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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6569.txt b/6569.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0da3fc --- /dev/null +++ b/6569.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6538 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bessie Bradford's Prize, by Joanna H. Mathews + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Bessie Bradford's Prize + +Author: Joanna H. Mathews + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6569] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 28, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BESSIE BRADFORD'S PRIZE *** + + + + +Produced by Branko Collin, Tonya Allen, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +BESSIE BRADFORD'S PRIZE + +The third of a series of sequels to "the Bessie books" + +By Joanna H. Mathews + +Illustrated by W. St. John Harper + +Dedicated to my dear little friend and fellow author Elizabeth Leiper +Martin ("Elsie") + +With the wish that the path of authorship may have for her as many +flowers and as few thorns as it has had for her friend and well +wisher + +J. H. M. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. AT THE POLICEMAN'S, + +II. LETTERS, + +III. LENA'S SECRET, + +IV. PERCY, + +V. ROBBING THE MAIL, + +VI. A CONFIDENCE, + +VII. A BOX OF BONBONS, + +VIII. "INNOCENTS ABROAD," + +IX. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING, + +X. FRANKIE TO THE FRONT AGAIN, + +XL A TRUST, + +XII. DISCOVERY, + +XIII. ACCUSATION, + +XIV. WHO WINS? + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AT THE POLICEMAN'S. + + +"Here comes Mrs. Fleming," said Jennie Richards, in a tone indicative +of anything but pleasure in the coming of Mrs. Fleming. + +Mrs. Granby responded with an exclamation which savored of a like +sentiment, and rising, she tossed aside the little frock she was +working on, as she added: + +"I don't see what she's comin' for! I didn't want her a comin' here, +bringin' her mournin' an' frettin' an' lookin' out for troubles to +pester you, Mary Richards, an' I told her I would be over to her +place this evenin'. I did tell her, you know, I'd fit that dress for +her Mrs. Bradford give her to Christmas, but she just needn't a come +here when I told her I'd go there; an' a kill-joy she is an' no +comfort to nobody. You go into the kitchen, Mary, an' stay there +till she's gone, which I won't be long fittin' her, an' I'll get rid +of her soon's I can," + +Mrs. Richards was about to comply with the suggestion, when Jennie, +who was still gazing out of the window, exclaimed with a total change +of tone: + +"And here come the little Miss Bradfords, with Jane, and Miss Belle +Powers and Miss Lily Norris along with them." + +The little sister whom she was diverting by holding her up to the +window, began to clap her hands, and Mrs. Richards settled herself +back into her chair again, saying: + +"I ain't going into the kitchen to miss _them_, and I'll set the +sunshine they'll bring against the clouds Mrs. Fleming drags." + +Mrs. Granby beamed upon her. + +"Well, I declare, Mary Richards, you ain't no great hand to talk, but +when you do, you just do it beautiful; now don't she, Jennie? That's +the po'tryest talkin' I've heard this long while, real live po'try, +if there ain't no jingle about it. I allers did think you might a +writ a book if you'd set about it, an' if you'd put such readin' as +that kind of talk into it, I'll be boun' it would bring a lot of +money, an' I'm right glad the little young ladies is comin', on'y I +wish Amandy Flemin' hadn't hit the same time." + +It was plain to be seen that the visit of the young party who were on +the way to the door was a source of gratification to the policeman's +family, whatever that of Mrs. Fleming might be. Their quicker +footsteps brought them in before Mrs. Fleming, and they received a +warm welcome. It is to be feared that the younger girl had an eye to +the loaves and fishes with which they usually came laden on their +visits to the Richards' household, as she ran to them on their +entrance, saying, + +"What did oo b'ing me?" + +"Augh! Shame!" said the scandalized Mrs. Granby, snatching her up; +and, "You'll excuse her, young ladies," said Mrs. Richards, mortified +also; "but she's only a little thing, and you spoil her, always +bringing her something when you come." + +That they were not offended or hurt was soon evidenced by the fact +that Lily presently had the little one on her lap, while Belle was +showing her a linen scrap-book which had been brought for her. + +Mrs. Granby was a seamstress, and Jane had brought some work which +her mistress, Mrs. Bradford, had sent; and Maggie and Bessie, with +Belle and Lily, who were spending the day with them, had chosen to +accompany her, the first three because they were generally ready for +a visit to the family of the policeman, who had befriended Bessie +when she was lost, the latter because she thought Mrs. Granby "such +fun." To have Mrs. Fleming come in, as she presently did, was bliss +indeed to Lily, who delighted in pitting the cheery, lively little +Mrs. Granby against the melancholy, depressing Mrs. Fleming. Nor was +the entertainment long in beginning. + +Jane was to carry home some work which Mrs. Granby had finished, and +as the latter was putting it up Mrs. Fleming came in and was bidden +by her to take a seat till she was ready to attend to her. + +"And how's little Miss Neville, Miss Maggie?" asked Mrs. Richards. "I +think that's the name of the young lady who was so brave in saving +her little sister, and was so burned." + +"Yes, that's her name," answered Maggie. "She is a great deal better, +Mrs. Richards. The doctor has said she is out of danger, and her +mother has been able to leave her and to go back to the son who is +ill." + +"I'm very glad to hear it," said Mrs. Richards, cordially. "My +husband was telling me how wonderful and brave she was, and how she +never thought of herself trying to save the other children; and how +the gentleman Miss Staunton is to marry was burned very bad saving +her." + +"Yes; it was a terrible time," said Maggie; "but Mr. Howard is much +better now, too; so we are all very happy." + +All this time Mrs. Fleming had sat nodding her head mournfully, as if +she would say, "Don't be encouraged; there is no ground for hope." + +"Look! Look at her!" Lily whispered to Bessie. "She's like an insane +Chinese mandarin, rolling round her old head that way." + +"Hush!" whispered Bessie, "she'll hear you." + +"Don't care if she does," answered Lily. + +And now Mrs. Fleming broke forth in just such a lackadaisical, +tearful tone as one would have expected to issue from her lips. + +"Oh, Miss Maggie," she whined, "if the dear lady, your ma, 'ad but +listened to me. I told her no good wouldn't come of 'avin' that +number of children to her Christmas tree--twice thirteen; an' I said +if thirteen was hunlucky, twice thirteen was twice worse; an' your ma +just laughed at me; an' the next day came the burnin'." + +Bessie looked gravely at her. + +"My mother says that is wrong and foolish, too," she said, in an +admonitory tone, "and that thirteen is no worse than any other +number." + +"You nor your ma can't gainsay that there come the burnin', Miss," +persisted the woman. + +"I know that Colonel Rush's house was on fire, and that Miss Lena was +burned, and Mr. Howard, too," answered Bessie, equally determined to +maintain her side of the case. "But they are both a great deal +better, and it ought to show you that such things don't make any +difference to God, and that He can take just as good care of one +number as another." + +The other children were rather surprised to hear Bessie speak so +decidedly to one older than herself; but this was a subject on which +she felt strongly; her own faith and trust and reliance on the +goodness and power of God were very strong; and more than one +occurrence in her little life had tended to foster these, and she +always rather resented the want of them in others. And now Mrs. +Fleming, in her turn, resented being chidden by this mite who +appeared even younger than she really was. But it pleased her, as +usual, to assume the injured role. + +"Well, Miss," she said, "'tain't for me to contradick you nor your +ma. I can't help havin' my hown feelin's an' hopinions; but the Lord +made me to be down-trod, an' I'm willin' to habide 'is will an' stay +down-trod." + +This was beyond Bessie; she had no answer, no argument for folly such +as this, if, indeed, she grasped the woman's meaning; but she did +understand that she was still making her moan over matters and things +in general, and that in some way she seemed to be blaming her own +dear mother. She looked displeased and turned away; but here Mrs. +Granby, who had her head in a wardrobe, looking for a large sheet of +paper, withdrew it and came to the front. + +"Well," she said, raising her voice so that it might be heard above +the rattle of the stiff paper which she unfolded and wrapped about +the completed work Jane was to carry back, "well, if so be as you +enjoy bein' 'down-trod,' as you do enjoy most things as other folks +don't find pleasin', there ain't nobody goin' to hinder you; but you +look here, Mrs. Flemin', you nor nobody else ain't goin' to cast no +slurs onter Mrs. Bradford which there never was a better lady, nor +one that was so far from down-treadin' folks but more like to be +upliftin' 'em if only they'll let themselves be uplift, an' all her +family the same an' the little ladies brought up accordin'; so, if +you please, no slurs on any of 'em afore me an' Mary Richards which +we would have feelin's on account of it an' wouldn't stan' it in +_this_ house. I don't see why you can't live agreeable like +other folks; an' it does fret me outer patience to hear a body +mortifyin' the Lord's mercies an' you such a heapin' lot sent to you +this very winter, an' it's for your own good I speak, which the Lord +He does get out of patience with us sometimes I do believe when we're +faithless an' mistrustin', an' takes back His blessin's when He finds +we don't hold 'em in no appreciation." + +By this time Mrs. Fleming had dissolved into tears and buried her +face in an already much bewept pocket-handkerchief. + +Seeing this Mrs. Granby resumed in a soothing tone and with some +self-reproach. + +"But just hear me now rattlin' on about my neighbors' short-comin's +an' me plenty of my own, me that ain't a woman of many words neither. +There, Mrs. Flemin', don't mind, an' if you've a min' to compose your +feelin's in the kitchen just step in an' I'll fit your dress soon's +Jane's business is over." + +But Mrs. Fleming had no idea of retiring to privacy to compose her +"feelin's;" she preferred to indulge them in public, and she sat +still, sobbing only the louder. The situation was becoming +embarrassing to the young party, and Maggie, with her usual ready +tact, seized upon an opening to change the subject. + +"Why, Mrs. Granby," she said, "I did not know you made dresses. I +thought you only did plain sewing such as you have done for our +family." + +"I do a bit at it, Miss Maggie," answered the seamstress; "though, to +be sure, I wouldn't undertake to dress-make for ladies like your ma +and aunts an' the like, but for them as hasn't much ambition as to +their figgers, I can make out, an' I did tell Mrs. Flemin' I'd fit +hers, so she could make it herself an' she shouldn't have to do no +expenses about it, for it's on'y right we should all lend a helpin' +hand, an' where would me an' the Richardses be if your folks hadn't +thought the same an' acted accordin', which there's never a night on +my bended knees I don't ask the Almighty's blessin' on you, an' +there's none more deserves it, an' I do b'lieve the dear Lord's of +the same way of thinkin', for there's none as I see happier nor more +prosperin' an' does one's heart good to see it, an' never will I +forget the night we was in such a peck of troubles an' seein' no way +out of 'em me an' the Richardses, an' your pa comin' in an' turnin' +the tide, an' since then, yes, ever since, all goin' so comfortable +an' pleasant with us. I did think when I saw Mr. Bradford's face that +night I first opened the door to him that he was the +agreeablest-lookin' gentleman I ever did see, but me no idea what a +blessin' he was a bringin' us all an' help outer our troubles, which +the Richardses' troubles is always mine too. But I declare, just hear +me runnin' on, as I always do if I get on them times; you'd think I +was the greatest hand to talk ever was." + +Lily was having her "fun," and she was quite loth to take leave when +Mrs. Granby had the parcel ready and Maggie made the move to go. + +"I'm sure, Miss Maggie," said Mrs. Richards, "that I am truly glad to +hear that Miss Neville is likely to get well. I suppose she'll be +leaving her uncle's now and going away with her mother. It isn't +likely Mrs. Neville will want to be leaving her child again after +such an escape as she's had. I'm sure I couldn't abide one of mine +out of my sight after such a thing. And the bravery of her, too, the +dear young thing. My husband says it was a risk a strong man, and +one of the police themselves, might have shrunk from." + +This was an unusually long speech for Mrs. Richards, who was that +which Mrs. Granby so mistakenly called herself, "a woman of few +words," for she, as well as the rest of the family, had been greatly +interested in the adventure of the heroic little girl who had braved +and endured so much to rescue her young brother and sister. + +Maggie hesitated one moment, then said: + +"No, Mrs. Richards. Mrs. Neville has gone back to her son, but Miss +Lena has not gone with her. She is to stay with Colonel and Mrs. Rush +for a long time, perhaps a year, and we are all so glad about it." + +"And could the mother go and leave her, and she might any time take a +turn for the worse, and be took off sudden?" interposed Mrs. Fleming, +whose tears did not prevent her from hearing all that passed. "You +never know when there's been burnin' if there ain't smothered fire, +an' it shows up when you least hexpect it." + +No one took any notice of this cheerful prophecy, but Mrs. Granby +asked: + +"And the young lady is like to be quite well again and about soon, +Miss Maggie?" + +"Oh, yes," answered Maggie, confidently; "and we hope to have her +back at school before long. She is quite well enough now to enjoy +everything except walking; but her feet are still tender and she +cannot yet walk about. But come, girls, it is time to go;" and the +young party took their leave. + +When not far from their respective homes, which were all in the same +neighborhood, they met Gracie Howard, and Maggie stopped to speak to +her, although Gracie had shown no sign of wishing to do so; indeed, +she seemed as if she would rather pass on. Of course, the others +lingered too. + +"Gracie," said Maggie, "I hope you will come to the meeting of our +club the day after to-morrow. It is so long since you have been." + +Gracie colored violently, looked down upon the ground, and in a +nervous way dug the toe of her overshoe into the snow which had +fallen that morning and still lay in some places on the street. + +"I don't know; no, I think not--I think--perhaps I may go out with +mamma," she stammered, anxious for some excuse, and yet too honest to +invent one that was altogether without foundation. Perhaps she would +go out with her mother; she would ask her to take her. + +"Oh, come, Gracie; do come," persisted Maggie, determined to carry +her point if possible. "It is so long since you have been, and you +know there is a paper owing from you. Your turn is long since passed; +and we'll all be so glad to have you." + +Grade's color deepened still more, and she cast a sidelong glance at +Lily, who stood at Maggie's elbow; and Lily saw that she was doubtful +if that "all" included herself. Lily was very outspoken, particularly +so where she saw cause for disapproval, and above all if she thought +others were assuming too much; and she had on certain occasions so +plainly made known her opinion of some of Grade's assumption, that a +sort of chronic feud had become established between the two, not +breaking out into open hostility, but showing itself in a +half-slighting, half-teasing way with Lily, and with Gracie in a +manner partly scornful, partly an affectation of indifference. + +Some six weeks since, at a meeting of the club of the "Cheeryble +Sisters," to which all three little girls belonged, Gracie's +overweening self-conceit and irrepressible desire to be first had led +her into conflict with another of her classmates, Lena Neville, in +which she had proved herself so arrogant, so jealous and ill-tempered +that she had excited the indignation of all who were present. But if +they had known what followed after Gracie had been left alone in the +room where she had so disgraced herself, how would they have felt +then? How she had stood by and seen the source of contention, a +composition, which she believed had been written by Lena, torn to +atoms by a mischievous little dog, withholding her hand from rescuing +it, her voice from warning the dog off from it simply for the +indulgence of that same blind, overpowering jealousy. The destruction +was hardly wrought, when repentance and remorse too late had +followed--repentance and remorse, intensified a thousandfold by after +events on the very same day. + +But that guilty secret was still locked within her own heart, +weighing heavily upon her conscience, but still unconfessed, still +unsuspected by others. Ever since that miserable afternoon she had +shrunk from meeting her classmates, and although she had been obliged +to do so at school, she had avoided all other opportunities of seeing +them, and on one excuse and another had refused to attend the +meetings of the club which came together every Friday afternoon, the +place of rendezvous being at Mrs. Bradford's, Maggie being the +president as she had been the originator of the club. + +It was true that Gracie had later discovered that the ruined paper +was one of her own, a composition on the very same subject as Lena's, +and which had, by the merest accident, and without her knowledge, +been exchanged for that of the young classmate whom she chose to +consider as her rival; and this had in some measure relieved the +weight of sorrow and remorse she had felt when Lena was severely +burned and lay for days hovering between life and death. But she +could not shut her eyes or blind her conscience to the fact that she +had been guilty in intention, if not in actual deed, and she could +not shake off the haunting sense of shame or the feeling that others +must know of the contemptible action of which she had been guilty. + +Knowing nothing of this, Maggie and the other members of the club +believed that her avoidance of them and her low spirits were caused +by shame and distress for the bad temper and unkindness she had shown +to Lena on that memorable day; and now Maggie, feeling sorry for her +and also very loath to have any unpleasantness in the club, would +fain have persuaded her to join them once more and to put things on +their old footing. + +Gracie was not doubtful of Maggie, nor of Bessie, nor yet of Belle +Powers and Fanny Leroy; in fact, she knew she would be received +kindly by the majority of the members, but about Lily and two or +three others she had her misgivings, and hence that doubtful, +half-deprecating glance at the former, who stood at Maggie's elbow. + +Lily caught it, and, although she had intended to be very offish and +high and mighty with Gracie for the rest of her days, her heart smote +her, and flinging her former resolution to the winds, she followed +Maggie's example, and laying her hand persuasively on Gracie's muff, +said, with her usual directness: + +"Oh, come on, Gracie! Don't let's have any more madness and being +offended among us. It's horrid; so let by-gones be by-gones, and +come to the club meetings again." + +"If they only knew," thought Gracie, "they would not ask me, would +not say 'let by-gones be by-gones;'" but she said that she would come +to the meeting, and then they parted and went their separate ways. + +When Maggie and Bessie reached home, they found Colonel Rush there +awaiting them, and heard that he had come to take them to his own +house. Lena, his niece, was coming down to dinner for the first time +since she had been so badly burned; that is, she was to be carried +down, for her poor little feet were still too tender to suffer her to +put them to the ground, or to take any steps upon them. But she had +been so long a prisoner upstairs that it was quite an event for her +to be allowed to join the family at dinner once more; and the Colonel +had seen fit to make it a little more of a celebration by coming for +Maggie and Bessie to make merry with them on the occasion. Indeed, he +was apt to think that such occasions were not complete without the +company of his two pets, and they had both been perfectly devoted to +Lena during the period of her confinement, so that he was more than +ready to make this a little jubilee for all concerned. + +Mamma's permission being readily obtained--indeed the Colonel had +secured it before the two little maidens had appeared upon the +scene--the three friends set forth again, well pleased with one +another and with the prospect before them. + +"Lena has had quite an eventful day," said the Colonel, as they were +on their way to his house. "First and greatest, I suppose, was a +letter from her brother Russell--only a few lines, it is true, but +the first she has had since he was taken ill, and it was full of +loving praises for her presence of mind and her bravery, and for the +patience with which she has borne her suffering; so it was very +precious to her, for she adores him, you know; and there was another +from her father, containing news which she would like to give you +herself, I am sure; so I leave it for her to do so. And now comes her +first dinner with the family, with you to dine with her. But she is +such a cool, composed little woman, and takes things so quietly, that +we are less afraid of over-excitement for her than we would be for +some I could name." + +"Now, Uncle Horace," said Maggie, as he looked down at her with a +twinkle in his kind eyes, "you know I would keep quiet if you told me +to." + +"You would try, I am sure, Midget," answered her friend, "but there +are girls and girls, you know, and it is easier for one species to +keep quiet under exciting causes than it is for another." + +"But you can't tell how _this_ species would be in such +circumstances," said Maggie, "because I have never been very ill or +had any terrible injury, such as Lena's burns." + +"I can tell that you are a very 'happy circumstance' yourself, and +that I am quite satisfied with you as you are," answered the Colonel, +bending another loving look upon the rosy, glowing face upturned to +his, and which broke into dimples at the allusion to an old-time +joke. + +Long ago, when Maggie was a very little girl, she had been very fond +of using long words--indeed, she had not yet outgrown this fancy; but +in former days, whenever she heard what she called "a new word," she +would presently contrive some occasion for using it, not always with +the fullest understanding of its exact meaning; and the results, as +may be supposed, were sometimes rather droll. + +One summer, when Mr. Bradford's family were at the sea-shore, and +Colonel and Mrs. Rush were their near neighbors, Maggie had taken a +violent dislike to the mistress of the house where she boarded. The +woman was somewhat rough and unprepossessing, it is true, and hence +Maggie had conceived the prejudice against her; but she was +kind-hearted and good, as the little girl learned later. Having heard +some one use the expression, "happy circumstance," Maggie took a +fancy to it; and, as she informed Bessie, immediately resolved to +adopt it as one of "my words." + +An opportunity soon presented itself. Mrs. Jones offended both +children, Maggie especially, and soon after, she asked Mr. Jones in +confidence, if he thought Mrs. Jones "a very happy circumstance." +Fortunately, the man, a jolly, rollicking farmer with a very soft +spot in his heart for all children, took it good-naturedly and +thought it a tremendous joke, and his uproarious merriment called +Mrs. Jones upon the scene to reprove him and inquire the cause, +greatly to the confusion and distress of poor embarrassed, frightened +Maggie. And this was increased by the fact that she took occasion to +praise Maggie and Bessie and to say what good, mannerly children they +were. + +Mr. Jones, however, did not betray confidence, and later on, Maggie +changed her opinion; but the "happy circumstance" had remained a +family joke ever since, and the expression was frequently brought +into use in the sense in which Maggie had employed it, and the +children laughed now as the Colonel used the old familiar phrase. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LETTERS. + + +They found Lena in the library, ensconced in state in her uncle's +comfortable rolling chair, in which, in by-gone days when he was lame +and helpless, he had spent many hours, and in which she could easily +be conveyed from room to room by the Colonel's man, Starr, without +putting her still tender little feet to the ground. It was natural +that she should be glad to be down-stairs again after all the past +weeks of confinement and suffering; but Maggie and Bessie found her +in a state of happiness and excitement unusual with the calm, +reserved Lena, and which seemed hardly to be accounted for by the +mere fact that she had once more been allowed to join the family +circle. + +But this was soon explained. + +"Maggie and Bessie," she said, with more animation than her little +friends had ever seen her show before, "what do you think has +happened? Such a wonderful, such a delightful thing! I cannot see how +it did happen!" + +Such a thing as had "happened" was indeed an unwonted occurrence in +Lena's young life; but she had been through so many new experiences +lately, that she might almost have ceased to be surprised at +anything. + +If she could have looked in upon her father and mother and invalid +brother Russell, in their far away southern sojourn a few days since, +she would have seen what led to the present unexpected occurrence. +Mrs. Neville had just read to the two gentlemen a letter from her +brother, Colonel Rush, speaking of Lena's continued imprisonment; and +they had continued to talk of their little heroine and her +achievement. + +"Was Lena delirious at any time while she was so very ill?" asked +Russell. + +"Not exactly delirious," answered his mother, "but somewhat flighty +at times; and at those times, and indeed when she was herself, her +chief thought and her chief distress seemed to be that she would not +be able to enter into competition with her schoolmates for some prize +to be gained for composition. Your Aunt Marion told me that this +prize was an art education provided by some one for a girl with +talent, whose circumstances would not permit her to obtain one for +herself; and she said that Lena had become very much interested in an +English girl, the daughter of the rector of a poor struggling church +in the suburbs of the city, a girl with a very remarkable artistic +talent; and that she and those little Bradfords, on whose education +and training Horace and Marion seem to base all their ideas +respecting children--if, indeed, they have any ideas except those of +the most unlimited indulgence and license--had set their hearts on +winning this prize for that child. Had it been brought about in any +other way and without physical injury to herself, I should be glad +that Lena was removed from such competition. I highly disapprove of +all such arrangements. Children should be taught to seek improvement +and to do their duty because it _is_ their duty, and not with +the object of gaining some outside advantage either for themselves +or others." + +"In this case, it certainly seems to have been for a praiseworthy, +unselfish object. Poor, dear little Lena!" said Russell, who was the +only member of his family who ever ventured to set up his opinion in +opposition to his mother's. + +"It is the principle of the thing I object to," she said, a little +severely. "As I say, I wish my children to do right because it is +right, and not with any ulterior object." + +"The inducement seemed to have one good effect, at least," persisted +Russell, with a slight shrug of his shoulders which was not, perhaps, +altogether respectful, "and that was the wonderful improvement Lena +made in letter-writing; in the matter and manner, the style and the +handwriting, she has certainly made rapid progress during the time +she has been with Miss Ashton. Do you not agree with me, father?" + +"Ahem-m-m! Yes, I do indeed," answered Mr. Neville, thinking of a +little letter which lay snugly ensconced in his left-hand waistcoat +pocket, a letter which had come by the same mail as that which his +wife held in her hand, but which he had not thought fit to submit to +her perusal. It was a letter thanking him for giving her the liberty +of asking for anything she wished for--her choice had been that she +might be allowed to remain at her uncle's house during the stay of +the family in the country--a letter sweet, tender, and confiding, and +giving him glimpses into the child's heart which were a revelation to +him; a letter which had touched him deeply, but which he believed +Mrs. Neville would call "gush" and "nonsense." And just now he did +not care to have it so criticised, so he would not show it to his +wife, at least at present. + +But before the subject of the conversation had changed, Mrs. Neville +was called from the room, and Mr. Neville said to his son: + +"Russell, I am feeling that I owe--ahem!--I owe some +recognition--ahem!--to the Almighty for the very signal mercies +granted to us during the past few weeks, some thank-offering--and, +ahem!--perhaps I owe some to Lena, too. You, in a fair way of +recovery; and, through Lena's wonderful heroism, a frightful casualty +averted; and now she herself doing far better than we had dared to +hope. If the child is set upon giving an artist's education to this +young countrywoman of our own, and your Uncle Horace thinks well of +it,--perhaps it might give her pleasure to have the means of doing +so. Being now disabled it will be impossible for her to enter into +farther competition with her schoolmates, and I wish her to have the +pleasure of making the gift herself. What say you?" + +The idea met with unqualified approbation from his son; and not only +this, but Russell expressed a wish to join his father in his +thank-offering. He was liberal and open-handed, this young man, and, +having lately come of age and into possession of quite a fortune in +his own right, he was ready to seize upon any opportunity of +benefiting others out of his own means. He was a young man after +Maggie's and Bessie's own hearts, and they would instantly have +stamped him with the seal of their approval had they known of this +most desirable characteristic. + +Some little further conference on the matter ensued between the +father and son, with the result that Lena's eyes and heart had to-day +been gladdened by the receipt of two checks of no inconsiderable +amount--a fortune they seemed to her--the one from her father +representing one thousand dollars, the other from Russell for five +hundred. They were enclosed in a letter from Mr. Neville to his +little daughter, saying that they were to be appropriated to any +charitable purpose which she might designate, subject to her uncle's +approval--either for the use of the young artist, or, if she were +likely to gain the instruction she required through the means of any +of Lena's schoolmates, for any good object which would gratify her. + +"It's worth all the burns," said the delighted Lena to her uncle, +when she had shown her prize to him and consulted him as to the best +disposition of it. + +"The true martyr spirit," the Colonel said later to his wife. "And +she shows herself a wise and prudent little woman; for when we were +discussing the matter she said she would wait to decide what should +be done with the money until she knows if Maggie or Bessie or any one +of those interested in Gladys Seabrooke wins the prize. She knows +that Mr. Ashton's gift will go to Gladys in that case; and then she +wishes to devote the money to repairing the old church. If she were +thirty instead of thirteen she could not show better judgment or more +common sense." + +"I am glad that her father is learning to appreciate her at last," +said Mrs. Rush, who, being very fond of children herself, deeply +resented the keep-your-distance system and constant repression under +which her husband's sister and brother-in-law brought up their +family. + +So this was the prize which Lena had to show to her young friends, +this the story she had to tell. They, Maggie and Bessie, were +enchanted in their turn, and as Lena displayed to them the two magic +slips of paper which held for them such wonderful possibilities, and +which appeared as untold wealth to their eyes, they could not contain +their delight and enthusiasm. + +"Why, that will build a whole new church; will it not, Uncle Horace?" +asked Bessie, whose faith that her own Maggie would win the prize was +absolute, especially now that Gracie Howard seemed to have withdrawn +from the contest, and that Lena had been disabled, and who therefore +never doubted that the rector's little daughter was sure of the gift +tendered by Mr. Ashton. + +"Well, hardly," said the Colonel, smiling, as he laid aside the +evening paper; "hardly, although it will go far towards making some +of the repairs which are so much needed, and also towards beautifying +the inside of the church a little. And I think that you must let me +also have a hand in this, for I, too, have occasion for a +thank-offering. So altogether, I hope we shall be able to put the +little church into a fairly presentable condition; that is, in case +you decide, Lena, to use your funds for that purpose," he added, +with the private resolve that the needy church should not be the +loser even if the checks were applied to Gladys Seabrooke's benefit. +She was the first object with all three children, that was plainly to +be seen; but if it should fall out that the means of improvement she +so much desired and so much needed were gained for her by Mr. +Ashton's trust, then this small fortune was to be devoted to the +church of which her father was rector. Then, too, these young home +missionaries intended to devote the proceeds of the fair they were to +hold at Easter to the help of the same church; so that altogether the +prospect for its relief seemed to be promising. + +[Illustration: "THAT WILL BUILD A WHOLE NEW CHURCH"] + +"I had a letter from Russell, too, written by his own hand, the very +first since he has been ill," said the happy Lena. "Oh! and I forgot; +I had a letter from Percy, too. I did not read it, I was so excited +by Papa's and Russell's and the two checks. Let me see; where is it? +Oh, here it is!" + +And she opened it; but seeing at a glance that it was unusually long, +she decided that she would not try to decipher Percy's irregular, +illegible handwriting at that time, but would wait till Maggie and +Bessie should have left her and would make the most of their society. + +Poor little Lena! her day was not to be all sunshine, for a cloud +came over the heaven of her happiness before she laid her head upon +her pillow that night. But this cast no shadow as yet, and the +evening passed merrily to all three children. + +"I do wish that you could come to the club-meeting on Friday, Lena," +said Bessie, shortly before it was time for them to separate for the +night. + +"So do I," said Maggie. + +"I am sure that I wish it," said Lena, "but I suppose it will be some +weeks yet before I can go." + +Mrs. Rush, who was sitting near, overheard the little colloquy, and +at once made a charming suggestion. + +"Suppose," she said, "that you meet here till Lena is well enough to +go to your house, Maggie. My morning room shall be at your service, +as your mother's is at present." + +"Oh, how good in you!" cried Maggie and Bessie, both in one breath, +while Lena's pale face flushed with gratitude and pleasure; and so +the matter was arranged, Maggie undertaking to tell all the members +of the club of the change in the place of meeting. + +But, glancing at Bessie, Maggie saw that she looked somewhat +perturbed, and she suddenly remembered what had passed with Gracie +Howard that very afternoon, and that she had been urged to resume her +accustomed place among the "Cheeryble Sisters," and had consented to +do so. How would that do now? Would Lena feel like having Gracie come +here? Gracie who had treated her so badly, who had shown such +jealousy and unkindness towards her. This was rather a complication, +and considering it, Maggie became uneasy and embarrassed, and Lena, +who was very quick-sighted, saw it. + +"What is the matter, Maggie?" she asked. "Do you think you would +rather not come here?" + +"Oh, no!" answered Maggie, "you know I always love to come here. But, +Lena, this afternoon we met Gracie Howard, and I begged her to come +to the meeting to-morrow. She has not been since--since--the day--of +the fire." + +The flush which pleasure at her aunt's offer had brought to Lena's +face deepened to crimson, which mounted to the very roots of her hair +as she heard Maggie. + +Then after a moment's hesitation, she said, "Will you ask her to +come, Maggie?" + +"Yes," answered Maggie, doubtfully, "I'll ask her." + +"But you think that she will not come?" said Lena. + +"I am afraid she will not," answered Maggie; then added, "I am sure I +should not if I were in her place; I should be too ashamed. I think +she is ashamed, Lena, and sorry, too; I really do." + +Lena seemed to be considering for a moment; then she said, evidently +with a great effort,-- + +"Do you think she would come if I wrote and asked her? I--I would do +it if you thought she would be friends again. And, perhaps," she +added, with a little pathetic wistfulness which nearly made the tears +come to the eyes of the sympathetic Maggie and Bessie, "perhaps she +would, now, after such a thing happened to me. Do you know," sinking +her voice to a whisper, and speaking with an unreserve which she +never showed towards any one save these little friends, and seldom to +them, "do you know that when they thought I was going to die--oh, I +know that every one thought I was going to die--I used to feel so +sorry for Gracie, because we had that quarrel that very afternoon; +and I knew how I should have felt if I had been in her place, and