WHEN DOUBLES MEET.
General rejoicing showed in the smiling faces of the girls around
the tables Saturday morning at breakfast when it was announced that
the Westlake would leave the dock at nine o’clock for parts unknown.
Applause followed the statement from the dean, who went on to say that
it would carry the senior girls and some of the teachers, and that
lunch would be provided.
“You will wear suitable hats and wraps, for we shall stop at one of
the towns to do such shopping as by this time you may have wished that
you had done before coming. As it is not a picnic, there is no need of
picnic garb. Lunch will be enjoyed on the Westlake. Make your wants
known to one of the teachers. You will be chaperoned in small groups
while shopping.”
“Oh, good hunting!” cried Madge, though softly, as soon as Miss Irving
had finished. “I was unusually stupid about some of the little things
that I might have known I wanted. Will you want to shop, Shirley?”
“I’ll _want_ to,” smiled Shirley, “but I spent too much on different
things while I was on my trip. Little Shirley will have to count the
pennies, alas. But I might buy a hankie, to remember the first trip in
the Westlake, and indulge in a sundae if they let us. Do you know where
we shall stop?”
“Haven’t an idea. It all depends on where we go.”
“You don’t mean it,” laughed Shirley. “Of course it will not be
Chicago?”
“No, I think not. We’ll probably start north, but as the lake is lovely
this morning we’ll go out quite a distance and have a fine ride.”
Shirley hesitated to put on the coat in which she had traveled. It was
still pretty, but needed cleaning very much, and pressing had only
seemed to bring out a few dingy streaks all the more. She brushed up
and wiped off the hat, and fastened down its few ornaments more tightly
in order that darker and less faded portions should not show. “Can I
have cleaning done from here, Madge?” she asked.
“Yes, but it may be some time before you get back what you send.”
“Then I suppose I’ll have to wear this coat as it is, till time to put
on my winter coat.”
Madge nodded an affirmative. “Oh, it doesn’t look so bad,” she said,
not very tactfully, for there was no consolation for Shirley in that
remark.
“No one would ever know that it was new when I started away in June,”
ruefully said Shirley, “and I tried to take care of it, too. Well, it
can’t be helped. If it weren’t for the Sunday service, I could get
along here on the campus without it. Luckily I did not catch it on
anything to tear it. It will be all right after it is cleaned, I hope,
for I shall have to wear it next spring again.”
While Shirley might feel uncomfortable at the start, she was too
sensible to let any coat or hat spoil her enjoyment of the trip; but
she did wish that she could make herself a little less conspicuous. She
would slip into some seat and just stay there! Yet Shirley knew well
enough that there was probably no new girl in any school who came into
quicker prominence than herself. Seniors and freshmen, music students
and irregulars of any sort by this time knew “Sidney Thorne’s double”
and were enjoying the fun of trying to tell them apart by stares and
looks that tried to be unnoticeable but were often felt, or seen, by
both Sidney and Shirley. Sidney resented some of it and had told one
of the freshman girls, in a half laughing but quite decided way to “do
her staring at the new girl” not at her.
“But Sidney,” explained the freshman, who knew Sidney in Chicago, “I
wanted to speak to you, and I had to look, to see if it were you or
Shirley Harcourt.”
“Look at our clothes,” said Sidney. “I always wear something different,
and she doesn’t, so far. Besides, we can’t look so much alike as you
all seem to think! It is ridiculous.”
Sidney was in much the same sort of a mood today. Of course this girl
would have to be in all the class affairs and it would not be as easy
to avoid her as it was about the hall or in classes. Well, there she
was, in that old coat and hat, and if Hope Holland was not with her,
and Ollie Mason, too!
The sun was warm as Shirley traversed the walks of the campus between
Hope and Olive, who had joined her to talk about the classical club
program. Madge and Caroline were behind them, and Betty Terhune from a
group in front called back that they were early enough to choose their
seats. Between the tall trees, then down to the shore they briskly
walked.
