THE DAY AFTER THE BIG NIGHT.
The flush of success invaded old Wellington. As a whole the place
seemed suffused with a pardonable pride, and as individuals each
girl seemed justly proud of the small part she played in making up
that grand total. Even the big city papers sent out reporters to get
a "good story" of the mid-year dance, and more than one scribe
waylaid the popular girls, pleading for pictures.
Judith Stearns, as sub-editor of the Blare, the college paper, had a
part in giving out this general publicity, and what a joy it was to
describe the gowns of Jane, Bobbie, Doze and lists of others!
Jane was busy dismantling the dance room--the big assembly room in
Warburton--and no classes were to be called for any work during the
morning, so that conditions and students might just slide back into
orderliness and thence to the serious work of finishing the last
semester.
Party dresses were packed away by reluctant hands, boxes tied up and
labelled hopefully for the next dance, while heads that had been
curled for the big occasion bore testimony to the skill of many
willing fingers (not a few of the fingers bearing blisters to still
further testify to such achievements), and altogether the atmosphere
was distinctly and decidedly that of the small day after the big
night before.
Sally was ruefully tieing up her finery in rather compressed
packages and Bobbie was begging her not to spoil the stuff outright.
"Don't act so suicidal, Kitten. Be brave today for tomorrow we fly!"
she misquoted.
"I can't see how you can joke about it," whimpered Sally, bruising
her fingers with a jerk at too strong a piece of bundle cord.
"Really, Bobbie, if I ever dreamed it would be as hard as this to
go, I don't believe anything would have induced me to come." She bit
her bruised finger as well as her trembling lip.
"You don't mean that, Kitten," drawled the indifferent Bobbie, who
had agreed to help pack, although she much preferred "firing things
in trunks" and utilizing packing time out of doors. "You would never
have known the fun we have had here, if you hadn't come, and isn't
it heaps better to pay now than never to have known it?"
"Nothing seems better now--everything is worse, coal black, pitch
dark, bitter, worse," snapped the usually complaisant Sally.
"If I had your talent, wild horses couldn't drag me from
Wellington," said Bobbie seriously. "And I do hope, little Kitten,
that I am not wholly to blame for your unhappy predicament," her
voice dropped to seriousness.
"Now, Bobbie," and the good-natured little Sally smiled through,
"never forget that you really made it possible for me to come here,
and that you--"
"Now, that's enough, Kitten. If you start going back we shall find
ourselves in each other's arms with awfully red eyes--first thing
you know. I still think the miracle will save you, but poor me!" and
she affected a most juvenile boohoo. "I am surely doomed."
"Why don't you try it, Bobbie? You might get through--"
"Not in a thousand years. And suppose I did, where would it land
me?"
"In your proper place, in class, of course."
"And have every one know--I couldn't, Kitten. I talk bravely, but
I'm a rank coward at heart. There, the boxes are tied, I hope to
your satisfaction, and it's sweet of you to do the tags. No one
would be able to read the addresses if I wrote them. Oh, me, oh, my!
somehow today reminds me of old Polly Jenkins' funeral. Her
abandoned bedroom looked just about like this," surveying the
disorder of the little room under the eaves.
"Well, you run along and attend to the outside errands; I must hide
the evidences of our flight," said Sally, with something between a
laugh and a sigh. "You may pay all my bills, just say we want to
settle things so we can run off home when the holiday is proclaimed,
then, if you don't mind, just hand this music to Dolly Lloyd."
"Couldn't I kiss a few of the girls for you so as to save time
later?" asked Bobbie in naive sarcasm. "I am so sentimental today I
could hug the very old trees, I do believe. All right, little
sister, I'll go out and do the financial chores, but my head and my
heart are still at the dance," and she hummed herself out with a
feeble dance step--to do the aforesaid chores.
Left alone the blonde little freshman dropped her hands in her lap
and ceased her nervous activity.
"Really going!" she kept thinking, "and I thought the half year
would be endless in its days and hours!" A newly painted calendar-
sample just finished by Nellie Saunders and offered as a model for
Christmas gifts--focused the girl's attention. How dainty, yet how
rugged the deft bit of water color! Trees and landscape all melting
into that big flourish "W" for Wellington! It seemed like that;
everything attractive just now was blended into the college
opportunities, and Sally was about to turn her back on them, for
what?
