by Frank Cobb
CHAPTER VII
FOUR SOPHOMORES AND A DOG
The last recitation of the winter term was over, and the corridors werealive with girls hurrying this way and that, pinning on their hats,buttoning jackets, crowding into the elevator, unfurling umbrellas, andchattering all the time.
"Hope you'll have the nicest sort of a time!" "Don't stay up too late!""Good-bye!" "Oh, good-bye!" "Be sure to get well rested this vacation!""Awfully, awfully sorry you wouldn't come home with me, Gertrude, you badchild! But I know you won't suffer from monotony with Berta and Beatricein the same study." "Hurry, girls, there's the car now. Just hear thatbell jingle, will you!" "Good-bye, Gertrude, and don't let Sara work toohard!" "Oh, good-bye!"
Gertrude felt the clutch of arms relax from about her neck, and managedto breathe again. This was one of the penalties--pleasant enough,doubtless, if a person were in the mood for it--of being a popularsophomore. For a minute she lingered wearily in the vestibule to watchthe figures flying down the avenue to the Lodge gates. How their skirtsfluttered and twisted around them, and how their hats danced! Theirsuit-cases bounded and bumped as they ran, and their umbrellas churned upand down in choppy billows before the boisterous March wind. There! thelast one had vanished in a whirl of flapping ends and lively anglesbeyond the dripping evergreens.
As she was turning languidly away, a backward glance espied two girlsemerging from one of the dormitories far across the flooded lawn. Theycame skipping over the narrow planks that had been laid in the riversflowing along the curving walks. The first was Berta swathed in a hoodedwaterproof; and the second, of course, was Beatrice, a tam flung askew onher red curls, her arms thrust through a coat sleeve or two, a laundrybag swinging from one elbow, and a tin fudge pan clasped tenderly andfirmly beneath the other, while with the hands so providentially leftfree she stooped at every third step to rescue one or the other of hereasy-fitting rubbers from setting out on a watery voyage all by itself.
"Hi!" she gasped after a final shuffling dash, as she caught sight ofimmaculate Gertrude, "I wore your overshoes. Hope you don't mind. They'renot very wet inside, and I brought over your things so that we can moveinto our borrowed study right off now."
"Where are my things?" asked Gertrude with natural curiosity and perhapsunnatural calm.
"Here," jerking the laundry bag, "it holds a lot--brushes, soap,nightgown, toothpowder, fountain-pen, note-book, everything. Bertacarried your mending basket. You needn't bother one bit."
"I'll run back and forth for anything you want," volunteered Bertahastily at sight of an irritable frown on the usually serene brow ofhandsome Gertrude.
"You're cross!" commented Bea with a cheerful vivacity that wasexasperating to the highest degree, considering that everybody ought tobe worn down to an unobtrusive state of limp inertia after the three busymonths just concluded, "you've been cross ever since Sara----"
"Berta, lend me your gossamer and rubbers, please," when Gertrude wasunreasonably provoked she had a habit of snapping out her words even moreclear-cut than usual. An instant later she swept forth into the rain onlyto stop short and hurry in again before the door had swung shut. "Wemight as well look at the study first," she said in a more gracious tone,"and we can draw lots to see who is to have the inside bedroom. I daresay the change to this building will be a rest."
Berta took quick survey from the window to explore the cause for thisamazing wavering of purpose.
"Ah!" she murmured in swift enlightenment, "it's Sara. She's coming overthe path."
A peculiar expression flitted across Bea's ingenuous face--an expressionhalf quizzical, half sorry. "Then we'd better follow Gertrude's example,and clear the track. She'll cut us dead again--that meek little mouse ofa girl! And I don't blame her for it either, so there!"
Berta tucked a pensive skip in between steps as they moved through thegloomy corridor past rain-beaten windows. "It wasn't like Gertrude toburst out like that just because Sara came late to our domestic evening,but it did spoil the fudges and the game and everything."
"And not to give her a chance to explain!" fumed Bea's temper alwaysready to flame over any injustice. "Before she could open her lips,Gertrude blazed up, cold as an icicle----"
"What?" interpolated demure Berta with her most deeply shocked accent,"an icicle blaze?"
