CHAPTER XI
THE CLOUD LIFTS
"What's the matter with Blue Bonnet?" Annabel Jackson asked SueHemphill. "She looks sick--or worried to death. What's happened?"
"I don't know," Sue said, shrugging her shoulders. "I thought myself shelooked awfully upset this morning, but when I asked her if anything waswrong, she said--I can't remember what she did say--but I took it thatshe wasn't going to tell, if there was."
"There's something the matter. That look she's got on her face doesn'tspell happiness--not by a long ways."
"Why don't you use your Sherlock Holmes talent on her," Sue inquiredflippantly.
"My what, Sue?"
"This intuition business you were telling us about yesterday. You saidyou could read people's thoughts."
"I didn't say I was a mind reader, did I?"
"Well--something like that."
"Oh, Sue, how perfectly ridiculous! Tell that to one or two more andI'll be a spiritualistic medium holding seances in my room."
Sue laughed, starting the dimples dancing in her cheeks. Those dimplessaved Sue many a scolding. They defended her sharp tongue--exoneratedmalice. They pointed like a hand on a sign post to mirth and pure goodnature. "You can't be angry with Sue when those dimples pop out," morethan one girl had said.
The morning had been a trying one for Blue Bonnet. She had greatdifficulty in keeping her mind on her studies. Even Professor Howe hadto ask for closer attention--an unheard of thing.
"Are you ill, Miss Ashe?" she had asked, calling Blue Bonnet to the deskafter the class adjourned. "You don't look well. Better go up and showyour tongue to Mrs. Goodwin or Miss Martin."
"It isn't my tongue--that is--I'm not at all ill, thank you, ProfessorHowe," Blue Bonnet replied absently.
She passed on to her Latin class, a little droop in her usually straightshoulders showing listlessness. She sat down by Wee Watts and opened herbook, but her gaze wandered to the window.
"You may translate, Miss Ashe," Miss Attridge said for the second timeand Blue Bonnet did not hear.
A titter went round the room. Blue Bonnet's gaze rested on thehousetops. She was miles and miles away from the small recitation room.
"Come, Miss Ashe, the third oration, please; begin where Miss Watts leftoff--Cicero attacks Catiline, saying:"
Blue Bonnet came back with a start, and with Wee's assistance found theline.
"Oh, I beg your pardon, Miss Attridge. Where Deborah left off, you say?"
It was the same with French and with Algebra. Blue Bonnet's mind wasbusy with but one theme--one thought--that revolved round and roundagain, hemming her in with despair: Who had secreted the book in herdrawer? To whom did it belong? How could she establish her innocence?
"Cheer up, cheer up," Sue Hemphill said, as she passed Blue Bonnet inthe hall after lunch. Sue was executing a fancy step down the hall andher whole manner betokened the utmost excitement.
"You look cheerful enough for all of us, Sue," Blue Bonnet answered."What's happened to you?"
"Billy's coming--going to be here for dinner; so is his room-mate,Hammie McVickar."
"Hammie! What a funny name!"
"Hamilton! Funny little chap, too. Wait till you see him."
Sue giggled as she pirouetted back and forth.
"Decided about the club yet, Blue Bonnet?"
"Not yet," Blue Bonnet said. She wondered if her face betrayed lack ofinterest. The thought of the club had entirely passed out of her mind.
"What do you call this club, Sue?"
Sue took a whirl and a glide and stopped at Blue Bonnet's side.
"The Ancient Order of Lambs," she said, and darted off again.
Blue Bonnet ran after her and brought her to a standstill.
"Sue! tell me. What is it?"
"That's it, of course. Why not?"
"The Ancient Order of Lambs! Really?"
"Really.
"We amble and we gamble, We frolic and we bleat; Something new in lambkins Rather hard to beat!"
"Dear me, is that from Angela's pen?"
"Angela! Mercy, I should hope not! Angela doesn't write doggerel--shewrites verse."
"Oh, I beg your pardon," Blue Bonnet said meekly.
"Blue Bonnet, you'd make such a love of a lamb. Do join us."
"I reckon I would," she said, her natural humor coming to the surface."I'm always being led to slaughter--if that helps any. I can't say I'm awilling sacrifice, however."
"You'll do," Sue said, taking up the step again. "I'll tell the girlsyou've about made up your mind--and--Blue Bonnet, come here, listen! Puton that white dress to-night; the one with the pink under it, will you?I want you to meet Billy and Hammie, if I can arrange it. Don't forget!"
The day wore on wearily. Blue Bonnet had seen nothing of Miss North; noword came from the office.
At five o'clock she started to dress for dinner. She got out the whitedress half heartedly. Only because she wanted to please Sue did sheconsider it at all.
