THE PROFESSOR AT A KIMONO PARTY
The Welsh rarebit was just assuming its required thickness and
smoothness and the toast was done to a turn ready to receive its
libation of cheese, when the wanderers came pattering in.
"Where is Edwin?" demanded Judy.
"In his den! You see this is a kimono party and gentlemen are not
admitted," said Molly, helping Judy off with her coat and veil. "Now
tell us all about it! Something has happened, I can see by your eyes and
hair."
"Happened! I should say it has! Something has bounced! Call Edwin! I
don't give a hang if we are in kimonos! I'll be bound he does not know
a kimono from a ball gown--I can't tell it twice."
"Otoyo and I are not dumb. We might help out when you fall by the
wayside," laughed Katherine, "but I, for one, don't mind the professor."
"Nor I! Nor I!" chorused the others.
"I think mine is vastly becoming," Jessie whispered to Margaret, who
called her a vain puss.
Edwin came in, rather pleased at being admitted and being allowed to
have some of the party.
"I never expected to get in on a fudge party," he said, contentedly
settling himself by Judy, who was bursting with news.
"Now begin!" commanded Margaret, rapping for order in much the old
manner of class president and presiding officer.
"Begin at the beginning!" begged Edith.
"Well, first we went by Prexy's, just to get the feeling of youth back
in our veins. She saw us, but we chased by."
"So it was you! I wish I had run you down," cried the brother-in-law.
"It is a blessing you did not or a good story would have been ruined,"
said Katherine.
Margaret rapped for order and Judy took up the tale.
"Then we went to call on Mattie Math. She was burning the midnight oil,
at least the 10 P. M. oil, and when we acted the Musicians of Bremen,
she threw up the sash."
"The hash? What hash?" asked Jessie, who often arrived a bit late.
Shrieks and more rappings from Margaret.
"My, how much I have missed in never being asked to a kimono party
before," whispered the male guest in Judy's ear.
"After we had brayed and crowed and meouwed and a dog had barked for
us----"
"All together!" cried Katherine, and the musicians gave a sample of
their performance, Mrs. Matsuki outdoing all cats by her lifelike
caterwauling.
"After that, we went silently down to the village."
"I don't believe it, not silently!" asserted Edwin.
"No interruptions from the minority! We went silently down to the
village, veils down, steps stealthy, eyes open and mouths shut. The
garden at the Misels' was most inviting in its sweetness and beauty. Of
course we wanted to go in and rest on the nice warm stone benches, so we
walked through the turnstile and seated ourselves in the little dark
summer-house, there to await Adventure."
"Bang! Adventure comes stalkingly in!" cried Otoyo.
"Leaping was more like it!" from Katherine.
"Yes! Who should come springing from the side door, totally oblivious of
us, but Misel, stripped for running and looking like a detail from a
Greek frieze!"
"Monsieur Misel! Why, Judy, you are mad! Misel is so lame he can't stand
alone without crutch and cane!" cried Molly.
"Lame your grandmother! He is a perfect circus actor. I have never seen
a private citizen with such control of his muscles. He actually turned
somersaults over the hedge in the labyrinth, walked on his hands better
than I can on my feet, and cleared the five-foot hedge that borders the
street with as much ease as--as--I eat this fudge," reaching for another
piece.
"But, Judy, are you sure it was he?" asked Edwin excitedly.
"Of course I am sure!" And then Judy repeated the conversation they had
overheard between Misel and his wife. "My German is shady when I have to
use it, but I can understand very well."
"So can I," declared Katherine.
"And while I am constructionally verily faultily, I comprehend can,"
said Otoyo, so excited that she ran off to adverb forms as was her wont
in times of stress.
"This is serious," said Edwin solemnly. "So serious that I feel I must
do something about it and do it immediately. What time is it, honey?" he
asked Molly.
"Eleven-fifty! Why, what can you do? Not go fight Misel--not that!"
