The Mandie Collection

by Lois Gladys Leppard

  “I’m not sure, either, because I know we packed in a big hurry when we went home.”

  “Should we tell Miss Prudence about this?” Celia asked as she sat in a big chair.

  Mandie flopped into the other chair. “I don’t know what good it would do,” she said. “I don’t think anything of mine is missing.”

  “It’s bound to have been one of the girls who stayed over here for the holidays,” Celia said.

  “Yes, someone who lives too far away or has no family to go home to,” Mandie agreed. “And the first one in that category I can think of would be April Snow.”

  Celia nodded in agreement. “But I don’t know why anyone would want to go through our things. Whoever it was evidently didn’t take anything.”

  “Let’s do some investigating on our own and find out just who stayed here at school during the holidays,” Mandie suggested. She stood up and added, “How about sitting in the parlor until time for supper, where we can see everybody come and go, and where we can find out exactly who didn’t go home.”

  “All right,” Celia agreed as she got up and walked over to the bureau. “But let’s place things here so we’ll know if anyone comes in here while we’re gone.” She moved her hairbrush and comb.

  “Yes,” Mandie said, coming to straighten up her belongings on top of the bureau. “I have already straightened out things in my drawer, so I’ll know if they are disturbed again.”

  “So have I,” Celia said.

  When Mandie and Celia went to the main parlor on the first floor, there were only two girls walking through the room to sit at the far end. They were talking to each other and didn’t even glance in Mandie and Celia’s direction.

  “Twins!” Mandie said with surprise. “And I’ve never seen them before.”

  “Yes, they are identical,” Celia agreed.

  They stared at the two girls as they sat on a sofa. Even the curl of their long hair seemed to be identical. They wore the latest fashion in bright red grown-up dresses that offset their long dark hair.

  Mandie frowned as she whispered to Celia, “Don’t you think they look too old to be going to school here?”

  “Yes,” Celia whispered back. “But do you suppose they are students here, or just visitors?”

  “I don’t believe Miss Prudence has accepted any new students in the middle of the year since we’ve been here,” Mandie said.

  Other girls began coming into the parlor and Mandie noticed none of them passed near the two new girls or spoke to them. However, they did all stare at the twins.

  “I don’t believe anyone here knows them,” Mandie whispered to Celia.

  “No, but they sure are staring,” Celia agreed.

  Mandie saw April Snow enter the room, and she went to sit at the other end as she glanced at Mandie and Celia but didn’t speak. Not far behind April, Polly Cornwallis quickly slipped into the room and, without even looking at anyone, went to sit in a chair in a small alcove by herself, where she could view the room.

  Polly was Mandie’s neighbor back home but was always causing trouble of some kind.

  “There’s Polly,” Mandie said. “Mother said she and her mother had gone to New York for the holidays, so that’s why she didn’t put in an unwanted appearance at our house.”

  “I sure hope she doesn’t go to the college we’re going to,” Celia said.

  “Oh, that would be disastrous,” Mandie agreed. “I have an idea she will go to school in New York. She likes the big city. And besides, Jonathan lives there.”

  “But Jonathan is not interested in her,” Celia said.

  “Now you know a person doesn’t have to be interested in Polly Cornwallis for her to push herself on them,” Mandie reminded Celia.

  “You are right,” Celia agreed.

  Mandie looked at the twins across the room again. They were still talking to each other and seemed unaware of the fact that every girl in the room was glancing at them now and then. And Mandie imagined they were all trying to figure out who the new girls were.

  “Mandie, do you think anyone looks guilty?” Celia whispered.

  “Looks guilty?” Mandie asked.

  “Yes, of going through our things in our room,” Celia reminded her.

  “Oh, the guilty one might not even look guilty. You know how Miss Prudence has been teaching us to act aloof, to act like young ladies,” Mandie whispered back. “However, I would like to find out if April Snow stayed here for the holidays.”