She tried to talk with Joy as she dressed, but Joy was unusually silent.Her monosyllables were low and indistinct. Twice Blue Bonnet turned tocatch a word and Joy's face startled her: it was white and lifeless,almost expressionless save for the eyes--they were troubled.
"Are you ill, Joy?" Blue Bonnet asked kindly; but Joy turned her faceaway and answered "No," quickly.
Much to her surprise, Blue Bonnet found herself a guest at Miss North'stable. She slipped into the place assigned her next to Annabel. In amoment Sue came in with her guests. They found their places justopposite.
As soon as she could gather courage after the introductions Blue Bonnetlooked across the table at her neighbors. She remembered Sue's remarkabout Hammie McVickar, and laughed outright. Sue had said he was a"funny little chap." Perhaps he was, but he towered six feet two, if aninch; a magnificent, big, clean-limbed fellow with brown eyes and a niceface that attracted Blue Bonnet.
Billy was interesting, too. He was very much like Sue. His eyes twinkledmischievously, and dimples, less prominent than Sue's, showed when helaughed.
These young men showed none of Alec's embarrassment. They chatted andjoked, making the best of their opportunity--they considered it such;indeed quite a lark to invade seminary walls.
Blue Bonnet learned before dinner was over that Billy was theillustrious half-back on the Harvard team; had contributed much to thegame she had seen in the autumn; that Hammie McVickar also sharedhonors.
The meal passed all too quickly, and Annabel and Blue Bonnet left thedining-room reluctantly. They had barely reached the gymnasium for thehalf hour of dancing, when Sue caught up with them breathlessly.
"Come back," she called. "Miss North has given you permission to come tothe reception-room and meet Billy and Hammie. Hurry, they can only staya half hour."
It is needless to say the girls hurried, slowing down modestly beforereaching the reception-room door.
It was a pleasant half hour. Blue Bonnet felt as if some one had lifteda curtain and given her a glimpse into another world. It was her firstexperience in entertaining college men. She enjoyed the good-naturedbanter--the give and take that passed between them; the college stories.She settled down in her chair and listened to the others talk;wide-eyed, keenly alert, but quiet as a mouse. Sue and Annabel kept up achatter, and Billy and Hammie were entertaining in the extreme.
"Isn't Billy a dear?" Sue said, running into Blue Bonnet's room to saygood night. "And isn't Hammie McVickar splendid? I think he's thebest-looking man I know. Billy says he's a prince--the fellows atcollege all swear by him. So glad you could meet them. Good night. Sleepwell."
Strange to say, Blue Bonnet did sleep well. She was worn out with theday's worry and anxiety; but she awoke the next morning with adepression that manifests itself even before the eyes open, sometimes.
"What is wrong with me?" she thought, and, in an instant, she knew. Thebook--the terrible book! Would she be able to straighten it all outto-day?
But another day was
to pass, and yet another before the cloud lifted.
It was on the fourth day after the visit to Miss North's office thatBlue Bonnet felt she could no longer endure the strain, and decided totake Annabel Jackson into her confidence. She had thought it all outcarefully, and realized that she must unburden to some one. Carita wastoo young to be helpful--besides, she didn't wish to worry Carita.
"May I see you for a minute after school, Annabel?" she asked.
"Of course," Annabel answered. "I think it is about time you saw me--orsomebody! You look as if you had the weight of the universe on yourshoulders lately. Are you going to tell me what it is all about?"
"Yes."
"All right. Where shall I meet you?"
"In my room after the walk. Joy practises then. We can be alone."
Strictly on time, Annabel appeared at Blue Bonnet's door, was ushered inand the door locked.
Blue Bonnet laid the whole story before Annabel--all she knew of it.
Annabel listened attentively, her eyes narrowing occasionally, herbreath coming quick and sharp. There was a dead silence when Blue Bonnetfinished, and then Annabel jumped up from her seat and took a few turnsabout the room. She was thinking something over, Blue Bonnet knew.
"I think--I believe I have a clue. In fact I know I have. Leave this tome for a day or two. I wish you had come to me sooner. There was no needof your suffering like this. I think I know the young person--"
She stopped abruptly and stooping kissed Blue Bonnet lightly on thecheek. She came back after she had left the room and inquired quitecasually where Joy Cross was practising at this hour.
"In number six, I think, Annabel. She used to, anyway."
"Thank you. I want to see her a minute."
In number six Joy Cross was pounding out an exercise. She looked up asAnnabel opened the door and went on with her practising.
"May I speak with you a minute?" Annabel said.
Joy wheeled on her stool.
