CHAPTER XX A SCHEME THAT FAILED

A whole week had passed, when, one evening, there was noticeably a great hurry among the girls to finish supper. Whispering was more popular than dessert, and glances were being shot like hot fire from one to another of those near enough to interpret them.

“Oh, she won’t go,” Tavia told Ned. “Better not tell her anything about it, or we won’t get there either.”

“But she has been so blue——”

“Ned,” interrupted Tavia, “if you are going to be on my staff do not argue. I cannot stand insubordination.”

“That means that you are going to get me into more trouble, Tavia,” Edna got a chance to say. “Really I don’t like the thing at all.”

“Miss it then,” replied Tavia tersely¹. “But it’s a chance of a lifetime.”

“And Dorothy not to know——”

“I tell you that would spoil it all. You know Dorothy’s idea of a thing like that. Now I’m151 going upstairs. The ‘T’s’ are making eyes at one another, until there is danger of eye-lock and that’s as bad as lock-jaw. Be sure to leave as soon as you seen Jean look at her watch. I’ll be there.”

It was almost dark, and against the rules for the girls to leave the grounds at that time, but, in spite of that, a shuffling² of feet down the outside stairway told of a venture unusual.

Not a word was spoken until some of the girls had safely passed outside the gate.

“Oh, I’m just scared to death,” breathed one.

“Nothing to be afraid of,” came in Jean’s voice. “If you don’t want the fun you may go back.”

“Oh! what was that?” exclaimed another. “I saw something dart⁴ across the street!”

“Rabbits,” replied the girl in the raincoat.

“Don’t you suppose she will ever tell?” asked Cecilia Reynolds.

“And lose her trade? It isn’t likely,” and they scurried⁵ along.

“How do you know she’s good?” asked one as she stumbled over a string of bushes.

“She has a crystal ball,” said Jean. “They are all good!”

“We’ll be good if we get back before study hour is over. It’s all right though, when Dorothy Dale did not get to hear of it. I’m just crazy to know something.”

152 “We all are—you goose. That’s why we are risking our reports.”

A few minutes later the girls were crowded into a dingy⁶ little room where Madame Shebad had arranged to tell their fortunes.

It was, of course, Jean’s idea, for Glenwood was rather dull for a girl who had been accustomed to the city life that Jean Faval left to “finish up” at a fashionable school. Only a musty curtain divided the parts of the fortune teller⁷’s cabin, and, one at a time of course, the girls were to go behind this and get dizzy, gazing into the big, glass ball, made in an Ohio glass factory, but supposed to come from some other mysterious place, not on the maps of this good government.

“You go first,” begged a girl who was really first in line.

“Come in proper turns, please,” said a voice from inside the curtain, and the timid one started.

“Let me have your hand,” commanded the same, lazy voice.

The hand trembled visibly, and the fortune teller was clever enough to say that the girl had a very nervous temperament⁸!

“But you are talented,” she added shrewdly, “and you will get on in life. I see you on a ship—you are going on a long journey, and when you return you will be strong and well.”

So she went on, while Tillie (for it was she)153 shook more every moment, not alone because of the strained position she sat in, with her hand in that of the woman’s, and her eyes glued to the ball, but because she was worrying about getting back to school.

Several other girls went through the same sing-song fortune telling with the slight variations of letters coming, and light and dark friends of different grades and different shades.

Then it was Cecilia Reynolds’ turn.

“You are a leader,” the fortune teller told Cissy, noting that she carried a small purse, “but beware of a very light and pretty girl (Dorothy, of course). She has a way of making people think she is fond of them, but this is all for her own ends. I see——” and she paused significantly, “a child—a little dark girl. She cries! What is the matter with her? What has she done?”

Zada! Those who listened back of the curtains were dumbfounded.

“She has done something she regrets very much, and she wants to tell this light girl. Her home is far away, and she will soon return to it. Who told her to do that thing?”

