CHAPTER XI
"SO MYSTERIOUS"
"Are you busy?" asked Miss Leatherland at the threshold of Miss
Sterling's room.
"No, indeed! I was wondering whether I'd go out on the veranda or sit here and mull. I'm glad you've come. Take this chair—it's the easiest."
"Then I'll leave it for you." She started toward another.
"No, I don't like it!" Her hostess laughingly pushed her back. "I'm too short for that one. I'm always wishing I were as tall as you."
Miss Leatherland blushed at the little compliment and smiled over it.
"I don't know but I'm meddling in what is none of my business," she began shyly. "At first I thought I wouldn't say anything; then I decided I would do as I'd wish to be done by. I certainly should want to know anything of this kind—though perhaps you know already."
"What is it? Nothing dreadful, I hope."
"Oh, no! Only it shows—unless she has told you—how things are going downstairs."
She hesitated, as if not knowing just how to say what she had come to tell.
"You were home about four o'clock yesterday, weren't you?"
"Yes."
"I met all of you down in the hall, you remember, and I thought it was along there. Have you heard anything about a telephone message that came for you while you were away?"
"No—was there one?"
Miss Leatherland bowed her head and drew her chair nearer.
"This afternoon I went up to call on Mrs. Macgregor, and yesterday, it seems, she had business with Mr. Potter, of the Fair Harbor Paper Company, and was in his office waiting for him to come in. It was about three o'clock, she said. Mr. Potter's office is next to the president's, and the door was just ajar. Mrs. Macgregor has very sharp ears, and she happened to be sitting close to the door, so couldn't help hearing. She says Mr. Randolph called up the Home—she knew the number, she uses it so much—and asked for Miss Sterling. I suppose they told him you were out, for he said he was sorry and inquired if they knew when you were coming home. Evidently whoever was at the 'phone didn't tell, for he said if you should come in by half-past four to ask you to call him up. Probably she offered to deliver his message, for he said no, he'd like to talk with you, and then he rang off. Mrs. Macgregor asked if Mr. Randolph was a relative of yours, and I said I thought not."
Miss Sterling shook her head.
"I don't see why Miss Sniffen or Mrs. Nobbs, or whoever 't was didn't do as Mr. Randolph asked them to—I don't see why! It's getting so we can't tell anything!" Miss Leatherland looked distressed.
"Things are growing queer," was the quiet response. "I don't know what Mr. Randolph could have wanted, but I surely have a right to be informed about it."
"If you should ask Miss Sniffen, please don't say anything about me, she might think I'd interfered. I only thought you ought to know it."
"I'm mighty glad you told me," Miss Sterling smiled across into the perturbed face, "and I shall certainly not speak of the matter to Miss Sniffen or any of them."
"I guess you are wise not to," agreed Miss Leatherland. "Anybody that would do things she has done, you don't know what she'd do!"
Polly heard of the little episode with mingled dismay and delight.
"Oh, I wonder if he wanted you to go to ride!" she burst out. "Only you won't ever know! Dear me, I wish we had waited till the next day for our walk! Isn't it too bad you weren't home?"
"We had a nice time!" laughed Miss Sterling.
"Didn't we! But it's a shame for you to miss a ride with that lovable man!"
"Polly, why will you? He didn't say anything about a ride!
Probably it was simply some little business matter."
"But what?"
"I haven't the least idea."
"'T was a ride! I know it just as I knew he sent the roses! I was right about the roses!"
"Rides and roses aren't the same!"
"No, rides are better—more good-timey. Dear, dear! I'd been wishing he would ask you—and now!" Polly sighed. "Anyway, he wanted to talk with you about something!" she chuckled. "But it's so mysterious!"
She said good-bye and then came back.
"I happened to think," she whispered, "why can't you come over to our house and telephone to him? He'll never know where you are."
Miss Sterling shook her head. "It wouldn't do! They'd ask me what
I was going for—and I couldn't tell!"
"Do they always ask that?" scowled Polly.
"Always!"
"Then let me telephone!"
"No, no! We'd better leave it to work itself out. I am not supposed to know anything about it." She laughed uncertainly.
"It's a shame! Oh, everything about him always gets mixed up with trouble! I wish it didn't!"
Juanita Sterling made the same wish as she sat alone in the hour before bedtime. What could Nelson Randolph have wanted of her? And why did Miss Sniffen and her subordinates strive so strenuously to keep her from communicating with him or knowing of any attention that he paid her? She wrestled with the hard question until the bell for "lights out." Then she noiselessly undressed in the dark.
Sleep was long in coming, yet her nerves did not assert themselves unpleasantly, as usual. In fact, she had forgotten her nerves, in the strange, vague gladness that was half pain which flooded her being. She would berate herself for being "an old fool," though conscious at the same time of little, warming heart-thrills that exulted over her reason. As Polly had said, the president of the June Holiday Home had wished to talk with her about something—that of itself was as surprising as it was mysterious.
CHAPTER XII
MRS. DICK ESCAPES
Juanita Sterling was making her bed when the soft tap came.
"What shall I do?" Miss Crilly whispered tragically, slipping inside and shutting the door without a sound. Her eyes were big and frightened. "I've kept out of Mis' Nobbs's reach thus far, but I s'pose I can't very long! They are lookin' everywhere for Mis' Dick—you know she wasn't down to breakfast, and I'd no idea she'd come—all the while the rest o' you were lookin' for her. At half-past five this mornin' I see her go away with the milkman! I happened to be at my window. I couldn't sleep, 't was so hot, and I sat down there to get a breath o' air. He come along and sent in the boy with the milk, same as he gen'ally does—I see him lots of times. But wasn't I astonished when Mis' Dick come marchin' out, all dressed up in her Sunday togs, and got in and rode off with him! She had her big suitcase—it must ha' been all cut an' dried beforehand! What do you s'pose it means? I'm scart to death! I do' want to squeal on Mis' Dick—I always liked Mis' Dick! An' if they ask me, I can't lie it out! Oh, what would you do?" Miss Crilly came near being distressed.