"For a minute," she said. "I'm busy."
"It will only take a minute, I fancy. When do you intend to acknowledgethe book you hid in Blue Bonnet Ashe's drawer while she was away?"
The shock was so sudden--so unexpected--that Joy Cross grew faint. Everyvestige of color died out of her face.
"I don't know what you mean," she said slowly. "What are you talkingabout?"
"You know what I'm talking about, all right. Do you remember the daytwo weeks ago when we were out walking and stopped in that queer littlebook shop? One of the girls wanted to get her Quatre-vingt-treize. Youwent to another part of the shop--alone. I came up behind you--somethinghad attracted my attention--you didn't see me. I heard you ask for thebook--I will not mention the name. I saw the clerk hand it to you--giveyou your change. Saw the whole transaction with my own eyes! This is nohearsay."
Joy Cross turned round to the piano and hid her face in her hands.
"I haven't words to express my opinion of you, Joy Cross," Annabel wenton. "A girl who would put another girl in the position you have put BlueBonnet Ashe--as honest and innocent a girl as ever drew the breath oflife. You're a coward--a miserable--"
Joy turned and threw out her hand beseechingly.
"Wait," she said, "please wait! I want to tell you. I'm all you say,perhaps--but--if you would only listen--"
Annabel had turned away impatiently.
"I didn't mean to hurt Blue Bonnet Ashe--please believe that, Annabel.It was all a mistake--an accident. I thought it would right itself, andI kept still. I did buy the book--I was reading it in my room; some oneknocked at the door--I was sitting by Blue Bonnet's bureau--I reachedover and laid it in her drawer--just until I opened the door. I meant totake it right out again--but--it was Miss Martin. She was inspectingdrawers--she found the book--she--I--oh, can't you see how it was--howit all happened--so quickly? I couldn't think of anything but thedisgrace. I wanted to save myself. I wouldn't have cared so much if Ihadn't been a Senior. I thought it might keep me from graduating--fromsome of the honors that I have fought for. I never dreamed it would goso far. I thought--oh, I don't know what I thought--why I did it. Isuppose I'm ruined utterly."
She burst into the wildest weeping. Tears sprang to Annabel's own eyes.She was a sympathetic girl. She wished she could bring herself to puther arm round Joy--to give her a word of encouragement--but shecouldn't. There was something that repelled her in the convulsed form;the thin body with its narrow, heaving shoulders; the unattractive blondhead.
"Well, there is only one thing to do now, of course you understand that,Joy. You must go to Miss North immediately."
Joy raised her head; her eyes wide with terror.
"Oh, no, not that! I can't do that. I can't! I can't!"
"You _will_," Annabel said sternly. "Stop that crying! Haven't you anynerve at all? You will go to Miss North at once! Immediately, do youunderstand? or I will. An innocent girl has suffered long enough."
Annabel had drawn herself up to her full height. Her cheeks blazed. Shewas a fair representative of her illustrious grandsire as she stoodthere, her fighting blood up.
"You understand? You go at once--this minute!"
Joy staggered to her feet. Annabel watched her as she started for thedoor; followed her as she crossed the building to her own room andpaused.
Annabel paused too, but only for a second.
"Miss North is in her office at this hour," she said. "Goimmediately"--and Joy went, her limbs almost refusing to bear her to thefloor below.
What transpired in that office will never be known to any one save MissNorth and Joy Cross. The gong had sounded for dinner before Joy emerged,white and silent, and neither she nor Miss North appeared at the eveningmeal.
Blue Bonnet felt better after she had confided in Annabel. She scarcelyknew why, except that Annabel seemed to see a way out of the difficulty,and she had the reputation of being reliable and level headed.
With a lighter heart than she had known for several days, she dressedfor dinner and entered the dining-room with a smile on her lips.
"Praise be!" Sue said, when Blue Bonnet laughed at one of her jokes. "Ithought you had given up laughing, Blue Bonnet. You haven't even smiledsince Tuesday. Coming down to the Gym to dance to-night?"
"I think I will. I've got to run up-stairs first and get a cleanhandkerchief."
She ran up-stairs lightly, and, entering her room, switched on thelight. She started for the bureau, but the sight of her room-mate,stretched face downward on her bed, arrested and changed her course.
"Why, Joy," she said, "what on earth's the matter? Haven't you been todinner?"
Joy Cross sat up. She was as pitiable a looking sight as one couldimagine. Her face, always white and expressionless, was ashen, and sheshook with nervousness.
Blue Bonnet was horrified at her appearance and started for the door tocall Mrs. Goodwin or Miss Martin.
"Wait," Joy called, her eyes burning into Blue Bonnet's. "Wait!"
