DOUBT ON ALL SIDES
"Do you think she suspects?" Amelia asked Laura as the two walked down
the corridor of the dormitory after working their way out of the
confusion that followed Nan's breaking in on their secret meeting.
"She's pretty smart," Laura answered. "We'll never be sure but I think
that Rhoda saved the day."
"The poise that girl has!" Amelia admired. "Every once in a while she
does something with such grace and tact that you can just feel the
generations of good breeding that are in back of her. She always knows
what to say and when to say it. She's a girl in a million and so utterly
unaware of it all too," she added half wistfully.
Tall, thin, angular Amelia had grown somewhat self-conscious about
herself in the days since she first came out of Wauhegan to Lakeview
Hall. It had done her good, however. She was developing into a less
abrupt, more considerate sort of person than she was when, as a newcomer
to Lakeview, she had taken part in the Procession of the Sawneys.
"Yes, she is unaware of it, fortunately," Laura answered. "She would be
an awful snob, if she wasn't. Now, take Nan. I don't think she could be
a snob no matter what happened to her. She's true blue all the way
through."
"That's because she has known what it is to be poor," Amelia replied.
"Her family has often had to fight to get along."
"Not even money would have made a difference," Laura maintained. "Not to
our Nan. Gee, but she's swell!"
But how "swell" she was, neither of the girls could really know, even as
they couldn't know what a big surprise the surprise party they
themselves were planning was going to be. Even as the arch-conspirators
talked and planned the days away, a certain lady that was head of a
certain school that you have all heard about in the Nan Sherwood books
smiled to herself.
"This school is so full of plots," Dr. Beulah Prescott said to herself
one night as she closed her office before retiring, "That I'm afraid it
is positively demoralizing." But as she said it, her grey eyes twinkled
and she looked for a moment as though she liked nothing better than
plots and plotters. "Now let's see," she paused as she put the keys into
her purse, "tomorrow I must see Professor Krenner and get in touch with
Grace's parents again. I don't see how we are going to manage about
Walter."
At the thought, she shook her head. Then she smiled again to herself.
"Problems, problems, problems all the while," she said as if she
relished them all.
Alone in her own apartments in the dormitory that night, Dr. Beulah sat
down with books and maps and plans and worked away until the small hours
of the morning.
"Is there something wrong?" Nan asked the next day as the girls left
German class. Bess started guiltily.
"What do you mean, 'wrong'?" she asked.
"Oh, I don't know exactly," Nan replied. "It's just a feeling I have
that there is something in the air. Say, Bess, is Dr. Beulah sick?"
Bess breathed a sigh of relief. "Safe again," she thought. "Why, not
that I know of," she answered quite truthfully. "What makes you ask?"
"I was up last night, late, sorting out some things that I don't want to
take away with me, because I couldn't sleep, I was so excited. There was
a light across the garden court in Dr. Beulah's apartment. I wondered
about it then, but forgot it this morning until I noticed that Dr.
Beulah was not in Chapel. That's quite unusual."
"I noticed that, too," Bess puzzled, "but then so many strange things
have been happening lately, that I've given up trying to solve them."
"Do you expect me to believe that?" Nan teased.
"Well, anyway," Bess half retracted what she had said, "I'm not as
interested as I once was."
"And why, pray tell?" Nan was curious now.
Bess blushed, but the postman coming down the hall toward the offices
relieved her discomfiture and perhaps saved the situation. It was hard
for Bess to keep a secret from Nan.
Now they both paused to speak to the genial old man who brought their
mail up from the village. "Anything for us?" It was Nan who spoke.
"Sure, and if it isn't pretty Nan Sherwood this fine mornin'," the old
Irishman paused to look through the mail he was carrying. "And pray,
who'd be after writing you in this springtime. Is it poetry you are
expecting from some good-looking young gentleman?"
Bess giggled and Nan blushed till even the tips of her ears were pink.
Old Pat went on fingering his way through the mail, "Dr. Prescott,
Professor Krenner, Lakeview Hall, Dr. Prescott again. Sure and she's a
fine lady. And another and another for her." He looked up regretfully at
the girls. "There's none for you today," he shook his head sadly, for
Pat did love a romance. "Sure and you'd better tell him where he is
headin' in," he shook an admonishing finger at Nan as he started on.
"But Pat," Nan and Bess stopped him again, "are you sure there's nothing
there for us from Tillbury?" Pat sighed and looked through again.
"So you'll not give up," he chuckled. "Well, let's see. Till--Tillbury,"
he almost spelled out as he looked at the postmarks. Nan put out her
hand.
"But it's not for you, girlie. Not today. Nothing for either of you," he
added and walked on, leaving two very crestfallen and somewhat worried
girls behind him.
At first neither spoke, and Bess swallowed a hard lump in her throat.
Nan put an arm around her shoulder. "Never mind, honey," she consoled.
"We'll probably hear tomorrow."
"But there was something there from Tillbury, I saw it."