"No, not that, at least not that yet, although I should like to break
his lying crutch over his traitorous head. I must get in touch with the
Secret Service. War will be declared any day now and Germany is getting
busy even in quiet Wellington."
"You forget Exmoor College is so near," put in Margaret. "Our college
boys will officer the new army in part. I'll wager anything that this
man has already begun his pacifist propaganda here in Wellington and at
Exmoor, too. Has he been to Exmoor?"
"Why, certainly! He got me to take him over and introduce him, the
beast!" stormed Edwin. "Please pack my little grip for me, honey," he
asked, drawing Molly to him. "I can catch the twelve-forty to New York.
Don't give out that I am away. We had better do a little camouflage act
of our own. I am ill, very ill! That will do! Let it be--what shall it
be?"
"Mumps!" cried Edith.
"Not mumps, please!" cried Jessie. "Nothing contagious or we might catch
it!"
"Or worse than that, even, be quarantined!" laughed Nance.
"Pretty hard on you, honey, as it would stop the ceremony," suggested
Molly.
"What do you usually have when you have anything?" asked Margaret with
her judicial manner.
"Neuralgia!"
"Then neuralgia would be the natural thing to have when you have not
anything."
"Of course! Then, Molly, all day to-morrow your poor husband is ill with
neuralgia. Not even the servants and children must come in my darkened
room. I'll be home in the night and wake up the next morning feeling
much better," and Molly hurried off to pack the grip.
"In time to give the bride away!" suggested Judy.
"May I tell Andy all about it?" asked Nance shyly.
"Of course! We would not be so cruel as to make you start out with a
secret from your lord and master," said Edwin.
"It makes me so mad to think how kind Andy was to that man, offering his
medical services to him and what not. I know the brutes had a good
laugh over his gullibility. Andy told me afterwards that he could not
understand the case, and if the man wasn't shamming, it was the most
peculiar thing he had ever seen: the way he jumped up out of his chair
when he was so lame."
"Now I remember that very night that I heard Madame Misel call her
husband a fool on the way into the dining-room. I had forgotten all
about it until this minute. I kept wondering what she meant," said
Molly.
"I tell you they are deep ones," put in Katherine.
"Not a bit of it!" stormed Judy. "They are the worst of all fools
because they think no one else has any sense. Bobby, my beloved parent,
always says that is the worst kind of fool. That the wise man, who wants
to put over anything, must go to work with the idea that all the persons
he wants the scheme to get by with have as much and more sense than he
has. Now these Huns think they are the only pebbles on the beach and
take for granted that they are dealing with children and fools, and as
a rule they get caught up with."
"Not before they do lots of damage, however," said Nance.
"I hope in this instance their machinations have not done any," said
Edwin devoutly. "Be sure and give the Misels no inkling they are
suspected. All of you remember to be as polite as usual to them if you
happen to run across them."
"I'll try, but it will surely go against the grain," said Judy, her eyes
flashing.
"Prove your father's statements, dear little sister, and we shall let
these foreigners know that we are not the blockheads they call us."
"Also we are not the sleepily heads that must go bedwardly at such
earlyly hour," and little Otoyo opened her almond eyes very wide to show
that she at least would neither slumber nor sleep until the enemies to
her country and her adopted country were safely caught up with.
Molly came in with the grip packed. Some fudge was tucked in to help out
his journey and Edwin, with the warm wishes of the kimono party,
started on his patriotic travels.
"Remember to let Prexy know I am almost dead with neuralgia and do not
let a soul but Andy on to the fact that I am off on a journey. I'll
creep in to-morrow night. Keep your eyes open for deviltries that the
Misels may be up to, but don't let them know you are not the dummies
they think you. They will not be classed as alien enemies until war is
formally declared, and that will be day after to-morrow, according to
the latest news."
Nance was quietly stitching while most of the above conversation was
going on, but her thoughts were very busy. The idea that was uppermost
in her mind was that the day United States was to form an alliance with
the nations, she was to form one equally strong with her Andy.