Wild Wings

by Margaret Piper Chalmers

  CHAPTER VI

  A SHADOW ON THE PATH

  Across the campus the ivy procession wound its lovely length, flanked byrainbow clad Junior ushers immensely conscious of themselves and theirimportance as they bore the looped laurel chains between which walked theeven more important Seniors, all in white and each bearing an AmericanBeauty rose before her proudly, like a wand of youth.

  At the head of the procession, as president of the class, walkedAntoinette Holiday, a little lady of quality, as none who saw her couldhave helped recognizing. Her uncle, watching the procession from thesteps of a campus house, smiled and sighed as he beheld her. She was soyoung, so blithe-hearted, so untouched by the sad and sordid things oflife. If only he could keep her so for a little, preserve the shiningsplendor of her shield of innocent young joy. But, even as he thought, heknew the folly of his wish. Tony would be the last to desire to have lifetempered or kept from her. She would want to drain the whole cup, bitter,sweet and all.

  Farther back in the procession was Carlotta, looking as heavenly fair andethereal as if she had that morning been wafted down from the skies. Outof the crowd Phil Lambert's eyes met hers and smiled. Very sensibly andmodernly these two had decided to remain the best of friends since fateprevented their being lovers. But Phil's eyes were rather more thanfriendly, resting on Carlotta, and, underneath the diaphanous, exquisitewhite cloud of a gown that she wore, Carlotta's heart beat a littlefaster for what she saw in his face. The hand that held her rose trembledever so slightly as she smiled bravely back at him. She could not forgetthose "very different" kisses of his, nor, with all the will in theworld, could she go back to where she was before she went up the mountainand came down again in the purple dusk. She knew she had to get used to astrange, new world, a world without Philip Lambert, a rather empty world,it seemed. She wondered if this new world would give her anything sowonderful and sweet as this thing that she had by her own actsurrendered. Almost she thought not.

  Ted, standing beside his uncle, watching the procession, suddenly heard afamiliar whistle, a signal dating back to Holiday Hill days, asunmistakable as the Star Spangled Banner itself, though who should beusing it here and why was a mystery. In a moment his roving gazediscovered the solution. Standing upon a slight elevation on the campusopposite he perceived Dick Carson. The latter beckoned peremptorily. Tedwriggled out of the group, descended with one leap over the rail to thelawn, and made his way to where the other youth waited.

  "What in Sam Hill's chewing you?" he demanded upon arrival. "You've mademe quit the only spot I've struck to-day where I had room to stand on myown feet and see anything at the same time."

  "I say, Ted, what train was Larry coming on?" counterquestioned Dick.

  "Chicago Overland. Why?"

  "Are you sure?"

  "Of course I am sure. He wired Tony. What in thunder are you driving at?Get it out for Pete's sake?"

  "The Chicago Overland smashed into a freight somewhere near Pittsburghthis morning. There were hundreds of people killed. Oh, Lord, Ted! Ididn't mean to break it to you like that." Dick was aghast at his ownclumsiness as Ted leaned against the brick wall of the college building,his face white as chalk. "I wasn't thinking--guess I wasn't thinkingabout much of anything except Tony," he added.

  Ted groaned.

  "Don't wonder," he muttered. "Let's not let her get wind of it till wehave to. Are you sure there--there isn't any mistake?" Ted put up hishand to brush back a refractory lock of hair and found his forehead wetwith cold perspiration. "There's got to be a mistake. Larry--I won'tbelieve it, so there!"

  "You don't have to believe it till you know. Even if he was on the trainit doesn't mean he is hurt." Dick would not name the harsher possibilityto Larry Holiday's brother.

  "Of course, it doesn't," snapped Ted. "I say, Dick, is it in thepapers yet?"

  "No, it will be in an hour though, as soon as the evening editions getout."

  "Good! Dick, it's up to you to keep Tony from knowing. She is going tosing in the concert at five. That will keep her occupied until six. Butfrom now till then nix on the news. Take her out on the fool pond, walkher up Sunset Hill, quarrel with her, make love to her, anything, so shewon't guess. I don't dare go near her. I'd give it away in a minute, I'msuch an idiot. Besides I can't think of anything but Larry. Gee!" The boyswept his hand across his eyes. "Last time I saw him I consigned him tothe devil because he told me some perfectly true things about myself andtried to give me some perfectly sound advice. And now--I'm damned if Ibelieve it. Larry is all right. He's got to be," fiercely.