I +used to wish that I could make up with her; and now I would really +like to if she will. Shall I write?" + +Bessie, whose eyes were now brimming over, stooped and kissed her +cheek; and Maggie followed her example, as she answered, with a break +in her own voice, + +"I don't see how she could help it, Lena; you dear Lena." + +Maggie and Bessie were not a little astonished, not only at this +burst of confidence from the shy, reserved Lena, but also at the +feeling she expressed and her readiness to go more than half way in +making advances for the healing of a breach in which she certainly +had not been to blame. + +But in the border-land through which Lena's little feet had lately +trod, many and serious thoughts had come to her; thoughts of which +those about her were all unconscious, as she lay seemingly inert and +passive from exhaustion, except when pain forced complaint from her; +and chief among these had been the recollection of the unpleasant +relation which for some time had existed between herself and Gracie +Howard, and which had culminated in the attack of jealousy and +ill-temper which the latter had shown towards her on the very +afternoon of the day in which Lena had been so badly, almost fatally, +injured in the fire. And Lena herself, as has been said, had been +altogether blameless in the affair, had no cause whatever for +self-reproach; nevertheless, she had wished that she could have made +friends with Gracie before she died. But she had spoken to no one of +this until now, when she thus opened her heart, at least in a +measure, to Maggie and Bessie. + +Knowing all that they did--and still neither they nor Lena knew +one-half of Gracie's misconduct--what wonder was it that they were +touched, and filled with admiration for this little friend who, a +stranger only a few months since, had come to fill so large a place +in their affection and interest. + +But Maggie, feeling confident, as she said, that Gracie was both +ashamed and repentant, was also overjoyed at this opening towards a +reconciliation; for her peace-loving soul could not abide dissension +in any shape, and this breach between two members of the once +harmonious club of the "Cheeryble Sisters" had been a sore trial to +her. + +Nor was Bessie much less pleased; and thinking that there was no time +like the present, and that it would be well that Lena should act +before she had opportunity to change her mind,--this showed that she +did not know Lena well, for having once made up her mind that a thing +was right, Lena was not more apt to change than she would have been +herself,--she offered to bring writing materials, that the note might +be written at once; and running into the library, where Colonel Rush +was smoking his cigar, she begged for and received them. + +But even with those before her and her resolve firmly taken, Lena +found not a little embarrassment and difficulty in wording her note; +for, owing to the state of affairs between her and Gracie, it was not +the easiest thing in the world for her to do. + +However, by Maggie's advice, she resolved to write as though nothing +unpleasant had passed between herself and Gracie, and she finally +produced the following simply-worded note, ignoring all that was +disagreeable. + +"DEAR GRACIE, + +"Aunt Marion has said that I may have the 'Cheeryble Sisters,' Club +here to-morrow, and she says she will make it a little celebration for +us because it is so long since I have been with you girls. Please +come, for I want to have all of you here. + +"Your schoolmate, + +"LENA H. NEVILLE." + +She hesitated over the manner of closing it, for she could not put +"affectionately yours," as, although she was striving to put from her +all hard thoughts of Gracie, she certainly did not regard her with +any affection, nor would she pretend to do so; for Lena was a most +determinately honest child and would never express, even in a +conventional way, that which she did not feel. She even shocked +Maggie and Bessie now and then, truthful and sincere as they were, +by her extreme and uncompromising plain-speaking; and perhaps it was +as well that she was a child of so few words, or she would often have +given offence. Maggie had suggested "truly yours," as being a common +form even between strangers; but Lena rejected that also as +expressing a sentiment she did not feel, and Bessie finally proposed +"your schoolmate," which satisfied the requirements of both truth and +civility. + +Maggie and Bessie posted the note on the way home, so that it might +be sure to reach Gracie early in the morning, and that, as Bessie +said, she might have "time to get over the shock of Lena's +forgiveness before she came to school." + +Lena had been carried upstairs and safely deposited in her own room +by Starr; and Hannah, the nurse of the young Nevilles, had gone +down-stairs to seek the food which it was still considered necessary +for the little invalid to take before going to rest, when Lena +bethought herself of her brother Percy's letter, still unopened in +the excitement which had attended the receipt of the two from her +father and Russell. + +With a half-remorseful feeling that she had so long left it +unnoticed, she broke the seal of Percy's letter. But the first words +on which her eyes lighted sent a pang to her heart, and as she heard +Hannah's heavy step returning, she thrust the letter hurriedly out of +sight. + +"Dear, dear, child!" said the old nurse, as she saw that Lena's hand +shook so that she could hardly hold the bowl of broth, or carry the +spoon to her lips, and with some triumph in, as she believed, the +fulfilment of her own prophecies, "dear, dear, you're hall hupset, +Miss Lena. I told the mistress and I told the doctor you wasn't in no +state to go downstairs yet, or worse still, to be 'avin' company, not +if it was Miss Maggie and Miss Bessie, leastways not hout of your +hown room. 'Ere, let me 'old the basin; you're not fit to do it. +There now, here, child,--why, bless your 'eart, Miss Lena, what is +it?" + +Poor little girl! she was still so weak, so nervous from the effects +of the frightful experience through which she had lately passed, and +of all the consequent suffering, that she was in no state to bear +even the slightest shock or excitement. Had Hannah not noticed her +agitation she would probably have controlled herself; but the +questions and pressing of the old servant were too much for her, and +she burst into a flood of hysterical tears. + +She retained sufficient presence of mind, however, when Hannah ran to +the door to call her assistant, who was in the next room, to open the +drawer of the table by which she sat, and shut the letter within. No +one must see that letter until she had had time to read it, and find +what those first few sentences meant. + +Letitia was sent by Hannah for Mrs. Rush, who speedily came; and, +knowing no other cause, she believed, as the servants did, that this +came from all the excitement of the day, and that they would have to +be more guarded with their little convalescent. She soothed and +petted her, mingling therewith a little judicious firmness, till +Lena's sobs ceased and she was comfortably settled in bed, where she +soon forgot both joys and troubles in the sleep of exhaustion. + +"Well!" said Mrs. Rush, when she had left her patient in Hannah's +care and rejoined her husband, "this puts an end to the project of +having the children's club here to-morrow. We have gone too fast, and +now prove that Lena is not so strong and cannot bear so much as we +thought. I must at once send word to Maggie and Bessie." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +LENA'S SECRET. + + +When Mrs. Rush came up a couple of hours later to inquire about her +little niece, she found her still in that heavy sleep; and with +directions to Hannah to call her if needful, left her, with the hope +that she would rest undisturbed till morning. + +When Lena woke from that dull sleep some time after midnight, all the +house was still; the only sound she heard was the regular breathing +of Hannah, who slept on a cot on the other side of the room, that she +might be near in case Lena needed anything in the night. + +She roused to a bewildered half-consciousness of something unusual; +what was it, good or ill? What had happened before she went to sleep? + +Then came the recollection of those delightful letters from papa and +Russell, confiding to her disposal those precious slips of paper +which represented so much; oh! what a pleasure it was to have the +power of doing so much good; then with a shock came the remembrance +of that other letter, and those two or three first lines, which +seemed to have burned themselves upon her eyes as she read. + +"DEAR LENA, + +"I am in the most awful scrape any one was ever in, and you are the +only one who can help me out of it. If you can't, there is nothing for +me but to be arrested and awfully disgraced, with all the rest of the +family too, and the--" + +This was as far as Lena had read when Hannah's returning footsteps +had impelled her to put the letter out of sight; but it had been +enough in her weak state to startle her out of her self-control, and +it has been seen what a shock it gave her. "Arrested" had a terrible +significance to Lena. + +Not very long before Mrs. Neville's family had left home, Lena had +seen a boy, about her brother Percy's age, arrested in the streets of +London. He had been taken up for some grave misdemeanor, and having +violently resisted his captors, they had found it necessary to +handcuff him, and when Lena saw him he was being forced along between +two policemen, still fiercely struggling, and with his face and +hands covered with blood. The sight had made a dreadful impression +upon the little girl, and when she heard the word "arrested" it +always came back to her with painful force. + +Had it been Maggie or Bessie, or any other child whose relations with +her mother were as tender and confiding as are usually those between +mothers and daughters, the impression might have been lessened by +learning that such a sight was not a usual one, and that people when +arrested were not apt to resist as desperately as the unhappy youth +whom she had seen; but not being accustomed to go to Mrs. Neville +with her joys or troubles, Lena had kept her disagreeable experience +to herself and supposed it all to be the necessary consequence of an +arrest, and Percy's words had conjured up at once all manner of +dreadful possibilities. In imagination she saw him dragged along the +streets in the horrible condition of the criminal she had seen, and +the whole family covered with shame and disgrace. + +Percy was four years older than Lena, but had not half his young +sister's strength of character, judgment or good sense, and he was, +unfortunately, afflicted with that fatal incapacity for saying no, +which brings so much trouble upon its victims. He was selfish, too; +not with a deliberate selfishness, but with a heedless disregard for +the welfare and comfort of others, which was often as trying as if he +purposely sought first his own good. He would not have told a +falsehood, would not have denied any wrong-doing of which he had been +guilty, if taxed with it; but he would not scruple to conceal that +wrong, or to evade the consequences thereof, by any means short of a +deliberate untruth. His faults were those with which his father and +mother had the least patience and sympathy, and those which needed a +large share of both; had he ever received these, the faults would +probably never have attained to such a growth, for he was in mortal +dread of both parents, especially of his mother, and this, of course, +had tended to foster the weakness of his character. + +Poor Lena lay wakeful but quiet for hours, wondering and wondering +what could be the matter, and what those terrifying words with which +Percy's letter commenced could portend. And she, he wrote, was "the +only one who could help him." She wished vainly for the letter, that +she might know the worst at once; but she had no means of reaching it +at present. Her feet could not yet bear to be touched to the ground, +and she dared not wake Hannah and ask for it. Such an unusual request +at this time of night would arouse wonder and surmise, even if Hannah +could be induced to bring her the letter and give her sufficient +light to read it. The old nurse would think her crazy or delirious, +perhaps run and call her aunt and uncle. No, no; that was not to be +thought of, the poor child said to herself as she lay and reasoned +this all out; she must wait till the day came, and then she must +contrive to read the letter when she was alone. Then she could decide +whether or no it would do to take Colonel and Mrs. Rush into her +confidence. She could not bear to think of keeping anything from this +kind uncle and aunt, who had shown themselves so ready to enter into +all her joys and sorrows, who took such an interest--so novel to +her--in all her duties, her occupations, and amusements; who, with a +genuine love for young people, were at no little pains to provide her +with every pleasure suitable for her. + +But--Percy--she must think of him first. Oh, if she only knew all +that was in that dreadful letter! + +But at last she fell asleep again, sleeping late and heavily, far +beyond the usual hour. When she awoke, she insisted upon being taken +up and dressed, although her aunt and nurse would fain have persuaded +her to lie still and rest; and that done, her object was to obtain +possession of Percy's letter without attracting attention to it. +Being totally unaccustomed to anything like manoeuvring or planning, +she could think of no excuse by which she might have the table +brought near her chair, or the chair rolled near the table. The maids +thought her remarkably fractious and whimsical and hard to please, +but laid it all to the reaction from last night's hysterical attack. +Do what she would, she could not contrive, poor helpless child, to +come at the drawer of the table unless she spoke out plainly, which +she could not do, and she had been wheeled into the nursery before +the opportunity offered. + +But here she found the way opened to her. Hannah, who would let no +one else attend to her young lady's meals when they were taken +upstairs, departed for Lena's breakfast; and after she had gone, Lena +speedily bethought herself of a way of procuring Letitia's absence +for a while by sending her down-stairs with directions for some +change in her bill of fare. + +Then calling her little sister Elsie, who was playing about the +nursery, she sent her into her own room, bidding her open the table +drawer and bring her the letter she would find there. + +Elsie, a demure, sedate little damsel, who always did as she was told +and was a pattern child after Mrs. Neville's own heart, discharged +her commission and came back with the letter, which she handed to her +sister without asking any inconvenient questions, and returned to her +dolls in the corner. + +Lena ventured to open the letter, knowing that Hannah, at least, was +sure to be absent for some moments yet, and sure that Letitia, who +was a dull, unobserving girl, would take no notice. She felt that she +could wait no longer. + +There was a few moments' silence in the room; Elsie, absorbed in her +quiet play, took no heed to her sister; Letitia did not return, +having stopped on her way back to the nursery to gossip with one of +Mrs. Rush's maids; and Lena read on undisturbed, read to the very end +of the letter. + +Then she spoke to Elsie again, spoke in a voice so changed from its +natural tone that the little one looked up in surprise. + +"What's the matter, Lena?" she asked, coming to her sister's side; +"is your throat sore? Oh!" scanning her curiously, "did something +frighten you?" + +Lena did not heed either question. + +"Elsie," she said, still in that strained voice, as if it were an +effort to speak, "put this in the fire, away far back in the fire." + +"Why, Lena!" answered the child, "I'm forbidden to go near the fire. +Did you forget that?" + +Lena thought a moment, then said, with a strong effort for +self-control, and still in that same measured tone: + +"Then go in my room and open the small right-hand compartment of my +writing-desk and put this letter in it and shut the door tight, tight +again, and lock it and bring me the key. Quick, Elsie." + +But again, influenced by conscientious scruples, Elsie objected. + +"I 'spect Hannah wouldn't like me to go in your room so much, Lena; +the windows are all open. She didn't say don't go in there, but I +'spect she thinked it, 'cause she always says don't go where the +windows are open." + +For the first time in her life Lena condescended to something like +cajolery. + +"And you will not do that for your poor sister who cannot walk?" she +asked, reproachfully. + +"Oh, yes, yes; and burned herself for me to save me out the fire," +exclaimed Elsie, throwing her arms about Lena, "I don't care if +Hannah does scold me; I'd just as lief be scolded for you. But your +voice is so queer, Lena; you must be thirsty for your breakfast." + +Taking the letter from her sister's hand, the child turned to obey +her request, but was again assailed by doubts as to the course of +duty. + +"If Hannah or Letitia come, shall I tell them to put it away?" she +asked. + +"No, no!" answered Lena, sharply; then feeling that she must take the +child, at least in a measure, into her confidence, she added, +hurriedly, + +"Hannah is not to see it. No one is to see it, no one; and you are +not to speak of it, Elsie. Go now, quickly, and put it in the +secretary." + +Rather startled by her voice and manner, the little one obeyed and +returned to Lena's room with the letter. + +But now she fell into difficulties. The door of the compartment into +which Lena had told her to put the letter was hard to open; it stuck, +and Elsie vainly struggled with it, for it would not yield. Meanwhile +Letitia, hearing Hannah come up from the kitchen, had hurriedly +returned to her post of duty. She exclaimed on finding the door +between the rooms open and a draught of cold air sweeping through, +and hastening to shut it, discovered Elsie still struggling with the +door of the little closet. + +"Well, did I ever!" exclaimed the nursery-maid. "You here in this +cold draught, Miss Elsie; an' what'll Hannah say, I wonder?" + +"I want to put this in here, and I can't open this door," said the +loyal little soul, refraining from shifting the blame from her own +shoulders, by saying that she had come on Lena's errand. Letitia went +to her assistance, but the door was still obstinate, and before the +letter was hidden it was made plain "what Hannah would say;" for the +old nurse came bustling in in a transport of indignation at finding +Elsie exposed to the risk of taking cold, for she was a very +delicate child. She rated both her little charge and her assistant in +no measured terms, especially the latter, who, as she said, "had not +even had the sense to put down the windows on the child." She +snatched the letter from Elsie's hand, the little girl repeating what +she wanted to do with it, and bidding her at once to go back to the +other room, gave a violent pull to the small door, which proved more +successful than the efforts of her predecessors. + +"What's all this fuss about putting the letter away, anyway?" she +said, glancing at the unlucky document. "Bless me, if t'aint from +Master Percy, an' to Miss Lena! Well, an' she never saying a word of +it. What's she so secret habout it for?" + +Now Hannah's chief stumbling-block was a most inordinate curiosity, +and once aroused on the subject of that letter, was not likely to be +laid to rest until it had received some satisfaction. She turned the +letter over and over, scrutinizing it narrowly; but there was nothing +to be learned from the address or the post-mark farther than that it +was certainly from Percy, whose handwriting she well knew. Had she +dared she would have opened it; but that was a thing upon which even +she scarcely ventured, autocrat though she was within the nursery +dominions. Also, Lena was rather beyond her rule since the Neville +family had come to Colonel Rush's house. + +Elsie had lost no time in escaping from the storm which her seeming +imprudence had evoked, and the nursery maid had followed; the little +girl reporting to her sister that Hannah had taken the letter from +her and was putting it away. Poor Lena found her precautions of no +avail, and she knew Hannah well enough to feel sure that she would be +subjected to the closest questioning. She must brave it out now, and +she forced herself to face it. + +"_I_ sent Elsie in there; it was my fault, not hers," she said, +throwing down the gauntlet with an air of defiance which rather +astonished Hannah. + +"You know she oughtn't to go in that cold hair," said Hannah, +sharply. "And why for couldn't you wait till me or Letitia came to +put by your letter if you _was_ in 'aste habout it? There," +mollified by the look in the beautiful dark eyes, now so unnaturally +large and pathetic through illness and suffering, which Lena turned +piteously upon her without answering, "there, there, child; never +mind now. Heat your breakfast, my dear, for you look quite spent and +worn out. Ye've got a setback by yesterday's doin's that'll last a +week. Come, now, Miss Lena, take this nice chicken an' put a bit of +strength into you." + +And the old woman bustled about, displaying to the best advantage the +dainty breakfast she had brought to tempt the appetite of her young +charge. + +But Lena could not eat; she was still too sick at heart, and seeing +this, Hannah connected it with the letter. + +"You 'av'n't 'ad hany bad news, Miss Lena?" she suddenly asked, as +she bade Letitia remove the tray with its contents almost untouched. +"Master Percy--none of 'em isn't hill?" + +"No, no," answered Lena, replying to the latter question and ignoring +the former. "I have not heard that any one was ill. Letitia," in a +tone of imperious command, very unusual with her when speaking to a +servant, "hand me that book--and--Hannah--let me alone." + +Hannah was now indeed dumb with amazement, and her suspicions were +more than ever aroused. There was something wrong with Percy; he +might not be ill--he was sure not to be if the absolutely truthful +Lena denied it, but he was in some trouble, and she would not rest +until she found it out. + +Percy was, of all her nurslings, Hannah's favorite, perhaps for the +very reason that the instability of his character had so often led +him into scrapes in which she had shielded and helped him. He had, in +his childhood, frequently escaped punishment by her connivance, and +it was her theory that "the poor boy was put upon" more than any of +the others. Now he had been sent away to school, while the rest were +enjoying the unwonted liberty and pleasures of their uncle's house; +and her affectionate old heart was often sore within her as she +pondered over the wrongs she fancied he endured. She was not +over-scrupulous as to the means she took to avert the consequences of +misdoing from Percy, or any other one of the flock whom she had +nursed from earliest babyhood; but so guarded was she that Mrs. +Neville had never suspected her of anything like double-dealing, or +assuredly her reign in the nursery would soon have come to an end. + +That she was right in her surmises she became more and more convinced +as she watched Lena and saw that though she kept her eyes fixed upon +the open book in her lap, she never turned a leaf. It was evidently +to avoid observation and to have a pretext for keeping quiet that she +had taken the book. Then, by dint of adroit questioning of the other +servants, she managed to ascertain, without letting them know that +anything was wrong, that no letters had been carried to Lena that +morning, but that Starr had handed her three on the previous +afternoon. Lena had spoken of two of these, her papa's and Russell's, +had told the old nurse what treasures they contained, but she had +said nothing of the other, Percy's. Hannah guessed the truth when she +surmised that in the excitement over the first two, Lena had +forgotten Percy's and opened it later. + +"When she'd come up to bed last night! I see, I see," the nurse said +to herself. Percy was surely in some difficulty again, and both he +and Lena were trying to hide it; but she would leave no means untried +to discover what it was. + +Mrs. Rush was quite shocked at Lena's looks when she came up to see +her, and so was the colonel in his turn, and Lena found it very +difficult to parry their questions, and to appear even comparatively +unembarrassed and at her ease in their presence. They both positively +vetoed any attempt at coming down-stairs to-day, or the reception of +any visitors; and, indeed, Lena had no inclination for either, but +was quite content to accept their verdict that she must keep +absolutely quiet and try to recover from the over-excitement of +yesterday. She did not wish to see any one; even Maggie and Bessie +would not have been welcome visitors now when that dreadful secret +was weighing upon her, and as for going down-stairs she had no desire +to do so; she wanted to remain as near as might be to the fatal +letter, would have insisted upon being carried back to her own room +had she not feared it would occasion wonder. She was half frantic, +too, about the key of the compartment of the secretary. Hannah had +not brought it to her, and she dared not ask for it. + +Oh, how miserable it was to be so helpless with so much at stake! not +to be able even to touch one's feet to the ground to go to find out +if the key were still in the lock, the letter safe in the secretary. + +Her apprehensions were of the vaguest, for there was no reason that +any one should go to her secretary without permission, and she had no +cause to suspect that any one would do so, and thus she reasoned with +herself; but had she known it, they were not without cause, for +Hannah had resolved that she would find out what that letter +contained. It must be said for her that although her curiosity was +greatly aroused, she was actuated chiefly by her affection for Percy, +and the desire to rescue him from any trouble into which he might +have fallen. + +An opportunity was not long in presenting itself, for when the +doctor, who had been sent for, arrived, Hannah made a plausible +errand into Lena's room and secured the letter. + +Having gained her object the dishonorable old woman found the +agitation of her invalid charge amply accounted for. She carried the +letter to a place where she could read it undisturbed and free from +observation, and make herself mistress of its contents; then returned +to Lena's room and put the letter in the place whence she had taken +it. + +But Hannah's face was very pale, and she was most unusually quiet all +that day, falling into fits of abstraction as if her thoughts were +far away. She was more tender than ever with Lena, knowing now too +well the trouble which was weighing upon the heart and spirits of the +sensitive young sister, and secretly sharing it with her. Hour after +hour she pondered upon ways and means for relieving her favorite +from the trouble into which his own folly and weakness had led him, +and how she might do so without betraying either this or her own +shameless conduct in possessing herself of the secret. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +PERCY. + + +Percy Neville had been placed by his parents at a small private +school where only twelve pupils were taken, and where they intended +he should be, as Mrs. Neville said, "under the strictest personal +supervision." The school had been chosen not only on this account, +but also because the principal was an Englishman, and had formerly +been tutor in a school which Mr. Neville had attended when a boy. + +Only two of the masters and tutors resided in the school, one of them +being a young man of the name of Seabrooke, who was half tutor, half +scholar, giving his services for such lessons as he took. He was a +youth of uncommon talent, studious and steady, and much thought of by +Dr. Leacraft and the other masters. Six of the twelve pupils were in +one dormitory under charge of this young man; the other six in +another, in the care of Mr. Merton. Had Dr. Leacraft but known it, +just the opposite arrangement would have been advisable, as the +half-dozen boys in Mr. Merton's room were a much more steady set than +those in young Seabrooke's. + +Seabrooke himself had little idea of the lawlessness which reigned in +the quarters under his charge; he was an unusually heavy sleeper, and +all manner of pranks were carried on at night without rousing him. + +The leader of these escapades was a boy of the name of Flagg, utterly +without principle or sense of honor; but plausible, and, being quick +at his studies, making a fair show with his masters. Over Percy +Neville this boy had acquired a most undesirable influence, and led +him into many pranks and violations of rules which were little +suspected by the authorities. Poor Percy, weak, vacillating, and +utterly without resolution or firmness of character, was easily led +astray, although his conscience, his judgment, and his sense of truth +were often offended by the wrong-doing into which he suffered himself +to be persuaded. + +About a mile from the school lived a man of the name of Rice, who +kept boats, fishing-tackle and one or two horses which he let out; +while back of his place was a small lake which afforded good fishing +in the summer and excellent skating in the winter. His house was not +a gambling or drinking place, at least not avowedly so; but some +rather questionable doings had taken place there, and the spot was +one absolutely forbidden to the scholars of Dr. Leacraft's school. +Nevertheless, some of the wilder spirits were in the habit of going +there when they could do so without risk of discovery; and they also +employed Rice to procure for them such articles as were tabooed and +which they could not purchase for themselves. Lewis Flagg was one of +his most constant customers, and he had gradually drawn every one of +the boys in his dormitory into various infringements of regulations. +He had found Percy an easy victim, and by degrees had drawn him on +from bad to worse, until he had brought him to a pass where he was +afraid to rebel lest Lewis should reveal his former misdoings, as he +threatened to do. + +Within the last few weeks it had been the practice of the six boys in +Seabrooke's dormitory to slip out of the window at night upon the +roof of the porch, thence by the pillars to the ground, and then off +and away to Rice's house, where a hot supper, previously ordered, +awaited them. This flagrant violation of rules and order had taken +place several times, and, so far, thanks to Seabrooke's heavy +slumbers, had not yet been discovered. + +About this time a hard frost of several days duration had made the +skating unusually good; and there was no place within miles of the +school so pleasant or so favorable for that pastime as Rice's pond. +Tempted by this, all the boys under Dr. Leacraft's care had signed a +petition, asking that they might be allowed to go upon this pond if +they would promise not to go into the house. + +An hour or two after this petition had been sent in, but before it +had received an answer, a telegram came to the doctor calling him to +Harvard, to his only son, who had been dangerously hurt. The boys +were all assembled at the time for recitation to the doctor, and +rising in his place he made known the subject of the despatch, and +then said: + +"In answer to the request which I have just received from you, young +gentlemen, I must return a positive negative. My reasons for +forbidding you to go near Rice's place have lately been given +additional force, and, although I cannot take time to mention them +now, I must request, I must absolutely _forbid_ each and every +one of you from going in the neighborhood of Rice's house or Rice's +pond. I cannot tell how long I may be away; meanwhile the school +will be left under the charge of Mr. Merton and Mr. Seabrooke, and I +trust that you will all prove yourselves amenable to their authority, +and that I shall receive a good report. I leave by the next train. +Good-bye." + +The doctor's face was pale and his voice was husky, as he bade them +farewell, dreading what might have come to him before he should see +them again. He was gone in another moment, and in half an hour had +left the house. + +Dr. Leacraft was a kind, a just, and a lenient master, granting to +his pupils all the indulgence and privileges consistent with good +discipline, and the more reasonable among the boys felt that he must +have just cause for this renewed and emphatic prohibition against +Rice's place. But Lewis Flagg and his followers were not reasonable, +and many and deep, though not loud, were the murmurs at his orders. +Lewis' boon companions saw from the expression of his eye that he +meditated rebellion and disobedience even while the doctor was +speaking; and Percy Neville and one or two others resolved that they +would refuse to share in them. + +Nor were they mistaken. No sooner were the six choice spirits alone +together than Lewis unfolded a plan for "a spree" for the following +night. + +The moon was about at the full, and his proposal was that they should +leave the house in the manner they had done more than once before, by +means of the window and the root of the porch, go to Rice's and have +a supper, which was to be previously ordered, and afterwards a +moonlight skate on the lake. + +"Rip Van Winkle will never wake," said Flagg, "not if you fire a +cannon-ball under his bed, and we'll be back and in our places and +have a good morning nap before he suspects a thing." + +But some of the better disposed among the boys demurred, fresh as +they were from the doctor's late appeal to them, and their knowledge +of the sad errand upon which he had gone; and foremost among them was +Percy Neville. + +"I don't know," he said, doubtfully, when Lewis Flagg unfolded his +plan. "I don't know. Isn't it rather shabby after what the doctor +said to us? And--you know--Dick Leacraft might be dying--might be +dead--they say he's awfully hurt--and we wouldn't like to think about +it afterwards if we were breaking rules when the doctor--" + +But the expression upon Flagg's face stopped him. + +"Hear the sentiment of him!" sneered the bad, reckless boy; "just +hear the sentiment of him! Who'd have thought Neville was such a Miss +Nancy, such a coward? But you're going if the rest go, for we're all +in the same box and have got to stand by one another--none are going +to be left behind to make a good thing for themselves if anything +does leak out." + +"I shouldn't, you know I shouldn't say a word!" ejaculated Percy, +indignantly. + +"No, I don't believe you would," said Flagg; "but we can't have any +left behind. One in for it, all in for it. Pluck up your courage and +come along, Percy. If you don't,"--meaningly--"you and I'll have some +old scores to settle." + +This threat, which meant that former misdeeds and infringements of +rules would be betrayed by Lewis if Percy did not yield, took effect, +as it had done more than once before; and Percy agreed to join in the +prohibited sport. He had not the strength, the moral courage, to tell +Lewis that cowardice and weakness lay in that very yielding, in the +fear which led him into new sin sooner than to face the consequences +of former misdeeds,--misdeeds more venial than that now proposed. It +was not the doctor of whom Percy stood in such awe half so much as +his parents, especially his mother. It is more than possible that he +would have gone to the former and made confession of past offences +rather than continue in such bondage as Flagg now maintained over +him; but he could not or would not face the displeasure of his +father and mother, or the consequences which were likely to follow. +Leniency, or a tender compassion for their faults, were not looked +for by any of the Neville children; when these were discovered they +must be prepared to bide the fullest penalty. + +"I don't know about Seabrooke." said Raymond Stewart. "He has not +slept as soundly as usual these last few nights. I've been awake +myself so much with the toothache, and I know that he has been +restless and wakeful; and he might chance to rouse up at the wrong +time and find us going or gone." + +"He's seemed to have something on his mind and to be uneasy in the +daytime, too," said another boy, "and he's been so eager for the +mail, as if he were expecting something more than usual. He's +everlastingly writing, too, every chance he finds." + +"Oh, he fancies he has literary talent," said Flagg, "and he's +forever sending off the results of his labors. I suppose he expects +to turn out an author and to become famous and a shining mark." + +"The doctor says he will be," said Raymond, "and I know that one or +two of his pieces have been accepted by the magazines and paid for, +too. I saw them myself in a magazine at home. It must be a great +thing for a fellow who has his own way to make in the world, as +Seabrooke has. I know his family are as poor as rats. His father is +rector of a little shabby church just out of the city, and I know +they have hard work to get along. You know Seabrooke teaches for his +own schooling." + +"I'll see that he sleeps sound enough not to interfere with us +to-morrow night," said Lewis Flagg. "Leave that to me." + +He spoke confidently; but to all the questions of the other boys as +to how he was to bring about this result, he turned a deaf ear. + +But he succeeded in bringing every one of his five schoolmates to his +own way of thinking, or, at least, to agreeing to join in the +proposed expedition; and his arrangements were carried on without any +further demur openly expressed from them. + +Seabrooke was in the habit of taking a generous drink of water every +night the last thing before he retired. On the evening of the +following day, and that for which the aforesaid frolic had been +planned, Lewis Flagg might have been found in the dormitory at a very +unusual hour; and had there been any one there to see, he might have +been observed to shake the contents of a little paper, a fine white +powder, into the water carafe which stood filled upon the wash-stand +in Seabrooke's alcove. Then, with the self-satisfied air of one who +has accomplished a great feat, he stole from the room and back to his +schoolmates. + +"Seems to me Seabrooke has been uncommonly chirk and chipper this +evening," said Charlie Denham, when the boys had gone to their rooms, +as their masters supposed-for the night. + +"Yes, he had a letter by the evening mail which seemed to set him up +wonderfully," said Raymond. "I hope it