  “But Mandie, it could have been someone who went home for the holidays and got back ahead of us,” Celia said.

  “That’s right,” Mandie agreed.

  The bell in the backyard of the school began ringing for supper. All the girls hurried to get in the line headed for the dining room. Mandie watched the new girls who just sat there, evidently wondering what the fuss was all about.

  “Should I go tell them they need to get in line for supper?” Mandie whispered to Celia as they slowly got up to join the line.

  “But they might not be students,” Celia said.

  “Now that Miss Hope has changed the rules and has only one sitting for each meal, they won’t get anything to eat if they don’t come on with us,” Mandie reminded her. She stood there undecided as all the other girls had formed a line. “Come on, let’s go explain to them,” Mandie decided. She started across the room toward the twins. Celia followed.

  “Hello, I was wondering if you knew you were supposed to get in that line there in order to get supper.”

  The girls looked at each other and finally one spoke, “Grazie, we did not know.” They stood up.

  “My name is Mandie Shaw and this is Celia Hamilton,” Mandie introduced them. “The line is moving. We have to hurry.”

  “My name is Maria and my sister is Margret,” the other girl told them.

  At that moment Miss Hope came hurrying across the room to them and told the twins, “Please excuse me, but I was tied up and didn’t get here in time to explain about the line. Just follow the other girls into the dining room.”

  The twins nodded to her as she hurried around the line and into the dining room to take her place at the head of the table.

  The line moved fast and there was no more chance to talk. The twins sat on the other side of the room from Mandie and Celia. The long dining room tables had been moved and pushed together to form a T-shape when the new rules about the seating had been instated.

  Mandie whispered to Celia as they stood behind their chairs waiting for Miss Hope to ask the blessing, “So they are students here.”

  “Yes,” Celia whispered back.

  “And they are not American, probably Italian,” Mandie added.

  Celia nodded her head as Miss Hope shook the little bell sitting by her place and announced, “Young ladies, we will now return thanks.” Everyone immediately bowed their heads as Miss Hope said the blessing.

  Then Miss Hope solved the mystery as she again shook her little bell and announced, “Young ladies, we are pleased to introduce you to Miss Maria and Miss Margret Cassell who have come here for the last half of this school year from Italy. Their father is a diplomat in Washington. Let’s show them our welcome.” She began clapping her hands and all the girls joined in.

  Mandie noticed the twins looked confused and uncertain as to what this was all about. When Miss Hope silenced the noise, she looked directly at them and they both said, “Grazie.”

  There was no conversation allowed at the table but Mandie said under her breath to Celia, as she put a forkful of potatoes into her mouth, “I was right.”

  Celia nodded and went on eating.

  As soon as the meal was over and the girls were dismissed from the table, Miss Hope hurried around to speak to the twins again. Mandie lingered again, hoping for a chance to talk to them, and then she heard Miss Hope saying “If you young ladies would please come with me. We need to make out records for you in the office.”

  Miss Hope left the room with the twins following.
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br />   “Oh, shucks!” Mandie said as they were the last ones to leave the dining room.

  “So their father is a diplomat,” Celia said as they walked out of the room.

  “I wonder if they speak English,” Mandie said.

  “They must or they couldn’t attend a school like this,” Celia said.

  “Let’s go into the parlor and wait and see if they come back in there,” Mandie suggested, walking down the hall.

  “And we were going to try to find out who stayed here at the school over the holidays, remember?” Celia said, catching up with her.

  “Yes,” Mandie replied.

  They sat in the parlor, but it seemed all the other girls were going upstairs to their rooms and no one came to join them. After a while Mandie said, “We might as well go to our room, too. I don’t believe anyone is coming in here.”

  “They are probably all tired from the holiday travel,” Celia said.

  Mandie looked for Miss Hope as they left the parlor and went down the hall to the center staircase, but she was nowhere in sight.

  Once in their room they checked their things to see if they had been disturbed. Nothing had been moved.