"Oh, you probably made a mistake," Nan said, though she too felt sure
that she had seen a Tillbury postmark. "You're not such an expert at
reading upside down. Moreover, those postmarks weren't stamped very
plainly, and it would be easy to misread them."
"Nan, you might be able to convince yourself that everything is as it
should be, but you can't convince me." Bess stamped her foot. "Do you
know that something has happened and are you keeping it from me?" she
half accused Nan.
"Elizabeth Harley, what are you saying?" Nan was genuinely indignant.
"Here, I've been thinking all week that you were keeping something from
me, you've been acting so strangely, but I've said nothing about it. Now
you go and jump on me."
This brought Bess to her senses as nothing else could have. She laughed
and with remarkable control for her, carried the situation off and
allayed Nan's suspicions. "Oh, Nan, have you?" she burst out. "If I've
been acting more strangely than usual it's because I have been worried
about not hearing from mother. It's two weeks now, you know." And she
seemed so utterly sincere about it, for she was in part, that as they
pushed open the big doors of the class building they were in and walked
across the quadrangle to the Hall, Nan believed her entirely.
That night, Bess was alone for a second with Rhoda. "Do you know," she
confided, "I'll be so glad when this party is over that I'll be willing
to kiss Mrs. Cupp--well, almost," she qualified, as a picture of that
lady came to her mind.
Rhoda laughed. "I want to be there when you do it," she said. "But tell
me, why are you so anxious to have the party over and done with? I
thought you loved to plan parties."
"I do, generally, but I'm so afraid that I'm going to have a fight with
Nan before this one is over that I don't know which way to turn. We've
never had a fight as long as we have known one another. Wouldn't it be
just my luck to have one over something nice I was trying to do for
her!"
"Don't worry, you won't have a fight. Nan won't let that happen. Anyway,
the party is tomorrow afternoon, so there is only one more day to wait."
Rhoda's face was alight, for she, too, found it hard to wait.
"Have you been able to find out," she continued, "what it is that
Laura's committee has bought for a present?"
"No, not yet," Bess answered. "I've asked, but they vow they won't tell
unless they know what the refreshments are going to be."
"And I won't tell that," Rhoda confirmed a previous stand. "Besides, I
think it's more fun, if the committees do keep their decisions secret.
It's like Christmas when every cupboard and closet in the house is
brimming over with surprises."
"Yes, isn't it. Do you know, I'll bet I won't sleep a wink tonight,"
Bess admitted. "I'm so excited about the whole thing."
"Sleep tonight!" Rhoda exclaimed. "Why, I haven't slept for a week!"
"I wouldn't have either, if I had had your job," Bess admitted. "I think
it is the hardest one of them all."
"I liked it," Rhoda smiled. "How did your end of it work out?"
"You'll see for yourself, tomorrow," Bess looked mysterious, too. "I'll
just say this, Dr. Beulah is the most charming person I've ever come
across. She wrote the sweetest note thanking us for the invitation! And
she offered to help us in any way she could. In fact, do you know what
she's done?"
Rhoda shook her head.
"She's solved the problem of what to do with Nan until everything is
ready. She asked her if she would mind going down to the village
tomorrow morning on an errand that will take her all day. Then she asked
her to call Mrs. Bagley and bring her up here for Sunday afternoon tea.
And did Nan ever fall for it? It did my heart good. She's going to be
the most surprised person in this county tomorrow!" Bess rubbed her
hands gleefully. It was fun putting something over on Nan!
Sunday was a grand day, bright and clear and fresh as only an early
spring day can be. The crisp ruffles of the curtains in Nan and Bess's
room waved slightly in the breeze. Nan dressed herself in a fresh
looking dark silk print as she breathed deeply of the soft, warm air.
"Oh, it's good to be alive!" she exclaimed, "and this is one of those
days when you feel sure there is nothing but good in store for you."
"Maybe so," Bess responded as unenthusiastically as she could, for she
was afraid to let Nan even guess at her own excitement. "My only hope is
that there is a good breakfast waiting downstairs in the dining hall.
This being Sunday, I would like orange juice and pancakes and sausage
and some good hot cocoa with whipped cream swimming around on top."
"Ugh!" Nan made a wry face. "You and Laura Polk and your whipped cream.
I don't see how you can bear to have it for breakfast."
"Don't let it trouble you, darling," Bess was in an extraordinarily
pleasant mood, "we won't get it. You'll never catch Mrs. Cupp feeding us
whipped cream at any time. Says it's not good for our school-girl
complexions." With this, she went off to bathe and dress.
"You don't mind," Nan called after her, "do you, if I don't wait for you
this morning. I want to go to early chapel so that I can go down to the
village on the bus."
"Run along, and forget me," Bess urged her. "I'm going to take my own
lazy time about dressing this morning. I'm going to late breakfast and
late chapel and late everything. I've got spring fever with a bang."
So Nan went off and left a houseful of schemers behind her.