has eased his mind of whatever +was on it so that he won't be wakeful to-night." + +"Oh, he'll sleep sound enough, I'll warrant you," said Lewis Flagg, +with a meaning laugh. + +Ensconced in bed, every boy fully dressed, but with other clothes so +arranged as to deceive an unsuspecting observer into the belief that +all was as usual, they waited the time when Seabrooke should be +asleep. + +The young tutor's alcove was not within the range of Lewis' vision, +but Percy from his bed could see all that went on there, and he lay +watching Seabrooke. As usual, at the last moment the latter poured +out a glass of water and proceeded to drink it down; but he had not +taken half of it when he paused, and Percy saw him hold it up to the +light, smell it, taste of it again and then set the glass down, still +more than two-thirds full. + +Harley Seabrooke had no mental cause for restlessness that night; the +evening mail had, as Raymond said, brought him that which had lifted +a load of suspense and anxiety from his mind, and he was unusually +light-hearted and at ease. His head was scarcely upon his pillow when +he was asleep, but not so very sound asleep, for Flagg had over-shot +his mark, and the sleeping potion which he had so wickedly put into +the carafe of water had given it a slightly bitter taste, so that +Seabrooke had found it disagreeable and had not drank the usual +quantity, and the close he had taken was not sufficient to stupefy +him, but rather to render him wakeful as soon as it began to act. + +Believing themselves safe as soon as they heard his regular +breathing, the six conspirators slipped from their beds out of the +window upon the roof of the piazza, and thence down the pillars to +the ground, and then off and away to Rice's. + +Hardly had they gone when Seabrooke, on whom the intended anodyne +began to have an exciting effect, awoke, and lay tossing for more +than an hour. Weary of this, he rose at last, intending to read +awhile to see if it would render him sleepy; but as he drew the +curtain before his alcove, in order to shield the light from the eyes +of the companions whom he supposed to be safe in their beds fast +asleep, he was struck with the unusual silence of the room. Not a +rustle, not a breath was to be heard, although he listened for some +moments. He could hardly have told why, but he was impressed with the +idea that he was entirely alone, and striking a light, he stepped out +into the main room and went to the nearest bed. + +Empty! and so with each one in succession. Not a boy was there! + +Remembering the petition to Dr. Leacraft and the resentment which his +refusal to accede to it had provoked, it did not take him long to +surmise whither they had gone; and hastily dressing himself he made +his exit from the house in the same way that they had done and +hastened in the same direction, filled with indignation at such +flagrant disobedience and treachery at a time when the doctor was in +such trouble. + +The runaways had had what they called a "jolly supper" and were in +the hall of Rice's house donning great-coats and mufflers before +going out upon the lake, when the outer door was opened, and Percy, +who stood nearest, saw Seabrooke. His exclamation of dismay drew the +attention of all, and the delinquents, one and all, felt themselves, +as Percy afterwards said, "regularly caught." + +"You will go home at once, if you please," was all the young tutor +said; but, taken in the very act of rebellion to the head master's +orders, not one ventured to dispute the command. He marshalled them +all before him, and the party walked solemnly home, five, at least, +thoroughly shamefaced. + +"Don't you feel sneaky?" whispered Raymond to Lewis Flagg. + +"No" answered the other; "I'm not the one to feel sneaky. I haven't +been spying and prying and trapping other fellows." + +But this bravado did not make the others easy. + +Seabrooke made his captives enter by the way in which they had left, +so that the rest of the household might not be disturbed, and ordered +them at once to bed. + +"What are you going to do about this?" Lewis asked. + +"Report to Mr. Merton in the morning; and then write to the doctor, I +presume, as Mr. Merton's hand is too lame for him to write. It will +be as he thinks best," answered Seabrooke, dryly. "I do not wish to +talk about the matter now." + +Contrary to his usual custom, Lewis Flagg did not attempt to treat +lightly and as a matter of no consequence the displeasure of his +masters, but seemed depressed and restless the next morning, and +Percy remarked upon it. + +"You'd be cut up too if you were in my place," said Lewis, roughly; +"you're only afraid of your father and mother and the doctor; and you +see I've been in a lot of scrapes this term and been awfully unlucky +about being found out, and my uncle threatened to stop my allowance +if he caught me in another, and he'll do it, too; and I've lots of +debts out--a big one to Rice--and you know what the doctor is about +debt, and my uncle is still worse; there'll be no end of a row if he +knows it. If this fuss could only be kept quiet till after I have my +next quarter-and that's due the first of next week--I could pay off +Rice, at least. But if word goes to the doctor, he'll let my uncle +know--he promised to, by special request," he added, bitterly. "Uncle +will make ten times more row over my debts than he will over one +lark, and I promised Rice he should have his money next week. I'm in +awfully deep with him, Percy, and I don't dare let it be found out. +We'll see what old Merton says this morning. But--the doctor sha'n't +hear of it just yet if I can help it." + +Percy wondered how he _could_ help it; but before he could ask +the question the school-bell rang and the boys took their places. + +After school was opened, Mr. Merton rose, and, with what Lewis called +"threatening looks" at the delinquents, said, quietly: + +"Young gentlemen of Mr. Seabrooke's dormitory, it is hardly necessary +to say that this evening's mail will carry to Dr. Leacraft an account +of last night's flagrant misconduct. Till I hear from him, I shall +take no further steps, save to request that you will not go outside +the house without either myself or Mr. Seabrooke in attendance." + +Lewis Flagg was a bright scholar, and so far as recitations went, +maintained his standing in the class with the best; but to-day he was +far below his usual mark, and his attention constantly wandered; and +most of his fellow culprits were in like case. In view of the +escapade of the previous night and its impending consequences, that +was hardly to be wondered at; but Lewis was wont to make light of +such matters, and he was evidently taking this more seriously than +usual. + +But the truth was that this did not rise from shame or regret--at +least not from a saving repentance--but because he was absorbed in +trying to find a way out of his difficulties. + +Mr. Merton was suffering from acute rheumatism in his right hand, and +being disabled from writing, he had, after consultation with his +junior, delegated him to make the necessary disclosures to the absent +doctor. Seabrooke was observed to be doing a great deal of writing +that afternoon, and was supposed to be giving a full account of the +affair. + +The letters to be taken out were always put into a basket upon the +hall table, whence they were taken and carried to the post-office at +the proper hour by the chore-boy of the school. Here, Lewis thought, +lay his opportunity. + +Drawing Percy aside again, he said that Seabrooke's letter to the +doctor must be taken from the basket before Tony carried all away, +and be kept back for a day or two; then it could be posted and +nothing more would be suspected than that it had been belated. +Meanwhile his allowance would arrive, and then Dr. Leacraft was +welcome to know all the particulars of the escapade. + +Percy was startled and shocked, and at first refused to have any part +in the matter; but the old threat brought him to terms, and he at +last agreed to Lewis' plans that they should contrive to abstract +Seabrooke's letter to Dr. Leacraft from among the others laid ready +for the post, and keep it back until Lewis' allowance had been +received. + +But although the two boys made various errands to the hall, they +found no opportunity of carrying out their dishonorable purpose +before Tony had started on his round of afternoon duties, taking with +him the letters for the post. + +Scarcely had he disappeared when Mr. Merton said to the six culprits: + +"Young gentlemen, you will go for afternoon exercise to walk with Mr. +Seabrooke. The cold will prevent me from venturing out," touching the +crippled right-arm, which lay in a sling, "or I should not trust you +from beneath my own eyes; but if I hear of any farther misconduct, or +you give him any trouble, there will be greater restrictions placed +upon you, and there will be another chapter to add to the sad account +which has already gone to the doctor." + +"Dr. Leacraft will be tired before he comes to a second volume of the +thing Seabrooke has written to him," Flagg whispered to Percy, as +they started together for the walk under Seabrooke's care. "Did you +see him writing and writing page after page? He must have given him +every detail, and made the most of it. And he fairly gloated over it; +looked as pleased as Punch while he was doing it; never saw him look +so happy." + +"I'm likely to lose my Easter vacation, and dear knows what else for +this," said Percy, who was exceedingly low in his mind over the +consequences of his lawlessness. + +"I'll have worse than that," answered Lewis. "I wouldn't mind that; +but if my quarter's allowance is stopped I don't know what I +_shall_ do. Oh, if I only could get hold of that letter!" + +Percy made no response; for, much as he dreaded to have this affair +come to the knowledge of his parents, he shrank from the thought of +abstracting and destroying that letter. + +Seabrooke had not much reason to enjoy his walk that afternoon if he +had depended upon his company; his charge were all sulky and +depressed; but, somewhat to their exasperation, their young leader +did not pay much heed to their humors; his own thoughts seemed +sufficient for him; and, to judge by the light in his eye and his +altogether satisfied expression, these were pleasant society. + +"Seabrooke's been awfully cock-a-hoop all clay," said Raymond +Stewart; "wonder what's up with him." + +"He's glad we're in a scrape," said Lewis, bitterly. + +"Don't believe it," said Raymond; "that's not like him." + +Seabrooke led the way to the village store, a sort of +_omnium-gatherum_ place, as village stores are apt to be, and +which contained also the post-office. + +Entering, the party found Tony there before them, the letters he had +carried from the school lying on the counter; for there were several +small parcels and newspapers which would not go into the receiving +box, and the post-mistress was sorting the afternoon up mail, and the +delivery window of the office was closed; so Tony was waiting his +chance for attention. He stood with his back to the counter, +examining some coal shovels, having received orders to buy one. +Seabrooke was at the other side of the store, making some purchases; +the rest of the boys scattered here and there. + +"He hasn't put the letters in the box yet; now's our chance," +whispered Lewis to Percy, and he sauntered up to the counter where +the letters lay, drawing the reluctant Percy with him. + +With a hasty glance at the letters, he snatched up the bulky one +which he believed to be that to Dr. Leacraft, gave another quick look +at the address and thrust it within his pocket; then, humming a tune, +he walked leisurely away with an air of innocent unconcern, still +with his arm through that of Percy. + +"That was good luck, wasn't it?" he said. "Now we'll keep it till my +allowance comes and then post it." + +Seabrooke and the six boys had just reached the door of the school, +when Tony rushed up to the young tutor, and said, hurriedly: + +"Mr. Seabrooke, sir, did you take that letter you told me to be +particular of?" + +"No," said Seabrooke, turning hastily. "You haven't lost it?" + +"I couldn't find it, sir," faltered the boy; "but I know I had it +when I passed the bridge, for I was lookin' at it and rememberin' +what you told me about it." + +Seabrooke waited for no more, but darted off upon the road back to +the village, followed by Tony. + +"We're in a fix, now," whispered Lewis to Percy, "if there's going to +be a row about that letter. Isn't he the meanest fellow in the world +to be so set upon having the doctor knowing about last night? Percy, +I'll tell you what! We've got to put the letter out of the way now. +And there's old Merton coming, and he's asking for me. Quick, quick; +take it!" drawing the stolen letter from his pocket and thrusting it +into Percy's unwilling hands. "Put it in the stove, quick, quick! +There's no one to see; no one will suspect! Quick now, while I go to +Mr. Merton and keep him back. You're not fit to meet him: why, man, +you're as pale as a ghost." + +And Lewis was gone, meeting Mr. Merton in the hall without. + +With not a moment for thought, save one of terror lest he should be +found with the missing letter in his hand, Percy opened the door of +the stove, thrust the letter within upon the glowing coals, and +closed the door again, leaving it to its fate, a speedy and entire +destruction, accomplished in an instant. + +An hour passed; the supper gong had sounded and the boys had taken +their places at the table, when Seabrooke returned, pale as death, +and with compressed lips and stern eyes. + +Mr. Merton, who was extremely near-sighted, did not observe his +appearance as he took his seat, but the boys all noticed it. + +"I have not seen it," or, "I have not found it," was all the response +he had to make to the inquiries of, "Have you heard anything of your +letter?" and so forth. + +"Have you lost a letter, Harley?" asked Mr. Merton, at length, his +attention being attracted. + +"Yes, sir," answered Seabrooke. + +"How was that? Was it a letter of importance?" asked the gentleman, + +"Yes, sir, a letter of importance, a letter to my father," answered +his junior, but in a tone which told the older man that he did not +care to be questioned further on that subject. + +To his father! + +Percy's fork dropped from his hand with a clatter upon his plate, and +Lewis' face took an expression of blank dismay which, fortunately for +him, no one observed. + +His father! Had they then run all this risk, been guilty of this +meanness, only to delay, to destroy a letter to Seabrooke's father, +while that to the doctor, exposing their delinquencies, had gone on +its way unmolested. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ROBBING THE MAIL. + + +"Neville and Flagg, I want to speak to you. Will you come into the +junior recitation-room?" said Seabrooke, as soon after supper as he +could find opportunity of speaking apart to the two terrified +culprits. + +Fain would the guilty boys have refused, but they dared not; and they +followed Seabrooke to the place indicated, where he closed the door +and, turning, confronted them. + +"Lewis Flagg and Percy Neville," he said, sternly, and his voice +seemed to carry as much weight and authority as that of Dr. Leacraft +himself when he had occasion to administer some severe reproof, "I +suppose that you are striving to annoy me in this manner in revenge +for my detection of your deliberate infringement of rules last night, +but your tricks have recoiled upon your own heads, although even now +I will spare you any farther disgrace and punishment if you will +make restitution at once, for you do not know the extent of the crime +of which you have been guilty. Robbing the mail is an offence which +is punished by heavy penalties. You, Lewis, were seen to take a +letter from among those which Tony carried to the post-office; you, +Percy, standing by and not interfering, even if you were not aiding +and abetting. No matter who told me; you were seen; but it is looked +upon as a school-boy trick, and, by my request, will not be spoken +of if you return the letter without delay. Nor shall I betray you. +Lewis, where is that letter? For your own sake, give it to me at +once. You do not know what you have done." + +Lewis would have braved it out, would perhaps even have denied taking +the letter, for he was not at all above telling a lie; but he could +not tell how far evidence would be given against him, and, at least, +immunity from farther punishment was held forth to him and his +fellow-culprit. + +But--restitution! Percy, as he knew, had followed out his +instructions and put the letter in the fire. + +"I'm sorry," he said, with a forced laugh, but with his voice +faltering; "but we had no idea the letter was of special importance. +We thought it was to the doctor about last night, and we only meant +to keep it back for a day or two and--and--well, when you made such a +row about it--Percy--Percy burned it up. But to call it 'robbing the +mail--'" + +He was stopped by the change in Seabrooke's face. + +"_You burned it!_" he almost shouted, forgetting the caution he +had hitherto observed in lowering his voice so that it might not be +heard by any one who might be outside the door. For one instant he +stared at the two startled boys, looking from one to the other as if +he could not believe the evidence of his ears. "You burned it!" he +repeated, in a lower tone; then, covering his face with his hands, he +bent his head upon the table before him with something very like a +groan. When he raised his head and uncovered his face again he was +deadly pale. + +"There were two hundred dollars in that letter," he said; "you have +not only stolen and destroyed my letter, but also all that sum of +money." + +Stolen! All that money! + +They were sufficiently appalled now, these two reckless, thoughtless +boys; Percy to an even great degree than his more unprincipled +comrade. + +Lewis was the first to find his voice. + +"There was not! You're joking! You're only trying to frighten us," he +said, although in his inmost soul he was convinced that this was no +joking matter, no mere attempt to punish them by arousing their +fears. Seabrooke's agitation was not assumed, that was easy to be +seen. + +Then followed a long and terrible pause, while the three boys, the +injured and the injuring, stood gazing at one another. Then, despite +his wrongs, the unutterable terror in the faces of the latter touched +Seabrooke, especially in the case of Percy, for whom he had a strong +liking; for the boy had many lovable traits, notwithstanding the +weakness of his character. + +"What can we do?" faltered Percy, at last. + +"What will you do?" asked Lewis, almost in the same breath. + +Trembling and anxious, the two culprits stood before the young man, +scarcely older than themselves, who had become their victim and was +now their accuser and their judge, in whose hands lay their sentence. + +"Wait, I must think a minute," he said, willing, out of the kindness +of his noble heart, to spare them ruin and disgrace, and yet scarcely +seeing his way clear to it. + +"Listen," he said, after some moments' pondering. "You thought that +letter was to Dr. Leacraft, you say, giving an account of last night. +Mr. Merton, who is disabled, as you know, asked me to write to the +doctor; but I begged him to let me off and to ask one of the +professors to do it. That letter you destroyed was to my father, and, +as I told you, contained two hundred dollars in money--money earned +by myself--money which I must have and which you must restore. Give +it back to me--I will wait till after the Easter holidays for it--and +this matter shall go no farther. No one but myself knows that the +letter contained money; only one saw you take it out, and that one +will be silent if I ask it. I will write out a confession and +acknowledgment for you both to sign. Bring me, after the holidays or +before, each your own share of the money and I will destroy that +paper; but if you fail, I will carry it to the doctor and he must +require it of your friends. I will not--I cannot be the loser through +your wickedness and dishonesty. If you refuse to sign I shall go to +Mr. Merton now and to the doctor as soon as he returns. I do not know +if I am quite right in offering to let you off, even upon such +conditions; but if I can help it I will not ruin you and cause your +expulsion from the school, which, I know, would follow the discovery +of your guilt." + +Percy, overwhelmed, was speechless; but Lewis answered after a +moment's pause, during which Seabrooke waited for his answer: + +"How are we to raise the money?" + +"I do not know," answered Seabrooke, "that is your affair. I worked +hard for mine and earned it; you have taken it from me and must +restore it--how, is for you to determine. If your friends must know +of this, and I suppose that it is only through them that you can +repay me, it seems to me that it would be better for you to make a +private confession to them than to risk that which will probably +follow if Dr. Leacraft knows of it. Are you ready to abide by my +terms?" + +"You will give us till--" stammered Lewis, seeing no loophole of +escape, but, as he afterwards told Percy, hoping that something +"would turn up" if they could gain time. + +"Till Easter--after the holidays--no longer," answered Seabrooke. "I +know very well that you could hardly raise so much at a moment's +notice; so, although it is a bitter disappointment not to have it +now, I will wait till then if you agree to sign the paper which I +will have ready this evening after study hour. Quick now; the bell +will ring in two minutes." + +What could they do? Seabrooke was evidently inexorable, and they knew +well that he could not be expected to bear this loss. + +"Yes, I will sign it," said the thoroughly cowed Percy. But Lewis +suddenly flashed up and answered impudently: + +"How are we to know that the money was in that letter?" + +"I can prove it," answered Seabrooke, quietly; "and, Lewis Flagg, I +can prove something more. I tested the water that was in my carafe +last night, and found that it had been tampered with. I know the +object now, and have discovered who bought the drug at the +apothecary's. Do you comprehend me? If the doctor hears of one thing +he will hear of all." + +Utterly subdued now, Lewis stammered his promise to comply with the +young tutor's request. + +"One question," said Seabrooke, as the two younger boys turned to +leave the room. "How did you come to take a letter directed to my +father for one addressed to Dr. Leacraft?" + +"I don't know," replied Percy, at whom he was looking. "I didn't look +at it particularly, but just put it in the stove when Lewis handed it +to me and told me to do it. We saw you writing for ever so long, and +thought that thick letter was to the doctor. We are--were in such a +hurry, you see." + +"And I am sure Leacraft and Seabrooke are not so very different when +one is in a hurry," said Lewis. + +"I see," said Seabrooke; "you made up your minds that the letter was +to the doctor, and were so afraid of being caught at your mean trick +that you did not take time to make sure. There's the study bell." + +The confession and acknowledgment of their indebtedness was signed +that night by both of the guilty boys. + +And this was the story which the sensitive, honorable Lena, the +faithful old Hannah had read--Percy's letter, which had commenced: + +"DEAR LENA, + +"I am in the most awful scrape any boy ever was in, and you are the +only one who can help me out of it. If you can't there is nothing for +me but to be expelled from the school and arrested and awfully +disgraced, with all the rest of the family; and the worst is that +Russell will be so cut up about it--you know his Royal Highness always +holds his head so high, especially about anything he thinks is +shabby--and I am afraid it will make him worse again. As for the +mother! words could not paint her if she hears about it. And if the +doctor gets hold of it!! I've told you how strict he is and what the +rules are. If it hadn't been an iron-clad place, I shouldn't have been +sent here. I hate these private schools where one can't do a thing +without being found out. Well, here goes; you must hear about it, and +it is a bad business." + +Then followed, in school-boy language, an account of the whole +disgraceful transaction. A "bad business," indeed; even worse it +appeared to the young sister and the old nurse than it did apparently +to Percy. + +"And now, dear Lena," he continued, "there's no one but you who can +help me. Lewis Flagg is going to have his share. He has a watch that +was his father's, a very valuable one, and his older brother wants it +awfully, and told him long ago he would give him a hundred dollars +for it; he has money of his own, the brother has, and Lewis says it +isn't half what the watch is worth; but he'll have to let it go. So +he's all right. + +"But what am I to do? I have no such watch. I have nothing I could +sell without mamma and papa finding it out, and think of the row +there would be if they did. You are my only hope, Lena, and you might +do something for me. At any rate, think of Russell. Havn't you +something you could sell? Or--I do not like very much to ask you, but +what can a fellow in such a scrape do?--couldn't you ask Uncle Horace +to let you have it? I am sure he owes you something for saving his +house from being burnt up, and things would have been a great deal +worse if you hadn't found it out and been so brave; and besides, he +thinks so much of you since he will do anything for you, and you can +just tell him you want it for a private purpose. He'll give it to +you; it's only twenty pounds, Lena, and what is twenty pounds to him? +what is it to any of our people, only one wouldn't dare to ask papa +or mamma for it. We wouldn't get it if we did, and everything would +have to come out then; they never trust any one and _would_ +know. Only get it for me, dear Lena, and save me and save Russell, +too. You have from now till after the Easter holidays; and think what +you'll save me from! Oh, dear! I wish I'd never seen Lewis Flagg. He +don't care a bit, so that he sees the way out of his own scrape. As +for that solemn prig, Seabrooke, who you'd think was one of the grown +masters with his uppish airs, well, never mind, I suppose he has let +us off easy on the whole, if I only raise my share of the money; and +he is honor bright about it and don't even act as if we two had done +anything worse than the others. Oh! do think of some way, and try +Uncle Horace. I know he'll prove all right, and you see we never +meant to do this. + +"Your affectionate brother, + +"PERCY H. NEVILLE. + +"Oh, I forgot, how are the feet? + +"Save Russell!" + +The shock of the whole thing; the disobedience and rebellion against +rules; the disgraceful theft of the letter; its destruction; the +peril in which Percy himself stood--all faded into comparative +insignificance with the risk for her adored elder brother. Absolute +quiet, freedom from all worry and anxiety during his protracted +convalescence had been peremptorily insisted upon by his physicians, +and it had proved before this that any excitement not only retarded +his recovery, but threw him back. That the knowledge of Percy's +guilt could be kept from Russell if it came to the ears of her father +and mother never occurred to her, and beyond words did she dread its +effect upon him. She knew that the news of her own serious injuries a +few weeks since had been very hurtful to him, and now her chief +thought was for him. + +She lost sight altogether of the contemptible meanness of Percy's +appeal to her--a helpless girl--to rescue him from the consequences +of his own worse than folly, but she was bitterly stung by his +suggestion--nay, almost demand--that she should ask from their kind +and indulgent uncle the means of satisfying the justly outraged +Seabrooke; the uncle who had opened his heart and home to them, whom +she credited with every known virtue, and for whose good opinion and +approbation she looked more eagerly than she did for those of any +other human being, even the beloved brother Russell. No, no; she +would never ask him for such a thing, that honorable, high-minded, +hero-uncle, with his scorn for everything that was contemptible or +mean; "fussy," Percy had called him, about such matters. + +Nor did it occur to her that in his selfish desire to secure her aid, +Percy had perhaps exaggerated the risk to himself--the risk of his +arrest and public disgrace, which would reflect upon the family. + +Poor little girl! In her inexperience and alarm she did not reflect +that it was not at all probable that Percy would be arrested, even +though he should not be able to comply with Seabrooke's just demands; +and all manner of direful possibilities presented themselves to her +mind. Little wonder was it that she was perfectly overwhelmed, or +that mental excitement had prostrated her again and brought on a +return of her fever. + +Nor was Hannah less credulous. She magnified the danger for Percy as +much as the young sister did, although her fears were chiefly for the +culprit himself. She had the means of relieving the boy's +embarrassment if they were but in her own hands, but she had put the +greater part of these in her master's care for investment, and she +could not obtain any large sum of money without application to him. +And, like Lena, she was afraid of exciting some inquiry or suspicion +if she did so. The poor old soul stood almost alone in the world, +having neither chick nor child, kith nor kin left to her, save one +bad and dissipated nephew whom she had long since, by the advice of +her master, cast off. If she asked Mr. Neville for the sum necessary +to help Percy out of his difficulty, he would, she felt confident, +suspect that she was about to give it to this reprobate nephew, and +would remonstrate. + +Besides the accumulated wages in her master's hands she had one other +resource, quite a sum, which she carried about with her; a number of +bright, golden guineas tied in a small bag which she wore fastened +about her waist, and which was really a burden to her, since she +lived in constant fear of losing it. But this was for a purpose dear +to old Hannah's heart, namely, her own funeral expenses and the +erection of what she considered a suitable head-stone for herself +after she should have done with life. She would not trust this +precious gold to any bank or company, lest it should fail and leave +her without the means for what she considered a fitting monument for +herself. Within the bag was also an epitaph, composed by herself, +which was to be put upon the proposed gravestone. For Hannah had no +mean opinion of her own merits, and this set her forth as an epitome +of many Christian graces, reading thus: + +"Here lies the mortal body of Hannah Achsah Stillwell which she was +hed nurse in the family of Howard Neville eskire for years and brung +up mostly by hand his children and never felt she done enuf for them +not sparin herself with infantile elements walkin nites and the like, +pashunt and gentle not cross-grained like some which the poor little +things they can't help theirselves teethin and the like, respeckful +to her betters knoin her place, kind to them beneth her--which she +was much thort of by all above and below her--and respected by her +ekals. Which to her Gabriel shall say in fittin time: + + "Well done good and faithful servant + Come to the skys + Stranger read this pious lesson + Go and do likewise." + +This gem she had read in turn to each of her nurslings as they came +to what she considered a fitting age to appreciate it; and they had +regarded it with great awe and admiration, till they outgrew it and +began to consider it as a joke. Not to Hannah, however, did any one +of them confide the change in his or her views, although they made +merry over it among themselves; and Harold and Elsie still looked +upon it as a most touching and fitting tribute to the merits of their +faithful old nurse, albeit it had been composed and arranged by +herself. + +Hannah had also frequently found the bag and its contents an +incentive to well-doing, or an effective and gentle means of +coercion, as upon any rare symptoms of rebellion or mischief which +would occasionally arise within the nursery precincts, in spite of +iron rules and severe penalties, she was wont to detach the bag from +its hiding-place and, retiring to a corner, would count the gold and +read over the future epitaph, murmuring in sepulchral tones, +befitting such a lugubrious subject, that she should soon have need +of both. + +This course had generally sufficed to bring the small rebel to terms +at once, and it would promise to be good if she would only consent to +live and continue her care of the nursery. And now, how could she +make up her mind to sacrifice this cherished sum even for the +reckless, selfish boy whom she loved? It had been dedicated to that +one purpose, and it had never before entered her thoughts to divert +it to any other. She was devoted to each one and all of her charges, +past and present; but for no other one than Percy would she ever have +thought of resigning this gold. Not to relieve the sickening terror +and anxiety of the poor little invalid; not to save the whole family +from the disgrace which she apprehended, would she have entertained +the slightest thought of doing so; but for the sake of her beloved +scrapegrace! Could she resolve to do it, was the question which was +now agitating her mind. If Hannah was worried she was apt to be +cross, and for the next day or two she was captious and exacting +beyond anything within the past experience of the nursery, driving +Letitia to the verge of rebellion, and exciting the open-eyed wonder +of the pattern Elsie. Over Lena she crooned and hovered, petting and +coddling her, and longing to speak some words of hope and comfort, +but not daring to do so lest she should betray herself and the +dishonorable way in which she had become possessed of the child's +secret. + +Colonel Rush was seated in his library one afternoon when there came +a knock at the door; and being bidden to enter, the portiere was +drawn aside and old Hannah appeared, her face wearing an unusually +solemn and portentous expression. + +"Beggin' your pardon, Colonel," she said, dropping her curtsey, "but +I'm not much hacquainted with these Hamerican monies, and would you +be so good as to tell me the worth of twenty-one gold guineas in the +dollars they uses in this country. More shame to 'em, say I, that +they didn't 'old by what was their hown when they was hunder the rule +of hour gracious lady, Queen Victoria, but 'ad to go changin' an' +pesterin' them what 'asn't no partickler hacquaintance with +harithmetic." + +Hannah was a privileged character, and sometimes expressed her +opinions with some freedom in the presence of her superiors. + +The colonel did not think it worth while to enlighten her on the +subject of American history, or to explain that the United States, +and even the early colonies, had never been beneath the rule of Queen +Victoria; but he gave her the information she desired. + +"Twenty-one golden guineas would be somewhere from a hundred and five +to a hundred and ten or fifteen dollars, Hannah," he said; "it might +be even a little more; that would depend upon what is called the +price of gold. A guinea would be worth something over five dollars in +American money at any time, sometimes more, sometimes less, but +always beyond the five. Why?"--knowing of the secret fund for future +expenses, the story having been told to him by his nephews,--"have +you gold of which you wish to dispose? If so, I will do my best to +sell it for you at advantage." + +"No, thank'ee, sir," she answered. "I'm only fain to know what it +would fetch," and with another curtsey she was gone, not daring +either to wait for farther questioning or to ask the gentleman to +exchange her gold for her. Indeed, upon the latter point she had not, +hitherto, at all made up her mind. But now it seemed to her that it +was clearly intended that she should make the sacrifice. + +"Seems as if it was a callin' of Providence," she murmured to +herself, as she slowly and thoughtfully mounted the stairs and +returned to the nursery; and had any one known the circumstances he +might have seen that the old nurse's resolution respecting that gold +was wavering; "seems as if it was a callin' of Providence. 'Twould +just be a little more than the poor boy needs--oh, will he never +learn to say no when it's befittin 'he should!