Jean received a letter that seemed to crush her to the very earth. She would take no part in anything, but simply went through her routine work like one in a dream.
It was on this same day, very close to the closing exercises for the holiday term, that Tavia and Dorothy (the latter more despondent3 than ever about her father’s business), also received news that changed their despondency into gladness.
It was Dorothy’s letter from home. As she finished reading it she exclaimed:
“Tavia! whatever do you think? Mr. Armstrong—our Mr. Armstrong—is father’s lawyer!”
225 “Our Mr. Armstrong,” repeated Tavia, “you mean your Mr. Armstrong,” Tavia finished teasingly.
“Well, father says this case has taken a new turn. That Mr. Armstrong has discovered some flaws somewhere in the case of the other side. I could not understand just what they are, but, at any rate, it makes things look much brighter for father.”
“Good! May his brightness increase with the days,” replied Tavia. “Of course I knew it would come all right——”
“But it is not all right yet. It is only brightening up. But a ray of hope is a great thing, when one is really blue,” admitted Dorothy.
“Then Zada must have had several rays, for I never saw such a changed girl. She actually went skating with us yesterday. That child was creepy last Fall,” said Tavia.
Dorothy smiled when she thought of the reason for Zada’s improvement, but much as Tavia wanted to know the story of the lost picture, Dorothy could not dream of telling her of Zada’s confession4.
“Father knows that we met Mr. Armstrong, and says he wishes to be remembered to us,” added Dorothy.
“He shall never be forgotten,” said Tavia. “If I really ever felt foolish enough to marry,226 I would advertise for a man like him. He is so real. And how he rode on the hand car! I call that inspiring!”
Dorothy smiled. The relation between riding on a hand car and inspiration seemed remote.
“Did they find out who took Jean’s purse?” asked Tavia. “I believe Jake said he would do so, and Jake usually does what he says.”
“Haven’t you heard? Is it possible I have any news that you have been deprived of?” said Dorothy. “Why, it was the husband of that fortune teller5!”
“Whew!” whistled Tavia. “Bad as that! Jean had better be careful or they will get her inside that crystal ball.”
“But I do wonder how that woman ever told her the things she did? I know she told her about the torn letter,” said Dorothy.
Tavia laughed merrily. “Don’t you ever wonder how I strained my foot?” she questioned in answer.
“Well, yes, of course, but then you did not want to tell me,” Dorothy replied.
“I will, some day, but just now I want to tell you I had the best time I ever had in my life that night. But about your father. Dear Major Dale! How kind he always was to me, and I was such a problem to be kind to,” said Tavia gratefully.
227 “We always liked you, Tavia,” added Dorothy equally moved. “But about father. He says that Mr. Armstrong is a wonderful young lawyer.”
“All things come to her who waits,” put in Tavia. “Now I know what that chap’s business is. It was really worth while for the investment company to fail, to get me that news.”
“Don’t joke about so serious a matter,” objected Dorothy. “But you have no idea how much better I feel. I could sing and dance.”
“That’s Mr. Armstrong,” again teased Tavia. “He made me feel like that first—before I saw how you made him feel——”
“Now stop, Tavia,” begged Dorothy, blushing. “Mr. Armstrong has really proven himself a good friend. First he helped us so much the night we were traveling; then he came to my assistance at the lunch counter, and now he is assisting father.”
“You have overlooked the fact that he bound up the sprained6 arm—whose was it?”
“I wonder how he came to have a medicine case along?” reflected Dorothy.
“Likely feeling he would need it,” suggested Tavia. “That would be right in line with his other saintly characteristics.”
“No, I believe he was carrying it for some friend. However, we have our tests to-day. Oh, I am so glad this term is nearly finished. Not228 that I dislike the work so much, but everything has been so upset.”
“I am glad, too,” agreed Tavia. “I suppose you are going to North Birchland for the holidays?”
“Aunt Winnie may not be home, but, of course, the boys will be, and we always have Christmas together,” replied Dorothy.
Tavia fell to thinking. It was rarely she ever looked quite so serious. “I will stay on here,” she said. “I can’t afford to go to Dalton. And besides, home is so changed——”
“You will do nothing of the sort,” exclaimed Dorothy. “You can depend upon it if I can afford to travel, something will turn up to give you the same privilege. And here I am talking—how do I know but that failure may come yet? Then I would have to go—and stay!”