The housemaid tapped at her door and announced a caller. Hurriedly
gathering up trifles to put the room in a semblance of order, she
hurried down to the reception room, there to confront Dolorez
Vincez!
"Oh, good morning," said Sally, trying to cover her surprise.
"Bobbie has just gone out."
"I met her," replied the visitor, without returning the salutation.
"But I would like a few words with you--if we could be alone."
Sally glanced about at the open doors and continually flapping
draperies: whatever Dol Vin had to say could certainly not be said
in that public room. A coat tree at the door held Sally's tam and
Mackinaw. She got into these and suggested a walk outside.
There was no denying it, Dol Vin was a striking looking girl, and
even her flashy clothes could not altogether disguise her rather
handsome foreign type. Today she wore a big black velvet tam jabbed
rakishly on her black head, a flame colored coat that buttoned
around her tight as a toboggan ulster, and only the deep olive tint
of her face in any way withheld the eye from a criticism of "too
much color." Today Dol's cheeks were not tinted, and the way her
deep set black eyes flashed, further told how angry she was, and how
reckless.
Scarcely had the girls from Lenox gone far enough to be out of
hearing than she started in on helpless little Sally.
"What are you two thinking of?" she demanded angrily. "Do you think
you can kick out and leave me without warning? Don't you know how
short I am--"
"Miss Vincez," interrupted Sally, "I don't see what possible claim
you have on either of us. The fact is we both feel you have very
much overworked your alleged claim as it is."
"Oh, you do!" and she gripped Sally's arm viciously. "Well, I'll
just tell you, sissy, I fixed it so you both could get in here."
(Sally pried her arm loose and kept at a safe distance.) "I helped
you along, played all your tricks--"
"Stop, please," demanded Sally indignantly. "You know perfectly well
it was against any wish of ours that you brought that crazy creature
in here to frighten the girls sick in the name of sport, hazing,"
declared Sally, her voice rising at each word. "And then, you turned
the same foolish creature loose to frighten all the other children
who might hear her wild voice. How can you dare say to me that such
a trick was ever countenanced by us?"
"Oh, my, really!" sneered the foreigner. "How we have grown! Please
don't bite me with your sharp tongue. As you say, yes, I did turn
her loose, and do you know that now she has been sent away? Put in a
hospital! Bah! It is in an asylum for the crazy" (Dol was very
foreign now), "where the state, this great big powerful state, shall
take all that poor harmless woman's money! Could I not allow her to
live a little when she paid me? But they will kill her and get paid
for the murder! That's the way they treat the poor crazy folks in
their big stone prisons!" she alleged angrily.
"She has been declared insane?"
"Declared insane!" she mocked. "You call it that? Yes, I call it
kidnapped, and poor old Zola was so harmless if they would but let
her scream and play at acting."
Sally was dumbfounded. The woman who had played ghost was really a
lunatic, and this unprincipled adventuress had dared allow her to
get into a place like Lenox, and to go about the countryside without
restraint! Sally felt almost sick at the thought, and having walked
the full length of the hedge-rows she attempted to end the
unpleasant interview.
"If you will excuse me--" she began feebly.
"But I shall not," almost shouted the angry South American. "I know
what this place can do! I know how your spiteful Jane Allen and her
chums got me out--"
"Stop!" cried Sally sharply. "Jane Allen is my friend, and I will
not hear her spoken of in that manner."
"Your friend!" and she sneered like some animal snorting. "She may
make of you a cat's paw to play at her feet, but she shall never be
your friend. If she just knows what you are--"
But Sally turned and deliberately fled from her persecutor. She
could no longer stand the tirade, and nothing that she seemed able
to do or say had any softening effect upon the angry young woman.
Suppose she did meet some of the girls and attempt to tell what she
knew of Sally's secret? Would anyone stand by and listen? Was not
this expelled pupil actually trespassing even to be upon Wellington
grounds?
It was getting close to the noon hour and studies were to be resumed
after the luncheon period. Students who had taken advantage of the
morning recess to be out at some favorite sports were now returning
in flocks, and Sally quickened her steps to reach Lenox before the
rush of late comers. She turned just once to see if Dolorez was
going through the grounds to leave at the opposite gate, but the
blazing red coat was not in sight.
