On Thursday the girls would leave for their Christmas vacation. Dolly,
as well as Beth and Mary Sutherland, had passed their examinations in
a very satisfactory manner, and could enjoy the holidays with clear
consciences. The freshmen had been getting up a musical extravaganza
under the energetic direction of their president. There was no denying
the fact that Margaret Hamilton made a fine class president. She had
insisted upon Dolly's having a prominent part. Margaret, herself, had a
fine contralto voice, and by common vote, another of the principal parts
was given to her. Beth had a minor part, and Mary appeared only in the
choruses.
A number of the other girls had remarkably fine voices, and all of the
leading parts were well carried. The class president seemed unusually
elated and happy. The entertainment would be given by the freshmen
in the College Hall on Wednesday evening. The faculty was invited, of
course, as well as the sophomores, juniors and seniors. It was the
first entertainment that the freshmen had given, and everyone was eager
to see what they could do.
Professor Newton had been admitted to the last rehearsal, and she assured
the girls that it was the best thing that she had ever seen done by
any freshman class. "There wasn't a flaw in it. The idea is unique, the
costuming fine and the solo work was absolutely superb. You must have
worked hard. It will be something for all the classes to talk about for
years to come. Just do as well as you did at this rehearsal, and you
will find yourselves covered with glory, if you do not attempt anything
else in your entire college course."
"It is all due to our president," said one of the group who surrounded
Professor Newton. "It was her idea in the first place; she adapted the
extravaganza to our class, and it is she who has made us work so hard at
it."
"You have every reason to be proud of your work, Miss Hamilton,"
Professor Newton said cordially.
"I am tremendously proud of the girls, Professor Newton. Of course, I
could have done nothing at all if they had not been so willing."
Just then the ringing of the gong summoned the majority of the girls to
a recitation, and Margaret added in a lower tone, "I am only afraid of
Ada Willing's last solo."
"But why, Miss Hamilton? That is one of the best things in the entire
entertainment. It is so full of good-natured hits at the other classes
and the faculty. It is sheer, pure fun; everyone will enjoy it, and Miss
Willing has a magnificent voice."
"But it is so uncertain. That solo should be sung well, for it is the
most unique thing that we have. Sometimes Miss Willing does it superbly,
and sometimes she does it miserably. Once or twice she has actually
forgotten the opening words, they are pure nonsense, you know, and not
very easy to remember, if a person be nervous."
"Don't worry about it," Professor Newton advised kindly. "I am sure
you will come out all right this evening. You should rest the balance of
the day."
"I want to go out for a little while, Professor Newton; then I shall
surely take your advice."
Dolly and Beth had been almost the only ones who had heard this
conversation. As the two walked down the corridor, Beth said
thoughtfully: "I would be willing to wager a peanut that our president
has gone out merely to walk up Murray's lane. She goes there every
single day at this hour."
"I don't believe it is for any wrong purpose, Beth. The lane is within
the limits that we are allowed to go. Some way I have faith in Miss
Hamilton."
"I am not saying that I have not. But certainly she is secretive. Of
course, that is no sin, as we decided long ago; at the same time one
cannot help speculating about her, more or less."
"I have watched her rather closely ever since Thanksgiving, and she
really has never said a word in my hearing that was untrue or false. Last
week, in Miss Dunbar's room, the subject of wealth and aristocracy came
up in some way. Miss Hamilton was appealed to. I do not think you were
present, but Miss Dunbar asked if Miss Hamilton did not consider good
breeding and refinement inseparable from wealth and family position."
"What a snob she is."
"We all know that. I was rather curious to hear what our president
would say. She did not say much. She is like Grant. She knows the wisdom
of silence. She told Miss Dunbar that she did not agree with her at
all. Then she made the first personal remark that I ever heard her
make. She said that as far as she was concerned, she had no wealth, and
while she was proud of her family, herself, she had no idea that Ward
McAllister would ever have admitted them to his sacred list of four
hundred."
"Good for her. She told the truth, and yet the girls did not realize
just how true it was, I presume. She has an air about her that seems to
betoken wealth and distinction. How misleading appearances are."
