ENTER THE SCAPEGOAT.
Peggy was sitting alone in her room that evening, studying, when there
rose a hubbub outside her window; wheels, and the trampling of horses,
and girls' voices. She ran to the window and looked out; there was a
great hay-rigging, drawn by four stout horses, and comfortably lined
with straw. Girls were climbing into it on every side, and more and more
came pouring out of the house. It was full moon, and their faces shone
so clear and merry in the light, that Peggy could not help feeling a
pang, not of envy, but of longing. Of course there had been no question
of her going; it was a junior affair; but they all looked so happy and
jolly, and it was so lonely here! As she stood longing, Viola Vincent
popped her pretty head in to say good-bye.
"Thought you might like to see my toque!" she said, fluttering in the
doorway. "It's the first time I have had it on. Isn't it dandy? Isn't it
perfectly sweet?"
Peggy thought it charming, and said so; she was rapidly losing her heart
to her pretty butterfly neighbour.
"I thought you'd like to see it!" said Viola, naively. "It makes it
easier to study, if you see something pretty. Ta, dear! I wish you were
going. We shall have a dandy time, simply dandy!"
She fluttered out, and left the door ajar behind her, so that Peggy
could not help hearing the half-whispered colloquy that ensued in the
corridor.
"Went to say good-bye to the Veezy Vee. Why shouldn't I?"
"Why should you? You'll have her around your neck if you don't take
care, like a lump, as she is."
"Hush, V.! you're quite vinegar, aren't you? Why? She's perfectly
harmless, and I find her quaint. You know I adore quaintness!"
"Oh, come along, and don't talk flummery to me; you know I can't stand
it."
The two passed on, and Peggy's ears burned uncomfortably. Evidently
Vivia Varnham had taken a violent dislike to her; well, she certainly
returned it. And of course that would prevent her from ever seeing much
of the other, sweet pretty thing. Well, of course she should have to be
alone most of the time. She went to the window again, and saw the two
V's climbing in; then there was a great shouting and waving of
handkerchiefs, and they drove away. Peggy sighed, and sat down once more
to her task. It was rhetoric, and her whole nature cried out against it;
but the study was prescribed, and the teacher, Miss Pugsley, was
reported to be very strict. Peggy put her elbows on the table, and her
head on her hands, and bent in good earnest over the book.
"'Both prepositions and conjunctions are called connectives.'
"Oh, dear! then why can't we _call_ them connectives, and have one word
to remember, instead of three?
"'When I say the hen barks'--why, that makes nonsense! Oh, I got two
lines mixed up. 'When I say the dog barks, I speak of some particular
dog.' Well, anybody can see that. Oh, I do wonder if Flora will remember
to wash Peter's ear, where he had the canker! It was almost well, but
still it will need washing. Dear Peter! dear dogs! they will miss me, I
know they will. If one could only have a dog here, it wouldn't be half
so bad. I could have a basket for him to sleep in, you know, and then in
the morning he would get up on the bed, and we'd have a beautiful time.
There's a dog barking now! He wants to be let in, poor dear! How
perfectly idiotic some people are, not to know what a dog wants. I
remember that stupid man at home beating poor Peter,--beating him with a
hoe, when all the time Peter was telling him that a tramp was stealing
the melons. Yes; but when Petie saw that the man was an idiot, he went
and attended to the tramp himself, and you never saw a tramp so scared
in your life. Oh, dear! well!
"'He was in the room, and went out of it.' I wish I could go out of this
room; but I don't know where I should go to. Bertha went, of course,
with the others. If it wasn't for Bertha, I really don't think I could
possibly stay here."
A knock at the door; and Bertha's square, cheerful face looked in. "Any
chance to study here? there's something the matter with my lamp,
why,--Peggy!"
For Peggy had jumped up and thrown her arms around her friend's neck,
and given her a hug which took her breath.
"Oh, you dear!" cried Peggy. "I never was so glad to see anybody in my
life. Here, take this chair, Bertha. Oh, it was just lovely of you to
come in. You knew I would be forlorn, I know that was why you came. But
why didn't you go on the straw-ride? I supposed of course you had gone."
"One question at a time," pleaded Bertha; "and I can't answer any if you
destroy my breathing apparatus, Hippolyta."
"Why Hippolyta?"
"Oh; she was Queen of the Amazons, don't you know? Only because you are
so strong, my dear."
"No," said Peggy, dolefully. "I never heard of her. Margaret would know,
but I am awfully stupid, I told you I was. Do you have rhetoric,
Bertha?"
"Not this year. I had it the first two years. It's not so bad; in fact,
I was rather fond of it."
Peggy gazed at her in such unfeigned amazement that Bertha could not
help laughing; but there was never any sneer in Bertha's laugh. "Come!"
she said. "Now we'll sit down and study our prettiest. See! I have a lot
of Greek to do. Peggy, don't look like that! What is the matter?"
Peggy had recoiled in horror, her blue eyes opened to their widest
extent.
