Scholarly Pursuits

by M. Louisa Locke

  “…the chances for the restoration of the sophomores who were expelled from the State University for refusing to divulge the names of the Committee who wrote a ‘bogus,’ which contained some filthy reflections on their fellow-students, are no better than ever.” San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 1879

  “Laura, I can’t believe he apologized to Reverend Mason for swearing but never actually apologized to me, even though he did admit that I had briefly been a target of hazing myself. And you can forget about him accepting any responsibility for being the one who told his fraternity brothers about Grace and the anti-fraternity letters to the Oestrus, even though he readily admits this is what started all the hazing against her.”

  Caro was walking with Laura from North Hall to the library in South Hall, filling her in on the meeting with Mason.

  Laura said, “Elliot admitted to you that he was the one Willie told about the letters but that he’d already heard this from someone else? Did you ask him who that person was?”

  “Yes, and he said it was Bart Keller. In fact, once I brought up that someone stole Grace’s essays and that this threatened her academic standing, he started to bring Bart’s name up, repeatedly. I think he recognized that if I, or Reverend Mason, took any of this information to President LeConte…he and his whole fraternity could end up in trouble.”

  “So he made Bart the scapegoat?”

  “That’s the way I read it. He started out by saying that Bart nursed a particular anger against any student who’d sided against the fraternities, saying Bart was one of the members of the class of ’81 who, after they were suspended, had to take his whole sophomore year over. He said that Bart’s father, who owns a shoe factory in town, was very strict and that he’d reacted very badly to his son’s suspension. I think Elliot was trying to gain Reverend Mason’s sympathy for Bart. I pointed out that the suspension was over the bogus program, not membership in a fraternity, and that the suspension didn’t happen until final exams were over, which meant that Bart must have been conditioned for failing his exams. In other words, he didn’t have anyone else to blame but himself.”

  “Good for you, Caro; what was Elliot’s response?”

  “That’s when he brought up his concern that Bart’s alcohol consumption was the real problem, mentioning his behavior at the Charter Day dance. He said he had a strong talk with Bart about public intoxication, told him that he was not being a good model for the younger Zetas. I felt he was choosing excuses that he knew would resonate with Reverend Mason.”

  “Sounds to me like Elliot Sinclair would make a very effective politician,” Laura said, “or a lawyer,” thinking about all the lawyers listed as Zeta Psi alumni.

  “I asked him whether he believed he was providing a good model for his fellow fraternity members to emulate when he personally jostled me in the hallways and laughed when Bart made insulting remarks about my person. He actually blushed, but he protested that he was the one to put a stop to my harassment when he realized Bart was moving beyond a few jokes. That’s when he brought up the idea that there was someone else behind everything, including encouraging the students to drink. He told Reverend Mason that when he asked Bart why he was taking a special interest in giving me a hard time, Bart said he’d been instructed to ‘make campus too hot for Miss Sutton.’ He was to teach me to keep my nose out of business that didn’t concern me.”

  “Oh, Caro, did Elliot say who this person was?”

  “No, he said that Bart wouldn’t tell him but that he didn’t think it was another student. Reverend Mason pushed him on this…particularly on the idea that someone was encouraging young men on campus to drink.”

  “Sounds to me like Mason listened to two young men confess that they participated in or knew about most of the things that happened to Grace, and to you, but the only thing that really upset him was the information that Bart Keller, and some of the other fraternity boys, are drinking to excess. How infuriating. Did you learn anything else of interest?”

  “Only one other thing. When Elliot was giving us examples of how drinking exacerbated Bart’s anger, he reminded Reverend Mason about Bart’s behavior on the camping trip. How it led to an argument between Bart and Willie. This was a mistake on Elliot’s part, because Reverend Mason became upset with Elliot when he discovered that he knew that Bart had smuggled whiskey on the trip. Mason then rounded on the poor Chi Phi boy, who was evidently one of the two members of that fraternity who had gone on the camping trip. When poor Mr. Johnston admitted that he’d heard Bart bragging about the whiskey the first day they were in the mountains, Mason castigated him for not telling him. He said the coroner suggested at the inquest that being inebriated may have played a role in Mr. Caulfield’s accidental death. I thought poor Mr. Johnson was going to break out in tears when the camping trip was brought up.”