"Yes, aren't they? Well, the facts will be sure to come out some day,
for this world is small, after all, and what we learned, others will
be sure to learn, too. There is no harm at all in it, but Miss Dunbar
and that set of girls who fawn so around her, would never speak to her
again. You'll see."
"I don't like to think that you are a true prophet, Dolly, for the sake
of our sex. Why should we be more ungenerous to Margaret Hamilton than
the Harvard boys are to Mr. Steele?"
"There is no reason at all why we should be, and if the test ever comes,
I, for one, shall stand by her."
"And I, too," said Beth. "Though I hope the necessity will never
arise." It did, however, and the two girls proved true to their promises.
College Hall was crowded that evening. Friends from the town had been
invited, and everyone was anxious to see what the freshmen class could
do. Whispers of something a little beyond the ordinary had gotten out,
and all were expectant.
There was a spontaneous burst of applause when the curtain went up, and
showed the picturesque setting of the first scene, representative of
the grove in the college grounds. The girls were at their best, and
everything went smoothly during the first three acts. The fourth act was
the last, and the most difficult singing and acting came in it. All had
gone perfectly so far, and the class president's face began to look
serene and confident.
Miss Willing's solo was near the end. There had been no flaw up to
that point, but when it came time for her to break in with the merry,
half-saucy characterization of the other classes, there was an ominous
silence. Dolly and Beth, glancing at her, and recalling what Margaret
Hamilton had said, realized that the girl's memory had failed her
entirely, just through sheer nervousness. The president's face turned
pale. She had so wished this to be a most notable success; it seemed
imperative to her, for many reasons. She wished to please one most
dear to her, and then, too, if she could win these laurels for her
class, no matter what might happen in the future, the girls could not
be utterly ungrateful to her.
And now Ada Willing was turning her wonderful success in to a most
disastrous defeat. It all meant so much to Margaret Hamilton. She
recalled the words perfectly herself, and longed to take the solo into
her own hands, but this was a soprano solo which she could not hope to
compass with a contralto voice. She was tasting the full bitterness of
defeat, when a voice broke out with the solo, clear, sweet, piquant--not
Ada Willing's voice, but Beth's. And Beth put a verve and daring into
the words which Miss Willing was perfectly incompetent to do.
Verse after verse flowed on, smoothly, triumphantly. The whole hall was
shaking with unrestrained laughter. The president's color came back to
cheeks and lips. Beth had saved the day; she was doing better than Ada
Willing could have done, for she was an inimitable actress, and in her
song she rapidly personified sophomores, juniors and seniors, as well
as professors, in a manner that was perfectly unmistakable.
The applause was so generous and long-continued, that Beth was forced
to repeat some portions several times. When the curtain went down
shortly after that, for the last time, Beth was surrounded by rapturous
classmates who were ready to fall on her neck or carry her around the
grounds, for thus saving their reputation.
"Come and meet my mother, will you not--you and Miss Alden?" Margaret
Hamilton said after she had tried in a somewhat tremulous tone to thank
Beth for her ready wit. "I would like to have you both meet her."
"I did not know that she was here," Dolly said in surprise. "I thought
your home was in the West."
"We did live in Chicago until recently. Now we have no home exactly.
Mother and I are all there are in the family, and she will board here
in town so as to be near me. She might as well, there is no reason why
we should be separated by several hundred miles now."
With much silent bewilderment, Beth and Dolly followed Miss Hamilton
to one corner of the room, where they found Mrs. Hamilton engaged in
conversation with Professor Newton.
"Thank you so much for looking after Mother a little, Professor
Newton," Margaret said gratefully. "I was in such haste that I did not
have time to introduce her to anyone else before our entertainment,"
and then she presented Beth and Dolly.
The girls scrutinized her closely. She was dressed in black, but
with a certain quiet style that convinced Dolly that Margaret had
supervised the making of the gown. The face was not handsome, but it
was good-natured, and denoted a large amount of practical common sense.
