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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Brenda's Ward, by Helen Leah Reed
+
+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: Brenda's Ward
+       A Sequel to 'Amy in Acadia'
+
+Author: Helen Leah Reed
+
+Illustrator: Frank T Merril
+
+Release Date: May 18, 2011 [EBook #36133]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDA'S WARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Heather Clark, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Brenda's Ward
+
+                     _A Sequel to "Amy in Acadia"_
+
+                           By Helen Leah Reed
+
+Author of "The Brenda Books," "Irma and Nap," "Amy in Acadia," etc.
+
+
+    Illustrated from Drawings by
+    Frank T. Merrill
+
+    Boston
+    Little, Brown, and Company
+    1906
+
+    _Copyright, 1906_,
+    BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+    Published October, 1906
+
+    THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment,
+she backed gracefully."]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. A NEW HOME
+
+II. A STRANGE MEETING
+
+III. PRISCILLA'S PRIDE
+
+IV. CHANGES
+
+V. ANOTHER PARTING
+
+VI. ANGELINA'S COUP
+
+VII. A DROP OF INK
+
+VIII. A PRIZE WINNER
+
+IX. WORD FROM BRENDA
+
+X. THE RECITAL
+
+XI. MARTINE'S ALTRUISM
+
+XII. PUZZLES
+
+XIII. AT PLYMOUTH
+
+XIV. TALES AND RELICS
+
+XV. TROUBLES
+
+XVI. THE MISSING TRUNK
+
+XVII. CLASS DAY
+
+XVIII. AT YORK
+
+XIX. SIGHT-SEEING
+
+XX. THE ISLES OF SHOALS
+
+XXI. VARIETY
+
+XXII. EXCITEMENT
+
+XXIII. QUIET LIFE
+
+XXIV. PORTSMOUTH AND AFTERWARD
+
+XXV. THE SUMMER'S END
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment, she backed
+gracefully"
+
+"'The real Memorial is here,' said Elinor, reverently, passing from one
+tablet to another"
+
+"'This little scarf--it is Roman, too,--is just the thing for Julius
+Cæsar'"
+
+"Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little dolls of clay"
+
+"The old captain proved very talkative"
+
+"While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about"
+
+
+
+
+Brenda's Ward
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A NEW HOME
+
+
+"It's simply perfect."
+
+"I thought you would like it, Martine."
+
+"Like it! I should say so, but it isn't 'it,' it's everything,--the
+room, the house, you, Boston. Really, you don't know how glad I am to be
+here, Brenda--I mean Mrs. Weston."
+
+"What nonsense!"
+
+"That I should like things?"
+
+"No, that you should call me 'Mrs. Weston.' It's bad enough to be
+growing old, so don't try to make me feel like a grandmother. Truly, I
+can't believe that I am a day older than when I was sixteen, and yet
+when I _was_ sixteen, eighteen seemed the end of everything worth while.
+I could not imagine myself old, and serious, and--twenty."
+
+Martine smiled at Brenda's emphasis of the last word, and as she smiled
+she laid her hand on her friend's arm.
+
+"Come," she said, "just look in this mirror. A person who did not know
+could not tell which is the older, you or I."
+
+"Again, nonsense!"
+
+Yet even as she spoke Brenda could but admit to herself that Martine had
+an air of dignity suited to one much older than a girl of seventeen. But
+if she had thought Martine altogether grown up, she quickly changed her
+opinion, for at this very moment Martine sank on the floor beside her,
+and as her laughter re-echoed through the rooms Brenda was driven to
+say:
+
+"My dear, don't talk to me about being grown up. You act precisely like
+a child of ten. What in the world is the matter?"
+
+"Nothing, oh nothing; that is, almost nothing. Only look and you will
+laugh too."
+
+Glancing where Martine pointed, Brenda saw something really amusing.
+Before a pier-glass in the hall a sallow girl with glossy black hair
+piled high on her head was standing. She wore a pink satin gown that
+heightened her sallowness. It was cut square in the neck, and her elbow
+sleeves displayed a pair of skinny arms.
+
+"Who is she?" whispered Martine, recovering her breath.
+
+"Why, that, oh that is Angelina."
+
+Martine, fascinated by the vision in the glass, continued to watch the
+strange little figure, bowing, gesticulating, turning now to this side
+now to that, while her lips moved as if she were talking to herself.
+
+"Who is Angelina?" asked Martine.
+
+"Oh, Angelina, don't you know her? She is to help me for a week while
+Maggie is away taking care of her sick aunt."
+
+"Do you call that 'helping'?" and again Martine pointed toward the
+pier-glass.
+
+"She did not hear me come in; she thought I would ring," replied Brenda.
+"She thinks I am still downtown. She was to go to the door and has been
+waiting to hear me ring."
+
+"Would she go to the door looking like that?"
+
+"Oh, I hope not. She'd probably call through the tube and hurry on a
+coat, or do something of that kind. Yet no one is ever surprised at
+Angelina's doings. Let me tell you about her. Years ago Nora and some of
+the rest of us pulled her little brother Manuel from under the feet of a
+horse, and in a few days we went to visit the family at the North End.
+You can't imagine how poor they were. Then we had a club and worked for
+a bazaar to raise money to get them out into the country."
+
+"Oh, yes, Amy told me something about that, though it all happened
+before she knew you, I think she said."
+
+"Well, in the end Angelina became my cousin Julia's protégée. She has
+learned a great deal about housework at the Mansion School, but she is
+always yearning for something beyond. Lately she has been taking lessons
+in elocution."
+
+"That's it, then, she's rehearsing now," cried Martine. "Oh, I hope
+Maggie will stay away longer than you expect. I think we might have
+great sport with Angelina."
+
+"My dear," remonstrated Brenda, "remember that for the present you are
+my ward. I can't have you trifling with Angelina, although she can be
+very funny."
+
+The sound of voices had at last penetrated Angelina's ears, and she fled
+to her room.
+
+"Oh, my," she thought, "I wonder if Mrs. Weston saw me?" In her secret
+heart Angelina hoped that she had been observed.
+
+"And Miss Martine, she's almost as stylish as Mrs. Weston. I wonder what
+she thought of this dress--gown," she added, correcting herself. "I
+almost wish I'd been saying that soliloquy out loud. Then I could have
+asked them if they thought I used just the right inflections and
+gestures. Perhaps Miss Brenda would let me recite it all to her some
+time. She's more sympathetic than Miss Julia was. Now I know if I should
+ask Miss Julia she'd say I mustn't give that recital, and I'm sure she
+wouldn't approve of this gown. But Miss Brenda, why I shouldn't wonder
+if she'd go to it herself, and Miss Martine, I've heard how she spends
+money like water, and she'll probably buy a lot of tickets."
+
+As Angelina fled to her room Martine, rising from the floor, sat down on
+a divan beside Brenda.
+
+"If you wish to please me, do find another place for Maggie and keep
+Angelina. She'll be so entertaining, and poor Maggie always looks half
+ready to cry."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't part with Maggie, and more than a week of Angelina would
+be too much even for you."
+
+"Well, I will tell you at the end of this week. I am going to work so
+hard at school that I ought to have as much amusement as possible at
+home. Still I know I am going to be perfectly happy with you this
+winter, although I can remember the time when I should just have hated
+to spend a winter in Boston. Even now if it wasn't for you--"
+
+"But you had decided to spend the winter here before you ran across me."
+
+"No, my dear Mrs. Weston, my parents had decided that a year or two of
+Boston school would be the making of me. They had heard, as you know, of
+a dragon who had a boarding-house on the hill, who would look after me
+within an inch of my life. Wasn't it strange, though, that she should
+have been taken ill this autumn? I suppose you wouldn't let me say
+'providential.'"
+
+"Certainly not! She was so ill that she had to go South for the winter."
+
+"Then that is providential for her. How much better the South must be
+for her than this bleak Boston. Besides, if she had been able to
+continue her home for helpless Western schoolgirls, I should not have
+had the delight of sharing your charming apartment."
+
+"Nor should I have had the pleasure of the company of a charming ward."
+
+As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment, she backed
+gracefully, and neither she nor Brenda realized that she was approaching
+too near a table of bric-à-brac, until it toppled over with a crash.
+
+"Oh what have I done! No wedding presents smashed, I hope." There was a
+touch of dismay in Martine's voice.
+
+"Not a thing that could break." Brenda's smile was reassuring. "Silver
+or brass, everyone of them. That's one thing I have already learned, not
+to have breakable things, if one values them, within anyone's reach.
+It's awfully disagreeable to have to blame anyone for what you could
+have prevented by a little care, and I never can let anybody replace
+what she has broken. Maggie is rather a breaker, and so my china and
+glass ornaments I set on high shelves."
+
+The noise of the falling table brought Angelina upon the scene. She had
+made what Martine called a "lightning change," and appeared in a dark
+gown and spotless collar and cuffs.
+
+"Why, are you in?" she said innocently, as she entered the room. "I
+didn't know but what it might be a burglar or something--" She looked
+from one to the other anxiously, and then catching sight of the
+overturned table, began to busy herself picking up the scattered
+ornaments.
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Brenda, "will Angelina ever learn to be perfectly
+honest?" But her only words alone were. "Yes, we have been in some time;
+I thought you might have heard us." The implied reproof silenced
+Angelina, and soon the three separated without a word having been said
+about the private rehearsal.
+
+That the volatile Brenda Weston should undertake the charge of Martine
+Stratford for the winter at first surprised many of their friends, and
+yet this had come about in a perfectly natural way. When Martine
+returned from her summer with Amy in Acadia, her mother, who met her in
+Boston, was so much better that it seemed almost possible for her to
+spend the winter at home. But at last her physician prescribed a few
+months of travel, and as Martina's school work had already been unduly
+interrupted, it was thought wiser for her to carry out the plans already
+more than half formed that she should stay in Boston to attend Miss
+Crawdon's school. It was therefore a disappointment to Mrs. Stratford
+just before school opened to hear that Mrs. Montgomery, Martine's
+so-called "dragon," was ill. For several years the latter had been in
+the habit of having a few girls from a distance board with her while
+they attended school in Boston. When Mrs. Montgomery could not take her,
+Martine's parents thought that they must altogether give up the Boston
+plan. Mrs. Blair, a cousin of Martine's mother, with whom she had stayed
+in the spring, was now in Europe. Mrs. Redmond, in whose charge they
+would have liked to put Martine, had engaged a boarding-place in
+Wellesley, to be near her daughter in college; and had there been no
+other reason against Martine's living in Wellesley also, her parents
+objected to her going back and forth daily on the trains. The case
+seemed hopeless for Martine's staying in Boston until Brenda Weston came
+to the rescue.
+
+Brenda was for a few days at the large hotel overlooking the park, where
+also Mr. and Mrs. Stratford and Martine were staying. Martine had heard
+much of Brenda, though she had never met her until one afternoon when
+Amy came to call. Delighted to have the opportunity, she immediately
+introduced Brenda to her Chicago friends. This happened to be the very
+day when Martine was feeling most discouraged regarding her school
+plans. For although the young girl sometimes scoffed at Boston, she
+really wished to spend the winter there. Her summer's companionship with
+Amy and Priscilla had increased her ambition, and she was anxious to
+study at Miss Crawdon's.
+
+Very naturally, then, she confided her troubles to Brenda. Brenda
+sympathized with her, but made no suggestion until she had talked the
+matter over with her own family and with Martine's mother. When Mrs.
+Stratford told Martine that Brenda had offered to take her under her
+wing for the winter, Martine, overjoyed, rushed to Brenda's room to
+express her thanks.
+
+"I can't tell you how delighted I am at the thought of living with you
+in that dear little flat. It will be much more fun than anything else I
+could possibly do."
+
+Brenda looked at her keenly, shaking her head in mock reproof.
+
+"You are not coming to me just for fun. Your mother says that this must
+be a very serious year for you, that you did not do so very well in
+school last year, and that--"
+
+"There, there, Brenda,--I mean Mrs. Weston, dear,--I can be terribly
+serious. You will see for yourself. But still you want me to have a
+_little_ fun, just a little--"
+
+"Oh, yes; I am not a regular dragon, but I understand the importance of
+work."
+
+With a sudden movement Martine, who had been standing behind Brenda,
+threw her arms over Brenda's head, placed her hands over Brenda's mouth,
+thus silencing her for the moment.
+
+"Now listen, listen," she cried; "listen, please! Of course I am only
+too glad to be your ward, and I will be as good as good can be. I would
+promise anything rather than go to boarding-school, or live with Mrs.
+Blair, or board in a house full of girls. Lucian hopes I'll stay in
+Boston because he is a little lonely sometimes at college, and I wish to
+stay with you, and you are so sweet to give me the chance that I really
+won't make any trouble for you."
+
+So it was settled, and Mr. and Mrs. Stratford went home, quite satisfied
+to leave Martine in Brenda's care. They would have been better pleased
+had Mrs. Redmond been able to take complete charge of their daughter;
+but as it was, Mrs. Redmond promised to have Martine constantly in mind
+and to help her when any emergency arose.
+
+It was Martine's one regret, when she took up her abode with Brenda,
+that she had not become Brenda's ward early enough in the season to help
+her furnish.
+
+"It must have been such fun," she said one day soon after her arrival,
+"to shop for all these pretty things, and decide on wallpapers and rugs,
+and fit them into their little corners and nooks."
+
+"You know I didn't have to go shopping for all my belongings; you have
+no idea what quantities of things were given me."
+
+"Oh, I can imagine, just by looking around. Wedding presents are so
+fascinating."
+
+"But still," continued Brenda, "there were certain things I had to buy,
+chairs and tables, for example, and it was hard sometimes to decide
+between Mission styles and mahogany, and whether the bedstead should be
+brass or painted iron for the smaller rooms; and then the kitchen
+furnishings were puzzling. Of course I'm not perfectly satisfied with
+everything, but, on the whole, we must be contented until we have a
+house."
+
+"Oh, how can you speak of a house! This is ever so much better. It's the
+prettiest flat I ever saw; don't you just love to be up here in the top?
+You can see over everything, even to the river, and down the avenue and
+up the avenue; it's more like Paris than anything I've seen since I was
+in Europe."
+
+"I do enjoy the view," replied Brenda. "I should hate to be shut in in a
+narrow street. I don't like it here quite as well as in our old house on
+the water side of Beacon street, where my room had such a broad
+outlook."
+
+"You must have hated to leave home."
+
+"In a way I did, but though mamma tried to persuade me to stay with her
+this winter, I felt that I just must begin to keep house myself."
+
+"You ought to be very happy that you are so near your mother." Martine
+spoke wistfully; although she wouldn't have admitted it for the world,
+she was beginning to be homesick. Chicago seemed altogether too far
+away.
+
+"It is pleasant," replied Brenda, "to be able to run in and out there
+when I please. Besides, my sister and her children are there, and I am
+awfully fond of the little girls."
+
+"Naturally. But that reminds me, though there isn't any real connection
+with what we've been talking about, you haven't shown me your kitchen.
+Can't we go out there now?"
+
+"Why, yes,"--then Brenda's face clouded,--"if the cook--"
+
+"Oh, Brenda Weston! You are afraid of the cook."
+
+Brenda colored. "Not afraid; only you know cooks are so queer, and of
+course dinners have to be just so, and she's apt to spoil things if
+anything annoys her. But this is her afternoon out."
+
+"Then we can go and look through everything," and Martine thereupon
+followed Brenda through the long narrow hall to the little kitchen at
+the very end of the suite.
+
+"You see," explained Brenda, as they entered the cook's domain, "though
+this is not an old house, the kitchen needed some improvements that I
+learned are necessary when I lived at the Mansion. It's astonishing how
+many things men forget when they build houses. Now, out here, there was
+an old-fashioned closed-in wooden sink, but I had it replaced with this
+open one at our expense, and this tiling put all around the walls, and
+here, this was my idea and this," and one by one she pointed out many
+little things that might have escaped Martine's notice.
+
+"I learned so much," continued Brenda, "that year at the Mansion School.
+You see a year ago last spring I was very low-spirited. Everything
+seemed so gloomy after the war began, so I went for a while to help
+Julia with her girls; and hardly anyone, hardly Julia herself, realized
+that I was learning. But I was, and somehow things that I didn't know I
+had noticed sank into my mind, and when we began to get this apartment
+ready, I was really practical; even my mother said so. Arthur was
+pleased, and my sister Anna was perfectly astonished. You know she has
+lived mostly in studios, or in houses where someone else did the
+planning, and this year at home with mother she has no responsibility,
+so she can't understand how I know so much about housekeeping."
+
+"It _is_ strange, it seems strange to me," responded Martine. "No one
+would ever expect you to know a thing."
+
+"Why not? Do I appear a perfect ignoramus?" There was indignation in
+Brenda's tone.
+
+"Oh, no, of course not; only kitchens are so different, so--well, I
+shouldn't expect you to know about kitchen work."
+
+"Then, I confess, there's one thing I don't understand very well. I
+really cannot cook. Sometimes I think it's on account of the cooking
+class we used to have; it was too much like work, and so I didn't try to
+remember what I was taught. That's why I'm afraid of the cook, for if
+she should leave suddenly, I don't know what I should do."
+
+"I know what _I'd_ do," responded Martine, quickly. "I'd go to a
+restaurant; it's ever so much more fun than dining at home. Why, when I
+was visiting my cousin in New York, we went somewhere nearly every
+evening. Of course there isn't a Sherry's or a Waldorf-Astoria here--"
+
+"Oh, I don't want to dine at restaurants when I've a house of my own.
+Besides, I'm going to learn--look!" and Brenda opened the door of a
+small closet. "These are all electric things," and she pointed to a row
+of silver kettles and chafing-dishes. "We have two plugs in the
+dining-room wall and can cook almost anything without going into the
+kitchen. But come, I've something to show you in my own room now." As
+they turned away Martine exclaimed, "If you have a good receipe book,
+with all those shiny saucepans, I'm sure you needn't care whether you
+have a cook or not."
+
+"I'm not so sure," responded Brenda, "and I can't help being just a
+little afraid."
+
+"Pshaw! How absurd!--as if you could really be afraid of anything,"
+retorted Martine with a smile.
+
+Now, interesting though Martine found her life under Brenda's roof, she
+soon realized that her winter was not to be one wholly of pleasure. Her
+studies had been carried on so irregularly for a year or two that she
+now perceived that she must settle down to regular work. School had been
+in session a week or two before she returned to Miss Crawdon's; this
+fact was not altogether in her favor, and she found herself a little
+behind the girls in her class. But Martine was resolute, and when she
+once set herself at a task in genuine earnest, she was likely to go
+ahead with a will. So, for the first month she studied diligently; it
+was to her advantage that she had not many Boston acquaintances.
+
+Brenda, in her new position of guide and philosopher as well as friend,
+gave Martine much good advice. One day in a serious mood she expressed
+the hope that Martine would not think of ending her studies at Miss
+Crawdon's school.
+
+"It's astonishing," she said, "how many girls are beginning to fit for
+college, though when I was in school many of us thought my cousin Julia
+queer because she studied Greek and wished to go to Radcliffe; yet
+really she wasn't queer at all, only rather more interesting than most
+people."
+
+"I should like so much to see her, everyone seems so fond of her,"
+responded Martine. "When will she come back from Europe?"
+
+"Not before summer, I think. She worked so hard at the Mansion School
+last year that we all hope she'll get all she can out of this journey.
+She's studying, of course, for she never can be perfectly idle; but I am
+glad to say that she has gone back to her music, for that is the thing
+she has the most talent for."
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Martine, "how delightful it must be to know that you
+have a talent for anything. It seems to me sometimes that I haven't a
+particle of talent. I can do several things passably well, but no one
+thing better than another. Mother thinks that the Boston air is going to
+develop some special talent of mine, but which or what, nobody knows.
+For my own part, as I said before, I am sure that I have no talent."
+
+"Don't be so severe toward yourself," expostulated Brenda. "I am sure of
+one thing--you have a talent for being pleasant and amusing."
+
+"I'm not quite sure that that is exactly a compliment."
+
+"But, really, I mean it to be one."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A STRANGE MEETING
+
+
+One Saturday morning after a rainy Friday, Martine looked out the
+window.
+
+"How refreshing to have a fine day again. Really, when it poured
+yesterday I thought it would rain forever, and I had such a funny
+adventure, Brenda Weston, that if you hadn't been out when I came home I
+should have told you on the spot. Adventures are like buckwheat cakes,
+so much better when they are fresh from the griddle, and this was a kind
+of frying-pan affair."
+
+"I am afraid I don't understand. What was it?"
+
+"Something that happened after the Rehearsal. I slipped away from
+Priscilla and her aunt and there was a great crowd going down the steps
+yesterday, so that of course I got separated from Priscilla and her
+aunt."
+
+"It seems to me that's a way you have," Brenda tried to speak severely.
+
+"Oh, yes," sighed Martine, "Mrs. Tilworth is quite resigned now.
+Generally I separate myself from her only about every other week, but
+yesterday I wanted some soda water, and I knew she would never
+condescend to go into a drug shop or let Priscilla go with me. However,
+when I was once in the street the rain was falling in such torrents that
+I made a beeline for a Crosstown car that I saw coming. I had had some
+trouble in getting away from Mrs. Tilworth, for she kept not only her
+eagle eye, but her arm on me as long as she could; she meant to bring me
+home in a cab, but after all I managed to wriggle away. I don't know why
+I thought I ought to run for my car, but I did, and so did another girl,
+only the trouble was, that she was coming from the opposite direction.
+Of course you can see what happened. I didn't mean to knock her down,
+for she was shorter than I and we were both furious."
+
+"Because she was shorter than you?"
+
+"Oh, I don't see now why we were both so mad, only she knocked my hat
+off, that one with the light blue feathers, and it went sailing down the
+asphalt, and my umbrella jabbed into her face. 'You're terribly clumsy;
+I should think you might see what you're doing. You might have put my
+eye out,' I heard her say in the savagest kind of a tone. Just then I
+caught sight of my hat, and all I could do was to laugh and laugh, and
+she thought I was laughing at her, and turned her back on me in a
+regular frigid Boston way, holding her handkerchief to her eye."
+
+"How could so much happen while two people were getting on a car?"
+
+"Getting on a car! Naturally we missed the car. It didn't wait for us to
+settle matters. I suppose that was partly what made her so cross. But I
+wish you could have seen my hat when finally I picked it up."
+
+"I'm glad I didn't, if it was ruined. I have some responsibility for
+your clothes. No wonder Mrs. Tilworth tries to keep her eye on you!"
+
+"She has to try pretty hard, I can assure you," retorted Martine.
+
+"You should take things more seriously," rejoined Brenda. "In future
+please come home at least as far as Copley Square with her and
+Priscilla, but now--yes, now let us go in and look at the table." And
+with her hand in Brenda's arm, Martine led the way to the dining-room.
+The sight that met her eye there was indeed well worth seeing. The
+polished surface of the round mahogany table shone like a mirror. Covers
+were laid for nine and the centrepiece and doilies were embroidered in
+yellow. In a tall green glass in the middle were some large yellow
+chrysanthemums. The bonbons were in little gilded baskets and the china
+had yellow blossoms on a white ground.
+
+With housewifely pride Brenda adjusted the blinds. "Yes," she said, "I
+think that everything will go just as it should. Elinor Naylor, you see,
+is a sister of one of Arthur's best college friends. I should like to
+have asked her to dine, but the cousin she is staying with has an
+engagement for her this evening, and as Arthur will be away next week, a
+luncheon was the best thing I could manage."
+
+"Oh, it's just the thing," cried Martine; "dinners are so stiff. With
+the boys coming in to take us out to Cambridge, a luncheon will be far
+jollier than any dinner."
+
+"I hope so," replied Brenda, "and I wonder what this Elinor Naylor is
+like. She was out when I called, but she writes a beautiful note, and
+from what I have heard, I imagine that she is rather stately and
+elegant. But dear me, it's nearly twelve, and with luncheon at one we
+shall really have to hurry." So with a few last touches to the table
+Brenda and Martine went to their rooms, and long before one, Brenda,
+with some trepidation, was waiting in the library for the arrival of her
+special guest. The Harvard boys, however, were the first to
+arrive--Fritz Tomkins, and Martine's brother Lucian, and Robert Pringle,
+Lucian's classmate. Next came Priscilla and Amy, the former somewhat
+abashed at hearing the laughter from the little library, and wondering
+if she could be late, until Amy reassured her. Priscilla bore some
+good-natured chaffing from her host, who seeing her glance at her watch,
+could not forbear teasing her.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I can read the workings of a guilty conscience. Here
+we've been waiting for you this long time. The goose is burning up in
+the oven--"
+
+"There isn't any goose in the house, Arthur, except you," protested
+Brenda.
+
+"I am so sorry," began Priscilla, apologetically. "It was because Amy--"
+
+"Don't throw the blame on another," protested Mr. Weston, solemnly.
+
+"I don't mean to blame her. We both thought it was earlier, and
+besides," fortified by a glance at her watch, Priscilla spoke with more
+decision, "my watch says 'a quarter before one.'"
+
+"That's what our clock says too," interposed Brenda, kindly. "Arthur was
+only teasing. Our guest, evidently, does not mean to be too early."
+
+"If she's like her brother, she's a punctilious person and will arrive
+promptly at five minutes before one."
+
+Strange to say, the longer hand had just marked five minutes of one when
+Angelina announced "Miss Elinor Naylor." A minute or two later the young
+lady entered the room, and after the other introductions had been made,
+Martine's turn came last.
+
+As she greeted all the others, Miss Elinor Naylor had extended her hand
+very cordially, but when Brenda led Martine to her, her arm fell
+automatically to her side. Martine at the same time reddened deeply, and
+it was not often that Martine was so perceptibly embarrassed. Each girl,
+however, said a polite word or two, and in a few moments all went out to
+the little dining-room.
+
+After they were seated, the conversation at first was not general, and I
+am afraid that anyone who had overheard the words exchanged between any
+two speakers might have called what was said rather commonplace. In a
+short time, however, some question arose regarding a recent Yale
+victory, and at once Arthur and Fritz plunged into an ardent discussion
+in which, soon, all took part.
+
+"Oh, of course," said Arthur; "it's more than six to one. I know you are
+all against me. I can't even depend on Brenda, and so, Miss Naylor, I
+must turn to you as my one supporter in this controversy."
+
+"You can depend on me," replied the guest; "whatever a Yale man says is
+bound to be true."
+
+"The real Yale spirit," commented Martine. "I didn't know that girls had
+it as well as their brothers."
+
+There was an unamiable tinge in Martine's tone that Brenda, too much
+occupied with things more important, did not notice. The more observant
+Arthur, however, had seen that Martine and Elinor had had little to say
+to each other, although they had been placed at table where they could
+easily have said more.
+
+"You two young things," he said at last, "by which I mean our visitors
+from Chicago and Philadelphia, look at each other as if you had met
+before and were afraid to speak until you had found the clew to the
+previous meeting. Is that the case?"
+
+Elinor was silent, but after a second Martine replied,
+
+"No, not exactly; that is--" Then Martine came to a pause suddenly and
+answered some question that Robert Pringle, on her right hand, had asked
+her. Any embarrassment that she or Elinor might have felt was speedily
+ended by something with which they personally had nothing to do.
+
+Now it happened that although Maggie had returned to her post of duty in
+Brenda's household, the latter had decided that things would move more
+smoothly with two waitresses, and so Angelina had been called in to
+assist at the little luncheon. All would have gone on well had not a
+spirit of emulation taken possession of the two helpers, so that each
+seemed anxious to reach Elinor first. Twice, as they entered through the
+swing door, one almost abreast of the other, although Brenda had
+previously given them their directions, they both started to serve the
+special guest with her oysters, and only Brenda's warning glance
+prevented Maggie's plate from being placed on top of the one that
+Angelina had already set before Elinor. This incident ruffled the
+spirits of the two waitresses, and when they entered with their cups of
+bouillon, each was determined to reach Elinor before the other. The
+result of their exertions might have been more disastrous. As it was,
+Elinor did not suffer, though Martine, looking up suddenly, expected to
+see Maggie's cup splash over Elinor's light gown. Luckily--for
+Elinor--Maggie lost her nerve soon enough to drop her bouillon cup to
+the floor, and though the crash of china and the splash of liquid on the
+polished floor startled all at the table, Elinor escaped a drenching.
+
+Although everyone knew that there had been an accident, everyone tried
+to look unconcerned. Maggie, crestfallen, gathered up the pieces;
+Angelina, with her head high, as if such a catastrophe could never occur
+to her, went back to the kitchen for other cups--and only Martine
+giggled.
+
+"Your best Dresden," murmured Amy to Brenda. The latter shook her head.
+Arthur glanced at her approvingly.
+
+"And mistress of herself, though china fall," and at the hackneyed
+quotation, all smiled. Then the luncheon went on for two courses with
+only one waitress, for Maggie had betaken herself to her sure refuge, a
+flood of tears, and she returned only with the salad.
+
+"Now," said Mr. Weston, "since the ice is broken--I mean, the china--you
+can see how much livelier we are. During the oysters you were altogether
+too quiet for young people, and I wondered if this was wholly because
+your host is a Yale man. It's painful to me sometimes to find myself in
+the midst of a Harvard crowd."
+
+"Oh, we are magnanimous, and since you've become a Bostonian, we can
+forgive you Yale's recent football victory," replied Fritz.
+
+"Then I can confess that my cheering played a large part in gaining the
+victory. I try to be as modest as I can about it," responded Arthur
+Weston.
+
+"Wait till the baseball season comes," interposed Robert Pringle, "and
+then you'll see another side of Yale."
+
+"I wish we girls could have seen the game," cried Martine. "I can't see
+why they played it at New Haven; it was the one Saturday of the whole
+autumn when I had to stay in Boston."
+
+"Why, it was New Haven's turn to have the game; you know Harvard and
+Yale have them on their own fields every other year," said Elinor, as if
+explaining something that Martine did not understand.
+
+"Oh, indeed," began Martine, sarcastically; then, remembering that she
+was to a degree Elinor's hostess, she murmured in an aside to Robert,
+"As if I did not know that better than she."
+
+"It's strange," continued Elinor, in a placid tone, "that I know so
+little of Harvard; we generally rush through Boston on our way to Bar
+Harbor. Once we drove round, one hot summer day in vacation, but I can
+only remember a Memorial Hall and some queer old brick buildings."
+Possibly Elinor's adjectives did not please Martine, for the latter
+spoke up quickly.
+
+"They're not queer, but historic; we think everything of Harvard here in
+Boston."
+
+"Oh, naturally," replied Elinor, in her most languid tone.
+
+"So say we all of us," cried Robert Pringle, while Amy and Fritz, who
+had been carrying on an animated discussion, looked up quickly. "What's
+wrong?" asked Fritz, innocently.
+
+"Nothing, nothing," and Brenda, hastening to change the subject, asked
+suddenly, "Did you bring your automobile, Lucian?"
+
+"Of course. I only wish I could take you all to Cambridge in it."
+
+"Who's going in which?" asked Amy a little later, as they stood at the
+door, before which were Lucian's automobile and Robert Pringle's
+dogcart.
+
+"Oh, the automobile for me!" cried Martine, impulsively.
+
+"Will you go in the automobile?" asked Lucian politely, turning toward
+Elinor.
+
+"Yes, indeed, I should like to, thank you," replied the guest.
+
+"Priscilla is coming in the dogcart with me," said Mr. Weston.
+
+"Then I think I'll drive with Priscilla," added Martine.
+
+"Such affection!" exclaimed Amy. "To give up the automobile because you
+prefer Priscilla's company!"
+
+"It isn't that I like Rome more, but Cæsar less," rejoined Martine,
+garbling her quotation and looking toward the automobile, where Elinor
+had already taken her seat.
+
+Amy understood, and decided to give Martine a bit of advice at the first
+opportunity; for the present she and Brenda, with Fritz and Lucian, went
+in the automobile with Elinor, while Arthur and Robert Pringle
+accompanied Martine and Priscilla. The automobile speeded out through
+the Avenue across a corner of Brighton, that Elinor might have a good
+view of Soldiers Field. The dogcart proceeded over Harvard Bridge, and
+Martine tried to make Priscilla take a wager as to which vehicle would
+first reach the College Yard.
+
+When at last, however, they drew up before the Johnston Gate, Lucian and
+his party were waiting there, having left the automobile at the garage.
+
+"As we're going to explore these unknown regions on foot," said Lucian,
+"we can't allow you to drive haughtily around. There's a boy, Robert, to
+take your trap over to the stable. And so," he added, after Martine and
+Priscilla had alighted, "the elephant now goes round, the band begins to
+play; in other words, let the procession move in through the great gate.
+It was given by a Chicago man," he concluded. "That's why I'm proud to
+have you see it."
+
+After the gate had received its share of admiration, "Here are your
+'queer old brick buildings,' Miss Naylor," cried Fritz. "Every brick has
+a history, but I can't show you the college pump. It was blown up by
+anarchists, who probably meant to blow up one of the buildings."
+
+"How shocking!" said the sympathetic Elinor.
+
+"That they did not blow up the buildings?"
+
+"Oh, no, but that they should behave so badly. I trust they were
+punished."
+
+"Oh, they were blown up too."
+
+"Really?"
+
+Although Elinor gazed directly at Fritz, there was no suspicion in her
+calm blue eye.
+
+"Doesn't she remind you of my cousin, Edith Blair?" whispered Martine to
+Amy.
+
+"I can't say that they look much alike."
+
+"Oh, Amy, please don't be literal, too. I mean she believes everything
+Fritz says, and between him and Mr. Weston she'll have a hard time."
+
+"And a strange opinion of Harvard," added Brenda, who had joined the two
+speakers.
+
+As the majority of the party, including Elinor, were now out of hearing,
+Brenda thought this a good time to ask Martine to explain her prejudice
+against Elinor, "who seems a pleasant and dignified girl," she
+concluded.
+
+"Yes, that's it; she's too dignified for her size, she ought to be
+bright and jolly and--"
+
+"But remember, please, that she's among strangers. You can't dislike her
+simply because she's quiet and dignified, so you might as well confess."
+
+"Well, then," replied Martine, "if I must, I must; but you'll
+understand, when I tell you that she's the girl who knocked my hat off."
+
+Amy looked puzzled and Brenda smiled as she responded, "Oh, the girl
+whom you tried to knock down with your umbrella. I suppose that is what
+has made that scratch on her face. No wonder she is on her dignity with
+you."
+
+"I shouldn't have cared," retorted Martine, "if she hadn't refused to
+shake hands with me to-day. Surely everyone must have noticed that, and
+it's she who ought to apologize for destroying my third best hat."
+
+Then, as she recalled the sight of the hat with the pale blue feathers
+sliding along on the asphalt, Martine laughed heartily, and from that
+moment, in her mind, all was peace between her and Elinor.
+
+"I didn't mean to get so far ahead," explained Lucian, as the others
+came up to the spot where he and Fritz were standing with Elinor. "But
+Miss Naylor is delighted with Holden."
+
+"Yes," murmured Elinor, "it is the cunningest little building! I should
+like to pick it up and carry it off as a souvenir. It's too bad that it
+isn't the very oldest of all the buildings now standing."
+
+"No, Massachusetts has that honor, but Holden is the first to take its
+name from an English benefactor," said Fritz.
+
+"It seems too bad that nothing remains of the original Harvard, but the
+fire of 1764 swept them all away. Massachusetts is older than that, and
+so are one or two others now standing. The old buildings are not
+particularly beautiful," Robert Pringle apologized.
+
+"But they look like New England," interrupted Martine, "so practical and
+business-like and angular; that's why I like them."
+
+"There must be some interesting stories connected with them," said
+Elinor, sentimentally.
+
+"Oh, yes, stories, quantities of them. What would you like to hear?"
+asked Fritz, with an eagerness that showed he was ready to manufacture
+any tale or legend that Elinor might desire.
+
+"Did the college go on during the Revolution?" asked Elinor. "I know
+Washington had his headquarters in Cambridge."
+
+"The library was sent up to Andover for safety, and the students to the
+Concord Reformatory."
+
+"Oh, Fritz," protested Amy, "if you are not careful, Miss Naylor will
+believe you."
+
+"Why not?" asked Fritz, innocently. "It's history that they were sent to
+Concord, and why not to the Reformatory? They must have needed it, if
+they were like some of the present students, and they would have been
+sent there surely had Concord possessed a reformatory in those benighted
+years."
+
+Upon this Lucian insisted that Miss Naylor must accept him only as her
+Harvard guide; otherwise she would get an utterly wrong impression.
+
+"Let me tell you," he began, "about the squirrels. Really, they are of
+more consequence than most other dwellers in the Yard. They will eat
+anything, from mushrooms to pâté de foie gras, and although it's rather
+expensive, we try to give them whatever they demand. The tree trunks
+here are probably filled with treasures that they have hidden away; some
+of them even are fond of books, and I heard of one who had an intimate
+acquaintance with Greek roots. No nuts are too hard for them to crack;
+they are real philosophers, and here," he cried as he threw some acorns
+on the grass, "they are so tame one doesn't have even to throw salt on
+their tails to catch them."
+
+Upon this, with a deft movement, he picked up a bushy-tailed gray
+squirrel that had been attracted by the bait he had thrown down, and as
+he held it toward Elinor, "Here," he exclaimed, "if you wish a souvenir
+of Harvard, is the real thing," and extending his arm, he pressed the
+little creature's head against Elinor's cheek. Then, to everyone's
+surprise, Elinor Naylor, the dignified Miss Elinor Naylor of
+Philadelphia, screamed loudly, and turning her back on Lucian, ran up to
+Martine, who happened to be nearest her, and laid her head on Martine's
+arm, crying loudly, "Take it away, take it away, it's just like a big
+rat."
+
+Lucian, decidedly crestfallen at this little episode, let the squirrel
+whisk itself away, while he walked up to Elinor to offer his apologies.
+In his heart he was saying, "Thank heaven that Martine has some nerve,"
+and Martine herself, by a sudden revulsion of feeling, at once became
+the champion of the girl she had recently been criticising.
+
+Elinor accepted Lucian's apologies very graciously. "I know that I am
+foolish," she said, "but I never have liked those little creepy animals;
+they all seem to be like rats and mice, except at a distance."
+
+"You were certainly very thoughtless, Lucian." Martine spoke in a tone
+of deep reproof, and during the remainder of their walk she had Elinor
+hanging on her arm.
+
+The suite of rooms occupied by Lucian and Robert Pringle was in a
+dormitory outside the Yard, in the neighborhood of the old ballground,
+Jarvis Field. To reach it the party went across the Memorial Delta, past
+the statue of John Harvard--concerning which the boys had various
+strange tales to tell--and along a quiet street on which were several
+other dormitories.
+
+"How delightful! This suite is much more attractive than Joe's rooms at
+Yale, as I remember them," cried Elinor.
+
+"Yes," sighed Arthur Weston, "Joe and I were not sybarites. We went in
+for hard work, plain living, and high thinking," and he looked
+reproachfully toward Lucian and Robert.
+
+"We work too, I can assure you," insisted Robert. "Of course we had to
+furnish up a little."
+
+"Work! I should say so," added Lucian. "Don't judge us by our
+surroundings."
+
+"We'll try not to," retorted Martine, "for this tea-table is almost too
+ladylike for two tall boys like you."
+
+"Oh, when we're alone we never look at the tea-table. We fold it up and
+keep it in the closet. To-day we brought it out only for you girls," and
+Lucian bowed profoundly to his guests.
+
+"I think that your belongings are rather frivolous," and Brenda took the
+little silver tea caddy in her hand.
+
+"Oh, I picked that up in Holland; it's a mere trifle," cried Robert.
+
+"These things are wasted on boys," added Martine, examining the little
+coffee spoons that lay on the tray.
+
+Amy, walking round the room, gazed critically at the two or three
+water-color sketches and the fine photographs hanging on the walls, and
+she thought that the easy-chairs, the broad divan, and all the other
+handsome belongings were really too elaborate for the rooms of boys
+under twenty.
+
+"But there's one good thing," she said aloud; "you have plenty of books,
+Lucian, and you have made an excellent choice in many cases."
+
+"Yes," replied Lucian, "thanks to Fritz, our library has made a good
+beginning; he took it in hand last spring, and what do you think? Fritz
+says that if it hadn't been for you, he couldn't have helped us half as
+well. So, Miss Amy Redmond, when you praise our library, indirectly you
+praise yourself."
+
+Before their hour in Lucian's room was over, few things in the
+sitting-room had escaped the scrutiny of the three younger girls. They
+handled the steins on the mantelpiece, read the certificates of
+membership in various clubs and athletic societies, and admired the
+photographs of all, and finally Martine struck up a few chords on the
+piano, which Lucian and Robert recognizing, accompanied with a jolly
+college song. At Lucian's request Priscilla made tea, and although,
+while the water was boiling, she wondered whether she would remember
+just what proportion of tea should be used for each cup of water, she
+passed through the ordeal successfully and was highly praised for her
+skill.
+
+When the boys indiscreetly offered Elinor her choice among the sights
+they might see before their return to the city, Elinor too promptly
+chose the Botanic Garden. In spite of their sophomorific air of worldly
+wisdom, Robert and Lucian could not quite conceal their dismay at this
+suggestion, especially as she expressed a desire to see the Shakespeare
+garden, of which they knew nothing.
+
+"In that case I fear that you will have to lose the glass flowers, as
+the garden is in just the opposite direction," said Lucian, politely.
+
+"The glass flowers!" cried Elinor, perceiving that her former suggestion
+had not been received with favor. "Why, of course I would much rather
+see the glass flowers." And so the whole party set out toward the great
+museum.
+
+"Not to throw cold water on the efforts of Lucian to guide you to the
+best that Cambridge offers," said Fritz, "I must tell you that a visit
+to the glass flowers is almost commonplace. They share with tourists
+from afar the attraction of Bunker Hill; in the minds of many not to
+have seen the glass flowers is not to have seen Cambridge. If you wish
+to be original, pass them by."
+
+"Thank you," replied Elinor; "but really I never have cared especially
+to be original."
+
+Later, after Elinor had seen not only the glass flowers but many of the
+other treasures in the great museum, she admitted that even Yale had
+little better to offer. From the museum the party went on to Memorial
+Hall.
+
+"It's a pity that you cannot wait a little longer, it would be such fun
+to see the students at dinner," sighed Martine, for whom human nature
+always had more interest than tablets and pictures.
+
+"I should love to stay, but I promised to be at my cousin's before six.
+Yet there is so much to see here in Memorial, these windows and
+portraits are so fascinating, that it's very hard to go away without
+studying them all more carefully."
+
+Elinor had barely time for a glance at the portraits and the stained
+glass windows in the great hall.
+
+"It's the finest hall I ever saw," said the girl from Philadelphia; "I
+like everything about it except--"
+
+"Except what? This is an age of improvements, and if you'll just mention
+what you have in mind, so far as Lucian and I can carry out your
+suggestion it shall be accomplished," and Robert Pringle bowed low to
+Elinor. Elinor seemed so embarrassed by this mock courtesy that Martine
+hastened to her rescue. The older members of the party were out of
+hearing.
+
+"You are as great a tease now as Lucian. I could mention dozens of
+things that could be done to improve Memorial Hall, handsome as it is."
+Martine cast about in her mind for something to strengthen her
+assertion. Up to this moment she had never realized any special
+imperfection in the great building. But now--
+
+"For example!" she exclaimed emphatically, "just look at these
+dining-tables in a hall like this. It's casting your pearls before
+swine. They ought to be taken away."
+
+"Well, I'm glad that Robert and I board at a club table. I should hate
+to be included in your group of swine, whom you wish to have taken
+away--"
+
+"Oh, Lucian!"
+
+It was now Elinor's turn to come to Martine's rescue.
+
+"Why, that is just what I meant. I think that the tables ought to be
+taken away. It seems a pity that Memorial Hall should be a mere
+dining-room. I should like to see it quite clear of them."
+
+"Then you must come here Class Day. Can't you wait for ours? I'll show
+you Memorial Hall as it should be--filled with youth and beauty dancing,
+and not a tablecloth in sight."
+
+"Oh, it doesn't seem the place for dancing either," and Elinor gazed
+solemnly at one of the class windows, on which were portrayed
+Epaminondas and Sir Philip Sidney, as examples of valor.
+
+"You must remember, Miss Naylor, that in the long waits between courses,
+the undergraduates who board here have a fine chance to study these
+windows, with their lessons of patriotism and valor. This food for
+reflection goes a long way toward making them forget the real nature of
+the food served here--"
+
+"Come, come, Robert! Remember you are talking to a Yale girl, and not an
+ingenuous Harvard maiden. We must not have derogatory reports get
+abroad."
+
+But Elinor and Martine had no intention of wasting their time listening
+to Robert's nonsense, and were now pushing through the doors into the
+transept.
+
+"The real Memorial is here," said Elinor, reverently, passing from one
+tablet to another, on which were inscribed the names of those Harvard
+men who fell in the Civil War.
+
+[Illustration: "'The real Memorial is here,' said Elinor, reverently,
+passing from one tablet to another."]
+
+"A short life hath Nature given to man, but the remembrance of a life
+nobly rendered up is eternal!" she murmured, translating one of the
+inscriptions on the wall.
+
+"Oh!" sighed Martine. "How wonderful that you can translate Latin at
+sight! I have taken a tremendous fancy to Latin, but now I'm only in the
+beginning of Virgil, and I have to look up every other word, and you are
+not much older than I."
+
+In her admiration for Elinor's ability, she wondered if Elinor had
+realized the prejudice she had felt when they started on their drive.
+How strange that in a few hours her feeling toward anyone should change
+so completely.
+
+Lucian and Robert, slightly bored by the girls' interest in the
+inscriptions, walked to the door, where they almost ran into Brenda,
+Fritz, and the rest of the party, who had been strolling through the
+Yard.
+
+"Your vehicles are here!" cried Fritz. "They are just around the
+corner--"
+
+"Good enough," responded Lucian. "It's rather boresome taking visitors
+around Memorial--Oh, they won't hear!" he concluded, as Brenda raised a
+warning finger. "Come, Martine," he cried in a louder voice, "we are all
+waiting."
+
+Reluctantly Elinor and Martine turned toward the others. Each had just
+made the discovery that her companion was a very entertaining girl.
+
+"Who's going in the auto?" asked Lucian.
+
+"Oh, Elinor and I, certainly."
+
+Martine was some distance ahead of Elinor.
+
+"But I thought that was why you scorned the auto coming out to
+Cambridge--because you didn't wish to ride with Elinor."
+
+"Oh, everything is changed now. She is one of the most charming girls."
+
+"Then she has forgiven you for knocking her down and hitting her with
+your umbrella?"
+
+"Why, we haven't even spoken of it, though she knows that I know that
+she--"
+
+"Come, girls, tumble in!" cried Lucian, and Lucian had so many
+remarkable Harvard tales to tell as they speeded along that neither had
+time to refer to the rainy-day episode and their first strange meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PRISCILLA'S PRIDE
+
+
+"Why, I never lose my temper! What do you mean?"
+
+"That _is_ what I mean. You seldom lose your temper; I should hardly say
+'never.' Neither does Priscilla."
+
+"Well, then, why won't she let me pay for the photographs?" Martine
+looked keenly at Amy, who had been spending an hour with her that
+afternoon, as if she expected to read the answer in her friend's eyes.
+
+"I cannot tell you Priscilla's reasons, but her spirit of independence."
+
+"Spirit of independence! Boys of '76! How tired I am of American
+history! Priscilla is just like one of her own Pilgrim Fathers--only
+more so. Probably any one of them would have let a friend pay for one of
+those neat silhouettes, especially if the friend had insisted on having
+it made, or taken, or cut, or whatever it was that they did to make
+silhouettes; but Priscilla is a great deal harder than Plymouth Rock,
+and that is saying no little."
+
+"All the same, you and Priscilla will have to settle this affair for
+yourselves," and rising from her seat, after a few words of farewell,
+Amy left Martine to reflect on the matter they had been discussing.
+
+Now the dispute between Priscilla and Martine, if worth dignifying by so
+serious a name, was not of a kind likely to make lasting trouble between
+friends. For some time Martine had been teasing Priscilla to have her
+photograph taken, and Priscilla had never given a decided answer. At
+last one day, as they passed a fashionable gallery, Martine had insisted
+that the two should go in merely to look at samples of the
+photographer's work. On the impulse Martine decided that it would be
+great fun for them to be taken together. Vainly Priscilla protested that
+her costume was not suitable, that she didn't feel in the mood for
+sitting; Martine carried her point and two or three negatives were made
+of Priscilla and Martine sitting or standing, side by side. Then two or
+three were made of the two girls, each by herself. When the proofs were
+sent home, the photographs of Priscilla were exceedingly good. But
+Priscilla hesitating about ordering the finished pictures, she did not
+give the whole reason to Martine. Her hesitation came from the fact that
+the artist was expensive and that she had already exceeded her allowance
+for Christmas presents.
+
+"I do not think that I can really afford them," she said at last to
+Martine one day, when the latter asked her if she had made her choice
+among the negatives. "I should simply love," she added, "to have some
+for my mother and a few of my relations Christmas, but I shall have to
+wait a little before deciding."
+
+Yet while she spoke she retained in her hand one proof that seemed to
+meet her approval.
+
+"Then this is the one you prefer?" said Martine, taking it gently in her
+own hand.
+
+"Yes, I haven't had a photograph since I was a small girl, but I am sure
+that mother would be delighted with this one."
+
+A week later a box came by mail to Priscilla. Opening it she found not
+only a half dozen of the photographs in which she and Martine were taken
+together, but also a dozen of the single heads, finished in the most
+expensive style. For a moment she was rather upset by the packet. "Of
+course there's some mistake," she said. "The man must have thought that
+I meant to give an order like Martine's, but I can never in the world
+afford these, and mother would be displeased with me for ordering them.
+There is only one thing--I'm sure to have some money given me at
+Christmas, and I can use some, or all of it, to pay this bill."
+
+No bill was contained in the package, and after a few days, when
+Priscilla went to the photographer's to ask for it, she was told that it
+was already paid. Then she sought Martine, who did not deny that she had
+paid the bill.
+
+"Why, it was the proper thing for me to do," she said. "It was I who had
+the photographs taken, and I who ordered them finished. I can't see that
+you have much to do with the matter now, except to send the photographs
+as Christmas cards. I can tell you they'll go like hot cakes, for they
+are just as good as they can be."
+
+But Priscilla was firm, and though Martine tried to be firmer, she could
+not get her friend to promise to accept the pictures as a gift.
+
+"They are really not a gift, either," urged Martine, "for I myself
+wanted to be in a group with you, and you stood there only to oblige me;
+so certainly you've earned something for your trouble, and as to the
+single heads, I wanted a separate picture of you, and while the
+photographer was about it, it didn't cost much more for a dozen than for
+one."
+
+Again Priscilla presented her side, adding only that she must ask
+Martine to wait until after Christmas for the sum she had spent.
+
+"If I didn't like the photographs," she concluded, "the whole thing
+would be different; but I do like them, and I can send them away as
+Christmas gifts, and so I must pay the bill."
+
+"But it came to me."
+
+"For my photographs?"
+
+"No, for mine; I had them taken. They wouldn't have been printed if I
+hadn't ordered them."
+
+"Oh, but mine are mine."
+
+"Why, of course they are yours--at least all that were sent to your
+house."
+
+"I can't bear to be obliged to anyone else for them."
+
+"That's one of your greatest faults, Priscilla; you hate to be obliged
+to anybody for anything."
+
+So for the present the discussion was dropped, though each friend was
+determined that in the end she would carry her own point.
+
+This steadfast holding to her purpose was what Martine called
+Priscilla's "ill-temper," in describing the affair to Amy. Though she
+inwardly approved of her friend's independence, she felt that after she
+had approved of it Priscilla ought then to be ready to yield to her.
+
+"It is strange," she said, "that I can never get Priscilla to accept
+anything from me. 'Pride goeth before destruction,' and that will be the
+way with Priscilla. Something will surely happen to her if she keeps on
+like this."
+
+In the early summer, a few months before, Priscilla and Martine had
+first become really acquainted, when as travelling companions they made
+a journey with Amy and her mother. For some time the two seemed far from
+congenial; each looked at life from a very different standpoint.
+Priscilla, brought up rather strictly and economically, prided herself,
+perhaps unduly, on her unworldliness, and found it hard to understand
+the extravagant, fun-loving Martine. But each girl at last accepted the
+other's good qualities, and before they had left Canadian soil the two
+had begun to be good friends. When Martine's plans were finally settled,
+Priscilla was delighted that she and the young Chicagoan were to be at
+the same school.
+
+Now Priscilla, although for a long time she had spent several weeks of
+each year in Boston with her aunt, Mrs. Tilworth, had made few friends
+among the girls of her own age whose parents her mother or her aunt
+knew. Her natural shyness stood in her way when they came to call on
+her, and when she returned their calls she progressed no further.
+
+Often she was invited to their parties, and when she could not escape
+it, she accepted their invitations. Though she took part in their games
+in a quiet way, no one paid much attention to the pale little girl who
+always seemed ill at ease.
+
+One awful day Mrs. Tilworth decided that she must give a party for
+Priscilla; in vain Priscilla protested that she hated parties. The
+invitations were written and sent out, and on the appointed afternoon
+Priscilla, in a ruffled muslin gown, had to stand beside her aunt to
+receive her guests. When she had safely passed through this ordeal she
+slipped away to a corner, where she sat for a while looking on. When she
+found that no one tried to draw her out, she managed to slip still
+farther away. "They don't need me," she murmured. Later, when they
+looked for her, that she might take her place at the head of the
+table--for it was a children's party, with a sit-down supper at six
+o'clock--there was a great uproar when she could not be found. At last
+two or three of the children went to Priscilla's room, and entering
+without knocking, they saw her seated in an easy-chair by the droplight
+on the little centre table. She was so engrossed in the book she was
+reading that at first she did not hear them, and when one of them
+snatched the volume out of her hand to read the title, they discovered
+that it was a little history of Mary Queen of Scots.
+
+"Those children tired me," she explained later to her aunt. "They played
+so hard, and I just thought I'd go upstairs and read for a while."
+
+Somehow the story got out. Mrs. Tilworth repeated it to one of the older
+girls, and for a long time Priscilla was called behind her back "Mary
+Queen of Scots," only someone said, "She will never lose her head, her
+neck is so stiff."
+
+Martine, when Brenda told her of this story, could not help laughing, in
+spite of her desire to be loyal to her friend.
+
+"Priscilla is still stiff-necked," she said, "but already since she's
+had my acquaintance she's been forced to unbend a little, and before
+another summer comes round her education will be much further advanced."
+
+Priscilla was conscious of her own shyness, and often envied those girls
+who seemed to have so much fun together.
+
+"I shouldn't expect Priscilla to be very cheerful while she lives with
+Mrs. Tilworth; the house is really gloomy; it has plenty of windows, but
+the curtains are always pulled down, and the furniture is so heavy and
+primly arranged that it naturally affects Priscilla's disposition."
+
+What Martine said was true to a great extent. Mrs. Tilworth's house was
+halfway up the hill, not so very far from the Mansion School, but its
+whole aspect, inside and out, was far less attractive than Mrs.
+DuLaunuy's. It was furnished in the heavy style of about fifty years
+ago, lacking the elegance of real antiquity. Priscilla's room was large
+and overfurnished, with its great black walnut bedstead and marble-top
+table and heavy rocking-chairs. But it wasn't exactly a young girl's
+room, and the gilt-framed steel engravings on the wall gave her no
+inspiration for study or work. Secretly she envied Martine her cheerful
+room in Brenda's apartment, with its couch covered in pink and white
+cretonne, its white enamelled dressing-table and oval mirror, brass
+bedstead, and rattan chairs cushioned to match the divan. She did not
+express her envy of these pretty belongings, lest she should appear
+ungrateful to Mrs. Tilworth; for she knew that her aunt wished her to be
+comfortable and happy, according to her own standard of comfort and
+happiness. Indeed most people who knew Mrs. Tilworth thought Priscilla
+exceedingly fortunate in having so good a home offered her at a time
+when her mother was especially burdened with care.
+
+Although Mrs. Tilworth had never expressed herself on the subject,
+Martine believed that she did not approve of persons who lived in
+apartments. The little original prejudice that she had against Martine
+as an outsider was probably somewhat stronger from this fact.
+
+"I should think," she had said to Priscilla, "that Mrs. Stratford must
+have been greatly disappointed that Mrs. Montgomery could not take
+Martine this winter; it would have been so much better for her to live
+in a house."
+
+"But an apartment is just as pleasant," Priscilla had responded, "and
+it's a fine thing that Brenda Weston was able to take her. Brenda lives
+in a flat because it's more economical."
+
+"Don't say 'flat'; you've learned that from Martine; in Boston we always
+say 'apartment.' But an apartment on the Avenue is not economical, my
+dear child. A whole house on Chestnut Street would cost no more, and
+though I would not make anyone else's business my own, I can't
+understand how anyone who might live in a house can prefer a few rooms
+high up in the air."
+
+"It's very homelike there," sighed Priscilla, casting a glance around
+the large, gloomy dining-room, where they sat at dinner. "I always enjoy
+myself at Brenda's--"
+
+Mrs. Tilworth, noticing the sigh, looked sharply at her niece. "I hope
+you are perfectly happy with me," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed I am; you are certainly very kind."
+
+Yet even as she spoke, Priscilla realized that in some ways she wasn't
+benefiting as she should from her aunt's kindness, and she began to
+wonder if the fault might not lie a little with herself.
+
+A few days after the discussion about the photographs, Priscilla came to
+school with a letter in her hand.
+
+"It's from Eunice," she said, as she and Martine sat together near a
+window, a quarter of an hour before the time for the school to begin.
+
+"Oh, read me what she says," urged Martine. "Her letters are always
+entertaining, because they are so old-fashioned."
+
+Eunice Airton was a young girl near Priscilla's age, whose acquaintance
+Mrs. Redmond and her party had made during their stay in Annapolis. She
+was especially Priscilla's friend, while her brother Balfour was
+Martine's ideal of an independent college boy; and it was rather because
+she hoped to hear some news of Balfour that Martine urged Priscilla to
+read the letter.
+
+"I am sorry to say," wrote Eunice, "that I hardly think it will be
+possible for me to go to college. It will be very difficult for me to
+overcome the prejudices of my mother, who still does not think it is
+quite proper for a girl to have the same education as a man. But the
+fact that you are planning to go to college will have much weight with
+her, for, as you perhaps know, she thinks you quite a model and says
+that she never can realize that you are an American."
+
+Martine smiled at this expression of Mrs. Airton's opinion, which indeed
+she had heard more than once before. "Eunice," she said to Priscilla,
+"is too polite to repeat all that her mother said in speaking of you.
+She probably contrasted you with me, whom, I am sure, she considers the
+typical Yankee girl."
+
+"Oh, no, of course not," protested Priscilla, continuing to read
+Eunice's letter.
+
+"Before I tell you of any of my own personal affairs, I must mention
+something that will interest you more deeply. There is an Acadian family
+living in Annapolis, and whom do you suppose they have had visiting them
+lately? Why, the little Yvonne, the blind girl, of whom I have heard you
+speak, who is the special protégée, if I remember, of Miss Stratford. It
+is indeed due to her kindness, I understand, that Yvonne has been able
+to make this journey from Meteghan, and I am told that she is to stay
+here three months under the care of a physician who thinks that he can
+help her eyes. She is also to take lessons on the piano, as those who
+are interested in her think that it is better for her to let her voice
+rest for the present, but to play the piano well enough to accompany her
+songs will some time be a great advantage to her."
+
+"There," exclaimed Martine, excitedly, "that's a fine idea! I wonder who
+suggested it to the Babets. It isn't likely that the doctor can do so
+very much for her eyes, but it will be splendid for her to get a start
+in music. When I see papa at Christmas I intend to persuade him to have
+Yvonne brought to Boston for a year."
+
+"Oh, that would be a great expense," said Priscilla, "and someone would
+have to take care of her."
+
+"That could be managed easily enough, if I can only get papa thoroughly
+interested."
+
+"I think he has already done his part, for it's through the money he
+gave you for Yvonne that she is able to be in Annapolis now."
+
+"I wonder how Eunice used her money; did she ever tell you, Priscilla?"
+
+"No," replied Priscilla; "but she may have helped her mother about the
+mortgage, and perhaps she may have put a little aside for a college
+nest-egg. She is so practical."
+
+"It's wonderful--isn't it, Priscilla?--that you should have met a girl
+you approve of so thoroughly in a corner of the world that isn't
+Plymouth or even Boston."
+
+Priscilla, as she folded up her letter, looked questioningly at Martine.
+There was something that she did not quite understand in Martine's
+attitude toward Eunice.
+
+Whatever question she had in mind remained for the time unspoken. It was
+time for school to begin, and they hurried to their places.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+CHANGES
+
+
+The first week in December a strange thing happened. Brenda had received
+a letter with a Washington postmark, yet this in itself was not
+remarkable. Such letters came to her daily, for Arthur had gone to
+Washington on business a day or two after the trip to Harvard. But her
+manner, as she rapidly scanned this particular letter, was so unusual
+that Martine, watching her, knew that it brought news out of the
+ordinary.
+
+The slight frown on Brenda's face deepened as she read the four or five
+pages, and when she had finished she flung the letter down on the floor.
+
+"Oh--it seems too bad," she sighed, in response to Martine's look of
+surprise. "Just as we are settled, to have to give everything up!"
+
+"Give up--what?" asked the puzzled Martine.
+
+"Why this--everything--our apartment--Boston--oh, dear--of course I knew
+it might come--but I hoped next year."
+
+As Brenda finished there were tears in her eyes, and still Martine did
+not wholly understand.
+
+"Of course I am sorry," said Martine, "since it's something that
+troubles you. But would you please tell me what it is all about?"
+
+"Well--it's Arthur's business," she explained. "A promotion that he has
+expected has come. It took him some time to find out what he really
+could do after he left college. The office in San Francisco is more
+important just now than the one in Boston. He is needed there for six
+months--and we must go at once--yes," she concluded, looking at the
+letter a second time. "We must be there by the first of January. Well,
+fortunately, we need not give up this apartment, for we have a two
+years' lease, and it wouldn't be worth while to sublet it, as we may
+return in six months. So you see, my dear, that things might be worse. I
+shall have to pack only my clothes and small belongings, and after all,
+it will be rather fun to see a new corner of the world."
+
+"What you say sounds practical--except--you seem to have forgotten
+_me_."
+
+"Oh, you poor child, how selfish I am! Why you could just stay on here
+with the cook and Maggie, or Angelina, if you prefer her."
+
+"Brenda Weston! You know that would never do! I mean other people would
+say it would never do."
+
+"There, there, child, don't worry," said Brenda, assuming her most
+elderly manner. "I will write to your mother, and between us something
+delightful will be arranged. What a shame you are in school," she
+concluded, forgetting for the moment her position as Martine's temporary
+guardian. "Except for that you might go to San Francisco, or even travel
+with your mother."
+
+"I am growing fond of school," replied Martine, as she returned to her
+book. "Even to go to California I wouldn't give it up, but if it's
+really settled that you are going, I must write home at once."
+
+In a few days Brenda and Martine both received answers to their letters
+to Mrs. Stratford. To Martine what her mother wrote was even more
+surprising than Brenda's change of plans.
+
+"Your father has to go to South America on very important business. It
+is too long a journey for me, although I am much stronger than a year
+ago. We think the wisest plan would be for me to go to Boston to be near
+you and Lucian, and I am writing Mrs. Weston to see if we may not engage
+her apartment for the next six months."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Martine, turning to Brenda, who had just finished
+reading the letter Mrs. Stratford had written her. "Of course you'll say
+'yes.' Oh, how perfectly happy I shall be to have mother with me."
+
+"Of course I will say 'yes.' But please spare my feelings; if you are
+too happy you will forget to miss me."
+
+"Oh, never, never; but then mother must be feeling much stronger, and I
+have seen her so little the past few years. She has been under the
+doctor's care or travelling, and our Chicago house has been closed so
+long, and hotels are so unhomelike. But now, with this apartment to
+ourselves, and Lucian coming in from college--oh! it will be
+delightful."
+
+Again Brenda protested that Martine was unfeeling in counting her out so
+completely.
+
+"But I can't count you in, when you calmly and deliberately plan to turn
+your back on Boston and me. You know that I shall miss you, but to have
+mother here--of course that makes all the difference in the world."
+
+For the Christmas holidays Lucian and Martine joined Mr. and Mrs.
+Stratford in New York. A day or two after Christmas, Mr. Stratford
+sailed for England, whence he was to embark for South America. Martine
+could but notice that the sadness that her father showed during these
+last days seemed due to something besides the fact that he was to be
+absent from his family for a few months. He had often before gone on
+long journeys, but usually he made an effort to have his departure
+particularly cheerful.
+
+"Your father is worried," her mother said; "his business is not going
+just as it should. He hopes that this visit to South America will
+straighten out some things. If it does not--well, we needn't talk of the
+future now. I am glad that we are all together this Christmas. You and
+Lucian must do all you can to divert your father, he has so much to
+trouble him."
+
+Martine took this advice to heart, and though Mr. Stratford spent some
+hours each day downtown, after luncheon she always insisted that he must
+entertain her. By this she meant that she must entertain him, and in
+consequence she thought out all kinds of odd ways of amusing him. One
+day they sailed on the Ferry to Staten Island to visit Sailors' Snug
+Harbor. Another afternoon they went up to Van Cortland Park to see the
+old Van Cortland house. One day they wandered for an hour in the Bowery,
+but Martine admitted that this wasn't as entertaining an expedition as
+she had imagined it would be from the accounts she had read of it. The
+shops on the whole seemed commonplace, and the crowded cross-streets of
+the East Side looked far more interesting, as she caught glimpses of
+them in passing.
+
+She had to let these glimpses satisfy her, as she had promised her
+mother not to explore any out-of-the-way corners of the tenement
+district; and so obedient was she in this that she would not even go
+inside a certain Bowery pawnshop in whose windows she saw a fascinating
+little guitar. Instead she urged her father to price it, and when he
+came outside with it under his arm she accepted it with delight.
+
+"It's neither a violin nor a guitar," Mr. Stratford explained, "but the
+little instrument that the Sandwich Islanders love."
+
+Martine was delighted by this account of her new treasure, and she
+carried it home with great pride. But unconventional expeditions were
+not the only pleasures that Martine shared with her father. One day Mrs.
+Stratford drove with them through the Park up beyond Riverside and
+Grant's tomb. Two or three afternoons they spent with relatives, of whom
+Mr. Stratford had a number in New York. Lucian was little with his
+father during the holidays. Classmates at Ardsley and Trenton and
+Germantown claimed short visits from him. But on Christmas Day he joined
+his parents at the small uptown hotel where they were staying.
+
+"Martine," he said as they sat at breakfast, "Elinor Naylor was at the
+Harbins' dance night before last in Germantown. She took a lot of
+trouble to introduce me to some of her best friends just because I was
+your brother. I tell you what--you made a great impression on her."
+
+"I certainly did--the first time we met," responded Martine, smiling,
+and Lucian did not quite understand, because his sister had never really
+explained the circumstances under which she and Elinor had first met.
+With slight urging from Martine, however, Lucian plunged into a
+description of the Harbins' dance, and though boy-like he could not
+describe what Elinor wore, he declared that whatever it was it just
+suited her, and that she certainly was a regular peach, "and the
+funniest thing about it is that you don't think about her being pretty
+when you first see her. It's only when you begin to remember her that
+you realize how good-looking she is."
+
+"Poor Priscilla," sighed Martine in mock sorrow, "I fear her nose is out
+of joint."
+
+"Oh, no--at least, what do you mean?" asked Lucian, and at this moment
+the entrance of Mr. and Mrs. Stratford put an end to their fun.
+
+The Christmas breakfast, in spite of Martine's efforts, passed off
+rather quietly. Her parents both seemed sad and disinclined to talk.
+Even the unobservant Lucian at last noticed this and tried to turn the
+conversation into cheerful and impersonal channels, with poor success.
+Their Christmas dinner was at the house of an elderly cousin of the
+Stratfords in Washington Square. The guests were nearly all relatives of
+Martine's father, and the young visitor received abundant criticism,
+favorable or unfavorable, according to the dispositions of the various
+critics.
+
+But even those who thought Martine a little forward or too
+self-possessed for a girl of her age could but admire her frank, cheery
+manner and the consideration that she constantly showed for older
+people. The less conservative found her charming and complimented her on
+her clever way of telling a story. Some said she looked like her father,
+some like her mother, and the oldest cousin of them all, taking her
+aside said, "You are just like your father's mother when she was your
+age. She had your coloring and your bright brown eyes. I knew her well
+when I was a girl. She was said to be the image of her French
+grandmother, and I can wish you nothing better than to grow up like
+her," and as the old lady kissed her Martine felt her own eyes
+moistening.
+
+"I am glad that I have some French blood in my veins," she said a little
+later; "the Huguenots were so wonderful. I wish that papa and I had time
+to go up to New Rochelle, for although I believe there's little left
+there of the Huguenots now except the name, I should like to see the
+place because my forefathers lived there."
+
+Lucian found the Washington-Square dinner rather a bore, although he
+managed to conceal his feelings until with his family he was back at the
+hotel.
+
+"They might have asked at least one girl near my age," Lucian said. "No
+wonder you were such a belle, Martine, among all those antiquities," a
+compliment that Martine refused to accept until Lucian admitted that she
+possessed qualities that would make her popular even in a younger crowd.
+
+One of Martine's Christmas gifts did not surprise her,--a complete set
+of brushes, mirror and little boxes to replace those she had lost in the
+Windsor fire. This did, however, surprise Lucian, who knew that his
+father had promised Martine a full set of silver.
+
+"Why, how is this?" he asked, as Martine spread out her new possessions
+before him on a table. "Is plain black wood more in fashion than silver?
+It must be, or you wouldn't have it."
+
+"But this is pretty; don't you think so?" asked Martine, always anxious
+for her brother's approval.
+
+"It's rather neat, with your initial in silver, but it couldn't have
+cost as much as the other, and I thought you always preferred the most
+expensive things." For the moment Martine did not explain that her
+preference was still for the silver, but that she had chosen the other
+because of a chance word or two from her mother on her tendency toward
+extravagance.
+
+"I know you have generally whatever you wish, Martine, and your father
+and I generally give you what you ask. You are seldom unreasonable,
+although we may have been overindulgent. For now--"
+
+Here Mrs. Stratford broke off suddenly.
+
+"But now, mamma, are things very different? I know we usually stay at a
+larger hotel, and still--"
+
+"Oh, no, dear. Things are not very different. Perhaps they will not be.
+Yet your father has so much care now that you will surely do your best
+to relieve him from needless burdens."
+
+Therefore, when Mr. Stratford took Martine downtown to choose her
+present, she could not be shaken from her determination to have
+something simpler than silver.
+
+"It will be so much better in case I am caught in another fire, papa.
+Things that are burnt up are gone forever, and as I seem to be a rather
+unlucky person, this plainer set is much better--and besides I like it,
+papa."
+
+In the end it seemed to Martine that Mr. Stratford was rather pleased by
+her choice, for when the matter was decided he patted her hand gently as
+he slipped it within his arm, saying,--
+
+"After all, daughter, you are getting to be a very sensible girl. I have
+noticed a great change within the past year."
+
+"Oh, thank you, papa. Do you really think I've improved? Then it's
+partly on account of the company I have kept. I am sure of that."
+
+"I am pleased that you are on the right track, and when I am far from
+you, as I shall be now for some time, it will be a great satisfaction to
+think that you are doing your best."
+
+A few days later Martine and Lucian, with their mother, stood on the
+dock watching the receding ocean-liner that was carrying Mr. Stratford
+to England. There was a great lump in Martine's throat as she wiped away
+her tears with the handkerchief that a moment before she had been waving
+frantically at her father.
+
+"Goose, goose!" whispered Lucian. "You are too big a girl to cry."
+
+"Oh, I hate saying good-bye," murmured Martine.
+
+"Why, we've hardly been together--all four of us--for years."
+
+"That's just it! It's been so pleasant lately--and now to have father in
+South America!--it's just dreadful."
+
+"Nonsense, child! South America isn't so very far away. The trouble is,
+you've had too long a vacation. It's well we're going back to Boston
+to-morrow, and that in a day or two you'll be at your books again."
+
+"'At my books'--as if I were a six-year-old! I can't see why Harvard
+College gives even a day's vacation to its students, since their chief
+use of time seems to be to tease their sisters," and with this little
+burst of temper Martine's tears were blown away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ANOTHER PARTING
+
+
+To Martine the return to Boston after Christmas was far from cheerful.
+Not only was she still under the shadow of the parting with her father,
+but she began to feel that the approaching departure of Brenda would be
+rather hard to bear.
+
+While her mother was spending a day or two with friends outside the
+city, Martine had to stand by and watch Brenda bidding good-bye to her
+family and friends. Her trunks were packed. The walls and mantelpieces
+were denuded of many little pictures and ornaments; for at the last she
+had decided that it was wiser to take some of her more personal
+belongings with her to make her new abode more homelike.
+
+"I haven't taken a thing that you or your mother would need," Brenda
+explained; "only the little presents that have special associations for
+us. Your mother wrote me that she had a box or two of her own ornaments
+and pictures coming, so that she, too, could be reminded of home."
+
+"Well, I wish our boxes were here now. It makes me so homesick to see
+those empty places on the wall. I don't see how you can be so cheerful."
+
+"But everyone has been so kind. I didn't know how much everyone cared
+for me. So much has been done for me the past two weeks that I have
+hardly had time to pack. Arthur went back to Washington in despair
+yesterday. He is to join mother and me in New York. He said if we should
+try to start from Boston we'd never get off. Some one would plan some
+special function just to detain us."
+
+"I wish that we _could_ detain you."
+
+"You couldn't do it now," rejoined the optimistic Brenda. "After all,
+when a thing is finally settled, I believe that I really love change. I
+shall miss Lettice and my other little niece--she's a dear if she is
+only a baby--but you know I have a niece and namesake in California, and
+my mother and father say they will come out in March--so there will be a
+very short separation."
+
+"And what about me?" asked Martine, in much the same tone she had used
+when Brenda first spoke of going away.
+
+"Oh, you? Why you are better off than you have been for years, with your
+mother to take care of you--and Lucian so near--"
+
+"And no guardian," wailed Martine, in mock sorrow. "Don't flatter
+yourself that you can get rid of me so easily."
+
+"I shall write you and think of you. You will still be my ward, no
+matter where I am. There, there," as Martine leaned over her to touch
+her lips gently to her forehead. "Don't act as if we were parting
+forever. Maggie's red eyes are a constant reproach to me. So please wait
+until I am out of sight before you bid me good-bye."
+
+In spite of her optimism Brenda was far from happy in leaving Boston,
+her friends, and her pretty apartment, even for a limited time.
+Sometimes she thought that the various functions in her honor made her
+going all the harder.
+
+Nora Gostar, who had taken Julia's place at the head of the Mansion
+School, gave a tea to which were invited all the former pupils. Not all,
+naturally, were able to attend, for some of the girls were in situations
+from which they could not be spared.
+
+"I wish we had a picture such as they give with patent medicines
+'before' and 'after' taking," said Brenda. "I can assure you it would be
+worth framing and taking to California. Do you remember what an untidy
+little creature Luisa was when she first entered the Mansion School, and
+how thin and forlorn Gretchen looked, and Maggie, who always lost her
+head when she had an order given her, and Haleema--why isn't she here
+to-day?"
+
+"Oh, Haleema--haven't you heard? She has gone to Lowell to live. Her
+husband is a prosperous rug-merchant and he is very proud of her ability
+as a housekeeper. He has promised to contribute something toward sending
+her younger sister here for a couple of years."
+
+"I knew she had married," replied Brenda, "but I had not heard of her
+removal to Lowell. It's delightful to know how well most of these girls
+have turned out. Even Mrs. Blair admits that the Mansion School is a
+useful institution."
+
+"Yes," said Nora, laughing. "She gave us a handsome donation this year.
+We accepted it gratefully as conscience money for her not letting Edith
+work with us."
+
+"Nora!" cried Brenda, impulsively. "You are a wonder! Of all our four,
+you are the one best fitted to shine in society. But here you go on with
+this work as meekly as if there were nothing else for you to do."
+
+"There was no one else to take Julia's place this year," replied Nora,
+quietly, "and it would have been a great pity either to let the school
+run down or to allow Julia to give up her year in Europe. What fun she
+will have when she goes with the Eltons to Greece, and I am sure that
+when she comes back next year we shall all be the better for her trip.
+She will have so much to tell us."
+
+"Nora, you are a brick!" cried Brenda. "You never have been abroad
+yourself, yet you never utter a word of envy for anyone else's good
+time."
+
+"Besides," continued Nora, "you are wrong about my shining in society. I
+doubt if I should really care for it, even if I had the money to keep up
+that kind of thing. You wouldn't wish me to be like Belle, reported in
+all those silly newspapers as visiting Mrs. This at Lenox, and being the
+admired of all who saw her with Mrs. That at Newport, and sitting in the
+front row, as at the Horse Show, in a gown that was perfectly _chic_.
+Oh, no, I hate that kind of thing, and I sympathize with Edith for
+refusing to be a mere society girl, such as her mother would like her to
+be. But we shouldn't be here by ourselves, for you are the special
+guest, and all the girls, old and new, wish to shake hands with you and
+hear you talk."
+
+In a moment Brenda was again the centre of an admiring group, for all of
+whom she had a bright smile and a word that really meant something,
+while they all took note of her dress and little trinkets, and felt
+doubly pleased that a person of such elegance should show an interest in
+them.
+
+So exact were the observations of her young admirers that before she had
+actually left Boston a hat, a blouse, and a skirt were in process of
+construction by the deft fingers of three of the girls who had taken
+special note of the details of her attire at this Mansion tea.
+
+Martine laughed heartily at Brenda's account of the girls at the
+Mansion.
+
+"I have promised Miss Gostar to go there once a week to give a lesson in
+water color. It might seem a case of the blind trying to teach the blind
+if I were to pretend to teach them much. But the aim is, I believe,
+simply to give them an idea of colors. I wrote to Mrs. Redmond for
+advice while I was away, and it pleased me immensely to have her say I
+should probably do more good than harm by this little experiment."
+
+"Of course you will do good. I have an idea that you could make things
+very clear. In the weeks I lived at the Mansion I learned more than I
+taught, for I am not a born teacher. But it was wonderful to see what
+Julia and Miss South accomplished for their first class of girls. I
+enjoyed my afternoon with the old girls far more than the farewell
+reception mamma arranged for me, and infinitely more than that stiff
+dinner at Mrs. Blair's last week."
+
+"If people kill the fatted goose--or was it the fatted calf?--after you
+reach San Francisco at the same rate they've been doing here, you'll
+have indigestion."
+
+"No danger, my dear. We shall just be nobody there. Mamma has explained
+that I must not expect too much. Here everyone knows who I am--I mean
+everyone I come in contact with. But it will be altogether different in
+the West. We shall just be part of the great crowd of Easterners who
+have left home to better their condition."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"But that _is_ why we are going West,--because Arthur will get a larger
+salary and have more rapid promotion. We are willing to give up the
+things we like best, for a while, and live economically. Oh, dear." And
+with her usual inconsistency Brenda did not try to straighten out the
+quaver in her voice as she concluded with a futile smile.
+
+"How I wish we could stay here!"
+
+"Oh, how I wish you could!" moaned Maggie, appearing suddenly on the
+scene, and the tear-stained face of the latter so amused Brenda that her
+own melancholy ended in a burst of laughter.
+
+When Brenda at last was really away, Martine and her mother began to
+adapt themselves to the new conditions. The cook, of whom Brenda had
+stood more or less in awe, gave warning promptly when she heard that
+there was to be a change of mistresses. Maggie, after much tearful and
+prayerful consideration, as Brenda put it, also decided not to stay with
+Mrs. Stratford. Only her devotion to Brenda had led her to take this
+place, as she really desired work that would occupy her simply during
+the day. Her aunt, she said, was weak and lonely, and she wished to be
+at home with her evenings.
+
+Angelina, learning Maggie's intention, promptly presented herself as a
+candidate for the vacant place. Mrs. Stratford hesitated, for Martine
+had given her an exceedingly humorous account of the Portuguese girl's
+peculiarities,--an account that did not tend to recommend her as a
+reliable domestic.
+
+"Of course, mother, she isn't a cut-and-dried housemaid," plead Martine;
+"but she _is_ so amusing, and if we take her I am sure she will stay,
+for she says she is perfectly devoted to me. I dare say she won't half
+do the work, for she always has several irons in the fire. But I shall
+not mind doing my own room, if we have Angelina, and in fact I'll have
+to do it probably, as she is absent-minded and often forgets to do what
+she should. But she loves waiting on table, and it's a great thing to
+have a cheerful person in the house. _Do_ say you'll take her, mamma."
+
+"There seems little chance of escape for me. From what Angelina herself
+says, I should judge that you and she had already settled matters. I do
+not wish to play the part of a tyrannical parent and so, to please you,
+just to please you, Martine, I will engage Angelina."
+
+"Thank you, mamma! You _are_ an angel. I always knew you were."
+
+"I hope that Angelina is an angel in something besides her name, and I
+wish that her name were less dressy. Would she care if I should call her
+plain Mary?"
+
+"Oh, mamma, not 'plain,' at any rate. I thought you understood that
+Angelina _is_ rather dressy in her feelings. She takes the greatest
+delight in her name. Please don't think of calling her anything else."
+
+So Angelina remained plain Angelina, and on account of her previous
+experience with Brenda, proved very useful to Mrs. Stratford. For a week
+or two a succession of cooks passed in and out of the little kitchen,
+until Martine's mother despaired of ever having the apartment in running
+order.
+
+In this emergency Angelina was only too proud to show what she could do.
+She would not admit that she had ever learned anything from anybody.
+"I'm a natural born cook," she would say; "and if I didn't consider it a
+menial position, I would become a professional. It's on account of my
+Spanish blood, I suppose, that I'm able to season things so well. You
+know in Spain they like things hot and spicy."
+
+"Spanish blood?" questioned Mrs. Stratford, as Angelina turned away.
+"Aren't the Rosas Portuguese?"
+
+"Yes, mamma, or they were until our war with Spain. Brenda explained it
+all to me. During the war Angelina thought it would make her more
+interesting if she called herself Spanish, and now she probably has
+persuaded herself that she really _is_ Spanish. This amuses her and
+doesn't hurt anyone else."
+
+"But I don't like the idea of her being untruthful. This quality may
+extend to other things."
+
+"I hope not, mamma. But then we can watch her."
+
+Lucian, when he heard of Angelina's Spanish proclivities, laughed
+heartily.
+
+"She _is_ worth watching," he said. "Each of us must keep an eye on
+her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ANGELINA'S COUP
+
+
+The first occasion for Angelina to make herself spectacularly useful
+came on the Saturday after New Year's, when Mrs. Stratford invited
+Priscilla and Mrs. Tilworth to dine. The latter had already shown Mrs.
+Stratford some little courtesies, such as she felt were due Mrs. Blair's
+cousin. On account of Martine's growing fondness for Priscilla, Mrs.
+Stratford was anxious to have the two households on more intimate terms.
+Lucian and Robert Pringle were also coming home to dinner, and although
+Mrs. Tilworth was the only outsider, on her account a certain amount of
+formality had been planned for this little dinner for six.
+
+At about four o'clock on the afternoon Angelina knocked at the door of
+Martine's room. Her face wore its most solemn expression.
+
+"Why, Angelina, what is the matter? You look as if you had been drawn
+through a keyhole."
+
+Angelina at first did not reply.
+
+"There, there, speak out! Is it anything very dreadful?"
+
+Martine rose from her little desk, where she had been writing a letter
+to her father, and as she took a step or two toward the door, Angelina
+spoke.
+
+"That depends on how you look on it; it's only that the cook's gone."
+
+"Gracious! you don't mean it. But perhaps she has only gone for a
+walk--"
+
+"Oh, no, Miss Martine. I fear that she's gone for good and all. I've
+been down to her room, and not a vestige of her possessions remains."
+Angelina, even in a crisis, had to use long words. "In fact I may say
+that I heard her trunk being carried away about two o'clock. There it
+went, thumpity, thump down the stairs--those expressmen are so careless,
+and I was quite unaware whose trunk it was, or I might have reported it
+to your mother. But when the luncheon dishes were washed, the cook
+followed the trunk; at least she is nowhere in sight now, and not a
+thing done about this evening's dinner. It's the dinner, and not the
+cook that disturbs me," explained Angelina.
+
+"The dinner! I should say so," responded Martine. "We must get word to
+Mrs. Tilworth at once. She's the fussiest old--I mean she's a very
+particular person, and mother wishes everything to be just so when she
+dines here."
+
+"Of course, Miss Martine. Every guest of Mrs. Stratford's should receive
+the greatest consideration." Angelina's manner was respectful in the
+extreme.
+
+"Dear me!" Martine's perplexity showed itself in her wrinkled forehead.
+"I certainly don't know what's to be done. Mamma and Mrs. Tilworth were
+to come home together from a meeting in Brookline. Mrs. Tilworth is
+always taking people to meetings of some kind. Poor mamma didn't want to
+go, but she couldn't get out of it. There's no way of getting word to
+them until nearly dinner time. Mrs. Tilworth would think it awfully rude
+to uninvite her. The only thing is to let her come, and then we can all
+go out to a hotel or something, and she'll call that very shiftless."
+
+Martine was really excited. She knew Mrs. Tilworth's opinion of people
+who lived in apartments, and she had had a thrill of pleasant
+anticipation at the idea of Mrs. Tilworth's finding everything as
+homelike in their apartment as within the four walls of a detached
+house.
+
+To have to go outside to a hotel would indeed be ignominious--from
+Martine's present point of view.
+
+"Do you think Mrs. Stratford is strong enough to go to a hotel to
+dinner, after being out all the afternoon? I certainly shouldn't advise
+it."
+
+Angelina spoke with all the impressiveness of one in authority.
+
+"You make me think of a trained nurse, Angelina. But what in the world
+are we to do?"
+
+"Come with me," cried Angelina, and Martine, following her to the
+kitchen, noticed as she turned her head that there was a twinkle in
+Angelina's eye.
+
+"Perhaps there's something in the refrigerator," thought Martine;
+"refrigerators always are full of things that can be warmed over. We
+might call it 'luncheon' instead of 'dinner,' and tell Mrs. Tilworth
+that's the way we do in Chicago. She will believe anything about Western
+people."
+
+A glance at the refrigerator did not greatly encourage Martine. There
+were a quantity of cold potatoes, and a great roast of beef for their
+Sunday dinner, as well as eggs, bacon, milk, and butter.
+
+"How frightfully unattractive it all looks--and smells," cried Martine,
+slamming the door. "I never could be a good cook, for I hate the sight
+of raw food. But what _were_ we to have for dinner to-night? What _are_
+we to have now? You wouldn't have brought me out here if you hadn't some
+plan. It's half-past four, and if anything's to be done, it ought to be
+doing now."
+
+"Oh, if you request me to take hold," said Angelina, "I shall be only
+too happy to accept your orders in your mother's place. Come, see!" and
+removing a cloth that had covered the kitchen table, she showed Martine
+an inviting array of vegetables and two pairs of small chickens.
+
+"First of all the dessert," she began.
+
+"Before the soup?" asked Martine. Then remembering that if she stood in
+her mother's place it would be undignified to trifle with Angelina, she
+waited for the latter to disclose her plans.
+
+"What I mean is this," continued the latter; "you can telephone to the
+creamery for ice-cream and cake. The cook had orders to make something
+with a long name, but that's impossible now. Then the black coffee--your
+brother loves to potter with that electric coffee machine--and there's
+plenty of crackers and cheese."
+
+"And finger bowls, too," said Martine, laughing, "that will finish the
+dinner. But how shall we begin? If we begin dinner well, it won't matter
+how it ends."
+
+"Well, there's no trouble about oysters, now, is there? And the
+soup--well, instead of the potage something or other that we were going
+to have, it'll be bouillon with croûtons, and a sprig of parsley on top;
+that always looks foreign, and with my Spanish seasoning, Mrs. Tilworth
+will never know it's plain extract of beef. It won't take me a minute to
+prepare the minced fish, and you can put it in these little shells to
+bake when the oven is hot. The salad won't be any trouble, just tomato
+on a leaf of lettuce. The chickens can be broiled, and there's only one
+vegetable to boil besides the potatoes. The other things like celery and
+radishes only need to be put on attractively."
+
+"But what about these lobsters?"
+
+"Oh, yes, that's an idea of my own. They were meant for salad. But if I
+were you, as long as you've got such a big chafing-dish, I'd have a
+lobster Neuberg. Mrs. Tilworth will expect something out of the
+ordinary, and a lobster Neuberg at dinner is very unexpected."
+
+"And very good to eat, and I'll let Robert Pringle cook it at the
+table."
+
+"Yes, Miss Martine, only I'll prepare the sauce first, so much depends
+on that."
+
+"You're a genius," said Martine; "but who'll wait on table?"
+
+"Why, I will, Miss Martine, if you'll set it now. I'll have my hands
+full until dinner is served, and don't tell your mother about the cook
+until dinner's over. She'll be surprised that the dinner is different
+from what she ordered. But she won't find anything to be ashamed of."
+
+Seldom, indeed, had Martine worked harder than in the hour succeeding
+her discovery of the cook's departure. In setting the table she made
+many little mistakes that Angelina gently but firmly corrected. But at
+half-past five, just before her mother came home, she surveyed the
+finished whole with pride, and then hurried away to her room to change
+her dress as she heard some one opening the door.
+
+"Oh, Lucian," she cried, "if mother asks for Angelina, please say she's
+busy just now; keep Mrs. Tilworth amused until dinner. I wonder why
+Prissie's so late."
+
+"I'm not late," and in a moment Priscilla was with her. "I came in
+without ringing, as the door was partly open."
+
+To Priscilla Martine explained the secret of the dinner.
+
+"Angelina will wait on table, though I don't see how she'll manage. But
+if there's any chance to help things on, you'll do so, won't you?"
+
+"With pleasure," replied Priscilla, not realizing just what her promise
+might involve.
+
+As it happened the dinner went on very smoothly from beginning to end,
+at least almost to the end. Mrs. Tilworth was in her most amiable frame
+of mind, even condescending to smile at some of the inane jokes
+perpetrated by the two Sophomores. This was doubtless due to her having
+a soft spot in her heart for boys in general, as her only son had died
+when he was six years old.
+
+Mrs. Stratford, it is true, looked somewhat mystified at Angelina's
+occasional long absences in the kitchen. But at these moments Martine
+and Priscilla managed to introduce interesting subjects for discussion,
+whereby their elders were diverted from observing the remissness of
+their waitress.
+
+Before the dessert, however, the wait was suspiciously long. Mrs.
+Tilworth, in an aside, had just been complimenting Mrs. Stratford on her
+daughter's ease of manner, when looking up she saw Martine gesticulating
+and frowning, apparently at Priscilla. A moment later Priscilla had
+dashed from the room through the door into the kitchen.
+
+"What's up?" asked Robert.
+
+"What's down?" added Lucian, as a tremendous crash fell on their ears.
+
+"Oh, it's nothing," responded Martine, reddening. She felt Mrs.
+Tilworth's keen eye upon her and wished that Priscilla had acted less
+impulsively. Mrs. Stratford fanned herself nervously. There were
+disadvantages, she began to think, in apartment housekeeping with a
+limited staff.
+
+In the meanwhile what had happened? When Angelina went to the kitchen
+for the ices and cakes, a sorry sight presented itself to her.
+
+The cover of the freezer had been left off,--she had meant it to be but
+a moment, and not the half hour that had really passed. Through her
+carelessness, not only had the ices begun to soften, but some of the
+salt and coarse ice from the freezer had drifted in.
+
+In her efforts to repair the damage, much time had passed before
+Priscilla appeared. Then Priscilla, in her effort to help, had taken
+hold of one side of the heavy tin to lift it to the table. The edge was
+slippery, the tin glided from between Priscilla's fingers, and as it
+crashed back into the tub of ice, a stream of pink and green stickiness
+spurted over her new blue gown.
+
+"No matter about me," cried poor Priscilla, as Angelina began to mop off
+the gown. "I must go back to the dining-room. I can hold my handkerchief
+over the spots. The dinner mustn't be spoiled. My aunt is so critical."
+
+"But there's no dessert. What will they think?" and Angelina looked the
+picture of despair. For to her no festivity was complete without the
+finishing touch of pink and white ice-cream.
+
+"I will explain," began Priscilla. "Isn't there anything to come but the
+ices?"
+
+"Oh yes, cakes and fruit and coffee and cheese." Angelina had already
+recovered her spirit. "I'll hurry in and attach the coffee machine to
+the electric light; that will divert them, while you make the
+explanations. It wouldn't be proper for me in my capacity of waitress to
+say a word."
+
+So Priscilla, hastening back, explained that the ices had met a mishap,
+and she wondered if they all wondered what her part had been in the
+misadventure. No one, however, attached as much importance as Angelina
+did to the loss of the ices. The coffee machine diverted them all. Even
+Mrs. Tilworth was interested in watching the water bubble in the crystal
+globe.
+
+Of them all Priscilla alone was disturbed. She realized, when too late,
+that she must have misunderstood her friend's signals, and that it had
+been Martine's duty, and not hers, to go to the kitchen. Moreover, she
+dreaded the merited reproof from her aunt when the spots on her skirt
+should be discovered.
+
+Mrs. Stratford was amused rather than displeased when Martine, after the
+departure of their guests, explained the whole matter.
+
+"I realized that something strange was going on, and though Angelina
+covered herself with glory so far as the cooking was concerned, she
+certainly did not appear an expert waitress. Then, my dear, if you had
+only given me a hint of the situation, I need not have perjured myself
+to Mrs. Tilworth. She thought everything so exquisitely seasoned that I
+told her all about the cook, how she had lived at Dr. Gostar's and later
+at Mrs. Rowe's. I admitted that the menu was a little different from
+what I had expected, but still--"
+
+"Excuse me, mamma--but why do you suppose the cook left?"
+
+To this question Mrs. Stratford had no answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A DROP OF INK
+
+
+"Somehow I find it awfully hard to settle down to work," said Martine to
+one of the girls at school a day or two after Washington's Birthday. "I
+don't know whether it's the holiday--or what."
+
+"It's 'what,' I think; vacations ought not to hurt us, they are meant to
+set one up."
+
+"How literal you are! Look at Priscilla; she's as busy as can be. She
+knows how to study at school; but then of course there couldn't have
+been anything very exciting in a Plymouth holiday; but although she was
+away only two days I do wonder that she can study so in school."
+
+"It's a sensible thing, all the same, and saves home study. I begrudge
+more than an hour a day out of school, and if you don't work here, you
+surely have to spend three or four hours there."
+
+"You'll have to spend more than an hour a day on home work if you are
+going to prepare that essay. Isn't it outrageous?"
+
+"Well, it's as fair for one as for another. There's no use in talking
+about it now; we must keep at this translation." And for the next ten
+minutes the two girls kept their eyes on their Virgils.
+
+Martine and Grace had gone into a small room off the main schoolroom,
+where a certain amount of conversation was permitted to two girls who
+happened to be studying together. They were not expected, however, to
+wander far from the lesson they had set out to prepare, and idle
+conversation, if overheard, would have carried a reproof. Yet the
+special essay to which Grace had referred was for the time uppermost in
+the minds of most of Miss Crawdon's pupils, and to Martine the necessity
+for writing it was peculiarly disagreeable; she did not pretend to be
+literary; her brightness and energy expressed themselves in far
+different ways. She could talk better than most girls, but when it came
+to putting her thoughts on paper in an extended form, she was really at
+sea. No one sympathized with her when she protested that it was
+absolutely impossible for her to write a ten-page essay on the question
+"Is the pen mightier than the sword?"
+
+"Why, it's what I call the simplest kind of a subject," said Priscilla.
+"We all know that war is a terrible thing and ought to be done away
+with, and that a good book accomplishes a great deal more than the most
+famous battle. That's all the subject means."
+
+"Oh, is it?" queried Martine, somewhat sarcastically. "Well, I'd like to
+see you fill ten large foolscap pages proving it."
+
+"That's easy enough; just get your thoughts together."
+
+"I can get a few of them together, but when it comes to putting them on
+paper, that's quite another thing."
+
+Yet in the face of Martine's evident despair, Priscilla still insisted
+that the subject was not difficult, and that if Martine would simply
+collect her thoughts, she would soon find words to fill ten pages.
+
+"Of course you've got to look up authorities on peace and war and some
+of the poets like Whittier and Tennyson, and Longfellow's 'Ship of
+State,' and say something about 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and look over your
+English history pretty carefully."
+
+"Oh, Priscilla, with all my other lessons? It's quite natural for you to
+know where to find all these authorities and poems, but it's quite
+another thing for me, and there's likely to be some splendid skating
+this month; and it's odious to have to stay cooped up in the house when
+the afternoons are short enough at the best."
+
+But at last Martine had to yield to necessity, and less than a week
+before the day when the essays were to be handed in she sat down for one
+last, and it may be said first, great effort.
+
+Lucian, happening in from Cambridge, laughed as he saw her forlorn face
+as she sat at a table littered with papers.
+
+"What a ridiculous fuss," he cried, "about a little composition."
+
+"It isn't a little composition; it's an essay."
+
+"Well, what's the difference? You ought to have daily themes, then you'd
+know."
+
+"We do, we have them once a week, every Monday morning."
+
+"Daily themes,--once a week!" and again Lucian laughed.
+
+"You needn't laugh, Lucian. Of course it's easy enough to write; that
+isn't the trouble; but it's getting things together."
+
+"What things?"
+
+"My ideas. Oh, if I were only Priscilla."
+
+"Well, you are not; she's altogether different. But what's this?" cried
+Lucian, picking up a paper from the table.
+
+"Oh, that's one of Priscilla's last year's essays. It's perfectly
+splendid, and she thought it might help me to look it over."
+
+"Why don't you get her to help you in some other way?"
+
+"Oh, that wouldn't do. We're supposed to do this all alone. It's a kind
+of test. You see the little themes are different. We write accounts of
+things we see, or that somebody tells us; but Miss Crawdon likes things
+we observe, and I am always seeing something funny. Everyone laughs at
+what I write. But I just can't do a long logical essay, and I don't want
+mine to be the very worst in the class."
+
+"Of course not." Lucian's tone was more sympathetic than usual. "There
+can't be any harm in my helping you." And he took up a pencil.
+
+"I'm not sure," responded Martine; "but still a brother, I suppose, is
+different from anyone else."
+
+"Naturally," said Lucian, undisturbed by any scruples.
+
+In a moment the two were at work, or rather Lucian was working, while
+Martine listened intently.
+
+"First of all," he began, in a professorial manner, "you must think out
+your subject carefully and sub-divide it--so--and so. Then, well,
+whenever you have a thought, write it down on a piece of paper or a
+card--if I were you I'd buy a box of blank cards." Martine instantly
+resolved to pay a visit to a wholesale stationer's, and Lucian spent a
+few moments in cogitation and then wrote down a number of headings on
+small squares of paper. He had never before had so good a chance to
+expose the methods of his favorite English course.
+
+"See, now, you kind of shuffle and arrange your headings, and you begin
+to think of other funny little things to put in, and write them out on
+large sheets, and before you know it, it's almost done. Now try."
+
+Martine tried. Lucian's method was something like a game, and under his
+guidance she made a fair beginning. Before they had fairly started on
+the essay, Lucian talked learnedly about "clearness," and "force," and
+"elegance," and Martine listened, somewhat dazzled by her brother's show
+of knowledge.
+
+"Well, Harvard has done you some good, after all, Lucian. As a sophomore
+you seem to be making up for what you lost in your freshman year."
+
+"There, there, child, no twitting on facts. Of course Harvard has done a
+great deal for me. Why else should I go to college?"
+
+"I wonder what college would do for me. What would you think of my going
+to Radcliffe, for example?" Martine looked anxiously at her brother; she
+had known boys who positively opposed their sister's ambitions in this
+direction.
+
+"Well, if you could get in," said Lucian, "I think it would be a mighty
+good thing."
+
+The "if" nettled Martine.
+
+"What other girls do I suppose I could do too."
+
+"Oh, yes; and if you should turn out like Miss Amy Redmond, or if you'd
+work like Priscilla, why I'd be proud enough of you."
+
+"Ah, Amy's a brick," responded Martine, "but I didn't know that you
+really admired Priscilla. Robert Pringle says she's just the kind boys
+don't like."
+
+"Oh, Robert is too fresh; he can't settle everything, though he thinks
+he can. But here, we can't waste time. Remember that you're trying to
+prove your point."
+
+"Yes, the point of the sword," said Martine.
+
+"No frivolity, child." And by their united efforts they made a draft of
+the essay, which Lucian copied out in his peculiar back hand, and later
+Martine, still further expanding what he presented to her, was able to
+produce ten pages that were not only fairly logical, according to
+Lucian's standards, but in addition had various humorous little touches
+from the hand of Martine. Priscilla was so busy with her own work that
+she hardly had time to observe that Martine had ceased to complain at
+what she had at first called "an outrageous task."
+
+On the morning when the essays were handed in, Miss Crawdon made a short
+speech to the class. "You will be interested, I am sure, to hear that I
+have decided to award a prize for the best essay. I did not suggest this
+in advance, because in a general way I do not approve of school
+competition. You have worked under natural conditions, and although only
+one girl will have a prize, I am sure all the others will see nothing
+unfair in this distinction, since all have had an equal chance. All have
+worked independently without help from anyone, and none have been
+tempted to put themselves under too severe a strain. I ought to say that
+the prize, which consists of the new two-volume 'Life of Tennyson,' is a
+gift from Mrs. Edward Elton. You remember that she was one of our
+teachers here a few years ago and that English was her specialty. When
+she left this school she helped establish the Mansion School in the
+house of her grandmother, Madame DuLaunuy. For more than a year she and
+Mr. Elton have been travelling abroad, but she writes to me often about
+the school, and her interest in our English work still continues."
+
+In the brief interval following Miss Crawdon's speech, those girls who
+had known the former Miss South said one or two agreeable things about
+her to the others, and it pleased Martine to recall that Mr. Elton was a
+cousin of Brenda's. But she was not altogether pleased that the essay
+with which Lucian had helped her was to compete for a prize. In this
+special case Martine was not quite sure of the precise line between
+right and wrong, and until she could decide this for herself, she
+thought it not worth while to discuss the matter with others.
+
+Now it happened, strangely enough, that the essay which in a small way
+had been a snare for Martine also caused some trouble for Priscilla. The
+beginning came on the Friday after the essays were handed in. In the
+early afternoon Priscilla had an errand to do for her aunt at the
+farther end of Commonwealth Avenue. There was no Symphony this week, and
+she enjoyed the change. As she walked homeward, she was in an unusually
+happy mood. It was one of those mild days in late January that seemed to
+be preparing the way for an early spring. The path under the trees in
+the middle of the park was rather wet from melting snow and ice, and
+after trying it for a few steps, Priscilla preferred the sidewalk. There
+she walked down between the rows of nurses with their baby carriages, or
+little children in charge. "A prize baby show" Martine had called it.
+Priscilla enjoyed the show and thought of her little brothers and
+sisters at home as she stopped at intervals to speak to some child she
+knew. From the Avenue she crossed the Garden and stood for a moment on
+the bridge to watch the ice breaking in the pond; and she continued her
+walk along the mall of the Common, until she was opposite Spruce Street.
+Turning into the narrower streets, when at last she reached her aunt's
+house, it seemed particularly gloomy, and she wished that she might have
+stayed out in the sun an hour longer. But she realized that the task
+before her could not be postponed. The weekly theme must be ready on
+Monday, and nothing could be accomplished unless she set herself at
+work. Filling her fountain pen carefully she sat down at a small table
+near the window and began her task.
+
+Although Priscilla frowned slightly, as almost any girl will frown when
+writing a theme, the frown was not very deep. She expected no real
+difficulties at the present stage of her work, as she had already made a
+good draft in pencil, and it only remained now for her to copy it.
+
+At first her pen fairly flew over the paper, but after a time, as it may
+happen even with more accomplished authors, she grew a little weary, and
+rising, she walked to the window. Then she took a few steps around the
+room, at the same time idly flourishing her pen. The habits of fountain
+pens are indeed hard to understand. There certainly seemed to be no
+reason why Priscilla's pen should have chosen the particular moment when
+she stood beside her bureau for a catastrophe. Priscilla herself was
+almost petrified with horror as she gazed at the great black spot on the
+immaculate bureau-scarf. How could one little drop of ink, falling
+carelessly from a pen held upside down, spread itself into such a big
+spot?
+
+After her first resentment against the pen, which she quickly laid down
+on the blotter on her table, Priscilla's irritation took a new form.
+
+"I always hated that bureau-scarf. I always thought it foolish of aunt
+Tilworth to put it in my room. She has told me a dozen times that it was
+made by a favorite cousin who can never make any more like it because
+she's dead. I can't bear to think what she will say when she sees this."
+
+Priscilla went closer to the bureau. Fortunately the spot was on the
+plain material, some distance from the embroidery. It almost looked as
+if she might wash it out--if ink ever could be washed out. If it should
+stay, how could she ever explain the accident to her aunt, since it was
+an unwritten law of the house that ink was to be used only in the
+library?
+
+"This might help a little," she murmured, tearing off a small piece from
+her blotter, and applying it to the spot. But the ink had been so
+thoroughly absorbed that her efforts made no impression. Then she
+remembered something she had read and rushed to the kitchen.
+
+"A glass of milk, is it?" exclaimed the crabbed old cook; "and why
+didn't you send the housemaid?" But Priscilla secured the milk, and
+while she was busily mopping the spot, Martine appeared on the scene.
+
+"You queer child, what are you doing? That milk will certainly spoil the
+bureau."
+
+"Oh no, it's marble underneath."
+
+"But what are you doing? Oh, that spot? But you'll never get it out that
+way. You must use salts, salts of something, I forget its name, only
+it's deadly poison. They'll know what it is when you ask at the
+druggist's."
+
+"Nothing would induce me to touch poison. Please don't suggest such a
+thing."
+
+"But you're not going to taste it or give it to anyone. Just think what
+your aunt would say if she saw that spot!"
+
+"That's just what I have been thinking," said poor Priscilla, feebly. "I
+hate to have her know how careless I have been."
+
+"Then let me go--no, I am going anyway, I want to see how surprised the
+druggist will be when I ask for this salts of something or other."
+
+"He can't appear very surprised if you don't know its name."
+
+"Oh, I'll tell him it's a deadly poison, and that I want it immediately.
+Good-bye, Prissie dear, I'll soon be back, alive or dead."
+
+"Now cheer up, Miss Doleful," cried Martine, when she returned ten
+minutes later. "I got it easily enough, and the man hardly seemed
+surprised, though he put a little poison label on the box."
+
+Priscilla handled the box gingerly.
+
+"There, there," cried Martine, "it won't hurt you! Give it back!" And
+taking off the cover, she disclosed some innocent looking crystals.
+
+Moistening a few of these, she spread the pasty mass on the spot.
+
+"My, how it stings! My tongue is burning."
+
+"You didn't taste it! I thought you said it was poison?"
+
+"Oh, I got some on my fingers. But I know it won't hurt. But there,"
+scraping the crystals from the spot, "it hasn't done a bit of good."
+
+"Yes, it has done a little. I think the ink is not quite so black. But a
+brown spot is about as bad as a black one."
+
+"I'll tell you what we ought to do," and Martine read the label on the
+box.
+
+"We should spread this out in the sun. Then something chemical will
+happen, and the ink will fade away."
+
+"This ink will _never_ fade. I am sure of that, and besides there's no
+sun to-day, and there won't be, because it's after four o'clock."
+
+"To-morrow will do just as well," said Martine.
+
+"If aunt Tilworth doesn't happen to come in."
+
+"What are you afraid of, my dear Prissie? You surely don't expect your
+aunt to whip you like a baby?"
+
+"Of course not. My aunt doesn't mean to be unkind, only she is very
+particular."
+
+"I should say so. Her house shows that she was meant to be a regular old
+maid. How I should love to stir things up a little. I don't suppose you
+dropped that ink on purpose, though the room certainly looks far less
+prim than when I saw it a day or two ago."
+
+Priscilla bore Martine's teasing fairly well, but at last she said
+firmly, "I have wasted a lot of time over this ink-spot. Now I must go
+back to my work. I haven't even prepared my lessons for Monday. I know
+you will excuse me, Martine, and I am ever so much obliged for your
+help."
+
+"On this hint I'll act," replied Martine, gayly. "Your spot is certainly
+worse than the one in Macbeth, though I won't use the language that
+Macbeth--or was it her Ladyship?--used regarding it. But don't worry,
+Prissie dear. I will arrange things so that no one will know what
+happened." And suiting her action to her words, Martine carefully
+replaced the scarf on the table and set a large pincushion over the
+ink-spot, so that not a vestige of the spot, or of the attempts to
+remove it, could be seen.
+
+Then with a word or two more of absurd advice to Priscilla, Martine,
+bidding her friend good-bye, tripped lightly downstairs.
+
+When Martine reached the lower story all was still. Priscilla had said
+that her aunt was at a meeting. Evidently she had not yet returned.
+
+On her way downstairs a mischievous plan had been forming in Martine's
+brain.
+
+"I'll never have a better chance," she said to herself, and she tiptoed
+into the drawing-room.
+
+A noise from the direction of the dining-room made her start. Then
+glancing around she took heart.
+
+"I think I can do it," she murmured, "before any one appears on the
+scene."
+
+Again she felt discouraged as she noted how massive, how immovable most
+of the furniture appeared. A large centre-table in the middle of the
+room pleased her; she pushed it from its place into a distant corner.
+Over it she threw a scarf that had decorated a sofa. Then from the great
+bookcase in the hall she took two or three volumes that she laid on the
+table open and face downward.
+
+"Everything seems glued to the walls," she murmured, "and these tidies
+are so ugly. There can't be much harm in folding them up and putting
+them under the sofa."
+
+Then she paused. "This little scarf--it is Roman, too,--is just the
+thing for Julius Cæsar." And tying the striped scarf around the neck of
+the great conqueror, she bolstered the bust on an easy-chair, draping an
+afghan around him to conceal his lack of body and limbs.
+
+[Illustration: "'This little scarf--it is Roman, too,--is just the thing
+for Julius Cæsar.'"]
+
+Then with one or two minor touches to the room she hurried away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A PRIZE WINNER
+
+
+While Martine was thus mischievously occupied, Priscilla, unconscious of
+what was going on, continued her work.
+
+She had not heard her aunt come in, but when she went down to dinner she
+instantly realized that Mrs. Tilworth was displeased. Was there any
+possibility that the injury to the bureau-scarf had been discovered? At
+once Priscilla dismissed that thought, knowing Mrs. Tilworth could not
+have been in her room, as she herself had not left it.
+
+As the young girl turned toward the dining-room Mrs. Tilworth laid her
+hand on her shoulder.
+
+"This way, please," she said briefly, pointing toward the room where
+Julius Cæsar was enthroned in his easy-chair.
+
+Priscilla could not suppress a smile at the absurd sight.
+
+"Then you did it?"
+
+"I? Why of course not! I haven't been downstairs."
+
+Then Priscilla stopped. She remembered her visit to the kitchen, and for
+the present she was not anxious to explain the glass of milk.
+
+"But who could have done this ridiculous thing? An earthquake couldn't
+have done much more."
+
+Priscilla hardly dared glance around the dishevelled room. Some of the
+results accomplished by Martine were foolish, others were improvements
+on the original arrangement of things.
+
+"You must have had a visitor," continued Mrs. Tilworth, pursuing her
+search for information.
+
+Priscilla was silent. She perceived that Martine had been the
+mischief-maker, and for the moment she was indignant with her friend.
+Martine might have realized that an act of this kind would bring Mrs.
+Tilworth's wrath on Priscilla as well as on the absent perpetrator of
+the mischief.
+
+"Then it was Martine Stratford!" continued Mrs. Tilworth. "I am glad
+that you had no hand in this foolishness, Priscilla. For I take your
+word that you have not been downstairs. But I am disappointed in
+Martine. She has attractive manners, and lately she seemed to be toning
+down. Certainly she appeared very well at the dinner the other evening.
+Her mother, too, is a sensible woman. So it must be her father who
+spoils Martine. The girl has had a training very different from yours,
+and her sense of responsibility is small."
+
+"She didn't mean anything, I am sure of that," protested Priscilla.
+
+"Didn't mean anything! That's just the trouble. After this I must ask
+you to see less of Martine. Really I ought not to have let you spend so
+much time with her."
+
+"Mamma knows all about Martine. She does not object."
+
+"She _will_ object when she learns how disrespectful Martine has been to
+me. As if I did not know how to arrange my own furniture."
+
+Again Priscilla felt like smiling. Martine's hints had been understood,
+even though they might not be followed.
+
+Mrs. Tilworth was a fair-minded woman, and after expressing herself
+clearly on the subject of Martine's misdeeds, she did not try to make
+her niece more uncomfortable. Nevertheless, Priscilla's dinner hour that
+evening was far from cheerful. She wondered if it might not be wiser, as
+well as more honest, to tell her aunt of her own mishap of the
+afternoon. Yet the more she thought of it, the less inclined was she to
+do this. She clung to the hope that with a further effort she could make
+the scarf as good as new.
+
+That night she dreamed of wading through rivers of ink, and in her
+dreams she saw the bust of Julius Cæsar sitting on a bridge with many
+small black ink-spots mottling the bald head.
+
+In the intervals between her dreams she tossed about restlessly, and she
+thought of all the little criticisms that she had ever heard anyone make
+about Mrs. Tilworth.
+
+"After all, she isn't my real aunt," she murmured; "only my uncle's
+widow, and I suppose she just hates to have me here. But she has a kind
+of family pride, and thinks that it will help mamma. I know the house is
+furnished queerly. I heard mamma say that it is neither antique, nor
+modern--only second-rate. Those black walnut things are always ugly,
+even Martine knows better."
+
+Yet in all her ruminations Priscilla had to admit that Mrs. Tilworth had
+always treated her kindly. She had no real grievance against her aunt.
+She was merely afraid of the reproof that her carelessness merited.
+
+Now it was one of Mrs. Tilworth's theories that a girl should make her
+own bed and dust her own furniture. It was a theory, too, that she put
+into practice. Except on sweeping days, Priscilla took entire care of
+her own room. Sometimes she begrudged the time that she had to spend in
+this way. But on the morning after Martine's visit she was pleased that
+no housemaid had the right to handle the things on her bureau. Now, as
+this was Saturday morning, Priscilla took more time than usual dusting
+and arranging things generally. She did not dare move the corpulent
+pincushion lest someone should come in upon her while she was examining
+the ink mark. She knew that her aunt had a morning engagement, and while
+she worked she listened eagerly for the closing of the front door that
+would show that her aunt had departed.
+
+But alas for her calculations! While she was still dusting her
+mantle-piece, Mrs. Tilworth, with hat and coat on, entered the room.
+
+"My dear," began Mrs. Tilworth, kindly, "you must not take to yourself
+all that I said about Martine Stratford. You and she are really very
+different, and although I cannot say that her acquaintance was forced
+upon you, still it came about almost by accident. Had you not both gone
+to Acadia in Mrs. Redmond's care, you never would have known each other
+so well. You are not careless--I see you have been putting your room in
+order. It looks very well, but this pincushion is too near the edge.
+Dear me, what is this?"
+
+Poor Priscilla reddened as Mrs. Tilworth gazed in horror at the spot
+that the cushion had concealed.
+
+Her aunt's praise in the first place had been unexpected, and now she
+felt that she could hardly bear her reproof.
+
+"What is this?" continued Mrs. Tilworth, picking up one of the tiny
+crystals from the cloth and touching it to the tip of her tongue. "As I
+thought, oxalic acid."
+
+"Martine called it salts of lemon."
+
+"So this is some of Martine's work, too. Perhaps she forgot to tell you
+that the salts, or the acid, whichever you choose to call it, is bound
+to eat a great hole in linen--and this the most valued of all my bureau
+covers. Ah, Priscilla, I thought you could be trusted." And pushing back
+the smaller articles that rested on it, Mrs. Tilworth flung the scarf
+over her arm and walked away with it--ink-spot and all.
+
+Priscilla was now more deeply disturbed than before. In no way was she
+willing to have Martine blamed for what she had not done. Her friend was
+already sufficiently disgraced in Mrs. Tilworth's eyes. But now, even if
+she wished, she could not explain. Mrs. Tilworth had gone away for the
+day. In her heart of hearts Priscilla knew that even had her aunt been
+at home she would have found it difficult to explain things in their
+true light. For at the best she must appear extremely careless, and
+quite unworthy the confidence that Mrs. Tilworth had just expressed. Few
+girls are willing at a moment's notice to pull themselves down from a
+pedestal on which they may have been placed.
+
+When Mrs. Tilworth and she were together on Saturday evening, Priscilla
+still found it hard to make the explanation that she knew was Martine's
+due, and she found the task no easier on Sunday. Monday was the day when
+the results of the prize contest were to be announced, and the usually
+calm Priscilla was inwardly perturbed. Her rank in English was high, and
+she could not help wondering if there might not be a chance that the
+prize would fall to her.
+
+"What became of your spot?" asked Martine, mischievously, as she met
+Priscilla.
+
+"Hush," replied Priscilla; "don't talk about it now, it's too, too
+disturbing. But I finished my theme for to-day," she continued more
+brightly, "and now I suppose we shall hear the result of the prize
+essays."
+
+"If I had known prizes were to be given for these essays, I might not
+have sent mine in."
+
+"Are you afraid that you'll get the prize? Really, I think there's no
+danger."
+
+Marie Taggart was noted for her sharp tongue, and Martine controlled the
+quick reply that rose to her own lips.
+
+"Come, Priscilla," she cried, turning to her friend, "let me lead you to
+your seat, so that I can be free to hunt about for a laurel wreath. I
+should hate to be unprepared when the prize is awarded you."
+
+There was an expectant air throughout the class as Miss Crawdon arose to
+announce the result of the essay contest. A moment or two later
+Priscilla's name was called by Miss Crawdon, and as she stepped forward
+to receive the prize, no one in the school begrudged her what they knew
+she had gained by careful and conscientious effort. But everyone, even
+Martine herself, was amazed when Miss Crawdon added, "I have here a
+small card of honorable mention for two girls, one of them Martine
+Stratford and the other Inez Galbraith, who are only second to the
+prize-winner; and although their side of the argument, 'The sword is
+mightier than the pen' is the less popular, I am glad to commend them
+for the independence shown in their work."
+
+Martine's brow contracted as she heard Miss Crawdon's words. She had
+little pleasure in the commendation bestowed on her, for suddenly she
+realized that in letting Lucian help her she had probably done wrong. It
+is true she had thought out each point for herself, following in many
+cases Lucian's suggestion, and she had added many things that her
+brother had not thought of; yet, with it all, she was quite sure that,
+but for Lucian's help, she never in the world could have written the
+essay. Therefore the smiles of approval that met her as she went to her
+seat almost stung her, and Priscilla later, at recess, was surprised at
+Martine's irritability when she asked her how she had managed to deceive
+them all by pretending that she could not write.
+
+Yet Martine had no intention of cultivating an over-sensitive Puritan
+conscience. She was an honest girl on the whole, never intentionally
+untruthful, although sometimes lacking, perhaps, in frankness. This
+latter quality was the one that Priscilla had especially criticised
+during their journey through Acadia. In the present instance Martine was
+not quite sure to what extent she was right, to what extent wrong. If
+only she could talk it all over with Priscilla.
+
+"Priscilla, I know, will advise my telling Miss Crawdon, and then
+perhaps the whole thing would have to be explained to the school, and I
+should feel awfully mortified. It isn't as if I had won a real prize, or
+kept anyone else out of anything--and I have worked hard enough over my
+English to get something. So I'll just imagine it's all right and let it
+go."
+
+Yet in spite of her determination to think little about the affair,
+Martine's conscience was not quite clear, and at recess Priscilla
+noticed a certain change in her manner.
+
+Things were not bettered when Martine reminded Priscilla that she had
+promised to go home with her after school on Monday or Tuesday.
+
+"Monday is better than Tuesday, so you must come to-day, and we can
+telephone your aunt, that she needn't wonder at your mysterious
+disappearance."
+
+"Thank you, really I cannot, I am busy, I must go downtown, and
+besides--" So Priscilla stumbled along, to Martine's great astonishment.
+
+"Oh, I thought you always enjoyed coming home with me. I am sure you
+have often said so; but you needn't if you don't want to."
+
+Martine's air of injured innocence sat ill upon her. She could not
+explain to Priscilla why she was so anxious to have her spend the
+afternoon with her. She could not fully explain this anxiety to herself,
+although the real reason was her hope that a talk with Priscilla might
+settle that little problem of right and wrong connected with the prize
+essay.
+
+If Martine was annoyed by Priscilla's refusal, poor Priscilla was deeply
+disturbed by the turn of affairs. Not for a moment did it occur to her
+that she might disregard her aunt's injunction in relation to Martine.
+Priscilla had been brought up so strictly that, as Martine sometimes
+said, she did not think it possible to disobey "the powers that be,"
+whether teachers, parent, or guardian. In Boston Mrs. Tilworth stood in
+her mother's place, and in consequence whatever she said was law. In the
+present instance, however, obedience was a little harder than usual,
+because she knew that Mrs. Tilworth's severity toward her friend came
+from an error of judgment. Foolish though Martine had been, she was much
+better than Mrs. Tilworth thought her, and Priscilla knew that it lay
+with her to correct her aunt's impression.
+
+"Good-bye, Martine," said Priscilla, as they parted at the corner below
+the school. "Really and truly, I am sorry not to go home with you."
+
+"There, my dear child, someway or other I always have to believe you;
+but all the same you are very ridiculous and disobliging not to come
+with me," and although she smiled as she spoke, Martine's voice still
+held a little bitterness as she turned away from Priscilla and went down
+the hill. Through the week the two went their separate ways--at least
+out of school. In their classes and at recess they were still the best
+of friends. But neither said a word to the other about visiting her.
+Priscilla, conscious of her aunt's disapproval of Martine, was
+tongue-tied, and Martine's sense of wounded dignity lasted longer than
+usual.
+
+On Friday Martine did not go to the Symphony rehearsal, and this in
+itself was not strange, as she not only was not fond of music, but found
+the restraint of Mrs. Tilworth's presence rather irksome. In her absence
+her mother, however, usually occupied her seat, and thus the ticket was
+not wasted. Martine justified her own absences by telling Priscilla that
+it would be selfish in her to monopolize the seat when really her mother
+enjoyed the concert far more than she did.
+
+Nevertheless, until this particular week, it had always been her habit
+to talk the matter over with Priscilla, and often at the last moment she
+would yield to the persuasions of the latter that this particular
+symphony, or that particular soloist was too fine for her to miss.
+
+But when on Friday morning Martine said nothing whatever about the
+rehearsal, and when on Friday afternoon neither she nor her mother
+occupied the seat next Priscilla's, the latter felt that the time had
+come for her to speak.
+
+It is to be feared that that particular symphony meant little to Mrs.
+Tilworth's niece. Discord, not harmony, filled her mind. She hardly
+noticed the execution of the great pianist who was the soloist of the
+day, and when her aunt put a question, her answers were so vague that
+Mrs. Tilworth, glancing at her keenly, said,
+
+"I fear you have been working too hard this winter. It will do you good
+to go down to Plymouth Easter."
+
+The kindness in her aunt's tone encouraged Priscilla, and that evening
+after dinner she told the whole story of the spot of ink. When she had
+finished, to her great surprise, the dignified Mrs. Tilworth began to
+laugh.
+
+"Excuse me, my dear, but it seems to me you have made much ado about a
+small matter. It is true that I value that bureau cover, and I consider
+you most careless in handling your pen, but that you should think me an
+ogre--"
+
+"Oh, I do not, only I knew I had been careless. I meant to tell you, but
+I thought I could get it out first."
+
+"That was your mistake, child. A good laundress could have removed the
+ink if she had had the cover before any one else experimented with it.
+As it is, the oxalic acid weakened the fibre so that we have had to darn
+it. When you see it, you will admit that the work has been done very
+well, but everything would have gone much better had you told me in the
+first place."
+
+"Yes, aunt, I know it, and I deserve punishment. But what I wanted to
+say was about Martine. I know she was silly in doing what she did in the
+drawing-room, but although she seems so grown up, sometimes she acts
+just like a child. Why, I really believe she has forgotten all about
+last Saturday; at least she hasn't said a word to me, and she can't
+understand why I don't go to her house, and I can't ask her here, and I
+do wish that you'd let me."
+
+"I did not mean to forbid you to go to Martine's," responded Mrs.
+Tilworth. "I should be sorry to do that, for, as you know, I like Mrs.
+Stratford. I merely advised you to see less of Martine. There are other
+girls who ought to be just as companionable--some indeed whom you might
+like better, if you would make the effort."
+
+"I had to make an effort to like Martine at first, and now that I am
+used to her, I can't grow intimate with anyone else."
+
+"Very well, my dear, I think still that you are a little tired. If
+Martine sees fit to apologize for last Saturday, we can turn over the
+pages of that chapter."
+
+"Then I may go to see her to-morrow?"
+
+"I never forbade you to go."
+
+"Oh, thank you, aunt Sarah," and as Mrs. Tilworth watched Priscilla's
+expression brighten, she wondered if in some way she had not been wrong
+in thinking the child overworked.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WORD FROM BRENDA
+
+
+Martine was at home when Priscilla called on Saturday morning.
+
+"It's really very condescending in your ladyship to come," she began;
+"and it's a wonder that you found me. I was to take a riding-lesson
+to-day, but by good luck I found when I telephoned yesterday that I
+could have an hour to myself then. So here I have Saturday free, with
+nothing on my mind but your visit and Brenda's letter."
+
+"Oh, have you heard again from Mrs. Weston?"
+
+"Yes; isn't she a dear to write to me when she has so many people who
+really belong to her. She says she considers I belong to her, and that
+she's going to call me her ward until I really come out, and, of course,
+I shall consider myself her ward always. You've no idea how much I
+learned from her this autumn. If she had been a stiff, frumpy thing, I
+just couldn't have paid the least attention to her. I only wish mamma
+would let me do my hair up like Mrs. Weston's, but she says I'm too
+young. Well, in a year I shall be a perfect model of style à la Brenda."
+
+"But what is in the letter?"
+
+"I can't say there's so much actual news, only it makes you just long to
+get out of this cold, bleak climate. Only think of picking roses by the
+bushel in March, and sitting out in the sun without a wrap."
+
+"In San Francisco?" questioned Priscilla. "Why, I heard my cousin say
+that it was always too cold for thin gowns there, and that the winds
+were something terrible."
+
+"Oh, my dear child, you are so literal. No, this is down in Monterey,
+where there are wonderful gardens. Let me read:
+
+"'We are thankful that the rainy season is almost over, for when it
+rains there is apt to be a perfect flood, and we stay indoors for days.
+Sometimes it rains in the morning as if it would never stop, and then in
+the afternoon the sun comes out beautifully and the flowers look as if
+they had grown inches. But after the middle of June there will be no
+more rain until winter, and we can camp or plan excursions without
+casting a thought to the weather. Life, however, is not entirely play
+with us. Arthur is very busy, and often in the evenings he is too tired
+to go out. Consequently we are reading together a number of improving
+things, and when I get back to Boston I am almost sure that every one
+will say, "How much she knows!" I feel as if my new stock of learning
+must show on the surface even before anyone has time to discover it by
+talking with me. Arthur says he doesn't object to it at all, and won't
+do so unless I have to wear eyeglasses, which every one knows I always
+did hate.'"
+
+"The letter certainly sounds like her; when she got started she always
+talked in that breathless way."
+
+"'San Francisco is the most picturesque city I ever saw,'" continued
+Martine, reading Brenda's letter, "'all up and down hills, so that you
+feel as if you were riding over the waves of the ocean when you go out
+in a cable-car.
+
+"'From some of the high places where you go up to get a view, very often
+you only see things dimly through a fog, and then the towers and spires
+seem parts of castles and you can imagine you are in Europe.
+
+"'But although I am perfectly contented here, I often wish I were in
+Boston, and it makes me too blue for anything to remember that except
+for business I might now be living in the dearest little apartment in
+the world. I hope you and your mother enjoy it, Martine, as much as I
+did, and that you and Priscilla are still great friends.'"
+
+Martine let the sheet of paper fall from her hand.
+
+"Are we good friends, Prissie dear?" she asked, leaning forward and
+resting her hand on Priscilla's arm.
+
+"Why, of course, Martine; that's why I came. You see it was all on
+account of that acid, or salts, or whatever you call it, and the
+ink-spot, and--yes--and Julius Cæsar."
+
+"Julius Cæsar?" For a moment Martine appeared to be mystified.
+
+"Oh, yes," she spoke with a smile, "Julius and the Roman scarf, and the
+other improvements that I made in the drawing-room. Mrs. Tilworth blamed
+you."
+
+"No, no, not for that. She knew I couldn't be so silly."
+
+"Thanks, my dear. Then she blamed me. To be honest, I had hardly thought
+about my misbehavior since then. I had a vague idea that you would go
+down before your aunt came in and restore things to their proper
+condition. Now I perceive I must apologize. It's written all over you
+that Mrs. Tilworth will believe me a reprobate until I do so. So that is
+why you have been so very stiff and Plymouthy this week. Oh, Prissie,
+Prissie!"
+
+Priscilla made no reply. Now, as always, she found it difficult to reply
+to Martine's teasing.
+
+"You must stay here to luncheon, Prissie," continued Martine, "and this
+afternoon we'll have some fun. You must have had a very dull week
+without me. Dear me, this drawer is too full," she continued, as she
+endeavored to close a drawer of her desk on the top of which she had
+just placed Brenda's letter.
+
+"Let me help you," and Priscilla rushed over to Martine's side, but
+between them they only managed to pull drawer and contents to the floor.
+
+"There, I will leave you to yourself, Prissie," said Martine; "you are
+better than I at straightening things out. I am going out to the
+dining-room to speak to Angelina."
+
+As Priscilla carefully replaced the scattered contents of the drawer she
+refrained from looking at the letters and other papers that lay before
+her. She acted thus from habit rather than because she thought there was
+any need of this carefulness just now. She had not come upon the drawer
+by accident, and therefore she was at liberty to look at anything that
+attracted her attention. Just as Priscilla's own reflections had taken
+this turn, she allowed her eye to rest on a half sheet of foolscap that
+she had last picked up. The handwriting upon it was not Martine's, and
+almost without realizing what she was doing, she began to read a
+sentence or two. Then somewhat startled, she folded the paper, and
+quickly put it back in the drawer.
+
+"Oh, I wish I hadn't seen it!" she thought. "It was Lucian's
+handwriting, and yet it seemed to be an outline of Martine's essay. I
+wonder if he wrote it for her. They say he does so well in English. I
+wish I hadn't seen it. It doesn't seem like Martine."
+
+Priscilla was genuinely distressed, and when Martine returned, her
+feeling had taken the form of embarrassment. When Martine spoke to her,
+she replied with hesitation, and her manner had some of its old
+awkwardness.
+
+"There," exclaimed Martine, with some acrimony, "you are really rather
+provoking. Here I have been telephoning and planning a good time for
+you, and you begin to seem as icebergy as you seemed at Yarmouth last
+summer. Now listen, first of all I have apologized to your aunt by
+telephone."
+
+"Oh, Martine!"
+
+"Yes, and she says it's all right, and she has forgiven me on condition
+that I never disturb Julius Cæsar again. It was really very good of her,
+when you consider that she couldn't see my blushes of repentance. So
+that is settled. Secondly, you are to stay here for dinner, and go with
+us to a recital this evening."
+
+"A recital, and who is 'us'?"
+
+"Oh, Lucian, and Robert, and me, or 'I,' whichever is most grammatical.
+As to the recital, why, haven't you heard that Angelina intends to
+distinguish herself in elocution? All her little surplus goes for
+voice-training, and things of that kind--and her recital's to-night. I
+should have invited you before, only you have been so high and mighty
+all the week."
+
+"But did my aunt say I could go? She doesn't approve of evening things
+generally--except parties, on Friday or Saturday evenings."
+
+"Well, thank goodness, there's no stupid party this evening."
+
+"But I'll have to go home to dress."
+
+"Oh, Prissie, Prissie! surely you are not growing vain. What you have on
+is suitable for any occasion. Observe that I speak as one in authority.
+Mamma would say the same. The recital is not to be given at the Somerset
+or the Touraine, but somewhere in the outskirts, where 'glad clothes,'
+as the boys call them, would be quite out of place."
+
+"Very well," and Priscilla resigned herself to Martine's stronger will.
+"I suppose it's all right."
+
+"There, dear iceberg, I am glad to see that you have begun to thaw. I
+hope Lucian and Robert will be as amiable. They have no idea what is
+before them, except that I am going to take them somewhere. Once in a
+while Lucian is too amiable to refuse what I ask, and this will be one
+of the times. For my own part, I shall be as thankful as mamma when the
+affair is over, for Angelina has been hopping about like a chicken with
+its head chopped off for a month past. What little mind she has has been
+fixed on her recitations, and I only hope she'll do herself proud."
+
+"Oh, Martine," protested Priscilla, "how can you use so much slang! Just
+think how Mrs. Redmond and Amy used to talk to you last summer."
+
+"Yes, and you too, Prissie dear, and this winter, my own mother. But
+when you begin to deteriorate, you will know that there are moments when
+one's spirits must have a safety valve, and slang is mine."
+
+Priscilla shook her head.
+
+"So now, my dear Prissie, to show that I am not lost to all refining
+influences, let me suggest an hour at the Art Museum. I love pictures as
+dearly as I do not love music, and there are several favorites of mine
+there that I haven't seen for a month. Put on your hat and coat, and
+we'll be there in five minutes."
+
+When they were out in the clear air Martine's tone changed.
+
+"Priscilla," she said gently, "do you know I am a little worried about
+father? He writes as if his business was not going well. He does not say
+it in exactly those words, but he has written only once, and the letter
+was far from cheerful. Either it is his business, or he doesn't feel
+well--and he is so far away. It seems to me now that we oughtn't to have
+let him go."
+
+"But could you have helped it?" asked the practical Priscilla.
+
+"Perhaps one of us could have gone with him--Lucian or I. South America
+seems so far away."
+
+Priscilla's sympathy was readily aroused, and she gave it generously to
+Martine.
+
+"It must be very, very hard for you to have your father so far away,
+especially if you think that he is not quite well. I know how it was
+when papa was in Cuba. It just seemed as if I couldn't bear it, and yet
+I suppose that there was nothing I could do, even if I had been there."
+
+For a moment both girls were silent, though they realized that a bond of
+sympathy was drawing them more closely together.
+
+Then Priscilla essayed the part of comforter.
+
+"You feel worse about your father because he is so far away. They say
+far-off fields look green, but I think that far-off worries are harder
+to bear than those near at hand. I mean when the people or things we
+worry about are so far away that we can't understand exactly what is
+going on."
+
+"Thank you, Priscilla, for your sympathy. I dare say you are right, and
+yet I cannot help wishing that I understood things better. I am old
+enough to help--if only I really knew how."
+
+"The way will show itself if you are really needed. That is one of the
+small things I have learned the past year," responded Priscilla.
+
+"Priscilla, you have helped me; you are a philosopher," cried Martine.
+
+In their hour at the Art Museum Martine recovered her spirits. She
+really knew something about paintings, and her favorites were chosen
+with discrimination. She lingered long and silently before those she
+loved best, and gave reasons for her preferences that would have done
+credit to a connoisseur.
+
+"I don't see how you ever learned so much," said Priscilla. "I feel like
+a perfect ignoramus before you when you talk of these things."
+
+"I did not mean to pose as an expert; you make me feel as if I had been
+too bumptious," replied Martine. "It's only because we've travelled so
+much that I know something of art. I have picked it up little by little;
+even last summer, in spite of our efforts to devote ourselves to
+history, I gained a lot from Mrs. Redmond about color values, and light
+and shade."
+
+"It's a great thing to know just what pictures to like," responded
+Priscilla. "I like some paintings more than others, but I never know
+why."
+
+"Neither do I, my dear child, when we come right down to facts. I know
+why I _ought_ to like certain things, but often those are the paintings
+that I like least. It's with pictures as with people, we admire many
+that we do not care for, and when we care very much, it's often because
+we really cannot help ourselves."
+
+"You and I are so different," mused Priscilla, "I often wonder why you
+like me."
+
+"Priscilla," cried Martine, "don't try to be a philosopher until you
+have left school."
+
+Yet hardly an hour before Martine had been praising Priscilla for her
+philosophy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE RECITAL
+
+
+For a few weeks after Angelina's _coup_ she had little further
+opportunity to show her skill. The successor of the eloping cook proved
+a capable, steady person, so in love with her new place that to
+Angelina's disgust she hardly ever even took the afternoon and evening
+off to which she was entitled. For it had always been Angelina's custom
+in the absence of the cook to entertain some of her own friends in Mrs.
+Stratford's dining-room, and to provide them with refreshments of her
+own concoction.
+
+For doing this she would have justified herself (had she thought she
+needed justification) by saying that no one had ever forbidden her to
+have company--and anyway, Miss Martine would never object.
+
+In this opinion she was quite correct. But, unfortunately, Mrs.
+Stratford, and not her daughter, was in charge, and the former, unlike
+Martine, did not find the Portuguese girl a perpetual source of
+amusement. Neither was Angelina as popular with the new cook as she had
+hoped to be. Her blandishments had never availed so little to get her
+what she wanted.
+
+"And why she's so anxious to get me out of the house, I can in no ways
+understand, Mrs. Stratford, and me as quiet as can be, and never saying
+nothing to her when she sits there reading them novels with the big
+pictures on the cover, or making faces over the pomes she's learning."
+
+"Oh, I don't believe she's anxious to have you out of the way--only--"
+
+"Yes'm, it's just that. She's wishing to fill the place up with company
+of her own, and because I keep an eye to the ice-chest she isn't at all
+pleased. I know what girls is, ma'am, and that Angelina, she's always up
+to something."
+
+Martine, when her mother repeated the substance of the cook's words,
+laughed lightly.
+
+"Oh, it's much more entertaining to have one person in the house who's
+up to something. If they were all as stupid as the cook, how dull it
+would be. But I can tell you what's the matter with Angelina--she is
+going to give a recital."
+
+"A recital?"
+
+"Yes. It seems she has been taking elocution lessons ever since she had
+any money of her own to spend."
+
+"Did Miss Bourne encourage this kind of thing?"
+
+"Oh, no, she disapproved, but she just couldn't stop her. Brenda Weston
+told me all about it. Brenda thought there was no great harm in
+Angelina's amusing herself this way."
+
+"But elocution lessons must cost so--"
+
+"Yes, that's what Miss Bourne said, and she didn't want Angelina to go
+on the stage, as she threatened."
+
+"Angelina on the stage!"
+
+"Yes, mamma. She has even confided to me that she has been answering
+advertisements of companies that want soubrettes. Of course I told her
+it was dreadful, and she's promised to give up that idea for the
+present. But I have taken some tickets for her recital."
+
+"My dear, I wish you hadn't encouraged her."
+
+"Oh, anything else would have seemed mean, and she didn't dare try to
+sell you any."
+
+After Martine's explanation, Mrs. Stratford was more patient with
+Angelina. How could she expect regular work from her until after the
+recital!
+
+This was the affair that Martine persuaded Priscilla to attend with her,
+as well as Lucian and Robert. The four other tickets that she had bought
+in addition to those needed for her party lay unused in her desk drawer.
+No one to whom she had offered them cared for them. The recital was to
+be given in a place too far away.
+
+"You are sure we are on the right car?" Martine asked, after the four
+had been some time on their way.
+
+"You said Chelsea, didn't you? well, this car is bound for the Chelsea
+Ferry," replied Lucian.
+
+"Chelsea," exclaimed Priscilla, "I didn't know we were going there!
+Isn't that awfully far away? I oughtn't to go outside of Boston."
+
+"But this is only across the harbor, and Angelina says the hall is a
+very short way from the dock."
+
+"Oh, very well," and Priscilla sank back in her seat. She must continue
+with her friends and since they were prepared to go to Chelsea, she
+could only resign herself to their plans.
+
+She did not like the ferry-boat. She did not enjoy the walk to the hall.
+Robert's jokes failed to amuse her, and even Lucian's college stories
+grew tiresome. To tell the truth, Priscilla dreaded the explanation she
+must give her aunt. Mrs. Tilworth had readily acceded to her dining with
+Martine. She had objected only slightly over the telephone when
+Priscilla had asked if she might go to a recital with Martine and her
+brother. Priscilla had telephoned even after Martine had obtained Mrs.
+Tilworth's consent.
+
+"I am sorry that it is not to be a musical affair. I do not care for
+miscellaneous programs. But there will be less harm in wasting time
+Saturday than any other evening, but I must ask you to be home early. I
+like to have the house locked at ten."
+
+"Yes, aunt," and as Mrs. Tilworth had asked no questions about the
+performers, Priscilla was spared the necessity of telling her that
+Angelina would be the chief attraction. Yet of one thing she was now
+sure, as the four journeyed Chelseaward--Mrs. Tilworth would be
+displeased if she should be out late, and to return early from Chelsea,
+why, that surely was an impossibility.
+
+"I wonder what your Portuguese calls a short walk," growled Lucian,
+after they had wandered about for some time after leaving the ferry.
+"Thus far, every one we have asked has given us a different location. Do
+you know, Martine, this whole undertaking is a fool thing? Who but you
+would ever have thought of coming to Chelsea for amusement?"
+
+"Thank you, Taps," responded Martine, sweetly, knowing that the old
+nickname would stir Lucian's anger even more. She did not dread Lucian's
+anger, for it never flamed very high, and while it lasted it was
+sometimes rather funny.
+
+"You have good company," continued Martine, in a calm tone,
+ill-calculated to soothe an irritated brother. "Priscilla and I have to
+walk just as far as you, and you ought to appreciate our being with
+you."
+
+Ungallant Lucian did not reply, and the laugh with which the girls
+received some remark of Robert's did not please him.
+
+"It may seem funny to you to be wandering around the streets of Chelsea,
+but it would be more to the point, Martine, if you would gather your
+wits together, and remember the hall where this foolish entertainment is
+to hold forth."
+
+At this moment by some subtle working of her mind light came to Martine,
+and the next moment she had whispered the forgotten name of the hall to
+Robert. Upon this Robert shot ahead of the others, and when Lucian
+caught up with him, he was standing in front of a corner drug-store.
+
+"Come," he said, seizing Lucian's arm, "I'll show you where to go. We're
+ever so far out of our way. If you had left it all to me, we should have
+been there long ago."
+
+Turning the corner beyond the drug-store, and walking a few steps along
+a street parallel to the one on which they had looked for the hall, the
+four young people were soon at the entrance of a large building, the
+lower story of which was occupied by a grocery shop.
+
+In front of the shop was a group of half-grown boys.
+
+"Got a ticket, Mister?" said one of them, holding the green pasteboard
+card to Lucian.
+
+Lucian, who was really an amiable youth, had quickly recovered from his
+annoyance with Martine, and would not gratify Robert by showing vexation
+that the latter had been more successful in finding the hall. He
+suspected the truth--that Martine had helped Robert, and since they were
+now at the hall, what did it matter?
+
+"Got a ticket, Mister?" A second boy held out his hand to Lucian.
+
+"Of course, that's why we're here," replied Lucian. "Are you selling
+them?"
+
+"No, we're giving them away. We want an aujence," was the astonishing
+response.
+
+"What _does_ he mean?"
+
+"We'll soon know, Martine," said Priscilla, following the two others up
+a long flight of dimly-lit stairs.
+
+"Did you ever?" Martine gazed around the hall as they entered; "there
+are not ten people here."
+
+"Just thirty." Priscilla was nothing if not accurate.
+
+"But I thought Angelina said she had sold two hundred tickets, Martine."
+
+"Expected to sell them, Lucian, though, to tell the truth, I thought she
+_had_ sold them."
+
+"I'll wager she gave away half the seats that are occupied now. Those
+are Portuguese faces down in the front."
+
+"I paid for mine."
+
+"I know that, Martine. You always had a foolish habit of getting rid of
+your allowance almost as soon as you received it."
+
+"That reminds me," asked Robert, "is this a charitable performance? It
+would have been more charitable to let us stay quietly in our rooms.
+Just think what a fine four hours of study Lucian and I could have put
+in this evening."
+
+"Yes, you are so apt to study Saturday evening," interposed Martine;
+"but to answer your question, I can't say that this is wholly
+charitable. Part of it is for a girls' club over here--I mean part of
+the profits--and the rest--"
+
+"Here's a poster," interrupted Lucian; "let's see what it says."
+
+"It's easy enough to read. It must have been meant for bill-board
+decoration. Big black letters on green paper. Listen!" and after reading
+aloud place and date, Lucian continued:
+
+    MISS ANGELINA ROSA
+    THE EMINENT MONOLOGUIST,
+    WILL GIVE ONE OF HER CHOICE RECITALS
+    FOR THE BENEFIT OF
+    THE GIRLS' EXCELSIOR CLUB
+    AND A HALF-ORPHAN
+
+"A half-orphan!" shouted Robert. "What in the world--?"
+
+"Why, she means herself, of course; her father is dead."
+
+"Oh, I see!" and then, after the fashion of young people, the four began
+to giggle.
+
+"Hush! the audience will be disturbed." Priscilla was the first to
+recover herself.
+
+"What audience?" asked Martine, looking around the almost empty hall.
+
+"It's fifteen minutes past eight." Lucian closed his watch with a snap.
+"There's something happening. I wonder what it is. Two or three of those
+foreigners have gone behind the curtain."
+
+At half-past eight Angelina had not appeared. Lucian proposed going
+home. Martine thought she ought to find Angelina to learn if anything
+serious had happened. Some of the boys in the front seats scuffled
+angrily. The hall was neither well heated, nor well lit. Every one was
+uncomfortable.
+
+"I think that we really ought to go home," whispered Priscilla,
+half-timidly, to Lucian. But just at this moment the curtain was pushed
+aside, and Angelina appeared in the centre of the stage.
+
+In her pink satin gown with its tawdry trimmings at neck and sleeves,
+she looked "blacker and skinnier than ever," as Lucian put it. Just
+behind her walked a man who stumbled over her train, and then with a bow
+began to speak.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, it is most unfortunate that this lady and I may
+not be able to give our entertainment as advertised."
+
+Hisses from the front soon interrupted the speaker.
+
+"What has he to do with it?"
+
+Lucian looked again at the poster where "Mr. Smithkins, accompanist"
+appeared in small letters at the bottom.
+
+Mr. Smithkins resumed his speech: "The fact is there's been some
+misunderstanding with the owner of this hall, who refuses to let us
+proceed until the rent has been paid in advance."
+
+"Yes, every cent of it," and a stout woman with a red face and a bonnet
+trimmed with purple flowers pushed her way from behind. Angelina waved a
+large red fan nervously, but otherwise did not appear discomposed. She
+was at least the centre of the stage and although the audience was
+small, all eyes were certainly fixed on her.
+
+The eloquence of the stout lady quite drowned the words of Mr.
+Smithkins, making vain efforts to give his version of the situation. But
+after the hubbub had subsided, it was fairly clear to those present that
+Angelina had failed to pay the fifteen dollars she had promised in
+advance for the hall. Moreover, it was even clearer that Mrs. Stinton,
+the owner of the building, meant not only to stop the entertainment, but
+also to prevent Angelina's "skipping," without giving her her due.
+
+"Will they arrest her?" asked Priscilla, anxiously.
+
+"Oh, no, of course not; Angelina must pay the money."
+
+"But you heard Mr. Smithkins say that she had been disappointed in the
+sale of tickets, and hadn't a cent even to pay him, and if he could
+afford to wait, Mrs. Stinton ought to be able to wait too."
+
+"Give us a song or a pome," called a voice from the rear of the hall.
+The boys, who had been lounging at the door, were now inside.
+
+Lucian and Robert rose from their seats.
+
+"Excuse us for a moment," said the latter to Martine as the two made
+their way out into the aisle.
+
+"Why, they're going behind the scenes," said Priscilla, in surprise.
+Still more surprised was she when Lucian, raising the curtain, beckoned
+to Mrs. Stinton. The latter, impressed by the young man's appearance,
+went behind the curtain, and Mr. Smithkins, anxious to understand what
+was going on, followed her. Thus Angelina, to her own great
+satisfaction, was left in possession of the stage.
+
+When Mr. Smithkins, a little later, appeared before the audience, he had
+the pleasure to announce, as he phrased it, that Mrs. Stinton's demands
+had been paid in full by a friend of the talented Miss Rosa, and that
+the performance would go on as advertised.
+
+In promising this, however, Mr. Smithkins went a little too far. The
+cold hall, the low-necked gown, the long wait in which the young
+monologuist had heroically concealed her anxiety, all proved a great
+strain for Angelina.
+
+Although she began bravely enough with what she considered the gem of
+the repertoire, the monologue was given quite tamely, and though she
+continued it to the end she was evidently glad to stop. It was at this
+point that Mr. Smithkins showed himself of especial service, as he
+seated himself at the cracked piano. There he pounded out a number of
+popular airs to the great delight of the audience, and received far
+greater applause than poor Angelina.
+
+Nevertheless, when Angelina appeared for the second time, there fell at
+her feet a large bouquet of carnations, for which she bowed her
+acknowledgments several times.
+
+It was all very pathetic as well as absurd. The dimly-lit, cold hall,
+the empty seats, the little figure bowing on the platform. Martine,
+always ready to see the amusing side of things, began to laugh. The rest
+of her party, even the considerate Priscilla, echoed the laugh. Then it
+spread to the front seats, and when Angelina was in the midst of her
+second selection, one in which she meant to move her audience to tears,
+all she could hear was one prolonged giggle. Poor Angelina! This
+laughter was the last straw. Still holding the flowers and the fan, she
+threw one angry glance toward the house, and then turning her back on
+friend and foe alike fled behind the curtain.
+
+"There, Martine, you've done it. It was your giggling that set them off.
+You ought to go behind and console her." Lucian seemed in earnest.
+
+"It's half-past nine." Robert looked at his watch.
+
+"Then we ought to start for home. We are so far away."
+
+There was nervousness in Priscilla's tone.
+
+Martine had made no effort to go to Angelina.
+
+"How is the prima donna to get to town?" asked Lucian. "Are you going to
+look after her, Martine?"
+
+"Oh, no, her brother John is here. He is that tall, good-looking youth,
+standing near the door. She can depend on him."
