by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER V
THE TANGLED SKEIN
"May I come in?" asked Rosalind's voice, and in response to Alison'scordial invitation, she entered, a perplexed cloud on her face.
"I'm so worried, Alison," she began. "I saw your 'busy' sign, so Iwaited. I thought you might help me."
"Was it about this?" Alison held up the folded paper. "I've been worriedabout it, too."
Rosalind pounced on the paper. "Oh, that's it. It's my essay. Where inthe world did you find it?"
"It was in my English book. How it got there I can't imagine. It wascertainly not there when I saw the book last. I lent it to Marcia. Shesaid you had borrowed hers, and she didn't like to go and rummage inyour room while you were out----"
"She wouldn't have had to rummage. It was right on the table," saidRosalind simply. "Did you read this, Alison? It's dreadful--"
"I couldn't help seeing the title and the first few sentences, but ofcourse I didn't read any further. Honestly, Rosalind, I am puzzled toguess how your essay could have got into my book. Can you think?"
Rosalind frowned and puckered up her sunny face in a great mentaleffort.
"I haven't any book, myself," she confessed. "Mine fell out of thewindow, and I forgot to pick it up, and it rained in the night, andruined it. It was so sopping wet, it just fell to pieces. So I've beengetting along by borrowing the other girls' books. I borrowed Marcia'sthe other day, and forgot to return it to her--"
"So a lot of the trouble is due to your bad habit of forgetting to dothings," said Alison severely. But she smiled as she said it, andRosalind took the reproof with her usual sweet temper. "I know it was.But what then, Alison?"
"Then she borrowed mine, to study. She returned it to me, all right, butshe forgot to explain what your essay was doing in it. I went out totrack meet, and left Marcia studying for her essay. I hadn't lookedthrough my book carefully, and if I saw any papers sticking out, Ithought they were just my own notes. That is all I know about it, till Ifound your essay just now."
"Well, it's all right, now I've found it," said Rosalind easily. "Theyhave to be handed in tomorrow. I'm so glad I'm on time, for once."
And with a relieved mind she danced lightly away, just as Marciaentered.
Alison looked up pleasantly. "Just in time, Marcia, to help solve amystery, or straighten out a muddle."
Marcia stopped short and her face changed to the stony expression itwore when she was not pleased. "Well," she said, "What can _I_ do aboutit?"
"Rosalind was here just now," Alison explained patiently. "She came toask if I knew anything about her essay, which she could not find. I hadjust found it inside my English book, and we were wondering how it gotthere. That was all. I thought perhaps you might be able to tell us."
Marcia grew paler than her wont, but she spoke clearly and coldly.
"Why, Rosalind lost her book I suppose, and borrowed yours, and left theessay in it. You know what a careless thing she is."
"No; she never had my book. She had finished her essay and put it away,that same afternoon, when you borrowed my book because she was out, andhad left yours in her room."
"I don't know anything about it," said Marcia stolidly. "Are you tryingto accuse me of anything?"
"Marcia! You are not in earnest?"
"Well, you seemed to imply it. I didn't think you would mind lending meyour book--"
"Of course I didn't, Marcia. You know that."
"I put it back on your table that same afternoon. You can testify tofinding it there. I haven't seen it since."
"I don't want to 'testify' to anything," said Alison, astonished. "I wasonly wondering how Rosalind's essay came to be in my book. Please don'tthink I meant to be personal, Marcia."
"I don't know anything about it," repeated Marcia, "and I'll thank you,Alison Fair, not to be hinting at anything, instead of saying outplainly what you think."
"I wasn't hinting," began Alison, wounded to the verge of tears; but toher relief, Marcia left the room, and she turned to the window, herhands pressed to her eyes, trying to recover her composure enough tothink her way out of the tangle.
Entered Joan, excited and curious.
"Alison! We just saw Marcia stalking down the hall, looking like athundercloud, or a tragedy queen, or something! She wouldn't look atus. Rosalind had just been in to tell us about your finding her essay,she had been mourning as lost. It ought to be a fine one, to cause somuch excitement. So when I saw Marcia leaving the room in such offendeddignity, I just came to get you to come and tell Kathy and me all aboutit before we burst with curiosity. You can't deny there's something,when I find you swallowing tears--"
The tears overflowed at the mention of them.
"Oh, Joan, I didn't mean to say anything about it, but since Rosalindhas told you--Mind, I'm not accusing Marcia, though she said--she askedif I meant to hint--" Alison choked again.
"Nonsense," said Joan, briskly. "Nobody would think it, unless she had aguilty conscience. I dare say she has. Wait till I call Kathy--or no,you come into our room, and tell us all about it."
An interested audience was assembled in the room across the hall, forRosalind had not been reticent, and Evelyn, Polly and Rachel were allthere to hear what was to be heard. So Alison was obliged to tell thefacts of the finding of the essay in her book after it had been borrowedby Marcia.
"Truly, I did not mean to even imply that she was to blame in any way,"she ended, almost apologetically, "but she seemed to think I was. Iwould never have spoken of it at all, if Rosalind had not told you whileshe was searching for her essay. Nobody was more surprised than I waswhen I found it. And even now I don't--I can't understand what it allmeans."
"I can," said Joan, addressing the company at large. "It means thatMarcia is trying to put on Alison the onus of a thing she did herself,and couldn't quite succeed."
"Oh, but I _couldn't_ think that of her," Alison cried, distressed.
"My dear Alison, the trouble is that you think everybody is as honest asyourself. People like that usually do get taken in."
"Well, we can't do anything about it now, and we had better not talkabout it any more," pronounced Katherine. "Let's forget it. Talk aboutsomething else. For instance--has anyone seen my ring? I've lost itagain."
"Not that lovely pearl ring of yours, Kathy?"
"Yes. I've missed it for a week, but I kept thinking it would turn up. Igenerally remember to take it off when I wash my hands, but I can'tremember--I wash my hands so often--"
"Kathy, you really are too careless--"
"Oh, the girls all recognize it and give it back to me when they findit; but they always find it in less than a week."
"There are the maids," suggested Polly.
"Oh, but I don't believe one of them would take anything."
"There you go again, Alison, with your 'everybody's honest.' I tell youeverybody is not. There's a ghost or something in this school," insistedthe incorrigible Joan. "Rachel lost her gold pencil a fortnight ago.Ever find it, Ray?"
"No. But I do leave my things about. It may have slipped out of sightsomewhere."
"So it may. Let me know when it returns of its own accord. This thingreminds me of the title of a little French book I read once: _Les PetitsMysteres de la Vie Humaine_. If I've made mistakes, Mademoiselle is nothere to correct me, and the rest of you couldn't. Anyway, it means 'TheLittle Mysteries of Human Life,'" said Joan, looking defiantly abouther.
"Well, I don't like mysteries," remarked Evelyn. "What we need is aclean-up day, to find all these missing valuables, and clear up all themysteries."
The supper bell broke up the conclave.