The woman gave this chance to take effect, and, while doing so, took a fresh stick of gum. Cecilia looked on the glass. The woman came back to it,154 and almost kissed it, as she pretended to look deeper into its depths.

“Yes, and there is trouble,” she rumbled⁹, “much trouble. But it isn’t well to foresee trouble,” and she sighed as if that “trouble” would break her own heart.

Cecilia was very restless. It would get late in spite of all calculations.

It was now Jean Faval’s turn. She walked in as if used to such scenes, had her glove off in advance, and handed out her hand as mechanically as if offering it to a manicurist.

The woman looked at her very sharply, and it was some moments before she spoke³.

“The lines are crossed,” she said finally, “and so is your life to be. You have a great will, but you do not allow it to have its proper control. Your ambition is—money, and what about a letter? Who wrote the torn letter?”

She looked from the glass ball straight into Jean’s eyes, but the latter never flinched¹⁰.

“Have you any questions to ask?” the woman inquired.

Jean hesitated. Then she said: “When will I get my answer to that letter? Is there anything in it?”

“No,” said the teller sharply. “The answer will surprise you very much. Don’t be too sure (common advice). But this very night you will155 dream. That dream is the answer to your letter.”

There was a perceptible titter from some place.

Then the seance was over!

Such a prattle¹¹, and such confusion as reigned¹² among that party of girls as they hurried back to Glenwood!

Jean alone was silent. How did that woman guess about her letter? And she had warned her to be careful. Well, she would wait for a time at least. She would say nothing at school about Major Dale!

1 tersely   

adv. 简捷地, 简要地

参考例句：

• Nixon proceeded to respond, mercifully more tersely than Brezhnev. 尼克松开始作出回答了。幸运的是，他讲的比勃列日涅夫简练。
• Hafiz Issail tersely informed me that Israel force had broken the young cease-fire. 哈菲兹·伊斯梅尔的来电简洁扼要，他说以色列部队破坏了刚刚生效的停火。

2 shuffling   

adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• Don't go shuffling along as if you were dead. 别像个死人似地拖着脚走。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some one was shuffling by on the sidewalk. 外面的人行道上有人拖着脚走过。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 dart   

v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲

参考例句：

• The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
• Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。

5 scurried   

v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She said goodbye and scurried back to work. 她说声再见，然后扭头跑回去干活了。
• It began to rain and we scurried for shelter. 下起雨来，我们急忙找地方躲避。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 dingy   

adj.昏暗的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• It was a street of dingy houses huddled together. 这是一条挤满了破旧房子的街巷。
• The dingy cottage was converted into a neat tasteful residence.那间脏黑的小屋已变成一个整洁雅致的住宅。

7 teller   

n.银行出纳员；(选举)计票员

参考例句：

• The bank started her as a teller.银行起用她当出纳员。
• The teller tried to remain aloof and calm.出纳员力图保持冷漠和镇静。

8 temperament   

n.气质，性格，性情

参考例句：

• The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
• Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。

9 rumbled   

发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋）

参考例句：

• The machine rumbled as it started up. 机器轰鸣着发动起来。
• Things rapidly became calm, though beneath the surface the argument rumbled on. 事情迅速平静下来了，然而，在这种平静的表面背后争论如隆隆雷声，持续不断。

10 flinched   

v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He flinched at the sight of the blood. 他一见到血就往后退。
• This tough Corsican never flinched or failed. 这个刚毅的科西嘉人从来没有任何畏缩或沮丧。 来自辞典例句

11 prattle   

n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音

参考例句：

• Amy's happy prattle became intolerable.艾美兴高采烈地叽叽喳喳说个不停，汤姆感到无法忍受。
• Flowing water and green grass witness your lover's endless prattle.流水缠绕，小草依依，都是你诉不尽的情话。

12 reigned   

vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式）

参考例句：

• Silence reigned in the hall. 全场肃静。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Night was deep and dead silence reigned everywhere. 夜深人静，一片死寂。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》