  “What about Elliot Sinclair?”

  “He stayed very quiet, but I thought I saw a real flash of fear when Mason mentioned Willie’s death. I think Mr. Sinclair knows a lot more than he’s admitted to.”

  Chapter 46

  Sunday afternoon, May 1, 1881

  San Francisco

  “Field Day: Third Annual Meeting, Programme of Events: Running Hop, Step and Jump.” 1881 Blue and Gold Yearbook

  “Come on in, Annie. I have so much to tell you. Or would you rather I come over to your room once I finish dressing?”

  Annie closed the door to the hall, saying, “No, the change in scenery will do me good. I remember once thinking that there wasn’t anything better than sitting in my bedroom, in complete solitude. Now it feels like solitary confinement. I do hope that my doctor is wrong, and I don’t have three more weeks until the baby is due.”

  She waddled—that’s the only word for it—over to the rocking chair, which they had decided to move down from the attic, and sat down.

  Laura, in her chemise and petticoat, was looking into her chest of drawers. She took out what Annie recognized as her good corset with the silk ribbons. She said, “Why are you changing?”

  “Seth’s coming to take me for a carriage ride in Golden Gate Park. He said we both needed some fresh air and sunlight before we start burning the candle at both ends in preparation for final examinations.”

  “My dear, if you want to keep everyone from knowing that Mr. Timmons has started courting you in earnest, this is not the way to go about it.”

  Annie loved seeing the embarrassed smile on Laura’s face.

  “He’ll be here in a half hour. I’m a little behind because Caro stopped by on her way to Ruth Leverton’s. She is returning the scrapbook that Ruth’s mother loaned to her…oh my goodness…was it three weeks ago? Anyway, she hopes that she will get a chance to see Ruth alone and be able to talk more frankly about Grace’s troubles in the fall. At the very least, she plans on mentioning Proctor’s name in passing…see how Ruth or her mother reacts.”

  “Do you really think it’s kind of Miss Sutton to bring up Proctor?” Annie put a foot out and tried to pull the footstool into the right position for her feet, a difficult maneuver when she couldn’t see over her own stomach.

  Laura, who’d been hooking up the front of her corset, turned around and said, “I guess not…especially if our suppositions about him being the father of her child are correct. But what Caro learned yesterday makes it more and more certain that Proctor was behind what happened to Grace, and she believes that Ruth may be the only one who could help bring him to justice. And we really need more proof. I worry so about Kitty. As far as I know, he’s still ‘tutoring’ her in French and accompanying her and Celia and Ned to dinner on Friday nights.”

  “She hasn’t said anything more to you since you told her about the rumors you heard about him?”

  “No. She and Celia are perfectly polite when they pick me up every morning, and they have asked me if I want to attend any of their study sessions at Kitty’s place on Sundays. But I can tell they are relieved when I turn them down. I knew this was the price I would pay for te
lling Kitty that she should refrain from socializing with Proctor.”

  “And you still don’t feel you can tell her about your fears that he played a role in what happened to Ruth or to Grace?”

  “No, I don’t think I can. I’m not sure she won’t take the same position that Celia did, that Grace somehow brought everything on herself. And I can see that the idea that Proctor wanted some leverage with Sanders, which the information about plagiarism would have provided him, wouldn’t be enough to convince her that he had any motive to harass Grace.”

  “And of course you don’t have any proof regarding Ruth, her baby, or the possibility that Proctor was paid off. So you can’t tell her that, which would be a motive she could believe.”

  “Exactly! That is one of the reasons Caro hopes to speak to Ruth. If we are correct about what happened, and Ruth confides in Caro, we are in a stronger position with Kitty.”

  “What did she say when you told her what Mrs. Shepard said about him having a bad reputation with the female students?”

