rose and followed her. If anything was the
+matter with their beloved friend, they were determined to share her
+trouble.
+
+Molly hastened to the telephone booths in the main corridor.
+
+"Is it a telegram?" she asked the young woman in charge of the
+switchboard; for, in the last few years telephones had been installed in
+all the houses of the faculty and their respective offices as well,
+thereby saving many steps and much time.
+
+"Hello! Long distance?" called the girl, without answering Molly's
+question. "Here's your party. Booth No. 2," she ordered.
+
+The operator had very little patience with college girls, and this
+Adamless Eden palled on her city-bred soul.
+
+"Hello!" said Molly.
+
+Then came a small, thin voice, an immense distance away, but strangely
+familiar.
+
+"Is this Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky?"
+
+"Yes. Who is this?"
+
+"This is Richard Blount. Have you forgotten me?"
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"Is your mother Mrs. Mildred Carmichael Brown, of Carmichael Station,
+Kentucky?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Um! I suppose you think it's very strange, Miss Brown, my asking you
+this question," called the thin, far-away voice. "I had a very good
+reason for asking it. Have you heard from home lately?"
+
+"Not for a week. Is anything the matter with my family besides the----"
+
+"No, no, nothing that I know of."
+
+"Is it about the mine?"
+
+"Yes, but you are not to worry. You understand, you are not to worry one
+instant. Everything will come out all right."
+
+"It was nearly ten thousand dollars," said Molly, almost sobbing; "our
+house and garden and the rest of the apple orchard that was sending me
+to college--" Here she broke down completely. "I may have to give up
+all this--I may----"
+
+"Now, Miss Molly, you mustn't cry. You make me feel like the very--very
+unhappy, way off here."
+
+"Five minutes up," called the voice of the exchange.
+
+"Good-by, good-by," called Molly. "I'm sorry I cried, Mr. Blount."
+
+Poor man! It was all terribly hard on him, and it was cruel of her to
+have given way, but it had come so unawares!
+
+From a corner of her eye, she could see her friends waiting anxiously
+outside the booth. She pretended to be writing something on the
+telephone pad with a stubby pencil tied to a string, until she recovered
+her composure.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded the two girls as she emerged from the
+booth.
+
+"It was just a long distance from Richard Blount," said Molly, not
+knowing what else to say.
+
+"I didn't know you had asked him to go to the Glee Club concert," said
+Nance.
+
+"He can't go," Molly replied quickly, relieved that they had been
+willing to accept this explanation.
+
+"I should think he couldn't," put in Judy, in a low voice. "Mamma has
+just written me such news about the Blounts. The letter came by the late
+mail and I didn't have a chance to read it until a little while ago. Mr.
+Blount has failed and gone away, no one knows where. They thought they
+could pay off his creditors and his family found that he had mortgaged
+all his property and there wasn't any money left."
+
+In the dimly-lighted corridor the girls had not noticed that Molly had
+turned perfectly white and was clasping and unclasping her hands
+convulsively in an effort to retain her self-control.
+
+"No money left?" she repeated in a low voice.
+
+"Not a cent," said Judy. "Papa knows because he had some friends who
+lost money in a mine or something Mr. Blount owned."
+
+"Poor Judith," observed Nance. "Do you suppose she hasn't been told?"
+
+"Of course not. She wouldn't be flaunting around here to-night if she
+knew her family were in trouble."
+
+"How strange for us to know and for her not to!" pursued Nance.
+
+"It isn't generally known. Mamma says the papers haven't got hold of it
+yet, and I'm not to tell. You see mamma and I met Judith Blount one
+afternoon at a matinee just before college opened. That's why she was
+interested, because she remembered that Judith was Mr. Blount's
+daughter."
+
+All this time Molly's mind was busy working out the problem of how to
+remain at college without any money. Of course, the Blounts couldn't pay
+their father's debts on nothing, although Richard Blount had told her
+not to worry. The family would have to move out of their old home, she
+supposed, and take a small house in town, and everybody would have to
+just turn in and go to work. Oh, why had her mother heeded the advice
+of old Colonel Gray? He had assured her that she would make at least
+fifteen thousand from the money invested, while he, poor man, had
+squandered his entire inheritance in the enterprise, just because an old
+and intimate friend was backing it. That old and intimate friend was Mr.
+Blount, and Molly had never guessed it.
+
+Pretty soon it was time to go home. Molly found herself in the carriage,
+trying to listen politely to the ceaseless flow of Miss Petit's
+conversation, while she wrapped her old, gray eider-down cape about her
+and thought and thought. Suddenly the words of Madeleine Petit pierced
+her troubled mind.
+
+"Do you write, Miss Brown? I wish I could. I'd like to try for some of
+the prizes for short stories. Think of winning a thousand dollars for
+one story! Wouldn't it be glorious? Then, there are some advertisement
+prizes, too. One for five hundred dollars; think of that! I always cut
+out every one I see, meaning to compete, but I never do. It isn't in my
+line, you see. I'm going to major in mathematics."
+
+Molly smiled that the dainty little creature should have chosen that
+hated subject for her life's work.
+
+"You say you saved the clippings about prizes?" she asked when they had
+reached Madeleine's lodging.
+
+"Oh, yes; I have them all in my room. Would you like to see some of
+them? Tell the man to wait, and I'll bring them down."
+
+Molly reached Queen's that night before the other girls, and hastening
+to the student's lamp, she proceeded to look over the clippings.
+
+One was from a leading woman's magazine; one from a magazine of short
+stories; several from advertising firms--the best jingle about a stove
+polish; the best catchy phrase about a laundry soap; the best
+advertisement in verse or prose for a real estate company which had
+purchased an entire mountain and was engaged in erecting numbers of
+Swiss chalets for summer residents. The pictures of these pretty little
+houses were very attractive. Many of them had poetical names. One of
+them, called "The Chalet of the West Wind," occupied the centre of the
+page. From its broad gallery could be seen a long vista of valley,
+flanked by mountain ranges.
+
+"What a charming place!" thought Molly, and that night she went to bed
+with the "Chalet of the West Wind" so deeply photographed in her mind
+that she almost felt as if she had been there herself. She could see it
+perched on the side of the mountain, looking across the valley. It was
+at the very edge of the forest. The picture showed that, and in her
+imagination she scented the wild flowers that must grow at its feet in
+the springtime. No doubt the west wind, which symbolized health and
+happiness, fair weather and sunshine, blew softly through its open
+casements and across its spacious galleries.
+
+She went to sleep dreaming of the "Chalet of the West Wind," and in the
+morning something throbbed in her pulses. It was a kind of muffled
+pounding at first, like the beginning of a long distance call,
+"lumpty-tum-tum; lumpty-tum-tum." But gradually a poem took shape in
+her mind, and as the fragments came to her she wrote them down on scraps
+of paper and hid them carefully in her desk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE GLEE CLUB CONCERT.
+
+
+"If a cross-section could be made of this house, it would be rather
+amusing," exclaimed Judy Kean. "In every room there would be one girl
+buttoning up another girl."
+
+It was the evening of the Glee Club concert, and nearly everybody not a
+freshman was going to dine somewhere before the concert. Judy and Nance
+were invited to the McLeans', and Molly was to have dinner with Mary
+Stewart and her guests in the Quadrangle apartment. During the process
+of dressing there was a great deal of "cross-talk" going on at Queen's
+that night. Through the open doors along the corridors voices could be
+heard calling:
+
+"Has anyone a piece of narrow black velvet?"
+
+"Margaret, don't you dare go without hooking me up!"
+
+"Who thinks white shoes and stockings are too dressy?"
+
+"Oh my, but you look scrumptious!"
+
+Molly had saved her most prized dress for this occasion. It was the one
+she had purchased the Christmas before in New York and was made of old
+blue chiffon cloth over a "slimsy" satin lining, with two big old rose
+velvet poppies at the belt. It was cut out in the neck and the sleeves
+were short. Just before coming back to college, she had indulged in long
+ecru suede gloves, which she now drew on silently. She had received a
+letter from her mother that morning and her heart was heavy within her.
+The letter said:
+
+"The investment I made last summer has not turned out well. The young
+son has assured me that the family intends to pay back all the
+creditors, and I am trying not to worry. In the meantime, my precious
+daughter, you must not think of giving up college, as you offered in
+your last letter; that is, until this term is over. Then we will see
+what can be done, although I am obliged to tell you that things do not
+look very hopeful about any present funds. Jane is to take a position
+in town as librarian and Minnie intends to start a dancing class. Your
+brothers and sisters and I will get on, but oh, I did so want you to
+have the advantages of a good education."
+
+"But so much else goes with the education," Molly protested to herself.
+"So many pleasures and enjoyments. Somehow, it doesn't seem fair for me
+to be going to glee club concerts when all my family are working so
+hard."
+
+"Have you any stamps, Judy?" she asked suddenly, as she hooked that
+young woman into her dress.
+
+"As many as you want up to a dozen," answered Judy. "They are in the
+pill box on my desk."
+
+Molly made her way through Judy's tumbled apartment and helped herself
+to the stamps.
+
+"I'll return them to-morrow," she said absently, drawing a letter from
+her portfolio, slipping one stamp into the envelope, and sticking the
+other on the back.
+
+"What in the world are you writing to a real estate firm for, Molly?"
+demanded Judy, looking over Molly's shoulder.
+
+"Oh, just answering an ad."
+
+"Are you so rich that you are going to buy a farm?"
+
+"I wish I were."
+
+Judy's curiosity never gave her any peace, and she now desired earnestly
+to know why Molly was corresponding with this strange firm.
+
+"If it turns out well, I'll tell you," said Molly; "but if it doesn't,
+you'll never, never know."
+
+"You mean thing, and I thought you loved me," ejaculated Judy.
+
+"I do. That's why I won't tell you. If I did, I would have to inflict
+something worse on you, and you wouldn't be so thankful for that part."
+
+"I shall burst if I don't know," cried Judy in despair.
+
+"Burst into a million little pieces then, like the Snow Queen's looking
+glass and get into people's eyes and make them see queer Judy pictures
+and think queerer Judy thoughts."
+
+"Meany, meany," called Judy after her friend, who had seized her gray
+eider-down cape and was fleeing down the hall.
+
+"I love all this," thought Molly, as she hastened up the campus to the
+Quadrangle. "I adore the gay talk and the jokes--oh, heavens, but it
+will be hard to leave it! I understand now how Mary Stewart felt when
+she almost decided not to come back this year and then gave up and came
+after all."
+
+Molly felt she would enjoy the sensation of being waited on at table
+that night instead of waiting herself, as she had done about this time
+last year at Judith Blount's dinner. She wondered if there would be a
+poor little trembly freshman to pass the food. But Mary was too
+kind-hearted for such things and had engaged two women in the village to
+cook and serve her dinner.
+
+The other guests had not arrived when Molly let herself into the
+beautiful living room of the apartment, which was now turned into a
+dining room. The drop-leaf mahogany table had been drawn into the middle
+of the floor and was set with dazzling linen and silver for eight
+persons.
+
+"I wonder who the other two are," thought Molly.
+
+"Is that you, Molly, dear?" called Mary from the bedroom. "Well, come
+and hook my dress--" how many yards of hooks and eyes had Molly joined
+together that evening! "And here's something for you. Willie, when he
+found out you were taking him, sent you some violets."
+
+"Heavens!" cried the young girl, after she had finished Mary and opened
+the large purple box. "Oh, Mary, this bunch is big enough for three
+people."
+
+"It's only intended for one, and that's you," laughed the other.
+
+The bouquet was indeed as large as a soup plate.
+
+"I don't think I'd better wear them to dinner. I couldn't see over them.
+I should feel as if I were carrying a violet bed on my chest."
+
+"And so you are. No doubt it took all the violets from one large double
+bed for that bunch. But you had better wear them at first, and take
+them off at the table. Brother Willie is one of the touchiest young
+persons imaginable. Father and I have always called him 'the sensitive
+plant.'"
+
+Hastily Molly pinned on the enormous bunch, which covered the entire
+front of her dress.
+
+"They are coming now," she said, hearing steps in the next room; and,
+peeping through the door, she beheld "Brother Willie" himself,
+resplendent in his evening clothes, in company with two other equally
+resplendent beings, all wearing white gardenias in their buttonholes.
+
+"My goodness, they look like a wedding!" Molly whispered to her friend.
+
+"Aren't they grand?" laughed Mary. "And here I am as plain as an old
+shoe, and never will be anything else."
+
+"You are the finest thing I know," exclaimed Molly, tucking her arm
+through her friend's and allowing herself to be led rather timidly into
+the living room.
+
+The third girl at this fine affair was another post-grad., and presently
+Molly rejoiced to see Miss Grace Green enter with her brother, Edwin.
+Miss Green looked very pretty and young. She kissed Molly and told her
+she was a dear, and smelt the violets and pinched her cheek, glancing
+slyly at the three young men, any one of whom might have burdened her
+with that huge bouquet. And did not such bouquets argue something more
+than ordinary friendship?
+
+As for the Professor, he glanced at the bouquet almost before he looked
+at Molly. Then he shook her stiffly by the hand and, turning away,
+devoted himself to the post-grad.
+
+"Do they know that my mother has lost all her money in their cousin's
+mine?" Molly thought. "Perhaps that's the reason why Professor Green is
+so cold tonight. He's embarrassed."
+
+At dinner Molly sat between Will Stewart and an elegant, rich young man
+named Raymond Bellaire, who talked in rather a drawling voice about
+yachting parties and cross-country riding and motoring. "At college, you
+know, the fellahs are awfully set on those little two-seated electric
+affairs." What car did Molly prefer? Molly was obliged to admit that
+she preferred the Stewart car in New York, whatever that was, it being
+the only one she had ever ridden in.
+
+The young man screwed a monocle into one eye and looked at her. He was
+half English and had half a right to a monocle, but Molly wished he
+wouldn't screw up his eye like that. It made her want to laugh. However,
+he didn't appear to notice at all that she was endeavoring to keep the
+irresistible laugh-curve from her lips. He only looked at her harder,
+and then remarked:
+
+"I say, by Jove, you'd make a jolly fine Portia. Did you ever think of
+going on the stage?"
+
+"Oh, no; I'm going to be a school teacher," answered Molly.
+
+"School teacher?" he repeated aghast. "You? With that hair and--by
+Jove--those violets!" His eyes had lighted on the mammoth bunch. "Tell
+that to the marines."
+
+Molly flushed.
+
+"The violets haven't anything to do with my teaching school," she said a
+little indignantly. "And neither has my hair. Didn't you ever see a
+red-headed school teacher?"
+
+"Not when her hair curled like that and had glints of gold in it."
+
+"You're teasing me because I'm only a sophomore," she said, and turned
+her head away.
+
+"No, by Jove, I'm not though," protested Raymond Bellaire, looking much
+pained. But Molly was talking to Willie Stewart at her right.
+
+That young man was the most correct individual in the matter of clothes,
+deportment and small talk she had ever seen. She thought of his splendid
+father, who had started life as a bootblack.
+
+"I wonder if he's pleased with his fashion-plate son?" she pondered.
+
+She didn't care for him or his friends. They were not like the jolly
+boys over at Exmoor, who talked about basket-ball and football, and
+swopped confidences regarding Latin and Greek and that _awful_ French
+Literature examination, and what this professor was like, and what the
+Prexy said or was supposed to have said, and so on. It was all college
+gossip, but Molly enjoyed it and contributed her share eagerly. She
+tried a little of it on Brother Willie.
+
+"Are you taking up Higher Math. this year, Mr. Stewart?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, after a fashion," he answered. "I don't expect to stay at college
+after this year. I'm going to Paris to finish off."
+
+Molly wondered what "Higher Math. after a fashion" really meant.
+
+At the concert later it was a relief to find herself next to Professor
+Green, who had scarcely looked in her direction all through dinner. At
+first she felt a little embarrassed, sitting next to the Professor, who
+was a great man at Wellington. She began silently to admire the packed
+audience of young girls in light dresses with a generous sprinkling of
+young men in evening clothes.
+
+"You'll probably be a member of the club next year, Miss Brown," the
+Professor was saying. "I'm sure you must sing. I am surprised they have
+not found it out by this time. Next winter you must----"
+
+"I doubt if I am here next winter," interrupted Molly, and then blushed
+furiously and bit her lip. She wished she had not made that speech.
+
+"Is anything going to happen that will keep you from coming to college
+next winter?" he asked, glancing at the violets.
+
+"How can I tell what will happen?" she answered childishly.
+
+"Then, why not come back next year?"
+
+"Because--because----" she began. "Oh, here they come!" she interrupted
+herself to say, as the members of the Glee Club filed slowly out and
+took their seats. "Aren't they sweet in their white dresses?"
+
+"Very!" answered the Professor, "but what's this about next year? It was
+just idle talk, wasn't it?"
+
+"No, no," whispered Molly, for the first number was about to begin;
+"hasn't Mr. Blount told you anything?"
+
+"Why, no. That is, nothing about you. What on earth?"
+
+"Didn't you have a list of the stockholders?"
+
+"You mean of the Square Deal Mine?" he asked in entire amazement.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have a list, but what of it?"
+
+"My mother's name is there--Mrs. Mildred Carmichael Brown."
+
+"Great heavens!" groaned the Professor. Then he sunk far down in his
+seat and buried his face in his program.
+
+Jenny Wren opened the concert with this song, which suited her high,
+bird-like voice to perfection:
+
+    "'Oh, I wish I were a tiny,
+      Browny bird from out the South,
+      Settled among the alderholts
+      And twittering by the stream;
+      I would put my tiny tail down
+      And put up my little mouth,
+      And sing my tiny life away
+      In one melodious dream.
+
+    "'I would sing about the blossoms,
+      And the sunshine and the sky,
+      And the tiny wife I mean to have,
+      In such a cosy nest;
+      And if someone came and shot me dead,
+      Why, then, I could but die,
+      With my tiny life and tiny song
+      Just ended at their best.'"
+
+There was something so moving about the little song that Molly felt she
+could have melted into a fountain of tears like Undine; and she was
+obliged to smile and smile and pretend that her heart wasn't breaking
+because her tiny life and tiny song at Wellington--her beloved
+Wellington--were soon to come to an end. The Professor, too, was
+stirred. He glanced once at Molly's smiling lips and tearful eyes and
+blew his nose violently. Then again he contemplated the program with
+great interest.
+
+During the intermission, Molly and Will Stewart went visiting down the
+aisle. Half the audience was moving about, talking to the other half,
+and the hall was filled with the buzz of laughter and conversation.
+
+"I love it! I love it!" Molly kept repeating to herself. "There couldn't
+be anything more perfect than college. Oh, do I have to give it up?"
+
+"Hey, Miss Molly!" called Andy McLean in a nearby seat, while Judy and
+Nance and George Theodore Green were waving violently to her, and
+Lawrence Upton was shaking hands with her and assuring her that the
+dinner had been a failure because she hadn't been there. Fortunately,
+Judith was well out of ear-shot behind the scenes. The Williams sisters,
+from across the aisle, were calling in one voice:
+
+"Molly, come and meet our brother John."
+
+Margaret Wakefield, causing a sensation with her distinguished father,
+and enduring the gaze of the entire audience with the calmness of one
+reared in the public eye, detained her for a moment to introduce her to
+the famous politician.
+
+"A real belle," said Miss Grace Green to her brother, leaning across two
+seats to speak to him, "is one who is just as popular with women as
+with men, and Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky appears to be a general
+favorite."
+
+The Professor looked at his sister absently. Apparently, he hadn't heard
+a word she said.
+
+He was saying to himself:
+
+"I think I'll let the tenor sing that little lyric that begins: 'Eyes
+like the skies in summer.'"
+
+After a while the delightful affair was over, and Molly, feeling
+immensely happy in spite of her anxious heart, had been escorted to
+Queen's. Professor Edwin Green, hastening into his room, flung his hat
+in one direction and his coat in another, and sat down at his desk.
+Without an instant's hesitation, he seized a pencil and the first scrap
+of paper he found and began to write:
+
+    "Dear Richard:
+
+    "I know that your cares are many, but get to work on the score
+    of the opera. I find that by working at night for a week I shall
+    be able to finish the last act and make all the changes you
+    suggested. We must launch the thing now. I have overcome all
+    scruples, as you called them, and I want nothing more than to
+    get the opera into some manager's hands. If you think that Blum
+    & Starks will take it up, you had better see them at once. My
+    name may be used and everything that goes with it in the way of
+    previous unimportant literary efforts. It's unusual, of course,
+    for a Professor of English Literature to write a comic opera,
+    but the very unusualness may give it some publicity and help the
+    thing along. I have made one change without conferring; given
+    the tenor-lover the baritone-villain's song: 'Eyes like the
+    skies in summer.' Write something very pretty for that, will
+    you, old man? The money we may make on this will help some in
+    the present critical family situation. I understand that there
+    have been a good many failures in light opera this winter, and
+    the managers are looking for good things. It may be that we
+    shall strike at the psychological moment.
+
+        "Yours,      E. G."
+
+The august Professor then wrote two other letters; one to a firm of
+bankers and one to his publishers. At last, getting into an old dressing
+gown and some very rusty slippers, lighting a long, black cigar and
+drawing his student's lamp nearer, he took an immense roll of manuscript
+from a drawer and fell to work. It was three o'clock before he turned in
+for three hours of troubled sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A JAPANESE SPREAD.
+
+
+One morning every girl at Queen's discovered by her plate at the
+breakfast table a strange rice paper document some twelve inches in
+length and very narrow as to width, rolled compactly on a small stick.
+
+"What's this?" demanded Margaret Wakefield, unrolling her scroll and
+regarding it with the legal eye of an attorney perusing documentary
+evidence.
+
+Across the top of the scroll swung a gay little row of Japanese lanterns
+done in delicate water colors, and in characters strangely Japanese was
+inscribed the following invitation:
+
+    "Greetings from
+     Otoyo Sen:
+     Your honorable
+     presence is
+     requested on
+     Saturday evening
+     at the insignificant fete
+     in the unworthily
+     apartment of
+     Otoyo Sen.
+     Otoyo muchly
+     flattered by
+     joyful acceptance."
+
+Fortunately, the little Japanese girl, overcome by shyness after this
+rash venture, had not appeared at breakfast and was spared the mirthful
+expressions on the faces of the girls around the table.
+
+"Well, of all the funny children," laughed Molly. "Nance, let's offer
+her our room. She can't get the crowd into her little place."
+
+"Of course," said Nance, agreeable to anything her roommate might
+suggest.
+
+Not a single girl declined the quaint invitation and formal acceptances
+were sent that very day.
+
+Otoyo was so excited and happy over these missives that she seemed to be
+in a state of semi-exaltation for the better part of a week. She rushed
+to the village and sent off a telegram and before Saturday morning
+received at least a dozen mysterious boxes by express. They were piled
+one on top of the other in her room like an Oriental pyramid and no one
+was permitted to see their contents.
+
+All offers of assistance were refused the day of the party. Otoyo wished
+to carry out her ideas in her own peculiar way and needed only a
+step-ladder. If it was not asking too much, would the beautiful and kind
+friends not enter their room until that evening? Removing all things
+needful in the way of books and clothes to Judy's room, the beautiful
+and kind friends good-naturedly absented themselves from their apartment
+from ten in the morning to seven-thirty that evening. Molly spent the
+afternoon in the library studying, and Nance called on Mrs. McLean and
+drank a cup of tea and ate a buttered scone, while she cast an
+occasional covert glance in the direction of Andy junior's photograph
+on the mantel.
+
+It was well before eight o'clock when the inquisitive guests assembled,
+and there were at least twenty of them; for Otoyo's acquaintance was
+large and numbered girls from all four classes. They met downstairs in a
+body and then marched up to the third story together.