"Why," answered Miss Sterling, "I think I should keep still unless
I were asked. In that case I should tell all I knew."
"Oh, dear, I hate to squeal!"
"Maybe you won't have to. I hope not!"
"What do you s'pose she went off with Mr. Tenney for?"
Miss Sterling shook her head.
"He's a widower! You don't s'pose—?" Miss Crilly giggled.
The other shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, anyway, there'll be a row till she's found! Gracious! I was so upset I couldn't eat much breakfast! I told Mis' Albright finally—I couldn't keep it a minute longer. Then I came up here. You don't s'pose she's gone luny, do you? She was so upset about goin' to that weddin'!"
"No, it isn't that!" decided Miss Sterling. "Mrs. Dick is not the kind to go crazy."
"Somebody's comin'!" Miss Crilly darted to the closet and shut herself in.
Mrs. Albright and Mrs. Adlerfield appeared.
"I thought Miss Crilly was here." Mrs. Albright looked about in surprise.
Miss Sterling nodded significantly toward the closet.
Mrs. Albright opened the door, and laughed,
"Come into daylight, you silly! Nobody's going to eat you up!
They've found out!"
"They have? How?"
"One of the maids saw Mrs. Dick go by the window, and she ran to see where she was going; but she didn't dare tell at first. Finally, she did, and they're going to send out to Mr. Tenney's."
"My! I'm glad I ain't in Mis' Dick's shoes!" Miss Crilly emerged from the folds of Miss Sterling's petticoats. She brushed back her disordered hair and drew a long, laughing sigh. "Isn't it lovely they've found out! I b'lieve I'd have been luny myself in a little while if they hadn't!"
"Nonsense!" pooh-poohed Mrs. Albright. "You couldn't stay luny more'n half a twinkle! You'd have to come out of it to laugh!"
"Sure, I would!" Miss Crilly agreed. "My! How do folks live that don't laugh!"
"You are in no danger of dying from that disease," returned Mrs.
Albright.
"No, I guess I ain't. My mother used to say that she believed if I had to live with the Devil himself, I'd keep on laughing."
The quartette settled down to calm, now that the danger was over, but the talk still ran on Mrs. Dick.
"She's been married twice before, hasn't she?" asked Miss Crilly.
"Before what?" chuckled Mrs. Albright.
"O-h! Did I? That's one on me, sure! Well, maybe it is 'before'—who knows! What else could she be goin' off at half-past five with the milkman for? Might not be a bad thing either—guess he's all right. 'Most anything 'd be better 'n bein' under Miss Sniffen and her crowd!"
"Where did Mrs. Dick live before she came here? Did you know her?"
Mrs. Albright inquired.
"I knew of her." Miss Crilly answered. "She kep' boarders over Kelly Avenue way. She used to teach school years ago. Her first husband died and all her children, then she took boarders and married one of 'em.—this Mr. Dick. He didn't live long—only long enough to run through what she'd saved up. He drank. She's worked hard all her life, I guess. I like Mis' Dick! She's good company."
"I like her very," agreed Mrs. Adlerfeld. "She has been nice to me a many times. If she goes to marry, I think it will no harm anybody, and I wish her the best things in the world."
The little Swedish woman voiced the larger number of Mrs. Dick's associates in the Home. Slighting remarks were heard from Miss Castlevaine and a few others, but in almost any case they were to be expected.
On the second day of Mrs. Dick's absence Miss Crilly appeared in Mrs. Bonnyman's room, where some half-dozen of the ladies were chatting.
"She is married!" she announced in a stage whisper,—"married to the milkman—oh! oh! oh!" Miss Crilly sat down in the midst of eager questioning.
"They say she wrote a note to Miss Sniffen yesterday, but I didn't get my news from her—no, sir-ee! It came pretty straight, though,—I guess it's so all right."
"What'd you say, Mis' Albright? Yes, she was married day before yesterday—went to the minister's! She told somebody she just couldn't stand it here another minute."
"I wonder if she's ever seen him much," said Miss Major.
"My, yes! She's known him for years—used to be her milkman when she kept house! He isn't any stranger! Oh, don't I wish I could see her!"
"Maybe she will come over and call on us," observed Mrs. Prindle.
"If she dares," spoke up Mrs. Bonnyman.
"Well, I'm glad for her!" declared Miss Crilly. "Wouldn't it feel good to be cut loose from rules! Dear me! We're so tied up it seems, sometimes's if I must scream!"
"I don't think people outside know how things go here," put in Miss Mullaly. "Why, everybody congratulated me on getting in! I thought I was going to have the time of my life!" She laughed deprecatingly.
"It is the time of our lives—the worst time!" snapped Miss Major.
"Well folks can get along some way," said Miss Sterling; "but
Heaven save the sick ones!"
CHAPTER XIII
ALONG A BROOKSIDE ROAD
"Oh, here you are!" cried Polly from the doorway, just beyond Mrs.
Bonnyman.
"Been looking for me?" Miss Sterling smiled,
"Everywhere!" Polly dropped beside her friend. "No, Mrs. Bonnyman, don't get a chair for me! I like this! Besides, I'm not going to stay. It's too lovely outside to be cooped up in the house. Why can't we all go to walk?"
"Oh, that's the ticket!" Miss Crilly jumped up. "I'll have to change my togs first—will you wait for me?"
Polly nodded and smiled, as Miss Crilly skipped off.
"Will you all go?"
Miss Sterling rose.
"You will, Miss Nita?" Polly clung to her hand.
"Yes, but not with this dress on."
"I bid many thanks to you," said Mrs. Adlerfeld quaintly; "I shall like to go very." Having made sure of the others, Polly ran off to make her invitation general, stopping at various doors on her way downstairs.
"Shall we go two by two, like a boarding-school?" giggled Miss
Crilly, as the little party left the Home grounds.
"Let's go any old way!" Then, glancing beyond Miss Crilly, Polly gave a glad cry,—"David and Leonora!" and flew to meet the two who were just at the hospital entrance.