--just a little more, +and it do seem as if it were put hinto my 'ands to do it. An' I +s'pose I might believe the Lord will take care of them banks and +railroads an' things where the master 'as put what he's hinvested for +me. I don't know as I put so much faith in this hinvestin', you never +know what'll come of it with the ups and downs of them things. Dear, +dear! if I 'ad it now there needn't be no trouble about Master Percy. +But"--feeling for the precious bag--"I think I couldn't rest heasy +in my grave if I 'ad the statoo of the queen 'erself hover me if I'd +let the child I brought up come to this disgrace an' 'im the puny, +weakly baby he was, too, when I took 'im, the fine, sturdy lad he is +now if he is maybe a bit too soon led hastray. But what can you +hexpect of a lad when he's kept hunder the way hour boys is. An' he's +not a bad 'eart, 'asn't Master Percy, an' maybe he might put up a +monyment and a hepithet 'imself for me if he did but know I'd done +that for 'im. It's a risk, too; Percy's no 'ead on his shoulders, an' +I might be left with no tombstone an' no hepithet." + +To one who knew Hannah it might have been easy to see which way the +balance was likely to turn; that cherished gold was sure to be taken +for Percy's rescue from the difficulty he was in; but she persuaded +herself that she had not yet made up her mind about the matter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A CONFIDENCE. + + +Meanwhile Lena was fretting herself ill over the terrible secret +which she imagined she shared with no one in the house; turning over +and over in her mind all manner of impossible devices for the relief +of her scapegrace brother. Not for one instant would she entertain +the thought of applying to her uncle in accordance with his +indelicate suggestion; and her father and mother were, to her mind, +as well as to Percy's, utterly out of the question. No idea of +applying to them entered her head. The change in her, her troubled, +worried expression, the almost hunted look in her beautiful eyes made +her uncle and aunt extremely anxious, especially as they could find +no clew to the cause, for they knew nothing of the letter from Percy. + +The child wrote to her brother and told him that she could see no way +of procuring the money for him, for she _would not_ apply to +their uncle; but she would try and contrive some means of helping +him. + +With the heedless _insouciance_ which distinguished him, or +rather with the selfish facility with which he threw a share, and a +large share, of his burdens upon others, he had comforted himself +with the thought that Lena would surely contrive some way of helping +him; would, in spite of her declarations to the contrary, apply to +Colonel Rush, guarding his secret, and taking upon herself all the +weight and embarrassment of asking such an unheard of favor. But +although he did strive to be hopeful, he had times of the deepest +despondency and dread, when he looked his predicament fully in the +face; and he felt it hard that Lewis, who, after all, had been the +chief offender, should be, as he in his careless way phrased it, "all +right" at what seemed to be so little cost to him, while he, Percy, +was under this cloud of apprehension and uncertainty. + +Harley Seabrooke was not hard-hearted, although he was determined +that the two boys should make full restitution, and justly so, and he +could not but feel sorry for Percy when these fits of despair +overtook him. + +"Neville," he said to him one day, "have you written to your parents +about this matter?" + +"To my father and mother! oh, no!" answered Percy, looking dismayed +at the bare idea of such a thing; "Oh, no, of course not. How could +I?" + +"It seems to me," said Harley, eying the boy curiously, "that such a +thing is the most natural course when one is in such a difficulty. +Certainly it must involve confession, but they would be the most +lenient and tender judges one could have. Why not make a clean breast +of it, Percy, and have it over? You hardly, I suppose, can obtain +such a sum of money except by application to them; or have you some +other friend who will help you?" + +"I have--I did--I mean I will," stammered Percy. "I have asked +and--and--I know I must have it somehow." + +He looked so utterly depressed and forlorn that Harley's heart was +moved for him. + +"If I were rich, Percy," he said, "if I could in any way afford it, I +would not insist upon such early payment of my loss; but it is only +just that you should make it good. You did not know what you were +doing, it is true, the extent of the injury to me; but you had +suffered yourself to be tempted into wrong by a boy much worse than +yourself, and you meant to play me a sorry trick, which has recoiled +upon yourself. That money, the check you destroyed, I had received +from a publisher for a piece of work over which I had spent much time +and which I had devoted to a special purpose. I have a young sister +who has a wonderful talent for drawing and painting, is, in fact, a +genius; and her gift ought to be cultivated, for we hope it will, in +time, be a source of profit to herself and others; but my father is +a poor clergyman, and all of us try to do what we can to help +ourselves and one another. You know on what terms I am here; and it +is only through the kindness of Dr. Leacraft that I enjoy the +advantages I do; and of late I have been able to earn a little by +articles I have written for papers and magazines. This two hundred +dollars I had received for a little book, and I intended it should be +the means of giving my little sister at least a beginning of the +drawing lessons which would be of so much use to her. You may judge +then if I do not feel that I must have it back, and that without +farther delay. I am sorry for you, but I cannot sacrifice my sister." + +Seabrooke was regarded by the boys as unsympathetic, cold, and stiff +in his manner--perhaps he was somewhat so--and as he seldom spoke of +himself they knew little of his affairs or of his family relations; +and he was also considered to have a rather elderly style of talking, +unbefitting his comparatively few years. + +Percy's manner, which had been rather sullen and listless when the +other began to speak, had brightened as Seabrooke went on; and when +he mentioned his sister, his face lighted with a look of interest +which somewhat surprised his senior. + +"What is your sister's name? Gladys?" he asked. + +"Yes," answered Harley, surprised at the question. "Do you know her?" + +"Yes--no--my sister and some other girls I know, know her," said +Percy; and then followed the story of the meeting in the church and +of the interest taken in the young artist by Lena, Maggie and Bessie. + +"So it was your friends and relatives, then, who sent the check for +the church to my father, and the Christmas box to my sister?" said +Seabrooke, feeling much more inclined to forgive Percy than he had +felt since the destruction of his letter. + +"I don't know anything about a check," answered Percy, for Colonel +Rush had not mentioned that little circumstance to the junior portion +of his family, "but I do know that the girls sent your sister a +Christmas box, for I helped to pack it myself, and they are all agog +about some prize they hope to win among them, a prize which will give +them somehow, an artist education, which they can give to some girl +who needs it. I don't know exactly how it is, only I do know they are +all just agog about it, and they want it for your sister Gladys, at +least for a girl of that name. But I believe I ought not to have +spoken of that; it is only a chance, you know; there are ever so many +girls to try for the prize, and our girls may not gain it." + +"And my sister don't want the chance," said Harley, the stubborn +pride which was one of his characteristics, up in arms at once. "We +may be and are poor, but we will not ask for charity." + +"Well, you needn't be so highty-tighty about it," said Percy, taking +a more sensible view of the matter than his older companion did. +"_I_ don't call it charity, and if it is, it comes from somebody +who is dead, so one needn't feel any special obligation to the girls. +It is only that they earn the right to say to whom the gift shall go; +they don't _give_ it. And," he added, with his usual happy +faculty for saying the wrong thing, "I don't see why you should be so +stiff about it when you yourself"--he paused, seeing by the dark look +which came over Seabrooke's face that he had touched upon a sore +point. + +"You would say," said Harley, stiffly, "when I accept favors from Dr. +Leacraft for myself; but you will please remember that I, at least, +give some equivalent for my tuition, so I am not altogether a charity +scholar. And it is my object to provide for my sister myself, and I +still insist that you shall pay me what you owe me, Neville. If your +friends earned forty scholarships for Gladys, that would make no +difference in my just demands." + +"Nobody asked that it should!" exclaimed Percy, flying into one of +the rare passions to which his amiable, easy-going nature would +occasionally lapse under great provocation, "nobody asked that it +should; and you are"--and here he launched into some most +uncomplimentary remarks, and then dashed from the room, leaving +Harley to feel that he had made a great mistake, and missed, by the +insinuation that Percy fancied he would abate his demands for +restitution, an opportunity of influencing the boy, who was easily +led for either good or evil. + +The result of this was, on Percy's part, another frantic appeal to +Lena to find some means of helping him before Easter, that Seabrooke +was very hard on him and determined not to spare him. + +This letter would never have reached Lena had it not been delivered +into the hands of Colonel Rush, who met the postman at the foot of +his own steps, and took this with others from him. For Hannah, +following out her policy that the end justified the means, and +undeterred by the scrape into which Percy had brought himself by +means somewhat similar, kept on the watch for letters for Lena, +determined to hide and destroy any which should come from Percy. + +She fancied that she had not yet made up her mind to the course she +would pursue; but she really had done so, though the faithful old +nurse clung till the last moment to the cherished gold, with a faint +hope that something might yet chance to save it. + +The colonel went up to pay a little visit to Lena, and came down +looking rather perturbed and anxious. + +"That child continues to look badly," he said to Mrs. Rush, "and she +appears to me to have something on her mind. Do you think it is +possible, now that Russell is better?" + +"I am sure of it," answered his wife, "sure that something is +troubling her very much, and I was about to speak of it to you. She +is such a reticent, reserved child, that I did not like to try and +force her confidence, although I have opened the way for her to give +it to me if she chose to do so." + +"I brought her a letter from Percy yesterday," said the colonel, "and +when I handed it to her, she flushed painfully and seemed very nervous, +and I noticed that she did not open it while I was in the room. I +wonder if he is in any trouble." + +Mrs. Rush shook her head. She had not even noticed this, and had no +clew whereby she might guess at the cause of Lena's depression; but +she said: + +"I am going to send for Maggie and Bessie to come and spend the day +with her. She is able, I think, to have them with her, and they may +brighten her a little." + +No sooner said than done; the colonel, always glad of any excuse for +bringing these prime favorites of his to his own house, went for them +himself, and finding them disengaged, this being Saturday and a +holiday, brought them back with him. + +He had the pleasure of seeing Lena's pale face light up when she saw +them, and soon left the young patient with her two little friends to +work what healing influences they might. + +Now, although Lena was very fond of both these girls, Bessie was her +special favorite, perhaps because she, being less shy than Maggie, +had been the first to offer her sympathy and comfort at the time when +Lena had been left at her uncle's with her heart wrung with anxiety +and distress for her brother Russell who was then very dangerously +ill. + +And Bessie was now quick to see that something was wrong with Lena. +Maggie saw it too, but shy Maggie, unless it was with some one as +frank as herself, could not seek to draw forth confidences. But, with +her usual considerate thoughtfulness, she did that which was perhaps +better; she presently withdrew herself to the next room with Elsie +and little May and amused them there, so that Lena might have the +opportunity of speaking to Bessie if she so chose. + +But not even to Bessie would or could Lena confide the story of +Percy's misdoing and its direful results, longing though she might be +for her sympathy and advice. Lena knew Bessie's strict +conscientiousness, which was almost equalled by her own, and she knew +also Bessie's complete trust in her parents, and how in any trouble +her first thought would be to confide in them in full faith that they +would be only too ready to lift the burden from her shoulders. + +No, Bessie was not like herself; she had no dread of her father and +mother, nor had any of the children in that large and happy family; +and it would have seemed unnatural to them to have any such fears. + +But there was a question which had been agitating her own mind which +she meant to ask Bessie and hear her clear, straightforward views on +the matter; for Lena feared, and justly, that her own wishes might +have too much weight with her own opinion, and she dared not yield to +these for fear of doing wrong. + +"Lena, dear," said Bessie, "is your brother Russell worse?" + +"No," answered Lena, "he is improving every day now, mamma says." + +"You seem rather troubled and as if something were the matter," said +Bessie, simply, but in half-questioning tones, thus opening the door +for confidence if Lena wished to give it. + +"I would like to ask you something," said Lena, wistfully. "You +remember the checks papa and Russell sent me?" + +"Oh, yes, of course," answered Bessie. "How could I forget them?" + +"Do you think," said Lena, slowly and doubtfully, "that if a person +who was not a poor person was in great trouble, it would be quite +right to use some of that money to help them out of their trouble? +You know papa and Russell say I may use it for any charity I choose. +Do you think it would be called charity to do that when the person +was in trouble only because he had been--had done very wrong?" + +"I don't know. I don't quite understand," said Bessie, quite at sea, +as she might well be, at such a vague representation of the case. "I +suppose," thoughtfully, "that it might be right if you felt quite +sure that your father or brother would be willing." + +"But they would not be--at least--oh, I do not know what to think or +what to do," exclaimed poor Lena, breaking down under the weight of +all her troubles and perplexities. + +"I can't tell what to say unless I know more about it," said Bessie, +taking Lena's hand; "but, Lena dear,"--approaching the subject of +Lena's relations with her own family with some reluctance, "but, Lena +dear, if you do not want to ask your father and mother, why do you +not ask Uncle Horace? He is so very nice and good, and he knows about +almost everything." + +But before she had finished speaking she saw that the suggestion did +not meet the case at all. + +"Uncle Horace! Oh, no!" ejaculated Lena, "that would be worse than +all! Oh, if I could only tell Russell!" + +"Why do you not?" asked Bessie. + +"It would make him ill again; it might kill him," answered Lena, more +excitedly than ever. "Tell me what it is right to do by myself, +Bessie." + +"How can I, dear, when I do not know what it is?" said the troubled +and sympathizing Bessie. + +Lena looked into the clear, tender eyes before her own, and her +resolution was taken; although, knowing, as she did, Bessie's almost +morbid conscientiousness and her horror of anything small, mean or +tricky, she knew that she would be terribly shocked when she heard +the source of the trouble; but she _must_ tell some one, must +have a little advice. + +"I want to tell you, Bessie," she said, falteringly, "but you will +not tell any one, will you? Not even Maggie?" + +"No. Maggie is very good about that, and not at all curious," said +Bessie. "I couldn't keep a secret of my own from her; but some one +else's she would not mind. But mamma--could I not tell mamma?" + +"Oh, no," said Lena, "no! _Must_ you tell your mother +everything--things that are not secrets of your own?" + +Bessie stood thoughtful for a moment. + +"No," she at last answered, a little reluctantly. "If mamma knew it +would be a help to some one to have me keep a secret, I do not think +she would mind; for mamma has a good deal"--of confidence in her +children, she would have added, but checked herself with the thought +that Lena enjoyed no such blessing, and that she was presenting too +forcible a contrast between her own lot and that of her little +friend, and she hastily substituted, "a great deal of good sense for +her children. But, Lena dear, you do not know how well my mamma keeps +a secret, and how she can help people out of trouble." + +"No, no!" said Lena again, "I couldn't let her know. He wouldn't like +it; he would never forgive me," she added, forgetting herself. + +Light flashed upon Bessie. + +"Lena, is it Percy?" she asked. + +"Yes," faltered Lena; and then followed the whole story; at least, +the whole as she knew it, so much as Percy had revealed to her. + +Bessie was indeed shocked, perhaps even more at the contemptible +selfishness and weakness which had led Percy to throw the burden of +this secret upon his young sister, and to appeal to her for help, +than she was by his original fault. Her own brother Harry was noted +for his chivalrous gallantry to girls; so much so, that it was a +subject of joke among his schoolmates and companions; and Fred, +although known as a tease, was quite above anything small or petty, +and would have scorned to ask such a thing as this from any girl, +especially from one who was weak and ill, and but just coming back +from the borders of the grave. Bessie felt no sympathy whatever for +Percy, but more than she could express for the innocent Lena; and her +indignation at the reckless brother found vent in terms unusually +emphatic for her. + +But, alas for Lena! Bessie could see no way out of the difficulty +more than Lena could herself. In spite of her ardent wish to do this, +her upright little soul could by no means advise or justify for this +purpose the use of any part of the sums put by Mr. Neville and +Russell into Lena's hands. + +"For you know, dear Lena," she said, "your father and brother said +for charity, didn't they? And Percy is not a 'charity.'" + +"No," answered Lena, with a pitiful, pleading tremor in her voice, +"but papa said I could use it for any good object I chose. See, +Bessie, here is his letter, and that is just what he says." + +"Yes," said Bessie, glancing at the lines in Mr. Neville's letter to +which Lena pointed, "yes; but Percy is not an 'object.' At least not +what your father means by 'any object.'" + +"And he certainly is not good" she added to herself; then said slowly +again: "But, Lena, why don't you tell your brother Russell, when you +say he is so good and nice?" + +But to this also Lena returned the most decided negative. No, Russell +must not be worried or made anxious and unhappy, no matter what might +happen to Percy or to the rest of the family. Russell must be spared, +at all hazards, and it was plainly to be seen that, distressed as she +was for Percy, his welfare was by no means to be weighed in the +balance against that of his elder brother. + +Bessie, helpless as Lena herself, had no farther suggestion to offer, +and save that she now shared the burden of her secret with some one +who could sympathize, Lena had gained nothing by imparting it to her +little friend; and when Maggie returned, she found her looking as +depressed and anxious as before, while Bessie's sweet face also now +wore a troubled expression. + +Maggie asked no questions; but when they were at home that evening, +Bessie said to her: + +"Maggie, dear, I have to have a secret from you. It is not mine, but +Lena's, and she will not let me tell even you; and she will not tell +Uncle Horace or Aunt Marion or any of her people. And then again it +is not her very own secret, but some one else's, and it is a great +weight on her mind because she does not know what to do about it. And +so it is on mine," she added, with a deep sigh. + +"I wish you could tell me," said Maggie; "not that I am so very +curious about it, although, of course, I should like very much to +know; but cannot you tell mamma, Bessie?" + +"No," answered Bessie; "it seemed to me mamma would not mind if I +promised I would not tell even her, when Lena seemed to have such a +trouble and wanted to tell me. I can't bear not to tell her or not to +tell you; but I thought I would promise, because Lena is such a very +good girl and so very true, and she has such a perfectly horrible +mother. Maggie, every night when you say your prayers, do you thank +God that Mrs. Neville is not your mother? I do." + +"Yes, and about a thousand times a day besides," answered Maggie. +"But, Bessie, could you help Lena in her trouble?" + +"No," said Bessie, her face shadowed again, "and I do not see how any +one can help her, so long as she will not tell any grown-up person. +Not one of us children could help her." + +Bessie was depressed and very thoughtful that evening, and so silent +as to attract the attention of her family; but to all inquiries she +returned only a faint smile without words, while to her mother she +confessed that she had "a weight on her mind," but that this was +caused by another person's secret which she could not tell. + +Accustomed to invite and receive the unlimited confidence of her +children, Mrs. Bradford still treated them as if they were reasonable +beings, and on the rare occasions, such as the present, when they +withheld it, she was satisfied to believe that they had good and +sufficient reasons for so doing. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A BOX OF BONBONS. + + +If there was one of the two sisters who lay awake after the proper +time in the pretty room which Maggie and Bessie Bradford called their +own--a thing not of frequent occurrence, it was usually Maggie, when +she was revolving in her mind some grand idea, either as the subject +of a composition, or some of the schemes for business or pleasure +which her fertile brain was always devising. But on this night it was +Bessie who could not sleep for worry and anxiety over Lena's +perplexities. As a usual thing she was off to the land of Nod the +moment her head was on the pillow; but to-night she lay tossing and +uneasy until she thought the night must be almost gone. Then +suddenly, as a bright thought came to her--an idea which she thought +almost worthy of Maggie herself--she heard her mother in her own +room. + +"Mamma," she called, "is it almost time to rise?" + +"Why, no, my darling," said Mrs. Bradford, coming in, "it is only +half-past ten o'clock. What woke you?" + +"Oh, I have not been asleep at all, mamma," answered her little +daughter. "I thought I had been awake all the night." + +"Oh, no," said Mrs. Bradford; "but it is certainly time that you were +asleep. Have you been troubling yourself, dear, over that secret?" + +"I suppose that I have, mamma," answered Bessie; "but I have had a +very nice thought which I believe will help that secret, and I will +try not to be troubled about it any more." + +And five minutes later, when her mother looked in again to see if she +were quiet, she found her sleeping. + +"Papa," said Bessie, walking into the library the next morning, all +ready for school, and not seeing for the moment that any one was with +her father, "papa, are you going early to your office?" + +Mr. Bradford was fond of a long walk on a pleasant morning, and would +occasionally start from home with his little girls on their way to +school, leave them at Miss Ashton's, and then proceed on his way down +town. They always considered this a treat, and he knew now that +Bessie hoped for his company in lieu of that of Jane, the +nursery-maid. + +"I think that I shall do so that I may have the pleasure of escorting +two little damsels to school," he answered. + +"Then perhaps I shall be fifth wheel to a coach that only needs +three," said a deep, jolly voice from the other side of the room; and +Bessie, turning, saw the tall form of her Uncle Ruthven standing +before one of the book-cases, in which he was searching for a book he +had come to borrow. + +Her face brightened with a look which told that this "fifth wheel" +could never be _de trop_; and she sprung toward him with a +welcoming kiss and good morning. + +Uncle Ruthven was mamma's dear and only brother, and a great favorite +with his young nieces and nephews, who thought this much travelled, +"much adventured uncle," as Bessie had once called him, a wonderful +hero, and the most entertaining of mortals. So Maggie was as well +pleased as Bessie when she heard by whom they were to be escorted to +school, papa and Uncle Ruthven forming as desirable a pair of +cavaliers as could well be imagined by any two little maidens. + +But Uncle Ruthven was somewhat amused to see how Bessie contrived +that he should walk with Maggie, while she took Mr. Bradford's hand +and tried to keep him a little behind. Observing this, and rightly +conjecturing that she had something to say to her father, Mr. Stanton +obligingly drew Maggie on a little faster till they were sufficiently +in advance of the others to permit Bessie to make her confidences. + +"Papa," said the little girl, as soon as she thought that her sister +and uncle were out of hearing, "papa, you know that you told me I +might begin to take music lessons after Easter?" + +"I remember my promise quite well, dear, and you shall certainly do +so," answered her father. "You have been a dear, patient child about +those lessons, and you may depend now upon your reward." + +Bessie had for a long time been anxious to take lessons upon the +piano; but her father and mother had thought it best to defer it, as +she was not very strong, and they had considered that her daily +lessons at school were sufficient for her without the extra labor +which music lessons and practising would involve. This decision had +been a disappointment to her, but she had borne it well, never +fretting and teasing about it, only looking forward eagerly to the +time when she might begin; and her parents now thought her old enough +for this. + +"Well, I want to ask you something, papa," she said, coloring a +little, but throwing back her head to look up into his face with her +clear, fearless eyes. "How much would it cost for me to take music +lessons?" + +"Forty dollars a quarter is Miss Ashton's price, I think," answered +Mr. Bradford, wondering what this earnest little woman was thinking +of now. + +"And two quarters would be eighty dollars--and twenty more would be a +hundred," slowly and thoughtfully said Bessie, who was not remarkably +quick at figures. "That would take two quarters and a half a quarter +to make up a hundred dollars, would it not, papa?" + +"Yes," answered her father. + +"Then," said Bessie, eagerly, "if I wait for my music lessons for two +quarters and a half longer, will you let me have the hundred dollars +they would cost, papa? I would rather have it; oh, much rather, +papa." + +"My child," said her father, "what can you possibly want of a hundred +dollars? Have you some new charity at heart?" + +"No, papa," answered the child with growing earnestness; "it is not a +_charity_, but it is for a secret--not my secret, papa,--you +know I would tell you if it was--but another person's secret. And +that person is so very deserving, anybody ought to be very glad to do +a kindness for that person, and she cannot tell anybody about +it--only she told me, and mamma knows I have a secret--and I do want +so very much to help her, and I think I would say I would never take +music lessons all my life to do it." + +And more she poured forth in like incoherent style, pleading too, +with eyes and voice and close pressure of her father's hand. + +Mr. Bradford was a lawyer of large practice and not a little note, +accustomed to deal with knotty problems, and to solve without +difficulty much more intricate sums than the putting of this two and +two together, and he could guess pretty well in whose behalf Bessie +was pleading now. He had heard during the past week of Lena Neville's +unaccountable depression and nervousness, and of her refusal to +disclose its cause; knew that his little daughters had spent the +previous afternoon with her, and that Bessie had returned from +Colonel Rush's house with "a weight on her mind," as she always +phrased it when she was troubled or anxious, and that even to her +mother and Maggie she had not confided the source of that "weight." + +To Mr. Bradford, accustomed to the open natures and sweet, +affectionate ways of his own daughters, Lena Neville was by no means +an attractive child; but so far as he could judge, she was upright +and perfectly straightforward, and with no little strength of will +and purpose; and petted as she was by her indulgent aunt and uncle, +he could not believe that she had brought herself into any difficulty +which she could not confess, on her own account. + +No; there must be something behind this; there must be some other +person whom she was shielding, and whom she and Bessie were striving +to rescue from the consequences of his or her own folly and +wrong-doing, and Mr. Bradford believed that he had not far to look +for this person. He had, even in the short period of the Christmas +holidays, when Percy had been much with his own boys, marked the +weakness of his character and the ease with which he was swayed for +either good or evil, according to the temptations or influences +presented to him; and he now felt assured that he had fallen into +some trouble and had appealed to his sister for pecuniary aid; and +that this must be very serious, Mr. Bradford rightly judged, since +Lena dared not apply to the uncle who was so ready to do everything +to make her happy and contented in his house. + +And what to do now, Mr. Bradford did not know. It might not be best +that Percy--if it were indeed he for whom these two little girls were +acting--should be shielded from the consequences of his wrong-doing; +and in his own want of knowledge of the circumstances he could not, +of course, judge how this might be; but his pity and sympathy were +strongly moved for Lena; and she was, indeed, unselfish, little +heroine that she was, deserving of any kindness or relief that could +be extended to her. But to act thus in the dark was repugnant to him; +and his judgment and his feelings were strongly at variance as he +listened to Bessie's pleadings that she might be allowed to make this +sacrifice. + +"I must think this over for a little, my darling," he said; but when +he saw the disappointment in her face and the gathering tears in her +eyes, he felt that he could not altogether resist her, and he added, +"I think we shall find some way out of this difficulty; but are you +sure that this person has no grown friend to whom she could apply?" + +"She thinks not, papa," answered Bessie,"_I_ think she could and +ought to, but she thinks not; and I feel quite sure you would let me +do this if you knew all the reasons." + +"Mamma and I will talk the matter over, dear," said Mr. Bradford; +"and you are a dear, generous little girl, to be willing to do this; +for I know how much your heart has been set upon your music lessons." + +"But my heart is more set upon this, papa; oh, quite, quite more +set," said Bessie, quaintly. + +"We must hurry on now a little," said Mr. Bradford, giving an +encouraging pressure to the small hand within his own, "and you must +try not to worry yourself over this matter." + +"What is in that little woman's mind? May I know?" asked Mr. Stanton, +when he and his brother-in-law had left their two young charges at +Miss Ashton's door and had turned their faces business-ward. "Or is +it of a private nature?" he added. + +"Well, I suppose I may tell you what she asked; for if I yield every +one will know it, as she has talked so much of her music lessons," +said Mr. Bradford; "and I will tell you my suspicions. I fear that I +am perhaps too much inclined to yield to her plea, while I am not +satisfied that it is wise to do so. But I am not sure that you will +be a very unprejudiced adviser," he added, knowing well that Uncle +Ruthven was generally of the opinion that it was well to yield to the +wishes of his favorite nieces, Maggie and Bessie. + +Then he told of Bessie's proposal, and of whither his own suspicions +tended. + +"The dear little soul!" said Mr. Stanton, "and these music lessons +have been the desire of her heart for the last two years." + +"Yes for a longer time than that," said Mr. Bradford; "she is making +a real sacrifice in offering to give them up. Of course, there is no +necessity for her to do that; she shall have her music lessons. But +the question with me is whether it is well to work blindly in this +way, even for the purpose of relieving these two innocent children." + +"I ask nothing better for my girls than that they may grow up like +yours," said Mr. Stanton, extending his hand to his brother-in-law. +But he offered no advice, expressed no opinion. + +Many a time during his busy day did his little daughter's pleading +face rise before Mr. Bradford, and he found himself unable to resist +it, and resolved that he would cast scruples to the winds and tell +Bessie she should have the sum she had asked for. But although he +would not tell her this yet, she should not lose her much desired +lessons; she should begin them at the promised time, and they should +be his Easter gift to her. + +Mr. Stanton found a little private business of his own--quite +unexpected when he left home--to attend to after he parted from his +brother-in-law at the door of his office, a little business which was +attended with the following results. + +Mr. Bradford reached home that afternoon, and entering the door with +his latch-key was just closing it behind him when Bessie came flying +down the stairs and precipitated herself upon him like a small +whirlwind, followed by Maggie in a state of equal excitement and +making like demonstrations. + +"Spare me, ladies," he said, when he could speak; "with your kind +permission I should wish to take farewell of the remainder of my +family before I am altogether suffocated. Might I ask the cause of +this more than usually effusive greeting?" + +The answer to this was continued embraces and caresses from both his +captors, a series of the little ecstatic squeals Maggie was wont to +give when she was especially delighted with anything, and from Bessie +the exclamation of: + +"Oh, you dear, darling papa! You needn't try to be anonymous, for we +know you did it! There was nobody else, for nobody else knew. We know +it was you; we know it!" + +"If I might be allowed to take off my overcoat and to sit down," +gasped Mr. Bradford. + +Then he was released, and proceeded to take off his overcoat, while +the two little girls seized upon one another and went dancing about +the hall to the music of Maggie's continued squeals. + +"Have I made a mistake as to my own house and found my way into a +private insane asylum?" said Mr. Bradford, pretending to soliloquize. +"It must be so, else why this wild excitement? These must be two of +the wildest and most excitable of the inmates. I must escape." + +[Illustration: "HAVE I FOUND MY WAY INTO A PRIVATE INSANE ASYLUM?"] + +And he made a feint of trying to do so, running into his library and +sinking into an easy chair where he was speedily held captive again +by two pair of arms piled one above the other about his neck, while +all manner of endearing epithets were lavished upon him. + +"Thank you very much," he said at last, "for all these compliments, +but really I am ignorant why I am particularly deserving of them at +the present moment." + +"Oh, you needn't pretend you don't know now, you sweet, lovely +darling," said Maggie, with a fresh squeeze and a kiss, planted +directly upon his right eye. "You have lifted the most dreadful +weight off of Bessie's mind. I don't know what it was, but I know +that she had one, and now it is all gone." + +"And you did it in such a delightful way, too, papa," said Bessie; +"sending it in that lovely box of bonbons." + +"Sending what--the weight?" said Mr. Bradford. + +"Now, papa!" expostulated both at once. "You know what we mean, and +you needn't pretend that you don't," said Bessie. "No, you took away +the weight, and you're just too good for anything." + +"If you would throw a little light, perhaps I could understand," +answered her father; "but really, as it is, I cannot take credit to +myself for having lifted any one's burdens to-day, at least, not +knowingly." + +"Oh, papa," said Bessie again, "you know you sent me what I asked you +for this morning in a box of Huyler's, all beautifully done up, +and--oh! I know you, papa--my name written on the parcel by some one +else, so I wouldn't know. But just as if I wouldn't know; it _could +not_ be any one but you, because no one else knew that I wanted +it." + +"Upon my word, this is very embarrassing," said Mr. Bradford. "I +should be very glad to be able to say that I had been so generous and +given so much pleasure; but I must disclaim the deed. Upon my honor, +as a gentleman, I know nothing of your box of bonbons or its +contents." + +To tell the truth, he was really somewhat embarrassed, for he could +give a very good guess as to the donor of the gift, who, since he had +chosen to be "anonymous," must not be betrayed, and these very +interested inquirers were likely to put some searching questions +which it might be difficult to evade. To avoid these--truth compels +me to state--Mr. Bradford took an ignominious flight, for, saying +that he must hasten upstairs to dress for dinner, he put aside the +detaining arms which would have kept him till conjecture was +satisfied, and once more assuring his little girls that he had +absolutely nothing to do with the box of bonbons and its valuable +contents, and congratulating Bessie that her heart's desire was +attained, he hurried away to his own room. Here he found Mrs. +Bradford, who had thought, as did the little girls, that he had been +the one to relieve Bessie's mind by this means. + +Discreet Bessie, and equally discreet Maggie, had neither one +betrayed the little circumstance of the gift to the former to the +general household, mamma alone sharing the secret, and even she did +not know for what purpose it was destined. + +The two girls had been with their mother in Mrs. Bradford's +morning-room after they returned from school, when Patrick came to +the door and delivered "a parcel for Miss Bessie." + +The nature of this parcel disclosed itself even before it was opened. +There is a peculiar distinctive air about such parcels which stamps +them at once as mines of delight, and Maggie had little hesitation in +pronouncing it to be "a monstrous box of Huyler's! Must be three +pounds at least!" + +Uncle Ruthven--that which proved a mystery to Maggie and Bessie need +prove no mystery to us--was a generous giver, and when he did a kind +action it was carried out munificently; and the wrappings being taken +off and the cover of the box removed, a most tempting sight was +disclosed. + +"There is a note to tell you who it is from," said Maggie, seeing an +envelope lying on the top of the bonbons. + +But Maggie was mistaken, for the envelope contained no writing, +nothing to give, by words, a clue to the giver; but the candies were +forgotten when Bessie drew therefrom a new crisp one hundred dollar +bill. For a moment both she and Maggie stood speechless with +surprise; then the color surged all over Bessie's face, and clasping +her hands together she said, softly, but not so softly but that mamma +and Maggie did not catch the words: + +"Papa, oh, papa! I know what that is for." Then turning to her +mother, she said: "It is my secret, mamma; that is, that other +person's secret." + +But mamma and Maggie, although in the dark and much puzzled about all +this mystery, rejoiced with her in the relief which was evidently +afforded by this gift, the removal of the "weight;" and Maggie was +quite as ecstatic over papa's goodness as was Bessie herself. + +And nowhere was papa disclaiming all knowledge of the gift, at least +disclaiming all responsibility therefor. The mystery thickened for +all concerned. Who could have known, thought Bessie, how very much +she wished for this sum of money? + +But how to convey this money to Lena was now the question with +Bessie. + +In her innocent simplicity she believed that she had not disclosed +the identity of the person whose secret she was bearing, that this +was still unsuspected by her parents and Maggie, to whom she had +confided that the secret existed. Mystery and management and all +concealment were hateful to her; and as has been seen, she was no +adept at them, and she now felt herself much nonplussed. If she asked +to go to Lena, or to send the money to her, suspicion would be at +once aroused, and loyalty to Lena forbade this. + +Moreover, judging not only by herself, but also by what she knew of +Lena, she feared that the pride and independence of the latter would +rebel, even in such a strait, against receiving pecuniary aid from +one who, until a few short months ago, had been a stranger to her, +and she would spare her if possible. + +Then suddenly an idea occurred to her which removed, at least, the +latter difficulty. Why not make use of the very way in which this +well timed gift had come to her and send it to Lena anonymously? No +thought of keeping it or converting it to her own use had for one +instant entered Bessie's mind; to her it seemed Heaven-sent, and as +if destined for the very purpose for which she had been longing for +it. To the bonbons she felt that she could lay claim for herself and +her brothers and sisters, but for her own part she could not really +enjoy them until the more valuable portion of the contents of the box +was on its way to its destination. + +After some thought and planning about the method of accomplishing +this, she carried an envelope to Jane, the nursery maid, believing +rightly that Lena would not recognize her handwriting, made her put +Lena's address upon it, and then privately enclosed therein the +precious hundred dollar note; and the next morning on the way to +school with her own hand she posted it in the letter-box on the +nearest corner. Lena was not to know whence or from whom it came. +She never thought of any risk in sending it in this unprotected +manner; but happily it fell into honest hands throughout the course +of its journeyings and safely reached those for which it was +intended. + +The relief that it was to Bessie to have this accomplished can +scarcely be told. + +"Oh!" she said to herself, "I'll never, never, never again let any +one tell me a secret which I may not tell to mamma and Maggie, +especially mamma." + +The concealment and the management to obtain her object without +revealing it had been more of a cross to her than can well be +imagined, unaccustomed as she was to anything of the kind. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"INNOCENTS ABROAD." + + +Hannah had asked for "a morning out;" a request which greatly amazed +her temporary mistress, Mrs. Rush, inasmuch as the old woman had no +friends or acquaintances in the city, and was possessed of a +wholesome dread of the snares and pitfalls with which she believed it +abounded, and even when out with her charge would never go without an +escort beyond the park on which Colonel Rush's house fronted and +whence she could keep it in view. + +But permission, of course, was granted, and Hannah, after +ascertaining that a banker's office was the proper place to exchange +her precious gold, sallied forth with it, having finally resolved to +sacrifice it for Percy's relief without further delay, as Easter was +drawing near and the time of reprieve was coming to a close. + +It would take too long to tell of the trials and tribulations she +encountered on her way to her destination. She consulted every single +policeman she met, and then had so little confidence in their +directions and advice that she still felt herself hopelessly +bewildered and at sea in the business streets of the great city; +while whenever she was obliged to cross among the trucks, +express-wagons and other vehicles, she felt as if there would be an +immediate necessity for the epitaph. As may be supposed, she afforded +no little sport to the guardians of the peace, but they were, on the +whole, kind and considerate to her and often passed her on from one +to another. + +But at length, unshielded for the time by any such friendly +protection, she stood at the corner of the greatest and most thronged +thoroughfare and one almost equally crowded which intersected it, and +vainly strove to cross. The policeman on duty there was for the +moment engaged with a lost child and had no eyes for her. + +She made several frantic dives forward; but the confusion of wheels, +horses' heads and shouting drivers speedily drove her back to the +sidewalk after each fresh essay; and she was beginning to be in +despair when she felt herself spasmodically seized by the arm, and a +terrified voice said in her ear--no, not in her ear, for Hannah's ear +was far above the diminutive person who had clutched her, and whom +she turned to face,-- + +"Don't! don't! You'll be run over--yes, over--over indeed! Wait for +the policeman--yes, policeman--'liceman, indeed!" + +Hannah's eyes fell upon a very small old lady, attired in a quaint, +old-fashioned costume, with little corkscrew curls surrounding her +face, and carrying a good-sized leather satchel, while her every +movement and word betrayed a timid, nervous, excitable temperament. + +"Don't, don't!" she reiterated, "you'll be crushed--yes, crushed, +indeed, crushed; that horse's head touched you, head--indeed--yes, +head. What a place this city is--city, indeed, yes, city. Why did I +come back to it, back, yes, back?" + +There are some who may recognize this old lady, but to Hannah she was +an utter stranger, and she gazed upon her in surprise. She was +generally very offish and reserved with strangers, but now a common +misery made her have a fellow-feeling for the little oddity, and she +responded graciously. + +Seizing the hand of the woman, whom she could almost have put into +her pocket, she drew it through her arm, and said: + +"Ye may well say it; what a place hindeed! But hover I must go some +ow, so come on, ma'am. If so be we're sent to heternity, we'll go +together, an' I'll see you safe through it." + +But, apparently, the prospect of going to eternity at such short +notice and under such doubtful protection was not pleasing to Miss +Trevor, and she shrank back from the thronging dangers before her. + +But now came the policeman and escorted the two women, both large and +small, through the terrors which had beset them, landing them safely +on the other side of the street. + +Hannah's eye had recognized the lady even beneath Miss Trevor's +shabby black dress and strange manner, and she now turned to her with +a respectful: + +"Which way are you bound, ma'am? If so be your way's mine, we might +'old on together. There seems to be pretty much men around 'ere, an' +I never did take much stock in men. Leastway honly in one or two," +with an appreciative remembrance of Colonel Rush and her young +master, Russell Neville. + +"I'm going to the banker's--yes--banker's--banker's--yes, going," +answered Miss Trevor, still flustered and nervous, and forgetting, in +the distractions of the crowd, her usually besetting terror that +every one who addressed her or looked at her in the street was +actuated by purposes of robbery, and speaking as if there were but +one banker in the great city. + +But Hannah was wiser. + +"There be a lot of 'em I 'ear," she said, "an' I don't know which is +the best of 'em. What do you say, ma'am? Who be you goin' to, by your +leave?" + +"To Mr. Powers," answered Miss Trevor. "Powers, yes, Powers. A good +man and a kind--yes, man, indeed, man." + +"Is he the kind of a one--a banker, I mean," said Hannah, "that would +give you a note for gold--golden guineas?" + +Miss Trevor looked at her suspiciously for one moment. Was this a +trap? Was this friendly person, who was seemingly as much at sea as +she was herself in this wilderness of business streets and crowd of +business men, some swindler in petticoats, some decoy who would lead +her where she might be robbed of all she had about her that was +valuable, of the really precious contents of that shabby, worn +satchel? The bare idea of such a thing was enough to lend wings of +terror to Miss Trevor's feet; and she was about to dart away from +Hannah's side when the hand of the latter in its turn arrested her, +giving, if possible, new force to the fears of the old lady. + +"What did I come for?" she ejaculated, "yes, come. I wish I was back +in Sylvandale--yes, Sylvandale, indeed, 'dale." + +"Sylvandale!" + +The name had a familiar--since the events of the last few days, an +unpleasantly familiar sound to Hannah, and she gave a little start. + +"Sylvandale," she repeated; "do you know Sylvandale?" + +But again her inquiry only provoked increased alarm in the breast of +Miss Trevor. She had heard of swindlers pretending to know of places +and people belonging to those whom they would victimize; and had not +Hannah's hold upon her been firm she would have wrenched herself free +and fled. + +Hannah repeated her question in a rather different form and with an +addition. + +"Do you come from Sylvandale? And you maybe know Dr. Leacraft's +school? An' you maybe 'ave seen my boy, Master Percy Neville, my boy +that I nursed?" + +Now it so happened that Miss Trevor had seen and marked Percy +Neville, and moreover that she had a very exalted opinion of the +young scapegrace. For she did live in Sylvandale, with a nephew who +had some years since persuaded her to give up teaching in the city in +Miss Ashton's and other schools, and to come to him and let him care +for her in her old age. The home she had gladly accepted; but she +possessed a spirit of independence, and insisted on giving such +lessons as she could procure. She had been fairly successful in this, +and had laid by quite a little sum, which she intended to leave to +this kind nephew. But while this money was in her own keeping, it was +a burden and a care to her, for she lived in constant dread of +robbers and of losing her little savings; therefore she had come to +the city to place it in safe keeping. Belle Powers had been her +favorite pupil while she taught at Miss Ashton's, the child having a +remarkable talent for drawing and making the most of the instruction +she received. Belle thought so much of her queer little teacher that +she had interested her doting father in the old lady, and he had +performed two or three small acts of kindness for her which her +grateful heart had never forgotten. Consequently she credited Mr. +Powers and Belle with every known virtue, and believed that she could +not possibly place her savings in any safer place than the hands of +that gentleman; and perhaps she was not far wrong. + +But on her way to the city and to Mr. Powers' office she had been +warily on her guard for snares and pitfalls tending swindlerwise, +until she had fallen into the hands of Hannah. But her unworthy +suspicions of that good person were speedily put to flight by the +mention of Percy Neville's name. + +Coming up the village street of Sylvandale one day, she had been +chased by a flock of geese, and as she was hurrying along as fast as +her age and infirmities permitted--anything in the shape of dignity +she had cast to the winds before such foes--she encountered some of +Dr. Leacraft's scholars returning from an afternoon ramble. Most of +them had laughed at the predicament of the terrified old lady, who +certainly presented a ridiculous sight; but Percy, pitying her +plight, and with a strongly chivalrous streak in his nature, had +made a furious onslaught on the geese, and presently turned the +pursuers into the pursued. Then he had picked up the ubiquitous +satchel which Miss Trevor had dropped in her flight, attempted to +straighten her bonnet which was all awry--she thought none the less +of him because his awkward efforts left it rather worse than +before--and escorted her quite beyond the reach of the hissing, +long-necked enemy, who seemed inclined to renew the attack were his +protection removed and the coast clear. + +From this time Percy Neville was a hero and a young knight _sans +peur et sans reproche_ with Miss Trevor. She had inquired his +name, and maintained that it just suited him, and her wits had been +constantly at work all winter to devise such small gifts and treats +for him as she was able to procure. Many a basket of nuts and apples, +many a loaf of gingerbread, or other nice home-made dainty, had found +its way into Percy's hands, and had met with ready acceptance and +been heartily enjoyed by the schoolboy appetites of himself and his +companions. Percy always exchanged a cheery nod and smile with her +when he met her, or a pleasant word or two if he encountered her in +the village store or elsewhere. + +And now she heard his name in terms of proprietorship and tenderness +from this woman who claimed to be his nurse; and she was at once +arrested in her attempt to shake her off. + +"Master Percy Neville--Neville, indeed, Percy!" she exclaimed; "yes, +yes--oh, yes--the dear boy! Those other geese were after me--yes, +geese, indeed, chasing me down the sidewalk--yes, sidewalk, geese +they were--geese--and he came, the dear boy--came and shoo-ed them +away--shoo-ed them, yes, shoo-ed, indeed, shoo-ed." + +And now she was quite ready to answer any and every question which +Hannah might put to her, and, so far as she was able, to put her in +the way of that which she was seeking. She confided her own purpose +to the old nurse, and Hannah was fain to tell her hers, at least so +much as that she was anxious to convert her gold into a bank-note +which she might send to Percy without exciting his suspicions as to +whence it came. Of course she gave no hint of his wrong-doing, +saying only that she wished him to have the money and that he should +not know the donor. + +But, jostled and pushed about by the passers-by hurrying on during +the most busy time of the day, they could not talk at their ease +there on the sidewalk; and presently Hannah proposed retiring within +the shelter of the broad hallway of an imposing building, where the +two old innocents sat themselves down on a flight of stone stairs and +exchanged confidences. They exchanged more; for before the close of +the conference Hannah's gold, or the greater part of it, was in Miss +Trevor's satchel and a hundred-dollar note in Hannah's hands. + +Hannah's arithmetic was much at fault, notwithstanding the +information she had gained from Colonel Rush on the subject of her +finances; and her unheard-of confidence in this utter stranger of an +hour since was further strengthened when Miss Trevor, with her +superior knowledge, made it clear to her that she was about to give +her too much gold in exchange for the bank-note. + +Moreover, the odd little drawing-teacher, whom Hannah afterwards, +when some qualms as to her own prudence assailed her, characterized +as "hevery hinch a lady if she was that queer you'd think she'd just +hescaped the lunatic hasylum," removed another stumbling-block from +the path of the latter. She offered, if Hannah desired it, to carry +the money for Percy back to Sylvandale, and to see that it was safely +given into his hands; thus delivering the faithful old nurse from her +dilemma as to the means of conveying it to him. Having once lost some +money through the mail, she had also lost all faith in that, and +knowing nothing of the ways now afforded for sending it in safety, +she had been in some perplexity over this. And, will it be believed? +she committed it to Miss Trevor's keeping without other guarantee +than her word that Percy should receive it without knowing whence it +came. Hannah would readily have let the boy know that she had sent +it, for she was not disposed to hide her light under a bushel; but +she dared not, lest she should betray the dishonorable part she had +played in reading his letter to Lena and so discovering the +disgraceful secret. She was further satisfied, however, as to Miss +Trevor's good faith, after she had, at her request, accompanied her +to Mr. Powers' office. The name of Powers had not conveyed any +especial meaning to Hannah, although she did know that one of Lena's +classmates was named Belle Powers, and she had seen the little girl +once or twice; but when she entered the gentleman's office and +remembered that she had seen him at the Christmas party at Mr. +Bradford's and afterwards at Colonel Rush's, she at once set the seal +of her approval upon him as being "the friend of such gentry;" and +when Mr. Powers received Miss Trevor with great respect and +attention, and promised with many expressions of good will to carry +out her wishes, she plumed herself upon her sagacity in so +intuitively discovering the quality of the little old lady's +"hinches." It is true that these were few in quantity, but Hannah +believed that they were of the right material; nor was she far wrong. + +But to make assurance doubly sure she stepped up to Mr. Powers at a +moment when Miss Trevor, intent upon securing the lock of her +satchel, had turned her back, and whispered to him: + +"She's all right, isn't she, sir?" + +"Oh, yes, yes; only a little odd, but quite herself; as sane as you +are," answered the gentleman, supposing that Miss Trevor's manner had +led Hannah to infer that she was insane. + +"If she wasn't hall right I'd lose my buryin' and my moniment for +nothing," said Hannah, almost in the same breath; and Mr. Powers +stared at her, believing that she herself must be a candidate for the +lunatic asylum. Hitherto he had not paid much attention to her, +merely glancing at her as she came in, and supposing her to be Miss +Trevor's attendant; but at this extraordinary speech he scrutinized +her narrowly, wondering if she were quite in her right mind and if it +were safe to let Miss Trevor go about under her guidance. + +Having transacted her business, Miss Trevor asked Mr. Powers +concerning Belle and some of her young friends whom she also taught. +And then, to Hannah's dismay, she asked him if he could tell her +anything of Mrs. Rush and her sister, Mrs. Stanton, names very +familiar to Hannah, and which she was not pleased to hear at the +present juncture. She would never have taken Miss Trevor into partial +confidence, would never have entrusted her with the mission to Percy, +had she known that the old lady was acquainted with members of the +very family in whose service she was, with the uncle and aunt of the +boy whom she was secretly striving to save from disgrace. + +What should she do now? And here was Mr. Powers actually advising the +old lady to go up and see Mrs. Rush and her late pupils if she had +time to do so. Poor Hannah! she may almost be forgiven for the +dishonorable way in which she had contrived to possess herself of +Lena's letter, for the sake of her loyalty to and self-sacrifice for +her nurslings. Her chief thought now was less for her money than for +the risk of the discovery of Percy's secret by his relatives. She +must be very careful to keep out of the way of any one coming to +Colonel Rush's house, at least, for a day or two. She was in a very +bad humor now, this old Hannah, and as dissatisfied with the turn +matters had taken as but a short time since she had been well +pleased. She quite resented Miss Trevor's acquaintance with Mrs. Rush +and other friends of the Neville family, and her looks toward that +lady were now so glum and ill-natured that Mr. Powers could not fail +to notice them, and was more than ever beset by doubts as to her +perfect sanity. They were a queer couple, he thought, to go wandering +together through the distracting business streets. + +When Hannah was worried she was cross, as has been seen; and now, +being thus assailed with doubts as to the wisdom of the course she +had pursued, she proved herself no agreeable companion, and laid +aside the respectful tone and manner with which she had hitherto +treated Miss Trevor, till the old lady began to feel uneasy in her +turn, and her manner and speech became more queer, jerky, and +confused than ever. + +At last, when they reached the corner of the street, she grabbed the +arm of a policeman and in her broken, incoherent way, begged to be +put into a street car; and as one happened to be passing at the +moment, the request was complied with and Miss Trevor borne away +before Hannah had fairly realized that she had left her. + +Poor Hannah! If she had been uneasy before, it may be imagined what a +state of mind she was in now. She stood watching the retreating +conveyance in a bewildered sort of way till it was almost lost to +sight among the crowd of vehicles; and then, with some vague notion +of pursuing Miss Trevor and demanding back her money, hailed another +car and entered it. + +But after she was seated, sober second thought came to her aid, and +all the reasons she had before formed for trusting Miss Trevor, +returned to her, till she once more rested satisfied that the means +for Percy's rescue from the toils he had woven for himself were in +safe hands. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. + + +"Who do you think is going to win that prize of Mr. Ashton's?" asked +Fred Bradford of his sisters that day at the dinner table. "It is +coming near Easter, you know, and you must have some idea by this +time." + +"Why, Maggie, of course," answered Bessie, positively, for the +question was not one which admitted of dispute to Bessie's mind. She +gave no time for her sister to answer, and Maggie did not reply. + +"You seem to be very sure of your position, little woman," said her +father. + +"Well, papa," said Bessie, still confidently, "Lena has not been able +to try for it, you know, since she was burned; and Gracie _will +not_ try. She says she don't want it, and she acts very queerly +and seems to have no interest about it at all." + +"Perhaps she's ashamed of the way she behaved that day she had the +row with Lena," said Fred, who had heard the account of Gracie's +ill-behavior, not from Maggie and Bessie, but from some of "the other +fellows" whose sisters were members of the "Cheeryble Sisters." + +Bessie shook her sunny head. + +"No, I don't think so," she answered. "At least she has never said +so, and if she felt sorry enough to keep her from trying for the +prize, I should think she would tell Lena so." + +"_You_ would, but not she," said Fred. "Catch Gracie Howard +eating humble pie. But you don't seem to have much idea of gaining it +yourself." + +"I!" said Bessie, opening wide her eyes in undisguised astonishment, +"why, no; I am not even trying for it." + +"Well, it is too late now, as it is so near Easter," said Harry; "but +since the prize is for general improvement and not for any one +particular composition, I do not see why you should not have tried +and generally improved as well as the others." + +"Well, I did try to do the best I could and to improve myself," +answered Bessie; "but I did not think about gaining the prize. I know +I couldn't." + +"Catch Bess not doing her level best for conscience' sake, prizes, or +no prizes," said Fred. "Oh, I say, Bess, you are going to begin your +music lessons at Easter, are you not?" + +The color flushed all over Bessie's face and neck as she answered, +after a moment's hesitation, "No, I am not, Fred; and no questions +asked." + +"'No questions asked,'" repeated Fred, laughing, "but that is rather +hard on our curiosity, when you have been so wild for music lessons +for the last year or more. What have you been doing that they are +forfeited, for I know papa promised them to you after Easter?" + +"I told you no questions asked," repeated Bessie, in a slightly +irritated tone, and looking very much disturbed. + +"Hallo!" said the astonished Fred, taking these for the signs of +guilt. "Hallo! our pattern Bess has never been doing anything wrong, +has she? And so very wrong that--ouch! Hal, what was that for? I'll +thank you not to be kicking me that way under the table!" + +For Harry had given him a by no means gentle reminder of that nature; +and now his father, too, came to the rescue. + +"Let your sister alone, Fred," he said. "I can tell you that she has +done nothing wrong. She and I have a little understanding on this +matter; but she has forgotten that there is no necessity for doing +without the music lessons, and she is, I assure you, to have them. +But, as Bessie says, 'no questions asked.' We will drop the subject." + +Bessie's soft eyes opened wide, as she gazed at her father in pleased +surprise. Although the money which had been devoted by her to Lena's +relief had not come through him, it actually had not occurred to her +until this moment that she would not be called upon to give up the +music lessons. She had made the sacrifice freely for Lena's sake, and +had had no thought of evading its fulfilment, even after +circumstances had turned out so differently from anything that she +had expected. + +She flashed a grateful, appreciative glance at her father from out of +the depths of those loving eyes, but said nothing; and, as Mr. +Bradford had decreed, the subject was changed. The father and his +little daughter understood one another. + +Mr. Bradford did not, however, tell Bessie that he had never intended +that she should be obliged to carry out her sacrifice; she had +offered it unselfishly, and in good faith, and he would let her have +the satisfaction of feeling that she had been willing to do this for +her little friend. + +Bessie was not sure whether or no she was in haste to see Lena and +hear from her of the providential gift she had received. She was so +little accustomed to conceal her feelings, to evasion, or to +affectation of an ignorance which did not exist, that she did not +know how she was to maintain an appearance of innocence when Lena +should tell her that which she would doubtless believe to be +surprising news; and more and more confirmed became her resolution +"never, never, never to have another secret" which she could not +share with her mother and Maggie. + +But when she did see Lena--which was not until the latter had sent +for her to come to her--all difficulty on that score was removed, for +the news which her friend had to communicate to her was really so +extraordinary and unlocked for that she did not need to affect +surprise, or to feel embarrassed over her own share in the events +Lena had to relate. And the possibility of Bessie being the donor of +that sum of money never occurred to Lena. Perhaps she would have been +glad to know it, for Lena was a proud child, with a very independent +spirit, and in spite of the immense relief it was to her to be able +to free Percy from the difficulties in which he had involved himself, +there had been an uncomfortable feeling back of that from the sense +of obligation to some unknown person. Who could have sent her that +money? Who could have been aware of her extreme need of it? + +There is small occasion to say that it had scarcely come into her +hands when it was sent again on its travels; this time to Percy. + +The hilarious acknowledgment which immediately came back to her was a +relief in more ways than one, although she was half provoked at the +_insouciant_, devil-may-care-now spirit which it evinced. + +Percy wrote: + +"DEAR LENA, + +"You're the dearest of little sisters, the brickiest of bricks! But +there is no need for me to rob you of your hundred dollars. You say +somebody sent it to you anonymously; well, the same somebody, I +suppose, has done the same good office for me, sent me a hundred +dollars. You say you don't know who it could be; why, it was Russell, +of course. You know he's just as generous as generous can be, and +since he came into his own money he can't rid himself of it fast +enough, but must always be finding out ways of spending it for other +people. And I don't see anything so strange in this way of doing it. +He knew the powers that be would make an awful row if they knew we had +all that money to spend at our own sweet wills, so he took this way of +sending it to us, so that we could keep our own counsel; and if they +do find out we have it, we can say we don't know where it came from. +It is a blessed thing they will never know that I had mine, at any +rate, or ask where it went. You may be sure it did not stay in my +hands long, but went into those of Seabrooke in five minutes. How I +did want to keep it too. But there, Seabrooke is paid, and I'm free +and no one the wiser; at least, no one that I'm afraid of, so no harm +is done. But to think I've had to lose that money for such a thing as +that. I suppose it was a shabby trick to play, and I tell you I think +I never heard anything quite so scurvy as Flagg putting that stuff +into Seabrooke's carafe to make him sleep, and I'm sure Seabrooke +feels more put out about that than he does about the letter, because +that was malice prepense, and the other was--well--an accident; at +least, we did not know the mischief we were doing, and we have made it +all right. But he can't get over the drugging, and I'm glad I had no +hand in it, for I do not know what the doctor will say to it. He is +not back yet; but his son is better, and he will be here when we come +after the Easter holidays. I'm rather sick of Flagg anyway; he has +mean ways, and our dear old Russell wouldn't tolerate him for a +moment, so I'll shake him off all I can when I come back to school. +I'll keep your hundred dollars till I come home, and hand it to you +then. You're a trump, Lena, and I never would have taken it if I could +have helped it. But I would have had to do it if this other hundred +had not come. And, do you know, there is one thing that puzzles me. It +came by post from New York in a hair-pin box, and done up in about a +thousand papers-at least there were six--so I suppose Russell sent to +some one in the city to do it for him; but the whole thing was awfully +womanish. The address was in the most correct, copy-book-y +handwriting, every point turned just so, every loop according to rule. +But it came just in the nick of time, and saved me and your money. +Bless your heart, how are the feet? + +"Your own all the same everlastingly obliged brother, + +"PERCY NEVILLE." + +Thankful as Lena had been to receive this letter, so annoyed was she +by Percy's indifferent, careless way of looking upon his own misdeeds +that she did not show it to Bessie; she was ashamed to do so, +knowing, as she did, Bessie's conscientiousness and strict sense of +honor and honesty. "All right now." Was this indeed all the +impression made upon Percy by his late peril, all the shame and +regret he could feel? Child though she was, and several years younger +than her erring brother, the ways of right and wrong were so much +clearer to her than they were to him, she had so much more +steadfastness of character and purpose. + +"Now," she said, when she had told Bessie all, "now if I could only +find out who sent me that money and return it when Percy sends it +back to me. But you see, Bessie, I am not so sure that it was +Russell. It is not at all like the way he does things; he is never +mysterious or anonymous; and he is not at all afraid of papa or +mamma, and can do what he likes with his own money. He is very, very +generous, and always takes such nice ways of being kind to people and +giving them pleasure; and I do not think that this would be at all a +nice way of sending presents to Percy and me. Do you, Bessie?" + +"No," answered Bessie, doubtfully, remembering her own way of +conveying to Lena the means of rescuing Percy,--"no--I--do not like +anonymousity very much; but I suppose there are times when one has to +do it." + +"Um-m-m; no, I do not think so," said Lena, all unconscious of +Bessie's secret, and looking at her with surprise; for she knew +Bessie's ideas about underhand dealings to be as uncompromising as +her own. + +But Bessie stuck to her point; she had known of a case where "to be +anonymous" was the best and only course to take, so it had seemed to +her, and she was not to be convinced that there were not times when +it was justifiable. + +However, she was not anxious to dwell upon the subject, and soon +changed it. She knew that Lena's unknown friend was not her brother +Russell, and she was herself mystified about the other sum sent to +Percy; but, fearful of betraying her own part, she began to talk of +something else. + +"Do you remember, Lena," she said, "that next Sunday is Easter +Sunday, and that Saturday is the day for Miss Ashton to name the one +who deserves Mr. Ashton's prize?" + +"Yes," answered Lena, rather despondently, "but that cannot make much +difference to me, except that I shall be so glad if you or Maggie win +it." + +"Oh, Maggie will, certainly," said Bessie, secure in her belief that +no one could compete with her sister, now that Lena was supposed to +be out of the question and Gracie Howard had decidedly withdrawn from +the contest. "Maggie is sure to have it, and you know that she is +anxious for it so she can give it to Gladys Seabrooke, as you would +have done." + +"I was thinking," said Lena, with a little hesitation, very different +from her usual straightforward, somewhat blunt way of speaking, "I +was thinking that you and Maggie praise me too much for wishing to +earn the prize for Gladys Seabrooke. I would like to be the one to +win it for her; but I think--I know--it is more for my own sake than +for hers. You know I told you I wished so much that papa and mamma +would think me so much improved by Miss Ashton's teaching that they +would wish me to stay with her; and they would think it a sign of +that if I did win the prize." + +"Yes, I know," answered Bessie; "but I thought your father had +promised that you should stay with Uncle Horace and Aunt May, and go +to Miss Ashton's while you were in our country." + +"Yes," said Lena, "but I want to stay here till I am quite grown up +and educated. I want papa and mamma to think that I am doing better +here, improving more than I have ever done before--as I am--so that +they will leave me till I am grown up and quite old. Uncle Horace and +Aunt May would keep me; Uncle Horace said he would like to have me +for his girl always." + +Not even her opinion of Mrs. Neville as a mother, not even her +appreciation of the happiness of a home with her beloved Colonel and +Mrs. Rush could quite reconcile Bessie to the fact that Lena was not +only willing but anxious to leave her own home and family and to +remain in a country where she would be separated from them for years +to come; but nevertheless she felt a great sympathy for her and a +strong desire that this wish should be fulfilled. Still she could +not but have a little feeling of gladness that, according to her +belief, there was no one who could now compete with her own Maggie +for the prize; and she rather evaded the subject and took up that of +school-news until Maggie, who had come with Jane, the nursery-maid, +to take Bessie home, ran in. + +She brought with her the papers read at the last meeting of the +"Cheeryble Sisters' Club," such papers being, at Lena's special +request, always turned over to her for perusal. + +"Whose are these?" asked the young convalescent, when Maggie +delivered them to her. + +"One is Bessie's, and it is poetry. Did you know that Bessie had +begun to write poetry?" said Maggie. + +"Two poetesses in one family!" said Lena. "No, I did not hear that +Bessie wrote poetry too." + +"And this is so sweet," said Maggie; "such a pretty idea. And this +paper is Lily's. Lily has given up the resolution that she would +never let her compositions be read in the club, and this is the +second one she has given us. It is good, too," she added. "And this +is another one from Frankie. He seems to think himself quite a +'Cheeryble Sister,'" she added, laughing. + +"Can you not read them to me before you go?" asked Lena, and Maggie +assented. + +"I'll read the best first," with a smile full of appreciative pride +at Bessie, "for fear Jane comes and asks me to hurry because she has +a million things to do." + +And accordingly she unfolded one of the papers she had laid upon +Lena's table when she came in; but before she had time even to +commence it, Jane put her head in at the door with the usual formula. + +"Miss Maggie and Miss Bessie, will you please come. I have a million +things to do, and ought to be at home." + +"In a few moments," answered Maggie; but Jane added to her +persuasions by saying: + +"And it's snowing, too; a snow kind of soft-like that'll be turning +into rain before long, and Miss Bessie'll get wet." + +This moved Maggie, as the politic Jane knew that it would do, for it +was not expedient for Bessie to be out in the damp or wet; and when +she glanced out of the window and saw that the maid's words were +true, she lingered no longer, but laid the papers down again and told +Lena they must go; and Jane, congratulating herself that she had +gained her point so easily, was bearing away her young charge when an +interruption occurred. + +The children were in Mrs. Rush's sitting-room, and just at this +moment she came in, accompanied by a little old lady, who will, +doubtless be immediately recognized by those who have met her before. + +"Maggie and Bessie, you are not just going, are you?" said Mrs. Rush. +"Here is an old friend who would like to see you, at least for a few +moments." + +"I think we must go, Aunt May," said Maggie, "for it is snowing, and +mamma would not like Bessie to be out." Then, turning to the little +old lady, "How do you do, Miss Trevor? It is a long time since we +have seen you." + +"Time, indeed; time, yes, time," said Miss Trevor, shaking hands +warmly with both Maggie and Bessie. "And you've grown, yes, grown, +actually grown--why, grown!" she added, in a tone which would +indicate that it was a matter of surprise two girls of the ages of +Maggie and Bessie should grow. Then she put her head on one side and +critically scanned her quondam pupils, giving them little nods of +approval as she did so. + +Maggie and Bessie were used to Miss Trevor's odd ways and manner of +speaking; but to Lena they were a novelty, as she had never seen her +before, although she had heard of her from her aunt and from her +schoolmates, who often made merry over the recollection of her +peculiarities when she had been their teacher in writing and drawing. + +Presently she turned to Lena and surveyed her as if she were a kind +of natural curiosity; yet there was nothing rude or obtrusive in the +gaze. + +"My niece, Lena Neville, Miss Trevor," said Mrs. Rush. "Lena, dear, +this is Miss Trevor, of whom you have often heard me speak." + +"So this is the little heroine," murmured Miss Trevor, "heroine, yes, +heroine, indeed. Fire, oh yes, indeed, fire; such courage, such +presence of mind, yes, mind, indeed, mind." + +Lena was annoyed. She