+
+"Let's give her a serenade before we knock," suggested Judy, and they
+sang: "The sweetest girl in Wellington is O-to-yo." Any name could be
+fitted into this convenient and ingenious song.
+
+Otoyo flung open the door and stood smiling before them. Her manner was
+the very quintessence of hospitality. She wore a beautiful embroidered
+kimono and her hair was fixed Japanese fashion. Even her shoes were
+Japanese, and she carried a little fan which she agitated charmingly to
+express her excited emotions.
+
+All her English forsook her in the excitement of greeting her guests and
+she could only repeat over and over again:
+
+"Otoyo delightly--Otoyo delightly."
+
+"Well, I never," ejaculated Nance, entering her old familiar room, now
+transformed into a gay Japanese bazaar.
+
+"Is this the parent of all the umbrella family?" demanded Judy, pointing
+to an enormous parasol swung in some mysterious manner from the centre
+of the ceiling and resembling a large fish swimming among a numerous
+small-fry of lanterns. The divans were spread with Japanese covers, and
+over the white dimity curtains were hung cotton crepe ones of pale blue
+with a pink cherry-blossom design. In one corner stood a vase, from
+which poured the incense of smoking joss-sticks. Funny little handleless
+cups were ranged on the table and lacquered trays of candied fruits,
+rice cakes and other indescribable Japanese "meat-sweets," as Otoyo had
+called them. The little hostess flew about the room exactly as the
+_Three Little Maids_ did in "The Mikado," waving her fan and bowing
+profoundly to her guests. Presently, sitting cross-legged on the floor,
+she sang a song in her own language, accompanying herself on a curious
+stringed instrument, a kind of Japanese banjo. She was, in fact, the
+funniest, queerest, most captivating little creature ever seen. She
+loaded her guests with souvenirs, little lacquered boxes, fans and
+diminutive toys.
+
+"I feel as if I were a belle at a grand cotillion with all these lovely
+favors," exclaimed Jessie Lynch.
+
+"Of course, you would always be laden with favors," said Judy; "that is,
+if you could get all your beaux to come to the same cotillion. You are
+like the sailor who had a lass in every port. I strongly suspect you of
+having an admirer in every prominent city in the country."
+
+Jessie laughed and dimpled.
+
+"No," she said; "I stopped at the Rocky Mountains."
+
+Otoyo, who had been listening closely to this dialogue, suddenly
+bethought herself of a new sensation she had provided for her friends,
+which she was about to forget.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "I nearlee forgetting. American girl love fortune
+telling? So do Japanese. You like to have your fortune told?" she
+asked, cocking her head on one side like a little bird and blinking at
+Jessie.
+
+"Would she?" cried a dozen ironical voices.
+
+"I hope it's nothing disagreeable and there's no bad luck in it," said
+Jessie, drawing a slip of paper from a flat, shiny box. "But it's all in
+Japanese," she added, with much disappointment.
+
+"Otoyo will translate it. Won't you, you cunning little sugar-lump?"
+asked Molly.
+
+"Everybodee choose and then I will make into English," said the small,
+busy hostess, flying from one to another on her marshmallow soles.
+
+"Me first of all," cried the eager Jessie. "I had first draw."
+
+Otoyo took the slip and, holding it under a lantern, translated in a
+high, funny voice:
+
+"He happy who feesh for one and catch heem, than feesh for many and
+catch none."
+
+The wild whoop of joy that went up at this unexpectedly appropriate
+statement made the lanterns quiver and the teacups rattle.
+
+Some of the others were not so appropriate, but they were all very
+amusing. Mabel Hinton, who had been nicknamed "old maid" the year
+before, drew one which announced:
+
+"Your daughters will make good matches."
+
+The girls laughed till the tears ran down their cheeks at this
+prediction, and Mabel was quite teased.
+
+"I'd like to know why I shouldn't have a family of marriageable
+daughters some day," she exclaimed, blinking at them with near-sighted
+eyes while she wiped the moisture from her large round glasses.
+
+Nance's fortune was a very sentimental one and caused her to blush as
+red as a rose.
+
+"Love will not change, neither in the cold weenter time nor in the warm
+spreengtime under the cherry-blossoms when the moon ees bright."
+
+"Oh, thou blushing maiden," cried Judy, "canst look us in the eye after
+this?"
+
+Molly's was rather comforting to her troubled and unquiet heart.
+
+"Look for cleer weather when the sky ees blackest."
+
+Of all the mottoes, Judy's was the funniest.
+
+"Eef thy hus-band beat thee, geeve heem a smile."
+
+"Smile indeed," exclaimed that young woman when the laughter had died
+down; "I'll just turn the tables on him and beat him back, Otoyo.
+American young lady quite capable of giving honorable husband a good
+trouncing with a black-snake whip."
+
+Otoyo opened her eyes at this. It was doubtful whether she could
+appreciate the humor of her mottoes, but she enjoyed hearing the girls
+laugh; she realized they must be having a good time if they laughed like
+that--really genuine, side-shaking laughter and no lip-smiles for
+politeness' sake.
+
+"Who's heard the news about Judith Blount?" asked one of the Williamses,
+after the party had broken up and only the Queen's girls remained.
+
+Molly and Judy and Nance exchanged telegraphic glances. They had been
+careful to keep secret what Mrs. Kean had written her daughter, and they
+were curious to know just how much the others knew on the subject,
+which was now always uppermost, at least in Molly's mind.
+
+"She's sub-let her apartment, furnished, to that rich freshman from New
+York, whose father's worth a fortune a minute from gold mines and oil
+wells, and she, I mean Judith, is taking the empty singleton here."
+
+"You don't mean it!" cried a chorus of voices.
+
+"It seems to me I heard that a Mr. Blount lost a lot of money," observed
+Margaret. "It must have been her father."
+
+"How are the mighty fallen!" exclaimed Edith Williams. "I should think
+she'd have gone anywhere rather than here."
+
+"She couldn't get in any of the less expensive places unless she had
+taken a room over the post office in the village."
+
+"Poor Judith!" ejaculated Jessie. "I've known it for a week."
+
+To save her life Molly could not keep a tiny little barbed thought from
+piercing her mind: "Is it fair for Judith to stay at college when I
+have to leave? Has she any right to the money that's paying her
+tuition?"
+
+Molly turned quickly and began gathering up the debris from the
+tea-tables. Anything to get that bitter notion out of her head.
+
+"Let's be awfully nice to her, girls," she said presently. "I'm sure
+she's terribly unhappy. Remember what success we had with Frances
+Andrews last year just through a little kind treatment."
+
+"Judith is a different subject altogether," said Margaret,
+argumentatively. "She has such a dreadful temper. You never can tell
+when it's going to break loose."
+
+With the Goddess of War sitting among them at this moment, nobody dared
+betray by the flick of an eyelash that there were others whose tempers
+were rather uncertain. Only Jessie observed:
+
+"Well, Margaret, dear, you got the better of her that time at the
+Ledges, temper or no temper."
+
+"I doubt if she takes to poverty as a duck to water," here put in Judy.
+"She'll make a very impatient tutor, and I'd hate to have her black my
+boots. She might throw them at my head."
+
+"She is certainly not subdued by her reverses," remarked Jessie. "She's
+just like a caged animal. I never saw anything to equal her. I went over
+there this afternoon and she was packing. She almost pitched me out of
+the room. Of course, it's very luxurious at Beta Phi House, but her
+little room here isn't to be scorned. It's really quite pretty, with
+lovely paper and matting and chintz curtains and wicker chairs."
+
+Suddenly a wave of indignation swept over Molly. Nobody had ever seen
+her look as she looked now, burning spots of color on her cheeks and her
+eyes black.
+
+"What right has she--how dare she--she should be thankful--" she burst
+out incoherently. Then she stamped both feet up and down like an angry
+child and flung herself face down on the couch in an agony of tears. It
+was a kind of mental tempest, resembling one of those sudden storms
+which come with a flash of lightning, a roaring crash of thunder and
+then a downpour of rain.
+
+"Why, Mary Carmichael Washington Brown," exclaimed Judy, kneeling beside
+poor Molly, "whatever has come over you?"
+
+Little Otoyo was so frightened that she hid behind a Japanese screen,
+while the other girls sat dumb with amazement.
+
+The Williams girls were intensely interested, and Margaret, always
+consistent and logical in her decisions, knew very well that there was
+something serious back of it.
+
+"Please forgive me," said Molly presently, wiping her eyes and sitting
+up as limp as a rag. "I'm awfully sorry to have spoiled the evening like
+this. I didn't mean it. It just slipped out of me before I knew it was
+coming."
+
+"Why, you old sweetness," exclaimed the affectionate Judy, "of course,
+you are forgiven. I guess you ought to be allowed a few outbursts. But
+what caused it?"
+
+"I think it was nervousness," answered Molly evasively.
+
+But the girls began to realize that it was not entirely nervousness. It
+occurred to them now that Molly had been preoccupied and strangely
+silent for some time. Occasionally she gave way to forced gaiety. Twice
+she had started on walks, changed her mind and come back, without giving
+any excuse except that she was a little tired. It was, in fact, a
+condition that had come about so gradually that they were hardly aware
+they had noticed it until this sudden breakdown.
+
+"She's dead tired and ought to get to bed this minute," remarked Nance,
+caressing her friend's hand.
+
+"Dearest Molly," said Jessie, who was moved by a gentle sympathy always
+for those in trouble, "go to bed and get a good rest. It was just nice
+and human of you to get mad once in a thousand years and we love you all
+the better for it."
+
+They were good friends, all of them, Molly felt, as they kissed her or
+pressed her hand good-night, while Nance and Judy hastened to clear off
+the divan and put up the windows to blow out the heavy, incense-scented
+air.
+
+It was Otoyo, however, who brought the tears back to poor Molly's eyes.
+
+"Dear, beautiful Mees Brown," she said. "You must not think it will come
+wrong. It will come right, I feel, surelee."
+
+"What is it, Nance?" whispered Judy, after they had got their friend to
+bed.
+
+Nance shook her head.
+
+"Heaven knows," she answered. "But it's something, and it must be
+serious, Judy, or she never would have let go like that."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+VESPERS.
+
+
+There was a pretty little Episcopal chapel in the village of Wellington,
+where at Vespers on Sunday afternoons the students were wont to
+congregate. Six Wellington girls always served as ushers and the college
+Glee Club formed the Chapel choir.
+
+"It's a good thing to go to Vespers," remarked Judy one Sabbath
+afternoon, pinning on her large velvet hat before the mirror over the
+mantel, notably the most becoming mirror in the house, "not only for the
+welfare of our souls, but also to attire ourselves in decent clothes."
+
+"I suspect you of thinking it's good for your soul to wear good clothes,
+Judy," observed Nance.
+
+"You suspect rightly, then," answered Judy. "If I had to dress in rags,
+I'm afraid my soul would become a thing of shreds and patches, too, all
+shiny at the seams and down at the heels."
+
+Nance laughed.
+
+"That's a funny way to talk, considering you are about to attend Vespers
+at the Chapel of the good St. Francis, who took the vows of poverty and
+lived a roving life on the hills around Assisi."
+
+"That's all very true," said Judy, "and I've seen the picture of him
+being married to Lady Poverty, but our dispositions are different, St.
+Francis's and mine. I like the roving over the hills part, because I'm a
+wanderer by nature, but I like to wander in nice clothes. My manners are
+getting to be regular old gray sweater manners, and if I didn't put on
+my velvet suit and best hat once a week there's no telling what kind of
+a rude creature I would become."
+
+"Why, Julia Kean, I'm ashamed of you," cried Nance, "you've as good as
+confessed that you go to Vespers to show your fine clothes."
+
+"I don't go to show 'em, goosie; I go to wear 'em. But you have no sense
+of humor. What's the good of telling you anything? Molly, there,
+understands my feelings, I am sure."
+
+Molly was not listening. She was making calculations at her desk with a
+blunt pencil on a scrap of paper.
+
+"I've got as good a sense as you have," cried Nance hotly, "only I don't
+approve of being humorous about sacred things."
+
+"Nonsense," broke in Judy, "don't you know, child, that you can't limit
+humor? It spreads over every subject and it's not necessarily profane
+because it touches on clothes at church. I suppose you think there is
+nothing funny about the Reverend Gustavus Adolphus Larsen, and you have
+forgotten how you giggled that Sunday when he announced from the pulpit
+that his text was taken from St. Paul's 'Efistle to the Epeesians.'"
+
+"He's always getting mixed," here put in Molly, who at certain stages in
+the warm discussions between Nance and Judy always sounded a pacifying
+note. "They do say that he was talking to Miss Walker about one of the
+faculty pews, and he said: 'Do you occupew this pi?'"
+
+This was too much for Nance's severity, and she broke down and laughed
+gaily with the others.
+
+"He's a funny little man," she admitted, "but he's well meaning."
+
+"Hurry up," admonished Judy; "it's twenty minutes of four and I want to
+get a good seat this afternoon."
+
+"You want to show off your new fashionable headgear, you mean, Miss
+Vanity," said Nance, pinning on her neat brown velvet toque and
+squinting at herself in the mirror.
+
+"Oh, me," thought Molly, "I wish I had a decent garment to show off."
+
+She had intended to buy some clothes that autumn from a purchasing agent
+who came several times a year to Wellington with catalogues and samples,
+but she had been afraid to spend any of the money she had earned because
+of the precarious state of the family finances.
+
+She ran her hatpin through her old soft gray felt, which had a bright
+blue wing at one side, and slipped on the coat of her last winter's gray
+suit. Then she drew white yarn gloves over her kid ones, because she had
+no muff and her hands were always frozen, and stoically marched across
+the campus with her friends.
+
+The Chapel was already crowded when the girls arrived. They had not
+heard that the Rev. Gustavus's pulpit was to be filled that afternoon by
+a preacher from New York. At any rate, they had to sit in the little
+balcony, which commanded a better view of the minister than it did of
+the congregation. He was a nice-looking young man, with an unaffected
+manner, and he preached to the packed congregation as if he were talking
+quietly and simply to one person; at least, it seemed so to Molly. The
+sermon was a short address on "Faith." It contained no impassioned
+eloquence nor fiery exhortations, but it impressed the students
+profoundly.
+
+"Don't try to instruct God about the management of your lives," he said,
+"any more than you would direct a wise and kind master who employed you
+to work on his estate. All the Great Master asks of you is to work well
+and honestly. The reward is sure to come. You cannot hurry it and you
+cannot make it greater than you deserve. It is useless to struggle and
+rage inwardly. Is not that being rather like a spoiled child, who lies
+on the floor and kicks and screams because his mother won't give him any
+more cake? Just put your affairs in the hands of God and go quietly
+along, doing the best you can. All of a sudden the conditions you once
+struggled against will cease to exist, and before you have realized it,
+the thing you asked for is yours."
+
+Lots of people, the minister said, prayed a great deal without believing
+that their prayers would be heard. It reminded him of a little anecdote.
+
+"One Sunday morning during a terrible drought a country preacher knelt
+in the midst of his family at home and prayed earnestly for rain. When
+it was time to start for church, the minister noticed that his little
+daughter was carrying an umbrella.
+
+"'Why do you take an umbrella, my child?' he asked, glancing at the
+cloudless sky.
+
+"'Didn't you just pray for rain, father?' she answered.
+
+"All the learning of the ages is not greater than the simple faith of a
+little child," finished the young preacher.
+
+And now the sermon was over and the girls were chatting in groups
+outside the Chapel, or strolling along the sidewalk arm in arm. Molly
+had withdrawn from her companions for a moment and was standing alone in
+a corner of the vestibule.
+
+"I'm afraid I've been acting just like the little child who threw
+himself on the floor and kicked and screamed for more cake," she was
+thinking. "I suppose another year at college is just like a nice big
+hunk of chocolate cake and it wouldn't be good for mental digestion. I
+might as well stop struggling and begin to cram mathematics. That's the
+hardest thing I have, and I ought to get in as much of it as I can
+before I go."
+
+"Perhaps you won't have to go at all," spoke another voice in her mind.
+
+But Molly couldn't see it that way. Other letters from her mother had
+made it clear to her that no more money could be raised. There was a
+good place waiting for her to step into, however, in a small private
+school made up of children who lived in the neighborhood. She could come
+home after the mid-year examinations when the present teacher in the
+school was planning to be married.
+
+"Oh, Miss Brown," someone said. Molly looked up quickly. It was
+President Walker. "Will you walk along with me? I had a letter from your
+mother last night and I want to speak to you about it."
+
+The President was a very democratic and motherly woman who not only
+guided the affairs of the college with a wise hand, but kept in personal
+touch with her girls, and it was not unusual to see her walking home
+from Vespers with several students. This time, however, she took Molly's
+arm and led her down the village street without asking any of the
+others to join her.
+
+The young girl was very sensible of the honor paid her, thus singled out
+by the President to walk back to college. She felt a shy pleasure in the
+sensation they created as the crowd of students parted to let them pass.
+
+"I am very, very sorry to receive this news from your mother, Miss
+Brown," began the President. "I suppose you know what it is?"
+
+"You mean about leaving college, Miss Walker?"
+
+"Yes. It's really a great distress to me to think that one of my Queen's
+girls especially must give up in the middle of her course. Instead of
+listening to that young man at Vespers, I was thinking and thinking
+about this unwelcome news."
+
+Molly smiled. She had managed to listen to the preaching and to think
+about her affairs at the same time, because they somehow seemed to fit
+together. Once she almost felt that perhaps he knew all about her case
+and was preaching to her. But, of course, everybody had problems and
+lots of the girls thought the same thing, no doubt,--Madeleine Petit,
+for instance.
+
+"Is there no possible way it could be arranged?" went on the President.
+"Is this decision of your mother's final?"
+
+Evidently Mrs. Brown had not explained why Molly was obliged to come
+home.
+
+"Oh, she didn't decide it," answered the young girl, quickly. "It's
+because--because the money's gone--lost."
+
+"I suspected it was something of that sort," went on the President.
+"Now, there is a way, Miss Brown, by which you could remain if you would
+be willing to leave Queen's Cottage. I am in charge of a Student Fund
+for just such cases as yours. This provides for tuition and board,--not
+on the campus, but in the village. You're making something now tutoring
+the little Japanese girl, I understand. That's good. That will help
+along. You will have to manufacture some excuse to your friends about
+leaving Queen's. Otherwise, the fund arrangement may remain a secret
+between you and me."
+
+Miss Walker pressed the girl's hand and smiled kindly as she searched
+her face for some sign of gladness and relief at this offer.
+
+Molly tried to smile back.
+
+"We'll leave everything as it is until the end of this semester,"
+continued the President.
+
+"Thank you very, very much," Molly said, making a great effort to keep
+her voice from sounding shaky.
+
+Leave Queen's! Was it possible the President didn't know that life at
+Queen's was the best part of college to her? Would there be any pleasure
+left if she had to tear herself away from her beloved chums and take up
+quarters in the village, living on a charity fund?
+
+When she separated from Miss Walker at the McLeans' front door, she was
+so filled with inward lamentations and weeping that she could scarcely
+say good-night to the President, who looked somewhat puzzled at the
+girl's still pale face.
+
+Rushing back to Queen's, Molly flung herself through the front door and
+tore upstairs. On the landing she bumped into Judith Blount, who gave
+her a sullen, angry look.
+
+"Please be careful next time and don't take up the whole stairs,"
+exclaimed that young woman rudely.
+
+Molly glanced at her wildly. What right had she to talk, this wretch of
+a girl who could remain at Queen's and live on other people's money? Oh,
+oh, oh! Misery of miseries! She rushed up the second flight. She was
+having what Judy called "the dry weeps." At the door of Otoyo's room she
+paused. It was half open and the little Japanese was sitting
+cross-legged on the floor with a lamp beside her, studying.
+
+"May I come in?"
+
+"With much gladness," answered Otoyo, rising and bowing ceremoniously.
+
+"I want to stay in here a little while, Otoyo, away from other people.
+May I sit here by the window in this big chair? Go on with your lessons.
+I don't want to talk. I wanted to be with someone who was quite quiet.
+I should have been obliged to hide in a closet if you hadn't let me in."
+
+"I am very happily glad you came to me," said Otoyo.
+
+She helped Molly off with her coat and hat, pulled out the Morris chair
+so that it faced the window and sat down again quietly with her book.
+
+At the end of three-quarters of an hour, Otoyo began to move noiselessly
+about the room. Molly was still sitting in the big arm-chair, her hands
+clasped in her lap. Presently she became aware that Otoyo was standing
+silently before her bearing a lacquer tray on which was a cup of tea and
+a rice cake.
+
+"Otoyo, you sweet, little dear," she said, placing the tray on the arm
+of the chair. She gulped down the tea and ate the cake, and while the
+small hostess made another cupful, Molly continued: "Otoyo, I'm going to
+let God manage my affairs hereafter. I'm not going to lie on the floor
+any more and kick and scream like a spoiled child for another piece of
+chocolate cake. I shall always carry an umbrella now when I pray for
+rain, and I mean to begin to-night to polish up in math."
+
+"I am happily glad," said Otoyo, giving her a gentle, sympathetic
+smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
+
+
+There was no happier girl in Wellington one morning than Nance Oldham,
+and all because she had been invited to the Thanksgiving dance at Exmoor
+College. Nance had never been to a real dance in her life, except a
+"shirtwaist" party at the seashore, where she had been a hopeless
+wallflower because she had known only one man in the room--her father.
+Now, there was no chance of being a wallflower at Exmoor, where a girl's
+card was made out beforehand, and she had that warm glow of predestined
+success from the very beginning of the festivity.
+
+Molly and Judy were also invited and the girls were to go over to Exmoor
+on the 6.45 trolley with Dr. and Mrs. McLean and return on the 10.45
+trolley, permission having been granted them to stay up until midnight.
+Three other Wellington girls were bound for the dance on the same car.
+A young teacher chaperoned this little company, of which Judith Blount
+was one.
+
+"I wonder that Judith Blount can make up her mind to go to a dance,"
+Judy Kean remarked to Molly. "She's been in such a sullen rage for so
+long, she's turned quite yellow. I don't think she will enjoy it."
+
+"It will do her good," answered Molly. "Dancing always makes people
+forget their troubles. Just trying to be graceful puts one in a good
+humor."
+
+"The scientific reason is, child, that it stirs up one's circulation."
+
+"And brooding is bad for the circulation," added Molly.
+
+It had been a very gloomy holiday, the skies black and lowering and a
+dead, warm wind from the south. But there had been no sign of rain, and
+now, as they alighted from the car at Exmoor station, they noticed that
+the wind had shifted slightly to the east and freshened. The great
+blanket of frowning black had broken, and a myriad of small clouds were
+flying across the face of the moon like a flock of frightened sheep.
+Molly shivered. She had often called herself a human barometer and her
+spirits were apt to shift with the wind.
+
+"The wind has changed," she observed to the doctor. "I feel it in my
+bones."
+
+"Correct," said the doctor, scanning the heavens critically. "There's no
+flavoring extract so strong as a drop of East wind. Let us hope it will
+hold back a bit until after the shindig."
+
+With all its penetrating qualities, however, the drop of East wind did
+not affect the air in the beautiful old dining hall of Exmoor, used
+always for the larger entertainments. Its polished hardwood floor and
+paneled walls, its two great open fireplaces, in which immense back logs
+glowed cheerfully, made a picture that drove away all memory of bad
+weather.
+
+Then the music struck up. The dancers whirled and circled. Nance was in
+a seventh heaven. Her cheeks glowed, her eyes shone, and she seemed to
+float over the floor guided by the steady hand of young Andy; while his
+father looked on and smiled laconically.