"Will you come to walk with us?" she invited, "Or I'll stay if you'd rather."
They declared that they would much prefer the walk, and Polly was soon making the introductions where they were needed. Many of the ladies were well acquainted with Polly's friends.
David at once appropriated his old-time chum, and Leonora skipped over to Miss Sterling.
"Ther' 's so many of us we ought to march abreast, clear across the street, as they do in processions!" Miss Crilly was in high spirits..
The road Polly had chosen led through an avenue of old elms and thence out into the wide country. Past the city milepost, not far distant from the Home, a little brook purled along, overswept by willows.
"Isn't this beautiful!" cried Miss Major. "And here are raspberries—oh!"
The party broke ranks and scattered among the bushes, eager for the fruit that was just in its prime.
"Do you suppose they belong to anybody?" queried Mrs. Prindle, a bit anxiously.
"If they do they don't love 'em a whole lot," Miss Crilly returned. "See those! They are so ripe they almost fall to pieces lookin' at 'em! But they're sweet as sugar!" She plumped them into her mouth.
Soon they strolled forward by two's and three's, but long before the young folks and a few others had begun to be tired, several were lagging behind. Miss Twining among them.
"Are you coming back this way, Polly?" she called.
"Why, I thought we wouldn't. What's the matter?"
"Used up," she smiled.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I've gone too far, haven't I? You sit down somewhere and rest, and I'll stay with you. The others can go on, if they like."
"Guess I'll wait, too." Miss Sterling dropped wearily to the grass.
Mrs. Adlerfeld, Miss Lily, Mrs. Albright, and Miss Castlevaine lined themselves beside her.
"I don't know what possessed me to come on such a long walk!" fretted Miss Castlevaine.
"Why, I never thought that anybody could be tired!" said Polly contritely. "Why didn't you speak sooner?"
"Oh, we'll be all right by the time you get back!" laughed Mrs. Albright. "Now run along, every one of you! Shoo! Shoo!" She waved her skirts toward them.
It took a good deal of urging, however, to induce Polly to leave Miss Sterling. Finally she ran off with David, calling back that she wouldn't be gone long.
The afternoon slipped away, and the air grew cooler. The exhausted ones gathered strength and now and then rambled about a little, wondering why the others did not return. They watched longingly the point of road where the party had disappeared, even Miss Lily peered vainly into the empty distance.
Miss Castlevaine looked at her watch for the twentieth time. "It is a quarter past five!" she frowned. "Where can they be!"
"We may as well sit down while we wait," laughed Mrs. Albright. "Wandering round in a circle won't bring them any quicker." She lowered herself plumply beside Miss Sterling.
"Now don't you go to worrying!" she said. "They haven't been eaten up by bears or carried off by hawks. Probably they are having so good a time they have forgotten to come back."
The sun dropped lower and lower. The wayside shadows thickened. A robin on the top-most branch of a locust sang a solo.
"There they are!" cried Miss Castlevaine.
The others looked eagerly down the road.
The thud of hoofs came out of the hush.
"Oh, it's only a team!" was the disappointed contradiction. "I saw the dust and thought they were coming."
The buggy whirled up, the driver lifted his hat with a smiling bow—and was gone.
"Mr. Randolph and Miss Puddicombe!" commented Miss Castlevaine.
"Who was he bowing to? Not me!"
"I have met him," responded Mrs. Albright.
"Oh! Maybe it was you, then. But he was looking at Miss Sterling!"
"She knows him, too, and so does Mrs. Adlerfeld."
"Oh!" repeated Miss Castlevaine. "I see him riding with that Miss
Puddicombe a good deal lately. Guess she's trying to catch him."
"They are coming now for certain!" exclaimed Mrs. Albright.
Away in the distance the returning party could be discerned. Soon there was a waving of eager hands. The forward ones started on a race.
"It's Miss Crilly and the children!" Mrs. Albright laughed. "Isn't she game!"
Polly and David were ahead.
"Are you tired out waiting?" called Polly.
"Have you been to Buckline?" twinkled Mrs. Albright.
"Almost!" answered David.
"We've had such a time!" laughed Polly.
"Time!" burst in Miss Crilly. "We'd been goners, sure, if we hadn't jumped like fleas! My! You oughter seen Miss Mullaly—if she didn't go hand-springin' over that wall!"
"But what was it?" cried Mrs. Albright.
"A cow!"—"An ugly old cow!"—"She went bellowin' like Sancho Panza set loose!"
"Did she chase you? What did you do?"
"She was coming for us, and we jumped over the wall! We were on our way home," explained Polly.
"And David wanted to go and drive her off, so we could get by," put in Leonora; "but I held on to him!"
"I could have done it as well as that man," insisted David, looking somewhat disgusted at the lack of faith in his ability.
"He 'most got away from us!" laughed Miss Crilly. "We all had to grab him!"
"Did the cow's owner come?" Miss Castlevaine queried.
"We don't know who it was," answered Polly. "We were hiding behind some bushes the other side of the wall."
"Such a combobbery as that cow cut up! My! I thought she'd knock the man into slivers!" said Miss Crilly.
"But she didn't!" observed David.
"No," said Polly, "he drove her off finally."
"And we beat it!" giggled Miss Crilly.
"We thought you would wonder what had become of us," smiled Leonora.
"We did," agreed Mrs. Albright, "and somebody else will be wondering that same thing, if we don't march home about as fast as we can!"
Polly's cool and charming sweetness was all that saved the party from Miss Sniffen's very apparent displeasure, the tardy ones agreed. Supper had been served at least five minutes before they filed into the dining-room; but their astonishing appetites, which gave a relish even to soggy corncake and watery tea, almost counterbalanced any fears for their future walks with Polly.
Juanita Sterling sat down wearily in her own room. "I wish I had stayed at home!" she sighed.
CHAPTER XIV
POLLY PLANS
"Father," Polly began thoughtfully, "I've been thinking—you remember I told you about our walk the other day and how tired Miss Nita and some of the other ladies were before I even thought of such a thing—" Polly stopped questioningly.
