"Oh, a chit like you doesn"t know anything about such matters. All is fair in love and war. And there are times when strategy is commendable.
You find it a great resource in war as you read history."
"But you wouldn"t, really, Roxy! Girls are sometimes sent home in disgrace."
"I didn"t say I would. I said I could find a way if I wanted to," and she laughed with a sort of light amus.e.m.e.nt. "I often think up scenes that would do for a novel; difficulties and how to get out of them."
"I don"t want any more difficulties than the lessons," declared another.
"I shall be glad when school days are through with. The happiest time of life is youth! Not much!"
"What period do you think will be the happiest?" asked Daisy, thoughtfully.
"My happiest period will be going abroad on a wedding tour, and all the money I can spend on the other side."
"And mine will be the intervening years," declared Roxy. "Through school, lots of society, gayety, and admirers and a few flirtations before I settle down. I"d like to go abroad quite free, and leave the aching hearts behind."
"And you will make hearts ache, Roxy Mays."
Helen wondered at times how much she liked her, and others quite went down to her. She was piquant and could be very charming, then she said sharp and doubtful things, and had a way of twisting axioms around that was amusing and rather dangerous, too. She stood fairly well in her cla.s.ses, but she was not an ambitious girl. How few of them considered what they were going to do with their education.
After a month or so, Helen began to have what Daisy called an insight into Latin. But, oh, dear, when she was fairly grounded there she would have to take up French. And when it came time to sit at the French table and ask for everything in a foreign tongue, how could she do it?
"I shall simply starve," announced Roxy. "And after Christmas that will be my fate. I shall keep crackers and cheese under my pillow and nibble on them in the long and sleepless hours of the night."
There was a good deal of fun when she came to know girls quite well, and the arguing almost to quarreling. Some girls did and then would not speak for days. Helen and Daisy agreed very well; Helen was robustly conscientious, and Daisy gently so. They were of much a.s.sistance to each other.
Besides the boarders there were the day scholars who lived in the town, and some visiting was permitted. Helen was too busy to indulge in much outside pleasure except just for exercise. She asked permission one day to go down the hill for the sake of climbing up. "And I can say over the Latin exercises, no one will think me crazy, because no one will be there to hear."
Miss Grace laughed and gave permission, and so it became quite a favorite excursion ground. If she made blunders there was no one to laugh but herself.
Cold weather came on. The crimsons turned to russet and brown, the hickories grew paler and paler until their gold had degenerated and their leaves shriveled up. There was a soft, light snow the middle of November that hung about on everything for a day or two and then winter seemed to set in. But it was so cheerful with the crowd of girls and the interested teachers that one didn"t mind it.
Miss Craven was still very self-contained and reserved. She took her place in some cla.s.ses, however. In music she improved rapidly, leaving Helen far behind. She spoke to Helen now and then of her own accord, but waited for the others to speak to her. Mrs. Aldred took special pains to make her feel at home.
"There"s something queer about that girl," said Miss Mays one evening.
"And Craven is not an attractive name, though it seems to suit her. I hope her father hasn"t been a bank defaulter, nor a forger, nor a swindler! You notice that she seldom looks up at anyone. That suggests concealment."
"Is that a fair judgment?"
"Well, I like a person to look you straight in the eye."
"Roxy Mays, you could stare anyone out of countenance in two minutes, no matter how straight they looked at you. And hasn"t someone written a verse or two about down-dropping lids and shy eyes, and eyes that seem to listen rather than look."
"As if eyes could listen!"
"Isn"t every sense a.s.sisted by every other sense? And doesn"t a deaf person listen with the eyes?"
"Well--I don"t like her. She doesn"t take hold anywhere. You must meet people half-way. Now here is Helen frank to a fault, and looking up at you like a saucy robin. One would know she has nothing to conceal."
Helen flushed and laughed. She often recurred to Mrs. Aldred"s suggested caution. She occasionally heard girls tell incidents about their families that were neither amusing nor commendable, and that others turned into ridicule. Some of these, girls would laugh at Uncle Jason, and oh, what would they say about Aunt Jane! She had simply mentioned them with the utmost respect. And that a relative of Mrs. Aldred"s was educating her was sufficient.
"Well, there seems to be plenty of money in the Craven exchequer. Her toilette articles are exquisite. I don"t believe she had the taste to choose them, nor her clothes either."
"Oh, girls, let her alone. Isn"t Miss Reid just as distant and self-contained? She never joins any of the little crowds, nor mingles in the fun."
"Well, she"s of the severe order and is going to college. I"m glad I don"t have to go; if I did it would be purely for fun. I"m in for all the good times I can possibly get."
