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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32453-8.txt b/32453-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15e032b --- /dev/null +++ b/32453-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7134 @@ +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 +convenience. + +_Orders for these books, placed with your bookstore or sent to the +Publishers, will receive prompt attention._ + + + + +THE Ann Sterling Series + +By HARRIET PYNE GROVE + +[Illustration] + +Stories of Ranch and College Life For Girls 12 to 16 Years + +_Handsome Cloth Binding with Attractive Jackets in Color_ + + +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 + adventures, Indians and bandits in the West. + +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. 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Each +Volume Illustrated. + +Cloth Bound + +_With Individual Jackets in Colors._ + +PRICE, 75 CENTS EACH POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + + 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 32453-8.txt or 32453-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/5/32453/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 & 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—</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——"</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—oh, yes, +wait a moment—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—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. "Epiménides +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——"</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——"</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—I counted them +this morning—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-à-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—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——"</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——"</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— 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.</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—"<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—" 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——"</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—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—er—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—. 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——"</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—" 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—I may——"</p> + +<p>"Now, Miss Molly, you mustn't cry. You make me feel like the very—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—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 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:</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—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—" 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—by +Jove—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——"</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—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?"</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—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—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.</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 +& 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 fête<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—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—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 débris 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—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<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,—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—because the money's gone—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,—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—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——"</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 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."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +"You mean Miss Ætna 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—.</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—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——" 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—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—and my velvet one——"</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—suppose—suppose——"</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——"</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——"</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,—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——"</p> + +<p>"Pero—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 tête</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,—he had probably been waiting in the McLeans' hall—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——"</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——"</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——"</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——"</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——"</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—er—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—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,—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,—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——"</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——"<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——'"<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——'"</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'——what shall I call for you in?"</p> + +<p>"The bus," promptly answered every girl in the room.</p> + +<p class="nmb">"'—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—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."</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—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—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—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."</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—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——'"<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——'"</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—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—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.</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—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—it's unkind—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 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."</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—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 crêpe 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—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——"</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the sort," cried Margaret hotly. "I never made any such +statement. Did I, girls? I said——"</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—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—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——"</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—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——"</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—you mustn't——"</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——"</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—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—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—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—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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> 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 <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—the——"</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,'—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—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.</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——"</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—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—er—that +is——" 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—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<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>* * * 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—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. 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—one thoughtless and proud, the other devoted and +self-sacrificing—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—shed on her <a href="#quote">account."</a></p> + +<p>Page 213: Added fullstop—were to shake <a href="#stop">hands.</a></p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Sophomore Days, by Nell Speed + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S SOPHOMORE DAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 32453-h.htm or 32453-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/5/32453/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 +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. + +_Orders for these books, placed with your bookstore or sent to the +Publishers, will receive prompt attention._ + + + + +THE Ann Sterling Series + +By HARRIET PYNE GROVE + +[Illustration] + +Stories of Ranch and College Life For Girls 12 to 16 Years + +_Handsome Cloth Binding with Attractive Jackets in Color_ + + +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 + adventures, Indians and bandits in the West. + +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 + + + + +Books for Girls + +[Illustration] + +By GRACE MAY NORTH + +Author of + +THE VIRGINIA DAVIS SERIES + +All Clothbound. 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Extra. + + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The Winnebagos go + Camping. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo Weavers. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic Garden. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the Road That Leads + the Way. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open + Door. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven + Cedars. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the + Winnebagos. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure + at Carver House. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles. + + +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 + + + + +The Girl Scouts Series + +BY EDITH LAVELL + +[Illustration] + +A new copyright series of Girl Scouts stories by an author of wide +experience in Scouts' craft, as Director of Girl Scouts of Philadelphia. + +Clothbound, with Attractive Color Designs. + +PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH + +POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + + THE GIRL SCOUTS AT MISS ALLENS SCHOOL + THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP + THE GIRL SCOUTS' GOOD TURN + THE GIRL SCOUTS' CANOE TRIP + THE GIRL SCOUTS' RIVALS + THE GIRL SCOUTS ON THE RANCH + THE GIRL SCOUTS' VACATION ADVENTURES + THE GIRL SCOUTS' MOTOR TRIP + THE GIRL SCOUTS' CAPTAIN + 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 + + + + +The Greycliff Girls Series + +By HARRIET PYNE GROVE + +[Illustration] + +Stories of Adventure, Fun, Study and Personalities of girls attending +Greycliff School. + +For Girls 10 to 15 Years + +PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH + +POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + +Cloth bound, with Individual Jackets in Color. + + + CATHALINA AT GREYCLIFF + THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF + GREYCLIFF WINGS + GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN CAMP + GREYCLIFF HEROINES + GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN GEORGIA + GREYCLIFF GIRLS' RANCHING + 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 + + + + +Marjorie Dean High School Series + +BY PAULINE LESTER + +[Illustration] + +Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean College Series + +These are clean, wholesome stories that will be of great interest to all +girls of high school age. + + All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles + +PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH + +Postage 10c. Extra. + + + MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN + 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 + + + + +THE MERRY LYNN SERIES + +By HARRIET PYNE GROVE + +Cloth Bound. Jackets in Colors. + + +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. + + 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 + +POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + + VIRGINIA OF V. M. RANCH + VIRGINIA AT VINE HAVEN + VIRGINIA'S ADVENTURE CLUB + VIRGINIA'S RANCH NEIGHBORS + VIRGINIA'S ROMANCE + + +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 + + + + +Princess Polly Series + +By AMY BROOKS + +[Illustration] + +Author of "Dorothy Dainty" series, Etc. Stories of Sweet-Tempered, +Sunny, Lovable Little "Princess Polly." For girls 12 to 16 years. Each +Volume Illustrated. + +Cloth Bound + +_With Individual Jackets in Colors._ + +PRICE, 75 CENTS EACH POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + + 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. 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