"Oh, hush, you're the most disagreeable person! I wish Lila hadn't gonehome. Well, she did just that. She said the artistic temperament was noexcuse for discourteous falsehood--or she almost the same as saidit--meaning breaking your word, you know, for Sara had promised she wouldcome at eight, and there it was quarter to nine. She said that it mightbe wiser next time to invite somebody more reliable about keepingengagements. Sara did not answer a word--only went white as a sheet andwalked out of the room. Now she even cuts us--because we werethere--stares right over our heads when we meet her anywhere."
"I'm sure Gertrude was sorry the minute she had spoken. And she's beenworking awfully hard over committees and the maids' classes and the lastplay. She was tired and nervous up to the brim, and then to wait and waitand wait for Sara. Why, I was getting cross myself."
"Well, why doesn't she beg Sara's pardon then, and make it all right?"demanded the young judge severely. "Sara has always simply worshiped her,but because she never has made mistakes nor learned how to apologize, andeverybody admires her and flatters her, she is too proud to say she waswrong. It's plain vanity--that's what it is. She can't bear to makeherself do it."
"She's unhappy,--that's what I think, though she sort of pretends shedoesn't care."
"She's cross as a bear--that's what I think," snapped Bea, "and Sarah hasdark circles under her eyes. It's dreadful--those two girls who used tobe inseparable! Quarrels are--are horrible!" The impetus of thisconviction almost succeeded in hurling its proprietor against the watercooler at the bathroom door. "Say, Berta, what if you and I shouldquarrel, with Robbie Belle and Lila one thousand miles away?"
"I'm too amiable," responded Berta complacently, "sugar is sweet----"
The tin cup dropped with a flurried rattle against the fudge pan. "Oh!" ashriek of dismay, "my dear young and giddy friend, we're all out ofsugar. What if we should want to make anything to-night? Let's run backto the grocery by the kitchen this minute."
Owing to this delay, Gertrude had been in the study for more than tenminutes, staring out at the trees writhing in the wind, when she wasstartled by the sound of a suffocated shriek, followed by a scamper offour thick-soled shoes, the heels smiting the corridor floor withdisgracefully mannish force. The door flew inward vehemently, and Beashot clear across the room to collapse in the farthest corner, hiding herface in the fudge pan while her shoulders quivered and heavedterrifyingly. Berta walked in behind her, and after one reproachful look,sat down carefully in a rocker and brushed her scarlet face beforebeginning to giggle helplessly.
"You're the meanest person! Beatrice Leigh, you knew I was turning intothe wrong alleyway, but you never said a word. You wanted to see medisgraced. The door opened like magic, and there she stood as if she hadslid through the keyhole. She stood there plastered against the walland--and--regarded us----"
"Oh!" moaned Bea in ecstasy, one fiery ear and half a cheek emerging fromthe kindly shelter of the fudge pan, "she glared. She wondered why thosetwo idiotic individuals were stalking toward her without a word or knockor smile, when suddenly the hinder one exploded and vanished, while theother ignominiously--stark, mute, inglorious--fled, ran, withdrew--so tospeak----"
"Why didn't you say something?" groaned Berta. "I simply lost my witsfrom the surprise. She was the very last person I expected to seeanywhere around here. How in the world did she happen to borrow the nextroom to ours? She'll think we were making fun of her--that we did it onpurpose. She's awfully sensitive anyhow!"
"Well, you two are silly!" commented Gertrude, her face again toward thedriving storm. "Who was it? Not a senior, I hope, or a faculty?"
Bea straightened herself abruptly, the laughter driven sternly out ofev
ery muscle except one little twitching dimple at the corner of hermouth. "It was Sara," she exclaimed, "and she is pale as a ghost. She hasnever been so strong since waking up on that boat and finding a burglartrying to steal the ring off her finger during the holidays. You know howshe jumps at every sudden noise, and she's been getting thinner andthinner, and I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself clear down tothe ground." Here the dimple vanished in earnest. "I know I'm ashamed ofmyself, and so's Berta. Even her lips were white. Now we've hurt herfeelings worse. I didn't think. Nice big splendid excuse for a sophomore,isn't it?"