  They sat in the big chairs to talk awhile since it was really too early to go to bed.

  “If we had been able to catch up with Miss Hope she would have told us all about those new girls,” Mandie said.

  “I wonder if they will be graduating with us since they only now enrolled here,” Celia said.

  “They must have been going to school somewhere, either in their country, or here in the United States,” Mandie decided.

  “Do you suppose they will have identical graduation dresses?” Celia asked with a big grin.

  “I would imagine so. They probably dress alike all the time,” Mandie said. “I sure hope my graduation dress is not missing or something. It wasn’t in Aunt Lou’s sewing room where it was supposed to have been so I can’t imagine who took it or where it went.”

  “I would think Aunt Lou knows where it is or she would raise a fuss about the disappearance of it,” Celia said.

  “I’ll be glad when graduation and all that is over with,” Mandie said. “And I hope Grandmother will take all of us to Europe.”

  “I wonder if anyone knows for sure what she will do about Europe,” Celia remarked.

  “No one ever knows what my grandmother is going to do next,” Mandie said with a big grin. “She likes to make mysteries out of everything.”

  Mandie thought about that after she and Celia went to bed that night. If her grandmother didn’t take them to Europe, what would she be doing all summer? And her friends?

  She knew she was going to feel kind of lost, having graduated from this school in the coming summer, and having to begin at a completely new school, the College of Charleston. Well, she would at least have Celia with her.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  SURPRISES

  The girls at the Misses Heathwood’s School for Girls were allowed Wednesday as a free day, and classes did not begin until the Thursday after the Christmas holiday break.

  Mandie woke up on Thursday to hear the rain pouring down outside. And she knew it would be a cold rain, since it was January. Therefore, she would have to spend the day inside. She groaned as she sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes.

  Celia was also awake and pushed herself up on her pillow. “It’s raining,” Celia said.

  “Yes, and I had hoped the girls would be coming in and out and we’d have a chance to see the twins again, and also a chance to try to figure out who was in our room while we were gone,” Mandie replied, sliding off the big bed.

  Celia looked at the clock and replied, “But it’s early, Mandie. It’s only twenty minutes till seven. We have time, if we hurry, to get downstairs and see who else is around before we have to go in for breakfast at seven-thirty.”

  “Yes, let’s hurry,” Mandie replied, rushing over to the wardrobe to find a dress. Celia followed.

  They hurriedly dressed and only took time to place their hairbrushes and combs on the bureau in a position that they would know if they were bothered by anyone while they were out of the room.

  Downstairs they only found Polly, who was sitting in the same place she had sat the night before. Polly didn’t look at them as they crossed the parlor and sat on a settee.

  “Do you think she might have spent the night down here in that chair?” Mandie asked with a big grin.

  “Of course not, Mandie,” Celia whispered back. “Why would she do that?”

  “You know that she does a lot of things other people don’t do, like trying to break the lock open on our tunnel that time,” Mandie said, glancing at Polly, who was too far away in the huge parlor to hear them.

  April Snow came into the parlor and sat down on the other side of the room.

  Mandie had learned April was a strange person, sometimes friendly and sometimes not speaking, for no reason at all. She decided to see if the girl would reply as she looked across the room at her and asked, “Did you go home for Christmas, April?”

  April quickly pushed her black hair back from her face, shrugged her shoulders, and answered, “Of course I went home. Didn’t you go, too?”

  “Yes, and Celia went home with me. We just got back here Tuesday,” Mandie replied.

  April didn’t say anything to that.

  Mandie took a deep breath and asked, “When did you get back?”

  “When did I get back?” April repeated. “Now, what business of yours is that? I got back before you did and also before those two foreigners from Italy showed up. And I’m glad I’ll be graduating in May because it looks like the old ladies are going to turn it into a school for just anybody.”

  Mandie took a deep breath. April didn’t usually say that much at one time. She must really be upset with the foreigners being admitted to the school.