"I remember," smiled Dr. Dudley.
"So don't you think it would be nice—until they grow stronger, you know—for them to ride instead of walk?"
"Very nice, indeed. Do you want me to take them?"
"I wish you could," laughed Polly, "but I know you don't have time. I happened to think, though, why couldn't we have the car some morning, while you are busy in the hospital? Evan could drive for us."
"A very good plan," the Doctor nodded musingly. "You wish to go with them, I take it."
"Yes, I think I'd better. I know, one more could go if I didn't; but I guess they'd be more lively with me along than if they went with just Evan."
"If I were going I should certainly want you, too," twinkled the doctor.
"Oh, dear! We don't have as many good rides together as we used to, do we?" Polly bent down from the arm of Dr. Dudley's chair where she was sitting and cuddled her cheek against his.
"No," he replied, "we'll have to borrow an hour some day and run away."
"Wouldn't that be fun! Oh, let's!"
"I think we'll do it, then I can get re-acquainted with you."
Polly chuckled. "As if you didn't know me clear through, from head-top to toe-tip!"
"I feel quite like a stranger lately. I come in here and ask,
'Where's Polly?' and your mother says, 'She is over at the Home,'
or, 'She's gone to walk with Miss Sterling.' When I see Miss
Sterling I shall tell her what I think of it."
"You might tell me," suggested Polly demurely, "and then I can repeat it to Miss Nita."
"I prefer to say my say to her," the Doctor replied with no hint of a smile. "You might not say it strong enough."
A wee chuckle escaped Polly. "What are you going to tell her?" she coaxed.
"That she can't have my girl so much without paying for her."
"Oh," laughed Polly. "Miss Nita doesn't have any money."
"It would be of no use in this case. Do you suppose you can be paid for in money?"
"Oh, you dearest, funniest man! I wish you could see Miss Nita more—you wouldn't wonder I like to go there. She is so lovable."
"I do not doubt it. How is she now—better?"
"Ever so much better! She doesn't say anything lately about wanting to die. I wish she had nice things to eat—I don't see how she stands sour bread and so much corned beef and mackerel and sausages."
Doctor Dudley shook his head musingly. "It is too bad—a magnificent building, and wretched household management."
"I wonder why they keep Miss Sniffen," Polly said.
"Probably she is agreeable to the trustees, and nobody calls their attention to anything wrong."
"Yes, I've seen her—when some of the officers came. She is as smiley as a goose! I hate her smile; it looks as if she didn't mean it."
"She is evidently not the woman for the place. I am sorry." The
Doctor glanced at his watch and rose abruptly.
"Got to go?"
"I ought to have gone earlier."
"Oh, dear! I wish other folks didn't need you all the time!" mourned Polly.
He stepped back and kissed her. "That is the penalty of more money," he smiled.
"More fame, you mean!" she retorted and heard a little chuckle as he passed out the door.
Polly did not plan long without acting, and within an hour she was on her long walk to Colonel Gresham's, to talk over her scheme with Leonora and David.
She found Mrs. Gresham just starting to meet a train.
"I'm so sorry I can't stay," she told Polly, "and Leonora and David are not at home! But the Colonel is out in the stable. He will be delighted to see you. I'll call him." She turned to a bell button.
"Oh, no, please!" interrupted Polly. "I'd rather go there. I haven't seen Lone Star for an age!"
"You'll find them chatting together, as usual," laughed the little lady, and Polly skipped off as soon as Mrs. Gresham had driven away.
"Good afternoon, Miss Dudley." The Colonel extended his hand.
"Seems to me you're pretty formal," smiled Polly.
Colonel Gresham laughed, a gentle, mellow laugh, quite in harmony with the happy-lined face and the graying hair.
"I wish I had a chair to offer you," he said, looking about him, as if expecting one to pop into sight. "I suppose I'm indebted to David and Leonora for this visit."
"No, Colonel Gresham, I came to see you especially this time. I was going to ask them what they thought of a little plan I have; but they are not necessary—and you are!"
"Ah! a plan? I wait on your pleasure!" The Colonel bowed with mock gravity.
"Thank you!" chuckled Polly. "Perhaps you won't when you know about it. But I want to see Lone Star first—oh, he's just as beautiful as he ever was!" She patted the neck of the handsome creature and stroked his nose.
The horse whinnied at the attention and eyed her with seeming delight.
"I believe he remembers me, and I haven't spoken to him for—oh, how long is it?"
"My memory cannot extend so far." Colonel Gresham was evidently in a whimsical humor this afternoon.
Lone Star was made happy with more caresses and a full measure of oats, and then the Colonel and Polly walked slowly up to the house.
"When Polly unfolded her plan in regard to the Home ladies Colonel
Gresham's face lighted with interest.
"You can have two of my cars," he said, "on one condition—no, two—that I may drive the big one and that you will sit on the front seat beside me."
"Oh, it won't be a bit hard for me to say yes to that!" Polly smiled. "I should like it! Let me see, five and four are nine, and four makes thirteen—why, they can all go—or all that are well enough! Won't that be lovely!"
"'Lovelicious,' I think!" The Colonel looked demurely down at Polly.
"How much I used to say that!" Polly laughed. "Well, I truly think this will be—three cars! Won't they be surprised! But we must squeeze in Leonora and David somewhere! Probably the ladies wouldn't all care to go, anyway. You are so good to let them have the cars—I never thought of two—or that you could go with us! I can't thank you half enough!"
Before Polly went home a ride was arranged for the next morning, and her heart skipped joyfully all the long way, thinking how happy Miss Nita and the rest would be.
Directly after luncheon she ran over to the Home.
"You look glad about something," Miss Sterling told her.
"You will be when you know," chuckled Polly. "What do you think!—you're going to ride with Colonel Gresham to-morrow morning!"
"With Colonel Gresham! He hasn't invited me!" Miss Sterling's knitting dropped into her lap.