+
+"Then we may start," continued Lucian, "even if the show isn't wholly
+over. We cannot wait for further instalments."
+
+"We've had more than the value of our money," added Robert. "Mrs.
+Stinton's performance alone was worth the price."
+
+"Yes, girls, you should have heard her express her surprise and
+gratitude when we gave her the fifteen dollars, and when we told her we
+were Harvard students, she could hardly believe it."
+
+"But what did Angelina think?"
+
+"Oh, we told her, Martine, that you had sent it, and that she must pay
+it back gradually. So you see that you, dear sister, will make the most
+out of this evening, as we'll let you keep whatever she pays back."
+
+With Angelina's _fiasco_ to talk over, the four found the journey back
+to town much less tiresome than the "voyage," as Martine called it, to
+Chelsea. It seemed shorter, perhaps, because Robert discovered that they
+could return to Boston by a bridge instead of the ferry. When at last
+they left Priscilla at her door, it was not as late as it might have
+been if Angelina had carried out her full program.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MARTINE'S ALTRUISM
+
+
+In spite of her love of fun, Martine was considerate enough not to tease
+Angelina about her recital. Later, by degrees of her own accord, the
+little Portuguese told the story. After all, there was not much to tell.
+She had depended on a few posters scattered at random to fill the hall.
+She had thought that the girls of the Excelsior Club would sell many
+tickets. But she had fixed the price so high that the girls could
+neither afford to buy them, nor succeed in disposing of them to their
+friends.
+
+Moreover, on the night of the recital, a Grand Army fair was holding an
+auction to which admission was free, and thither every one with a penny
+to spend had rushed, hoping for bargains. Even if Angelina had been a
+well-known elocutionist, she would have had difficulty in drawing people
+from the greater attraction.
+
+"But I never thought," she said, "that some of the people who regularly
+bought tickets from me would never pay for them, just because they
+thought it was too much trouble to go when they found out how far away
+the hall was. My brother John bought and paid for tickets, and so did
+you, Miss Martine, and with the tickets I sold I just made out to pay
+Mr. Smithkins the ten dollars I'd promised him. But it was very
+embarrassing about the hall--and if it hadn't been for your fifteen
+dollars, I don't know what I should have done."
+
+Martine did not explain her brother's part in the matter.
+
+"Of course, that Mrs. Stinton could have charged it as well as not. It
+wouldn't have been anything to her. They say she owns a whole block of
+houses down by the ferry. But it's my last of the Excelsior Club. I
+consider they went back on me."
+
+"I hope you have learned a lesson, Angelina. You ought not to have
+promised to pay for the hall until you were sure of getting enough money
+out of a recital. You should have waited--"
+
+"But I couldn't give a recital without a hall, and I should have paid if
+I'd sold more tickets."
+
+"Well, this ought to be the last of your recitals."
+
+"Didn't I do well?" asked Angelina, anxiously.
+
+"Oh, that isn't the point."
+
+Martine did not care at this moment to give her precise opinion of
+Angelina's dramatic ability.
+
+"But you see, this must have cost you a great deal, and you ought to
+save your money--everybody ought, and life is more serious--there,
+Angelina--I'll leave it all to mamma. She'll advise you," concluded
+Martine, feeling that she was getting into deep water, in advocating
+principles that she herself had not always been able to live up to.
+
+The experience of that memorable Saturday, combined with the advice
+given by Mrs. Stratford, so far influenced Angelina that for the time
+she devoted herself exclusively to her household duties, ceased to take
+elocution lessons, and began to save money. At first she offered to pay
+Martine a dollar a week, but when the latter learned that Angelina had
+other debts, she urged her to consider them first.
+
+"I can wait," she said, "and when you have finished paying for that pink
+satin dress--it would be a good idea for you to make your mother a
+present."
+
+Nora Gostar, who always kept closely in touch with the Rosas at their
+home in Shiloh, had asked Martine to influence Angelina to do more for
+her family.
+
+"Ever since the Four Club years ago began to help the Rosas, Angelina
+has taken it for granted that the public would look after them. It is
+true that on the whole they are now fairly prosperous. With her boarders
+and her garden Mrs. Rosa makes both ends meet, and John always has
+something to spare for his brothers and sisters. It is only Angelina who
+seems ready to escape all responsibility. You will remind her, won't
+you, Martine?"
+
+"Yes," said Martine, "but some people say I haven't enough sense of
+responsibility myself."
+
+"My dear, then no one has observed you lately. You certainly have taken
+hold splendidly of the girls in your painting class. Two or three of
+them, you know, have been called 'hard cases.' No one else ever could
+interest them, and yet they seem perfectly devoted to you."
+
+"Oh, they are so amusing," said Martine, "that I can't help throwing
+myself into the work, and then I find out what they want to do, and let
+them do it. It's silly to make people do things they dislike. Of
+course," she added, with some embarrassment, "I am aware that this
+wouldn't be the right principle if I were a real artist, and were trying
+to make artists out of them. Some of them can't even draw, but they do
+take an interest in color, and so I am always hunting for good pictures
+in black and white--and their color effects sometimes are quite
+wonderful."
+
+Martine did not explain that not a little of her own pocket money was
+spent for pictures suitable to her rather original method of conducting
+the class. Photographs and lithographs cost money, and though Amy
+remonstrated that it was contrary to art to gild the lily, Martine
+replied that the end would justify her means.
+
+Among her six little pupils only one showed marked talent. She was a
+Russian girl who had been in Boston but a year, and her gift took the
+form of a genius for making caricatures.
+
+Her pencil was constantly in her hand, and even with her brush she could
+outline figures and scenes on the margins of her pictures that would
+send the others into fits of uproarious laughter.
+
+"Esther, Esther," Martine said one day, "you should never make fun of
+older people. Who is that tall, thin person, with the lorgnette in her
+hand?"
+
+"That's teacher," explained one of the others, "the teacher in our
+school. It's her dead image, ain't it?" and the friend to whom she
+turned for confirmation, nodded, adding--
+
+"When she's mad she puts her glasses up just so--and we all feel cheaper
+'n thirty cents."
+
+"I hope you don't make fun of me this way, Esther, behind my back."
+
+"Oh, no'm, you ain't a teacher."
+
+As Martine was already aware that her girls always spoke of her as "the
+young lady," this doubtful compliment passed without criticism. Neither
+in her heart did she think it wise to criticise the little girl's
+caricatures.
+
+She was delighted when Mrs. Redmond, after looking at Esther's drawings,
+said that the child had real talent. Then without further delay, without
+indeed consulting anyone, Martine engaged an expensive teacher to give
+Esther drawing lessons once a week. Mrs. Redmond would have taught her
+gratuitously, had she not felt that the little girl's peculiar talent
+would be best developed by a teacher who made a specialty of figure
+drawing.
+
+Before Mr. Stratford's departure for England Martine had suggested that
+he add to the sum he had given her for Yvonne. To the little Acadienne
+had gone one third of three hundred dollars. This was a sum that Mr.
+Stratford had asked his daughter to share with her two friends Amy and
+Priscilla, and expend on the three young people in whom they had taken a
+special interest during their trip through Acadia.
+
+It had surprised Martine not a little when her usually generous father
+had hesitated about granting her little request for Yvonne.
+
+"Send her ten dollars from your own Christmas money, dear child, and
+later I will add to it. Your desire to help her pleases me very much,
+but just now I would rather not promise a large sum."
+
+"But I did not mean _very_ large, papa; only enough for Alexander Babet
+to bring her up here and stay for a few months, until the doctors know
+what can be done for her eyes. It would make you happier, wouldn't it,
+papa, to know that she could see perfectly?"
+
+"Indeed it would, Martine, but just now I would rather postpone anything
+of this kind. Besides, even if I were a second Croesus, I should be
+more inclined to wait until I could have more thorough knowledge of the
+condition of the Babet family."
+
+"Oh, papa, surely you believe what I have told you--that Yvonne is
+almost blind, and that she has the most beautiful voice."
+
+"Yes, my dear, but I know also that the Acadians are thrifty, and that
+the Babets will spend your gift so carefully, that it will go farther
+than five hundred dollars with most people. Some day we shall do more
+for Yvonne, but for the present she must be content with what she has."
+
+So positively did Mr. Stratford speak, that Martine, too, had to be
+content. She managed, however, not only to send the money that Mr.
+Stratford had suggested, but a box of slightly worn garments that could
+be adapted to the use of the little blind girl. She remembered Yvonne's
+love for pretty things, and what she sent had only enough of the newness
+worn off to enable the box to pass the watchful customs officials of
+Nova Scotia.
+
+Priscilla did not pretend to be as altruistic as Martine, though both
+professed to take Amy for their model. Yet letters between Eunice and
+Priscilla passed back and forth constantly, and after reading them
+Priscilla was apt to sigh, and fall into a brown study; for Eunice,
+having for the first time found a confidante of her own age, opened her
+heart almost too freely, and in emphasizing the disappointments of her
+daily life, sometimes threw a cloud over her friend. This is a mistake
+made by some young letter-writers. They write intensely of personal
+disappointments that soon pass away. Yet the letter that they send seems
+to give permanence to their troubles, and if the person to whom they
+write is sensitive, she pictures the absent one as continually unhappy.
+
+Eunice and Balfour Airton were brother and sister living with their
+mother in Annapolis. They had been able to make pleasanter than it might
+have been the stay of Mrs. Redmond and the three girls in the old town.
+
+Eunice and Priscilla had soon become warm friends, and after their
+comparatively short acquaintance parted almost in tears. The Airtons
+were descended from Tories who had gone to Nova Scotia after the
+Revolution, and had always been highly respected. Even before the death
+of Eunice's father, however, they had lost much of their property, and
+were under a heavy strain to make both ends meet. Balfour Airton, who
+was a year or two older than Martine, was working his way through
+college. In his vacations he served as clerk in a grocery shop. Indeed,
+Martine had made his acquaintance one day when lost in the fog on the
+North Mountain. She had been rescued by Balfour, who fortunately drove
+up in his grocery cart.
+
+Balfour proved a most companionable boy, and his energy and industry
+made a great impression on Martine, when she contrasted him with the
+idler college boys whom she knew.
+
+By a combination of proofs needless to describe here, Martine discovered
+that she and the Airtons were third cousins, since their
+great-great-grandfather and hers, Thomas Blair, was the Tory exile who
+had gone to Nova Scotia after the Revolution. In the same way Edith
+Blair, Brenda's great friend, was a cousin of Eunice and Balfour, and
+Martine's first impulse on returning home had been to urge her father
+and Mr. Blair to provide for Balfour, so that he no longer need earn his
+way through college.
+
+Fortunately enough, before she had spoken to her father, she talked the
+matter over with Mrs. Redmond.
+
+"My dear Martine, I sincerely hope that you will change your mind about
+this. Or, if you do not, hope that your father and Mr. Blair will be
+hard-hearted enough to refuse your request."
+
+"How hard-hearted _you_ are, Mrs. Redmond!"
+
+"No, indeed, not hard-hearted--only hard-headed."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I am looking strictly to the practical side. In the first place, you
+would risk the loss of Balfour's friendship, if you should put him in
+the position of a pauper--for this is the light in which he might regard
+your interference."
+
+"Oh, no, not a pauper!"
+
+"Well, Balfour is very proud--and in the second place, he could not
+afford to risk his independence, as he must, if he should accept money
+from strangers."
+
+"But they wouldn't be strangers; in the South third cousins are very
+near."
+
+"Well, this isn't the South, and the relationship is on your mother's
+side, and Mrs. Blair's. Balfour would probably regard the men as
+strangers. Think over what I have said, Martine, and remember Balfour's
+disposition."
+
+"It is because he is so bright and industrious that I think it a shame
+that he should not have as good a chance as Lucian or Robert."
+
+"Balfour has the best possible chance. In the end his friends will be
+proud of him, and he will be thankful that no one took away his
+independence."
+
+Martine was sufficiently impressed by what Mrs. Redmond had said to give
+up for the time the plan she had formed of getting help for Balfour.
+
+When she saw that her father was not quite ready to do what she had
+planned for Yvonne, she was glad that she had not thrown on him the
+extra burden of considering the case of Balfour. She decided, however,
+to interest Lucian in Eunice's brother. In spite of Lucian's fondness
+for teasing Martine, he was really devoted to her. He was apt in the end
+to be influenced by her, although in the beginning often pretending to
+resist her influence.
+
+In his Freshman year, Lucian was drifting into the extravagant habits of
+an idle group from the preparatory school where he had fitted for
+Harvard. Fortunately, however, at the critical moment he came under the
+ken of Fritz Tomkins--a Junior. Between the two there then sprang up a
+friendship rather unusual in its way. For even at Harvard Freshmen and
+Juniors are seldom intimate. So it happened that when the summer came,
+instead of going to Europe with two or three of his classmates, Lucian
+really preferred a trip with Fritz. The two went to Nova Scotia, and the
+constant companionship with the sensible Fritz had given Lucian new
+views of life, or not to put it too seriously--of the value of time and
+money. Fritz himself was gay and light-hearted, fond of teasing his old
+friend Amy Redmond, and willing always to have others laugh at him. But
+beneath all his apparent frivolity was a depth of purpose that those who
+knew him best fully realized.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+PUZZLES
+
+
+In the weeks immediately after the recital Martine and Priscilla were
+both so occupied with their studies and their little duties and
+pleasures that they saw less than usual of each other. Martine, on whom
+care sat rather lightly, ceased for the time to worry about her father.
+
+She noticed, it is true, that her mother did not read her father's last
+letter, which arrived about a week after her conversation with
+Priscilla.
+
+"Is everything going on properly?" she asked eagerly, as her mother
+folded the letter within its envelope.
+
+"I hope for the best, dear. It seems too bad that your father had to go
+away at this time. It was a long, hard journey, and there are still
+difficulties before him."
+
+"Oh, I wish we could help, Lucian and I, I mean."
+
+"You can help; indeed you have helped me immensely, by being bright and
+cheerful and--"
+
+"Yes, and economical. Once in a while it seems strange to have to stop
+and think of money. I bought two-dollar seats for the Paderewski
+matinee, although the three-dollar seats were much better, but I thought
+that as I had invited Priscilla and Grace--as well as Miss Mings--our
+history teacher--and as we were to go to the Somerset afterwards, I
+ought to be economical."
+
+Even Mrs. Stratford smiled at Martine's intended economy, as she said,
+"But my dear, I think perhaps it would have been wiser to pass this
+matinee by. You are not fond of instrumental music, and the whole thing
+means spending more money than you ought to spend in this way at
+present."
+
+"Then I'll take it out of my allowance. Of course I meant to anyway. I
+don't honestly care much about Paderewski myself, but Priscilla does,
+and most of the girls are wild about him, and everyone is going, so I
+should feel very silly to have to say I hadn't been."
+
+"Very well, my dear, I cannot criticise you, for I gave you my
+permission, but in future you must think more about the cost of things."
+
+"Yes, mamma! indeed I often think of economizing, for even though it is
+pleasant here, living in an apartment with only Angelina and a cook is
+very different from being in our house at home, and I know we're here to
+save money. How some of the people we know would stare to see us trying
+to help with the work! why, the week the cook left I actually saw you
+washing dishes."
+
+Mrs. Stratford smiled faintly; some of her Boston experiences had been
+trying, but she had said little to Martine about them.
+
+"So far as I am concerned," added Martine, "I have enjoyed everything in
+Boston. I have learned lots about cooking, and if it wasn't for school,
+sometimes I think we could manage just with Angelina. But I am going to
+economize so that papa will hardly know me when he comes home in June. I
+can get along with only one tailor-made suit, and perhaps two or three
+new silks this spring. But I do hope we can plan something worth while
+for the summer. Wouldn't you like the Yellowstone, with our own special
+guide, papa, Lucian, and all of us, and I could invite Priscilla, and we
+might have a few weeks in one of those big hotels among the mountains.
+What sport it would be!"
+
+Martine paused, almost out of breath.
+
+"We can't make many plans until we hear from your father," replied Mrs.
+Stratford, quietly, "but what you suggest isn't exactly in the direction
+of economy."
+
+"Oh, I didn't suppose we'd have to economize always. Then you ought to
+speak to Lucian, mamma, he has ordered a new touring car."
+
+"That is the worst of indulging a boy from the cradle," and Mrs.
+Stratford sighed. "Last year your father told him he might have a new
+car this spring, and Lucian thinks he's very moderate because he is
+keeping within the two-thousand-dollar limit. I don't like to stop him,
+for if things come out as well as they may, he can have it."
+
+"Two thousand dollars!" exclaimed Martine, to whom figures usually did
+not mean much. "That is a large sum! Why, it would put a boy through
+college."
+
+She was thinking of Balfour Airton, and all that this amount of money
+would do for him.
+
+"Mrs. Blair," continued Martine's mother, "calls Lucian very moderate in
+his college expenses. He stands well in his classes, too. She says that
+Philip spent three times as much."
+
+"And he had to leave Harvard without a degree!"
+
+"He has made it up since, and he is doing splendidly in business."
+
+"Edith says it's Pamela's influence that has done so much for him."
+
+"He was lucky enough to find a girl like her to marry him."
+
+"She certainly is a superior woman--even if she is country-born and a
+college graduate, as Mrs. Blair would say," responded Martine, smiling.
+"If only they lived nearer, I should spend half my time with cousin
+Pamela--if she'd let me, but Lincoln seems far away in the winter.
+That's one thing we'd gain from Lucian's new car; those out-of-town
+places would seem close at hand."
+
+Lucian, when Martine spoke to him about his car, admitted that he had
+ordered it, and he tried to laugh away her concern over family affairs.
+But his efforts in this direction were not really successful, and he saw
+that his sister was still troubled in spite of his argument that, if
+things were really going badly, he would have heard more from his
+father.
+
+"He'd be the last one to wish me to countermand the order. Why, every
+fellow in our set has a new machine this spring. I thought I was doing
+something to send my order in so early, though of course if worse comes
+to worse, I can get rid of it easily enough. Mine is to be ready in
+June, and I know a fellow who would take it off my hands gladly enough,
+as he can't get his until August. I'm going to pray, however, that
+things won't come to that pass."
+
+Martine, fortunately, was not inclined to borrow trouble, and although
+she by no means forgot the little conversation with her mother regarding
+her father's business, remembering it did not depress her. Life in the
+spring, even in a bleak New England spring, holds so many pleasant
+things for a girl of seventeen that intangible troubles are not likely
+to prevent her enjoyment of the present.
+
+Martine was popular at school, and her invitations far exceeded those of
+the majority of her classmates. The younger girls liked her because she
+was always cheerful, and never snubbed them. The older girls admired her
+because she had an air of knowing the world, and was ever ready with
+some amusing story. She was popular without having many intimate
+friends, and Priscilla was proud of the distinction of being the one
+girl who knew Martine the best. Here and there, naturally enough, there
+were girls who did not care especially for Martine. There were one or
+two who professed an inherent dislike of outsiders, as a class, and
+there were others who found fault with Martine in particular. They said
+that she was forward, that she was patronizing, and that her liberality
+in the spending of money was merely a way of "showing off" of which they
+did not approve. But the fact that Martine, at the beginning of the
+school year, had been dubbed "Brenda's ward" was more effectual than any
+other one thing in placing her within the inner circle of the school. In
+spite of the years that had elapsed since Brenda was a pupil at Miss
+Crawdon's, she and her doings were still remembered. Older sisters had
+talked to younger sisters about her, and everyone knew that she had been
+the most popular girl of her day. She was still spoken of most
+habitually as "Brenda," even by those who had not known her well. For in
+Boston the unmarried names of girls cling to them longer than in most
+cities, and those who immediately recalled "Brenda Barlow" had to think
+twice when "Mrs. Arthur Weston" was named.
+
+Priscilla, who was nothing if not exact, remonstrated occasionally with
+girls who spoke of Martine as "Brenda's ward."
+
+"She never was really her ward, you know, only Brenda was to chaperone
+her, and now that Mrs. Weston has gone away, it seems to me that the
+name ought to be dropped."
+
+The girls to whom Priscilla spoke only laughed at her.
+
+"My dear child," said Marie Taggart, "from the way you cling to her, I
+judge you would rather have Martine called 'Priscilla's ward,' but
+Brenda is so far away that you mustn't be jealous of her, really and
+truly you must not."
+
+After this Priscilla said no more on this subject, although an observer
+would have noticed that she herself never spoke of her friend by the
+obnoxious title.
+
+When Mrs. Stratford and Martine first took possession of Brenda's little
+apartment, Brenda's mother and sister, Mrs. Barlow and Mrs. Weston,
+added much to their pleasure by introducing them to their large circle
+of relatives and friends and in other ways, as Mrs. Barlow put it,
+"adopting" them in Brenda's place. But before January had come to an end
+the whole Barlow household was itself preparing to move. His physician
+had prescribed a change of air for Mr. Barlow, and after a few weeks in
+Florida the family intended to travel West, to join Brenda in California
+in the late spring.
+
+It happened, therefore, that the special groups to whom Mrs. Barlow had
+introduced the Stratfords felt no personal responsibility for them. This
+was not because they did not find the Chicagoans interesting, but
+because the latter seemed able to make their own friends without the
+help of a third person.
+
+"It would be a great bore, mamma," Martine had protested, when one or
+two of Mrs. Barlow's friends urged that the young girl should join a
+certain exclusive dancing-class. "It would be a great bore if we had to
+act as if we were real old Bostonians. We are not, and though some of
+the sewing circles and dancing-classes, and afternoon-readings are
+offered us kindly, I do prefer to be independent and know only the
+people I want to know and do only the things I really wish to do.
+Anything else would be a nuisance, so please don't let anyone make
+social engagements for me."
+
+Mrs. Stratford herself was not strong, and she really preferred a quiet
+life. Later she saw that Martine herself had been very wise in her
+attitude of independence. Martine indeed was happy enough--happy in her
+school acquaintances, happy in her friendship with Priscilla, and
+happier in her affection for Amy. It is true that Amy in this her last
+year of college was too busy to give much time to Martine, but when
+occasionally they had a half-day together, no one could have doubted
+their perfect understanding of each other.
+
+On the morning before the matinee to which Mrs. Stratford had referred,
+or to be more exact, at twelve o'clock on the very day of the great
+Paderewski recital, Martine ran out to the letter-box to post two or
+three notes. Angelina could have taken them for her, or she might better
+have followed the custom of the house, which was to give them to the
+hall-boy. But Martine had not been out that morning, as illness among
+her drawing pupils had occasioned a postponement of the usual Saturday
+lesson. She had therefore seized on the letters as an excuse for getting
+a breath of the fresh spring air that came in through the half-open
+windows, tantalizing her and urging her to leave the house.
+
+"I half wish I were not going to the recital," she said to herself, "on
+a mild sunny day like this I begrudge the hours I must spend in a
+crowded hall, and though I won't have to pretend to be in a seventh
+heaven over the music, yet it will weary me to have to show a proper
+degree of appreciation in the presence of my guests." So ran the course
+of Martine's thoughts as she approached the letter-box. After a turn or
+two in the mall under the trees, she walked back slowly toward the
+house.
+
+"After all," she mused, "mamma was probably right. I have been
+extravagant. The tickets have really cost a pretty sum, counting
+premiums and all. For what is the good in inviting guests, unless one
+has the very best seats?"
+
+This thought of the seats inclined Martine to look again at her tickets,
+and as soon as she reached her room she went to her desk to look at
+them.
+
+"Mamma," she called, "you haven't by any chance seen a narrow envelope
+with my Paderewski tickets?"
+
+"No, my dear," replied her mother, "surely you haven't lost them?"
+
+"Oh, no, I remember now, I put them in a larger envelope; they were
+lying here with my letters."
+
+A moment later Martine stood before her mother with dismay written on
+her face. "What do you suppose I have done? it's too foolish and too
+annoying for anything. I can't find the envelope with the tickets and I
+really believe that I dropped it into the letter-box."
+
+"Oh, Martine, I thought you'd outgrown those careless habits!"
+
+"I thought so too, but there's no use in crying about spilled milk; I
+will try to do what I can to get the tickets from the postman."
+
+"There again you talk like a baby," said Mrs. Stratford. "Surely you
+must know that no postman can give you anything from a letter-box simply
+because you ask for it."
+
+"Well, I can try, that is if there's time."
+
+"But it's half-past twelve now, and if you are to meet Priscilla at
+half-past one, you will have all you can do to dress and keep your
+appointment."
+
+"But, mamma, what _can_ I do without tickets? It will be terrible if we
+can't get in, and how everyone will laugh at me. And they were such good
+seats in the house."
+
+"I am sorry for you, my child, but I can say little to help you."
+
+While they were speaking, Martine had been making a rapid calculation.
+The only result at which she arrived was the impossibility of recovering
+the lost envelope.
+
+"There's one thing I can do," she said. "I'll dress as quickly as I can
+and run over to the branch postoffice; then I'll beg them to look over
+their mail and see if an envelope is there with the tickets I describe."
+
+"Of course you can try, but I feel sure that you will not succeed."
+
+"Then what shall I do, mamma? It will be terrible to disappoint three
+people I've invited to so important an affair as this."
+
+"There is only one thing, my dear. If you fail to recover the tickets,
+you can pay single admissions at the door, and if you remember the
+number of your seats or in a general way where they are, you can take
+possession of them."
+
+"Thank you, mamma, that certainly is the only way, but dear me, four
+single admissions at one dollar apiece; this is something I hadn't
+planned for, and I intended to be so economical the rest of the spring."
+
+As quickly as she could, Martine hastened away to the postoffice, only
+to find that the mail from the box in which she had deposited her
+letters would not reach the office until half-past two, and that even
+then it was doubtful if the envelope would be given to her immediately.
+The only way, then, of saving her reputation as a hostess was to follow
+her mother's suggestion. She met her friends as she had planned, paid
+for admission to the hall and after some discussion with a rather obtuse
+usher at last found herself in possession of her own seats. It is to be
+feared that her impressions of the great pianist were sadly blurred that
+afternoon. Her brain was automatically working out problems of
+expenditure. She was trying to plan in what way she could economize to
+make up for the extravagance of this Paderewski matinee--to make up not
+only for this, but for various other needless expenses that she had
+lately incurred. So abstracted was she that she failed to join in the
+applause repeatedly showered on the musician, and on leaving the hall,
+she had very little to say to her friends. At the hotel afterwards,
+however, she brightened up and confided to Priscilla and Grace the way
+in which she had lost the tickets.
+
+"I think you managed very well," said Priscilla, "I should not have had
+the least idea what to do if anything like that happened to me."
+
+"Neither should I," added Grace, "but you are always clever about
+things, Martine."
+
+"Oh, no, it was all mamma; I felt quite sure at first that I should have
+to telephone you not to meet me, but 'all's well that ends well,' and
+I'm so glad that that stupid usher let us have our seats; for you know
+they told me at the box office that actually there wasn't a seat to sell
+in the whole house, and ours were about the last admissions."
+
+"You were fortunate enough," said Miss Mings who had listened with
+considerable amusement to Martine's entertaining account of her mistake
+adventure.
+
+"Our afternoon with you has been so pleasant that I should have been
+very sorry to lose it."
+
+"Oh, I should have made it up in some way," responded Martine. "We were
+bound to have this little tea here, and we might have taken a drive
+through the Park instead of hearing Paderewski. Truly, now, it would
+have been more fun, wouldn't it, Priscilla?"
+
+Honest Priscilla shook her head.
+
+"Nothing could have been more delightful than this concert, though of
+course if we had had to give it up I should have made the best of it."
+
+"As you do of everything, Prissie dear. I only wish that I were half as
+amiable as you."
+
+Martine's economy did not extend very far. She refrained from doing some
+things that she would like to have done, when to do them meant going
+outside of her regular allowance. But each month's spending money was
+soon laid out on the various little things that pleased her fancy, and
+as she heard no more of depressing business conditions, she almost
+forgot her mother's warning.
+
+A week after the matinee Martine received a letter from Elinor Naylor.
+
+"Listen, mother," she said, "isn't this the funniest thing? Elinor says
+that a few days ago she received an unsealed letter from me--at least
+the envelope was unsealed, but there wasn't a scrap of writing inside.
+Instead there were four tickets for a concert by Paderewski. She
+wondered why I sent them as she didn't receive them until the day after
+the date on the tickets. Now she returns them--and here they are! Isn't
+it ridiculous?"
+
+"Your carelessness certainly was ridiculous."
+
+"I understand it all now," cried Martine. "I had addressed and stamped
+an envelope to Elinor, as I sometimes do when I am intending to write.
+Then when I wanted to put my tickets away, I picked up this envelope
+without looking at the addressed side. Of course the tickets went safely
+to Philadelphia."
+
+"'Until I looked at the date,'" Martine read from Elinor's letter, "'I
+thought you had heard of my intention of coming to Boston, and meant me
+to hear Paderewski. But as I do not leave home until next week, there
+must be some other explanation.'"
+
+"I had no idea that Elinor was coming here," said Martine. "But I am
+delighted. If she can manage it, mightn't I have her here to spend a day
+or two with me? I know you would like her."
+
+"Certainly, my dear," replied Mrs. Stratford, and when Elinor accepted
+her invitation, Martine was delighted. Although Elinor could spare her
+only two days, both girls made the most of their time, and parted the
+best of friends, greatly to their own amusement. For both Elinor and
+Martine, whose friendship was of sudden growth, had begun their
+acquaintance with more or less prejudice. The acquaintance had developed
+into friendship chiefly through correspondence, as both girls had a gift
+for writing interesting letters.
+
+A chance commission which Elinor had entrusted to Martine the day of
+their drive to Cambridge had occasioned the first interchange of letters
+after Elinor's return to Philadelphia, and in the succeeding months they
+had continued to write once a fortnight. Thus their friendship had
+developed without their having seen much of each other, and Elinor's
+flying visit was delightful to them both in showing them how much they
+really had in common.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AT PLYMOUTH
+
+
+"Mother," said Martine, a week before Easter, "I have a splendid plan."
+
+"Well, my dear, what is it?"
+
+"Wouldn't it be fine to take Priscilla to New York for the holidays?
+Just think! she has never been there--and at her age--!"
+
+Mrs. Stratford could but laugh at Martine's seriousness.
+
+"I imagine many persons twice Priscilla's age have never been in New
+York."
+
+"Oh, yes--but Boston is so near--and Priscilla ought to go because she
+has the strangest notions about New York people--that they are all
+frivolous, with nothing to do but amuse themselves. I would like to have
+her at the Waldorf for a few days. Wouldn't she open her eyes? I am just
+crazy to take her!"
+
+"I fear it isn't feasible, my dear, to go away now."
+
+"But you like New York, and a change always benefits you."
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"You like Priscilla, too?"
+
+"Certainly. She is an excellent companion for you. You balance each
+other perfectly, and I should be glad to have you spend your holidays
+together. But New York--no, my dear, we must be careful this spring
+about spending money--your father has had losses and expenses."
+
+Something in her mother's tone impressed Martine, something in her
+words, too, as well as in her tone. She had seldom heard either her
+father or her mother talk of economy, except in occasional instances
+when she herself had been carelessly extravagant. Now the mention of her
+father stirred her.
+
+"Oh, I hope that wasn't why papa went away, on account of money. Of
+course I know we have to be more economical--but a trip to New York is
+so short, and we always have travelled so much."
+
+"I know it, dear. But, fortunately, neither of us needs change just now.
+There is much in Boston that you have not yet seen, and I can imagine
+your spending the vacation delightfully without leaving the city."
+
+"Oh, I am sure I could, mamma; and now that you have spoken of it, I
+should just love to economize. I don't need a new spring hat--the one I
+had last season is as good as new--and if you would let the cook go--I
+am sure that Angelina and I could do all the work." Martine spoke
+anxiously, even excitedly. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright.
+
+"There is no need of any desperate economy just yet. But if you and
+Lucian can be contented with me, I can promise you a pleasant vacation."
+
+"I am sure of it, mamma; let us make some plans now."
+
+But the plans that Martine and her mother made were not destined to be
+carried out--at least, during this particular vacation. For a couple of
+days before school closed an invitation came from Mrs. Danforth, urging
+Martine to spend a week at Plymouth. Immediately New York lost all its
+attractiveness for Martine. To visit Plymouth was her one desire.
+
+"It will be delightful, Puritan Prissie"--even now she could not resist
+her love of teasing--"to see the place where you were 'raised,' as they
+say down South. I wonder if there's something in the air to make
+Plymouth people different from others. To be sure, you are the only one
+I've ever seen."
+
+"Am I so very different from other people?" Priscilla spoke as if not
+altogether pleased with Martine's words.
+
+"Not too different--only you are fearfully conscientious, and you fuss
+too much over little things, and you know how to economize--which I wish
+I did. But for all that, you are not half bad, and your mother is
+perfectly lovely to invite a girl she has never seen to spend a week
+with her. You must have given a good account of me."
+
+"Of course, Martine, and she has heard of you from others--if only you
+wouldn't make fun of everything."
+
+"I won't, I promise you I won't."
+
+Martine looked keenly at her friend, wondering if she really feared that
+she would be so thoughtless.
+
+"I suppose I was rather mean last summer," she reflected, "and it's
+natural, perhaps, for Priscilla to lack confidence in me."
+
+When they were ready to start Martine was somewhat disappointed that
+they could not go to Plymouth by boat.
+
+"A train seems so prosaic," she said; "and now when I am going to
+historic ground, I should like to be able to jump ashore--just as the
+Pilgrims did."
+
+"I didn't suppose you'd take so much interest. Last summer--"
+
+"Now, Prissie! After all my efforts this winter, surely you might admit
+that I have improved. Why, now, I've wholly forgotten that we ever had a
+French and English question to dispute over. Before we reach Plymouth
+I'll be as good a Puritan as you."
+
+Mrs. Tilworth and Lucian saw the two girls safely on board their train.
+But from Boston to Plymouth Priscilla and Martine travelled alone. They
+had so much to talk of that the journey seemed short enough, and Martine
+was surprised when the conductor called Plymouth.
+
+Hardly had Priscilla's foot touched the platform, when a whirlwind of
+heads and arms seemed to engulf her.
+
+"Say, I'm going to ride up in the carriage--"
+
+"No, I am!"
+
+"What did Aunt Sarah send us?"
+
+"Oh, Priscilla, I'm so glad you're home. The yellow cat has four of the
+cunningest kittens!"
+
+"Yes, and we've had to muzzle Carlo, because a mad dog from Kingston ran
+through town the other day."
+
+"There, there," and Priscilla disentangled herself from the arms of the
+children. "Martine, these are my little brothers and sister. There are
+only three of them--though they sound like a regiment. Children, this is
+my great friend, Martine Stratford."
+
+The children looked up brightly, and held out their hands.
+
+"We are very glad to see you," said Marcus, the elder boy.
+
+"We hope you'll stay a long time," added George, the second.
+
+Little Lucy was too shy to speak to the newcomer, but she held up her
+head, as if expecting the kiss that Martine promptly bestowed on her.
+
+The resemblance between the three children was very striking, and they
+all looked like Priscilla, with their calm, blue eyes and blonde hair.
+
+"Say, Priscilla," exclaimed Marcus, recovering from the awful moment of
+being introduced to a stranger. "Say, now, I _can_ ride up with you,
+can't I?"
+
+"It's my turn," interposed George. "'Tisn't fair for you to ride every
+time."
+
+"Lucy can come with us," replied Priscilla. "There's no room for you
+boys."
+
+"Let them all come with us," cried Martine. "We won't mind being
+crowded."
+
+"Of course, I don't mind," responded Priscilla. "I was thinking of you."
+
+The carriage into which the children climbed was an old-fashioned
+carryall, the driver an elderly man, who addressed Priscilla without
+formality.
+
+"What did Aunt Sarah send me?" persisted George, as they drove along.
+
+"But, my dear, it isn't long since you had your Christmas presents,"
+protested Priscilla.
+
+"You never come home without bringing something."
+
+"Wait and see," said Priscilla, squeezing Lucy. "It seems as if I hadn't
+seen a child for a year."
+
+"You were here Christmas; you didn't go away until New Year's," said the
+literal Marcus.
+
+"I mean that I haven't had a chance to talk to a child, not to mention
+squeezing one," responded the smiling Priscilla.
+
+"Aren't there any little girls in Boston?" asked Lucy, timidly. "Haven't
+your friends any sisters and brothers?"
+
+"Martine hasn't, and she's my best friend."
+
+"Oh, how too bad!"
+
+"That I'm Priscilla's best friend?"
+
+"No; that you haven't brothers and sisters."
+
+"I have a big brother, but he's in college."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Here we are! There's mother at the door."
+
+In her delight, Priscilla was almost ready to jump from the carriage
+before it had fully stopped. Again Martine stared at her friend. Could
+this be the cool, unemotional Priscilla? The greetings of mother and
+daughter could have been no warmer had they been separated for years
+instead of months.
+
+"There, there, Priscilla, Martine will think we have forgotten her--I
+should know you, my dear--" and Mrs. Danforth held out both hands to
+Martine, "from Priscilla's enthusiastic descriptions of you. I can see
+you are just what she said you were."
+
+From that moment when Mrs. Danforth kissed her lightly on the forehead,
+Martine felt perfectly at home.
+
+As Martine had approached the Danforth house, she had noticed that the
+house was a large, square wooden structure, painted brown. The paint,
+indeed, was faded in spots, and the general aspect was rather dingy.
+
+Once inside the house, Martine, without meaning to be critical, was
+slightly impressed by the general air of shabbiness. The carpets were
+dull from the trampling of many little feet, the furniture was simple,
+the pictures old-fashioned, and the gilt frames somewhat tarnished. But
+there were books everywhere, in the open bookshelves in hall and
+sitting-room. Open fires were blazing in large fireplaces.
+
+When Priscilla led her to her own room there was the same air of
+homelikeness, from the easy-chair drawn up before the fire to the large
+bowls of mayflowers on mantelpiece and dressing-table.
+
+After supper, when all gathered around her, Lucy on her knee, the boys
+hanging over her chair, to hear what she had to tell about Chicago--for
+this was their special request--Martine felt as if she had known the
+Danforths all her life.
+
+As to Priscilla--Martine now really understood why Eunice Airton and
+Priscilla had been so much to each other. Far apart though Plymouth and
+Annapolis were, the Danforth household had an atmosphere very similar to
+that of the Airton family. It was true that Eunice had no younger
+brothers or sister, nor was Mrs. Danforth quite as old-fashioned as Mrs.
+Airton in manner and speech.
+
+Mrs. Danforth, indeed, seemed to Martine more like some one she had
+always known, and she soon felt completely at home with her. The evening
+passed quickly away, as they sat around the open fire, and the children
+were allowed to extend their bed-hour an hour beyond the usual time.
+
+"Who is going to be my guide?" asked Martine, before they separated for
+the night.
+
+"That depends on what you want to see," responded Marcus, cautiously.
+
+"You are not very gallant," protested Mrs. Danforth. "You should be very
+proud to guide a young lady from the city wherever she wishes to go."
+
+"I _am_ proud," interposed George. "I'll go anywhere."
+
+"Well," said the cautious Marcus, "I only meant that I don't want to go
+up on Burial Hill. It's very stupid looking at those old gravestones,
+and there aren't any real Pilgrims there, at least not any worth
+mentioning."
+
+"But there's a lovely view," said Priscilla, "and the first fort stood
+up there, and some people like old gravestones."
+
+"To be perfectly frank," said Martine, "I don't care so very much for
+them, unless the inscriptions are entertaining. Don't look shocked,
+Prissie, epitaphs can be very amusing sometimes. But what would you like
+to show me, Marcus?"
+
+"Oh, I'd like to take you out into the woods for mayflowers, for one
+thing, and over to Duxbury to see the Standish monument for another; but
+I just hate poking about the town, looking for old houses and ruins the
+way some people do; for we haven't any ruins here."
+
+"Then I suppose you wouldn't condescend to show me Plymouth Rock? For
+that, of course, is one of the things I _must_ see."
+
+"Oh, I'll take you there!" interrupted George; "let's go right after
+breakfast."
+
+"Very well, I'll be ready; and thank you for your invitation."
+
+And Martine, bending toward the little fellow, kissed him good-night. As
+she turned away, George reddened with delight; it was pleasant to be
+treated as if he were as old as Marcus; for Marcus, his elder by two
+years, had a brotherly habit of making him feel himself to be of the
+slightest consequence in the estimation of strangers.
+
+Promptly after breakfast Martine set out with George.
+
+"I know you won't mind my leaving you, Priscilla," she said. "You and
+your mother must have so many things to talk over."
+
+"Thank you; a little later I will go join you, but I know that George
+will show you just what you wish to see;" and Priscilla kissed Martine
+good-bye.
+
+At her first sight of the rock, the Plymouth Rock of history and poetry,
+Martine gave a gasp of surprise. It was so much smaller than she had
+expected. The little guide-book that Mrs. Danforth had put in her hands
+told her that from 1775 to 1880 the rock had been in two pieces, and
+that one piece was for a long time exhibited in Pilgrim Hall; but at
+last a generous son of Plymouth, feeling that the rock deserved greater
+honor, had had the two pieces put together on a spot that was probably
+very near the place that it occupied in 1620, and had had it protected
+by granite canopy and an iron fence.
+
+"Why, it looks as though I could almost carry it away myself; it's
+hardly large enough for a good-sized man to stand on."
+
+"Oh, two or three men could stand on it," said the literal George, who
+thereupon began to make calculations to convince Martine of her error.
+
+Martine, somewhat amused by George's earnestness, began to tease the
+little fellow.
+
+"Do you really believe that this rock was here in the time of the
+Pilgrim Fathers?"
+
+"Why, yes, where else could it have been?"
+
+To this question Martine had no answer ready, and before she had made a
+second attempt to puzzle George, an old gentleman who had been standing
+near them stepped up.
+
+"You are not skeptical, young lady, about the famous rock?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied Martine; "I don't know enough about it to be
+skeptical."
+
+The old gentleman glanced at her quizzically.
+
+"There is more philosophy in that remark than you perhaps realize, young
+lady. But this is really _the_ rock, the only one to be found the whole
+length of this sandy shore. So it must be the rock on which the
+Mayflower's passengers landed."
+
+"I wonder why they didn't just step out on the beach," persisted
+Martine. "I should think that would have been ever so much more
+comfortable than hopping down on this rock."
+
+"Others besides you have intimated the same thing," persisted the old
+gentleman; "but you must admit that a rock is a better foundation for
+the sentiment of a nation to base itself on than a sandy beach. Even our
+foreign-born children pin much of their patriotism to Plymouth Rock."
+
+"Do you believe--?"
+
+"My dear young lady, in George's presence, at least, you must not
+intimate that it is possible to believe anything about Plymouth Rock
+except what is usually taught in school histories."
+
+Martine looked earnestly at the old gentleman. She could not tell
+whether he was in jest or in earnest, but there was something in his
+face that she liked. She felt as if she had always known him. He seemed
+really like an old friend.
+
+"Mr. Stacy," interposed George, "I never know exactly what you mean, but
+I am sure that the school histories are true."
+
+"Surely, my dear, but I can see that this young lady wishes to go back
+of the printed book. She would like to know why we think this is the
+rock of the Pilgrims. So, as there is no one else here to inform her,
+the duty seems to have fallen on me. We pin our faith to the rock," he
+continued, "on account of the testimony of Elder Faunce, a truthful man,
+who, in the first half of the eighteenth century--1743, I believe--made
+a vigorous protest when certain individuals began to build a wharf,
+which would have covered the rock. He said that this stone had been
+pointed out to him by his father as the one on which the founders of the
+colony had landed. It is true that John Faunce, the father, did not come
+over on the Mayflower, and what he knew of the landing he must have
+heard from others. But as he had arrived in Plymouth in 1623, he must
+have had his information on the best authority. Elder Faunce, the son of
+John Faunce, was forty years old when the last of the Mayflower
+passengers died, and if the story of the rock was not true, doubtless he
+would have heard some one contradict it."
+
+"Did they build the wharf?" asked Martine.
+
+"I believe they did. But the rock was kept in sight, and eventually
+became the step of a warehouse. Later, as I dare say you have heard, it
+was broken in two pieces, and it is only since 1880 that we have had it
+restored here to a spot very near where the Mayflower landed--and
+protected," he concluded, with a smile, "so that the relic hunters can't
+carry it off bodily. It's a wonder that some one hasn't tried to get it
+for one of the World's Fairs now so prevalent in the country."
+
+"I should hate to see it carted around like the Liberty Bell, although
+we were glad enough to have it in Chicago."
+
+"So you are from Chicago," said Mr. Stacy; "then I must try to make you
+think that Plymouth is the centre of the earth. From your being with
+George I thought you were one of Priscilla's Boston friends. By the way,
+perhaps you may recall the lines in Miles Standish, where John Alden and
+others went down to the seashore:
+
+    "'Down to the Plymouth Rock, that had been to their feet as a door,
+    Into a world unknown--the cornerstone of a nation!'
+
+I always thought that a fine line, though it isn't quoted as often as it
+might be; 'the cornerstone of a nation,'" repeated Mr. Stacy. "Well,
+Priscilla and I always have a pretty little quarrel over this particular
+doorstep. You know she is very proud of her descent from Priscilla and
+John Alden."
+
+"So am I," piped up little George.
+
+"Of course, my boy, just as I am of descending from Mary Chilton. Well,
+traditions are somewhat confused as to who stepped first on Plymouth
+Rock--providing anyone of the Mayflower people really stepped on it at
+all. The honors are divided apparently between Mary Chilton and John
+Alden. I'd like to give them to a lady--Priscilla, for example, but in
+that case I should have to slight another lady, my ancestress, Mary
+Chilton; so there you have the two horns of a dilemma."
+
+"Oh, I know better than that," cried George; "Mary Chilton wasn't in it,
+of course she wasn't."
+
+"In what, my child? or are you merely indulging in slang?"
+
+"Oh, you know, Mr. Stacy, she wasn't in that first shallop that went
+ashore from Clark's Island. Of course a woman wouldn't come out in a
+little boat, when they were trying to find a landing-place. No, of
+course it was John Alden."
+
+"Your reasoning is pretty reasonable--for a little boy," said Mr. Stacy.
+"But, my dear Miss Chicago," he continued, "if you are on a sight-seeing
+walk, let me go with you. I need not say to an up-to-date young lady
+that none of the houses of the original Pilgrims are here, though as we
+walk along we shall pass near the sites of many of them. The old
+Plymouth was chiefly down here near the water, not so very far from the
+rock. This is the first street, close to the brook that ran down from
+Billington Sea."
+
+"It must be very pleasant in summer," and Martine glanced down the long
+tree-lined street. The trees were budding, but the leaves were not yet
+out.
+
+"It is a calm, shady street," rejoined Mr. Stacy; "sometimes we wish the
+electric cars were not so near, but the curse has been partly taken off
+by the names they bear. Probably you have noticed 'Priscilla,'
+'Pilgrim,' 'Samoset,' and the other historical names. Perhaps it is just
+as well there are none of the old houses left. The descendants of
+forefathers might have been ashamed of them, of the houses--I mean.
+Perhaps you remember Holmes' lines on the subject. The Autocrat had the
+faculty of hitting the nail on the head and in speaking of the Pilgrim,
+he says:--
+
+    "'His home was a freezing cabin
+      Too bare for a freezing rat,
+    Its roof was thatched with ragged grass,
+      And bald enough for that.
+    The hole that served for casement
+      Was glazed with a ragged hat.'
+
+But this description applies only to the very first houses. Those that
+were built for the next twenty or thirty years were plain enough, but
+comfortable. Plymouth never had many of the elaborate Colonial houses
+that are shown in some of the New England towns."
+
+"I wish one or two of those oldest houses were left," said Martine.
+"Isn't there even one?"
+
+"Why, I believe you are really interested in old Plymouth," said Mr.
+Stacy, smiling at Martine. "If you don't mind walking with me I'll show
+you the oldest house now standing. But this old Doten house was built
+only a few years before 1660, and is very little changed from its
+original appearance, at least so far as the outside is concerned."
+
+"The trees look as if they might be almost as old as the house," said
+Martine, as they stood before the little low-roofed house in Sandwich
+Street in front of which two great trees with gnarled trunks stood as
+sentinels.
+
+"Say, Martine, let's go up to the Monument," whispered George. "I'm
+afraid Mr. Stacy will want to take us up on Burial Hill."
+
+Mr. Stacy heard the loud whisper, and Martine herself was amused at
+George's entreaty.
+
+"Why, that was what Marcus didn't want to do, and you said you would go
+anywhere with me."
+
+"I want to show you something myself. You can go with Mr. Stacy to the
+hill some other day."
+
+"There, George, you have suggested just what I had in mind. Please tell
+your mother that I hope to come over to see Priscilla and her friend
+this evening. Then we can arrange about our visit to Burial Hill."
+
+After Mr. Stacy had said good-bye Martine and George retraced their
+steps, and climbed the hill to the monument to the Forefathers.
+
+"There's nine acres in the park," explained George, "and the monument is
+eighty-one feet high. That's the figure of Faith on top, and I think the
+whole thing is fine, don't you?"
+
+"It certainly _is_ fine," responded Martine, amused at George's
+eagerness.
+
+"You know down at Provincetown they say the Pilgrims landed there first,
+and they're going to build a monument that will beat this all to pieces.
+But I don't believe they can, do you, Miss Martine?"
+
+"No," said Martine, "indeed I do not."
+
+Whereupon, after she had sufficiently admired the historic bas-reliefs
+depicting scenes in the lives of the Forefathers, George led his guest
+down the hill, well pleased with her appreciation of his favorite work
+of art.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+TALES AND RELICS
+
+
+True to his promise Mr. Stacy called on Priscilla and Martine the second
+evening of their stay in Plymouth. He proved even more entertaining as a
+story-teller than as a guide.
+
+"What he doesn't know about old-colony life isn't worth knowing,"
+Priscilla had said, and Mr. Stacy certainly proved the truth of these
+words. Of Bradford and Carver and Winslow and Brewster he spoke as
+familiarly as if they were brothers. He made them live again as he
+talked, bringing out little facts that he said every schoolgirl and boy
+ought to know, though Martine had to admit that if she had ever known
+these things, they were now half forgotten. Priscilla modestly concealed
+her own store of information, but Martine, remembering how eagerly her
+friend had drunk in all that Amy and Balfour had had to tell the summer
+before about the English and the Acadians in Nova Scotia, knew that
+Priscilla was probably hardly second to Mr. Stacy in her knowledge of
+Puritan history.
+
+"Oh, please, Mr. Stacy, tell us one of your witch stories," demanded
+Marcus, as they sat around the blazing fire.
+
+"A witch story! Do you wish me to frighten the young lady from Chicago?"
+
+"A witch story!" repeated Martine; "why, I thought the witches were only
+in Salem. I supposed people down here were too sensible to believe in
+witches."
+
+"Few localities are so sensible as to escape all delusion. A vague
+belief in evil spirits and witches existed in all the colonies even
+well-through the eighteenth century, although the witchcraft persecution
+was of comparatively short duration."
+
+"I don't care for witchcraft stories," said Priscilla, quietly.
+
+"Well, well!" cried Mr. Stacy, smiling; "between two fires, what shall I
+do? Mrs. Danforth, you must be umpire."
+
+"Tell them one little unexciting witch story," replied Mrs. Danforth.
+"Priscilla is too old to be troubled by bad dreams, at least from so
+small a cause."
+
+"It isn't that," protested staid Priscilla, "only witch stories are so
+silly."
+
+"Oh, if that's the only thing against them," cried Martine, "please tell
+me as many as you can. I love silly things--sometimes. So please tell us
+a story, Mr. Stacy."
+
+"Really," rejoined Mr. Stacy, "I should hardly know what to say, if the
+rules of hospitality did not provide me with an excuse. It is fair, I
+imagine, to regard Miss Martine as a guest of Plymouth in general, as
+well as of the Danforth family in particular, therefore, fair lady, I
+yield to your demand. But what I am going to tell you is neither very
+exciting, nor very silly. It merely shows how recently in this corner of
+the globe the plain people retained some of the mediæval belief in
+witches. For I knew a man who in his youth knew a man who believed this
+story. On the outskirts of Plymouth once lived an old woman whom people
+called a witch, and once when she was calling at a certain house, Jenny,
+a girl of twelve, placed the broom with which she was sweeping, under
+Aunt Nabby's chair. Aunt Nabby was the reputed witch, and if you know
+anything about witches, you must know that to offer one a broomstick can
+only be regarded as an insult. So in this case Aunt Nabby, when she
+perceived what Jenny had done, rose in anger, and vowed that she would
+get even with Jenny and her family."
+
+"Did she?" asked George, who was always over-anxious to hear the
+conclusion of a story.
+
+"Wait," replied Mr. Stacy, "you will soon hear. In a day or two Jenny
+became very ill, and the old country doctor could not tell what the
+matter was. She seemed to be fading away. 'Perhaps Aunt Nabby has
+something to do with it,' said poor Mrs. Bonsal, Jenny's mother; and
+then the doctor, asking what was meant, heard the story of the
+broomstick. 'Go, John Bonsal,' he said to Jenny's father, 'go to Aunt
+Nabby's, and find out what she is up to.' When John Bonsal reached Aunt
+Nabby's house, there was no one in the kitchen but her big black cat,
+whom some people thought her assistant in evil doing. So John Bonsal
+went down by the brook, where he found Aunt Nabby so much occupied that
+she hardly looked up at his approach."
+
+"What was she doing?" asked George.
+
+"Hush," cried Marcus; "listen, and you will find out."
+
+"Well," continued Mr. Stacy, "Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little
+dolls of clay that she moulded into shape with water from the brook.
+When she finished these figures or dolls, she stuck a pin or two into
+them, and John Bonsal understood at once that by means of these dolls
+she was working a charm on poor Jenny that in time would cause her
+death, unless he could stop the doll-making. Upon this the angry father
+raised the horsewhip that he carried in his hand, and thrashed Nabby
+with might and main. As she cried for mercy, he told her that she should
+be burned as a witch unless she promised to remove the spell that she
+had cast over his daughter. At first she refused, but at last she
+promised. 'Your Jenny shall get well,' she cried, 'and I will work no
+more charms.' Upon this the big black cat that had followed John Bonsal
+from the house gave a great howl, and vanished completely from sight."
+
+[Illustration: "Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little dolls of clay."]
+
+"Where did he go?" asked George.
+
+"Down to the centre of the earth, probably," replied Mr. Stacy,
+solemnly. "But it's more to the point that Jenny recovered, and Aunt
+Nabby was never again known to carry on any of her witcheries."
+
+"Thank you, thank you," cried all the circle, except Priscilla, who
+still looked as if she thought stories of this kind rather silly.
+
+"Mamma," cried Lucy, after a moment's pause, as if she, too, shared
+Priscilla's feeling, "let us have something more sensible than witch
+stories."
+
+"Let us have a charade--you said you had found one in an old book that
+you would give us."
+
+Mrs. Danforth looked at the clock. "There is just time for one before
+you go to bed," she said, "and so I will give you the old one you speak
+of."
+
+George and Lucy clapped their hands with delight. They were fond of
+guessing-games, particularly when their mother played with them.
+
+"I must tell you," said Mrs. Danforth, picking up a book from the table,
+"that this is a very short one and must be guessed within five minutes
+after I have read it." Whereupon she read slowly:
+
+    "'Just where the heavens grew blue and high,
+      My first that was so pure and bright,
+    Ere it could rise into the sky,
+      Passed in my second out of sight;
+    Before it vanished from the earth
+      My whole rose through it at their birth.'"
+
+"Only five minutes!" complained George; "I don't think that's long
+enough. I didn't understand what the first was."
+
+Patiently Mrs. Danforth read the first two lines, then the second, and
+finally, at Lucy's request, the last.
+
+"I have it," cried Marcus, before three minutes had passed.
+
+"Can't we have five minutes more? I know I could guess it, if we had
+time enough."
+
+"You never guess anything, George, no matter how much time there is,"
+exclaimed Marcus.
+
+"Neither does Priscilla," rejoined George; "but if we had more time--"
+
+"Six minutes have passed; you see I have given more than the allotted
+time," called Mrs. Danforth at last.
+
+"What did you make it, Marcus?"
+
+"Snowballs!" cried Marcus, triumphantly.
+
+"Oh, no!" protested Lucy; "how could it be 'snowballs?' What is yours,
+Miss Martine?"
+
+Martine handed a slip of paper to Lucy on which she had written a word.
+
+"Yes, yes, that is it. Snowdrops, that is right, isn't it, mamma?"
+
+"Yes, my dear; it is almost too simple a charade to set before our
+guest. It would have been harder to guess if we had tried to act it.
+Perhaps to-morrow we can act charades."
+
+When the younger children had gone to bed, Martine enjoyed the quiet
+hour with Priscilla and Mrs. Danforth and Mr. Stacy.
+
+"I had no idea Plymouth could be so interesting," she said. "I feel that
+my two or three more days will not be enough for all that I wish to
+see."
+
+Nevertheless, Martine spent less time in actual sight-seeing than at
+first she had planned. The second day of her stay was so warm and
+springlike, that all voted for a mayflower picnic in the beautiful
+Plymouth woods. The next day was rainy--a genuine southerly storm, and
+no one cared to venture out.
+
+"In town neither of us would think of staying in simply on account of a
+storm," protested Martine.
+
+"I know it," responded Priscilla, lazily curling herself up in a corner
+of the big settle before the open fire. "But this is vacation, and
+home," she concluded, "and we can't behave just as we would in the
+city."
+
+Finally, on the fourth day of their stay, under the guidance of Mr.
+Stacy, the two went up to Burial Hill.
+
+"You won't care if I do not pretend to be awfully interested in the
+epitaphs," said Martine, frankly. "I wish that Amy were here. She loves
+old graveyards and inscriptions and everything that has a scrap of
+history. Now I am fond of funny epitaphs, and I love--oh, what a
+beautiful view!"
+
+"I am glad that Burial Hill has something of interest to offer you. Even
+in Plymouth we call this a fine view. Generally, we try to be modest
+about our possessions, but this really is worth praising."
+
+"It is wonderful!" and Martine gazed in admiration at the expanse of
+blue water that stretched far, far to the East, with only the tiny
+Clark's Island to break its continuity.
+
+"It looks almost like a toy town," she added, gazing down at the houses
+and spires of the old town seeming to nestle at the foot of the hill.
+
+"Those woods toward the West are where the Indians used to lurk, and you
+can see how wise our forefathers were in placing their fort here near
+the summit of the hill. You remember, probably, that it was a wooden
+building made of sawed planks, but the six cannon mounted for its
+defence made it really formidable to the Indians. From this point the
+defenders of the town could quickly discover the approach of the enemy.
+For a time, too, the fort was used as a church."
+
+"That is why they used the hill as a burying-place, I suppose."
+
+"Well, oddly enough, the founders of Plymouth were not buried here.
+Undoubtedly, the first settlers buried their dead near their dwellings.
+No stones mark the resting-place of most of the Mayflower passengers.
+There are memorials to many of them put up in later generations here on
+Burial Hill by their descendants, and two or three who lived to an
+advanced age, like John Howland, are buried here. But the earliest
+gravestone on the hill is that of Edward Gray, who died in 1681."
+
+Priscilla, browsing among the stones, returned to Martine with a shade
+of disappointment on her face.
+
+"I am really sorry, but I cannot find a single absurd stone. Some are
+rather quaint, but there are no amusing epitaphs, at least, of the kind
+you like, Martine. Often as I've been here, I have never looked for that
+special kind of thing before, but now that I have made you a true
+report, we might as well turn down toward Memorial Hall."
+
+"Thank you, Priscilla, I hope Mr. Stacy will not think that I care only
+for entertaining things that make one laugh. I have been more impressed
+by this old burying-ground than by any other I have ever visited. There
+is certainly something in the atmosphere that carries one back to the
+past. If there were anything here to laugh at I couldn't laugh." And
+silently and reverently Martine followed her friends down the hill into
+the quiet streets of the little town.
+
+"Now for Pilgrim Hall," said Mr. Stacy, as they walked along the Main
+Street.
+
+"And what shall we see there?" asked Martine.
+
+"Oh, relics of all kinds--driftwood of the past--some things that will
+move you to tears, and others that may make you smile."
+
+"Old furniture, I suppose. There are several shiploads of Mayflower
+furniture scattered through the country, and naturally I would look for
+a little of it here in Plymouth."
+
+"It would almost seem as if you had been reading my favorite Holmes,"
+rejoined Mr. Stacy. "You perhaps recall his verses about the old
+punch-bowl that--
+
+                                    "'--Left the Dutchman's shore
+    With those that in the Mayflower came--a hundred souls and more
+    Along with all the furniture to fill their new abodes--
+    To judge by what is still on hand--at least a hundred loads.'"
+
+"I am not sure," replied Martine, "whether I have heard those particular
+lines, though the poet's sentiments are mine. Sometimes I wonder if the
+Pilgrims brought any furniture with them. Or if the things they brought
+could have lasted through the centuries."
+
+"You will soon be able to judge for yourself. I think you can safely
+believe in most of the specimens that you see here. At any rate, we
+people of Plymouth have believed in them so long that they have acquired
+a certain sanctity."
+
+When they were at last within the dignified hall, Priscilla and Martine
+flitted about from object to object, the latter asking questions, the
+former answering them, while Mr. Stacy in one or two instances had to
+act as umpire.
+
+A chair once owned by Governor Carver, and another brought by William
+Brewster in the Mayflower, were accepted by Martine without question,
+and she was equally interested in a cabinet also brought over in the
+Mayflower by the father of Peregrine White.
+
+"Priscilla," she cried, "your ancestor, John Alden, was particularly
+generous in his bequests. Here's his Bible, and an autograph of his that
+must be genuine because it is so hard to read. It seems to me that the
+Aldens and the Winslows have done well by this exhibition. Isn't this an
+odd ring, and do you really imagine it was once worn by Governor Edward
+Winslow?"
+
+"Why, yes," replied Priscilla, "I believe it, if that is what the
+placard says." And she drew nearer to read the card that was placed
+beside the ring.
+
+"The sword of Myles Standish! What a story it could tell! Really,
+Priscilla, these things have a wonderful power of calling up the
+past--and this little piece of embroidery, just look at the date. It is
+more than three hundred and fifty years old, and some of the silk
+threads have kept their colors."
+
+"Please read the verse in the corner," urged Priscilla. "Even when I was
+a very small girl I used to stand here, and call up pictures of the
+little Lorena."
+
+As Priscilla finished her sentence, Martine began to repeat the lines
+embroidered in the old sampler--for such the bit of work must have been.
+
+    "'Lorena Standish is my name,
+      Lord, guide my heart that I may do Thy will,
+    Also fill my hands with such convenient skill
+    As will conduce to virtue devoid of shame,
+      And I will give the glory to Thy name.'
+
+"It is touching," said Martine.
+
+"A true Puritan maiden," commented Mr. Stacy, approaching the girls.
+"But come, you cannot linger too long over any one thing, however
+interesting. I will not blame you if you pass quickly by the Florida
+bones, and the Indian relics, and other so-called curiosities that
+hardly belong in Pilgrim Hall. But there are a number of autographs and
+old books that I wish to explain to you, and you must study carefully
+Weir's beautiful painting, 'The Embarkation of the Pilgrims,' and
+Charles Lucy's magnificent 'Departure of the Pilgrims.'"
+
+The pictures held Martine's attention for a long time, and when at last
+she left the hall, she had a new and tenderer feeling for Plymouth.
+
+"If ever I have time," she murmured in a laughing aside to Mr. Stacy, "I
+will try to hunt up some Mayflower ancestors, for I can't let Priscilla
+continue to be so superior to me in this respect."
+
+"Indeed, I don't feel superior," said Priscilla, "but I can't tell you
+how pleased I am, Martine, that you have stopped making fun of Plymouth
+and the Pilgrims."
+
+"Dear Prissie, you should not take things so seriously. My fun was only
+fun, and you were too ready to take it in as earnest."
+
+Martine from the first had no trouble in winning the affection of all
+the Danforths. George and Marcus struggled for the first place in her
+affections, and Lucy admitted that she loved her next to her mother and
+Priscilla. Martine made other friends in Plymouth besides the members of
+the Danforth family. A number of Mrs. Danforth's special friends called
+on her, and at an informal tea-party she met all the young people whom
+Priscilla cared for especially.
+
+"Every one seems to have heard of me, I am awfully pleased that you
+should have talked to people about me, but why am I called a 'heroine'?
+Three people have said to me, 'We are so pleased to meet the young
+heroine we have heard so much about.' What do they mean?"
+
+"It's the fire," cried Lucy. "Priscilla told us not to say too much to
+you about it, because you were so modest, but everybody knows how brave
+you were to pull Priscilla out of the burning house."
+
+"The burning house? Oh, at Windsor; but I didn't pull her out. There
+wasn't the least danger, and I only tapped at the door. Why, I had
+almost forgotten about it. It was nothing at all, so far as I was
+concerned."
+
+But Lucy only shook her head, as she repeated shyly, "But we think you a
+heroine all the same." Nor could any words of Martine's have made her
+change her mind. Had she not always been taught that the truly great
+were modest? Martine's very denials were a strong evidence that she was
+truly great.
+
+There was nothing, therefore, for Martine to do but accept the place on
+the pedestal where they put her.
+
+In spite of this idealizing, however, Priscilla's younger friends were
+not afraid of Martine. If they had felt any awe before they saw her it
+immediately passed away when they had looked into her frank brown eyes,
+and had heard the clear notes of her ringing laugh.
+
+Pleasanter even than the tea-party to Martine was the second evening
+that Mr. Stacy spent with her and Priscilla.
+
+"Everything that you haven't told me before about Plymouth and its early
+days you must tell me now," Martine had said. "When I go back to Boston
+I wish to astonish my brother by my display of historical knowledge. I
+am sure that he doesn't know the difference between a Puritan and a
+Pilgrim, which you have so carefully explained to me, Mr. Stacy; and
+there are fifty other things that I shall spring on him, and mortify him
+to death, for Lucian thinks that he knows a lot of history, but as far
+as I can make out he hasn't got far beyond Charlemagne in his two years
+at Harvard."
+
+"Yet he went to school first?" asked Mr. Stacy, quizzically.
+
+"Yes, but everyone knows that boys in the fitting schools remember as
+little as they can of American history--although," with an afterthought,
+"I will admit that Lucian did take an interest last summer in the
+English and Acadian history of Nova Scotia."
+
+This mention of Acadia suggested various questions to Mr. Stacy, and
+soon Martine had plunged into a vivid account of their experiences of
+the preceding summer.
+
+"I have heard part of this before from the lips of Priscilla," said Mr.
+Stacy, "and her description of the various protegées gathered in by your
+party interested me greatly. I know that she has not forgotten Eunice,
+and, indeed, we all expect to see the little Annapolis girl in Plymouth
+before many summers have passed. But what about Yvonne and Pierre, who
+on the whole interest me rather more than Eunice--as much, perhaps,
+because of their infirmities as on account of their foreign blood?"
+
+"As to Pierre," responded Martine, "Amy hears from him regularly, and he
+is very happy this winter in his work. A little money that was given him
+last autumn (Martine did not mention that this was her father's generous
+gift) has enabled him to have regular drawing lessons from a good
+teacher to whom he goes twice a week at Yarmouth. He insisted in using
+part of the money for his mother, and, like all Acadians, she seems to
+have spent it very thriftily."
+
+"But what of Yvonne? she, I believe, is your especial pet."
+
+"Oh, Yvonne, too, has had a little money to spend, and so the Babets
+have let her board with friends at Annapolis. Her eyes have had some
+attention from a good doctor, and she has been taking music lessons. I
+was hoping to arrange to have Alexander Babet bring Yvonne to Boston for
+treatment by a specialist, but for the present I have to wait."
+
+Here Martine sighed a deep sigh. This allusion to Yvonne reminded her of
+her father and his caution about economy. "I wonder if we shall always
+have to economize and give up the things we wish to do. Mother talked
+about economy when I spoke of inviting Priscilla to go to New York. I
+wonder--" and then a question from Mr. Stacy recalled Martine's
+wandering thoughts.
+
+"You scold me sometimes for being absent-minded," said Priscilla, "but
+we spoke to you three times before you heard."
+
+"I was only thinking, Prissie," responded Martine; "and I can't do two
+things at the same time--listen and think."
+
+Martine at last said good-bye to Plymouth with genuine regret--for
+Plymouth people at least, and for the Danforth family in particular.
+
+"New York wouldn't have been half as much fun," she said as the train
+steamed out of the station, "because I know it so well."
+
+Priscilla, who had not heard of Martine's New York plan, did not
+understand her friend's allusion; and as Martine made no further
+explanation, she had no opportunity for discontent--if the loss of a
+trip to New York would have made her discontented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+TROUBLES
+
+
+The weeks after the Easter visit passed rapidly away. April was melting
+into May. People called it an early spring.
+
+"It doesn't make much difference to me whether the season is early or
+late," said Martine one Sunday afternoon, when Lucian and Robert had
+walked home with her from the afternoon service. "I have to work so hard
+to keep up with Priscilla that I haven't time to think about anything so
+commonplace as weather. If I'm not careful, I shall find myself fitting
+for college."
+
+"Don't," said Robert Pringle.
+
+"Do," cried Lucian. "As I may have said before, if you make half as much
+of yourself as Amy, nothing could be better for you than college."
+
+"Be yourself," said Robert with an air of wisdom. "Not Amy nor
+Priscilla, nor any one else. You have the artistic temperament."
+
+"Nonsense," replied Martine, with difficulty repressing a smile. "That's
+a very sophomorific speech. You've got it out of some of your philosophy
+courses."
+
+"Or one of the college magazines," growled Lucian. "People who are just
+beginning to write always love to talk about temperament."
+
+"Well," persisted Robert, "Fritz Tomkins says that Mrs. Redmond says
+that you have great talent."
+
+"Oh, yes," responded Martine, laughing, "my class at the Mansion
+considers me a true artist, because I can paint trees and grass that
+look real; but to tell you the truth, Robert, and to show you that
+you're not wholly wrong, I will admit that if I hadn't been so busy at
+school, I should have studied with Mrs. Redmond this spring. I just wish
+I had time for a sketching class, but fond as I am of riding, I can
+barely manage an hour's ride twice a week. That reminds me, Lucian," and
+Martine turned to her brother, "if you can afford a new auto, I surely
+can afford a new riding-horse. Wherever we go this summer, I mean to
+ride."
+
+"No, no," cried Lucian, "that is, I probably shall not have the auto,
+much as I want it."
+
+"Don't worry," said Robert, "you'll get it in season; if it isn't out by
+June, they'll have it for you in July."
+
+"Oh, that wasn't what I meant," rejoined Lucian, "only--" but at this
+moment he did not explain what he really had intended to say.
+
+The next evening Lucian came home to dinner.
+
+"What an unexpected honor," said Martine. "I've never known you to favor
+us with a Monday visit. You look rather glum, too," she added with
+sisterly frankness. "Is anything the matter?"
+
+"No, no," he said, "nothing special. You shouldn't be so curious."
+
+"I can read you like a book," replied Martine. "You are worrying over
+your finals and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. If I were a Harvard
+Sophomore, with all my time to use as I liked, I wouldn't be in such a
+state of mind over a few questions, for that's all an examination
+amounts to."
+
+"There, there, Martine, don't worry your brother," interposed Mrs.
+Stratford, joining them.
+
+"But he is so foolish," continued Martine, "just as if he hadn't as good
+a chance as anybody else."
+
+"To be perfectly frank," said Lucian at last, "you have no idea, little
+sister, what you are talking about; so the least said, soonest mended."
+
+Conversation during dinner proceeded cheerfully. Lucian was evidently
+making an effort to remove the impression that he was troubled about
+anything.
+
+But a little later, after their mother had left the room, Lucian drew
+his chair nearer Martine's and began to talk in an undertone.
+
+"You are right, Martine," he said, "I am troubled. I have something
+serious to say."
+
+Martine's heart beat nervously. She knew that boys in college sometimes
+did things that they should not do. Lucian had several friends of whom
+she did not approve. Into what mischief might they not lead him?
+
+"Tell me the worst, Lucian," she said sympathetically. "If it's stealing
+signs or doing any of those ridiculous Med. Fac. things, of course you
+were very silly. But I'll help you out if I can, without telling mother,
+and I'll lend you money, though I have only a very little bit of my own.
+I am paying for my clothes out of my allowance this spring. And you know
+I never used to do that."
+
+"Oh, your money wouldn't help, Martine; it isn't that."
+
+"Well, whatever it is, we'll keep it from mother; she certainly isn't as
+well as when she first came to Boston."
+
+"I know that," responded Lucian, "and that's the worst of this whole
+business. You see, it's this, Martine. Father's business is all at sixes
+and sevens and I had the queerest letter from him this morning; I can
+hardly make head or tail of it."
+
+Martine took the thin sheet of letter paper from Lucian's hand; the
+wording was incoherent.
+
+"Why, it doesn't sound like father," she exclaimed, "and what queer,
+trembling handwriting. I am afraid that he is sick. And if he has lost
+his money as he says, what are we to do?"
+
+"I haven't an idea in the world. This knocks me all to pieces," and
+Lucian leaned his head on his hands, the picture of bewilderment.
+
+"We ought to tell mother," Martine's voice trembled, "but perhaps we
+might as well wait another day; perhaps we can think of some one to
+advise us, or perhaps some plan will come to us in the night."
+
+"Very well," responded Lucian, "but I can't stay here long and pretend
+to be cheerful; I'll get out to Cambridge as quickly as I can."
+
+"Lucian made a short stay," said Mrs. Stratford when Martine told her
+that he had gone. "I agree with you that he is troubled about something.
+Perhaps he told you what it was."
+
+"Yes," said Martine, "he did give me an idea of it."
+
+Then Mrs. Stratford, knowing that it was not wise to interfere in the
+confidences of brother and sister, to Martine's relief asked no
+questions. The next day, however, the secret came out in part at least.
+Mrs. Stratford received a cable from Rio Janeiro. Its few words carried
+volumes of trouble. Mr. Stratford was ill, very ill; could some of his
+family come to him at once? Mrs. Stratford recognized the name of the
+one who had sent the cable; he was a man with whom her husband had long
+had business transactions. He would not have cabled unless her husband's
+condition were really serious. The telephone soon brought Lucian to the
+house.
+
+"There is only one thing," said Lucian; "by taking the afternoon express
+I can reach New York this evening, sail by a quick boat to-morrow for
+England, and go on as soon as possible to Rio Janeiro."
+
+"But we don't know anything about the sailings of the Brazilian boats."
+
+"No matter, mother, the sooner I reach England, the sooner I'll reach
+Brazil. I must go back to Cambridge now, throw a few things into a
+steamer trunk, and then, good-bye."
+
+"Oh, Lucian, what a help you are. At first I thought there was no one
+who could go. I will go down town at once and get a draft for you and
+meet you at the station; that will be better than stopping here on your
+way from Cambridge."
+
+These hasty plans were carried out exactly.
+
+"Everything is so hurried," complained Martine, "that I haven't had time
+yet to cry."
+
+"I have cabled to Rio Janeiro," said Mrs. Stratford, "to cable our
+bankers in London, if--if--anything happens."
+
+"Oh, nothing will happen," said Lucian cheerfully, "nothing serious, I
+mean. Only I am sure that it is wise for me to go, for father will need
+me to help him come home. And now good-bye."
+
+So mother and daughter parted with Lucian, and after this one exciting
+day, things settled down into their accustomed round. Within a week of
+Lucian's sailing Mrs. Stratford heard by cable that her husband was no
+worse.
+
+"It does not say 'better'," she murmured.
+
+"But 'no worse' is better than nothing," said Martine.
+
+"When we consider how little Lucian was here with us, it is strange,"
+said Martine one day, "that we should miss him so. Poor boy, I am sorry
+that I teased him so about his finals. I am sure that he would rather be
+in Cambridge working for dear life than tossing about on the ocean, not
+knowing what news he may hear at the end of his journey. But there's one
+thing, he rose to the occasion, and I'm so thankful that he has really
+grown up."
+
+In spite of the anxiety of mother and daughter, each for the sake of the
+other tried to be cheerful. Martine, until the first of June, was fully
+occupied with school. Priscilla and her more intimate friends
+sympathized deeply with her when they heard of her father's illness.
+Letters from others came to them gradually, and some of Mr. Stratford's
+business associates were frank with Mrs. Stratford when she asked their
+opinion on her husband's affairs. One day she called Martine to her for
+a frank talk.
+
+"It is evident," she said, "that we must live at the very smallest
+possible expense for the next few months. I am going to send the cook
+away at the end of the present week; now that your school is ending, you
+will not object to supplementing Angelina's work. Angelina sees
+something dramatic in what she calls 'our fallen fortunes.' She is
+delighted to be considered housemaid and cook combined. She tells me
+that I am not to lift my hand, but wear my prettiest dresses all the
+time so that there'll be one lady in the house, while you and she are
+doing the work."
+
+"Well, really," cried Martine, "it's a little too much for her to put me
+immediately on her own level."
+
+"Oh, she doesn't mean it in that way; in fact, what she said was
+intended only to make me comfortable. If I were a little stronger I
+would plan to stay in Boston all summer, but I've had a talk with the
+doctor and he tells me that I need a complete change. We cannot afford
+any extravagance this summer, and only one plan suggests itself to me."
+
+"What is it, mamma?"
+
+"Simply this. A few years ago, when your father and I were at York
+Harbor, we fell in love with a little red farm-house that stood on a
+knoll commanding a view of the sea. We had no particular object in
+buying it, the land belonging to it was limited, but I had an idea that
+sometime perhaps we might build a house there. It is quite outside the
+fashionable section, yet not very far from the electric cars, and the
+house is in pretty good repair."
+
+"Does any one live there?"
+
+"Well, that is the curious part of it; the owner was an old woman and we
+let her stay on there, rent free, on condition that she should keep the
+little garden planted and let us know when any repairs were needed. Last
+September she died and the house has been unoccupied this winter; it
+seems to me that this would be an ideal place for us this summer. Even
+if I were able to stay in the city, I should not approve of your doing
+so. You need the out-door life to which you are accustomed. We could
+take enough of our small belongings with us to make the cottage
+comfortable and homelike. Angelina would be quite equal to the work."
+
+"With my help," interrupted Martine gayly.
+
+"Yes, with your help; and I know you can be very helpful, Martine, when
+you wish. What do you think of my plan?"
+
+"I think it's perfectly splendid," replied Martine. "I've often heard of
+York Harbor. Peggy Pratt used to talk about it. I think her family has a
+cottage there."
+
+"Of course," continued Mrs. Stratford, "you must remember that we shall
+live very quietly there; for the present I feel that we have no income
+coming in. We must live on the little money that I have saved until we
+know just where your father's business stands. Besides, until we know
+that he is really well, we are under a shadow. At any moment we may hear
+the worst news, and that, if nothing else, would lead us to live
+quietly."
+
+"Of course, mamma, of course I understand this perfectly. I have no wish
+for gayety; really I would rather live quietly. I am so glad that I got
+only one silk gown, instead of the three I intended. And, luckily, I
+haven't given away many of my last summer's clothes; so I shall be all
+fitted out without any expense."
+
+"There, there," cried Mrs. Stratford, "don't think too much about
+economy--or clothes; we shall do very well, even as things are, if only
+we hear good news from South America."
+
+It was now June. Priscilla had gone home. Martine's other friends had
+left the city for the North Shore or the mountains. Some of Lucian's
+friends in Cambridge dropped in occasionally, and Amy and Mrs. Redmond
+were as devoted as ever. Amy, however, was very busy with the many
+duties and pleasures of a Wellesley Senior when Commencement is only a
+few weeks away. Of all the invitations that she showered on Martine for
+the various festivities that Wellesley offers in June, Martine accepted
+only the one that took her to Wellesley Float Day.
+
+"As long as I live," she said afterwards, "I shall never forget the
+beautiful twilight on the lake, the boats gliding about so mysteriously
+and gracefully, the music floating over the water, the lights that
+bathed everything in glory; no, I never expect to see anything more
+beautiful of its kind," she added mischievously, as a kind of
+anti-climax, lest Amy, who was listening to her, should be too proud of
+her college.
+
+But as the long June days wore away, Martine had little time for
+anything outside her home; she could not deny the fact that her mother
+was growing paler and thinner. Mrs. Stratford, looking anxiously at
+Martine, saw a certain change in her daughter.
+
+"The sooner we get away, the better; Martine is worrying about her
+father, and will not tell me. A change of air and scene will benefit
+her. I wish that we had not undertaken to have the cottage painted. The
+last week in June seems too far away."
+
+In their trouble, Martine and her mother were not neglected by their
+friends. They had not many near relatives, yet invitations came to them
+from the cousins in New York, from other cousins in Chicago and even
+from Mrs. Blair; but mother and daughter both preferred the independence
+that they would find in their cottage at York to the formality of
+visiting even the best intentioned friends and relatives.
+
+"You may have visitors of your own part of the summer," said Mrs.
+Stratford. "We shall have at least one spare room in the cottage, and
+when things are running smoothly there'll be no reason why you should
+not have Priscilla with you."
+
+"That reminds me," said Martine, "that I've never told you that Mrs.
+Tilworth and I have really made up. You know she was rather frigid
+towards me for several weeks this spring; but after my return from
+Plymouth she told Priscilla that she had changed her mind about me. It
+seems that I made a great impression on Mr. Stacy during my holidays,
+and Mr. Stacy, it also seems, is the one person for whose opinion Mrs.
+Tilworth has an especial regard; consequently Mrs. Tilworth is inclined
+to accept Mr. Stacy's estimate of me and for the present the war between
+us is at an end."
+
+"War between you! My dear child, I should be very sorry indeed had there
+been such a state of affairs; I think myself that you and Priscilla have
+always been a little wrong in your opinion of Priscilla's aunt."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MISSING TRUNK
+
+
+It was the Thursday before Class Day, a clear morning, almost cool, with
+just a suggestion of coming warmth in the air. Martine sank into a chair
+by the open window, and gazed over the tops of the trees at the long
+vista of the Avenue. Not for a moment would she have admitted that she
+was tired, and yet there was a trace of weariness in the sigh with which
+she sank back in the comfortable easy chair.
+
+As a matter of fact she had been working with a degree of energy that
+she had seldom shown before. Martine had never been accused of laziness,
+even in her idler days, yet her energy had never been expended in the
+prosaic realm of household work. But now the situation was changed, and
+for the past week she had worked unremittingly, packing, clearing, doing
+all kinds of little things that would simplify the departure for York a
+week later. Angelina, it is true, had helped her to the best of her
+ability, and had even succeeded in subduing some of her own natural
+flightiness. She was proud of her present position as sole assistant in
+the little household, and the prospect of continued hard work during the
+summer in no way troubled her.
+
+If Martine was weary on this particular morning, her weariness was
+tempered with satisfaction. Everything had gone so smoothly that she
+would be able to enjoy Class Day without disagreeable remembrances of
+things left undone.
+
+While she sat by the window, thoroughly enjoying her well-earned rest,
+she was startled for a moment by feeling two soft hands clasped over her
+eyes. Before she had had time to wonder long, a soft laugh told her who
+the newcomer was.
+
+"Why, Elinor Naylor, where in the world--"
+
+"Straight from Bar Harbor," said Elinor, answering the unfinished
+question, "that is, we arrived early last evening, and I've come here
+directly from the hotel. Kate Starkweather's brother has a large spread
+to-morrow, and though I had not intended to come, mamma thinks I ought
+to see at least one Harvard Class Day--and so here I am."
+
+For a few moments the two talked as rapidly as friends will who have not
+seen each other for weeks. Elinor told her Class Day plans, and tried to
+arrange to meet Martine after the statue exercises.
+
+"I do not expect to see very much of Class Day," said Martine, "it would
+be different if Lucian were here. I am going with Amy to Fritz Tomkins'
+spread, and to the Pudding because Hazen Andrews is in it. His mother is
+one of mamma's friends in Chicago. Mrs. Blair thinks I ought to wait
+until I am eighteen before going at all. But mamma is not so
+conventional, and she said I might."
+
+"I suppose you are very busy," said Elinor, as she rose to go. "So I
+hesitate to ask a favor."
+
+"Ask it," cried Martine. "I am not half as busy as I was yesterday. I am
+sure you won't ask anything I cannot do."
+
+"It's only this," continued Elinor. "My trunk hadn't come this morning,
+and we could get no information when we telephoned. It would be simply
+awful if it shouldn't arrive in time for me to go to the Senior spread.
+Kate and I put our things into the one trunk, and I can't understand why
+it hasn't come. We gave our checks to an expressman at the station. If
+only I knew the city a little better, I'd go down town, and find out
+what has happened to it."
+
+"There," exclaimed Martine, laughing, "Your favor is a very simple one.
+You would like me to pilot you about--with the greatest pleasure."
+
+"I feared you might be too busy," and Elinor glanced around the room,
+with its half-filled boxes, and books piled on tables, waiting to be
+packed.
+
+"I should do little more to-day. My mother is staying with friends in
+Brookline over Sunday. Angelina is out just now, but I'll leave word
+with the elevator-boy that I'll be back by one."
+
+Martine was soon ready, and after one more vain effort to learn
+something by telephone about the trunk, the two set out for the downtown
+express office. There they were equally unsuccessful, and so continued
+their journey to the great North Station.
+
+The baggage-master was a trifle impatient. It was a warm day, and a busy
+season, but the two young girls and their evident anxiety appealed to
+him.
+
+"It's up to the Express Company," he said at last, "to give you your
+trunk. I have made a careful search, and no trunk with the number on
+your claim-check is here. You will find it probably at the hotel. I
+would advise you to go back."
+
+"You are sure it isn't here?" asked Martine.
+
+"Perfectly sure."
+
+"I know it isn't at the hotel. But of course I can ask again," said
+Elinor. "I am awfully sorry to have brought you on this wild-goose
+chase, Martine, we might as well turn about now. The whole thing is very
+queer."
+
+It seemed queerer when no search, no enquiries produced the missing
+trunk. One thing only was clear. There was a record that it had been
+taken from the station. It was perfectly evident that it had not been
+delivered at the hotel, where, strangely enough, the trunk belonging to
+Kate's aunt had arrived safely.
+
+"It was a large steamer trunk," said Elinor with a sigh, "but small
+enough for thieves to carry away. I suppose they took it from the back
+of the wagon. You shouldn't have thieves in Boston."
+
+"Probably they came from some other city. Philadelphia possibly,"
+retorted Martine. Then, as quickly, "Excuse me Elinor, I did not really
+mean that. What a pity you and I are not the same size. I would gladly
+lend you anything of mine you could wear."
+
+"Oh--no--" responded Elinor, "I am sure nothing of yours would fit me.
+You are so much taller and thinner. Short and dumpy people like me never
+can wear other people's clothes. It won't be so bad for Kate, when I
+break the news to her."
+
+"But what will you do?"
+
+"We must go out at once and buy gowns and hats. I begrudge the money
+just now. Kate won't mind, nor her aunt. They love to spend money for
+clothes, and can afford anything. I have to be more careful; but after
+coming so far--I can't be cheated out of Class Day, and this grey gown
+and dark hat would be utterly out of place."
+
+"Not so very long ago I should have thought it great fun to buy a whole
+outfit on the spur of the moment," responded Martine, "but the past few
+weeks I have grown so economical that it seems extravagant to buy
+anything one doesn't need."
+
+"But I certainly need a muslin gown and a hat, a fan, a parasol, light
+shoes--"
+
+"There, there, let me lend you a parasol, fan, and some of the other
+things that don't have to be made to order. Also I have a lovely hat
+that would fit you like the paper on the wall, if you would borrow it.
+Please say yes."
+
+With some protests Elinor accepted Martine's offer, and after luncheon,
+accompanied by Kate and her aunt, they set out for the most fashionable
+outfitter's. Kate, with Mrs. Starkweather's approval, unrestricted in
+the matter of money, soon chose a costume complete in every detail.
+Elinor, wishing to spend less, had greater difficulty in suiting
+herself.
+
+"By six o'clock surely," said the obliging saleswoman, "everything shall
+be ready. Two or three workwomen will at once be set on the alterations.
+This is a special case, and we are glad to do all we can to oblige you."
+
+"Now Elinor, come back with me," urged Martine, "we have half the
+afternoon before us, and we might as well have a good long talk."
+
+"That will suit me very well. Mrs. Starkweather and Kate have to stay in
+to see callers. You will not care," she concluded turning to her
+friends, "if I stay with Martine until five. She is going to lend me a
+hat, and fan, and other things."
+
+"Provided you return to the hotel by five, you may go with Martine now.
+We are greatly obliged for your assistance," and Mrs. Starkweather shook
+hands cordially with the young girl.
+
+The apartment seemed cool and pleasant to the two friends, as they
+entered it, and Martine sank down in a little willow chair with a sigh
+of relief.
+
+"Angelina," she called, "Angelina!"
+
+In a moment Angelina stood before her.
+
+"Bring me the large hat-box from my closet, please."
+
+"Certainly, Miss Martine."
+
+"It's handsomer than my own," exclaimed Elinor, as Martine lifted the
+large white hat from the box, and set it on her friend's head.
+
+"It suits you perfectly. I am so glad I have it!"
+
+Martine did not explain that this was the hat she had herself meant to
+wear Class Day, and that her second best was not nearly as becoming.
+Martine was not vain, and it really pleased her that she had something
+to offer Elinor. The fan, parasol, and other little accessories were
+quickly chosen from Martine's abundant store, and then the two girls sat
+down for the promised long talk.
+
+"I know you'll like York," said Elinor. "Every one does."
+
+"Oh,--I dare say,--I remember Peggy Pratt at school was always talking
+about it. But of course I am not going for fun, and we are to live in
+the littlest bit of a house, with only Angelina for maid, and I shall
+hardly have a cent to spend."
+
+"I know, I know," responded Elinor gently, "but spending money is not
+everything, you can enjoy so many things without it."
+
+"Oh, I dare say, but money helps. You and Kate would have had to give up
+your Class Day, or wear unsuitable clothes, if you hadn't had money to
+buy new outfits to-day. Still, I like the idea of the little cottage,
+and helping mother, and if father only comes back safely, I sha'n't care
+if we haven't a penny in the world."
+
+"You must have had rather hard work packing up," said Elinor
+sympathetically; "I suppose Angelina has been more hindrance than help."
+
+"Oh, no--she has surprised us all by taking a real interest. I asked her
+if she wouldn't rather have a different kind of place for the summer.
+'What an idea!' she replied. 'I love hard work when I can get all the
+credit for it. Wild horses wouldn't keep me away from York. Besides,
+your mother has got so used to my Spanish flavoring that her health
+would suffer if I should leave.'"
+
+"She's a case," commented Elinor, "but tell me, is it true that you
+might have visited Mrs. Stanley at Bar Harbor this summer?"
+
+"Oh, she's papa's cousin," rejoined Martine, "and she _did_ invite me.
+But of course I had no intention of leaving mamma, even if I had been in
+the mood for a gay place like Mt. Desert. She has been growing paler and
+thinner, all the spring, and though she might have boarded in some quiet
+spot, she just couldn't have got along without me."
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"She thought I could accept the invitation for August, but this was out
+of the question. I doubt that I should have gone out to Cambridge
+to-morrow, if I hadn't seen that mother would be disappointed if I gave
+that up. There will be other Class Days, and I can wait. But it isn't as
+if I had to buy anything--a muslin that I had made in the winter is just
+the thing, and I haven't had to bother."
+
+"You are very sweet, Martine, about everything, and so different from
+what I thought of you that day we ran into each other at the car. Didn't
+I seem a little hateful when we were first introduced at Mrs. Weston's
+luncheon?"
+
+"Oh--no--only a little stiff, but that was natural, when you think of
+our first meeting," and Martine laughed at the remembrance. "I can't
+imagine you out of temper, since I have really known you."
+
+"Not even to-day?"
+
+"To-day?"
+
+"Why, I have been feeling particularly savage about my trunk. You must
+have noticed how I spoke to the man in the express office."
+
+"He deserved it, but really I didn't notice anything of that kind. You
+were really polite, considering you had lost a trunk."
+
+"It is really a loss," responded Elinor, "even to Kate, and I wish that
+some one could explain what happened to it."
+
+"It may simply be mislaid. Ten to one it may turn up to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, I hope not. That would be exasperating, after all the trouble we
+have had to-day. I would almost rather that the trunk should stay lost.
+Then we could bring suit for damages."
+
+"You can generally get only a hundred dollars on a single trunk, at
+least I remember hearing papa say that was all railroads would pay,"
+said Martine sagely, "and what would that be among two?"
+
+"You shouldn't have put all your eggs in one basket."
+
+Elinor and Martine started at the sound of a strange voice, but looking
+up they saw Angelina standing at the door leading toward the
+dining-room. She had used a curious falsetto with which at times she
+liked to experiment.
+
+"I just meant to remind you it's half-past four, and I heard Miss Elinor
+say she must be back at the hotel by five. You've just barely time, and
+if you please I'll carry the boxes for you."
+
+Thus Angelina turned aside the reproof that might have been given her
+for listening at the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CLASS DAY
+
+
+At the breakfast-table Class Day morning, Martine found an envelope
+addressed in Elinor's neat handwriting.
+
+"You just must come with us," she read, as she broke the seal; "I had
+only half as good a time as I might have had last night, thinking of
+you. There must have been crowds of people you knew there. Kate's
+brother brought us four tickets for everything--even for Sanders Theatre
+this morning. So please be ready at ten. Telephone. Hastily, Elinor."
+
+Martine, glancing at the clock, made a rapid calculation. In no way
+could she double the hours between eight o'clock and one, and she had a
+morning's work to do before she could rightfully set out on a
+pleasure-trip.
+
+"Angelina," she called, "please go to the telephone. Call up Miss
+Naylor, and say that I cannot go with her this morning. Tell her,
+please, that I will meet her as we agreed in the afternoon."
+
+For a moment Angelina did not move. Telephoning was one of her delights,
+and Martine wondered why she stood rooted to the spot.
+
+Angelina, however, quickly explained herself.
+
+"Oh, Miss Martine," she cried, "I hate to give a message like that. You
+just ought to go off and have a good time. It isn't right for you to
+slave and slave, and you younger than me."
+
+Martine smiled at Angelina's lugubrious expression. She did not wish the
+latter to see that she was a little downcast at the thought of the quiet
+morning at home.
+
+"Go, Angelina," she cried, "run quickly; it's a hot day, and I'm
+thankful enough that I can stay home until noon. Don't wait for an
+answer. Simply leave the message for Miss Elinor."
+
+Martine's tone was so positive that Angelina had no choice but to obey,
+and when she returned, Martine was on her knees packing one of her
+mother's trunks.
+
+"Angelina," she explained, "we have only this morning and to-morrow for
+the rest of our packing, for I have promised to spend Sunday with the
+Strothers' in Brookline, where mamma is. You are to go to Shiloh late
+Saturday afternoon, and on Monday morning you and I must be here
+promptly at nine, to send off the trunks and boxes. Mamma will stop here
+with Mrs. Strothers on her way to the station to see that everything is
+left in perfect condition. So even if we work with all our might this
+morning we shall barely get through in time."
+
+"There's another helper coming," murmured Angelina.
+
+"Oh, yes, a scrub-woman, who couldn't do the least little thing to help
+pack the trunks. But hurry with the dishes, Angelina, for you can be a
+lot of use."
+
+Though she spoke briskly, Martine felt a little depressed--for Martine.
+
+As she lifted trunk-trays, and folded skirts, and packed things in
+little boxes, she could not help thinking how much pleasanter it would
+be to spend the morning in Sander's Theatre, listening to witty
+speeches, or later walking about the college grounds, with Elinor and
+Kate and half a dozen attendant undergraduates.
+
+"If only mother hadn't been sick--"
+
+Then she suppressed the thought, ashamed of her own selfishness.
+
+At twelve o'clock she glanced around the room with undisguised
+satisfaction.
+
+"There, Angelina, we can easily finish to-morrow. Only two trunks and
+one box left, and some little odds and ends to do at the last moment.
+Oh, dear, I must get away quickly--the rooms look so bare."
+
+The fatigue that Martine had hardly before admitted to herself, almost
+overcame her while she was dressing. Bending, climbing, wielding a
+hammer, undoubtedly strengthen the muscles in the long run. Yet the
+process of muscle-building is often accompanied by sensations that an
+amateur athlete might pardonably call "weariness."
+
+Consequently, Martine must not be blamed if for a moment her spirit
+weakened as she looked at the white gown that Angelina had spread out
+for her on the divan.
+
+"I can't go," she said; "I am too tired. I ought to have waited for
+Lucian's Class Day, and if he is never to have a Class Day--why, then I
+am never to have any fun. If we are so poor that he cannot finish
+college, then I shall be too poor to go to parties--or--or anything."
+
+There is nothing worse for a girl's spirits than self-pity. As Martine
+bent over the dress on the divan, a big tear splashed on one end of the
+silk sash. This was followed by a second tear, and then the absurdity of
+the situation produced the rainbow. The rainbow in this case was the
+smile that flashed amid the tears, the smile that made the tears seem
+absolutely absurd as Martine caught sight of herself in the glass.
+
+"What a baby I am! Here I am going to join two of my best friends who
+have promised me a splendid time, and just because I am a little tired,
+I feel as if the world were falling to pieces."
+
+A cool bath--an hour of leisurely dressing--a few compliments from
+Angelina--and Martine was herself again.
+
+She knew that her mother would not altogether approve of her going alone
+to Cambridge, and she regretted that she had not allowed Amy to send
+some one for her, as at first she had suggested.
+
+Just as she was wondering whether, if she could afford a carriage, her
+mother would approve of her driving to Cambridge alone, she heard
+Angelina's--
+
+"Walk in, please. Yes, ma'am, she hasn't gone yet," and then she
+recognized the pleasant voice of Mrs. Redmond, saying,--
+
+"Tell her she need not hurry. I can wait."
+
+"But I can't wait--not a single minute," and Martine, rushing from the
+little bedroom, almost flung herself into Mrs. Redmond's arms.
+
+"There, there, my dear child--it's a warm day, and our clothes--"
+
+"Will not stand crushing. I know it, and how sweet you look in that soft
+gray. But I thought you were at Cambridge."
+
+"Oh, no, I was not invited to the feast of reason this morning. I am
+going out merely for the frivolities of the afternoon. I forgot to write
+you that I had promised your mother I would call for you. I realized my
+oversight only as I started. Perhaps you have made other plans?"
+
+"I have been too busy for plans. Mamma forgot to tell me you were
+coming. An hour ago I thought I was too busy to go to Cambridge, but
+now--it just delights me to think of going with you."
+
+The ride in an open car over the long bridge soothed Martine. She almost
+forgot that she had been tired. When Mrs. Redmond drew from her the
+story of her recent responsibilities, the young girl made light of the
+difficulties that had beset her. She was always happy with Mrs. Redmond,
+and the latter's quick understanding of her present trials lessened the
+trials themselves.
+
+When they reached Harvard Square, Martine's spirits rose.
+
+"There's no doubt I love a crowd," she said. "This makes me think of a
+country fair, only the people are better dressed, and there are no
+fakirs."
+
+"My dear child--a country fair!"
+
+"I mean the atmosphere is somewhat the same--oh, there are Amy and
+Fritz."
+
+Somewhere from the crowd pouring out from one of the smaller college
+gates, Amy and Fritz were approaching the spot on the sidewalk where
+Martine and Mrs. Redmond were standing.
+
+"I am delighted to see you, children," said Mrs. Redmond. "I was
+secretly wondering where we should go next--to Fritz' rooms or to the
+Pudding."
+
+"Oh, to the Pudding at once," responded Fritz; "you are none too early.
+As for Amy--"
+
+"I shall never dare look a strawberry in the face again. Early as it is,
+I have already eaten so many, and, oh, mamma, it is all so delightful.
+Fritz and I have already been at the Pudding, and now we'll go back with
+you."
+
+At this point Mrs. Redmond interfered. She assured Fritz that she and
+Martine were quite able to take care of themselves.
+
+"It is the Senior's day," she said; "and Martine and I are here only
+incidentally. One of us is too old, and the other too young--almost too
+young--to be exacting about Class Day. Martine's best time will come
+when Lucian graduates."
+
+"Run, Amy," exclaimed Martine. "It's delightful to see you and Mr.
+Tomkins getting on so well. You usually try to send him away somewhere;
+but now you are ready to go where he goes, and so your mother and I
+won't detain you for even a minute."
+
+"Let us hurry, then," said Amy, turning to Fritz. "If Martine is in one
+of her mischievous moods, we cannot tell when she will stop teasing."
+
+"At my rooms at four," cried Fritz, as he and Amy left the others at the
+entrance to the Pudding spread.
+
+From this moment for the rest of the day, Martine not only forgot that
+she was tired, but her recent troubles seemed altogether of the past. In
+spite of the great crowd, a number of her Chicago friends found Martine
+in the corner where Mrs. Redmond made her sit. It is true that she had
+not even a word with Hazen Andrews, her special host, who, like most
+Seniors, was thoroughly occupied looking after relatives and the girls
+of the older set, to which Martine did not belong.
+
+She had not many friends among the Seniors, though two or three in their
+flowing gowns, mortar-boards in their hands, came up to speak to her or
+Mrs. Redmond.
+
+"Isn't it fun?" cried Martine to the latter. "It's like taking a journey
+somewhere, and running upon all kinds of people that one hasn't seen for
+a long time--only one seldom sees so many persons one knows on a single
+journey."
+
+Promptly at four o'clock Mrs. Redmond and Martine met Amy and a number
+of her friends at Fritz' rooms, and together they all went over to the
+Memorial delta where the statue exercises were held.
+
+"It's dazzling!" cried Martine, looking about at the tiers and tiers of
+gayly dressed girls and women; "only more beautiful than a flower
+garden, because it's more alive, this garden of people. I wish we could
+see Elinor here."
+
+"My dear little girl, this is a great pleasure," said a voice at
+Martine's elbow, and turning to the left, to her great surprise, Martine
+found her neighbor to be a Chicago friend of her father.
+
+"Didn't know I was an old Harvard man! Well, the West does take the
+starch of culture out of us. I'm going down there among the graduates
+after a while. I'm holding these seats for my niece and a friend, who
+thought they could never find it unless I was here as a landmark. They
+failed to meet me, as people always fail on Class Day. Let me see,
+Lucian doesn't graduate this year?"
+
+"No, he isn't in Cambridge; he has gone to join father."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course; this has been a hard year for your father."
+
+The tears came to Martine's eyes.
+
+"Bless my soul, child, don't cry. It's coming out all right. Everyone
+must have some business cares, and up to the present your father has
+been remarkably successful. But money isn't everything!"
+
+"That's just it," responded Martine. "The money doesn't matter at
+all--to me. But we are afraid that father is breaking down--that's why
+Lucian has gone to South America; and we can't hear for some time just
+how things are."
+
+"Well, well! I didn't realize that things were going so badly--at least
+you must think they are going badly, or you wouldn't look downcast. A
+bright girl like you should always look on the bright side of things.
+But so far as your father's business is concerned, I may tell you that
+it is likely to take a turn for the better--at present I am not at
+liberty to say more. It's this news about his health that troubles me.
+Let me know what you hear from Lucian."
+
+Mr. Gamut's words were more cheering than anything Martine had heard for
+weeks, and in the few minutes that intervened before the arrival of his
+niece, he told her a number of interesting stories about earlier Class
+Days.
+
+"This is a larger gathering, this crowd around the statue, than we used
+to see at the tree. But give me the tree, and the wreath, and the wild
+scramble, and the torn flowers that the boys were almost ready to stake
+their lives for! Sometimes I am afraid we are making everything too
+refined; a little rough and tumble is good even for the most cultivated
+students. This confetti!--no, I don't care for it."
+
+Mr. Gamut, on the arrival of his niece, departed to his place among the
+graduates. The niece was a girl whom Martine had known slightly at home.
+She had recently come from Chicago, and in consequence, was able to tell
+Martine various bits of news, which, if not important, at least had some
+interest for one away from home.
+
+After the mass of students had marched into the enclosure, and had given
+all the regulation Harvard cheers, Martine felt herself thoroughly
+imbued with the spirit of the day. She listened intently to the cheers,
+hummed the air of "Johnny Harvard" while the students sang it. When her
+own stock of confetti was exhausted, she helped Mrs. Redmond throw hers
+in the direction of Fritz.
+
+"It's the prettiest sight I ever saw," she cried. "This wonderful
+shimmering network of ribbons--it's as if we had been caught in a
+rainbow--and if we were only a little farther away from people, they
+would seem like real fairies. Oh, I am glad I came!"
+
+"I am glad that you are cheerful again," whispered Mrs. Redmond. "For a
+moment to-day, I feared that you were going to be blue."
+
+"Well, it was only for a moment. Now I feel happy--almost as happy as
+Amy. Come, Amy dear, Fritz will never find you in this crowd. Let us
+return to his rooms as quickly as we can. The sooner we are there, the
+sooner we shall go on to the spread."
+
+How Priscilla would have shuddered at the teasing tone that Martine used
+in addressing Amy. Even though she now understood Martine so much better
+than formerly, and, indeed, really loved her, Priscilla could not
+accustom herself to Martine's frivolity of speech and manner toward Amy.
+Fortunately for her own feelings, Priscilla was safely at Plymouth at
+this particular moment, and Amy, whom Martine never offended, only
+smiled indulgently at the younger girl.
+
+They had not long to wait at Fritz' pleasant rooms before he appeared,
+flushed and triumphant, accompanied by two or three friends.
+
+"Wasn't it fine? We managed to bring you a few sprays of flowers. The
+bevy of beauty on the seats above almost blinded us. But for that we
+might have done better, although I can tell you, no one else got more;
+and we fairly had to fight our way out. Now we are ready to share our
+trophies. This for you, Amy, and Barton--yours, I believe, are for Miss
+Martine; but I forget, you have never met. Mr. Barton, Miss Stratford--I
+always forget that the men I know do not always know the girls I know.
+But now, Barton, you will escort Mrs. Redmond and Miss Martine to our
+humble spread--and Helmer--ah, here they are--Miss Naylor, Miss
+Starkweather--let me present Barton and Helmer, and Jack Underwood. Now
+we can start--I thought your aunt was coming--ah! lost?"
+
+"Of course she isn't lost, Kate," interposed the practical Elinor. "I am
+sure that I hear her on the stairs." And to prove that Elinor was right,
+a moment later the elder Miss Starkweather came panting into the room.
+
+"You should have waited for me, girls; I had such a fright--I was sure
+you were lost!"
+
+"Not lost--only gone before," interrupted Fritz. "I am sorry I shocked
+you, Amy," he whispered, catching her look of reproof. "Let us hurry on,
+ahead of the others."
+
+Martine, walking with Fritz' friend, Barton, across the college yard,
+felt quite in her element. The young man was by no means bashful, and in
+a few moments the two were deep in a lively conversation. Martine's
+fatigue had passed away. Family trials were forgotten.
+
+Fritz Tomkins had united with four or five of his friends in giving a
+large spread in one of the modern halls outside the yard.
+
+Secretly Martine thought the affair conventional, "like any afternoon
+tea, with flowers on the table, and candelabra, and all the fashionable
+bonbons."
+
+"But you wouldn't see so many men at a mere tea, truly I think it's
+great fun," said the staid Elinor, snuggling into a corner beside
+Martine. "At the next game I shall hardly know what side I am on. I like
+Harvard so well, and your hat, Martine, the one I am wearing, you can't
+imagine how many compliments it has had. You were altogether too good to
+let me have it. Do you suppose I shall _ever_ find that trunk?"
+
+Before Martine could reply, some one came to carry Elinor off for a
+walk. Martine, left to herself, eagerly watched everything around her.
+
+"I wonder why Fritz pays more attention to Amy than to anyone else. He
+sees so much of her always that I should think to-day he'd look after
+other people. Now, I'm sure Amy isn't sentimental."
+
+But just at this moment, Martine caught an expression on Fritz' face as
+he turned toward Amy that set her thinking. Rising to her feet, she
+hurried toward Mrs. Redmond.
+
+"Tell me, please, how late you mean to stay. It's dark now, and the
+lanterns in the yard must be lit. I'd like to see the illumination, and
+hear the Glee Club sing, but I ought to be home by nine, please. I have
+a busy day before me."
+
+"Just as you wish, my dear. I will speak to Amy."
+
+A moment later, Amy, Fritz, and Elinor surrounded Martine, protesting
+against her departure, urging her to go with them to Memorial, to return
+with them to Fritz' rooms, to watch the illuminations; in short, to do
+anything but go home.
+
+Martine, however, was firm, and when she started off for the yard with
+Mrs. Redmond, Mr. Barton went with them.
+
+"It is a glimpse of fairyland," said Martine, as they strolled about
+through the crowd. "Why do these lines of lanterns make the yard look
+ten times its usual size? Why do these red lights make every one seem
+beautiful? Why--"
+
+"Let me continue," interrupted Emmons Barton. "_Why_ won't you come over
+to Memorial? _Why_ must you hurry home?"
+
+"Because I am Cinderella," responded Martine gayly. "Because I should
+hate to lose my glass slipper. Come, Mrs. Redmond, I am sure our car is
+waiting, if Mr. Barton will only find it for us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+AT YORK
+
+
+The morning after her arrival at York, Martine stood at the door of the
+little red farm-house. The air was fresh and cool, a delightful contrast
+to the last day or two of heat in the city that she had just left. A
+slight mist from the river softened without hiding the view. Through the
+rolling meadows that stretched before her across the road, she saw the
+thread of river winding its way toward the sea. The ocean itself was not
+in sight, though it made itself known in a certain agreeable saltness of
+odor that Martine quickly recognized.
+
+Martine gazed across the meadows with a certain pleasant expectancy,
+such as any young girl in a new place is likely to feel. The houses in
+the distance looked attractive.
+
+"I wonder if they are summer cottages, or if people really live there. I
+wonder who has this large house just across the road. It is rather
+handsome. I hope there are girls in the family. It must be very pleasant
+there, the garden seems to run down to the river. Our garden needs
+attention," she concluded, taking a few steps toward the flower beds,
+where a few stray geraniums and untrimmed rose-bushes were the sole
+adornments. After a few rather futile efforts to improve the appearance
+of these beds, Martine turned toward the house.
+
+The red cottage, as she faced it, was far from imposing.
+
+"It's like some of the roadside cottages I have seen in England and
+Wales. It isn't much larger. I'm glad that it is red instead of
+white--well I should have had to live in it just the same, but I should
+have hated a white house. A coat of red paint always makes a house seem
+picturesque," she concluded.
+
+At this moment Angelina, in a pink calico in which she looked more
+gypsy-like than ever, ran down the little slope to meet Martine.
+
+"Isn't it lovely," she said, "to be so near the road. We can see the
+electric cars pass by the corner over there, and hear the train. Didn't
+you notice the whistle this morning? I did, and it made me think of the
+city right off."
+
+"I don't often hear an engine whistle in the city."
+
+"Yes, but a steam-engine makes you think of the city. You know that you
+are not cut off from everything, and that sometime you can go back."
+
+"Why Angelina, I hope that you are not homesick?"
+
+There had been a suspicious quiver in Angelina's voice.
+
+"Not exactly homesick, oh, no, I feel perfectly at home with you and
+Mrs. Stratford, but still--well, you see, Miss Martine, we haven't as
+many neighbors as we had in the city. I knew something about every
+family in the Belhaven, but here I don't see how I'll begin to get
+acquainted."
+
+"Cheer up, Angelina," said Martine, pleasantly. "Don't let a little
+thing like that trouble you. A person of your sociable disposition can
+make acquaintances anywhere. But it's more dignified to proceed slowly.
+You and I will be busy enough the next few days getting settled. I have
+an idea that mother may need us now."
+
+"There," cried Angelina, as they stood inside the little entry. "It's
+small, Miss Martine, but it's real neat, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it's neat," and Martine looked at the steep flight of stairs that
+almost tumbled down into the narrow hall, separating the two front
+rooms. "It's neat enough, but I am glad we have a strip of red carpet
+for the stairs. Uncarpeted, the paint might soon wear off, and besides
+they would be rather noisy. But are you sure that you have finished your
+kitchen-work, Angelina?"
+
+"Well, I just haven't; I'm glad you reminded me." So Angelina hurried to
+the back of the house, where soon her voice was heard singing shrilly
+above the clatter of dishes.
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, as her daughter entered the sitting-room
+at the left of the hall, "the wall paper was very successful. What would
+this room have been without it?"
+
+"These pale yellow roses certainly brighten it up, and the color is not
+only cheerful, but increases the size of the room. This little cupboard
+in the wall is fascinating, and when we get some of our china in, it
+will be truly æsthetic."
+
+"If only it opened on a piazza," sighed Mrs. Stratford. "It is singular
+enough that so many New England houses are built without any pretence of
+a porch or piazza."
+
+"Oh, that can be remedied," responded Martine cheerfully. "There's a
+very attractive nook between those two trees, and we can send to town
+for an awning, and if we lay down a rug, and move out a sofa, and some
+chairs and a table, why we'll have a regular little summer house."
+
+Martine, pausing almost out of breath, noted with regret that her mother
+did not smile. A shadow crossed Mrs. Stratford's face.
+
+"Mother does not like it here," thought Martine, "neither do I, but I
+must like it."
+
+"Come, mother," she said aloud, taking her mother by the arm. "Wasn't it
+a good idea to have the walls of this dining-room painted blue? You see
+it gets so much sun, and this gives it the effect of coolness."
+
+"I dislike oak furniture." Mrs. Stratford did not answer the question
+that Martine had put indirectly to her. Her attention was now centred on
+the ugly extension table and the uncomfortable chairs ranged stiffly
+around the wall.
+
+"We'll have to put up with the chairs, I suppose, but I have a lovely
+old blue cotton curtain in one of the trunks that will hide the table
+and give the room any amount of style."
+
+"You are trying to make the best of everything, my dear, and I dare say
+you are right. But the house is so much smaller and plainer than I
+remembered it, that I fear we shall hardly be comfortable."
+
+"Oh, no; come, let me show you, already I have made ever so many plans;"
+and impressed by Martine's vivacious optimism, Mrs. Stratford at last
+began to see the pleasanter possibilities of the red cottage.
+
+Martine was not deceiving either her mother or herself in pointing out
+the best side of things, and yet in her heart there was a certain
+disappointment in her first survey of "Red Knoll."
+
+"We must have a name for the house," she had said the very afternoon of
+their arrival. "'Red Farm,' no, that isn't exactly the thing; 'Red Top,'
+no, the roof isn't red, and besides, that name has been used by some one
+else. 'Red Knoll'--there, why not, it combines the color of the house
+and the situation on a knoll--why not, mamma?" and as Mrs. Stratford had
+no adverse answer, Red Knoll it was from the beginning.
+
+A house needs something besides a picturesque name to make it attractive
+even to an optimistic girl anxious to see the bright side of things.
+
+The little farm-house that Mr. and Mrs. Stratford had so impulsively
+bought, was barely large enough for the three persons who were now to
+make it the summer home. The two square rooms on each side of the front
+door, if thrown together, would have been smaller than the bedroom which
+had been Martine's in her father's house. Over them, originally, had
+been two rooms of equal size. One of these was now to be Mrs.
+Stratford's bedroom. The other had been divided by a partition into two
+rooms each, resembling the so-called hall bedroom of many city houses.
+The one nearest her mother Martine appropriated for herself. The second
+she named euphemistically the guest-room; but for the present she
+intended to use it as a studio or writing-room, and had removed one or
+two other pieces of furniture to make room for a large deal table.
+
+Beyond this room, connected by a narrow door, were two ell rooms, one of
+which was assigned to Angelina. Downstairs in the ell were kitchen and
+wash-room, both with white-washed walls.
+
+"A small house, but our own," said Martine cheerfully, as she first
+walked through it. "I'll try to forget how different it is from the
+place we used to have at Oconomowoc. When father first sold it, he said
+some time he would buy a place on the New England coast, but he
+certainly hadn't Red Knoll in mind then."
+
+As the first evening in their new home came on, Martine felt lonely. The
+shadows gathering around the little cottage seemed to shut her out from
+the world.
+
+"Will things ever come right? I feel so--so miserable. I wonder what it
+is--mother, where are you?"
+
+Two or three times she called, before her mother's voice came to her
+from a corner of the little garden.
+
+"What are you doing out in the damp?"
+
+"Is it damp, my child? But the sunset was too beautiful to miss. You
+should have been out here with me. Where were you, dear?"
+
+"Helping Angelina."
+
+"That was right; it will take her some time to get perfectly adjusted.
+You are going to be a great comfort, Martine."
+
+Her mother's praise sounded sweet to Martine, yet she could not shake
+off a certain strange feeling, that she would have called homesickness
+had her mother not been with her.
+
+When they reached the house, they sat for a moment by the open window.
+
+"Mother," cried Martine, "I have an idea--I mean a special idea.
+Wouldn't it be better after this to have tea later, just as it begins to
+grow dark. Then we needn't miss the sunset."
+
+"Wouldn't that make Angelina's dish-washing come rather late?"
+
+"Oh, listen, listen," cried Martine, with something of her old
+eagerness. "It is part of my plan to leave the dish-washing until
+morning. There are only three of us, and so we need not follow
+old-fashioned housekeeping rules."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," and Mrs. Stratford shook her head as if in
+doubt. "But we can try the late tea to-morrow, so that we can go up in
+the meadow behind the house for our sunset. It is a better place for a
+view than my corner of the garden."
+
+It pleased Martine to hear her mother speak so cheerfully.
+
+"I'll try not to mind the melancholy twilights, and all those strange
+chirping things and the feeling of being shut off in a corner of the
+world, if only this place is good for mother."
+
+The later tea hour proved feasible, and Martine at the table with her
+mother after their little stroll to Sunset Hill forgot the melancholy
+twilight. Nor had she in their busy first week much time for discontent.
+The village boy whom Mrs. Stratford engaged to unpack their trunks and
+boxes was bewildered by their number.
+
+"There are some, Angelina, that are not to be unpacked now, please get
+him to put them in the unfinished ell room."
+
+"Yes, Miss Martine, I know just which they are, and I'll hurry back to
+help you hang those pictures."
+
+When all the pictures were hung, when artistic draperies covered some of
+the ugliest chairs, when pretty sofa cushions softened ugly angles, when
+books and bric-à-brac were distributed in carelessly homelike fashion,
+and when a number of really valuable rugs were used to tone down the
+crudeness of the carpets, Angelina surveyed the result with a pride that
+could not have been greater if she had been the owner of the cottage.
+
+"There," she cried. "It looks just like a city house, only more so, if
+anything. Don't you think so, Miss Martine, and I do hope you'll have
+some callers right away. Why, I almost feel as if I was back at the
+Belhaven when I look from this Cashmere rug to that Arts and Crafts
+silver bowl on the mantle-piece. No one can say that we haven't shown
+perfect taste, can they, Miss Martine?"
+
+"I am glad we brought all these things," replied Martine, "mother
+thought I was packing too much, but if we are to be here three or four
+months, we must make it seem as homelike as possible."
+
+"It certainly is homelike," continued Angelina, "especially that picture
+of Miss Brenda. Mrs. Weston, I mean; when I first saw her I always
+thought she was stylish, and that was years ago. Of course I hadn't been
+acquainted with many Back Bay ladies then, excepting one that taught in
+our Sunday School. But still, after all I've known I just think Mrs.
+Weston's at the very head of them. You are something like her, too, Miss
+Martine, in fact I should say you're almost as stylish, and to-day when
+I rode down to the village I saw a lot of young ladies that are just
+your kind, in white muslins and high-heeled shoes, and I hope they'll
+call on you soon. As far as I could make out from something I heard some
+one on the seat behind me say, they were going to a tea, and it's likely
+to be a gay summer. I'm glad of this for your sake, Miss Martine, for
+you've been too quiet lately for one of your age."
+
+Martine was not altogether pleased with Angelina's familiarity, though
+for the moment it seemed hardly worth while to rebuke her.
+
+Consequently Angelina, unreproved, continued her monologue:
+
+"I noticed a good many people in bathing when I passed the beach, but
+when I went up I found they were chiefly nurse-maids, employees of the
+cottagers. There were a lot of pleasant-looking nurses and children
+playing in the sand, and one that I spoke to, a nurse, I mean, was very
+accommodating, and told me lots about the cottagers. They bathe at noon
+every day, and it's a great sight. I presume when I do go in, I'll have
+to go in with the employees, for I suppose I'll be classed with the
+nurses and children that generally bathe in the afternoon."
+
+"You'll be classed with the children, if you babble on in this way,
+Angelina. But as to the bathing, you must ask mother."
+
+"Well, I wish you had been going to that tea, Miss Martine; the young
+ladies looked just your style. I asked the nurse about it, and she said
+it was given by Miss Peggy Pratt of Philadelphia."
+
+These last words of Angelina's made more impression than all the others.
+"Peggy Pratt." Martine felt on further reflection particularly
+aggrieved.
+
+"Elinor must have written Peggy regarding her summer plans, for Elinor
+was a person of her word, and she had promised to do this. If Elinor had
+not promised, of course I should have written myself. But now I am glad
+I did not, for probably I should have been treated just the same. Yet it
+doesn't seem just like Peggy."
+
+"Martine," called Mrs. Stratford from her corner a few minutes later,
+and Martine hurried to her mother's side.
+
+"Sit down, dear," added Mrs. Stratford, then with a shade of anxiety in
+her voice. "But you look tired. I fear you have been working too hard.
+Perhaps you did more than your share in preparing this boudoir for me."
+
+"Oh, no, Angelina and Timothy worked much harder than I. But it _is_ a
+cosy corner. Between the awning and the trees, you will be as well
+shaded from the sun as you would be indoors, and an open window wouldn't
+begin to give you so much air."
+
+Martine swung herself into the hammock.
+
+"There, I feel like a bird. Mother dear, you called me for something
+special, what is it?"
+
+"Only to say that Angelina is anxious to know how we will celebrate."
+
+"Celebrate?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Martine." Angelina had reappeared on the scene with Mrs.
+Stratford's glass of milk. "Celebrate," she repeated. "Why, Miss
+Martine, you haven't forgotten what day to-morrow is?"
+
+Martine sat upright in the hammock. "I really and truly had, but now you
+mention it it's the great and glorious Fourth, and what of that?" she
+concluded, waving her hand dramatically.
+
+"Oh, Miss Martine, it wouldn't be right to pass it by unnoticed. Why at
+the North End we used to sit up all the night before, and the streets
+were as full of noise as if a war was going on."
+
+"We couldn't celebrate in exactly that way," responded Martine smiling.
+"I am almost sure that I won't sit up to-night, and as to fire-crackers,
+what's the good, unless there's a boy in the house?"
+
+Again the sober expression returned to Martine's face, as this mention
+of the Fourth brought vividly to mind the many celebrations in which she
+and Lucian had taken a lively interest. Where was Lucian now? Would the
+whole family ever be together again?
+
+She came to herself with Angelina's high-pitched voice still ringing in
+her ears.
+
+"So I felt quite sure that you wouldn't object as the ten weeks is more
+than past, and as I've paid all that up, why, I made sure you wouldn't
+mind my spending just a little for fireworks. But I'd like you to look
+in your little book first."
+
+"I know it's all settled, Angelina, but you can bring me that little red
+book from the drawer in my writing-table."
+
+While Angelina was in the house, Martine explained to her mother what
+she had meant by "paying up."
+
+"It is that money Lucian paid for the hall. He told her to give it back
+to me. So she has been paying a dollar and a half a week. It is Lucian's
+money, though he wished me to keep it, and I agreed not to let Angelina
+know that it was he who helped her."
+
+"It is to Angelina's credit that she has paid so promptly."
+
+"It really is, mamma, and I think it has been rather a good thing as it
+has kept her from spending all her money foolishly. Of course, the hall
+itself was a foolish expense, yet these last few weeks she has been able
+to waste only part of her money, but now--"
+
+At this moment Angelina appeared with the little red book, and Martine,
+quickly turning to the pages with her account, saw to Angelina's
+satisfaction as well as her own, that the indebtedness for the hall had
+been cancelled.
+
+"There," cried Angelina, folding up the receipt that Martine with
+business-like exactness gave her. "I am relieved. Now I can celebrate
+all I want to, for fire-crackers cost a lot."
+
+"Please don't waste your money on fireworks."
+
+"Really, Angelina, you must not," added Martine.
+
+But Angelina, making no reply either to Mrs. Stratford or
+Martine--unless a nod and three shakes of the head and a broad smile
+could be called a reply, flew down the little slope toward the road.
+
+The morning of the Fourth was so quiet that Martine might have forgotten
+the great and glorious holiday but for Angelina. Before the breakfast
+dishes were washed, the latter was outside striking torpedoes against
+the stone that formed the kitchen doorstep.
+
+When Mrs. Stratford went with her books to her retreat under the trees
+in the garden, she found two small flags standing in the vase that was
+usually filled with flowers.
+
+When once her mind was turned toward the Fourth, Martine began to recall
+Independence Days of the past. What fun she and Lucian used to have!
+Why, they often had been up before sunrise to play with their
+fire-crackers and torpedoes. Then at night--
+
+"I wonder," mused Martine, "if any other children ever had half the
+sport we had. Set pieces, and fire balloons, as well as rockets; how
+indulgent father always was. No wonder I feel blue to-day, and expect
+too much--when it isn't likely that in this town a single person is
+thinking about us."
+
+The day, as befitted the holiday, proved hot, and Martine, swinging
+languidly in the hammock, at length admitted to herself that she was
+glad that she had no troublesome social engagement to keep, and she
+maintained this opinion even in face of Angelina's report, after a walk
+to the village, that there seemed to be a great deal going on.
+
+To oblige Angelina, dinner instead of tea was served at five, and it
+proved a great success.
+
+"I would like to have served red white and blue ice-cream, but I didn't
+know how to make it blue, so it's red and white," apologized Angelina.
+
+"I might have supplied the blue this morning," said Martine. "It's too
+late now." But no one understood her feeble attempt at a pun.
+
+"It seems worse," said Angelina, as they gathered up the dishes, "to
+leave dinner things to be washed until morning, but if your mother don't
+mind--"
+
+"I am sure that I don't," said Martine, "and as for mother--why, of
+course she won't care."
+
+"Well, I have some very important business to attend to--if you'll
+excuse me."
+
+Upon this Angelina disappeared, and in the pleasant twilight Martine
+went outside with her mother to the little retreat in the garden.
+
+"I half wish," said Mrs. Stratford, "that we had had a few fireworks.
+Even if we are shut off from the world, we ought not to forget the
+Fourth. I didn't suppose there would be much celebrating down here, but
+see!"
+
+Looking where her mother pointed, Martine saw a great fire balloon
+soaring slowly into the air. They watched it until it disappeared and as
+the twilight deepened, they counted many rockets and Roman candles going
+up in various directions.
+
+Before Martine could decide whether it would be wise to recall the
+Fourth when Lucian almost put his eye out by blowing into a fire-cracker
+to see if it was still burning, Angelina appeared on the scene with a
+number of packages. These she deposited on the slope in front of the
+house with consequential air.
+
+"Angelina," cried Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Yes'm," responded Angelina.
+
+"Angelina," called Martine, and without waiting for a reply walked down
+to where the girl was undoing her packages.
+
+"Then you really have fire-crackers here?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Martine, and rockets, and Roman candles, and fire balloons,
+at least only one balloon. It didn't seem homelike not to have something
+doing on the Fourth, and now that I can spend my own money, there's no
+reason why I shouldn't celebrate."
+
+Martine had no reply for this unanswerable argument, and in a second
+she, too, was busy helping.
+
+"I might have bought some myself, if I had thought of it in time."
+
+"That's it, if you'd thought of it in time. My, that's fine," and
+Angelina clapped her hands, as a rocket shot into the air falling in a
+shower of golden stars.
+
+"I didn't know I could find pleasure in anything so simple," said
+Martine, returning to her mother's side.
+
+"It only shows how limited our life here is," and Mrs. Stratford sank
+back in her chair with a sigh.
+
+"Oh, fireworks amuse everybody," rejoined Martine, "but now I must run
+back to Angelina. The last, she says,--is finest of all--a fire
+balloon."
+
+After two or three ineffectual efforts Martine and Angelina at last had
+the pleasure of sending off the balloon. But alas! Instead of pursuing
+its upward way, it was borne horizontally by a wandering breeze, and at
+last was lost to sight.
+
+"I know," cried Angelina. "It has gone somewhere behind the buildings of
+that estate over the way. I must get it." And in a flash she had run
+toward the large house regarding whose occupants Martine had so often
+wondered.
+
+"Our celebration is over, I suppose," said Martine to her mother, "but
+we might as well stay outside a little longer, and see! What magnificent
+rockets are going up from the estate across the way." A change of
+intonation carried out Martine's mimicry of Angelina's words.
+
+"Yes, and there's a balloon that puts Angelina's to the blush," and
+mother and daughter watched the ball of fire dwindling in the upper air,
+until it was lost apparently among the stars.
+
+It was some time before Angelina returned, breathless.
+
+"Oh, did you see my balloon? Wasn't it magnificent? They said they were
+proud to help send it up from their estate, and they only wished they
+had had some of their own. You see it had got kind of twisted after you
+and I sent it, and went down sideways, right on the lawn in front of
+their house. They seemed the most elegant people, and I told them how
+lonely it was for you up here, and you used to things so very different.
+When I mentioned your names it seemed to me they'd heard of you before,
+and so I asked them to come to see you."
+
+"Oh, how could you, Angelina, how could you!" cried Martine.
+
+"There, there," said Mrs. Stratford, as she laid her hand on Martine's
+arm as they turned toward the house. "I have always told you you would
+spoil Angelina. It's useless to reprove her now, for she won't
+understand what you mean, but in future you can be more careful."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+SIGHT-SEEING
+
+
+"York is pretty dull for you, Martine," said Mrs. Stratford a morning or
+two after the Fourth. "I was hoping you would run across some one you
+knew here. Wasn't Elinor to write to some of her friends?"
+
+"I thought so, mamma, but either she has forgotten, or they don't think
+it worth while to travel up to Red Knoll."
+
+"Of course you have many things to interest you about the house, but
+still it's quiet for you here, Martine."
+
+"It might be livelier," admitted Martine, "but there's a lot of
+sight-seeing I can do, while waiting for something to turn up. Amy and
+Priscilla have quite got me into the sight-seeing habit, and it would be
+a strange New England town that couldn't show something to a seeker for
+information."
+
+Mrs. Stratford smiled at her daughter's way of putting things. "York
+really has some history, and the village, as I drove through it the
+other day, had a pleasant, old-time aspect, though nothing looked
+ancient enough to take one back even a hundred years."
+
+"Oh, then you didn't notice the little gaol on the hill; labelled
+sixteen hundred and something, I've forgotten just what, but I believe
+it's as old as it claims to be, for it looks something like Noah's Ark.
+If Angelina will stay with you this afternoon, I will see what is to be
+seen there. They told me at the postoffice that the Historical Society
+has it in charge and that it's full of curiosities."
+
+While she was speaking, Martine's face had brightened perceptibly, and
+her enthusiasm pleased her mother. Later in the day she set off, for
+Angelina, whose habit it was to take the afternoons for her own
+amusement, willingly accepted Martine's suggestion that she should stay
+with Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"At any time when you wish it, Miss Martine, I'll be happy to oblige
+you," said Angelina, with an air better befitting a princess than a
+domestic employee, the most of whose time should have been at the
+disposal of her employer.
+
+"I've never really gone to jail before," cried Martine gayly, as she
+bade her mother good-bye, "but I'll try so to behave myself that I'll
+have nothing but good to report when I come back."
+
+For a moment or two, before she entered the gaol, Martine surveyed it
+from the road below. Her comparison of the little building to Noah's Ark
+really suited it very well.
+
+"I can't say that it's exactly my idea of a prison," she thought,
+"although those brick walls may be thick enough to balance the wooden
+ends; and even if a prisoner found it easy to jump from the upper
+windows to the ground, I dare say that some of the bolts and bars were
+strong enough to hold dangerous persons."
+
+Once inside the little building, Martine almost forgot that it was a
+prison, as she walked about gazing at all kinds of odd things that have
+been brought together to connect the present with the past. Old china,
+old pictures, autographs, furniture, fans, and other articles of
+personal adornment, spoke eloquently of bygone days; so eloquently that
+Martine shortly realized that a feeling of sadness was taking possession
+of her. She began to picture the people to whom these things had
+belonged, to wonder who they were, how long they had lived, and why
+their homes had been broken up.
+
+"For no one with a home," she said to herself, "would ever part with
+things of this kind." She looked into the old dungeon, the walls of
+which were eighteen or twenty inches thick, and turned away hastily when
+another visitor asked her if she wouldn't like to go farther inside.
+Then she went to the attendant seated at a table in the front room.
+
+"How old is this building?" she asked, rather to make conversation than
+because she really cared to know.
+
+"It was built in 1653," was the polite answer, "and is said to be the
+oldest public building in the United States; there are probably some
+churches and houses still standing that are a little older, but no
+building used for more than two hundred years continuously for public
+purposes. It was built by the Massachusetts people when they took
+possession of this part of the country in the time of Cromwell."
+
+"Indeed!" Martine was not exactly eager for information, but to hear a
+little more history would help pass the time.
+
+"Of course you know," continued the other, "that York was founded under
+a grant to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, and it was always strongly Royalist;
+it's the oldest incorporated city in the United States, and although its
+mayor and aldermen and other high officials existed chiefly on paper and
+the place was only a small village even into the eighteenth century,
+still we are all very proud of our history."
+
+At this moment a voice at Martine's elbow cried, "Bless my soul," in
+tones that were strangely familiar, and turning about she met the
+surprised gaze of Mr. Gamut whom she had last seen at the exercises
+around the Harvard statue on Class Day.
+
+"So it really is you, Miss Martine," said the Mr. Gamut, holding out his
+hand. "I had no idea that you were in this part of the world."
+
+"We have a little cottage here this summer," responded Martine.
+
+"Are you all together again? Surely your father--"
+
+"Oh, no, my father isn't here; we've had only one letter since I saw
+you, and that wasn't encouraging."
+
+Against her will, tears came to Martine's eyes.
+
+"There, there, remember what I told you; things are bound to come out
+all right."
+
+"Oh, I hope so. Mother says that if things were worse we should probably
+have had a cable."
+
+"That's the way to look at it. Come, walk around with me for a little
+while. I suppose you know all about these things. My niece wouldn't come
+with me. She doesn't care for history. A great place this New England!
+They seem to have saved all their old odds and ends and have a story to
+fit everything."
+
+"But York is really old and historic," protested Martine, proud of her
+recently acquired information. "The first settlers here were Royalists
+and held high positions."
+
+"On paper," said Mr. Gamut with a laugh. "Oh, yes, I know about Sir
+Ferdinand Gorges and his remarkable charter. Here are some of the coats
+of arms of the first settlers," exclaimed Mr. Gamut. "Do you suppose
+they wore them tied around their necks when they first came out?"
+
+"Not exactly," responded Martine, detecting Mr. Gamut's scepticism.
+
+"Well, I'm only a plain western man," continued the latter, "and I
+rather think that coats of arms and things of that kind didn't trouble
+the first settlers in spite of all this foolery," and he pointed to the
+colors blazoned on the shield and scrolls on the walls.
+
+"They're pretty to look at," apologized Martine.
+
+"Oh, yes, and I suppose people of a certain name have an uncertain right
+to claim these heraldic ornaments, but for my own part, I prefer
+something more substantial. Things like this appeal to me more," and he
+led Martine to a little cradle in which Sir William Pepperell slept in
+his babyhood. "Or even this," and he pointed out a small table at which
+Handkerchief Moody used to eat by himself.
+
+"Who in the world was 'Handkerchief Moody'?"
+
+"His story is one of the few York tales that I can tell," replied Mr.
+Gamut, smiling. "And you ought to know it too, young lady, because
+Hawthorne, in his way, has immortalized it. This Moody was the son of
+one of the ministers of the old church; he was intended for the law, but
+having accidentally killed a friend while out hunting, his father
+persuaded him to enter the ministry. Remorse, however, so preyed on him
+that he spent his life in comparative solitude, and whenever he went in
+public, it is said, he covered his face with a handkerchief; different
+reasons have been given for his strange behavior, and it may be that he
+was always mildly insane. At least, there must be some truth in the
+stories told about him."
+
+Martine, impressed by this curious story, was silent for a few minutes.
+
+"There's one thing," she said, "that I have learned about the old people
+of York; they must have set what Angelina would call a very handsome
+table. I've seldom seen in one place so many fine old cups and saucers
+and drinking glasses and decanters."
+
+"These things don't fit exactly our theories about New England plain
+living and high thinking. I tell you what, object lessons often teach us
+much more than books. But now," and Mr. Gamut looked at his watch, "I'm
+sorry to see that I must hurry back to the house; I am visiting a cousin
+for a few days and if you'll tell me where your cottage is, I shall have
+a great deal of pleasure in calling on you and your mother."
+
+As accurately as she could, Martine described the location of Red Knoll,
+and as suddenly as he had appeared on the scene, Mr. Gamut disappeared.
+After he had gone, Martine mounted the steep stairs to the second story
+of the gaol where she examined at her leisure the hand-made quilts and
+quaint furnishings of an old-time bedroom, and looked with interest at
+the picturesque costumes giving a somewhat ghostly effect to a number of
+dummy figures in one of the attics. She saw the cell, or rather the
+room, where gentlemen prisoners were confined, and going downstairs,
+took a final survey of the old kitchen, well equipped with cooking
+utensils of Colonial days.
+
+Her visit to the gaol had diverted her, but as she walked homeward over
+the dusty road, the old feeling of loneliness returned. Never before had
+she realized that she was dependent on young companionship; yet never
+before had she been so cut off from her own special friends.
+
+Mrs. Stratford was pleased to hear that Mr. Gamut intended to visit Red
+Knoll.
+
+"He probably," she said, "has friends at York, of whom we shall be
+likely to see something; he and your father were never intimate, but
+always good friends. I shall be glad to see him and I hope his niece
+will come with him, for there is no reason why we should live in utter
+seclusion."
+
+Two or three days passed away and then a week, and still Mr. Gamut had
+not presented himself. Meanwhile a letter had arrived from Lucian.
+
+"Father is still in a rather critical condition; he is not able to
+attend to business, though they say he is much better than before I
+came; it will be impossible to tell for some time how things really
+stand or when we can come home."
+
+"I call that very encouraging," cried Martine, reading the letter aloud
+for the second time. "I'm so glad that Lucian went out there."
+
+"He has certainly taken hold very well," responded Mrs. Stratford,
+"although I cannot agree with you that the letter is very encouraging."
+
+"But it might have been so much worse," murmured Martine, turning away
+that her mother might not discern any lack of cheerfulness in her face.
+For although the letter might have been worse, Martine realized that
+after all it did not promise a great deal for the future. Other letters
+came now to Red Knoll. Priscilla wrote affectionately. She knew, she
+wrote, it was probably warmer at Plymouth than at York and yet, if only
+it could have been arranged, she believed that Martine and her mother
+might have enjoyed the South Shore better even than the North.
+
+"The children talk of you constantly; no one ever made a deeper
+impression; so I have promised them that Thanksgiving, if not before,
+you will come again to visit us. Mr. Stacy asks for you whenever he sees
+me, and that, you know, is fairly often. He says that York is historic
+in its way, and he hopes that you will find a lot to interest you there,
+so that you can tell him all about it when you see him. He evidently
+thinks that York history isn't half as important as our Plymouth
+history, and of course he's right, because this was the earlier
+settlement; still if there's anything worth knowing about the place, I
+am sure you will find it out. For even though you made so much fun of
+Acadian history last summer, in the end you really knew more about it
+than any of the rest of us. That was because there was so much more to
+know about the Acadians than the English, and you may recall I tried not
+to remember the Acadian history that Amy talked so much about."
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, "I hope that Priscilla will visit you;
+she is the kind of girl to be quite comfortable in that little room next
+yours; there are some people we wouldn't care to put there."
+
+"Oh, Priscilla would just love it, but she wrote me a while ago that she
+couldn't possibly be spared, at least that she oughtn't to wish to be
+spared; and when Priscilla says 'ought not' she generally means 'will
+not.'"
+
+A day later Martine had her first letter from Amy, who was enjoying her
+first trip abroad; she and her mother had gone directly from Liverpool
+to North Wales, where Mrs. Redmond was anxious to spend a week or two
+sketching in the neighborhood of Snowdon.
+
+"She was here years ago, before her marriage," wrote Amy, "and so this
+is a kind of sentimental journey for her; she thinks that I have made a
+sacrifice in postponing our visit to London; but indeed, I find it very
+attractive here, and perhaps it is just as well to rest for a little
+while before we set out on a regular sight-seeing tour."
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, as her daughter replaced Amy's letter in
+its envelope, "you haven't yet gone down to the beach?"
+
+"No, mamma, I haven't really felt like going."
+
+"Well, I _do_ feel like going to-day," said Mrs. Stratford. "Let us take
+the next car and ride down as near as we can; people bathe about twelve
+and we shall be in season to see all that is going on."
+
+"Very well, mamma;" Martine's tone implied resignation to something that
+she did not wholly approve. In a few moments mother and daughter were
+well on their way to the beach. After they were once fairly started
+Martine's spirits revived. She and her mother had never passed through
+the village together and Martine pointed out the gaol and the old white
+church with its high spire, fronting a little green; and the old
+churchyard across the road, whose inscriptions she said she would not
+try to decipher until she could have Priscilla with her. It was a warm
+morning, but the motion of the car produced a refreshing breeze, and
+when at last they left it to walk toward the beach, both mother and
+daughter were in good spirits. At the edge of the sands a gay sight met
+them. Two large pavilions, roofed over, but open at the sides, were
+filled with gayly dressed people; the tide was fairly low, and on the
+sand in front half-grown boys and girls were romping in their
+bathing-suits, and nurse-maids with little children were disporting
+themselves in large numbers. From the bath houses behind the pavilions,
+a long plank extended to the water. Here bathers were coming and going,
+some dripping from their plunge, others ready to go in. Martine and her
+mother seated themselves on the first empty seat they came to at the
+edge of the pavilion. Martine, impressed by the gay hats, fluttering,
+colored veils, and thin muslin gowns, seen on every side, glanced
+involuntarily at her own plain linen suit.
+
+Mrs. Stratford, understanding her glance, spoke encouragingly. "You look
+very well, Martine; your dress is entirely suitable for the morning.
+Some of these other costumes are too elaborate."
+
+"I had no idea it would be so gay," responded Martine; "evidently we are
+in York, but not of it."
+
+Instantly she was sorry. But if Mrs. Stratford had heard her words, she
+made no comment. Mother and daughter sat for some time idly watching the
+crowd. Once or twice they recognized people they had known in Chicago,
+not intimate friends, but persons with whom they had a speaking
+acquaintance.
+
+"There's Mrs. Brownville," exclaimed Mrs. Stratford, as an elderly woman
+with an elaborate hat walked down on the sands. "I will drop a line to
+her; probably Carlotta is here too, and they will be glad to see you."
+
+"No, no, mamma," exclaimed Martine; "I never did like them, except at a
+distance, and I should hate to have them get in the habit of running to
+see us."
+
+"They might not take the trouble to come at all; we are out of the way,"
+rejoined her mother.
+
+Martine made no further reply; her attention was fixed on a girl who was
+walking up from the sands past the end of the pavilion. She seemed to be
+looking directly at Martine, and the latter rose from her seat as if to
+speak to the other; but before she could make her way outside, this girl
+had passed on without a sign of recognition.
+
+"That's a nice looking girl," said Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Yes," responded Martine. "That was Peggy Pratt."
+
+"Peggy Pratt; isn't she a friend of yours?"
+
+"A school friend," responded Martine bitterly. "But evidently she
+doesn't wish to recognize me here. I suppose she thinks that I'll be
+troublesome in some way."
+
+"Perhaps she didn't really see you."
+
+"She couldn't help it," replied Martine.
+
+That very day an invitation from Edith Blair came to Martine. "Mother
+and I," wrote Edith, from the North Shore, "would both be delighted to
+have a visit from you, a fortnight at least, a month if you can stay as
+long. Your mother, we hear, is much better, and she surely does not need
+you all the time."
+
+For a moment Martine was strongly tempted to show the letter to her
+mother, who, she knew, would certainly urge her to accept the
+invitation. It is true that Edith and her friends were some years older
+than Martine, but the latter knew that they would do their best to give
+her a good time. She would have a fine riding-horse, there would be
+trips of all kinds up and down the shore, and delightful afternoons at
+the Essex Country Club, pleasant evenings on the Blairs' piazza after
+dinners with bright and agreeable people. Under these circumstances, she
+could put up for a time with the patronizing manners of her mother's
+cousin, Mrs. Blair; for Edith was always sweet and agreeable, if a
+little slow. Really, it would be sensible to spend two weeks in this
+way. She could make herself more entertaining to her mother on her
+return. But here Martine drew herself up. Duty for the time being
+presented only one face; her place, for the present, was at Red Knoll;
+so without mentioning the invitation, she merely gave her mother the
+personal messages contained in Edith's letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE ISLES OF SHOALS
+
+
+It never rains but it pours. A day or two after their visit to the
+bathing beach, Martine and her mother were seated in their nook under
+the trees. It was early afternoon, and, as usual, Angelina was off for a
+stroll.
+
+"Why, there are some visitors," exclaimed Mrs. Stratford, and Martine
+looked up to see two ladies approaching the front door. Martine wouldn't
+have been a girl, if she hadn't glanced down involuntarily at her dress.
+
+"You look very well," said her mother, understanding her glance.
+
+"Well, I hate to have to play the part of maid," said Martine, "but it
+can't be helped now." So, laying down the book from which she had been
+reading aloud, she went over toward the newcomers.
+
+"I am Mrs. Ethridge, and this is my daughter, Clare. We are really your
+nearest neighbors," and she pointed to the large house across the road,
+about which Martine had often wondered. "A young girl, your assistant, I
+think she calls herself, came over to our house on the evening of the
+Fourth. Her fire balloon had gone astray." And Mrs. Ethridge smiled at
+the recollection. "She told us you were lonely, but we could not quite
+understand. Surely you are Martine Stratford, of whom we have heard so
+much from Elinor Naylor; you must have many friends at York; there are
+so many Philadelphians and Chicagoans here. Elinor mentioned you in the
+letter we had a day or two ago, and we recognized your name as the one
+your assistant had given us. In any case we ought to have called
+earlier, but we have had a house full of visitors, and--"
+
+"No apologies are necessary," responded Martine, with dignity. "We
+expected to be quiet this summer, although my mother will be most happy
+to see you." And leading them to Mrs. Stratford's corner, introductions
+were quickly made. Hardly had they seated themselves when Clare Ethridge
+exclaimed, "Why, there's Peggy Pratt," and Martine looking up,
+recognized the girl who was hurrying across the lawn, and a second
+later, Peggy was shaking hands with Martine most effusively.
+
+"What a queer girl you are, Martine Stratford; why didn't you let me
+know you were in York? Elinor Naylor wrote that you were coming, and I
+certainly thought you'd tell me where you were. Of course, I've asked
+everybody, but no one had seen you or heard a thing about you. I
+couldn't imagine your being hidden in a corner like this; so I supposed
+you hadn't yet arrived. I'm sure I didn't know what to do," and she
+looked around with an air of injured innocence, as if some one had been
+unjustly blaming her.
+
+"You might have inquired at the postoffice," said Mrs. Ethridge smiling,
+"you can generally get information about people there."
+
+"Oh, I dare say; but I just concluded she wasn't here."
+
+"But now that I _am_ here and you know that I am here," responded
+Martine gayly, "everything is as it should be." She did not mention the
+little incident at the beach, for she saw that her judgment of Peggy
+then had been wrong, and that the eyes which had seemed to see her had
+really been looking at something else.
+
+While Mrs. Ethridge and Mrs. Stratford talked by themselves, Peggy's
+tongue flew on reciting the attractions of York. Trips up the river, tea
+at the Country Club, yachting, trolley and auto excursions apparently
+filled her days; "really I never have a minute to myself," she said,
+"and to-morrow we are going to have a fish dinner at the Shoals, the
+whole crowd of us. We've got a special car to take us over to
+Portsmouth, and then we go by the steamboat; we thought it would be more
+fun than simply to sail over. There's a seat for you, Martine; I know
+your mother will let you go, and of course we shall see you too, Clare."
+
+"Yes," said Clare, "I had already promised."
+
+"Then it's all settled," cried Peggy; "you can bring Martine to the car,
+Clare. Now I must hurry on, for I have an engagement up at the Club, and
+I'm so glad to have seen you, Martine. Good-bye, Mrs. Stratford;
+good-bye, Mrs. Ethridge." And almost before they could say "good-bye"
+themselves, Peggy was out of sight.
+
+"I wonder that girl doesn't wear herself out; she is always flying from
+one thing to another," said Mrs. Ethridge.
+
+"It's hard for a girl to settle down in the summer," added Clare,
+"especially in a place where there is so much going on as there is
+here."
+
+"Habit is everything," and Mrs. Stratford glanced toward Martine,
+reflecting that she, at least, had been able to adapt herself the past
+few months to a quiet life.
+
+The prospect of the excursion to the Shoals was very agreeable to
+Martine, especially as she was to have the companionship of Clare. The
+latter was a quiet, dignified girl, possibly a little older than Martine
+and reminding her a little of Amy.
+
+Promptly at the appointed hour Martine met Clare at the turn of the
+road; they had not long to wait before the special car came in sight. As
+it stopped for them, there was a loud clapping of hands and shouts of
+welcome from those within. Martine, cut off for what had seemed so long
+a time from young people of her own age, was quite bewildered at this.
+Two of the boys who had stepped down to assist her and Clare on board,
+proved to be old acquaintances, Herbert Brownville and Atherton Grey;
+and when once they were fairly off her spirits had risen rapidly. The
+car sped on, up hill and down dale, past the golf club, through the
+woods, over bright, green meadows, along tressles surrounded by marshes.
+
+"To think," exclaimed Martine, "these cars almost pass our house and
+this is my first trip on them. Angelina went over to Portsmouth one day
+and was so enthusiastic she almost persuaded me to make a trip with her;
+but she is so easily pleased that I didn't quite believe all she said;
+but now I believe it and more too."
+
+After a time their road led them past quaint old houses and pleasant
+summer cottages. There were occasional glimpses of water on one side,
+and once in the distance, across the water, rose the massive outlines of
+a hotel.
+
+"This is Kittery," exclaimed Clare. "We are almost on the boundaries of
+Maine and New Hampshire; that water is the mouth of the Piscataqua; you
+must go down on the shore some time; artists love it."
+
+"I should like to sketch one of these tree-shaded old houses myself,"
+replied Martine; "that one over there looks as if it could tell a story
+if it would."