The girls sat down on either side of her. They had their own reasons
for wanting to know more of their class president's mother. She was
evidently brimming over with pride and love for Margaret. In the
course of their conversation it became very evident that she knew
nothing of "society's small talk," or of the subjects that college
girls often bring up naturally in connection with their studies.
Nevertheless, she could talk well and interestingly on many commonplace
themes, especially when her subject of conversation related more or
less closely to her daughter. Her grammar was good, and her language
quite as choice as one usually meets with in a casual acquaintance.
Dolly and Beth, watching their classmate closely, noticed with secret
relief that she introduced her mother to all the members of the faculty,
as well as to Miss Dunbar and to the most exclusive girls of the class.
She did it with a quiet, unassuming dignity which her two close critics
could not but admire.
The evening was over, the entertainment was universally conceded to have
been the most unique and successful affair ever given by any freshman
class, and even the seniors owned frankly that they would be compelled
to look to their laurels next term, or they would be quite outdone by the
insignificant freshies.
Beth and Dolly had gone upstairs, the visitors had all departed, at
least, so the girls thought. Dolly remembered a book which she needed
from the library. They turned into the wing to get it, and Dolly ran on
before to switch on the electric light which had just been turned off.
Margaret's voice, low but penetrating, reached them distinctly.
"I told several of the girls, Mother, that you were going to board in
town so as to be near me."
There was a startled exclamation from Mrs. Hamilton. "Indeed, Mother,
I had to do it. Of course you want to see me, and I want to see you.
If it is clearly known that you are boarding in town, I can readily get
permission to go and see you as often as I have time. And you can come
and see me every evening. As it is, I feel as if I were guilty all the
time of doing something wrong."
"You haven't broken a single rule, Margaret. I would be just as careful
about that, as you would, yourself."
"I know, but why should I sneak off up Murray's lane to meet my mother,
and why should you have to go there every day through the woods, when
one might just as well meet openly? It has often been almost impossible
for me to get off alone at the time you go there. Believe me, Mother,
my way is the best. I am not ashamed of you. I should not deserve any
success in life if I were."
"I know all that, Margaret; at the same time, would you have been
elected class president or invited to your friend's house at
Thanksgiving, if it were generally known that your mother had been a
servant nearly all her life, and that your father had been merely a
coachman? Of course, he had a good education, and if it had not been
for that accident, we would have had our own little home. But when that
happened, we just had to do the best we could, and he took a coachman's
position with Mr. Worthington because that was the first thing that
offered. And he kept it all his life. But would your fine friends
feel the same toward you if they knew that?"
"No, they would not, Mother," Margaret answered in a low and rather sad
tone. "It hardly seems fair, does it? I know that many of them would
never speak to me again. I do not consider my affairs any business of
theirs, and I promise you not to volunteer any information. On the other
hand, Mother, I cannot meet you secretly any more. If you are really
afraid that someone will recognize you here, you can stay in the town
as quietly as you wish. I know that you are ambitious for me, Mother,
and I will do the very best I can for us both. I want to succeed, too.
If I am absolutely cornered, I shall tell no lies, though. I have not
done it so far, and I shall not hereafter. I suppose the truth may
naturally be known some day, but I am not going to be ashamed of either
of my parents, and you would be ashamed of me if I were, Mother."
"Yes, I suppose I would, Margaret, but if you can only get your
education, now that Mr. Worthington made it possible, I shall be
willing to stand in the background for four years. You were slighted
all through the public schools as soon as anyone knew that you were
just the daughter of Mr. Worthington's housekeeper, and it would be
worse here."
"Well, never mind, Mother, if--"
And there, to the girls' relief Mrs. Hamilton and her daughter passed
out of hearing.
"_She_ is true blue, no matter whether her blood is blue or not," said
Dolly softly. "Confess now, Beth dear, that you are glad she is our
president."
"She makes a good one," Beth acknowledged, and then they separated,
each going to her own room.
A moment later, however, there was a quick tap at Dolly's door, and
Beth's excited face appeared.
"What do you think has happened, Dolly?"