How odd it was that so few girls really cared for knowledge! Of course, the fun was exhilarating, the sharpening of wits made one bright. Roxy Mays was an expert at twisting and turning and repartee, and making the worse seem the better reason. Some of it was amusing. But to magnify any trifling thing into a part of one"s character, to give hard judgment on the shape of one"s features or the expression of one"s eyes and mouth, seemed hardly fair to Helen.
She wondered sometimes if one could grow beautiful on high and n.o.ble thoughts? One felt broader and better at heart by giving a more generous allowance. She soon found that Roxy had a bad fault, and all the girls in her set condoned it easily, while several of them grumbled about it to each other. She was always borrowing little articles and seldom returned them. "I"ll take your pencil a moment," she would say. "I"ll just run over this book," and you had to go after your book. It was thread and needles, b.u.t.tons of various kinds, even to a shirtwaist set, and if one b.u.t.ton or pin came up missing she was very sorry and would be sure to replace it when she went down town. Borrowing money was against the rules. There had once been a disagreeable trouble in the school about this matter, and now Mrs. Aldred kept a bank for any girl that had run ahead of her allowance, from which she was at liberty to borrow.
Running up an account in the town was also forbidden.
How soon Christmas came! It fell on Sat.u.r.day. Some of the girls were going home, several to visit friends or relatives, and those who remained were given a holiday. Miss Lane was to go; Madame Meran on Monday; Miss Gertrude was to have the week in New York. None of the other teachers resided in the house.
Thursday night there fell a real snow. The others had been beautiful attempts that had melted away in the next sunshine. Friday morning was dull and gray, without a breath of air. The roofs wore white hoods or blankets, the trees absolutely stood still, ermined to their finger ends, someone said. But at ten the somber clouds began to give way, growing thinner and thinner, and one spot rather to the south suddenly became glorified with silvery touches, then golden and azure, and the world was in a flood of sunshine. Helen thought she had never seen anything so glorious before.
"Oh, you beautiful, beautiful world!" she cried as she stood out on the porch, having said good-by to a group of girls. "It"s a splendid thing just to live! But isn"t it knowledge that enables one to understand and appreciate it all!"
She went through the hall. Miss Craven had just come downstairs.
"Oh, let us go out and look at the snow on our own small ravine. I am a country girl, and I think I have never really _seen_ a snowstorm before," laughing. "I lived in a rather flat country."
Miss Craven"s face slowly lighted up and an expression went over it like a smile that had not the courage to come out, but she followed readily.
There was the smooth expanse over to the iron fence, then the tops of trees and shrubbery, set with thousands of gems of all colors, depending on the rays of the sun. The black hollow, that was the little stream they could not see from the porch, the elevation on the other side, the houses and grounds, the men shoveling paths, children snow-balling, active life already and here the extreme of silence.
"What a picture!"
"And I lived among hills and mountains," remarked Miss Craven. "I used to get so tired of the solitude. But you can be alone----" pausing abruptly, and adding: "You are not going away?"
"No. But you shiver. Are you cold? Let us go upstairs to my room and have a talk. I shall be alone until next Sat.u.r.day night. Daisy Bell has gone off to have a lovely time. There was no one who wanted me enough to pet.i.tion for me, though I believe I was not to go home until next summer."
"Oh, you have a home?"
"Yes; and relatives. Come in," as they had reached the room. "We who remain have a holiday, and just now I do not feel in the humor for any serious thing. Let us compare our work. You are doing very well in music, Madame said. I ask about you;" and there was an expression of real interest in Helen"s face that called a pleased flush to that of Miss Craven.
"Yes, but I do love it so;" and there was an intensity in her tone that aroused Helen. "If I were not so ignorant of other things I would devote my whole time to it. And if I could sing! You have such a fine voice."
"It is strong enough to lead a forlorn hope. I"d like it to be a contralto. There is so much depth and feeling and pathos in a contralto voice. Did you hear Miss Morgan sing "Mary o" the Dee" a few evenings ago? Madame thinks she ought to settle upon music as a profession."
Helen had placed Daisy"s rocking chair for her guest. There was a slant ray of sunshine coming in the window, and the room had a habitable air that some people always give. Daisy Bell possessed this in an eminent degree.
"I sometimes wish I were not alone," began Miss Craven. "Only I feel that girls are not attracted to me. I suppose I am too old for girls, and I don"t know enough for the young ladies. I almost made up my mind that I wouldn"t stay, but Mrs. Aldred has been so kind. And perhaps it would not be better anywhere else. I am nineteen."
The girls had speculated about her age. Miss Mays said she was at least twenty-five.
"And I"m not fifteen yet," laughing brightly.
"I wish I could be fifteen, but I would not like to go back and live the four years over again. My life has been a very dreary one."