+
+"Oh, that's one of the William Pepperell houses; I never could remember
+which was his special house and which his daughters lived in, but you
+know he set out for Louisburg from Kittery, and two or three of these
+houses have hardly been changed since his day."
+
+"Dear me!" sighed Martine, "have I got to follow the French and Indian
+war in this corner of the country? I had so much of it last summer in
+Acadia that I'd like something a little different now."
+
+"Acadia," exclaimed Peggy, overhearing Martine. "How sick I grew of that
+word last summer. Some people were with us in Nova Scotia, went about
+with guide books and histories and acted as if they were crazy; but I'm
+happy to say that I sailed away from Yarmouth without knowing a thing
+more than before I travelled."
+
+"I believe you," commented Clare. "But if I were you, I wouldn't boast.
+Some of us _do_ care for history."
+
+"Unfortunately they do; there's my aunt; when she heard we were coming
+to the Shoals to-day, she gave me a lot of interesting information that
+went in one ear and out the other; for I told her that I was simply off
+for a good time and I never meant to learn anything if I could help it
+outside of school."
+
+Several of the party applauded Peggy's sentiments, but Martine could not
+help thinking that a speech of this kind from a girl of Peggy's age was
+rather shallow; and she admitted to herself that there was a time, not
+so very long ago, when she too would not only have expressed herself in
+the same way, but would have felt just exactly as Peggy professed to
+feel.
+
+Soon after passing the Navy Yard, the car reached the shore of the
+Piscataqua, where they crossed the ferry to Portsmouth. Soon they were
+on the little steamboat, bound for the famous Isles of Shoals.
+
+"There's one thing that I do remember," said Peggy. "There are nine of
+these islands and they are nine miles out at sea, and they are partly in
+Maine and partly in New Hampshire; but please don't ask me another word,
+Martine Stratford, for I can see by your expression that you're
+thirsting for information."
+
+Martine reddened at Peggy's words, because Herbert Brownville, who was
+standing beside her, was known to have a special dislike for bookish
+girls. Martine was ashamed of herself for giving even a thought to
+Herbert's opinion, and in consequence, she reddened more deeply when
+Herbert asked in surprise, "Have you really come out only for
+information, Miss Martine, as Peggy told me on the car?"
+
+This question decided Martine; she did not care for Herbert's opinion;
+she would show him so plainly, and so she decided to mystify him.
+
+"Yes," she replied politely. "You know I have travelled a great deal,
+and some time I intend to write a book describing my travels. So
+wherever I go, it is necessary for me to get all the facts I can.
+Somehow I forgot to bring my notebook to-day, but perhaps you can lend
+me a pencil and paper."
+
+Poor Herbert looked at Martine in surprise. Was this the girl who was
+famous for her wit, who was one of the best dancers and riders in their
+set two or three years ago? How sad that she should have changed so; but
+it was all on account of Boston; no girl could live in Boston a year
+without becoming affected. But what a pity that a pretty girl like
+Martine should turn into a bookworm! Nevertheless, Herbert handed
+Martine the desired pencil and paper, and he sat beside her while she
+made a great show of writing down the few facts that she had gathered
+from the volatile Peggy.
+
+"I'm so glad," continued Martine, "that you are willing to help me; and
+when we reach the islands I'm going to ask you to find some one who will
+tell me all about them."
+
+"There can't be much to tell," replied poor Herbert; "you know they are
+small and rugged and very queer. I've been there many a time on a yacht
+and I'm perfectly sure from what I've seen that they haven't any
+history."
+
+"In such matters," responded Martine solemnly, as if she were preaching
+a sermon, "you cannot be too positive. No corner of the world is so
+obscure as to be without history."
+
+Again Herbert looked at her in amazement. Her head was turned from him
+and he did not see the mischievous expression lurking in her brown eyes.
+He liked Martine, and since there seemed to be no help for it, it would
+be only proper in him to promise what she asked.
+
+"Certainly," he replied, "I dare say we can find out something for your
+book; they have a very intelligent clerk at the hotel, and I know a man
+in a cottage on Smutty Nose who's lived there a long time, and what he
+can't tell probably would not be worth knowing."
+
+Thus Herbert constituted himself Martine's guide for the day, and kept
+beside her and Clare until the boat touched Appledore. True to his
+promise, when they had finished dinner, he got a row-boat and took them
+over to Smutty Nose, where the old Captain proved very talkative. He
+explained that the name of the islands did not come from their
+structure, but from the quantities of fish found in the waters near the
+"schooling" or "shoaling" of fish. He told them that the Shoals had
+probably been visited by Captain John Smith, and Christopher Leavitt in
+1623 had written something about them.
+
+[Illustration: "The old captain proved very talkative."]
+
+"Of course the first settlers," said the old man, "were fishermen, and
+they were always a pretty rough lot, though the Reverend John Brock did
+something to improve them. There are all kinds of stories going about
+pirates and wrecks and strange happenings in the old times."
+
+"I suppose Captain Kidd buried some of his treasure here," said Herbert
+sarcastically.
+
+"That he did, at least they say so," responded Captain Dickerson; "and
+if you and the young ladies are real enterprising, you might dig a
+while, for it's never been found, and you've as good a chance as any
+one."
+
+"Thanks," said Herbert, rather taken aback by finding that his chance
+arrow had hit the mark, "but we've other things to do to-day. Sometime,
+perhaps, we'll return."
+
+"Well," said the old man, "there's a chance that other treasure might do
+you just as well. Nigh a hundred years ago, a Spanish ship went to
+pieces on the islands, and there were other wrecks that perhaps cast
+treasure on the sands."
+
+"Oh, I remember," exclaimed Clare, "a poem that I learned at school,
+'The Wreck of the Pocahontas.' Celia Thaxter wrote it. It begins
+something like this:--
+
+    "'I lit the lamps in the lighthouse tower,
+      For the sun dropped down and the day was dead;
+    They shone like a glorious clustered flower,
+      Ten golden and five red.'"
+
+"Ah, Mrs. Thaxter," said Capt. Dickerson, "there isn't much on the
+islands that she hasn't put into poetry. But you'll hear all about her
+over at Appledore, and I won't spoil your fun by trying to tell what
+other people can tell better."
+
+"Haven't you some stories of your own?"
+
+"There won't be time for a long story," interposed Herbert, looking at
+his watch. "We must be prompt for dinner."
+
+"Just one," pleaded Martine, smiling at Capt. Dickerson.
+
+"Most of the stories of these parts belong to Kittery and Portsmouth,"
+rejoined Capt. Dickerson. "You'll have to fish them up there. The only
+one I can think of you mightn't like--except it will interest you if you
+love dogs--as most young ladies do."
+
+"Well, tell us, please."
+
+"It's about a murder that took place on Smutty Nose once when I was off
+on a cruise. Two helpless women in a little cottage were killed by a
+wretch who thought there was money saved in the house. A third woman
+with a small dog in her arms escaped and hid here among the rocks. She
+was terribly scared that the little creature would bark and betray her."
+
+"Did it?"
+
+"Well, she crouched in the darkness, while she heard the murderer pass
+close by, calling and threatening. But the dog seemed to understand, and
+kept perfectly quiet until daylight. The woman had heard the murderer
+rowing away at dawn, and when people on Appledore were stirring they saw
+her making frantic signs, and they came over and got her and the dog."
+
+"Was the murderer ever caught?" asked Herbert.
+
+"Yes--and he paid the penalty. But I don't know how long the dog lived,
+young ladies, for I see that's what you'd like to hear," added Capt.
+Dickerson, turning to the girls.
+
+"I wish I could tell you more," he continued, after a pause. "I dare say
+you know the Shoals were once called 'Smith's Eyelands,' and there's a
+monument to Capt. Smith on Star. You've heard about Gorges, I suppose;
+well, they were in Gorges and Mason's grant, and when Massachusetts
+people stepped into Maine, the most northerly went to Maine, and the
+others to New Hampshire."
+
+"Any other great men here, besides Smith?" asked Herbert.
+
+"Not many--besides myself," said Capt. Dickerson, smiling, "except,
+perhaps, Sir Wm. Pepperell. At least his father was one of the early
+settlers of the Shoals, and he was born here. But you'll hear about him
+at Kittery. Then, as I said before, Appledore's full of Celia Thaxter,
+and her father was queer enough to be called a great man. He had been a
+politician, and when he got out of sorts with his party he quit the
+mainland, and brought his boys to White Island, where he was lighthouse
+keeper. They say the boys were fourteen or fifteen before they ever went
+ashore, and then they were frightened by the first horse they saw."
+
+"Thank you, Capt. Dickerson. I knew you'd have something interesting to
+tell," and Herbert moved away impatiently. "I'm coming over some day
+next week to go fishing with you."
+
+"Yes, I shall be expecting you. I could show you a good many things,
+young ladies, if you'd spend the day, but it is hard to understand even
+Smutty Nose alone in an hour."
+
+"Oh, but we've enjoyed coming here," replied Martine, and she and Clare
+shook hands cordially with Captain Dickerson as they said good-bye.
+
+After dinner at Appledore, all sat for a half-hour on the hotel piazza,
+which was so near the water that it seemed in many ways like the deck of
+a ship. Miss Byng and Mrs. Trotter, who had taken charge of the party
+from York Harbor (the girls declined to call them chaperones) met
+several acquaintances among the hotel guests. Miss Byng, in fact, had
+spent a summer at Appledore, and she exchanged reminiscences with one of
+her friends about Celia Thaxter, the "Queen of Appledore."
+
+"She was certainly a wonderful woman," said Miss Byng, as Clare and
+Martine drew their chairs within her circle. "Sometimes in the early
+morning when I looked out of my window, I would see her working in her
+garden. She was often up at four o'clock, and she made the most
+wonderful flowers grow from this rocky soil."
+
+"Oh, flowers were to her as individual as human beings," added Mrs.
+Trotter. "She watched over them lovingly while they were in the garden,
+and when she brought them into the house they were treated sumptuously.
+Each flower was placed in a vase by itself, and every spot that could
+hold them had its vases, silver, glass, or china, each with its single
+blossom."
+
+"What a strange idea!" cried Clare.
+
+"The effect was beautiful, the brilliant flowers, the picture-covered
+walls--and the queenly mistress of the house with snow-white hair, in
+her clinging grey gown--the favorite costume of her latter years."
+
+"Appledore is not the same now," and Mrs. Trotter sighed, "do you recall
+Mrs. Thaxter's lines--
+
+      "The barren island dreams in flowers, while blow
+    The south winds, drawing haze on sea and land,
+      Yet the great heart of ocean, throbbing slow
+    Makes the pale flowers vibrate where they stand."
+
+"Oh dear!" whispered Martine to Clare, "I feel as if I were at a
+funeral. Let's find what Peggy has been doing."
+
+"But I'd like to have known Mrs. Thaxter, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Yes, though a person who had lived most of her life on an island of
+four hundred acres must have been different from the rest of the world."
+
+"She _did_ write poetry," replied Clare.
+
+"Yes, that made her different from most of us. But here come Peggy and
+the rest. I wonder where they've been."
+
+Peggy and her party explained that they had been watching the surf on
+the farther side of the island.
+
+"Yes," exclaimed Peggy, "it was fine, I can tell you, and the view, why,
+we could see miles and miles; if we had had a glass, I believe we could
+have heard people talking at York." Whereat, in the fashion of young
+people, all laughed as heartily as if Peggy had said something really
+funny. While they stood there, Herbert was looking nervously at his
+watch.
+
+"Excuse me, but I really think--"
+
+Carlotta, after the manner of sisters, laughed derisively.
+
+"Listen! I believe he wishes to make an original remark." Herbert was
+farther off than the others and had not heard just what Carlotta said.
+
+"If we are not careful," he said again, looking at his watch, "we shall
+miss the boat."
+
+"There," said Carlotta, "I told you that he was going to make an
+original remark."
+
+This time Herbert heard her words, and when all laughed except Martine,
+he reddened deeply.
+
+"It's better to be early than late," remarked Martine consolingly; "I've
+often missed a boat or a train just by thinking I had plenty of time."
+
+Herbert turned gratefully towards Martine and walked back with her to
+the hotel. As a matter of fact they had half an hour to spare and were
+able to say good-bye to all their acquaintances without undue haste. The
+return trip was unexciting, and they reached Portsmouth in good spirits
+just in season to get the Ferry for Kittery.
+
+As they came to their special car, "Here's your admirer," said Peggy
+mischievously to Martine.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Martine.
+
+"Why, the conductor; didn't you notice him coming over? Carlotta did."
+
+"Yes," added Carlotta, "I certainly thought he was going to speak to
+you."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Martine.
+
+"Do you know him?" whispered Peggy mischievously, as the car speeded
+along the Kittery shore.
+
+"I haven't even looked at him," replied Martine indignantly. "Herbert
+has had charge of the fares, and as the conductor stands on the back
+platform, and as I have no eyes in the back of my head, I couldn't
+recognize him even if he were an old friend."
+
+Later, however, as the young man moved along and stood for a while
+beside the motorman, Martine had a chance to see him, though it was only
+a back view.
+
+"Carlotta," she said, "that conductor does remind me of some one. I
+wonder if it's any one we know at home? Do you see a resemblance? A
+resemblance to any one you know?"
+
+"No," said Carlotta, "really I do not." And so the matter dropped.
+
+It was nearly dusk when Martine and Clare left the car at the turn of
+the road.
+
+"Step carefully," said the conductor, holding out his hands to help the
+two. Martine started, turned and looked toward the car, but it was
+already on its way down the hill.
+
+"I wonder,"--but she did not complete the sentence, though all that
+evening she continued to ponder over the strange resemblance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+VARIETY
+
+
+After the Shoals excursion Martine's life was less placid than before.
+Peggy, as if to make amends for her apparent neglect, tried to draw her
+into some of the gayer doings of the younger set.
+
+"It's very kind of Peggy, but I can't make her understand that I didn't
+come here wholly for fun; or rather that I find fun in things that she
+would consider quiet. Clare feels as I do, and we try to make Peggy see
+that we enjoy a morning under the trees, or a walk in the meadow, quite
+as well as a game of golf with tea at the Club."
+
+"Golf is good exercise, and you used to like it."
+
+"I know it, but I don't need it in midsummer, and besides--"
+
+Martine did not explain that she did not care to engage in golf, or in
+anything that would take her away too much from Red Knoll. "Besides,"
+she said to herself, "I won't accept invitations that I can't return,
+and we are not in the mood for entertaining this summer, even if we had
+money to waste."
+
+Angelina thought it strange that Mrs. Stratford and Martine preferred
+the quiet life, and by gentle hints tried to impress on them that they
+were losing a great deal by declining some of the invitations that came
+to them. Mrs. Brownville, among others, had called. A day or two after
+the Shoals excursion, Mrs. Brownville and Carlotta drove up to Red
+Knoll. Martine at the moment was carrying on an argument with the
+butcher, who had drawn his cart up nearer the front door than the back.
+Martine was balancing a chicken in one hand and holding a large cabbage
+in the other, and was gently arguing with the butcher regarding his
+prices.
+
+It was somewhat disconcerting to have Mrs. Brownville and Carlotta, in
+elaborate gowns and flower-laden hats, descend upon her while she was
+wearing an apron over her gingham skirt. There was no escape for
+Martine, and before she could decide what to do with the chicken or the
+cabbage, Mrs. Brownville had advanced toward her with outstretched hand.
+At this moment, Angelina fortunately appeared on the scene to relieve
+Martine of her burdens, and Mrs. Brownville politely ignored what she
+had seen. Martine, however, after the first greetings, broke the ice by
+plunging into a humorous discussion of summer housekeeping.
+
+"It's the funniest thing," she said, "that clothes and food are so much
+alike."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Brownville, though her expression showed that she could
+not grasp Martine's meaning.
+
+"Yes," repeated Martine; "in both cases we have to pay highest for the
+trimmings. When I order three pounds of beef-steak and only get a pound
+and a half, though I pay for three, the butcher says, 'It's all on
+account of the trimmings' and it's so with chickens, and lamb, and
+almost everything except eggs; though for eggs there are three grades of
+fresh eggs."
+
+"Really?" said Mrs. Brownville, not knowing what else to say. She had a
+small sense of humor combined with a kind heart; that is, she was always
+willing to do a kindness when it came directly in her way to do it. She
+was not quite sure whether or not Martine was making a demand on her for
+sympathy. Before she could decide what to say, Carlotta interposed. She
+suspected that Martine was laughing at them both and she wished she
+could escape the special errand which had brought her. A moment later
+Martine had led the way into the little sitting-room where her mother
+received the guests; and soon Carlotta made her errand known.
+
+"I am going to have a little dance at the Club on Saturday evening and I
+do hope you can come," she said to Martine.
+
+"Yes," added Mrs. Brownville, "it's going to be the most elegant dance
+of the season, that is for the young people."
+
+A shade of annoyance crossed Carlotta's face; she had wished to pretend
+it was to be a very simple affair, so that her guests would be the more
+impressed in the end by all the expense lavished on it.
+
+"Oh, thank you very much," replied Martine, "but I'm not going out at
+all evenings at present."
+
+"Herbert will be so disappointed."
+
+At this speech of her mother's Carlotta felt an annoyance that she did
+not show. She did not wish Martine to know that her invitation was due
+only to Herbert's urging.
+
+"I know it would be delightful," said Martine, "but really I am not
+dancing this summer."
+
+Carlotta for the moment felt that she would do almost anything to get
+Martine to take back her refusal. It was irritating that a girl living
+in as humble a house as Red Knoll should show so little appreciation of
+an invitation that should have been accepted almost with gratitude. So
+she rose to her feet and rather abruptly said good-bye to Mrs. Stratford
+and Martine.
+
+"I must hurry on," she explained, "as I have an engagement at the Club.
+Mamma, I will send the carriage back for you." And with another word or
+two of good-bye, Carlotta made a rather hasty departure. After her
+daughter had gone Mrs. Brownville talked on in her usual rather rambling
+fashion. She admired the wall papers and the furnishings of the little
+room.
+
+"Really you've made the most of everything," she said in a manner
+savoring of patronage that irritated Martine, though she knew Mrs.
+Brownville did not mean to offend her.
+
+A little later Herbert appeared on the scene.
+
+"Oh, do change your mind," he urged; "I told Carlotta--"
+
+"Then it was you who asked her to come? I thought so."
+
+Again Herbert reddened.
+
+"Well, you see you weren't on the list when the first invitations were
+sent out, and I was afraid you might be offended, only I thought you
+were too sensible, and so--"
+
+"There, there," interposed Martine; "I am sensible, that is, I am not
+offended really, because Carlotta did not think of me in the first
+place."
+
+"Then you will accept?"
+
+"Oh, no, I am not going out this summer, at least to things of that
+kind."
+
+"Then I won't go either," said Herbert sulkily; "I hate summer dances
+and I know a lot of fellows who will stay away too."
+
+"Now, Herbert," said Martine emphatically, "don't be a goose. You ought
+to try to please Carlotta once in a while, and really, if I hear that
+you stay away from Carlotta's party, I won't be friends with you."
+
+Whether or not Martine influenced him she never knew, but it was a fact
+that Herbert and his friends went in force to Carlotta's dance, which
+Martine heard was really a very successful affair.
+
+For a week or two after this Martine herself felt rather left out of
+things. She had few friends in the Philadelphia group. Peggy, it is
+true, as if to make up for her early apparent neglect, did try on more
+than one occasion to get Martine to join some excursion.
+
+But Martine was firm. She saw that she could not well accept one
+invitation and refuse another, and she decided that she could afford
+neither the time nor the money that these outings required.
+
+Mrs. Stratford watched Martine with some concern. The change from her
+former self was almost too great. But when her mother remonstrated with
+her, Martine invariably replied that she was perfectly contented--that
+housekeeping that involved a constant oversight of Angelina afforded
+excitement enough.
+
+"Besides," she added, "there is Clare; she is livelier than Priscilla,
+though almost as improving. To-morrow we are going down by Spouting
+Rock; she, to take photographs, I, to sketch, and she knows any number
+of picturesque places."
+
+"Your plan sounds improving, if not exciting," responded Mrs. Stratford,
+smiling.
+
+"We think it will be more fun than going off with a crowd. Instead of
+riding to Bald Head Cliff with Peggy and her crowd, Clare has asked me
+to go to Ogunquit on Saturday. We shall drive over, and she is going to
+ask you too. Her cousin, Mr. Carrol, has a studio there, and we are all
+invited to luncheon, so please say you will go, mamma."
+
+"Why, yes, when I am really invited," replied Mrs. Stratford, smiling;
+and a few moments later, when Clare appeared with her message from Mrs.
+Ethridge, the drive was quickly arranged.
+
+The day at Ogunquit was one of many pleasant, quiet days that Martine
+spent with Clare on the shore or up the river. Almost always Mrs.
+Stratford and Mrs. Ethridge went with them. In a short time Martine had
+become an expert paddler, and she was proud enough to have her mother
+entrust herself to her care. One afternoon, in two canoes, the four went
+three or four miles up the river to have tea in a little cove on the
+Bans. It did not detract from Martine's pleasure, when they passed the
+Country Club, to hear Peggy and Carlotta shout from the piazza:
+
+"Don't go past."
+
+"There's a landing here."
+
+Or rather, if they did not hear clearly they judged that this was the
+meaning of the words that were accompanied with signals and gestures.
+But without heeding the sirens, Martine and Clare paddled on and their
+outing was a complete success. It cannot be said that they made their
+passage upstream without difficulties. It was near the turn of the tide,
+and part of the way the current was against them. But of two evils they
+had to choose the less, as Clare thought it wiser to return down the
+river with the current wholly in their favor.
+
+"If the York were a real river, we wouldn't have to do so much planning,
+but you see it's only an arm of the sea, and in its whole seven miles
+from the harbor, the tide has to be closely reckoned with."
+
+"Yes, I've heard weird tales of canoeists left high and dry on the shore
+because they had forgotten to calculate the rise and fall of the tide,"
+added Martine.
+
+"It's generally worse for the parents at home than for the stranded
+young people. I have known mothers half-distracted while waiting to hear
+from missing daughters," said Mrs. Ethridge.
+
+"Then we were wise in coming with the girls," added Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"As if we would have come without you. The whole fun to-day is showing
+you the river," responded Martine, who had been up with Clare before.
+"There," she continued, "I forgot to give you my one piece of
+information--that Sewall's Bridge near the Country Club is the oldest
+pier bridge in the United States, and was built by the same Major Sewall
+who built the first bridge between Cambridge and Boston."
+
+"Unimportant, if true," and Mrs. Stratford smiled at Martine's
+earnestness. "I approve, my dear, of your zeal for history, but in New
+England people often make too much of unimportant trifling things."
+
+"Bridges and houses."
+
+"Yes, and Indians and wars and--"
+
+"Then you won't appreciate this verse that Clare recited the other day:
+
+    "Hundreds were murdered in their beds
+      Without shame or remorse,
+    And soon the floors and roads were strewed
+      With many a bloody corse."
+
+"Evidently the writer of those lines had a real tragedy in mind,"
+replied Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Yes," interposed Clare, "it was the Indian massacre of 1792, when more
+than three hundred savages came into York on snow-shoes, and killed half
+the people of the place,--all in fact except those who had taken refuge
+in the old garrison house. The minister, Rev. Shubael Dummer was shot
+while standing at his door--and--"
+
+"Tell her, Clare, about the little boy," said Martine.
+
+"Oh, Jeremiah Moulton, the only person within the Indian's reach whom
+they spared. He was a fat little boy, and when he caught sight of the
+savages he waddled away as fast as his little legs would carry him. This
+so amused the Indians that they laughed and laughed and spared him.
+Though hardly more than a baby at the time the boy never forgot his
+fright, and years later he revenged himself on the Indians in what was
+known as the Harmon Massacre,--and many people have since blamed him for
+his cruelty."
+
+"Probably they had never been chased by Indians," responded Martine. "He
+jests at scars who never felt a wound."
+
+"We must go to the McIntire garrison house some day," continued Clare.
+"Though it wasn't the refuge during that particular massacre, the two
+houses were probably much alike, and this is one of the oldest buildings
+in the country--built in 1623."
+
+"Clare," exclaimed Martine, "excuse my interrupting you, but you are
+tremendously like Amy when you are imparting information, though at
+other times I hardly notice the resemblance. I shall forget half you
+have told me, and I wonder how you happen to remember so much."
+
+"If you should come here as many summers as I have come, you would
+unconsciously imbibe dates and scraps of information."
+
+"But now," said Martine, "we are hungry for something more substantial
+than dates, and with your permission, Mrs. Ethridge, we'll open the
+basket."
+
+The sandwiches prepared by Angelina's deft fingers, and the cakes and
+fruit brought by Clare made a supper fit for a king, as Martine phrased
+it, and the journey home with wind and tide in their favor brought to an
+end one of the pleasantest afternoons of the season.
+
+A few days after the canoe trip Martine and Clare started out for a day
+at Newcastle, accompanied by Angelina. Mrs. Stratford was spending the
+day with Mrs. Ethridge, and Angelina was in a seventh heaven of delight
+as she walked along carrying the basket. Angelina had an especial
+interest in Clare dating from the night of the Fourth, for she
+considered that her fire-balloon and the tact with which she had rescued
+it from Mrs. Ethridge's grounds had led to the acquaintance between the
+Red Knoll household and the family across the road.
+
+She did not know, since she was not a mind-reader, that Mrs. Ethridge
+would have called on Mrs. Stratford within a few days of the Fourth,
+even without her intervention. But as her own belief made her so happy,
+no one had pricked the bubble of Angelina's illusion.
+
+While the girls were waiting for the car, Herbert came in sight.
+
+"Off for the day, portfolio, camera, easel!" he exclaimed. "Then surely
+you will let me go with you."
+
+"No," replied Martine firmly, "this isn't a picnic. We are just going
+off to work a little, and enjoy ourselves."
+
+"I like that. As if I would interfere. Atherton will be along in a
+minute, and he would enjoy the excursion too."
+
+"No," repeated Martine, with increasing firmness. "We have made our
+plans. We wish to go by ourselves."
+
+Clare, who saw no good reason for Martine's attitude toward Herbert, yet
+thought it wiser not to interfere.
+
+Herbert, who so seldom was out of temper, now seemed offended.
+
+"Very well," he said abruptly, "I won't trouble you," and turning on his
+heel, he walked away.
+
+"I can't help it," explained Martine in answer to Clare's look of
+wonder. "One boy, or two, for that matter, would be terribly in the way
+in a little trip like this. Here's the car, and I am glad enough to be
+off."
+
+Now it happened that Carlotta and another girl who knew Martine went as
+far as Kittery on the same car. On their return to York they found
+Herbert on the links.
+
+"You were on the same car with Martine; did she say where she was going
+with Grace?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"She mentioned Newcastle," replied Carlotta. "They will cross on the
+ferry, and may row back across the river."
+
+"How foolish girls are!" grumbled Herbert. "They think because they can
+paddle up York River that it's perfectly safe to row anywhere else. I
+hope they won't try it alone. There's a fearful current at the mouth of
+the Piscataqua."
+
+"I don't see why you should care," responded Carlotta sharply. "Besides,
+Martine can generally take care of herself. Besides, I must tell you a
+funny thing. You know there was a young conductor on the special the day
+we went to the Shoals. Peggy says he watched Martine when she wasn't
+looking, and I know Martine asked me if he reminded me of any one I knew
+at home. Well, to-day he was on the regular car--and once when we waited
+at a turnout, Clare and Martine got off and stood by the side of the
+road, and in a minute he and she were talking as if they had always been
+acquainted. They actually stood there under the trees and talked, and
+Angelina stood there grinning like a Cheshire cat, the way she always
+does."
+
+"Well, why not? Why shouldn't Martine talk to whom she pleases? Really,
+Carlotta, how silly you are!" and Herbert walked off with an expression
+of disdain for a foolish sister.
+
+Now this is what had really happened. Martine and Clare had not been
+long on their way when the former exclaimed excitedly, "Do you remember,
+Clare, that boy I told you of, Balfour Airton, whom we met in Nova
+Scotia, who was so clever and knew everything about old Port Royal, whom
+I discovered to be a kind of cousin? Well, he's the conductor."
+
+"What conductor?" asked Clare, who had not quite followed the course of
+Martine's thought.
+
+"Why, our conductor on this car, and he was on the special the other
+day; I thought so then, but now I am quite sure. He hasn't given me a
+chance to speak to him, because I wasn't noticing him when you paid the
+fares, but as soon as I can I am going to recognize him."
+
+A moment after this, the car reached the turnout where it had to wait
+for the car from Portsmouth, and then Martine had her opportunity. So
+Carlotta was right. Martine and Clare did spend a minute or two talking
+to the young conductor, who admitted that he had recognized Martine on
+the former occasion, though he had hesitated to reveal his identity to
+her.
+
+"Your uniform was almost a disguise, though at the last moment I knew it
+was your voice; but of course I had no idea you were in this part of the
+world."
+
+Balfour had no time to explain before the other car appeared in sight,
+but as he assisted the girls back to their seats Martine said cordially,
+"You must be sure to look us up."
+
+It was not long before they reached the point on the Kittery shore where
+they were to take the little ferry for Newcastle.
+
+"The Piscataqua is more of a river than the York," said Clare, "and
+there's a good deal to see along these banks. We'll have to content
+ourselves with Newcastle to-day, but sometime we might go farther down
+and touch at the other landings."
+
+"We mustn't forget that we have come here to work to-day," replied
+Martine. "I am really anxious to do one sketch--and here is just the
+spot," she concluded, taking her position at a point from which she had
+a perfect view of an old house well shaded at the head of a little
+beach.
+
+While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about, taking first one
+thing and then another that pleased her fancy, and often including
+Angelina in her views to the great delight of the latter.
+
+[Illustration: "While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about."]
+
+"How blue the water is, and the sky! I haven't felt so thoroughly in the
+mood for good work since I left Acadia," exclaimed Martine.
+
+"But the sun is terribly hot," replied Clare, "and I am hungry. Let us
+go inside Fort Constitution for our luncheon. There will surely be more
+shade there."
+
+"Your word is law," and Martine reluctantly gathered up her belongings,
+and soon the three had ensconced themselves in a shady corner within the
+crumbling walls of the old grass-grown Fort.
+
+"'Fort William and Mary' was the name of the first Fort near this spot,"
+explained Clare, returning to her rôle of guide, "and even before his
+ride to Concord and Lexington, Paul Revere is said to have posted up
+here to tell the people of Portsmouth that the British were sending one
+hundred men to take all the powder away.
+
+"Accordingly four hundred men of Portsmouth marched out to Fort William
+and Mary, and required the Captain in command and his five men to
+surrender. Then they took the powder to a safer hiding-place, and later
+it was sent down to Boston, where it is said to have been used in the
+Battle of Bunker Hill. That other little tower is called the Walbach
+Tower, for Col. Walbach who commanded the fort in the War of 1812.
+There's a funny story about the building of this tower. Any one can see
+that it probably isn't true, although a poem has been written on the
+subject. The story is simply that the people of Portsmouth, alarmed by
+the sight of some British ships in the harbor, came over here in the
+night and worked like bees, men, women, and children, laying stones
+until this tower was built. There isn't an atom of proof that this is
+true."
+
+"But it's a pretty story," said Martine.
+
+After luncheon, Clare gave Martine the choice of two walks--to Odiorne's
+Point, called the "Plymouth Rock of New Hampshire," as the first
+settlement was made there, or to Little Harbor.
+
+Martine promptly chose the latter, because she was anxious to see the
+old Wentworth house. To their disappointment, when the girls reached it,
+the three found the old house closed; but the grounds were open to them
+and the curious exterior amused Martine, reminding her, as she said, of
+half a dozen small houses piled and twisted together to make one large
+one.
+
+"This is the house where Martha Hilton was married," explained Clare. "I
+am sorry we cannot go inside. The rooms with their polished floors and
+old-time furniture are really fascinating. Cousin Mary--I hope you will
+meet her some time in Portsmouth--says that Benning Wentworth, in spite
+of being Governor, was a plain man, and son of a plain farmer, so that
+his marriage with Martha Hilton was not such a tremendous mesalliance."
+
+"Oh, I remember that poem," cried Angelina, "how the Governor married
+the servant maid. It's by Longfellow, and the story's something like
+Agnes Surriage. The minister didn't want to marry them. I can say some
+of it, and she recited dramatically:
+
+    "'This is the lady, do you hesitate?
+    Then I command you, as Chief Magistrate.
+    The Rector read the service loud and clear.
+    Dearly beloved, we are gathered here--
+    And so on to the end. At his command
+    On the fourth finger of her fair left hand,
+    The governor placed the ring, and that was all.
+    Martha was Lady Wentworth of the Hall.'
+
+"So I'm glad to see this hall," she added, after Clare and Martine had
+sufficiently praised her recitation,--"and there's one thing more that
+I'd like to see,--the island in the harbor, where they kept the Spanish
+prisoners two years ago. You know I used to think I must be partly
+Spanish myself, I had so much sympathy for Cervera and all his men. I'm
+sorry they didn't stay here longer. It would be so pleasant to go to the
+island and console them."
+
+"Perhaps you'll be as well pleased if you can _see_ Seavey's Island,"
+replied Clare, smiling. "We passed the other day on our way to the
+Shoals; and sometime you must take the same trip."
+
+For the time this suggestion satisfied Angelina, and she heard with
+evident pleasure all that Clare and Martine had to say about old
+Newcastle.
+
+Intending to catch the last ferry of the afternoon, Clare and Martine
+cut short their stay at Little Harbor, delightful though they found the
+neighborhood with its suggestions of antiquity. They had a long walk
+before them--long at least for an August afternoon, and they did not
+reach the pier as quickly as they had hoped.
+
+In spite of Clare's intention and Martine's efforts to be prompt, the
+little tug had left the landing a minute before they reached it. By
+close calculation, as they glanced at the time-table, they saw that they
+would be altogether too late in reaching home, if they waited for the
+next boat.
+
+"Isn't it aggravating?" cried Martine, "to have to stand here and wait,
+when the distance across to Kittery is so little."
+
+"There's nothing to do but wait," replied Clare.
+
+Martine followed the direction in which she pointed, and saw an old man
+in a row-boat approaching the pier.
+
+"Do you suppose he would take us over?"
+
+"Why not? Let's ask him."
+
+The two friends, with Angelina following close behind, stood on the end
+of the pier while the old man was mooring his boat.
+
+"Will you row us over to the other side?" asked Martine.
+
+He paid no attention to them, but continued tying a knot in his rope.
+The question was repeated in a slightly different form, and still the
+old man made no answer.
+
+"He must be deaf," said Angelina.
+
+"Or the wind's blowing in the wrong direction," said Clare. "We must
+wait till he comes up to us."
+
+When the old man approached, by signs and words they made him understand
+what they wished, and he smiled pleasantly when Clare put a dollar bill
+in his hand.
+
+"It's worth it," she said in an aside to Martine. "If we cross with him,
+we shall save two hours on our homeward journey."
+
+So the old man untied his boat, which was ample enough for the four, and
+the girls quickly took their places.
+
+"I can't say that I like a deaf boatman," said Clare, "in case of an
+accident we might find it awkward that he can't hear."
+
+"An accident!" exclaimed Martine, who seldom feared any unseen things;
+"there certainly could be no accident in this quiet water." Before they
+had gone very far, however, she began to change her mind. The breeze
+which they had noticed while they were on the landing, now seemed to be
+blowing violently, and despite its heavy freight the boat rocked
+violently; it not only rocked, but veered from its course. Martine held
+her breath, while the excitable Angelina began to scream.
+
+"Hush! hush!" said Martine, "it's nothing."
+
+"Nothing?" cried Angelina, as a great wave broke over the end of the
+boat, half drenching her.
+
+"It's only the Piscataqua current," said Clare. "But ask him if there's
+any danger."
+
+The boatman ignored the question. Probably he had not heard it. A great
+wave slapped the boat sidewise, and this time Clare's screams were added
+to Angelina's. Billows rose all around them. Apparently they were no
+longer on the surface of a quiet river, but in the midst of a disturbed
+ocean and their boat was small. Martine kept her eyes on the distant
+shore; she saw that they were approaching it, slow though their progress
+was. The old man seemed to be doing his best, when suddenly one of his
+oars broke and they heard him mutter, "that's bad." Bad, it certainly
+was; even Martine's courage waned. One thing, however, led her to hope
+that they might escape disaster. She had noticed a little boat pushing
+out from the other side. How rapidly it seemed to approach! Very soon
+after the old man's oar snapped, she recognized one of the rowers in the
+approaching boat. It was Herbert Brownville.
+
+As the boat drew nearer, they saw that Atherton was Herbert's companion.
+The boys rowed steadily and swiftly, and soon their boat was beside the
+other. Leaning over, Herbert extended an oar to the old man who accepted
+it with a nod of thanks; it wasn't a time for words; Angelina was in
+tears, Clare was barely calm, and even Martine, the courageous, looked
+disturbed. The old man bent to the oars, the two boats, almost side by
+side, went on in a straight line.
+
+"Thank you, thank you!" cried Clare, as they got into calmer water.
+
+"You weren't really scared, were you?" shouted Herbert.
+
+"Just a little," replied Martine.
+
+"You should have known of the current," added Herbert. "It was just the
+wrong time to cross in a small boat, especially with only one oar."
+
+The wind continued to blow, but the rest of their short journey was so
+calm compared with the turbulent five minutes, that Martine was ashamed
+of their needless alarm; and yet she was glad enough when at last she
+found herself standing on the Kittery bank of the river.
+
+"I knew you'd need a rescuer," exclaimed Herbert, after he had helped
+them ashore.
+
+"But how in the world did you know where to find us?" asked Martine.
+
+Herbert was silent; he did not really care to tell her what Carlotta had
+said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+EXCITEMENT
+
+
+Mrs. Stratford was interested in Martine's account of her interview with
+Balfour Airton.
+
+"I should certainly like to see him, and if he's as you describe him,
+and I am sure he is, I should be glad to welcome him as a long lost
+cousin. From what Mrs. Redmond has said, I'm sure that he contributed a
+great deal to your pleasure last summer."
+
+Several days passed and Balfour did not appear. At last Mrs. Stratford
+sent a note to the headquarters of the trolley line addressed to Balfour
+and inviting him to tea. On the appointed evening he made his appearance
+at Red Knoll.
+
+"It is not often," he said, "that I can get enough time off to accept an
+invitation of this kind; but I can tell you that it's very delightful to
+be among friends. That's the worst of going so far from home. You're
+among strangers and nobody cares especially for you."
+
+Although Martine and her mother were both somewhat curious as to what
+had brought Balfour to this corner of the world, for the moment they
+asked no questions. Martine inquired about Eunice.
+
+"Of course she writes regularly to Priscilla," she said, "and Priscilla
+keeps me informed about Annapolis happenings. Do you think your sister
+will go to college?"
+
+Balfour shook his head.
+
+"I am not sure; I am not even sure that Eunice knows her own mind; but
+if she does wish to go to college, some one will certainly find a way
+for her to carry out her wishes."
+
+Martine, looking at him, felt that Balfour was likely to be that "some
+one."
+
+"I ought to say," added Balfour, turning to Mrs. Stratford, "that the
+money so kindly sent Eunice last autumn did an immense amount of good.
+It was the first money of her own that she had ever had to handle, and I
+may add," he concluded smiling, "that she has at least half of it still
+stored away for a rainy day."
+
+At last Martine could not control her curiosity.
+
+"How did you happen to think of coming up here?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, some of my friends had had opportunities as extra men on the New
+England trolley lines, and I decided that I could spend my time more
+profitably here than on the vehicle I drove last summer.
+
+"That wasn't such a bad vehicle," interposed Martine. "If you hadn't
+been driving it, I might still be lost in the fog."
+
+During this conversation the three had gone outside to sit. And now in
+the darkness they heard a voice inquiring anxiously, "Is this Red
+Knoll?"
+
+"It's Mr. Gamut," exclaimed Martine, and rushing forward, was soon
+greeting the old gentleman.
+
+"I've only just come back," he cried volubly after he had joined the
+group. "You must have thought it strange that I disappeared so
+completely; but I was called away on business, and my niece has been
+visiting friends on the South Shore. Now tell me about your father; what
+do you hear? Good news, I hope."
+
+Martine said nothing.
+
+"What we hear is indefinite," said Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Oh, well, 'no news is good news' and you must expect the best. Young
+people who have no care don't realize the ups and downs of life; they
+expect things to move along in an upward line. You, young man," he
+continued, "expect life to continue to be one continual round of
+pleasure; you bathe, play golf, drive, have evening excursions, and it's
+all right for the summer; but after a while you will have a hard hill to
+climb, and that is right too; it's part of life; only you mustn't let
+the summer spoil you."
+
+"Oh, but Mr. Gamut," began Martine.
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mr. Gamut, turning to Balfour, "you think perhaps
+there needn't be a hill for every one."
+
+"I think I know what Miss Stratford meant to say; she meant to tell you
+that I am not a pleasure seeker, but a worker. I am simply a conductor
+on the trolley line."
+
+"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the old gentleman, and though the light was
+too dim for him really to see, Balfour realized that Mr. Gamut had
+raised his glasses and had fixed his eyes upon him.
+
+"A conductor!" he exclaimed; "how extraordinary! do you really think it
+will lead to something? That's what a young man should always ask
+himself."
+
+"It will lead to my having more money at the end of the season than I
+had before," responded Balfour.
+
+"Yes, yes; but it's very unusual." Before Mr. Gamut could complete his
+sentence, a loud scream from the direction of the kitchen fell on the
+ears of the four.
+
+"I wish Angelina were not so excitable," said Mrs. Stratford. "It takes
+so little to make her scream; probably she has seen a mouse."
+
+When the scream rang out a second time, Balfour started to his feet and
+in another instant was racing to the gate in pursuit of a flying figure;
+an instant later, the others had reached Angelina.
+
+"It was a burglar," she cried. "He was opening the trunks in the ell
+room, and when I came through with the safety lamp in my hand I saw him
+plainly, and he started and ran, leaving his booty on the floor," she
+concluded dramatically.
+
+"But those were empty trunks," cried Martine, climbing the stairs.
+
+"Come and see," said Angelina, leading the way upstairs, where indeed
+the floor was strewn with clothing. Martine picked up a delicate muslin
+skirt.
+
+"This isn't mine, mamma," she said. "The man must have had a bundle with
+him that he dropped here; these things are not mine; it all seems very
+queer."
+
+"Yes," said Angelina, "especially as the burglar is an old acquaintance
+of mine."
+
+Thoughts of collusion crossed Mrs. Stratford's mind while Angelina
+continued:
+
+"It was years and years ago, and I'd know him anywhere; especially
+because I've seen his twin brother since, and he looks just like him,
+though this wasn't the twin. He's an honest man and he lives in Salem."
+
+"Let us get out into the fresh air again," said Mrs. Stratford. "I feel
+faint."
+
+"Angelina's story makes me feel fainter," added Martine.
+
+"I hope that interesting young conductor hasn't been hurt by the
+burglar; if he should catch him, I wonder if he'd know what to do with
+him."
+
+"We can only wait."
+
+Their time of waiting was not long. Balfour came back rather
+crestfallen.
+
+"He gave me a great run," said Balfour, "and I couldn't catch up with
+him. But I'm sure he won't trouble you again, and on my way home I'll
+telephone so that the authorities here and in Portsmouth can be on the
+lookout for him. Do you suppose he took anything of yours?"
+
+"I hardly think so," replied Martine, "he seems to have left something
+behind him."
+
+"Oh, he's nothing but a sneak thief," continued Angelina. "I know him."
+
+"A friend of yours?" asked Balfour in surprise.
+
+"Oh, Angelina was just going to tell us about him," said Mrs. Stratford,
+trying to repress certain suspicions regarding Angelina that had come to
+her since the girl had said that she knew the intruder.
+
+"It was this way," continued Angelina, pleased, as usual, to be the
+centre of interest. "It was my mother he took the money from a long time
+ago, when she lived at the North End. It was the money that was to take
+us to the country, that Miss Brenda and her Club had made at a bazaar;
+and he went off to some far country, and now he's come back, I suppose
+he'll go on stealing. Miss Brenda had to make up the money out of her
+own allowance, because she had been careless in giving the money too
+soon to my mother. So if you had caught this thief, Mister--" here
+Angelina hesitated, not knowing Balfour's name,--"we might have
+recovered what he took."
+
+"I'm sorry that I did not," replied the young man, "but I'll do my best
+to help some one else catch him."
+
+A little later Mr. Gamut and Balfour walked off together, and the Red
+Knoll household, left to itself, talked over the exciting evening. Mr.
+Gamut and Balfour had both offered to stay, or even to sit up all night
+if Mrs. Stratford or the girls felt timid. But at last all agreed that
+the intruder had been so effectually put to flight that there was no
+danger of his returning.
+
+That night Martine's dreams were filled with visions of a burglar
+chasing Balfour, with Mr. Gamut in a white muslin skirt following
+closely in pursuit. They were all late for breakfast, and were still at
+the table when the grocer brought the mail. There was but one letter for
+Martine, and she read it eagerly.
+
+"What do you think?" she asked, when she had finished. "Elinor is going
+to stay over at York on her way to the mountains. She is to be at the
+Hotel for a day or two. Oh, I wish that she could stay here! What do you
+think, mamma? she could be comfortable in my room, and I would take the
+little one next."
+
+"Certainly, my dear, you may ask her as soon as she arrives. When does
+she arrive?"
+
+"Why, it must be to-day--for this is Thursday. I wonder why the letter
+was so slow. I'll go over as soon as the work is done."
+
+Now it happened that Elinor herself made the first visit, as she had
+come in from Portsmouth on an early train. After they had talked of
+other things for half an hour, Martine told Elinor of their excitement
+of the evening before.
+
+"Are you sure he didn't take anything?" asked Elinor. "I should think
+you wouldn't have slept a wink. I should have been awake all night after
+such a fright."
+
+"I can't say I was frightened; it seemed rather funny. Do come upstairs
+with me now. I must see what the man left behind."
+
+Elinor followed Martine upstairs.
+
+"Why, Martine, what is this?" she cried, raising the white skirt "It
+is--why, it must be the gown I lost Class Day--and this--it really is my
+trunk," and she gave Martine a severe glance as she bent toward a small
+trunk in the corner.
+
+"Nonsense," cried Martine. "That is a skirt the burglar left, part of
+his 'booty,' as Angelina calls it, and this is one of our packing
+trunks. It has been here all summer."
+
+"But it has my name on it," protested Elinor.
+
+Martine shook her head. Elinor's manner reminded her of her manner on
+the day of their first meeting, and it annoyed her.
+
+Nevertheless she bent down towards the label on the trunk.
+
+"Don't look at me in that tone of voice," she said gayly, as she turned
+again toward her friend. "The label is certainly marked,
+
+    "_Miss Elinor Naylor_
+          _The Belhaven, Boston_
+
+and now that I look at it closely I can see that this is not one of our
+trunks. But how did it come here, Angelina?"
+
+"Oh, Miss Martine, we brought the trunk with us from Boston. It was in
+the storeroom. I don't know anything about it, except it came the day
+before Class Day. There was a laundress working there that afternoon,
+and I remember she told me she had had a trunk sent to the trunk-room. I
+supposed you told her, and of course when we moved, all the trunks came
+here. You told me they were to come."
+
+"Perhaps you are not altogether to blame, Angelina, although I wish that
+you had said something to mamma or me, and I still don't understand why
+the trunk was sent to us."
+
+It was now Elinor's turn to explain. "I understand it all. When I left
+Bar Harbor for Class Day, I simply put on a tag with my name and I
+didn't notice this old label, which was the one I used when I spent a
+day or two with you in the spring. The expressman followed the Belhaven
+tag, instead of keeping my trunk with Kate's aunt,--so if any one is to
+blame, it is I for leaving that tag on."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," replied Martine. "If I had been a really
+up-to-date housekeeper I should have known exactly what trunks came down
+to York. Now I only hope that our burglar didn't make way with any of
+your things."
+
+"We'll soon know;" already Elinor was on her knees before the trunk.
+
+"No" she said, "I hardly think he took anything. The trunk is closely
+packed below the tray, and the tray would hold little more than these
+things he tumbled out. But I remember a set of topaz studs in a box that
+I put in this corner. The box is not here."
+
+After a careful search neither she nor Martine could find the studs. But
+Elinor was philosophical over this loss.
+
+"In finding the trunk I feel as if I had recovered a small fortune--and
+I can bear the loss of the studs. I daresay Kate will be pleased to get
+back her things, although she is so up-to-date, that she may consider
+these class-day clothes old-fashioned now, as they were made to wear two
+months ago."
+
+"How ridiculous!" exclaimed Martine, "and yet," she admitted, "I can
+remember when I would not wear anything that was not of the very latest,
+but now--why this is a last year's shirt-waist, and you know how the
+sleeves have changed."
+
+A few hours later Martine and Elinor were telling the story of the
+"Class-day trunk," as they dubbed it, to a group of merry young people
+on the piazza of the hotel, and every one teased Martine about her skill
+in abstracting so important a part of Elinor's wardrobe.
+
+After a day or two at the hotel, Elinor began a visit at Martine's that
+lengthened itself into a week, and during her friend's stay Martine's
+life was as gay as that of the gayest at the Harbor. She drove, she sat
+at noon with the gay throng under the pavilion to watch the bathers. She
+would not bathe, because she had brought no bathing-suit to York, and
+because it was too late in the season, she said, to begin a course of
+spectacular bathing. She went with a sailing party on Herbert's
+cat-boat, although before Elinor's arrival she had refused all his
+invitations. She spent two mornings at the Club watching the tennis
+tournament, and she accepted invitations to two luncheons given in
+Elinor's honor.
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, two or three days after Elinor's
+arrival, "Would you not like to have a luncheon for Elinor? On a small
+scale we could manage it very well."
+
+"Oh yes, Mrs. Stratford," interposed Angelina, who overheard the
+suggestion. "I've just been longing for Miss Martine to have some kind
+of an entertainment. There's something going on every day, and I don't
+like Miss Martine to be the only one that doesn't entertain--not that
+I'd be so presuming as to talk of anything you hadn't spoken of
+yourself," she concluded hastily. She was bright enough to notice an
+expression of surprise on Mrs. Stratford's face.
+
+"It would make some trouble for you," said Martine.
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't mind that, and I'm always happy when there's something
+going on."
+
+"Lucian's last letter was more cheerful;" Martine said this to draw her
+mother out.
+
+"Yes, my dear, and I am sure you need not let your father's health stand
+in the way of your party. I am sure that he is better."
+
+"But ought we to spend money in that way?"
+
+"It will not cost much."
+
+"I know,--but still."
+
+"There, write your notes. They should be sent at once."
+
+"Instead of a luncheon, mamma, let me have a tea late in the afternoon
+and ask boys as well. Herbert has been very good to Elinor, and Atherton
+has given us a lot of time, and there are several others. I wish I
+needn't ask Carlotta, but I must. However, I can leave out the most of
+her crowd."
+
+Elinor helped Martine write the notes, and Angelina took hold of the
+preparations with a heartiness that spoke for success.
+
+The tables were spread out-doors, one for serving chocolate and coffee,
+one for lemonade. Elinor and Clare gathered flowers in abundance,
+especially great clusters of St. Anne's lace, that proved a most
+effective table decoration.
+
+In spite of the short notice nearly all whom Martine invited accepted
+the invitation, even Carlotta and two or three of her set, who "never
+would be missed," said Martine almost ruefully as she read their
+replies.
+
+"Then why did you ask them?" Elinor's tone was reproachful.
+
+"Oh, because--well, because I had no good reason for leaving them out.
+They have all invited me to something or other, and of course in one way
+I want them, only Carlotta is so critical that I hate to think of her
+making fun of things here."
+
+"She will have cause to be critical if you do not hurry down to the
+village for that extra cream. It's strange they forgot to leave it this
+morning. Of course," concluded Elinor, "I think that Carlotta might have
+been prompter in answering your invitation, but when she comes she'll be
+on her best behavior."
+
+Now it chanced that as Martine was returning from the village, warm and
+a little tired, carrying a large bottle of cream under one arm and a
+package of odds and ends on the other, she met Carlotta and three or
+four others driving rapidly down from the Club. How it happened Martine
+never knew, but an unlucky stumble made her lose her hold of the bottle,
+and as it flew into the road the cream emptied itself in a sticky pool
+in the dusty road.
+
+Poor Martine! The drag slowed up. She thought she heard a
+half-suppressed outburst of laughter. But in a moment Herbert stood
+beside her. He had slipped down from the drag, and he looked at her now
+as if waiting for her to tell him what to do.
+
+"Let me help you," he said at last.
+
+"Help me!" cried Martine scornfully.
+
+    "'Oh, Phoebe you have torn your dress!
+       Where are your berries, child?'
+
+"There, Herbert, that is the way I feel. To think that I must go back to
+the village for a second bottle of cream! We are all in a hurry, and
+they are waiting for me. Angelina herself could not have done worse."
+
+"Of course you won't turn back. Go home with the other things, and I
+will bring you your cream."
+
+So eager was Herbert to be of use that he hardly listened to Martine's
+thanks, and Martine, to her own great surprise, for once in her life
+found herself ready to obey one to whom she was not in the habit of
+looking up. For Herbert, although nearer Lucian's age than Martine's,
+always seemed to the latter like a younger boy whom she could order
+around. In the present emergency she was thankful for Herbert's help and
+pleased enough to receive the cream that he brought from the village.
+
+When her guests arrived at the appointed hour, Martine was fairly proud
+of the appearance of Red Knoll. She had had the grass clipped the day
+before, and the lawn, if stubbly on close inspection, at least was of a
+vivid green. The old-fashioned garden at the side that had been the
+pride of the former occupants of the farm, was now in full bloom, and
+almost all the chairs had been brought from the house to be set under
+the trees or farther up in the meadow, where those who wished could
+enjoy the rather unusual view.
+
+With the chairs removed, the dining-room seemed almost spacious, and
+there Peggy at one end of the table and Clare at the other served
+chocolate and lemonade. The afternoon passed quickly away. Martine
+forgot her first anxiety when she saw that her friends were evidently
+enjoying themselves.
+
+"I am surprised to see you here," Peggy exclaimed to Herbert. "Isn't it
+a great condescension? I thought you had vowed never to go to a tea at
+York."
+
+"Generally this kind of thing is a bore, and I had fairly hard work to
+get the other fellows to come. But I told them that anything Martine did
+was sure to pass off well, and it's true."
+
+"This is just like any other tea," protested Peggy, remembering that
+Herbert had never accepted one of her invitations.
+
+"Oh, it's smaller than others," responded Herbert, "and every one knows
+every one and we all feel that we can do as we like--and no one is
+wearing white gloves," he concluded, as if he had made a special
+discovery.
+
+"There are no gloves of any color so far as I can see," retorted Peggy.
+
+"That's just it, we can have a good time here, because everything is
+unconventional. But, alas, here is Carlotta--" and Herbert moved rapidly
+in the opposite direction from his sister.
+
+Although Carlotta seldom said really disagreeable things, something in
+her manner excited Martine's antagonism.
+
+"She need not have referred to the spilt cream," thought the latter,
+after a word or two with Carlotta. "She must know I hate to be reminded
+that I cut a ridiculous figure."
+
+"Oh yes," she continued aloud, "I am too busy to do much pleasuring this
+summer. The house gives me plenty to do, and I have some extra
+studying."
+
+"We heard you were going to college," said one of Martine's friends.
+
+"Yes," added Carlotta, "but I shouldn't think you'd quite like to. It
+makes a girl so conspicuous to go to college."
+
+"A college girl isn't half so conspicuous as a golf-champion. Why, I saw
+your picture in a Sunday paper last month, Carlotta, beside a prize
+bicycle rider's, and your weight and height and all kinds of things
+about you were there, too."
+
+Martine spoke hotly, as she was apt to when excited, and Carlotta made
+no reply.
+
+"If I go to college," continued Martine, "I fear I'll never be
+distinguished enough to have my portrait in print." Then, remembering
+that personal speeches of this kind were not in good taste from a
+hostess to a guest, she changed the subject to something less
+irritating. But Carlotta turned away, only half mollified.
+
+"Elinor," cried Martine, as the last of her guests went home, "this tea
+has been bad for me; it has given me a taste for society that will worry
+me the rest of the summer."
+
+"There's no reason why you shouldn't be a little gayer."
+
+"Oh, yes, there is, every reason. If things go better, I'll have my turn
+in a year or two when I am really out, and if things go ill, why I shall
+bury myself in work. Really, I meant what I said to Carlotta. I do mean
+to try for college. It would be fun to pass the examinations with
+Priscilla, even if I couldn't go through. For, of course, if we are very
+poor, I shall have to work for a living."
+
+"Martine," cried Elinor, "you are very absurd. When I think of your
+cousin Mrs. Stanley at Bar Harbor--"
+
+"Yes, and my cousin Mrs. Blair, who has one of the handsomest places on
+the North Shore. But unluckily what is theirs is not mine, and I have
+never been a beggar."
+
+"Of course not, but from one extreme you have gone to the other, and I
+think that you ought to hope for the best."
+
+"If hoping were having," murmured Martine.
+
+Mr. Gamut was one of the guests whom Martine invited in Elinor's honor.
+
+"Where's your young conductor?" he asked, when he had a moment alone
+with her.
+
+"We invited him, but he wrote that he couldn't get off. Mamma felt
+pretty sure he wouldn't have come, even if he had time to spare. He is
+in this part of the world for business, not pleasure."
+
+"Just so, just so, he's a fine fellow, though, and I mean to keep an eye
+on him. I can offer him a good place when he's through studying. I have
+no prejudice against the college man in business, and he'll be none the
+worse for taking his degree. I liked the way he ran after that fellow
+the other night, and he's done some clever detective work since. You'll
+hear about it soon."
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, when her daughter later told her what
+Mr. Gamut had said; "you may congratulate yourself on this one thing, if
+on nothing else this summer. By bringing Mr. Gamut and Balfour together
+you have accomplished more than you realize."
+
+"But it was the burglar and not I," said Martine, "who really had the
+most to do with it. It was the way Balfour ran that impressed Mr. Gamut
+the most."
+
+"However it came about, you have had a good share in bringing them
+together, and with Mr. Gamut's good will, Balfour is sure to prosper."
+
+"I'm glad of that, mamma. Sometimes I feel that I have been so useless
+this summer."
+
+"My dear--" and then Mrs. Stratford said no more. She was really afraid
+of spoiling Martine by praise, but she thought it better for the latter
+to find out certain things for herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+QUIET LIFE
+
+
+When Elinor left York for the mountains, she took the little trunk with
+her, after carefully removing the Belhaven label. The label itself she
+carried in her card-case. "I shall need it," she said, "to illustrate my
+tale of a trunk when I tell it. Every one who has heard it thus far
+thinks it the most amusing story that ever was--and if it hadn't
+happened no one could believe it. This label is a proof of its truth."
+
+Martine missed Elinor more than she admitted even to her mother. It was
+part of her summer plan to seem perfectly contented with everything.
+Mrs. Stratford noted with some concern that Martine was growing paler,
+if not a little thinner. Could it be that she was less happy than she
+professed to be, less contented?
+
+Whatever she did, she did with her utmost energy, and in summer it was
+possible for a young girl to have too much of housework, gardening and
+study. It had become almost a passion with her to make up one or two
+deficiencies before her return to school. Strangely enough, it was
+Herbert now, on whom she began to depend for help in carrying on her
+work, and this is how it came about.
+
+Herbert, after the so-called rescue on the Piscataqua, made light of the
+affair, in spite of Martine's reiteration that except for him she knew
+that she and Clare--not to mention Angelina--must have capsized.
+
+"We might not have met a watery grave--but we certainly should have
+reached shore very wet."
+
+"Well, perhaps," responded Herbert, "but even if it meant something to
+you to be saved from your 'peril' as you call it, you must admit that
+Atherton and I ran no risk."
+
+"That doesn't alter the fact that you were thoughtful as well as brave,
+and really, Herbert, if only you wouldn't pretend to be so lazy,
+you'd--"
+
+Martine did not finish the sentence, for Herbert immediately tried to
+prove that he was not lazy.
+
+"Of course I won't fall in with all of Carlotta's plans; if I did she'd
+keep me busy from morning to night. But I got into college without
+conditions--and that reminds me--Miss Martine Stratford--I heard you
+complaining the other day about your Cicero, and so, if you are not too
+lazy, I will come to you two or three times a week to read Latin with
+you. We'll make the orations fly like hot-cakes, and Carlotta will be
+more infuriated than ever that I have something to do that will keep me
+from trotting around after her."
+
+"If that's your motive, I refuse to be helped."
+
+"You ought to be very grateful, for in general I don't approve of a
+girl's going to college, and I understand it's because you have college
+in view that you wish to skip on with your Latin. But it's only because
+I think college won't spoil you that I consent to give you the benefit
+of my knowledge," and Herbert assumed a pompous air that greatly amused
+Martine. Thus it happened that a day or two after Elinor left York,
+Herbert entered on his self-appointed office of tutor. Mrs. Stratford
+had made no objection when Martine told her of Herbert's plan. She had
+known Herbert for a long time, and she understood some of the
+difficulties of his home surroundings. Carlotta and he were so unlike in
+temperament, that they were constantly at swords' points, and Mrs.
+Brownville was so absorbed in her own narrow interests that she had
+never found time to study her children.
+
+Mrs. Stratford realized that Martine could do more for Herbert than he
+for her, as he never resented the sisterly advice that she bestowed on
+him.
+
+Carlotta was the only one who seemed to object to Herbert's new
+occupation. She teased him unmercifully, and showed an inclination to
+snub Martine. The two girls, fortunately, did not meet often, for
+Martine had little part in the gayeties of August, while Carlotta was a
+leader of the younger set.
+
+Carlotta, had she been so disposed, might have done much for Martine. On
+the other hand, Martine, with a little effort, could have shared in the
+pleasures of the young people of her own age. At last her mother
+remonstrated with her for holding herself aloof from those who were
+pleasantly disposed to her.
+
+But Martine was firm.
+
+"No, mother, I can't serve two masters. The summer has been flying away,
+and I haven't accomplished half that I had hoped to. I shan't dare to
+look Priscilla in the face if I haven't made up all that Latin. Then I
+shouldn't have a really good time if I 'mingled' more, as Angelina
+suggests. People here are cliquey, and Carlotta and Peggy are the only
+girls in the crowd that I've ever known before. Peggy is a regular
+will-o'-the-wisp, and Carlotta and I never could be intimate."
+
+"But still--" began Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"But still," echoed Martine, "you seem to forget, mother dear, that we
+came here to save money--and everything costs so much--and I don't want
+to spend my poor little allowance on dress and excursions, and sometimes
+I feel pretty blue, and until we know from Lucian how father really is,
+I couldn't plunge into things. There wouldn't be any half way with me;
+if I should begin to 'go,' I would just have to go all the time."
+
+Here Martine stopped for sheer want of breath. But her mother, watching
+her closely, wondered if she really understood herself. Yet Martine was
+sincere. It was only when she heard of some particularly pleasant thing
+that she felt left out. A moonlight sail, an all-day picnic up the
+river, an excursion to Agamenticus, all seemed to her as she heard of
+them more delightful affairs than they actually were to those who took
+part in them.
+
+Before Herbert and Clare, Martine maintained her Spartan indifference,
+even when they talked of their own experiences in a well-meant effort to
+make her express a desire to go with them on their next expedition.
+
+But nothing could weaken Martine's determination to lead a quiet life.
+
+"It isn't as if I never had had any fun, or never should have any more,"
+she wrote to Priscilla, "but even as it is I believe I have been running
+about too much. For the next few weeks I mean to be quiet as a dormouse,
+and two pages of Latin a day will keep me pretty busy. You see, Prissie,
+if papa really has lost all his money, I shall want to earn my living at
+once. I never could be dependent on my relations, and Lucian will have
+all he can do for the next few years. Oh, how different this summer is
+from last, when I almost felt as if I owned the world, though I hope I
+didn't show it. Of course we are very comfortable here. The house is
+small, but we brought enough of our own things to make it homelike, and
+Angelina does pretty well, though I have to help out with things
+sometimes. We have radishes and peas and a few tomato plants in the
+kitchen garden, but the rest of the place is all in grass, except the
+flower garden, and that would do your heart good. There are all kinds of
+old-fashioned things that you would love. They have grown up in the
+wildest way, and I am kept very busy weeding the flowers as well as the
+vegetables. Now, Prissie, before we leave York you must make us a visit.
+Mother and I both want you, and York will suit you to a T. The summer
+people make it livelier than Plymouth, but there are enough queer old
+houses to make you feel quite at home. You'd enjoy the graveyard
+opposite the church. It is shaded with ancient trees, and every one
+browses around there at least once. The funniest stone that I saw there
+was Father Moody's; he was the father of Handkerchief Moody. The
+inscription is just what you might expect from a thrifty New Englander.
+I wonder more haven't tried the same thing. Instead of having a long
+inscription put on he just gave the chapter and verse, 2 Corinthians,
+III, 1-6, so that any one interested could read. I am sorry to say I
+haven't yet had time. There's another thing that might amuse you. There
+are a lot of little cottages down by the Long Beach beyond the harbor.
+They look as if they were made of cardboard, painted in bright colors,
+and have fancy names like 'Sea-crest' and 'Harbor View.' Well, the other
+day on our way to Cape Neddock, I noticed one called Gorgeana, and I
+thought the owners had given it this name because they meant to enjoy
+themselves by eating all they could, or gorging.
+
+"I was awfully snubbed by Herbert when I asked him if it wasn't a shame
+for people to advertise their greediness. He laughed well at me when he
+reminded me that the name was in honor of Gorges, the founder of York, a
+fact which I really ought to have remembered, for of course I knew it.
+
+"You need not be jealous of Clare, as you suggest. It is certainly
+pleasant to have a congenial girl so near. But she never could take your
+place--never in the world.
+
+"She is something like you, however, quiet and dignified, and fond of
+history. Mrs. Ethridge is great fun, and would be good company for
+mother, except that she plays bridge from morning till night.
+
+"You haven't told me what you think of my rescue, and of Balfour and the
+burglar. I wrote you a few days ago.
+
+"I had a letter from Brenda last week. Isn't it wonderful that she
+should find time to think of me when she is so far away. She is
+delighted because all the family are with her now, and they are to be in
+San Rafael the rest of the summer.
+
+"She is not sure whether she will be in Boston next winter. How I wish
+we might have her apartment again. But we can't tell what we shall do
+until father and Lucian return. She says she would like to be with me
+one winter, to be sure that I really deserve to be called her ward."
+
+Then, with messages to Mrs. Danforth and the children, Martine concluded
+her letter.
+
+It brought a quick reply, in which Priscilla laughed at Martine for her
+two rescues--if one can be said to laugh in a letter.
+
+"For an independent person it seems to me that you succeed in getting
+rescued from extreme danger pretty often. Balfour, in the fog last
+summer, had the easier time I should say, and I only hope that he and
+Herbert Brownville may not come to blows in trying to decide which is
+the greater hero.
+
+"If I am called on to help to decide, I should have to decide against
+Balfour, for you could not be half as much lost on a horse as in a
+boat."
+
+Although Priscilla was correct in her diagnosis of the different kinds
+of dangers, Balfour and Herbert gave no signs of coming to blows on the
+subject of their prowess. On the contrary, they showed an inclination to
+be very good friends. As Balfour's time was so fully occupied with his
+duties, Herbert acquired the habit of taking long rides on the cars.
+Then at the end of the route, or when waiting at turn-outs, he and
+Balfour had chances for the snatches of conversation in which boys find
+more pleasure than girls.
+
+Carlotta was as little pleased with Herbert's intimacy with Balfour, as
+with his interest in Martine's Latin. It might not be fair to say that
+she wished to keep her brother entirely under her thumb, and yet it
+annoyed her that he was so much less amenable to her than formerly. She
+liked to feel that he was ready to come and go as she wished. She
+especially needed him to help entertain her visitors, of whom she
+usually had two or three staying in the house.
+
+Now it happened one evening that Martine reading a Boston newspaper came
+upon something that excited her mightily.
+
+"O, mamma," she exclaimed, "Only think! Mrs. Dundonald is coming
+here--just listen; Mrs. Dundonald, the well-known artist, passed through
+Boston to-day on her way to York Harbor where she is to spend a few days
+with friends."
+
+"Well, my dear, what of it?" responded Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Oh, you know how I admire Mrs. Dundonald's work. She does exactly the
+kind of thing I should like to do, and they say she is perfectly
+charming. To think she is coming here! Oh, I do hope we shall meet her!"
+
+Then Martine paused suddenly, remembering that for the present she and
+her mother were not likely to meet any distinguished stranger visiting
+York. From Clare she learned the next day that Mrs. Dundonald was
+staying with Miss Stark, an elderly lady whose house was next that of
+the Brownvilles'. Clare offered to take Martine to call on Miss Stark
+and Mrs. Dundonald, but Martine hesitated because she had heard that
+Miss Stark was a rigid upholder of formal etiquette.
+
+"I have had one or two little snubs," she said, "and I should hate to be
+treated with scorn because I had made the first call on an older woman."
+
+"There is no danger of that," replied Clare, "but still, there will
+probably be some other way, for you ought to have a chance to meet Mrs.
+Dundonald."
+
+Just at this time Herbert happened to be away on a short yachting trip,
+so that Martine could not tell him of her desire. The Brownvilles were
+cousins as well as neighbors of Miss Stark's, and had Herbert been at
+home he could easily have arranged a meeting between Martine and the
+artist.
+
+"Martine," said Clare a day after their conversation about Miss Stark
+and her guest, "I saw Carlotta at the beach this morning and I told her
+how anxious you were to meet Mrs. Dundonald. She knows her very well,
+and--"
+
+"She didn't promise to introduce me immediately?"
+
+Martine's tone was sarcastic. She knew very well that Carlotta would
+hardly exert herself to do her a favor. The girls were seated on Mrs.
+Ethridge's piazza at this moment, and before Clare could reply to
+Martine, the maid handed her a note that had come by special messenger.
+Martine watched her friend as she read, and noticed that she made no
+comment as she slipped the note back in its envelope. Then for a few
+moments neither girl spoke. Martine had recognized the man who had given
+the note to the maid. He was one of the Brownvilles' coachmen.
+
+"Martine," said Clare, at length, "Carlotta is giving a large stand-up
+luncheon for Mrs. Dundonald the day after to-morrow. It is just to let
+the girls here at York have a chance to meet her. Of course you will
+find your invitation when you go home."
+
+"Perhaps," replied Martine, and this word found an echo in Clare's
+heart.
+
+When Martine returned home she found no invitation from Carlotta, nor
+did one come before the luncheon. Strange as it may seem, in view of
+Martine's repeated declaration that she hated formal festivities in
+summer, she felt aggrieved that Carlotta had left her out.
+
+"Perhaps Carlotta has heard you express yourself. You know my dear, you
+have been a little scornful about the doings of the younger set."
+
+"Oh, no, mamma, I have seldom taken the trouble to express my opinions
+to Carlotta. Besides, she knows I am anxious to meet Mrs. Dundonald.
+Unluckily Clare has told her this, so my snubbing is all the harder to
+bear."
+
+Nor was Martine's disappointment lessened by the fact that Clare gave up
+the luncheon. "You might as well have gone," she said. "It is all the
+worse for me to know that I have kept you out of something you would
+have enjoyed."
+
+"But I have met so many artists," replied Clare, smiling, "that one more
+or less makes little difference to me. You know I do not care for
+crowds, and although Carlotta speaks of this luncheon as 'small,' I know
+there will be a crush. I'd much rather go off somewhere with you for the
+day. Cousin Mary has been urging me to come over to Portsmouth for the
+day. She would love to see you too. Let us go to-morrow; it will be much
+more fun than Carlotta's luncheon."
+
+But when to-morrow came, a strange thing happened. By some means known
+only to her, Angelina had heard that a man had been arrested in
+Portsmouth for breaking and entering a little shop.
+
+"I want to go over and identify him; I know he's our burglar, and that,
+of course, makes him Miguel Silva, who took Miss Brenda's money."
+
+"But you would better wait until you are sent for. You may be needed as
+a witness."
+
+"Oh, I don't know about that. The law is slow, they say, so I want to go
+now and look at him, and shake my fist at him, and tell him that I am
+Angelina Rosa, and then, please, I am going on in the trolley to Boston.
+I had a letter from my mother. She'd like to see me, and I want to tell
+her about Miguel Silva."
+
+"Would you leave us now, with no one to help us?"
+
+Mrs. Stratford spoke sharply. Martine was too surprised to speak.
+
+"I am sorry, of course," said Angelina, "the place isn't hard, and
+you've been like a mother to me. But it's very quiet for me at York. You
+see we're not exactly in things, and I think I'd better be nearer home.
+My trunk is all packed, and I'll get the express to call to-day."
+
+"Very well," said Mrs. Stratford, turning away with a dignity that gave
+Angelina no chance to reply.
+
+"Maggie would never have done this, and I am surprised at you,"
+remonstrated Martine as Angelina bade her good-bye.
+
+"I am sorry you feel so," rejoined Angelina, "for I haven't a fault to
+find with you and Mrs. Stratford. I have heard of a wash-lady that would
+come in by the day, and I'll stop at her house on the way."
+
+"Oh, no, we can look out for ourselves."
+
+"It isn't that it hasn't been pleasant here," continued Angelina; "I've
+had a real good time almost always, but I'm homesick, and I have a duty
+to my family, and I think I'd better go while Miguel Silva is where I
+can get at him; for after to-day they might lock him up where I couldn't
+see him, and I want him to know what I think. There's only one thing I
+want to confess, Miss Martine. You remember when the cook went away last
+winter,--so unexpectedly, you know, before your dinner? Well, it was I
+who discharged her. I told her you wanted her to go, and I paid her for
+the rest of the week. I was so anxious to have things all to myself, so
+I could show what I could do. But it didn't do me much good,--after the
+expense of paying her,--for you kept getting cooks that wouldn't let me
+meddle. But I hope you'll think kindly of me, Miss Martine, and so now
+good-bye."
+
+After this extraordinary speech, Angelina tripped gayly down the path in
+the direction of the cars.
+
+"It's frightful ingratitude!" said Martine. "I feel as if I should never
+wish to do anything for any one again."
+
+"Angelina has earned her money," responded Mrs. Stratford. "She has
+worked pretty faithfully. As I have studied her character, I have
+sometimes wondered that she should stay so contentedly with us, when we
+have given her so little opportunity to indulge in her favorite gossip."
+
+"But what shall we do now? That is the question, mamma. Of course I will
+help all I can, but I am feeling tired, and you are not strong enough,
+and we must stay here."
+
+"There, there, Martine, do not borrow trouble. To-day will take care of
+itself, and as for to-morrow--"
+
+"To-morrow," cried Clare, suddenly coming upon them, "will be the best
+day for our Portsmouth excursion, and mamma has sent me over to invite
+you, Mrs. Stratford, to spend the day with her."
+
+"There, Martine, to-morrow is provided for. Tell your mother, Clare,
+that I am only too happy to accept her invitation. I must leave you now,
+while Martine relates the story of Angelina."
+
+As her mother turned toward the house, Martine told Clare of Angelina's
+departure.
+
+"You must find some one to take her place," said Clare. "You are thinner
+than when you came to York, and if you don't mind my saying so, you look
+tired."
+
+To Clare's great surprise, her friend, instead of replying, shed a tear
+or two. But the tears were followed by smiles, as Martine exclaimed:
+
+"There, I am almost as bad as Priscilla."
+
+"But do you suppose that Angelina was right about the burglar? I wonder
+if your friend Balfour Airton has heard--"
+
+"Oh, if the burglar has been caught, I am sure Balfour knows all about
+it. He was really very anxious himself to discover the fellow. If he is
+off duty, he will probably come over to see us this evening--at least if
+he has anything to tell."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+PORTSMOUTH AND AFTERWARD
+
+
+It was not until they were on their way to Portsmouth, that Clare and
+Martine had their first good chance to talk to Balfour about the
+burglar.
+
+"It is really true," said Balfour, "that the fellow has been arrested
+for entering a Portsmouth shop. I was pretty sure of him, and when this
+shop was entered, I told the police about this man. He was wearing a
+pair of topaz sleeve-links, and you said, I remember, that these were
+the only things missing from Miss Elinor's trunk."
+
+Balfour spoke modestly. From him the girls could get no idea of the many
+hours he had put into the case until he had assured himself that this
+was the very man wanted by the police of more than one city.
+
+"How excited Angelina will be if she really identifies him as the man
+who took her mother's money long ago."
+
+"Yes," added Martine, "if she is only called in court as a witness, she
+will be perfectly happy."
+
+At Kittery, as on the day they went to the Shoals, Balfour was left with
+his car on the Kittery Shore.
+
+"I believe this will be the pleasantest of all our excursions," said
+Martine to Clare as the two strolled about. "A crowd would seem out of
+place in these quiet old streets."
+
+"Is there anything you especially care to see before we go to Cousin
+Mary's?" asked Clare. "You know she expects us there to luncheon, and
+she always has any number of stories to tell."
+
+"I'd like to see Strawberry Bank," replied Martine. "It sounded so
+attractive when I came across it in my History as the first name of
+Portsmouth."
+
+"I fear there are no strawberries there now, though the first settlers
+are said to have built the Great House in the centre of ground covered
+with wild strawberry-vines. There's little to see there now, though you
+have enough imagination to picture where the Great House stood in the
+time of Mason."
+
+So they went down on Water Street, and thence to the substantial little
+house where Washington's secretary, Tobias Lear, lived. Here Washington
+himself called on Madame Lear when he visited Portsmouth soon after his
+inauguration.
+
+As they turned back toward the statelier mansions of Congress and
+Pleasant Streets, Clare tried to fit the things she had heard about old
+Portsmouth to the right persons and people.
+
+"I remember that some distinguished French nobleman described the
+Langdon House as elegant and well furnished. Washington, too, called it
+the handsomest house in Portsmouth, and when Louis Philippe was in exile
+here, he lived for some time in this house. But I like this old
+Wentworth House better because I really remember one of the romantic
+stories connected with it."
+
+"Tell me, please."
+
+"Oh, this is simply about Frances Wentworth who jilted her cousin John
+because he was too poor. John went to England, and Frances married
+Theodore Atkinson, who was rich and amiable and delicate. In the course
+of time John Wentworth returned from London as governor of the Province,
+and when two years later the husband of Frances died, she mourned only
+ten days, and then became the bride of her cousin John. But here we are
+at Cousin Mary's, and I ought to have left this story for her. She can
+tell it so dramatically."
+
+Cousin Mary lived near the old Warner house, and she had much to say to
+the girls about a former owner of this historic dwelling, whom her
+mother remembered as one of the last of the townsmen to wear a cocked
+hat and knee-breeches. After luncheon she took her young visitors to
+call at the Warner mansion, where they saw the curious wall paintings
+that no one had known about, until the removal of several layers of
+paper brought the paintings to the light a few years ago.
+
+"You can see how little this house has been changed," said the owner,
+proudly. "It is really an eighteenth century house of the best type."
+
+"Such as Amy Wentworth dwelt in," added Martine, reciting.
+
+      "'With stately stairways worn
+    By feet of old Colonial knights,
+      And ladies gentle-born.
+    And on her from the wainscot old
+      Ancestral faces frown,
+    And this has worn the soldier's sword,
+      And that--the judge's gown?'
+
+"You did not know I could quote Portsmouth poetry?" asked Martine,
+turning mischievously to Clare, "but I caught the habit from Amy last
+summer, as she had a ballad or a story for every place we visited."
+
+"Portsmouth is full of stories," responded Clare; "I wish, Cousin Mary,
+we could stay here three or four days. Martine would enjoy
+everything--old stories as well as old houses--"
+
+"We have plenty of both, my dear," said Cousin Mary, laying her hand on
+Martine's arm.
+
+"I have been wondering about the houses, there are so many more of what
+you might call 'stately mansions,' than there are in Plymouth," and
+Martine looked enquiringly at Cousin Mary.
+
+"Oh, that is easily explained," replied the older woman, understanding
+Martine's unexpressed question. "Portsmouth was a Royal Province, and
+its merchants were prosperous and fond of the good things of life. They
+vied with one another in the eighteenth century in building handsome
+dwellings. There were also many government officials here, who felt that
+fine surroundings were their rightful due. When the Revolution came,
+Portsmouth was full of Tories, as you may have read in some of the
+recent historical novels. They were far from pleased with the change in
+government."
+
+"Martine and I certainly must come over again," cried Clare, looking at
+her watch, "there are two or three special stories that I hope you will
+tell her, though they are too long for to-day. I am afraid we have
+barely time for the church, if we mean to get back to York to-night."
+
+"This church," explained Cousin Mary, as they drew near old St. John's,
+"is interesting because it succeeds the old Queen's Chapel. It may
+surprise you to learn that in Portsmouth the first church observed the
+forms of the Church of England. But after the earliest years, for a long
+time there was no Episcopal church until the Queen's Chapel was built in
+the early eighteenth century."
+
+"They couldn't have a Queen's Chapel after the Revolution!" exclaimed
+Martine.
+
+"Well, it was Queen's Chapel for a few years. This was its name when
+Washington attended service here. But in 1791, when the parish was
+re-organized, the new church was known as 'St. John's.'"
+
+The girls made the most of the short time they had to spend at the old
+church. There were a number of things to see, but nothing, not even the
+famous Queen Caroline chairs interested Martine more than the old bell
+in the tower. For Cousin Mary told her that it had been brought from an
+old church at Louisburg by Sir William Pepperell's victorious men.
+
+"I must come down some Sunday," she said, "just to hear it. In Nova
+Scotia they tell some weird stories about these old French bells," and
+as she spoke, Martine recalled her afternoon with Balfour and Amy near
+the site of the Acadian church.
+
+"You certainly must spend a day or two with me soon," said Cousin Mary,
+and when the girls bade her good-bye, the day was set for a longer visit
+from Clare and Martine.
+
+A slight fog overtook them as they rode home, and this, perhaps, lowered
+Martine's spirits. Had Clare known Martine longer, she would have been
+even more surprised than she was at her friend's despondent tone, for
+those who knew her best had seldom seen her out of spirits.
+
+It was Clare herself, however, who had turned the conversation in a
+direction not exactly enlivening.
+
+"I suppose we shall see Herbert to-morrow," she said. "He won't be
+exactly pleased when he hears about Carlotta's luncheon."
+
+"You mean my being left out? Oh, he won't care. Boys never take up those
+things. Besides, I hope no one will tell him. Besides, I shouldn't have
+cared if it hadn't been for Mrs. Dundonald, though I shall probably have
+a chance to meet her again, somewhere."
+
+"Of course," responded Clare, "she is likely to be in Boston, and you
+know so many people. I think you have been very amiable about the whole
+thing. For certainly it was hard to bear."
+
+Now sympathy is often the last straw to break one down, and as she
+replied to Clare, Martine did not control a little quaver in her voice.
+
+"Naturally no one likes to be slighted, but then nothing has gone
+exactly right this summer. I have hardly done a thing I wanted to, and I
+have been left out of things I might have gone to."
+
+"But, my dear, I have heard you say over and over again that you
+wouldn't have any gayety on account of your father and--"
+
+"Yes, that is true," replied Martine, undisturbed by her own
+inconsistency, "but all the same it isn't pleasant to be left out, and I
+really don't like being economical, although I have to pretend I don't
+mind. I suppose that's why some people slight me. I never believed
+before that money made any difference, but now I know."
+
+"Martine," said Clare, "you are ridiculous. I believe you have been
+working too hard, and so are a little run down."
+
+"I haven't slept well lately," Martine admitted, "I have been thinking
+so much about my father and Lucian."
+
+"Isn't your father improving?"
+
+"The last letter was more cheerful. But we haven't heard for three
+weeks, and I am wondering what we shall do next year if he has lost
+_all_ his money. It will be so hard for Lucian to give up college."
+
+Clare was at a loss for a reply. Mrs. Stratford and Martine were new
+friends and she really knew little about their affairs. She had to
+content herself with rather vague attempts to cheer Martine, and she was
+gratified before they reached their stopping place to see the smiles
+return to Martine's face.
+
+It was almost dusk as the car sped down a long hill near the Country
+Club.
+
+"Why, that was Carlotta driving," exclaimed Clare, as they passed a
+restive horse that was driven by a girl in a high cart.
+
+"She has poor control of her horse," rejoined Martine.
+
+"It's curious," added Clare, "that Carlotta, who is so good at other
+sports, knows so little about a horse. She seldom drives alone. I wonder
+how it happens that no one is with her now."
+
+"She may swim better than I," rejoined Martine, "but I believe I could
+give her points about managing a horse."
+
+Soon the two friends had reached their corner and were about to part
+when they heard the clatter of hoofs and wheels.
+
+"Keep to the side, Clare," cried Martine. "It's Carlotta, the horse is
+running away."
+
+Hardly had she uttered these words when the horse and carriage were upon
+them. The reins had fallen, and Carlotta, helpless, was clinging to the
+side of the carriage. Martine did not hesitate. Instantly she plunged
+forward, and unheeding Clare's warning scream, flung herself before the
+horse. Yet, in spite of her impetuosity, she knew what she was doing.
+The creature's speed was less than it seemed to the frightened Clare.
+Martine with a sure aim reached the bridle. Although she was dragged a
+few steps, the horse slackened his pace, and stopped. Carlotta, too much
+shaken to resume control, jumped to the ground on the opposite side from
+Martine.
+
+"Look!" cried Clare, running up to her as she came to the horse's head.
+
+"Is she hurt?" asked Carlotta, anxiously, as Clare stooped down toward
+Martine, who had fallen to the ground.
+
+"She must be," replied Clare. "What shall we do?"
+
+"I cannot very well leave my horse," responded Carlotta, still with her
+hand on the bridle; "if only somebody--"
+
+At that moment "somebody" did appear, in the shape of Mr. Gamut.
+
+"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "What is this? An accident?"
+
+Martine lay white and still. Clare, stooping down, could not rouse her.
+
+"Let us take her to the house, and then I will go for Mrs. Stratford,"
+cried Clare; "she has been spending the day with my mother."
+
+"I was on my way to Red Knoll," said Mr. Gamut. "I came on the afternoon
+train, and I felt anxious to talk over the good news; but now, this
+looks serious," he continued, as together he and Clare lifted Martine
+from the ground.
+
+"May I take my horse to your stable, Clare?" asked Carlotta. "He is
+quiet enough, but I would rather not drive now, and then I will hurry to
+the village for a doctor. I am so sorry for all this," she concluded.
+
+"There are certainly no bones broken," said the practical Clare; "she
+has simply fainted."
+
+Clare and Mr. Gamut slowly carried Martine to the side of the road, and
+now Clare was supporting her friend's head on her knee, while Mr. Gamut
+had gone to Red Knoll for water.
+
+As Carlotta disappeared down the lane leading to the Ethridge house,
+Martine stirred slightly, and opened her eyes.
+
+"Where am I?" she asked, faintly. "Oh--yes--I remember," and though she
+closed her eyes again, she no longer lay a dead weight against Clare's
+arm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE SUMMER'S END
+
+
+One afternoon in late September, Martine sat under the trees in her
+mother's corner of the Red Knoll garden. A number of letters lay before
+her on a little round table, and beside her, swinging lazily in a
+hammock, was Priscilla, the practical, who had often been heard to say
+that she despised hammocks.
+
+After a moment Priscilla, bringing herself to a full stop, leaned
+forward and gazed intently at Martine.
+
+"I cannot see," she said at length, "that you look so _very_ thin."
+
+"Why should I be _very_ thin?"
+
+"Well, from what I heard I thought you must be. They said you weren't
+eating, and you are thinner than you were in the spring. I am sure your
+eyes look larger."
+
+"Probably my eyes have grown; I am sure my waistbands have."
+
+There was a twinkle in Martine's brown eyes, as she pushed back a wavy
+lock of hair.
+
+"You are just a little paler, too," persisted Priscilla, "but except for
+that, no one would believe that you had been so ill."
+
+"I don't believe it myself," replied Martine, "though I am perfectly
+willing to take the word of those who say they know. To tell you the
+truth, I am rather ashamed to hear that I barely escaped nervous
+prostration, just because I tried to stop a horse from running away."
+
+"But you _did_ stop him."
+
+"Then he wasn't running away. It was only that Carlotta had let go the
+reins."
+
+"Well, they all say that if you hadn't seized the bridle, he would have
+gone straight down the little embankment."
+
+"Nonsense--at any rate I spoilt the effect of it all by fainting, and
+yet I shouldn't have fainted if I hadn't been following your example.
+The horse had nothing to do with it."
+
+"Oh, Martine!"
+
+"Yes, my dear Prissie. I had been following your old example of
+borrowing trouble, and I had been keeping my tribulations to myself,
+until I just couldn't bear them. You see it was this way. I was sure
+that father wouldn't get well, and that the shock of his death would
+kill mother, and Lucian would have to leave college, and I would have to
+start out at once to earn my living. Then little things were bothering
+me too, like Carlotta's being mean, and Angelina's leaving us with no
+one to help, and I was tired of being economical, so the horse was just
+the last straw."
+
+Though Martine's explanation was not very lucid, Priscilla certainly
+understood her.
+
+"I believe Clare was disappointed," she continued, "that I hadn't at
+least one bone broken. She wanted to make a heroine of me, and she isn't
+at all pleased when I tell her I wasn't in danger."
+
+"Well, if you were not, Carlotta was. She is very grateful."
+
+"I know, I know," said Martine, hastily. "But when you are not very fond
+of people, it is rather disagreeable to have them grateful, especially
+for nothing at all. I was really sorry that the person in the carriage
+was Carlotta. I suppose this sounds very hateful, for she has written me
+a fine letter--says she is sorry she couldn't see me before she went to
+the mountains, but still--"
+
+"But still," echoed Priscilla.
+
+"Oh, nothing, except that I like Mrs. Brownville's letter so much
+better. She says that I have been a great help to Herbert this
+summer--keeping him away from a set of young men the family didn't care
+for, and giving him ideals. I shouldn't expect Mrs. Brownville to know
+an ideal when she saw it. However, I dare say she's right, only it was
+unconscious goodness on my part. I didn't know Herbert had to be kept
+away from any set of foolish companions. I simply found him good
+company, and I am so used to giving advice to Lucian and Robert that I
+naturally favored Herbert in the same way. Then he was tremendously good
+in reading Latin with me. Except for this accident I should have been
+ahead of you, Prissie dear."
+
+"I should like to have seen Herbert Brownville."
+
+"Yes, it's a pity he had to go back to college before you came. But
+you'll see him in Boston some time."
+
+"When do you expect your father?" asked Priscilla.
+
+"Oh, in a week--just think of it--in a week, and he is almost well, and
+although he has lost money, things are not going to be so very
+dreadful,--not at all as I feared. I looked too far ahead."
+
+"Yes," said Priscilla, mischievously, "jumping at conclusions is almost
+as bad as borrowing trouble. They mean much the same thing."
+
+"I am not so sure. I cannot imagine a slow, deliberate person like you
+jumping at conclusions, though I have known you to borrow trouble."
+
+"Sometimes I am very hasty," responded Priscilla, slowly, as if
+reflecting on something. "There is one thing I ought to tell you. Do you
+remember your prize essay last spring?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but I didn't set out to get a prize."
+
+"I know. If you had, I suppose you would have written it all alone."
+
+"What do you mean? I did write it alone."
+
+Then remembering Lucian's help, Martine flushed to the roots of her
+hair.
+
+"I did not mean to offend you," continued Priscilla, "for even if Lucian
+helped you a little, this was all right; I was only thinking how unfair
+I had been. I accidentally saw some notes for your essay in Lucian's
+handwriting, and for a little while I felt that you had acted unfairly.
+Do you remember one week last spring, when I was stiff and disagreeable
+and wouldn't go anywhere with you?"
+
+"_One_ week!" exclaimed Martine, roguishly.
+
+"Oh, I dare say there were others. Only I remember the why of that
+particular week."
+
+"But it's so long ago," cried Martine, "Let's not remember it now."
+
+"It's only fair that you should know that I sometimes jump to
+conclusions."
+
+"As long as you are ready to jump away from them again, there's no great
+harm done."
+
+"That's what I wanted to say. I realized after all that there was no
+rule in school against getting help in an essay, and that you didn't
+know a prize was to be given when you wrote yours. But I always thought
+you ought to know how unfair I had been."
+
+"Then we are friends again," said Martine, laughing, "though I didn't
+know we had ever been anything else." Secretly, she thought Priscilla
+had made a great ado about nothing. "It's the Puritan way, I suppose,"
+she said to herself. Then aloud,--
+
+"As I have forgiven you, we may call it square about those Christmas
+photographs. Thus far I have always been able to prevent your paying me
+for them. But to-day, when I found your note with this money on my
+bureau--really, Priscilla, I was almost offended. So here, child," and
+she held out an envelope, "if you will take back this money, I will
+forgive you for your unfair thoughts."
+
+Under the circumstances Priscilla could not refuse Martine, and thus
+both girls were satisfied.
+
+"There's one thing," said Martine, to change the subject, "I have had
+some lovely letters lately. Just think of little Esther's writing me.
+Nora must have told her where I was. She hopes I will be able to go on
+with the Mansion Class next year--but dear me, Priscilla, she has got
+far beyond me; only look at this pen and ink," and she displayed the
+last page of the letter, in which Esther had drawn a picture that
+Priscilla at once recognized as Martine herself. "Then Alexander Babet
+has written me about Yvonne, that she is much stronger, and so happy
+with her music lessons,--and would you believe it, they still have some
+of that hundred dollars left. It's wonderful how far some people can
+make a little money go."
+
+Here Martine sighed, recalling the time when she would not have thought
+a hundred dollars too much to spend in gratifying a single small wish.
+
+"Do you know," she continued, "it may be that I can really do something
+for Yvonne next year. If papa can't spare the money, why I can give up
+something of my own--riding lessons, for example,--and spend what it
+would cost for Yvonne. This year I have been so frightfully useless; it
+seems as if I hadn't done anything for anybody."
+
+"How foolish you are," exclaimed Priscilla. "If there were nothing else,
+you certainly have helped Yvonne and Esther, and just think what Mrs.
+Brownville writes about Herbert, and your mother says you have been a
+wonderful housekeeper, and that you have taken so much care off her
+shoulders, and Angelina--"
+
+"Well, Angelina is rather absurd," interposed Martine; "I was just
+coming to myself that evening after--what shall I call it--the Carlotta
+incident, when Angelina rushed into the room, and almost threw herself
+on my neck. She seemed to think that something awful had happened to me
+because she had undertaken to leave us, and that my salvation depended
+on her. She said she had had queer feelings all day, and that she just
+felt drawn back to Red Knoll, which she never, never, would desert
+again. Really it was just as well that she came back, for although
+mother was able to get an extra helper, Angelina knew exactly where
+things were. Of course she was tremendously proud of what she had
+accomplished in her trip to Portsmouth, for she made the house-breaker
+admit that he was Miguel Silva, and though she can't recover her money,
+she has a kind of wicked satisfaction in knowing that he will be
+punished for his other misdeeds."
+
+"She doesn't seem to be quite as Spanish as she was last winter. At
+least she doesn't say as much about it."
+
+"No, she gives me the credit for that. She says that I have shown her
+that it is wrong to pretend anything. However, on that same Portsmouth
+trip, she went down the harbor to look at the island where Cervera's men
+were prisoners, and now she likes to speak of the Spaniards in a
+patronizing tone as people to be spoken of as inferiors rather than
+kinsmen."
+
+"It's astonishing," mused Priscilla, "how many friends you make!"
+
+"Why should it be astonishing? Why shouldn't I make friends?"
+
+"I only meant it was astonishing in comparison with me. No one ever
+attaches importance to me. In the past year I have hardly made a new
+friend--while you--"
+
+"You have made a friend of me for one thing, and Lucian thinks you are
+exactly right, and my mother considers you a perfect model. Oh, yes, and
+there's Eunice."
+
+Priscilla, in spite of herself, smiled at Martine's droll tone.
+
+"But think of all the people you have to your credit. Mr. Stacy says he
+never saw a young girl talk so intelligently about Plymouth, and the
+children are always asking me when you will come again, and in her
+secret heart I believe Aunt Tilworth prefers you to me,--and my
+mother--"
+
+"What nonsense, Priscilla! It's only because people think me so very
+empty-headed when they first meet me, that they are surprised later to
+find that there's anything to me, just as I am surprised some times to
+discover these quiet dignified girls, like Elinor, and Clare, are really
+very good fun when you come to know them better."
+
+"Then," continued Priscilla, "there are Balfour and Mr. Gamut. If you
+hadn't been considerate of Balfour's feelings, and invited him to your
+house, he wouldn't have met Mr. Gamut, and Eunice says he has made him a
+splendid offer, and he will take it as soon as he's through college."
+
+"Oh, well, things may have happened that way; but you know yourself that
+I haven't any particular talent for anything, and I never go out of my
+way to help people."
+
+"You help them just by being bright and pleasant and making them think
+the best of themselves."
+
+"Perhaps; but as to Balfour, I am glad that he's to be helped by Mr.
+Gamut, and not by Mr. Blair, or even papa, as I once hoped. For, as it
+is, he's much more independent, without feeling that anything has been
+done for him, because he's a connection of ours, even though the
+cousinship is rather far away. It was so funny, though, to see Mr. Gamut
+the evening Carlotta's horse tried to run. He appeared on the scene just
+as I fainted, and later, when I came to, he was hopping about, anxious
+to do something, but not knowing what to do. Faint as I was, I almost
+laughed at him. But that would have been mean, for he had come almost
+expressly to bring me news that he had just heard about papa's affairs.
+He said he knew I had been worrying, and he wanted to be the first to
+tell me. Naturally, he was surprised to find me lying on my back in the
+middle of the road. But come, we mustn't waste all the morning here,"
+and seizing Priscilla by the arm, Martine fairly dragged her from the
+hammock.
+
+"I feel so energetic now," she cried, "that we must do something
+exciting--take a long walk to work off my energy--if we could gather a
+party, I believe I could climb Agamenticus. What would you say to that,
+Prissie?"
+
+The diminutive no longer annoyed Priscilla. She had learned to
+understand Martine.
+
+"It isn't necessary for me to say anything. Your mother will tell you
+what she thinks about your climbing Agamenticus."
+
+"I suppose it is too far. You always do know better than I. I believe
+that next year I shall have to be known as Priscilla's, instead of
+Brenda's ward"--and with her hand in Priscilla's, Martine went into the
+house.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+HELEN LEAH REED'S "BRENDA" BOOKS
+
+
+BRENDA, HER SCHOOL AND HER CLUB
+
+Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith.
+
+_The Boston Herald_ says: "Miss Reed's girls have all the impulses and
+likes of real girls as their characters are developing, and her record
+of their thoughts and actions reads like a chapter snatched from the
+page of life. It is bright, genial, merry, wholesome, and full of good
+characterizations."
+
+
+BRENDA'S SUMMER AT ROCKLEY
+
+Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith.
+
+A charming picture of vacation life along the famous North Shore of
+Massachusetts.
+
+_The Outlook_ says: "The author is one of the best equipped of our
+writers for girls of larger growth. Her stories are strong, intelligent,
+and wholesome."
+
+
+BRENDA'S COUSIN AT RADCLIFFE
+
+Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens.
+
+A remarkably real and fascinating story of a college girl's career,
+excelling in interest Miss Reed's first "Brenda" book. The _Providence
+News_ says of it: "No better college story has been written." The author
+is a graduate of Radcliffe College which she describes.
+
+No better college story has been written.--_Providence News._
+
+Miss Reed is herself a Radcliffe woman, and she has made a sympathetic
+and accurate study of the woman's college at Cambridge.--_Chicago
+Evening Post._
+
+The author is one of the best equipped of our writers for girls of
+larger growth. Her stories are strong, intelligent, and wholesome.--_The
+Outlook_, N. Y.
+
+The book has the background of old Cambridge, a little of Harvard, and
+Boston in the distance.... The heroine is a fine girl, and the other
+characters are girls of many varieties and from many places.--_New York
+Commercial Advertiser._
+
+She brings out all sides of the life, and, while making much of the fun
+and good fellowship, does not let it be forgotten that work and growth
+are the end and object of it all.--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+
+BRENDA'S BARGAIN
+
+Illustrated.
+
+"The fourth and last of the 'Brenda' books," says _The Bookman_, "deals
+with social settlement work, under conditions with which the author is
+familiar." The _Boston Transcript_ adds: "This book is by far the best
+of the series."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Another Popular "Brenda" Story_
+
+AMY IN ACADIA
+
+Illustrated by Katharine Pyle.
+
+
+A delightful scene for a tale that arouses and holds the young reader's
+attention and sympathies from the beginning.--_Washington Star._
+
+The entire story is full of life, action, and entertainment, as well as
+information.--_Newark Advertiser._
+
+Amy, now a college senior, and some of her friends have various unique
+experiences, and incidentally introduce a great many historical details
+concerning the descendants of the exiled Acadians in the romantic region
+of Clare in Nova Scotia.--_New York Sun._
+
+A splendid tale for girls, carefully written, interesting, and full of
+information concerning the romantic region made famous by the
+vicissitudes of Evangeline.--_Toronto Globe._
+
+The adventures of Amy and her girl friends among the descendants of the
+exiled Acadians have a spice of novelty to them.--_Philadelphia Press._
+
+So well written that it holds the attention of the young reader, and so
+well developed in its story as to prove without question another popular
+addition to the young folks' library.--_Boston Journal._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_A Story for Younger Girls_
+
+IRMA AND NAP
+
+Illustrated by Clara E. Atwood.
+
+A brightly written story about children from eleven to thirteen years of
+age, who live in a suburban town, and attend a public grammar school.
+The book is full of incident of school and home life.
+
+The story deals with real life, and is told in the simple and
+natural style which characterized Miss Reed's popular "Brenda"
+stories.--_Washington Post._
+
+There are little people in this sweetly written story with whom all will
+feel at once that they have been long acquainted, so real do they seem,
+as well as their plans, their play, and their school and home and
+everyday life.--_Boston Courier._
+
+Her children are real; her style also is natural and pleasing.--_The
+Outlook_, New York.
+
+Miss Reed's children are perfectly natural and act as real girls would
+under the same circumstances. Nap is a lively little dog, who takes an
+important part in the development of the story.--_Christian Register_,
+Boston.
+
+A clever story, not a bit preachy, but with much influence for right
+living in evidence throughout.--_Chicago Evening Post._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Brenda's Ward, by Helen Leah Reed
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Brenda's Ward, by Helen Leah Reed
+
+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: Brenda's Ward
+       A Sequel to 'Amy in Acadia'
+
+Author: Helen Leah Reed
+
+Illustrator: Frank T Merril
+
+Release Date: May 18, 2011 [EBook #36133]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDA'S WARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Heather Clark, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1>Brenda's Ward</h1>
+
+<h3><i>A Sequel to "Amy in Acadia"</i></h3>
+
+<h2>By Helen Leah Reed</h2>
+
+<h3>Author of "The Brenda Books," "Irma and Nap," "Amy in Acadia," etc.</h3>
+
+
+<h3>Illustrated from Drawings by<br />
+Frank T. Merrill</h3>
+
+<h3>Boston<br />
+Little, Brown, and Company<br />
+1906</h3>
+
+<h3><i>Copyright, 1906</i>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">By Little, Brown, and Company</span>.</h3>
+
+<h3><i>All rights reserved</i></h3>
+
+<h3>Published October, 1906</h3>
+
+<h3>THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a>
+<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment,
+she backed gracefully."</h3>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">A New Home</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">A Strange Meeting</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">Priscilla's Pride</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">Changes</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">Another Parting</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">Angelina's Coup</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">A Drop of Ink</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">A Prize Winner</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">Word from Brenda</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">The Recital</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">Martine's Altruism</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">Puzzles</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">At Plymouth</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">Tales and Relics</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">Troubles</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">The Missing Trunk</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">Class Day</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">At York</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">Sight-Seeing</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">The Isles of Shoals</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. <span class="smcap">Variety</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. <span class="smcap">Excitement</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. <span class="smcap">Quiet Life</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. <span class="smcap">Portsmouth and Afterward</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. <span class="smcap">The Summer's End</span></a><br /><br />
+<a href="#HELEN_LEAH_REEDS_BRENDA_BOOKS">HELEN LEAH REED'S "BRENDA" BOOKS</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<p><a href="#illus1">"As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment, she backed
+gracefully"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus2">"'The real Memorial is here,' said Elinor, reverently, passing from one
+tablet to another"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus3">"'This little scarf&mdash;it is Roman, too,&mdash;is just the thing for Julius
+Cæsar'"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus4">"Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little dolls of clay"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus5">"The old captain proved very talkative"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus6">"While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about"</a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Brenda's Ward</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>A NEW HOME</h3>
+
+
+<p>"It's simply perfect."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would like it, Martine."</p>
+
+<p>"Like it! I should say so, but it isn't 'it,' it's everything,&mdash;the
+room, the house, you, Boston. Really, you don't know how glad I am to be
+here, Brenda&mdash;I mean Mrs. Weston."</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>"That I should like things?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, that you should call me 'Mrs. Weston.' It's bad enough to be
+growing old, so don't try to make me feel like a grandmother. Truly, I
+can't believe that I am a day older than when I was sixteen, and yet
+when I <i>was</i> sixteen, eighteen seemed the end of everything worth while.
+I could not imagine myself old, and serious, and&mdash;twenty."</p>
+
+<p>Martine smiled at Brenda's emphasis of the last word, and as she smiled
+she laid her hand on her friend's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," she said, "just look in this mirror. A person who did not know
+could not tell which is the older, you or I."</p>
+
+<p>"Again, nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet even as she spoke Brenda could but admit to herself that Martine had
+an air of dignity suited to one much older than a girl of seventeen. But
+if she had thought Martine altogether grown up, she quickly changed her
+opinion, for at this very moment Martine sank on the floor beside her,
+and as her laughter re-echoed through the rooms Brenda was driven to
+say:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, don't talk to me about being grown up. You act precisely like
+a child of ten. What in the world is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, oh nothing; that is, almost nothing. Only look and you will
+laugh too."</p>
+
+<p>Glancing where Martine pointed, Brenda saw something really amusing.
+Before a pier-glass in the hall a sallow girl with glossy black hair
+piled high on her head was standing. She wore a pink satin gown that
+heightened her sallowness. It was cut square in the neck, and her elbow
+sleeves displayed a pair of skinny arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is she?" whispered Martine, recovering her breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that, oh that is Angelina."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, fascinated by the vision in the glass, continued to watch the
+strange little figure, bowing, gesticulating, turning now to this side
+now to that, while her lips moved as if she were talking to herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is Angelina?" asked Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Angelina, don't you know her? She is to help me for a week while
+Maggie is away taking care of her sick aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you call that 'helping'?" and again Martine pointed toward the
+pier-glass.</p>
+
+<p>"She did not hear me come in; she thought I would ring," replied Brenda.
+"She thinks I am still downtown. She was to go to the door and has been
+waiting to hear me ring."</p>
+
+<p>"Would she go to the door looking like that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope not. She'd probably call through the tube and hurry on a
+coat, or do something of that kind. Yet no one is ever surprised at
+Angelina's doings. Let me tell you about her. Years ago Nora and some of
+the rest of us pulled her little brother Manuel from under the feet of a
+horse, and in a few days we went to visit the family at the North End.
+You can't imagine how poor they were. Then we had a club and worked for
+a bazaar to raise money to get them out into the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, Amy told me something about that, though it all happened
+before she knew you, I think she said."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in the end Angelina became my cousin Julia's protégée. She has
+learned a great deal about housework at the Mansion School, but she is
+always yearning for something beyond. Lately she has been taking lessons
+in elocution."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, then, she's rehearsing now," cried Martine. "Oh, I hope
+Maggie will stay away longer than you expect. I think we might have
+great sport with Angelina."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," remonstrated Brenda, "remember that for the present you are
+my ward. I can't have you trifling with Angelina, although she can be
+very funny."</p>
+
+<p>The sound of voices had at last penetrated Angelina's ears, and she fled
+to her room.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my," she thought, "I wonder if Mrs. Weston saw me?" In her secret
+heart Angelina hoped that she had been observed.</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Martine, she's almost as stylish as Mrs. Weston. I wonder what
+she thought of this dress&mdash;gown," she added, correcting herself. "I
+almost wish I'd been saying that soliloquy out loud. Then I could have
+asked them if they thought I used just the right inflections and
+gestures. Perhaps Miss Brenda would let me recite it all to her some
+time. She's more sympathetic than Miss Julia was. Now I know if I should
+ask Miss Julia she'd say I mustn't give that recital, and I'm sure she
+wouldn't approve of this gown. But Miss Brenda, why I shouldn't wonder
+if she'd go to it herself, and Miss Martine, I've heard how she spends
+money like water, and she'll probably buy a lot of tickets."</p>
+
+<p>As Angelina fled to her room Martine, rising from the floor, sat down on
+a divan beside Brenda.</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish to please me, do find another place for Maggie and keep
+Angelina. She'll be so entertaining, and poor Maggie always looks half
+ready to cry."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I couldn't part with Maggie, and more than a week of Angelina would
+be too much even for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will tell you at the end of this week. I am going to work so
+hard at school that I ought to have as much amusement as possible at
+home. Still I know I am going to be perfectly happy with you this
+winter, although I can remember the time when I should just have hated
+to spend a winter in Boston. Even now if it wasn't for you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But you had decided to spend the winter here before you ran across me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear Mrs. Weston, my parents had decided that a year or two of
+Boston school would be the making of me. They had heard, as you know, of
+a dragon who had a boarding-house on the hill, who would look after me
+within an inch of my life. Wasn't it strange, though, that she should
+have been taken ill this autumn? I suppose you wouldn't let me say
+'providential.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not! She was so ill that she had to go South for the winter."</p>
+
+<p>"Then that is providential for her. How much better the South must be
+for her than this bleak Boston. Besides, if she had been able to
+continue her home for helpless Western schoolgirls, I should not have
+had the delight of sharing your charming apartment."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor should I have had the pleasure of the company of a charming ward."</p>
+
+<p>As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment, she backed
+gracefully, and neither she nor Brenda realized that she was approaching
+too near a table of bric-à-brac, until it toppled over with a crash.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh what have I done! No wedding presents smashed, I hope." There was a
+touch of dismay in Martine's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a thing that could break." Brenda's smile was reassuring. "Silver
+or brass, everyone of them. That's one thing I have already learned, not
+to have breakable things, if one values them, within anyone's reach.
+It's awfully disagreeable to have to blame anyone for what you could
+have prevented by a little care, and I never can let anybody replace
+what she has broken. Maggie is rather a breaker, and so my china and
+glass ornaments I set on high shelves."</p>
+
+<p>The noise of the falling table brought Angelina upon the scene. She had
+made what Martine called a "lightning change," and appeared in a dark
+gown and spotless collar and cuffs.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, are you in?" she said innocently, as she entered the room. "I
+didn't know but what it might be a burglar or something&mdash;" She looked
+from one to the other anxiously, and then catching sight of the
+overturned table, began to busy herself picking up the scattered
+ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear," sighed Brenda, "will Angelina ever learn to be perfectly
+honest?" But her only words alone were. "Yes, we have been in some time;
+I thought you might have heard us." The implied reproof silenced
+Angelina, and soon the three separated without a word having been said
+about the private rehearsal.</p>
+
+<p>That the volatile Brenda Weston should undertake the charge of Martine
+Stratford for the winter at first surprised many of their friends, and
+yet this had come about in a perfectly natural way. When Martine
+returned from her summer with Amy in Acadia, her mother, who met her in
+Boston, was so much better that it seemed almost possible for her to
+spend the winter at home. But at last her physician prescribed a few
+months of travel, and as Martina's school work had already been unduly
+interrupted, it was thought wiser for her to carry out the plans already
+more than half formed that she should stay in Boston to attend Miss
+Crawdon's school. It was therefore a disappointment to Mrs. Stratford
+just before school opened to hear that Mrs. Montgomery, Martine's
+so-called "dragon," was ill. For several years the latter had been in
+the habit of having a few girls from a distance board with her while
+they attended school in Boston. When Mrs. Montgomery could not take her,
+Martine's parents thought that they must altogether give up the Boston
+plan. Mrs. Blair, a cousin of Martine's mother, with whom she had stayed
+in the spring, was now in Europe. Mrs. Redmond, in whose charge they
+would have liked to put Martine, had engaged a boarding-place in
+Wellesley, to be near her daughter in college; and had there been no
+other reason against Martine's living in Wellesley also, her parents
+objected to her going back and forth daily on the trains. The case
+seemed hopeless for Martine's staying in Boston until Brenda Weston came
+to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>Brenda was for a few days at the large hotel overlooking the park, where
+also Mr. and Mrs. Stratford and Martine were staying. Martine had heard
+much of Brenda, though she had never met her until one afternoon when
+Amy came to call. Delighted to have the opportunity, she immediately
+introduced Brenda to her Chicago friends. This happened to be the very
+day when Martine was feeling most discouraged regarding her school
+plans. For although the young girl sometimes scoffed at Boston, she
+really wished to spend the winter there. Her summer's companionship with
+Amy and Priscilla had increased her ambition, and she was anxious to
+study at Miss Crawdon's.</p>
+
+<p>Very naturally, then, she confided her troubles to Brenda. Brenda
+sympathized with her, but made no suggestion until she had talked the
+matter over with her own family and with Martine's mother. When Mrs.
+Stratford told Martine that Brenda had offered to take her under her
+wing for the winter, Martine, overjoyed, rushed to Brenda's room to
+express her thanks.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell you how delighted I am at the thought of living with you
+in that dear little flat. It will be much more fun than anything else I
+could possibly do."</p>
+
+<p>Brenda looked at her keenly, shaking her head in mock reproof.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not coming to me just for fun. Your mother says that this must
+be a very serious year for you, that you did not do so very well in
+school last year, and that&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, Brenda,&mdash;I mean Mrs. Weston, dear,&mdash;I can be terribly
+serious. You will see for yourself. But still you want me to have a
+<i>little</i> fun, just a little&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I am not a regular dragon, but I understand the importance of
+work."</p>
+
+<p>With a sudden movement Martine, who had been standing behind Brenda,
+threw her arms over Brenda's head, placed her hands over Brenda's mouth,
+thus silencing her for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Now listen, listen," she cried; "listen, please! Of course I am only
+too glad to be your ward, and I will be as good as good can be. I would
+promise anything rather than go to boarding-school, or live with Mrs.
+Blair, or board in a house full of girls. Lucian hopes I'll stay in
+Boston because he is a little lonely sometimes at college, and I wish to
+stay with you, and you are so sweet to give me the chance that I really
+won't make any trouble for you."</p>
+
+<p>So it was settled, and Mr. and Mrs. Stratford went home, quite satisfied
+to leave Martine in Brenda's care. They would have been better pleased
+had Mrs. Redmond been able to take complete charge of their daughter;
+but as it was, Mrs. Redmond promised to have Martine constantly in mind
+and to help her when any emergency arose.</p>
+
+<p>It was Martine's one regret, when she took up her abode with Brenda,
+that she had not become Brenda's ward early enough in the season to help
+her furnish.</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been such fun," she said one day soon after her arrival,
+"to shop for all these pretty things, and decide on wallpapers and rugs,
+and fit them into their little corners and nooks."</p>
+
+<p>"You know I didn't have to go shopping for all my belongings; you have
+no idea what quantities of things were given me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can imagine, just by looking around. Wedding presents are so
+fascinating."</p>
+
+<p>"But still," continued Brenda, "there were certain things I had to buy,
+chairs and tables, for example, and it was hard sometimes to decide
+between Mission styles and mahogany, and whether the bedstead should be
+brass or painted iron for the smaller rooms; and then the kitchen
+furnishings were puzzling. Of course I'm not perfectly satisfied with
+everything, but, on the whole, we must be contented until we have a
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how can you speak of a house! This is ever so much better. It's the
+prettiest flat I ever saw; don't you just love to be up here in the top?
+You can see over everything, even to the river, and down the avenue and
+up the avenue; it's more like Paris than anything I've seen since I was
+in Europe."</p>
+
+<p>"I do enjoy the view," replied Brenda. "I should hate to be shut in in a
+narrow street. I don't like it here quite as well as in our old house on
+the water side of Beacon street, where my room had such a broad
+outlook."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have hated to leave home."</p>
+
+<p>"In a way I did, but though mamma tried to persuade me to stay with her
+this winter, I felt that I just must begin to keep house myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be very happy that you are so near your mother." Martine
+spoke wistfully; although she wouldn't have admitted it for the world,
+she was beginning to be homesick. Chicago seemed altogether too far
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"It is pleasant," replied Brenda, "to be able to run in and out there
+when I please. Besides, my sister and her children are there, and I am
+awfully fond of the little girls."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. But that reminds me, though there isn't any real connection
+with what we've been talking about, you haven't shown me your kitchen.
+Can't we go out there now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes,"&mdash;then Brenda's face clouded,&mdash;"if the cook&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Brenda Weston! You are afraid of the cook."</p>
+
+<p>Brenda colored. "Not afraid; only you know cooks are so queer, and of
+course dinners have to be just so, and she's apt to spoil things if
+anything annoys her. But this is her afternoon out."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we can go and look through everything," and Martine thereupon
+followed Brenda through the long narrow hall to the little kitchen at
+the very end of the suite.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," explained Brenda, as they entered the cook's domain, "though
+this is not an old house, the kitchen needed some improvements that I
+learned are necessary when I lived at the Mansion. It's astonishing how
+many things men forget when they build houses. Now, out here, there was
+an old-fashioned closed-in wooden sink, but I had it replaced with this
+open one at our expense, and this tiling put all around the walls, and
+here, this was my idea and this," and one by one she pointed out many
+little things that might have escaped Martine's notice.</p>
+
+<p>"I learned so much," continued Brenda, "that year at the Mansion School.
+You see a year ago last spring I was very low-spirited. Everything
+seemed so gloomy after the war began, so I went for a while to help
+Julia with her girls; and hardly anyone, hardly Julia herself, realized
+that I was learning. But I was, and somehow things that I didn't know I
+had noticed sank into my mind, and when we began to get this apartment
+ready, I was really practical; even my mother said so. Arthur was
+pleased, and my sister Anna was perfectly astonished. You know she has
+lived mostly in studios, or in houses where someone else did the
+planning, and this year at home with mother she has no responsibility,
+so she can't understand how I know so much about housekeeping."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> strange, it seems strange to me," responded Martine. "No one
+would ever expect you to know a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Do I appear a perfect ignoramus?" There was indignation in
+Brenda's tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, of course not; only kitchens are so different, so&mdash;well, I
+shouldn't expect you to know about kitchen work."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, I confess, there's one thing I don't understand very well. I
+really cannot cook. Sometimes I think it's on account of the cooking
+class we used to have; it was too much like work, and so I didn't try to
+remember what I was taught. That's why I'm afraid of the cook, for if
+she should leave suddenly, I don't know what I should do."</p>
+
+<p>"I know what <i>I'd</i> do," responded Martine, quickly. "I'd go to a
+restaurant; it's ever so much more fun than dining at home. Why, when I
+was visiting my cousin in New York, we went somewhere nearly every
+evening. Of course there isn't a Sherry's or a Waldorf-Astoria here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't want to dine at restaurants when I've a house of my own.
+Besides, I'm going to learn&mdash;look!" and Brenda opened the door of a
+small closet. "These are all electric things," and she pointed to a row
+of silver kettles and chafing-dishes. "We have two plugs in the
+dining-room wall and can cook almost anything without going into the
+kitchen. But come, I've something to show you in my own room now." As
+they turned away Martine exclaimed, "If you have a good receipe book,
+with all those shiny saucepans, I'm sure you needn't care whether you
+have a cook or not."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not so sure," responded Brenda, "and I can't help being just a
+little afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! How absurd!&mdash;as if you could really be afraid of anything,"
+retorted Martine with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>Now, interesting though Martine found her life under Brenda's roof, she
+soon realized that her winter was not to be one wholly of pleasure. Her
+studies had been carried on so irregularly for a year or two that she
+now perceived that she must settle down to regular work. School had been
+in session a week or two before she returned to Miss Crawdon's; this
+fact was not altogether in her favor, and she found herself a little
+behind the girls in her class. But Martine was resolute, and when she
+once set herself at a task in genuine earnest, she was likely to go
+ahead with a will. So, for the first month she studied diligently; it
+was to her advantage that she had not many Boston acquaintances.</p>
+
+<p>Brenda, in her new position of guide and philosopher as well as friend,
+gave Martine much good advice. One day in a serious mood she expressed
+the hope that Martine would not think of ending her studies at Miss
+Crawdon's school.</p>
+
+<p>"It's astonishing," she said, "how many girls are beginning to fit for
+college, though when I was in school many of us thought my cousin Julia
+queer because she studied Greek and wished to go to Radcliffe; yet
+really she wasn't queer at all, only rather more interesting than most
+people."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like so much to see her, everyone seems so fond of her,"
+responded Martine. "When will she come back from Europe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not before summer, I think. She worked so hard at the Mansion School
+last year that we all hope she'll get all she can out of this journey.
+She's studying, of course, for she never can be perfectly idle; but I am
+glad to say that she has gone back to her music, for that is the thing
+she has the most talent for."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear," sighed Martine, "how delightful it must be to know that you
+have a talent for anything. It seems to me sometimes that I haven't a
+particle of talent. I can do several things passably well, but no one
+thing better than another. Mother thinks that the Boston air is going to
+develop some special talent of mine, but which or what, nobody knows.
+For my own part, as I said before, I am sure that I have no talent."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be so severe toward yourself," expostulated Brenda. "I am sure of
+one thing&mdash;you have a talent for being pleasant and amusing."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not quite sure that that is exactly a compliment."</p>
+
+<p>"But, really, I mean it to be one."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>A STRANGE MEETING</h3>
+
+
+<p>One Saturday morning after a rainy Friday, Martine looked out the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>"How refreshing to have a fine day again. Really, when it poured
+yesterday I thought it would rain forever, and I had such a funny
+adventure, Brenda Weston, that if you hadn't been out when I came home I
+should have told you on the spot. Adventures are like buckwheat cakes,
+so much better when they are fresh from the griddle, and this was a kind
+of frying-pan affair."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I don't understand. What was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Something that happened after the Rehearsal. I slipped away from
+Priscilla and her aunt and there was a great crowd going down the steps
+yesterday, so that of course I got separated from Priscilla and her
+aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that's a way you have," Brenda tried to speak severely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," sighed Martine, "Mrs. Tilworth is quite resigned now.
+Generally I separate myself from her only about every other week, but
+yesterday I wanted some soda water, and I knew she would never
+condescend to go into a drug shop or let Priscilla go with me. However,
+when I was once in the street the rain was falling in such torrents that
+I made a beeline for a Crosstown car that I saw coming. I had had some
+trouble in getting away from Mrs. Tilworth, for she kept not only her
+eagle eye, but her arm on me as long as she could; she meant to bring me
+home in a cab, but after all I managed to wriggle away. I don't know why
+I thought I ought to run for my car, but I did, and so did another girl,
+only the trouble was, that she was coming from the opposite direction.
+Of course you can see what happened. I didn't mean to knock her down,
+for she was shorter than I and we were both furious."</p>
+
+<p>"Because she was shorter than you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't see now why we were both so mad, only she knocked my hat
+off, that one with the light blue feathers, and it went sailing down the
+asphalt, and my umbrella jabbed into her face. 'You're terribly clumsy;
+I should think you might see what you're doing. You might have put my
+eye out,' I heard her say in the savagest kind of a tone. Just then I
+caught sight of my hat, and all I could do was to laugh and laugh, and
+she thought I was laughing at her, and turned her back on me in a
+regular frigid Boston way, holding her handkerchief to her eye."</p>
+
+<p>"How could so much happen while two people were getting on a car?"</p>
+
+<p>"Getting on a car! Naturally we missed the car. It didn't wait for us to
+settle matters. I suppose that was partly what made her so cross. But I
+wish you could have seen my hat when finally I picked it up."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad I didn't, if it was ruined. I have some responsibility for
+your clothes. No wonder Mrs. Tilworth tries to keep her eye on you!"</p>
+
+<p>"She has to try pretty hard, I can assure you," retorted Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"You should take things more seriously," rejoined Brenda. "In future
+please come home at least as far as Copley Square with her and
+Priscilla, but now&mdash;yes, now let us go in and look at the table." And
+with her hand in Brenda's arm, Martine led the way to the dining-room.
+The sight that met her eye there was indeed well worth seeing. The
+polished surface of the round mahogany table shone like a mirror. Covers
+were laid for nine and the centrepiece and doilies were embroidered in
+yellow. In a tall green glass in the middle were some large yellow
+chrysanthemums. The bonbons were in little gilded baskets and the china
+had yellow blossoms on a white ground.</p>
+
+<p>With housewifely pride Brenda adjusted the blinds. "Yes," she said, "I
+think that everything will go just as it should. Elinor Naylor, you see,
+is a sister of one of Arthur's best college friends. I should like to
+have asked her to dine, but the cousin she is staying with has an
+engagement for her this evening, and as Arthur will be away next week, a
+luncheon was the best thing I could manage."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's just the thing," cried Martine; "dinners are so stiff. With
+the boys coming in to take us out to Cambridge, a luncheon will be far
+jollier than any dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," replied Brenda, "and I wonder what this Elinor Naylor is
+like. She was out when I called, but she writes a beautiful note, and
+from what I have heard, I imagine that she is rather stately and
+elegant. But dear me, it's nearly twelve, and with luncheon at one we
+shall really have to hurry." So with a few last touches to the table
+Brenda and Martine went to their rooms, and long before one, Brenda,
+with some trepidation, was waiting in the library for the arrival of her
+special guest. The Harvard boys, however, were the first to
+arrive&mdash;Fritz Tomkins, and Martine's brother Lucian, and Robert Pringle,
+Lucian's classmate. Next came Priscilla and Amy, the former somewhat
+abashed at hearing the laughter from the little library, and wondering
+if she could be late, until Amy reassured her. Priscilla bore some
+good-natured chaffing from her host, who seeing her glance at her watch,
+could not forbear teasing her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I can read the workings of a guilty conscience. Here
+we've been waiting for you this long time. The goose is burning up in
+the oven&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't any goose in the house, Arthur, except you," protested
+Brenda.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry," began Priscilla, apologetically. "It was because Amy&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't throw the blame on another," protested Mr. Weston, solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean to blame her. We both thought it was earlier, and
+besides," fortified by a glance at her watch, Priscilla spoke with more
+decision, "my watch says 'a quarter before one.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what our clock says too," interposed Brenda, kindly. "Arthur was
+only teasing. Our guest, evidently, does not mean to be too early."</p>
+
+<p>"If she's like her brother, she's a punctilious person and will arrive
+promptly at five minutes before one."</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, the longer hand had just marked five minutes of one when
+Angelina announced "Miss Elinor Naylor." A minute or two later the young
+lady entered the room, and after the other introductions had been made,
+Martine's turn came last.</p>
+
+<p>As she greeted all the others, Miss Elinor Naylor had extended her hand
+very cordially, but when Brenda led Martine to her, her arm fell
+automatically to her side. Martine at the same time reddened deeply, and
+it was not often that Martine was so perceptibly embarrassed. Each girl,
+however, said a polite word or two, and in a few moments all went out to
+the little dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>After they were seated, the conversation at first was not general, and I
+am afraid that anyone who had overheard the words exchanged between any
+two speakers might have called what was said rather commonplace. In a
+short time, however, some question arose regarding a recent Yale
+victory, and at once Arthur and Fritz plunged into an ardent discussion
+in which, soon, all took part.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course," said Arthur; "it's more than six to one. I know you are
+all against me. I can't even depend on Brenda, and so, Miss Naylor, I
+must turn to you as my one supporter in this controversy."</p>
+
+<p>"You can depend on me," replied the guest; "whatever a Yale man says is
+bound to be true."</p>
+
+<p>"The real Yale spirit," commented Martine. "I didn't know that girls had
+it as well as their brothers."</p>
+
+<p>There was an unamiable tinge in Martine's tone that Brenda, too much
+occupied with things more important, did not notice. The more observant
+Arthur, however, had seen that Martine and Elinor had had little to say
+to each other, although they had been placed at table where they could
+easily have said more.</p>
+
+<p>"You two young things," he said at last, "by which I mean our visitors
+from Chicago and Philadelphia, look at each other as if you had met
+before and were afraid to speak until you had found the clew to the
+previous meeting. Is that the case?"</p>
+
+<p>Elinor was silent, but after a second Martine replied,</p>
+
+<p>"No, not exactly; that is&mdash;" Then Martine came to a pause suddenly and
+answered some question that Robert Pringle, on her right hand, had asked
+her. Any embarrassment that she or Elinor might have felt was speedily
+ended by something with which they personally had nothing to do.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that although Maggie had returned to her post of duty in
+Brenda's household, the latter had decided that things would move more
+smoothly with two waitresses, and so Angelina had been called in to
+assist at the little luncheon. All would have gone on well had not a
+spirit of emulation taken possession of the two helpers, so that each
+seemed anxious to reach Elinor first. Twice, as they entered through the
+swing door, one almost abreast of the other, although Brenda had
+previously given them their directions, they both started to serve the
+special guest with her oysters, and only Brenda's warning glance
+prevented Maggie's plate from being placed on top of the one that
+Angelina had already set before Elinor. This incident ruffled the
+spirits of the two waitresses, and when they entered with their cups of
+bouillon, each was determined to reach Elinor before the other. The
+result of their exertions might have been more disastrous. As it was,
+Elinor did not suffer, though Martine, looking up suddenly, expected to
+see Maggie's cup splash over Elinor's light gown. Luckily&mdash;for
+Elinor&mdash;Maggie lost her nerve soon enough to drop her bouillon cup to
+the floor, and though the crash of china and the splash of liquid on the
+polished floor startled all at the table, Elinor escaped a drenching.</p>
+
+<p>Although everyone knew that there had been an accident, everyone tried
+to look unconcerned. Maggie, crestfallen, gathered up the pieces;
+Angelina, with her head high, as if such a catastrophe could never occur
+to her, went back to the kitchen for other cups&mdash;and only Martine
+giggled.</p>
+
+<p>"Your best Dresden," murmured Amy to Brenda. The latter shook her head.
+Arthur glanced at her approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"And mistress of herself, though china fall," and at the hackneyed
+quotation, all smiled. Then the luncheon went on for two courses with
+only one waitress, for Maggie had betaken herself to her sure refuge, a
+flood of tears, and she returned only with the salad.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Mr. Weston, "since the ice is broken&mdash;I mean, the china&mdash;you
+can see how much livelier we are. During the oysters you were altogether
+too quiet for young people, and I wondered if this was wholly because
+your host is a Yale man. It's painful to me sometimes to find myself in
+the midst of a Harvard crowd."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we are magnanimous, and since you've become a Bostonian, we can
+forgive you Yale's recent football victory," replied Fritz.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I can confess that my cheering played a large part in gaining the
+victory. I try to be as modest as I can about it," responded Arthur
+Weston.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till the baseball season comes," interposed Robert Pringle, "and
+then you'll see another side of Yale."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we girls could have seen the game," cried Martine. "I can't see
+why they played it at New Haven; it was the one Saturday of the whole
+autumn when I had to stay in Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it was New Haven's turn to have the game; you know Harvard and
+Yale have them on their own fields every other year," said Elinor, as if
+explaining something that Martine did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed," began Martine, sarcastically; then, remembering that she
+was to a degree Elinor's hostess, she murmured in an aside to Robert,
+"As if I did not know that better than she."</p>
+
+<p>"It's strange," continued Elinor, in a placid tone, "that I know so
+little of Harvard; we generally rush through Boston on our way to Bar
+Harbor. Once we drove round, one hot summer day in vacation, but I can
+only remember a Memorial Hall and some queer old brick buildings."
+Possibly Elinor's adjectives did not please Martine, for the latter
+spoke up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"They're not queer, but historic; we think everything of Harvard here in
+Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, naturally," replied Elinor, in her most languid tone.</p>
+
+<p>"So say we all of us," cried Robert Pringle, while Amy and Fritz, who
+had been carrying on an animated discussion, looked up quickly. "What's
+wrong?" asked Fritz, innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, nothing," and Brenda, hastening to change the subject, asked
+suddenly, "Did you bring your automobile, Lucian?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. I only wish I could take you all to Cambridge in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Who's going in which?" asked Amy a little later, as they stood at the
+door, before which were Lucian's automobile and Robert Pringle's
+dogcart.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the automobile for me!" cried Martine, impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you go in the automobile?" asked Lucian politely, turning toward
+Elinor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, I should like to, thank you," replied the guest.</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla is coming in the dogcart with me," said Mr. Weston.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think I'll drive with Priscilla," added Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Such affection!" exclaimed Amy. "To give up the automobile because you
+prefer Priscilla's company!"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't that I like Rome more, but Cæsar less," rejoined Martine,
+garbling her quotation and looking toward the automobile, where Elinor
+had already taken her seat.</p>
+
+<p>Amy understood, and decided to give Martine a bit of advice at the first
+opportunity; for the present she and Brenda, with Fritz and Lucian, went
+in the automobile with Elinor, while Arthur and Robert Pringle
+accompanied Martine and Priscilla. The automobile speeded out through
+the Avenue across a corner of Brighton, that Elinor might have a good
+view of Soldiers Field. The dogcart proceeded over Harvard Bridge, and
+Martine tried to make Priscilla take a wager as to which vehicle would
+first reach the College Yard.</p>
+
+<p>When at last, however, they drew up before the Johnston Gate, Lucian and
+his party were waiting there, having left the automobile at the garage.</p>
+
+<p>"As we're going to explore these unknown regions on foot," said Lucian,
+"we can't allow you to drive haughtily around. There's a boy, Robert, to
+take your trap over to the stable. And so," he added, after Martine and
+Priscilla had alighted, "the elephant now goes round, the band begins to
+play; in other words, let the procession move in through the great gate.
+It was given by a Chicago man," he concluded. "That's why I'm proud to
+have you see it."</p>
+
+<p>After the gate had received its share of admiration, "Here are your
+'queer old brick buildings,' Miss Naylor," cried Fritz. "Every brick has
+a history, but I can't show you the college pump. It was blown up by
+anarchists, who probably meant to blow up one of the buildings."</p>
+
+<p>"How shocking!" said the sympathetic Elinor.</p>
+
+<p>"That they did not blow up the buildings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, but that they should behave so badly. I trust they were
+punished."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they were blown up too."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?"</p>
+
+<p>Although Elinor gazed directly at Fritz, there was no suspicion in her
+calm blue eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't she remind you of my cousin, Edith Blair?" whispered Martine to
+Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say that they look much alike."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Amy, please don't be literal, too. I mean she believes everything
+Fritz says, and between him and Mr. Weston she'll have a hard time."</p>
+
+<p>"And a strange opinion of Harvard," added Brenda, who had joined the two
+speakers.</p>
+
+<p>As the majority of the party, including Elinor, were now out of hearing,
+Brenda thought this a good time to ask Martine to explain her prejudice
+against Elinor, "who seems a pleasant and dignified girl," she
+concluded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's it; she's too dignified for her size, she ought to be
+bright and jolly and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But remember, please, that she's among strangers. You can't dislike her
+simply because she's quiet and dignified, so you might as well confess."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," replied Martine, "if I must, I must; but you'll
+understand, when I tell you that she's the girl who knocked my hat off."</p>
+
+<p>Amy looked puzzled and Brenda smiled as she responded, "Oh, the girl
+whom you tried to knock down with your umbrella. I suppose that is what
+has made that scratch on her face. No wonder she is on her dignity with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't have cared," retorted Martine, "if she hadn't refused to
+shake hands with me to-day. Surely everyone must have noticed that, and
+it's she who ought to apologize for destroying my third best hat."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as she recalled the sight of the hat with the pale blue feathers
+sliding along on the asphalt, Martine laughed heartily, and from that
+moment, in her mind, all was peace between her and Elinor.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean to get so far ahead," explained Lucian, as the others
+came up to the spot where he and Fritz were standing with Elinor. "But
+Miss Naylor is delighted with Holden."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," murmured Elinor, "it is the cunningest little building! I should
+like to pick it up and carry it off as a souvenir. It's too bad that it
+isn't the very oldest of all the buildings now standing."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Massachusetts has that honor, but Holden is the first to take its
+name from an English benefactor," said Fritz.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems too bad that nothing remains of the original Harvard, but the
+fire of 1764 swept them all away. Massachusetts is older than that, and
+so are one or two others now standing. The old buildings are not
+particularly beautiful," Robert Pringle apologized.</p>
+
+<p>"But they look like New England," interrupted Martine, "so practical and
+business-like and angular; that's why I like them."</p>
+
+<p>"There must be some interesting stories connected with them," said
+Elinor, sentimentally.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, stories, quantities of them. What would you like to hear?"
+asked Fritz, with an eagerness that showed he was ready to manufacture
+any tale or legend that Elinor might desire.</p>
+
+<p>"Did the college go on during the Revolution?" asked Elinor. "I know
+Washington had his headquarters in Cambridge."</p>
+
+<p>"The library was sent up to Andover for safety, and the students to the
+Concord Reformatory."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Fritz," protested Amy, "if you are not careful, Miss Naylor will
+believe you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked Fritz, innocently. "It's history that they were sent to
+Concord, and why not to the Reformatory? They must have needed it, if
+they were like some of the present students, and they would have been
+sent there surely had Concord possessed a reformatory in those benighted
+years."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this Lucian insisted that Miss Naylor must accept him only as her
+Harvard guide; otherwise she would get an utterly wrong impression.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me tell you," he began, "about the squirrels. Really, they are of
+more consequence than most other dwellers in the Yard. They will eat
+anything, from mushrooms to pâté de foie gras, and although it's rather
+expensive, we try to give them whatever they demand. The tree trunks
+here are probably filled with treasures that they have hidden away; some
+of them even are fond of books, and I heard of one who had an intimate
+acquaintance with Greek roots. No nuts are too hard for them to crack;
+they are real philosophers, and here," he cried as he threw some acorns
+on the grass, "they are so tame one doesn't have even to throw salt on
+their tails to catch them."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this, with a deft movement, he picked up a bushy-tailed gray
+squirrel that had been attracted by the bait he had thrown down, and as
+he held it toward Elinor, "Here," he exclaimed, "if you wish a souvenir
+of Harvard, is the real thing," and extending his arm, he pressed the
+little creature's head against Elinor's cheek. Then, to everyone's
+surprise, Elinor Naylor, the dignified Miss Elinor Naylor of
+Philadelphia, screamed loudly, and turning her back on Lucian, ran up to
+Martine, who happened to be nearest her, and laid her head on Martine's
+arm, crying loudly, "Take it away, take it away, it's just like a big
+rat."</p>
+
+<p>Lucian, decidedly crestfallen at this little episode, let the squirrel
+whisk itself away, while he walked up to Elinor to offer his apologies.
+In his heart he was saying, "Thank heaven that Martine has some nerve,"
+and Martine herself, by a sudden revulsion of feeling, at once became
+the champion of the girl she had recently been criticising.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor accepted Lucian's apologies very graciously. "I know that I am
+foolish," she said, "but I never have liked those little creepy animals;
+they all seem to be like rats and mice, except at a distance."</p>
+
+<p>"You were certainly very thoughtless, Lucian." Martine spoke in a tone
+of deep reproof, and during the remainder of their walk she had Elinor
+hanging on her arm.</p>
+
+<p>The suite of rooms occupied by Lucian and Robert Pringle was in a
+dormitory outside the Yard, in the neighborhood of the old ballground,
+Jarvis Field. To reach it the party went across the Memorial Delta, past
+the statue of John Harvard&mdash;concerning which the boys had various
+strange tales to tell&mdash;and along a quiet street on which were several
+other dormitories.</p>
+
+<p>"How delightful! This suite is much more attractive than Joe's rooms at
+Yale, as I remember them," cried Elinor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," sighed Arthur Weston, "Joe and I were not sybarites. We went in
+for hard work, plain living, and high thinking," and he looked
+reproachfully toward Lucian and Robert.</p>
+
+<p>"We work too, I can assure you," insisted Robert. "Of course we had to
+furnish up a little."</p>
+
+<p>"Work! I should say so," added Lucian. "Don't judge us by our
+surroundings."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll try not to," retorted Martine, "for this tea-table is almost too
+ladylike for two tall boys like you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, when we're alone we never look at the tea-table. We fold it up and
+keep it in the closet. To-day we brought it out only for you girls," and
+Lucian bowed profoundly to his guests.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that your belongings are rather frivolous," and Brenda took the
+little silver tea caddy in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I picked that up in Holland; it's a mere trifle," cried Robert.</p>
+
+<p>"These things are wasted on boys," added Martine, examining the little
+coffee spoons that lay on the tray.</p>
+
+<p>Amy, walking round the room, gazed critically at the two or three
+water-color sketches and the fine photographs hanging on the walls, and
+she thought that the easy-chairs, the broad divan, and all the other
+handsome belongings were really too elaborate for the rooms of boys
+under twenty.</p>
+
+<p>"But there's one good thing," she said aloud; "you have plenty of books,
+Lucian, and you have made an excellent choice in many cases."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Lucian, "thanks to Fritz, our library has made a good
+beginning; he took it in hand last spring, and what do you think? Fritz
+says that if it hadn't been for you, he couldn't have helped us half as
+well. So, Miss Amy Redmond, when you praise our library, indirectly you
+praise yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Before their hour in Lucian's room was over, few things in the
+sitting-room had escaped the scrutiny of the three younger girls. They
+handled the steins on the mantelpiece, read the certificates of
+membership in various clubs and athletic societies, and admired the
+photographs of all, and finally Martine struck up a few chords on the
+piano, which Lucian and Robert recognizing, accompanied with a jolly
+college song. At Lucian's request Priscilla made tea, and although,
+while the water was boiling, she wondered whether she would remember
+just what proportion of tea should be used for each cup of water, she
+passed through the ordeal successfully and was highly praised for her
+skill.</p>
+
+<p>When the boys indiscreetly offered Elinor her choice among the sights
+they might see before their return to the city, Elinor too promptly
+chose the Botanic Garden. In spite of their sophomorific air of worldly
+wisdom, Robert and Lucian could not quite conceal their dismay at this
+suggestion, especially as she expressed a desire to see the Shakespeare
+garden, of which they knew nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"In that case I fear that you will have to lose the glass flowers, as
+the garden is in just the opposite direction," said Lucian, politely.</p>
+
+<p>"The glass flowers!" cried Elinor, perceiving that her former suggestion
+had not been received with favor. "Why, of course I would much rather
+see the glass flowers." And so the whole party set out toward the great
+museum.</p>
+
+<p>"Not to throw cold water on the efforts of Lucian to guide you to the
+best that Cambridge offers," said Fritz, "I must tell you that a visit
+to the glass flowers is almost commonplace. They share with tourists
+from afar the attraction of Bunker Hill; in the minds of many not to
+have seen the glass flowers is not to have seen Cambridge. If you wish
+to be original, pass them by."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," replied Elinor; "but really I never have cared especially
+to be original."</p>
+
+<p>Later, after Elinor had seen not only the glass flowers but many of the
+other treasures in the great museum, she admitted that even Yale had
+little better to offer. From the museum the party went on to Memorial
+Hall.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity that you cannot wait a little longer, it would be such fun
+to see the students at dinner," sighed Martine, for whom human nature
+always had more interest than tablets and pictures.</p>
+
+<p>"I should love to stay, but I promised to be at my cousin's before six.
+Yet there is so much to see here in Memorial, these windows and
+portraits are so fascinating, that it's very hard to go away without
+studying them all more carefully."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor had barely time for a glance at the portraits and the stained
+glass windows in the great hall.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the finest hall I ever saw," said the girl from Philadelphia; "I
+like everything about it except&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Except what? This is an age of improvements, and if you'll just mention
+what you have in mind, so far as Lucian and I can carry out your
+suggestion it shall be accomplished," and Robert Pringle bowed low to
+Elinor. Elinor seemed so embarrassed by this mock courtesy that Martine
+hastened to her rescue. The older members of the party were out of
+hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"You are as great a tease now as Lucian. I could mention dozens of
+things that could be done to improve Memorial Hall, handsome as it is."
+Martine cast about in her mind for something to strengthen her
+assertion. Up to this moment she had never realized any special
+imperfection in the great building. But now&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"For example!" she exclaimed emphatically, "just look at these
+dining-tables in a hall like this. It's casting your pearls before
+swine. They ought to be taken away."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm glad that Robert and I board at a club table. I should hate
+to be included in your group of swine, whom you wish to have taken
+away&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lucian!"</p>
+
+<p>It was now Elinor's turn to come to Martine's rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that is just what I meant. I think that the tables ought to be
+taken away. It seems a pity that Memorial Hall should be a mere
+dining-room. I should like to see it quite clear of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must come here Class Day. Can't you wait for ours? I'll show
+you Memorial Hall as it should be&mdash;filled with youth and beauty dancing,
+and not a tablecloth in sight."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it doesn't seem the place for dancing either," and Elinor gazed
+solemnly at one of the class windows, on which were portrayed
+Epaminondas and Sir Philip Sidney, as examples of valor.</p>
+
+<p>"You must remember, Miss Naylor, that in the long waits between courses,
+the undergraduates who board here have a fine chance to study these
+windows, with their lessons of patriotism and valor. This food for
+reflection goes a long way toward making them forget the real nature of
+the food served here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Robert! Remember you are talking to a Yale girl, and not an
+ingenuous Harvard maiden. We must not have derogatory reports get
+abroad."</p>
+
+<p>But Elinor and Martine had no intention of wasting their time listening
+to Robert's nonsense, and were now pushing through the doors into the
+transept.</p>
+
+<p>"The real Memorial is here," said Elinor, reverently, passing from one
+tablet to another, on which were inscribed the names of those Harvard
+men who fell in the Civil War.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a>
+<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"'The real Memorial is here,' said Elinor, reverently,
+passing from one tablet to another."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>"A short life hath Nature given to man, but the remembrance of a life
+nobly rendered up is eternal!" she murmured, translating one of the
+inscriptions on the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" sighed Martine. "How wonderful that you can translate Latin at
+sight! I have taken a tremendous fancy to Latin, but now I'm only in the
+beginning of Virgil, and I have to look up every other word, and you are
+not much older than I."</p>
+
+<p>In her admiration for Elinor's ability, she wondered if Elinor had
+realized the prejudice she had felt when they started on their drive.
+How strange that in a few hours her feeling toward anyone should change
+so completely.</p>
+
+<p>Lucian and Robert, slightly bored by the girls' interest in the
+inscriptions, walked to the door, where they almost ran into Brenda,
+Fritz, and the rest of the party, who had been strolling through the
+Yard.</p>
+
+<p>"Your vehicles are here!" cried Fritz. "They are just around the
+corner&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough," responded Lucian. "It's rather boresome taking visitors
+around Memorial&mdash;Oh, they won't hear!" he concluded, as Brenda raised a
+warning finger. "Come, Martine," he cried in a louder voice, "we are all
+waiting."</p>
+
+<p>Reluctantly Elinor and Martine turned toward the others. Each had just
+made the discovery that her companion was a very entertaining girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's going in the auto?" asked Lucian.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Elinor and I, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>Martine was some distance ahead of Elinor.</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought that was why you scorned the auto coming out to
+Cambridge&mdash;because you didn't wish to ride with Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, everything is changed now. She is one of the most charming girls."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she has forgiven you for knocking her down and hitting her with
+your umbrella?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we haven't even spoken of it, though she knows that I know that
+she&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, girls, tumble in!" cried Lucian, and Lucian had so many
+remarkable Harvard tales to tell as they speeded along that neither had
+time to refer to the rainy-day episode and their first strange meeting.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>PRISCILLA'S PRIDE</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Why, I never lose my temper! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"That <i>is</i> what I mean. You seldom lose your temper; I should hardly say
+'never.' Neither does Priscilla."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, why won't she let me pay for the photographs?" Martine
+looked keenly at Amy, who had been spending an hour with her that
+afternoon, as if she expected to read the answer in her friend's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you Priscilla's reasons, but her spirit of independence."</p>
+
+<p>"Spirit of independence! Boys of '76! How tired I am of American
+history! Priscilla is just like one of her own Pilgrim Fathers&mdash;only
+more so. Probably any one of them would have let a friend pay for one of
+those neat silhouettes, especially if the friend had insisted on having
+it made, or taken, or cut, or whatever it was that they did to make
+silhouettes; but Priscilla is a great deal harder than Plymouth Rock,
+and that is saying no little."</p>
+
+<p>"All the same, you and Priscilla will have to settle this affair for
+yourselves," and rising from her seat, after a few words of farewell,
+Amy left Martine to reflect on the matter they had been discussing.</p>
+
+<p>Now the dispute between Priscilla and Martine, if worth dignifying by so
+serious a name, was not of a kind likely to make lasting trouble between
+friends. For some time Martine had been teasing Priscilla to have her
+photograph taken, and Priscilla had never given a decided answer. At
+last one day, as they passed a fashionable gallery, Martine had insisted
+that the two should go in merely to look at samples of the
+photographer's work. On the impulse Martine decided that it would be
+great fun for them to be taken together. Vainly Priscilla protested that
+her costume was not suitable, that she didn't feel in the mood for
+sitting; Martine carried her point and two or three negatives were made
+of Priscilla and Martine sitting or standing, side by side. Then two or
+three were made of the two girls, each by herself. When the proofs were
+sent home, the photographs of Priscilla were exceedingly good. But
+Priscilla hesitating about ordering the finished pictures, she did not
+give the whole reason to Martine. Her hesitation came from the fact that
+the artist was expensive and that she had already exceeded her allowance
+for Christmas presents.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think that I can really afford them," she said at last to
+Martine one day, when the latter asked her if she had made her choice
+among the negatives. "I should simply love," she added, "to have some
+for my mother and a few of my relations Christmas, but I shall have to
+wait a little before deciding."</p>
+
+<p>Yet while she spoke she retained in her hand one proof that seemed to
+meet her approval.</p>
+
+<p>"Then this is the one you prefer?" said Martine, taking it gently in her
+own hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I haven't had a photograph since I was a small girl, but I am sure
+that mother would be delighted with this one."</p>
+
+<p>A week later a box came by mail to Priscilla. Opening it she found not
+only a half dozen of the photographs in which she and Martine were taken
+together, but also a dozen of the single heads, finished in the most
+expensive style. For a moment she was rather upset by the packet. "Of
+course there's some mistake," she said. "The man must have thought that
+I meant to give an order like Martine's, but I can never in the world
+afford these, and mother would be displeased with me for ordering them.