+
+"Every laddie maun hae his lassie," he observed to his wife, "and it's
+gude luck for him when he draws a plain one with a bonnie brown eye."
+
+"She's not plain," objected Mrs. McLean.
+
+"She has no furbelows in face nor dress that I can see," answered the
+doctor.
+
+"They're just a boy and a girl, Andrew. Don't be anticipating. There's
+no telling how often they may change off before the settling time
+comes."
+
+"And was it your ainsel' that changed so often?" asked the doctor, with
+a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Nay, nay, laddie," she protested, leaning on the doctor's arm
+affectionately, "but those were steadier days, I'm thinking."
+
+"There's not so muckle change," said the doctor, "when it comes to
+sweethearting."
+
+Many old-fashioned dances were introduced that night: the cottage
+lancers, and Sir Roger de Coverly, led off by the doctor and his wife,
+whose old-world curtseys were very amusing to the young dancers.
+
+And while the fun waxed fast and furious indoors, outside queer things
+were happening. The South wind, gently and insistently battling with the
+East wind, had conquered him for the moment. All the little clouds that
+had been scuttling across the heavens before the East wind's icy breath,
+now melted together into a tumbled, fleecy mass. Snowflakes were
+falling, softly and silently, clothing the campus and fields, the
+valleys and hills beyond in a blanket of white. Then the angry East wind
+returned from his lair with a new weapon: a drenching sheet of cold,
+penetrating rain, which changed to drops of ice as it fell and tapped on
+the high windows of the dining hall a warning rat-tat-tat quite drowned
+in the strains of music. The South wind, conquered and crushed, crept
+away and the East wind, summoning his brother from the North to share
+the fun, played a trick on the world which people in that part of the
+country will not soon forget. Together they covered the soft, white
+blanket with a sheet of ice as hard and slippery as plate glass. At
+last, having enjoyed themselves immensely, they retired. Out came the
+moon again, shining in the frozen stillness, like a great round lantern.
+
+In the meantime, the dance went on and joy was unconfined. Nobody had
+the faintest inkling of the drama which had been acted between the East
+and the South winds.
+
+Most unconscious of all was Molly, who, having danced herself into a
+state of exuberant spirits, sat down to rest with Lawrence Upton in an
+ingle-nook of one of the big fireplaces. As chance would have it, they
+were joined by Judith Blount and a very dull young man, who, Lawrence
+informed Molly, had more money than brains. Judith had not noticed Molly
+at first. Probably she would never have chosen that particular spot if
+she had. But the destinies of these two girls had been ordained to touch
+at intervals in their lives and whenever the meeting occurred something
+unfortunate always happened. They were exactly like two fluids which
+would not mix comfortably together. There was a general movement of
+partners for supper at this juncture and the two girls found themselves
+alone for the moment while their escorts departed for coffee and
+sandwiches.
+
+"Are you having a good time?" Molly asked, glancing at Judith timidly.
+
+She would have preferred to have said nothing whatever, but she had made
+a compact with herself to try and overcome her dislike for this girl
+whom she had distrusted from the moment of their first meeting at the
+railroad station when Mr. Murphy had given Molly's baggage check
+preference.
+
+"Did I appear to be a wallflower?" demanded Judith insolently.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Molly. "I didn't mean that of course."
+
+Then she sighed and turned toward the fire with a trembly, unnerved
+feeling.
+
+"I don't believe I'll ever get used to having people cross to me," she
+thought. "It always frightens me. I suppose I'm too sensitive." She
+began to shiver slightly. "The wind is surely in the East now," she
+added to herself.
+
+When the young men came back bearing each a tray with supper for two,
+she was grateful for the cup of steaming coffee.
+
+"Will you hold this for a minute, Miss Molly," asked Lawrence Upton,
+"while I get a chair to rest it on? Lap tables are about as unsteady as
+tables on shipboard."
+
+Judith's partner had followed Lawrence's example, and presently the two
+students were seen hurrying through the throng, each pushing a chair in
+front of him. By some strange fatality, history was to repeat itself.
+Just as he reached the girls, the young person who had more money than
+brains slipped on a fragment of buttered bread which had fallen off
+somebody's plate, skidded along, bumped his chair into Lawrence, who
+lost his balance and fell against poor Molly's tray. Then, oh, dreadful
+calamity! over went the cup of coffee straight onto Judith's yellow
+satin frock.
+
+Molly could have sunk into the floor with the misery of that moment, and
+yet she had not in the least been the cause of the accident. It was the
+small-brained rich individual who was to blame. But Judith was not in
+any condition to reckon with original causes. Molly had been carrying
+the tray with the coffee cups and that was enough for her. She leapt to
+her feet, shaking her drenched dress and scattering drops of coffee in
+every direction.
+
+"You awkward, clumsy creature!" she cried, stamping her foot as she
+faced Molly. "Why do you ever touch a coffee cup? Are you always going
+to upset coffee on me and my family? You have ruined my dress. You did
+it on purpose. I saw you were very angry a moment ago and you did it for
+revenge."
+
+Molly shrank back in her seat, her face turning from crimson to white
+and back to crimson again.
+
+"Don't answer her," said a small voice in her mind. "Be silent! Be
+silent!"
+
+"But, Miss Blount," began her supper partner, feeling vaguely that
+justice must be done, "I stumbled, don't you know? Awfully awkward of
+me, of course, but I slipped on an infernal piece of banana peel or
+something and fell against Upton. Hope your gown isn't ruined."
+
+"It is ruined," cried Judith, her face transformed with rage. "It's
+utterly ruined and she did it. It isn't the first time she's flung
+coffee cups around. Last winter she ruined my cousin's new suit of
+clothes. She's the most careless, awkward, clumsy creature I ever saw.
+I----"
+
+A curious little group had gathered over near the fireplace, but Judith
+was too angry to care who heard what she was saying. In the meantime,
+Lawrence Upton had taken his stand between Judith and Molly, feeling
+somehow that he might protect poor Molly from the onslaught. Presently
+he took her hand and drew it through his arm.
+
+"Suppose we join the McLeans," he said. "I see they are having supper
+all together over there." As they turned to leave, he said to Judith in
+a cold, even voice that seemed to bring her back to her senses:
+
+"I upset the coffee. Blanchard fell against me and joggled my arm. If
+there is any reparation I can make, I shall be glad to do it."
+
+Whereupon, Judith departed to the dressing room and was not seen again
+until it was time to leave.
+
+"What a tiger-cat she is!" whispered Lawrence to Molly, as he led her
+across the room.
+
+Molly did not answer. She was afraid to trust her voice just then, and
+still more afraid of what she might say if she dared speak.
+
+"What was all that rumpus over there?" demanded Judy when the young
+people had joined their friends.
+
+"Oh, just a little volcanic activity on the part of Mount AEtna and a
+good deal of slinging of hot lava. Miss Molly and I are refugees from
+the eruption, and Mount AEtna has gone upstairs."
+
+"You mean Miss AEtna Blount?" asked Judy.
+
+"The same," said Lawrence.
+
+When it was time for the Wellington party to catch the trolley car home,
+they emerged from the warm, cheerful dining hall into a world of
+dazzling whiteness. The trees were clothed in it, and the ground was
+covered with a crust of ice as hard and shining as marble.
+
+A path of ashes was sprinkled before them, so that they walked safely as
+far as the station.
+
+"Heaven help us at the other end," Mrs. McLean exclaimed, clinging to
+the doctor's arm.
+
+The car was late in arriving at Exmoor station. At last it hove into
+sight, moving at a hesitating gait along the slippery rails. But it had
+a comfortably warm interior and they were glad to climb in out of the
+bitter cold.
+
+"All aboard!" called the conductor. "Last car to-night."
+
+There is always a gloomy fatality in the announcement, "Last car
+to-night." It is just as if a doctor might say: "Nothing more can be
+done."
+
+Clang, clang, went the bell, and they moved slowly forward.
+
+After an age of slipping and sliding, frequent stopping and starting and
+exchanges of loud confidences between the motorman and the conductor,
+the car came to a dead stop.
+
+Dr. McLean, who had been sound asleep and snoring loudly, waked up.
+
+"Bless my soul, are we there?" he demanded.
+
+"No, sir, and far from it," answered the conductor, who had opened the
+door and come inside, beating his hands together for warmth.
+
+"Far from it? What do you mean by that, my good man?" asked the doctor.
+
+"There ain't no more power, sir," answered the man. "The trolley's just
+a solid cable of ice and budge she won't. You couldn't move her with a
+derrick."
+
+"But what are we to do?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I couldn't say, sir, unless you walked. It's only a matter of about two
+miles. Otherwise, you'd have to spend the night here and it'll be a
+cold place. There ain't no more heat, is there, Jim?"
+
+"There ain't," was Jim's brief reply.
+
+"I guess Jim and I'll foot it into Wellington and the best you can do is
+to come along."
+
+The doctor and his wife conferred with the young teacher who had
+chaperoned the other party. The question was, would it not be a greater
+risk to walk two miles in thin-soled shoes and party dresses over that
+wilderness of ice than to remain snugly in the car until they could get
+help? The motorman and conductor were well protected from the cold and
+from slipping, too, with heavy overcoats and arctic shoes. While they
+were talking, these two individuals took their departure, letting in a
+cold blast of air as they slid the door back to get out.
+
+The Wellington crowd sat huddled together, hoping to keep warm by human
+contact. They tried to beguile the weary hours with conversation, but
+time dragged heavily and the car grew colder and colder. Some of the
+girls began to move up and down, practicing physical culture exercises
+and beating their hands together.
+
+"I think it would be better to walk," announced Mrs. McLean at last. "We
+are in much greater danger of freezing to death sitting here than
+moving. We'll stick to the track. It won't be so slippery between the
+rails."
+
+Even the doctor was relieved at this suggestion, fearful as he was of
+slipping on the ice. The gude wife was right, as she always was, and the
+lassies had better take the risk and come along quickly. Before they
+realized it, they were on the track with faces turned hopefully toward
+Wellington. Scarcely had they taken six steps, before three of the girls
+tumbled flat, and while they were picking themselves up, Dr. and Mrs.
+McLean sat down plump on the ice, hand in hand, like two astonished
+children. It was quite impossible to keep from laughing at this
+ludicrous situation, especially when the doctor's great "haw-haw" made
+the air tremble. The ones who were standing helped the ones who had
+fallen to rise and fell themselves in the effort.
+
+"If we only had on skates," cried Judy, "wouldn't it be glorious? We
+could skate anywhere, right across the fields or along the road. It's
+just like a sea of solid ice."
+
+For an hour they took their precarious way along the track, which was
+now on the edge of a high embankment.
+
+"A grand place for coasting," remarked Judy, peeping over the edge.
+
+Suddenly her heels went over her head and her horrified friends beheld
+her sliding backwards down the hill.
+
+"Are you hurt at all, my lass?" called the doctor, peeping fearfully
+over the side, and holding onto his wife as a drowning man catches at a
+life preserver.
+
+"Hurt? No," cried Judy, convulsed with laughter.
+
+"Do you think you can crawl back?" asked Mrs. McLean doubtfully.
+
+Then Judy began the most difficult ascent of her life, on hands and
+knees. There was nothing to take hold of and, when she had got half-way
+up, back she slipped to the bottom again.
+
+A second time she had almost reached the top when she lost her footing
+and once more slipped to the base of the embankment.
+
+"You'd better go on without me," she cried, half sobbing and half
+laughing.
+
+The doctor was very uncomfortable. Not for worlds would he have put foot
+outside the trolley rails, but something had to be done.
+
+"Let's make a human ladder," suggested Molly, "as they do in melodramas.
+I'll go first. Nance, you take my foot and someone hold on to yours and
+so on. Then, Judy can climb up, catching hold of us."
+
+The doctor considered this a good scheme and the human chain was
+accordingly formed, the doctor himself grasping the ankle of the last
+volunteer, who happened to be Judith Blount. But hardly had Judy
+commenced the upward climb, when the doctor's heels went over his head
+and the entire human ladder found itself huddled together at the foot of
+the embankment.
+
+"It's a case of every mon for himself and the divvel tak' the hindmost,"
+exclaimed the doctor, sitting up stiffly and rubbing his shins. "Help
+yoursel's, lassies. I can do nae mair."
+
+Some of them reached the track at last and some of them didn't, and
+those who couldn't make it were Molly and Judith Blount.
+
+"You'll have to follow along as best you can down there," called Mrs.
+McLean, grasping her husband's arm. "We'll keep an eye on you from
+above."
+
+Once more the belated revellers started on their way, while Molly and
+Judith Blount pursued a difficult path between a frozen creek and the
+trolley embankment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE GREAT SLEET OF 19--.
+
+
+Many a fall and many a bruise they got that night as they crept along
+the frozen path. At last they reached a point where the creek had been
+turned abruptly from its bed and passed through a culvert under the
+embankment. Here the path also changed its course and headed for the
+golf links of the college.
+
+"They can never get down the embankment and we can never get up,"
+remarked Judith, who appeared to have forgotten that she had lately been
+a human volcano. "Why can't we take the short cut back? It couldn't be
+any worse than this."
+
+"Why not?" answered Molly politely, although it must be confessed she
+was still tingling under the lash of Judith's flaying tongue, and not
+one word had she spoken since they left the others.
+
+"Mrs. McLean," called Judith, making a trumpet of her hands, "we're
+going to cut across the golf links. It will be easier."
+
+"But I'm afraid for you to go alone at this time of night," answered
+Mrs. McLean.
+
+"What could harm them a night like this?" expostulated her husband.
+
+"Very well, then. I suppose it's all right," said the distracted and
+wearied lady.
+
+"Don't be uneasy, Mrs. McLean. You'll tak' the high road and we'll tak'
+the low, but we'll gang to Wellington afore ye," called Molly laughing.
+
+After all, wasn't it absurd enough to make a body laugh--one man, eight
+helpless women slipping and sliding after him, and she herself making
+off in the darkness with the only enemy she had ever known! She wished
+it had been Judy or Nance. She was sure they would have giggled all the
+way. But who ever wanted to laugh in the presence of this black-browed,
+fierce-tempered Judith?
+
+They walked silently on for some time, until they came to a little hill.
+
+"I guess we'll have to crawl it," sighed Molly.
+
+Long before this, they had pinned their long skirts up around their
+waists, and now, on hands and knees, they began the difficult ascent.
+Just as they reached the top, Molly's slipper bag somehow got away from
+her and went sliding to the bottom. Suddenly both girls began to laugh.
+They laughed until the echoes rang, and Molly, losing her grasp on a
+bush, went sliding after the bag.
+
+"Oh," laughed Judith, "oh, Molly, I shall----" and then the twigs she
+had been clutching pulled out of the ice and down she went on top of
+Molly.
+
+The two girls sat up and looked at each other. They felt warmer and
+happier from the laugh.
+
+"Judith," exclaimed Molly, suddenly, "I could never laugh with any one
+like that and not be friends. It's almost like accepting hospitality.
+Shall we be friends again?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Judith eagerly. "I am sorry I was rude to-night about
+the coffee, Molly. You know it's my terrible temper. Once it gets a
+start, I can't seem to hold it in, and I've had a great deal to try me
+lately. I apologize to you now. Will you accept my apology?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," Molly assured her. "Come along, let's try again. Once we
+get to the top of this little 'dis-incline,' as an old colored man at
+home would call it, we'll be on the links."
+
+The girls both reached the summit at the same moment, and as they
+scanned the white expanse before them, they exclaimed in frightened
+whispers:
+
+"There comes a man."
+
+Instantly they slid back to the bottom again and lay in a heap, gasping
+and giggling.
+
+"Where shall we go? What shall we do?" exclaimed Judith.
+
+"Nothing," answered Molly. "We can hardly crawl, much less run, but I
+suppose he can't either, so perhaps we are as safe here as anywhere."
+
+"But what man except a burglar could be prowling around Wellington at
+this hour?" whispered Judith.
+
+"I can't think of anyone, but I should think no sensible burglar would
+come out a night like this. Besides, do burglars ever come to
+Wellington?"
+
+"Once there was one, only he wasn't a real burglar. He was a lunatic who
+had escaped from an asylum near Exmoor."
+
+"Oh, heavens, Judith, a lunatic? I'd rather meet ten burglars. After
+all, only a lunatic would come out on such a night. Can't we run?"
+
+Molly had a fear of crazy people that she had never been able to
+conquer.
+
+They rose unsteadily on their frozen feet and began hurrying back in the
+direction of the trolley embankment. As they ran, they heard a long,
+sliding, scraping sound. Evidently the man had slid down the little
+hill. They could hear the sound of his footsteps on the ice. He was
+running after them. At last he called:
+
+"Wait, wait, whoever you are. I'm not going to hurt you."
+
+In another moment he had caught up with them. Oh, joy of joys, it was
+Professor Green, wearing a thick gray sweater and a cap with ear muffs.
+With a cry of relief, Judith flung herself on her cousin's neck while
+Molly rather timidly clasped his arm. She felt she could have hugged
+him, too, if he had only been a relation.
+
+"We thought you were an escaped lunatic," she exclaimed.
+
+"I am," he answered, "at least I've been nearly crazy trying to get news
+of you." He took her hand and drew it firmly through his arm, while
+Judith appropriated his other arm. "They telephoned over from Exmoor to
+know if you had reached Wellington safely. We found at the village that
+the car had not arrived. Then about twenty minutes ago they called us
+from the car station to say that the conductor and motorman had walked
+but that you had decided to remain in the car all night. I thought I had
+better go over and persuade you not to freeze to death by degrees. I am
+glad you decided to walk. Where are the others?"
+
+"They have gone on by the track," answered Molly. "We slipped down the
+embankment and couldn't crawl up again. Perhaps you could catch them, if
+you branched off here and took the other road."
+
+"Never mind," answered the Professor, tucking her arm more tightly
+through his. "Dr. McLean can look after the others, now that his burdens
+are lightened by two. I'd better see you across this skating rink. Mrs.
+Murphy is up waiting for you. I stopped and told her to get hot soup and
+water bottles and things ready."
+
+"You're a dear, Cousin Edwin," exclaimed Judith. "You are always
+thinking of other people."
+
+"I expect the old doctor will be a good deal knocked up by this little
+jaunt," went on the Professor, not taking the slightest notice of
+Judith's expressions of gratitude, the first Molly had ever heard her
+make about anything.
+
+It was half-past two o'clock when they reached Queen's Cottage, just ten
+minutes before the others arrived.
+
+"It's a good thing you found us," Molly said to the Professor as he
+helped them up the steps. "I believe we'd have been crawling over those
+links another hour or so if you hadn't."
+
+"I can never explain what made me cut across the links," he answered. "I
+had my face turned toward the other road when something urged me to go
+that way."
+
+Dr. McLean always insisted that it was continuous giggling that kept
+them all from freezing that bitter night. Judith Blount was the only one
+in the party who suffered from the experience. She spent a week in the
+Infirmary with a deep cold and sore throat.
+
+"You see," explained Judy Kean sagely to her two friends, "her system
+was weakened by that awful fit of temper; she lost all mental and bodily
+poise and took the first disease that came her way."
+
+"She certainly lost all bodily poise," laughed Molly. "I didn't have any
+more than she did. We slipped around like two helpless infants."
+
+"But you didn't take cold," said Judy.
+
+"I've made up my mind not to have any colds this winter," announced
+Molly seriously. "After all, there's a good deal in just declining to
+entertain them. I think the grip is a sort of bully who attacks people
+who are afraid of him and keeps away from the ones who are not cowards."
+
+The three girls spent half a day in bed sleeping off their weariness,
+and on Friday afternoon they were able to call on Mrs. McLean, who,
+being a hardy Scotchwoman, was none the worse from the walk. The doctor,
+she said, had been up since seven o'clock attending to his patients.
+
+"The truth is," she added, "he would not have missed the sight for
+anything--the whole world turned into a skating rink and the campus the
+centre of it."
+
+Everybody in Wellington who could wear skates was out that afternoon.
+The campus and golf links, as well as the lake, were covered with
+circling, gliding figures. The best skaters coasted down hill on their
+skates, as men do on snow shoes. They went with incredible speed and
+the impetus carried them up the next hill without any effort.
+
+Molly had seen very little skating at home. She had learned as a child,
+but as she grew up the sport had not appealed to her, because somebody
+was always falling in and the ice never lasted longer than a day or so.
+Now, however, the picture of the circling, swaying crowd of skaters
+thrilled her with a new desire to see if she had forgotten how to
+balance herself on steel runners.
+
+"Isn't it beautiful?" she cried. "I never saw anything so graceful. They
+are like birds. First they soar. Then they flap their wings and soar
+again."
+
+"Flap their feet, you mean," interrupted Judy, "and woe to her who flops
+instead of flaps."
+
+Mary Stewart came sailing up to them, gave a beautiful curving turn and
+then stopped.
+
+"Isn't this glorious sport?" she cried, her cheeks glowing with
+exercise. "Has your President told you about the skating carnival? It's
+just been decided, and I suppose you haven't seen her yet. It's to take
+place to-morrow night. Won't it be beautiful?"
+
+"What fun!" cried Molly. "What a wonderful sight!"
+
+"Now, Molly, you are to wrap up very warm," continued Mary, "no matter
+what kind of a costume you decide to wear. No cheesecloth Liberty
+masquerades will go, remember."
+
+"Oh, but I can't be in the carnival. I haven't any skates," said Molly.
+
+"I have another pair," answered Mary quickly. "I'll bring them over to
+you later."
+
+Molly never guessed that this loving friend skated straight down to the
+village that very instant and bought a pair of skates screwed onto stout
+shoes at the general store. Tossing away the wrapping paper and smearing
+the shoes with snow and ashes to take off the new look, she delivered
+them at Queen's before supper.
+
+"It's lucky I knew what number Molly wore," she said to herself, as she
+sailed up the campus on her Canadian skates, with strokes as sweepingly
+broad and generous as her own fine nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The Skating Carnival.
+
+
+All fears of a thaw on the heels of this unprecedented cold wave were
+put to flight next morning. The thermometer hovered at four degrees
+above zero and the air was dry and sparkling. Only those who remained
+indoors and lingered over the registers felt the cold.
+
+There was a great deal to be done before evening. Costumes had to be
+devised, bonfires built along the lake and at intervals on the links,
+lanterns hung everywhere possible and, lastly, a quick rehearsal. The
+best skaters were chosen to give exhibitions of fancy skating; there
+were to be several races and a grand march.
+
+Molly learned the night before that a sense of balance having once been
+acquired is never lost. After supper she had ventured out on the campus
+with Judy and Nance, who were both excellent skaters. With a grace that
+was peculiarly her own in spite of the first unsteadiness, Molly had
+been able to skate to the Quadrangle. There, removing her skating shoes,
+and putting on slippers, she had skipped upstairs to thank Mary Stewart
+for her kindness. The return to Queen's over the campus had been even
+easier, and next morning she felt that she could enter the carnival.
+
+Nobody had a chance to talk about costumes until after lunch on
+Saturday, when there was a meeting of the three friends to decide.
+
+"I don't see how I can go. I haven't a thing picturesque," exclaimed
+Nance dejectedly.
+
+"Now, Nance, you have no imagination," said Judy.
+
+"One day you tell me I have no sense of humor, and another that I have
+no imagination. You'll be telling me I have no brains next."
+
+"Here, eat this and stop quarreling," interrupted Molly, thrusting a
+plate of fudge before them. "When in doubt, eat fudge and wisdom will
+come."
+
+Judy ate her fudge in silence. Then suddenly she cried exultantly.