"There's the gong for luncheon," was Gertrude's only reply as she movedtoward the door.
Bea's flare of denunciation had subsided quickly in her characteristicmanner. She sat absently nibbling the handle of the obliging pan, whilestaring after the receding figure, its girlish slenderness stiffened asif to warn away all friendliness. "She's stubborner than ever. I say,Berta, let's reconcile them."
"Oh, let's!" in echoing enthusiasm, adding as the beauty of the planglowed brighter, "they'll probably thank us to the last day that theylive. I know I would, if it were Robbie and I who were drifting fartherand farther apart."
"Very likely," responded the arch-conspirator, beginning at the loweredge of the tin doubtless itself delicious from long association withdainties, "but the question is: How are we going to do it? One is proud,and the other is proud too. I don't see exactly how we can fix it."
As Berta did not see either, they decided with considerable sound sensemeanwhile to go to luncheon. The next day after many minutes ofdiscouraging meditation mingled with a few hours of tennis in thegymnasium, an idea came to them. While they rested on the window ledge,watching Gertrude stroll to and fro in the sunshine balmy at last, Beabegan to waste her breath as usual.
"'To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow drags out its weary course fromday to day,'" she quoted with mindless cheerfulness, only to interruptherself good naturedly, "say, Berta, do you realize that the thirdto-morrow aforementioned is April Fool's Day? I wish somethinginteresting would happen. This is the most monotonous place in vacation."
"To-morrow never is, it always will be," corrected the carping critic.
Bea with indifference born of long endurance paid no attention. "I say!"rapturously as the idea began to dawn upon her inward vision, "let'sreconcile them with a joke."
"All right," agreed her partner with most charming alacrity, "what joke?"
The question was rather a poser, as Bea was inclined to take only onestep at a time and utter one thought as it obligingly arrived, withoutanxiety about the next. This tendency had occasionally landed her highand dry on the shores of nothingness in the classroom.
"Oh, um-m-m, I haven't determined that point yet. It isn't only greatminds that move slowly." Gertrude's cape swung into view at the turn ofthe walk. "Berta, she looks awfully lonesome, doesn't she?"
"Well," argued the other, "nobody can expect us to do all the taggingaround ourselves, especially where a contemporary is concerned. If shewants us to walk with her, she might omit a few snubs now and then. I'mtired of chasing after her."
"The trouble is that you are not a faithful friend, faithful friend,"rattled Bea, "man's faithful friend, the dog. Oh, oh, oh, Berta, I havean idea!"
"Noble girl!" Berta patted her on the head. "I generously refrain fromcomment."
"Thank you, sweetheart. I feared you could not deny yourself that remarkabout keeping my idea, as I might never get another. But this one is anidea about a dog. Let's find a puppy to give Gertrude for a soothingcompanion this vacation. I love puppies."
"The question is: does Gertrude also love puppies? Or is it a joke?"
"Let's get a dog and surprise her with it April Fool's morning. He willbe such a friendly little fellow and so faithful that her conscience willsting her----"
"I must acknowledge that you are a humane, tender-hearted individual. Toplot a stinging conscience----"
"Oh, hush, Berta! Do be nice and agreeable. I'm awfully tired this week,and I really need some distraction. The corridors stretch out empty andsilent, and breakfast doesn't taste good at all, and--and I want to dosomething for Sara."
"Oh, all right!" Berta spied the glint of an excitable tear and shruggedthe weight of common sense from her shoulders. "I'm with you."
Three days passed--three days of blue sky and fluffy clouds and air thatsent Bea dancing from end to end of the long stone wall while Bertastumped conceitedly along the path in her new rubber boots. Gertrudewondered aloud why two presumably intelligent young women insisted uponspending every morning in foolish journeys over muddy country roads.Noting an unaccustomed accent of peevishness in the energetic voice,Berta began to worry a bit over the likelihood that such petulance wasdue to impending sickness. Bea jeered at this, though with covert sideglances to detect any signs of fever. In her secret soul, where she hidthe notions which she dimly felt looked best in the dark, she reflectedthat an attack of some mild disease might be a valuable form ofretribution, and also afford the invalid leisure to repent of her sins.Still she did not quite like to mention this thought aloud, as it seemedtoo unkindly vengeful with regard to any one so obviously miserable asGertrude.