+There is only one thing&mdash;I'm sure to have some money given me at
+Christmas, and I can use some, or all of it, to pay this bill."</p>
+
+<p>No bill was contained in the package, and after a few days, when
+Priscilla went to the photographer's to ask for it, she was told that it
+was already paid. Then she sought Martine, who did not deny that she had
+paid the bill.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it was the proper thing for me to do," she said. "It was I who had
+the photographs taken, and I who ordered them finished. I can't see that
+you have much to do with the matter now, except to send the photographs
+as Christmas cards. I can tell you they'll go like hot cakes, for they
+are just as good as they can be."</p>
+
+<p>But Priscilla was firm, and though Martine tried to be firmer, she could
+not get her friend to promise to accept the pictures as a gift.</p>
+
+<p>"They are really not a gift, either," urged Martine, "for I myself
+wanted to be in a group with you, and you stood there only to oblige me;
+so certainly you've earned something for your trouble, and as to the
+single heads, I wanted a separate picture of you, and while the
+photographer was about it, it didn't cost much more for a dozen than for
+one."</p>
+
+<p>Again Priscilla presented her side, adding only that she must ask
+Martine to wait until after Christmas for the sum she had spent.</p>
+
+<p>"If I didn't like the photographs," she concluded, "the whole thing
+would be different; but I do like them, and I can send them away as
+Christmas gifts, and so I must pay the bill."</p>
+
+<p>"But it came to me."</p>
+
+<p>"For my photographs?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, for mine; I had them taken. They wouldn't have been printed if I
+hadn't ordered them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but mine are mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course they are yours&mdash;at least all that were sent to your
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't bear to be obliged to anyone else for them."</p>
+
+<p>"That's one of your greatest faults, Priscilla; you hate to be obliged
+to anybody for anything."</p>
+
+<p>So for the present the discussion was dropped, though each friend was
+determined that in the end she would carry her own point.</p>
+
+<p>This steadfast holding to her purpose was what Martine called
+Priscilla's "ill-temper," in describing the affair to Amy. Though she
+inwardly approved of her friend's independence, she felt that after she
+had approved of it Priscilla ought then to be ready to yield to her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange," she said, "that I can never get Priscilla to accept
+anything from me. 'Pride goeth before destruction,' and that will be the
+way with Priscilla. Something will surely happen to her if she keeps on
+like this."</p>
+
+<p>In the early summer, a few months before, Priscilla and Martine had
+first become really acquainted, when as travelling companions they made
+a journey with Amy and her mother. For some time the two seemed far from
+congenial; each looked at life from a very different standpoint.
+Priscilla, brought up rather strictly and economically, prided herself,
+perhaps unduly, on her unworldliness, and found it hard to understand
+the extravagant, fun-loving Martine. But each girl at last accepted the
+other's good qualities, and before they had left Canadian soil the two
+had begun to be good friends. When Martine's plans were finally settled,
+Priscilla was delighted that she and the young Chicagoan were to be at
+the same school.</p>
+
+<p>Now Priscilla, although for a long time she had spent several weeks of
+each year in Boston with her aunt, Mrs. Tilworth, had made few friends
+among the girls of her own age whose parents her mother or her aunt
+knew. Her natural shyness stood in her way when they came to call on
+her, and when she returned their calls she progressed no further.</p>
+
+<p>Often she was invited to their parties, and when she could not escape
+it, she accepted their invitations. Though she took part in their games
+in a quiet way, no one paid much attention to the pale little girl who
+always seemed ill at ease.</p>
+
+<p>One awful day Mrs. Tilworth decided that she must give a party for
+Priscilla; in vain Priscilla protested that she hated parties. The
+invitations were written and sent out, and on the appointed afternoon
+Priscilla, in a ruffled muslin gown, had to stand beside her aunt to
+receive her guests. When she had safely passed through this ordeal she
+slipped away to a corner, where she sat for a while looking on. When she
+found that no one tried to draw her out, she managed to slip still
+farther away. "They don't need me," she murmured. Later, when they
+looked for her, that she might take her place at the head of the
+table&mdash;for it was a children's party, with a sit-down supper at six
+o'clock&mdash;there was a great uproar when she could not be found. At last
+two or three of the children went to Priscilla's room, and entering
+without knocking, they saw her seated in an easy-chair by the droplight
+on the little centre table. She was so engrossed in the book she was
+reading that at first she did not hear them, and when one of them
+snatched the volume out of her hand to read the title, they discovered
+that it was a little history of Mary Queen of Scots.</p>
+
+<p>"Those children tired me," she explained later to her aunt. "They played
+so hard, and I just thought I'd go upstairs and read for a while."</p>
+
+<p>Somehow the story got out. Mrs. Tilworth repeated it to one of the older
+girls, and for a long time Priscilla was called behind her back "Mary
+Queen of Scots," only someone said, "She will never lose her head, her
+neck is so stiff."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, when Brenda told her of this story, could not help laughing, in
+spite of her desire to be loyal to her friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla is still stiff-necked," she said, "but already since she's
+had my acquaintance she's been forced to unbend a little, and before
+another summer comes round her education will be much further advanced."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla was conscious of her own shyness, and often envied those girls
+who seemed to have so much fun together.</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't expect Priscilla to be very cheerful while she lives with
+Mrs. Tilworth; the house is really gloomy; it has plenty of windows, but
+the curtains are always pulled down, and the furniture is so heavy and
+primly arranged that it naturally affects Priscilla's disposition."</p>
+
+<p>What Martine said was true to a great extent. Mrs. Tilworth's house was
+halfway up the hill, not so very far from the Mansion School, but its
+whole aspect, inside and out, was far less attractive than Mrs.
+DuLaunuy's. It was furnished in the heavy style of about fifty years
+ago, lacking the elegance of real antiquity. Priscilla's room was large
+and overfurnished, with its great black walnut bedstead and marble-top
+table and heavy rocking-chairs. But it wasn't exactly a young girl's
+room, and the gilt-framed steel engravings on the wall gave her no
+inspiration for study or work. Secretly she envied Martine her cheerful
+room in Brenda's apartment, with its couch covered in pink and white
+cretonne, its white enamelled dressing-table and oval mirror, brass
+bedstead, and rattan chairs cushioned to match the divan. She did not
+express her envy of these pretty belongings, lest she should appear
+ungrateful to Mrs. Tilworth; for she knew that her aunt wished her to be
+comfortable and happy, according to her own standard of comfort and
+happiness. Indeed most people who knew Mrs. Tilworth thought Priscilla
+exceedingly fortunate in having so good a home offered her at a time
+when her mother was especially burdened with care.</p>
+
+<p>Although Mrs. Tilworth had never expressed herself on the subject,
+Martine believed that she did not approve of persons who lived in
+apartments. The little original prejudice that she had against Martine
+as an outsider was probably somewhat stronger from this fact.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think," she had said to Priscilla, "that Mrs. Stratford must
+have been greatly disappointed that Mrs. Montgomery could not take
+Martine this winter; it would have been so much better for her to live
+in a house."</p>
+
+<p>"But an apartment is just as pleasant," Priscilla had responded, "and
+it's a fine thing that Brenda Weston was able to take her. Brenda lives
+in a flat because it's more economical."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say 'flat'; you've learned that from Martine; in Boston we always
+say 'apartment.' But an apartment on the Avenue is not economical, my
+dear child. A whole house on Chestnut Street would cost no more, and
+though I would not make anyone else's business my own, I can't
+understand how anyone who might live in a house can prefer a few rooms
+high up in the air."</p>
+
+<p>"It's very homelike there," sighed Priscilla, casting a glance around
+the large, gloomy dining-room, where they sat at dinner. "I always enjoy
+myself at Brenda's&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tilworth, noticing the sigh, looked sharply at her niece. "I hope
+you are perfectly happy with me," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, indeed I am; you are certainly very kind."</p>
+
+<p>Yet even as she spoke, Priscilla realized that in some ways she wasn't
+benefiting as she should from her aunt's kindness, and she began to
+wonder if the fault might not lie a little with herself.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the discussion about the photographs, Priscilla came to
+school with a letter in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"It's from Eunice," she said, as she and Martine sat together near a
+window, a quarter of an hour before the time for the school to begin.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, read me what she says," urged Martine. "Her letters are always
+entertaining, because they are so old-fashioned."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice Airton was a young girl near Priscilla's age, whose acquaintance
+Mrs. Redmond and her party had made during their stay in Annapolis. She
+was especially Priscilla's friend, while her brother Balfour was
+Martine's ideal of an independent college boy; and it was rather because
+she hoped to hear some news of Balfour that Martine urged Priscilla to
+read the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to say," wrote Eunice, "that I hardly think it will be
+possible for me to go to college. It will be very difficult for me to
+overcome the prejudices of my mother, who still does not think it is
+quite proper for a girl to have the same education as a man. But the
+fact that you are planning to go to college will have much weight with
+her, for, as you perhaps know, she thinks you quite a model and says
+that she never can realize that you are an American."</p>
+
+<p>Martine smiled at this expression of Mrs. Airton's opinion, which indeed
+she had heard more than once before. "Eunice," she said to Priscilla,
+"is too polite to repeat all that her mother said in speaking of you.
+She probably contrasted you with me, whom, I am sure, she considers the
+typical Yankee girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, of course not," protested Priscilla, continuing to read
+Eunice's letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Before I tell you of any of my own personal affairs, I must mention
+something that will interest you more deeply. There is an Acadian family
+living in Annapolis, and whom do you suppose they have had visiting them
+lately? Why, the little Yvonne, the blind girl, of whom I have heard you
+speak, who is the special protégée, if I remember, of Miss Stratford. It
+is indeed due to her kindness, I understand, that Yvonne has been able
+to make this journey from Meteghan, and I am told that she is to stay
+here three months under the care of a physician who thinks that he can
+help her eyes. She is also to take lessons on the piano, as those who
+are interested in her think that it is better for her to let her voice
+rest for the present, but to play the piano well enough to accompany her
+songs will some time be a great advantage to her."</p>
+
+<p>"There," exclaimed Martine, excitedly, "that's a fine idea! I wonder who
+suggested it to the Babets. It isn't likely that the doctor can do so
+very much for her eyes, but it will be splendid for her to get a start
+in music. When I see papa at Christmas I intend to persuade him to have
+Yvonne brought to Boston for a year."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that would be a great expense," said Priscilla, "and someone would
+have to take care of her."</p>
+
+<p>"That could be managed easily enough, if I can only get papa thoroughly
+interested."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he has already done his part, for it's through the money he
+gave you for Yvonne that she is able to be in Annapolis now."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder how Eunice used her money; did she ever tell you, Priscilla?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Priscilla; "but she may have helped her mother about the
+mortgage, and perhaps she may have put a little aside for a college
+nest-egg. She is so practical."</p>
+
+<p>"It's wonderful&mdash;isn't it, Priscilla?&mdash;that you should have met a girl
+you approve of so thoroughly in a corner of the world that isn't
+Plymouth or even Boston."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla, as she folded up her letter, looked questioningly at Martine.
+There was something that she did not quite understand in Martine's
+attitude toward Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever question she had in mind remained for the time unspoken. It was
+time for school to begin, and they hurried to their places.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>CHANGES</h3>
+
+
+<p>The first week in December a strange thing happened. Brenda had received
+a letter with a Washington postmark, yet this in itself was not
+remarkable. Such letters came to her daily, for Arthur had gone to
+Washington on business a day or two after the trip to Harvard. But her
+manner, as she rapidly scanned this particular letter, was so unusual
+that Martine, watching her, knew that it brought news out of the
+ordinary.</p>
+
+<p>The slight frown on Brenda's face deepened as she read the four or five
+pages, and when she had finished she flung the letter down on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;it seems too bad," she sighed, in response to Martine's look of
+surprise. "Just as we are settled, to have to give everything up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Give up&mdash;what?" asked the puzzled Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Why this&mdash;everything&mdash;our apartment&mdash;Boston&mdash;oh, dear&mdash;of course I knew
+it might come&mdash;but I hoped next year."</p>
+
+<p>As Brenda finished there were tears in her eyes, and still Martine did
+not wholly understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I am sorry," said Martine, "since it's something that
+troubles you. But would you please tell me what it is all about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;it's Arthur's business," she explained. "A promotion that he has
+expected has come. It took him some time to find out what he really
+could do after he left college. The office in San Francisco is more
+important just now than the one in Boston. He is needed there for six
+months&mdash;and we must go at once&mdash;yes," she concluded, looking at the
+letter a second time. "We must be there by the first of January. Well,
+fortunately, we need not give up this apartment, for we have a two
+years' lease, and it wouldn't be worth while to sublet it, as we may
+return in six months. So you see, my dear, that things might be worse. I
+shall have to pack only my clothes and small belongings, and after all,
+it will be rather fun to see a new corner of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"What you say sounds practical&mdash;except&mdash;you seem to have forgotten
+<i>me</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you poor child, how selfish I am! Why you could just stay on here
+with the cook and Maggie, or Angelina, if you prefer her."</p>
+
+<p>"Brenda Weston! You know that would never do! I mean other people would
+say it would never do."</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, child, don't worry," said Brenda, assuming her most
+elderly manner. "I will write to your mother, and between us something
+delightful will be arranged. What a shame you are in school," she
+concluded, forgetting for the moment her position as Martine's temporary
+guardian. "Except for that you might go to San Francisco, or even travel
+with your mother."</p>
+
+<p>"I am growing fond of school," replied Martine, as she returned to her
+book. "Even to go to California I wouldn't give it up, but if it's
+really settled that you are going, I must write home at once."</p>
+
+<p>In a few days Brenda and Martine both received answers to their letters
+to Mrs. Stratford. To Martine what her mother wrote was even more
+surprising than Brenda's change of plans.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father has to go to South America on very important business. It
+is too long a journey for me, although I am much stronger than a year
+ago. We think the wisest plan would be for me to go to Boston to be near
+you and Lucian, and I am writing Mrs. Weston to see if we may not engage
+her apartment for the next six months."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah!" cried Martine, turning to Brenda, who had just finished
+reading the letter Mrs. Stratford had written her. "Of course you'll say
+'yes.' Oh, how perfectly happy I shall be to have mother with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will say 'yes.' But please spare my feelings; if you are
+too happy you will forget to miss me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never, never; but then mother must be feeling much stronger, and I
+have seen her so little the past few years. She has been under the
+doctor's care or travelling, and our Chicago house has been closed so
+long, and hotels are so unhomelike. But now, with this apartment to
+ourselves, and Lucian coming in from college&mdash;oh! it will be
+delightful."</p>
+
+<p>Again Brenda protested that Martine was unfeeling in counting her out so
+completely.</p>
+
+<p>"But I can't count you in, when you calmly and deliberately plan to turn
+your back on Boston and me. You know that I shall miss you, but to have
+mother here&mdash;of course that makes all the difference in the world."</p>
+
+<p>For the Christmas holidays Lucian and Martine joined Mr. and Mrs.
+Stratford in New York. A day or two after Christmas, Mr. Stratford
+sailed for England, whence he was to embark for South America. Martine
+could but notice that the sadness that her father showed during these
+last days seemed due to something besides the fact that he was to be
+absent from his family for a few months. He had often before gone on
+long journeys, but usually he made an effort to have his departure
+particularly cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father is worried," her mother said; "his business is not going
+just as it should. He hopes that this visit to South America will
+straighten out some things. If it does not&mdash;well, we needn't talk of the
+future now. I am glad that we are all together this Christmas. You and
+Lucian must do all you can to divert your father, he has so much to
+trouble him."</p>
+
+<p>Martine took this advice to heart, and though Mr. Stratford spent some
+hours each day downtown, after luncheon she always insisted that he must
+entertain her. By this she meant that she must entertain him, and in
+consequence she thought out all kinds of odd ways of amusing him. One
+day they sailed on the Ferry to Staten Island to visit Sailors' Snug
+Harbor. Another afternoon they went up to Van Cortland Park to see the
+old Van Cortland house. One day they wandered for an hour in the Bowery,
+but Martine admitted that this wasn't as entertaining an expedition as
+she had imagined it would be from the accounts she had read of it. The
+shops on the whole seemed commonplace, and the crowded cross-streets of
+the East Side looked far more interesting, as she caught glimpses of
+them in passing.</p>
+
+<p>She had to let these glimpses satisfy her, as she had promised her
+mother not to explore any out-of-the-way corners of the tenement
+district; and so obedient was she in this that she would not even go
+inside a certain Bowery pawnshop in whose windows she saw a fascinating
+little guitar. Instead she urged her father to price it, and when he
+came outside with it under his arm she accepted it with delight.</p>
+
+<p>"It's neither a violin nor a guitar," Mr. Stratford explained, "but the
+little instrument that the Sandwich Islanders love."</p>
+
+<p>Martine was delighted by this account of her new treasure, and she
+carried it home with great pride. But unconventional expeditions were
+not the only pleasures that Martine shared with her father. One day Mrs.
+Stratford drove with them through the Park up beyond Riverside and
+Grant's tomb. Two or three afternoons they spent with relatives, of whom
+Mr. Stratford had a number in New York. Lucian was little with his
+father during the holidays. Classmates at Ardsley and Trenton and
+Germantown claimed short visits from him. But on Christmas Day he joined
+his parents at the small uptown hotel where they were staying.</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," he said as they sat at breakfast, "Elinor Naylor was at the
+Harbins' dance night before last in Germantown. She took a lot of
+trouble to introduce me to some of her best friends just because I was
+your brother. I tell you what&mdash;you made a great impression on her."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly did&mdash;the first time we met," responded Martine, smiling,
+and Lucian did not quite understand, because his sister had never really
+explained the circumstances under which she and Elinor had first met.
+With slight urging from Martine, however, Lucian plunged into a
+description of the Harbins' dance, and though boy-like he could not
+describe what Elinor wore, he declared that whatever it was it just
+suited her, and that she certainly was a regular peach, "and the
+funniest thing about it is that you don't think about her being pretty
+when you first see her. It's only when you begin to remember her that
+you realize how good-looking she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Priscilla," sighed Martine in mock sorrow, "I fear her nose is out
+of joint."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no&mdash;at least, what do you mean?" asked Lucian, and at this moment
+the entrance of Mr. and Mrs. Stratford put an end to their fun.</p>
+
+<p>The Christmas breakfast, in spite of Martine's efforts, passed off
+rather quietly. Her parents both seemed sad and disinclined to talk.
+Even the unobservant Lucian at last noticed this and tried to turn the
+conversation into cheerful and impersonal channels, with poor success.
+Their Christmas dinner was at the house of an elderly cousin of the
+Stratfords in Washington Square. The guests were nearly all relatives of
+Martine's father, and the young visitor received abundant criticism,
+favorable or unfavorable, according to the dispositions of the various
+critics.</p>
+
+<p>But even those who thought Martine a little forward or too
+self-possessed for a girl of her age could but admire her frank, cheery
+manner and the consideration that she constantly showed for older
+people. The less conservative found her charming and complimented her on
+her clever way of telling a story. Some said she looked like her father,
+some like her mother, and the oldest cousin of them all, taking her
+aside said, "You are just like your father's mother when she was your
+age. She had your coloring and your bright brown eyes. I knew her well
+when I was a girl. She was said to be the image of her French
+grandmother, and I can wish you nothing better than to grow up like
+her," and as the old lady kissed her Martine felt her own eyes
+moistening.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad that I have some French blood in my veins," she said a little
+later; "the Huguenots were so wonderful. I wish that papa and I had time
+to go up to New Rochelle, for although I believe there's little left
+there of the Huguenots now except the name, I should like to see the
+place because my forefathers lived there."</p>
+
+<p>Lucian found the Washington-Square dinner rather a bore, although he
+managed to conceal his feelings until with his family he was back at the
+hotel.</p>
+
+<p>"They might have asked at least one girl near my age," Lucian said. "No
+wonder you were such a belle, Martine, among all those antiquities," a
+compliment that Martine refused to accept until Lucian admitted that she
+possessed qualities that would make her popular even in a younger crowd.</p>
+
+<p>One of Martine's Christmas gifts did not surprise her,&mdash;a complete set
+of brushes, mirror and little boxes to replace those she had lost in the
+Windsor fire. This did, however, surprise Lucian, who knew that his
+father had promised Martine a full set of silver.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how is this?" he asked, as Martine spread out her new possessions
+before him on a table. "Is plain black wood more in fashion than silver?
+It must be, or you wouldn't have it."</p>
+
+<p>"But this is pretty; don't you think so?" asked Martine, always anxious
+for her brother's approval.</p>
+
+<p>"It's rather neat, with your initial in silver, but it couldn't have
+cost as much as the other, and I thought you always preferred the most
+expensive things." For the moment Martine did not explain that her
+preference was still for the silver, but that she had chosen the other
+because of a chance word or two from her mother on her tendency toward
+extravagance.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you have generally whatever you wish, Martine, and your father
+and I generally give you what you ask. You are seldom unreasonable,
+although we may have been overindulgent. For now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here Mrs. Stratford broke off suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"But now, mamma, are things very different? I know we usually stay at a
+larger hotel, and still&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, dear. Things are not very different. Perhaps they will not be.
+Yet your father has so much care now that you will surely do your best
+to relieve him from needless burdens."</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, when Mr. Stratford took Martine downtown to choose her
+present, she could not be shaken from her determination to have
+something simpler than silver.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be so much better in case I am caught in another fire, papa.
+Things that are burnt up are gone forever, and as I seem to be a rather
+unlucky person, this plainer set is much better&mdash;and besides I like it,
+papa."</p>
+
+<p>In the end it seemed to Martine that Mr. Stratford was rather pleased by
+her choice, for when the matter was decided he patted her hand gently as
+he slipped it within his arm, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"After all, daughter, you are getting to be a very sensible girl. I have
+noticed a great change within the past year."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you, papa. Do you really think I've improved? Then it's
+partly on account of the company I have kept. I am sure of that."</p>
+
+<p>"I am pleased that you are on the right track, and when I am far from
+you, as I shall be now for some time, it will be a great satisfaction to
+think that you are doing your best."</p>
+
+<p>A few days later Martine and Lucian, with their mother, stood on the
+dock watching the receding ocean-liner that was carrying Mr. Stratford
+to England. There was a great lump in Martine's throat as she wiped away
+her tears with the handkerchief that a moment before she had been waving
+frantically at her father.</p>
+
+<p>"Goose, goose!" whispered Lucian. "You are too big a girl to cry."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hate saying good-bye," murmured Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we've hardly been together&mdash;all four of us&mdash;for years."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it! It's been so pleasant lately&mdash;and now to have father in
+South America!&mdash;it's just dreadful."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, child! South America isn't so very far away. The trouble is,
+you've had too long a vacation. It's well we're going back to Boston
+to-morrow, and that in a day or two you'll be at your books again."</p>
+
+<p>"'At my books'&mdash;as if I were a six-year-old! I can't see why Harvard
+College gives even a day's vacation to its students, since their chief
+use of time seems to be to tease their sisters," and with this little
+burst of temper Martine's tears were blown away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>ANOTHER PARTING</h3>
+
+
+<p>To Martine the return to Boston after Christmas was far from cheerful.
+Not only was she still under the shadow of the parting with her father,
+but she began to feel that the approaching departure of Brenda would be
+rather hard to bear.</p>
+
+<p>While her mother was spending a day or two with friends outside the
+city, Martine had to stand by and watch Brenda bidding good-bye to her
+family and friends. Her trunks were packed. The walls and mantelpieces
+were denuded of many little pictures and ornaments; for at the last she
+had decided that it was wiser to take some of her more personal
+belongings with her to make her new abode more homelike.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't taken a thing that you or your mother would need," Brenda
+explained; "only the little presents that have special associations for
+us. Your mother wrote me that she had a box or two of her own ornaments
+and pictures coming, so that she, too, could be reminded of home."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I wish our boxes were here now. It makes me so homesick to see
+those empty places on the wall. I don't see how you can be so cheerful."</p>
+
+<p>"But everyone has been so kind. I didn't know how much everyone cared
+for me. So much has been done for me the past two weeks that I have
+hardly had time to pack. Arthur went back to Washington in despair
+yesterday. He is to join mother and me in New York. He said if we should
+try to start from Boston we'd never get off. Some one would plan some
+special function just to detain us."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish that we <i>could</i> detain you."</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't do it now," rejoined the optimistic Brenda. "After all,
+when a thing is finally settled, I believe that I really love change. I
+shall miss Lettice and my other little niece&mdash;she's a dear if she is
+only a baby&mdash;but you know I have a niece and namesake in California, and
+my mother and father say they will come out in March&mdash;so there will be a
+very short separation."</p>
+
+<p>"And what about me?" asked Martine, in much the same tone she had used
+when Brenda first spoke of going away.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you? Why you are better off than you have been for years, with your
+mother to take care of you&mdash;and Lucian so near&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And no guardian," wailed Martine, in mock sorrow. "Don't flatter
+yourself that you can get rid of me so easily."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall write you and think of you. You will still be my ward, no
+matter where I am. There, there," as Martine leaned over her to touch
+her lips gently to her forehead. "Don't act as if we were parting
+forever. Maggie's red eyes are a constant reproach to me. So please wait
+until I am out of sight before you bid me good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of her optimism Brenda was far from happy in leaving Boston,
+her friends, and her pretty apartment, even for a limited time.
+Sometimes she thought that the various functions in her honor made her
+going all the harder.</p>
+
+<p>Nora Gostar, who had taken Julia's place at the head of the Mansion
+School, gave a tea to which were invited all the former pupils. Not all,
+naturally, were able to attend, for some of the girls were in situations
+from which they could not be spared.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we had a picture such as they give with patent medicines
+'before' and 'after' taking," said Brenda. "I can assure you it would be
+worth framing and taking to California. Do you remember what an untidy
+little creature Luisa was when she first entered the Mansion School, and
+how thin and forlorn Gretchen looked, and Maggie, who always lost her
+head when she had an order given her, and Haleema&mdash;why isn't she here
+to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Haleema&mdash;haven't you heard? She has gone to Lowell to live. Her
+husband is a prosperous rug-merchant and he is very proud of her ability
+as a housekeeper. He has promised to contribute something toward sending
+her younger sister here for a couple of years."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew she had married," replied Brenda, "but I had not heard of her
+removal to Lowell. It's delightful to know how well most of these girls
+have turned out. Even Mrs. Blair admits that the Mansion School is a
+useful institution."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Nora, laughing. "She gave us a handsome donation this year.
+We accepted it gratefully as conscience money for her not letting Edith
+work with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Nora!" cried Brenda, impulsively. "You are a wonder! Of all our four,
+you are the one best fitted to shine in society. But here you go on with
+this work as meekly as if there were nothing else for you to do."</p>
+
+<p>"There was no one else to take Julia's place this year," replied Nora,
+quietly, "and it would have been a great pity either to let the school
+run down or to allow Julia to give up her year in Europe. What fun she
+will have when she goes with the Eltons to Greece, and I am sure that
+when she comes back next year we shall all be the better for her trip.
+She will have so much to tell us."</p>
+
+<p>"Nora, you are a brick!" cried Brenda. "You never have been abroad
+yourself, yet you never utter a word of envy for anyone else's good
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," continued Nora, "you are wrong about my shining in society. I
+doubt if I should really care for it, even if I had the money to keep up
+that kind of thing. You wouldn't wish me to be like Belle, reported in
+all those silly newspapers as visiting Mrs. This at Lenox, and being the
+admired of all who saw her with Mrs. That at Newport, and sitting in the
+front row, as at the Horse Show, in a gown that was perfectly <i>chic</i>.
+Oh, no, I hate that kind of thing, and I sympathize with Edith for
+refusing to be a mere society girl, such as her mother would like her to
+be. But we shouldn't be here by ourselves, for you are the special
+guest, and all the girls, old and new, wish to shake hands with you and
+hear you talk."</p>
+
+<p>In a moment Brenda was again the centre of an admiring group, for all of
+whom she had a bright smile and a word that really meant something,
+while they all took note of her dress and little trinkets, and felt
+doubly pleased that a person of such elegance should show an interest in
+them.</p>
+
+<p>So exact were the observations of her young admirers that before she had
+actually left Boston a hat, a blouse, and a skirt were in process of
+construction by the deft fingers of three of the girls who had taken
+special note of the details of her attire at this Mansion tea.</p>
+
+<p>Martine laughed heartily at Brenda's account of the girls at the
+Mansion.</p>
+
+<p>"I have promised Miss Gostar to go there once a week to give a lesson in
+water color. It might seem a case of the blind trying to teach the blind
+if I were to pretend to teach them much. But the aim is, I believe,
+simply to give them an idea of colors. I wrote to Mrs. Redmond for
+advice while I was away, and it pleased me immensely to have her say I
+should probably do more good than harm by this little experiment."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will do good. I have an idea that you could make things
+very clear. In the weeks I lived at the Mansion I learned more than I
+taught, for I am not a born teacher. But it was wonderful to see what
+Julia and Miss South accomplished for their first class of girls. I
+enjoyed my afternoon with the old girls far more than the farewell
+reception mamma arranged for me, and infinitely more than that stiff
+dinner at Mrs. Blair's last week."</p>
+
+<p>"If people kill the fatted goose&mdash;or was it the fatted calf?&mdash;after you
+reach San Francisco at the same rate they've been doing here, you'll
+have indigestion."</p>
+
+<p>"No danger, my dear. We shall just be nobody there. Mamma has explained
+that I must not expect too much. Here everyone knows who I am&mdash;I mean
+everyone I come in contact with. But it will be altogether different in
+the West. We shall just be part of the great crowd of Easterners who
+have left home to better their condition."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>"But that <i>is</i> why we are going West,&mdash;because Arthur will get a larger
+salary and have more rapid promotion. We are willing to give up the
+things we like best, for a while, and live economically. Oh, dear." And
+with her usual inconsistency Brenda did not try to straighten out the
+quaver in her voice as she concluded with a futile smile.</p>
+
+<p>"How I wish we could stay here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how I wish you could!" moaned Maggie, appearing suddenly on the
+scene, and the tear-stained face of the latter so amused Brenda that her
+own melancholy ended in a burst of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>When Brenda at last was really away, Martine and her mother began to
+adapt themselves to the new conditions. The cook, of whom Brenda had
+stood more or less in awe, gave warning promptly when she heard that
+there was to be a change of mistresses. Maggie, after much tearful and
+prayerful consideration, as Brenda put it, also decided not to stay with
+Mrs. Stratford. Only her devotion to Brenda had led her to take this
+place, as she really desired work that would occupy her simply during
+the day. Her aunt, she said, was weak and lonely, and she wished to be
+at home with her evenings.</p>
+
+<p>Angelina, learning Maggie's intention, promptly presented herself as a
+candidate for the vacant place. Mrs. Stratford hesitated, for Martine
+had given her an exceedingly humorous account of the Portuguese girl's
+peculiarities,&mdash;an account that did not tend to recommend her as a
+reliable domestic.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, mother, she isn't a cut-and-dried housemaid," plead Martine;
+"but she <i>is</i> so amusing, and if we take her I am sure she will stay,
+for she says she is perfectly devoted to me. I dare say she won't half
+do the work, for she always has several irons in the fire. But I shall
+not mind doing my own room, if we have Angelina, and in fact I'll have
+to do it probably, as she is absent-minded and often forgets to do what
+she should. But she loves waiting on table, and it's a great thing to
+have a cheerful person in the house. <i>Do</i> say you'll take her, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"There seems little chance of escape for me. From what Angelina herself
+says, I should judge that you and she had already settled matters. I do
+not wish to play the part of a tyrannical parent and so, to please you,
+just to please you, Martine, I will engage Angelina."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, mamma! You <i>are</i> an angel. I always knew you were."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that Angelina is an angel in something besides her name, and I
+wish that her name were less dressy. Would she care if I should call her
+plain Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma, not 'plain,' at any rate. I thought you understood that
+Angelina <i>is</i> rather dressy in her feelings. She takes the greatest
+delight in her name. Please don't think of calling her anything else."</p>
+
+<p>So Angelina remained plain Angelina, and on account of her previous
+experience with Brenda, proved very useful to Mrs. Stratford. For a week
+or two a succession of cooks passed in and out of the little kitchen,
+until Martine's mother despaired of ever having the apartment in running
+order.</p>
+
+<p>In this emergency Angelina was only too proud to show what she could do.
+She would not admit that she had ever learned anything from anybody.
+"I'm a natural born cook," she would say; "and if I didn't consider it a
+menial position, I would become a professional. It's on account of my
+Spanish blood, I suppose, that I'm able to season things so well. You
+know in Spain they like things hot and spicy."</p>
+
+<p>"Spanish blood?" questioned Mrs. Stratford, as Angelina turned away.
+"Aren't the Rosas Portuguese?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma, or they were until our war with Spain. Brenda explained it
+all to me. During the war Angelina thought it would make her more
+interesting if she called herself Spanish, and now she probably has
+persuaded herself that she really <i>is</i> Spanish. This amuses her and
+doesn't hurt anyone else."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't like the idea of her being untruthful. This quality may
+extend to other things."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, mamma. But then we can watch her."</p>
+
+<p>Lucian, when he heard of Angelina's Spanish proclivities, laughed
+heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"She <i>is</i> worth watching," he said. "Each of us must keep an eye on
+her."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>ANGELINA'S COUP</h3>
+
+
+<p>The first occasion for Angelina to make herself spectacularly useful
+came on the Saturday after New Year's, when Mrs. Stratford invited
+Priscilla and Mrs. Tilworth to dine. The latter had already shown Mrs.
+Stratford some little courtesies, such as she felt were due Mrs. Blair's
+cousin. On account of Martine's growing fondness for Priscilla, Mrs.
+Stratford was anxious to have the two households on more intimate terms.
+Lucian and Robert Pringle were also coming home to dinner, and although
+Mrs. Tilworth was the only outsider, on her account a certain amount of
+formality had been planned for this little dinner for six.</p>
+
+<p>At about four o'clock on the afternoon Angelina knocked at the door of
+Martine's room. Her face wore its most solemn expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Angelina, what is the matter? You look as if you had been drawn
+through a keyhole."</p>
+
+<p>Angelina at first did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, speak out! Is it anything very dreadful?"</p>
+
+<p>Martine rose from her little desk, where she had been writing a letter
+to her father, and as she took a step or two toward the door, Angelina
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"That depends on how you look on it; it's only that the cook's gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious! you don't mean it. But perhaps she has only gone for a
+walk&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, Miss Martine. I fear that she's gone for good and all. I've
+been down to her room, and not a vestige of her possessions remains."
+Angelina, even in a crisis, had to use long words. "In fact I may say
+that I heard her trunk being carried away about two o'clock. There it
+went, thumpity, thump down the stairs&mdash;those expressmen are so careless,
+and I was quite unaware whose trunk it was, or I might have reported it
+to your mother. But when the luncheon dishes were washed, the cook
+followed the trunk; at least she is nowhere in sight now, and not a
+thing done about this evening's dinner. It's the dinner, and not the
+cook that disturbs me," explained Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>"The dinner! I should say so," responded Martine. "We must get word to
+Mrs. Tilworth at once. She's the fussiest old&mdash;I mean she's a very
+particular person, and mother wishes everything to be just so when she
+dines here."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, Miss Martine. Every guest of Mrs. Stratford's should receive
+the greatest consideration." Angelina's manner was respectful in the
+extreme.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" Martine's perplexity showed itself in her wrinkled forehead.
+"I certainly don't know what's to be done. Mamma and Mrs. Tilworth were
+to come home together from a meeting in Brookline. Mrs. Tilworth is
+always taking people to meetings of some kind. Poor mamma didn't want to
+go, but she couldn't get out of it. There's no way of getting word to
+them until nearly dinner time. Mrs. Tilworth would think it awfully rude
+to uninvite her. The only thing is to let her come, and then we can all
+go out to a hotel or something, and she'll call that very shiftless."</p>
+
+<p>Martine was really excited. She knew Mrs. Tilworth's opinion of people
+who lived in apartments, and she had had a thrill of pleasant
+anticipation at the idea of Mrs. Tilworth's finding everything as
+homelike in their apartment as within the four walls of a detached
+house.</p>
+
+<p>To have to go outside to a hotel would indeed be ignominious&mdash;from
+Martine's present point of view.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think Mrs. Stratford is strong enough to go to a hotel to
+dinner, after being out all the afternoon? I certainly shouldn't advise
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Angelina spoke with all the impressiveness of one in authority.</p>
+
+<p>"You make me think of a trained nurse, Angelina. But what in the world
+are we to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me," cried Angelina, and Martine, following her to the
+kitchen, noticed as she turned her head that there was a twinkle in
+Angelina's eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps there's something in the refrigerator," thought Martine;
+"refrigerators always are full of things that can be warmed over. We
+might call it 'luncheon' instead of 'dinner,' and tell Mrs. Tilworth
+that's the way we do in Chicago. She will believe anything about Western
+people."</p>
+
+<p>A glance at the refrigerator did not greatly encourage Martine. There
+were a quantity of cold potatoes, and a great roast of beef for their
+Sunday dinner, as well as eggs, bacon, milk, and butter.</p>
+
+<p>"How frightfully unattractive it all looks&mdash;and smells," cried Martine,
+slamming the door. "I never could be a good cook, for I hate the sight
+of raw food. But what <i>were</i> we to have for dinner to-night? What <i>are</i>
+we to have now? You wouldn't have brought me out here if you hadn't some
+plan. It's half-past four, and if anything's to be done, it ought to be
+doing now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you request me to take hold," said Angelina, "I shall be only
+too happy to accept your orders in your mother's place. Come, see!" and
+removing a cloth that had covered the kitchen table, she showed Martine
+an inviting array of vegetables and two pairs of small chickens.</p>
+
+<p>"First of all the dessert," she began.</p>
+
+<p>"Before the soup?" asked Martine. Then remembering that if she stood in
+her mother's place it would be undignified to trifle with Angelina, she
+waited for the latter to disclose her plans.</p>
+
+<p>"What I mean is this," continued the latter; "you can telephone to the
+creamery for ice-cream and cake. The cook had orders to make something
+with a long name, but that's impossible now. Then the black coffee&mdash;your
+brother loves to potter with that electric coffee machine&mdash;and there's
+plenty of crackers and cheese."</p>
+
+<p>"And finger bowls, too," said Martine, laughing, "that will finish the
+dinner. But how shall we begin? If we begin dinner well, it won't matter
+how it ends."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's no trouble about oysters, now, is there? And the
+soup&mdash;well, instead of the potage something or other that we were going
+to have, it'll be bouillon with croûtons, and a sprig of parsley on top;
+that always looks foreign, and with my Spanish seasoning, Mrs. Tilworth
+will never know it's plain extract of beef. It won't take me a minute to
+prepare the minced fish, and you can put it in these little shells to
+bake when the oven is hot. The salad won't be any trouble, just tomato
+on a leaf of lettuce. The chickens can be broiled, and there's only one
+vegetable to boil besides the potatoes. The other things like celery and
+radishes only need to be put on attractively."</p>
+
+<p>"But what about these lobsters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, that's an idea of my own. They were meant for salad. But if I
+were you, as long as you've got such a big chafing-dish, I'd have a
+lobster Neuberg. Mrs. Tilworth will expect something out of the
+ordinary, and a lobster Neuberg at dinner is very unexpected."</p>
+
+<p>"And very good to eat, and I'll let Robert Pringle cook it at the
+table."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Martine, only I'll prepare the sauce first, so much depends
+on that."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a genius," said Martine; "but who'll wait on table?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I will, Miss Martine, if you'll set it now. I'll have my hands
+full until dinner is served, and don't tell your mother about the cook
+until dinner's over. She'll be surprised that the dinner is different
+from what she ordered. But she won't find anything to be ashamed of."</p>
+
+<p>Seldom, indeed, had Martine worked harder than in the hour succeeding
+her discovery of the cook's departure. In setting the table she made
+many little mistakes that Angelina gently but firmly corrected. But at
+half-past five, just before her mother came home, she surveyed the
+finished whole with pride, and then hurried away to her room to change
+her dress as she heard some one opening the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lucian," she cried, "if mother asks for Angelina, please say she's
+busy just now; keep Mrs. Tilworth amused until dinner. I wonder why
+Prissie's so late."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not late," and in a moment Priscilla was with her. "I came in
+without ringing, as the door was partly open."</p>
+
+<p>To Priscilla Martine explained the secret of the dinner.</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina will wait on table, though I don't see how she'll manage. But
+if there's any chance to help things on, you'll do so, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure," replied Priscilla, not realizing just what her promise
+might involve.</p>
+
+<p>As it happened the dinner went on very smoothly from beginning to end,
+at least almost to the end. Mrs. Tilworth was in her most amiable frame
+of mind, even condescending to smile at some of the inane jokes
+perpetrated by the two Sophomores. This was doubtless due to her having
+a soft spot in her heart for boys in general, as her only son had died
+when he was six years old.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford, it is true, looked somewhat mystified at Angelina's
+occasional long absences in the kitchen. But at these moments Martine
+and Priscilla managed to introduce interesting subjects for discussion,
+whereby their elders were diverted from observing the remissness of
+their waitress.</p>
+
+<p>Before the dessert, however, the wait was suspiciously long. Mrs.
+Tilworth, in an aside, had just been complimenting Mrs. Stratford on her
+daughter's ease of manner, when looking up she saw Martine gesticulating
+and frowning, apparently at Priscilla. A moment later Priscilla had
+dashed from the room through the door into the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"What's up?" asked Robert.</p>
+
+<p>"What's down?" added Lucian, as a tremendous crash fell on their ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's nothing," responded Martine, reddening. She felt Mrs.
+Tilworth's keen eye upon her and wished that Priscilla had acted less
+impulsively. Mrs. Stratford fanned herself nervously. There were
+disadvantages, she began to think, in apartment housekeeping with a
+limited staff.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile what had happened? When Angelina went to the kitchen
+for the ices and cakes, a sorry sight presented itself to her.</p>
+
+<p>The cover of the freezer had been left off,&mdash;she had meant it to be but
+a moment, and not the half hour that had really passed. Through her
+carelessness, not only had the ices begun to soften, but some of the
+salt and coarse ice from the freezer had drifted in.</p>
+
+<p>In her efforts to repair the damage, much time had passed before
+Priscilla appeared. Then Priscilla, in her effort to help, had taken
+hold of one side of the heavy tin to lift it to the table. The edge was
+slippery, the tin glided from between Priscilla's fingers, and as it
+crashed back into the tub of ice, a stream of pink and green stickiness
+spurted over her new blue gown.</p>
+
+<p>"No matter about me," cried poor Priscilla, as Angelina began to mop off
+the gown. "I must go back to the dining-room. I can hold my handkerchief
+over the spots. The dinner mustn't be spoiled. My aunt is so critical."</p>
+
+<p>"But there's no dessert. What will they think?" and Angelina looked the
+picture of despair. For to her no festivity was complete without the
+finishing touch of pink and white ice-cream.</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain," began Priscilla. "Isn't there anything to come but the
+ices?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, cakes and fruit and coffee and cheese." Angelina had already
+recovered her spirit. "I'll hurry in and attach the coffee machine to
+the electric light; that will divert them, while you make the
+explanations. It wouldn't be proper for me in my capacity of waitress to
+say a word."</p>
+
+<p>So Priscilla, hastening back, explained that the ices had met a mishap,
+and she wondered if they all wondered what her part had been in the
+misadventure. No one, however, attached as much importance as Angelina
+did to the loss of the ices. The coffee machine diverted them all. Even
+Mrs. Tilworth was interested in watching the water bubble in the crystal
+globe.</p>
+
+<p>Of them all Priscilla alone was disturbed. She realized, when too late,
+that she must have misunderstood her friend's signals, and that it had
+been Martine's duty, and not hers, to go to the kitchen. Moreover, she
+dreaded the merited reproof from her aunt when the spots on her skirt
+should be discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford was amused rather than displeased when Martine, after the
+departure of their guests, explained the whole matter.</p>
+
+<p>"I realized that something strange was going on, and though Angelina
+covered herself with glory so far as the cooking was concerned, she
+certainly did not appear an expert waitress. Then, my dear, if you had
+only given me a hint of the situation, I need not have perjured myself
+to Mrs. Tilworth. She thought everything so exquisitely seasoned that I
+told her all about the cook, how she had lived at Dr. Gostar's and later
+at Mrs. Rowe's. I admitted that the menu was a little different from
+what I had expected, but still&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, mamma&mdash;but why do you suppose the cook left?"</p>
+
+<p>To this question Mrs. Stratford had no answer.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>A DROP OF INK</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Somehow I find it awfully hard to settle down to work," said Martine to
+one of the girls at school a day or two after Washington's Birthday. "I
+don't know whether it's the holiday&mdash;or what."</p>
+
+<p>"It's 'what,' I think; vacations ought not to hurt us, they are meant to
+set one up."</p>
+
+<p>"How literal you are! Look at Priscilla; she's as busy as can be. She
+knows how to study at school; but then of course there couldn't have
+been anything very exciting in a Plymouth holiday; but although she was
+away only two days I do wonder that she can study so in school."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a sensible thing, all the same, and saves home study. I begrudge
+more than an hour a day out of school, and if you don't work here, you
+surely have to spend three or four hours there."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to spend more than an hour a day on home work if you are
+going to prepare that essay. Isn't it outrageous?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's as fair for one as for another. There's no use in talking
+about it now; we must keep at this translation." And for the next ten
+minutes the two girls kept their eyes on their Virgils.</p>
+
+<p>Martine and Grace had gone into a small room off the main schoolroom,
+where a certain amount of conversation was permitted to two girls who
+happened to be studying together. They were not expected, however, to
+wander far from the lesson they had set out to prepare, and idle
+conversation, if overheard, would have carried a reproof. Yet the
+special essay to which Grace had referred was for the time uppermost in
+the minds of most of Miss Crawdon's pupils, and to Martine the necessity
+for writing it was peculiarly disagreeable; she did not pretend to be
+literary; her brightness and energy expressed themselves in far
+different ways. She could talk better than most girls, but when it came
+to putting her thoughts on paper in an extended form, she was really at
+sea. No one sympathized with her when she protested that it was
+absolutely impossible for her to write a ten-page essay on the question
+"Is the pen mightier than the sword?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's what I call the simplest kind of a subject," said Priscilla.
+"We all know that war is a terrible thing and ought to be done away
+with, and that a good book accomplishes a great deal more than the most
+famous battle. That's all the subject means."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, is it?" queried Martine, somewhat sarcastically. "Well, I'd like to
+see you fill ten large foolscap pages proving it."</p>
+
+<p>"That's easy enough; just get your thoughts together."</p>
+
+<p>"I can get a few of them together, but when it comes to putting them on
+paper, that's quite another thing."</p>
+
+<p>Yet in the face of Martine's evident despair, Priscilla still insisted
+that the subject was not difficult, and that if Martine would simply
+collect her thoughts, she would soon find words to fill ten pages.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you've got to look up authorities on peace and war and some
+of the poets like Whittier and Tennyson, and Longfellow's 'Ship of
+State,' and say something about 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and look over your
+English history pretty carefully."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Priscilla, with all my other lessons? It's quite natural for you to
+know where to find all these authorities and poems, but it's quite
+another thing for me, and there's likely to be some splendid skating
+this month; and it's odious to have to stay cooped up in the house when
+the afternoons are short enough at the best."</p>
+
+<p>But at last Martine had to yield to necessity, and less than a week
+before the day when the essays were to be handed in she sat down for one
+last, and it may be said first, great effort.</p>
+
+<p>Lucian, happening in from Cambridge, laughed as he saw her forlorn face
+as she sat at a table littered with papers.</p>
+
+<p>"What a ridiculous fuss," he cried, "about a little composition."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't a little composition; it's an essay."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what's the difference? You ought to have daily themes, then you'd
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"We do, we have them once a week, every Monday morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Daily themes,&mdash;once a week!" and again Lucian laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't laugh, Lucian. Of course it's easy enough to write; that
+isn't the trouble; but it's getting things together."</p>
+
+<p>"What things?"</p>
+
+<p>"My ideas. Oh, if I were only Priscilla."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are not; she's altogether different. But what's this?" cried
+Lucian, picking up a paper from the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's one of Priscilla's last year's essays. It's perfectly
+splendid, and she thought it might help me to look it over."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you get her to help you in some other way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that wouldn't do. We're supposed to do this all alone. It's a kind
+of test. You see the little themes are different. We write accounts of
+things we see, or that somebody tells us; but Miss Crawdon likes things
+we observe, and I am always seeing something funny. Everyone laughs at
+what I write. But I just can't do a long logical essay, and I don't want
+mine to be the very worst in the class."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not." Lucian's tone was more sympathetic than usual. "There
+can't be any harm in my helping you." And he took up a pencil.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not sure," responded Martine; "but still a brother, I suppose, is
+different from anyone else."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally," said Lucian, undisturbed by any scruples.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the two were at work, or rather Lucian was working, while
+Martine listened intently.</p>
+
+<p>"First of all," he began, in a professorial manner, "you must think out
+your subject carefully and sub-divide it&mdash;so&mdash;and so. Then, well,
+whenever you have a thought, write it down on a piece of paper or a
+card&mdash;if I were you I'd buy a box of blank cards." Martine instantly
+resolved to pay a visit to a wholesale stationer's, and Lucian spent a
+few moments in cogitation and then wrote down a number of headings on
+small squares of paper. He had never before had so good a chance to
+expose the methods of his favorite English course.</p>
+
+<p>"See, now, you kind of shuffle and arrange your headings, and you begin
+to think of other funny little things to put in, and write them out on
+large sheets, and before you know it, it's almost done. Now try."</p>
+
+<p>Martine tried. Lucian's method was something like a game, and under his
+guidance she made a fair beginning. Before they had fairly started on
+the essay, Lucian talked learnedly about "clearness," and "force," and
+"elegance," and Martine listened, somewhat dazzled by her brother's show
+of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Harvard has done you some good, after all, Lucian. As a sophomore
+you seem to be making up for what you lost in your freshman year."</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, child, no twitting on facts. Of course Harvard has done a
+great deal for me. Why else should I go to college?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what college would do for me. What would you think of my going
+to Radcliffe, for example?" Martine looked anxiously at her brother; she
+had known boys who positively opposed their sister's ambitions in this
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you could get in," said Lucian, "I think it would be a mighty
+good thing."</p>
+
+<p>The "if" nettled Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"What other girls do I suppose I could do too."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; and if you should turn out like Miss Amy Redmond, or if you'd
+work like Priscilla, why I'd be proud enough of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Amy's a brick," responded Martine, "but I didn't know that you
+really admired Priscilla. Robert Pringle says she's just the kind boys
+don't like."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Robert is too fresh; he can't settle everything, though he thinks
+he can. But here, we can't waste time. Remember that you're trying to
+prove your point."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the point of the sword," said Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"No frivolity, child." And by their united efforts they made a draft of
+the essay, which Lucian copied out in his peculiar back hand, and later
+Martine, still further expanding what he presented to her, was able to
+produce ten pages that were not only fairly logical, according to
+Lucian's standards, but in addition had various humorous little touches
+from the hand of Martine. Priscilla was so busy with her own work that
+she hardly had time to observe that Martine had ceased to complain at
+what she had at first called "an outrageous task."</p>
+
+<p>On the morning when the essays were handed in, Miss Crawdon made a short
+speech to the class. "You will be interested, I am sure, to hear that I
+have decided to award a prize for the best essay. I did not suggest this
+in advance, because in a general way I do not approve of school
+competition. You have worked under natural conditions, and although only
+one girl will have a prize, I am sure all the others will see nothing
+unfair in this distinction, since all have had an equal chance. All have
+worked independently without help from anyone, and none have been
+tempted to put themselves under too severe a strain. I ought to say that
+the prize, which consists of the new two-volume 'Life of Tennyson,' is a
+gift from Mrs. Edward Elton. You remember that she was one of our
+teachers here a few years ago and that English was her specialty. When
+she left this school she helped establish the Mansion School in the
+house of her grandmother, Madame DuLaunuy. For more than a year she and
+Mr. Elton have been travelling abroad, but she writes to me often about
+the school, and her interest in our English work still continues."</p>
+
+<p>In the brief interval following Miss Crawdon's speech, those girls who
+had known the former Miss South said one or two agreeable things about
+her to the others, and it pleased Martine to recall that Mr. Elton was a
+cousin of Brenda's. But she was not altogether pleased that the essay
+with which Lucian had helped her was to compete for a prize. In this
+special case Martine was not quite sure of the precise line between
+right and wrong, and until she could decide this for herself, she
+thought it not worth while to discuss the matter with others.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened, strangely enough, that the essay which in a small way
+had been a snare for Martine also caused some trouble for Priscilla. The
+beginning came on the Friday after the essays were handed in. In the
+early afternoon Priscilla had an errand to do for her aunt at the
+farther end of Commonwealth Avenue. There was no Symphony this week, and
+she enjoyed the change. As she walked homeward, she was in an unusually
+happy mood. It was one of those mild days in late January that seemed to
+be preparing the way for an early spring. The path under the trees in
+the middle of the park was rather wet from melting snow and ice, and
+after trying it for a few steps, Priscilla preferred the sidewalk. There
+she walked down between the rows of nurses with their baby carriages, or
+little children in charge. "A prize baby show" Martine had called it.
+Priscilla enjoyed the show and thought of her little brothers and
+sisters at home as she stopped at intervals to speak to some child she
+knew. From the Avenue she crossed the Garden and stood for a moment on
+the bridge to watch the ice breaking in the pond; and she continued her
+walk along the mall of the Common, until she was opposite Spruce Street.
+Turning into the narrower streets, when at last she reached her aunt's
+house, it seemed particularly gloomy, and she wished that she might have
+stayed out in the sun an hour longer. But she realized that the task
+before her could not be postponed. The weekly theme must be ready on
+Monday, and nothing could be accomplished unless she set herself at
+work. Filling her fountain pen carefully she sat down at a small table
+near the window and began her task.</p>
+
+<p>Although Priscilla frowned slightly, as almost any girl will frown when
+writing a theme, the frown was not very deep. She expected no real
+difficulties at the present stage of her work, as she had already made a
+good draft in pencil, and it only remained now for her to copy it.</p>
+
+<p>At first her pen fairly flew over the paper, but after a time, as it may
+happen even with more accomplished authors, she grew a little weary, and
+rising, she walked to the window. Then she took a few steps around the
+room, at the same time idly flourishing her pen. The habits of fountain
+pens are indeed hard to understand. There certainly seemed to be no
+reason why Priscilla's pen should have chosen the particular moment when
+she stood beside her bureau for a catastrophe. Priscilla herself was
+almost petrified with horror as she gazed at the great black spot on the
+immaculate bureau-scarf. How could one little drop of ink, falling
+carelessly from a pen held upside down, spread itself into such a big
+spot?</p>
+
+<p>After her first resentment against the pen, which she quickly laid down
+on the blotter on her table, Priscilla's irritation took a new form.</p>
+
+<p>"I always hated that bureau-scarf. I always thought it foolish of aunt
+Tilworth to put it in my room. She has told me a dozen times that it was
+made by a favorite cousin who can never make any more like it because
+she's dead. I can't bear to think what she will say when she sees this."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla went closer to the bureau. Fortunately the spot was on the
+plain material, some distance from the embroidery. It almost looked as
+if she might wash it out&mdash;if ink ever could be washed out. If it should
+stay, how could she ever explain the accident to her aunt, since it was
+an unwritten law of the house that ink was to be used only in the
+library?</p>
+
+<p>"This might help a little," she murmured, tearing off a small piece from
+her blotter, and applying it to the spot. But the ink had been so
+thoroughly absorbed that her efforts made no impression. Then she
+remembered something she had read and rushed to the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"A glass of milk, is it?" exclaimed the crabbed old cook; "and why
+didn't you send the housemaid?" But Priscilla secured the milk, and
+while she was busily mopping the spot, Martine appeared on the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"You queer child, what are you doing? That milk will certainly spoil the
+bureau."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, it's marble underneath."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are you doing? Oh, that spot? But you'll never get it out that
+way. You must use salts, salts of something, I forget its name, only
+it's deadly poison. They'll know what it is when you ask at the
+druggist's."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing would induce me to touch poison. Please don't suggest such a
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"But you're not going to taste it or give it to anyone. Just think what
+your aunt would say if she saw that spot!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I have been thinking," said poor Priscilla, feebly. "I
+hate to have her know how careless I have been."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let me go&mdash;no, I am going anyway, I want to see how surprised the
+druggist will be when I ask for this salts of something or other."</p>
+
+<p>"He can't appear very surprised if you don't know its name."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll tell him it's a deadly poison, and that I want it immediately.
+Good-bye, Prissie dear, I'll soon be back, alive or dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Now cheer up, Miss Doleful," cried Martine, when she returned ten
+minutes later. "I got it easily enough, and the man hardly seemed
+surprised, though he put a little poison label on the box."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla handled the box gingerly.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there," cried Martine, "it won't hurt you! Give it back!" And
+taking off the cover, she disclosed some innocent looking crystals.</p>
+
+<p>Moistening a few of these, she spread the pasty mass on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>"My, how it stings! My tongue is burning."</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't taste it! I thought you said it was poison?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I got some on my fingers. But I know it won't hurt. But there,"
+scraping the crystals from the spot, "it hasn't done a bit of good."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it has done a little. I think the ink is not quite so black. But a
+brown spot is about as bad as a black one."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what we ought to do," and Martine read the label on the
+box.</p>
+
+<p>"We should spread this out in the sun. Then something chemical will
+happen, and the ink will fade away."</p>
+
+<p>"This ink will <i>never</i> fade. I am sure of that, and besides there's no
+sun to-day, and there won't be, because it's after four o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow will do just as well," said Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"If aunt Tilworth doesn't happen to come in."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you afraid of, my dear Prissie? You surely don't expect your
+aunt to whip you like a baby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. My aunt doesn't mean to be unkind, only she is very
+particular."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so. Her house shows that she was meant to be a regular old
+maid. How I should love to stir things up a little. I don't suppose you
+dropped that ink on purpose, though the room certainly looks far less
+prim than when I saw it a day or two ago."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla bore Martine's teasing fairly well, but at last she said
+firmly, "I have wasted a lot of time over this ink-spot. Now I must go
+back to my work. I haven't even prepared my lessons for Monday. I know
+you will excuse me, Martine, and I am ever so much obliged for your
+help."</p>
+
+<p>"On this hint I'll act," replied Martine, gayly. "Your spot is certainly
+worse than the one in Macbeth, though I won't use the language that
+Macbeth&mdash;or was it her Ladyship?&mdash;used regarding it. But don't worry,
+Prissie dear. I will arrange things so that no one will know what
+happened." And suiting her action to her words, Martine carefully
+replaced the scarf on the table and set a large pincushion over the
+ink-spot, so that not a vestige of the spot, or of the attempts to
+remove it, could be seen.</p>
+
+<p>Then with a word or two more of absurd advice to Priscilla, Martine,
+bidding her friend good-bye, tripped lightly downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>When Martine reached the lower story all was still. Priscilla had said
+that her aunt was at a meeting. Evidently she had not yet returned.</p>
+
+<p>On her way downstairs a mischievous plan had been forming in Martine's
+brain.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll never have a better chance," she said to herself, and she tiptoed
+into the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>A noise from the direction of the dining-room made her start. Then
+glancing around she took heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can do it," she murmured, "before any one appears on the
+scene."</p>
+
+<p>Again she felt discouraged as she noted how massive, how immovable most
+of the furniture appeared. A large centre-table in the middle of the
+room pleased her; she pushed it from its place into a distant corner.
+Over it she threw a scarf that had decorated a sofa. Then from the great
+bookcase in the hall she took two or three volumes that she laid on the
+table open and face downward.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything seems glued to the walls," she murmured, "and these tidies
+are so ugly. There can't be much harm in folding them up and putting
+them under the sofa."</p>
+
+<p>Then she paused. "This little scarf&mdash;it is Roman, too,&mdash;is just the
+thing for Julius Cæsar." And tying the striped scarf around the neck of
+the great conqueror, she bolstered the bust on an easy-chair, draping an
+afghan around him to conceal his lack of body and limbs.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a>
+<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"'This little scarf&mdash;it is Roman, too,&mdash;is just the thing
+for Julius Cæsar.'"</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Then with one or two minor touches to the room she hurried away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A PRIZE WINNER</h3>
+
+
+<p>While Martine was thus mischievously occupied, Priscilla, unconscious of
+what was going on, continued her work.</p>
+
+<p>She had not heard her aunt come in, but when she went down to dinner she
+instantly realized that Mrs. Tilworth was displeased. Was there any
+possibility that the injury to the bureau-scarf had been discovered? At
+once Priscilla dismissed that thought, knowing Mrs. Tilworth could not
+have been in her room, as she herself had not left it.</p>
+
+<p>As the young girl turned toward the dining-room Mrs. Tilworth laid her
+hand on her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"This way, please," she said briefly, pointing toward the room where
+Julius Cæsar was enthroned in his easy-chair.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla could not suppress a smile at the absurd sight.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you did it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I? Why of course not! I haven't been downstairs."</p>
+
+<p>Then Priscilla stopped. She remembered her visit to the kitchen, and for
+the present she was not anxious to explain the glass of milk.</p>
+
+<p>"But who could have done this ridiculous thing? An earthquake couldn't
+have done much more."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla hardly dared glance around the dishevelled room. Some of the
+results accomplished by Martine were foolish, others were improvements
+on the original arrangement of things.</p>
+
+<p>"You must have had a visitor," continued Mrs. Tilworth, pursuing her
+search for information.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla was silent. She perceived that Martine had been the
+mischief-maker, and for the moment she was indignant with her friend.
+Martine might have realized that an act of this kind would bring Mrs.
+Tilworth's wrath on Priscilla as well as on the absent perpetrator of
+the mischief.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it was Martine Stratford!" continued Mrs. Tilworth. "I am glad
+that you had no hand in this foolishness, Priscilla. For I take your
+word that you have not been downstairs. But I am disappointed in
+Martine. She has attractive manners, and lately she seemed to be toning
+down. Certainly she appeared very well at the dinner the other evening.
+Her mother, too, is a sensible woman. So it must be her father who
+spoils Martine. The girl has had a training very different from yours,
+and her sense of responsibility is small."</p>
+
+<p>"She didn't mean anything, I am sure of that," protested Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't mean anything! That's just the trouble. After this I must ask
+you to see less of Martine. Really I ought not to have let you spend so
+much time with her."</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma knows all about Martine. She does not object."</p>
+
+<p>"She <i>will</i> object when she learns how disrespectful Martine has been to
+me. As if I did not know how to arrange my own furniture."</p>
+
+<p>Again Priscilla felt like smiling. Martine's hints had been understood,
+even though they might not be followed.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tilworth was a fair-minded woman, and after expressing herself
+clearly on the subject of Martine's misdeeds, she did not try to make
+her niece more uncomfortable. Nevertheless, Priscilla's dinner hour that
+evening was far from cheerful. She wondered if it might not be wiser, as
+well as more honest, to tell her aunt of her own mishap of the
+afternoon. Yet the more she thought of it, the less inclined was she to
+do this. She clung to the hope that with a further effort she could make
+the scarf as good as new.</p>
+
+<p>That night she dreamed of wading through rivers of ink, and in her
+dreams she saw the bust of Julius Cæsar sitting on a bridge with many
+small black ink-spots mottling the bald head.</p>
+
+<p>In the intervals between her dreams she tossed about restlessly, and she
+thought of all the little criticisms that she had ever heard anyone make
+about Mrs. Tilworth.</p>
+
+<p>"After all, she isn't my real aunt," she murmured; "only my uncle's
+widow, and I suppose she just hates to have me here. But she has a kind
+of family pride, and thinks that it will help mamma. I know the house is
+furnished queerly. I heard mamma say that it is neither antique, nor
+modern&mdash;only second-rate. Those black walnut things are always ugly,
+even Martine knows better."</p>
+
+<p>Yet in all her ruminations Priscilla had to admit that Mrs. Tilworth had
+always treated her kindly. She had no real grievance against her aunt.
+She was merely afraid of the reproof that her carelessness merited.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was one of Mrs. Tilworth's theories that a girl should make her
+own bed and dust her own furniture. It was a theory, too, that she put
+into practice. Except on sweeping days, Priscilla took entire care of
+her own room. Sometimes she begrudged the time that she had to spend in
+this way. But on the morning after Martine's visit she was pleased that
+no housemaid had the right to handle the things on her bureau. Now, as
+this was Saturday morning, Priscilla took more time than usual dusting
+and arranging things generally. She did not dare move the corpulent
+pincushion lest someone should come in upon her while she was examining
+the ink mark. She knew that her aunt had a morning engagement, and while
+she worked she listened eagerly for the closing of the front door that
+would show that her aunt had departed.</p>
+
+<p>But alas for her calculations! While she was still dusting her
+mantle-piece, Mrs. Tilworth, with hat and coat on, entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," began Mrs. Tilworth, kindly, "you must not take to yourself
+all that I said about Martine Stratford. You and she are really very
+different, and although I cannot say that her acquaintance was forced
+upon you, still it came about almost by accident. Had you not both gone
+to Acadia in Mrs. Redmond's care, you never would have known each other
+so well. You are not careless&mdash;I see you have been putting your room in
+order. It looks very well, but this pincushion is too near the edge.
+Dear me, what is this?"</p>
+
+<p>Poor Priscilla reddened as Mrs. Tilworth gazed in horror at the spot
+that the cushion had concealed.</p>
+
+<p>Her aunt's praise in the first place had been unexpected, and now she
+felt that she could hardly bear her reproof.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this?" continued Mrs. Tilworth, picking up one of the tiny
+crystals from the cloth and touching it to the tip of her tongue. "As I
+thought, oxalic acid."</p>
+
+<p>"Martine called it salts of lemon."</p>
+
+<p>"So this is some of Martine's work, too. Perhaps she forgot to tell you
+that the salts, or the acid, whichever you choose to call it, is bound
+to eat a great hole in linen&mdash;and this the most valued of all my bureau
+covers. Ah, Priscilla, I thought you could be trusted." And pushing back
+the smaller articles that rested on it, Mrs. Tilworth flung the scarf
+over her arm and walked away with it&mdash;ink-spot and all.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla was now more deeply disturbed than before. In no way was she
+willing to have Martine blamed for what she had not done. Her friend was
+already sufficiently disgraced in Mrs. Tilworth's eyes. But now, even if
+she wished, she could not explain. Mrs. Tilworth had gone away for the
+day. In her heart of hearts Priscilla knew that even had her aunt been
+at home she would have found it difficult to explain things in their
+true light. For at the best she must appear extremely careless, and
+quite unworthy the confidence that Mrs. Tilworth had just expressed. Few
+girls are willing at a moment's notice to pull themselves down from a
+pedestal on which they may have been placed.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Tilworth and she were together on Saturday evening, Priscilla
+still found it hard to make the explanation that she knew was Martine's
+due, and she found the task no easier on Sunday. Monday was the day when
+the results of the prize contest were to be announced, and the usually
+calm Priscilla was inwardly perturbed. Her rank in English was high, and
+she could not help wondering if there might not be a chance that the
+prize would fall to her.</p>
+
+<p>"What became of your spot?" asked Martine, mischievously, as she met
+Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush," replied Priscilla; "don't talk about it now, it's too, too
+disturbing. But I finished my theme for to-day," she continued more
+brightly, "and now I suppose we shall hear the result of the prize
+essays."</p>
+
+<p>"If I had known prizes were to be given for these essays, I might not
+have sent mine in."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you afraid that you'll get the prize? Really, I think there's no
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>Marie Taggart was noted for her sharp tongue, and Martine controlled the
+quick reply that rose to her own lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Priscilla," she cried, turning to her friend, "let me lead you to
+your seat, so that I can be free to hunt about for a laurel wreath. I
+should hate to be unprepared when the prize is awarded you."</p>
+
+<p>There was an expectant air throughout the class as Miss Crawdon arose to
+announce the result of the essay contest. A moment or two later
+Priscilla's name was called by Miss Crawdon, and as she stepped forward
+to receive the prize, no one in the school begrudged her what they knew
+she had gained by careful and conscientious effort. But everyone, even
+Martine herself, was amazed when Miss Crawdon added, "I have here a
+small card of honorable mention for two girls, one of them Martine
+Stratford and the other Inez Galbraith, who are only second to the
+prize-winner; and although their side of the argument, 'The sword is
+mightier than the pen' is the less popular, I am glad to commend them
+for the independence shown in their work."</p>
+
+<p>Martine's brow contracted as she heard Miss Crawdon's words. She had
+little pleasure in the commendation bestowed on her, for suddenly she
+realized that in letting Lucian help her she had probably done wrong. It
+is true she had thought out each point for herself, following in many
+cases Lucian's suggestion, and she had added many things that her
+brother had not thought of; yet, with it all, she was quite sure that,
+but for Lucian's help, she never in the world could have written the
+essay. Therefore the smiles of approval that met her as she went to her
+seat almost stung her, and Priscilla later, at recess, was surprised at
+Martine's irritability when she asked her how she had managed to deceive
+them all by pretending that she could not write.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Martine had no intention of cultivating an over-sensitive Puritan
+conscience. She was an honest girl on the whole, never intentionally
+untruthful, although sometimes lacking, perhaps, in frankness. This
+latter quality was the one that Priscilla had especially criticised
+during their journey through Acadia. In the present instance Martine was
+not quite sure to what extent she was right, to what extent wrong. If
+only she could talk it all over with Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla, I know, will advise my telling Miss Crawdon, and then
+perhaps the whole thing would have to be explained to the school, and I
+should feel awfully mortified. It isn't as if I had won a real prize, or
+kept anyone else out of anything&mdash;and I have worked hard enough over my
+English to get something. So I'll just imagine it's all right and let it
+go."</p>
+
+<p>Yet in spite of her determination to think little about the affair,
+Martine's conscience was not quite clear, and at recess Priscilla
+noticed a certain change in her manner.</p>
+
+<p>Things were not bettered when Martine reminded Priscilla that she had
+promised to go home with her after school on Monday or Tuesday.</p>
+
+<p>"Monday is better than Tuesday, so you must come to-day, and we can
+telephone your aunt, that she needn't wonder at your mysterious
+disappearance."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, really I cannot, I am busy, I must go downtown, and
+besides&mdash;" So Priscilla stumbled along, to Martine's great astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I thought you always enjoyed coming home with me. I am sure you
+have often said so; but you needn't if you don't want to."</p>
+
+<p>Martine's air of injured innocence sat ill upon her. She could not
+explain to Priscilla why she was so anxious to have her spend the
+afternoon with her. She could not fully explain this anxiety to herself,
+although the real reason was her hope that a talk with Priscilla might
+settle that little problem of right and wrong connected with the prize
+essay.</p>
+
+<p>If Martine was annoyed by Priscilla's refusal, poor Priscilla was deeply
+disturbed by the turn of affairs. Not for a moment did it occur to her
+that she might disregard her aunt's injunction in relation to Martine.
+Priscilla had been brought up so strictly that, as Martine sometimes
+said, she did not think it possible to disobey "the powers that be,"
+whether teachers, parent, or guardian. In Boston Mrs. Tilworth stood in
+her mother's place, and in consequence whatever she said was law. In the
+present instance, however, obedience was a little harder than usual,
+because she knew that Mrs. Tilworth's severity toward her friend came
+from an error of judgment. Foolish though Martine had been, she was much
+better than Mrs. Tilworth thought her, and Priscilla knew that it lay
+with her to correct her aunt's impression.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Martine," said Priscilla, as they parted at the corner below
+the school. "Really and truly, I am sorry not to go home with you."</p>
+
+<p>"There, my dear child, someway or other I always have to believe you;
+but all the same you are very ridiculous and disobliging not to come
+with me," and although she smiled as she spoke, Martine's voice still
+held a little bitterness as she turned away from Priscilla and went down
+the hill. Through the week the two went their separate ways&mdash;at least
+out of school. In their classes and at recess they were still the best
+of friends. But neither said a word to the other about visiting her.
+Priscilla, conscious of her aunt's disapproval of Martine, was
+tongue-tied, and Martine's sense of wounded dignity lasted longer than
+usual.</p>
+
+<p>On Friday Martine did not go to the Symphony rehearsal, and this in
+itself was not strange, as she not only was not fond of music, but found
+the restraint of Mrs. Tilworth's presence rather irksome. In her absence
+her mother, however, usually occupied her seat, and thus the ticket was
+not wasted. Martine justified her own absences by telling Priscilla that
+it would be selfish in her to monopolize the seat when really her mother
+enjoyed the concert far more than she did.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, until this particular week, it had always been her habit
+to talk the matter over with Priscilla, and often at the last moment she
+would yield to the persuasions of the latter that this particular
+symphony, or that particular soloist was too fine for her to miss.</p>
+
+<p>But when on Friday morning Martine said nothing whatever about the
+rehearsal, and when on Friday afternoon neither she nor her mother
+occupied the seat next Priscilla's, the latter felt that the time had
+come for her to speak.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be feared that that particular symphony meant little to Mrs.
+Tilworth's niece. Discord, not harmony, filled her mind. She hardly
+noticed the execution of the great pianist who was the soloist of the
+day, and when her aunt put a question, her answers were so vague that
+Mrs. Tilworth, glancing at her keenly, said,</p>
+
+<p>"I fear you have been working too hard this winter. It will do you good
+to go down to Plymouth Easter."</p>
+
+<p>The kindness in her aunt's tone encouraged Priscilla, and that evening
+after dinner she told the whole story of the spot of ink. When she had
+finished, to her great surprise, the dignified Mrs. Tilworth began to
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, my dear, but it seems to me you have made much ado about a
+small matter. It is true that I value that bureau cover, and I consider
+you most careless in handling your pen, but that you should think me an
+ogre&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do not, only I knew I had been careless. I meant to tell you, but
+I thought I could get it out first."</p>
+
+<p>"That was your mistake, child. A good laundress could have removed the
+ink if she had had the cover before any one else experimented with it.
+As it is, the oxalic acid weakened the fibre so that we have had to darn
+it. When you see it, you will admit that the work has been done very
+well, but everything would have gone much better had you told me in the
+first place."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, aunt, I know it, and I deserve punishment. But what I wanted to
+say was about Martine. I know she was silly in doing what she did in the
+drawing-room, but although she seems so grown up, sometimes she acts
+just like a child. Why, I really believe she has forgotten all about
+last Saturday; at least she hasn't said a word to me, and she can't
+understand why I don't go to her house, and I can't ask her here, and I
+do wish that you'd let me."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to forbid you to go to Martine's," responded Mrs.
+Tilworth. "I should be sorry to do that, for, as you know, I like Mrs.
+Stratford. I merely advised you to see less of Martine. There are other
+girls who ought to be just as companionable&mdash;some indeed whom you might
+like better, if you would make the effort."</p>
+
+<p>"I had to make an effort to like Martine at first, and now that I am
+used to her, I can't grow intimate with anyone else."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, my dear, I think still that you are a little tired. If
+Martine sees fit to apologize for last Saturday, we can turn over the
+pages of that chapter."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I may go to see her to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never forbade you to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you, aunt Sarah," and as Mrs. Tilworth watched Priscilla's
+expression brighten, she wondered if in some way she had not been wrong
+in thinking the child overworked.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>WORD FROM BRENDA</h3>
+
+
+<p>Martine was at home when Priscilla called on Saturday morning.</p>
+
+<p>"It's really very condescending in your ladyship to come," she began;
+"and it's a wonder that you found me. I was to take a riding-lesson
+to-day, but by good luck I found when I telephoned yesterday that I
+could have an hour to myself then. So here I have Saturday free, with
+nothing on my mind but your visit and Brenda's letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, have you heard again from Mrs. Weston?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; isn't she a dear to write to me when she has so many people who
+really belong to her. She says she considers I belong to her, and that
+she's going to call me her ward until I really come out, and, of course,
+I shall consider myself her ward always. You've no idea how much I
+learned from her this autumn. If she had been a stiff, frumpy thing, I
+just couldn't have paid the least attention to her. I only wish mamma
+would let me do my hair up like Mrs. Weston's, but she says I'm too
+young. Well, in a year I shall be a perfect model of style à la Brenda."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is in the letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say there's so much actual news, only it makes you just long to
+get out of this cold, bleak climate. Only think of picking roses by the
+bushel in March, and sitting out in the sun without a wrap."</p>
+
+<p>"In San Francisco?" questioned Priscilla. "Why, I heard my cousin say
+that it was always too cold for thin gowns there, and that the winds
+were something terrible."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear child, you are so literal. No, this is down in Monterey,
+where there are wonderful gardens. Let me read:</p>
+
+<p>"'We are thankful that the rainy season is almost over, for when it
+rains there is apt to be a perfect flood, and we stay indoors for days.
+Sometimes it rains in the morning as if it would never stop, and then in
+the afternoon the sun comes out beautifully and the flowers look as if
+they had grown inches. But after the middle of June there will be no
+more rain until winter, and we can camp or plan excursions without
+casting a thought to the weather. Life, however, is not entirely play
+with us. Arthur is very busy, and often in the evenings he is too tired
+to go out. Consequently we are reading together a number of improving
+things, and when I get back to Boston I am almost sure that every one
+will say, "How much she knows!" I feel as if my new stock of learning
+must show on the surface even before anyone has time to discover it by
+talking with me. Arthur says he doesn't object to it at all, and won't
+do so unless I have to wear eyeglasses, which every one knows I always
+did hate.'"</p>
+
+<p>"The letter certainly sounds like her; when she got started she always
+talked in that breathless way."</p>
+
+<p>"'San Francisco is the most picturesque city I ever saw,'" continued
+Martine, reading Brenda's letter, "'all up and down hills, so that you
+feel as if you were riding over the waves of the ocean when you go out
+in a cable-car.</p>
+
+<p>"'From some of the high places where you go up to get a view, very often
+you only see things dimly through a fog, and then the towers and spires
+seem parts of castles and you can imagine you are in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>"'But although I am perfectly contented here, I often wish I were in
+Boston, and it makes me too blue for anything to remember that except
+for business I might now be living in the dearest little apartment in
+the world. I hope you and your mother enjoy it, Martine, as much as I
+did, and that you and Priscilla are still great friends.'"</p>
+
+<p>Martine let the sheet of paper fall from her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we good friends, Prissie dear?" she asked, leaning forward and
+resting her hand on Priscilla's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course, Martine; that's why I came. You see it was all on
+account of that acid, or salts, or whatever you call it, and the
+ink-spot, and&mdash;yes&mdash;and Julius Cæsar."</p>
+
+<p>"Julius Cæsar?" For a moment Martine appeared to be mystified.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," she spoke with a smile, "Julius and the Roman scarf, and the
+other improvements that I made in the drawing-room. Mrs. Tilworth blamed
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, not for that. She knew I couldn't be so silly."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, my dear. Then she blamed me. To be honest, I had hardly thought
+about my misbehavior since then. I had a vague idea that you would go
+down before your aunt came in and restore things to their proper
+condition. Now I perceive I must apologize. It's written all over you
+that Mrs. Tilworth will believe me a reprobate until I do so. So that is
+why you have been so very stiff and Plymouthy this week. Oh, Prissie,
+Prissie!"</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla made no reply. Now, as always, she found it difficult to reply
+to Martine's teasing.</p>
+
+<p>"You must stay here to luncheon, Prissie," continued Martine, "and this
+afternoon we'll have some fun. You must have had a very dull week
+without me. Dear me, this drawer is too full," she continued, as she
+endeavored to close a drawer of her desk on the top of which she had
+just placed Brenda's letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me help you," and Priscilla rushed over to Martine's side, but
+between them they only managed to pull drawer and contents to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"There, I will leave you to yourself, Prissie," said Martine; "you are
+better than I at straightening things out. I am going out to the
+dining-room to speak to Angelina."</p>
+
+<p>As Priscilla carefully replaced the scattered contents of the drawer she
+refrained from looking at the letters and other papers that lay before
+her. She acted thus from habit rather than because she thought there was
+any need of this carefulness just now. She had not come upon the drawer
+by accident, and therefore she was at liberty to look at anything that
+attracted her attention. Just as Priscilla's own reflections had taken
+this turn, she allowed her eye to rest on a half sheet of foolscap that
+she had last picked up. The handwriting upon it was not Martine's, and
+almost without realizing what she was doing, she began to read a
+sentence or two. Then somewhat startled, she folded the paper, and
+quickly put it back in the drawer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wish I hadn't seen it!" she thought. "It was Lucian's
+handwriting, and yet it seemed to be an outline of Martine's essay. I
+wonder if he wrote it for her. They say he does so well in English. I
+wish I hadn't seen it. It doesn't seem like Martine."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla was genuinely distressed, and when Martine returned, her
+feeling had taken the form of embarrassment. When Martine spoke to her,
+she replied with hesitation, and her manner had some of its old
+awkwardness.</p>
+
+<p>"There," exclaimed Martine, with some acrimony, "you are really rather
+provoking. Here I have been telephoning and planning a good time for
+you, and you begin to seem as icebergy as you seemed at Yarmouth last
+summer. Now listen, first of all I have apologized to your aunt by
+telephone."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Martine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and she says it's all right, and she has forgiven me on condition
+that I never disturb Julius Cæsar again. It was really very good of her,
+when you consider that she couldn't see my blushes of repentance. So
+that is settled. Secondly, you are to stay here for dinner, and go with
+us to a recital this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"A recital, and who is 'us'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lucian, and Robert, and me, or 'I,' whichever is most grammatical.
+As to the recital, why, haven't you heard that Angelina intends to
+distinguish herself in elocution? All her little surplus goes for
+voice-training, and things of that kind&mdash;and her recital's to-night. I
+should have invited you before, only you have been so high and mighty
+all the week."</p>
+
+<p>"But did my aunt say I could go? She doesn't approve of evening things
+generally&mdash;except parties, on Friday or Saturday evenings."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, thank goodness, there's no stupid party this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'll have to go home to dress."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Prissie, Prissie! surely you are not growing vain. What you have on
+is suitable for any occasion. Observe that I speak as one in authority.
+Mamma would say the same. The recital is not to be given at the Somerset
+or the Touraine, but somewhere in the outskirts, where 'glad clothes,'
+as the boys call them, would be quite out of place."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," and Priscilla resigned herself to Martine's stronger will.
+"I suppose it's all right."</p>
+
+<p>"There, dear iceberg, I am glad to see that you have begun to thaw. I
+hope Lucian and Robert will be as amiable. They have no idea what is
+before them, except that I am going to take them somewhere. Once in a
+while Lucian is too amiable to refuse what I ask, and this will be one
+of the times. For my own part, I shall be as thankful as mamma when the
+affair is over, for Angelina has been hopping about like a chicken with
+its head chopped off for a month past. What little mind she has has been
+fixed on her recitations, and I only hope she'll do herself proud."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Martine," protested Priscilla, "how can you use so much slang! Just
+think how Mrs. Redmond and Amy used to talk to you last summer."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and you too, Prissie dear, and this winter, my own mother. But
+when you begin to deteriorate, you will know that there are moments when
+one's spirits must have a safety valve, and slang is mine."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"So now, my dear Prissie, to show that I am not lost to all refining
+influences, let me suggest an hour at the Art Museum. I love pictures as
+dearly as I do not love music, and there are several favorites of mine
+there that I haven't seen for a month. Put on your hat and coat, and
+we'll be there in five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>When they were out in the clear air Martine's tone changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla," she said gently, "do you know I am a little worried about
+father? He writes as if his business was not going well. He does not say
+it in exactly those words, but he has written only once, and the letter
+was far from cheerful. Either it is his business, or he doesn't feel
+well&mdash;and he is so far away. It seems to me now that we oughtn't to have
+let him go."</p>
+
+<p>"But could you have helped it?" asked the practical Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps one of us could have gone with him&mdash;Lucian or I. South America
+seems so far away."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla's sympathy was readily aroused, and she gave it generously to
+Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be very, very hard for you to have your father so far away,
+especially if you think that he is not quite well. I know how it was
+when papa was in Cuba. It just seemed as if I couldn't bear it, and yet
+I suppose that there was nothing I could do, even if I had been there."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment both girls were silent, though they realized that a bond of
+sympathy was drawing them more closely together.</p>
+
+<p>Then Priscilla essayed the part of comforter.</p>
+
+<p>"You feel worse about your father because he is so far away. They say
+far-off fields look green, but I think that far-off worries are harder
+to bear than those near at hand. I mean when the people or things we
+worry about are so far away that we can't understand exactly what is
+going on."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Priscilla, for your sympathy. I dare say you are right, and
+yet I cannot help wishing that I understood things better. I am old
+enough to help&mdash;if only I really knew how."</p>
+
+<p>"The way will show itself if you are really needed. That is one of the
+small things I have learned the past year," responded Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla, you have helped me; you are a philosopher," cried Martine.</p>
+
+<p>In their hour at the Art Museum Martine recovered her spirits. She
+really knew something about paintings, and her favorites were chosen
+with discrimination. She lingered long and silently before those she
+loved best, and gave reasons for her preferences that would have done
+credit to a connoisseur.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how you ever learned so much," said Priscilla. "I feel like
+a perfect ignoramus before you when you talk of these things."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to pose as an expert; you make me feel as if I had been
+too bumptious," replied Martine. "It's only because we've travelled so
+much that I know something of art. I have picked it up little by little;
+even last summer, in spite of our efforts to devote ourselves to
+history, I gained a lot from Mrs. Redmond about color values, and light
+and shade."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a great thing to know just what pictures to like," responded
+Priscilla. "I like some paintings more than others, but I never know
+why."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither do I, my dear child, when we come right down to facts. I know
+why I <i>ought</i> to like certain things, but often those are the paintings
+that I like least. It's with pictures as with people, we admire many
+that we do not care for, and when we care very much, it's often because
+we really cannot help ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"You and I are so different," mused Priscilla, "I often wonder why you
+like me."</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla," cried Martine, "don't try to be a philosopher until you
+have left school."</p>
+
+<p>Yet hardly an hour before Martine had been praising Priscilla for her
+philosophy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RECITAL</h3>
+
+
+<p>For a few weeks after Angelina's <i>coup</i> she had little further
+opportunity to show her skill. The successor of the eloping cook proved
+a capable, steady person, so in love with her new place that to
+Angelina's disgust she hardly ever even took the afternoon and evening
+off to which she was entitled. For it had always been Angelina's custom
+in the absence of the cook to entertain some of her own friends in Mrs.
+Stratford's dining-room, and to provide them with refreshments of her
+own concoction.</p>
+
+<p>For doing this she would have justified herself (had she thought she
+needed justification) by saying that no one had ever forbidden her to
+have company&mdash;and anyway, Miss Martine would never object.</p>
+
+<p>In this opinion she was quite correct. But, unfortunately, Mrs.
+Stratford, and not her daughter, was in charge, and the former, unlike
+Martine, did not find the Portuguese girl a perpetual source of
+amusement. Neither was Angelina as popular with the new cook as she had
+hoped to be. Her blandishments had never availed so little to get her
+what she wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"And why she's so anxious to get me out of the house, I can in no ways
+understand, Mrs. Stratford, and me as quiet as can be, and never saying
+nothing to her when she sits there reading them novels with the big
+pictures on the cover, or making faces over the pomes she's learning."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't believe she's anxious to have you out of the way&mdash;only&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm, it's just that. She's wishing to fill the place up with company
+of her own, and because I keep an eye to the ice-chest she isn't at all
+pleased. I know what girls is, ma'am, and that Angelina, she's always up
+to something."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, when her mother repeated the substance of the cook's words,
+laughed lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's much more entertaining to have one person in the house who's
+up to something. If they were all as stupid as the cook, how dull it
+would be. But I can tell you what's the matter with Angelina&mdash;she is
+going to give a recital."</p>
+
+<p>"A recital?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It seems she has been taking elocution lessons ever since she had
+any money of her own to spend."</p>
+
+<p>"Did Miss Bourne encourage this kind of thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, she disapproved, but she just couldn't stop her. Brenda Weston
+told me all about it. Brenda thought there was no great harm in
+Angelina's amusing herself this way."</p>
+
+<p>"But elocution lessons must cost so&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's what Miss Bourne said, and she didn't want Angelina to go
+on the stage, as she threatened."</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina on the stage!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma. She has even confided to me that she has been answering
+advertisements of companies that want soubrettes. Of course I told her
+it was dreadful, and she's promised to give up that idea for the
+present. But I have taken some tickets for her recital."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, I wish you hadn't encouraged her."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, anything else would have seemed mean, and she didn't dare try to
+sell you any."</p>
+
+<p>After Martine's explanation, Mrs. Stratford was more patient with
+Angelina. How could she expect regular work from her until after the
+recital!</p>
+
+<p>This was the affair that Martine persuaded Priscilla to attend with her,
+as well as Lucian and Robert. The four other tickets that she had bought
+in addition to those needed for her party lay unused in her desk drawer.
+No one to whom she had offered them cared for them. The recital was to
+be given in a place too far away.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure we are on the right car?" Martine asked, after the four
+had been some time on their way.</p>
+
+<p>"You said Chelsea, didn't you? well, this car is bound for the Chelsea
+Ferry," replied Lucian.</p>
+
+<p>"Chelsea," exclaimed Priscilla, "I didn't know we were going there!
+Isn't that awfully far away? I oughtn't to go outside of Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"But this is only across the harbor, and Angelina says the hall is a
+very short way from the dock."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well," and Priscilla sank back in her seat. She must continue
+with her friends and since they were prepared to go to Chelsea, she
+could only resign herself to their plans.</p>
+
+<p>She did not like the ferry-boat. She did not enjoy the walk to the hall.
+Robert's jokes failed to amuse her, and even Lucian's college stories
+grew tiresome. To tell the truth, Priscilla dreaded the explanation she
+must give her aunt. Mrs. Tilworth had readily acceded to her dining with
+Martine. She had objected only slightly over the telephone when
+Priscilla had asked if she might go to a recital with Martine and her
+brother. Priscilla had telephoned even after Martine had obtained Mrs.
+Tilworth's consent.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry that it is not to be a musical affair. I do not care for
+miscellaneous programs. But there will be less harm in wasting time
+Saturday than any other evening, but I must ask you to be home early. I
+like to have the house locked at ten."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, aunt," and as Mrs. Tilworth had asked no questions about the
+performers, Priscilla was spared the necessity of telling her that
+Angelina would be the chief attraction. Yet of one thing she was now
+sure, as the four journeyed Chelseaward&mdash;Mrs. Tilworth would be
+displeased if she should be out late, and to return early from Chelsea,
+why, that surely was an impossibility.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what your Portuguese calls a short walk," growled Lucian,
+after they had wandered about for some time after leaving the ferry.
+"Thus far, every one we have asked has given us a different location. Do
+you know, Martine, this whole undertaking is a fool thing? Who but you
+would ever have thought of coming to Chelsea for amusement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Taps," responded Martine, sweetly, knowing that the old
+nickname would stir Lucian's anger even more. She did not dread Lucian's
+anger, for it never flamed very high, and while it lasted it was
+sometimes rather funny.</p>
+
+<p>"You have good company," continued Martine, in a calm tone,
+ill-calculated to soothe an irritated brother. "Priscilla and I have to
+walk just as far as you, and you ought to appreciate our being with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Ungallant Lucian did not reply, and the laugh with which the girls
+received some remark of Robert's did not please him.</p>
+
+<p>"It may seem funny to you to be wandering around the streets of Chelsea,
+but it would be more to the point, Martine, if you would gather your
+wits together, and remember the hall where this foolish entertainment is
+to hold forth."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment by some subtle working of her mind light came to Martine,
+and the next moment she had whispered the forgotten name of the hall to
+Robert. Upon this Robert shot ahead of the others, and when Lucian
+caught up with him, he was standing in front of a corner drug-store.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," he said, seizing Lucian's arm, "I'll show you where to go. We're
+ever so far out of our way. If you had left it all to me, we should have
+been there long ago."</p>
+
+<p>Turning the corner beyond the drug-store, and walking a few steps along
+a street parallel to the one on which they had looked for the hall, the
+four young people were soon at the entrance of a large building, the
+lower story of which was occupied by a grocery shop.</p>
+
+<p>In front of the shop was a group of half-grown boys.</p>
+
+<p>"Got a ticket, Mister?" said one of them, holding the green pasteboard
+card to Lucian.</p>
+
+<p>Lucian, who was really an amiable youth, had quickly recovered from his
+annoyance with Martine, and would not gratify Robert by showing vexation
+that the latter had been more successful in finding the hall. He
+suspected the truth&mdash;that Martine had helped Robert, and since they were
+now at the hall, what did it matter?</p>
+
+<p>"Got a ticket, Mister?" A second boy held out his hand to Lucian.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, that's why we're here," replied Lucian. "Are you selling
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, we're giving them away. We want an aujence," was the astonishing
+response.</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>does</i> he mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll soon know, Martine," said Priscilla, following the two others up
+a long flight of dimly-lit stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever?" Martine gazed around the hall as they entered; "there
+are not ten people here."</p>
+
+<p>"Just thirty." Priscilla was nothing if not accurate.</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought Angelina said she had sold two hundred tickets, Martine."</p>
+
+<p>"Expected to sell them, Lucian, though, to tell the truth, I thought she
+<i>had</i> sold them."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll wager she gave away half the seats that are occupied now. Those
+are Portuguese faces down in the front."</p>
+
+<p>"I paid for mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that, Martine. You always had a foolish habit of getting rid of
+your allowance almost as soon as you received it."</p>
+
+<p>"That reminds me," asked Robert, "is this a charitable performance? It
+would have been more charitable to let us stay quietly in our rooms.
+Just think what a fine four hours of study Lucian and I could have put
+in this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you are so apt to study Saturday evening," interposed Martine;
+"but to answer your question, I can't say that this is wholly
+charitable. Part of it is for a girls' club over here&mdash;I mean part of
+the profits&mdash;and the rest&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a poster," interrupted Lucian; "let's see what it says."</p>
+
+<p>"It's easy enough to read. It must have been meant for bill-board
+decoration. Big black letters on green paper. Listen!" and after reading
+aloud place and date, Lucian continued:</p>
+
+<h4>MISS ANGELINA ROSA<br />
+THE EMINENT MONOLOGUIST,<br />
+WILL GIVE ONE OF HER CHOICE RECITALS<br />
+FOR THE BENEFIT OF<br />
+THE GIRLS' EXCELSIOR CLUB<br />
+AND A HALF-ORPHAN</h4>
+
+
+<p>"A half-orphan!" shouted Robert. "What in the world&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, she means herself, of course; her father is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I see!" and then, after the fashion of young people, the four began
+to giggle.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! the audience will be disturbed." Priscilla was the first to
+recover herself.</p>
+
+<p>"What audience?" asked Martine, looking around the almost empty hall.</p>
+
+<p>"It's fifteen minutes past eight." Lucian closed his watch with a snap.
+"There's something happening. I wonder what it is. Two or three of those
+foreigners have gone behind the curtain."</p>
+
+<p>At half-past eight Angelina had not appeared. Lucian proposed going
+home. Martine thought she ought to find Angelina to learn if anything
+serious had happened. Some of the boys in the front seats scuffled
+angrily. The hall was neither well heated, nor well lit. Every one was
+uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that we really ought to go home," whispered Priscilla,
+half-timidly, to Lucian. But just at this moment the curtain was pushed
+aside, and Angelina appeared in the centre of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>In her pink satin gown with its tawdry trimmings at neck and sleeves,
+she looked "blacker and skinnier than ever," as Lucian put it. Just
+behind her walked a man who stumbled over her train, and then with a bow
+began to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Ladies and gentlemen, it is most unfortunate that this lady and I may
+not be able to give our entertainment as advertised."</p>
+
+<p>Hisses from the front soon interrupted the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"What has he to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>Lucian looked again at the poster where "Mr. Smithkins, accompanist"
+appeared in small letters at the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Smithkins resumed his speech: "The fact is there's been some
+misunderstanding with the owner of this hall, who refuses to let us
+proceed until the rent has been paid in advance."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, every cent of it," and a stout woman with a red face and a bonnet
+trimmed with purple flowers pushed her way from behind. Angelina waved a
+large red fan nervously, but otherwise did not appear discomposed. She
+was at least the centre of the stage and although the audience was
+small, all eyes were certainly fixed on her.</p>
+
+<p>The eloquence of the stout lady quite drowned the words of Mr.
+Smithkins, making vain efforts to give his version of the situation. But
+after the hubbub had subsided, it was fairly clear to those present that
+Angelina had failed to pay the fifteen dollars she had promised in
+advance for the hall. Moreover, it was even clearer that Mrs. Stinton,
+the owner of the building, meant not only to stop the entertainment, but
+also to prevent Angelina's "skipping," without giving her her due.</p>
+
+<p>"Will they arrest her?" asked Priscilla, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, of course not; Angelina must pay the money."</p>
+
+<p>"But you heard Mr. Smithkins say that she had been disappointed in the
+sale of tickets, and hadn't a cent even to pay him, and if he could
+afford to wait, Mrs. Stinton ought to be able to wait too."</p>
+
+<p>"Give us a song or a pome," called a voice from the rear of the hall.
+The boys, who had been lounging at the door, were now inside.</p>
+
+<p>Lucian and Robert rose from their seats.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse us for a moment," said the latter to Martine as the two made
+their way out into the aisle.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, they're going behind the scenes," said Priscilla, in surprise.
+Still more surprised was she when Lucian, raising the curtain, beckoned
+to Mrs. Stinton. The latter, impressed by the young man's appearance,
+went behind the curtain, and Mr. Smithkins, anxious to understand what
+was going on, followed her. Thus Angelina, to her own great
+satisfaction, was left in possession of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Smithkins, a little later, appeared before the audience, he had
+the pleasure to announce, as he phrased it, that Mrs. Stinton's demands
+had been paid in full by a friend of the talented Miss Rosa, and that
+the performance would go on as advertised.</p>
+
+<p>In promising this, however, Mr. Smithkins went a little too far. The
+cold hall, the low-necked gown, the long wait in which the young
+monologuist had heroically concealed her anxiety, all proved a great
+strain for Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>Although she began bravely enough with what she considered the gem of
+the repertoire, the monologue was given quite tamely, and though she
+continued it to the end she was evidently glad to stop. It was at this
+point that Mr. Smithkins showed himself of especial service, as he
+seated himself at the cracked piano. There he pounded out a number of
+popular airs to the great delight of the audience, and received far
+greater applause than poor Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, when Angelina appeared for the second time, there fell at
+her feet a large bouquet of carnations, for which she bowed her
+acknowledgments several times.</p>
+
+<p>It was all very pathetic as well as absurd. The dimly-lit, cold hall,
+the empty seats, the little figure bowing on the platform. Martine,
+always ready to see the amusing side of things, began to laugh. The rest
+of her party, even the considerate Priscilla, echoed the laugh. Then it
+spread to the front seats, and when Angelina was in the midst of her
+second selection, one in which she meant to move her audience to tears,
+all she could hear was one prolonged giggle. Poor Angelina! This
+laughter was the last straw. Still holding the flowers and the fan, she
+threw one angry glance toward the house, and then turning her back on
+friend and foe alike fled behind the curtain.</p>
+
+<p>"There, Martine, you've done it. It was your giggling that set them off.
+You ought to go behind and console her." Lucian seemed in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>"It's half-past nine." Robert looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we ought to start for home. We are so far away."</p>
+
+<p>There was nervousness in Priscilla's tone.</p>
+
+<p>Martine had made no effort to go to Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>"How is the prima donna to get to town?" asked Lucian. "Are you going to
+look after her, Martine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, her brother John is here. He is that tall, good-looking youth,
+standing near the door. She can depend on him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we may start," continued Lucian, "even if the show isn't wholly
+over. We cannot wait for further instalments."</p>
+
+<p>"We've had more than the value of our money," added Robert. "Mrs.
+Stinton's performance alone was worth the price."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, girls, you should have heard her express her surprise and
+gratitude when we gave her the fifteen dollars, and when we told her we
+were Harvard students, she could hardly believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"But what did Angelina think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we told her, Martine, that you had sent it, and that she must pay
+it back gradually. So you see that you, dear sister, will make the most
+out of this evening, as we'll let you keep whatever she pays back."</p>
+
+<p>With Angelina's <i>fiasco</i> to talk over, the four found the journey back
+to town much less tiresome than the "voyage," as Martine called it, to
+Chelsea. It seemed shorter, perhaps, because Robert discovered that they
+could return to Boston by a bridge instead of the ferry. When at last
+they left Priscilla at her door, it was not as late as it might have
+been if Angelina had carried out her full program.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>MARTINE'S ALTRUISM</h3>
+
+
+<p>In spite of her love of fun, Martine was considerate enough not to tease
+Angelina about her recital. Later, by degrees of her own accord, the
+little Portuguese told the story. After all, there was not much to tell.
+She had depended on a few posters scattered at random to fill the hall.
+She had thought that the girls of the Excelsior Club would sell many
+tickets. But she had fixed the price so high that the girls could
+neither afford to buy them, nor succeed in disposing of them to their
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, on the night of the recital, a Grand Army fair was holding an
+auction to which admission was free, and thither every one with a penny
+to spend had rushed, hoping for bargains. Even if Angelina had been a
+well-known elocutionist, she would have had difficulty in drawing people
+from the greater attraction.</p>
+
+<p>"But I never thought," she said, "that some of the people who regularly
+bought tickets from me would never pay for them, just because they
+thought it was too much trouble to go when they found out how far away
+the hall was. My brother John bought and paid for tickets, and so did
+you, Miss Martine, and with the tickets I sold I just made out to pay
+Mr. Smithkins the ten dollars I'd promised him. But it was very
+embarrassing about the hall&mdash;and if it hadn't been for your fifteen
+dollars, I don't know what I should have done."</p>
+
+<p>Martine did not explain her brother's part in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, that Mrs. Stinton could have charged it as well as not. It
+wouldn't have been anything to her. They say she owns a whole block of
+houses down by the ferry. But it's my last of the Excelsior Club. I
+consider they went back on me."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you have learned a lesson, Angelina. You ought not to have
+promised to pay for the hall until you were sure of getting enough money
+out of a recital. You should have waited&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I couldn't give a recital without a hall, and I should have paid if
+I'd sold more tickets."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this ought to be the last of your recitals."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I do well?" asked Angelina, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that isn't the point."</p>
+
+<p>Martine did not care at this moment to give her precise opinion of
+Angelina's dramatic ability.</p>
+
+<p>"But you see, this must have cost you a great deal, and you ought to
+save your money&mdash;everybody ought, and life is more serious&mdash;there,
+Angelina&mdash;I'll leave it all to mamma. She'll advise you," concluded
+Martine, feeling that she was getting into deep water, in advocating
+principles that she herself had not always been able to live up to.</p>
+
+<p>The experience of that memorable Saturday, combined with the advice
+given by Mrs. Stratford, so far influenced Angelina that for the time
+she devoted herself exclusively to her household duties, ceased to take
+elocution lessons, and began to save money. At first she offered to pay
+Martine a dollar a week, but when the latter learned that Angelina had
+other debts, she urged her to consider them first.</p>
+
+<p>"I can wait," she said, "and when you have finished paying for that pink
+satin dress&mdash;it would be a good idea for you to make your mother a
+present."</p>
+
+<p>Nora Gostar, who always kept closely in touch with the Rosas at their
+home in Shiloh, had asked Martine to influence Angelina to do more for
+her family.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since the Four Club years ago began to help the Rosas, Angelina
+has taken it for granted that the public would look after them. It is
+true that on the whole they are now fairly prosperous. With her boarders
+and her garden Mrs. Rosa makes both ends meet, and John always has
+something to spare for his brothers and sisters. It is only Angelina who
+seems ready to escape all responsibility. You will remind her, won't
+you, Martine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Martine, "but some people say I haven't enough sense of
+responsibility myself."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, then no one has observed you lately. You certainly have taken
+hold splendidly of the girls in your painting class. Two or three of
+them, you know, have been called 'hard cases.' No one else ever could
+interest them, and yet they seem perfectly devoted to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they are so amusing," said Martine, "that I can't help throwing
+myself into the work, and then I find out what they want to do, and let
+them do it. It's silly to make people do things they dislike. Of
+course," she added, with some embarrassment, "I am aware that this
+wouldn't be the right principle if I were a real artist, and were trying
+to make artists out of them. Some of them can't even draw, but they do
+take an interest in color, and so I am always hunting for good pictures
+in black and white&mdash;and their color effects sometimes are quite
+wonderful."</p>
+
+<p>Martine did not explain that not a little of her own pocket money was
+spent for pictures suitable to her rather original method of conducting
+the class. Photographs and lithographs cost money, and though Amy
+remonstrated that it was contrary to art to gild the lily, Martine
+replied that the end would justify her means.</p>
+
+<p>Among her six little pupils only one showed marked talent. She was a
+Russian girl who had been in Boston but a year, and her gift took the
+form of a genius for making caricatures.</p>
+
+<p>Her pencil was constantly in her hand, and even with her brush she could
+outline figures and scenes on the margins of her pictures that would
+send the others into fits of uproarious laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Esther, Esther," Martine said one day, "you should never make fun of
+older people. Who is that tall, thin person, with the lorgnette in her
+hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's teacher," explained one of the others, "the teacher in our
+school. It's her dead image, ain't it?" and the friend to whom she
+turned for confirmation, nodded, adding&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"When she's mad she puts her glasses up just so&mdash;and we all feel cheaper
+'n thirty cents."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you don't make fun of me this way, Esther, behind my back."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no'm, you ain't a teacher."</p>
+
+<p>As Martine was already aware that her girls always spoke of her as "the
+young lady," this doubtful compliment passed without criticism. Neither
+in her heart did she think it wise to criticise the little girl's
+caricatures.</p>
+
+<p>She was delighted when Mrs. Redmond, after looking at Esther's drawings,
+said that the child had real talent. Then without further delay, without
+indeed consulting anyone, Martine engaged an expensive teacher to give
+Esther drawing lessons once a week. Mrs. Redmond would have taught her
+gratuitously, had she not felt that the little girl's peculiar talent
+would be best developed by a teacher who made a specialty of figure
+drawing.</p>
+
+<p>Before Mr. Stratford's departure for England Martine had suggested that
+he add to the sum he had given her for Yvonne. To the little Acadienne
+had gone one third of three hundred dollars. This was a sum that Mr.
+Stratford had asked his daughter to share with her two friends Amy and
+Priscilla, and expend on the three young people in whom they had taken a
+special interest during their trip through Acadia.</p>
+
+<p>It had surprised Martine not a little when her usually generous father
+had hesitated about granting her little request for Yvonne.</p>
+
+<p>"Send her ten dollars from your own Christmas money, dear child, and
+later I will add to it. Your desire to help her pleases me very much,
+but just now I would rather not promise a large sum."</p>
+
+<p>"But I did not mean <i>very</i> large, papa; only enough for Alexander Babet
+to bring her up here and stay for a few months, until the doctors know
+what can be done for her eyes. It would make you happier, wouldn't it,
+papa, to know that she could see perfectly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it would, Martine, but just now I would rather postpone anything
+of this kind. Besides, even if I were a second Cr&oelig;sus, I should be
+more inclined to wait until I could have more thorough knowledge of the
+condition of the Babet family."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, papa, surely you believe what I have told you&mdash;that Yvonne is
+almost blind, and that she has the most beautiful voice."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear, but I know also that the Acadians are thrifty, and that
+the Babets will spend your gift so carefully, that it will go farther
+than five hundred dollars with most people. Some day we shall do more
+for Yvonne, but for the present she must be content with what she has."</p>
+
+<p>So positively did Mr. Stratford speak, that Martine, too, had to be
+content. She managed, however, not only to send the money that Mr.
+Stratford had suggested, but a box of slightly worn garments that could
+be adapted to the use of the little blind girl. She remembered Yvonne's
+love for pretty things, and what she sent had only enough of the newness
+worn off to enable the box to pass the watchful customs officials of
+Nova Scotia.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla did not pretend to be as altruistic as Martine, though both
+professed to take Amy for their model. Yet letters between Eunice and
+Priscilla passed back and forth constantly, and after reading them
+Priscilla was apt to sigh, and fall into a brown study; for Eunice,
+having for the first time found a confidante of her own age, opened her
+heart almost too freely, and in emphasizing the disappointments of her
+daily life, sometimes threw a cloud over her friend. This is a mistake
+made by some young letter-writers. They write intensely of personal
+disappointments that soon pass away. Yet the letter that they send seems
+to give permanence to their troubles, and if the person to whom they
+write is sensitive, she pictures the absent one as continually unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>Eunice and Balfour Airton were brother and sister living with their
+mother in Annapolis. They had been able to make pleasanter than it might
+have been the stay of Mrs. Redmond and the three girls in the old town.</p>
+
+<p>Eunice and Priscilla had soon become warm friends, and after their
+comparatively short acquaintance parted almost in tears. The Airtons
+were descended from Tories who had gone to Nova Scotia after the
+Revolution, and had always been highly respected. Even before the death
+of Eunice's father, however, they had lost much of their property, and
+were under a heavy strain to make both ends meet. Balfour Airton, who
+was a year or two older than Martine, was working his way through
+college. In his vacations he served as clerk in a grocery shop. Indeed,
+Martine had made his acquaintance one day when lost in the fog on the
+North Mountain. She had been rescued by Balfour, who fortunately drove
+up in his grocery cart.</p>
+
+<p>Balfour proved a most companionable boy, and his energy and industry
+made a great impression on Martine, when she contrasted him with the
+idler college boys whom she knew.</p>
+
+<p>By a combination of proofs needless to describe here, Martine discovered
+that she and the Airtons were third cousins, since their
+great-great-grandfather and hers, Thomas Blair, was the Tory exile who
+had gone to Nova Scotia after the Revolution. In the same way Edith
+Blair, Brenda's great friend, was a cousin of Eunice and Balfour, and
+Martine's first impulse on returning home had been to urge her father
+and Mr. Blair to provide for Balfour, so that he no longer need earn his
+way through college.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately enough, before she had spoken to her father, she talked the
+matter over with Mrs. Redmond.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Martine, I sincerely hope that you will change your mind about
+this. Or, if you do not, hope that your father and Mr. Blair will be
+hard-hearted enough to refuse your request."</p>
+
+<p>"How hard-hearted <i>you</i> are, Mrs. Redmond!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, not hard-hearted&mdash;only hard-headed."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am looking strictly to the practical side. In the first place, you
+would risk the loss of Balfour's friendship, if you should put him in
+the position of a pauper&mdash;for this is the light in which he might regard
+your interference."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, not a pauper!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Balfour is very proud&mdash;and in the second place, he could not
+afford to risk his independence, as he must, if he should accept money
+from strangers."</p>
+
+<p>"But they wouldn't be strangers; in the South third cousins are very
+near."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this isn't the South, and the relationship is on your mother's
+side, and Mrs. Blair's. Balfour would probably regard the men as
+strangers. Think over what I have said, Martine, and remember Balfour's
+disposition."</p>
+
+<p>"It is because he is so bright and industrious that I think it a shame
+that he should not have as good a chance as Lucian or Robert."</p>
+
+<p>"Balfour has the best possible chance. In the end his friends will be
+proud of him, and he will be thankful that no one took away his
+independence."</p>
+
+<p>Martine was sufficiently impressed by what Mrs. Redmond had said to give
+up for the time the plan she had formed of getting help for Balfour.</p>
+
+<p>When she saw that her father was not quite ready to do what she had
+planned for Yvonne, she was glad that she had not thrown on him the
+extra burden of considering the case of Balfour. She decided, however,
+to interest Lucian in Eunice's brother. In spite of Lucian's fondness
+for teasing Martine, he was really devoted to her. He was apt in the end
+to be influenced by her, although in the beginning often pretending to
+resist her influence.</p>
+
+<p>In his Freshman year, Lucian was drifting into the extravagant habits of
+an idle group from the preparatory school where he had fitted for
+Harvard. Fortunately, however, at the critical moment he came under the
+ken of Fritz Tomkins&mdash;a Junior. Between the two there then sprang up a
+friendship rather unusual in its way. For even at Harvard Freshmen and
+Juniors are seldom intimate. So it happened that when the summer came,
+instead of going to Europe with two or three of his classmates, Lucian
+really preferred a trip with Fritz. The two went to Nova Scotia, and the
+constant companionship with the sensible Fritz had given Lucian new
+views of life, or not to put it too seriously&mdash;of the value of time and
+money. Fritz himself was gay and light-hearted, fond of teasing his old
+friend Amy Redmond, and willing always to have others laugh at him. But
+beneath all his apparent frivolity was a depth of purpose that those who
+knew him best fully realized.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>PUZZLES</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the weeks immediately after the recital Martine and Priscilla were
+both so occupied with their studies and their little duties and
+pleasures that they saw less than usual of each other. Martine, on whom
+care sat rather lightly, ceased for the time to worry about her father.</p>
+
+<p>She noticed, it is true, that her mother did not read her father's last
+letter, which arrived about a week after her conversation with
+Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Is everything going on properly?" she asked eagerly, as her mother
+folded the letter within its envelope.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope for the best, dear. It seems too bad that your father had to go
+away at this time. It was a long, hard journey, and there are still
+difficulties before him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wish we could help, Lucian and I, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"You can help; indeed you have helped me immensely, by being bright and
+cheerful and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and economical. Once in a while it seems strange to have to stop
+and think of money. I bought two-dollar seats for the Paderewski
+matinee, although the three-dollar seats were much better, but I thought
+that as I had invited Priscilla and Grace&mdash;as well as Miss Mings&mdash;our
+history teacher&mdash;and as we were to go to the Somerset afterwards, I
+ought to be economical."</p>
+
+<p>Even Mrs. Stratford smiled at Martine's intended economy, as she said,
+"But my dear, I think perhaps it would have been wiser to pass this
+matinee by. You are not fond of instrumental music, and the whole thing
+means spending more money than you ought to spend in this way at
+present."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll take it out of my allowance. Of course I meant to anyway. I
+don't honestly care much about Paderewski myself, but Priscilla does,
+and most of the girls are wild about him, and everyone is going, so I
+should feel very silly to have to say I hadn't been."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, my dear, I cannot criticise you, for I gave you my
+permission, but in future you must think more about the cost of things."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma! indeed I often think of economizing, for even though it is
+pleasant here, living in an apartment with only Angelina and a cook is
+very different from being in our house at home, and I know we're here to
+save money. How some of the people we know would stare to see us trying
+to help with the work! why, the week the cook left I actually saw you
+washing dishes."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford smiled faintly; some of her Boston experiences had been
+trying, but she had said little to Martine about them.</p>
+
+<p>"So far as I am concerned," added Martine, "I have enjoyed everything in
+Boston. I have learned lots about cooking, and if it wasn't for school,
+sometimes I think we could manage just with Angelina. But I am going to
+economize so that papa will hardly know me when he comes home in June. I
+can get along with only one tailor-made suit, and perhaps two or three
+new silks this spring. But I do hope we can plan something worth while
+for the summer. Wouldn't you like the Yellowstone, with our own special
+guide, papa, Lucian, and all of us, and I could invite Priscilla, and we
+might have a few weeks in one of those big hotels among the mountains.
+What sport it would be!"</p>
+
+<p>Martine paused, almost out of breath.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't make many plans until we hear from your father," replied Mrs.
+Stratford, quietly, "but what you suggest isn't exactly in the direction
+of economy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I didn't suppose we'd have to economize always. Then you ought to
+speak to Lucian, mamma, he has ordered a new touring car."</p>
+
+<p>"That is the worst of indulging a boy from the cradle," and Mrs.
+Stratford sighed. "Last year your father told him he might have a new
+car this spring, and Lucian thinks he's very moderate because he is
+keeping within the two-thousand-dollar limit. I don't like to stop him,
+for if things come out as well as they may, he can have it."</p>
+
+<p>"Two thousand dollars!" exclaimed Martine, to whom figures usually did
+not mean much. "That is a large sum! Why, it would put a boy through
+college."</p>
+
+<p>She was thinking of Balfour Airton, and all that this amount of money
+would do for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Blair," continued Martine's mother, "calls Lucian very moderate in
+his college expenses. He stands well in his classes, too. She says that
+Philip spent three times as much."</p>
+
+<p>"And he had to leave Harvard without a degree!"</p>
+
+<p>"He has made it up since, and he is doing splendidly in business."</p>
+
+<p>"Edith says it's Pamela's influence that has done so much for him."</p>
+
+<p>"He was lucky enough to find a girl like her to marry him."</p>
+
+<p>"She certainly is a superior woman&mdash;even if she is country-born and a
+college graduate, as Mrs. Blair would say," responded Martine, smiling.
+"If only they lived nearer, I should spend half my time with cousin
+Pamela&mdash;if she'd let me, but Lincoln seems far away in the winter.
+That's one thing we'd gain from Lucian's new car; those out-of-town
+places would seem close at hand."</p>
+
+<p>Lucian, when Martine spoke to him about his car, admitted that he had
+ordered it, and he tried to laugh away her concern over family affairs.
+But his efforts in this direction were not really successful, and he saw
+that his sister was still troubled in spite of his argument that, if
+things were really going badly, he would have heard more from his
+father.</p>
+
+<p>"He'd be the last one to wish me to countermand the order. Why, every
+fellow in our set has a new machine this spring. I thought I was doing
+something to send my order in so early, though of course if worse comes
+to worse, I can get rid of it easily enough. Mine is to be ready in
+June, and I know a fellow who would take it off my hands gladly enough,
+as he can't get his until August. I'm going to pray, however, that
+things won't come to that pass."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, fortunately, was not inclined to borrow trouble, and although
+she by no means forgot the little conversation with her mother regarding
+her father's business, remembering it did not depress her. Life in the
+spring, even in a bleak New England spring, holds so many pleasant
+things for a girl of seventeen that intangible troubles are not likely
+to prevent her enjoyment of the present.</p>
+
+<p>Martine was popular at school, and her invitations far exceeded those of
+the majority of her classmates. The younger girls liked her because she
+was always cheerful, and never snubbed them. The older girls admired her
+because she had an air of knowing the world, and was ever ready with
+some amusing story. She was popular without having many intimate
+friends, and Priscilla was proud of the distinction of being the one
+girl who knew Martine the best. Here and there, naturally enough, there
+were girls who did not care especially for Martine. There were one or
+two who professed an inherent dislike of outsiders, as a class, and
+there were others who found fault with Martine in particular. They said
+that she was forward, that she was patronizing, and that her liberality
+in the spending of money was merely a way of "showing off" of which they
+did not approve. But the fact that Martine, at the beginning of the
+school year, had been dubbed "Brenda's ward" was more effectual than any
+other one thing in placing her within the inner circle of the school. In
+spite of the years that had elapsed since Brenda was a pupil at Miss
+Crawdon's, she and her doings were still remembered. Older sisters had
+talked to younger sisters about her, and everyone knew that she had been
+the most popular girl of her day. She was still spoken of most
+habitually as "Brenda," even by those who had not known her well. For in
+Boston the unmarried names of girls cling to them longer than in most
+cities, and those who immediately recalled "Brenda Barlow" had to think
+twice when "Mrs. Arthur Weston" was named.</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla, who was nothing if not exact, remonstrated occasionally with
+girls who spoke of Martine as "Brenda's ward."</p>
+
+<p>"She never was really her ward, you know, only Brenda was to chaperone
+her, and now that Mrs. Weston has gone away, it seems to me that the
+name ought to be dropped."</p>
+
+<p>The girls to whom Priscilla spoke only laughed at her.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child," said Marie Taggart, "from the way you cling to her, I
+judge you would rather have Martine called 'Priscilla's ward,' but
+Brenda is so far away that you mustn't be jealous of her, really and
+truly you must not."</p>
+
+<p>After this Priscilla said no more on this subject, although an observer
+would have noticed that she herself never spoke of her friend by the
+obnoxious title.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Stratford and Martine first took possession of Brenda's little
+apartment, Brenda's mother and sister, Mrs. Barlow and Mrs. Weston,
+added much to their pleasure by introducing them to their large circle
+of relatives and friends and in other ways, as Mrs. Barlow put it,
+"adopting" them in Brenda's place. But before January had come to an end
+the whole Barlow household was itself preparing to move. His physician
+had prescribed a change of air for Mr. Barlow, and after a few weeks in
+Florida the family intended to travel West, to join Brenda in California
+in the late spring.</p>
+
+<p>It happened, therefore, that the special groups to whom Mrs. Barlow had
+introduced the Stratfords felt no personal responsibility for them. This
+was not because they did not find the Chicagoans interesting, but
+because the latter seemed able to make their own friends without the
+help of a third person.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a great bore, mamma," Martine had protested, when one or
+two of Mrs. Barlow's friends urged that the young girl should join a
+certain exclusive dancing-class. "It would be a great bore if we had to
+act as if we were real old Bostonians. We are not, and though some of
+the sewing circles and dancing-classes, and afternoon-readings are
+offered us kindly, I do prefer to be independent and know only the
+people I want to know and do only the things I really wish to do.
+Anything else would be a nuisance, so please don't let anyone make
+social engagements for me."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford herself was not strong, and she really preferred a quiet
+life. Later she saw that Martine herself had been very wise in her
+attitude of independence. Martine indeed was happy enough&mdash;happy in her
+school acquaintances, happy in her friendship with Priscilla, and
+happier in her affection for Amy. It is true that Amy in this her last
+year of college was too busy to give much time to Martine, but when
+occasionally they had a half-day together, no one could have doubted
+their perfect understanding of each other.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning before the matinee to which Mrs. Stratford had referred,
+or to be more exact, at twelve o'clock on the very day of the great
+Paderewski recital, Martine ran out to the letter-box to post two or
+three notes. Angelina could have taken them for her, or she might better
+have followed the custom of the house, which was to give them to the
+hall-boy. But Martine had not been out that morning, as illness among
+her drawing pupils had occasioned a postponement of the usual Saturday
+lesson. She had therefore seized on the letters as an excuse for getting
+a breath of the fresh spring air that came in through the half-open
+windows, tantalizing her and urging her to leave the house.</p>
+
+<p>"I half wish I were not going to the recital," she said to herself, "on
+a mild sunny day like this I begrudge the hours I must spend in a
+crowded hall, and though I won't have to pretend to be in a seventh
+heaven over the music, yet it will weary me to have to show a proper
+degree of appreciation in the presence of my guests." So ran the course
+of Martine's thoughts as she approached the letter-box. After a turn or
+two in the mall under the trees, she walked back slowly toward the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"After all," she mused, "mamma was probably right. I have been
+extravagant. The tickets have really cost a pretty sum, counting
+premiums and all. For what is the good in inviting guests, unless one
+has the very best seats?"</p>
+
+<p>This thought of the seats inclined Martine to look again at her tickets,
+and as soon as she reached her room she went to her desk to look at
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma," she called, "you haven't by any chance seen a narrow envelope
+with my Paderewski tickets?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear," replied her mother, "surely you haven't lost them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I remember now, I put them in a larger envelope; they were
+lying here with my letters."</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Martine stood before her mother with dismay written on
+her face. "What do you suppose I have done? it's too foolish and too
+annoying for anything. I can't find the envelope with the tickets and I
+really believe that I dropped it into the letter-box."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Martine, I thought you'd outgrown those careless habits!"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so too, but there's no use in crying about spilled milk; I
+will try to do what I can to get the tickets from the postman."</p>
+
+<p>"There again you talk like a baby," said Mrs. Stratford. "Surely you
+must know that no postman can give you anything from a letter-box simply
+because you ask for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can try, that is if there's time."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's half-past twelve now, and if you are to meet Priscilla at
+half-past one, you will have all you can do to dress and keep your
+appointment."</p>
+
+<p>"But, mamma, what <i>can</i> I do without tickets? It will be terrible if we
+can't get in, and how everyone will laugh at me. And they were such good
+seats in the house."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry for you, my child, but I can say little to help you."</p>
+
+<p>While they were speaking, Martine had been making a rapid calculation.
+The only result at which she arrived was the impossibility of recovering
+the lost envelope.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one thing I can do," she said. "I'll dress as quickly as I can
+and run over to the branch postoffice; then I'll beg them to look over
+their mail and see if an envelope is there with the tickets I describe."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you can try, but I feel sure that you will not succeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what shall I do, mamma? It will be terrible to disappoint three
+people I've invited to so important an affair as this."</p>
+
+<p>"There is only one thing, my dear. If you fail to recover the tickets,
+you can pay single admissions at the door, and if you remember the
+number of your seats or in a general way where they are, you can take
+possession of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, mamma, that certainly is the only way, but dear me, four
+single admissions at one dollar apiece; this is something I hadn't
+planned for, and I intended to be so economical the rest of the spring."</p>
+
+<p>As quickly as she could, Martine hastened away to the postoffice, only
+to find that the mail from the box in which she had deposited her
+letters would not reach the office until half-past two, and that even
+then it was doubtful if the envelope would be given to her immediately.
+The only way, then, of saving her reputation as a hostess was to follow
+her mother's suggestion. She met her friends as she had planned, paid
+for admission to the hall and after some discussion with a rather obtuse
+usher at last found herself in possession of her own seats. It is to be
+feared that her impressions of the great pianist were sadly blurred that
+afternoon. Her brain was automatically working out problems of
+expenditure. She was trying to plan in what way she could economize to
+make up for the extravagance of this Paderewski matinee&mdash;to make up not
+only for this, but for various other needless expenses that she had
+lately incurred. So abstracted was she that she failed to join in the
+applause repeatedly showered on the musician, and on leaving the hall,
+she had very little to say to her friends. At the hotel afterwards,
+however, she brightened up and confided to Priscilla and Grace the way
+in which she had lost the tickets.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you managed very well," said Priscilla, "I should not have had
+the least idea what to do if anything like that happened to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither should I," added Grace, "but you are always clever about
+things, Martine."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, it was all mamma; I felt quite sure at first that I should have
+to telephone you not to meet me, but 'all's well that ends well,' and
+I'm so glad that that stupid usher let us have our seats; for you know
+they told me at the box office that actually there wasn't a seat to sell
+in the whole house, and ours were about the last admissions."</p>
+
+<p>"You were fortunate enough," said Miss Mings who had listened with
+considerable amusement to Martine's entertaining account of her mistake
+adventure.</p>
+
+<p>"Our afternoon with you has been so pleasant that I should have been
+very sorry to lose it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I should have made it up in some way," responded Martine. "We were
+bound to have this little tea here, and we might have taken a drive
+through the Park instead of hearing Paderewski. Truly, now, it would
+have been more fun, wouldn't it, Priscilla?"</p>
+
+<p>Honest Priscilla shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing could have been more delightful than this concert, though of
+course if we had had to give it up I should have made the best of it."</p>
+
+<p>"As you do of everything, Prissie dear. I only wish that I were half as
+amiable as you."</p>
+
+<p>Martine's economy did not extend very far. She refrained from doing some
+things that she would like to have done, when to do them meant going
+outside of her regular allowance. But each month's spending money was
+soon laid out on the various little things that pleased her fancy, and
+as she heard no more of depressing business conditions, she almost
+forgot her mother's warning.</p>
+
+<p>A week after the matinee Martine received a letter from Elinor Naylor.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, mother," she said, "isn't this the funniest thing? Elinor says
+that a few days ago she received an unsealed letter from me&mdash;at least
+the envelope was unsealed, but there wasn't a scrap of writing inside.
+Instead there were four tickets for a concert by Paderewski. She
+wondered why I sent them as she didn't receive them until the day after
+the date on the tickets. Now she returns them&mdash;and here they are! Isn't
+it ridiculous?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your carelessness certainly was ridiculous."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand it all now," cried Martine. "I had addressed and stamped
+an envelope to Elinor, as I sometimes do when I am intending to write.
+Then when I wanted to put my tickets away, I picked up this envelope
+without looking at the addressed side. Of course the tickets went safely
+to Philadelphia."</p>
+
+<p>"'Until I looked at the date,'" Martine read from Elinor's letter, "'I
+thought you had heard of my intention of coming to Boston, and meant me
+to hear Paderewski. But as I do not leave home until next week, there
+must be some other explanation.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I had no idea that Elinor was coming here," said Martine. "But I am
+delighted. If she can manage it, mightn't I have her here to spend a day
+or two with me? I know you would like her."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, my dear," replied Mrs. Stratford, and when Elinor accepted
+her invitation, Martine was delighted. Although Elinor could spare her
+only two days, both girls made the most of their time, and parted the
+best of friends, greatly to their own amusement. For both Elinor and
+Martine, whose friendship was of sudden growth, had begun their
+acquaintance with more or less prejudice. The acquaintance had developed
+into friendship chiefly through correspondence, as both girls had a gift
+for writing interesting letters.</p>
+
+<p>A chance commission which Elinor had entrusted to Martine the day of
+their drive to Cambridge had occasioned the first interchange of letters
+after Elinor's return to Philadelphia, and in the succeeding months they
+had continued to write once a fortnight. Thus their friendship had
+developed without their having seen much of each other, and Elinor's
+flying visit was delightful to them both in showing them how much they
+really had in common.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>AT PLYMOUTH</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Mother," said Martine, a week before Easter, "I have a splendid plan."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't it be fine to take Priscilla to New York for the holidays?
+Just think! she has never been there&mdash;and at her age&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford could but laugh at Martine's seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>"I imagine many persons twice Priscilla's age have never been in New
+York."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes&mdash;but Boston is so near&mdash;and Priscilla ought to go because she
+has the strangest notions about New York people&mdash;that they are all
+frivolous, with nothing to do but amuse themselves. I would like to have
+her at the Waldorf for a few days. Wouldn't she open her eyes? I am just
+crazy to take her!"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear it isn't feasible, my dear, to go away now."</p>
+
+<p>"But you like New York, and a change always benefits you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You like Priscilla, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. She is an excellent companion for you. You balance each
+other perfectly, and I should be glad to have you spend your holidays
+together. But New York&mdash;no, my dear, we must be careful this spring
+about spending money&mdash;your father has had losses and expenses."</p>
+
+<p>Something in her mother's tone impressed Martine, something in her
+words, too, as well as in her tone. She had seldom heard either her
+father or her mother talk of economy, except in occasional instances
+when she herself had been carelessly extravagant. Now the mention of her
+father stirred her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope that wasn't why papa went away, on account of money. Of
+course I know we have to be more economical&mdash;but a trip to New York is
+so short, and we always have travelled so much."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, dear. But, fortunately, neither of us needs change just now.
+There is much in Boston that you have not yet seen, and I can imagine
+your spending the vacation delightfully without leaving the city."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am sure I could, mamma; and now that you have spoken of it, I
+should just love to economize. I don't need a new spring hat&mdash;the one I
+had last season is as good as new&mdash;and if you would let the cook go&mdash;I
+am sure that Angelina and I could do all the work." Martine spoke
+anxiously, even excitedly. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no need of any desperate economy just yet. But if you and
+Lucian can be contented with me, I can promise you a pleasant vacation."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure of it, mamma; let us make some plans now."</p>
+
+<p>But the plans that Martine and her mother made were not destined to be
+carried out&mdash;at least, during this particular vacation. For a couple of
+days before school closed an invitation came from Mrs. Danforth, urging
+Martine to spend a week at Plymouth. Immediately New York lost all its
+attractiveness for Martine. To visit Plymouth was her one desire.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be delightful, Puritan Prissie"&mdash;even now she could not resist
+her love of teasing&mdash;"to see the place where you were 'raised,' as they
+say down South. I wonder if there's something in the air to make
+Plymouth people different from others. To be sure, you are the only one
+I've ever seen."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I so very different from other people?" Priscilla spoke as if not
+altogether pleased with Martine's words.</p>
+
+<p>"Not too different&mdash;only you are fearfully conscientious, and you fuss
+too much over little things, and you know how to economize&mdash;which I wish
+I did. But for all that, you are not half bad, and your mother is
+perfectly lovely to invite a girl she has never seen to spend a week
+with her. You must have given a good account of me."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, Martine, and she has heard of you from others&mdash;if only you
+wouldn't make fun of everything."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't, I promise you I won't."</p>
+
+<p>Martine looked keenly at her friend, wondering if she really feared that
+she would be so thoughtless.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I was rather mean last summer," she reflected, "and it's
+natural, perhaps, for Priscilla to lack confidence in me."</p>
+
+<p>When they were ready to start Martine was somewhat disappointed that
+they could not go to Plymouth by boat.</p>
+
+<p>"A train seems so prosaic," she said; "and now when I am going to
+historic ground, I should like to be able to jump ashore&mdash;just as the
+Pilgrims did."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't suppose you'd take so much interest. Last summer&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Prissie! After all my efforts this winter, surely you might admit
+that I have improved. Why, now, I've wholly forgotten that we ever had a
+French and English question to dispute over. Before we reach Plymouth
+I'll be as good a Puritan as you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tilworth and Lucian saw the two girls safely on board their train.
+But from Boston to Plymouth Priscilla and Martine travelled alone. They
+had so much to talk of that the journey seemed short enough, and Martine
+was surprised when the conductor called Plymouth.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had Priscilla's foot touched the platform, when a whirlwind of
+heads and arms seemed to engulf her.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, I'm going to ride up in the carriage&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"What did Aunt Sarah send us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Priscilla, I'm so glad you're home. The yellow cat has four of the
+cunningest kittens!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and we've had to muzzle Carlo, because a mad dog from Kingston ran
+through town the other day."</p>
+
+<p>"There, there," and Priscilla disentangled herself from the arms of the
+children. "Martine, these are my little brothers and sister. There are
+only three of them&mdash;though they sound like a regiment. Children, this is
+my great friend, Martine Stratford."</p>
+
+<p>The children looked up brightly, and held out their hands.</p>
+
+<p>"We are very glad to see you," said Marcus, the elder boy.</p>
+
+<p>"We hope you'll stay a long time," added George, the second.</p>
+
+<p>Little Lucy was too shy to speak to the newcomer, but she held up her
+head, as if expecting the kiss that Martine promptly bestowed on her.</p>
+
+<p>The resemblance between the three children was very striking, and they
+all looked like Priscilla, with their calm, blue eyes and blonde hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, Priscilla," exclaimed Marcus, recovering from the awful moment of
+being introduced to a stranger. "Say, now, I <i>can</i> ride up with you,
+can't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's my turn," interposed George. "'Tisn't fair for you to ride every
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"Lucy can come with us," replied Priscilla. "There's no room for you
+boys."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them all come with us," cried Martine. "We won't mind being
+crowded."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I don't mind," responded Priscilla. "I was thinking of you."</p>
+
+<p>The carriage into which the children climbed was an old-fashioned
+carryall, the driver an elderly man, who addressed Priscilla without
+formality.</p>
+
+<p>"What did Aunt Sarah send me?" persisted George, as they drove along.</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear, it isn't long since you had your Christmas presents,"
+protested Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"You never come home without bringing something."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait and see," said Priscilla, squeezing Lucy. "It seems as if I hadn't
+seen a child for a year."</p>
+
+<p>"You were here Christmas; you didn't go away until New Year's," said the
+literal Marcus.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that I haven't had a chance to talk to a child, not to mention
+squeezing one," responded the smiling Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't there any little girls in Boston?" asked Lucy, timidly. "Haven't
+your friends any sisters and brothers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Martine hasn't, and she's my best friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how too bad!"</p>
+
+<p>"That I'm Priscilla's best friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that you haven't brothers and sisters."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a big brother, but he's in college."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are! There's mother at the door."</p>
+
+<p>In her delight, Priscilla was almost ready to jump from the carriage
+before it had fully stopped. Again Martine stared at her friend. Could
+this be the cool, unemotional Priscilla? The greetings of mother and
+daughter could have been no warmer had they been separated for years
+instead of months.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, Priscilla, Martine will think we have forgotten her&mdash;I
+should know you, my dear&mdash;" and Mrs. Danforth held out both hands to
+Martine, "from Priscilla's enthusiastic descriptions of you. I can see
+you are just what she said you were."</p>
+
+<p>From that moment when Mrs. Danforth kissed her lightly on the forehead,
+Martine felt perfectly at home.</p>
+
+<p>As Martine had approached the Danforth house, she had noticed that the
+house was a large, square wooden structure, painted brown. The paint,
+indeed, was faded in spots, and the general aspect was rather dingy.</p>
+
+<p>Once inside the house, Martine, without meaning to be critical, was
+slightly impressed by the general air of shabbiness. The carpets were
+dull from the trampling of many little feet, the furniture was simple,
+the pictures old-fashioned, and the gilt frames somewhat tarnished. But
+there were books everywhere, in the open bookshelves in hall and
+sitting-room. Open fires were blazing in large fireplaces.</p>
+
+<p>When Priscilla led her to her own room there was the same air of
+homelikeness, from the easy-chair drawn up before the fire to the large
+bowls of mayflowers on mantelpiece and dressing-table.</p>
+
+<p>After supper, when all gathered around her, Lucy on her knee, the boys
+hanging over her chair, to hear what she had to tell about Chicago&mdash;for
+this was their special request&mdash;Martine felt as if she had known the
+Danforths all her life.</p>
+
+<p>As to Priscilla&mdash;Martine now really understood why Eunice Airton and
+Priscilla had been so much to each other. Far apart though Plymouth and
+Annapolis were, the Danforth household had an atmosphere very similar to
+that of the Airton family. It was true that Eunice had no younger
+brothers or sister, nor was Mrs. Danforth quite as old-fashioned as Mrs.
+Airton in manner and speech.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Danforth, indeed, seemed to Martine more like some one she had
+always known, and she soon felt completely at home with her. The evening
+passed quickly away, as they sat around the open fire, and the children
+were allowed to extend their bed-hour an hour beyond the usual time.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is going to be my guide?" asked Martine, before they separated for
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>"That depends on what you want to see," responded Marcus, cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not very gallant," protested Mrs. Danforth. "You should be very
+proud to guide a young lady from the city wherever she wishes to go."</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>am</i> proud," interposed George. "I'll go anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the cautious Marcus, "I only meant that I don't want to go
+up on Burial Hill. It's very stupid looking at those old gravestones,
+and there aren't any real Pilgrims there, at least not any worth
+mentioning."</p>
+
+<p>"But there's a lovely view," said Priscilla, "and the first fort stood
+up there, and some people like old gravestones."</p>
+
+<p>"To be perfectly frank," said Martine, "I don't care so very much for
+them, unless the inscriptions are entertaining. Don't look shocked,
+Prissie, epitaphs can be very amusing sometimes. But what would you like
+to show me, Marcus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'd like to take you out into the woods for mayflowers, for one
+thing, and over to Duxbury to see the Standish monument for another; but
+I just hate poking about the town, looking for old houses and ruins the
+way some people do; for we haven't any ruins here."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I suppose you wouldn't condescend to show me Plymouth Rock? For
+that, of course, is one of the things I <i>must</i> see."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll take you there!" interrupted George; "let's go right after
+breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I'll be ready; and thank you for your invitation."</p>
+
+<p>And Martine, bending toward the little fellow, kissed him good-night. As
+she turned away, George reddened with delight; it was pleasant to be
+treated as if he were as old as Marcus; for Marcus, his elder by two
+years, had a brotherly habit of making him feel himself to be of the
+slightest consequence in the estimation of strangers.</p>
+
+<p>Promptly after breakfast Martine set out with George.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you won't mind my leaving you, Priscilla," she said. "You and
+your mother must have so many things to talk over."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you; a little later I will go join you, but I know that George
+will show you just what you wish to see;" and Priscilla kissed Martine
+good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>At her first sight of the rock, the Plymouth Rock of history and poetry,
+Martine gave a gasp of surprise. It was so much smaller than she had
+expected. The little guide-book that Mrs. Danforth had put in her hands
+told her that from 1775 to 1880 the rock had been in two pieces, and
+that one piece was for a long time exhibited in Pilgrim Hall; but at
+last a generous son of Plymouth, feeling that the rock deserved greater
+honor, had had the two pieces put together on a spot that was probably
+very near the place that it occupied in 1620, and had had it protected
+by granite canopy and an iron fence.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it looks as though I could almost carry it away myself; it's
+hardly large enough for a good-sized man to stand on."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, two or three men could stand on it," said the literal George, who
+thereupon began to make calculations to convince Martine of her error.</p>
+
+<p>Martine, somewhat amused by George's earnestness, began to tease the
+little fellow.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really believe that this rock was here in the time of the
+Pilgrim Fathers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, where else could it have been?"</p>
+
+<p>To this question Martine had no answer ready, and before she had made a
+second attempt to puzzle George, an old gentleman who had been standing
+near them stepped up.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not skeptical, young lady, about the famous rock?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," replied Martine; "I don't know enough about it to be
+skeptical."</p>
+
+<p>The old gentleman glanced at her quizzically.</p>
+
+<p>"There is more philosophy in that remark than you perhaps realize, young
+lady. But this is really <i>the</i> rock, the only one to be found the whole
+length of this sandy shore. So it must be the rock on which the
+Mayflower's passengers landed."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder why they didn't just step out on the beach," persisted
+Martine. "I should think that would have been ever so much more
+comfortable than hopping down on this rock."</p>
+
+<p>"Others besides you have intimated the same thing," persisted the old
+gentleman; "but you must admit that a rock is a better foundation for
+the sentiment of a nation to base itself on than a sandy beach. Even our
+foreign-born children pin much of their patriotism to Plymouth Rock."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young lady, in George's presence, at least, you must not
+intimate that it is possible to believe anything about Plymouth Rock
+except what is usually taught in school histories."</p>
+
+<p>Martine looked earnestly at the old gentleman. She could not tell
+whether he was in jest or in earnest, but there was something in his
+face that she liked. She felt as if she had always known him. He seemed
+really like an old friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Stacy," interposed George, "I never know exactly what you mean, but
+I am sure that the school histories are true."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, my dear, but I can see that this young lady wishes to go back
+of the printed book. She would like to know why we think this is the
+rock of the Pilgrims. So, as there is no one else here to inform her,
+the duty seems to have fallen on me. We pin our faith to the rock," he
+continued, "on account of the testimony of Elder Faunce, a truthful man,
+who, in the first half of the eighteenth century&mdash;1743, I believe&mdash;made
+a vigorous protest when certain individuals began to build a wharf,
+which would have covered the rock. He said that this stone had been
+pointed out to him by his father as the one on which the founders of the
+colony had landed. It is true that John Faunce, the father, did not come
+over on the Mayflower, and what he knew of the landing he must have
+heard from others. But as he had arrived in Plymouth in 1623, he must
+have had his information on the best authority. Elder Faunce, the son of
+John Faunce, was forty years old when the last of the Mayflower
+passengers died, and if the story of the rock was not true, doubtless he
+would have heard some one contradict it."</p>
+
+<p>"Did they build the wharf?" asked Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe they did. But the rock was kept in sight, and eventually
+became the step of a warehouse. Later, as I dare say you have heard, it
+was broken in two pieces, and it is only since 1880 that we have had it
+restored here to a spot very near where the Mayflower landed&mdash;and
+protected," he concluded, with a smile, "so that the relic hunters can't
+carry it off bodily. It's a wonder that some one hasn't tried to get it
+for one of the World's Fairs now so prevalent in the country."</p>
+
+<p>"I should hate to see it carted around like the Liberty Bell, although
+we were glad enough to have it in Chicago."</p>
+
+<p>"So you are from Chicago," said Mr. Stacy; "then I must try to make you
+think that Plymouth is the centre of the earth. From your being with
+George I thought you were one of Priscilla's Boston friends. By the way,
+perhaps you may recall the lines in Miles Standish, where John Alden and
+others went down to the seashore:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Down to the Plymouth Rock, that had been to their feet as a door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Into a world unknown&mdash;the cornerstone of a nation!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I always thought that a fine line, though it isn't quoted as often as it
+might be; 'the cornerstone of a nation,'" repeated Mr. Stacy. "Well,
+Priscilla and I always have a pretty little quarrel over this particular
+doorstep. You know she is very proud of her descent from Priscilla and
+John Alden."</p>
+
+<p>"So am I," piped up little George.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, my boy, just as I am of descending from Mary Chilton. Well,
+traditions are somewhat confused as to who stepped first on Plymouth
+Rock&mdash;providing anyone of the Mayflower people really stepped on it at
+all. The honors are divided apparently between Mary Chilton and John
+Alden. I'd like to give them to a lady&mdash;Priscilla, for example, but in
+that case I should have to slight another lady, my ancestress, Mary
+Chilton; so there you have the two horns of a dilemma."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know better than that," cried George; "Mary Chilton wasn't in it,
+of course she wasn't."</p>
+
+<p>"In what, my child? or are you merely indulging in slang?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you know, Mr. Stacy, she wasn't in that first shallop that went
+ashore from Clark's Island. Of course a woman wouldn't come out in a
+little boat, when they were trying to find a landing-place. No, of
+course it was John Alden."</p>
+
+<p>"Your reasoning is pretty reasonable&mdash;for a little boy," said Mr. Stacy.
+"But, my dear Miss Chicago," he continued, "if you are on a sight-seeing
+walk, let me go with you. I need not say to an up-to-date young lady
+that none of the houses of the original Pilgrims are here, though as we
+walk along we shall pass near the sites of many of them. The old
+Plymouth was chiefly down here near the water, not so very far from the
+rock. This is the first street, close to the brook that ran down from
+Billington Sea."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be very pleasant in summer," and Martine glanced down the long
+tree-lined street. The trees were budding, but the leaves were not yet
+out.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a calm, shady street," rejoined Mr. Stacy; "sometimes we wish the
+electric cars were not so near, but the curse has been partly taken off
+by the names they bear. Probably you have noticed 'Priscilla,'
+'Pilgrim,' 'Samoset,' and the other historical names. Perhaps it is just
+as well there are none of the old houses left. The descendants of
+forefathers might have been ashamed of them, of the houses&mdash;I mean.
+Perhaps you remember Holmes' lines on the subject. The Autocrat had the
+faculty of hitting the nail on the head and in speaking of the Pilgrim,
+he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'His home was a freezing cabin<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Too bare for a freezing rat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Its roof was thatched with ragged grass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And bald enough for that.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The hole that served for casement<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Was glazed with a ragged hat.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But this description applies only to the very first houses. Those that
+were built for the next twenty or thirty years were plain enough, but
+comfortable. Plymouth never had many of the elaborate Colonial houses
+that are shown in some of the New England towns."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish one or two of those oldest houses were left," said Martine.
+"Isn't there even one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I believe you are really interested in old Plymouth," said Mr.
+Stacy, smiling at Martine. "If you don't mind walking with me I'll show
+you the oldest house now standing. But this old Doten house was built
+only a few years before 1660, and is very little changed from its
+original appearance, at least so far as the outside is concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"The trees look as if they might be almost as old as the house," said
+Martine, as they stood before the little low-roofed house in Sandwich
+Street in front of which two great trees with gnarled trunks stood as
+sentinels.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, Martine, let's go up to the Monument," whispered George. "I'm
+afraid Mr. Stacy will want to take us up on Burial Hill."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stacy heard the loud whisper, and Martine herself was amused at
+George's entreaty.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that was what Marcus didn't want to do, and you said you would go
+anywhere with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to show you something myself. You can go with Mr. Stacy to the
+hill some other day."</p>
+
+<p>"There, George, you have suggested just what I had in mind. Please tell
+your mother that I hope to come over to see Priscilla and her friend
+this evening. Then we can arrange about our visit to Burial Hill."</p>
+
+<p>After Mr. Stacy had said good-bye Martine and George retraced their
+steps, and climbed the hill to the monument to the Forefathers.</p>
+
+<p>"There's nine acres in the park," explained George, "and the monument is
+eighty-one feet high. That's the figure of Faith on top, and I think the
+whole thing is fine, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly <i>is</i> fine," responded Martine, amused at George's
+eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"You know down at Provincetown they say the Pilgrims landed there first,
+and they're going to build a monument that will beat this all to pieces.
+But I don't believe they can, do you, Miss Martine?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Martine, "indeed I do not."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon, after she had sufficiently admired the historic bas-reliefs
+depicting scenes in the lives of the Forefathers, George led his guest
+down the hill, well pleased with her appreciation of his favorite work
+of art.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>TALES AND RELICS</h3>
+
+
+<p>True to his promise Mr. Stacy called on Priscilla and Martine the second
+evening of their stay in Plymouth. He proved even more entertaining as a
+story-teller than as a guide.</p>
+
+<p>"What he doesn't know about old-colony life isn't worth knowing,"
+Priscilla had said, and Mr. Stacy certainly proved the truth of these
+words. Of Bradford and Carver and Winslow and Brewster he spoke as
+familiarly as if they were brothers. He made them live again as he
+talked, bringing out little facts that he said every schoolgirl and boy
+ought to know, though Martine had to admit that if she had ever known
+these things, they were now half forgotten. Priscilla modestly concealed
+her own store of information, but Martine, remembering how eagerly her
+friend had drunk in all that Amy and Balfour had had to tell the summer
+before about the English and the Acadians in Nova Scotia, knew that
+Priscilla was probably hardly second to Mr. Stacy in her knowledge of
+Puritan history.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please, Mr. Stacy, tell us one of your witch stories," demanded
+Marcus, as they sat around the blazing fire.</p>
+
+<p>"A witch story! Do you wish me to frighten the young lady from Chicago?"</p>
+
+<p>"A witch story!" repeated Martine; "why, I thought the witches were only
+in Salem. I supposed people down here were too sensible to believe in
+witches."</p>
+
+<p>"Few localities are so sensible as to escape all delusion. A vague
+belief in evil spirits and witches existed in all the colonies even
+well-through the eighteenth century, although the witchcraft persecution
+was of comparatively short duration."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care for witchcraft stories," said Priscilla, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well!" cried Mr. Stacy, smiling; "between two fires, what shall I
+do? Mrs. Danforth, you must be umpire."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell them one little unexciting witch story," replied Mrs. Danforth.