“You are forgetting about David Armstrong,” Tavia said quickly, to dispel7 the little blot8 of gloom. “‘Dave’ will surely win out.”
There was not more time for talking, for, as Dorothy said some of the mid-year tests were to be prepared for that very day.
Tavia, never fond of study, but doing better than she had expected to do, worked uneasily over her geometry. Dorothy was making an outline for a thesis. The morning was dark, and it was229 plain that the upper world was burdened with snow.
One more week and Glenwood would be in an uproar9, with girls leaving for home for the Christmas holidays. Everyone seemed happy that morning, when the classes were called—everyone except Jean. Dorothy pitied her in her heart, for, though she might have made some mistakes, still, thought Dorothy, “we all make mistakes in different ways.”
When the day’s work was done and the papers had been examined Dorothy’s thesis was pronounced the most perfect, and for it she would receive the usual holiday prize, a gold pin, the gift of the faculty10. This was one of the most desirable tributes that could be bestowed11 upon a pupil of Glenwood. It was enamelled with the Glenwood flag and the school motto.
The next evening, with some pleasant exercises, it was presented, and every girl, even the “T’s” cheered, for no one could honestly dispute Dorothy’s right to popularity. Little Zada stole up to her, as they were leaving the assembly room, and reaching high, put her arms about Dorothy’s neck, and kissed her affectionately.
Then the Glens held a meeting, and gave her a “shower.” What was not in that shower could hardly be imagined. Cologne, of course, gave her a box of perfume, Edna, a silk flag, Tavia, a shoe230 bag with a little white dog “Ravelings” painted on. (Tavia did not paint it but that was of no account.) Other trifles and pretty trinkets came in a real shower, so that the evening, so close to the end of the mid-year term, ended most happily.
As there was still some school work to be done this part of the program had to be “inserted” so to speak, early.
First, because as the holidays drew nearer, the excitement of going home obscured every other occurrence, and second, because the records to be made by the teachers for the beginning of the next term occupied all their time.
“Where is Jean?” asked Dorothy thoughtfully, when, after all the confusion, she was alone in her room with Tavia.
“I don’t know. No one has seen her to-day. What could have happened, I wonder? She came out well, and would have received a certificate.”
“I heard Cecilia say she was not well. I wonder should we go over and see if she is all right? We are her nearest neighbors,” proposed Dorothy.
“Well, we couldn’t go to-night,” replied Tavia. “But honestly, Doro, I do feel sorry for her. She seems to have had nothing but scrapes231 since she came here. I don’t usually feel that way for a rebel, but maybe Jean was born that way.”
“It is an unhappy thing to have such a disposition,” said Dorothy, “and as you say it may be lack of home making—or training. She appears like a girl who sprang up suddenly.”
“I can sympathize with her in that,” replied Tavia with a sigh. “See all the trouble I have had! Just because I got to be someone else. I mean that I had to be made over.”
“Oh, nonsense, Tavia. You were always the best girl in the world. We were not speaking of polish, but disposition,” insisted Dorothy.
“Well, we will see about Jean in the morning. It appears to be our duty, since you and I have given her the most cause to be mean,” decided Tavia, in her queer way of reasoning.
Dorothy smiled as she looked fondly again at the riot of pretty things about her dresser. “I think it was too much for the girls to give me all these things,” she remarked. “I wonder how they could spare them from their home presents?”
“Oh, they were the things they could not get in their boxes,” said Tavia, plaguing her companion. “But say, let’s snooze. Ned and I walked all the way to town to-day and I am almost dead.”
“What did you go away in there for?”
232 “To ask the Gleaner12 man who gave him your picture.”
“Did he tell you?”
“He said it came by mail, anonymously13.”
Then Dorothy smiled as she touched the button that extinguished the light.
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1
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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forestalled
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| v.先发制人，预先阻止( forestall的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
despondent
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| adj.失望的，沮丧的，泄气的 | |
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4
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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5
teller
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| n.银行出纳员；(选举)计票员 | |
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6
sprained
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| v.&n. 扭伤 | |
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7
dispel
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| vt.驱走，驱散，消除 | |
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8
blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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9
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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10
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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11
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
gleaner
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| n.拾穗的人；割捆机 | |
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13
anonymously
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| ad.用匿名的方式 | |
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