"Greek!" she cried. "You don't--I sha'n't have to take Greek, shall I?
because I would rather die, and I should die!"
"Nonsense! no, I don't know that you will have to take it at all. What
course have you taken,--scientific? Oh, no, you don't have Greek in
that. What have you had to-day?"
"Geometry! Of course that was splendid."
"Oh, indeed! was it?"
"Why, yes; I just love geometry. I could do it all day, but we only have
it one hour." And Peggy looked injured.
"Well," said Bertha, "you are a queer girl, Peggy Montfort. But there'll
be one happy person in this school, and that is Miss Boyle."
"I don't understand you! Don't most girls,--don't you like geometry,
Bertha?"
"My dear, I regard everything in the shape of mathematics with terror
and disgust. I don't know any geometry, nor any algebra. I've been
through them both, and the more I learned, the more I didn't know. As to
arithmetic, I know that four quarts make a gallon, and that really is
all my mind is equal to. But if you won't let me study my Greek, Peggy,
I shall go home again to the Nest."
"Oh, I do! I will!" cried poor Peggy; and there was silence for a time,
both girls studying in earnest, the silence only broken by the turning
of a page, or a heartfelt sigh from Peggy as she dealt with parts of
speech.
So thoroughly were they absorbed in their task that they did not hear
sundry noises outside the window. The window was open, for the night was
warm as well as bright; indeed, the upper half of it was pushed entirely
down, so that it was like a double half-door of glass. Outside this
window was the black skeleton of the fire-escape; and if the two girls
had been on the alert, they might have heard various unobtrusive sounds
from this direction. As it was, they both started violently when a clear
voice addressed them in quiet and thoughtful tones.
"Peace to this dwelling!" said the voice.
Peggy looked up hastily. There, leaning on the window-sash, as calm and
composed as she had been at the top of the rope, was the stranger with
the melancholy eyes and the Madonna braids.
"Peace!" she repeated. "Piece of pie! have some!" She held out a large
segment of pie, and added, "Any admittance for the Goat?"
Peggy was still too startled to find breath to answer, but Bertha sprang
up, crying, "Grace! how could you frighten us so?"
"Not Grace!" said the stranger, with an unmoved countenance. "Goat! let
us not deceive the Innocent! A scapegrace is one thing, a scapegoat is
another, and from some points a preferable one. But the Innocent is
abroad, I perceive. Innocent, I am the Scapegoat. Is there admittance?"
"Oh!" gasped Peggy, blushing and faltering. "Oh, please come in! I--I
didn't know you were waiting for me to-- Sha'n't I open it from the
bottom?"
"If you will take the pie," said the stranger, gravely; "thank you; that
is your piece, this is mine,--already bitten, or I would offer it to the
Fluffy."
Relieved of two large pieces of pie, she laid one hand on the sash, and
vaulted lightly over; then she shook hands solemnly with Peggy, took her
own piece of pie, and, seating herself on the floor, proceeded to eat it
daintily.
"It is a good pie!" she said. "If not afraid of pollution, Fluffy, a
bite?"
Bertha was looking half amused, half angry. "Grace, how can you act so?"
she said.
"How?" said Grace. "My sweet child, it is as easy as breathing. I will
give instruction at any time, without charge."
"I thought you were doing double lessons," Bertha went on, "and being as
good as gold. Grace, you can be so good!"
"Can't I!" said Grace; her tone was one of admiring gravity; her blue
eyes kept their look of pensive sadness.
"And it's a thing I admire, goodness!" she went on, shaking her head.
"That's why I practise it. Double lessons? I'll warrant you! this is the
second time I have been down here to-night, for example; other things in
proportion." She waved her hand, and fell to again at her pie.
Peggy had been sitting open-eyed, watching this singular person, not
knowing what to say. Now, however, meeting the solemn gaze of the large
sad eyes, she felt compelled to speech.
"It--it's delicious!" she said, timidly. "Wouldn't you rather sit in a
chair, Miss--" she hesitated, not liking to say "Grace."
"Oh, dear!" said Bertha, still put out. "You make me forget my manners
and everything, Grace. Peggy, this is Miss Grace Wolfe; Grace, Miss
Peggy Montfort."
"Charmed!" said Miss Wolfe. "But we have met before, Fluffy, or I should
not have descended."
"We met, 'twas on a rope,
And I thought she had done me;
I felt, I could not feel,
For my fate was upon me.
"If it hadn't been for your possession of peas, you would have beaten
me, Miss Montfort. As it was, here's to our next meeting under the
ceiling!" She took a large bite of pie, and regarded Peggy benevolently.
"Of peas?" repeated Peggy, vaguely, feeling that this might be English,
but was not sense.
"Precisely. _Avoir du pois_, literally, to possess a pea! The French
language. But you should have seen Vexation!" this strange person added,
turning to Bertha. "Did see her? Well, she was a pleasant sight. Noxious
animal, Vexation! It is a joy to see her taken down occasionally."
"I notice you are good friends enough, where any mischief is afoot!"
said Bertha, bluntly. She broke a corner off the pie, and added, "Goat,
this is mince pie!"