did not like allusions to the fire, to her own +bravery and her rescue of her little sister, even from those who were +near and dear to her; and from strangers they were unendurable to +her. She shrank back in her chair and half turned her face from Miss +Trevor, while the dark look which Mrs. Rush knew so well, but which +she seldom wore now, came over it. + +She hastened to effect a diversion. + +"Miss Maggie, if you please, it's snowing fast," said Jane, "and I've +a mil--" + +"The young ladies cannot walk home in this wet snow," interposed Mrs. +Rush. "The carriage has gone for the colonel; when it returns it +shall take them home. And, Miss Trevor, it shall take you also. You +can go to the nursery if you choose, Jane." + +So Jane, forgetting the "million things" in the prospect of a +comfortable gossip with old Margaret, departed to the nursery till +the carriage should return and her young ladies be ready to go. + +Miss Trevor, who was at her ease with Mrs. Rush and her former pupils +of Miss Ashton's class if she was with any one, asked many questions +about the studies of the latter and of the progress they were making +in the two branches in which she had been their instructress, and +gave some information respecting herself; Lena listening and looking +on in wonder at her peculiarities of speech and manner, but taking no +part in the conversation. + +But at last Miss Trevor turned to her again. + +"Neville, you said, my dear Mrs. Rush,--your niece--yes, Neville, +indeed, Neville. Such a favorite with me--me, indeed, yes, favorite. +I know a boy, yes, boy--indeed, youth--such a fine youth--such a +hero--ro, indeed, ro--does not fear geese--hissing creatures, my +dears--yes, creatures, indeed creatures, my dears, yes, creatures, +indeed. Neville he is, yes, Neville--chevalier _sans peur et sans +reproche, 'proche_, indeed, _'proche_." + +Now, as may be supposed, Lena was far from regarding her brother +Percy as a "chevalier _sans peur et sans reproche_." She had +little reason, in view of late occurrences, to do so, and she never +connected him with the heroic youth on whose praises this odd little +old lady was dwelling. She felt no interest in her, only a sort of +impatient surprise, and wished that her aunt would take her away. + +Miss Trevor dwelt farther upon the episode of the geese and Percy's +coming to the rescue; and while Lena maintained a sober face, seeing +nothing especially funny in the story, Maggie and Bessie, and even +Mrs. Rush, had some difficulty in restraining themselves from +laughing outright at the tragic tale she contrived to make out of it, +and the thought of the droll spectacle the old lady must have +presented as she flew down the street, pursued by the hissing, +long-necked foe. + +But presently Lena's attention was aroused. + +"But are flocks of geese allowed to wander loose in the streets of +Utica, Miss Trevor?" asked Mrs. Rush. "I thought it was too much of a +place for that." + +"Oh, no, my dear not Utica, no indeed, not Utica--did you not know? +We moved, yes, moved, a year ago, yes, 'go, to Sylvandale, yes, +Sylvandale--yes, 'dale," said Miss Trevor. + +"Sylvandale! Neville!" said Mrs. Rush. "Lena has a brother at school +at Sylvandale. Percy Neville! Can it be that our Percy is your young +cavalier, Miss Trevor?" + +"Percy Neville," repeated Miss Trevor, "yes, indeed, that is his +name, name, yes, name. Is it possible he is your brother?" turning to +Lena with a face now radiant with pleasure at this discovery. "Ah! +such a boy, boy, indeed, boy!" + +Lena was interested now, and, perhaps a trifle uneasy, lest by any +possibility some knowledge of Percy's escapades should have come to +Miss Trevor and might by her be incautiously betrayed to Colonel and +Mrs. Rush. She turned rather an anxious eye upon the old lady, +wishing that she would not pursue the theme of Percy and his valorous +deeds, but not seeing very well how she could change the subject. +Words did not come easily to Lena. + +And her fears were not without foundation, although Miss Trevor knew +nothing of Percy's troubles. Further and more startling revelations +were to come. + +For just at the moment, to this assembled group, entered Hannah, +bearing in her hands a tray, on which was a cup of beef-tea for Lena. +She was close to her little lady before she perceived the stranger, +whom she would have shunned as she would a pestilence. The +recognition was mutual, and to Hannah most unpleasant, and in the +start it gave her she nearly dropped the tray and its contents. + +"Merciful Lord!" she ejaculated, taken completely off her guard; but +the exclamation was far more of a prayer than an irreverent mention +of her Maker's name. + +For was not her beloved nursling in danger? Her Master Percy, for +whom she had sacrificed so much, was he not in danger of betrayal and +disgrace in case this old lady should touch upon the subject of the +money confided to her care to be conveyed to him? + +She was not gifted with presence of mind, and she stood perfectly +still, staring in undisguised perturbation at Miss Trevor. + +Perceiving this, Miss Trevor believed that it was caused not only by +surprise at seeing her there when she had told Hannah that she +expected to return at once to Sylvandale, but also by the fear that +the money had not reached its destination in good time, and she +hastened to relieve her, thus bringing on the disclosures which +Hannah was dreading. + +"Good morning," she said, kindly. "Your money has gone, yes gone, my +good woman, gone. I stayed in the city, yes, stayed, but the money +has gone. He has it, the dear boy, yes, boy, he has it." + +It was not her money but her boy that Hannah was fearing for now, and +for whom she stood dismayed at the sight of Miss Trevor. Moreover, +although she knew her place, and generally treated her superiors with +all due respect, if there was one thing more than another which +exasperated her, it was to have any one call her "my good woman;" +and, hastily setting her tray upon the table, she looked daggers at +Miss Trevor, as she answered, snappishly: + +"I wasn't askin' ye nothin', ma'am." + +Then she turned and fled, desirous to avoid all questions, although +it was not Hannah's way to flee before danger, either real or +apprehended. + +[Illustration: "I WASN'T ASKIN' YE NOTHIN', MA'AM."] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +FRANKIE TO THE FRONT AGAIN. + + +It was the worst thing she could have done for her cause. It was her +custom to stand over Lena "till hevery drop of that beef-tea is +taken," knowing, as she did, that her young charge was averse to the +process; and, had she stood her ground she might have evaded or +parried questions, and perhaps have conveyed to Miss Trevor her +desire for secrecy; but her dark looks and sudden exit, evidently +caused by the presence of the latter, put the timid old lady into one +of her flutters. + +"What is it, my dear?" she asked, turning to Mrs. Rush, and speaking +in a kind of panic. "What did I do? Does she think--yes--think that +the money has not gone? Oh, yes, indeed, yes, I sent it so carefully, +carefully indeed, fully, and the dear boy has it, yes, has it, +indeed, long before this, long!" Then to Lena, "Your brother, my +dear, yes, brother. Oh, I would have gone home myself to take it to +him, yes, take, if I could not have sent it quite safely, yes, safe; +but they persuaded me to stay, and so I sent it by post, sent it, +yes, post." + +Lena gave a little gasp. + +Here then was a partial solution of the mystery of that second +hundred dollars. She and Bessie both saw it; Hannah had sent it to +Percy, and by some strange means, through Miss Trevor. And Hannah was +now evidently very angry and disturbed. What could it all mean? + +Bessie wondered: but the matter was not of as much moment to her as +it was to Lena, who was more bewildered, if possible, than ever. And +she knew what must follow--questions, explanations, and disclosure to +her aunt and uncle of Percy's wrong-doing. Now, however, that he was +released from the other dangers that had threatened him, the child +felt this to be almost a relief: she had so suffered under the +knowledge that she was keeping his secret from them, had felt such a +sense of positive guiltiness in their presence. + +"What is all this, Miss Trevor?" asked Mrs. Rush. "Where have you met +Lena's old nurse before? And what is this about Percy; for I take it +for granted he is the brother of Lena of whom you are speaking." + +Her manner was so grave that Miss Trevor was alarmed, and imagining +that she had brought herself and her young cavalier into some +difficulty, she became more incoherent, nervous and rambling than +usual. Repeating herself over and over again, she related, in such a +confused manner, the story of her encounter with Hannah, and of how +the latter had entrusted her with the money for Percy; of how she had +intended to return to Sylvandale at once when she had accepted the +trust, but had been persuaded by her friends to remain in the city +until after Easter, and how she, mindful of the task she had +undertaken, and not knowing where she could find Hannah to inform her +of the change in her plans, had sent the money by post; but, as she +assured Mrs. Rush, with the greatest precautions. Only those who were +accustomed to her ways of speech could have thoroughly understood +her, and even Mrs. Rush, who had known the old lady from her own +childhood, had some difficulty in patching together a connected tale; +and all she arrived at in the end only increased her desire to know +more of the matter and to understand for what purpose Hannah had sent +such a sum of money to Percy, and in such a mysterious manner. + +As for Lena, a new thorn was planted in her poor little heart, a new +shame bowed her head. + +This much she understood, that Hannah had been sending money to +Percy. Was it possible that her reckless brother had been so lost to +all sense of what was fitting that he had actually applied to his +faithful old nurse, this servant in his father's family, for aid? Oh, +Percy, Percy; shame, shame! + +As we know, she wronged Percy in this; but as she had no means of +ascertaining how Hannah had become possessed of his secret and of his +extremity, it was the most natural thing in the world that she should +think he had so far forgotten himself. She could guess at more than +Mrs. Rush or Bessie Bradford could, and had no doubt to what purpose +the money entrusted to Miss Trevor had been destined. + +And an added pang of shame and regret was given to the proud, +high-spirited child when, at the conclusion of Miss Trevor's rambling +tale, her aunt turned to her, and said: + +"Why, Lena, that gold must have been those cherished sovereigns which +Hannah destined for her monument and '_epithet_.' Why should she +have sent them to Percy? It is not possible that she would trust them +to the keeping of a careless schoolboy." + +As yet, it was plain, Mrs. Rush had suspected nothing wrong, so far +as Percy was concerned about the disposal of Hannah's money, but now +when she observed the painful flush and startled, shamed look upon +the little girl's face, she could not but see that Lena was +distressed, and instantly coupled this with the low spirits and +nervous restlessness which had, for some time past, so evidently +retarded her recovery. Lena could make her no answer in words, but +her expression and manner were enough, and Mrs. Rush asked no more, +intending to leave the matter to the judgment of her husband. She +gave no hint of her suspicions to Lena, moreover, passing over the +child's agitation in silence; and when the carriage had returned with +the colonel, and the visitors departed, she set herself to divert +Lena, offering, if she chose, to read the "club papers" Maggie had +brought with her. + +Lena assented, more to divert attention from herself and to turn her +aunt's thoughts from the subject of the mysterious doings of Hannah, +than from any real interest in the compositions; but as Mrs. Rush +read her attention was presently attracted. + +"This is one of Maggie's, I see," said Mrs. Rush, perceiving one in +Maggie's handwriting. "Oh, no," glancing at the commencement and +seeing that it was by no means in Maggie's style, "it is another +effusion of Frankie's; she has only written it out from his +dictation. I wonder if it will be as droll as 'Babylon Babylon.'" + +"THE MAN THAT BROKE GOOD FRIDAY." + +"Once there was a boy, and he never told a lie, and his name wasn't +George Washington either. And I don't think it was anything so great +to tell about that everlasting cherry-tree that everybody's tired +hearing about; and when I come to be the Father of my Country and I +do something bad, I'll just go and tell my papa about it without +waiting for him to go poking round and having to ask me if I did it. +I think it is awfully mean to do a fault and wait till somebody comes +and asks you about it; it is skimpy of telling the truth. And if you +do bad things your fathers don't always claps you in their arms and +say they'd rather you'd do a hundred bad things than tell a lie; +sometimes they punish you, all the same, and you don't always get out +of it that way. + +"Well, this boy didn't think so much of himself because he didn't +tell lies; he was used to not telling them, and he didn't get himself +put into the history books about it and make himself chestnuts. He +was very polite to girls, too, and always got up and gave them a +chair and gave them the best of everything, just like our Hal. Hal's +awfully generous, and Fred is, too; only Fred teases, and the boys +call Hal 'Troubadour.' + +"Well, there was a man lived by this boy's house, and he was a real +bad man, and it came Good Friday, and this man didn't go to church or +anything; but he bought a flag--a great big, new one, and he put it +right up on his flag-staff with his own hands. He just must have been +glad that God was dead. The good boy saw it, and he knew it wasn't +any use to tell that man he was breaking Good Friday, 'cause he would +just say 'mind your own business,' so the boy ran to the President +and told him about it, and the President came down out of his Capitol +and ran with the truth-telling boy and came to the man and said, 'Hi, +there, you! Pull down that flag this minute on Good Friday! And the +man was awfully frightened 'cause he knew the President has such lots +of soldiers and policemen, and he was afraid he'd set them on him; +so he pulled down the flag mighty quick. But he was so mad he made +faces at the President; but the President didn't care a bit. +Presidents grow used to disagreeable things, and it is worse having +people not vote for you than it is to be made faces at. He had a lot +of laws to make that day and he thought he'd make a new one about +putting up flags on Good Friday; so he hurried home to his Capitol; +but when he came there, he said to his wife: + +"'My dear, I'm afraid that man might do something horrid to that +truth-telling boy--I know just by the look of him he don't like +people who tell the truth; so you run and peep round the corner and +watch!' + +"And the President's wife said, 'Yes, your Presidency, I will'; and +she put on her best frock and her crown, so as to make the man think +she was very grand, so he'd be respectful to her, and she kissed the +President for good-by and went and peeped around the corner. + +"Well, you see after the President went away that man had grown +madder and madder, but he didn't dare to put the flag up again, only +he didn't like it 'cause somebody meddled with his business; +generally people don't like it if you meddle with their business; and +he stamped his feet and clenched his hands, and just screamed, he was +so mad. It sometimes makes you feel a little better to scream if +you're mad, only your fathers and mothers don't like it, but this +man was so old and grown up his father and mother had had to die long +ago; but they saw him out of heaven and were mad at him. Well, all of +a sudden he said, 'I guess it was that boy who never tells lies; he +looked real mad when he saw that flag, and I'll pay him off, oh, +won't I though!' Then he cut off a great big piece of his flag-staff; +he forgot the flag wouldn't go so high if he did it, and he was going +to run at that boy who didn't tell lies; but the boy wasn't going to +wait for him to ask, and he went up to him and said: + +"'Hi, there, you! I told the President about you; I don't want you to +ask me any kestions, 'cause always I speak the truth without waiting +for people to ask me, and I did it, so, there now!' + +"Then the bad man struck at the boy with the piece of the flag-staff +in his hand; but the boy was too quick for him, and he couldn't reach +him, and the President's wife screamed right out and ran for her +husband's soldiers. She would have gone to help the boy herself; but +she had to be very proud and stiff of herself because she was the +President's wife. + +"When the President heard her scream he knew it was because that man +was trying to do something to the boy; so he looked in his laws +dictionary to find what to do to him; but the man that made the +dictionary never thought that any one would be so bad as to break +Good Friday, so there was nothing about it. So he made a new law +himself very quick and told the soldiers what to do, and they came; +and the President's wife was hollering like anything and nervous; +but the boy was just laughing and jumping around the man, saying, +'Catch me; why don't you catch me, old Good Friday breaker.' + +"Well, this boy had a fairy of his own--this is partly a fairy tale +and partly a Bible story, 'cause it is about Good Friday; and I don't +know if it's very pious to mix up the two, but I have to end up the +story--and this fairy came to help him, and she opened a hole in the +ground and let the man fall right through to Africa, where the +cannibals got him and eat him up; but he was so bad he disagreed with +them, so even after he was killed he was a nuisance. Then the +President gave the boy a beautiful present, and told him he'd vote +for him to be President when he grew up, and he'd give him a whole +regiment of soldiers for his own. + +"So this is what you get for always telling the truth, and for not +being afraid to tell when you've done a bad thing. Anybody is an +awful old meaner to hide it when he's done it, and you ought to tell +right out and not be sneaky. A boy who hides what he's done _is_ +a sneak, I don't care. The End." + +There were some parts of this fanciful tale which made Lena wince, as +she saw how much clearer an idea of right and wrong, truth and +justice, had this little boy of seven than had her own brother of +more than twice his age. If Percy could but think that it was "mean +and sneaky" to endeavor to hide a fault, could but see how much +nobler and more manly it was to make confession, and, so far as +possible, reparation. True, the money had been repaid to Seabrooke; +but through what a source had it come to him; and there were so many +other things to confess, things which had led to this very trouble +with Seabrooke. The rambling, half-incoherent nonsense written, or +rather, dictated by the little brother of her young friends made her +feel more than ever the shame and meanness of Percy's conduct, and +she could not laugh at Frankie's contribution to the "Cheeryble +Sisters," as her aunt did. + +And Frankie practised that which he preached, as Lena very well knew. +Mischievous and heedless, almost to recklessness, he was not only +always ready to confess his wrong-doing when questioned, but when +conscious of his fault, did not wait for his parents to "go poking +about to find him out," but would go straightway and accuse himself. +Like all the Bradford children, strictly truthful and upright, he +scorned concealment or evasion, and accepted the consequences of his +naughtiness without attempt at either. But well could Lena remember +how in the nursery days from which she and Percy had but so recently +escaped, he would hide, by every possible device, his own misdoings, +even to the very verge of suffering others to be blamed for them. +Hannah would even then strive to shield him from detection and +punishment at his parents' hands, thus fostering his weakness and +moral cowardice. With over-severity on the one hand, and +over-indulgence on the other, what wonder was it that Percy's faults +had grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength? + +It cannot be said that Lena put all this into words, even to herself: +but such thoughts were there, or those very much like them. She was +given to reasoning and pondering over things in the recesses of her +own mind, and she was uncommonly clear-sighted for a girl of her age. +Probably the child was not the happier for that. + +To Maggie and Bessie, in their joyous lives, full of the tenderness +and confidence and sympathy which existed between them and their +parents, such ideas would never have come, even while they wondered +at and pitied the utter lack in Lena's existence of all that made the +happiness of theirs. + +And another trouble, perhaps now the greatest which weighed upon +Lena's mind, was the knowledge that their faithful old nurse had +sacrificed her long-cherished gold, with its particular purpose, to +the rescue of Percy from his dilemma. For, after hearing Miss +Trevor's story, Lena could not--did not doubt that this was so. + +And Aunt May, having also heard the tale, would tell Uncle Horace; +there was no doubt of that. Lena was not at all relieved by the fact +that her aunt asked no questions, never once alluded to the subject. +She suspected something wrong, and was only waiting for an +opportunity to submit it to the colonel. Lena did not imagine, of +course, that her aunt blamed her in any way in the matter; there was +no reason that she should do so, and in one respect it would be +almost a relief to have her aunt and uncle know all. But for Percy's +sake she still shrank from that. + +But Hannah, and Hannah's cherished money! Dear, faithful old Hannah! +Oh, the shame, the shame of it! + +Mrs. Rush, with her suspicions already tending Percy-wise in +connection with Lena's late low spirits, and noting how devoid of +interest she seemed to be in the papers she was reading for her +benefit, had those suspicions more than ever confirmed since she +observed the effect Miss Trevor's revelation had had upon her; she +felt assured now that Percy had fallen into some trouble from which +his sister and his old nurse had endeavored to extricate him. And it +must be indeed a serious trouble which made needful such secrecy, +such mysterious, underhand doings. + +Suddenly Mrs. Rush saw Lena's countenance change; a look of relief +passed over it, and her head was lifted and her eye brightened again. +For it had flashed upon the child that there was a way out of a part +of the difficulty, at least. That second hundred dollars could be +taken to return to Hannah that which she had sacrificed. Percy had +written that he would bring it to her when she came home for the +Easter holidays; she would somehow contrive to have it turned into +gold and give it back to the old woman, telling her at the same time +that she and Percy had discovered her generosity, and loved her all +the more for her faithful tenderness. + +Ah! she said to herself, how stupid she had been not to see this at +once, and how strange that Percy had not thought of doing it when he +must at least have suspected the truth after applying to Hannah. + +Mrs. Rush took up the second paper and glanced over it, then laughed. + +"This is Lily's," she said. "Spelling does not seem to be her strong +point." + +"No," answered Lena, "she says she never can spell, and I do not +think she tries very hard. Miss Ashton takes a great deal of trouble +with her, too; but Lily just laughs at her own spelling and does not +seem to think that it matters very much. But she is so nice," she +added, apologetically, "and we all like her so much." + +"Yes," answered Mrs. Rush, "Lily is a dear child, and so truly noble +and upright and conscientious, in spite of her sometimes careless way +of speaking of right and wrong. Shall I read this, Lena; do you care +to hear it?" For she had noticed that Lena appeared _distraite_ +during the reading of Frankie's composition. + +"Oh, yes, if you please, Aunt Marian," answered Lena, more cheerfully +than she had spoken before. "Lily's compositions are always rather +droll, even if they are not very correct." + +"But does Miss Ashton leave it to Lily's own choice to say whether +she will write compositions or no?" asked Mrs. Rush. + +"Oh, no," answered Lena, "she has to write them regularly, as the +rest of us do; but she has never before been willing to have one read +in the club, and even this she will not allow to go in our book." + +"'Good Resolutions' is the title of the piece," said Mrs. Rush, +beginning to read from the paper in her hand. + +"Good resolutions are capitle things if you keep them, but generally +they are made to be broken; at least I am afraid mine are. I think +I've made about a thousand in my life, and about nine hundred and +ninety-seven have been broken. But there is one good resolution I +made I have never broken and never shall, and that is, forever and +ever and ever to hate Oliver Cromwell. I shall always kepe that. I +know of lots of bad men, but I think he was the worst I ever knew. He +made believe he was very pious, but he was not at all, he was a +hipokrit and deceiver; and he made believe he had the king killed for +writeousness' sake, and I know he only did it so as to take the head +place himself. I think I can't bear Cromwell more than any one I ever +knew. I just hate him, and it is no use for any one to say he was +doing what he thought was best for his country and he meant well. I +don't believe it, and I hate people who mean well; they are always +tiresome. The poor dear king! I would like to have been there when +they tryed him, and I would have been like Lady Fairfax and would +have called out, 'Oliver Cromwell is a rogue and a traitor,' and not +been afrade of anybody when I wanted to stand up for my king. I love +Lady Fairfax." + +"What a stanch little royalist Lily is and would have been had she +lived in those days," said Mrs. Rush, smiling as she came to a pause. + +"Yes," said Lena, "she always stands up for kings and the rights of +kings." + +"But I am amazed," said Mrs. Rush, "that Lily does not write a better +composition than this. It is really not as good as some which I have +seen written by the younger children of the class, Bessie, Belle and +Amy." + +"No," answered Lena, "and we all think it is because Lily does not +choose to take pains with her compositions. She is so bright and +clever about all her other lessons, history, geography, French, and +everything but composition and spelling; but she only laughs about +her bad report for those two, and does not seem to care at all or to +take any trouble to improve in them. Miss Ashton is sometimes quite +vexed with her, and says it is only carelessness." + +"And even the wish to earn the prize did not spur her on?" asked Mrs. +Rush. + +"Oh, no," answered Lena, "she only said she knew she could never gain +it, and wasn't going to try. I think Maggie persuaded her to write a +paper to be read in the club in the hope that it would make her take +a little pains and try to improve." + +"But it hardly seems to have answered the purpose," said Mrs. Rush. +"But" she added, as she took up again Lily's paper, which she had +laid upon the table, "she is a dear child, and as you say, very +bright. Do you wish to hear more of this, dear; or are you tired?" + +"Oh, yes, please," answered Lena, who was now so relieved by the +remembrance that the debt to Hannah could be paid as soon as her +brother returned, that she felt as if some heavy weight had been +lifted from her, and looked, spoke, and acted like a different child +from the one of a few moments since; "if you please, Aunt Marian. +Lily goes on for some time in such a nonsensical way and then comes +out with something so clever and droll that we cannot help laughing. +I would like to hear the rest of it; and there is Bessie's piece, +too." + +But before Mrs. Rush had time to commence once more the reading of +Lily's composition, the colonel sent up a message to ask his wife to +come to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A TRUST. + + +The puzzled colonel, even more puzzled than were his wife and Lena, +since he had not all the clews to guide him which they had received, +and, moreover, rather astonished that the former had not come to +greet him, according to her usual custom, when he entered the house +after an absence of some hours, had his tale to tell and his riddle +to solve. + +"Where have you been? Why did you not come before? Is Lena worse?" +were questions he propounded in a breath, not waiting for an answer +to the first till he had asked all three. + +No, Lena was not worse, Mrs. Rush said, but she had been startled and +worried, and she had stayed with her and tried to divert her until +she should be more comfortable. And then she told the story of Miss +Trevor's visit, of her encounter with Hannah, and the latter's +evident dismay and displeasure at seeing her there; of how the old +lady had betrayed that which the old nurse had plainly intended +should be kept a profound secret; of how there could be no doubt that +Lena had had the key to these revelations, and of how she had been +much distressed and agitated by them, but had tried to conceal this +and had told her nothing. + +The colonel had his say also, and told how he had met Miss Trevor at +the door with Maggie and Bessie when they came down to take the +carriage; of how she had, in her own queer, incoherent way, told him +some story of which he could make nothing clear save that Hannah had, +through her, sent a large sum of money to Percy; and how he, coupling +one thing with another, had arrived at the conclusion that Percy had +fallen into trouble through his own fault, and so had not dared to +apply for help to those upon whom he had a legitimate right to call, +but had confided in Hannah, and begged and received aid from her. +There could be no doubt of this, both the colonel and his wife +agreed; nor that the depression and anxiety shown by Lena some time +since was to be referred to the same cause, whatever that might be. + +But as Percy would be home for the Easter vacation in a couple of +days, the colonel said he would not question Lena or disturb her +further at present. If Percy were in fault and had been guilty of any +wrong-doing, he must be made to confess; if not, it would still be +expedient that it should be known why a sum of money, so large for +such a boy, should have been conveyed to him by a servant in such a +surreptitious manner. If no information on the matter could be +obtained from either Lena, Percy or Hannah, he should feel it only +right to write to Percy's father and place it in his hands; and in +any case Hannah must be repaid. The story of the exchange of the gold +for Miss Trevor's bank-notes left little doubt in the mind of either +Colonel or Mrs. Rush that the sum consecrated to the monument and +epitaph which were to commemorate the virtues of the faithful old +woman, had been sacrificed to Percy's needs; and now the colonel +remembered how she had asked him the value of British gold in +American paper. + +So nothing more was said till Percy should come, and Lena, seeing +that her uncle and aunt were just as usual, and that they plied her +with no questions, took heart of grace, and consoled herself with the +reflection that she had alarmed herself unnecessarily, and that they +were not going to "make a fuss" over Miss Trevor's revelations. + +Meanwhile Percy had kept his promise to his sister, namely, that he +would henceforth avoid Lewis Flagg; at least, he had done so as far +as he was able, for it is easier to take up with bad company than it +is to shake it off; that is, if the desire to do so is not mutual, +and the bad company has no mind to be discarded. And this was the +case with Lewis. He had reasons of his own for wishing to keep his +influence over Percy, and he did not intend that he should escape it +if it were possible to maintain it. + +So, in spite of Percy's avoidance of him, which became so marked that +the other boys noticed it, he persisted in seeking his company at all +times and in all places. He was not by any means blind to Percy's +endeavors to avoid him, but chose to ignore them and to be constantly +hail-fellow-well-met with him as he had been before. + +But, fortunately for Percy, Seabrooke had his eye on both. While +seeing all the weakness and instability of the younger boy's +character, he saw also much that was lovable and good; and moreover, +a kindly feeling towards him had been aroused through gratitude to +his friends and relations. + +He had heard through his sister Gladys and his father, not only of +the kindness shown to the little girl, but also of the generous +donation made by Colonel Rush to the struggling church of which his +father was rector; and he knew through Percy of the efforts of Lena +and her young friends to gain the scholarship for Gladys. In spite of +his rather stubborn pride which had led him so haughtily to answer +Percy that his sister was not an object of charity, he could not but +feel grateful to the sweet little strangers who were striving to earn +such a benefit for his own sister; and for the sake of Percy's +relatives as well as for that of the boy himself, he had resolved to +keep an eye upon him during the few remaining days of the term and to +endeavor to keep him from going astray again. And Percy, who had been +pretty thoroughly frightened, and also truly ashamed of the +disgraceful scrape into which he had fallen, was far more amenable +than usual to rules and regulations, and was not without gratitude to +Seabrooke for having dealt so leniently with him. + +But even now, as Harley Seabrooke could plainly see, Percy had no +proper sense of the gravity of his late offence; the dread of Dr. +Leacraft's displeasure and of the exposure to his relatives being +what chiefly concerned him. + +Percy had told Seabrooke whence he had received the money with which +he had been enabled to repay him, and had been rather troubled by his +reluctance to accept it through the means of a girl who was totally +innocent of any share of blame. Careless as he was, Percy could not +but feel that it cast a reflection upon him. Hence he had been glad +when that second remittance arrived in such a mysterious manner to +let Harley know of it, and to declare that he should repay his +sister at once on his return to his uncle's house at the approaching +Easter holidays. + +But Seabrooke had little faith in Percy's strength of purpose in case +any new temptation presented itself in the meantime; that is, any +temptation to spend the money in any other way. + +"Don't you think it is what I ought to do?" asked Percy, when he had +told Seabrooke of his intentions, and observed, as he could not help +doing, that the other seemed a little doubtful. + +"Certainly, I think it is what you ought to do; it is the only thing +you _can_ do if you have any sense of right and honor," answered +Seabrooke, looking at him steadily. + +"But you think I won't," said Percy, awakening to a sense that +Seabrooke had no confidence in his good resolutions. + +"I think you are open to temptation, Neville, more than any one I +know," answered his uncompromising mentor; and Percy could not deny +that there was too much truth in the assertion. He took it in good +part, however, although he made no answer beyond what was conveyed by +a rather sheepish look; and presently Seabrooke said: + +"Does any one know that you have received this money, Neville?" + +He would not ask the direct question which was in his mind, namely, +whether Lewis Flagg knew of it. + +"Oh, yes, all the fellows know of it," answered Percy; "they were all +there when I opened that odd-looking parcel. I thought it was a +hoax--wrapped up in paper after paper that way--and I was not going +to open the hair-pin box when it came out at last; but Raymond +Stewart cut the string and there was the hundred-dollar note. A nice +thing it would have been if I had tossed it in the fire, as I had a +mind to do half-a-dozen times while I was unrolling those papers. +Oh, yes; they all saw it. Flagg says I am the luckiest fellow he +knows." + +"Yes," thought Seabrooke, "and he'll persuade you to make way with it +before it goes into your sister's hands, if I know him aright. I say, +Percy," aloud, "why don't you put that money into Mr. Merton's hands +till you are going home?" + +"Why?" asked Percy, rather indignantly. "You don't suppose any one is +going to steal it, do you?" + +"Of course not," answered Seabrooke, who really had no such thought, +and only feared that Percy himself might be tempted to do something +foolish--in his situation something almost dishonorable Seabrooke +thought it would be. It was due to Percy's sister that this sum +should be employed to repay her; it would be an absolute wrong to +employ it for anything else. "Only," he added, with a little +hesitation, "I thought you might find it a sort of a safeguard to +have it in the hands of some one else." + +"A safeguard against myself, eh?" said Percy, laughing +good-naturedly, and not at all offended, as Seabrooke feared he might +be. "All right, if you are unhappy about it take care of it +yourself." + +And drawing his purse from his pocket he opened it, took from it the +hundred dollar note, and thrust the latter into Seabrooke's hand. + +"I suppose it's wisest," he said; "but I _know_ I shouldn't +spend it. However, if it gives you any satisfaction it is as well in +your pocket as mine." + +"It will not lodge in my pocket," said Seabrooke; "how can you carry +such a sum of money in such an insecure place, Neville? Playing +rough-and-tumble games, too, when any minute it is likely to fall out +of your pocket. I shall lock it up, I can tell you; and what if you +tell me not to return it to you till we are breaking up?" + +"All right," said Percy again. "I request you not to give it back to +me until the day we leave." + +"I promise," said Seabrooke. "Remember now; I shall keep my word and +take you at yours, and _will_ not return this money to you until +Thursday morning of next week." + +"No, don't," said Percy, laughing. "I give you full leave to refuse +to return it to me till then." + +"Self-confident, careless fellow!" said Seabrooke to himself as the +other turned away in a series of somersaults down the slope on the +edge of which they had been standing. "He is so sure of himself; and +yet, I know, at the very first temptation he would forget all about +his debt to his sister and make