  "Of course, he is," soothed Dick. "And I'll try to do as you say aboutTony. I'm not much of an actor, but I guess I can carry it throughfor--for her sake."

  The little break in the speaker's voice made Ted turn quickly and stareat the other youth.

  "Dick, old chap, is it like that with you? I didn't know."

  Ted's hand went out and held the other's in a cordial grip.

  "Nobody knows. I--I didn't mean to show it then. It's no good. I knowthat naturally."

  "I'm not so sure about that. I know one member of the family that wouldbe mighty proud to have you for a brother."

  The obvious ring of sincerity touched Dick. It was a good deal comingfrom a Holiday.

  "Thank you, Ted. That means a lot, I can tell you. I'll never forget yoursaying it like that. You won't give me away, I know."

  "Sure not, old man. Tony is way up in the clouds just now, anyway. We areall mostly ants in our minor ant hills so far as she is concerned. Gee! Ihope it isn't this thing about Larry that is going to pull her down toearth. If anything had to happen to any of us why couldn't it have beenme instead of Larry. He is worth ten of me."

  "We don't know that anything has happened to Larry yet," Dick reminded."I say, Ted, they must have got the ivy planted. Everybody's coming back.Tony is lunching with me at Boyden's right away, and I'll see that shehas her hands full until it is time for the concert. You warn MissCarlotta, so she'll be on guard after I surrender her. I'm afraid youwill have to tell your uncle."

  "I will. Trot on, old man, and waylay Tony. I'll make a mess of thingssure as preaching if I run into her now."

  Tony thought she had never known Dick to be so entertaining or talkativeas he was during that luncheon hour. He regaled her with all kinds ofnewspaper yarns and related some of his own once semi-tragic but nowhumorous misadventures of his early cub days. He talked, too, on currentevents and world history, talked well, with the quiet poise andassurance of the reader and thinker, the man who has kept his eyes andears open to life.

  It was a revelation to Tony. For once their respective roles werereversed, he the talker, she the listener.

  "Goodness me, Dick!" she exclaimed during a pause in what had becomealmost a monologue. "Why haven't you ever talked like this before? Ialways thought I had to do it all and here you talk better than I everthought of doing because you have something to say and mine is justchatter and nonsense."

  He smiled at that.

  "I love your chatter. But you are tired to-day and it is my turn. Do youknow what we are going to do after luncheon?"

  "No, what?"

  "We are going to take a canoe out on your Paradise and get into a shadyspot somewhere along the bank and you will lean back against a whole lotof becoming cushions and put up that red parasol of yours so nobody butme can see your face and then--"

  "Dicky! Dicky! Whatever is in you to-day? Paradise, pillows and parasolsare familiar symptoms. You will be making love to me next."

  "I might, at that," murmured Dick. "But you did not hear the rest ofmy proposition. And then--I shall read you a story--a story that Iwrote myself."

  "Dick!" Tony nearly upset her glass of iced tea in her amazement at thisunexpected announcement. "You don't mean you have really and trulywritten a story!"

  "Honest to goodness--such as it is. Please to remember it is my maideneffort and make a margin of allowance. But I want your criticism,too--all the benefit of your superior academic tr
aining."

  "Superior academic bosh!" scoffed Tony. "I'll bet it is a corkingstory," she added unacademically. "Come on. Let's go, quick. I can'twait to hear it."

  Nothing loath to get away speedily before the newsboys began to cry theaccident through the streets, Dick escorted his pretty companion back tothe campus and on to Paradise, at which point they took a canoe and,finally selecting a shady point under an over-reaching sycamore tree,drifted in to shore where Tony leaned against the cushions, tilted herparasol as specified at the angle which forbade any but Dick to see hercharming, expressive young face and commanded him to "shoot."

  Dick shot. Tony listened intently, watching his face as he read, feelingas if this were a new Dick--a Dick she did not know at all, albeit a mostinteresting person.