  “She told me not to worry. Said I seriously underestimated her if I thought she could be taken in by a handsome face and a good tailor. She told me that after our confrontation with Bart, her father got her a small derringer, in case anyone else ever got fresh with her. Then she ended the conversation by saying she wasn’t going to forgo the chance to practice her French and have a charming dinner companion because of some rumors. Celia told me how sorry she was that I had gone back on my promise not to meddle.”

  Annie leaned forward in the rocker. “I see, and you run the risk that if you tell Kitty and Celia anything more definite, that might get back to Proctor, then he could see you and Miss Sutton as a more dangerous threat to him than even Grace was.”

  “Yes, and we feel even more sure Proctor, and Bart Keller, are involved now that Caro’s found out what Grace was doing the day she left on the train for Nebraska.”

  “What have you learned?”

  As Laura started brushing her hair, she said, “I don’t know if I ever mentioned to you that the day that Grace took the late evening emigrant train east was also Field Day.”

  “That is the sporting event the university puts on? The one that had been postponed from last spring because of rumors there was going to be a bogus program circulated? And Miss Sutton had discovered that Grace attended that event, with some of the students from the Deaf and Blind Institute?”

  Annie felt a spark of pride she’d fished that memory up out of her increasingly fuzzy head.

  “That’s the one. There was some sort of mass outing by the Deaf and Blind Institute, a big undertaking because it meant transporting the students to the Oakland Trotting Park where the event was held and then providing enough adult chaperones for the students.”

  “I hadn’t thought about that. You would need people who could, what did you call it…sign? And they would also have to know how to properly guide the blind children.”

  “Yes, so it makes sense that Grace would have volunteered to help out. So Caro wrote to the director of the institute, asking if she could speak with some of the students and teachers whom Grace accompanied on that outing.”

  “And what did the director say?”

  “He finally got back to Caro this week and suggested that if she were going to this term’s Field Day, which was yesterday afternoon, that she could speak to Robbie Watson and Sally Jackman, the two students Grace had chaperoned. I think this may have been the man’s sly way of getting another volunteer for the day.”

  “And Caro met up with these young people and was able to learn something of importance?”

  “I’ll say! Field Day is mainly a fundraiser for local charities. Consequently, in addition to the events, there are tables and chairs and refreshments scattered around. Caro was able to sit with Robbie and Sally for an extended conversation. Robbie is a deaf boy of about thirteen, whom Grace took into Oakland for church and a visit with his grandmother on Sundays. Sally, who is blind, would sometimes accompany Grace and Robbie. Grace would take her to eat at a restaurant until it was time to pick up Robbie and head back to Berkeley.”

  “If one of them is deaf, and the other is blind, however was Miss Sutton able to communicate with them both?”

  One of Annie’s new constellation of fears was that the baby would be born with some sort of impairment. In her financial work with several orphan societies she’d encountered a number of children with twisted limbs or mental deficiencies. One of the directors told her that mothers sometimes dropped these children off because they couldn’t care for them.

  Her heart had hurt for both the mother and child, but until her own pregnancy, she never really thought about how hard these choices would be for any parent. She was sure that for many of the children at the Deaf and Blind Institute, this school was the very best place they could be in order to learn the skills to become independent adults. Yet it also meant their families had to send their children away from the warmth of family and home, only to see them on an occasional outing, or not at all if they lived elsewhere in the state.

  Annie turned her mind away from these thoughts and watched as Laura stepped into her bronze silk underskirt, finally pulling on the wool basque that hugged her hips. This outfit was the one she and Nate had the Moffets make for Laura last Christmas, and the fitted top and moderate bustle accentuated her tall, slender build.

  Annie knew Laura saved this outfit for very special occasions, and she hoped that Seth Timmons appreciated the effort her sister-in-law was making for this simple carriage ride. She also thought with envy about how lovely it would be to go for a carriage ride on this beautiful spring day. At least Nate had promised to spend the afternoon reading to her, the only thing that seemed to take her mind off her current discomfort.