way with that money. But I can't help +having a liking for him, and for the sake of that sister who has been +so nice to Gladys I shall do what I can to keep him straight." + +"I say, Neville," said Raymond Stewart, meeting Percy not half an +hour afterward, "aren't you going to stand treat out of that fortune +of yours?" + +"No," answered Percy, "not this time. I have something else to do +with that fortune of mine." + +"Turned stingy all of a sudden, eh?" said Raymond, with the +disagreeable sneer which was almost habitual with him; and Percy, in +spite of his boasting self-confidence, felt glad that his money was +in other keeping than his own. He knew perfectly well that he would +not have stood proof against the persuasions and sneers, perhaps even +threats, which might be brought into use to induce him to part with +at least a portion of it. Seabrooke had foreseen just some such +state of affairs when he heard that the other boys all knew of +Percy's fortune, and hence the precautions he had taken. He would +have felt that they were fully justified had he overheard the present +conversation. + +Further pressure, not only from Raymond Stewart, but from several of +the other boys was brought to bear upon Percy: but, as he laughingly +declared, he had not the money in his hands, and so could not spend +it. + +"Where is it, then?" "What have you done with it?" "Have you sent it +home?" asked one and another; but Percy still refused to tell. + +Only Lewis Flagg did not beset him, did not ask any questions or seem +to take any interest in the matter; but that would easily be +accounted for by the coolness which had arisen between Percy and +himself during the last few days. But this state of affairs had +really nothing to do with it, for Lewis did not choose to be snubbed +so long as he had any object to gain, and the coolness was all on +Percy's side. + +But Lewis could give a very good guess as to the whereabouts of +Percy's money at present, or at least, as to the person in whose +custody it was. + +He had been standing at one of the school-room windows while +Seabrooke and Percy had been talking at the top of the slope, and had +seen the latter take out his pocket-book, take something from it and +hand it to Seabrooke, and he rightly conjectured how matters were, +that Seabrooke had persuaded Percy to give him the money for +safe-keeping. + +And then arose a thought which had made itself felt before, that it +was hard that Percy had been furnished not only with the means to +defray the claim of Seabrooke, and that through no sacrifice or +exertion of his own, but also with a like sum which he was at liberty +to spend as he pleased, while he himself had been obliged to dispose +of his watch in order to obtain the sum which would save him. He felt +quite wronged, and as if some injustice had been done to him, +forgetting or losing sight of all the meanness, underhand dealing and +disobedience of rules which had brought him to his present +predicament. And the doctor would be here tomorrow,--for his son was +out of danger and he was coming back to close the school,--would hear +the account of his misconduct and would report at home, if nothing +worse. A feeling of intense irritation against both Seabrooke and +Percy Neville took possession of him, a feeling as unreasonable as it +was spiteful; and he said to himself that he would find means to be +revenged on both, especially on Seabrooke, whom he chose to look upon +as the offender instead of the offended, the injurer instead of the +injured. + +Then another idea took possession of him, and one worthy of his own +mean spirit, namely, that Seabrooke had been demanding and Percy +giving a further prize for the silence of the former in the matter of +the burnt money; and he immediately formed in his own mind a plan by +which he might be revenged upon Seabrooke. He called it to himself, +"playing a jolly good trick;" but Lewis Flagg's "jolly good tricks" +were apt to prove more jolly to himself than to his victims, and they +did occasionally, as we have seen, recoil upon his own head. + +"I say, Percy," said Raymond Stewart, "you hav'n't made over that +hundred dollars to Flagg, have you? We know that he can get out of +you anything that he chooses. Has he, Flagg? Own up now if he has. I +shouldn't wonder." + +"No, I hav'n't," said Percy, exasperated by the assertion that Flagg +could do as he pleased with him. "No, I haven't given it to him, and +he can't make me do as he pleases. No one can." + +At this assumption of his own independence from the facile, +easily-led Percy a shout of derision was raised; and then began a +running fire of schoolboy jeers and jests. The good humor with which +Percy generally took such attacks was apt to disarm his tormentors; +but now, probably because he was conscious that their taunts were so +well-deserved, he resented them and showed some irritability in the +matter. Had he not felt assured that Seabrooke would abide by his +word and insist upon keeping possession of the money until the day of +the breaking up of school, there is little doubt that he would have +allowed himself to be urged into demanding it back and spending at +least some portion of it for the entertainment of his school-fellows. + +"See here," said one of the boys, apropos of nothing it seemed, "see +here, do you know Seabrooke is going to dine with the dons up at Mr. +Fanshawe's to-night?" + +"Then who's going to be sentinel at evening study?" asked Raymond +Stewart. + +"Mr. Merton," answered the other. + +"Isn't he invited?" asked Raymond. + +"Yes, but he wants Seabrooke to go because he says he has but little +pleasure; so he told him he would decline and take the evening study, +so that he might go to the dinner. Here he comes now. Hallo! +Seabrooke, what a big-bug you're getting to be! Going out to dine +with the dons and so forth." + +Seabrooke passed on with a cold, indifferent smile just moving the +corners of his mouth. He had little of the spirit of good comradeship +and was not accustomed to meet any joke or nonsense from his +companions in a responsive manner; so it was little wonder that he +was not very popular with the other boys. + +But as he passed Percy, who stood leaning with his back against a +tree, rather discontentedly kicking the toe of his shoe into the +ground, he saw that the boy was vexed about something, and paused to +speak to him. + +"Hallo, Neville," he said; "what is the matter? You look as if the +world were not wagging your way just now." + +"Nothing," answered Percy, half-sulkily, "only I wish I hadn't given +you that money. The fellows think I'm awfully mean." + +"So soon!" said Seabrooke to himself; then replied aloud, "Why, +because you wish to pay a just debt?" + +"No, they don't know about that," said Percy, "only they think I +ought to stand treat." + +"I shall keep my word to you," said Seabrooke, significantly, and +walked on. + +"You wouldn't like it yourself," answered Percy; but Seabrooke only +shrugged his shoulders and gave no symptom of yielding to his +unspoken desire. + +"Weak, unstable fellow!" he said to himself. "He would have asked me +for that money if he had thought there was the slightest chance I +would give it to him, and would have spent a part of it rather than +have those fellows chaff and run him. After his sister's sacrifice, +too. Pah!" + +He had never been a boy who was subject to temptations of this +nature, or who cared one iota for the opinion of others, especially +if he believed himself to be in the right; and he had no patience +with or pity for weakness of character or purpose. To him there was +something utterly contemptible in Percy's indulging in the least +thought of withdrawing from his resolution of using the sum he had +confided to his keeping to repay his debt to his sister, and he +wasted no sympathy upon him or his fancied difficulties. + +Seabrooke went to dine with "the dons," caring not so much for the +social pleasure as for the honor conferred upon him by the +invitation; Mr. Merton taking, as had been arranged, his place in the +schoolroom during evening study. + +The tutor cast his eye around the line of heads and missed one. + +"Where is Lewis Flagg?" he asked. + +"I don't know, sir," answered one of the boys. "I saw him about ten +minutes ago." + +Scarcely had he spoken when the delinquent entered the room and +hastened to his seat. + +"Late, Lewis," said Mr. Merton, placing a tardy mark against his +name. + +"I did not hear the bell, sir," answered Lewis, telling his falsehood +with coolness, although his manner was somewhat flurried and nervous. + +Percy was running across the play-ground the next morning when he +came full against Seabrooke, who was just rounding the corner of an +evergreen hedge. He would have been thrown off his balance by the +shock had not Seabrooke caught him; but the next instant he shook him +off, while he regarded him with a look of the most scornful contempt. + +"Hallo!" said Percy, not observing this at first, "that was a +concussion between opposing forces. I beg your pardon. I should have +been down, too, but for you" + +"You're pretty well _down_, I should say," replied Seabrooke, +sneeringly. "You're a nice fellow to call yourself a gentleman, +are'n't you?" + +Percy opened his eyes in unfeigned astonishment. The grave, studious, +young pupil-teacher was no favorite with the other boys, who thought +him priggish and rather arbitrary; but at least he was always +courteous in his dealings with them, and, indeed, rather prided +himself upon his manners. + +"Well, that's one way to take it," said the younger boy, resentfully, +his regrets taking flight at once as they met with this apparently +ungracious reception. "Accidents will happen, and, after all, it was +just as much your fault as mine." + +"I would not try to appear innocent. It will hardly serve your turn +under the circumstances," said Seabrooke, still with the same +disagreeable tone and manner. "But let me tell you, Mr. Neville, that +I have a great mind to report you for trespassing in my quarters. You +may think you have the right to demand your own if you choose to +break a compact made for your own good, but you have no right to be +guilty of the liberty and meanness of ransacking another man's +belongings in search of it." + +"I don't know what you are talking about. What do you mean?" +exclaimed the astonished Percy, really for the moment forgetting that +Seabrooke had anything belonging to him in his keeping. + +But Seabrooke only answered, as he turned away, "Such an assumption +of innocence is quite thrown away, I repeat, sir and the next time +you meddle with my things or places, you shall suffer for it, I +assure you." + +But Percy seized him by the arm. + +"You shall not leave me this way," he said. "What do you mean? +Explain yourself. Who touched your things?" + +"It shows what you are," answered Seabrooke, continuing his +reproaches, instead of giving the straightforward answer which he +considered unnecessary, "that you have not the decent manliness to +demand that which rightfully belonged to you because you were ashamed +of your own folly and weakness, but must go and ransack in my +quarters to find your money. Let me go; I wish nothing more to do +with you." + +Light broke upon the bewildered Percy. Seabrooke was accusing him of +searching for and taking the money he had confided to his care, but +which he, Percy, certainly had no right to recover by such means. + +"You say I took back my money without asking you for it, and hunted +it out from your places?" he asked, incredulously, but fiercely. + +"I do," answered Seabrooke, "and I've nothing more to say to you now +or hereafter." + +Percy contradicted him flatly, and in language which left no doubt as +to his opinion of his veracity, and very hard words were +interchanged. Both lost their temper, and Seabrooke his dignity--poor +Percy had not much of the latter quality to lose--and the quarrel +presently attracted the attention, not only of the other boys, but of +one or two of the masters who happened to be within hearing. + +Naturally this called forth inquiry, and it soon became known that +Percy had entrusted to Seabrooke's keeping a large sum of money, lest +he should himself be tempted to spend any portion of it, as it was to +be reserved for a special purpose; that Seabrooke before going to the +dinner on the previous evening had put it, as he supposed, in a +secure place, and that this morning the money was gone, while he had +discovered slight but unmistakable evidence that his quarters had +been ransacked in search of it. He had, perhaps, not unnaturally, at +once arrived at the conclusion that Percy himself had searched for +and taken it, being determined to have it, and yet ashamed to demand +its return. It was a grave accusation, and one which Percy denied in +the most emphatic and indignant manner which convinced nearly every +one who heard him of his innocence. + +Seabrooke was not among these. He maintained that no one but Percy +knew that he had taken the money in charge; no one but Percy had any +object in finding it, and he appeared and professed himself perfectly +outraged that any one "should have dared" to open his trunk, bureau +and so forth. There could be no question of actual theft, since the +money was Percy's own, to dispose of as he pleased, but the liberty +was a great one, and it was a very mean way of regaining possession +even of his own property, had he been guilty of it. + +But Percy was popular, Seabrooke was not; and even the masters were +inclined to believe that the latter must have been careless and +forgetful and mislaid the money, while believing he had put it in the +place he indicated, and presently--no one knew exactly how it started +or could trace the rumor to its source--presently it began to be +bruited about among the boys that Seabrooke was keeping it for his +own use and had never intended to return it to Percy, and was now +making him his scape-goat. + +But Percy, even in the midst of his own wrath and indignation, +generously combated this; he inclined to the first supposition that +Seabrooke had mislaid or lost the note, and he even maintained that +it would shortly be found. + +But this did not make Seabrooke any more lenient in his judgment. He +said little, but that little expressed the most dogged and obstinate +belief in Percy's weakness of purpose, and in his search for and +abstraction of his own property. + +The situation was one hard to deal with, and Mr. Merton and the other +tutors resolved to let the matter rest until the return of Dr. +Leacraft, who was expected that very evening. + +School closed the next day, and the various actors in this little +drama were to scatter to their respective homes for the Easter +holidays. + +"What a miserable report we have to make to the doctor on his +return!" said Mr. Merton. "When he has been through so much, too, and +is just feeling a little relief from his anxiety. He will find that +his boys--the majority at least--have not had much consideration for +him in his trouble." + +What would he have said had he known how much worse the record might +have been--had all been revealed, had Seabrooke disclosed the +drugging, the theft of his letter to his father, and the destruction, +unintentional though it was, of the money? + +Seabrooke went about the business of the day with all his accustomed +regularity and precision, but with a sort of defiant and +I-am-going-to-stick-to-it air about him which in itself incited the +other boys to covert thrusts and innuendoes tending to throw distrust +upon his version of the story and to make known their thorough +sympathy with Percy, not only for his loss, but also for the +aspersions cast upon him by the young pupil-teacher. Seabrooke +professed, and perhaps with truth, not to care particularly for +popularity or for what others said about him; but he found this hard +to bear, more especially as he fully believed Percy to be guilty of +the meanness he had ascribed to him. + +But for some unknown reason Lewis Flagg, who was usually the +ringleader in all such little amenities, held his peace and had +nothing to say. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +DISCOVERY. + + +If Dr. Leacraft expected to be received with much enthusiasm on his +return that evening he was destined to disappointment. The boys +cheered him on his arrival, it is true, and came about him with +inquiries for his injured son and congratulations on his partial +recovery; but there was a certain restraint in the manner of the +majority which to his experienced eye and ear told that all things +had not gone quite well. + +And that it was something more than the by-gone offence of the +expedition to Rice's was evident. Only one-half of the boys were +implicated in that affair; they had already been punished by the +restrictions which had been placed upon them, and were to be further +disgraced by the public reprimand which he intended to give them on +the dismissal of the school; and these culprits were probably +dreading this or some other severe punishment which would be meted +out to them by the report of their misconduct which would be sent +home. But there was something here beyond all this; the boys were +looking askance at one another, and as if there were some new +revelation to be made. + +Mr. Merton would have spared the doctor the recital of any further +disturbance until the morning; but the principal, having observed all +this, would not be put off; the time was short, and if the matter +were a serious one which required investigation, he must have +knowledge of it at once. + +Serious, indeed, the doctor thought it when he heard the tale: the +disappearance of a hundred-dollar note confided by one boy to +another, and the question as to who was responsible for it. + +But was it certain that this responsibility lay solely between these +two boys? + +This was an idea which now presented itself to the minds of the two +gentlemen, as it had before this to the minds of the pupils. It had +been started by Raymond Stewart, who had said: + +"How do we know that some one else has not been meddling with that +money? I do not see that it follows no one could touch it but +Seabrooke or Percy." + +"That would say that there was a thief among us," said another boy, +indignantly. + +"That's about it," answered Raymond. + +The boys had looked from one to another almost in dismay. Whatever +their faults and shortcomings--and some of these had been grave +enough--such an idea, such an implication as this had never before +presented itself to them--that there was a thief in their midst, that +one of their number had been guilty of flagrant dishonesty, of an +absolute theft, and that of a large sum. + +"That's a nice thing for you to say," broke forth Malcolm Ainslie. +"Whom do you accuse?" + +"I accuse no one," answered Raymond. "I only said such a thing might +be." + +But Percy and Seabrooke had both scouted the idea; no one, they both +said, knew that the former had intrusted his money to Seabrooke; no +one had been present at the time, and both declared that they had +spoken of it to no one. + +But the suspicion aroused by Raymond was not set at rest by this, and +an uncomfortable atmosphere had reigned ever since, and, as has been +seen, was remarked by Dr. Leacraft as soon as he returned home. + +Thursday morning, and the closing day arrived, and there was a +general feeling of shame and annoyance that such a cloud should be +resting upon the school as its members separated even for a few days. +It seemed now as if nothing could "come out," as the boys said, there +was so little time for any investigation, for the pupils, none of +whom lived at more than a few hours distance from Sylvandale, were to +leave by the afternoon trains. + +The morning lessons were to continue as usual, but those for the +after part of the day were to be dispensed with. + +The matron did the boys' packing, so that there were no especial +calls upon their time before leaving. + +"Henderson, are you ill?" asked Dr. Leacraft, coming into the junior +class-room about eleven o'clock, and noticing that Charlie Henderson, +the youngest boy in the school and a pattern scholar, was deathly +pale, and supporting his head upon his hand. The boy was subject to +frightful headaches, which for the time unfitted him for all study or +recitation; and Seabrooke, who was hearing the lesson in progress, +had excused him from taking any part in it. These headaches were of +few hours duration; but the boy needed absolute rest and quiet to +enable him to conquer them. + +As he lifted his heavy, suffering eyes to the doctor's face, +Seabrooke answered for him. + +"Yes, sir, he has one of his headaches, and is afraid he will not be +able to go this afternoon. I have excused him from recitation, and +was going to ask if he may go to his room. He is not fit to be here." + +"Certainly. Go at once, my child," said the doctor, laying his hand +kindly on the boy's throbbing head. "You must have a sleep, and ease +this poor head before afternoon. You will feel better by train time." + +Charlie rose with a murmured word of thanks, every step and movement +adding a fresh pang to his pain, and went slowly from the room and up +to the dormitory devoted to the younger boys. + +But there seemed small prospect of quiet here. The matron and three +housemaids were in the room, half a dozen trunks were standing here +and there, bureau drawers and closets were standing open, and a +general appearance of disorder attendant upon the packing for +half-a-dozen boys reigned throughout the apartment. + +Charlie gave a little groan of despair as he stood at the open door +and looked in. + +"Oh, Master Henderson, my dear!" ejaculated the matron, as she caught +sight of the pale, suffering young face, "you've never gone and got +one of your headaches to-day of all days. Such a hubbub as there is +here. You can't come in, my dear; you'll never get rest for your poor +head. Come to the other dormitory; we're all done there, and it's as +quiet as a nunnery, and one can get to sleep, and sleep you must have +if you are going home this afternoon. Come now; you have five hours +to get rid of that good-for-nothing headache." + +And the voluble but kind-hearted woman led the way to the dormitory +of the older boys, where all was quiet and in order, and installed +her patient on Percy Neville's bed, covered him, gave him the +medicine prescribed for his relief, and having made him as +comfortable as circumstances would permit, left him to the coveted +rest and quiet in the half-darkened room. + +The healing sleep was not long in coming, and for three hours or more +Charlie lay motionless and lost to all around him, Mrs. Moffat coming +once or twice to look in upon him, and depart with a satisfied nod of +her head, confident that he would wake sufficiently restored to +undertake the journey home at the appointed hour. + +It was with a grave face that the doctor rose at the close of the +morning lessons to dismiss his charge for the Easter holidays. His +customary leave-taking was one simply of good-will and kind wishes +for the enjoyment of his pupils, and for their return at the +commencement of another term; but this time there was much to be said +that was not so agreeable. To the younger boys he addressed only a +few commendatory words, praising them for their fair progress and +general good conduct, and wishing them a very pleasant holiday. + +To those of the senior department he then turned with stern looks and +tones, saying he had thought it but right to inform their parents and +guardians of their misconduct during his absence. He did not intend +to leave punishment entirely to them, however, but on the return of +the boys to school, further restrictions would be placed upon their +liberty, and many of their past privileges would be taken from them +for the remainder of the school year. He spoke severely, not only of +the want of principle shown by the culprits, but alluded also to the +lack of feeling they had shown in so defying his express wishes and +orders at a time of such distress and anxiety to himself, although he +did not dwell much upon this. But to those among them who had any +sense of honor left, there was an added shame when this was presented +anew to them, and as Percy afterwards said, he did "feel uncommonly +mean and sneaky." + +He must speak of another and still more painful matter, the doctor +continued. A matter so serious that he felt he must allude to it +before they separated. A large sum of money was missing under very +mysterious circumstances; he believed that there was no need to enter +into particulars. He wished and was inclined to think that some +forgetfulness and carelessness lay at the bottom of this. Here +Seabrooke's hand, which lay upon his desk, clenched itself, and a +dark scowl passed over his face, while Percy glanced over at him +with suspicion and resentment written on every feature, and a battery +of eyes turned in his direction, not one among them with friendly +look for himself. + +But the doctor said there might be even a worse interpretation put +upon the disappearance of the money, an interpretation he was both to +entertain, but which must occur to all, namely, that some one had +succumbed to temptation, and had appropriated the missing sum, which +one of their number had been so positive he left in a safe place. +Was it possible that there was one among the circle who would do such +a thing? If so, let him make confession and restitution before he +left to-day, and although he could not be suffered to return to the +school, he might at least be spared the shame of confronting his +schoolmates after discovery. For he would leave no stone unturned, he +said, emphatically, to unravel the mystery; and if nothing came to +light before to-night, he should at once place the matter in +competent hands for its solution. + +A dead silence fell upon the boys as he concluded, and if they had +been uneasy and inclined to look askance upon one another before, how +was it with them now? So the higher powers shared the suspicions +which, they scarcely knew how, had made themselves felt among them +since yesterday morning. + +What an uncomfortable puzzle it all was! and who was to read the +answer to the riddle? Had Seabrooke lost the money? Had Percy been +guilty of possessing himself of his own property by such +unjustifiable means? Or was one of their number an actual thief? + +In a few more words Dr. Leacraft then dismissed the school, and the +boys were free for discussion of the matter among themselves. + +It was easy for Seabrooke to see, as it had been from the first, in +which direction the current of opinion tended, and not caring to talk +further upon the subject, he withdrew to the shelter of his own +alcove. + +Charlie Henderson, in the solitary dormitory, lay quiet and +undisturbed, until, having nearly slept off his headache, he woke +with the delightful sense of relief and peace which comes after the +cessation of severe pain. He lay still, however, feeling languid, and +waiting till some one should come whom he could ask for the cup of +strong coffee which was always needed to perfect his cure, and +thinking happily of home and the pleasure he anticipated in the +holidays just at hand. + +At last Mrs. Moffat put her head into the room. "Ah, Master +Henderson, my dear," she said, at once appreciating the change in the +situation, "so you're better. That's a dear boy"--as though it were +highly meritorious in Charlie to have allowed himself to feel better. +"Well, now, you must have your cup of coffee to tone you up for your +trip. You lie still, while I see about it. There's lots of time yet, +and I'm not going to send you home faint and miserable to your +mother, and have her say there's nobody at Sylvandale Academy to look +after her head-ache-y boy." + +And she was gone, while Charlie, nothing loth, obeyed orders and lay +almost motionless. + +Suddenly quick footsteps came along the hall, and the door of the +room, which Mrs. Moffat had left ajar, was pushed open and a boy +entered--one of the older boys--and Charlie knew that his presence +here would be questioned, and that he must hasten to explain. + +Who was it? There were boys and boys belonging to that dormitory, and +Charlie felt that he would rather be found there by some than by +others. It was for this reason that he had chosen the bed of the +good-natured, easy-going Percy to rest upon; he would "raise no +fuss," or make him feel himself an intruder. + +It was Lewis Flagg. Certainly he was not the one by whom Charlie +would choose to be faced, and seeing that he was not perceived, he +hesitated whether he should speak and reveal his presence, or pretend +to be still asleep and trust to silence and good fortune to remain +undiscovered. + +But before he had quite made up his mind which course to pursue the +matter was decided for him, and he found that he had no need to +betray himself. + +Lewis was upon business which necessitated haste and secrecy; and +knowing that all the other legitimate occupants of the dormitory were +below stairs, he never gave a thought to the possibility that there +might be some one else there, and believed himself quite alone. His +hurried movements were very mysterious to the young spectator. + +Lewis went to the alcove occupied by Seabrooke, where his trunk, like +that of the other boys, stood packed and closed, but not locked or +strapped lest there should be "some last things to put in." He +stooped over the trunk, lifted the lid, and taking something from his +pocket, thrust it down beneath the contents, hastily closed it again, +and darted from the room. The whole performance took but a moment, +but there was an unmistakable air of guilt and terror about Lewis +which did not fail to make itself apparent even to the inexperienced +eye of Charlie. + +[Illustration: AN UNSUSPECTING WITNESS] + +"I wonder what he was doing. He hates Seabrooke; so he wasn't giving +him a pleasant surprise," said the little boy to himself. "He's a +sneak, and I suspect he was doing something sneaky. I've a great mind +to tell Seabrooke to look in his trunk before he locks it. Perhaps he +has put in something to explode or do some harm to the things in +Seabrook's trunk or to himself." + +Charlie was a nervous child and rather imaginative, and was always +conjuring up possibilities of disaster in his own mind. He did not +make these public; he knew better than to do such a thing in a house +full of schoolboys, but they existed all the same. He did not wish to +"tell tales;" but he had not too much confidence in Lewis Flagg--it +would be hard to find the boy in the school who had, especially among +the younger ones--and he could not bear to think that he might have +planned some scurvy trick on Seabrooke. + +Charlie was a pattern scholar, a boy after Seabrooke's own heart, +because of his sincere efforts to do right; and hence he had found +favor in his eyes, and he had shown many little tokens of partiality +toward the child which had won for him the younger boy's gratitude +and affection. + +He lay waiting for Mrs. Moffat and trying to make up his mind what he +had better do, when Seabrooke himself entered the room and went +directly to his alcove, in his turn unconscious of Charlie's +presence. + +He looked troubled and harassed, as he well might do, and sat down +for a moment, leaning his head upon his hand, and seemingly in deep +thought. + +Should he tell him? Charlie asked himself. + +Presently with a sigh and a despondent shake of the head, to which he +would never have given vent had he known that any one was observing +him, Seabrooke rose, and going to his trunk proceeded to lock it. + +It was too much for Charlie. + +"Seabrooke!" he said, in a low tone, and raising himself from his +pillows. + +Seabrooke looked up, startled at finding that he was not the sole +occupant of the room. + +"Charlie," he exclaimed, "what are you doing here?" Then with a flash +of recollection, "Oh! I suppose they put you here to sleep off your +headache." + +"Yes," answered Charlie, "and--Seabrooke--" + +"Well, what is it?" asked the other, as the boy hesitated. + +"Won't you look in your trunk--carefully--before you lock it?" said +Charlie. + +"Why?" asked Seabrooke, much surprised, and thinking for a moment +that Charlie's headache must have produced something like delirium. + +"Oh, because," said Charlie, thinking how he could best warn +Seabrooke and yet not betray Flagg, "because--there's something in +your trunk." + +"Of course there is," said Seabrooke, "lots of things, I should +say--pretty much all I possess is there." + +And he wondered as he spoke if he should ever bring any of his +possessions back there again, whether, with this cloud, this +suspicion of a possible betrayal of his trust resting upon him, he +should ever return to Sylvandale school. + +"But--" stammered Charlie, "I mean--Seabrooke--somebody put something +there. I--I saw him--but he did not see me here. He's playing you a +trick, I know. Do look." + +Seeing that the boy was quite himself and thoroughly in earnest, +Seabrooke turned to his trunk and began taking the clothes out, +Charlie sitting up and watching him anxiously, and wondering what +would be discovered. + +"It's in the left-hand corner in front," he said; and then there was +silence for a moment. + +Seabrooke laid aside half-a-dozen articles, then suddenly started to +his feet with an exclamation, holding in his hand a creased and +crumpled envelope, which he hastily opened, and took from it--Percy's +hundred-dollar note! + +He turned deathly pale and for a moment stood gazing at it as if +stupefied. + +"What is it? Percy Neville's money?" asked Charlie, who, in common +with every other boy in the school, knew the story of Percy's lost +banknote. + +"Yes," answered Seabrooke in a stern, cold tone, "did you say you saw +some one put it there?" + +"Yes," said Charlie, "but you must not ask me who it was, for I +cannot tell." + +"You _must_ tell me," said Seabrooke, striding up to the bed, +"you _must_ tell me. Who was it?" + +"I won't, I won't; I will not," said Charlie, firmly. "I told you +because I thought you ought to know some one went to your trunk; but +I _won't_ tell who it was." + +"Ah, I know," answered Seabrooke; "no need to look very far. It was +Neville himself. Who would have believed it of him, weak, miserable +coward that he is? He would have set some one to search my trunk, I +suppose, that it might be found there and prove me a thief." + +"Percy Neville! It was not Percy! Oh, no!" exclaimed Charlie; "you +ought not to say it." + +"Who then? Tell me at once," persisted Seabrooke, just as Mrs. Moffat +returned with the coffee, to find her young patient flushed and +distressed, with Seabrooke standing over him in rather a threatening +manner. + +"I won't," repeated Charlie, "but it wasn't Percy." + +"Hi! what's the matter? what is this?" demanded Mrs. Moffat. "If +Master Henderson's been breaking any rules, you'll please not nag him +about it now, Mr. Seabrooke. You'll have him all worried into another +headache, and he is not fairly over this one yet, and he'll not be +fit for his journey home." + +Seabrooke paid no more attention to her than if she had not spoken. + +"Do you hear me, Henderson?" he asked. "I _will_ know." + +"I won't--" began Charlie again; but Mrs. Moffat interposed once +more. + +"Mr. Seabrooke," she said, actually pushing herself between the two +boys, the tray with the coffee in her hand, "Mr. Seabrooke, Master +Henderson is under my care so long as he is in here, and I will not +have him worried in this way. Let him alone if you please." + +Seabrooke was blind and deaf to all her interference. + +"I will know," he repeated. "I will bring the doctor here if you do +not tell. Who was it?" + +Charlie's eyes turned involuntarily towards the corner of the room +occupied by Lewis Flagg's bed and other belongings, and Seabrooke +caught the look. Quick-sighted and quick-witted, he drew his own +inferences and attacked the boy from another quarter. + +"It was Flagg, then," he persisted. + +The color flashed up over Charlie's pale face, but he only answered +sharply: + +"I tell you to let me alone. You're real mean, Seabrooke." + +"So he is," said Mrs. Moffat, "and I wish the doctor would come. We'd +see if he'd have this sick boy put about this way, Mr. Seabrooke. I +tell you I have the care of him now, and I'll not have him plagued +this way." + +But Seabrooke was gone before she was half through with this speech, +and poor Charlie was left to take his coffee in such peace as he +might with the dread hanging over him of being reported as a +tell-tale. Mrs. Moffat's sympathy and her almost abuse of Seabrooke +did him little good; he was very sensitive to praise or blame, and +could not bear the thought of incurring the ill-will of any one of +the boys. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ACCUSATION. + + +Quiet and self-contained and little given to impulse as he was, +Seabrooke, when roused to anger or resentment, was a very lion in his +wrath, and there was one thing which he could never tolerate or +overlook, and that was any attempt to take an unfair advantage of +him. He had been exasperated to a great degree by Flagg's endeavor to +drug him on the night of the expedition to Rice's, and that with good +reason; and now his suspicions, nay, more than suspicions aroused +that he was trying to make it appear that he, Seabrooke, had +wrongfully kept Percy's money and then pretended that the latter had +taken it from him by stealth, enraged him beyond bounds. + +Striding in among the group of boys who were still discussing the +very question of the disappearance of the money which had been the +main topic of interest ever since the loss was discovered, the +bank-note in his hand, he advanced directly to Flagg, who was taking +an active part in the conversation--that is, he had been doing so +within the last few moments, since he had returned after a short +absence from the school-room, looking, as more than one of the boys +observed, "flushed and rather flurried." + +Indeed one boy had remarked: + +"You seem to be short of breath, Flaggy; you're purring like a +steam-engine. What ails you?" + +"Can't a fellow take a run around the house without anything being +the matter with him?" asked Lewis, sharply, but with a little nervous +trepidation in his tone and manner; but the subject was now dropped, +and he had more than recovered his composure and was taking an +apparently interested part in the renewed discussion over Percy's +loss, when the enraged Seabrooke entered the room. + +"You scoundrel!" he ejaculated between his set teeth, and with his +eyes actually blazing, "you stole this, did you?"