The Westlake looked prettier than ever, its deck smooth and clean, its
sides shining. None of the teachers had yet arrived, but there were two
men in charge of the boat. They saw that the girls were safely aboard
and kept a wary eye out for a possible reckless one.
Of course the girls with whom Shirley was walking wanted to sit in the
very front seats, where Shirley would be in plain view of everybody!
But then, the front of the boat was the most desirable place and
Shirley knew that she would enjoy cutting the waves there, with the
prow, and seeing the water tossed aside. Hope was being “nice to her,”
Shirley knew, as she asked Shirley to sit in a certain spot that was a
favorite location and took a seat beside her. Shirley already knew that
Hope Holland came from Chicago and was a member of the “Double Three.”
She found Hope a very pleasant companion, but she had Madge also, on
the other side of her, and Dulcie sat beyond Hope.
Sidney, with Fleta and Irma, was now making her way toward the prow
and girls were coming to the dock in numbers. “Nobody is going to take
Shirley Harcourt for me today,” Sidney thought, as she saw the hat and
coat and glanced with some satisfaction at her own soft sport coat, new
and trim. A gay, close little red hat confined her golden locks. A
scarf of the newest design fluttered its ends in the wind.
Shirley, as she caught a glimpse of the red hat and the white coat,
sighed and thought much the same thing that Sidney had thought, though
with a difference. She could hear Stella Marbury’s voice exclaiming not
far away. “Sid! That must be a new coat; I’ve never seen it before. It
is certainly nifty.”
“I’m glad that you like it,” said Sidney, drawing it a little more
closely around her and putting her hands in its pockets. “Yes, it’s
new. I got it for just such occasions as this. Thank fortune, we don’t
have to wear those uniforms off the school grounds!”
“Why I thought that you liked the uniform idea. I’m sure I heard you
say once that it was so democratic and sensible.”
“Probably I did,--last year. It is different now.”
“And I know why,” replied Stella. Then Stella dropped her voice and
said something else. Hope spoke to Shirley then, asking her about her
summer’s trip, which Madge had mentioned. As Hope had been through the
western parks, both girls expressed their enthusiasm over the scenery,
the tramps and the horseback rides, and Shirley was glad not to hear
any more of Stella’s conversation. Dulcie she liked very much. “Dulce”
had a quaint touch of humor all her own at times. It was not long
before Shirley forgot her coat and hat that were not all she could
wish. She was her own interested and interesting self, friendly, but
not too talkative, and giving the other girls a chance to lead the
conversation and to be as friendly as they evidently wanted to be. She
suspected Hope of some intention in the matter, but what difference did
it make why they were with her. She would enjoy the fun.
Cad Scott had brought her guitar, and two of the girls, Betty Terhune
and Olive Mason, had their “ukes.” Tall Olive clasped her ukelele and
beat away upon its strings with the greatest enjoyment, in the latest
popular songs or the old ones that everybody knew. Shirley heard the
school songs for the first time. They were clever and pretty, she
thought, and different from the university songs. She was glad that
she had come. It was nice girl stuff! There sailed a white schooner
with full sails under the strong wind. Gulls and other water birds flew
sometimes near them.
Her mind a blank, as she would have said, except for present
impressions, Shirley leaned back to watch the water, the boat and
girls, and to listen, humming such tunes as she knew and singing such
new words as might be repeated in choruses. “You have a good voice,
Shirley,” said Hope.
“Thank you,” Shirley returned. “I want to take lessons some day. My
mother sings, though her voice is of a different quality.”
A few minutes afterward, Hope said something to Caroline, who started
some new chords. She squealed loudly above the noise of the motor,
“We’ll sing ‘Westlake Forever.’ Sidney, you take the solo.”
“All right,” called Sidney across a few girls. The guitar twanged; and
the ukes gave a few opening strains, then were silent. Sidney began to
sing, in a rich contralto that showed a little training in the careful
enunciation of words and free tones.
Shirley gasped and was silent. That was the reason Hope asked Sidney to
sing. She had heard Shirley’s voice and wondered. It was scarcely kind
of Hope. Yes, perhaps it was, to show Shirley the similarity in voices
and leave it to her to decide about whether she should reveal this
phase of likeness or not.
