Grace had never in all her life before had so good a time as she had at that senior prom. The seniors were quick to discover her unaffected originality and charm, and everywhere she went she was the centre of a merry group. In short, Grace, as much to her own surprise as anyone"s, found herself a social success.
Presently Sidney brought his brother up to be introduced, and the latter said:
"Miss Seeley, will you excuse my asking if you have a brother or any relative named Max Seeley?"
Grace nodded. "Oh, yes, my brother Max. He is a doctor out west."
"I was sure of it," said Murray Hill triumphantly. "You resemble him so strongly. Please don"t consider me as a stranger a minute longer, for Max and I are like brothers. Indeed, I owe my life to him. Last summer I was out there on a surveying expedition, and I took typhoid in a little out-of-the-way place where good nursing was not to be had for love or money. Your brother attended me and he managed to pull me through. He never left me day or night until I was out of danger, and he worked like a Trojan for me."
"Dear old Max," said Grace, her brown eyes shining with pride and pleasure. "That is so like him. He is such a dear brother and I haven"t seen him for four years. To see somebody who knows him so well is next best thing to seeing himself."
"He is an awfully fine fellow," said Mr. Hill heartily, "and I"m delighted to have met the "little sister" he used to talk so much about. I want you to come ever and meet my mother and sister. They have heard me talk so much about Max that they think almost as much of him as I do, and they will be glad to meet his sister."
Mrs. Hill, a handsome, dignified lady who was one of the chaperones of the prom, received Grace warmly, while Beatrice Hill, an extremely pretty, smartly gowned girl, made her feel at home immediately.
"You came with Sid, didn"t you?" she whispered. "Sid is so sly--he never tells us whom he is going to take anywhere. But when I saw you come in with him I knew I was going to like you, you looked so jolly.
And you"re really the sister of that splendid Dr. Seeley who saved Murray"s life last summer? And to think you"ve been at Payzant nearly a whole term and we never knew it!"
"Well, how have you enjoyed our prom, Miss Seeley?" asked Sid, as they walked home together under the arching elms of the college campus.
"Oh! it was splendid," said Grace enthusiastically. "Everybody was so nice. And then to meet someone who could tell me so much about Max! I must write them home all about it before I sleep, just to calm my head a bit. Mother and the girls will be so interested, and I must send Lou and Mab a carnation apiece for their sc.r.a.pbooks."
"Give me one back, please," said Sid. And Grace with a little blush, did so.
That night, while Grace was slipping the stems of her carnations and putting them into water, three little bits of conversation were being carried on which it is necessary to report in order to round up this story neatly and properly, as all stories should be rounded up.
In the first place, Beatrice Hill was saying to Sidney, "Oh, Sid, that Miss Seeley you had at the prom is a lovely girl. I don"t know when I"ve met anyone I liked so much. She was so jolly and friendly and she didn"t put on learned airs at all, as so many of those Payzant girls do. I asked her all about herself and she told me, and all about her mother and sisters and home and the lovely times they had together, and how hard they worked to send her to college too, and how she taught school in vacations and "roomed" herself to help along. Isn"t it so brave and plucky of her! I know we are going to be great friends."
"I hope so," said Sidney briefly, "because I have an idea that she and I are going to be very good friends too."
And Sidney went upstairs and put away a single white carnation very carefully.
In the second place, Mrs. Hill was saying to her eldest son, "I liked that Miss Seeley very much. She seemed a very sweet girl."
And, finally, Agnes Walters and Edna Hayden were discussing the matter in great mystification in their room.
"I can"t understand it at all," said Agnes slowly. "Sid Hill took her to the prom and he must have sent her those carnations too. She could never have afforded them herself. And did you see the fuss his people made over her? I heard Beatrice telling her that she was coming to call on her tomorrow, and Mrs. Hill said she must look upon "Beechlawn" as her second home while she was at Payzant. If the Hills are going to take her up we"ll have to be nice to her."
"I suppose," said Edna conclusively, "the truth of the matter is that Sid Hill meant to ask her anyway. I dare say he asked her long ago, and she would know our invitation was a fraud. So the joke is on ourselves, after all."