  "Why Dick Carson!" she exclaimed when he finished. "It is great--a realstory with real laughter and tears in it. I love it. It is so--so human."

  The author flushed and fidgeted and protested that it wasn't much--just asketch done from life with a very little dressing up and polishing down.

  "I have a lot more of them in my head, though," he added. "And I'mgoing to grind them out as soon as I get time. I wish I had a biggervocabulary and knew more about the technical end of the writing game.I am going to learn, though--going to take some night work at theUniversity next fall. Maybe I'll catch up a little yet if I keeppegging away."

  "Catch up! Dick, you make me so ashamed. Here Larry and Ted and I havehad everything done for us all our lives and we've slipped along with thecurrent, following the line of least resistance. And you have hadeverything to contend with and you are way ahead of the rest of usalready. But why didn't you tell me before about the story? I think youmight have, Dicky. You know I would be interested," reproachfully.

  "I--I wasn't talking much about it to anybody till I knew it was anygood. But I--just took a notion to read it to you to-day. That's all."

  It wasn't all, but he wanted Tony to think it was. Not for anything wouldhe have betrayed how reading the story was a desperate expedient to keepher diverted and safe from news of the disaster on the Overland.

  He escorted Tony back to the campus house at the latest possible momentand Carlotta, in the secret, pretended to upbraid her roommate for hertardiness and flew about helping her to get dressed, talkingcontinuously the while and keeping a sharp eye on the door lest someintruder burst in and say the very thing Tony Holiday must not bepermitted to hear. It would be so ridiculously easy for somebody to ask,"Oh, did you hear about the awful wreck on the Overland?" and then thefat would be in the fire.

  But, thanks to Carlotta, nobody had a chance to say it and later TonyHoliday, standing in the twilight in front of College Hall's steps, sangher solo, Gounod's beautiful Ave Maria, smiled happily down into thefaces of the dear folks from her beloved Hill and only regretted thatLarry was not there with the rest--Larry who, for all the others knew,might never come again.

  After dinner Ted rushed off again to the telegraph office which he hadbeen haunting all the afternoon to see if any word had come from hisbrother, and Doctor Holiday went on up to the campus to escort his nieceto the informal hop. He had decided to go on just as if nothing waswrong. If Larry was safe then there was no need of clouding Tony's joy,and if he wasn't--well, there would be time enough to grieve when theyknew. By virtue of his being a grave and reverend uncle he was admittedto the sacred precincts of his niece's room and had hardly gotten seatedwhen the door flew open and Ted flew in waving two yellow telegraphblanks triumphantly, one in each hand, and announcing that everything wasall right--Larry was all right, had wired from Pittsburgh.

  Before Tony had a chance to demand what it was all about the door openedagain and a righteously indignant house mother appeared on the threshold,demanding by what right an unauthorized male had gone up her stairway andentered a girl's room, without permission or escort.

  "I apologize," beamed Ted with his most engaging smile. "Come on outside,Mrs. Maynerd and I'll tell you all about it." And tucking his arm in hersthe irrepressible youth conveyed the angry personage out into the hall,leaving his uncle to explain the situation to Tony.

  In a moment he was back triumphant.

  "She says I may stay since I'm here, and Uncle Phil is here to playdragon," he announced. "She thought at first Carlotta would have to beexpunged to make it legal, but I overruled her, told her you and I hadplayed tiddle-de-winks with each other in our cradles," he added with animpish grin at his sister's roommate. "Of course I never laid eyes onyou till two years ago, but that doesn't matter. I have a truetiddle-de-winks feeling for you, anyway, and that is what counts, isn'tit, sweetness?"

  Carlotta laughed and averred that she was going to expunge herself anywayas Phil was waiting for her downstairs. She picked up a turquoise satinmandarin cloak from the chair and Ted sprang to put it around her bareshoulders, stooping to kiss the tip of her ear as he finished.

  "Lucky Phil!" he murmured.

  Carlotta shook her head at him and went over to Tony, over whom she bentfor an instant with unusual feeling in her lovely eyes.

  "Oh, my dear," she whispered. "I wish I could tell you how I feel. I'm soglad--so glad." And then she was gone before Tony could answer.