"I have—or I'm going to! Oh, it will be lovely!" Polly's brown eyes shone. "Colonel Gresham is going to let us have his two biggest cars, and he will drive the seven-passenger one. Then father says we may have ours with Evan to drive, and we're going to take as many of the ladies as we can and have a beautiful ride! What do you think of that?"
"It's overwhelming! Catch me if I drop!" The gray-blue eyes were dancing.
Polly squeezed her ecstatically. "I want you in the car with me, and now let's see how many can go and which ones to ask."
It was a pleasant task, though really a little puzzling, for there were sixteen ladies of the Home, and only ten or eleven were to be counted among the weaklings. Nobody must be offended and nobody must feel hurt. So with David and Leonora, it was a hard matter, after all, to decide on the invitation list. Miss Sterling, however, was a wonderful assistant. Polly was sure she could never have disposed things so happily if it had not been for her wise Miss Nita.
CHAPTER XV
"LOTS O' JOY"
The morning was as clear and balmy as a festival day should be, and the cars were at the door of the June Holiday Home at three minutes before nine o'clock.
"Let's go early," Juanita Sterling had said, "while the day is fresh from the hand of God." And in accordance with her wish Polly had appointed the hour.
Most of the ladies were in Sunday attire, their wardrobes holding few changes between "everyday" and "best."
Juanita Sterling handled her small stock of apparel so that, plain as it was, it had an air of distinction. Little deft touches here and there added character and daintiness to any garment that she wore. Some of the less fortunate realized this as they rode out of the Home gate that July morning, and one or two were actually envious of the little woman who sat in Colonel Gresham's beautiful car and responded so merrily to the Colonel's sallies.
"I guess Miss Sterling has ways of getting her nest feathered that some other folks don't know anything about," whispered Miss Castlevaine to Miss Major.
"No such thing!" was the prompt retort. "She knows how to put her feathers on, that's all."
"Knowing how don't change colors as I've ever heard—huh! Look at that white dress! They don't give me white dresses!"
"Probably she had it when she came. She hasn't been here a year yet, you know," replied Miss Major.
"They won't make over mine," complained the other.
"Oh!" broke in Mrs. Albright, "look over there! Isn't that magnificent?"
Fields and slopes of varying green, wooded hills, and mountains in the blue distance—these made the picture that had called forth the exclamation.
"Magnificent!" echoed Miss Major.
Miss Castlevaine looked, but said nothing. The darkness of envy and discontent still dimmed her eyes.
Juanita Sterling, in the car ahead, was yielding herself to the bountiful joy of the moment and had forgotten disagreeable things. Polly and Colonel Gresham kept up a steady run of pleasantries, much of which came easily to her quick ears, and she found herself smiling with them even while her eyes were feasting on the ever-changing landscape.
"Doesn't Mrs. Dick live somewhere out this way?" inquired Miss
Mullaly.
Miss Sterling did not know and in turn asked the Colonel.
"Tenney, the milk dealer? His farm is over there to the left a mile or two. Would you like to call on the bride?"
"Yes, I should! Wouldn't you, Polly?"
"First-rate! Let's!" was the eager answer.
So at the next cross-road the car was turned that way.
"I'm awfully glad you thought of it!" Polly turned to say.
"I didn't think of going there," Miss Mullaly admitted, "but I'd love to. Won't she be surprised!"
Surprised, indeed, was the former Mrs. Dick. She was on her way from garden to kitchen when the procession of cars came into view, and, her overflowing basket in hand, she halted on the side lawn until the party should pass by. A bunch of automobiles did not appear every day on the Tenney Farm road. Instead of going past, however, the big car ahead steered straight for her, and she recognized her friends! Down went her basket, and she skipped over the grass with the agility of a girl of fifteen.
"How do you do—Miss Sterling and Polly—and all of you! Well, I am astonished!—And if there aren't Miss Twining and Mrs. Bonnyman—why, are you all here?"
"Pretty nearly," answered Polly, who had jumped from the car and was clasping the speaker's hand.
Mrs. Tenney was soon surrounded by her Home associates and was so overwhelmed by the suddenness of the call that she almost forgot to invite them into the house.
"Oh, we can't stay!" declared Mrs. Albright. "We are just out for a ride, and those of us in the rear cars were about as surprised as you were. We'd no idea that Colonel Gresham was headed for your place—we didn't know you lived here till we saw you!"
"Dear people!" broke in Miss Sterling, "where are our manners? I'll confess, I forgot! Mrs. Tenney," with twinkling eyes she extended her hand, "I wish you every possible joy for all the days and years to come!"
Amid much laughter more good wishes followed, until somebody remembered that the morning was slipping away, and they were far from home.
"Well, say, why can't you all come out here sometime and spend the day? 'T won't make a mite of difference when. We always have enough to eat, and I am generally right here. I'd love dearly to have you. Pile 'em all in, if you can! Sit in each other's laps—any way to get 'em here! They're going to keep up the rides, aren't they?"
An instant's silence was broken by Polly. "Yes, we are!" she promised. "Colonel Gresham and father are going to let us have the cars until we're able to walk ten miles on a stretch!"
This sally was greeted by a shout, and the party climbed into the cars and were off, good-byes mingling with the noise of the motors.
"Anybody getting tired?" asked Colonel Gresham, as they swept into the village of Clare.
None would admit fatigue, and on whirled the cars, leaving the handful of houses behind. Presently they entered the broad street of an old town, where houses with gambrel roofs and quaint porches neighbored in quiet dignity with towered mansions and verandaed bungalows. Colonel Gresham drew up his car at a little shop, and he and David disappeared through the doorway. They soon came back With their hands full of ice-cream cones, which they distributed and returned for more.
"Isn't this cream lovely!" beamed Leonora to the back seat of the third car.
"Delicious!" responded Mrs. Albright.
"As good as I ever tasted!" declared Miss Major.
Miss Castlevaine nibbled hers for a moment longer before she spoke.