  As Laura began to button up the bodice of her basque top, she said, “One of the teachers, a Mrs. Goodall, was there to help interpret for Robbie, if need be. But Caro said that Robbie can lipread as well as sign. That while it was sometimes hard to understand him, he did have the power of speech. Mrs. Goodall explained that he became deaf from a bout of measles when he was six, so he already had started to learned to talk, which helps. Sally, despite her blindness, has learned some sign language, hoping to teach children with both kinds of impairments. I could tell Caro was very impressed by both young people, who appear to be good friends.”

  “So, what did she learn from them?”

  “First of all, when Caro told them that she had discovered that some people had decided to make Grace so unhappy last fall that she would leave the university, they didn’t seem at all surprised. Robbie said she looked sad, which just wasn’t like her. Sally said she could hear the sadness in her voice.”

  “Did Grace ever confide in them?”

  “No, but when Caro asked Robbie if he ever witnessed any interactions between Grace and anyone else that seemed odd…he got excited. Mrs. Goodall had to help at this point, because he was having trouble getting out the words he wanted to say. He told Caro that, normally, when the Sunday church services ended, she would leave the church first, because his grandmother liked to stand in the receiving line and speak to the minister. Three or four times this fall, when the line was short, he saw Grace walking away with a man. A man who wasn’t the Mr. Caulfield, who Grace had previously introduced to him as her fiancé.”

  “Ah, and did this man, by any chance, look like Mr. Proctor?”

  “Yes, he did. Tall, blond, small mustache, carried an ebony cane. That’s not all, though. Sally had her own tale to tell. She said one of the Sundays that she went with Grace and Robbie, Grace took her out to lunch at a special restaurant because the next day was Sally’s birthday. On the way to the restaurant from the church, a man stopped them in the street. Sally said Grace told him she couldn’t talk. The man said something about wanting to make sure she wasn’t upset about ‘Willie’ dancing with Sephronia. Sally remembered the name because it was so unusual. She said Grace’s arm jerked under her hand, and
she told the man again she couldn’t talk. Called him Teddy.”

  “What’s Proctor’s first name?”

  “Theodore. And because it was her birthday celebration, Sally knew this lunch was on Sunday, October 31. The day after the Junior Exhibition Day dance.”

  “It’s hard to believe Proctor would be so blatant as to talk in front of the girl, since it sounds like he’d been secretly seeing Grace on Sundays.”

  “Sally said lots of sighted people treat her as if she’s invisible, or at the very least, as if being blind means she can’t hear, either.”

  Annie thought about the events Laura described and said, “This certainly makes it sound like Grace had some sort of ongoing relationship with Proctor last term.”

  “I suppose if Grace was used to meeting him off campus her sophomore year when she and Willie did things with Proctor and Ruth Leverton, she might have not have questioned his request to meet him occasionally for lunch. She might even have welcomed the attention, especially if Willie stopped having time for her because of his fraternity activities.”

  Annie nodded and said, “It would then be natural if she went to him with her suspicions about Sanders and the poems or told him about the harassment she was suffering.”

  “I know. I hate the idea that she would turn for comfort to the very person who was the architect of her misery. It is possible Grace was falling in love with him. Caro believes Grace eventually saw it as a moral failing that she’d agreed to meet a man in this fashion, without a chaperone. This could explain why Grace wrote about being worried about losing Caro’s regard and why she blamed herself for trusting in someone she should have questioned.”

  “Of course that could also refer to her fiancé, Willie.”

  “I know, but wait until you hear what happened next.”

  Laura went over to the dresser mirror and started pinning up her curls. “Miss Goodall asked if Caro would like to accompany them to watch the first couple of events, including the running hop, step and jump race, and the hundred yard dash. As Robbie gave Sally a blow-by-blow description of the races, Mrs. Goodall pulled Caro aside and said that the two youngsters had been quite upset about something they witnessed the last Field Day, the one in the fall. But she didn’t want to bring the subject up in front of them.”