+
+"Eureka! Wisdom hath come, yea even to the humble in spirit. Heaven hath
+enlightened me. I know what we'll wear, girls."
+
+"What?" they demanded, having racked their brains in vain to think of
+something both warm and picturesque.
+
+"We'll go," continued Judy impressively, "as three Russian princesses."
+
+"What in?"
+
+"Leave that to me. You just do as I tell you. Nance, skate down to the
+village and buy a big roll of cotton batting. Make them wrap it up well,
+so as not to offer suggestions to others."
+
+"What must I do?" asked Molly.
+
+"You must turn up the hems of skirts. Take your old last winter's brown
+one, and Nance's old green one, and--and my velvet one----"
+
+"Your best skirt!" exclaimed Nance aghast.
+
+"Yes, why not? We only live once," replied the reckless Judy. "Turn up
+the hems all around and baste them. They should reach just to the
+shoetops."
+
+That afternoon they hurriedly sewed bands of cotton batting around the
+bottoms of their skirts, bordered their jackets with it, made cuffs and
+muffs and high turbans. Then Judy dotted the cotton with shoe blacking
+and it became a realistic imitation of royal ermine. Each girl wore a
+band of brilliant ribbon across the front of her coat with a gilt
+pasteboard star pinned to it.
+
+"I suppose this might be taken for the Order of the Star and Garter,"
+observed Judy. "At any rate, we are royal princesses of the illustrious
+house of Russia, the Princesses Molitzka, Nanitska and Judiekeanovitch.
+Those are Russian enough, aren't they?"
+
+Never will Molly forget the fun of that glorious evening, nor the
+beautiful picture of the meadows and fields dazzling white in the
+moonlight. While the "workers" of the four classes lit the fires and
+lanterns, the "drones" circled about on the ice singing college songs.
+From over at Exmoor came a crowd of youths who had skated the ten miles
+up-hill and down-dale to see the carnival. Sleighing parties from nearby
+estates drove over with rough-shod teams to draw the sleighs, and all
+Wellington turned out to see the sights.
+
+"I didn't believe there could be so much originality in the world,"
+thought Molly, admiring the costumes of the students.
+
+There were many Teddy Bears and Bunny Rabbits. One girl wore a black
+velvet suit with a leopard's skin over her shoulder. On her head was a
+mythological looking crown with a pair of cow's horns standing upright
+at each side. There were numerous Russian Gypsies and two Dr. Cooks
+wearing long black mustaches, each carrying a little pole with an
+American flag nailed at the top.
+
+Jessie Lynch, not being a skater, sat in a chair on runners, while her
+good-natured chum, Margaret Wakefield, pushed her about the lake.
+Margaret wore a Chinese costume and her long queue was made of black
+skirt braid.
+
+After the parade and the exhibitions of skating, there was general
+skating and the lake became a scene of changing color and variety.
+
+"It's like a gorgeous Christmas card," thought Molly, practicing strokes
+by herself in one corner while she watched the circle of skaters skim by
+her. "And how very light it is. I can plainly recognize Nance going over
+the hill with Andy McLean."
+
+"Here she is," called Lawrence Upton, breaking from the circle and
+skating towards her as easily, apparently, as a bird flies. His body
+leaned slightly. His hands were clasped behind his back, and Mercury
+with his winged shoes could not have moved more gracefully.
+
+"Come on, Miss Molly, and have a turn," he said.
+
+"What, me, the poorest skater on the pond?"
+
+"Nonsense! You couldn't dance so well if you were a poor skater. Just
+cross hands like this and sail along. I won't let you fall."
+
+Off they did sail and never was a more delightful sensation than
+Molly's, flying over the smooth ice with this good-looking young
+Mercury. Around and round they skimmed, until one of the Exmoor boys
+blew a horn, the signal that it was time to start the ten miles back to
+college. Very rough skating it was in places, so Lawrence informed
+Molly; rather dangerous going down some of the steep hills, but glorious
+fun.
+
+"Why don't you do like Baron Munchausen on the mountain? Sit on a silk
+handkerchief and slide down," suggested Molly.
+
+"We have done some sliding of that kind," he answered, laughing, "but it
+was accidental and there was no time to get out a pocket handkerchief."
+
+At last the great carnival was over, and Molly, falling in with a crowd
+of campus girls, started for home, singing with the others:
+
+"Good-night, ladies, we're gwine to leave you now."
+
+It was nearly ten when she tramped upstairs, still on her skates. Judy
+called out to her from her room, but Nance had not returned. Molly
+unlaced the skating boots, removed the Russian Princess costume, and
+flinging her time-worn eiderdown cape around her shoulders, sat down to
+toast her toes.
+
+"Judy," she called presently, "what have you done with Nance?"
+
+"The last I saw of the Lady Nance she was going over the hill with her
+sandy-haired cavalier."
+
+"I saw her, too, but I haven't met up with her since. I'm afraid she
+will get a 'calling' if she isn't back pretty soon."
+
+The girls waited silently. Presently they heard the last of the carnival
+revellers return. The clock in the tower struck ten. Mrs. Markham locked
+the hall door and put out the hall light, and still no Nance.
+
+"She's gone off skating with Sandy Andy and forgot the time," whispered
+Judy, who had crept into Molly's room to confer. "It's a good joke on
+proper old Nance. I think she was never known to break a rule before."
+
+"You don't suppose anything could have happened to them, do you?"
+
+"Of course not. But you know how absorbed they do get in conversation.
+They wouldn't hear a cannon go off a yard away."
+
+"They are awfully strict here about being out with boys," observed Molly
+uneasily. "I do wish she would come home."
+
+The girls lingered over the register talking in whispers until the clock
+struck half-past ten.
+
+"Molly, suppose they have eloped!" Judy observed.
+
+"Eloped!" repeated Molly, amazed. Then she began to laugh. "Judy, is
+there anybody in the world so romantic as you? Why, they are mere
+infants. Andy isn't nineteen yet and Nance was only eighteen last month.
+I think we'd better slip out and find them. Come on."
+
+Very quietly the two girls got into their things. They wore their
+rubbers this time, and Molly very thankfully carried the imitation
+ermine muff. The entire household was sound asleep when out into the
+sparkling, glittering world they crept like two conspirators.
+
+"Suppose we try the links first," suggested Judy, "since both of us saw
+them disappearing last in that direction."
+
+"If we were really ladylike persons we'd be afraid to go scurrying off
+here in the dark," observed Molly.
+
+"I'm not afraid of anything," Judy replied, and Molly knew she spoke the
+truth, for Judy was the most fearless girl she had ever known.
+
+When they reached the summit of the hill, they began calling at the tops
+of their voices, "Nance! Nance Oldham!"
+
+There was no answer and not in all the broad expanse of whiteness could
+they see a human being.
+
+"I wish I knew what to do," exclaimed Molly, growing more and more
+uneasy. "Suppose she has been injured--suppose--suppose----"
+
+"There they are!" cried Judy. "The young rascals, I believe they are
+utterly oblivious to time."
+
+Far over the ice appeared the two figures. They were not skating but
+walking, and several times before they reached the girls they slipped
+and fell down.
+
+"You are a nice pair," cried Judy. "Don't you know it's way after hours
+and everybody is in bed long ago?"
+
+"Why, Nance, dear, what has happened? Why are you walking?" asked Molly,
+who was rarely known to scold anybody.
+
+"I am very sorry," said Nance stiffly. "I couldn't help it. The heel of
+my shoe came off and I couldn't skate. Mr. McLean----"
+
+Judy smiled mischievously.
+
+"They've been quarreling," she said under her breath.
+
+"And Mr. McLean had to bring me back much against his will."
+
+"Nothing of the sort, Miss Oldham," put in "Mr." McLean, flushing
+angrily. "I was very glad to bring you back. I only said----"
+
+"Never mind what you said. It was your manner. Actions speak louder than
+words."
+
+"Come along," put in Molly. "This is no time for quarrels. It's after
+eleven. Andy, what will you do? Skate back to Exmoor or stay at your
+father's?"
+
+"I shall skate back, of course," he answered in an heroic voice. "The
+other fellows might think something had happened to me."
+
+"Here, Nance, put on one of my overshoes," said Judy. "That will keep
+you from slipping and we must hasten e'er the midnight chime doth
+strike. Farewell, Andrew. God bless you, and a safe journey, my boy."
+
+Judy struck a dramatic attitude and Molly was obliged to laugh, in spite
+of the serious faces of the others.
+
+"Hadn't I better see you home?" asked Andrew stiffly.
+
+"Forsooth, no, good gentleman. Begone, and the sooner the better."
+
+"Come on, you silly goose," laughed Molly, and the three girls hurried
+home. Once they stopped to look back, and young Andy, skating as if the
+foul fiends were after him, was almost at the end of the course.
+
+There was no Miss Steel that winter to keep a sharp ear open for
+late-comers and the girls crept safely up to bed. Twice in the night
+Molly heard Nance weeping bitterly. But she said nothing because she
+knew that such quarrels are soon mended.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE THAW.
+
+
+Next day began the thaw and in a week the whole earth appeared to have
+melted into an unpleasant muddy-colored liquid. An icy dampness
+permeated the air. It chilled the warmth of the soul and changed the hue
+of existence to a sad gray.
+
+Judy and Molly were prepared to see Nance thaw with the great sleet and
+melt into little rivulets of feeling and remorse. She had seemed rather
+hard on Andy, junior, that night; but Nance remained implacable and had
+no word to say on the subject.
+
+"She's as ice-bound as ever," exclaimed Judy, shaking her head ruefully.
+"I am afraid she still belongs to the glacial period. Don't you think
+you can warm her up a little and make her forgive poor Andy?"
+
+"Perhaps the sun will do it," said Molly, lifting her skirts as she
+waded through the slush on the campus.
+
+The two girls were on their way to a class and there was no time to
+linger for discussions about Nance's unforgiving nature. But there was
+nothing Judy enjoyed more than making what she learnedly termed
+"psychological speculations" concerning her friends' sentiments.
+
+"Do stop tearing along, Molly, while I talk. I have something
+interesting to say."
+
+"Judy Kean, there must be a depression on your head where there should
+be a perfectly good bump of duty. Don't you know we have only five
+minutes to get to the class? I'd rather be late to almost anything that
+Lit. II."
+
+"And why, pray?" demanded Judy, rushing to keep up with Molly's long
+steps.
+
+"Oh, well, because it's interesting."
+
+"Is that the only reason?"
+
+"Why don't you turn into a period occasionally, Juliana? You are
+every other variety of punctuation mark,--dashes, exclamations,
+interrogations. Sometimes you're a comma and I've known you to be
+a semicolon, but when, oh, when have you come to a full stop?"
+
+"All this long peroration----"
+
+"Pero--what?"
+
+"Means that you are avoiding the real question."
+
+"Here we are," ejaculated Molly with a sigh of relief as she ran
+upstairs and entered the class room at the same moment that Professor
+Green appeared from another door.
+
+Molly freely admitted to her friends that English Literature was the
+most interesting study she had. She took more pains over the preparation
+for this class than for any of her other lessons. She was always careful
+not to be late, but then sat timidly and modestly in the back row with
+the girls who wished to avoid being called upon to recite. The
+Professor's lectures, however, led her into an enchanted country, the
+land of poetry and romance. Perhaps, at first, he thought she really
+wished to avoid being questioned and that her spellbound expression was
+only indifference. Certainly he had seldom tested her interest until one
+day during a lecture on the Pre-Raphaelite artists and poets he calmly
+requested her to stand up before the entire class and read Rossetti's
+"Blessed Damozel." Blushing hotly, she began the reading in a thin,
+frightened voice, but presently the amused faces of her friends faded
+away; her voice regained its full measure of strength and beauty, and
+when she had finished, she became aware that somewhere hidden within the
+wellsprings of her mind was a power she had not known of before. Molly's
+classmates were much impressed by her performance, but there was a faint
+smile on the Professor's face that seemed to imply that he was not in
+the least surprised.
+
+Among all the little happenings that infest our daily lives it is often
+the least and most accidental that wields the strongest influence. This
+chance discovery by Molly that she could read poetry aloud gave her
+infinite secret pleasure. She began to memorize and repeat to herself
+all her favorite poems. Sometimes her pulses beat time to the rhythm in
+her head; even her speech at such times became unconsciously metrical,
+and as she walked she felt her body swing to the music of the verse.
+With a strange shyness she hid this secret from her friends, who never
+guessed when she sat quietly with them that she was chanting poetry to
+herself.
+
+Molly had planned to do several errands that afternoon, after the class
+in Lit. II. The first one took her to the village to see Madeleine
+Petit, the little Southern girl, who was willing to do almost any kind
+of work to earn money. Molly had never returned the magazine clippings
+of prize offers, and she had also another reason for wanting to see
+Madeleine. She wished to find out just how different life in a room over
+the post-office was from life at Queen's. She was thankful when the
+lesson was over, that Judy was engaged for basket-ball practice in the
+gym., for she wished to be alone when she made this call.
+
+Only a few days before, Miss Walker had called to her after chapel and
+suggested that she look over the rooms the postmistress rented to
+students, and make her choice so that lodgings could be spoken for
+before Christmas.
+
+Molly paused at Madeleine's door and read the sign carefully.
+
+"I suppose I shall have to be fixing up something like that," she
+thought, "only I never could do up jabots and I'd rather scrub floors
+than shampoo people's heads."
+
+"Come in," called the liquid, melting voice of the Southern girl in
+answer to Molly's tap. "Oh, how do you do? What a delightful, welcome
+surprise," cried the hospitable little person. "Put your feet over the
+register. That's where I spend most of my time now. I'm not used to this
+awful climate. Now, give me your hat and coat. You're to have tea with
+me, you know. You won't mind if I go on working, will you? I'm doing up
+some jabots and things for that sweet Miss Stewart. She has given me a
+lot of work. Such a lady, if she is a Yankee! I can safely say that to
+you because you aren't one, you know. But, really, I'm beginning to like
+these Northern girls so much. They are quite as nice as the girls from
+home, only quieter," rattled on Miss Petit.
+
+Molly groaned inwardly.
+
+"If she only didn't talk so much," she thought. "I'm always putting up
+milestones during her ramblings to remind me of something I wanted to
+say, but there's never any chance to go back, even if I could remember
+where I put them."
+
+"I wanted to return these clippings," she managed to edge in at last,
+producing the slips of papers.
+
+"Oh, you needn't have bothered. I shall never use any of them. I told
+you there was nothing but mathematics in my soul. I can't write at all.
+The themes are the horror of my life. But you tried, I am sure. Was it
+the short story or one of the advertising ones? They are all of them
+terribly unsatisfactory because you never know where you stand until
+months and months afterwards when you read that somebody has won the
+prize. But, of course, I never expect to win prizes. I could never make
+a _coup de tete_ like that."
+
+"You could make a _coup de_ tongue," thought Molly, sighing helplessly.
+
+"But did you try?" asked Madeleine, now actually pausing for a reply to
+her question.
+
+"I did try one of them, a little poem that came into my head, but it was
+weeks ago and I know nothing will come of it. I felt when I sent it off
+that it wasn't the kind of thing they wanted, wasn't advertisey enough.
+I had really almost forgotten I wrote it, so many other things have
+happened since. Can you keep a secret, Miss Petit?"
+
+"I certainly can," replied the busy little creature, pausing in her
+labors to test the iron. "Dear me, I must be careful not to scorch any
+of these pretty things. But the tea kettle is boiling. Suppose we have
+some refreshment and you can tell me the secret in comfort."
+
+Molly smiled at her own Southern peculiarities cropping out in this
+little friend.
+
+"Mommer sent me this caramel cake yesterday. It's made from a very old
+recipe. I hope you'll like the tea. I'm sorry I can't offer you any
+real cream. I would just as soon eat cold cream for the complexion as
+condensed cream. It's all right for cooking with, but it doesn't go well
+with tea and coffee, which I always make in my own rooms, especially
+coffee. It's never strong enough at the place I take my meals. But you
+said something about a secret?"
+
+Somehow Molly's affairs seemed to dwindle into insignificance in
+comparison with this great tidal wave of conversation, and she resolved
+not to take Madeleine into her confidence after all. It occurred to her
+that she would soon become a raving maniac if she lived next door to
+anyone who talked as much as that.
+
+"It's really not much of a secret," answered Molly lightly. "Miss Walker
+asked me to come down and look over some empty rooms here for someone,
+and I thought, maybe, if you could spare the time you would come with
+me."
+
+"I can always spare the time to be of service to you," exclaimed
+Madeleine. "You have done so much for me. You really gave me my start
+here, you know."
+
+"Nonsense!" put in Molly.
+
+"Yes, you did. You sent Miss Stewart to me and introduced me to some of
+the older girls, who have all been very nice. They would probably never
+have heard of me but for you."
+
+When they had finished the tea and cake, which were delicious, they
+inspected the vacant rooms, to a steady accompaniment of Madeleine's
+conversation. Molly wondered how the capable, clever, industrious little
+creature could accomplish so much when her tongue went like a
+clap-hammer most of the time. But there was no doubt that she achieved
+marvels and was already well up in her classes. Poor Molly's temples
+ached with the steady hum. Her tongue was dry and she had a wild impulse
+to jump out the window. How could she explain to kind Miss Walker that
+she could not live over the post-office? Would it not be an unfriendly
+act to tell the real reason?
+
+"It's bad enough as it is," she thought, "leaving my sweet old Queen's,
+but this would be beyond human endurance. It will have to be a room
+over the general store or at Mrs. O'Reilly's. Anything but this."
+
+The post-office rooms were bare and crude, and poor Molly was sick at
+heart when at last she took her leave of the little friend, who was
+still babbling unceasingly when the door closed.
+
+Molly breathed a deep sigh of relief as she waded through the slush on
+the sidewalk.
+
+"It will be a good deal like being banished from the promised land," she
+said to herself, "wherever it is."
+
+Pausing at the door of the general store, she noticed a big, black,
+funereal-looking vehicle coming up the street at a slow pace. Passers-by
+paused to look at it, with a kind of morbid curiosity, as it drew
+nearer.
+
+"Oh, heavens, I hope that isn't an undertaker's wagon," Molly thought,
+preparing to flee from the dread sight which always filled her with the
+horrors. The big vehicle passed slowly by. On the front seat with the
+driver sat Dr. McLean. He bowed to her gravely, barely lifting his hat.
+"One of his patients," her thoughts continued, "but it's strange for
+him to ride on the same wagon. I don't think I can possibly look at
+those other rooms today."
+
+She turned her face away from the general store and hastened back to the
+University, which seemed to be the only thing that retained its dignity
+and beauty under the disenchanting influences of this muggy, damp day.
+As she walked up the avenue, there some distance ahead was the gruesome
+equipage.
+
+"Heavens! Heavens! I haven't heard about anything," she exclaimed.
+
+The wagon did not pause at the Infirmary as she expected, but pursued
+its way until it reached the McLean house. Molly began to run, and just
+as she arrived breathless and excited, the vehicle had backed up to the
+steps, two doors swung open, and Mrs. McLean, accompanied by a trained
+nurse, stepped out. The doctor climbed down from one side of the vehicle
+and the driver from the other. Professor Green sprung up from
+somewhere,--he had probably been waiting in the McLeans' hall--and the
+three men gently lifted out a stretcher on which lay the almost
+unrecognizable form of Andy, junior. A large bandage encircled his head
+and one arm was done up in splints.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. McLean," whispered Molly, "I didn't know----"
+
+But Mrs. McLean only shook her head and hurried after the stretcher.
+
+Molly sat down on the muddy steps and waited. After what seemed an age,
+Professor Green emerged from the house.
+
+"You are a reckless girl to sit there in all that dampness," he
+exclaimed.
+
+"Never mind me. What about Andy?"
+
+"He's in pretty bad shape, I am afraid," answered the Professor. "He was
+hurt the night of the carnival in some way. I don't know just how it
+happened that he lost the others. At any rate, they found him after a
+long hunt half frozen to death, a gash in his head, and several broken
+bones. They thought they had better bring him home, where the doctor
+could look after him, but he hasn't stood the journey as well as they
+hoped."
+
+"Poor Nance!" said Molly, as she hastened back to Queen's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
+
+
+"Oh, Molly, what was that awful black wagon that went up the avenue a
+few minutes ago?" demanded half a dozen voices as she opened the door
+into her own room.
+
+"The freshman at the Infirmary who was threatened with typhoid fever is
+getting well," remarked Margaret Wakefield.
+
+"Surely, nothing has happened to any of the Wellington girls?" put in
+Jessie uneasily.
+
+"No, no," answered Molly, "nothing so terrible as that, thank goodness.
+It wasn't an undertaker's wagon, but an ambulance." She paused. It would
+be rather hard on Nance to tell the news about Andy before all the
+girls.
+
+"It looked something like the Exmoor ambulance," here observed Katherine
+Williams.
+
+Molly was silent. Suppose she should tell the sad news and Nance should
+break down and make a scene. It would be cruel. "I'll wait until they
+go," she decided. But this was not easy.
+
+"Who was in the ambulance, Molly?" asked Judy impatiently. "I should
+think you would have had curiosity enough to have noticed where it
+stopped."
+
+It was no use wrinkling her eyebrows at Judy or trying to evade her
+direct questions. The inquisitive girl went on:
+
+"Wasn't that Dr. McLean on the seat with the driver?"
+
+"Naturally he would be there, being the only physician in Wellington,"
+replied Molly.
+
+Then Lawyer Wakefield began a series of cross-questions that fairly made
+the poor girl quail.
+
+"In which direction were you going when you met the ambulance?" asked
+this persistent judge.
+
+"I was coming this way, of course."
+
+"And you mean to say your curiosity didn't prompt you to turn around and
+see where the ambulance stopped?"
+
+"I didn't say that," faltered Molly, feeling very much like a prisoner
+at the bar.
+
+"You did turn and look then? Was it toward the faculty houses or the
+Quadrangle that the ambulance was driving?"
+
+"Well, really, Judge Wakefield, I think I had better seek legal advice
+before replying to your questions."
+
+Margaret laughed.
+
+"I only wanted to prove to myself that the only way to get at the truth
+of a matter is by a system of questions which require direct answers.
+It's like the game of 'Twenty Questions,' which is the most interesting
+game in the world when it's properly played. Once I guessed the ring on
+the Pope's finger in six questions just by careful deduction. It's
+easier to get at the truth by subtracting than adding----"
+
+"Truth, indeed. You haven't got a bit nearer than any of us," burst in
+the incorrigible Judy. "With all your legal mind you haven't made Molly
+tell us who was in the ambulance, and of course she knows. She has
+never said she didn't, yet."
+
+Molly felt desperately uncomfortable. She wished now that she had told
+them in the beginning. It had only made matters worse not to tell.
+
+"Molly, you are the strangest person. What possible reason could you
+have for keeping secret who was in the ambulance? Was it one of the
+students or one of the faculty?" demanded Nance.
+
+"People who live in the country say that calves are the most inquisitive
+creatures in the world, but I think girls are," remarked Molly.
+
+"This is as good as a play," cried one of the Williams girls, "a real
+play behind footlights, to sit here and look on at this little comedy of
+curiosity. You've asked every conceivable question under the sun, and
+Molly there has never told a thing. Now I happen to know that the
+ambulance is connected with the sanitarium over near Exmoor. I saw it
+once when we were walking, and it is therefore probably bringing someone
+from Exmoor here. Then if you wish to inquire further by the 'deductive
+method,' as Judge Wakefield calls it: who at Exmoor has connections at
+Wellington?"
+
+"Dodo Green and Andy McLean," said Judy quickly.
+
+"Exactly," answered Edith.