One day on charitable plans intent the two conspirators dragged Gertrudeout across the brown fields to have fun building a bonfire, as they haddone the previous spring. But somehow the expedition was not much of asuccess--possibly because the wood was too damp to burn inspiritingly. Onthat other occasion Sara had been with them, and had kept them laughing.She could say the funniest things without stirring a muscle of her smallsolemn face. That stump speech of hers given from a genuine stump hadsent them actually reeling home. This year--alas!--while returning tocollege rather silently, they saw Sara plodding toward them with an airof being out for sober exercise, not pleasure. The moment she spied them,she deliberately retraced her steps, and vanished through a hole in thehedge. This incident set Gertrude to chattering so excitedly aboutnothing in particular that the others knew she cared even more than theyhad fancied.
On the evening of the last day of March, Bea and Berta came rushing intothe dining-room twenty minutes late for dinner. When they both declaredthat they did not want any soup--their favorite kind, too--Gertrudesighed impatiently over countermanding her order to the maid. It seemedas if she were not getting rested one bit this vacation, though she didnothing but read novels all day long. She felt sometimes as if she werehurrying every minute to escape from herself and her own thoughts.Everything irritated her in the strangest way. In all her busy healthfullife she had never been nervous before. It was not hard work that hadworn upon her. The doctor told them when they were freshmen that no girlever broke down from work unless worry was added. Gertrude knew perfectlywell what torturing little worry was gnawing away in her mind. She kepttelling herself that her speech to Sara had been true--it was so--Sarahad broken her engagement--and she could not, could not, could not humbleherself to apologize. In fact, Sara was the one who ought to offerapologies. And all this time wilful Gertrude refused to acknowledge evento herself that she was juggling with her conscience in the desperatedetermination to hold herself free from blame in her own esteem. Shesimply could not beg anybody's pardon, and she was not going to do it,because--well, because she had not been to blame--so there!
On this particular evening, after five solid minutes of silence on thepart of her exasperating roommates, she raised her heavy eyes, and letthem rest expressionlessly on the two wind-freshened faces, till Bea'sroses blossomed to her hair.
"We're not doing anything," rebelliously, "you are so boss-y."
"Moo-oo," muttered Berta to her plate. "Bow-wow-wow." Bea choked over herglass and fled precipitately, leaving her partner to capture a pitcher ofmilk ostensibly to drink before going to bed.
Of course they would have regretted missing dessert as well as soup, ifGertrude had not asked permission to carry some of the whipped cream toher room. It was easier to do something unnecessarily generous than tobe
g Sara's pardon--which was merely plain hard duty. The girls were notin the study when she entered with her offering, but soon Bea dashed inand dropped breathlessly on the couch, with a conspicuous effort to actas if accustomed to arrive without her present double. Gertrude listenedunsuspiciously to the flurried explanation that Berta was kept bya--a--a--friend, before she revealed the brimming trophy from dessert.
Bea clapped her hands. "Oh, you darling! the very thing! Won't thatpup"--an abrupt and convulsive cough subsided brilliantly into, "that petof a Berta be pleased! I'll take it to her this instant."
However, she did not invite Gertrude to accompany her, and upon herreturn after a prolonged absence, she conducted herself with oddrestlessness. In the intervals of suggesting that they put up an engagedsign or read aloud or darn stockings or play patience before going to acertain spread, she stared at the clock. Promptly at eight she escapedfrom the door, near which she had been lingering for the pastquarter-hour, with the carefully distinct announcement that she was goingafter Berta, and later she might attend the spread.
Five minutes later she was bending over a fluffy little creature nestlingon Gertrude's best pillow in one of the partitioned off bathrooms at theend of the corridor.