"She probably knows some other way of leaving," thought Sally,
recalling the uncanny knowledge of the campus secrets that had been
responsible for the entrance of the eccentric Madam Z--.
In the hall Sally met a very much excited Bobbie. "Oh, did she eat
you up? Or put horns on you? Or turn you into a goat?" she began. It
happened that the hallway was clear just then. "Wasn't she furious?
I am so glad I escaped! Come in and tell me all about it."
"Not much to tell," replied Sally, "except that I just turned on her
and defied her. I felt the time had passed for intimidation, and I
told her so."
"Good for you, Kitten," and Bobbie demonstrated her approval. "I
always knew your spunk was just smoldering, ready to burst into
flame at the right moment. Now, I saw the cause of Dol's
disquietude. Her shop is closed, shut up tight, barred windows and a
cute little white sign tacked right under the former artistic door.
The sign reads 'To Let' and it is easy to imagine the crepe hanging
from the knocker."
"She told me she lost a lot--by the arrest of Madam Z, and do you
know, Bobbie, that woman was a real lunatic?"
"Of course I know it. Didn't I ride horseback with her? But they are
all gone now and as the poet says: 'Good riddance.' Come along,
Kitten, and eat grub. That's a function I decline to omit, Dol Vin
or any other threat hanging over my poor bobbed head. Come on, dear,
cheer up! The worst is yet to come!"
"Wait a minute, please do, Bobbie. I just can't think straight. You
know every afternoon now there is an open forum or a class meeting
and I wish we could go before we run into a further danger."
"Oh, no, dearie, don't think of that," cheered Bobbie, strangely
irrepressible ever since the big dance. "You can't tell yet what may
happen. Stay on the burning deck until the fog horn blows, then take
to the life-boats, is my plan of action. I hope we have a
substantial meal right now, for paying up bills and collecting
receipts is painfully appetising. Come on, dear, and smile while the
smiling is good."
"But just suppose Jane or Judy should drop in on us this afternoon
and see the things packed up?"
"Tell them I am eloping, break the news gently and blame it on me. I
feel as if I could stand for any monumental conspiracy that was ever
conspired. I am that experienced in intrigue. Perhaps I'll apply for
a government position in the diplomatic corps. I believe I could
carry it off beautifully, brass buttons, plumes and all. There's
Dolly. Just look at her hair! Like an escaped watch spring."
"Did you meet any little fairy in your walk? Some one who has
promised immunity? You seem tragically jolly?"
"No, not a fairy, nor yet a ghost. This is just my natural reaction.
And while I think of it, Kit," she let the door slam violently,
"don't forget I have not reformed. I positively refuse to be any
better than I ever was; I have simply developed, and outgrown the
antagonistic influence of some defunct ancestors. Oh, how good it
all seems here today? I believe I am glad Dol came and went and took
her particular influence with her. Wasn't it lucky I had called in
my head and that she didn't leave me with one side done and one side
undone? Wonder if we will notice any painfully deserted blondes in
her wake?"
It might be the reaction, but Sally could not help wondering why
Bobbie was in such high spirits. Then she recalled the old saying,
"Too much joy is sorrowful," and hoped her chum's joy would not be
thus rudely transformed.
Judith and Jane were waiting for them at the dining hall door.
"Truants," said Jane, "where have you been? We have been planning to
send a bell boy after you. My famous dad has just written he is
coming through New York and wants to take me and my stepsister home
with me. You know who he thinks bears that relationship to me, of
course?"
They knew she referred to the scholarship girl, and Sally looked
dumb while Shirley looked startled.
"Oh, that would be lovely," said Shirley with marked evasion, "but--
"
"My dad never entertains a but," said Jane, "so I hope, Bobbie, you
will hurry up your plans to come out and ride a real horse on a real
ranch in Montana. Won't she look stunning on a bronco, Sally?"
But the invitation, alluring as it was, did not seem to add zest to
the appetite of Bobbie. It had simply swept her off her trustworthy
feet, and Sally seemed little better. Another corner to escape from!