"My cousin goes automobiling a great deal," she said, "and she makes her own cream—solid cream it is, too!—and she has something that she puts it in so that she can slice it off as she wants it. It keeps ice cold for an indefinite time."
"I have heard of such contrivances," said Mrs. Albright politely.
"No cream could be better than this," asserted Miss Major confidently.
Miss Castlevaine drew her lips into a smirk.
"Trust the Colonel for buying the best of everything!" went on Miss Major. "What a man he is! I wish he were one of the directors of the June Holiday Home."
Miss Castlevaine's face stiffened into an expression of superiority, as if she could divulge things detrimental to the Colonel if she wished. But nobody appeared to regard her, and the cars jogged on,
Mrs. Adlerfeld, meanwhile, wore a look of saintly rapture.
Polly turned to say, "Isn't the air nice this morning?"
"Here it is beautiful!" smiled the little Swedish woman. "I have lots o' joy!"
Colonel Gresham threw her an admiring glance. "Glad you like it," he said.
"Oh, I like it very!" she responded. "I hope it didn't tired you to drive him."
"Not a bit!" he laughed.
"It looks more play as work," she smiled.
He nodded brightly back to her, and then turned to Polly. His tone was too low to carry to the seat behind.
"Why didn't you tell me what a charming little woman we had with us?"
"Isn't she sweet!" beamed Polly. "Didn't you ever meet her before?"
"Never! I'm going to invite her to ride with me—all alone, just to hear her talk!"
Polly chuckled. "I wish you would," she told him.
"She'd go, wouldn't she?"
"Of course! Why not?"
"I'll warrant that sour-looking elephant in the back car wouldn't!" laughed the Colonel. "She's that kind!"
"Oh! I guess you mean Miss Castlevaine. She's the biggest one there is. But she is very nice—sometimes."
"The times are few and far between, aren't they?" he twinkled.
Polly laughed, but said apologetically, "She's been pleasant to me."
"She ought to be; but over at the Tenneys' she looked as if she'd like to be somewhere else. She seemed to keep on the edge of things."
"She doesn't always come in with the rest—feels a little above some of them. She is very proud of her Russian ancestry. Her mother or grandmother was a duchess."
"I thought she was proud of something," observed the Colonel, "and it couldn't be her good looks."
"I think you are pretty hard on her," protested Polly.
"Am I?" he smiled. "Is she a particular friend of yours? You'll have to excuse me."
"Oh, she isn't an especial friend, but I feel sorry for her because she has to wear such old clothes—and she loves pretty things."
"Why doesn't she get pretty things, then, while she is about it?"
"She can't!" cried Polly. "She has to take what Miss Sniffen gives her."
"Oh, I see! Well, I reckon I'd look sour if I were dependent on that Miss Sniffen for clothes."
Polly chuckled. "I can't imagine it!"
"It would come pretty hard!" Colonel Gresham shook his head musingly. "It is a shame that those women are not better treated! I'll take them to ride as often as I can—you tell them so, Polly!"
"I will!" Polly beamed her delight. "It's lovely of you! It will do them no end of good. They stay cooped up in the house too much. You see, there's so much red tape about going out even for a little walk, that sometimes they'd rather stay at home."
"I'm going to talk to Randolph about it when I get a chance. He is too sensible a man to let this sort of thing go on."
"Oh, but you mustn't make him think there has been the leastest mite of complaint! If anybody finds a word of fault, she'll get turned out! They're afraid of their lives!"
"This little woman back here doesn't look afraid."
"No, she's different." Polly cast a look at her.
Mrs. Adlerfeld caught it and smiled back, a bright, happy smile, as if, indeed, she had "lots o' joy."
CHAPTER XVI
THE HIKING CLUB
"OH, Miss Nita! What do you think?" Polly burst into the room full of excitement. "Chris has gone!"
"Gone? Where?"
"To Australia!"
"Not alone?"
"Oh, no! His father is with him. We never knew he was coming—till there he was! For a minute Chris hardly knew him! Isn't that queer? But he didn't look like himself. His hair is cut close to his head! What do you suppose he did it for? It isn't becoming! But, oh, you ought to have seen Chris! He jumped right into his father's arms and cried and cried and cried! Mr. Morrow cried, too, almost as hard as Chris! We had a pretty exciting time!"
"When was it?" put in Miss Sterling.
"This noon. Mother did finally persuade him to stay to dinner—he wasn't going to! I don't see why he was in such a hurry to get away! Oh, I shall miss that boy awfully! He is always just so—never cross or pouty, or anything. Sometimes he has been pretty blue—I suppose thinking of his father and wondering why he didn't come. It has been almost two years! It won't seem a bit natural without Chris. I shall have to come over here and bother you more than ever." Polly sighed a bit sorrowfully and dropped on a hassock at Miss Sterling's feet.
"You know you couldn't come too often, my dear."
"I feel sometimes as if I were a nuisance," laughed Polly. "I guess Miss Sniffen thinks so. She looks at me so queer when she meets me in the hall."
"It is only her way. She can't have anything against you."
Polly shook her head doubtfully; then she smiled. "I did kind of pacify her the other night when we were late from our walk, didn't I? I was afraid I couldn't, but I wasn't going to let her know it!"
"It was funny the way she came round," Miss Sterling agreed.
"That makes me think," Polly broke out, "when are we going to have another walk?"
"I—don't—know," sighed the other. "Walking is such an effort! I get so tired I can't sleep."
"That's too bad!" mourned Polly. "But don't you think it's because you stay in the house so much? If you went oftener maybe you'd get used to it and it wouldn't tire you."
"Perhaps. I don't know."
"We were planning, only yesterday, Chris and I, to start a walking club—and now he's gone! But I suppose the rest of us can have it," Polly went on. "We thought we'd ask David and Leonora and Patricia,—she and her mother are just home from the shore,—and Doodles and Blue and all of you folks here."
"All the ladies?"
Polly nodded.
"They're not all equal to it. You forget how old some of them are."
"Anyway, they aren't too old to be asked!" laughed Polly.
