THE GHOST DANCE
The room was very dark at first, and little whispers ran all about in
the gloom. There was a rustling and shuffling and a sound of hurried,
muffled steps. Patricia, from her hiding place behind the door screen,
could make out nothing but the dim oblong of the transom above her head
and the long pale mass of the skylight.
Suddenly a match flared and the twinkling tip of light grew at a candle
end and she saw a ghostly figure, its white hand busy with the candle
wick and its hollow, black eyes fixed on the tiny growing flame.
Instantly other matches flickered and more candles glimmered in ghostly
fingers, until the room was flashing with tiny points of light, while
the masses of heavy shadow trembled and surged about an array of
white-clad, mysterious, skull-faced figures that slowly formed in line
and, two by two, moved to the center of the room, chanting a low,
monotonous song as they walked in solemn procession.
"My word!" breathed Patricia, stirred and chilled in spite of herself.
"They're doing it brown this time!"
As her eyes grew accustomed to the flicker and motion, she searched for
Elinor, and saw her at last, the center of the weird procession,
standing quietly beside the chair from which she had risen, holding her
head with a sweet and gracious dignity that went straight to Patricia's
chilled heart.
"Dear old Norn," she thought with a returning glow. "They can't scare
her, bless her heart!"
Elinor stood smiling a little at the gruesome company as they slowly
paced about her in a narrowing circle, and when the leader took her
hand and led her to the model stand, motioning to her to mount it, she
acquiesced with graceful alacrity.
Standing high above them in the semi-gloom, with that faint smile still
on her lips, she watched them calmly as they danced the famous Ghost
Dance of the Academy about her, omitting no gruesome detail that would
be calculated to affright the dismayed beholder, chanting and groaning
horribly the while.
At a sign from the leader the dance stopped as suddenly as it had
begun, and the leader once more approached Elinor, followed by four of
the foremost ghosts.
They mounted the platform and, seating Elinor in the chair, filed
before her, presenting one after another a grisly hand and cadaverous
cheek for her salute.
"The horrid things!" murmured Patricia to herself, with her wrath
beginning to rise. "I'd pinch their noses for them if they made me
kiss them! Elinor's too gentle with them. I wonder why she doesn't
pull the string? She could reach it easily now."
But Elinor, far from showing rancor, shook the bony hands and kissed
the sunken cheeks with as good grace as though she were receiving her
dearest friends. She even made some little speech to each, though
Patricia was too far away to catch more than a word or two.
Her sweetness of temper, nevertheless, did not seem to appease the
ghosts, for, when the ceremony of salutation was finished, the four
seated themselves cross-legged on either side of her, while the leader
proceeded to catechize her.
"What is your name?" she asked, in a high, squeaking voice that
Patricia failed to recognize.
Elinor responded promptly.
"Where do you live?" was the next question, to which Elinor again
replied good-naturedly.
"Pooh! they're as stupid as the rest," thought Patricia contemptuously,
and she let her attention wander, studying the various ghosts, making
mental notes as to height and size for future reference.
She was brought back to the center of interest by a sharp hiss from a
ghost on the edge of the assembly and a muffled cry of "No fair!" from
another nearer the stand.
The leader raised a grisly hand and swept the assembly with her
cavernous eye sockets.
"I repeat," she piped, turning to Elinor with a jerky bow, "I repeat my
question. Why were you admitted to our class without having worked in
any antique or life classes before?"
"Oh, that's too personal," said a ghost in a disgusted tone. "I
protest! This isn't a Board meeting."
There was a general murmur of laughter at this, but the leader stood
rigid, awaiting Elinor's reply.
"I have told anyone who asked me," said Elinor, evenly, though her
cheeks were beginning to burn. "I came in on Bruce Haydon's
recommendation."
There was a rustle of approval at her quiet tone and a stir as of the
assembly breaking up, but again the leader motioned for silence.
"The other four sisters will make their investigation after I have
finished," she announced in her shrill tones. "I have but three more
questions to put to the novice."
There was a silence that made the next question come with more
insulting force, while Patricia again wondered why Elinor did not seize
this moment for her broadside of bonbons.
"How much," squeaked the leader, more shrilly than ever, "did Bruce
Haydon bribe the Board to let you in?"
Instantly there was a storm of hisses and protests; the four next
inquisitors jumped to their feet and down from the model stand with one
motion, crying that it was a shame that the fun was spoiled and that
they had all had enough for one night.
"Initiation's over!" shouted someone in a voice of authority, and
suddenly the candle-lights vanished into a tumultuous darkness, while
there was a confusion of scurrying noises that made Patricia's head
swim for a moment.
Then the lights flashed on, and she saw clearly the disheveled, excited
assembly hastily hiding bundles of white cloth in any available spot,
while hair and dress were hurriedly arranged and order generally
restored. Elinor still stood on the model stand under the brilliant
circle of lights, her wide eyes gleaming and her head uplifted.
"I haven't been asked for a speech," she began clearly. "But I do want
to say a word or two, if you'll let me."
She paused for some sign, and Patricia in her corner was delighted at
the Babel which answered her. Cries of "Of course we will!"
"_Dee-lighted!_" "Take all the time you want!" mingled with applause
and stamping, until Elinor could not forbear a laugh.
"I won't wear out your patience," she promised, as quiet was restored
and her voice could again be heard. "I haven't any oration to deliver.
I only want to say that I don't know who it was asked me those
questions, and I hope I never shall know. You've all been very kind to
me, and I'd hate to think that any of you wanted to make me
uncomfortable. I'm sure it was simply an initiation stunt, and I for
one shall never think of it again."
She paused with a bright, friendly glance on the upturned faces.