+"Priscilla is too old to be troubled by bad dreams, at least from so
+small a cause."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't that," protested staid Priscilla, "only witch stories are so
+silly."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if that's the only thing against them," cried Martine, "please tell
+me as many as you can. I love silly things&mdash;sometimes. So please tell us
+a story, Mr. Stacy."</p>
+
+<p>"Really," rejoined Mr. Stacy, "I should hardly know what to say, if the
+rules of hospitality did not provide me with an excuse. It is fair, I
+imagine, to regard Miss Martine as a guest of Plymouth in general, as
+well as of the Danforth family in particular, therefore, fair lady, I
+yield to your demand. But what I am going to tell you is neither very
+exciting, nor very silly. It merely shows how recently in this corner of
+the globe the plain people retained some of the mediæval belief in
+witches. For I knew a man who in his youth knew a man who believed this
+story. On the outskirts of Plymouth once lived an old woman whom people
+called a witch, and once when she was calling at a certain house, Jenny,
+a girl of twelve, placed the broom with which she was sweeping, under
+Aunt Nabby's chair. Aunt Nabby was the reputed witch, and if you know
+anything about witches, you must know that to offer one a broomstick can
+only be regarded as an insult. So in this case Aunt Nabby, when she
+perceived what Jenny had done, rose in anger, and vowed that she would
+get even with Jenny and her family."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she?" asked George, who was always over-anxious to hear the
+conclusion of a story.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," replied Mr. Stacy, "you will soon hear. In a day or two Jenny
+became very ill, and the old country doctor could not tell what the
+matter was. She seemed to be fading away. 'Perhaps Aunt Nabby has
+something to do with it,' said poor Mrs. Bonsal, Jenny's mother; and
+then the doctor, asking what was meant, heard the story of the
+broomstick. 'Go, John Bonsal,' he said to Jenny's father, 'go to Aunt
+Nabby's, and find out what she is up to.' When John Bonsal reached Aunt
+Nabby's house, there was no one in the kitchen but her big black cat,
+whom some people thought her assistant in evil doing. So John Bonsal
+went down by the brook, where he found Aunt Nabby so much occupied that
+she hardly looked up at his approach."</p>
+
+<p>"What was she doing?" asked George.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush," cried Marcus; "listen, and you will find out."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," continued Mr. Stacy, "Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little
+dolls of clay that she moulded into shape with water from the brook.
+When she finished these figures or dolls, she stuck a pin or two into
+them, and John Bonsal understood at once that by means of these dolls
+she was working a charm on poor Jenny that in time would cause her
+death, unless he could stop the doll-making. Upon this the angry father
+raised the horsewhip that he carried in his hand, and thrashed Nabby
+with might and main. As she cried for mercy, he told her that she should
+be burned as a witch unless she promised to remove the spell that she
+had cast over his daughter. At first she refused, but at last she
+promised. 'Your Jenny shall get well,' she cried, 'and I will work no
+more charms.' Upon this the big black cat that had followed John Bonsal
+from the house gave a great howl, and vanished completely from sight."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a>
+<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little dolls of clay."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>"Where did he go?" asked George.</p>
+
+<p>"Down to the centre of the earth, probably," replied Mr. Stacy,
+solemnly. "But it's more to the point that Jenny recovered, and Aunt
+Nabby was never again known to carry on any of her witcheries."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, thank you," cried all the circle, except Priscilla, who
+still looked as if she thought stories of this kind rather silly.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma," cried Lucy, after a moment's pause, as if she, too, shared
+Priscilla's feeling, "let us have something more sensible than witch
+stories."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us have a charade&mdash;you said you had found one in an old book that
+you would give us."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Danforth looked at the clock. "There is just time for one before
+you go to bed," she said, "and so I will give you the old one you speak
+of."</p>
+
+<p>George and Lucy clapped their hands with delight. They were fond of
+guessing-games, particularly when their mother played with them.</p>
+
+<p>"I must tell you," said Mrs. Danforth, picking up a book from the table,
+"that this is a very short one and must be guessed within five minutes
+after I have read it." Whereupon she read slowly:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Just where the heavens grew blue and high,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My first that was so pure and bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere it could rise into the sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Passed in my second out of sight;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Before it vanished from the earth<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My whole rose through it at their birth.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Only five minutes!" complained George; "I don't think that's long
+enough. I didn't understand what the first was."</p>
+
+<p>Patiently Mrs. Danforth read the first two lines, then the second, and
+finally, at Lucy's request, the last.</p>
+
+<p>"I have it," cried Marcus, before three minutes had passed.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't we have five minutes more? I know I could guess it, if we had
+time enough."</p>
+
+<p>"You never guess anything, George, no matter how much time there is,"
+exclaimed Marcus.</p>
+
+<p>"Neither does Priscilla," rejoined George; "but if we had more time&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Six minutes have passed; you see I have given more than the allotted
+time," called Mrs. Danforth at last.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you make it, Marcus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Snowballs!" cried Marcus, triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" protested Lucy; "how could it be 'snowballs?' What is yours,
+Miss Martine?"</p>
+
+<p>Martine handed a slip of paper to Lucy on which she had written a word.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, that is it. Snowdrops, that is right, isn't it, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear; it is almost too simple a charade to set before our
+guest. It would have been harder to guess if we had tried to act it.
+Perhaps to-morrow we can act charades."</p>
+
+<p>When the younger children had gone to bed, Martine enjoyed the quiet
+hour with Priscilla and Mrs. Danforth and Mr. Stacy.</p>
+
+<p>"I had no idea Plymouth could be so interesting," she said. "I feel that
+my two or three more days will not be enough for all that I wish to
+see."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, Martine spent less time in actual sight-seeing than at
+first she had planned. The second day of her stay was so warm and
+springlike, that all voted for a mayflower picnic in the beautiful
+Plymouth woods. The next day was rainy&mdash;a genuine southerly storm, and
+no one cared to venture out.</p>
+
+<p>"In town neither of us would think of staying in simply on account of a
+storm," protested Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it," responded Priscilla, lazily curling herself up in a corner
+of the big settle before the open fire. "But this is vacation, and
+home," she concluded, "and we can't behave just as we would in the
+city."</p>
+
+<p>Finally, on the fourth day of their stay, under the guidance of Mr.
+Stacy, the two went up to Burial Hill.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't care if I do not pretend to be awfully interested in the
+epitaphs," said Martine, frankly. "I wish that Amy were here. She loves
+old graveyards and inscriptions and everything that has a scrap of
+history. Now I am fond of funny epitaphs, and I love&mdash;oh, what a
+beautiful view!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad that Burial Hill has something of interest to offer you. Even
+in Plymouth we call this a fine view. Generally, we try to be modest
+about our possessions, but this really is worth praising."</p>
+
+<p>"It is wonderful!" and Martine gazed in admiration at the expanse of
+blue water that stretched far, far to the East, with only the tiny
+Clark's Island to break its continuity.</p>
+
+<p>"It looks almost like a toy town," she added, gazing down at the houses
+and spires of the old town seeming to nestle at the foot of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>"Those woods toward the West are where the Indians used to lurk, and you
+can see how wise our forefathers were in placing their fort here near
+the summit of the hill. You remember, probably, that it was a wooden
+building made of sawed planks, but the six cannon mounted for its
+defence made it really formidable to the Indians. From this point the
+defenders of the town could quickly discover the approach of the enemy.
+For a time, too, the fort was used as a church."</p>
+
+<p>"That is why they used the hill as a burying-place, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, oddly enough, the founders of Plymouth were not buried here.
+Undoubtedly, the first settlers buried their dead near their dwellings.
+No stones mark the resting-place of most of the Mayflower passengers.
+There are memorials to many of them put up in later generations here on
+Burial Hill by their descendants, and two or three who lived to an
+advanced age, like John Howland, are buried here. But the earliest
+gravestone on the hill is that of Edward Gray, who died in 1681."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla, browsing among the stones, returned to Martine with a shade
+of disappointment on her face.</p>
+
+<p>"I am really sorry, but I cannot find a single absurd stone. Some are
+rather quaint, but there are no amusing epitaphs, at least, of the kind
+you like, Martine. Often as I've been here, I have never looked for that
+special kind of thing before, but now that I have made you a true
+report, we might as well turn down toward Memorial Hall."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Priscilla, I hope Mr. Stacy will not think that I care only
+for entertaining things that make one laugh. I have been more impressed
+by this old burying-ground than by any other I have ever visited. There
+is certainly something in the atmosphere that carries one back to the
+past. If there were anything here to laugh at I couldn't laugh." And
+silently and reverently Martine followed her friends down the hill into
+the quiet streets of the little town.</p>
+
+<p>"Now for Pilgrim Hall," said Mr. Stacy, as they walked along the Main
+Street.</p>
+
+<p>"And what shall we see there?" asked Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, relics of all kinds&mdash;driftwood of the past&mdash;some things that will
+move you to tears, and others that may make you smile."</p>
+
+<p>"Old furniture, I suppose. There are several shiploads of Mayflower
+furniture scattered through the country, and naturally I would look for
+a little of it here in Plymouth."</p>
+
+<p>"It would almost seem as if you had been reading my favorite Holmes,"
+rejoined Mr. Stacy. "You perhaps recall his verses about the old
+punch-bowl that&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">"'&mdash;Left the Dutchman's shore<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With those that in the Mayflower came&mdash;a hundred souls and more<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Along with all the furniture to fill their new abodes&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To judge by what is still on hand&mdash;at least a hundred loads.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"I am not sure," replied Martine, "whether I have heard those particular
+lines, though the poet's sentiments are mine. Sometimes I wonder if the
+Pilgrims brought any furniture with them. Or if the things they brought
+could have lasted through the centuries."</p>
+
+<p>"You will soon be able to judge for yourself. I think you can safely
+believe in most of the specimens that you see here. At any rate, we
+people of Plymouth have believed in them so long that they have acquired
+a certain sanctity."</p>
+
+<p>When they were at last within the dignified hall, Priscilla and Martine
+flitted about from object to object, the latter asking questions, the
+former answering them, while Mr. Stacy in one or two instances had to
+act as umpire.</p>
+
+<p>A chair once owned by Governor Carver, and another brought by William
+Brewster in the Mayflower, were accepted by Martine without question,
+and she was equally interested in a cabinet also brought over in the
+Mayflower by the father of Peregrine White.</p>
+
+<p>"Priscilla," she cried, "your ancestor, John Alden, was particularly
+generous in his bequests. Here's his Bible, and an autograph of his that
+must be genuine because it is so hard to read. It seems to me that the
+Aldens and the Winslows have done well by this exhibition. Isn't this an
+odd ring, and do you really imagine it was once worn by Governor Edward
+Winslow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," replied Priscilla, "I believe it, if that is what the
+placard says." And she drew nearer to read the card that was placed
+beside the ring.</p>
+
+<p>"The sword of Myles Standish! What a story it could tell! Really,
+Priscilla, these things have a wonderful power of calling up the
+past&mdash;and this little piece of embroidery, just look at the date. It is
+more than three hundred and fifty years old, and some of the silk
+threads have kept their colors."</p>
+
+<p>"Please read the verse in the corner," urged Priscilla. "Even when I was
+a very small girl I used to stand here, and call up pictures of the
+little Lorena."</p>
+
+<p>As Priscilla finished her sentence, Martine began to repeat the lines
+embroidered in the old sampler&mdash;for such the bit of work must have been.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Lorena Standish is my name,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lord, guide my heart that I may do Thy will,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Also fill my hands with such convenient skill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As will conduce to virtue devoid of shame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And I will give the glory to Thy name.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"It is touching," said Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"A true Puritan maiden," commented Mr. Stacy, approaching the girls.
+"But come, you cannot linger too long over any one thing, however
+interesting. I will not blame you if you pass quickly by the Florida
+bones, and the Indian relics, and other so-called curiosities that
+hardly belong in Pilgrim Hall. But there are a number of autographs and
+old books that I wish to explain to you, and you must study carefully
+Weir's beautiful painting, 'The Embarkation of the Pilgrims,' and
+Charles Lucy's magnificent 'Departure of the Pilgrims.'"</p>
+
+<p>The pictures held Martine's attention for a long time, and when at last
+she left the hall, she had a new and tenderer feeling for Plymouth.</p>
+
+<p>"If ever I have time," she murmured in a laughing aside to Mr. Stacy, "I
+will try to hunt up some Mayflower ancestors, for I can't let Priscilla
+continue to be so superior to me in this respect."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I don't feel superior," said Priscilla, "but I can't tell you
+how pleased I am, Martine, that you have stopped making fun of Plymouth
+and the Pilgrims."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Prissie, you should not take things so seriously. My fun was only
+fun, and you were too ready to take it in as earnest."</p>
+
+<p>Martine from the first had no trouble in winning the affection of all
+the Danforths. George and Marcus struggled for the first place in her
+affections, and Lucy admitted that she loved her next to her mother and
+Priscilla. Martine made other friends in Plymouth besides the members of
+the Danforth family. A number of Mrs. Danforth's special friends called
+on her, and at an informal tea-party she met all the young people whom
+Priscilla cared for especially.</p>
+
+<p>"Every one seems to have heard of me, I am awfully pleased that you
+should have talked to people about me, but why am I called a 'heroine'?
+Three people have said to me, 'We are so pleased to meet the young
+heroine we have heard so much about.' What do they mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's the fire," cried Lucy. "Priscilla told us not to say too much to
+you about it, because you were so modest, but everybody knows how brave
+you were to pull Priscilla out of the burning house."</p>
+
+<p>"The burning house? Oh, at Windsor; but I didn't pull her out. There
+wasn't the least danger, and I only tapped at the door. Why, I had
+almost forgotten about it. It was nothing at all, so far as I was
+concerned."</p>
+
+<p>But Lucy only shook her head, as she repeated shyly, "But we think you a
+heroine all the same." Nor could any words of Martine's have made her
+change her mind. Had she not always been taught that the truly great
+were modest? Martine's very denials were a strong evidence that she was
+truly great.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing, therefore, for Martine to do but accept the place on
+the pedestal where they put her.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this idealizing, however, Priscilla's younger friends were
+not afraid of Martine. If they had felt any awe before they saw her it
+immediately passed away when they had looked into her frank brown eyes,
+and had heard the clear notes of her ringing laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Pleasanter even than the tea-party to Martine was the second evening
+that Mr. Stacy spent with her and Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything that you haven't told me before about Plymouth and its early
+days you must tell me now," Martine had said. "When I go back to Boston
+I wish to astonish my brother by my display of historical knowledge. I
+am sure that he doesn't know the difference between a Puritan and a
+Pilgrim, which you have so carefully explained to me, Mr. Stacy; and
+there are fifty other things that I shall spring on him, and mortify him
+to death, for Lucian thinks that he knows a lot of history, but as far
+as I can make out he hasn't got far beyond Charlemagne in his two years
+at Harvard."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet he went to school first?" asked Mr. Stacy, quizzically.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but everyone knows that boys in the fitting schools remember as
+little as they can of American history&mdash;although," with an afterthought,
+"I will admit that Lucian did take an interest last summer in the
+English and Acadian history of Nova Scotia."</p>
+
+<p>This mention of Acadia suggested various questions to Mr. Stacy, and
+soon Martine had plunged into a vivid account of their experiences of
+the preceding summer.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard part of this before from the lips of Priscilla," said Mr.
+Stacy, "and her description of the various protegées gathered in by your
+party interested me greatly. I know that she has not forgotten Eunice,
+and, indeed, we all expect to see the little Annapolis girl in Plymouth
+before many summers have passed. But what about Yvonne and Pierre, who
+on the whole interest me rather more than Eunice&mdash;as much, perhaps,
+because of their infirmities as on account of their foreign blood?"</p>
+
+<p>"As to Pierre," responded Martine, "Amy hears from him regularly, and he
+is very happy this winter in his work. A little money that was given him
+last autumn (Martine did not mention that this was her father's generous
+gift) has enabled him to have regular drawing lessons from a good
+teacher to whom he goes twice a week at Yarmouth. He insisted in using
+part of the money for his mother, and, like all Acadians, she seems to
+have spent it very thriftily."</p>
+
+<p>"But what of Yvonne? she, I believe, is your especial pet."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Yvonne, too, has had a little money to spend, and so the Babets
+have let her board with friends at Annapolis. Her eyes have had some
+attention from a good doctor, and she has been taking music lessons. I
+was hoping to arrange to have Alexander Babet bring Yvonne to Boston for
+treatment by a specialist, but for the present I have to wait."</p>
+
+<p>Here Martine sighed a deep sigh. This allusion to Yvonne reminded her of
+her father and his caution about economy. "I wonder if we shall always
+have to economize and give up the things we wish to do. Mother talked
+about economy when I spoke of inviting Priscilla to go to New York. I
+wonder&mdash;" and then a question from Mr. Stacy recalled Martine's
+wandering thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"You scold me sometimes for being absent-minded," said Priscilla, "but
+we spoke to you three times before you heard."</p>
+
+<p>"I was only thinking, Prissie," responded Martine; "and I can't do two
+things at the same time&mdash;listen and think."</p>
+
+<p>Martine at last said good-bye to Plymouth with genuine regret&mdash;for
+Plymouth people at least, and for the Danforth family in particular.</p>
+
+<p>"New York wouldn't have been half as much fun," she said as the train
+steamed out of the station, "because I know it so well."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla, who had not heard of Martine's New York plan, did not
+understand her friend's allusion; and as Martine made no further
+explanation, she had no opportunity for discontent&mdash;if the loss of a
+trip to New York would have made her discontented.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>TROUBLES</h3>
+
+
+<p>The weeks after the Easter visit passed rapidly away. April was melting
+into May. People called it an early spring.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't make much difference to me whether the season is early or
+late," said Martine one Sunday afternoon, when Lucian and Robert had
+walked home with her from the afternoon service. "I have to work so hard
+to keep up with Priscilla that I haven't time to think about anything so
+commonplace as weather. If I'm not careful, I shall find myself fitting
+for college."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't," said Robert Pringle.</p>
+
+<p>"Do," cried Lucian. "As I may have said before, if you make half as much
+of yourself as Amy, nothing could be better for you than college."</p>
+
+<p>"Be yourself," said Robert with an air of wisdom. "Not Amy nor
+Priscilla, nor any one else. You have the artistic temperament."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," replied Martine, with difficulty repressing a smile. "That's
+a very sophomorific speech. You've got it out of some of your philosophy
+courses."</p>
+
+<p>"Or one of the college magazines," growled Lucian. "People who are just
+beginning to write always love to talk about temperament."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," persisted Robert, "Fritz Tomkins says that Mrs. Redmond says
+that you have great talent."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," responded Martine, laughing, "my class at the Mansion
+considers me a true artist, because I can paint trees and grass that
+look real; but to tell you the truth, Robert, and to show you that
+you're not wholly wrong, I will admit that if I hadn't been so busy at
+school, I should have studied with Mrs. Redmond this spring. I just wish
+I had time for a sketching class, but fond as I am of riding, I can
+barely manage an hour's ride twice a week. That reminds me, Lucian," and
+Martine turned to her brother, "if you can afford a new auto, I surely
+can afford a new riding-horse. Wherever we go this summer, I mean to
+ride."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," cried Lucian, "that is, I probably shall not have the auto,
+much as I want it."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't worry," said Robert, "you'll get it in season; if it isn't out by
+June, they'll have it for you in July."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that wasn't what I meant," rejoined Lucian, "only&mdash;" but at this
+moment he did not explain what he really had intended to say.</p>
+
+<p>The next evening Lucian came home to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>"What an unexpected honor," said Martine. "I've never known you to favor
+us with a Monday visit. You look rather glum, too," she added with
+sisterly frankness. "Is anything the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," he said, "nothing special. You shouldn't be so curious."</p>
+
+<p>"I can read you like a book," replied Martine. "You are worrying over
+your finals and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. If I were a Harvard
+Sophomore, with all my time to use as I liked, I wouldn't be in such a
+state of mind over a few questions, for that's all an examination
+amounts to."</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, Martine, don't worry your brother," interposed Mrs.
+Stratford, joining them.</p>
+
+<p>"But he is so foolish," continued Martine, "just as if he hadn't as good
+a chance as anybody else."</p>
+
+<p>"To be perfectly frank," said Lucian at last, "you have no idea, little
+sister, what you are talking about; so the least said, soonest mended."</p>
+
+<p>Conversation during dinner proceeded cheerfully. Lucian was evidently
+making an effort to remove the impression that he was troubled about
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>But a little later, after their mother had left the room, Lucian drew
+his chair nearer Martine's and began to talk in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Martine," he said, "I am troubled. I have something
+serious to say."</p>
+
+<p>Martine's heart beat nervously. She knew that boys in college sometimes
+did things that they should not do. Lucian had several friends of whom
+she did not approve. Into what mischief might they not lead him?</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me the worst, Lucian," she said sympathetically. "If it's stealing
+signs or doing any of those ridiculous Med. Fac. things, of course you
+were very silly. But I'll help you out if I can, without telling mother,
+and I'll lend you money, though I have only a very little bit of my own.
+I am paying for my clothes out of my allowance this spring. And you know
+I never used to do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, your money wouldn't help, Martine; it isn't that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, whatever it is, we'll keep it from mother; she certainly isn't as
+well as when she first came to Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that," responded Lucian, "and that's the worst of this whole
+business. You see, it's this, Martine. Father's business is all at sixes
+and sevens and I had the queerest letter from him this morning; I can
+hardly make head or tail of it."</p>
+
+<p>Martine took the thin sheet of letter paper from Lucian's hand; the
+wording was incoherent.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it doesn't sound like father," she exclaimed, "and what queer,
+trembling handwriting. I am afraid that he is sick. And if he has lost
+his money as he says, what are we to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't an idea in the world. This knocks me all to pieces," and
+Lucian leaned his head on his hands, the picture of bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>"We ought to tell mother," Martine's voice trembled, "but perhaps we
+might as well wait another day; perhaps we can think of some one to
+advise us, or perhaps some plan will come to us in the night."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," responded Lucian, "but I can't stay here long and pretend
+to be cheerful; I'll get out to Cambridge as quickly as I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Lucian made a short stay," said Mrs. Stratford when Martine told her
+that he had gone. "I agree with you that he is troubled about something.
+Perhaps he told you what it was."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Martine, "he did give me an idea of it."</p>
+
+<p>Then Mrs. Stratford, knowing that it was not wise to interfere in the
+confidences of brother and sister, to Martine's relief asked no
+questions. The next day, however, the secret came out in part at least.
+Mrs. Stratford received a cable from Rio Janeiro. Its few words carried
+volumes of trouble. Mr. Stratford was ill, very ill; could some of his
+family come to him at once? Mrs. Stratford recognized the name of the
+one who had sent the cable; he was a man with whom her husband had long
+had business transactions. He would not have cabled unless her husband's
+condition were really serious. The telephone soon brought Lucian to the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"There is only one thing," said Lucian; "by taking the afternoon express
+I can reach New York this evening, sail by a quick boat to-morrow for
+England, and go on as soon as possible to Rio Janeiro."</p>
+
+<p>"But we don't know anything about the sailings of the Brazilian boats."</p>
+
+<p>"No matter, mother, the sooner I reach England, the sooner I'll reach
+Brazil. I must go back to Cambridge now, throw a few things into a
+steamer trunk, and then, good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lucian, what a help you are. At first I thought there was no one
+who could go. I will go down town at once and get a draft for you and
+meet you at the station; that will be better than stopping here on your
+way from Cambridge."</p>
+
+<p>These hasty plans were carried out exactly.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything is so hurried," complained Martine, "that I haven't had time
+yet to cry."</p>
+
+<p>"I have cabled to Rio Janeiro," said Mrs. Stratford, "to cable our
+bankers in London, if&mdash;if&mdash;anything happens."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing will happen," said Lucian cheerfully, "nothing serious, I
+mean. Only I am sure that it is wise for me to go, for father will need
+me to help him come home. And now good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>So mother and daughter parted with Lucian, and after this one exciting
+day, things settled down into their accustomed round. Within a week of
+Lucian's sailing Mrs. Stratford heard by cable that her husband was no
+worse.</p>
+
+<p>"It does not say 'better'," she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"But 'no worse' is better than nothing," said Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"When we consider how little Lucian was here with us, it is strange,"
+said Martine one day, "that we should miss him so. Poor boy, I am sorry
+that I teased him so about his finals. I am sure that he would rather be
+in Cambridge working for dear life than tossing about on the ocean, not
+knowing what news he may hear at the end of his journey. But there's one
+thing, he rose to the occasion, and I'm so thankful that he has really
+grown up."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the anxiety of mother and daughter, each for the sake of the
+other tried to be cheerful. Martine, until the first of June, was fully
+occupied with school. Priscilla and her more intimate friends
+sympathized deeply with her when they heard of her father's illness.
+Letters from others came to them gradually, and some of Mr. Stratford's
+business associates were frank with Mrs. Stratford when she asked their
+opinion on her husband's affairs. One day she called Martine to her for
+a frank talk.</p>
+
+<p>"It is evident," she said, "that we must live at the very smallest
+possible expense for the next few months. I am going to send the cook
+away at the end of the present week; now that your school is ending, you
+will not object to supplementing Angelina's work. Angelina sees
+something dramatic in what she calls 'our fallen fortunes.' She is
+delighted to be considered housemaid and cook combined. She tells me
+that I am not to lift my hand, but wear my prettiest dresses all the
+time so that there'll be one lady in the house, while you and she are
+doing the work."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really," cried Martine, "it's a little too much for her to put me
+immediately on her own level."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she doesn't mean it in that way; in fact, what she said was
+intended only to make me comfortable. If I were a little stronger I
+would plan to stay in Boston all summer, but I've had a talk with the
+doctor and he tells me that I need a complete change. We cannot afford
+any extravagance this summer, and only one plan suggests itself to me."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>"Simply this. A few years ago, when your father and I were at York
+Harbor, we fell in love with a little red farm-house that stood on a
+knoll commanding a view of the sea. We had no particular object in
+buying it, the land belonging to it was limited, but I had an idea that
+sometime perhaps we might build a house there. It is quite outside the
+fashionable section, yet not very far from the electric cars, and the
+house is in pretty good repair."</p>
+
+<p>"Does any one live there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is the curious part of it; the owner was an old woman and we
+let her stay on there, rent free, on condition that she should keep the
+little garden planted and let us know when any repairs were needed. Last
+September she died and the house has been unoccupied this winter; it
+seems to me that this would be an ideal place for us this summer. Even
+if I were able to stay in the city, I should not approve of your doing
+so. You need the out-door life to which you are accustomed. We could
+take enough of our small belongings with us to make the cottage
+comfortable and homelike. Angelina would be quite equal to the work."</p>
+
+<p>"With my help," interrupted Martine gayly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, with your help; and I know you can be very helpful, Martine, when
+you wish. What do you think of my plan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's perfectly splendid," replied Martine. "I've often heard of
+York Harbor. Peggy Pratt used to talk about it. I think her family has a
+cottage there."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," continued Mrs. Stratford, "you must remember that we shall
+live very quietly there; for the present I feel that we have no income
+coming in. We must live on the little money that I have saved until we
+know just where your father's business stands. Besides, until we know
+that he is really well, we are under a shadow. At any moment we may hear
+the worst news, and that, if nothing else, would lead us to live
+quietly."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, mamma, of course I understand this perfectly. I have no wish
+for gayety; really I would rather live quietly. I am so glad that I got
+only one silk gown, instead of the three I intended. And, luckily, I
+haven't given away many of my last summer's clothes; so I shall be all
+fitted out without any expense."</p>
+
+<p>"There, there," cried Mrs. Stratford, "don't think too much about
+economy&mdash;or clothes; we shall do very well, even as things are, if only
+we hear good news from South America."</p>
+
+<p>It was now June. Priscilla had gone home. Martine's other friends had
+left the city for the North Shore or the mountains. Some of Lucian's
+friends in Cambridge dropped in occasionally, and Amy and Mrs. Redmond
+were as devoted as ever. Amy, however, was very busy with the many
+duties and pleasures of a Wellesley Senior when Commencement is only a
+few weeks away. Of all the invitations that she showered on Martine for
+the various festivities that Wellesley offers in June, Martine accepted
+only the one that took her to Wellesley Float Day.</p>
+
+<p>"As long as I live," she said afterwards, "I shall never forget the
+beautiful twilight on the lake, the boats gliding about so mysteriously
+and gracefully, the music floating over the water, the lights that
+bathed everything in glory; no, I never expect to see anything more
+beautiful of its kind," she added mischievously, as a kind of
+anti-climax, lest Amy, who was listening to her, should be too proud of
+her college.</p>
+
+<p>But as the long June days wore away, Martine had little time for
+anything outside her home; she could not deny the fact that her mother
+was growing paler and thinner. Mrs. Stratford, looking anxiously at
+Martine, saw a certain change in her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"The sooner we get away, the better; Martine is worrying about her
+father, and will not tell me. A change of air and scene will benefit
+her. I wish that we had not undertaken to have the cottage painted. The
+last week in June seems too far away."</p>
+
+<p>In their trouble, Martine and her mother were not neglected by their
+friends. They had not many near relatives, yet invitations came to them
+from the cousins in New York, from other cousins in Chicago and even
+from Mrs. Blair; but mother and daughter both preferred the independence
+that they would find in their cottage at York to the formality of
+visiting even the best intentioned friends and relatives.</p>
+
+<p>"You may have visitors of your own part of the summer," said Mrs.
+Stratford. "We shall have at least one spare room in the cottage, and
+when things are running smoothly there'll be no reason why you should
+not have Priscilla with you."</p>
+
+<p>"That reminds me," said Martine, "that I've never told you that Mrs.
+Tilworth and I have really made up. You know she was rather frigid
+towards me for several weeks this spring; but after my return from
+Plymouth she told Priscilla that she had changed her mind about me. It
+seems that I made a great impression on Mr. Stacy during my holidays,
+and Mr. Stacy, it also seems, is the one person for whose opinion Mrs.
+Tilworth has an especial regard; consequently Mrs. Tilworth is inclined
+to accept Mr. Stacy's estimate of me and for the present the war between
+us is at an end."</p>
+
+<p>"War between you! My dear child, I should be very sorry indeed had there
+been such a state of affairs; I think myself that you and Priscilla have
+always been a little wrong in your opinion of Priscilla's aunt."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MISSING TRUNK</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was the Thursday before Class Day, a clear morning, almost cool, with
+just a suggestion of coming warmth in the air. Martine sank into a chair
+by the open window, and gazed over the tops of the trees at the long
+vista of the Avenue. Not for a moment would she have admitted that she
+was tired, and yet there was a trace of weariness in the sigh with which
+she sank back in the comfortable easy chair.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact she had been working with a degree of energy that
+she had seldom shown before. Martine had never been accused of laziness,
+even in her idler days, yet her energy had never been expended in the
+prosaic realm of household work. But now the situation was changed, and
+for the past week she had worked unremittingly, packing, clearing, doing
+all kinds of little things that would simplify the departure for York a
+week later. Angelina, it is true, had helped her to the best of her
+ability, and had even succeeded in subduing some of her own natural
+flightiness. She was proud of her present position as sole assistant in
+the little household, and the prospect of continued hard work during the
+summer in no way troubled her.</p>
+
+<p>If Martine was weary on this particular morning, her weariness was
+tempered with satisfaction. Everything had gone so smoothly that she
+would be able to enjoy Class Day without disagreeable remembrances of
+things left undone.</p>
+
+<p>While she sat by the window, thoroughly enjoying her well-earned rest,
+she was startled for a moment by feeling two soft hands clasped over her
+eyes. Before she had had time to wonder long, a soft laugh told her who
+the newcomer was.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Elinor Naylor, where in the world&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Straight from Bar Harbor," said Elinor, answering the unfinished
+question, "that is, we arrived early last evening, and I've come here
+directly from the hotel. Kate Starkweather's brother has a large spread
+to-morrow, and though I had not intended to come, mamma thinks I ought
+to see at least one Harvard Class Day&mdash;and so here I am."</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments the two talked as rapidly as friends will who have not
+seen each other for weeks. Elinor told her Class Day plans, and tried to
+arrange to meet Martine after the statue exercises.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not expect to see very much of Class Day," said Martine, "it would
+be different if Lucian were here. I am going with Amy to Fritz Tomkins'
+spread, and to the Pudding because Hazen Andrews is in it. His mother is
+one of mamma's friends in Chicago. Mrs. Blair thinks I ought to wait
+until I am eighteen before going at all. But mamma is not so
+conventional, and she said I might."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you are very busy," said Elinor, as she rose to go. "So I
+hesitate to ask a favor."</p>
+
+<p>"Ask it," cried Martine. "I am not half as busy as I was yesterday. I am
+sure you won't ask anything I cannot do."</p>
+
+<p>"It's only this," continued Elinor. "My trunk hadn't come this morning,
+and we could get no information when we telephoned. It would be simply
+awful if it shouldn't arrive in time for me to go to the Senior spread.
+Kate and I put our things into the one trunk, and I can't understand why
+it hasn't come. We gave our checks to an expressman at the station. If
+only I knew the city a little better, I'd go down town, and find out
+what has happened to it."</p>
+
+<p>"There," exclaimed Martine, laughing, "Your favor is a very simple one.
+You would like me to pilot you about&mdash;with the greatest pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"I feared you might be too busy," and Elinor glanced around the room,
+with its half-filled boxes, and books piled on tables, waiting to be
+packed.</p>
+
+<p>"I should do little more to-day. My mother is staying with friends in
+Brookline over Sunday. Angelina is out just now, but I'll leave word
+with the elevator-boy that I'll be back by one."</p>
+
+<p>Martine was soon ready, and after one more vain effort to learn
+something by telephone about the trunk, the two set out for the downtown
+express office. There they were equally unsuccessful, and so continued
+their journey to the great North Station.</p>
+
+<p>The baggage-master was a trifle impatient. It was a warm day, and a busy
+season, but the two young girls and their evident anxiety appealed to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's up to the Express Company," he said at last, "to give you your
+trunk. I have made a careful search, and no trunk with the number on
+your claim-check is here. You will find it probably at the hotel. I
+would advise you to go back."</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure it isn't here?" asked Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly sure."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it isn't at the hotel. But of course I can ask again," said
+Elinor. "I am awfully sorry to have brought you on this wild-goose
+chase, Martine, we might as well turn about now. The whole thing is very
+queer."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed queerer when no search, no enquiries produced the missing
+trunk. One thing only was clear. There was a record that it had been
+taken from the station. It was perfectly evident that it had not been
+delivered at the hotel, where, strangely enough, the trunk belonging to
+Kate's aunt had arrived safely.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a large steamer trunk," said Elinor with a sigh, "but small
+enough for thieves to carry away. I suppose they took it from the back
+of the wagon. You shouldn't have thieves in Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably they came from some other city. Philadelphia possibly,"
+retorted Martine. Then, as quickly, "Excuse me Elinor, I did not really
+mean that. What a pity you and I are not the same size. I would gladly
+lend you anything of mine you could wear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;no&mdash;" responded Elinor, "I am sure nothing of yours would fit me.
+You are so much taller and thinner. Short and dumpy people like me never
+can wear other people's clothes. It won't be so bad for Kate, when I
+break the news to her."</p>
+
+<p>"But what will you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must go out at once and buy gowns and hats. I begrudge the money
+just now. Kate won't mind, nor her aunt. They love to spend money for
+clothes, and can afford anything. I have to be more careful; but after
+coming so far&mdash;I can't be cheated out of Class Day, and this grey gown
+and dark hat would be utterly out of place."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so very long ago I should have thought it great fun to buy a whole
+outfit on the spur of the moment," responded Martine, "but the past few
+weeks I have grown so economical that it seems extravagant to buy
+anything one doesn't need."</p>
+
+<p>"But I certainly need a muslin gown and a hat, a fan, a parasol, light
+shoes&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, let me lend you a parasol, fan, and some of the other
+things that don't have to be made to order. Also I have a lovely hat
+that would fit you like the paper on the wall, if you would borrow it.
+Please say yes."</p>
+
+<p>With some protests Elinor accepted Martine's offer, and after luncheon,
+accompanied by Kate and her aunt, they set out for the most fashionable
+outfitter's. Kate, with Mrs. Starkweather's approval, unrestricted in
+the matter of money, soon chose a costume complete in every detail.
+Elinor, wishing to spend less, had greater difficulty in suiting
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>"By six o'clock surely," said the obliging saleswoman, "everything shall
+be ready. Two or three workwomen will at once be set on the alterations.
+This is a special case, and we are glad to do all we can to oblige you."</p>
+
+<p>"Now Elinor, come back with me," urged Martine, "we have half the
+afternoon before us, and we might as well have a good long talk."</p>
+
+<p>"That will suit me very well. Mrs. Starkweather and Kate have to stay in
+to see callers. You will not care," she concluded turning to her
+friends, "if I stay with Martine until five. She is going to lend me a
+hat, and fan, and other things."</p>
+
+<p>"Provided you return to the hotel by five, you may go with Martine now.
+We are greatly obliged for your assistance," and Mrs. Starkweather shook
+hands cordially with the young girl.</p>
+
+<p>The apartment seemed cool and pleasant to the two friends, as they
+entered it, and Martine sank down in a little willow chair with a sigh
+of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina," she called, "Angelina!"</p>
+
+<p>In a moment Angelina stood before her.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring me the large hat-box from my closet, please."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, Miss Martine."</p>
+
+<p>"It's handsomer than my own," exclaimed Elinor, as Martine lifted the
+large white hat from the box, and set it on her friend's head.</p>
+
+<p>"It suits you perfectly. I am so glad I have it!"</p>
+
+<p>Martine did not explain that this was the hat she had herself meant to
+wear Class Day, and that her second best was not nearly as becoming.
+Martine was not vain, and it really pleased her that she had something
+to offer Elinor. The fan, parasol, and other little accessories were
+quickly chosen from Martine's abundant store, and then the two girls sat
+down for the promised long talk.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you'll like York," said Elinor. "Every one does."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh,&mdash;I dare say,&mdash;I remember Peggy Pratt at school was always talking
+about it. But of course I am not going for fun, and we are to live in
+the littlest bit of a house, with only Angelina for maid, and I shall
+hardly have a cent to spend."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know," responded Elinor gently, "but spending money is not
+everything, you can enjoy so many things without it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I dare say, but money helps. You and Kate would have had to give up
+your Class Day, or wear unsuitable clothes, if you hadn't had money to
+buy new outfits to-day. Still, I like the idea of the little cottage,
+and helping mother, and if father only comes back safely, I sha'n't care
+if we haven't a penny in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have had rather hard work packing up," said Elinor
+sympathetically; "I suppose Angelina has been more hindrance than help."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no&mdash;she has surprised us all by taking a real interest. I asked her
+if she wouldn't rather have a different kind of place for the summer.
+'What an idea!' she replied. 'I love hard work when I can get all the
+credit for it. Wild horses wouldn't keep me away from York. Besides,
+your mother has got so used to my Spanish flavoring that her health
+would suffer if I should leave.'"</p>
+
+<p>"She's a case," commented Elinor, "but tell me, is it true that you
+might have visited Mrs. Stanley at Bar Harbor this summer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's papa's cousin," rejoined Martine, "and she <i>did</i> invite me.
+But of course I had no intention of leaving mamma, even if I had been in
+the mood for a gay place like Mt. Desert. She has been growing paler and
+thinner, all the spring, and though she might have boarded in some quiet
+spot, she just couldn't have got along without me."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not."</p>
+
+<p>"She thought I could accept the invitation for August, but this was out
+of the question. I doubt that I should have gone out to Cambridge
+to-morrow, if I hadn't seen that mother would be disappointed if I gave
+that up. There will be other Class Days, and I can wait. But it isn't as
+if I had to buy anything&mdash;a muslin that I had made in the winter is just
+the thing, and I haven't had to bother."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very sweet, Martine, about everything, and so different from
+what I thought of you that day we ran into each other at the car. Didn't
+I seem a little hateful when we were first introduced at Mrs. Weston's
+luncheon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;no&mdash;only a little stiff, but that was natural, when you think of
+our first meeting," and Martine laughed at the remembrance. "I can't
+imagine you out of temper, since I have really known you."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I have been feeling particularly savage about my trunk. You must
+have noticed how I spoke to the man in the express office."</p>
+
+<p>"He deserved it, but really I didn't notice anything of that kind. You
+were really polite, considering you had lost a trunk."</p>
+
+<p>"It is really a loss," responded Elinor, "even to Kate, and I wish that
+some one could explain what happened to it."</p>
+
+<p>"It may simply be mislaid. Ten to one it may turn up to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope not. That would be exasperating, after all the trouble we
+have had to-day. I would almost rather that the trunk should stay lost.
+Then we could bring suit for damages."</p>
+
+<p>"You can generally get only a hundred dollars on a single trunk, at
+least I remember hearing papa say that was all railroads would pay,"
+said Martine sagely, "and what would that be among two?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have put all your eggs in one basket."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor and Martine started at the sound of a strange voice, but looking
+up they saw Angelina standing at the door leading toward the
+dining-room. She had used a curious falsetto with which at times she
+liked to experiment.</p>
+
+<p>"I just meant to remind you it's half-past four, and I heard Miss Elinor
+say she must be back at the hotel by five. You've just barely time, and
+if you please I'll carry the boxes for you."</p>
+
+<p>Thus Angelina turned aside the reproof that might have been given her
+for listening at the door.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>CLASS DAY</h3>
+
+
+<p>At the breakfast-table Class Day morning, Martine found an envelope
+addressed in Elinor's neat handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>"You just must come with us," she read, as she broke the seal; "I had
+only half as good a time as I might have had last night, thinking of
+you. There must have been crowds of people you knew there. Kate's
+brother brought us four tickets for everything&mdash;even for Sanders Theatre
+this morning. So please be ready at ten. Telephone. Hastily, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, glancing at the clock, made a rapid calculation. In no way
+could she double the hours between eight o'clock and one, and she had a
+morning's work to do before she could rightfully set out on a
+pleasure-trip.</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina," she called, "please go to the telephone. Call up Miss
+Naylor, and say that I cannot go with her this morning. Tell her,
+please, that I will meet her as we agreed in the afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Angelina did not move. Telephoning was one of her delights,
+and Martine wondered why she stood rooted to the spot.</p>
+
+<p>Angelina, however, quickly explained herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Martine," she cried, "I hate to give a message like that. You
+just ought to go off and have a good time. It isn't right for you to
+slave and slave, and you younger than me."</p>
+
+<p>Martine smiled at Angelina's lugubrious expression. She did not wish the
+latter to see that she was a little downcast at the thought of the quiet
+morning at home.</p>
+
+<p>"Go, Angelina," she cried, "run quickly; it's a hot day, and I'm
+thankful enough that I can stay home until noon. Don't wait for an
+answer. Simply leave the message for Miss Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>Martine's tone was so positive that Angelina had no choice but to obey,
+and when she returned, Martine was on her knees packing one of her
+mother's trunks.</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina," she explained, "we have only this morning and to-morrow for
+the rest of our packing, for I have promised to spend Sunday with the
+Strothers' in Brookline, where mamma is. You are to go to Shiloh late
+Saturday afternoon, and on Monday morning you and I must be here
+promptly at nine, to send off the trunks and boxes. Mamma will stop here
+with Mrs. Strothers on her way to the station to see that everything is
+left in perfect condition. So even if we work with all our might this
+morning we shall barely get through in time."</p>
+
+<p>"There's another helper coming," murmured Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, a scrub-woman, who couldn't do the least little thing to help
+pack the trunks. But hurry with the dishes, Angelina, for you can be a
+lot of use."</p>
+
+<p>Though she spoke briskly, Martine felt a little depressed&mdash;for Martine.</p>
+
+<p>As she lifted trunk-trays, and folded skirts, and packed things in
+little boxes, she could not help thinking how much pleasanter it would
+be to spend the morning in Sander's Theatre, listening to witty
+speeches, or later walking about the college grounds, with Elinor and
+Kate and half a dozen attendant undergraduates.</p>
+
+<p>"If only mother hadn't been sick&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then she suppressed the thought, ashamed of her own selfishness.</p>
+
+<p>At twelve o'clock she glanced around the room with undisguised
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"There, Angelina, we can easily finish to-morrow. Only two trunks and
+one box left, and some little odds and ends to do at the last moment.
+Oh, dear, I must get away quickly&mdash;the rooms look so bare."</p>
+
+<p>The fatigue that Martine had hardly before admitted to herself, almost
+overcame her while she was dressing. Bending, climbing, wielding a
+hammer, undoubtedly strengthen the muscles in the long run. Yet the
+process of muscle-building is often accompanied by sensations that an
+amateur athlete might pardonably call "weariness."</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, Martine must not be blamed if for a moment her spirit
+weakened as she looked at the white gown that Angelina had spread out
+for her on the divan.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't go," she said; "I am too tired. I ought to have waited for
+Lucian's Class Day, and if he is never to have a Class Day&mdash;why, then I
+am never to have any fun. If we are so poor that he cannot finish
+college, then I shall be too poor to go to parties&mdash;or&mdash;or anything."</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing worse for a girl's spirits than self-pity. As Martine
+bent over the dress on the divan, a big tear splashed on one end of the
+silk sash. This was followed by a second tear, and then the absurdity of
+the situation produced the rainbow. The rainbow in this case was the
+smile that flashed amid the tears, the smile that made the tears seem
+absolutely absurd as Martine caught sight of herself in the glass.</p>
+
+<p>"What a baby I am! Here I am going to join two of my best friends who
+have promised me a splendid time, and just because I am a little tired,
+I feel as if the world were falling to pieces."</p>
+
+<p>A cool bath&mdash;an hour of leisurely dressing&mdash;a few compliments from
+Angelina&mdash;and Martine was herself again.</p>
+
+<p>She knew that her mother would not altogether approve of her going alone
+to Cambridge, and she regretted that she had not allowed Amy to send
+some one for her, as at first she had suggested.</p>
+
+<p>Just as she was wondering whether, if she could afford a carriage, her
+mother would approve of her driving to Cambridge alone, she heard
+Angelina's&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Walk in, please. Yes, ma'am, she hasn't gone yet," and then she
+recognized the pleasant voice of Mrs. Redmond, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her she need not hurry. I can wait."</p>
+
+<p>"But I can't wait&mdash;not a single minute," and Martine, rushing from the
+little bedroom, almost flung herself into Mrs. Redmond's arms.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, my dear child&mdash;it's a warm day, and our clothes&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Will not stand crushing. I know it, and how sweet you look in that soft
+gray. But I thought you were at Cambridge."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I was not invited to the feast of reason this morning. I am
+going out merely for the frivolities of the afternoon. I forgot to write
+you that I had promised your mother I would call for you. I realized my
+oversight only as I started. Perhaps you have made other plans?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been too busy for plans. Mamma forgot to tell me you were
+coming. An hour ago I thought I was too busy to go to Cambridge, but
+now&mdash;it just delights me to think of going with you."</p>
+
+<p>The ride in an open car over the long bridge soothed Martine. She almost
+forgot that she had been tired. When Mrs. Redmond drew from her the
+story of her recent responsibilities, the young girl made light of the
+difficulties that had beset her. She was always happy with Mrs. Redmond,
+and the latter's quick understanding of her present trials lessened the
+trials themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached Harvard Square, Martine's spirits rose.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no doubt I love a crowd," she said. "This makes me think of a
+country fair, only the people are better dressed, and there are no
+fakirs."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child&mdash;a country fair!"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean the atmosphere is somewhat the same&mdash;oh, there are Amy and
+Fritz."</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere from the crowd pouring out from one of the smaller college
+gates, Amy and Fritz were approaching the spot on the sidewalk where
+Martine and Mrs. Redmond were standing.</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to see you, children," said Mrs. Redmond. "I was
+secretly wondering where we should go next&mdash;to Fritz' rooms or to the
+Pudding."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, to the Pudding at once," responded Fritz; "you are none too early.
+As for Amy&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never dare look a strawberry in the face again. Early as it is,
+I have already eaten so many, and, oh, mamma, it is all so delightful.
+Fritz and I have already been at the Pudding, and now we'll go back with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>At this point Mrs. Redmond interfered. She assured Fritz that she and
+Martine were quite able to take care of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the Senior's day," she said; "and Martine and I are here only
+incidentally. One of us is too old, and the other too young&mdash;almost too
+young&mdash;to be exacting about Class Day. Martine's best time will come
+when Lucian graduates."</p>
+
+<p>"Run, Amy," exclaimed Martine. "It's delightful to see you and Mr.
+Tomkins getting on so well. You usually try to send him away somewhere;
+but now you are ready to go where he goes, and so your mother and I
+won't detain you for even a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hurry, then," said Amy, turning to Fritz. "If Martine is in one
+of her mischievous moods, we cannot tell when she will stop teasing."</p>
+
+<p>"At my rooms at four," cried Fritz, as he and Amy left the others at the
+entrance to the Pudding spread.</p>
+
+<p>From this moment for the rest of the day, Martine not only forgot that
+she was tired, but her recent troubles seemed altogether of the past. In
+spite of the great crowd, a number of her Chicago friends found Martine
+in the corner where Mrs. Redmond made her sit. It is true that she had
+not even a word with Hazen Andrews, her special host, who, like most
+Seniors, was thoroughly occupied looking after relatives and the girls
+of the older set, to which Martine did not belong.</p>
+
+<p>She had not many friends among the Seniors, though two or three in their
+flowing gowns, mortar-boards in their hands, came up to speak to her or
+Mrs. Redmond.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it fun?" cried Martine to the latter. "It's like taking a journey
+somewhere, and running upon all kinds of people that one hasn't seen for
+a long time&mdash;only one seldom sees so many persons one knows on a single
+journey."</p>
+
+<p>Promptly at four o'clock Mrs. Redmond and Martine met Amy and a number
+of her friends at Fritz' rooms, and together they all went over to the
+Memorial delta where the statue exercises were held.</p>
+
+<p>"It's dazzling!" cried Martine, looking about at the tiers and tiers of
+gayly dressed girls and women; "only more beautiful than a flower
+garden, because it's more alive, this garden of people. I wish we could
+see Elinor here."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear little girl, this is a great pleasure," said a voice at
+Martine's elbow, and turning to the left, to her great surprise, Martine
+found her neighbor to be a Chicago friend of her father.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't know I was an old Harvard man! Well, the West does take the
+starch of culture out of us. I'm going down there among the graduates
+after a while. I'm holding these seats for my niece and a friend, who
+thought they could never find it unless I was here as a landmark. They
+failed to meet me, as people always fail on Class Day. Let me see,
+Lucian doesn't graduate this year?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, he isn't in Cambridge; he has gone to join father."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, of course; this has been a hard year for your father."</p>
+
+<p>The tears came to Martine's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless my soul, child, don't cry. It's coming out all right. Everyone
+must have some business cares, and up to the present your father has
+been remarkably successful. But money isn't everything!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it," responded Martine. "The money doesn't matter at
+all&mdash;to me. But we are afraid that father is breaking down&mdash;that's why
+Lucian has gone to South America; and we can't hear for some time just
+how things are."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well! I didn't realize that things were going so badly&mdash;at least
+you must think they are going badly, or you wouldn't look downcast. A
+bright girl like you should always look on the bright side of things.
+But so far as your father's business is concerned, I may tell you that
+it is likely to take a turn for the better&mdash;at present I am not at
+liberty to say more. It's this news about his health that troubles me.
+Let me know what you hear from Lucian."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gamut's words were more cheering than anything Martine had heard for
+weeks, and in the few minutes that intervened before the arrival of his
+niece, he told her a number of interesting stories about earlier Class
+Days.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a larger gathering, this crowd around the statue, than we used
+to see at the tree. But give me the tree, and the wreath, and the wild
+scramble, and the torn flowers that the boys were almost ready to stake
+their lives for! Sometimes I am afraid we are making everything too
+refined; a little rough and tumble is good even for the most cultivated
+students. This confetti!&mdash;no, I don't care for it."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gamut, on the arrival of his niece, departed to his place among the
+graduates. The niece was a girl whom Martine had known slightly at home.
+She had recently come from Chicago, and in consequence, was able to tell
+Martine various bits of news, which, if not important, at least had some
+interest for one away from home.</p>
+
+<p>After the mass of students had marched into the enclosure, and had given
+all the regulation Harvard cheers, Martine felt herself thoroughly
+imbued with the spirit of the day. She listened intently to the cheers,
+hummed the air of "Johnny Harvard" while the students sang it. When her
+own stock of confetti was exhausted, she helped Mrs. Redmond throw hers
+in the direction of Fritz.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the prettiest sight I ever saw," she cried. "This wonderful
+shimmering network of ribbons&mdash;it's as if we had been caught in a
+rainbow&mdash;and if we were only a little farther away from people, they
+would seem like real fairies. Oh, I am glad I came!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad that you are cheerful again," whispered Mrs. Redmond. "For a
+moment to-day, I feared that you were going to be blue."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was only for a moment. Now I feel happy&mdash;almost as happy as
+Amy. Come, Amy dear, Fritz will never find you in this crowd. Let us
+return to his rooms as quickly as we can. The sooner we are there, the
+sooner we shall go on to the spread."</p>
+
+<p>How Priscilla would have shuddered at the teasing tone that Martine used
+in addressing Amy. Even though she now understood Martine so much better
+than formerly, and, indeed, really loved her, Priscilla could not
+accustom herself to Martine's frivolity of speech and manner toward Amy.
+Fortunately for her own feelings, Priscilla was safely at Plymouth at
+this particular moment, and Amy, whom Martine never offended, only
+smiled indulgently at the younger girl.</p>
+
+<p>They had not long to wait at Fritz' pleasant rooms before he appeared,
+flushed and triumphant, accompanied by two or three friends.</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it fine? We managed to bring you a few sprays of flowers. The
+bevy of beauty on the seats above almost blinded us. But for that we
+might have done better, although I can tell you, no one else got more;
+and we fairly had to fight our way out. Now we are ready to share our
+trophies. This for you, Amy, and Barton&mdash;yours, I believe, are for Miss
+Martine; but I forget, you have never met. Mr. Barton, Miss Stratford&mdash;I
+always forget that the men I know do not always know the girls I know.
+But now, Barton, you will escort Mrs. Redmond and Miss Martine to our
+humble spread&mdash;and Helmer&mdash;ah, here they are&mdash;Miss Naylor, Miss
+Starkweather&mdash;let me present Barton and Helmer, and Jack Underwood. Now
+we can start&mdash;I thought your aunt was coming&mdash;ah! lost?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course she isn't lost, Kate," interposed the practical Elinor. "I am
+sure that I hear her on the stairs." And to prove that Elinor was right,
+a moment later the elder Miss Starkweather came panting into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"You should have waited for me, girls; I had such a fright&mdash;I was sure
+you were lost!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not lost&mdash;only gone before," interrupted Fritz. "I am sorry I shocked
+you, Amy," he whispered, catching her look of reproof. "Let us hurry on,
+ahead of the others."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, walking with Fritz' friend, Barton, across the college yard,
+felt quite in her element. The young man was by no means bashful, and in
+a few moments the two were deep in a lively conversation. Martine's
+fatigue had passed away. Family trials were forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Fritz Tomkins had united with four or five of his friends in giving a
+large spread in one of the modern halls outside the yard.</p>
+
+<p>Secretly Martine thought the affair conventional, "like any afternoon
+tea, with flowers on the table, and candelabra, and all the fashionable
+bonbons."</p>
+
+<p>"But you wouldn't see so many men at a mere tea, truly I think it's
+great fun," said the staid Elinor, snuggling into a corner beside
+Martine. "At the next game I shall hardly know what side I am on. I like
+Harvard so well, and your hat, Martine, the one I am wearing, you can't
+imagine how many compliments it has had. You were altogether too good to
+let me have it. Do you suppose I shall <i>ever</i> find that trunk?"</p>
+
+<p>Before Martine could reply, some one came to carry Elinor off for a
+walk. Martine, left to herself, eagerly watched everything around her.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder why Fritz pays more attention to Amy than to anyone else. He
+sees so much of her always that I should think to-day he'd look after
+other people. Now, I'm sure Amy isn't sentimental."</p>
+
+<p>But just at this moment, Martine caught an expression on Fritz' face as
+he turned toward Amy that set her thinking. Rising to her feet, she
+hurried toward Mrs. Redmond.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, please, how late you mean to stay. It's dark now, and the
+lanterns in the yard must be lit. I'd like to see the illumination, and
+hear the Glee Club sing, but I ought to be home by nine, please. I have
+a busy day before me."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you wish, my dear. I will speak to Amy."</p>
+
+<p>A moment later, Amy, Fritz, and Elinor surrounded Martine, protesting
+against her departure, urging her to go with them to Memorial, to return
+with them to Fritz' rooms, to watch the illuminations; in short, to do
+anything but go home.</p>
+
+<p>Martine, however, was firm, and when she started off for the yard with
+Mrs. Redmond, Mr. Barton went with them.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a glimpse of fairyland," said Martine, as they strolled about
+through the crowd. "Why do these lines of lanterns make the yard look
+ten times its usual size? Why do these red lights make every one seem
+beautiful? Why&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me continue," interrupted Emmons Barton. "<i>Why</i> won't you come over
+to Memorial? <i>Why</i> must you hurry home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am Cinderella," responded Martine gayly. "Because I should
+hate to lose my glass slipper. Come, Mrs. Redmond, I am sure our car is
+waiting, if Mr. Barton will only find it for us."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>AT YORK</h3>
+
+
+<p>The morning after her arrival at York, Martine stood at the door of the
+little red farm-house. The air was fresh and cool, a delightful contrast
+to the last day or two of heat in the city that she had just left. A
+slight mist from the river softened without hiding the view. Through the
+rolling meadows that stretched before her across the road, she saw the
+thread of river winding its way toward the sea. The ocean itself was not
+in sight, though it made itself known in a certain agreeable saltness of
+odor that Martine quickly recognized.</p>
+
+<p>Martine gazed across the meadows with a certain pleasant expectancy,
+such as any young girl in a new place is likely to feel. The houses in
+the distance looked attractive.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if they are summer cottages, or if people really live there. I
+wonder who has this large house just across the road. It is rather
+handsome. I hope there are girls in the family. It must be very pleasant
+there, the garden seems to run down to the river. Our garden needs
+attention," she concluded, taking a few steps toward the flower beds,
+where a few stray geraniums and untrimmed rose-bushes were the sole
+adornments. After a few rather futile efforts to improve the appearance
+of these beds, Martine turned toward the house.</p>
+
+<p>The red cottage, as she faced it, was far from imposing.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like some of the roadside cottages I have seen in England and
+Wales. It isn't much larger. I'm glad that it is red instead of
+white&mdash;well I should have had to live in it just the same, but I should
+have hated a white house. A coat of red paint always makes a house seem
+picturesque," she concluded.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Angelina, in a pink calico in which she looked more
+gypsy-like than ever, ran down the little slope to meet Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it lovely," she said, "to be so near the road. We can see the
+electric cars pass by the corner over there, and hear the train. Didn't
+you notice the whistle this morning? I did, and it made me think of the
+city right off."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't often hear an engine whistle in the city."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but a steam-engine makes you think of the city. You know that you
+are not cut off from everything, and that sometime you can go back."</p>
+
+<p>"Why Angelina, I hope that you are not homesick?"</p>
+
+<p>There had been a suspicious quiver in Angelina's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly homesick, oh, no, I feel perfectly at home with you and
+Mrs. Stratford, but still&mdash;well, you see, Miss Martine, we haven't as
+many neighbors as we had in the city. I knew something about every
+family in the Belhaven, but here I don't see how I'll begin to get
+acquainted."</p>
+
+<p>"Cheer up, Angelina," said Martine, pleasantly. "Don't let a little
+thing like that trouble you. A person of your sociable disposition can
+make acquaintances anywhere. But it's more dignified to proceed slowly.
+You and I will be busy enough the next few days getting settled. I have
+an idea that mother may need us now."</p>
+
+<p>"There," cried Angelina, as they stood inside the little entry. "It's
+small, Miss Martine, but it's real neat, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's neat," and Martine looked at the steep flight of stairs that
+almost tumbled down into the narrow hall, separating the two front
+rooms. "It's neat enough, but I am glad we have a strip of red carpet
+for the stairs. Uncarpeted, the paint might soon wear off, and besides
+they would be rather noisy. But are you sure that you have finished your
+kitchen-work, Angelina?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I just haven't; I'm glad you reminded me." So Angelina hurried to
+the back of the house, where soon her voice was heard singing shrilly
+above the clatter of dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, as her daughter entered the sitting-room
+at the left of the hall, "the wall paper was very successful. What would
+this room have been without it?"</p>
+
+<p>"These pale yellow roses certainly brighten it up, and the color is not
+only cheerful, but increases the size of the room. This little cupboard
+in the wall is fascinating, and when we get some of our china in, it
+will be truly æsthetic."</p>
+
+<p>"If only it opened on a piazza," sighed Mrs. Stratford. "It is singular
+enough that so many New England houses are built without any pretence of
+a porch or piazza."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that can be remedied," responded Martine cheerfully. "There's a
+very attractive nook between those two trees, and we can send to town
+for an awning, and if we lay down a rug, and move out a sofa, and some
+chairs and a table, why we'll have a regular little summer house."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, pausing almost out of breath, noted with regret that her mother
+did not smile. A shadow crossed Mrs. Stratford's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother does not like it here," thought Martine, "neither do I, but I
+must like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, mother," she said aloud, taking her mother by the arm. "Wasn't it
+a good idea to have the walls of this dining-room painted blue? You see
+it gets so much sun, and this gives it the effect of coolness."</p>
+
+<p>"I dislike oak furniture." Mrs. Stratford did not answer the question
+that Martine had put indirectly to her. Her attention was now centred on
+the ugly extension table and the uncomfortable chairs ranged stiffly
+around the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have to put up with the chairs, I suppose, but I have a lovely
+old blue cotton curtain in one of the trunks that will hide the table
+and give the room any amount of style."</p>
+
+<p>"You are trying to make the best of everything, my dear, and I dare say
+you are right. But the house is so much smaller and plainer than I
+remembered it, that I fear we shall hardly be comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; come, let me show you, already I have made ever so many plans;"
+and impressed by Martine's vivacious optimism, Mrs. Stratford at last
+began to see the pleasanter possibilities of the red cottage.</p>
+
+<p>Martine was not deceiving either her mother or herself in pointing out
+the best side of things, and yet in her heart there was a certain
+disappointment in her first survey of "Red Knoll."</p>
+
+<p>"We must have a name for the house," she had said the very afternoon of
+their arrival. "'Red Farm,' no, that isn't exactly the thing; 'Red Top,'
+no, the roof isn't red, and besides, that name has been used by some one
+else. 'Red Knoll'&mdash;there, why not, it combines the color of the house
+and the situation on a knoll&mdash;why not, mamma?" and as Mrs. Stratford had
+no adverse answer, Red Knoll it was from the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>A house needs something besides a picturesque name to make it attractive
+even to an optimistic girl anxious to see the bright side of things.</p>
+
+<p>The little farm-house that Mr. and Mrs. Stratford had so impulsively
+bought, was barely large enough for the three persons who were now to
+make it the summer home. The two square rooms on each side of the front
+door, if thrown together, would have been smaller than the bedroom which
+had been Martine's in her father's house. Over them, originally, had
+been two rooms of equal size. One of these was now to be Mrs.
+Stratford's bedroom. The other had been divided by a partition into two
+rooms each, resembling the so-called hall bedroom of many city houses.
+The one nearest her mother Martine appropriated for herself. The second
+she named euphemistically the guest-room; but for the present she
+intended to use it as a studio or writing-room, and had removed one or
+two other pieces of furniture to make room for a large deal table.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond this room, connected by a narrow door, were two ell rooms, one of
+which was assigned to Angelina. Downstairs in the ell were kitchen and
+wash-room, both with white-washed walls.</p>
+
+<p>"A small house, but our own," said Martine cheerfully, as she first
+walked through it. "I'll try to forget how different it is from the
+place we used to have at Oconomowoc. When father first sold it, he said
+some time he would buy a place on the New England coast, but he
+certainly hadn't Red Knoll in mind then."</p>
+
+<p>As the first evening in their new home came on, Martine felt lonely. The
+shadows gathering around the little cottage seemed to shut her out from
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>"Will things ever come right? I feel so&mdash;so miserable. I wonder what it
+is&mdash;mother, where are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Two or three times she called, before her mother's voice came to her
+from a corner of the little garden.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing out in the damp?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it damp, my child? But the sunset was too beautiful to miss. You
+should have been out here with me. Where were you, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Helping Angelina."</p>
+
+<p>"That was right; it will take her some time to get perfectly adjusted.
+You are going to be a great comfort, Martine."</p>
+
+<p>Her mother's praise sounded sweet to Martine, yet she could not shake
+off a certain strange feeling, that she would have called homesickness
+had her mother not been with her.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the house, they sat for a moment by the open window.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother," cried Martine, "I have an idea&mdash;I mean a special idea.
+Wouldn't it be better after this to have tea later, just as it begins to
+grow dark. Then we needn't miss the sunset."</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't that make Angelina's dish-washing come rather late?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, listen, listen," cried Martine, with something of her old
+eagerness. "It is part of my plan to leave the dish-washing until
+morning. There are only three of us, and so we need not follow
+old-fashioned housekeeping rules."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure of that," and Mrs. Stratford shook her head as if in
+doubt. "But we can try the late tea to-morrow, so that we can go up in
+the meadow behind the house for our sunset. It is a better place for a
+view than my corner of the garden."</p>
+
+<p>It pleased Martine to hear her mother speak so cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try not to mind the melancholy twilights, and all those strange
+chirping things and the feeling of being shut off in a corner of the
+world, if only this place is good for mother."</p>
+
+<p>The later tea hour proved feasible, and Martine at the table with her
+mother after their little stroll to Sunset Hill forgot the melancholy
+twilight. Nor had she in their busy first week much time for discontent.
+The village boy whom Mrs. Stratford engaged to unpack their trunks and
+boxes was bewildered by their number.</p>
+
+<p>"There are some, Angelina, that are not to be unpacked now, please get
+him to put them in the unfinished ell room."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Martine, I know just which they are, and I'll hurry back to
+help you hang those pictures."</p>
+
+<p>When all the pictures were hung, when artistic draperies covered some of
+the ugliest chairs, when pretty sofa cushions softened ugly angles, when
+books and bric-à-brac were distributed in carelessly homelike fashion,
+and when a number of really valuable rugs were used to tone down the
+crudeness of the carpets, Angelina surveyed the result with a pride that
+could not have been greater if she had been the owner of the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>"There," she cried. "It looks just like a city house, only more so, if
+anything. Don't you think so, Miss Martine, and I do hope you'll have
+some callers right away. Why, I almost feel as if I was back at the
+Belhaven when I look from this Cashmere rug to that Arts and Crafts
+silver bowl on the mantle-piece. No one can say that we haven't shown
+perfect taste, can they, Miss Martine?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad we brought all these things," replied Martine, "mother
+thought I was packing too much, but if we are to be here three or four
+months, we must make it seem as homelike as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly is homelike," continued Angelina, "especially that picture
+of Miss Brenda. Mrs. Weston, I mean; when I first saw her I always
+thought she was stylish, and that was years ago. Of course I hadn't been
+acquainted with many Back Bay ladies then, excepting one that taught in
+our Sunday School. But still, after all I've known I just think Mrs.
+Weston's at the very head of them. You are something like her, too, Miss
+Martine, in fact I should say you're almost as stylish, and to-day when
+I rode down to the village I saw a lot of young ladies that are just
+your kind, in white muslins and high-heeled shoes, and I hope they'll
+call on you soon. As far as I could make out from something I heard some
+one on the seat behind me say, they were going to a tea, and it's likely
+to be a gay summer. I'm glad of this for your sake, Miss Martine, for
+you've been too quiet lately for one of your age."</p>
+
+<p>Martine was not altogether pleased with Angelina's familiarity, though
+for the moment it seemed hardly worth while to rebuke her.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently Angelina, unreproved, continued her monologue:</p>
+
+<p>"I noticed a good many people in bathing when I passed the beach, but
+when I went up I found they were chiefly nurse-maids, employees of the
+cottagers. There were a lot of pleasant-looking nurses and children
+playing in the sand, and one that I spoke to, a nurse, I mean, was very
+accommodating, and told me lots about the cottagers. They bathe at noon
+every day, and it's a great sight. I presume when I do go in, I'll have
+to go in with the employees, for I suppose I'll be classed with the
+nurses and children that generally bathe in the afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be classed with the children, if you babble on in this way,
+Angelina. But as to the bathing, you must ask mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I wish you had been going to that tea, Miss Martine; the young
+ladies looked just your style. I asked the nurse about it, and she said
+it was given by Miss Peggy Pratt of Philadelphia."</p>
+
+<p>These last words of Angelina's made more impression than all the others.
+"Peggy Pratt." Martine felt on further reflection particularly
+aggrieved.</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor must have written Peggy regarding her summer plans, for Elinor
+was a person of her word, and she had promised to do this. If Elinor had
+not promised, of course I should have written myself. But now I am glad
+I did not, for probably I should have been treated just the same. Yet it
+doesn't seem just like Peggy."</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," called Mrs. Stratford from her corner a few minutes later,
+and Martine hurried to her mother's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, dear," added Mrs. Stratford, then with a shade of anxiety in
+her voice. "But you look tired. I fear you have been working too hard.
+Perhaps you did more than your share in preparing this boudoir for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, Angelina and Timothy worked much harder than I. But it <i>is</i> a
+cosy corner. Between the awning and the trees, you will be as well
+shaded from the sun as you would be indoors, and an open window wouldn't
+begin to give you so much air."</p>
+
+<p>Martine swung herself into the hammock.</p>
+
+<p>"There, I feel like a bird. Mother dear, you called me for something
+special, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only to say that Angelina is anxious to know how we will celebrate."</p>
+
+<p>"Celebrate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Martine." Angelina had reappeared on the scene with Mrs.
+Stratford's glass of milk. "Celebrate," she repeated. "Why, Miss
+Martine, you haven't forgotten what day to-morrow is?"</p>
+
+<p>Martine sat upright in the hammock. "I really and truly had, but now you
+mention it it's the great and glorious Fourth, and what of that?" she
+concluded, waving her hand dramatically.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Martine, it wouldn't be right to pass it by unnoticed. Why at
+the North End we used to sit up all the night before, and the streets
+were as full of noise as if a war was going on."</p>
+
+<p>"We couldn't celebrate in exactly that way," responded Martine smiling.
+"I am almost sure that I won't sit up to-night, and as to fire-crackers,
+what's the good, unless there's a boy in the house?"</p>
+
+<p>Again the sober expression returned to Martine's face, as this mention
+of the Fourth brought vividly to mind the many celebrations in which she
+and Lucian had taken a lively interest. Where was Lucian now? Would the
+whole family ever be together again?</p>
+
+<p>She came to herself with Angelina's high-pitched voice still ringing in
+her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"So I felt quite sure that you wouldn't object as the ten weeks is more
+than past, and as I've paid all that up, why, I made sure you wouldn't
+mind my spending just a little for fireworks. But I'd like you to look
+in your little book first."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it's all settled, Angelina, but you can bring me that little red
+book from the drawer in my writing-table."</p>
+
+<p>While Angelina was in the house, Martine explained to her mother what
+she had meant by "paying up."</p>
+
+<p>"It is that money Lucian paid for the hall. He told her to give it back
+to me. So she has been paying a dollar and a half a week. It is Lucian's
+money, though he wished me to keep it, and I agreed not to let Angelina
+know that it was he who helped her."</p>
+
+<p>"It is to Angelina's credit that she has paid so promptly."</p>
+
+<p>"It really is, mamma, and I think it has been rather a good thing as it
+has kept her from spending all her money foolishly. Of course, the hall
+itself was a foolish expense, yet these last few weeks she has been able
+to waste only part of her money, but now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Angelina appeared with the little red book, and Martine,
+quickly turning to the pages with her account, saw to Angelina's
+satisfaction as well as her own, that the indebtedness for the hall had
+been cancelled.</p>
+
+<p>"There," cried Angelina, folding up the receipt that Martine with
+business-like exactness gave her. "I am relieved. Now I can celebrate
+all I want to, for fire-crackers cost a lot."</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't waste your money on fireworks."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Angelina, you must not," added Martine.</p>
+
+<p>But Angelina, making no reply either to Mrs. Stratford or
+Martine&mdash;unless a nod and three shakes of the head and a broad smile
+could be called a reply, flew down the little slope toward the road.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the Fourth was so quiet that Martine might have forgotten
+the great and glorious holiday but for Angelina. Before the breakfast
+dishes were washed, the latter was outside striking torpedoes against
+the stone that formed the kitchen doorstep.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Stratford went with her books to her retreat under the trees
+in the garden, she found two small flags standing in the vase that was
+usually filled with flowers.</p>
+
+<p>When once her mind was turned toward the Fourth, Martine began to recall
+Independence Days of the past. What fun she and Lucian used to have!
+Why, they often had been up before sunrise to play with their
+fire-crackers and torpedoes. Then at night&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," mused Martine, "if any other children ever had half the
+sport we had. Set pieces, and fire balloons, as well as rockets; how
+indulgent father always was. No wonder I feel blue to-day, and expect
+too much&mdash;when it isn't likely that in this town a single person is
+thinking about us."</p>
+
+<p>The day, as befitted the holiday, proved hot, and Martine, swinging
+languidly in the hammock, at length admitted to herself that she was
+glad that she had no troublesome social engagement to keep, and she
+maintained this opinion even in face of Angelina's report, after a walk
+to the village, that there seemed to be a great deal going on.</p>
+
+<p>To oblige Angelina, dinner instead of tea was served at five, and it
+proved a great success.</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to have served red white and blue ice-cream, but I didn't
+know how to make it blue, so it's red and white," apologized Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>"I might have supplied the blue this morning," said Martine. "It's too
+late now." But no one understood her feeble attempt at a pun.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems worse," said Angelina, as they gathered up the dishes, "to
+leave dinner things to be washed until morning, but if your mother don't
+mind&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure that I don't," said Martine, "and as for mother&mdash;why, of
+course she won't care."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I have some very important business to attend to&mdash;if you'll
+excuse me."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this Angelina disappeared, and in the pleasant twilight Martine
+went outside with her mother to the little retreat in the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"I half wish," said Mrs. Stratford, "that we had had a few fireworks.
+Even if we are shut off from the world, we ought not to forget the
+Fourth. I didn't suppose there would be much celebrating down here, but
+see!"</p>
+
+<p>Looking where her mother pointed, Martine saw a great fire balloon
+soaring slowly into the air. They watched it until it disappeared and as
+the twilight deepened, they counted many rockets and Roman candles going
+up in various directions.</p>
+
+<p>Before Martine could decide whether it would be wise to recall the
+Fourth when Lucian almost put his eye out by blowing into a fire-cracker
+to see if it was still burning, Angelina appeared on the scene with a
+number of packages. These she deposited on the slope in front of the
+house with consequential air.</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina," cried Mrs. Stratford.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm," responded Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina," called Martine, and without waiting for a reply walked down
+to where the girl was undoing her packages.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you really have fire-crackers here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Martine, and rockets, and Roman candles, and fire balloons,
+at least only one balloon. It didn't seem homelike not to have something
+doing on the Fourth, and now that I can spend my own money, there's no
+reason why I shouldn't celebrate."</p>
+
+<p>Martine had no reply for this unanswerable argument, and in a second
+she, too, was busy helping.</p>
+
+<p>"I might have bought some myself, if I had thought of it in time."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, if you'd thought of it in time. My, that's fine," and
+Angelina clapped her hands, as a rocket shot into the air falling in a
+shower of golden stars.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know I could find pleasure in anything so simple," said
+Martine, returning to her mother's side.</p>
+
+<p>"It only shows how limited our life here is," and Mrs. Stratford sank
+back in her chair with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, fireworks amuse everybody," rejoined Martine, "but now I must run
+back to Angelina. The last, she says,&mdash;is finest of all&mdash;a fire
+balloon."</p>
+
+<p>After two or three ineffectual efforts Martine and Angelina at last had
+the pleasure of sending off the balloon. But alas! Instead of pursuing
+its upward way, it was borne horizontally by a wandering breeze, and at
+last was lost to sight.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," cried Angelina. "It has gone somewhere behind the buildings of
+that estate over the way. I must get it." And in a flash she had run
+toward the large house regarding whose occupants Martine had so often
+wondered.</p>
+
+<p>"Our celebration is over, I suppose," said Martine to her mother, "but
+we might as well stay outside a little longer, and see! What magnificent
+rockets are going up from the estate across the way." A change of
+intonation carried out Martine's mimicry of Angelina's words.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and there's a balloon that puts Angelina's to the blush," and
+mother and daughter watched the ball of fire dwindling in the upper air,
+until it was lost apparently among the stars.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before Angelina returned, breathless.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, did you see my balloon? Wasn't it magnificent? They said they were
+proud to help send it up from their estate, and they only wished they
+had had some of their own. You see it had got kind of twisted after you
+and I sent it, and went down sideways, right on the lawn in front of
+their house. They seemed the most elegant people, and I told them how
+lonely it was for you up here, and you used to things so very different.
+When I mentioned your names it seemed to me they'd heard of you before,
+and so I asked them to come to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how could you, Angelina, how could you!" cried Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there," said Mrs. Stratford, as she laid her hand on Martine's
+arm as they turned toward the house. "I have always told you you would
+spoil Angelina. It's useless to reprove her now, for she won't
+understand what you mean, but in future you can be more careful."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>SIGHT-SEEING</h3>
+
+
+<p>"York is pretty dull for you, Martine," said Mrs. Stratford a morning or
+two after the Fourth. "I was hoping you would run across some one you
+knew here. Wasn't Elinor to write to some of her friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so, mamma, but either she has forgotten, or they don't think
+it worth while to travel up to Red Knoll."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you have many things to interest you about the house, but
+still it's quiet for you here, Martine."</p>
+
+<p>"It might be livelier," admitted Martine, "but there's a lot of
+sight-seeing I can do, while waiting for something to turn up. Amy and
+Priscilla have quite got me into the sight-seeing habit, and it would be
+a strange New England town that couldn't show something to a seeker for
+information."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford smiled at her daughter's way of putting things. "York
+really has some history, and the village, as I drove through it the
+other day, had a pleasant, old-time aspect, though nothing looked
+ancient enough to take one back even a hundred years."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then you didn't notice the little gaol on the hill; labelled
+sixteen hundred and something, I've forgotten just what, but I believe
+it's as old as it claims to be, for it looks something like Noah's Ark.
+If Angelina will stay with you this afternoon, I will see what is to be
+seen there. They told me at the postoffice that the Historical Society
+has it in charge and that it's full of curiosities."</p>
+
+<p>While she was speaking, Martine's face had brightened perceptibly, and
+her enthusiasm pleased her mother. Later in the day she set off, for
+Angelina, whose habit it was to take the afternoons for her own
+amusement, willingly accepted Martine's suggestion that she should stay
+with Mrs. Stratford.</p>
+
+<p>"At any time when you wish it, Miss Martine, I'll be happy to oblige
+you," said Angelina, with an air better befitting a princess than a
+domestic employee, the most of whose time should have been at the
+disposal of her employer.</p>
+
+<p>"I've never really gone to jail before," cried Martine gayly, as she
+bade her mother good-bye, "but I'll try so to behave myself that I'll
+have nothing but good to report when I come back."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment or two, before she entered the gaol, Martine surveyed it
+from the road below. Her comparison of the little building to Noah's Ark
+really suited it very well.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say that it's exactly my idea of a prison," she thought,
+"although those brick walls may be thick enough to balance the wooden
+ends; and even if a prisoner found it easy to jump from the upper
+windows to the ground, I dare say that some of the bolts and bars were
+strong enough to hold dangerous persons."</p>
+
+<p>Once inside the little building, Martine almost forgot that it was a
+prison, as she walked about gazing at all kinds of odd things that have
+been brought together to connect the present with the past. Old china,
+old pictures, autographs, furniture, fans, and other articles of
+personal adornment, spoke eloquently of bygone days; so eloquently that
+Martine shortly realized that a feeling of sadness was taking possession
+of her. She began to picture the people to whom these things had
+belonged, to wonder who they were, how long they had lived, and why
+their homes had been broken up.</p>
+
+<p>"For no one with a home," she said to herself, "would ever part with
+things of this kind." She looked into the old dungeon, the walls of
+which were eighteen or twenty inches thick, and turned away hastily when
+another visitor asked her if she wouldn't like to go farther inside.
+Then she went to the attendant seated at a table in the front room.</p>
+
+<p>"How old is this building?" she asked, rather to make conversation than
+because she really cared to know.</p>
+
+<p>"It was built in 1653," was the polite answer, "and is said to be the
+oldest public building in the United States; there are probably some
+churches and houses still standing that are a little older, but no
+building used for more than two hundred years continuously for public
+purposes. It was built by the Massachusetts people when they took
+possession of this part of the country in the time of Cromwell."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" Martine was not exactly eager for information, but to hear a
+little more history would help pass the time.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you know," continued the other, "that York was founded under
+a grant to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, and it was always strongly Royalist;
+it's the oldest incorporated city in the United States, and although its
+mayor and aldermen and other high officials existed chiefly on paper and
+the place was only a small village even into the eighteenth century,
+still we are all very proud of our history."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a voice at Martine's elbow cried, "Bless my soul," in
+tones that were strangely familiar, and turning about she met the
+surprised gaze of Mr. Gamut whom she had last seen at the exercises
+around the Harvard statue on Class Day.</p>
+
+<p>"So it really is you, Miss Martine," said the Mr. Gamut, holding out his
+hand. "I had no idea that you were in this part of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"We have a little cottage here this summer," responded Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you all together again? Surely your father&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, my father isn't here; we've had only one letter since I saw
+you, and that wasn't encouraging."</p>
+
+<p>Against her will, tears came to Martine's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, remember what I told you; things are bound to come out
+all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope so. Mother says that if things were worse we should probably
+have had a cable."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the way to look at it. Come, walk around with me for a little
+while. I suppose you know all about these things. My niece wouldn't come
+with me. She doesn't care for history. A great place this New England!
+They seem to have saved all their old odds and ends and have a story to
+fit everything."</p>
+
+<p>"But York is really old and historic," protested Martine, proud of her
+recently acquired information. "The first settlers here were Royalists
+and held high positions."</p>
+
+<p>"On paper," said Mr. Gamut with a laugh. "Oh, yes, I know about Sir
+Ferdinand Gorges and his remarkable charter. Here are some of the coats
+of arms of the first settlers," exclaimed Mr. Gamut. "Do you suppose
+they wore them tied around their necks when they first came out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly," responded Martine, detecting Mr. Gamut's scepticism.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm only a plain western man," continued the latter, "and I
+rather think that coats of arms and things of that kind didn't trouble
+the first settlers in spite of all this foolery," and he pointed to the
+colors blazoned on the shield and scrolls on the walls.</p>
+
+<p>"They're pretty to look at," apologized Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, and I suppose people of a certain name have an uncertain right
+to claim these heraldic ornaments, but for my own part, I prefer
+something more substantial. Things like this appeal to me more," and he
+led Martine to a little cradle in which Sir William Pepperell slept in
+his babyhood. "Or even this," and he pointed out a small table at which
+Handkerchief Moody used to eat by himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Who in the world was 'Handkerchief Moody'?"</p>
+
+<p>"His story is one of the few York tales that I can tell," replied Mr.
+Gamut, smiling. "And you ought to know it too, young lady, because
+Hawthorne, in his way, has immortalized it. This Moody was the son of
+one of the ministers of the old church; he was intended for the law, but
+having accidentally killed a friend while out hunting, his father
+persuaded him to enter the ministry. Remorse, however, so preyed on him
+that he spent his life in comparative solitude, and whenever he went in
+public, it is said, he covered his face with a handkerchief; different
+reasons have been given for his strange behavior, and it may be that he
+was always mildly insane. At least, there must be some truth in the
+stories told about him."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, impressed by this curious story, was silent for a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one thing," she said, "that I have learned about the old people
+of York; they must have set what Angelina would call a very handsome
+table. I've seldom seen in one place so many fine old cups and saucers
+and drinking glasses and decanters."</p>
+
+<p>"These things don't fit exactly our theories about New England plain
+living and high thinking. I tell you what, object lessons often teach us
+much more than books. But now," and Mr. Gamut looked at his watch, "I'm
+sorry to see that I must hurry back to the house; I am visiting a cousin
+for a few days and if you'll tell me where your cottage is, I shall have
+a great deal of pleasure in calling on you and your mother."</p>
+
+<p>As accurately as she could, Martine described the location of Red Knoll,
+and as suddenly as he had appeared on the scene, Mr. Gamut disappeared.
+After he had gone, Martine mounted the steep stairs to the second story
+of the gaol where she examined at her leisure the hand-made quilts and
+quaint furnishings of an old-time bedroom, and looked with interest at
+the picturesque costumes giving a somewhat ghostly effect to a number of
+dummy figures in one of the attics. She saw the cell, or rather the
+room, where gentlemen prisoners were confined, and going downstairs,
+took a final survey of the old kitchen, well equipped with cooking
+utensils of Colonial days.</p>
+
+<p>Her visit to the gaol had diverted her, but as she walked homeward over
+the dusty road, the old feeling of loneliness returned. Never before had
+she realized that she was dependent on young companionship; yet never
+before had she been so cut off from her own special friends.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford was pleased to hear that Mr. Gamut intended to visit Red
+Knoll.</p>
+
+<p>"He probably," she said, "has friends at York, of whom we shall be
+likely to see something; he and your father were never intimate, but
+always good friends. I shall be glad to see him and I hope his niece
+will come with him, for there is no reason why we should live in utter
+seclusion."</p>
+
+<p>Two or three days passed away and then a week, and still Mr. Gamut had
+not presented himself. Meanwhile a letter had arrived from Lucian.</p>
+
+<p>"Father is still in a rather critical condition; he is not able to
+attend to business, though they say he is much better than before I
+came; it will be impossible to tell for some time how things really
+stand or when we can come home."</p>
+
+<p>"I call that very encouraging," cried Martine, reading the letter aloud
+for the second time. "I'm so glad that Lucian went out there."</p>
+
+<p>"He has certainly taken hold very well," responded Mrs. Stratford,
+"although I cannot agree with you that the letter is very encouraging."</p>
+
+<p>"But it might have been so much worse," murmured Martine, turning away
+that her mother might not discern any lack of cheerfulness in her face.
+For although the letter might have been worse, Martine realized that
+after all it did not promise a great deal for the future. Other letters
+came now to Red Knoll. Priscilla wrote affectionately. She knew, she
+wrote, it was probably warmer at Plymouth than at York and yet, if only
+it could have been arranged, she believed that Martine and her mother
+might have enjoyed the South Shore better even than the North.</p>
+
+<p>"The children talk of you constantly; no one ever made a deeper
+impression; so I have promised them that Thanksgiving, if not before,
+you will come again to visit us. Mr. Stacy asks for you whenever he sees
+me, and that, you know, is fairly often. He says that York is historic
+in its way, and he hopes that you will find a lot to interest you there,
+so that you can tell him all about it when you see him. He evidently
+thinks that York history isn't half as important as our Plymouth
+history, and of course he's right, because this was the earlier
+settlement; still if there's anything worth knowing about the place, I
+am sure you will find it out. For even though you made so much fun of
+Acadian history last summer, in the end you really knew more about it
+than any of the rest of us. That was because there was so much more to
+know about the Acadians than the English, and you may recall I tried not
+to remember the Acadian history that Amy talked so much about."</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, "I hope that Priscilla will visit you;
+she is the kind of girl to be quite comfortable in that little room next
+yours; there are some people we wouldn't care to put there."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Priscilla would just love it, but she wrote me a while ago that she
+couldn't possibly be spared, at least that she oughtn't to wish to be
+spared; and when Priscilla says 'ought not' she generally means 'will
+not.'"</p>
+
+<p>A day later Martine had her first letter from Amy, who was enjoying her
+first trip abroad; she and her mother had gone directly from Liverpool
+to North Wales, where Mrs. Redmond was anxious to spend a week or two
+sketching in the neighborhood of Snowdon.</p>
+
+<p>"She was here years ago, before her marriage," wrote Amy, "and so this
+is a kind of sentimental journey for her; she thinks that I have made a
+sacrifice in postponing our visit to London; but indeed, I find it very
+attractive here, and perhaps it is just as well to rest for a little
+while before we set out on a regular sight-seeing tour."</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, as her daughter replaced Amy's letter in
+its envelope, "you haven't yet gone down to the beach?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, mamma, I haven't really felt like going."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I <i>do</i> feel like going to-day," said Mrs. Stratford. "Let us take
+the next car and ride down as near as we can; people bathe about twelve
+and we shall be in season to see all that is going on."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, mamma;" Martine's tone implied resignation to something that
+she did not wholly approve. In a few moments mother and daughter were
+well on their way to the beach. After they were once fairly started
+Martine's spirits revived. She and her mother had never passed through
+the village together and Martine pointed out the gaol and the old white
+church with its high spire, fronting a little green; and the old
+churchyard across the road, whose inscriptions she said she would not
+try to decipher until she could have Priscilla with her. It was a warm
+morning, but the motion of the car produced a refreshing breeze, and
+when at last they left it to walk toward the beach, both mother and
+daughter were in good spirits. At the edge of the sands a gay sight met
+them. Two large pavilions, roofed over, but open at the sides, were
+filled with gayly dressed people; the tide was fairly low, and on the
+sand in front half-grown boys and girls were romping in their
+bathing-suits, and nurse-maids with little children were disporting
+themselves in large numbers. From the bath houses behind the pavilions,
+a long plank extended to the water. Here bathers were coming and going,
+some dripping from their plunge, others ready to go in. Martine and her
+mother seated themselves on the first empty seat they came to at the
+edge of the pavilion. Martine, impressed by the gay hats, fluttering,
+colored veils, and thin muslin gowns, seen on every side, glanced
+involuntarily at her own plain linen suit.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford, understanding her glance, spoke encouragingly. "You look
+very well, Martine; your dress is entirely suitable for the morning.
+Some of these other costumes are too elaborate."</p>
+
+<p>"I had no idea it would be so gay," responded Martine; "evidently we are
+in York, but not of it."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly she was sorry. But if Mrs. Stratford had heard her words, she
+made no comment. Mother and daughter sat for some time idly watching the
+crowd. Once or twice they recognized people they had known in Chicago,
+not intimate friends, but persons with whom they had a speaking
+acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"There's Mrs. Brownville," exclaimed Mrs. Stratford, as an elderly woman
+with an elaborate hat walked down on the sands. "I will drop a line to
+her; probably Carlotta is here too, and they will be glad to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, mamma," exclaimed Martine; "I never did like them, except at a
+distance, and I should hate to have them get in the habit of running to
+see us."</p>
+
+<p>"They might not take the trouble to come at all; we are out of the way,"
+rejoined her mother.</p>
+
+<p>Martine made no further reply; her attention was fixed on a girl who was
+walking up from the sands past the end of the pavilion. She seemed to be
+looking directly at Martine, and the latter rose from her seat as if to
+speak to the other; but before she could make her way outside, this girl
+had passed on without a sign of recognition.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a nice looking girl," said Mrs. Stratford.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," responded Martine. "That was Peggy Pratt."</p>
+
+<p>"Peggy Pratt; isn't she a friend of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"A school friend," responded Martine bitterly. "But evidently she
+doesn't wish to recognize me here. I suppose she thinks that I'll be
+troublesome in some way."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she didn't really see you."</p>
+
+<p>"She couldn't help it," replied Martine.</p>
+
+<p>That very day an invitation from Edith Blair came to Martine. "Mother
+and I," wrote Edith, from the North Shore, "would both be delighted to
+have a visit from you, a fortnight at least, a month if you can stay as
+long. Your mother, we hear, is much better, and she surely does not need
+you all the time."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Martine was strongly tempted to show the letter to her
+mother, who, she knew, would certainly urge her to accept the
+invitation. It is true that Edith and her friends were some years older
+than Martine, but the latter knew that they would do their best to give
+her a good time. She would have a fine riding-horse, there would be
+trips of all kinds up and down the shore, and delightful afternoons at
+the Essex Country Club, pleasant evenings on the Blairs' piazza after
+dinners with bright and agreeable people. Under these circumstances, she
+could put up for a time with the patronizing manners of her mother's
+cousin, Mrs. Blair; for Edith was always sweet and agreeable, if a
+little slow. Really, it would be sensible to spend two weeks in this
+way. She could make herself more entertaining to her mother on her
+return. But here Martine drew herself up. Duty for the time being
+presented only one face; her place, for the present, was at Red Knoll;
+so without mentioning the invitation, she merely gave her mother the
+personal messages contained in Edith's letter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ISLES OF SHOALS</h3>
+
+
+<p>It never rains but it pours. A day or two after their visit to the
+bathing beach, Martine and her mother were seated in their nook under
+the trees. It was early afternoon, and, as usual, Angelina was off for a
+stroll.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there are some visitors," exclaimed Mrs. Stratford, and Martine
+looked up to see two ladies approaching the front door. Martine wouldn't
+have been a girl, if she hadn't glanced down involuntarily at her dress.</p>
+
+<p>"You look very well," said her mother, understanding her glance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hate to have to play the part of maid," said Martine, "but it
+can't be helped now." So, laying down the book from which she had been
+reading aloud, she went over toward the newcomers.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Mrs. Ethridge, and this is my daughter, Clare. We are really your
+nearest neighbors," and she pointed to the large house across the road,
+about which Martine had often wondered. "A young girl, your assistant, I
+think she calls herself, came over to our house on the evening of the
+Fourth. Her fire balloon had gone astray." And Mrs. Ethridge smiled at
+the recollection. "She told us you were lonely, but we could not quite
+understand. Surely you are Martine Stratford, of whom we have heard so
+much from Elinor Naylor; you must have many friends at York; there are
+so many Philadelphians and Chicagoans here. Elinor mentioned you in the
+letter we had a day or two ago, and we recognized your name as the one
+your assistant had given us. In any case we ought to have called
+earlier, but we have had a house full of visitors, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No apologies are necessary," responded Martine, with dignity. "We
+expected to be quiet this summer, although my mother will be most happy
+to see you." And leading them to Mrs. Stratford's corner, introductions
+were quickly made. Hardly had they seated themselves when Clare Ethridge
+exclaimed, "Why, there's Peggy Pratt," and Martine looking up,
+recognized the girl who was hurrying across the lawn, and a second
+later, Peggy was shaking hands with Martine most effusively.</p>
+
+<p>"What a queer girl you are, Martine Stratford; why didn't you let me
+know you were in York? Elinor Naylor wrote that you were coming, and I
+certainly thought you'd tell me where you were. Of course, I've asked
+everybody, but no one had seen you or heard a thing about you. I
+couldn't imagine your being hidden in a corner like this; so I supposed
+you hadn't yet arrived. I'm sure I didn't know what to do," and she
+looked around with an air of injured innocence, as if some one had been
+unjustly blaming her.</p>
+
+<p>"You might have inquired at the postoffice," said Mrs. Ethridge smiling,
+"you can generally get information about people there."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I dare say; but I just concluded she wasn't here."</p>
+
+<p>"But now that I <i>am</i> here and you know that I am here," responded
+Martine gayly, "everything is as it should be." She did not mention the
+little incident at the beach, for she saw that her judgment of Peggy
+then had been wrong, and that the eyes which had seemed to see her had
+really been looking at something else.</p>
+
+<p>While Mrs. Ethridge and Mrs. Stratford talked by themselves, Peggy's
+tongue flew on reciting the attractions of York. Trips up the river, tea
+at the Country Club, yachting, trolley and auto excursions apparently
+filled her days; "really I never have a minute to myself," she said,
+"and to-morrow we are going to have a fish dinner at the Shoals, the
+whole crowd of us. We've got a special car to take us over to
+Portsmouth, and then we go by the steamboat; we thought it would be more
+fun than simply to sail over. There's a seat for you, Martine; I know
+your mother will let you go, and of course we shall see you too, Clare."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Clare, "I had already promised."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's all settled," cried Peggy; "you can bring Martine to the car,
+Clare. Now I must hurry on, for I have an engagement up at the Club, and
+I'm so glad to have seen you, Martine. Good-bye, Mrs. Stratford;
+good-bye, Mrs. Ethridge." And almost before they could say "good-bye"
+themselves, Peggy was out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder that girl doesn't wear herself out; she is always flying from
+one thing to another," said Mrs. Ethridge.</p>
+
+<p>"It's hard for a girl to settle down in the summer," added Clare,
+"especially in a place where there is so much going on as there is
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Habit is everything," and Mrs. Stratford glanced toward Martine,
+reflecting that she, at least, had been able to adapt herself the past
+few months to a quiet life.</p>
+
+<p>The prospect of the excursion to the Shoals was very agreeable to
+Martine, especially as she was to have the companionship of Clare. The
+latter was a quiet, dignified girl, possibly a little older than Martine
+and reminding her a little of Amy.</p>
+
+<p>Promptly at the appointed hour Martine met Clare at the turn of the
+road; they had not long to wait before the special car came in sight. As
+it stopped for them, there was a loud clapping of hands and shouts of
+welcome from those within. Martine, cut off for what had seemed so long
+a time from young people of her own age, was quite bewildered at this.
+Two of the boys who had stepped down to assist her and Clare on board,
+proved to be old acquaintances, Herbert Brownville and Atherton Grey;
+and when once they were fairly off her spirits had risen rapidly. The
+car sped on, up hill and down dale, past the golf club, through the
+woods, over bright, green meadows, along tressles surrounded by marshes.</p>
+
+<p>"To think," exclaimed Martine, "these cars almost pass our house and
+this is my first trip on them. Angelina went over to Portsmouth one day
+and was so enthusiastic she almost persuaded me to make a trip with her;
+but she is so easily pleased that I didn't quite believe all she said;
+but now I believe it and more too."</p>
+
+<p>After a time their road led them past quaint old houses and pleasant
+summer cottages. There were occasional glimpses of water on one side,
+and once in the distance, across the water, rose the massive outlines of
+a hotel.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Kittery," exclaimed Clare. "We are almost on the boundaries of
+Maine and New Hampshire; that water is the mouth of the Piscataqua; you
+must go down on the shore some time; artists love it."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to sketch one of these tree-shaded old houses myself,"
+replied Martine; "that one over there looks as if it could tell a story
+if it would."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's one of the William Pepperell houses; I never could remember
+which was his special house and which his daughters lived in, but you
+know he set out for Louisburg from Kittery, and two or three of these
+houses have hardly been changed since his day."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" sighed Martine, "have I got to follow the French and Indian
+war in this corner of the country? I had so much of it last summer in
+Acadia that I'd like something a little different now."</p>
+
+<p>"Acadia," exclaimed Peggy, overhearing Martine. "How sick I grew of that
+word last summer. Some people were with us in Nova Scotia, went about
+with guide books and histories and acted as if they were crazy; but I'm
+happy to say that I sailed away from Yarmouth without knowing a thing
+more than before I travelled."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you," commented Clare. "But if I were you, I wouldn't boast.
+Some of us <i>do</i> care for history."</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately they do; there's my aunt; when she heard we were coming
+to the Shoals to-day, she gave me a lot of interesting information that
+went in one ear and out the other; for I told her that I was simply off
+for a good time and I never meant to learn anything if I could help it
+outside of school."</p>
+
+<p>Several of the party applauded Peggy's sentiments, but Martine could not
+help thinking that a speech of this kind from a girl of Peggy's age was
+rather shallow; and she admitted to herself that there was a time, not
+so very long ago, when she too would not only have expressed herself in
+the same way, but would have felt just exactly as Peggy professed to
+feel.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after passing the Navy Yard, the car reached the shore of the
+Piscataqua, where they crossed the ferry to Portsmouth. Soon they were
+on the little steamboat, bound for the famous Isles of Shoals.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one thing that I do remember," said Peggy. "There are nine of
+these islands and they are nine miles out at sea, and they are partly in
+Maine and partly in New Hampshire; but please don't ask me another word,
+Martine Stratford, for I can see by your expression that you're
+thirsting for information."</p>
+
+<p>Martine reddened at Peggy's words, because Herbert Brownville, who was
+standing beside her, was known to have a special dislike for bookish
+girls. Martine was ashamed of herself for giving even a thought to
+Herbert's opinion, and in consequence, she reddened more deeply when
+Herbert asked in surprise, "Have you really come out only for
+information, Miss Martine, as Peggy told me on the car?"</p>
+
+<p>This question decided Martine; she did not care for Herbert's opinion;
+she would show him so plainly, and so she decided to mystify him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied politely. "You know I have travelled a great deal,
+and some time I intend to write a book describing my travels. So
+wherever I go, it is necessary for me to get all the facts I can.
+Somehow I forgot to bring my notebook to-day, but perhaps you can lend
+me a pencil and paper."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Herbert looked at Martine in surprise. Was this the girl who was
+famous for her wit, who was one of the best dancers and riders in their
+set two or three years ago? How sad that she should have changed so; but
+it was all on account of Boston; no girl could live in Boston a year
+without becoming affected. But what a pity that a pretty girl like
+Martine should turn into a bookworm! Nevertheless, Herbert handed
+Martine the desired pencil and paper, and he sat beside her while she
+made a great show of writing down the few facts that she had gathered
+from the volatile Peggy.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad," continued Martine, "that you are willing to help me; and
+when we reach the islands I'm going to ask you to find some one who will
+tell me all about them."</p>
+
+<p>"There can't be much to tell," replied poor Herbert; "you know they are
+small and rugged and very queer. I've been there many a time on a yacht
+and I'm perfectly sure from what I've seen that they haven't any
+history."</p>
+
+<p>"In such matters," responded Martine solemnly, as if she were preaching
+a sermon, "you cannot be too positive. No corner of the world is so
+obscure as to be without history."</p>
+
+<p>Again Herbert looked at her in amazement. Her head was turned from him
+and he did not see the mischievous expression lurking in her brown eyes.
+He liked Martine, and since there seemed to be no help for it, it would
+be only proper in him to promise what she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," he replied, "I dare say we can find out something for your
+book; they have a very intelligent clerk at the hotel, and I know a man
+in a cottage on Smutty Nose who's lived there a long time, and what he
+can't tell probably would not be worth knowing."</p>
+
+<p>Thus Herbert constituted himself Martine's guide for the day, and kept
+beside her and Clare until the boat touched Appledore. True to his
+promise, when they had finished dinner, he got a row-boat and took them
+over to Smutty Nose, where the old Captain proved very talkative. He
+explained that the name of the islands did not come from their
+structure, but from the quantities of fish found in the waters near the
+"schooling" or "shoaling" of fish. He told them that the Shoals had
+probably been visited by Captain John Smith, and Christopher Leavitt in
+1623 had written something about them.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus5" id="illus5"></a>
+<img src="images/illus5.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"The old captain proved very talkative."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>"Of course the first settlers," said the old man, "were fishermen, and
+they were always a pretty rough lot, though the Reverend John Brock did
+something to improve them. There are all kinds of stories going about
+pirates and wrecks and strange happenings in the old times."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose Captain Kidd buried some of his treasure here," said Herbert
+sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p>"That he did, at least they say so," responded Captain Dickerson; "and
+if you and the young ladies are real enterprising, you might dig a
+while, for it's never been found, and you've as good a chance as any
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," said Herbert, rather taken aback by finding that his chance
+arrow had hit the mark, "but we've other things to do to-day. Sometime,
+perhaps, we'll return."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the old man, "there's a chance that other treasure might do
+you just as well. Nigh a hundred years ago, a Spanish ship went to
+pieces on the islands, and there were other wrecks that perhaps cast
+treasure on the sands."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I remember," exclaimed Clare, "a poem that I learned at school,
+'The Wreck of the Pocahontas.' Celia Thaxter wrote it. It begins
+something like this:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'I lit the lamps in the lighthouse tower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For the sun dropped down and the day was dead;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They shone like a glorious clustered flower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ten golden and five red.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mrs. Thaxter," said Capt. Dickerson, "there isn't much on the
+islands that she hasn't put into poetry. But you'll hear all about her
+over at Appledore, and I won't spoil your fun by trying to tell what
+other people can tell better."</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you some stories of your own?"</p>
+
+<p>"There won't be time for a long story," interposed Herbert, looking at
+his watch. "We must be prompt for dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Just one," pleaded Martine, smiling at Capt. Dickerson.</p>
+
+<p>"Most of the stories of these parts belong to Kittery and Portsmouth,"
+rejoined Capt. Dickerson. "You'll have to fish them up there. The only
+one I can think of you mightn't like&mdash;except it will interest you if you
+love dogs&mdash;as most young ladies do."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, tell us, please."</p>
+
+<p>"It's about a murder that took place on Smutty Nose once when I was off
+on a cruise. Two helpless women in a little cottage were killed by a
+wretch who thought there was money saved in the house. A third woman
+with a small dog in her arms escaped and hid here among the rocks. She
+was terribly scared that the little creature would bark and betray her."</p>
+
+<p>"Did it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she crouched in the darkness, while she heard the murderer pass
+close by, calling and threatening. But the dog seemed to understand, and
+kept perfectly quiet until daylight. The woman had heard the murderer
+rowing away at dawn, and when people on Appledore were stirring they saw
+her making frantic signs, and they came over and got her and the dog."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the murderer ever caught?" asked Herbert.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;and he paid the penalty. But I don't know how long the dog lived,
+young ladies, for I see that's what you'd like to hear," added Capt.
+Dickerson, turning to the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could tell you more," he continued, after a pause. "I dare say
+you know the Shoals were once called 'Smith's Eyelands,' and there's a
+monument to Capt. Smith on Star. You've heard about Gorges, I suppose;
+well, they were in Gorges and Mason's grant, and when Massachusetts
+people stepped into Maine, the most northerly went to Maine, and the
+others to New Hampshire."</p>
+
+<p>"Any other great men here, besides Smith?" asked Herbert.</p>
+
+<p>"Not many&mdash;besides myself," said Capt. Dickerson, smiling, "except,
+perhaps, Sir Wm. Pepperell. At least his father was one of the early
+settlers of the Shoals, and he was born here. But you'll hear about him
+at Kittery. Then, as I said before, Appledore's full of Celia Thaxter,
+and her father was queer enough to be called a great man. He had been a
+politician, and when he got out of sorts with his party he quit the
+mainland, and brought his boys to White Island, where he was lighthouse
+keeper. They say the boys were fourteen or fifteen before they ever went
+ashore, and then they were frightened by the first horse they saw."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Capt. Dickerson. I knew you'd have something interesting to
+tell," and Herbert moved away impatiently. "I'm coming over some day
+next week to go fishing with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I shall be expecting you. I could show you a good many things,
+young ladies, if you'd spend the day, but it is hard to understand even
+Smutty Nose alone in an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but we've enjoyed coming here," replied Martine, and she and Clare
+shook hands cordially with Captain Dickerson as they said good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner at Appledore, all sat for a half-hour on the hotel piazza,
+which was so near the water that it seemed in many ways like the deck of
+a ship. Miss Byng and Mrs. Trotter, who had taken charge of the party
+from York Harbor (the girls declined to call them chaperones) met
+several acquaintances among the hotel guests. Miss Byng, in fact, had
+spent a summer at Appledore, and she exchanged reminiscences with one of
+her friends about Celia Thaxter, the "Queen of Appledore."</p>
+
+<p>"She was certainly a wonderful woman," said Miss Byng, as Clare and
+Martine drew their chairs within her circle. "Sometimes in the early
+morning when I looked out of my window, I would see her working in her
+garden. She was often up at four o'clock, and she made the most
+wonderful flowers grow from this rocky soil."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, flowers were to her as individual as human beings," added Mrs.
+Trotter. "She watched over them lovingly while they were in the garden,
+and when she brought them into the house they were treated sumptuously.
+Each flower was placed in a vase by itself, and every spot that could
+hold them had its vases, silver, glass, or china, each with its single
+blossom."</p>
+
+<p>"What a strange idea!" cried Clare.</p>
+
+<p>"The effect was beautiful, the brilliant flowers, the picture-covered
+walls&mdash;and the queenly mistress of the house with snow-white hair, in
+her clinging grey gown&mdash;the favorite costume of her latter years."</p>
+
+<p>"Appledore is not the same now," and Mrs. Trotter sighed, "do you recall
+Mrs. Thaxter's lines&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"The barren island dreams in flowers, while blow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The south winds, drawing haze on sea and land,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yet the great heart of ocean, throbbing slow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Makes the pale flowers vibrate where they stand."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Oh dear!" whispered Martine to Clare, "I feel as if I were at a
+funeral. Let's find what Peggy has been doing."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'd like to have known Mrs. Thaxter, wouldn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, though a person who had lived most of her life on an island of
+four hundred acres must have been different from the rest of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"She <i>did</i> write poetry," replied Clare.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that made her different from most of us. But here come Peggy and
+the rest. I wonder where they've been."</p>
+
+<p>Peggy and her party explained that they had been watching the surf on
+the farther side of the island.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," exclaimed Peggy, "it was fine, I can tell you, and the view, why,
+we could see miles and miles; if we had had a glass, I believe we could
+have heard people talking at York." Whereat, in the fashion of young
+people, all laughed as heartily as if Peggy had said something really
+funny. While they stood there, Herbert was looking nervously at his
+watch.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, but I really think&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Carlotta, after the manner of sisters, laughed derisively.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen! I believe he wishes to make an original remark." Herbert was
+farther off than the others and had not heard just what Carlotta said.</p>
+
+<p>"If we are not careful," he said again, looking at his watch, "we shall
+miss the boat."</p>
+
+<p>"There," said Carlotta, "I told you that he was going to make an
+original remark."</p>
+
+<p>This time Herbert heard her words, and when all laughed except Martine,
+he reddened deeply.</p>
+
+<p>"It's better to be early than late," remarked Martine consolingly; "I've
+often missed a boat or a train just by thinking I had plenty of time."</p>
+
+<p>Herbert turned gratefully towards Martine and walked back with her to
+the hotel. As a matter of fact they had half an hour to spare and were
+able to say good-bye to all their acquaintances without undue haste. The
+return trip was unexciting, and they reached Portsmouth in good spirits
+just in season to get the Ferry for Kittery.</p>
+
+<p>As they came to their special car, "Here's your admirer," said Peggy
+mischievously to Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the conductor; didn't you notice him coming over? Carlotta did."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," added Carlotta, "I certainly thought he was going to speak to
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know him?" whispered Peggy mischievously, as the car speeded
+along the Kittery shore.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't even looked at him," replied Martine indignantly. "Herbert
+has had charge of the fares, and as the conductor stands on the back
+platform, and as I have no eyes in the back of my head, I couldn't
+recognize him even if he were an old friend."</p>
+
+<p>Later, however, as the young man moved along and stood for a while
+beside the motorman, Martine had a chance to see him, though it was only
+a back view.</p>
+
+<p>"Carlotta," she said, "that conductor does remind me of some one. I
+wonder if it's any one we know at home? Do you see a resemblance? A
+resemblance to any one you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Carlotta, "really I do not." And so the matter dropped.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly dusk when Martine and Clare left the car at the turn of
+the road.</p>
+
+<p>"Step carefully," said the conductor, holding out his hands to help the
+two. Martine started, turned and looked toward the car, but it was
+already on its way down the hill.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder,"&mdash;but she did not complete the sentence, though all that
+evening she continued to ponder over the strange resemblance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>VARIETY</h3>
+
+
+<p>After the Shoals excursion Martine's life was less placid than before.
+Peggy, as if to make amends for her apparent neglect, tried to draw her
+into some of the gayer doings of the younger set.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very kind of Peggy, but I can't make her understand that I didn't
+come here wholly for fun; or rather that I find fun in things that she
+would consider quiet. Clare feels as I do, and we try to make Peggy see
+that we enjoy a morning under the trees, or a walk in the meadow, quite
+as well as a game of golf with tea at the Club."</p>
+
+<p>"Golf is good exercise, and you used to like it."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, but I don't need it in midsummer, and besides&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Martine did not explain that she did not care to engage in golf, or in
+anything that would take her away too much from Red Knoll. "Besides,"
+she said to herself, "I won't accept invitations that I can't return,
+and we are not in the mood for entertaining this summer, even if we had
+money to waste."</p>
+
+<p>Angelina thought it strange that Mrs. Stratford and Martine preferred
+the quiet life, and by gentle hints tried to impress on them that they
+were losing a great deal by declining some of the invitations that came
+to them. Mrs. Brownville, among others, had called. A day or two after
+the Shoals excursion, Mrs. Brownville and Carlotta drove up to Red
+Knoll. Martine at the moment was carrying on an argument with the
+butcher, who had drawn his cart up nearer the front door than the back.
+Martine was balancing a chicken in one hand and holding a large cabbage
+in the other, and was gently arguing with the butcher regarding his
+prices.</p>
+
+<p>It was somewhat disconcerting to have Mrs. Brownville and Carlotta, in
+elaborate gowns and flower-laden hats, descend upon her while she was
+wearing an apron over her gingham skirt. There was no escape for
+Martine, and before she could decide what to do with the chicken or the
+cabbage, Mrs. Brownville had advanced toward her with outstretched hand.
+At this moment, Angelina fortunately appeared on the scene to relieve
+Martine of her burdens, and Mrs. Brownville politely ignored what she
+had seen. Martine, however, after the first greetings, broke the ice by
+plunging into a humorous discussion of summer housekeeping.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the funniest thing," she said, "that clothes and food are so much
+alike."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Brownville, though her expression showed that she could
+not grasp Martine's meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," repeated Martine; "in both cases we have to pay highest for the
+trimmings. When I order three pounds of beef-steak and only get a pound
+and a half, though I pay for three, the butcher says, 'It's all on
+account of the trimmings' and it's so with chickens, and lamb, and
+almost everything except eggs; though for eggs there are three grades of
+fresh eggs."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?" said Mrs. Brownville, not knowing what else to say. She had a
+small sense of humor combined with a kind heart; that is, she was always
+willing to do a kindness when it came directly in her way to do it. She
+was not quite sure whether or not Martine was making a demand on her for
+sympathy. Before she could decide what to say, Carlotta interposed. She
+suspected that Martine was laughing at them both and she wished she
+could escape the special errand which had brought her. A moment later
+Martine had led the way into the little sitting-room where her mother
+received the guests; and soon Carlotta made her errand known.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to have a little dance at the Club on Saturday evening and I
+do hope you can come," she said to Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," added Mrs. Brownville, "it's going to be the most elegant dance
+of the season, that is for the young people."</p>
+
+<p>A shade of annoyance crossed Carlotta's face; she had wished to pretend
+it was to be a very simple affair, so that her guests would be the more
+impressed in the end by all the expense lavished on it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you very much," replied Martine, "but I'm not going out at
+all evenings at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Herbert will be so disappointed."</p>
+
+<p>At this speech of her mother's Carlotta felt an annoyance that she did
+not show. She did not wish Martine to know that her invitation was due
+only to Herbert's urging.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it would be delightful," said Martine, "but really I am not
+dancing this summer."</p>
+
+<p>Carlotta for the moment felt that she would do almost anything to get
+Martine to take back her refusal. It was irritating that a girl living
+in as humble a house as Red Knoll should show so little appreciation of
+an invitation that should have been accepted almost with gratitude. So
+she rose to her feet and rather abruptly said good-bye to Mrs. Stratford
+and Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"I must hurry on," she explained, "as I have an engagement at the Club.
+Mamma, I will send the carriage back for you." And with another word or
+two of good-bye, Carlotta made a rather hasty departure. After her
+daughter had gone Mrs. Brownville talked on in her usual rather rambling
+fashion. She admired the wall papers and the furnishings of the little
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"Really you've made the most of everything," she said in a manner
+savoring of patronage that irritated Martine, though she knew Mrs.
+Brownville did not mean to offend her.</p>
+
+<p>A little later Herbert appeared on the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do change your mind," he urged; "I told Carlotta&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then it was you who asked her to come? I thought so."</p>
+
+<p>Again Herbert reddened.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see you weren't on the list when the first invitations were
+sent out, and I was afraid you might be offended, only I thought you
+were too sensible, and so&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There, there," interposed Martine; "I am sensible, that is, I am not
+offended really, because Carlotta did not think of me in the first
+place."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will accept?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I am not going out this summer, at least to things of that
+kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I won't go either," said Herbert sulkily; "I hate summer dances
+and I know a lot of fellows who will stay away too."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Herbert," said Martine emphatically, "don't be a goose. You ought
+to try to please Carlotta once in a while, and really, if I hear that
+you stay away from Carlotta's party, I won't be friends with you."</p>
+
+<p>Whether or not Martine influenced him she never knew, but it was a fact
+that Herbert and his friends went in force to Carlotta's dance, which
+Martine heard was really a very successful affair.</p>
+
+<p>For a week or two after this Martine herself felt rather left out of
+things. She had few friends in the Philadelphia group. Peggy, it is
+true, as if to make up for her early apparent neglect, did try on more
+than one occasion to get Martine to join some excursion.</p>
+
+<p>But Martine was firm. She saw that she could not well accept one
+invitation and refuse another, and she decided that she could afford
+neither the time nor the money that these outings required.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford watched Martine with some concern. The change from her
+former self was almost too great. But when her mother remonstrated with
+her, Martine invariably replied that she was perfectly contented&mdash;that
+housekeeping that involved a constant oversight of Angelina afforded
+excitement enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," she added, "there is Clare; she is livelier than Priscilla,
+though almost as improving. To-morrow we are going down by Spouting
+Rock; she, to take photographs, I, to sketch, and she knows any number
+of picturesque places."</p>
+
+<p>"Your plan sounds improving, if not exciting," responded Mrs. Stratford,
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"We think it will be more fun than going off with a crowd. Instead of
+riding to Bald Head Cliff with Peggy and her crowd, Clare has asked me
+to go to Ogunquit on Saturday. We shall drive over, and she is going to
+ask you too. Her cousin, Mr. Carrol, has a studio there, and we are all
+invited to luncheon, so please say you will go, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, when I am really invited," replied Mrs. Stratford, smiling;
+and a few moments later, when Clare appeared with her message from Mrs.
+Ethridge, the drive was quickly arranged.</p>
+
+<p>The day at Ogunquit was one of many pleasant, quiet days that Martine
+spent with Clare on the shore or up the river. Almost always Mrs.
+Stratford and Mrs. Ethridge went with them. In a short time Martine had
+become an expert paddler, and she was proud enough to have her mother
+entrust herself to her care. One afternoon, in two canoes, the four went
+three or four miles up the river to have tea in a little cove on the
+Bans. It did not detract from Martine's pleasure, when they passed the
+Country Club, to hear Peggy and Carlotta shout from the piazza:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go past."</p>
+
+<p>"There's a landing here."</p>
+
+<p>Or rather, if they did not hear clearly they judged that this was the
+meaning of the words that were accompanied with signals and gestures.
+But without heeding the sirens, Martine and Clare paddled on and their
+outing was a complete success. It cannot be said that they made their
+passage upstream without difficulties. It was near the turn of the tide,
+and part of the way the current was against them. But of two evils they
+had to choose the less, as Clare thought it wiser to return down the
+river with the current wholly in their favor.</p>
+
+<p>"If the York were a real river, we wouldn't have to do so much planning,
+but you see it's only an arm of the sea, and in its whole seven miles
+from the harbor, the tide has to be closely reckoned with."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I've heard weird tales of canoeists left high and dry on the shore
+because they had forgotten to calculate the rise and fall of the tide,"
+added Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"It's generally worse for the parents at home than for the stranded
+young people. I have known mothers half-distracted while waiting to hear
+from missing daughters," said Mrs. Ethridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we were wise in coming with the girls," added Mrs. Stratford.</p>
+
+<p>"As if we would have come without you. The whole fun to-day is showing
+you the river," responded Martine, who had been up with Clare before.
+"There," she continued, "I forgot to give you my one piece of
+information&mdash;that Sewall's Bridge near the Country Club is the oldest
+pier bridge in the United States, and was built by the same Major Sewall
+who built the first bridge between Cambridge and Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"Unimportant, if true," and Mrs. Stratford smiled at Martine's
+earnestness. "I approve, my dear, of your zeal for history, but in New
+England people often make too much of unimportant trifling things."</p>
+
+<p>"Bridges and houses."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and Indians and wars and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you won't appreciate this verse that Clare recited the other day:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Hundreds were murdered in their beds<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Without shame or remorse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And soon the floors and roads were strewed<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With many a bloody corse."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Evidently the writer of those lines had a real tragedy in mind,"
+replied Mrs. Stratford.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," interposed Clare, "it was the Indian massacre of 1792, when more
+than three hundred savages came into York on snow-shoes, and killed half
+the people of the place,&mdash;all in fact except those who had taken refuge
+in the old garrison house. The minister, Rev. Shubael Dummer was shot
+while standing at his door&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her, Clare, about the little boy," said Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jeremiah Moulton, the only person within the Indian's reach whom
+they spared. He was a fat little boy, and when he caught sight of the
+savages he waddled away as fast as his little legs would carry him. This
+so amused the Indians that they laughed and laughed and spared him.
+Though hardly more than a baby at the time the boy never forgot his
+fright, and years later he revenged himself on the Indians in what was
+known as the Harmon Massacre,&mdash;and many people have since blamed him for
+his cruelty."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably they had never been chased by Indians," responded Martine. "He
+jests at scars who never felt a wound."</p>
+
+<p>"We must go to the McIntire garrison house some day," continued Clare.
+"Though it wasn't the refuge during that particular massacre, the two
+houses were probably much alike, and this is one of the oldest buildings
+in the country&mdash;built in 1623."</p>
+
+<p>"Clare," exclaimed Martine, "excuse my interrupting you, but you are
+tremendously like Amy when you are imparting information, though at
+other times I hardly notice the resemblance. I shall forget half you
+have told me, and I wonder how you happen to remember so much."</p>
+
+<p>"If you should come here as many summers as I have come, you would
+unconsciously imbibe dates and scraps of information."</p>
+
+<p>"But now," said Martine, "we are hungry for something more substantial
+than dates, and with your permission, Mrs. Ethridge, we'll open the
+basket."</p>
+
+<p>The sandwiches prepared by Angelina's deft fingers, and the cakes and
+fruit brought by Clare made a supper fit for a king, as Martine phrased
+it, and the journey home with wind and tide in their favor brought to an
+end one of the pleasantest afternoons of the season.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the canoe trip Martine and Clare started out for a day
+at Newcastle, accompanied by Angelina. Mrs. Stratford was spending the
+day with Mrs. Ethridge, and Angelina was in a seventh heaven of delight
+as she walked along carrying the basket. Angelina had an especial
+interest in Clare dating from the night of the Fourth, for she
+considered that her fire-balloon and the tact with which she had rescued
+it from Mrs. Ethridge's grounds had led to the acquaintance between the
+Red Knoll household and the family across the road.</p>
+
+<p>She did not know, since she was not a mind-reader, that Mrs. Ethridge
+would have called on Mrs. Stratford within a few days of the Fourth,
+even without her intervention. But as her own belief made her so happy,
+no one had pricked the bubble of Angelina's illusion.</p>
+
+<p>While the girls were waiting for the car, Herbert came in sight.</p>
+
+<p>"Off for the day, portfolio, camera, easel!" he exclaimed. "Then surely
+you will let me go with you."</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Martine firmly, "this isn't a picnic. We are just going
+off to work a little, and enjoy ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"I like that. As if I would interfere. Atherton will be along in a
+minute, and he would enjoy the excursion too."</p>
+
+<p>"No," repeated Martine, with increasing firmness. "We have made our
+plans. We wish to go by ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Clare, who saw no good reason for Martine's attitude toward Herbert, yet
+thought it wiser not to interfere.</p>
+
+<p>Herbert, who so seldom was out of temper, now seemed offended.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he said abruptly, "I won't trouble you," and turning on his
+heel, he walked away.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it," explained Martine in answer to Clare's look of
+wonder. "One boy, or two, for that matter, would be terribly in the way
+in a little trip like this. Here's the car, and I am glad enough to be
+off."</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that Carlotta and another girl who knew Martine went as
+far as Kittery on the same car. On their return to York they found
+Herbert on the links.</p>
+
+<p>"You were on the same car with Martine; did she say where she was going
+with Grace?" he asked abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"She mentioned Newcastle," replied Carlotta. "They will cross on the
+ferry, and may row back across the river."</p>
+
+<p>"How foolish girls are!" grumbled Herbert. "They think because they can
+paddle up York River that it's perfectly safe to row anywhere else. I
+hope they won't try it alone. There's a fearful current at the mouth of
+the Piscataqua."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why you should care," responded Carlotta sharply. "Besides,
+Martine can generally take care of herself. Besides, I must tell you a
+funny thing. You know there was a young conductor on the special the day
+we went to the Shoals. Peggy says he watched Martine when she wasn't
+looking, and I know Martine asked me if he reminded me of any one I knew
+at home. Well, to-day he was on the regular car&mdash;and once when we waited
+at a turnout, Clare and Martine got off and stood by the side of the
+road, and in a minute he and she were talking as if they had always been
+acquainted. They actually stood there under the trees and talked, and
+Angelina stood there grinning like a Cheshire cat, the way she always
+does."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why not? Why shouldn't Martine talk to whom she pleases? Really,
+Carlotta, how silly you are!" and Herbert walked off with an expression
+of disdain for a foolish sister.</p>
+
+<p>Now this is what had really happened. Martine and Clare had not been
+long on their way when the former exclaimed excitedly, "Do you remember,
+Clare, that boy I told you of, Balfour Airton, whom we met in Nova
+Scotia, who was so clever and knew everything about old Port Royal, whom
+I discovered to be a kind of cousin? Well, he's the conductor."</p>
+
+<p>"What conductor?" asked Clare, who had not quite followed the course of
+Martine's thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, our conductor on this car, and he was on the special the other
+day; I thought so then, but now I am quite sure. He hasn't given me a
+chance to speak to him, because I wasn't noticing him when you paid the
+fares, but as soon as I can I am going to recognize him."</p>
+
+<p>A moment after this, the car reached the turnout where it had to wait
+for the car from Portsmouth, and then Martine had her opportunity. So
+Carlotta was right. Martine and Clare did spend a minute or two talking
+to the young conductor, who admitted that he had recognized Martine on
+the former occasion, though he had hesitated to reveal his identity to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Your uniform was almost a disguise, though at the last moment I knew it
+was your voice; but of course I had no idea you were in this part of the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>Balfour had no time to explain before the other car appeared in sight,
+but as he assisted the girls back to their seats Martine said cordially,
+"You must be sure to look us up."</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before they reached the point on the Kittery shore where
+they were to take the little ferry for Newcastle.</p>
+
+<p>"The Piscataqua is more of a river than the York," said Clare, "and
+there's a good deal to see along these banks. We'll have to content
+ourselves with Newcastle to-day, but sometime we might go farther down
+and touch at the other landings."</p>
+
+<p>"We mustn't forget that we have come here to work to-day," replied
+Martine. "I am really anxious to do one sketch&mdash;and here is just the
+spot," she concluded, taking her position at a point from which she had
+a perfect view of an old house well shaded at the head of a little
+beach.</p>
+
+<p>While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about, taking first one
+thing and then another that pleased her fancy, and often including
+Angelina in her views to the great delight of the latter.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus6" id="illus6"></a>
+<img src="images/illus6.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>"How blue the water is, and the sky! I haven't felt so thoroughly in the
+mood for good work since I left Acadia," exclaimed Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"But the sun is terribly hot," replied Clare, "and I am hungry. Let us
+go inside Fort Constitution for our luncheon. There will surely be more
+shade there."</p>
+
+<p>"Your word is law," and Martine reluctantly gathered up her belongings,
+and soon the three had ensconced themselves in a shady corner within the
+crumbling walls of the old grass-grown Fort.</p>
+
+<p>"'Fort William and Mary' was the name of the first Fort near this spot,"
+explained Clare, returning to her rôle of guide, "and even before his
+ride to Concord and Lexington, Paul Revere is said to have posted up
+here to tell the people of Portsmouth that the British were sending one
+hundred men to take all the powder away.</p>
+
+<p>"Accordingly four hundred men of Portsmouth marched out to Fort William
+and Mary, and required the Captain in command and his five men to
+surrender. Then they took the powder to a safer hiding-place, and later
+it was sent down to Boston, where it is said to have been used in the
+Battle of Bunker Hill. That other little tower is called the Walbach
+Tower, for Col. Walbach who commanded the fort in the War of 1812.
+There's a funny story about the building of this tower. Any one can see
+that it probably isn't true, although a poem has been written on the
+subject. The story is simply that the people of Portsmouth, alarmed by
+the sight of some British ships in the harbor, came over here in the
+night and worked like bees, men, women, and children, laying stones
+until this tower was built. There isn't an atom of proof that this is
+true."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's a pretty story," said Martine.</p>
+
+<p>After luncheon, Clare gave Martine the choice of two walks&mdash;to Odiorne's
+Point, called the "Plymouth Rock of New Hampshire," as the first
+settlement was made there, or to Little Harbor.</p>
+
+<p>Martine promptly chose the latter, because she was anxious to see the
+old Wentworth house. To their disappointment, when the girls reached it,
+the three found the old house closed; but the grounds were open to them
+and the curious exterior amused Martine, reminding her, as she said, of
+half a dozen small houses piled and twisted together to make one large
+one.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the house where Martha Hilton was married," explained Clare. "I
+am sorry we cannot go inside. The rooms with their polished floors and
+old-time furniture are really fascinating. Cousin Mary&mdash;I hope you will
+meet her some time in Portsmouth&mdash;says that Benning Wentworth, in spite
+of being Governor, was a plain man, and son of a plain farmer, so that
+his marriage with Martha Hilton was not such a tremendous mesalliance."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I remember that poem," cried Angelina, "how the Governor married
+the servant maid. It's by Longfellow, and the story's something like
+Agnes Surriage. The minister didn't want to marry them. I can say some
+of it, and she recited dramatically:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'This is the lady, do you hesitate?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then I command you, as Chief Magistrate.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Rector read the service loud and clear.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dearly beloved, we are gathered here&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And so on to the end. At his command<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the fourth finger of her fair left hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The governor placed the ring, and that was all.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Martha was Lady Wentworth of the Hall.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"So I'm glad to see this hall," she added, after Clare and Martine had
+sufficiently praised her recitation,&mdash;"and there's one thing more that
+I'd like to see,&mdash;the island in the harbor, where they kept the Spanish
+prisoners two years ago. You know I used to think I must be partly
+Spanish myself, I had so much sympathy for Cervera and all his men. I'm
+sorry they didn't stay here longer. It would be so pleasant to go to the
+island and console them."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you'll be as well pleased if you can <i>see</i> Seavey's Island,"
+replied Clare, smiling. "We passed the other day on our way to the
+Shoals; and sometime you must take the same trip."</p>
+
+<p>For the time this suggestion satisfied Angelina, and she heard with
+evident pleasure all that Clare and Martine had to say about old
+Newcastle.</p>
+
+<p>Intending to catch the last ferry of the afternoon, Clare and Martine
+cut short their stay at Little Harbor, delightful though they found the
+neighborhood with its suggestions of antiquity. They had a long walk
+before them&mdash;long at least for an August afternoon, and they did not
+reach the pier as quickly as they had hoped.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of Clare's intention and Martine's efforts to be prompt, the
+little tug had left the landing a minute before they reached it. By
+close calculation, as they glanced at the time-table, they saw that they
+would be altogether too late in reaching home, if they waited for the
+next boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it aggravating?" cried Martine, "to have to stand here and wait,
+when the distance across to Kittery is so little."</p>
+
+<p>"There's nothing to do but wait," replied Clare.</p>
+
+<p>Martine followed the direction in which she pointed, and saw an old man
+in a row-boat approaching the pier.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose he would take us over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Let's ask him."</p>
+
+<p>The two friends, with Angelina following close behind, stood on the end
+of the pier while the old man was mooring his boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you row us over to the other side?" asked Martine.</p>
+
+<p>He paid no attention to them, but continued tying a knot in his rope.
+The question was repeated in a slightly different form, and still the
+old man made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"He must be deaf," said Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>"Or the wind's blowing in the wrong direction," said Clare. "We must
+wait till he comes up to us."</p>
+
+<p>When the old man approached, by signs and words they made him understand
+what they wished, and he smiled pleasantly when Clare put a dollar bill
+in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"It's worth it," she said in an aside to Martine. "If we cross with him,
+we shall save two hours on our homeward journey."</p>
+
+<p>So the old man untied his boat, which was ample enough for the four, and
+the girls quickly took their places.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say that I like a deaf boatman," said Clare, "in case of an
+accident we might find it awkward that he can't hear."</p>
+
+<p>"An accident!" exclaimed Martine, who seldom feared any unseen things;
+"there certainly could be no accident in this quiet water." Before they
+had gone very far, however, she began to change her mind. The breeze
+which they had noticed while they were on the landing, now seemed to be
+blowing violently, and despite its heavy freight the boat rocked
+violently; it not only rocked, but veered from its course. Martine held
+her breath, while the excitable Angelina began to scream.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! hush!" said Martine, "it's nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing?" cried Angelina, as a great wave broke over the end of the
+boat, half drenching her.</p>
+
+<p>"It's only the Piscataqua current," said Clare. "But ask him if there's
+any danger."</p>
+
+<p>The boatman ignored the question. Probably he had not heard it. A great
+wave slapped the boat sidewise, and this time Clare's screams were added
+to Angelina's. Billows rose all around them. Apparently they were no
+longer on the surface of a quiet river, but in the midst of a disturbed
+ocean and their boat was small. Martine kept her eyes on the distant
+shore; she saw that they were approaching it, slow though their progress
+was. The old man seemed to be doing his best, when suddenly one of his
+oars broke and they heard him mutter, "that's bad." Bad, it certainly
+was; even Martine's courage waned. One thing, however, led her to hope
+that they might escape disaster. She had noticed a little boat pushing
+out from the other side. How rapidly it seemed to approach! Very soon
+after the old man's oar snapped, she recognized one of the rowers in the
+approaching boat. It was Herbert Brownville.</p>
+
+<p>As the boat drew nearer, they saw that Atherton was Herbert's companion.
+The boys rowed steadily and swiftly, and soon their boat was beside the
+other. Leaning over, Herbert extended an oar to the old man who accepted
+it with a nod of thanks; it wasn't a time for words; Angelina was in
+tears, Clare was barely calm, and even Martine, the courageous, looked
+disturbed. The old man bent to the oars, the two boats, almost side by
+side, went on in a straight line.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, thank you!" cried Clare, as they got into calmer water.</p>
+
+<p>"You weren't really scared, were you?" shouted Herbert.</p>
+
+<p>"Just a little," replied Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"You should have known of the current," added Herbert. "It was just the
+wrong time to cross in a small boat, especially with only one oar."</p>
+
+<p>The wind continued to blow, but the rest of their short journey was so
+calm compared with the turbulent five minutes, that Martine was ashamed
+of their needless alarm; and yet she was glad enough when at last she
+found herself standing on the Kittery bank of the river.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you'd need a rescuer," exclaimed Herbert, after he had helped
+them ashore.</p>
+
+<p>"But how in the world did you know where to find us?" asked Martine.</p>
+
+<p>Herbert was silent; he did not really care to tell her what Carlotta had
+said.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>EXCITEMENT</h3>
+
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford was interested in Martine's account of her interview with
+Balfour Airton.</p>
+
+<p>"I should certainly like to see him, and if he's as you describe him,
+and I am sure he is, I should be glad to welcome him as a long lost
+cousin. From what Mrs. Redmond has said, I'm sure that he contributed a
+great deal to your pleasure last summer."</p>
+
+<p>Several days passed and Balfour did not appear. At last Mrs. Stratford
+sent a note to the headquarters of the trolley line addressed to Balfour
+and inviting him to tea. On the appointed evening he made his appearance
+at Red Knoll.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not often," he said, "that I can get enough time off to accept an
+invitation of this kind; but I can tell you that it's very delightful to
+be among friends. That's the worst of going so far from home. You're
+among strangers and nobody cares especially for you."</p>
+
+<p>Although Martine and her mother were both somewhat curious as to what
+had brought Balfour to this corner of the world, for the moment they
+asked no questions. Martine inquired about Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course she writes regularly to Priscilla," she said, "and Priscilla
+keeps me informed about Annapolis happenings. Do you think your sister
+will go to college?"</p>
+
+<p>Balfour shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure; I am not even sure that Eunice knows her own mind; but
+if she does wish to go to college, some one will certainly find a way
+for her to carry out her wishes."</p>
+
+<p>Martine, looking at him, felt that Balfour was likely to be that "some
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to say," added Balfour, turning to Mrs. Stratford, "that the
+money so kindly sent Eunice last autumn did an immense amount of good.
+It was the first money of her own that she had ever had to handle, and I
+may add," he concluded smiling, "that she has at least half of it still
+stored away for a rainy day."</p>
+
+<p>At last Martine could not control her curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you happen to think of coming up here?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, some of my friends had had opportunities as extra men on the New
+England trolley lines, and I decided that I could spend my time more
+profitably here than on the vehicle I drove last summer.</p>
+
+<p>"That wasn't such a bad vehicle," interposed Martine. "If you hadn't
+been driving it, I might still be lost in the fog."</p>
+
+<p>During this conversation the three had gone outside to sit. And now in
+the darkness they heard a voice inquiring anxiously, "Is this Red
+Knoll?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's Mr. Gamut," exclaimed Martine, and rushing forward, was soon
+greeting the old gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"I've only just come back," he cried volubly after he had joined the
+group. "You must have thought it strange that I disappeared so
+completely; but I was called away on business, and my niece has been
+visiting friends on the South Shore. Now tell me about your father; what
+do you hear? Good news, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>Martine said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"What we hear is indefinite," said Mrs. Stratford.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, 'no news is good news' and you must expect the best. Young
+people who have no care don't realize the ups and downs of life; they
+expect things to move along in an upward line. You, young man," he
+continued, "expect life to continue to be one continual round of
+pleasure; you bathe, play golf, drive, have evening excursions, and it's
+all right for the summer; but after a while you will have a hard hill to
+climb, and that is right too; it's part of life; only you mustn't let
+the summer spoil you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but Mr. Gamut," began Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know," said Mr. Gamut, turning to Balfour, "you think perhaps
+there needn't be a hill for every one."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I know what Miss Stratford meant to say; she meant to tell you
+that I am not a pleasure seeker, but a worker. I am simply a conductor
+on the trolley line."</p>
+
+<p>"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the old gentleman, and though the light was
+too dim for him really to see, Balfour realized that Mr. Gamut had
+raised his glasses and had fixed his eyes upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"A conductor!" he exclaimed; "how extraordinary! do you really think it
+will lead to something? That's what a young man should always ask
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>"It will lead to my having more money at the end of the season than I
+had before," responded Balfour.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; but it's very unusual." Before Mr. Gamut could complete his
+sentence, a loud scream from the direction of the kitchen fell on the
+ears of the four.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish Angelina were not so excitable," said Mrs. Stratford. "It takes
+so little to make her scream; probably she has seen a mouse."</p>
+
+<p>When the scream rang out a second time, Balfour started to his feet and
+in another instant was racing to the gate in pursuit of a flying figure;
+an instant later, the others had reached Angelina.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a burglar," she cried. "He was opening the trunks in the ell
+room, and when I came through with the safety lamp in my hand I saw him
+plainly, and he started and ran, leaving his booty on the floor," she
+concluded dramatically.</p>
+
+<p>"But those were empty trunks," cried Martine, climbing the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Come and see," said Angelina, leading the way upstairs, where indeed
+the floor was strewn with clothing. Martine picked up a delicate muslin
+skirt.</p>
+
+<p>"This isn't mine, mamma," she said. "The man must have had a bundle with
+him that he dropped here; these things are not mine; it all seems very
+queer."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Angelina, "especially as the burglar is an old acquaintance
+of mine."</p>
+
+<p>Thoughts of collusion crossed Mrs. Stratford's mind while Angelina
+continued:</p>
+
+<p>"It was years and years ago, and I'd know him anywhere; especially
+because I've seen his twin brother since, and he looks just like him,
+though this wasn't the twin. He's an honest man and he lives in Salem."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us get out into the fresh air again," said Mrs. Stratford. "I feel
+faint."</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina's story makes me feel fainter," added Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that interesting young conductor hasn't been hurt by the
+burglar; if he should catch him, I wonder if he'd know what to do with
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"We can only wait."</p>
+
+<p>Their time of waiting was not long. Balfour came back rather
+crestfallen.</p>
+
+<p>"He gave me a great run," said Balfour, "and I couldn't catch up with
+him. But I'm sure he won't trouble you again, and on my way home I'll
+telephone so that the authorities here and in Portsmouth can be on the
+lookout for him. Do you suppose he took anything of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly think so," replied Martine, "he seems to have left something
+behind him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he's nothing but a sneak thief," continued Angelina. "I know him."</p>
+
+<p>"A friend of yours?" asked Balfour in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Angelina was just going to tell us about him," said Mrs. Stratford,
+trying to repress certain suspicions regarding Angelina that had come to
+her since the girl had said that she knew the intruder.</p>
+
+<p>"It was this way," continued Angelina, pleased, as usual, to be the
+centre of interest. "It was my mother he took the money from a long time
+ago, when she lived at the North End. It was the money that was to take
+us to the country, that Miss Brenda and her Club had made at a bazaar;
+and he went off to some far country, and now he's come back, I suppose
+he'll go on stealing. Miss Brenda had to make up the money out of her
+own allowance, because she had been careless in giving the money too
+soon to my mother. So if you had caught this thief, Mister&mdash;" here
+Angelina hesitated, not knowing Balfour's name,&mdash;"we might have
+recovered what he took."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry that I did not," replied the young man, "but I'll do my best
+to help some one else catch him."</p>
+
+<p>A little later Mr. Gamut and Balfour walked off together, and the Red
+Knoll household, left to itself, talked over the exciting evening. Mr.
+Gamut and Balfour had both offered to stay, or even to sit up all night
+if Mrs. Stratford or the girls felt timid. But at last all agreed that
+the intruder had been so effectually put to flight that there was no
+danger of his returning.</p>
+
+<p>That night Martine's dreams were filled with visions of a burglar
+chasing Balfour, with Mr. Gamut in a white muslin skirt following
+closely in pursuit. They were all late for breakfast, and were still at
+the table when the grocer brought the mail. There was but one letter for
+Martine, and she read it eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think?" she asked, when she had finished. "Elinor is going
+to stay over at York on her way to the mountains. She is to be at the
+Hotel for a day or two. Oh, I wish that she could stay here! What do you
+think, mamma? she could be comfortable in my room, and I would take the
+little one next."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, my dear, you may ask her as soon as she arrives. When does
+she arrive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it must be to-day&mdash;for this is Thursday. I wonder why the letter
+was so slow. I'll go over as soon as the work is done."</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that Elinor herself made the first visit, as she had
+come in from Portsmouth on an early train. After they had talked of
+other things for half an hour, Martine told Elinor of their excitement
+of the evening before.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure he didn't take anything?" asked Elinor. "I should think
+you wouldn't have slept a wink. I should have been awake all night after
+such a fright."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say I was frightened; it seemed rather funny. Do come upstairs
+with me now. I must see what the man left behind."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor followed Martine upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Martine, what is this?" she cried, raising the white skirt "It
+is&mdash;why, it must be the gown I lost Class Day&mdash;and this&mdash;it really is my
+trunk," and she gave Martine a severe glance as she bent toward a small
+trunk in the corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," cried Martine. "That is a skirt the burglar left, part of
+his 'booty,' as Angelina calls it, and this is one of our packing
+trunks. It has been here all summer."</p>
+
+<p>"But it has my name on it," protested Elinor.</p>
+
+<p>Martine shook her head. Elinor's manner reminded her of her manner on
+the day of their first meeting, and it annoyed her.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless she bent down towards the label on the trunk.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't look at me in that tone of voice," she said gayly, as she turned
+again toward her friend. "The label is certainly marked,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"<i>Miss Elinor Naylor</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>The Belhaven, Boston</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and now that I look at it closely I can see that this is not one of our
+trunks. But how did it come here, Angelina?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Martine, we brought the trunk with us from Boston. It was in
+the storeroom. I don't know anything about it, except it came the day
+before Class Day. There was a laundress working there that afternoon,
+and I remember she told me she had had a trunk sent to the trunk-room. I
+supposed you told her, and of course when we moved, all the trunks came
+here. You told me they were to come."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you are not altogether to blame, Angelina, although I wish that
+you had said something to mamma or me, and I still don't understand why
+the trunk was sent to us."</p>
+
+<p>It was now Elinor's turn to explain. "I understand it all. When I left
+Bar Harbor for Class Day, I simply put on a tag with my name and I
+didn't notice this old label, which was the one I used when I spent a
+day or two with you in the spring. The expressman followed the Belhaven
+tag, instead of keeping my trunk with Kate's aunt,&mdash;so if any one is to
+blame, it is I for leaving that tag on."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure of that," replied Martine. "If I had been a really
+up-to-date housekeeper I should have known exactly what trunks came down
+to York. Now I only hope that our burglar didn't make way with any of
+your things."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll soon know;" already Elinor was on her knees before the trunk.</p>
+
+<p>"No" she said, "I hardly think he took anything. The trunk is closely
+packed below the tray, and the tray would hold little more than these
+things he tumbled out. But I remember a set of topaz studs in a box that
+I put in this corner. The box is not here."</p>
+
+<p>After a careful search neither she nor Martine could find the studs. But
+Elinor was philosophical over this loss.</p>
+
+<p>"In finding the trunk I feel as if I had recovered a small fortune&mdash;and
+I can bear the loss of the studs. I daresay Kate will be pleased to get
+back her things, although she is so up-to-date, that she may consider
+these class-day clothes old-fashioned now, as they were made to wear two
+months ago."</p>
+
+<p>"How ridiculous!" exclaimed Martine, "and yet," she admitted, "I can
+remember when I would not wear anything that was not of the very latest,
+but now&mdash;why this is a last year's shirt-waist, and you know how the
+sleeves have changed."</p>
+
+<p>A few hours later Martine and Elinor were telling the story of the
+"Class-day trunk," as they dubbed it, to a group of merry young people
+on the piazza of the hotel, and every one teased Martine about her skill
+in abstracting so important a part of Elinor's wardrobe.</p>
+
+<p>After a day or two at the hotel, Elinor began a visit at Martine's that
+lengthened itself into a week, and during her friend's stay Martine's
+life was as gay as that of the gayest at the Harbor. She drove, she sat
+at noon with the gay throng under the pavilion to watch the bathers. She
+would not bathe, because she had brought no bathing-suit to York, and
+because it was too late in the season, she said, to begin a course of
+spectacular bathing. She went with a sailing party on Herbert's
+cat-boat, although before Elinor's arrival she had refused all his
+invitations. She spent two mornings at the Club watching the tennis
+tournament, and she accepted invitations to two luncheons given in
+Elinor's honor.</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, two or three days after Elinor's
+arrival, "Would you not like to have a luncheon for Elinor? On a small
+scale we could manage it very well."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, Mrs. Stratford," interposed Angelina, who overheard the
+suggestion. "I've just been longing for Miss Martine to have some kind
+of an entertainment. There's something going on every day, and I don't
+like Miss Martine to be the only one that doesn't entertain&mdash;not that
+I'd be so presuming as to talk of anything you hadn't spoken of
+yourself," she concluded hastily. She was bright enough to notice an
+expression of surprise on Mrs. Stratford's face.</p>
+
+<p>"It would make some trouble for you," said Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wouldn't mind that, and I'm always happy when there's something
+going on."</p>
+
+<p>"Lucian's last letter was more cheerful;" Martine said this to draw her
+mother out.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear, and I am sure you need not let your father's health stand
+in the way of your party. I am sure that he is better."</p>
+
+<p>"But ought we to spend money in that way?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will not cost much."</p>
+
+<p>"I know,&mdash;but still."</p>
+
+<p>"There, write your notes. They should be sent at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Instead of a luncheon, mamma, let me have a tea late in the afternoon
+and ask boys as well. Herbert has been very good to Elinor, and Atherton
+has given us a lot of time, and there are several others. I wish I
+needn't ask Carlotta, but I must. However, I can leave out the most of
+her crowd."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor helped Martine write the notes, and Angelina took hold of the
+preparations with a heartiness that spoke for success.</p>
+
+<p>The tables were spread out-doors, one for serving chocolate and coffee,
+one for lemonade. Elinor and Clare gathered flowers in abundance,
+especially great clusters of St. Anne's lace, that proved a most
+effective table decoration.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the short notice nearly all whom Martine invited accepted
+the invitation, even Carlotta and two or three of her set, who "never
+would be missed," said Martine almost ruefully as she read their
+replies.</p>
+
+<p>"Then why did you ask them?" Elinor's tone was reproachful.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, because&mdash;well, because I had no good reason for leaving them out.