She pulled herself together, struggling for self control.
"I want to tell you--" the words came with painful effort--"I _must_tell you. I've been a coward long enough. _I_ put that book in yourdrawer."
The utter hopelessness in the voice swept all thought of anger from BlueBonnet's heart, and flooded it with pity. She could not find voice tospeak for a moment.
"You, Joy? You! I can't believe it!"
A look of pride flashed over Joy's face. In that brief second she stoodonce more on her old ground--trusted, respected.
"I suppose not," she said dully, and the flush died from her face. "Noone would have believed me so wicked! They don't know me as I am."
Tears welled in her eyes.
"Tell me about it, Joy, please. I know you didn't do it on purpose. Youcouldn't have. I never did anything to make you hate me like that."
She went over to the grate and stirring the embers into a ruddy glowdrew up a chair and coaxed Joy into it.
"Now we can talk better," she said, sitting down on the hearth rugbeside her.
"Tell me how it happened. It's been such a mystery to me."
Joy glanced down into the face upturned in the firelight and almostgasped at its serenity. There was not a trace of anger in the eyeslifted to her own--nothing but kindness--and that look, somehow, made itharder to proceed than any torrent of words.
Between long pauses Joy told Blue Bonnet all that she had told AnnabelJackson and Miss North; and Blue Bonnet listened breathlessly, a littlesigh escaping her lips as Joy finished the story.
There was tense silence for a minute, and then Blue Bonnet reached upshyly and took Joy's hand in her own.
"I suppose I ought to be awfully angry at you, Joy, for letting mesuffer as I have the past few days--but--somehow--I'm not--at all. Ifeel so sorry for you that there isn't any room for anger. I think I canunderstand how it happened."
"You can! It doesn't seem possible that any one could see my side."
Blue Bonnet gazed into the fire and spoke slowly.
"Oh, yes, they could. All but the untruth, Joy--that was the worst, ofcourse--but then--maybe you haven't been brought up on the truth as Ihave. The truth is a sort of religion in our family. That and 'do untoothers.'"
Joy was quick to come to the defence of her family.
"No--I can't find excuse in that. My people are truthful. They're queer,maybe, but they are truthful and honest."
Perhaps it was the gentle pressure of Blue Bonnet's hand, the sympathyin her eyes, that gradually brought forth the story of Joy's life.Before she had finished, Blue Bonnet's tears mingled with Joy's, andthe grasp tightened on the hand held in her own.
In that half hour Joy poured out her heart in a way she would havethought impossible an hour before. She told Blue Bonnet of her cold,indifferent father; of the patient, long-suffering mother who hadplanned and saved, and sacrificed to keep her in school, and of how shehad longed to repay the devotion with the highest honors the schoolcould give.
"It was the thought of my mother's awful disappointment that tempted meto lie to Miss Martin," she said. "It all happened so quickly I scarcelyhad time to think clearly. I was so afraid of being expelled--I will benow, of course. Miss North is going to bring the whole thing before theFaculty to-morrow."
"Oh, no--surely she won't do that!" Blue Bonnet cried. "Did you tell herwhat you've just told me, Joy?"
"No. I'm not playing for sympathy. I'll take what's coming, if--if onlythe girls didn't have to know."
"They don't," Blue Bonnet said determinedly. "Nobody knows it butAnnabel Jackson and myself. Annabel won't tell, and nobody ever knowswhat goes on in Faculty. Now, what is that?"
A knock had startled both girls. Blue Bonnet went to the door.
"Oh, dear," she said, "I forgot all about going to study hour. I justknow that's Fraulein."
Fraulein it was.
"You were not in the study hall, Miss Ashe," she said, craning her neckto see into the room.
Blue Bonnet stepped outside and closed the door.
"No, I wasn't. I was engaged."
"You were excused?"
"No--I was not."
"Then I shall haf to report to Miss North."
The color came into Blue Bonnet's cheeks and her eyes flashed.
"Do," she said. "I don't mind giving you that little treat."
"I perfectly abominate that woman," she said, going back to the hearthrug. "She can anger me quicker than any one I ever knew. I was terriblyrude to her; but she is so aggravating. She adores getting something onme."
When the gong sounded for bed Blue Bonnet had drawn a tub of hot waterfor Joy's bath, and urged her into it.
"It will make her sleep better," she said to herself as the door closedbetween them. "Poor girl; my heart aches for her. If she stays here thegirls have just got to be nicer to her--that's all! And she's going tostay--she _must_, even if I have to send for Uncle Cliff to helpstraighten things out."
Blue Bonnet in Boston; or, Boarding-School Days at Miss North's Page 11