CHAPTER XVI
DELIVERANCE
PRISCILLA had seen Horace only once since the football game, and thenfor a short and unsatisfactory interview. Immediately after, Horace hadleft town for one of those trips which so cleverly combined businessand pleasure, a combination of which Horace seemed to have the secret.A long letter which might have been an excerpt from the Journal ofAnother Disappointed Man gave her no address to which to write him, andthe best she could do was to promise herself to be very, very kind toHorace on his return. She owed him that for the wrong she had done him.
The days went by without any further word from Horace, and Fridayrounded out a full week since she had last seen him. Priscilla andPeggy walked home from class together with that sense of leisure Fridayafternoon brings to each student, no matter how much must be donebefore Monday morning. They paused at Peggy's door and Peggy urgedhospitably, "Come on in."
"I think I'd better go home and see if mother's there, and if she wantsanything. We haven't seen our maid for three days."
"Well, we've _seen_ Sally, if that's any comfort," laughed Peggy. "Butshe's been about as much good as if she'd been at the North Pole. Awoman she knows was knocked down by an automobile and taken to thehospital, and all Sally has been good for since is to dramatize theaffair. First she's the automobile speeding recklessly on, and thenshe's the poor victim. You never saw anything so realistic as the wayshe drops on the kitchen floor."
Priscilla laughed, but disapprovingly. "I don't see how you folks putup with her, Peggy. She'd drive me crazy."
"Well, there's no denying she's a trial at times, but Sally has hergood points. She's devoted to us all, for one thing, and that isn'tvery common these days. And besides," added Peggy simply, "if we didn'tkeep her I don't know how the poor thing would get along."
The two girls had been together all day but they lingered, loath toseparate. "Listen, Peggy," Priscilla exclaimed. "Come home with me.Like enough mother will have an errand for me to do and then we can gotogether. Don't you love outdoors when it's still and cold like this?"
"Yes, love it. I'll go and see if we need anything in the way ofgroceries, and I'll join you in about a minute."
Peggy hurried up the walk and Priscilla went on her way. The eveningpaper lay folded on the porch of her home and she picked it up andtucked it under her arm before she slipped her key into the latch. Shefound the kitchen empty and ran upstairs, calling her mother. But onlythe echoes answered, and Priscilla realized that except for herself thehouse was empty.
Priscilla seated herself to wait for Peggy, picking up the paper shehad thrown on the library table. Her eye ran mechanically over thecolumns. She turned the sheets, her thoughts still busy with the day'shappenings, and with vague plans for the morrow. Then unexpectedly afamiliar face flashed out at her from the page, set above head-linesthat seemed fairly to shriek their news.
YOUNG HITCHCOCK SURPRISES FRIENDS SOCIETY MAN MARRIES IN NEW YORK
Priscilla, sitting motionless, read the news over several times. Thenher eyes began moving down the column. Even when she saw Horace's namewritten out in full, her sense of unreality persisted. The reporterhad treated the matter humorously, following the precedent which makeslove and marriage the most popular theme for jests. That the lady inquestion had become Mrs. Hitchcock just three days after meeting herfuture husband furnished a partial excuse for the levity.
"Mr. Hitchcock denies that there is anything hasty in his romanticmarriage," wrote the reporter. "When asked if he considered a threedays' acquaintance a sufficient prelude to matrimony, he smilinglyreplied that he preferred three thousand years. In explanation of hisenigmatic remark, Mr. Hitchcock gave his views on reincarnation, whilein the background Mrs. Hitchcock blushed assent. Both are convincedthat, to quote Mr. Hitchcock, 'they were soul mates when the pyramidswere in building, lovers in Babylon--'"
Priscilla suddenly crumpled the paper in her hand. The familiar phraseswere like a dash of cold water, rousing her from her daze. "I'm free,"she cried, "I'm free! I'm free!" and broke into violent weeping.
Peggy rang several times without attracting attention. When at lengthshe put her finger to the button and held it there, Priscilla woketo the realization that there was some one at the door. She creptdownstairs, unconsciously holding fast to the paper that had announcedher release, and admitted a justly incensed Peggy.
"I'm afraid you need some of those artificial ear-drums,Priscilla--Why, what's happened?" Peggy's attempted irony changed toaffectionate concern, as she saw Priscilla with her tear-streakedcheeks and eyes inflamed and swollen. She threw her arms around herfriend, her imagination running the gamut of possible calamities. "Oh,what is the matter?" she pleaded.
It seemed to Priscilla that a verbal explanation was beyond her.Dumbly she held out the crumpled sheet. Peggy caught sight of Horace'ssmug smile, snatched the paper from Priscilla's hand, and read theincredible story at a glance. The blood rushed to her brain, dying evenher ears crimson. Rage shook her. For the instant, the gentle Peggy wasa silent fury.
Priscilla roused herself to the need of explanation. "Peggy!"
Peggy whirled upon her. "My dear, it is the most abominable thing Iever heard of, but you couldn't have cared for him, Priscilla. Oh, tellme you didn't."