  “I think we ought to be nice to those girls,” Celia spoke up. “They are visitors in our country.”

  Mandie tried to trick April into an answer about her return to school. “Did you say you came back to school on Monday? That would have been a day ahead of us.”

  “I did not say any such thing,” April said, angrily rising and hurrying out of the room.

  As she went out, the twins came into the parlor. Mandie looked across the room, smiled, and said, “Good morning.”

  The girls smiled back but kept walking right on through the parlor and out the door on the far side, which led into a smaller parlor.

  “Well,” Mandie muttered under breath.

  Some of the other girls came into the room, among them Mary Lou, a girl who had always been friendly but never friends with Mandie and Celia. However, now she walked on over to sit in front of Mandie and Celia on a chair and remarked, “It must be wonderful to have a grandmother like yours, Mandie, who is going to take you and all your friends to Europe this coming summer.”

  “To Europe?” Mandie quickly asked. “Who told you my grandmother was going to take us to Europe?”

  Mary Lou pushed back her long red hair and replied, “Why, everyone here at school knows about that. Was it supposed to be a secret or something?”

  Mandie quickly cleared her throat and answered, “No, of course not. It’s just that I didn’t know you knew my grandmother that well to be getting information like that.” She glanced at Celia.

  “Oh, I didn’t get the information from your grandmother. I overheard her talking to Miss Prudence when she brought you girls back to school,” Mary Lou replied. “I heard her say that she is taking you and all your friends. I hope that includes me.” She smiled at Mandie.

  “Do you not have any plans for the summer?” Celia asked.

  “Oh, I have plans all right, but they could all be changed to get a chance to go to Europe. My parents could never afford to take me on such a trip. I do hope you appreciate your grandmother’s interest in you and your friends,” Mary Lou said. “I don’t have any grandparents. They’re all dead.”

 
“Oh, yes, I do love my grandmother,” Mandie replied, and then feeling sorry for the girl, she added, “I’m not sure how many of my friends my grandmother intends taking but I’ll let you know if we have room for one more.” She smiled.

  “Oh, thank you, Mandie,” Mary Lou quickly answered. “I’ll be your friend forever.” She grinned as she tossed back her long hair.

  “Does my grandmother know your parents?” Mandie asked.

  “No, of course not, but they know who she is. Everyone knows who Mrs. Taft is, with all her ships and money,” Mary Lou said.

  Mandie couldn’t decide how to respond to that and finally said, “She is a wonderful grandmother. I’m glad she’s mine.”

  All the other girls in the school had come into the parlor and the surrounding halls. The bell in the backyard began ringing for breakfast.

  Mandie and Celia stood up. “I’ll let you know as soon as I can,” Mandie promised Mary Lou as everyone got into line.

  Mary Lou’s seat was on the opposite side of the dining room from Mandie’s. As they separated in line Mandie whispered to Celia, “Do you suppose she is making all that up about Grandmother taking us to Europe?”

  “I don’t think so, Mandie. How would she know about that?” Celia whispered back.

  Mandie didn’t know much about Mary Lou and was trying to figure out how she could really find out if her grandmother had said that to Miss Prudence. And then she figured her grandmother must have, as Celia said, otherwise how would Mary Lou know anything about a possible trip to Europe with her grandmother?

  “Oh, why won’t Grandmother tell me something?” Mandie whispered to Celia as they came to their designated chairs and stood there waiting for Miss Hope to ask the blessing.

  As soon as breakfast was over, Mandie and Celia walked down the hall toward the office, where Miss Prudence stayed.

  “If I can find Miss Prudence I will just ask her what my grandmother said about going to Europe,” Mandie told Celia as they neared the open doorway.

  Mandie looked inside and saw that Miss Prudence was sitting at her desk. The lady looked up, smiled, and said, “Come on in, young ladies. I’ve just finished what I was doing here. Sit down.”