But, as you and I know, that, with the exception of the last sentence, was not the truth of the matter at all.
The Penningtons" Girl
Winslow had been fishing--or pretending to--all the morning, and he was desperately thirsty. He boarded with the Beckwiths on the Riverside East Sh.o.r.e, but he was nearer Riverside West, and he knew the Penningtons well. He had often been there for bait and milk and had listened times out of mind to Mrs. Pennington"s dismal tales of her tribulations with hired girls. She never could get along with them, and they left, on an average, after a fortnight"s trial. She was on the lookout for one now, he knew, and would likely be cross, but he thought she would give him a drink.
He rowed his skiff into the sh.o.r.e and tied it to a fir that hung out from the bank. A winding little footpath led up to the Pennington farmhouse, which crested the hill about three hundred yards from the sh.o.r.e. Winslow made for the kitchen door and came face to face with a girl carrying a pail of water--Mrs. Pennington"s latest thing in hired girls, of course.
Winslow"s first bewildered thought was "What a G.o.ddess!" and he wondered, as he politely asked for a drink, where on earth Mrs.
Pennington had picked her up. She handed him a shining dipper half full and stood, pail in hand, while he drank it.
She was rather tall, and wore a somewhat limp, faded print gown, and a big sunhat, beneath which a glossy knot of chestnut showed itself. Her skin was very fair, somewhat freckled, and her mouth was delicious. As for her eyes, they were grey, but beyond that simply defied description.
"Will you have some more?" she asked in a soft, drawling voice.
"No, thank you. That was delicious. Is Mrs. Pennington home?"
"No. She has gone away for the day."
"Well, I suppose I can sit down here and rest a while. You"ve no serious objections, have you?"
"Oh, no."
She carried her pail into the kitchen and came out again presently with a knife and a pan of apples. Sitting down on a bench under the poplars she proceeded to peel them with a disregard of his presence that piqued Winslow, who was not used to being ignored in this fashion. Besides, as a general rule, he had been quite good friends with Mrs. Pennington"s hired girls. She had had three strapping damsels during his sojourn in Riverside, and he used to sit on this very doorstep and chaff them. They had all been saucy and talkative.
This girl was evidently a new species.
"Do you think you"ll get along with Mrs. Pennington?" he asked finally. "As a rule she fights with her help, although she is a most estimable woman."
The girl smiled quite broadly.
"I guess p"r"aps she"s rather hard to suit," was the answer, "but I like her pretty well so far. I think we"ll get along with each other.
If we don"t I can leave--like the others did."
"What is your name?"
"Nelly Ray."
"Well, Nelly, I hope you"ll be able to keep your place. Let me give you a bit of friendly advice. Don"t let the cats get into the pantry.
That is what Mrs. Pennington has quarrelled with nearly every one of her girls about."
"It is quite a bother to keep them out, ain"t it?" said Nelly calmly.
"There"s dozens of cats about the place. What on earth makes them keep so many?"
"Mr. Pennington has a mania for cats. He and Mrs. Pennington have a standing disagreement about it. The last girl left here because she couldn"t stand the cats; they affected her nerves, she said. I hope you don"t mind them."
"Oh, no; I kind of like cats. I"ve been tryin" to count them. Has anyone ever done that?"
"Not that I know of. I tried but I had to give up in despair--never could tell when I was counting the same cat over again. Look at that black goblin sunning himself on the woodpile. I say, Nelly, you"re not going, are you?"
"I must. It"s time to get dinner. Mr. Pennington will be in from the fields soon."
The next minute he heard her stepping briskly about the kitchen, shooing out intruding cats, and humming a darky air to herself. He went reluctantly back to the sh.o.r.e and rowed across the river in a brown study.
I don"t know whether Winslow was afflicted with chronic thirst or not, or whether the East side water wasn"t so good as that of the West side; but I do know that he fairly haunted the Pennington farmhouse after that. Mrs. Pennington was home the next time he went, and he asked her about her new girl. To his surprise the good lady was unusually reticent. She couldn"t really say very much about Nelly. No, she didn"t belong anywhere near Riverside. In fact, she--Mrs.