+
+Nance's eyes met Molly's and in a flash she understood why her friend
+had been parrying the questions of the other girls. It was to save her
+from a shock.
+
+Perhaps some of the other girls recognized this, too, for Margaret and
+the Williamses rose at the same moment and made excuses to go, and the
+others soon followed. Only blundering and thoughtless Judy remained to
+blunder more.
+
+"Molly Brown," she exclaimed, "you have been getting so full of
+mysteries and secrets lately that you might as well live in a tower all
+alone. Now, why----"
+
+"Is he very badly hurt, Molly?" interrupted Nance in a cold, even voice,
+not taking the slightest notice of Judy's complaints.
+
+"Pretty badly, Nance. The journey over from Exmoor was harder on him
+than they thought it would be. I stood beside the stretcher for a
+minute."
+
+Nance walked over to the side window and looked across the campus in the
+direction of the McLean house. On the small section of the avenue which
+could be seen from that point she caught a glimpse of the ambulance
+making its return trip to Exmoor.
+
+She turned quickly and went back to her chair.
+
+"It looks like a hearse," she said miserably.
+
+"Is it Andy?" asked Judy of Molly in a whisper.
+
+Molly nodded her head.
+
+"What a chump I've been!" ejaculated Judy.
+
+"It happened the night of the carnival, of course," pursued Nance.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It was all my fault," she went on quietly. "I would coast down one of
+those long hills and Andy didn't want me to. I knew I could, and I
+wanted to show him how well I could skate. Then, just as we got to the
+bottom, my heel came off and we both tumbled. It didn't hurt us, but
+Andy was provoked, and then we quarreled. Of course, walking back made
+us late and he missed the others."
+
+"But, dear Nance, it might have happened just the same, even if he had
+been with the others," argued Molly.
+
+"No, it couldn't have been so bad. He must have been lying in the snow a
+long time before they found him, and was probably half frozen," she went
+on, ruthlessly inflicting pain on herself.
+
+"They did go back and find him, fortunately," admitted Molly.
+
+"He was the first and only boy friend I have ever had," continued Nance
+in a tone of extreme bitterness. "I always thought I was a wallflower
+until I met him. Other girls like you two and Jessie have lots of
+friends and can spare one. But I haven't any to spare. I only have
+Andy." Her voice broke and she began to sob, "Oh, why was I so stubborn
+and cruel that night?"
+
+Judy crept over and locked the door. She was sore in mind and body at
+sight of Nance's misery.
+
+"I feel like a whipped cur," she thought. "Just as if someone had beaten
+me with a stick. Poor old Nance!"
+
+"You mustn't feel so hopeless about it, Nance dear," Molly was saying.
+"I'm sure he'll pull through. They wouldn't have brought him all this
+distance if he had been so badly off."
+
+"They have brought him home to die!" cried Nance fiercely. "And I did
+it. I did it!" she rocked herself back and forth. "I want to be alone,"
+she said suddenly.
+
+"Of course, dear Nance, no one shall disturb you," said Molly, taking a
+pile of books off the table and a "Busy" sign, which she hung on the
+door. "We'll bring up your supper. Don't come down this evening."
+
+But when the girls returned some hours later with a tray of food, Nance
+had gone to bed and turned her face to the wall, and she refused to eat
+a morsel. All next day it was the same. Nance remained in bed,
+ruthlessly cutting lessons and refusing to take anything but a cup of
+soup at lunch time. The girls called at Dr. McLean's to inquire for
+Andy and found that his condition was much the same. Nance's condition
+was the same, too. She turned a deaf ear to all their arguments and
+declined to be reasoned with.
+
+"She can't lie there forever," Judy exclaimed at last.
+
+"But what are we to do, Judy?" Molly asked. "She's just nursing her
+troubles until she'll go into melancholia! I would go to Mrs. McLean,
+but she won't see anyone and the doctor is too unhappy to listen. I
+tried to tell him about Nance and he didn't hear a word I was saying. I
+didn't realize how much they adored Andy."
+
+Judy could offer no suggestion and Molly went off to the Library to
+think.
+
+It occurred to her that Professor Green might give her some advice. He
+knew all about the friendship between Nance and Andy, and, besides, he
+had interested himself once before in Nance's troubles when he arranged
+for her to go to the McLeans' supper party the year before. Molly
+glanced at the clock. It was nearly half-past four.
+
+"He'll probably be in his little cloister study right now," she said to
+herself, and in three minutes she was rapping on the oak door in the
+corridor marked "E. Green."
+
+"Come in," called the Professor.
+
+He was sitting at his study table, his back turned to her, writing
+busily.
+
+"You're late, Dodo," he continued, without looking up. "I expected you
+in time for lunch. Sit down and wait. I can't stop now. Don't speak to
+me for fifteen minutes. I'm finishing something that must go by the six
+o'clock mail."
+
+Molly sank into the depths of the nearest chair while the Professor's
+pen scratched up and down monotonously. Not since the famous night of
+her Freshman year when she was locked in the cloisters had she been in
+the Professor's sanctum, and she looked about her with much curiosity.
+
+"I wish I had one just like it," she thought. "It's so peaceful and
+quiet, just the place to work in and write books on 'The Elizabethan
+Drama,' and lyric poetry, and comic operas----"
+
+There was a nice leathery smell in the atmosphere of book bindings
+mingled with tobacco smoke, and the only ornament she could discover,
+except a small bronze bust of Voltaire and a life mask of Keats, was a
+glazed paper weight in the very cerulean blue she herself was so fond
+of. It caught the fading light from the window and shone forth from the
+desk like a bit of blue sky.
+
+Molly was sitting in a high back leather chair, which quite hid her from
+Judith Blount, who presently, knocking on the door and opening it at the
+same moment, entered the room like a hurricane.
+
+"Cousin Edwin, may I come in? I want to ask you something----"
+
+"I can't possibly see you now, Judith. You must wait until to-morrow.
+I'm very busy."
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed the girl and banged the door as she departed into
+the corridor.
+
+What a jarring element she was in all that peaceful stillness! The
+muffled noises in the Quadrangle seemed a hundred miles away. Molly
+rose and tiptoed to the door.
+
+"He'll be angrier than ever if he should find me here," she thought.
+"I'll just get out quietly and explain some other time."
+
+Her hand was already on the doorknob when the Professor wheeled around
+and faced her.
+
+"Why, Miss Brown," he exclaimed, "was it you all the time? I might have
+known my clumsy brother couldn't have been so quiet."
+
+"Please excuse me," faltered Molly. "I am sure you are very busy. I am
+awfully sorry to have disturbed you."
+
+"Nonsense! It's only unimportant things I won't be bothered with, like
+the absurd questions Judith thinks up to ask me and Dodo's gossip about
+the fellows at Exmoor. But I am well aware that you never waste time. I
+suspect you of being one of the busiest little ladies in Wellington."
+
+Molly smiled. Somehow, she liked to be called a "little lady" by this
+distinguished professor.
+
+"But your letter that must go by the six mail?"
+
+"That can wait until morning," he said.
+
+He had just said it was to go at six, but, of course, he had a right to
+change his mind.
+
+"Sit down and tell me what's the trouble. Have you had bad news from
+home?"
+
+"No, it's about Nance," she began, and told him the whole story. "You
+see," she finished, "Nance has had so few friends, and she is very fond
+of Andy. Because she thinks the accident was her fault, she is just
+grieving herself into an awful state."
+
+The Professor sat with his chin resting on his hand.
+
+"Poor little girl!" he said. "And the Doctor and Mrs. McLean are in
+almost as bad a state themselves. You know it's just a chance that Andy
+will pull through. He has developed pneumonia."
+
+"Oh, dear, with all those broken bones and that terrible gash! Isn't it
+dreadful?"
+
+"Pretty bad. Have you tried talking to Miss Oldham?"
+
+"I've tried everything and nothing will move her. It's just a kind of
+stubborn misery that seems to have paralyzed her, mind and body."
+
+The two sat in silence for a moment, then the Professor said:
+
+"Suppose I go down to Queen's to-night and see Miss Oldham? Do you think
+she could be induced to come down into Mrs. Markham's sitting room and
+have a talk with me?"
+
+"I should think so. She wouldn't have the courage to decline to see one
+of the faculty."
+
+"Very well. If she is roused to get up and come down stairs, she may
+come to her senses. But don't go yet. I have something to tell you,
+something that doesn't concern Miss Oldham but--er--myself. Do you
+remember the opera I told you about?"
+
+Molly nodded.
+
+"It's going into rehearsal Christmas week and will open in six weeks.
+Are you pleased?"
+
+Molly was pleased, of course. She was always glad of other people's good
+luck.
+
+"How would you like to go to the opening?" he asked.
+
+"It would be wonderful, but--but I don't see how I can. I told you there
+were complications."
+
+"Yes, I know," he answered, "but you're to forget complications that
+night and enjoy my first attempt to be amusing."
+
+"I'll try," answered Molly, not realizing how her reply might sound to
+the author of the comic opera, who only smiled good-naturedly and said:
+
+"The music will be pretty at any rate."
+
+They sat talking about the opera for some time, in fact, until the tower
+clock clanged six.
+
+"I never dreamed it was so late," apologized Molly, "and I have kept you
+all this time. I know you must be awfully busy. I hope you will forgive
+me."
+
+"Didn't I just say that your time was quite as important as mine?" he
+said. "And when two very important people get together the moments are
+not wasted."
+
+That night the Professor did call on Nance at Queen's, and the unhappy
+girl was obliged to get into her things as quickly as possible and go
+down. What he said to her Molly and Judy never knew, but in an hour
+Nance returned to them in a normal, sensible state of mind, and not
+again did she turn her face to the wall and refuse to be comforted.
+
+"There is no doubt in my mind that Professor Green is the nicest person
+in Wellington, that is, of the faculty," thought Molly as she settled
+under the reading lamp, and prepared to study her Lit. lesson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A RECOVERY AND A VISIT.
+
+
+Young Andy McLean was not destined to be gathered to his forefathers
+yet, however, and before Christmas he was able to sit up in bed and beg
+his mother fretfully to telephone to Exmoor and ask some of the fellows
+to come over.
+
+"The doctor says you're not to see any of the boys yet, Andy," replied
+his mother firmly.
+
+"If I can't see boys, is there anything I can see?" he demanded with
+extreme irritability.
+
+Mrs. McLean smiled and a little later dispatched a note to Queen's
+Cottage. That afternoon Nance came shyly into Andy's room and sat down
+in a low chair beside the white iron hospital bed which had been
+substituted for the big old mahogany one.
+
+"Your mother says you are lots better, Andy," she said.
+
+Andy gave a happy, sheepish smile and wiggled two fingers weakly, which
+meant they were to shake hands.
+
+"Mother was afraid for the fellows to come," he said, "on account of my
+heart. I suppose she thinks a girl can't affect anybody's heart."
+
+"I'm so quiet, you see," said Nance, "but I'll go if you think it's
+going to hurt you."
+
+"You wouldn't like to see me cry, would you? I boohooed like a kid this
+morning because they wouldn't let me have broiled ham for breakfast. I
+smelt it cooking. It would be just like having to give up broiled ham
+for breakfast to have you go, Nance. Sit down again, will you, and don't
+leave me until I tell you. Since I've been sick I've learned to be a
+boss."
+
+"I'm sorry I didn't let you boss me that night, Andy," remarked Nance
+meekly. "I ought never to have coasted down the hill. I've wanted to
+apologize ever since."
+
+"Have you been blaming yourself?" he broke in. "It wasn't your fault at
+all. It all happened because I was angry and didn't look where I was
+going. I have had a lot of time to think lately, and I've decided that
+there is nothing so stupid as getting mad. You always have to pay for it
+somehow. Look at me: a human wreck for indulging in a fit of rage.
+There's a fellow at Ex. who lost his temper in an argument over a
+baseball game and walked into a door and broke his nose."
+
+Nance laughed.
+
+"There are other ways of curing tempers besides broken bones," she said.
+"Just plain remorse is as good as a broken nose; at least I've found it
+so."
+
+"Did you have the remorse, Nance?" asked Andy, wiggling the fingers of
+his good hand again.
+
+"Yes, awfully, Andy," answered the young girl, slipping her hand into
+his. "I felt just like a murderer."
+
+The nurse came in presently to say that the fifteen minutes allotted for
+the call was up. It had slipped by on the wings of the wind, but their
+friendship had been re-established on the old happy basis. Andy was
+unusually polite to his mother and the nurse that day, and Nance went
+straight to the village and bought two big bunches of violets, one for
+Molly and one for Judy. In some way she must give expression to the
+rejoicing in her heart, and this was the only means she could think of.
+
+Besides Andy McLean's recovery, several other nice things happened
+before Christmas. One morning Judy burst into her friend's room like a
+wild creature, waving a letter in each hand.
+
+"They are coming," she cried. "They have each written to tell me so.
+Isn't it perfect? Isn't it glorious?"
+
+No need to tell Molly and Nance who "they" were. These girls were fully
+aware that Judy treated her mother and father exactly like two
+sweethearts, giving each an equal share of her abundant affections; but
+the others were not so well informed about Judy's family relations.
+Otoyo Sen began to clap her hands and laugh joyously in sympathy.
+
+"Is it two honorable young gentlemen who arriving come to see Mees
+Kean?"
+
+"Now, Otoyo, how often have I told you not to say 'arriving come,'"
+exclaimed Molly. "I know it's a fascinating combination and difficult to
+forget in moments of excitement, but it's very bad English."
+
+"Mees Kean, she is so happee," replied the Japanese girl, speaking
+slowly and carefully. "I cannot remembering when I see so much great
+joy."
+
+"Wouldn't you be happy, too, if your honorable mamma and papa were
+coming to Wellington to visit you, you cunning little sparrow-bird?"
+asked Judy, seizing Otoyo's hands and dancing her wildly about the room.
+
+"Oh, it is honorable mother and father! That is differently. It is not
+the same in Japan. Young Japanese girl might make great deal of noise
+over something new and very pretty,--you see? But it is not respectful
+to jump-up-so about parents arriving."
+
+There was a great laugh at this. Otoyo was an especial pet at Queen's
+with the older girls.
+
+"She's like a continuous performance of 'The Mikado,'" remarked Edith
+Williams. "Three little maids from school rolled into one,--the
+quaintest, most adorable little person."
+
+"And when do these honorable parents arriving come?" asked Margaret
+Wakefield.
+
+"To-morrow afternoon," answered Judy. "Where shall I get rooms? What
+shall I take them to see? Shall I give a tea and ask the girls to meet
+them? Don't you think a sleighing party would be fun? And a fudge party
+in the evening? Papa loves fudge. Do you think it would be a good idea
+to have dinner up here in Molly's and Nance's room, or let papa give a
+banquet at the Inn? Do suggest, everybody."
+
+Judy was too excited to sit down. She was walking up and down the room,
+her cheeks blazing and her eyes as uncannily bright as two elfin lights
+on a dark night.
+
+"Be calm, Judy," said Molly, taking her friend by the shoulders and
+pushing her into a chair. "You'll work yourself into a high fever with
+your excitable ways. Now, sit down there and we'll talk it over quietly
+and arrange a program."
+
+Judy sat down obediently.
+
+"I suppose it does seem funny to all of you, but, you see, mamma and
+papa and I have been brought up together----"
+
+"You mean you brought them up?" asked Edith.
+
+"We brought each other up. They call me 'little sister', and until I
+went off to college, because papa insisted I must have some education,
+life was just one beautiful lark."
+
+"What a jolly time you must have had!" observed Nance with a wistful
+smile which reminded the self-centred Judy at last that it was not
+exactly kind to pile it on too thickly about her delightful parents.
+
+Not a little curiosity was felt by the Queen's girls to see Mr. and Mrs.
+Kean, whom Judy had described as paragons of beauty and wit, and they
+assembled at Wellington station in a body to meet the distinguished
+pair. Judy herself was in a quiver of happy excitement and when finally
+the train pulled into the station, she rushed from one platform to
+another in her eagerness. Of course they had taken the chair car down,
+but she was too bewildered to remember that there was but one such coach
+on the Wellington train, and it was usually the rear car.
+
+"I don't find them. Oh, mamma! Oh, papa! You couldn't have missed the
+train!" she cried, addressing the spirits of the air.
+
+Just then a very tall, handsome man with eyes exactly like Judy's
+pinioned her arms from behind.
+
+"Well, little sister, don't you know your own father?"
+
+He was just as Judy had described him; and her word-picture also fitted
+Mrs. Kean, a dainty, pretty, little woman, with a doll-like face and
+flaxen hair, who would never have given the impression that she was in
+the habit of roughing it in engineering camps, sleeping out of doors,
+riding across sun-baked plains on Texas bronchos, and accompanying her
+husband wherever he went on his bridge and railroad-building trips.
+
+"Judy hasn't had much home life," she said later to Molly. "We had to
+take our choice, little sister and I, between a home without papa or
+papa without a home, and we decided that he was ten thousand times more
+delightful than the most wonderful palace ever built."
+
+Her extravagant speeches reminded Molly of Judy; but the mother was much
+gentler and quieter than her excitable daughter, and perhaps not so
+clever.
+
+They dined at Queen's that night and made a tour of the entire house,
+except Judith Blount's room, all apartments having been previously
+spruced up for inspection. Otoyo had shown her respect for the occasion
+by hanging a Japanese lantern from the chandelier and loading a little
+table with "meat-sweets," which she offered to the guests when they
+paused in her room during their triumphal progress through the house.
+
+Later Molly and Nance entertained at a fudge and stunt party and Mr. and
+Mrs. Kean were initiated into the secrets of life at Queen's.
+
+They entered into the fun like two children, and one of the stunts, a
+dialogue between the Williams sisters, amused Mr. Kean so much that he
+laughed loud and long, until his wife shook him by the shoulder and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Hush, Bobbie. Remember, you're not on the plains, but in a girls'
+boarding school."
+
+"Yes, Robert," said Judy, who frequently spoke to her parents by their
+first names, "remember that you are in a place where law and order must
+be maintained."
+
+"You shouldn't give such laugh-provoking stunts, then," answered Mr.
+Kean, "but I'll try and remember to put on the soft pedal hereafter."
+
+Then Molly, accompanying herself on Judy's guitar, sang:
+
+    "Big camp meetin' down the swamp,
+     Oh, my! Hallelujah!"
+
+Mr. Kean suddenly joined in with a deep, booming bass. He had learned
+that song many years before in the south, he said, and had never
+forgotten it.
+
+"He never forgets anything," said Judy proudly, laying her cheek against
+her father's. "And now, what will you sing, Bobbie, to amuse the
+ladies?"
+
+Mr. Kean, without the least embarrassment, took the guitar, and, looking
+so amazingly like Judy that they might have been twins, sang:
+
+    "Young Jeremy Jilson Johnson Jenks
+     Was a lad of scarce nineteen----"
+
+It was a delightful song and the chorus so catchy that after the second
+verse the entire fudge and stunt party joined in with:
+
+    "'Oh, merry-me, merry-me,'
+      Sang young Jeremy,
+     'Merry-me, Lovely Lou----'"
+
+Presently Mr. Kean, seizing his daughter around the waist, began
+dancing, and in a moment everybody was twirling to that lively tune,
+bumping against each other and tumbling on the divans in an effort to
+circle around the room. All the time. Mrs. Kean, standing on a chair in
+the corner, was gently remonstrating and calling out:
+
+"Now, Bobbie, you mustn't make so much noise. This isn't a mining camp."
+
+Nobody heard her soft expostulations, and only the little lady herself
+heard the sharp rap on the door and noticed a piece of paper shoved
+under the crack. Rescuing it from under the feet of the dancers, and
+seeing that it was addressed to "Miss Kean," she opened and read it.
+
+"Oh, how very mortifying," she exclaimed. "Now, Bobbie, I knew you would
+get these girls into some scrape. You are always so noisy. See here! Our
+own Judy being reprimanded! You must make your father explain to the
+President or Matron or whoever this Miss Blount is, that it was all his
+fault."
+
+"What in the world are you talking about, Julia Kean?" demanded Judy,
+snatching the note from her mother and reading it rapidly. "Well, of all
+the unexampled impudence!" she cried when she had finished. "Will you be
+good enough to listen to this?
+
+"'Miss Kean: You and your family are a little too noisy for the comfort
+of the other tenants in this house. Those of us who wish to study and
+rest cannot do so. This is not a dance hall nor a mining camp. Will you
+kindly arrange to entertain more quietly? The singing is especially
+obnoxious.
+
+    "'JUDITH BLOUNT.'"
+
+Judy was in such a white heat of rage when she finished reading the
+note, that her mother was obliged to quiet her by smoothing her forehead
+and saying over and over:
+
+"There, there, my darling, don't mind it so much. No doubt the young
+person was quite right."
+
+Mr. Kean was intensely amused over the letter. He read it to himself
+twice; then laughed and slapped his knee, exclaiming:
+
+"By Jove, Judy, my love, it takes a woman to write a note like that."
+
+"A woman? A cat!" broke in Judy.
+
+Mrs. Kean put her hand over her daughter's mouth and looked shocked.
+
+"Oh, Judy, my dearest, you mustn't say such unladylike things," she
+cried.
+
+"It's just because she wasn't invited," continued Judy. "I wouldn't let
+the girls ask her this time. She usually is invited and makes as much
+racket as any of us."
+
+"It was rather mean to leave her out," observed Molly. "I suppose she's
+sore about it. But we didn't ask all the girls at Queen's. Sallie Marks
+and two freshmen were not invited, and if we had gone outside, we'd have
+invited Mary Stewart and Mabel Hinton."
+
+"Still," said Mr. Kean, "there's nothing meaner than the 'left-out'
+feeling. It cuts deep. Suppose we smooth things over by asking her to
+our next party. Let me see. Will all of you give Mrs. Kean and me the
+pleasure of having you dine with us to-morrow evening at the Inn? Now,
+may I borrow some writing materials?" he added, after a chorus of
+acceptances had been raised.
+
+Nance conducted him to her writing desk, which was always the acme of
+neatness, and well stocked with stationery. Here is the letter that Mr.
+Kean wrote to Judith Blount, which Judy, looking over her father's
+shoulder, read aloud as it evolved:
+
+"'Dear Miss Blount:' (Blount, did you say her name was? Humph!) 'You
+were quite right to scold Mr. Kean and me for making so much noise. It
+was inconsiderate of us----'"
+
+"But, Bobbie," protested Mrs. Kean, "it isn't fair to lay the blame on
+me and make me write the letter, too."
+
+"Be quiet, my love," answered her husband.
+
+"'Will you not give us the pleasure of your company at dinner to-morrow
+evening at the Inn? We are anxious to show you what really quiet,
+law-abiding people we are, and Mr. Kean and I will be much disappointed
+if you do not allow us the opportunity to prove it to you.'"
+
+Judy's father paused, his pen suspended, while he asked:
+
+"Didn't I see bill posters at the station announcing a performance at
+the Opera House?"
+
+"Yes," cried Judy. "They're giving 'The Silver King.'"
+
+"'Dinner will be a little early,'" he wrote, "'because Mr. Kean is
+planning to take us all to the play afterwards. He will call for you
+in'----what shall I call for you in?"
+
+"The bus," promptly answered every girl in the room.
+
+"'--the bus at six fifteen. Anticipating much pleasure in having you
+with us to-morrow, believe me,
+
+    Most cordially yours,
+        JULIA S. KEAN.'"
+
+"Now, Julia, my love, sit down and copy what I've written in your best
+handwriting, and we'll try to smooth down this fiery young person's
+ruffled feathers."