  "Oh me!" she sighed. "She has been so wonderful. You all have. Ted--UnclePhil! Come over here. I want to hold you tight."

  And, with her brother on one side of her and her uncle on the other, Tonygave a hand to each and for a moment no one spoke. Then Ted produced histelegrams one of which was addressed to Tony and one to her uncle. Bothannounced the young doctor's safety. "Staying over in Pittsburgh. Letterfollows," was in the doctor's message. "Sorry can't make commencement.Love and congratulations," was in Tony's.

  "There, didn't I tell you he was all right?" demanded Ted, as if hisbrother's safety were due to his own remarkably good management of theaffair. "Gee! Tony! If you knew how I felt when Dick told me thismorning. I pretty nearly disgraced myself by toppling over, just like agirl, on the campus. Lord! It was fierce."

  "I know." Tony squeezed his hand sympathetically. "And Dick--why Dickmust have kept me out in Paradise on purpose."

  "Sure he did. Dick's a jim dandy and don't you forget it."

  "I shan't," said Tony, her eyes a little misty, remembering how Dick hadfought all day to keep her care-free happiness intact. "I don't knowwhether to be angry at you all for keeping it from me or to fall on yournecks and weep because you were all so dear not to tell me. And oh! Ifanything had happened to Larry! I don't see how I could have stood it. Itmakes us all seem awfully near, doesn't it?"

  "You bet!" agreed Ted with more fervor than elegance. "If the old chaphad been done for I'd have felt like making for the river, myself. Funny,now the scare is over and he is all safe, I shall probably cuss him outas hard as ever next time he tries to preach at me."

  "You had better listen to him instead. Larry is apt to be right and youare apt to be wrong, and you know it."

  "Maybe it is because I do know it and because he is so devilish rightthat I damn him," observed the youngest Holiday sagely, his eyes meetinghis uncle's over his sister's head.

  It wasn't until he had danced and flirted and made merry for threeconsecutive hours at the hop, and proposed in the exuberance of his moodto at least three different charmers whose names he had forgotten by thenext day, that Ted Holiday remembered Madeline and his promise to keeptryst with her that afternoon. Other things of more moment had swept herclean from his mind.

  "Thunder!" he muttered to himself. "Wonder what she is thinking when Iswore by all that was holy to come. Oh well; I should worry. I couldn'thelp it. I'll write and explain how it happened."

  So said, so done. He scribbled off a hasty note of explanation andapology which he signed "Yours devotedly, Ted Holiday" and went out tothe corner mail box to dispatch the same so it would go out in theearly morning collection, and prepared to dismiss the matter from hismind again.

  Coming back into his room he found his uncle standing on the threshold.
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  "Had to get a letter off," murmured the young man as his uncle lookedinquiring. He turned to light a cigarette with an air of determinedcasualness. He didn't care to have Uncle Phil know any more about theMadeline affair.

  "It must have been important."

  "Was," curtly. "Did you think I was joy riding again?"

  "No, I heard you stirring and thought you might be sick. I haven't beenable to get to sleep myself."

  Seeing how utterly worn out his uncle looked, Ted's resentment tookquick, shamed flight. Poor Uncle Phil! He never spared himself, alwaysbore the brunt of everything for them all. And here he himself had justsnapped like a cur because he suspected his guardian of desiring tointerfere with his high and mighty private business.

  "Too bad," he said. "Wish you'd smoke, Uncle Phil. It's great to cool offyour nerves. Honest it is! Have one?" He held out his case.

  Doctor Holiday smiled at that, though he declined the proffered weed. Heunderstood very well that the boy was making tacit amends for hisungraciousness of a moment before.

  "No, I'll get to sleep presently. It has been rather a wearing day."

  "Should say it had been. I hope Aunt Margery doesn't know about thewreck. She'll worry, if she knew Larry was coming east."

  "I wired her this evening. I didn't want to take any chance of herthinking he was in the smash."

  Ted laid down his cigarette.

  "You never forget anybody do you, Uncle Phil?" he said rathersoberly for him.

  "I never forget Margery. She is a very part of myself, lad."

  And when he was alone Ted pondered over that last speech of his uncle's.He wondered if there would ever be a Margery for him, and, if so, whatshe would think of the Madelines if she knew of them.