“You can get the chorus to this, Shirley,” Madge stopped at the end of
the first chorus to say.
“I’m thinking that I will not sing any more today,” said Shirley,
smiling.
Madge reached over and patted her hand. “I noticed. I think that you
have had some training, too.”
“A little from my mother, just so I’ll not sing in a way to spoil my
voice.”
“Sidney began lessons here last year. She’s going on in Chicago when
she gets a little older. Her parents are going to give her all of that
sort of thing that she wants. So Cad says.”
But the girls were all singing again, Sidney having refused to do
anymore solo work against wind, waves and the engine. Shirley hummed a
little. That would let Hope know that she had not minded the revelation.
They were far out upon Lake Michigan to all appearances when
lunchtime came. But after they were all well fortified against future
contingencies by a variety of sandwiches, potato chips, pickles and
similar articles of a picnic lunch, Shirley saw that land was in sight.
They made for a port which proved to be Kenosha, on the Wisconsin
shore. There they spent a few hours, Shirley, to her surprise, in the
same group with Sidney Thorne. The girls had been assigned to certain
teachers, of whom there were a number out today. Madge said that the
ride was popular with the teachers. Two of them wanted to go to the
same shops and joined forces, hence the combination.
Shirley naturally kept with Madge and Caroline, but when they found a
place for the inevitable sundae or soda, Shirley discovered that Hope
Holland and Sidney Thorne were sitting down at the table where she and
Madge had seated themselves. Caroline, at the last minute, had accepted
the invitation of a beckoning hand from another small table like theirs.
Shirley did not know that Hope had dared Sidney to this but she looked
at the well-dressed girl so like herself and smiled in a friendly way,
as she acknowledged Hope’s introduction. “Miss Thorne” also spoke as
she would have done to any other girl and they all proceeded to give
their orders. It was over, and very naturally, the meeting of the
“doubles.” It could scarcely be called an adventure, and yet Shirley
had a strange feeling about it. They talked, as girls talk, of school
affairs chiefly, as they enjoyed the tempting dishes brought them.
Hope, Sidney and Madge told bright stories of former adventures for
Shirley’s benefit, but Sidney seldom looked at Shirley as she talked.
She _was_ a dear girl, Shirley thought even if she had waited so long
to say a word to her. How could it have happened? _Could_ there be any
common ancestor not so far back, or was it just one of those strange
duplications of which she had read?
Let it go for the present, the manner of both girls said. Sidney was
her most charming self, appealing to Madge or Hope about this fact or
that fancy. She called Shirley Miss Harcourt, which set Shirley off
just a little farther than the other girls. But it was going to be
much more comfortable for both Shirley and Sidney after this, with no
efforts to avoid each other. Shirley decided that Sidney would have to
be the one to make any advances, if they became really acquainted, but
nods and smiles were possible now.
It was nearly dinner time when the launch at last brought its load of
girls home to the school grounds. Madge took Shirley’s arm as they
walked up from the dock. “Hope said that she engineered that meeting,”
Madge told Shirley. “She said that she thought it ridiculous for Sidney
not to know you at all.”
“I hope that she did not force Sidney Thorne into it,” said Shirley,
“not that it matters so much, but it is better.”
“She said that she dared her to sit there with you and Sid took the
dare. I think that she enjoyed it at the last.”
“It makes everything less noticeable now, I think,” Shirley
thoughtfully said. “After a while the girls will not think so much
about it, and I am sure that I shall not. I am glad to have met Sidney
and I think her a fine girl. What do you think of Hope? Did she mean it
kindly, do you think, when she asked Sidney to sing the solo, and was
it to show me how like our voices were?”
“Yes to both, I think,” declared Madge. “She probably did it on an
impulse, and if she thinks that you do not understand, she will very
likely say something to you about it. By the way, you and Sidney could
have a lot of fun at the Hallowe’en masquerade if you dress alike.”
“I’d not like to suggest it, but it _would_ be fun.”