"No, and it is a good idea. Sometimes a club will have a stronger pull on anybody than just an incidental invitation."
"That's what we thought—dear, dear, it's too bad Chris had to go!"
"I'm sorry, but I imagine he is happy enough to be with his father."
"Yes! He looked like another boy after his father came. Well, we'll have to do without him."
"How can Doodles and Blue be in? They live eighteen or twenty miles away."
"Oh, they can come down by trolley, or we can go up there," replied
Polly easily.
Miss Sterling laughed. "You forget that we haven't any money for trolley fares."
"I never thought! They'll have to come here, then. Anyway, they've got to belong! Doodles is the sweetest boy! I used to wonder if he would change any when he was able to run and play—I didn't know but he'd get to be—coarser, you know; but he is just the same. Blue is nice, only he is more like other boys—Doodles isn't!"
"Miss Lily has been telling me of how he Went to sing to her. She just idolizes him."
"I know she does. The other day when I was up to see her she couldn't talk of anybody else. There isn't much doubt but that she will join the club if she can see Doodles oftener."
"She seems to be fairly strong; her trouble is only with her eyes."
"I guess it will do her eyes good to go outdoors more. I wanted to call it the 'Hiking Club'; but Chris was afraid the name would frighten some of them—they'd think a 'hike' meant more than just a walk."
"Mrs. Post is quite lame yet, and Mrs. Grace is having rheumatism.
They couldn't go at present. Miss Twining's heart bothers her.
She said she shouldn't dare attempt so long a walk again."
"As the one the other day? That wasn't long for a well person."
"But most of us are not well—if we were we shouldn't be here."
"I'll ask them all, anyway!" Polly insisted. "Can't we have our first meeting here in your room, Miss Nita?"
"Certainly. When is it to be?"
"I think to-day would be a good time—about two o'clock. It isn't very pleasant out, raw and chilly. I'll go round and invite them now. Will you come, too?"
"No, I'll sit here and read. You run along and get your hikers, and then come back and tell me about it."
CHAPTER XVII
GRANDAUNT SUSIE AND MISS SNIFFEN
Polly aroused more enthusiasm among the ladies than Miss Sterling had thought possible. Almost everybody, even Mrs. Grace, with her rheumatic knee, was eager to join the new club.
It was agreed that those who were able should take a tramp together twice a week and should walk on the veranda, ten times its length, at least once a day.
Polly was unanimously elected president, Miss Major for corresponding secretary, and David Collins for treasurer.
"The club will be bankrupt from the start," laughed Miss Crilly.
"What do we need a treasurer for?"
"Oh, they always have one!" insisted Polly. "Maybe the money'll come."
"Sure! Somebody might donate a million dollars to us—and what should we do without anybody to take care of it!" Miss Crilly chuckled happily.
The work of organization being disposed of, Mrs. Bonnyman asked what was to be done next.
Polly didn't know.
"Oh, we must adjourn!" declared Miss Major. "That is the principal event of most business meetings."
Accordingly, with much giggling from a few of the members, the new club voted to adjourn until the next Monday.
"Oh, dear! it's raining hard!" cried Polly. "I thought maybe we could go for a little walk, just to mark the day."
"Can't we do something here—have some game or other?" suggested
Miss Crilly.
"I say!" burst out David, "I forgot! Mother told me to be at home by half-past three, and it's almost that now. Will you come, Leonora, or wait for the shower to be over?"
Leonora preferred a walk in the rain to one alone, so they hurried into their raincoats and were off.
"Our company's dwindling," observed Miss Crilly, as the door shut upon Mrs. Post and Mrs. Crump, "but I don't want to go home yet—need I, Miss Sterling?" "Certainly not! I want you all to stay. Polly, you are queen of ceremonies—what shall we do next?"
"We might try some of Grandaunt Susie's exercises," twinkled Polly.
"Just the thing!"
"Who's Grandaunt Susie, pray?" Miss Crilly was frankly curious.
"Mother's grandaunt," explained Polly. "She was miserable, and these exercises made her strong enough to do almost anything. She is seventy-three,—or was when she was here, a year ago,—and father himself says she doesn't look a minute over thirty-five!"
"Oh, my! Let's try'em! I want to look 'not a minute over thirty-five'!" Miss Crilly waved her hands excitedly.
"How do you begin—this way?" Miss Mullaly sprang to her feet, threw out her chest, and worked her arms up and down.
"Oh, no!" cried Polly. "That is not it at all! You take them lying down!"
"Mercy!" cried Miss Lily.
"I'd like that!" declared Mrs. Albright.
"Good and easy!" Miss Crilly nodded.
"Yes, they are every one to be practiced in bed, before you get up in the morning," resumed Polly.
"What if you don't wake early enough?" asked Mrs. Prindle with a shrug.
"Then you're late for breakfast or lose your chance of going back to thirty-five!" laughed Miss Crilly.
"How can you thrash your arms round in bed?" Miss Mullaly queried.
"You don't have to. It isn't like gymnastics."
"Well, do tell us, Polly! I'm just crazy to begin!" Miss Crilly laughingly shook Polly's shoulders.
"There are so many of them," Polly drew a long, laughing breath, "I hardly know which to take first. There is one for the legs—that would help in walking. But you'll have to lie down first."
Miss Crilly and Miss Major hurried to the floor, Miss Mullaly following.
"Oh, lie on the bed!" cried Miss Sterling.
"This is all right." asserted Miss Crilly. "Go on, Polly!"
"You want to turn just a mite on your right side. Now make your right leg firm, and put your left toes against the top of your right foot,—yes, that's it!—and tense the muscles of your left leg—hard! Now relax! Tense again! Relax! You mustn't do it too long at first, but that's the way—tense and relax, ten times on this side and ten on the other."
"Whew! takes some strength! Why don't you try it, girls? It's fun! Miss Sterling will let you have her bed—we'll make it over afterwards. Try it. Mis' Albright, and you, Miss Leatherland, it'll do you good!"