+They have all invited me to something or other, and of course in one way
+I want them, only Carlotta is so critical that I hate to think of her
+making fun of things here."</p>
+
+<p>"She will have cause to be critical if you do not hurry down to the
+village for that extra cream. It's strange they forgot to leave it this
+morning. Of course," concluded Elinor, "I think that Carlotta might have
+been prompter in answering your invitation, but when she comes she'll be
+on her best behavior."</p>
+
+<p>Now it chanced that as Martine was returning from the village, warm and
+a little tired, carrying a large bottle of cream under one arm and a
+package of odds and ends on the other, she met Carlotta and three or
+four others driving rapidly down from the Club. How it happened Martine
+never knew, but an unlucky stumble made her lose her hold of the bottle,
+and as it flew into the road the cream emptied itself in a sticky pool
+in the dusty road.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Martine! The drag slowed up. She thought she heard a
+half-suppressed outburst of laughter. But in a moment Herbert stood
+beside her. He had slipped down from the drag, and he looked at her now
+as if waiting for her to tell him what to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me help you," he said at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Help me!" cried Martine scornfully.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Oh, Phoebe you have torn your dress!<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Where are your berries, child?'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"There, Herbert, that is the way I feel. To think that I must go back to
+the village for a second bottle of cream! We are all in a hurry, and
+they are waiting for me. Angelina herself could not have done worse."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you won't turn back. Go home with the other things, and I
+will bring you your cream."</p>
+
+<p>So eager was Herbert to be of use that he hardly listened to Martine's
+thanks, and Martine, to her own great surprise, for once in her life
+found herself ready to obey one to whom she was not in the habit of
+looking up. For Herbert, although nearer Lucian's age than Martine's,
+always seemed to the latter like a younger boy whom she could order
+around. In the present emergency she was thankful for Herbert's help and
+pleased enough to receive the cream that he brought from the village.</p>
+
+<p>When her guests arrived at the appointed hour, Martine was fairly proud
+of the appearance of Red Knoll. She had had the grass clipped the day
+before, and the lawn, if stubbly on close inspection, at least was of a
+vivid green. The old-fashioned garden at the side that had been the
+pride of the former occupants of the farm, was now in full bloom, and
+almost all the chairs had been brought from the house to be set under
+the trees or farther up in the meadow, where those who wished could
+enjoy the rather unusual view.</p>
+
+<p>With the chairs removed, the dining-room seemed almost spacious, and
+there Peggy at one end of the table and Clare at the other served
+chocolate and lemonade. The afternoon passed quickly away. Martine
+forgot her first anxiety when she saw that her friends were evidently
+enjoying themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"I am surprised to see you here," Peggy exclaimed to Herbert. "Isn't it
+a great condescension? I thought you had vowed never to go to a tea at
+York."</p>
+
+<p>"Generally this kind of thing is a bore, and I had fairly hard work to
+get the other fellows to come. But I told them that anything Martine did
+was sure to pass off well, and it's true."</p>
+
+<p>"This is just like any other tea," protested Peggy, remembering that
+Herbert had never accepted one of her invitations.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's smaller than others," responded Herbert, "and every one knows
+every one and we all feel that we can do as we like&mdash;and no one is
+wearing white gloves," he concluded, as if he had made a special
+discovery.</p>
+
+<p>"There are no gloves of any color so far as I can see," retorted Peggy.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it, we can have a good time here, because everything is
+unconventional. But, alas, here is Carlotta&mdash;" and Herbert moved rapidly
+in the opposite direction from his sister.</p>
+
+<p>Although Carlotta seldom said really disagreeable things, something in
+her manner excited Martine's antagonism.</p>
+
+<p>"She need not have referred to the spilt cream," thought the latter,
+after a word or two with Carlotta. "She must know I hate to be reminded
+that I cut a ridiculous figure."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," she continued aloud, "I am too busy to do much pleasuring this
+summer. The house gives me plenty to do, and I have some extra
+studying."</p>
+
+<p>"We heard you were going to college," said one of Martine's friends.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," added Carlotta, "but I shouldn't think you'd quite like to. It
+makes a girl so conspicuous to go to college."</p>
+
+<p>"A college girl isn't half so conspicuous as a golf-champion. Why, I saw
+your picture in a Sunday paper last month, Carlotta, beside a prize
+bicycle rider's, and your weight and height and all kinds of things
+about you were there, too."</p>
+
+<p>Martine spoke hotly, as she was apt to when excited, and Carlotta made
+no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"If I go to college," continued Martine, "I fear I'll never be
+distinguished enough to have my portrait in print." Then, remembering
+that personal speeches of this kind were not in good taste from a
+hostess to a guest, she changed the subject to something less
+irritating. But Carlotta turned away, only half mollified.</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor," cried Martine, as the last of her guests went home, "this tea
+has been bad for me; it has given me a taste for society that will worry
+me the rest of the summer."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no reason why you shouldn't be a little gayer."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, there is, every reason. If things go better, I'll have my turn
+in a year or two when I am really out, and if things go ill, why I shall
+bury myself in work. Really, I meant what I said to Carlotta. I do mean
+to try for college. It would be fun to pass the examinations with
+Priscilla, even if I couldn't go through. For, of course, if we are very
+poor, I shall have to work for a living."</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," cried Elinor, "you are very absurd. When I think of your
+cousin Mrs. Stanley at Bar Harbor&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and my cousin Mrs. Blair, who has one of the handsomest places on
+the North Shore. But unluckily what is theirs is not mine, and I have
+never been a beggar."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not, but from one extreme you have gone to the other, and I
+think that you ought to hope for the best."</p>
+
+<p>"If hoping were having," murmured Martine.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gamut was one of the guests whom Martine invited in Elinor's honor.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's your young conductor?" he asked, when he had a moment alone
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>"We invited him, but he wrote that he couldn't get off. Mamma felt
+pretty sure he wouldn't have come, even if he had time to spare. He is
+in this part of the world for business, not pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so, just so, he's a fine fellow, though, and I mean to keep an eye
+on him. I can offer him a good place when he's through studying. I have
+no prejudice against the college man in business, and he'll be none the
+worse for taking his degree. I liked the way he ran after that fellow
+the other night, and he's done some clever detective work since. You'll
+hear about it soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, when her daughter later told her what
+Mr. Gamut had said; "you may congratulate yourself on this one thing, if
+on nothing else this summer. By bringing Mr. Gamut and Balfour together
+you have accomplished more than you realize."</p>
+
+<p>"But it was the burglar and not I," said Martine, "who really had the
+most to do with it. It was the way Balfour ran that impressed Mr. Gamut
+the most."</p>
+
+<p>"However it came about, you have had a good share in bringing them
+together, and with Mr. Gamut's good will, Balfour is sure to prosper."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad of that, mamma. Sometimes I feel that I have been so useless
+this summer."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear&mdash;" and then Mrs. Stratford said no more. She was really afraid
+of spoiling Martine by praise, but she thought it better for the latter
+to find out certain things for herself.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>QUIET LIFE</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Elinor left York for the mountains, she took the little trunk with
+her, after carefully removing the Belhaven label. The label itself she
+carried in her card-case. "I shall need it," she said, "to illustrate my
+tale of a trunk when I tell it. Every one who has heard it thus far
+thinks it the most amusing story that ever was&mdash;and if it hadn't
+happened no one could believe it. This label is a proof of its truth."</p>
+
+<p>Martine missed Elinor more than she admitted even to her mother. It was
+part of her summer plan to seem perfectly contented with everything.
+Mrs. Stratford noted with some concern that Martine was growing paler,
+if not a little thinner. Could it be that she was less happy than she
+professed to be, less contented?</p>
+
+<p>Whatever she did, she did with her utmost energy, and in summer it was
+possible for a young girl to have too much of housework, gardening and
+study. It had become almost a passion with her to make up one or two
+deficiencies before her return to school. Strangely enough, it was
+Herbert now, on whom she began to depend for help in carrying on her
+work, and this is how it came about.</p>
+
+<p>Herbert, after the so-called rescue on the Piscataqua, made light of the
+affair, in spite of Martine's reiteration that except for him she knew
+that she and Clare&mdash;not to mention Angelina&mdash;must have capsized.</p>
+
+<p>"We might not have met a watery grave&mdash;but we certainly should have
+reached shore very wet."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps," responded Herbert, "but even if it meant something to
+you to be saved from your 'peril' as you call it, you must admit that
+Atherton and I ran no risk."</p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't alter the fact that you were thoughtful as well as brave,
+and really, Herbert, if only you wouldn't pretend to be so lazy,
+you'd&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Martine did not finish the sentence, for Herbert immediately tried to
+prove that he was not lazy.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I won't fall in with all of Carlotta's plans; if I did she'd
+keep me busy from morning to night. But I got into college without
+conditions&mdash;and that reminds me&mdash;Miss Martine Stratford&mdash;I heard you
+complaining the other day about your Cicero, and so, if you are not too
+lazy, I will come to you two or three times a week to read Latin with
+you. We'll make the orations fly like hot-cakes, and Carlotta will be
+more infuriated than ever that I have something to do that will keep me
+from trotting around after her."</p>
+
+<p>"If that's your motive, I refuse to be helped."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be very grateful, for in general I don't approve of a
+girl's going to college, and I understand it's because you have college
+in view that you wish to skip on with your Latin. But it's only because
+I think college won't spoil you that I consent to give you the benefit
+of my knowledge," and Herbert assumed a pompous air that greatly amused
+Martine. Thus it happened that a day or two after Elinor left York,
+Herbert entered on his self-appointed office of tutor. Mrs. Stratford
+had made no objection when Martine told her of Herbert's plan. She had
+known Herbert for a long time, and she understood some of the
+difficulties of his home surroundings. Carlotta and he were so unlike in
+temperament, that they were constantly at swords' points, and Mrs.
+Brownville was so absorbed in her own narrow interests that she had
+never found time to study her children.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford realized that Martine could do more for Herbert than he
+for her, as he never resented the sisterly advice that she bestowed on
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Carlotta was the only one who seemed to object to Herbert's new
+occupation. She teased him unmercifully, and showed an inclination to
+snub Martine. The two girls, fortunately, did not meet often, for
+Martine had little part in the gayeties of August, while Carlotta was a
+leader of the younger set.</p>
+
+<p>Carlotta, had she been so disposed, might have done much for Martine. On
+the other hand, Martine, with a little effort, could have shared in the
+pleasures of the young people of her own age. At last her mother
+remonstrated with her for holding herself aloof from those who were
+pleasantly disposed to her.</p>
+
+<p>But Martine was firm.</p>
+
+<p>"No, mother, I can't serve two masters. The summer has been flying away,
+and I haven't accomplished half that I had hoped to. I shan't dare to
+look Priscilla in the face if I haven't made up all that Latin. Then I
+shouldn't have a really good time if I 'mingled' more, as Angelina
+suggests. People here are cliquey, and Carlotta and Peggy are the only
+girls in the crowd that I've ever known before. Peggy is a regular
+will-o'-the-wisp, and Carlotta and I never could be intimate."</p>
+
+<p>"But still&mdash;" began Mrs. Stratford.</p>
+
+<p>"But still," echoed Martine, "you seem to forget, mother dear, that we
+came here to save money&mdash;and everything costs so much&mdash;and I don't want
+to spend my poor little allowance on dress and excursions, and sometimes
+I feel pretty blue, and until we know from Lucian how father really is,
+I couldn't plunge into things. There wouldn't be any half way with me;
+if I should begin to 'go,' I would just have to go all the time."</p>
+
+<p>Here Martine stopped for sheer want of breath. But her mother, watching
+her closely, wondered if she really understood herself. Yet Martine was
+sincere. It was only when she heard of some particularly pleasant thing
+that she felt left out. A moonlight sail, an all-day picnic up the
+river, an excursion to Agamenticus, all seemed to her as she heard of
+them more delightful affairs than they actually were to those who took
+part in them.</p>
+
+<p>Before Herbert and Clare, Martine maintained her Spartan indifference,
+even when they talked of their own experiences in a well-meant effort to
+make her express a desire to go with them on their next expedition.</p>
+
+<p>But nothing could weaken Martine's determination to lead a quiet life.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't as if I never had had any fun, or never should have any more,"
+she wrote to Priscilla, "but even as it is I believe I have been running
+about too much. For the next few weeks I mean to be quiet as a dormouse,
+and two pages of Latin a day will keep me pretty busy. You see, Prissie,
+if papa really has lost all his money, I shall want to earn my living at
+once. I never could be dependent on my relations, and Lucian will have
+all he can do for the next few years. Oh, how different this summer is
+from last, when I almost felt as if I owned the world, though I hope I
+didn't show it. Of course we are very comfortable here. The house is
+small, but we brought enough of our own things to make it homelike, and
+Angelina does pretty well, though I have to help out with things
+sometimes. We have radishes and peas and a few tomato plants in the
+kitchen garden, but the rest of the place is all in grass, except the
+flower garden, and that would do your heart good. There are all kinds of
+old-fashioned things that you would love. They have grown up in the
+wildest way, and I am kept very busy weeding the flowers as well as the
+vegetables. Now, Prissie, before we leave York you must make us a visit.
+Mother and I both want you, and York will suit you to a T. The summer
+people make it livelier than Plymouth, but there are enough queer old
+houses to make you feel quite at home. You'd enjoy the graveyard
+opposite the church. It is shaded with ancient trees, and every one
+browses around there at least once. The funniest stone that I saw there
+was Father Moody's; he was the father of Handkerchief Moody. The
+inscription is just what you might expect from a thrifty New Englander.
+I wonder more haven't tried the same thing. Instead of having a long
+inscription put on he just gave the chapter and verse, 2 Corinthians,
+III, 1-6, so that any one interested could read. I am sorry to say I
+haven't yet had time. There's another thing that might amuse you. There
+are a lot of little cottages down by the Long Beach beyond the harbor.
+They look as if they were made of cardboard, painted in bright colors,
+and have fancy names like 'Sea-crest' and 'Harbor View.' Well, the other
+day on our way to Cape Neddock, I noticed one called Gorgeana, and I
+thought the owners had given it this name because they meant to enjoy
+themselves by eating all they could, or gorging.</p>
+
+<p>"I was awfully snubbed by Herbert when I asked him if it wasn't a shame
+for people to advertise their greediness. He laughed well at me when he
+reminded me that the name was in honor of Gorges, the founder of York, a
+fact which I really ought to have remembered, for of course I knew it.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be jealous of Clare, as you suggest. It is certainly
+pleasant to have a congenial girl so near. But she never could take your
+place&mdash;never in the world.</p>
+
+<p>"She is something like you, however, quiet and dignified, and fond of
+history. Mrs. Ethridge is great fun, and would be good company for
+mother, except that she plays bridge from morning till night.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't told me what you think of my rescue, and of Balfour and the
+burglar. I wrote you a few days ago.</p>
+
+<p>"I had a letter from Brenda last week. Isn't it wonderful that she
+should find time to think of me when she is so far away. She is
+delighted because all the family are with her now, and they are to be in
+San Rafael the rest of the summer.</p>
+
+<p>"She is not sure whether she will be in Boston next winter. How I wish
+we might have her apartment again. But we can't tell what we shall do
+until father and Lucian return. She says she would like to be with me
+one winter, to be sure that I really deserve to be called her ward."</p>
+
+<p>Then, with messages to Mrs. Danforth and the children, Martine concluded
+her letter.</p>
+
+<p>It brought a quick reply, in which Priscilla laughed at Martine for her
+two rescues&mdash;if one can be said to laugh in a letter.</p>
+
+<p>"For an independent person it seems to me that you succeed in getting
+rescued from extreme danger pretty often. Balfour, in the fog last
+summer, had the easier time I should say, and I only hope that he and
+Herbert Brownville may not come to blows in trying to decide which is
+the greater hero.</p>
+
+<p>"If I am called on to help to decide, I should have to decide against
+Balfour, for you could not be half as much lost on a horse as in a
+boat."</p>
+
+<p>Although Priscilla was correct in her diagnosis of the different kinds
+of dangers, Balfour and Herbert gave no signs of coming to blows on the
+subject of their prowess. On the contrary, they showed an inclination to
+be very good friends. As Balfour's time was so fully occupied with his
+duties, Herbert acquired the habit of taking long rides on the cars.
+Then at the end of the route, or when waiting at turn-outs, he and
+Balfour had chances for the snatches of conversation in which boys find
+more pleasure than girls.</p>
+
+<p>Carlotta was as little pleased with Herbert's intimacy with Balfour, as
+with his interest in Martine's Latin. It might not be fair to say that
+she wished to keep her brother entirely under her thumb, and yet it
+annoyed her that he was so much less amenable to her than formerly. She
+liked to feel that he was ready to come and go as she wished. She
+especially needed him to help entertain her visitors, of whom she
+usually had two or three staying in the house.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened one evening that Martine reading a Boston newspaper came
+upon something that excited her mightily.</p>
+
+<p>"O, mamma," she exclaimed, "Only think! Mrs. Dundonald is coming
+here&mdash;just listen; Mrs. Dundonald, the well-known artist, passed through
+Boston to-day on her way to York Harbor where she is to spend a few days
+with friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, what of it?" responded Mrs. Stratford.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you know how I admire Mrs. Dundonald's work. She does exactly the
+kind of thing I should like to do, and they say she is perfectly
+charming. To think she is coming here! Oh, I do hope we shall meet her!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Martine paused suddenly, remembering that for the present she and
+her mother were not likely to meet any distinguished stranger visiting
+York. From Clare she learned the next day that Mrs. Dundonald was
+staying with Miss Stark, an elderly lady whose house was next that of
+the Brownvilles'. Clare offered to take Martine to call on Miss Stark
+and Mrs. Dundonald, but Martine hesitated because she had heard that
+Miss Stark was a rigid upholder of formal etiquette.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had one or two little snubs," she said, "and I should hate to be
+treated with scorn because I had made the first call on an older woman."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no danger of that," replied Clare, "but still, there will
+probably be some other way, for you ought to have a chance to meet Mrs.
+Dundonald."</p>
+
+<p>Just at this time Herbert happened to be away on a short yachting trip,
+so that Martine could not tell him of her desire. The Brownvilles were
+cousins as well as neighbors of Miss Stark's, and had Herbert been at
+home he could easily have arranged a meeting between Martine and the
+artist.</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," said Clare a day after their conversation about Miss Stark
+and her guest, "I saw Carlotta at the beach this morning and I told her
+how anxious you were to meet Mrs. Dundonald. She knows her very well,
+and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She didn't promise to introduce me immediately?"</p>
+
+<p>Martine's tone was sarcastic. She knew very well that Carlotta would
+hardly exert herself to do her a favor. The girls were seated on Mrs.
+Ethridge's piazza at this moment, and before Clare could reply to
+Martine, the maid handed her a note that had come by special messenger.
+Martine watched her friend as she read, and noticed that she made no
+comment as she slipped the note back in its envelope. Then for a few
+moments neither girl spoke. Martine had recognized the man who had given
+the note to the maid. He was one of the Brownvilles' coachmen.</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," said Clare, at length, "Carlotta is giving a large stand-up
+luncheon for Mrs. Dundonald the day after to-morrow. It is just to let
+the girls here at York have a chance to meet her. Of course you will
+find your invitation when you go home."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," replied Martine, and this word found an echo in Clare's
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>When Martine returned home she found no invitation from Carlotta, nor
+did one come before the luncheon. Strange as it may seem, in view of
+Martine's repeated declaration that she hated formal festivities in
+summer, she felt aggrieved that Carlotta had left her out.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps Carlotta has heard you express yourself. You know my dear, you
+have been a little scornful about the doings of the younger set."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, mamma, I have seldom taken the trouble to express my opinions
+to Carlotta. Besides, she knows I am anxious to meet Mrs. Dundonald.
+Unluckily Clare has told her this, so my snubbing is all the harder to
+bear."</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Martine's disappointment lessened by the fact that Clare gave up
+the luncheon. "You might as well have gone," she said. "It is all the
+worse for me to know that I have kept you out of something you would
+have enjoyed."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have met so many artists," replied Clare, smiling, "that one more
+or less makes little difference to me. You know I do not care for
+crowds, and although Carlotta speaks of this luncheon as 'small,' I know
+there will be a crush. I'd much rather go off somewhere with you for the
+day. Cousin Mary has been urging me to come over to Portsmouth for the
+day. She would love to see you too. Let us go to-morrow; it will be much
+more fun than Carlotta's luncheon."</p>
+
+<p>But when to-morrow came, a strange thing happened. By some means known
+only to her, Angelina had heard that a man had been arrested in
+Portsmouth for breaking and entering a little shop.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go over and identify him; I know he's our burglar, and that,
+of course, makes him Miguel Silva, who took Miss Brenda's money."</p>
+
+<p>"But you would better wait until you are sent for. You may be needed as
+a witness."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know about that. The law is slow, they say, so I want to go
+now and look at him, and shake my fist at him, and tell him that I am
+Angelina Rosa, and then, please, I am going on in the trolley to Boston.
+I had a letter from my mother. She'd like to see me, and I want to tell
+her about Miguel Silva."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you leave us now, with no one to help us?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stratford spoke sharply. Martine was too surprised to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, of course," said Angelina, "the place isn't hard, and
+you've been like a mother to me. But it's very quiet for me at York. You
+see we're not exactly in things, and I think I'd better be nearer home.
+My trunk is all packed, and I'll get the express to call to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Mrs. Stratford, turning away with a dignity that gave
+Angelina no chance to reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Maggie would never have done this, and I am surprised at you,"
+remonstrated Martine as Angelina bade her good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry you feel so," rejoined Angelina, "for I haven't a fault to
+find with you and Mrs. Stratford. I have heard of a wash-lady that would
+come in by the day, and I'll stop at her house on the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, we can look out for ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't that it hasn't been pleasant here," continued Angelina; "I've
+had a real good time almost always, but I'm homesick, and I have a duty
+to my family, and I think I'd better go while Miguel Silva is where I
+can get at him; for after to-day they might lock him up where I couldn't
+see him, and I want him to know what I think. There's only one thing I
+want to confess, Miss Martine. You remember when the cook went away last
+winter,&mdash;so unexpectedly, you know, before your dinner? Well, it was I
+who discharged her. I told her you wanted her to go, and I paid her for
+the rest of the week. I was so anxious to have things all to myself, so
+I could show what I could do. But it didn't do me much good,&mdash;after the
+expense of paying her,&mdash;for you kept getting cooks that wouldn't let me
+meddle. But I hope you'll think kindly of me, Miss Martine, and so now
+good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>After this extraordinary speech, Angelina tripped gayly down the path in
+the direction of the cars.</p>
+
+<p>"It's frightful ingratitude!" said Martine. "I feel as if I should never
+wish to do anything for any one again."</p>
+
+<p>"Angelina has earned her money," responded Mrs. Stratford. "She has
+worked pretty faithfully. As I have studied her character, I have
+sometimes wondered that she should stay so contentedly with us, when we
+have given her so little opportunity to indulge in her favorite gossip."</p>
+
+<p>"But what shall we do now? That is the question, mamma. Of course I will
+help all I can, but I am feeling tired, and you are not strong enough,
+and we must stay here."</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, Martine, do not borrow trouble. To-day will take care of
+itself, and as for to-morrow&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow," cried Clare, suddenly coming upon them, "will be the best
+day for our Portsmouth excursion, and mamma has sent me over to invite
+you, Mrs. Stratford, to spend the day with her."</p>
+
+<p>"There, Martine, to-morrow is provided for. Tell your mother, Clare,
+that I am only too happy to accept her invitation. I must leave you now,
+while Martine relates the story of Angelina."</p>
+
+<p>As her mother turned toward the house, Martine told Clare of Angelina's
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>"You must find some one to take her place," said Clare. "You are thinner
+than when you came to York, and if you don't mind my saying so, you look
+tired."</p>
+
+<p>To Clare's great surprise, her friend, instead of replying, shed a tear
+or two. But the tears were followed by smiles, as Martine exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"There, I am almost as bad as Priscilla."</p>
+
+<p>"But do you suppose that Angelina was right about the burglar? I wonder
+if your friend Balfour Airton has heard&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if the burglar has been caught, I am sure Balfour knows all about
+it. He was really very anxious himself to discover the fellow. If he is
+off duty, he will probably come over to see us this evening&mdash;at least if
+he has anything to tell."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>PORTSMOUTH AND AFTERWARD</h3>
+
+<p>It was not until they were on their way to Portsmouth, that Clare and
+Martine had their first good chance to talk to Balfour about the
+burglar.</p>
+
+<p>"It is really true," said Balfour, "that the fellow has been arrested
+for entering a Portsmouth shop. I was pretty sure of him, and when this
+shop was entered, I told the police about this man. He was wearing a
+pair of topaz sleeve-links, and you said, I remember, that these were
+the only things missing from Miss Elinor's trunk."</p>
+
+<p>Balfour spoke modestly. From him the girls could get no idea of the many
+hours he had put into the case until he had assured himself that this
+was the very man wanted by the police of more than one city.</p>
+
+<p>"How excited Angelina will be if she really identifies him as the man
+who took her mother's money long ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," added Martine, "if she is only called in court as a witness, she
+will be perfectly happy."</p>
+
+<p>At Kittery, as on the day they went to the Shoals, Balfour was left with
+his car on the Kittery Shore.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe this will be the pleasantest of all our excursions," said
+Martine to Clare as the two strolled about. "A crowd would seem out of
+place in these quiet old streets."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything you especially care to see before we go to Cousin
+Mary's?" asked Clare. "You know she expects us there to luncheon, and
+she always has any number of stories to tell."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to see Strawberry Bank," replied Martine. "It sounded so
+attractive when I came across it in my History as the first name of
+Portsmouth."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear there are no strawberries there now, though the first settlers
+are said to have built the Great House in the centre of ground covered
+with wild strawberry-vines. There's little to see there now, though you
+have enough imagination to picture where the Great House stood in the
+time of Mason."</p>
+
+<p>So they went down on Water Street, and thence to the substantial little
+house where Washington's secretary, Tobias Lear, lived. Here Washington
+himself called on Madame Lear when he visited Portsmouth soon after his
+inauguration.</p>
+
+<p>As they turned back toward the statelier mansions of Congress and
+Pleasant Streets, Clare tried to fit the things she had heard about old
+Portsmouth to the right persons and people.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember that some distinguished French nobleman described the
+Langdon House as elegant and well furnished. Washington, too, called it
+the handsomest house in Portsmouth, and when Louis Philippe was in exile
+here, he lived for some time in this house. But I like this old
+Wentworth House better because I really remember one of the romantic
+stories connected with it."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, please."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, this is simply about Frances Wentworth who jilted her cousin John
+because he was too poor. John went to England, and Frances married
+Theodore Atkinson, who was rich and amiable and delicate. In the course
+of time John Wentworth returned from London as governor of the Province,
+and when two years later the husband of Frances died, she mourned only
+ten days, and then became the bride of her cousin John. But here we are
+at Cousin Mary's, and I ought to have left this story for her. She can
+tell it so dramatically."</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Mary lived near the old Warner house, and she had much to say to
+the girls about a former owner of this historic dwelling, whom her
+mother remembered as one of the last of the townsmen to wear a cocked
+hat and knee-breeches. After luncheon she took her young visitors to
+call at the Warner mansion, where they saw the curious wall paintings
+that no one had known about, until the removal of several layers of
+paper brought the paintings to the light a few years ago.</p>
+
+<p>"You can see how little this house has been changed," said the owner,
+proudly. "It is really an eighteenth century house of the best type."</p>
+
+<p>"Such as Amy Wentworth dwelt in," added Martine, reciting.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"'With stately stairways worn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By feet of old Colonial knights,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And ladies gentle-born.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on her from the wainscot old<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ancestral faces frown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And this has worn the soldier's sword,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And that&mdash;the judge's gown?'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"You did not know I could quote Portsmouth poetry?" asked Martine,
+turning mischievously to Clare, "but I caught the habit from Amy last
+summer, as she had a ballad or a story for every place we visited."</p>
+
+<p>"Portsmouth is full of stories," responded Clare; "I wish, Cousin Mary,
+we could stay here three or four days. Martine would enjoy
+everything&mdash;old stories as well as old houses&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We have plenty of both, my dear," said Cousin Mary, laying her hand on
+Martine's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been wondering about the houses, there are so many more of what
+you might call 'stately mansions,' than there are in Plymouth," and
+Martine looked enquiringly at Cousin Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is easily explained," replied the older woman, understanding
+Martine's unexpressed question. "Portsmouth was a Royal Province, and
+its merchants were prosperous and fond of the good things of life. They
+vied with one another in the eighteenth century in building handsome
+dwellings. There were also many government officials here, who felt that
+fine surroundings were their rightful due. When the Revolution came,
+Portsmouth was full of Tories, as you may have read in some of the
+recent historical novels. They were far from pleased with the change in
+government."</p>
+
+<p>"Martine and I certainly must come over again," cried Clare, looking at
+her watch, "there are two or three special stories that I hope you will
+tell her, though they are too long for to-day. I am afraid we have
+barely time for the church, if we mean to get back to York to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"This church," explained Cousin Mary, as they drew near old St. John's,
+"is interesting because it succeeds the old Queen's Chapel. It may
+surprise you to learn that in Portsmouth the first church observed the
+forms of the Church of England. But after the earliest years, for a long
+time there was no Episcopal church until the Queen's Chapel was built in
+the early eighteenth century."</p>
+
+<p>"They couldn't have a Queen's Chapel after the Revolution!" exclaimed
+Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was Queen's Chapel for a few years. This was its name when
+Washington attended service here. But in 1791, when the parish was
+re-organized, the new church was known as 'St. John's.'"</p>
+
+<p>The girls made the most of the short time they had to spend at the old
+church. There were a number of things to see, but nothing, not even the
+famous Queen Caroline chairs interested Martine more than the old bell
+in the tower. For Cousin Mary told her that it had been brought from an
+old church at Louisburg by Sir William Pepperell's victorious men.</p>
+
+<p>"I must come down some Sunday," she said, "just to hear it. In Nova
+Scotia they tell some weird stories about these old French bells," and
+as she spoke, Martine recalled her afternoon with Balfour and Amy near
+the site of the Acadian church.</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly must spend a day or two with me soon," said Cousin Mary,
+and when the girls bade her good-bye, the day was set for a longer visit
+from Clare and Martine.</p>
+
+<p>A slight fog overtook them as they rode home, and this, perhaps, lowered
+Martine's spirits. Had Clare known Martine longer, she would have been
+even more surprised than she was at her friend's despondent tone, for
+those who knew her best had seldom seen her out of spirits.</p>
+
+<p>It was Clare herself, however, who had turned the conversation in a
+direction not exactly enlivening.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose we shall see Herbert to-morrow," she said. "He won't be
+exactly pleased when he hears about Carlotta's luncheon."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean my being left out? Oh, he won't care. Boys never take up those
+things. Besides, I hope no one will tell him. Besides, I shouldn't have
+cared if it hadn't been for Mrs. Dundonald, though I shall probably have
+a chance to meet her again, somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," responded Clare, "she is likely to be in Boston, and you
+know so many people. I think you have been very amiable about the whole
+thing. For certainly it was hard to bear."</p>
+
+<p>Now sympathy is often the last straw to break one down, and as she
+replied to Clare, Martine did not control a little quaver in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally no one likes to be slighted, but then nothing has gone
+exactly right this summer. I have hardly done a thing I wanted to, and I
+have been left out of things I might have gone to."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear, I have heard you say over and over again that you
+wouldn't have any gayety on account of your father and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is true," replied Martine, undisturbed by her own
+inconsistency, "but all the same it isn't pleasant to be left out, and I
+really don't like being economical, although I have to pretend I don't
+mind. I suppose that's why some people slight me. I never believed
+before that money made any difference, but now I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Martine," said Clare, "you are ridiculous. I believe you have been
+working too hard, and so are a little run down."</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't slept well lately," Martine admitted, "I have been thinking
+so much about my father and Lucian."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't your father improving?"</p>
+
+<p>"The last letter was more cheerful. But we haven't heard for three
+weeks, and I am wondering what we shall do next year if he has lost
+<i>all</i> his money. It will be so hard for Lucian to give up college."</p>
+
+<p>Clare was at a loss for a reply. Mrs. Stratford and Martine were new
+friends and she really knew little about their affairs. She had to
+content herself with rather vague attempts to cheer Martine, and she was
+gratified before they reached their stopping place to see the smiles
+return to Martine's face.</p>
+
+<p>It was almost dusk as the car sped down a long hill near the Country
+Club.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that was Carlotta driving," exclaimed Clare, as they passed a
+restive horse that was driven by a girl in a high cart.</p>
+
+<p>"She has poor control of her horse," rejoined Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"It's curious," added Clare, "that Carlotta, who is so good at other
+sports, knows so little about a horse. She seldom drives alone. I wonder
+how it happens that no one is with her now."</p>
+
+<p>"She may swim better than I," rejoined Martine, "but I believe I could
+give her points about managing a horse."</p>
+
+<p>Soon the two friends had reached their corner and were about to part
+when they heard the clatter of hoofs and wheels.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep to the side, Clare," cried Martine. "It's Carlotta, the horse is
+running away."</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had she uttered these words when the horse and carriage were upon
+them. The reins had fallen, and Carlotta, helpless, was clinging to the
+side of the carriage. Martine did not hesitate. Instantly she plunged
+forward, and unheeding Clare's warning scream, flung herself before the
+horse. Yet, in spite of her impetuosity, she knew what she was doing.
+The creature's speed was less than it seemed to the frightened Clare.
+Martine with a sure aim reached the bridle. Although she was dragged a
+few steps, the horse slackened his pace, and stopped. Carlotta, too much
+shaken to resume control, jumped to the ground on the opposite side from
+Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" cried Clare, running up to her as she came to the horse's head.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she hurt?" asked Carlotta, anxiously, as Clare stooped down toward
+Martine, who had fallen to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"She must be," replied Clare. "What shall we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot very well leave my horse," responded Carlotta, still with her
+hand on the bridle; "if only somebody&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment "somebody" did appear, in the shape of Mr. Gamut.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "What is this? An accident?"</p>
+
+<p>Martine lay white and still. Clare, stooping down, could not rouse her.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us take her to the house, and then I will go for Mrs. Stratford,"
+cried Clare; "she has been spending the day with my mother."</p>
+
+<p>"I was on my way to Red Knoll," said Mr. Gamut. "I came on the afternoon
+train, and I felt anxious to talk over the good news; but now, this
+looks serious," he continued, as together he and Clare lifted Martine
+from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"May I take my horse to your stable, Clare?" asked Carlotta. "He is
+quiet enough, but I would rather not drive now, and then I will hurry to
+the village for a doctor. I am so sorry for all this," she concluded.</p>
+
+<p>"There are certainly no bones broken," said the practical Clare; "she
+has simply fainted."</p>
+
+<p>Clare and Mr. Gamut slowly carried Martine to the side of the road, and
+now Clare was supporting her friend's head on her knee, while Mr. Gamut
+had gone to Red Knoll for water.</p>
+
+<p>As Carlotta disappeared down the lane leading to the Ethridge house,
+Martine stirred slightly, and opened her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Where am I?" she asked, faintly. "Oh&mdash;yes&mdash;I remember," and though she
+closed her eyes again, she no longer lay a dead weight against Clare's
+arm.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SUMMER'S END</h3>
+
+
+<p>One afternoon in late September, Martine sat under the trees in her
+mother's corner of the Red Knoll garden. A number of letters lay before
+her on a little round table, and beside her, swinging lazily in a
+hammock, was Priscilla, the practical, who had often been heard to say
+that she despised hammocks.</p>
+
+<p>After a moment Priscilla, bringing herself to a full stop, leaned
+forward and gazed intently at Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot see," she said at length, "that you look so <i>very</i> thin."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I be <i>very</i> thin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, from what I heard I thought you must be. They said you weren't
+eating, and you are thinner than you were in the spring. I am sure your
+eyes look larger."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably my eyes have grown; I am sure my waistbands have."</p>
+
+<p>There was a twinkle in Martine's brown eyes, as she pushed back a wavy
+lock of hair.</p>
+
+<p>"You are just a little paler, too," persisted Priscilla, "but except for
+that, no one would believe that you had been so ill."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it myself," replied Martine, "though I am perfectly
+willing to take the word of those who say they know. To tell you the
+truth, I am rather ashamed to hear that I barely escaped nervous
+prostration, just because I tried to stop a horse from running away."</p>
+
+<p>"But you <i>did</i> stop him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he wasn't running away. It was only that Carlotta had let go the
+reins."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they all say that if you hadn't seized the bridle, he would have
+gone straight down the little embankment."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense&mdash;at any rate I spoilt the effect of it all by fainting, and
+yet I shouldn't have fainted if I hadn't been following your example.
+The horse had nothing to do with it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Martine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear Prissie. I had been following your old example of
+borrowing trouble, and I had been keeping my tribulations to myself,
+until I just couldn't bear them. You see it was this way. I was sure
+that father wouldn't get well, and that the shock of his death would
+kill mother, and Lucian would have to leave college, and I would have to
+start out at once to earn my living. Then little things were bothering
+me too, like Carlotta's being mean, and Angelina's leaving us with no
+one to help, and I was tired of being economical, so the horse was just
+the last straw."</p>
+
+<p>Though Martine's explanation was not very lucid, Priscilla certainly
+understood her.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe Clare was disappointed," she continued, "that I hadn't at
+least one bone broken. She wanted to make a heroine of me, and she isn't
+at all pleased when I tell her I wasn't in danger."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you were not, Carlotta was. She is very grateful."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know," said Martine, hastily. "But when you are not very fond
+of people, it is rather disagreeable to have them grateful, especially
+for nothing at all. I was really sorry that the person in the carriage
+was Carlotta. I suppose this sounds very hateful, for she has written me
+a fine letter&mdash;says she is sorry she couldn't see me before she went to
+the mountains, but still&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But still," echoed Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing, except that I like Mrs. Brownville's letter so much
+better. She says that I have been a great help to Herbert this
+summer&mdash;keeping him away from a set of young men the family didn't care
+for, and giving him ideals. I shouldn't expect Mrs. Brownville to know
+an ideal when she saw it. However, I dare say she's right, only it was
+unconscious goodness on my part. I didn't know Herbert had to be kept
+away from any set of foolish companions. I simply found him good
+company, and I am so used to giving advice to Lucian and Robert that I
+naturally favored Herbert in the same way. Then he was tremendously good
+in reading Latin with me. Except for this accident I should have been
+ahead of you, Prissie dear."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to have seen Herbert Brownville."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's a pity he had to go back to college before you came. But
+you'll see him in Boston some time."</p>
+
+<p>"When do you expect your father?" asked Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, in a week&mdash;just think of it&mdash;in a week, and he is almost well, and
+although he has lost money, things are not going to be so very
+dreadful,&mdash;not at all as I feared. I looked too far ahead."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Priscilla, mischievously, "jumping at conclusions is almost
+as bad as borrowing trouble. They mean much the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure. I cannot imagine a slow, deliberate person like you
+jumping at conclusions, though I have known you to borrow trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes I am very hasty," responded Priscilla, slowly, as if
+reflecting on something. "There is one thing I ought to tell you. Do you
+remember your prize essay last spring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, but I didn't set out to get a prize."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. If you had, I suppose you would have written it all alone."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean? I did write it alone."</p>
+
+<p>Then remembering Lucian's help, Martine flushed to the roots of her
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to offend you," continued Priscilla, "for even if Lucian
+helped you a little, this was all right; I was only thinking how unfair
+I had been. I accidentally saw some notes for your essay in Lucian's
+handwriting, and for a little while I felt that you had acted unfairly.
+Do you remember one week last spring, when I was stiff and disagreeable
+and wouldn't go anywhere with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>One</i> week!" exclaimed Martine, roguishly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I dare say there were others. Only I remember the why of that
+particular week."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's so long ago," cried Martine, "Let's not remember it now."</p>
+
+<p>"It's only fair that you should know that I sometimes jump to
+conclusions."</p>
+
+<p>"As long as you are ready to jump away from them again, there's no great
+harm done."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I wanted to say. I realized after all that there was no
+rule in school against getting help in an essay, and that you didn't
+know a prize was to be given when you wrote yours. But I always thought
+you ought to know how unfair I had been."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we are friends again," said Martine, laughing, "though I didn't
+know we had ever been anything else." Secretly, she thought Priscilla
+had made a great ado about nothing. "It's the Puritan way, I suppose,"
+she said to herself. Then aloud,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"As I have forgiven you, we may call it square about those Christmas
+photographs. Thus far I have always been able to prevent your paying me
+for them. But to-day, when I found your note with this money on my
+bureau&mdash;really, Priscilla, I was almost offended. So here, child," and
+she held out an envelope, "if you will take back this money, I will
+forgive you for your unfair thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>Under the circumstances Priscilla could not refuse Martine, and thus
+both girls were satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one thing," said Martine, to change the subject, "I have had
+some lovely letters lately. Just think of little Esther's writing me.
+Nora must have told her where I was. She hopes I will be able to go on
+with the Mansion Class next year&mdash;but dear me, Priscilla, she has got
+far beyond me; only look at this pen and ink," and she displayed the
+last page of the letter, in which Esther had drawn a picture that
+Priscilla at once recognized as Martine herself. "Then Alexander Babet
+has written me about Yvonne, that she is much stronger, and so happy
+with her music lessons,&mdash;and would you believe it, they still have some
+of that hundred dollars left. It's wonderful how far some people can
+make a little money go."</p>
+
+<p>Here Martine sighed, recalling the time when she would not have thought
+a hundred dollars too much to spend in gratifying a single small wish.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," she continued, "it may be that I can really do something
+for Yvonne next year. If papa can't spare the money, why I can give up
+something of my own&mdash;riding lessons, for example,&mdash;and spend what it
+would cost for Yvonne. This year I have been so frightfully useless; it
+seems as if I hadn't done anything for anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"How foolish you are," exclaimed Priscilla. "If there were nothing else,
+you certainly have helped Yvonne and Esther, and just think what Mrs.
+Brownville writes about Herbert, and your mother says you have been a
+wonderful housekeeper, and that you have taken so much care off her
+shoulders, and Angelina&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Angelina is rather absurd," interposed Martine; "I was just
+coming to myself that evening after&mdash;what shall I call it&mdash;the Carlotta
+incident, when Angelina rushed into the room, and almost threw herself
+on my neck. She seemed to think that something awful had happened to me
+because she had undertaken to leave us, and that my salvation depended
+on her. She said she had had queer feelings all day, and that she just
+felt drawn back to Red Knoll, which she never, never, would desert
+again. Really it was just as well that she came back, for although
+mother was able to get an extra helper, Angelina knew exactly where
+things were. Of course she was tremendously proud of what she had
+accomplished in her trip to Portsmouth, for she made the house-breaker
+admit that he was Miguel Silva, and though she can't recover her money,
+she has a kind of wicked satisfaction in knowing that he will be
+punished for his other misdeeds."</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't seem to be quite as Spanish as she was last winter. At
+least she doesn't say as much about it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, she gives me the credit for that. She says that I have shown her
+that it is wrong to pretend anything. However, on that same Portsmouth
+trip, she went down the harbor to look at the island where Cervera's men
+were prisoners, and now she likes to speak of the Spaniards in a
+patronizing tone as people to be spoken of as inferiors rather than
+kinsmen."</p>
+
+<p>"It's astonishing," mused Priscilla, "how many friends you make!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should it be astonishing? Why shouldn't I make friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only meant it was astonishing in comparison with me. No one ever
+attaches importance to me. In the past year I have hardly made a new
+friend&mdash;while you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You have made a friend of me for one thing, and Lucian thinks you are
+exactly right, and my mother considers you a perfect model. Oh, yes, and
+there's Eunice."</p>
+
+<p>Priscilla, in spite of herself, smiled at Martine's droll tone.</p>
+
+<p>"But think of all the people you have to your credit. Mr. Stacy says he
+never saw a young girl talk so intelligently about Plymouth, and the
+children are always asking me when you will come again, and in her
+secret heart I believe Aunt Tilworth prefers you to me,&mdash;and my
+mother&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense, Priscilla! It's only because people think me so very
+empty-headed when they first meet me, that they are surprised later to
+find that there's anything to me, just as I am surprised some times to
+discover these quiet dignified girls, like Elinor, and Clare, are really
+very good fun when you come to know them better."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," continued Priscilla, "there are Balfour and Mr. Gamut. If you
+hadn't been considerate of Balfour's feelings, and invited him to your
+house, he wouldn't have met Mr. Gamut, and Eunice says he has made him a
+splendid offer, and he will take it as soon as he's through college."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, things may have happened that way; but you know yourself that
+I haven't any particular talent for anything, and I never go out of my
+way to help people."</p>
+
+<p>"You help them just by being bright and pleasant and making them think
+the best of themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps; but as to Balfour, I am glad that he's to be helped by Mr.
+Gamut, and not by Mr. Blair, or even papa, as I once hoped. For, as it
+is, he's much more independent, without feeling that anything has been
+done for him, because he's a connection of ours, even though the
+cousinship is rather far away. It was so funny, though, to see Mr. Gamut
+the evening Carlotta's horse tried to run. He appeared on the scene just
+as I fainted, and later, when I came to, he was hopping about, anxious
+to do something, but not knowing what to do. Faint as I was, I almost
+laughed at him. But that would have been mean, for he had come almost
+expressly to bring me news that he had just heard about papa's affairs.
+He said he knew I had been worrying, and he wanted to be the first to
+tell me. Naturally, he was surprised to find me lying on my back in the
+middle of the road. But come, we mustn't waste all the morning here,"
+and seizing Priscilla by the arm, Martine fairly dragged her from the
+hammock.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel so energetic now," she cried, "that we must do something
+exciting&mdash;take a long walk to work off my energy&mdash;if we could gather a
+party, I believe I could climb Agamenticus. What would you say to that,
+Prissie?"</p>
+
+<p>The diminutive no longer annoyed Priscilla. She had learned to
+understand Martine.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't necessary for me to say anything. Your mother will tell you
+what she thinks about your climbing Agamenticus."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is too far. You always do know better than I. I believe
+that next year I shall have to be known as Priscilla's, instead of
+Brenda's ward"&mdash;and with her hand in Priscilla's, Martine went into the
+house.</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="HELEN_LEAH_REEDS_BRENDA_BOOKS" id="HELEN_LEAH_REEDS_BRENDA_BOOKS"></a>HELEN LEAH REED'S "BRENDA" BOOKS</h2>
+
+
+<h3>BRENDA, HER SCHOOL AND HER CLUB</h3>
+
+<h3>Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith.</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Boston Herald</i> says: "Miss Reed's girls have all the impulses and
+likes of real girls as their characters are developing, and her record
+of their thoughts and actions reads like a chapter snatched from the
+page of life. It is bright, genial, merry, wholesome, and full of good
+characterizations."</p>
+
+
+<h3>BRENDA'S SUMMER AT ROCKLEY</h3>
+
+<h3>Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith.</h3>
+
+<p>A charming picture of vacation life along the famous North Shore of
+Massachusetts.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Outlook</i> says: "The author is one of the best equipped of our
+writers for girls of larger growth. Her stories are strong, intelligent,
+and wholesome."</p>
+
+
+<h3>BRENDA'S COUSIN AT RADCLIFFE</h3>
+
+<h3>Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens.</h3>
+
+<p>A remarkably real and fascinating story of a college girl's career,
+excelling in interest Miss Reed's first "Brenda" book. The <i>Providence
+News</i> says of it: "No better college story has been written." The author
+is a graduate of Radcliffe College which she describes.</p>
+
+<p>No better college story has been written.&mdash;<i>Providence News.</i></p>
+
+<p>Miss Reed is herself a Radcliffe woman, and she has made a sympathetic
+and accurate study of the woman's college at Cambridge.&mdash;<i>Chicago
+Evening Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>The author is one of the best equipped of our writers for girls of
+larger growth. Her stories are strong, intelligent, and wholesome.&mdash;<i>The
+Outlook</i>, N. Y.</p>
+
+<p>The book has the background of old Cambridge, a little of Harvard, and
+Boston in the distance.... The heroine is a fine girl, and the other
+characters are girls of many varieties and from many places.&mdash;<i>New York
+Commercial Advertiser.</i></p>
+
+<p>She brings out all sides of the life, and, while making much of the fun
+and good fellowship, does not let it be forgotten that work and growth
+are the end and object of it all.&mdash;<i>Chicago Tribune.</i></p>
+
+
+<h3>BRENDA'S BARGAIN</h3>
+
+<h3>Illustrated.</h3>
+
+<p>"The fourth and last of the 'Brenda' books," says <i>The Bookman</i>, "deals
+with social settlement work, under conditions with which the author is
+familiar." The <i>Boston Transcript</i> adds: "This book is by far the best
+of the series."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h3><i>Another Popular "Brenda" Story</i></h3>
+
+<h3>AMY IN ACADIA</h3>
+
+<h3>Illustrated by Katharine Pyle.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A delightful scene for a tale that arouses and holds the young reader's
+attention and sympathies from the beginning.&mdash;<i>Washington Star.</i></p>
+
+<p>The entire story is full of life, action, and entertainment, as well as
+information.&mdash;<i>Newark Advertiser.</i></p>
+
+<p>Amy, now a college senior, and some of her friends have various unique
+experiences, and incidentally introduce a great many historical details
+concerning the descendants of the exiled Acadians in the romantic region
+of Clare in Nova Scotia.&mdash;<i>New York Sun.</i></p>
+
+<p>A splendid tale for girls, carefully written, interesting, and full of
+information concerning the romantic region made famous by the
+vicissitudes of Evangeline.&mdash;<i>Toronto Globe.</i></p>
+
+<p>The adventures of Amy and her girl friends among the descendants of the
+exiled Acadians have a spice of novelty to them.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Press.</i></p>
+
+<p>So well written that it holds the attention of the young reader, and so
+well developed in its story as to prove without question another popular
+addition to the young folks' library.&mdash;<i>Boston Journal.</i></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h3><i>A Story for Younger Girls</i></h3>
+
+<h3>IRMA AND NAP</h3>
+
+<h3>Illustrated by Clara E. Atwood.</h3>
+
+<p>A brightly written story about children from eleven to thirteen years of
+age, who live in a suburban town, and attend a public grammar school.
+The book is full of incident of school and home life.</p>
+
+<p>The story deals with real life, and is told in the simple and
+natural style which characterized Miss Reed's popular "Brenda"
+stories.&mdash;<i>Washington Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>There are little people in this sweetly written story with whom all will
+feel at once that they have been long acquainted, so real do they seem,
+as well as their plans, their play, and their school and home and
+everyday life.&mdash;<i>Boston Courier.</i></p>
+
+<p>Her children are real; her style also is natural and pleasing.&mdash;<i>The
+Outlook</i>, New York.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Reed's children are perfectly natural and act as real girls would
+under the same circumstances. Nap is a lively little dog, who takes an
+important part in the development of the story.&mdash;<i>Christian Register</i>,
+Boston.</p>
+
+<p>A clever story, not a bit preachy, but with much influence for right
+living in evidence throughout.&mdash;<i>Chicago Evening Post.</i></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Brenda's Ward, by Helen Leah Reed
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Brenda's Ward, by Helen Leah Reed
+
+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: Brenda's Ward
+       A Sequel to 'Amy in Acadia'
+
+Author: Helen Leah Reed
+
+Illustrator: Frank T Merril
+
+Release Date: May 18, 2011 [EBook #36133]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDA'S WARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Heather Clark, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Brenda's Ward
+
+                     _A Sequel to "Amy in Acadia"_
+
+                           By Helen Leah Reed
+
+Author of "The Brenda Books," "Irma and Nap," "Amy in Acadia," etc.
+
+
+    Illustrated from Drawings by
+    Frank T. Merrill
+
+    Boston
+    Little, Brown, and Company
+    1906
+
+    _Copyright, 1906_,
+    BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+    Published October, 1906
+
+    THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment,
+she backed gracefully."]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. A NEW HOME
+
+II. A STRANGE MEETING
+
+III. PRISCILLA'S PRIDE
+
+IV. CHANGES
+
+V. ANOTHER PARTING
+
+VI. ANGELINA'S COUP
+
+VII. A DROP OF INK
+
+VIII. A PRIZE WINNER
+
+IX. WORD FROM BRENDA
+
+X. THE RECITAL
+
+XI. MARTINE'S ALTRUISM
+
+XII. PUZZLES
+
+XIII. AT PLYMOUTH
+
+XIV. TALES AND RELICS
+
+XV. TROUBLES
+
+XVI. THE MISSING TRUNK
+
+XVII. CLASS DAY
+
+XVIII. AT YORK
+
+XIX. SIGHT-SEEING
+
+XX. THE ISLES OF SHOALS
+
+XXI. VARIETY
+
+XXII. EXCITEMENT
+
+XXIII. QUIET LIFE
+
+XXIV. PORTSMOUTH AND AFTERWARD
+
+XXV. THE SUMMER'S END
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment, she backed
+gracefully"
+
+"'The real Memorial is here,' said Elinor, reverently, passing from one
+tablet to another"
+
+"'This little scarf--it is Roman, too,--is just the thing for Julius
+Caesar'"
+
+"Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little dolls of clay"
+
+"The old captain proved very talkative"
+
+"While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about"
+
+
+
+
+Brenda's Ward
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A NEW HOME
+
+
+"It's simply perfect."
+
+"I thought you would like it, Martine."
+
+"Like it! I should say so, but it isn't 'it,' it's everything,--the
+room, the house, you, Boston. Really, you don't know how glad I am to be
+here, Brenda--I mean Mrs. Weston."
+
+"What nonsense!"
+
+"That I should like things?"
+
+"No, that you should call me 'Mrs. Weston.' It's bad enough to be
+growing old, so don't try to make me feel like a grandmother. Truly, I
+can't believe that I am a day older than when I was sixteen, and yet
+when I _was_ sixteen, eighteen seemed the end of everything worth while.
+I could not imagine myself old, and serious, and--twenty."
+
+Martine smiled at Brenda's emphasis of the last word, and as she smiled
+she laid her hand on her friend's arm.
+
+"Come," she said, "just look in this mirror. A person who did not know
+could not tell which is the older, you or I."
+
+"Again, nonsense!"
+
+Yet even as she spoke Brenda could but admit to herself that Martine had
+an air of dignity suited to one much older than a girl of seventeen. But
+if she had thought Martine altogether grown up, she quickly changed her
+opinion, for at this very moment Martine sank on the floor beside her,
+and as her laughter re-echoed through the rooms Brenda was driven to
+say:
+
+"My dear, don't talk to me about being grown up. You act precisely like
+a child of ten. What in the world is the matter?"
+
+"Nothing, oh nothing; that is, almost nothing. Only look and you will
+laugh too."
+
+Glancing where Martine pointed, Brenda saw something really amusing.
+Before a pier-glass in the hall a sallow girl with glossy black hair
+piled high on her head was standing. She wore a pink satin gown that
+heightened her sallowness. It was cut square in the neck, and her elbow
+sleeves displayed a pair of skinny arms.
+
+"Who is she?" whispered Martine, recovering her breath.
+
+"Why, that, oh that is Angelina."
+
+Martine, fascinated by the vision in the glass, continued to watch the
+strange little figure, bowing, gesticulating, turning now to this side
+now to that, while her lips moved as if she were talking to herself.
+
+"Who is Angelina?" asked Martine.
+
+"Oh, Angelina, don't you know her? She is to help me for a week while
+Maggie is away taking care of her sick aunt."
+
+"Do you call that 'helping'?" and again Martine pointed toward the
+pier-glass.
+
+"She did not hear me come in; she thought I would ring," replied Brenda.
+"She thinks I am still downtown. She was to go to the door and has been
+waiting to hear me ring."
+
+"Would she go to the door looking like that?"
+
+"Oh, I hope not. She'd probably call through the tube and hurry on a
+coat, or do something of that kind. Yet no one is ever surprised at
+Angelina's doings. Let me tell you about her. Years ago Nora and some of
+the rest of us pulled her little brother Manuel from under the feet of a
+horse, and in a few days we went to visit the family at the North End.
+You can't imagine how poor they were. Then we had a club and worked for
+a bazaar to raise money to get them out into the country."
+
+"Oh, yes, Amy told me something about that, though it all happened
+before she knew you, I think she said."
+
+"Well, in the end Angelina became my cousin Julia's protegee. She has
+learned a great deal about housework at the Mansion School, but she is
+always yearning for something beyond. Lately she has been taking lessons
+in elocution."
+
+"That's it, then, she's rehearsing now," cried Martine. "Oh, I hope
+Maggie will stay away longer than you expect. I think we might have
+great sport with Angelina."
+
+"My dear," remonstrated Brenda, "remember that for the present you are
+my ward. I can't have you trifling with Angelina, although she can be
+very funny."
+
+The sound of voices had at last penetrated Angelina's ears, and she fled
+to her room.
+
+"Oh, my," she thought, "I wonder if Mrs. Weston saw me?" In her secret
+heart Angelina hoped that she had been observed.
+
+"And Miss Martine, she's almost as stylish as Mrs. Weston. I wonder what
+she thought of this dress--gown," she added, correcting herself. "I
+almost wish I'd been saying that soliloquy out loud. Then I could have
+asked them if they thought I used just the right inflections and
+gestures. Perhaps Miss Brenda would let me recite it all to her some
+time. She's more sympathetic than Miss Julia was. Now I know if I should
+ask Miss Julia she'd say I mustn't give that recital, and I'm sure she
+wouldn't approve of this gown. But Miss Brenda, why I shouldn't wonder
+if she'd go to it herself, and Miss Martine, I've heard how she spends
+money like water, and she'll probably buy a lot of tickets."
+
+As Angelina fled to her room Martine, rising from the floor, sat down on
+a divan beside Brenda.
+
+"If you wish to please me, do find another place for Maggie and keep
+Angelina. She'll be so entertaining, and poor Maggie always looks half
+ready to cry."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't part with Maggie, and more than a week of Angelina would
+be too much even for you."
+
+"Well, I will tell you at the end of this week. I am going to work so
+hard at school that I ought to have as much amusement as possible at
+home. Still I know I am going to be perfectly happy with you this
+winter, although I can remember the time when I should just have hated
+to spend a winter in Boston. Even now if it wasn't for you--"
+
+"But you had decided to spend the winter here before you ran across me."
+
+"No, my dear Mrs. Weston, my parents had decided that a year or two of
+Boston school would be the making of me. They had heard, as you know, of
+a dragon who had a boarding-house on the hill, who would look after me
+within an inch of my life. Wasn't it strange, though, that she should
+have been taken ill this autumn? I suppose you wouldn't let me say
+'providential.'"
+
+"Certainly not! She was so ill that she had to go South for the winter."
+
+"Then that is providential for her. How much better the South must be
+for her than this bleak Boston. Besides, if she had been able to
+continue her home for helpless Western schoolgirls, I should not have
+had the delight of sharing your charming apartment."
+
+"Nor should I have had the pleasure of the company of a charming ward."
+
+As Martine courtesied her thanks for this compliment, she backed
+gracefully, and neither she nor Brenda realized that she was approaching
+too near a table of bric-a-brac, until it toppled over with a crash.
+
+"Oh what have I done! No wedding presents smashed, I hope." There was a
+touch of dismay in Martine's voice.
+
+"Not a thing that could break." Brenda's smile was reassuring. "Silver
+or brass, everyone of them. That's one thing I have already learned, not
+to have breakable things, if one values them, within anyone's reach.
+It's awfully disagreeable to have to blame anyone for what you could
+have prevented by a little care, and I never can let anybody replace
+what she has broken. Maggie is rather a breaker, and so my china and
+glass ornaments I set on high shelves."
+
+The noise of the falling table brought Angelina upon the scene. She had
+made what Martine called a "lightning change," and appeared in a dark
+gown and spotless collar and cuffs.
+
+"Why, are you in?" she said innocently, as she entered the room. "I
+didn't know but what it might be a burglar or something--" She looked
+from one to the other anxiously, and then catching sight of the
+overturned table, began to busy herself picking up the scattered
+ornaments.
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Brenda, "will Angelina ever learn to be perfectly
+honest?" But her only words alone were. "Yes, we have been in some time;
+I thought you might have heard us." The implied reproof silenced
+Angelina, and soon the three separated without a word having been said
+about the private rehearsal.
+
+That the volatile Brenda Weston should undertake the charge of Martine
+Stratford for the winter at first surprised many of their friends, and
+yet this had come about in a perfectly natural way. When Martine
+returned from her summer with Amy in Acadia, her mother, who met her in
+Boston, was so much better that it seemed almost possible for her to
+spend the winter at home. But at last her physician prescribed a few
+months of travel, and as Martina's school work had already been unduly
+interrupted, it was thought wiser for her to carry out the plans already
+more than half formed that she should stay in Boston to attend Miss
+Crawdon's school. It was therefore a disappointment to Mrs. Stratford
+just before school opened to hear that Mrs. Montgomery, Martine's
+so-called "dragon," was ill. For several years the latter had been in
+the habit of having a few girls from a distance board with her while
+they attended school in Boston. When Mrs. Montgomery could not take her,
+Martine's parents thought that they must altogether give up the Boston
+plan. Mrs. Blair, a cousin of Martine's mother, with whom she had stayed
+in the spring, was now in Europe. Mrs. Redmond, in whose charge they
+would have liked to put Martine, had engaged a boarding-place in
+Wellesley, to be near her daughter in college; and had there been no
+other reason against Martine's living in Wellesley also, her parents
+objected to her going back and forth daily on the trains. The case
+seemed hopeless for Martine's staying in Boston until Brenda Weston came
+to the rescue.
+
+Brenda was for a few days at the large hotel overlooking the park, where
+also Mr. and Mrs. Stratford and Martine were staying. Martine had heard
+much of Brenda, though she had never met her until one afternoon when
+Amy came to call. Delighted to have the opportunity, she immediately
+introduced Brenda to her Chicago friends. This happened to be the very
+day when Martine was feeling most discouraged regarding her school
+plans. For although the young girl sometimes scoffed at Boston, she
+really wished to spend the winter there. Her summer's companionship with
+Amy and Priscilla had increased her ambition, and she was anxious to
+study at Miss Crawdon's.
+
+Very naturally, then, she confided her troubles to Brenda. Brenda
+sympathized with her, but made no suggestion until she had talked the
+matter over with her own family and with Martine's mother. When Mrs.
+Stratford told Martine that Brenda had offered to take her under her
+wing for the winter, Martine, overjoyed, rushed to Brenda's room to
+express her thanks.
+
+"I can't tell you how delighted I am at the thought of living with you
+in that dear little flat. It will be much more fun than anything else I
+could possibly do."
+
+Brenda looked at her keenly, shaking her head in mock reproof.
+
+"You are not coming to me just for fun. Your mother says that this must
+be a very serious year for you, that you did not do so very well in
+school last year, and that--"
+
+"There, there, Brenda,--I mean Mrs. Weston, dear,--I can be terribly
+serious. You will see for yourself. But still you want me to have a
+_little_ fun, just a little--"
+
+"Oh, yes; I am not a regular dragon, but I understand the importance of
+work."
+
+With a sudden movement Martine, who had been standing behind Brenda,
+threw her arms over Brenda's head, placed her hands over Brenda's mouth,
+thus silencing her for the moment.
+
+"Now listen, listen," she cried; "listen, please! Of course I am only
+too glad to be your ward, and I will be as good as good can be. I would
+promise anything rather than go to boarding-school, or live with Mrs.
+Blair, or board in a house full of girls. Lucian hopes I'll stay in
+Boston because he is a little lonely sometimes at college, and I wish to
+stay with you, and you are so sweet to give me the chance that I really
+won't make any trouble for you."
+
+So it was settled, and Mr. and Mrs. Stratford went home, quite satisfied
+to leave Martine in Brenda's care. They would have been better pleased
+had Mrs. Redmond been able to take complete charge of their daughter;
+but as it was, Mrs. Redmond promised to have Martine constantly in mind
+and to help her when any emergency arose.
+
+It was Martine's one regret, when she took up her abode with Brenda,
+that she had not become Brenda's ward early enough in the season to help
+her furnish.
+
+"It must have been such fun," she said one day soon after her arrival,
+"to shop for all these pretty things, and decide on wallpapers and rugs,
+and fit them into their little corners and nooks."
+
+"You know I didn't have to go shopping for all my belongings; you have
+no idea what quantities of things were given me."
+
+"Oh, I can imagine, just by looking around. Wedding presents are so
+fascinating."
+
+"But still," continued Brenda, "there were certain things I had to buy,
+chairs and tables, for example, and it was hard sometimes to decide
+between Mission styles and mahogany, and whether the bedstead should be
+brass or painted iron for the smaller rooms; and then the kitchen
+furnishings were puzzling. Of course I'm not perfectly satisfied with
+everything, but, on the whole, we must be contented until we have a
+house."
+
+"Oh, how can you speak of a house! This is ever so much better. It's the
+prettiest flat I ever saw; don't you just love to be up here in the top?
+You can see over everything, even to the river, and down the avenue and
+up the avenue; it's more like Paris than anything I've seen since I was
+in Europe."
+
+"I do enjoy the view," replied Brenda. "I should hate to be shut in in a
+narrow street. I don't like it here quite as well as in our old house on
+the water side of Beacon street, where my room had such a broad
+outlook."
+
+"You must have hated to leave home."
+
+"In a way I did, but though mamma tried to persuade me to stay with her
+this winter, I felt that I just must begin to keep house myself."
+
+"You ought to be very happy that you are so near your mother." Martine
+spoke wistfully; although she wouldn't have admitted it for the world,
+she was beginning to be homesick. Chicago seemed altogether too far
+away.
+
+"It is pleasant," replied Brenda, "to be able to run in and out there
+when I please. Besides, my sister and her children are there, and I am
+awfully fond of the little girls."
+
+"Naturally. But that reminds me, though there isn't any real connection
+with what we've been talking about, you haven't shown me your kitchen.
+Can't we go out there now?"
+
+"Why, yes,"--then Brenda's face clouded,--"if the cook--"
+
+"Oh, Brenda Weston! You are afraid of the cook."
+
+Brenda colored. "Not afraid; only you know cooks are so queer, and of
+course dinners have to be just so, and she's apt to spoil things if
+anything annoys her. But this is her afternoon out."
+
+"Then we can go and look through everything," and Martine thereupon
+followed Brenda through the long narrow hall to the little kitchen at
+the very end of the suite.
+
+"You see," explained Brenda, as they entered the cook's domain, "though
+this is not an old house, the kitchen needed some improvements that I
+learned are necessary when I lived at the Mansion. It's astonishing how
+many things men forget when they build houses. Now, out here, there was
+an old-fashioned closed-in wooden sink, but I had it replaced with this
+open one at our expense, and this tiling put all around the walls, and
+here, this was my idea and this," and one by one she pointed out many
+little things that might have escaped Martine's notice.
+
+"I learned so much," continued Brenda, "that year at the Mansion School.
+You see a year ago last spring I was very low-spirited. Everything
+seemed so gloomy after the war began, so I went for a while to help
+Julia with her girls; and hardly anyone, hardly Julia herself, realized
+that I was learning. But I was, and somehow things that I didn't know I
+had noticed sank into my mind, and when we began to get this apartment
+ready, I was really practical; even my mother said so. Arthur was
+pleased, and my sister Anna was perfectly astonished. You know she has
+lived mostly in studios, or in houses where someone else did the
+planning, and this year at home with mother she has no responsibility,
+so she can't understand how I know so much about housekeeping."
+
+"It _is_ strange, it seems strange to me," responded Martine. "No one
+would ever expect you to know a thing."
+
+"Why not? Do I appear a perfect ignoramus?" There was indignation in
+Brenda's tone.
+
+"Oh, no, of course not; only kitchens are so different, so--well, I
+shouldn't expect you to know about kitchen work."
+
+"Then, I confess, there's one thing I don't understand very well. I
+really cannot cook. Sometimes I think it's on account of the cooking
+class we used to have; it was too much like work, and so I didn't try to
+remember what I was taught. That's why I'm afraid of the cook, for if
+she should leave suddenly, I don't know what I should do."
+
+"I know what _I'd_ do," responded Martine, quickly. "I'd go to a
+restaurant; it's ever so much more fun than dining at home. Why, when I
+was visiting my cousin in New York, we went somewhere nearly every
+evening. Of course there isn't a Sherry's or a Waldorf-Astoria here--"
+
+"Oh, I don't want to dine at restaurants when I've a house of my own.
+Besides, I'm going to learn--look!" and Brenda opened the door of a
+small closet. "These are all electric things," and she pointed to a row
+of silver kettles and chafing-dishes. "We have two plugs in the
+dining-room wall and can cook almost anything without going into the
+kitchen. But come, I've something to show you in my own room now." As
+they turned away Martine exclaimed, "If you have a good receipe book,
+with all those shiny saucepans, I'm sure you needn't care whether you
+have a cook or not."
+
+"I'm not so sure," responded Brenda, "and I can't help being just a
+little afraid."
+
+"Pshaw! How absurd!--as if you could really be afraid of anything,"
+retorted Martine with a smile.
+
+Now, interesting though Martine found her life under Brenda's roof, she
+soon realized that her winter was not to be one wholly of pleasure. Her
+studies had been carried on so irregularly for a year or two that she
+now perceived that she must settle down to regular work. School had been
+in session a week or two before she returned to Miss Crawdon's; this
+fact was not altogether in her favor, and she found herself a little
+behind the girls in her class. But Martine was resolute, and when she
+once set herself at a task in genuine earnest, she was likely to go
+ahead with a will. So, for the first month she studied diligently; it
+was to her advantage that she had not many Boston acquaintances.
+
+Brenda, in her new position of guide and philosopher as well as friend,
+gave Martine much good advice. One day in a serious mood she expressed
+the hope that Martine would not think of ending her studies at Miss
+Crawdon's school.
+
+"It's astonishing," she said, "how many girls are beginning to fit for
+college, though when I was in school many of us thought my cousin Julia
+queer because she studied Greek and wished to go to Radcliffe; yet
+really she wasn't queer at all, only rather more interesting than most
+people."
+
+"I should like so much to see her, everyone seems so fond of her,"
+responded Martine. "When will she come back from Europe?"
+
+"Not before summer, I think. She worked so hard at the Mansion School
+last year that we all hope she'll get all she can out of this journey.
+She's studying, of course, for she never can be perfectly idle; but I am
+glad to say that she has gone back to her music, for that is the thing
+she has the most talent for."
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Martine, "how delightful it must be to know that you
+have a talent for anything. It seems to me sometimes that I haven't a
+particle of talent. I can do several things passably well, but no one
+thing better than another. Mother thinks that the Boston air is going to
+develop some special talent of mine, but which or what, nobody knows.
+For my own part, as I said before, I am sure that I have no talent."
+
+"Don't be so severe toward yourself," expostulated Brenda. "I am sure of
+one thing--you have a talent for being pleasant and amusing."
+
+"I'm not quite sure that that is exactly a compliment."
+
+"But, really, I mean it to be one."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A STRANGE MEETING
+
+
+One Saturday morning after a rainy Friday, Martine looked out the
+window.
+
+"How refreshing to have a fine day again. Really, when it poured
+yesterday I thought it would rain forever, and I had such a funny
+adventure, Brenda Weston, that if you hadn't been out when I came home I
+should have told you on the spot. Adventures are like buckwheat cakes,
+so much better when they are fresh from the griddle, and this was a kind
+of frying-pan affair."
+
+"I am afraid I don't understand. What was it?"
+
+"Something that happened after the Rehearsal. I slipped away from
+Priscilla and her aunt and there was a great crowd going down the steps
+yesterday, so that of course I got separated from Priscilla and her
+aunt."
+
+"It seems to me that's a way you have," Brenda tried to speak severely.
+
+"Oh, yes," sighed Martine, "Mrs. Tilworth is quite resigned now.
+Generally I separate myself from her only about every other week, but
+yesterday I wanted some soda water, and I knew she would never
+condescend to go into a drug shop or let Priscilla go with me. However,
+when I was once in the street the rain was falling in such torrents that
+I made a beeline for a Crosstown car that I saw coming. I had had some
+trouble in getting away from Mrs. Tilworth, for she kept not only her
+eagle eye, but her arm on me as long as she could; she meant to bring me
+home in a cab, but after all I managed to wriggle away. I don't know why
+I thought I ought to run for my car, but I did, and so did another girl,
+only the trouble was, that she was coming from the opposite direction.
+Of course you can see what happened. I didn't mean to knock her down,
+for she was shorter than I and we were both furious."
+
+"Because she was shorter than you?"
+
+"Oh, I don't see now why we were both so mad, only she knocked my hat
+off, that one with the light blue feathers, and it went sailing down the
+asphalt, and my umbrella jabbed into her face. 'You're terribly clumsy;
+I should think you might see what you're doing. You might have put my
+eye out,' I heard her say in the savagest kind of a tone. Just then I
+caught sight of my hat, and all I could do was to laugh and laugh, and
+she thought I was laughing at her, and turned her back on me in a
+regular frigid Boston way, holding her handkerchief to her eye."
+
+"How could so much happen while two people were getting on a car?"
+
+"Getting on a car! Naturally we missed the car. It didn't wait for us to
+settle matters. I suppose that was partly what made her so cross. But I
+wish you could have seen my hat when finally I picked it up."
+
+"I'm glad I didn't, if it was ruined. I have some responsibility for
+your clothes. No wonder Mrs. Tilworth tries to keep her eye on you!"
+
+"She has to try pretty hard, I can assure you," retorted Martine.
+
+"You should take things more seriously," rejoined Brenda. "In future
+please come home at least as far as Copley Square with her and
+Priscilla, but now--yes, now let us go in and look at the table." And
+with her hand in Brenda's arm, Martine led the way to the dining-room.
+The sight that met her eye there was indeed well worth seeing. The
+polished surface of the round mahogany table shone like a mirror. Covers
+were laid for nine and the centrepiece and doilies were embroidered in
+yellow. In a tall green glass in the middle were some large yellow
+chrysanthemums. The bonbons were in little gilded baskets and the china
+had yellow blossoms on a white ground.
+
+With housewifely pride Brenda adjusted the blinds. "Yes," she said, "I
+think that everything will go just as it should. Elinor Naylor, you see,
+is a sister of one of Arthur's best college friends. I should like to
+have asked her to dine, but the cousin she is staying with has an
+engagement for her this evening, and as Arthur will be away next week, a
+luncheon was the best thing I could manage."
+
+"Oh, it's just the thing," cried Martine; "dinners are so stiff. With
+the boys coming in to take us out to Cambridge, a luncheon will be far
+jollier than any dinner."
+
+"I hope so," replied Brenda, "and I wonder what this Elinor Naylor is
+like. She was out when I called, but she writes a beautiful note, and
+from what I have heard, I imagine that she is rather stately and
+elegant. But dear me, it's nearly twelve, and with luncheon at one we
+shall really have to hurry." So with a few last touches to the table
+Brenda and Martine went to their rooms, and long before one, Brenda,
+with some trepidation, was waiting in the library for the arrival of her
+special guest. The Harvard boys, however, were the first to
+arrive--Fritz Tomkins, and Martine's brother Lucian, and Robert Pringle,
+Lucian's classmate. Next came Priscilla and Amy, the former somewhat
+abashed at hearing the laughter from the little library, and wondering
+if she could be late, until Amy reassured her. Priscilla bore some
+good-natured chaffing from her host, who seeing her glance at her watch,
+could not forbear teasing her.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I can read the workings of a guilty conscience. Here
+we've been waiting for you this long time. The goose is burning up in
+the oven--"
+
+"There isn't any goose in the house, Arthur, except you," protested
+Brenda.
+
+"I am so sorry," began Priscilla, apologetically. "It was because Amy--"
+
+"Don't throw the blame on another," protested Mr. Weston, solemnly.
+
+"I don't mean to blame her. We both thought it was earlier, and
+besides," fortified by a glance at her watch, Priscilla spoke with more
+decision, "my watch says 'a quarter before one.'"
+
+"That's what our clock says too," interposed Brenda, kindly. "Arthur was
+only teasing. Our guest, evidently, does not mean to be too early."
+
+"If she's like her brother, she's a punctilious person and will arrive
+promptly at five minutes before one."
+
+Strange to say, the longer hand had just marked five minutes of one when
+Angelina announced "Miss Elinor Naylor." A minute or two later the young
+lady entered the room, and after the other introductions had been made,
+Martine's turn came last.
+
+As she greeted all the others, Miss Elinor Naylor had extended her hand
+very cordially, but when Brenda led Martine to her, her arm fell
+automatically to her side. Martine at the same time reddened deeply, and
+it was not often that Martine was so perceptibly embarrassed. Each girl,
+however, said a polite word or two, and in a few moments all went out to
+the little dining-room.
+
+After they were seated, the conversation at first was not general, and I
+am afraid that anyone who had overheard the words exchanged between any
+two speakers might have called what was said rather commonplace. In a
+short time, however, some question arose regarding a recent Yale
+victory, and at once Arthur and Fritz plunged into an ardent discussion
+in which, soon, all took part.
+
+"Oh, of course," said Arthur; "it's more than six to one. I know you are
+all against me. I can't even depend on Brenda, and so, Miss Naylor, I
+must turn to you as my one supporter in this controversy."
+
+"You can depend on me," replied the guest; "whatever a Yale man says is
+bound to be true."
+
+"The real Yale spirit," commented Martine. "I didn't know that girls had
+it as well as their brothers."
+
+There was an unamiable tinge in Martine's tone that Brenda, too much
+occupied with things more important, did not notice. The more observant
+Arthur, however, had seen that Martine and Elinor had had little to say
+to each other, although they had been placed at table where they could
+easily have said more.
+
+"You two young things," he said at last, "by which I mean our visitors
+from Chicago and Philadelphia, look at each other as if you had met
+before and were afraid to speak until you had found the clew to the
+previous meeting. Is that the case?"
+
+Elinor was silent, but after a second Martine replied,
+
+"No, not exactly; that is--" Then Martine came to a pause suddenly and
+answered some question that Robert Pringle, on her right hand, had asked
+her. Any embarrassment that she or Elinor might have felt was speedily
+ended by something with which they personally had nothing to do.
+
+Now it happened that although Maggie had returned to her post of duty in
+Brenda's household, the latter had decided that things would move more
+smoothly with two waitresses, and so Angelina had been called in to
+assist at the little luncheon. All would have gone on well had not a
+spirit of emulation taken possession of the two helpers, so that each
+seemed anxious to reach Elinor first. Twice, as they entered through the
+swing door, one almost abreast of the other, although Brenda had
+previously given them their directions, they both started to serve the
+special guest with her oysters, and only Brenda's warning glance
+prevented Maggie's plate from being placed on top of the one that
+Angelina had already set before Elinor. This incident ruffled the
+spirits of the two waitresses, and when they entered with their cups of
+bouillon, each was determined to reach Elinor before the other. The
+result of their exertions might have been more disastrous. As it was,
+Elinor did not suffer, though Martine, looking up suddenly, expected to
+see Maggie's cup splash over Elinor's light gown. Luckily--for
+Elinor--Maggie lost her nerve soon enough to drop her bouillon cup to
+the floor, and though the crash of china and the splash of liquid on the
+polished floor startled all at the table, Elinor escaped a drenching.
+
+Although everyone knew that there had been an accident, everyone tried
+to look unconcerned. Maggie, crestfallen, gathered up the pieces;
+Angelina, with her head high, as if such a catastrophe could never occur
+to her, went back to the kitchen for other cups--and only Martine
+giggled.
+
+"Your best Dresden," murmured Amy to Brenda. The latter shook her head.
+Arthur glanced at her approvingly.
+
+"And mistress of herself, though china fall," and at the hackneyed
+quotation, all smiled. Then the luncheon went on for two courses with
+only one waitress, for Maggie had betaken herself to her sure refuge, a
+flood of tears, and she returned only with the salad.
+
+"Now," said Mr. Weston, "since the ice is broken--I mean, the china--you
+can see how much livelier we are. During the oysters you were altogether
+too quiet for young people, and I wondered if this was wholly because
+your host is a Yale man. It's painful to me sometimes to find myself in
+the midst of a Harvard crowd."
+
+"Oh, we are magnanimous, and since you've become a Bostonian, we can
+forgive you Yale's recent football victory," replied Fritz.
+
+"Then I can confess that my cheering played a large part in gaining the
+victory. I try to be as modest as I can about it," responded Arthur
+Weston.
+
+"Wait till the baseball season comes," interposed Robert Pringle, "and
+then you'll see another side of Yale."
+
+"I wish we girls could have seen the game," cried Martine. "I can't see
+why they played it at New Haven; it was the one Saturday of the whole
+autumn when I had to stay in Boston."
+
+"Why, it was New Haven's turn to have the game; you know Harvard and
+Yale have them on their own fields every other year," said Elinor, as if
+explaining something that Martine did not understand.
+
+"Oh, indeed," began Martine, sarcastically; then, remembering that she
+was to a degree Elinor's hostess, she murmured in an aside to Robert,
+"As if I did not know that better than she."
+
+"It's strange," continued Elinor, in a placid tone, "that I know so
+little of Harvard; we generally rush through Boston on our way to Bar
+Harbor. Once we drove round, one hot summer day in vacation, but I can
+only remember a Memorial Hall and some queer old brick buildings."
+Possibly Elinor's adjectives did not please Martine, for the latter
+spoke up quickly.
+
+"They're not queer, but historic; we think everything of Harvard here in
+Boston."
+
+"Oh, naturally," replied Elinor, in her most languid tone.
+
+"So say we all of us," cried Robert Pringle, while Amy and Fritz, who
+had been carrying on an animated discussion, looked up quickly. "What's
+wrong?" asked Fritz, innocently.
+
+"Nothing, nothing," and Brenda, hastening to change the subject, asked
+suddenly, "Did you bring your automobile, Lucian?"
+
+"Of course. I only wish I could take you all to Cambridge in it."
+
+"Who's going in which?" asked Amy a little later, as they stood at the
+door, before which were Lucian's automobile and Robert Pringle's
+dogcart.
+
+"Oh, the automobile for me!" cried Martine, impulsively.
+
+"Will you go in the automobile?" asked Lucian politely, turning toward
+Elinor.
+
+"Yes, indeed, I should like to, thank you," replied the guest.
+
+"Priscilla is coming in the dogcart with me," said Mr. Weston.
+
+"Then I think I'll drive with Priscilla," added Martine.
+
+"Such affection!" exclaimed Amy. "To give up the automobile because you
+prefer Priscilla's company!"
+
+"It isn't that I like Rome more, but Caesar less," rejoined Martine,
+garbling her quotation and looking toward the automobile, where Elinor
+had already taken her seat.
+
+Amy understood, and decided to give Martine a bit of advice at the first
+opportunity; for the present she and Brenda, with Fritz and Lucian, went
+in the automobile with Elinor, while Arthur and Robert Pringle
+accompanied Martine and Priscilla. The automobile speeded out through
+the Avenue across a corner of Brighton, that Elinor might have a good
+view of Soldiers Field. The dogcart proceeded over Harvard Bridge, and
+Martine tried to make Priscilla take a wager as to which vehicle would
+first reach the College Yard.
+
+When at last, however, they drew up before the Johnston Gate, Lucian and
+his party were waiting there, having left the automobile at the garage.
+
+"As we're going to explore these unknown regions on foot," said Lucian,
+"we can't allow you to drive haughtily around. There's a boy, Robert, to
+take your trap over to the stable. And so," he added, after Martine and
+Priscilla had alighted, "the elephant now goes round, the band begins to
+play; in other words, let the procession move in through the great gate.
+It was given by a Chicago man," he concluded. "That's why I'm proud to
+have you see it."
+
+After the gate had received its share of admiration, "Here are your
+'queer old brick buildings,' Miss Naylor," cried Fritz. "Every brick has
+a history, but I can't show you the college pump. It was blown up by
+anarchists, who probably meant to blow up one of the buildings."
+
+"How shocking!" said the sympathetic Elinor.
+
+"That they did not blow up the buildings?"
+
+"Oh, no, but that they should behave so badly. I trust they were
+punished."
+
+"Oh, they were blown up too."
+
+"Really?"
+
+Although Elinor gazed directly at Fritz, there was no suspicion in her
+calm blue eye.
+
+"Doesn't she remind you of my cousin, Edith Blair?" whispered Martine to
+Amy.
+
+"I can't say that they look much alike."
+
+"Oh, Amy, please don't be literal, too. I mean she believes everything
+Fritz says, and between him and Mr. Weston she'll have a hard time."
+
+"And a strange opinion of Harvard," added Brenda, who had joined the two
+speakers.
+
+As the majority of the party, including Elinor, were now out of hearing,
+Brenda thought this a good time to ask Martine to explain her prejudice
+against Elinor, "who seems a pleasant and dignified girl," she
+concluded.
+
+"Yes, that's it; she's too dignified for her size, she ought to be
+bright and jolly and--"
+
+"But remember, please, that she's among strangers. You can't dislike her
+simply because she's quiet and dignified, so you might as well confess."
+
+"Well, then," replied Martine, "if I must, I must; but you'll
+understand, when I tell you that she's the girl who knocked my hat off."
+
+Amy looked puzzled and Brenda smiled as she responded, "Oh, the girl
+whom you tried to knock down with your umbrella. I suppose that is what
+has made that scratch on her face. No wonder she is on her dignity with
+you."
+
+"I shouldn't have cared," retorted Martine, "if she hadn't refused to
+shake hands with me to-day. Surely everyone must have noticed that, and
+it's she who ought to apologize for destroying my third best hat."
+
+Then, as she recalled the sight of the hat with the pale blue feathers
+sliding along on the asphalt, Martine laughed heartily, and from that
+moment, in her mind, all was peace between her and Elinor.
+
+"I didn't mean to get so far ahead," explained Lucian, as the others
+came up to the spot where he and Fritz were standing with Elinor. "But
+Miss Naylor is delighted with Holden."
+
+"Yes," murmured Elinor, "it is the cunningest little building! I should
+like to pick it up and carry it off as a souvenir. It's too bad that it
+isn't the very oldest of all the buildings now standing."
+
+"No, Massachusetts has that honor, but Holden is the first to take its
+name from an English benefactor," said Fritz.
+
+"It seems too bad that nothing remains of the original Harvard, but the
+fire of 1764 swept them all away. Massachusetts is older than that, and
+so are one or two others now standing. The old buildings are not
+particularly beautiful," Robert Pringle apologized.
+
+"But they look like New England," interrupted Martine, "so practical and
+business-like and angular; that's why I like them."
+
+"There must be some interesting stories connected with them," said
+Elinor, sentimentally.
+
+"Oh, yes, stories, quantities of them. What would you like to hear?"
+asked Fritz, with an eagerness that showed he was ready to manufacture
+any tale or legend that Elinor might desire.
+
+"Did the college go on during the Revolution?" asked Elinor. "I know
+Washington had his headquarters in Cambridge."
+
+"The library was sent up to Andover for safety, and the students to the
+Concord Reformatory."
+
+"Oh, Fritz," protested Amy, "if you are not careful, Miss Naylor will
+believe you."
+
+"Why not?" asked Fritz, innocently. "It's history that they were sent to
+Concord, and why not to the Reformatory? They must have needed it, if
+they were like some of the present students, and they would have been
+sent there surely had Concord possessed a reformatory in those benighted
+years."
+
+Upon this Lucian insisted that Miss Naylor must accept him only as her
+Harvard guide; otherwise she would get an utterly wrong impression.
+
+"Let me tell you," he began, "about the squirrels. Really, they are of
+more consequence than most other dwellers in the Yard. They will eat
+anything, from mushrooms to pate de foie gras, and although it's rather
+expensive, we try to give them whatever they demand. The tree trunks
+here are probably filled with treasures that they have hidden away; some
+of them even are fond of books, and I heard of one who had an intimate
+acquaintance with Greek roots. No nuts are too hard for them to crack;
+they are real philosophers, and here," he cried as he threw some acorns
+on the grass, "they are so tame one doesn't have even to throw salt on
+their tails to catch them."
+
+Upon this, with a deft movement, he picked up a bushy-tailed gray
+squirrel that had been attracted by the bait he had thrown down, and as
+he held it toward Elinor, "Here," he exclaimed, "if you wish a souvenir
+of Harvard, is the real thing," and extending his arm, he pressed the
+little creature's head against Elinor's cheek. Then, to everyone's
+surprise, Elinor Naylor, the dignified Miss Elinor Naylor of
+Philadelphia, screamed loudly, and turning her back on Lucian, ran up to
+Martine, who happened to be nearest her, and laid her head on Martine's
+arm, crying loudly, "Take it away, take it away, it's just like a big
+rat."
+
+Lucian, decidedly crestfallen at this little episode, let the squirrel
+whisk itself away, while he walked up to Elinor to offer his apologies.
+In his heart he was saying, "Thank heaven that Martine has some nerve,"
+and Martine herself, by a sudden revulsion of feeling, at once became
+the champion of the girl she had recently been criticising.
+
+Elinor accepted Lucian's apologies very graciously. "I know that I am
+foolish," she said, "but I never have liked those little creepy animals;
+they all seem to be like rats and mice, except at a distance."
+
+"You were certainly very thoughtless, Lucian." Martine spoke in a tone
+of deep reproof, and during the remainder of their walk she had Elinor
+hanging on her arm.
+
+The suite of rooms occupied by Lucian and Robert Pringle was in a
+dormitory outside the Yard, in the neighborhood of the old ballground,
+Jarvis Field. To reach it the party went across the Memorial Delta, past
+the statue of John Harvard--concerning which the boys had various
+strange tales to tell--and along a quiet street on which were several
+other dormitories.
+
+"How delightful! This suite is much more attractive than Joe's rooms at
+Yale, as I remember them," cried Elinor.
+
+"Yes," sighed Arthur Weston, "Joe and I were not sybarites. We went in
+for hard work, plain living, and high thinking," and he looked
+reproachfully toward Lucian and Robert.
+
+"We work too, I can assure you," insisted Robert. "Of course we had to
+furnish up a little."
+
+"Work! I should say so," added Lucian. "Don't judge us by our
+surroundings."
+
+"We'll try not to," retorted Martine, "for this tea-table is almost too
+ladylike for two tall boys like you."
+
+"Oh, when we're alone we never look at the tea-table. We fold it up and
+keep it in the closet. To-day we brought it out only for you girls," and
+Lucian bowed profoundly to his guests.
+
+"I think that your belongings are rather frivolous," and Brenda took the
+little silver tea caddy in her hand.
+
+"Oh, I picked that up in Holland; it's a mere trifle," cried Robert.
+
+"These things are wasted on boys," added Martine, examining the little
+coffee spoons that lay on the tray.
+
+Amy, walking round the room, gazed critically at the two or three
+water-color sketches and the fine photographs hanging on the walls, and
+she thought that the easy-chairs, the broad divan, and all the other
+handsome belongings were really too elaborate for the rooms of boys
+under twenty.
+
+"But there's one good thing," she said aloud; "you have plenty of books,
+Lucian, and you have made an excellent choice in many cases."
+
+"Yes," replied Lucian, "thanks to Fritz, our library has made a good
+beginning; he took it in hand last spring, and what do you think? Fritz
+says that if it hadn't been for you, he couldn't have helped us half as
+well. So, Miss Amy Redmond, when you praise our library, indirectly you
+praise yourself."
+
+Before their hour in Lucian's room was over, few things in the
+sitting-room had escaped the scrutiny of the three younger girls. They
+handled the steins on the mantelpiece, read the certificates of
+membership in various clubs and athletic societies, and admired the
+photographs of all, and finally Martine struck up a few chords on the
+piano, which Lucian and Robert recognizing, accompanied with a jolly
+college song. At Lucian's request Priscilla made tea, and although,
+while the water was boiling, she wondered whether she would remember
+just what proportion of tea should be used for each cup of water, she
+passed through the ordeal successfully and was highly praised for her
+skill.
+
+When the boys indiscreetly offered Elinor her choice among the sights
+they might see before their return to the city, Elinor too promptly
+chose the Botanic Garden. In spite of their sophomorific air of worldly
+wisdom, Robert and Lucian could not quite conceal their dismay at this
+suggestion, especially as she expressed a desire to see the Shakespeare
+garden, of which they knew nothing.
+
+"In that case I fear that you will have to lose the glass flowers, as
+the garden is in just the opposite direction," said Lucian, politely.
+
+"The glass flowers!" cried Elinor, perceiving that her former suggestion
+had not been received with favor. "Why, of course I would much rather
+see the glass flowers." And so the whole party set out toward the great
+museum.
+
+"Not to throw cold water on the efforts of Lucian to guide you to the
+best that Cambridge offers," said Fritz, "I must tell you that a visit
+to the glass flowers is almost commonplace. They share with tourists
+from afar the attraction of Bunker Hill; in the minds of many not to
+have seen the glass flowers is not to have seen Cambridge. If you wish
+to be original, pass them by."
+
+"Thank you," replied Elinor; "but really I never have cared especially
+to be original."
+
+Later, after Elinor had seen not only the glass flowers but many of the
+other treasures in the great museum, she admitted that even Yale had
+little better to offer. From the museum the party went on to Memorial
+Hall.
+
+"It's a pity that you cannot wait a little longer, it would be such fun
+to see the students at dinner," sighed Martine, for whom human nature
+always had more interest than tablets and pictures.
+
+"I should love to stay, but I promised to be at my cousin's before six.
+Yet there is so much to see here in Memorial, these windows and
+portraits are so fascinating, that it's very hard to go away without
+studying them all more carefully."
+
+Elinor had barely time for a glance at the portraits and the stained
+glass windows in the great hall.
+
+"It's the finest hall I ever saw," said the girl from Philadelphia; "I
+like everything about it except--"
+
+"Except what? This is an age of improvements, and if you'll just mention
+what you have in mind, so far as Lucian and I can carry out your
+suggestion it shall be accomplished," and Robert Pringle bowed low to
+Elinor. Elinor seemed so embarrassed by this mock courtesy that Martine
+hastened to her rescue. The older members of the party were out of
+hearing.
+
+"You are as great a tease now as Lucian. I could mention dozens of
+things that could be done to improve Memorial Hall, handsome as it is."
+Martine cast about in her mind for something to strengthen her
+assertion. Up to this moment she had never realized any special
+imperfection in the great building. But now--
+
+"For example!" she exclaimed emphatically, "just look at these
+dining-tables in a hall like this. It's casting your pearls before
+swine. They ought to be taken away."
+
+"Well, I'm glad that Robert and I board at a club table. I should hate
+to be included in your group of swine, whom you wish to have taken
+away--"
+
+"Oh, Lucian!"
+
+It was now Elinor's turn to come to Martine's rescue.
+
+"Why, that is just what I meant. I think that the tables ought to be
+taken away. It seems a pity that Memorial Hall should be a mere
+dining-room. I should like to see it quite clear of them."
+
+"Then you must come here Class Day. Can't you wait for ours? I'll show
+you Memorial Hall as it should be--filled with youth and beauty dancing,
+and not a tablecloth in sight."
+
+"Oh, it doesn't seem the place for dancing either," and Elinor gazed
+solemnly at one of the class windows, on which were portrayed
+Epaminondas and Sir Philip Sidney, as examples of valor.
+
+"You must remember, Miss Naylor, that in the long waits between courses,
+the undergraduates who board here have a fine chance to study these
+windows, with their lessons of patriotism and valor. This food for
+reflection goes a long way toward making them forget the real nature of
+the food served here--"
+
+"Come, come, Robert! Remember you are talking to a Yale girl, and not an
+ingenuous Harvard maiden. We must not have derogatory reports get
+abroad."
+
+But Elinor and Martine had no intention of wasting their time listening
+to Robert's nonsense, and were now pushing through the doors into the
+transept.
+
+"The real Memorial is here," said Elinor, reverently, passing from one
+tablet to another, on which were inscribed the names of those Harvard
+men who fell in the Civil War.
+
+[Illustration: "'The real Memorial is here,' said Elinor, reverently,
+passing from one tablet to another."]
+
+"A short life hath Nature given to man, but the remembrance of a life
+nobly rendered up is eternal!" she murmured, translating one of the
+inscriptions on the wall.
+
+"Oh!" sighed Martine. "How wonderful that you can translate Latin at
+sight! I have taken a tremendous fancy to Latin, but now I'm only in the
+beginning of Virgil, and I have to look up every other word, and you are
+not much older than I."
+
+In her admiration for Elinor's ability, she wondered if Elinor had
+realized the prejudice she had felt when they started on their drive.
+How strange that in a few hours her feeling toward anyone should change
+so completely.
+
+Lucian and Robert, slightly bored by the girls' interest in the
+inscriptions, walked to the door, where they almost ran into Brenda,
+Fritz, and the rest of the party, who had been strolling through the
+Yard.
+
+"Your vehicles are here!" cried Fritz. "They are just around the
+corner--"
+
+"Good enough," responded Lucian. "It's rather boresome taking visitors
+around Memorial--Oh, they won't hear!" he concluded, as Brenda raised a
+warning finger. "Come, Martine," he cried in a louder voice, "we are all
+waiting."
+
+Reluctantly Elinor and Martine turned toward the others. Each had just
+made the discovery that her companion was a very entertaining girl.
+
+"Who's going in the auto?" asked Lucian.
+
+"Oh, Elinor and I, certainly."
+
+Martine was some distance ahead of Elinor.
+
+"But I thought that was why you scorned the auto coming out to
+Cambridge--because you didn't wish to ride with Elinor."
+
+"Oh, everything is changed now. She is one of the most charming girls."
+
+"Then she has forgiven you for knocking her down and hitting her with
+your umbrella?"
+
+"Why, we haven't even spoken of it, though she knows that I know that
+she--"
+
+"Come, girls, tumble in!" cried Lucian, and Lucian had so many
+remarkable Harvard tales to tell as they speeded along that neither had
+time to refer to the rainy-day episode and their first strange meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PRISCILLA'S PRIDE
+
+
+"Why, I never lose my temper! What do you mean?"
+
+"That _is_ what I mean. You seldom lose your temper; I should hardly say
+'never.' Neither does Priscilla."
+
+"Well, then, why won't she let me pay for the photographs?" Martine
+looked keenly at Amy, who had been spending an hour with her that
+afternoon, as if she expected to read the answer in her friend's eyes.
+
+"I cannot tell you Priscilla's reasons, but her spirit of independence."
+
+"Spirit of independence! Boys of '76! How tired I am of American
+history! Priscilla is just like one of her own Pilgrim Fathers--only
+more so. Probably any one of them would have let a friend pay for one of
+those neat silhouettes, especially if the friend had insisted on having
+it made, or taken, or cut, or whatever it was that they did to make
+silhouettes; but Priscilla is a great deal harder than Plymouth Rock,
+and that is saying no little."
+
+"All the same, you and Priscilla will have to settle this affair for
+yourselves," and rising from her seat, after a few words of farewell,
+Amy left Martine to reflect on the matter they had been discussing.
+
+Now the dispute between Priscilla and Martine, if worth dignifying by so
+serious a name, was not of a kind likely to make lasting trouble between
+friends. For some time Martine had been teasing Priscilla to have her
+photograph taken, and Priscilla had never given a decided answer. At
+last one day, as they passed a fashionable gallery, Martine had insisted
+that the two should go in merely to look at samples of the
+photographer's work. On the impulse Martine decided that it would be
+great fun for them to be taken together. Vainly Priscilla protested that
+her costume was not suitable, that she didn't feel in the mood for
+sitting; Martine carried her point and two or three negatives were made
+of Priscilla and Martine sitting or standing, side by side. Then two or
+three were made of the two girls, each by herself. When the proofs were
+sent home, the photographs of Priscilla were exceedingly good. But
+Priscilla hesitating about ordering the finished pictures, she did not
+give the whole reason to Martine. Her hesitation came from the fact that
+the artist was expensive and that she had already exceeded her allowance
+for Christmas presents.
+
+"I do not think that I can really afford them," she said at last to
+Martine one day, when the latter asked her if she had made her choice
+among the negatives. "I should simply love," she added, "to have some
+for my mother and a few of my relations Christmas, but I shall have to
+wait a little before deciding."
+
+Yet while she spoke she retained in her hand one proof that seemed to
+meet her approval.
+
+"Then this is the one you prefer?" said Martine, taking it gently in her
+own hand.
+
+"Yes, I haven't had a photograph since I was a small girl, but I am sure
+that mother would be delighted with this one."
+
+A week later a box came by mail to Priscilla. Opening it she found not
+only a half dozen of the photographs in which she and Martine were taken
+together, but also a dozen of the single heads, finished in the most
+expensive style. For a moment she was rather upset by the packet. "Of
+course there's some mistake," she said. "The man must have thought that
+I meant to give an order like Martine's, but I can never in the world
+afford these, and mother would be displeased with me for ordering them.
+There is only one thing--I'm sure to have some money given me at
+Christmas, and I can use some, or all of it, to pay this bill."
+
+No bill was contained in the package, and after a few days, when
+Priscilla went to the photographer's to ask for it, she was told that it
+was already paid. Then she sought Martine, who did not deny that she had
+paid the bill.
+
+"Why, it was the proper thing for me to do," she said. "It was I who had
+the photographs taken, and I who ordered them finished. I can't see that
+you have much to do with the matter now, except to send the photographs
+as Christmas cards. I can tell you they'll go like hot cakes, for they
+are just as good as they can be."
+
+But Priscilla was firm, and though Martine tried to be firmer, she could
+not get her friend to promise to accept the pictures as a gift.
+
+"They are really not a gift, either," urged Martine, "for I myself
+wanted to be in a group with you, and you stood there only to oblige me;
+so certainly you've earned something for your trouble, and as to the
+single heads, I wanted a separate picture of you, and while the
+photographer was about it, it didn't cost much more for a dozen than for
+one."
+
+Again Priscilla presented her side, adding only that she must ask
+Martine to wait until after Christmas for the sum she had spent.
+
+"If I didn't like the photographs," she concluded, "the whole thing
+would be different; but I do like them, and I can send them away as
+Christmas gifts, and so I must pay the bill."
+
+"But it came to me."
+
+"For my photographs?"
+
+"No, for mine; I had them taken. They wouldn't have been printed if I
+hadn't ordered them."
+
+"Oh, but mine are mine."
+
+"Why, of course they are yours--at least all that were sent to your
+house."
+
+"I can't bear to be obliged to anyone else for them."
+
+"That's one of your greatest faults, Priscilla; you hate to be obliged
+to anybody for anything."
+
+So for the present the discussion was dropped, though each friend was
+determined that in the end she would carry her own point.
+
+This steadfast holding to her purpose was what Martine called
+Priscilla's "ill-temper," in describing the affair to Amy. Though she
+inwardly approved of her friend's independence, she felt that after she
+had approved of it Priscilla ought then to be ready to yield to her.
+
+"It is strange," she said, "that I can never get Priscilla to accept
+anything from me. 'Pride goeth before destruction,' and that will be the
+way with Priscilla. Something will surely happen to her if she keeps on
+like this."
+
+In the early summer, a few months before, Priscilla and Martine had
+first become really acquainted, when as travelling companions they made
+a journey with Amy and her mother. For some time the two seemed far from
+congenial; each looked at life from a very different standpoint.
+Priscilla, brought up rather strictly and economically, prided herself,
+perhaps unduly, on her unworldliness, and found it hard to understand
+the extravagant, fun-loving Martine. But each girl at last accepted the
+other's good qualities, and before they had left Canadian soil the two
+had begun to be good friends. When Martine's plans were finally settled,
+Priscilla was delighted that she and the young Chicagoan were to be at
+the same school.
+
+Now Priscilla, although for a long time she had spent several weeks of
+each year in Boston with her aunt, Mrs. Tilworth, had made few friends
+among the girls of her own age whose parents her mother or her aunt
+knew. Her natural shyness stood in her way when they came to call on
+her, and when she returned their calls she progressed no further.
+
+Often she was invited to their parties, and when she could not escape
+it, she accepted their invitations. Though she took part in their games
+in a quiet way, no one paid much attention to the pale little girl who
+always seemed ill at ease.
+
+One awful day Mrs. Tilworth decided that she must give a party for
+Priscilla; in vain Priscilla protested that she hated parties. The
+invitations were written and sent out, and on the appointed afternoon
+Priscilla, in a ruffled muslin gown, had to stand beside her aunt to
+receive her guests. When she had safely passed through this ordeal she
+slipped away to a corner, where she sat for a while looking on. When she
+found that no one tried to draw her out, she managed to slip still
+farther away. "They don't need me," she murmured. Later, when they
+looked for her, that she might take her place at the head of the
+table--for it was a children's party, with a sit-down supper at six
+o'clock--there was a great uproar when she could not be found. At last
+two or three of the children went to Priscilla's room, and entering
+without knocking, they saw her seated in an easy-chair by the droplight
+on the little centre table. She was so engrossed in the book she was
+reading that at first she did not hear them, and when one of them
+snatched the volume out of her hand to read the title, they discovered
+that it was a little history of Mary Queen of Scots.
+
+"Those children tired me," she explained later to her aunt. "They played
+so hard, and I just thought I'd go upstairs and read for a while."
+
+Somehow the story got out. Mrs. Tilworth repeated it to one of the older
+girls, and for a long time Priscilla was called behind her back "Mary
+Queen of Scots," only someone said, "She will never lose her head, her
+neck is so stiff."
+
+Martine, when Brenda told her of this story, could not help laughing, in
+spite of her desire to be loyal to her friend.
+
+"Priscilla is still stiff-necked," she said, "but already since she's
+had my acquaintance she's been forced to unbend a little, and before
+another summer comes round her education will be much further advanced."
+
+Priscilla was conscious of her own shyness, and often envied those girls
+who seemed to have so much fun together.
+
+"I shouldn't expect Priscilla to be very cheerful while she lives with
+Mrs. Tilworth; the house is really gloomy; it has plenty of windows, but
+the curtains are always pulled down, and the furniture is so heavy and
+primly arranged that it naturally affects Priscilla's disposition."
+
+What Martine said was true to a great extent. Mrs. Tilworth's house was
+halfway up the hill, not so very far from the Mansion School, but its
+whole aspect, inside and out, was far less attractive than Mrs.
+DuLaunuy's. It was furnished in the heavy style of about fifty years
+ago, lacking the elegance of real antiquity. Priscilla's room was large
+and overfurnished, with its great black walnut bedstead and marble-top
+table and heavy rocking-chairs. But it wasn't exactly a young girl's
+room, and the gilt-framed steel engravings on the wall gave her no
+inspiration for study or work. Secretly she envied Martine her cheerful
+room in Brenda's apartment, with its couch covered in pink and white
+cretonne, its white enamelled dressing-table and oval mirror, brass
+bedstead, and rattan chairs cushioned to match the divan. She did not
+express her envy of these pretty belongings, lest she should appear
+ungrateful to Mrs. Tilworth; for she knew that her aunt wished her to be
+comfortable and happy, according to her own standard of comfort and
+happiness. Indeed most people who knew Mrs. Tilworth thought Priscilla
+exceedingly fortunate in having so good a home offered her at a time
+when her mother was especially burdened with care.
+
+Although Mrs. Tilworth had never expressed herself on the subject,
+Martine believed that she did not approve of persons who lived in
+apartments. The little original prejudice that she had against Martine
+as an outsider was probably somewhat stronger from this fact.
+
+"I should think," she had said to Priscilla, "that Mrs. Stratford must
+have been greatly disappointed that Mrs. Montgomery could not take
+Martine this winter; it would have been so much better for her to live
+in a house."
+
+"But an apartment is just as pleasant," Priscilla had responded, "and
+it's a fine thing that Brenda Weston was able to take her. Brenda lives
+in a flat because it's more economical."
+
+"Don't say 'flat'; you've learned that from Martine; in Boston we always
+say 'apartment.' But an apartment on the Avenue is not economical, my
+dear child. A whole house on Chestnut Street would cost no more, and
+though I would not make anyone else's business my own, I can't
+understand how anyone who might live in a house can prefer a few rooms
+high up in the air."
+
+"It's very homelike there," sighed Priscilla, casting a glance around
+the large, gloomy dining-room, where they sat at dinner. "I always enjoy
+myself at Brenda's--"
+
+Mrs. Tilworth, noticing the sigh, looked sharply at her niece. "I hope
+you are perfectly happy with me," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed I am; you are certainly very kind."
+
+Yet even as she spoke, Priscilla realized that in some ways she wasn't
+benefiting as she should from her aunt's kindness, and she began to
+wonder if the fault might not lie a little with herself.
+
+A few days after the discussion about the photographs, Priscilla came to
+school with a letter in her hand.
+
+"It's from Eunice," she said, as she and Martine sat together near a
+window, a quarter of an hour before the time for the school to begin.
+
+"Oh, read me what she says," urged Martine. "Her letters are always
+entertaining, because they are so old-fashioned."
+
+Eunice Airton was a young girl near Priscilla's age, whose acquaintance
+Mrs. Redmond and her party had made during their stay in Annapolis. She
+was especially Priscilla's friend, while her brother Balfour was
+Martine's ideal of an independent college boy; and it was rather because
+she hoped to hear some news of Balfour that Martine urged Priscilla to
+read the letter.
+
+"I am sorry to say," wrote Eunice, "that I hardly think it will be
+possible for me to go to college. It will be very difficult for me to
+overcome the prejudices of my mother, who still does not think it is
+quite proper for a girl to have the same education as a man. But the
+fact that you are planning to go to college will have much weight with
+her, for, as you perhaps know, she thinks you quite a model and says
+that she never can realize that you are an American."
+
+Martine smiled at this expression of Mrs. Airton's opinion, which indeed
+she had heard more than once before. "Eunice," she said to Priscilla,
+"is too polite to repeat all that her mother said in speaking of you.
+She probably contrasted you with me, whom, I am sure, she considers the
+typical Yankee girl."
+
+"Oh, no, of course not," protested Priscilla, continuing to read
+Eunice's letter.
+
+"Before I tell you of any of my own personal affairs, I must mention
+something that will interest you more deeply. There is an Acadian family
+living in Annapolis, and whom do you suppose they have had visiting them
+lately? Why, the little Yvonne, the blind girl, of whom I have heard you
+speak, who is the special protegee, if I remember, of Miss Stratford. It
+is indeed due to her kindness, I understand, that Yvonne has been able
+to make this journey from Meteghan, and I am told that she is to stay
+here three months under the care of a physician who thinks that he can
+help her eyes. She is also to take lessons on the piano, as those who
+are interested in her think that it is better for her to let her voice
+rest for the present, but to play the piano well enough to accompany her
+songs will some time be a great advantage to her."
+
+"There," exclaimed Martine, excitedly, "that's a fine idea! I wonder who
+suggested it to the Babets. It isn't likely that the doctor can do so
+very much for her eyes, but it will be splendid for her to get a start
+in music. When I see papa at Christmas I intend to persuade him to have
+Yvonne brought to Boston for a year."
+
+"Oh, that would be a great expense," said Priscilla, "and someone would
+have to take care of her."
+
+"That could be managed easily enough, if I can only get papa thoroughly
+interested."
+
+"I think he has already done his part, for it's through the money he
+gave you for Yvonne that she is able to be in Annapolis now."
+
+"I wonder how Eunice used her money; did she ever tell you, Priscilla?"
+
+"No," replied Priscilla; "but she may have helped her mother about the
+mortgage, and perhaps she may have put a little aside for a college
+nest-egg. She is so practical."
+
+"It's wonderful--isn't it, Priscilla?--that you should have met a girl
+you approve of so thoroughly in a corner of the world that isn't
+Plymouth or even Boston."
+
+Priscilla, as she folded up her letter, looked questioningly at Martine.
+There was something that she did not quite understand in Martine's
+attitude toward Eunice.
+
+Whatever question she had in mind remained for the time unspoken. It was
+time for school to begin, and they hurried to their places.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+CHANGES
+
+
+The first week in December a strange thing happened. Brenda had received
+a letter with a Washington postmark, yet this in itself was not
+remarkable. Such letters came to her daily, for Arthur had gone to
+Washington on business a day or two after the trip to Harvard. But her
+manner, as she rapidly scanned this particular letter, was so unusual
+that Martine, watching her, knew that it brought news out of the
+ordinary.
+
+The slight frown on Brenda's face deepened as she read the four or five
+pages, and when she had finished she flung the letter down on the floor.
+
+"Oh--it seems too bad," she sighed, in response to Martine's look of
+surprise. "Just as we are settled, to have to give everything up!"
+
+"Give up--what?" asked the puzzled Martine.
+
+"Why this--everything--our apartment--Boston--oh, dear--of course I knew
+it might come--but I hoped next year."
+
+As Brenda finished there were tears in her eyes, and still Martine did
+not wholly understand.
+
+"Of course I am sorry," said Martine, "since it's something that
+troubles you. But would you please tell me what it is all about?"
+
+"Well--it's Arthur's business," she explained. "A promotion that he has
+expected has come. It took him some time to find out what he really
+could do after he left college. The office in San Francisco is more
+important just now than the one in Boston. He is needed there for six
+months--and we must go at once--yes," she concluded, looking at the
+letter a second time. "We must be there by the first of January. Well,
+fortunately, we need not give up this apartment, for we have a two
+years' lease, and it wouldn't be worth while to sublet it, as we may
+return in six months. So you see, my dear, that things might be worse. I
+shall have to pack only my clothes and small belongings, and after all,
+it will be rather fun to see a new corner of the world."
+
+"What you say sounds practical--except--you seem to have forgotten
+_me_."
+
+"Oh, you poor child, how selfish I am! Why you could just stay on here
+with the cook and Maggie, or Angelina, if you prefer her."
+
+"Brenda Weston! You know that would never do! I mean other people would
+say it would never do."
+
+"There, there, child, don't worry," said Brenda, assuming her most
+elderly manner. "I will write to your mother, and between us something
+delightful will be arranged. What a shame you are in school," she
+concluded, forgetting for the moment her position as Martine's temporary
+guardian. "Except for that you might go to San Francisco, or even travel
+with your mother."
+
+"I am growing fond of school," replied Martine, as she returned to her
+book. "Even to go to California I wouldn't give it up, but if it's
+really settled that you are going, I must write home at once."
+
+In a few days Brenda and Martine both received answers to their letters
+to Mrs. Stratford. To Martine what her mother wrote was even more
+surprising than Brenda's change of plans.
+
+"Your father has to go to South America on very important business. It
+is too long a journey for me, although I am much stronger than a year
+ago. We think the wisest plan would be for me to go to Boston to be near
+you and Lucian, and I am writing Mrs. Weston to see if we may not engage
+her apartment for the next six months."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Martine, turning to Brenda, who had just finished
+reading the letter Mrs. Stratford had written her. "Of course you'll say
+'yes.' Oh, how perfectly happy I shall be to have mother with me."
+
+"Of course I will say 'yes.' But please spare my feelings; if you are
+too happy you will forget to miss me."
+
+"Oh, never, never; but then mother must be feeling much stronger, and I
+have seen her so little the past few years. She has been under the
+doctor's care or travelling, and our Chicago house has been closed so
+long, and hotels are so unhomelike. But now, with this apartment to
+ourselves, and Lucian coming in from college--oh! it will be
+delightful."
+
+Again Brenda protested that Martine was unfeeling in counting her out so
+completely.
+
+"But I can't count you in, when you calmly and deliberately plan to turn
+your back on Boston and me. You know that I shall miss you, but to have
+mother here--of course that makes all the difference in the world."
+
+For the Christmas holidays Lucian and Martine joined Mr. and Mrs.
+Stratford in New York. A day or two after Christmas, Mr. Stratford
+sailed for England, whence he was to embark for South America. Martine
+could but notice that the sadness that her father showed during these
+last days seemed due to something besides the fact that he was to be
+absent from his family for a few months. He had often before gone on
+long journeys, but usually he made an effort to have his departure
+particularly cheerful.
+
+"Your father is worried," her mother said; "his business is not going
+just as it should. He hopes that this visit to South America will
+straighten out some things. If it does not--well, we needn't talk of the
+future now. I am glad that we are all together this Christmas. You and
+Lucian must do all you can to divert your father, he has so much to
+trouble him."
+
+Martine took this advice to heart, and though Mr. Stratford spent some
+hours each day downtown, after luncheon she always insisted that he must
+entertain her. By this she meant that she must entertain him, and in
+consequence she thought out all kinds of odd ways of amusing him. One
+day they sailed on the Ferry to Staten Island to visit Sailors' Snug
+Harbor. Another afternoon they went up to Van Cortland Park to see the
+old Van Cortland house. One day they wandered for an hour in the Bowery,
+but Martine admitted that this wasn't as entertaining an expedition as
+she had imagined it would be from the accounts she had read of it. The
+shops on the whole seemed commonplace, and the crowded cross-streets of
+the East Side looked far more interesting, as she caught glimpses of
+them in passing.
+
+She had to let these glimpses satisfy her, as she had promised her
+mother not to explore any out-of-the-way corners of the tenement
+district; and so obedient was she in this that she would not even go
+inside a certain Bowery pawnshop in whose windows she saw a fascinating
+little guitar. Instead she urged her father to price it, and when he
+came outside with it under his arm she accepted it with delight.
+
+"It's neither a violin nor a guitar," Mr. Stratford explained, "but the
+little instrument that the Sandwich Islanders love."
+
+Martine was delighted by this account of her new treasure, and she
+carried it home with great pride. But unconventional expeditions were
+not the only pleasures that Martine shared with her father. One day Mrs.
+Stratford drove with them through the Park up beyond Riverside and
+Grant's tomb. Two or three afternoons they spent with relatives, of whom
+Mr. Stratford had a number in New York. Lucian was little with his
+father during the holidays. Classmates at Ardsley and Trenton and
+Germantown claimed short visits from him. But on Christmas Day he joined
+his parents at the small uptown hotel where they were staying.
+
+"Martine," he said as they sat at breakfast, "Elinor Naylor was at the
+Harbins' dance night before last in Germantown. She took a lot of
+trouble to introduce me to some of her best friends just because I was
+your brother. I tell you what--you made a great impression on her."
+
+"I certainly did--the first time we met," responded Martine, smiling,
+and Lucian did not quite understand, because his sister had never really
+explained the circumstances under which she and Elinor had first met.
+With slight urging from Martine, however, Lucian plunged into a
+description of the Harbins' dance, and though boy-like he could not
+describe what Elinor wore, he declared that whatever it was it just
+suited her, and that she certainly was a regular peach, "and the
+funniest thing about it is that you don't think about her being pretty
+when you first see her. It's only when you begin to remember her that
+you realize how good-looking she is."
+
+"Poor Priscilla," sighed Martine in mock sorrow, "I fear her nose is out
+of joint."
+
+"Oh, no--at least, what do you mean?" asked Lucian, and at this moment
+the entrance of Mr. and Mrs. Stratford put an end to their fun.
+
+The Christmas breakfast, in spite of Martine's efforts, passed off
+rather quietly. Her parents both seemed sad and disinclined to talk.
+Even the unobservant Lucian at last noticed this and tried to turn the
+conversation into cheerful and impersonal channels, with poor success.
+Their Christmas dinner was at the house of an elderly cousin of the
+Stratfords in Washington Square. The guests were nearly all relatives of
+Martine's father, and the young visitor received abundant criticism,
+favorable or unfavorable, according to the dispositions of the various
+critics.
+
+But even those who thought Martine a little forward or too
+self-possessed for a girl of her age could but admire her frank, cheery
+manner and the consideration that she constantly showed for older
+people. The less conservative found her charming and complimented her on
+her clever way of telling a story. Some said she looked like her father,
+some like her mother, and the oldest cousin of them all, taking her
+aside said, "You are just like your father's mother when she was your
+age. She had your coloring and your bright brown eyes. I knew her well
+when I was a girl. She was said to be the image of her French
+grandmother, and I can wish you nothing better than to grow up like
+her," and as the old lady kissed her Martine felt her own eyes
+moistening.
+
+"I am glad that I have some French blood in my veins," she said a little
+later; "the Huguenots were so wonderful. I wish that papa and I had time
+to go up to New Rochelle, for although I believe there's little left
+there of the Huguenots now except the name, I should like to see the
+place because my forefathers lived there."
+
+Lucian found the Washington-Square dinner rather a bore, although he
+managed to conceal his feelings until with his family he was back at the
+hotel.
+
+"They might have asked at least one girl near my age," Lucian said. "No
+wonder you were such a belle, Martine, among all those antiquities," a
+compliment that Martine refused to accept until Lucian admitted that she
+possessed qualities that would make her popular even in a younger crowd.
+
+One of Martine's Christmas gifts did not surprise her,--a complete set
+of brushes, mirror and little boxes to replace those she had lost in the
+Windsor fire. This did, however, surprise Lucian, who knew that his
+father had promised Martine a full set of silver.
+
+"Why, how is this?" he asked, as Martine spread out her new possessions
+before him on a table. "Is plain black wood more in fashion than silver?
+It must be, or you wouldn't have it."
+
+"But this is pretty; don't you think so?" asked Martine, always anxious
+for her brother's approval.
+
+"It's rather neat, with your initial in silver, but it couldn't have
+cost as much as the other, and I thought you always preferred the most
+expensive things." For the moment Martine did not explain that her
+preference was still for the silver, but that she had chosen the other
+because of a chance word or two from her mother on her tendency toward
+extravagance.
+
+"I know you have generally whatever you wish, Martine, and your father
+and I generally give you what you ask. You are seldom unreasonable,
+although we may have been overindulgent. For now--"
+
+Here Mrs. Stratford broke off suddenly.
+
+"But now, mamma, are things very different? I know we usually stay at a
+larger hotel, and still--"
+
+"Oh, no, dear. Things are not very different. Perhaps they will not be.
+Yet your father has so much care now that you will surely do your best
+to relieve him from needless burdens."
+
+Therefore, when Mr. Stratford took Martine downtown to choose her
+present, she could not be shaken from her determination to have
+something simpler than silver.
+
+"It will be so much better in case I am caught in another fire, papa.
+Things that are burnt up are gone forever, and as I seem to be a rather
+unlucky person, this plainer set is much better--and besides I like it,
+papa."
+
+In the end it seemed to Martine that Mr. Stratford was rather pleased by
+her choice, for when the matter was decided he patted her hand gently as
+he slipped it within his arm, saying,--
+
+"After all, daughter, you are getting to be a very sensible girl. I have
+noticed a great change within the past year."
+
+"Oh, thank you, papa. Do you really think I've improved? Then it's
+partly on account of the company I have kept. I am sure of that."
+
+"I am pleased that you are on the right track, and when I am far from
+you, as I shall be now for some time, it will be a great satisfaction to
+think that you are doing your best."
+
+A few days later Martine and Lucian, with their mother, stood on the
+dock watching the receding ocean-liner that was carrying Mr. Stratford
+to England. There was a great lump in Martine's throat as she wiped away
+her tears with the handkerchief that a moment before she had been waving
+frantically at her father.
+
+"Goose, goose!" whispered Lucian. "You are too big a girl to cry."
+
+"Oh, I hate saying good-bye," murmured Martine.
+
+"Why, we've hardly been together--all four of us--for years."
+
+"That's just it! It's been so pleasant lately--and now to have father in
+South America!--it's just dreadful."
+
+"Nonsense, child! South America isn't so very far away. The trouble is,
+you've had too long a vacation. It's well we're going back to Boston
+to-morrow, and that in a day or two you'll be at your books again."
+
+"'At my books'--as if I were a six-year-old! I can't see why Harvard
+College gives even a day's vacation to its students, since their chief
+use of time seems to be to tease their sisters," and with this little
+burst of temper Martine's tears were blown away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ANOTHER PARTING
+
+
+To Martine the return to Boston after Christmas was far from cheerful.
+Not only was she still under the shadow of the parting with her father,
+but she began to feel that the approaching departure of Brenda would be
+rather hard to bear.
+
+While her mother was spending a day or two with friends outside the
+city, Martine had to stand by and watch Brenda bidding good-bye to her
+family and friends. Her trunks were packed. The walls and mantelpieces
+were denuded of many little pictures and ornaments; for at the last she
+had decided that it was wiser to take some of her more personal
+belongings with her to make her new abode more homelike.
+
+"I haven't taken a thing that you or your mother would need," Brenda
+explained; "only the little presents that have special associations for
+us. Your mother wrote me that she had a box or two of her own ornaments
+and pictures coming, so that she, too, could be reminded of home."
+
+"Well, I wish our boxes were here now. It makes me so homesick to see
+those empty places on the wall. I don't see how you can be so cheerful."
+
+"But everyone has been so kind. I didn't know how much everyone cared
+for me. So much has been done for me the past two weeks that I have
+hardly had time to pack. Arthur went back to Washington in despair
+yesterday. He is to join mother and me in New York. He said if we should
+try to start from Boston we'd never get off. Some one would plan some
+special function just to detain us."
+
+"I wish that we _could_ detain you."
+
+"You couldn't do it now," rejoined the optimistic Brenda. "After all,
+when a thing is finally settled, I believe that I really love change. I
+shall miss Lettice and my other little niece--she's a dear if she is
+only a baby--but you know I have a niece and namesake in California, and
+my mother and father say they will come out in March--so there will be a
+very short separation."
+
+"And what about me?" asked Martine, in much the same tone she had used
+when Brenda first spoke of going away.
+
+"Oh, you? Why you are better off than you have been for years, with your
+mother to take care of you--and Lucian so near--"
+
+"And no guardian," wailed Martine, in mock sorrow. "Don't flatter
+yourself that you can get rid of me so easily."
+
+"I shall write you and think of you. You will still be my ward, no
+matter where I am. There, there," as Martine leaned over her to touch
+her lips gently to her forehead. "Don't act as if we were parting
+forever. Maggie's red eyes are a constant reproach to me. So please wait
+until I am out of sight before you bid me good-bye."
+
+In spite of her optimism Brenda was far from happy in leaving Boston,
+her friends, and her pretty apartment, even for a limited time.
+Sometimes she thought that the various functions in her honor made her
+going all the harder.
+
+Nora Gostar, who had taken Julia's place at the head of the Mansion
+School, gave a tea to which were invited all the former pupils. Not all,
+naturally, were able to attend, for some of the girls were in situations
+from which they could not be spared.
+
+"I wish we had a picture such as they give with patent medicines
+'before' and 'after' taking," said Brenda. "I can assure you it would be
+worth framing and taking to California. Do you remember what an untidy
+little creature Luisa was when she first entered the Mansion School, and
+how thin and forlorn Gretchen looked, and Maggie, who always lost her
+head when she had an order given her, and Haleema--why isn't she here
+to-day?"
+
+"Oh, Haleema--haven't you heard? She has gone to Lowell to live. Her
+husband is a prosperous rug-merchant and he is very proud of her ability
+as a housekeeper. He has promised to contribute something toward sending
+her younger sister here for a couple of years."
+
+"I knew she had married," replied Brenda, "but I had not heard of her
+removal to Lowell. It's delightful to know how well most of these girls
+have turned out. Even Mrs. Blair admits that the Mansion School is a
+useful institution."
+
+"Yes," said Nora, laughing. "She gave us a handsome donation this year.
+We accepted it gratefully as conscience money for her not letting Edith
+work with us."
+
+"Nora!" cried Brenda, impulsively. "You are a wonder! Of all our four,
+you are the one best fitted to shine in society. But here you go on with
+this work as meekly as if there were nothing else for you to do."
+
+"There was no one else to take Julia's place this year," replied Nora,
+quietly, "and it would have been a great pity either to let the school
+run down or to allow Julia to give up her year in Europe. What fun she
+will have when she goes with the Eltons to Greece, and I am sure that
+when she comes back next year we shall all be the better for her trip.
+She will have so much to tell us."
+
+"Nora, you are a brick!" cried Brenda. "You never have been abroad
+yourself, yet you never utter a word of envy for anyone else's good
+time."
+
+"Besides," continued Nora, "you are wrong about my shining in society. I
+doubt if I should really care for it, even if I had the money to keep up
+that kind of thing. You wouldn't wish me to be like Belle, reported in
+all those silly newspapers as visiting Mrs. This at Lenox, and being the
+admired of all who saw her with Mrs. That at Newport, and sitting in the
+front row, as at the Horse Show, in a gown that was perfectly _chic_.
+Oh, no, I hate that kind of thing, and I sympathize with Edith for
+refusing to be a mere society girl, such as her mother would like her to
+be. But we shouldn't be here by ourselves, for you are the special
+guest, and all the girls, old and new, wish to shake hands with you and
+hear you talk."
+
+In a moment Brenda was again the centre of an admiring group, for all of
+whom she had a bright smile and a word that really meant something,
+while they all took note of her dress and little trinkets, and felt
+doubly pleased that a person of such elegance should show an interest in
+them.
+
+So exact were the observations of her young admirers that before she had
+actually left Boston a hat, a blouse, and a skirt were in process of
+construction by the deft fingers of three of the girls who had taken
+special note of the details of her attire at this Mansion tea.
+
+Martine laughed heartily at Brenda's account of the girls at the
+Mansion.
+
+"I have promised Miss Gostar to go there once a week to give a lesson in
+water color. It might seem a case of the blind trying to teach the blind
+if I were to pretend to teach them much. But the aim is, I believe,
+simply to give them an idea of colors. I wrote to Mrs. Redmond for
+advice while I was away, and it pleased me immensely to have her say I
+should probably do more good than harm by this little experiment."
+
+"Of course you will do good. I have an idea that you could make things
+very clear. In the weeks I lived at the Mansion I learned more than I
+taught, for I am not a born teacher. But it was wonderful to see what
+Julia and Miss South accomplished for their first class of girls. I
+enjoyed my afternoon with the old girls far more than the farewell
+reception mamma arranged for me, and infinitely more than that stiff
+dinner at Mrs. Blair's last week."
+
+"If people kill the fatted goose--or was it the fatted calf?--after you
+reach San Francisco at the same rate they've been doing here, you'll
+have indigestion."
+
+"No danger, my dear. We shall just be nobody there. Mamma has explained
+that I must not expect too much. Here everyone knows who I am--I mean
+everyone I come in contact with. But it will be altogether different in
+the West. We shall just be part of the great crowd of Easterners who
+have left home to better their condition."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"But that _is_ why we are going West,--because Arthur will get a larger
+salary and have more rapid promotion. We are willing to give up the
+things we like best, for a while, and live economically. Oh, dear." And
+with her usual inconsistency Brenda did not try to straighten out the
+quaver in her voice as she concluded with a futile smile.
+
+"How I wish we could stay here!"
+
+"Oh, how I wish you could!" moaned Maggie, appearing suddenly on the
+scene, and the tear-stained face of the latter so amused Brenda that her
+own melancholy ended in a burst of laughter.
+
+When Brenda at last was really away, Martine and her mother began to
+adapt themselves to the new conditions. The cook, of whom Brenda had
+stood more or less in awe, gave warning promptly when she heard that
+there was to be a change of mistresses. Maggie, after much tearful and
+prayerful consideration, as Brenda put it, also decided not to stay with
+Mrs. Stratford. Only her devotion to Brenda had led her to take this
+place, as she really desired work that would occupy her simply during
+the day. Her aunt, she said, was weak and lonely, and she wished to be
+at home with her evenings.
+
+Angelina, learning Maggie's intention, promptly presented herself as a
+candidate for the vacant place. Mrs. Stratford hesitated, for Martine
+had given her an exceedingly humorous account of the Portuguese girl's
+peculiarities,--an account that did not tend to recommend her as a
+reliable domestic.
+
+"Of course, mother, she isn't a cut-and-dried housemaid," plead Martine;
+"but she _is_ so amusing, and if we take her I am sure she will stay,
+for she says she is perfectly devoted to me. I dare say she won't half
+do the work, for she always has several irons in the fire. But I shall
+not mind doing my own room, if we have Angelina, and in fact I'll have
+to do it probably, as she is absent-minded and often forgets to do what
+she should. But she loves waiting on table, and it's a great thing to
+have a cheerful person in the house. _Do_ say you'll take her, mamma."
+
+"There seems little chance of escape for me. From what Angelina herself
+says, I should judge that you and she had already settled matters. I do
+not wish to play the part of a tyrannical parent and so, to please you,
+just to please you, Martine, I will engage Angelina."
+
+"Thank you, mamma! You _are_ an angel. I always knew you were."
+
+"I hope that Angelina is an angel in something besides her name, and I
+wish that her name were less dressy. Would she care if I should call her
+plain Mary?"
+
+"Oh, mamma, not 'plain,' at any rate. I thought you understood that
+Angelina _is_ rather dressy in her feelings. She takes the greatest
+delight in her name. Please don't think of calling her anything else."
+
+So Angelina remained plain Angelina, and on account of her previous
+experience with Brenda, proved very useful to Mrs. Stratford. For a week
+or two a succession of cooks passed in and out of the little kitchen,
+until Martine's mother despaired of ever having the apartment in running
+order.
+
+In this emergency Angelina was only too proud to show what she could do.
+She would not admit that she had ever learned anything from anybody.
+"I'm a natural born cook," she would say; "and if I didn't consider it a
+menial position, I would become a professional. It's on account of my
+Spanish blood, I suppose, that I'm able to season things so well. You
+know in Spain they like things hot and spicy."
+
+"Spanish blood?" questioned Mrs. Stratford, as Angelina turned away.
+"Aren't the Rosas Portuguese?"
+
+"Yes, mamma, or they were until our war with Spain. Brenda explained it
+all to me. During the war Angelina thought it would make her more
+interesting if she called herself Spanish, and now she probably has
+persuaded herself that she really _is_ Spanish. This amuses her and
+doesn't hurt anyone else."
+
+"But I don't like the idea of her being untruthful. This quality may
+extend to other things."
+
+"I hope not, mamma. But then we can watch her."
+
+Lucian, when he heard of Angelina's Spanish proclivities, laughed
+heartily.
+
+"She _is_ worth watching," he said. "Each of us must keep an eye on
+her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ANGELINA'S COUP
+
+
+The first occasion for Angelina to make herself spectacularly useful
+came on the Saturday after New Year's, when Mrs. Stratford invited
+Priscilla and Mrs. Tilworth to dine. The latter had already shown Mrs.
+Stratford some little courtesies, such as she felt were due Mrs. Blair's
+cousin. On account of Martine's growing fondness for Priscilla, Mrs.
+Stratford was anxious to have the two households on more intimate terms.
+Lucian and Robert Pringle were also coming home to dinner, and although
+Mrs. Tilworth was the only outsider, on her account a certain amount of
+formality had been planned for this little dinner for six.
+
+At about four o'clock on the afternoon Angelina knocked at the door of
+Martine's room. Her face wore its most solemn expression.
+
+"Why, Angelina, what is the matter? You look as if you had been drawn
+through a keyhole."
+
+Angelina at first did not reply.
+
+"There, there, speak out! Is it anything very dreadful?"
+
+Martine rose from her little desk, where she had been writing a letter
+to her father, and as she took a step or two toward the door, Angelina
+spoke.
+
+"That depends on how you look on it; it's only that the cook's gone."
+
+"Gracious! you don't mean it. But perhaps she has only gone for a
+walk--"
+
+"Oh, no, Miss Martine. I fear that she's gone for good and all. I've
+been down to her room, and not a vestige of her possessions remains."
+Angelina, even in a crisis, had to use long words. "In fact I may say
+that I heard her trunk being carried away about two o'clock. There it
+went, thumpity, thump down the stairs--those expressmen are so careless,
+and I was quite unaware whose trunk it was, or I might have reported it
+to your mother. But when the luncheon dishes were washed, the cook
+followed the trunk; at least she is nowhere in sight now, and not a
+thing done about this evening's dinner. It's the dinner, and not the
+cook that disturbs me," explained Angelina.
+
+"The dinner! I should say so," responded Martine. "We must get word to
+Mrs. Tilworth at once. She's the fussiest old--I mean she's a very
+particular person, and mother wishes everything to be just so when she
+dines here."
+
+"Of course, Miss Martine. Every guest of Mrs. Stratford's should receive
+the greatest consideration." Angelina's manner was respectful in the
+extreme.
+
+"Dear me!" Martine's perplexity showed itself in her wrinkled forehead.
+"I certainly don't know what's to be done. Mamma and Mrs. Tilworth were
+to come home together from a meeting in Brookline. Mrs. Tilworth is
+always taking people to meetings of some kind. Poor mamma didn't want to
+go, but she couldn't get out of it. There's no way of getting word to
+them until nearly dinner time. Mrs. Tilworth would think it awfully rude
+to uninvite her. The only thing is to let her come, and then we can all
+go out to a hotel or something, and she'll call that very shiftless."
+
+Martine was really excited. She knew Mrs. Tilworth's opinion of people
+who lived in apartments, and she had had a thrill of pleasant
+anticipation at the idea of Mrs. Tilworth's finding everything as
+homelike in their apartment as within the four walls of a detached
+house.
+
+To have to go outside to a hotel would indeed be ignominious--from
+Martine's present point of view.
+
+"Do you think Mrs. Stratford is strong enough to go to a hotel to
+dinner, after being out all the afternoon? I certainly shouldn't advise
+it."
+
+Angelina spoke with all the impressiveness of one in authority.
+
+"You make me think of a trained nurse, Angelina. But what in the world
+are we to do?"
+
+"Come with me," cried Angelina, and Martine, following her to the
+kitchen, noticed as she turned her head that there was a twinkle in
+Angelina's eye.
+
+"Perhaps there's something in the refrigerator," thought Martine;
+"refrigerators always are full of things that can be warmed over. We
+might call it 'luncheon' instead of 'dinner,' and tell Mrs. Tilworth
+that's the way we do in Chicago. She will believe anything about Western
+people."
+
+A glance at the refrigerator did not greatly encourage Martine. There
+were a quantity of cold potatoes, and a great roast of beef for their
+Sunday dinner, as well as eggs, bacon, milk, and butter.
+
+"How frightfully unattractive it all looks--and smells," cried Martine,
+slamming the door. "I never could be a good cook, for I hate the sight
+of raw food. But what _were_ we to have for dinner to-night? What _are_
+we to have now? You wouldn't have brought me out here if you hadn't some
+plan. It's half-past four, and if anything's to be done, it ought to be
+doing now."
+
+"Oh, if you request me to take hold," said Angelina, "I shall be only
+too happy to accept your orders in your mother's place. Come, see!" and
+removing a cloth that had covered the kitchen table, she showed Martine
+an inviting array of vegetables and two pairs of small chickens.
+
+"First of all the dessert," she began.
+
+"Before the soup?" asked Martine. Then remembering that if she stood in
+her mother's place it would be undignified to trifle with Angelina, she
+waited for the latter to disclose her plans.
+
+"What I mean is this," continued the latter; "you can telephone to the
+creamery for ice-cream and cake. The cook had orders to make something
+with a long name, but that's impossible now. Then the black coffee--your
+brother loves to potter with that electric coffee machine--and there's
+plenty of crackers and cheese."
+
+"And finger bowls, too," said Martine, laughing, "that will finish the
+dinner. But how shall we begin? If we begin dinner well, it won't matter
+how it ends."
+
+"Well, there's no trouble about oysters, now, is there? And the
+soup--well, instead of the potage something or other that we were going
+to have, it'll be bouillon with croutons, and a sprig of parsley on top;
+that always looks foreign, and with my Spanish seasoning, Mrs. Tilworth
+will never know it's plain extract of beef. It won't take me a minute to
+prepare the minced fish, and you can put it in these little shells to
+bake when the oven is hot. The salad won't be any trouble, just tomato
+on a leaf of lettuce. The chickens can be broiled, and there's only one
+vegetable to boil besides the potatoes. The other things like celery and
+radishes only need to be put on attractively."
+
+"But what about these lobsters?"
+
+"Oh, yes, that's an idea of my own. They were meant for salad. But if I
+were you, as long as you've got such a big chafing-dish, I'd have a
+lobster Neuberg. Mrs. Tilworth will expect something out of the
+ordinary, and a lobster Neuberg at dinner is very unexpected."
+
+"And very good to eat, and I'll let Robert Pringle cook it at the
+table."
+
+"Yes, Miss Martine, only I'll prepare the sauce first, so much depends
+on that."
+
+"You're a genius," said Martine; "but who'll wait on table?"
+
+"Why, I will, Miss Martine, if you'll set it now. I'll have my hands
+full until dinner is served, and don't tell your mother about the cook
+until dinner's over. She'll be surprised that the dinner is different
+from what she ordered. But she won't find anything to be ashamed of."
+
+Seldom, indeed, had Martine worked harder than in the hour succeeding
+her discovery of the cook's departure. In setting the table she made
+many little mistakes that Angelina gently but firmly corrected. But at
+half-past five, just before her mother came home, she surveyed the
+finished whole with pride, and then hurried away to her room to change
+her dress as she heard some one opening the door.
+
+"Oh, Lucian," she cried, "if mother asks for Angelina, please say she's
+busy just now; keep Mrs. Tilworth amused until dinner. I wonder why
+Prissie's so late."
+
+"I'm not late," and in a moment Priscilla was with her. "I came in
+without ringing, as the door was partly open."
+
+To Priscilla Martine explained the secret of the dinner.
+
+"Angelina will wait on table, though I don't see how she'll manage. But
+if there's any chance to help things on, you'll do so, won't you?"
+
+"With pleasure," replied Priscilla, not realizing just what her promise
+might involve.
+
+As it happened the dinner went on very smoothly from beginning to end,
+at least almost to the end. Mrs. Tilworth was in her most amiable frame
+of mind, even condescending to smile at some of the inane jokes
+perpetrated by the two Sophomores. This was doubtless due to her having
+a soft spot in her heart for boys in general, as her only son had died
+when he was six years old.
+
+Mrs. Stratford, it is true, looked somewhat mystified at Angelina's
+occasional long absences in the kitchen. But at these moments Martine
+and Priscilla managed to introduce interesting subjects for discussion,
+whereby their elders were diverted from observing the remissness of
+their waitress.
+
+Before the dessert, however, the wait was suspiciously long. Mrs.
+Tilworth, in an aside, had just been complimenting Mrs. Stratford on her
+daughter's ease of manner, when looking up she saw Martine gesticulating
+and frowning, apparently at Priscilla. A moment later Priscilla had
+dashed from the room through the door into the kitchen.
+
+"What's up?" asked Robert.
+
+"What's down?" added Lucian, as a tremendous crash fell on their ears.
+
+"Oh, it's nothing," responded Martine, reddening. She felt Mrs.
+Tilworth's keen eye upon her and wished that Priscilla had acted less
+impulsively. Mrs. Stratford fanned herself nervously. There were
+disadvantages, she began to think, in apartment housekeeping with a
+limited staff.
+
+In the meanwhile what had happened? When Angelina went to the kitchen
+for the ices and cakes, a sorry sight presented itself to her.
+
+The cover of the freezer had been left off,--she had meant it to be but
+a moment, and not the half hour that had really passed. Through her
+carelessness, not only had the ices begun to soften, but some of the
+salt and coarse ice from the freezer had drifted in.
+
+In her efforts to repair the damage, much time had passed before
+Priscilla appeared. Then Priscilla, in her effort to help, had taken
+hold of one side of the heavy tin to lift it to the table. The edge was
+slippery, the tin glided from between Priscilla's fingers, and as it
+crashed back into the tub of ice, a stream of pink and green stickiness
+spurted over her new blue gown.
+
+"No matter about me," cried poor Priscilla, as Angelina began to mop off
+the gown. "I must go back to the dining-room. I can hold my handkerchief
+over the spots. The dinner mustn't be spoiled. My aunt is so critical."
+
+"But there's no dessert. What will they think?" and Angelina looked the
+picture of despair. For to her no festivity was complete without the
+finishing touch of pink and white ice-cream.
+
+"I will explain," began Priscilla. "Isn't there anything to come but the
+ices?"
+
+"Oh yes, cakes and fruit and coffee and cheese." Angelina had already
+recovered her spirit. "I'll hurry in and attach the coffee machine to
+the electric light; that will divert them, while you make the
+explanations. It wouldn't be proper for me in my capacity of waitress to
+say a word."
+
+So Priscilla, hastening back, explained that the ices had met a mishap,
+and she wondered if they all wondered what her part had been in the
+misadventure. No one, however, attached as much importance as Angelina
+did to the loss of the ices. The coffee machine diverted them all. Even
+Mrs. Tilworth was interested in watching the water bubble in the crystal
+globe.
+
+Of them all Priscilla alone was disturbed. She realized, when too late,
+that she must have misunderstood her friend's signals, and that it had
+been Martine's duty, and not hers, to go to the kitchen. Moreover, she
+dreaded the merited reproof from her aunt when the spots on her skirt
+should be discovered.
+
+Mrs. Stratford was amused rather than displeased when Martine, after the
+departure of their guests, explained the whole matter.
+
+"I realized that something strange was going on, and though Angelina
+covered herself with glory so far as the cooking was concerned, she
+certainly did not appear an expert waitress. Then, my dear, if you had
+only given me a hint of the situation, I need not have perjured myself
+to Mrs. Tilworth. She thought everything so exquisitely seasoned that I
+told her all about the cook, how she had lived at Dr. Gostar's and later
+at Mrs. Rowe's. I admitted that the menu was a little different from
+what I had expected, but still--"
+
+"Excuse me, mamma--but why do you suppose the cook left?"
+
+To this question Mrs. Stratford had no answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A DROP OF INK
+
+
+"Somehow I find it awfully hard to settle down to work," said Martine to
+one of the girls at school a day or two after Washington's Birthday. "I
+don't know whether it's the holiday--or what."
+
+"It's 'what,' I think; vacations ought not to hurt us, they are meant to
+set one up."
+
+"How literal you are! Look at Priscilla; she's as busy as can be. She
+knows how to study at school; but then of course there couldn't have
+been anything very exciting in a Plymouth holiday; but although she was
+away only two days I do wonder that she can study so in school."
+
+"It's a sensible thing, all the same, and saves home study. I begrudge
+more than an hour a day out of school, and if you don't work here, you
+surely have to spend three or four hours there."
+
+"You'll have to spend more than an hour a day on home work if you are
+going to prepare that essay. Isn't it outrageous?"
+
+"Well, it's as fair for one as for another. There's no use in talking
+about it now; we must keep at this translation." And for the next ten
+minutes the two girls kept their eyes on their Virgils.
+
+Martine and Grace had gone into a small room off the main schoolroom,
+where a certain amount of conversation was permitted to two girls who
+happened to be studying together. They were not expected, however, to
+wander far from the lesson they had set out to prepare, and idle
+conversation, if overheard, would have carried a reproof. Yet the
+special essay to which Grace had referred was for the time uppermost in
+the minds of most of Miss Crawdon's pupils, and to Martine the necessity
+for writing it was peculiarly disagreeable; she did not pretend to be
+literary; her brightness and energy expressed themselves in far
+different ways. She could talk better than most girls, but when it came
+to putting her thoughts on paper in an extended form, she was really at
+sea. No one sympathized with her when she protested that it was
+absolutely impossible for her to write a ten-page essay on the question
+"Is the pen mightier than the sword?"
+
+"Why, it's what I call the simplest kind of a subject," said Priscilla.
+"We all know that war is a terrible thing and ought to be done away
+with, and that a good book accomplishes a great deal more than the most
+famous battle. That's all the subject means."
+
+"Oh, is it?" queried Martine, somewhat sarcastically. "Well, I'd like to
+see you fill ten large foolscap pages proving it."
+
+"That's easy enough; just get your thoughts together."
+
+"I can get a few of them together, but when it comes to putting them on
+paper, that's quite another thing."
+
+Yet in the face of Martine's evident despair, Priscilla still insisted
+that the subject was not difficult, and that if Martine would simply
+collect her thoughts, she would soon find words to fill ten pages.
+
+"Of course you've got to look up authorities on peace and war and some
+of the poets like Whittier and Tennyson, and Longfellow's 'Ship of
+State,' and say something about 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and look over your
+English history pretty carefully."
+
+"Oh, Priscilla, with all my other lessons? It's quite natural for you to
+know where to find all these authorities and poems, but it's quite
+another thing for me, and there's likely to be some splendid skating
+this month; and it's odious to have to stay cooped up in the house when
+the afternoons are short enough at the best."
+
+But at last Martine had to yield to necessity, and less than a week
+before the day when the essays were to be handed in she sat down for one
+last, and it may be said first, great effort.
+
+Lucian, happening in from Cambridge, laughed as he saw her forlorn face
+as she sat at a table littered with papers.
+
+"What a ridiculous fuss," he cried, "about a little composition."
+
+"It isn't a little composition; it's an essay."
+
+"Well, what's the difference? You ought to have daily themes, then you'd
+know."
+
+"We do, we have them once a week, every Monday morning."
+
+"Daily themes,--once a week!" and again Lucian laughed.
+
+"You needn't laugh, Lucian. Of course it's easy enough to write; that
+isn't the trouble; but it's getting things together."
+
+"What things?"
+
+"My ideas. Oh, if I were only Priscilla."
+
+"Well, you are not; she's altogether different. But what's this?" cried
+Lucian, picking up a paper from the table.
+
+"Oh, that's one of Priscilla's last year's essays. It's perfectly
+splendid, and she thought it might help me to look it over."
+
+"Why don't you get her to help you in some other way?"
+
+"Oh, that wouldn't do. We're supposed to do this all alone. It's a kind
+of test. You see the little themes are different. We write accounts of
+things we see, or that somebody tells us; but Miss Crawdon likes things
+we observe, and I am always seeing something funny. Everyone laughs at
+what I write. But I just can't do a long logical essay, and I don't want
+mine to be the very worst in the class."
+
+"Of course not." Lucian's tone was more sympathetic than usual. "There
+can't be any harm in my helping you." And he took up a pencil.
+
+"I'm not sure," responded Martine; "but still a brother, I suppose, is
+different from anyone else."
+
+"Naturally," said Lucian, undisturbed by any scruples.
+
+In a moment the two were at work, or rather Lucian was working, while
+Martine listened intently.
+
+"First of all," he began, in a professorial manner, "you must think out
+your subject carefully and sub-divide it--so--and so. Then, well,
+whenever you have a thought, write it down on a piece of paper or a
+card--if I were you I'd buy a box of blank cards." Martine instantly
+resolved to pay a visit to a wholesale stationer's, and Lucian spent a
+few moments in cogitation and then wrote down a number of headings on
+small squares of paper. He had never before had so good a chance to
+expose the methods of his favorite English course.
+
+"See, now, you kind of shuffle and arrange your headings, and you begin
+to think of other funny little things to put in, and write them out on
+large sheets, and before you know it, it's almost done. Now try."
+
+Martine tried. Lucian's method was something like a game, and under his
+guidance she made a fair beginning. Before they had fairly started on
+the essay, Lucian talked learnedly about "clearness," and "force," and
+"elegance," and Martine listened, somewhat dazzled by her brother's show
+of knowledge.
+
+"Well, Harvard has done you some good, after all, Lucian. As a sophomore
+you seem to be making up for what you lost in your freshman year."
+
+"There, there, child, no twitting on facts. Of course Harvard has done a
+great deal for me. Why else should I go to college?"
+
+"I wonder what college would do for me. What would you think of my going
+to Radcliffe, for example?" Martine looked anxiously at her brother; she
+had known boys who positively opposed their sister's ambitions in this
+direction.
+
+"Well, if you could get in," said Lucian, "I think it would be a mighty
+good thing."
+
+The "if" nettled Martine.
+
+"What other girls do I suppose I could do too."
+
+"Oh, yes; and if you should turn out like Miss Amy Redmond, or if you'd
+work like Priscilla, why I'd be proud enough of you."
+
+"Ah, Amy's a brick," responded Martine, "but I didn't know that you
+really admired Priscilla. Robert Pringle says she's just the kind boys
+don't like."
+
+"Oh, Robert is too fresh; he can't settle everything, though he thinks
+he can. But here, we can't waste time. Remember that you're trying to
+prove your point."
+
+"Yes, the point of the sword," said Martine.
+
+"No frivolity, child." And by their united efforts they made a draft of
+the essay, which Lucian copied out in his peculiar back hand, and later
+Martine, still further expanding what he presented to her, was able to
+produce ten pages that were not only fairly logical, according to
+Lucian's standards, but in addition had various humorous little touches
+from the hand of Martine. Priscilla was so busy with her own work that
+she hardly had time to observe that Martine had ceased to complain at
+what she had at first called "an outrageous task."
+
+On the morning when the essays were handed in, Miss Crawdon made a short
+speech to the class. "You will be interested, I am sure, to hear that I
+have decided to award a prize for the best essay. I did not suggest this
+in advance, because in a general way I do not approve of school
+competition. You have worked under natural conditions, and although only
+one girl will have a prize, I am sure all the others will see nothing
+unfair in this distinction, since all have had an equal chance. All have
+worked independently without help from anyone, and none have been
+tempted to put themselves under too severe a strain. I ought to say that
+the prize, which consists of the new two-volume 'Life of Tennyson,' is a
+gift from Mrs. Edward Elton. You remember that she was one of our
+teachers here a few years ago and that English was her specialty. When
+she left this school she helped establish the Mansion School in the
+house of her grandmother, Madame DuLaunuy. For more than a year she and
+Mr. Elton have been travelling abroad, but she writes to me often about
+the school, and her interest in our English work still continues."
+
+In the brief interval following Miss Crawdon's speech, those girls who
+had known the former Miss South said one or two agreeable things about
+her to the others, and it pleased Martine to recall that Mr. Elton was a
+cousin of Brenda's. But she was not altogether pleased that the essay
+with which Lucian had helped her was to compete for a prize. In this
+special case Martine was not quite sure of the precise line between
+right and wrong, and until she could decide this for herself, she
+thought it not worth while to discuss the matter with others.