--flourishing the +note before the now terrified Lewis, who, taken thus by surprise, had +no time to collect his wits and assume an appearance of unconcern and +innocence. "You stole this, and to make it appear that I was the +thief--the thief!--you put it in my trunk. Don't deny it," as Lewis +endeavored to speak, "don't dare to deny it.--You were _seen_ to +do it!" + +No other thought entered the head of the terrified Lewis than that +Seabrooke himself had seen him at his shameful work, and that he had +chosen to confront and convict him with it here in the presence of +the rest of the school. He would have denied it could he have found +words in which to do it, had he had time to frame a denial, but he +was so entirely off his guard, so confounded by Seabrooke's sudden +accusation and this evidence of the dastardly deed he had performed +that he was utterly overwhelmed, and stood speechless, and the +picture of detected guilt. + +The doctor happened to be in one of the adjoining recitation rooms in +conference with some of the other teachers over this very matter, and +the raised tones--so very unusual--of Seabrooke's angry voice +arrested his attention and called him into the main schoolroom. + +To him Seabrooke, without waiting to be questioned, made known his +complaint, and again displayed the note in proof thereof, accusing +Lewis Flagg of stealing it and then placing it in his trunk for the +purpose of criminating him, hoping that it might be found there +before school broke up. + +In this he did Flagg some partial injustice. Lewis had searched for +and taken the money with the object of playing an annoying trick upon +Seabrooke and Percy, but proposing, after giving both "a good +fright," to put it back where he had found it, or in some other place +in Seabrooke's alcove where he might be supposed to have mislaid it. + +But once in his possession, the note excited his cupidity and a +strong desire to keep it. If it were but his, he could easily clear +off sundry debts which he had contracted, especially the remainder of +that to Rice, which he had only partially satisfied. On his return to +school after the Easter holidays it might well appear that he had an +unusual amount of funds; a boy's relations were apt to be generous +at such times, and no one need ever know the extent of his riches. + +So reasoned this unprincipled boy, and he had actually made up his +mind to make no attempt to restore the money to a place where it +might be found, but to retain it for himself, when the doctor's +address and a dread that his crime might after all be detected, +decided him to return to his first intentions. + +There was little time to be lost now. Seizing the first opportunity +of slipping away from his schoolmates, he rushed upstairs to the +dormitory with the design of throwing the note under Seabrooke's bed +or bureau, where it might be supposed to have fallen; but seeing the +trunk standing there ready packed, the impulse had taken him to put +it in that, and without reflecting--perhaps hardly caring--that this +would place Seabrooke in a still more embarrassing position, he +thrust the note within, as Charlie Henderson saw, and fled from the +room. He was rid of it in any event, and he cared little what the +consequences might be to any one else, especially Seabrooke. + +And now he was confronted with the evidence of his misdeeds, and even +when he began to recover himself a little, knew not what to say, what +excuse to make. And here was Dr. Leacraft awaiting his answer to +Seabrooke's accusations, and regarding him with stern and questioning +eyes. + +The doctor was a just man, however, and would condemn no culprit +unheard, and he had no proof that Lewis Flagg was the culprit in the +present case, other than Seabrooke's asseverations and the boy's own +guilty appearance. As the latter stood hesitating for words which +would not plunge him deeper, Dr. Leacraft turned to Seabrooke. + +"_Who_ saw Flagg do this thing?" he questioned. "Did you, +Seabrooke?" + +"No, sir," answered Seabrooke, who was becoming more calm; "I did not +see him myself, but he was seen to do it." + +"By whom?" persisted the doctor. + +Seabrooke hesitated. He was beginning to realize that he was placing +Charlie Henderson in rather an unpleasant position: that young +involuntary detective might be scouted at by the boys for the part he +had taken in bringing Flagg to justice, for "telling." He knew that +there were those among the older scholars who would make the child's +school-life a misery to him if they heard that he had informed, and +he would not betray him to them. + +"Could I see you a moment alone, sir?" he asked the doctor. + +Dr. Leacraft assented, and retired with Seabrooke to one of the +adjoining class-rooms, bidding every boy remain where he was till +their return. + +Alone with the doctor, Seabrooke told his story and besought him not +to let it be known that Charlie had been the unsuspected observer of +Flagg's actions. + +"The boy is as honest as the day, doctor," said Seabrooke. + +"I know it; above suspicion. A most honest and loyal little fellow," +said the doctor. "His secret shall be kept, if possible." + +Then he went up to see Charlie, and received from him the fullest +confirmation of all that Seabrooke had told; and he assured the boy +that his knowledge of the transaction should not be betrayed to the +others. + +Charlie himself had taken such precautions against "being found out" +as he was able to do; he would not even drink his coffee until he had +persuaded Mrs. Moffat to let him go to his own dormitory, lest any of +the "big fellows" should find him in their quarters. He told Mrs. +Moffat enough to let her understand that he had unwittingly seen +something he was not intended to see, and she, knowing enough of boys +in general and of that senior class in particular, to be sure that +Charlie would not go scot free, if the truth were known, hastened to +comply with his request. Charlie had faith enough in Seabrooke to +believe that he would not betray him if it were possible not to do +so, and as no boy save he and Flagg had been into the dormitory, he +hoped that it would not be discovered that he had been there. + +And it was so; when the boys came up to make the final preparations +for leaving, Charlie was in his own room, all tokens of his presence +in that of the senior class removed by Mrs. Moffat's willing hands, +and no one suspected that the boy had slept off his headache in any +other than his usual place. + +During the doctor's absence, and when he had time to collect his +thoughts a little, Lewis had made up his mind as to the course he +would pursue. He was in a bad position, there was no doubt of that; +but he resolved to brave it out and to treat the whole affair as a +huge joke. He might be punished; there was little doubt but that he +would be, and probably his misconduct would be reported at home, but +he would make the best he could out of a bad business. As he did not +know who it was that had seen him in the dormitory, he did not dare +to deny having been there; his suspicions turned toward Mrs. Moffat, +and as she was an old and trusted member of the household, he knew +very well that her word would be taken at any time against his own, +which had not too much credit with either teacher or scholars. + +He broke forth into a hoarse, forced laugh, looking around him with +defiance and an assured contempt upon the circle of his schoolmates, +who were, one and all, regarding him with suspicion and unconcealed +scorn. The most careless and reckless among them were shocked at the +enormity of the offence with which he stood charged, a theft of such +magnitude, and then the scoundrelly attempt to make it appear that +another had been guilty of it. + +"What a row about a small matter!" he exclaimed. "The whole thing was +a joke; but I never thought it would be so successful as this, +putting the whole school in a fever. See here; I did take that +bank-note, of course. I wanted to see Seabrooke and Neville in a war +over it, and then I was going to put it in some place here it would +be found. I was going to throw it under Seabrooke's bed or somewhere; +but I saw his trunk standing there, and the chance was too good to be +lost. I knew he would find it there, and send it to Percy as soon as +he reached home. If it hadn't been for old Moffat it would all have +worked right." + +Utter silence met this tissue of impudence, defiance, truth and +falsehood, and he saw plainly enough that he was believed to have +committed the theft of Percy's money for theft itself, pure and +simple, and that fear of detection only had induced him to make the +effort at restoration. + +"I say, Neville," he continued, "you know I did not mean to keep the +money, don't you?" + +But Percy only turned contemptuously away without any reply in words. +None were needed. Lewis was answered. + +"I'm going to do my best not to be sent back here," said Lewis, +striving to continue his bravado, although his heart was sinking as +he began to realize more and more in what a predicament he had placed +himself. "Such a set of muffs, teachers and scholars, I never met. No +one can take a joke, or even see it." + +"I think it likely your efforts will be crowned with success," said +Raymond Stewart, himself a boy of not too much principle, but who, in +common with the rest of the school, had been inexpressibly shocked +and revolted by Lewis' conduct. + +"You are dismissed," said Mr. Merton, appearing at the door. "Lewis +Flagg, you are to go to the doctor in his study." + +What sentence was meted out to Lewis in that interview with the +doctor the boys did not know until their return to school after the +holidays, when he did not appear among them, and they were told on +inquiry that he would not do so. + +He endeavored to brazen it out with Dr. Leacraft as he had with the +boys, insisting that the whole affair, the abstraction of the money +and the placing it in Seabrooke's trunk, was "only a joke;" but the +doctor altogether refused to look upon it in any other light than +that of an unmitigated theft and an atrocious attempt to fasten it +upon another when he feared detection for himself. + +No protestations to the contrary served Lewis' turn, and from this +day forth his evil influence was happily lost to the school. + +And this was the story which Percy had to pour into the ears of his +innocent young sister on his return home. + +On the first opportunity which presented itself the morning after his +arrival at his uncle's he told her all, extenuating nothing of his +own misconduct and weakness in the beginning, and acknowledging that +he had almost wilfully suffered himself to be led into disobedience +and wrong, and richly deserved all the shame and trouble which had +fallen upon him. + +Lena was inexpressibly shocked by the account of this last wickedness +of Flagg's, for she, in common with Dr. Leacraft and every one else +who heard the tale, gave him credit only for the deliberate theft of +Percy's money and then of the effort to throw it upon Seabrooke, +either as an act of revenge or else because he feared that it would +be found in his possession. + +He returned to her the hundred-dollar note which had such a story +attached to it, and in his turn had to hear from Lena her belief that +the second sum sent for his relief had come from Hannah, and that the +old nurse had sacrificed the gold which she had destined for her own +glorification to his rescue from his predicament. + +She reproached him for having appealed to Hannah, a servant in his +father's house, for aid; and in her turn had to hear his reproaches +for believing that he would condescend to such a thing, and received +an emphatic and solemn denial that he had been guilty of this, or +that he had ever let Hannah know of the straits he was in. He had +never, he asseverated, spoken or written to any one concerning this, +save herself; if he had done so it would have been to his indulgent +uncle, Colonel Rush, to whom he would have applied. + +How then had Hannah become possessed of his secret, was the question +which the brother and sister now asked of each other and of +themselves. Here was a mystery, indeed; for that it had been Hannah +who sent that second hundred dollars could not be doubted after Miss +Trevor's revelations. And why should she have sent the money unless +she had known that Percy was in sore need? + +"Did you tell Hannah anything about it?" he asked. + +"No!" answered Lena, indignantly. "How could I tell her such a thing? +And you know how you told me I must never, never tell." + +"And you did not show her my letter?" asked the puzzled Percy, who +was by no means pleased, as may be imagined, by the knowledge that +one other, at least, must share the secret. + +"No," repeated Lena, still more vexed that he should suppose her to +be capable of such an evasion, which to her sense of uprightness +would have been as bad as speaking a falsehood by word of mouth; "no, +of course I did not, that would have been telling her, would it not? +One can _do_ a falsehood as well as tell it," and although she +had intended no reflection upon her brother, no thrust at him, Percy +was ashamed as he remembered how often, during the last few months, +he had done this very thing; how he had shuffled and evaded, and +thought it no great harm as long as he did not put his falsehood into +actual words. + +"Well, no one knows how thankful I am to you, Lena, dear," he said. +"What can I ever do for you?" + +"Tell Uncle Horace. I wish, oh, I do _wish_ you would tell him," +said his sister. + +"Tell Uncle Horace; no, never!" exclaimed Percy. "I couldn't. Think +of that look in his eyes when he hears of anything he thinks shabby +or--well--dishonorable. He'd be ready to put me out of his house if +he heard about that letter, even though we didn't know what was in +it. I couldn't, Lena; I couldn't." + +"I think it would be better for you," said his sister, "for Aunt May +knew about Hannah and Miss Trevor, and she is sure to have told him. +They have said nothing about it to me; but I know Uncle Horace will +ask you, and then you must confess. It will be best to tell him +without waiting till you must; he will not think so badly of you." + +But Percy could not be persuaded to do this; he lacked the moral +courage to follow his sister's advice and to confess all to his uncle +before he should be obliged to do so, hoping that after all she might +be mistaken and that he should still escape that humiliation. Since +Colonel Rush had not spoken at once upon the subject, Percy believed +that he would not do so at all, either because he had no knowledge +of these money transactions or because he thought the matter of no +importance. + +"Why should Uncle Horace worry himself about Hannah's money?" he said +to his sister. "She is nothing to him, and what she chooses to do +with it is no business of his. She is not his servant." + +"No," said the sensible and more far-sighted Lena; "but she is in his +house. And you are his nephew and under his care, and he must think +it strange that a servant would send you so much money and in such a +secret way, and he must know that something is wrong; he must suspect +that you are in some very bad scrape." + +But Percy was still immovable. Easily swayed as he was in general, he +was not to be influenced in the only right direction now, and all +Lena's arguments were thrown away. + +"But I say, Lena," he said, with a sudden change of subject and with +his usual, easy-going facility for putting aside for the time being +anything which troubled him, "I say, isn't it queer that the girl you +are all trying to win this prize for should be the sister of +Seabrooke? How things do come around, to be sure. I can tell you he's +as uppish as the Grand Panjandrum himself about it, too; says his +sister is not an object of charity, and her father and brother are +able to look after her." + +"Oh, did you tell him? How could you, Percy?" exclaimed Lena. "And +now he'll tell her, and we meant it to be a surprise to her if any +one gained it for her. What will the girls say, Maggie and Bessie, +and the others who are trying for her!" + +"I let it out without intending to," said Percy. "I was so taken by +surprise myself when Seabrooke told me what he intended to do with +that money, that I just let it out without thinking. But afterwards I +told him it was a secret, and he said he wouldn't say anything about +it. But he was awfully high and mighty, I can tell you. You won't +make the thing go down with him. But who is likely to win it,--you +won't, of course, whatever your chances may have been in the +beginning--any one of your chums? Maggie Bradford or Bessie, or +those?" + +"I don't know," answered Lena. "Maggie would, of course, if it were +for the best composition written by the class; but it is not for +that, you know, but for the greatest general improvement in +composition. But so many of the girls are interested about Gladys +Seabrooke that I think almost any of our class would give it to her. +But it somehow seems as if Maggie or Bessie _ought_ to have the +pleasure because we are the ones who found her out. The girls are all +going to Miss Ashton's on Saturday morning, when they will be told; +and if any one gains the prize who will give it to Gladys Seabrooke, +it will be sent to her as an Easter present." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WHO WINS. + + +A damper had been thrown upon Lena's satisfaction in the belief that +Gladys Seabrooke would probably be the recipient of the gift of Mr. +Ashton's trust, by the assurance of her brother Percy that Seabrooke +would be high and mighty and oppose the acceptance of it. She did not +reflect that, having a father and mother, it was not at all likely +that her brother's fiat would decide the matter for Gladys either +one way or the other. + +Her first thought and wish was to confide this doubt to Maggie and +Bessie when she should next see them; but she presently felt that she +could not well do this without in some measure, at least, betraying +the heedless Percy. She did not dare to speak of his connection with +Seabrooke, lest she should draw suspicion upon him after her +confidences to Bessie. So she must needs keep this little fretting +worry to herself, too. + +There was the question about Hannah, also: how the money was to be +returned to her, in the uncertainty as to how much she knew, and how +she had acquired any knowledge of Percy's predicament; for that she +knew something of it Lena was convinced; and yet the child was +equally sure that that letter had never been out of her own keeping. +Percy had at once put into her hand the hundred-dollar note, telling +her that she must find means of conveying it to the old nurse. Oh, +what a puzzle and a tangle it all was! + +Poor little Lena! Truly she was having a hard time with all the +perplexities and anxieties which Percy's worse than folly had brought +upon her. + +But one source of worry, in fact two, were to be lifted before long. + +Colonel Rush, having waited for what he considered a sufficient +length of time for Percy to make a confession had he been disposed to +do so, resolved to bring him to it whether he would or no. That Percy +had been in some serious difficulty, that he was in some way heavily +involved, was very evident; likewise that Hannah knew of this and had +sacrificed her much prized savings to rescue him. + +At present he--the colonel--stood in the relation of parent to Percy +and master to Hannah; he therefore felt that it was both his right +and his duty to make inquiries and put matters straight, so far as he +could. + +On Saturday morning, therefore, he called the boy into his library +and asked him if there were anything which he would like to tell him, +and receive his counsel and perhaps help. He made no accusation; did +not tell Percy that he knew he had been involved in some trouble +which had brought about the necessity--real or fancied--for him to +free himself by the payment of this--for a boy--large sum. He put his +question and offer kindly and freely, but in a way which showed his +nephew he was not to be trifled with. + +And, indeed, his uncle was the last man in the world with whom Percy +would have chosen to trifle. Not his father, not Dr. Leacraft, had +half the influence over him that this hero-uncle had, the brave, +distinguished soldier whose very name was a synonym for all that was +honorable and daring. There was no one in the world whose good +opinion could have influenced him so much; no one whose scorn and +disapprobation he so dreaded, or from whose reproof he would have +shrunk. He had shown this when he had pleaded with Lena not to betray +him to their uncle, of all people. He would really rather have borne +some severe punishment at the hands of his parents or teacher than he +would one contemptuous word or look from him who was regarded by all +his young relations and friends as a chevalier _sans peur et sans +reproche_. No prevarication, no shuffling would do here; if he +said anything, if he answered at all, it must be the truth and +nothing but the truth. + +He hesitated for a moment, not from any intention of refusing to give +his uncle his confidence, or denying that he had been in trouble, but +from a desire to frame his confession in the best manner possible; +but nothing came to his aid other than the plain, unvarnished truth; +nothing else, he felt, would serve his turn here with that steady, +searching eye upon him; and in a moment he had taken his resolve, and +the whole shameful tale was poured into Colonel Rush's ears. + +Bad as it was, it was not as bad as Colonel Rush had feared. +Rebellion against lawful authority, rank disobedience and deception +were to be laid at Percy's door, not to speak of the pitiable +weakness which had suffered him to be led into this wrong, and the +enormity of his at least passive acquiescence when Flagg had stolen +Seabrooke's letter; still worse his own destruction of it, almost +involuntary though it was. What he had apprehended the colonel would +hardly have confessed even to himself; but the truth was that he had +suspected Percy of nothing less than the appropriation of some sum +which he was compelled to replace or to face open disgrace. + +And yet Colonel Rush was not a suspicious man or one ready to believe +evil of others, but circumstances had looked very dark for Percy, and +there had seemed but one interpretation to place upon them. + +And now, by Percy's confession, one part of the mystery was solved; +but there still remained that of Hannah's presumed knowledge that he +was in trouble and had been in sore need of money. Assuredly, Hannah, +devoted as she was to the interests of her nurslings, especially +Percy, would never have thought of making this sacrifice had she not +felt that there was some pressing necessity; but how in the world had +the old nurse acquired this knowledge. The nephew was as much puzzled +as the uncle, and denied, with an indignation which seemed rather out +of place in the light of past occurrences, any imputation that he had +asked her to assist him. + +But now, Percy inquired, could the colonel have the hundred-dollar +note exchanged for gold so that it might be restored to faithful +Hannah in the form in which she had always kept it. It was easy +enough to do this, the colonel said; but the trouble would be to make +Hannah confess that she had sent it, still more so why she had sent +it. Colonel Rush would not say so to the children, seeing that no +such idea had occurred to them, but it was his own opinion that +Hannah had in some way obtained unlawful possession of Percy's letter +to Lena, had mastered its contents, and then taken steps for his +relief which she believed could not be discovered. + +Of the kindly advice and admonition given to Percy by his uncle there +is no need to speak further; but it resulted in making Percy feel +that he would do anything rather than again run the risk of +forfeiting the good opinion which he now valued more than ever. + +Meanwhile, during the time that Percy was closeted with his uncle in +the library, that portion of the members of the "Cheeryble Sisters' +Club" which constituted the choice band of "Inseparables," namely +Maggie and Bessie Bradford, Belle Powers, Lily Norris, and Fanny +Leroy, having joined forces on their way to Miss Ashton's, had called +in to see Lena. This had been done at the suggestion of the ever +considerate Maggie, who, although naturally heedless about the little +everyday business of life, never forgot to do "nice things" for +others. When she was much younger, extreme carelessness had been her +besetting fault, and, as is the manner of this "little fox," had +created much trouble for herself and for others; but having become +convinced that it was her duty to cure herself of this, she had set +to work to do it in such earnest that that which had been a burden +and a care to her was fast becoming a settled habit, and it was but +seldom now that any act or word of heedlessness could be laid to her +charge, while her ever obliging disposition and loving heart prompted +many a deed of kindness which she never failed to carry out if it +were in her power to do so. + +"But we have to stop as we come back, to tell her that you have the +prize," said Bessie. + +"We will stop again and tell her who has gained it as we come back," +answered Maggie. "But I think she will like it if we stop now, so +that she will know we are thinking about her and are so sorry that +she cannot be with us. But, Bessie, I think you are quite mistaken in +believing so surely that I will have the prize. I know quite well +that there are two or three who have improved in composition more +than I have." + +Bessie made no reply in words, but shook her head as if unconvinced. +With Lena Neville and Gracie Howard out of the lists, she found it +quite impossible to believe that any one but her own Maggie could be +the successful competitor. + +But all agreed that it would be well to call in and see Lena for a +moment and let her be sure that she was not forgotten. + +"And," said Maggie, "there is the doctor's carriage at the door. We +will wait till he comes downstairs and ask him how soon Lena will be +able to go about and have a little excitement, so that we can arrange +about the fair. It is just a good chance for us. Then we will tell +Lena what he says if he is encouraging." + +Maggie and Bessie were almost as much at home in Colonel Rush's house +as they were in their own, and had they chosen to go in and out +twenty times a day, they would always have been welcome; and the +young friends who accompanied them were about as much at their ease, +although not one among the quintette would ever have been obtrusive +or troublesome. + +The doctor, who knew each one of them, being, as it happened, family +physician to their respective households, was just about taking leave +and was standing in the hall talking to Mrs. Rush. + +"Hallo!" he said, his kindly face beaming upon the smiling flock who +trooped in when Starr opened the door for them. "Hallo! what a bevy +of birdlings! But how comes it that you are not at Miss Ashton's? I +have just left my Laura there, and she is in a state of frantic +expectation over this composition prize the finest authoress among +you is to gain this morning. Are none of you interested?" + +"Oh, yes, sir, all of us," answered Lily Norris, always ready to be +spokeswoman; "we are going to Miss Ashton's in a few moments. But we +are not to be there until twelve o'clock, and it is not that yet. And +if the finest authoress is to have the prize, it will be Maggie's." + +"So Laura seems to think," said Dr. Middleton, and shy Maggie, not +caring to put forth in his presence any further disclaimer to the +still undecided honors which her sister and friends seemed determined +to put upon her head, smiled doubtfully. + +"Doctor," she said, "would you mind telling me how soon you think +Lena will be able to bear a little excitement?" + +The doctor looked grave. + +"My child," he said, "I fear Lena is under more excitement now than +is good for her." Then turning to Mrs. Rush, he added, "There is +little use in expecting her to make rapid progress while she is +fretting herself, as she is evidently doing, over some real or +imaginary evil. Do you think it possible," an idea occurring to him, +"that she is troubled about losing the chance to win this prize?" + +"I scarcely think so," said Mrs. Rush. "She was even more than +anxious for it at one time; but the principal object for which she +wanted it is gained now, and she is not the child to fret herself +over a disappointed ambition." + +"Well," said the doctor, "find out the trouble if you can. You cure +the mental ill and I will answer for the physical. But what is this +excitement you are speaking of, Maggie?" + +"We are going to have a fair, Doctor," answered Maggie. "We wanted to +have it at Easter, but put it off because Lena is so lame and not +strong enough, and we would like to know how soon she will be well +enough." + +The doctor thought a moment. + +"Perhaps," he said, presently, "if she were interested in this fair +it might do her good and take her mind from whatever is troubling +her. Try it, Maggie; set the time for your fair at no distant date, +and see what it will do for her. Good-morning, Mrs. Rush. Good-by, my +Cheerybles." And the busy physician departed on his rounds. + +"I believe it is the prize," said Lily, as the whole flock, bidden to +do so by Mrs. Rush, mounted the stairs to Lena's room. "I know that +Lena was perfectly crazy to have that prize so she could spite her +father and mother--and I would be, too, if I were she--and I am sure +she feels very badly about it." + +"Why, Lily!" said Maggie. + +"Well," said Lily, "I'm sure it's perfectly natural if she +does--_such_ a father and mother--specially mother. She's the +kind that always think they're right, and she turned up her nose at +Miss Ashton, and then she had to find out what a splendid teacher she +is, and Lena improved so much in composition and everything else +before she was burned that I expect she could have taken the prize +even before Maggie. She just wanted her mother to _know_ that +she couldn't do a better thing than to leave her with Miss Ashton to +the end of her days. And if you mean, Maggie, that I am not +respectful in my speaking of Mrs. Neville, I know I am not, and I +don't mean to be. Such an unmothery mother don't deserve any respect, +and I'm not going to give it to her." + +"Hush!" said Maggie, as they reached the door of Lena's room. + +Lily's strong impression that Lena was unhappy because of her +inability to compete for the prize was strengthened when she saw her, +and the other children were inclined to agree with her, for Lena +seemed so little disposed to talk upon the subject that they were all +convinced that it was a disagreeable one to her. The only voluntary +allusion she made to it was when Maggie bade her good-by with the +promise of a return after the matter had been decided; then she drew +her down to her and whispered, "I hope you will have it, Maggie, I +hope you will." + +Maggie smoothed her cheek, smiled, and said: + +"Thank you, dear; but I would rather have you well so that we may +have our fair. The doctor says he thinks you will soon be well enough +to come to it, and we are only waiting for that now." + +Then the little party left with a renewed promise to return and let +her know how the day had turned, and took their way to Miss Ashton's. + +All the "Cheeryble Sisters," save Lena Neville and Gracie Howard, +were present, each one full of eager expectancy, although there was +scarcely a doubt in any mind who would be the winner. + +It had been impossible to induce Gracie to take any part or to show +any interest in the competition, and she had resolutely refused to +come with the rest of her classmates this morning, and there was no +obligation upon her to do so, as it was now holiday time and this was +something outside of the regular school duties. + +Mr. Ashton, fond as he was of giving prizes and of stimulating the +emulation of his niece's pupils, was content to bring matters to a +speedy conclusion when the time arrived, and never detained the +little girls long or kept them in suspense by tiresome speeches. + +So now in a few words he praised them for their earnest and faithful +efforts; said that he had been treated to a perusal of many of the +compositions written during the last term in order that he might +himself have an opportunity of judging whether Miss Ashton's verdict +were just, and that he had been both surprised and gratified to +observe the improvement made by almost every member of the class. + +"But," he said in conclusion, "in comparing the compositions written +at the commencement of the term of trial and those last submitted to +Miss Ashton, I had, from my own unbiassed judgment, and before I had +learned the choice of your teacher, decided that the one best +entitled to the prize and the bestowal of this art education is Miss +Bessie Bradford." + +"Excuse me, sir; you mean _Maggie_ Bradford," said Bessie, in +her own quiet, demure little way, still unable to shake off her +conviction that Maggie and no one but Maggie must be the winner, and +believing that Mr. Ashton had merely mistaken the name of the +sisters. + +"No," said Mr. Ashton, smiling at her, "while giving all due credit +to your sister Maggie's compositions, which I have read with much +pleasure, I still repeat that no little girl in the class has made +such manifest improvement as yourself, and to you both your teacher +and myself award the prize." + +"Thank you, sir," said Bessie, simply, but with a sparkle in her eye +and a flush of pleased surprise rising to her cheek, "thank you very +much. But, Miss Ashton"--turning to her teacher, "do you not think +that if Lena had been able to try with the rest of us all the time, +she would have been the one to gain this prize?" + +Miss Ashton smiled kindly at her. + +"Well, yes, Bessie," she said, with some seeming reluctance; "since +you ask me so plainly, I must say that had Lena been able to continue +in competition with the rest, I think she would have distanced every +one. I never saw such rapid improvement as she was making; her whole +heart seemed to be in it. My uncle was astonished at her progress in +that short time." + +"Then," said Bessie, rising, "I think she ought to have the prize. +Please excuse me, sir,"--quaintly--"for saying _ought_ to you +and Miss Ashton, but it was not Lena's fault that she could not go on +trying with the rest of us, but only because she was so very brave +and unselfish in the fire. And if she improved so much in that time, +she would have improved a great deal more; and I think the prize +ought to be given to her. I am very glad you liked my compositions, +sir, but it would be a great deal more prize for me if Lena had it. +Please let her, Mr. Ashton. She has a very good and excellent reason, +too, for wanting it so much; it is so that her father and mother will +think Miss Ashton the best teacher that ever was, and let her stay +with her a very long time." + +In her earnestness to carry her point she had forgotten that she was +saying so much; and she now stood looking from Mr. Ashton to his +niece, quite unembarrassed, but evidently set in this purpose. + +Mr. Ashton looked at her, then turned to his niece; there was a +moment's whispered conversation between them, and then the gentleman +addressed himself to the class. + +"What do you all say?" he asked. "Do you all agree that since Lena +Neville has been providentially prevented from continuing her +efforts, and since she made so much improvement while she was able to +enter the lists, that Bessie shall be permitted to resign this reward +to her, and that she shall be the one to name the candidate for my +trust?" + +"Yes, sir; yes, sir," came without one dissenting voice from the +young group. + +"Then you shall have the pleasure of telling this to Lena, Bessie," +said Mr. Ashton. "You have certainly fairly earned that right." + +"And," said Bessie, looking round upon her classmates, "if everybody +will be so kind as not to tell Lena that she was not chosen first. It +would be quite true, would it not, to say that she had done so well +at the first that we all thought it fair for her to have it?" + +"It shall be as you say," said Mr. Ashton; then continued, "we all +bind ourselves, do we not, to do as Bessie wishes and to keep this +little transaction a secret among ourselves, making no mention to +Lena Neville that the prize was not awarded to her in the first +instance?" + +"Unless she asks any questions; but I do not think she will," said +conscientious Bessie. + +Miss Ashton came over to her with her eyes very suspiciously shining, +and stooping down kissed Bessie, saying, "You blessed child!" while +Maggie, always readily moved to tears or smiles, as befitted the +occasion, put her arms about Bessie's neck, and grasping her +teacher's skirts with the other hand and laying her head against her, +began to cry softly. + +But sentiment and Lily Norris could not long exist in the same +atmosphere, and she now exclaimed: + +"How I wish we were all boys just for ten minutes, so we could give +three cheers and a tiger for Bessie and three more for Lena. I +suppose it wouldn't do, would it, Miss Ashton?" + +"Hardly for little girls," said Miss Ashton, although she herself +looked very much as if she were ready to lead a round of applause. + +"Well, we can clap, anyway," said Lily, "that's girly enough," and +she forthwith set the example, which was speedily followed by the +rest, Mr. Ashton himself joining in from his post at his niece's +desk. + +"I'd like to give thirty-three groans for Mrs. Neville," said Lily, +in an undertone, "but I suppose we couldn't." + +There was little doubt that the whole class were even better pleased +to have the decision given in favor of Lena than they had been for +Bessie, favorite though she was, so strongly had their sympathies +been aroused for the former. + +Imagine the surprise and delight of Lena when the news was brought to +her by her jubilant little friends. She could hardly believe it, +hardly believe that in spite of her enforced absence from school, in +spite of her inability to hand in her compositions for so many weeks, +she had been the one to receive this much coveted opportunity, and +that she was not only free to bestow it upon her own little +country-woman, but that her own credit would redound to that of Miss +Ashton. + +Of how Gladys received the gift--for her parents set aside all +Harley's objections to her doing so--of how she became warm friends +with nearly all of our "Cheeryble Sisters," and of what came of that +may be read later on in "Maggie Bradford's Fair." + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Bessie Bradford's Prize, by Joanna H. 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