"He's been pretty good," said Berta as she surrendered the spoon, "and helikes the cream, only the bubbles in it keep him awake, I think. Somebodyhammered at the door so long that I had to stuff a lot into his mouthevery time he started to cry."
Bea assumed her station of nurse with businesslike briskness. "Hurry backto Gertrude, and coax her to go to that spread if you can. She's terriblyblue to-night. Be sure to get back here at nine, and I will take my turnat the party so that nobody will be too curious about this affair. At tenwe shall both be here to decide about the night."
"Then we can hook the door on the inside, and climb over the partition.Won't it be fun! I wonder if I shouldn't better practice doing it now,"and Berta looked longingly at the black walnut precipice.
"You trot along this instant, and don't let Gertrude suspect anything forthe world. Be just as natural as you know how--more than ever before inyour life. I reckon I shall put him to sleep in a jiffy."
"Try it," called the ex-nurse with laconic scorn, "I'll allow you thefull hour for the experiment."
It must have been a very full hour indeed, to judge from Bea's feelingsas the minutes dawdled past. It seemed to her that instead of flying withtheir sixty wings, according to the rhyme, each minute trailed itsfeathers in the dust as it shuffled along. At first, it was amusing towatch for the mouth to open, and then pop in a spoonful of cream. Butthis soon became monotonous, especially when she learned that no matterhow long she sat motionless beside the pillow, the bright little eyesblinked wide awake at her slightest stir to rise.
It was lonesome in that end of the great building. Their suite and Sara'sroom next to it were the only ones occupied in that neighborhood duringthe vacation. This bathroom was as much as forty steps distant even fromthat populated spot, and not a single footfall had sounded in thecorridor since Berta had disappeared into the gloom. The light from theouter apartment glimmered dully over the partition. At intervals in thestillness, a drop of water clinked from the faucet out there. Bea foundherself holding her breath to listen for the tinkle of its splash.Outside the small window, a pale moon was drifting among fluffy clouds.
More than once Bea rose with exquisite caution, and stole to the outerdoor, only to hear a plaintive whine, while four clumsy paws camepattering after her. Then followed more minutes of soothing him withcream, and watching for the little woolly sides to cease heaving sopiteously. Perhaps after all it would have been wiser to have left thistroublesome joke with his mother on the farm.
By the time this vague suggestion had wavered into her consciousness, thestrain of waiting and listening began to re-act on her temper. Of course,Berta had forgotten all about her watching there alone in the dark. Bertawas selfish and thoughtless and heedless. That very afternoon, while theywere bringing the puppy to college, she had almost tipped the buggy overinto a puddle. Berta had no right to impose upon her like this, and makeher do the worst part of the work every time. Why, even when they wentcalling together, Bea always had to do the knocking and walk in first andmanage the conversation and everything. And now Berta was having fun atthe spread, and it must be near ten o'clock, for the watchman had alreadyshuffled softly past and turned the gas still lower. And she knew herfoot was going to sleep, and she could never feel the same toward BertaAbbott again.
Bea was so sorry for herself that her lip began to quiver over a sobbingbreath, when steps came hurrying helter-skelter, the door banged open,and Berta dived in.
"Oh, Bea, I'm dreadfully sorry! I couldn't get away before. They heldme--actually--and made me jig for them, and sing that last song I wrote.The preserved ginger was so delicious that I saved some for you. Nobodysuspects a thing. How is the little dear?"
Bea rose with impressive dignity till the straightening of numb musclesinspired an agonized, "Ouch!" and a stiff wriggle. It was every bitBerta's fault, and she evidently didn't care a snap. She would showpeople whether they could walk all over her and never say boo! She wouldnot lose her temper--oh, no! she would not utter a word--not a single oneof all the scorching things she could think of. She would just bedignified and self-possessed and teach certain persons that she did notintend to be imposed upon one instant longer. Therefore, Miss BeatriceLeigh flung open the door and stalked away without a backward glance.
"Hulloa!" ejaculated Berta, staring blankly after her, "what's yourrush?"
No answer; merely a somewhat more defiant swing of the slender shouldersvanishing in the dusk of the deserted corridor.