+
+Mrs. Kean obediently copied the note. After all, it wasn't an unkind
+revenge, and Otoyo delivered it at Judith's door while the others
+chatted quietly and absorbed quantities of hot fudge and crackers.
+
+Presently Otoyo stole softly back into the room.
+
+"What did she say, little one?" asked Judy.
+
+"She was very stilly," answered Otoyo shyly. "She spoke nothing
+whatever. I thought it more wisely to departing go."
+
+The laugh that was raised at this lucid report restored good humor in
+the company.
+
+A vehicle called for Mr. and Mrs. Kean at a quarter before ten to take
+them down into the village, and it was not long before every light was
+out in Queen's Cottage but one in a small single room in an upper story.
+Here, in front of the mirror over the dressing table, sat a black-eyed
+girl in a red silk dressing gown.
+
+"Judith," she said fiercely to her image in the glass, "can't you
+remember that you are too poor to insult people any longer?"
+
+Then she rolled up Mrs. Kean's note into a little ball and flung it
+across the room with such force that it hit the other wall and bounded
+back again to her feet, and she ground it under her heel. After this
+exhibition of impotent rage, she put out her light and flung herself
+into the bed, where she tossed about uneasily and exclaimed to herself:
+
+"I won't be poor! I won't work. I hate this hideous little room and I
+loathe Queen's Cottage. I wish I had never been born."
+
+Nevertheless, Judith Blount did humble herself next day to accept Mrs.
+Kean's invitation. At the dinner she was sullen and quiet, but she could
+not hide her enjoyment of the melodrama later.
+
+The one taste which she had in common with her brother Richard was an
+affection for the theatre, no matter how crude the acting, nor how
+hackneyed the play.
+
+But the insulting letter that she had sent to Judy Kean widened the
+breach between her and the Queen's girls, and no amount of effort on her
+part after that could bridge it over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CHRISTMAS EVE PLOTS.
+
+
+Molly was not sorry to spend Christmas in Wellington this year. Numbers
+of invitations had come to her, but even Mary Stewart could not tempt
+her away from Queen's Cottage.
+
+"Otoyo and I shan't be lonesome," she said. "We have a lot of work to do
+before the mid-year exams. and by the time you come back, Otoyo's
+adverbs are going to modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. You'll
+see," she assured her friends cheerfully.
+
+And when the last train-load pulled out of Wellington, and she trudged
+back along the deserted avenue, there was a strange gladness in her
+heart.
+
+"I'm not homesick and I'm not lonesome," she said to herself. "I'm just
+happy. Except for Otoyo's lessons, I'm going to give myself a holiday.
+I'm going to read--poetry--lots of it, all I want, and to sit in the
+library and think. I'm going to take long walks alone. It will be like
+seeing the last of a dear friend, because Wellington will not be
+Wellington to me when I am installed at O'Reilly's."
+
+Hardly half a dozen girls remained at college that Christmas, and Molly
+was glad that she knew them only by sight. She was almost glad that the
+doctor and Mrs. McLean had taken Andy south. She could not explain this
+unusual lack of sociability on her part, but she did not want to be
+asked anywhere. It was a pleasure to sit with Otoyo at one end of the
+long table in Queen's dining room, and talk about the good times they
+had been having. As for the future, Molly hung a thick veil between
+these quiet days and the days to come. Through it dimly she could see
+the bare little room at O'Reilly's, sometimes, but whenever this vision
+rose in her mind, she resolutely began to think of something else.
+
+It would be time enough to look it in the face at the end of the
+semester, when she must break the news to Nance and Judy and pack her
+things for the move.
+
+Most of the girls had left on Saturday, and it seemed to Molly that
+Sunday was the quietest day of her whole life. Scarcely a dozen persons
+appeared at the Chapel for Vespers and the responses had to be spoken,
+the choir having departed for the holidays. Monday was Christmas Eve,
+and on that morning Mrs. Murphy, kind, good-natured soul that she was,
+carried Molly's breakfast to her room with a pile of letters from home.
+Molly read them while she drank her coffee, and saw plainly through
+their thinly veiled attempts at cheerfulness. It was evident that her
+family's fortunes were at a low ebb. Her mother was glad that Miss
+Walker had arranged for her to stay at college and she hoped Molly would
+be happy in her new quarters.
+
+Molly finished her dressing.
+
+"If I could only _do_ something," she said to herself fiercely as she
+pinned on the blue tam, buttoned up her sweater and started out for a
+walk. Otoyo, that model of industry, was deep in her lessons as Molly
+passed her door.
+
+"I'll be back for lunch, Otoyo," she called as she hurried downstairs.
+
+She had no sooner left the house than Queen's Cottage became the scene
+of the most surprising activities. Little Otoyo leaped to her feet as if
+she had unexpectedly sat on a hornet's nest and trotted downstairs as
+fast as her diminutive legs could carry her.
+
+"Mrs. Murphee, I am readee," she called.
+
+There was no telling what plot they were hatching, these two souls from
+nations as widely different as night from day. Boxes were pulled from
+mysterious closets. Mrs. Murphy and one of the maids emerged from the
+cellar with their arms full of greens and, stranger still, the dignified
+Professor of English Literature actually made his appearance at the
+kitchen door with a big market basket on one arm and--but what the
+Professor carried under the other arm had been carefully concealed with
+wrapping paper. These things he deposited with Mrs. Murphy.
+
+"It's a pleasant sight, surely, to see you this Christmas Eve marnin',
+Professor," exclaimed the Irish woman. "You're as ruddy as a holly
+berry, sir, and no mistake."
+
+"Well, Mrs. Murphy, I'm a Christmas Green, you know," answered the
+Professor, and Mrs. Murphy laughed like a child over the little joke.
+
+"As for the young Japanese lady, she is that busy, sir. You would niver
+expect a haythen born to take on so about the birthday of our blessed
+Lord. But she's half a Catholic already, sir, and she's bought a holy
+candle to burn to-night."
+
+"You're a good woman, Mrs. Murphy," said the Professor, standing beside
+the well-laden kitchen table, "and whatever she learns from you will do
+her good, too. She's a long way from home and I have no doubt she'll be
+very thankful for a little mothering, poor child."
+
+"Indade, and she's as cheerful as the day is long, sir. And so is the
+other young lady, and she's used to a deal of rejicin' in her family,
+too. I can tell by the way she loves the entertainin'. Her company
+niver goes away hungry and thirsty, sir. It's tea and cake always and
+more besides. 'Have you a little spare room in your oven so that I can
+bake some muffins for some friends this mornin', Mrs. Murphy?' she'll
+say of a Sunday. She's that hospitable and kind, sir. There's nobody
+like her in Queen's. I'd be sorry ever to lose her."
+
+"Should you call her hair red, Mrs. Murphy?" asked the Professor
+irrelevantly.
+
+"It's more red than anything else, sir, especially when the weather's
+damp."
+
+"And what color should you say her eyes were, Mrs. Murphy?"
+
+"An' you've not seen her eyes, surely, sir, if you can be askin' me that
+question. They're as blue--as blue, sir, like the skies in summer."
+
+The Professor blinked his own brown eyes very thoughtfully.
+
+"Well, good day, Mrs. Murphy, I must be off. Do you think you and Miss
+Sen together can manage things?"
+
+"We can, surely," said Mrs. Murphy. "She's as neat and quick a little
+body as I've seen this side the Atlantic."
+
+"My sister gets here at noon. Good day," and the Professor was off,
+around the house, and across the campus, before Mrs. Murphy could take
+breath to continue her conversation.
+
+In the meantime, Molly was hastening through the pine woods to a grove
+where she had once seen some holly bushes. In the pocket of her sweater
+were a pair of scissors and a penknife.
+
+"We must have a little holiday decoration, Otoyo and I," she said to
+herself. "And it's lots nicer to gather it than buy it at the grocery
+store. I suppose my box from home will reach here to-night. I'll ask Mr.
+and Mrs. Murphy up to-morrow and give a party. There'll be turkey in it,
+of course, and plum cake and blackberry cordial--it won't be such a bad
+Christmas. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are dears--I must do up their presents
+this afternoon. I hope Otoyo will like the little book. She'll be
+interested to know that Professor Green wrote it."
+
+As she hurried along, breathing in the frosty air, like Pilgrim she
+spied a figure a great way off coming toward her.
+
+"Another left-over," she thought and went on her way, her steps keeping
+time to a poem she was repeating out loud:
+
+    "'St. Agnes' Eve--ah, bitter chill it was!
+        The owl for all his feathers was a-cold;
+      The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass
+        And silent was the flock in woolly fold----'"
+
+Molly had just repeated the last line over, too absorbed to notice the
+advancing figure through the pine trees, except sub-consciously to see
+that it was a girl.
+
+"Ah, here's the holly," she exclaimed.
+
+"'Numb were the beadsman's fingers----'"
+
+She knelt on the frozen ground and began cutting off branches with the
+penknife.
+
+"I suppose you are rather surprised to see me, aren't you?"
+
+Molly looked up. It was Judith Blount.
+
+"Why, where did you come from, Judith?" she asked. "Didn't you go up to
+New York Friday, after all?"
+
+"I was supposed to, but I didn't. I am staying down in the village at
+the Inn. I may go this afternoon. I haven't decided yet. To tell the
+truth, I am not very anxious to see my family. Papa--isn't at home and
+Richard and mamma are rather gloomy company. I think I'd rather spend
+Christmas almost anywhere than with them, this year."
+
+"But your mother, Judith," exclaimed Molly, shocked at Judith's lack of
+feeling, "doesn't she need you now more than ever?"
+
+"Why?" demanded Judith suspiciously. "What do you know of my affairs?"
+
+"I happen to know a great deal," answered Molly, "since they have a good
+deal to do with my own affairs."
+
+"Why, what do you mean?"
+
+"Now, Judith," went on Molly, "this is Christmas and we won't quarrel
+about our misfortunes. Whatever mine are, it's not your fault. I'm
+gathering some holly to decorate for Otoyo and me. Won't you help me?"
+
+"No, thanks," answered the other coldly. "I don't feel much like
+Christmas this year," she burst out, after a pause. "I'm seeing my last
+of college now, unless I choose to stay under certain conditions--and I
+won't--I won't," she repeated, stamping her foot fiercely on the frozen
+earth, which gave out a rhythmic sound under the blow. "Queen's is bad
+enough, but if I am to descend to a room over the post-office after this
+semester, I'd--I'd rather die!" she added furiously.
+
+"We're in the same box," thought Molly. "I can appreciate how she feels,
+poor soul. I was just about as bad myself at first."
+
+"Do you blame me?" went on the unhappy Judith. "Through no fault of mine
+I've had troubles heaped on me all winter--first one and then another. I
+have had to suffer for another person's sins; to be crushed into a
+nobody; taken from my rightful place and shoved off first into one
+miserable little hole and then another. I tell you I don't think it's
+fair--it's unkind--it's cruel!"
+
+Molly was not accustomed to hear people pity themselves. She had been
+brought up to regard it as an evidence of cowardice and low breeding.
+
+"I've just about made up my mind," continued Judith, "to chuck the whole
+thing and go on the stage. I can sing and dance, and I believe I could
+get into almost any chorus. Richard, of course, wouldn't hear of my
+taking part in his new opera and he could arrange it just as easily as
+not, but he doesn't approve and neither does mamma. But it would be less
+humiliating than this." She pointed to Wellington.
+
+"But Judith, it would be a great deal more humiliating," ejaculated
+Molly. "You would be fussed with and scolded, and you'd hear horrid
+language, and live in wretched hotels and boarding houses a great deal
+worse than the rooms over the post-office!"
+
+It was very little Molly knew about chorus girl life, but that little
+she now turned to good account.
+
+"You would have to travel a lot on smoky, uncomfortable trains and stay
+up late at night, whether you wanted to or not. You wouldn't be treated
+like a lady," she added innocently, "and you'd have to cover your face
+with grease and paint every night."
+
+"I don't care," answered Judith. "Anything would be better than being
+banished from Wellington and living in a room next to that talkative
+little southern girl who does laundry work."
+
+"Judith," exclaimed Molly, "I'm being banished from Wellington, too.
+I've taken a room at O'Reilly's. I've been through all the misery you're
+going through, and I know what you are suffering. I was almost at the
+point of going home once. But Judith, don't you see that it's rather
+cowardly to enjoy prosperity and the good things that come in time of
+peace, and then run away when the real fight begins? And it wouldn't do
+any good, either. It would only make other people suffer and we'd be
+much worse off ourselves. Don't you think Judith Blount, B. A., would
+be a more important person than Judith Blount, Chorus Girl?"
+
+Judith began picking the leaves off a piece of holly. Almost everything
+she did was destructive.
+
+"I suppose you're right," she said at last. "Mamma and Richard would
+have a fit and the chorus girl role wouldn't suit me, either. I'm too
+high-tempered and I can't stand criticism. But you're going to
+O'Reilly's? That puts a new face on it. I'll change to O'Reilly's, too."
+
+Molly groaned inwardly. She would almost rather live next to a talking
+machine than a firebrand.
+
+"They aren't such bad rooms," she said quietly. "When we get our things
+in, they'll be quite nice."
+
+"And now, I'll hurry on," continued Judith, utterly absorbed in her own
+affairs. "I think I will take the train to New York this afternoon. I
+suppose it would be rather cowardly to leave mamma and Richard alone,
+this Christmas, especially. Good-by." She held out her hand. "What are
+your plans? Are you going to do anything tonight to celebrate?"
+
+"No," answered Molly, shaking Judith's hand with as much cordiality as
+she could muster. "Just go to bed."
+
+"I thought perhaps you had formed some scheme of entertainment with my
+cousins."
+
+"You mean the Greens? I didn't know they were here."
+
+"I don't know that they are here, either. They have been careful to keep
+their plans from me."
+
+Molly ignored this implication.
+
+"I hope you'll enjoy your Christmas, Judith," she said. "Perhaps
+something will turn up."
+
+"Something will have to turn up after next year," exclaimed Judith, "for
+I have made up my mind to one thing. I shall never work for a living."
+
+And she strode off through the pine woods with her chin in the air, as
+if she were defying all the powers in heaven to make her change this
+resolution.
+
+Molly shivered as she knelt to clip the holly. She seemed to see a
+picture of a tiny little Judith standing in the middle of a vast,
+endless plain raging and shaking her fists at--what? The empty air. She
+sighed.
+
+"I don't suppose I could ever make her understand that she'd be lots
+happier if she'd just let go and stop thinking that God has a grudge
+against her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE.
+
+
+At six o'clock that evening a mouse's tail brushed Molly's door.
+
+"Come in, little one," called Molly, recognizing Otoyo's tap. "My, how
+dressed up you are!" she cried as the little Japanese appeared in the
+doorway blushing and hesitating.
+
+"You like it? This is real American young lady's toilet. It came from a
+greatly big store in New York."
+
+Molly felt a real regret sometimes in correcting Otoyo's funny English.
+Was not the Brown family careful for many years to call bears "b'ars"
+just because the youngest brother said it when he was a little child?
+
+"But why did you wear your pink cashmere this evening, dear?" she
+asked.
+
+"Ah, but this is a holidee. In Japan we wear always best on holidee."
+
+"Then I must dress up, too, I suppose," remarked Molly, sighing, "and I
+had thought to let myself off easy to-night, Otoyo. But I couldn't
+appear before Mrs. Murphy in this old garment and you so resplendent.
+What shall I wear, chicken?" she asked, pinching Otoyo's cheek.
+
+"The dress of sky blue."
+
+"What, my last year's best?" laughed Molly. "My lady, you ask too much.
+I must preserve that for year after next best. But, seeing that you are
+doing honor to this happy occasion, Miss Sen, I'll wear it to please
+you."
+
+She soon attired herself in the blue crepe de chine over which she and
+Nance had labored so industriously the winter before.
+
+The two girls strolled downstairs together and at the first landing
+Molly began sniffing the air.
+
+    "'If my ole nose don't tell no lies,
+      It 'pears like I smells custard pies,'"
+
+she remarked smiling.
+
+"It's meence," said Otoyo.
+
+Molly squeezed the little Japanese's plump waist.
+
+"Yes, I know it's 'meence,'" she said, "but custard pies stand for mince
+and turkey and baked macaroni and all sorts of good things. We'll soon
+find out what Mrs. Murphy's been up to."
+
+Pushing open the dining room door, she gave a start of surprise. The
+room was deserted and almost dark, and the long table was not even set
+for two.
+
+"Why, we must have come down too soon, Otoyo. You little monkey, you led
+me to believe it was quite late."
+
+Otoyo smiled and winked both eyes rapidly several times.
+
+"I think Mrs. Murphee is a very week-ed ladee," she said slowly. "She
+run away from thees house and leave us all alone. We shall have no
+deener? Ah, that will be very sadlee."
+
+They retreated from the dismal, deserted dining room into the hall.
+Immediately a door at the far end was thrown open and a flood of light
+poured from Mrs. Markham's sitting room. Then Mrs. Murphy's ample figure
+blocked the doorway, and in her rich Irish brogue she called:
+
+"You poor little lost lambs, is it for me you're lookin', then? Here I
+am and here's your supper waitin' for you."
+
+Mrs. Markham was away for the holidays.
+
+"All right, Mrs. Murphy," called Molly cheerfully. Taking Otoyo's hand,
+she led her down the hall. "Why, little one, I don't believe you are
+well," she exclaimed. "Your hands are cold and you are trembling."
+
+The truth is, Miss Sen was almost hysterical with suppressed excitement.
+
+"No, no, no," she replied. "I am feeling quite, quitely well."
+
+Grasping Molly's hand more firmly, she began running as if the strain
+were too great to be endured longer.
+
+All this time Molly had not the faintest suspicion of the surprises
+awaiting her in Mrs. Markham's sitting room. Imagine her amazement when
+she found herself confronting Miss Grace Green, her two brothers and
+Lawrence Upton in that cozy apartment! In the center was a round table
+set for six, and in the center of the round table was the most adorable
+miniature Christmas tree decorated with tiny ornaments and little
+candles, their diminutive points of light blinking cheerfully. Four tall
+silver candlesticks with red shades flanked the Christmas tree at each
+side; a wood fire crackled in the open fireplace and everywhere were
+bunches and garlands of holly.
+
+Molly was quite speechless at first and she came very near crying. But
+she choked back the lump which would rise in her throat and smiled
+bravely at the company.
+
+"I hope you are pleased with the surprise, dear," said Miss Grace Green,
+kissing her. "It seemed to Edwin and me that six homeless people should
+unite in making a Christmas for themselves. Lawrence is like you. He
+lives too far away for Christmas at home, and I am at the mercies of a
+boarding house. So, Mrs. Murphy has agreed to be a mother to all of us
+this Christmas and cheer us up."
+
+"Shure, and I'd like to be the mother of such a foine family," said Mrs.
+Murphy. "Me old man wouldn't mind the responsibility, either, I'm
+thinkin'."
+
+They all laughed and Molly found herself shaking hands with Professor
+Green and Dodo and Lawrence Upton; kissing Miss Green again; rapturously
+admiring the exquisite little tree and rushing from one holly decoration
+to another, to the joy of Otoyo, who had arranged the greens with her
+own hands.
+
+Surely such a happy Christmas party had never taken place before at old
+brown Queen's. Mrs. Murphy herself waited on the table and joined in the
+conversation whenever she chose, and once Mr. Murphy, baggage master at
+Wellington station, popped his head in at the door and smiling broadly,
+remarked:
+
+"Shure, 'tis a happy party ye're after makin' the night; brothers and
+sisters; swatehearts and frinds--all gathered togither around the same
+board. It'll be a merry evenin' for ye, young ladies and gintlemin, and
+it's wishin' ye well I am with all me heart."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Murphy," said the Professor, "and we be wishin' the same
+to you and many Christmasses to follow."
+
+"Which one of us is your swateheart, Miss Sen?" asked Lawrence Upton
+mischievously.
+
+"I like better the 'meat-sweet' than the sweet-heart," answered Miss Sen
+demurely. There was no doubt, however, that she knew the meaning of the
+word "sweetheart."
+
+How they all laughed at this and teased Lawrence.
+
+"Just be _bonbon_ and you'll be a 'meat-sweet' Larry," said the
+Professor, who appeared this evening to have laid aside all official
+dignity and become as youthful as his brother Dodo.
+
+After dinner the table was cleared, the fire built up, and the company
+gathered around the hearth. They roasted chestnuts and told ghost
+stories. Otoyo in the quaintest English told a blood-curdling Japanese
+story which interested Professor Green so deeply that he took out a
+little book and jotted down notes, and questioned her regarding names
+and places.
+
+Molly knew a true story of a haunted house in Kentucky, fallen into
+ruins because no one had dared live in it for years.
+
+Then Mrs. Murphy brought in the lamps and Professor Green drew up at the
+table and read aloud Dickens's "Christmas Carol." Molly's mother had
+read to her children the immortal story of "Tiny Tim" ever since they
+could remember on Christmas day, and it gave Molly much secret pleasure
+to know that these dear kind friends had kept up the same practice.
+After that they fetched down Judy's guitar and, with Molly accompanying,
+they sang some of the good old songs that people think they have
+forgotten until they hear the thrum of the guitar and someone starts the
+singing.
+
+At last the tower clock boomed midnight, and as the echo of the final
+stroke vibrated in the room, the door opened and Santa Claus stood on
+the threshold.
+
+"Shure, an' I'm just on the nick of time," he said with a good Irish
+accent, as he unstrapped his pack and proceeded to distribute packages
+done up in white tissue paper tied with red ribbons.
+
+There were presents for everyone with no names attached, but Molly
+suspected Professor Green of being the giver of the pretty things. Hers
+was a volume of Rossetti's poems bound in dark blue leather. There was a
+pretty volume of Tennyson's poems for Otoyo; and funny gifts for
+everybody, with delightful jingles attached which the Professor read
+very gravely. Otoyo almost had hysterics over her toy, which was simply
+a small, imitation book shelf on which was a row of the works of Emerson
+and Carlyle, filled with "meat-sweets."
+
+Only one thing happened to mar that evening's pleasure, and this was the
+fault of the little Japanese herself, to her undying mortification and
+sorrow. When the party was at its very height and they had joined hands
+and were circling around Santa Claus, who was singing "The Wearing of
+the Green," Otoyo unexpectedly broke from the circle and with a funny,
+squeaky little scream pointed wildly at the window.
+
+"Why, child, what frightened you?" asked Miss Grace Green, taking the
+girl's hand and looking into her white, scared face.
+
+But Otoyo refused to explain and would only say over and over:
+
+"I ask pardon. I feel so sorrowfully to make this beeg disturbance. Will
+you forgive Otoyo?"
+
+"Of course we forgive you, dear. And won't you tell us what you saw?"
+
+"No, no, no. It was notheeng."
+
+"We ought to be going, at any rate," said the Professor. "Miss Sen isn't
+accustomed to celebrations like this when old people turn into children
+and children turn into infants."
+
+"Am I an infant?" asked Molly, "or a child?"
+
+"I am afraid you still belong to the infant class, Miss Brown," replied
+the Professor regretfully.
+
+They attributed Otoyo's fright to nervousness caused from
+over-excitement, and a few minutes later the party broke up.
+
+It was one o'clock when the two girls finally climbed upstairs to the
+lonely silent third floor. Molly escorted Otoyo to her little room and
+turned on the light.
+
+"Now, little one," she said, putting her hands on the Japanese girl's
+shoulders and searching her face, "what was it you saw at the window?"
+
+Otoyo closed the door carefully and, tipping back to Molly's side,
+whispered:
+
+"The greatly beeg black eyes of Mees Blount look in from the window
+outside. She was very angree. Oh, so angree! She look like an eevil
+spirit."