+
+Now it happened, strangely enough, that the essay which in a small way
+had been a snare for Martine also caused some trouble for Priscilla. The
+beginning came on the Friday after the essays were handed in. In the
+early afternoon Priscilla had an errand to do for her aunt at the
+farther end of Commonwealth Avenue. There was no Symphony this week, and
+she enjoyed the change. As she walked homeward, she was in an unusually
+happy mood. It was one of those mild days in late January that seemed to
+be preparing the way for an early spring. The path under the trees in
+the middle of the park was rather wet from melting snow and ice, and
+after trying it for a few steps, Priscilla preferred the sidewalk. There
+she walked down between the rows of nurses with their baby carriages, or
+little children in charge. "A prize baby show" Martine had called it.
+Priscilla enjoyed the show and thought of her little brothers and
+sisters at home as she stopped at intervals to speak to some child she
+knew. From the Avenue she crossed the Garden and stood for a moment on
+the bridge to watch the ice breaking in the pond; and she continued her
+walk along the mall of the Common, until she was opposite Spruce Street.
+Turning into the narrower streets, when at last she reached her aunt's
+house, it seemed particularly gloomy, and she wished that she might have
+stayed out in the sun an hour longer. But she realized that the task
+before her could not be postponed. The weekly theme must be ready on
+Monday, and nothing could be accomplished unless she set herself at
+work. Filling her fountain pen carefully she sat down at a small table
+near the window and began her task.
+
+Although Priscilla frowned slightly, as almost any girl will frown when
+writing a theme, the frown was not very deep. She expected no real
+difficulties at the present stage of her work, as she had already made a
+good draft in pencil, and it only remained now for her to copy it.
+
+At first her pen fairly flew over the paper, but after a time, as it may
+happen even with more accomplished authors, she grew a little weary, and
+rising, she walked to the window. Then she took a few steps around the
+room, at the same time idly flourishing her pen. The habits of fountain
+pens are indeed hard to understand. There certainly seemed to be no
+reason why Priscilla's pen should have chosen the particular moment when
+she stood beside her bureau for a catastrophe. Priscilla herself was
+almost petrified with horror as she gazed at the great black spot on the
+immaculate bureau-scarf. How could one little drop of ink, falling
+carelessly from a pen held upside down, spread itself into such a big
+spot?
+
+After her first resentment against the pen, which she quickly laid down
+on the blotter on her table, Priscilla's irritation took a new form.
+
+"I always hated that bureau-scarf. I always thought it foolish of aunt
+Tilworth to put it in my room. She has told me a dozen times that it was
+made by a favorite cousin who can never make any more like it because
+she's dead. I can't bear to think what she will say when she sees this."
+
+Priscilla went closer to the bureau. Fortunately the spot was on the
+plain material, some distance from the embroidery. It almost looked as
+if she might wash it out--if ink ever could be washed out. If it should
+stay, how could she ever explain the accident to her aunt, since it was
+an unwritten law of the house that ink was to be used only in the
+library?
+
+"This might help a little," she murmured, tearing off a small piece from
+her blotter, and applying it to the spot. But the ink had been so
+thoroughly absorbed that her efforts made no impression. Then she
+remembered something she had read and rushed to the kitchen.
+
+"A glass of milk, is it?" exclaimed the crabbed old cook; "and why
+didn't you send the housemaid?" But Priscilla secured the milk, and
+while she was busily mopping the spot, Martine appeared on the scene.
+
+"You queer child, what are you doing? That milk will certainly spoil the
+bureau."
+
+"Oh no, it's marble underneath."
+
+"But what are you doing? Oh, that spot? But you'll never get it out that
+way. You must use salts, salts of something, I forget its name, only
+it's deadly poison. They'll know what it is when you ask at the
+druggist's."
+
+"Nothing would induce me to touch poison. Please don't suggest such a
+thing."
+
+"But you're not going to taste it or give it to anyone. Just think what
+your aunt would say if she saw that spot!"
+
+"That's just what I have been thinking," said poor Priscilla, feebly. "I
+hate to have her know how careless I have been."
+
+"Then let me go--no, I am going anyway, I want to see how surprised the
+druggist will be when I ask for this salts of something or other."
+
+"He can't appear very surprised if you don't know its name."
+
+"Oh, I'll tell him it's a deadly poison, and that I want it immediately.
+Good-bye, Prissie dear, I'll soon be back, alive or dead."
+
+"Now cheer up, Miss Doleful," cried Martine, when she returned ten
+minutes later. "I got it easily enough, and the man hardly seemed
+surprised, though he put a little poison label on the box."
+
+Priscilla handled the box gingerly.
+
+"There, there," cried Martine, "it won't hurt you! Give it back!" And
+taking off the cover, she disclosed some innocent looking crystals.
+
+Moistening a few of these, she spread the pasty mass on the spot.
+
+"My, how it stings! My tongue is burning."
+
+"You didn't taste it! I thought you said it was poison?"
+
+"Oh, I got some on my fingers. But I know it won't hurt. But there,"
+scraping the crystals from the spot, "it hasn't done a bit of good."
+
+"Yes, it has done a little. I think the ink is not quite so black. But a
+brown spot is about as bad as a black one."
+
+"I'll tell you what we ought to do," and Martine read the label on the
+box.
+
+"We should spread this out in the sun. Then something chemical will
+happen, and the ink will fade away."
+
+"This ink will _never_ fade. I am sure of that, and besides there's no
+sun to-day, and there won't be, because it's after four o'clock."
+
+"To-morrow will do just as well," said Martine.
+
+"If aunt Tilworth doesn't happen to come in."
+
+"What are you afraid of, my dear Prissie? You surely don't expect your
+aunt to whip you like a baby?"
+
+"Of course not. My aunt doesn't mean to be unkind, only she is very
+particular."
+
+"I should say so. Her house shows that she was meant to be a regular old
+maid. How I should love to stir things up a little. I don't suppose you
+dropped that ink on purpose, though the room certainly looks far less
+prim than when I saw it a day or two ago."
+
+Priscilla bore Martine's teasing fairly well, but at last she said
+firmly, "I have wasted a lot of time over this ink-spot. Now I must go
+back to my work. I haven't even prepared my lessons for Monday. I know
+you will excuse me, Martine, and I am ever so much obliged for your
+help."
+
+"On this hint I'll act," replied Martine, gayly. "Your spot is certainly
+worse than the one in Macbeth, though I won't use the language that
+Macbeth--or was it her Ladyship?--used regarding it. But don't worry,
+Prissie dear. I will arrange things so that no one will know what
+happened." And suiting her action to her words, Martine carefully
+replaced the scarf on the table and set a large pincushion over the
+ink-spot, so that not a vestige of the spot, or of the attempts to
+remove it, could be seen.
+
+Then with a word or two more of absurd advice to Priscilla, Martine,
+bidding her friend good-bye, tripped lightly downstairs.
+
+When Martine reached the lower story all was still. Priscilla had said
+that her aunt was at a meeting. Evidently she had not yet returned.
+
+On her way downstairs a mischievous plan had been forming in Martine's
+brain.
+
+"I'll never have a better chance," she said to herself, and she tiptoed
+into the drawing-room.
+
+A noise from the direction of the dining-room made her start. Then
+glancing around she took heart.
+
+"I think I can do it," she murmured, "before any one appears on the
+scene."
+
+Again she felt discouraged as she noted how massive, how immovable most
+of the furniture appeared. A large centre-table in the middle of the
+room pleased her; she pushed it from its place into a distant corner.
+Over it she threw a scarf that had decorated a sofa. Then from the great
+bookcase in the hall she took two or three volumes that she laid on the
+table open and face downward.
+
+"Everything seems glued to the walls," she murmured, "and these tidies
+are so ugly. There can't be much harm in folding them up and putting
+them under the sofa."
+
+Then she paused. "This little scarf--it is Roman, too,--is just the
+thing for Julius Caesar." And tying the striped scarf around the neck of
+the great conqueror, she bolstered the bust on an easy-chair, draping an
+afghan around him to conceal his lack of body and limbs.
+
+[Illustration: "'This little scarf--it is Roman, too,--is just the thing
+for Julius Caesar.'"]
+
+Then with one or two minor touches to the room she hurried away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A PRIZE WINNER
+
+
+While Martine was thus mischievously occupied, Priscilla, unconscious of
+what was going on, continued her work.
+
+She had not heard her aunt come in, but when she went down to dinner she
+instantly realized that Mrs. Tilworth was displeased. Was there any
+possibility that the injury to the bureau-scarf had been discovered? At
+once Priscilla dismissed that thought, knowing Mrs. Tilworth could not
+have been in her room, as she herself had not left it.
+
+As the young girl turned toward the dining-room Mrs. Tilworth laid her
+hand on her shoulder.
+
+"This way, please," she said briefly, pointing toward the room where
+Julius Caesar was enthroned in his easy-chair.
+
+Priscilla could not suppress a smile at the absurd sight.
+
+"Then you did it?"
+
+"I? Why of course not! I haven't been downstairs."
+
+Then Priscilla stopped. She remembered her visit to the kitchen, and for
+the present she was not anxious to explain the glass of milk.
+
+"But who could have done this ridiculous thing? An earthquake couldn't
+have done much more."
+
+Priscilla hardly dared glance around the dishevelled room. Some of the
+results accomplished by Martine were foolish, others were improvements
+on the original arrangement of things.
+
+"You must have had a visitor," continued Mrs. Tilworth, pursuing her
+search for information.
+
+Priscilla was silent. She perceived that Martine had been the
+mischief-maker, and for the moment she was indignant with her friend.
+Martine might have realized that an act of this kind would bring Mrs.
+Tilworth's wrath on Priscilla as well as on the absent perpetrator of
+the mischief.
+
+"Then it was Martine Stratford!" continued Mrs. Tilworth. "I am glad
+that you had no hand in this foolishness, Priscilla. For I take your
+word that you have not been downstairs. But I am disappointed in
+Martine. She has attractive manners, and lately she seemed to be toning
+down. Certainly she appeared very well at the dinner the other evening.
+Her mother, too, is a sensible woman. So it must be her father who
+spoils Martine. The girl has had a training very different from yours,
+and her sense of responsibility is small."
+
+"She didn't mean anything, I am sure of that," protested Priscilla.
+
+"Didn't mean anything! That's just the trouble. After this I must ask
+you to see less of Martine. Really I ought not to have let you spend so
+much time with her."
+
+"Mamma knows all about Martine. She does not object."
+
+"She _will_ object when she learns how disrespectful Martine has been to
+me. As if I did not know how to arrange my own furniture."
+
+Again Priscilla felt like smiling. Martine's hints had been understood,
+even though they might not be followed.
+
+Mrs. Tilworth was a fair-minded woman, and after expressing herself
+clearly on the subject of Martine's misdeeds, she did not try to make
+her niece more uncomfortable. Nevertheless, Priscilla's dinner hour that
+evening was far from cheerful. She wondered if it might not be wiser, as
+well as more honest, to tell her aunt of her own mishap of the
+afternoon. Yet the more she thought of it, the less inclined was she to
+do this. She clung to the hope that with a further effort she could make
+the scarf as good as new.
+
+That night she dreamed of wading through rivers of ink, and in her
+dreams she saw the bust of Julius Caesar sitting on a bridge with many
+small black ink-spots mottling the bald head.
+
+In the intervals between her dreams she tossed about restlessly, and she
+thought of all the little criticisms that she had ever heard anyone make
+about Mrs. Tilworth.
+
+"After all, she isn't my real aunt," she murmured; "only my uncle's
+widow, and I suppose she just hates to have me here. But she has a kind
+of family pride, and thinks that it will help mamma. I know the house is
+furnished queerly. I heard mamma say that it is neither antique, nor
+modern--only second-rate. Those black walnut things are always ugly,
+even Martine knows better."
+
+Yet in all her ruminations Priscilla had to admit that Mrs. Tilworth had
+always treated her kindly. She had no real grievance against her aunt.
+She was merely afraid of the reproof that her carelessness merited.
+
+Now it was one of Mrs. Tilworth's theories that a girl should make her
+own bed and dust her own furniture. It was a theory, too, that she put
+into practice. Except on sweeping days, Priscilla took entire care of
+her own room. Sometimes she begrudged the time that she had to spend in
+this way. But on the morning after Martine's visit she was pleased that
+no housemaid had the right to handle the things on her bureau. Now, as
+this was Saturday morning, Priscilla took more time than usual dusting
+and arranging things generally. She did not dare move the corpulent
+pincushion lest someone should come in upon her while she was examining
+the ink mark. She knew that her aunt had a morning engagement, and while
+she worked she listened eagerly for the closing of the front door that
+would show that her aunt had departed.
+
+But alas for her calculations! While she was still dusting her
+mantle-piece, Mrs. Tilworth, with hat and coat on, entered the room.
+
+"My dear," began Mrs. Tilworth, kindly, "you must not take to yourself
+all that I said about Martine Stratford. You and she are really very
+different, and although I cannot say that her acquaintance was forced
+upon you, still it came about almost by accident. Had you not both gone
+to Acadia in Mrs. Redmond's care, you never would have known each other
+so well. You are not careless--I see you have been putting your room in
+order. It looks very well, but this pincushion is too near the edge.
+Dear me, what is this?"
+
+Poor Priscilla reddened as Mrs. Tilworth gazed in horror at the spot
+that the cushion had concealed.
+
+Her aunt's praise in the first place had been unexpected, and now she
+felt that she could hardly bear her reproof.
+
+"What is this?" continued Mrs. Tilworth, picking up one of the tiny
+crystals from the cloth and touching it to the tip of her tongue. "As I
+thought, oxalic acid."
+
+"Martine called it salts of lemon."
+
+"So this is some of Martine's work, too. Perhaps she forgot to tell you
+that the salts, or the acid, whichever you choose to call it, is bound
+to eat a great hole in linen--and this the most valued of all my bureau
+covers. Ah, Priscilla, I thought you could be trusted." And pushing back
+the smaller articles that rested on it, Mrs. Tilworth flung the scarf
+over her arm and walked away with it--ink-spot and all.
+
+Priscilla was now more deeply disturbed than before. In no way was she
+willing to have Martine blamed for what she had not done. Her friend was
+already sufficiently disgraced in Mrs. Tilworth's eyes. But now, even if
+she wished, she could not explain. Mrs. Tilworth had gone away for the
+day. In her heart of hearts Priscilla knew that even had her aunt been
+at home she would have found it difficult to explain things in their
+true light. For at the best she must appear extremely careless, and
+quite unworthy the confidence that Mrs. Tilworth had just expressed. Few
+girls are willing at a moment's notice to pull themselves down from a
+pedestal on which they may have been placed.
+
+When Mrs. Tilworth and she were together on Saturday evening, Priscilla
+still found it hard to make the explanation that she knew was Martine's
+due, and she found the task no easier on Sunday. Monday was the day when
+the results of the prize contest were to be announced, and the usually
+calm Priscilla was inwardly perturbed. Her rank in English was high, and
+she could not help wondering if there might not be a chance that the
+prize would fall to her.
+
+"What became of your spot?" asked Martine, mischievously, as she met
+Priscilla.
+
+"Hush," replied Priscilla; "don't talk about it now, it's too, too
+disturbing. But I finished my theme for to-day," she continued more
+brightly, "and now I suppose we shall hear the result of the prize
+essays."
+
+"If I had known prizes were to be given for these essays, I might not
+have sent mine in."
+
+"Are you afraid that you'll get the prize? Really, I think there's no
+danger."
+
+Marie Taggart was noted for her sharp tongue, and Martine controlled the
+quick reply that rose to her own lips.
+
+"Come, Priscilla," she cried, turning to her friend, "let me lead you to
+your seat, so that I can be free to hunt about for a laurel wreath. I
+should hate to be unprepared when the prize is awarded you."
+
+There was an expectant air throughout the class as Miss Crawdon arose to
+announce the result of the essay contest. A moment or two later
+Priscilla's name was called by Miss Crawdon, and as she stepped forward
+to receive the prize, no one in the school begrudged her what they knew
+she had gained by careful and conscientious effort. But everyone, even
+Martine herself, was amazed when Miss Crawdon added, "I have here a
+small card of honorable mention for two girls, one of them Martine
+Stratford and the other Inez Galbraith, who are only second to the
+prize-winner; and although their side of the argument, 'The sword is
+mightier than the pen' is the less popular, I am glad to commend them
+for the independence shown in their work."
+
+Martine's brow contracted as she heard Miss Crawdon's words. She had
+little pleasure in the commendation bestowed on her, for suddenly she
+realized that in letting Lucian help her she had probably done wrong. It
+is true she had thought out each point for herself, following in many
+cases Lucian's suggestion, and she had added many things that her
+brother had not thought of; yet, with it all, she was quite sure that,
+but for Lucian's help, she never in the world could have written the
+essay. Therefore the smiles of approval that met her as she went to her
+seat almost stung her, and Priscilla later, at recess, was surprised at
+Martine's irritability when she asked her how she had managed to deceive
+them all by pretending that she could not write.
+
+Yet Martine had no intention of cultivating an over-sensitive Puritan
+conscience. She was an honest girl on the whole, never intentionally
+untruthful, although sometimes lacking, perhaps, in frankness. This
+latter quality was the one that Priscilla had especially criticised
+during their journey through Acadia. In the present instance Martine was
+not quite sure to what extent she was right, to what extent wrong. If
+only she could talk it all over with Priscilla.
+
+"Priscilla, I know, will advise my telling Miss Crawdon, and then
+perhaps the whole thing would have to be explained to the school, and I
+should feel awfully mortified. It isn't as if I had won a real prize, or
+kept anyone else out of anything--and I have worked hard enough over my
+English to get something. So I'll just imagine it's all right and let it
+go."
+
+Yet in spite of her determination to think little about the affair,
+Martine's conscience was not quite clear, and at recess Priscilla
+noticed a certain change in her manner.
+
+Things were not bettered when Martine reminded Priscilla that she had
+promised to go home with her after school on Monday or Tuesday.
+
+"Monday is better than Tuesday, so you must come to-day, and we can
+telephone your aunt, that she needn't wonder at your mysterious
+disappearance."
+
+"Thank you, really I cannot, I am busy, I must go downtown, and
+besides--" So Priscilla stumbled along, to Martine's great astonishment.
+
+"Oh, I thought you always enjoyed coming home with me. I am sure you
+have often said so; but you needn't if you don't want to."
+
+Martine's air of injured innocence sat ill upon her. She could not
+explain to Priscilla why she was so anxious to have her spend the
+afternoon with her. She could not fully explain this anxiety to herself,
+although the real reason was her hope that a talk with Priscilla might
+settle that little problem of right and wrong connected with the prize
+essay.
+
+If Martine was annoyed by Priscilla's refusal, poor Priscilla was deeply
+disturbed by the turn of affairs. Not for a moment did it occur to her
+that she might disregard her aunt's injunction in relation to Martine.
+Priscilla had been brought up so strictly that, as Martine sometimes
+said, she did not think it possible to disobey "the powers that be,"
+whether teachers, parent, or guardian. In Boston Mrs. Tilworth stood in
+her mother's place, and in consequence whatever she said was law. In the
+present instance, however, obedience was a little harder than usual,
+because she knew that Mrs. Tilworth's severity toward her friend came
+from an error of judgment. Foolish though Martine had been, she was much
+better than Mrs. Tilworth thought her, and Priscilla knew that it lay
+with her to correct her aunt's impression.
+
+"Good-bye, Martine," said Priscilla, as they parted at the corner below
+the school. "Really and truly, I am sorry not to go home with you."
+
+"There, my dear child, someway or other I always have to believe you;
+but all the same you are very ridiculous and disobliging not to come
+with me," and although she smiled as she spoke, Martine's voice still
+held a little bitterness as she turned away from Priscilla and went down
+the hill. Through the week the two went their separate ways--at least
+out of school. In their classes and at recess they were still the best
+of friends. But neither said a word to the other about visiting her.
+Priscilla, conscious of her aunt's disapproval of Martine, was
+tongue-tied, and Martine's sense of wounded dignity lasted longer than
+usual.
+
+On Friday Martine did not go to the Symphony rehearsal, and this in
+itself was not strange, as she not only was not fond of music, but found
+the restraint of Mrs. Tilworth's presence rather irksome. In her absence
+her mother, however, usually occupied her seat, and thus the ticket was
+not wasted. Martine justified her own absences by telling Priscilla that
+it would be selfish in her to monopolize the seat when really her mother
+enjoyed the concert far more than she did.
+
+Nevertheless, until this particular week, it had always been her habit
+to talk the matter over with Priscilla, and often at the last moment she
+would yield to the persuasions of the latter that this particular
+symphony, or that particular soloist was too fine for her to miss.
+
+But when on Friday morning Martine said nothing whatever about the
+rehearsal, and when on Friday afternoon neither she nor her mother
+occupied the seat next Priscilla's, the latter felt that the time had
+come for her to speak.
+
+It is to be feared that that particular symphony meant little to Mrs.
+Tilworth's niece. Discord, not harmony, filled her mind. She hardly
+noticed the execution of the great pianist who was the soloist of the
+day, and when her aunt put a question, her answers were so vague that
+Mrs. Tilworth, glancing at her keenly, said,
+
+"I fear you have been working too hard this winter. It will do you good
+to go down to Plymouth Easter."
+
+The kindness in her aunt's tone encouraged Priscilla, and that evening
+after dinner she told the whole story of the spot of ink. When she had
+finished, to her great surprise, the dignified Mrs. Tilworth began to
+laugh.
+
+"Excuse me, my dear, but it seems to me you have made much ado about a
+small matter. It is true that I value that bureau cover, and I consider
+you most careless in handling your pen, but that you should think me an
+ogre--"
+
+"Oh, I do not, only I knew I had been careless. I meant to tell you, but
+I thought I could get it out first."
+
+"That was your mistake, child. A good laundress could have removed the
+ink if she had had the cover before any one else experimented with it.
+As it is, the oxalic acid weakened the fibre so that we have had to darn
+it. When you see it, you will admit that the work has been done very
+well, but everything would have gone much better had you told me in the
+first place."
+
+"Yes, aunt, I know it, and I deserve punishment. But what I wanted to
+say was about Martine. I know she was silly in doing what she did in the
+drawing-room, but although she seems so grown up, sometimes she acts
+just like a child. Why, I really believe she has forgotten all about
+last Saturday; at least she hasn't said a word to me, and she can't
+understand why I don't go to her house, and I can't ask her here, and I
+do wish that you'd let me."
+
+"I did not mean to forbid you to go to Martine's," responded Mrs.
+Tilworth. "I should be sorry to do that, for, as you know, I like Mrs.
+Stratford. I merely advised you to see less of Martine. There are other
+girls who ought to be just as companionable--some indeed whom you might
+like better, if you would make the effort."
+
+"I had to make an effort to like Martine at first, and now that I am
+used to her, I can't grow intimate with anyone else."
+
+"Very well, my dear, I think still that you are a little tired. If
+Martine sees fit to apologize for last Saturday, we can turn over the
+pages of that chapter."
+
+"Then I may go to see her to-morrow?"
+
+"I never forbade you to go."
+
+"Oh, thank you, aunt Sarah," and as Mrs. Tilworth watched Priscilla's
+expression brighten, she wondered if in some way she had not been wrong
+in thinking the child overworked.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WORD FROM BRENDA
+
+
+Martine was at home when Priscilla called on Saturday morning.
+
+"It's really very condescending in your ladyship to come," she began;
+"and it's a wonder that you found me. I was to take a riding-lesson
+to-day, but by good luck I found when I telephoned yesterday that I
+could have an hour to myself then. So here I have Saturday free, with
+nothing on my mind but your visit and Brenda's letter."
+
+"Oh, have you heard again from Mrs. Weston?"
+
+"Yes; isn't she a dear to write to me when she has so many people who
+really belong to her. She says she considers I belong to her, and that
+she's going to call me her ward until I really come out, and, of course,
+I shall consider myself her ward always. You've no idea how much I
+learned from her this autumn. If she had been a stiff, frumpy thing, I
+just couldn't have paid the least attention to her. I only wish mamma
+would let me do my hair up like Mrs. Weston's, but she says I'm too
+young. Well, in a year I shall be a perfect model of style a la Brenda."
+
+"But what is in the letter?"
+
+"I can't say there's so much actual news, only it makes you just long to
+get out of this cold, bleak climate. Only think of picking roses by the
+bushel in March, and sitting out in the sun without a wrap."
+
+"In San Francisco?" questioned Priscilla. "Why, I heard my cousin say
+that it was always too cold for thin gowns there, and that the winds
+were something terrible."
+
+"Oh, my dear child, you are so literal. No, this is down in Monterey,
+where there are wonderful gardens. Let me read:
+
+"'We are thankful that the rainy season is almost over, for when it
+rains there is apt to be a perfect flood, and we stay indoors for days.
+Sometimes it rains in the morning as if it would never stop, and then in
+the afternoon the sun comes out beautifully and the flowers look as if
+they had grown inches. But after the middle of June there will be no
+more rain until winter, and we can camp or plan excursions without
+casting a thought to the weather. Life, however, is not entirely play
+with us. Arthur is very busy, and often in the evenings he is too tired
+to go out. Consequently we are reading together a number of improving
+things, and when I get back to Boston I am almost sure that every one
+will say, "How much she knows!" I feel as if my new stock of learning
+must show on the surface even before anyone has time to discover it by
+talking with me. Arthur says he doesn't object to it at all, and won't
+do so unless I have to wear eyeglasses, which every one knows I always
+did hate.'"
+
+"The letter certainly sounds like her; when she got started she always
+talked in that breathless way."
+
+"'San Francisco is the most picturesque city I ever saw,'" continued
+Martine, reading Brenda's letter, "'all up and down hills, so that you
+feel as if you were riding over the waves of the ocean when you go out
+in a cable-car.
+
+"'From some of the high places where you go up to get a view, very often
+you only see things dimly through a fog, and then the towers and spires
+seem parts of castles and you can imagine you are in Europe.
+
+"'But although I am perfectly contented here, I often wish I were in
+Boston, and it makes me too blue for anything to remember that except
+for business I might now be living in the dearest little apartment in
+the world. I hope you and your mother enjoy it, Martine, as much as I
+did, and that you and Priscilla are still great friends.'"
+
+Martine let the sheet of paper fall from her hand.
+
+"Are we good friends, Prissie dear?" she asked, leaning forward and
+resting her hand on Priscilla's arm.
+
+"Why, of course, Martine; that's why I came. You see it was all on
+account of that acid, or salts, or whatever you call it, and the
+ink-spot, and--yes--and Julius Caesar."
+
+"Julius Caesar?" For a moment Martine appeared to be mystified.
+
+"Oh, yes," she spoke with a smile, "Julius and the Roman scarf, and the
+other improvements that I made in the drawing-room. Mrs. Tilworth blamed
+you."
+
+"No, no, not for that. She knew I couldn't be so silly."
+
+"Thanks, my dear. Then she blamed me. To be honest, I had hardly thought
+about my misbehavior since then. I had a vague idea that you would go
+down before your aunt came in and restore things to their proper
+condition. Now I perceive I must apologize. It's written all over you
+that Mrs. Tilworth will believe me a reprobate until I do so. So that is
+why you have been so very stiff and Plymouthy this week. Oh, Prissie,
+Prissie!"
+
+Priscilla made no reply. Now, as always, she found it difficult to reply
+to Martine's teasing.
+
+"You must stay here to luncheon, Prissie," continued Martine, "and this
+afternoon we'll have some fun. You must have had a very dull week
+without me. Dear me, this drawer is too full," she continued, as she
+endeavored to close a drawer of her desk on the top of which she had
+just placed Brenda's letter.
+
+"Let me help you," and Priscilla rushed over to Martine's side, but
+between them they only managed to pull drawer and contents to the floor.
+
+"There, I will leave you to yourself, Prissie," said Martine; "you are
+better than I at straightening things out. I am going out to the
+dining-room to speak to Angelina."
+
+As Priscilla carefully replaced the scattered contents of the drawer she
+refrained from looking at the letters and other papers that lay before
+her. She acted thus from habit rather than because she thought there was
+any need of this carefulness just now. She had not come upon the drawer
+by accident, and therefore she was at liberty to look at anything that
+attracted her attention. Just as Priscilla's own reflections had taken
+this turn, she allowed her eye to rest on a half sheet of foolscap that
+she had last picked up. The handwriting upon it was not Martine's, and
+almost without realizing what she was doing, she began to read a
+sentence or two. Then somewhat startled, she folded the paper, and
+quickly put it back in the drawer.
+
+"Oh, I wish I hadn't seen it!" she thought. "It was Lucian's
+handwriting, and yet it seemed to be an outline of Martine's essay. I
+wonder if he wrote it for her. They say he does so well in English. I
+wish I hadn't seen it. It doesn't seem like Martine."
+
+Priscilla was genuinely distressed, and when Martine returned, her
+feeling had taken the form of embarrassment. When Martine spoke to her,
+she replied with hesitation, and her manner had some of its old
+awkwardness.
+
+"There," exclaimed Martine, with some acrimony, "you are really rather
+provoking. Here I have been telephoning and planning a good time for
+you, and you begin to seem as icebergy as you seemed at Yarmouth last
+summer. Now listen, first of all I have apologized to your aunt by
+telephone."
+
+"Oh, Martine!"
+
+"Yes, and she says it's all right, and she has forgiven me on condition
+that I never disturb Julius Caesar again. It was really very good of her,
+when you consider that she couldn't see my blushes of repentance. So
+that is settled. Secondly, you are to stay here for dinner, and go with
+us to a recital this evening."
+
+"A recital, and who is 'us'?"
+
+"Oh, Lucian, and Robert, and me, or 'I,' whichever is most grammatical.
+As to the recital, why, haven't you heard that Angelina intends to
+distinguish herself in elocution? All her little surplus goes for
+voice-training, and things of that kind--and her recital's to-night. I
+should have invited you before, only you have been so high and mighty
+all the week."
+
+"But did my aunt say I could go? She doesn't approve of evening things
+generally--except parties, on Friday or Saturday evenings."
+
+"Well, thank goodness, there's no stupid party this evening."
+
+"But I'll have to go home to dress."
+
+"Oh, Prissie, Prissie! surely you are not growing vain. What you have on
+is suitable for any occasion. Observe that I speak as one in authority.
+Mamma would say the same. The recital is not to be given at the Somerset
+or the Touraine, but somewhere in the outskirts, where 'glad clothes,'
+as the boys call them, would be quite out of place."
+
+"Very well," and Priscilla resigned herself to Martine's stronger will.
+"I suppose it's all right."
+
+"There, dear iceberg, I am glad to see that you have begun to thaw. I
+hope Lucian and Robert will be as amiable. They have no idea what is
+before them, except that I am going to take them somewhere. Once in a
+while Lucian is too amiable to refuse what I ask, and this will be one
+of the times. For my own part, I shall be as thankful as mamma when the
+affair is over, for Angelina has been hopping about like a chicken with
+its head chopped off for a month past. What little mind she has has been
+fixed on her recitations, and I only hope she'll do herself proud."
+
+"Oh, Martine," protested Priscilla, "how can you use so much slang! Just
+think how Mrs. Redmond and Amy used to talk to you last summer."
+
+"Yes, and you too, Prissie dear, and this winter, my own mother. But
+when you begin to deteriorate, you will know that there are moments when
+one's spirits must have a safety valve, and slang is mine."
+
+Priscilla shook her head.
+
+"So now, my dear Prissie, to show that I am not lost to all refining
+influences, let me suggest an hour at the Art Museum. I love pictures as
+dearly as I do not love music, and there are several favorites of mine
+there that I haven't seen for a month. Put on your hat and coat, and
+we'll be there in five minutes."
+
+When they were out in the clear air Martine's tone changed.
+
+"Priscilla," she said gently, "do you know I am a little worried about
+father? He writes as if his business was not going well. He does not say
+it in exactly those words, but he has written only once, and the letter
+was far from cheerful. Either it is his business, or he doesn't feel
+well--and he is so far away. It seems to me now that we oughtn't to have
+let him go."
+
+"But could you have helped it?" asked the practical Priscilla.
+
+"Perhaps one of us could have gone with him--Lucian or I. South America
+seems so far away."
+
+Priscilla's sympathy was readily aroused, and she gave it generously to
+Martine.
+
+"It must be very, very hard for you to have your father so far away,
+especially if you think that he is not quite well. I know how it was
+when papa was in Cuba. It just seemed as if I couldn't bear it, and yet
+I suppose that there was nothing I could do, even if I had been there."
+
+For a moment both girls were silent, though they realized that a bond of
+sympathy was drawing them more closely together.
+
+Then Priscilla essayed the part of comforter.
+
+"You feel worse about your father because he is so far away. They say
+far-off fields look green, but I think that far-off worries are harder
+to bear than those near at hand. I mean when the people or things we
+worry about are so far away that we can't understand exactly what is
+going on."
+
+"Thank you, Priscilla, for your sympathy. I dare say you are right, and
+yet I cannot help wishing that I understood things better. I am old
+enough to help--if only I really knew how."
+
+"The way will show itself if you are really needed. That is one of the
+small things I have learned the past year," responded Priscilla.
+
+"Priscilla, you have helped me; you are a philosopher," cried Martine.
+
+In their hour at the Art Museum Martine recovered her spirits. She
+really knew something about paintings, and her favorites were chosen
+with discrimination. She lingered long and silently before those she
+loved best, and gave reasons for her preferences that would have done
+credit to a connoisseur.
+
+"I don't see how you ever learned so much," said Priscilla. "I feel like
+a perfect ignoramus before you when you talk of these things."
+
+"I did not mean to pose as an expert; you make me feel as if I had been
+too bumptious," replied Martine. "It's only because we've travelled so
+much that I know something of art. I have picked it up little by little;
+even last summer, in spite of our efforts to devote ourselves to
+history, I gained a lot from Mrs. Redmond about color values, and light
+and shade."
+
+"It's a great thing to know just what pictures to like," responded
+Priscilla. "I like some paintings more than others, but I never know
+why."
+
+"Neither do I, my dear child, when we come right down to facts. I know
+why I _ought_ to like certain things, but often those are the paintings
+that I like least. It's with pictures as with people, we admire many
+that we do not care for, and when we care very much, it's often because
+we really cannot help ourselves."
+
+"You and I are so different," mused Priscilla, "I often wonder why you
+like me."
+
+"Priscilla," cried Martine, "don't try to be a philosopher until you
+have left school."
+
+Yet hardly an hour before Martine had been praising Priscilla for her
+philosophy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE RECITAL
+
+
+For a few weeks after Angelina's _coup_ she had little further
+opportunity to show her skill. The successor of the eloping cook proved
+a capable, steady person, so in love with her new place that to
+Angelina's disgust she hardly ever even took the afternoon and evening
+off to which she was entitled. For it had always been Angelina's custom
+in the absence of the cook to entertain some of her own friends in Mrs.
+Stratford's dining-room, and to provide them with refreshments of her
+own concoction.
+
+For doing this she would have justified herself (had she thought she
+needed justification) by saying that no one had ever forbidden her to
+have company--and anyway, Miss Martine would never object.
+
+In this opinion she was quite correct. But, unfortunately, Mrs.
+Stratford, and not her daughter, was in charge, and the former, unlike
+Martine, did not find the Portuguese girl a perpetual source of
+amusement. Neither was Angelina as popular with the new cook as she had
+hoped to be. Her blandishments had never availed so little to get her
+what she wanted.
+
+"And why she's so anxious to get me out of the house, I can in no ways
+understand, Mrs. Stratford, and me as quiet as can be, and never saying
+nothing to her when she sits there reading them novels with the big
+pictures on the cover, or making faces over the pomes she's learning."
+
+"Oh, I don't believe she's anxious to have you out of the way--only--"
+
+"Yes'm, it's just that. She's wishing to fill the place up with company
+of her own, and because I keep an eye to the ice-chest she isn't at all
+pleased. I know what girls is, ma'am, and that Angelina, she's always up
+to something."
+
+Martine, when her mother repeated the substance of the cook's words,
+laughed lightly.
+
+"Oh, it's much more entertaining to have one person in the house who's
+up to something. If they were all as stupid as the cook, how dull it
+would be. But I can tell you what's the matter with Angelina--she is
+going to give a recital."
+
+"A recital?"
+
+"Yes. It seems she has been taking elocution lessons ever since she had
+any money of her own to spend."
+
+"Did Miss Bourne encourage this kind of thing?"
+
+"Oh, no, she disapproved, but she just couldn't stop her. Brenda Weston
+told me all about it. Brenda thought there was no great harm in
+Angelina's amusing herself this way."
+
+"But elocution lessons must cost so--"
+
+"Yes, that's what Miss Bourne said, and she didn't want Angelina to go
+on the stage, as she threatened."
+
+"Angelina on the stage!"
+
+"Yes, mamma. She has even confided to me that she has been answering
+advertisements of companies that want soubrettes. Of course I told her
+it was dreadful, and she's promised to give up that idea for the
+present. But I have taken some tickets for her recital."
+
+"My dear, I wish you hadn't encouraged her."
+
+"Oh, anything else would have seemed mean, and she didn't dare try to
+sell you any."
+
+After Martine's explanation, Mrs. Stratford was more patient with
+Angelina. How could she expect regular work from her until after the
+recital!
+
+This was the affair that Martine persuaded Priscilla to attend with her,
+as well as Lucian and Robert. The four other tickets that she had bought
+in addition to those needed for her party lay unused in her desk drawer.
+No one to whom she had offered them cared for them. The recital was to
+be given in a place too far away.
+
+"You are sure we are on the right car?" Martine asked, after the four
+had been some time on their way.
+
+"You said Chelsea, didn't you? well, this car is bound for the Chelsea
+Ferry," replied Lucian.
+
+"Chelsea," exclaimed Priscilla, "I didn't know we were going there!
+Isn't that awfully far away? I oughtn't to go outside of Boston."
+
+"But this is only across the harbor, and Angelina says the hall is a
+very short way from the dock."
+
+"Oh, very well," and Priscilla sank back in her seat. She must continue
+with her friends and since they were prepared to go to Chelsea, she
+could only resign herself to their plans.
+
+She did not like the ferry-boat. She did not enjoy the walk to the hall.
+Robert's jokes failed to amuse her, and even Lucian's college stories
+grew tiresome. To tell the truth, Priscilla dreaded the explanation she
+must give her aunt. Mrs. Tilworth had readily acceded to her dining with
+Martine. She had objected only slightly over the telephone when
+Priscilla had asked if she might go to a recital with Martine and her
+brother. Priscilla had telephoned even after Martine had obtained Mrs.
+Tilworth's consent.
+
+"I am sorry that it is not to be a musical affair. I do not care for
+miscellaneous programs. But there will be less harm in wasting time
+Saturday than any other evening, but I must ask you to be home early. I
+like to have the house locked at ten."
+
+"Yes, aunt," and as Mrs. Tilworth had asked no questions about the
+performers, Priscilla was spared the necessity of telling her that
+Angelina would be the chief attraction. Yet of one thing she was now
+sure, as the four journeyed Chelseaward--Mrs. Tilworth would be
+displeased if she should be out late, and to return early from Chelsea,
+why, that surely was an impossibility.
+
+"I wonder what your Portuguese calls a short walk," growled Lucian,
+after they had wandered about for some time after leaving the ferry.
+"Thus far, every one we have asked has given us a different location. Do
+you know, Martine, this whole undertaking is a fool thing? Who but you
+would ever have thought of coming to Chelsea for amusement?"
+
+"Thank you, Taps," responded Martine, sweetly, knowing that the old
+nickname would stir Lucian's anger even more. She did not dread Lucian's
+anger, for it never flamed very high, and while it lasted it was
+sometimes rather funny.
+
+"You have good company," continued Martine, in a calm tone,
+ill-calculated to soothe an irritated brother. "Priscilla and I have to
+walk just as far as you, and you ought to appreciate our being with
+you."
+
+Ungallant Lucian did not reply, and the laugh with which the girls
+received some remark of Robert's did not please him.
+
+"It may seem funny to you to be wandering around the streets of Chelsea,
+but it would be more to the point, Martine, if you would gather your
+wits together, and remember the hall where this foolish entertainment is
+to hold forth."
+
+At this moment by some subtle working of her mind light came to Martine,
+and the next moment she had whispered the forgotten name of the hall to
+Robert. Upon this Robert shot ahead of the others, and when Lucian
+caught up with him, he was standing in front of a corner drug-store.
+
+"Come," he said, seizing Lucian's arm, "I'll show you where to go. We're
+ever so far out of our way. If you had left it all to me, we should have
+been there long ago."
+
+Turning the corner beyond the drug-store, and walking a few steps along
+a street parallel to the one on which they had looked for the hall, the
+four young people were soon at the entrance of a large building, the
+lower story of which was occupied by a grocery shop.
+
+In front of the shop was a group of half-grown boys.
+
+"Got a ticket, Mister?" said one of them, holding the green pasteboard
+card to Lucian.
+
+Lucian, who was really an amiable youth, had quickly recovered from his
+annoyance with Martine, and would not gratify Robert by showing vexation
+that the latter had been more successful in finding the hall. He
+suspected the truth--that Martine had helped Robert, and since they were
+now at the hall, what did it matter?
+
+"Got a ticket, Mister?" A second boy held out his hand to Lucian.
+
+"Of course, that's why we're here," replied Lucian. "Are you selling
+them?"
+
+"No, we're giving them away. We want an aujence," was the astonishing
+response.
+
+"What _does_ he mean?"
+
+"We'll soon know, Martine," said Priscilla, following the two others up
+a long flight of dimly-lit stairs.
+
+"Did you ever?" Martine gazed around the hall as they entered; "there
+are not ten people here."
+
+"Just thirty." Priscilla was nothing if not accurate.
+
+"But I thought Angelina said she had sold two hundred tickets, Martine."
+
+"Expected to sell them, Lucian, though, to tell the truth, I thought she
+_had_ sold them."
+
+"I'll wager she gave away half the seats that are occupied now. Those
+are Portuguese faces down in the front."
+
+"I paid for mine."
+
+"I know that, Martine. You always had a foolish habit of getting rid of
+your allowance almost as soon as you received it."
+
+"That reminds me," asked Robert, "is this a charitable performance? It
+would have been more charitable to let us stay quietly in our rooms.
+Just think what a fine four hours of study Lucian and I could have put
+in this evening."
+
+"Yes, you are so apt to study Saturday evening," interposed Martine;
+"but to answer your question, I can't say that this is wholly
+charitable. Part of it is for a girls' club over here--I mean part of
+the profits--and the rest--"
+
+"Here's a poster," interrupted Lucian; "let's see what it says."
+
+"It's easy enough to read. It must have been meant for bill-board
+decoration. Big black letters on green paper. Listen!" and after reading
+aloud place and date, Lucian continued:
+
+    MISS ANGELINA ROSA
+    THE EMINENT MONOLOGUIST,
+    WILL GIVE ONE OF HER CHOICE RECITALS
+    FOR THE BENEFIT OF
+    THE GIRLS' EXCELSIOR CLUB
+    AND A HALF-ORPHAN
+
+"A half-orphan!" shouted Robert. "What in the world--?"
+
+"Why, she means herself, of course; her father is dead."
+
+"Oh, I see!" and then, after the fashion of young people, the four began
+to giggle.
+
+"Hush! the audience will be disturbed." Priscilla was the first to
+recover herself.
+
+"What audience?" asked Martine, looking around the almost empty hall.
+
+"It's fifteen minutes past eight." Lucian closed his watch with a snap.
+"There's something happening. I wonder what it is. Two or three of those
+foreigners have gone behind the curtain."
+
+At half-past eight Angelina had not appeared. Lucian proposed going
+home. Martine thought she ought to find Angelina to learn if anything
+serious had happened. Some of the boys in the front seats scuffled
+angrily. The hall was neither well heated, nor well lit. Every one was
+uncomfortable.
+
+"I think that we really ought to go home," whispered Priscilla,
+half-timidly, to Lucian. But just at this moment the curtain was pushed
+aside, and Angelina appeared in the centre of the stage.
+
+In her pink satin gown with its tawdry trimmings at neck and sleeves,
+she looked "blacker and skinnier than ever," as Lucian put it. Just
+behind her walked a man who stumbled over her train, and then with a bow
+began to speak.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, it is most unfortunate that this lady and I may
+not be able to give our entertainment as advertised."
+
+Hisses from the front soon interrupted the speaker.
+
+"What has he to do with it?"
+
+Lucian looked again at the poster where "Mr. Smithkins, accompanist"
+appeared in small letters at the bottom.
+
+Mr. Smithkins resumed his speech: "The fact is there's been some
+misunderstanding with the owner of this hall, who refuses to let us
+proceed until the rent has been paid in advance."
+
+"Yes, every cent of it," and a stout woman with a red face and a bonnet
+trimmed with purple flowers pushed her way from behind. Angelina waved a
+large red fan nervously, but otherwise did not appear discomposed. She
+was at least the centre of the stage and although the audience was
+small, all eyes were certainly fixed on her.
+
+The eloquence of the stout lady quite drowned the words of Mr.
+Smithkins, making vain efforts to give his version of the situation. But
+after the hubbub had subsided, it was fairly clear to those present that
+Angelina had failed to pay the fifteen dollars she had promised in
+advance for the hall. Moreover, it was even clearer that Mrs. Stinton,
+the owner of the building, meant not only to stop the entertainment, but
+also to prevent Angelina's "skipping," without giving her her due.
+
+"Will they arrest her?" asked Priscilla, anxiously.
+
+"Oh, no, of course not; Angelina must pay the money."
+
+"But you heard Mr. Smithkins say that she had been disappointed in the
+sale of tickets, and hadn't a cent even to pay him, and if he could
+afford to wait, Mrs. Stinton ought to be able to wait too."
+
+"Give us a song or a pome," called a voice from the rear of the hall.
+The boys, who had been lounging at the door, were now inside.
+
+Lucian and Robert rose from their seats.
+
+"Excuse us for a moment," said the latter to Martine as the two made
+their way out into the aisle.
+
+"Why, they're going behind the scenes," said Priscilla, in surprise.
+Still more surprised was she when Lucian, raising the curtain, beckoned
+to Mrs. Stinton. The latter, impressed by the young man's appearance,
+went behind the curtain, and Mr. Smithkins, anxious to understand what
+was going on, followed her. Thus Angelina, to her own great
+satisfaction, was left in possession of the stage.
+
+When Mr. Smithkins, a little later, appeared before the audience, he had
+the pleasure to announce, as he phrased it, that Mrs. Stinton's demands
+had been paid in full by a friend of the talented Miss Rosa, and that
+the performance would go on as advertised.
+
+In promising this, however, Mr. Smithkins went a little too far. The
+cold hall, the low-necked gown, the long wait in which the young
+monologuist had heroically concealed her anxiety, all proved a great
+strain for Angelina.
+
+Although she began bravely enough with what she considered the gem of
+the repertoire, the monologue was given quite tamely, and though she
+continued it to the end she was evidently glad to stop. It was at this
+point that Mr. Smithkins showed himself of especial service, as he
+seated himself at the cracked piano. There he pounded out a number of
+popular airs to the great delight of the audience, and received far
+greater applause than poor Angelina.
+
+Nevertheless, when Angelina appeared for the second time, there fell at
+her feet a large bouquet of carnations, for which she bowed her
+acknowledgments several times.
+
+It was all very pathetic as well as absurd. The dimly-lit, cold hall,
+the empty seats, the little figure bowing on the platform. Martine,
+always ready to see the amusing side of things, began to laugh. The rest
+of her party, even the considerate Priscilla, echoed the laugh. Then it
+spread to the front seats, and when Angelina was in the midst of her
+second selection, one in which she meant to move her audience to tears,
+all she could hear was one prolonged giggle. Poor Angelina! This
+laughter was the last straw. Still holding the flowers and the fan, she
+threw one angry glance toward the house, and then turning her back on
+friend and foe alike fled behind the curtain.
+
+"There, Martine, you've done it. It was your giggling that set them off.
+You ought to go behind and console her." Lucian seemed in earnest.
+
+"It's half-past nine." Robert looked at his watch.
+
+"Then we ought to start for home. We are so far away."
+
+There was nervousness in Priscilla's tone.
+
+Martine had made no effort to go to Angelina.
+
+"How is the prima donna to get to town?" asked Lucian. "Are you going to
+look after her, Martine?"
+
+"Oh, no, her brother John is here. He is that tall, good-looking youth,
+standing near the door. She can depend on him."
+
+"Then we may start," continued Lucian, "even if the show isn't wholly
+over. We cannot wait for further instalments."
+
+"We've had more than the value of our money," added Robert. "Mrs.
+Stinton's performance alone was worth the price."
+
+"Yes, girls, you should have heard her express her surprise and
+gratitude when we gave her the fifteen dollars, and when we told her we
+were Harvard students, she could hardly believe it."
+
+"But what did Angelina think?"
+
+"Oh, we told her, Martine, that you had sent it, and that she must pay
+it back gradually. So you see that you, dear sister, will make the most
+out of this evening, as we'll let you keep whatever she pays back."
+
+With Angelina's _fiasco_ to talk over, the four found the journey back
+to town much less tiresome than the "voyage," as Martine called it, to
+Chelsea. It seemed shorter, perhaps, because Robert discovered that they
+could return to Boston by a bridge instead of the ferry. When at last
+they left Priscilla at her door, it was not as late as it might have
+been if Angelina had carried out her full program.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MARTINE'S ALTRUISM
+
+
+In spite of her love of fun, Martine was considerate enough not to tease
+Angelina about her recital. Later, by degrees of her own accord, the
+little Portuguese told the story. After all, there was not much to tell.
+She had depended on a few posters scattered at random to fill the hall.
+She had thought that the girls of the Excelsior Club would sell many
+tickets. But she had fixed the price so high that the girls could
+neither afford to buy them, nor succeed in disposing of them to their
+friends.
+
+Moreover, on the night of the recital, a Grand Army fair was holding an
+auction to which admission was free, and thither every one with a penny
+to spend had rushed, hoping for bargains. Even if Angelina had been a
+well-known elocutionist, she would have had difficulty in drawing people
+from the greater attraction.
+
+"But I never thought," she said, "that some of the people who regularly
+bought tickets from me would never pay for them, just because they
+thought it was too much trouble to go when they found out how far away
+the hall was. My brother John bought and paid for tickets, and so did
+you, Miss Martine, and with the tickets I sold I just made out to pay
+Mr. Smithkins the ten dollars I'd promised him. But it was very
+embarrassing about the hall--and if it hadn't been for your fifteen
+dollars, I don't know what I should have done."
+
+Martine did not explain her brother's part in the matter.
+
+"Of course, that Mrs. Stinton could have charged it as well as not. It
+wouldn't have been anything to her. They say she owns a whole block of
+houses down by the ferry. But it's my last of the Excelsior Club. I
+consider they went back on me."
+
+"I hope you have learned a lesson, Angelina. You ought not to have
+promised to pay for the hall until you were sure of getting enough money
+out of a recital. You should have waited--"
+
+"But I couldn't give a recital without a hall, and I should have paid if
+I'd sold more tickets."
+
+"Well, this ought to be the last of your recitals."
+
+"Didn't I do well?" asked Angelina, anxiously.
+
+"Oh, that isn't the point."
+
+Martine did not care at this moment to give her precise opinion of
+Angelina's dramatic ability.
+
+"But you see, this must have cost you a great deal, and you ought to
+save your money--everybody ought, and life is more serious--there,
+Angelina--I'll leave it all to mamma. She'll advise you," concluded
+Martine, feeling that she was getting into deep water, in advocating
+principles that she herself had not always been able to live up to.
+
+The experience of that memorable Saturday, combined with the advice
+given by Mrs. Stratford, so far influenced Angelina that for the time
+she devoted herself exclusively to her household duties, ceased to take
+elocution lessons, and began to save money. At first she offered to pay
+Martine a dollar a week, but when the latter learned that Angelina had
+other debts, she urged her to consider them first.
+
+"I can wait," she said, "and when you have finished paying for that pink
+satin dress--it would be a good idea for you to make your mother a
+present."
+
+Nora Gostar, who always kept closely in touch with the Rosas at their
+home in Shiloh, had asked Martine to influence Angelina to do more for
+her family.
+
+"Ever since the Four Club years ago began to help the Rosas, Angelina
+has taken it for granted that the public would look after them. It is
+true that on the whole they are now fairly prosperous. With her boarders
+and her garden Mrs. Rosa makes both ends meet, and John always has
+something to spare for his brothers and sisters. It is only Angelina who
+seems ready to escape all responsibility. You will remind her, won't
+you, Martine?"
+
+"Yes," said Martine, "but some people say I haven't enough sense of
+responsibility myself."
+
+"My dear, then no one has observed you lately. You certainly have taken
+hold splendidly of the girls in your painting class. Two or three of
+them, you know, have been called 'hard cases.' No one else ever could
+interest them, and yet they seem perfectly devoted to you."
+
+"Oh, they are so amusing," said Martine, "that I can't help throwing
+myself into the work, and then I find out what they want to do, and let
+them do it. It's silly to make people do things they dislike. Of
+course," she added, with some embarrassment, "I am aware that this
+wouldn't be the right principle if I were a real artist, and were trying
+to make artists out of them. Some of them can't even draw, but they do
+take an interest in color, and so I am always hunting for good pictures
+in black and white--and their color effects sometimes are quite
+wonderful."
+
+Martine did not explain that not a little of her own pocket money was
+spent for pictures suitable to her rather original method of conducting
+the class. Photographs and lithographs cost money, and though Amy
+remonstrated that it was contrary to art to gild the lily, Martine
+replied that the end would justify her means.
+
+Among her six little pupils only one showed marked talent. She was a
+Russian girl who had been in Boston but a year, and her gift took the
+form of a genius for making caricatures.
+
+Her pencil was constantly in her hand, and even with her brush she could
+outline figures and scenes on the margins of her pictures that would
+send the others into fits of uproarious laughter.
+
+"Esther, Esther," Martine said one day, "you should never make fun of
+older people. Who is that tall, thin person, with the lorgnette in her
+hand?"
+
+"That's teacher," explained one of the others, "the teacher in our
+school. It's her dead image, ain't it?" and the friend to whom she
+turned for confirmation, nodded, adding--
+
+"When she's mad she puts her glasses up just so--and we all feel cheaper
+'n thirty cents."
+
+"I hope you don't make fun of me this way, Esther, behind my back."
+
+"Oh, no'm, you ain't a teacher."
+
+As Martine was already aware that her girls always spoke of her as "the
+young lady," this doubtful compliment passed without criticism. Neither
+in her heart did she think it wise to criticise the little girl's
+caricatures.
+
+She was delighted when Mrs. Redmond, after looking at Esther's drawings,
+said that the child had real talent. Then without further delay, without
+indeed consulting anyone, Martine engaged an expensive teacher to give
+Esther drawing lessons once a week. Mrs. Redmond would have taught her
+gratuitously, had she not felt that the little girl's peculiar talent
+would be best developed by a teacher who made a specialty of figure
+drawing.
+
+Before Mr. Stratford's departure for England Martine had suggested that
+he add to the sum he had given her for Yvonne. To the little Acadienne
+had gone one third of three hundred dollars. This was a sum that Mr.
+Stratford had asked his daughter to share with her two friends Amy and
+Priscilla, and expend on the three young people in whom they had taken a
+special interest during their trip through Acadia.
+
+It had surprised Martine not a little when her usually generous father
+had hesitated about granting her little request for Yvonne.
+
+"Send her ten dollars from your own Christmas money, dear child, and
+later I will add to it. Your desire to help her pleases me very much,
+but just now I would rather not promise a large sum."
+
+"But I did not mean _very_ large, papa; only enough for Alexander Babet
+to bring her up here and stay for a few months, until the doctors know
+what can be done for her eyes. It would make you happier, wouldn't it,
+papa, to know that she could see perfectly?"
+
+"Indeed it would, Martine, but just now I would rather postpone anything
+of this kind. Besides, even if I were a second Croesus, I should be
+more inclined to wait until I could have more thorough knowledge of the
+condition of the Babet family."
+
+"Oh, papa, surely you believe what I have told you--that Yvonne is
+almost blind, and that she has the most beautiful voice."
+
+"Yes, my dear, but I know also that the Acadians are thrifty, and that
+the Babets will spend your gift so carefully, that it will go farther
+than five hundred dollars with most people. Some day we shall do more
+for Yvonne, but for the present she must be content with what she has."
+
+So positively did Mr. Stratford speak, that Martine, too, had to be
+content. She managed, however, not only to send the money that Mr.
+Stratford had suggested, but a box of slightly worn garments that could
+be adapted to the use of the little blind girl. She remembered Yvonne's
+love for pretty things, and what she sent had only enough of the newness
+worn off to enable the box to pass the watchful customs officials of
+Nova Scotia.
+
+Priscilla did not pretend to be as altruistic as Martine, though both
+professed to take Amy for their model. Yet letters between Eunice and
+Priscilla passed back and forth constantly, and after reading them
+Priscilla was apt to sigh, and fall into a brown study; for Eunice,
+having for the first time found a confidante of her own age, opened her
+heart almost too freely, and in emphasizing the disappointments of her
+daily life, sometimes threw a cloud over her friend. This is a mistake
+made by some young letter-writers. They write intensely of personal
+disappointments that soon pass away. Yet the letter that they send seems
+to give permanence to their troubles, and if the person to whom they
+write is sensitive, she pictures the absent one as continually unhappy.
+
+Eunice and Balfour Airton were brother and sister living with their
+mother in Annapolis. They had been able to make pleasanter than it might
+have been the stay of Mrs. Redmond and the three girls in the old town.
+
+Eunice and Priscilla had soon become warm friends, and after their
+comparatively short acquaintance parted almost in tears. The Airtons
+were descended from Tories who had gone to Nova Scotia after the
+Revolution, and had always been highly respected. Even before the death
+of Eunice's father, however, they had lost much of their property, and
+were under a heavy strain to make both ends meet. Balfour Airton, who
+was a year or two older than Martine, was working his way through
+college. In his vacations he served as clerk in a grocery shop. Indeed,
+Martine had made his acquaintance one day when lost in the fog on the
+North Mountain. She had been rescued by Balfour, who fortunately drove
+up in his grocery cart.
+
+Balfour proved a most companionable boy, and his energy and industry
+made a great impression on Martine, when she contrasted him with the
+idler college boys whom she knew.
+
+By a combination of proofs needless to describe here, Martine discovered
+that she and the Airtons were third cousins, since their
+great-great-grandfather and hers, Thomas Blair, was the Tory exile who
+had gone to Nova Scotia after the Revolution. In the same way Edith
+Blair, Brenda's great friend, was a cousin of Eunice and Balfour, and
+Martine's first impulse on returning home had been to urge her father
+and Mr. Blair to provide for Balfour, so that he no longer need earn his
+way through college.
+
+Fortunately enough, before she had spoken to her father, she talked the
+matter over with Mrs. Redmond.
+
+"My dear Martine, I sincerely hope that you will change your mind about
+this. Or, if you do not, hope that your father and Mr. Blair will be
+hard-hearted enough to refuse your request."
+
+"How hard-hearted _you_ are, Mrs. Redmond!"
+
+"No, indeed, not hard-hearted--only hard-headed."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I am looking strictly to the practical side. In the first place, you
+would risk the loss of Balfour's friendship, if you should put him in
+the position of a pauper--for this is the light in which he might regard
+your interference."
+
+"Oh, no, not a pauper!"
+
+"Well, Balfour is very proud--and in the second place, he could not
+afford to risk his independence, as he must, if he should accept money
+from strangers."
+
+"But they wouldn't be strangers; in the South third cousins are very
+near."
+
+"Well, this isn't the South, and the relationship is on your mother's
+side, and Mrs. Blair's. Balfour would probably regard the men as
+strangers. Think over what I have said, Martine, and remember Balfour's
+disposition."
+
+"It is because he is so bright and industrious that I think it a shame
+that he should not have as good a chance as Lucian or Robert."
+
+"Balfour has the best possible chance. In the end his friends will be
+proud of him, and he will be thankful that no one took away his
+independence."
+
+Martine was sufficiently impressed by what Mrs. Redmond had said to give
+up for the time the plan she had formed of getting help for Balfour.
+
+When she saw that her father was not quite ready to do what she had
+planned for Yvonne, she was glad that she had not thrown on him the
+extra burden of considering the case of Balfour. She decided, however,
+to interest Lucian in Eunice's brother. In spite of Lucian's fondness
+for teasing Martine, he was really devoted to her. He was apt in the end
+to be influenced by her, although in the beginning often pretending to
+resist her influence.
+
+In his Freshman year, Lucian was drifting into the extravagant habits of
+an idle group from the preparatory school where he had fitted for
+Harvard. Fortunately, however, at the critical moment he came under the
+ken of Fritz Tomkins--a Junior. Between the two there then sprang up a
+friendship rather unusual in its way. For even at Harvard Freshmen and
+Juniors are seldom intimate. So it happened that when the summer came,
+instead of going to Europe with two or three of his classmates, Lucian
+really preferred a trip with Fritz. The two went to Nova Scotia, and the
+constant companionship with the sensible Fritz had given Lucian new
+views of life, or not to put it too seriously--of the value of time and
+money. Fritz himself was gay and light-hearted, fond of teasing his old
+friend Amy Redmond, and willing always to have others laugh at him. But
+beneath all his apparent frivolity was a depth of purpose that those who
+knew him best fully realized.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+PUZZLES
+
+
+In the weeks immediately after the recital Martine and Priscilla were
+both so occupied with their studies and their little duties and
+pleasures that they saw less than usual of each other. Martine, on whom
+care sat rather lightly, ceased for the time to worry about her father.
+
+She noticed, it is true, that her mother did not read her father's last
+letter, which arrived about a week after her conversation with
+Priscilla.
+
+"Is everything going on properly?" she asked eagerly, as her mother
+folded the letter within its envelope.
+
+"I hope for the best, dear. It seems too bad that your father had to go
+away at this time. It was a long, hard journey, and there are still
+difficulties before him."
+
+"Oh, I wish we could help, Lucian and I, I mean."
+
+"You can help; indeed you have helped me immensely, by being bright and
+cheerful and--"
+
+"Yes, and economical. Once in a while it seems strange to have to stop
+and think of money. I bought two-dollar seats for the Paderewski
+matinee, although the three-dollar seats were much better, but I thought
+that as I had invited Priscilla and Grace--as well as Miss Mings--our
+history teacher--and as we were to go to the Somerset afterwards, I
+ought to be economical."
+
+Even Mrs. Stratford smiled at Martine's intended economy, as she said,
+"But my dear, I think perhaps it would have been wiser to pass this
+matinee by. You are not fond of instrumental music, and the whole thing
+means spending more money than you ought to spend in this way at
+present."
+
+"Then I'll take it out of my allowance. Of course I meant to anyway. I
+don't honestly care much about Paderewski myself, but Priscilla does,
+and most of the girls are wild about him, and everyone is going, so I
+should feel very silly to have to say I hadn't been."
+
+"Very well, my dear, I cannot criticise you, for I gave you my
+permission, but in future you must think more about the cost of things."
+
+"Yes, mamma! indeed I often think of economizing, for even though it is
+pleasant here, living in an apartment with only Angelina and a cook is
+very different from being in our house at home, and I know we're here to
+save money. How some of the people we know would stare to see us trying
+to help with the work! why, the week the cook left I actually saw you
+washing dishes."
+
+Mrs. Stratford smiled faintly; some of her Boston experiences had been
+trying, but she had said little to Martine about them.
+
+"So far as I am concerned," added Martine, "I have enjoyed everything in
+Boston. I have learned lots about cooking, and if it wasn't for school,
+sometimes I think we could manage just with Angelina. But I am going to
+economize so that papa will hardly know me when he comes home in June. I
+can get along with only one tailor-made suit, and perhaps two or three
+new silks this spring. But I do hope we can plan something worth while
+for the summer. Wouldn't you like the Yellowstone, with our own special
+guide, papa, Lucian, and all of us, and I could invite Priscilla, and we
+might have a few weeks in one of those big hotels among the mountains.
+What sport it would be!"
+
+Martine paused, almost out of breath.
+
+"We can't make many plans until we hear from your father," replied Mrs.
+Stratford, quietly, "but what you suggest isn't exactly in the direction
+of economy."
+
+"Oh, I didn't suppose we'd have to economize always. Then you ought to
+speak to Lucian, mamma, he has ordered a new touring car."
+
+"That is the worst of indulging a boy from the cradle," and Mrs.
+Stratford sighed. "Last year your father told him he might have a new
+car this spring, and Lucian thinks he's very moderate because he is
+keeping within the two-thousand-dollar limit. I don't like to stop him,
+for if things come out as well as they may, he can have it."
+
+"Two thousand dollars!" exclaimed Martine, to whom figures usually did
+not mean much. "That is a large sum! Why, it would put a boy through
+college."
+
+She was thinking of Balfour Airton, and all that this amount of money
+would do for him.
+
+"Mrs. Blair," continued Martine's mother, "calls Lucian very moderate in
+his college expenses. He stands well in his classes, too. She says that
+Philip spent three times as much."
+
+"And he had to leave Harvard without a degree!"
+
+"He has made it up since, and he is doing splendidly in business."
+
+"Edith says it's Pamela's influence that has done so much for him."
+
+"He was lucky enough to find a girl like her to marry him."
+
+"She certainly is a superior woman--even if she is country-born and a
+college graduate, as Mrs. Blair would say," responded Martine, smiling.
+"If only they lived nearer, I should spend half my time with cousin
+Pamela--if she'd let me, but Lincoln seems far away in the winter.
+That's one thing we'd gain from Lucian's new car; those out-of-town
+places would seem close at hand."
+
+Lucian, when Martine spoke to him about his car, admitted that he had
+ordered it, and he tried to laugh away her concern over family affairs.
+But his efforts in this direction were not really successful, and he saw
+that his sister was still troubled in spite of his argument that, if
+things were really going badly, he would have heard more from his
+father.
+
+"He'd be the last one to wish me to countermand the order. Why, every
+fellow in our set has a new machine this spring. I thought I was doing
+something to send my order in so early, though of course if worse comes
+to worse, I can get rid of it easily enough. Mine is to be ready in
+June, and I know a fellow who would take it off my hands gladly enough,
+as he can't get his until August. I'm going to pray, however, that
+things won't come to that pass."
+
+Martine, fortunately, was not inclined to borrow trouble, and although
+she by no means forgot the little conversation with her mother regarding
+her father's business, remembering it did not depress her. Life in the
+spring, even in a bleak New England spring, holds so many pleasant
+things for a girl of seventeen that intangible troubles are not likely
+to prevent her enjoyment of the present.
+
+Martine was popular at school, and her invitations far exceeded those of
+the majority of her classmates. The younger girls liked her because she
+was always cheerful, and never snubbed them. The older girls admired her
+because she had an air of knowing the world, and was ever ready with
+some amusing story. She was popular without having many intimate
+friends, and Priscilla was proud of the distinction of being the one
+girl who knew Martine the best. Here and there, naturally enough, there
+were girls who did not care especially for Martine. There were one or
+two who professed an inherent dislike of outsiders, as a class, and
+there were others who found fault with Martine in particular. They said
+that she was forward, that she was patronizing, and that her liberality
+in the spending of money was merely a way of "showing off" of which they
+did not approve. But the fact that Martine, at the beginning of the
+school year, had been dubbed "Brenda's ward" was more effectual than any
+other one thing in placing her within the inner circle of the school. In
+spite of the years that had elapsed since Brenda was a pupil at Miss
+Crawdon's, she and her doings were still remembered. Older sisters had
+talked to younger sisters about her, and everyone knew that she had been
+the most popular girl of her day. She was still spoken of most
+habitually as "Brenda," even by those who had not known her well. For in
+Boston the unmarried names of girls cling to them longer than in most
+cities, and those who immediately recalled "Brenda Barlow" had to think
+twice when "Mrs. Arthur Weston" was named.
+
+Priscilla, who was nothing if not exact, remonstrated occasionally with
+girls who spoke of Martine as "Brenda's ward."
+
+"She never was really her ward, you know, only Brenda was to chaperone
+her, and now that Mrs. Weston has gone away, it seems to me that the
+name ought to be dropped."
+
+The girls to whom Priscilla spoke only laughed at her.
+
+"My dear child," said Marie Taggart, "from the way you cling to her, I
+judge you would rather have Martine called 'Priscilla's ward,' but
+Brenda is so far away that you mustn't be jealous of her, really and
+truly you must not."
+
+After this Priscilla said no more on this subject, although an observer
+would have noticed that she herself never spoke of her friend by the
+obnoxious title.
+
+When Mrs. Stratford and Martine first took possession of Brenda's little
+apartment, Brenda's mother and sister, Mrs. Barlow and Mrs. Weston,
+added much to their pleasure by introducing them to their large circle
+of relatives and friends and in other ways, as Mrs. Barlow put it,
+"adopting" them in Brenda's place. But before January had come to an end
+the whole Barlow household was itself preparing to move. His physician
+had prescribed a change of air for Mr. Barlow, and after a few weeks in
+Florida the family intended to travel West, to join Brenda in California
+in the late spring.
+
+It happened, therefore, that the special groups to whom Mrs. Barlow had
+introduced the Stratfords felt no personal responsibility for them. This
+was not because they did not find the Chicagoans interesting, but
+because the latter seemed able to make their own friends without the
+help of a third person.
+
+"It would be a great bore, mamma," Martine had protested, when one or
+two of Mrs. Barlow's friends urged that the young girl should join a
+certain exclusive dancing-class. "It would be a great bore if we had to
+act as if we were real old Bostonians. We are not, and though some of
+the sewing circles and dancing-classes, and afternoon-readings are
+offered us kindly, I do prefer to be independent and know only the
+people I want to know and do only the things I really wish to do.
+Anything else would be a nuisance, so please don't let anyone make
+social engagements for me."
+
+Mrs. Stratford herself was not strong, and she really preferred a quiet
+life. Later she saw that Martine herself had been very wise in her
+attitude of independence. Martine indeed was happy enough--happy in her
+school acquaintances, happy in her friendship with Priscilla, and
+happier in her affection for Amy. It is true that Amy in this her last
+year of college was too busy to give much time to Martine, but when
+occasionally they had a half-day together, no one could have doubted
+their perfect understanding of each other.
+
+On the morning before the matinee to which Mrs. Stratford had referred,
+or to be more exact, at twelve o'clock on the very day of the great
+Paderewski recital, Martine ran out to the letter-box to post two or
+three notes. Angelina could have taken them for her, or she might better
+have followed the custom of the house, which was to give them to the
+hall-boy. But Martine had not been out that morning, as illness among
+her drawing pupils had occasioned a postponement of the usual Saturday
+lesson. She had therefore seized on the letters as an excuse for getting
+a breath of the fresh spring air that came in through the half-open
+windows, tantalizing her and urging her to leave the house.
+
+"I half wish I were not going to the recital," she said to herself, "on
+a mild sunny day like this I begrudge the hours I must spend in a
+crowded hall, and though I won't have to pretend to be in a seventh
+heaven over the music, yet it will weary me to have to show a proper
+degree of appreciation in the presence of my guests." So ran the course
+of Martine's thoughts as she approached the letter-box. After a turn or
+two in the mall under the trees, she walked back slowly toward the
+house.
+
+"After all," she mused, "mamma was probably right. I have been
+extravagant. The tickets have really cost a pretty sum, counting
+premiums and all. For what is the good in inviting guests, unless one
+has the very best seats?"
+
+This thought of the seats inclined Martine to look again at her tickets,
+and as soon as she reached her room she went to her desk to look at
+them.
+
+"Mamma," she called, "you haven't by any chance seen a narrow envelope
+with my Paderewski tickets?"
+
+"No, my dear," replied her mother, "surely you haven't lost them?"
+
+"Oh, no, I remember now, I put them in a larger envelope; they were
+lying here with my letters."
+
+A moment later Martine stood before her mother with dismay written on
+her face. "What do you suppose I have done? it's too foolish and too
+annoying for anything. I can't find the envelope with the tickets and I
+really believe that I dropped it into the letter-box."
+
+"Oh, Martine, I thought you'd outgrown those careless habits!"
+
+"I thought so too, but there's no use in crying about spilled milk; I
+will try to do what I can to get the tickets from the postman."
+
+"There again you talk like a baby," said Mrs. Stratford. "Surely you
+must know that no postman can give you anything from a letter-box simply
+because you ask for it."
+
+"Well, I can try, that is if there's time."
+
+"But it's half-past twelve now, and if you are to meet Priscilla at
+half-past one, you will have all you can do to dress and keep your
+appointment."
+
+"But, mamma, what _can_ I do without tickets? It will be terrible if we
+can't get in, and how everyone will laugh at me. And they were such good
+seats in the house."
+
+"I am sorry for you, my child, but I can say little to help you."
+
+While they were speaking, Martine had been making a rapid calculation.
+The only result at which she arrived was the impossibility of recovering
+the lost envelope.
+
+"There's one thing I can do," she said. "I'll dress as quickly as I can
+and run over to the branch postoffice; then I'll beg them to look over
+their mail and see if an envelope is there with the tickets I describe."
+
+"Of course you can try, but I feel sure that you will not succeed."
+
+"Then what shall I do, mamma? It will be terrible to disappoint three
+people I've invited to so important an affair as this."
+
+"There is only one thing, my dear. If you fail to recover the tickets,
+you can pay single admissions at the door, and if you remember the
+number of your seats or in a general way where they are, you can take
+possession of them."
+
+"Thank you, mamma, that certainly is the only way, but dear me, four
+single admissions at one dollar apiece; this is something I hadn't
+planned for, and I intended to be so economical the rest of the spring."
+
+As quickly as she could, Martine hastened away to the postoffice, only
+to find that the mail from the box in which she had deposited her
+letters would not reach the office until half-past two, and that even
+then it was doubtful if the envelope would be given to her immediately.
+The only way, then, of saving her reputation as a hostess was to follow
+her mother's suggestion. She met her friends as she had planned, paid
+for admission to the hall and after some discussion with a rather obtuse
+usher at last found herself in possession of her own seats. It is to be
+feared that her impressions of the great pianist were sadly blurred that
+afternoon. Her brain was automatically working out problems of
+expenditure. She was trying to plan in what way she could economize to
+make up for the extravagance of this Paderewski matinee--to make up not
+only for this, but for various other needless expenses that she had
+lately incurred. So abstracted was she that she failed to join in the
+applause repeatedly showered on the musician, and on leaving the hall,
+she had very little to say to her friends. At the hotel afterwards,
+however, she brightened up and confided to Priscilla and Grace the way
+in which she had lost the tickets.
+
+"I think you managed very well," said Priscilla, "I should not have had
+the least idea what to do if anything like that happened to me."
+
+"Neither should I," added Grace, "but you are always clever about
+things, Martine."
+
+"Oh, no, it was all mamma; I felt quite sure at first that I should have
+to telephone you not to meet me, but 'all's well that ends well,' and
+I'm so glad that that stupid usher let us have our seats; for you know
+they told me at the box office that actually there wasn't a seat to sell
+in the whole house, and ours were about the last admissions."
+
+"You were fortunate enough," said Miss Mings who had listened with
+considerable amusement to Martine's entertaining account of her mistake
+adventure.
+
+"Our afternoon with you has been so pleasant that I should have been
+very sorry to lose it."
+
+"Oh, I should have made it up in some way," responded Martine. "We were
+bound to have this little tea here, and we might have taken a drive
+through the Park instead of hearing Paderewski. Truly, now, it would
+have been more fun, wouldn't it, Priscilla?"
+
+Honest Priscilla shook her head.
+
+"Nothing could have been more delightful than this concert, though of
+course if we had had to give it up I should have made the best of it."
+
+"As you do of everything, Prissie dear. I only wish that I were half as
+amiable as you."
+
+Martine's economy did not extend very far. She refrained from doing some
+things that she would like to have done, when to do them meant going
+outside of her regular allowance. But each month's spending money was
+soon laid out on the various little things that pleased her fancy, and
+as she heard no more of depressing business conditions, she almost
+forgot her mother's warning.
+
+A week after the matinee Martine received a letter from Elinor Naylor.
+
+"Listen, mother," she said, "isn't this the funniest thing? Elinor says
+that a few days ago she received an unsealed letter from me--at least
+the envelope was unsealed, but there wasn't a scrap of writing inside.
+Instead there were four tickets for a concert by Paderewski. She
+wondered why I sent them as she didn't receive them until the day after
+the date on the tickets. Now she returns them--and here they are! Isn't
+it ridiculous?"
+
+"Your carelessness certainly was ridiculous."
+
+"I understand it all now," cried Martine. "I had addressed and stamped
+an envelope to Elinor, as I sometimes do when I am intending to write.
+Then when I wanted to put my tickets away, I picked up this envelope
+without looking at the addressed side. Of course the tickets went safely
+to Philadelphia."
+
+"'Until I looked at the date,'" Martine read from Elinor's letter, "'I
+thought you had heard of my intention of coming to Boston, and meant me
+to hear Paderewski. But as I do not leave home until next week, there
+must be some other explanation.'"
+
+"I had no idea that Elinor was coming here," said Martine. "But I am
+delighted. If she can manage it, mightn't I have her here to spend a day
+or two with me? I know you would like her."
+
+"Certainly, my dear," replied Mrs. Stratford, and when Elinor accepted
+her invitation, Martine was delighted. Although Elinor could spare her
+only two days, both girls made the most of their time, and parted the
+best of friends, greatly to their own amusement. For both Elinor and
+Martine, whose friendship was of sudden growth, had begun their
+acquaintance with more or less prejudice. The acquaintance had developed
+into friendship chiefly through correspondence, as both girls had a gift
+for writing interesting letters.
+
+A chance commission which Elinor had entrusted to Martine the day of
+their drive to Cambridge had occasioned the first interchange of letters
+after Elinor's return to Philadelphia, and in the succeeding months they
+had continued to write once a fortnight. Thus their friendship had
+developed without their having seen much of each other, and Elinor's
+flying visit was delightful to them both in showing them how much they
+really had in common.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AT PLYMOUTH
+
+
+"Mother," said Martine, a week before Easter, "I have a splendid plan."
+
+"Well, my dear, what is it?"
+
+"Wouldn't it be fine to take Priscilla to New York for the holidays?
+Just think! she has never been there--and at her age--!"
+
+Mrs. Stratford could but laugh at Martine's seriousness.
+
+"I imagine many persons twice Priscilla's age have never been in New
+York."
+
+"Oh, yes--but Boston is so near--and Priscilla ought to go because she
+has the strangest notions about New York people--that they are all
+frivolous, with nothing to do but amuse themselves. I would like to have
+her at the Waldorf for a few days. Wouldn't she open her eyes? I am just
+crazy to take her!"
+
+"I fear it isn't feasible, my dear, to go away now."
+
+"But you like New York, and a change always benefits you."
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"You like Priscilla, too?"
+
+"Certainly. She is an excellent companion for you. You balance each
+other perfectly, and I should be glad to have you spend your holidays
+together. But New York--no, my dear, we must be careful this spring
+about spending money--your father has had losses and expenses."
+
+Something in her mother's tone impressed Martine, something in her
+words, too, as well as in her tone. She had seldom heard either her
+father or her mother talk of economy, except in occasional instances
+when she herself had been carelessly extravagant. Now the mention of her
+father stirred her.
+
+"Oh, I hope that wasn't why papa went away, on account of money. Of
+course I know we have to be more economical--but a trip to New York is
+so short, and we always have travelled so much."
+
+"I know it, dear. But, fortunately, neither of us needs change just now.
+There is much in Boston that you have not yet seen, and I can imagine
+your spending the vacation delightfully without leaving the city."
+
+"Oh, I am sure I could, mamma; and now that you have spoken of it, I
+should just love to economize. I don't need a new spring hat--the one I
+had last season is as good as new--and if you would let the cook go--I
+am sure that Angelina and I could do all the work." Martine spoke
+anxiously, even excitedly. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright.
+
+"There is no need of any desperate economy just yet. But if you and
+Lucian can be contented with me, I can promise you a pleasant vacation."
+
+"I am sure of it, mamma; let us make some plans now."
+
+But the plans that Martine and her mother made were not destined to be
+carried out--at least, during this particular vacation. For a couple of
+days before school closed an invitation came from Mrs. Danforth, urging
+Martine to spend a week at Plymouth. Immediately New York lost all its
+attractiveness for Martine. To visit Plymouth was her one desire.
+
+"It will be delightful, Puritan Prissie"--even now she could not resist
+her love of teasing--"to see the place where you were 'raised,' as they
+say down South. I wonder if there's something in the air to make
+Plymouth people different from others. To be sure, you are the only one
+I've ever seen."
+
+"Am I so very different from other people?" Priscilla spoke as if not
+altogether pleased with Martine's words.
+
+"Not too different--only you are fearfully conscientious, and you fuss
+too much over little things, and you know how to economize--which I wish
+I did. But for all that, you are not half bad, and your mother is
+perfectly lovely to invite a girl she has never seen to spend a week
+with her. You must have given a good account of me."
+
+"Of course, Martine, and she has heard of you from others--if only you
+wouldn't make fun of everything."
+
+"I won't, I promise you I won't."
+
+Martine looked keenly at her friend, wondering if she really feared that
+she would be so thoughtless.
+
+"I suppose I was rather mean last summer," she reflected, "and it's
+natural, perhaps, for Priscilla to lack confidence in me."
+
+When they were ready to start Martine was somewhat disappointed that
+they could not go to Plymouth by boat.
+
+"A train seems so prosaic," she said; "and now when I am going to
+historic ground, I should like to be able to jump ashore--just as the
+Pilgrims did."
+
+"I didn't suppose you'd take so much interest. Last summer--"
+
+"Now, Prissie! After all my efforts this winter, surely you might admit
+that I have improved. Why, now, I've wholly forgotten that we ever had a
+French and English question to dispute over. Before we reach Plymouth
+I'll be as good a Puritan as you."
+
+Mrs. Tilworth and Lucian saw the two girls safely on board their train.
+But from Boston to Plymouth Priscilla and Martine travelled alone. They
+had so much to talk of that the journey seemed short enough, and Martine
+was surprised when the conductor called Plymouth.
+
+Hardly had Priscilla's foot touched the platform, when a whirlwind of
+heads and arms seemed to engulf her.
+
+"Say, I'm going to ride up in the carriage--"
+
+"No, I am!"
+
+"What did Aunt Sarah send us?"
+
+"Oh, Priscilla, I'm so glad you're home. The yellow cat has four of the
+cunningest kittens!"
+
+"Yes, and we've had to muzzle Carlo, because a mad dog from Kingston ran
+through town the other day."
+
+"There, there," and Priscilla disentangled herself from the arms of the
+children. "Martine, these are my little brothers and sister. There are
+only three of them--though they sound like a regiment. Children, this is
+my great friend, Martine Stratford."
+
+The children looked up brightly, and held out their hands.
+
+"We are very glad to see you," said Marcus, the elder boy.
+
+"We hope you'll stay a long time," added George, the second.
+
+Little Lucy was too shy to speak to the newcomer, but she held up her
+head, as if expecting the kiss that Martine promptly bestowed on her.
+
+The resemblance between the three children was very striking, and they
+all looked like Priscilla, with their calm, blue eyes and blonde hair.
+
+"Say, Priscilla," exclaimed Marcus, recovering from the awful moment of
+being introduced to a stranger. "Say, now, I _can_ ride up with you,
+can't I?"
+
+"It's my turn," interposed George. "'Tisn't fair for you to ride every
+time."
+
+"Lucy can come with us," replied Priscilla. "There's no room for you
+boys."
+
+"Let them all come with us," cried Martine. "We won't mind being
+crowded."
+
+"Of course, I don't mind," responded Priscilla. "I was thinking of you."
+
+The carriage into which the children climbed was an old-fashioned
+carryall, the driver an elderly man, who addressed Priscilla without
+formality.
+
+"What did Aunt Sarah send me?" persisted George, as they drove along.
+
+"But, my dear, it isn't long since you had your Christmas presents,"
+protested Priscilla.
+
+"You never come home without bringing something."
+
+"Wait and see," said Priscilla, squeezing Lucy. "It seems as if I hadn't
+seen a child for a year."
+
+"You were here Christmas; you didn't go away until New Year's," said the
+literal Marcus.
+
+"I mean that I haven't had a chance to talk to a child, not to mention
+squeezing one," responded the smiling Priscilla.
+
+"Aren't there any little girls in Boston?" asked Lucy, timidly. "Haven't
+your friends any sisters and brothers?"
+
+"Martine hasn't, and she's my best friend."
+
+"Oh, how too bad!"
+
+"That I'm Priscilla's best friend?"
+
+"No; that you haven't brothers and sisters."
+
+"I have a big brother, but he's in college."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Here we are! There's mother at the door."
+
+In her delight, Priscilla was almost ready to jump from the carriage
+before it had fully stopped. Again Martine stared at her friend. Could
+this be the cool, unemotional Priscilla? The greetings of mother and
+daughter could have been no warmer had they been separated for years
+instead of months.
+
+"There, there, Priscilla, Martine will think we have forgotten her--I
+should know you, my dear--" and Mrs. Danforth held out both hands to
+Martine, "from Priscilla's enthusiastic descriptions of you. I can see
+you are just what she said you were."
+
+From that moment when Mrs. Danforth kissed her lightly on the forehead,
+Martine felt perfectly at home.
+
+As Martine had approached the Danforth house, she had noticed that the
+house was a large, square wooden structure, painted brown. The paint,
+indeed, was faded in spots, and the general aspect was rather dingy.
+
+Once inside the house, Martine, without meaning to be critical, was
+slightly impressed by the general air of shabbiness. The carpets were
+dull from the trampling of many little feet, the furniture was simple,
+the pictures old-fashioned, and the gilt frames somewhat tarnished. But
+there were books everywhere, in the open bookshelves in hall and
+sitting-room. Open fires were blazing in large fireplaces.
+
+When Priscilla led her to her own room there was the same air of
+homelikeness, from the easy-chair drawn up before the fire to the large
+bowls of mayflowers on mantelpiece and dressing-table.
+
+After supper, when all gathered around her, Lucy on her knee, the boys
+hanging over her chair, to hear what she had to tell about Chicago--for
+this was their special request--Martine felt as if she had known the
+Danforths all her life.
+
+As to Priscilla--Martine now really understood why Eunice Airton and
+Priscilla had been so much to each other. Far apart though Plymouth and
+Annapolis were, the Danforth household had an atmosphere very similar to
+that of the Airton family. It was true that Eunice had no younger
+brothers or sister, nor was Mrs. Danforth quite as old-fashioned as Mrs.
+Airton in manner and speech.
+
+Mrs. Danforth, indeed, seemed to Martine more like some one she had
+always known, and she soon felt completely at home with her. The evening
+passed quickly away, as they sat around the open fire, and the children
+were allowed to extend their bed-hour an hour beyond the usual time.
+
+"Who is going to be my guide?" asked Martine, before they separated for
+the night.
+
+"That depends on what you want to see," responded Marcus, cautiously.
+
+"You are not very gallant," protested Mrs. Danforth. "You should be very
+proud to guide a young lady from the city wherever she wishes to go."
+
+"I _am_ proud," interposed George. "I'll go anywhere."
+
+"Well," said the cautious Marcus, "I only meant that I don't want to go
+up on Burial Hill. It's very stupid looking at those old gravestones,
+and there aren't any real Pilgrims there, at least not any worth
+mentioning."
+
+"But there's a lovely view," said Priscilla, "and the first fort stood
+up there, and some people like old gravestones."
+
+"To be perfectly frank," said Martine, "I don't care so very much for
+them, unless the inscriptions are entertaining. Don't look shocked,
+Prissie, epitaphs can be very amusing sometimes. But what would you like
+to show me, Marcus?"
+
+"Oh, I'd like to take you out into the woods for mayflowers, for one
+thing, and over to Duxbury to see the Standish monument for another; but
+I just hate poking about the town, looking for old houses and ruins the
+way some people do; for we haven't any ruins here."
+
+"Then I suppose you wouldn't condescend to show me Plymouth Rock? For
+that, of course, is one of the things I _must_ see."
+
+"Oh, I'll take you there!" interrupted George; "let's go right after
+breakfast."
+
+"Very well, I'll be ready; and thank you for your invitation."
+
+And Martine, bending toward the little fellow, kissed him good-night. As
+she turned away, George reddened with delight; it was pleasant to be
+treated as if he were as old as Marcus; for Marcus, his elder by two
+years, had a brotherly habit of making him feel himself to be of the
+slightest consequence in the estimation of strangers.
+
+Promptly after breakfast Martine set out with George.
+
+"I know you won't mind my leaving you, Priscilla," she said. "You and
+your mother must have so many things to talk over."
+
+"Thank you; a little later I will go join you, but I know that George
+will show you just what you wish to see;" and Priscilla kissed Martine
+good-bye.
+
+At her first sight of the rock, the Plymouth Rock of history and poetry,
+Martine gave a gasp of surprise. It was so much smaller than she had
+expected. The little guide-book that Mrs. Danforth had put in her hands
+told her that from 1775 to 1880 the rock had been in two pieces, and
+that one piece was for a long time exhibited in Pilgrim Hall; but at
+last a generous son of Plymouth, feeling that the rock deserved greater
+honor, had had the two pieces put together on a spot that was probably
+very near the place that it occupied in 1620, and had had it protected
+by granite canopy and an iron fence.
+
+"Why, it looks as though I could almost carry it away myself; it's
+hardly large enough for a good-sized man to stand on."
+
+"Oh, two or three men could stand on it," said the literal George, who
+thereupon began to make calculations to convince Martine of her error.
+
+Martine, somewhat amused by George's earnestness, began to tease the
+little fellow.
+
+"Do you really believe that this rock was here in the time of the
+Pilgrim Fathers?"
+
+"Why, yes, where else could it have been?"
+
+To this question Martine had no answer ready, and before she had made a
+second attempt to puzzle George, an old gentleman who had been standing
+near them stepped up.
+
+"You are not skeptical, young lady, about the famous rock?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied Martine; "I don't know enough about it to be
+skeptical."
+
+The old gentleman glanced at her quizzically.
+
+"There is more philosophy in that remark than you perhaps realize, young
+lady. But this is really _the_ rock, the only one to be found the whole
+length of this sandy shore. So it must be the rock on which the
+Mayflower's passengers landed."
+
+"I wonder why they didn't just step out on the beach," persisted
+Martine. "I should think that would have been ever so much more
+comfortable than hopping down on this rock."
+
+"Others besides you have intimated the same thing," persisted the old
+gentleman; "but you must admit that a rock is a better foundation for
+the sentiment of a nation to base itself on than a sandy beach. Even our
+foreign-born children pin much of their patriotism to Plymouth Rock."
+
+"Do you believe--?"
+
+"My dear young lady, in George's presence, at least, you must not
+intimate that it is possible to believe anything about Plymouth Rock
+except what is usually taught in school histories."
+
+Martine looked earnestly at the old gentleman. She could not tell
+whether he was in jest or in earnest, but there was something in his
+face that she liked. She felt as if she had always known him. He seemed
+really like an old friend.
+
+"Mr. Stacy," interposed George, "I never know exactly what you mean, but
+I am sure that the school histories are true."
+
+"Surely, my dear, but I can see that this young lady wishes to go back
+of the printed book. She would like to know why we think this is the
+rock of the Pilgrims. So, as there is no one else here to inform her,
+the duty seems to have fallen on me. We pin our faith to the rock," he
+continued, "on account of the testimony of Elder Faunce, a truthful man,
+who, in the first half of the eighteenth century--1743, I believe--made
+a vigorous protest when certain individuals began to build a wharf,
+which would have covered the rock. He said that this stone had been
+pointed out to him by his father as the one on which the founders of the
+colony had landed. It is true that John Faunce, the father, did not come
+over on the Mayflower, and what he knew of the landing he must have
+heard from others. But as he had arrived in Plymouth in 1623, he must
+have had his information on the best authority. Elder Faunce, the son of
+John Faunce, was forty years old when the last of the Mayflower
+passengers died, and if the story of the rock was not true, doubtless he
+would have heard some one contradict it."
+
+"Did they build the wharf?" asked Martine.
+
+"I believe they did. But the rock was kept in sight, and eventually
+became the step of a warehouse. Later, as I dare say you have heard, it
+was broken in two pieces, and it is only since 1880 that we have had it
+restored here to a spot very near where the Mayflower landed--and
+protected," he concluded, with a smile, "so that the relic hunters can't
+carry it off bodily. It's a wonder that some one hasn't tried to get it
+for one of the World's Fairs now so prevalent in the country."
+
+"I should hate to see it carted around like the Liberty Bell, although
+we were glad enough to have it in Chicago."
+
+"So you are from Chicago," said Mr. Stacy; "then I must try to make you
+think that Plymouth is the centre of the earth. From your being with
+George I thought you were one of Priscilla's Boston friends. By the way,
+perhaps you may recall the lines in Miles Standish, where John Alden and
+others went down to the seashore:
+
+    "'Down to the Plymouth Rock, that had been to their feet as a door,
+    Into a world unknown--the cornerstone of a nation!'
+
+I always thought that a fine line, though it isn't quoted as often as it
+might be; 'the cornerstone of a nation,'" repeated Mr. Stacy. "Well,
+Priscilla and I always have a pretty little quarrel over this particular
+doorstep. You know she is very proud of her descent from Priscilla and
+John Alden."
+
+"So am I," piped up little George.
+
+"Of course, my boy, just as I am of descending from Mary Chilton. Well,
+traditions are somewhat confused as to who stepped first on Plymouth
+Rock--providing anyone of the Mayflower people really stepped on it at
+all. The honors are divided apparently between Mary Chilton and John
+Alden. I'd like to give them to a lady--Priscilla, for example, but in
+that case I should have to slight another lady, my ancestress, Mary
+Chilton; so there you have the two horns of a dilemma."
+
+"Oh, I know better than that," cried George; "Mary Chilton wasn't in it,
+of course she wasn't."
+
+"In what, my child? or are you merely indulging in slang?"
+
+"Oh, you know, Mr. Stacy, she wasn't in that first shallop that went
+ashore from Clark's Island. Of course a woman wouldn't come out in a
+little boat, when they were trying to find a landing-place. No, of
+course it was John Alden."
+
+"Your reasoning is pretty reasonable--for a little boy," said Mr. Stacy.
+"But, my dear Miss Chicago," he continued, "if you are on a sight-seeing
+walk, let me go with you. I need not say to an up-to-date young lady
+that none of the houses of the original Pilgrims are here, though as we
+walk along we shall pass near the sites of many of them. The old
+Plymouth was chiefly down here near the water, not so very far from the
+rock. This is the first street, close to the brook that ran down from
+Billington Sea."
+
+"It must be very pleasant in summer," and Martine glanced down the long
+tree-lined street. The trees were budding, but the leaves were not yet
+out.
+
+"It is a calm, shady street," rejoined Mr. Stacy; "sometimes we wish the
+electric cars were not so near, but the curse has been partly taken off
+by the names they bear. Probably you have noticed 'Priscilla,'
+'Pilgrim,' 'Samoset,' and the other historical names. Perhaps it is just
+as well there are none of the old houses left. The descendants of
+forefathers might have been ashamed of them, of the houses--I mean.
+Perhaps you remember Holmes' lines on the subject. The Autocrat had the
+faculty of hitting the nail on the head and in speaking of the Pilgrim,
+he says:--
+
+    "'His home was a freezing cabin
+      Too bare for a freezing rat,
+    Its roof was thatched with ragged grass,
+      And bald enough for that.
+    The hole that served for casement
+      Was glazed with a ragged hat.'
+
+But this description applies only to the very first houses. Those that
+were built for the next twenty or thirty years were plain enough, but
+comfortable. Plymouth never had many of the elaborate Colonial houses
+that are shown in some of the New England towns."
+
+"I wish one or two of those oldest houses were left," said Martine.
+"Isn't there even one?"
+
+"Why, I believe you are really interested in old Plymouth," said Mr.
+Stacy, smiling at Martine. "If you don't mind walking with me I'll show
+you the oldest house now standing. But this old Doten house was built
+only a few years before 1660, and is very little changed from its
+original appearance, at least so far as the outside is concerned."
+
+"The trees look as if they might be almost as old as the house," said
+Martine, as they stood before the little low-roofed house in Sandwich
+Street in front of which two great trees with gnarled trunks stood as
+sentinels.
+
+"Say, Martine, let's go up to the Monument," whispered George. "I'm
+afraid Mr. Stacy will want to take us up on Burial Hill."
+
+Mr. Stacy heard the loud whisper, and Martine herself was amused at
+George's entreaty.
+
+"Why, that was what Marcus didn't want to do, and you said you would go
+anywhere with me."
+
+"I want to show you something myself. You can go with Mr. Stacy to the
+hill some other day."
+
+"There, George, you have suggested just what I had in mind. Please tell
+your mother that I hope to come over to see Priscilla and her friend
+this evening. Then we can arrange about our visit to Burial Hill."
+
+After Mr. Stacy had said good-bye Martine and George retraced their
+steps, and climbed the hill to the monument to the Forefathers.
+
+"There's nine acres in the park," explained George, "and the monument is
+eighty-one feet high. That's the figure of Faith on top, and I think the
+whole thing is fine, don't you?"
+
+"It certainly _is_ fine," responded Martine, amused at George's
+eagerness.
+
+"You know down at Provincetown they say the Pilgrims landed there first,
+and they're going to build a monument that will beat this all to pieces.
+But I don't believe they can, do you, Miss Martine?"
+
+"No," said Martine, "indeed I do not."
+
+Whereupon, after she had sufficiently admired the historic bas-reliefs
+depicting scenes in the lives of the Forefathers, George led his guest
+down the hill, well pleased with her appreciation of his favorite work
+of art.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+TALES AND RELICS
+
+
+True to his promise Mr. Stacy called on Priscilla and Martine the second
+evening of their stay in Plymouth. He proved even more entertaining as a
+story-teller than as a guide.
+
+"What he doesn't know about old-colony life isn't worth knowing,"
+Priscilla had said, and Mr. Stacy certainly proved the truth of these
+words. Of Bradford and Carver and Winslow and Brewster he spoke as
+familiarly as if they were brothers. He made them live again as he
+talked, bringing out little facts that he said every schoolgirl and boy
+ought to know, though Martine had to admit that if she had ever known
+these things, they were now half forgotten. Priscilla modestly concealed
+her own store of information, but Martine, remembering how eagerly her
+friend had drunk in all that Amy and Balfour had had to tell the summer
+before about the English and the Acadians in Nova Scotia, knew that
+Priscilla was probably hardly second to Mr. Stacy in her knowledge of
+Puritan history.
+
+"Oh, please, Mr. Stacy, tell us one of your witch stories," demanded
+Marcus, as they sat around the blazing fire.
+
+"A witch story! Do you wish me to frighten the young lady from Chicago?"
+
+"A witch story!" repeated Martine; "why, I thought the witches were only
+in Salem. I supposed people down here were too sensible to believe in
+witches."
+
+"Few localities are so sensible as to escape all delusion. A vague
+belief in evil spirits and witches existed in all the colonies even
+well-through the eighteenth century, although the witchcraft persecution
+was of comparatively short duration."
+
+"I don't care for witchcraft stories," said Priscilla, quietly.
+
+"Well, well!" cried Mr. Stacy, smiling; "between two fires, what shall I
+do? Mrs. Danforth, you must be umpire."
+
+"Tell them one little unexciting witch story," replied Mrs. Danforth.
+"Priscilla is too old to be troubled by bad dreams, at least from so
+small a cause."
+
+"It isn't that," protested staid Priscilla, "only witch stories are so
+silly."
+
+"Oh, if that's the only thing against them," cried Martine, "please tell
+me as many as you can. I love silly things--sometimes. So please tell us
+a story, Mr. Stacy."
+
+"Really," rejoined Mr. Stacy, "I should hardly know what to say, if the
+rules of hospitality did not provide me with an excuse. It is fair, I
+imagine, to regard Miss Martine as a guest of Plymouth in general, as
+well as of the Danforth family in particular, therefore, fair lady, I
+yield to your demand. But what I am going to tell you is neither very
+exciting, nor very silly. It merely shows how recently in this corner of
+the globe the plain people retained some of the mediaeval belief in
+witches. For I knew a man who in his youth knew a man who believed this
+story. On the outskirts of Plymouth once lived an old woman whom people
+called a witch, and once when she was calling at a certain house, Jenny,
+a girl of twelve, placed the broom with which she was sweeping, under
+Aunt Nabby's chair. Aunt Nabby was the reputed witch, and if you know
+anything about witches, you must know that to offer one a broomstick can
+only be regarded as an insult. So in this case Aunt Nabby, when she
+perceived what Jenny had done, rose in anger, and vowed that she would
+get even with Jenny and her family."
+
+"Did she?" asked George, who was always over-anxious to hear the
+conclusion of a story.
+
+"Wait," replied Mr. Stacy, "you will soon hear. In a day or two Jenny
+became very ill, and the old country doctor could not tell what the
+matter was. She seemed to be fading away. 'Perhaps Aunt Nabby has
+something to do with it,' said poor Mrs. Bonsal, Jenny's mother; and
+then the doctor, asking what was meant, heard the story of the
+broomstick. 'Go, John Bonsal,' he said to Jenny's father, 'go to Aunt
+Nabby's, and find out what she is up to.' When John Bonsal reached Aunt
+Nabby's house, there was no one in the kitchen but her big black cat,
+whom some people thought her assistant in evil doing. So John Bonsal
+went down by the brook, where he found Aunt Nabby so much occupied that
+she hardly looked up at his approach."
+
+"What was she doing?" asked George.
+
+"Hush," cried Marcus; "listen, and you will find out."
+
+"Well," continued Mr. Stacy, "Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little
+dolls of clay that she moulded into shape with water from the brook.
+When she finished these figures or dolls, she stuck a pin or two into
+them, and John Bonsal understood at once that by means of these dolls
+she was working a charm on poor Jenny that in time would cause her
+death, unless he could stop the doll-making. Upon this the angry father
+raised the horsewhip that he carried in his hand, and thrashed Nabby
+with might and main. As she cried for mercy, he told her that she should
+be burned as a witch unless she promised to remove the spell that she
+had cast over his daughter. At first she refused, but at last she
+promised. 'Your Jenny shall get well,' she cried, 'and I will work no
+more charms.' Upon this the big black cat that had followed John Bonsal
+from the house gave a great howl, and vanished completely from sight."
+
+[Illustration: "Aunt Nabby seemed to be making little dolls of clay."]
+
+"Where did he go?" asked George.
+
+"Down to the centre of the earth, probably," replied Mr. Stacy,
+solemnly. "But it's more to the point that Jenny recovered, and Aunt
+Nabby was never again known to carry on any of her witcheries."
+
+"Thank you, thank you," cried all the circle, except Priscilla, who
+still looked as if she thought stories of this kind rather silly.
+
+"Mamma," cried Lucy, after a moment's pause, as if she, too, shared
+Priscilla's feeling, "let us have something more sensible than witch
+stories."
+
+"Let us have a charade--you said you had found one in an old book that
+you would give us."
+
+Mrs. Danforth looked at the clock. "There is just time for one before
+you go to bed," she said, "and so I will give you the old one you speak
+of."
+
+George and Lucy clapped their hands with delight. They were fond of
+guessing-games, particularly when their mother played with them.
+
+"I must tell you," said Mrs. Danforth, picking up a book from the table,
+"that this is a very short one and must be guessed within five minutes
+after I have read it." Whereupon she read slowly:
+
+    "'Just where the heavens grew blue and high,
+      My first that was so pure and bright,
+    Ere it could rise into the sky,
+      Passed in my second out of sight;
+    Before it vanished from the earth
+      My whole rose through it at their birth.'"
+
+"Only five minutes!" complained George; "I don't think that's long
+enough. I didn't understand what the first was."
+
+Patiently Mrs. Danforth read the first two lines, then the second, and
+finally, at Lucy's request, the last.
+
+"I have it," cried Marcus, before three minutes had passed.
+
+"Can't we have five minutes more? I know I could guess it, if we had
+time enough."
+
+"You never guess anything, George, no matter how much time there is,"
+exclaimed Marcus.
+
+"Neither does Priscilla," rejoined George; "but if we had more time--"
+
+"Six minutes have passed; you see I have given more than the allotted
+time," called Mrs. Danforth at last.
+
+"What did you make it, Marcus?"
+
+"Snowballs!" cried Marcus, triumphantly.
+
+"Oh, no!" protested Lucy; "how could it be 'snowballs?' What is yours,
+Miss Martine?"
+
+Martine handed a slip of paper to Lucy on which she had written a word.
+
+"Yes, yes, that is it. Snowdrops, that is right, isn't it, mamma?"
+
+"Yes, my dear; it is almost too simple a charade to set before our
+guest. It would have been harder to guess if we had tried to act it.
+Perhaps to-morrow we can act charades."
+
+When the younger children had gone to bed, Martine enjoyed the quiet
+hour with Priscilla and Mrs. Danforth and Mr. Stacy.
+
+"I had no idea Plymouth could be so interesting," she said. "I feel that
+my two or three more days will not be enough for all that I wish to
+see."
+
+Nevertheless, Martine spent less time in actual sight-seeing than at
+first she had planned. The second day of her stay was so warm and
+springlike, that all voted for a mayflower picnic in the beautiful
+Plymouth woods. The next day was rainy--a genuine southerly storm, and
+no one cared to venture out.
+
+"In town neither of us would think of staying in simply on account of a
+storm," protested Martine.
+
+"I know it," responded Priscilla, lazily curling herself up in a corner
+of the big settle before the open fire. "But this is vacation, and
+home," she concluded, "and we can't behave just as we would in the
+city."
+
+Finally, on the fourth day of their stay, under the guidance of Mr.
+Stacy, the two went up to Burial Hill.
+
+"You won't care if I do not pretend to be awfully interested in the
+epitaphs," said Martine, frankly. "I wish that Amy were here. She loves
+old graveyards and inscriptions and everything that has a scrap of
+history. Now I am fond of funny epitaphs, and I love--oh, what a
+beautiful view!"
+
+"I am glad that Burial Hill has something of interest to offer you. Even
+in Plymouth we call this a fine view. Generally, we try to be modest
+about our possessions, but this really is worth praising."
+
+"It is wonderful!" and Martine gazed in admiration at the expanse of
+blue water that stretched far, far to the East, with only the tiny
+Clark's Island to break its continuity.
+
+"It looks almost like a toy town," she added, gazing down at the houses
+and spires of the old town seeming to nestle at the foot of the hill.
+
+"Those woods toward the West are where the Indians used to lurk, and you
+can see how wise our forefathers were in placing their fort here near
+the summit of the hill. You remember, probably, that it was a wooden
+building made of sawed planks, but the six cannon mounted for its
+defence made it really formidable to the Indians. From this point the
+defenders of the town could quickly discover the approach of the enemy.
+For a time, too, the fort was used as a church."
+
+"That is why they used the hill as a burying-place, I suppose."
+
+"Well, oddly enough, the founders of Plymouth were not buried here.
+Undoubtedly, the first settlers buried their dead near their dwellings.
+No stones mark the resting-place of most of the Mayflower passengers.
+There are memorials to many of them put up in later generations here on
+Burial Hill by their descendants, and two or three who lived to an
+advanced age, like John Howland, are buried here. But the earliest
+gravestone on the hill is that of Edward Gray, who died in 1681."
+
+Priscilla, browsing among the stones, returned to Martine with a shade
+of disappointment on her face.
+
+"I am really sorry, but I cannot find a single absurd stone. Some are
+rather quaint, but there are no amusing epitaphs, at least, of the kind
+you like, Martine. Often as I've been here, I have never looked for that
+special kind of thing before, but now that I have made you a true
+report, we might as well turn down toward Memorial Hall."
+
+"Thank you, Priscilla, I hope Mr. Stacy will not think that I care only
+for entertaining things that make one laugh. I have been more impressed
+by this old burying-ground than by any other I have ever visited. There
+is certainly something in the atmosphere that carries one back to the
+past. If there were anything here to laugh at I couldn't laugh." And
+silently and reverently Martine followed her friends down the hill into
+the quiet streets of the little town.
+
+"Now for Pilgrim Hall," said Mr. Stacy, as they walked along the Main
+Street.
+
+"And what shall we see there?" asked Martine.
+
+"Oh, relics of all kinds--driftwood of the past--some things that will
+move you to tears, and others that may make you smile."
+
+"Old furniture, I suppose. There are several shiploads of Mayflower
+furniture scattered through the country, and naturally I would look for
+a little of it here in Plymouth."
+
+"It would almost seem as if you had been reading my favorite Holmes,"
+rejoined Mr. Stacy. "You perhaps recall his verses about the old
+punch-bowl that--
+
+                                    "'--Left the Dutchman's shore
+    With those that in the Mayflower came--a hundred souls and more
+    Along with all the furniture to fill their new abodes--
+    To judge by what is still on hand--at least a hundred loads.'"
+
+"I am not sure," replied Martine, "whether I have heard those particular
+lines, though the poet's sentiments are mine. Sometimes I wonder if the
+Pilgrims brought any furniture with them. Or if the things they brought
+could have lasted through the centuries."
+
+"You will soon be able to judge for yourself. I think you can safely
+believe in most of the specimens that you see here. At any rate, we
+people of Plymouth have believed in them so long that they have acquired
+a certain sanctity."
+
+When they were at last within the dignified hall, Priscilla and Martine
+flitted about from object to object, the latter asking questions, the
+former answering them, while Mr. Stacy in one or two instances had to
+act as umpire.
+
+A chair once owned by Governor Carver, and another brought by William
+Brewster in the Mayflower, were accepted by Martine without question,
+and she was equally interested in a cabinet also brought over in the
+Mayflower by the father of Peregrine White.
+
+"Priscilla," she cried, "your ancestor, John Alden, was particularly
+generous in his bequests. Here's his Bible, and an autograph of his that
+must be genuine because it is so hard to read. It seems to me that the
+Aldens and the Winslows have done well by this exhibition. Isn't this an
+odd ring, and do you really imagine it was once worn by Governor Edward
+Winslow?"
+
+"Why, yes," replied Priscilla, "I believe it, if that is what the
+placard says." And she drew nearer to read the card that was placed
+beside the ring.
+
+"The sword of Myles Standish! What a story it could tell! Really,
+Priscilla, these things have a wonderful power of calling up the
+past--and this little piece of embroidery, just look at the date. It is
+more than three hundred and fifty years old, and some of the silk
+threads have kept their colors."
+
+"Please read the verse in the corner," urged Priscilla. "Even when I was
+a very small girl I used to stand here, and call up pictures of the
+little Lorena."
+
+As Priscilla finished her sentence, Martine began to repeat the lines
+embroidered in the old sampler--for such the bit of work must have been.
+
+    "'Lorena Standish is my name,
+      Lord, guide my heart that I may do Thy will,
+    Also fill my hands with such convenient skill
+    As will conduce to virtue devoid of shame,
+      And I will give the glory to Thy name.'
+
+"It is touching," said Martine.
+
+"A true Puritan maiden," commented Mr. Stacy, approaching the girls.
+"But come, you cannot linger too long over any one thing, however
+interesting. I will not blame you if you pass quickly by the Florida
+bones, and the Indian relics, and other so-called curiosities that
+hardly belong in Pilgrim Hall. But there are a number of autographs and
+old books that I wish to explain to you, and you must study carefully
+Weir's beautiful painting, 'The Embarkation of the Pilgrims,' and
+Charles Lucy's magnificent 'Departure of the Pilgrims.'"
+
+The pictures held Martine's attention for a long time, and when at last
+she left the hall, she had a new and tenderer feeling for Plymouth.
+
+"If ever I have time," she murmured in a laughing aside to Mr. Stacy, "I
+will try to hunt up some Mayflower ancestors, for I can't let Priscilla
+continue to be so superior to me in this respect."
+
+"Indeed, I don't feel superior," said Priscilla, "but I can't tell you
+how pleased I am, Martine, that you have stopped making fun of Plymouth
+and the Pilgrims."
+
+"Dear Prissie, you should not take things so seriously. My fun was only
+fun, and you were too ready to take it in as earnest."
+
+Martine from the first had no trouble in winning the affection of all
+the Danforths. George and Marcus struggled for the first place in her
+affections, and Lucy admitted that she loved her next to her mother and
+Priscilla. Martine made other friends in Plymouth besides the members of
+the Danforth family. A number of Mrs. Danforth's special friends called
+on her, and at an informal tea-party she met all the young people whom
+Priscilla cared for especially.
+
+"Every one seems to have heard of me, I am awfully pleased that you
+should have talked to people about me, but why am I called a 'heroine'?
+Three people have said to me, 'We are so pleased to meet the young
+heroine we have heard so much about.' What do they mean?"
+
+"It's the fire," cried Lucy. "Priscilla told us not to say too much to
+you about it, because you were so modest, but everybody knows how brave
+you were to pull Priscilla out of the burning house."
+
+"The burning house? Oh, at Windsor; but I didn't pull her out. There
+wasn't the least danger, and I only tapped at the door. Why, I had
+almost forgotten about it. It was nothing at all, so far as I was
+concerned."
+
+But Lucy only shook her head, as she repeated shyly, "But we think you a
+heroine all the same." Nor could any words of Martine's have made her
+change her mind. Had she not always been taught that the truly great
+were modest? Martine's very denials were a strong evidence that she was
+truly great.
+
+There was nothing, therefore, for Martine to do but accept the place on
+the pedestal where they put her.
+
+In spite of this idealizing, however, Priscilla's younger friends were
+not afraid of Martine. If they had felt any awe before they saw her it
+immediately passed away when they had looked into her frank brown eyes,
+and had heard the clear notes of her ringing laugh.
+
+Pleasanter even than the tea-party to Martine was the second evening
+that Mr. Stacy spent with her and Priscilla.
+
+"Everything that you haven't told me before about Plymouth and its early
+days you must tell me now," Martine had said. "When I go back to Boston
+I wish to astonish my brother by my display of historical knowledge. I
+am sure that he doesn't know the difference between a Puritan and a
+Pilgrim, which you have so carefully explained to me, Mr. Stacy; and
+there are fifty other things that I shall spring on him, and mortify him
+to death, for Lucian thinks that he knows a lot of history, but as far
+as I can make out he hasn't got far beyond Charlemagne in his two years
+at Harvard."
+
+"Yet he went to school first?" asked Mr. Stacy, quizzically.
+
+"Yes, but everyone knows that boys in the fitting schools remember as
+little as they can of American history--although," with an afterthought,
+"I will admit that Lucian did take an interest last summer in the
+English and Acadian history of Nova Scotia."
+
+This mention of Acadia suggested various questions to Mr. Stacy, and
+soon Martine had plunged into a vivid account of their experiences of
+the preceding summer.
+
+"I have heard part of this before from the lips of Priscilla," said Mr.
+Stacy, "and her description of the various protegees gathered in by your
+party interested me greatly. I know that she has not forgotten Eunice,
+and, indeed, we all expect to see the little Annapolis girl in Plymouth
+before many summers have passed. But what about Yvonne and Pierre, who
+on the whole interest me rather more than Eunice--as much, perhaps,
+because of their infirmities as on account of their foreign blood?"
+
+"As to Pierre," responded Martine, "Amy hears from him regularly, and he
+is very happy this winter in his work. A little money that was given him
+last autumn (Martine did not mention that this was her father's generous
+gift) has enabled him to have regular drawing lessons from a good
+teacher to whom he goes twice a week at Yarmouth. He insisted in using
+part of the money for his mother, and, like all Acadians, she seems to
+have spent it very thriftily."
+
+"But what of Yvonne? she, I believe, is your especial pet."
+
+"Oh, Yvonne, too, has had a little money to spend, and so the Babets
+have let her board with friends at Annapolis. Her eyes have had some
+attention from a good doctor, and she has been taking music lessons. I
+was hoping to arrange to have Alexander Babet bring Yvonne to Boston for
+treatment by a specialist, but for the present I have to wait."
+
+Here Martine sighed a deep sigh. This allusion to Yvonne reminded her of
+her father and his caution about economy. "I wonder if we shall always
+have to economize and give up the things we wish to do. Mother talked
+about economy when I spoke of inviting Priscilla to go to New York. I
+wonder--" and then a question from Mr. Stacy recalled Martine's
+wandering thoughts.
+
+"You scold me sometimes for being absent-minded," said Priscilla, "but
+we spoke to you three times before you heard."
+
+"I was only thinking, Prissie," responded Martine; "and I can't do two
+things at the same time--listen and think."
+
+Martine at last said good-bye to Plymouth with genuine regret--for
+Plymouth people at least, and for the Danforth family in particular.
+
+"New York wouldn't have been half as much fun," she said as the train
+steamed out of the station, "because I know it so well."
+
+Priscilla, who had not heard of Martine's New York plan, did not
+understand her friend's allusion; and as Martine made no further
+explanation, she had no opportunity for discontent--if the loss of a
+trip to New York would have made her discontented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+TROUBLES
+
+
+The weeks after the Easter visit passed rapidly away. April was melting
+into May. People called it an early spring.
+
+"It doesn't make much difference to me whether the season is early or
+late," said Martine one Sunday afternoon, when Lucian and Robert had
+walked home with her from the afternoon service. "I have to work so hard
+to keep up with Priscilla that I haven't time to think about anything so
+commonplace as weather. If I'm not careful, I shall find myself fitting
+for college."
+
+"Don't," said Robert Pringle.
+
+"Do," cried Lucian. "As I may have said before, if you make half as much
+of yourself as Amy, nothing could be better for you than college."
+
+"Be yourself," said Robert with an air of wisdom. "Not Amy nor
+Priscilla, nor any one else. You have the artistic temperament."
+
+"Nonsense," replied Martine, with difficulty repressing a smile. "That's
+a very sophomorific speech. You've got it out of some of your philosophy
+courses."
+
+"Or one of the college magazines," growled Lucian. "People who are just
+beginning to write always love to talk about temperament."
+
+"Well," persisted Robert, "Fritz Tomkins says that Mrs. Redmond says
+that you have great talent."
+
+"Oh, yes," responded Martine, laughing, "my class at the Mansion
+considers me a true artist, because I can paint trees and grass that
+look real; but to tell you the truth, Robert, and to show you that
+you're not wholly wrong, I will admit that if I hadn't been so busy at
+school, I should have studied with Mrs. Redmond this spring. I just wish
+I had time for a sketching class, but fond as I am of riding, I can
+barely manage an hour's ride twice a week. That reminds me, Lucian," and
+Martine turned to her brother, "if you can afford a new auto, I surely
+can afford a new riding-horse. Wherever we go this summer, I mean to
+ride."
+
+"No, no," cried Lucian, "that is, I probably shall not have the auto,
+much as I want it."
+
+"Don't worry," said Robert, "you'll get it in season; if it isn't out by
+June, they'll have it for you in July."
+
+"Oh, that wasn't what I meant," rejoined Lucian, "only--" but at this
+moment he did not explain what he really had intended to say.
+
+The next evening Lucian came home to dinner.
+
+"What an unexpected honor," said Martine. "I've never known you to favor
+us with a Monday visit. You look rather glum, too," she added with
+sisterly frankness. "Is anything the matter?"
+
+"No, no," he said, "nothing special. You shouldn't be so curious."
+
+"I can read you like a book," replied Martine. "You are worrying over
+your finals and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. If I were a Harvard
+Sophomore, with all my time to use as I liked, I wouldn't be in such a
+state of mind over a few questions, for that's all an examination
+amounts to."
+
+"There, there, Martine, don't worry your brother," interposed Mrs.
+Stratford, joining them.
+
+"But he is so foolish," continued Martine, "just as if he hadn't as good
+a chance as anybody else."
+
+"To be perfectly frank," said Lucian at last, "you have no idea, little
+sister, what you are talking about; so the least said, soonest mended."
+
+Conversation during dinner proceeded cheerfully. Lucian was evidently
+making an effort to remove the impression that he was troubled about
+anything.
+
+But a little later, after their mother had left the room, Lucian drew
+his chair nearer Martine's and began to talk in an undertone.
+
+"You are right, Martine," he said, "I am troubled. I have something
+serious to say."
+
+Martine's heart beat nervously. She knew that boys in college sometimes
+did things that they should not do. Lucian had several friends of whom
+she did not approve. Into what mischief might they not lead him?
+
+"Tell me the worst, Lucian," she said sympathetically. "If it's stealing
+signs or doing any of those ridiculous Med. Fac. things, of course you
+were very silly. But I'll help you out if I can, without telling mother,
+and I'll lend you money, though I have only a very little bit of my own.
+I am paying for my clothes out of my allowance this spring. And you know
+I never used to do that."
+
+"Oh, your money wouldn't help, Martine; it isn't that."
+
+"Well, whatever it is, we'll keep it from mother; she certainly isn't as
+well as when she first came to Boston."
+
+"I know that," responded Lucian, "and that's the worst of this whole
+business. You see, it's this, Martine. Father's business is all at sixes
+and sevens and I had the queerest letter from him this morning; I can
+hardly make head or tail of it."
+
+Martine took the thin sheet of letter paper from Lucian's hand; the
+wording was incoherent.
+
+"Why, it doesn't sound like father," she exclaimed, "and what queer,
+trembling handwriting. I am afraid that he is sick. And if he has lost
+his money as he says, what are we to do?"
+
+"I haven't an idea in the world. This knocks me all to pieces," and
+Lucian leaned his head on his hands, the picture of bewilderment.
+
+"We ought to tell mother," Martine's voice trembled, "but perhaps we
+might as well wait another day; perhaps we can think of some one to
+advise us, or perhaps some plan will come to us in the night."
+
+"Very well," responded Lucian, "but I can't stay here long and pretend
+to be cheerful; I'll get out to Cambridge as quickly as I can."
+
+"Lucian made a short stay," said Mrs. Stratford when Martine told her
+that he had gone. "I agree with you that he is troubled about something.
+Perhaps he told you what it was."
+
+"Yes," said Martine, "he did give me an idea of it."
+
+Then Mrs. Stratford, knowing that it was not wise to interfere in the
+confidences of brother and sister, to Martine's relief asked no
+questions. The next day, however, the secret came out in part at least.
+Mrs. Stratford received a cable from Rio Janeiro. Its few words carried
+volumes of trouble. Mr. Stratford was ill, very ill; could some of his
+family come to him at once? Mrs. Stratford recognized the name of the
+one who had sent the cable; he was a man with whom her husband had long
+had business transactions. He would not have cabled unless her husband's
+condition were really serious. The telephone soon brought Lucian to the
+house.
+
+"There is only one thing," said Lucian; "by taking the afternoon express
+I can reach New York this evening, sail by a quick boat to-morrow for
+England, and go on as soon as possible to Rio Janeiro."
+
+"But we don't know anything about the sailings of the Brazilian boats."
+
+"No matter, mother, the sooner I reach England, the sooner I'll reach
+Brazil. I must go back to Cambridge now, throw a few things into a
+steamer trunk, and then, good-bye."
+
+"Oh, Lucian, what a help you are. At first I thought there was no one
+who could go. I will go down town at once and get a draft for you and
+meet you at the station; that will be better than stopping here on your
+way from Cambridge."
+
+These hasty plans were carried out exactly.
+
+"Everything is so hurried," complained Martine, "that I haven't had time
+yet to cry."
+
+"I have cabled to Rio Janeiro," said Mrs. Stratford, "to cable our
+bankers in London, if--if--anything happens."
+
+"Oh, nothing will happen," said Lucian cheerfully, "nothing serious, I
+mean. Only I am sure that it is wise for me to go, for father will need
+me to help him come home. And now good-bye."
+
+So mother and daughter parted with Lucian, and after this one exciting
+day, things settled down into their accustomed round. Within a week of
+Lucian's sailing Mrs. Stratford heard by cable that her husband was no
+worse.
+
+"It does not say 'better'," she murmured.
+
+"But 'no worse' is better than nothing," said Martine.
+
+"When we consider how little Lucian was here with us, it is strange,"
+said Martine one day, "that we should miss him so. Poor boy, I am sorry
+that I teased him so about his finals. I am sure that he would rather be
+in Cambridge working for dear life than tossing about on the ocean, not
+knowing what news he may hear at the end of his journey. But there's one
+thing, he rose to the occasion, and I'm so thankful that he has really
+grown up."
+
+In spite of the anxiety of mother and daughter, each for the sake of the
+other tried to be cheerful. Martine, until the first of June, was fully
+occupied with school. Priscilla and her more intimate friends
+sympathized deeply with her when they heard of her father's illness.
+Letters from others came to them gradually, and some of Mr. Stratford's
+business associates were frank with Mrs. Stratford when she asked their
+opinion on her husband's affairs. One day she called Martine to her for
+a frank talk.
+
+"It is evident," she said, "that we must live at the very smallest
+possible expense for the next few months. I am going to send the cook
+away at the end of the present week; now that your school is ending, you
+will not object to supplementing Angelina's work. Angelina sees
+something dramatic in what she calls 'our fallen fortunes.' She is
+delighted to be considered housemaid and cook combined. She tells me
+that I am not to lift my hand, but wear my prettiest dresses all the
+time so that there'll be one lady in the house, while you and she are
+doing the work."
+
+"Well, really," cried Martine, "it's a little too much for her to put me
+immediately on her own level."
+
+"Oh, she doesn't mean it in that way; in fact, what she said was
+intended only to make me comfortable. If I were a little stronger I
+would plan to stay in Boston all summer, but I've had a talk with the
+doctor and he tells me that I need a complete change. We cannot afford
+any extravagance this summer, and only one plan suggests itself to me."
+
+"What is it, mamma?"
+
+"Simply this. A few years ago, when your father and I were at York
+Harbor, we fell in love with a little red farm-house that stood on a
+knoll commanding a view of the sea. We had no particular object in
+buying it, the land belonging to it was limited, but I had an idea that
+sometime perhaps we might build a house there. It is quite outside the
+fashionable section, yet not very far from the electric cars, and the
+house is in pretty good repair."
+
+"Does any one live there?"
+
+"Well, that is the curious part of it; the owner was an old woman and we
+let her stay on there, rent free, on condition that she should keep the
+little garden planted and let us know when any repairs were needed. Last
+September she died and the house has been unoccupied this winter; it
+seems to me that this would be an ideal place for us this summer. Even
+if I were able to stay in the city, I should not approve of your doing
+so. You need the out-door life to which you are accustomed. We could
+take enough of our small belongings with us to make the cottage
+comfortable and homelike. Angelina would be quite equal to the work."
+
+"With my help," interrupted Martine gayly.
+
+"Yes, with your help; and I know you can be very helpful, Martine, when
+you wish. What do you think of my plan?"
+
+"I think it's perfectly splendid," replied Martine. "I've often heard of
+York Harbor. Peggy Pratt used to talk about it. I think her family has a
+cottage there."
+
+"Of course," continued Mrs. Stratford, "you must remember that we shall
+live very quietly there; for the present I feel that we have no income
+coming in. We must live on the little money that I have saved until we
+know just where your father's business stands. Besides, until we know
+that he is really well, we are under a shadow. At any moment we may hear
+the worst news, and that, if nothing else, would lead us to live
+quietly."
+
+"Of course, mamma, of course I understand this perfectly. I have no wish
+for gayety; really I would rather live quietly. I am so glad that I got
+only one silk gown, instead of the three I intended. And, luckily, I
+haven't given away many of my last summer's clothes; so I shall be all
+fitted out without any expense."
+
+"There, there," cried Mrs. Stratford, "don't think too much about
+economy--or clothes; we shall do very well, even as things are, if only
+we hear good news from South America."
+
+It was now June. Priscilla had gone home. Martine's other friends had
+left the city for the North Shore or the mountains. Some of Lucian's
+friends in Cambridge dropped in occasionally, and Amy and Mrs. Redmond
+were as devoted as ever. Amy, however, was very busy with the many
+duties and pleasures of a Wellesley Senior when Commencement is only a
+few weeks away. Of all the invitations that she showered on Martine for
+the various festivities that Wellesley offers in June, Martine accepted
+only the one that took her to Wellesley Float Day.
+
+"As long as I live," she said afterwards, "I shall never forget the
+beautiful twilight on the lake, the boats gliding about so mysteriously
+and gracefully, the music floating over the water, the lights that
+bathed everything in glory; no, I never expect to see anything more
+beautiful of its kind," she added mischievously, as a kind of
+anti-climax, lest Amy, who was listening to her, should be too proud of
+her college.
+
+But as the long June days wore away, Martine had little time for
+anything outside her home; she could not deny the fact that her mother
+was growing paler and thinner. Mrs. Stratford, looking anxiously at
+Martine, saw a certain change in her daughter.
+
+"The sooner we get away, the better; Martine is worrying about her
+father, and will not tell me. A change of air and scene will benefit
+her. I wish that we had not undertaken to have the cottage painted. The
+last week in June seems too far away."
+
+In their trouble, Martine and her mother were not neglected by their
+friends. They had not many near relatives, yet invitations came to them
+from the cousins in New York, from other cousins in Chicago and even
+from Mrs. Blair; but mother and daughter both preferred the independence
+that they would find in their cottage at York to the formality of
+visiting even the best intentioned friends and relatives.
+
+"You may have visitors of your own part of the summer," said Mrs.
+Stratford. "We shall have at least one spare room in the cottage, and
+when things are running smoothly there'll be no reason why you should
+not have Priscilla with you."
+
+"That reminds me," said Martine, "that I've never told you that Mrs.
+Tilworth and I have really made up. You know she was rather frigid
+towards me for several weeks this spring; but after my return from
+Plymouth she told Priscilla that she had changed her mind about me. It
+seems that I made a great impression on Mr. Stacy during my holidays,
+and Mr. Stacy, it also seems, is the one person for whose opinion Mrs.
+Tilworth has an especial regard; consequently Mrs. Tilworth is inclined
+to accept Mr. Stacy's estimate of me and for the present the war between
+us is at an end."
+
+"War between you! My dear child, I should be very sorry indeed had there
+been such a state of affairs; I think myself that you and Priscilla have
+always been a little wrong in your opinion of Priscilla's aunt."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MISSING TRUNK
+
+
+It was the Thursday before Class Day, a clear morning, almost cool, with
+just a suggestion of coming warmth in the air. Martine sank into a chair
+by the open window, and gazed over the tops of the trees at the long
+vista of the Avenue. Not for a moment would she have admitted that she
+was tired, and yet there was a trace of weariness in the sigh with which
+she sank back in the comfortable easy chair.
+
+As a matter of fact she had been working with a degree of energy that
+she had seldom shown before. Martine had never been accused of laziness,
+even in her idler days, yet her energy had never been expended in the
+prosaic realm of household work. But now the situation was changed, and
+for the past week she had worked unremittingly, packing, clearing, doing
+all kinds of little things that would simplify the departure for York a
+week later. Angelina, it is true, had helped her to the best of her
+ability, and had even succeeded in subduing some of her own natural
+flightiness. She was proud of her present position as sole assistant in
+the little household, and the prospect of continued hard work during the
+summer in no way troubled her.
+
+If Martine was weary on this particular morning, her weariness was
+tempered with satisfaction. Everything had gone so smoothly that she
+would be able to enjoy Class Day without disagreeable remembrances of
+things left undone.
+
+While she sat by the window, thoroughly enjoying her well-earned rest,
+she was startled for a moment by feeling two soft hands clasped over her
+eyes. Before she had had time to wonder long, a soft laugh told her who
+the newcomer was.
+
+"Why, Elinor Naylor, where in the world--"
+
+"Straight from Bar Harbor," said Elinor, answering the unfinished
+question, "that is, we arrived early last evening, and I've come here
+directly from the hotel. Kate Starkweather's brother has a large spread
+to-morrow, and though I had not intended to come, mamma thinks I ought
+to see at least one Harvard Class Day--and so here I am."
+
+For a few moments the two talked as rapidly as friends will who have not
+seen each other for weeks. Elinor told her Class Day plans, and tried to
+arrange to meet Martine after the statue exercises.
+
+"I do not expect to see very much of Class Day," said Martine, "it would
+be different if Lucian were here. I am going with Amy to Fritz Tomkins'
+spread, and to the Pudding because Hazen Andrews is in it. His mother is
+one of mamma's friends in Chicago. Mrs. Blair thinks I ought to wait
+until I am eighteen before going at all. But mamma is not so
+conventional, and she said I might."
+
+"I suppose you are very busy," said Elinor, as she rose to go. "So I
+hesitate to ask a favor."
+
+"Ask it," cried Martine. "I am not half as busy as I was yesterday. I am
+sure you won't ask anything I cannot do."
+
+"It's only this," continued Elinor. "My trunk hadn't come this morning,
+and we could get no information when we telephoned. It would be simply
+awful if it shouldn't arrive in time for me to go to the Senior spread.
+Kate and I put our things into the one trunk, and I can't understand why
+it hasn't come. We gave our checks to an expressman at the station. If
+only I knew the city a little better, I'd go down town, and find out
+what has happened to it."
+
+"There," exclaimed Martine, laughing, "Your favor is a very simple one.
+You would like me to pilot you about--with the greatest pleasure."
+
+"I feared you might be too busy," and Elinor glanced around the room,
+with its half-filled boxes, and books piled on tables, waiting to be
+packed.
+
+"I should do little more to-day. My mother is staying with friends in
+Brookline over Sunday. Angelina is out just now, but I'll leave word
+with the elevator-boy that I'll be back by one."
+
+Martine was soon ready, and after one more vain effort to learn
+something by telephone about the trunk, the two set out for the downtown
+express office. There they were equally unsuccessful, and so continued
+their journey to the great North Station.
+
+The baggage-master was a trifle impatient. It was a warm day, and a busy
+season, but the two young girls and their evident anxiety appealed to
+him.
+
+"It's up to the Express Company," he said at last, "to give you your
+trunk. I have made a careful search, and no trunk with the number on
+your claim-check is here. You will find it probably at the hotel. I
+would advise you to go back."
+
+"You are sure it isn't here?" asked Martine.
+
+"Perfectly sure."
+
+"I know it isn't at the hotel. But of course I can ask again," said
+Elinor. "I am awfully sorry to have brought you on this wild-goose
+chase, Martine, we might as well turn about now. The whole thing is very
+queer."
+
+It seemed queerer when no search, no enquiries produced the missing
+trunk. One thing only was clear. There was a record that it had been
+taken from the station. It was perfectly evident that it had not been
+delivered at the hotel, where, strangely enough, the trunk belonging to
+Kate's aunt had arrived safely.
+
+"It was a large steamer trunk," said Elinor with a sigh, "but small
+enough for thieves to carry away. I suppose they took it from the back
+of the wagon. You shouldn't have thieves in Boston."
+
+"Probably they came from some other city. Philadelphia possibly,"
+retorted Martine. Then, as quickly, "Excuse me Elinor, I did not really
+mean that. What a pity you and I are not the same size. I would gladly
+lend you anything of mine you could wear."
+
+"Oh--no--" responded Elinor, "I am sure nothing of yours would fit me.
+You are so much taller and thinner. Short and dumpy people like me never
+can wear other people's clothes. It won't be so bad for Kate, when I
+break the news to her."
+
+"But what will you do?"
+
+"We must go out at once and buy gowns and hats. I begrudge the money
+just now. Kate won't mind, nor her aunt. They love to spend money for
+clothes, and can afford anything. I have to be more careful; but after
+coming so far--I can't be cheated out of Class Day, and this grey gown
+and dark hat would be utterly out of place."
+
+"Not so very long ago I should have thought it great fun to buy a whole
+outfit on the spur of the moment," responded Martine, "but the past few
+weeks I have grown so economical that it seems extravagant to buy
+anything one doesn't need."
+
+"But I certainly need a muslin gown and a hat, a fan, a parasol, light
+shoes--"
+
+"There, there, let me lend you a parasol, fan, and some of the other
+things that don't have to be made to order. Also I have a lovely hat
+that would fit you like the paper on the wall, if you would borrow it.
+Please say yes."
+
+With some protests Elinor accepted Martine's offer, and after luncheon,
+accompanied by Kate and her aunt, they set out for the most fashionable
+outfitter's. Kate, with Mrs. Starkweather's approval, unrestricted in
+the matter of money, soon chose a costume complete in every detail.
+Elinor, wishing to spend less, had greater difficulty in suiting
+herself.
+
+"By six o'clock surely," said the obliging saleswoman, "everything shall
+be ready. Two or three workwomen will at once be set on the alterations.
+This is a special case, and we are glad to do all we can to oblige you."
+
+"Now Elinor, come back with me," urged Martine, "we have half the
+afternoon before us, and we might as well have a good long talk."
+
+"That will suit me very well. Mrs. Starkweather and Kate have to stay in
+to see callers. You will not care," she concluded turning to her
+friends, "if I stay with Martine until five. She is going to lend me a
+hat, and fan, and other things."
+
+"Provided you return to the hotel by five, you may go with Martine now.
+We are greatly obliged for your assistance," and Mrs. Starkweather shook
+hands cordially with the young girl.
+
+The apartment seemed cool and pleasant to the two friends, as they
+entered it, and Martine sank down in a little willow chair with a sigh
+of relief.
+
+"Angelina," she called, "Angelina!"
+
+In a moment Angelina stood before her.
+
+"Bring me the large hat-box from my closet, please."
+
+"Certainly, Miss Martine."
+
+"It's handsomer than my own," exclaimed Elinor, as Martine lifted the
+large white hat from the box, and set it on her friend's head.
+
+"It suits you perfectly. I am so glad I have it!"
+
+Martine did not explain that this was the hat she had herself meant to
+wear Class Day, and that her second best was not nearly as becoming.
+Martine was not vain, and it really pleased her that she had something
+to offer Elinor. The fan, parasol, and other little accessories were
+quickly chosen from Martine's abundant store, and then the two girls sat
+down for the promised long talk.
+
+"I know you'll like York," said Elinor. "Every one does."
+
+"Oh,--I dare say,--I remember Peggy Pratt at school was always talking
+about it. But of course I am not going for fun, and we are to live in
+the littlest bit of a house, with only Angelina for maid, and I shall
+hardly have a cent to spend."
+
+"I know, I know," responded Elinor gently, "but spending money is not
+everything, you can enjoy so many things without it."
+
+"Oh, I dare say, but money helps. You and Kate would have had to give up
+your Class Day, or wear unsuitable clothes, if you hadn't had money to
+buy new outfits to-day. Still, I like the idea of the little cottage,
+and helping mother, and if father only comes back safely, I sha'n't care
+if we haven't a penny in the world."
+
+"You must have had rather hard work packing up," said Elinor
+sympathetically; "I suppose Angelina has been more hindrance than help."
+
+"Oh, no--she has surprised us all by taking a real interest. I asked her
+if she wouldn't rather have a different kind of place for the summer.
+'What an idea!' she replied. 'I love hard work when I can get all the
+credit for it. Wild horses wouldn't keep me away from York. Besides,
+your mother has got so used to my Spanish flavoring that her health
+would suffer if I should leave.'"
+
+"She's a case," commented Elinor, "but tell me, is it true that you
+might have visited Mrs. Stanley at Bar Harbor this summer?"
+
+"Oh, she's papa's cousin," rejoined Martine, "and she _did_ invite me.
+But of course I had no intention of leaving mamma, even if I had been in
+the mood for a gay place like Mt. Desert. She has been growing paler and
+thinner, all the spring, and though she might have boarded in some quiet
+spot, she just couldn't have got along without me."
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"She thought I could accept the invitation for August, but this was out
+of the question. I doubt that I should have gone out to Cambridge
+to-morrow, if I hadn't seen that mother would be disappointed if I gave
+that up. There will be other Class Days, and I can wait. But it isn't as
+if I had to buy anything--a muslin that I had made in the winter is just
+the thing, and I haven't had to bother."
+
+"You are very sweet, Martine, about everything, and so different from
+what I thought of you that day we ran into each other at the car. Didn't
+I seem a little hateful when we were first introduced at Mrs. Weston's
+luncheon?"
+
+"Oh--no--only a little stiff, but that was natural, when you think of
+our first meeting," and Martine laughed at the remembrance. "I can't
+imagine you out of temper, since I have really known you."
+
+"Not even to-day?"
+
+"To-day?"
+
+"Why, I have been feeling particularly savage about my trunk. You must
+have noticed how I spoke to the man in the express office."
+
+"He deserved it, but really I didn't notice anything of that kind. You
+were really polite, considering you had lost a trunk."
+
+"It is really a loss," responded Elinor, "even to Kate, and I wish that
+some one could explain what happened to it."
+
+"It may simply be mislaid. Ten to one it may turn up to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, I hope not. That would be exasperating, after all the trouble we
+have had to-day. I would almost rather that the trunk should stay lost.
+Then we could bring suit for damages."
+
+"You can generally get only a hundred dollars on a single trunk, at
+least I remember hearing papa say that was all railroads would pay,"
+said Martine sagely, "and what would that be among two?"
+
+"You shouldn't have put all your eggs in one basket."
+
+Elinor and Martine started at the sound of a strange voice, but looking
+up they saw Angelina standing at the door leading toward the
+dining-room. She had used a curious falsetto with which at times she
+liked to experiment.
+
+"I just meant to remind you it's half-past four, and I heard Miss Elinor
+say she must be back at the hotel by five. You've just barely time, and
+if you please I'll carry the boxes for you."
+
+Thus Angelina turned aside the reproof that might have been given her
+for listening at the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CLASS DAY
+
+
+At the breakfast-table Class Day morning, Martine found an envelope
+addressed in Elinor's neat handwriting.
+
+"You just must come with us," she read, as she broke the seal; "I had
+only half as good a time as I might have had last night, thinking of
+you. There must have been crowds of people you knew there. Kate's
+brother brought us four tickets for everything--even for Sanders Theatre
+this morning. So please be ready at ten. Telephone. Hastily, Elinor."
+
+Martine, glancing at the clock, made a rapid calculation. In no way
+could she double the hours between eight o'clock and one, and she had a
+morning's work to do before she could rightfully set out on a
+pleasure-trip.
+
+"Angelina," she called, "please go to the telephone. Call up Miss
+Naylor, and say that I cannot go with her this morning. Tell her,
+please, that I will meet her as we agreed in the afternoon."
+
+For a moment Angelina did not move. Telephoning was one of her delights,
+and Martine wondered why she stood rooted to the spot.
+
+Angelina, however, quickly explained herself.
+
+"Oh, Miss Martine," she cried, "I hate to give a message like that. You
+just ought to go off and have a good time. It isn't right for you to
+slave and slave, and you younger than me."
+
+Martine smiled at Angelina's lugubrious expression. She did not wish the
+latter to see that she was a little downcast at the thought of the quiet
+morning at home.
+
+"Go, Angelina," she cried, "run quickly; it's a hot day, and I'm
+thankful enough that I can stay home until noon. Don't wait for an
+answer. Simply leave the message for Miss Elinor."
+
+Martine's tone was so positive that Angelina had no choice but to obey,
+and when she returned, Martine was on her knees packing one of her
+mother's trunks.
+
+"Angelina," she explained, "we have only this morning and to-morrow for
+the rest of our packing, for I have promised to spend Sunday with the
+Strothers' in Brookline, where mamma is. You are to go to Shiloh late
+Saturday afternoon, and on Monday morning you and I must be here
+promptly at nine, to send off the trunks and boxes. Mamma will stop here
+with Mrs. Strothers on her way to the station to see that everything is
+left in perfect condition. So even if we work with all our might this
+morning we shall barely get through in time."
+
+"There's another helper coming," murmured Angelina.
+
+"Oh, yes, a scrub-woman, who couldn't do the least little thing to help
+pack the trunks. But hurry with the dishes, Angelina, for you can be a
+lot of use."
+
+Though she spoke briskly, Martine felt a little depressed--for Martine.
+
+As she lifted trunk-trays, and folded skirts, and packed things in
+little boxes, she could not help thinking how much pleasanter it would
+be to spend the morning in Sander's Theatre, listening to witty
+speeches, or later walking about the college grounds, with Elinor and
+Kate and half a dozen attendant undergraduates.
+
+"If only mother hadn't been sick--"
+
+Then she suppressed the thought, ashamed of her own selfishness.
+
+At twelve o'clock she glanced around the room with undisguised
+satisfaction.
+
+"There, Angelina, we can easily finish to-morrow. Only two trunks and
+one box left, and some little odds and ends to do at the last moment.
+Oh, dear, I must get away quickly--the rooms look so bare."
+
+The fatigue that Martine had hardly before admitted to herself, almost
+overcame her while she was dressing. Bending, climbing, wielding a
+hammer, undoubtedly strengthen the muscles in the long run. Yet the
+process of muscle-building is often accompanied by sensations that an
+amateur athlete might pardonably call "weariness."
+
+Consequently, Martine must not be blamed if for a moment her spirit
+weakened as she looked at the white gown that Angelina had spread out
+for her on the divan.
+
+"I can't go," she said; "I am too tired. I ought to have waited for
+Lucian's Class Day, and if he is never to have a Class Day--why, then I
+am never to have any fun. If we are so poor that he cannot finish
+college, then I shall be too poor to go to parties--or--or anything."
+
+There is nothing worse for a girl's spirits than self-pity. As Martine
+bent over the dress on the divan, a big tear splashed on one end of the
+silk sash. This was followed by a second tear, and then the absurdity of
+the situation produced the rainbow. The rainbow in this case was the
+smile that flashed amid the tears, the smile that made the tears seem
+absolutely absurd as Martine caught sight of herself in the glass.
+
+"What a baby I am! Here I am going to join two of my best friends who
+have promised me a splendid time, and just because I am a little tired,
+I feel as if the world were falling to pieces."
+
+A cool bath--an hour of leisurely dressing--a few compliments from
+Angelina--and Martine was herself again.
+
+She knew that her mother would not altogether approve of her going alone
+to Cambridge, and she regretted that she had not allowed Amy to send
+some one for her, as at first she had suggested.
+
+Just as she was wondering whether, if she could afford a carriage, her
+mother would approve of her driving to Cambridge alone, she heard
+Angelina's--
+
+"Walk in, please. Yes, ma'am, she hasn't gone yet," and then she
+recognized the pleasant voice of Mrs. Redmond, saying,--
+
+"Tell her she need not hurry. I can wait."
+
+"But I can't wait--not a single minute," and Martine, rushing from the
+little bedroom, almost flung herself into Mrs. Redmond's arms.
+
+"There, there, my dear child--it's a warm day, and our clothes--"
+
+"Will not stand crushing. I know it, and how sweet you look in that soft
+gray. But I thought you were at Cambridge."
+
+"Oh, no, I was not invited to the feast of reason this morning. I am
+going out merely for the frivolities of the afternoon. I forgot to write
+you that I had promised your mother I would call for you. I realized my
+oversight only as I started. Perhaps you have made other plans?"
+
+"I have been too busy for plans. Mamma forgot to tell me you were
+coming. An hour ago I thought I was too busy to go to Cambridge, but
+now--it just delights me to think of going with you."
+
+The ride in an open car over the long bridge soothed Martine. She almost
+forgot that she had been tired. When Mrs. Redmond drew from her the
+story of her recent responsibilities, the young girl made light of the
+difficulties that had beset her. She was always happy with Mrs. Redmond,
+and the latter's quick understanding of her present trials lessened the
+trials themselves.
+
+When they reached Harvard Square, Martine's spirits rose.
+
+"There's no doubt I love a crowd," she said. "This makes me think of a
+country fair, only the people are better dressed, and there are no
+fakirs."
+
+"My dear child--a country fair!"
+
+"I mean the atmosphere is somewhat the same--oh, there are Amy and
+Fritz."
+
+Somewhere from the crowd pouring out from one of the smaller college
+gates, Amy and Fritz were approaching the spot on the sidewalk where
+Martine and Mrs. Redmond were standing.
+
+"I am delighted to see you, children," said Mrs. Redmond. "I was
+secretly wondering where we should go next--to Fritz' rooms or to the
+Pudding."
+
+"Oh, to the Pudding at once," responded Fritz; "you are none too early.
+As for Amy--"
+
+"I shall never dare look a strawberry in the face again. Early as it is,
+I have already eaten so many, and, oh, mamma, it is all so delightful.
+Fritz and I have already been at the Pudding, and now we'll go back with
+you."
+
+At this point Mrs. Redmond interfered. She assured Fritz that she and
+Martine were quite able to take care of themselves.
+
+"It is the Senior's day," she said; "and Martine and I are here only
+incidentally. One of us is too old, and the other too young--almost too
+young--to be exacting about Class Day. Martine's best time will come
+when Lucian graduates."
+
+"Run, Amy," exclaimed Martine. "It's delightful to see you and Mr.
+Tomkins getting on so well. You usually try to send him away somewhere;
+but now you are ready to go where he goes, and so your mother and I
+won't detain you for even a minute."
+
+"Let us hurry, then," said Amy, turning to Fritz. "If Martine is in one
+of her mischievous moods, we cannot tell when she will stop teasing."
+
+"At my rooms at four," cried Fritz, as he and Amy left the others at the
+entrance to the Pudding spread.
+
+From this moment for the rest of the day, Martine not only forgot that
+she was tired, but her recent troubles seemed altogether of the past. In
+spite of the great crowd, a number of her Chicago friends found Martine
+in the corner where Mrs. Redmond made her sit. It is true that she had
+not even a word with Hazen Andrews, her special host, who, like most
+Seniors, was thoroughly occupied looking after relatives and the girls
+of the older set, to which Martine did not belong.
+
+She had not many friends among the Seniors, though two or three in their
+flowing gowns, mortar-boards in their hands, came up to speak to her or
+Mrs. Redmond.
+
+"Isn't it fun?" cried Martine to the latter. "It's like taking a journey
+somewhere, and running upon all kinds of people that one hasn't seen for
+a long time--only one seldom sees so many persons one knows on a single
+journey."
+
+Promptly at four o'clock Mrs. Redmond and Martine met Amy and a number
+of her friends at Fritz' rooms, and together they all went over to the
+Memorial delta where the statue exercises were held.
+
+"It's dazzling!" cried Martine, looking about at the tiers and tiers of
+gayly dressed girls and women; "only more beautiful than a flower
+garden, because it's more alive, this garden of people. I wish we could
+see Elinor here."
+
+"My dear little girl, this is a great pleasure," said a voice at
+Martine's elbow, and turning to the left, to her great surprise, Martine
+found her neighbor to be a Chicago friend of her father.
+
+"Didn't know I was an old Harvard man! Well, the West does take the
+starch of culture out of us. I'm going down there among the graduates
+after a while. I'm holding these seats for my niece and a friend, who
+thought they could never find it unless I was here as a landmark. They
+failed to meet me, as people always fail on Class Day. Let me see,
+Lucian doesn't graduate this year?"
+
+"No, he isn't in Cambridge; he has gone to join father."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course; this has been a hard year for your father."
+
+The tears came to Martine's eyes.
+
+"Bless my soul, child, don't cry. It's coming out all right. Everyone
+must have some business cares, and up to the present your father has
+been remarkably successful. But money isn't everything!"