"We--well, we were engaged."
"Engaged," choked Peggy. She took a backward step, looked atPriscilla's disfigured face, and dug her nails deep into her palms."Oh, I wish I were a man," she breathed in a voice hardly recognizable.
Priscilla uttered a choked laugh. Combined with the fact that the tearswere still running down her face, this did not tend to allay Peggy'sapprehensions. But as the laugh seemed to unlock Priscilla's tongue,her distressed friend was not long kept in suspense.
"I suppose I looked as if I were heart-broken," exclaimed Priscilla,laughing and crying. "Yes, we were really engaged, Peggy, but you can'timagine what a nightmare it has been."
"A nightmare," gasped Peggy. "Your engagement a nightmare!" She put herhands to her head as if the unexpected information acquired in the lastfew minutes had crowded it to the bursting point.
"Wait, Peggy! I've had a dreadful time, but it's been my own fault. Iblame myself for everything that has happened. If it hadn't been for mysilly vanity--"
"Vanity--" interrupted Peggy, and sniffed her scorn.
"Oh, you can sneer, Peggy Raymond, but I've been a silly little fool.In the first place, I made myself miserable because nobody wanted me."
"Priscilla," Peggy interrupted again, "I believe you ought to go tobed. You're talking as if you were delirious."
"I know perfectly well what I'm saying, Peggy. You were engaged toGraham, and Nelson was in love with Ruth and Bob Carey was getting veryattentive to Amy, and I was the only one left out and I resented it."
"Do you mean," cried Peggy incredulously, "that you don't know thatyou're so handsome that people are always turning to look after youwhen you pass?"
Priscilla laughed. "I won't choke you off, Peggy. After that news--"she nodded significantly toward the paper. "I fancy I can stand alittle flattery and not be injured. But anyway I was sour and sore whenHorace began to call. I knew exactly what Horace was, Peggy, but I shutmy eyes to it. I wouldn't criticize him even in my thoughts. I wouldn'tlet you laugh at him--"
"Don't I know it!" Peggy drew a long breath. "That was one of thethings that made me anxious."
"Well, when he told me--that he cared for me, I just snatched athim, Peggy. I was perfectly delighted that somebody thought I wasattractive. And I was such a silly little fool that I actually gloatedover being the second girl out of us four to get engaged. Peggy, I'mterribly ashamed to tell you all this, but now's the time to finish upthe subject and be done with it."
"Priscilla darling, I can understand everything except your feelingthat way about yourself."
"Of course I wasn't happy," Priscilla went on. "I don't know whetherHorace was or not. He always talked in a dreadfully pessimisticfashion, but I rather think--"
"Just a pose," interpolated Peggy witheringly. "Even when he was alittle boy, Horace was always playing a part."
"Once or twice I tried to tell him I thought we had made a mistake.When I thought of going on and on through the years it didn't seem asif I could bear it. And then he talked so dreadfully, Peggy, and I wasafraid he'd kill himself."
"No such luck," snorted Priscilla's audience. It was hard to believethat it was really Peggy making such a speech and looking so fierceand angry. Priscilla interrupted her story by a little hysterical laugh.
"The last time was only two weeks ago at the foot-ball game. He was sodisagreeable that I tried again to get out of it, and then he took itso to heart that I gave up all hope of ever being free. When I readthat account today, and it came over me all at once that I needn't eversee Horace Hitchcock again, it seemed as if I'd die of joy. I believe Ishould have, too, if I hadn't begun to cry."
Peggy was still scornful. "The idea of your sacrificing yourself forsuch a fellow as Horace."
"Only because I was to blame, Peggy. As long as my silly vanity had gotme into such a scrape, I thought nothing was too bad for me."
"Didn't it ever occur to you that two wrongs didn't make a right? Ifyou were wrong in getting engaged to Horace when you didn't love him,marrying him without love would be a million times wickeder."
Priscilla took the reproof meekly. "Perhaps so. Anyway, I have learnedmy lesson. The wrong man is so much worse than no man at all that nowI'm perfectly resigned to being an old maid."
Peggy sniffed derisively. "You talk about your silly vanity. Youcertainly were silly enough, but when it comes to vanity, why,Priscilla Combs, you're the most painfully modest girl I know. Thetimid violet is a monster of arrogance compared to you. I adore Ruthand Amy, as everybody knows, but when it comes to looks, they're simplynot in it alongside you. You're handsome, Priscilla, just as Horace'sdreadful old aunt said, and you're talented and you're charming, andlots of men would fall in love with you in a minute if they thoughtthey had the ghost of a chance."
Priscilla clapped her hands over her ears and blushed till Peggy'seloquence lost itself in laughter. "I'm not going to be punished byhaving to marry Horace," she said, when at length she judged it safeto lower her defenses. "But I shan't get off scott-free. Just think,Peggy, how many people in this city will be sorry for me, because I'vebeen jilted by Horace Hitchcock."
Peggy Raymond's Way; Or, Blossom Time at Friendly Terrace Page 16