+
+"Then she didn't go to New York, after all! But how silly not to have
+joined us. What a jealous, strange girl she is!"
+
+Molly could not know, however, with what care and secrecy the Greens had
+guarded their Christmas plans from Judith, who had caught a glimpse of
+the Professor and his sister at the general store that afternoon. It was
+revealed to her that her cousins would much rather not spend Christmas
+with her, and with a sullen, stubborn determination she changed her mind
+about going to New York. There was a good deal of the savage in her
+untamed nature, and that night, wandering unhappily about the college
+grounds and hearing sounds of laughter and singing from Queen's, she
+pressed her face against the window and the gay picture she saw inflamed
+her mind with rage and bitterness. The poor girl did resemble an evil
+spirit at that moment. There was hatred in her heart for every
+merrymaker in the room, and if she had had a dynamite bomb she would
+have thrown it into the midst of the company without a moment's
+hesitation.
+
+When Molly went to her own room after her talk with Otoyo, she found a
+note on her dressing table which did not worry her in the least
+considering she was quite innocent of the charge.
+
+    "You told me a falsehood this morning with all your preaching.
+    I'd rather live over the post-office next to an incessant talker
+    who does laundry work than stay in the same house with a person
+    as deceitful and untruthful as you. J. B."
+
+"I'm sorry for the poor soul," thought Molly, as she contemplated her
+own happy image in the glass. "She is like a traveller who deliberately
+takes the hardest road and chooses all the most disagreeable places to
+walk in. If she would just turn around and go the other way she would
+find it so much more agreeable for herself and all concerned."
+
+Nevertheless, Molly felt a secret relief that Judith had chosen to stay
+over the post-office.
+
+As for the incorrigible Judith, she did leave for New York early next
+morning and spent the rest of the holidays with her mother and brother.
+
+Molly saw a great deal of the Greens for the next few days. They had tea
+together and long walks, and once the Professor read aloud to his sister
+and the little girl from Kentucky in the privacy of his own study. Miss
+Green and her two brothers left Wellington on New Year's Eve to visit
+some cousins in the next county, and still Molly was not lonely, for
+Lawrence Upton put in a great deal of time teaching her to skate and
+showing Otoyo and her the country around Wellington.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BREAKING THE NEWS.
+
+
+Mrs. Markham had received due notice that Molly Brown of Kentucky would
+be obliged to give up her half of the big room on the third floor at
+Queen's. The matron was very sorry. Miss Blount also was moving to other
+quarters, she said; but she was too accustomed to the transitory tenants
+of Queen's to feel any real grief over sudden departures.
+
+"It only remains to break the news to the others," thought Molly, but
+she mercifully determined to wait until after the mid-year examinations.
+She was very modest regarding her popularity, but she was pretty sure
+that Judy's highly emotional temperament might work itself into a fever
+from such a shock. Remembering her last year's experience at mid-years,
+Molly guarded her secret carefully until after the great crisis.
+
+At last, however, the fateful moment came. All the Queen's circle was
+gathered in that center of hospitality in which Molly had spent so many
+happy months. The walls never looked so serenely blue as on that bright
+Sunday morning in January, nor the Japanese scroll more alluring and
+ornamental. A ray of sunlight filtering through the white dimity
+curtains cast a checkered shadow on the antique rug. Even the
+imperfections of the old room were dear to Molly's heart now that she
+must leave them forever; the spot in the ceiling where the roof had
+leaked; the worn place in the carpet where they had sat around the
+register, and the mischievous chair with the "game leg" which
+precipitated people to the floor unexpectedly.
+
+Everybody was in a good humor.
+
+"There are no shipwrecks on the strand this year," Margaret Wakefield
+was saying. "Everybody's safe in harbor, glory be."
+
+"Even me," put in Jessie meekly. "I never thought I'd pull through in
+that awful chemistry exam., and I was morally certain I'd flunk in
+math., too. I'm so afraid of Miss Bowles that my hair stands on end
+whenever she speaks to me."
+
+"She is rather formidable," said Edith Williams. "Why is it that Higher
+Mathematics seems to freeze a body's soul and turn one into an early
+Puritan?"
+
+"It simply trains the mind to be exact," said Margaret, who always
+defended the study of mathematics in these discussions. "And exactness
+means sticking to facts, and that's an excellent quality in a woman."
+
+"Meaning to say," broke in Katherine Williams, "that all un-mathematical
+minds are untruthful----"
+
+"Nothing of the sort," cried Margaret hotly. "I never made any such
+statement. Did I, girls? I said----"
+
+There was a bumping, tumbling noise in the hall. Judy, the ever-curious,
+opened the door.
+
+"The trunks are here, Miss," called Mr. Murphy, "and sorry we are to
+lose you, the old woman and I."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Murphy," answered Molly.
+
+"Well, for the love of Mike," cried Judy, turning around and facing
+Molly. "What are you talking about?"
+
+"I'm not talking about anything," answered Molly, trying to keep her
+voice steady.
+
+"Did you flunk in any of the exams., Molly Brown?" asked Edith in a
+whisper.
+
+"No," whispered Molly in reply. It was going to be even worse than she
+had pictured to herself. "No," she repeated. A pulse throbbed in her
+throat and made her voice sound all tremolo like a beginner's in
+singing. "I waited to tell you until after mid-years. I'm not going very
+far away--only to O'Reilly's."
+
+Nance, who had been sitting on the floor with her head against Molly's
+knee, began softly to weep. It was certainly one of the most desolating
+experiences of Molly's life.
+
+"O'Reilly's?" they cried in one loud protesting shriek.
+
+"Yes, you see, we--we've lost some money and I have to move," began
+Molly apologetically. "We can be friends just the same, only I won't see
+quite as much of you--it--it will be harder on me than on you----"
+
+It would have been gratifying if it had not been so sad, this circle of
+tear-stained faces and every tear shed on her account.
+
+"We simply can't do without you, Molly," cried pretty, affectionate
+Jessie Lynch. "You belong to the 'body corporate' of Queen's, as
+Margaret calls it, to such an extent that if you leave us, we'll--well,
+we'll just fall to pieces, that's all."
+
+It remained for Judy Kean, however, that creature of impulse and
+emotion, to prove the depths of her affection. When she rushed blindly
+from the room, her friends had judged that she wished to be alone. Molly
+had once been a witness to the awful struggle of Judy in tears and she
+knew that weeping was not a surface emotion with her.
+
+For some time, Molly went on quietly explaining and talking, answering
+their questions and assuring them that there would be many meetings at
+O'Reilly's of Queen's girls.
+
+"I expect you'll have to move into Judith Blount's singleton, Nance,"
+she continued, patting her friend's cheek. "That is, unless you can
+arrange to get someone to share this one with you."
+
+"Don't, don't," sobbed Nance. "I can't bear it."
+
+Again there was a noise outside of trunks being carried upstairs and
+dumped down in the hall.
+
+"There go poor Judith's trunks," observed Molly. "It will be harder on
+her than on me because she takes it so hard. She's----"
+
+Molly broke off and opened the door. Judy's voice was heard outside
+giving directions.
+
+"Just pull them inside for me, will you, Mr. Murphy? I know they fill up
+the room, but I like to pack all at once. Will you see about the room
+for me at Mrs. O'Reilly's as you go down to the station? I'll notify the
+registrar and Mrs. Markham. And Mr. Murphy, get a room next to Miss
+Brown's, if possible. I don't care whether it's little or big."
+
+Nance pushed Molly aside and rushed into the hall.
+
+"Why hadn't I thought of that?" she cried. "Mr. Murphy, I want a room at
+O'Reilly's. Will you engage one for me as near Miss Brown's as you can,
+and before you go bring up my trunks, please?"
+
+"Now, may the saints defind us," cried the distracted Mr. Murphy. "It
+looks as if the whole of Queen's was movin' down to the village. You're
+a foine lot of young ladies, Miss, and loyalty ain't so usual a trait in
+a woman, either."
+
+"But Nance, but Judy!" protested Molly. "I can't--you mustn't----"
+
+"Don't say another word," put in Judy as if she were scolding a bad
+child. "Nance and I would rather live at O'Reilly's with you than at
+Queen's without you, that's all. We mean no reflection on the others,
+but I suppose you all understand. Edith and Katherine wouldn't be
+separated, and Jessie and Margaret wouldn't. Well, it's the same with
+us."
+
+"You'll be sorry," cried Molly. "Oh, Judy, I know you'll regret it the
+very first day. It will be very different from Queen's. We'll have to
+get our own breakfasts, and take meals at the place next door, and the
+rooms are plain with ugly wall paper, and there isn't any white
+woodwork, and it's a big empty old place. It used to be a small hotel,
+you know, and Mrs. O'Reilly is trying to sell it. The only
+recommendation it has, is that it's very cheap."
+
+"Why didn't you go over to the post-office, Molly?" asked Margaret.
+
+"They are nicer rooms," admitted Molly, "but----"
+
+"Judith Blount is going there," put in Judy.
+
+"That wasn't the only reason. I really had arranged about O'Reilly's
+before I knew Judith Blount was going to leave here."
+
+The girls looked puzzled.
+
+"I know," said Edith. "There's a young person with a soft cooing voice
+at the post-office who talks a mile a minute."
+
+"She's a very nice girl," broke in Molly, "and works so hard. I really
+like her ever so much. She's very clever, but I have a sort of
+bewildered feeling when I am with her."
+
+"I know," said Edith. "It's like standing on the banks of a rushing
+river. There's no way to stop it and there's no way to get across. You
+might as well retreat to O'Reilly's in good order."
+
+"O'Reilly's it is," cried Judy with the gallant air of one about to go
+forth in search of adventure.
+
+It was in vain that Molly protested. Her friends had made up their minds
+and nothing could swerve them. By good luck, the checks in payment for
+board and lodging at Queen's for the new quarter had not arrived, and
+the two girls were free to move if they chose.
+
+Together the three friends, more closely united than ever by the
+sacrifice of two of them, walked down into the village that afternoon to
+have a look at O'Reilly's, and they were obliged to confess that they
+were not impressed with its possibilities as a home. But it was a dark,
+cold day--when even cheerful, pretty rooms would not have looked their
+best.
+
+"These two back rooms will be rather nice when the spring comes,"
+observed Nance, with a forced gaiety. "They look over the garden, you
+see. Perhaps Mrs. O'Reilly will let us plant some seeds in March."
+
+"It won't be nice," Molly cried. "It will be miserable. I've known it
+all along myself, but I wouldn't admit it until now. Girls, I implore
+you to stay at Queen's. You never will be happy here, and I shall be
+twice as unhappy."
+
+"Now, don't say another word, Molly Brown," said Judy. "We're going to
+follow you if it's to the Inferno."
+
+"Think how you'll miss the others."
+
+"Think how we'd miss you."
+
+"We'd better go back and pack our things, then," sighed Molly, feeling
+very much like a culprit who had drawn her friends into mischief.
+
+That night they packed their belongings, and not once by the blink of
+an eyelash did Judy or Nance show what they felt about leaving Queen's
+forever. At last with walls cleared of pictures, curtains neatly folded,
+books piled into boxes and rugs rolled up, the three girls went to bed,
+worn out with the day's labors and emotions.
+
+In the night, Nance, shivering, crawled into Molly's bed and brought all
+her covering with her. Under a double layer of comforts they snuggled
+while the thermometer went down, down until it reached ten degrees below
+zero.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HOW O'REILLY'S BECAME QUEEN'S.
+
+
+Molly often looked back on that famous bitter Monday as the most
+exciting day of her entire life. Surprises began in the morning when
+they learned for a fact that it was ten degrees below zero. Barometers
+in a house always make the weather seem ten times worse. In the night
+the water pipes had burst and flooded the kitchen floor, which by
+morning was covered with a layer of ice. On this, the unfortunate Mrs.
+Murphy, entering unawares, slipped and sprained her ankle. The gas was
+frozen, and neither the gas nor the coal range could be used that
+eventful morning. The girls prepared their own breakfasts on chafing
+dishes, and wrapped in blankets they shivered over the registers, up
+which rose a thin stream of heat that made but a feeble impression on
+the freezing atmosphere.
+
+"We do look something like a mass meeting of Siberian exiles," observed
+Judy grimly, looking about her in Chapel a little later.
+
+Miss Walker herself wore a long fur coat and a pair of arctic shoes and
+in the assembled company of students there appeared every variety of
+winter covering known to the civilized world, apparently: ulsters, golf
+capes, fur coats, sweaters, steamer rugs and shawls.
+
+Molly was numb with cold; fur coats were the only garments warm enough
+that day, and a blue sweater under a gray cloth jacket was as nothing
+against the frigid atmosphere.
+
+"Bed's the only comfortable place to be in," she whispered to Judy, "and
+here we've got classes till twelve thirty and moving in the afternoon!
+The trunks are going this morning. Oh, heavens, how I do dread it!"
+
+"At least O'Reilly's couldn't be any colder than Queen's is at present,"
+replied Judy, "and there's a grate in the room I am to have. We'll have
+a big coal fire and cheer things up considerably."
+
+Everything was done on the run that day. Groups of girls could be seen
+tearing from one building to another. They dashed through corridors like
+wild ponies and rushed up and down stairs as if the foul fiends were
+chasing them.
+
+The weather was like a famous invalid rapidly sinking. They frequently
+took his temperature and cried to one another:
+
+"It's gone down two degrees."
+
+"The bulletin says it will be fifteen by night."
+
+"Oh," groaned Molly, thinking of her friends at that dismal O'Reilly's.
+
+Having half an hour to spare between classes, she went to the library
+where she met Nance.
+
+"There are some letters for you, Molly. They came by the late mail. I
+saw them in the hall," Nance informed her.
+
+But Molly was not deeply interested in letters that morning.
+
+"Never mind mail," she said. "I can only think of two things. How cold I
+am this minute, and how uncomfortable you and Judy are going to be for
+my sake."
+
+"Don't think about it, Molly, dear," said Nance. "We'll soon get
+adjusted at O'Reilly's with you, and we never would at Queen's without
+you."
+
+Molly could not find her mail when she returned to Queen's for lunch,
+which had been prepared with much difficulty on several chafing dishes
+and a small charcoal brazier by Mrs. Markham and the maid. Nobody seemed
+to know anything about letters in the upset and half-frozen household,
+until it was finally discovered that Mr. Murphy had taken Molly's mail
+down to O'Reilly's when he had moved the trunks.
+
+Having disposed of indifferently warmed canned soup and creamed boned
+chicken that was chilled to its heart, the three friends went down to
+the village. They looked at the rooms; they stood gazing pensively at
+their trunks; it seemed too cold to make the physical effort to unpack
+their clothes. Again the fugitive letters had escaped Molly. Mr. Murphy,
+finding she was not to come down until afternoon had kept them in his
+pocket and was at that moment at the station awaiting the three fifteen
+train.
+
+"It's too cold to follow him," said Molly, never dreaming that Mr.
+Murphy was carrying about with him a letter which was to change the
+whole tenor of her life. "I'm so homesick," she exclaimed, "let's go
+back to Queen's for awhile."
+
+And back they hastened. Somehow they didn't know what to do with
+themselves in their new quarters. It seemed unnatural to sit down and
+chat in those strange rooms.
+
+As they neared the avenue they noticed groups of girls ahead of them,
+all running. The three friends began to run, too, beating their hands
+together to stir up the circulation. A bell was ringing violently. Its
+clang in the frosty air sounded harsh and unnatural.
+
+"That's the fire bell," cried Judy.
+
+They dashed into the avenue. The campus was alive with students all
+running in the same direction.
+
+"It's Queen's," shrieked Nance. "Queen's is burning!"
+
+Smoke was pouring from every window in the old brown house. The lawn in
+front was filled with a jumbled mass of furniture and clothes. Margaret
+and Jessie appeared on the porch dragging a great bundle of their
+belongings tied up in a bedspread. Otoyo rushed from the house, her arms
+filled with things. Mrs. Murphy, seated in a big chair on the campus,
+was rocking back and forth and moaning:
+
+"Queen's is gone. Nothing can save her. The pipes is froze."
+
+Out of the front door Edith Williams now emerged, quite calmly, with an
+armload of books.
+
+"Edith," cried Katherine, who had run at full speed all the way from the
+Quadrangle, "why didn't you bring our clothes?"
+
+For an answer her sister pointed at a pile of things on the ground.
+
+"I made two trips," she replied.
+
+All this the girls heard as in a dream as they stood in a shivering row
+on the campus. Old brown Queen's was about to be reduced to ashes and
+cinders! No need to summon the fire brigade or call in the volunteer
+fire department from the village, although this organization presently
+came dashing up with a small engine. Flames were already licking their
+way hungrily along the lower story of the house, and the slight stream
+of water from the engine hose only seemed to rouse them to greater fury.
+
+"I'm only thankful it didn't happen at night," they heard Miss Walker
+cry as she pushed her way through the throng of girls. "And you, my dear
+child," she continued, laying a hand on Molly's shoulder, "did you save
+your things?"
+
+Molly started from her lethargy. She was so cold and unhappy, she had
+forgotten all about her belongings.
+
+"Oh, yes, Miss Walker," she answered. "You see, we moved this morning.
+Wasn't it fortunate?"
+
+"We?" repeated Miss Walker.
+
+"Yes. My two friends, Miss Oldham and Miss Kean, moved, too. They--well,
+they wouldn't stay at Queen's without me."
+
+"Is it possible?" said the President. "And their trunks had gone down to
+the village? Dear, dear, what a remarkably providential thing. And what
+devoted friends you seem to make, Miss Brown," she added, patting
+Molly's hand and then turning away to speak to Professor Green, who had
+hurried up.
+
+"Is everybody safe?" he asked breathlessly.
+
+"Yes, yes, Professor, everybody's safe and everything has been done that
+could be done. I am afraid some of the girls have lost a good many
+things, but you will be glad to know that three of them had only this
+morning sent their trunks to rooms in the village--Miss Brown and her
+two friends."
+
+"Miss Brown moving to the village?"
+
+Molly looked up and caught the Professor's glance turned searchingly on
+her.
+
+"I am going to live at O'Reilly's," she said.
+
+"And you are safe and your things are safe?" he asked her, frowning so
+sternly that she felt she must have displeased him somehow. "I'm glad,
+very glad," he added, turning abruptly away. "Is there nothing I can do,
+Miss Walker?"
+
+For answer she pointed to the volunteers from the village who had leaped
+away from the house. The crowd swerved back. There was a crackling
+sound, a crash; a great wave of heat swept across the campus and the
+front wall of Queen's fell in. They had one fleeting view of the
+familiar rooms, and then a cloud of ashes and smoke choked the picture.
+It was not long before only the rear wall of old brown Queen's was left
+standing.
+
+"Dust to dust and ashes to ashes," said Edith Williams, solemnly.
+
+It did seem very much like a funeral to the crowd of Queen's girls who
+stood in a shivering, loyal row to the end.
+
+"So much for Queen's," said Margaret Wakefield. "She's dead and now
+what's to be done?"
+
+It was decided that the girls should go to O'Reilly's for the time
+being, all other available quarters being about filled. If they
+preferred the post-office they could stay there; but they preferred
+O'Reilly's.
+
+And thither, also, went Mrs. Markham and the Murphys and the maids from
+Queen's. In a few short hours, it would seem, Queen's had been changed
+to O'Reilly's, or O'Reilly's to Queen's. It turned out, too, that Mrs.
+O'Reilly was nearly related to Mr. Murphy, and all things, therefore,
+worked together in harmony.
+
+O'Reilly's seemed a place of warmth and comfort to the half-frozen girls
+who clustered around the big fire in Judy's room at five o'clock that
+afternoon, scalding their tongues with hot tea and coffee while they
+discussed their plans for the future.
+
+"Mrs. Markham told _me_," announced Margaret, a recognized authority on
+all subjects, political, domestic, financial and literary, "that it
+would probably be arranged to make O'Reilly's into a college house for
+the rest of the winter. She said they might even do over the rooms. It
+would be a smaller household than Queen's, of course--only eight or
+nine--but it would be rather cosy and--there would be no breaking up of
+old ties. If this isn't approved," she continued, exactly as if she were
+addressing a class meeting, "we shall have to scatter. There's another
+apartment in the Quadrangle and there are a few singletons left in some
+of the campus houses. Now, girls,"--her voice took on an oratorical
+ring--"of course, I know that we are nearly fifteen minutes' walk by the
+short cut from the college and that we may not be _in_ things as much;
+but the best part of college we have here at O'Reilly's. And that's
+ourselves. I move that we change O'Reilly's into Queen's and make the
+best of it for the rest of the winter."
+
+"Hurrah! I second the motion," cried Katherine Williams.
+
+"All those in favor of this motion will please say 'aye'," said the
+President.
+
+"Aye," burst from the throats of the eight friends, Otoyo's shrill high
+note sounding with the others.
+
+"Hurrah for our President," cried Molly, dancing around the room in an
+excess of happiness.
+
+"_Unitus et concordia_," said Edith gravely.
+
+"It's really Molly that's transformed O'Reilly's into Queen's,"
+continued Margaret, who had a generous, big way of saying things when
+she chose. "It's Molly who has kept us all together. With Molly and
+Nance and Judy gone, Queen's would have been a different place."
+
+"It would! It would!" they cried. "Three cheers for Molly Brown!"
+
+    "'Here's to Molly Brown, drink her down!
+      Here's to dear old Queen's, drink her down.'"
+
+Through the din of singing and cheering, there came a loud knocking at
+the door and a voice cried:
+
+"Open in the name of the law!"
+
+Then the door was thrust open and Sallie Marks marched in flourishing a
+hot-water bag in one hand and a thermos bottle in the other.
+
+"Well," she exclaimed, "you're the most cheerful lot of refugees I ever
+saw. I came down expecting to find eight frozen corpses stretched on the
+shining strand, and here you are singing hilarious songs and yelling
+like a lot of Comanche Indians."
+
+"What are you bringing us, Sallie?" demanded Judy.
+
+"I'm bringing you myself," said Sallie. "I've arranged to come down
+here. They shelved me with a lot of freshies at Martin's and I said I'd
+rather be at O'Reilly's with the Old Guard. So Mr. Murphy brought me
+down with two sheet-loads of my things and some beds from the hospital,
+and here I am."
+
+"Hurrah!" they cried again, joining hands and dancing in a circle around
+Sallie.
+
+    "'Here's to good old Sallie, drink her down,
+      Drink her down, drink her down, drink her down!'"
+
+After this wild outburst of joy over the return of another wanderer to
+the fold, Sallie began to remove her outer wrappings.
+
+"I feel like an Egyptian mummy," she remarked as she skinned off two
+long coats and unwound several scarfs.
+
+"You look like a pouter pigeon," said Judy, "what have you got stuffed
+in there?"
+
+"Mail," said Sallie, unbuttoning another jacket, "mail for Queen's. Mr.
+Murphy gave it to me when he came to get my things. And, by the way,"
+she added, "I saved my rocking chair and sat in it as I drove down to
+the village. Wasn't it beautiful? I suppose I'll be lampooned now as
+'Sallie, the emigrant.' But it was too cold to care much. I was only
+thankful I had taken the precaution to fill the hot-water bag and the
+thermos bottle before I started on the drive."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE TURN OF THE WHEEL.
+
+
+Sallie Marks had, indeed, received a royal welcome from her friends.
+They were as glad to see her as if she had just returned from a long
+voyage. Now they poked the fire and made fresh tea and petted and
+caressed her until her pale, near-sighted eyes were quite watery and she
+was obliged to wipe the moisture from her glasses.