"What shall we do with the dog? You borrowed him--you're responsible--it'syour idea," following in a puzzled flurry as far as the threshold. "ShallI lock him in alone? I said all along it was silly."
Those insolent shoulders sailed silently around the transverse and out ofsight.
After a petrified moment, Berta drew a deep breath, and threw back herhead while the crimson of quick resentment flamed from neck to hair. Thatwas a nice way to be treated, when she had simply done her best not toarouse suspicion, exactly as Bea had warned her. She took two stepshastily away from the spot; then turned slowly and glanced in at the softheap of white showing dimly on the darker blur of the pillow. Shecertainly did not propose to spend the entire night in playing nurse toanybody, especially after Bea had insulted her so unpardonably. It hadbeen Bea's idea all along too, and Berta had worked herself nearly todeath to make it a success. The miles and miles she had tramped throughthe mud--and all to no result! Now everything was spoiled, and everybodyhad quarreled with everybody else. Whereupon Berta marched away to bed,leaving the swinging door unhooked and the outer door ajar. Bea wasindisputably right in criticising her fellow conspirator as heedless.
At midnight Gertrude sprang from her pillow, both arms flung out into thedarkness, every nerve quivering as she listened for a second scream. Shehad chosen the inside bedroom that had a window opening on the corridor.Now in the breathless silence, she heard a swift creak ending in the bangof an up-flung sash. A swish of light garments, a thud shaking the flooroutside, and then bare feet flying in frantic haste past her room andinto the alleyway.
A crash against the study door, and the knob rattled wildly. "Let me in,quick, quick! Help, Gertrude, help!"
There was a flash of white across the floor, the lock grated, and Sarawas in Gertrude's arms. Portieres rustled apart, and two moreapparitions loomed pallidly in the dark.
"Hulloa!" gasped Berta's voice, while a woodeny click from Bea'sdirection told of Indian clubs snatched bravely in readiness for war.
"Light the gas, girls," ordered Gertrude quietly; "there, dear, don't befrightened now. See, we are all here. We will take care of you. What wasit startled you?"
"I don't know. It was dark. Something moved. I heard something. I wasafraid."
Gertrude felt her tremble, and held her closer. O
ver the bowed head shespoke with her lips to the other two. "That steamboat shock."
Bea caught the idea impulsively. "Oh, Sara!" she exclaimed, "you're onlynervous. You've often waked up and screamed a little ever since thatnight on the boat. It's nothing. Crackie! but you frightened us atfirst!"
Sara lifted a white face. "This was different," she said; "this wassomething alive. Hark!"
They leaned forward, listening. Yes, there was a footstep outside,muffled, stealthy. A board creaked. Something was breathing.
Gertrude and Berta looked at each other in quick challenge for mutualcourage. All the other rooms at that end of the building were vacant; thelong dark corridor stretched out its empty tunnel between them andavailable help. What could four girls do?
"We can scream," said Bea.
"Lock the door--and the inner window--quick!" Gertrude flew to one, Bertato the other. "Sara, take this Indian club. Now if it reallyis--anything, scream. But don't run. Don't scatter. Scream--scream alltogether. Ah!"
The footsteps were coming down the alleyway toward the door. Bea filledher lungs, and opened her mouth in valiant preparation.
"Wee-wee-wee, bow-wow!" Two little paws scratched at the door.
Bea's breath issued in a feeble squeak, as she dropped neatly down uponthe floor and buried her face in her hands.
Berta swooped upon her. "The puppy!"
Gertrude felt herself freed from the encircling arms. She moistened herlips. "I am sorry, Sara, about the other night. I am--sorry."
The pale little face upturned toward hers began to glow as if touchedwith sunshine. "I was late because Prexie kept me. I should haveexplained, but--but it hurt. I knew you were sorry."
Berta sat up as if jerked into position by a wire, and briskly brushedthe hair out of her eyes.
"Listen, Bea," she whispered to a small pink ear half hidden by redcurls, "they're reconciled."
"So are we," said Bea, "please open the door for the puppy."
