THE ARRIVAL OF KATHLEEN
"There is a whole lot in getting accustomed to things," remarked J.
Elfreda Briggs sagely, as she stood with a hammer and nail in one hand,
a Japanese print in the other, her round eyes scanning the wall for an
appropriate place to hang her treasure.
"It's a beauty, isn't it?" declared Miriam, passing over her roommate's
remark and looking admiringly at the print, which her roommate had just
taken from her trunk.
"What, this?" asked Elfreda. "You'd better believe it is. Goodness knows
I paid enough for it. But I wasn't talking about this print. I was
talking about our present junior estate. What I wonder is, whether being
a junior will go to my head and make me vainglorious or whether I shall
wear the honor as a graceful crown," ended the stout girl with an
affected smile, which changed immediately to a derisive grin.
"I should say, neither," responded Miriam slyly. "I don't believe
anything would ever go to your head. You're too matter-of-fact, and as
for your graceful crown, it would be over one ear within half an hour."
Both girls laughed, then Elfreda, having found a spot on the wall that
met with her approval, set the nail and began hammering. "There!" she
exclaimed with satisfaction. "That is exactly where I want it. Now I can
begin to think about something else."
"I wonder why Grace and Anne haven't paid us a call this morning?" mused
Miriam, who sat listlessly before her trunk, apparently undecided
whether to begin the tedious labor of unpacking or to put it off until
some more convenient day.
"I'll go and find them," volunteered Elfreda, dropping her hammer and
turning toward the door. "They must be at home." Five minutes later she
raced back with the news that their door was locked and the "out
indefinitely" sign was displayed.
"That is very strange," pondered Miriam, aloud. "I wonder where they
have gone?"
"Why on earth didn't they tell us they were going? That's what I'd like
to know," declared Elfreda.
"Perhaps Mrs. Elwood knows something about it," suggested Miriam.
The mere mention of Mrs. Elwood's name caused Elfreda to dart through
the hall and downstairs to the living-room in search of the good-natured
matron. Failing to find her, she walked through the kitchen to the shady
back porch, where Mrs. Elwood sat rocking and reading the newspaper
which the newsboy had just brought.
"Oh, Mrs. Elwood," she cried, "have you seen Grace and Anne? We can't
find them."
"Didn't Miss Dean tell you?" asked Mrs. Elwood in a surprised tone.
"Miss Dean," repeated Elfreda disgustedly. "No wonder we didn't know
what had become of them. With all Emma's estimable qualities, she is the
one person I know whom I would not trust to deliver a message. I beg
your pardon, Mrs. Elwood, I didn't mean that you were in any sense to
blame. We ought to have warned you, only Emma is such a splendid girl
that one hates to mention a silly little thing like that. Just forget
that I said it, will you?"
Mrs. Elwood smiled. "I quite understand, Miss Briggs," she said gravely.
"The message Miss Harlowe left with me was this: 'If the girls ask where
we have gone, tell them that we received a telegram and had to go to the
station. All explanations when we come back.'"
"That settles it," groaned Elfreda. "We know only enough to whet our
curiosity. And we can't find out more unless we follow them to the
station. We can't do that, either. It would not look well. Besides, we
are not invited." Elfreda had been rapidly reflecting aloud, much to
Mrs. Elwood's amusement. "I'll have to go back and tell Miriam," she
finished.
"But why did they lock their door?" asked Miriam, when Elfreda had
repeated her information.
"I don't know," returned Elfreda thoughtfully. "Yes, I do know!" she
exclaimed with sudden inspiration. "I think Grace was afraid she might
have a repetition of last year's performance."
"'Last year's performance,'" repeated Miriam in a puzzled tone.
"Yes, don't you remember the Anarchist?" retorted Elfreda, with a
reminiscent grin.
"Of course!" exclaimed Miriam, laughing a little at the recollection.
"Wasn't she formidable, though, when she slammed the door in our faces?"
Elfreda nodded. "She is all right now. At least she was when she visited
me. I never saw a girl blossom and expand as she did. Pa liked her. He
thought she was smart. She is, too. She has lived so entirely with that
scientific father of hers that she has absorbed all sorts of odds and
ends of knowledge from him. That is why college and girls and the whole
thing terrified her."
"Terrified her," said Miriam incredulously. "I thought matters quite the
reverse."
"That was precisely what I thought until she told me that, no matter how
vengeful she looked, she was always afraid of the girls. She never
seemed to be able to say the right thing at the right moment. That was
why she used to scowl so fiercely when any one spoke or looked at her."
"I don't think it was altogether fear of the girls that caused her to
lock us out that day," observed Miriam, a gleam of laughter appearing in
her black eyes.
"I don't suppose it was," retorted Elfreda good-humoredly. "She says she
knows her disposition to be anything but angelic. But she is trying,
Miriam. You wait and see for yourself how the new Laura Atkins behaves."
"But to go back to the subject of the door, what makes you think Grace
locked it on account of last year?" persisted Miriam.
"Oh, I don't know," answered Elfreda vaguely. "I just thought so, that's
all."
"We'll ask her when she comes, just for fun," declared Miriam. "Why not
go downstairs and sit on the back veranda with Mrs. Elwood? We can hear
the girls as soon as they come into the yard."
"All right," agreed Elfreda. "Do you care if I take my magazine along? I
am not quite through with an article I began this morning."
"I object seriously," smiled Miriam. "I shall expect you to entertain
me. You can finish reading your article later."
Elfreda glanced up quickly from the magazine she held in her hand. Then,
catching sight of her friend's smiling face, she tucked her magazine
under one arm, linked her free arm through Miriam's and marched her
toward the stairs. They had reached the foot of the stairs and were half
way down the hall when the sound of voices caused both girls to stand
still, listening intently.
"That sounds like Grace's voice!" exclaimed Elfreda. With one accord
they turned about, hurrying to the veranda at the front of the house in
time to see Grace and Anne approaching. Both girls were laden with
luggage, while between them walked an alert little figure, tugging a bag
of golf sticks, a fat, black leather hand bag and a camera.
"What manner of woman have we here?" muttered Elfreda, regarding the
newcomer with quizzical eyes.
But before Miriam found time to reply the newcomer set her luggage in
the middle of the walk, and running up to Miriam and Elfreda, said with
a frank laugh: "This is Miriam and this is Elfreda. You see I know both
of you from Mabel's description."
"Who--what--" began Elfreda.
"Girls," said Grace, who had by this time come up with the animated
stranger, "this is Miss West, a friend of Mabel Ashe's. My telegram was
from Mabel asking me to meet Miss West, and as Anne and I were on the
porch when it came, and the train we were to meet was due, we didn't
stop for explanations or hats, but raced down the street as fast as we
could go."
While Grace was talking, Kathleen West was shaking hands vigorously with
Miriam and Elfreda. "I'm so glad to know you," she said, "and I think
I'm going to like you. I'm not so sure about liking college, even though
I've worked so hard to get here. I hope to goodness I don't flunk in the
exams."
"I am sure that any friend of Mabel's is bound to be ours also," said
Miriam courteously. She had not made up her mind regarding the newcomer.
"Thank you. From what she said I should imagine that you and she were on
very good terms," returned the stranger lightly. "Of course you know who
I am and all about me."
Grace smiled. "Not yet, but we are willing to hear anything you wish to
tell us."
"Oh, that's so!" exclaimed the stranger. "Mabel wrote about me, but her
letter hasn't reached you yet, and, of course, telegrams can't be very
lengthy unless you wish to spend a fortune or the office has a
franchise. There I go again about the office. I might as well tell the
truth and have done with it: I'm a newspaper woman."