"It is! it is!" said Miss Wolfe. "Ever discriminating, my own! And good?
Say it is good, Fluffy!"
"Yes, it is uncommonly good!" said Bertha. "Where did you get it? You've
no business to have it, of course!"
"I got it out of a bandbox, sweet one!" replied Grace Wolfe. "It
lives--they live, I should say, for there are three of them, thanks be
to praise!--in a bandbox. A round one, or, to be more exact, oval in
form, covered with wall-paper, whereon purple scrolls dispute the
mastery with pink lozenges. It's the sweetest thing in bandboxes that
I've seen since time was."
"Yes, but the pies!"
"The pies! as I was saying, three of them; ample, full moons of rapture!
"They came in beauty, side by side,
They filled one home with glee.
Their bones are scattered--"
She paused with an expressive gesture.
"The best of it is,--you will admit that this is neat, Fluffy, even if
your slavery to the virtues compels your disapproval,--the best of it
is, the bandbox is the property of our Puggy."
"Miss Pugsley's bandbox! Oh, Grace!"
"Precisely! Our Puggy goes heavily without it, I am told. What would
you? It was outside her door, while sweeping was going on; one is human,
after all. She was out, with the best bonnet on her head. Poor head!
Poor bonnet! My hearty commiseration for both! When she returned, no
bandbox! At present she harries the domestics; she hasn't thought of me
yet, for a wonder. To-morrow, or the day after, I shall finish the
pies--alas! Then I return the repository, and her bonnet acquires a
fine, full, fruity flavour that annihilation alone can remove.
"You may break, you may shatter
The tile if you will,
But the scent of the brandy
Will cling round it still."
"Grace! What a diabolical plot! and you have been lying awake, I
suppose, chuckling over this!"
Miss Wolfe waved her hand in deprecation. "Not lying awake, sweet one!
Too slight a thing for that; still, it served to amuse. One must live,
even you will admit that. What's this? Greek? Give it me!" She stretched
out her hand for the book, but Bertha held it fast.
"No! no, Goat; I want it myself, and besides, you have no business here,
you know you haven't."
"No; and you?" replied the other, coolly.
"I have permission; my lamp is out of order, and I asked Miss Russell if
I might study in here," said Bertha. "But you will get into trouble if
you stay, Grace, you know you will. Be good now, and go home!"
Grace Wolfe gazed pensively at her.
"You would check the interchange of souls?" she said. "I feel drawn to
this Innocent, Fluff! I feel that she may have an influence over me for
good. You would not part us? Could'st love a Goat, Innocent?" she
added, turning to Peggy, and fixing her eyes on her with mournful
intensity.
Peggy blushed, but before she could reply Bertha struck in decidedly.
"Grace, just one word! Peggy Montfort is a stranger, and I am not going
to let her get into trouble if I can help it. And I don't want you to
get into trouble, either!" she added, more gently. "You know, my dear--"
She stopped suddenly, for Grace Wolfe threw up her hand with a warning
gesture; then, with a single swift movement, she rolled under the bed,
and was out of sight.
"Study!" said Bertha, in a low whisper. "Study _hard_!"
Wholly bewildered, Peggy fixed her eyes on her book. She had heard no
sound before, but now came a footfall in the corridor. A knock at the
door, and Miss Russell opened it and looked in.
"Your lamp is in order now, Bertha," she said. "I thought I would tell
you, as I was going by; but you can stay a little longer, if you like.
How charming you have made your room, Miss Montfort."
"Won't--won't you come in, Miss Russell?" stammered poor Peggy,
conscious of Grace Wolfe's eyes under the bed, yet feeling that civility
admitted of only one answer.
"Not now, thank you! Some day soon I shall come and make you a little
visit, though, with pleasure. Good night, young ladies!"
She nodded kindly, closed the door, and passed on.
The girls drew breath. A moment, and Grace Wolfe rolled out again, rose,
and shook her neat dress.
"So much for Buckingham!" she said. "The good point about Principie is,
she is respectable. Now, my Puggy would have looked through the keyhole
first. But I foresee a visit to my own humble cot, to see whether I have
learned my lessons.
"Oh! Farewell, friends!
Here Thisbe ends!"
She waved her hand, vaulted once more over the window, and was gone. An
occasional faint, cat-like sound told of her progress up the
fire-escape; then a window creaked slightly overhead, and all was
silent.
Bertha Haughton ruffled up her curly black locks with a gesture of
exasperation.
"And the worst of it is," she said, "that girl will know her Greek
better than any one in class. That's half the trouble; she learns so
quickly, her lessons don't take half her time, and she puts the rest
into mischief."
"She seems awfully clever!" said Peggy, timidly.
Bertha nodded. "She is just that, my dear; awfully clever! I'll tell you
more about her to-morrow, but now we must study hard, for we've only
twenty minutes left. Only, my dear, when you think of the Goat, remember
three things: she is D. D. D.,--dear, delightful,--and dangerous!"