+
+"That's just it," responded Martine. "The money doesn't matter at
+all--to me. But we are afraid that father is breaking down--that's why
+Lucian has gone to South America; and we can't hear for some time just
+how things are."
+
+"Well, well! I didn't realize that things were going so badly--at least
+you must think they are going badly, or you wouldn't look downcast. A
+bright girl like you should always look on the bright side of things.
+But so far as your father's business is concerned, I may tell you that
+it is likely to take a turn for the better--at present I am not at
+liberty to say more. It's this news about his health that troubles me.
+Let me know what you hear from Lucian."
+
+Mr. Gamut's words were more cheering than anything Martine had heard for
+weeks, and in the few minutes that intervened before the arrival of his
+niece, he told her a number of interesting stories about earlier Class
+Days.
+
+"This is a larger gathering, this crowd around the statue, than we used
+to see at the tree. But give me the tree, and the wreath, and the wild
+scramble, and the torn flowers that the boys were almost ready to stake
+their lives for! Sometimes I am afraid we are making everything too
+refined; a little rough and tumble is good even for the most cultivated
+students. This confetti!--no, I don't care for it."
+
+Mr. Gamut, on the arrival of his niece, departed to his place among the
+graduates. The niece was a girl whom Martine had known slightly at home.
+She had recently come from Chicago, and in consequence, was able to tell
+Martine various bits of news, which, if not important, at least had some
+interest for one away from home.
+
+After the mass of students had marched into the enclosure, and had given
+all the regulation Harvard cheers, Martine felt herself thoroughly
+imbued with the spirit of the day. She listened intently to the cheers,
+hummed the air of "Johnny Harvard" while the students sang it. When her
+own stock of confetti was exhausted, she helped Mrs. Redmond throw hers
+in the direction of Fritz.
+
+"It's the prettiest sight I ever saw," she cried. "This wonderful
+shimmering network of ribbons--it's as if we had been caught in a
+rainbow--and if we were only a little farther away from people, they
+would seem like real fairies. Oh, I am glad I came!"
+
+"I am glad that you are cheerful again," whispered Mrs. Redmond. "For a
+moment to-day, I feared that you were going to be blue."
+
+"Well, it was only for a moment. Now I feel happy--almost as happy as
+Amy. Come, Amy dear, Fritz will never find you in this crowd. Let us
+return to his rooms as quickly as we can. The sooner we are there, the
+sooner we shall go on to the spread."
+
+How Priscilla would have shuddered at the teasing tone that Martine used
+in addressing Amy. Even though she now understood Martine so much better
+than formerly, and, indeed, really loved her, Priscilla could not
+accustom herself to Martine's frivolity of speech and manner toward Amy.
+Fortunately for her own feelings, Priscilla was safely at Plymouth at
+this particular moment, and Amy, whom Martine never offended, only
+smiled indulgently at the younger girl.
+
+They had not long to wait at Fritz' pleasant rooms before he appeared,
+flushed and triumphant, accompanied by two or three friends.
+
+"Wasn't it fine? We managed to bring you a few sprays of flowers. The
+bevy of beauty on the seats above almost blinded us. But for that we
+might have done better, although I can tell you, no one else got more;
+and we fairly had to fight our way out. Now we are ready to share our
+trophies. This for you, Amy, and Barton--yours, I believe, are for Miss
+Martine; but I forget, you have never met. Mr. Barton, Miss Stratford--I
+always forget that the men I know do not always know the girls I know.
+But now, Barton, you will escort Mrs. Redmond and Miss Martine to our
+humble spread--and Helmer--ah, here they are--Miss Naylor, Miss
+Starkweather--let me present Barton and Helmer, and Jack Underwood. Now
+we can start--I thought your aunt was coming--ah! lost?"
+
+"Of course she isn't lost, Kate," interposed the practical Elinor. "I am
+sure that I hear her on the stairs." And to prove that Elinor was right,
+a moment later the elder Miss Starkweather came panting into the room.
+
+"You should have waited for me, girls; I had such a fright--I was sure
+you were lost!"
+
+"Not lost--only gone before," interrupted Fritz. "I am sorry I shocked
+you, Amy," he whispered, catching her look of reproof. "Let us hurry on,
+ahead of the others."
+
+Martine, walking with Fritz' friend, Barton, across the college yard,
+felt quite in her element. The young man was by no means bashful, and in
+a few moments the two were deep in a lively conversation. Martine's
+fatigue had passed away. Family trials were forgotten.
+
+Fritz Tomkins had united with four or five of his friends in giving a
+large spread in one of the modern halls outside the yard.
+
+Secretly Martine thought the affair conventional, "like any afternoon
+tea, with flowers on the table, and candelabra, and all the fashionable
+bonbons."
+
+"But you wouldn't see so many men at a mere tea, truly I think it's
+great fun," said the staid Elinor, snuggling into a corner beside
+Martine. "At the next game I shall hardly know what side I am on. I like
+Harvard so well, and your hat, Martine, the one I am wearing, you can't
+imagine how many compliments it has had. You were altogether too good to
+let me have it. Do you suppose I shall _ever_ find that trunk?"
+
+Before Martine could reply, some one came to carry Elinor off for a
+walk. Martine, left to herself, eagerly watched everything around her.
+
+"I wonder why Fritz pays more attention to Amy than to anyone else. He
+sees so much of her always that I should think to-day he'd look after
+other people. Now, I'm sure Amy isn't sentimental."
+
+But just at this moment, Martine caught an expression on Fritz' face as
+he turned toward Amy that set her thinking. Rising to her feet, she
+hurried toward Mrs. Redmond.
+
+"Tell me, please, how late you mean to stay. It's dark now, and the
+lanterns in the yard must be lit. I'd like to see the illumination, and
+hear the Glee Club sing, but I ought to be home by nine, please. I have
+a busy day before me."
+
+"Just as you wish, my dear. I will speak to Amy."
+
+A moment later, Amy, Fritz, and Elinor surrounded Martine, protesting
+against her departure, urging her to go with them to Memorial, to return
+with them to Fritz' rooms, to watch the illuminations; in short, to do
+anything but go home.
+
+Martine, however, was firm, and when she started off for the yard with
+Mrs. Redmond, Mr. Barton went with them.
+
+"It is a glimpse of fairyland," said Martine, as they strolled about
+through the crowd. "Why do these lines of lanterns make the yard look
+ten times its usual size? Why do these red lights make every one seem
+beautiful? Why--"
+
+"Let me continue," interrupted Emmons Barton. "_Why_ won't you come over
+to Memorial? _Why_ must you hurry home?"
+
+"Because I am Cinderella," responded Martine gayly. "Because I should
+hate to lose my glass slipper. Come, Mrs. Redmond, I am sure our car is
+waiting, if Mr. Barton will only find it for us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+AT YORK
+
+
+The morning after her arrival at York, Martine stood at the door of the
+little red farm-house. The air was fresh and cool, a delightful contrast
+to the last day or two of heat in the city that she had just left. A
+slight mist from the river softened without hiding the view. Through the
+rolling meadows that stretched before her across the road, she saw the
+thread of river winding its way toward the sea. The ocean itself was not
+in sight, though it made itself known in a certain agreeable saltness of
+odor that Martine quickly recognized.
+
+Martine gazed across the meadows with a certain pleasant expectancy,
+such as any young girl in a new place is likely to feel. The houses in
+the distance looked attractive.
+
+"I wonder if they are summer cottages, or if people really live there. I
+wonder who has this large house just across the road. It is rather
+handsome. I hope there are girls in the family. It must be very pleasant
+there, the garden seems to run down to the river. Our garden needs
+attention," she concluded, taking a few steps toward the flower beds,
+where a few stray geraniums and untrimmed rose-bushes were the sole
+adornments. After a few rather futile efforts to improve the appearance
+of these beds, Martine turned toward the house.
+
+The red cottage, as she faced it, was far from imposing.
+
+"It's like some of the roadside cottages I have seen in England and
+Wales. It isn't much larger. I'm glad that it is red instead of
+white--well I should have had to live in it just the same, but I should
+have hated a white house. A coat of red paint always makes a house seem
+picturesque," she concluded.
+
+At this moment Angelina, in a pink calico in which she looked more
+gypsy-like than ever, ran down the little slope to meet Martine.
+
+"Isn't it lovely," she said, "to be so near the road. We can see the
+electric cars pass by the corner over there, and hear the train. Didn't
+you notice the whistle this morning? I did, and it made me think of the
+city right off."
+
+"I don't often hear an engine whistle in the city."
+
+"Yes, but a steam-engine makes you think of the city. You know that you
+are not cut off from everything, and that sometime you can go back."
+
+"Why Angelina, I hope that you are not homesick?"
+
+There had been a suspicious quiver in Angelina's voice.
+
+"Not exactly homesick, oh, no, I feel perfectly at home with you and
+Mrs. Stratford, but still--well, you see, Miss Martine, we haven't as
+many neighbors as we had in the city. I knew something about every
+family in the Belhaven, but here I don't see how I'll begin to get
+acquainted."
+
+"Cheer up, Angelina," said Martine, pleasantly. "Don't let a little
+thing like that trouble you. A person of your sociable disposition can
+make acquaintances anywhere. But it's more dignified to proceed slowly.
+You and I will be busy enough the next few days getting settled. I have
+an idea that mother may need us now."
+
+"There," cried Angelina, as they stood inside the little entry. "It's
+small, Miss Martine, but it's real neat, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it's neat," and Martine looked at the steep flight of stairs that
+almost tumbled down into the narrow hall, separating the two front
+rooms. "It's neat enough, but I am glad we have a strip of red carpet
+for the stairs. Uncarpeted, the paint might soon wear off, and besides
+they would be rather noisy. But are you sure that you have finished your
+kitchen-work, Angelina?"
+
+"Well, I just haven't; I'm glad you reminded me." So Angelina hurried to
+the back of the house, where soon her voice was heard singing shrilly
+above the clatter of dishes.
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, as her daughter entered the sitting-room
+at the left of the hall, "the wall paper was very successful. What would
+this room have been without it?"
+
+"These pale yellow roses certainly brighten it up, and the color is not
+only cheerful, but increases the size of the room. This little cupboard
+in the wall is fascinating, and when we get some of our china in, it
+will be truly aesthetic."
+
+"If only it opened on a piazza," sighed Mrs. Stratford. "It is singular
+enough that so many New England houses are built without any pretence of
+a porch or piazza."
+
+"Oh, that can be remedied," responded Martine cheerfully. "There's a
+very attractive nook between those two trees, and we can send to town
+for an awning, and if we lay down a rug, and move out a sofa, and some
+chairs and a table, why we'll have a regular little summer house."
+
+Martine, pausing almost out of breath, noted with regret that her mother
+did not smile. A shadow crossed Mrs. Stratford's face.
+
+"Mother does not like it here," thought Martine, "neither do I, but I
+must like it."
+
+"Come, mother," she said aloud, taking her mother by the arm. "Wasn't it
+a good idea to have the walls of this dining-room painted blue? You see
+it gets so much sun, and this gives it the effect of coolness."
+
+"I dislike oak furniture." Mrs. Stratford did not answer the question
+that Martine had put indirectly to her. Her attention was now centred on
+the ugly extension table and the uncomfortable chairs ranged stiffly
+around the wall.
+
+"We'll have to put up with the chairs, I suppose, but I have a lovely
+old blue cotton curtain in one of the trunks that will hide the table
+and give the room any amount of style."
+
+"You are trying to make the best of everything, my dear, and I dare say
+you are right. But the house is so much smaller and plainer than I
+remembered it, that I fear we shall hardly be comfortable."
+
+"Oh, no; come, let me show you, already I have made ever so many plans;"
+and impressed by Martine's vivacious optimism, Mrs. Stratford at last
+began to see the pleasanter possibilities of the red cottage.
+
+Martine was not deceiving either her mother or herself in pointing out
+the best side of things, and yet in her heart there was a certain
+disappointment in her first survey of "Red Knoll."
+
+"We must have a name for the house," she had said the very afternoon of
+their arrival. "'Red Farm,' no, that isn't exactly the thing; 'Red Top,'
+no, the roof isn't red, and besides, that name has been used by some one
+else. 'Red Knoll'--there, why not, it combines the color of the house
+and the situation on a knoll--why not, mamma?" and as Mrs. Stratford had
+no adverse answer, Red Knoll it was from the beginning.
+
+A house needs something besides a picturesque name to make it attractive
+even to an optimistic girl anxious to see the bright side of things.
+
+The little farm-house that Mr. and Mrs. Stratford had so impulsively
+bought, was barely large enough for the three persons who were now to
+make it the summer home. The two square rooms on each side of the front
+door, if thrown together, would have been smaller than the bedroom which
+had been Martine's in her father's house. Over them, originally, had
+been two rooms of equal size. One of these was now to be Mrs.
+Stratford's bedroom. The other had been divided by a partition into two
+rooms each, resembling the so-called hall bedroom of many city houses.
+The one nearest her mother Martine appropriated for herself. The second
+she named euphemistically the guest-room; but for the present she
+intended to use it as a studio or writing-room, and had removed one or
+two other pieces of furniture to make room for a large deal table.
+
+Beyond this room, connected by a narrow door, were two ell rooms, one of
+which was assigned to Angelina. Downstairs in the ell were kitchen and
+wash-room, both with white-washed walls.
+
+"A small house, but our own," said Martine cheerfully, as she first
+walked through it. "I'll try to forget how different it is from the
+place we used to have at Oconomowoc. When father first sold it, he said
+some time he would buy a place on the New England coast, but he
+certainly hadn't Red Knoll in mind then."
+
+As the first evening in their new home came on, Martine felt lonely. The
+shadows gathering around the little cottage seemed to shut her out from
+the world.
+
+"Will things ever come right? I feel so--so miserable. I wonder what it
+is--mother, where are you?"
+
+Two or three times she called, before her mother's voice came to her
+from a corner of the little garden.
+
+"What are you doing out in the damp?"
+
+"Is it damp, my child? But the sunset was too beautiful to miss. You
+should have been out here with me. Where were you, dear?"
+
+"Helping Angelina."
+
+"That was right; it will take her some time to get perfectly adjusted.
+You are going to be a great comfort, Martine."
+
+Her mother's praise sounded sweet to Martine, yet she could not shake
+off a certain strange feeling, that she would have called homesickness
+had her mother not been with her.
+
+When they reached the house, they sat for a moment by the open window.
+
+"Mother," cried Martine, "I have an idea--I mean a special idea.
+Wouldn't it be better after this to have tea later, just as it begins to
+grow dark. Then we needn't miss the sunset."
+
+"Wouldn't that make Angelina's dish-washing come rather late?"
+
+"Oh, listen, listen," cried Martine, with something of her old
+eagerness. "It is part of my plan to leave the dish-washing until
+morning. There are only three of us, and so we need not follow
+old-fashioned housekeeping rules."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," and Mrs. Stratford shook her head as if in
+doubt. "But we can try the late tea to-morrow, so that we can go up in
+the meadow behind the house for our sunset. It is a better place for a
+view than my corner of the garden."
+
+It pleased Martine to hear her mother speak so cheerfully.
+
+"I'll try not to mind the melancholy twilights, and all those strange
+chirping things and the feeling of being shut off in a corner of the
+world, if only this place is good for mother."
+
+The later tea hour proved feasible, and Martine at the table with her
+mother after their little stroll to Sunset Hill forgot the melancholy
+twilight. Nor had she in their busy first week much time for discontent.
+The village boy whom Mrs. Stratford engaged to unpack their trunks and
+boxes was bewildered by their number.
+
+"There are some, Angelina, that are not to be unpacked now, please get
+him to put them in the unfinished ell room."
+
+"Yes, Miss Martine, I know just which they are, and I'll hurry back to
+help you hang those pictures."
+
+When all the pictures were hung, when artistic draperies covered some of
+the ugliest chairs, when pretty sofa cushions softened ugly angles, when
+books and bric-a-brac were distributed in carelessly homelike fashion,
+and when a number of really valuable rugs were used to tone down the
+crudeness of the carpets, Angelina surveyed the result with a pride that
+could not have been greater if she had been the owner of the cottage.
+
+"There," she cried. "It looks just like a city house, only more so, if
+anything. Don't you think so, Miss Martine, and I do hope you'll have
+some callers right away. Why, I almost feel as if I was back at the
+Belhaven when I look from this Cashmere rug to that Arts and Crafts
+silver bowl on the mantle-piece. No one can say that we haven't shown
+perfect taste, can they, Miss Martine?"
+
+"I am glad we brought all these things," replied Martine, "mother
+thought I was packing too much, but if we are to be here three or four
+months, we must make it seem as homelike as possible."
+
+"It certainly is homelike," continued Angelina, "especially that picture
+of Miss Brenda. Mrs. Weston, I mean; when I first saw her I always
+thought she was stylish, and that was years ago. Of course I hadn't been
+acquainted with many Back Bay ladies then, excepting one that taught in
+our Sunday School. But still, after all I've known I just think Mrs.
+Weston's at the very head of them. You are something like her, too, Miss
+Martine, in fact I should say you're almost as stylish, and to-day when
+I rode down to the village I saw a lot of young ladies that are just
+your kind, in white muslins and high-heeled shoes, and I hope they'll
+call on you soon. As far as I could make out from something I heard some
+one on the seat behind me say, they were going to a tea, and it's likely
+to be a gay summer. I'm glad of this for your sake, Miss Martine, for
+you've been too quiet lately for one of your age."
+
+Martine was not altogether pleased with Angelina's familiarity, though
+for the moment it seemed hardly worth while to rebuke her.
+
+Consequently Angelina, unreproved, continued her monologue:
+
+"I noticed a good many people in bathing when I passed the beach, but
+when I went up I found they were chiefly nurse-maids, employees of the
+cottagers. There were a lot of pleasant-looking nurses and children
+playing in the sand, and one that I spoke to, a nurse, I mean, was very
+accommodating, and told me lots about the cottagers. They bathe at noon
+every day, and it's a great sight. I presume when I do go in, I'll have
+to go in with the employees, for I suppose I'll be classed with the
+nurses and children that generally bathe in the afternoon."
+
+"You'll be classed with the children, if you babble on in this way,
+Angelina. But as to the bathing, you must ask mother."
+
+"Well, I wish you had been going to that tea, Miss Martine; the young
+ladies looked just your style. I asked the nurse about it, and she said
+it was given by Miss Peggy Pratt of Philadelphia."
+
+These last words of Angelina's made more impression than all the others.
+"Peggy Pratt." Martine felt on further reflection particularly
+aggrieved.
+
+"Elinor must have written Peggy regarding her summer plans, for Elinor
+was a person of her word, and she had promised to do this. If Elinor had
+not promised, of course I should have written myself. But now I am glad
+I did not, for probably I should have been treated just the same. Yet it
+doesn't seem just like Peggy."
+
+"Martine," called Mrs. Stratford from her corner a few minutes later,
+and Martine hurried to her mother's side.
+
+"Sit down, dear," added Mrs. Stratford, then with a shade of anxiety in
+her voice. "But you look tired. I fear you have been working too hard.
+Perhaps you did more than your share in preparing this boudoir for me."
+
+"Oh, no, Angelina and Timothy worked much harder than I. But it _is_ a
+cosy corner. Between the awning and the trees, you will be as well
+shaded from the sun as you would be indoors, and an open window wouldn't
+begin to give you so much air."
+
+Martine swung herself into the hammock.
+
+"There, I feel like a bird. Mother dear, you called me for something
+special, what is it?"
+
+"Only to say that Angelina is anxious to know how we will celebrate."
+
+"Celebrate?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Martine." Angelina had reappeared on the scene with Mrs.
+Stratford's glass of milk. "Celebrate," she repeated. "Why, Miss
+Martine, you haven't forgotten what day to-morrow is?"
+
+Martine sat upright in the hammock. "I really and truly had, but now you
+mention it it's the great and glorious Fourth, and what of that?" she
+concluded, waving her hand dramatically.
+
+"Oh, Miss Martine, it wouldn't be right to pass it by unnoticed. Why at
+the North End we used to sit up all the night before, and the streets
+were as full of noise as if a war was going on."
+
+"We couldn't celebrate in exactly that way," responded Martine smiling.
+"I am almost sure that I won't sit up to-night, and as to fire-crackers,
+what's the good, unless there's a boy in the house?"
+
+Again the sober expression returned to Martine's face, as this mention
+of the Fourth brought vividly to mind the many celebrations in which she
+and Lucian had taken a lively interest. Where was Lucian now? Would the
+whole family ever be together again?
+
+She came to herself with Angelina's high-pitched voice still ringing in
+her ears.
+
+"So I felt quite sure that you wouldn't object as the ten weeks is more
+than past, and as I've paid all that up, why, I made sure you wouldn't
+mind my spending just a little for fireworks. But I'd like you to look
+in your little book first."
+
+"I know it's all settled, Angelina, but you can bring me that little red
+book from the drawer in my writing-table."
+
+While Angelina was in the house, Martine explained to her mother what
+she had meant by "paying up."
+
+"It is that money Lucian paid for the hall. He told her to give it back
+to me. So she has been paying a dollar and a half a week. It is Lucian's
+money, though he wished me to keep it, and I agreed not to let Angelina
+know that it was he who helped her."
+
+"It is to Angelina's credit that she has paid so promptly."
+
+"It really is, mamma, and I think it has been rather a good thing as it
+has kept her from spending all her money foolishly. Of course, the hall
+itself was a foolish expense, yet these last few weeks she has been able
+to waste only part of her money, but now--"
+
+At this moment Angelina appeared with the little red book, and Martine,
+quickly turning to the pages with her account, saw to Angelina's
+satisfaction as well as her own, that the indebtedness for the hall had
+been cancelled.
+
+"There," cried Angelina, folding up the receipt that Martine with
+business-like exactness gave her. "I am relieved. Now I can celebrate
+all I want to, for fire-crackers cost a lot."
+
+"Please don't waste your money on fireworks."
+
+"Really, Angelina, you must not," added Martine.
+
+But Angelina, making no reply either to Mrs. Stratford or
+Martine--unless a nod and three shakes of the head and a broad smile
+could be called a reply, flew down the little slope toward the road.
+
+The morning of the Fourth was so quiet that Martine might have forgotten
+the great and glorious holiday but for Angelina. Before the breakfast
+dishes were washed, the latter was outside striking torpedoes against
+the stone that formed the kitchen doorstep.
+
+When Mrs. Stratford went with her books to her retreat under the trees
+in the garden, she found two small flags standing in the vase that was
+usually filled with flowers.
+
+When once her mind was turned toward the Fourth, Martine began to recall
+Independence Days of the past. What fun she and Lucian used to have!
+Why, they often had been up before sunrise to play with their
+fire-crackers and torpedoes. Then at night--
+
+"I wonder," mused Martine, "if any other children ever had half the
+sport we had. Set pieces, and fire balloons, as well as rockets; how
+indulgent father always was. No wonder I feel blue to-day, and expect
+too much--when it isn't likely that in this town a single person is
+thinking about us."
+
+The day, as befitted the holiday, proved hot, and Martine, swinging
+languidly in the hammock, at length admitted to herself that she was
+glad that she had no troublesome social engagement to keep, and she
+maintained this opinion even in face of Angelina's report, after a walk
+to the village, that there seemed to be a great deal going on.
+
+To oblige Angelina, dinner instead of tea was served at five, and it
+proved a great success.
+
+"I would like to have served red white and blue ice-cream, but I didn't
+know how to make it blue, so it's red and white," apologized Angelina.
+
+"I might have supplied the blue this morning," said Martine. "It's too
+late now." But no one understood her feeble attempt at a pun.
+
+"It seems worse," said Angelina, as they gathered up the dishes, "to
+leave dinner things to be washed until morning, but if your mother don't
+mind--"
+
+"I am sure that I don't," said Martine, "and as for mother--why, of
+course she won't care."
+
+"Well, I have some very important business to attend to--if you'll
+excuse me."
+
+Upon this Angelina disappeared, and in the pleasant twilight Martine
+went outside with her mother to the little retreat in the garden.
+
+"I half wish," said Mrs. Stratford, "that we had had a few fireworks.
+Even if we are shut off from the world, we ought not to forget the
+Fourth. I didn't suppose there would be much celebrating down here, but
+see!"
+
+Looking where her mother pointed, Martine saw a great fire balloon
+soaring slowly into the air. They watched it until it disappeared and as
+the twilight deepened, they counted many rockets and Roman candles going
+up in various directions.
+
+Before Martine could decide whether it would be wise to recall the
+Fourth when Lucian almost put his eye out by blowing into a fire-cracker
+to see if it was still burning, Angelina appeared on the scene with a
+number of packages. These she deposited on the slope in front of the
+house with consequential air.
+
+"Angelina," cried Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Yes'm," responded Angelina.
+
+"Angelina," called Martine, and without waiting for a reply walked down
+to where the girl was undoing her packages.
+
+"Then you really have fire-crackers here?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Martine, and rockets, and Roman candles, and fire balloons,
+at least only one balloon. It didn't seem homelike not to have something
+doing on the Fourth, and now that I can spend my own money, there's no
+reason why I shouldn't celebrate."
+
+Martine had no reply for this unanswerable argument, and in a second
+she, too, was busy helping.
+
+"I might have bought some myself, if I had thought of it in time."
+
+"That's it, if you'd thought of it in time. My, that's fine," and
+Angelina clapped her hands, as a rocket shot into the air falling in a
+shower of golden stars.
+
+"I didn't know I could find pleasure in anything so simple," said
+Martine, returning to her mother's side.
+
+"It only shows how limited our life here is," and Mrs. Stratford sank
+back in her chair with a sigh.
+
+"Oh, fireworks amuse everybody," rejoined Martine, "but now I must run
+back to Angelina. The last, she says,--is finest of all--a fire
+balloon."
+
+After two or three ineffectual efforts Martine and Angelina at last had
+the pleasure of sending off the balloon. But alas! Instead of pursuing
+its upward way, it was borne horizontally by a wandering breeze, and at
+last was lost to sight.
+
+"I know," cried Angelina. "It has gone somewhere behind the buildings of
+that estate over the way. I must get it." And in a flash she had run
+toward the large house regarding whose occupants Martine had so often
+wondered.
+
+"Our celebration is over, I suppose," said Martine to her mother, "but
+we might as well stay outside a little longer, and see! What magnificent
+rockets are going up from the estate across the way." A change of
+intonation carried out Martine's mimicry of Angelina's words.
+
+"Yes, and there's a balloon that puts Angelina's to the blush," and
+mother and daughter watched the ball of fire dwindling in the upper air,
+until it was lost apparently among the stars.
+
+It was some time before Angelina returned, breathless.
+
+"Oh, did you see my balloon? Wasn't it magnificent? They said they were
+proud to help send it up from their estate, and they only wished they
+had had some of their own. You see it had got kind of twisted after you
+and I sent it, and went down sideways, right on the lawn in front of
+their house. They seemed the most elegant people, and I told them how
+lonely it was for you up here, and you used to things so very different.
+When I mentioned your names it seemed to me they'd heard of you before,
+and so I asked them to come to see you."
+
+"Oh, how could you, Angelina, how could you!" cried Martine.
+
+"There, there," said Mrs. Stratford, as she laid her hand on Martine's
+arm as they turned toward the house. "I have always told you you would
+spoil Angelina. It's useless to reprove her now, for she won't
+understand what you mean, but in future you can be more careful."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+SIGHT-SEEING
+
+
+"York is pretty dull for you, Martine," said Mrs. Stratford a morning or
+two after the Fourth. "I was hoping you would run across some one you
+knew here. Wasn't Elinor to write to some of her friends?"
+
+"I thought so, mamma, but either she has forgotten, or they don't think
+it worth while to travel up to Red Knoll."
+
+"Of course you have many things to interest you about the house, but
+still it's quiet for you here, Martine."
+
+"It might be livelier," admitted Martine, "but there's a lot of
+sight-seeing I can do, while waiting for something to turn up. Amy and
+Priscilla have quite got me into the sight-seeing habit, and it would be
+a strange New England town that couldn't show something to a seeker for
+information."
+
+Mrs. Stratford smiled at her daughter's way of putting things. "York
+really has some history, and the village, as I drove through it the
+other day, had a pleasant, old-time aspect, though nothing looked
+ancient enough to take one back even a hundred years."
+
+"Oh, then you didn't notice the little gaol on the hill; labelled
+sixteen hundred and something, I've forgotten just what, but I believe
+it's as old as it claims to be, for it looks something like Noah's Ark.
+If Angelina will stay with you this afternoon, I will see what is to be
+seen there. They told me at the postoffice that the Historical Society
+has it in charge and that it's full of curiosities."
+
+While she was speaking, Martine's face had brightened perceptibly, and
+her enthusiasm pleased her mother. Later in the day she set off, for
+Angelina, whose habit it was to take the afternoons for her own
+amusement, willingly accepted Martine's suggestion that she should stay
+with Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"At any time when you wish it, Miss Martine, I'll be happy to oblige
+you," said Angelina, with an air better befitting a princess than a
+domestic employee, the most of whose time should have been at the
+disposal of her employer.
+
+"I've never really gone to jail before," cried Martine gayly, as she
+bade her mother good-bye, "but I'll try so to behave myself that I'll
+have nothing but good to report when I come back."
+
+For a moment or two, before she entered the gaol, Martine surveyed it
+from the road below. Her comparison of the little building to Noah's Ark
+really suited it very well.
+
+"I can't say that it's exactly my idea of a prison," she thought,
+"although those brick walls may be thick enough to balance the wooden
+ends; and even if a prisoner found it easy to jump from the upper
+windows to the ground, I dare say that some of the bolts and bars were
+strong enough to hold dangerous persons."
+
+Once inside the little building, Martine almost forgot that it was a
+prison, as she walked about gazing at all kinds of odd things that have
+been brought together to connect the present with the past. Old china,
+old pictures, autographs, furniture, fans, and other articles of
+personal adornment, spoke eloquently of bygone days; so eloquently that
+Martine shortly realized that a feeling of sadness was taking possession
+of her. She began to picture the people to whom these things had
+belonged, to wonder who they were, how long they had lived, and why
+their homes had been broken up.
+
+"For no one with a home," she said to herself, "would ever part with
+things of this kind." She looked into the old dungeon, the walls of
+which were eighteen or twenty inches thick, and turned away hastily when
+another visitor asked her if she wouldn't like to go farther inside.
+Then she went to the attendant seated at a table in the front room.
+
+"How old is this building?" she asked, rather to make conversation than
+because she really cared to know.
+
+"It was built in 1653," was the polite answer, "and is said to be the
+oldest public building in the United States; there are probably some
+churches and houses still standing that are a little older, but no
+building used for more than two hundred years continuously for public
+purposes. It was built by the Massachusetts people when they took
+possession of this part of the country in the time of Cromwell."
+
+"Indeed!" Martine was not exactly eager for information, but to hear a
+little more history would help pass the time.
+
+"Of course you know," continued the other, "that York was founded under
+a grant to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, and it was always strongly Royalist;
+it's the oldest incorporated city in the United States, and although its
+mayor and aldermen and other high officials existed chiefly on paper and
+the place was only a small village even into the eighteenth century,
+still we are all very proud of our history."
+
+At this moment a voice at Martine's elbow cried, "Bless my soul," in
+tones that were strangely familiar, and turning about she met the
+surprised gaze of Mr. Gamut whom she had last seen at the exercises
+around the Harvard statue on Class Day.
+
+"So it really is you, Miss Martine," said the Mr. Gamut, holding out his
+hand. "I had no idea that you were in this part of the world."
+
+"We have a little cottage here this summer," responded Martine.
+
+"Are you all together again? Surely your father--"
+
+"Oh, no, my father isn't here; we've had only one letter since I saw
+you, and that wasn't encouraging."
+
+Against her will, tears came to Martine's eyes.
+
+"There, there, remember what I told you; things are bound to come out
+all right."
+
+"Oh, I hope so. Mother says that if things were worse we should probably
+have had a cable."
+
+"That's the way to look at it. Come, walk around with me for a little
+while. I suppose you know all about these things. My niece wouldn't come
+with me. She doesn't care for history. A great place this New England!
+They seem to have saved all their old odds and ends and have a story to
+fit everything."
+
+"But York is really old and historic," protested Martine, proud of her
+recently acquired information. "The first settlers here were Royalists
+and held high positions."
+
+"On paper," said Mr. Gamut with a laugh. "Oh, yes, I know about Sir
+Ferdinand Gorges and his remarkable charter. Here are some of the coats
+of arms of the first settlers," exclaimed Mr. Gamut. "Do you suppose
+they wore them tied around their necks when they first came out?"
+
+"Not exactly," responded Martine, detecting Mr. Gamut's scepticism.
+
+"Well, I'm only a plain western man," continued the latter, "and I
+rather think that coats of arms and things of that kind didn't trouble
+the first settlers in spite of all this foolery," and he pointed to the
+colors blazoned on the shield and scrolls on the walls.
+
+"They're pretty to look at," apologized Martine.
+
+"Oh, yes, and I suppose people of a certain name have an uncertain right
+to claim these heraldic ornaments, but for my own part, I prefer
+something more substantial. Things like this appeal to me more," and he
+led Martine to a little cradle in which Sir William Pepperell slept in
+his babyhood. "Or even this," and he pointed out a small table at which
+Handkerchief Moody used to eat by himself.
+
+"Who in the world was 'Handkerchief Moody'?"
+
+"His story is one of the few York tales that I can tell," replied Mr.
+Gamut, smiling. "And you ought to know it too, young lady, because
+Hawthorne, in his way, has immortalized it. This Moody was the son of
+one of the ministers of the old church; he was intended for the law, but
+having accidentally killed a friend while out hunting, his father
+persuaded him to enter the ministry. Remorse, however, so preyed on him
+that he spent his life in comparative solitude, and whenever he went in
+public, it is said, he covered his face with a handkerchief; different
+reasons have been given for his strange behavior, and it may be that he
+was always mildly insane. At least, there must be some truth in the
+stories told about him."
+
+Martine, impressed by this curious story, was silent for a few minutes.
+
+"There's one thing," she said, "that I have learned about the old people
+of York; they must have set what Angelina would call a very handsome
+table. I've seldom seen in one place so many fine old cups and saucers
+and drinking glasses and decanters."
+
+"These things don't fit exactly our theories about New England plain
+living and high thinking. I tell you what, object lessons often teach us
+much more than books. But now," and Mr. Gamut looked at his watch, "I'm
+sorry to see that I must hurry back to the house; I am visiting a cousin
+for a few days and if you'll tell me where your cottage is, I shall have
+a great deal of pleasure in calling on you and your mother."
+
+As accurately as she could, Martine described the location of Red Knoll,
+and as suddenly as he had appeared on the scene, Mr. Gamut disappeared.
+After he had gone, Martine mounted the steep stairs to the second story
+of the gaol where she examined at her leisure the hand-made quilts and
+quaint furnishings of an old-time bedroom, and looked with interest at
+the picturesque costumes giving a somewhat ghostly effect to a number of
+dummy figures in one of the attics. She saw the cell, or rather the
+room, where gentlemen prisoners were confined, and going downstairs,
+took a final survey of the old kitchen, well equipped with cooking
+utensils of Colonial days.
+
+Her visit to the gaol had diverted her, but as she walked homeward over
+the dusty road, the old feeling of loneliness returned. Never before had
+she realized that she was dependent on young companionship; yet never
+before had she been so cut off from her own special friends.
+
+Mrs. Stratford was pleased to hear that Mr. Gamut intended to visit Red
+Knoll.
+
+"He probably," she said, "has friends at York, of whom we shall be
+likely to see something; he and your father were never intimate, but
+always good friends. I shall be glad to see him and I hope his niece
+will come with him, for there is no reason why we should live in utter
+seclusion."
+
+Two or three days passed away and then a week, and still Mr. Gamut had
+not presented himself. Meanwhile a letter had arrived from Lucian.
+
+"Father is still in a rather critical condition; he is not able to
+attend to business, though they say he is much better than before I
+came; it will be impossible to tell for some time how things really
+stand or when we can come home."
+
+"I call that very encouraging," cried Martine, reading the letter aloud
+for the second time. "I'm so glad that Lucian went out there."
+
+"He has certainly taken hold very well," responded Mrs. Stratford,
+"although I cannot agree with you that the letter is very encouraging."
+
+"But it might have been so much worse," murmured Martine, turning away
+that her mother might not discern any lack of cheerfulness in her face.
+For although the letter might have been worse, Martine realized that
+after all it did not promise a great deal for the future. Other letters
+came now to Red Knoll. Priscilla wrote affectionately. She knew, she
+wrote, it was probably warmer at Plymouth than at York and yet, if only
+it could have been arranged, she believed that Martine and her mother
+might have enjoyed the South Shore better even than the North.
+
+"The children talk of you constantly; no one ever made a deeper
+impression; so I have promised them that Thanksgiving, if not before,
+you will come again to visit us. Mr. Stacy asks for you whenever he sees
+me, and that, you know, is fairly often. He says that York is historic
+in its way, and he hopes that you will find a lot to interest you there,
+so that you can tell him all about it when you see him. He evidently
+thinks that York history isn't half as important as our Plymouth
+history, and of course he's right, because this was the earlier
+settlement; still if there's anything worth knowing about the place, I
+am sure you will find it out. For even though you made so much fun of
+Acadian history last summer, in the end you really knew more about it
+than any of the rest of us. That was because there was so much more to
+know about the Acadians than the English, and you may recall I tried not
+to remember the Acadian history that Amy talked so much about."
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, "I hope that Priscilla will visit you;
+she is the kind of girl to be quite comfortable in that little room next
+yours; there are some people we wouldn't care to put there."
+
+"Oh, Priscilla would just love it, but she wrote me a while ago that she
+couldn't possibly be spared, at least that she oughtn't to wish to be
+spared; and when Priscilla says 'ought not' she generally means 'will
+not.'"
+
+A day later Martine had her first letter from Amy, who was enjoying her
+first trip abroad; she and her mother had gone directly from Liverpool
+to North Wales, where Mrs. Redmond was anxious to spend a week or two
+sketching in the neighborhood of Snowdon.
+
+"She was here years ago, before her marriage," wrote Amy, "and so this
+is a kind of sentimental journey for her; she thinks that I have made a
+sacrifice in postponing our visit to London; but indeed, I find it very
+attractive here, and perhaps it is just as well to rest for a little
+while before we set out on a regular sight-seeing tour."
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, as her daughter replaced Amy's letter in
+its envelope, "you haven't yet gone down to the beach?"
+
+"No, mamma, I haven't really felt like going."
+
+"Well, I _do_ feel like going to-day," said Mrs. Stratford. "Let us take
+the next car and ride down as near as we can; people bathe about twelve
+and we shall be in season to see all that is going on."
+
+"Very well, mamma;" Martine's tone implied resignation to something that
+she did not wholly approve. In a few moments mother and daughter were
+well on their way to the beach. After they were once fairly started
+Martine's spirits revived. She and her mother had never passed through
+the village together and Martine pointed out the gaol and the old white
+church with its high spire, fronting a little green; and the old
+churchyard across the road, whose inscriptions she said she would not
+try to decipher until she could have Priscilla with her. It was a warm
+morning, but the motion of the car produced a refreshing breeze, and
+when at last they left it to walk toward the beach, both mother and
+daughter were in good spirits. At the edge of the sands a gay sight met
+them. Two large pavilions, roofed over, but open at the sides, were
+filled with gayly dressed people; the tide was fairly low, and on the
+sand in front half-grown boys and girls were romping in their
+bathing-suits, and nurse-maids with little children were disporting
+themselves in large numbers. From the bath houses behind the pavilions,
+a long plank extended to the water. Here bathers were coming and going,
+some dripping from their plunge, others ready to go in. Martine and her
+mother seated themselves on the first empty seat they came to at the
+edge of the pavilion. Martine, impressed by the gay hats, fluttering,
+colored veils, and thin muslin gowns, seen on every side, glanced
+involuntarily at her own plain linen suit.
+
+Mrs. Stratford, understanding her glance, spoke encouragingly. "You look
+very well, Martine; your dress is entirely suitable for the morning.
+Some of these other costumes are too elaborate."
+
+"I had no idea it would be so gay," responded Martine; "evidently we are
+in York, but not of it."
+
+Instantly she was sorry. But if Mrs. Stratford had heard her words, she
+made no comment. Mother and daughter sat for some time idly watching the
+crowd. Once or twice they recognized people they had known in Chicago,
+not intimate friends, but persons with whom they had a speaking
+acquaintance.
+
+"There's Mrs. Brownville," exclaimed Mrs. Stratford, as an elderly woman
+with an elaborate hat walked down on the sands. "I will drop a line to
+her; probably Carlotta is here too, and they will be glad to see you."
+
+"No, no, mamma," exclaimed Martine; "I never did like them, except at a
+distance, and I should hate to have them get in the habit of running to
+see us."
+
+"They might not take the trouble to come at all; we are out of the way,"
+rejoined her mother.
+
+Martine made no further reply; her attention was fixed on a girl who was
+walking up from the sands past the end of the pavilion. She seemed to be
+looking directly at Martine, and the latter rose from her seat as if to
+speak to the other; but before she could make her way outside, this girl
+had passed on without a sign of recognition.
+
+"That's a nice looking girl," said Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Yes," responded Martine. "That was Peggy Pratt."
+
+"Peggy Pratt; isn't she a friend of yours?"
+
+"A school friend," responded Martine bitterly. "But evidently she
+doesn't wish to recognize me here. I suppose she thinks that I'll be
+troublesome in some way."
+
+"Perhaps she didn't really see you."
+
+"She couldn't help it," replied Martine.
+
+That very day an invitation from Edith Blair came to Martine. "Mother
+and I," wrote Edith, from the North Shore, "would both be delighted to
+have a visit from you, a fortnight at least, a month if you can stay as
+long. Your mother, we hear, is much better, and she surely does not need
+you all the time."
+
+For a moment Martine was strongly tempted to show the letter to her
+mother, who, she knew, would certainly urge her to accept the
+invitation. It is true that Edith and her friends were some years older
+than Martine, but the latter knew that they would do their best to give
+her a good time. She would have a fine riding-horse, there would be
+trips of all kinds up and down the shore, and delightful afternoons at
+the Essex Country Club, pleasant evenings on the Blairs' piazza after
+dinners with bright and agreeable people. Under these circumstances, she
+could put up for a time with the patronizing manners of her mother's
+cousin, Mrs. Blair; for Edith was always sweet and agreeable, if a
+little slow. Really, it would be sensible to spend two weeks in this
+way. She could make herself more entertaining to her mother on her
+return. But here Martine drew herself up. Duty for the time being
+presented only one face; her place, for the present, was at Red Knoll;
+so without mentioning the invitation, she merely gave her mother the
+personal messages contained in Edith's letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE ISLES OF SHOALS
+
+
+It never rains but it pours. A day or two after their visit to the
+bathing beach, Martine and her mother were seated in their nook under
+the trees. It was early afternoon, and, as usual, Angelina was off for a
+stroll.
+
+"Why, there are some visitors," exclaimed Mrs. Stratford, and Martine
+looked up to see two ladies approaching the front door. Martine wouldn't
+have been a girl, if she hadn't glanced down involuntarily at her dress.
+
+"You look very well," said her mother, understanding her glance.
+
+"Well, I hate to have to play the part of maid," said Martine, "but it
+can't be helped now." So, laying down the book from which she had been
+reading aloud, she went over toward the newcomers.
+
+"I am Mrs. Ethridge, and this is my daughter, Clare. We are really your
+nearest neighbors," and she pointed to the large house across the road,
+about which Martine had often wondered. "A young girl, your assistant, I
+think she calls herself, came over to our house on the evening of the
+Fourth. Her fire balloon had gone astray." And Mrs. Ethridge smiled at
+the recollection. "She told us you were lonely, but we could not quite
+understand. Surely you are Martine Stratford, of whom we have heard so
+much from Elinor Naylor; you must have many friends at York; there are
+so many Philadelphians and Chicagoans here. Elinor mentioned you in the
+letter we had a day or two ago, and we recognized your name as the one
+your assistant had given us. In any case we ought to have called
+earlier, but we have had a house full of visitors, and--"
+
+"No apologies are necessary," responded Martine, with dignity. "We
+expected to be quiet this summer, although my mother will be most happy
+to see you." And leading them to Mrs. Stratford's corner, introductions
+were quickly made. Hardly had they seated themselves when Clare Ethridge
+exclaimed, "Why, there's Peggy Pratt," and Martine looking up,
+recognized the girl who was hurrying across the lawn, and a second
+later, Peggy was shaking hands with Martine most effusively.
+
+"What a queer girl you are, Martine Stratford; why didn't you let me
+know you were in York? Elinor Naylor wrote that you were coming, and I
+certainly thought you'd tell me where you were. Of course, I've asked
+everybody, but no one had seen you or heard a thing about you. I
+couldn't imagine your being hidden in a corner like this; so I supposed
+you hadn't yet arrived. I'm sure I didn't know what to do," and she
+looked around with an air of injured innocence, as if some one had been
+unjustly blaming her.
+
+"You might have inquired at the postoffice," said Mrs. Ethridge smiling,
+"you can generally get information about people there."
+
+"Oh, I dare say; but I just concluded she wasn't here."
+
+"But now that I _am_ here and you know that I am here," responded
+Martine gayly, "everything is as it should be." She did not mention the
+little incident at the beach, for she saw that her judgment of Peggy
+then had been wrong, and that the eyes which had seemed to see her had
+really been looking at something else.
+
+While Mrs. Ethridge and Mrs. Stratford talked by themselves, Peggy's
+tongue flew on reciting the attractions of York. Trips up the river, tea
+at the Country Club, yachting, trolley and auto excursions apparently
+filled her days; "really I never have a minute to myself," she said,
+"and to-morrow we are going to have a fish dinner at the Shoals, the
+whole crowd of us. We've got a special car to take us over to
+Portsmouth, and then we go by the steamboat; we thought it would be more
+fun than simply to sail over. There's a seat for you, Martine; I know
+your mother will let you go, and of course we shall see you too, Clare."
+
+"Yes," said Clare, "I had already promised."
+
+"Then it's all settled," cried Peggy; "you can bring Martine to the car,
+Clare. Now I must hurry on, for I have an engagement up at the Club, and
+I'm so glad to have seen you, Martine. Good-bye, Mrs. Stratford;
+good-bye, Mrs. Ethridge." And almost before they could say "good-bye"
+themselves, Peggy was out of sight.
+
+"I wonder that girl doesn't wear herself out; she is always flying from
+one thing to another," said Mrs. Ethridge.
+
+"It's hard for a girl to settle down in the summer," added Clare,
+"especially in a place where there is so much going on as there is
+here."
+
+"Habit is everything," and Mrs. Stratford glanced toward Martine,
+reflecting that she, at least, had been able to adapt herself the past
+few months to a quiet life.
+
+The prospect of the excursion to the Shoals was very agreeable to
+Martine, especially as she was to have the companionship of Clare. The
+latter was a quiet, dignified girl, possibly a little older than Martine
+and reminding her a little of Amy.
+
+Promptly at the appointed hour Martine met Clare at the turn of the
+road; they had not long to wait before the special car came in sight. As
+it stopped for them, there was a loud clapping of hands and shouts of
+welcome from those within. Martine, cut off for what had seemed so long
+a time from young people of her own age, was quite bewildered at this.
+Two of the boys who had stepped down to assist her and Clare on board,
+proved to be old acquaintances, Herbert Brownville and Atherton Grey;
+and when once they were fairly off her spirits had risen rapidly. The
+car sped on, up hill and down dale, past the golf club, through the
+woods, over bright, green meadows, along tressles surrounded by marshes.
+
+"To think," exclaimed Martine, "these cars almost pass our house and
+this is my first trip on them. Angelina went over to Portsmouth one day
+and was so enthusiastic she almost persuaded me to make a trip with her;
+but she is so easily pleased that I didn't quite believe all she said;
+but now I believe it and more too."
+
+After a time their road led them past quaint old houses and pleasant
+summer cottages. There were occasional glimpses of water on one side,
+and once in the distance, across the water, rose the massive outlines of
+a hotel.
+
+"This is Kittery," exclaimed Clare. "We are almost on the boundaries of
+Maine and New Hampshire; that water is the mouth of the Piscataqua; you
+must go down on the shore some time; artists love it."
+
+"I should like to sketch one of these tree-shaded old houses myself,"
+replied Martine; "that one over there looks as if it could tell a story
+if it would."
+
+"Oh, that's one of the William Pepperell houses; I never could remember
+which was his special house and which his daughters lived in, but you
+know he set out for Louisburg from Kittery, and two or three of these
+houses have hardly been changed since his day."
+
+"Dear me!" sighed Martine, "have I got to follow the French and Indian
+war in this corner of the country? I had so much of it last summer in
+Acadia that I'd like something a little different now."
+
+"Acadia," exclaimed Peggy, overhearing Martine. "How sick I grew of that
+word last summer. Some people were with us in Nova Scotia, went about
+with guide books and histories and acted as if they were crazy; but I'm
+happy to say that I sailed away from Yarmouth without knowing a thing
+more than before I travelled."
+
+"I believe you," commented Clare. "But if I were you, I wouldn't boast.
+Some of us _do_ care for history."
+
+"Unfortunately they do; there's my aunt; when she heard we were coming
+to the Shoals to-day, she gave me a lot of interesting information that
+went in one ear and out the other; for I told her that I was simply off
+for a good time and I never meant to learn anything if I could help it
+outside of school."
+
+Several of the party applauded Peggy's sentiments, but Martine could not
+help thinking that a speech of this kind from a girl of Peggy's age was
+rather shallow; and she admitted to herself that there was a time, not
+so very long ago, when she too would not only have expressed herself in
+the same way, but would have felt just exactly as Peggy professed to
+feel.
+
+Soon after passing the Navy Yard, the car reached the shore of the
+Piscataqua, where they crossed the ferry to Portsmouth. Soon they were
+on the little steamboat, bound for the famous Isles of Shoals.
+
+"There's one thing that I do remember," said Peggy. "There are nine of
+these islands and they are nine miles out at sea, and they are partly in
+Maine and partly in New Hampshire; but please don't ask me another word,
+Martine Stratford, for I can see by your expression that you're
+thirsting for information."
+
+Martine reddened at Peggy's words, because Herbert Brownville, who was
+standing beside her, was known to have a special dislike for bookish
+girls. Martine was ashamed of herself for giving even a thought to
+Herbert's opinion, and in consequence, she reddened more deeply when
+Herbert asked in surprise, "Have you really come out only for
+information, Miss Martine, as Peggy told me on the car?"
+
+This question decided Martine; she did not care for Herbert's opinion;
+she would show him so plainly, and so she decided to mystify him.
+
+"Yes," she replied politely. "You know I have travelled a great deal,
+and some time I intend to write a book describing my travels. So
+wherever I go, it is necessary for me to get all the facts I can.
+Somehow I forgot to bring my notebook to-day, but perhaps you can lend
+me a pencil and paper."
+
+Poor Herbert looked at Martine in surprise. Was this the girl who was
+famous for her wit, who was one of the best dancers and riders in their
+set two or three years ago? How sad that she should have changed so; but
+it was all on account of Boston; no girl could live in Boston a year
+without becoming affected. But what a pity that a pretty girl like
+Martine should turn into a bookworm! Nevertheless, Herbert handed
+Martine the desired pencil and paper, and he sat beside her while she
+made a great show of writing down the few facts that she had gathered
+from the volatile Peggy.
+
+"I'm so glad," continued Martine, "that you are willing to help me; and
+when we reach the islands I'm going to ask you to find some one who will
+tell me all about them."
+
+"There can't be much to tell," replied poor Herbert; "you know they are
+small and rugged and very queer. I've been there many a time on a yacht
+and I'm perfectly sure from what I've seen that they haven't any
+history."
+
+"In such matters," responded Martine solemnly, as if she were preaching
+a sermon, "you cannot be too positive. No corner of the world is so
+obscure as to be without history."
+
+Again Herbert looked at her in amazement. Her head was turned from him
+and he did not see the mischievous expression lurking in her brown eyes.
+He liked Martine, and since there seemed to be no help for it, it would
+be only proper in him to promise what she asked.
+
+"Certainly," he replied, "I dare say we can find out something for your
+book; they have a very intelligent clerk at the hotel, and I know a man
+in a cottage on Smutty Nose who's lived there a long time, and what he
+can't tell probably would not be worth knowing."
+
+Thus Herbert constituted himself Martine's guide for the day, and kept
+beside her and Clare until the boat touched Appledore. True to his
+promise, when they had finished dinner, he got a row-boat and took them
+over to Smutty Nose, where the old Captain proved very talkative. He
+explained that the name of the islands did not come from their
+structure, but from the quantities of fish found in the waters near the
+"schooling" or "shoaling" of fish. He told them that the Shoals had
+probably been visited by Captain John Smith, and Christopher Leavitt in
+1623 had written something about them.
+
+[Illustration: "The old captain proved very talkative."]
+
+"Of course the first settlers," said the old man, "were fishermen, and
+they were always a pretty rough lot, though the Reverend John Brock did
+something to improve them. There are all kinds of stories going about
+pirates and wrecks and strange happenings in the old times."
+
+"I suppose Captain Kidd buried some of his treasure here," said Herbert
+sarcastically.
+
+"That he did, at least they say so," responded Captain Dickerson; "and
+if you and the young ladies are real enterprising, you might dig a
+while, for it's never been found, and you've as good a chance as any
+one."
+
+"Thanks," said Herbert, rather taken aback by finding that his chance
+arrow had hit the mark, "but we've other things to do to-day. Sometime,
+perhaps, we'll return."
+
+"Well," said the old man, "there's a chance that other treasure might do
+you just as well. Nigh a hundred years ago, a Spanish ship went to
+pieces on the islands, and there were other wrecks that perhaps cast
+treasure on the sands."
+
+"Oh, I remember," exclaimed Clare, "a poem that I learned at school,
+'The Wreck of the Pocahontas.' Celia Thaxter wrote it. It begins
+something like this:--
+
+    "'I lit the lamps in the lighthouse tower,
+      For the sun dropped down and the day was dead;
+    They shone like a glorious clustered flower,
+      Ten golden and five red.'"
+
+"Ah, Mrs. Thaxter," said Capt. Dickerson, "there isn't much on the
+islands that she hasn't put into poetry. But you'll hear all about her
+over at Appledore, and I won't spoil your fun by trying to tell what
+other people can tell better."
+
+"Haven't you some stories of your own?"
+
+"There won't be time for a long story," interposed Herbert, looking at
+his watch. "We must be prompt for dinner."
+
+"Just one," pleaded Martine, smiling at Capt. Dickerson.
+
+"Most of the stories of these parts belong to Kittery and Portsmouth,"
+rejoined Capt. Dickerson. "You'll have to fish them up there. The only
+one I can think of you mightn't like--except it will interest you if you
+love dogs--as most young ladies do."
+
+"Well, tell us, please."
+
+"It's about a murder that took place on Smutty Nose once when I was off
+on a cruise. Two helpless women in a little cottage were killed by a
+wretch who thought there was money saved in the house. A third woman
+with a small dog in her arms escaped and hid here among the rocks. She
+was terribly scared that the little creature would bark and betray her."
+
+"Did it?"
+
+"Well, she crouched in the darkness, while she heard the murderer pass
+close by, calling and threatening. But the dog seemed to understand, and
+kept perfectly quiet until daylight. The woman had heard the murderer
+rowing away at dawn, and when people on Appledore were stirring they saw
+her making frantic signs, and they came over and got her and the dog."
+
+"Was the murderer ever caught?" asked Herbert.
+
+"Yes--and he paid the penalty. But I don't know how long the dog lived,
+young ladies, for I see that's what you'd like to hear," added Capt.
+Dickerson, turning to the girls.
+
+"I wish I could tell you more," he continued, after a pause. "I dare say
+you know the Shoals were once called 'Smith's Eyelands,' and there's a
+monument to Capt. Smith on Star. You've heard about Gorges, I suppose;
+well, they were in Gorges and Mason's grant, and when Massachusetts
+people stepped into Maine, the most northerly went to Maine, and the
+others to New Hampshire."
+
+"Any other great men here, besides Smith?" asked Herbert.
+
+"Not many--besides myself," said Capt. Dickerson, smiling, "except,
+perhaps, Sir Wm. Pepperell. At least his father was one of the early
+settlers of the Shoals, and he was born here. But you'll hear about him
+at Kittery. Then, as I said before, Appledore's full of Celia Thaxter,
+and her father was queer enough to be called a great man. He had been a
+politician, and when he got out of sorts with his party he quit the
+mainland, and brought his boys to White Island, where he was lighthouse
+keeper. They say the boys were fourteen or fifteen before they ever went
+ashore, and then they were frightened by the first horse they saw."
+
+"Thank you, Capt. Dickerson. I knew you'd have something interesting to
+tell," and Herbert moved away impatiently. "I'm coming over some day
+next week to go fishing with you."
+
+"Yes, I shall be expecting you. I could show you a good many things,
+young ladies, if you'd spend the day, but it is hard to understand even
+Smutty Nose alone in an hour."
+
+"Oh, but we've enjoyed coming here," replied Martine, and she and Clare
+shook hands cordially with Captain Dickerson as they said good-bye.
+
+After dinner at Appledore, all sat for a half-hour on the hotel piazza,
+which was so near the water that it seemed in many ways like the deck of
+a ship. Miss Byng and Mrs. Trotter, who had taken charge of the party
+from York Harbor (the girls declined to call them chaperones) met
+several acquaintances among the hotel guests. Miss Byng, in fact, had
+spent a summer at Appledore, and she exchanged reminiscences with one of
+her friends about Celia Thaxter, the "Queen of Appledore."
+
+"She was certainly a wonderful woman," said Miss Byng, as Clare and
+Martine drew their chairs within her circle. "Sometimes in the early
+morning when I looked out of my window, I would see her working in her
+garden. She was often up at four o'clock, and she made the most
+wonderful flowers grow from this rocky soil."
+
+"Oh, flowers were to her as individual as human beings," added Mrs.
+Trotter. "She watched over them lovingly while they were in the garden,
+and when she brought them into the house they were treated sumptuously.
+Each flower was placed in a vase by itself, and every spot that could
+hold them had its vases, silver, glass, or china, each with its single
+blossom."
+
+"What a strange idea!" cried Clare.
+
+"The effect was beautiful, the brilliant flowers, the picture-covered
+walls--and the queenly mistress of the house with snow-white hair, in
+her clinging grey gown--the favorite costume of her latter years."
+
+"Appledore is not the same now," and Mrs. Trotter sighed, "do you recall
+Mrs. Thaxter's lines--
+
+      "The barren island dreams in flowers, while blow
+    The south winds, drawing haze on sea and land,
+      Yet the great heart of ocean, throbbing slow
+    Makes the pale flowers vibrate where they stand."
+
+"Oh dear!" whispered Martine to Clare, "I feel as if I were at a
+funeral. Let's find what Peggy has been doing."
+
+"But I'd like to have known Mrs. Thaxter, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Yes, though a person who had lived most of her life on an island of
+four hundred acres must have been different from the rest of the world."
+
+"She _did_ write poetry," replied Clare.
+
+"Yes, that made her different from most of us. But here come Peggy and
+the rest. I wonder where they've been."
+
+Peggy and her party explained that they had been watching the surf on
+the farther side of the island.
+
+"Yes," exclaimed Peggy, "it was fine, I can tell you, and the view, why,
+we could see miles and miles; if we had had a glass, I believe we could
+have heard people talking at York." Whereat, in the fashion of young
+people, all laughed as heartily as if Peggy had said something really
+funny. While they stood there, Herbert was looking nervously at his
+watch.
+
+"Excuse me, but I really think--"
+
+Carlotta, after the manner of sisters, laughed derisively.
+
+"Listen! I believe he wishes to make an original remark." Herbert was
+farther off than the others and had not heard just what Carlotta said.
+
+"If we are not careful," he said again, looking at his watch, "we shall
+miss the boat."
+
+"There," said Carlotta, "I told you that he was going to make an
+original remark."
+
+This time Herbert heard her words, and when all laughed except Martine,
+he reddened deeply.
+
+"It's better to be early than late," remarked Martine consolingly; "I've
+often missed a boat or a train just by thinking I had plenty of time."
+
+Herbert turned gratefully towards Martine and walked back with her to
+the hotel. As a matter of fact they had half an hour to spare and were
+able to say good-bye to all their acquaintances without undue haste. The
+return trip was unexciting, and they reached Portsmouth in good spirits
+just in season to get the Ferry for Kittery.
+
+As they came to their special car, "Here's your admirer," said Peggy
+mischievously to Martine.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Martine.
+
+"Why, the conductor; didn't you notice him coming over? Carlotta did."
+
+"Yes," added Carlotta, "I certainly thought he was going to speak to
+you."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Martine.
+
+"Do you know him?" whispered Peggy mischievously, as the car speeded
+along the Kittery shore.
+
+"I haven't even looked at him," replied Martine indignantly. "Herbert
+has had charge of the fares, and as the conductor stands on the back
+platform, and as I have no eyes in the back of my head, I couldn't
+recognize him even if he were an old friend."
+
+Later, however, as the young man moved along and stood for a while
+beside the motorman, Martine had a chance to see him, though it was only
+a back view.
+
+"Carlotta," she said, "that conductor does remind me of some one. I
+wonder if it's any one we know at home? Do you see a resemblance? A
+resemblance to any one you know?"
+
+"No," said Carlotta, "really I do not." And so the matter dropped.
+
+It was nearly dusk when Martine and Clare left the car at the turn of
+the road.
+
+"Step carefully," said the conductor, holding out his hands to help the
+two. Martine started, turned and looked toward the car, but it was
+already on its way down the hill.
+
+"I wonder,"--but she did not complete the sentence, though all that
+evening she continued to ponder over the strange resemblance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+VARIETY
+
+
+After the Shoals excursion Martine's life was less placid than before.
+Peggy, as if to make amends for her apparent neglect, tried to draw her
+into some of the gayer doings of the younger set.
+
+"It's very kind of Peggy, but I can't make her understand that I didn't
+come here wholly for fun; or rather that I find fun in things that she
+would consider quiet. Clare feels as I do, and we try to make Peggy see
+that we enjoy a morning under the trees, or a walk in the meadow, quite
+as well as a game of golf with tea at the Club."
+
+"Golf is good exercise, and you used to like it."
+
+"I know it, but I don't need it in midsummer, and besides--"
+
+Martine did not explain that she did not care to engage in golf, or in
+anything that would take her away too much from Red Knoll. "Besides,"
+she said to herself, "I won't accept invitations that I can't return,
+and we are not in the mood for entertaining this summer, even if we had
+money to waste."
+
+Angelina thought it strange that Mrs. Stratford and Martine preferred
+the quiet life, and by gentle hints tried to impress on them that they
+were losing a great deal by declining some of the invitations that came
+to them. Mrs. Brownville, among others, had called. A day or two after
+the Shoals excursion, Mrs. Brownville and Carlotta drove up to Red
+Knoll. Martine at the moment was carrying on an argument with the
+butcher, who had drawn his cart up nearer the front door than the back.
+Martine was balancing a chicken in one hand and holding a large cabbage
+in the other, and was gently arguing with the butcher regarding his
+prices.
+
+It was somewhat disconcerting to have Mrs. Brownville and Carlotta, in
+elaborate gowns and flower-laden hats, descend upon her while she was
+wearing an apron over her gingham skirt. There was no escape for
+Martine, and before she could decide what to do with the chicken or the
+cabbage, Mrs. Brownville had advanced toward her with outstretched hand.
+At this moment, Angelina fortunately appeared on the scene to relieve
+Martine of her burdens, and Mrs. Brownville politely ignored what she
+had seen. Martine, however, after the first greetings, broke the ice by
+plunging into a humorous discussion of summer housekeeping.
+
+"It's the funniest thing," she said, "that clothes and food are so much
+alike."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Brownville, though her expression showed that she could
+not grasp Martine's meaning.
+
+"Yes," repeated Martine; "in both cases we have to pay highest for the
+trimmings. When I order three pounds of beef-steak and only get a pound
+and a half, though I pay for three, the butcher says, 'It's all on
+account of the trimmings' and it's so with chickens, and lamb, and
+almost everything except eggs; though for eggs there are three grades of
+fresh eggs."
+
+"Really?" said Mrs. Brownville, not knowing what else to say. She had a
+small sense of humor combined with a kind heart; that is, she was always
+willing to do a kindness when it came directly in her way to do it. She
+was not quite sure whether or not Martine was making a demand on her for
+sympathy. Before she could decide what to say, Carlotta interposed. She
+suspected that Martine was laughing at them both and she wished she
+could escape the special errand which had brought her. A moment later
+Martine had led the way into the little sitting-room where her mother
+received the guests; and soon Carlotta made her errand known.
+
+"I am going to have a little dance at the Club on Saturday evening and I
+do hope you can come," she said to Martine.
+
+"Yes," added Mrs. Brownville, "it's going to be the most elegant dance
+of the season, that is for the young people."
+
+A shade of annoyance crossed Carlotta's face; she had wished to pretend
+it was to be a very simple affair, so that her guests would be the more
+impressed in the end by all the expense lavished on it.
+
+"Oh, thank you very much," replied Martine, "but I'm not going out at
+all evenings at present."
+
+"Herbert will be so disappointed."
+
+At this speech of her mother's Carlotta felt an annoyance that she did
+not show. She did not wish Martine to know that her invitation was due
+only to Herbert's urging.
+
+"I know it would be delightful," said Martine, "but really I am not
+dancing this summer."
+
+Carlotta for the moment felt that she would do almost anything to get
+Martine to take back her refusal. It was irritating that a girl living
+in as humble a house as Red Knoll should show so little appreciation of
+an invitation that should have been accepted almost with gratitude. So
+she rose to her feet and rather abruptly said good-bye to Mrs. Stratford
+and Martine.
+
+"I must hurry on," she explained, "as I have an engagement at the Club.
+Mamma, I will send the carriage back for you." And with another word or
+two of good-bye, Carlotta made a rather hasty departure. After her
+daughter had gone Mrs. Brownville talked on in her usual rather rambling
+fashion. She admired the wall papers and the furnishings of the little
+room.
+
+"Really you've made the most of everything," she said in a manner
+savoring of patronage that irritated Martine, though she knew Mrs.
+Brownville did not mean to offend her.
+
+A little later Herbert appeared on the scene.
+
+"Oh, do change your mind," he urged; "I told Carlotta--"
+
+"Then it was you who asked her to come? I thought so."
+
+Again Herbert reddened.
+
+"Well, you see you weren't on the list when the first invitations were
+sent out, and I was afraid you might be offended, only I thought you
+were too sensible, and so--"
+
+"There, there," interposed Martine; "I am sensible, that is, I am not
+offended really, because Carlotta did not think of me in the first
+place."
+
+"Then you will accept?"
+
+"Oh, no, I am not going out this summer, at least to things of that
+kind."
+
+"Then I won't go either," said Herbert sulkily; "I hate summer dances
+and I know a lot of fellows who will stay away too."
+
+"Now, Herbert," said Martine emphatically, "don't be a goose. You ought
+to try to please Carlotta once in a while, and really, if I hear that
+you stay away from Carlotta's party, I won't be friends with you."
+
+Whether or not Martine influenced him she never knew, but it was a fact
+that Herbert and his friends went in force to Carlotta's dance, which
+Martine heard was really a very successful affair.
+
+For a week or two after this Martine herself felt rather left out of
+things. She had few friends in the Philadelphia group. Peggy, it is
+true, as if to make up for her early apparent neglect, did try on more
+than one occasion to get Martine to join some excursion.
+
+But Martine was firm. She saw that she could not well accept one
+invitation and refuse another, and she decided that she could afford
+neither the time nor the money that these outings required.
+
+Mrs. Stratford watched Martine with some concern. The change from her
+former self was almost too great. But when her mother remonstrated with
+her, Martine invariably replied that she was perfectly contented--that
+housekeeping that involved a constant oversight of Angelina afforded
+excitement enough.
+
+"Besides," she added, "there is Clare; she is livelier than Priscilla,
+though almost as improving. To-morrow we are going down by Spouting
+Rock; she, to take photographs, I, to sketch, and she knows any number
+of picturesque places."
+
+"Your plan sounds improving, if not exciting," responded Mrs. Stratford,
+smiling.
+
+"We think it will be more fun than going off with a crowd. Instead of
+riding to Bald Head Cliff with Peggy and her crowd, Clare has asked me
+to go to Ogunquit on Saturday. We shall drive over, and she is going to
+ask you too. Her cousin, Mr. Carrol, has a studio there, and we are all
+invited to luncheon, so please say you will go, mamma."
+
+"Why, yes, when I am really invited," replied Mrs. Stratford, smiling;
+and a few moments later, when Clare appeared with her message from Mrs.
+Ethridge, the drive was quickly arranged.
+
+The day at Ogunquit was one of many pleasant, quiet days that Martine
+spent with Clare on the shore or up the river. Almost always Mrs.
+Stratford and Mrs. Ethridge went with them. In a short time Martine had
+become an expert paddler, and she was proud enough to have her mother
+entrust herself to her care. One afternoon, in two canoes, the four went
+three or four miles up the river to have tea in a little cove on the
+Bans. It did not detract from Martine's pleasure, when they passed the
+Country Club, to hear Peggy and Carlotta shout from the piazza:
+
+"Don't go past."
+
+"There's a landing here."
+
+Or rather, if they did not hear clearly they judged that this was the
+meaning of the words that were accompanied with signals and gestures.
+But without heeding the sirens, Martine and Clare paddled on and their
+outing was a complete success. It cannot be said that they made their
+passage upstream without difficulties. It was near the turn of the tide,
+and part of the way the current was against them. But of two evils they
+had to choose the less, as Clare thought it wiser to return down the
+river with the current wholly in their favor.
+
+"If the York were a real river, we wouldn't have to do so much planning,
+but you see it's only an arm of the sea, and in its whole seven miles
+from the harbor, the tide has to be closely reckoned with."
+
+"Yes, I've heard weird tales of canoeists left high and dry on the shore
+because they had forgotten to calculate the rise and fall of the tide,"
+added Martine.
+
+"It's generally worse for the parents at home than for the stranded
+young people. I have known mothers half-distracted while waiting to hear
+from missing daughters," said Mrs. Ethridge.
+
+"Then we were wise in coming with the girls," added Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"As if we would have come without you. The whole fun to-day is showing
+you the river," responded Martine, who had been up with Clare before.
+"There," she continued, "I forgot to give you my one piece of
+information--that Sewall's Bridge near the Country Club is the oldest
+pier bridge in the United States, and was built by the same Major Sewall
+who built the first bridge between Cambridge and Boston."
+
+"Unimportant, if true," and Mrs. Stratford smiled at Martine's
+earnestness. "I approve, my dear, of your zeal for history, but in New
+England people often make too much of unimportant trifling things."
+
+"Bridges and houses."
+
+"Yes, and Indians and wars and--"
+
+"Then you won't appreciate this verse that Clare recited the other day:
+
+    "Hundreds were murdered in their beds
+      Without shame or remorse,
+    And soon the floors and roads were strewed
+      With many a bloody corse."
+
+"Evidently the writer of those lines had a real tragedy in mind,"
+replied Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Yes," interposed Clare, "it was the Indian massacre of 1792, when more
+than three hundred savages came into York on snow-shoes, and killed half
+the people of the place,--all in fact except those who had taken refuge
+in the old garrison house. The minister, Rev. Shubael Dummer was shot
+while standing at his door--and--"
+
+"Tell her, Clare, about the little boy," said Martine.
+
+"Oh, Jeremiah Moulton, the only person within the Indian's reach whom
+they spared. He was a fat little boy, and when he caught sight of the
+savages he waddled away as fast as his little legs would carry him. This
+so amused the Indians that they laughed and laughed and spared him.
+Though hardly more than a baby at the time the boy never forgot his
+fright, and years later he revenged himself on the Indians in what was
+known as the Harmon Massacre,--and many people have since blamed him for
+his cruelty."
+
+"Probably they had never been chased by Indians," responded Martine. "He
+jests at scars who never felt a wound."
+
+"We must go to the McIntire garrison house some day," continued Clare.
+"Though it wasn't the refuge during that particular massacre, the two
+houses were probably much alike, and this is one of the oldest buildings
+in the country--built in 1623."
+
+"Clare," exclaimed Martine, "excuse my interrupting you, but you are
+tremendously like Amy when you are imparting information, though at
+other times I hardly notice the resemblance. I shall forget half you
+have told me, and I wonder how you happen to remember so much."
+
+"If you should come here as many summers as I have come, you would
+unconsciously imbibe dates and scraps of information."
+
+"But now," said Martine, "we are hungry for something more substantial
+than dates, and with your permission, Mrs. Ethridge, we'll open the
+basket."
+
+The sandwiches prepared by Angelina's deft fingers, and the cakes and
+fruit brought by Clare made a supper fit for a king, as Martine phrased
+it, and the journey home with wind and tide in their favor brought to an
+end one of the pleasantest afternoons of the season.
+
+A few days after the canoe trip Martine and Clare started out for a day
+at Newcastle, accompanied by Angelina. Mrs. Stratford was spending the
+day with Mrs. Ethridge, and Angelina was in a seventh heaven of delight
+as she walked along carrying the basket. Angelina had an especial
+interest in Clare dating from the night of the Fourth, for she
+considered that her fire-balloon and the tact with which she had rescued
+it from Mrs. Ethridge's grounds had led to the acquaintance between the
+Red Knoll household and the family across the road.
+
+She did not know, since she was not a mind-reader, that Mrs. Ethridge
+would have called on Mrs. Stratford within a few days of the Fourth,
+even without her intervention. But as her own belief made her so happy,
+no one had pricked the bubble of Angelina's illusion.
+
+While the girls were waiting for the car, Herbert came in sight.
+
+"Off for the day, portfolio, camera, easel!" he exclaimed. "Then surely
+you will let me go with you."
+
+"No," replied Martine firmly, "this isn't a picnic. We are just going
+off to work a little, and enjoy ourselves."
+
+"I like that. As if I would interfere. Atherton will be along in a
+minute, and he would enjoy the excursion too."
+
+"No," repeated Martine, with increasing firmness. "We have made our
+plans. We wish to go by ourselves."
+
+Clare, who saw no good reason for Martine's attitude toward Herbert, yet
+thought it wiser not to interfere.
+
+Herbert, who so seldom was out of temper, now seemed offended.
+
+"Very well," he said abruptly, "I won't trouble you," and turning on his
+heel, he walked away.
+
+"I can't help it," explained Martine in answer to Clare's look of
+wonder. "One boy, or two, for that matter, would be terribly in the way
+in a little trip like this. Here's the car, and I am glad enough to be
+off."
+
+Now it happened that Carlotta and another girl who knew Martine went as
+far as Kittery on the same car. On their return to York they found
+Herbert on the links.
+
+"You were on the same car with Martine; did she say where she was going
+with Grace?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"She mentioned Newcastle," replied Carlotta. "They will cross on the
+ferry, and may row back across the river."
+
+"How foolish girls are!" grumbled Herbert. "They think because they can
+paddle up York River that it's perfectly safe to row anywhere else. I
+hope they won't try it alone. There's a fearful current at the mouth of
+the Piscataqua."
+
+"I don't see why you should care," responded Carlotta sharply. "Besides,
+Martine can generally take care of herself. Besides, I must tell you a
+funny thing. You know there was a young conductor on the special the day
+we went to the Shoals. Peggy says he watched Martine when she wasn't
+looking, and I know Martine asked me if he reminded me of any one I knew
+at home. Well, to-day he was on the regular car--and once when we waited
+at a turnout, Clare and Martine got off and stood by the side of the
+road, and in a minute he and she were talking as if they had always been
+acquainted. They actually stood there under the trees and talked, and
+Angelina stood there grinning like a Cheshire cat, the way she always
+does."
+
+"Well, why not? Why shouldn't Martine talk to whom she pleases? Really,
+Carlotta, how silly you are!" and Herbert walked off with an expression
+of disdain for a foolish sister.
+
+Now this is what had really happened. Martine and Clare had not been
+long on their way when the former exclaimed excitedly, "Do you remember,
+Clare, that boy I told you of, Balfour Airton, whom we met in Nova
+Scotia, who was so clever and knew everything about old Port Royal, whom
+I discovered to be a kind of cousin? Well, he's the conductor."
+
+"What conductor?" asked Clare, who had not quite followed the course of
+Martine's thought.
+
+"Why, our conductor on this car, and he was on the special the other
+day; I thought so then, but now I am quite sure. He hasn't given me a
+chance to speak to him, because I wasn't noticing him when you paid the
+fares, but as soon as I can I am going to recognize him."
+
+A moment after this, the car reached the turnout where it had to wait
+for the car from Portsmouth, and then Martine had her opportunity. So
+Carlotta was right. Martine and Clare did spend a minute or two talking
+to the young conductor, who admitted that he had recognized Martine on
+the former occasion, though he had hesitated to reveal his identity to
+her.
+
+"Your uniform was almost a disguise, though at the last moment I knew it
+was your voice; but of course I had no idea you were in this part of the
+world."
+
+Balfour had no time to explain before the other car appeared in sight,
+but as he assisted the girls back to their seats Martine said cordially,
+"You must be sure to look us up."
+
+It was not long before they reached the point on the Kittery shore where
+they were to take the little ferry for Newcastle.
+
+"The Piscataqua is more of a river than the York," said Clare, "and
+there's a good deal to see along these banks. We'll have to content
+ourselves with Newcastle to-day, but sometime we might go farther down
+and touch at the other landings."
+
+"We mustn't forget that we have come here to work to-day," replied
+Martine. "I am really anxious to do one sketch--and here is just the
+spot," she concluded, taking her position at a point from which she had
+a perfect view of an old house well shaded at the head of a little
+beach.
+
+While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about, taking first one
+thing and then another that pleased her fancy, and often including
+Angelina in her views to the great delight of the latter.
+
+[Illustration: "While Martine was sketching, Clare fluttered about."]
+
+"How blue the water is, and the sky! I haven't felt so thoroughly in the
+mood for good work since I left Acadia," exclaimed Martine.
+
+"But the sun is terribly hot," replied Clare, "and I am hungry. Let us
+go inside Fort Constitution for our luncheon. There will surely be more
+shade there."
+
+"Your word is law," and Martine reluctantly gathered up her belongings,
+and soon the three had ensconced themselves in a shady corner within the
+crumbling walls of the old grass-grown Fort.
+
+"'Fort William and Mary' was the name of the first Fort near this spot,"
+explained Clare, returning to her role of guide, "and even before his
+ride to Concord and Lexington, Paul Revere is said to have posted up
+here to tell the people of Portsmouth that the British were sending one
+hundred men to take all the powder away.
+
+"Accordingly four hundred men of Portsmouth marched out to Fort William
+and Mary, and required the Captain in command and his five men to
+surrender. Then they took the powder to a safer hiding-place, and later
+it was sent down to Boston, where it is said to have been used in the
+Battle of Bunker Hill. That other little tower is called the Walbach
+Tower, for Col. Walbach who commanded the fort in the War of 1812.
+There's a funny story about the building of this tower. Any one can see
+that it probably isn't true, although a poem has been written on the
+subject. The story is simply that the people of Portsmouth, alarmed by
+the sight of some British ships in the harbor, came over here in the
+night and worked like bees, men, women, and children, laying stones
+until this tower was built. There isn't an atom of proof that this is
+true."
+
+"But it's a pretty story," said Martine.
+
+After luncheon, Clare gave Martine the choice of two walks--to Odiorne's
+Point, called the "Plymouth Rock of New Hampshire," as the first
+settlement was made there, or to Little Harbor.
+
+Martine promptly chose the latter, because she was anxious to see the
+old Wentworth house. To their disappointment, when the girls reached it,
+the three found the old house closed; but the grounds were open to them
+and the curious exterior amused Martine, reminding her, as she said, of
+half a dozen small houses piled and twisted together to make one large
+one.
+
+"This is the house where Martha Hilton was married," explained Clare. "I
+am sorry we cannot go inside. The rooms with their polished floors and
+old-time furniture are really fascinating. Cousin Mary--I hope you will
+meet her some time in Portsmouth--says that Benning Wentworth, in spite
+of being Governor, was a plain man, and son of a plain farmer, so that
+his marriage with Martha Hilton was not such a tremendous mesalliance."
+
+"Oh, I remember that poem," cried Angelina, "how the Governor married
+the servant maid. It's by Longfellow, and the story's something like
+Agnes Surriage. The minister didn't want to marry them. I can say some
+of it, and she recited dramatically:
+
+    "'This is the lady, do you hesitate?
+    Then I command you, as Chief Magistrate.
+    The Rector read the service loud and clear.
+    Dearly beloved, we are gathered here--
+    And so on to the end. At his command
+    On the fourth finger of her fair left hand,
+    The governor placed the ring, and that was all.
+    Martha was Lady Wentworth of the Hall.'
+
+"So I'm glad to see this hall," she added, after Clare and Martine had
+sufficiently praised her recitation,--"and there's one thing more that
+I'd like to see,--the island in the harbor, where they kept the Spanish
+prisoners two years ago. You know I used to think I must be partly
+Spanish myself, I had so much sympathy for Cervera and all his men. I'm
+sorry they didn't stay here longer. It would be so pleasant to go to the
+island and console them."
+
+"Perhaps you'll be as well pleased if you can _see_ Seavey's Island,"
+replied Clare, smiling. "We passed the other day on our way to the
+Shoals; and sometime you must take the same trip."
+
+For the time this suggestion satisfied Angelina, and she heard with
+evident pleasure all that Clare and Martine had to say about old
+Newcastle.
+
+Intending to catch the last ferry of the afternoon, Clare and Martine
+cut short their stay at Little Harbor, delightful though they found the
+neighborhood with its suggestions of antiquity. They had a long walk
+before them--long at least for an August afternoon, and they did not
+reach the pier as quickly as they had hoped.
+
+In spite of Clare's intention and Martine's efforts to be prompt, the
+little tug had left the landing a minute before they reached it. By
+close calculation, as they glanced at the time-table, they saw that they
+would be altogether too late in reaching home, if they waited for the
+next boat.
+
+"Isn't it aggravating?" cried Martine, "to have to stand here and wait,
+when the distance across to Kittery is so little."
+
+"There's nothing to do but wait," replied Clare.
+
+Martine followed the direction in which she pointed, and saw an old man
+in a row-boat approaching the pier.
+
+"Do you suppose he would take us over?"
+
+"Why not? Let's ask him."
+
+The two friends, with Angelina following close behind, stood on the end
+of the pier while the old man was mooring his boat.
+
+"Will you row us over to the other side?" asked Martine.
+
+He paid no attention to them, but continued tying a knot in his rope.
+The question was repeated in a slightly different form, and still the
+old man made no answer.
+
+"He must be deaf," said Angelina.
+
+"Or the wind's blowing in the wrong direction," said Clare. "We must
+wait till he comes up to us."
+
+When the old man approached, by signs and words they made him understand
+what they wished, and he smiled pleasantly when Clare put a dollar bill
+in his hand.
+
+"It's worth it," she said in an aside to Martine. "If we cross with him,
+we shall save two hours on our homeward journey."
+
+So the old man untied his boat, which was ample enough for the four, and
+the girls quickly took their places.
+
+"I can't say that I like a deaf boatman," said Clare, "in case of an
+accident we might find it awkward that he can't hear."
+
+"An accident!" exclaimed Martine, who seldom feared any unseen things;
+"there certainly could be no accident in this quiet water." Before they
+had gone very far, however, she began to change her mind. The breeze
+which they had noticed while they were on the landing, now seemed to be
+blowing violently, and despite its heavy freight the boat rocked
+violently; it not only rocked, but veered from its course. Martine held
+her breath, while the excitable Angelina began to scream.
+
+"Hush! hush!" said Martine, "it's nothing."
+
+"Nothing?" cried Angelina, as a great wave broke over the end of the
+boat, half drenching her.
+
+"It's only the Piscataqua current," said Clare. "But ask him if there's
+any danger."
+
+The boatman ignored the question. Probably he had not heard it. A great
+wave slapped the boat sidewise, and this time Clare's screams were added
+to Angelina's. Billows rose all around them. Apparently they were no
+longer on the surface of a quiet river, but in the midst of a disturbed
+ocean and their boat was small. Martine kept her eyes on the distant
+shore; she saw that they were approaching it, slow though their progress
+was. The old man seemed to be doing his best, when suddenly one of his
+oars broke and they heard him mutter, "that's bad." Bad, it certainly
+was; even Martine's courage waned. One thing, however, led her to hope
+that they might escape disaster. She had noticed a little boat pushing
+out from the other side. How rapidly it seemed to approach! Very soon
+after the old man's oar snapped, she recognized one of the rowers in the
+approaching boat. It was Herbert Brownville.
+
+As the boat drew nearer, they saw that Atherton was Herbert's companion.
+The boys rowed steadily and swiftly, and soon their boat was beside the
+other. Leaning over, Herbert extended an oar to the old man who accepted
+it with a nod of thanks; it wasn't a time for words; Angelina was in
+tears, Clare was barely calm, and even Martine, the courageous, looked
+disturbed. The old man bent to the oars, the two boats, almost side by
+side, went on in a straight line.
+
+"Thank you, thank you!" cried Clare, as they got into calmer water.
+
+"You weren't really scared, were you?" shouted Herbert.
+
+"Just a little," replied Martine.
+
+"You should have known of the current," added Herbert. "It was just the
+wrong time to cross in a small boat, especially with only one oar."
+
+The wind continued to blow, but the rest of their short journey was so
+calm compared with the turbulent five minutes, that Martine was ashamed
+of their needless alarm; and yet she was glad enough when at last she
+found herself standing on the Kittery bank of the river.
+
+"I knew you'd need a rescuer," exclaimed Herbert, after he had helped
+them ashore.
+
+"But how in the world did you know where to find us?" asked Martine.
+
+Herbert was silent; he did not really care to tell her what Carlotta had
+said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+EXCITEMENT
+
+
+Mrs. Stratford was interested in Martine's account of her interview with
+Balfour Airton.
+
+"I should certainly like to see him, and if he's as you describe him,
+and I am sure he is, I should be glad to welcome him as a long lost
+cousin. From what Mrs. Redmond has said, I'm sure that he contributed a
+great deal to your pleasure last summer."
+
+Several days passed and Balfour did not appear. At last Mrs. Stratford
+sent a note to the headquarters of the trolley line addressed to Balfour
+and inviting him to tea. On the appointed evening he made his appearance
+at Red Knoll.
+
+"It is not often," he said, "that I can get enough time off to accept an
+invitation of this kind; but I can tell you that it's very delightful to
+be among friends. That's the worst of going so far from home. You're
+among strangers and nobody cares especially for you."
+
+Although Martine and her mother were both somewhat curious as to what
+had brought Balfour to this corner of the world, for the moment they
+asked no questions. Martine inquired about Eunice.
+
+"Of course she writes regularly to Priscilla," she said, "and Priscilla
+keeps me informed about Annapolis happenings. Do you think your sister
+will go to college?"
+
+Balfour shook his head.
+
+"I am not sure; I am not even sure that Eunice knows her own mind; but
+if she does wish to go to college, some one will certainly find a way
+for her to carry out her wishes."
+
+Martine, looking at him, felt that Balfour was likely to be that "some
+one."
+
+"I ought to say," added Balfour, turning to Mrs. Stratford, "that the
+money so kindly sent Eunice last autumn did an immense amount of good.
+It was the first money of her own that she had ever had to handle, and I
+may add," he concluded smiling, "that she has at least half of it still
+stored away for a rainy day."
+
+At last Martine could not control her curiosity.
+
+"How did you happen to think of coming up here?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, some of my friends had had opportunities as extra men on the New
+England trolley lines, and I decided that I could spend my time more
+profitably here than on the vehicle I drove last summer.
+
+"That wasn't such a bad vehicle," interposed Martine. "If you hadn't
+been driving it, I might still be lost in the fog."
+
+During this conversation the three had gone outside to sit. And now in
+the darkness they heard a voice inquiring anxiously, "Is this Red
+Knoll?"
+
+"It's Mr. Gamut," exclaimed Martine, and rushing forward, was soon
+greeting the old gentleman.
+
+"I've only just come back," he cried volubly after he had joined the
+group. "You must have thought it strange that I disappeared so
+completely; but I was called away on business, and my niece has been
+visiting friends on the South Shore. Now tell me about your father; what
+do you hear? Good news, I hope."
+
+Martine said nothing.
+
+"What we hear is indefinite," said Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Oh, well, 'no news is good news' and you must expect the best. Young
+people who have no care don't realize the ups and downs of life; they
+expect things to move along in an upward line. You, young man," he
+continued, "expect life to continue to be one continual round of
+pleasure; you bathe, play golf, drive, have evening excursions, and it's
+all right for the summer; but after a while you will have a hard hill to
+climb, and that is right too; it's part of life; only you mustn't let
+the summer spoil you."
+
+"Oh, but Mr. Gamut," began Martine.
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mr. Gamut, turning to Balfour, "you think perhaps
+there needn't be a hill for every one."
+
+"I think I know what Miss Stratford meant to say; she meant to tell you
+that I am not a pleasure seeker, but a worker. I am simply a conductor
+on the trolley line."
+
+"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the old gentleman, and though the light was
+too dim for him really to see, Balfour realized that Mr. Gamut had
+raised his glasses and had fixed his eyes upon him.
+
+"A conductor!" he exclaimed; "how extraordinary! do you really think it
+will lead to something? That's what a young man should always ask
+himself."
+
+"It will lead to my having more money at the end of the season than I
+had before," responded Balfour.
+
+"Yes, yes; but it's very unusual." Before Mr. Gamut could complete his
+sentence, a loud scream from the direction of the kitchen fell on the
+ears of the four.
+
+"I wish Angelina were not so excitable," said Mrs. Stratford. "It takes
+so little to make her scream; probably she has seen a mouse."
+
+When the scream rang out a second time, Balfour started to his feet and
+in another instant was racing to the gate in pursuit of a flying figure;
+an instant later, the others had reached Angelina.
+
+"It was a burglar," she cried. "He was opening the trunks in the ell
+room, and when I came through with the safety lamp in my hand I saw him
+plainly, and he started and ran, leaving his booty on the floor," she
+concluded dramatically.
+
+"But those were empty trunks," cried Martine, climbing the stairs.
+
+"Come and see," said Angelina, leading the way upstairs, where indeed
+the floor was strewn with clothing. Martine picked up a delicate muslin
+skirt.
+
+"This isn't mine, mamma," she said. "The man must have had a bundle with
+him that he dropped here; these things are not mine; it all seems very
+queer."
+
+"Yes," said Angelina, "especially as the burglar is an old acquaintance
+of mine."
+
+Thoughts of collusion crossed Mrs. Stratford's mind while Angelina
+continued:
+
+"It was years and years ago, and I'd know him anywhere; especially
+because I've seen his twin brother since, and he looks just like him,
+though this wasn't the twin. He's an honest man and he lives in Salem."
+
+"Let us get out into the fresh air again," said Mrs. Stratford. "I feel
+faint."
+
+"Angelina's story makes me feel fainter," added Martine.
+
+"I hope that interesting young conductor hasn't been hurt by the
+burglar; if he should catch him, I wonder if he'd know what to do with
+him."
+
+"We can only wait."
+
+Their time of waiting was not long. Balfour came back rather
+crestfallen.
+
+"He gave me a great run," said Balfour, "and I couldn't catch up with
+him. But I'm sure he won't trouble you again, and on my way home I'll
+telephone so that the authorities here and in Portsmouth can be on the
+lookout for him. Do you suppose he took anything of yours?"
+
+"I hardly think so," replied Martine, "he seems to have left something
+behind him."
+
+"Oh, he's nothing but a sneak thief," continued Angelina. "I know him."
+
+"A friend of yours?" asked Balfour in surprise.
+
+"Oh, Angelina was just going to tell us about him," said Mrs. Stratford,
+trying to repress certain suspicions regarding Angelina that had come to
+her since the girl had said that she knew the intruder.
+
+"It was this way," continued Angelina, pleased, as usual, to be the
+centre of interest. "It was my mother he took the money from a long time
+ago, when she lived at the North End. It was the money that was to take
+us to the country, that Miss Brenda and her Club had made at a bazaar;
+and he went off to some far country, and now he's come back, I suppose
+he'll go on stealing. Miss Brenda had to make up the money out of her
+own allowance, because she had been careless in giving the money too
+soon to my mother. So if you had caught this thief, Mister--" here
+Angelina hesitated, not knowing Balfour's name,--"we might have
+recovered what he took."
+
+"I'm sorry that I did not," replied the young man, "but I'll do my best
+to help some one else catch him."
+
+A little later Mr. Gamut and Balfour walked off together, and the Red
+Knoll household, left to itself, talked over the exciting evening. Mr.
+Gamut and Balfour had both offered to stay, or even to sit up all night
+if Mrs. Stratford or the girls felt timid. But at last all agreed that
+the intruder had been so effectually put to flight that there was no
+danger of his returning.
+
+That night Martine's dreams were filled with visions of a burglar
+chasing Balfour, with Mr. Gamut in a white muslin skirt following
+closely in pursuit. They were all late for breakfast, and were still at
+the table when the grocer brought the mail. There was but one letter for
+Martine, and she read it eagerly.
+
+"What do you think?" she asked, when she had finished. "Elinor is going
+to stay over at York on her way to the mountains. She is to be at the
+Hotel for a day or two. Oh, I wish that she could stay here! What do you
+think, mamma? she could be comfortable in my room, and I would take the
+little one next."
+
+"Certainly, my dear, you may ask her as soon as she arrives. When does
+she arrive?"
+
+"Why, it must be to-day--for this is Thursday. I wonder why the letter
+was so slow. I'll go over as soon as the work is done."
+
+Now it happened that Elinor herself made the first visit, as she had
+come in from Portsmouth on an early train. After they had talked of
+other things for half an hour, Martine told Elinor of their excitement
+of the evening before.
+
+"Are you sure he didn't take anything?" asked Elinor. "I should think
+you wouldn't have slept a wink. I should have been awake all night after
+such a fright."
+
+"I can't say I was frightened; it seemed rather funny. Do come upstairs
+with me now. I must see what the man left behind."
+
+Elinor followed Martine upstairs.
+
+"Why, Martine, what is this?" she cried, raising the white skirt "It
+is--why, it must be the gown I lost Class Day--and this--it really is my
+trunk," and she gave Martine a severe glance as she bent toward a small
+trunk in the corner.
+
+"Nonsense," cried Martine. "That is a skirt the burglar left, part of
+his 'booty,' as Angelina calls it, and this is one of our packing
+trunks. It has been here all summer."
+
+"But it has my name on it," protested Elinor.
+
+Martine shook her head. Elinor's manner reminded her of her manner on
+the day of their first meeting, and it annoyed her.
+
+Nevertheless she bent down towards the label on the trunk.
+
+"Don't look at me in that tone of voice," she said gayly, as she turned
+again toward her friend. "The label is certainly marked,
+
+    "_Miss Elinor Naylor_
+          _The Belhaven, Boston_
+
+and now that I look at it closely I can see that this is not one of our
+trunks. But how did it come here, Angelina?"
+
+"Oh, Miss Martine, we brought the trunk with us from Boston. It was in
+the storeroom. I don't know anything about it, except it came the day
+before Class Day. There was a laundress working there that afternoon,
+and I remember she told me she had had a trunk sent to the trunk-room. I
+supposed you told her, and of course when we moved, all the trunks came
+here. You told me they were to come."
+
+"Perhaps you are not altogether to blame, Angelina, although I wish that
+you had said something to mamma or me, and I still don't understand why
+the trunk was sent to us."
+
+It was now Elinor's turn to explain. "I understand it all. When I left
+Bar Harbor for Class Day, I simply put on a tag with my name and I
+didn't notice this old label, which was the one I used when I spent a
+day or two with you in the spring. The expressman followed the Belhaven
+tag, instead of keeping my trunk with Kate's aunt,--so if any one is to
+blame, it is I for leaving that tag on."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," replied Martine. "If I had been a really
+up-to-date housekeeper I should have known exactly what trunks came down
+to York. Now I only hope that our burglar didn't make way with any of
+your things."
+
+"We'll soon know;" already Elinor was on her knees before the trunk.
+
+"No" she said, "I hardly think he took anything. The trunk is closely
+packed below the tray, and the tray would hold little more than these
+things he tumbled out. But I remember a set of topaz studs in a box that
+I put in this corner. The box is not here."
+
+After a careful search neither she nor Martine could find the studs. But
+Elinor was philosophical over this loss.
+
+"In finding the trunk I feel as if I had recovered a small fortune--and
+I can bear the loss of the studs. I daresay Kate will be pleased to get
+back her things, although she is so up-to-date, that she may consider
+these class-day clothes old-fashioned now, as they were made to wear two
+months ago."
+
+"How ridiculous!" exclaimed Martine, "and yet," she admitted, "I can
+remember when I would not wear anything that was not of the very latest,
+but now--why this is a last year's shirt-waist, and you know how the
+sleeves have changed."
+
+A few hours later Martine and Elinor were telling the story of the
+"Class-day trunk," as they dubbed it, to a group of merry young people
+on the piazza of the hotel, and every one teased Martine about her skill
+in abstracting so important a part of Elinor's wardrobe.
+
+After a day or two at the hotel, Elinor began a visit at Martine's that
+lengthened itself into a week, and during her friend's stay Martine's
+life was as gay as that of the gayest at the Harbor. She drove, she sat
+at noon with the gay throng under the pavilion to watch the bathers. She
+would not bathe, because she had brought no bathing-suit to York, and
+because it was too late in the season, she said, to begin a course of
+spectacular bathing. She went with a sailing party on Herbert's
+cat-boat, although before Elinor's arrival she had refused all his
+invitations. She spent two mornings at the Club watching the tennis
+tournament, and she accepted invitations to two luncheons given in
+Elinor's honor.
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, two or three days after Elinor's
+arrival, "Would you not like to have a luncheon for Elinor? On a small
+scale we could manage it very well."
+
+"Oh yes, Mrs. Stratford," interposed Angelina, who overheard the
+suggestion. "I've just been longing for Miss Martine to have some kind
+of an entertainment. There's something going on every day, and I don't
+like Miss Martine to be the only one that doesn't entertain--not that
+I'd be so presuming as to talk of anything you hadn't spoken of
+yourself," she concluded hastily. She was bright enough to notice an
+expression of surprise on Mrs. Stratford's face.
+
+"It would make some trouble for you," said Martine.
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't mind that, and I'm always happy when there's something
+going on."
+
+"Lucian's last letter was more cheerful;" Martine said this to draw her
+mother out.
+
+"Yes, my dear, and I am sure you need not let your father's health stand
+in the way of your party. I am sure that he is better."
+
+"But ought we to spend money in that way?"
+
+"It will not cost much."
+
+"I know,--but still."
+
+"There, write your notes. They should be sent at once."
+
+"Instead of a luncheon, mamma, let me have a tea late in the afternoon
+and ask boys as well. Herbert has been very good to Elinor, and Atherton
+has given us a lot of time, and there are several others. I wish I
+needn't ask Carlotta, but I must. However, I can leave out the most of
+her crowd."
+
+Elinor helped Martine write the notes, and Angelina took hold of the
+preparations with a heartiness that spoke for success.
+
+The tables were spread out-doors, one for serving chocolate and coffee,
+one for lemonade. Elinor and Clare gathered flowers in abundance,
+especially great clusters of St. Anne's lace, that proved a most
+effective table decoration.
+
+In spite of the short notice nearly all whom Martine invited accepted
+the invitation, even Carlotta and two or three of her set, who "never
+would be missed," said Martine almost ruefully as she read their
+replies.
+
+"Then why did you ask them?" Elinor's tone was reproachful.
+
+"Oh, because--well, because I had no good reason for leaving them out.
+They have all invited me to something or other, and of course in one way
+I want them, only Carlotta is so critical that I hate to think of her
+making fun of things here."
+
+"She will have cause to be critical if you do not hurry down to the
+village for that extra cream. It's strange they forgot to leave it this
+morning. Of course," concluded Elinor, "I think that Carlotta might have
+been prompter in answering your invitation, but when she comes she'll be
+on her best behavior."
+
+Now it chanced that as Martine was returning from the village, warm and
+a little tired, carrying a large bottle of cream under one arm and a
+package of odds and ends on the other, she met Carlotta and three or
+four others driving rapidly down from the Club. How it happened Martine
+never knew, but an unlucky stumble made her lose her hold of the bottle,
+and as it flew into the road the cream emptied itself in a sticky pool
+in the dusty road.
+
+Poor Martine! The drag slowed up. She thought she heard a
+half-suppressed outburst of laughter. But in a moment Herbert stood
+beside her. He had slipped down from the drag, and he looked at her now
+as if waiting for her to tell him what to do.
+
+"Let me help you," he said at last.
+
+"Help me!" cried Martine scornfully.
+
+    "'Oh, Phoebe you have torn your dress!
+       Where are your berries, child?'
+
+"There, Herbert, that is the way I feel. To think that I must go back to
+the village for a second bottle of cream! We are all in a hurry, and
+they are waiting for me. Angelina herself could not have done worse."
+
+"Of course you won't turn back. Go home with the other things, and I
+will bring you your cream."
+
+So eager was Herbert to be of use that he hardly listened to Martine's
+thanks, and Martine, to her own great surprise, for once in her life
+found herself ready to obey one to whom she was not in the habit of
+looking up. For Herbert, although nearer Lucian's age than Martine's,
+always seemed to the latter like a younger boy whom she could order
+around. In the present emergency she was thankful for Herbert's help and
+pleased enough to receive the cream that he brought from the village.
+
+When her guests arrived at the appointed hour, Martine was fairly proud
+of the appearance of Red Knoll. She had had the grass clipped the day
+before, and the lawn, if stubbly on close inspection, at least was of a
+vivid green. The old-fashioned garden at the side that had been the
+pride of the former occupants of the farm, was now in full bloom, and
+almost all the chairs had been brought from the house to be set under
+the trees or farther up in the meadow, where those who wished could
+enjoy the rather unusual view.
+
+With the chairs removed, the dining-room seemed almost spacious, and
+there Peggy at one end of the table and Clare at the other served
+chocolate and lemonade. The afternoon passed quickly away. Martine
+forgot her first anxiety when she saw that her friends were evidently
+enjoying themselves.
+
+"I am surprised to see you here," Peggy exclaimed to Herbert. "Isn't it
+a great condescension? I thought you had vowed never to go to a tea at
+York."
+
+"Generally this kind of thing is a bore, and I had fairly hard work to
+get the other fellows to come. But I told them that anything Martine did
+was sure to pass off well, and it's true."
+
+"This is just like any other tea," protested Peggy, remembering that
+Herbert had never accepted one of her invitations.
+
+"Oh, it's smaller than others," responded Herbert, "and every one knows
+every one and we all feel that we can do as we like--and no one is
+wearing white gloves," he concluded, as if he had made a special
+discovery.
+
+"There are no gloves of any color so far as I can see," retorted Peggy.
+
+"That's just it, we can have a good time here, because everything is
+unconventional. But, alas, here is Carlotta--" and Herbert moved rapidly
+in the opposite direction from his sister.
+
+Although Carlotta seldom said really disagreeable things, something in
+her manner excited Martine's antagonism.
+
+"She need not have referred to the spilt cream," thought the latter,
+after a word or two with Carlotta. "She must know I hate to be reminded
+that I cut a ridiculous figure."
+
+"Oh yes," she continued aloud, "I am too busy to do much pleasuring this
+summer. The house gives me plenty to do, and I have some extra
+studying."
+
+"We heard you were going to college," said one of Martine's friends.
+
+"Yes," added Carlotta, "but I shouldn't think you'd quite like to. It
+makes a girl so conspicuous to go to college."
+
+"A college girl isn't half so conspicuous as a golf-champion. Why, I saw
+your picture in a Sunday paper last month, Carlotta, beside a prize
+bicycle rider's, and your weight and height and all kinds of things
+about you were there, too."
+
+Martine spoke hotly, as she was apt to when excited, and Carlotta made
+no reply.
+
+"If I go to college," continued Martine, "I fear I'll never be
+distinguished enough to have my portrait in print." Then, remembering
+that personal speeches of this kind were not in good taste from a
+hostess to a guest, she changed the subject to something less
+irritating. But Carlotta turned away, only half mollified.
+
+"Elinor," cried Martine, as the last of her guests went home, "this tea
+has been bad for me; it has given me a taste for society that will worry
+me the rest of the summer."
+
+"There's no reason why you shouldn't be a little gayer."
+
+"Oh, yes, there is, every reason. If things go better, I'll have my turn
+in a year or two when I am really out, and if things go ill, why I shall
+bury myself in work. Really, I meant what I said to Carlotta. I do mean
+to try for college. It would be fun to pass the examinations with
+Priscilla, even if I couldn't go through. For, of course, if we are very
+poor, I shall have to work for a living."
+
+"Martine," cried Elinor, "you are very absurd. When I think of your
+cousin Mrs. Stanley at Bar Harbor--"
+
+"Yes, and my cousin Mrs. Blair, who has one of the handsomest places on
+the North Shore. But unluckily what is theirs is not mine, and I have
+never been a beggar."
+
+"Of course not, but from one extreme you have gone to the other, and I
+think that you ought to hope for the best."
+
+"If hoping were having," murmured Martine.
+
+Mr. Gamut was one of the guests whom Martine invited in Elinor's honor.
+
+"Where's your young conductor?" he asked, when he had a moment alone
+with her.
+
+"We invited him, but he wrote that he couldn't get off. Mamma felt
+pretty sure he wouldn't have come, even if he had time to spare. He is
+in this part of the world for business, not pleasure."
+
+"Just so, just so, he's a fine fellow, though, and I mean to keep an eye
+on him. I can offer him a good place when he's through studying. I have
+no prejudice against the college man in business, and he'll be none the
+worse for taking his degree. I liked the way he ran after that fellow
+the other night, and he's done some clever detective work since. You'll
+hear about it soon."
+
+"Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, when her daughter later told her what
+Mr. Gamut had said; "you may congratulate yourself on this one thing, if
+on nothing else this summer. By bringing Mr. Gamut and Balfour together
+you have accomplished more than you realize."
+
+"But it was the burglar and not I," said Martine, "who really had the
+most to do with it. It was the way Balfour ran that impressed Mr. Gamut
+the most."
+
+"However it came about, you have had a good share in bringing them
+together, and with Mr. Gamut's good will, Balfour is sure to prosper."
+
+"I'm glad of that, mamma. Sometimes I feel that I have been so useless
+this summer."
+
+"My dear--" and then Mrs. Stratford said no more. She was really afraid
+of spoiling Martine by praise, but she thought it better for the latter
+to find out certain things for herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+QUIET LIFE
+
+
+When Elinor left York for the mountains, she took the little trunk with
+her, after carefully removing the Belhaven label. The label itself she
+carried in her card-case. "I shall need it," she said, "to illustrate my
+tale of a trunk when I tell it. Every one who has heard it thus far
+thinks it the most amusing story that ever was--and if it hadn't
+happened no one could believe it. This label is a proof of its truth."
+
+Martine missed Elinor more than she admitted even to her mother. It was
+part of her summer plan to seem perfectly contented with everything.
+Mrs. Stratford noted with some concern that Martine was growing paler,
+if not a little thinner. Could it be that she was less happy than she
+professed to be, less contented?
+
+Whatever she did, she did with her utmost energy, and in summer it was
+possible for a young girl to have too much of housework, gardening and
+study. It had become almost a passion with her to make up one or two
+deficiencies before her return to school. Strangely enough, it was
+Herbert now, on whom she began to depend for help in carrying on her
+work, and this is how it came about.
+
+Herbert, after the so-called rescue on the Piscataqua, made light of the
+affair, in spite of Martine's reiteration that except for him she knew
+that she and Clare--not to mention Angelina--must have capsized.
+
+"We might not have met a watery grave--but we certainly should have
+reached shore very wet."
+
+"Well, perhaps," responded Herbert, "but even if it meant something to
+you to be saved from your 'peril' as you call it, you must admit that
+Atherton and I ran no risk."
+
+"That doesn't alter the fact that you were thoughtful as well as brave,
+and really, Herbert, if only you wouldn't pretend to be so lazy,
+you'd--"
+
+Martine did not finish the sentence, for Herbert immediately tried to
+prove that he was not lazy.
+
+"Of course I won't fall in with all of Carlotta's plans; if I did she'd
+keep me busy from morning to night. But I got into college without
+conditions--and that reminds me--Miss Martine Stratford--I heard you
+complaining the other day about your Cicero, and so, if you are not too
+lazy, I will come to you two or three times a week to read Latin with
+you. We'll make the orations fly like hot-cakes, and Carlotta will be
+more infuriated than ever that I have something to do that will keep me
+from trotting around after her."
+
+"If that's your motive, I refuse to be helped."
+
+"You ought to be very grateful, for in general I don't approve of a
+girl's going to college, and I understand it's because you have college
+in view that you wish to skip on with your Latin. But it's only because
+I think college won't spoil you that I consent to give you the benefit
+of my knowledge," and Herbert assumed a pompous air that greatly amused
+Martine. Thus it happened that a day or two after Elinor left York,
+Herbert entered on his self-appointed office of tutor. Mrs. Stratford
+had made no objection when Martine told her of Herbert's plan. She had
+known Herbert for a long time, and she understood some of the
+difficulties of his home surroundings. Carlotta and he were so unlike in
+temperament, that they were constantly at swords' points, and Mrs.
+Brownville was so absorbed in her own narrow interests that she had
+never found time to study her children.
+
+Mrs. Stratford realized that Martine could do more for Herbert than he
+for her, as he never resented the sisterly advice that she bestowed on
+him.
+
+Carlotta was the only one who seemed to object to Herbert's new
+occupation. She teased him unmercifully, and showed an inclination to
+snub Martine. The two girls, fortunately, did not meet often, for
+Martine had little part in the gayeties of August, while Carlotta was a
+leader of the younger set.
+
+Carlotta, had she been so disposed, might have done much for Martine. On
+the other hand, Martine, with a little effort, could have shared in the
+pleasures of the young people of her own age. At last her mother
+remonstrated with her for holding herself aloof from those who were
+pleasantly disposed to her.
+
+But Martine was firm.
+
+"No, mother, I can't serve two masters. The summer has been flying away,
+and I haven't accomplished half that I had hoped to. I shan't dare to
+look Priscilla in the face if I haven't made up all that Latin. Then I
+shouldn't have a really good time if I 'mingled' more, as Angelina
+suggests. People here are cliquey, and Carlotta and Peggy are the only
+girls in the crowd that I've ever known before. Peggy is a regular
+will-o'-the-wisp, and Carlotta and I never could be intimate."
+
+"But still--" began Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"But still," echoed Martine, "you seem to forget, mother dear, that we
+came here to save money--and everything costs so much--and I don't want
+to spend my poor little allowance on dress and excursions, and sometimes
+I feel pretty blue, and until we know from Lucian how father really is,
+I couldn't plunge into things. There wouldn't be any half way with me;
+if I should begin to 'go,' I would just have to go all the time."
+
+Here Martine stopped for sheer want of breath. But her mother, watching
+her closely, wondered if she really understood herself. Yet Martine was
+sincere. It was only when she heard of some particularly pleasant thing
+that she felt left out. A moonlight sail, an all-day picnic up the
+river, an excursion to Agamenticus, all seemed to her as she heard of
+them more delightful affairs than they actually were to those who took
+part in them.
+
+Before Herbert and Clare, Martine maintained her Spartan indifference,
+even when they talked of their own experiences in a well-meant effort to
+make her express a desire to go with them on their next expedition.
+
+But nothing could weaken Martine's determination to lead a quiet life.
+
+"It isn't as if I never had had any fun, or never should have any more,"
+she wrote to Priscilla, "but even as it is I believe I have been running
+about too much. For the next few weeks I mean to be quiet as a dormouse,
+and two pages of Latin a day will keep me pretty busy. You see, Prissie,
+if papa really has lost all his money, I shall want to earn my living at
+once. I never could be dependent on my relations, and Lucian will have
+all he can do for the next few years. Oh, how different this summer is
+from last, when I almost felt as if I owned the world, though I hope I
+didn't show it. Of course we are very comfortable here. The house is
+small, but we brought enough of our own things to make it homelike, and
+Angelina does pretty well, though I have to help out with things
+sometimes. We have radishes and peas and a few tomato plants in the
+kitchen garden, but the rest of the place is all in grass, except the
+flower garden, and that would do your heart good. There are all kinds of
+old-fashioned things that you would love. They have grown up in the
+wildest way, and I am kept very busy weeding the flowers as well as the
+vegetables. Now, Prissie, before we leave York you must make us a visit.
+Mother and I both want you, and York will suit you to a T. The summer
+people make it livelier than Plymouth, but there are enough queer old
+houses to make you feel quite at home. You'd enjoy the graveyard
+opposite the church. It is shaded with ancient trees, and every one
+browses around there at least once. The funniest stone that I saw there
+was Father Moody's; he was the father of Handkerchief Moody. The
+inscription is just what you might expect from a thrifty New Englander.
+I wonder more haven't tried the same thing. Instead of having a long
+inscription put on he just gave the chapter and verse, 2 Corinthians,
+III, 1-6, so that any one interested could read. I am sorry to say I
+haven't yet had time. There's another thing that might amuse you. There
+are a lot of little cottages down by the Long Beach beyond the harbor.
+They look as if they were made of cardboard, painted in bright colors,
+and have fancy names like 'Sea-crest' and 'Harbor View.' Well, the other
+day on our way to Cape Neddock, I noticed one called Gorgeana, and I
+thought the owners had given it this name because they meant to enjoy
+themselves by eating all they could, or gorging.
+
+"I was awfully snubbed by Herbert when I asked him if it wasn't a shame
+for people to advertise their greediness. He laughed well at me when he
+reminded me that the name was in honor of Gorges, the founder of York, a
+fact which I really ought to have remembered, for of course I knew it.
+
+"You need not be jealous of Clare, as you suggest. It is certainly
+pleasant to have a congenial girl so near. But she never could take your
+place--never in the world.
+
+"She is something like you, however, quiet and dignified, and fond of
+history. Mrs. Ethridge is great fun, and would be good company for
+mother, except that she plays bridge from morning till night.
+
+"You haven't told me what you think of my rescue, and of Balfour and the
+burglar. I wrote you a few days ago.
+
+"I had a letter from Brenda last week. Isn't it wonderful that she
+should find time to think of me when she is so far away. She is
+delighted because all the family are with her now, and they are to be in
+San Rafael the rest of the summer.
+
+"She is not sure whether she will be in Boston next winter. How I wish
+we might have her apartment again. But we can't tell what we shall do
+until father and Lucian return. She says she would like to be with me
+one winter, to be sure that I really deserve to be called her ward."
+
+Then, with messages to Mrs. Danforth and the children, Martine concluded
+her letter.
+
+It brought a quick reply, in which Priscilla laughed at Martine for her
+two rescues--if one can be said to laugh in a letter.
+
+"For an independent person it seems to me that you succeed in getting
+rescued from extreme danger pretty often. Balfour, in the fog last
+summer, had the easier time I should say, and I only hope that he and
+Herbert Brownville may not come to blows in trying to decide which is
+the greater hero.
+
+"If I am called on to help to decide, I should have to decide against
+Balfour, for you could not be half as much lost on a horse as in a
+boat."
+
+Although Priscilla was correct in her diagnosis of the different kinds
+of dangers, Balfour and Herbert gave no signs of coming to blows on the
+subject of their prowess. On the contrary, they showed an inclination to
+be very good friends. As Balfour's time was so fully occupied with his
+duties, Herbert acquired the habit of taking long rides on the cars.
+Then at the end of the route, or when waiting at turn-outs, he and
+Balfour had chances for the snatches of conversation in which boys find
+more pleasure than girls.
+
+Carlotta was as little pleased with Herbert's intimacy with Balfour, as
+with his interest in Martine's Latin. It might not be fair to say that
+she wished to keep her brother entirely under her thumb, and yet it
+annoyed her that he was so much less amenable to her than formerly. She
+liked to feel that he was ready to come and go as she wished. She
+especially needed him to help entertain her visitors, of whom she
+usually had two or three staying in the house.
+
+Now it happened one evening that Martine reading a Boston newspaper came
+upon something that excited her mightily.
+
+"O, mamma," she exclaimed, "Only think! Mrs. Dundonald is coming
+here--just listen; Mrs. Dundonald, the well-known artist, passed through
+Boston to-day on her way to York Harbor where she is to spend a few days
+with friends."
+
+"Well, my dear, what of it?" responded Mrs. Stratford.
+
+"Oh, you know how I admire Mrs. Dundonald's work. She does exactly the
+kind of thing I should like to do, and they say she is perfectly
+charming. To think she is coming here! Oh, I do hope we shall meet her!"
+
+Then Martine paused suddenly, remembering that for the present she and
+her mother were not likely to meet any distinguished stranger visiting
+York. From Clare she learned the next day that Mrs. Dundonald was
+staying with Miss Stark, an elderly lady whose house was next that of
+the Brownvilles'. Clare offered to take Martine to call on Miss Stark
+and Mrs. Dundonald, but Martine hesitated because she had heard that
+Miss Stark was a rigid upholder of formal etiquette.
+
+"I have had one or two little snubs," she said, "and I should hate to be
+treated with scorn because I had made the first call on an older woman."
+
+"There is no danger of that," replied Clare, "but still, there will
+probably be some other way, for you ought to have a chance to meet Mrs.
+Dundonald."
+
+Just at this time Herbert happened to be away on a short yachting trip,
+so that Martine could not tell him of her desire. The Brownvilles were
+cousins as well as neighbors of Miss Stark's, and had Herbert been at
+home he could easily have arranged a meeting between Martine and the
+artist.
+
+"Martine," said Clare a day after their conversation about Miss Stark
+and her guest, "I saw Carlotta at the beach this morning and I told her
+how anxious you were to meet Mrs. Dundonald. She knows her very well,
+and--"
+
+"She didn't promise to introduce me immediately?"
+
+Martine's tone was sarcastic. She knew very well that Carlotta would
+hardly exert herself to do her a favor. The girls were seated on Mrs.
+Ethridge's piazza at this moment, and before Clare could reply to
+Martine, the maid handed her a note that had come by special messenger.
+Martine watched her friend as she read, and noticed that she made no
+comment as she slipped the note back in its envelope. Then for a few
+moments neither girl spoke. Martine had recognized the man who had given
+the note to the maid. He was one of the Brownvilles' coachmen.
+
+"Martine," said Clare, at length, "Carlotta is giving a large stand-up
+luncheon for Mrs. Dundonald the day after to-morrow. It is just to let
+the girls here at York have a chance to meet her. Of course you will
+find your invitation when you go home."
+
+"Perhaps," replied Martine, and this word found an echo in Clare's
+heart.
+
+When Martine returned home she found no invitation from Carlotta, nor
+did one come before the luncheon. Strange as it may seem, in view of
+Martine's repeated declaration that she hated formal festivities in
+summer, she felt aggrieved that Carlotta had left her out.
+
+"Perhaps Carlotta has heard you express yourself. You know my dear, you
+have been a little scornful about the doings of the younger set."
+
+"Oh, no, mamma, I have seldom taken the trouble to express my opinions
+to Carlotta. Besides, she knows I am anxious to meet Mrs. Dundonald.
+Unluckily Clare has told her this, so my snubbing is all the harder to
+bear."
+
+Nor was Martine's disappointment lessened by the fact that Clare gave up
+the luncheon. "You might as well have gone," she said. "It is all the
+worse for me to know that I have kept you out of something you would
+have enjoyed."
+
+"But I have met so many artists," replied Clare, smiling, "that one more
+or less makes little difference to me. You know I do not care for
+crowds, and although Carlotta speaks of this luncheon as 'small,' I know
+there will be a crush. I'd much rather go off somewhere with you for the
+day. Cousin Mary has been urging me to come over to Portsmouth for the
+day. She would love to see you too. Let us go to-morrow; it will be much
+more fun than Carlotta's luncheon."
+
+But when to-morrow came, a strange thing happened. By some means known
+only to her, Angelina had heard that a man had been arrested in
+Portsmouth for breaking and entering a little shop.
+
+"I want to go over and identify him; I know he's our burglar, and that,
+of course, makes him Miguel Silva, who took Miss Brenda's money."
+
+"But you would better wait until you are sent for. You may be needed as
+a witness."
+
+"Oh, I don't know about that. The law is slow, they say, so I want to go
+now and look at him, and shake my fist at him, and tell him that I am
+Angelina Rosa, and then, please, I am going on in the trolley to Boston.
+I had a letter from my mother. She'd like to see me, and I want to tell
+her about Miguel Silva."
+
+"Would you leave us now, with no one to help us?"
+
+Mrs. Stratford spoke sharply. Martine was too surprised to speak.
+
+"I am sorry, of course," said Angelina, "the place isn't hard, and
+you've been like a mother to me. But it's very quiet for me at York. You
+see we're not exactly in things, and I think I'd better be nearer home.
+My trunk is all packed, and I'll get the express to call to-day."
+
+"Very well," said Mrs. Stratford, turning away with a dignity that gave
+Angelina no chance to reply.
+
+"Maggie would never have done this, and I am surprised at you,"
+remonstrated Martine as Angelina bade her good-bye.
+
+"I am sorry you feel so," rejoined Angelina, "for I haven't a fault to
+find with you and Mrs. Stratford. I have heard of a wash-lady that would
+come in by the day, and I'll stop at her house on the way."
+
+"Oh, no, we can look out for ourselves."
+
+"It isn't that it hasn't been pleasant here," continued Angelina; "I've
+had a real good time almost always, but I'm homesick, and I have a duty
+to my family, and I think I'd better go while Miguel Silva is where I
+can get at him; for after to-day they might lock him up where I couldn't
+see him, and I want him to know what I think. There's only one thing I
+want to confess, Miss Martine. You remember when the cook went away last
+winter,--so unexpectedly, you know, before your dinner? Well, it was I
+who discharged her. I told her you wanted her to go, and I paid her for
+the rest of the week. I was so anxious to have things all to myself, so
+I could show what I could do. But it didn't do me much good,--after the
+expense of paying her,--for you kept getting cooks that wouldn't let me
+meddle. But I hope you'll think kindly of me, Miss Martine, and so now
+good-bye."
+
+After this extraordinary speech, Angelina tripped gayly down the path in
+the direction of the cars.
+
+"It's frightful ingratitude!" said Martine. "I feel as if I should never
+wish to do anything for any one again."
+
+"Angelina has earned her money," responded Mrs. Stratford. "She has
+worked pretty faithfully. As I have studied her character, I have
+sometimes wondered that she should stay so contentedly with us, when we
+have given her so little opportunity to indulge in her favorite gossip."
+
+"But what shall we do now? That is the question, mamma. Of course I will
+help all I can, but I am feeling tired, and you are not strong enough,
+and we must stay here."
+
+"There, there, Martine, do not borrow trouble. To-day will take care of
+itself, and as for to-morrow--"
+
+"To-morrow," cried Clare, suddenly coming upon them, "will be the best
+day for our Portsmouth excursion, and mamma has sent me over to invite
+you, Mrs. Stratford, to spend the day with her."
+
+"There, Martine, to-morrow is provided for. Tell your mother, Clare,
+that I am only too happy to accept her invitation. I must leave you now,
+while Martine relates the story of Angelina."
+
+As her mother turned toward the house, Martine told Clare of Angelina's
+departure.
+
+"You must find some one to take her place," said Clare. "You are thinner
+than when you came to York, and if you don't mind my saying so, you look
+tired."
+
+To Clare's great surprise, her friend, instead of replying, shed a tear
+or two. But the tears were followed by smiles, as Martine exclaimed:
+
+"There, I am almost as bad as Priscilla."
+
+"But do you suppose that Angelina was right about the burglar? I wonder
+if your friend Balfour Airton has heard--"
+
+"Oh, if the burglar has been caught, I am sure Balfour knows all about
+it. He was really very anxious himself to discover the fellow. If he is
+off duty, he will probably come over to see us this evening--at least if
+he has anything to tell."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+PORTSMOUTH AND AFTERWARD
+
+
+It was not until they were on their way to Portsmouth, that Clare and
+Martine had their first good chance to talk to Balfour about the
+burglar.
+
+"It is really true," said Balfour, "that the fellow has been arrested
+for entering a Portsmouth shop. I was pretty sure of him, and when this
+shop was entered, I told the police about this man. He was wearing a
+pair of topaz sleeve-links, and you said, I remember, that these were
+the only things missing from Miss Elinor's trunk."
+
+Balfour spoke modestly. From him the girls could get no idea of the many
+hours he had put into the case until he had assured himself that this
+was the very man wanted by the police of more than one city.
+
+"How excited Angelina will be if she really identifies him as the man
+who took her mother's money long ago."
+
+"Yes," added Martine, "if she is only called in court as a witness, she
+will be perfectly happy."
+
+At Kittery, as on the day they went to the Shoals, Balfour was left with
+his car on the Kittery Shore.
+
+"I believe this will be the pleasantest of all our excursions," said
+Martine to Clare as the two strolled about. "A crowd would seem out of
+place in these quiet old streets."
+
+"Is there anything you especially care to see before we go to Cousin
+Mary's?" asked Clare. "You know she expects us there to luncheon, and
+she always has any number of stories to tell."
+
+"I'd like to see Strawberry Bank," replied Martine. "It sounded so
+attractive when I came across it in my History as the first name of
+Portsmouth."
+
+"I fear there are no strawberries there now, though the first settlers
+are said to have built the Great House in the centre of ground covered
+with wild strawberry-vines. There's little to see there now, though you
+have enough imagination to picture where the Great House stood in the
+time of Mason."
+
+So they went down on Water Street, and thence to the substantial little
+house where Washington's secretary, Tobias Lear, lived. Here Washington
+himself called on Madame Lear when he visited Portsmouth soon after his
+inauguration.
+
+As they turned back toward the statelier mansions of Congress and
+Pleasant Streets, Clare tried to fit the things she had heard about old
+Portsmouth to the right persons and people.
+
+"I remember that some distinguished French nobleman described the
+Langdon House as elegant and well furnished. Washington, too, called it
+the handsomest house in Portsmouth, and when Louis Philippe was in exile
+here, he lived for some time in this house. But I like this old
+Wentworth House better because I really remember one of the romantic
+stories connected with it."
+
+"Tell me, please."
+
+"Oh, this is simply about Frances Wentworth who jilted her cousin John
+because he was too poor. John went to England, and Frances married
+Theodore Atkinson, who was rich and amiable and delicate. In the course
+of time John Wentworth returned from London as governor of the Province,
+and when two years later the husband of Frances died, she mourned only
+ten days, and then became the bride of her cousin John. But here we are
+at Cousin Mary's, and I ought to have left this story for her. She can
+tell it so dramatically."
+
+Cousin Mary lived near the old Warner house, and she had much to say to
+the girls about a former owner of this historic dwelling, whom her
+mother remembered as one of the last of the townsmen to wear a cocked
+hat and knee-breeches. After luncheon she took her young visitors to
+call at the Warner mansion, where they saw the curious wall paintings
+that no one had known about, until the removal of several layers of
+paper brought the paintings to the light a few years ago.
+
+"You can see how little this house has been changed," said the owner,
+proudly. "It is really an eighteenth century house of the best type."
+
+"Such as Amy Wentworth dwelt in," added Martine, reciting.
+
+      "'With stately stairways worn
+    By feet of old Colonial knights,
+      And ladies gentle-born.
+    And on her from the wainscot old
+      Ancestral faces frown,
+    And this has worn the soldier's sword,
+      And that--the judge's gown?'
+
+"You did not know I could quote Portsmouth poetry?" asked Martine,
+turning mischievously to Clare, "but I caught the habit from Amy last
+summer, as she had a ballad or a story for every place we visited."
+
+"Portsmouth is full of stories," responded Clare; "I wish, Cousin Mary,
+we could stay here three or four days. Martine would enjoy
+everything--old stories as well as old houses--"
+
+"We have plenty of both, my dear," said Cousin Mary, laying her hand on
+Martine's arm.
+
+"I have been wondering about the houses, there are so many more of what
+you might call 'stately mansions,' than there are in Plymouth," and
+Martine looked enquiringly at Cousin Mary.
+
+"Oh, that is easily explained," replied the older woman, understanding
+Martine's unexpressed question. "Portsmouth was a Royal Province, and
+its merchants were prosperous and fond of the good things of life. They
+vied with one another in the eighteenth century in building handsome
+dwellings. There were also many government officials here, who felt that
+fine surroundings were their rightful due. When the Revolution came,
+Portsmouth was full of Tories, as you may have read in some of the
+recent historical novels. They were far from pleased with the change in
+government."
+
+"Martine and I certainly must come over again," cried Clare, looking at
+her watch, "there are two or three special stories that I hope you will
+tell her, though they are too long for to-day. I am afraid we have
+barely time for the church, if we mean to get back to York to-night."
+
+"This church," explained Cousin Mary, as they drew near old St. John's,
+"is interesting because it succeeds the old Queen's Chapel. It may
+surprise you to learn that in Portsmouth the first church observed the
+forms of the Church of England. But after the earliest years, for a long
+time there was no Episcopal church until the Queen's Chapel was built in
+the early eighteenth century."
+
+"They couldn't have a Queen's Chapel after the Revolution!" exclaimed
+Martine.
+
+"Well, it was Queen's Chapel for a few years. This was its name when
+Washington attended service here. But in 1791, when the parish was
+re-organized, the new church was known as 'St. John's.'"
+
+The girls made the most of the short time they had to spend at the old
+church. There were a number of things to see, but nothing, not even the
+famous Queen Caroline chairs interested Martine more than the old bell
+in the tower. For Cousin Mary told her that it had been brought from an
+old church at Louisburg by Sir William Pepperell's victorious men.
+
+"I must come down some Sunday," she said, "just to hear it. In Nova
+Scotia they tell some weird stories about these old French bells," and
+as she spoke, Martine recalled her afternoon with Balfour and Amy near
+the site of the Acadian church.
+
+"You certainly must spend a day or two with me soon," said Cousin Mary,
+and when the girls bade her good-bye, the day was set for a longer visit
+from Clare and Martine.
+
+A slight fog overtook them as they rode home, and this, perhaps, lowered
+Martine's spirits. Had Clare known Martine longer, she would have been
+even more surprised than she was at her friend's despondent tone, for
+those who knew her best had seldom seen her out of spirits.
+
+It was Clare herself, however, who had turned the conversation in a
+direction not exactly enlivening.
+
+"I suppose we shall see Herbert to-morrow," she said. "He won't be
+exactly pleased when he hears about Carlotta's luncheon."
+
+"You mean my being left out? Oh, he won't care. Boys never take up those
+things. Besides, I hope no one will tell him. Besides, I shouldn't have
+cared if it hadn't been for Mrs. Dundonald, though I shall probably have
+a chance to meet her again, somewhere."
+
+"Of course," responded Clare, "she is likely to be in Boston, and you
+know so many people. I think you have been very amiable about the whole
+thing. For certainly it was hard to bear."
+
+Now sympathy is often the last straw to break one down, and as she
+replied to Clare, Martine did not control a little quaver in her voice.
+
+"Naturally no one likes to be slighted, but then nothing has gone
+exactly right this summer. I have hardly done a thing I wanted to, and I
+have been left out of things I might have gone to."
+
+"But, my dear, I have heard you say over and over again that you
+wouldn't have any gayety on account of your father and--"
+
+"Yes, that is true," replied Martine, undisturbed by her own
+inconsistency, "but all the same it isn't pleasant to be left out, and I
+really don't like being economical, although I have to pretend I don't
+mind. I suppose that's why some people slight me. I never believed
+before that money made any difference, but now I know."
+
+"Martine," said Clare, "you are ridiculous. I believe you have been
+working too hard, and so are a little run down."
+
+"I haven't slept well lately," Martine admitted, "I have been thinking
+so much about my father and Lucian."
+
+"Isn't your father improving?"
+
+"The last letter was more cheerful. But we haven't heard for three
+weeks, and I am wondering what we shall do next year if he has lost
+_all_ his money. It will be so hard for Lucian to give up college."
+
+Clare was at a loss for a reply. Mrs. Stratford and Martine were new
+friends and she really knew little about their affairs. She had to
+content herself with rather vague attempts to cheer Martine, and she was
+gratified before they reached their stopping place to see the smiles
+return to Martine's face.
+
+It was almost dusk as the car sped down a long hill near the Country
+Club.
+
+"Why, that was Carlotta driving," exclaimed Clare, as they passed a
+restive horse that was driven by a girl in a high cart.
+
+"She has poor control of her horse," rejoined Martine.
+
+"It's curious," added Clare, "that Carlotta, who is so good at other
+sports, knows so little about a horse. She seldom drives alone. I wonder
+how it happens that no one is with her now."
+
+"She may swim better than I," rejoined Martine, "but I believe I could
+give her points about managing a horse."
+
+Soon the two friends had reached their corner and were about to part
+when they heard the clatter of hoofs and wheels.
+
+"Keep to the side, Clare," cried Martine. "It's Carlotta, the horse is
+running away."
+
+Hardly had she uttered these words when the horse and carriage were upon
+them. The reins had fallen, and Carlotta, helpless, was clinging to the
+side of the carriage. Martine did not hesitate. Instantly she plunged
+forward, and unheeding Clare's warning scream, flung herself before the
+horse. Yet, in spite of her impetuosity, she knew what she was doing.
+The creature's speed was less than it seemed to the frightened Clare.
+Martine with a sure aim reached the bridle. Although she was dragged a
+few steps, the horse slackened his pace, and stopped. Carlotta, too much
+shaken to resume control, jumped to the ground on the opposite side from
+Martine.
+
+"Look!" cried Clare, running up to her as she came to the horse's head.
+
+"Is she hurt?" asked Carlotta, anxiously, as Clare stooped down toward
+Martine, who had fallen to the ground.
+
+"She must be," replied Clare. "What shall we do?"
+
+"I cannot very well leave my horse," responded Carlotta, still with her
+hand on the bridle; "if only somebody--"
+
+At that moment "somebody" did appear, in the shape of Mr. Gamut.
+
+"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "What is this? An accident?"
+
+Martine lay white and still. Clare, stooping down, could not rouse her.
+
+"Let us take her to the house, and then I will go for Mrs. Stratford,"
+cried Clare; "she has been spending the day with my mother."
+
+"I was on my way to Red Knoll," said Mr. Gamut. "I came on the afternoon
+train, and I felt anxious to talk over the good news; but now, this
+looks serious," he continued, as together he and Clare lifted Martine
+from the ground.
+
+"May I take my horse to your stable, Clare?" asked Carlotta. "He is
+quiet enough, but I would rather not drive now, and then I will hurry to
+the village for a doctor. I am so sorry for all this," she concluded.
+
+"There are certainly no bones broken," said the practical Clare; "she
+has simply fainted."
+
+Clare and Mr. Gamut slowly carried Martine to the side of the road, and
+now Clare was supporting her friend's head on her knee, while Mr. Gamut
+had gone to Red Knoll for water.
+
+As Carlotta disappeared down the lane leading to the Ethridge house,
+Martine stirred slightly, and opened her eyes.
+
+"Where am I?" she asked, faintly. "Oh--yes--I remember," and though she
+closed her eyes again, she no longer lay a dead weight against Clare's
+arm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE SUMMER'S END
+
+
+One afternoon in late September, Martine sat under the trees in her
+mother's corner of the Red Knoll garden. A number of letters lay before
+her on a little round table, and beside her, swinging lazily in a
+hammock, was Priscilla, the practical, who had often been heard to say
+that she despised hammocks.
+
+After a moment Priscilla, bringing herself to a full stop, leaned
+forward and gazed intently at Martine.
+
+"I cannot see," she said at length, "that you look so _very_ thin."
+
+"Why should I be _very_ thin?"
+
+"Well, from what I heard I thought you must be. They said you weren't
+eating, and you are thinner than you were in the spring. I am sure your
+eyes look larger."
+
+"Probably my eyes have grown; I am sure my waistbands have."
+
+There was a twinkle in Martine's brown eyes, as she pushed back a wavy
+lock of hair.
+
+"You are just a little paler, too," persisted Priscilla, "but except for
+that, no one would believe that you had been so ill."
+
+"I don't believe it myself," replied Martine, "though I am perfectly
+willing to take the word of those who say they know. To tell you the
+truth, I am rather ashamed to hear that I barely escaped nervous
+prostration, just because I tried to stop a horse from running away."
+
+"But you _did_ stop him."
+
+"Then he wasn't running away. It was only that Carlotta had let go the
+reins."
+
+"Well, they all say that if you hadn't seized the bridle, he would have
+gone straight down the little embankment."
+
+"Nonsense--at any rate I spoilt the effect of it all by fainting, and
+yet I shouldn't have fainted if I hadn't been following your example.
+The horse had nothing to do with it."
+
+"Oh, Martine!"
+
+"Yes, my dear Prissie. I had been following your old example of
+borrowing trouble, and I had been keeping my tribulations to myself,
+until I just couldn't bear them. You see it was this way. I was sure
+that father wouldn't get well, and that the shock of his death would
+kill mother, and Lucian would have to leave college, and I would have to
+start out at once to earn my living. Then little things were bothering
+me too, like Carlotta's being mean, and Angelina's leaving us with no
+one to help, and I was tired of being economical, so the horse was just
+the last straw."
+
+Though Martine's explanation was not very lucid, Priscilla certainly
+understood her.
+
+"I believe Clare was disappointed," she continued, "that I hadn't at
+least one bone broken. She wanted to make a heroine of me, and she isn't
+at all pleased when I tell her I wasn't in danger."
+
+"Well, if you were not, Carlotta was. She is very grateful."
+
+"I know, I know," said Martine, hastily. "But when you are not very fond
+of people, it is rather disagreeable to have them grateful, especially
+for nothing at all. I was really sorry that the person in the carriage
+was Carlotta. I suppose this sounds very hateful, for she has written me
+a fine letter--says she is sorry she couldn't see me before she went to
+the mountains, but still--"
+
+"But still," echoed Priscilla.
+
+"Oh, nothing, except that I like Mrs. Brownville's letter so much
+better. She says that I have been a great help to Herbert this
+summer--keeping him away from a set of young men the family didn't care
+for, and giving him ideals. I shouldn't expect Mrs. Brownville to know
+an ideal when she saw it. However, I dare say she's right, only it was
+unconscious goodness on my part. I didn't know Herbert had to be kept
+away from any set of foolish companions. I simply found him good
+company, and I am so used to giving advice to Lucian and Robert that I
+naturally favored Herbert in the same way. Then he was tremendously good
+in reading Latin with me. Except for this accident I should have been
+ahead of you, Prissie dear."
+
+"I should like to have seen Herbert Brownville."
+
+"Yes, it's a pity he had to go back to college before you came. But
+you'll see him in Boston some time."
+
+"When do you expect your father?" asked Priscilla.
+
+"Oh, in a week--just think of it--in a week, and he is almost well, and
+although he has lost money, things are not going to be so very
+dreadful,--not at all as I feared. I looked too far ahead."
+
+"Yes," said Priscilla, mischievously, "jumping at conclusions is almost
+as bad as borrowing trouble. They mean much the same thing."
+
+"I am not so sure. I cannot imagine a slow, deliberate person like you
+jumping at conclusions, though I have known you to borrow trouble."
+
+"Sometimes I am very hasty," responded Priscilla, slowly, as if
+reflecting on something. "There is one thing I ought to tell you. Do you
+remember your prize essay last spring?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but I didn't set out to get a prize."
+
+"I know. If you had, I suppose you would have written it all alone."
+
+"What do you mean? I did write it alone."
+
+Then remembering Lucian's help, Martine flushed to the roots of her
+hair.
+
+"I did not mean to offend you," continued Priscilla, "for even if Lucian
+helped you a little, this was all right; I was only thinking how unfair
+I had been. I accidentally saw some notes for your essay in Lucian's
+handwriting, and for a little while I felt that you had acted unfairly.
+Do you remember one week last spring, when I was stiff and disagreeable
+and wouldn't go anywhere with you?"
+
+"_One_ week!" exclaimed Martine, roguishly.
+
+"Oh, I dare say there were others. Only I remember the why of that
+particular week."
+
+"But it's so long ago," cried Martine, "Let's not remember it now."
+
+"It's only fair that you should know that I sometimes jump to
+conclusions."
+
+"As long as you are ready to jump away from them again, there's no great
+harm done."
+
+"That's what I wanted to say. I realized after all that there was no
+rule in school against getting help in an essay, and that you didn't
+know a prize was to be given when you wrote yours. But I always thought
+you ought to know how unfair I had been."
+
+"Then we are friends again," said Martine, laughing, "though I didn't
+know we had ever been anything else." Secretly, she thought Priscilla
+had made a great ado about nothing. "It's the Puritan way, I suppose,"
+she said to herself. Then aloud,--
+
+"As I have forgiven you, we may call it square about those Christmas
+photographs. Thus far I have always been able to prevent your paying me
+for them. But to-day, when I found your note with this money on my
+bureau--really, Priscilla, I was almost offended. So here, child," and
+she held out an envelope, "if you will take back this money, I will
+forgive you for your unfair thoughts."
+
+Under the circumstances Priscilla could not refuse Martine, and thus
+both girls were satisfied.
+
+"There's one thing," said Martine, to change the subject, "I have had
+some lovely letters lately. Just think of little Esther's writing me.
+Nora must have told her where I was. She hopes I will be able to go on
+with the Mansion Class next year--but dear me, Priscilla, she has got
+far beyond me; only look at this pen and ink," and she displayed the
+last page of the letter, in which Esther had drawn a picture that
+Priscilla at once recognized as Martine herself. "Then Alexander Babet
+has written me about Yvonne, that she is much stronger, and so happy
+with her music lessons,--and would you believe it, they still have some
+of that hundred dollars left. It's wonderful how far some people can
+make a little money go."
+
+Here Martine sighed, recalling the time when she would not have thought
+a hundred dollars too much to spend in gratifying a single small wish.
+
+"Do you know," she continued, "it may be that I can really do something
+for Yvonne next year. If papa can't spare the money, why I can give up
+something of my own--riding lessons, for example,--and spend what it
+would cost for Yvonne. This year I have been so frightfully useless; it
+seems as if I hadn't done anything for anybody."
+
+"How foolish you are," exclaimed Priscilla. "If there were nothing else,
+you certainly have helped Yvonne and Esther, and just think what Mrs.
+Brownville writes about Herbert, and your mother says you have been a
+wonderful housekeeper, and that you have taken so much care off her
+shoulders, and Angelina--"
+
+"Well, Angelina is rather absurd," interposed Martine; "I was just
+coming to myself that evening after--what shall I call it--the Carlotta
+incident, when Angelina rushed into the room, and almost threw herself
+on my neck. She seemed to think that something awful had happened to me
+because she had undertaken to leave us, and that my salvation depended
+on her. She said she had had queer feelings all day, and that she just
+felt drawn back to Red Knoll, which she never, never, would desert
+again. Really it was just as well that she came back, for although
+mother was able to get an extra helper, Angelina knew exactly where
+things were. Of course she was tremendously proud of what she had
+accomplished in her trip to Portsmouth, for she made the house-breaker
+admit that he was Miguel Silva, and though she can't recover her money,
+she has a kind of wicked satisfaction in knowing that he will be
+punished for his other misdeeds."
+
+"She doesn't seem to be quite as Spanish as she was last winter. At
+least she doesn't say as much about it."
+
+"No, she gives me the credit for that. She says that I have shown her
+that it is wrong to pretend anything. However, on that same Portsmouth
+trip, she went down the harbor to look at the island where Cervera's men
+were prisoners, and now she likes to speak of the Spaniards in a
+patronizing tone as people to be spoken of as inferiors rather than
+kinsmen."
+
+"It's astonishing," mused Priscilla, "how many friends you make!"
+
+"Why should it be astonishing? Why shouldn't I make friends?"
+
+"I only meant it was astonishing in comparison with me. No one ever
+attaches importance to me. In the past year I have hardly made a new
+friend--while you--"
+
+"You have made a friend of me for one thing, and Lucian thinks you are
+exactly right, and my mother considers you a perfect model. Oh, yes, and
+there's Eunice."
+
+Priscilla, in spite of herself, smiled at Martine's droll tone.
+
+"But think of all the people you have to your credit. Mr. Stacy says he
+never saw a young girl talk so intelligently about Plymouth, and the
+children are always asking me when you will come again, and in her
+secret heart I believe Aunt Tilworth prefers you to me,--and my
+mother--"
+
+"What nonsense, Priscilla! It's only because people think me so very
+empty-headed when they first meet me, that they are surprised later to
+find that there's anything to me, just as I am surprised some times to
+discover these quiet dignified girls, like Elinor, and Clare, are really
+very good fun when you come to know them better."
+
+"Then," continued Priscilla, "there are Balfour and Mr. Gamut. If you
+hadn't been considerate of Balfour's feelings, and invited him to your
+house, he wouldn't have met Mr. Gamut, and Eunice says he has made him a
+splendid offer, and he will take it as soon as he's through college."
+
+"Oh, well, things may have happened that way; but you know yourself that
+I haven't any particular talent for anything, and I never go out of my
+way to help people."
+
+"You help them just by being bright and pleasant and making them think
+the best of themselves."
+
+"Perhaps; but as to Balfour, I am glad that he's to be helped by Mr.
+Gamut, and not by Mr. Blair, or even papa, as I once hoped. For, as it
+is, he's much more independent, without feeling that anything has been
+done for him, because he's a connection of ours, even though the
+cousinship is rather far away. It was so funny, though, to see Mr. Gamut
+the evening Carlotta's horse tried to run. He appeared on the scene just
+as I fainted, and later, when I came to, he was hopping about, anxious
+to do something, but not knowing what to do. Faint as I was, I almost
+laughed at him. But that would have been mean, for he had come almost
+expressly to bring me news that he had just heard about papa's affairs.
+He said he knew I had been worrying, and he wanted to be the first to
+tell me. Naturally, he was surprised to find me lying on my back in the
+middle of the road. But come, we mustn't waste all the morning here,"
+and seizing Priscilla by the arm, Martine fairly dragged her from the
+hammock.
+
+"I feel so energetic now," she cried, "that we must do something
+exciting--take a long walk to work off my energy--if we could gather a
+party, I believe I could climb Agamenticus. What would you say to that,
+Prissie?"
+
+The diminutive no longer annoyed Priscilla. She had learned to
+understand Martine.
+
+"It isn't necessary for me to say anything. Your mother will tell you
+what she thinks about your climbing Agamenticus."
+
+"I suppose it is too far. You always do know better than I. I believe
+that next year I shall have to be known as Priscilla's, instead of
+Brenda's ward"--and with her hand in Priscilla's, Martine went into the
+house.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+HELEN LEAH REED'S "BRENDA" BOOKS
+
+
+BRENDA, HER SCHOOL AND HER CLUB
+
+Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith.
+
+_The Boston Herald_ says: "Miss Reed's girls have all the impulses and
+likes of real girls as their characters are developing, and her record
+of their thoughts and actions reads like a chapter snatched from the
+page of life. It is bright, genial, merry, wholesome, and full of good
+characterizations."
+
+
+BRENDA'S SUMMER AT ROCKLEY
+
+Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith.
+
+A charming picture of vacation life along the famous North Shore of
+Massachusetts.
+
+_The Outlook_ says: "The author is one of the best equipped of our
+writers for girls of larger growth. Her stories are strong, intelligent,
+and wholesome."
+
+
+BRENDA'S COUSIN AT RADCLIFFE
+
+Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens.
+
+A remarkably real and fascinating story of a college girl's career,
+excelling in interest Miss Reed's first "Brenda" book. The _Providence
+News_ says of it: "No better college story has been written." The author
+is a graduate of Radcliffe College which she describes.
+
+No better college story has been written.--_Providence News._
+
+Miss Reed is herself a Radcliffe woman, and she has made a sympathetic
+and accurate study of the woman's college at Cambridge.--_Chicago
+Evening Post._
+
+The author is one of the best equipped of our writers for girls of
+larger growth. Her stories are strong, intelligent, and wholesome.--_The
+Outlook_, N. Y.
+
+The book has the background of old Cambridge, a little of Harvard, and
+Boston in the distance.... The heroine is a fine girl, and the other
+characters are girls of many varieties and from many places.--_New York
+Commercial Advertiser._
+
+She brings out all sides of the life, and, while making much of the fun
+and good fellowship, does not let it be forgotten that work and growth
+are the end and object of it all.--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+
+BRENDA'S BARGAIN
+
+Illustrated.
+
+"The fourth and last of the 'Brenda' books," says _The Bookman_, "deals
+with social settlement work, under conditions with which the author is
+familiar." The _Boston Transcript_ adds: "This book is by far the best
+of the series."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Another Popular "Brenda" Story_
+
+AMY IN ACADIA
+
+Illustrated by Katharine Pyle.
+
+
+A delightful scene for a tale that arouses and holds the young reader's
+attention and sympathies from the beginning.--_Washington Star._
+
+The entire story is full of life, action, and entertainment, as well as
+information.--_Newark Advertiser._
+
+Amy, now a college senior, and some of her friends have various unique
+experiences, and incidentally introduce a great many historical details
+concerning the descendants of the exiled Acadians in the romantic region
+of Clare in Nova Scotia.--_New York Sun._
+
+A splendid tale for girls, carefully written, interesting, and full of
+information concerning the romantic region made famous by the
+vicissitudes of Evangeline.--_Toronto Globe._
+
+The adventures of Amy and her girl friends among the descendants of the
+exiled Acadians have a spice of novelty to them.--_Philadelphia Press._
+
+So well written that it holds the attention of the young reader, and so
+well developed in its story as to prove without question another popular
+addition to the young folks' library.--_Boston Journal._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_A Story for Younger Girls_
+
+IRMA AND NAP
+
+Illustrated by Clara E. Atwood.
+
+A brightly written story about children from eleven to thirteen years of
+age, who live in a suburban town, and attend a public grammar school.
+The book is full of incident of school and home life.
+
+The story deals with real life, and is told in the simple and
+natural style which characterized Miss Reed's popular "Brenda"
+stories.--_Washington Post._
+
+There are little people in this sweetly written story with whom all will
+feel at once that they have been long acquainted, so real do they seem,
+as well as their plans, their play, and their school and home and
+everyday life.--_Boston Courier._
+
+Her children are real; her style also is natural and pleasing.--_The
+Outlook_, New York.
+
+Miss Reed's children are perfectly natural and act as real girls would
+under the same circumstances. Nap is a lively little dog, who takes an
+important part in the development of the story.--_Christian Register_,
+Boston.
+
+A clever story, not a bit preachy, but with much influence for right
+living in evidence throughout.--_Chicago Evening Post._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Brenda's Ward, by Helen Leah Reed
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