AN UNTIMELY LETTER
For three days after that eventful night Tavia was obliged to keep to her
room. She had a fever—from a cold the doctor thought—nothing contagious
he was positive—but, as a precautionary measure Dorothy was given another
room, until the fever should be entirely broken.
But the two friends were not to be separated much longer, for Tavia had
quite recovered now, and was up and about her room, receiving notes and
flowers from the girls, and recuperating generally.
“The first good rest I’ve had in months,” Tavia told Dorothy, as they sat
together again on the little window seat, looking out on the tennis
court.
“I do really believe you look better than you did before you were taken
ill,” agreed Dorothy, giving her friend a look of unmistakable
admiration.
“That’s lucky for me,” Tavia replied with something that sounded like a
sigh.
“Why?” asked Dorothy in some surprise.
“Oh, nothing,” was the answer, given rather evasively. “But a girl can’t
afford to get scrawny. Fancy yourself slinking down like a cornstalk in
the fall! Why, even the unapproachable Dorothy Dale could not well stand
the slinking process, to say nothing of an ordinary gawk like me going
through it,” and Tavia slyly looked into the mirror. She evidently had
some particular reason for being so anxious about her good looks.
Dorothy had been noticing this peculiarity of Tavia’s for some time—she
had been so extreme about her toilet articles—using cold cream to massage
her face daily, then brushing her hair ardently every night, to say
nothing of the steam baths she had been giving her face twice a week.
All this seemed very strange to Dorothy, but when she laughed at Tavia’s
new-found pastimes the latter declared she was going to look nice for the
summer; and that any girl who did not take care of herself externally was
quite as blamable as she who neglected the hidden beauty of heart or
brain.
And there was no denying that the “grooming” added much to the charms of
Tavia’s personality. Her hair was now wonderfully glossy, her cheeks
delicately pink, her arms round and her hands so shapely! All this,
applied to a girl who formerly protested against giving so much as half
an hour daily to her manicure needs!
Dorothy was anxious to have a serious talk with Tavia, but considered it
too soon after her illness to bring about that conversation, so she only
smiled now as Tavia set all her creams and stuffs in a row, then
stretched herself out “perfectly flat to relax,” as the book directions
called for. Fancy Tavia doing a thing like that!
“When I dare—that is as soon as that old Rip Van Winkle of a doctor lets
me off,” said Tavia suddenly, “I’m going to get a set of exercisers for
myself. I don’t believe we have half enough muscle work.”
“Why, my dear, one would imagine you were training for the circus ring,”
said Dorothy laughing.
“Hardly,” replied the other. “I never was keen on bouncing, and circus
turns all end with a bounce in the net. Those nets make me creepy—a
mattress for mine when on the rebound. Have you been to the post-office?”
“No, but I’m going. Want any stamps?”
“No. But if—if you get a letter for me I wish you wouldn’t put it into
Mrs. Pangborn’s box—I expect a little note from a girl, and I’m sure it
need not be censored, as the rest of the letters are.”
“But the rule,” Dorothy reminded her gently.
“I believe the United States postal laws are of more importance than the
silly, baby rules of Glenwood school,” snapped Tavia with unexpected
hauteur, “and it’s against the law for one person to open the letters of
another.”
“But Mrs. Pangborn takes the place of our mothers—she is really our
guardian when we enter her school. We agree to the rules before we are
taken in.”
“No, we were ‘taken in’ when we agreed to the rules,” persisted the
other. “Now, as it’s your turn to do the post office this week, I think
you might do me a little favor—I assure you the letter I expect is not
from some boy. Other girls can smuggle boys’ letters in, and yet I can’t
contrive to get a perfectly personal note from a perfectly sensible girl,
without the missive being—passed upon by—google-eyed Higley!”
“Oh, Tavia! And she was so kind to you when you were sick.”
“Was she? Then she ought to keep it up, and leave my letters alone!”
“Well,” sighed Dorothy rising, “I must go for the mail at any rate.”
“And you won’t save my one little letter?”
“How could I?” Dorothy pleaded.
“Then if you do get it—see it among the others—couldn’t you leave it
there? I will be able to walk down to the post office myself tomorrow.”
“But you couldn’t get the mail.”
“Oh, yes I could,” and Tavia tossed her head about defiantly.
Dorothy was certainly in a dilemma. But she was almost due at the
post-office, and could not stay longer to argue, so, clapping on her hat,
she bade Tavia good-bye for a short time.
“It palls on me,” Tavia told herself, as she again approached the glass
and took up the cold cream jar. “Who would ever believe that I would
stoop so low! To deceive my own darling Dorothy! And to make a fool of
myself with this ‘mugging’ as Nat would say.”
She dropped heavily into a chair. The thought of Dorothy and Nat had a
strange power over the girl—she seemed ashamed to look at her own face
when the memory of her dearest friends brought her back again to the old
time Tavia—the girl free from vanity and true as steel to Dorothy Dale.
“But the letter,” thought Tavia, recovering herself. “If that letter gets
into Mrs. Pangborn’s hands!”
Again she buried her face in her arms. Something seemed to sway her,
first one way, then the other. What had caused her to change so in those
last few short months? Why were her words so hollow now? Her own
“copyrighted” slang no longer considered funny, even by those girls most
devoted to her originality? And why, above all else, had she fallen ill
after that queer dream about making-up with the cold cream and the red
crayon?
“I’m afraid my mind was not built for secrets,” she concluded, “and if I
keep on moping this way I can’t say what will happen next.”
Meanwhile Dorothy was making her way back from the village with the
letters including one addressed to Octavia Travers. She had determined
not to make any attempt at giving the note to Tavia without the school
principal’s knowledge, for, somehow she feared Tavia’s honesty in such
matters, and, although Dorothy felt certain that Tavia would do nothing
she really believed to be wrong, she was afraid her chum might be misled
by some outside influence.
With a heavy heart Dorothy laid the mail down on Mrs. Pangborn’s desk.
That lady was just coming into the office as Dorothy was about to leave.
“Wait, dear,” said Mrs. Pangborn, “until I see if there is any mail for
the girls in your corridor. How is Octavia to-day? I hope she will be
able to go out by Sunday. Here, I guess this is a letter for her.”
Dorothy almost turned pale as the principal took up the small blue
envelope. “Just take it to her—perhaps it will cheer her up,” and she
handed Dorothy the missive without attempting to open it or question the
postmark. “There, I guess that is all I can give you,” and she put the
others in her desk. “Tell Tavia I am anxious to see her out of doors
again, and I hope her letter will have good news for her.”
Dorothy turned away with a smile of thanks, not venturing to say a word.
She held the blue envelope in her hand, as if it was some tainted thing,
for she well knew that the missive was not from home, the postmark
“Rochester” standing out plainly on the stamped corner.
Tavia saw her coming, and quickly caught sight of the envelope in her
hand.
“There, you old darling!” she exclaimed, giving Dorothy a vigorous hug.
“I knew you would bring it to me. How you did ever manage it?”
“Mrs. Pangborn sent it with kind wishes that it might contain good news,”
stammered Dorothy. “I made no attempt to get it to you without her
knowledge.”
“She had it? And gave it back to you? Why, Dorothy, if she had—but of
course it would not really have mattered,” and Tavia slipped the letter
into her blouse. “I’m awfully obliged. Did you hear from home?”
“No,” answered Dorothy simply, a flush covering her fair face as she saw
Tavia hide the letter. “I’m going out for a few minutes—so you may read
that very important note, Tavia.”