"This is my real introduction to the night-life class," she said, with
a sweeping gesture that, unseen to all but the anxious Patricia, caught
the cord from its hiding place among the draperies. "And I want this
evening to be a sweet memory to us all."
She stepped aside with a swift movement, and the big red lantern swayed
and threatened to topple as the cord tightened.
"Why, what's that?" cried a voice, and all eyes were turned to the
gaudy swaying globe. Before anyone could speak, Elinor gave another
hard tug, tearing out the bottom of the lantern, and down came the
shower of gay little gauze bags with their cargoes of bonbons,
pell-mell on the heads of the crowd!
"Hallelujah! It's the fee!" cried Griffin, with a green and gold
packet in her hands. "Hurrah for Kendall Major! She's the stuff!"
"Verses, too!" cried Margaret Howes. "Verses on every one of them.
Read them aloud, everybody in turn. Hurry up and get them all
together."
"Silence, will you?" shouted Griffin, pounding like mad. "Keep still
till the exercises are over. The first little girl to speak her piece
is Miss Doris Leighton. Come up, Doris, dear. Don't put your finger
in your mouth, and speak so we can all hear you. Fire away."
Patricia thought Doris Leighton looked pale as she stood up on the
model stand to read the nonsense verse that was on her candy bag, but
her loveliness wrought the same spell on the others as it always had,
and they listened to her silvery voice in appreciative silence, and
applauded her warmly at the end.
One after another, the girls mounted the stand beside Elinor, and read
the little verses, while the assembly listened, and even the model,
decorously cloaked, came from her little room, and with her crocheting
in hand sat smiling at the nonsense.
When the last verse had been read and the laughter died down, Griffin
raised her voice again.
"Nobody's asked me for a speech," she began and paused.
"Didn't think you had to be asked," came from the crowd in a laughing
voice.
Griffin looked sadly in the direction of the voice.
"Nobody's asked me," she repeated more firmly, "and so I'm not going to
make any. So there!"
Groans of relief sounded from the side of the room whence the voice had
come, and there was a general giggle.
"I merely raised my voice above the general clamor," Griffin went on
with an icy stare towards her hidden critic, "to suggest that we show
our appreciation of the delightful entertainment Miss Kendall has so
thoughtfully provided us by giving her the Night Life Song, or the
Academy Howl, whichever she prefers." She bowed to Elinor with
exaggerated politeness. "Which shall it be, Miss Kendall? Each is
equally diverting, but the Howl has the merit of greater brevity. No
extra charge for the choice, you know, so speak up and name it."
Elinor glanced about at the circle of laughing, friendly faces and her
eyes shone.
"I'll choose the song," she announced, gayly. "I've heard a lot of
howling already this evening."
"The song it is," cried Griffin, stepping on a chair and beginning to
beat time with a big paint-brush. "Now then, all together, my
children. Warble!"
Patricia, thrilled by the sweetness of the rippling, crooning song, and
before the verse was half done, joined unconsciously in with the
others, forgetting the need of words in the melody of the lilting song.
"Creatures of the night are we,
Sisters of the glow-worm dim,
Comrades of the hooting owl,
Toilers when the sunset's rim
Overflows with shadows deep;
Harken to our even-song,
Night it is that makes us strong."
The chorus swelled, with Griffin's thrilling treble soaring high and
clear:
"Glorious night that makes us strong,
Drowning day and ending strife;
Guide the skilful hand and eye,
Shape our efforts into life."
Patricia's heart beat hard with the beauty of the woven word and
melody, and she gave a little gulp to keep back the tears that sprang
so readily.
"I didn't dream those uproarious creatures could be so serious. I
wonder where they got that song," she said to herself as she slipped
unnoticed out into the twilight of the corridor.
She put the question to Griffin when she met her in the hall after the
class had broken up in disorder to celebrate the initiation by a
general gambol through the deserted halls and corridors. Patricia and
Griffin were seating themselves on a drawing-board at the top of the
short flight of stone steps that connected the back corridor with the
exhibition rooms above.
"That? Oh, Carol Lawton wrote that for us before she left. She was a
corker, I can tell you." A shade flitted over Griffin's face as she
settled herself more firmly on the board. "She died last fall, and
we've sung that song ever since. Ready now! Let her _go_!"
Away they sped down the stony stairs with a great clatter of board and
flutter of skirts, winding up at the bottom with a final heavy thump.
"Phew! That's great!" cried Patricia, springing lightly to her feet.
"It's more like flying than anything else."
"Yes, it's going some," returned Griffin nonchalantly, as she started
up the stair again, dragging the board after her. "The March Hare
originated it back in the dark ages, and we've been doing it off and
on--when the authorities don't get on to us."
"The March Hare?" queried Patricia, much elated by this exhilarating
society, and wishing more ardently than ever that she were fitted for
this fascinating class.
Griffin nodded. "Tabby March, you know. The young woman who paints
pussies. Used to go here three years ago, before she'd arrived. She
was a wild one, I can tell you."
"Do you mean Elizabeth March, who got the Tassel prize this year?"
asked Patricia in surprise. "Why, I saw her last week at the
exhibition and she was awfully prim looking."
Griffin chuckled. "It's fame that tames them, mark my words. Soon's
they get known they grow into a pattern. Ready now. Let her
r-r-r-_rip_!"
Elinor intercepted them at the bottom just as they were preparing for a
third flight.
"I've been looking for you everywhere, Miss Pat," she said radiantly.
"There's going to be a spread in the cave, and I've phoned home to Judy
not to wait for us, as we won't be there for dinner."
"Am I asked?" demanded Patricia with eager eyes.
"Of course, or I'd have sent word by you instead of phoning," said
Elinor quickly. "Come along down, both of you. Everything is ready,
and Margaret Howes is making Welsh rarebit just specially for you--she
heard you say you adored it. Hurry, hurry."