"Yes, go ahead, as Miss Crilly says," urged Miss Sterling. "I've practiced that, and I think it has made me stronger."
Polly's class was increased to five, but the others could not be induced to make any attempt.
"There's another that's pretty good," went on Polly. "It's for both sides, alternate, but you can learn it on your right. Bend up your left knee, and take your left ankle in your left hand—now pull hard, leg and hand both! That's right. Pull and then relax. Here's another; bend your knee—the upper one, and take it in both hands and pull hard! Relax, and then pull again."
"I wish there was an exercise to make thin folks fatter," observed
Miss Mullaly.
"I know some that'll make your cheeks plump and round," said Polly.
Little squeals of doubt greeted the announcement.
"I don't believe they'd make my face round," laughed Miss
Leatherland.
"Yes, they would! Wouldn't they, Miss Nita?"
"I can't swear to it, as Polly does; but this I do know—it plumps and pinks them for a little while. Polly says her aunt told her that after enough practice the plumpness would stay."
"Oh, what is it?" queried Miss Mullaly eagerly.
"I'll try it on Miss Leatherland if she'll let me," offered Polly.
"It will be more of a test on her, because she is thinnest."
"Certainly you may, but I can't quite believe it will do what you say it will."
"Just you wait'" chuckled Polly. "First you must smile, a big, big smile! Not quite hard enough!—Yes, that's better! Now, while I press my hands against your cheeks and massage them this way, you must open and shut your mouth—no, wider than that!—a little wider—just as wide as you can! Keep on smiling all the time!
"There! now I'll let you look in the glass—see how your cheeks have plumped out! Oh, but you lock pretty!"
"Doesn't she!" Miss Crilly jumped up, the better to see. "Look! everybody! My, how pretty!"
"'Pretty!'" scorned Miss Leatherland. Yet the pink rose higher.
"Polly! is this the right way?" Miss Mullaly was doing her best, but not well enough to satisfy the instructor.
"The middle of your hand must come up high on your cheek," explained Polly. "Yes, that's it! And twenty-five times you must open and shut your mouth."
"Polly," broke in Miss Sterling, "when you can, I wish you'd tell
Mrs. Prindle how to make her hair grow."
"Yes," added Mrs. Prindle, "she says you know a way of massaging the scalp, and my hair is so thin!"
"You'll have to take it down, I guess—so you can get at it all over," said Polly.
"Do you know it will really help it?"
"Grandaunt Susie said her hair was so thin you could see through it, and when she was at our house it was as thick as—as thick as mine."
"Oh, I'm going to try that—my hair's all coming out!" Miss Lily drew her pins from the thin coil.
Mrs. Grace and Mrs. Adlerfeld made their heads ready for manipulation.
"You just put your hands this way, right up under your hair,"—Polly spread out her fingers,—"and clutch at the scalp hard, as if you were going to pull it off. Go all over the head, again and again for five minutes—two or three times a day. Aunt Susie says it will make the hair grow like fun."
"Oh, Miss Polly, will you be so kind as to show me just how it goes, please?" Miss Twining was shaking down her scanty locks.
"It's very easy," Polly smiled. She liked the shy, gentle Miss Twining. "This is all there is to it," working her hands under the soft blond hair. "The only trouble is, it tires the hands out pretty quick."
"Oh, yours must be tired! I should not have asked you!"
"No, no! Mine are all right. I was thinking only of yours. Now, try it yourself. Yes, that's the way! You have it!"
"Polly!" Miss Crilly was on the floor, hugging her knee.
"I'm here!" laughed Polly.
"Do you know anything that will scare away a double chin?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Oh, jolly! What is it?"
"I'd like to hear about that!" spoke up Miss Castlevaine.
Polly thought a moment.
"You'll have to lie down—flat on your back—no, you go over on the bed, Miss Castlevaine, and I'll tell you how to do it."
"Don't get up, Mis' Albright!" cried Miss Crilly. "I can learn how here just as well!" She lay back, her eyes on Polly.
"I'll put this pillow right under your shoulders—so. Now throw your head—"
A sharp rap halted the sentence. Mrs. Albright sat up. The door was flung open before Polly reached it.
"Ladies! what does this mean?" Miss Sniffen stood there, resolute and merciless.
Nobody answered.
Miss Twining and Miss Lily began hurriedly to gather up their disheveled hair. Miss Castlevaine arose haughtily. Polly's tongue was quickest to recover itself.
"I was only teaching the ladies some exercises to make them strong.
We are not doing any harm, Miss Sniffen."
"I infer that it makes them stronger to pull their hair down." The tone was smoothly sarcastic.
"Oh, that!" returned Polly, with a tiny smile; "I've been telling them how to massage the scalp, so as to make their hair grow."
"Very necessary, indeed! And I suppose their hair grows faster if they stretch themselves out upon the bed and the floor! I'm ashamed of you!"
"Oh, Miss Sniffen!" protested Polly, "you have to lie down to take these exercises! The book says so!"
"Book!" snapped the angry voice; "I'll book you all for what you won't like if I ever catch you in such unladylike postures again! You must be in your second childhood! Now march to your rooms, every one of you!" She waved her hand peremptorily toward the doorway, and the culprits filed meekly past her—all but Miss Castlevaine. She walked with stately step and head held high, as became the great-granddaughter of a duchess.
"I think you would better go home now, you have worked mischief enough for one day!" She addressed Polly in a slightly mollified tone.
"Why, Miss Sniffen, I can't see what harm there is in trying to get well and strong. I should think you'd like the ladies to be better. Father and mother think these exercises are fine! Mother's Grandaunt Susie told us about them. They made her as good as new!"
"We won't discuss the matter," replied the superintendent in a hard voice. "You need not remain to talk it over with Miss Sterling."
"I'm going—right now!" Polly caught up her coat.
"Good-bye, Miss Nita!" She swept past Miss Sniffen with a curt bow.
The door tight shut, Juanita Sterling fisted the air in the direction of the departing superintendent. Then she drooped her head and sobbed.