+
+"We'll make out the winter here, girls," she assured them. "It may take
+a week to get the house in order, but we can put up with a little
+discomfort to have O'Reilly's to ourselves. If they would only strip off
+this bilious paper and lay a few mattings! The plumbing is better than
+it was at Queen's, and the heating arrangements, too."
+
+The room was really very comfortable what with the fire in the grate
+and the heat pouring up the register.
+
+"It was a defective flue that made old Queen's go under," observed
+Katherine sadly, as if she were speaking of a dear friend who had lately
+passed into another life. "I am afraid her heating apparatus was a
+little second class."
+
+"Speak no evil of the dead," admonished her sister Edith.
+
+"_Requiescat in pace_," said Sallie in a solemn voice.
+
+"_La reine est morte; vive la reine_," said Margaret.
+
+"After all, we are really 'Queen's'" said Judy, "so let's be as happy as
+we can. Where are those letters, Sallie?"
+
+Sallie unbuttoned the last layer of sweater and drew out a pile of mail
+which she distributed, calling the name of each girl.
+
+"Molly Brown," she called, handing Molly a letter from Kentucky.
+
+"Miss Sen, a letter from the Land of the Rising Sun. I hope it will rise
+warmer there than it set here this evening. Miss Jessie Lynch, a letter
+addressed in the handwriting of a male. Ahem! Miss Lynch, another letter
+in the same handwriting of presumably the same male."
+
+Much laughter among those not already absorbed in letters.
+
+"Miss Margaret Wakefield, an official document from the capital of these
+United States of America. Miss Julia S. Kean, a parental epistle which
+no doubt contains other things. Miss Molly Brown, who appears to be
+secretly purchasing a farm."
+
+Sallie handed Molly a long envelope, while the others snatched their
+letters and turned away. Only Nance had received no mail that day; yet,
+more than any girl there, she enjoyed corresponding and sent off weekly
+voluminous letters to her father, her only correspondent except Andy
+McLean, who was not yet considered strong enough to write letters.
+
+It was with something very near to envy that she watched the faces of
+her friends as they waded through long family letters with an
+occasional laugh or comment:
+
+"It's been ten below at home."
+
+"Father forgot to put in my check. He's getting very thoughtless."
+
+"My wandering parents are going to Florida. They can't stand the cold in
+New York."
+
+"Here's a state of things," exclaimed Edith, "another book bill for
+books that were burned. Isn't that the limit?"
+
+"Yes, and you'll borrow from me again," said Katherine. "And I shall
+refuse to lend you another cent. You are getting entirely too crazy
+about buying books."
+
+Nobody took any notice of this sisterly dialogue which went on
+continuously and never had any real meaning, because in the end
+Katherine always paid her sister's debts.
+
+Nance's gaze shifted to Molly, who might have been turned into a graven
+image, so still was she sitting. She had not opened the letter from
+home, but the long envelope from the real estate company lay at her
+feet. In one hand she held a typewritten letter and in the other a long
+blue slip of paper which, beyond a doubt, was a check. Picking up the
+envelope, Molly gave a covert glance around the absorbed circle and
+slipped the check inside. Then she noticed Nance gazing at her
+curiously. She smiled, and then began to laugh so joyously that
+everybody stopped reading and regarded her almost anxiously. There was a
+peculiar ring of excitement in her voice.
+
+"Molly, hasn't something awfully nice happened to you?" asked Nance.
+
+"Why, yes," she answered, "to tell the truth, there has."
+
+"What is it? What is it?" cried the chorus of voices.
+
+Molly hesitated and blushed, and laughed again.
+
+"I don't think you would believe it if I were to tell you," she said.
+"It's too absurd. I can hardly believe it myself, even after reading the
+letter and seeing the--the----"
+
+"The what, Molly?" demanded Judy, beside herself with curiosity.
+
+Molly laughed again.
+
+"I'm so happy," she cried. "It's made me warm all over. The temperature
+has risen ten degrees."
+
+"Molly Brown, will you explain yourself? Can't you see we are
+palpitating to know what it is?" cried Judy.
+
+"I've won a prize," exclaimed Molly. "I've won a prize. Can't you see
+what it means to me? I needed the money and it came. A perfect windfall.
+Oh, isn't this world a delightful place? I don't mind the cold weather
+and O'Reilly's. I'm so happy. I prayed for rain and carried my umbrella.
+Oh, I'm so happy, happy, happy!"
+
+"Has the child gone daffy?" said Sallie Marks, while Judy seized the
+envelope and drew out a check for two hundred dollars made out in the
+name of "Mary C. W. Brown." Then she opened the letter and read aloud:
+
+    "'Dear Madam:
+
+    It gives us much pleasure to inform you that among several
+    hundred contestants you have won the prize of $200, offered by
+    this company for the best advertisement in prose or verse for
+    one of our mountain chalets. Your poem will occupy the first
+    page in an elaborate booklet now under way and we hope will
+    attract many customers. We offer you our congratulations and
+    good wishes for other literary successes and enclose the check
+    herewith.
+        Very cordially yours, etc., etc.'"
+
+"Am I sleeping or waking?" cried Molly. "This, at the end of this awful
+day! Isn't it wonderful?"
+
+The reunited friends made so much noise over this triumph of their
+favorite that Mrs. Markham, superintending the setting up of beds and
+arranging of rooms with Mrs. O'Reilly, smilingly observed:
+
+"Dear me, they don't seem to take their misfortune much to heart, do
+they?"
+
+"They're that glad to get in out of the cold, ma'am, and warm themselves
+with some tea. It's thawed them out, I expect, the poor young things.
+They was half froze when they come an hour ago."
+
+"But where's the poem, Molly," cried Judy, when the racket had
+subsided. "We must see the poem."
+
+"It's locked in my trunk."
+
+"Get it out, get it out," they ordered, and she had no peace until she
+unlocked the trunk and, rummaging in her portfolio, found the original
+manuscript of "The Chalet of the West Wind."
+
+"I can't see why it won the prize," she said. "I hadn't even the shadow
+of a hope when I sent it. It's not a bit like an ad."
+
+"It was certainly what they wanted," said Sallie. "They didn't have to
+give you the prize, seeing that they had several hundred to choose from.
+But read it, because I'm in a fever of curiosity to hear it."
+
+In the meantime, Judy had lit the gas, and taking Molly by the
+shoulders, pushed her into a chair under the light.
+
+"I'm most awfully embarrassed," announced Molly, "but here goes," and
+she read the following verses:
+
+    The Chalet of the West Wind.
+
+    "Wind of the West, Wind of the West,
+     Breathe on my little chalet.
+     Blow over summer fields,
+     Bring all their perfume yields,
+     Lily and clover and hay.
+
+    "Bring all the joys of spring,
+     Soft-kissing zephyrs bring,
+     Peace of the mountains and hills,
+     Waken the columbine,
+     Stir the sweet breath of pine,
+     Hasten the late daffodils.
+
+    "Gentle Wind from the Isles of the Blest,
+     Breathe on my little chalet,
+     Fill it with music and laughter and rest;
+     Fill it with love and with dreams that are best;
+     Breathe on it softly, sweet Wind of the West,
+     Breathe on my little chalet."
+
+There was certainly nothing very remarkable about the little song, and
+yet it had caught the eye of the real estate men as having a certain
+quality which would attract people to that sunny mountainside whereon
+were perched the quaint Swiss chalets they desired to sell. There was a
+subtle suggestion to the buyer that he might find rest and happiness in
+this peaceful home. The piney air, the flowers and the sunshine had all
+been poetically but quite truthfully described. With a picture of the
+"Chalet of the West Wind" on the opposite page, people of discerning
+tastes, looking for summer homes, would surely be attracted.
+
+"How ever did you happen to write it, Molly?" they asked her after
+re-reading the poem and admiring it with friendly loyalty. "Have you
+ever been to the mountains?"
+
+"No," she answered, "I actually never have. But something in me that
+wasn't me wrote the verses. They just seemed to come, first the meter
+and then, gradually, the lines. I can't explain it. I had some bad news
+and was afraid I would have to leave college and then the poem came.
+That was all. Two hundred dollars," she added, looking at the check.
+"It seems too good to be true. What must I do with it?"
+
+"Put it in the Wellington Bank to-morrow morning," answered Margaret
+promptly.
+
+Between them, Mrs. Markham and Mrs. O'Reilly prepared a very good dinner
+for the girls that night, and instead of being a funeral feast it was
+changed into a jolly banquet. The old Queen's dinner table was restored
+and there was as much gay, humorous conversation as there ever had been
+in the brown shingled house now reduced to a heap of ashes.
+
+Paperhangers and painters did go into the new college house on the
+following Monday morning and in less than ten days the dingy rooms were
+transformed by white woodwork and light paper. If the Queen's girls felt
+a little out of it at first, not being on the campus, they were too
+proud to admit it, and nobody ever heard a complaint from them. They had
+a great many visitors at O'Reilly's. Crowds of their friends came down
+to drink tea or spend the evening. The President herself called one
+morning and had a look at the place.
+
+In the meantime Molly had called at Miss Walker's office and informed
+her that she had come into a little money unexpectedly and, with the
+money she was earning, she would be able to pay her own board at
+O'Reilly's for the rest of the winter. It was only by chance that Miss
+Walker learned how Molly had earned this sum of money.
+
+"Think of the child's modesty in keeping the secret from me," she said
+to Miss Pomeroy. "Have you seen the poem that won the prize, by the
+way?"
+
+"Why, yes," answered that critical individual. "It's a sweet little
+thing and I suppose struck the exact note they wanted, but I assure you
+it's nothing wonderful."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+IN THE GARDEN.
+
+
+"Who would have thought this place could ever blossom like the rose,"
+exclaimed Margaret Wakefield, settling comfortably in a long steamer
+chair and looking about her with an expression of extreme contentment.
+
+"It's the early summer that did it," remarked Judy Kean. "It came to
+console us after that brutal winter."
+
+"It's Mrs. O'Reilly's labors chiefly," put in Katherine Williams. "She
+told me that this garden had been the comfort of her life."
+
+"It's the comfort of mine," said Margaret lazily. "Watching you girls
+there hoeing and raking and pulling up weeds reminds me of a scene from
+the opera of 'The Juggler of Notre Dame,'--the monks in the cloister
+working among their flowers."
+
+Molly paused in her operation of the lawn mower.
+
+"It is a peaceful occupation," she said. "It's the nicest thing that
+ever happened to us, this garden, because it was such a surprise. I
+never suspected it was anything but a desert until one day I looked down
+and saw Mrs. O'Reilly digging up the earth around some little green
+points sticking out of the ground, and then it only seemed a few days
+before the points were daffodils and everything had burst into bloom at
+once. This apple tree was like a bride's bouquet."
+
+"That's stretching your imagination a bit," interrupted Judy, reclining
+at full length on a steamer rug on the ground. "Think of the gigantic
+bride who could carry an apple tree for a bouquet."
+
+"Get up from there and go to work," cried Molly, poking her friend in
+the side with her foot. "Here's company coming this afternoon, and you
+at your ease on the ground!"
+
+"I don't notice that Margaret W. is bestirring herself," answered Judy.
+
+"A President never should work," answered Molly. "It's her office to
+look on and direct."
+
+Judy pulled herself lazily from the ground.
+
+"I'll be official lemon squeezer, then," she said. "I will not weed; I
+refuse to cut grass, or to pick up sticks with the Williamses. You look
+like a pair of peasant fagot gatherers," she called to the two sisters
+who were clearing away a small pile of brush gathered by the industrious
+hands of Mrs. O'Reilly.
+
+"And what do you think you are? A bloomin' aristocrat?" demanded Edith.
+
+"If I am," answered Judy, "my noblesse has obleeged me to squeeze lemons
+for the party. It's a lowly job, but I'd rather do it than pick up
+sticks."
+
+"Anything like work is lowly to you, Miss Judy," said Katherine.
+
+Summer had really come on the heels of spring with such breathless haste
+that before they knew it they were plunged into warm weather. And nobody
+rejoiced more than Molly over the passing of the long cold winter. When
+at last the sun's rays broke through the crust of the frost-bound earth
+and wakened the sleeping things underneath, it had seemed to the young
+girl that her cup of happiness was overflowing. Not even to Judy and
+Nance could she explain how much she loved the spring. One day, seizing
+a trowel from some tools on the porch, she rushed into the garden and
+began digging in the flower beds.
+
+"You don't mind, do you, Mrs. O'Reilly?" she apologized. "I'm so glad
+spring is here at last that I've got to take it out in something besides
+book-learning."
+
+"I'm only too happy, Miss," said the widow. "Young ladies ain't often so
+fond of the smell of the earth."
+
+It was Molly who had introduced the cult of the garden to the other
+girls, and it was she who had first induced Mrs. O'Reilly to resurrect
+some garden seats from the cellar and a rustic table. Even as early as
+the first of May they had tea under the apple trees, and as the days
+grew warmer their friends found them reading and studying in the sunny
+enclosure.
+
+They had no idea of the charming picture they made grouped about in
+their garden; nor did they dream that Mrs. O'Reilly had occasionally
+allowed a visitor or two to peer at them through a crack in the dining
+room shutters. Mrs. McLean and Professor Green were two such privileged
+characters one afternoon when they called at O'Reilly's to leave notes
+of acceptance to a tea to which they had been invited by the old Queen's
+circle. The invitations in themselves were rather unusual. They were
+little water-color sketches done by Judy and Otoyo on oblong cards. Each
+sketch showed a bit of the garden, and the invitations stated that on
+the afternoon of June second there would be tea in the Garden of
+O'Reilly's.
+
+"Where is this garden, Mrs. O'Reilly?" Mrs. McLean had demanded, and the
+Irish woman, beckoning mysteriously, had shown them the scene through
+the crack in the shutter.
+
+"Why, bless the bairns," exclaimed Mrs. McLean, gazing through the
+opening, while Professor Green impatiently awaited his turn. "They
+might be a lot of wood nymphs disporting themselves under the trees."
+
+Then the Professor had looked and had discovered Molly Brown, in her
+usual blue linen--which was probably only an imitation linen--raking
+grass. Judy was softly twanging her guitar. Nance on her knees beside a
+bed of lilies was digging in the earth, and the others were variously
+engaged while Edith read aloud.
+
+The Professor looked long at the charming scene and then observed:
+
+"It is a pretty picture. Wherever these girls go they create an
+atmosphere."
+
+But he was thinking of only one girl.
+
+Someone else had called at O'Reilly's privately and asked to see the
+garden.
+
+It was Judith Blount who stood like a dark shadow against the window and
+peered through the crack in the green shutter. She had come on the
+pretext of looking at rooms for next year, but after watching the scene
+in the garden had hurried away.
+
+"And I might have been with them now," she thought bitterly, "if it
+hadn't been for my vile temper that Christmas Eve."
+
+Judith had learned a good many hard lessons during the winter. She had
+found out that friends in prosperity are not always friends in
+adversity. Her old-time rich associates at the Beta Phi House had paid
+her one or two perfunctory calls in the room over the post-office, but
+the days of her leadership were over forever. Mary Stewart came often to
+see her and Jenny Wren was faithful, but there was great bitterness in
+Judith's heart and she chose frequently to hang a "Busy" sign on her
+door so that she might brood over her troubles alone. She grew very
+sallow and thin, and sat up late at night reading, there being no ten
+o'clock rules at the post-office. Many times Madeleine Petit, her
+neighbor, was wakened by the fragrant aroma of coffee floating down the
+hall into her little bedroom.
+
+"If she was my daughter," Madeleine observed to Molly one day, "I'd
+first put her through a course of broken doses of calomel, and then I'd
+put her to work on something besides lessons. Even laundry is good to
+keep people from brooding. If I stopped to think about all my troubles
+and all that is before me in the way of work and struggles to get on,"
+she rattled along, "I wouldn't have time to study, much less do up
+jabots and things. But I just trust to luck and go ahead. I find it
+comes out all right. Mighty few people seem to understand that it makes
+a thing much bigger to think and think about it. I'd rather enlarge
+something more worth while than my misfortunes."
+
+Molly smiled over Madeleine's philosophy.
+
+"I mean to make friends with her next year," went on Madeleine. "She was
+rude to me once, but I am sorry for her because we are both going
+through the same struggle and I think I can give her some ideas. You may
+not believe me, but I always succeed in doing the thing I set out to do.
+College was as far off from me two years ago as Judith seems to be
+now----"
+
+"It will be a fine thing for Judith if she gains a friend like you,
+Madeleine," interrupted Molly warmly. "See if you can't start it by
+bringing her to our garden party with you next Saturday."
+
+Molly delivered the invitations with which she had called, and giving
+Madeleine a friendly kiss, she hastened on her way.
+
+But Madeleine's words were prophetic, as we shall show you in the story
+of "Molly Brown's Junior Days." Judith Blount was to learn much from
+this energetic little person and to listen with the patience of a tried
+friend to her stream of conversation.
+
+Molly felt very much like embracing all her friends that day and kissing
+both hands to the entire world besides. A letter had come from her
+mother which settled the one great question in Molly's mind just then:
+Should she be able to return to college for her junior year and share
+with Judy and Nance a little three-roomed apartment in the Quadrangle
+near their other friends, who were all engaging rooms in that same
+corridor? And that very morning all doubt had been dispelled. Her
+mother had written her the wonderful news:
+
+"The stockholders of the Square Deal Mine will get back their money,
+after all. It seems that Mrs. Blount had some property which she was
+induced to hand over. I am sorry that they should be impoverished, but
+it seems just, nevertheless. It will be some time before matters are
+arranged, however. In the meantime, I have had the most extraordinary
+piece of luck in connection with the two acres of orchard on which I
+borrowed the money for your college expenses. I have just sold it for a
+splendid amount--enough to cover all debts on the land, including the
+one to the President of Wellington University, and to furnish your
+tuition and board for the next two years. Scarcely anything in all my
+life has pleased me more than this. I don't even know the name of the
+buyer. The land was purchased through an agent. But whoever the person
+was, he must have been charmed with our old orchard. It is a pretty bit
+of property. Your father used to call it 'his lucky two acres,' because
+it always yielded a little income."
+
+Therefore, it was with a light heart that Molly delivered invitations
+that afternoon to the garden party at O'Reilly's.
+
+She had intended to shove an envelope under the door of Professor
+Green's office in the cloisters and hurry on, not wishing to disturb
+that busy and important personage, but he had opened the door himself
+while she was in the very act of slipping the invitation through the
+crack between the door and the sill.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, blushing with embarrassment. "Please excuse me. I
+only wanted to give you this. We hope you'll come. We shall feel it a
+great honor if you will accept."
+
+"I accept without even knowing what it is, if that's the way you feel,"
+replied the Professor, smiling. "I would go to a fudge party or a picnic
+or anything in the nature of an entertainment, if I felt--er--that
+is----" the Professor was getting decidedly mixed, and Molly saw with
+surprise that he was blushing. "That is, if the fire refugees wished it
+so much," he finished.
+
+"You look a little tired, Professor," she remarked, noticing for the
+first time that he was hollow-eyed and his face was thin and worn, as if
+he had been working at night.
+
+"My pallor is due entirely to disappointment," he answered laughing,
+"our little opera passed into oblivion the other night. Perhaps you
+would have brought it better luck if you had been with us."
+
+"I would have clapped and cheered the loudest of all," exclaimed Molly.
+"But I'm so sorry. I am sure it must have been splendid. What was the
+reason?"
+
+"It was just one of those unfortunate infants destined to die young,"
+said the Professor. "I thought it was quite a neat little thing, myself,
+but Richard believes that the plot had too much story and it was a
+little--well--too refined, if I may put it that way. It needed more
+buffoonery of a lighter vein. It was a joke, my writing it in the first
+place. However, I haven't lost anything but time over it, and I've
+gained a good deal of experience."
+
+"I am so sorry," exclaimed Molly with real sympathy, giving him her
+hand. "It seems rather tactless," she said starting to leave and turning
+back, "to tell you about our good luck just now, but of course you knew
+about the Square Deal. Mine, anyway."
+
+"Oh, yes," he answered. "They are going to pay off all the creditors. An
+old cousin of Mrs. Blount's in Switzerland died the other day without
+leaving a will, and she inherits his property. It's pretty hard on her
+to give it up just now when she needs it dreadfully, but Richard has
+induced her to do it and I suppose it is right. It will take a year at
+least to straighten out the affair though. There is so much red tape
+about American heirs getting European property."
+
+"Then, _I've_ had some luck, too," said Molly, making an effort to keep
+the Professor from seeing how really joyously happy she was. "Some
+perfectly delightful and charming person has bought my two acres of
+apple orchard at last, and I shall not be down at O'Reilly's next
+winter. I'm going to be in the Quadrangle with the others. Isn't it
+wonderful?"
+
+The Professor looked at her with his quizzical brown eyes; then he shook
+hands with her again.
+
+"Does it really make you very happy?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, you can't think!" she cried. "You can never know how relieved and
+happy I am. I've been walking on air all day. I shall always feel that
+the man who bought that orchard did it just for me, although of course
+he has never heard of me. Some day I am going to thank him, myself."
+
+"You are?" he asked, "and how will you thank him?"
+
+"Why," she replied, "why, I think I'll just give him a hug. I have a
+feeling that he's an old gentleman."
+
+The Professor sat down in his chair very suddenly and began to laugh,
+and he was still laughing when Molly sped down the corridor to the door
+into the court. She did not see him again until the day of the farewell
+tea in the garden of O'Reilly's.
+
+* * * And it is in the garden that we will leave our girls now, at the
+close of their sophomore year.
+
+They look very charming in their long white dresses, dispensing tea and
+lemonade and sandwiches to the small company of guests. It is the last
+time we shall see the old Queen's circle as a separate group. O'Reilly's
+had filled the need of the moment, but the friends agreed that nothing
+could ever take the place of Queen's unless it were the long-coveted
+quarters in the dormitories behind the twin gray towers of Wellington.
+
+There we shall find them during "MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS," living
+broader and less secluded lives in the fine old Quadrangle which had
+always been the center of interest and influence at Wellington College
+and now promised to add a unique chapter to her history.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SAVE THE WRAPPER!
+
+
+_If_ you have enjoyed reading about the adventures of the new friends
+you have made in this book and would like to read more clean, wholesome
+stories of their entertaining experiences, turn to the book jacket--on
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+
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+
+THE COURAGE OF ANN
+
+    Ann makes many new, worthwhile friends during her first year at
+    Forest Hill College.
+
+ANN AND THE JOLLY SIX
+
+    At the close of their Freshman year Ann and the Jolly Six enjoy
+    a house party at the Sterling's mountain ranch.
+
+ANN CROSSES A SECRET TRAIL
+
+    The Sterling family, with a group of friends, spend a thrilling
+    vacation under the southern Pines of Florida.
+
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+
+    In solving the disappearance of her father, Ann finds exciting
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+
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+
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+    114-120 EAST 23rd STREET      NEW YORK
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+    MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE
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+    MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR
+
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+    THE "MERRY LYNN" MINE
+
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+    114-120 EAST 23rd STREET      NEW YORK
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+
+    PRINCESS POLLY
+    PRINCESS POLLY'S PLAYMATES
+    PRINCESS POLLY AT SCHOOL
+    PRINCESS POLLY BY THE SEA
+    PRINCESS POLLY'S GAY WINTER
+    PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY
+    PRINCESS POLLY AT CLIFFMORE
+
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
+Publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Spelling, alternative hyphenation, and abbreviations have been retained
+as they appear in the original publication.
+
+Changes have been made to punctuation as follows:
+
+    Page 262: Removed quotation mark--shed on her account."
+
+    Page 213: Added fullstop--were to shake hands.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Sophomore Days, by Nell Speed
+
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